Month: April 2019

Sunday Reviews

ANIMOSITY #20

Jesse and Sandor are taken to a house where some animals want to speak to them; entering, they find the place is full of snakes. Instead of finding the trap they expected, though, they discover the snakes are trying to work out how The Wake – the event that allowed all animals to speak – happened and, through their experiments, they have come to a startling conclusion: magic!

Another solid issue; just when you think it’s starting to get a bit WALKING DEAD in that there’s a situation that’s overcome and they head off only to end up in another situation, Marguerite Bennett throws something new in.

AQUAMAN #47

It’s the final battle against Namma and Aquaman has a multitude of ancient ocean gods on his side. With them, he is able to defeat her and is rewarded with some mystical tattoos and a new trident.

The first story arc of Kelly Sue DeConnick’s run on the title comes to an end with the promise of an epilogue of sorts next issue where – we assume – Aquaman will regain his memories. I’ve said all along I’m not a fan of “waking up with no memories” type stories as they’ve been done to death; still, the art looks great.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #22

Mr Mxyzptlk has gone crazy and is re-writing reality before the Legion of Doom – complete with a weaponised Bat-Mite to fight Mxy – turn up to try and save the day. While that’s all going on, we get the origin story to pass all origin stories – that of the first Multiverse. Perpetua narrates the tale of how she created the first Multiverse, along with the Monitor, Anti-Monitor and World Forger. Refusing to pass on once her work was done, the Monitor, and his brothers, organise a rebellion against her which ends with the creation of the Source Wall and her imprisonment beyond it, at the same time sowing the seeds for the Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Sucker as I am for some continuity wrangling, I really enjoyed this issue and the glimpse it gave us of the Monitor and Anti-Monitor before the first Crisis.

Mash-Up #72

Three times a week I randomly generate two dates, hunt down covers from those dates and then mash them together and force the results on you lovely people, while giving a hat-tip to the wonderful Super-Team Family blog which has been doing this for years (and a lot better) on an almost daily basis.

Am I right in thinking Rebirth wiped out the Superman/Wonder Woman romance and that it never happened, now? No real surprise, I guess, especially as they wanted to bring in Superman and Lois’s son Jon.

And hey look – new logo!

Hellboy Review

Spoiler free post here – unless you count the fact that the movie stinks as a spoiler.

If you’ve read THE WILD HUNT then you know much of what to expect in this latest Hellboy film. And if you enjoyed THE WILD HUNT, you will likely be disappointed by this film.

Credit where it’s due, David Harbour looks the part but then most people would under that amount of make-up. Ian McShane looks mostly bored throughout and the rest of the cast are forgettable, there to deliver a handful of lines peppered with F-words that are supposed to make you laugh, but fail throughout. The first trailer was criticised for focusing on the humour – I only wish that had carried over into the film.

It’s a mess: bogged down with exposition, moving from one CGI-heavy fight scene to another, with a tired, old seen-it-all-before ending where the protagonist is brought back from the brink by a timely pep talk.

It would be easy to blame director Neil Marshall – and Cthulhu knows I blame him for The Descent and Doomsday . . . Dog Soldiers was great but after that, it’s all been downhill – but nothing really works here. It’s just a mess of disappointing scenes bundled together.

The first Hellboy was great and even though Hellboy II: The Golden Army wasn’t brilliant, it was still much, much better than this offering.

You get two strong right hands, Hellboy, but only just.

Mash-Up #71

Three times a week I randomly generate two dates, hunt down covers from those dates and then mash them together and force the results on you lovely people, while giving a hat-tip to the wonderful Super-Team Family blog which has been doing this for years (and a lot better) on an almost daily basis.

Here’s a random thought for you, following this Mash-Up – who would win in Wonder Woman vs Darth Vader?