Author Archives: Doc

EYG Comic Cavalcade #138

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February 6

We had some ice last night in the weather and it has led to there being a no school day today after I had a personal day on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY. All that meant that I had some open time to finish reading the books and the EYG Comic Cavalcade is able to come out early this week.

I picked up several graphic novels yesterday, two at Comic World and two at BAM!. At Comic World, I grabbed We Called Them Giants by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans and Fantastic Four: Season One by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and David Marquez. The Gillen/Hans book is beautiful and really great. At BAM!, I got Dark Horse graphic novel Skull and Bones: Savage Storm by John Jackson Miller and James Mischler and the beautifully drawn The Road, adapted by Manu Larcenet.

This is a double dose of Marvel this week as the missing shipment from Diamond (boooooo) last week arrived with this week’s books. Diamond is really setting themselves up as the antagonist of this column.

Books this week:

Exorcism at 1600 Penn #3. Written by Hannah Rose May and art by Vanesa Del Ray. Cover art was done by Vanesa Del Ray. The possession of the President’s daughter takes more steps forward as Kevin tries to convince everyone that it was happening. I was getting frustrated how these adults were all so blind with their denial, but it seemed like everyone has come around to the truth as the penultimate issue of this series concluded.

Deadpool #10. Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Roge Antonio. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Deadpool and Ellie are back from the dead with their healing factors compromised. Taskmaster tried to help them train their fighting style to adjust. I was not a huge fan of this issue or the way they have downgraded Deadpool’s healing factor. I am willing to see where they go.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz #1. Adapted, Illustrated and cover art by Otis Frampton. This is an adaptation of one of the novels from L. Frank Baum and I really enjoyed it. It was a surprise to find it in my box, because I did not remember actually ordering it (I’m not saying I didn’t do it. Just did not remember it). I like the more cartoony art here because it worked so well with this story. I found this to be very joyous.

Hellhunters #2. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and drawn by Adam Gorham. Variant cover art by Salvador Larroca & Edgar Delgado. This World War II series with these characters continues to be interesting, especially now that Logan (aka Wolverine) has joined the crew. He has made it much bloodier than it had been. This dynamic is intriguing as well.

Namor #7. “The Battle of the Eighth” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson & Alex Lins. Varian Cover art by Olivier Coipel (Silver Medalist). I thought this was epic. Namor facing down the leaders of the different ocean kingdoms. Namor’s battles were so awesome.

The Ultimates #9. Written by Deniz Camp and guest artist is Chris Allen. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neeraj J. Menon (Bronze Medalist). We get a whole issue featuring Luke Cage in jail. This Ultimate universe continues to be rocking hard.

Spider-Boy #15. “All Eyes on the Prize.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Paco Medina. with Spider-Girl’s origin art by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. Cover art by Paco Medina and Edgar Delgado. The Dragon’s Challenge rolled on as we end up with a final battle between Daredevil & Spider-Boy and Bullseye & Spider-Girl. Daredevil does something to protect Bailey that was unexpected and costs them dearly.

Avengers #23. “The Casino Job Part 2” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Farid Karami. Cover art was done by Valerio Schiti & Alex Sinclair. The ultimate odd couple is taking on the Avengers this week. Kang the Conqueror and the Black Cat. Huh? Strange pairing for sure, but Kang needs someone to steal something and he chose Felicia.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #12. “Hero Worship.” Written by Greg Weisman and art by Emilio Laiso. Cover art was done by David Baldeón and Edgar Delgado. The two Electros return and are about to defeat the two Spider-Men until we get the appearance of a scaly surprise. Honestly, this issue felt a little lesser than it has been recently. We’ll see how it goes from here.

X-Men #10. “Brinksmanship.” Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Netho Diaz. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer and Marte Gracia (Gold Medalists). This was another epic issue that was highlighted with a tension filled confrontation between Cyclops and Lundqvist. This scene was just awesome and stood out as one of the best one-on-one verbal matchups in the entire series. I loved this.

Juvenile #3. Written, illustrated and cover art by Jesus Orellana. Juvenile has just been a tremendous book over the first three issues. Sara and Max are amazing together and there is a ton of stress after they are recaptured from their escape attempt. What is going to happen to them? It is especially up in the air after we see Ella. This might be my current favorite independent book going.

Justice League: The Atom Project #2. “Cold Fusion.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley and art and cover by Mike Perkins. I will admit that I was not as into this issue of the series as I was issue #1. I do like super powered polar bears though.

Absolute Superman #4. “Chasing the Storm.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Rafa Sandoval. Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola did the cover art. Superman seems to be messing with the Peacemakers, and they are not happy about it. I actually thought this was the weakest of the Absolute Superman books so far too. Still, I like this new take on the character.

Ultimate X-Men #11. Written, illustrated and cover art by Peach Momoko. This was an interesting book. There were several mentions of other Ultimate books, including Black Panther and the new Black Cat. I wonder if this was included to make sure everyone understood that the Ultimate X-Men was still taking place in the same universe even though it is so different from anything else.

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #2. Written by Frank Tieri and art by Michael Sta. Maria. Tyler Kirkham and Arif Prianto did the cover art. I enjoyed how this book is building the world of this time, with all of these groups vying for power. Plus, Sabretooth takes on an alligator man. Always fun.

When I Lay My Vengeance Upon Thee #2. Written by Gus Moreno and illustrated and cover art by Jakub Rebelka. More possession this week as Father Stygian and Father Barrera have to face some seriously gross stuff.

Frankenstein New World: The Sea of Forever #1. Script by Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden & Thomas Sniegoski. A follow up series from ten years ago, Mike Mignola returned to Frankenstein and young Lilja following her vision above ground. I like this take on the Frankenstein story in this new series from Dark Horse.

Parliament of Rooks #3. Written by Abigail Jill Harding with Richard Starkings and illustrated by Abigail Jill Harding. Darius has gone full monster form, though his thoughts are still with his beloved Princess Seraphina. Some beautifully drawn monster images make this book stand out. I am curious to see how this Ablaze book wraps up.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #4. “Rats” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Devmalya Pramanik. Davide Paratore did the cover art. Things are going rough for Moon Knight as he is out for vengeance of those that killed the Midnight Mission. Moon Knight takes it to another bloody level.

In Bloom #2. Written by Michael W. Conrad and art by John J. Pearson with Lola Bonato. John J. Pearson did the cover art. The story of the people “blooming” take another turn in a much more shocking and graphic manner. There were a couple of scenes of pure horror in this book.

Storm: Lifedream #1. Cover art was by Taurin Clarke. There are three different chapters of this Storm story that is written by and drawn by different teams. I do enjoy me some Storm and this does cover a long part of her history. It is clear that there are big plans moving ahead for Ororo Munroe.

Red Before Black #4. Written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated by Goran Sudžuka. Goran Sudžuka with Ive Svorcina did the cover art. This book has been reminding me of Thelma and Louise while bringing in a character this issue that made me think of the Crocodile Hunter. Lots of fun.

What If Galactus Transformed Spider-Gwen #1. “Tipping the Scales.” Written by Kalinda Vazquez and art by Daniel Picciotto. Ron Lim and Israel Silva did the cover art. This is the final of the What If Galactus series and this book felt the same as a lot of the others. I was enjoying the set up, but the book ended before the big final battle. This left me feeling unsatisfied as many of these recent What Ifs have. I thought this was an excellent HALF of a story.

Power Man: Timeless #1. “Something New” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Bernard Chang. Andrei Bressan & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. This is the surprise of the week. I did not expect this to be a new series. I was not a fan of the previous Power Man: Timeless one shot from a few months ago, but this was great. They brought this Power Man into the 616 universe (it seemed like) and I suddenly found his adventure engaging as could be. I never thought I would want to read on with this book, but I do.

Phoenix #8. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Jean Grey is going through some personal growth inside a cocoon? We get the new form of Phoenix at the end.

Wolverine #6. “Lineage.” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo with Martin Coccolo and Bryan Valenza did the cover art. Laura arrived in the book to help Logan follow the clues that are leading them to Adamantine.

Two-Face #3. Wild, but I could not find the creator credits inside this issue of Two-Face. The cover listed Ward, Veras & Plascencia but that was all I could find. I found the creators of the few pages of Zatanna at the end of the book that is appearing in all of the DC books this month. The Two-Face book has been good so far as we get a big reveal at the end of it.

Psylocke #3. “Lady-Killer.” Written by Alyssa Wong and art by Vincenzo Carratù. Cover art was done by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson. This was a solid issue of Psylocke as she met up with John Greycrow, after finding his bloody arm with a note on it last issue. This was probably my favorite issue of the series so far.

Scarlet Witch #9. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Jacopo Camagni. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. Hey, fresh off her appearance in the Avengers, Black Cat is now here stealing from Wanda. Felicia is really giving those luck powers a go. Not sure why Black Cat has suddenly been everywhere, but I don’t mind it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #6. Written by Jason Aaron and art by Juan Ferreyra. Cover art was by Jorge Fornes. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back together and… things are falling apart. They can’t get along and spend most of this issue fighting with each other. And Donnie is carrying around a rat claiming it is Master Splinter. Things aren’t good for the Turtles.

Other books this week: Grim #21, Rocketfellers #3, Bitter Root: The Next Movement ashcan, and Spirits of Vengeance #6.

Companion

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Companion is a sci-fi/thriller that flew under the radar. I knew very little about it before it was released in the theaters. I do not recall seeing any trailers for the film. I had heard some positive word of mouth about the film, but I still knew very little when I walked into the theater this morning to see it.

If you can go into this movie with as little knowledge as you can, please do so. Companion was an outstanding film that was a ton of fun and very creative and imaginative.

In the vein of going into this movie as free as you can, I am not giving any spoilers, nor am I going to give a synopsis, as this is one of those films where it is very difficult to give a synopsis without giving away some major plot points.

Starring Sophie Thatcher (Heretic, Yellowjackets) played Iris and Jack Quaid (The Boys) played Josh, a couple who was heading for a weekend with friends at a remote cabin. Both Thatcher and Quaid do a sensational job in this film as our main characters. They had a great chemistry and worked very well together to create a story that kept the audience on the edge of their seats the entire time.

The film was both exciting and funny, blending both together very effectively. The writing was so good in both structure and dialogue. You had feelings for these character, including the secondary characters played by Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, and Rupert Friend.

You may never have heard of this movie, but it is absolutely worth your time. It is a blast and provides such a exceptional experience.

4.2 stars

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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February 5

There are no covers this week from Mark Spears, so everyone else has a chance.

Plus, I have two weeks of Marvel books this week, and, partially because of this, all three medalists this week are from the House of Ideas.

Bronze Medalist

The Ultimates #9

Cover art by Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon

I have always loved those white backgrounds on these covers so this immediately moves this Ultimates book up the list. Then with the cool white jail bars covering our characters give us a nice perspective for this issue.

Silver Medalist

Namor #7

Variant cover B

Cover art by Olivier Coipel

I swapped the cover A for this one because I liked this one so much more than the cover A book. This is a great look at Namor as he is swimming in the blue of the water.

Gold Medalist

X-Men #10

Cover art by Ryan Stegman, J.P. Mayer, & Marte Gracia

Cyclops’s optic blasts shown on the cover around the entire cover. The title itself is affected by the optic blasts. This is a beautiful use of the red color and gave us something original.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man S1 E3, E4, E5

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Spoilers

“Secret Identity Crisis”

“Hitting the Big Time”

“The Unicorn Unleashed”

The second week of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man on Disney + saw the release of three new episodes. Three solid episodes again this week as we see several new interpretations of Spider-villains as well as the debut of one of the most iconic ones.

The dual story of Peter’s rise as Spider-Man and Lonnie Lincoln’s downward spiral to Tombstone is fascinating. They are spending a ton of time building the character of Tombstone to become, perhaps, the big bad of the series, long term.

But we also got our first look at Otto Octavius, pre-Octopus arms. It is revealed that Octavius is behind the weapons that have been showing up around New York.

We got a version of Speed Demon, Unicorn and who will eventually (I think) become Rhino.

Harry Osborn is brought into the “Team Spider-Man” by Norman. Norman said that he couldn’t always be available, but his son could. The Peter-Harry friendship is starting to develop, even though Harry seems to be becoming Peter’s Ned Leeds in this cartoon.

This is also interesting since the show is using the Iron Man/Captain America MCU storyline as a backdrop. I assume they will show up sooner or later.

My biggest problem I have in this show is the fact that everybody wears the same clothes every time. I know it is meant to identify these characters, but it is becoming very odd. I want Peter in something besides that yellow shirt and blue jacket.

I would say that the animation style is still a little distracting, but the storytelling has been top notch so far.

Paradise S1 E4

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Spoilers

“Agent Billy Pace”

Okay, I am officially in.

I may have still been slightly uncertain about this show after the first three episodes, but after the fourth episode, I am all in. I thought this was easily the best episode of this show that I have seen yet, and it was also the one that crushed me.

This episode featured Billy Pace, with a look at his background, and it was tremendously engaging. He had a dark past and the episode played with the uncertainty that he was the reason the president was killed. As it moved on, it became clear that Billy Pace was a bad guy who had found his friend and family with Xavier and his kids. By the end of the episode, I was in love with this character.

And then the show killed him off.

Man, that scene where he is poisoned by Jane on the orders of Sinatra. Then there was a scene with Sinatra and Billy that was just tense and anxious, which is what led to his death. I know I was nervous about Billy the rest of the film at that point and I thought he had made it when he got home. Then, the rugged gets pulled out from under me.

The death of Billy Pace was a kick in the gut. I would not have guessed that his death would have meant anything to me, but it has been awhile since I have felt this upset over a character death.

By the way, the mystery of the surface world is another cool thing and having Billy kill the people doing the investigation was a rough truth that caught me off guard. I am looking forward to seeing how everything ties together.

The music was by Poison this episode… Every Rose Has Its Thorn. Was the band’s name a hint?

I am fully in on this show now, at I guess, the halfway mark. You can watch Paradise on Hulu or Disney +.

The White Lotus S1 E3

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Spoilers

“Mysterious Monkeys”

The third episode of The White Lotus was centered around sex.

At least for most of the cast, outside of Jennifer Coolidge, who made an attempt to scatter her mother’s ashes at sea. Because of Armond’s machinations and attempt to gaslight Shane, Shane and Rachel wind up on the boat as well. Shane had approached Armond to schedule a romantic dinner with Rachel, and Armond took the opportunity to book them on the same boat as Jennifer Coolidge.

Mark is in a state of depression after finding out that his father died of AIDS. The idea that he did not know this aspect of his father’s life sent Mark on an existential crisis, and ended with him asking Armond about anal sex. Armond made an offer for Mark to find out for himself, which Mark declined. He ended up drunk and doing some monkey action in his bed that night. Nicole was not interested.

This has been an interesting show so far, but I have to say that I was hooked in the first episode after the whole dead body on the plane thing that made it look as if Shane was sad. That felt as if it would be a major mystery/storyline of the show, but it has not given us much of anything so far. I would like to know more about that as the show progresses.

Dexter: Original Sin S1 E7, E8

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Spoilers

“The Big Bad Body Problem”

“Business and Pleasure”

I just am not sure how I feel about this show.

Dexter: Original Sin came back with some new episodes on Prime, but they seem to be inconsistent. There are some solid scenes with good tension while there are too many scenes that felt in was in the wrong show. The tone just does not work throughout.

Dexter figured out that Captain Spencer was the kid killer and had kidnapped his own son. He did a classic “Batman Leap” to figure it out, too. A “Batman Leap” was something that my friends and I dubbed when you make a leap in logic that comes out of nowhere, like Batman would do on the old TV show (Glu Glutton’s Glue Factory…). There is no real logical way Dexter would think the Captain was the culprit.

Of course, he was right and I assume that the Captain is going to end up on Dexter’s table before the end of the season.

Deb’s storyline is one of those that do not seem to work very well for me. They took Deb’s boyfriend Gio and made him a total jerk after seeing nothing of this from him during the entire time. They just decided to make this guy an ass for reasons.

The flashbacks are another part of this show that does not work for me either. They put Dexter, his brother and mother in jeopardy in a ridiculous situation that, I supposed, is meant to show you where the Dark Passenger came from.

Harry and LaGuerta went to Tampa looking for leads for their serial killer, and Harry found something in a file. I am not sure what it was, but the character’s name was Brian. I wondered if that is going to be Dexter’s brother.

Episode eight was a little better and more consistent than seven, but so much of the show is questionable that I think it could be so much better with some better writing.

Paradise S1 E1. E2, E3

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Spoilers

“Wildcat is Down”

“Sinatra”

“The Architect of Social Well-Being”

I gave the new Hulu series Paradise a chance. It starred Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden and Julianne Nicholson. The first three episodes dropped on Hulu and Disney + earlier this week.

This political thriller/sci-fi show was very entertaining and was a very intriguing mystery.

It kicked off with an unexpected twist. One of the main actors is murdered within the first part of the movie. The narrative is told in both present day and flashbacks, which really helps to establish background of characters and helped to build characters.

Brown and Marsden had great onscreen chemistry. Their scenes together were some of the best of the show. The writing was solid, providing little details of what was going on as the episodes progressed. The reveal at the end of the first episode, that the world had come to an end but the President and the surviving people live in an underground cavern, dug into a mountain.

I liked the whodunnit style of this with the flashbacks giving us a chance to see important moments instead of just hearing about them. I enjoyed Sterling K. Brown’s scenes with his character’s father. Looking forward to the rest of this series being released on Hulu for the next five episodes.

The White Lotus S1 E1, E2

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Spoilers

“Arrivals”

“New Day”

I had heard a lot about The White Lotus, particularly around Emmy time, and when I saw that it was available on HBO Max, I thought it would be a good series to start. I did not know what to expect with it.

Then, it kicked off with a scene where a depressed man sat in an airport. From the scene, we are able to tell that his wife had died. At this point, I was engaged.

The show flipped back a week and we see things that are happening at this resort hotel called the White Lotus and a bunch of new arrivals are coming to the hotel on a boat.

There is a series of bizarre people and the show is very funny. I am curious to see how the dead body comes into play.

Cast is great. It included Steve Zahn, Connie Britton, Murray Bartlett, Jennifer Coolidge, Jake Lacy, Sydney Sweeney, Fred Hechinger, Natasha Rothwell, Jolene Purdy, and Brittany O’Grady.

The X-Files S8 E1, E2

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Spoilers

“Within”

“Without”

I started season eight of the X-Files today, with its first two episodes, “Within” and “Without.” I have been dreading the start of this season because I knew that this was the season with David Duchovny departure…sort of.

Mulder was abducted by aliens at the end of season seven. This season, I remember Mulder was gone, but he was still in many episodes, being tortured by the aliens. I think this was the show wanting to move on, but yet keep Mulder in the mind’s eye.

This is one reason I remember hating the character of John Doggett, played by Robert Patrick, because he was the replacement for Fox Mulder and I wanted Fox Mulder back. And with the character still being shown every once in awhile, I could not get over it. John Doggett suffered for it.

Watching these two episodes, I had a much different reaction to John Doggett than I did when I first watched the show, back in the early 2000s. Here, I found him to be an interesting new character with a new dynamic with Scully. Scully as the believer (with Skinner in tow) and Doggett as the skeptic is a new feeling for the show.

The show bought in with the Alien Bounty Hunter once again, as the Alien Bounty Hunter was revealed to be on the ship that had Mulder.

These two episodes were really pretty good. It felt as if it took the story in a new direction while still circling back to the mythology behind the show’s first seven seasons. I know I liked them more today than I did in the past.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #2

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February #2

“Day of Days”

The second week of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk brought me back to HBO MAX for the second episode of the classic series, Band of Brothers. This episode followed the men of Easy Company on the jump out of the airplane and to the land of Normandy, France. The jump scattered the battalions across the area and they had to scurry around hostile territory in order to survive and complete their mission.

Lt. Winters is seemingly left in charge as the superior office is one of the missing in action. He spent some time in this episode gaining the trust and respect of his men, in particular one who seemed to be more interested in “killing Krauts” than following orders.

One of the more powerful moments of the episode was when Easy Company captured a group of German soldiers and it was discovered that one of them was born in Oregon. Malarkey discovered this piece of information and he bonded with the solider since he, too, was from Oregon. As he left the Germans, they were executed, including the born American. The look on Malarkey’s face told the story.

The realism of the battle scenes really stood out. The brutality and fear came through with every gunshot or grenade toss.

The end quote of the episode featured names of men who were awarded for their success and bravery.

“For destroying the German guns at Brécourt Manor the following awards were awarded

Bronze Stars

Walter Hendrix, Donald Malarkey, John Plesha, Joe Toye, Carwood Lipton, Cleveland Petty, Myron Ranney, “Popeye” Wynn

Silver Stars

“Buck” Compton, Bill Guarnere, Gerald Lorraine

The Distinguished Service Cross is awarded to

Lt. Richard Winters”

“Easy Company’s capture of the German Battery became a textbook case of an assault on a fixed position, and is still demonstrated at the United States Military Academy at West Point, today.”