EYG Comic Cavalcade #93

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April 22, 2024

I am back with the second part of last week’s large pile of comics after the mysterious disappearance of the week’s prior shipment. I don’t want to miss another week of books again.

Next books:

Blue Books: 1947 #3. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Michael Avon Oeming, who also did the cover art (Silver medalist). We have reached the point where we are ready to start talking about Roswell and the events surrounding that. I thought this was very interesting.

Moon Man #2. Script by Scott Mescudi and Kyle Higgins with art by Marco Locati. This was a pretty good follow up to the first issue of this book. I did enjoy the manner in which the art was presented in this issue. Some of the larger panels were really epic.

Beware of the Planet of the Apes #4. Written by Marc Guggenheim and art by Alvaro Lopez. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. This prequel to the first movie wrapped up the series and it was enjoyable. Maybe it was not spectacular, but I did like it. It has been one of my favorite of the 20th Century Studios imprint so far.

Ultimate Black Panther #3. Written by Bryan Hill and drawn by Stefano Caselli. Josh Cassara & Guru-eFX did the cover art. T’Challa meeting up with Killmonger and Ororo looking for Moon Knight and some of the African gods. I have liked this new take on Black Panther and his surrounding cast, especially Shuri and Okaye.

Captain Marvel #7. “Bonds to Break” Written by Alyssa Wong and art by Jan Bazaldua. Stephen Segovia & Romulo Fajardo Jr. did the art for the cover. Captain Marvel and Genis-Vell battled in the comic. The item that possessed Genis comes out and prepares to take on Carol.

Resurrection of Magneto #4. “Reawakening” Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Luciano Vecchio. Stefano Caselli and Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Magneto is back. What kind of Magneto is he? This is the question that this issue poses. This is perhaps my favorite issue of this series so far.

Avengers: Twilight #5. “And the Truth is Rain.” Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Daniel Acuna. Cover art by Alex Ross and Acuna. The futuristic tale of the Avengers taking on a returned Red Skull continues. I have said before how I am not a fan of alternate future stories, but this is tremendous. Chip Zdarsky is at his best so far in this series. And the last page’s reveal of the Hulk is awesome.

Incredible Hulk #11. “Frozen Charlotte: Part Three” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and illustrated by guest artist Danny Earles. The Frozen Charlotte storyline has not been my favorite, but I did like how it wrapped up. What happens to Charlie is a neat twist.

Jill and the Killers #4. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and illustrated by Roberta Ingranata. Cover art by Sanya Anwar. This mystery series wrapped up after the answer of the mystery was revealed. This was a very special series that was very unexpected from Oni Press.

Animal Pound #3. “Chapter Three: Piggy Performs” Written by Tom King and illustrated by Peter Gross. Animal Pound is a really good look at political theater. They follow through multiple elections inside the animal pound and it really shows what politics are like. By the way, I have a feeling that I know whom is represented by Piggy.

What If: Venom #3. Written by Jeremy Holt and penciled by Manuel Garcia. Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr did the cover art. I have not been much of a fan of these Venom What If issues, but I love the What If series so I am collecting it. Venom bonded to Dr. Strange is fine. That’s about it.

X-Men ’97 #2. Written by Steve Foxe and drawn by Salva Espín. Cover art was by Todd Nuack & Rachelle Rosenberg. This prequel series to the new animated X-Men ’97 series on Disney + has been okay, but it does not measure up to the exceptional animated series. Sabretooth and the Marauders make a guest appearance.

Dead X-Men #4. “Hyper Ballad” Written by Steve Foxe and art by David Baldeon, Bernard Chang, & Vincenzo Carratù. Lucas Werneck did the cover art. This felt weird since it should have been read before the Rise of the Powers of X #4, which I have already read. Still, this was fine.

Fall of the House of X #4. “The Turn” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Lucas Werneck & Jethro Morales. Cover art is done by Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia. Things are coming to a conclusion with this storyline as the X-Men are facing down with Nimrod.

House of Slaughter #22. Written by Tate Brombal and illustrated by Antonio Fuso. Cover art by Nimit Malavia and Werther Dell’edera. Sunny Boucher has gone out of his way to help protect his friend Jace Boucher, but at what cost?

Night People #2. “The Secret Life of Insects” Written by Chris Condon and illustrated by Alexandre Tefenkgi. Cover art by Jason Shawn Alexander. Honestly, this series has not been enjoyable so far. This is based on a novel by Barry Gifford, but I just have not liked it at this point.

Giant-Size Hulk #1. “Reuben’s Train” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Andrea Broccardo. KJ Diaz did the cover art. I enjoyed the issue with the Hulk on a train. However, it did not turn out well for the train.

Ghost Rider: Final Vengeance #2. “Vengeance is Mine” Written by Benjamin Percy and art by Danny Kim. Juan Ferreyra did the cover art. The Red Hood continues as the brand new Ghost Rider, who stole the Spirit of Vengeance from Johnny Blaze. This series is darker than before and I like it.

Kill Your Darlings #8. Story by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan and art by Robert Quinn. This series has ended with this issue and I am glad it is done. I have not been a huge fan of this book over the last eight issues. This is one of the books that I started and basically finished because I wanted to be a completist. This does have a cool wrap-around cover, though.

Chernobyl S1 E3

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“Open Wide, O Earth”

This has been such a compelling story of such a horrific tragedy. The drama is so tense and suspenseful and every moment brings more shocking revelations. So many people wound up sick or dead because of their efforts to stop the exposure from spreading into the land or the water, it truly speaks to the heroic nature of the human spirit, no matter the country.

The group of miners they recruited to dig beneath the core to prevent the contamination of the water supply have become my favorite characters immediately. Their no nonsense approach to the initial order was awesome, as was their patting of the coal minister (messing up his suit and his face with coal dust). Their response to not being allowed to have fans in the tunnels they dug was unexpected and a great bit of humor inside a serious moment.

Seeing some of the first people who had been exposed and the fates that they faced was difficult. The firefighter whose wife told him she was pregnant was heart-breaking. The final scene of the episode where they placed a series of metal coffins in a large grave and covered it with concrete was a brutal blow. It was truly a difficult scene to watch.

Valery Legasov presenting the plan for what had to happen next to Gorbachev was a tense scene. When Valery approached the KGB Director, I had everything clenched. I know he survived because of the opening scene of the show, but it still did not make this easier to watch.

This has been such a powerful show with so much amazing acting. I find this very emotional and I am glad that I have gotten around to seeing it.

Deadpool & Wolverine trailer

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Marvel Studios only has one movie coming out in 2024.

It is one of the most anticipated films of the year. Certainly, it is mine.

Deadpool & Wolverine dropped a new trailer today, the official trailer which followed the teaser from the Super Bowl.

They wanted to show immediately that this would not be Disney-fied. ere were F-bombs everywhere in this trailer.

Hugh Jackman looks incredible and they have an easy chemistry between Deadpool and Wolverine.

This looks absolutely epic and I can not wait for July.

American Horror Story: Delicate S12 E8

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“Little Gold Man”

Since Delicate return from hiatus a few weeks ago, I have been very down on this series. Even the first half of the season was not as gripping as some of the past seasons.

The eighth episode of the season was better than recent ones. It still is not in the upper tier of AHS seasons, but at least I am not cringing every scene like I have been the last few weeks.

The whole Oscar plot is strange. She found out she was nominated and won the award all in the same basic time frame and that does not happen.

Anna got that Oscar, but what did she have to sacrifice in order to hear her name called? Sure seemed like she just said she would give up her unborn child to win that award. Hm. Anna was never going to be mother-of-the-year, but that was really crappy of her.

A lot of this episode was exposition and explanations for what was going on. Then, it is never easy to figure out what is in Anna’s head or what’s actually happening to her.

Then, the episode was over before you knew it. Just around 35 minutes run time is surprisingly short for the show.

The X-Files S4 E11

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“El Mundo Gira”

The X-Files goes into illegal aliens this episode, blending it with the legend of El Chupacabra and a strange, deadly fungus, that was killing people.

This episode took the idea of El Chupacabra and turned it into something different, something unexplained, and I have to say that I enjoyed the manipulation of the legend.

It was based on the Mexican Soap Operas too as a love requited story was at the center of it. Some of the acting felt like it was over the top like you might find in some of the soap operas/telenovela of the culture.

The ending was a lesson in POV as we saw what happened in the ending from two distinctly differing points of view. This is something that the show has done on several occasions, including in such classic episodes as Jose Chung’s From Outer Space.

This was a fun episode, but I still would wish that Mulder and Scully would be able to capture their prey once in a while.

Chernobyl S1 E1, E2

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“1:23:45”

“Please Remain Calm”

With the rewatches of Twin Peaks and Moonlighting finishing, the end of the Fallout first season, and the nearing of the completion of Man from Atlantis, I was ready for a new watch, whether it be a rewatch or a new show. I had made a list and one that jumped out at me was a five-episode mini-series that had aired on HBO in 2019 based on the story of the disaster that occurred at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union.

I had heard amazing things about this mini-series and so I wanted to get this into the rotation. I have to say, after watching the first two episodes, I had to really stress myself into not continuing and binging the entire series. It was that good.

About two-thirds of the way through the second episode, I was thinking that everyone that I saw in the first episode was now dead or in the process of dying, which was a dramatic thought.

Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård we meet, mostly, in the second episode, and they bring some of the best acting I have seen in a long time. The realization of what their jobs will cost them is absolutely screaming beneath their performances.

This historical recreation (which does have its share of discrepancies) is extremely stressful and intense. It had me yelling at my screen for characters to get out of there, in reference to the power plant. How the radiation affected these men was an unbelievable example of the power of nuclear energy.

Kicking the series off with a scene of Valery Legasov, played by Jared Harris, hanging himself after recording memoirs of the events of Chernobyl really started things off with a desperation that the series maintained. Legasov had said to Skarsgård’s Boris Shcherbina in episode two that they would both be dead in five years. Perhaps this was his way of taking control of his life. Or maybe, he knew he would be killed for putting his words on tape. Either way, it made for quite an impact at the beginning of this show.

Man from Atlantis S1 E14

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“Scavenger Hunt”

Muldoon makes a return to the Man from Atlantis series and they even referenced the last time he was on. Continuity! This is the first time in the series that there has been an allusion back to an earlier episode. For example, Mister Schubert has made multiple appearances and none of them make connections to previous encounters, outside of a knowledge of Mark Harris and the rest.

I try my best to remember that this series came out in 1977 and special effects were limited. Even still, the inclusion in this episode of the creature named Oscar was stretching the acceptability of special effects. It was a guy in a rubber suit and it was pretty obvious. I was able to look past this two-headed creature from a different world, but why did it have to sound like a horse whining every time it made a sound? That was a poor choice and something that could have been done better at the time.

The acting from the side characters of this series has never been great. It is continuing to be so with the natives of this island who just did not sound like they were doing anything but reading off a page. Again, I can understand the budget of hiring real actors for the minor background characters.

Mark’s heroic and honorable nature continues to be the highlight of the show. There were plenty of time Mark could use his super strength to fight or to respond with violence, but he does not do so. He responds with respect and with words and the fact that he does not have to do so, that he would be perfectly capable of surviving the situation by his strength alone, makes him all the more of a hero.

Even Muldoon, who is selfish and greedy, can’t help but to be a better person when he is around Mark. Once again though, the show sticks it to Muldoon as he has to pay the price because of his previous actions at the end of the show, even though he helped save everyone at the end. Poor Muldoon.

Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver

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It has been awhile since I was this bored watching a movie.

I was not a fan of Rebel Moon Part 1: A Child of Fire. Dare I say that I am even less of a fan of this new movie, debuting on Netflix this weekend.

The group of characters that had been assembled in the first film ala Seven Samurai return to the village that they had sworn to protect from the totalitarian power of the Imperium.

The biggest problem is that I don’t care about any of these characters which make all the slow-motion action nothing more than just lasers, gun and fights. They meant nothing to me.

There was a scene where the characters sat around a table and told something from their back stories, details that apparently were not important enough to give us in the first movie when we were introducing them. It is truly some lazy filmmaking. Exposition at its worst.

There are so many bloated action scenes that, admittedly looked good, are just there to show off the visual work, but are filled with stupid decisions and eye-rolling levels of senselessness.

So much slo-mo.

Zach Snyder directed this in his most Zach Snyder-esque style. It is lacking in just about everything except action (which does get tedious) and CGI. There is not much more after that.

1 star

Fallout S1 E7, E8

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“The Radio”

“The Beginning”

I ended the first season of Fallout with the final two episodes of this video game adaptation. The first season, which absolutely ended with a set-up for season two, was great, and I would be excited to see a second season and spend more time with these characters.

Lucy arrived to rescue her father, Hank, but she was not too happy to discover the truth. Hank was the driving force of destroying the city of Shady Sands. The confrontation between Lucy and Hank was intense and tough to watch, mainly because I did not want to be rooting against Kyle MacLachlan.

Maximus may have finally won me over. He has taken a serious journey this season and, since leaving the vault, Maximus has done some awesome things. Plus, we learn that he did not sabotage the shoes of his friend. I liked how he and Lucy’s relationship developed. It felt earned and helped me feel more for Maximus.

The Ghoul and his back story continued as he discovered that his wife was behind a bunch of the original issues 200 years before. But in the present, he still does not know what has happened to his family.

Norm is on his way to discovering the truth about his father as well as he has manipulated his way into Vault 31 and discovered a weird brain in a mobile jar. It speaks too in a slightly funny tone. This was an odd set of scenes with Norm in Vault 31. It was not what I was expecting.

Still not sure what Betty wants with sending a group of the people to Vault 32. I hope that is another story to build in the second season.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

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Inspired by true events, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare gives us a fairly unknown story of a major event during World War II that helped bring the US soldiers into the war in Europe.

In this film, we get a group of bad boys who are out to sink a supply ship that would help to cripple the German U-Boats.

The crew included Henry Cavill, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Eiza Gonzalez, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, and Henry Golding.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, this is a fun, action movie that presents enjoyable characters against Nazis. Nazis always make great villains to root against.

The story is not incredibly deep, but the the action is certainly fun. Probably my biggest problem with the action is that I never really thought that any of the crew were ever in any danger. They would stroll through each situation shooting people with guns and arrows with little failure. That is a dangerous way to make it boring, but the action is well done enough that it never does get that way.

Henry Cavill is great in his role. He feels like the star of the ensemble. Eiza Gonzalez was excellent as the spy/vixen inside the viper’s den. Alan Ritchson was an awesome action star with his massive muscles and power moves.

As I said, the story is not especially deep, but it is a fun time in the theater as a popcorn movie.

3.6 stars

Sasquatch Sunset

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This was a weird movie.

We follow a family of sasquatches. Going in, I thought these sasquatches would be an anthropomorphic creature that would talk English like humans. Nope. Nothing but grunts, calls and tree knocks. The four actors had to relate thoughts without words, via actions, facial expressions and body language.

The four actors playing the family of sasquatches were Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek, and Nathan Zellner.

This is a gross movie in many instances, including scenes of vomiting, throwing poop, peeing and dangling Sasquatch penises (which kind of ruin the myth of comparison to big feet).

There are also some very powerful moments of loss and tragedy as the family tried to make its way through a years time.

I am very mixed about this, because much of the humor of the film are the type of humor that I do not like. The scene where the father squatch threw up after eating some special mushroom was extremely gross, with green vomit dangling in his beard. Still, there were some moving moments as the sasquatches tried to navigate the struggles of the wilderness. There is a cougar in the film that is just massive.

I do appreciate the swing that directors David and Nathan Zellner took with this movie, but it just did not fully hit with me. It took quite a risk to not have any dialogue in the entire flick. That definitely took some adjusting to, but after awhile, it did not bother me.

There is an artistry here, so I do not want to fully dismiss what the Zellners tried to do. The fact is this movie just did not work for me. There are positives here for sure and it took some sasquatch sized balls to make it, but ninety minutes felt too long. Sasquatch fans might really enjoy this and there is definitely comments about relationships and our world here, but there was just too much other things that I couldn’t get past.

2.8 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #92

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April 19, 2024

So, this was a huge week of comics, because of the mysterious disappearance of the shipment from the previous week to Comic World. I had 38 books this week and that was just massive.

Because of the amount of books to read this week, I decided to split this week into two sections. I have a handful of books read right now, and then I will continue to read more to hopefully do another Comic Cavalcade prior to NEW COMIC BOOK DAY next Wednesday. That is the goal, at least.

It is amazing that it was just a few years ago that I only purchased Marvel Comics books. Now, I collect more independent comics than Marvel books. Marvel is still my favorite company, but I have gained a new respect for the stories created by talented creatives. Recently, I am starting to look through the catalogue of Dark Horse, which I have not paid enough attention to over the last year or so. There are some new books from DH this week that were fun.

Books this week, Part One:

Ms. Marvel #18. “Meanwhile in Wakanda” Written by G. Willow Wilson and art by Francesco Gaston. Nelson Blake II and Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. So this was, of course, not a book from this past week. It is one that I picked up on eBay. I have been inventorying the collection and I found that I was missing this issue of the Ms. Marvel series. I found it on eBay to fill in that volume. I do very much enjoy Ms. Marvel. More on her later.

Monsters are My Business #1. Written by Cullen Bunn and art by Patrick Piazzalunga. Piazzalunga with Marco Brakko did the cover art. One of the new Dark Horse books I was talking about, this was a lot of fun. Strange characters and some exciting monster action.

Uncanny Valley #1. Written by Tony Fleecs and art by Dave Wachter. Boom! Studios has been a huge company too recently, as some of the best books of the month are from this company. This starts off with a troubled kid who has some kind of mysterious background and a grandfather who turns out to be a… cartoon?

Cobra Commander #4. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Andrea Milana. Milana & Annalisa Leoni did the art for the cover. The mini series in the Energon Universe continues as the leader of Cobra heads to his power. Cobra Commander is shown to be quite the bad ass here, and we get our first glimpse of Destro.

Sam and Twitch: Case Files #2. Written by Todd McFarlane with Jon Goff (co-plot) and art by Szymon Kudranski. Thaddeus Robeck and Mirko Colak did the cover art. Problems between partners and a suspension lead Max to get out of New York and help a former friend with a serial killer case in a small town. I like this detective series inside the Spawn universe.

Roxxon Presents Thor #1. “Hate is a Color Called …Green” Written by Al Ewing and penciled by Greg Land. This is bizarre. In the continuity of the Immortal Thor, Roxxon has gotten the rights to publish Thor comics and they have made Thor a joke. This is the comic that Roxxon published and it reads like a giant product placement for Roxxon and its products. It is a strange comic and a blip in the storyline from the main Thor book.

Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #2. “Starstruck.” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada and art by Scott Godlewski. Carlos Gomez & Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Co-written by the MCU’s Ms. Marvel herself, this book features Lila Cheney and Mojo. It is always fun with Mojo and his obsessive desire for ratings. I said how much I love Ms. Marvel earlier, and she continues to be awesome.

What If…?: Aliens #2. Part Two written by Hans Rodionoff & Leon Reiser with art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. Like Iman Vellani in the previous book, this is another comic featuring a celebrity involved in the creative process with Paul Reiser. His son helped him develop the story and co-wrote this one. A great continuation of this What If story. I do miss the Watcher in these books, but this has been a ton of fun so far.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #19. “Retribution: Part 3” Written by Cody Ziglar and art from Federico Vicentini. Vicentini & Richard Isanove did the cover art. A serious throwdown between Miles and Rabble that leads to a final end to the story.

Invincible Iron Man #17. “The Price of Knowledge.” Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by guest artist Patch Zircher. Kael Ngu did the cover art. Feilong and Tony Stark comes to blows, but Feilong has a problem. He has lost control of the Stark Sentinels. AI cannot be trusted. Iron Man has an unlikely ally arrive to help out… Magneto?

Blow Away #1. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Nicola Izzo. Cover art is done by Annie Wu (Gold Medalist). Another cool new series from Boom! Studios. A photographer has some mysterious job, but she is distracted watching some mountain climbers. Strange things happen in this series and I am excited to see what is going on.

Fantastic Four #19. “The Perfect Storm” Written by Ryan North and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art by Alex Ross (Bronze Medalist). This was an awesome black and white (with red) noir detective story with Alicia Masters as the detective. It was a strange story that would make sense eventually. I really have enjoyed Ryan North’s run on this book as he has told FF stories in different manners every month.

Amazing Spider-Man #47. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by guest artist Todd Nauck. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Ben Reilly is back as Chasm, reuniting with Hallows’ Eve. They are after Betty Bryant and Spider-Man has to protect her.

Spider-Boy #6. Written by Dan Slott. “The Man Upstairs” art by Paco Medina & Walden Wong and “So You’re a Humanimal” drawn by Julian Shaw. Bailey Briggs is fighting the humanimals of Madame Monstrosity, trying to save his friend, Christina Xu. He does not succeed.

Something Epic #9. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. In the investigation into the death of Sherlock Holmes leads Noa and her duck friend to Mount Olympus and Zeus, who has also disappeared. They head off to see Hades in the Underworld. The new arc is fascinating and, dare I say it, epic.

Spider-Woman #6. “Star Light, Star Bright, The First Star I Punch Tonight.” Written by Steve Foxe and art from Ig Guara. Leinil Francis Yu & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. Star is after Jessica Drew and they fight on a train. The train doesn’t stand a chance.

The Displaced #3. “Chapter Three: Everyone Needs to Eat.” Written by Ed Brisson and illustrated by Luca Casalanguida. This is fast becoming one of my favorite books of the month. The story of the survivors of the city of Oshawa, Ontario which has vanished, keeps getting more dramatic every issue. The cracks in the survivors’ connection are starting to show. This is a great book from Boom! Studio.

Black Widow & Hawkeye #2. “Broken Arrow: Part 2” Written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Paolo Villanelli. Stephen Segovia and Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Black Widow and her new symbiote are out to save a injured Hawkeye against an assassin after him.

Spectacular Spider-Men #2. “Arachnobatics Chapter #2: Community” Written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Ramos & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Peter and Miles take on Vermin in the sewers of NYC and spend time at their coffee shop. There is also a mystery dealing with a burnt body. Is it a clone? I love the interaction between Peter and Miles.

Abigail

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This movie was awesome, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it could have been so much better, perhaps even the best movie of the year, but it has to settle for awesomeness thanks to the trailers.

I went into the film wondering why the movie would reveal in the trailers that the little girl who had been kidnapped was, in truth, a vampire. I did not understand the idea behind it, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking that perhaps there was another, more dramatic reveal in the film that made it okay to give away this major plot point.

After seeing the movie, I am even more flummoxed about why the studio would give away what could have been a major twist in the story in the trailer.

The first part of the movie treated this like a kidnapping story and that the crew of hired thugs were to babysit the hostage in this old, spooky house. There were times in the early part of the film that tried to make the little girl, Abigail, into a victim and the film tried to pull on the heartstrings of the audience. The thing is, I knew the whole time that Abigail was a vampire.

It also tried to play a bit of a game of “who can you trust” by making it seem as if Frank, played by the amazing Dan Stevens, was behind the entire thing, and that would have been a cool twist, had I not known that the little girl was a vampire. All this early part of the movie would have worked so much more had they not spoiled that reveal in the trailer.

And the argument would be trying to get people into the theater, but I honestly think there could have been a way to weave together a trailer that painted this into a different picture, while protecting that one major concept. The reveal of Abigail as a vampire would have hit so much harder, been so much more impactful if I did not know it was coming.

After all of that, this movie still rocked really hard.

I was shocked to see at the film’s beginning that Alisha Weir played Abigail. Alisha Weir was the lead of one of my favorite movies of a couple years ago, Matilda the Musical. I absolutely loved her in that role and she is fabulous here too. She is an amazing young actor and she has a bright, bright future. In what could have been a one note role in Abigail, Weir brought so much emotion, vulnerability and power to her character while still being sinister and downright terrifying.

The rest of the ensemble cast was great too. Melissa Barrera was fantastic as the main protagonist, who was the character that the audience was intended to connect with and I certainly did. However, they still imbued her with plenty of mistakes and a back story that was filled with mistakes. She was a bad ass, but also a character with more regrets than happy memories.

Dan Stevens is always amazing, and this is no exception. This is a character that is anything but likable, but you still find yourself rooting for him even though. Dan Stevens does a tremendous job with this character that had surprising depth for this type of movie.

Kathryn Newton, William Catlett, Kevin Durand and the late Angus Cloud formed a ragtag bunch of lowlifes that mixed beautifully with the horror/comedy vibe of the film. Giancarlo Esposito had a small, but meaningful role as well.

As I mentioned, this was a horror/comedy film and I laughed out loud multiple times at some of the situations that these characters wound up in.

I might have legitimately given this movie 5 stars had the vampire twist been kept as a secret. I came out raving about this movie even without the surprise, but I can’t help but think it would have been so much more without the spoilers.

4.75 stars

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of April 15

Last week, a shipment of comics heading to Comic World was lost in the mail. Only Image books came in last week. That meant that there was a MASSIVE amount of books this week. A large number to narrow down to just three medalists. It was a tough decision as I had about ten that I had in the finals, finally moving down to the top three. No Image this week.

Bronze Medalist

Fantastic Four #19

Cover art by Alex Ross

One of the greatest cover artists of all time received another medal this week as Alex Ross brings an awesome cover featuring Sue Storm in a very original looking issue.

Silver Medalist

Blue Book: 1947 #3

Cover Art by Michael Avon Oeming

Blue Book has been one of the consistently beautiful covers, using the colors of blue and black every issue. The Dark Horse comic does a lot with a little.

Gold Medalist

Blow Away #1

Cover art by Annie Wu

Brand new comic from Boom! Studios. Much like last week’s winner, Phantom Road, less on this cover is more. The beautiful blue ice makes this feel very special while the character is in the distance, showing on how much this character has to go through. It is a lovely piece of art.

A few honorable mentions this week considering I got 38 comics this week: Night People #2, Something Epic #9, Black Widow/Hawkeye #2, Spectacular Spider-Men #2, and Avengers: Twilight #5.

X-Men ’97 S1 e6

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“Lifedeath Part 2”

It was inevitable that episode six of the new animated series X-Men ’97 had to be a step down from last week’s episode, which some have called the best episode of Marvel TV ever. While that is hyperbole, the fact was episode 5 was absolutely a large hurdle to follow.

The second part of Lifedeath, a classic X-Men story arc involving Ororo, was a solid episode that might have suffered from placement in the series.

However, it was not only Storm and Forge whose story continued in this episode. We go into space and pick up with Charles Xavier and the Shi’ar Empire. I will admit that the Shi’ar has never been my favorite X-Men story arcs. I do like Deathbird, who is front and center here, and Gladiator has always been cool, but the rest of the Imperial Guard have been lesser to me.

It was also a surprise to see Ronan the Accuser make an early episode appearance with the Kree.

The events of episode five were felt in both stories, as the terrible news from Genosha inspired both of them. Xavier to decide that he must return to earth and Storm to choose to return to the X-Men after she was able to regain her powers.

The end bit showed us that Mister Sinister was behind the unleashing of the Sentinels onto Genosha, leading into the remainder of the season.

Interestingly enough, Nightcrawler has been added to the intro, despite the fact that he did not appear in this episode. That is okay with me as Nightcrawler has always been one of my favorite X-Men and the idea of more of the ‘fuzzy elf’ is very pleasing for me.