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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #9
Do the editors do anything here? They’ve got a Black Firestorm during the Day of Judgment scenes… about six years too early. Wein also covers Final Night; the two are connected, but he doesn’t do a very good job of making them flow together. This issue features some of his worst writing in a while.… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #8
So, if Wein knew he had to cover the whole Green Lantern goes nuts thing, why is an earthling the best narrator for the series? In fact, the earthbound narrator is now the worst possible choice in a variety of ways. It isn’t enough he wouldn’t know about the Oa stuff or Parallax (oh, Ron… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #7
It’s difficult to describe what Jerry Ordway inking Dan Jurgens looks like—Ordway definitely brings his sensibilities to it, but there’s the Jurgens underneath. Unfortunately, neither artist is in his best time, so the result is somewhat less than either on their own (in their prime). It’s like plastic-coated Jurgens and the last thing he needs… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #6
Perez inking Ordway produces a good result and, even though Wein’s writing has weakened again, the issue is moderately successful. Wein’s basically recapping post-Crisis big events here—mostly Legends and the reforming of the Justice League. As far as a summary, it works pretty well—though I think they’re leaving out Millennium or whatever. But the narrator… 📖
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Let It Ride (1989, Joe Pytka)
I wonder how Let It Ride would play if it were competently made. Pytka’s not a terrible director, but he’s not any good either. His mediocre composition is undone by the absolutely atrocious song choices for the soundtrack. The film would probably be better with no changes other than that track excised. Not that Giorgio… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #5
This one’s Crisis issue and easily the best writing Wein has done on the series. It’s hard to decide why it’s his best though. My first thought was because this period—late seventies to mid-eighties—is when Wein was writing comics and he’s able to work well in that period. My next thought had to do with… 📖
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Love in an Elevator (2010, Elizabeth Ditty)
Apparently, two things make a silent film. Editing and music. In the case of Love in an Elevator, director Ditty has them both down. The short—with the exaggerated physical performances—feels like a silent. The opening does not immediately give that impression. The opening sequence could just be stylistic, but once the janitor shows up and… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #4
I’m now incredibly confused. The backup, illustrated by Kubert, all about the DC WWII heroes reuniting on the Bicentennial is this lovely little piece. I mean, Wein’s dialogue is still really weak and I’m sad Alfred didn’t get jiggy with Mlle. Marie in current continuity like he did before… but it’s lovely. It’s the closest… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #3
Does anyone proofread these? I mean, does Mike Carlin do anything as an editor or just sit around in an office? This issue of Legacies sets the start of the modern superhero—regardless if they want to call it the Silver Age, it’s Superman and Batman—in the mid-sixties or, at latest, late-sixties. It also totally ignores… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #2
I didn’t mention this part of the last issue because I was hoping Wein wasn’t going to use it as a plot device, because it’d be stupid. Silly me, apparently he’s going to use it. The narrator has a friend who goes bad. It appears he’s going to show up every issue as a thug,… 📖
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DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #1
Near as I can tell—down to the old man narrator—Legacies is just DC’s attempt at doing Marvels, only without such a cool name. Scott Kolins does the opening frame, the nice old man with his superhero memorabilia and so on, then they flashback to the thirties and Suicide Slum. The draw of the issue is… 📖
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Bound (1996, Lana and Lilly Wachowski)
I always thought Gina Gershon got top billing for Bound–even though she’s only the lead for the first third or so–but it’s actually Jennifer Tilly, which is somewhat more appropriate. I say somewhat because at a certain point, Tilly too loses the spotlight. For a good twenty minutes in the middle, the film belongs to… 📖
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Bound (1996, The Wachowskis)
I always thought Gina Gershon got top billing for Bound–even though she’s only the lead for the first third or so–but it’s actually Jennifer Tilly, which is somewhat more appropriate. I say somewhat because at a certain point, Tilly too loses the spotlight. For a good twenty minutes in the middle, the film belongs to… 📖
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Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #6
It’s interesting how Morgan finishes the series—it’s kind of setting up Civil War only with Dubya as the bad guy. I guess Marvel lost the cajones. He also runs out of space, hinting the character he wasted about fifteen pages on throughout the series will be a threat next time, not this time. And there… 📖
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Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #5
It’s not an all-action issue, instead Morgan creates the all-torture issue. Well, okay, he’s got a scene with the blond Black Widow saving Daredevil and another one with Black Widow’s sidekick, but basically the entire issue is just Natasha either being tortured or about to be tortured. Oddly, the torture isn’t what drives the comic… 📖
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The Amazing Screw-On Head (2006, Chris Prynoski)
Casting Paul Giamatti is a great idea, except when you get someone even more dynamic than him (it’s difficult, but possible) in a supporting role. Especially if it’s just Giamatti’s voice and you’re putting him up against David Hyde Pierce. Giamatti does fine for a while in The Amazing Screw-On Head, but then Pierce shows… 📖
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Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #4
I think I just remembered how this series ends. I think it’s with a big, unresolvable cliffhanger. Unfortunate. Anyway, this issue’s pretty good. It’s an all-action issue—Natasha goes and gets her sidekick from the South American work farm. There’s also another big Daredevil scene with Nick Fury—Matt beats up a bunch of guys—and it’s where… 📖
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Legalese (1998, Glenn Jordan)
Legalese’s cast order is a tad deceptive. First, James Garner headlines it. While he does have a large role, he’s not the protagonist—and he’s not even the regular likable Garner character. Legalese plays on that assumption, however. Then there’s Gina Gershon, who has a small part (though the film opens with her). Then it’s Mary-Louise… 📖
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Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #3
Reading the scene where Nick Fury gets tortured by a Bush flunky, it’s clear why comics should never get too involved with politics, especially not superhero comics. It’s Nick Fury… shouldn’t Captain America bust in and save him? And if Captain America isn’t busting in and saving him, isn’t the reason why more important than… 📖
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Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #2
The art problems continue. It appears even when he’s just doing finishes, Sienkiewicz didn’t really want to take the time on the series. This issue improves the series overall, even if Morgan is sort of racing around. There doesn’t seem to be a story so much as clean-up from the last series. Natasha is trying… 📖
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Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2005) #1
It’s Sienkiewicz over Phillips so you’d think the art would be good… You’d think. Instead, it’s a bad combination. Sienkiewicz is too contained in the layouts, Phillips is too broad because he knows there are going to be finishes. There’s no magic here. Morgan starts this issue a week after the last series ends. It’s… 📖
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Victorian Undead II (2011) #5
Hmm… is Edginton subtly suggesting the next Victorian Undead series will feature Frankenstein’s Monster? I hope so. Again, there are some needlessly weak pages, but this time I can’t blame it on anyone but Fabbri. Maybe he was rushed. It’s a shame it’s during the big finale with Dracula and Holmes. Edginton comes up with… 📖
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Victorian Undead II (2011) #4
Okay, it’s not Fabbri doing the terrible pages, it’s Guevara on his own. And they are terrible. He can’t maintain the shape of a human head. There are four or five of his pages this issue and it’s so bad, I wanted to put the comic down and stop reading it. Otherwise, again, good issue.… 📖
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Victorian Undead II (2011) #3
As ineffectual as I find Fabbri’s Saturday morning cartoon style, at least he usually works at it. This issue brings in Mario Guevara to ink him and there are some incredible mishaps. One section appears to either be without inks (in which case, it’s clear Fabbri does most of his work while inking) and it… 📖
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Victorian Undead II (2011) #2
Edginton moves the story along a lot faster than I was expecting. I imagine it’s to bring the Dracula supporting cast into it sooner; the last half of the issue is Holmes and Watson teaming up with Professor Van Helsing and company. If I thought Fabbri’s Sherlock Holmes was funny, his Van Helsing is absolutely… 📖
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Victorian Undead II (2011) #1
Let’s see… Edginton doesn’t just bring in Dracula, he also brings in zombie-hunting gypsies, a conspiracy involving the British throne involving vampires (which changes up the series being a straight Dracula adaptation) and London rebuilding. The interesting part of London rebuilding is how it was a facet of Scarlet Traces too. While the first Victorian… 📖
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Victorian Undead: Sherlock Holmes vs. Jekyll and Hyde (2010) #1
I’m sure I made the compliant during the first series (multiple times), but… really… who thinks Horacio Domingues is a good fit for Victorian Undead? I’ll get past the fact his “inks” appear to be nothing more than darkened pencils (and maybe some cleaning in Photoshop) and get right to his idiotic renditions of Holmes… 📖
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Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #32
I think I’m going to start giving these issues “Friends” episodes titles (they fit, though they do get a little long). This one could be called “The One Where Gwen Moves in With the Parkers, Then Peter Tries to Talk Logically to Mary Jane and She Dumps Him.” She doesn’t just dump him over Gwen,… 📖
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Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #31
Big issue. Well, not really. Well… sort of. It’s one of those times Bendis lets the pacing get away from him and he ends up spending too little time on something important because he’s got to have the payoff scene. Captain Stacy dies this issue, the Wasp guest stars and… wait, no. Those two events… 📖
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Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #30
How many references can Bendis fit into one comic? And well. I’m not suggesting they aren’t good references. Let’s see… “Batman: Year One,” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Bullit. Lots of Bagley big eyes on Mary this issue. They look like they’re going to take over her head. Bendis resolves last issue’s hard cliffhanger, but… 📖
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The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975, Gene Wilder)
I didn’t know what to expect from The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, other than some of the principals of Young Frankenstein to reunite. As it turns out, Smarter Brother is Frankenstein’s younger brother. For his first directorial outing, Wilder basically just mimics Brooks’s direction of Frankenstein. There are the constant fadeouts and the… 📖
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Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #29
I’m usually pretty reserved in any Bagley praise—Bagley hands are one of the more frightening things in comics—but he does give Jonah a great expression here. There’s no dialogue and he and Bendis take most of a page to do it and they make this great moment where the reader can tell what Jonah’s thinking… 📖
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Silver Blaze (1977, John Davies)
Christopher Plummer makes a strange Sherlock Holmes—he’s almost too much of a movie star to play him. Plummer has a great time, creating a mildly mischievous Holmes who willfully appears eccentric. It’s too bad he’s the only interesting thing about Silver Blaze. I suppose some of Davies’s establishing shots are good, but it’s not him,… 📖
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Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #28
Okay, so the Rhino is a Spider-Man villain. I thought he was, but couldn’t remember for sure. Bendis turns the issue into something of a joke. He introduces Ultimate Rhino, all right, but it’s got very little to do with Spider-Man. In fact, Peter’s inability to escape his daily life to fight Rhino is the… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #59
All writers have limits… and it’s too bad Gates’s limit is writing Cat Grant as a likable human being. He just can’t do it. He tries and tries here, but he ends up making Superwoman more likable than Cat. It’s a strange disconnect. There’s just something so hateful about her, he’s gone beyond a point… 📖
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The Frisco Kid (1979, Robert Aldrich)
The Frisco Kid is a Western, but it doesn’t open like one. It opens more like a seventies Gene Wilder theme comedy (composer Frank De Vol starts out like it’s Young Frankenstein, but quickly gets bad… especially at the end). The film takes a little while to ground itself. Before Harrison Ford shows up, much… 📖
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Lovely Day (2001, Edward Burns)
Lovely Day is a series of clips—it opens with the American flag around Manhattan and ends with a thank you sign to the NYPD and FDNY, but otherwise, it has little to do with 9/11, at least ten years later (it was part of “The Concert for New York City” benefit concert)—set to Bill Wither’s… 📖
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Supergirl (2005) #58
Gates really humanizes Cat Grant here (I didn’t know she had a dead son, for example) and it comes a little late. If he’d done it earlier, she wouldn’t have seemed so shrill. Besides that delay in characterizing, it’s a good issue. Igle does a great job with Supergirl, as usual, but something about his… 📖
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Supergirl Annual (2009) #2
For the annual, Gates sends Supergirl to the future. The whole new Legion of Super-Heroes continuity is incredibly difficult to understand. Every time they guest in a book, I get even more confused. But Gates does a good job doing a done-in-one adventure. The story moves, has a lot of scenes, and has Supergirl and… 📖
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Startling Stories: The Thing – Night Falls On Yancy Street (2003) #4
Dorkin continues to get better this issue and Haspiel nicely evens out. It’d be hard to get much worse than last issue, so at least he arrested the art decline. It doesn’t become clear what Dorkin’s really doing with Yancy Street until the last few pages and, once it is clear, well… It’s unfortunate. For… 📖
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Startling Stories: The Thing – Night Falls On Yancy Street (2003) #3
It’s really too bad, but as Dorkin’s writing gets better, Haspiel’s art continues to get worse. This issue is frequently hideous, what with the Sandman having an all new costume. It looks like a cross between a jester’s outfit and something from the sixties “Batman” TV show. Dorkin’s trying—finally—to bring some authentic New York flavor… 📖
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Morning Glory (2010, Roger Michell)
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a good “Hollywood” New York comedy, even longer since I’ve seen a great one. Morning Glory is a good one. Though, at times, it reminds of a great one—I’m not sure if David Arnold’s score, which is lovely on its own, is supposed to remind of Sabrina,… 📖