I binged the third season of the WWE Unreal program on Netflix today. Five episodes that follow the WWE storylines behind the scenes, providing the viewer with a different look at their favorite WWE superstars.
The third season started off with the John Cena retirement tour, where Cena had announced he would have so many more dates with the WWE and then he would be retired, over the entire calendar year of 2025. It looked at many of the matches that Cena had during this run, specifically his match with CM Punk, AJ Styles and Logan Paul.
The five episodes featured several of the main wrestlers in background detail and stories that led them to where they were. The main superstars, besides John Cena, that had time allotted to them were CM Punk & AJ Lee, Liv Morgan, Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, and Stephanie Vaquer.
There were other WWE stars appearing, but these are the ones that stood out as characters they were following. One exception was when they went to Chelsea Green’s fully build house, which they had shown in process of being build in season two. We got to see Matt Cardona (her husband) and his toy collection.
There are a lot of good moments that the docuseries provided. Probably the most impactful was the relationship with CM Punk and his wife AJ Lee (aka April), and the dog Larry that was their longtime pet. Larry passed away during this time frame and the pain and grief were so apparent on CM Punk’s face and in his words that it was truly the deepest and most emotional moment of the entire five episodes.
I do think that there are things that could have been covered more that were either brushed over or ignored. John Cena’s heel turn was addressed, but I do not think that they went into a lot of specifics about how it did not work. They touched on it, but it was otherwise ignored.
Another one was Brock Lesnar’s retirement after the Wrestlemania match with Oba Femi. That was something that was not even mentioned, and I would have liked to have seen how the backstage reaction was to that. I understand that Lesnar was not one of the focused characters for the series, but I can’t believe that that incredible moment was not covered.
There was a fascinating section dealing with injuries and how they can blow up creative plans. Seth Rollins, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed were all injured within a short time span of each other and seeing how that caused creative to flip around was interesting. My favorite moments were still going inside the writers’ room, and I would have like more of that.
The whole Pat McAfee controversy with the Cody Rhodes-Randy Orton title match at Wrestlemania was skirted around and it sure seemed like everyone involved was happy about it, but that clearly was not the case. There should have been a deep dive into this.
Still, I enjoyed the docuseries quite a bit, and every time the show focused on CM Punk, the show really soared.
Season two of the Muppet Show kicked off with some changes.
The opening theme came closer to what I remembered as the iconic theme. They removed Fozzie’s joke from the opening and added in Statler and Waldorf. However, my memory of Statler and Waldorf was them singing the next verse which started “Why do we always come here…” which was not what was in this season’s beginning. Kermit’s intro of the guest star is now at the very beginning of the song instead of the middle. It ends with Gonzo, no longer with a club, but with a trumpet. The opening had a much bigger feel to it.
It also featured the “cold open” where Scooter sticks his head into the guest star’s dressing room and gives them an update on how long until the show starts. This pre-theme gag would go for the rest of the series, if I remember correctly.
There were some weird things in these episodes as well. In episode one with Don Knotts, the Disney + version of the show was chopped up with things removed. Don Knotts’s finale, which was Knotts playing a bass with the Electric Mayhem on a song called “Lullaby of Birdland” was removed completely. I never figured out the reasoning behind the editing (sounds like it had something to do with copyright). They also chopped up the backstage segments between Fozzie and Floyd where Floyd gave Fozzie some sunglasses and proclaimed him a hip dude.
Episode two featured Zero Mostel, who actually died not too long after the show was recorded. This was a great episode with things such as Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat major as performed by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (I loved Animal screaming “Chopin” as he drummed), “Smoke Gets in your Eyes” by Rowlf and Zoot, and Mostel dressed as Henry the VIII performing “What Do the Simple Folds Do?” It also ended with some Lady Wrestling, as per request from Scooter’s uncle J.P. Grosse. Kermit couldn’t find anyone to participate (the scene where he asked Piggy to do it was hilarious), so he donned a wig and took on Granny the Gouger. Kermit got his butt kicked and tossed into Statler and Waldorf’s box. Miss Piggy did not like that and showed up and did the “hi-yaaaah” to Granny. As a wrestling fan, I remember loving this skit when I was younger.
Episode three featured Milton Berle in several tremendous skits. The standout of the whole episode (and perhaps the season so far) was Milton Berle vs. Statler and Waldorf. I was so impressed with him since he allowed the two old hecklers to get the best of him the entire routine. Uncle Miltie, a literal comedic legend, was willing to play straight man to a couple of Muppets and let them make him look the fool. It was really one of the funniest skits I have seen on the Muppet Show so far. Milton Berle also did a fantastic rendition of “The Entertainer” (which the show strangely followed up with Miss Piggy singing the same song too) and a great comedy-duet with Fozzie called “Top Banana.” Milton Berle worked beautifully with the Muppets here.
There were some classic debuts during these three episodes. This was the first time we have seen Beaker in the Muppet Labs sequence. Beaker would go on to become on of the most iconic Muppets of all time. We saw the first episode of Pigs in Space with Link, Dr. Strangepork and Miss Piggy.
I loved in episode one where Rowlf sings “What a Wonderful World” to a real living puppy. I love the Louis Armstrong song and Rowlf does it very well.
The second and third episodes of this season have to be considered some of the best of the series and it was a shame that the Don Knotts episode got as chopped up as it did, because it had the potential to be just as great.
Animation Style: hyper-realistic, surrealist Western
Studio: Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, and Industrial Light & Magic
Rango is a fun animated movie featuring a chameleon in a Western-type film.
Voice cast: Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Ned Beatty, Stephen Root, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone and Timothy Olyphant.
I watched season three of Rick and Morty on HBO Max throughout the day today. I have not watched many episodes of Rick and Morty over the years, but I have seen some. This season included a few of the episodes that I had seen before.
Specifically, I have seen “Pickle Rick,” “Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender,” and, I believe, the season premiere “The Rickshank Rickdemption.” These were very strong episodes, but I remember the reason I did not consistently watch the show when it was originally on was because of the time it was on TV (Late night Sunday night).
The season long storyline of Jerry and Beth’s marriage falling apart saw the two of them planning a divorce, though they wind up back together at the end of the season. The last couple of episodes questioned whether or not Rick had cloned Beth and let her wander the universe to find herself. At the end of the finale, Rick claimed that Beth was not a clone. I am not sure I believe him. It feels like a storyline that could carry over the next several seasons even.
In “The Ricklantis Mixup” starts with Rick and Morty heading to Atlantis, but the episode did not follow them there as the show went to the new Citadel of Ricks and saw the struggles and conflicts between the Ricks and the Mortys. We see a new Morty elected president. It is another potential future arc for the show.
The “Morty’s Mind Blowers” episode was batshit crazy, using some old memories that Morty had erased from his mind. It was done as a replacement for the typically annual Interdimensional Cable episode that they had in both of the first two seasons.
One of the most iconic episode was “Pickle Rick.” I did not think that this episode, the one where Rick turned himself into a pickle in order to avoid family therapy, was this early in the overall series. I love this episode.
I did enjoy the battle between Rick and the President of the USA in “The Rickchurian Mortydate.” It was also funny how the conflict was resolved.
Overall, season three was tremendous. My favorite episode is “Pickle Rick” and my least favorite was “The ABC’s of Beth.”
Juliette is becoming a bigger problem than The Algorithm wants and it has made a suggestion to Camille that it has gotten to a moment where she can kill Juliette and make her into a hero.
And make her dead.
This Algorithm was nasty and dangerous. It kept making threats about purging the whole silo to get Camille to do what it wanted.
It was nice to see that Lukas Kyle was alive, though I always expected him to be that way. He was able to avoid capture still thanks to some of the Outsiders.
We get to see Camille in a bit of different light in this episode as she pushed back against the Algorithm, and we learn motives for her. Of course, she also ordered the gas bombing to get rid of “rats” without letting the people know.
In the past, Daniel and Helen are in search of a supposed recording of the last few minutes of the flight Daniel’s sister was involved in during the Iraq mission. Helen had been fired from her job because she was digging too deeply. When they went back to try and get the tape from the hacker, they found the warehouse is ransacked.
The story is starting to pick up. I am curious to see more of the back story and how it plays into the present day.
Episode six of The Boroughs gave us a bunch of info on what was going on in this place.
Last episode, the whole crew of Sam, Art, Judy, Wally and Renee are captured by Blaine and given an ultimatum. Wally has to go to work for Blaine while the others are basically on house arrest. Can’t leave the Boroughs, ankle monitors, cameras in their houses, the full nine yards.
They have to accept this situation or they would be sent to the Manor. The whole situation has become quite sinister.
Blaine takes Wally to meet the whole crew behind the scenes of the Boroughs and want him to help save a patient… the person they call Mother, who was supposedly hatched out of an alien egg found decades before. This is the being who the monsters (they call The kids) who suck “brain juice” from the residents came from.
Sam can’t take the way things were so he decided to walk through the desert to the diner and call his daughter, Claire. He cuts off the ankle monitor and heads out.
Meanwhile, Paz and Renee plan up an escape attempt to correspond to the 75th anniversary celebration coming up. They are able to recruit Judy to the fold, but Art did not want to be part of it.
However, when Art discovered from Claire that she had committed Sam to the Manor after she picked him up at the diner, he changed his mind and joined the “Grey Rebellion.”
Renee, though, has altered the plan. She does not want to just run away, she wanted to fight. She had been told everything by Wally and she said that she wanted to get into the offices at the manor and kill Mother, to take it away from Blaine and his cronies.
Of course there would be more to this. At the end of the episode, we see Mother, and she appears to be human-ish. She was not a monster like the “Kids.”
You knew where Claire was taking Sam after she picked him up. I was disappointed that she did not believe her father and allowed Blaine’s manipulations to work in her mind from a few episodes ago. Clearly, Mother’s appearance will make it more difficult to kill as Renee wants to do. Mother also makes me feel as if she is less sinister than Blaine and his cronies. Has she been held captive all these years?
There is something more to Sam’s wife too. This is an arc that remains unanswered.
Next week is the penultimate episode of the series and things are really setting up to be a massive final two episodes.
Animation Style: hyper-realistic 3D computer animation
Studio: Blue Sky Studios
Voice cast: Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Jemaine Clement, Leslie Mann, Carlos Ponce, Jake T. Austin, George Lopez, Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch, Will.i.am, and Jamie Foxx.
I finished the first season of The Muppet Show with the final five episodes. It was an interesting group of guest stars including Valerie Harper, Twiggy, Kay Ballard, The Mummenschanz and EYG Hall of Famer Ethel Merman.
There was an extra guest star on the Ethel Merman episode. Richard Bradshaw, who did not appear on the actual show, was a puppeteer who worked with shadows. That was fun as it was kind of Muppet-ish.
My memory was that the Phantom of the Muppet Show came with Alice Cooper, but that was not the case. He was on the Twiggy episode. By the way, the Twiggy episode had a classic moment with the AA Milne poem “The King’s Breakfast” where the king just wanted some butter for his bread. It also had Twiggy singing a Beatles song. Really? She sang “My Life” which filled me with surprise and hatred at the same time.
Another classic was “Tit-willow” from the Gilbert and Sullivan’s show The Mikado, as done by Rowlf and Sam the Eagle (who did the “tit-willow” line). It’s another example of how the show took non-kids songs and such and made them for the Muppet Show. The show did Broadway show songs such as “Broadway Baby” done by Valerie Harper and a medley of Ethel Merman’s songs such as “Friendship,” “Anything You Can Do,” and “You’re the Top”, all with other Muppets.
The Kaye Ballard episode was fun as Floyd Pepper and the rest of the band wanted to quit because they were tired of playing the theme song (BLASPHEMY!). It was such a running gag that at the end of the episode, only Rowlf was playing the theme on the piano. How awesome that gag was.
Another running joke that was a hoot was Statler wanting to meet Valerie Harper, and brought her a special plant that, when watered, grew uncontrollably. Obviously that happened.
Gonzo the Great tried to get it on with Miss Piggy. That was kind of weird, and Kermit’s non-reaction was quite funny.
The Mummenschanz were awesome too as they have a lot in common with the Muppets. They way this group of theater performers who perform in a surreal mask- and prop-oriented style. I remember them clearly from the first time I saw them on the show. They were so memorable even though I do not think I have seen them in anything since.
The first season is now down and I will be heading to season two soon. I think that it is in season two when the opening theme song changed a bit. I think it was when Fozzie was removed and they went to Statler and Waldorf.
Welcome to the EYG Comic Cavalcade. I am getting tired of repeating myself every week when I call it “another big week” of comics. It seems as if every week falls into that category. I really do pick up a bunch of books every week.
In fact, when i added the Comic World batch of books to my CLZ, I realized that I was eight books away from 22,222 in my collection. So I decided to find eight more back issues to reach that number. Todd helped me pick out these eight books: Storm Vol 2 #1-6, Son of Satan #4, and Hercules #11 (from Modern Comics). I left Comic World that Wednesday with the exact number of 22,222.
It lasted one day as I bought some more books at In This Issue on Thursday.
I completed the Daily Read that I started this week with Starhenge Book One: The Dragon and the Boar #1-6. Starting on Monday, I read an issue a day until I completed the book. It was by Liam Sharp and it was a wonderful sci-fi/fantasy story with Merlin, Arthur and a woman named Amber who was from present day and she narrated it with references to all sorts of cool pop culture mentions including The Princess Bride, other comics, Grant Morrison among many others. I picked it up because I had purchased Starhenge Book Two: A Kiss for Atticus #1 a couple of weeks ago and I did not want to start it without reading the first series.
Comic of the Week
The Ring: The Man Who Beat the Man #2
This was am unexpected pick this week, but I was just really engaged with this issue of the mini-series from Gail King at Dark Horse. Issue one came out last month and, truthfully, it was fine. I was not as into that first issue as I thought I would be.
However, this issue, focusing on two different boxers, I was fully into and I was just entertained fully. It was one of the last handful of books that I read this week and it was such a treat.
Books This Week:
Mark Spears Monsters #11. “Chapter 11: The Council of Monsters” Written by Mark and Lucas Spears with art and cover art by Mark Spears (Cover C-Bronze Medalist). This issue found all of the monsters on the Council discussing who should be in charge and what they should do about Dracula. This discussion was amazing and with the arrival of Malik and the Slayer. It ended in the weirdest place though as I was just confused, wondering if they had left out a page or two.
3W/3M: Foundations #1. Written by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Spencer with art by Mike Huddleston, Mike del Mundo, and Jerome Opeña. Cover art was done by Mike Huddleston. Four of the top creators in comics band together to provide a new comics universe and some straight up science fiction. It is an interesting book and I am curious to see how it progresses moving forward. The over-sized book does make it feel more special.
A Mischief of Magpies #1. Written by Simon Spurrier and art and cover art by Matias Bergara. DSTLRY feels as if it is back on track fully as we get the first number one since the company took several months off to attempt to fix the problems they were having with Diamond and their money. A Mischief of Magpies is another sci-fi epic where our protagonist, Mar, as he slipped out of the world into a mechanical city. It is another book where the format is very original and feels like a big swing.
Kingdom of Earth #1. Written by David Dastmalchian & Leah Kilpatrick with art and cover art by Soo Lee. We have another post-apocalyptic book where humans have two paths, either as livestock or being slaughtered. Our protagonist Frankie escaped being livestock and now is trying to survive in a monstrous wasteland. Dark Horse has another winning formula here. David Dastmalchian continues his horror success.
Nightwing #140. “The Dive” Written by Dan Watters with pencils by Denys Cowan. Cover art was done by Jorge Fornes. Nightwing is investigating the bar called “Divebar” while the city prosecutor has given him a deadline to turn himself in. The issue also brought us a new character called “Cannibal Colm” and this guy is creepy.
Captain America #13. “Hell’s Angel”-Part 2. Written by Chip Zdarsky with art by Ton Lima. Cover art was done by Valerio Schiti and variant cover (Marvel Dimensions) was done by Alex Ross (Gold Medalist). Cap and Doom are in Hell, trying to round up a crew to help them take on Mephisto. Meanwhile, Spider-Man comes to sit at the comatose Captain America’s bedside.
Something Epic #13. Written, illustrated, and cover art (all variants) by Szymon Kudranski. I loved this book, but it has been on hiatus for nearly to years. I was excited to see it back and I loved the various homage covers that the variants were displaying. Noa and D-Ductive are back and investigating the Land of Horror after a tragedy. They find yet another dead (?) body at the very end of the new issue. I am a fan of Szymon Kudranski and I love that this is back in the rotation.
Punisher vs. Amazing Spider-Man #1. “Professional Differences” Written by Dan Abnett with art by Matteo Della Fonte. Cover art was done by Jonas Scharf & Alex Guimarães. This featured the relationship between Spider-Man and Punisher, which makes one wonder why that is. They actually have some things in common, except for their methods, which is a area of contention in this book. It takes place early after Punisher and Spidey meet the first time in ASM #129.
Avengers Armageddon #2. Written by Chip Zdarsky with art by Delio Diaz and Frank Alpizar. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Moreno Dinisio (Silver Medalist). The big Marvel series gets its number two as the Avengers and Fantastic Four look to try and stop the Red Hulk’s democracy rampage. Colton and Red Hulk go one-on-one and Colton seemed to flip his head. There is a huge feel of danger and suspense in the series so far.
Junk Punch #2. Written by Paul Tobin with art by Carlos Javier Olivares and Lin Visel. Junk Punch continues to be a comic that makes me laugh. I still wonder if the joke of punching someone in the groin area will remain as funny, but I did like this issue. We are introduced to several new characters in the Junk Punch world. Let’s see how this moves on.
D’Orc #6. “Fate is Fickle” Written, art and cover art by Brett Bean. Speaking of consistently funny, D’Orc is one of my favorite books every month. We learn this issue why Gloinspear is, as D’Orc said, “….such a dick?” Surprise, surprise. Gloinspear is D’Orc’s father. Okay, so it wasn’t as big of a surprise as say, Vader and Luke, but it was fun.
Smile: For the Camera #5. Written by Hannah Rose May with art by Miriana Puglia. Cover art was done by Skylar Patridge. This mini-series based on the movie series, Smile, came to a close with this issue and I have to say that I really liked the wrap up of the story. It did not end as I expected and I do like to be surprised. It felt like the ending was earned for our main character.
Mister Nemo #1. Written by Mark London with art by Alden Kaye. Cover art was done by Duncan Rouleau. This new book from Mad Cave was one of the best of the week. The art was fabulous and we get a current day adaptation of Captain Nemo, including the Nautilus. The first issue was a really cool start as we are introduced to the concept and our new hero.
Inglorious X-Force #7. “As Luck Would Have It.” Written by Tim Seeley with art by Michael Sta. Maria. Cover art was done by R.B. Silva & David Curiel. Cyclops and Quentin Quire come to have a talk with Cable and the X-Force. Scott and Nathan are, of course, father and son, while Quire is still dealing with past issues with Akihiro (whom he knew as Daken).
War Wolf #7. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Marco Perugini. Cover art was done by David Talaski. Bruin goes to the leaders and tells them what he is going to do. This penultimate issue of the series is here to set up the finale, Father vs. Son, Bruin vs. Worldkiller.
Assorted Crisis Events #9. Written by Deniz Camp with art and variant cover C art by Eric Zawadzki. “The issue centers on a kid named Chuckie who uses “TEMPS”—the first cross-temporal employment app—to secure quick cash in a pointless, cross-time war where untrained temp workers from all of human history are sent to fight. ” (Brooke, AIPT). It has been six months since we had an issue of this sci-fi/satire series from Image Comics. This one is a lot of fun.
Fantastic Four #14. “Irrational” Written by Ryan North and art by Ramon Rosanas. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. This issue, featuring Jo-Venn and N’Kalla Masters-Grimm, the adopted kids of Ben and Alicia, proved the dangers of MATH, specifically the dangers of pi and its never ending digits. It is clear that math is the true villain in the world today, especially in the world of 616. We’ll see if Todd actually reads these posts.
Spider-Versity #4. “Most School Spirit” Written by Jordan Morris & Joe Kelly with art by Pere Perez. Cover art was done by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Lorenzo Ruggiero & Marte Gracia. Norman’s sneakiness is out in the open to Spider Woman, but there are more troubles than the double-dealing Osborn. The Carnage symbiote is free and has possessed one of the Spider-Versity.
X-Men #33. “Anomaly”, Part 3. Written by Jed MacKay with pencils by Tony S. Daniel. Cover art was done by Tony S. Daniel & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. Variant cover C was done by Matteo Della Fonte. The X-Men’s science team discovered the answers to the anomalies that were plaguing the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It came from the unconscious mind of Schwarzchild, member of the 3K. Ben and Quentin went inside the mind to try and stop the horrific anomalies.
Minotaur #1. Written by Si Spurrier with art and cover art by Mike Dowling. Ignition Press has been hot as can be over the last six months to a year, putting out some excellent mini-series. The latest is a sci-fi series called Minotaur. Gloria Monday was the protagonist of this series as a photojournalist who does not seem to have much empathy. She is documenting people who are haunted by outbreaks of the future.
The Rocketfellers #13. Written by Peter J. Tomasi and art by Francis Manapul. Variant cover C art done by Francis Portela. Tommy Townsend III and his robot Sterling, along with Rose & Zach, come to the door of the Rocketfellers, who are in the middle of trying to celebrate Rachel’s birthday. Part 3 of 4 in The Unbelievables? crossover sees our typical hero on hero fight and a betrayal by Sterling.
Absolute Green Arrow #3. “The Longbow Killer”-Chapter 3. Written by Pornsak Pichetshote with art by Rafael Albuquerque. Cover art was done by Rafael Albuquerque & Marcelo Maiolo. Dinah is on the case of who exactly is the Longbow Killer, and along the way, she comes across the absolute version of Solomon Grundy. Absolute Green Arrow has been extended from six issue mini series to a 12-issue series, which is great because Green Arrow has been a great read and the mystery is engaging.
The Department of Truth #38. Written by James Tynion IV with art by Ben Templesmith. Cover art was done by Martin Simmonds. The dinosaurs living in Florida is the latest Fiction making its way around the world as Hunky is on the case. He discovered at the end of the issue that his father, Huck passed away. Is that the truth? Not sure. Who ever knows the truth in this book?
If Destruction be Our Lot #3. “I Would Rather Be a Little Nobody Than to be an Evil Somebody” Written by Matthew & Mark Elijah Rosenberg with art by Andy MacDonald. Cover art was done by Andy McDonald and Francesco Segala. Abe comes across a human being, and this little girl runs from him. Abe tries to pursue but only gets himself into more trouble.
Absolute Flash #17. “Gorilla City- Part 2 of 2” Written by Jeff Lemire and art by Haining. Cover art was done by Nick Robles. Wally keeps his search going for Grodd, as Wally convinces the Rogues, whose mission is to kill Grodd, that it was not Grodd causing the problems, but actually Grodd’s father. Unfortunately, that just meant that the Trickster wound up shooting Grodd’s father in the head, killing him.
Space Ghost Annual #1. Written by David Pepose with art and cover art by Jonathan Lau. Space Ghost is ready for it all to be over, perhaps giving up the mantel of Space Ghost. First, he and the twins need to defeat Magnus. Space Ghost has to deal with the death of future Jace, Space Spectre. This annual leads into a crossover with the Herculoids.
Infernal Hulk #9. “Flash Magic” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Adam Gorham. Cover art was done by Nic Klein. Banner and Doctor Voodoo head inside a soul cage to confront the Hulk, in an attempt to get the Hulk power back. Banner offers up Voodoo as a prize in a contest, the Riddle Game.
GI Joe #24. Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Andrea Milana. Cover art was done by Tom Reilly. Baroness has discovered the undercover Zartan, who has been posing as Hawk. This was after working with Destro to escape their troubles.
Tigress Island #5. Written by Patrick Kindlon with art and cover art by Ephk. This mini-series form Image ended with this issue, as out surviving women are able to escape form the island. There are lots of explosions and deaths in this issue as everything is wrapped up, although there’s one who floated away, potentially alive.
Other Books This Week: Dungeon Crawler Carl #0, Arcadia #6, End of Life #4, M1: Monster Racing League #2, John Le Carre’s The Circus: Losing Control #3, and Alien: King Killer #4.
Quick Hits: This week we kick off the Quick Hits with Of the Earth #3. This series from Chris Condon continues to be one of the more engaging books each month. We got an interesting What If…? Jessica Jones #1 where Jessica gets bitten by the radioactive spider. I liked this, but I did think the identity of the Green Goblin in this issue was painfully predictable. That did hurt the overall book. More inside the house drama is going down in Fall of the House of Slaughter #3. I loved the cover on this book, but since it was a huge week for covers, it did not achieve a medal. On a normal week, this cover by Sam Wolfe Connelly surely would have been in the top three. I will say that I was kind of disappointed with Banana Number One #1 from Bad Idea. It was goofy as all get out, but that was not the problem. The Banana Number One part of this book was maybe the first third. The rest of the book was other stories that I did not want to read. I wanted more banana. More anthropomorphic animals arrive with the Super Mondo Mega Mutts #1 from Oni Press. Honestly, I found this one to be average at best. I guess you can reach a limit with your anthropomorphic animals. Who knew? Antarctic Press Comics released Horror Comics #1, which I grabbed. I like horror comics, but this is really more of an art book with each page being a cool horror drawing by several artists. There was one short story in the book which went about three or four pages. The rest would be pin-ups with horror themes. It was great art, but not what I expected. Murder Podcast #8 brought this Ignition Press comic to an end. Honestly, this was another one that I found a little disappointing. For as creative of an idea this was, the conclusion felt very typical. Kill Switch #3 is placing our body jumping characters into some real troubling situations. Tankers vs. Ancient Aliens #2 still is more focused on dinosaurs, but it looked like those pesky ancient aliens are coming next issue. Megalith: The Olympus Saga #0 continued the weird trend of Bad Idea books releasing issues #1 and 2 and then releasing issue #0. Dynamite ended Ursula #5 which was one of the bigger surprises for me this year. No way I enjoyed this series… but I did. Star trek: The Last Starship is setting up a big confrontation between Kirk and Captain Sato. Finally, there is a book called The Last Ronin: Training Day #1 from IDW that takes place between gaps in the Last Ronin saga.
The final issue of the first book of Liam Sharp’s mini-series, Starhenge brings us the fate of Arthur, what happened to Merlin, and where Taliesin, Amber Weaver, and Daryl wind up.
As Book One ended with a distinct cliffhanger, I am happy that I am ready to move into Book Two, number one of which I have already purchased from Image Comics. A Kiss for Atticus is the subtitle for the four issue limited series. I had picked up the first issue before knowing anything about the series and I am very pleased that I did so, because otherwise, I would not have gone back to read Book One.
Once again, the book played with the format of comics, as we get another heavily narrative story of King Arthur and how he was killed by Gwynn. Merlin fleeing into the woods, transforming into an Elk as he lost him mind.
The discovery at the end of the book that Merlin was still alive and how he was discovered by Amber and Daryl… and having Merlin call Amber “Grandma” was a shock.
I loved the section of Amber’s narration where she was describing how her “…comic would piss people off.” It was such a meta moment and then she took it even further with the lines, “It would be a convoluted mess of info dumps, footnotes, and sidebars, drawn in random artsy styles, and designed to confuse even the most ardent Morrison fan” is an amazing understanding of the comic that Sharp was creating. Amber’s narration has been an absolute highlight of this book for me.
There is a lot of set up through the Book One, but it never felt like it was only world building. It felt as if the characterization was there and this creates a mood that will only expand as the next Book is released. I feel better knowing that there is a Book Two starting. Had I read this back in the released date of the original series, I am sure I would wonder if I was ever going to get more.
More there is…
Excellent work from Liam Sharp and I look forward to jumping back into this world ASAP.
Animation Style: hybrid style that brings Charles M. Schulz’s 2D comic strips to life in 3D CGI
Company: Blue Sky Studios/20th Century Fox
The classic Charles M. Schulz comic strip came to life in the Peanuts Movie. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy etc. are iconic characters that worked in the movie.
Voice Cast: Noah Schnapp, Hadley Belle Miller, Marial Sheets, Bill Melendez, Francesca Capaldi, Alexander Garfin, Rebecca Bloom, Kristin Chenoweth, Noah Johnston, and Venus Schultheis
The penultimate issue of this mini series and Daily Read was the fifth issue by Liam Sharp. Sharp has been extremely excellent in the tale he is weaving with Merlin, futuristic robots, and Arthur.
Once again, the narration is done by Amber and her quippy manner makes this exposition-heavy issue fly by with a better pacing than you would have guessed.
This issue focuses upon Merlin’s problems in the past and Arthur’s aging and his ambition. Because of his ambition, Arthur was losing his main goal, which was protecting magic.
We see Amber and Daryl wind up in the past too, in order to escape the future killer robot. She is naked much of the book.
There is only one issue left, so we will have to see how this will wrap up.
Animation Style: stylized, 2D-inspired, and painterly aesthetic
Company: Pixar/Disney
Luca is an underrated Pixar movie that was released on Disney + during the pandemic. Luca was forgotten by a lot of people but I think it deserved a better fate. Luca is a young sea monster who can change into a boy and come on land and meets some friends.
Voice cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Marco Barricelli, Sacha Baron Cohen, Sandy Martin, Jim Gaffigan, and Peter Sohn.
