Author Archives: Doc

EYG Comic Cavalcade #81

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February 10, 2024

Welcome back to the EYG Comic Cavalcade. It was another solid week of comics this week and I am excited about sharing my thoughts on them.

I have received some Groo the Wanderer issues from the Marvel/Epic run during the 1980s this week from eBay. I go issues #61-70, #25 (which I was surprised was not among the books I already owned) and the final Marvel/Epic issue, #125. When I re-bagged and reboarded my Groo the Wanderers, I did not have as many of these issues as I thought I did. I thought I had a complete set of Marvel/Epic Groo the Wanderer issues, but I was actually missing quite a few. This is probably my next search to fill these issues because I do love Groo.

Since I am currently working on re-bagging. re-boarding and re-boxing all my comics (and inventorying them on CLZ), I wonder if it is going to turn out that I am missing more comics than I thought. I may have, in my head, thought that I had certain issues that I do not actually own. It is an interesting job.

New comics this week: 

Ultimate Black Panther #1. Written by Bryan Hill with art by Stefano Caselli. The next series from Marvel’s new Ultimate universe has arrived, with Black Panther taking center stage. This was a really strong introduction for the character and I loved the design of Killmonger. The Ultimate Universe feels as if it is off to a hot start.

The Sensational She-Hulk #5. Written by Rainbow Rowell and drawn by Ig Guara. Jen Bartel did the cover art (which was in the top six of the covers of the week race). This was a lot of fun as She-Hulk, Captain Marvel and my girl Patsy Walker aka Hellcat battled some demons at Patsy’s favorite bar and Damian Hellstrom, the Son of Satan showed up. I am not sure where my unreasonable love of Hellcat has come from, but I love that character so much.

Pine & Merrimac #2.  Written by Kyle Starks and illustrated by Fran Galán. Linnea and Parker find their investigation leading them to as island that has a dark and dirty secret and the couple are there to bring it down.

Captain America #6. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and penciled by Lan Medina. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. The story arc with the present day and past day Steve Rogers wrapped up in this issue as we see the ever heroic Steve Rogers save the day twice. I loved this dual story and I will miss it as the past time frame clearly led up to the recruitment of Rogers for the Super Soldier program.

Doctor Strange #12. ”Ghost Story“. Written by Jed MacKay and art by guest artist Danilo S. Beyruth. Alex Ross continued with his awesome Dr. Strange covers here. This story focused on Bats the ghost dog as he could smell the evil that was inside the Sanctum Santorum. That evil was Victor Strange, the ghost from the recent Crypt of Shadows #1. I was worried for Bats the entire issue. 

Daredevil: Gang War #3. Written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Sergio Davila. Elektra is out on the streets of Hell’s Kitchen doing what she can to protect the people from the Gang War ravaging the neighborhood. She winds up battling the new villain Bellona. IS she a Wolverine clone? Sounds that way.

Avengers #10. ”Twilight Dreaming” Part Four. Written by Jed MacKay and art by C.F. Villa. Stuart Immonen did the cover art. Myrddin confronts Kang the Conqueror, who is now awake and blaming the Avengers for not protecting him better. Meanwhile, Thor and Wanda are speaking with Nightmare. Lots of stuff going on here.

X-Men #31. ”The Passenger“ Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Phil Noto. Joshua Cassara and Marte Gracia did the cover art. X-Men members Shadowcat, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Ms. Marvel, and Psylocke, along with Spider-Man, fight Nimrod as the mutants prepare to invade the earth.

Fantastic Four #17. ”Salvaged from the Wreck of Ages.” Written by Ryan North and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Alex Ross. A quick FYI, Indiana Jones does not appear inside this issue, despite making a cameo on the cover. This is a fun time travel story that allowed the FF to find the bones of one of their members who apparently died in prehistoric Arizona. I have loved these single issue stand alone stories Ryan North has tossed in during his run on Fantastic Four. It shows that every comic does not have to be multiple issue story arcs to be successful.

Wolverine: Madripoor Knights #1. ”Blindsides Galore! (or the Set-Up)” Written by Chris Claremont and art by Edgar Salazar. Philip Tan & Sebastian Cheng did the cover art. Another short series set in the Marvel Universe past, this included a team up from Logan (as Patch) with Captain America and Black Widow. Psylocke and Jubilee were here too, but the big three were the featured trio.

The Cull #5. Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Mattia De Iulis. This brought this series to an end. It is extremely different now than when the series started off. I am not sure I loved how it went. The art is beautiful though. It also pulled off a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ending leaving a surprising END? to the series.

Other books this week: Antarctica #8, Star Wars: Mace Windu #1, Ghostlore #8, Love Everlasting #12, and Thanos #3.

Lisa Frankenstein

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If I am being honest, I did doze off for a short time at the beginning of the new movie, Lisa Frankenstein. Sadly, I was awake for most of it.

According to IMDB, “After suffering an unspeakable tragedy, Lisa finds herself at a new school her senior year in 1989, struggling to fit in, despite her “sister” Taffy trying to get her to conform to her more typical cheerleader vibe. When a freak accident reanimates a corpse from the abandoned cemetery where she was spending time, she must keep his arrival a secret from her family and classmates, all while deciding how much she wants to help him, and at what cost.”

I really did not like Lisa Frankenstein. I found it unfunny, mean-spirited and filled with characters that I just did not like. Lisa, played very well by Kathryn Newton, was a protagonist that I found so unlikable that I did not know why I was supposed to be cheering for her. Maybe I wasn’t.

I will give the movie some credit in the fact that it did take some big swings and did not fall into the typical steps. I like the idea behind a lot of the film, but I just did not like the execution of these original ideas. I did enjoy the character of Taffy (Liza Soberano). She was a character that we have seen dozens of times and is always portrayed in a certain way, but this film took this character in a completely different direction. That was welcome and she was easily my favorite character in the movie.

Cole Sprouse was fine as the Creature. He did a solid job without any dialogue for most of the movie. 

I can say that I did not think that the actors were part of my problem with this movie. 

I found it to be cruel, filled with mean scenes toward the people of the film and I just did not appreciate it. I may have chuckled a few times during the movie, but, overall, the writing of it just did not inspire me in any manner.

This was another movie that I was disappointed by since I had been looking forward to seeing it since the trailers. I would say that as of February 10th, this is my least favorite movie of the year (although Madame Web is coming next week).

1.5 stars

The X-Files S3 E7

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Spoilers

“The Walk”

There were quite a few episodes of the X-Files from season one, during this rewatch, that I had not seen before. However, those had come to an end during season two so it was a surprise when episode 7 of season three was an episode that I did not remember seeing before.

“The Walk” featured a whole bunch of stuff, from astral travel to villains with both legs and arms amputated.

The episode included a revenge plot by that soldier with the arms and legs gone that led him to killing family members of the people he blamed for his pain. It was a dark episode, especially when we saw him bury a general’s son alive with his astral form.

The episode was decent. The actor playing the villain was okay, but perhaps not to the level of some of the other scary villains in the rogue’s gallery of the X-Files. Though it did feel kind of odd having Mulder try to intimidate him while the man was in bed. 

It was a satisfying watch, one which I did not remember from before.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of February 5

It is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and that means we have the new winner of the EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week. Once again, I narrowed it down to about six choices before I decided on the medal winners.

Here we go…

Bronze Medalist

The Cull #5

Cover Art by Mattia De Iulis

The final issue of the five-issue mini series from Image. 

Silver Medalist

Fantastic Four #17

Cover Art by Alex Ross

Another great cover by Alex Ross, but what really is what earned the silver medal was the cameo in the upper right hand corner of the cover from Indiana Jones himself! I was surprised when I saw him there. It also looks like Short Round’s hat there.

Gold Medalist

Star Wars: Mace Windu #1

Cover Art by Mateus Manhanini

Here is how I know this is the cover of the week. I do not collect any Star Wars titles. I like Star Wars but I am not interested in reading them. I saw this issue on the wall at Comic World and I saw the cover and I was immediately attracted to it. 

I kept looking at it and finally moved over to look at it closer. I saw it was written by Marc Bernardin so that helped even more. The cover brought me in and helped me decide to buy this #1.

The X-Files S3 E6

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Spoilers

“2Shy”

This was an X-Files horror episode at its finest.

I seemed to like this more than some of the other online critics that I have seen. I thought this villain, Virgil Incanto, was very scary and rather creepy. His “fat-sucking vampire” character was pretty horrific.

Is he too much like a little brother to Eugene Tooms? Maybe. There are definitely similarities to the characters, but as a monster-of-the-week on the X-Files, I found Incanto to be very successful.

I liked how it was Scully, along with one of Incanto’s intended victims, who brought him down. Especially after the local detective Alan Cross dropped some “old fashion” values on Scully, implying that he did not think that women should be in this position. Cross wound up dead in the bathtub and Scully stood tall at the end. I would have preferred her to be a little more responsible for the monster’s capture than his intended victim, who shot him with Scully’s gun that she just left on the floor.

Still, I was fully engaged with the story and I was happy that they did capture the villain at the end and he just did not slither off to continue his spree of fat-sucking.

True Detective: Night Country S4 E4

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Spoilers

“Part Four”

Night Country continues to be a creepy and, at times, devastating look at both mental illness and the effects of isolation and the lack of daylight.

This week, Navarro’s sister, diagnosed with several mental illnesses, leaves the clinic and walks into the water, drowning herself. To say that Navarro does not respond positively to the news is an understatement. She flies off the handle at the clinic and then picks a fight with a group of men who leave her bloodied and battered.

Meanwhile, things aren’t great for Danvers. Her step-daughter leaves, Danvers spends Christmas Eve alone and drunk.

Navarro is seeing some horrors and she is afraid that the mental illness ran through her family. Ghosts are everywhere here apparently.

The supernatural element of this show has really started kicking into high gear. When Otis Heiss said that they were in the “night country” now, it really felt like something creepy.

And I really feel for Navarro.

The show has been firing on all cylinders for me and, with just two episodes left, I’m excited to see the mystery of the Tsalal murder solved.

Death and Other Details S1 E3

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Spoilers

“Troublesome”

I watched the third episode of Death and Other Details on Hulu tonight titled “Troublesome.” I have to say that I have not quite been absorbed by the series so far.

I really do enjoy Mandy Patinkin in the lead role as Rufus. He is awesome and he certainly carries himself like a star. 

However, I have struggled getting to know the rest of the characters involved in the story. Most of them have not been characters that I have been engaged with and I am having a difficult time knowing who they are.

I don’t know if I needed more introductions to these people or if I did not give the show enough attention, but it has been okay for me at best.

There is a new detective on board, Agent Hilde Eriksen, whom I find kind of intriguing. I like ho she has played off Rufus so far and I hope things will continue to improve over the next several episodes.

Moonlighting S4 E3, E4, E5, E6, E7

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Spoilers

“Take a Left at the Altar”

“A Tale of Two Cities”

“Cool Hand Dave Part I”

“Cool Hand Dave Part II”

“Father Knows Last”

A Sunday afternoon spent with the fourth season of Moonlighting is an enjoyable thing. Even with the fourth season being quite a step down, including much of the time where Dave and Maddie were separated between two cities.

Cybill Shepherd’s pregnancy caused some of these issues, but there were other problems that led to this season.

In retrospect, the fourth season was better than I remembered but so many of the things that happened that just did not work for Moonlighting. A lot of it was fine for any other network show, but for Moonlighting, it was just not the same.

This is a stretch of time when Bert Viola became practically unbearable. Prior to these episodes, he had been okay. During this time, he was obnoxious, taking over for Dave in the office, and being overbearing. I think part of my dislike of the character came from Dave’s reaction to him. He was snarling at Bert, rolling his eyes and wishing him leave. That made me think Bert wasn’t worth the time.

There was only one case during this time and it included Terry O’Quinn (John Locke from LOST). It was a typical Moonlighting case, but the chemistry with Dave and Bert during the chase scene just was not the same without Maddie.

The biggest issue with these episodes is that there is such an undercurrent of meanness to it. These characters who we love so much have such an anger and a bitterness to them that it just feels wrong.

In the Cool Hand Dave two part episode, Dave winds up in prison in one of the most convoluted manners possible. There is no way that it could have possibly worked this way, but there was a really fun musical number during it and Bob the Goon (Tracey Walter) from Batman ’89 was Dave’s cellmate.

In the end, these episodes are not great in comparison to the past seasons of Moonlighting, but watchable over all.

The Greatest Night in Pop

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A great new documentary arrived on Netflix that featured the story of the recording of the classic 80’s song, We are the World.

There was a lot of recorded sections of the actual archive recordings with all of the artists involved in the amazing night. Starting after the American Music Awards were done, the recording session went the rest of the night and into the morning hours. 

Lionel Richie was one of the first interviews the doc had as he was a major factor behind the creation of the song. He and Michael Jackson wrote it, despite trying to get Stevie Wonder to be a part of it.

The artists interviewed for the doc included Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Smokey Robinson, and Dione Warwick.

One of the interesting tidbits in the doc included the section with Sheila E talking about Prince and the desire of the people in charge to have Prince as a part of the song. 

Watching the process of these legends of music trying to put together this epic song in the limited time they had was fascinating. Seeing Bob Dylan struggle to get the line of the song out was amazing. You had Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper express their doubts and insecurities over being included with people that they looked up to for their whole lives.

Another awesome moment was when Quincy Jones thanked Harry Belafonte, whose idea led to this night’s work, and the whole crew broke into a version of The Banana Boat Song. That was an excellent moment from the doc.

This was a fantastic peek behind the curtain of one of the most amazing nights in music history. 

4.3 stars

Orion and the Dark

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A new animated movie from Dreamworks dropped on Netflix this weekend that had been around for awhile. It arrived after a tough schedule last year and just appeared. It featured Jacob Trembley as the main character, Orion.

Orion is afraid of just about everything, but nothing more than the dark. When Orion was carrying on about his fear, the personification of the Dark (Paul Walter Hauser) showed up in Orion’s room and took him on his job through the night, introducing him to the other beings responsible for the night.

The voice cast is strong. Besides Jacob Trembley and Paul Walter Hauser, the cast included Colin Hanks, Angela Bassett, Ike Barinholtz, Nat Faxon, Carla Gugino, Matt Dellapina, Mia Akemi Brown, Natasia Demetriou, Aparna Nancherla, Sky Alexis, and Werner Herzog (yes, Werner Herzog).

As the film was going, the scene shifted to Orion with his daughter in the future, and he was telling her the story of this night. I actually think this dropped at the very beginning, but my Netflix copy skipped it because it felt very out of place where this was dropped.

The story was sweet and had a good message. It was a quick watch and had some clever ideas. It felt like Inside Out but with the night. 

3.7 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #80

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February 3, 2024

It is the 80th edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade. Yay! 

I was able to get some older British issues including Wolverine and Gambit#56, The Avengers United #1 and Wolverine Unleashed #53. They are reprint issues and it is just kind of cool to add them to my collection.

I wound up with my two CGC books this week from eBay. Groo the Wanderer #1 from Marvel/Epic and Groo the Wanderer #11. #1 was a 9.4 and #11 is 9.6. They are wonderful and beautiful. I do not have a lot of CGC books but I do like the three that are currently in my collection.

I have received the whole series of Sergio Aragones’ Groo run of 12-issues from Image Comics. I love me some Groo, even if the jokes may get a tad repetitive at times. 

Other books:

Deer Editor #1. Written by Ryan K. Lindsay and art by Sami Kivelä. Todd got me this issue and demanded that I do the review of it. Okay, here we go… I loved this. The main character is named Bucky and he is a two-legged walking deer who is an investigative journalist. The comic had a noir feel to it and Bucky is a great character. And by the way, he is going through the city like he is just another human. It is weird, and I am in for it.

Ghost Machine #1. This is the other book that Todd got me and demanded a review for. This is an anthology book featuring a bunch

of the new series coming from Image including books within their own worlds. Several of these have been fun and I will probably be following. I used to like Geiger, but I have not continued with it. The Hyde Street horror series I will definitely check out. I already plan on picking up Redcoat. The Family Odysseys series are interesting too. This book was a decent kick off for these books.

Dark Ride #10. Written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Andrei Bressan. Declan Shalvey did the cover art for the B cover that I purchased. This series is ramping things up as Sam and Halloween are heading to their own choices. 

Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #4. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Juan Ferreyra. Ferreyra had an amazing cover too. This was the finale of this awesome Spider-Man horror book featuring the Jackal. I really enjoyed this book and I would be behind extending mor Spider-horror in the future.

Spider-Boy #3. ”Nonstop Action Figure” and “Spi-lingual” Both stories written by Dan Slott. First story art by Paco Medina and second story art is by Ty Templeton. Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Spider-Boy takes on the Toy Soldier, who is an action figure with all the powers of the Avengers. I have been liking Spider-Boy a lot. This is a lot of fun.

Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War #2. Written by Greg Pak and art by Caio Majado. David Aja did the cool cover on this. I really enjoy these covers. Shang has been struggling to maintain the power and the organization of the Five Weapons Society. This has been one of the best books from the Gang War arc.

Avengers Inc. #5. Case Number: 005: “The Prodigal Son” Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Leonard Kirk. Daniel Acuna got the cover art of the week for this excellent cover. This books came to an end way too early. This has been an excellent book and the fact that it has not caught on and has been cancelled after 5 issues is a shame.

Local Man #9. Written by Tony Fleecs and Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs does the art. Jack and Inga’s dalliance comes to light and it causes some trouble. Jack’s killing of Camo Crusader comes out as well. And lots of water in this issue too.

Avengers: Twilight #2. ”Book Two: That’s Not Who We Are.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Daniel Acuna. I have once again enjoyed this book despite me typically not being a fan of these alternate future stories. This one was cool following with old Captain America and we see an older Kamala too. I should never doubt Chip Zdarsky.

Marvel Voices Legends #1. I typically do not read these Voices books much, but I did read this one and I liked most of the book. It was neat to see a few characters we don’t see much such as The Patriot and Deathlok. I prefer that over seeing short story with Black Panther who has his own book. Caanan White & Frank D’Armata did the cover art.

Killadelphia #33. ”Death Be Not Proud: Part III“ Written by Rodney Barnes and art by Jason Shawn Alexander & German Erramouspe. Jason Shawn Alexander did the cover art. Savage Dragon guest stars in this issue. I am not sure I love the new version of Killadelphia without the Founding Fathers Vampires from the first 30 issues. It’s fine, but it is definitely down from those heights.

Dead X-Men #1. ”Earth Intruders” Written by Steve Foxe and art by Jonas Scharf, Bernard Chang and Vincenzo Carratù. This is strange as some dead X-Men, who died during the Hellfire Gala are back and after Moira. I am not sure about this book because I am not sure I understand what is going on here.

Incredible Hulk #8. ”Spirits of Vengeance Part Three“ Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Hulk and Ghost Rider (one of them at least) fighting monsters. That is about it. Lots of kids involved too. 

Moon Man #1. Written by Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi & Kyle Higgins and art by Marco Locati. Rapper Kid Cudi writes a comic. It is an interesting start. I would probably give another issue a chance. I think the ideas here are decent and I’m intrigued to see where it heads from here.

Other books this week: Miguel O’Hara: Spider-Man 2099 #5, Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld #3, The Bloody Dozen #2, and W0rldtr33 #7. (Only four in the other books this week Todd. Are you happy? I hope you’re happy)

Argylle

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Here is the first real disappointing film of 2024. 

I have been looking forward to this movie since I first saw the trailer in 2023. It sounded great and the cast was outstanding. I avoided online reviews as much as I could, but I knew they were trending negative. Still, I hoped that the film would be one of those that may be in the middle with critics, but that would be still be entertaining.

Sadly, will Argylle was not terrible, it was not good either. Meh is a very good way to describe this film, the newest from director Matthew Vaughn.

According to IMDB, “Elly Conway, an introverted spy novelist who seldom leaves her home, is drawn into the real world of espionage when the plots of her books get a little too close to the activities of a sinister underground syndicate. When Aiden, a spy, shows up to save her (he says) from being kidnapped or killed (or both), Elly and her beloved cat Alfie are plunged into a covert world where nothing, and no one, is what it seems.”

The definite standout of the film was the performances of its two main protagonists, Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell. Don’t be fooled into thinking that Henry Cavill, who is featured heavily in the marketing, is a main character because he is not. He does not appear in much of the movie, mainly in the opening scene which was used quite a bit in the trailers. 

In fact, I hated the way Cavill was used after that opening scene. He was basically a figment of Bryce Dallas Howard’s imagination moving on and would show up to give her a pep talk.

Bryan Cranston is the main antagonist of the film and he is a basic villain without much development for his character. He was always just kind of menacing and that was about it. Catherine O’Hara played Elly’s mom and she had a minimal amount of screen time. She was more used than John Cena and Ariana DeBose, though, who were basically cameo rolls. Samuel L. Jackson was limited to watching a Lakers game for much of his time in the movie.

The movie was too convoluted with its plot and it tried to fool the audience several times that just served to confuse many and mess up the story. When it was just Howard and Rockwell on screen, the film was considerably better.

It was also way too long at almost 2 and a half hours. This needed to be trimmed considerably so it was between 1:45-2:00 hours at most. You could feel the length of the film.

The CGI was not good either. There were times when the cat, named Alfie in the film, was just ridiculous looking. There were plenty of moments too that you could see the green screen.

The film had a major reliance on exposition too, as there was a major info dump in the middle of the film when the twist arrived. The film had to explain things to us way too much and it slowed it down even more.

I was very disappointed with Argylle as I was hopeful that this could be a really fun spy adventure. Sadly, though there were some things positive to it, it is not a film that I would want to see again.

2.6 stars

The X-Files S3 E5

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Spoilers

“The List”

The X-Files meets The Green Mile.

Or maybe Marv from Sin City.

Any depiction of the electric chair is somewhat disturbing for me so this episode started off with me on edge. When the prisoner stated that he had a list of those he wanted to exact his revenge upon, returning from the beyond to kill them all, well, the show made it really creepy.

Yet, it turned out to be strangely satisfying despite being unresolved for Mulder and Scully.

J.T. Walsh had a sufficiently rotten turn as Warden Brodeur, a character that clearly had little redeeming qualities. His final fate, in a cool action sequence for the show, was worthwhile.

Written and directed by series creator Chris Carter, this episode is a solid stand-alone, monster-of-the-week episode that definitely had its place among the X-Files oeuvre.