Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

We have now come to the end of this new Star Wars trilogy. I have taken some time to let it sit with me before I wrote about it. I had some very strong feelings afterwards and after a few days, I still have them. What you are about to read is a severe nitpicking of some of the elements of this movie. I only do that when I have turned on a movie. Although I did not find this movie objectively bad (re: The Last Jedi), I still have problems with it.

I will warn you before you go further. There will be a lot of spoilers here. I can't make my main complaints/compliments without mentioning specific moments in the film. There, that's your warning. After this point, it is on YOU.

I will be up front and say I thought it was okay. I did not love it (Force Awakens) or hate it (Last Jedi), so this falls in between.

While I like J.J. Abrams, I think he and Disney tried to do two things with this film. Right the wrongs of Last Jedi and also double down on the nostalgia and history of the Star Wars franchise. I think both of those were at the detriment of this film. This movie works so hard to do both that this movie comes off feeling like a retread.

It is almost as if they are ticking off check boxes, to make sure the fans are happy after the backlash of the last movie. Let's be honest. Trying to cater to extreme Star Wars fans is the wrong direction to go in. To keep it simple, I will call out nostalgia plot points in the rest of this review. Once you see how many added up, you'll see what I mean.

At the end of the day, this is a movie that was just afraid to take chances. First of all, after all that was set up, you're going to tell me that Emperor Palpatine (Nostalgia) was the big bad all along?! We spend all this time setting up new characters and the First Order and this is who is behind it all? Well doesn't that just negate Vader's actions at the end of the Return of the Jedi? As cool as it might be that he's back, I wanted the new characters to fight a new threat that is supposed to be worse than the previous one. If you are going to bring people back, why can't we ever get Darth Maul? This highlights the fact that we don't have a real good villain in these movies. Snoke was unceremoniously killed off in the last movie, so this is what we're left with. Can I also add that we didn't need to see the remains of the Death Star (Nostalgia) playing a huge part here?

Speaking of villains, let's just get to Kylo Ren. They have teetered back and forth on whether he is bad or not. When he killed Han Solo, I praised them for having the stones to kill off a beloved character to complete his heel turn (to steal some wrestling lingo). Kylo got over as a heel, but then they have him being more emo and whiny in Last Jedi, as he pines after Rey. The whole time they kept teasing an arc of redemption with him and I was really hoping they wouldn't. Well, they did. Despite all that he's done and all the people he killed, he ultimately redeems himself in the end and sacrifices himself. If he had lived, I would have had a real problem with him turning face and helping out the rebellion. Trying to live up to the legacy of his grandfather made him more compelling, since he clearly had daddy issues. Also, I do NOT like how he and Rey resolve their issues at the end of the film.

While on the topic of villains, I did not like Rey's parentage revelation either. We all wanted her to be the daughter of Luke, but that was not meant to be. Instead, she IS a big deal after all. After the reveal (I won't say here but it is Nostalgia), it only left me with more questions. Here it was as if they wanted to go away from what everyone wanted and instead decided to go with a swerve that really makes no sense. For once, going with the fan opinion would have been the best option. I guess this was in service to how she was treated in Last Jedi and they wanted to make all that make sense. As if she couldn't decide who she wants to be on her own. I hate the idea of a predetermined fate and that is what they try to get across with Rey.

I'm almost done with my gripes and then we will get to what I did like about the film. There is a point in the film where they appear to kill two main legacy (re: Nostalgia) characters. Again, I won't reveal because I want to hold some things back. For me, if they actually had the stones to go through with it, it would have been a big deal. Instead, it is quickly reversed, so the emotional roller coaster they put you on is a fake out. Take some chances, movie!

This is all spilling out of me now. Star Wars is now having a real problem with locales. In every Star Wars movie now, we get these in no particular order: Sand Planet, Forest/Jungle planet, Planet with Ice on it, Dreary Planet. In playing on Nostalgia, we gotta make sure people recognize these traditional settings or they might get confused. As much as I hated that casino scene in Last Jedi, at least it was somewhere we haven't seen yet. Also, lets make sure we see Ewoks (Nostalgia) because they are still around.

Finally, a couple of shorter gripes and then I promise I am done. I do have some positive things to say, I promise. The McGuffin in this movie is some ancient artifact that will help our characters find the secret Empire army on some unknown planet. So once again, some characters band together for a secret mission that they hope will win the war? Where have we seen this before? Perhaps every Star Wars movie ever? (Nostalgia). Just once I would love to see the Rebellion win in a tactical battle without tricksn Anyway, I bring this up because to get there, they have to extract info out of C3PO's head and that comes at a price. I should mention that they don't really give C3PO a choice. As a character in these movies, he's earned that option. Anyways, they do so, only to find out that there is another one in the hands of Kylo Ren that they happen upon anyway. So it was all for naught. It's problematic because they spend a lot of the movie looking for this item.

Finally, I don't know if it is in response to all the negative backlash from the last movie, but the biggest casualty of this movie is the character of Rose Trico. She was a new character in Last Jedi and her inclusion sparked some controversy that even lead to the actress (Kelly Marie Tran) getting off social media after being constantly bullied. So the studio's answer to that? Let's limit her to a few scenes and call it a day. There are new characters that pop up in this film alone that have more screen time than her. Also, she had maybe a romance with Finn and that is quickly swept under the rug and forgotten. Like her or not, but her exclusion speaks volumes. Especially in light of the fact that we even got a few more new characters to try and keep track of.

So I have spent a lot of time detailing what I don't like. Let's try and end on some positives. One of my biggest problems with the last movie is that our cast of characters barely spent any time together. They are supposed to be our new group and this movie thankfully addresses that. They are not split up as much this time and move together as a group. I loved that.

Also, another wrong that was righted was having Billy Dee Williams return as Lando Calrissian (Nostalgia). Better late than never, Disney! It was good to see him again and he played a part in the movie. Wish would could have seen him interact with Han, Luke or Leia, but it wasn't meant to be. At least we saw him with Chewy and C3PO and that was great.

The one thing these movies have going for them is that there is a lot of action. I do like the light saber battles that they have put together and the choreography is pretty good. I will say that sometimes there is too much action without a lot of time to breathe.

I said it before and I will say it again. I am an absolute sucker for the Millenium Falcon. So every time it shows up, it makes me happy. Seems everyone in the world flies it, so who actually OWNS it now!? Anyways, glad to see it show up again and play a big part.

Although I griped about all the nostalgia here, this movie does serve as a nice bookend to all nine movies. So it at least felt like we wrapped things up here.

Finally, I want to say that we did get a nice send off for Princess Leia here and it was touching to see her in some of the scenes. The actors all did a great job and I still really like Daisy Ridley as Rey. Oscar Issacs as Poe, John Boyega as Finn all have great chemistry with one another and it was good to see them act off each other more.

With all the complaining I did, I would give this movie a 2.5 out of 5 stars, if I was to rate such things. The nostalgia (even though I railed against it), affected me enough that it earned an extra half star.

Ultimately, these movies feel like a missed opportunity. It never felt like they had a real idea of where they wanted this story to go. They were making it up as they went and it definitely feels like that. Using this movie to correct Last Jedi, which undid some of Force Awakens hurts the overall trilogy. We know they will make more. Let's hope they get one unified voice next time and have them shepherd that thing all the way to the end and fit those pieces together so it all makes sense.

If you've seen the other movies, you owe it to yourself to see this one too. That is about as high a praise as you will get from me.

Wolverine: The Lost Trail "Podcast"

It has been a long time since I have written on this blog and I come out of my hibernation to talk about a months old "podcast"?? Look, it is what it is, okay?

Anyways, I finally finished "Wolverine: The Lost Trail" and these Marvel podcasts (the new buzzword for Radio Drama apparently) are really good. I know I had my gripes about Richard Armitage as Wolverine, but I take that all back. He is pretty good here. What's even more, they have expanded the cast in this story to include Gambit. You can't be in New Orleans and not bring in our favorite Cajun. The voice actor for Gambit sounded a little older than how I would imagine it in my head, but he was still good nonetheless.

Equally impressive is the actor for the new character, Marcus Baptiste. The relationship between Wolverine and Marcus is akin to Wolverine and Jubilee or Wolverine and Kitty Pryde. I guess I'm trying to say that Wolverine seems to go through more child sidekicks. The difference is, his don't die. (Oh snap!)

What I liked about this series and the one before it is the scale of the adventure. These are tales focused solely on our characters and the situations effecting them, not the entire world. That smaller scale lets us get more intimate with the characters.

The production on this "podcast" is top notch. I know that is a wild claim, since my only exposure the past couple of years are these two Wolverine shows. In listening to it, it will be hard to disagree. They use sound really well here.

I really enjoyed this and I am all in on any other radio dramas they do. The next one is called, "Marvels" and is based on the graphic novel of the same name. What makes that interesting is that METHOD MAN will be voicing Ben Urich. Sign me up.

Before you go looking for that though, go give "Wolverine: The Lost Trail" a listen. It should be free on iTunes.

House of X/Power of X Hot Take

X-Marks the spot with this series! (Ugh. I know. Sorry about that)

Last week, the last issue of Jonathan Hickman's X-men two mini-series came to an end. His return to Marvel was billed as a big event that would change the landscape of the X-men forever (until the next big thing).

I can say definitively that he has done just that. If you read comics, I get that Hickman is not everyone's cup of tea. He tends to write grand, long spanning, complicated stories. Separately, the pieces do not make sense, but they come together as a whole at the end. There is a brilliance in the way that he writes because he is well aware of what he is doing and you just have to wait till the end.

I say all that to say that each issue of his book went from confusing to masterful. Now that it is all done, I can say it is definitely masterful. He has definitely reshaped the X-Men. Their mission is now different. I truly enjoyed this series and there were genuine, mouth wide open surprise moments from me.

The most amazing thing about this series is that Hickman took characters from deep into the X-Men lore and made them relevant. I think the biggest star of these books is Moira McTaggert. To say anything else would spoil things, so I will leave it there. She has been kind of retconned into being probably the most important mutant ever. I know that sounds like the hottest of hot takes, but once you read this series, you will know what I mean.

Some of the forgotten characters from Brian Michael Bendis's run on the X-Men appear and they are have also been thrust into an area of importance. We get characters such as the Phalanx, Doug Ramsey, Forge, Nimrod and others. He pulled in as many X-characters as he could and breathed life into them.

I'm speaking around all the big things that happened in this series because I really don't want to spoil it for people. Okay. Maybe one thing. The mutants now have a sovereign nation built on island called Krakoa. If you know anything about the X-Men, the name Krakoa should be setting of your nerd sense. There are grand ideas here that are going to play out for a little while and I am over the moon. After the last couple of years of trying to do something interesting with the X-Men, I think we finally got it.

To go along with the writing, we get wonderful art from Pepe Larraz (quickly becoming one of my favorite artists) and R.B. Silva (I had written him off a while ago about not being so good on X-Men: Gold. I was wrong).

These books were pure Hickman. The issues are full of graphic design pages and charts. We jump back and forth between the present and the future.

Nevermind anything that came before this, the X-Men are back and I am genuinely excited about what happens next.

The Joker

If I hear send in the clowns one more time...

I wanted to write this up as soon as I could while my memory is still fresh.

I will start off by applauding DC for trying to do something different than it's normal super hero fare. With that being said, this was not a movie that we needed. This is the kind of origin story I don't want, especially for the Joker.

As I think about this movie, there were many things that I thought were problematic. I swear I will have a few good things to say, but let me start with what I didn't like. This movie is extremely slow. I get they are trying to do a slow build, but time is money and this movie wasted both for me in the first half of the movie. We follow around Arthur Fleck, who will become the Joker. He is the saddest of sad sacks, with aspirations to be a comedian, but missing that thing you need. Good jokes.

We spend too much time in his day to day as he lives with his mom and tries to chase his dreams. They try to make him sympathetic by saying that he has a mental illness and a tough upbringing. The first mistake is to attribute his iconic laughing as some kind of mental condition where he laughs for no reason. I call shenanigans. To say that the one thing the Joker is known for is out of his control is BS. So I guess he's not really a bad guy, he's just misunderstood? Please.

As the movie unfolds, surprise surprise, things are not quite what they seem in Arthur's relationship with his mother and his relationship with those around him. Let me pause and say that Joaquin Phoenix does an amazing job. In fact, his acting might be the only thing that is good about this movie. However, if I have to see a few more scenes of him weirdly dancing in his underwear again, it would be too soon if it is any time before NEVER.

Probably my biggest problem about this movie is they try to make him sympathetic and I found that hard to do. This is a guy that I'm supposed to root for? Life beats him down and the way he finally stands up for himself is to start killing people? I hope this isn't a spoiler, but this is a movie about the Joker right? This movie goes out of it's way almost to convince you that in some twisted way, he is justified in his actions. I don't know if I can be down with that.

This movie is really dark and depressing. For half the movie, I was thinking, "Why am I watching this?" It wasn't enjoyable. The movie then quickly starts building to it's crescendo as things spiral out of control and only then, do we start to see the Joker emerge. It was a very long walk to get to that point. I kind of liked the last twenty minutes of the movie. Not because of the escalating violence, but because now there is some real tension and things are actually happening.

Bravo to DC. Slapping Joker on this film is bound to make money and from the looks of it, it already has. If you take away the Joker and it's loose ties to Batman, you're left with a movie about a sad sack that is angry at the world. You can say it is a good psychological study if you want. It just didn't need it to be "Joker".

No origin for the Joker will ever be good enough. The mystery of how he came to be is most of his appeal. It is what made Heath Ledger's Joker so menacing. He was truly unpredictable. In this movie, Arthur's turn is well forecast in bright, blinding lights. This movie also really fails to surprise.

Finally, my last thought. This movie had sections where you see stuff is happening in Arthur's head, so the rest of the movie I am left questioning what is real and what isn't. So then I kept waiting for the reveal and when it didn't happen, I am disappointed. The movie got too clever with it's own narrative and that was to it's detriment. If you have an unreliable narrator, how can you believe what you are seeing? The whole move starts to feel like some weird dream and we're about to wake up.

What I will say is that the acting is really good in this movie. The look of this movie is very consistent, as everything is grim and dreary. Again, Phoenix puts in some good work here and I will admit he has one of the best Joker laughs. Still though, I cannot in good conscience recommend this movie.

The Boys: Season 1

My apologies. I should have written this a few months ago when I actually finished the show. I would have had a much hotter take then. Since then, I've moved on with life, watched other shows and almost forgot I had watched this. Not in a bad way because I thought the show was very good.

What's funnier is that people really do have a read on me now. I had a lot of people asking if I watched this show (before I actually watched it) because it's about super heroes. Maybe I have been too transparent and need to pull back.

What a time we are living in when you can be a nerd out in the open and NOT get made fun of. This kind of stuff I would have had to keep to myself when I was younger.

Anyways, I digress. The Boys. Let's talk about it. I never read the comic book series it is based off of. I know OF it, but didn't care to read it. Back then, I was not ready for Garth Ennis or his various series that pushed the limits of what was explicit in comic books at the time. I was still deep into super heroes before I started to really branch out.

I say all that to let you know that other than a raunchy, adult take on super heroes, I did not know what to expect from this show.

Let's be clear for anyone that is wondering, this show is real dark. I think we are at the point now where we can have our light super hero movies and still have a place for a show like this. If anything, they toned down the original source material from what I understand.

Kudos to Amazon. They pushed this show and you can tell that there was some money behind it. Also, kudos to keeping the season to eight episodes. If you've read any of my other reviews, you will know I have turned on the idea of thirteen episode seasons. There is always padding. I love ten episodes, eight is even better. That means they have to get through their story and there is not enough time for filler. I never felt that this show was too slow or meandering. It is a very slow burn, sure, to get to the endpoint. However, they sprinkle in some pretty big moments throughout.

Part of me wants to think that some of the things that happen are for shock value, but as you go on, that is just part and parcel to the whole vibe of this show.

The casting was great all around. To me the stand outs are Karl Urban as Billy Butcher and Antony Starr as Homelander. Every scene with Homelander in it, knowing how powerful he is, you begin to wonder, is THIS the time where he completely loses it? The way he plays the character on that knife's edge, you don't know which way he is going to fall. Is he going to be merciful? Or he is about to kill someone? There was tension in every scene that he appears in.

I was completely engrossed in the story as I kept watching to see if it would get much worse for everyone involved. Would our "heroes" in this story be able to break through the conspiracy and take down the super heroes? Each person has an emphatic story so you begin to start rooting for your favorites, whoever they may be.

I tend to ramble on, so I am keeping this deliberately short. I will say the show ends on a great cliffhanger and I will definitely be around for season 2. If you haven't watched it yet and you have no problems with essentially a dark dramedy, give this show a shot.

Cloak and Dagger: Season 2

Just when it seemed like we just had season 1 less than a year ago, along came season two of Cloak and Dagger. Since I already talked about this show before (Season 1), I won't sit here and bore you about how I'm a fan of the characters, blah blah blah. You've heard me do that enough on this blog. It won't stop me, but I won't bring that into THIS review.

So yeah, season two. I still love this show. As I've gotten older, I've gravitated more towards these YA type shows (Runaways, Riverdale, etc.) and I really don't know how I should feel about it. Oh, I know. I am comfortable in my own skin and I will like what I want! Ahem.

Ahem. As I thought about it, it's hard for me to explain why I like this show so much, but I'll try to explain. I really loved that they moved the characters from New York (in the comics), to New Orleans. It gives the chance to have a unique style to the Marvel shows in the same way that Runaways does.

This season, Tandy and Tyrone are now fully in control of their powers after the event of last season. I feel like the actors have grown into their roles in a good way. I love watching the interplay between Tandy and Tyrone and their friendship really grew in this season. Actually, it felt very natural and you could see they care for each other. I will admit that I have been shipping them pretty hard since the last season because they are together in the comics! With that aside, the way they have been built up here is why I've pushed it more.

The stakes are raised in this season as they face a villain that is even more supernatural than the last one. Gone is all the Roxxon mystery and all of that stuff. I say that to mean I'm thankful that we can move on. There is more focus on the voodoo side of New Orleans and the villains this time around and I am all about that. I find it fascinating.

I think the special effects are still pretty good in this show. They are not doing anything too fantastical, so everything feels grounded. The locales feel authentic and not just on a sound stage.

Also, we don't get a whole lot of new characters, outside of the main villain. We get to continue with our cast from the last season, so things keep from feeling too bloated.

At the end of the season, they appear to be running away to New York, so now they will truly be runaways and we can see this show start to slowly transition into what it is in the comics. I'm glad they have taken the journey to get them here and lose some of their silly comic book origins in the process.

If I had one comment to make, it's that these are teenagers and they are going around acting like adults, for the most part. They still clearly have issues with impulse control, so they are still kids in that respect.

Unlike some shows I watch (and ultimately drop), I was always looking forward to watching each episode of this show and I always got wrapped up in it. That's the mark of a keeper for this guy. Can't wait to see what they do in Season 3.

Wolverine: The Long Night

At the suggestion of a friend, I downloaded "Wolverine: The Long Night" from iTunes. Although billed as a "podcast", this was like an old school radio drama.

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect. After getting through all ten episodes, each averaging about thirty minutes a piece, I can give an honest opinion.

I was surprised at how much I liked it. It is a very well produced radio drama. It has moody music in the right places, it has good sound design in that they mimic when people are across the room and good sound effects.

I thought the setting of Alaska was a perfect backdrop for this particular story. Wolverine in the wilderness or being that stranger in a sleepy town is definitely on brand. He is the guy that is trying to mind his own business, but gets drawn into events because he is a hero.

I also liked the methodical pace of the story telling and the mystery that unfolded. It wasn't too fantastical and none of the other X-Men make an appearance here.

For the most part, I thought the cast was very good. The only person I had a problem with was Richard Armitage as Logan/Wolverine. I understand that you wanted to get a name, but he was not the right fit at all. Years of X-Men cartoons, video games, etc. have me prepared to accept a different voice (Steve Blum) for Wolverine. He should be gruff. Armitage tried, but he does not pull it off. Instead, he just comes off sounding like a dude. If it wasn't for people addressing him as Logan, within the dialogue, I would not have been able to pick out his voice from everyone else.

Hugh Jackman was able to pull it off, but Armitage could not. It's disheartening when the star of the radio play is the one you like the least.

Maybe his time was expensive, so he really doesn't have a whole lot of lines. You barely get much out of him in the first half of this story.

I'm glad I gave this a shot. It was well worth my time and I would recommend it to anyone else that wanted to have something on while they drive. You better believe I'm counting it as a book that was read on Good Reads!

Kevin's Panels in Tremendousness

Welcome again, dear readers. Join me as we celebrate another entry into my Panels in Tremendousness. We have a real treat this time. You've come here before, so you know the deal. If not, here's the deal because I should know better than to assume things. I'm going to show a panel that is completely out of context, but on it's face it's pretty funny. If you DON'T find it funny, then why are we even friends!?! Sorry, I digress. This gem is from Marvel Team-Up #110.

The only reason I wear glasses is because my perceptions have been dazzled ONE TOO MANY TIMES!

Look, comic books in the seventies/eighties had a real penchant for goofy dialogue combined with stating the obvious. In case you couldn't tell, Dazzler is the one shooting the light beams. You know how I know? Not because I own and read the comic smart ass. It's because I speak Marvel. The bad guys specific choice of words key you in. How many times have YOU talked about having your perceptions dazzled? By the DAZZLER!? Never! So maybe you don't know what these guys are going through.

However, let's address how even in a comic book, what a weird thing to say. I guess, "Ahhh! My eyes!" was too low brow. The writers felt they needed to spice it up a bit.

Also, there is an important life lesson here folks. Find you someone who dazzles your perceptions every time you walk into a room. That's why I married my wife. (I really hope she saw that. Otherwise I am wasting some of my best lines in front of people.)

Spider-Man: Far From Home

Now that I've seen Spider-Man: Far From Home twice, as per the usual, I feel like I can fully talk about it. Thankfully, the viewings were only a few days apart, so I still have some hot takes left in me.

I want to warn you, there WILL be spoilers.

I loved this movie. I did like Homecoming more, but this one is still really good. It picks up on the threads left in the wake of Avengers: End Game.

One of the questions I had with fellow nerds was, what will the world be like for all those people that have come back from the Thanos snap. Thankfully this movie tackles that within the first ten minutes of this movie. Their handling of it made me not question it anymore and hopefully we don't have to hear any more about it.

Before I go any further, let me just shout this from the mountain tops. Tom Holland is far and away the best Peter Parker/Spider-Man that we've gotten. There is no questioning this. End of discussion.

He carries these movies and he is exactly like you would imagine a teenager with super powers would be. Awkward, clumsy and trying to figure out who he is. In this movie though, he is more tortured in that he is dealing with the death of his mentor/father figure in Tony Stark while also trying to navigate the life of a typical teenager. Layer that in with his crushing feeling of responsibility that leads him to think of others before himself and he is a guy that you always root for.

His "man in the chair", Ned is still great in this movie. He is the comedic sidekick that this movie needs to keep things light. He also gets a little bit to do. I also think that Zendaya should get more credit for the job she has done as MJ. Her awkwardness makes every scene, but also makes her a match for Peter and I love that. I say this because if you see her in other stuff, she is not like this, so that is a testament to the job she pulls off here.

I am all about the teen drama, so I loved watching all these characters bounce off each other. Seeing love triangles form and fall. Watching unexpected love blossom. All of this is a lot of fun without feeling trashy. While I am on the subject, I'm glad that they have kept everyone in high school and didn't feel the need to make them grown ups in subsequent films.

Can I also say how amazing it is that we live in a world where freakin' MYSTERIO is in a big budget Spider-Man? With a very great, modern take on his classic costume. He still has the fishbowl head. Jake Gyllenhal really commits to this guy and I can't think of anyone that is able to elevate what is traditionally a goofy character. We've had the Vulture, Scorpion (to a lesser degree), the Shocker and now Mysterio. They are slowly building their way to the Sinister Six and I hope that gets realized in about two movies from now.

Speaking of Mysterio, while I thought his motivation was a tad flimsy, I liked that they really leaned into it. For a while there, I was getting flashbacks to Iron Man 3. Like a good villain, he truly believes in what he is doing, even if it is a tad mustache-twirly. Also, credit to this movie to really pull from the past to show the people that joined in with Mysterio and why they are here.

All in all, this movie was a lot of fun. We get Sam Jackson back as Nick Fury and he is at his most Sam Jacksony-ish. You know what I mean. We get a lot more of Happy (Jon Faverau) and he definitely adds to the movie. He is not the absent dad like he was in the first one. Now he feels fondly for Peter, if he is also after Aunt May. There were a lot of good comedy beats. This movie may have dialed up the drama, but it also dialed up the comedy to keep in step.

Last but not least, we get an appearance from J.K. Simmons reprising his role as J. Jonah Jameson! This proves again that he is perfectly cast. I would love for him to appear more in the next movie. He is too perfect. We haven't had the public hating on Spider-Man like in the comics and I think by the end of this movie, they have set it up to be just that.

In the end, the trailers made this seem more epic than it was with these huge "monsters" that Peter faces. I'm glad at the end of it all, it is still him fighting a regular dude. Keeping Spider-Man more street level after the Avengers movies is a great idea.

This was a worthy successor to Spider-Man: Homecoming and I hope we at least get one more Spider-Man movie, if not more with this cast.

High recommendation from me to go see this film. Stay for after the credits. THAT I won't spoil for you.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix

I finally saw X-Men: Dark Phoenix a few nights ago. I figured if I don't write this post now after sleeping on it for a few days, I'll never write it. I'm not going to sit here and waste your time talking about how big an X-Men fan I've been or any of that background info I normally start these with. I'm going to just jump right in. Also, there will be SPOILERS. You've been warned.

Before I go into my reasons why, this movie is bad. Not dumpster fire bad like I was expecting, but it was definitely bad. After the movie ended, my wife made note of my exasperated sigh. When I think about how many X-Men movies we've had, this movie makes me spectacularly sad. In my eyes, we have had way more bad X-Men movies than good ones. If I take away X-Men universe films (Wolverines and Deadpools), we are left with an underwhelming bunch. This movie marks the seventh in the mainline X-Men movies. I can say I legitimately loved two of them. After this movie, that count remained at two.

After X-Men: Apocalypse, I thought I had read that Jennifer Lawerence, James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender were done with these movies. Imagine my surprise when they all came back for this. The money must have been real good. I think especially egregious was Lawerence, because I don't think she liked having to go through all that makeup. The three of them are good actors, but I feel like they were sleepwalking in this movie.

Let me get more specific on my dislikes in this movie. What made X-Men: First Class so great was the friendship between Xavier and Magneto. McAvoy and Fassbender had a chemistry that made you believe this relationship. Then in these last few movies, they go out of their way to have them at odds from afar, occasionally sharing the screen together. Surprise, surprise, you don't see them together a lot in this movie either. It is such a waste. So that leaves Sophie Turner as Jean Grey to carry this movie. The last movie was her first appearance, so to say this movie doesn't earn this storyline is an understatement. For her evil turn to work, you have to be invested in her to feel some kind of emotional impact.

For any casual comic book fan, the words "Dark Phoenix" tell you all you need to know on what is going to happen. Unlike X-Men 3, they at least introduce a cosmic entity as the Phoenix. However, they did it all in the most clunky way possible. I think this is another apt description for this movie, it is klunky.

This movie introduces some ideas, but don't follow up on them. For instance, at the beginning of the movie, they are beloved. The world has accepted them, everyone loves them and dresses like them. Professor X has a freaking bat-phone (with an X) that the president of the United States uses to reach out to him. Then Jean Grey happens and the world turns on the X-Men real quick. All of a sudden there are talks of concentration camps and sending the mutants there. Right here is where they could have done some real exploring. They could have shown the horrors of this and how rounding up people because they look a certain way is wrong. In this climate, it could have hit home. Instead it's an afterthought and swept away. Magneto/Xavier are all about helping mutants, so the fact they spend time fighting each other and not THAT is a problem.

Our main bad guys, other than Jean Grey, are a bunch of basically nameless/faceless aliens who are shape shifters. I realized this movie was made either before or after Captain Marvel, but Captain Marvel showed what a threat shape shifters could be that are living among us. This movie shows them and then practically ignores them. Having them act as mutants and systematically destroy the good will they have built up is another idea that would have been great to see. The X-Men work best when the world fears and hates them. Instead, these villains are as one note as it gets. They want the power that destroyed their planet to...destroy others I guess? I don't even know why Jessica Chastain was here. Maybe she owed someone something, a la this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiZRJjfiQdM

All of the X-Men that appear here are stripped down to their power set. We know nothing about Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Storm based on the few movies they have been in. Yet they are thrust into being the main team. You add Mystique, Beast and Quicksilver to this motley band and it is a line up that would feel weird even in the comics. Quicksilver has proven to be the best character the past few movies in the way they use his power set. Here he gets taken out early and we don't see him again. Speaking of previous movies, remember we had Psylocke right? Yeah, she isn't in this movie. Going back to my previous point, Storm is illustrates the idea the most. She is resorted to shooting a lot of lighting and maybe a cold wind here and there. The actress was doing her best with an African accent, but since she didn't have that many lines we don't hear it. These movies have yet to get Storm right. Nightcrawler, a character who also has a compelling background is just the guy that can teleport. Then there is Cyclops. Dude shoots lasers and he's in a relationship with Jean Grey. That's about all you get of him.

Instead we get into Jean's backstory, which as I mentioned before, other than knowing this movie revolves around an old X-Men storyline, there was no particular reason it HAD to be her. They want to impress me, have the Phoenix force go into someone else. Take Xavier for example. How big of a twist would it be if he were the main antagonist in this movie. The father turning on his children? Now that would have been gold. Other than getting to look mad, this movie didn't do Sophie Turner any favors. I also want to add that it is a cop out to say that the Phoenix made Jean Grey bad. When you find out what Xavier did, she had a justifiable reason to be pissed. You can't paint it away with a deus ex machina brush.

What makes me love the Marvel movies, but also hate on this movie is fight choreography. The fight scenes in this movie were boring. Having Xavier an active participant in the fights, cheapens them. Also, watching X-Men fighting nothing bad guys doesn't help. With all these power sets, we should have seen a lot more from these guys. Instead this is super hero 101 fare and the Avengers movies show that you can have fight scenes with real tension. I didn't care what happened to anyone here.

Speaking of caring about what happened, there was one major death in this movie. I already told you'd there would be spoilers, so read on at your own risk. So anyways, they kill Mystique and it happens pretty early on. You just knew Jean Grey would have to kill someone to prove that the stakes were risen. When it happened to Mystique, I surprisingly felt nothing. I feel like it was forecast pretty heavily and the way that handled it didn't really help much. I thought that she would have been the first of many. They made it seem like Magneto and Xavier would be next, but the movie didn't have the courage to go through with it like they should've. That would have given this movie a lot more emotional weight, which turns out it desperately needed. Losing all three of those would have been something.

Now let's get to Magneto real quick. It seems like every movie he goes from bad guy to good guy or vice versa. He was a compelling character in X-Men: First Class. Since then, he's the guy you bring in to propel the story along and help raise the stakes. What is he going to do this time? Who knows? Let's watch and find out! Four movies in, it's tired. It is a complete waste of Fassbender.

While I still have another stop on the complain train, I also want to mention how annoying it is that both Beast and Mystique have this penchant for returning to a more "human" form a lot. I get it. The actors want their faces to be seen and not be hidden behind tons of makeup. At some point though, you are playing a character and we don't have to see your face. We know it is you under there. From a story perspective, it's also dumb. Some of your tension as a mutant is lost when you can change back and forth at will. There's other mutants that can't. This important facet of X-Men lore in general is ignored when they do that. Not all of them can hide in plain site and it's disingenuous that they can. They are normal around each other, but go to their mutant selves in public? What??

I swear I am almost done. I didn't realize I had so much in me. I really hate that these movies don't respect their own timeline. It has been a problem across all the movies. They want to be cute and have the X-Men in each time period. If you do that, Xavier, Magneto and Beast should at least LOOK older. They look the same after thirty years in this time line. This may be my most nitpicky of nitpicks, but I can't ever let this one go.

Finally, it's a bummer to not be able to see some cool cameos of other X-Men. At least to my eyes, the only one that mattered was an appearance of Dazzler. I'll ignore that she was in her disco getup in the 90's. Oh wait, I DIDN'T ignore it. Look, I'm not perfect!

I ended up saying a lot more about this movie than I had intended. Was it therapeutic for me? Absolutely. Now I can move on with my life. Now that Disney owns this franchise, I can only hope for good things in the future. It certainly can't get much worse. Please don't do like I do and spend money on this. Go see something else. I'm doing YOU a favor.

Excellence

No, I'm not trying to make a broad statement or start this post with something like, "Webster's dictionary defines excellence as...". I wanted to briefly talk about this new Image series, "Excellence".

Now for me to write a post about a comic shortly after reading it must tell you something. Permit me to get on my soap box for a moment for this special episode.

A short description of this book is basically, a futuristic world where a young man, Spencer, is born into a world of magic. His father is a member of a secret society of black magicians who are charged with making the world a better place by unseen masters. There is a lot to unpack in that statement, but let's just let that sit there. This isn't the reason I'm writing this.

I just read issue #2 and while I thought it was...well, excellent, it's the letter from the artist Khary Randolph at the back that made me want to post. My hope is that it will entice you all to pick up this book as well.

In the letter, Randolph lays out what they are intending with the story in this book and gives some of this thoughts on what went into making it. Let me pull the snippet of what he said that inspired me to post:

"Being black is about understanding that what you do, it's not just about you. It's about what you represent. You have a responsibility to not just represent yourself, but your block. Your borough. Your community. Your race. It's not right, and it's not fair, but it is what it is. We all learn about responsibility early on. "They will always think that you are less than. Good isn't good enough. You must be great." "We didn't work this hard to get you here for you to throw it all away." "You made it out. You better represent." Being black, the world is on your shoulders and every days is shoulder day."

This is an amazing quote because like me, if you're black, that statement probably spoke right to you. Also, you've already heard this before. This is nothing new.

So under the guise of a sci-fi/fantasy, this book will attempt to tackle these kind of things. Randolph goes on to say he wishes this is a book he had as a 13 year old boy. With all the push towards more diversity in movies and comics, specifically in super heroes, I always feel the same way. All I can think is this is great for the younger generation to grow up with this. It also gives me something to share with any of my future kids, because I know I will have to have the same talk with them. The world has not changed enough for me not to. At least I can show them characters that look like them. Books like this become even more important.

Other than these themes, the art in this book is full of kinetic energy. Each page so far in the first two issues has been dynamic and it has done a good job of world building. This is some of the best work I've seen from Randolph and I do proudly have a piece of art of his that I bought at Heroes Con a few years ago. Adding to the feel of authenticity is that the writer, Brandon Thomas is also black. Every bit of dialogue comes off as authentic. This is the beginning of a story, so not much has been revealed just yet.

Also at the heart of this story is the relationship between Spencer and his father. I don't want to say too much to give it away, but I feel like this is something we also deal with.

If you've come to my blog, you are already a comic book fan. I would highly recommend going to your local comic book shop and picking up the first two issues of this book. I'm also glad that is now becoming more normal to see black creators making comic books for the more mainstream companies. I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do. I don't want to oversell this and say it's an important book, but the way more comics like this get made is if we support them. I'm glad I took a chance and I hope you do too.

Kevin's Panels in Tremendousness

Welcome to another entry into Kevin's Panels in Tremendousness. Like before, I won't give you any context for this panel. Instead, I will not insult your intelligence, dear readers. I know you can pick up on context clues. However, with this panel... you know what, judge for yourself. This is from Fantastic Four #172.

That's funny. My wife sends me to...another room when I bother her. It happens... a LOT. I'm a nuisance.

So I guess this was a common phrase in the Seventies? I mean, I've never heard this line before in my life. Using my skills of deduction I guess by saying a chick, "Sends me" means he is ready to settle down and be an honest man and not be some misogynist cop. That's what he meant right? However, let's give him a few points back. Clearly a woman being follically challenged doesn't stop him. Maybe he's more progressive than we give him credit for. He will not be constrained by the seventies norm of what beauty is. No sir.

Also, get a hold of yourself and do your job. That's why all those crime fighters and super heroes are doing your job for you. So you can sit on the sidelines talking about your top five with your buddies.

Hope this brief aside really SENDS you. Nope, still doesn't work. It's a really dumb phrase.

Kevin's Panels In Tremendousness

I'm creating a new, let's say, feature of my blog. As I read comics, I tend to get tickled by some of the panels because they are a:) legitimately funny or more commonly b:), they are from older comics in an era where the story telling or dialogue is tailor made to be goofed on. Because I am not selfish, I want to share with YOU, dear reader. I won't even provide any story context for these. I think it will be funnier that way. Then I will briefly provide my thoughts. So, for my inaugural post, I submit this panel for your consideration from "Luke Cage, Power Man" #46.

Sometimes my Jive-Mouth can get a little dry. I tend to drink a bottle of haterade to quench my thirst.

So we have Luke Cage actually using the words, "Jive-mouth". Now I didn't live in the 70's, so maybe that was a real insult. Somehow, I think not. As a short aside, I once was going to write up a post about how in the past, the majority of black characters were written by white writers. In that writing, you see clear examples of someone that doesn't understand the culture and writes what they heard in a blaxploitation movie at the time. For me, reading stuff like that is low key insulting. We do talk like everyone else, you know. Don't try to hit me with that, "That's how people talked at that time." Stop it.

Anyways, that aside brings us back to this piece of choice dialogue. I feel like this very thing is exactly what I'm talking about. Later in the issue, I believe "Jive Turkeys" was also used, but I know that is at least a more realistic phrase.

The cherry on the top from my submission is Cage literally punting a guy into the trashcan. He's in Chicago and had a riff about the Chicago bears in the section I didn't show.

There you have it. Hope you Jive-mouths enjoyed this submission.

Avengers: End Game - My Twelve Favorite Things

So in traditional click-bait fashion, I wanted to do my personal favorite moments/things from Avengers End Game. This will be FULL of spoilers, so buyer beware. Also, your opinion of me may change after you see the roller coaster of emotions this movie took me on! Let's count it down with #12!

12. Iron Man's Death - Let's go ahead and acknowledge that Tony Stark had become almost borderline unlikable. You can say that Captain America is self righteous, but at least you feel like he comes from a place of good. Iron Man always felt like he was looking out for himself. You do understand some of his frustration, but the movie does a good job humanizing him before he makes the ultimate sacrifice. Pepper telling him he can finally rest did me in. He also had a truly touching moment with Peter Parker before all this. There is also a great panning shot of all the characters at his funeral. It's fitting that the guy that started this universe is the one that saves them in the end. I think it was a good choice for this movie and clearly closes this phase of movies.

11. Rocket Raccoon - I'm glad we got to spend time with Rocket outside of the other Guardians. We got to see him interact with the heroes that he hasn't associated with. He also held his own as he's also a guy that can create stuff, giving Iron Man a run for his money. He is a big time brat and I can relate to that. When he is in Asgard with Thor, I love the moment when he is running from the Asgardians and they scream out, "Stop that Rabbit", a clear running joke in his interactions with Thor. Does Asgard not know what Raccoons are?!

10. The evolution of Nebula - The past couple of movies have done their best to make her turn good and this movie cemented it. After everything that has happened to her, there was no reason for her NOT to turn on Thanos. However, to see her interact with all our heroes was great. I loved the time she spent with Tony and then Rhodey especially. Finally, her moments with Gamora sealed the deal for me. She grew as a person over the last few movies.

9. Thor - Look, I don't care what anyone says. Thor Ragnarok changed Thor for the better. So to see how he is in this movie is kind of heartbreaking. Of all the characters, he seemed to go through it the most. He is clearly suffering from PTSD, but to me, it felt more real than how Tony Stark was acting in Iron Man 3. Thor's actions at the end of Infinity War and the beginning of this movie when he takes out Thanos clearly sat with him. It physically manifested itself in the worst way. His moment with his mom was another touching moment that hit me in the feels. He has to go on a journey to find himself and to hear him say, "I'm still worthy" when he gets a past version of Mjolnir was a nice touch. He was great in this movie.

8. The all female super heroes moment - I can see that this may have been a groan inducing moment for some (Joe Average comic book fan), but I really loved this moment where all the ladies line up for some action. It really illustrated how many strong female characters we have gotten out of these movies. I thought it was great to showcase that to the audience and remind them.

7. Ant-man - Again, not a moment so much as a bunch of moments because every scene he is in, he kept things light. He was serious when it needed to be, but he was some much needed comic relief in a movie that was definitely kind of dark. Paul Rudd holds his own here and definitely added to this movie, not subtracted from it. He also had some sweet moments with his daughter. I love how he goes from having all this nervous energy to finally feeling like he belongs. If you think about it, he was the most important person in the movie! I should really be putting that mouse here that let him out of the quantum realm.

6. Smart Hulk! - Look, this isn't a moment so much as just a character evolution that I loved. Personally, smart Hulk has always been my favorite version of the Hulk. When I started reading comic books, he was the current version of the Hulk at the time. Also, this rendition is pure Ruffalo. He also becomes a jokester, but it was fun to watch him finally be at peace with himself and even be ashamed when they go back in time and he sees how he used to be. His scene with some fans and when he gives some spare tacos to Ant-man were great.

5. All the heroes showing up, with Falcon saying, "On your left" - Another call back in a movie full of them. I loved this simple moment because it was an inside joke between Cap and Falcon and the smile on Cap's phase when he hears that phrase says it all. Then this is followed by scenes of all our heroes returned from the dead before the big battle begins.

4. America's Ass - This movie had a LOT of callbacks and I loved them. However, this joke that Captain America makes to call back to an earlier joke and it definitely landed with me. I don't think I need to say more than that. If you saw this movie, you know the moment I'm talking about. It also showed how Cap's humor has blossomed over all these movies. I guess you can't be around a bunch of jokesters without becoming one yourself.

3. Cap giving his shield to Falcon - There were a couple of moments that got me misty eyed. Somehow, this was the moment that made me choke up. I feel like I need to really unpack my feelings as to why I feel this way. Diversity in comic books and by extension, these movies have come a really long way. Sam Wilson has been a proud representation of this. It's never been acknowledged and he's never been treated less than. By Cap choosing him over his best friend, Bucky, really cements that Cap sees Sam as someone worthy of the mantle. Seeing a black Captain American can do wonders for young kids and young Kevin would have loved to have had this moment. Based on their friendship the past few movies, it didn't feel forced either. So yeah, I was all up in my feelings on this one.

2. "Avengers Assemble" - This may seem like a small moment, but I also may have lost it from this moment as well. In all the movies, we never heard Captain America say these words and in the movie where it mattered the most, their iconic phrase was finally said. This combined with the swell of the Avengers orchestrated theme. I was done. Let the battle begin!

1. Captain America duel wielding Mjolnir and his shield - This was the cherry on the top of the nerd sundae that was this movie. Even though I was at the Alamo, where you are supposed to be quiet, I definitely let out an audible "YESSSSSSS". I couldn't contain it. This moment is made better because they teased this potential in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Cap didn't really have his big moment in Infinity War, but he damn sure got it here. It lead to an awesome couple of minutes.

Avengers: End Game

Now that a couple of weeks have passed and I have seen this movie two times, I feel like I am in a place to finally talk about it. This will be as spoiler free as possible, but I'm only human. Also, it HAS been a month.

For those that know me, it should come as no surprise that I really liked this movie. The first time I saw it, the one word I used to sum this movie up was, "Satisfying". This movie is the culmination of over ten years of Marvel movies. It also serves as the end of an era.

First off, for anyone looking for the wall to wall, big time battles and spectacle that was Infinity War, you won't find that here. This movie is slower and more introspective than the last movie. I think it is a refreshing change because you get to spend time with a smaller cast of characters. Some of which might be the last time you see them. If you thought the last movie was a gut punch, this movie is even more devastating, if you can imagine that.

So as I was saying, one of the things I really liked about this movie is how we just get to see the different characters interact with each other. The last movie cleared the board so we get what's left. I don't think it's a spoiler to say we spend a lot of time with Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, Rocket Raccoon, Hulk, Nebula, Iron Man, Ant Man and War Machine. This is not a pairing one would have expected to see and this is where this movie starts to feel just like a comic book.  You throw together a bunch of characters that normally don't interact because a big, cosmic threat has brought them together. They have all dealt with the events of Infinity War (and the beginning of this movie) in their own ways. To say most of them don't deal well is an understatement. You are seeing these bright, shining heroes at their absolute low point.

This comes after we get kind of a resolution to the last movie within the first thirty minutes. I am speaking in generalities because after this moment, you're like, "Now what?" and that's where the movie continues.

I mentioned earlier how this movie is slower than Infinity War and the middle of this movie is slow. For those that have complained about this movie, those complaints are valid. What this movie does is at this point they expect you to have seen all of the other movies so there are a lot of moments that are call backs to all of the Marvel movies. In this way, this movie is completely impenetrable for new viewers. This is especially evident where (SPOILER INCOMING) some time travel is involved. This walks us through a greatest hits of some of the previous movies.

I will admit that if I had one small problem, is that it can be kind of lazy to show scenes from earlier movies except from a different perspective. This movie leans into that very hard. Now those scenes are mined for comedic gold now, but doesn't that undercut and make those scenes feel even sillier in retrospect? I like the courage it takes to be self aware to say, "Okay, maybe all that kind of stuff WAS ridiculous", but you're doing it in anyway while also simultaneously doing something that is inherently ridiculous. I apologize for being extremely vague here, but I realize some people still have not seen this yet.

BUT, and there is a big BUT here. I liked the callbacks to those scenes in the movies. I just wanted to play devil's advocate for a bit. It lead to some very great one liners and comedy from the situations the characters end up. The thing about everyone being a quip machine is they have all spent enough time with each other that it feels natural that they would start reacting the way that they do.

This movie moves all the pieces around on the board to lead into a very epic climax where we get an all out battle scene that dwarfs what we saw in Infinity War. It is laden with many, many cool moments that had me geeking right out of my Spider-Man socks. I felt like all the characters get a few cool moments so it feels like no one is left out. We even get an "Avengers Assemble!" from Captain America! In a separate post, I will go through MY favorite moments, as if I was doing a buzzfeed list. Ya'll know what I'm talking about.

So, comic books. Years ago and even now, there are always these big, epic events that involves all the characters that promises to change things forever. As a comic fan, you just roll your eyes knowing that in a year, everything will be back to the status quo. This movie is that very thing, except there were real repercussions. Not everyone makes this out alive. The fight scenes were appropriately comic booky. The last minute saves, the sacrifices, everything. These moments are what I love about comics. You just have to be careful that you don't do this all the time and this movie was the perfect time for that. It will honestly be tough to top this, but I will be excited to see Marvel try.

My last thought on it. Let's just Marvel (see what I did there) at the fact that this movie even exists at all. The collective weight of ten plus years of cinema is in this movie. The fact that it came together as well as it did is a testament to the filmmakers.

This movie left the cinematic universe in an interesting place. With Disney now owning the rights to Fantastic Four and the X-Men, there are many new directions they can take with what has already been established that can successfully extend this universe for another ten years.

It's been five weeks and if you haven't seen this movie yet, go see it! Those theaters should be cleared up now.

The Punisher: Season 2

I remember a time just a year or two ago, when I would binge watch the newest Netflix Marvel show in a weekend. One because I could, two because I thoroughly enjoyed them. I have to be honest, I have definitely reached critical mass with these shows. This was no more evident than my experience in viewing the second season of the Punisher.

Like all the other Netflix shows, this one could have been wrapped up in a nice, tidy ten episodes. Instead it goes to thirteen. The reason I had such high praise for season 2 of Iron Fist is it stood at 10 episodes and knew when to wrap it up.

This show and others are frustrating because they keep going. I feel like this is the same complaint I have made about every Netflix show they have done. Looking back on it, I think the first season of Daredevil is the only one I didn't feel like it was too padded. This season just had way too much going on.

Each of these show have some degree of realism and that is what leads to their grittiness and what made them so good. However, this show pushes those boundaries and beyond. All the other characters with their own show, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Iron Fist all have special powers. In watching how Frank Castle is in this show, you'd be hard pressed to argue that he doesn't have super powers as well.

The thing that bothered me about the first season but really comes to light here is how much punishment the Punisher (see what I did there?) can take. I get that Frank is military trained and is the most stubborn person ever, but even he should not be getting the crap kicked out of him the way he does and keep on ticking. He doesn't have a healing factor, but you wouldn't know that. With the way he keeps getting consistently beat up, you would also think he wasn't actually good at his job. He is the Rocky Balboa of this universe. He's supposed to be almost invincible in a way to scare the bad guys. Here, everyone can get a shot and have a chance to take him down.

This series has gone a long way to truly humanize Frank Castle and I get that. He is a deranged, tragic anti-hero. For me, I prefer the Punisher to be a force of nature as he is usually portrayed. With less talking. We don't get that in this show. I still like Jon Berenthal as the Punisher and I think he is perfectly cast, but this show can be too much at times.

I hate to sound like I am railing on this show, but I have a few more things to get off my chest. The last season dealt with para-military units and soldiers dealing with PTSD. I felt like they really had a lot to say. In this season, I don't know what the message is supposed to be. Everyone seems to act in their own self interest and a lot of people get hurt along the way. Between having to deal with Russo and a mystery assassin, this show had too much going on at once. Let's not forget political intrigue!

All the characters make bad decisions on this show and it is hard to root for them. It truly is. I know in some way I have become desensitized to TV violence, but as brutal as some of the fight scenes were, it started to bore me a bit.

Now, I do think the actors on this show were all good. It was shot really well and it still remained gritty. I do love seeing some of the characters from other series showing up here. It helps sell that this is all one combined universe. If I am being honest with myself, I did not like this season. As listed above, there were many reasons and they were just hard to overcome for me. After the first season of Iron Fist, I did not want to get into the habit of hate watching shows. Now I can add this season to a list that includes the aforementioned Iron Fist and the second season of Jessica Jones.

Truth be told, this has been the best iteration of the Punisher that we've ever had and if Marvel is smart, they should hold on to Jon Berenthal's number when it is time to come back to this character again. This show overachieved in a way that the other shows didn't. He was so popular in Daredevil season 2 that he as able to get a spin off show that got two of it's own seasons. We shouldn't lose sight of that.

Shazam!

To think that we live in a world where two different Captain Marvel movies can exist at the same time via their respective companies. If you don't get why I made that reference, don't worry about it. Means you're more normal than me.

Anyways, through Fandango, I was able to see Shazam! a full two weeks before it's actual release. When this movie was first announced, I thought it was a stretch in the same way that Ant-Man was for Marvel. This is the movie that I felt no one was asking for. Like Ant-Man, I was pleasantly surprised by a movie that was unmoored from the current continuity of the DC Movie universe. People were name dropped, but do not appear in this movie. I will make this as spoiler free as possible.

First off, let me say this. This movie is fun. This is the light hearted movie that DC needed. Frankly, I'm surprised it has taken this long.

I love that this movie used the more modern take of Shazam as written by Geoff Johns over the past few years. Billy is a big ol' jerkface, as opposed to the clean cut, bright eyed portrayal of him that existed before. There is a reason for this and I don't want to go into it because it would give away some plot points.

The thing this movie did that "Aquaman", "Suicide Squad", "Justice League", "Man of Steel" and "Batman V Superman" failed to do is not take itself too seriously. Each one of those movies jumped straight into world ending fare, as opposed to just having a central villain that is the threat to our hero. Does the villain in this story, Sivana, have world domination aspirations? Well... yeah. Have you not read a comic book before? However, he starts by just wanting Shazam's power. So he's not destroying the world FIRST. Also, he had his own axe to grind, which honestly, you kind of get.

I thought all the actors did a really good job. I want to give Zachary Levi the most credit because I'm happy to see how far he's come since the TV show, "Chuck." He turned out to be the perfect person to play Shazam. This felt very much like Tom Hank's portrayal in the movie, "Big." He has to act like a teenager in an adult's body and I'm glad that they have fun with it and don't take it to gross places.

While all the kid actors were good, Darla was easily my favorite. I don't use this word often but I will say it. She was precious.

There were a lot of legitimately funny moments in this film. Like I said, it didn't take itself too seriously and it had fun with some of the situations the characters find themselves in. There is a good bit during a fight scene at the end of the movie that I don't want to give away. Also, the different ways in which Shazam learns what his powers are turned out to be pretty fun as well.

This movie is your basic hero coming of age story. Admittedly, I am always a sucker for that. Mix that with this wish fulfillment aspect of the character and it makes for a very enjoyable film. I will also be honest with you all because it's just us. This movie had a lot of feels. Maybe due to my desire to have kids one day. There it is, I just made myself vulnerable for you all. I hope you're happy!

Out of all the recent DC movies we've had with the start of Man of Steel, this is easily my second favorite movie behind Wonder Woman. When it comes out, definitely go see it for a good, fun time.

Runaways Season 2

I don't know how I forgot to write about this, but here we are. I finished the second season of Runaways a few weeks ago and yet I didn't write my thoughts down. I'm seriously slipping.

Because I can't remember all the finer details, I guess this will be a shorter review. My gift to you, my dear reader.

In short, I thought the second season of Runaways, while good, didn't capture the magic for me like the first season. In fact, I thought this season was a lot more middling. I'll try to explain without giving away in big plot points.

In the last season, you had this whole mystery about how bad WERE the Pride. Our heroes fought against them and eventually ran away, hence the title. It's about branding people! This season, they ran away so... now what? That's what this season feels like. They get into misadventures, they clash with their parents multiple times and it feels like everyone turns on each other at some point. Maybe the point is that families fight and then come back together?

First of all, the show is still well acted. I like the kids and the parents. The special effects on Old Lace is still fairly decent, but the effects on Karolina and her father look a little weird.

What I also like about this show is there has not been any world domination type take over. It's all localized within LA, so I love that the show is self contained in that way. Also, like the first season, the locale of LA makes for a much brighter back drop than all the Netflix Marvel shows that take place in the darkest, grittiest parts of New York.

Now before I get to the things I didn't like, I appreciated that each character had their own arc to work through. It helped to keep things moving, but also showed how untogether they were at times. No one really came out unscathed when it came to personal tragedy.

On the flip side, with all those arcs, it felt like there were too many things going on at once and then the show tried to make them all fit back together in nice little pieces. Sometimes it felt like the show was a series of vignettes. I also feel like we are spending way too much time with the parents. This show isn't about them and I don't care to see what their motivations are. Let's keep the focus on the main characters and how they are dealing with everything.

I know I may be coming off as negative here, but I really did like the show. We get introduced to a few new characters, Alex keeps switching back and forth between hairstyles and it felt like Molly kept getting betrayed by everyone. So, typical day in the Runaways universe.

I am glad this show got picked up for a third season because I am invested in the characters and I am happy for it's success.

Captain Marvel

Now that I have seen Captain Marvel twice, I feel like I am in a good position to talk about it. If you know me, if I see a film multiple times, that is an indicator that I really liked it. I don't go and see EVERY movie multiple times, that's for sure. I'm not made of money. This movie warranted it. Be warned, I do my best to not give away any spoilers, but there may be things I say that give away some plot points.

With that rambling opening out of the way, let me say that I really liked this movie. The Marvel formula still holds. Since the Marvel machine has been rolling for years now, outside of Black Panther and Doctor Strange, we haven't had to deal with an origin movie for a while now. So it was almost refreshing to be introduced to a new character that wasn't embroiled in the bombastic Infinity War movie we just had. However, this movie does give context to why Nick Fury went to his pager at the end of that film.

I'll go a step further and say that I loved the non-linear way that you get Carol's origin. We are introduced to her past at the same time she is because she starts off the film with memory loss. The movie just dropped us in and sprinkled in pieces as we go along.

Let's talk specifically about what I really liked about the film. I'll start with the cast. I thought they were excellent. I'm happy that Brie Larson gets pushed into the big time with this movie and will probably be a role model for other young girls. If nothing else, I think that alone is stellar. She also carries this movie. She had the right amount of dead pan delivery for her humor, but also real emotion as she gains her memory and confidence in what she is doing. The chemistry she has with Sam Jackson's Nick Fury and Lashana Lynch's Maria Rambeau feels authentic. I could have watched the trio of them work together for another movie. All of them were that good together.

We should also really pay attention to the idea of friendship here between Brie and Maria. You can see that Maria carries the full weight of losing her friend, while Carol has no idea due to her loss of memory. Watching them find their way back to each other was the most touching part of this movie to me. What can I say, I'm a big softie.

The only knock I will say about Brie are there were some scenes where she did some weird dramatic head turns that seemed TOO much. I blame the director for not scaling that back. I know we're in a comic book movie, but the idea is to not make it feel so much like that. Sam Jackson does ham it up a bit too.

To me, the standout performance was Ben Mendelsohn as the lead Skrull, Talos. I don't know who this guy was, but he had a lot of the best lines in the film. He played right on that edge of mustache twirling villain, but once you learn the reason for why he is doing what he is doing, you see the switch and you root for the guy. I also liked that they played the Skrulls for laughs in some parts, in the subtle ways they used their body language. Some great comedic timing there. To make a larger point, I'm glad the Skrulls are in these movies now because I feel like this is a way to pave the path for the Fantastic Four. We may actually get a Kree-Skrull war in the next phase of these movies.

Like all Marvel movies, there is a lot of good humor throughout. I think this movie had more subtle touches and less jokey dialogue than we normally get. Not everyone is firing off zingers ALL the time.

I don't want to ramble on too much (too late?), but I wanted to mention a few other things that I liked because there were a couple of nice touches. I don't want to toot my own horn (I will), but there was one small cameo I noticed on my first viewing that I was quite proud of. There is a scene where Carol gets off a train and she walks by a woman with red hair and black glasses for a brief second. I saw that and was like, "Is that Kelly Sue Deconnick?!" You may be asking, "Uh, okay. Cool story, bro". The reason that is important is she is the writer that guided Captain Marvel's resurgence and was at the helm of the change from Ms. Marvel to Captain Marvel. She was able to build up a fan following and a legion of fans calling themselves the Carol Corps. So her small cameo is a cool nod to someone that honestly, made this movie possible. If Carol Danver's profile had not been raised, this would not have happened. I would also encourage you to go learn more about Deconnick.

When the movie starts, in place of the normal Marvel logo where we usually get full of images from of the characters, they were all replaced by Stan Lee. Way to tug at our heart strings right out of the gate! We also get his requisite cameo that was also nice.

Another cool moment is when Carol gets her new color scheme for her costume. During that scene, they flashed through nods to the original Captain Marvel's costume. We even get a character named, "Mar-Vell", in reference to past versions of Captain Marvel.

The things I didn't like about the movie can be classified as nitpicks at best. I've said it once, I've said it a million times. I hate CG stuntmen. You have all these actors train for the role and then they get replaced for CG replicas because you want to do something that's hyper fantastic. You don't need to because in the end, it ends up looking worse. Shots of Goose, Captain Marvel, some of the Kree and Skrulls are examples of this. There were moments where the CG was looking real iffy to me.

I wasn't a fan of how Fury lost his eye, because that question gets answered. I liked never knowing, but oh well.

My final nitpick is I didn't like how some of the Skrull reveals were done from a narrative standpoint. There are scenes early in the movie where it's telegraphed which people are skrulls. I wished we had found out the same time as our heroes did instead of being shown beforehand. I'm being very cryptic because I don't want to give away spoilers. Like I said and it is a specific storytelling choice, I just wasn't a fan of it. Now that we know who Skrulls are though, this could pave the way for some big moments in later films.

To wrap this up, I'm glad this movie was made and that it is doing well. If you didn't know, there was an active campaign by the worst of comic book fans to try and take this movie down a peg by posting fake reviews to Rotten Tomatoes to make this movie appear worse than it is. I hate to get on my soapbox here, but it shows that sexism is still alive and well, even in an industry I love. That we can't get behind a strong female character is a shame. So I hope this movie continues to do well so we can all say, "Suck it" to the naysayers. This can help lead to even more films starring strong female characters. Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel can be the first salvo in more movies to come. One day ya'll will get that Black Widow movie that you want.

The Marvel movie formula is still strong and you should go see this movie. If you have young girls, you should definitely go. I want them to feel that same joy and pride that I did when I saw last year's, Black Panther. That is a feeling to be cherished and held onto.

Black History Month 2019

With black history month almost over (I had originally intended this to be up at the BEGINNING of the month), I thought I'd take some time to talk about what I am seeing in the comic book landscape. Over the years, this industry has done it's best to become more diverse. Both in it's creators as well as the characters themselves. As with any fandom as passionate as comic books, there have been the harsh backlash to some of this added diversity. Even criticism from the very same people that work for these companies have made ridiculous claims.

I will admit that I was initially skeptical of earlier attempts at diversity. That was because it did not feel authentic. It was as if the companies were clicking a box. However, over the past few years younger, more diverse talent has appeared.

Now the market is truly becoming more diverse. There is a little something for everyone. I am happy that kids today get to see this.

This post is about the books with black characters or creators that I am reading. This is by no means a complete list of what is out there. I can't buy everything, even though I may try. Anyway, let's empty my thoughts here.

	Title: Naomi Publisher: DC Summary: Young girl investigates mystery in the DCU Stats: Black Co-Writer (David Walker), Black Character (Naomi), Black Artist (Jamal Campbell) Only one issue in, but it seems promising. Bendis has been one of the biggest advocates for diversity in comics over the last few years. He created Miles Morales, spearheaded the Luke Cage resurgence that lead to him being a more prominent character and many others that escape me right now. Now that he his moved to DC, he's continued that tradition with this book. The difference being he is working with a co-writer who is black. David Walker appeared on my radar with his Power Man and Iron Fist series two years ago. He is also currently writing Bitter Root, which is later on down in this list. I intend to stick with this book. The art is also amazing. I am definitely going to follow Jamal Campbell in whatever he decides to do next.
	Title:Skyward Publisher:Image Summary:A mysterious accident caused the loss of gravity in the world. We are now dealing with the after effects of that Stats:Black Character (Willa) This series has been simply fantastic. It has been imaginative and it's high end concept has made it a lot of fun. In keeping with the theme, the main character Willa, is of mixed race. She is a mostly carefree young woman that has grown up in a world devoid of gravity. What has really made this series great is the writing and the art. One of the things you'll see me harp on is she is not written like a stereotypical black person. That is why this book is on the list. Again, the world building here is really good and it is consistently near the top of my personal stack when it comes out.
	Title:Shuri Publisher: Marvel Summary:Black Panther's sister takes center stage Stats:Black Writer (Nnedi Okorafor), Black Character (Shuri) It would be naive not to think that this book happened due to her breakout role in the Black Panther movie. To their credit, she has been a regular in the comic for a number of years, just never as prominent as now. With that being said, this has been a very entertaining book so far. However, Okorafor falls into the trap that many first time comic book writers fall into. Her scripts are way too wordy. You're not writing a prose novel here. I do like her voice for Shuri, but again, the book is chock full of dialogue. Once she finders her footing, it will be less talking and more action. Other than that, this book has been pretty good.
	Title:Ironheart Publisher: Marvel Summary:Riri Williams takes on the mantle of Ironheart to fight crime Stats:Black Writer, (Eve Ewing) Black Character (Riri Williams/Ironheart) Over a year ago, I only picked up an Iron Man comic because I heard about Riri Williams. I am glad that she has her own title. Again, this is another Brian Michael Bendis creation. Guess I should have mentioned that earlier! Riri is another good character that has a distinct personality. What I like about her is that she is so intelligent that she is completely socially awkward. They play with that and it's that awkwardness that has her inadvertently alienating people. That is not something you just get over, so I want to continue seeing that play out as she continues to grow. Unfortunately, she doesn't really have a rogue's gallery yet and a hero is only as good as their villain. I like the slice of life aspect of the story and the fact that it is revealing more about her past. I think Eve Ewing has been the perfect voice for this book and her enthusiasm shows. I will definitely be sticking with this.
	Title:Miles Morales: Spider-Man Publisher: Marvel Summary:Miles Morales gets a new solo series, to try and keep him as a distinct Spider-Man. Stats:Black Character (Miles Morales) This book will hopefully get a boost thanks to the success of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse movie that came out a few months ago. Miles has always been a great character and now we get new adventures under a new writer, Saladin Ahmed. I'm two issues in, but this book has been a faithful representation of Miles and where he is at in the Marvel Universe. With a younger writer, the dialogue will feel more authentic, no offense to Bends, who previously wrote the character.
	Title: American Carnage Publisher: DC Vertigo Summary:Multi-racial man who is a former FBI agent (Black/White) goes under cover in a white supremacy group to bring them down. Stats:Black Writer (Bryan Hill), Black Character (Richard King) After hearing about this on one of my favorite comic book podcasts and hearing an interview with him on that same podcast, I am now starting to follow Bryan Hill. I unknowingly have read some of his other work, but this book I'm especially interested in. It's only three issues in, but it is really good. I don't care for the artist on this book. For those that read Scalped a few years ago, this feels like that and that is nothing but a good thing. This one has zero monsters. Well, only humanity, but not something with visible horns or teeth.
	Title:Outer Darkness Publisher: Image Summary:Sci Fi book about a crew of humans and aliens that are traveling in space and have a demon that powers their ship. Stats:Black Artist (unconfirmed. I don't want to make assumptions), Black Character (Riggs) Now this has been a unique science fiction book from the same writer that brought us Chew, John Layman. He was one of the main reasons I picked up this book. There is a wild mix of sci fi and magic in this book that surprisingly works together. There is also the dark humor I've gotten accustomed to with Layman. I really like the cartoony style of Afu Chan. This book has been intriguing, but is still building towards something. We just don't know what it is yet. Given the aforementioned Chew, I trust Layman and I will ride with this book.
	Title:Bitter Root Publisher: Image Summary:A family of monster hunters track down...well, monsters in 1920's Harlem. Stats:Black Writer (David Walker/Chuck Brown), Black Artist (Sanford Greene), Black Character (the cast) I had been eagerly anticipating this book for months. This is due to the team of Sanford Greene (artist) and David Walker (writer). They wrote the previous iteration of Power Man and Iron Fist two years ago. I have some of Greene's art in my house and met him at the Heroes Con convention in Charlotte. All that being said, there is a lot of great world building here. Although I don't like the series as much as I thought I would, the package is pretty great. In addition to the story, there is always some back matter with essays from Black writers touching on the magic/voodoo element of this book. This project feels like passion project from these two, so I will definitely stick around.
	Title:Farmhand Publisher: Image Summary:Estranged Father and Son reunite over a farm that grows human organs. Stats:Black Writer (Rob Guillory), Black Artist (Rob Guillory), Black Character (Ezekiel) Just from the summary, this may sound like a really weird book. It is, but at the center of it is a story about a family trying to reconcile after years apart. This is Rob Guillory's first book on his own that he writes and draws. His trademark humor is still found in the background of some of the panels. It was his work on Chew that gave me faith to follow this book. Despite the weird premise, it has been very good. This is one of those creator owned projects where you can feel the excitement that the creator has. This book does not try to portray black characters with all the trappings. You could swap the colors of the characters and it would still be the same. That it is written that way is the reason I enjoy it.
	Title:Killmonger Publisher:Marvel Summary:Black Panther's arch nemesis gets his own mini series. Stats:Black Writer (Bryan Hill), Black Character (Killmonger) Like Shuri, let's not pretend this book would exist if it was not for the success of the Black Panther movie. This Killmonger is not the same one we had in the comics pre-Black Panther movie. I think that it is a good thing, but clearly that movie has influenced this book. The term colonizer is even thrown around for good measure. Since I am starting to get into Bryan Hill's writing, this book has been surprisingly good too. Normally I wouldn't care about Killmonger in the comics, but the art has been good and the writing is solid. I can easily stick around for this.
	Title:Abbott Publisher:Boom! Studios Summary:A black female journalist encounters monsters in 1970's Detroit. Stats:Black Character (Abott) This was my first exposure to Saladin Ahmed and we are about to see a lot more from him. What drew me to this book was when I saw an ad for it in the Ninja Turtles book I'm reading. All I had to see was 1970's Detroit with a black female protagonist. That alone would be a good enough concept for me. One of the aspects that made it worthwhile is that it didn't use the ham fisted dialogue you tend to see in period pieces like this. If I had one complain about this book, it's that it has used a common trope that I am seeing more and more of comics. A slice of life story mixed with monsters. Or demons. Or ghosts. Or all of the above. With that being said, I thought it was a well written mini-series. I would love to see more.
	Title: Black Panther Publisher: Marvel Summary:Black Panther is in the far reaches of the galaxy where Wakanda has built an intergalactic empire. Stats:Black Writer (Ta-Nehisi Coates), Black Character (Black Panther) When Ta-Nehisi Coates first started writing the character a few years ago, it was obvious he was getting used to the medium. He had a lot of exposition and that was way above the norm. As time has gone on, he has gotten more comfortable and it has shown in his writing. Using his views on politics, the initial arcs worked to transition Wakanda from a monarchy to a democracy. It was presented in a way that makes it relatable today. After that, this book took a hard right turn and just took the Black Panther into outer space. I love the courage it took to move this character so far away from everything, especially after a big blockbuster movie. This has let Coates write his story without having to deal with anything that is going on in the current continuity. This has given him the freedom to tell his tale. This has been all good so far.