The Six Million Dollar Man
The Complete Season One
DVD
TimeLife

I recently had a chance to view the series The Six Million Dollar Man Season 1 on DVD. The classic show follows the adventures of former astronaut Colonel Steve Austin (Lee Majors), who was horribly injured after crashing an experimental airplane. Austin is rebuilt with bionic parts. He has a bionic arm, eye, and two bionic legs. He can run at incredible speeds, has superhuman strength in his bionic arm and can see over great distances.

Colonel Austin repays his debt to the people who built him by going on secret missions. I remember watching reruns of this show as a child and playing with my brother’s Steve Austin action figure. This DVD set brought back a lot of those memories. The Six Million Dollar Man was a fun, action-packed show. Some of the effects seem a little dated. There was a fight scene between Steve Austin and an alligator that looks hilarious now. However, the show still retains its charm.

Steel
Reign of Doomsday Part 1: Full Circle (One-shot)
Writer: Steve Lyons
Artist: Ed Benes
Cover Artist: Alex Garner
DC Comics
Release Date: January 5, 2011

Steel #1 is part of a series of one-shots and regular issues that DC Comics is releasing with iconic covers of their heroes. Alex Garner‘s artwork on the cover immediately catches your eye.

The story begins in the middle of a battle between Steel and Doomsday, the vicious creature that murdered Superman in the monumental Death of Supermanstoryline. All of Metropolis’ other defenders are unavailable, so it falls on John Henry Irons to defend the city. Irons is recently recovered from a coma, but he feels that it is his duty to stop Doomsday.

Faster
Directed by George Tillman, Jr.
Starring Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Carla Gugino, and Maggie Grace
Castle Rock Entertainment/CBS Films
Release date: November 24, 2010

The ads for Faster would lead you to believe that the film is a simple action movie with a revenge plot, a concept that has been used since the early days of cinema. However, Faster is a revenge plot with more twists and turns than a NASCAR race. Former WWE wrestler Dwayne Johnson plays the character known only as Driver. We see him being released from prison. During his “exit interview,” the warden shows pictures of wounded inmates that crossed his path. This sequence cleverly establishes Driver’s “badassery” and foreshadows the carnage to come. Driver and his brother pulled a bank robbery, but someone close to them set them up to be robbed by another group of criminals. Driver’s brother is murdered while he survives the robbery and goes to jail. While in prison, Driver has had people keeping tabs on the men involved in his brother’s killing. Almost immediately upon release, Driver begins exacting vengeance on these people. In the beginning, Driver is a remorseless killing machine, drawing the attention of Detective Cicero (Carla Gugino), who reluctantly teams up with Cop (Billy Bob Thornton) to track down Driver and end his killing spree.

*UPDATED BELOW*

Well, after what seems like months of nothing but unofficial set photos and test shots to go on, Entertainment Weekly has the first official pictures of Chris Evans as Captain America in the upcoming film Captain America: The First Avenger.

In the upcoming issue, of which Evans as Cap graces the cover, Evans talks about his doubts about taking the role. The article also reveals that Cap’s enemy, the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) has a “plan for world domination [that] involves a magical object known as The Tesseract” (aka, The Cosmic Cube).

I have to admit, I was not pleased when they first announced Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, since he’s already played Johnny Storm/The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. I am not really fond of actors playing different characters in the same comic book universe; it tends to ruin my “make-believe time.” Also, I was unsure whether Evans could bulk up to really look the part.

The New Avengers: Luke Cage – Town Without Pity
Trade Paperback
Written by John Arcudi, various
Art by Eric Canete & Pepe Larraz, various
Colors by Chuck Chuckry, Andres Mossa, various
Letters by Joe Sabino, Various
Price: $14.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release date: September 22, 2010

Luke Cage’s most recent solo adventure is the lead story collected in this trade paperback. The cover is a bit misleading because it implies that Ronin (now Hawkeye again) and Spider-Man play a major part in the series. Actually, they mainly appear in the first issue.

The story takes place during the end of the Superhuman Registration Act era in the Marvel Universe. Luke Cage gets a call from his old friend Leodis Dyson. Dyson is beaten and hospitalized by gangsters in North Philadelphia, so Cage travels to Philly to help Dyson out. After he arrives, he encounters a much deeper scandal that involves corrupt politicians, gangs, and the return of a classic Luke Cage villain.