Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Justice League: Darkseid War: The Flash #1

Justice League Darkseid War The FlashThe Flash is forced to take on the role of the Black Racer, harbinger of death! But can anyone escape this unlikely grim reaper?

Out of the various Justice League members, there’s one who really is associated with death, and that’s the Flash. His alter-ego Barry Allen was set upon his path after the death of his mother, eventually becoming the Flash.

All of the above, and more, is explained in Justice League: Darkseid War: The Flash #1, which again takes on a weird This is Your Life/A Christmas Carol narrative like Batman’s focus last week. It’s so apparent that writer Rob Williams actually addresses it early on in the story.

But, Williams makes his take a lot more interesting to me. The issue really has Barry Allen/The Flash struggling with being death and the Black Racer. The issue lays out why this is all important. And it’s actually entertaining in a weird way. And eventually it takes us to a logical conclusion with a nice twist in the middle. This is unlike Batman who comes off as a dick accepting it all.

Part of this is helped by Jesús Merino on the art who does a great job setting the feeling of motion. It’s not the best Flash art out of recent artists, but he’s solid for this issue and uses angles really well to play off the character’s movement.

The issue isn’t bad, and there’s some nice things done with it all. I wish there was something more than just a new version of A Christmas Carol. I will say, Williams gives us actual reasons for the end of the issue that makes sense. For those really into “Darkseid War,” the issue gives us some more insight into the Black Racer and why the Flash must be death.

Story: Rob Williams Art: Jesús Merino
Story: 7 Art: 7 Overall: 7 Recommendation: Read

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

TV Review: The Muppets S1E6 The Ex-Factor

muppets-tv-show-posterKermit is scrambling to find the perfect birthday gift for Denise, so he turns to Miss Piggy for help.

The Muppets focuses on Kermit and his relationship wit Denise. Out of everything of the show, with the folks I talk to, Denise seems to be the most controversial thing about the show. Kermit’s new girlfriend seems to be either loathed or folks are neutral about her. I haven’t talked to anyone yet that likes her. And the character has been missing since the first episode, with little of the show having to do with Kermit and her, until this episode.

Almost the full episode focuses on the two as Kermit scrambles to get her a gift for her birthday. In doing so, the episode does a lot to spotlight the relationship, and after a bit gives us a bit as to why Kermit likes her, and why we should too. It’s smart writing in many ways, and I came away with a less negative attitude towards her.

The real laughs come with the Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem who are on a mission to play for an anniversary with Kristin Chenoweth in tow. The stuff that comes out of the band’s mouth is hilarious for me. The break down, their comments to each other, it’s a combination of stoned and people with dementia. It’s really entertaining, and I want a show just about the band and their adventures.

Out of the episodes, this one was the weakest. It was just too serious. Give me the absurd over the top comments, this episode proves that’s what’s entertaining about the series.

Overall Rating: 7

TV Review: iZombie S2E5 Love & Basketball

normal_izombietv_s01promo_001-1~0Liv, Babineaux and Ravi investigate a peewee coach’s death; Liv gives Major a pep talk; Blaine and Ravi work together on the cure; Suzuki’s widow visits Babineaux.

iZombie continues the cuteness as it has Liv eating the brain of a person who know a lot about sports, especially basketball. The episode is more of her spouting off sports facts, so it doesn’t take full advantage of Live McIver’s acting talents.

That’s fine as the episode really focuses on Major and his attempt to redeem himself. I haven’t been a fan of his addiction story or his assassin story. And moving past that, he’s getting better. But, the big thing is that he’s making some decisions as to his and Liv’s relationship status.

There’s also some movement on the whole zombie cure aspect of things which leads to some great comedic physical comedy from Blaine and Ravi.

Add all of this up, and the end of the episode, and this one really moves the overall plot forward in many aspects while also focusing less on the weekly whodunit. As usual, an entertaining episode.

Overall Rating: 8.5

TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S3E6 Among Us Hide…

Agents_of_SHIELD_logoThe stakes get higher as May and Hunter pursue Ward and Hydra; Coulson thinks the ATCU could be keeping a big secret.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. splits its time between two stories. There’s Melinda gathering a team to seek some revenge for the attack two episodes ago, going after Strucker in hopes of finding Ward. Really the episode should be entitled when Bobbi and Melinda got their groove back.

The rest of the episode revolves around Coulson finding out a lot more about the ATCU. It lifts the veil a bunch about the organization.

There’s a huge reveal as to who Lash really is, and I want to spoil it, but holy crap is it silly. Just really, really silly. This organization really needs to do better background checks. And Lash looks horrible in make-up.

Oh well.

The episode had some good, it had some bad. But mostly back to the so-so entertainment of this season.

Overall Score: 7.5

TV Review: The Flash S2E5 The Darkness and the Light

The Flash Season 2Barry learns a new breacher, Dr. Light, has come through the portal and sets off to capture her. Jay tells Barry that Dr. Light was not a threat on Earth-2 and that Barry can reason with her. However, during a fight with The Flash, she blinds him and drops some shocking news about Zoom. Meanwhile, Barry and Patty go out on a date.

Tonight’s episode is really Earth 2 focused as the crux of the tension isn’t just dealing with a new meta human from that Earth, but also Garrick and Well’s conflict. The episode peals back a decent amount of information so we can learn more about the alternate Earth and what happened before hand.

It also asks a lot of questions too, like where did its meta humans come from, and is Wells good, bad, in the middle?

The big bad tonight is Doctor Light, the female version, which continues bringing in characters from Barry’s world in as powered bad guys. It’s a little entertaining and a great reuse of characters and actors.

The heart of the episode though focuses on Barry and Cisco who both are dealing with their personal lives and trying to date. Both provide a lot of cute moments that many of us can related to, and it also provides some great humor as well.

There’s an awesome reveal that I hope goes far, but The Flash continues to be a nicely paced full of color, fun show.

Overall Rating: 8.5

Review: Klaus #1

Klaus_001_A_Main“He’s coming to town”

Anyone every had a burning to know the untold origin of the greatest holiday icon of all time: Santa Claus?

No, you say?

Well you’re getting one anyway. From the normally brilliant and wonderous mind of the Mad Scotsman himself, Grant Morrison.

As a humongous fan of Grant’s I feel absolutely comfortable by telling you that this was in fact.. just ok. It didn’t have all the zaniness and creativity that I’ve come and known to love from Mr. Morrison. His runs on Batman and X-Men are among my favorite in comics ever. He certainly is no stranger to handling literary icons (that’s right, comics are literature in my opinion) but something was just missing here.

Given a subject matter with no wrong answer, the famous scribe goes in a surprisingly pedestrian direction with it. Klaus (our future Santa) appears to be a vagabond traveling from town to town, selling pelts and materials to sell and make money to survive. Now Klaus is a rather hulkish man sporting a large beard and of great physique. Certainly he is no Kris Kringle here.

He arrives in Grimsvig Town (interesting enough name) for a pit stop to keep warm and have a drink. He is not well taken to by the local bar keep and notices that the attitude of this once peaceful town has become, well… grim.

The bar keep tells him it’s best not to ask questions and to keep on moving. Being of peaceful nature, Klaus obliges. On his way out the tavern he sees that all his stockpiled goods have been pilfered by the local authorities. He is upset and asks for payment or returning of the goods but the guards laugh at him. They poke fun of him and ask if he’s a wizard. He replies no.

Deciding it’s not worth the fight, Klaus begins to exit peacefully until he sees a young boy playing with a small stone and one of the guards strikes the child. Klaus will not stand for that!

He engages in battle with all the guards as they taunt him. The odds are to great though as he is forced to flee while injured by an arrow. He leaves a trail of blood and the guards begin pursuit.

The remainder of the issue is a confrontation with the guard brigade in the winter wilderness and the introduction of Lord Magnus, a character who appears to be the ruler of Grimsvig Town (far cry from Christmas Town) , as well as his bratty son Jonas who is never satisfied and obsessed with having good toys. (Hmmm I have an idea where this might be going but I’m hoping Grant goes left with it) Also we are left with a trippy cliffhanger which was the only Morrison-like part of the issue for me.

Overall: Not terrible, but not the fantastic paradigm altering epic I was hoping for. Sure it’s only the first issue, so there is lots of room to ramp this up, but it better hit the pedal fast. On the plus side the art by Dan Mora was great. As I read this all too quick read, I couldn’t help but think how great this could be if done in animation or a grander format. I think it suffers from being constrained to the normal 32 pages as it is not enough time for the master writer to stretch his pen. The cliffhanger was good, so I’m cautiously optimistic. Perhaps it’s the lack of yuletide spirit in me at this moment (it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet) but I can’t help feeling a bit like Jonas here, not yet satisfied and just wanting more.

Story: Grant Morrison  Art: Dan Mora
Story: 6 Art: 8.5 Overall: 7 Recommendation: Read

BOOM! Studios provided Graphic Policy with a free copy for review

Review: Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor #1

Doctor_Who_8D_01_Alien_EntertainmentWhen it comes to the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who fandom, he often gets overlooked as his tenure was really one appearance which was meant to be a series relaunch but became two , with the mini-episode “Night of the Doctor.” In his brief appearance in the series, he has left an indelible mark on the series, and the fandom worldwide, as his memory has not lived on as a squandered opportunity but what could have been. He ended up living on in individual stories published in novel, novella, short story and audio form. Now he finds his way onto the comics’ medium, with all the carefree charm his character is known for.

I personally loved the TV movie that Paul McGann’s Doctor was in, as he was not only a precursor to David Tennant’s and Matt Smith’s Doctor, but the first Doctor, we had seen, to show him in a lighter side. Up to this point, we had seen just how Doctor can be dark and brooding, as this man was only responsible for the destruction of Gallifrey. He was also a man who was a grizzled veteran of the Time War, which the later Doctors used to show the complexity of the titular character. It was not until the Eighth Doctor, that we see how the Doctor was before any threat of war and exactly the type of man he was before heading off to any of his cannon changing adventures.

Within the first adventure, we catch up with the Doctor, after he had been traversing the universe alone for a long while at this point. He finds a squatter named Josie living in his house, which had been abandoned for a few decades, and soon finds that she is partly responsible for the troubles currently hovering the quaint village the cottage is in. Soon both of them find out that the subjects of her paintings have come alive and are attacking villagers. He ultimately saves the day in true Doctor Who fashion, while gaining a new companion in the process.

Overall, an interesting premise which captures the essence of Paul McGann’s portrayal of the Doctor, but it does come off flat for a debut. The story by George Mann seems hurried, as though he felt a need to capture the quirks of the other Doctors to make him more interesting. The art by Emma Vieceli, seems to be the bright spot on this story, as they bring the 8Th Doctor in a new light. Altogether, I believe this miniseries has promise, none of which reveals itself in the first issue.

Story: George Mann Art: Emma Vieceli
Story: 7 Art: 8 Overall: 7 Recommendation: Read

Titan Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

TV Review: Gotham S2E7 Mommy’s Little Monster

Gotham Season 2Butch leads Penguin and his men to the warehouse where Gertrude is being held, as Penguin plots his revenge on Galavan for kidnapping his mother.

Gotham‘s seventh episode has actually bounced back a bit as the confrontation between Penguin and Galavan heats up into an all-out war of bullets. The show has gotten past the rather silly villain aspect, instead refocusing on almost a mob story, similar to last season’s best aspects.

We’re into a pretty straight power play as the two jockey for power, which has other repercussions, such as others seeing Penguin’s weakness and forming their own gangs.

I was a fan of the jockeying for power between the various mob factions in the first season, and this episode hearkens back to that.

The rest of the episode focuses on Nygma, who is dealing with his committing murder. We get to see some more of the aspects of what he’ll become to be, the Riddler, but the story feels very off. It’s all rather too soon. Corey Michael Smith’s acting in the role is solid though. His split personality is done really well, and prevents the episode completely melting down.

Robin Lord Taylor continues to steal the show as Penguin, really bringing out the hurt and anger in the character this episode. He’s been the highlight of the series, and one of the reasons I stick around.

This episode is the highlight of the season, not a high bar, and one of the best of the series actually. Hopefully we see more of this, and less of the campiness.

Overall Rating: 8.5

TV Review: Supergirl S1E2 Stronger Together

Melissa Benoist Supergirl 1Kara must put doubts aside as she tries to apprehend an escapee from the Kryptonian prison; Cat pressure James for an interview with Supergirl.

The debut of CBSSupergirl was a breath of fresh air with an action oriented comic based television series with a positive and feminist bent. It’s a show I’m sure little kids were excited to watch, and parents hopefully were ok with them doing so.

The second episode continues the positive message and gets us to more of what will likely be the season’s major nemesis, Supergirl’s Aunt.

What really suprised me about the episode is its positive aspect. The show had Kara learning a bit about fighting and self-defense, but more importantly about self-confidence. With her abilities, she still doesn’t quite know how to use them, which leads to her making mistakes and taking a step back about her role.

There’s a nice comedic aspect about it all, but there’s a great positive message that’s reiterated at the end of the episode. It’s clear Kara doesn’t have confidence, but through some sound advice she takes that step back, and starts with small tasks to build up her how she feels about herself. It’s a great lesson I can see many parents attempting to impart on their children.

The show exudes positivity from the lessons taught to the humor, even the bright colors all just make me smile. It’s nice to watch a show without a hint of grim and gritty. Comics as a whole needs more of that, and this show is showing how it can be done and done really well.

The show is more than just Supergirl, it’s also about Kara the regular person. Seeing how she deals with having the dual life. How she reacts to how people treat her and her alter-ego. There’s very much a human touch to it all. My only fear is the series stumbles in this department, particularly in the romantic space, but maybe those fears are unfounded.

The second episode wasn’t quite as magical as the first, but it’s an hour of television the whole family can watch, enjoy, and feel good about it all.

Overall rating: 8

Indie Icons: Youngblood #1

Youngblood Banner

What happens when Indie Icons looks back at one of the flagship titles from Image Comic‘s creation? Nothing good. Absolutely, nothing good happens. Let’s get into the strange, shall we?

Youngblood CoverThe story opens with a group of heroes in the dark dimension of D’Khay. And, for your guy’s sake, I’m going to get this out of the way right now because they don’t explain it for a long, LONG, time. Each superhero in this comic is part of the Youngbloods. There are at least twenty separate heroes in this story, all infiltrating something at some point too. It can get pretty confusing. Because of that, nobodies name is actually that important. For example, the man below’s name is Wildmane. I refuse to call him that. He will now be known as feral Wolverine. Youngblood Feral WolverineBy the hounds of perdition’s flames indeed. The team, poignantly named the Death Squad, continues to murder their way through the base they are in. Killing becomes so easy and boring to them that they actually start getting mad when someone doesn’t leave enough people to slaughter for the rest of the class. One person is particularly responsible for killing too many people too quickly and that is one Jackson Kirby. I really hope this is an homage to Jack Kirby. If it is, it is the most over the top interpretation ever. It’s also my favorite. Let’s compare.

Youngblood Kirby RealYoungblood Kirby

Basically, twins. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a picture of Jack Kirby carrying comically large guns the size of his entire torso but, I’m sure there’s one out there somewhere. The Death Squad continues moving through the base, killing everything in sight as they’re known to do. After clearing the hallway, they all jump in unison and become frozen in air. Why you ask? Because, Lord Darkthornn has trapped them in what he calls crash limbo. Who is Lord Darkthornn? I have no idea. He says he wants to conquer Earth but then, we never see him or any of the other characters we just met ever again. I’m sure it pays off at some point in a later issue but, I only just finished the prologue and I’m already getting exhausted. OK, which Youngblood is next?Youngblood NewpaperOh, yes. Shaft. He has no pupils in this picture but, no one actually addresses the reason for this. It seems like he can see so, maybe his power is having really white eyes? I don’t know. We’re introduced to Shaft in the middle of an argument with his super model girlfriend. He is upset because all of the paparazzi are following him around. Then, he sees a man steal a woman’s purse and the hero in him finally comes out. He tackles the purse snatcher and punches him right in the face. That is until he realizes it’s just a young kid. He quickly figure out it’s a set up and spots a sniper off in the distance. Shaft does not play these games. He takes a pen out of his pocket and throws it right into this man’s heart.

Youngblood penI guess he really does have pupils. Maybe, his power is being able to throw office products incredibly accurately? The paparazzi quickly surround him. It seems they were waiting for a moment just like this to make themselves known. They ask a quick question about the man he just killed but, that’s all just to butter him up for the real questions. No one really cares about the random dead guy or public murder they just witnessed. They want to know if there is a classified mission going on in Iraq. Shaft ignores them and runs away while his super model girlfriend laughs psychotically in the background. Now, I’ve never been in one of these situations but, it seems like they best way to get information from someone isn’t to try and trick them while they under a high amount of stress. I’ve also never killed anyone. I just imagine that it’s really stressful. I’ll be honest, I just write funny articles on the internet. Sure, there’s some office products throwing. But, normally, no one dies from it. Let’s look at a fun picture to get Indie Icons back on track. Youngblood CerealThis is Thomas. He is so mad that he doesn’t have enough combos in his video games that he can’t even eat cereal properly anymore. I can’t say I blame him either. Combos are serious you guys. After this, we are quickly introduced to the rest of the main team. I mean, I think they’re the main team. They’re on the cover at least. Next, we have the Die Hard unit who is, what looks like, a muscular robot hanging out in a basement in Arlington, Virginia. After that, comes Chapel. His introduction shows him planning on having sex with the woman in his bed until they both die. I wish I was kidding but this is the actual conversation.Youngblood ChapelMight as well, right? He then puts on his uniform and screams angrily at the woman on the bed, asking her if this turns her on. He seems like a really unstable fellow. We then get a few panels of a woman dressed in purple jumping out of a balcony. Who is she? No idea. And that’s the main team. Shaft arrives at Youngblood headquarters and, on the local news, he sees that the Youngblood operation in Iraq has leaked. They plan on destroying Hassan Kussein’s meta-munitions program apparently. It looks like it’s time for the team we have spent the last few pages to finally get into action and save the day! What? That doesn’t happen at all? There’s another team of Youngbloods still!?

Youngblood IraqAn entire, I can’t believe there’s more, new team of Youngbloods land on Iraqi soil and just start laying waste to everything in front of them. They are looking to rescue a target being protected by Kussein. While making their way through the desert, the large Youngblood wearing a giant golden helmet turns out to be an alien and swears revenge. Revenge for what? Revenge on who? I…I just don’t know. So much is happening right now. I’m feeling overwhelmed and there aren’t anymore fun pictures to save this article. Let’s just keep going.

We cut back to the main Youngbloods still sitting at headquarters and trying to figure out if the leak of information is their fault. They decide to go to the hangar bay for some reason and that’s that. We cut back to our team in Iraq, continuing to murder Kussein’s army. They begin to get a bit paranoid because this seems too easy. That is, until they hit a trip wire energy grid that fries their synapses on contact.Youngblood ShieldThis doesn’t effect psi-fire, whose glowing feet you see above. It just makes him angry. We don’t quite get to see this play out though. We first cut to the White House, where the president is freaking out about the Iraqi mission leak. And, that’s it. Do we finally start wrapping up this comic which, at this point, has about 4000 loose story threads? Of course not. The story returns to the main team who are flying over a prison transport at the exact moment a few super villains begin to try and break the prisoners out. And, being Youngblood, there isn’t just one or two villains. There is an entire team of bad guys because this story needs all the characters it can possibly find. And, finally, we get to see the main team in action. The heroes on the actual cover of the comics. The one’s we bothered to learn a bit of backstory on. Look how promising this action pose is. Youngblood Main TeamIt looks like some serious business is about to happen. It doesn’t. We don’t see the main team again for the rest of the issue. We cut back to Psi-Fire who decides to tell Kussein about how he killed his parents by making their heads explode. He then tells him, and I’m not making this up, it’s “better than sex”. I don’t have any words for whats going on at this point. He eventually makes Kussein’s head explode for what I can only assume is because he is sexually excited by the dictator? It’s really weird you guys.Youngblood Head ExplosionThe rest of the team is not happy about this. They actually start freaking out because he just randomly murdered a country’s dictator but, they quickly get over it. With Kussein and his army out of the way, the Youngbloods can finally grab the target they came for. You never get to see that though. This is where the story ends. Nothing is resolved. I’m confused. I’m tired. Indie Icons will be back next week with a comic that is not Youngblood. Never again Youngblood.

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