Donomark

I found WFP the second semester of my first year in college, which led me to the '89 and '66 Batman movie reviews, which led me to the then-current episode of "For Your Ears Only" with Ian and Adham discussing Diamonds Are Forever. That led me to the Show, and a couple of years later I got into Bigger on the Inside, which I thought at first after hearing Mike on WFP was some lewd sexual reference and not a catchphrase from Doctor Who.

Happy to hear it, and not saying that out of any malice or anything. 15 years is more than respectable.

Us: Darker, bloodier and creepier than "Get Out". I was digging it well enough, but the ending left me pretty haunted in a pure "Twilight Zone" kinda way. The image of Lupita Nyong'o slowly creeping with that fire-poker is iconic. Winston Duke is also great as a suburban dad totally out of his depth.

What's Love Got to Do With It: Starring Angela Bassett and Lawrence Fishburne as Tina and Ike Turner. Well rendered, at times horrifyingly brutal depiction of the Ike and Tina careers with a reliably terrific performance from Angela Bassett and a superbly malevolent performance from Fishburne, who's become one of my favorite actors. Bassett's trademark guns were often times distracting however. She looked as though she could've pulped Ike any time. Seriously, she looked like Sandy Cheeks.

Spider-Man: Life Story #1: Written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated be Mark Bagley. This goes all the way back to the 60s, exploring what Spider-Man and the Marvel U would really have been like in the 1960s, with each issue detailing a succeeding decade. I'm not sure exactly where this series is going, but I was quickly sucked into the first one. It's not exactly anything we haven't seen before. It loosely follows the Stan Lee stories, combining Flash's farewell party with ASM #39 and #40, but the overarching thread of concern for Peter is the Vietnam War. Unlike the actual stories, he's genuinely torn about enlisting to fight, unsure if it's the best adherence to his promise of responsibility. It's a compelling dilemma, and though Bagley's past his prime he still can do facial expressions with the best of them. So far this book lives up to my hype for it. Single Issues: 94 Trade Paperbacks: 3

Batman #67 (2019): Two good issues in a row. I've of the mindset that this is exactly how Batman stories should be. Simple, light on the dialogue. And King knows how to use Lee Weeks. Incredible Hulk #731-#732: AWESOME issues. Loved Kyle Holtz on art, gave it a real slick 90s feel. Nightwing #58 (2019): This story isn't bad, and years from now people will find it an interesting diversion...but us old school guys was Dick back. We know it's coming. He's been shown in Doomsday Clock and in 'Tec #1000. So the patience is already wearing out. Single Issues: 93 Trade Paperbacks: 3

My girlfriend found this old-ass Nickelodeon show called "Fifteen" (or Hillside, as it was Canadian). It's basically a proto-Degrassi, a drama starring teens and only teens. It's cheesy as hell, but you can tell the writers are really trying to make a sequential drama for kids. The child actors are mostly staid and unexpressive with a few standouts. Ryan Reynolds plays one of the younger characters, and he's decent enough at age 14. The two mean girls, Brooke and Kelly, are the absolute best and the reason to watch the show. The actors stand head and shoulders over the rest, any they're endlessly hilarious with their petty plots that lead into eventual schemes for revenge. Kelly was played by Enuka Okuma, who I was shocked to discover later voiced both Lady Une from Gundam Wing and Rhodanite from Steven Universe: two wildly different characters and performances. She's my new stanning idol because of it.

Detective Comics #359, #363, #369, #371, Batman #197: The first several appearances of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl. Reading these for a presentation next month (same for the Shiva reading project) I've read #359 and read plenty about her subsequent appearances, but I'm checking these Silver Age gems out now. Honestly I'm surprised how well Babs comes off in these early issues. Unlike Yvvone Craig, she regularly socks it to the bad guys, often outfighting them and beating them senseless without Batman and Robin's help. Her detective skills are keen, and I wasn't aware that her photographic memory was a part of her character from the very start. She's also, at first, despite the writers' best intentions, not a sexistly rendered character. Her first encounter with Catwoman is, where Selina has a mad-on for her over jealousy over Batman, but Babs has no intention of chasing Batman around except to fight crime. 'Tec #371 is the nadir though, where her femininity is explicitly and repeatedly illustrated as vanity, and an inborn detriment to her crime fighting skills. She's regularly tussled over her appearance, screams out loud, worries over mud catching onto her costume and in general is a hateful shell of her previous story's self. The ending, where she shows off some leg to distract the bad guys is marginally better in how it demonstrates her trademark ingenuity, but overall it's like someone in editorial read her first few stories and went "She's getting out of hand, we have to remind the readers that she's still only a woman." It's Godawful. The letters pages are interesting, with women writers happy that Babs is consistently being shown as strong and that Batgirl isn't dued down by Batman for doing "man's work". What's really surprising is the few times readers lament the campy tone of the books. This is the late 60s, but even then readers yearn for the moody, darker, detective Batman over anything like the 60s show. Single Issues: 89 Trade Paperbacks: 3

Kick-Ass 2 and Van Hellsing are NOT worse films than Move 43, and I'm doubting the Green Hornet is either. No WAY that can be true! (Also FWIW Emma Stone won an Oscar for La La Land a couple of years ago )

The Magnificent Ms. Marvel #1: I was a little skeptical going into this issue, but it ended up being really engrossing. Nice drama and a great cliffhanger. Bravo Saladin Ahmed. Single Issues: 84 Trade Paperbacks: 3

Batman: The Grim Knight #1: This was an entertaining read. It's not all that original as a concept, but the very straightforward, simplistic story of Batman vs. Gordon made it compelling. I'm interested more in the Grim Knight than The Batman Who Laughs. Wonder Twins #2: Not as fun as the first issue, but in no way bad. Red Hood: Outlaw #32: Lobdell keeps on going back and forth with Bruce and Jason's relationship, and it's getting old. I also don't see Jason "outsmarting" Bruce in the way that he did at all believable. Not that it makes Jason too smart, it makes Batman too stupid. Superman #9 (2019): Good stuff. Really liking Bendis' writing of the Crime Syndicate. Amazing Spider-Man #818: Awesome, action packed issue. This reads like the Spider-Man I got into as a kid, post-Clone Sage/Pre-Reboot. Great stuff. Single Issues: 83 Trade Paperbacks: 3

Feige better not jack this up

I think an easy fix would be to have mutants always having been around, but the X-Men specific adventures all ended up with Xavier mindwiping everyone. That way, you could introduce the concept of mutant prejudice as a new thing without being a NEW thing.

Looks fun. Batman vs. Shredder was an image in my brain I never knew I needed until now.

The Question #1-#2, Annual #1, Green Arrow Annual #1 (1988), Detective Comics Annual #1 (1988), Detective Comics #427: Wow. This is some of the best Denny O'Neil comics I've read. It has a terrific late-eighties modern style without ever falling into stupid parody. It's by far the best Denys Cowan artwork I've seen. And Shiva's characterization, reappearing after a decade from the Richard Dragon books, is arguably her best stories of all time. She's fantastic, and the close-up shots Cowan gives her in the Annual are gorgeous. Going to the Question for a bit, I love how O'Neil basically kills off the Ditko Question in the very first issue. It's an interesting move, and certainly is a marker of the philosophical and political differences between the two creators. O'Neil's Question basically calls the Ditko Question as in the crime-fighting game for his own ego. I'm positive Ditko would disagree, but it makes for engaging reading. But the crossover between Batman, Green Arrow and Question was cool in how Shiva interacted with the three of them. In the 'Tec annual, we see her meeting Bruce for the first time and not being much of a match for him. That's the encounter referenced in Death in the Family, when she meets him again, and has progressed a helluva a lot to being his martial arts equal. Death in the Family is comparably the most antagonistic Shiva is in her appearances by that point, especially with it being the first time someone else besides O'Neil writes her. She's not villainous exactly, but she had no problem being hired to train terrorists. It matches her appearance in Question #1, and is consistent with her personal code of going where the action is. But when DitF is read out of context from her appearances beforehand, she appears to be more of a villain. But she's really not, just a fighter with a serious boner for a challenge. Jim Aparo makes her looks like a tiger licking its chops when she sees Batman. I'm also buying the retcon of her being Cassandra's mother less and less in reading these old issues. I'll have to re-read that when I come to it, but it makes more sense that she'd not have had any kids at that time in her life. (Additionally, Cass would've been just a bit younger than Jason at the time, anyway...)

Richard Dragon, King-Fu Fighter #1, #5-#18: Read this as the start of a Lady Shiva reading project. Every issue is written by Bronze Age Denny O'Neil, which is a mood. O'Neil's a very anti-racist writer but he's locked by the styles and sensibilities of the time (1976-1977), so some unfortunate tropes pop up. For instance, Ben Turner (Bronze Tiger) is introduced as an easy-going, wise, skilled martial artist. Once the series gets going however, he's pushed to the role of sidekick (he helped train Richard) and near the end is reduced to angry black man status over the death of his fiancee. His whole portrayal was disappointing to witness. But Lady Shiva is fucking awesome throughout. She's rendered oddly, with a very oval face and skin-tone that you hope isn't technically yellow, but her character is a great starting point for the beast that she becomes down the line. She's always tagging along with Richard and Ben for the danger, having a thirst for violence and tempering her skills. She's utterly indomitable and night unbeatable, only losing fights through villains' trickery or James Bond bad-guy traps. She has a stupid looking costume but wields a sword, with which she kills more than one person throughout the 18 issue series. The Lady Shiva that's eventually characterized in the modern comics is Neutral Evil. Depending on the writer, she's either a wandering killer or a flat-out bad guy. This initial Shiva is Neutral Good, every bit as dangerous and violent, but working with the heroes. Really makes you wonder when the transition starts to happen from good to bad... Gonna read her appearances in The Question next. Single Issues: 72 Trade Paperbacks: 3

Get ready for a lot of those.

Agreed. And I still haven't seen Apocalypse and from all accounts it's lame, but I am unashamedly hyped for this movie. It looks like an X-Men film, and the majority of the franchise are just character tangents.

Sophie Turner looks way cooler as Dark Phoenix than Famke Janssen did, even though I thought for the first two X-films Janessen was perfectly cast as Jean.

I've read the entire issue more'n once. I've read worse tbh, but that's not saying much. This isn't Ebony White or CC Beck Captain Marvel, BUUUUUUUUT pulling the race card as one of the many reasons why Superman won't marry her in her ongoing romance comic is pretty damn ugly.

Alita: Battle Angel: This was fun. Easily the best anime/manga live-action US adaptation since Speed Racer. It's pretty exact to the manga, and Rosa Salazar was terrific in the lead role. The action sequences were brutal and exciting, and though the storytelling is a bit shoddy due to its adherence to the source material, I enjoyed it all just the same. Captain Marvel: This is the first MCU film where I found myself genuinely lost in trying to follow the plot. Part of that is by design, as they do an interesting swerve on the whole "chosen one" trope. But because of that direction in the writing, I had no idea where the movie was going for about 60% of it. I wouldn't say it's complicated, but the way is told is almost complex. Even by the end I wasn't sure I should've believed what we were being told. This is also the goofiest Nick Fury's been in these movies, and by the third act every line he had was comedy relief. I get that he wasn't yet the darker person we're more familiar with, but it didn't seem to serve a purpose as the film isn't really all that dark anyway. But Brie Larson kicked butt. She was terrific in the role, and Carol herself is by far the best thing about the movie. Whatever all its faults, the film did right by introducing her in how they did. The fight scenes were good as well, and I loved how things ended up with the Skrulls. This is a flawed film, but not to the point where it's not still good.

HAHA!

Batman #66 (2019): Whatever. King's done these types of issues before. Green Arrow #50 (2019): Poor Ollie Doomsday Clock #9: This is still betrayal in that it has the DC Heroes fight Dr. Manhattan on Mars, but things are happening and the artwork is great so I'm very entertained. Young Justice #3 (2019): Bendis Speak Aplenty! Wow with Conner's past and present...good stuff. Amazing Spider-Man 16.HU: Odd issue numbering...good stuff with the Black Cat. Single Issues: 57 Trade Paperbacks: 3

RIP very nice man I had the privilege to interview twice.