Author Archives: Doc

EYG Comic Cavalcade #17

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April 30, 2023

Welcome to another special edition of the EYG Comic Cavalcade where I focus on Image Comics series Nocterra. I read issues #3-13 today, along with the Nocterra: Blacktop Bill Special #1.

I have no idea why I had been buying Nocterra. It was on my pull list and I had been buying them and putting them in the piles around the house. When I started off with the Comic Catch-Ups, I sorted through a bunch of the books, finding the issues of Nocterra. I assume that I saw it advertised in Previews and asked for it to be pulled. I do not remember doing it, but that is the only reason it could be happening. I certainly wasn’t picking it up off the stands every month. I hardly knew anything about it.

Then, as I started reading these back issues, I read issue #1 and I loved it. I was so engaged with the new world that they had introduced and intrigued by the originality of the setting. A lot of independent books these days have some kind of post-apocalyptic world as a setting and a lot of those get repetitive. The world of Nocterra, an the other hand, is creative and one of a kind.

Issue #2 was just as great and I was hooked. That was when I decided that I would hold off on reading any more of the issues until I could sit down with the remaining 11 issues (+the special one) and do a full series read.

That time was this afternoon.

I love the characters in this book. Val and her brother Em are top notch protagonists and Val’s sacrifice that lead to her physical transformation in issue #11 was a cool twist. The remainder of the members of the Sundogs balance things out. Admittedly, the secondary members are not major players at this point, outside of Bailey.

Blacktop Bill. Maybe the best villain introduced in comic in years. The design of the character is just exceptional, creating such an awesome looking bad guy. He reminded me a lot of Spike from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, especially while he was ‘working with’ the Sundogs.

Blacktop Bill was so great of a character, they even gave him a special issue of his own, as they looked at the background of the character. I did enjoy the way they displayed the characters, keeping his face in the shadows, even before he was covered with the Nano coating.

Scott Snyder has written the entire series so far. Snyder has been fairly well known for his work on DC Comics, in particular Batman. Admittedly, he did write the Dark Nights: Metal stuff which I did not like at all, but the Batman Who Laughs is a fun character who probably inspired or was inspired by Blacktop Bill.

The art has been handled by Tony S. Daniel, who also did a lot of work for DC. His art has been extraordinary in Nocterra so far. The themes of light and dark are used extremely well in the art. Technically, Denys Cowan was the credited artist for the Blacktop Bill Special.

The arcs so far have all been awesome. I will say that I hope the comic keeps moving forward. I do hope that they are not just going to be always trying to save the world from the darkness with Bailey and the formula that she memorized, created by her grandfather, Augustus. That feels like something that needs to eventually be paid off or it would feel as if the book is just keeping the goal post moving.

I am also totally engaged in the current flashbacks involving Em and what his birth parents did to him. His backstory of traveling to see his birth parents in #13 left me yelling for more as it ended with a cliffhanger.

This is a book that I do not know why I started buying, but I am so glad that I did. It is currently one of my favorite non-Marvel books that I am purchasing, right up there with the James Tynion IV books and No/One.

Sweet Tooth Season 2

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SPOILERS

It had been quite a while since the first season of Sweet Tooth on Netflix dropped. It was so long ago that I simply hadn’t remembered a second season was coming, and I was shocked when I saw that season two of Sweet Tooth, the show based on a comic from writer Jeff Lemire, showed up on the streamer service.

Christian Convery played Gus, aka Sweet Tooth, after appearing in the big screen movie Cocaine Bear (as one of the biggest scene stealers in the show). Convery does a fantastic job as the titular character in this series and he brings such a solid emotional feel for the character and a more mature and powerful presence.

I was a little disappointed that the show kept Gus and “Big Man” Jepp, as played by Nonso Anozie, apart for such a length of time this season. It made me think of the old days back when LOST would go out of their way to keep Jin and Sun away from each other. However, this show picked up dramatically when Gus and Jepp reunited. The interaction between the two is one of the most vital parts of Sweet Tooth.

The villains of this season were very compelling and menacing. General Abbot, played by Neil Sandilands, easily advanced this character into a horrible person with selfish plans. But even worse is Dr. Aditya Singh, played by Adeel Akhtar, whose scientific research into a potential ‘cure’ for the Sick took him to some dark places and, even if his motives are pure, his actions are much like many of the mad scientists we have seen before. He has lost plenty this season and he seems to be even more obsessed in Gus and the other hybrids.

The secondary hybrid characters were cute and had their moments during the season, but they were definitely in the background. There were some shockingly cringy special effects during the season, especially with the arrival of an alligator-hybrid child named Peter. Some of these effects were a drawback to the story and pulled me out of it.

The show effectively used flashbacks to further the story, especially the origin of Gus and what had happened to his mother Birdie (Amy Seimetz)

The finale for this season did have a cruel misdirect that I did not appreciate much. When they made it look as if Gus had been shot and killed by Abbot, only to reveal that the funeral they were having was for Aimee (Dania Ramirez), who had contracted the Sick, was a cruel trick.

Season three is clearly set up as the group is headed off to Alaska to try and find Birdie. Hopefully, it won’t be as long of a wait between seasons this time.

Season two of Sweet Tooth is on Netflix.

Peter Pan & Wendy

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There have been many variations of the story of Peter Pan in cinema, some okay, some terrible and a few really good ones. No matter how many times this story has been told, it seems as if they insist on trying it again. There is a new film on Disney + telling the story of Neverland, Peter Pan & Wendy.

This film does take some distinct liberties with the story, and I really liked that. Without spoilers, this movie does define the relationship and background between Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) and Captain Hook (Jude Law) in a way that I have never seen before and I found it an excellent twist.

We also get Wendy (Ever Anderson) being much more of a kick ass character than I had seen before. There were also some female characters in the Lost Boys, which have sent the Internet woke mob into a frenzy. The Rotten Tomatoes Audience score was 20% meaning that there were plenty of those complainers review-bombing the show because there is no way this was that low of a score. The critic rating was in the upper 60%, making it fresh. I just do not understand why people get in such a tizzy over something that make so little difference.

Anyway, Alexander Molony’s work as Peter Pan was fine, but I was not blown away by him. His work was passable, and was stronger at the very end, but I have seen better Pan performances. However, Jude Law’s Captain Hook was outstanding. Law embedded Hook with more character depth than we have seen in almost any other version and you could understand why Hook was the way that he was. I really dug that about this movie.

I will say that the tone of the film had some inconsistency throughout. It would go from dead serious to almost too lighthearted/campy. Jim Gaffigan as Smee was one of the biggest perpetrators of this.

This version played up the tragic nature of Peter Pan and his refusal to grow up, making it a figurative albatross around his neck. This Peter Pan was much more of a darker character with less of a heroic nature, even if in the end he was an adventure-hound. I found the new take on these characters one of the best parts of this movie.

Overall, there were a lot of goodness in this movie and I enjoyed the original takes on Peter, Hook and Wendy. The film looked great, even if the portrayal of Neverland was darker than we’ve seen it before. The scenes with the crocodile were fun and exciting and the swordplay between characters, especially Peter and Hook, was top notch.

Definitely a worhtwhile film to watch on Disney +. Would I have thought differently if I had paid money to see it in a theater? Hard to say, but as a streaming film, Peter Pan & Wendy was a worthy watch.

3.5 stars

Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.

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I enjoyed Judy Bloom as a young reader, but, honestly, I do not think that I ever read Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret (at least I do not remember reading it.) I was aware of it, but I was more of a Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing kind of guy. Still, I was curious to see the film adaptation of the classic book.

Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) was a pre-teen during 1970 when her parents Barbara and Herb (Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie) moved her out of New York City and to New Jersey, away from her beloved grandma Sylvia (Kathy Bates). Having to start at a new school, Margaret has to face questions about religion, adolescence and the arrival of her period.

I liked most of this movie. Abby Ryder Fortson was extremely charming and likable as Margaret and you can never go wrong with Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates.

In my opinion, there was a standout child actor here too. Her name was Elle Graham and she played Margaret’s friend Nancy. I’ll talk about her later.

The film was unafraid to broach subjects such as menstruation, relationships and religion honestly and with amazing forthrightness. I would absolutely recommend that any young teen or pre-teen girl watch this movie with their parents because I can only imagine that it would not fail to spark some conversations that would be vital for them.

There were many humorous moments, but the film never felt the need to take it too over-the-top with the comedy like many of these genre of films do. It mines humor from such topics like buying sanitary pads for the first time at a drug store or playing Spin the Bottle with your classmates. These all feel very real and relatable.

Kelly Fremon Craig directed this movie. She had an outstanding film already in this coming of age genre on her resume in Edge of Seventeen. She clearly has a strength in displaying this type of film.

However, I had a huge problem with the ending of the movie. It may be the same in the book, but I do not know. There were several plot lines that felt dropped or rushed or that just did not pay off in the end. Specifically, one that involved Nancy.

As I mentioned earlier, I was impressed with Elle Graham’s performance as the somewhat snooty leader of the secret club that she formed with Margaret and two other friend (Amari Alexis Price as Janie and Katherine Mallen Kupferer as Gretchen). Nancy had some negative traits, but after a sensational scene in the bathroom, we got to see her raw and vulnerable, but the film completely dropped this part of the story. Margaret was mad at her because of a lie, but I felt so sorry for Nancy that it felt cruel to just never give them any sort of resolution.

That was not the only point that felt like it was either dropped or rushed wither. There was a whole ending bit with Margaret’s teacher (Echo Kellum) that seemed to flip quickly because of the time of the movie.

These third act decisions may be straight out of the book, but, either way, these choices, for me, tainted a movie that I was really enjoying up to this point.

Yet, I do believe that this is a film that would be enjoyed by most, and might be a valuable watch to young girls. The positives of Are You There, God? It’s Me Margaret outweigh the weakness of the story elements in the third act.

3.2 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #16

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April 27, 2023

Once again, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I got a bunch of new books. I also had a personal day from school so I was able to spend a couple of hours sitting and doing some reading at Comic World. It had a feel of the summer, when every Wednesday finds me at the table with my newly purchased books and the plethora of customers, some I know and other I don’t.

I did miss Todd yesterday as he was substitute teaching. While I do enjoy the company of the others at the store, there is just something about the back-and-forth between Todd and me.

Wednesday was a wonderfully relaxing day. I got to go out for breakfast and lunch, saw Evil Dead Rise at Phoenix Theaters (where I was the only audience member… one of my favorite things) and finished the evening off helping the school fundraise at our local pizza joint. Overall a really good day.

Kicking off…

Phantom Road #1-2. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Gabriel H. Walta. Jeff Lemire has become one of my favorite writers in comics today. The new Phantom Road series seems to fit right in with some of his other awesome books. There is a fun set-up that blends The Walking Dead with a Stephen King book. This started out with some definite questions that are piquing my curiosity.

Strange Academy Finals #6. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Humberto Ramos. This series comes to an end with the big final conflict between Emily Bright and the Strange Academy students, led by Doyle. This was a great conclusion that brought us some exciting moments and one major shock of a death. Strange Academy has become one of my favorite Marvel books and I sure hope that it will return sooner than later.

Daredevil #10. “The Red Fist Saga Part 10.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated by Marco Checchetto. Chip Zdarsky’s run on Daredevil has been just epic and this continues that trend. Daredevil and Elektra facing down with members of the Avengers is just awesome. Of course, I loved the interactions between Daredevil and Spider-Man that happen in this book. It feels as if Zdarsky has a really solid grasp on Spider-Man as well. I’d love to see him get a chance to write that book too. This has an amazing last couple of pages and I have no idea where it is heading next. What great storytelling.

Deep Cuts #1. Written by Kyle Higgins and Joe Clark while the pencils are done by Danilo Beyruth. This is a cool new book. It is an anthology series (I Believe) and this issue focuses on New Orleans in 1917. It is the story of a young black boy looking to be able to join a local musician and play his clarinet. We follow the story through several moments and it is a deep look at jazz and the power of music. I am excited to see what comes next.

Wasp #4. Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Kasia Nie & Carola Borelli. Tom Reilly did the cover art. Janet Van Dyne and Nadia break free from the strange alternate world and are able to bring down the Creature from Kosmos. I have to say the whole alternate world came and went really quickly and felt like it could have been explored a little longer. I guess they had to get the story to fit inside the four issues they had. A fifth one might have helped the flow of the book. It was still an enjoyable read as both Wasps are fun characters that I like a great deal.

Hulk #14. “Hulk Planet Finale” Written and penciled by Ryan Ottley. The saga of Planet Hulk comes to an ending here. I have not been much of a fan of this run of the Hulk, but the conclusion was fine. Titan caused some problems and Banner was able to reconnect with the real green goliath and bring down the rotten side of his mind. Of course, at the end of the book, everything was fixed and back to normal for Banner. I am not sure anything that happened during this series mattered in the long run. I am looking forward to the new direction for Hulk, though.

Money Shot: Comes Again #1. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. Not sure how to describe this. It might be considered a satire. It could also be considered a sci-fi dark comedy with plenty of sexual innuendo (and actually not a ton of innuendo). The biggest problem I had was that Todd did not get me the dirty cover (ha ha).

Mary Jane & Black Cat #5. Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Vincenzo Carratù. Paul Siqueira & Erick Arciniega did the cover art. MJ and Felicia have their final confrontation with Belasco in Limbo. This has been an odd series and what saves it is the interactions between MJ and Felicia. They are a pair of wonderfully likable characters that the audience just want to read about.

Monica Rambeau: Photon #5. Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Luca Maresca. Lucas Werneck did the cover art. This is yet another of the Marvel series that came to an end this week. Monica had the help from a Starfox from a different universe to straighten everything out. This series did help get me excited for the MCU film The Marvels that will include Monica Rambeau later this year.

Captain America: Symbol of Truth #12. Written by Tochi Onyebuchi and with art by R.B. Silva. Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson are together again and trying to prevent the machinations of Bucky Barnes, hoping to keep him from slipping into full fledged villainy. There is more with Ian and with Dimension Z as well as this is the continuation of the Cold War storyline.

Doctor Strange #2. “Dream Evil” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did the cover art. Moon Knight guest stars as Strange and Clea try to help a young boy by confronting Nightmare. It is great to have Stephen Strange back and working together with his wife Clea. Things look to really pick up starting next issue as the death of Aggamon will come into play.

The Neighbors #2. Written by Jude Ellison S. Doyle and featuring art by Letizia Cadonici. Variant cover by Stephanie Hans & Zu Orzu. I do have one of the variant covers (cover B -21) and it is absolutely stunning. Things are continuing to build in the story as our main characters have more interactions with their neighbors and the problems that they are going to cause.

Avengers Beyond #2. Written by Derek Landy and penciled by Greg Land. Avengers are in trouble all over the place and the Lost One is on its way to Earth to hunt down the Beyonder. Can the Avengers prevent this major danger? Not too much to this series so far, but I like all of the heroes involved so I hope it will pick up.

The Invincible Iron Man #5. “The Autobiography of Tony Stark: Conclusion.” Feilong has taken over Stark Unlimited and left Tony with almost nothing. So Tony goes to learn what he can about the mutant-hater. Big things are happening though as Feilong has constructed the Stark Sentinel!

Evil Dead Rise

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The classic horror franchise, Evil Dead, has returned with a new face and some old scares. Evil Dead Rise takes the franchise in a little different path while still paying tribute to the iconic history of the franchise.

According to IMDB, “‘Evil Dead Rise’ tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.”

There were some really scary moments in the new film, with a ton of blood too. While it is not as campy as the original films, Evil Dead Rise still finds a lot of ways to honor Sam Raimi’s vision.

Lee Cronin does a solid job of introducing these new characters, placing them into situations where they are clearly making poor choices and creating frightful moments of horror as they face their potential fate. I did find myself both yelling at the characters for their choices and hoping beyond hope that they were going to escape from it.

I found this film to be far better than the reimagined film from 2013. I hated that film because all it felt like was an excuse to bring the gore. While there was plenty of blood and gore in this now Evil Dead movie, I never felt as if it was here just to gross out the audience.

I especially found myself rooting for the kids in this story. I thought they all did a sensational job with what they had to deliver. Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies and Nell Fisher did some excellent work building their characters and providing the depth of emotion for each sibling.

There may not have been much more to the horror than just the terror that it created, but that does not mean this is not a worthwhile movie. Evil Dead Rise knows what it is and it does what it needs to do to deliver some scary moments and a film full of tension and suspense. I am very pleased that this franchise went in this direction, able to still provide the nostalgia of the original films while carving out a place for itself among the horror films of today.

4 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #15

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April 25, 2023

Day off tomorrow. I’m excited of being able to go to Comic World just as it opens on NEW COMICS DAY! Taking a Wednesday off in the middle of the week is a different feeling than having the day off on a Friday or Monday.

Anyway, jumping right in…

No/One #1. Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato with art by Geraldo Borges. This new Image series was really a fascinating kick-off issue. There is a killer running around that the media and everyone else calls No/One, but there is a bunch f a back story to this book. This No/One is apparently a copycat killer and trying to discover his true identity seems to be the direction of the book. There is a ton of cool info at the end of the book too including a timeline and a Wikipedia-type entry called Knowpedia. This feels pretty dense, but it is just the type of mystery that I love. Excited to see where this 10-issue series goes.

The Silver Coin #10. “Covenant: Abomination.” Written and drawn by Michael Walsh. Witchcraft and the cursed inside the silver coin. Honestly, I thought this was a good read, but I do not remember much about it. So how good of a read could it have been?

The Cryptidnals #1. “Chapter 1: Shadow Kingdom.” Written by Ray Ramos and illustrated by Darion Rodriguez. Cover art was by Darion Rodriguez and Red Garcia. Another new horror series, this one featuring several of the legendary creatures of myth and urban legends such as sasquatch, La Llorona, Man-Dog, Chupacabra among others. The black and white book creates an even eerier tone. It was interesting.

Sleeping Beauties #6. Based on the no9vel by Stephen King and Owen King, adapted by Rio Youers and art by Alison Sampson. The sleeping sickness story continues as the mysterious woman Eve Black remains as a vital component of the story. We start to get something different though as it seems as if there is a different reality where these women are existing. Things are heating up.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #7-8. Written by Tom King and drawn by Bilquis Evely. The series wraps up as Supergirl battles in space and Ruthye confronts Krem. Overall, this series was up and down for me and the conclusion was okay at best. I did find the very last page to be fairly shocking, but it did not do enough for me to find this anything more than meh.

Captain America: Unforgiven. “A Few Good Monsters.” The end of the arc with the Forgiven, a group of vampires fighting to prevent their bloodlust. We have seen them with several other Marvel characters including Spider-Man and the X-Men. Now it is Captain America’s turn. I will say that I have had a hard time getting any connections with these characters so, even though there were some interesting moments in the series, I can’t say that i loved it.

Newburn #7-8. Written by Chip Zdarsky an drawn by Jacob Phillips. The first arc of Newburn comes to a close with Newburn helping bring his assistant’s past out of the shadows and saving her from the forces looking to gain revenge. I have enjoyed Newburn, even though it felt as if I shouldn’t have been rooting for him during these comics.

Quasi

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There have been several adaptations of Victor Hugo’s classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

This is another one.

The comedy troupe called Broken Lizard reunited to make the newest adaptation, Quasi, a Hulu comedy set in the middle ages of France. Broken Lizard consisted of Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske and were the creative force behind Super Troopers and Club Dread.

In Quasi, the hunchback (Steve Lemme) finds himself in trouble as both the King of France Guy (Jay Chandrasekhar) and the Pope (Paul Soter) tried to order Quasimodo to assassinate the other. Guy was set to marry an English queen, Catharine (Adrianne Palicki) to increase his army, but the old rivalry with the pope threatened to get in the way.

Sadly, this was not a very good film. There were a few moments of humor, but there was nothing here that we hadn’t seen before and that wasn’t done better in Monty Python skits, the Galavant TV show or the Princess Bride, among others.

Most of the jokes do not land or feel forced. There are a few funny moments, but not enough to sustain the runtime of the movie.

Adrienne Palicki is great though. I loved her back in her days as Bobbi Morse on Agents of SHIELD, and she does her best to work her way through this script as Queen Catharine. She has a presence that can not be denied.

Quasi is found on Hulu and is not the worst way to spend an hour and a half, but it is not something that you need to go out of your way to see.

2.5 stars

Beau is Afraid

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WTF?

No, seriously, what did I just watch?

Ari Aster, director of such mind-bending horror films as Hereditary and Midsommar, takes mind-bending to a whole new level of insanity in the new, three-hour film Beau is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix.

I’m not sure how to review this. Literally, two hours since I walked out of the theater and I still have not been able to formulate my complete thoughts about what I saw. It felt like scenes from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but viewed through the kaleidoscope of a David Lynch movie (or the weirdest parts of Twin Peaks) all with the uncertain POV of a nightmare. I know that all of those things sound like something that I would love, but when they are all tossed together, I just am not sure how to process.

Without a doubt, Joaquin Phoenix is amazing as Beau Wassermann. He is as confused and unbalanced as we are as audience members. Phoenix absolutely goes for it all in this movie.

How to describe the plot? I am not sure I can. IMDB describes it as “Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.” That is probably as best as it could be described.

There was so much going on in every frame of this film that I do not know if anyone could figure it all out. Then, there are some images that defy explanation or comprehension. I do not think I will ever be able to forget the image of Beau going into the attic and what he finds in there. No spoilers but HOLY CRAP.

What is real? What is imaginary? What is delusion? I have no idea.

It is three hours long, but, to be fair, I was engaged enough that it did not feel long to me. However, sitting through the credits was a somber and empty feeling. And my entire theater was dead silent and no one left until they stopped playing.

I’m just not sure what to do about a recommendation. I mean, I am not unhappy that I went to the movie, and I was not angered by the film, by any stretch. However, it has been a long while now that I have left a theater feeling as hollow as I did at the end of this film. Was it in a good way? I don’t know. It certainly elicited emotions from me, but were they the type of emotions that are effective?

In the end, I am going to pull a real cheat on this one. I have no idea if this is a movie that I would recommend. I do not think that I ever want to see it again, but there have been great films that fell into that category too. I guess the only way I am going to put this is, you need to go and decide for yourself. It is absolutely a HUGE swing and it is a movie the type of which I have never seen before. However, I am not sure if that HUGE swing was a swing-and-miss.

So my score is a big time cheat. Sorry. Got to do it for the first time ever, my star rating is…

N/A

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always

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I was never a big fan of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers when it was on FOX back in the 90s, but I did watch the show. I knew enough to know characters and some monsters. My favorite Ranger was Tommy, both as the Green Ranger and then later as the White Ranger. Sure, it was repetitive and fairly stupid, but it still had its charm and there can be no denying the cultural significance of the show.

That was why I was unexpectedly excited about the new one shot special on Netflix with the reunion of the original team of Rangers.

Of course, I knew that two of the original cast were no longer with us as Thuy Trang, who played the Yellow Ranger, died in a car crash when she was 27, and Jason David Frank, who played Tommy the Green Ranger took his own life last year.

However, it became clear that this was not going to be a reunion of the surviving Power Rangers as Amy Jo Johnson, who was the Pink Ranger, and Austin St. John, who was Jason the Red Ranger, were nowhere to be seen in this new show. All we get from these characters are in costume heroes with helmets on. I think they used their voices in some of the action scenes.

There was a return for Black Ranger Zack (Walter Emanuel Jones) and Blue Ranger Billy (David Yost). They also tossed in a couple of other Rangers from one of the countless rebooted series over the years to fill in with the missing colors- Rocky for Red (Steve Cardenas) and Kat as Pink (Catherine Sutherland).

This show added Minh (Charlie Kersh), the daughter of Thuy Trang’s character and the legacy replacement for the Yellow Ranger. Barbara Goodson voiced Robo Rita, a replacement for the arch villain Rita Repulsa, who was originally played by the late Machiko Soga.

I have to say… with the missing cast members, this did not strike the nostalgia button enough to overlook how horrendous this thing was. It was such a disappointment. I am not sure why I thought it was so disappointing as I was never a huge fan, but I found this nearly unbearable to watch and I could sit through episodes of the original series.

The acting was not very good. To be fair, I thought Walter Jones’s Zack was not too bad. He was the acting standout of this, but that is not saying much. The rest of the cast was robotic, and I don’t just mean Rita.

The action was weak, the dialogue was lacking and the story had holes throughout it. Yes, I know that the original show was never an Emmy winning quality, but, again, I could watch it if I was waiting to get to Spider-Man Animated series or The Tick.

I did like how they addressed the Yellow Ranger’s absence, making it a huge part of the plot, but it was never sufficiently dealt with in any emotional sense.

Easily the best part of the entire show was the archival footage they had of the original Rangers sitting around with Amy Jo Johnson playing the guitar as Walter Jones joined her singing. This one moment brought more nostalgia and feelings than anything else that this show had. They really needed more of this type of scenes.

Any feeling of anticipation I had for this special was gone ten minutes into it. What was here just could not measure up to what was missing.

1.4 stars

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant

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This was a movie that I was not anxious to see. I was not that interested in the film from the trailers and it looked to be longer than I wanted, but it fit into the schedule and I always enjoy Jake Gyllenhaal so I decided to give it a chance.

I am so glad that I did, because I found this movie thrilling and suspenseful throughout.

Sgt. John Kinley (Jake Gyllenhaal) led a battalion of U.S. Army soldiers in the search for explosives through Afghanistan in 2018. When their interpreter was killed in a bombing, John recruited Ahmed (Dar Salim), a local who needed money for his pregnant wife and the offer of a Visa to America.

Ahmed showed himself to be very capable, not only in his interpreting skills, but also his common sense and his knowledge of the Afghan world. However, after an ambush that led not nearly the entire unit being slaughtered, Ahmed had to get the injured John back to his base by dragging him through the mountains of Afghanistan while being pursued by the Talban.

When John awakens in the hospital struggling to remember how he got there, he learns that Ahmed and his family had gone into hiding because of the dangers of the Taliban. Feeling the bond with him, John was determined to return to find Ahmed and to get him out of the country.

There felt like there were two distinct movies here. The first half was the whole in Afghanistan film that saw John and Ahmed working together and carrying out the unit’s mission. This was not just a small bit of the story. It was a heavy section of the film. The second part of the story was John back home trying to obtain a Visa for Ahmed’s family, and hi subsequent return to Afghanistan.

Neither part of the movie was skimped upon and they both worked extremely well. The first half included some amazing action sections and showed what a heroic character Ahmed was. The second part was driven by John’s covenant with Ahmed and John’s guilt-riddled desire to save the man who had, quite literally, saved his life by hauling him back to safety.

I found this amazingly tense and suspenseful. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, especially the section where Ahmed was dragging a semi-conscious John across Afghanistan and the tense action of the ending. Even with a potential deus ex machina, the ending firefight was amazing.

Jake Gyllenhaal is exceptional as he always is. Even if he is in a bad movie, Gyllenhaal always brings his best effort. The bond between Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim was very pronounced and Salim looked to fit on the screen opposite Gyllenhaal. Salim was extremely likable and was so easy to root for.

Guy Ritchie does a fantastic job as the director of this movie, setting up action scenes beautifully and doing am admirable job with the characters.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was long, but I thought it moved fairly well. They did not rush through anything and the flow was good. Gyllenhaal and Salim are epic and the story created a ton of suspense for me. It was very gripping.

4.4 stars

Chevalier

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A brand new biopic came to theaters this weekend about Joseph Bologne, composer and Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner. Bologne’s work and skills were buried by Napoleon after the French Revolution. It has just been recently where his efforts have been rediscovered.

This was the part of Bologne’s life when he was friends with Queen Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) and trying to be appointed to the head of the French opera. For a competition with Christoph Gluck (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) created his own opera. He wrote the opera for singer Marie-Josephine (Samara Weaving) despite the objections of her husband. The opera led to an affair between them.

The music of this movie was a huge star. I loved the violin duel between Joseph and Mozart (Joseph Prowen) at the beginning of the film. The music throughout was just wonderful to listen to and set the scenes beautifully.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. had a great presence in this movie, carrying himself like a virtuoso and prodigy. I believed he was a master of music, fencing…anything else he was involved with. He and Samara Weaving had a strong chemistry, though you could tell that only bad things were going to be a result of their affair. Weaving had some powerfully emotional moments to perform here and did a stellar job of them.

Lucy Boynton as Marie Antionette gave me Margot Robbie vibes. She did not have a lot of scenes, but she was a prominent feature every time she made it on screen.

I’m not sure how I felt about the finale of the film. It felt a tad unlikely and disappointing. The whole revolution aspect of the plot did not work as well as the relationship between the leads. I felt as if I wanted more at the end. The film could have trimmed off some of the middle parts and extended the end a bit more for some extra heft.

I was not that interested in this movie because I had no idea anything about the person who was Joseph Bologne, but the film did its job well enough to make me curious to find out more about him. That is one of the best things you could say about a biopic.

3.6 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #14

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April 21, 2023

I’m never quite comfortable when Todd is right.

Let me explain. Todd is my friend who works at Comic World. When I came to the shop this Wednesday for NEW COMIC BOOK DAY, Todd had placed something special in my pull box.

Now, that is not an uncommon event. He has placed certain things in my box multiple times. Sometimes it is a serious thing where he has put a new book that he thinks I would like in the box. He has been right about whether I will like the book a little more than not.

Sometimes he puts some books in my box as a joke. You can practically guarantee that any book featuring bondage will find its way there.

This week, there were actually three comic series in there. An old Storm series, The Unworthy Thor series and Daredevil: End of Days. He had said that the only one that he wanted me to read was the End of Days book, written by Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack and art from Klaus Janson.

I already owned The Unworthy Thor and the Storm series (prior to her wedding with Black Panther) did not interest me. However, the Daredevil book was fascinating.

Todd was trying to give me a synopsis of the series because it seemed familiar to me, but I could not make out if I had read this before. He compared this book to Citizen Kane.

Yup, Citizen Kane.

That was all the idea that this book told the final Daredevil story, as he is killed in issue one by Bullseye. Daredevil’s final word: ‘Mapone.’

Much like Rosebud in Citizen Kane, the mysterious word became the key to Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich’s investigation into Matt Murdock’s final days.

Todd promised me that I would like this. He knows that I do not typically enjoy these future stories that are not in continuity. Most of these books annoy me. He told me I would like End of Days.

And despite this type of story is not usually in my wheelhouse, he was right. I loved this.

However, he also told me that he heard that Brian Michael Bendis had said that this would eventually wind up in continuity, that the real world Daredevil would reach this point. In this, I call Hooie. There is no way this series will EVER be anything but a ‘What If’ type story.

That does not take away from it though.

I really enjoyed the story of Ben Urich going around to all of the key individuals in Daredevil/Matt Murdock’s life and seeing how DD’s death affected them and the mystery of what the word Mapone means. The series does a great job including such important characters as Frank Castle, Bullseye, Kingpin, The Owl, Melvin Potter, J. Jonah Jameson and even a short cameo by Peter Parker.

And I do not know how many little red headed kids Matt Murdock has running around in this series. It is true that Matt has always been a player, but, come on, does he ever think about some protection?

It is not a perfect series though. There is a mystery on who a new Daredevil is and it is painfully obvious who it was. I will say the mystery of Mapone is better, but also felt tagged on.

I really enjoyed the art from Klaus Janson, whose dark and moody art fit with the tone of the series. I’ve never been a huge fan of Bendis, but this worked well. There were some covers that had scenes that were not important in the book. Again, that does not bother me much, but it does create some expectations.

Daredevil has been one of my favorite characters in Marvel for some time now and I did love seeing his legacy continuing. Todd, you were right. This was outstanding.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #13

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April 20, 2023

Once again, yesterday was NEW COMIC BOOK DAY!

A very interesting week of books this week. I also threw in a couple of books from series that I am working my way through. I am looking forward to several full series reads that I have which will be like the last issue of Man-Eaters.

Jumping right into it.

Middlewest #10. Written by Skottie Young and drawn by Jorge Corona. Abel meets his grandfather and this has been a really solid twist. All of these characters are intriguing and feel as if they are more than black and white. I found the grandfather very fascinating and I am excited to see where this is heading. Beautiful cover on this issue too.

Newburn #6. “Chapter Six: My Lucky Night” Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn Jacob Phillips. This issue of Newburn focused on the Angie backstory, flashing back and forth from the past and present. This also was the first Newburn that felt like a continuing story.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #6. “Chapter Six: Home, Family, and Refuge.” Written by Tom King with art by Bilquis Evely. I had been hard on the last few issues of Supergirl. This was the totally opposite reaction. This issue, dealing with the origin of Supergirl, is my favorite issue of this series so far. I did enjoy the style of writing in this book and the bit about the city from Krypton turning into Kryptonite and poisoning the survivors was rough. Not knowing about Kara, I do not know if that was always part of her story, but I liked the idea. This made me hopeful for the last two issues.

Hallows’ Eve #2. Written by Erica Schultz with art by Michael Dowling. The cover art was by Michael Dowling and Morry Hollowell. Hallows’ Eve is one of the more original and engaging new characters out of Marvel recently and one of the best parts of the Dark Web run. This book has been entertaining so far, but their sudden ends are a little unsatisfying. Otherwise, this has been a lot of fun so far.

New Mutants: Lethal Legion #2. “Terrible Decisions.” With the second issue of this comic, I really enjoyed it too. I specifically had told Todd that I was not a big fan of the X-Men stuff, but this New Mutants book has been great, even if I am not really sure who some of these people are. The combat to attempt to become a new member of the Lethal Legion was clever and hilarious.

House of Slaughter #14. “The Butcher’s Return Part Four.” Jace is in some horrendous trouble. A friend from Jace’s past does not turn out to be quite what he expected as he was in search of Sonny. Continues to be a brutal comic in all the best ways. Written by Tate Brombal and illustrated by Antonio Fuso.

Amazing Spider-Man #24. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by John Romita Jr. We start getting more info behind the things that have happened over the last year, including where these children that Mary Jane apparently have had. I’m not sure how much I buy Spidey doing what he has done with the FF or that the FF would not immediately help Spidey. Still, I believe that Peter was desperate to get back to MJ. It is supposedly building toward a shocking issue soon. We’ll see. I always love Amazing.

She-Hulk #12. Written by Rainbow Rowell with art from Andres Genolet & Joe Quinones. Jen Bartel did the cover art. This new She-Hulk series has been extremely entertaining so far and I loved the extended book for the legacy numbered 175 issue. The backup story with “The First Rule of Book Club” was a ton of fun and featured some awesome cameos from Marvel heroines.

Hellcat #2. “The Know-It-All.” Hellcat’s new series has quickly become one of my favorite reads of the month. The mystery behind the murder of Spalding Grantham, Patsy’s newest fling, deepens this issue and we get an appearance at the very end by Blackheart, who has been pretty busy lately. I am loving this book so far. I love the pairing of Hellcat with the stuffed bunny being possessed by Damien Hellstrom, her former husband the Son of Satan. So far this has been top notch.

Red Goblin #3. Written by Alex Paknadel and drawn by Jan Bazaldua. Inhyuk Lee did the art for the cover. Normie allows the symbiote full reign in order to save his grandfather and fight off the Goblin King and his new Goblin Nation. The end of the book had a couple of pages that were just emotionally powerful with Normie and a dog.

Avengers Assemble Omega #1. “One Last Ride.” Created by Jason Aaron, Aaron Kuder, Dexter Vines, Ivan Fiorelli, Javier Garrón, Jim Towe & Alex Sinclair. Aaron Kuder & Alex Sinclair did the art on the wrap around cover. The huge finale to the Avengers Assemble storyline that has brought Avengers from across the mulitverse and across time to do battle with the Multiversal Masters of Evil. This was fun and did have that epic feel. The final issue written by Jason Aaron, this book wraps up everything he had been setting up for these many years, giving Robbie Reyes a star-making moment. Good stuff.

Warlock: Rebirth #1. “Better Half.” This was unexpected. First of all, this story took place in the past. Back in a time when Gamora and Pip the Troll were involved in the Infinity Watch. However, we get a new character popping out of a cocoon…. Eve Warlock. Hm. I will admit my first thought was to roll my eyes. However, I did find her to be quite kick ass and set up a cool story. I loved the nostalgic feel to the book as the cover had some 80s style design. Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim (who I always enjoyed when was younger).

Harrower #3. Written by Justin Jordan and illustrated by Brahm Revel. High level action in this slasher book and the very end of the issue threw a huge curveball at me. I am not sure 100% what was going on, but it certainly caught my attention. Full of brutal, bloody action, Harrower feels like few other books currently on the market.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #12

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April 18, 2023

I love Chelsea Cain.

When I read the Man-Eaters Vol. 1 trade paperback, I found yet another exceptional series from her. There was Spy Island. Of course, Mockingbird, one of my all-time favorite series. I was excited to see how this amazing series continued.

As I was looking for the series in comic books (besides just in the trade paperbacks), I found that there was a second volume of the regular series, called Man-Eaters: The Cursed and I was excited.

There is so much creativity in this book. From the creative storytelling to the amazing advertisements that fall into the world she is building. It is amazing that Image does not have any ads for their other books in these issues. It is all-encompassing man-eaters.

Man-Eaters #1-12.

The first series was exceptional. We start finding out that some menstruating girls, at one point, started turning into vicious killing werepanthers. Maude is our 12-year old protagonist who is right at the age for the possible transformations. And her father, a detective, is investigating a series of brutal attacks that certainly could be werepanthers. Maude is not sure if she is turning into a killer cat or not.

I love the story and I really love the ending. It switched everything that the series had been working on over the entire run and the ending was a great surprise.

Another fantastic bit of this series is that issue #4, issue #8 and issue #12 have no part of the basic story and are more like magazines or training manuals. Issue eight included a card game that provided the cards on flaps on the inside front and back covers. It feels like a teacher’s manual with games that can be used to instruct students in the problems of menstruations. It is a really cool feature of this.

Man-Eaters: The Cursed #1-5.

The second series took a different path. With the werepanthers wrapped up, we find out that Maude had attended a “Craft Camp” and was the best camper ever. She was sent to the camp once more until she discovered that all the campers, except a boy named Burt, had disappeared.

More so, we discover that the camp was a “Witchcraft” camp and that Maude was a practicing witch.

The Cursed was a shorter run, but it was an even tighter story and was funny and well done.

I know that some people are not fans of how much of a feminist Chelsea Cain is and how much she uses those beliefs in her writing. That has never bothered me. I love a good strong woman. Sure there are plenty of misogynists on the internet or in the world of comic collectors, but that is not my beliefs. I love Chelsea Cain’s work and I find it engaging, entertaining and hilarious.

I hope we get some more in the Man-Eaters world someday.