Comic Book Review: Wonder Woman: Earth One

Details: Released in 2016. Listed price is $22.99. Art by Yanick Paquette. Written by Grant Morrison. Official site is https://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/wonder-woman-earth-one-2016/wonder-woman-earth-one-vol-1

Like Marvel’s Ultimate comics line, DC’s Earth One line of books seeks to re-imagine popular superheroes and retell their stories. Unlike Marvel’s Ultimate line, Earth One only seeks to change them, not change them into more realistic or grittier versions of themselves. Wonder Woman: Earth One is a good example of that change. In this book, Morrison retells Wonder Woman’s origin story in a way that glorifies a few of the more progressive elements of the character while also shining a spotlight on the more perverse and embarrassing aspects of the character’s almost seventy year history.

Comic Book Review: Dark Nights: Metal

Details: Published from 2017 to 2018 by DC Comics. Six issues. Mostly written by Scott Snyder and mostly drawn by Greg Capullo. Official site is https://www.dccomics.com/comics/dark-nights-metal-2017/dark-nights-metal-1

Dark Knights: Metal is bonkers. It is absolutely bat-shit (pun intended) crazy. Metal is DC’s big crossover comic book event from last year and centers mostly on Batman. Drawing from the story lines occurring after Rebirth, Snyder tells a crazy, overstuffed story that could have easily taken thirty issues instead of six.

Comic Book Review: Green Lantern: Earth One, Volume 1

Details: Published in 2018. About 144 pages. Listed price is $24.99. Official site is https://www.dccomics.com/graphic-novels/green-lantern-earth-one-2018/green-lantern-earth-one-vol-1

The Earth One series of DC Comics seeks to retell stories of your favorite DC Comics superheroes in — ideally — a more engaging way and subverting at least a few expectations. DC has worked its way writing Earth One stories for Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and have now reached Green Lantern.

TV Show Review: Jessica Jones, Season 2

Details: Aired on Netflix in 2018. Thirteen episodes with each at about fifty minutes long.

You know that feeling you get when you watch a horror movie and the characters keep doing stupid ass shit that is so stupid it kind of yanks you out of the experience. There’s a lot of that in season two of Jessica Jones. Jessica Jones is mostly entertaining. It’s just that the climactic moments can seem kind of ridiculous at times.

Movie Review: Black Panther

Details: Released in 2018. About two hours and forty minutes long. Directed by Ryan Coogler. Stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o.

Despite all the glowing reviews I’ve seen all over the place claiming that this film is a cultural phenomenon, this is simply a good movie. It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even close to being the best Marvel film ever released in my opinion (that goes to Captain America: Winter Soldier).

Comic Book Review: Invincible

Details: First published in 2003 by Image Comics. Ended this year with issue #144. Official site is https://imagecomics.com/comics/series/invincible. Created by writer Robert Kirkman, artist Cory Walker, and continued to by drawn by Ryan Ottley.

A while back, Robert Kirkman, writer and creator of Invincible as well as The Walking Dead announced that he was ending Invincible. As per my reading of his goodbye letter, it seemed like he just didn’t want to write it anymore. Which makes sense if you’ve been keeping up with other things Kirkman has been doing. Kirkman writes and produces The Walking Dead television show as well as the comic book of the same name. Both properties are wildly successful, though you could argue they’ve fallen off a bit since their conception. I imagine that working on the t.v. show alone takes up most of his time. That’s probably the reason why Invincible is ending. Regardless, after almost two decades, Invincible is over. And that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Movie Review: Justice League

Details: Released in 2017. About two hours long. Stars Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa. Directed by Zac Snyder and partially by Joss Whedon.

I had a lot of fear and low expectations walking into this movie. Though not a masterpiece by any margin, Justice League is a fun movie for fans of the superhero/comic book genre and a nice opportunity to shut off your brain and enjoy some special effects and pretty shots.

Movie Review: Thor: Ragnarok

Details: Released in 2017. Directed by Taika Waititi. Stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett. Over two hours long.

Among Marvel’s movie properties, I think Thor is the franchise that they’ve had the hardest time figuring out how to approach. The last two films weren’t great, at least not as good or character redefining as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Thor: Ragnarok takes the franchise in a different direction and does it mostly successfully. This new direction feels like they took Guardians of the Galaxy and mashed it with that comedic short clip where Thor moves in with Darryl the office worker. I’ll provide the clip below.

Movie Review: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Details: Released in 2017. Under two hours and a half long. Stars Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, Mark Strong. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Rated R.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is the sequel to the action packed, often ridiculous Kingsman: The Secret Service. The prior film was a movie that wanted to modernize and give a more comedic, R rated take on the spy genre that movies like the James Bond franchise familiarized to audiences. The Golden Circle continues what the first film started by adding more action, more well-known names to the cast, and more jokes. If you like the first Kingsman movie, you will enjoy this. Minor spoilers ahead, but nothing that wasn’t in the trailer above or on a promotional movie poster.

Comic Book Review: Secret Empire

Details: Released in 2017 by Marvel Comics. There are ten issues in total.

Secret Empire is Marvel’s big crossover event this year. They have one every year or two where they take everyone from the comic books and smash them into one story.