New Transfer Window...Same Old Arsenal

Football's transfer window is generally one giant shit show. Lots of rumors and very little factual information. This particular transfer window has been incredibly busy and it hasn't been light on the amount of bullshit that pierces the airwaves on a regular basis. Teams like P$G, A$ Monaco, Bayern Munich, and Napoli have all been very busy during the window. Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger is still busy trying to figure out how to zip up his ridiculous puffy coat. (I'm a huge Wenger supporter but come on am I supposed to be excited about Yaya Sanogo signing for us? Especially when several fantastic strikers are on the market and have subsequently been signed by some big market teams. I shouldn't be surprised though, this isn't the first time that Arsenal has pulled this kind of dance. Become linked to a player, rumors and speculation grows, Facebook fan pages begin to post pictures of the player Photoshopped into an Arsenal kit, and news that the player is due to arrive for a medical the next day persists for weeks. Then we hear news like, clubs can't agree fee or Wenger doesn't want to meet the players wages, or even worse; there was never any actual substance to the rumor at all. The most recent example of this is former Real Madrid and soon to be current Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain.

Dortmund's signing of Henrikh Mkhitryan from Shakhtar Donetsk to replace departed star Mario Gotze is the kind of moves Arsenal needs to make

Frankly, I'm sick of it. I'm tired of the crap and all the false information. Arsenal has lost too much over the past few years to simply sit on their hands and make ineffectual youth signings. (I do love Arsenal's youth team though. Gedion Zelalem is going to be a STUD). Arsenal needs to follow the model of Borussia Dortmund. Last summer, the German club lost star playmaker Shinji Kagawa to Manchester United. In response, they acquired Marco Reus with the money gained from Kagawa's transfer. This summer they lost Mario Gotze to Bayern Munich and could be on the verge of losing star striker Robert Lewandowski as well. Instead of just taking the money and pocketing it, Dortmund went out an used it once again. The signings of Henrikh Mkhitryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang show that Dortmund wants to remain competitive despite losing Gotze's quality. I want to see this from Arsenal; if the club sells a player they should make sure to reinvest such funds to acquire replacements. It's not enough to ask young players to step up, today's game does not allow for such patience. It really is a shame, if there was such caps on spending there is no doubt that Arsenal would be very well set up. Unfortunately, such a cap does not exist and Arsene Wenger needs to get off of his philosophical high horse and get back in the game.

The most prevalent rumor that has been circulating around the Premier League is Arsenal's new interest in Liverpool striker Luis Suarez. When the story first broke I believed the news to be a load of bull. Luis Suarez is certainly disgruntled at Liverpool but his grievances are less with the club itself but rather with the English media. Why exactly would a player who hates playing in England want to relocate to another English club? However, I continue to ask myself these questions as Arsenal's interest in the controversial striker grow each day. In fact, Arsenal just bid 40mil (along with a a hilariously attacked 1 pound sterling) The bid was rejected by Liverpool but I wouldn't be surprised if Arsenal came back with more later. Another interesting note is that the 40mil actually is the trigger for Suarez's release clause which would enable them to talk to the player. Part of me wonders if this is to gauge Suarez's interest in joining the Gunners. If he does have genuine interest in joining them, Arsenal could use this as leverage to Liverpool's asking price. If such a thing happens, Liverpool will surely regret writing such a clause into Suarez's contract. Suarez, while controversial would be a massive signing for the Gunners. As for the Higuain saga, I'm actually not angry at Wenger because I believe he made the right call. The fee that Napoli will reportedly pay Madrid for the strikers services comes out to around 37.8mil. Higuain is a great player but not worth that much money. It's not surprising to see Wenger thinking if I'm going to pay over 35mil I should get someone of higher quality. Thus the bid for Suarez begins to make more sense.

Despite my negative attitude about Arsenal I actually do believe that there are some massive things coming this window. For one, Wenger has cleared much of the deadwood out of the club (Arshavin, Squillaci, Djourou, Denilson, etc.) Gervinho and Nicholas Bentdner could follow those men out the door as well. Sure these players are hardly stars and nobody will really miss them but Wenger is clearing out a large amount of his squad depth. I highly doubt that he plans to leave his squad so thin. Secondly, the team is off in Asia on tour at the moment. Perhaps Wenger wants to get players in after the tour? It's wishful thinking, but it would be a very Arsene move to ensure that his youth players get some first team experience in low pressure situations. I would love to see Arsenal add Suarez this transfer window and I would also love to see them add a defensive midfielder such as Everton's Marouane Fellaini. Until then though, everything is simply rumor...

Superboy - My New Favorite Hero

Literally exploding with power (and yes that is the Christmas tree in Times Square in the background...oops)

Back again, putting together another post for those reading! Anyways, the past few weeks I've been catching up on many of my favorite New 52 coming book runs. One that has really caught my attention over this period of time is Superboy. Now in the past, I've always wanted to read comic book runs of characters that seem really interesting and that I don't know much about. For example, I started reading Catwoman because I was interested in finding out about a really mysterious and enigmatic character. Superboy is similar to Catwoman in the way that I had no idea what Superboy really was. What makes him different from Superman and the other Kryptonians? What are his powers? How was he created? Over the course of reading Superboy I've found that he's easily my new favorite superhero.

Superboy's search to understand his origins lead to some really cool Kryptonian crossovers

So I guess the first question is: why Superboy? What makes him so awesome? Let's start with the basics. Before the New 52 reboot, Superboy had been established as a clone created with half Superman DNA and half of Lex Luthor's (Superman's arch nemesis) DNA. It's an incredibly lethal combination, Superman's power combined with the super genius brain of Lex Luthor. In the New 52 however, Superboy's human donor isn't known. What I really like about Superboy is that unlike Superman, he's flawed. Having half human DNA means that Superboy isn't invincible like Superman is. Actually, correction, Superboy has amazing telekinetic powers which he can use in a similar purpose. Bullets bounce off of Superman, meanwhile Superboy needs to have his telekinetic field (or T.K. field as it's dubbed in the comic books) up in order to block said bullets. It's not as if this is a crippling ability as Superboy is shown to have astronomical powers (at one point he loses control of his powers and creates a massive sinkhole that goes down to the Earth's core). The New 52 run is all about Superboy's struggle to control his own powers and realize the extent of them. Not to mention that he opens the story as a weapon for an organization with extremely questionable morals and motives. He's not the boy scout that Superman is (though the Superman DNA does prevail more often than not). At the beginning he struggles to control his powers because he doesn't fully understand how powerful he is. It's really cool seeing a superhero struggle rather than Superman whose invincible powers seem to make him incredibly overpowered and BORING. He's such a more complex character and the fact that the reader doesn't really know much more than the main character makes his storyline exceptionally compelling. But what I love most about Superboy is his absurd levels of power. Each issue he seems to understand more and more about himself, becoming more powerful in the process. Never to the point where he feels overpowered or boring. Each fight seems like a learning experience for him though that doesn't stop Superboy from exuding loads of confidence (sometimes cockiness) during them. He's certainly aware of how powerful he might be. Also his new suit is really really cool, the creative team for Superboy is really doing a great job making him his own awesome standalone character, not just Superman B.

Red Robin doesn't realize he's about to get his ass kicked...

Batman remains the king of DC comic book heroes but I think that Superboy is an incredibly underrated one. His storyline in the New 52 is really compelling and I'm excited to learn more about his origin and the full extent of his powers. I know that everyone loves the classic DC heroes like Superman and Batman, but DC is really doing a fantastic job with their lesser known heroes. I think runs like Catwoman and Superboy deserve lots of attention because they do a great job making these heroes accesible to newcomers and allowing them to step out of the shadows of their more famous DC cousins.

Man of Steel: Good but Hardly The Dark Knight's Successor

Here I am again, back in Portland on a day off from my job at camp. I've had a pretty awesome day off, reuniting with a buddy from high school and reconnecting, but thats not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about one of the major movies of the summer: Man of Steel. I won't lie, I had very high hopes for Man of Steel. Zach Snyder as director, Christopher Nolan as producer. I was a fan of Snyder's Watchmen film and Nolan"s Dark Knight Trilogy so I figured that together, the two could finally make a quality Superman film. I would say that the two succeeded, but it's hardly a rousing success.

The hardest part of any Superman film is nailing the hero himself. Man of Steel does hit on many of Superman's great character points, like his struggle of identity and dealing with his powers at a very young age. In comparison to 2006's Superman Returns, Henry Cavill's Superman feels much more developed. Unfortunately, he still feels rather bland but Superman generally is a pretty generic hero and main character, the shining example of morality and heroism. Unlike Returns, the focus is really on the character of Superman. However, this means that many of the other characters are extremely bland. Amy Adams as Lois Lane is the worst offender since her character is the standard action reporter who doesn't do anything to really stand out. She's just sort of there because she has to be and at one point is involved in heavy military operations despite having no military training at all. It's a shame because Amy Adams is certainly a talented actress. Similarly, Russell Crowe's character seems rather underused as well. The rest of the cast fills out extremely standard roles and hardly stands out.

Guess I'm just here because the movie needs a love interest

Plotwise, the film does exactly what an origin movie should do, establish the character's origin, reasons for becoming the hero (blah blah blah). Unfortunately, the movie frequently struggles with pacing, accelerating quickly through the early scenes to get Kal-El into the blue tights as quickly as possible. That scene is particularly strange, seeing how quickly Kal-El accepts becoming humanity's savior despite the fact that humanity hadn't exactly been great to him up to that point. However, I can't really complain since my biggest issue with Returns was that there wasn't enough of Superman being Superman. There's much more action and some really awesome effects (lens flare for days). The fights really do feel like Superman fights and they're very satisfying to watch. General Zod was a much better choice for a opening villain than Lex Luthor was in Returns (i'd expect him in the inevitable sequel though).

In short, Man of Steel corrects a lot of what was wrong with Returns and finally delivers what we want; a good, entertaining Superman film. I don't think anyone should expect more than that. It's hardly a Superman equivalent to The Dark Knight and I don't think it should be judged as that. If anything, the Dark Knight Trilogy raised our standards for what a superhero movie should be. Man of Steel does what an origin story should do and I think that a sequel could be greatly improved (origin movies are generally weaker than their successors ex. Batman Begins v The Dark Knight or Sam Raimi's first Spider-Man vs Spider-Man 2). Overall, Man of Steel is entertaining and a solid movie, maybe not what everyone was expecting but I believe that the franchise is well set up for the future.

My Score: 4/5

P.S. My apologies for the brief review but I'm on a tight schedule...