November 22, 2023

So many variants this week! That first row has so much going on. Can’ wait to get to them! Catwoman finally has a new arc that I argue is the first arc in the Dawn of DC since the last arc just carried on past when the DoDC started. I didn’t realize that the Beast World Evolution issues are reprints of past issues of titles that connect to this Beast World event that I don’t think was advertised at all before it started. Happy to se Mace in Hyperspace Stories. Darkest Hour continues for the Rangers. The next Dark Droids tie-in dropped. Peter and Bruce are just very busy in there issues. And Carol and Jennifer’s new runs continue. Carnage got a new run! This is the last issue of City of the Dead.

I actually wasn’t sure what this cover was, I guess I should have zoomed in, but eh it’s a fun cover.

Great variants again for this title.

Montes covers are just fantastic. Every time I see these.

A fun window shades variant for Jennifer, even better that she breaks the fourth wall. And of course the Jen Bartel main cover.

Love this Captain Marvel “The Marvels” variant. BT-1 action figure cover to match with his counterpart. Certainly going to slab them both. That John Stewart Rhazzah cover though. I don’t know who the character is beyond being a Tameranian, but Leirix did another brilliant job. Warren Louw is just an amazing artist, JUST LOOK AT THAT HARLEY COVER.

November 15, 2023

Yup.

Got the next issue of Welsey Dodds’ title. Outsiders finally has a new run. The Speed Force itself got a title (unless it’s just the name of that duo). I am intrigued by the Doctor Doomasaurus Rex. All the chaos for the mutants continues. We got a new Star Wars Visions title by Peach Momoko. Superior Spider-Man has it’s new title. Same reason for not talking about all the other issues.

Another Barends cover for Red Sonja. Cull’s covers are just so good.

Here are the Visions covers.

The first two are the A cover and the B cover both by Momoko. That skull on the third cover looks great!

I suppose I’ll get why the Speed Force got a title when I catch up on Flash. But I got these covers because I enjoy Avery.

The A cover is trippy and Leirix did a great job at the other cover.

Love these covers!

Two legacy covers for one issue! Brilliant!

Wish (2023)

November 18, 2023 (Advanced Screening) –

This was a delightful movie. It certainly was a fine way for Disney to celebrate its 100th Anniversary. There were a few obvious references to the past both in the art style, the character designs, and other little things, and I enjoyed that.

The story was based on the wishing star idea. And I would assume also the song used in Pinocchio, When you wish upon a star. From the trailer you can pretty much get the story. I liked the characters, if this had been a longer movie with a bit more depth, I would have had more character development for the side characters. But I had fun with this.

The music was lovely, the main song is the star (no pun intended, but appreciated, haha) of the songs that were in the movie. It’s certainly heard the most. Some of the other songs were a bit on the nose, but they were enjoyable. There was one more but I’ll get to that later.

I loved the animation combination. Seeing the classic Disney watercolor style and the CG together worked well for me. I know some aren’t a fan of when art styles are so different from one another in one feature, but I liked how they looked and worked off of each other.

It was a movie about hope and believing on oneself. I certainly would suggest it as a quick 90 minute burst of Disney appreciation.

Mid-Credit Scene: No, but the throughout the entire credits, there are golden line drawings of many Disney animated movies from the past century. It was a joy to see the characters that I’ve grown up with just saying hello for a moment.

End-Credit Scene: Yes. There is a short scene at the end that gives a wink to the song that inspired all this. And it is quite a lovely rendition. They it all ends with the full Disney 100 logo that it usually at the beginning. It was a wonderful way to end the movie.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

November 16, 2023

Well, that was certainly a ride! I forgot how long the movie was and half way through I was like oh there’s still half a movie left! And I was happy about it.

The acting was, of course, fantastic. Everyone played their roles brilliantly. I felt every moment of emotion.

The story was well planned out I thought, though as it’s coming from a novel like it’s predecessor, that makes sense. The first act is as expected, the second was intriguing, the third made sense.

The music was a very important part of this and it was all amazing. I loved it all throughout the movie. The reprisal was nice too, I do enjoy that song.

There were a couple twists and turns, though I expected more. And I thought THE turn would happen sooner, but that’s fine. I certainly would enjoy seeing more of this story.

Mid-Credit Scene: Nope. Though there is a sound bite at the end of the movie before the credits that was a nice call-back.

End-Credit Scene: Nope

November 8, 2023

Always down for a What If? issue. Even though I am horrifically behind on High Republic everything, I love that we’re getting these titles returning for each of the era’s of the High Republic. I am excited for Apocalypse’s return. The Gang War event has started, though I think I will wait for the collected edition for this event. I will still get the issues of titles that I already get that are part of this event, but I won’t read the tie-ins till it’s all done. A new arc in Batman started I guess. I am so curious about what’s going on in Shazam, I can’t wait to get here. But it’s basically the same with all the DC titles.

Posters this week!

And two more new movie reactions next week!

Artgerm doing what he does best. And Stefano Caselli did a fantastic job drawing this Apocalypse cover and Jesus Aburtov colored it brilliantly.

Of course Nakayama made this wonderful cover. And then Otto Schmidt did this gorgeous cover.

Here are the posters that came this week. Two will be gifts and I’ll keep the Gang War one.

November 1, 2023

Yup. Same.

This week was so light! Mainly because it’s a 5-Wednesday month. But still, it was nice. That’s also why I could get all those DWM issues and the total was still lower than I expected.

I am always excited when we get anything involving Jeff, the Landshark. I still am not even near this Venom issue, haha, well, any of these, but yeah. I am very excited to get to Spider-Boy’s title. Since I’m so behind, I’ve been avoiding anything in current comics as much as possible, so I don’t know anything about him beyond what I know from a few issues back. Yelena getting a new run is always great. The Ultimate Universe returning is cool, I would have been fine with it staying gone beyond the few characters from there we’ve see since it’s destruction, but eh, it’s comics. The Gotham War end with this issue. Supergirl got a special, the Aquaman sequel got a special tie-in issue, and The Return of Superman celebrated it’s 30th Anniversary with a special. And of course another issue of SWI.

The next Ross cover for Stephen.

These aren’t related other than the obvious theme. I want to get to this Natasha arc!! And there’s another JTC negative space variant.

The next Andolfo and Danino covers! Love them both!

Jen Bartel continuing to be amazing.

This special had a variant like this for each of the characters that rose up to replace Superman after Doomsday killed him and of course I chose Conner since his was my (tied for) first comic.

November 2023 Late Issues

Many DWM issues since I needed to get them out of the box and this month is relatively light. And I couldn’t remember if I had a facsimile issue of that Batman issue, so I got it. The two bagged issues each came with a double sided poster portraying promo posters for important serials for each Doctor. Those are below.

This is just a special comic issue for the Doom’s Day event in the DW comics and Big Finish.

The Marvels (2023)

November 9, 2023 – Well. That was a fantastic ride!

As anyone who actually reads my blog or knows me could guess, Kamala Khan is my favorite marvel character. And thus, I had lofty expectations for this. Though, I also knew that I would enjoy this movie regardless of any negatives. for an hour forty-five minute long movie, it went by surprisingly slowly. I was worried that it would go by too fast.

I loved seeing Carol and Monica and Kamala interact. I liked that their stories from each of their previous appearances coalesced into this narrative. For me, it felt like it worked. I know that some may see that as forced, but I think each story naturally flowed. Though I would have liked to have had some special focusing on Monica set after she got her powers and before this to get more from her character development. But I knew enough that it worked.

Seeing what Carol has been up to was nice, and getting some loose threads tied up from why she had a been back to earth till before Infinity War was good. We learn a bit more about her adventures, though I would have liked more, either from her talking about things, or some montage. But I assume we’ll get more from her as time goes on.

Iman again did a wonderful job as Kamala. I loved every moment of her being on-screen. Her energy is just so perfect. Her emotions are well-portrayed. I can’t wait to see more from her in the future. Seeing her on the big screen was just the best feeling. Even from when we were told we’d be getting Kamala in the MCU, and knowing she’d be in the movies eventually, it was just an utter joy to see her up there.

This movie did have a lot to do, I admit that. I mean this movie had to act as a continuation of one movie and 2.5 shows. I do think there was a bit of a disconnect between Secret Invasion and this, but like with the Marvel Television produced shows of old and the Marvel Studios movies, production for shows and movies are just so differently timed that I assume they didn’t have much communication between the two. I didn’t mind it much, but it did feel weird that there was really no referring to that.

The plot was pretty straightforward, there’s a problem and the three of them are thrown together and they solve it together. but there were some narratives that were threaded through that that I had been wondering about, so it was good that we had some stories finally being told.

The action was great. Watching it in IMAX 3D was fun. I’m glad I chose that for the first viewing. I’m typing this while waiting for my next showing to start in normal IMAX. The power switching was a fun function for them to learn do deal with as seen in the trailers.

The emotions for the characters when things got tense were well-portrayed. I felt the joy, sorrow, awkwardness etc. I think all the actors did amazing jobs in this movie. I still wish there was more time for character development.

I am so happy that this movie exists, I can’t wait for everything to come with all these characters.

The end of the movie: The final scene of the movie really was like a mid-credit scene, and I’m very happy about that and how they did it.

Mid-credit Scene: Yes. Very much yes. A previous of things to come indeed. Unfortunately, I was a bit spoiled from seeing a rumor online about one aspect of this, but I was still very happy.

End-Credit Scene: Not really, but there is an end-credit sound. So, no need to stay throughout the credits if you don’t want to.

October 25, 2023

Another week with SO MANY ISSUES. I wasn’t sure if I could fit them all on the bed! The light didn’t even reach the top that well, though it was darker outside when I took these unfortunately.

I enjoyed what I’ve read of this Green Arrow run, so I am excited to get to this issue. The cover of this Flash issue is certainly a hook for me. This is the last Tales of the Titans issue. Oh, I forgot that Alan Scott’s issue 1 was this week, I said that Jay Garrick’s issue 1 was the last of the issue one’s for these Gold Age titles, nope. Amazons Attack seems interesting. I like that we got a Hallow’s Eve special. And there just seems to still be much chaos for the mutants in all their titles. Captain Marvel started a new run, I’m excited for it, and I love the new costume. And this is the penultimate issue for this run (microseries) of Ms. Marvel, which I of course wish were a longer series. I don’t like these short runs for characters that have been happening. I like a decently long lasting run that has been planned out, especially when it involves my favorite character, though maybe there will be a new one after The Marvels debuts in two weeks.

I really like this Negaduck cover. One can see why. This Wonder Woman cover is just wonderful, the reflection on the gauntlets are gorgeous. I can’t remember if this Maul cover was going to be a gift or for myself, haha. I had to get this Chopper variant, he’s utter chaos, and I love him. This Werneck cover is lovely, the colors are beautiful. The next Nakayama cover for Gargoyles is of course great. Jenny Frison just continues to make brilliant covers. And Nakayama gave us a wraparound cover which I love.

I mean look at that! Such fun. Also, Thor would be the winner. Haha.

Woot for legacy covers! I just love them. And hey, they’re both green!

Barendsssss! Yeah, I’ll have to stop getting them all, haha. But these are just so good. Also, the Flash and Marvel Zombies covers look very similar funnily enough, large grey characters and a red (or red looking) hero.

I probably will get these foil covers slabbed since they’re just so nice.

Two more Romita duo covers. These, I certainly will get slabbed, I would hope to get JR Jr. to sign these, but most likely they’ll just be raw.

Hey look, two more joyful Leirix covers!

Love these so much! I’m happy that Jen Bartel got to design Carol’s new costume. And here’s another wonderful negative space cover. And that last one is another windowshades cover! I almost missed it since it doesn’t look like the others.

I mean. LOOK.

Love these so much! The homages are wonderful and that Momoko cover is such fun!

Okay. I mean. JUST LOOK. Christian Ward does such dynamic art. This Mr. Bones cover is just so simple and brilliant. The static of him and the dynamic movement of the smoke are perfect. Slabbing that indeed. And I didn’t think I had anything from this artist, but I certainly do, Carla Cohen does AMAZING work. This depiction of Kara is utterly perfect. I would love to meet her and get it signed one day. Just amazing (Yes, it’s worth two amazing’s).