Monthly Archives: March 2023

Comic Catch-Up #46

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March 12, 2023

Tonight is the Academy Awards and I usually watch these. I have especially started watching this more since I usually am pretty close to having seen all of them. This year, though, because there are several Oscar nominees that I am saving for the next June Swoon, there are a couple of best picture nominees that I have not seen yet.

I am also rooting for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the few categories it has been nominated for. In particular, I will be very disappointed if Angela Bassett does not get the Best Supporting Actress. Comic book movies are always dismissed by the Academy and her win would go a long way.

Meanwhile, I have some comics to catch-up on.

Black Panther #8. “The Long Shadow; Finale” Kicking off the catch-up with Black Panther because of the Oscars tonight. This is written by John Ridley and drawn by Stefano Landini. The conflict within Wakanda comes to a close as T’Challa and his forces launch their attack against Akili. I am looking forward to the next arc of this series.

The Silver Coin #4. “2467.” Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Michael Walsh. We get a futuristic story from the mind of Jeff Lemire. I have been reading a bunch of his work recently and I have really been enjoying it. This issue was so so. I did not feel the connection with a lot of the characters here as I have in other issues.

Moon Knight #14-15. Jed MacKay write this and the art was by Alessandro Cappuccio. Stephen Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg were credited as cover artists. Moon Knight has been a solid series from Marvel recently. I really enjoy this last couple because it really dives back into the D.I.D. that Marc Spector has. We get some more on Steven Grant and Jake Lockley, which makes Moon Knight one of the most original super heroes in the comics.

Predator #1. “The Preserve Part 1 of 5” Written by Ed Brisson and penciled by Netho Diaz. The cover art was by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Richard Isanove. So I kinda liked this. However, I really did like the Alien book when it first came out, but it became one of my least favorite books every month. I just lost interest in it. I feel like this is going to be the same. I did like the set up of the story in this first issue, but I get a feeling that it is not sustainable.

Gideon Falls #3-4. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. This has quickly become one of my favorite books that I am currently reading. It is extremely creepy and I have loved the mystery about what is happening and the enigma over the characters and why they are doing what they are doing. This mystery of the Black Barn is compelling and I am invested in it.

The Me You Love in the Dark #4. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Seems like Ro is starting to understand that you do not start a sexual relationship with a mysterious spirit in a haunted house. The sweetheart spirit took a bit of a turn in this issue as he began to exert his own control over Ro. I have very few ideas on how this book is bringing this story to a conclusion next issue, but I am excited to find out how. I love Skottie Young’s writing style.

Ten Thousand Black Feathers #3. Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Andrea Sorrentino. We get more about Jackie’s disappearance and we see more about how she was acting before her disappearance. Trish and Jackie had some powerful reactions between each other that has led to a frightening final page that I am dying to find out about. This Bone Orchard Mythos world has been very engaging so far.

Primordial #3. Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Andrea Sorrentino. This Cold War series surrounding the space race and the mystery about the missing dog (Laika) and the primates (Able and Mrs. Baker) moves along with some wonderful imagery that makes the reader feel trippy. Yelena took the doctor into East Berlin in search of an answer to the mystery of the space program, but that is not what they found.

X-Men #20. “Lord of the Brood Part Two.” We finally come across Broo, who had been leader of the Brood, but was gleefully unaware that the hive-mind parasites had been doing things that he did not want them to do while he slept. And then, at the end of the book, we get a surprising arrival of Wilson Fisk and Typhoid Mary on Krakoa. Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Stefano Caselli. Juan Frigeri & David Curiel teamed up to do the art on the cover.

X-23: Deadly Regenesis #1. “The Past Haunts Us All.” Written by Erick Schultz and art by Edgar Salazar. Kalman Andrasofszky did the art on the cover. I liked this issue. Lately, Marvel has been going back into the pasts of characters to show stories that happened during that time period. This is an example of that for Laura. She does the heroic ‘save people from a building fire’ that we have seen others do, and it worked quite well here too. We are leading into a fight between X-23 and Haymaker next issue.

Sabretooth & the Exiles #4. “Station Four.” I did not expect the end of this book. It was a shocking final page that really picked up the rest of the book that did not create much in way of excitement or suspense. As a penultimate issue, this was not great, but it does give me an excitement for the finale next issue so that part was successful. Written by Victor LaValle and art by Leonard Kirk.

Luther: The Fallen Sun

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I have never seen an episode of the British TV series Luther, which ran on the BBC from 2010-2019 and starred Idris Elba as the titular character. However, that did not prevent me from wanting to see the new Netflix film featuring the character and said to be a direct continuation of the show.

I would say that I never felt that, because I had never seen the TV show before, I was confused or not sure what was going on. I would venture to say that you do not have to have seen the show in order to watch this movie. It may give you more background or a deeper understanding of the characters but it is not a necessary requirement.

Luther: The Fallen Sun saw the return of Elba to the role, as he matched up with cast members Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis.

John Luther was on the case of a serial killer who was murdering individuals that he would blackmail into helping him by certain secrets that the people did not want revealed. However, when Serkis, whose character was named David Robey, found out, he used his connections to pull all of the dark secrets from Luther’s time as a brutal cop and send him to his own justice and a prison cell.

When Luther learned of David’s victims through a video David sent to him, he decided that he needed to escape from prison and continue his pursuit of the murderer.

Andy Serkis is downright chilling in this film. He is such an amazing performer because I bought him 100% as a brutal serial killer who was getting off on his machinations. He pulled off some horrendous cruelty along the way and displayed a cold, calculating evil unlike few I have seen before.

Idris Elba was excellent here as well and the pair of them had some powerful confrontations during the two hour plus movie. Dermot Crowley revisited his character Martin Schenk from the show as the retired Detective Superintendent, the former head of the Serious and Serial Crime Unit and Luther’s former boss. Crowley brought an inside man for Luther, despite Martin’s own moral creed.

The story is fairly basic and by-the-numbers, but the performances elevates the material. There are a few scenes that really make me like the character of Luther, despite the obvious hatred that he may hold for himself. It might have been a touch too long but there were several decent moments that helped make this a strong addition to Idris Elba’s filmography.

3.5 stars

65

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I like Adam Driver. I like sci-fi. I like dinosaurs.

65 however, not so much.

I had come into 65 (which implied 65 million years ago) unsure what the premise of the film was going to be. I saw previews of Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs with sci-fi weapons, which I thought would be hard to mess up. I did not know what was happening. Was it time travel? Was it another planet? No to either of those.

Apparently, Adam Driver was a man who lived on a planet somewhere out in space that was very much like earth in all ways (including English language) except it has some special ray guns. He was on mission that was going to take him away from his daughter, who was sick, for two years. The money was meant to help make her well. On this mission, his ship crash landed on earth and it was earth 65 million years ago (to us, not Driver, I guess).

Once there, he discovered a young girl, the only other survivor of the crash, Koa (Ariana Greenblatt), who he claimed was nine, but seemed more like 14 years old.

They discovered that the undiscovered planet had dinosaurs on it, both small and giant. They started on a path to find an escape pod that had fallen on a mountain.

By the way, Adam Driver’s timing is just horrendous, as he landed on earth as the asteroid, that we know killed the dinosaurs, was preparing to crash on the surface (right where he landed, too. How unlucky?)

I had so many problems with the plot. Many of them were small things that would have been an easy fix, but 65 does not seem to care about these details that pulled me out of the film every time. For example, Adam Driver had a computer thingy that could identify the oncoming asteroid that was going to strike earth. But it called it an asteroid. Why? Isn’t that something that an earth based scientist named it? Since this was in the earth’s past, how did that detail get out to Adam Driver’s planet? If this was not the actual earth in the past, I could guess that the vocabulary could sneak out to other planets, but that has not happened yet. Like a said, it was minor, but those kind of details can ruin a sci-fi movie.

The movie also made the odd choice of having Koa speak a different language than Adam Driver or us, the audience. This was meant as an obstacle for Driver, but it never was because he would just say the word slower and everything seemed to work fine. Koa speaking a different language only kept me from connecting to her as a character.

Because of the language barrier for the audience, I did not care much about Koa and I cared even less about the relationship between Adam Driver and Koa. This relationship was basically the same one as Joel and Ellie have in The Last of Us video game and TV show, except Driver was not as awesome as Joel was nor was Koa anything like Ellie.

The movie did have very impressive special effects. The dinosaurs looked great, but the lack of a story or characters that I cared about did not overcome the strong fx.

Adam Driver does a decent job with what he is given, but all he is given is running around, shooting some laser guns and yelling ‘Koa!” A subplot with his daughter is tossed out and then aside before you ever had a chance to care. Ariana Greenblatt was fine, but she should have been speaking English. It would have helped that character immensely.

This felt like a film that could have benefited from another trip or two through the writer’s room. Use time travel and lots of the little problems go away and I can get past them instead of thinking about why they made the choices that they did.

2.4 stars

Poker Face (1 x 10)

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SPOILERS

“The Hook”

Season one of Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne dropped its season finale on Peacock the other day, bringing to a close a very solid freshman season for the show. Poker Face has been confirmed to have been renewed for a season two, and we got a pretty good idea what the overarching storyline for that season would be in the finale.

I have been talking all season about the show’s general format and how, after the first half of the episodes, it began to be tinkered with by the creators. It was important to keep the show fresh and not become dull. The show did an excellent job of varying the concept and this episode was totally different while still feeling the same.

I was shocked when, as Charlie was involved with a discussion with Sterling Senior, played by the epic Ron Perlman, was shot dead. He turned into the murder victim that Charlie was involved in. He had been offering Charlie a job to use her BS radar (which showed that he had not intended on having her killed as she thought). Benjamin Bratt set Charlie up for the murder, sending her on the run during the episode.

Simon Helberg returned to the show as FBI Agent Luca. He had gotten a promotion because of his last interactions with Charlie and he provided her with an inside perspective of what the FBI was doing in the case. Luca and Charlie had a nice connection and it added to the show’s ambiance.

I also enjoyed how they kind of looked at Charlie and some of the bad choices that she had made in her life, especially in connection to her sister and her sister’s daughter. This show did not go out of its way to hide the negative results of Charlie’s choices for her sister and it made the character even more interesting.

As it was solved, we discovered the hook (no pun) for next year. It seems as if Charlie is back on the run to avoid another crime boss. However, she went into it with more confidence and bravado than she did at the beginning of season one.

Benjamin Bratt brought it by randomly speaking the rap section of ‘Hook’ by Blues Traveler.

Suck it in, suck it in, suck it in
If you’re Rin Tin Tin or Anne Boleyn
Make a desperate move or else you’ll win
And then begin to see
What you’re doing to me
This MTV is not for free
It’s so PC it’s killing me

So desperately I sing to thee of love
Sure but also rage and hate and pain and fear of self
And I can’t keep these feeling on the shelf
I’ve tried, well no, in fact I lied
Could be financial suicide but I’ve got too much pride inside
To hide or slide
I’ll do as I’ll decide and let it ride till until I’ve died
And only then shall I abide by this tide
Of catchy little tunes
Of hip three minute diddies
I wanna bust all your balloons

I wanna burn of all your cities to the ground
But I’ve found, I will not mess around
Unless I play then hey
I will go on all day
Hear what I say
I have a prayer to pray
That’s really all this was
And when I’m feeling stuck and need a buck
I don’t rely on luck

Poker Face will be back on Peacock next season and I will be curious where it goers from there.

Oscar-Nominated Live-Action and Animated Shorts

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Today, I got to see the ten Oscar-nominated shorts, five live-action and five animated (no documentary shorts though). It is always a fun day at the movies with the shorts.

I am going to give my thoughts on each of the shorts, place them in my favorite order, and tell you which one I think actually WILL win.

LIVE ACTION SHORTS

5. Night Ride. Ebba (Sigrid Husjord) was waiting for a tram to take her home one cold winter night. However, the driver wanted a break and would not let her into the tram unless he was there. So Ebba decided to take matters into her own hands and ends up, unintentionally at first, stealing the tram. This had some funny moments and had some things to say about harassment. However, I found this to be fairly mild of a short.

4. Ivalu. A young girl named Ivalu runs away from her family and her sister Pipaluk tries to find her. Pipaluk follows a raven across some of the most scenic landscapes that you’ll ever see. This short turned very dark as the film went on, but that did not take away from the epic cinematography that was on display here. Some of the reveal felt a little forced, but it was a powerful end.

3. The Red Suitcase. An Iranian woman arrived on an airplane in Luxemburg with her soon-to-be husband waiting for her. Except, of course, she was being gifted to him as a wife and arranged for marriage. She wanted no part of this and she does what she can to avoid the man waiting for her. There were some great tense moments in this film and Nawelle Ewad gives an excellent performance as the 16-year old girl in search of freedom.

2. Le Pupille. From Disney, Le Pupille (or The Pupil, in English) is about a group of young girls in a Catholic boarding house, run by strict Nuns. The short was excellent and very creative, with the girls adding songs, narrative transition and a fun and creative story. It is funny and I really liked it. This was the fourth film I saw and, while I liked the other three, this was the first one that I thought was extraordinary.

And number one…

An Irish Goodbye.

Brothers Turlough and Lorcan return to their childhood farm in Ireland with their recently deceased and cremated mother. Lorcan had Down’s Syndrome and Turlough did not believe that he could handle living on the farm on his own. When Lorcan got his hands on their mother’s last bucket list, the brothers went about trying to fulfill their mother’s wishes after she had died. This was very funny, surprisingly touching and filled with feel good moments. The brothers had sensational chemistry between them and watching them work together to complete their mother’s list was very profound.

OSCAR RESULT

Should win: An Irish Goodbye

Will Win: Le Pupille

I think the Disney name will pull out the victory on this, but I will be cheering for An Irish Goodbye. There should not be any other possible winners as these two shorts far exceeded anything else that had been nominated this year.

ANIMATED SHORTS

5. Ice Merchants. This one was my least favorite of all the shorts I saw today, animated or live-action. It made little sense to me and I did not enjoy the story. It was lovely to look at though. The end was anticlimatic.

4. The Flying Sailor. A true story. When we first see that label, you dismiss it because it is so impossible, but finding out that it actually was true, that a sailor was stuck in an explosion that sent him flying in the air for 2 miles and that he lived to tell about it, made this all the more amazing.

3. An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It. This Australian stop-motion animated film was bizarre and kind of funny. The young telemarketer finds out a strange truth as he struggled to up his sales. A talking ostrich was not the oddest part of the story.

2. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Utterly beautifully rendered with awe-inspiring scenery. The tale of the four named characters and their attempt to find the way ‘home’ is emotionally powerful and provided a wonderful message. It did feel a little long (and I kept waiting for that fox to turn on them) but the short was astoundingly lovely. It harkened back to a kinder time in animation where the moral of the story was important.

And the number one animated short…

My Year of Dicks.

Any animated show that begins with a warning to the viewers that this is not a kid friendly film and maybe parents wanted to take them out of the theater, is okay by me. But there was more to this than sex and swear words. This was a deep look at a girl’s attempt to lose her virginity and the poor choices that she made along the way. Broken into five chapters, My Year of Dicks was provocative and unafraid to tackle plenty of topics related to sex and sexual exploration and it does it in a creative, often-times, hilarious and real way. After seeing the warning before the short, I had no idea what I was in for. What I got was a poignant story of a young girl’s quest to become a woman. The short had all kinds of animation styles involved and the coming-of-age tale was surprisingly sweet.

Should win: My Year of Dicks

Will win: My Year of Dicks

My Year of Dicks was the last short shown and, before I saw it, I was certain that The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse was going to be the winner. I could see that short take the Oscar still, but I truly think the most overall impressive animated short was My Year of Dicks.

Scream VI

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Scream has been one of the most successful horror franchises of all time. Each film in the series has been decent, if not excellent. Now, the franchise moves forward with the new characters from last year’s Scream 5, although there remained other legacy characters here as well.

Scream VI took the franchise out of Woodsboro and moved it to New York City. By doing so, the film felt to be much fresher than it has in several years while still maintaining much of the Scream style.

Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) are still having plenty of issues with the events from last year in Woodsboro, when Sam’s boyfriend and a friend became Ghostface and tried to kill them. Sam was in therapy and Tara was in denial over the memories.

When a new Ghostface gets murdered himself, things get wild once again as the Carpenter sisters find themselves in constant danger from Ghostface all over NYC.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a lot of fun and it made everything feel new, even though we got Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) as legacy characters returning for the film. They did not feel as if they were just there for nostalgia. Scream VI walked that tightrope between new and old brilliantly. To the film’s credit, it really felt as if anyone was vulnerable to Ghostface as well as anyone could have been under the mask.

Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown returned as brother and sister Chad and Mindy from Scream 5. Skeet Ulrich was back again as Sam’s delusion-daddy Billy Loomis. Dermot Mulroney joined the cast as Detective Bailey. Jack Champion, Josh Segarra, Liana Liberato, Tony Revolori, Samara Weaving, Andre Anthony and Henry Czerny all had significant roles in the new film.

New York City was really a cast member of this film as well. As a setting, The City stood out as great moments in a bodega and on the subway. Both times, you can see New Yorkers and how they stepped up.

I loved how this film started off. It was familiar and, yet at the same time, original. I was surprised by the twists in the beginning and found it very intriguing. No spoilers of course, but I really was engaged in the film right off the bat.

The kills were pretty brutal and bloodier than I expected. Ghostface built suspense with its stalking of plenty of the characters.

The humor was well done and the meta-narrative continued as they moved into describing the situations from rules for a ‘requel’ to rules for a franchise.

Scream VI should be given credit for moving away from Neve Campbell’s Sydney Prescott and reinvigorating the series with new characters that feel very important and who fit wonderfully into the Scream franchise. The film was exciting and tense and I enjoyed the whole thing.

4 stars

Comic Catch-Up #45

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March 9, 2023

Wednesday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, but between parent/teacher conferences and yet another snowstorm on a Thursday, this was the first opportunity that I had to write a post. I have not finished everything from my pull box (there are several X-books to go), but there were several to read.

Punisher War Journal Base #1. Written by Torunn Grønbekk and drawn by Djibril Morissette-Phan. This was a story of Frank Castle before he became the Punisher. I like the Punisher, but I have never really been a huge fan of any of the series he has appeared in. This one shot was fine, but it did not make me want to check out the ongoing Punisher book.

Mary Jane & Black Cat #4. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Vincenzo Carratù. Paulo Siqueria & Rachelle Rosenberg did the art for the cover. This series continues to be a weird one as I have no idea why Mary Jane Watson has some strange kind of random power generator. MJ and Felicia are still chasing after a soulsword to give to Belasco, having to confront several others pursuing the same thing. The two lead characters are fun together.

Silver Surfer: Ghost Light #2. “Part 2: Darkness” Written by John Jennings featuring art by Valentine DeLandro. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. The second issue of this new short series featured characters that had originally been introduced in Siler Surfer #5 from 1969. Talk about mining the past for stories. This is another weird series because the book is not really a Silver Surfer book. He is there, but he is absolutely a supporting character to the lead protagonist, Al Harper. I’m sticking with this one for awhile because it is interesting enough.

Blue Beetle: Graduation Day #4. Written by Josh Trujillo and drawn by Adrian Gutierrez. Jaime teams up with his ‘archfoe’ Fadeaway in an attempt to help him retrieve his family’s ‘Bag of Trix.’ If you did not guess, things did not go the way Blue Beetle had hoped. Things are looking even worse for poor Jaime moving forward too as several big gun superheroes are on the case, and not necessarily in a positive manner for Jaime.

Deadpool #4. “Eat You Heart Out” Written by Alyssa Wong with art by Martin Coccolo. Things are not going well for Deadpool. He is being chased after by a team of super powered villains trying to kill him, he has fallen in love with a woman named Valentine and Cletus Kasady exploded out of his chest. Rough deal for the Merc with a Mouth.

New Mutants: Lethal Legion #1. “Vampire Heist.” Written by Charlie Jane Anders and drawn by Enid Balám. This was an interesting first issue of this short series, but the fact is I had no idea who (almost) any of these characters were. I knew Rahne, but other than that, there was very few characters that I recognized or had any connection to.

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #2. Written by Danny Lore with art by Karen S. Darboe. We keep close with Brielle, the daughter of Blade, who has just discovered her powers She teamed up with new girl at school, Whitney, to see exactly what hunting vampires was like. It might not have been a wise move. However, daddy arrived in the tick of time.

Fantastic Four #5. “Up to Scratch.” Written by Ryan North and drawn by Ivan Fiorelli. So we get a weird adventure for the FF when the Salem’s Seven, led by Nicholas Scratch attacks the FF on the road (causing a traffic jam) and messes them up badly. Trying to save their lives, the FF dimensionally travel, only to, apparently, bring back a bacteria that could crash the global food chain bringing about a total extinction. You know… the the FF, like a Thursday.

Scarlet Witch #3. Written by Steve Orlando with art from Sara Pichelli. Special guest star, Polaris, joined Wanda in a strange adventure to help a woman named Mardj to find the Sword in the Star. I was not a fan of this issue, although I thought the art was presented in an excellent manner. The book was filled with full page art from the early part to the very end of the book. It was an unconventional looking book, but the story did not hook me much. And the end puts Darcy into serious jeopardy.

Amazing Spider-Man #21. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by John Romita Jr. This begins the reveal of the big story from this past year about what Peter did that was so horrible that he drove away all his friends and sent Mary Jane into the arms of another man, who had a couple of kids along for the ride. My friend Todd turned his nose up at this issue, but I thought it was decent. There was a character here called the Scribble Man, who I do not know if he had ever been seen before. It was my first time seeing him and he has some connection to what happened with Peter. I am nervous about what they are going to do. I just hope it isn’t something that is dramatically out of character for Peter (eg. One More Day).

Avengers #66. “The Final Assemblage.” Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Javier Garrón. The multiversal Avengers battle the 616 Mephisto, despite the demon becoming gigantic. There were some surprise Avengers from across the Multiverse such as Galactus (???) or Cosmic Ka-Zar (???). This is the final Jason Aaron issue for this book, and this Avengers Assemble arc has two more issues left, with Avengers Forever #15 and Avengers Assemble: Omega #1 yet to come.

Comic Catch-Up #44

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March 7, 2023

At the moment, there are so many independent comic that I am reading. I have been grabbing several series and finding issues in my piles that are intriguing me at the moment. Plus, I am more caught up with Marvel than I thought. There are a couple of series from Marvel that I am still working on, but my most favorite ones are caught up.

I have been enjoying this trip through the independents, especially those that feature some of my favorite writers working right now.

Here we go…

Gideon Falls #1-2. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. Just got the entire series of Gideon Falls in the mail today and I got the chance to start it off with two really great issues setting up what was happening. Father Quinn heads into the town only to find something dark and mysterious going on with the black barn. This was a great kick off and I am excited to continue it along.

Primordial #2. Written (also) by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. This book is mostly about a dog named Laika. A dog that was sent into space to eventually meet a monkey. It has been a fascinating start to this short series. Lemire and Sorrentino are an exciting pair that have brought us some really good stories.

King of Spies #3-4. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Matteo Sealera. I loved the wrap up of King of Spies with Roland King finishing off with the worst monster of all…himself. The end of this series was rough but it was very poetic. This was a tight and exciting story that really worked.

Home #1-2. Written by Julio Anta and drawn by Anna Wieszczyk. This is one that I have found in the piles and I decided to start. I am still looking for #3 though (it’s here somewhere). This is an extremely political issue, featuring immigration problems that happened during the Trump Administration. Separating children from their mothers became a central moment for this comic. However, there is a super powered twist to this that makes it all the more interesting.

Moon Knight #13. “Knight feeders” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Federico Sabbatini. Still got some Marvel to read. Taskmaster guest stars and told the guy trying to hire him to go after Moon Knight that he wanted no part of Moon Knight. He scared him. This is a guy who will take on any number of Marvel heroes, but Moon Knight is the line he draws. I love the respect given by the villains to heroes.

The Me You Love in the Dark #3. Written by Skottie Young with art done by Jorge Corona. The book has really become a weird one as artist, Ro, continues to work on her painting while, seemingly, dating the spirit of the house. It even ends with some ‘baum-chick-a-bow-bow” at the end. Popcorn, movies and Netflix and chill with the spirit? Why not. Didn’t see that coming…so to speak.

Hulk #12. “Hulk Planet Part Four.” Written and drawn by Ryan Ottley (plotted with Donny Cates). This was actually my favorite of the Hulk books recently. Banner is struggling to prevent Titan from taking over. I am not sure if Titan is what I think it is, but it had a much more Immortal Hulk feel to the end of this issue. And there was a big time boom at the end too. This was the first issue of this run of the Hulk that engaged me. Hope this continues moving forward.

The Last of Us (1 x 08)

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SPOILERS

“When We are in Need“

The penultimate episode of the first season of HBO’s The Last of Us premiered on the streaming service tonight and it gave us an episode that could, quite possibly, change Ellie forever.

Joel is still recovering from his stab wound and Ellie is forced into surviving on her own while he is out. When she goes hunting for a deer, she comes across David and another man from a nearby community. Through a tense standoff, David agrees to give Ellie medicine in exchange for the deer.

Ellie is able to get away from them. She did not know that this was the group that included the man who had stabbed Joel and they were out for ‘justice.’

David was shown as a preacher, a leader, but I never believed that he was a just or kind man. As we find out, he had been serving his followers the cooked remains of their dead in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

David led a group to go back and find Ellie and Joel. He wanted Ellie brought back alive because he had intentions for her.

Ellie had been giving Joel some of the medicine and she decided to lead the men away from him. Unfortunately, this led to her being captured. However, Joel was able to capture a couple of the men who stayed to look for him and he tortured them to find out where they had taken Ellie.

This was the time in this episode that reminded me of The Walking Dead. Many times the humans of that show were the worst part of the show. I actually had Joel pictured as the dangerous man who would try and kill the heroes. Joel was anything but honorable in this situation, but you can’t help but understand why he killed those men.

Meanwhile, Ellie is fighting for her life as David has seemingly become obsessed with her. He is looking for a partner, someone who he can train as an equal and he is impressed with Ellie’s survival instincts and her darkness. He sees her as a worthy partner.

Ellie has to go through all kinds of struggles at David’s hands, including trying to avid being chopped into little pieces. The final showdown between Ellie and David inside a fiery building is tense and suspenseful. It shows Ellie with her violent side as she stabbed David repeatedly until he was dead (plenty dead too).

The reunion of Joel and Ellie was a nice moment as she seemed to be in shock over everything that had happened and did not realize that it was Joel at first. He had come up behind her and he was lucky that she did not have that cleaver still because I imagine that she would have just swung away. Joel’s referring to Ellie as ‘baby-girl’ was a powerful moment that was played very under-the-radar, but it meant a lot to the character of Joel.

Performances from Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were outstanding this week. Bella Ramsey showed her wild side of the character of Ellie and Pedro Pascal was very understated this week. Both provide us with amazing work.

We have one more episode in season one next week. I know there are some people who are disappointed at the lack of infected in some of these episodes, but I find every week to be filled with drama and emotionally-charged energy. This has been one of the best shows in a long time and I will be anxious to see where they leave it next week.

Comic Catch-Up #43

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March 5, 2023

I have been picking up some recent graphic novels via eBay. In fact, I have three that were recently nominated for an Eisner. Two of which I will review below.

The third one is the most recent Eisner winner. It is called Monsters by Barry Windsor Smith. The problem is… this thing is like a textbook. It is a massive 360 pages and an attempt to start it is overwhelming.

I have read a few pages of the monstrosity, but I am not sure when this will get finished. Perhaps this is a book to wait with until summer. Or maybe a little bit every day. Either way, it is gigantic.

Otherwise, here are the rest…

Meadowlark. Creative duo of Greg Ruth and Ethan Hawke. Yes, Ethan Hawke the actor. The cover describes it as “a coming-of-age crime story.” I can see why this was nominated for an Eisner because this was a beautiful book. The art was spectacular and the color was very sepia-toned. It is a lovely book to look at, even if the story was one of pain. It followed teenager Cooper who had been giving his mother trouble lately. He wound up at his father, Jack’s, place of business- at a prison on a day when several inmates executed an escape plan. Things get rather personal for Jack and Cooper quickly. You can definitely see this as a film starring Ethan Hawke as Jack. I can’t imagine that this project is not down the road a bit. The book was a quick and thrilling read. I really enjoyed this.

Lugosi: The Rise & Fall of Hollywood’s Dracula. Story and art were done by Koren Shadmi. This is the life story of the famous actor Bela Legosi, who became most well known for his role as Count Dracula for Universal Studios. The graphic novel covered Legosi’s life from a youngster in Hungary until his death, sad and broken in California. We hear about his struggles getting any roles significant besides Dracula, his rivalries with Boris Karloff and his friendship with Ed Wood. We see Legosi’s marriages and his family issues. It is a fascinating look at an iconic actor in the early days of cinema.

Love Everlasting #3-5. Written by Tom King and drawn by Elsa Charretier. Joan Peterson made her way into plenty of love stories over these three issues. Issue five was a little different as it gave us a bit of background in what exactly was going on, but it did not lay out everything. Apparently, Joan’s mother has some involvement here- hiring the cowboy who has been killing Joan in the different timelines. Each of these issues had a different twist to them and I have been enjoying the mysterious story as in moves along.

Middlewest #1. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel is a young kid whose had plenty of problems from an abusive and strict father. Middlewest is a beautifully looking book that I was attracted to because of Skottie Young’s work on Strange Academy. He has become one of those writers that I want to read because their work is always great. This world is magical and I want to know more.

King of Spies #2. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Matteo Sealera. Roland King is back at it. He has six months to live and the former British spy has decided that he will use the time he has remaining to kill as many monsters as he can. It seemed that the British Intelligence knows who is behind the recent rush of murders and assassinations and they have called in Roland’s son, Atticus. Millar is really good at this style of story and I am intrigued with what is next.

Primordial #1. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. The pair that would eventually work on the Bone Orchard Mythos project, worked together on this series for Image. This is a book where the advancement of the space program took a different path in the early 1960s. The sci-fi book, which made me think of Interstellar crossed with The Department of Truth, kicks off with a great mystery involving what happened to a pair of monkeys sent into space.

Jane Foster & The Mighty Thor #5. “Part Five of Five.” Written by Torunn Grønbekk and drawn by Michael Dowling. This issue wrapped up the story of Jane Foster’s search for Thor and the attack by Ares, God of War, on Asgard. Honestly, this book was, at best, adequate. There was a lot of Thor-type action and weird names that can make it tough to follow. Still, it looked great and it leads into the current storyline running in Thor currently so, it was worth the read.

Ten Thousand Black Feathers #2. Written by Jeff Lemire with art from Andrea Sorrentino. We continue to see the background and history between Jackie and Trish, setting up the mystery beneath the series… Jackie’s disappearance. Trish is determined to help her friend, even after ten years. The splitting between the girls’ lives and the fantasy element of the book is cool and keeps things moving quickly.

Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body #1. “Chapter One: October 55th.” I found this number one in a pile and I was curious to read it. It was from Boom! Studios which has had plenty of solid short series. The book fell into a lot of the current books I have been reading, as a mystery man named Frank is assembling a group of people. Not sure what the mission is, but the last page has a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald starred in The Department of Justice too. I do not think I am pursuing this book any further, but it was not a bad read.

The Me You Love in the Dark #2. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Ro is an artist trying to rediscover her mojo, but the house that she is staying at is haunted… or something like that. This is an uncommon haunted house tale, as it really is more of a character piece with most of the book centered around a conversation. I liked it so far. It was an easy read and it keeps the suspense about what is going on.

Comic Catch-Up #42

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March 4, 2023

So it is post #42… which is, of course, the answer to the ultimate question. It was Jackie Robinson’s number that was retired by Major League Baseball across all teams. It was the final number of Hurley’s numbers on LOST. Number 42 is a significant number so it is a good day to do another special edition of the Comic Catch-Up.

I was pondering some questions the other day. One that I was thinking about was what causes me to try a new title? Especially now that I have been expanding my comic reading significantly past just Marvel. Why do I try something and not others?

What I came up with was clear. It was the writer.

When I was young, I was more into the artist. I remember being more of a fan of those people creating the look, the imagery, the beauty of the book than those who were writing it. I loved John Byrne, Walter Simonson, Arthur Adams, John Romita Jr (Spider-Man, of course), Frank Miller, among others.

Now, I honestly do not know a bunch of artists off the top of my head. However, when I see certain names of writers attached to projects, I feel my curiosity piqued. I have started the Bone Orchard Mythos because of Jeff Lemire. I gave Love Everlasting another chance because it was written by Tom King (who wrote the brilliant 2015 Vision series). Tom Tayler wrote my favorite run of Spidey books called Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. Donny Cates is up and down, either being brilliant with Crossover or horrendous with the new Hulk series. Speaking of Hulk, The Immortal Hulk brought Al Ewing to the front. I have purchased several of Skottie Young’s books because of his work on Strange Academy. Even the old days would make me think about Chris Claremont. Several of those artists I mentioned earlier transitioned into becoming writers too.

Though it would be up for debate, perhaps my current favorite writer working in comics today is most likely James Tynion IV. I was introduced to his work on Something is Killing the Children and I have loved The House of Slaughter, The Department of Truth and The Closet. I never read any of his Batman books that I have heard he became known for.

One of the things I love about Tynion’s writing is that he has such a variety of tones to his work and his style, which feels the same, is actually very different. In SiKtC, Tynion IV does not use a lot of dialogue or exposition, relying heavily on the art/images to move the story along. The Department of Truth is much opposite, as several of the issues were exposition-heavy. The look of many of these books are extremely original as well. Different is important.

No matter what they style, James Tynion IV is an exceptional storyteller, in many ways pushing the format of comics into areas where they have never been before. If I see his name on the cover of a book (say, Blue Book #1), I am much more likely to pick it up than I would be if it were written by another comic writer.

So, I jumped into James Tynion IV’s oeuvre today with both feet.

The Department of Truth #18-22. The art was done on all of these issues by Martin Simmonds. I was terribly upset, because as I reached issue 22, I realized that the book had ended. I did not know that before. I was upset because I had really enjoyed this book. Even worse, I think this last few issues were just amazing. The exposition-heavy part of these issues had been lowered a bit as more and more truth started to come out. They went into more specifics about what The Department of Truth and what exactly was happening. I should have seen that as a clue that the book was wrapping up. However, they left off on a massive cliffhanger so I hope that we have not seen the last of Lee Harvey Oswald and the others.

Enter the House of Slaughter Free Comic Book Day. Art by Tate Brombal. This was the prequel for the ongoing series House of Slaughter that came out on Free Comic Book Day. I had not read it when I was doing the Something is Killing the Children catch-up day, and it was in the pile just waiting for the opportunity. With the Tynion day today, the moment was perfect. It weaved together much of the background of the original arc for Erica and threw some more spice in the mix.

The Closet #1-3. Art by Gavin Fullerton. I had no idea that there were only three issues in this series, done during the 30th anniversary of Image Comics. I had read the first couple of issues, but I did not know it ended with three because I had not finished it. So I re-read the whole thing to keep myself clear on what was going down. I am pleased that I did because it was a tough story that was filled with pain and fear. Thom is such a horrible person and a rotten father and husband, but you can still relate to the loser’s struggles. Of course, in the end, his own selfishness was causing fear for his son and the imagery of what the kid was having happen was just hard to read.

The Nice House on the Lake #1-12. Artist: Álvaro Martínez Bueno. This is the series that I ordered when I was going over the Eisner Awards looking for interesting independent books. This is not independent as it is DC Comics Black Label, but it definitely has an indie-feel to it. I loved this book as some benevolent ‘alien(?)’ who had been masquerading as a human for years, was instructed to find 10 exceptional humans to save before the end of the world. However, Walter (the ‘alien’) had grabbed the friends he had made during his time as a human and he took them all to a idyllic paradise, on a house on a lake. He found out that the human nature was too erratic. The series does an excellent job of building this group of people over the run of the 12-issues so that they are important to the reader and three-dimensional as characters. Much like a lot of Tynion’s work, the narrative is not just told in the typical comic book fashion. The use of text messages, memos and sketches make this a unique and engaging series.

Creed III

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The third film of the Creed franchise was release this weekend with star Michael B. Jordan taking over directorial duties from Ryan Coogler, who directed the first three. Creed III continued the success of the Rocky spin off franchise with top level performances and some of the best boxing you’ve ever seen on the big screen.

Adonis Creed had retired from the world of boxing on top. His final fight led to a victory and Creed became a stay home dad and embrace the world of post boxing. When old old childhood friend, Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) returned after 18 years in prison, Creed found that dealing with the guilt of the incident that caused Damian to end up in prison was difficult for him.

When Creed was able to finagle a championship boxing match with his own protégé, Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez), the current champion, Creed did not expect the result that they got, and then he found out the real intention of his old friend.

I thought that Michael B. Jordan did a very solid job as the director of this movie. He certainly had huge shoes to fill in Ryan Coogler, and he did not reach that level, but he did a very solid job. There were some excellent shots in the film, in particular during the final boxing match, that you had never seen in this franchise (or the previous Rocky franchise) and that should be commended.

The performances were really great. Jordan was very confident in this role by now and you could see that he was comfortable in the skin of Adonis Creed no matter what they asked of him to do. They looked to explore residual guilt from the events of the night when Adonis and Damian were kids.

Jonathan Majors is a super star. Coming off his excellent work as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Majors was full of intensity and felt like he could explode at any moment. Yet, he tempered it with an understanding that this character was not an outright villain. He was not the Mr. T character from Rocky III. Damian had layers that brought a much more balanced character to oppose Creed.

Phylicia Rashad brought her best work in any of the films she has appeared as Mary-Anne Creed to date. Rashad stole several scenes and dominated ever moment she was on screen. There was a particular scene between Rashad and Jordan that could be Oscar worthy.

I will say that I found some parts of the story lacking somewhat. Now, this was not something that I noticed much during the film itself. It is more upon reflection afterwards that a few storyline beats popped up as areas that bothered me. I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling the scenes, but let’s just say that the event from Creed’s past did not necessarily work well for me, and that tarnished a lot of the story moving forward. It is not like I couldn’t get past it, but it was a weak point of the film.

A strong point was the boxing scenes. These scenes felt less exaggerated like the Rocky boxing matches always felt. These were well filmed and constructed in a vey exciting and dramatic manner.

This was a really solid installment in the franchise and I enjoyed watching the movie. I was impressed by Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut inside a huge franchise project. It could not have been an easy feat and he should be considered extremely successful in what he accomplished.

3.9 stars

Comic Catch-Up #41

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March 3, 2023

It’s Friday night and I have read several comics over the last couple of days. I am going to continue to read these books and when there is enough, I will continue to do the Comic Catch-Up.

I got one of my orders from eBay today with a graphic novel. It will be the first book I discuss below as I continue to find more interest in the Bone Orchard Mythos by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino.

Off we go…

The Passageway. Writer: Jeff Lemire. Artist: Andrea Sorrentino. This graphic novel kicked off the Bone Orchard Mythos where Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino team-up once again to build a horror book and several horror series that fall inside the same connected universe. That idea intrigued me a great deal and so I looked into the books. This graphic novel is a wonderful kick off to this horror world. The art is great with some beautiful images on these pages. The story is intense. These birds are really creepy. It is a great start to this project.

Ten Thousand Black Feathers #1. Jeff Lemire & Andrea Sorrentino’s The Bone Orchard Mythos continues with this new short series. It starts with am introduction to two characters, Trish and Jackie, and their relationship, how it began and where they went. The darkness is there and the mysterious events are extremely inventive and involving.

Basilisk #2. “Chapter Two: Blessings of the Chimera.” Written by Cullen Bunn and drawn by Jonas Scharf. This issue was a little more of a downward trend for me. I still enjoyed it, but there was a lot in here that felt like I wasn’t sure what was happening (and not in the good way) and material that did not still with me after reading it. Still love the character and the last page was beautifully horrific so I hope the narrative grasps my attention more moving forward.

Jane Foster & the Mighty Thor #4. “Part Four of Five.” Written by Torunn Grønbekk with art from Michael Dowling. Jane Foster continues her search to find Thor and the connection between the pair of these characters is developed more. And while that is going on… we get Ares. Looks like the finale of this short series could be fire.

The Department of Truth #17. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Jorge Fornés. Lee Harvey Oswald joins forces with President Richard Nixon. I had to let that idea sink in a minute. The rest of the book focuses in on the Apollo 11 moon landing mission. One of the interesting ideas with The Department of Truth is that you read the story and you are never really sure if what you read is what happened. It is the ultimate conspiracy theory book that is just fascinating with its big swings every issue.

The Riddler Year One #3. Written by Paul Dano with art by Stevan Subic. The cover featured art by the legendary Bill Sienkiewicz. I did have more trouble following this issue than I did with previous ones. I have a feeling I have a good idea where it is going, but I can also see a situation where I misjudged what the book is trying to tell me. It is still a beautifully original book with some great storytelling techniques.

Ghost Rider #12. “Neeropolis.” Written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by Cory Smith. Savannah is going up in flames and it seemed as if the Ghost Rider was to blame. This was news to Johnny Storm, who arrived in the city with Talia discovering that plenty of people thought he was behind this. Blaze had an idea of what had happened… and the idea of another Ghost Rider popped up.

King of Spies #1. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Matteo Sealera. One of the world’s greatest spies, Roland King, is at a time in his life where he is having health issues. In fact, he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given 6 months to live. Instead of rolling over and dying, Roland decided to take the fight to the evil of the world. Mark Millar writes this type of character extremely well and this first issue of four was very compelling.

Cove the Dead with Lime #3. The story of Jack Teller continues as we see how he wound up becoming one of the hooded plague doktors. It is a terribly tragic tale told in a difficult manner. The art is extremely moody and tense. This has been an intriguing book written by Jonathan Chance and drawn by Hernan Gonzalez.

Love Everlasting #2. “The Hunt for Love.” Written by Tom King and drawn by Elsa Charretier. Joan finds herself in a new love story, this time as a maid who fell in love with the son of the nobleman she worked for. To say that his father approved of the love would be an understatement. Then, as the book continued, the story takes a weird turn. Love Everlasting provided, once more, a compelling and unexpectedly good story. I am very anxious to find out what is going down here.

Poker Face (1 x 09)

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SPOILERS

“Escape from Shit Mountain”

Now that is more like it!

This may have been my favorite episode of Poker Face this entire season. It destroyed the formula that the show had followed and it was all the better for it.

To be fair, the show had been playing with the format of the show for the last few episodes after the first part of the season was starting to feel a little repetitive.

The show still had the big time guest star, this time being Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Instead of Charlie finding herself involved in the life of the victim, she got hit by a car driven by Gordon-Levitt during a snowstorm. Gordon-Levitt took her to a hole in the woods where he had buried an old girlfriend ten years ago and he threw Charlie in with the remains.

Charlie showed an amazing ability to survive. In this episode alone, she dug herself out of the grave with a human femur, survived being stabbed with a knife, and struggled to move around with a badly injured leg.

Charlie was truly amazing here and showed some ferocity that we had not seen this season. She also started talking about the year as a whole being dark and having been followed by death.

The show was also quite brutal as two of the secondary characters of the episode died in horrible ways, including a klepto friend of Charlie’s that she met at a convenience store.

The confrontation with Charlie and Gordon-Levitt was dramatic and tense. I loved every minute of it. The show even made me wonder what was going to happen. When he drove that knife into Charlie, my mouth went agape despite me knowing that they were not going to kill off the main character of the show.

Then, just when it seemed that Charlie was finally out of trouble, Benjamin Bratt arrived, ready to re-spark the story that kicked off the season.

Just a tremendous episode that surpassed the pilot and the episode starring Judith Light.

Comic Catch-Up #40

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March 1, 2023

Well, welcome to the All-New, All-Different Comic Catch-Up for March. Okay, so it may not be all-new or all-different. I got a cool new heading for March, though. Reminder that I will not be doing this post daily as I did in February, but it will absolutely be a regular post during March.

It is Wednesday, so that means it is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY. I actually bought a bunch of back issues today, including several Love Everlasting issues, but I stuck to reading the new issues tonight.

Interestingly, it was March 1st, and Marvel released like seven different books that were number ones. I got them all. There are some that I may not continue collecting moving forward, but it is a coincidence that all the number ones arrived on the first of the month.

Here is the night’s haul.

Hallows’ Eve #1. “There’s One in Every Deck.” Hallows’ Eve came from the pages of Amazing Spider-Man during the Dark Web storyline, which may not have been the biggest selling point for this book. I did not love the Dark Web event, but this issue was much more intriguing. This character had some good moments in this first issue and, I mean, she pretended to be a werewolf. Can’t beat that. Written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Michael Dowling.

I am Iron Man #1. “Chapter One: Hero” Written by Murewa Ayodele with art by Dotun Akande. I did like this book. In particular, the look of the issue was just wonderful. I was very impressed with the art from Dotun Akande. Akande’s cover was really great, harping back to a noir flavor. The story itself was a tad difficult to follow as the story trekked across several different versions of Iron Man in different time frames.

Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #1. Written by Emily Kim and drawn by Kei Zama. David Nakayama did the cover for this issue. This was a fun book, even if the story constantly used the C-word. Clones. That word brings back some horrendous feelings of betrayal and anger. Feelings that have never truly allowed me to give a crap about Ben Reilly, no matter what position he was in. However, Gwen is just a charming character and is fun to read.

Rogue & Gambit #1. “Buy a Girl A(nother) Ring First.” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Steve Morris. This book reminded me of how much I used to enjoy Gambit. This started out with some excellent Remy LeBeau action, albeit some drunk action. Of course, when your wife is Rogue, you are usually in a pretty good place. When Destiny shows up with one of her visions, she sends Rogue and Gambit to retrieve Manifold, the teleporter. It does not go well.

Spider-Man: Unforgiven #1. “Horror Stuff” Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Sid Kotian. Kyle Hotz & Dan Brown did the art on the cover. This looks to be the next series of books with a new group of supernatural characters. These are the Forgiven and they are vampires who do not consume human blood and are out to look to help humans. They come across Spider-Man in this issue and next issue will meet up with the X-Men. There was a surprising betrayal in this issue that caught me, and the other characters, off guard. I hope to get more on these new characters than just their vampire powers.

Murderworld: Game Over #1. Written by Jim Zub & Ray Fawkes with art from Lorenzo Tammetta. This concluded the Murderworld story with Arcade’s Squid Game (basically). I had been cheering for the regular humans to make it through the trap-filled Murderworld. Turned out that Black Widow, who appeared at the end of the last episode, was not our Natasha after all. LMDs. Arcade showed what a manipulative villain he could be and displayed the depth of his cruelness. I’m not sure I loved the ending, but I did like this series.

Cosmic Ghost Rider #1. “Dual Identity Part One.” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Juann Cabal. This was fine. I have never been much of a fan of the character of Cosmic Ghost Rider and this did nothing to change my mind. I was fine with the book and I liked the design of Kral Dravitt. While it was fine, I will most likely not continue on with this one.

Spider-Man #6. “Part Six: The Once and Future Queen.” So there were more than just number ones this month. This is written by Dan Slott and drawn by Mark Bagley. Despite this A + creative team, I just am not into this Spider-Verse stuff. I just want my Peter Parker in Spider-Man stories. I do not need all of these variants everywhere. This is labeled as the End of the Spider-verse and I hope that it is the case.

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #10. Written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly. Art is by Carmen Carnero. M.O.D.O.C. is here and causing all kinds of trouble. Cap is still shaken from the betrayal of Bucky and the Invaders are here to help stop the giant headed villain. However, it seemed as if the book ends with some tragedy.