Recreating my youth, one digital file at a time

I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but my first superhero comic was an issue of Captain America. I remember it well because we had dropped my father off for a business trip and we bought the comic at the airport newsstand. I read it in the car on the way home - and that is how I became car-sick the first time.

I never got swept up in comics as a kid. I didn't quite get hooked, and my parents didn't exactly encourage nor discourage comics reading. I know my Dad didn't think much of comics.

Flipping through stacks at the comic shop this weekend, I came across a Spider-man (actually, a MARVEL TEAM-UP) that I also owned. So, I bought it. Then I recalled I also had an Iron Man issue. Yes, just three issues. I remember reading the Captain America over & over. I don't remember the other two as well, but they are the same year. I wonder if we had actually bought a 3-pack at the airport. Or maybe I had the Captain America and then shortly after tried a 2-pack. I don't recall.

I let them go many years ago.

Anyway, after that little memory tweak this weekend, I looked up the digital versions and lucky for me, they're all available at Comixology. I already had the Captain America, I grabbed the Marvel Team-up just because, and I added the Iron Man to my digital collection.

Looking forward to re-reading these two.

Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore

Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore
Marvel animated movie, direct to disc release

This is not at all what I was expecting.  I guess I should have read a little more about it before I made the impulse buy when I saw the disc at the store.  I knew we were in for something different when I popped the disc in...and the default language was Japanese with English subtitling.

This movie spun out from the Japanese anime series of Iron Man.  There is some anime I enjoy a lot, but much of it doesn't appeal to me.  I did watch the initial anime episode of Iron Man (on G4, I think) and it entirely failed to capture my attention.

The movie starts out promising enough with a lot of aerial goodness as Iron Man and War Machine zip through canyons racing each other.  The initial attack of the Technovore is creepy and disturbing, and though it does devolve into bigger and bigger explosions, the artwork of the devastation and blazing fires is impressive.

But soon, the tropes kick in and the plot holes loom large.  The action just stops for still pauses and brooding, both among the villain and the good guys.  When the action picks up, it is in the form of S.H.I.E.L.D. running Iron Man to ground with orders to use lethal force because they want to protect Iron Man as the only witness to the initial attack.  Yeah, it makes that much sense.  (Maybe they had bad translators.  When I initially switched the language to English with English subtitles [before I turned off the subtitles] they were not equivalent.)

I didn't like the Technovore, at all.  He is a petulant boy with biotech armor whose sister/girlfriend (they never said) reads him Nietzsche while he stares at himself in a pool in a sterile white room.

Compare that with the bug-like version of the Technovore I was first exposed to via The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (which, btw, is a very enjoyable series.)

I prefer the big techno-bug, myself.

Besides dead air brooding moments and still frames, another anime aspect I can do without is the fuzzy/cloudy lens.  I prefer sharp animation, and if muted, okay, but you don't need to further obscure the visuals and make me wonder if I need to clean my glasses again.

Another annoyance, outside of the movie itself, is the disc.  We were forced to sit through all the previews - bailing to the menu was not an option.  I hate it when discs do that.  It makes the likelihood of me putting it in the machine and watching it again even less.

So, if you like the tropes of anime and enjoy Marvel heroes, you might like this one.  If you're looking for a straight-ahead style of animated action, you're not going to find it here.