Author Archives: Doc

EYG Comic Cavalcade #101

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June 7, 2024

Welcome to the first post-#100 entry in the EYG Comic Cavalcade. We are kicking off the next one hundred posts with a loaded one.

I visited the new location in Dubuque for BAM (aka Books A Million) the other day and I purchased a couple of graphic novels there. First, it was Fantastic Four: Full Circle with art by Alex Ross. Ross usually only does covers but this was a beautiful job. I remember seeing this at Comic World earlier last year, but I did not pick it up and look at it. Glad I did now. The other was the 40th anniversary of Maus, with both graphic novels contained within. Maus is an outstanding piece from Art Spiegelman and I am glad it is finally in my actual collection. I do have the separate books in my classroom library.

Then, I finished up the 8th and 9th volumes of Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. I got to the final volume and I was shocked! It ended on the worst cliffhanger I had ever seen. I was under the impression that this was a collected version of the entire series, but I have since discovered that I was incorrect. I immediately rushed to eBay and found issues #55-65 available and I purchased it right then and there, the epitome of impulse buying. They should arrive any day now.

Wednesday I got to spend my first summer afternoon at Comic World and it was wonderful. I was able to purchase a whole bunch of back issues, including a trove of Avengers Vol. 3 books. I also picked up a slightly creased cover of Fantastic Four #79. Otherwise, it was in pretty decent shape considering. Todd had also brought me Amazing Spider-Man #160 as I continue to add to my wall crawler collection and some more New Warriors Vol. 1, including the previously mentioned New Warriors Annual #4. No sign of Annual #2 this week.

Other books this week:

The Last Mermaid #4. Story and art by Derek Kirk Km. This series continues to be a beautifully illustrated tale, heavily using imagery to tell the story, in particular the action bits. I have really enjoyed this story that is being told in this format that stands out among the countless books being produced.

Get Fury #2. Written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Jacen Burrows. Cover art by Dave Johnson. I decided that I wanted to give Get Fury a second chance. The first time I read #1, I was not a fan, but I must say I think that I was distracted when I read it because when I read it a second time, I thought it was much better, so I picked up issue two and an happy I did. I do like Garth Ennis a lot so I figured it was worth a second chance.

Amazing Spider-Man #51. Written by Zeb Wells and art by Ed McGuinness & Todd Nauck. Cover art by McGuinness & Marcio Menyz (Gold Medalist). Picking up from last issue’s confrontation with Norman Osborn that unleashed the evil Goblin on Peter. This issue, Spider Goblin is in full force and let the Sinister Six beware.

Uncanny X-Men #35. “Dream’s End.” This issue sees the end of the Krakoa age of the X-Men. It is also Legacy number 700, so they released a double sized issue with a ton of artists and writers involved. It is quite an epic comic, leading us into the next run of X-books.

Space Ghost #2. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Cover art was by Francesco Mattina (Silver Medalist). I love this new series featuring Space Ghost. Space Ghost gets a look at how the two kids are able to help him, and they get their costumes. There is also a preview of Johnny Quest contained within.

The Mammoth #1. Written by Paul Tobin and illustrated and cover art by Arjuna Susini. This new series from Mad Cave Comics is an intriguing book. I am not sure what the story is as it is just starting, but I can’t wait to see where it goes.

The Infernals #4. “The Fall” Written by Noah Gardner & Ryan Parrott and drawn by John J. Pearson & Lola Bonato. Cover art by John J. Pearson & Tia Roxae. The Morgenstern family battles dominate this issue with Abraham coming to his end. Major things happening from Hell.

Wolverine: Blood Hunt #1. Written by Tom Waltz and art by Juan Jose Ryp. Cover art by Ben Harvey. Logan in a bar, drinking. Who knew that the world would suddenly have gone dark and that vampires would spring forth. Wolverine vs. vampires? What more could you ask for?

Uncanny Valley #2. Written by Tony Fleecs and art and cover art by Dave Wachter. Another Boom! Studios interesting book, as we have a cartoon grandfather trying to take his grandson, who had no idea he was part cartoon, to save him.

Blow Away #2. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Nicola Izzo. Cover art by Annie Wu. Another great new Boom! Studios book, Blow Away follows a photographer who believes that she witnessed a murder. The trick? She is in the snow on Mount Asgard.

Bear Pirate Viking Queen #2. Written by Sean Lewis and illustrated and cover art by Jonathan Marks Barravecchia. The second of three issues in this mini series features the Viking part of this book. We also get to meet the Queen who is as brutal as you would expect. I love the special feel of the art in these issues.

Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #4. “Terragenesis” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada and art by Scott Godlewski. Carlos Gomez and Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Ms. Marvel’s new body goes through the Terragin mist once again. We also learn that her mutant powers are much like the MCU version. This is the last issue of this mini series.

Blood Hunters #2. Another issue with multiple stories. This time, we have a book featuring the Hulk, Kate Bishop and Elsa Bloodstone in individual stories involving the Blood Hunt saga.

What If…? Aliens #4. Written by Hans Rodionoff & Brian Volk-Weiss and art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. A facehugger is running around the base and Burke wants to get himself and his daughter out of there. A betrayal shows Burke what it was like. Irony.

Profane #1. Written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Raul Fernandez. Cover art was by Javier Rodriguez (Bronze Medalist). One of my favorite new books of the week, Profane #1 features a noir detective story with detective Will Profane. I love a good noir and this one seems to be a really good one.

The Ultimates #1. Written by Deniz Camp and art by Juan Frigeri. Duke Ruan & Alejandro Sanchez did the cover art. The new team of Ultimates are forming around Iron Man, Cap and Thor. What other heroes will step up to join this new team?

Love Everlasting #15. “Just West of Love” Written by Tom King and art and cover art by Elsa Charretier. This next arc of Love Everlasting ends with the death of the Cowboy and Joan back to her time jumping thanks to her mother.

Other books this week: The Boy Wonder #2, Minor Threats #3, What If…? Venom #5, and Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance #4.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

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June 7, 2023

As I was searching for movies to put on the possible list for this June Swoon, I came across this horror film on Shudder. It sounded interesting and so I placed it on the list. I had no idea that this was the fourth film of the series, with the first Hell House LLC being released in 2015. I guess I have some films to watch during The October 13 this year.

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor looks to have built on the previous installments (though I can’t say that for sure) and provided a found footage horror film that was extremely creepy and had its share of effective scares.

According to IMDB, “A group of cold case investigators stay at the Carmichael Manor. After four nights, the group was never heard from again. What is discovered on their footage is even more disturbing than anything found on the Hell House tapes.”

The three main characters that went to stay at the Carmichael Manor did a great job of selling the mysterious feel and the fright that this situation would entail inside a person. The story of the events really work well here, as Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta) ties the story into her background. The film does this in a very strong manner, not bashing the audience over the head with it. In fact, it is possible that some may miss the connection to Margot if they are not paying attention.

Then, I enjoyed the way the film kind of makes this found footage/haunted house film into a sort of documentary, with a couple of people commenting about the footage that was found of these missing people.

The film goes to great lengths to build a mythology, which I can only assume included a bunch of Easter eggs from the previous three movies.

I found this extremely creepy and a little unnerving as I watched it this morning in the dark. That means this horror film did its job. I was entertained and I look forward to going back and seeing some more of this franchise.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die

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I was not a fan of the first two Bad Boys movies. However, the last film, Bad Boys for Life was a lot of fun. I have heard some positive word of mouth for this new film, so I went into Bad Boys: Ride or Die with a positive feel.

Then, I did not like this one much at all.

Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are back once again. This time, their friend and former boss Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), who was killed in the previous film, looked to be crooked. Mike and Marcus are on the case in order to attempt to clear the name of their captain.

I did not like the interaction between Smith and Lawrence. It felt so silly, bordering on stupid. I know that is kind of the vibe of their typical relationship, but I have not liked three of the four so obviously their chemistry, which sells this movie, does not work for me.

I did not like what happened to Marcus at the beginning of the film and I do not like how it affected his character. It also had no lasting effect on the character and was like it never happened. I don’t want to go into spoilers, but I found this to be a huge weakness of the film.

The action was hard to watch for me too. I thought it was so shaky and wobbled during the action that I hated watching it.

And there was a killer alligator and my friend know how much I hate killer alligators.

Something happens with Mike about halfway through the film that I do not think has ever happened before and had no reason why it now suddenly happened. Perhaps I missed the reason for this thing to have happened outside of they needed a reason to create more conflict. Again, I do not want to spoil the situation, but I found this to be totally shoved in for no reason.

There were some okay moments, but I just found this to be ridiculous, annoying and hard to watch. Will Smith was decent and many of his reactions to Martin Lawrence were mine as well. I was very disappointed with the next installment of the Bad Boys franchise.

2.4 stars

Babes

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I was watching one of Kristian Harloff’s shows that had Winston Marshall was on and he had made a comment about not planning on going to Babes until someone had told him it was pretty good. Winston went and said it was hilarious, but that he would not have gone without the word of mouth.

I was in the same boat. I had no plans on going to Babes because I was unfamiliar with it and it did not seem to fit into my schedule. When Winston said it was hilarious, and since it was summer and I had some time, I decided to give it a chance.

It was hilarious.

According to IMDB, “Follows inseparable childhood best friends Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), having grown up together in NYC, now firmly in different phases of adulthood. When carefree and single Eden decides to have a baby on her own after a one-night stand, their friendship faces its greatest challenge. BABES delves into the complexities of female friendship with a blend of laughter, tears, and labor pains.“

The film works because of Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau. They had a very easy chemistry and were both extremely funny. For some reason, their hectic delivery, which some times bother me with some other actors, worked for me here. Perhaps they looked very unique as performers and that helped me react to them. Either way, they are definitely the strongest part of the story.

The film looks at motherhood as well as the relationship between two female friends and does it with a lot of humor. It was raunchy, over-the-top and dirty. It all worked because it is laugh out loud funny.

I enjoyed this one a bunch.

4 stars

The Boys in the Boat (2023)

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June 6, 2024

Today’s June Swoon 3 movie was one that I actually had tickets for this past year, but I left the theater after seeing another movie first because I was not feeling well. After being unable to see this (Along with Ferrari too), I decided that I would wait for the June Swoon to watch this movie directed by George Clooney.

The Boys in the Boat is the true story of the Washington Huskies rowing team’s unlikely ascension to the 1936 Olympics with a junior team that lacked experience. Led by their coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), the group of eight young men exceeded all expectations in quest for an Olympic medal.

I enjoyed the actual rowing competitions filmed during this movie as they brought some real dramatics to a sport that might not have as much as some others. The races were well filmed and created suspense in scenes that were fairly predictable.

The film lacked a lot of characterization for the cast, focusing on Coach Ulbrickson and Joe Turner (Callum Turner), one of the crew. The rest of the crew of the row team were fairly simplistic, one-note characters, with a few minor traits tossed their way. Ironic how a sport that is so much about the team does not spend much time with the parts of that team.

The story itself was basic, taking most of the sport movie cliches into play. This was a basic, by-the-numbers sports flick that did not stray from the pattern much.

Having said that, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t inspired by the finale of the film, especially the final Olympic race. There was one final conflict that was tossed in at the end that felt rushed and did not pay off in the end.

If you come into The Boys in the Boat with the idea that this is a basic formulaic sports movie and that it does not go above that, there are things to enjoy here. I think this story could have been more than what was here, but there is something to say for formula.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of June 3

First week of summer vacation so I was able to spend all afternoon at Comic World and it was awesome.

Some fun covers this week too.

Bronze Medalist

Profane #1

Cover art by Javier Marchisio

I really like the way the face of the woman shows what is happening, almost in reflection. Profane is one of the new books from Boom!

Silver Medalist

Space Ghost #2

Foil Variant Cover E

Cover art by Francesco Mattina

This is a beautiful foil cover with Space Ghost smack in the middle of what looks like a asteroid field of some sort. Very artistic and lovely with the shiny foil.

Gold Medalist

Amazing Spider-Man #51

Cover Art by Ed McGuinness & Marco Menyz

The Sinister Six is front and center, behind the cool white outline of Spidey’s mask. This is a very creative and original cover showing all that might be in the issue.

The Last Repair Shop (2023)

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June 5, 2024

It is a busy day today so I had to get the June Swoon 3 going early this morning and I had another Oscar winner on the list. This was the Oscar winner for Best Documentary Short and it was entitled The Last Repair Shop. I watched it on YouTube, but I see that it is available as well on Disney +. This is just over thirty five minutes long and is a joyous expression of love for music and for those for whom music has changed their lives.

The focus was on a instrument repair shop from Los Angeles that provided a service to the schools of the area to repair damaged or broken musical instruments for free. The film profiles four members of the shop: Dana Atkinson, Paty Moreno, Duane Michaels and Steve bagmanyan.

The film also had words from students who gave quick stories about how they wound up playing the instrument they played. The passion and the joy came through each child’s words as it helped us understand how important these musical instruments would be in their lives.

The stories were very emotional and compelling. The stories of the workers at the repair shop ranged from a man who an Armenian refugee from Azerbaijan to a woman who tried to give her children a better life in America only to struggle to a man who played on the same stage as Elvis Presley.

The film ended with a performance of a song called “The Alumni” which featured many of the voices that we heard during the film.

If you love music, or if you ever played an instrument, you will be inspired by this documentary short film. It is a love letter to music and those people who make it or allow other people to make it.

The X-Files S5 E10

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Spoilers

“Chinga”

Stephen King co-wrote this episode of The X-Files along with series creator Chris Carter, who would help get the voices of Mulder and Scully correct. King was a fan of the show and approached David Duchovny with the hope of writing an episode.

The episode he helped to pen featured an evil doll, much like Annabelle or Chucky, that was able to force people into violent behavior.

Scully was on vacation, actively trying to avoid the phone calls from an obviously bored Mulder, but she came across this terrible scene at a supermarket and she wound up getting roped in to helping the local sheriff.

As the episode was basically a Scully solo episode, with a few phone calls coming from Mulder to provide some comedic relief, it was a fun time. I enjoy Scully being able to show that she is a capable FBI agent and not just depend on Mulder. She did seem to slide into Mulder’s way of thinking perhaps a bit too fast, considering scientist Scully would have a difficult time accepting the possibility of a talking, killer doll. Still, it mostly made sense and there is little that was funnier than Scully taking this doll and putting it in the microwave.

Clearly the doll, Chinga, was not at the level of Chucky or Annabelle because there is no way nuking them in a microwave would take care of them.

There were some creepy moments of the show too, including the “Hokey Pokey.”

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part Two

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I could not find this on HBO Max despite the release date supposedly being some time during April, so I had to go to Vudu (which is now called Fandango at Home, I guess) to rent the second part of the three part Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths animated film.

This one, to me, was a big step down from the previous Part One.

I found this continuation of the story to be quite messy, filled with sections that did not make much sense in the context that they used it in. A focus on Kara, aka Supergirl, and Psycho-Pirate were understandable because of the original comics, but did not work nearly as well in this presentation.

The animation is still, at best, passable, but not what this type of project deserves. This is one of the most iconic DC stories ever told and it should be a much wider scope with breathtaking visuals instead of animation that just gets by.

And then the story felt so discombobulated during the telling, jumping back and forth between Kara’s story and that of Psych-Pirate and the current day troubles. The best part of the story was the individual issues that came up within each locations, such as the Bat-Family’s infighting or Wonder Woman and her conflict with her not-mother Hippolyta.

They had the worst reveal with who the homeless man was who had been warning that the end was coming. You had to not be paying attention if that surprised you.

I do not remember if the Monitor in the comic series was such a rip-off of the Watcher as he is in these movies, but he is clearly the same character with different skin color. I had no feelings toward Monitor at all, even though I think I was supposed to feel something for him.

Part three is coming later in the summer and I do hope that it is better than this one so this trilogy of a story can finish strong.

2.75 stars

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths Part One

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This morning, I did the June Swoon 3 film for the day and it was on HBO Max. It was an animated Justice League movie called Warworld. I did not find it great, but it did reveal to me something that I did not know. There was another Justice League animated film out and available on Max which was based on one of the classic DC Comics storylines ever told: EYG Hall of Fame series, Crisis on Infinite Earths.

A wall of anti-matter is sweeping across the multiverse, destroying everything in its path. The Monitor (sort of like DC’s Watcher) recruited heroes from across all different worlds in an attempt to prevent the multiverse’s complete annihilation.

One of the most fun part about watching this movie was seeing the background heroes recruited to stand behind the main heroes. I saw everyone from Metamorpho to Hawk & Dove to Swamp Thing. These were just there for Easter eggs as none of them earned speaking roles.

Barry Allen (Matt Bomer), aka the Flash of Earth One, was one of the main characters as he had been in several previous films, introducing the concept of parallel earths. We saw Barry in multiple places during his own timeline as well as on different earths, such as Earth 3 with the Crime Syndicate. If you know about the original DC Max-Series, you know Barry Allan played a vital role in that story, and so it is effective that he is front and center in this one.

The animation of this film remains to be of a lower quality than one would expect from this type of a project. With animation that we see in weekly shows such as X-Men ’97, a feature length film should be better than what we get here. Still, it is watchable, but it just does not make me stop and be amazed at the shots.

The voice cast is once again assembled with some great voices. Along with Matt Bomer as Flash, there are Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Stana Katic, Meg Donnelly, Zachary Quinto, Jonathan Adams, Aldis Hodge, Jimmi Simpson, Ike Amadi, Alexandra Daddario, Nolan North, Lou Diamond Phillips, Matt Ryan, Keesha Sharp, Matt Lanter, Ashleigh LaThrop, Erika Ishii, Liam McIntyre, Zach Callison and Ato Essandoh.

This adaptation does a decent job with providing a story that works for the most part. This is an enjoyable film, and a much better one than the Warworld one that preceded it. It also did a decent job of being a part one, leaving us with a cliffhanger, and yet feel as if we got a complete story for the first part. On to Part Two!

3.8 stars

Justice League: Warworld (2023)

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June 4, 2024

The fourth day of the June Swoon 3: A Cinematic Flashback brought me to HBO Max and the first animated film of the month. It is also the first disappointment of the month.

At first, I felt that Justice League: Warworld was an intriguing concept. Seeing Wonder Woman in the old West was a neat concept and watching her square off with Jonas Hex opened a lot of possibilities. I was thinking this was much like Westworld and seeing the Justice League involved in this setting would be cool.

However, it was not just the old West. After her short bit was done, we came across Batman in the world of Warlord. Wonder Woman was there too. I did not understand what was happening and, if this was the case, why was Batman not in the old West. and where was Superman?

Eventually we came to Superman as an agent of the government in a black and white alien invasion film where both Batman and Wonder Woman would appear as would King Faraday. It also borrowed heavily from a Twilight Zone episode I saw last summer during the Daily Zone rewatch.

All of these side bits seemed to be nothing more than time wasters as the real plot started up in this episode as they came across Mongul, with Lobo, who has some weird sci-fi storyline. Apparently, Warworld is a massive weapon against the multiverse and he was in search of a key. Why he brought the Trinity into the story made no sense, but that was not unlike most of the rest of this movie.

J’onn J’onzz was here too and played a role in the end of the film, but the movie made the entire thing feel unnecessary as it was being used simply to introduce the idea of Crisis on Infinite Earths. The movie brought in what I assume was Harbinger at the very end to rescue the Trinity and set up the next animated film. I am only guessing that this is Harbinger since the look of the character is nothing like I remember. She looked more like Marvel’s Frankie Raye aka Nova than she did the Harbinger from Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Jensen Ackles lead the voice cast which included Stana Katic (formerly of Castle fame) as Wonder Woman, and Darren Criss as Superman. Other actors included Ike Amadi, Troy Baker, Matt Bomer, Roger Cross, Brett Dalton, John DiMaggio, Frank Grillo, Teddy Sears, Kari Wahlgren, and Robin AtkinDownes.

The animation was fine, but did not standout in any instance. The characters did not feel right. Even in Elseworld type stories, the characters needed to feel like the characters we know in order for us to relate to them. Much of the story was convoluted and only felt as if it existed simply to put them in these specific settings. Worse yet, was it simply felt like a commercial for the next DC animation film.

Usually, the DC animated movies are very well done. This was quite a step down.

The X-Files S5 E9

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Spoilers

“Schizogeny”

… or the killer tree episode.

I first thought this was the episode with the kid who could summon lightning and was always in the arcade, but it switched up quickly. I do not remember this episode at all. Perhaps that is because this is terrible.

Did I mention killer trees?

Poor Aunt Linda.

I think there was an intention to speak against abuse in children, but the ridiculousness of the rest of the episode just did not fit with the topic. The tone of this episode was all over the place and the abuse did not work for the story.

And evidence that Mulder should not be involved in car chases.

The X-Files gave us, perhaps, the first crazy Karen. Decapitated, even.

If I missed this the first time around, it seemed that I was lucky. This was one of the worst X-Files episodes in a long time.

Bates Motel S2 E1

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Spoilers

“Gone but not Forgotten”

I was about halfway through the episode on Amazon Prime when my internet went out. So I had to wait a couple of hours before I could finish the season premiere of season two of Bates Motel.

One of my favorite scenes of the show happened in this episode. Vera Farmiga had the most righteous rant at the city council meeting and I threw my arms into the air as she ripped into the council and the prudish women who had presented about removing books from the school. This gave another great look at the character of Norma Bates, who is being shown to be a force of nature.

The show took the character of Bradley in a different direction this season as she tried to kill herself at the beginning of episode 1. She started going all in on an attempt to find out about her father, who died in season one. That led her to killing the guy that had some knowledge of the death in a shocking moment. Then she drew Norman into the problem at the very end of the episode. I did not remember this part of the storyline from the first time I saw this back in season two, so it was a cool, seemingly new, feature.

Norman is continuing to have trouble getting over the death of Miss Watson. The show is implying that he had something to do with the murder. Norman does not remember what happened that night, but, when he was talking to Norma about it, Norman said that he did not remember and when he left, he could have been there to help her when the person who killed her arrived. You could see that Norma was thinking that Norman had something to do with the death.

Great kickoff to season two.