EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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July 10

I picked up my comics from Bettendorf this morning and prepared to head over to Cinemark to see the new Superman (review yet to come). It was a fun day, though we have storms going down right now.

No variants in this week’s medalists, though there are a few in the Also-Rans.

Also-Rans: Trinity: Daughter of Wonder Woman #2 (B cover variant), Batman: Dark Patterns #8, Hello Darkness #12, Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1, Red Hulk #5 (B cover variant), Fantastic Four #1 (Gold foil variant cover), and Predator: Black, White & Blood #1.

Bronze Medalist

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #35

Cover art by Federico Vicentini & Neeraj Menon

This book gave a nice flavor to the story, drawing Miles, Ares, and Hercules in what looked like Ancient Greek artistry. It was a fun cover that helped a storyline that has not caught on for me.

Silver Medalist

Wild Animals #1

Cover art by Andy Kuhn

This is sort of a wrap-around cover too. This new book by Mad Cave was incredibly compelling and it started out with a cover that really grabs you as a reader. As I have said many times, I am a Sucker for whit backgrounds and this really stood out for me.

Gold Medalist

Uncanny X-Men #17

Cover art by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson

What a great cover for this awesome issue of Uncanny X-Men. The new character Mutina is shown on the cover, but the shadows and the blood make it seem quite sinister. The red and black background is great too. Plus, a cool tidbit was the film-like credits at the bottom of the page, which gives you an idea of what the story will contain. Strong work in the X-Men universe.

The X-Files S11 E5, E6, E7

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Spoilers

I watched three more X-Files from season 11, leaving me with just three left to complete the entire series.

“Ghouli”

Episode 5 was a wild ride with Scully receiving a vision in a dream that led her to a case of two girls who seemingly did not know each other who had stabbed each other viciously.

The girls shared the same dream as Scully did, down to the last detail so Mulder and Scully were involved. Turned out that the only connection between the two girls was that they both were girlfriends for a boy named Jackson Van De Kamp.

When Scully and Mulder tried to find the boy, they arrived too late. They found the boy’s parents dead and the boy in his room, an apparent murder-suicide.

Van De Kamp was a name given to Scully a few episodes ago as a possible name used by William, her son. Scully was afraid that the boy who had killed himself was William and she tearfully spoke to his body before setting up a DNA test.

When the body was left alone, it unzipped the body bag and escaped from the morgue.

Turned out this was indeed William and he had some mental powers, specifically mental illusions that allow him to make people see things he wanted, such as himself dead on the floor.

The DOD was in pursuit of both Mulder and Scully and the boy as well. Mulder and Scully tried to find William, protecting him from a group of men trying to capture him. William used his abilities to escape.

The whole Jackson/William thread here created some strong scenes, but I did wonder why Scully thought this was her son. Maybe it was the connection to the visions that he had. She had talked to Jackson’s therapist and she confirmed that Jackson had seen the whole story from the end of season 10, with the virus and the collapse of the earth. Maybe it is just that mother’s feel.

The episode ended with William getting away, but he had approached Scully at a gas station making her see the form of Dr. Pierre Chang from LOST. Just kidding, the actor who played that role was in the episode.

This was a nice episode that left Mulder and Scully with the knowledge that there son was alive.

“Kitten”

We got an episode featuring Skinner, looking back at a time in his youth as he was in Vietnam.

In his platoon, a soldier nicknamed Kitten was accidentally exposed to a mysterious gas and it caused him to murder civilians.

Other members of Skinner’s troupe were being killed off too and Skinner disappeared. Kersh called for Mulder and Scully, expecting them to know what was going on with Skinner. When they did not, they started to investigate what was going on.

This episode featured Haley Joel Osment as the son of Kitten, Osment ended up being the killer as he had set several traps for the other veterans, including his own father.

People were having their teeth falling out in this town too. It is implied that this was because these people were also exposed to the gas. Perhaps in a small dose than what sent Kitten into a murderous rage.

Mulder and Scully seemed to be back on the trust train with Skinner, but he technically never told them about his current situation with CSM, so can they truly trust him?

“Rm9sbG93ZXJz”

What a bizarre episode this was.

The X-Files has had several episodes where they were involved with technology, such as artificial intelligence and typically those have been some of the worst of the episodes. This one is better than some of the other ones, but it all felt really odd.

The automation of all the technology of the episode made me think I was in a Ray Bradbury sci-fi story. I really pictured “April 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains.”

Everything started to go to hell after Mulder did not tip at a fully automated sushi restaurant. Apparently, the technology took this poorly. When Mulder finally tipped on his phone, all the chaos ended.

This episode was told with the minimal amount of dialogue. Both Mulder and Scully had very few lines and only spoke when absolutely needed. It helped create quite the mood of the episode.

It was an episode that spoke to putting aside one’s phones at times and, I guess, to make sure to tip your waitresses (although Mulder finally only tipped 10%).

The Bear S4 E5, E6, E7

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Season four rolls along…

“Replicants”

I had a feeling that something was happening to Sydney’s father when he gave her that call at the beginning of the episode. A heart attack left Sydney shaken and all of us scared for Sydney.

Natalie bringing the baby to the restaurant brought all kinds of feels for everyone involved and there was nearly no other moment that was as sweet as Carmy holding his baby niece for the first time as Natalie left the room.

Neil trying to get as close to the baby as he could was hilarious, as was protective mother Natalie. When Neil asked to hold the baby, Natalie asked him when he last washed his hands. A couple days ago was probably the answer she was expecting.

It was cool to see Luca again. Will Poulter fit right into the cast perfectly after guest starring a couple of years ago.

Rob Reiner returned again to help with the business plan for Ebraheim.

“Sophie”

We get more on Sydney’s father’s heart attack and the episode is really showing how much everyone at The Bear loved her. Claire finds her at the hospital and comforts her as Sydney was waiting for word. The dialogue between them is one of the strengths of this show as everything is done so well.

Sydney’s father is going to recover and the rest of the episode was basically prep for the wedding with Tiff and Frank.


“Bears”

This was the best episode of the season so far and one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. It was the wedding of Tiff and Frank and the party afterwards where all of the family descended on each other.

All you can expect is yet another Berzattos crash and burn, and yet, this turned out to be a wonderful night with some remarkable scenes without the over-the-top drama that one would expect.

I absolutely loved the interactions between Richie and Frank. The tension was thick between them, but they were able to put anything side to help Eva, who was scared about doing a dance with Frank. All I could think of during this scene was “How big is that friggin’ table?” as more and more members of the Berzattos clan, both related and honorary, found their way underneath the table. It turned into a giant “What are you afraid of?” share time to help Eva feel better. I loved this scene even if it felt like there were enough people under the table.

Other awesome moments/scenes:

  • Donna and Sydney talking. Sydney got stuck with Donna as Carmy got taken off. The scene was both wonderfully caring and deeply sad at the same time. Jamie Lee Curtis is a tremendous actor and she conveyed multiple feelings with single looks.
  • The feud between Natalie and Francie went full boar as they yelled at each other but ended the day hugging as friends. Apparently they were a thing at one time.
  • The scene between Uncle Jimmy and Tiff was sweet and dealt with Tiff’s concerns that the divorce with Richie would lose her the Berzattos family.
  • As Carmy hid in the kitchen, Lee (Bob Odenkirk) showed up and they had a deep discussion over everything. The dialogue played it as if they were on the edge through the whole time, but that they both wanted to clear the air.
  • Sydney and Richie dance at the wedding and he asked her about the other thing she wanted to tell him. She said it was a decision she had to make. Richie asked if she had made it and she said she only really had one choice. Not sure what that meant.
  • Stevie, played by John Mulaney, was hilarious through the entire episode. His line about all of the Berzattos attending the wedding was laugh out loud funny.

There was so much wonder here and the amount of chaos was limited to a normal wedding, not a Berzattos meeting.

This was such a great episode.

The X-Files S11 E4

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“The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat”

The fourth episode of season eleven of The X-Files brought another excellent, comedic show that loosed its venom on itself.

What I mean is that this is clearly a parody of the X-Files as a TV program, poking fun at a lot of the tropes of the series.

Our new informant was named Reggie and the episode featured the Mandela Effect (or as Reggie would put it, the Mengele Effect). According to Wikipedia, the Mandela Effect is when “specific false memories can sometimes be shared by a large group of people.”

Besides the parody of the show, the episode also had some pointed comments about both the use of disinformation and Donald Trump. One of the conspiratorial characters, Dr. They, told Mulder that the days of hiding the truth were gone because the truth can be told and nobody will believe it.

There was an alien that Mulder, Scully and Reggie (who claimed that he had been their partner on the X-Files for years- which included a theme song for the show including his picture) met at the end. This alien spoke lines directly from Trump, talking about building a beautiful wall (invisible), around the galaxy because earth was not sending its best people into space. The Trump effect was in full swing with this episode.

There were clips from previous episodes of The X-Files with Reggie superimposed in them to illustrate his point. Episodes included “Home,” “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” and “Small Potatoes” to name a few.

The whole parallel universe argument that Mulder was making was really funny, as was Mulder’s own frustration on how silly the parallel universe argument was. When Mulder threw his pencil across the room in a fit of frustration, it was just hilarious.

The X-Files could do silly as well as any show and this was a very good example of that.

What We Do in the Shadows Season Two

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I decided that, since the show What We Do in the Shadow had ten episodes each around 24 minutes, it would be a good idea to go ahead and binge these seasons instead of spreading it out. I will be finishing the X-Files soon and my goal is to run through this total series before school starts again.

So I started the season two this morning and went through it. I think the second season was tremendous, and I think I liked it even more than I did season one.

There were some awesome guest stars/cameos during the season. This included an amazing performance from Mark Hammil, plus Benedict Wong, Haley Joel Osment, Craig Robinson, Greta Lee, James Frain, and Lucy Punch.

Some of the fish out of water things that the show threw Laszlo, Nadja and Nandor into some of the oddest situations. They had to attend a “Superb Owl” party at a neighbor’s house which was actually a Super Bowl party. They had to figure out their own laundry after Guillermo left them. The email curse, which everyone knows is BS, caused them massive concern. Colin Robinson’ promotion which led to his great power.

The show brought us a zombie (Haley Joel Osment who is killed by Guillermo accidentally), witches, ghosts (in a very clever episode), Black Peter- a talking goat and, of course, other vampires. There were vampire slayers too, or at least, a group of vampire slayer-wannabees, who get crushed by a house of vampires.

The story of Guillermo being a descendent of Van Helsing is a major driving force of story this year, as is Guillermo’s desire to be appreciated by his master. We see how vital Guillermo is to this group, even if they still do not necessarily see it. Even when Guillermo saved them from the Vampire Council by killing all of them, all Nandor could think of what his laundry.

Mark Hamill’s appearance as Jim the Vampire was so great and led to a solo story for Laszlo, who ran away from Jim the Vampire and hid out in Pennsylvania as a bartender named Jackie Daytona. Laszlo is able to hide his identity by having a toothpick in his mouth. This was a hilarious episode and one of the standout episodes of the season.

This was a great way to watch this season and I will continue to pick days to binge the remainder of the seasons of this show over the next six weeks or so before school. I have seasons 3 – 6 remaining, each season (except 6) have ten episodes.

The X-Files S11 E3

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“Plus One”

Who knew that playing Hangman could be so dangerous?

“Plus One” was the second consecutive really strong episode of season 11 that did not feature the show’s overall mythology. However, it does, once again, touch upon the biggest event in Scully’s life, that being her desire to be a mother.

Our antagonists, Little Judy Poundstone and Little Chucky Poundstone, are twins with some kind of psychic connection that can show people their doppelganger, which would drive them to suicide. Little Judy Poundstone and Little Chucky Poundstone were both played by Karin Konoval.

If you are a long time X-Files fan, you know who Karin Konoval was. She played Madame Zelda from “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and Mrs. Peacock from “Home.” Both of these characters were creepy or over-the-top. Playing these twins add to Konoval’s rogue’s gallery of X-Files characters.

I liked this episode not only for the creepy villains and the strange story, but for the interactions between Mulder and Scully, as their banter continued to provide insights to these two characters, despite already knowing them for decades.

David Duchovny’s song “Unsaid Undone” was in the cold open for this episode. It was from an album that he put out in 2016, something that I had never heard before.

The Bear S4 E3, E4

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“Scallop”

“Worms”

Two very solid episodes of The Bear are next in their season four on Hulu.

“Scallop” featured Carmy, dealing with a bunch of his own issues. There is a tremendous scene between Carmy and Marcus outside on a smoke break. Their dialogue between them was sharp and filled with evidence about how important they were to each other. Carmy is slowly straightening his life around by seeing the energy and effort given by the staff of the Bear.

Rob Reiner guest starred as Albert Schner, in the episode with Ebraheim, who had asked for his opinion as a mentor about the window for “The Beef” which had been doing great business as a window behind The Bear.

This episode finished with a long overdue confrontation with Carmy and Claire. I would be lying if I did not say that I was yelling at the screen about this scene, waiting for Carmy to just apologize. While it did not feel resolved, I think it is the first baby steps in getting these two back together. Splitting them apart was the start of Carmy’s downward spiral and getting them back together is so needed.

Then in “Worms,” we focus in on Sydney and her decision between staying at the Bear or moving over to Shapiro’s. She has been split over this choice dating back to the last season and she is reaching the point where she is needing to decide.

She goes over to her cousin’s place. Her cousin was played by Danielle Deadwyler, who had had some of the top performances over the last few years. If you have not seen her in Till, do yourself a favor, get some tissues, and watch it.

Sydney winds up watching her cousin’s daughter, TJ. TJ and Sydney have a really nice episode bonding and talking over their own troubles. Sydney tries to use an analogy to get TJ’s opinion about where she wanted to work. She pretended to talk about sleep overs, but, we find out in the end, TJ knew it was about a job.

Sydney called Shapiro and started to talk about paperwork, making us think that she was ready to make the choice to leave the Bear.

These episodes are just nice, calmer character episodes, keeping the craziness to a limit. I like the way this season is going so far, but I expect fireworks coming up soon.

The X-Files S11 E2

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“This”

“This” was an excellent episode the X-Files.

Bringing back Langley of the Lone Gunmen in a creative and original way really started the episode with a cool mystery that led to a wild conclusion and a typical X-Files ending.

The hardest part to accept, however, was when Mulder and Scully were at Arlington Cemetery at the graves of the Lone Gunmen and made their Batman Leaps to figure out what the message was. The clues with the presidents and their death dates was bizarre and practically impossible to figure out. Mulder and Scully figured it out in just a few minutes. Adam West and Burt Ward would be proud.

Seeing Mulder and Scully really work together to survive and to get through the mystery was awesome. They truly are a great pairing and the chemistry was still alive after all of these years. And Scully kicked some serious ass in this episode.

Tying this mystery to the death of Langley gave Mulder a way to honor his old friends who had died back in season nine while Mulder was in hiding. It also brought back the idea of Deep Throat, whose gravestone contained another surprise.

The comment about how the FBI was not in the good graces of the Executive branch during this time was a direct reference to Trump and his troubles with the agency.

This monster-of-the-week entry was considerably more entertaining than the bizarre season eleven opener. It still played up the mistrust between Scully and Mulder with Skinner, something that this show has built on not only the last few episodes, but across the run of the series.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #24

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“Steal”

“Mixed Signals“

The next two episodes of Win or Lose are this week’s Sunday Morning Sidewalk and we have two more bangers.

The show has been playing with perspective of the same week between a win by the softball team The Pickles and the championship game. We actually got the first flashes of the championship game with the “Mixed Signals” episode.

“Steal” followed Ira, the little brother of Taylor, who was anything but excited about softball. He just wanted to spend time with his older sister playing video games. His imagination was in full throttle as he pictured himself as a hero, saving the world from a comet. However, a new boyfriend for Taylor interrupted Ira’s life, and he wound up meeting and joining with The Bleacher Creatures (Brian, Rinna and Chicken-Kevin)

The Bleacher Creatures get Ira to help them steal candy from the concession stand by being the distraction. Ira’s imagination makes the Bleacher Creature appear to be the heroes of the story, even though they were anything but.

Ira was taken to the party where the Brian was involved with holding Rochelle, trying to get her keys to the concession stand. Ira goes to the championship game with his sister and leaves a note of apology for his part in stealing the snacks, but Brian showed up and apologized to him.

Meanwhile, in “Mixed Signals” we get a focus on Yuwen, the loud mouthed pitcher of the Pickles who used the obnoxious attitude as a front to hide the insecure and lonely kid on the inside. The show illustrates this with “Little Yuwen,” a paper craft diorama character.

Through a series of youthful taunts and barbs, Yuwen shouts out that he liked Taylor and she agreed to go out with him on a date. They get along great at first, and Yuwen shared his insecurities with Taylor. This was such a sweet scene of young love.

They get in a fight over Yuwen’s jealousy of Tom, who was asking for tutoring help from Taylor. The carefully constructed relationship of trust and care crumbled away quickly.

For the first time, we got a glimpse at things happening in the championship game as Rochelle is a no show and Taylor takes over as catcher. Yuwen let his anger get the better of him and refused to throw any pitch that Taylor called, leading to the go ahead run to score. Taylor stormed off in the middle of the game.

We have two more episodes for next week to complete this first season. I can’t wait to see where this championship game goes and how someone else’s POV of the situation may change.

F1: The Movie

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I was a week late for this one, but it was not high on my too see list because I am not much of fan of auto racing in any form. However, I knew I have enjoyed other movies centered around the sport such as Rush or Ford vs. Ferrari, and I had heard a ton of positive word of mouth, so I wanted to make sure I had the chance to see this in the theater before it became available on Apple TV +.

I went to the IMAX theater at Cinemark to see this and it was definitely worth it. The film looked amazing with sensational cinematography, had its share of exciting moments and was thrilling at times.

According to IMDB, “After a nasty incident almost ended his career, Sonny Hayes has retired from Formula One and now races a Porsche, but when an opportunity comes from the owner of a struggling team, Sonny makes a return to Formula One racing, alongside a hot new rookie teammate, but soon realizes that he can’t take the road to redemption on his own.”

I thought Brad Pitt was clearly the standout, both in the acting area as well as having the most developed character. Most of the other characters of the film were not necessarily as deep as they could have been, but the main story focused on Sonny Hayes, so it is understandable why he got the most details.

Javier Bardem is always fun, and he does a decent job with what he was given here. Damson Idris is the other main driver with Sonny, playing Joshua Pearce. Kerry Condon was fine too, having some chemistry with Brad Pitt, but, again, her character was not as fully explored as she could have been.

I do think that I had some issues with understanding what was happening during the races as there were a lot of strategies that were pulled out that perhaps a more knowledgeable racing fan might understand more than I did. It wasn’t off-putting, but there were times that I had to stop and try and figure out why they were doing what they were doing.

However, the scenes of the racing were fantastic as was the scenes of the crashes. The film was able to build my own suspense during the races as I did not know what they might be doing.

I enjoyed the music of the film, as it really helped set the mood in many cases. There were some issues that I had with the sound of the film though as some of the voice over work of the announcers was difficult to hear during the racing scenes. I have had that compliant in the IMAX theater before so it may not necessarily be the film’s fault.

Joseph Kosinski directed this film. He had directed Top Gun: Maverick and F1: The Movie shared the same kind of thrills of that movie. The film creates a wonderful world in this F1 racing film and the creative aspect of this movie is its strength. The characters are okay. The story is okay. The look is fantastic.

See this on a big screen because I think it would be the way to truly enjoy this film.

4 stars

The Bear S4 E1, E2

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“Groundhog Day”

“Soubise”

The Bear is back with a literal ticking clock.

The review is out. It was not a good one and the backlash hit the crew of the Bear in many different ways.

Uncle Jimmy and Computer came with an ultimatum about the restaurant. A clock plugged into the wall with a time that, when it reaches zero, the restaurant must be closed.

The first couple of episodes the characters feel like they are grieving over a loss, but still have hope for something to turn around.

Carmy, in particular, seems to have made a decision. He has looked on the inside and realized how much of an ass he was last season and has taken steps to draw himself back. I think he finally realized that he cannot exist in that chaos, something that Sydney calls him on in the nicest possible way.

Season three was easily my least favorite season of The Bear there was. It took some trips that I just did not enjoy much and watching Carmy self-destruct was not an enjoyable experience. Even after saying that though, the show had its moments and I am looking forward to the next season.

Season four kicked off feeling strong, even if nothing much really happened. These first two episodes helped show me why I enjoyed Carmy so much and pictured him as less of the screaming loon as I remember form season three. His apology to Sugar for not yet coming to meet the baby was the perfect realization for him.

It feels hopeful, while still having that looming failure hanging over everyone’s heads. We’ll see how things go.

Duster S1 E8

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“66 Reno Split”

Okay, the finale of season one of Duster rocked really hard.

It was probably the best episode of the season as everything came to a close and they set up some unbelievably compelling storylines for a season two.

Major points this episode:

  • We find out what happened to Joey. (Hint he was not killed by Saxton)
  • I did not see Saxton’s death coming but his sacrifice for his son fit well for this character
  • I did not realize that Corbin Bernsen was playing Jimmy’s dad. He had some tense scenes with Genesis.
  • Good seeing Billy get his, especially after his brutality with Jimmy and Nina.
  • The Agent Grant-Nina showdown was intense too. Thanks to Awan for his awesome timing.
  • Jimmy is just a hero. He drove his car right into the hornet’s nest to try and save Nina.
  • Of course, he had his dad set up to shoot Genesis as a way to get Saxton to change his plans. That was the old 66 Reno Split.
  • Izzy tells Jimmy that she had cancer to convince him not to leave town. She told him that Luna would need him.
  • Turned out that the mysterious Xavier is Joey, Jimmy’s brother who is not dead (Saxton helped him get away).
  • The Nixon tape found its way into other hands. It had Nixon preparing to sow racial divide.
  • Jimmy and Nina are teaming up again to try and find Joey/Xavier.

This was a really fun episode and a great end to the season. I hope we get to continue on. Josh Holloway is a tremendously charismatic actor and his presence in every scene is perfect.

Poker Face S2 E11

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“Night of the Iguana”

The penultimate episode of season two is the first part of a two part episode bringing a hitman to a wedding to murder the groom.

The episode brought several characters back to the canvas including Beatrix Hasp, the former crime lord who is in protective custody. She is played by Rhea Perlman. Another return character was Luca Clark of the FBI, who is a recurring character on the show played by Simon Helberg.

The Iguana is the hitman. He is shown murdering a man and taking his place at the wedding, literally with his mask he made out of the dead man. It was creepy. The Iguana is a ghost. Nobody knows who he is or what he looked like. I liked the Iguana. He was a scary individual.

Haley Joel Osment was our victim this week. He also turned out to be the son of Beatrix Hasp.

Now, here was the twist that made things not work for me. It turned out that everything the Iguana was doing was trying to find his way to Beatrix. He set up Charlie so she would go see Beatrix. The whole thing at the end kind of wasted what the concept was.

Next week, the episode continues. Maybe they will do something to make it make more sense.