Donomark

RIP

It does watch better as a one-off. I didn't feel lost not having seen Apocalypse, and dug this as a random X-Men adventure.

Detective Comics #450: "The Cape and Cowl Death-Trap!" This issue from Elliott S! Maggin and Walt Simonson was the basis for the B:TAS episode "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy", which Maggin returned to script for. The original issue is little more than a short story filled with ads. The basic premise is the same: Batman frightens a fat crook for information, said crook hires Jeremy Wormwood, expert assassin to retrieve Batman's cape and cowl for revenge, Wormwood traps Batman in a Wax Museum, forcing Batman to resign the items. Wormwood returns to the crook and in exchange for the explanation why the guy wants the cape and cowl he gives up the identity of the criminal who hired him to assassinate a judge. Crook turns out to be Batman in disguise, and after a brief scuffle is handed over to Gordon and the police. The animated adaptation is pretty much the exact same, only with logical expansions. Instead of the murder of a judge, Josiah Wormwood stole barrier bonds from a courier. We see Batman kidnap (in front of a room full of people which was pretty cool) Wormwood's previous contact Josek, and Wormwood attempts an initial trap involving a holographic hostage and a train. The comic had 70's Walt Simonson who's artwork is good in spots, and a bit too rough in other spots. The episode has a great performance from Bud Cort, some terrific dialogue and delivery by Kevin Conroy, and cool direction let down only by the limp and slow animation. I like the episode better, but the comic is classic 70s era Detective Comics where Batman's moniker was often "The Dread Batman!"

Dark Phoenix: Really enjoyed it. No way is it near the best of the X-Men movies, but I don't see it close to being the worst either. CONS: Everything with Jessica Chastain sucks. The big events of the film including deaths should've carried a bit more seismic weight. The US turn on the X-Men over what amounts to two police cars getting tossed with little else justifying the mood switch, as the begin the movie loving the X-Men. Storm and Nightcrawler have little to do. But just like I was hoping, this felt like a true X-Men story. I appreciated the smaller stakes, the character-driven angst. MacAvoy stole the show for me as a darker, more manipulative and ego-driven Xavier. I thought Nicholas Hoult was good with what he was given. I liked seeing more of a team dynamic with the X-Men in the middle part of the film. The action sequences all had enough intensity to keep me engaged as well. I recognize I'm a lone voice in the conversation, but I came away from this viewing smiling quite a bit. It's a few drafts away from being a much tighter, stronger movie, but for what I watched I got my money's worth.

Can't say I'm surprised. I do want to ask when this narrative of "Oh, the X-Men movies always sucked" came out. Everyone enjoyed Days of Future Past fine enough, and we had the last two Wolverine movies and the two Deadpool films. Apocalypse may've been bad, but it's weird that people are spitting on this franchise which such relish in a way that doesn't correlate to the history of popular reception. X-Men: Positive X-2: Positive The Last Stand: Negative X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Negative First Class: Positive The Wolverine: Positive Days of Future Past: Positive Deadpool: Positive Apocalypse: Negative Logan: Positive Deadpool 2: Positive Dark Phoenix: THE X-FILMS HAVE ALWAYS SUCKED!

Always Be My Maybe: Starring Ali Wong and Randall Park. Similar to what Will had said, I went into this expecting an Asian-American version of a throwaway rom-com closer to the side of lame with humor found in any modern-day shitty comedy with white leads. There's a bit of that in this film, there's a lot of woke-awareness jokes that generally fall flat, but I was sympathizing with the two leads and quickly grew interested in seeing how they would turn out. It was a fairly sad story in the beginning. Once Keanu Reeves pops up, the movie is set on fire. Every joke lands, and Reeves gives one of the best performances I've seen from him, as a NPH-esque jokey version of himself that's part d-bag/part internet boyfriend realization. He's A M A Z I N G, cracking me up with every line. The other three actors, Wong, Park and Vivienne Bang are equally hilarious throughout the entire scene. The rest of the movie stays strong with the pathos, and does a good job of making both characters flawed, and even unlikable in the case of Park, but never beyond the point of no return. The story is less about the romance and more about self-actualization, though there is the traditional Hollywood fairy-tale ending. But the entirety of the second act with Reeves automatically makes this the funniest film I've seen all year.

Young Justice #6 (2019): Good. Interesting revelation on Connor's family. Glad the Gemworld stuff seems to be over with. YJ's appeal was always the classic superteen/teenager with normal life balance, so the extraterrestrial stuff doesn't appeal to me. Team books also need to balance the many characters, and these new heroes need more introductions. But the book is still good. The Green Lantern #8: I loved this because Morrison was doing a tribute song to the Hard Traveling Heroes era, while also indulging in his propensity for continuity porn. Liam Sharp's a great artist any day, but his Buscema/Neal Adams influence/homages were a delight. I want this team to do a GA/GL book from now on. Batman #72 (2019): Marginally better than last issue, but this title has been up its own ass for too long. Black Cat #1 (2019): S'alright. This was one of those times where Felicia Hardy and Selina Kyle are hardly differentiated from each other. I liked the artwork once she changed into her BC costume. Single Issues: 193 Trade Paperbacks: 6

That reminded me, and I think I told my girlfriend who was watching it with me the moment that scene came up, of the introduction to Jay and Silent Bob from Clerks. "I hate guys. I LOVE WOMEN!" It was a low point in a generally kid-friendly movie. And maybe there could still be gay panic jokes about insecure guys done today (certainly I'm not the one to say whether or not), but the use of that f-word was nevertheless unfortunate. We actually did do an episode about "Problematic Faves" last year, but like all discussion topics it can easily be returned to for further and harder analysis. We kinda got caught up in indulging some of our favorites anyway.

Yesss, had never seen it before, like a number of 80s films.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure: Amusing. It's a total cartoon with zero heft to it. I really didn't find it funny, but Bill and Ted's good-natured idiocy does grow on you after a while. I'd be interested to know where the story idea came from because it's almost cynical in its simplicity. IDK how a modern sequel is gonna play, and atm I'm thinking probably like the recent Dumb and Dumber sequel. Behind the Candalabra: Starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon. Chronicling the relationship between Liberace and Scott Thorson, this is a pretty gritty, dark, almost thoroughly unpleasant exercise in emotional violence. Knowing nothing about Liberace, I thought Michael Douglas gave one helluva transformative performance. This is one of those films that stuck with me for the rest of the night, and one that I worry may play into latent/learned homophobia with some viewers. There's absolutely nothing positive about the relationship between Liberace and Thorson depicted in the movie, from the very creepy, stalkerish beginnings to its manipulative ends. The ending, with Damon's Thorson imagining Liberace rising into Heaven, didn't make any sense to me considering all the hell the guy put him through. But the character that Douglas portrays is presented as a conniving, bullying, lustful, emotionally neglectful bastard. It's an awful relationship, and as a result the film watches like a two hour homophobic screed against love between two men by playing into stereotypes. I'm sure that wasn't the intent, but I can see people walking away from this movie feeling justified in their bigoted feelings.

My reaction is more positive now than it was when Batfleck was announced way back when. Not that I have anything against Affleck as an actor, but he's pretty recognizable as himself, the actor. Pattinson is too, but strikes a better look in my opinion.

Nicholas Hoult probably would've stepped up to do a good job, but I'm glad Pattinson hit the landing. He just has a better profile for Batman IMO.

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!

Heroes in Crisis #9: An annoying montage of characters misdiagnosing their personal problems while King fails to justify the bullshit from the previous issue makes this probably the weakest story he's ever written. Doomsday Clock #9: This story will certainly be better in the trade. I love the confronting the many origins and revisions of Superman. The last several issues have kept me mightily intrigued. Detective Comics Annual #2 (2019): I'm not generally a great fan of Batman Year Two, but this was a solid little story with witty writing and good artwork. Recommended. Batman: The Last Knight of Earth #1: This surprised me. There's a huge bait and switch going from the promotion of this story to the actual opening pages of it, and it kept me interested all the way through. Amazing Spider-Man #822-#823: Really interesting end to the Hunted storyline. #822 had me so excited for the next issue, and I thought the story concluded logically. It's a good sequel to both Last Hunt and Grim Hunt, and hopefully ends Kraven's storyline once and for all, for real this time. This was the most serious I've read in ASM in a long, long time. Spencer really has brought back a maturity to this title that's been missing for well over a decade. Immortal Hulk #17-#18: FUGGIN' AWESOME Single Issues: 189 Trade Paperbacks: 6

I love how the Infinity Gauntlet version was specifically cribbed for the Marvel Super Heroes fighting game. One of his poses he even creates Terraxia. Terraxia, who btw , caved in Spider-Man's skull with a rock.

Racism doesn't need to work that way. The filmmakers of the new Aladdin movie included a Bollywood-style dance number presumably to be more culturally accurate since it was in live-action, except hey, India culture and Arabian culture aren't interchangeable. That was a racist act, but doesn't strictly mean the filmmakers were intentionally being racist. Nevertheless they were. Things like racial bias, stereotypes and general negligence lead down racist pathways through misinformation. In Death Wish 2018's case, Roth certainly thought the presence of one black drug dealer wouldn't overshadow the presence of a black cop or innocent black child, but imagery (not to mention promotion) carries far more meaning at a much faster pace than storytelling. Interpretation>Intent. Shooting deaths of black men and the justification of their murders dominated the news at the time that Death Wish was being remade. Movie trailers work shorthand for delivering scant details of information that the audience would already understand. What does the image of a movie protagonist casually murdering a black man in broad daylight say in an era where a black man can have a lawfully owned gun and still get shot to death by a police officer? In the case of promotion, it communicates that the killing is justified. In the case of the sequence: Black murder is justified. Even the fact that he's a drug dealer doesn't justify the action of murder. In the original Death Wish films, Paul Kersey went specifically after rapists and muggers who were always intent to kill the innocent. Still not wholly justifiable homicide, but reciprocal violence on a scale that's easier to digest. "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." That's the thematic mantra of the Death Wish franchise, and that's that mantra that puts all the real world discussions of police shooting unarmed black men into ethical conflict when considering institutions like the police, or in this case, gun owners. Kersey is a gun owner, so the film places him in an position where his actions are unimpeachable. And before you or anyone states that the movie is simple fiction separated from the real world, understand that the NRA use fear mongering to sustain their organization. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/guns-crime/reports/2019/04/24/468951/guns-lies-fear/ So the movie communicates that shooting down black drug dealers with your God-given right to own guns is a fantasy that's perfectly viable, despite it being a distortion of how to solve societal problems like drugs in communities. And because it's far more realistic than any superhero movie or over the top action film like a Mission Impossible, the idea of a gun giving one a license to kill is a harmful one that too many people believe. And because of that imaginary license to kill, images like shooting scary black people become too tantalizing for people to ignore, and statistics such as black people being 25% of police deaths in 2017 despite being 13% of the total US population or 30% of black people killed by police are unarmed in 2015 compared to 21% of white victims get ignored because A) "It's just a movie" B) "The guy was a drug dealer" C) "I'm sure Eli Roth didn't mean it." Everything is political.

The Devil's Advocate: Starring Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino A 2.5 hour movie essentially watching as a super-long Twilight Zone episode, the movie about a Florida lawyer who is hired by the head of a NY firm to work cases defending the indefensible plays really obvious with its themes of hell and damnation, until it doesn't, then it gets back to it at the very end. All the trailers and promotions give up the ending, that Pacino is Satan, so it's an interesting watch in that you don't know to what extent the story tries to be upfront with the ultimate moral or if it means to be more cagey about it. There's a stronger, way more subtle film lying somewhere beneath. That being said, Pacino and 90s Keanu both make this almost shlocky film immensely entertaining. It's Twight Zone with some violence and sleaze, where we get not one but two Law and Order SVU alumns gratuitously topless. Charlize Theron gives the best performance and Keanu's ruined wife, and it's distracting how young she is in this. Again, there's definitely a stronger, more disciplined film in here, but what we have to work with is, despite its length, hilarious fun. Aladdin (2019): It doesn't hold a seat anywhere near the table of the original, and that's due to the mediocrity of most of the singers (none of them are bad but it deadens the impact of the terrific songs) and the super-fast pace. No one has time to take in the awe of the magic throughout the film. Whether it's the Cave of Wonders or the Magic Carpet or even the Genie, things happen way too quickly for anything to leave an impression. But I might've been in a good mood because at no point was I hating what I was watching. Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott (who is unrecognizable here from 2017's underrated Power Rangers) are perfectly cast physically as Aladdin and Jasmine, but their romance is sped up like all things and isn't the driving force for Aladdin's actions like as it was before. Will Smith actively plays the Genie as his own Fresh Prince/Hitch hybrid, and it works for him. He's a bit pricklier than William's Genie, whereas the original was everyone's friend, this one has far less patience for Aladdin's bumbling. They do become friends by the end, so it's not a wrong dynamic, just a different one. Jafar is the worst re-imagined character, with zero heft or sense of menace. They give him interesting motivations, but he's entirely humorless. There's not too much I can say in the positives, but it's not an awful watch either. Kids will like it.

Holy shit, certainly sounds like it ..!

The optics of a white guy just waltzing up to whomever he wants to, specifically a black person, and gunning them down, was just about the last thing cinema needed in 2018. Speaking as a black man, that scene in the trailer (essentially unedited) disturbed me so much that I thought I was gonna get nightmares. Gun culture in America is sustained by fear of The Other, and for Willis to just go up to a guy on his own property and murder him in broad daylight, and then get away with it, was far too realistic to be helped by "But the guy was a drug dealer" excuse. Coupled with the fact that the hoodie has been taken up as a symbolic totem recalling Trayvon Martin, and that Willis was co-opting it to present himself as some kind of urban underdog, and this movie got the "Go fuck yourself" double-fingers from me almost immediately. It's NRA White Savior Revenge Tentacle Porn, and a problem with vigilante movies that goes back to the original Death Wish movies which, for the record I do enjoy, but on an ironic level. You don't solve poverty and drug dealing by blowing black people away, but most of the country thinks you can. That's how we get so many deaths of black men yearly by police, because the narrative that they represent criminality is the understood narrative in films like this.

Aladdin (1992): My favorite of the Disney Renaissance era of films. Barring the generally reckless depiction of Middle Eastern culture, it's aged wonderfully. The character acting and animation holds up as incredibly expressive and realistic. Abu is hilarious, and Frank Welker does a great job with him speaking almost English. The romance between Aladdin and Jasmine is, to my mind, Disney's truest romance. You like both characters, are rooting for them, and they match each other perfectly. There's a bit of animation near the end of the "Whole New World" sequence where Aladdin, in his Prince Ali disguise, reflexively shoulder-passes an apple to Jasmine as he did before when she first met him. The animation of the look of shock, realization, pure joy and finally sneaky understanding - all in about one second - damn near made her my favorite character. Jafar is also one of the most fun villains. He's fairly comedic, but not as intentionally farcical as Hades would be later on. He's threatening because he's simply a dick who is full of grounded ambition. He and Iago are a great double-act, and even though Jafar kicks him around a bit, in this film you get the sense that they are genuinely friends who continually scheme together. And, of course, Robin Williams' Genie is an insurmountable presence. You have to slow the film down and take his ad-libs one at a time to get all of what he's saying, but it's always hilarious.

Ian and James were some of the first podcasters I ever listened to, starting with their Batman ‘89 review, so this was a real treat. Funnily enough, Ian never told me who would be on third up until the day we recorded, so in the back of my head I thought Adham Fisher might’ve been on tap to contribute his rankings 😆

Sucks that he may not get to finish his much touted 100 issue run, but to be real I do not care. King's run has never been consistently good, and since the blowback from issue #50 and what's happened in Heroes in Crisis, it's interesting to see DC willing to cut him loose for whatever reason. King's a nice guy with an earnest vision for his story, but he's nowhere near as good as people have said he is, or at least his Batman run isn't.

Zodiac: Starring Jake Gyllenhall, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. Directed by David Fincher. Having known nothing about the Zodiac killer, I'm glad the movie I was introduced to him on is purportedly the most accurate in terms of events. Gyllenhall was great as always, and it was cool seeing Ruffalo as a more comparatively grizzled character compared to his character in "Spotlight". The film was sufficiently creepy, but tbh I don't know how I felt about long, protracted sequences of actual murders that really happened. It feels exploitative, as opposed to instances like the woman and her baby who got away.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man (vol.2) #4-#6: I wasn't crazy about the first couple of issues of Saladin Ahmed's run, but I checked back in and then doubled back to the last couple of ones to catch up. I'm liking the series much more now. It's perfectly paced from issue to issue, balancing Miles' school life with his Spidey life well. Bendis always tended to swallow up his Spider-Men with one overarching story, so I've barely seen subplots develop, unlike with Ahmed where we get douchey Vice Principal JJ-esque character, and Miles' girlfriend. I'm still reeling from the artwork by Javier Gorron. Miles and Ganke have to be...seventeen now? Maybe that makes sense, but I still have no idea when this massive time skip would've occurred. I think the plots and stories are good, Ahmed's dialogue is hit or miss. He's constant with current NY dialect, and there are times that the art doesn't translate the emotional intent of the lingo in ways I find believable, making the slang appear a bit much. I know Ahmed's a NY native so I don't doubt the accuracy, but it doesn't read as seamless, and also doesn't sound like Bendis' characters. After nine years, Miles and Ganke all of a sudden talk like they're right out of MTV. I think Jason Reynolds was a bit better with that in his Miles novel. But I'm liking the current run a lot more now than I did in the beginning. Single Issues: 181 Trade Paperbacks: 6