Category: reviews

Based on “Flashpoint,” by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert

Directed by Jay Oliva, Screenplay by Jim Krieg
Distributed by Warner Home Video
Release Date: 30 July 2013
Running Time: 75 minutes

The Plot: An alteration of the timeline for the superhero, The Flash, creates ripples that disastrously alter the Universe. The Flash must team with other heroes to restore the timeline while the Earth is ravaged by a war between Aquaman’s Atlantis and Wonder Woman’s Amazons. (via the Internet Movie Database)

Review:

This is the latest installment in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, and, compared to the other titles featured under that banner, it’s quite good.

Parts of it are unsettling, and parts of it are just flat-out weird, but, overall, if all you’re looking for is a thumbs up or a thumbs down, I can say that this movie is a solid 75 minutes of superhero action and adventure, well worth the cost of a DVD.

One thing that this movie continues is the trend of late, where DC’s focusing more and more on staying true to the source material from which it’s based; in this case, this is an incredibly faithful adaptation of “Flashpoint,” by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert.

If you remember, Flashpoint is the last major crossover in the Old 52. Its fallout led everything screaming into the New 52. To say that it was a huge event for the DC Universe is fitting, as is the title of the series in describing its impact on the company’s overall direction for the past two years.

So, let’s talk about what works in this little flick. (more…)

It’s that time of week again! No, not Wednesday. Well, I mean, yes, it’s Wednesday, but that’s not what I was trying to get at.

I mean I’m going to review some comics. From last Wednesday. At least I think they’re from last Wednesday. If I’m wrong, blame international date lines for the difference.

This isn’t going well.

Forget all that noise, let’s get this bad boy fired up! Top to bottom! Worst to First!

The Trinity War is here.

And it’s off to a bad start.

Ok, so, in this issue, Billy Batson decides that Black Adam deserves to be properly buried in his home country of Kahndaq, which has some sort of No Fly Zone in place for superheroes, ever since Wonder Woman and Superman intervened there a few issues ago.

Billy doesn’t know about this, though (just kidding), so he turns into Shazam (I think that’s what they’re calling Captain Marvel nowadays, anyway) and heads over to the country (because he’s a jerk), where some sort of international incident will play out upon his arrival (without a doubt).

Here’s where this issue goes from stupid setup to stupid actual story.

To sum up the issue so far: The superhero community will catch a lot of heat if a cape shows up in Kahndaq. Shazam is flying there as fast as he can. An international incident is imminent.

So, what does our ingenious superhero team do to prevent this? They… fly to Kahndaq as fast as they can!

Wait, what? (more…)

Welcome back to “Worst to First,” wherein I give short capsule reviews of each of the past week’s comics that I ended up buying, starting with the week’s worst issue and building up to what I consider to be the week’s best.

If it’s not on the list, it’s because I don’t read it. If you think something’s missing from these reviews, by all means, point it out, and I’ll maybe start picking it up (unless you have terrible taste and recommend I start reading… I dunno, something like Deadpool or something).

I mentioned recently that I’ve been catching up on all the comics I’ve missed out on these past few months, so it should go without saying that I’ve been reading a LOT of comics, including multiple series starring the X-Men.

I read the first issue of this, truly for no good reason, and, by the time I got around to reading this issue, only a couple of days later, I had completely forgotten what happened in that first issue.

Now, about two days after reading issue number two here, I can honestly say that I don’t remember what happened in this issue, either.

Before you start thinking that I must just have a terrible memory, I assure you that’s not the case. There’s something in this about Jubilee adopting a baby (or finding it, or giving birth to it, I really can’t say). And I’m pretty sure there’s a scene on a train.

It’s just entirely forgettable and uninspired. If a series can’t engage me after two issues, I generally give up on it. So, good-bye, X-Men! I’m done with ya!

Verdict: DROP (more…)

It’s the return of Worst to First! I think I did, like, two of these once. But they’re back!

To the uninitiated and painfully stupid: I’m going to review the comics I bought last week, starting with the worst one and working my way up to my favorite one. It’s pretty simple, really.

Let’s start ‘er up!

I guess this is the worst issue I read last week. I still kind of liked it, though, so prepare yourself for some mostly positive reviews.

This is the last issue of Action Comics that Grant Morrison is writing, according to DC’s website (that is what “penultimate” means, right?), and it’s sufficiently chalk-full of confusing, freaked-out gobbledegook, but there’s also something very endearing about a story that combines a trio of time travelers trying to warn Superman of his fate with a giant fight between Superman and an enormous Superman-killing robot. Whatever flaws there may be, I’ll forgive, because that premise just screams “Classic Superman Fun.”

Y’know, this brings up an interesting point. I’ve been arm-chair quarterbacking about Superman movies for years, and I always argue that, in order to make a great Superman movie, they need to have Superman fight something enormous, whether it’s a robot or a monster or a robotic monster.

Too often, his big struggles in the movie are just him trying to fly really fast or lift something really heavy. Kind of lame, ya ask me. Take note, Hollywood! I’m tossing out pearls here. (more…)

The first issue of the post-Brubaker run on Captain America came out this week. As Doom DeLuise wrote, and I agreed with, Ed Brubaker made Captain America cool again. So who’s the creative team on the relaunch? Rick Remender (don’t know him), John Romita, Jr. (not a fan) and Klaus Janson (I dig him!). It also still stars Captain America, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

I can’t put it any more clearly than to say that this is the Captain America I remember from my childhood: a really stupid character on stupid adventures I couldn’t care less about. I cannot imagine a bigger departure from what Brubaker did for this character.

Within the first eight pages, which includes a brief flashback and the opening scene, we are treated to not one, not two, but three really lazy cliches! We have a drunk Irish man; we have a slutty woman trying to flirt her way out of a ticket; we have a team of environmentally conscious supervillains who toss out jargon like “Fascist!” and end sentences in “Man!” Because that’s how environmentally conscious people talk! It’s also what Irish men are like and what women do, for the record.

(As a side note, what’s actually kind of tragic about this was that I got to the “Green Skull” part and thought “That’s actually kind of cool!” I could see a Green Skull villain — someone calling on the iconic history of the Red Skull but having some kind of planet-wide genocidal agenda — being kind of awesome in a “Dark Knight Rises”-Bane sort of way. I encourage some of you less-lazy writers to do something with this character.)

The story was so bad I forgot to even be bothered by John Romita, Jr.’s art. It’s been worse, I guess. Probably anyway. But man — I say like an ecoterrorist — what a way to kill off the revived Captain America brand. Jeesh. Bring on issue #800 or whatever big anniversary reboot they’re building up to.

Doom DeLuise and Jim Doom mentioned in their podcast a few weeks ago that they had not read All-Star Western from the New 52. Well I have read every issue to date, so I feel I have an obligation to tell you folks how it is. So here goes nothin’.

I’ll start off by explaining the basic premise and format. All-Star Western is, as the name would suggest, a comic set in the Old West. Each issue has a “main” story arc and a much smaller “mini-comic” whose arc usually spans 2 issues. The main story arc follows Jonah Hex. Some of you may be familiar with him (I wasn’t) as he used to have his own series.

The premise for Jonah Hex is a bit different this time around. This time, Jonah teams up (albeit very unwillingly) with Dr. Arkham– whose name is engraved on Arkham asylum in present day Gotham. As you may have guessed by this point then, the comic also takes place in Gotham City…..back in the Old West!! Bruce Wayne’s ancestor with some order of magnitudes of ‘great’ in front of it is there, as are several names you’d welcome from the powerful in Gotham today (e.g. Cobblepot!).

The first year has a very long arc that starts with Jonah Hex (aka world’s greatest badass) teaming up with Dr. Arkham (aka C3PO) trying to solve a few minor crimes. As they start digging further in, however, they accidentally expose huge conspiracies, including the Talons (yes, it has a ‘Night of the Owls’ tie-in!) and followers of the ‘Crime Bible’ (which sounds like a second grader made it up). Eventually, Hex meets up with other old friends, and they work together to try and bring these criminals to some Texas Justice.
(more…)

DOOM DELUISE: So, it’s been awhile since The Amazing Spider-Man came out, and we keep coming up with excuses to put off our review, but I think the day has finally come to throw down our opinions on it.

I thought the special effects are great in this thing, better than they have been in any previous Spider-Man movie, and I like Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Peter Parker / Spider-Man. However, the small tweaks they made to the plot leave this movie as possibly the worst adaptation of Spider-Man in any media I’ve ever seen. Not only do the tweaks change the entire origin story, but they do so in a way that removes nearly all of the appeal of the title character. If I were to sum it up in one sentence, it’d be this:

They introduce midichlorians to the Spider-Man origin.

Would you care for me to explain that, for the uninitiated? (more…)