Donomark

Jenna Coleman's been consistently knocking it out of the park each episode this season. She did well with Matt Smith last year, but I guess the plot of her dealing with this new Doctor simply gives her more to do as an actor. She feels much more of a lead character than she did last season.

I've the latest issue of Ms. Marvel downloaded on my phone, awaiting to be read. Spider-Man: The Gathering of the Five This is often hailed as one of the worst stories of Spider-Man of all time, but I feel in the last ten years or so I've seen so much worse. It's basically remembered as the story that both brought back Aunt May and set Spidey in motion for the John Byrne reboot the following year. As a story, it's meh. Norman Osborn's written well enough, if a bit too mustahce-twirly. Spidey I find is, again, strong in character, especially from the Howard Mackie scripts. There's a nice subplot about Mary Jane quitting her majoring in psychology to get back into modeling, as well as an issue where Jameson pulls a gun on Norman. The story as a whole flounders because not only did they bring back Aunt May (who, expect for in the JMS run I defy anyone to say is a character they honestly like), but the entire next-to-last issue cliffhanger of the Green Goblin unmasking Spider-Man before killing him was all a hallucination in his mind and Spidey webbed him up off-screen. This is clearly the beginning of the decades-long mandate in the Spider-Man Editorial offices of NOT in any way giving a shit when it came to big stories like these. It's lousy overall, but not without it's good parts. Spidey's had way worse storytelling inflicted upon him after this story.

Been re-reading my Icon trades myself. I love Static, but as a series Icon is so much better. I was freaking thrilled when he and Rocket appeared on Young Justice.

Moffat may have his tropes and bag of tricks, but the novelty's not worn off yet. I thought this episode was absolutely terrific. Like, an all-time classic for the modern series. I really loved it. Peter Capaldi crushed this script with his bare hands, he was MARVELOUS in it. There's always a point where the new guy sells you as the Doctor, and this episode was it.

Hell yeah he did. My favorites are all the Batman ones (Batman, 'Tec and B&R), Teen Titans, Justice League and Catwoman.

Rest in Peace

Spider-Man: The COSMIC Adventures!: Got this trade at SDCC from Marvel's Epic Collection which I really never knew existed. This was during the era where Gerry Conway was writing both Spec and Web, and Micheline was fairly established on Amazing. I really freaking dug it. It's a solid pre-Clone Saga era in Spider-Man's history that often gets overlooked. It's kind of fresh into the marriage, Post-Venom Pre-Carnage. Peter's response to his new cosmic powers is so in character it would be surprising if if wasn't being handled 2/3rds of the time by one of his best writers ever. It also takes place during the Acts of Vengeance Marvel crossover where Doom, Mags, Wizard and various others all team up. Spidey fights a lot of wild cards like Graviton, Titania and others whom he usually doesn't go up against, which keeps the repetitive nature of the issues fresh. He even goes up against the gray Hulk and punches him into space, which was awesome. Pretty much everything about the Cosmic Spidey arc was engaging and honestly it ends way too fast just as he realizes that the powers were from Captain Universe. Oddly enough this is about halfway through the trade paperback. The collection includes the return of the Black Cat, where she dates Flash Thompson to get back at Peter for daring to marry Mary Jane, the third encounter with the classic Eddie Brock Venom, and meaningless Punisher team-up, and an interminable story told across the Annuals about Spidey shrinking down to the Microverse and fighting the Psycho-Man. It's all still a fun read. Micheline's run on ASM isn't the all-time greatest, but it's still plenty enjoyable. This is right before Mark Bagely came on the title, but I still enjoy Erik Larsen's work as it grows from being a poor-man's Todd Macfarlene to his own take on the character.

YUP. I was waiting for someone to mention that, deffo fersure.

Did he flip him off?

Fuck yeah

Regarding the last few DTV DC Animated films. Flashpoint is intended to have started a new continuity for their films, although Assualt on Arkham is based on the video game continuity. Flashpoint, JL:WAR, Son of Batman and the upcoming Aquaman movie are on in the same universe. I interviewed James Tucker at SDCC about it, and he said the plan was to do a few new 52 films at a time, then something different every now and then to shake things up. Also Batman has the same voice actor and design in JL:WAR and Son of Batman.

Was worried that I'd be the only one who really liked this breezy, goofy episode and happy to see that I'm wrong!

"Dr. Acula" cracked me up!

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=887127 General Ourumov has passed away

Honestly, and this isn't my anti-new 52 bias coming out, but I'd subtract the Talon and Nobody fights. They were cool, but at no point were they contenders for "BEST EVAR". I do agree with the fights that Batman's had struggled in, like the KGBeast, Shiva and the Mutant Leader. Even Hush's Superman fight to an extent. List is missing his fight with the Wrath, one of the best and most underrated Batman stories of all time.

R.I.P.

I really liked this one, a lot faster than last week's. I kind of saw the Doctor's callous attitude towards certain characters coming, but it was still shocking when certain things happened, in a good way. Clara's really good with Capaldi, and becoming more and more of a great character. I really like the "Tim Drake" aspect with her companionship as in she's not with him 100% of the time and travels with him occasionally. Has that ever happened before with other companions?

Sounds like you guys had a rougher time of it this month 'round than usual. I actually kind of wished you had gone after more acclaimed performaces like Ali or Pursuit of Happyness, but alas. I don't know if I'd say that Will Smith's popularity has declined necessarily. His kids have certainly been taking crap for the last couple of years, but I think the guy himself is still well loved by most people.

BTW Dan, the podcast Views From the Longbox episode #190 talks about this exact subject of the Busiek/Perez Avengers. The episode just came out this week if you're interested.

The Battle Beyond Planet X is a show I've gotten heavy into over the last six months. It's an extremely stripped down, no gimmicks show about one guy discussing themes in sci-fi franchises and how they're relevant to our culture and society today. The host Harrison Chute talks from start to finish and gives his thoughts in an extremely well spoken, thoughtful manner that's completely hooked me. Topics range from Mass Effect and Blade Runner to Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell. It's fairly new, having begun at the beginning of the year, but I dig it.

I've gotten back into the X-Men with the Bendis ALL-NEW era, catching up with the trades. I'm on vol.4 having just finished Battle of the Atom, which everyone warned me was not good. It certainly wasn't awesome, but not as bad as I was anticipating. I'm still hoping this story will bring about the redemption of Cyclops, of whom I'm one of the few hundred fans on the planet. Battle of the Atom was needlessly convoluted though. What was the point of bringing in more time displaced X-Men? At one point there's FOUR Icemen running around. Ultimately the crossover served little point other than to contrive Kitty Pryde into leaving the team, which felt as hollow as can be. Still digging the era, but Battle of the Atom was pretty cheap as a story. Also filling holes in my Robin collection. I've got practically all of the Jon Lewis run, which I remembering hating when it first was coming out. There's this terrible storyline of Tim having an Alfred from the future warn him of a traitor in the Bat-Family. After issues of Tim suspecting everybody, turns out it was all a crazy test by Batman. Tim rightly cusses him out, only to turn back to him by the end and promise to be the bestest Robin he can be. Story was shite. I hated it 10 years ago and I hate it now. It does lead into the Bill Willingham run which wasn't brilliant but definitely better and more memorable considering he has Jack Drake learn of Tim's identity and Stephanie becoming the 4th Robin (both things that Chuck Dixon wanted to do but wasn't allowed).

Just got home from seeing it. The new stories were definitely weaker than the main one taken from A Dame to Kill For. Sin City is a story you cannot take seriously. The question on whether or not you'll like it lives and dies on one's tolerance for silly, braindead fun. As for the misogyny...I do hesitate to label Miller a mysogynist because he created not only Elektra, one of the best comic book characters ever, but Carrie Kelley and Ellen Yindel. Of course, that was all Pre-Sin City so maybe Miller wasn't comfortable with being upfront about his predelictions. Even still, the men in Sin City, mainly the bad guys, may not respect the women in the film, but the film seems to. Characters like Gail and Miho and even Ava Lord do carry their own agency and are pretty kickass. It all comes down to whether or not it matters that they're sexed up to hell and back. I've not figured it out for myself on how much that bothers me or not.

I wanna see this because I remember 9 years ago loving the first movie and really getting into the comics. Granted I was...16 and in high school, but still! Actually this does look bad, has been reported to be bad and probably IS bad, but I do want to see it for how they interpret A Dame to Kill For. Just for the lulz. This will actually probably end up being a very lulzy movie.

Also, (this may've been my TV and hopefully not Capaldi's accent) but I had a hard time making out what he was saying half the time. Did anyone else have this problem?