EYG Comic Cavalcade #88

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March 30, 2024

Good day. Happy Saturday. I hope everyone who celebrates it has a wonderful Easter Sunday tomorrow.

I had my first negative experience on eBay this week. I had ordered the back issue Amazing Spider-Man #400, which I initially thought I had already owned, but it was not among the Spider-Man box I went through recently. When it arrived in the mail, the package was not what I was used to for eBay and as I pulled out the book, it was all wrinkled and damaged, including a tear on the spine at the top left of the book. I could not believe it was in such poor shape.

I went back to see if it had been listed as such and it did mention a slight bend in the left corner, but nothing like what I had seen. I went to leave negative feedback for this seller as I was pretty unhappy. I had everything written out and eBay sent a message to me saying if I was sure if I wanted to leave this negative review. It suggested that I consider contacting the seller first. I looked and saw that the seller had 100% positive on his account so I decided to give it a chance.

I messaged the seller and he responded very quickly, saying that the book was not damaged when he sent it and that he did not understand how this happened. Honestly, he did seem more concerned with his 100% positive feedback than anything else as he begged me not to leave any negative comments. He refunded my money with me asking for it, so I decided to let it slide. He seemed pretty grateful for my decision.

He wanted me to send it back to him, but I am not doing that. I am not going to go through the expense or the trouble of boxing this one comic up and sending it back to him.

This did not put me off purchasing on eBay, because I have not had any other negative experiences on the site, but it may make me a little more cautious than I was before.

New books this week:

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #18. “Retribution: Part 2” Written by Cody Ziglar and with art by David Marquez, Sara Pichelli, Juann Cabal with Matt Horak, Luciano Vecchio and Federico Vicentini. Vicentini and Richard Isanove did the cover art. This was legacy number 300 for Miles and it was a big issue featuring Miles facing off with Rabble and also dealing with the Cape Killers. Old school double-sized issue without a bunch of back-up stories. I appreciated that.

Feral #1. Written by Tony Fleecs and drawn by Trish Forstner. Cover by Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs (Bronze Medalist). I loved Stray Dogs, which was from the same creators of this comic. Feral had the same type of feel and flow as Stray Dogs and I really enjoyed the set up of this book.

Zorro: Man of the Dead #3. Written and illustrated by Sean Gordon Murphy. Cover art by Dan Panosian (Gold Medalist). An amazing cover this week on Zorro and I have really been enjoying this new take on Zorro. Present day setting and our hero may be just crazy, delusional as he deals with the dangers around him.

Ultimate Spider-Man #3. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Marco Checchetto. Checchetto and Matthew Wilson did the cover art. Peter gets his classic costume after a whole section of trial and error with his daughter, May. Spidey meets the Green Goblin and together they take down Bullseye. Goblin is Harry and he and Peter are getting a drink. Cool switch up.

Amazing Spider-Man #46. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by guest artist Carmen Carnero. Cover art was by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz. Electro shows up to try and reclaim Sandman for the Sinister Six. Spidey and Jackpot team up to stop him.

Newburn #16. Written by Chip Zdarsky and drawn by Jacob Phillips. This series comes to a close with Emily wrapping up the story for the supposedly dead Newburn. Of course, I never once thought that Newburn was actually dead. It does provide a decent end for the series’ protagonist.

Incredible Hulk #10. “Frozen Charlotte: Part Two.” Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and drawn by guest artist Danny Earles. Nic Klein was the cover artist. Charlie has been taken by some creature and the Hulk is in pursuit. However, New Orleans Hulk comes across a ghost that is ready to help him. Weird and different, I definitely like where this is heading.

Thunderbolts #4. “World Strike: OP-04// Operation Doomstrike.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Geraldo Borges. Terry Dodson & Rachel Dodson did the cover art. The wrap up of this new version of the Thunderbolts was great as they confronted Red Skull inside Latveria as a ticking clock counted down until the arrival of Dr. Doom! Very satisfying ending.

Deer Editor #3. Written by Ryan K. Lindsay and art by Sami Kivelä. Bucky is still at it and he is on the trail of the story. He also has one scene in particular that is so kick ass that it stood out as one of my favorite moments of the week. It all involves a flip down by Bucky. Deer Editor continues to be one of the more interesting books published outside of the big three (Marvel, DC, Image) each month.

Jill and the Killers #3. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and illustrated by Roberta Ingranata. Cover art by Sanya Anwar. Another great book published outside of the big three, Jill and the Killers keeps me off balance and this issue dove deeper into characters as Jill felt very unlikable for much of the book. I am enjoying this one a great deal.

Superior Spider-Man #5. “The Heel Turn.” Written by Christos Gage (from story by Dan Slott) and penciled by Mark Bagey. Bagley & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Big twist at the end of the book involving Spider-Boy! Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Daredevil #7. “Introductory Rites: Part Seven.” Written by Saladin Ahmed and drawn by Aaron Kuder. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove did the cover art. Daredevil has been chasing the demons of his seven deadly sins, and he has found the person possessed by the next one. Unfortunately for him, it’s Wolverine.

Jackpot & Black Cat #1. Written by Celeste Bronfman and art by Emilio Laiso. Adam Hughes did the cover art. I have not been a huge fan of MJ being this super hero named Jackpot, but I do enjoy the chemistry between her and Black Cat, Felicia Hardy. The connection between Peter’s former lovers makes for an intriguing dynamic and carries a lot of this book.

Rise of the Powers of X #3. “The Ex Life of Moira.” Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by R.B. Silva. Silva and David Curiel did the cover art. Charles Xavier goes back in time to one of the past lives of Moira McTaggert as a little girl with the intentions of killing her. What results from the confrontation is very engaging.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #8. Written by Tate Brombal (based on idea by James Tynion IV) and art by Soo Lee. Nick Robles did the cover art (Silver Medalist). The back story of Adam Frankenstein continues in this issue. Looks like Christopher will return next issue, but I really enjoyed this detour into the past of Adam.

X-Men ’97 #1. Written by Steve Foxe and art by Salva Espín. Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. This is a prequel series from the period before the X-Men ’97 Disney + series began. You can see the details being set up in this book that will happen in the first few episodes of the series, but it is also telling a story involving Dazzler.

Other books this week: Local Man: Bad Girls Special #1, G.O.D.S. #6, The Six Fingers #2, Nights #6, and Killadelphia #34.

Twin Peaks S2 E14

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“Double Play”

Post Laura Palmer murder Twin Peaks continues to be a mixed bag.

  • Windham Earle made his first appearance, creepy as all get out.
  • Leo’s return to life is really well done and frightening.
  • James is still terrible. Donna deserves so much better.
  • Pete is shocked by Andrew being alive, but I do like Catharine letting Pete know the truth. Their relationship is strange, but oddly sweet.
  • I do not like the black widow character with her over developed sexual abilities.
  • Sure seemed like they dropped the Little Nicky storyline quickly.
  • Leo and Windham Earle together? Yes, please.
  • I could have any number of scenes with Harry and Cooper showing how much they respect each other. Coop explaining his past with Earle laid out the rivalry beautifully.
  • Dr. Jacoby was all over this episode after not having much to do since the very early part of the first season.
  • Refighting the Civil War? Ben Horne’s crazy behavior is great.
  • Norma feeling good when Hank was arrested.

The show has some intriguing storylines, but there are so many things that just do not work, and even those that are good, there is just something missing at times. Possibly the missing piece was David Lynch.

Immaculate

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Sydney Sweeney has now appeared in two of the worst movies of 2024. First, Madame Web and now this religious themed horror movie, Immaculate.

According to IMDB, “Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney), a woman of devout faith, is warmly welcomed to the picture-perfect Italian countryside where she is offered a new role at an illustrious convent. But it becomes clear to Cecilia that her new home harbors dark and horrifying secrets.“

I should not single out Sydney Sweeney, because there is no doubt that she is the absolutely best part of this fart of a movie. Her performance is savage, and she dominates her screen time.

The problem is that the film is just not very good.

The first hour of the movie was very dull and it spent the entire time throwing jump scares at the audience where the music suddenly spikes loudly, only to see nothing in particular. It was one of the most prolific uses of jump scares I have seen in quite awhile.

While the film’s premise had some promise, the film just goes off the rails in the third act, settling for shocking moments over any sort of storytelling. While I appreciate some of the swings it took in that final act, particularly right at the end, it depends on shock to create emotion in the audience, not anything to do with character or story elements.

Sydney Sweeney was really good in this. She gave it her all. The material was just not up to the quality of her performance.

1.3 stars

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

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Godzilla and Kong are back together once again with the Monsterverse as a new threat forces the two titans to work together. Yes, the story is a little wonky and lacks any real sense of dread, but there are some epic monster fights, and where else are you going to see Godzilla give King Kong a suplex?

That was a life-affirming moment for me.

The new threat is another giant ape by the name of the Scar King. Scar King has been trying to escape from the bowels of Hollow earth for a long time and, with Godzilla on the surface, Scar King has been having more success. He has marshalled his forces together, including a cold controlling titan that he is using pain to force it to help him (that’s not coming back at the end…sarcasm). Kong realizes that he can not take the new threat on his own and he went back to earth to recruit Godzilla, who has been sensing trouble and has been charging up with some nuclear energy.

The plot of this film is really weak. What this movie had to do to hit its purpose was to have great monster fights, and I already mentioned the suplex, right? The fights were well done and the CGI looked fantastic. Was there some cheesy moments? Sure. Kong gets a bionic arm to help with his injured arm. Luckily this bionic arm was already in Hollow Earth.

However, there was a major problem. I never felt as if Scar King was a danger to any sort of combination of Godzilla and Kong, along with whatever other Titans that might show up (no spoilers). I never believed Scar had any chance of taking them down, even after he did well in his initial fight with Kong.

The humans were kept as a sideshow, as they should have been. The human cast included Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Brian Tyree Henry and Kaylee Hottle. Kaylee Hottle, played the lovely young lady Jia, reprising her role from Godzilla vs. Kong. Hottle had a real presence on screen and she stood out among the human characters. She seemed to fit beautifully in with the grandness of the monsters around her. I was very impressed by this young actress, who apparently is deaf as well.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire was a fun time if you wanted to see giant monsters fighting. Though it is an unfair comparison, this does not match up to Godzilla Minus One at all. That was a much better movie, but this is still fun and a decent popcorn flick.

3.2 stars

Moonlighting S5 E6

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“In ‘N Outlaws”

I thought I had seen all of the Moonlighting episodes, but I do not remember this Dipesto centric episode. I can’t believe that I could have forgotten this travesty.

Carmine Ragusa appeared as a part of the Viola family, one of Herbert’s cousin. Yes, I mean Eddie Mekka, not Carmine, who was the character he played for years on Laverne and Shirley.

Laura Palmer’s mom was in this episode too. Match Game’s Patti Deutsch, John Capodice, Susan French, Val Avery, Pat Crawford Brown, Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd all guest starred in this episode.

Yeah, Maddie and David were not in this episode much. A couple of scenes at best.

The plot of this episode was all over the place. It was about a murder trial that Agnes wound up on the jury for. By the way, I just was called to jury duty and it was considerably different than the way this was done.

This is all that was bad about Moonlighting and probably my least favorite episode of this series so far.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

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Last year, in my opinion, the worst movie of 2023 was Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. By far. Despite the negative word of mouth (and honestly, probably because of it), I saw that movie on streaming and hated it. There were several movies that I saw last year that, in my movie reviews, I said that this ‘new movie’ would be the worst movie I saw that year, except that I had seen Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.

I was very surprised to see a sequel already to this horror schlock. What was even more odd was that I saw that it had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time (6 reviews).

Admittedly, this sequel is better than the first one. Honestly, that bar was REALLY low.

Then, it kicked off with an opening between Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director, and Scott Chambers, who had assumed the role of Christopher Robin. They spoke about their new Pooh cinematic universe that they are building including movies featuring horror-takes on Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Bambi, and then even a Poohniverse film where all the monsters assemble like the Avengers. I’m not making this up. The most unbelievable part was when they spoke to the director of the upcoming Bambi: The Reckoning, Dan Allen, who said if you liked movies like Jaws, Aliens and Jurassic Park, you will love Bambi: The Reckoning. What?

Then, Pooh 2 started with an animated intro which made me pause. I thought it was very well done, and I was intrigued with the set up coming out of the opening. Could this actually be a good film after the pile of crap that the first one was?

Short answer: No.

The very next scene was a kill scene with Pooh, his new cohort Owl and a reanimated Piglet, attacking and killing three of the worst female characters you will ever see in a movie. There was no rhyme or reason to it. It was just to have some kills, and I realized that my initial possible thoughts (dare I say, hopes) would go unfulfilled.

I am going to say this. I actually thought when the film focused on Christopher Robin in the first act of the film, it was decent. I liked the conflict of Christopher Robin being accused of being involved in the 100 Acre Wood Massacre (which was basically the first film). Chris had become a doctor and he was struggling not only with the events of the last movie, but also a trauma involving his brother when he was a young boy. All this piqued my interest.

Sadly, that entire storyline was interposed with some of the dumbest scenes of Pooh and Owl killing random people in graphic and gory fashion. Some of these kills were laugh out loud funny, and I did that several times. They took away most everything from those initial scenes with Chris.

By the end of the film, I hated the Christopher Robin story too because they had taken it in the most bizarre and stupidest path. Predictable too. I said several points during the film that were so obvious that it was shameful that they tried to pass them off as reveals.

There were several story elements that were brought up, but either never followed though with or tossed aside with a rampant abandon.

The film did look better. Frake-Waterfield and Chambers had said in their intro that the success of the first film allowed them to approach this one with a considerably larger budget and it did show in the look. However, just because something looked better, does not mean that is better.

Case in point, the film introduces Tigger late in the third act and does nothing with him. He is there for basically one slaughter scene and he was a tiger with long claws that killed people. No sign of “the tops are made of the rubber, the bottoms are made of the springs” that you might associate with Tigger. The film did nothing to establish that this was the Tigger we knew. It made him generic.

The relationship between Pooh and Chris took an even more messed up twist that was completely unnecessary and barely acknowledged.

Yes, this is better than last year’s film. I don’t think that this is an automatic, no-doubter for the worst movie of 2024. However, I am not saying that it won’t be the worst movie of 2024. It will be in the conversation.

1 star

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of March 25

It is another NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I have the three medalist for this week’s best covers. All three this week are independent issues. The Marvel books this week were fine, but these three stood out more than the others.

Bronze Medalist

Feral #1

Cover art by Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs

There is actually a really fun variant cover for this book too that probably would have made this list. The blood red jumps off the cover and the cartoonish looking cat stands out in this strange environment. Looking forward to seeing what this is like.

Silver Medalist

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #8

Cover Art by Nick Robles

The book continues with the story of Adam Frankenstein and the cover pops very well, especially with the border around the outside.

Gold Medalist

Zorro: Man of the Dead #3

Cover Art by Dan Panosian

What a beautiful black and white aesthetic to this Zorro cover featuring our main protagonists. This is truly a stunning cover that took the gold medal by a long stretch this month.

X-Men ’97 S1 E3

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“Flesh from Fire”

Is there anything more useless or unnecessary than the “Skip Intro” button on this series?

At the end of episode 2, we see double Jean Greys and, those of us who are comic readers, we know what that meant. Madelyne  Pryor, aka The Goblin Queen, was a clone of Jean Grey from the evil Mister Sinister, and she was the mother of Cable.

This episode felt a little rushed for me, but I could understand why they did. There was so much packed into this episode, with the Inferno arc and the techno-organic virus which led to the Cable storyline.

This episode felt like a horror movie, almost body horror film in many ways, and in all the best ways. They did not need to do it this way, but so much of the body horror in the mansion included such character moments for the X-Men.

The animation continues to be great. One of the great things they have done was use specific X-Men classic covers as frames in the episode. Those are epic things that are like Easter eggs for the comic lovers of us.

This has been an amazing continuation of the X-Men animated show so far. With the Storm and Forge end, Lifedeath is on its way which is a classic X-Men story.

Shogun S1 E6

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“Ladies of the Willow World”

In episode six of Shogun, some big things happened.

We see some of Mariko’s back story, and see how tragic it actually was.

We go inside the best brothel and engage between John and Kuki, the top courtesan of the house. He was given this as a gift from Toranaga, a thank you for saving his life during the earthquake last episode. Of course, this was not what John had wanted, as he had asked once again for the return of his men and his ship. John wants to leave Japan, but Toranaga continues to keep him. He even promoted him to the head of his canon brigade.

An attempt to vote against Toranaga by the council failed, leading to the death of the regent who voted against the plan.

We continue to see the machinations of Ochiba no Kata, who has her own plans brewing clearly.

We learn of the plan called Crimson Sky, which is Toranaga’s forces launching an all out assault on Osaka, killing the regents and setting up a new form of government with Toranaga at the head. A Shogun. Toranaga rejected the plan at first, however, the death of regent Sugiyama changes his mind and we end the episode with Toranaga’s forces honoring their leader, preparing for their attack.

A fascinating episode as we dive into another aspect of the Japanese culture with the brothels. The manner in which sex is used is not what I am used to seeing. This show continues to be really great.

Man from Atlantis S1 E4

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“The Disappearances”

This is the fourth and final TV movie of the series, which was actually entitled “Man from Atlantis IV: The Disappearances.”

It is interesting that I remember this being one of my favorite TV shows when it was on back in the 1970s, but after watching the first four TV movies, I do not remember anything about them.

I enjoyed this fourth movie of Man from Atlantis quite a bit. In fact, it might be my favorite of the four.

According to IMDB, “Elizabeth is kidnapped, one of dozens of scientists held prisoner on the island of Felicitos, controlled by special mineral springs that render their victims completely happy and compliant. Dr. Smith is using them to build a rocket to take her away from our troubled planet in search of some better world, and Mark must find a way to counter the brain-washing and free the captives“

I really do like this show. There are problems, of course. The acting is not what I would call great, but for the 1970s TV, it is acceptable. They have the most conveniently placed cameras around the sub and areas where people can watch what is happening on monitors. That is just a weird bit that doesn’t really affect anything. In a show about a man with webbed fingers who can breathe underwater, having cameras in places that make no sense should not be the biggest drawback.

I did like the Dr. Smith villain of this episode. She was quite brutal and cruel, yet I could understand why she was doing what she was doing. It could be an episode that features a debate on climate change, even before it became a real thing.

Mark was a real hero in this episode. He came up with solutions for everything from the torpedo to the mind-control. I thought the look of Mark when he was trapped in the shed without water was great for the special effects of the time. His underwater scenes were excellent as they always are for this show. Those scenes underwater were well done and looked great. I am not a huge fan of the manner in which Mark always swam, but that would be the way a real person would swim. Today, he would be more CGI and could look like he was swimming faster. Still, I liked the realism of the shots.

Moving ahead, the show starts its regular series run of 13 episodes, which was all the show would get. This is actually a pretty decent sci-fi series and, despite some flaws, has been a fun watch so far.

The X-Files S4 E4

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“Unruhe”

This X-Files episode featured a really creepy villain, a cool paranormal effect that we have not seen before and another solid performance from our leads.

Unfortunately, as it seems to be the wont, Scully was put in jeopardy again.

The main villain, Gerry, as played by Taylor Vince, was great as the antagonist of the episode. His backstory really informed his psychosis and the fact that the paranormal aspect really did not have much to do with himself is a neat change for the X-Files.

But I am going back to the fact that Scully got taken again and had to be saved by Mulder. I understand that that could happen, but it sure feels as if that trope happens on too regular of a basis for this show. We need Scully to rescue Mulder more often, as she did in the previous episode, “Teliko.”

The whole concept of psychic photography was different and provided a cool effect for the show to play off. It was odd though considering that Gerry was not making it happen intentionally. That it was the side effect of the “howlers” in Gerry’s head (or at least that is the implication that I took from it).

This was a good episode featuring the monster-of-the-week story.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

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“Becoming”

Lookee there… it’s Father Gabriel.

Did not expect to see this former character again. Did not expect to see him interacting with Jadis. I really thought he was going to buy it at her hands in this episode. I am glad how it worked out for him.

Jadis, however, met her fate at the hands of Rick, via a walker. She caught up with Rick and Michonne and their showdown was very intense. It was unclear what was going to happen. Yet, when the walker took a bite out of Jadis’s neck, the end of the major feud came.

Jadis showed her inner humanity after the walker bite by telling Rick and Michonne the truth about the dossier that she had on Alexandria.

The whole wedding proposal reaction between Rick and Michonne was a beautiful moment before they return to the C.R.M. in the finale next week.

Man from Atlantis S1 E3

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“Killer Spores”

This TV movie was actually titled Man from Atlantis III: Killer Spores. It is the third of four TV movie prior to the debut of the short-lived TV series.

For the second TV movie in a row, Mark, Elizabeth and Miller have to deal with something extraterrestrial as they were assigned to recover a space probe from the military. Mark can hear a horrible screeching sound that the others could not. When he arrived at the site of the space probe, Mark discovered  strange, blue, intelligent spores covering it. They started spreading across the city, causing panic and problems.

This is a pretty good sci-fi episode. The spores are able to take over people’s minds and make them do what they want. The spores use the people to learn. Meanwhile, Mark is conflicted by his desire to not destroy the spores and trying to save his friends.

The best science fiction leads to moral quandaries and “Killer Spores” seemed to have that very conundrum.

This episode was better than the previous one, though the conclusion with the spores hopping a ride on a launching rocket back to space was iffy. There were a whole bunch of these spores, but it seemed as if Mark only transported a couple to the rocket. I got a feel of a hive-type group from the spores. It made me think about the Borg from Star Trek: A New Generation.

Road House (2024)

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I just watched the original Road House on Hulu this morning. I wanted to have seen it before watching the remake on Amazon Prime tonight. I did not love the original. I did not hate it because I could see the appeal. The 2024 version of Road House I did not love, but I liked it more than the original.

Jake Gyllenhaal steps into the role of Dalton (who gets a first name in this movie, Elwood), this time a former UFC fighter whose career ended after a tragedy. Dalton’s name was enough to intimidate most people so Frankie (Jessica Williams), who owned a bar named Road House in Florida came to find Dalton and offer him a job to help clean up the bar.

Just like the original, Dalton discovered that the backwoods town had problems with certain individuals who want the Road House gone.

These people bring in Conor McGregor to try and kill Dalton.

I was actually more engaged with the character of Dalton immediately in this movie because of a scene with a train. I found him more interesting than the late Patrick Swayze version.

The villains were every bit as one dimensional as the original. Even McGregor was just the violent killer character.

This was just as violent as the original with Gyllenhaal being quicker to fight than it was with Swayze. The fight scenes were very brutal and displayed Dalton’s skills in mixed martial arts.

There were less involvement with the rest of the bar employees in the new film than the original, but they were there in the scenes.

Gyllenhaal is the star of the film and I thought he did a really solid job. The film is not brilliant, but I was entertained and I did find it better than the Road House I watched this morning.

3 stars