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Thursday, March 31, 2016

This Week in Marvel : 3/30/16





Not sure what is up with this other 1.0 run of Spider-man that is leading into "Dead No More" , but it suck anyway you slice it. The art might be penciled O.K, but the coloring is so bizarre it looks like water paints. The Santeria storyline is stupid, a bunch of Catholic guilt, which I think unless you are a god...Thor, Hercules are some one who deals with these kinda of characters religion in the more conventional sense doesn't really belong in comics unless it's used as shading like Daredevil. Speaking of Dare Devil the 5th issue wraps up the Ten-fingers arc, we still have Blindspot in the mix, but the show down came to a head. The monster Hand thing felt a little cartoonish to me, but this run has had some solid moments so I am sure it won't take much for it too redeem itself.  Drax's  5th issue must still have CM Punk involved, because it feels like a little kids just messing around with his action figures is writing this story. Moon-Girl and Devil Dinosaur's 5th issue just seems like filler being used to drag a story out rather than move any of the characters forward. Hercules' 5th issue finds him throwing down with  the new techno gods who are pretty annoying. You are going to tell me this skinny little dude can trade blows with Hercules? I'm not buying it he should have been drawn with at least as many muscles as Sliver Surfer if thats the case. Oh, yeah if you are waiting I'm not bothering with Squirrel Gird anymore, unless she is being writing like the person who was Luke Cage's nanny in New Avengers.



The 7th issue of Sam Wilson's Captain America run is where Steve Rogers finally returns. Of course Captain America has a new movie coming out, what else did we think was going to happen? So when Thor 3 is about to hit wave goodbye to Jane Foster. All- New X-men's 7th issue is pretty good despite the entire issue dealing with a horror themed Toad who has kid napped Cyclops. The art is great and Toad gets brutal when he drinks. I can appreciate the new X-men 92 thing. It is a total send off to the cartoon. Even the art has a cartoon feel. I suppose the vampire they are going to introduce is Baron Blood.


Friday, March 25, 2016

Bat-Man vs Superman






Marvel continues to kick D/C's ass when it comes to the big screen. D/C often works better on Television because on a show like Gotham or Smallville, they break things down into smaller bit sized portions to focus on the character's rather than the big picture. When the scope gets too big it's hard for the often more mythic heroes of D/C to be anything more than card board cut outs. Bat-man has worked on screen time and time again because they are able to make a emotional connection with Bruce Wayne while the alien messiah is harder to make down to earth. When this is touched upon in Batman Vs Super-man the film is working best.  So lets look at what makes the movie and then see what breaks it.

Makes the Movie

Affleck is better at being Bat-man than we expected.

Breaks the movie

He is worse at being Bruce Wayne, this gives us more of an emotional connection with Super-man, who comes across as being the mis-understood under dog in all of this.

Makes the Movie

Wonder-man, despite being a little on the scrawny side compared to the iconic Linda Carter, Gadot's Woman is one of the best things this movie has going. Perhaps it's because if we don't count the Lego Movie,  we have been through six Super-Man movies, Smallville and Lois& Clark, along with seven Bat-man movies  and Gotham . So we are hungrier to see Diana on screen. Lets not get into the others as Cyborg might have gotten more screen time than Aqua-Man and the Flash got more than both. As Wonder-woman she does just as the trailer suggests, but we do get to see her bracelets and lasso in action.

Breaks the Movie

The best part was too condensed, they could have given us more and less Lois.

Makes the Movie

The action scenes with Super-man were much better than Man of Steel.  When he lets Bat-man dent his armored fist on him it was great.

Breaks the Movie

The big showdown. Super-man is not dumb. If this is his first encounter with kryptonite, then it's effect might be  a surprise, but after he see what happens when he breathes it in then would he not hold his breath when his super-hearing picks up Bat-man cocking the trigger of the gun? His reflexes make him not only faster than a speeding bullet but fast enough to have the gun up Bat-man's ass before he pulls the trigger. So that did not work for me.

Makes the movie-

I liked the messiah approach to Super-man and Lex Luthor's line about "if God is All-Powerful then he can't be all good, and if he is good than he can't be all-powerful" as well as the line where he says Clark Kent and mentions all the other names of gods .

Breaks the Movie

The worst depiction of Lex Luthor ever, he comes across more like the Joker than it seems Jared Leto's version will. Luthor is a megalomaniac not a maniac. He should come across more like Kevin Spacey's character in "House of Cards" at his most human and be more cold and calculating, but wait in this movie that would blur the lines between Luthor and Bruce Wayne.

I think I fell asleep for a couple minutes building up to the big show down but caught the rest of the movie, was a little confused why Super-man didn't use his hearing to find this mother if he didn't want to fight Bat-man. Bruce Wayne was a jerk so he did need the beating he got. Could have stood for less Bruce Wayne, the scene with Bat-man taking out the Russians was good enough for my Bat-man fix. Once the big throw down with the troll from Lord of the Rings that they decided to make Doomsday took place I thought was funny that Bat-man just got out of the way since there was little he could do. The end was no surprise because you know what is going to happen to Super-man when Doomsday shows up, you can paint him as a messiah figure with out him becoming a martyr.

I didn't like Nolan's too realistic take on the D/C Universe in the movies that followed Bat-man Begins, but this tried to hard to rub a coat of grit on everything and missed what makes the Avengers/ Marvel movies fun as it took itself too seriously. Even though Civil War and Dr. Strange are more than likely going to be the last of the great Marvel movies and bring the curve of the comic genre back down in it's wake, much like the fate of the Universal Monster trend met it's end with the Abott  and Costello films until Hammer breathed new life into the undead, D/C is pretty much still born at this point.


Monday, March 21, 2016

Daredevil Season 2







The second season of Daredevil held up to the bar the first season raised for it. Not playing much off the tone established in Jessica Jones, there was a little cross over, but nothing like what we will see when Luke Cage airs. Even though Charlie Cox has settled into the role of Matt Murdock, the Punisher threatened to steal the show. Granted I'm a bigger fan of the Punisher than I am Daredevil. It was grittier in tone and more violent with Frank Castle blowing peoples faces off. The fight where the Punisher runs the gauntlet in prison was especially satisfying and one of the best scenes of the series along side Daredevil beating up the Sons of Anarchy. There was enough Daredevil versus the Punisher fights, but later into the season some of the constant ninja battles got a little tiresome and I'm a little disappointed that Bullseye never showed up as I think he could have spiced that up a bit, he could have even worked for "the BlackSmith".


Speaking of which why was it the "Blacksmith"? They could have used on of Punisher's rogues gallery members to fill that void. Why did they set us up for the Owl last season and not deliver?  Elektra who in her final scene gives us a glimpse of where her real costume could come from, was a little too Hollywood scrawny. I have read the actress who play her, is a student of martial arts in off screen as well, but she needed a little more muscle on her bones. They kept Joe dressed in a way that allowed him to not have to bulk up like the role should require for Punisher, but give us one character who looks the part. I do think they paved the way for Iron Fist nicely by creeping the supernatural elements in though Dr. Strange will have already kicked the door in on that before that show airs. Overall it succeeded in being entertaining. I am not as sure where they are going to go on a third season, I imagine Kingpin will try to live up to his threats. I doubt we will see Cobra and Mr. Hyde pop up, but Hammerhead, Jigsaw, Tombstone Silt-man or the Jester would be welcomed additions.

Elektra has the attitude more than her big-screen counter part has in the awful Affleck film, so I am sure that is not the last we will see of her, but they screwed the pooch because now Bullseye can never kill her. My comic book brain could continue to nitpick things, but tonally I think this season captured things better than what they are doing over in Agents of Shield this year, with the costume helping out and proving that it's ok to stay in costume and keep your mask on most of the time.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

This Week In Marvel : 2/16/16






The second season of Daredevil kicks off this week. Don't worry I'll post something about it before the weekend is up. But onto the book. Nothing was awesome some thing were just better than others .The first issue of International Iron Man turns out to be a waste of space as it is all a flash back of more ret-conning to come. Another waste of time was the 3rd issue of Captain Marvel which finds the book taking a dramatic plunge and this comes even with her having the Alpha Flight in tow. How bot an issue of the Astonishing Ant-man without Ant-man in it, well that is what happens in the 6th issue where they turn Cassie into the bad-guy Stinger. Scarlet Witch really has the brakes slammed on it in a mess of a 4th issue and Star Brand & Night Mask's 4th issue treads similar ground, but with better art and characters I care much less about.  Web Warriors manages in its 5th issue to be both a snooze fest and a cluster fuck. not really sure what the point of this book is.

All-New In-humans is fractionally better in it's fifth issue , there is the hope Collective Man gets killed, Spider-man makes an appearance for no reason at all. Crystal can't decide when to be a militant Inhuman and brings toilet paper to a knife fight. Silk was not as good as this book has been and the whole goblin nation thing felt anti-climatic, looks like Jessica Drew is going to hunt her down. The book deserves some better art. The 2nd issue of Infinity Entity has better art, but is rather obtuse, almost dream like, making for a cerebral Adam Warlock, which might have always been an element of the character, but want something with more substance. The 5th issue of Squadron Supreme is still a mixed bag even though it' an improvement. All the new character muck things up, I would prefer the original team, not even Thundra replacing their Power Princess eases that for me. Star Lord's 5th issue had some alright moments, the art is great and feels wasted. With this story arc over they should give the book a rest and focus on Quill in Guardians.

Extraordinary X-men holds the line in the 8th issue, story wise it works like an X-book should, even though I am so tired of travel the new Horse-men of the Apocalypse should keep things interesting. Spider- Woman's 5th issue was good. It went off the course into this stylistic deviation from the super-hero formula, but still gave you enough of that to keep a classic Marvel militant like myself engaged. It did raises a few questions, the who is the baby daddy? and the the big one for me is why is her old costume not OK because it sexualizes her when she is crawling around, but it's OK to have a close up of her in green hipster short shorts? I won't hold my breath waiting for that answer. I'm sure it's wanting a more camera friendly costume. Power-man and Iron-Fist's second issue, keeps thing moving in the right direction despite the lack luster art.All New X-men's 6th issue kicked a lot of butt and now finds Toad of all people being a threat, at least to little Summers.

Monday, March 14, 2016

This Week in Marvel : 2/9/16





Though it wasn't the best nor the worst episode, Agents of Shield returned to shockingly low ratings. While Marvel will redeem themselves with the second season of Daredevil. If Agents of Shield tanks the rest of the season then what does that mean for their network tv deal? Well the first shots of Spider-man in Civil War made the Internet forget about not only Bat-Man Vs Super-man , but Daredevil too. But back to what really matters here and that's comics. After a pretty good week last week, this week it's hit or miss, but they do knock it out of the ball park a couple of times.

It is a shame the 5th and final issue of Black Knight didn't end on a better note. Sure throwing Hydra and Merlin into the same issue was fun, the story seems rushed and there was too many pieces on the board.The first issue of Mockingbird was terrible. The art was ok, but over all lacked action and story. Wasn't that impressed with the Uncanny Avengers take on the whole Standoff thing leading into what will turn to Civil War 2.The art in the 6th issue of Guardians of the Galaxy had decent art, the intent to push it in the right direction was there , but the execution was off. Most of this centered around the writers inability to find the proper voice for the characters making Quill and Kitty seem like they had little to no chemistry together, being on a team much less a relationship. Though the cover says that the 9th issue of Amazing Spider was the start of a brand new story line it seemed like the same old same old that they have been running the past 8 issue with Zodiac. The fact Parker has a rocket ship makes this seem like a cartoon. He even survives a fall from space because he has more gadgets than Bat-man now. This is a problem.

 In other problems the density has shifted on Vision in his 5th issue and the book is going down. It was pretty dull. The art is really slacking as well. In the solidly tepid department Spider-man 2099  wasn't bad in any area, the story just seemed very color by numbers. If the next issue of Red Wolf ...which will be their 5th doesn't get any better it will be the last time I waste a minute of my life on that book, it hasn't been terrible but if we get to 5 issues with nothing really happening and it feeling like a watered down version of Banshee then I'm over it. The 5th issue of Ms. Marvel finds it improving with her golems, but on thing I realized is she really hasn't faced much fire power on her own in terms of bad guys . Weird World 4 is another huge waste of time with even the art getting sloppy. Almost as sloppy as Spider-Gwen


Infinity Entity must be their way to bring Adam Warlock back in time for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which is fine by me, I find it a little weird  that Jim Starlin would miscalculate his powers so grossly. Other than that it captured the classic Marvel feel.  The only way to save face in the Jane Foster throw down with Odin was for something to happen that distracted Odin and caused him to step away from the fight. This was the death of his wife.So they dodged the bullet while still pushing their agenda "Damn the white male patriarch god, we have girl power".The comments section on the site I read this book makes Thor the most hated book in comics right now. But will Marvel admit to this mistake? or are the too invested in it? I had to stop and re-read Dr. Strange's 6th issue before it clicked with me, but in the end it shows this book continues to rise to the top of Marvel's heap. The end section with the wink to Harry Potter is pretty funny. Agents of Shield rivals Dr. Strange in it's 3rd issue in terms of being the weeks best book. It feels like the best parts of the show, mixed with what we want from the Marvel Universe and helps to set up Civil War 2 in a big way. It brings up some questions like what they fuck is up with that Wolverine, which comes out of left field. Speaking of Wolverine the 6th issue of the all new title is pretty decent ending this arc of her clone saga.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

The Week in Marvel : 3/2/16






The 7th issue of "Invincible Iron-man" finds Mary Jane Watson being forced into his story for the bulk of the book. War-Machine is in trouble so he brings in Spider-man to help. The at is pretty killer even if the story is all set up here. While it's clever that the Avenger's Mansion was turned into a sex-club for cos-play, Wrecker's rampage and the Quick Sliver & Dead Pool team up fall short of really packing a punch in the 6th issue. Red Skull is back and Sin is drawn pretty hot.  While the art in Nova is a mixed bag I'm not sure how I feel about the clone of his dad, it seems a little like a cop out to me. The 8th issue of Deadpool was alright, not great but entertaining enough. It seems like a very color by numbers Deadpool story that plays it too safe. While it's well drawn and succeeds on many levels Spider-Man's second issue has some problems. Sure Miles is a teenager and has high school drama, I think Spidey handles this better . The big thing is OK Miles beat Black Heart, but not after he schooled the rest of the Avengers who are far more powerful, I'm not buying it. Nova is another book with high school problems, these might even be more serious. I'm cool with the art. Even the Richard Ryder clone is jumping the shark, but I can handle it. The 5th issue of Nova just doesn't gel in the way it's all handled. If we were watching this on screen it would seem like bad CW writing. A-Force's 3rd issue is just bad, if anyone believes they just killed off Dazzler in this book has money waiting on them from a Nigerian prince. Good art alone can't save Guardians Infinity book. The fourth issue seems to be the choking point for most Marvel arches. I am not sure that they need two Guardians of the Galaxy books as well as solo titles for every one no matter how good the movie did.



The first issue of Black Widow really kills it. I'm not the biggest fan of the pencil work, but it is drawn from an interesting perspective with angles that look like they are from a Die-hard film. The book is also paced like a Die- Hard film. Little dialogue, Natasha is escaping from the Helicarrier with extreme prejudice. My only qualm is Natasha could have been drawn better. She looks like she has the body of a 12 year old. Avenger's Standoff Assault on Pleasant Hill, is damn fine story telling. Yes they are still ripping off  Wayward Pines, but the link to the Cosmic Cube is explained and the Thunderbolts role in all this is pretty clear. They pretty much telegraph, how Steve Rogers gets his groove back. Speaking of Rogers he is next up for issue 4 of Old Man Wolverine. But I am getting ahead of myself, Old Man Logan's 3 issue is pretty damn good. Not a big Kate Bishop fan, but the writers got her voice right, and I love the fact Logan says there is no girl- Thor in the future. In other X-related news Uncanny X-men, has some of the company's better art and aside from a lack luster team everything else you could want from an X-men book. I am going to start another column entitled" Save Your Heroes" where I'll answer the question... so you think you can do better? and layout what I think would be a better direction for the book. I get the fact this book is taking the place of X-force, but it could be done in a more interesting manner.