Comic Reviews 02.24.2020

Hey y’all. I’m sorry for being late on this one, but I’m dying. Figuratively, that is. I’ve been sick all weekend and still am, but I wanted to get this done so I’m powering through. Only two issues this week, but both reviews are pretty meaty. I also read Guardians of the Galaxy #2 but had nothing much to say about it. It’s a good continuation of the prior issue and has one of my favorite tropes: a prophecy. Anyway, let’s jump in!

 

I love a good prophecy.

As always, I will be using a three-tiered grading system. Buy means I think you should go buy this comic; it’s very good and worth your money and time. Borrow means that I think this issue is worth reading, if you can borrow it from someone; it may be worth the money for you but I’m not confident in telling you to purchase it. Pass means you should pass on the issue; I don’t recommend you buy the comic and generally don’t think it’s worth your time to read. Pass is bad.

Spoilers for: Marauders #8 and Flash Forward #6

Sonic the Hedgehog's Original Design Was Better

Sonic the Hedgehog is not a particularly good movie. It's not particularly bad either. It's a movie that exists wholly in the between land known as mediocrity. Jim Carrey, James Marsden, and Ben Schwartz give good enough performances to keep the viewer's interest. The references to Sonic's past are fun and clever. Unfortunately, the pop culture references are generally not funny and will soon be outdated and not funny. The CGI is not well integrated with the real world. Oh, and Sonic's original design was better.

Supergirl Returns from Crisis With A Chance to Fix Itself

Spoilers for Crisis on Infinite Earths and every episode of Supergirl through 'Back to the Future--Part Two.’ Consider yourself warned.

Supergirl is in a strange place right now. It's used Crisis on Infinite Earths to essentially reset itself to about episode 3 of this season while also separating itself from the past in very specific ways. No plot from the first part of Season 5 had been dropped, only remixed or adjusted. This has led to the first episodes of 2020 being both about discovering what's new and what technically didn’t happen anymore.

Comic Reviews 02.15.2020

Hey y’all. We’re back with more comics! Playing a little but of catchup this week, but everything will be all new next week! There’s a big focus on Brian Michael Bendis yet again this time. The two books he’s writing that I don’t particularly care for are here. And it may be time to stop reading them. They were both exciting at the outset but now I’m just buying them out of habit. These may well be the final issues of them I review so enjoy! Also, X-Men is in the rotation now so get hyped! This issue seems to be the final setup before dominoes start falling. Before diving in, check out Apocalypse’s cute science goggles:

Spoilers for: The Flash #87, Action Comics #1019, Young Justice #13, X-Men #6

Birds of Prey Review

Call it Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey or Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Neither is a great title, although one is significantly better than the other, but they both convey precisely the strange concoction that is this movie. While it is largely about Harley Quinn and the (admittedly poor) way she deals with a breakup, the movie also serves as an origin story for the Birds of Prey. Because of this, it is often unfocused and unsure of what to do with some of the, nominally, star characters. Having said that, this movie is a fucking blast.

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to know what happens, bookmark this page and come back once you have.

Blog Update 02.10.2020

Hey y’all. Welcome to the latest update on the blog’s goings-on. This will mostly focus on schedule changes as well as a quick preview of what I've got cooking. That’s movies, comics, and television. Get hyped.

Let’s start with the schedule. Specifically, my Supernatural reviews. I intend to keep my promise of reviewing each individual episode but have chosen 5o wait until the season has finished. This is partly because my schedule is hectic, but also because this season hasn’t been particularly inspiring and I don’t want to watch it. It’s much harder to do that for 20 weeks than the eight weeks I did it with Game of Thrones last year. So look forward to that in the summer. Next, comic reviews will be moving to Saturdays beginning this week. They’ll be reverting to current comics instead of being a week behind. Also, thus week’s edition is going to be quite big as I’ll be covering comics from several weeks. This is just better for my schedule this semester and I hope no one minds!

Now, let’s look to the future. I wrote the first draft of this in the theater before watching Birds of Prey. The review for that will be up on Wednesday. I think it'll be an interesting piece. I'm also diving back into the Arrowverse Checkup series to look at the universe post-Crisis on Infinite Earths this week and next. I haven't watched any of that yet and I'm excited to dive back in. As mentioned, the new comic reviews will be starting this weekend as well. Later this month, I'll be writing about Makoto Shinkai and why he’s one of my favorite directors working. Kingdom Hearts 3: ReMIND released at the end of last month and I’m working on collecting all my thoughts on that and turning it into a post. That's all I have planned for this month. I have a couple ideas but those are too early in development.

Last thing, the Oscars were last night and it was awful television. The show itself was, and has been for several years, boring. But there were some fun awards, except the acting categories. I don't agree with any of them. And I was wish casting when I made my predictions. Otherwise I would have gotten 70% instead of that even 50% correct. But that's on me.

That's all, folks! Thank you for reading and stay tuned for all the fun in the coming days!

Crisis on Infinite Earths Ends By Taking A Step Into The Future

If the 2019 portion of Crisis on Infinite Earths was about celebrating the past and the heroes that had come before, 2020 made it about the future. The Arrowverse has had its version of the classic DC Trinity for years: Green Arrow, The Flash, and Supergirl. Rightfully so as they are the most fleshed out characters to pull from but also the biggest stars. But this is the last crossover Stephen Amell plans to do. Instead of shoehorning someone into his place, the Arrowverse Powers-that-be have chosen to take a brave step into the future: Seven heroes that will form the (As of now untitled) Justice League.