Sweet Christmas!! It’s time to finally talk all things Luke Cage on this week’s episode of Small Screen Heroes.
I’m joined this week by the one and only Johnny Moreno and we bring the love big time for Marvel’s Netflix show. From the killer soundtrack to the musical performances, character arcs and easter eggs, we cover it all. As always this is a spoiler podcast so go watch the show if you haven’t already,
I also drop mad Batch Bombs on Moreno in terms of character history, and origins, what the show got right, what it didn’t, and where the whole netflix marvel verse is going in terms of Iron Fist and Defenders.
So throw on your hoodie, pop in your earbuds and listen to the illest mother fucking comic book podcast on Binge Media.
Denny Luis makes his return to the program as Batch gets the Montreal madman up to date on Civil War 2. We then cover new releases from Marvel and DC for the week, also break down our favorite Spider Man memories from our youth. This leads us to try to make sense why comic editors like to break up popular comic book couples. Lastly the Suicide Squad new series kicks ass and we are going to tell you why.. all this and much more….
Book of the week is Invincible. Robert Kirkman is wrapping up one of the best series of the decade and we are sad to see it go. if you haven’t read it get on it. you can thank us later.
Another Summer box office weekend, another “record-shattering” movie release. This past weekend, Suicide Squad came along to set the movie world on fire, immediately dividing the masses into two main camps. You either like the movie or you hate it. Well, that is, unless you’re trying to protest against Rotten Tomatoes, take down critics for disliking the film and picketing against Marvel. In the age of Social Justice Warriors, entitlement and parity for all, the movie-going world is changing for the worse. Marvel, for all the good they have done since 2008, clearly have had a negative effect on the studios around them. This is no more evident than their main comic book rival DC and their handling of the creation of an inter-connected movie universe of their own.
Man of Steel was supposed to kick these films off, a film which included a Superman that doesn’t smile. That was followed up with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, a patently idiotic attempt at launching a wave of DC cinematic goodness that fell flat for being poorly written and horribly conceived. Now, Suicide Squad, a film whose trailers looked genuinely interesting, featuring a new take on arguably DC’s greatest villain ever, was a disjoined, badly made and stupid movie. There is an argument to be made that all comic book movies are kinda stupid, and I get that, but Suicide Squad is the kind of movie that forgets about its own logic halfway through the film. DC is going south quickly, and despite the amount of money they earn on opening weekend they are failing many of their fans, myself included, consistently.
I know this seems like a simple thing to say but there is a simple way to combat the slew of shitty films that get thrown out way. Simply put, do not go and see these films. We are at a point where audiences are more interested in seeing a certain character on screen than caring about the actual story in the film, and that is a shame. Suicide Squad, for all its faults, does have an interesting story to be told…it’s just 100% different than what they went with. But studios aren’t going to stop shoveling this shit in our faces until we decide to do something about it.
This past year we had a Snow White sequel, a Tarzan reboot, more young adult novel adaptations like Allegiant and a few other genuine pieces of trash. While those were properly ignored by the masses movies like BvS and SS are manipulative in the way they are made. SS featured Batman in the trailer, and of course anyone would want to see him in the film. His screen time amounts to 2 minutes that mean nothing to the story, but at the point most people understood this the ticket was already sold. Take, in comparison, Marvel’s Civil War, featuring the first appearance of ***SPOILER ALERT*** Giant Man on screen. They didn’t play this up in the trailers, they didn’t advertise it elsewhere. Marvel knew the strength of its story was enough to intrigue people and didn’t resort to masking a shitty movie with a lot of pomp and circumstance.
It is tough to know what will be a good film and what will be a bad one these days. Trailers are made to sell you on a film, and oftentimes those are better than the finished film. I think we need to be more conscious of movies and pay attention to the ones that deserve more exposure. Sing Street, The Nice Guys and Hail Caesar are the types of films I want to see more of in theaters. Movies that are well made, sure to entertain and are different than a bunch of people in costumes punching each other with their laser-penises. Let’s try to be better fans and give love to the stuff that needs it or else it may not be around much longer.
Garrett has something to say, and we all should listen. That’s right, Sneaky Juan Collins got a sneak peak at the latest from the DC theatrical universe and feels strongly one way or the other. Does he hate it like Jack hates BATMAN vs. SUPERMAN or does he love it like Law loves CIVIL WAR? The answers are inside. Meanwhile, the other two asshats on this show grill Garrett on who’s the best character, who’s the worst, and everything else you need to know before this weekend. Get it done.
While Comic Binge has been on a month long hiatus, we haven’t had a lot of time to read and life got real serious. But on that extra day of the year this year, some magic happened and we were able to finally get some shit read! What better way to get back into the reading mood than to pick up the gigantic, Morrison epic The Multiversity. The Multiversity did its best to feature all of 52 separate worlds within the DC Universe. It was really fun reading Grant Morrison write all of the different stories within the DC Universe but each with its own world. The characters varied from story to story, but the illustrations and overall structure of the story would almost shift and transition to and from. I loved how the art styles would go back and forth to different artists, and the stories would build upon each other while telling similarly separate stories about Multiversity. The concept of course as well, is brilliant. Leave it to Grant Morrison to yet again knock an original story of his out of the park. I generally hate large event books, but The Multiversity was well worth my time to read. I would consider buying this one if it didn’t cost so damn much, but I would highly recommend it to every DC Comics fan at least to read. The Multiversity features an assorted cast of characters assembled from all the different walks of the DCU, and holds a special tone and storyline throughout to create a truly unique comic book experience.
Next was a book I have been wanting to pick up for awhile, and that is Stan Lee’s comic book memoir. As if there was any other way to tell the story of the legend Stan Lee, he has written a comic version of his memoirs. I for one found this to be an incredibly grand and perfect way to tell the life of a man who created a lot of the classic Marvel characters. There was plenty of drama, and especially at the beginning you really get a feel for Stan Lee’s troubles as a young man. What all Stan Lee had to grow up through and then overcome in his later years was nothing short of impressive, and is a testament to the man we know of today. He is truly a legend, and even though he tells this story himself, you really can see why he is so good with the fans. The book is full of historical facts about himself, plenty of humor, wit, and self-awareness. There was no mention of Kevin Smith, which I was sort of hoping for, but my other favorite guy in the biz Ron Perlman sort of gets a cameo. Not only was Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, but it was incredible read for anyone at all. It’s a great graphic novel but it’s also just a great book and shows why comic books can be really relevant too. Stan Lee obviously tells his own story best in this comic form, and this is another book that I’m adding to the list to buy here at Comic Binge.
Hello all and welcome back to yet another week of Comic Binge! As the year comes to an end, I’m yet again taking a look at past articles of 2015 and trying to determine what works best and what doesn’t for the future. I think it’s about time I give you more reviews, though they may have less content. I read much more on a weekly basis, but there’s often not a ton to say other than the obvious yays and nays for every book. Granted, I try to write about books where there is plenty to say, but there just always isn’t. So now, I’m going to do a little rapid fire of everything read on my vacation this week, because this is the cleansing of my shelves before I get heavily into Star Wars canon for the release of the movie! Make sure to check back next week a day or two before the release of the movie we’ve all been waiting for, to see all kinds of reviews for new canon comics and even Kanan himself! So without further ado, here, we, go…
The newest, sixth volume of Catwoman, Keeper of the Castle, sees Selina taking over the Calabrese Crime Syndicate which is associated to her lesser known family. Extending out of other books’ events, this in turn takes Selina out of the sexy suit and into more formal attire. Now, I’m not one to objectify characters for looking their bad selves, but this book takes just about everything out of Catwoman that it should be. Sure, she’s still in Gotham, and she has her run-ins with the Batman, but it’s hardly the same thing. As Selina Kyle figures out her place at the head of the crime family she’s been thrust into, she also has to deal with the absence of her alter ego out on the streets. She discovers that someone else has taken her place as Catwoman, but she cannot divert her attention from the mafia goings-on around her. This book probably would have been a lot better if she would have come full circle back to the leather onesie a lot earlier. It also probably would have been a lot better had the art not totally sucked cat milk. I know Catwoman hasn’t been one of the prouder titles in the recent New 52 lineup, but it’s gone awfully far down hill after the awesomeness that Judd Winick started with in his first two volumes. Let’s hope that this was a one time deal for the character, and that she can return to being the cat’s meow of Gotham.
Next up this week stuck with female lead characters, and that was the Angela spin-off from Marvel. Coming off the pages from the universe of Thor, Angela may be a character that is familiar to some of you. She once was spawned on the pages of Spawn, and has seen time in other books as well. I’m a newcomer in regards to the character of Angela, so I was really anticipating learning a bit more about her in this first volume of her new series. What we get in this book however, is a story that lacks any sort of clear direction or plotting. Honestly, I couldn’t tell you at all what this book was about or supposed to be about. It certainly wasn’t a starter story or an origin story, as you’re dumped into Angela’s world with absolutely no knowledge as to what’s going on. Even after a few issues, I was having trouble putting together any semblance of a story in the pages. What I could get down with though was the art, which was pretty decent for such a confusing and unclear book. I’d hope that maybe Angela gets another shot to shine, as she is a cool and badass character. Even the appearances from the Guardians of the Galaxy could not save this book, and made you wish that Rocket Raccoon would pull a fourth wall stunt and BLAM! murder this book. I might be in the minority, but this book seemed pretty empty and pointless.
The continuation from Cyclops’ solo series finally reached the desk, and boy was it disappointing. The first volume was decent, and started by telling stories about the character that happened at a much younger age than we are familiar with. This book continues that thought, but boy does it fail at making anything interesting happen. By the title, A Pirate’s Life for Me, I was really expecting some fun swashbuckling. But what I got here was again another book where I could hardly care about what was going on on the pages. This one too, didn’t have nearly as good of art as the other books I’ve been reading. The first book in the series by Greg Rucka wasn’t anything amazing, but I was hoping for a bit more from this series. It furthers the opinion that I have of Marvel and their new Marvel NOW! titles in that a good 80-90% of them are garbage. I really wish Marvel had better books, because characters like these deserve much more than they are receiving. Don’t worry about checking this series out, or the most recent book, unless you’re a die-hard fan. But even then, you may have trouble wanting to keep your eyes open, even if you don’t struggle with laser beam vision.
Last but not least, I caught up a bit more with some of New 52’s Suicide Squad title. I’ve been a bit behind on the series because it’s been hard to get my hands on the books. I got a hold of the third and fourth volumes this week, and I have the fifth on deck for the weekend. The third volume saw a sort of Death of the Family vibe, much like the rest of the Bat titles in New 52 around this third volume period. Harley is tempted by the Joker’s return, as he comes in and shows her how much she’s changed into a goody two shoes. We see the struggle of the two unfold before us, but outside of the Joker-Harley scenario, there isn’t much to read for here. It was a decent volume, but nothing special, and the art was a little different too. Then the fourth volume saw the return of the Squad into more relevant stories, but now they’re up against Waller, who put the team together in the first place. Waller has found herself working along with the son of Gordon, who some may know as the villain of some recent Batman epics, Black Mirror being one of them. Waller and Gordon team up against the Suicide Squad, and a new member of the Squad is still a mystery to us. After a few battles and the Squad getting out of captivity, we see an awesome scene between Harley and Waller which was too cool. Waller had been picking away at their weaknesses, and so when Harley gets her hands on her it becomes a mess. Afterwards we see them tackle a monster in Vegas, followed by a Harley origin comic and a Deadshot origin comic. This had me thinking that we’re going to see some more origin and also maybe a new team and a re-branding of this team as the movie nears release. I am definitely looking forward to that, because Suicide Squad has been a decent, fun, and entertaining bad guy comic since its beginning here in the New 52. The following review numbers will be for the better, fourth volume titled Discipline and Punish.
Nick “The Dick” in the house! This week on Comic Binge, I touch base with a couple of the longer running titles of New 52, but should they still be running? The first book this week was a loaner from a friend so I got it a little earlier than normal, had I been waiting to get it from the library. This was Batman & Robin, Vol. 6: The Hunt for Robin, and it was a continuation of the greatness from the previous volume. Now, it’s so hard not to spoil the big story of the previous volume, and talk about this newest volume. While I really don’t give a shit to spoil anyone, I know how big this particular event was, and I’d hate to ruin the epicness of the issue for you. I knew what happened, but I remained in the dark about Batman & Robin‘s pinnacle issue for one reason alone. I knew it was going to be an emotional one, and I wanted to feel that on the first read, and I did. Now, this new volume finds Batman after Ra’s al Ghul for stealing what he believes should belong to him. I can see both sides, but goddamnit Batman wants to have all that he has ever held dear in his life, or so we think. The book opens in a dark, murky ocean, filled with dead bodies and plenty of mystery. The book doesn’t tackle into too much action, because we’re still emotionally hung over from the big event. However, this book is excellent, from the art down to the storytelling. Someone has picked up on the formula of what made the Batman book by Snyder so great. It’s emotion, and good storytelling, excellent writing, suitable art, dark atmospheres that bring out the extra Batsy-ness. I loved this volume, and I would highly recommend it. But, DO NOT PICK UP THIS VOLUME UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE PREVIOUS VOLUME! I cannot stress this enough, but for those who have read it, I’m sure you will understand.
Next up this week was Justice League, Vol. 6: Injustice League. This book has essentially been a long time coming, as the Injustice League as sort of made slight appearances elsewhere before this. I was pretty excited about this one because not only has the New 52 Justice League been pretty great, so have its surrounding titles from the first wave of this new movement. The art in Justice League is one of its strong suits, and I didn’t quite feel like it was to maximum capacity in this book. Also, the story wasn’t nearly as great as I’d hoped it would have been. Honestly, I can’t hardly even remember what the story was about nearly a few days after completing the volume. It was decent, but not memorable. If you’re looking for villain team-ups, look elsewhere. One would hope that such a strong title at the beginning would continue to remain strong, especially after a great previous volume. However, we may be seeing the decline in some of the stronger titles because their stories are no longer there to tell, as most of them have ended and rebooted in a way. Aquaman just did this recently with their fifth volume, without rubbing out what happened before it, they were able to do sort of a soft reset that really resembled Aquaman‘s first volume in the New 52. While I won’t turn you away from Injustice League, but I would certainly recommend making sure it’s the book you want before you pick it up. Because of event books such as Forever Evil, it can make this book a tough pick up from where we left off. If it were up to me, I would go ahead and just stop at the fifth volume and move on to other titles from there. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a proper Injustice League spin-off come from this book, or another, possibly Batman-laced new story for the Justice League to deal with? Either way, after this week, we’ve got plenty of new stuff to review your way. So stay tuned to Binge and we’ll see you next week!
Cameron Stewart, what have you done?! This week’s first review comes to you courtesy of bad decision making at DC Comics. For awhile now, the New 52 Batgirl title has been written by Gail Simone, who certainly has experience when it comes to female characters. When Batgirl really hit its stride, it easily became one of the better comics out of the New 52. Now, with The Batgirl of Burnside we have a new Batgirl than the one we were introduced to years ago now, and came to know. What I liked best about Simone’s Batgirl is that she evolved during the time of the comic book, and in the absence of Batwoman really shined as a great female lead character title. However, with this new rebooted volume in the same line of Batgirl comics, we have the same cheesy crap we should come to expect from any teen-girl-as-a-hero title. Batgirl had become so much more than a bland bubblegum comic, and since Death of the Family was rivaling some of the greatest stories in the New 52 universe. The manhunt between Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, and her father Jim Gordon were incredible. If you haven’t read the New 52 series, you should get one that. But anyways about this new reboot book, it just sucked. Barbara Gordon was suddenly an irritating human being, that was more concerned with how many likes she had on her Pixtagraph posts than where her story was going. I don’t think I’ve seen much worse of a collapse on a title transferring writers between volumes. This book was extremely disappointing, and I would highly recommend setting your sights on the first five volumes of this series.
Otherwise in the last week, I’ve really been trying to further my knowledge of Deadpool titles past. Since I’ve read Brian Posehn’s and plan to conclude that series here shortly, I went back one set and checked out Daniel Way’s series previous to the new one. So far it’s pretty good, and I like the writing of the different Deadpool “perspectives”. However, I wanted to share my thoughts on an insert volume that was a part of Marvel’s Dark Reign event. The title was a combo Deadpool/Thunderbolts which basically pit the two against one another in a story tied into the overall Dark Reign storyline. I’ve read some of the other books, but my bad memory doesn’t serve to piece together the story off the top of my head. Deadpool in this book though was a riot, as I thought thoroughly throughout that this was an exceptional Deadpool story. Bring in the Thunderbolts, who are pretty interesting themselves but unknown for the most part. This does not get by Deadpool, as he has fun tormenting his enemies. I think that this book can be read separately of the series in which it’s supposed to be contained, so I’d highly recommend this as a good Deadpool read. With the movie coming out soon, I’m sure there will be plenty more Deadpool to be read. But for now, I leave you with this recommendation. Check out Andy Diggle and Daniel Way’s Dark Reign: Deadpool/Thunderbolts.
Another week of binged reading materials out of the way, and I’ve some great ones to share with you this week. As I clear some reading time out for the copy of Armada I got yesterday, I’ve gone through some really good books that have been on the shelf for a long ass time. The first of those wasn’t something I was sure I’d ever see, as it’s taken me forever to get it, but I finally was able to check it out and it was great. Batman: Earth One started out as an excellent title, an alternative universe where Batman was created from a different mold, yet resembles the Bruce Wayne we’re all familiar with. This is because typically the universe or world as we know it, is not actually “Earth-One” like it’s presented in this book. There are several different Earths and planets and alternate realities and timelines, so this basically gives Batman and the writers a chance to do things a little differently. This book for one is great because it lines up with the recent villain of the Riddler, and shows Batman fighting off crime in Earth-One much like he would in regular world. The subtle differences in this book is what makes the Batman: Earth One title so intriguing. Probably my favorite instance of this is when Jim Gordon and Batman are talking about their plan to stop the bad guy, and as Jim is talking, Batman makes his way out of the panel. In true Batman fashion, you expect Gordon to realize he’s talking to shadows and say something like “every time…” but instead we get the greatness of this book. Gordon turns around as he is still talking but wondering if he’s been left alone by Batman, only to discover Batman with one leg out of the window pointing out “I’m still here”. My oh my, it might have been one of the single greatest Bat-pages I’ve read in awhile. Overall, this book is extremely enjoyable especially to the die-hard Bat-fans out there. Even for the casual Bat-reader, there’s plenty here to entertain. It leans towards the dark side, but it certainly has its understated lighter moments. Definitely check this book out, and the first if you haven’t yet.
The other books I got to this week were the first 2 books in Jeff Lemire’s Green Arrow run. For those who are familiar with my tastes, Lemire is probably one of my favorite current working author/illustrators. Much like Mike Mignola, Lemire can do it all, and he can do it well. He definitely has his own brand, his flavor, but the Green Arrow is no time for that. After an abysmal first three volumes, I wondered how even someone as individually talented as Jeff Lemire was going to fix this series. Well, now that I’ve read the fourth and fifth volumes of the series, I know how. As with anything, he takes it and makes it his. The story that is developed and presented across these two volumes was spectacular. It was every bit as serious and darkly threatening, as it was light-hearted and comical. Lemire really was able to find the perfect balance between Green Arrow’s multi-faceted character and tone. I was blown away with how well written the story was, though I kept reminding myself that I should have never doubted the man that is Lemire. I’m highly back on board with Green Arrow after reading his two volumes here, and I can’t wait to check out the last one in his run at the sixth volume. Lemire continues to hit home runs with his writing, and this title is a great example of how well he writes minimal characters like the Arrows and Animal Mans of the world. Definitely check these out, and feel free to skip the first three volumes. The entire story set up with the Outsiders in The Kill Machine, pays off with an excellent story in The Outsiders War. If only we knew what was in store with the final volume. Keep giving Lemire these awesome DC characters to rejuvenate!