Alan Scott: Green Lantern #3 - Comic Review

 

Alan Scott: Green Lantern was a book that I was already geared to like, thanks to my love of the Green Lantern mythos and the Justice Society, but it was through the exploration of Alan Scott as a gay man in a time of rampant, normalised homophobia, and the astonishing second issue, that I came to count this series as one of the best of 2023. This issue continues to explore the mystery of the killings that are plaguing Alan's life, as well as his battle to accept himself in this harsh and cruel world. 

This is the first issue of the series that doesn't really have any flashbacks (if you don't count the whole thing being set in DC's past), and instead focuses on Alan's investigation in the present. As with the previous entries we see that the homophobia of the time is a constant plague to him, with Alan's investigation being disrupted almost immediately when police arrive at the docks to arrest any gay men that they find. This is bad for Alan, preventing him from investigating her further, but it is also hard for him from an emotional point of view.

Despite having seen him break out of Arkham in the last issue, seeing the strength he had to stand up and say 'no more' and go against the homophobic societal pressure designed to destroy him, he seems to be slipping backwards somewhat here. The constant police raids and arrests of queer people is having a toll on him, and he calls himself deviant, he starts to see himself as a criminal just because of who he loves. These kinds of thoughts cause some tension for him when dealing with the Flash, who's helping him at the morgue. Jay is clearly trying to extend a hand of friendship and understanding towards Alan, letting him know that it's fine that he's gay, but thanks to everything that Alan has been dealing with his response is to snap at him, to get angry, which forces Jay to pretend that he was meaning something else entirely.

Interestingly, it's the other investigator on the case who's the one who actually gets Alan to open up a bit more, which considering it's the Spectre is somewhat surprising. This is easily one of the more interesting versions of the Spectre I've read, and I love the way that Tim Sheridan balances out the spirit of vengeance with the soul of the man he's inhabiting. Jim Corrigan feels like a big part of this version of the Spectre, and there's a sense that he's having a bit of fun with his powers and abilities, scaring criminals to get answers because it brings him a sense of both power and amusement. It's very humanising, and offers readers a type of Spectre that we've not really had in comics for a long while. 

It's whilst investigating missing police files together that the Spectre and Alan end up having a heart to heart, and it's the Spectre that manages to get through to him. This is surprising to both Alan and myself, for different reasons. I was surprised because, as I said, the Spectre has been written very differently for a while, usually as cold and vengeful, the kind of person who is there to judge and condemn rather than being open to having a normal conversation. Alan, however, is taken by surprise by it because he assumes that God would hate him for being gay. The rhetoric of the time (and still used today to be fair) is that God hates queer people, that those identities are against his will and his religion, even though the Bible never once says that.

And the Spectre makes this clear to Alan, he shows him that despite what people are telling him, despite what's being used to create cruel laws, God doesn't love him any less because of who he himself loves. The reuse of 'If God himself didn't want you to love then how could you?', a phrase that Johnny once said to Alan, whilst he and the Spectre hug, was genuinely moving. Despite not being able to see all of his face, and what you can see being covered with a mask, you see enough to know that this moment means so much to Alan, that a literal servant of God telling him that he's not broken, that he's not a deviant, means so much to him. Plus we get the Spectre helping to heal a mans soul by hugging him; who'd ever thought we'd see that?

It's also during this conversation that Alan begins to come to some realisations about the killings, and why they've been targeting him; a realisation that has him rushing back to his home. This leads to a final page reveal that, I have to be honest, I saw coming since issue one, but doesn't pack any less of an emotional punch. Alan finds the Red Lantern in his home, and sees that it's Johnny. There's no shock for me in this moment, but Johnny punching Alan, hurting the man who loves him so much, is the part that makes this ending memorable. The book has spent so long building their relationship, showing how much it meant to Alan, how much it changed his life, that you can't help but feel your heart break a little in this moment because of how much this is going to hurt Alan.

Despite having figured out Johnny was going to be Red Lantern so early on it doesn't mean there's not some mystery here still. Johnny speaks in Russian, which raises some possibilities for what's happened. Either he was found by the Russians after the accident that left Alan thinking he was dead, and has defected to the USSR, or, he was a Russian spy. Whilst I think him being a Russian spy the whole time would be the much more interesting option that I'd love to see explored, it also likely means that his love for Alan was a lie the entire time, and I do not want to see what that revelation will do to Alan. I suspect, if Sheridan is going that route that that will be the incident that leads to Alan being closeted, the reason why he only recently came out. I can easily see the first man he loved, the man who changed his life forever and forged him into who he is turning out to have been a liar who never loved him would easily push Alan into thinking that being gay was wrong, and that he should live as a straight man for the rest of his life.

The art for issue three is done by Cian Tormey, with Chris Sotomayo colouring, and the book looks great throughout. There's not really any big action this issue, there are no huge moments where the art team can make you go 'wow', but it's in the little moments that things really shine. The part I already mentioned where you can see the pain on Alan's face when he's hugging the Spectre is a prime example of a very normal, very plain moment that just looks fantastic and tells a huge amount with the art. The Spectre himself is also a stand out, and I love the way this team makes him look in this issue and really want to see more of them working on JSA characters in the future. A series set in this era with this writer and this art team would likely be the best Justice Society comics we've had.

With such heavy focus on Alan Scott's queerness in the previous issues I was hoping that the series would continue to put his sexuality at the centre of things going forward, but understood that that part of the story might have to side lined somewhat to focus on the mystery and  super heroics. This issue shows that that doesn't have to be the case though, and Sheridan is able to weave the two together into a truly impressive and deeply moving narrative. I'm sure that there will be some out there complaining about the focus on queer stories and characters here, as there was people who complained about Alan coming out to begin with. But those people are, frankly, idiots. For the rest of us, we've got an amazing story that brings a whole new lease of life to one of DC's oldest characters in a book that's going to be remembered as DC's best queer focused work.

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Northern Soul by Phil Earle - Book Review

 

'Up until now, Marv’s uneventful life has revolved around playing football with his best mate, Jimmy. But things take a turn for the dramatic with the arrival at school of new girl Carly Stonehouse.

'Marv falls in love at first sight, but there’s no way a girl like Carly will ever look at him. Unless, perhaps, he enlists help from a very unusual source.

'Follow Marv on his hilariously agonising quest for love, featuring his Croc-loving dad, a fast-food addicted musical idol from the past and some of the most cringeworthy song lyrics you might ever have heard …'

There has been this weird rule that romantic comedies have to be for women and girls, that somehow the pursuit of love is a female ideal, and not something that 'real men' should concern themselves with. Of course, it's down to toxic masculinity and the idea that men have to be stoic, emotionless people who shouldn't be in touch with their feelings, and as such rom coms get marketed to people other than men. Thankfully, this is changing a lot. The toxic masculinity traits and societal expectations are changing, and we're living more in a time where rom coms can actually be for guys. This is what Northern Soul is tapping into, the angst of teenage love and the desire to have your hearts desires fulfilled from the perspective on an awkward teenage boy.

Northern Soul follows Marvin, a boy who lives with his single father, never having really known his mother. His dad is a nice guy, though Marv thinks him a bit weird. He works in a music shop and loves old music (which Marv hates), and he has an unhealthy love from crocs. Other than that, though, Marv is living a fairly simple life, hanging with his friends, playing video games, and loving football. However, that all changes when Carly moves into the same street as him, and starts going to his school.

Marv is instantly in love with Carly, and just wants to get to know her better. He's so awkward that he's convinced that he's scared her off the first time that he speaks to her. When he goes home he finds his father listening to Otis Redding, and discovers music that speaks to his heart and the emotions he's experiencing. When he wishes that Otis, who clearly knows all about love, would tell him what to do it summons the invisible ghost of the singer, who makes it his mission to help Marv win over Carly; a mission that is not destined to go well.

Perhaps the best word to describe a lot of this book, and what Marv goes through, would be 'cringe'. It's very much an accurate depiction of teenage first love, with instant infatuation, making a fool of yourself repeatedly, and not always being able to pick up on the obvious signs around you. To say that it resurfaced some of my own awkward memories would be underselling it, and I spent the night after reading it with my head in my hand remembering what I was like at that age. Phil Earle manages to capture this feeling so well with the story that I wouldn't be surprised if he was drawing from similar experiences himself.

But, this book isn't aimed at us adults who have already been through this and are thanking god that our embarrassing stuff happened before you could record everything on a phone and share it to social media (we did our embarrassing stuff in private and only had word of mouth to worry about). Instead, this book is aimed at younger teen readers, readers who are probably going through similar situations to Marv; minus the ghost of Otis Redding helping them out that is. And I think that teens will enjoy this read. Marv is a nice guy, and I think other boys in his age range reading this will likely be able to identify with him. He's something of an everyman, and his shy awkwardness around girls will be something that most young readers will know all too well.

The book also contains a fair amount of comedy that I think will appeal, weird situations that are on one hand so awkward that you just want to look away, yet are also funny enough to keep you reading. Earle injects a good amount of humour into things, and it definitely makes the book feel really charming and takes the edge off some of the situations. But it's also got some good messages in there too, messages about not trying to hard, about not trying to make weird grand gestures to win someone over, but just being yourself and being confident in who you are. These are hard learned lessons for Marv, but hopefully reading about it will help those picking up the book to get there without so many bumps along the way.

Northern Soul is a bit of a silly, often ridiculous romantic comedy, but one that's quite harmless and even quite charming. It will appeal to older readers who have been there and done that and are glad those days are behind them, and it will likely be loved by those who are going through this difficult time themselves. 

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Titans: Beast World #3 - Comic Review

 

Chaos continues to rage across the world as Garro's spores transform everyone in their path into animal people, including several members of the super hero community.

The first issue of Titans: Beast World was a really interesting, and kind of spooky, issue that introduced an ancient horror from the depths of space, sealed away inside a moon for thousands of years. It was the kind of thing that I really love. And whilst the series is still pretty entertaining, it feels like it may have lost a little of the stuff that made that first issue so good; and the tie-in books only seem to be dragging things down too. However, sticking to the main title, it's still a decent read.

After the events of the second issue, Batman has been infected with one of the spores, and has become a wolf creature. Luckily, Dick has been able to contain him, and has reached out to Doctor Bridget Clancy to help find a treatment for the infected. Tom Taylor, who's also writing Nightwing, has clearly done his research into the character, as Doctor Clancy is a blast from the past, having been in the Nightwing series back in the 90's. Her return is a cool little easter egg for long time readers, and the fact that she knows Dick is Nightwing, having lived in the same building as him and having seen him coming and going as the hero, is a cool moment too. It suggests that there's probably a fair few members of the public who know some of these heroes identities (particularly the vigilantes) and are keeping quiet about it because they understand that these are good people helping the world.

Whilst Batman is being helped in Titans tower Power Girl is infected, transforming her into a fiery bird creature (a definite nod to the Kyrptonian legend of Flame Bird), and Jon Kent has to do his best to take her on. This moment is slightly undercut by some of the tie-in stuff, and the fact that we've already seen Power Girl this way weeks ago in the Metropolis focused book ruins the moment here. And as I said when reviewing that title, the relaxed attitude of people, who are acting like nothing much is happening, whilst the main title shows the world in a full blown disaster, leads to readers not knowing how we're supposed to be seeing things.

Whilst a lot of the heroes try to contain the spores and save as many people as possible Starfire and Donna Troy head into space to help Raven and the other big hitters deal with Garro. Using her lasso, Donna is able to contain Garro somewhat, giving the others a chance to try and figure out what to do. Luckily, back on Earth, Detective Chimp comes to Titans Tower in order to assist with this. It's cool to see that the Titans are still leading things, even with folks like Wonder Woman and Superman in the fight. Most of the places we check in on in this issue has a Titan or two there, leading the charge, and there's still very much a sense that despite things having gone wrong the League hasn't turned round and said 'okay, you had your turn but fucked it up, we're in charge again'.

During all of this we also check in on Amanda Waller, who is still doing shady shit in the background. It's clear that her plan is to make people not want to trust the heroes, to see them as the reason for things having gone wrong, and for trust in them to be broken forever. She knows that she can't just take them down, but if she gets the world to turn against them she'll come out on top. But it seems that she's not just happy to let that play out, and is ready to do some serious damage to the hero community as she tries to force Lex Luthor into helping her with her new goal, killing Beast Boy. Gar's personality has been supressed thanks to Doctor Hate (presumably something that Detective Chimp can help the heroes undo), but it seems like permanently killing him is on the table; which I honestly hate. If Gar ends up dying at the end of this event I'm not going to be happy.

The art on the issue is provided by Lucas Meyer, with Romulo Fajardo Jr. doing the colouring work. The book looks really good, and the art sells the chaos and carnage that's going on, with some fantastic visuals that really makes it look like it might be the end of the world. The transformed heroes and villains that we get to see have some fun designs too, and the fiery bird version of Power Girl is slightly ridiculous, but looks better here than she did in any of the tie in titles.

Whilst the tie-ins for this event are coming out in orders that mess with continuity, and have tones that don't quite fit, the main title continues to be entertaining. Tom Taylor is clearly a fan of the Titans characters, and is doing some cool stuff with them; and when it comes to end of the world style stories he's still one of the best that DC has, and is doing some great stuff here.

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Marvin and the Book of Magic by Jenny Pearson - Book Review

 

'After being humiliated by a badly behaved squirrel on national television, Marvin has vowed NEVER to perform magic in public again. But when he acquires a mysterious book that promises to show those with the gift of magic how to use it properly, his best friend Asha persuades him to make a comeback in the school talent show.

'Watch Marvellous Marvin take to the stage to demonstrate the magic that can be found in true friendship!'

Marvin has grown up loving magic. his grandfather was a magician, and would always be teaching Marvin new tricks and different acts whenever he came to visit. He told Marvin that he had a gift for magic, and it inspired Marvin to want to follow in his footsteps and be a magician. Alas, his dreams to be a great stage magician died when he appeared on a TV talent show. 

Not wanting to be a boring magician who just pulls a rabbit from a hat, Marvin brings along a squirrel, who soon escapes and causes huge chaos that leave Marvin a televised embarrassment. He vows to quit magic on the spot, and has to deal with bullies at school mocking him and reminding him of his failure.

When his school decide to host their own talent show his best friend Asha wants to take part, coming up with the idea for a very elaborate act, and encourages Marvin to take part too in an attempt to get him to do his magic tricks again. Marvin, not wanting anything to do with magic anymore, takes his box of tricks to a strange shop in town, Clive's Emporium, to sell it so that he can never do magic again. However, when Clive offers to exchange the box of magic tricks for a real book of magic Marvin's life will be changed forever. 

Marvin and the Book of Magic is a really nice story about overcoming embarrassment, of continuing on with the things that you love, and doing selfless acts. Jenny Pearson manages to fit a lot into a relatively short book, yet never leaves you feeling like there's too much. We get to know Marvin really well, we learn about his family, seeing his relationship with his father and grandfather, we see his friendship with Asha, and there's a lot of time for he and Asha to have fun with each other too. Pearson knows that we need to get to know the character in order to care about his story and his issues, and makes sure that that's included.

There are good morals in the book, lessons that kids will enjoy without feeling like they're being preached to or told what they should consider important. Marvin learns that he needs to be true to himself, and he learns that giving up something important to help someone he cares about it a better thing to do than hoarding something special just to himself. Marvin comes out of the story not just more confident, but kinder too, and that's the kind of lesson that young readers need to follow.

As well as Pearson's writing, the book comes with a number of illustrations by Aleksei Bitskoff, who turns some of the more important parts of the book into some great images. The first of these is the moment that Marvin and his squirrel cause chaos on TV, and it includes all of the wonderful destruction that Pearson described, yet also manages to get a couple of little jokes in there too; such as one of the talent judges looking eerily familiar to a very famous TV talent show judge from real life. Clive's Emporium is also another highlight illustration that showcases all of the weird and wonderful things in the shop that younger readers will want to spend some time looking through. The illustrations are a wonderful accompaniment to the writing, and enhance a number of scenes.

Marvin and the Book of Magic is a great book for younger readers, with a ton of fun and jokes and some great moral messages.

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Predator vs Wolverine #4 - Comic Review

 

The final part of the first Marvel Predator cross-over comes to a close as Benjamin Percy manages to not just squeeze two clashes with between the titular characters into the issue, but gives us three separate fights across three different time periods.

As with previous issues, this issue is framed by a modern day story, one that sees Logan trying to lure the alien hunter to him in an attempt to bring this decades old battle to an end. We learn here that Logan is the one who instigated this clash, where all of the other times the Predator has been the one to come calling. However, unlike previous issues we don't get flashbacks to a point in the past where they've fought before; this time we get two.

The first of these we saw at the end of the third issue, where Logan is training in Japan with the swordsman Muramasa. Having been taught to not just rely upon his claws, Wolverine has been training with the sword, learning to become more focused in battle. Interestingly, this change in the way that he fights seems to not do much for Logan here in regards to giving him an edge against the Yautja, and if anything it makes this one of the tougher fights that the two of them have had. The fight is drawn to a close early as the Predator flees, not wanting to fight through a cadre of Hand ninja's in order to go after Logan.

It's something of an anti-climactic ending to this segment, one that seems over before it's really had a chance to do much, and one that kind of makes the Predator seem a bit soft. Rather than waiting to see what happens with the Hand, or even picking them off himself, he just leaves ending the hunt early. Whilst the hunt ends early, the flashbacks don't, as we catch up with Logan further along his timeline, during the Claremont era of Uncanny X-Men.

Logan returns to the mansion when it comes under attack from the Predator, who seems to have gotten over his issues about going after Wolverine when other people are around. He invades the school, ready to hurt anyone who gets between him and his prize. This, along with the fellow X-Men's nature to get involved and help their ally, means that we actually get some other characters interacting with the Predator, including Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Dani Moonstar, and Rogue. It's really cool to see the team all getting involved in the fight, and I really want a full issue or more of a Predator going after Nightcrawler now. 

Thanks to the help of the other X-Men, the Yautja once again retreats, knowing that he's pretty outclassed. Again, this kind of hurts the image for this particular Predator I think. I don't blame it for not wanting to take on several X-Men at the same time, but having it run from a fight two fights in a row does make him seem a bit weak and cowardly. I'm also a little surprised that Rogue touching him isn't used as a way of Logan knowing that the Predator species is called Yautja, something Logan calls it in his narration, when it'd be easy to explain away her getting information from it this way.

The two flashback segments have their own artists, with Kei Zama on art and Alex Guimaráes providing colours for the Murumasa segment, whilst Gavin Guidry does art for the Westchester flashback, with Matthew Wilson on colours. The Muramasa segments looks really good, and I love the way that Zama depicts the Predator with his skull mask (which we learn is made from the bear from the first issue). The combat between the two fighters looks really dynamic here, and the colours really help to add a lot of vibrancy and energy to the scene. The Westchester part looks very different in comparison, and Guidry and Wilson keep things very simple and clean. The art style here is evocative of older comics, whilst not simply being a reproduction of the style from the time. The flashback looks like it could slot into the comics from that era, yet still manages to look new in a way that's wonderful to see.

The rest of the issue has to deal with the conclusion of the fight between Logan and his Predator, a fight that comes with a wonderfully grim fake-out for both the Predator and the reader as we're led to believe that Logan is pulling an Arnie in order to get the upper hand. The fight is brutal and bloody, and ends in a way that most of confrontations with the Predator does; though it's a way in which Logan might be the best equipped to survive. As with previous issues, the modern parts of the book are drawn by Ken Lashley, with colours by Juan Fernandez, and look really good. The two of them do a wonderful job at making the fight look brutal and bloody, and some of the wounds that Logan receives are gory enough to make you pause and wonder if even he can survive them.

This might not be the best issue of the series, and it does feel like the book may have ended on its weakest chapter, but the quality that has been there across the series as a whole is still here, and the book remains hugely entertaining. As the series comes to a close the question of whether or not the Predator works within this universe has well and truly been answered. Hopefully we'll see more cross-overs again in the future, with even more characters; and hopefully they won't feel like they ended so quickly the next time too, as this series feels like it could have been twice as long and not lost quality.

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The Great Yokai War: Guardians volume 1 - Manga Review

 

'After giant kaiju threaten to destroy Japan, the guardian spirits of the nation, known as 'Yokai' appear before the young boy Kei... They tell him he is the descendant of the legendary monster slayer Watanabe no Tsuna, and may be the only person who can stop the catastrophe.'

I recently had the chance to watch and review the entire Yokai film series, a really fun experience for a collection of movies that are incredibly charming. That collection included a newer film, directed by the famous Takeshi Miike, who turned his hand to family adventure films after a career of vicious, bloody movies. This new manga series, The Great Yokai War: Guardians, is based upon his second Yokai film, a film that has not had a UK release, and wasn't part of the blu-ray collection. As such, when I learned that the film had been adapted to manga form I was excited to see what this franchise had next.

The Great Yokai War: Guardians begins with Japan in trouble, with a giant snail-like monster causing earthquakes that begin to threaten the country. Knowing that if nothing is done about it, the nation will face destruction, the guardian spirits of the land, the Yokai, seek out a young boy who can help them.

This introduces us to Kei Watanabe, a sullen, moody teenager who spends most of his time in school listening to music, and tormenting his teachers. We learn that Kei recently lost his father, and that his role as the big brother to the younger Dai is causing him stress and making him retreat away from his remaining family. Despite his grumpy demeanour, the Yokai approach Kai, revealing to him that he's the descendant of a legendary swordsman, and that he can command the various Yokai and lead them to save the country. 

Kai, however, doesn't really want much to do with this, and just wants to keep to his quiet life, mourning his father in his own way. However, when Dai is kidnapped by dark forces it forces Kai to set up and become the hero that Japan needs. 

The book has been adapted from the original film script by screenwriter Yusuke Watanabe, who seems comfortable in adapting his own work. The book reads well, and if you came to it not knowing that this was an adaptation of a film you wouldn't know, as it fits nicely into the pacing and style of various other manga stories that fit a similar theme of a young boy learning he has abilities and answering the call to adventure. Where the book does stand out in some ways, however, is that Kai is kind of unlikable at times. 

The first introduction to the character is him being such a pain in class that he reduces his teacher to tears. We see him being cold and distant towards Dai, a younger brother who clearly idolises hi, and it makes you somewhat weary to like the character. However, over the course of this first volume we learn more about him, we discover his recent family tragedy, and the trauma that it has caused him. Whilst it doesn't forgive some of his actions it at least gives them important context; as well as humanises him.

Outside of the character work, Watanabe keeps the story moving as a strong pace, and throws a lot at the readers in this first volume. We learn about the world of the Yokai, their roles, the wider world of monsters, Kai's family history, and internal Yokai politics. This does mean that there's a lot to take in, and there are times where the book feels a lot longer than it actually is. The masses of info, coupled with the real lack of any action in this first volume of what's supposed to be an action adventure series, it makes for a first volume that's entertaining, but might not feel completely accessible to new readers, or those that don't already have an investment in the universe.

The art on the book is done by Sanami Suzuki, and it's a style I'm not too sure of. Kai, and the other human characters are drawn very simply. They have a slightly cartoon-like style, and fit the family friendly adventure story style well. And this style is reflected in some of the Yokai too. However, there are several of the monsters that feel very different in presentation, with a lot more detail and a darker quality to them. There are parts of the book that are so detailed, and so dark that it felt more akin to a horror manga than anything else. I guess this tone does reflect the theme of the book of a kid finding himself drawn into a different world, one darker and more strange than his own, but it does take a little getting used to.

As it stands, this is a decent introduction to the series, one that lays out a lot of stuff for the reader, and doesn't really slow down or hold your hand. Without seeing more, however, it doesn't feel particularly fantastic, nor bad. It feels like the next volume is going to play an important part in how I feel about this one. I'm hoping that it has some more action and adventure elements, and if it does this will be a decent start to things; but if it carries on in the same tone as this volume the series might just be a bit too dark and dull for my liking. Hopefully volume two will help shape this into another excellent addition to the Yokai series. 

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Creepshow Season 4 – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

We recently took a look at the physical media release of the first three seasons of Shudder exclusive horror anthology series Creepshow, developed as a continuation of the 80’s film series. These were released around the same time that the fourth season premiered on the streaming platform, and now the fourth season has got its own release, allowing fans to complete the collection.

As with the previous seasons, season four has six episodes, and each one covers two short horror stories, with different on and off screen talent. In the first few seasons of the show these episodes were fairly evenly split, with both stories taking around 20 minutes each. This season, however, feels quite different, as some of the episodes tend to lean more heavily towards one of the stories over the other, leading to it feeling more like a main story and a B-feature. To be fair though, the premise of the show is that you’re reading a comic book, and most comics that feature a back-up story are structured this way, with one gaining the bulk of the page count; so in that regard it does feel a bit like a comic.

This season has some interesting episodes, and opens strong with two tales that are immediately engaging. The first deals with a woman whose home comes under siege by a monster who’s chasing a woman that she decides to help. Having been told that the monster will kill her within twenty minutes, we follow the woman as she tries her best to find a solution to saving her life. Whilst it’s light on the horror, this story is surprisingly introspective, and features some really delightful interactions. And it might just have the best pizza delivery guy that’s ever been put on screen. The second part of the episode is much shorter, but works well because of it. It follows an award winning photographer whose past comes back to haunt him, and is genuinely quite creepy in places, and ended up being one of the stories from the season that really stood out in my mind.

After this first episode, however, things become kind of a mixed bag. There are still some good stories to be found, such as one about a writer who uses a lucky hat to get through his writer’s block, but it turns out the hat is controlling him. It’s kind of silly, it makes obvious nods to Stephen King (who helped create the original Creepshow), and it goes a bit creature feature towards the end, but there is something delightfully engaging about it. But I found there to be a lot more misses than hits as the show went on, with stories that were either completely forgettable, or just dull and predictable. There was one that felt like it was going through the motions until the ‘show twist’ final moment, but this elicited nothing much more than ‘Oh, so that’s the twist? Okay then’ from me.

This season seems to lack something that the previous ones had; the hook that made the others really enjoyable just doesn’t seem to be here. Part of this feels like it may be a decrease in budget. I don’t know if that’s the case, but it feels like it might be. The show doesn’t have as much punch as before. The segments with the Creep are gone, with the show now simply doing animated pages within the comic, there’s much less night shooting than previous seasons, which tends to save money, and there are next to no big name stars this season. The very first episode of the series, the very first story, opened big, with Tobin Bell, Adrienne Barbeau, and Giancarlo Esposito, all names that horror fans will recognise. Other episodes would feature people like Jeffrey Combs, Keith David, Kiefer Sutherland, Justin Long, James Remar, and other relatively big names. But this season doesn’t have any.

The lack of big name guest stars certainly makes this season feel like it has dropped somewhat in quality. Whilst none of the bigger actors featured in past seasons did anything more special than the actors in this one, with every actor essentially playing a bit part, the loss of recognisable faces means that this season just doesn’t stand out. Part of the fun of loading up an episode of the show was waiting to see if anyone you know would be in it, but after a coupe of episodes of season four I gave up even trying to anticipate, because I just knew it wasn’t coming.

Sadly, a lack of big names isn’t the only thing missing from this season. The previous home releases came with some extra features that included interviews, comic-con panels, audio commentaries, and special episodes. What does this season have listed as extra features worth getting the physical release for? Subtitles. Basic accessibility features that should be included in everything is all that this set could put together as ‘special’ features. Disappointing to say the least. Not only does this seem like a huge downgrade on previous seasons (and once again feeds into the feeling of cheapness) but it also gives those with a Shudder subscription no incentive to buy the discs. There are some people who have Shudder who’d absolutely buy the physical releases to look into the extras, but for this season they’ll likely just not bother.

I very much enjoyed the previous Creepshow releases, but season four feels like a big let down. After excitedly awaiting its delivery, hoping to get it watched before Christmas kicked in, I ended up feeling kind of deflated by the time the final episode credits rolled.

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The Chucky Collection – Limited Edition 4K UHD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Dolls have always been a source of horror, possessed or evil dolls have been a thing long before the series we’re discussing here. Bu, as soon as you say ‘evil doll’ there’s likely one that comes to mind first: Chucky. This diminutive slasher has been stalking victims for thirty five years now, and Arrow Video have decided to celebrate this with one of the biggest Chucky box sets you can find with The Chucky Collection.

The series begins in 1988, with the release of Child’s Play, a film that opens with serial killer Charles ‘Chucky’ Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) being chased through the streets by a cop. Chucky takes refuge in a toy store, but is wounded in the shoot-out. Rather than die, he grabs a nearby Good Guy doll and uses voodoo to transfer his soul into it. Soon after, single mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) buys the possessed doll for her young son Andy (Alex Vincent). Strange things begin to happen around Chucky, who Andy claims is alive, and when Karen’s best friend is killed whilst babysitting the blame seems to fall squarely on Andy. It’s not long, however, before she and the lead cop come to learn that Chucky contains the soul of Charles Lee Ray, and that he’s trying to get inside Andy.

The first Child’s Play film is an 80’s horror film through and through. It might have a silly concept, but the film never treats it as such. The possessed doll is never used as a joke, and the film treats him as dangerous, a foe more than capable of taking down a grown adult. The movie is suitably dark, and has a gritty, dirty quality to it that horror films set in city environments had during the ’80s. This approach works well for the film, and gives a firm foundation for the series. By playing things completely straight the coming films are able to go in any direction they want to, and boy do they.

The first sequel, Child’s Play 2, follows Andy after the fall-out of the first film. His mother has been put into a mental health facility for claiming a killer doll murdered everyone, and Andy is now in the care system. Whilst he’s slowly putting his life back together the Good Guy company has taken the remains of Chucky and rebuilt him in a show of public relations, to show that of course the doll couldn’t kill. But the still possessed Chucky soon escapes, tracks Andy down, and continues his plan to possess the boy. Whilst the film is very similar to the first in a lot of ways you do start to see the first signs of the lighter tone that the series will take her. Chucky makes more jokes, and the factory showdown at the end of the movie has big, bright colours.

This lighter tone is played down somewhat for Child’s Play 3 which sees an older Andy (Justin Whalin) at military school. Chucky comes to the school to go after Andy again, but figures out because he has a new body he can transfer into a new victim, and sets his sights on a young cadet. This puts the Andy character into a more proactive role, rather than being a victim, and the film uses the military school setting to do some interesting things with the story. Despite not actually being bad this seems to be one of the films in the franchise that gets a bad reputation. However, the ending, where Chucky gets diced, sets things up nicely for the fan favourite fourth entry.

Bride of Chucky seems to know that the series can’t just be horror any more, and embraces the comedy aspects. In this film Chucky’s girlfriend, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), gets hold of Chucky’s remains, rebuilds him, and brings him back to life. After their relationship quickly sours, Chucky ends up killing Tiffany, and uses voodoo to put her into a doll. With them both trapped in dolls they hatch a plan to use a pair of young lovers desperate to break free of their oppressive lives to transport them across the country so that they can get an artefact that will make them human again.

Unfortunately, their murderous antics along the way makes it look like the young couple are on a murder spree. Bride of Chucky is a wonderful addition to the series, taking it in the direction it needed to stay entertaining, and Tilly joining the cast is frankly perfect. Tiffany brings a fantastic energy to things, and is the perfect companion to Chucky. The fact that Tilly would appear in every subsequent film shows that her addition was the correct choice.

The firth film, Seed of Chucky, is perhaps the most hated of the series, taking a more meta approach and really embracing the humour. It features Tilly playing herself, playing Tiffany in a film about Chucky, who the real Tiffany tries to put her soul into. However, it’s the most openly queer film of the series, introducing Chucky and Tiffany’s gender fluid child, Glenn/Glenda (Billy Boyd). Whilst this is easily the weakest of the franchise, it’s still got some great moments in it, and some of the best jokes of the series.

After the critical failure of Seed, the next film went back to its horror roots, seeing Chucky terrorising a family in their home, killing them one by one whilst trying to possess the child. Whilst it may seem to be copying the formula of the first film it manages to never feel like a rehash, and Curse of Chucky instead feels like a return to what captured the audience’s love the first time around. The addition of Brad Dourif’s daughter, Fiona Dourif, makes the film enjoyable too, and her character of Nica would become the new protagonist of the series. She would return in Cult of Chucky which also saw Alex Vincent return as Andy, and is perhaps the best film in the series thanks to its unique environment, a great supporting cast, and some of the funniest moments in the series.

As well as the seven films, the new box set also comes with the 2022 Living With Chucky documentary film that goes deep into the series, talking with both the stars of the films, as well as the people who worked behind the scenes. Very much a love-letter to the series, it’s a wonderful companion piece, and a great way to round things out. Each of the films are presented in high definition, with the early films looking better than ever. There are also audio commentaries for each film, featuring cast and crew, and a number of interviews and behind the scenes features, both new and archival, that are sure to scratch the itch of anyone wanting to learn more about the series.

The Child’s Play franchise is something of an anomaly when it comes to long running horror franchises. It’s had the same writer, Don Mancini, on every entry, David Kirschner has produced each one, the lead has come back every time, and despite the tone and genre going all over the place, there is a consistent story throughout them all. The fact that the killer is a doll might make this a series that people overlook in comparison to things such as Friday the 13th or Halloween, but it might just be the best horror franchise out there, and this new box set deserves to be on any horror fan’s shelves.

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Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., or Godzilla X Mothra X Mechadozilla: Tokyo S.O.S. to give it its full title, is the sequel to 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, which saw an antagonistic Godzilla fighting the human made cyborg Mechagodzilla. In that film Mechagodzilla, called Kiryu in this continuity, was successful at driving the monster back, and managed to secure peace for the people of Japan. But a year has passed, and the monster has returned to wreak vengeance.

After the success of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla director Masaaki Tezuka was given the go ahead to create a direct sequel; something that is never a guarantee in the Godzilla franchise. The previous four films released by Toho were all unconnected, and this marked the first time since 1999 that a new film would continue on the story of a previous one. Masaaki was given a number of possible plots to use, but instead decided to create a new story alongside screenwriter Wataru Mimura, who had been writing for the franchise for the last decade.

Thanks to the popularity of Kiryu in the previous movie it was decided that the cybernetic defender would make a return. However, so as not to completely rehash the plot of the other film another heroic monster would take part in the defence of Japan; Mothra. More than forty years after his involvement in the original Mothra, Shinichi Chujo (Hiroshi Koizumi reprising his role) is approached by the Shobijin fairies (Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka), who warn the scientist that the original Godzilla bones inside Kiryu are attracting the new Godzilla, and that as long as they use Mechagodzilla the nation will be under threat. The fairies tell them that Mothra will protect Japan in Kiryu’s place, but due to Mothra having once attacked Japan (in her original film) they refuse.

As Kiryu undergoes repairs Godzilla emerges from the ocean, sporting a scar across his chest from the last fight. Despite the refusal of their aid, Mothra arrives to fight the rampaging monster, but the ageing kaiju soon finds herself losing the fight, and Kiryu is dispatched. The two of them battle the monster, and even Mothra’s infant offspring arrive to assist in the fight. However, when Mothra sacrifices herself to save her children it looks like Godzilla will win, until brave pilot Kyosuke Akiba (Mitsuki Koga) and Kiryu decide to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop him.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. is, in some ways, a bit of a stripped down sequel, despite containing even more Kaiju than the last film. Whilst the movie does feature Mothra and her offspring it’s lost some of the human cast members. The film features a few returning actors from the last film, but others are very noticeably absent. One of the co-creators of Kiryu is gone from the film for no obvious reason, and considering that he was in love with the previous film’s protagonist, who returns in a more reduced role, his absence is somewhat jarring. Oddly enough, the inclusion of Mothra seems to have been something that Toho instructed Masaaki Tezuka to include Mothra in order to attract female viewers; something that feels odd on the surface, but considering how much I love moths I actually completely understand it.

Despite the human cast shuffling and changes, the thing that most viewers came back for was the action, and this film includes a great deal of it. The effects are good, and mix practical suit and model work with CGI well. The suits for both Godzilla and Mechagodzilla were not new this time round, with the costumes from the previous film still being in storage. Whilst not needing to create new suits saved them some money, they did make some changes such as with Godzilla’s scar and Kiryu’s new drill hand attachment, though this was more of a move to be able to sell slight variations of toys and models more than an artistic choice. Godzilla suit actor Tsutomu Kitagawa returned to reprise the role, whilst Kiryu sported a new performer this time round.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. would prove to be the final entry in this two film continuity (more if you include the past films it draws from) as the next year’s 50th anniversary film Godzilla: Final War would take a different approach (and would be absolutely amazing!). It’s somewhat sad to see this particular continuity come to a close, especially as the post-credits tease clearly indicates that Tezuka had ideas for what to do next. As it is though, this is a pretty fun entry in the franchise, one with some surprisingly emotional moments, and some really cool visuals that we’ve not really had in any other Toho Godzilla films. Plus, Mothra. You can never go wrong with Mothra.

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The Comic Cave – Uncanny X-Men: The Dark Phoenix

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Comic Cave is a fortnightly feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix, one of the most influential, and most adapted, X-Men stories of all time.

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created The X-Men, the book was far from the comics juggernaut that it would go on to be. In a Marvel landscape where characters like Spider-Man dominated the scene, and The Fantastic Four were the premier team, no one had time for this strange collection of mutants. After barely more than a decade on the shelves the series was cancelled in 1975. But, it wouldn’t be gone for long. Later that year the book would return with a new creative team, and a whole new host of characters.

Of the original five team only Cyclops would remain, continuing on as the leader, joined by a hastily assembled group of mutants from around the world, including Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. After rescuing the original team these new heroes would stay on as the Uncanny X-Men, and under the control of Chris Claremont, would go on to become a series that dominated sales. The X-Men that people think of today, the kinds of characters that you’d pick first for a line-up, the colourful costumes unique to each member, and the wild stories involving not just evil mutants but time travel, space entities, and other universes, all came about during the Claremont era.

One of the biggest changes made early on, other than the new team, was Jean Grey sacrificing herself to save her team on a mission to space. With their ship having to pass through dangerous radiation on the way back to Earth, Jean locks the others in a chamber that will keep them safe, and flies the shuttle. After the ship crashes into the waters of Jamaica Bay the team assume Jean lost; but then she rises from beneath the waves, in a new costume, surrounded by flames, and calling herself Phoenix. After this Jean would come and go from the team, with most of the stories between Phoenix’s first appearance in X-Men # 101 and X-Men #129 (the start of this story) being as a minor character.

Despite not being on the team much her powers continued to grow, and she became an easy solution to most of team’s problems. The creative team were faced with the question of what to do with Phoenix if she could wave her hands and save the day every time. It was then suggested that perhaps Phoenix would better serve the series if she became a villain. The groundwork for this was laid across several issues, as Jean kept meeting the mysterious Jason Wyngarde, which resulted in her having visions of herself in the Regency era as his lover. But it wasn’t until X-Men #129 that things really kicked off.

The story begins with Professor Xavier detecting two new mutants that he wants the group to approach. The team splits up to go meet these new mutants, with Cyclops, Jean, and Nightcrawler heading off to meet the musician Dazzler, whilst the others go to introduce themselves to the parents of 13-year-old mutant Kitty Pryde. However, there’s another group looking to get these mutants, the Hellfire Club; which includes Jason Wyngarde. This group tries to recruit Pryde into Emma Frost’s school, whilst sending their troops to kidnap Dazzler. Cyclops and the others in New York fend off the Hellfire Club, but when Frost sees that her plan isn’t working, sends troops in to capture Kitty and the other X-Men.

Thanks to her new powers, Kitty is able to get away, but the other X-Men are captured. Using her powers, she follows the Hellfire Club to their base, and calls for the other X-Men to help. With the help of Dazzler, the others manage to infiltrate the facility and free their friends. During the rescue, Jean gets into  psychic battle with Emma Frost and defeats her, bringing the entire building down upon her. Having learned about the Hellfire Club, however, the X-Men decide to look into their new foes.

Days later, the team infiltrate a swanky party at the club’s New York premises. However, thanks to Wyngarde’s previous manipulations of Jean’s mind, he’s able to fully put her into his illusionary world, and convinces her that she’s not only his wife, but the new Black Queen of the Hellfire Club. Using their mutant powers, the leaders of the Club are able to beat the X-Men and take them prisoner. Fortunately, thanks to Wolverine’s combat skills, and the psychic bond between Jean and Cyclops, the team are eventually able to defeat the club and escape into Central Park.

However, it seems like the strain of everything Jean has gone through, and the increasing growth of her powers, have pushed her over the edge, and she changes into Dark Phoenix. Wearing a red version of her costume, she attacks the X-Men and quickly defeats them. Following this she set out into space, testing her new powers. Needing to recharge, she flies towards an alien sun and feeds upon its fires, a process that ends up destroying a nearby planet and killing all five billion inhabitants. She also engages a close by Shi’ar ship, which gains the attention of their Empress, and X-Men ally, Lilandra.

Returning to Earth, to her family home, Jean appears confused, slipping between her normal personality and the murderous Dark Phoenix. The X-Men arrive, and manage to get through to Jean, who regains control of herself. Things look to be back to normal, when the team is beamed aboard the Shi’ar Imperial Cruiser. Lilandra tells the X-Men of Jean’s genocide, and how the Phoenix Force within her must be stopped, and to that end, Jean must die. Xavier invokes a Shi’ar tradition that would allow the X-Men to fight for her freedom, and so the team engage the Shi’ar Royal Guard on a special arena on Earth’s moon.

Fighting as hard as they can to save their friend, the X-Men are defeated one by one, until only Jean and Cyclops remain. With the Dark Phoenix personality beginning to re-emerge, Jean knows that if it does it will kill everyone, including those she loves. Jean activates one of the discarded alien weapons within the ruins of the arena, and fires it at herself. Jean is reduced to ashes, the threat of the Dark Phoenix defeated by her self sacrifice.

The corruption of Jean Grey, one of the very first X-Men, and her eventual death was a story that rocked comic readers at the time. Marvel used to have a rule: dead means dead. Death has become a revolving door in comics, and characters dying and coming back has become so second nature that even just this year Marvel announced that they were killing off Ms Marvel, and then announced her return three months after her death. But, in the ’80s a character death was a big thing, and this story sent shock waves through X-Men readers. But it might surprise people to learn that this iconic comic book death was never actually supposed to happen.

The original plan for the final issue of the Dark Phoenix story was for the Shi’ar to not want to kill Jean but strip her of her powers. Much like in the final issue, the X-Men end up losing their battle on the moon. However, rather than Jean sacrificing herself, she’s placed inside a device on board the Shi’ar ship that strips her of her mutant abilities. Of course, the X-Men argue against this, saying how taking her powers not only makes her human, but makes her less than that; Wolverine has some wonderfully ableist slurs to describe this. Once stripped of her powers, Jean returns home with the others. This version of events was eventually released in a special issue, Phoenix: The Untold Story #1.

This plan never made it to print though due to Jim Shooter, who was checking out the proof copies of X-Men #135 and saw that Jean kills five billion people. Shooter had been part of the discussion to turn Jean into a cosmic villain for the team, but had been mostly hands off the production after that, so was not completely aware of the creative teams plans for her. Upon seeing that, however, he became more actively involved, and vetoed the idea of her being de-powered. In an interview in Phoenix: The Untold Story #1 he described the scenario as being like taking the German Army away from Hitler and making him live a quiet life somewhere else.

It was during discussions on what to do in the final part that creators Claremont and artist John Byrne explained that they saw the Phoenix entity as possessing Jean, and that she was therefore innocent. However, after going through the issues again they could agree that that wasn’t clear in the text, and that a more drastic punishment would be needed; and thus Jean Grey was killed off. This was a decision that the creators would later agree worked best for the story, and it was one that would impact the X-Men for decades to come.

Eventually Jean was brought back to life, with the explanation that the Phoenix Force has created a duplicate body from Jean, and that the real Jean was still beneath the waters the original Phoenix emerged from, getting around the fact that ‘Jean’ was guilty of genocide. Over the years the Phoenix Force and its relationship with Jean would continue to evolve, but Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix is where this still evolving saga really began. And it caused such a stir at the time that it has become one of the most adapted and revisited story in the entire X-Men catalogue.

The story was adapted in the hugely popular X-Men: The Animated Series where both the introduction of Phoenix and the Dark Phoenix saga were told over nine parts. Unlike the comic, however, the Phoenix entity eventually left Jean, so as not to kill the character off permanently. Phoenix was heavily hinted at in the X-Men: Evolution series, and was planned to take place in its fifth season, but had to be shelved when the show was cancelled. It was also a big plot point in the final episodes of the single season show Wolverine and the X-Men.

It wasn’t just the small screen that made use of the Phoenix though, as the film X2: X-Men United saw Jean tapping into a fiery new power and sacrificing herself to save her friends, with a large, fiery bird seen briefly beneath water in the final moments. This would lead into the Dark Phoenix being a central plot point in X-Men: The Last Stand, in which she would kill several characters before eventually being stabbed to death by Wolverine. This would be revisited in the prequel films, with Jean using Phoenix-like powers in X-Men: Apocalypse, before becoming the villain in X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Interestingly, both movies that used Dark Phoenix were written by the same person, Simon Kinberg. Both movie versions were received negatively by fans.

The lasting impact of the story, its continued adaptation, the repeated use of the Phoenix Force in the stories that would come after show just a small part of the impact that the Claremont era of X-Men would have. Just in this story alone several new characters are introduced who would go on to become huge characters that would have hundreds of appearances over the years; characters like Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, and Dazzler. Claremont would create dozens of characters and stories that would become so popular and so ingrained into the X-Men mythology that he might be one of most influential comic creators of all time, especially when it comes to one who worked on a series they didn’t create.

If you’re wanting to look at early X-Men stories, Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix is a perfect book. It’s early enough into Claremont’s era to be easy and accessible, and showcases some fantastic issues. From here, the series continues to have some fantastic stories, with the hugely popular Days of Future Past only a handful of issues later. Claremont made the X-Men a group worth following, and Dark Phoenix is, for many, the story that made them realise that.

Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix was published in X-Men from October 1979 to June 1980 by Marvel Comics.

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