Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 10/11/14
What a week to be a fan of comics! Not only is the New York Comic-Con going on this weekend, but the long-awaited debut of the new Batgirl hit the stands, and it easily slides into Comic Book of the Week. The comic is as good as I’d hoped it would be and more. If the creative team keeps this up, Ms. Marvel might have a little competition for my favorite comic!
It doesn’t help that poor Kamala Khan is rushed off to guest-star in this week’s Amazing Spider-Man. Crossovers and team-ups like this are so painfully forced, especially in this day and age, but writer Christos Gage gives it the old college try. He also manages to slip in a little fan ‘shipping for the fun of it!
But seriously, Batgirl definitely kicks butt!
She’s also an expert at threats!
Over at Word of the Nerd, you can check out my review of Axis #1. The big new crossover kicked off this week with an issue that felt more like the end than the beginning, at least in terms of spectacle – and that wasn’t a good thing.
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #7, Avengers #36, Batman #35, Batman Eternal #27, Batgirl #35 and Captain Marvel #8.
Gritty Adventure Time Trailer is Mathematical!
You all know how much I love gritty reboots, well the Gritty Reboots Youtube channel has fashioned an Adventure Time trailer that is not only awesome in its own right, but so perfectly encapsulates the show! This is some top class Internetting!
That was just gorgeous. It was clearly made by fans of the show, who probably spent a week or so awesomely cosplaying all the characters. And the special effects were just grand! Did you see Jake?! That was insanely good! I need to keep my eye on thi schannel.
Disney Trailer Double-Tap!
We’ve got a pair of trailers for a couple of upcoming Disney movies, so I thought I’d group them together and let you all know that I think they look pretty good. I’ve loved trailers since I was a wee little Sean, and we’re living in a golden age of movie trailers. So I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.
Big Hero 6
Tomorrowland
I hadn’t heard about that Tomorrowland film, but it’s apparently by Brad Bird, the guy who made The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. That counts for everything.
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Review: The Flash: “City of Heroes”
I first saw the pilot episode of The Flash over the summer, when it was leaked early on the Internet. At the time, I thought the episode was incredibly hokey. It was stuffed with forced exposition and more ‘running’ and ‘fast’ comments than my simple mind could handle. I was prepared to continue to dislike the show when the episode finally aired on TV this week…but I’m kind of happy to say that something definitely improved on a rewatch! I don’t know if anything was changed, or if perhaps I had inflated the level of hokiness in my mind, but the first episode of the new live action Flash show is actually a solid start. I’m definitely more excited for the series after watching it on TV.
This first episode of The Flash isn’t perfect, and it’s still kind of hokey. But now that it’s finally here, for real, I’m ready to become a fan.
TV Rating: 7/10 – Good.
When I first saw this episode, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes. From the very first scene, they start hitting you over the head with their lack of subtlety. A young Barry Allen is telling his mother how he wants to be a hero, because he tried to intervene and stop some bullies, only to get beaten up himself. His mother replies that sometimes it’s “better to have a good heart than fast legs”. Come on! That’s Gotham levels of obvious. And it doesn’t stop there. Barry Allen has a reputation of being late at his job for no good reason, and everybody is commenting on things being ‘fast’ or that Barry should ‘run’. It’s stifling.
But when I rewatched the pilot, I didn’t notice it as much. I don’t know if it’s due to editing or what, but the show is smoother this time around. Maybe watching Gotham has blown my subtlety circuits. But I still don’t think Barry needs to have a reputation of being late to things just to reinforce his super speed. That’s just dumb.
Fortunately, the pilot as a whole isn’t as dumb as I’d feared. Hokey sensibilities out of the way, the episode actually works quite well, with a solid cast and spectacular special effects. They set up all of the major characters and plots, though that isn’t without a few stumbling blocks too. In the span of a single episode, Barry gets his powers, learns about his powers, becomes the Flash and defeats his first super-villain. It’s a bit rushed. And using shortcut exposition doesn’t help matters. Every time Barry encounters a new character, whether it’s his painfully obvious love interest Iris West or his painfully obvious rival Eddie Thawne, someone somewhere delivers a few paragraphs of exposition. It’s wince-inducing.
But weaknesses aside, this is a strong start to the new show. I’m glad I rewatched the first episode because it definitely got better the second time around. I’m really excited to see The Flash take off running.
Join me after the jump for the full review.
Apparently There’s Talk in the World About an X-Factor TV Show
Like everyone else who reads the nerd blogsophere, I saw the rumors this week about a potential live action X-Men TV show. Great, I thought to myself, sounds like fun. But then it was brought to my attention that this show might be based on X-Factor, one of my all-time favorite comic books, starring my all-time favorite comic book character, Multiple Man. And all of a sudden, this becomes possibly the greatest news in the history of television.
These guys are definitely a show!
The news comes from Shawn Madden of EatGeekPlay, who I’ve never heard of before, and who could have about as much influence or knowledge about these issues as I do (which is none). This is why I don’t normally write about these sorts of reports. They’re too early in the process and too much speculation. Imagine if I’d tried to keep up with everything Robert Downey Jr. has been saying about Iron Man 4 this week!
But something like this is too much for me to ignore. A television show starring Multiple Man? That’s the universe itself reaching out to me and telling me it has my back! Multiple Man running a detective agency in the heart of Mutant Town was a brilliant series! And it helps bolster X-Factor to more than 100 issues! That number is insane in this day and age of comics! The current series, All-New X-Factor, is being cancelled at issue #20. Clearly there is success in Multiple Man.
Leading man material!
I want to see this show. I want to sit down every week and watch Multiple Man on my TV!
Though given all the rumors floating about Marvel cutting off the X-Men and Fantastic Four to spit Fox, this sort of show probably wouldn’t lead to very good things for Multiple Man in the comics. Maybe that’s the real reason why he retired to a farm in Kansas more than a year ago…
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