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.
I’d be lying to you (poorly) if I said the original Star Wars Trilogy isn’t my absolute all-time favorite trilogy. There have been some amazing contenders, specifically Lord of the Rings, but for my money nothing in the realm of entertainment has ever made such a lasting imprint on me the way Star Wars has. Some of my earliest memories were of watching Return of the Jedi over and over again on VHS, having no concept of the fact that there were “other” movies in the series until my Uncle Bill hooked me up with copies of Episodes IV and V. Before that, all I knew was Jedi, which in a lot of ways was a blessing in disguise. Jedi is very publicly the least well-liked of the trilogy, but for me that has never been the case. When your only exposure to Star Wars is the least liked film, and when you’re so young that you’ll go on monthly binges of watching nothing but that one movie, it does wonders for your taste later in life. Of course, after seeing the other two films, I slowly but surely came to love them all equally, as I do today. Sure, we can nitpick whether or not the twist in Empire even remotely makes any sense, or we can laugh at the clear smears of Vaseline on the lens to mask the Landspeeder’s wheels in A New Hope, but why? The sum total of that trilogy is something truly amazing that has rightfully earned its label as the most sought-after entertainment brand in the world. That was, until, the Prequel Trilogy, where everything went to shit.
If you’re a fan of bad movies then you’d be hard pressed to find three more peculiar and awe-inspiring monuments of failure. When viewed as a trilogy, the films have few redeeming qualities. For instance, Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi was an inspired choice. He truly made the part his own and blended the wisdom of Alec Guinness with his own more youthful sensibilities and is still the standout performance of the trilogy. That’s not to say his performance is sometimes awful in its own right, but more on that later. You see, many have gone out on a limb and blamed George Lucas, solely, for the failure of these movies. When measuring them in dollars and cents, they are a rousing success without question. The biggest issue with these films is the lack of finesse and development as an artist on the part of Lucas, where he somehow manages to take Academy Award winning/nominated actors like Natalie Portman and Samuel L. Jackson and make them sound as if they have all the personality of a wet noodle. The directing and writing is at the center of the mess that is the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, an abomination that most of us wish never happened.
Without going into the gory details, we all know where things are now. Disney owns Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy is producing and masterminding the universe, Lawrence Kasdan is involved in several of the films now in development and it’s being kickstarted by JJ Abrams. Disney did everything in their power to remove Lucas from the equation, leaving him on with no more than a producing/story credit on the upcoming film. This is a good thing across the board. In fact, their main selling point behind this year’s Comic Con panel was to hammer the idea into our heads that the film is being made with “real, practical effects”, something that is welcome but annoying to hear over and over again. Despite all of this, here’s the thing…this past year is the last one where we won’t have a new Star Wars film on the horizon. Think about that. The only studio to do something near this level of production is Marvel Studios…coincidentally paired with Disney as well. There’s no argument that Marvel’s business model is the new Hollywood trend with everyone from Jurassic Park to Fast & Furious trying to build their own “universes”, but is this a good thing for Star Wars? We’ve all wanted this for a long time. Someone to come in and do another GOOD Star Wars film. I make no qualms about it, I am in the camp of wanting more of this universe on screen. My rationale is simple, and is tied to this past week’s Ant-Man.
Ant-Man shouldn’t have worked as well as it did but it proved a bunch of things to me all once. Slap “Marvel” in front of your movie and you will be #1 at the box office without question (see last year’s smash hit “Tyler Perry in Marvel’s ‘Medea Goes Transgender'”). Seriously though, you had a troubled pre-production, mostly unknown character, kind of bland trailers/promos and a director best known for rom-coms. It shouldn’t have worked, but it did, and I think it had to do with the corporate machine that is Marvel Studios. Marvel is bigger than any one piece of its films at this point, so much so that they can “will” their films to success. Granted, there have been some duds in the MCU, but they’ve done a good job taking the good elements from the shittier entries and using them later to further validate the company’s ideology, i.e. using older Howard Stark in the opening moments of Ant-Man. So let’s apply that logic to Star Wars. Will all the films be great? No, but odds are a few of them will be. Right now we have a 50/50 chance of Episode VII being a great film. People, it could very conceivably be an awful movie. All signs point to it hitting us right in the childhood with references to the original films, but honestly, this film could be a gigantic kick to the nads outside of that.
Where do I stand? I’m ok with this plan. I know Marvel is what Marvel is now but their structure has been imitated to give us Fast Five, the upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice/Suicide Squad and even the Rocky spinoff Creed. We can rage about the finer points of quantity over quality but in all honesty, so what? If they keep trying, odds are some of what we’ll be getting will be pretty good. Well, at least 50% of it.
So what do you think? Are you happy about the upcoming plan over the next few years or would you rather they left it alone? Let us know below! Enjoy your week and Binge On!
It sure seemed like a marriage made in heaven didn’t it? As far back as 2001, director Edgar Wright -then freshly done with his cult show Spaced– was the one man who seemed like the perfect person to direct Ant-Man. Because let’s face it. How many people can make a movie about a man who dons a costume which allows him to change sizes at will and present it with a sense of cartoonish extremism combined with non bombastic reality? An over the top aesthetic mixed with an aura of plausibility is what a project like this needs. Just how successful is the film they eventually ended up with, which was helmed by Bring It On director Peyton Reed? You can find out for yourself on Friday (or you can read my review HERE). Until then, I thought I would give a little bit of insight as to what happened in the 13 years from the time Edgar Wright and his writing partner Joe Cornish pitched their idea for Ant-Man to Marvel bosses until he eventually left the project in May of last year.
First, a timeline of events leading up to Wright’s exit from the project. As big of a juggernaut Marvel is now, it is hard to remember that there was a time when they were not but a spec of dirt on the windshield of Hollywood. Back in 2001, they were partnered with Artisan Entertainment. Wright and Cornish supposedly brought their initial idea for Ant-Man, which they described as more of a crime thriller than an out and out action film, to Artisan. Even though the script is raved about by those who read it, they were eventually told that the script was not family friendly enough for what the studio was looking for. In 2005, walking around with a bit more clout one year after the release of Shaun of the Dead, Wright met eventual Marvel Films head of production Kevin Feige. Feige and Avi Arad heard Wright and Cornish’s pitch and fell in love with their ideas for the Ant-Man character. He told them to move forward with their plans while he and Arad worked on making them a reality.
Of course, three years later Marvel’s plans for a cinematic universe became a reality when Iron Man was released to monumental success. Knowing this, Feige started envisioning where each character would fit in and suggested that Wright revise his Ant-Man script to help the character do so. While doing this, the original idea for a crime caper/heist aesthetic was more or less fused with a more action oriented storyline. Throughout these script troubles, Wright kept himself even more busy by making his Cornetto Trilogy of films and the 2010 comic book film Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Here is when the clashes started taking their form, as when asked what stage Ant-Man was in during the Scott Pilgrim publicity junket, Wright would respond saying that he is once again revising the script because what they had originally written didn’t fall easily into the universe Marvel had established and that he is having difficulty because he’s not used to the ‘urgency of tentpoles.’
At Comic Con 2010, the cast for The Avengers was unveiled and eyebrows were raised when Ant-Man wasn’t included. This is when it starts getting interesting because the character original creator Stan Lee was championing since the 80s to become a motion picture was now in limbo, and all people behind the scenes were just as stilted as its most hardcore of fans, including Wright himself. It must have been a weird feeling for Wright, because he had pitched his well received idea for Ant-Man three years before Marvel became a powerhouse. Yet here he was five years after that, and there was not a finish line in sight. In 2011 more scripts were turned in and after plans for the character to appear in the after credits scene of Thor were scrapped, Wright would once again go into hibernation trying to get his idea for the character just right before rolling in front of cameras. In yet another subtle jab, Wright told people who kept asking about Ant-Man‘s status that he wants to get it just right because he ‘does not like going into production without a script.’ Hmmm…….
Excitement for the project once again started amping up at Comic Con 2012, as Wright unveiled test footage he had already shot for his still lumbering along version of Ant-Man. If the pattern I have outlined is not obvious yet, then it will become even more obvious now. Even after Wright told the audience at the Con that he is in fact directing Ant-Man, Feige threw yet another iron in the fire by saying that Marvel’s focus has gradually shifted away from making Ant-Man happen, adding that it being ‘shot through Edgar Wright’s lense is the only reason why it is being made.’
At this point, Marvel was well into Phase 2 of their cinematic universe. Here is an idea that was conceived and greenlit years before Phase 1. Why was Marvel still not focusing on the project? I would venture to guess that with the juggling act they had to do with melding Thor -a god- into this band of heroes, Feige didn’t want to add someone who can change into an ant sized physical form to do the same. But my question is why? Was Iron Man’s glowing nuclear chest piece that far off from Ant-Man’s suit? Is it the fact that after getting small enough to hide in drawers and spy on villains, Ant-Man is not that interesting a character to begin with? Or is it the darkness behind his back story?
More on that later. But to conclude the timeline of what happened between the two parties, the year 2013 did not get any better or more productive. Feige started saying in interviews that the Ant-Man script needed yet another rewrite to fit in with the universe Marvel had built. Wright and Cornish ended up writing THREE more drafts of the script, and in October Wright tweeted that he had to fly to LA ‘to finish a little something (he’d) been working on.’ Then yet another road block hit, as plans to shoot on the newly revamped UK based studio Pinewood Studios were scrapped.
A seeming pre production from hell, at this point casting had not even been announced. I again want to put into context that at the time Wright originally conceived his vision of this story in 2001, he would have had a hard time finding any actor worth a dime in Hollywood willing to say yes. After the casting of Robert Downey Jr catapulted the just as second tier character of Iron Man into the stratosphere, talented people were lining around the block to appear in anything Marvel related. By the same token, Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth were not exactly household names. But their presence and charisma in the roles of Captain America and Thor respectively is what helped those characters in their stand alone movies. Paul Rudd, arguably a bigger name in his career than any of the other actors who currently embody stand alone film characters, signed on and brought a new kind of essence to a Marvel entity. To have this entity be embodied by Rudd and directed by Wright was an exciting prospect. Add on the casting of Michael Douglas, and Ant-Man was finally shaping up to be a movie to watch.
And then 2014 rolled around. It seemed like the inevitable divorce was imminent, as Feige demanded even more rewrites, this time without the involvements of Wright and Cornish. No one but the parties involved know what exactly happened next, but it is generally assumed that Wright was not pleased with the final script and instead of moving ahead with a vision he did not believe in, dropped himself from the project altogether. Fanboys fell out of their lounge chairs in disbelief, and everyone now assumed that Ant-Man was even more doomed than before Rudd and Douglas’s involvement gave people confidence that it could work. In an odd but bold act, Avengers films director Joss Whedon tweeted a picture of himself holding up a cornetto, an obvious show of support for Wright. Not surprisingly, in the immediate aftermath Whedon gushed that a draft of Ant-Man he read which Wright and Cornish turned in was ‘the best script Marvel ever had.’
The question is, just how much of this fluster filled divorce was Wright sticking to his guns, and how much was a simple tug of war between Feige and Wright? I’d assume that Wright was not as willing to infuse his film with storylines meant to move the Marvel Universe forward if it meant threatening the integrity of his intended vision. Look what happened to Iron Man 2. After the first forty minutes, the movie, a sequel of which was being made by original Iron Man director Jon Favreau, was flush with plot points only meant to promote The Avengers. The experience left a bad taste in Favreau’s mouth, and something tells me that experience led to him having a little talk with Wright before he continued digging his heels into a film he was losing control of. In the years leading up to its eventual non existent vision, Wright said that he was determined to ‘create an ‘in’ for people so (they) don’t have to know 50 years of Avengers history to enjoy the movie.’ That is not how Marvel works. Marvel is moving more and more toward a pandering way of storytelling. It is a miracle it didn’t lead Whedon to leave The Avengers: Age of Ultron. But Wright was having none of it.
So what does this mean? For one, it is a hopeless task trying to convince Marvel fanatics -even those who have not seen Ant-Man– that Wright wouldn’t have made a better movie. It is a silly ‘what if’ scenario that needs to end. What I am more concerned about is what this means for directors now getting drafted into the overall Marvel cinematic picture. Ant-Man ended up being their cheapest ($130 million), most intimate film yet. The fact that Wright’s name is still in the credits means that the company is not determined to pretend that Wright’s involvement never happened. But I am sure they would like to. While it is commendable to not pander to those who know any and all of the Avengers cinematic and comic book history, it obviously does not serve bigger people who have an even more enormous vision in mind. Good luck with your Avengers films Russo brothers.
I got so much reading done in the last week that I actually had options to write about for the Comic Binge today. To spare you all of the books, I’ve chosen some of the best to share with you. I have been going through and doing a lot of clearing out of my “to-read” list on Goodreads, so I’m catching up on a lot of things I’ve missed in the past. In reading them, I’m finding out why they never really made it into my hands, and that’s because they’re not nearly as great as their ratings suggest. However, I did have some new stuff on the pile this week beginning with the fifth volume of Earth 2. Earth 2 recently was switched over to being written by Tom Taylor, who is most known for his comic Injustice, which is based off of the hit video game that depicted one of the greatest DC stories outside of the comic book realm. When Tommy took over on the fourth volume, he used his expertise at writing a villainous Superman to Taylor (get it?) his story from Injustice to sort of, kind of fit in at Earth 2. Earth 2 is left with an evil Superman who is now beginning to work with Darkseid to take over, which is awfully similar to Tom Taylor’s Superman in Injustice who no longer defends the people of Earth, but rather would get rid of them to create a utopia for he and his people. The last son of Krypton may not be the last though, as a new Superman shows up in The Kryptonian, which is exactly where the title comes from. The new Superman is actually really great, and it was an interesting dynamic watching the now transformed Lois Lane guiding the new Superman in his journey to becoming a superhero. Not only is she dealing with herself as a hero now as the Red Tornado, but she’s recalling her past with Clark in dealing with the now corrupted version, which enables her to assist Val-Zod the new Superman. Overall, this book was extremely enjoyable and is reminiscent of everything Tom Taylor has done so far with Injustice. I surely hope that Taylor has carved out his place in the DC offices, because I’d really love for him to write more stories. Not only has he shown that he can do alternate universes and original stories very well with dark characterization, but he can also juggle several characters at once, most of which don’t have to be top-tier characters. I am really beginning to back Tom Taylor as a voice in modern comics, and we’ll see what he gets to work on next, if anything. Also a buyer beware, despite being on the cover, Power Girl does not make an appearance, but a familiar villain is hiding in plain sight throughout.
Up next was a little fun book called Axis: Hobgoblin & Carnage, which focuses on the Axis event in the Marvel Universe. As to what entirely the Axis even is, I have no clue because I just truly do not follow the Marvel books as closely as the DC ones. However, this book was pretty surprising as I didn’t expect too much from it. The first half of the book has issues that are centering around Carnage, which is where the book shines. Then, in the latter half of the book you have the issues that deal with Hobgoblin, which in itself is far less interesting than anything with Carnage in it. But what was great about this book for the most part was the sense of humor it had. Carnage could have easily been exactly that, all carnage, but it did a lot to make the reader laugh and sort of enjoy the presence of Carnage’s wearer like you would a Spider-Man. I suppose when Spidey isn’t present to keep readers entertained, there needs to be another way and in this book there is. I enjoyed the Carnage half of this book much more than the Nobgoblin half, and there are many reasons. One, the name Carnage is obviously a much better super name than the HobGooberlin is. Also, the Carnage featured much more of that humor, but also the darkness of a Carnage story. It pretty much had everything going for it, where the Hogpoglin was a little more stagnant and just had a strange old-timey feel to it. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, and it really brings this book back down to an average read once you get to the end of it. So, overall I’d recommend picking this up just to get a peek at the Carnage featured in this book, as I found it highly entertaining. But if you don’t have to, don’t venture into the Hogbobblin part of the book.
The last book I read is just a little addition to the Comic Binge this week, as I’m sure it’s probably not going to grab the attention of most that read here. However, I have to put this book in my reviews this week because it was actually that great. Lumberjanes is exactly how it sounds, a group of girl scout troop girls that are in their zone for the summer or whatever, hanging out together. It sounds like the premise to a very childish cartoon, but to be honest I thoroughly enjoyed the Lumberjanes. Something about their dynamic with each other was extremely entertaining, and all of the girls had their own sense of humor. I really liked the characterization of each girl to fit a certain stereotype, even though they were pretty typical, it actually worked really well. I would definitely be looking for more Lumberjanes to read in the future if there are some more books. My big question in my quick review on Goodreads was whether or not this was a cartoon or based off of something that I am unfamiliar with. Because if not, this comic would work really well for a cartoon treatment, maybe even a young adult one at that. The book had plenty of laughs and it was a plenty easy read with a regular old mystery story. If you’re looking for something fun and fast, that may not be your typical read, here’s your book. Highly recommended for readers of all ages.
Starring: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, David Dastmalchian, Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris, Wood Harris, Hayley Atwell, John Slattery, Martin Donovan, Garrett Morris and Corey Stoll.
After over a decade of start-stops, and one year following dreams of comic book enthusiasts everywhere getting smashed with the announcement of longtime Ant-Man character fan Edgar Wright leaving the project, Ant-Man, the film about a suit able to render its wearer the size of a peanut M & M, is finally upon us. One thing Marvel Studios and replacement director Peyton Reed need to adapt to is even if their resulting film pleases the masses, the film geeks they are trying so hard to please will inevitably wonder how Wright’s vision could have improved the end result. There was something genuinely intriguing to me about making the last film in Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into an intimate comedic character piece as opposed to yet another catastrophic global danger/destruction porn piece. Though it can be argued that the world’s in danger’ dial was already at its limit after Joss Whedon’s Avengers: The Age of Ultron from earlier this year.
Armed with a likable lead and endearing overall story, Ant-Man works in bunches. The original heist film concept Wright and his writing partner Joe Cornish (who both retain story and screenplay credit) came up with is better realized than you’d expect. Especially considering the vision was taken over by the director of Bring It On. Comic book purists know that Hank Pym (Douglas) is the actual original member of The Avengers and Scott Lange (Rudd) ends up eventually taking the torch that Pym passes to him. Here, the story starts us off in a flashback to 1989, when Pym originally comes up with the Pym Particle. He then makes the by now cliche proclamation that nobody will ever get the formula as long as he lives. Yeah. Right. Of note in this section of Ant-Man is the incredible CGI job done on Douglas, as he looks like he stepped directly from the set of 1988’s Wall Street onto this one. Combined with the similar success of doing the same to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Genisys, I’d say CGI artists are 97% to seamless realism, as opposed to the distraction it was in, say, 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. The film has a modest (in Marvel standards) $130 million budget, and I would venture to say at least a third of that went to getting this de-aging job just right.
Flash forward to modern day. Pym is now a has been losing hold of his company after his former protege Darren Cross (Stoll) metaphorically pushes him out. On the personal end, Pym’s daughter Hope (Lilly) does not have the best relationship with her father and this relationship gets even more strained when Hank decides to turn his attention to down on his luck, former prisoner Lange instead of working on being a father to his real daughter. At the same time, Lange is fired from Baskin Robbins and gets kicked out of a party for his daughter by his ex wife (Greer) and her new beau (Canavale). This line of parallelism between the two father-daughter relationships could have seemed clunky. Though he will never be mistaken for Spielberg, Reed makes it work without getting too sappy.
Though the villain in Ant-Man is better than most Marvel bad guy incarnations, Cross (Stoll) is still one twirl of the mustache away from being cliche. He certainly has some nice moments (the final battle, which consists of changing toys and bugs into different proportions, is a stand-out), but overall I just did not fear nor endear myself to him. Say what you will about Ultron. At least I was in constant fear of what he would do next. Here, Cross makes proclamations to ‘end war as we know it,’ but doesn’t get much more than a blink of an eye and a hand to my yawning mouth each time he did. The fact that Ant-Man is not about the title character as much as Cross’s relationship with his former mentor is a real fault of the movie.
With the villain a non factor of enjoyment, Ant-Man‘s success with me lie in how successful Rudd was at channeling his inner Downey and making the role of Lange his own. No matter what I think of the rest of the film, Rudd (who worked with Reed on Yes, Man) is fantastic, and Marvel could not have picked a better star to fill Ant-Man’s little shoes. The comedy that revolved around Rudd worked for me, though I cannot say the same thing about Pena. While I can certainly see Pena being a standout to most people, I did not laugh at nor like his scenes -specifically his in synch with the action monologues- at all. It almost reminded me of Guardians of the Galaxy in the way that I can see how most people could like him. It just did not fit in with what I feel works from a successful comedic standpoint.
I don’t want to act like I did not enjoy Ant-Man, because in some ways I did. One thing a comic book movie brought down to this intimate a scale does is force writers to work more on characterization than how the villain is going to take out the world. This is where Ant-Man is most successful, as the smallness of the character hides just how big an overall heart the film really has. Nothing about the warmness of feelings these characters had felt manufactured, and the way Rudd plays off all of it is what makes it work. Also, while Pena gets most of the big lines, Dastmalchian is the second hand character who works the best and was a major highlight for me.
Don’t let all the character moments I am describing make you assume Ant-Man is nothing more than a rom-com in disguise. The action in the film comes in strides and hops instead of sprints and leaps, and those who come to Marvel films expecting nothing less than city wide destruction will be disappointed to know the de-porn in Ant-Man is limited to a house. Still, seeing how the suit works is what makes the film’s later action scenes pay off as well as they do, and Reed fills these scenes with items you would not think of as being dangerous. There are great sections involving bath tubs and Thomas The Tank Engine (not kidding) which make any sort of danger Cross brings seem almost microscopic.
I guess that’s my main problem with Ant-Man. As much as I tired of seeing Bad Guy 1 try and out destruct Bad Guy 2 in films past, there was always a sort of scope and danger knowing anything was possible within them. By making Ant-Man a more intimate film, Marvel has painted themselves into a corner, as they have to rely on comedy and drama to move the story forward. As much as I enjoyed the effort, when both of those means of storytelling don’t work, they are going to have problems like this.
Another week here at Comic Binge and I’ve finally been able to pry myself away from Batman: Arkham Knight long enough to get some reading in. I’ve been dying to get my hands on the first volume of the again rebooted Thor, since there has been much clamoring over the new female Thor. I personally enjoyed the Goddess of Thunder but more in the sense that she was really humorous and her character enabled a lot of humorous opportunities for our now powerless male characters. Thor is seemingly lost without the power of Mjolnir to wield, and thus resorts to challenging the new Thor as often as he can to reclaim his power. Also, there was a moment where Odin really went hard on the Thorina because he was basically telling her that the only place for her was the kitchen. Moments like this were a plenty in this book, which I suppose is to serve up the necessary power for our new girl Thor to kick ass. A lot of it was bickering back and forth between whether or not the new Goddess of Thunder was actually Thor, but I’ll hope that that is resolved and the next book could continue with a good story. I will say it makes me miss the other Marvel NOW! Thor book that was previous to this, but I think I could probably take another volume of the female Thor. This is a new title definitely worth checking out still.
Another book I’ve been waiting to get to is the latest volume of Scott Snyder’s Batman. Thinking that I was in for a treat of a new story, I was a little disappointed to find out that this volume contains all of the issues omitted from the previous volumes. This is both great and awful at the same time and I’ll explain why. Sometimes when you are reading intense and well-written story arcs such as Snyder, you want all of the excess trimmed and it was. I appreciate that these issues didn’t break up the excellence contained within all previous volumes, but it really left these stories to stand alone when they truly cannot. It was nice to have all of these in one place, but I would have liked some context or summary to provide some details to the stories we’re reading. Sure, I can piece some things together but you know that you are missing out on good things when this team is behind the Batman story. Otherwise, the book is pretty much just as great as those before it, regardless of my issues issues. When Scott Snyder is writing Batman, you have no excuse not to be reading. I’m interested to see where this Gotham is headed next, but surely Snyder has to be nearing the end of the line with this title as he has so much else to focus on outside of DC’s #1 title.
Finally, I have to share a little review for an actual book I read yesterday called Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant. And no, it has nothing to do with that one song by that chick Adele, as much as you may have been hoping so. It was recommended to me by a coworker and I wasn’t steered wrong at all. It’s a short little book clocking in at 120 pages, so it’s perfect for me and others who maybe read comics for their brevity. The story starts with a television network called Imagine (imagine Discovery, Nat. Geo.) that is filming a “documentary” about the hunt for mermaids. Calling to the Discovery Channel Shark Week specials of recent years that feature some larger than life stories to exaggerate the awesomeness that is sharks, Rolling in the Deep does everything to make you question the events unfolding on the page. It reads as a retelling of the tragic story of the SS Atargatis and its crew that were lost at sea during their escapades near the Mariana Trench. The book is sort of like a SyFy flick, combined with a fake documentary Blair Witch style, and a little bit reality TV. I wasn’t expecting so much greatness packed into this little book, but it fires on all cylinders and provides all of the great staples for a good horror story. There are faces flying, mysteries abound, and plenty of laughs and scares to make you want to go Rolling in the Deep again. This is a must-read book if you like creature horror or a good suspense/sci-fi story.
It’s been awhile since I read it, but I forget to review it here at Binge and it was worthy of mentioning. It’s ultimately nothing most of us haven’t seen before, since it serves to retell the origins of DC’s best and brightest. However, I did like reading through and seeing it redone with new art and in the new style of the New 52 books. We all mostly know the origins of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc., but it’s kind of neat to go back every once awhile and reread them to get a feel for the origin again. I read so many comics, that the origins rarely go away for me, but I thought this was a neat little book that gives each character their time to shine for a few pages. This volume only contains 4 issues, each of which are split up to tell the origins of a couple of characters, so it’s a pretty breezy read. Anything that’s easy to pick up and look at will always get a good review for me, but I felt that as unnecessary as this book was, it was fun to read. I’d be interested to see if they continued the series and told the origins of other DC characters that people are less familiar with. I’ll admit that there were a few contained within this book that I did not know, but at least had some semblance of where the story was coming from. I’d recommend this book if you’re looking for a quick DC read, or want a book that is self-contained and has the majority of the popular origin stories within.
The other book I had this week was the first book in the Marvel NOW! series for Cyclops. Yes, Cyclops has his own book. At first, I was hesitant, because Cyclops normally is not a character that stands on his own. He stands on his own ground and principles, all of the time, but rarely do we see Cyclops from the beginning or on his own. In this first volume titled Starstruck, we get to see the origins of Cyclops and where he came from. The book focuses on his relationship with his father, and how his father utilized his abilities for his personal gains. It was sort of an odd book because on one hand, it seemed like they were really going out of their way to highlight his relationship with his father for some reason. Then on the other hand, his dad really didn’t seem like that great of a person, or interesting, and you just wanted to see Cyclops break out and go on his way to X-Men stuff. Of course, Cyclops in this book knows that his future holds many opportunities, heartbreaks, and rewarding experiences, but instead of chasing them he wants to be with his father. It was odd considering I read this after Father’s Day, so maybe that’s why it was a little strange to me story wise. But for the most part, it was a readable book. I’m not usually one to go crazy about any Marvel NOW! title other than Deadpool, but I’d give this a shot if you’re a fan of the character. Just don’t go in expecting a whole lot of the Cyclops you know, because instead you will read about a boy who is truly obsessed with his father and wants everything but to be the person he becomes.
In the craziness that has been the last few days, I have been unable to get to some reading that I want to do. I have a large stack of books ready to go, but I am getting ready to move this weekend so they have been put on hold for now. I will have a week off during my move and staycation, so there will be plenty to talk about next week, hopefully. I did get a chance to read one book this week though, and that was Hawkeye vs. Deadpool. Since the Original Sin event in the Marvel NOW! universe, we’ve seen several of these versus isssues between Marvel characters. I’ve only read a few, the only one I can remember was Hulk vs. Iron Man and it was just okay. I didn’t expect much from this book, but someone at work gave me their copy to read since they enjoyed it. To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book as well. For one, the fun level was off the charts. Who knew that the biting sarcasm of Deadpool would match so well with modern-hipster Hawkeye. Most of you probably know by now, I hate this modern trend in comic books where all of the heroes are teen hipsters. The new Hawkeye book from Marvel NOW! is one of the most overrated titles I’ve read in the past few years, so I really expected to hate this one. It was fun, from page one and on down to the end. Deadpool isn’t the only supply of laughs here, and the two characters play really well off of each other. With Posehn and Duggan’s Deadpool ending, this was yet another chance to catch a glimpse of the greatness before it’s gone. I really appreciate what they’ve done with Deadpool recently, and he was really given a great mashup here with Hawkeye as a lead. I would recommend picking this one up to read, and don’t let it get too fun. No, it’s not a quality story per se, but the entertainment value in this book is certainly worth the possible money spent.
In other news, it has come to light today that Jon Bernthal has been casted for the second season of Netflix’s Daredevil. Not only is he going to be in the show, but he has been cast to play The Punisher a.k.a. Frank Castle. When watching Daredevil on Netflix last month, I found myself wondering why a character like The Punisher didn’t deserve a remake treatment like Daredevil did. Honestly, both Affleck’s Daredevil and Jane’s The Punisher are really greatly underrated comic book films. Sure, they were both action blockbusters starring the high caliber actors, but they were still stuck in the cheesy tone of Marvel’s yesterdays. However, now that Marvel has taken a turn for the serious, and decided that they can continue to make both Agents of SHIELD and adult-oriented entertainment, they are finding new chances for old dogs. Frank Castle is now the latest character to get the redo he deserves, and I’m really excited for him to be put into this Daredevil universe that Marvel has created with Netflix. It’s dark and gritty, and takes place in a pretty damn realistic world that so far doesn’t seem to be merging with the lightness of the film franchises. This could be a self-contained “Dark Avengers” project here at Netflix, with the lineup of shows coming up leading into The Defenders, who knows what we could get then too. Bernthal was not an actor I even had in mind for a possible Punisher revival, as he has to automatically be seen as an action hero, or a tough as nails vigilante who will do anything to fix the world. Taking the little time I have had this morning to think about this casting, I’m really excited that it’s Jon Bernthal. He showed us in The Walking Dead that he can play the bad guy, and even though The Punisher isn’t a bad guy for us fans, he sort of is in the Marvel universe. Heroes want to hate him because of his methods, but when it comes down to it he does want good just like the rest. I think Bernthal is the right actor for this, especially a TV version of The Punisher, though Netflix seems to have given Daredevil creators some serious room with violence. Knowing what the first season of Daredevil was like, and knowing that Bernthal can be play a likable bad guy, I’d say we’re in store for another amazing season of the show. I’ve been dying for more Punisher since Punisher: War Zone, so I’m so glad to finally see one of my favorite characters ever is getting another chance to prove that he’s awesome.
Before I take the leap into Mark Waid’s previous Daredevil series, I wanted to catch up with the Matt Murdock that is now located in sunny California. I really enjoyed the first volume, Devil at Bay, that moved the vigilante of Hell’s Kitchen to San Francisco for a new life. Penned still by Mark Waid, the book really is a solid and unique take on the character. I will admit I have not read a ton of Daredevil comics in the past, but this is definitely interesting in the sense of changing the environment. Hell’s Kitchen is a very central element to the character of Daredevil, and so moving him to a west side city in California changes the story a pretty significant amount. This second volume called West-Case Scenario features a really great single issue at the very beginning of the book. It highlights Matt’s feelings about his son, and his father, and how him being Daredevil affects their lives. Not only that, but Murdock reflects on his late wife and how his son is a perfect combination of the two. He wants his son to be great, but he worries like the normal human being he is, outside of his super senses. I really enjoyed this issue, and the testimonial from his wife that followed on the last 6-7 pages was heartbreaking. It was really great writing from Waid, but also really great execution in this one single issue. It really brought me into the book and the rest was history. You don’t need to read the first volume that precedes this, so if you’re looking for some new Daredevil to read now that the Netflix series has probably been devoured, this is where you’ll find him.
For those who do not know, I work in a library. Our library ordered a copy of a collected volume of a comic strip called Unshelved. Written by those who have had experience in libraries, it cleverly, yet sadly chronicles the lives of pretty much every librarian or person whose worked with the public in the library. I was glad to find out that all of the strips are available to read online at unshelved.com but I am now currently hoarding collected volumes to read on paper. The third volume was the one our library ordered, which was titled Library Mascot Cage Match. As you can see, the title will make you pick up the book. In Unshelved, we meet Dewey the librarian who works at the Mallville Public Library. On each page, three strips that are individually contained, but we see the characters progress slowly. New characters are introduced like a sly teenage patron whose always antagonizing Dewey, and some guy in a monkey suit. By reading almost half of the existing collection now, I can fairly say that the writers certainly know their libraries. I have experienced nearly every little thing in these strips, at least to some degree, or they are things that all librarians can relate to. If there is anything that could allow to enjoy these comics, take it from a library employee of almost 5 years that this comic holds more water than the Earth’s oceans. It truly is a hysterical take on libraries and even for some who may frequent the library or like reading, it may be an enjoyable strip to pick up. It is a great strip to pull up once a day and get an easy laugh.