So this album is huge and as it’s name suggests, full of compositions. Some musicians write tunes, others write songs, but the really dedicated virtuoso types… They write compositions. This album, or this “moment of genius” as I prefer to relate to it, is just that. Fans of musicians who utterly bury themselves in their art, or to put it more bluntly, musicians wanking, need to put their seat-belts on, or some such metaphor.

The production… Huge.
The musicianship… Huge.
The compositions… Huge.

When I was initially handed the CD I had a completely different idea of what I was about to feed my brain. The Henge-like imagery and the ethereal sky suggested a calming natural ambiance. I saw a serious Lindsey Boullt on the inside cover concentrating on one of his guitars and overall the feeling was that this would be a fairly smooth and chilled out collection of tunes. WRONG.

World War Hulk #4
This one was a bit of a let down as I’ve loved the first three issues, but this one didn’t impress me as much. The battle between Hulk and Dr. Strange was a little hard to follow at points and some of the coloring effects were a little weird. Plus the whole fight is I’m assuming based on an old plot point from some Dr. Strange story that I’ve never heard of, and I’m not doing any research to figure out what’s going on. That fight is the first half of the issue, with the second half being the Illuminati against each other. The fight is suitably emotional and this part I thought was well drawn. I mean to be fair it’s John Romita Jr., and on a bad day he’s still better than most people. All that said, still enjoying the mini, not buying any extra tie-ins and getting the whole story, so I call it a win. —3 out of 5

PULL LIST 9-19-07 World War Hulk #4 Marvel Comics Present #1 The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #1 Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents Parallax Checkmate #18 Irredeemable Ant-Man #12 Repo #4

Marvel Comics Present #1
Wasn’t around for the first incarnation of MCP, so I don’t have any bad memories of it, and came to this pretty fresh. There are five stories in this first issue and as with any anthology you’re going to have hits and misses. I wouldn’t say any of the stories were particularly bad. The first story “Vanguard” looks to be a superhero police procedural story, is well drawn in a painted style and there’s a very interesting twist at the end. The second story is the highlight; a Hellcat story created by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, is of course beautiful and has a lot of fun moments. Then there’s a decent but unspectacular Spider-Man story, an Omega Flight tale focusing on the new Guardian, and a pretty charming Alicia Masters story about her relationship with The Thing. There’s a pretty good ratio of good to bad stuff here and you get plenty of story for 4 bucks. If they can keep this level consistent this could be a title to look forward to. A query though, how are they going to collect this in a trade? —3 out of 5 for the whole package.

First Born #2
Written by Ron Marz
Art by Stjepan Sejic
Cover by Dale Keown (A), Stjepan Sejic (B)
Letters by Troy Peteri
Top Cow Productions
Cover price: $2.99; On-sale: Sept. 26, 2007

Since everyone has to have their own big summer event, Top Cow brings us First Born, a tale set to shake the very foundations of the Top Cow universe and make sure that nothing is ever the same!! If I sound a bit cynical, it’s only because I’ve been around comics long enough to have seen all this before. It probably doesn’t help that outside of the first few issues of The Darkness, I’ve never been a big reader of the Top Cow line of books. I’m sure fans of these books are anticipating this mini and probably enjoyed the first issue [see review here]. Non-fans might have less reason to pick this up, although it’s not completely without merit. The event smacks of a “Me too” attitude that crashed these kinds of things in the late 90s. How many event minis did Wildstorm produce in their heyday, and how many of those does anyone actually remember as being any good? With so many things going on at Marvel and DC, it’s hard to see any other companies jumping on as anything but a cash grab.

There are apparently three major forces at work in the universe: The Darkness, found in the person of Jackie Estacado, a mob boss and general anti-hero; then there’s the Angelus, the forces of light, that are all angels who kick a lot of ass (is there any other kind of angel in comics?) Between the two forces is the Witchblade, formerly belonging to the now-pregnant Sara Pezzini, now belonging to Dani Baptiste. The first issue showed the forces gathering around, with the Angelus finding a new host, and a bunch of angels going after Jackie, forcing him to seek out Sara and reveal that he believes he is the father of her child.

MGM has released the trailer for Pathology, starring Alyssa Milano (Charmed), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Michael Weston (Scrubs), and Lauren Lee Smith.

Pathology hits theaters on November 30, 2007. See links to trailer below; synopsis and production photos after the jump.

Trailer

Windows Media
700, 300

QuickTime
240, 480, 720

In 2006, Pearl Jam spent a week touring the Italian countryside. They put on concerts from Bologna to Pistoia, playing landmark venues such as the medieval Piazza del Duomo, and the Arena di Verona — a roman amphitheatre built in 30 AD.

Along with them they brought famed celebrity photographer Danny Clinch to document their journey, both on and off stage. Using several different video formats including Super-8 and High Definition, Clinch expertly captures the energy and emotion of the band’s live performances, as well as the intimate and quiet moments in-between.

With his unrestricted access and unique perspective, Clinch is able to put together a concert video/road documentary that I imagine plays as close to real life as you’re likely to get without risking a restraining order. Immagine in Cornice, which translates from Italian as Picture in a Frame, comes across as just that — a candid snapshot of the lives of six musicians as they rock their way through the hamlets and cities of Italy.

And ROCK they do! The two and a half hour documentary chronicles thirteen of their performances from throughout the week-long tour, covering many of their most well-known songs like Alive, Even Flow, and Better Man as well as face-melters like Blood (see track listing below). This is due in large part to singer Eddie Vedder, who we learn compiles each night’s set-list mere moments before the show is set to begin based on a myriad of meta-intangibles, such as the evening’s energy and vibe.