Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 10/4/14
Welcome to a week of firsts! I don’t know if it’s divine intervention or some kind of back room deal, but both Marvel and DC delivered a huge number of new starts and #1 issues this week, which sounds to me like a solid foundation for this week’s reviews. There were so many firsts I couldn’t even get to them all, but I think I picked a nice smattering of titles.
We’ve got #1 issues for the new Thor, Gotham Academy, Guardians 3000, Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier and Lobo, some of which are really good, some of which are mediocre, and at least one of which is the worst comic I’ve ever reviewed in this column! I also included the new Captain America issue, which debuted Sam Wilson as the new Cap!
Thank Stephen Colbert
Comic Book of the Week goes to Gotham Academy for being both adorable and mysterious in pretty much equal measure. That’s a good start for any comic.
I’m going to warn you fine folks in advance though…be careful of my reviews this week. You know I’ve been sticking it out with Batman Eternal since the beginning, but this week…man…I get a little ranty. Keep reading if you dare…
Comic Reviews: Batman Eternal #26, Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier #1, Captain America #25, Gotham Academy #1, Guardians 3000 #1, Lobo #1 and Thor #1.
I Hate When I’m Right – All-New X-Factor Cancelled
Writer Peter David announced earlier this month that All-New X-Factor will be cancelled by issue #20, something that didn’t really make the news until Bleeding Cool brought it up unofficially. Well now it’s official, according to PAD.
I hate to say I told you so…but I told you so. It didn’t last a year.
This is disappointing news for many reasons, but what’s there to say? It was nice of Marvel to let PAD continue X-Factor, but this All-New X-Factor version never possessed even an ounce of the spark or energy that bolstered the previous team. I saw it in the very first issue, and it remained a problem throughout the series. Heck, I even stopped reading. The comic just wasn’t very interesting.
But I’m not gonna rub any more salt in the wound. This is just sad news.
We Get It, Godzilla Doesn’t Appear Much in the Godzilla Movie
It’s called delayed gratification, people! If the movie was just 2 hours of Godzilla fighting monsters, it would get boring within the first 5 minutes!
I really only have two sins for the new Godzilla film. 1.) How did Ken Watanabe have any clue that Godzilla was some kind of ‘protector of the Earth’ and would arrive to restore cosmic balance? Where did that hypothesis even come from? 2.) When all the main characters are together at the end prior to parachuting scene, why didn’t they have a moment where they meet up and acknowledge each other? Watanabe and the general met Ford earlier in the film, then they all end up at the same base camp in the end? That should have warranted some kind of moment!
Also, Cinema Sins does have a point on arresting Bryan Cranston. Why have the cops arrest him one day, but then on the next day, he’s delivered right to the heart of the operation, on the same day the monster hatches?
Seriously, though, I loved this movie.
There Will Be So Many ‘Two-Faced’ Jokes, So Many
Gotham has gone ahead and cast actor Nicholas D’Agosto to play Harvey Dent, and the obvious joke is that everybody on screen is going to be making ‘two-face’ jokes all the time. Normally I wouldn’t cotton to such an obvious gag in an article, but there’s no other way to handle this announcement. Gotham will make ‘two-face jokes’. All. The. Time. This is a show that has Selina Kyle insist on several occasions in one episode that everybody call her ‘Cat’. There is no subtlety here.
Also coin jokes
Every single time Harvey Bullock sees Dent, he’s going to say something like, “Man, that Harvey Dent sure is one two-faced guy.” There’s no getting around it. We just have to accept it. And expect some kind of ‘acid’ joke in Dent’s very first scene.
For a moment, I was going to tell you henchies that I’d never heard of D’Agosto and therefore didn’t have an opinion on him…but then I took a closer look at his picture and knew I recognized him from somewhere. So I checked out his IMDB page, and sure enough, it’s West from Heroes! Don’t remember West? That makes perfect sense. He was the flying kid in Season 2, the one who was almost Claire’s boyfriend! Still don’t remember him? I barely remember him either. Season 2 was when Heroes started to go downhill fast. Remember when Peter left his new girlfriend stranded in a post-apocalyptic future? Yeaaaahhh…
I assume D’Agosto has grown up since then, so maybe he can pull off Harvey Dent. Though it’s interesting to note how much older he’s going to be than Bruce Wayne. In the comics, they were roughly the same age, and friends. Looks instead like Dent is going to be Gordon’s age. That’s fine. The obvious jokes will land just as thuddingly.
Everything’s Coming Up Pixar!
The first teaser trailer for Pixar’s next movie hit the web yesterday, so I decided to share it with you all. The movie is called Inside Out, and it’s about a group of anthropomorphized feelings living inside a little girl.
I don’t like it.
Of course, I’m probably going to be eating crow later. But this trailer has all the markings of a bad idea. Mostly I just don’t like movies where the core cast is made up of the same cliched ‘best friends’, who all fit into the same neat animation stereotypes, and that’s exactly what this looks like. And don’t say that just because it’s Pixar that it’s going to be good. Brave was terrible.
Here’s the plot of Inside Out:
Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it’s no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy (Amy Poehler), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Mindy Kaling) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith). The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley’s mind, where they help advise her through everyday life. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, turmoil ensues in Headquarters. Although Joy, Riley’s main and most important emotion, tries to keep things positive, the emotions conflict on how best to navigate a new city, house and school.
Also, while we’re on the subject of Pixar, some blokes at Bloop Animation put together a nice video explaining The Pixar Theory. Take a watch.
Notice how they didn’t bother to include Cars 2. That should tell you something. I don’t know what, but definitely something.
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