Into the Longbox

Wonder Womaaaaaaaan I really don't want to be doing this.  I loved about three-fourths of the first movie. I was looking forward to this movie. Even after all the delays due to COVID or Warner Brothers itself. What I got was a movie that I actively disliked. In the following paragraphs, I will go into more detail. I will warn you, there are going to be massive spoilers. I can't talk about what I didn't like without giving some explicit examples. Let me start off by talking about the things I did actually like about this movie. The first ten minutes with young Diana is pretty great. We get to see how beautiful and picturesque Themyscira is. Seriously, why can't we spend more time here? These have the best shots of the movie each time. Lil' Diana is pretty precocious. I like that they are trying to set up the themes that will be essential to Diana's journey. As with each time she steps into the role, I still really like Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I feel like you c...

I really meant to post this a lot sooner. I honestly can't tell you how I first learned about  TKO Comics , the publishing company. I think it was one of those targeted ads that appeared on Facebook. We all know that Facebook knows us better than we know ourselves.  What really caught my attention was that at the beginning of the pandemic, they said that they were giving 50% of the proceeds from your purchase to a local comic book shop of your choosing. I thought this was an amazing and very generous idea. For those that don't know, the comic book industry has razor thin margins, so something like a pandemic will absolutely wreck havoc with the comic book shops, which are all independent. I looked at the talent that they gathered for these books and saw that I legitimately wanted to get over 80% of them, so I took the plunge and purchased a few, while also making sure it was going to help some of my favorite comic book shops. What further interested me, was the diversity and i...

If only they had called it the "Right Guard". Just for my own personal amusement because I am 12. When I first heard that this movie was being adapted from the comic series of the same name, I was excited. Then I promptly forgot all about it until Netflix alerted me to it. It was more because life got in the way than anything else.  Needless to say, this movie is pretty great. Is it faithful to the comics on which it is based? I don't know. I read the series when it came out in 2017. For me, that is a long time in comic book years. I remember broad strokes at best. However, I do know that I liked it and I am a huge Greg Rucka fan. If nothing else, I'm glad he was able to get another one of his properties adapted into film. The TV show, Stumptown is another one of his properties. I'll give my thoughts on that show at a later time. Anyway, the movie. It stars Charlize Theron. I love her transition into action star over the past few years. She's very good at it. ...

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends posted about how some me X-Men graphic novels were free on Amazon Prime. Specifically, the collection called 'Mutant Genesis', which gathers the first 7 issues of the Jim Lee run on X-Men in the early 90's. I thought, "Wouldn't this be a fun experiment? How does 2020 Kevin feel about this comic almost 30 years later?" I will tell you, what an experiment it was. There is some stuff that now in retrospect is pretty problematic. Other stuff I simply forgot. While I was reading this, I took down some quick notes to spur my discussion. If you're looking for a plot synopsis, you won't get that here. With that being said, the format of this will be different than my normal reviews. I will type up each of my "hot take" notes as I saved them on my phone while reading. Then I will give more context to them. It's not like I was going to write full sentences each time. If this works out well, maybe I will do...

Welcome again, dear readers. I realize it's been a while since I did this because of what is going on in the world (Pandemic). If you haven't been here before, here's the deal. I take a terrible picture of a panel in a comic book with my phone that is funny to me while I am in the middle of reading. Then I pass along those savings..I mean, fun to you. To make it funnier, I just show the panel completely devoid of any context.  Then I goof on it because I love. Who cares what was happening at that moment!? This time we have a real treat. It is probably one of my favorites because this is from the late 70's and it gives you a window into what was hip then. This particular gem is from Fantastic Four #168. To keep MY mouth fresh, I prefer a minty flavor. Spearmint of course because Peppermint is a tool of the devil. Look, I may not be an expert in family dynamics, but I don't think if my sibling teased my spouse about not getting any from ME, my go to would be, ...

I know this is super late, but I wanted to give a few thoughts on the new Watchmen HBO show before it completely fades from memory. You may have noticed put this show as my honorable mentions for my favorite TV show of the year when I actually posted my best of 2019 . There is a reason for that. This show is pretty good. I'll get into more details, but there are two things that are really shocking about this show. First off, it's a show by Damon Lindelof. The ups and downs of the TV Show Lost still sit with me and my dissatisfaction with his work has stuck with me for a while. Everything from the aesthetics of the show (scenery, costumes, title cards) to the writing of the show were top notch. The other thing that surprised me about this show is that it starts by showing the Tulsa Massacre  and that incident is the basis for the entire show. They do not shy away from it. Also, the fact that this show focused on black people and the main character is black was something I...

I've taken a couple of weeks since finally watching Birds of Prey, to let it sit with me before I wrote about it. Also, that thing called life. My hot take immediately upon finishing the movie at the time was, "Hey, that was way better than I thought it would be." Followed by, "I think I liked that more than Wonder Woman". A few weeks later, I still feel that way. Let's dig into it. At the very top, my biggest endorsement of this movie is that it is a lot of fun. When I saw the trailers, I thought Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn was going to be super annoying. I definitely wanted no part of any of this. Sure she was fun in Suicide Squad, but I did not want an entire movie devoted to her. Turns out I was wrong. She was totally fine and actually enjoyable. The movie uses the unreliable narrative, where we jump back and forth in time to introduce some of the characters until the story all lines up halfway through. If you saw Deadpool, this was exactly...

Thanks to double shipping by Marvel AND DC, I probably bought the most comics I ever have in a calendar year to date. I am reading all kinds of comics now and the double shipping is the bane of my existence. However, that is a discussion for another post. Now is that time where I try to recall stuff from this past year from my old man brain. Anyways, without further ado, here is my review of 2019. Dearly Departed (The Comics I dropped this year) Before I get into the rest of my list, a moment of silence for the number of comics that I dropped this year after giving a good go at it: Catwoman - DC Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – Boom Studios Young Justice – DC Favorite Comic Book Movie of 2019 Avengers: Endgame (Marvel Studios)  – There was a lot of comic movies that came out this year, but I will go with Endgame, simply because it closed the door on an era. Was it perfect? No. Three hours is a lot to ask of anyone. However, it gave enough comic book nerd mome...