Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 11/1/14
Happy Day-After-Halloween, henchies! Or better yet, Happy All Saints Day! I wonder if anybody in the world actually celebrates All Saints Day. I know I had to Google it to remember what November 1 was actually called. No worries if you don’t celebrate, but hopefully you have plenty of candy to tide you over.
This week was very light on new comics because it’s a Fifth Wednesday week. Comic publishers usually only plan for 4 Wednesdays a month, so when a fifth week comes along, they usually throw out some minor comics. DC put out a couple of annuals that I didn’t bother to read. But I did pick up All-New X-Men and Batman Eternal.
The week’s crowning jewel, however, is the final issue of Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman! He’s been telling one ongoing, epic saga since the start of the New 52, and it all comes to an end with this issue, the Comic Book of the Week!
Meanwhile, Marvel put out the first issue of their new Deathlok series. I wrote a pretty thorough review at Word of the Nerd that you can check out.
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #33, Batman Eternal #30 and Wonder Woman #35.
Channing Tatum is Officially Gambit, For Whatever That Will Accomplish
I’m still not entirely sure how or why this is happening, but actor Channing Tatum will officially play Gambit in a new X-Men spin-off film. The casting has been rumored for awhile now, but today, Deadline is confirming that Tatum is signed on to the role, with a film treatment penned by legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont. Robocop scribe Josh Zetumer has been hired to write the actual screenplay. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
But hey, Channing Tatum as Gambit, everybody!
I honestly don’t know what to think about this. I like Channing Tatum just fine. He’s good in the Jump Street movies. Is he right to play Gambit? I suppose he could be. I like Gambit too. As a child who grew up watching the 90s X-Men cartoon, I’ll always have a soft spot for Gambit. But I’m not a stickler who demands he be a suave, Cajun-accented pretty boy. Maybe Tatum will be fine as the character. Maybe the spin-off movie will be fine. I’m not sure why FOX thinks they can turn Gambit into a franchise the same way they have Wolverine, considering Gambit has only ever appeared in the worst of all the X-Men movies.
But hey, I’m not a Hollywood guy, so who knows what?
The Age of Ultron Trailer Gets Even Better!
Can you remember the last time a movie trailer had this much impact? It seems the whole country has rallied around the awesomeness of the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer! It’s a thing of beauty!
So why not indulge in some good-natured fun? Here’s How the Age of Ultron Trailer Should Have Ended!
And then some fine enterprising souls at Nerd Reactor decided to dub the trailer over the original Pinocchio cartoon. Good times indeed!
I cannot wait for this movie!
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Review: Saga #24
When all is said and done, and we’re looking back at Saga in the big picture, this volume is going to be seen as one of transition. People in the future who read Saga in one sitting are going to breeze through this chapter to get to the really good stuff. And that makes this volume – and this issue in particular – kind of an odd duckling. Better literary critics than I will probably be able to explain it better, but for me, this was all just a nice visit with some good friends.
Saga #24
Saga #24 ends the current volume by looking ahead to the future, underlining this whole volume as a tiny bit unnecessary.
Comic Rating: 7/10 – Good.
Not that I would ever consider a single issue of Saga ‘unnecessary’ – unless, of course, it got really bad somehow. But after reading this issue, and it’s wild departure from every other issue in this volume, I find myself slightly confused by the whole experience. Writer Brian K. Vaughn shocked us at the end of issue #18 with a jump forward in time, giving us Hazel as a toddler and her family changed. That could have been the start of a great new status quo, and for a little while, it was. But with this issue, everything has changed once again.
Vaughn spent the majority of this volume establishing that new status quo only to rip us away from it at the end. This volume didn’t really take us from Point A to Point B because, like I said, Vaughn pretty much created Point A out of thin air.
But I suppose there’s no real reason to complain. We got some good drama, we met some new characters, and toddler Hazel was something spectacular. Maybe I’m just looking at this from the wrong perspective. Alana and her family are obviously the stars of the book, but the plot in this volume was all about the Robot Kingdom. A lot happened on that front. So it’s possible I don’t have any idea what I’m talking about.
I think Saga really should be read all at once, whenever it’s completed, even if it would mean waiting years.
At least Vaughn brought back Lying Cat in this issue, and effortlessly reminded us why she is Saga‘s breakout character. There is some great Lying Cat in Saga #24!
More Marvel Goodies!
So yesterday was a huge day for Marvel, and today we’ve got a few meandering goodies to share. No new details about all those awesome movie announcements, but there is a new clip from Avengers: Age of Ultron to share, attached to the teaser trailer from before. Don’t watch if you don’t want to be spoiled! This same clip was shown to fans at Comic-Con this past summer. It’s a pretty fun scene.
The clip looks like a lot of fun! And it’s our first new Avengers scene since everyone dined on shawarma in 2012!
Henchman-4-Hire 