Why the Hell is Lasher Getting an Action Figure?
Comic Con is also a great place to show off new and upcoming action figures, which is another favorite bit of Comic Con news for me. I will always hold out hope that Multiple Man will finally get his due.
Well, as with every year, I’ve come away disappointed. No Multiple Man action figures, everybody. There’s a neat Songbird, though, so that should be fun.
Insanest of all, however, is an action figure for Lasher. What the hell is this nonsense?
You don’t know me
How does Lasher get a random action figure? Out of all possible characters, why Lasher? Did they have a bunch of extra Spider-Man sculpts lying around and decided he would be the best use?
Who is Lasher? That’s a damn good question.
Lasher is one of five symbiotes broken off from Venom in the Separation Anxiety storyline, back when symbiotes were still new and cool in the 90s. There was Venom, then Carnage, and then five more all of a sudden. You had Lasher, Page, Riot, Agony and Scream.
Out of those five, the only one who really went on to anything of note is Scream, the first and most famous female symbiote. I’m a fan. The other four had their hosts killed almost immediately. The four of them then bonded to form Hybrid, another 90s symbiote. I’m also a fan of Hybrid.
But Hybrid’s host was also killed and the four symbiotes were separated and turned into military weapons, which was pretty cool. They were last seen helping Deadpool, with Lasher having possessed a cool military dog.
So I’m not saying symbiotes aren’t cool. I’m saying, out of all the possible symbiotes, out of all the possible Spider-Man characters, why does Lasher get an action figure?
Now, if they were making a whole symbiote line, I would totally be down for that! I would have to have a good Scream or Hybrid action figure in my collection. So hopefully this Lasher nonsense is just the start of something great!
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A Day of Trailers!
Yesterday, Comic Con unleashed a virtual torrent of movie and TV trailers. They’ve been doing it all weekend, in fact. And if I were more of a professional, and was getting paid to post stuff online, I probably would have flooded this blog with a million trailer posts yesterday! But I’m neither of those things, so I’m just gonna dump them all right here, right now, in one big post. That’s probably better for all of you!
First up, Thor: Ragnarok!
That trailer was brilliant. Nothing short of a masterpiece in trailer construction. Funny, action-packed, giving just hints of the story, with plenty of other hints about how much fun we’re going to have watching Thor 3. Hulk looks amazing, and yet somehow, Thor comes off as even cooler. I’m very much looking forward to this!
Next up, Justice League!
That trailer was dark garbage. Complete opposite from Thor: Ragnarok. It’s all slow-motion and darkness, with a couple attempted zingers thrown in to try and appeal to the Marvel crowd. I can see why the Super DC Fanboys might love this trailer, but it does little to nothing for me. None of the characters look interesting and none of the action looks fun. It looks like Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice retrofitted to include more forced humor.
I’m definitely excited for Stranger Things, season 2!
Looks amazing! They were smart to start filming right away, since those kids all still look like kids. Season 3 is going to be in the throes of puberty. But season 2 looks great! Bigger monsters! Bigger mysteries! More Eleven! Can’t wait for this one!
I’m not too impressed, yet, with Star Trek: Discovery.
I was never a big Star Trek fan. In fact, I’ve never seen any of the series, save for maybe a few random episodes. So Discovery will be my first real watching of a Star Trek TV show. And it looks neat, but the trailers haven’t really captured me. I’m also a little disappointed that it’s set before all the other shows. That’s always a dumb idea. Not sure why they keep going back to it.
On the other hand, Orville looks hilarious!
Watch everybody love Orville, Seth MacFarlane’s Star Trek parody, more than they like Star Trek: Discovery. This show looks fun and has way more energy than Discovery, with special effects that seem on par. This should be pretty great!
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They Picked a Bad Name for Duke Thomas
After giving up his Robin gang, during which he was particularly awesome in Scott Snyder’s Batman, Duke Thomas was officially recruited into the Bat-Family in a golden yellow Bat-suit. And for reasons that never really went explained, he did not get a codename to go with his outfit.
Seriously. How does Batman not give Duke a new codename? Aren’t those things necessary in the field? What did they expect Commissioner Gordon to call him?
Welp, DC and Snyder have finally revealed Duke’s name: The Signal.
He’s also going to get his own comic, from Snyder, called Batman: The Signal. Duke’s role is going to be the Batman-of-the-daylight. They’ve done this very concept before with other characters, but now it’s gonna be Duke’s thing. Aaaaaand I don’t like it.
I still like Duke Thomas, for sure! But what kind of superhero name is ‘The Signal’? It suffers from the banality of modern superhero naming conventions.
Nobody ever has the guts to name their new character something like ‘Batman’ anymore. It’s all about trying to be cool and hip, even though superhero comics were built on the backs of heroes with dorky names.
Plus, an argument I’ve made before, nobody is going to remember The Signal. Batman and Robin are the Dynamic Duo. They are household names. Grandmothers have heard of Batman and Robin. Whereas nobody has ever heard of Huntress or Azrael or Batwing or Onyx or The Signal. These hangers-on don’t matter, not in the long run. There will come a time when nobody cares about Duke Thomas anymore. But there will never come a time when nobody cares about Batman and Robin.
Not making Duke into the real Robin is a mistake.
Though I will definitely buy and read Scott Snyder’s Duke Thomas comic!
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New Defenders Trailer is Everything I Want
The Defenders comes out on Netflix in a month! We’re so close! And to notch all our excitements up a little bit more, a new trailer was released at Comic Con yesterday. Behold awesomeness:
That was great! So good! The banter, the zingers, the action, the forced camaraderie, the pretty much everything. Love it. And the first episode was aired at Comic Con, and all reactions seem to be really positive! Looks like we should have a good time next month!
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 7/22/17
Man oh man, it’s San Diego Comic Con weekend! So much cool news, so many good trailers, so much to get excited about! But for another year in a row, I’m stuck here in Central New York, about as far from San Francisco as you can get in the continental United States. Someday I’ll be out there.
At least this week was marked with good comics, like Batwoman, Harley Quinn, Power Rangers and the long-awaited second issue of the new Spectacular Spider-Man! All good comics, but Comic Book of the Week goes to Batman #27, as writer Tom King throws us a curveball with the unexpected new origin of Kite Man!
Knock. Knock.
Secret Empire continues to slog along. It’s getting a little long in the tooth at this point, and isn’t as sharp anymore. While The Mighty Thor is still good, but I skipped reviewing the issue again because it’s kind of just killing time. The War Thor is a neat idea, but he hasn’t done much of substance just yet. Still a great comic.
Also, in case you were curious, like me, the first issue of Astonishing X-Men does not yet feature the return of Multiple Man. I’ll let you know when it does! It was a pretty cool X-Men comic though. I like the idea of gathering a bunch of disparaged X-Men to go on an impromptu mission. I’d like it even more if they hadn’t added Old Man freakin’ Logan.
Comic Reviews: Aquaman #26, Batman #27, Batwoman #5, Harley Quinn #24, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #17, Ms. Marvel #20, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 and The Wild Storm #6.
Henchman-4-Hire 