Why everyone else is leaving town

A proud nerd's guide to Comicpalooza: Zombie love, Twilight hate, Star Trekbabes & Edward James Olmos rule

Comicpalooza brings out the nerd in the best of us.
Love zombies? You're going to love Houston's comic book convention.
Into "Twilight?" You might not get such a welcome reception.
Star Trek babes will be there.

Comicpalooza’s fourth year has been dubbed the “Year of the Zombie” and for good reason. It already started off with a Zombie Pub Crawl last weekend and is continuing this Friday through Sunday with costume contests, panels about the undead and survival guides.

The George R. Brown Convention Center doors open at 11 a.m. Friday for registration and the convention runs full speed all the way through Sunday evening. We have dwindled down the list of 250 hours of sessions into the truly “must-not miss” events:

Friday

Is 1 p.m. too early to start off with a special gaming announcement? Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games will be announcing something big that no gamer will want to miss!

Choose to talk to some of the artists and writers of X-Men in an eye-opening session at 2 p.m. or take a break and watch live music from various bands performing live.

At 3 p.m. you can keep with the zombie theme and attend authors James Collins and Jason Kristopher’s Zombie Apocalypse panel.

Celebrity sightings kick up at 4 p.m. when you can meet the faces behind some of your favorite animated voices at the Whose Voice is That panel. More interested in zombie survival? The Zombie 101: How Not to Be Zombie Bait is in the same slot.

Another announcement drops at 4 p.m. This time it is from Samantha Inoue-Harte, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra and author Tad Williams.

Perhaps the most fun event on Friday starts at 4:30 p.m. in the arena. Wear your house colors because the first Quidditch match of the weekend puts Sam Houston State University against Texas Tech!

Ease into the evening by showcasing your comic knowledge at the 8 p.m, at the first annual Comicpalooza Trivia contest.

Twist your mind at 9:30 p.m. by watching performers drill things into their skulls and other odd tricks at the Braggart Family SideCircus Performance. They’ll be performing a few more times during the weekend in case you miss out.

Time to party at 10 p.m, at the Dead Night Party. Slap on your zombie makeup and get your fake blood oozing as you watch the cast of San Jacinto College sing songs from Evil Dead: The Musical. Costume contest, live music and other special surprises.

Saturday

Get your questions ready by 11 a.m. because Chewbacca, Yoda, and Boba Fett will be on deck to give you some answers. Hear what they think about Luke and Leia’s “innocent” sibling relationship.

11 a.m. also brings the second Quidditch match of the weekend! SHSU will be pitted against Texas A&M.

Saturday at noon is the perfect time for the one and only Edward James Olmos to make an exclusive Comicpalooza announcement about a new project he has been working on. Follow him around until 2 p.m. when you can catch him for an autograph.

Big shot writer Fred Van Lente will talk at 1 p.m. about his graphic novel turned soon-to-be-hit movie, Cowboys & Aliens. Get a glimpse into what everyone is waiting to see this summer.

Time to root for the home team! A roller derby match also starts at 1 p.m. where Houston’s HaRD Knocks squad faces off against the Nuclear Knockouts.

The doctor is in at 2 p.m.. Sean Maher from Firefly will conduct a Q&A session. This panel is sure to be packed with Browncoats.

Hate Twilight? We have a session for you! Real Vampires Don’t Sparkle at 3 p.m. will be sure to cause a mini riot within the convention center. Keep some garlic on hand for this one.

A Star Trek Q&A with the beautiful Marina Sirtis phases in at 5 p.m. Maybe ask her about her future voice work for the new Young Justice animated series.

Magical things will happen at 6 p.m. with a show by World Magician Ben Jackson. You can opt to skip the theatrics to snag some eye candy because Sam Trammell will be doing a True Blood Q&A session at the same time.

Now is the perfect time to break for dinner because the day ends with a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight.

Sunday

One of the biggest sessions happening on Sunday starts at 11a.m. The Battlestar Galactica Q&A panel will have Edward James Olmos fielding your inquiries. Be sure to ask follow-up questions about that Saturday annoouncement.

Comicpalooza really outdoes itself with special guest Bob Layton at 1 p.m. Hear what the man who revitalized Iron Man and X-Men has to say about the state of Marvel comics.

Another big name enters the convention at 1 p.m. Devon Murray of Harry Potter fame will be sitting down to talk to fans. With the final movie on the horizon, this is an opportunity to ask about what happens behind-the-scenes and attempt to drag out any spoilers.

Go straight from Harry Potter to Green Lantern with the film’s Deke Anderson and Nick Jones. Ask questions about the soon-to-be hit film and see if they will hint about a possible sequel.

Don’t put your brooms away just yet. The final Quidditch match of the weekend features Texas Tech against A&M at 2 p.m.

If you are an artist, character designer, inker, or digital painter, Sunday at 5 p.m. brings an opportunity to show the big wigs your skills. A special portfolio review with Don Kramer, Andy Kuhn and Phil Hester puts amateurs in the spotlight.

These sessions are a small fraction of what all is going on during Houston's nerdiest event. Be sure to check out the full program schedule to find out when your favorite authors will be doing signings, what booth your favorite artists have reserved and where to stalk the stars.

Get zombified because Comicpalooza is here!

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Movie Review

Action-packed Kraven the Hunter showcases gritty Marvel antihero

Photo by Jay Maidment

Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Kraven the Hunter.

One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.

Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.

The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).

Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?

The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.

That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.

Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.

With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.

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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.

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