Year: 2021

Superman ’78 (2021) #4

S4

Well, it’s easily Robert Venditti’s best writing of the series so far. After an utterly pointless waste of a couple pages on Brainiac’s origin story, we get to Kal-El in the Bottle City of Kandor. Where, surprise, it’s not the adventures of Nightwing and Flamebird, but the continued adventures of Marlon Brando and Susannah York. Yes, Superman ’78 is what could’ve been if Brando had been as desperate in 1983 as he would be in the nineties or whatever.

Brando’s Jor-El is thrilled to have his son back because now he can make Kal-El become a politician and figure out all the problems of living in a finite bottle city. But, of course, Kal-El just wants to put on the tights and head back to Earth, not be a politician.

Luckily, Lex Luthor slipped an interstellar transmitter on him and can communicate, but that communication only pisses off Brainiac, who heads back to Earth. But what if Luthor’s gadget could somehow bring Kal-El back to regular size so he could defeat Brainiac and save Earth? Sure would be weird if his mom was like, nah, to hell with those humans.

Now, when I say it’s Venditti’s best writing, I mean it’s a terrible comic book adaptation of a not-bad movie. Like if they’d gotten Jeannot Szwarc to do Superman III and given him a bunch of money and a decent script. It’s the first and only time Christopher Reeve Superman has gotten to think about himself as anything but the last son of Krypton and whatnot.

So it’s an added bummer Wilfredo Torres can’t seem to figure out how to draw it. This comic is cursed. When Venditti’s writing to Torres’s strengths, all Venditti’s doing is regurgitating Superman: The Movie and The Sequels scenes. When Venditti actually finds a plot, Torres is lost trying to make his Reeve Superman “act.”

There’s some terrible stuff from Venditti, to be sure. Not just the Brainiac intro, but also Gene Hackman Lex Luthor, and Margot Kidder Lois Lane. Venditti writes them both particularly badly, especially when together. But at least Torres is on the ball drawing those scenes. The stuff “on Krypton”? Not so much. Though his Marlon Brando’s always on point. The less said about Susannah York Lara, the better.

There’s no way to save Superman ’78 but I really didn’t think Venditti had even the limited good ideas of this issue in him, so I guess it’s a plus. Like, it implied the possibility of a good movie for this series to be poorly adapting, which has never happened before.

Shame about the Torres art, though. Hopefully, it gets back on track.

Hawkeye (2021) s01e04 – Partners, Am I Right?

It’s a shorter episode, but a lot is going on. Especially since it’s often a bridging episode setting up the rest of the season, which is only two more episodes, which is frankly terrifying given all they’ve got to do.

But more on that bit later (I’ve been thinking “Hawkeye” ran eight, not six, so I wasn’t thinking about it while watching).

The episode opens with a quick resolve of Tony Dalton discovering Jeremy Renner snooping around his apartment and quickly gets into an awkward introduction scene for Renner and Hailee Steinfeld’s family. Complete with Vera Farmiga being very suspicious (after asking Renner to finish his case without Steinfeld’s help). Then Renner immediately finds out Dalton’s laundering money for the Tracksuit Mafia. So lots of potential drama.

For later. Because then there’s this lovely scene with Steinfeld getting to see what mom Farmiga sees in Dalton, and it’s this touching Christmas family scene.

That touching Christmas family scene gives way to Steinfeld crashing Renner’s night—spent sitting around by himself covered in ice packs. He has a family phone call—Linda Cardellini gets her cameo—but then he’s sad and solo. Until new best friend Steinfeld arrives and they have a fun night.

The show’s doing a fantastic job with their character relationship, mixing in Renner’s Black Widow-related regrets (though not missing the solo movie), and setting up an echo—no pun intended—for later in the episode. It’s a pronounced echo, but a very good one.

After some amusing scenes with Renner threatening bad guy Fra Fee and Steinfeld hanging out with the larpers from before (and introducing something for later), they’re back on assignment. There’s a Rolex MacGuffin from Avengers mansion—sorry, sorry, Avengers tower—which could give away the location of a hidden Avenger or something. It’s going to be one of the later reveals, which they only have two episodes for.

There are also two more reveals coming up for Renner because it turns out villain Alaqua Cox is stalking his family, and there’s a very special guest star hunting him down on the rooftops. On Steinfeld’s side, the hard truths about Farmiga and Dalton are coming up. I don’t think she’s got anything else outstanding.

So they’ve got four to six plot threads to resolve—let’s not forget Renner’s still got to make it home for Christmas—in two episodes. I really hope they pull it off.

Very nice work from Steinfeld and Renner this episode. Since Farmiga and Dalton are suspicious more than anything else, there’s only so much they can do. If it ends well, “Hawkeye”’s going to rewatch spectacularly. Especially as a Christmas-time binge watch. If they don’t at least make it a great Christmas story….

The big fight scene is the only thing wrong with the episode—outside it potentially setting up the series to stumble. It’s a complicated New York rooftop fight, full of laughs and action, and directors Bert & Bertie do a fine job shooting it… but they don’t care at all about the fight choreography. Yes, “Hawkeye”’s a show about archers and arrows, but if they’re going to do fisticuffs, make the fisticuffs interesting to look at. Unfortunately, it’s almost like they’re doing an anti-Netflix Marvel show with their aversion to good fight choreography.

I really hope they pull this one off. Steinfeld and Renner deserve it.

As do Kate Bishop fans.

709 Meridian – 1×2 – Halloween 5 (1989)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) – 709 Meridian

An audio commentary for the 1989 film, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard, starring Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan, and Tamara Glynn.

WHERE TO LISTEN

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Hitman: Tommy’s Heroes (1998-99)

Hmth

By the fifth Hitman collection, DC has given up on the six or eight-issue collection and just gone whole hog. There are fourteen issues in the Tommy’s Heroes collection. Two full story arcs, a couple done-in-ones (including the DC One Million crossover), and then a haunting two-parter to close it off. Writer Garth Ennis runs Hitman hero Tommy Monaghan through various ringers, starting with the S.A.S. out to get him.

Back in Gulf War One, Tommy and best friend Natt the Hat accidentally killed a British officer. Friendly fire, it happens (apparently a lot with the U.S. military, per Ennis’s S.A.S. blokes’ conversation). Only it was the son of some blue blood, so the S.A.S. wants to show you really can’t kill wealthy Brits, even if you’re a Marine, so they send a fire team to Gotham to kill Tommy and Natt the Hat. Why have they waited so long (the comic’s from 1998)? Possibly because the team leader was too busy undercover in the IRA, possibly because… they just needed to wait for it to be a story.

Especially since it’s going to turn into a gang war, and it couldn’t have been a gang war if Tommy hadn’t recently pissed off the Italian mob.

So, this arc, Who Dares Wins, has Garry Leach inking John McCrea, and while the style is still Hitman, Leach brings a much more absurdist feel to the art. It’s like a gore comedy, always trying to top itself—DC really should’ve paid Ennis or made some intern go through these Hitman comics and change out the fake swear words for real ones, just to see how it reads. Because it’s super gory, super gross (the Italian mob boss has IBS and conducts his business from the men’s, which begs for a Batman versus IBS mobster story but alas no), but there’s no cursing. But they get away with a lot, especially with the Leach inks.

It’s a five-issue arc, with Tommy and Natt on the run from the S.A.S., on the run from the mob, then having to save a kidnapped friend. Not the girlfriend. Ennis doesn’t put her in danger, though the S.A.S. considers it. Lots of the arc is about the S.A.S. being these unstoppable, unconscionable killing machines, leading to inter-team turmoil. Tommy and Natt are kind of just guest-starring in their own story. Ennis is far more interested in the Brits.

I’m pretty sure he did the same setup years later with a Punisher MAX arc. It’d be interesting to compare the two.

The story’s okay. The stakes are kind of low—once Ennis establishes it’ll be an alarming escalation if the S.A.S. team starts killing civilians (versus mobsters or Tommy and Natt), you don’t really have to worry about their hostage. I mean, maybe Natt’s in danger, but… probably not. Ennis started Hitman killing off Tommy’s other best friend. It’d be a lot to off the replacement.

Mostly, it’s a wonderful exercise in glorious, energetic art. McCrea’s always kind of static with Hitman. Leach brings the fluidity.

There’s a perfect example with the one-in-one following the conclusion of Who Dares Wins. Tommy and girlfriend Tiegel are on the outs after a fight over Tommy’s demonic hitman nightmares, so he and Natt head to the bar to get blotto. It’s mostly comedy and character development as Tommy feels like a failure compared to the S.A.S. team from the last arc. They were real hard men; he’s just pretending. So talking heads, Irish jokes, and an absolutely fantastic new bartender.

McCrea inks the issue himself, and it’s got none of that liquidity or smoothness Leach brings. It’s not bad. It works just fine for a pensive issue. It gives Tommy time to think through his monologues and so on.

Leach is back for the next arc, Tommy’s Heroes. Well, for most of it. It’s five issues, and smack dab in the middle Andrew Chui fills in on the inks and… makes Hitman look very silly.

Heroes is about Tommy, Natt, and a couple other local Gotham hitmen heading to Central Africa to work as mercenaries. Officially they’re advisors training the locations to fight the heroin-smuggling rebels, but pretty soon, they discover the people they’re working for are the actual bad guys. Because, of course.

One of the other mercenaries conned into the job is a British friend of one of the S.A.S. guys from the other arc. It gives Tommy a character relationship away from Natt and Tiegel, which is a Hitman rarity these days. Of course, Natt doesn’t want Tommy telling his new friend about the S.A.S. trying to kill them, so there’s some tension.

The tension quickly gives way to the aforementioned working-for-the-bad-guys bit, which becomes really obvious when Tommy’s superior kills a baby. Actually, the superior orders one of the two evil supers to do it; you can see the seeds of The Boys all throughout the arc, though it’s also going to echo Superman-as-stooge in Dark Knight just because it’s the most similar reference point at the time.

There’s a lot of outrageous war comic action, mostly with great Leach inks and much less humor than usual. One of the additional hitmen is the big dopey one, who everyone uses as comic relief to relieve tension. Not everyone like Ennis, McCrea, or Leach. The characters. They all use the guy to blow off steam while slowly realizing his place in the team dynamic.

Tommy’s Heroes is a better story than the S.A.S. one, but it’s also a much more serious one. It may be the most serious Hitman story so far. Ennis tries a little hard to force Tommy’s character development but gets away with it through charm, goodwill, and brute force.

None of it, and none of Hitman, can prepare for the next issue in the collection, another done-in-one. Tommy and Superman, having a long talk on a Gotham rooftop. Leach does the inks. He and McCrea’s Superman is vaguely Kirby-esque, larger than life (and chonky), which just makes the story all the more effective.

Superman’s just had a very bad day and went to talk to Batman about it for emotional support. Batman was useless. Since it’s Superman and Superman’s always saving the world, Tommy figures the least he can do is talk it out with him. So the comic works through three levels of cynicism. There’s Tommy’s affected but earned cynicism, there’s Superman’s reluctant cynicism, then there’s Ennis’s cynicism about the whole superhero thing, as continually evidenced in the very comic book itself.

It ends up being Ennis doing inspiration over cynicism, and it’s absolutely phenomenal. It’s not the best Hitman, but it’s on a shortlist of best Superman.

Then it’s time for the DC One Million crossover, which has a bunch of future jackass rich kids teleporting Tommy to the future so they can use his powers. In the intervening 83,000 years between the present and the One Million timeline (seriously, there ought to be an oral history project on the terrible idea of this crossover from go), the world has aggrandized Tommy into a superhero. The kind who would be suitable for a silly crossover issue.

All that superhero inspirational positivity Ennis ginned up for the Superman issue? He cleanses himself of it in the One Million crossover. All the future superhero sycophants are dipshits (at best), and Tommy’s mortified by the lot of them.

Eventually, he’s going to reintroduce murder-death-kills to the neutered future, hurrying things along so he can get back to his barstool to drink away his sorrows. The best thing in the issue’s probably the punchline cameo, but absolutely no one is trying very hard here. Ennis’s exposition is just to rag on the concept, though McCrea (inking himself) does get to do more goofy humor than usual.

Then comes the devastating two-part finale of the collection.

So, again, just like the Tommy’s Heroes arc was the most serious Hitman to that point… the two-part Katie sets the new standard. Because it’s going to be almost incalculably dark.

The story starts with Tommy and Tiegel having another fight, taking another break. She’s mad about him being a hitman, which is their go-to disagreement. Ennis seems to have forgotten what he enjoyed about writing them together, and now they just argue and, during the arguments, mention the other times they’re happy with each other. We just never see those on the page.

The latest breakup is just to remind Tiegel’s still around, with the inciting incident being a person from Tommy’s past reappearing and taking him back to Ireland. There are a lot of truth bombs, and back story reveals throughout the two issues, but they have very little to do with Hitman proper. Outside it broadly being about Tommy’s character development. Everything he finds out here is a revelation to both reader and Tommy, so we’re privy to his reaction.

The series has already established Tommy was left at the local Catholic orphanage as a baby, and the Mother Superior at the orphanage has been having a long-time love affair with his good friend, the bar owner. Well, I think Ennis only hinted at the latter, but it’s a plot detail in the arc. Because when it’s about Tommy in Gotham, it’s Tommy as a newborn; so instead, it’s about the adults around him.

But it’s not a Gotham story, it’s an Ireland story, and Ennis has a lot of thoughts about how shitty Irish people can be. Mainly how shitty men can be. How infinitely awful, in fact.

It’s a hell of a story.

Excellent, emotive art from McCrea and Leach. It’d probably be nicer if they’d ended the collection with some kind of reprieve, but they don’t. It’s just an even more intense weight than the comic’s ever had before.

Hitman: Tommy’s Heroes might be the turning point where Ennis starts getting more ambitious with the character. Not the romance, unfortunately (I don’t think Tiegel has anything to do outside the arguing in almost four hundred pages), but there’s so much great stuff in these issues. It starts with Leach giving the comic this newfound fluidity, jazzing it up, as it were.

It ends with Ennis… doing whatever that ending does, coming after the Superman issue after the Tommy’s Heroes arc. Just rending the reader, rending Tommy.

On the one hand, I can’t wait to see where Ennis goes next. On the other, it’s a terrifying thought. He and McCrea take Hitman someplace much darker and thoughtful than mainstream DC’s built for. They’re pressing the medium to the limit; it cracks to reveal something cold, desolate, and vibrant.

It’s excellent comics.

Doctor Who (2005) s13e06 – The Vanquishers

What a lackluster conclusion. There’s actually a bunch of good stuff, including a triplicated Jodie Whittaker they should’ve been doing since the cliffhanger on the first episode. Still, as the finish to “Doctor Who vs. The Flux,” it’s minimally successful.

The resolution with rubber mask supervillains Sam Spruell and Rochenda Sandall is lousy, and then the hook is exactly what you’d expect anyway. It’s Whittaker’s last season as the Doctor, and of course, the villains know to threaten her with not being regenerated. They’ve been doing it since David Tennant was on the show. It’s been ten years of it. Blah.

There’s some really good stuff with guest star Jemma Redgrave, who hasn’t been on since Peter Capaldi. She and Whittaker have excellent chemistry—when the episode beats Bechdel, it beats Bechdel—only it’s Whittaker’s farewell lap. Maybe they should’ve introduced Redgrave earlier. In Whittaker’s reign, not in this season. Though, in this season too. They could’ve halved this “event” and had something.

There’s some good stuff with John Bishop, who just needed character development away from Whittaker to get into the right zone as a companion. Mandip Gill has decent material throughout until to have a thankless conclusion.

The “Flux”-specific companions all get some final arcs and farewells, with Craige Els, Jacob Anderson, and Thaddea Graham set for an obnoxious spin-off. The good work is from Kevin McNally and Annabel Scholey, who get thankless conclusions too. Scholey’s finish doesn’t even make sense for the timeline, but, whatever most of the universe is destroyed, so does it really matter.

The Sontaran villains are only good compared to Craig Parkinson as the pointless guest human villain. There are way too many qualifications on a way too long, way too thin storyline. Especially since the deus ex machina gives way to an even more effective deus ex machina, they could’ve obviously used. It’s terrible plotting from writer Chris Chibnall, who wasted full episodes of the season on nonsense.

A quarter of the episode plays like a Star Wars 1977 homage, like the BBC finally gave “Doctor Who” to do the riff on it they’d been planning since… 1977. There is some decent CGI work, though. Surprisingly good for the show. Even if the green screen compositing is still lousy.

But the three Whittakers—interacting with different sets of companions, friends, and foes in different times—is possibly the best Whittaker has done when it hasn’t been one of her companions holding up the show. It’s a shame it took them until now to figure out what to do with the character. Still, since Doctors Who are always temporary, it’s hard to get any character development going until they face their imminent recasting.

It’s a real shame they wasted so much of Whittaker, Gill, and Bishop’s limited time remaining on this six-part nonsense. Writer and showrunner Chiball stretched an okay three-parter (it’d have been better in two) way too far with way too little reward.

Ida Red (2021, John Swab)

I don’t think I’d ever have foreseen the Heartland Family Crime Saga genre. Or how it basically employs every white actor who isn’t in a Marvel movie (currently) or once tangentially appeared in some East or West Coast Crime Saga. For example, I didn’t recognize George Carroll from his Ben Affleck Boston Crime Sagas. And Melissa Leo’s proving you don’t have to be a British dude to earn off that single Oscar win.

Ida Red is an Oklahoma City Crime Saga; it’s hard not to imagine writer and director Swab feeling very Michael Mann-y for the big shootout, which involves the city’s shockingly dull downtown Underground. The music in the first half is mostly a riff on Tangerine Dream’s Thief score, so I’m sure Swab can talk a lot of Mann trivia. Can he turn it into a good movie?

No, but at least the actors don’t have to be embarrassed by their participation. Though you can see the clock running down on Leo’s contract, she doesn’t rush her big scene, and she does manage to make Swab’s wanting monologue work, but she keeps a brisk pace. She’s basically just playing a riff on Margo Martindale from “Justified.” Swab doesn’t have anything original to do. He just strings together lifts from other movies and sets them in Oklahoma City. It’s shocking the state underwrites their citizenry being portrayed as, at best, sociopaths. Everyone in the movie’s a piece of shit. You’d think the Oklahoma Film and Music Office would hold off on the subsidies unless there’s a positive role model.

Though it’s Oklahoma, so what do they consider positive. The whole movie’s just waiting for Carroll to get arrested for going to the Capitol riot.

Carroll’s the local sheriff, who’s not very good at his job. The movie starts with federal agent and professional bad movie check-casher William Forsythe teaming up with Carroll. See, Carroll’s in-laws are the local crime bosses. Leo’s in prison, running the thing, with son Josh Hartnett and her dead husband’s brother Frank Grillo doing the legwork. Hartnett’s got a used car lot, and no one wanted him to get into the crime family business, but when Leo went to prison, lots changed. That used car lot is the extent of Hartnett’s personality. He’s less violent than Grillo, but Grillo’s a vicious psychopath. Also, apparently an avid male rapist, but that detail’s only in the first act when the film’s trying to flex its homophobia for the Redbox audience. It takes until halfway through to establish the real crime bosses of Oklahoma City are Black people pretending to be upstanding citizens, and the crackers just do what they say. It’s actually less racist than I was expecting but more homophobic. Not sure about the misogyny because women are only meaningful if they commit crimes.

Deborah Ann Woll, married to Carroll, and Hartnett’s older sister and in the movie for even less time than Leo, is anti-crime. She resents Hartnett and Grillo looking down on her relationship with Carroll, which is basically her being a housewife, silently watching TV with Carroll, and being a terrible mom to Sofia Hublitz. Hublitz is the fifteen-year-old troublemaker who’s got too much of the family blood not to be a rabble-rouser. Hublitz and Hartnett are pals but only for the purposes of the film. There’s no depth to their relationship, which is fine; there’s no depth to their characters either.

Swab’s direction is fine. He and cinematographer Matt Clegg screw up the third act—including badly slowing down the establishing shots in Oklahoma City—but otherwise, it looks fine. John David Allen’s editing is easily the technical win. Except for the swipes. They do swipes like it’s Star Wars. David Sardy’s music—Tangerine Dream-lite or not—is acceptable. Ida Red’s not an inadequate production.

Acting… Hartnett’s fine. He holds it together when he doesn’t have a single character motivation. Grillo’s showier, but it’s just as empty. They’re about even. A better script would’ve been about them and not shoe-horning in Carroll or Hublitz. Hublitz is middling. Woll’s middling. Forsythe’s embarrassing but fine; he really needs to sell his likeness to a CGI company so they can just make him a digital asset. I mean, sure, the writing’s terrible on his aged super-cop thing, and it’s not like he gets an iota of energy off Carroll, but still. Why make him show up when you could just do a digital standee?

Leo’s okay. Mark Boone Junior’s okay. Beau Knapp’s almost good. The writing gets him. Ben Hall’s got a more prominent part than his acting can handle.

It all could be worse. And it’s definitely of note if you’re a Michael Mann aficionado and want to see Swab artlessly mimic him.

Hartnett, Grillo, Leo, and Junior should try doing a good movie together.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (2021)

Last stand

According to the "About the Creators" section, the 2004 prose non-fiction book, The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors, is based on declassified documents and interviews with participants, which raises the question of whether or not Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors comic adaptation writer Doug Murray ever read the book. Or were all the participants original author James D. Hornfischer interviewed so insipid and bland as Murray writes them?

Insipid is almost too complimentary a phrase for Murray's writing because insipid suggests some ambition. You have to try to be insipid. But inept suggests too much basic competence and incompetent… well, it also implies there's a possibility of competence, and there's nothing remotely competent about Murray's script or Steven Sanders's art. I guess some of the military machinery is appropriately detailed, but not all of it. Like, Sanders does not give a crap about detail on the ships, and the comic's all about the ships.

It tells the tale of World War II sea battle where Admiral "Bull" Halsey (played by Jimmy Cagney in the movies, not John Wayne) lets his megalomania and stupidity get in the way of being a good commander and a bunch of people suffer for it. Tin Can Sailors doesn't give a hoot about the casualties of the battle—I'm trying not to just curse the book out because it's not worth the energy—because Murray's primary interests are the low-key racism, boring toxic masculinity, and the occasional vague misogyny. It, of course, can't be racist because the Japanese were sub-human after all… oh, wait, hole in the logic at literal first glance. If Tin Can Soldiers were any more competent, it might be a concerning bit of Christian nationalist, white supremacy, but Murray's a laughable writer. Most Beetle Bailey strips are better written than this comic.

And then there's Sanders. What's worse, his inability to draw people or him using pictures of the ocean instead of drawing the ocean? I kept hoping there'd be at least one good idea for a panel, and maybe there's a first-person POV one with some ambition, but Sanders is so bad at the drawing part of it trying for composition one panel out of 200 pages isn't anywhere near enough.

Murray's also got the problem he can't make the battle interesting because he's got to show the Japanese as incompetent, unworthy enemies to the white men. Also, he's terrible at plotting out the battle. And showing how it affects recurring cast members. And writing those recurring cast members to be distinct characters instead of disposable jingoistic, narcissistic numbskulls. At best. If they really are supposed to be so indifferent to the death and destruction around them—does Murray believe in PTSD, or is it just for wusses—they're even worse. Because it's hard rooting for them.

Murray doesn't, you know, show the Japanese side of things. Sanders would then have to do more than two drawings of their admiral instead of reusing the same one over and over. So it's basically the Japanese did a sneaky maneuver, the Americans caught them, then kicked their asses all day long because they suck, and the USA is great; also, lots of people died, the fleet admiral was incompetent, and whatever. Man up or something.

Murray and Sanders's Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is clearly terrible from the first or second page, and there's no reason to keep going with it except self-flagellation. The writing starts bad and stays bad, with Murray missing very obvious opportunities to make the read more engaging or informative. Because it ought to be informative, right? Like, it's a history comic, it ought to convey some historical data into the reader's mind to process. Nope. It's the worst written thing I've read in ages. Murray's copying-and-pasting it in and without the enthusiasm of a disgruntled office temp.

And Sanders.

I mean.

You could read Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors as your first work of "graphic non-fiction" or whatever they're calling non-fiction comic books these days, and you still wouldn't have read one. Because it doesn't qualify as a comic book.

The whole project is an unmitigated disaster, which then manages to get even worse when it turns out Sanders isn't going to draw any water. So it's not even embarrassing for the creators. I mean, I'm sort of embarrassed I finished it, but I've got the "I'm writing a blog post" excuse. But the creators shouldn't be embarrassed. Their work is too obviously bad to expect anything better from them.

The comic also skips what seems to be the most interesting historical aspect—this battle is when the Japanese air force started doing kamikaze attacks? It's an aside from Murray. Because he does a terrible job. Because the comic's terrible.

Almost unimaginably terrible. Especially in 2021, especially when the medium has gotten so much more competent across the board. It's a dreadful experience.

Hawkeye (2021) s01e03 – Echoes

This episode has some real highlights, including a great New York action sequence, but the most impressive one has got to be the comic book talking heads sequence. Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld are sitting and talking to each other. They’re staring almost directly into the camera in one-shot close-ups, and they just have a conversation. Back and forth, back and forth, just like a Marvel Comics talking heads sequence. It’s pretty awesome and made me think Rhys Thomas really loved the comics.

Except Thomas didn’t direct this episode, it was Bert & Bertie, so I guess Bert & Bertie really grok the talking heads formula.

The New York action sequence has Renner and Steinfeld doing a car chase with bows, arrows, and bridges. Not a great car chase, but focusing on Steinfeld’s archery—Renner finally lets her use some of his trick arrows, though he keeps the best one for himself—it’s really distinct for the show. Especially since the episode opens with Alaqua Cox’s villain origin story and feels like they will spend the whole episode on her.

We find out she had to go to public school instead of deaf school because dad Zahn McClarnon couldn’t afford it. It lessens the impact when we later find out McClarnon ran the Tracksuit Mafia and was an actual bad guy. Still, the opening with young Cox (played by Darnell Besaw) and McClarnon plays sympathetic and wonderful. She then trains in martial arts from a young age to be a crime lord to numbskulls when she grows up.

“Hawkeye”’s oddly lethal. Like, for a while, all the stuff with the Tracksuit Mafia is non-lethal because they’re jackasses. Steinfeld has a funny interchange with one of them about his relationship troubles, and Cox doesn’t want the heroes killed, so there’s never any real danger. Until all of a sudden, there’s real danger, except the bad guys are mostly boobs, so Steinfeld and Renner can kick ass. Lethally. No dead bodies, but it’s the Batman Returns logic of “you blow someone up, they don’t survive.”

With Cox’s origin story, the beginning really feels like a Marvel Netflix show. Like they’re going to do a whole episode setting her up. They don’t, but it’s an effective prologue.

And there’s a bunch of juxtapositions between Cox and the heroes. Cox has been deaf since at least childhood, if not birth, and Renner’s now got hearing loss. Cox is a childhood martial arts star, Steinfeld’s a childhood martial arts star; Cox has daddy issues, Steinfeld has daddy issues. The Steinfeld analogs don’t get explored here, but Cox and Renner both having hearing loss is a plot point.

Some terrific acting from Steinfeld and very sturdy work from Renner. They really should’ve done the MCU Dad thing with him from go. He and Steinfeld’s mentor and protege relationship gets some nice development here, altogether avoiding the surrogate dad stuff, which is awesome.

Cox is good; Fra Fee’s solid as her sidekick (the only other polysyllabic Tracksuit).

The cliffhanger’s wanting—another comparison to Marvel Netflix, it’s set up for an immediate, binge watch resolution—and makes the episode feel too short, especially since they very obviously tease a reveal villain for later on. But “Hawkeye”’s the real deal. And the Christmas in New York setting just keeps paying off, this episode seemingly doing a Lethal Weapon homage.

Also—the Tracksuit Mafia’s headquarters is an old KB Toys. The branding’s so obvious you’d think there was a tie-in or Disney owned them, but no, it’s apparently just a KB Toys.

Superman & Lois (2021) s01e15 – Last Sons of Krypton

Since I never got comfortable recommending the show, it’s fitting “Superman and Lois: Season One” finish on something of a fail. It’s not terrible. I don’t think it’s the worst episode, but it’s definitely in the bottom three. Not because there’s anything particularly wrong with it; there’s just nothing particularly right with it.

It’s a paint-by-the-numbers conclusion to all the unresolved plot threads, dispassionately directed by Tom Cavanagh. Cavanagh stars on “The Flash,” which must take place on another Earth for sure since none of the superheroes are helping with the end of the world as we know it. So his directing is like a vanity thing? Because it’s not because he’s got some intense connection with the material (the show has that director in its pool with producer Gregory Smith) or because Cavanagh’s good at full episodes. Once the middling action resolves, the episode’s a more and more tedious series of epilogues for each character.

There’s nothing good in any of said epilogues. Like, there’s no actual resolution for Alex Garfin and Inde Navarrette. We don’t see them reuniting when she thinks he is dead. Instead, they’re just hanging out at her parents’ latest barbecue, where everyone goes to have a good time. Narratively it’d make so much more sense to have it on the Kent farm, but why bother. Credited to Brent Fletcher and Todd Helbing, the script is just as unambitious as Cavanagh’s direction.

The episode ends with a big surprise for season two, but it’s predictable and not just because it’s the same season finale surprise as “Supergirl”’s first season ended with. Given how understaffed the episode appears to be, they could’ve used a surprise guest star or two. Over-stuffed but empty describes the episode overall, which is a bummer since the season had otherwise been doing a good conclusion arc. They just didn’t have an ending. Or not enough of one.

Especially for poor season villain Adam Rayner, whose most memorable scene where he’s got a medium shot and probably isn’t a CGI model is him doing jazz hands. “Superman and Lois” entirely copped out on a good villain. The less said about A.C. Peterson, the better. He’s easily the worst casting of the series, and they’ve had some iffy moves.

None of the special effects sequences are very good. The energy plasma stuff is fine. But they cheap out in other places, like having all the bad guys this episode be nameless, brainwashed, super-powered soldiers in full uniform, including helmets. Seems cheap.

I also just realized, given the setup for next season, they wasted at least one of the epilogues in the episode and instead could’ve wrapped it all up together. Or maybe just plotted it differently. With a good script and good direction, there are a couple episodes worth of plot points here.

With this script, with this direction, they went on about five minutes too long. Especially since there’s no pay-off at all for the regular cast.

Some better music than usual from Dan Romer. Not with the action stuff, but in the epilogues and only because he plays with the themes. Hoechlin gets two big monologues, and neither of them land because they’re so poorly contextualized.

The episode seems intentionally neutered. Creatively speaking, the only reason seems to be that they had Cavanagh directing and knew he couldn’t do anything else. It’s disappointing as heck, especially since I thought it’d be a banger.

This episode is very much not a banger.

It is a bummer. And it shouldn’t be one.