Author thegeekregistry

The Digital Revolution

thegeekregistry 2 Comments

I have been a comic book reader since I was in grade school. I remember watching the G.I. Joe cartoon and playing with the toys daily when I saw at a local convenience store a G.I. Joe comic on a spinner rack.

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I asked my Dad if I could buy it and he agreed. I read it on the way home and I was officially hooked. My parents got me an annual subscription to G.I. Joe, The Uncanny X-Men, and X-Factor. I started regularly going to the comic book store and buying anything that looked fun to me…Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, you name it I would buy a copy. I went through a brief period of disinterest and got back into the world of 4 colors around my junior year of high school and never looked back. I am nearing the big 4-0 and enjoy taking my family to annual comic book conventions. Usually, that is the only time I find myself purchasing graphic novels during the year since we do not have a nearby comic store of good quality. I find myself buying graphic novel collections at the conventions and no matter how many I get my hands on they are usually read within a week after the con and I would not find myself reading another comic until a year later at the next convention.

Things changed a little over 2 years ago when I purchased an iPad 2. I discovered two things that changed my purchasing method…I could subscribe to magazines and read them on their corresponding apps through my iPad and I could purchase comic books through Comixology and do practically the same thing. As an adult, carrying a comic book to work to read during my lunch break can be a bit mock-worthy, but having several downloaded on my iPad was unnoticeable. I returned to reading single issues because of the ability to buy them through the app and the simple convenience of it all. Late last year I saw that Marvel comics had an unlimited subscription where you could either pay an annual fee or a monthly one and have access to thousands of Marvel comics at any time through an internet connection. I went with the monthly fee at $9.99 (annual is $69) a few months ago to check it out and so far it has been a blast. I have truly enjoyed catching up with 1960’s/70’s Iron Man issues, reading all of the modern Incredible Hulk’s from the 2000’s, and taking in various mini-series set in the Marvel Universe. The app works great and you can download up to 12 comic books at a time for offline reading.

I know there are people who will always prefer a physical copy in their hands, but for me digital versions are just plain convenient. I only have so much room in my house, so doing most of my reading on electronic devices is a great way to enjoy one of my favorite past times in a convenient manner. One device can store my magazines, comic books, and novels and I can switch back and forth between them with my finger. Digital is the future and the future is now.

Check out Marvel or Comixology and give it a try.

 

WCW Halloween Havoc 1994 & 1995

thegeekregistry 1 Comment

Oh, WCW. You tried so hard during this time period, but with a handful of exceptions, you still were not at the WWF’s level. We are now at the point where Hulk Hogan left the WWF for WCW, but it initially did not work as well as Ted Turner thought it would. That will change in a few years, which I will get to in a couple of weeks, but at this date you could tell the crowd were not that excited to have Hogan in WCW. With that in mind, let’s quickly look at 1994:

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We start with Johnny B. Badd vs. The Honky Tonk Man for the Television Championship. Badd wins, but that is not what I remember the most. Johnny B. Badd was a stupid gimmick. Stupid, stupid, stupid. One of those gimmicks that makes me cringe if I am watching wrestling with a non fan. The thing that really surprised me was that he was an excellent worker. He was a fairly big guy who happened to be an excellent high flyer. A great athlete who got stuck in a ridiculous gimmick. When he went to the WWF as just plain Marc Mero it must have been somewhat of a relief for him to get away from this character.

Other matches of note:

– Dustin Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson which was an excellent match between two great workers with Rhodes getting a big win.

– Nasty Boys vs. Terry Funk and Bunkhouse Buck with the Nasty Boys getting the win in a short 8 minute match that still told a good story and was a lot of fun.

– The main event was Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair with the loser ‘retiring’. This match was a mixed bag. It took place in a steel cage which can provide a ton of excitement and with characters like Sensuous Sherri and Jimmy Hart outside of the ring getting involved from time to time and Mr. T as the referee/special enforcer there were some fun moments. The issue was Hogan who was clearly at a point in his career where people just did not care as much about him anymore, especially in WCW. Ric Flair was way over as always, even though he was clearly the heel in this match, and Ric really seemed to carry the match. Hogan won which was not unexpected, but you could clearly see the signs that he was not as ‘over’ in the WCW as he was during his long WWF run.

Now to Halloween Havoc 1995…oy…we will start with the good.

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Johnny B. Badd over Diamond Dallas Page – they put on a great match with a lot of good moments and DDP started showing that he was a future main event player.

Kurasawa vs. Road Warrior Hawk – very short match, but still fun with Kurasawa getting the dirty win with his feet on the ropes.

Now the bad…

Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant in a monster truck battle on the top of the arena – good grief…just stupid, stupid, stupid. Hogan won and afterwards ‘accidentally’ pushed The Giant off the top of the arena into the nearby river. Oy…

Main event was Hogan vs. The Giant again for the WCW World Title – “Surprisingly” The Giant showed up dry and unfazed. It was slow and plodding and ended with Jimmy Hart turning on Hogan. The “best” part though is when the Yeti arrived. Why he was referred to as The Yeti is beyond me since he was dressed as a mummy, but just the whole gimmick was stupid, stupid, stupid. Professional Wrestling has always had over-the-top characters, but this one was too ridiculous for even wrestling.

Next week I will discuss only the 1996 edition since this was actually a darn good PPV with some newer faces and the luchadores who started to have an impact in WCW.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

thegeekregistry 1 Comment

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G.I. Joe is a brand that I am quite familiar with having played with the 3 3/4 inch toys, watching the cartoon, and reading the comic books as a kid. After Star Wars, G.I. Joe was next on my list of favorites in grade school.

When they came out with the first live action movie a few years back I was excited to see it. It was okay…not as fun as I hoped it would be, but there were some things I enjoyed like the portrayals of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow, my two favorite characters from the property. Then they announced a sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, followed by the casting of The Rock Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock. Now I was getting hopeful for a much better second movie since I am a big wrestling fan and really feel that The Rock has made an excellent transition to movie making. I did not see this movie until very recently through Amazon Prime and was very pleased with what I saw.

I had heard about the beginning featuring the death of the majority of the Joes except for Roadblock, Snake Eyes, Flint, and Lady Jaye. I was still a bit surprised by the scene though. Channing Tatum’s Duke was fairly popular and killing him off seemed like an odd choice, but it worked out since the leads really came off well. The Rock was his typical fun, badass self who always seems to have a way of making the audience root for him right off the bat. Ray Park as Snake Eyes and Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow were simply awesome and Adrianne Palecki was an effective Jaye. The only one that seemed a little off from the way the character was portrayed in the comic books/cartoon was D.J. Cotrona as Flint. Flint was always one of the leaders of G.I. Joe and in the film version he came off as an unsure of himself subordinate. Of course, the plan could be for him to build up to being a leader in the next movie which would work, but it still was a little strange to see the character portrayed the way he was in this movie. Also worth mentioning is Bruce Willis as Joe himself. He was typical Bruce which worked great for the role.

What pleased me the most in this movie was the portrayal of Cobra Commander. In the first movie he came off as a non threatening, weenie of a future commander. In the cartoon his voice was so over the top it would become annoying at times. In Retaliation he was a much more menacing figure and really seemed like the type of character that could take over the world. The other character on the Cobra side that was a ton of fun was Ray Stevenson’s Firefly. You could tell he was having a blast being the bad guy and it made for a very enjoyable character.

Overall, this was a fun, solid film that did not disappoint. It was much better than it’s predecessor and made me look forward to a possible third film.

This type of movie is not supposed to be an Academy Award winner. It is not supposed to be critically acclaimed. It’s only goal is to provide the movie audience with a way to escape from their hectic days and just have some good old fashioned fun.

It is streaming on both Amazon Prime and Netflix and is well worth a couple hours of your time.

A Slight Change

thegeekregistry 1 Comment

Just a quick post today. I decided to turn my blog into an actual website and when I went to register thegeekinitiative.com I discovered someone was already using that domain. Slight bummer since my wife came up with that name a couple of years ago and it was perfect.

After a couple of weeks trying to come up with another title she came up with The Geek Registry, which I loved as well, so this time I secured the domain name thegeekregistry.com immediately and here we are.

My hope is to continue to become a better writer and develop this website/blog into more than just a hobby.

I appreciate all comments, good or bad, because I truly want to improve my skills and over time develop this in to something big.

Thanks for reading!