My favorite moments of Ultimate Spider-Man #3 center around the interactions between Peter Parker and his daughter May who is the only one who knows her father's secret. We get the pair working to keep the secret from Mary Jane and then May helping her father find the perfect look for this universe's Spider-Man. We also get a fun little character beat with Peter discussing Spider-Man with Ben and Jonah, sticking up for the city's new hero.
After working through some issues over the pair getting on each other's nerves, Lunella (Diamond White) and Casey (Libe Barer) work together to save Devil after he accidentally injects one of Moon Girl's new experiments. "Belly of the Beast" wears the moral of the episode on its sleeve with the Innerspace-style adventure allowing for some action not caused by the pair's bickering. In the end, talking things out and working together help heal the rift in pair's friendship (although, notably, neither take much effort to apologize to Devil who not only has to awkwardly stay still while the girls investigate inside him but also misses out on several favorite treats.
Somebody sure watched Planet of the Apes. After already hitting the climax of this Monarch film series which gave us Godzilla versus King Kong, the pair are brought back together to mostly ignore each other in separate storylines, battle each other (briefly), and team-up against a threat that is underwhelming to say the least in a crazy ape and his miniature frost-shooting Godzilla. Other than merging the franchises with something like Pacific Rim or Transformers there was really nowhere for the series to go. And that's where it goes, absolutely nowhere.
The film starts out focusing on the displaced Jia (Kaylee Hottle) and her relationships with Ilene (Rebecca Hall) and Kong who has been searching in vain to find other apes in Hollow Earth. There's nothing we haven't seen before, but these relationships work. That's more than I can say for the rest of the film. We're teased with a warning coming from Hollow Earth. Well, actually, it turns out to be coming from a secret part of Hollow Earth within Hollow Earth.
The final two episodes of the reimagined live-action season feature Aang's (Gordon Cormier) arrival in the North (while still doing nothing to learn water bending). Katara (Kiawentiio) on the other hand does throw herself into bending only to discover women aren't trained in anything other than healing. The show's decision to remove Sokka (Ian Ousley) overtly sexist nature from the animated show, still likely the best decision, means the live-action version does lose a throughline between both Water Tribes. The result is Master Pakku (A Martinez) comes off more like an anarchistic fool rather than someone holding onto the tenants of shared, albeit flawed and sexist, culture.
I often lament the lack of one-off super-hero stories. Give me a full story in a single issue and I'm happy. Everything these days gets geared to an arc to be easily bound together as a trade paperback with most of those stories, unfortunately, being often stretched beyond its limits. So I celebrate Wonder Woman giving us a fun little one-issue story of Wonder Woman and Superman shopping at a galactic mall for a birthday present for Batman. Sure, it's it he most bizarre and illogical place ever (in the middle of Wonder Woman's battle against Sovereign which is mostly ignored), but it's still a fun read.
A missing persons case takes Will (Ramón Rodríguez) and Faith (Iantha Richardson) to a town on the coast where a small group disappeared after their party in the woods. They may or may not have been taken by a boo hag locals believe are responsible for a half dozen missing people over the years. Survivors from whatever happened start appearing one at a time with muddied memories of what happened. That is, until one eventually turns up dead.
Vengeance of Moon Knight #3 plays out in the same format as the previous two issues. We continue to get rotating members of the Midnight Mission talking over events with Dr. Andrea Sterman while the team struggles to make sense of Marc Spector's death and the appearance of this new Moon Knight.
The opening episode of 3 Body Problem introduces us to a world where the laws of science appear to be broken (although this is more told to use, over and over again, that properly shown or explained). Along with the unexplained phenomena of all particle colliders malfunctioning, the suicide rate in scientists, physicists in particular, has skyrocketed. Many are being haunted by a ticking clock which only they can see. And, somehow, what is currently happening appears to have something to do with secret experiments in China during the 1960s. Rosalind Chao and Zine Tseng both star as Chinese scientist Ye Wenjie in the present and the turbulent past, who is the character most likely to have answers for what's happening.
While Lucy (Yasmine Al-Bustami) is assigned to protect one of the daughter (Masha Mashkova) of a Russian oligarch, and one of the visitors for a peace summit, Hanna (LL Cool J) reads Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) in to one of of his super-secret squad's assignments, this one involving Alexi Volkoff (David Meunier). Tennant quickly finds the right lever to get Hanna the information his team needs leaving the majority of the episode to focus on the Lucy storyline. We also get Kai (Alex Tarrant) running into an old friend in a Canadian reporter (Peyton List) he was involved with during his time in Afghanistan who in turns out might be able to help NCIS learn Tatyana's true purpose on the island.
Hal Jordan's isolation on Earth comes to an end with a discovery of a hidden Power Battery on the planet. Hal's journey, the discovery of the battery, and trading in for a new ring (charging it with a familiar oath), is helped by the appearance of Tom Kalmaku (whose role with the New Guardians is referenced). Breaking out of the Earth's atmosphere, Hal returns to Oa where we also get an appearance by Jo Mullein who appears to be the one behind the Lanterns' rebellion of the United Planets.
Resurrecting the 90s X-Men cartoon, X-Men '97 returns much of its voice cast and core characters to continue its storylines following the death of Charles Xavier. There's quite a bit to praise in the opening two episodes of the series. As a huge fan of Cyclops (Ray Chase), I'll start with the much maligned X-Men's field leader who gets to kick a serious amount of butt stopping a terrorist group known as the Friends of Humanity who are kidnapping mutants and have access to Sentinel technology. A character Fox struggled with in various live-action adaptations is given a great showcase here. Cyclops is also navigating a world without his mentor one the eve of the birth of his son both of which alter his role towards the rest of the X-Men.
Fables comes to a close... again. Fables #162 wraps up "The Black Forest," the twelve-part return to the Fables Universe for Bill Willingham. Although its various epilogues tease additional stories for some of the separate characters, Fables #162 does feel like a finale. Our catalyst to the end of Peter Pan comes in the form of the new Jack in the Green who finally catches up with the villain and uses her arrow not to kill Pan but to release Tinkerbell from his control damning him to a far worse fate than death.
"Tomorrow is Tomorrow" accomplishes two major tasks. The first is Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), and Mariko (Anna Sawai) and out of the clutches of those who want both Toranaga and Blackthorne dead. The second is it provides multiple opportunities for both Toranaga and Blackthorne to get a measure of each other. Blackthorne discovers the cunning of his rescuer/captor in getting out of Osaka while leaving his enemies at an empass unable to move forward with their plans without his presence. Toranaga gets a measure of the pilot who puts his own life on the line rather than be left behind. As so a friendship begins between the pair with Mariko cemented as the bridge between them.
If you can make it through the first-half of Art of Love, which is asking more of the audience than any movie has a right to do, there is some fun to be had in the film's final 40 minutes of this story about an Interpol agent (Esra Bilgiç) attempting to prove her millionaire ex-boyfriend (Birkan Sokullu) is a world-renown thief. The film struggles heavily before getting to our thief's last big score which will shift the focus of the film from the awkward cat-and-mouse game the two are playing and finally push both characters, each of whom has lied about their present motives, together into admitting their feelings.
Although rough in spots, the follow up to Ghostbusters: Afterlife is an improvement. Overstuffed with a bit too much fan service and a bland CGI big bad, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire pales in comparison with the original, but it does still provide its share of fun. The sequel brings back the Spengler descendants and more familiar faces of the original movie as well for another big stand against both the politics of Ghostbusting in the Big Apple and a fight against an evil god out to destroy New York.
The most interesting aspect of the film deals with Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) who is struggling with the Mayor decreeing she's too young to be a Ghostbuster, dealing with a bit of teen angst towards her mother (Carrie Coon) and her now boyfriend (Paul Rudd), and beginning an unexpected friendship with a ghost (Emily Alyn Lind). The last of these is really where the film breaks a bit of new ground even if it doesn't lead to the inevitable question of whether busting ghosts is really the best thing for them.
While worrying about the wounded Marcille (Emily Rudd) the party gets an unexpected reunion when another party, with their former associate Namari (Akira Miki) as guide, comes across their path. Through Namari's eyes we see how the party has changed since his departure as their old friend is introduced to one of the party's celebratory feast after the successfully defeat a tentacle monster. Namari also helps Senshi (SungWon Cho) defeat the Undine that bested the party in the last episode.
In a story told through non-linear progression, Black Widow & Hawkeye features the Black Widow (with her new symbiote) in search of the missing, and presumed dead Clint Barton. Hunted by both Russia and America, Hawkeye is wanted for the very public murder of the Russian Minister... by an arrow. To further complicate matters, once Natasha catches up with him, Clint admits to pulling the bow.
Adapted from the short story of the same name, Cat Person stars Locke & Key's Emilia Jones as an overly imaginative college student working part time at a local movie theater. After a couple of awkward conversations with a regular, Margot (Jones) decides to give the older Robert (Nicholas Braun) a chance. A romance that blossoms over texts, however, runs into issues when the two spend more time together in real life.
Director Susanna Fogel and screenwriter Michelle Ashford who adapts Kristen Roupenian's short story could have used some bolder strokes here. The film could have popped more either as a darker thriller, really playing out Margot's fantasies and the darker tone the script half-heartedly adopts in the final act, or as a more farcical comedy playing up the uncomfortableness and craziness of romantic misunderstandings and mistakes for laughs. Middling halfway between the two leaves us with a more uninspired drama, albeit one with some interesting ideas about modern dating.
Now with Omega (Michelle Ang) and Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker) back in the fold, Star Wars: The Bad Batch turns its attention to working the other clones back into the larger story. After capturing one of the new clone assassins targeting both senators and searching for Omega, Rex (Baker) and his team contact Hunter (Baker) unknowingly putting them in danger of another assassin. While "Infiltration" lays the foundation of the episode and brings the characters together, "Extraction" centers around the heroes racing to stay one-step ahead of the Imperials on their trail. The episodes are solid, but not without some head-scratching moments in terms of the logic given events already laid out for the show.
Picking up directly from the end of the last issue with Devastator ripping through the depleted ranks of the Autobots, Transformers #6 is most notable for the tease of Optimus Prime's death before one of the Transformers' new friends makes a sacrifice. And then we see what a badass Optimus Prime can be, stemming the tide and pushing the Decepticons back on their heels.
The penultimate episode of the season centers around the secret cult of the Bear Clan giving Diego (Miguel Bernardeau) one-month to kill Monasterio (Emiliano Zurita) who stands in the way of their plans for California. During this period, the newly married Lolita (Renata Notni) confronts Diego who not only confesses he is Zorro but enlists Lolita's help in identifying other members of the clan as well. Those they find meet just at the end of Zorro's sword and in the pit with Nah-Lin (Dalia Xiuhcoatl).
Love Lies Bleeding reminded me strongly of body horror with the genre turned on its head by highlighting the glistening muscled bodies of female body builders, often even providing close-ups of bulging muscles, fetishizing them not for the grotesque but instead with more seductive ends in mind. While the purposes are different, the end result remains much the same with the focus on the body at times overpowering that of the character.
In a movie full of awful human beings, what writer/director Rose Glass offers is a tale of the least awful pair of the bunch falling in love. The noir-ish revenge thriller offers us gym manger Lou (Kristen Stewart) dealing with her shitty day-to-day life and her complicated family drama involving her father's (Ed Harris) criminal enterprises and her sister's (Jena Malone) disastrous relationship with her abusive husband (Dave Franco). Into her life walks bodybuilding drifter Jackie (Katy O'Brian) with her own clouded past who provides a chance for love.
While the rest of the family stays at the restaurant for an unexpected contest between street performers, "Jade in the Shade" gives us a main story featuring Linda (John Roberts) and Louise (Kristen Schaal) searching for treasure in an episode that makes callbacks to The Bob’s Burgers Movie. While touring an old timey hotel's celebration of its bootlegger past, Louise becomes obsessed with the legend of hidden treasure. Just wanting to spend some time with her daughter, Louise gets roped into the escapade that take them to the the under-pier.
When you give me Batman in the best design of his costume and Catwoman in the best design of her costume, you have my attention. Dario Brizuela's art in The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #3 just makes me smile, and Ivan Cohen's story is quite enjoyable as well playing on long-running Batman and Catwoman relationship that starts with someone impersonating Catwoman in a series of crimes. Taking Batman's word that Catwoman is innocent, Mystery, Inc. set out to find the true criminal.
With his impeachment all but assured, Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) uses John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) as a wedge to divide the lords planning on his removal by pitting the Christian and non-Christian sects against each other. During his stay in prison, Blackthorne learns a bit about the local politics from a priest (Joaquim de Almeida) coming to understand, at least in some small part, value he could provide to Toranaga whose plans not to kill the heretic have already born fruit.
The four-issue run wraps up here with the White Widow tracking Armament owner Renata Best back to her lair. In super-villain fashion, Best reveals all her plans to the hero and even offers Yelena a job with the company helping to train the assassins of the future for the (those future assassins being disposable cyborg killers she can destroy at any time). Yelena, however, has other plans.
Shuffling around events of the original series a bit, "Omashu" and "Into the Dark" provide Aang's (Gordon Cormier) journey into the Earth Kingdom where Aang, Sokka (Ian Ousley), and Katara (Kiawentiio) disagree over how to help the city's fight against the Fire Nation. Here we get Jet (Sebastian Amoruso) whose scruffy rebel act hides a darker purpose and the conflict of the Mechanist (Danny Pudi) attempting to keep his city safe from harsher attacks from Fire Benders. Adapting parts of four different episodes and mashing them together, not unsurprisingly, turns out to not work all that well.
Damsel works better in concept than in execution. Millie Bobby Brown stars as Elodie, the smart and capable daughter Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone) in a remote region hit hard in recent years. The chance to save the kingdom comes in the form of a marriage proposal for Elodie from Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) and his family (Milo Twomey and Robin Wright) who rule over a realm for more rich than that of Elodie's father. The family accepts the arranged marriage which goes off without a hitch at least until Elodie is thrown into a dragon's lair as tribute to the creature that once ravaged these lands.
What follows is Millie Bobby Brown skulking around caves, exploring, hiding, and screaming, while tearing off small pieces of her princely gowns for survival. The dragon will toy with Elodie long enough for her to come to grips with her situation and formulate a plan.
Lys Solay (Juliet Donenfeld), Kai Brightstar (Jamaal Avery Jr.), and Nubs (Dee Bradley Baker) get a snowy adventure on the planet Andraven where they help locals Gumar (Liam James Ramos) and Jam (Julian Edwards) herd a group of Nubs (Dee Bradley Baker) (think tauntauns mixed with seals) over a mountain. As with all the episodes of the series, the trio of young Jedi learn a lesson in their snowy trip which is complicated first by an avalanche and later by the loss of Jam in a snowstorm. However, not loosing her cool, Lys takes a moment, calms herself, and lets the Force guide her reuniting the group and allowing them all to slide down the mountain together for a warm reception and celebration.
"A Different Approach" picks up events with Omega (Michelle Ang) and Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker) on the run together and the new pup teaching the old dog a few new tricks as Omega takes the lead in less murdery plans on getting back to the rest of the squad. It's a nice little episode building the comradery of the two characters even more before delivering them to a remote location in time for a reunion.
In a desperate, but ultimately successful, move to save Lobot's life, Lando Calrissian's treachery in selling information about the Rebel Alliance to Jabba the Hutt has been revealed. Rather than run from the truth, Lando has admitted his crimes. While Admiral Ackbar and General Madine seem perfectly at ease with jettisoning the traitor out of the nearest airlock, Leia makes an impassioned plea for the Rebellion to prove they are better than the Empire setting up a trial over the fate of Lando Calrissian.
Noticeably missing all five members of the Furious Five, DreamWorks rolls out a new Kung Fu Panda sequel this time centered around Po (Jack Black) being asked by Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) to choose the next Dragon Warrior. Each of the films in the series has had an emotional core tied to Po and his journey. The script clumsily deals with Po's latest milestone rushing it into happening instantly and also somewhat haphazardly ignores his development in previous films when logic, common sense, or the franchise's canon might get in the way of a gag (such as Po not being able to find the inner peace he mastered two films ago).
Kung Fu Panda 4 isn't a bad film. There's still plenty of fun to be had with Po, his two dads (James Hong and Bryan Cranston), the plucky thieving fox Zhen (Awkwafina), and the new villain in the Chameleon (Viola Davis) whose abilities and larger plan allow for the return of several of Po's foes including Tai Lung (Ian McShane). As to the outcome, or Po's choice on a successor, there's not much in the way of surprises this time around.
While investigating a double-homicide and looking for a missing pregnant woman who was the intended victim, Will (Ramón Rodríguez) continues to struggle with the emotions of Cricket's (Susan Kelechi Watson) death. His investigation becomes momentarily focused on a preacher (Jerod Haynes) who he correctly guesses has something to hide, although it turns out not to have anything to deal with the current crime. Meanwhile, Angie (Erika Christensen) returns to work and dives into her own case of murder with Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) involving the death of a selfish fitness nut was poisoned in a spa.
The death of a Navy pilot in a swanky resort leads to the uncovering of a cocaine smuggling ring on the island. "Dead on Arrival" is most notable for Lucy (Yasmine Al-Bustami) and Whistler (Tori Anderson) going in undercover at the resort as a newly married couple, running into a bit of danger, and eventually identifying the brains behind the operation (John Marshall Jones) and the rest of the team raiding the compound at the end of the episode. The episode also plays on Jesse's (Noah Mills) concerns about Sam Hanna (LL Cool J) and what he's really up to, and also Ernie (Jason Antoon) uncovering that whatever the agent from Los Angeles is doing on the island it's far more hush-hush than simply a teaching assignment.
As with the previous issues of this volume, Batman: The Brave and the Bold #10 offers multiple stories, some being one-offs and others being part of ongoing stories. The highlight of this issue is the first story involving a new Man-Bat, Maps Mizoguchi playing Robin, romance troubles for Bruce Wayne, and some terrific art of Karl Kerschl capturing Batman in all his Bronze Age glory. If you are going to pick up this issue, this is the reason why as the rest of the stories range from middling to fine without another standout.
The penultimate episode the the season removes Rufus (Mandy Patinkin) from the ship forcing Imogene (Violett Beane) to solve the case on her own with a help of a few others who are now all hostages of Victor Sams. Our boogeyman will be revealed in the final scene of the episode, solving both the murders onboard the ship and that of Imogene's mother. However, it's one hell of a twist the writers have in store for Sams' identity and it will take an entire separate episode to deal with explanations and epilogue for the key characters of the series (while also teasing the possibility of a new murder mystery if the show does get renewed).
Having found Magneto in the weird limbo for mutants, next challenge is to convince him to return to the world of the living. Consumed by his failures over the years, the Magneto she finds a a whiny little bitch who wastes most of the issue refusing her offer of help. For a comic created with the sole purpose of returning Magneto back to the land of the living, Resurrection of Magneto sure is taking its damn sweet time while failing to convince us of anything other than the obvious outcome.
Growing ever closer to the last sighting of the Red Dragon, the party attempts to rest which becomes harder after Marcille (Emily Rudd) accidentally awakens an Undine and depletes herself of Mana and blood to fight off the creature. The episode is more notable for Marcille's comments on the dungeon's ecosystem which lead her to think back on her friendship with Falin (Lisa Reimold), their first meeting, and how the unusual girl made Marcille look at the world and magic in an entirely different way. The Grilled Kelpie, the dish of the episode, comes not from creatures introduced in this adventure but the previous one, and is chosen by Senshi (SungWon Cho) to help restore Marcille's strength.
Discovering Duke has been captured, Cobra sends Major Bludd and his soldiers into the Pit to kill him before anyone starts believing his stories of giant transforming robots. Along with the action at the end where Duke fights for his life, the comic is mostly made up of conversations between Duke and the Baroness who spends most of the issue attempting to get Duke to reevaluate who his friends are and to trust her.
Cobra Commander's search for Energon for Cobra-La leads him into swamps for an encounter with the Dreadnoks. Although we don't get Zartan in this issue, we do get a pair of the original Dreadnoks in Buzzer and Ripper, and also a smaller cameo from Zarana. After leaving Cobra-La, the Commander doesn't make friends with either his protector/overseer from Cobra-La (who he ditches) or the Dreadnoks (whose prized vehicle he blows up).
The ten episode limited series begins with a starving ship of Dutch sailors crashing into the coast of Japan. One of the only survivors of what started out as a five-ship fleet, Major John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) is interrogated in the fishing village before taken to Osaka where more drama is afoot with four of the five feudal lords looking to oust Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), the most loyal to the the child heir to the empire in a move to consolidate power. The third pivotal role in the series, Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), has the smallest role in the opener really on part of a sequence involving the honor and attempted suicide of another woman, but more about her character will be expanded as the mini-series continues.
The second episode of Netflix's live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender gives us Aang's (Gordon Cormier) short time on Kyoshi Island. There are several pleasant changes from the animated version most noticeably Aang not needing to showoff to impress and removing Sokka's (Ian Ousley) toxic masculinity and sexist attitude from the episode altogether. I also quite enjoyed Maria Zhang's version of Suki, one of the original series' best supporting characters, and the mutual attraction the two pair share. Memorable moments mostly center around the Sokka and Suki together, although the episode also provides a memorable example of what an Avatar in control of their powers can accomplish when Avatar Kyoshi (Yvonne Chapman) takes control of Aang and dispels Fire Nation intruders from the island.
Catwoman #62 continues the "Nine Lives" storyline in which writer Tini Howard keeps finding ways to kill off Catwoman and bring her back for more. My real interest in the comic isn't in the story itself, although Catwoman fulfilling an old debt by agreeing to work a single case for Amanda Waller's Suicide Squad is an interesting set-up, but the number of characters with ties to the Secret Six including both Black Alice and Jeannette who are part of Catwoman's team in stealing an artifact from Black Adam.
Spinning out of events from the season premiere, and touching on storylines began last season, both Will (Ramón Rodríguez) and Faith (Iantha Richardson) visit the prison to find the shot-caller responsible for the bombing that took the life of Cricket (Susan Kelechi Watson). The investigation is stymied by the corruption within the prison and a prison break attempt which fails, but still leaves our detectives without answers. This leads to multiple father/son scenes between Will and James Ulster (Greg Germann) including the serial killer taking enough to "save" Will (but really just help out his own position within the prison hierarchy).
