Natalie Portman as Jane Foster in Thor

You can nurse me anytime.

Earlier today Marvel extravagantly announced Natalie Preteen Assassin Portman will be playing Thor’s human love interest Jane Foster, which is weird because I had thought this was going to be a more Norse-centric story.

I guess I was wrong.

I’m a fan of Portman’s earlier work. Well, I was a fan of her in Leon The Professional. Well, I liked Jean Reno. And she was standing next to him a lot, so I guess I liked her second hand. Don’t much like her work elsewhere (Star Wars prequels and whatever the hell else she’s been in), but she sure is pretty and nurse-like, I guess.

Portman’s starring opposite Chris Hemsworth, who many won’t know as Kirk’s suiciding father in Star Trek. I guess that first five minutes was strong enough to land him a role in a $100+ (BIG ‘+’) million potential blockbuster. I’m still not quite sure if the movie has the same legs as Marvel’s Iron Man or X-Men, what with it being about Asgardian gods dressed in fancy outfits saying “thee” and “thou” and “wiggeshnicker” (okay, maybe not that one).

Writes Marvel of the story – “At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth.”

Sounds very…iffy. Still, I love the character in the comics and at the very least diehard fans will come out in droves to see this.

Also iffy is Kenneth Branagh directing the movie. I hate the guy, mainly because I was forced to watch every fucking movie he’s made during high school English classes. I can’t equate him with anything other than Shakespeare and I despise him uncompromisingly and unjustifiably.

The movie comes out May 20th, 2011 which is only a few scant months before Marvel’s other summer tentpole, Captain America.

The Best Comic Artists Working

NOTE: Now, before we go any further know this – it’s my opinion. Art is possibly the most subjective form of expression out there, so please don’t bitch if you don’t see your favourite artist on here. Instead, point him/her out so I can check their work out and we can both enjoy it.

Comic books seem to get more attention for their writers nowadays, a stark contrast to the yesteryear’s when Jack Kirby and George Perez owned the collective geek consciousness. Now it’s all about the mega writers – Johns, Bendis, Kirkman, etc. Sure, artists are acknowledged, but comics are a writer-based industry now. Well, let’s get back to honouring the artists who make comics a reality.

Seeing that there are sooooo many artists working right now, I had to lay down some ground rules myself:

• Be a working professional in a print media.
• Works on interiors. No exclusively cover artists!
• Be a part of at least a relatively popular series.

All that said, there were still a shit ton of artists floating around out there. So instead of using any objective reasoning (hah! Like that was ever possible), here’s my personal Fave Five, to blatantly steal a slogan.