Author Archives: Doc

The Greatest American Hero S1 E3

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“Here’s Looking at You, Kid”

Perhaps the title of this episode should have been “Here’s Looking Through You, Kid” instead because Ralph discovered a new power of the suit, invisibility. And, of course, he struggled controlling it.

Maxwell had Ralph trying to do telekinesis when Ralph disappeared. They then spent the rest of the episode with Ralph fading in and out of visual in the most inopportune times.

The Greatest American Hero’s strength as a show is the comedic moments between Ralph and Bill and this episode was very solid, from the fading in and out, to Ralph taking a bus so he did not have to fly. William Katt and Robert Culp really work as a wonderful team together.

There is a case that Bill is working on, but it is truly unimportant. It just provided Ralph and bill with bad guys to fight while the suit causes troubles.

We meet Pam’s parents in from Minnesota for the episode. June Lockhart was Pam’s mother and Bob Hastings was her father.

It was a fun episode that took a different power of the suit to mess around with.

The X-Files S6 E4, E5

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“Dreamland, Part 1 and Part 2”

I recently spoke about the X-Files having episodes that are taking premises from movies such as “The Thing,” or “Speed” to fit them into the X-Files. This two-part episode takes the “Freaky Friday” premise and made it into the X-Files world.

Body swap films and shows were big at the time and it is understandable that the X-Files would go ahead and put their own stamp on it.

I love Michael McKeon. I have loved him as far back as Lenny from Laverne and Shirley, and then as David St. Hubbins from This is Spinal Tap. Seeing him as Man in Black, Morris Fletcher, was great and McKeon was awesome through the whole two episodes playing the new version of Mulder.

Seeing both Morris and Mulder in situations they were unfamiliar with brought some really good comedic moments. I enjoyed the Duck Soup-type mirror bit with Mulder and his reflection of Morris.

I saw some negative responses to these episodes and I did not agree with it. I found this to be a fun look at the idea of body swap and a new way to look at the Men in Black. Seeing how Morris responded to being Mulder was interesting, and Scully’s confusion was fun. I can understand that some may have wanted the main overall aliens story to continue instead of another funny episode. I love the funny episodes of the X-Files, as many of them are my absolutely favorite ones from the show.

I do think this could have probably been one episode instead of two as part of the second episode did feel stretched out. And some of the resolution of the story felt off. Even if the end of the episode with Mulder opening his apartment door to see of it was because of the furniture that Morris had bought. I guess this did not snap back in time as other things seemed to. That end plot hole was a little messy.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Dreamland.

Twisters

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I was not a fan of the original Twister film with Helen Hunt. I had only watched it once so I decided to give it another viewing about a month ago and I found out that I still did not like the film. So continuing the series with a new Twisters felt unneeded for me.

So imagine my surprise, I thought Twisters was way better than that original film and it was a film that I really liked.

According to IMDB, “As storm season intensifies, the paths of former storm chaser Kate Cooper, lured back to the open plains after a devastating encounter years prior, and reckless social-media superstar Tyler Owens collide when terrifying phenomena never seen before are unleashed. The pair and their competing teams find themselves squarely in the paths of multiple storm systems converging over central Oklahoma in the fight of their lives.“

Why does this work more for me than the original. Fact is there is not too much different between these two stories. The actors are all decent in those roles.

I think part of reason is that I felt more for these new characters, especially Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who I really liked. She had a truly tragic past that I felt that they used during the film. I do think they could have gone into more of this tragedy than they did, but I felt like Kate was a deeper character than anyone from that first Twister movie.

Glen Powell continues his run as a huge star in movies today. I liked this character a lot too though he felt more like Glen Powell playing himself than anything else. I liked the relationship between Powell and Edgar-Jones and I thought the movie did a good job of taking it slowly between them.

The action in the film was solid and the tornados looked great. The tension of the situation was well built and the anxiety of seeing individuals being pulled away into the tornado was always effective.

It is not a perfect film by any stretch. There are holes in the story and some weaknesses in the characters, but none of them were major issues for me. This was a fun, summer movie watch with some good action, some exciting special effects and a couple intriguing characters. I like this more than I expected to.

3.8 stars

Battlestar Galactica S2 E3

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“Fragged”

Adama is still in bad shape, and they had to go back in for more surgery. I liked this since they now have an actual doctor working on him. The emergency surgery performed last episode was not done by a full-fledged doctor. Now that Dr. Butch is there, he should be able to help.

The drama on Kobol was off the charts this episode. I do not know why Crashdown was such a jerk about everything, completely unwilling to listen to anyone else. I understand that it is a military concept of following orders, but this was anything but a typical setting.

I also wondered why Baltar’s comment about being the Vice-President did not carry more weight than it seemed to carry.

Tigh is struggling with the command of Galactica and takes some big swings at the end. Dissolving the Quorum of Twelve because of their demands and insistence for President Roslin’s release and then declaring martial law to the reporters… whoa, that does not seem to be good choices. I am curious how far Adama would have taken the same situation. Tigh is still sneaking those swigs of alcohol as well.

Richard hatch was back, but he felt fairly minor here. President Roslin admitted to her breast cancer in front of the pre-dissolved Quorum of Twelve, who seemed to buy into her as the religious leader to take them to earth.

No sign of Starbuck. I wonder how she is meant to return to Galactica?

Polkamania

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Whatcha gonna do, when Weird Al polkas all over you!!!!

Yes, EYG Hall of Famer Weird Al Yankovic is back with a brand new polka! The last time we had any recording by his weirdness was The Hamilton Polka in 2018. Al is back with his own level of insanity with some great songs in a polka medley.

I always wonder if I am going to know any of the songs in a polka medley since I am not as knowledgeable with recent pop hits, but there were a few here that I recognized.

Today is the 10 year anniversary of the last studio album Al released, “Mandatory Fun” and this polka celebrates that while blending together songs from the last several years into that new polka medley.

Wikipedia already had a full listing of the tracks inside Polkamania. Here they are:

  • “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish
  • “Hello” by Adele
  • “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus
  • “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” by Lin-Manuel Miranda
  • “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo
  • “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X
  • “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi feat. Daddy Yankee
  • “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran
  • “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars
  • “WAP” by Cardi B feat. Megan Thee Stallion
  • “Thank U, Next” by Ariana Grande
  • “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift
  • “Ear Booker Polka” by “Weird Al” Yankovic

All I can say is…. I want more!!!!

Cobra Kai S6 Part 1

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The final season of Cobra Kai, a series that started on YouTube Red (remember that?) before moving to Netflix, dropped five episodes today completing the first part of the final season. I binged them through the afternoon today. Honestly, Cobra Kai has no right to be as good as it is. However, there were a couple of things that made me uncertain about where they were heading.

The show felt like it was really struggling to inject conflict among the kids despite the fact that everyone came together at the end of the fifth season. It did not always work.

John Kreese continued to be a cruel villain, as he worked to get himself back into a position to assume his role as main antagonist. The flashbacks of Kreese were tough to watch at times, but they all made a lot of sense for this character.

The mystery of Mr. Miyagi’s background is iffy too. I hope this turns out to be more than what it feels like because the initial reveal is questionable. I understand the conflict that it creates in Daniel with the questions about his mentor’s past, but I hope it becomes more than just some minor thing.

I hated what the show did to Kenny. It was played for some humor, but it was not funny and I was mad toward the others in the dojo and their reaction to him.

Having said all that, there was little better than that reveal of Kreese at Sekai Taikai at the very end of episode five. That was awesome.

Overall, I enjoyed more things about this season than I had nitpicks about it. It does feel like the second part of this finale could be sensational.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #107

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July 18, 2024

The summer is flying along. I have just about a month to go before I return to school for the next group of kids and I can no longer spend NEW COMIC BOOK DAY at Comic World sitting at the back table and reading my new books. I do love being able to spend the afternoon with the cool people at Comic World and getting time to read the new books out. I will miss it when I am back at school.

Until then, though, welcome to EYG Comic Cavalcade #107. Every year, I look at the list of Eisner nominated graphic novels and I purchase several of them to see what they were like. Most of them are books that I do not see during the year, but I look forward to reading after. I have several ordered via Prime Day on Amazon and I expect them to arrive any day. One of the nominated graphic novels was called Parasocial by Alex de Campi and Erica Henderson. It was a really powerful read and I would recommend it to anyone.

New books this week:

The Change. Script by Whoopi Goldberg and Jaime Paglia with art by Sunkanmi Akinboye. Khary Randolph did the cover art. I saw this graphic novel promoted on The View by Whoopi Goldberg and I was curious. It is about a woman going through menopause who developed super powers. It may not necessarily be a story that I could relate to, but it was an interesting read. It was definitely left on a cliffhanger so we’ll see if it ever continues.

Napalm Lullaby #5. Written by Rick Remender and art and cover art by Bengal. This was the first time this series hooked me more than just a bit. This spent a good deal of the issue diving into the background of what was going on in this world with Sarah and Sam’s mother and her plans moving forward. It has always looked great.

Namor #1. “Prince of the Blood” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson and Alex Lins. Variant cover art by Alex Maleev (Gold Medalist). I have always enjoyed the character of Namor and this series starts off very strong. We see where Namor is currently at, seemingly depressed and having given up, but we also flashback to a young, arrogant teen Namor. I think this book has a ton of potential and Jason Aaron is always a solid storyteller.

Incredible Hulk #14. “The Hulkscape.” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art and cover art by Nic Klein. The horror elements of the Hulk seem to be back with a vengeance as Bruce Banner tries to navigate the Hulkscape, trying to convince the Hulk to help him save Charlie. The Hulk appears to have some deep seeded trauma involving Banner.

Invincible Iron Man #20. “End of the Line“. Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Andrea Di Vito. Cover art was done by Kael Ngu (Silver Medalist). This issue wraps up the marriage of Tony Stark and Emma Frost, with neither of them seemingly thrilled by putting it to bed. Emma also gave Tony a check for…. a lot of money, seeding his return to a company and … maybe the West Coast Avengers? This might be the end of this series. Not sure on that. It is definitely the end of the creative team. I have really been pleased with where this book has gone lately so I am looking forward to the next chapter of Tony Stark’s life.

Immortal Thor Annual #1. “The Idiot Abroad” Written by Al Ewing and art by David Baldeón. Variant cover art by the iconic Walter Simonson (& Laura Martin) [Bronze Medalist]. The Infinity Watch storyline continues throughout the series of annuals, with Powerstone (both the character and the actual infinity stone) making an arrival. Powerstone dealt with the Champion of the Universe inside, and then changed his name again… to Apex. The Death Stone Saga is here too from creative team of Derek Landy & Sara Pichelli.

Elric the Necromancer #1. Adapted by Julien Blondel & Jean-Luc Cano. Story and dialogue by Julien Blondel. The art and cover art was by Valentin Secher. Michel Moorcock’s iconic albino and his sword that thirsts for souls finds himself in this new mini-series from Titan Comics and it looks epic. I remember Elric from an early Marvel Graphic Novel and I have loved the character since.

Laura Kinney: The Wolverine- Blood Hunt #1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Robert Gill. Bjorn Barends did the art for the cover. Another of the one-shot issues during the Blood Hunt, Laura is in battle with the vampires to save Gabby. What happens when vampires get ahold of mutant blood? Bad news for sure.

Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys #1. Story and words by Neil Gaiman. Script by Marc Bernardin. Shawn Martinbrough did the art. Cover art was by David Mack. I know there is a controversy with Neil Gaiman right now, but I have always tried to separate a person’s work from who they are. I do hope that Gaiman turns out to not be a worthless loser, because this first issue was extremely compelling and set up a real intriguing arc.

What If…? Aliens #5. Written by Leon Reiser and art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. The finale of the mini-series focusing on Paul Reiser’s character Carter Burke comes to a close here with a solid finale and plenty of aliens running around the base. I would love to see other What Ifs of the properties Marvel owns like this one. What If for Planet of the Apes or Predator or Star Wars… those would all be really cool and would help continue the concept of What If. I do miss the Watcher though…

Fishflies #7. Written, drawn and art for the cover by Jeff Lemire. This story comes to an end as Jeff Lemire brings the story full circle. Fishflies has been another exceptional story from Jeff Lemire, who is one of my favorite writers in comics today.

Scarlet Witch #2. Written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Jacopo Camagni. Russell Dauterman did the cover art. Wanda is dead. Pietro and Darcy are trying to save the town from the Griever. And Wanda is seeing what her future holds. If she returns, will she and Pietro lead to the destruction of all?

Redcoat #4. Creators are Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch. Gary Frank and Brian Anderson did the variant cover art. We get a glimpse into the past of Einstein as well as get introduced to our main, big bad of the series, The Grand Architect, who is revealed to be a very much living George Washington. Between here and the Killadelphia series, those Founding Fathers are pretty rotten.

Daredevil: Woman Without Fear #1. Written by Erica Schultz and art by Michael Dowling. Cover art was done by Mahmud Asrar & Matthew Wilson. Elektra is back on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen and is facing off with Crossbones. We also get a guest appearance from the new Punisher.

Plastic: Death & Dolls #2. Written by Doug Wagner and art and cover art by Daniel Hillyard. We get a little background on Edwyn’s past with dolls and removing their heads. This, of course, leads to his present day decapitations. I would think that keeping these heads in his refrigerator may not be the best choice.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #0. “Khonshu: Strikefile” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Alessandro Cappuccio. E.M. Gist did the cover art. Moon Knight is alive again. This issue zero is to go over all of the details of the series: characters, location, villains that will be focused on in the upcoming new Moon Knight book.

Phoenix #1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Yasmine Putri did the cover art. Jean Grey is in space, using the Phoenix Force to do good for once. This was a really good start to this series. I especially liked the mental scenes between Jean and Scott, showing that even the distance of space could not come between them.

Spider-Woman #9. “The Price of Liberty“. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Ig Guara. Leinil Francis Yu & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. The new super team The Assembly is not as they look. Liberty from the group was ‘awakened’ by the scream of Angar and she and Jessica Drew head into the holding facility to try and get Angar free. Bad things happen.

Spectacular Spider-Men #5. “Contingencies” Written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Miles and Peter slug it out, thinking that the other one is a robot. They are inside the new combination world designed by Arcade and Mentallo, while Hammerhead watches on.

Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #3. Written by Justina Ireland and penciled by Marcelo Ferreira. Cover art was done by Marcelo Ferreira, Roberto Poggi & Rachelle Rosenberg. I loved this last issue here as Morbius designed a cure for the vampires that had been turned by Beyond Corp and Spidey helped save them. That is what Spider-Man would be doing… using science to help save people… not just killing vampires that had been changed against their wills.

Other books this week: Man’s Best #5, Ultimate X-Men #5, The Mammoth #2, Blood Hunters #4, and Lawful #2.

The Boys S4 E8

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“Assassination Run”

They filmed this season over a year ago, and yet it feels as topical as ever. Perhaps even too topical.

Season five finale was brutal throughout as The Boys set the table for the final season, season six, with a massive cliffhanger and Homelander standing tall.

So many things happened, so let me touch on a couple.

The Frenchie/Kimiko scene near the end was just one of the most beautiful scenes of the series but I was holding my breath the entire time because I was afraid of the portents that this scene may hint at. I do not want to see Frenchie or Kimiko die and I was afraid that was what was going to happen before the end of the episode. I was grateful when they survived, although separated by Gen V’s Kate.

The Annie/Hughie relationship was tortured by the shape-shifting shooter, but seems to have survived as well. I had honestly forgotten that Annie was being held captive and so when she proposed to Hughie at the beginning and he ran off to get his mother’s ring, I was happy. Then I remembered and it was sad again. However, Annie’s line about shifting syphilis was both funny and hopeful for out first couple.

Ryan is being torn apart by every side as everyone has their own agenda for him and it is starting to really hurt the boy. When he was told all about Homelander’s evil, he realized that they just wanted him as a weapon against his father.

No sign of A-Train this episode. I am glad he survived. I am sure that he has a role to play in the conclusion of the series next season.

Sister Sage’s return was epic. She has been behind the scenes of everything, setting up the events to drop as they did. What , then, is ‘phase two?’

Butcher’s tentacle powers are horrific, and seeing them rip Neuman in literally two pieces was shocking. I did not expect that to happen and it solidifies Butcher as just slightly less crazy than Homelander. I think that is the idea setting him up as a person who would do absolutely anything to kill Homelander. I have never been a fan of the character of Butcher as a hero. He is, at best, an anti-hero and probably more of another antagonist.

I believe season two of Gen V will come first, but this season really sets up some major events for the finale of the series in season six. Can’t wait.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of July 15

It is that time once again to name our three medalists for the best covers of the week. There were some interesting covers this week, and I narrowed it down to our three. Two variant covers coming…

Bronze Medalist

The Immortal Thor Annual #1

Variant Cover-C cover

Cover art by Walter Simonson & Laura Martin

The legendary Walt Simonson, who wrote and drew one of the best runs of Thor’s comics, returned for one of the variant covers of this annual, which continued the Infinity Watch storyline. It is a classic.

Silver Medalist

Invincible Iron Man #20

Cover art by Kael Ngu

Iron Man and Emma Frost holding hands in their wrap up of their marriage. The cover represents how successful this marriage was for the plot with the armored hand of Iron Man and the diamond form of Emma. A fun design.

Gold Medalist

Namor #1

Variant Cover D

Cover Art by Alex Maleev

I love this cover. The awesome pic of Namor as he swims down into the water, with so much blue making the cover really stand out. The title of the book down at the bottom where Namor is swimming toward it. This is beautiful.

Bates Motel S3 E2

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“The Arcanum Club”

Norma seems a little more outwardly crazy these days and less inwardly crazy as she has been the entire series.

The disappearance of the woman Annika from the motel is in high gear and she is found a floating in a pond. Again, the show is trying to make it look as if Norman has struck again, but there is a big question with the Arcanum Club, a group of wealthy men who, as Romero says, does whatever they want.

I wonder if Emma, who I know does not wind up with Norman, would have been the calming, sobering factor in his life. He definitely appears to care for her, and Norma loves Emma, too. Could this character have been the hand that helped Norman from the insanity that is lurking inside his mind?

The introduction of Chick into Dylan’s story is obviously trouble coming. This did not feel like the character of Dylan. Dylan was a leader, a confident person, but he seemed to accept the secondary role to Caleb when they went to see Chick. Maybe he was just being cautious, which we know Dylan is, but he seemed to just kind of melt into the background when Chick and Caleb were facing off.

We see an awkward interaction between Norma and Romero as he was leaving the motel. I know they wind up together at a point in the series and I loved them as a couple, despite the tragic end that was coming. This early days of that relationship is nice. Norma clearly trusts him as she told Romero everything about the missing Annika, including how Norman was the last to see her. This feels like a big step for Norma, and I was pleased that Romero was there to prevent Norma from completing her plan of sneaking into the Arcanum Club party. That was a bad idea.

Norma’s crazed assault on the off-ramp sign was another piece of evidence that Norma’s life is getting to her.

The storylines are ramping back up again and we’ll have to see where it goes from here.

The X-Files S6 E3

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“Triangle”

This was an absolutely wonderful episode of the X-Files. It was the combination of an old Twilight Zone episode and the Wizard of Oz, creating a exceptional tale of time warps and World War II escapades all inside the Bermuda Triangle.

Mulder finds himself in the Bermuda Triangle because a satellite found the Queen Anne, a British passenger ship that was rumored to have been sunk by Nazis in the war. On the ship, Mulder is in 1939 and confused about what was going on. Recognizable faces from Mulder’s life started showing up in the 1939 timeline, including Scully, Skinner, Smoking Man, and Spender, in differing roles than what Mulder was used to.

There was a scene in this episode that, in my humble opinion, may be the greatest scene ever shot for the X-Files. It is designed to look like a “Oner” a continuous shot that follows the characters as they move through the story in real time. It is something that a lot of movies and programs try to use these days, but such a shot was not used as much during the time of The X-Files.

It was not a single shot as I could find several “hidden” cuts as you would say, but it really worked well. The scene I am referring to as the greatest ever is the scene where the Lone Gunmen come to see Scully at FBI Headquarters and Scully sets off to try and find information about where in the Bermuda Triangle Mulder was. Following Scully around FBI HQ, going to Skinner, Kirsch, Spender etc. was brilliantly conceived. Scully running into Smoking Man was ominous and her interaction with Spender was hilarious. The scene ending with Scully jumping in the Lone Gunmen’s van and speeding away was utterly perfect.

There was another amazing moment in this episode that has to be considered groundbreaking. With a split screen, Mulder and 1939 Scully were coming down one of the aisles of the Queen Anne while regular day Scully was moving down another one. The two Scullys crossed paths and paused for a moment as if they could feel them passing by each other. This was such a clever use of the format that it stood out among a really exceptionally filmed episode.

The episode was clearly an homage to The Wizard of Oz. There are several Oz allusions though the episode and it ended with Mulder in a bed, much like Dorothy is at the end of the Wizard of Oz.

It is epic when a long running series takes a risk in the manner in which it is presented. Triangle was a massive hit for the show and I loved it more this time than my memory of it from before. This was exceptional TV.