Blog Update 07.29.2020

 

Hey y’all. Time for the monthly(ish) update. Today, I’ve got real news! Until this point, I’ve mostly just posted whatever I felt like whenever I’ve felt like. While that will continue to some degree—if I really want to write about something, I will—I want to introduce a more standardized schedule not only so y’all can have some sort of schedule for content but also to keep myself accountable. Now that’s understood, let’s take a look at the new schedule:

Sundays are going to continue being the Featured Review day. These are longer comic book reviews than those found in the Weekly Comic Reviews. They’re used highlight a notable or interesting comic. If there comes a week that doesn’t contain a worthy comic (Which I don’t expect to happen often), I have plans to fill the review. Unless another book surprises me, X-Factor #1 is going to be featured this week. I’ve had a ton of fun with it thus far and can’t wait to do more.

Mondays are going to keep being Weekly Comic Reviews. Something about putting these reviews out on Mondays is immensely satisfying for me. They will probably continue to hover around 3-5 comics per week both because that’s how many comics I read and that’s about all I think I can handle writing right now. Occasionally there may be more but don’t expect that often.

Wednesdays are going to be wild card days. It could be anything from a movie review to a podcast recommendation. Posts like Final Fantasy VII Is Incredibly Horny and After 12 Years, Star War: The Clone Wars Has Ended--well as updates like this one--will fill this slot as well. Next Wednesday, we finally have the real start of Summer of Shinkai! In that piece, I’ll take a look at both She And Her Cat and She And Her Cat: Everything Flows, the adaption (Expanded Remake?) from 2016. Get excited!

Fridays will be News Roundups like the ones I did last week. Any new trailers or news for major film, video games, comics, etc. will be compiled here. That includes recaps of the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo events going forward. They’ve been fun to do in recent weeks and I want to keep them up. In the event there isn’t enough news to create a roundup, I will still do something like the trailer posts I’ve done before. And if there is absolutely no news, this will turn into an extra wild card day or a rest day if I need a short break from writing (Check my Twitter for notifications on that).

Well, that’s everything. I hope y’all are looking forward to the more formalized structure. As mentioned at the top, I want to do an extra post in a given week, I will but most weeks this will be the structure. It’s going to be exciting and is the next step in evolving this blog to where I want it to be. I hope you plan to stick around on this journey, and I’ll catch you Friday.

 

Take care and be safe,

Alex

  

As always, feel free to give your thoughts in these comments or on Twitter at @alexraysnyder. And if you like what you read here, consider throwing a couple bucks my way on Patreon to help cover costs.

Comic Reviews 07.27.2020

Hey y’all. Welcome back! We’re adding some new comics to rotation this week in Empyre: X-Men and Amazing Spider-Man. Those are both spin-offs, but they’re related to the ongoing stories of their respective series so I’ve decided to add them. There will also be more X-Men comics in these reviews going forward.

Couldn't find anywhere to put this in the Featured Review

Yesterday marked the debut of the new Featured Reviews column and I took a deeper look at Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer #1. It was a very interesting story to take a look at and was a ton of fun so I’m looking forward to doing more of those in-depth reviews. On a separate note, I’ve dropped both Empyre and Dark Nights: Death Metal because they blow. Empyre has a cool story and beautiful art but no heart. Death Metal has nothing interesting going for it. As Scott Snyder’s (And maybe Greg Capullo’s?) big finale to his ongoing time at DC, it’s a massive disappointment.

Of course, it’s fine because the events following those two have already been revealed. King in Black, the follow-up to Absolute Carnage, has a prelude issue that also functions as an epilogue to Empyre. That’s maybe putting them too close together. As I don’t have much interest in Knull, I will be skipping this event. As for DC’s Endless Winter, we don’t have anything other than a logo and an end of year start date.

 

Spoilers for: The Flash #758, Empyre: X-Men #1, Amazing Spider-Man: Sins Past #1

 

Featured Review: Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer #1

Power Rangers: Ranger Slayer #1

Writer: Ryan Parrott

Artist: Dan Mora

Colors: Raul Angulo

Letters: Ed Dukeshire

Cover: Dan Mora

Full Spoilers for the issue. You’ve been warned.

Video Game News Roundup 07.24.2020

This picture is clickbait

So, there’s been some video game news this week. There was a Mini Nintendo Direct that revealed a few interesting games for next. Microsoft also held an event to finally show some games for the new Xbox. It was a mostly underwhelming showcase with a few standout games. Ubisoft had an event as well but there wasn’t much new there and it would be more worth your time to read about how Ubisoft treats employees than talk about their games. The makers of Suikoden 2 also announced a Kickstarter for their new game, Eiyuden Chronicle, but there isn’t much else to say about that quite yet. Anyway, let’s get to the games!

Comic News Roundup 07.22.2020

From the Flash’s new creative team to Keanu Reeves’ comic debut, there has been a bunch of comic book news of late. I wanted to share my thoughts because I am very excited for it. Comics are back in full swing and it is an exciting time to be a reader, so let’s dive in.

 

Comic Book Reviews 07.20.2020

Hey y’all! Welcome back from the brief hiatus. Let’s start this off with an announcement: The blog is going to have a new weekly Featured Review (Name not finalized) every Sunday. This will be a comic I want to spotlight. Typically, it will be a Big Deal comic like Empyre or the final issue of Joshua Williamson’s Flash comic—and likely the first issue of the new creative team (More on that coming Wednesday in a comic news roundup). Sometimes it will be a neat indie comic I’m reading or one of the smaller Big Two series. 

Dark Nights: Death Metal is some BS

It all depends on what releases each week and what I want to spotlight. On the rare week where I don’t have anything to review—usually the fifth Wednesday of a given month—I’ll find something to share like a manga or an older comic. Plus, they’ll be longer than the bite sized ones I do in this column.  I’m really excited and I hope y’all join me Sundays!

 We’ve got some interesting comics to look from the last couple weeks, although not as many as I expected. I just don’t have much to say about Empyre #1 (Generic first issue of an event), The Flash #757 (Fine but nothing happened), or Death Metal #2 (The worst comic I’ve read in a year). I should be jumping back into at least two of those series next week though, so stay tuned.

 

Spoilers For: Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #2, Young Justice #16, Saban’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #51

Comic Book Reviews 07.07.2020

Hey y’all! We’ve got two issues that came out about a month ago this week as there were no new comics I read or wanted to try. Unfortunately, the other fun comic I wanted to review, I was unable to get access to so that will have to wait for the future, but these issues were fun. I mean, how could you look at this and not have fun:

 

Spoilers for: The Flash: Fastest Man Alive #4&5

Ok, Hear Me Out Episode 4 is Here!

Hey y’all. It’s time for another episode of Ok, Hear Me Out. We changed it up a little this time and focused on something a little less goofy: Fireworks and why there’s been a sudden increase in them compared to prior years. There is a detour into Bobby Bonilla and that’s a little goofy. The most important thing is that we have DRASTICALLY increased our sound quality. Reid finally figured out how to work the software correctly. You should be able to find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Check it out, I think it’s our best yet.

As always, feel free to give your thoughts in these comments or on Twitter at @alexraysnyder. And if you like what you read here, consider throwing a couple bucks my way on Patreon to help cover costs.

Pokémon Café Mix Review

You are a young entrepreneur in the Pokémon world. For as long as you can remember, you have wanted to open a café for bring joy to the people around you. Oddly, your brand-new café seems to only attract Pokémon though. There is not a human customer in sight. It’s fine. The Pokémon still pay. That’s the story of Pokémon Café Mix, the newest “free to start” Pokémon mobile game. It is a very strange setup but one that is executed with that classic Pokémon charm.