Into the Longbox

Marvel has been pumping out the content on Disney+ this year and right on the heels of Loki finishing up, we get the animated, "What If...?" series. The first episode explored the scenario where Sharon Carter became Captain America instead of Steve Rogers. It was pretty good. However, I don't think they went far enough with the premise. It didn't feel different enough from the first Captain America movie. I'm happy to report that the events of the second episode, "What if T'Challa became a Star Lord?" was very different and more fully realized the potential of this show. I will do my best to avoid  spoilers. At first, the idea of this premise seemed dumb to me, not going to lie. A few minutes in, I immediately accepted it and was all in for this ride. I want to start off by saying this episode was a little emotional for me. Not cause of the content, but because this is the last time we hear Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa. He recorded this before he...

In this blog, I try to write about books that I enjoy. I am your resident comic book nerd, so I want to use my tiny platform to speak to that. My favorite thing to do is to give a hot take on something. Most of the time they are positive. In rare occasions they will be negative. This book, "M.O.M.: Mother of Madness" is that book.  This book is co-written by Emilia Clarke. We know her as Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. I am always glad when a famous person wants to come into the comic book world. It can only bring exposure and potentially more fans. It gives us a wider pool of things to read. I feel the same about famous novelists, writers for popular magazines, etc. However, the pitfall of this is that you have these newbies coming into this medium alongside people that trained for it, appreciate it and know how it works. There is a degree of craft that  these new writers will not get. That can become very apparent. I say all that to temper what I am about to say ab...

Wow, am I late in writing this. I finished Loki weeks ago, but forgot to mention any of my thoughts on it. I'll save you my usual rambling before my review and just get into it. You can stop when you've had enough! I really liked Loki and that surprised me. After the first two episodes, I was on the fence because things were moving so slowly. It eventually picked up and concluded with what I thought was the best final episode in all the Marvel shows. This show delivered on the promise to have major implications for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Let me talk about what this show isn't. There are some action scenes in this series, but this is not an action show, like Falcon and the Winter Soldier was. Not even a little bit. I would dare argue the action in this show isn't really that good, but that's okay. That is not this show's bread and butter. What the show turned out to be, is a wonderful introspection about Loki himself. Now this is not the Loki we got to k...

I know that Pride month ended a few weeks ago, but just before that I started to read Marvel Voices: Pride #1 . I am just late in making this post. This issue in the vein of the DC Pride book I talked about a few weeks ago. When it comes to Marvel and DC, comparisons are always unavoidable. Like the DC book, I wanted to support what Marvel was doing for Pride month. Marvel has been doing special issues like this to showcase under represented communities via characters and their creators. So how did I feel about Marvel's foray into this? Let's get into that.  First off, like I said with the DC book, I know a little something about representation and how it matters. However, I can't speak to how this book will feel to those in the LGBTQ community. I can only speak to what I see here. This issue is massive and I would argue overstuffed. The DC book was a book about their characters as part of a day in the life. There is a deft to the story telling there that I think is missin...

A few days ago I was able to go back to the theater for the first time since early 2020, the pre-pandemic days. It was nice. I don't have much more to say other than it was nice to watch a movie in a theater. I'm glad that Black Widow was that first movie back. Let's jump straight into it. I really liked this movie for a number of reasons. Before I get into that, I want to say first that this movie was a long time coming. Even if it came out last year as intended, it was still a long overdue. It is a shame that after Marvel pretty much killed Black Widow off in Avengers: Endgame, that we get this movie. The potential for stories was always there, but Marvel didn't pull the trigger. This movie felt more in line with Captain America: Winter Soldier. We're back to government run spy programs and intrigue. I will say that it is pretty telling that it's always the Russians that are the bad guy. I would like to see these movies face the fact that the US isn't much...

  I think it goes without saying, that representation matters. We all like to see ourselves reflected in the media we consume. Whether that is movies, music, comic books, novels, etc. For me, since this is a comic book blog after all, I'm going to go with comic books. In the past, I've immediately written a post about a comic that impacted me in a specific way that I felt I should share with people. This happened last night and this morning as I read two different offerings from DC. I know historically, people see me as a DC hater and a total Marvel fanboy. Those descriptions aren't completely invalid, but the misconception is that I somehow hate DC. I like DC a lot. I just prefer Marvel more. The books I'm going to talk about that I have pictured above are some of the reasons why I like DC. Now they eternal cynic in me would want to dismiss such offerings because a savvy company will have their finger to the pulse of a moment in history and try to capitalize on it. It...

I know I am late to the party on this post. I meant to say something sooner, but that's life. So let's talk about the show Invincible, that appeared on Amazon Prime. From what I can remember in reading the comic, it is very faithful. Simultaneously, it evolved with the times in some of the roles of the characters. There are other sites out there to do that work for you. I'm not going to do that here.  I thought this show is excellent. The comic itself was excellent, so that translated into a great show. I think the biggest thing that will jump out is the great talent they assembled for the voice acting. I'm happy to see Steven Yuen getting his due this year and he was the perfect choice for the main character, Mark Grayson. I am convinced that J.K. Simmons can do no wrong and he is perfect here as Mark's Father, Nolan. He has an underlying menace throughout this whole first season that you can just feel. Also, I'm glad they gave Sandra Oh plenty to do.  The rest...