It is Friday night and my usual Wednesday night post of the comic cover of the week is finally out. Yes, there was more difficulties with the shipment from Comic World, as well as several other shops in the area. The shipment did not arrive until today so I was able to get the books tonight (except for the DC books, which were on time…Transformers too oddly).
With the holidays, I am sure that is a big part of the issue with the delivery, so I would not be surprised to see this happen a few more times in December.
However, be on the lookout for the special Year in Review Favorite Comic Cover of the Year, which is coming soon. We will present Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for both the best regular covers and the best variant covers. Then, we will name the best cover of the year. That is coming soon.
Here are this week’s medalist…
Bronze Medalist
The Terminator #3
Variant cover C
Cover art by Cat Staggs
Quick glance made me think this was Dr. Doom. I can see now that the Terminator is in some leaves. So maybe Predator? I like the green surrounding.
Silver Medalist
Scarlet Witch #7
Cover art by Russell Dauterman
Oooh, spooky looking Wanda image on the cover. I love the colors across this cover. The colors really make this cover pop.
Gold Medalist
Uncanny X-Men #7
Cover art by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson
You can never go wrong with two teams of X-Men facing off with each other. Love how this looks.
Kraven the Hunter is the final film in the Sony Extended Spider-Man Universe, which has included the Venom movies, Morbius, and Madame Web. And I think I can speak for everybody when I say, THANK GOD!
I had a lot of hopes that Kraven could be an exception for the Spider-Man-less films. Unfortunately, this was the rule instead.
Kraven the Hunter was terrible.
I am not sure what this movie was supposed to be. The story was all over the place and the film jumped about willy-nilly.
Where to start? I mean… everything that we saw in this film made no sense and the film did not seem to care much about making it make sense.
There was a tremendous cast here that somehow brought some of the worst acting you have ever seen. Aaron Taylor Johnson was okay as Kraven, but Russell Crowe and Ariana DeBose, both who had won Oscars, gave some of the worst performances I have ever seen. How does this happen?
Part of it was that the writing was some of the worst of the year. The dialogue was horrendous, laughable and did no favors for any of these actors. It was on the level of Madame Web which was one of the worst of the year.
Another part of the dialogue that was terrible was all of the ADR. This is a thing when the movie will have voice overs, re-recording scenes for whatever reason. The fact is that the ADR is done really poorly. I swear the character The Foreigner never moves his mouth. It was very noticeable and distracting. All movies do ADRs, but why does the Sony Spider-Man movie do this so badly (because Madame Web was terrible too).
There were some action that was okay, particularly a chase scene with a car and Kraven on foot. However, most of the action of this movie were average, at best. With the action being okay, the film needed it to be much better to overcome the other negatives of it.
Sadly, it feels like Kraven the Hunter has joined the race for the worst movie of the year. There are legit 6 films that could be in that number one slot at the end of the month for my Worst Movie List. There was just no life or any sort of joy here. Every time Kraven cracks a quip, it was totally flat and felt out of place. Some of the CGI was as poor as you would expect. There just is not much to enjoy about Kraven the Hunter. He has always been one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, but this does not work on any level.
The third episode of Creature Commandos focused on G.I. Robot, taking us back to World War II where he was programed to kill Nazis and fought beside Sgt. Rock.
We also saw the acts of fate that led G.I. Robot to wind up with Task Force M. Sean Gunn voiced G.I. Robot and he does a great job giving the single-minded robot some serious complexities.
Complexities and just a whole bunch of violence. Blood splattering violence.
Circe looked really tough for a bit… and then got brought down hard… I mean HARD…by Weasel and Doctor Phosphorus. So hard that Rick Flagg even grimaced, leading The Bride to say, “You wanted monsters, you got monsters.”
Oooft
The animation is great and I love the voice cast. I just hope it does not just become a big violent excuse to smear blood all over the place. I need more than just that. I already have Invincible for that.
Okay, so perhaps this is not the season finale after all.
I really thought that this was the season finale. But when I pulled up the show on Apple TV +, I saw episode 11 listed for next Wednesday. So I guess this is not the final episode of the season. I do not know how many there are.
That does not bother me much because Shrinking is consistently one of the best written and entertaining shows on TV.
I had been wondering where this show was going as it seemed like most of the storylines were wrapped up over the last couple of episodes, but there were a couple that came raging back into the forefront.
In particular, the whole Louis/Alice friendship came back hard and heavy this week. Alice found out that Jimmy had told Louis to not see Alice again and that crushed her. Apparently, there are more legs to this as Alice told her father that he ruined another birthday.
Oh yeah, it was Alice’s 18 birthday. She was a little unfair in this situation in my opinion. I mean, Jimmy did find her a car just like his wife. Sure he can be blind in a lot of ways, but to say that he ruined the birthday felt a touch harsh.
There are some great development with all of the other characters too. Paul, Liz, Derek, Julie, and Gaby had solid arcs within this episode, but they all paled in comparison to the birthday escapades.
I wonder how many more episodes the season has for us?
Every year, the technology becomes more amazing and it opens up stories possibilities. The days of putting bad wigs on actors to try and make them look younger are over.
De-Aging and virtual actors is a technique that is increasing. And this award goes to the year’s best
The Kurt Russell EGO De-Aging Award
Previous Winners: Robert DeNiro (The Irishman), Mark Hamill (The Mandalorian), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man: No Way Home), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things season 4), Samuel L. Jackson (Secret Invasion)
Some of the best de-aging of the year included Michael Keaton from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Ian Holm was brought back to life in Alien: Romulus. Pat Morita made an appearance in the middle section of Cobra Kai. It was a shocking moment. Connie Nielsen was de-aged in Gladiator 2.
But this year’s winner is in a film that was, at best, okay, but was well known for its gimmick.
Winners: Tom Hanks and Robin Wright(Here)
There was a lot of de-aging in this film, and at several different levels. We stick with these characters through years in this house from this one camera angle and Tom Hanks and Robin Wright are at the center of much of it. And they look great as their younger selves. The problems Here had was not their de-aging.
Okay, this was another episode that was a lot of fun. Throwing these kids into a Star Wars universe was a great idea and bringing in Jude Law to be the scallywag “helping” them find their way back to the hidden planet of At Attin works on so many different levels.
Can Jude Law be trusted? As Jod Na Nawood, he was not the Jedi as Wim thought he was. His response of “I never said I was” is a masterful manipulation. I do like how the kids were not completely taken in by this guy. Sure Wim was full on hero worshipping him, but the others all had their doubts. I do like how they seemingly forced him to come with the truth. But did he? I’m not sure.
Loved the Kim owl-ish creature that Jod Na took the kids too as a way to try and find the coordinates of At Attin. Retrieving Sm-33 was great too, and this droid is one of my favorite parts of the show so far. His scenes with Jod were funny and revealing for both characters.
We got some back story on At Attin too, although, again, as with much of this show so far, what is believable and what is true?
Episode three was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to next week.
At my school, I had a chance to teach The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton this year. I had not taught the book since 1999. After we finished the unit, we watched the movie. So over the last two days I watched the Francis Ford Coppola film three times. I knew that I had not seen this movie in a long time so I figured that I had never reviewed the film. This is the chance.
Honestly, I did not love this. My memory was that the first time I watched this, I thought this was better than I did this time.
According to IMDB, “It is 1961, and Tulsa, Oklahoma is divided in two along social lines. The youths of each side form gangs in line with these two camps: the working class Greasers and the wealthier South Side gang, the Socs. The two sides use any opportunity to niggle each other and whenever they meet, there is friction. Then one night, a gang of Socs attack two Greasers with a knife. This sets off a chain of events“
There were several things that bugged me about this movie. Top of the list was probably the performance from Matt Dillion as Dally Winston, which felt about as over the top as it could possibly be. His overacting really bothered me in most of the scenes he was in.
The second thing I noticed was the horrendous sound mixing. There are several times that I couldn’t understand or hear certain lines of dialogue from characters because of the music or because it was just too messy.
I also feel like they did not do a service to a bunch of the characters from the book. Sure, I understand they wanted to focus on the main characters, but Sodapop was neglected and he should be a more vital part of the story. I do not feel that they did a good job of connecting Johnny to any other character outside of Ponyboy and Dally.
I do think that C. Thomas Howell was excellent as Ponyboy, and I loved Ralph Macchio as Johnny. I thought Macchio was really consistently good for the scenes that he was in. I will say though, one of the moments of the church fire, Johnny moved through just like Daniel LaRusso moved through the storm in Karate Kid II. That was funny to me. Anyway, Macchio was really good as the doomed Johnny.
Patrick Swayze had some good scenes, but could have used more time. Tom Cruise was in the film, but he was basically a background guy. Emilio Estevez was in the film as Two-Bit and, again, was just a shadow of the character of the book. I understand there is just not enough time for every character to be illuminated, but I do think we should have a bit more from these major characters.
It felt too melodramatic for my tastes. It was still a decent movie, but I found it to be nowhere as effective as the first time I watched it years ago.
Up next in the Year in Review is the EYG Star of the Year. This can be any number of possible Geek culture individuals or groups that have been the standout of the year. Last year was Taylor Swift. We have had Marvel Studios win before. Lin-Manuel Miranda was another winner. Here are the previous winners.
EYG Star of the Year
Previous Winners: Gal Gadot, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jennifer Lawrence, Marvel Studios, J.J. Abrams, Josh Brolin, Damon Lindelof & Regina King, Netflix, Andrew Garfield, Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift
Some years have been a tough choice for EYG Star of the Year, but I thought it was very obvious which person deserved to win this award for 2024. I had this one figured out in July, and only waited to see if anyone else would exceed this choice. No one else did.
EYG Star of the Year for 2024 is…..
Ryan Reynolds
Not only did Ryan Reynolds have one of the biggest films of the year with Deadpool & Wolverine, but he also had the movie IF, which was a decent flick in the early part of the year. He has been everywhere and has become beloved.
The biggest outrages of this year on the internet had on major theme. I usually try an avoid this area on EYG, but this is the Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year.
The Don’t Feed the Trolls: Insane Internet Rage Scandal of the Year
Previous Winner: Baby Yoda eats frog’s eggs (2020), Masters of the Universe: Revelations part one (2021), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), Twitter becomes X (2023)
This year’s winner? One word.
TRUMP
And it could be any direction. It could be his supporters going after anyone opposing Trump. It could be the Never Trumpers who went after him. It could be Trump himself on Truth Social and his own hater-ade.
So much of the 2024 election was targeted, attacked, whined about on X or Truth Social or YouTube that it was nearly impossible to avoid.
I know I got tired of the constant bickering or hating or negativity, on both sides. Hopefully we can move forward and see…
We added this category recently, but backtracked to award some previous films the award.
Movie Musicals
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Whiplash (2014), Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), La La Land (2016), The Greatest Showman (2017), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Rocketman (2019), Hamilton (2020), Tick, Tick… Boom! (2021), Matilda the Musical (2022), The Color Purple (2023)
We had some musicals in 2024. There was Piece by Piece, which was a musical documentary, in Lego format doing the life of Pharrell Williams. Moana 2 is a huge box office success, but, truthfully, the music just did not hit as well as the original. That’s what happens when you do not have Lin-Manuel Miranda doing your music. Speaking of Miranda, he is doing the music for the upcoming Mufasa film from Disney, and while that is probably going to be great, I do not think it will match this year’s winner. Joker: Folie à Deux was a disappointment in a lot of ways, and musically was one of them. They really did not take advantage of Lady Gaga. Mean Girls was very forgettable from way back in January. Emilia Perez was a powerful movie, but I can honestly say that much of the music in this film, I do not remember. I do not consider Bob Marley: One Love to be a musical, though I could mention it as an effective use of music.
2024 Movie Movie Musical of the Year:
Wicked
Yeah, this one was easy. This is a massive hit and a tremendous film. The rendition of “Defying Gravity” in this film is goosebump creating. Both Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo were stunning with their voices and made this iconic Broadway play a must see movie…even as a Part 1. Could this be foreshadowing next year’s winner too?
We are doing another Comic Cavalcade because in issue #127, I only had a handful of issues to do. I have covered the delivery issue with Comic World enough, but I received a call on Friday saying everything was in. I was very excited and went to buy it that night.
The books were Marvel and Independent and I had a light weekend of movies, so this gave me an opportunity to finish these up and do another post.
Thanks to Todd and Pat from Comic World for their work getting these available for selling. I am sure there would be stores that would just say they can wait until next week.
There was also the eBay update. I got Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham #6 delivered to me the other day. I have just a handful of Peter Porker books remaining to pick up.
Books from this new order…and beyond:
Grommets #1-2. Written by Rick Remender and Brian Posehn. The art is done by Brett Parson. This was another eBay pick up. I had seen someone on Bluesky (love this new platform, btw) raving about this comic (sorry, I do not remember whom it was). I was curious about it so I picked up the issues on eBay. This is a very intriguing book, and very different than what I was expecting. Definitely skateboarding is vital to the story. I did like these characters, though I am not sure what I was expecting. I have more issues coming from eBay soon, so I do look forward to continuing with it.
Deadpool/Wolverine: Weapon X-Traction #1. Written by Ryan North and art by Javier Garrón. Javier Garrón & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. This one-shot was actually really enjoyable. Looking back, I see Ryan North as the writer, who I love from the recent FF run. I can see he can write Wolverine and Deadpool too. This was a hoot of an issue.
Wolverine #4. “Lost and Found“. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo. Martin Coccolo & Bryan Valenza did the cover art. Wolverine is working with the new Wendigo to try and help the young kid manage his curse. However, Constrictor gets in the way. And something weird is going on with the adamantium. I am a big fan of this new Wendigo and I hope it continues on.
Blade: Red Band #2. Written by Bryan Hill and art by C.F. Villa. Cover art was done by C.F. Villa and Federico Blee. Blade is trying to deal with his life post Blood Hunt and he is on a mission where he encounters Elena. Some good Blade action in this book (though I once again do not think this necessarily rises to the level of Red Band).
Werewolf by Night: Red Band #5. Written by Jason Loo and penciled by Sergio Davila. E.M. Gist did the cover art. Jack Russell has been cast out of the Savage land and he has come across the one and only Bruce Banner in a huge coincidence. Red Hood and his band probably does not want to make him angry because they won’t like it when he’s angry. I got a kick out of it though.
The Exorcism at 1600 Penn #2. Written by Hannah Rose May and art and cover art by Vanesa Del Ray (Bronze Medalist). The president of the United States’ daughter has a problem. She is sick (or is she?) and her brother believes it is his fault. What can he do about it and will his religious leaders believe him? I have enjoyed this series so far very much. I like the POV of the President involved in this story. It is different than what we are used to. Different is always epic.
All-New Venom #1. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art (Gold foil) by Iban Coello (Silver Medalist). Cover A art by Adam Kubert. I really loved this new take on Venom. I have not read Venom in years, but this was intriguing. Who is the new Venom? Is it Madame Masque, Luke Cage, Rick Jones or Robbie Robertson? Weird group of suspects. I’m not sure if I have an inkling yet, but I do hope they do not just reveal it too soon. If I had to guess, at this point, I would guess Luke Cage. My fourth place is Madame Masque (which probably means it is her). Third is Robbie and second is Rick Jones, but that order can change at any point. I just think it is a fascinating idea to give the symbiote to the NY Mayor. We’ll see where it goes.
Red Before Black #3. Written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated and cover art by Goran Sudžuka. Val and Leo are out on an adventure… well, that is after Val recovered. Leo thought she was dead. This series has a Thelma and Louise vibe to it… and Winston, a baby alligator. I hate alligators.
NYX #6. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and penciled by Michael Shelfer. Cover art was done by Sara Pichelli & Federico Blee. Kamala and her friends are out on the town on their way to a Dazzler concert. She wanted a happy outing with her friends. Mojo had some different thoughts on that matter… and, let’s face it, a Dazzler concert is an invite for trouble (have you seen the Dazzler mini series? What did Kamala expect?)
Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #8. “Haunted” Part 8. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Ghost Spider is on the trail of the Black Tarantula, fighting the clock against a verdict in the case against a corrupt judge. Along the way, Gwen battles Mister Fear. Luke Cage guest starred in this issue too.
The Ultimates #7. Written by Deniz Camp and art by Juan Frigeri. Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon did the cover art. Hank Pym and Jim Hammond are out to see Tony Stark’s memorial. Lots of other things are going down with the world in seemingly crisis mode. However, the last page revealed the not-so-shocking reveal about the truth surrounding Stark. This feels like a building issue that may be leading to something bigger.
Hello Darkness #5. Another issue of the Boom! Studios hit horror anthology including another short with Erica Slaughter (kind of). Hello Darkness has been a nice book featuring some interesting comic horror, but I will say that I have enjoyed the James Tynion IV stories the most.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #27. “Webs of Wakanda Part One.” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Daniele Di Nicuolo. Federico Vicentini & Erick Arciniega did the cover art. Miles is on his way to Wakanda with T’Challa in the hopes of finding some kind of answer with his vampirism.
Holiday Tales to Astonish #1. Cover art by Luciano Vecchio. Three Christmas stories featuring the Fantastic Four, the Uncanny X-Men and the Spectacular Spider-Men and creator including Gerry Duggan, Phil Noto, Daniel Kibblesmith, Pat Olliffe, Gene Yang, and Dylan Burnett. All three stories were fun, but my personal favorite was the present stealing Dr. Doom in the FF.
X-Men #8. “Raid on Graymalkin Part 1“. Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Cover art was done by Stegman, JP Mayer and Marte Gracia. The beginning of a big crossover between the X-Men and the Uncanny X-Men series, as the teams head to Graymalkin (the former estate of Charles Xavier) to try and retrieve their team members. I liked some of the character work with the Beast in this issue. Things look grave moving forward.
Avengers #21. “Avengers vs. X-Men.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Valero Schiti. Cover art was done by Valero Schiti and Federico Blee. Yes, it is the X-Men vs. the Avengers… in a softball game! It turns out like kissing your sister… a tie! Who knew that Glob was such a great cook? Glob turns out to be the X-Men’s Jarvis. Oh, and Quentin Quire is a dick. We knew that already. The cover is a bit of a mislead… okay, more than a bit.
Avengers Assemble #4. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Valentina Pinti. Cover art was by Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. The Aveng.e.r.s head to Latveria to try and prevent Victorious from doing too much damage trying to get into the dome around the country. Meanwhile, Steve Rogers gets turned into another animal. How many times does that poor guy have to get transformed?
The Art of Something is Killing the Children Companion. Cover art by Werther Dell’Edera (Gold Medalist). This is an art book compiling some of the awesome art of the epic Boom! Studios series. There are some of the greatest artists in comics today providing their work on Erica Slaughter and the excellent series. From Peach Momoko to Guillem March, some of the most beautiful work is on display in this book. It is stunning and any fan of the series and of just astounding comic art should pick this companion up.
Other books this time: Arkham Horror #3, Seance in the Asylum #2, Venom War #5, X-Force #6, Anansi Boys #6, and The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #14.
I was struggling with this award this year. This is one of the most recent awards we give out during the Year in Review. It came around because I wanted to give Violent Night a specific award.
Here are the list of winners
The X-Mas Movie of the Year
Previous Winners:Violent Night, The Holdovers
You can see there has only been two winners so far. I could have gone back and retroactively given this award out to films such as Netflix’s Klaus, Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, The Muppets Christmas Carol, Scrooged or (sorry Bruce) Die Hard. Heck, I could have named this award the Die Hard Memorial X-Mas Award (I really wish I had done that).
Looking at the Christmas movies that I had watched this year, all I had was Red One. Red One was disliked by a lot of people. I did not hate it, but it was not very good for sure. There was an animated movie on Netflix called That Christmas which was in consideration, but sadly I only thought it was passable too. The second half of that movie was really great to be fair, but I was bored through the beginning.
I chose to go to a film today because I did not have a distinct choice for this award. It was a film that I had no interest in seeing, but had a great Rotten Tomatoes score. I had a lazy Sunday planned and there was a 9:15 AM showtime at Cinemark and I thought that would be a good opportunity.
The movie I saw this morning is officially the winner of this award…
Winner: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Based on a novel, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was funny, well written, and full of interesting characters who have to decide what Christmas means to them. This was a really solid movie and it works extremely well as the winner of the….
It was a strange path to arrive at me watching this movie. After seeing trailers, I had zero interest in going to see this Christmas movie. It looked very much like a Lifetime special and Christmas is down my list of holidays. I had pretty much decided I would not go to this.
Then I started doing the Year in Review and I realized that the only Christmas film that I had seen this year was Red One, and that was, at best, okay. It felt wrong to give it the X-Mas Movie of the Year Award so I watched an animated movie called This Christmas on Netflix. Sadly, it was just around okay too. I then looked at the Rotten Tomatoes score for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and it was at 91% critics and 97% audience. This made me wonder if I should take this basically open weekend and go see it. It was only an hour and a half. How could that be painful? So even with a doubt in my head, I went to Cinemark this morning for a 9:15 AM showing.
This was really a good movie. I liked this way more than I ever expected.
Historically, I have not been a fan of the faith-based movies, but that is not what this is. This is a movie featuring characters who are being reminded about what Christmas means to them, and how important the Christmas story can be for them. It was about characters. And it was really well done.
Based on a popular novel, we are introduced to The Herdmans, a family of six children who were the biggest troublemakers in the town of Emmanuel. They were feared by children and adults alike.
At this time, the director of the local pageant broke both of her legs, making her unable to continue to do her duties. Grace (Judy Greer) volunteered to take over the job. Unbeknownst to her, the Herdmans decided to come and join the church’s pageant (to get the snacks they were told would come with it). The Herdmans, led by the scary Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), forced their way into the main roles of the pageant, which just happened to be the 75th Annual event.
This was well written, solidly acted and had some genuine funny moments. You can’t but help to like the antics of the Holdman kids, and you can see the diamonds in the rough beneath their surface, especially Imogene. Young Beatrice Schneider does a fantastic job in the role, bringing a humanity to this character that is gruff and unappealing on the surface.
I will admit to getting kind of emotional during the film. I was amazingly impressed with the kindness and unbelievable patience shown by Grace, who could have easily bowed to city pressure and dumped the Holdmans from the play. As a teacher, I was inspired by the way she reacted to these troublesome children and watching the Holdmans respond to the play and trying to answer the questions they naturally had (by a trip to the library) was awesome to me.
You kind of knew what the film’s resolution was going to be, but it was well constructed and still managed to tug on those heartstrings. This was one of those times where predictability was not a negative.
As a Christmas movie, this is much better than much of the sentimental slop that is out there and it gives us a chance to really question if we know the true meaning of Christmas.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 