Comic Reviews: Secret Empire and Justice League Of America!

COMIC REVIEWS!!

Secret Empire #10 (of 10) (Marvel Comics)

SPOILERS (But it’s not like Marvel didn’t already do that for you)

My lack of interest in Secret Empire has been going on since before the series was initially announced, so now that we’re at the end (well, almost the end, there’s still an “Omega” issue coming to wrap everything up), I should be pretty pumped to see it end and move on. But even without the usual mainstream media spoilers, Nick Spencer’s big Marvel event feels like it’s just checking off the boxes of what you need to do in a major comic book event, and doesn’t really set up anything new or exciting for the post-Hydra Cap Marvel universe.

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What’s In A Cinematic Universe Anyways?

Warner Bros has been making quite the headlines lately, with the announcement of a solo Joker movie (produced by Martin Scorsese no less), ANOTHER Joker movie set in the DCEU featuring Jared Leto and Margot Robie, and major updates on the upcoming Matt Reeves directed Batman movie: namely, that it won’t be part of the DCEU film universe, only to then be announced that it IS part of the DCEU universe, but won’t feature other characters from the DC movies.

Comic Reviews: Generations: Thor and Nightwing: New Order!

COMIC REVIEWS!!

Generations: The Mighty Thor and the Unworthy Thor #1 (Marvel Comics)

Jason Aaron’s ongoing Thor saga has made for one of the few truly consistently great Marvel titles, so the news that he would be writing the Generations: The Mighty Thor and Unworthy Thor special is a welcome one. Despite the fact that Jane Foster’s Thor has teamed up with the Odinson plenty of times before, this special, featuring art by Mahmud Asrar, takes Jane Foster back to the distant past to meet a Thor that has yet to learn what it means to be worthy. It leads to an action packed issue that finally has some ties to the upcoming Marvel Legacy special, and serves as the best Generations special so far.

TV Review: The Defenders!

The Defenders (2017)

Starring: Charlie Cox, Kristen Ritter, Mike Colter, Finn Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Elodie Young

SPOILERS

Much like the solo movies of their big screen counterparts, the main appeal of the four Marvel Netflix shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist) was the idea that the four would join forces in their own team up series The Defenders.  Now that the four have had their own seasons (or two in Daredevil’s case), it’s finally time for them to join up and crack some Hand ninja skulls as only they can. While Defenders takes a while to get going, once Jessica Jones (Kristen Ritter), Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) get together, the show becomes one of the most entertaining entries in the Marvel Netflix deal, albeit with a few small setbacks.

Comic Reviews: Dark Nights Metal and Mage: The Hero Denied!

COMIC REVIEWS!!

Dark Nights: Metal #1 (DC Comics)

More so than many big comic book events, there’s a lot of hype surrounding Dark Nights: Metal. Of course, any book that reunites the Batman New 52 dream team of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo is bound to gain some attention, but the hype surrounding Metal is definitely more palpable than other events in the works (looking at you, Marvel Legacy). Perhaps it’s the fact that this event will tie into the early days of the DC universe, or that DC has been on such a creative hot streak lately that anything they make will have a lot of attention, but whatever it is, Metal has a ton of hype, which means it has a lot to live up to. And while it’s not the action packed event that the Batman with battle axes promo images would have you believe, Snyder and Capullo are setting the stage for some major shake ups in the DC universe.

TV Review: Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later

Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later

Starring: Michael Showalter, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Marguerite Moreau, Ken Marino

Directed By: David Wain

Wet Hot American Summer is one of my favorite comedies of all time, so getting not one, but two follow up Netflix series is pretty insane to me. After the hype of First Day of Camp, the first Netflix follow-up that aired two years ago, I had completely forgotten about the sequel series Ten Years Later, and it seemed like Netflix did too (you can chalk this up to either lack of interest on their part or the fact that they have too many original programs, your choice). My love for the original Wet Hot is pretty deep, so any follow up to that is going to be held to a pretty high standard in my eyes, and while Ten Years Later has some very solid and funny moments, it’s easily the weakest installment of the Wet Hot “Trilogy”.

Comic Reviews: Mister Miracle and Redlands!

COMIC REVIEWS!

Mister Miracle #1 (DC Comics)

This may sound blasphemous to some, but I’ve never been able to quite crack the New Gods. While I like Darkseid and Mr. Miracle and have read the major aspects of Jack Kirby’s saga, there’s always been some part of them that just seemed too weird to me, so I’ve largely missed out on a huge chunk of necessary comic book lore. But with Tom King and Mitch Gerads’ Mister Miracle, that’s definitely going to change. This opening issue is not only another notch in the awesome body of work from these two creators; it’s also the thing that finally clicked with me when it comes to the New Gods.

Go Then, There Are Other Worlds Than These…

It’s always interesting to be in the aftermath of something that didn’t live up to your expectations. Now that we live in a post Dark Tower movie world, I’m struggling with what I thought of the movie. Of course, I didn’t think it was a great adaptation, or one even worthy of the name The Dark Tower, but it’s also not as terrible as the reviews would have made it seem. Sony, director Nikolaj Arcel, and even Stephen King himself have made it known the plans for this franchise, but now that the dust has settled and the movie is out, I’m left with one question: what now?

Movie Review: The Dark Tower!

The Dark Tower (2017)

Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor

Directed By: Nikolaj Arcel
MINOR SPOILERS

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series means a lot to me. A large chunk of my time in college was spent devouring those books, and the tale of Roland and his “Ka-Tet” as they traveled Mid-World to get to the Dark Tower had an incredible hold on my imagination. While some may be Harry Potter fanatics or worship the works of Tolkien, The Dark Tower was the series that latched onto my brain and took me on an adventure I’d never been on before. Naturally, Hollywood has tried to bring the tale of Roland and The Man in Black to the big screen for a long time now. J.J. Abrams tried, and couldn’t crack it. Same for Ron Howard. But now Sony Pictures has seemingly done it, with relatively unknown director Nikolaj Arcel.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, they forgot the faces of their fathers.

Comic Review: Generations Hulk and Elsewhere!

COMIC REVIEWS!!

Generations: Totally Awesome Hulk and Banner Hulk #1 (Marvel Comics)

Like everything Marvel publishes, there’s been a lot of hype surrounding Generations, which finds the contemporary versions of major Marvel characters meeting their “classic” versions. Marvel is presenting this as a way to go back to the roots of many of their characters, and is pitching this series of one-shots as the “next step” into Legacy, their “we promise we’re not trying to copy what DC did with Rebirth but yeah we kind of are” publishing initiative coming up next month. With the first of these titles being released this week with Generations: Totally Awesome Hulk and Banner Hulk, a lot of people are wondering just what these specials are. They’re not “time travel stories” according to Marvel, but deal with something called ’The Vanishing Point´ that’s somehow tied into Secret Empire. Well, unfortunately the Greg Pak and Matteo Buffagni special doesn’t have any insight into the greater workings of Generations, and honestly the special itself doesn’t offer anything all that interesting either.