Word Cloud: 2025 Favorite Movies
Author Archives: Doc
Word Cloud: 2025 Least Favorite Movies
Daily Countdown: TV Show Themes #78
#78
Orange is the New Black
Title: “You’ve Got Time”
Written, Composed, Performed: Regina Spektor
This series was on Netflix and was actually pretty good. The theme just really rocked and provided the perfect tone for this series set inside a prison for women. It never failed to get my head a bobbing and set up the mood for this comedy/drama.
EYG Comic Cavalcade #185
January 1
Happy New Year! On the most recent NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, there was a small number of books. DC Comics did not put out anything at all and Image only had a handful of books. That made the day a little lesser.
There were a couple of MAJOR events this week though that led to me picking up a variety of covers.
I traded some of the duplicates of the Mark Spears Monsters #8 with a few of the others at Comic World. I have 29 separate covers of that book as of right now.
X-Men: Age of Revelation-Finale #1. Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman with Netho Diaz. Cover art is done by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer & Marte Gracia. I also picked up Cover C with art by Marcus Martin (Gold Medalist). The last three months have been dominated by this X-Men future story and it was brought to an end with this issue. It left off with a mystery as the Beast whose mind had been believed to have been brought into the future with Cyclops was not the Hank McCoy that we knew. This mutant story was interesting and looks to still be threatening our regular Marvel Universe.
The Lucky Devil #6. Written by Charles Soule with art and cover by Ryan Browne. After quite a break for this series, Lucky Devils are back to cause more trouble for the humans that they are whispering to from their shoulders. The art in this book continues to be one of the best of all independent books.
Ultimate Endgame #1. Written by Deniz Camp with art by Terry & Rachel Dodson and Jonas Scharf. Cover art was done by Mark Brooks. I picked up a blind bag of this book where I got a cover by CAFU. I also grabbed the foil by Derek Chew and a Spider-Man/Wolverine variant by Dan Panosian. The story of the return of the Master and the downfall of the Ultimate Universe begins in this issue with some major things that happen.
The Ultimates #19. Written by Deniz Camp with art by Juan Frigeri. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neeraj Menon. The story focuses on the Ultimate Wasp and Ultimate Hank Pym and their background. It also brings us the debut of the Vision, who promptly rips the brain out of Nick Fury (who I believe is a LMD).
Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #5. Written by Benjamin Percy and penciled by Marcelo Ferreira, Daniel Picciotto, and Brent Peeples. Cover art was done by Leinil Francis Yu & Matt Milla. We get Iron Man suits for Wolverine and Spider-Man in order to stop the Predators. Too bad Kraven doesn’t get one. This series comes to a close.. for now.
Marvel Zombies: Red Band #4. Written by Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan with art by Jan Bazaldua. Cover art was done by Greg Land and Rachelle Rosenberg. Spider-Man, Jessica Jones, Ultron and Doc Ock meet up with the New Avengers… and Spidey is guilted into revealing his identity to everyone. Meanwhile, zombie Reed Richards gets his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet. SNAP.
The Punisher: Red Band #4. Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Julius Ohta. Variant cover art was done by Kaare Andrews. Punisher is on his way to Tombstone, and is leaving a path of blood and brains along the way. One of the better uses of the Red Band polybag is this Punisher book.
Harley Quinn x Elvira #1. This came in a Mystery Variant Blind Bag from Dynamite. I picked up one where I got a cover by Amanda Connor (Bronze Medalist) and another where it was the cover from the #1 by Mark Spears (thanks Todd). Blind Bags are just a lot of fun… unless you get the same basic cover out of nearly every bag (sorry Todd).
Feral #19. Written by Tony Fleecs with art by Trish Forstner & Tone Rodriguez. Cover art was done by Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner. I also picked up the horror homage cover B done by Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner & Allen Passalaqua (Silver Medalist). Feral continues to be one of the best books every month. The drama inside the Pet Store is coming to a head as Elsie heads out of the store on her own.
Sorcerer Supreme #1. Written by Steve Orlando with art by Bernard Chang. Cover art was done by Leirix. Stephen Strange is gone. Doom is dead (for now). That leaves earth without a Sorcerer Supreme. Not for long… Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch takes the mantel for herself, the hell with anyone else. The Vishanti may have something to say about that.
The Undead Iron Fist #4. Written by Jason Loo and art by Fran Galan. Cover art was done by Whilce Portacio & Alex Sinclair. Danny Rand completed his mission and returned to his death… although it sounded as if he might be called back to the real world again in the future. This series ended with this issue. I did enjoy this book and I wish it would have had a longer shelf life.
Tin Can Society #9. Written by Peter Warren with art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was done by Francesco Mobili and Chris Chuckry. This Image book put out its final issue as well with this one. I have to say that this series felt like it kind of sputtered to the end, though part of that could have been the release schedule for it. I have to say that I was less excited for this finale than I was for the series in the first half of the books.
Other Books this Week: The World to Come #5, Escape #5, Lost Fantasy #6, Marian Heretic #3, and Mary Sue #3.
Fallout S2 E3
Spoilers
“The Profligate”
We get more partnership this week from Maximus and Xander, a bonding trip as it were. They were able to team up inside their own giant robot suits and to take out a robot. Since I am not a fan of the video game, I was unaware that the robot was a big time cameo named Victor. Victor came across Ghoul earlier, but I was unaware of the video game connection until I did the research afterwards. Maximus and Xander were able to destroy Victor, apparently bringing his story to an end.
However, the group of kids (some ghouls, some normal) led to Maximus taking out Xander to protect the kids. This will mostly likely lead to war between the Brotherhood and the Commonwealth, which has been showing problems throughout the episode. Kumail Nanjiani, we hardly knew ye!
Macaulay Culkin appeared as part of the Legion, what seemed to be the right hand man of Caesar. Lucy came across them first and they hung her on a cross. The Ghoul arrived later, after cutting the venom from the scorpion sting from last episode out of his leg. The Ghoul made a deal with the men for her release, but seemingly betrayed them. The Ghoul, taking to his dog, said that he did not like Lucy, but they would need her later.
I do have a tough time following the story. I should pay a closer attention to the episode when I am watching it because I do not have a deep knowledge of the video game. Still, I catch the larger parts of the show and I am progressing with it, slowly.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians S2 E5
Spoilers
“We Check In to C.C.’s Spa and Resort“
The fifth episode was a solid episode. Percy and Annabeth had to face Circe, the witch. However, I liked the way they confronted Circe. It was more psychological than physical.
We also got to see Polyphemus the cyclops for the first time as Clarisse met up with Grover and Polyphemus showed us that he was not the bumbling idiot that cyclopes are usually portrayed.
Percy and Annabeth having to sail past the sirens in order to make it past the Sea of Monsters, and Annabeth has to overcome their spell.
This was a lot of fun and worked well with the characters in the story. Tyson’s disappearance from last episode’s storm is still a mystery, but I will not buy that he is dead by seeing it off-screen.
It had a ton of great visuals. The sirens looked great. The cameo from Blackbeard was funny.
With Percy and Annabeth approaching the island, the confrontation with Polyphemus is clearly on the horizon (literally).
EYG 2026 Genre-ary: Comedies
It is that time of the year… January starts the annual Genre-ary. We have done sci-fi, musicals, documentaries… and this year, 2026, we will be doing Comedies.
I have worried about comedies because there are more movies that would be considered comedies that I dislike, because comedy is so subjective. Still, I’m giving them a chance this January.
Comedies: Genre-ary 2026
January 1: Who Done It? (1942)
January 2: Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987)
January 3: The Jerk (1979)
January 4: Office Space (1999)
January 5: Miss Pinkerton (1932)
January 6: Alan Partridge (2013)
January 7: Sherlock Jr. (1923)
January 8: The Other Guys (2010)
January 9: Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)
January 10: Super Troopers (2001)
January 11: I Used to Be Funny (2023)
January 12: To Be or Not to Be (1942)
January 13: Superbad (2007)
January 14: The Three Stooges 75th Anniversary Special (2003)
January 15: Polite Society (2023)
January 16: Friday (1995)
January 17: Sideways (2004)
January 18: The Great Dictator (1940)
January 19: Bamboozled (2000)
January 20: Murder Mystery 2 (2023)
January 21: Laughing Gravy (1931)
January 22: Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)
January 23: War on Everyone (2016)
January 24: Chaplin (1992)
January 25: Billy Crystal: 700 Sundays (2014)
January 26: Withnail and I (1987)
January 27: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
January 28: The Audition (2015)
January 29: Spaghettiman (2016)
January 30: My Blue Heaven (1990)
January 31: MASH (1970)
EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week
January 1
Happy New Year!
We start off with the 2026 Favorite Comic Cover Artist race. Year one was won by Alex Ross and year two was won by Mark Spears. Will either of them repeat for year three? Spoiler: neither are in the medalists this week.
It is a skip week for DC and there were not very many other books released this week.
Also-Rans: Sorcerer Supreme #1, The Punisher: Red Band #4 (Cover B), The Undead Iron Fist #4,and Escape #5.
Bronze Medalist
Harley Quinn x Elvira #1
Variant Blind Bag Virgin
Cover art by Amanda Conner
This was from the Harley Quinn x Elvira Mystery Variant Blind Bag. It was a virgin cover from Amanda Conner, who did several different covers for the bags. I love the sketch version of the art, though she apparently had a few special, hand-drawn version in the bags. This is not that, but still a cool idea. Blind Bags are all the rage right now.
Silver Medalist
Feral #19
Variant Cover B (Horror Homage)
Cover art by Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner & Allen Passalaqua
The horror homages from Feral continue to be some of the best covers on the market. This one is in honor of Five Nights at Freddy’s, but this book is much better than that one.
Gold Medalist
X-Men: Age of Revelation-Finale #1
Variant Cover C
Cover art by Marcus Martin.
The big finale for the X-Men event has this awesome Cyclops variant cover, showing off future Cyclops blasting his optic blast into the air. The white with gold is a real standout among a bunch of great covers for the finale issue.
2026 Comic Covers of the Week
January 1
Gold: Marcus Martin, X-Men: Age of Revelation-Finale #1
Silver: Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner & Allen Passalaqua, Feral #19 (variant)
Bronze: Amanda Conner, Harley Quinn x Elvira #1 (Blind Bag)
January 8
Gold: Mark Spears, The Monster and the Wolf #2
Silver: David Aja, Batman #5 (variant)
Bronze: Lee Bermejo, Amazing Spider-Man #19 (Variant)
January 15
Gold: Sean Von Gorman, Geiger #20 (Variant)
Silver: Alex Maleev, Logan: Black, White & Blood #1
Bronze: Cliff Chiang, Wonder Woman Black and Gold 2026 Special #1
January 22
Gold: Ivan Tao, Captain America #6 (Variant, foil)
Silver: Lee Bermejo, Amazing Spider-Man #20 (Amazing Visions Variant)
Bronze: Alex Ross, Mortal Thor #6
January 29
Gold: JG Jones, Dust to Dust #7
Silver: Gerardo Zaffino, Conan the Barbarian #28
Bronze: Tony Fleecs, Trish Forstner & Allen Passaloqua, Feral #20 (Variant)
February 5
Gold: David Marquez & Matthew Wilson, Uncanny X-Men #23
Silver: David Talaski, War Wolf #4
Bronze: Van Randal, Sam and Twitch Case Files #21
February 12
Gold: Geoff Shaw, Wade Wilson: Deadpool #1
Silver: Andrea Sorrentino, Hank Howard Pizza Detective: The Two Hollywoods #2
Bronze: Dan Mora, DC KO #4 (variant)
February 19
Gold: Nic Klein, It’s Jeff Meets Daredevil #1 (Variant-Jaws)
Silver: Skylar Patridge, Smile: For the Camera #1
Bronze: Mark Spears, World’s Finest #48 (variant)
February 26
Gold: Michael Avon Oeming, Red Book #4
Silver: Dave Chisholm, Is Ted Ok?#1
Bronze: Tyler Kirkman, Final Boss #4
March 5
Gold: Chris Shehan, Nectar #1
Silver: Zander Collins, Sleep #8
Bronze: Jenny Frison, Hello Darkness #19 (variant)
Bronze: Milena Ciccarello, Disney Villains: Gaston #1
*
March 12
Gold:
Silver:
Bronze:
March 19
Gold:
Silver:
Bronze:
Who Done It? (1942)
January 1
January is here and that means that it is time to start our annual tradition, the Genre-ary. We have done Sci-fi, Musicals, Documentaries and this year, we will be doing comedies.
I wanted to start off with one of the top comedy duos who I watched a lot as a child. I know there were great comedy duos/team like the Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, but Bud Abbot and Lou Costello were my favorite ones.
Of their list of movies, I picked out one I did not remember at all called Who Done It? Bud and Lou get themselves involved in a murder investigation on the set of a radio broadcast of a murder mystery show.
Much like most Abbot and Costello movies, the plot is tangential to the comedy of the film. The comedy comes from the slapstick of Lou Costello physically throwing himself around, bashing his head into things and flopping his body around. There are also plenty of word plays and puns throughout. This film even goes as far as to include some allusions to Abbot and Costello’s most iconic bit, Who’s on First.
You are not waiting for a lot of sense to be made. It is truly ridiculous. But the lengths Abbot and Costello will go to get a laugh is really impressive. It seemed that their very presences would make the other characters around them be dumber, in a good way.
This film also included Mary Wickes, who was Mary Lazarus in the Sister Act films as well as Emma Allen in White Christmas. Her distinct voice and facial image made her stand out among the craziness associated with Bud and Lou.
The film was fast-paced, tangent-inducing, slapstick fun. Yes, Lou Costello was loud and acted in a chaotic, if not insane, manner. It all added to the fun of the pair. They kicked of the Genre-ary in a positive light.
Daily Countdown: TV Show Themes #79
#79
The Lone Ranger
“Hi-Yo Silver, AWAY!”
Musical Origin: Composed by Gioachino Rossini for his final opera, William Tell (1829).
First used for the radio show in 1933
The piece features rapid, galloping rhythms, trumpet fanfares, and timpanis, evoking a sense of action and justice
Stranger Things 5 E8
Spoilers
“The Rightside Up”
Happy New Year to everyone.
My New Year’s Eve routine is out of whack this year because they decided to drop the series finale for Stranger Things tonight. I usually watch Infinity War and Endgame until midnight. I have done that the last five years, but with Stranger Things tossing a curveball, I decided that tonight would be different.
I am going to address the hatred part two has received online, but just for a minute. I thought the last three episodes were really strong and helped set up what is happening tonight. You have the right to hate the show if you so choose. I hope you have more reasons to feel the way you feel beside the fact that Will came out to his friends and family.
Moving onto the finale, the plan to prevent Vecna from crashing the Abyss into the earth kicks off, but it never works out the way things are planned.
Here are some random thoughts:
- The way they dealt with the Eleven “death” was great. I really liked how Mike ended up explaining the possible way Eleven survived, but we really do not know. It was a nice way to end the show.
- Linda Hamilton was never used to her full potential. She was never really a character outside of a villain. Then, I wanted her to be dead, bigtime, but she did not die.
- The Mindflayer showdown was just awesome. It reminded me of the fireworks in the mall in season (two?).
- Joyce chopping the head off Vecna? Yes, please.
- There were some really tense moments. When Henry overcame his fears and struggled his way into the cave, surprising those kids… man, oh, man.
- I think there may have been too much falling action in the episode. Did I really need a graduation ceremony turned into chaos by Dustin? Fun? Sure. But necessary? No.
- Murray’s homemade bomb that took out the helicopter? Perfecto.
- I was also happy with the fate of Eight, especially with the potential way she helped Eleven.
- Eleven is truly a bad ass. The way she dispatched those soldiers was just nothing short of brutal.
- The special effects in this episode was just amazing. That gigantic monster in the Abyss looked epic.
Stranger Things is going to go down as one of the most successful Netflix shows of all time. I saw that the finale was being shown in movie theaters across the nation, including in the Cinemark that I usually attend. I was curious (although I was never planning on watching this anywhere but my room) so I went to the Cinemark website to find that the 7 PM show was completely sold out, as was several other showings that they were having. A few of them had just one or two seats available. Even the showing that is scheduled to start at 11:50 PM had just the very front row of seats available. This was in the Quad Cities. I wonder what it would be like in a bigger city like LA or New York.
This finale was a lot of fun for me. It had a lot of excitement and uncertainty. I enjoyed it a great deal and I feel like the Duffer Brothers brought their show to a definitive conclusion, even if I did not get Linda Hamilton killed.
Daily Countdown: TV Show Themes #80
#80
Family Ties
Title: “Without Us”
Composed: Jeff Barry and Tom Scott
Performed: Originally sung by Dennis Tufano and Mindy Sterling, it was later replaced by the iconic duet version by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams.
Musicians: Jeff Porcaro (drums), David Hungate (bass), Richard Tee/Greg Phillinganes (keys), Lee Ritenour (guitar), and Paulinho Da Costa (percussion).
To be honest, this theme was placed one spot ahead of #81. Growing Pains because they are constantly getting mixed up. I am not sure if I could pick out which one was which, typically. I put Family Ties ahead of Growing Pains because I liked that show a little better, but it these could be tied at 80.5 each.
Agents of Shield S1 E4, E5, E6
Spoilers
Three more episodes of Agent of Shield, and, if I am being honest, I do not remember any of these. I know I watched this show religiously when it was on ABC, but I do not remember much of anything in them.
I remember Raina, but more during the Inhumans run when she got turned into a cat-like being.
I know I have not watched these episodes multiple times, but, even still, I should have more memory of them than what I do.
The whole Agent Ward leaping out of the Bus with a parachute to save Jemma Simmons was cool, but it made me wonder about his statis as a Hydra agent, which we know will come about soon.
I did not remember Skye’s betrayal of the team because of a former boyfriend from the Rising Tide, but I think I do remember her confession about not knowing her parents or her backstory.
There are plenty of intriguing hints being dropped for these different characters including Coulson’s time dead, May’s traumatic event, and especially Skye.
It was fun seeing Titus Welliver, the Man in Black from LOST, as one of Coulson’s superiors in Agent Blake. I don’t remember what happened to him as a character, whether he died, was Hydra or is out there somewhere.
I guess it is a good thing that I am starting this rewatch because I do not remember much about this series, outside of how much I loved these characters. I am reminded how awesome Fitz and Simmons are, how bad ass May is, and how downright cool Skye (eventually Daisy Johnson) is. I do remember how Ward was the one I liked the least of the crew, and that is still the case.
Of course, above them all was Phil Coulson, who I still state is one of the best characters to come out of the phase 1 MCU.
Sha Na Na S2 E1, E2, E3
I wondered what differences there might be to the show now that we have reached season two. There are a couple small things, but most of the show was fairly consistent with season one.
The changes included after the opening number on the stage, a member of Sha Na Na would come up to the microphone and do three or four jokes. These three episodes saw Jocko, Bowser and Chico take the mike. Most of the jokes turned out to be self-derogatory and not that funny.
The other thing I noticed was the show started putting the name of certain members on the screen with a jokey comment beneath their name such as “Jocko: Has a season ticket to the Ballet.” These were cute and could pop up at any time.
Otherwise, they had the same structure. It felt like Avery Schreiber was gone as the cabbie since they did not have him bringing the guest stars in like last season. Interestingly enough, two of the three episodes had Johnny pretend to do an imitation of the celebs, The Shirells and Little Anthony.
Episode two had Screamin’ Scott singing When the Saints Go Marching In during the comedy routine song. They actually had him sing the entire song before they paused for the joke. There were some other “heaven/angel” songs to go with the Saints one.
Episode three had Soupy Sales show up as a cop and a stage director. He was the “director” of the stage show, which was the comedy bit in episode three where Sha Na Na all dressed up as women to sing “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” It was slightly disturbing.
They had some of my favorite songs from Sha Na Na on these three episodes including “Baby, That is Rock ‘N Roll,” “Pretty Little Angel Eyes,” and “Teenager in Love.” In that last one, one of my favorite parts of that song is when Chico almost cracks himself up when he says “ax” instead of “ask” during the song. You can hear him giggle slightly.
They continue to get the musical acts, which really helps the show. These musical acts are acts from the 50/60s era that were probably happy to get a call to be on Sha Na Na. Bobby Rydell couldn’t have been too busy in the late 70s/early 80s.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 