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Hey folks, Dr. Cyborg here with another edition of Tee Time, in which I take time out of my precious schedule to talk to you about something slightly less important, while golfing! This edition dedicated to Alan Moore’s run of Swamp Thing. So pour yourself a Black and Tan (1 part Bass® pale ale, 1 part Guinness® stout, Fill stein half full with Bass. Next pour Guiness over a spoon slowly until glass is full. If done correctly the Guiness will stay on top and the Bass on bottom hence the name Black & Tan.), and let’s go golfing.

Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing runs from issue 20-64 the bulk of it illustrated by John Totleben. It’s collected in six graphic novels, that are being re-released by DC comics as we speak. The second volume is coming out November 10th, which means it’s coming pretty slow, but since they already had a regular release in 1995, it shouldn’t be to hard to get a hold of.

I haven’t read Swamp Thing before his run or after it, meaning that I have nothing to compare this directly to. It also means that I had no preconceived ideas about what the comic or the character should be. Which brings me to my first point that Alan Moore does an excellent job filling you in, and keeping you as informed as you need to be. So it would be easy to recommend these books to everyone, even if you’ve never even heard of the Swamp Thing before. Fore!? Whatever……

This is one of the best comic book runs that I have ever read. Alan Moore has always been one of my favorite writers, but this run is so brilliantly written it really pushes him over the edge in my book. The way he writes the Swamp Things thoughts is poetic. He builds the majesty of the character wonderfully by contrasting him with other popular DC characters, which I think helps a bit. The thing that I think stands out the most about this series is you can tell that Alan Moore really cares about the character and takes his time in telling compelling stories using scenario’s esoteric to this particular creation. Well at first.

As the stories go on they become more and more obscure, but in a “that’s completely awesome” kinda way. In the middle there are a lot of horror stories that I liked quite a bit, especially the one about a haunted house filled with ghosts that were killed with a particular rifle. His ghost stories were thought out so well, and told brilliantly. It was a real treat to read.

It’s so refreshing to read books like this, good stories told in an unconventional manner, sometimes I didn’t understand what the Swamp Thing had to do with an issue until it was over. Nearing the end of the series the book turns nearly into a sci-fi book. On another interesting side note, apparently this was the first series to run with out the comic code seal of approval.

The whole series is laced with fitting DC character cameo’s from Batman to Dr. Fate. It’s also the series where the character John Constantine first appeared and was created. Every story is well told, and brings something new to the comic book genre. A few of the issues start a little slow, but by the end I was forced to admit it was better than any other issue before it. This book starts out good, and keeps getting better. It’s a must read.

JJJJJJZZZZZZEEEDDDD!!!! Whoa! I don’t understand why I only get struck by lightning while I’m golfing. As I am 30% weathervane all of the time. Maybe it’s just that Zeus favors my golfing.

The last thing I want to say about this particular comic book, is that I have wanted to read it for a long time for the reason that I really enjoy Alan Moore books, but there is something about the idea of me reading the Swamp Thing that I didn’t like. I didn’t think anything that happened to this character would make me interested enough to enjoy reading it. I guess the character always looked dull to me, and  so I stayed away from it as long as I could. After reading just the first few issues, I quickly realized what an Idiot I had been, this book is truly great. I recommend it whole heartily as one of the best runs on a comic book series ever.

I want to go back and read it all over again, 256 out of 255 stars. Dr.Cyborg seal of approval, and all that jazz.

With new video content flooding Marvel.com lately, we welcome Geek-lactus to the fold, keeping all you toy collector’s in the know.

While Sideshow Collectibles continue to roll out beautiful sculptures, scale replicas and higher end collectibles such as the new X-23 Polystone Statue shown below, po’ folks such as myself can still indulge in some of the best looking Marvel figures that I’ve ever seen in Hasbro’s new Marvel Universe 3 3/4 inch figures, retailing for around $8 a pop, all with unique sculpts, stellar paintjobs and fine detailing, I advise jumping on this toy line post haste. It seems that the 3 3/4 inch figure is here to stay which promises many epic crossover battles in your living room with endless possibilities.

I find that having an 8 year old son provides me ample excuse to start collecting. It also provides me with a great swell of pride to see my offspring giving Jack Sparrow what for at the hands of 3 3/4 inch Wolverine and Black Panther figures, slobber laden sound effects and all. It is the 3 3/4 inch scale that makes this possible. Embrace it.

Roll on over to Marvel.com to check out more.  It’s becoming quite the muti-media wondeland.

Another Weekly Watcher for all Marvel fanatics.

But perhaps the most compelling reason to visit Marvel.com on a regular basis is for their extensive free video and cartoon library, the crown jewel of which is undoubtedly Japanese Spider-Man.

The Power Rangers have nothing on Japanese Spider-Man.
In this episode, the blood of Garia, an alien from the Planet Spider (the same blood that gives Takuya -or Peter – his powers) saves the life of a little orphan boy… They took a few liberties with Spidey’s origin story in this incarnation to say the least.
Watch and learn true believers.

Digg founder, Kevin Rose and Nine Inch Nails figurehead Trent Reznor sat down recently and answered questions submitted (and voted for) by fans for the fourth ever Digg Dialogue. Year Zero television series is topic of discussion and is described as “a dramatic unraveling of the end of the world.” Reznor will oversee the project at an executive producer, most likely with NIN art director, Rob Sheridan. The rest of the dialogue is fantastic, as Reznor is a selfproclaimed geek, you can check the whole thing out here.

For all of you Pirate Club fans out there, Derek Hunter (budgetron) a contributor to this web-site has begun releasing a twice a week web comic for your pleasure. It just went live Thursday, but he included a bunch of old Pirate club stories to catch anyone up whom isn’t familiar with the story. I suggest that you read all of them, and then visit his page twice a week so as to read the fresh new stories. You can do this by going to pirateclub.com or else by clicking the link. How could it get any easier?

I will now post the first page here, so you’ll know what you are missing out on if you don’t frequent the site.

It somehow gets better from there. So you officially don’t have an excuse to miss out!
I have read the whole thing, and I am giving his new web-comic two perfect scores! How many more perfect can you get?

For those unfamiliar with Mark Millar’s American Jesus:

AMERICAN JESUS, VOL. 1: CHOSEN follows a twelve-year-old boy who suddenly discovers he’s the returned Jesus Christ. He can turn water into wine, make the crippled walk and perhaps even raise the dead. How will he deal with the destiny to lead the world in a conflict thousands of years in the making?

The good folks at Newsarama were kind enough to post the entire first issue for your reading pleasure.

Read up, cause as soon as Matthew Vaughn finishes the brutally awesome Kick Ass, he’s bringing American Jesus to the silver screen.

If you ask me, Mark Millar’s name alone should merit a look-see. Out this Week!

So Arse-Bot downloaded a virus (probably from a dirty Femme-bot) and is out for this weeks Lost Review. So, all you lucky bots just get my opinion which is that this week’s episode was great. I liked it a whole lot more than the last couple weeks, which seemed to all be building up to the next few episodes.

We opened up with some of the new people from the second plane crash searching the island. They start talking about a guy they found in a suit standing in the water that wasn’t on the plane. Of course its none other than John Fucking Locke alive and well. I thought this was a great opening. It wasn’t really a surprise but I think it was just done really well. Most of this episode takes place off the island, as we find out what the hell Locke had been up to and everything leading up to his death. We saw a different side of Charles Widmore and found out that he had been the leader of “The Others” on the island and was exiled and forced out by everyone’s favorite manipulative bastard, Ben Linus. Charles Widmore actually seemed like a decent person and we found out that tall creepy black guy that had followed all the Oceanic 6 around post crash actually worked for him, until Ben shot the hell out of him. Locke traveling around visiting people wasn’t really all that great, Hurley was funny as always and thought he was dead. Jack was half drunk and all depressed of course, and Kate was boring!!!! Like always. Seriously all this new season I hate Kate, she’s sexy and all but boring as can be. And the preview for next episode about her and Sawyer seems just as boring. With so much else going on the little Kate, Sawyer, and Jack love triangle just seems lame and unnecessary. So we get to the end, Locke has given up nobody will listen to him he’s gone from his I’m awesome phase back to his I’m a little crybaby phase like he does once per season. As he’s about to hang himself Ben shows up and saves him, woot!! Oh wait we know John’s dead so WTF!? He tells Ben about Eloise Hawking (we all knows she’s the blonde from 1954) and Ben fucking kills him 2 minutes after saving him. Pretty awesome and I have to give credit where credit is due, Kill-tacular-tron called it 2 weeks ago. He’s told me a few times that Ben will kill Locke.

So when its all done and the blood has dried we are back on the island with the new survivors. Cesar and the chick who’s name I don’t remember are showing John the injured survivors and Ben is one of them! And he is fucked up! And John is going to get revenge?? I hope so.

Finally! And just before midnight! Our final couple is more obscure than the others, but just as neat.

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In order to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, Marvel comics has planned events to cover all of President’s Day weekend.

Starting midday today, Marvel will make the entire Spider-Man/Obama Inaugural Special available online for free at this location. Not only will all 6 pages of art be there, but every variant cover as well. So if you were stuck without your own copy (despite an unprecedented 5 printings) now is your chance to read the full story. They’ve also created 4 additional prequel pages that are available exclusively for this celebration.

But the real treat, Gettysburg Distress, comes Monday when they release an exclusive 6-page free digital comic featuring Spider-Man and Captain America as they witness Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg Address. This tribute to the Bicentennial of the 16th President, the storyline is being written by Matt Fraction (whose work in Marvel Comics is top notch right now) with art by Andy MacDonald.

Marvel Comics has given Huffington Post readers an early look at the cover art of Gettysburg Distress below:

(click to enlarge)

Again, go to http://www.marvel.com/digitalcomics/presidents to check out these free celebratory books.

From the press release:

The heroes of the Republic must deal with an altogether different kind of enemy when they face an evil and diabolical mad scientist in “Blue Shadow Virus” and “Mystery of A Thousand Moons,” a special double feature of the hit animated series STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, premiering as an all-new, two-part episode on 9 p.m. ET/PT Friday, Feb. 13, on Cartoon Network.

In “Blue Shadow Virus,” Padmé Amidala is captured while searching for a secret Separatist bio-weapons lab run by Dr. Nuvo Vindi (portrayed by science-fiction icon Michael York), a scientist as cold and calculating as he is evil. While they manage to find the mad doctor and uncover his scheme, they are too late to prevent the release of his deadly concoction – leaving Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi just 48 hours to find the elusive antidote in “Mystery of a Thousand Moons.”

Best known for his role in 1975’s Logan’s Run, York brings a sense of manic enthusiasm and righteous fervor to the role of Dr. Vindi.

Vindi’s plan for galactic cleansing provides an unusual mission for the heroes of the Clone Wars, pitting them against an unseen threat that cannot necessarily be conquered through direct aggression. According “Blue Shadow Virus” director Giancarlo Volpe, this provides an opportunity to see how the characters respond to a new kind of pressure.

“This episode is really about refortifying the Anakin-Padmé dynamic,” Volpe says. “She is his universe and so he’ll compromise the mission to make sure her safety comes first. It’s not what a Jedi is supposed to do, but that’s Anakin.”

Once Padmé, Ahsoka and the clones become infected, however, the stakes are raised, leaving Anakin and Obi-Wan to sort out a solution in “Mystery of a Thousand Moons,” according to director Jesse Yeh. Their quest for the cure serves as a perfect vehicle to spotlight the relationship between the two Jedi, emphasizing their differences as well as their respect for one another.

“Obi-Wan and Anakin do things so differently, yet they rely on each other so much that they would trust each other with their own lives,” Yeh says. “Obi-Wan is more than just a mentor trying to teach Anakin the path of a Jedi Master. When needed, he can also be an understanding friend of Anakin and stand by his decisions as well – even if sometimes those decisions could mean a violation of the Jedi teachings.

“At the same time, Anakin tries to prohibit his own impulsive thoughts and emotions from taking over, and he is willing to do so totally out of the respect and trust he has for Obi-Wan – even when the life of his true love is at stake at the time.”