Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 4/8/23

Happy Easter, everyone! I’ll be heading home to get a meal with the parents and whatever extended family show up. That’s always fun. Even if it comes right in the middle of my 3-day weekend. Oh well. It’s always nice to have Monday off. And it’s always nice to get some quality, generally good comics this week, like Batman, Captain America and even more Saga.

Comic Book of the Week goes to Scarlet Witch #4, which remains a really fun, engaging and magical comic.

One and a half, maybe

Meanwhile, I’m still chugging through Gotham Knights. The fights are a real chore, so I’m not all that attached to the game. But I’m gonna make it through, I’m gonna do all the good Robin stuff! And I’m eagerly awaiting the new Chaos Dwarves DLC to Total War: Warhammer 3, my game of the year from last year. And I liked the Super Mario Bros. Movie, even if it was pretty basic. No Sonic the Hedgehog cameo, like I was hoping for.

Comic Reviews: Batman #134, Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #11, Saga #63 and Scarlet Witch #4.

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Our First Look at the Ahsoka TV Show!

This is a welcome surprise! There was a big Star Wars Celebration event last night or today or something, and all sorts of Star Wars news is hitting the internet today. Like, Daisy Ridley is going to return as Rey for a new movie where she reforms the Jedi Order?! Wild! And here we’ve got a full trailer for the Ahsoka TV show, which is coming out in August!

Wowzers! Not only do we get more Ahsoka, but they just drop the live action debuts of Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren just like that! With a bit of Ezra and Thrawn to boot! And some orange-bladed lightsaber bad guys, one of whom is Ray freakin’ Stevenson?!

Fanboy giddiness aside, this trailer didn’t do too much for me. It all looks cool, sure. But what really makes it stand apart from anything else that has featured a Jedi hero taking on some red-hued lightsaber bad guys? It’s a bunch of general Star Wars action. And all of it is undercut by the sequel trilogy set after this, since we know where it’s all going to lead, and that’s nowhere fun. But I suppose I have some amount of faith that they can pull this off. Or maybe I’ll just have to be happy that we get an Ahsoka show with live action Rebels.

I did put together a List of Six not too long ago about things I want to see in this Ahsoka show. Let’s see if any pan out.

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The Barbie Movie is Gonna Be Bonkers

The Barbie movie is coming out soon and it promises to be crazy. We still don’t really know what the movie is going to be about or what it’s going to be like. But this first full trailer does offer plenty of glimpses, as did a whole bunch of hilarious character posters.

Is it going to be satire? Is it going to be existential? Is it going to be The LEGO Movie over again? Who knows! But it’s a stacked cast. It’s got Greta Gerwig in the director’s chair. And I can only hope it’s going to live up to all its bonkers hype. It definitely looks carefully and perfectly orchestrated as is.

The Barbie movie comes to theaters on July 21.

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My 6 Favorite Super Mario Power-Ups

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is here and it’s hopefully fun! I’ll be going to see it tonight after work and I have high hopes. It looks colorful and wonderful and full of energy and character. Will Chris Pratt’s voice be as bad as we’re all fearing? Will this kick off a whole new cinematic universe? The only way we’re going to know for sure is to get out and watch the film. And write Mario-themed listicles, of course.

Mario loves eating big mushrooms

It’s a simple list this week. I already did a list for what characters I want to see show up in a post-credits scene. I’m hoping at least one of those comes true and blows my little mind. So how about a nice, easy list of my favorite power-ups in the entire Mario Bros. franchise? Everybody loves power-ups! And surely everybody has their favorites! This isn’t a comprehensive list of the objectively best power-ups of all time. Nope! This is all about me and my personal tastes in power-ups, and a trip down my own personal Mario memory lane. I’ve been playing these games since the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES, so I’ve seen almost everything!

Join me after the jump for my favorite Super Mario power-ups! And feel free to share your own in the comments below!

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Two Great Bug-Themed Superhero Movie Trailers!

There have been a whole bunch of new trailers released over the past few days, possibly to get out in front of the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie. That’s great news for me, because I love trailers! And here come two great ones!

First up is the new trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. We get a bigger look at the worlds, we get our first look at the Spot, and we get some good looking conflict.

Looks great to me! There seems to be a lot going on, perhaps too much, based on this trailer. But I’m confident they’ll put it all together. Looks like Miles wants to save his father at the cost of saving the multiverse, and Miguel doesn’t want that to happen. Makes sense. But the animation looks beautiful. The Spot looks fun. The kajillion Spider characters are a hoot. We get our first look at Scarlet Spider!

This movie doesn’t need trailers. It’s going to be fire no matter what. Can’t wait! Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse comes to theaters on June 2.

Next up is the first trailer for Blue Beetle, our first look at this movie, and I think it looks good. We get a lot of flavor and character in this Blue Beetle trailer, and I like what I see.

I’ll admit, this trailer does seem to hit all the familiar beats of a superhero origin story. But the charm outweighs the tropes for me. Xolo Maridueña looks like he’s having fun as Jaime Reyes, and I love the family feel. George Lopez looks especially fun. And I think the Blue Beetle effects look really good. Blue Beetle looks like a fun movie. Can it overcome the DC curse that killed Black Adam and Shazam 2? We’ll find out. I think it looks good.

Blue Beetle comes to theaters on Aug. 18.

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