Animation Style: traditional American comics with sharp Japanese anime
Hulk Vs. featured the Incredible Hulk in two separate one on one battles. One is with Wolverine and the second is with Thor. It is a direct to video animated movie that is extremely awesome. Hulk vs. Wolverine is something that we all want to see, and I still think at some point, we will get it in the MCU. We have seen Hulk vs. Thor in live action, and it never fails.
Voice actors: Fred Tatasciore, Matthew Wolf, Graham McTavish, Kari Wahlgren, Bryce Johnson, Steve Blum, Mark Acheson, Grey DeLisle and Janyse Jaud.
I finished the Bear’s final season tonight with episodes six, seven and eight.
Episode six and seven were both about the night that has been building up all season long. All season has been the same day so far and this was the night when the customers arrived.
Six and seven created such an emotional response from me. I was stressed the entire episode, on the edge of my seat the entire time. I kept waiting for something to happen that would derail everything for them, as the past episode 1-5 of this year was loading problem upon problem.
Then, the whole staff just came together and dominated these two episodes. CHEF!
Every problem that appeared, they worked together to come up with remarkably creative solutions.
By the way, this episode was about preparing food for a restaurant full of people, and it might have been the most tense, most suspense that I have been watching any TV show this season so far.
Episode six was all falling action, as we see how people wrap their stories up. We discover that the “UNKNOWN CALLER” that had been trying to call Carmy was the man giving out stars and that the Bear was given not one, but two stars.
This season of The Bear has been my favorite one since early on, maybe even since season one. These episodes were tight and worked so well as one day (with an exception of the final episode) and was an amazing viewing experience. I found this a wonderful way to end this series.
The June Swoon 5 comes to a close with a film I watched on Hulu this morning called Neighborhood Watch, which starred Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jack Quaid.
I had been looking for a final film for the June Swoon and my list just did not have any films that made me excited about watching it. My search led me to this movie and I do like Morgan and Quaid very much so I thought this was a good choice to finish with.
According to IMDB, “When a mentally ill young man thinks he witnesses an abduction and the police refuse to believe him, he reluctantly turns to his next-door neighbor, a bitter and retired security guard, to help him find the missing person.”
I really enjoyed this movie. Were there some moments when you had to just go along with the plot? Yes, there were some times when credibility was stretched. However, there were no moments that pulled me out of the story.
I thought Jack Quaid did an excellent job portraying this young, damaged man whose mental illness was a huge factor in his life. Still, you could see the goodness in him and how much he wanted to be something more than what he was.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character was fairly typical for this type of role. He just is such a likable actor that he overcame the stereotypical grumpy, old man archetype.
Together, Morgan and Quaid bring the film to life with the chemistry between them and the interactions between their characters. They grow to care about the other and seeing how gentle Morgan was with Quaid near the end speaks levels.
This movie definitely has some flaws, specifically in the story, but the two lead performances are so engaging that those do not seem to be a problem at all. The film flied by and, if I am being honest, I would have liked even more at the end. I wanted to know what was going to happen to the characters and that tells me the film was a success.
Animation Style: hybrid of classic hand-drawn art and cutting-edge computer animation
The sequel to the 1977 Rescuers, this has a place on this list for one main reason. There is a new mouse named Jake and he was voiced by the late, great Tristian Rogers. Rogers played Robert Scorpio on General Hospital and he was one of my favorite characters on the show. Hearing his Australian accent in the major Disney movie was awesome.
Other voice actors: Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, John Candy, George C. Scott, Peter Firth, Bernard Fox, Billy Barty
These three episodes were some of the best The Bear episodes probably since season one or two. There was a point after episode two that I literally was having goosebumps.
The whole season so far has been one day and the way they build that night with a massive overbooking was amazing and how the crew pull together- although it was not smooth sailing the whole time as Sydney blurted out that Carmy was quitting and leaving.
This whole run of three episodes do a great job of showing the relationships that have been stretched by the events and the stress of the restaurant.
Ceilings are falling in. Water still flooding as the rain continued to pelt down.
The first five episodes of the final season have been awesome so far. Three more episodes, and it looked like episode 8 is over an hour as episode 7 is in the 50 minute range.
I started season six of the Agents of Shield today with the first episode of the season. “Missing Pieces” has several meanings as a title. That included:
Phil Coulson gone, died during the off year
Daisy and Jemma are in deep space in search of…
Fitz who was in suspended animation (or is he?)
Mack, who is the new director, is emotionally separate from Yo-Yo.
The show’s new season arc began with some individuals arriving in this dimension through some portal. We also get a new character named Sarge who arrived in a semi. This new character is being played by Clark Gregg, making everyone uncertain because of he is a lookalike of Coulson.
Jemma is pulling shenanigans in space when Daisy and the others wanted to head back to earth to regroup when they couldn’t find Fitz. Jemma had a clue come to her and she forced the others to go with her. Jemma has had a long history of doing things like this for Fitz.
I only had a chance to watch the first episode of that season, but I am looking forward to seeing more.
Florence Henderson of the Brady Bunch and singer/songwriter Paul Williams were the guest on the next two episodes of season one of the Muppet Show. Both of them are good guests that can sing, dance, act and comedy.
Florence sang Butterfly of Love and Happy Together. She does a nice job. She sang Happy Together along with the monsters and lizards. She had near zero Muppets in the first number, except for some butterflies at the very end.
Paul Williams has a connection with the Muppets. He wrote the song “Rainbow Connection” which is the most iconic Kermit song (along with It’s Not Easy Being Green). This episode comes before that song so there is no “Rainbow Connection” on this episode. Williams does sing “Just an Old Fashioned Love Song”, a song that he wrote.
In episode seven, the main backstage storyline deals with Miss Piggy’s feeling toward Kermit. Of course, this is a major Muppet theme to today.
In episode eight, the backstage bit is Fozzie and Scooter preparing for doing the Telephone Poll Bit. I guess it should be Telephone POLE bit as it turned out to be a joke about the telephone being a Polish person.
We get an episode of Muppet Labs, but it was only Dr. Bunsen Honeydew with no sign of Beaker. I did not expect that Muppet Labs had episodes without Beaker.
There was a fun song performed by Rowlf called “Cottleston Pie” which was originally a poem written by A.A. Milne and was included in Winnie the Pooh. It was a song about a nonsensical poem used to explain the unexplainable.
Rick & Morty continue along in their first season, showing how different it is than any other animated show. The humor is hilarious, even if it could tend towards sophomoric humor at times.
Rick sends Morty inside a body of an old man, dressed as Santa, to an amusement park he had constructed inside. This episode was a lot of fun, especially with the all-star cast of voice actors including John Oliver, Dana Carvey, Kari Wahlgren and Gary Anthony Williams.
This is a parody of both Jurassic Park and Fantastic Voyage.
Another example of Rick getting Morty into trouble comes in the next episode as he is inside a simulation as aliens are attempting to steal Rick’s recipe for the Concentrated Dark Matter. The girl with Morty tells him that he can put his fingers anywhere he wants as they makeout.
In the fifth episode, it is Morty’s turn to plan the adventure. This is an example of how the show pushes limits as Morty comes across a humanoid Jellybean in the restroom at a pub and the Jellybean attempts to rape Morty. Rick later murders Jellybean, who was revealed as the King of the village Rick and Morty were working for.
Meanwhile, Morty’s parents were using an invention of Rick’s called the Meeseeks Box. Meeseeks would po into existence and help you with a problems, only to then pop out of existence. However, taking two strokes off Jerry’s golf game. Finding it impossible, more Meeseeks are summoned until they go wild with their failure to improve the golf game, trying to murder Jerry.
Again, this is not your child’s animated show. The adult themes and jokes are all over the place, but they make Rick & Morty very funny to watch.
The iconic character of Red Sonja has been hot lately in comic books so it was a good time last year to do another chance at a full length Red Sonja movie.
The sword-and-sorcery flick starred Matilda Lutz as Sonja.
According to IMDB, “Captured and forced to fight for survival, Red Sonja must rally an army of outcasts to reclaim her freedom and take down a tyrant and his ruthless bride.“
The Red Sonja movie was better than I anticipated. I liked this more than the Red Sonja from 1985 with Brigitte Nielsen… quite a bit more actually. I think Matilda Lutz does a great job of bringing Red Sonja to life. I like how she is not an over the top muscular character, because she feels more like what I see in the comics.
Story wise, there was not a ton of original moments in the film. The scenes all felt like I had seen it before in other sword-and-sorcery movies. However, most of these familiar scenes were executed fairly well.
I loved the Conan mention near the end of the film. I would love to see this Red Sonja with King Conan.
This is a far from perfect film, but I did enjoy watching it. There was nothing here that made me dislike it. It is a good use of the character of Red Sonja.
I’m not sure that this film would make a top 100 list normally, but I really wanted Looney Tunes to be represented on this list and there were no other potential films available. The feature film included Daffy Duck and Porty Pig and an alien invasion of earth.
This was a lot of fun, though it was missing Bugs Bunny, in my opinion.
June is nearing the end, and here is the newest EYG Comic Cavalcade!
Thanks to Todd for bringing me a whole bunch of What If Vol. 2 issues. I do love the What If series and I am pleased to have them.
Comic of the Week
Narco #4
I believe this book has really begun to hit its stride as Marcus has realized that he is really being framed for murder, and he has started to figure out what is happening. Marcus is one of the most original and unlikely lead character that you are going to see in a comic.
The B cover is one of the Favorite Comic Covers of the Week, taking the Gold Medal for its Hitchcock homage cover.
Books This Week:
Ultimate Endgame #5. Written by Deniz Camp with art by Terry & Rachel Dotson and Jonas Scharf. Cover art was done by Mark Brooks. The finale issue of this series and the entire Ultimate Universe came through this week. I had some problems with this ending. The Ultimate Endgame started out with such fire and it has petered out so badly. Then, I was surprised how this book ended… it was such a happy ending that it did not feel right.
Ultimate Universe Finale #1. So this is a wrap up for all of the separate characters of the Ultimate Universe, seeing where they were left at the end of Endgame. Again, this just did not feel right. I kind of wish that the end of the Ultimate Universe would have been kept secret and the end would just catch everyone off guard.
Nectar #4. Written by Jeremy Robinson and art by Annapaola Martello and Francesco Francini. Cover art was done by Chris Shehan. Nectar finished up with a fiery end as Pastor Grant rampaged across the island. I loved the series and it sounded as if the butterflies are returning at some point in the future. Until then, this will have to serve for now.
Wolverine #22. “Doctor’s Orders” Written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Julius Ohta. Cover art was done by Dan Panosian. Wolverine’s healing factor is messed up again, but it seems as if someone has stolen it from Logan… and has given it to Taskmaster.
Venom #259. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Carlos Gomez & Frank Martin. I have been picking up the Venom book during the crossover with Spider-Man, but I am not sure how I feel about the new Venom (with Mary Jane) and whether I wanted to keep picking it up. I wasn’t going to buy this, but I broke down. I am still not sure if I care about the Queen in Black which is coming soon.
Captain America #12. “Hell’s Angel” Part 1. Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Valerio Schiti. Cover art was done by by Valerio Schiti & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Captain America is in Hell and he is teaming up with Doctor Doom to try and stop Mephisto. Then, the last panel saw the return of the Red Skull. Zdarsky’s run on Cap has been excellent so far and the Hell story is very compelling.
Doomquest #2. Written by Ryan North and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was done by Alex Ross. Doctor Doom is stuck in a loop on the Titanic. This was a lot of fun and one of the more original ways to use Doom. Ryan North continues to be one of the best writers working Marvel today.
The Twilight Zone #8. “Hollywoodland” Written, illustrated and cover art by Gabriel Hardman. This is a great issue. The Twilight Zone comic has been sensational every issue and each story feels like a story that you would have seen on the original TV show.
Feral #24. “Chapter 24: Breakout” Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Trish Forstner & Tone Rodriguez. Cover art was done by Trish Forstner & Allen Passalaqua (Silver Medalist). The cats and the dogs are running around the pound as the doctors are trying to cure the rabies disease. Feral continues to be one of the best books around.
Universal Monsters: Blood of the Wolfman #1. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Leomacs. Cover art was done by Leomacs & Pip Martin. The latest Universal Monsters book is Wolfman and I love the first issue as they begin to set up the Wolfman. It seemed as if they are setting up a legacy.
Corpse Knight #3. Written by Michael Chaves with art by Matthew Roberts. Cover art was done by Matthew Roberts & Rico Renzi. Foy is poisoned and her undead father has to save her. Corpse Knight is a solid fantasy book from Image.
White Sky #4. Written by William Harms and art and cover art by JP Mavinga. Violet and Walter have arrived in San Francisco only to see that it is destroyed. There are a lot of scenes with white. This has been a solid book so far, but it does feel like it needs to start progressing soon.
Justice League Unlimited #20. “Escape from Power Planet: Part One” Written by Mark Waid and art was done by Dan Mora & Fico Ossio. Cover art was done by Dan Mora. The title of this was “Escape from Power Planet” but we only spend a few pages on Power Planet with Metamorpho, Guy Gardner and Hawkgirl. Most of the issue is spent battling a Brainiac on the Watchtower with Luthor causing trouble.
A Quiet Place: Storm Warning #4. Written by Phil Hester with Pencils and cover art by Ryan Kelly. This movie based series has been really good. It seems that Lonnie has finally proved to the other citizens of the town that these aliens are really dangerous and that they have to do what they can to protect themselves. This has worked well in the IDW series.
Hornsby & Halo #14. Creators are Peter Tomasi & Peter Snejbjerg. Cover art was done by Peter Snejbjerg. The second part of the Unbelievables crossover sees the Trillion Dollar Kid, aka Tommy Townsend III has come to Warwick in search of other Unbelievables, specifically Zach and Rose. They team up to find out if Tommy’s parents are in Heaven or hell.
Detective Comics #1110. “Flight Part Four” Written by Tom Taylor with pencils and cover art by Mikel Janin. Batman, Green Arrow and Black Canary are out to try and help a young girl, the daughter of a former teammate of theirs, Prion. Oh, and the young girl is a trained assassin.
The Infernal Hulk #8. “Beasts of the Sanguine Tree” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Adam Gorham. Cover art was done by Nic Klein. I also grabbed the Alex Ross variant. Bruce Banner is back with the Avengers, but he has bad news. Their idea to take on the Infernal Hulk with the original Hulk won’t work because Banner says he is now immune to Gamma rays. What is going to happen next? Whatever it is, it is with the help of Brother Voodoo.
Spider-Versity #3. Written by Jordan Morris & Joe Kelly with art by Rafael Perez & Granados. Cover art was done by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Lorenzo Ruggiero & Dean White. Norman runs the Spiders through a practice session based on the Ringmaster, and, lo and behold, someone using the powers of the Ringmaster showed up. Suspicious.
X-Men #32. “Anomaly” Part 2. Written by Jed MacKay with pencils by Tony S. Daniel. Cover art was done by Tony S. Daniel & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. The X-Men’s science team is forced to deal with gravity anomalies while being targeted by Department H. So they decide to unleash Magneto. Hm… sounds like a recipe for chaos to me.
Flash #34. “The Speed Was Power, the Speed Was Joy- Part IV” Written by Ryan North and illustrated by Gavin Guidry. Cover art was done by Gavin Guidry & Adriano Lucas. Flash goes to Mr. Terrific to try and figure out about his “flashes of insight.” They seem to lead him to Gorilla Grodd.
The Eye Collector #1. Written by Jonathan Ball with art and cover art by G.M.B. Chomichuk. A weird and wild new horror comic from Image, we get a strange ancient being that has their curiosity over earth reignited by wishes made by the Apollo 10 crew. This is a bizarre book. I’m curious about it as well.
Void Rivals #31. Written by Robert Kirkman and art by Conor Hughes. Cover art was done by Lorenzo De Felici. This Void Rivals issue is a stand alone book featuring the character of Skuxxoid. In the letter page, it says that Skuxxoid tied Megatron as the Energon character with the most standalone issues. This book as a feel like Saga. And I am excited about the debut next issue in the Energon Universe of Rom.
Absolute Superman #20. “Up, Up and…” Written by Jason Aaron with art by Rafa Sandoval. Cover art was done by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola. Superman teams up with Hawkman and Steel in an attempt to defeat the Absolute Black Adam/Shazam. There seemed to be a special amalgam going down in the last panel that looked absolutely awesome.
Absolute Wonder Woman #21. “Friends & Neighbors Part 1 of 2” Written by Kelly Thompson with art by Dillon Snook. The cover art was done by Hayden Sherman & Jordie Bellaire. Diana heads back to the Underworld in search of Circe and her mother. Then, Barbara Minerva has to make a decision about the powers of Cheetah.
Hidden Springs #2. Written by Rob Williams and art and cover by Nil Vendrell. The giant baby Kaiju is being pursued by the military and the group of elderly retirees are forced to try and save the kaiju. Hidden Springs has been a fun book so far and you would not expect some of the things that are going on. Teh protagonists are fun and unlikely heroes.
Escape #8. Written by Rick Remender with art by Daniel Acuna. I got cover B which was done by Cary Nord. Milton finds himself in a real bad place as he has signaled the air raid of the town, but the family that he has been staying with feels betrayed. Escape is a tense comic with fuzzy animals.
Is Ted Ok? #5. Written, drawn and cover art by Dave Chisholm. This issue is full of exposition, but it gives us the background and history behind Ted. There are flashbacks, revelations and truths flying all over the book, setting up next issue’s finale.
Generation X-23 #5. “A Numbers Game” Part 5. Written by Jody Hauser with art by Marco Renna. Cover art was done by Partha Pratim Sarkar & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Laura and Gabby get the X-numbers out of Faculty 23 and they are apparently teaming up. However, there are a couple of wild cards in the mix.
Gotham Academy: First Year #5. “Chapter 5: We’ve Been Here Before.” Written by Brenden Fletcher with art by Marco Ferrari. Variant cover b Annie Wu. Olive gets trapped in a loop while searching for her mother. The whole issue was very dreamlike and I was not sure what exactly was happening. Batman is here so I am sure everything is gonna be ok, right?
Barbarian Behind Bars #5. Written by Elliott Kalan with art and cover art by Andrea Mutti. What a horrible way to end this series. There is an absolutely wicked cliffhanger at the end of the story that left me unhappy about what I just spent five issues reading. I do not know if there is more of this book coming down the line or if the old “THE END?” thing was just a mean trick. It definitely tainted the final issue.
Terrorbytes #7. Written by Joseph Sieracki and art and cover art by Maxi Dall’o. The story of Donald Drummer and his life is very compelling in this issue. I am not sure what happened in the end, but I was engaged throughout this anthology book.
Bludwire #1. Written by Paul Allor and art by Ermitis Blanco. Cover art was done by Victor Ibanez. Ace and Zora are two sex bots who go on the run from their corporate owners. This is an interesting new comic from Mad Cave.
Other Books This Week: Moonstar #4, Honor and Curse: Eternal #4, Red Roots #3, American Caper #8, In Your Skin #3, Planet Atmos: Exordium #3, and Conan the Barbarian #32.
Quick Hits: Kevin Smith’s Bizarro Year None #2 came out this week. I heard Smith promote this book on Fatman Beyond. It is an intriguing issue. The Hab #3 from Bad Idea is the Bronze Medalist this week in the EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week. We get even more fun from the wild book from Titan Comics called Rafael Garcia: Henchman #4. Racer X #8 came to a close with this character, who I suspect will still appear in Speed Racer’s book. Punisher is the focus of Reborn Ultimate Impact #2 as he faces off against some of the new villains/heroes??? created by the boxes Miles lost. I’m not sure how I feel about this book right now. We go into the past once again as the X-Men: Outback #1 came out. I must say that I liked this roster of X-Men, especially with Longshot and Dazzler involved. Mind MGMT: New & Improved #1 by matt Kindt came out this week. I picked up a blind bag for this issue as well… I am a sucker for blind bags… and I got a 3D variant of the book. 51 #4 from Mad Cave released this week as we have some alien tech that gives people super powers. Exploit #4 finished up as they were able to reveal all the details behind Kincade’s crooked schemes, and then sent him to Estonia. The video game-like comic Final Boss #7 came back with a new issue this week after a short break. Pretty Hate Machine #3 was extremely intense this week as there are some brutality going down. Speaking of brutal, The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery#5 saw Ezra in a blimp, trying to avoid Nazis. It gave me Last Crusade vibes. Alice Forever After #4 from Boom! Studios asks the question about Alice’s mental health.
I have been keeping track of the Weird Al albums that have had the most representation in the Top 100. With that list completed this morning, here is the final list of albums with the most songs in the Top 100.
If I had an album with the same number of tracks from it in the Top 100, I took the album with the Highest rated song as the higher number.
#15. Even Worse (2). Only two songs on the Top 100 from this classic album: Fat & (This Song’s Just) Six Words Long.
#14. Polka Party (4). Highest song: Living With a Hernia (#21)
#13. Alapaloosa (6). Highest Song: Jurassic Park (#42)
We are down to three final days of June for the June Swoon, with today’s entry being a Korean sci-fi/disaster film called The Great Flood.
According to IMDB, “A great flood has hit planet Earth. People, including An Na and Hee Jo struggle to survive in their apartment building, which is sinking into the water. An Na is an AI development researcher and Hee Jo belongs to a human resource security team, who is trying to save An Na from the disaster. But why is Hee Jo trying to save An Na and who is behind it?“
There are some solid moments in The Great Flood. However, the film takes way too many sudden shifts to be effective. Every time the sci-fi elements work their way into the story, it weakens what had come before it. They dropped the sci-fi story in the middle of this disaster film about a flood and it pulled me out of what was happening.
These different genres did not play well together in this movie. An Na (Kim Da-Mi) does a good job of showing the panic of the situation and her desperation in trying to recover her son, Ja-In (Kwon Eun-sung). The kid was both decent in his role and extremely annoying, depending on what the plot needed him t be.
The film looked great and some of the flooding scenes were really strong. However, the sci-fi scenes just messed with the story and the imagery of the sci-fi stuff did not work for me.
I got to the point where the characters lost me and I did not feel compelled to root for them any longer. The film felt way longer than the run time would indicate and had me wondering how much longer it was going.
Still, it was not the worst movie of the June Swoon 5, and if you get past the story aspects of the sci-fi, the disaster movie scenes were solid. It’s a mishmash of a film that could have been better than it was.
This week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk sees the third episode of the Duffy Brothers’s The Boroughs which gives a perfect example of the idea that you can do anything by watching a video on YouTube. Even pick a lock, as Sam discovered this episode.
Sam and Wally break into the funeral home to take a look at Jack’s body, looking for evidence to support their theories about Jack’s death. Judy, who had been very suspicious of them, followed them too.
Meanwhile, Renee and Paz get together when one of the cameras they had set up caught an intruder. After they investigated and found confusing details, they had sex.
Wally, after checking over the dead body of Jack in the morgue, discovered that Jack had marks in the back of his neck, making them think that the creature was feeding on Jack. Sam and Judy had Wally check them and they each had the marks as well, telling us that, whatever this things was, it has been feeding on everyone.
We then see a creature feeding on Renee and Wally as they slept post-coitus.
This was another solid episode in this series and I loved how they intertwined the two main stories this week. They also had Art looking around where the crows crashed last episode and he found some weird location, which has some connection to the creature.
They continue to build the mystery of the Boroughs and melding the characters together.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 