How freakin' awesome is this? I mean, I'd rather have had a new Raveonettes record drop, but I'll take an all-star covers version of their debut, no problem. The list of participants here is fantastic, so it was hard to choose a track. Rip It Off is available everywhere now - rejoice!
NCBD:
I'm pretty pumped for this week's NCBD. Here's why:
Once again I'd like to acknowledge how full of shit I am when it comes to my constant refrain of, "I'm jumping off this Ghost Rider book." Issue 16 had another total Clive Barker undercurrent to it, and the Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance continued that (in a way), even though it did not do what I keep hearing about, the Weapon Plus (formerly erroneously referred to as the Weapon X) program reinstating with technology culled from Hell itself by Infernal Labs. I mean, that concept could be so freakin' Metal! Will it? Maybe. Either way, I guess I'll be around to see.
Nothing but good things to say about this one. Every issue of SIKTC comes and goes so quickly, I'm constantly wanting more. And that cover! This is one of the variants, but I'm hoping to snag one; very reminiscent of those House of Slaughter "Body Bag" covers last year.
Love the new, post-Armaggedon Game direction TMNT is taking. Between recent issues of this, the recently completed Last Ronin: Lost Years going out on such a high note, and all the various plotlines at play, I feel like we've weathered the crossover/event storm and finally gotten back around to some solid month-to-month storytelling!
I was not going to read this new iteration of Uncanny Avengers, then I found out Gerry Duggan is writing it. For me, that makes it worth giving the book a chance. The playing field is certainly aligned to make this a great book: how does Captain America stand beside mutants before a world Orchis has pretty much engineered to fear and hate them? This isn't like the old school, 'feared and hated' throughline that has haunted the X-books since the beginning; mutants are now globally blamed for terrible crimes against all of humanity, so I'm thinking the term "race traitor" is going to get thrown in Cap's face quite a bit. Of course, one of the things that makes Cap an evergreen character is his resolute adherence to his principles in the face of any and all odds and injustices. None of that means the book will be to my liking, however, Duggan's X-Men is such an outstanding read, how can I not give this a chance?
X-Men: Red continues to be one of the three most fascinating Marvel books I've read in a loooong time. The sheer grandiosity of Al Ewing's approach here, where so much is unrecognizable as X-continuity and so much is new, cosmic ground, is often breathtaking. This month's A cover says it all: I was never a Nova fan, but his inclusion in this book, along with all these intensely fascinating Arraki characters (never mind that I can't remember any of their names besides Jon Ironfire) make a far more interesting dynamic than just a bunch of the same old mutants. Add to that Apocalypse's apparent return, and I'm quite certain this will be another outstanding issue.
Watch:
When the most recent issue of Fangoria showed up on my doorstep a few weeks ago, one of the first articles I read was Jacqueline Castel's "A Very Modern Prometheus," a conversation with Birth/Rebirth director Laura Moss about her new take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Of course this put the film on my radar, so I was pleased to see an article on Bloody Disgusting this morning reporting the film hits Shudder this Friday, August 18th.
I love modern takes on the classic Frankenstein story. As per my new distrust of trailers, I turned this off at 1:11; I don't need to see any more to know I'll be watching this.
Playlist:
bunsenburner - Rituals
Telekinetic Yeti - Primordial
Mudhoney -
Various - The Raveonettes Present: Rip It Off
Wesley Willis - Feel the Power
Mudhoney - Live at Third Man Records
High On Fire - The Art of Self Defense (remix/remaster)
Deftones - Gore
Blackbraid - Blackbraid II
Testament - Low
Testament - Demonic
Card:
From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.
• Six of Wands
• XXI: The World
• XIX: The Sun
Six of Wands is a harmonization of Will, an achieved balancing point from which magnificent things can happen. Juxtapose that with The World (The Universe in Thoth-speak), and we see a massive overhaul of something coming up, especially when taken with The Sun, a card of revelations.
