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Dennis O’Neil: Browsing Around

I’m guessing that comics began edging into my toddling into our flat when I was somewhere just north of infancy: five, six, somewhere in there. Paperbacks, though – different story. The first modern paperbacks weren’t published until 1935, just four years before I burst, noisily, into my parents’ existence. So, the publishing venue and I arrived at approximately the same time and we’ve both been around ever since. Mass market comics, the kind that printed original material, joined the party in 1938, a year before I did and lo and behold, there we are, comics, paperbacks and me, all growing old together.

Later, after I’d moved to a metropolis that hosted a relatively large number of bookstores, I would browse: enter the shop and just patrol the aisles, maybe lingering a bit in the science fiction and detective sections. (There were no comics sold in regular book stores – not yet. And the comic shops, the kind we know and love, we as yet unborn.) Sometimes I would even – o thrill! – buy something.

Then: something new, a new place for browsing – video stores. I’d been aware of them, these new browsing sites, pretty early on, I guess. I lived in a hip neighborhood and the nearest video renter gave discounts to writers and artists and if you think that Scrooge O’Neil would ever pass up that kind of sweet deal, well… Then a friend introduced me to some really big video places in Brooklyn – I’m taking seriously big – and there I was again, on the browsing trail.

End of story?

You know better than that!

We weren’t done with browsing, we children of the war, but our technique evolved. We began to do it, some of it anyway, with no wear and tear on our sneakers. Oh, don’t put it past me to half-kneel and check the titles on the lower shelves, but these days I’m more likely to have entered the store in search of the coffee counter than to buy books, which are more likely to arrive via electronics. So, yeah, we shop from the couch, in front of a computer screen like the one you’re looking at.

All done?

Not yet. One more venue should be acknowledged. It does not allow you to own something you want, it allows you to rent movies and television shows and maybe sports. It dwells somewhere in the vast cosmos of television land and I reach it by using something called a Firestick, though you may employ another modern miracle to do the job. And after Mari retires for the night, I sometimes sink into the couch and, yes, browse the hundreds of entertainment and information listings Firestick makes available.

Maybe next week we’ll say something about the content of those listings. No promises, though.

Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver Zooms for Home in October

CULVER CITY, Calif. – Fasten your seat belts as the year’s must-own action-packed thrill ride, BABY DRIVER, which just sped past $100 million at the box office, accelerates home on digital September 12 and on 4K Ultra HD™/Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, Blu-ray & DVD October 10 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), this fast-paced and furiously stylish heist movie stars Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars) as a young getaway driver who steers to the beat of his own playlist. With an all-star cast that includes Kevin Spacey (House of Cards), Lily James (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead), Eiza González (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), with Jon Hamm (Mad Men) and Oscar® winner Jamie Foxx (2004, Best Actor, Ray Charles), BABY DRIVER pulls up on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray and digital with over two hours of tricked-out bonus features, including over 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes.

Go behind the wheel of this summer’s biggest surprise box office hit with extensive bonus materials exploring its unique driving and music-infused production, including making-of featurettes on stunt driving with the cast, music, choreography, and orchestrating some of the best car chases in cinematic history.  Additional bonus materials include animatics, cast auditions and rehearsals, director commentary with Edgar Wright, and more!

Synopsis:

Baby (ANSEL ELGORT) – a talented, young getaway driver – relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. When he meets the girl of his dreams (LILY JAMES), Baby sees a chance to ditch his criminal life and make a clean getaway. But after being coerced into working for a crime boss (KEVIN SPACEY), he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.

From TriStar Pictures and MRC, BABY DRIVER was produced by Nira Park (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead), Tim Bevan (Hail, Caesar!, The Theory of Everything) and Eric Fellner (Hail, Caesar!, The Theory of Everything). Executive producers are Edgar Wright, Adam Merims, Rachael Prior, Liza Chasin and Michelle Wright.

Blu-ray & Digital Bonus Materials Include:

  • Extended/Deleted Scenes – 20 minutes of extended scenes and a few moments that were dropped from the final cut.
  • Mozart In A Go-Kart: Ansel Drives – Ride shotgun with star Ansel Elgort as he works with the talented stunt drivers to become the ultimate getaway driver.
  • I Need A Killer Track: The Music – Explore how the film’s phenomenal soundtrack dictated both the writing process and all aspects of production on Baby Driver.
  • That’s My Baby: Edgar Wright – Follow Edgar Wright’s vision of Baby Driver from its inception two decades ago, to its ultimate realization on the big screen.
  • Meet Your New Crew: Doc’s Gang – Led by powerhouse Kevin Spacey, the cast assembled to form Doc’s gang is perfectly constructed with stars like Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm as well as up and coming talent like Eiza González and Jon Bernthal. Go behind the scenes to see this talented group at work as they bring these characters to life.
  • Find Something Funky On There: The Choreography – With every frame of Baby Driver set to a specific beat it took precise choreography by the cast, crew and editors to create a cinematic dance like nothing that’s been done before.  Hear from the choreographer and filmmakers on this groundbreaking process.
  • Devil Behind The Wheel: The Car Chases – From closing down Atlanta’s interstates to creating eyepopping maneuvers for a variety of vehicles, witness the amazing craftsmanship and sheer determination that made the film’s incredible car chases possible.
  • Animatics – Check out over 35 minutes of the numerous pre-vis animatics developed by Edgar Wright as part of his meticulous preparation.
  • Ansel Elgort Audition – See firsthand the audition that proved without a doubt that Ansel Elgort was the perfect choice for Baby.
  • Annotated Coffee Run Rehearsal – Day one of production involved one of the film’s most elaborately choreographed sequences where every movement is carefully crafted.  Check out the preliminary rehearsal and see the behind the scenes movement in concert with Ansel Elgort’s on camera choreography.
  • Hair, Make Up & Costume Tests – In this stylized montage, witness the transformation of the actors through costume, hair and make-up tests.
  • Mint Royale – “Blue Song” Music Video – This music video directed by Edgar years ago for the band Mint Royale showcases some early inspiration for Baby Driver.
  • Complete Storyboard Gallery – See the elaborate storyboards developed for the film in this gallery featuring storyboards for the entire film.
  • Director Commentary
  • Filmmaker Commentary (Edgar Wright and Director of Photography Bill Pope)

DVD Bonus Materials Include:

  • I Need A Killer Track: The Music
  • That’s My Baby: Edgar Wright
  • Meet Your New Crew: Doc’s Gang
  • Devil Behind The Wheel: The Car Chases
  • Mint Royale – “Blue Song” Music Video
  • Director Commentary
  • Filmmaker Commentary (Edgar Wright and Director of Photography Bill Pope)

BABY DRIVER has a run time of approximately 113 minutes and is rated R for violence and language throughout.

REVIEW: Batman and Harley Quinn

Warner Animation’s just-released Batman and Harley Quinn is an interesting project from the standpoint of it being a more mature sequel to the Batman: The Animated Series while still fitting into the now cohesive DC Animated Universe. It has the look and feel of the classic series while the content and themes are vastly different in keeping with Harley’s prominence in all-things DC these days along with upping the stakes in a longer production.

That said, the production is very entertaining and a welcome 30th film in the line of animated projects (the DC Universe: 10th Anniversary Collection is expected in November).

It’s a lot of fun to have Bruce Timm, Harley’s co-creator back in action as a co-scriptwriter. Sam Liu is also back to direct so we have a lot of veteran talent to bring tremendous affection to the project and it shows in every detail.

Poison Ivy (Paget Brewster) has been connected with Jason Woodrue, the extra-dimensional Floronic Man (Kevin Michael Richardson), ever since Neil Gaiman put them in the same class in Black Orchid. Here, though, we think Ivy is out to save the world from man’s ecological folly but we get a larger, nastier, and more in control Floronic Man than we’ve seen in comics or animation. He’s out to make the world a verdant paradise, as long as he’s in charge.

They are after Alec Holland’s bio-restorative formula, the one that turned him into the Swamp Thing, and once they begin not-so-subtly robbing places to obtain it, this alerts Batman (Kevin Conroy) and Nightwing (Loren Lester). To find Ivy, they turn to her long-time gal pal, Harley Quinn (Melissa Rauch) who is now out of jail and off the grid. When Nightwing tracks her down, we find her in costume, but waitressing at Superbabes, a super-hero themed restaurant (those wall decorations were a set of decals DC sold back in the ‘70s, a lovely touch).

To convince Harley to help them, the pair fight and, in an interesting turn, wind up sleeping together, only to be found by Batman.

From there, the chase is on, leading them all to Louisiana where the film’s extended climax occurs. Along the way, they look for clues in a bar that features a motley assortment of thugs dancing to twins performing, which is amusing, but when Harley has to sing, we get her full song and then a fight, prolonging what should have been a far shorter sequence.

There are loads of asides, gags, and tips of the cowl to other incarnations of Batman and the heroes so pay attention. This is where Timm tends to excel, never taking his eye off telling a strong story. And yes, despite some plot drag in the middle, the themes are very strong here. We do get a totally extraneous appearance by Swamp Thing, although they avoided making him a deus ex machina. Still, the story sort of just runs out of steam rather than neatly tie things up. Do stay for the post-credits sequences which are just a hoot.

It is a real pleasure to hear Conroy and Lester together again and it’s all the more a shame Arlene Sorkin, Harley’s original voice, is absent from the reunion. Rauch is good, but her Bernadette bleeds through now and then.

Parents should be aware this is rated PG-13 for “sexual references” and “rude humor”, mostly in the form of Harley’s words and deeds – but really, did you expect any less?

The movie is available in a variety of formats including the 4k Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Digital HD and the collector’s set with a Harley figure. Word is, the 4K and Blu-ray are almost indistinguishable and the 1080p, AVC-encoded version is just lovely and well matched with the lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, featuring a top-notch score from Kristopher Carter, Michael McCuistion and Lolita Ritmanis.

The Blu-ray comes with the usual assortment of Special Features, starting with A Sneak Peak at DC Universe’s Next Animated Movie (8:30), which is Batman: Gotham by Gaslight. I frankly am offended so much credit goes to Mike Mignola without author Brian Augustyn’s name being mentioned – and quite a bit of the art from the comics is actually from the Ed Barreto-drawn sequel.

There is also The Harley Effect (21:15), where her co-creators, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, discuss her origins and slow-building popularity until she is now one of DC’s most ubiquitous characters (effectively their version of Deadpool, put her on anything and it’ll sell); and, Loren Lester: In His Own Voice (11:46), talks returning to the role that made his voiceover career. We get the Sneak Peaks to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part I and II and Batman: Assault on Arkham. From the DC Comics Vault offers two well-chosen selections: Batman: The Animated Series, “Harley and Ivy” (22:23) and “Harley’s Holiday” (21:15).

Mike Gold: Mutt & Jeff & Marcia & Me

Do you remember the name of the first comic book you ever experienced? I do. It was a copy of DC Comics’ Mutt and Jeff, one of the very first daily newspaper comic strips and purportedly the first to be anthologized in what we today consider the comic book format. It was made as a subscription inducement giveaway.

This happened to me sometime around late 1953 or early 1954, when I was three years old. Okay, I was precocious (a synonym for “obnoxious”) but hardly anybody was that precocious. No, the comic book was read to me by my sister. Being almost seven years older, and much to her understandable chagrin, she was pressed into service as my babysitter. That certainly pegs her as precocious as well.

Marcia picked up a comic book from her stack, Mutt & Jeff #34, March 1952, and proceeded to read it to me. My sister had taste: that issue sported a cover by the legendary Shelly Mayer. Being only slightly out of toddlerhood, I learned how to recognize the shapes of the word “Mutt” and the word “Jeff.” DC ran the daily strips in two-page spreads, each one carrying the “Mutt and Jeff” logo. Page after page of them.

Proud of my achievement, I pointed to each logo and shouted, “Mutt and Jeff” over and over and over. For some reason, my sister/babysitter did not murder me on the spot.

What Marcia couldn’t have known at the time was that she had opened Pandora’s Box.

That initial experience led me to discover the comics in the newspapers, and over the next two years, those comic strips taught me how to read. This is actually quite bizarre as our paper of choice carried Pogo, Li’l Abner and Abbie ‘n’ Slats, and they didn’t quite speak English, at least not as we spoke it in the Midwest.

The newspaper strips led to my discovering comic books on my own – initially by finding Marcia’s own four-color stash, later by coercing my parents to buy me a comic book or two at the neighborhood drug store.

Of course, my love of comics led to many friendships and, ultimately, to comics fandom. A piece in the paper led me to fanzines, which led me to the conventions and then to advising comic shop retailers and organizing comic book conventions, and then to the first of two tenures at DC Comics, the co-creation of First Comics with Rick Obadiah … and to ComicMix with Glenn Hauman. With a whole lotta other stuff thrown in; allow me some modesty, okay?

Last weekend, I left the Chicago Wizard World show a day early to go to Detroit. Marcia Judith Gold Bashara had died at the age of 73, due to heart problems. I was fortunate enough to see her one last time on my way to the convention, spending a day with Marcia, her husband and my friend of 53 years Salem, and my wonderful nieces Heidi and Cheri.

Yeah, it’s really tough to type these words.

I used to tell people – usually, people writing articles about comics – that we comics people who were born during the baby boom and Fred Wertham’s anti-comics crusade decided to get into the racket as revenge for our parents’ tossing out our comics sometime in the mid-1960s.

And there’s some truth to that, but if not for my sister Marcia’s sharing her enjoyment of the comic book medium, I might not have had any comic books for my parents to toss.

For the record: about 15 years ago, I returned the favor by introducing Marcia to Will Eisner’s graphic novels. She absolutely loved them.

•     •     •     •     •

A tip of the hat to the many, many people who consoled me at Wizard World and to my fellow ComicMixers who helped pick up my load. And, most of all, to Maggie Thompson for consistently being there with her advice, her intelligence, her wit, and her charm. Which actually means “to Maggie Thompson for being Maggie Thompson.”

 

 

 

 

Box Office Democracy: The Hitman’s Bodyguard

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I have to imagine production of The Hitman’s Bodyguard started with director Patrick Hughes gathering the whole cast together and giving them some kind of speech along the lines of “Look, we all know this script is a piece of garbage but if we pull together we can elevate it way past tolerable” and then there was some big cheer and they ran out to the set like a sports movie.  It’s a laughable script that doesn’t hold together under the smallest bit of scrutiny, but the cast absolutely crushes it.  It’s the best bad movie I’ve seen all year and I don’t mean that as faint praise.  The world is full of people doing average work with average material but seeing fantastic work come from a wretched foundation is something special.  This is a diamond found in a coal mine.

The chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson is basically driving the whole movie.  We’re getting a Deadpool-lite version of Reynolds thick with meta commentary on the events of the movie and sort of action movie in general.  This plays well with the standard action-comedy version of Jackson we’ve been seeing since Die Hard with a Vengeance.  This interplay drives the whole movie dragging a murky nonsensical plot and a seemingly endless numbers of big pauses for jokes that just aren’t that funny.  Everything that’s Reynolds and Jackson bickering is great, every scene that has Selma Hayek in it is good, everything else is pretty bad.

The action in the movie is good enough, but it feels more like a greatest hits compilation than any kind of new composition.  The best sequence in the film is one where Jackson is walking through a Dutch square seemingly oblivious to potential attackers while Reynolds stealthily takes them down.  It’s a good sequence but it feels an awful lot like a knock-off of the Waterloo Station sequence in The Bourne Supremacy and while it’s 10 years later feels a bit slower.  There’s also a reasonably thrilling chase through a canal with Jackson in a boat being chased by bad guys in SUVs while Reynolds on a motorcycle harasses them.  It’s a nice idea salad mixing bits from a number of other movies.  Maybe greatest hits is too reductive, more like a remix of some old favorites, you ought bop your head a few times but odds are you’ll go back to the original.

Most of the story of The Hitman’s Bodyguard is just low-level stupid.  You know, stuff like trial scenes that were written by someone who has only experienced the legal system from their drunk friend describing Law & Order episodes to them.  But then toward the end they try to pretend like there’s some big moral quandary between a life spent protecting terrible people versus a life of killing bad people for money.  For one, I don’t believe that you can make a great living as a contract killer just sitting around and waiting for bad people to need killing that badly.  Also, people who decide to hire assassins to deal with their problems aren’t people who are on the highest of high grounds to start with.  It’s not an interesting moral quandary, and it directly detracts from the stuff that’s actually entertaining in the movie.  Wikipedia says that when this script was named to The Black List it was a drama— maybe this is an artifact from those days, but it has no place in this movie. (I also can’t imagine this was a better movie as a drama.  I’m bored just thinking about it.)

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is good because you get to see Deadpool interact with Nick Fury.  They had to file off all the serial numbers, superpowers, and sci-fi gadgets— but that’s what it is.  We’ll never get the actual pairing because of all the various rights headaches (and honestly, what would need to be happening in the MCU for it to even happen) but we can get it here stitched on to a wretched story about the trial of a dictator who commands an army of mercenaries while imprisoned at The Hague.  Come for the cast, stay for the cast, leave with a smile on your face, pick it on Netflix 18 months from now, never think about it after that.

The Original Buffy gets 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Release

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER – 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
Kristy Swanson, Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens and Luke Perry star in this funny, action-packed fright-fest. For pampered cheerleader Buffy (Swanson), the only thing worse than discovering that her town is infested with vampires is being told it’s up to her to defeat them all – including their creepy leader (Rutger Hauer)! But, with help from a mysterious stranger (Sutherland) and a handsome mechanic (Perry), Buffy’s soon kicking serious vampire butt in this cult classic!

Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD Bonus Features Include:

  • Featurette
  • Theatrical Trailer
  • TV Spots

Blu-ray Specifications:
Street Date:                          October 3, 2017
Prebook Date:                      August 30, 2017
Screen Format:                    16:9 (2.40:1)
Audio:                                   English 5.1 DTS-HD MA / Spanish DD 5.1 / French DTS 5.1
Subtitles:                              English SDH / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                    Approximately 85 minutes
U.S. Rating:                         PG-13
Closed Captioned:               Yes

DVD Specifications:
Street Date:                         October 3, 2017
Prebook Date:                      August 30, 2017
Screen Format:                    16:9 (1.85:1)
Audio:                                  English DD 5.1 / Spanish Surround DD 2.0 / French Surround DD 2.0
Subtitles:                              English SDH / Spanish / French
Total Run Time:                    Approximately 85 minutes
U.S. Rating:                         PG-13
Closed Captioned:               Yes

REVIEW: The Lion King – The Circle of Life Edition

REVIEW: The Lion King – The Circle of Life Edition

Walt Disney was a canny marketer, cycling his films in and out of release, on and off television, through the years, recognizing it would appear fresh to younger viewers and fondly recalled by those at later stages in their lives. That practice has continued into the world of home video with the films on rotation and we’re now getting The Lion King: The Circle of Life Edition after having received Masterpiece Collection, Platinum Edition and Diamond Edition. The new edition is already available as Digital HD and hits disc today.

An interesting thing to consider about the story itself is that Simba is being trained by his father to one day succeed him as King. This connection with a parent and this effort towards being prepared to rule is entirely absent from any of the Disney Princess films.

Of course, the movie is a wildly entertaining musical which still holds up on repeated viewings. Credit for this has to go co-directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, writers Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton, and composer Hans Zimmer. The strong vocal cast, led by James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Matthew Broderick, Moira Kelly, Jeremy Irons, and many others grounds the production.

Is it a perfect story? Probably not, since there are gaps in time and Simba and Nala seem to be the only ones to actually age. And yes, it still makes me think of Kimba the White Lion but I’ll believe the makers were largely ignorant of this early anime that played briefly in the United States.

From a technical standpoint, this edition is identical, from what I can tell, from the most recent Diamond Edition. It therefore looks brilliant and sounds lovely.

The film is available in a variety of formats and there are some features unique to specific retailers (an annoying trend), but most will receive the film, and a new Sing-Along Version. The Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD combo also comes with a Limited Edition Film Frame (a small strip of film; mine had Raffiki holding up baby Simba).

Additionally, there is, held over from previous releases:

  • Audio Commentary – View the film with commentary by producer Don Hahn and co-directors Allers and Minkoff.
  • Visualizing a Villain – Against a backdrop of live dancers and the animated “Be Prepared” sequence, artist David Garibaldi paints a masterpiece of evil.
  • The Recording Sessions – Rare footage of the actors recording their roles, matched with the final animation. Intro by Allers and Minkoff.
  • Nathan and Matthew: The Extended Lion King Conversation – Lane and Broderick talk making the film and its worldwide acclaim.
  • Inside the Story Room –Allers and Minkoff present archival footage of five original story pitches.
  • Circle of Life – See how color creates emotion and meaning in the film’s iconic opening.
  • Simba & Nala – See how elements proposed in story meetings evolve into what appears onscreen.
  • Simba Takes Nala Out to Play – …And, sometimes what seems funny in story meetings never makes it into the film!
  • Hakuna Matata –Allers and Minkoff sing, act and dance their hearts out as they pitch the “Hakuna Matata” sequence.
  • Rafiki and Reflecting Pool –Allers & Minkoff pitch a sequence that became the emotional heart of The Lion King to Producer Hahn.
  • Galleries
  • Visual Development – Explore a gallery of striking artwork that inspired the movie’s look and feel.
  • Character Design – Trace the development of the film’s unforgettable characters through early concept art drawings.
  • Storyboards – Examine storyboards created in the development of The Lion King.
  • Layouts – Feast your eyes on layouts created in the development of The Lion King.
  • Backgrounds & Layouts – Journey through a gallery of landscape paintings that shaped the world of The Lion King.

For fans of the film, and there are many, the above will be satisfying and enlightening or just entertaining. Sadly, the Classic Bonus Features are Digital only.

I Spidey

Before we move on to my regularly scheduled column, I have to plug the Kickstarter going for a ComicMix comics collection running through September 15th. It’s got a lot of great talent like Neil Gaiman, Gabby Rivera and Gerard Way. Check it out!

Now that that’s out of the way, let me get back to my hot takes on the comics biz.

Last month I wrote about Spider-Man: Homecoming and how I wish they had more comics the reflected that interpretation of the character. There isn’t really a comic they put out recently that does, but I heard Spidey is kind of close so I picked up the first trade.

Spidey originally hit the stands back December of 2015 at #25 on the sales charts equating to 65,503 copies sold. The idea was to do an out of continuity Spider-Man that went back to basics; Peter Parker is back in high school, he’s back to crushing on Gwen Stacy, he’s back to taking pictures of Spider-Man for JJ, Aunt May is back to struggling to pay her bills, the bad guys aren’t quite as deadly serious, the book is more light-hearted and the stakes are lowered.

The series is written by Robbie Thompson and the first three issues are illustrated by Nick Bradshaw with Jim Campbell and Rachelle Rosenberg coloring. In the first three issues we have run ins with Doc Ock, Sandman, and Lizard. All three of them are doing what you normally expect them to do; Doc Ock is trying to steal technology, Sandman is trying to rob banks, and Lizard is trying to make more lizard people. While it’s all pretty goofy and at least somewhat self aware, Nick’s art is very sleek and his heavy inks with Jim and Rachelle’s colors really make the pages pop. It feels like Saturday morning cartoon quality work. Some of the characters could look a little more different from each other as I felt his Peter Parker and Harry Osborn look too similar, but I also acknowledge that’s a bit overly critical.

After issue three, the series takes a bit of a turn.

Nick Bradshaw has a very distinct style. Once he leaves after issue three, the rest of this trade is illustrated by Andre Lima Araujo. Andre’s style is drastically different from Nick’s. Gone are the heavy inks and Saturday morning cartoon look. In its place are very thin line inks, and the kind of art you may expect in a Top Shelf or Pantheon type graphic novel. Facial expressions and other little details like sweat are more prominent. The teenage angst and awkwardness spills out of the pages more, but the tone is so different from this art style that it’s jarring. On top of all that, in issue six Iron Man teams up with Spider-Man to stop Vulture from stealing things and it felt like such a push to do something that might tie in somewhat to Spider-Man: Homecoming that it immediately sucked me out of the story.

The most disappointing thing about reading Spidey after seeing Spider-Man: Homecoming is seeing how few liberties they take with a comic that isn’t in continuity. They don’t really change up the characters too much, everyone is still white who was white, all the characters are back doing exactly what you already know they do. What’s the point in taking another shot at retelling the early years of Spider-Man if you’re just going to give me everything we already knew and how we already knew it? This is likely at least part of why the series ends at issue twelve, making it only two volumes on trade paperback.

Overall, Spidey Vol. 1 was fun, had a few exceptional moments, but overall fell a bit flat. If you absolutely need more simple Spider-Man stories, you absolutely should pick this up. Or if you have a child in your life around ages 8-12 this is probably the most appropriate Spider-Man title for them to read. Spidey also gets bonus points for not having parallel universes, time travelling, and clones. Especially for not having clones.

It feels good to write about comics I’m reading again. So good even, I may just do it again next week!

REVIEW: Gotham The Complete Third Season

Despite their wealth and social status. Thomas and Martha Wayne were victims of random violence in a city filled with such acts on an hourly basis. The robbery and dual murders could have happened to anyone which makes Bruce Wayne a sympathetic character – he could be us. His training to become Batman resonates because any of us could dedicate ourselves both mentally and physical to perfection in order to prevent others from becoming victims.

Unless you’re watching the mess that is Gotham. There, the everyman aspect has been stripped away from the event so here, in this twisted version of the comics, we learn their murders was ordered by the Court of Owls which is somehow tied in to the utterly corrupt Board of Directions of Wayne Enterprises.

With Gotham The Complete Third Season out now on Blu-ray from Warner Home Entertainment, we can relive the harebrained plotted which moves at such breakneck speed Producer Bruno Heller hopes you don’t stop to consider each disjointed piece of the tapestry.

We open with “Mad City” for the first arc which sees the city overrun with the freaks freed from earlier in the series and the Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) glorying in his control over them, which helps when his bromance/romance with The Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) devolves into a distracting war, setting up the “Heroes Rise” arc for the back half.  We have the freaks on one side and the tortured humans – Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), Barbara (Erin Richards), Tabitha (Jessica Lucas), and poor Butch (Drew Powell) on the other. The Owls fade into the background as the two sides snarl at one another for tense minutes at a stretch until Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) steals Penguin away.

Burt before that, because it seems obligatory in every incarnation, the Penguin runs for mayor and actually wins, for a change. Running the city proves to be difficult (who knew?), especially when the Red Hood Gang is back and people are worrying about Jervis Tetch (Benedict Samuel) and his hypnotized victims.

Heller likes brainwashing his characters such as poor Silver St. Cloud in an earlier season and now, midway through Season Three, he has the Shaman do this to teen Bruce (David Mazouz). Complicating things for everyone is his clone, 514A, trying to find a place for himself in the firmament. At least Bruce has an excuse for being wonky. Most of the other cast members are oddballs because the script demand sit without logical underpinnings. Case in point Lee Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) infecting herself with the Alice Tetch Virus. We then have the parallel plots of Alfred (Sean Pertwee) and Gordon trying to save the ones they love most. When Jim becomes infected, all seems lost so it falls to Alfred, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue), and Lucius Fox (Chris Chalk) to save Gotham.

Things twist and turn, whether it makes sense or not, until we have an overstuffed finale featuring The Riddler, The Penguin, the Executioner (Michael Chiklis), Mr. Freeze (Nathan Darrow), Poison Ivy (Maggie Geha), Firefly (Camila Perez), Tigress, Talon (Brandon Alan Smith), Mad Hatter, Catwoman (Camren Bicondova), the Court of Owls, Hugo Strange (B.D. Wong) and Ra’s al Ghul (Alexander Siddig) before turning Butch into Solomon Grundy for this fall season. Normal citizens are now running amok, infected with the Tetch Virus, detonated by the Court, so there’s anarchy on the streets of the beleaguered city. It is at such a moment a Dark Knight should rise to protect the city and its inhabitants but now, Batman doesn’t exist yet. So the duty falls to an infected Gordon, acting closer to Judge Dredd than anyone else.

Don’t worry, though, Bruce is taking those first tentative steps towards bat-hood as he dons ski mask and tactical turtleneck to stop evil in Crime Alley. Never mind he has yet to be properly trained in anything for any length of time for him to get proficient. He’s been too distracted by the insanity around him.

Some seem to really like this bouillabaisse of a series, appreciating its frenetic pace and over-the-top performances. The season rates 89% at Rotten Tomatoes so I am clearly in the majority. So be it. The 22-hours are nicely transferred to high definition with the same quality of audio.

Scattered among the four discs are Special Features including Gotham: 2016 Comic-Con Panel; Madness Rising: the New Villains of Gotham, as producers discuss each new rogue added to the expanding cast; The Dark Within the Dark: The Court of Owls; Ben McKenzie Directorial Debut, exploring the actor’s turn behind the camera; and an assortment of Deleted Scenes, some of which are fun.

Ed Catto: Happy Birthday, Jack!

Jack Kirby would’a been 100 today! The best part about it all is that the world can take a break to smile and to be astonished at this man’s incredible imagination and talent.

As you probably know, Jack Kirby was a tough, scrappy kid from the tough, scrappy part of New York City that grew up to be a very important comic artist. Kirby was a guy who made countless contributions and created a phenomenal number of characters and even launched a few genres. He was also a veteran of WWII and a family man.

But as a big comics fan, I almost loathed his work! But my entry point to Jack Kirby, where I really first noticed the man’s work, was with an image that was SO hideous and SO disgusting that I was worried I’d have nightmares forever.

Here’s what happened. As a very young boy, my Dad bought me an issue of DC’s The Demon. My (very generous) Dad would let me chose one comic every Sunday after feasting on our Sunday dinner at my grandmother’s house. The Demon was not one of the usual comics I was reading at that time, but the cover must have grabbed me and I selected it that week.

When I read it, I was absolutely horrified by one particular full page image. It depicted a character who’s face was horribly disfigured. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was sort of an homage to a scene in the classic Phantom of the Opera movie.

The character screams, “My face! It took my face! Look!” And as a nine-year old, I had to look. I couldn’t not look. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen.

I was just starting to read the creator credits on comics at that time. I thought: “This Kirby guy is awful!” I realized – then and there – that I should always avoid Jack Kirby comics.

Not long after that, as Kirby was returning to Marvel Comics after several years working for the publishing competition, I was perplexed by the titles he was creating.  Devil Dinosaur was supposed to be the work of a genius? What was I missing?

It took me a while to understand it all. Sometimes I’m a bit slow on the uptake. But I would eventually figure out that one gruesome page was certainly not what the genius of Jack Kirby was all about.  I’d spend years and years later trying to understand the genius of Kirby. I now realize I can’t fully comprehend everything this great man created, but it’s so much fun to try. Reading his work is always treat. It’s both a thrill and creativity to be celebrated.  

I hope you treat yourself to a little Kirby today too.

I’ve been invited to the Buffalo Comic-Con this year. I’ll be on their Jack Kirby at 100 Panel. The convention is September 31 to October 1st – hope to see you there! For more details, check it out here!

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