The Complete List Of Everything Right With Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

At last, Ryan has seen and reviewed the eponymous Batman Vs Kramer:  Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.  He didn’t like it.

Well, it wasn’t good, but to be very fair, I will now list all that was right about it.  SPOILERS and such.

Geek Review: Batman V Superman

Like many people, I saw Batman V Superman:  Dawn Is A Dish Detergent over the weekend.  I actually went with a small group and got a small range of opinions.  My group included:

• Me.  Duh.
• My thirteen-year old niece.  She’s a sucker for the Marvel movies, and since I was going home for Easter, I asked her if she wanted to see the movie.  She said yes.
• My brother.  Another geek, mostly.  I had initially asked him if he wanted to come along with our niece and myself and bring his oldest son (age 9) too.  My brother wanted to see the movie first before he took his son.  Understandable.  Then he asked me to get another ticket when I bought them.
• The open seat.  Here’s where everything got complicated.  The original person I got this for was my sister-in-law, who is not a geek.  At all.  But, she got sick Saturday.  My brother asked his son.  The kid wanted to go at first, then changed his mind for some reason no one understood.  The last ticket was eventually used by my brother’s father-in-law, of little geek persuasion.

So, tickets in hand, this motely group went to see the movie.  Review and SPOILERS after the cut.

[A note from Jimmy: I’ve hijacked this post and put my thoughts at the end.  They are spoiler free, but since you have to read through Tom’s excellent review to get there…I guess it matters little.]

Awesome Cosplay Of The Day: Mera!

We are loving this rendition of Mera from DC’s Aquaman series. For more cosplay goodness, check out @comicgirlcosplay & her web series “A Beginner’s Guide to Cosplay” or her Instagram.

Tom Recommends: Young Justice (Animated Series)

Animator Greg Wiseman has had a long string of animated series that have pleased fans but have always seemed to be cut short due to other factors.  He was forced off Disney’s Gargoyles and saw his Spectacular Spider-Man cut short due to the Spider-rights going to Disney.

Then there was Young Justice, an animated series set in the DC universe about a team of superhero sidekicks going on covert missions for the Justice League.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #55: The Sea Devils

There once was a time when various comics companies would just toss random characters out there and see what stuck.  While the Silver Age version of characters like the Flash and Green Lantern first appeared in DC Comics’ Showcase, that particular comic was initially intended as an anthology to introduce new characters.  In point of fact, the first character to be featured in Showcase was a firefighter named Fireman Farrell.  He got three short stories in that issue and as near as I can make out was never seen again.

As a digression, Farrell’s last story featured a national news TV crew following Farrell and his company around as they fought a fire, but that was to cover a story about a local (and apparently unpopular) ballot initiative to give the firemen a raise so they could do stuff like send their kids to camp (that was treated as a tragedy).  One woman interviewed said the teachers deserved a raise first, and a home viewer decried that woman as “stupid”.  I sure would like to know why wanting a raise for a nation’s educators is stupid.  Or why a local ballot initiative was national news.  I guess the point is I don’t miss Fireman Farrell.

But that “let’s see what works” approach is my best explanation for the Sea Devils.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #54: Gypsy

When you look this good, you don’t want to be invisible.

The Justice League has been DC’s all-star team from its earliest founding.  That is, unless you’re aware that the original purpose was to give exposure to the company’s lesser-known heroes, which would be why Superman and Batman only made sporadic appearances in the early missions because they were too busy to actually attend missions and meetings.

Some days I wish I could use that excuse to get out of meetings.

But, you know, in retrospect, the League was the all-star team.  Then, around 1984 or so, Aquaman told the big names to take a hike if they were too busy to help and recruited some new heroes to fill the ranks for a period while operating out of Detroit.  Those new recruits included Gypsy.

Bold Predictions: 2016 Edition- Watson’s Rebuttal

I’m totally off the grid these days, but Ryan’s predictions are so bad I had to come in and rip them to shreds and give you the REAL numbers.  His bold predictions about how the 2015 domestic box office would turn out were pretty weak.  He called his performance was mixed–but for him mixed was chocolate plus peanut butter.  In reality, it is a mix of Ex-lax and motor oil.  So I am going to go, one by one, through his 2016 picks and give the real number.  We have a lunch bet on who has the lowest delta between the acutals and their predictions.  NO PRICE IS RIGHT RULES IN EFFECT!

Bold Predictions: 2016 Edition

One year ago I made some bold predictions about how the 2015 domestic box office would turn out.  My performance was mixed–got some, missed some others.  But now it’s time to look ahead to 2016.  Jump after the break to see what I predict will be the top ten grossing films of the year along with 33 other movies I’m making some bold predictions on!

Star Wars Rewatch: Attack Of The Clones

OK, Star Wars fans. quick question:  which movie was worse, Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones?

See, Menace has the comedic stylings of Jar Jar Binks and obnoxious pre-teen Anakin Skywalker.  Attack has a lot of half-assed romance and obnoxious post-teen Anakin Skywalker.  I’d actually rather see Phantom Menace given the choice.  At least that one had some pod racing.

But hey, we’re not skipping Attack of the Clones.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #45: Faith

I think she got the power of heart to form Captain Planet.

A common theme to many a Misplaced Hero is that many times there’s only a single creator who’s really enamored with the character.  Oh, other writers and artists may have a decent run with the character, but often once the original creator moves on, the character is quickly relegated to the background or written out of the book entirely.  That is more or less what happened to Snapper Carr.  Creators showing favorites is nothing new, such as how Geoff Johns dealt with Black Adam, or Brian Michael Bendis’ clear love for Luke Cage.  But sometimes the creator love goes to a new character that doesn’t always stick around long.

One such example there is Faith.