Million Dollar Baby (Best Picture 2004)

I am not a big fan of boxing or boxing movies. I'm also not a huge fan of Clint Eastwood movies, although I do find his later work more interesting than his Seventies and Eighties films. Clint Eastwood seems to always play the same type of character, and so to a large degree "you've seen one Clint Eastwood movie you've seen them all."

That being said, I thoroughly recommend Million Dollar Baby. I went in not wanting to like it, but ended up absolutely loving it.

The Lord of the Rings III (Best Picture 2003)

The Return of the King is the third and final episode in The Lord of the Ring trilogy. It began with The Fellowship of the Ring (nominated for Best Picture in 2001), then continued with The Two Towers (nominated in 2002), before finally winning with the last chapter. It's fair to say that the Academy was probably bestowing the awards on the entire series, as all three movies were written, produced, and filmed at the same time. This is only the second time in history that all films in a series were nominated for Best Picture. The first were, of course, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and The Godfather Part III. 

Chicago (Best Picture 2002)

For the first time since Oliver! won in 1969, a musical won Best Picture. And for the second  time in two years, the Academy Award went to a film that made the audience think about how stories are told and how facts are presented, and what "Art" does or means to people. Last year it was A Beautiful Mind, which hood-winked us into believing that what we were seeing was true. This year it is Chicago, a film that is much more transparent in its artifice.

A Beautiful Mind (Best Picture 2001)

A Beautiful Mind is another of the films that I never got around to seeing when it first came out. I didn't remember specifically why I hadn't seen it until I started doing research for this review. Then I was reminded that I had had an issue with this so-called "biography" that used real people's names and situations, but fictionalized or white-washed the story. Luckily for the film, when I did finally see it just recently, I had forgotten all of those issues and accidentally thought that it was wonderful.

JL #39 "That's What Friends Are For!"

Here's your OMNIBUS version of the whole issue in one place...! 

JL #39 Bizarro Hockey!

JL #39 featuring Firestorm and Typhoon!

I have been writing and drawing my own Justice League stories for several years. I set "my" universe squarely in the Satellite Era, circa Justice League of America #100. Since that time I have had the Elongated Man, Red Tornado, and Hawkwoman join (and The Atom quit in Martian Manhunter's place). Zatanna has not joined, so of course Firestorm has not joined, either. Oh, and in my universe Kathy Sutton is black.

The only thing you need to know to enjoy this story is that I have been teasing readers with promises of Firestorm for the last year or so. He was mentioned in a conversation between Red and Ralph a few issues ago, but this is his actual debut. That is why Red Tornado and Aquaman don't know who he is....yet.