March 16, 2022

The Avengers were losing to these multiversal Masters of Evil, Monica Rambeau was making moves against Beyond, Thanos met his great uncle (this issue was late by a couple weeks), Carnage started its new run, Halcyon Legacy dipped its toe into the prequel era as we saw an adventure with Aura Sing, The Watcher went to plead the other Watchers to help with the Reckoning War, but they put him on trial and showed him a future that made him doubt his choices, Xanadoth had taken Black Adam as an unwilling host, Wally and Dick had an adventure, and the Trial of The Amazons continued after a most tragic death.

Posters below.

March 9, 2022

A creature created from DNA of The Lizard and Morbius was causing problems in ASM, Thor had finally become a fully realized All-Father after Odin’s sacrifice, we got a Han & Chewie title from a time before A New Hope, we got an in-depth look at The Archivist in Crimson Reign 3 and her knowledge of The Force and galactic history, the Eternals needed something from the Celestial that was now Avengers Mountain so they went to take what they needed, this run of Kate Bishop: Hawkeye was over, Marvel gave us a Captain Carter title (probably from the popularity of the character from the What If…? series on Disney+ even though this is a different version of that character.), Sabretooth was still plotting what he’d do when he escaped, we got a Women of Marvel special, (with some great variant covers), the last issue of Superior Four dropped, as did the penultimate issue of Devil’s Reign, Omega Red had taken one of Logan’s bodies and there came another Wolverine of sorts to Krakoa from another time, the situation at Arkham Tower became dangerous as Scarecrow took control though the Bat-family was there too, Jon and Nightwing continued to bond, Naomi got new run (even if only a miniseries), the JL and the LoSH were still trying to figure out what this darkness was that was messing with both teams, The Trial of the Amazons had begun, and we got the final issue of the Superman vs Lobo three-part series.

The two photos below are the same pile just closer since the lighting on the main photo left the issues a bit faded since the camera couldn’t focus well.

The Batman (2022)

March 3, 2022 – The Batman.

First of all, it was fantastic! The plot wasn’t too complicated. The characters were well spaced out so everyone had their own time. The score was amazing of course. And as advertised, this showed the detective side of Batman much more than the other films.

Pattinson did quite well as Bruce. Showing us him during his second year as Batman where he’s known but still not yet quite trusted was a good move. Gotham is in a state of transition in many ways and everything felt built up in a way that offered change to come.

I wasn’t so sure about how they chose to portray Riddler from the promo information and the trailers and such, but it was well done. The characterization still seems a bit off when we see his goals and reasoning for what he’s doing, but it works for the story I suppose.

Selina Kyle. Zoë Kravitz was brilliant. There wasn’t too much about her past really other than what I feel like they made up for the plot, so that one part was a bit odd. But again, worked for the story. But she was great as this proto-Catwoman version of Selina. Also, Bruce and Selena’s chemistry was good. I mean Bruce is putting out his stoic kind of personality as Batman but it still works. And could set up for more down the line.

The action was certainly amazing. The fights were brutal and sound design assisted in that. The lighting was also well crafted. Of course it’s Gotham, so there’s a lot of darkness and the use of shadows was all over the place. Specifically the beginning of the movie when Batman is being introduced, the way the shadows are used in those sequences was probably a favorite aspect of the movie.

I may have to watch it again to really see if this is part of the movie, but I didn’t really feel the city of Gotham as a character. Sometimes with Batman projects, you watch or read and you just feel Gotham. There was a little bit of that, but as I said, I’ll watch it again to see for sure. But either way it didn’t detract from the movie.

It was a well done movie. Certainly one of the best Batman movies. The balance between crime fighter and detective was very well done. I’d still like to see Bruce be a bit more detective-like, but this was a good start.

Of course, we have no idea how we’ll see this iteration of Batman in the future of DC Films, but I’d be happy to see more of this. There were hints at what could be coming at the end, but we’ll see. This is on another Earth compared to the other DC Films as far as I remember being announced. But with the Flash movie basically being a Flashpoint story, this Batman could be ours in the future. Time will tell.

I certainly enjoyed The Batman. I hope that Pattinson stays in the role for a while.

Mid-credit scene: no

End-credit scene: not really a scene, but there’s something. You could probably guess what it is after seeing the movie, but if you want to stay, go for it.

March 2, 2022

We got the last issue of Static for this run, remember that Lord of Chaos from Superman a while ago? she came back and the Justice League was trying to stop her, Justice League Incarnate had its final issue which saw the team try to stop Darkseid, they realized they had to let him win and let’s just say Darkseid should have been careful what he wished for because the end of this title led directly into what would come in JL 75 (this JLI issue is another that has a lot of great splash pages), we got our first What If…?-specific to Miles issue (this would tie into his comic), Orchis was making moves against mutantkind, Door Z was opened in Spidey, we met a very different Tony Stark in Avengers Forever, Johnny went to face Annihilus, Jen had an unexpected visitor, and with Stephen gone, Clea took over as Sorcerer Supreme of earth in her new title (which really is still the Doctor Strange run since the Legacy numbering continues from that of Doctor Strange’s comics).

Movie next!

February 23, 2022

Task Force Z 5 welcomed Two-Face, Deathstroke was enjoying his time in his kingdom, Robin and the other contestants were decompressing after all the drama was over, Titan’s Tower was down, Mongul was making an example out of Clark, Shang-Chi started a new arc, Silk went to a Luna Snow concert and trouble presented itself by the way of a witch, the Last of the Marvels arc ended with Captain Marvel #170, Tony was doing what he thought was right but his friends weren’t so sure, Miles and Shift had their final battle against the Assessor and Quantum, Ghost Rider got a new run, we got the final issue of Phoenix Song: Echo, some John Walker in Villains for Hire, more Carnage in Carnage Forever which would roll into the next Carnage run, and Ms. Marvel met herself?

Another issue that was late that I got two weeks later when I picked up my net batch of issues. This was the final issue of High Republic Adventures.

February 16, 2022

Nightwing bonded with Jon when he was younger and thus, he was available to mentor Jon as he was struggling, we got the penultimate issue of Nubia and the Amazons as the Medusa storyline was closing, the Anti-Guardian was destroying Oa, Wally’s kids came to save the day, we got the final issue of this Supergirl run, the 2022 issue of Marvel Voices: Legacy dropped, the X-Men found that M.O.D.O.K. was up to no good, Eddie met with others of his ilk, Thor got some backup against this God of Hammers but it wasn’t enough, although the end of this issue changed everything for Thor, we got a new Iron Fist in both run and character, Omega Red and Logan kept meeting in various times battling it out, and the Reckoning War continued in this FF issue.

Photo two is of the variant for this Marvel Voices Legacy issue that came later. Again, didn’t want a lone post just for it.

February 9, 2022

Printing was still (and is still) very off since Wonder Woman returned in her title in October 2021 and only at this point did Justice League get to that point in the canon with this annual, DC gave us a Valentine’s Day special, Psycho Pirate was starting to lose control, the Batgirls were still hiding from the false Oracle, Jon was trying to save the creature and save the city, MTG gave me one of my favorite variants ever, Maestro got a new run (the third run in this trilogy arc), Kate, her sister and Lucky had some explosions to run from in the penultimate issue of this run, everyone was getting over the Shadow King crisis, Moira was on the run, the mutants who didn’t win the election had a mission of their own in a new title called Secret X-Men, the Avengers continued to battle their multiversal foes, Vader continued to search for Crimson Dawn hidden within the Empire, I got this Moon Knight issue because it was a Devil’s Reign tie-in, speaking of that, it continued with its antepenultimate issue.

February 2, 2022

DC gave us a new character called Monkey Prince (he first showed up in another comic recently and now got his own title), the tower needed its pirate, Bruce found Batman Inc., Justice League Incarnate was on its penultimate issue and things were going badly, Star Wars gave us the Galactic Starcruiser Halcyon Legacy title (which showed us the past and present of a specific ship from Star Wars history. It was inspired from a new SW experience at Disney Parks), Crimson Dawn’s tendrils were everywhere, Warbird’s past was revealed in the MARVELS, Shang-Chi met his grandfather and things did not go well, after a while with no new information Non-Stop Spider-Man mutated into Savage Spider-Man as a new run started, continuing the story from the last run, we met the Goblin Queen, Sabretooth got his own title where we learned what had happened to him since being the only mutant to be imprisoned almost since day 1 of Krakoa (basically, he’s been planning), Electra had Kraven problems, we finally got a story that had been hinted at 15 years ago with the FF event Reckoning War, got the next Sweet Paprika (I’d been getting all the variants), and got the next issue of SWI.

Posters to follow.

January 26, 2022

Batman/Catwoman got a special, Jason was not happy about working with zombies, Harley had to save her friend and the city, Yara’s miniseries came to an end before the Trial began, Robin had to deal with his family drama, the new Red X’s identity was revealed, Wally had to deal with an Eclipso-controlled JLD, Clark and some of the Authority were surviving on Warworld (though everyone was having a very bad time in general, those who were still alive), Detective Comics got to issue 1050 as the villain responsible for how Arkham Tower functioned was revealed, the Cowboy Bebop Netflix series got a comic series, Mary-Jane and Black Cat had an adventure (loved this issue), while Peter had the help of Black cat and Captain America to get him back into fighting form, Tony returned to earth and had some ideas for using his new power cosmic to make the world a better place whether people liked it or not, Thor hit its 747th issue as the God of Hammer hit Thor (a lot), plus we got its origin, in Black Panther’s 200th issue, T’Challa visited Ororo on Arakko, the Death of Doctor Strange saw its last issue as the mystery was solved, the threat was stopped and things went back to normal-ish, Devil’s Reign continued, Robbie was on an earth with Black Skull ruling, and we got the X Deaths of Wolverine’s first issue (X Lives and X Deaths alternated while the story flowed through both titles).