Marvel the Summer of Discontent

I have been sitting on this one for awhile and need to just get it out so I can move on. I think if it took my all summer to get this post out then it is obvious that Marvel has been less than inspiring considering when I started this blog I wrote once a week about comics. So this is a collection of various glimpses into the releases of the summer as well as a grim look at the big picture. Secret Empire continued to suck as well as Marvel comics in general. This isn't just me, I went to a panel of comic retailers and they all agreed , Marvel might have you fooled when it comes to the movies , but the books are not selling. People are pissed and want their characters back I am not sure Marvel has had an event worth a shit in past few years.The best part was bringing back Banner for an issue and watching him plow through everyone.  X-men even with it' overly cerebral slant is one of the best books going since Dedato is doing the art. Not my favorite team of all time, but I'll take it. Mighty Thor 22 issues later is even worse of a mess, like when they had Hulks of too many colors now there is Volstagg as a war-Thor. Speaking of Hulk the Hulk Generations was ok and brought Banner Hulk back, but I am unsure what is really the point of this the Generations Wolverine book was about the same quality, no real point considering those two had already met, it just looked like something else to mess with the time line. Speaking of messes the Infamous Iron-man's 11th issue seems like something that should have gone down in either the Fantastic Four who needs a return to comics or in Dr.Strange. Nothing to do with Iron Man at all.

Black Panther 17 was the best yet from the new writer, but I have a hard time seeing how he can hold up a movie on his own. Speaking of movies bound to flop based on the comics , the Mighty Captain Marvel is an even more contrived space opera that is hard to care about even with the Alpha Flight involved. Now to further clutter things up we have Hyperion and the Ultimates. Granted the latter at leastw works with Danvers current mythos. When it comes to Avengers there does seem to be some hope for the Uncanny Avengers who find Scarlet Witch back in their ranks in the 26th issue. I think this book would work better with Beast in it instead of Rogue. Johnny Storm as needs to go. The team doesn't need two magic users, ask anyone who plays D&D so get rid of Brother Voodoo. That would leave us with Quicksliver, Wasp, Scarlet Witch and Synapse. Bring in Beast and another odd Avenger from the past like Jocosta, Mantis or Tigra and it would be a great book. See I just named off three more female super-heroes so I am all for girl power. Just not a she-Thor.

X-men Blue is decent in it's 10th issue . None of the X-books have really been that great though I am glad that Daken is back.Jean Grey finds it 6th issue being much better than you would ever imagine her being able to hold down her own book. Granted each issue has guest ranging from Dr. Strange to Thor to Scarlet Witch, you might notice I just named some of my favorite characters to I am sure that factors into the equation, but I think this book pays homage to the canon that came before it. So lets hope the fall finds them making some better choices with Legacy.

Movie Review : " It"

Friday night my daughter and were talking about what her mom was going to do I told her she was going to go see “It”.Because 7 year olds know everything My daughter replied “No she is going to see a movie about a scary clown. I then tried to explain to her what the title of said scary clown movie was . But if you are wanting to see a movie about scary clowns you might be better off with the current season of American Horror Story. As “it’ doesn’t limit itself to just being about a scary clown and the bigger more sinister picture is well painted . itself among the some of the better Stephen King adaptations to film, this movie falls short of the Shining or the Mist in terms of scares , but has a lot of heart.This is only the first chapter so if you go in wanting to for them to return to Derry as adults then you better stock up on pop-corn and wait for the next movie. Generally speaking I think the director nailed the personalities of kids. This was the studio putting a ton of faith in a director whose other work “Momma” was luke warm. This film does a better job than the Tim Curry tele-vision miniseries. The big question you are really going to ask here is how does Pennywise stack up?

So you are asking Bill Skarsgard to stuck up against Tim Curry. If you strip away any cgi that was augmenting Skarsgard’s performance and kept it do who delivered their lines better than Curry would win.This also outline’s one of the movie strengths that blows the nostalgia horror fans are known for hanging onto out of the water. That is no saying we need to re-make “The Exorcist” of “the Shining” with today’s effects. In fact since this was originally a made for television mini-series and not a full length theatrical release then technically it’s not a remake. So it’s 2017 and has a bigger budget than the televised version, so it looks better. This is not just from a effects perspective there are some well placed shots, most of these you have seen in the trailer. Though a few like right before Pennywise starts dancing in his lair, so effective.

Pennywise never goes full out bug in this version, just like we are once again not shown the kids giving it to Beverly in sewer, I think that is something you can only see in Second Life. The sexual tension was more present. Not just with the kids, but a few of the townspeople and her father. Much like the lesson Joss Whedon taught us in Buffy that highschool is a terrifying place. The early adolescent world of these kids is just as scary as anything they encounter in the sewers. So it is much truer to King’s vision in this regard. I think the maniacal headshaking charge we see repeated by Pennywise was the only part of the movie I did not like, though the inclusion of the Wolf-man the protagonist sees in the book would have been a nice touch but perhaps Universal had too tight a reins on those rights. I haven’t read the book since it’s release in 1986. But the impact the book had still made me able to weigh it against the film and able to chant”he thrusts his fist against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts” which could have been given a little more context. So even the overblown drama of the Hollywood moments was not able to diminish the films entertainment value. If you are a horror fan you might find it lacking in the scares department, but it’s still a fun ride for Stephen King Fans.

A Strange Case of Dragon-con

It has been a tense year. So I am sure many people wanting the vacation like escape from Dragon-con that they has been waiting all year for, found themselves unable to detach from the real world around them and submerse themselves back into the fantasy of their escape. Some reached further back into child like places to to his as there were more costumes that paid homage to things from child hood, like Scooby Doo, Strawberry Shortcake, Sesame Street and Disney. Wonder Woman who is celebrating her 75th anniversary, beat out Harley Quinn this year, when if comes to female costumes. Even the Danger Woman panel had some tension where she would not acknowledge the death of Bill Paxton in her homage to the recently deceased called "Victim of a Lie , Victim of Goodbye", she did give Glen Campbell props when it thought of him but , when asked said Bill Pxton was a stranger. Dragon-con ca be a cruising spot for nerds, that as not even in as full effect as past years. The drinking did not have as celebratory a tone and since I don't drink and was looking at that fishbowl from the outside, it appeared more like self medication.

Perhaps geek culture has been given less to celebrate.Game of Thrones is the only thing to celebrate at the moment. Hollywood churns out abysmal dreck like the "Dark Tower" which bombed as it should have and the escape that we want is now relegated to Netflix, who allows Marvel to push their political agenda through the lack luster Defenders show. I never over the course of the weekend heard a single person sing the praises of that show. All of this tensions and depression was notice when I arrived at the Westin on Friday and heard someone talking to an someone I know who works at the hotel about a incident involving someone getting violent when trying to cram into an elevator . So people showed up with high tensions.  After that I went to panel on the Skeptics Track about Science vs Religion. The panel revolved around some comments Bill O Riley had made, so we could not escape the outside world. We then hit a filking panel that we could not take more than about twenty minutes of. Then the rest of the day was spent watching costumes in the Hyatt, we posted up by the escalators where I ran into the bulk of my friends that I saw at the Con this weekend. Talked to a girl who was Wednesday Addams Ash mash up called Ash Wednesday and then hit my A.A meeting in the basement of the Hyatt. The next night was met with a more serious tone as people began to notice the kind of drinking going on was less playful than years before.

After noting most of the cosplays were taking on a androgynous flip with gender bending bringing almost as many men playing Wonder Woman as women, why were they not Simon Williams, if they wanted to be Wonder man? So we went to a panel on fashion in comics, which was better than I expected. My days are already beginning to blur This was followed by a panel about making bad guys in comics. Another panel where the terrible flop that is the Dark Tower was ignored. Instead we designed a villain for a wild west comic.This was more fun than not.We then encountered more drunks at the bar this time it was earlier around 5 or so. Side not restaurants had raised prices more and made only partial menus. Danger woman offered needed laughs and the Marriot that night proved to be a unpleasant place to be, Some guy in a back pack who was intentionally running into people, made a mistake of running into me and just bounced off me, I didn't really notice what happened til my friend pointed it out.

By Sunday it felt like Con-drop had already hit, I spent the first half of the day by myself. I went to paranormal panels this day with the "Malevolent Entities" panel being the most enjoyable. Wandered the hotels a bit ended up at a meeting. Went to one each night if the con. There did seem to be less people. One friend did not return after Saturday. From Saturday on I tried spending most of my time in the Westin and Sheraton. The crowds that were there seemed to be clustered in the same places, the Hilton made the outside deck a party spot which was somewhat fun as it allowed the organized cosplay at platform. Monday I it more comics panels and even the retailers admitted Marvel fucked themselves which was the affirmation I needed. Overall I can say I found Frolicon to be a much better time than Dragon-con this year. I think the programming was lacking and over all mood tense and guarded, perhaps this is just a reflection of what happens when you put pople who only interact through social media together and we are just not seeing the long term side effects, whatever the case it was unwelcome and generally a downer.