Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton #1 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

The first issue of the Lazarus Planet event seemed to be setting up some interesting things. It looks like some lesser spotlight heroes were getting a chance to shine, and that some new powers and dynamics were being introduced. It also had a pretty clear story, with a group set out on important goals that were leading to an overall conclusion. Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton, in comparison, feels incredibly disjointed and disconnected, and raises some concerns for the other event tie-ins.

This book is split into four separate stories, most of which have no connection to the main book events. They seem to instead be looking to set up some new changes for some existing characters. These characters are all tied to the Superman mythology; hence the book's name. And there's one of the first real issues with this one-shot. It's called Assault on Krypton, yet has nothing to do with Krypton, other than featuring some Kryptonians. The opening text for the book seems to try to make the title feel justified by telling us that a volcano did bad stuff to Krypton years ago and was called the 'Assault on Kyrpton', and a volcano is doing bad stuff now, so basically the same I guess.

The first story centres on Dreamer, who finds herself being caught up in the events of Lazarus Planet: Alpha when she's drawn through Batman's dreams as he's being checked over in the medical wing at the Hall of Justice. She, Damian, Supergirl, and Batman figure out that the dream of Doctor Fate's helmet means that she needs to try and track down Doctor Fate. Delving into the dream world she finds Khalid trapped inside a dream world. With the help of a mysterious voice she's led to the Helmet, and emerges from inside it in a Lazarus Pit.

This story seems like it's setting up for some important stuff that's likely going to play a part in later chapters of the story. So, if Nia turns up out of nowhere with the Helmet of Fate, this will be why. But outside of that it doesn't really seem to do anything particularly new or interesting other than introducing Nia and Kara in the comics for the first time.

The second story is all about Jon Kent, who's in the middle of stopping a young shoplifter when the magic storm hits town. It causes Jon to spark with blue lightning, which hits the guy he's with and gives him fiery volcano powers. After Jon recovers he and the shoplifter fly around the city together, helping people out. Come the end the shoplifter steals Jon's lightning charged cape, and leaves a note behind for him with his new code-name, 'Ash'. This story seems to be setting up a bit more of the Electric Blue Jon that we know is coming in his new series; something that has already been teased.

It doesn't really do much with Jon that's not been done elsewhere, and the only real addition from this story is it giving him a flirty antagonist in Ash. Not a full out and out villain by any stretch, Ash feels more like Jon's Catwoman; someone out to steal, have fun, and tease the hero. If Ash doesn't end up playing a part in the new series with Jon I don't really see what this story actually does.

The third tale focuses on mercy Graves, Lex Luthor's right hand woman and bodyguard. When the storm hits she's struck by a huge bolt of lightning, and thrown into a load of Lex's armour. This seems to infuse her body with nanite-like technology, transforming her even more into a robotic entity. It seems like her body is fully machine now, and she's able to shift and shape her limbs into a variety of tools and weapons, including blades, spines, shields, and blasters. With new stuff coming for the Superman family it seems like this newly powered-up Mercy will be able to pose more of a challenge for them.

The final story brings us Power Girl stuff. Power Girl was already in the Lazarus Planet: Alpha, and this tale takes place somewhere in the middle of that. It seems that during her fight with the demons she ends up in some weird kind of other-space; which leads her to think that she might be dead as she sees her life flashing in front of her. After passing through this she ends up coming into contact with Omen, the psychic Teen Titans character. Its here that Karen learns that she's developed psychic powers, and the two heroes fly off together to figure it out. As with the other stories, this is more setting up for stuff outside of Lazarus Planet, though it does promise to tie into the Omega issue.

Overall, this book felt like a bit of a mixed bag, and kind of a let-down. It's mostly only tangentially connected to the events of Lazarus Planet, and other than the magic rain falling across the Earth giving people new powers it's mostly got nothing to do with it. The events in most of these stories are going to be taking place in other titles, and whilst I'm not against all of these changes and the big status-quo shifts that are supposed to be coming it does feel like perhaps expectations of what this book would be based on the title has led to me feeling a bit disappointed. 

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Wonder Woman #795 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

One of the things that I've been finding with the Wonder Woman titles lately, is that books set around the Amazons that incorporate multiple characters and delve into the history and the culture of the people tend to be a lot more interesting than Diana's solo book. Nubia's titles have been great, the big crossover event was good, every time we've paid attention to the folks who just live on Themyscira and aren't really fighters it's been hugely interesting. But Diana having adventures as Wonder Woman tend to fall quite flat for me. As such, I was excited to see Yara Flor, the new Wonder Girl, arrive this issue; hoping it would inject some much needed new energy.

And whilst the issue itself still failed to really do a huge amount for me, Yara was absolutely the highlight. The two heroes have come together to take on a giant statue of the god Eros, a man that Yara has some tough history with and a bit of a vendetta against. The two of them work well together, and the combat is pretty decent. But all of the interesting dialogue and character moments come from Yara.

Eros made Yara fall in love with him in the past, tried to manipulate her, and was the man who murdered her mother; so there's a lot going on between the two of them. As such there's a ton of back and forth and arguing; whilst Diana is pretty silent for most of the issue and when she does speak doesn't add much into things. This issue kind of shifts into a Wonder Girl story. And whilst I have no complaints about that as I really like Yara, Diana has ended up sidelined in her own book.

The rest of the issue sees the Titan (Greek, not the hero kind) Hyperion stomping through Washington. Steve and Sigfried take it upon themselves to jump on the back of a motorcycle and chase after him, with the Asgardian warrior jumping on the back of him to have at him. It's an okay moment, and it gives the guys something to do. The moments leading up to this involving Cheetah are better, with her trying to maintain some kind of distance between herself and the heroes even though she's making a good one herself. I'd kind of like to see something of a shift in her character, to have her stick around with the heroes more if possible as she definitely brings some much needed energy to the team. She doesn't have to stay forever, nor completely reform and become a hero, but I like seeing her on the side of the angels.

The art on the book is really nice, and the action scenes all look big and bold, and are easy to follow. Yara looks amazing throughout, and this issue just reminds me that she doesn't have her own book anymore, and that's a sad thing. 

I'm hoping this story improves a bit over coming issues, as it's still kind of circling around the 'it's okay' area right now. It's getting better, absolutely, but it feels like it could easily slide into uninteresting again if it's not careful.

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.com For Murder (2002) – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The early 2000s was a strange age for technology. The Internet as it exists now was just entering its infancy, with regular people becoming able to jump onto the world wide web, access chat rooms, buy and sell goods, and even date online.

But, this was a time where relatively little was known about it for the average person, and as such the Internet was also surrounded by an air of mystique, and even fear. Films and television of the era began to explore computers and the Internet more, and hacking, online meet-ups, and the dark web were used in a lot of thrillers. The biggest issue with that was that the people making these projects knew very little about the technology, and as a result you get films like .com For Murder, which ends up becoming more fantasy than realistic thriller in today’s light.

.com For Murder follows Sondra (Nastassja Kinski), a woman who has recently injured one of her legs and is having to stay at home to recuperate. When her partner, Ben (The Who musician, Roger Daltrey) leaves town on business, Sondra decides to have a look at what he’s been doing on his computer and finds out that he’s part of an internet dating chatroom. It’s here that she comes across Ben’s secret lover, as well as a man who becomes obsessed with the woman. Pretending to be Ben, Sondra tries to intimidate him, and earns his ire. Sending her frightening messages through the chatroom, she and her friend Misty (Nicollette Sheridan) start to worry that the man might be dangerous.

Later that night they’re sent a link to a live camera feed from a headset the man’s wearing as he breaks into the woman’s house and kills her in her bed. Realising that they’ve just witnessed a murder, and played a small part in it, the women try to figure out what to do, but little do they know, the killer has now turned his sights on them, and is heading for their home next.

On the surface the plot for .com For Murder isn’t completely awful, and this is in part due to the fact that director Nico Mastorakis is borrowing a lot of inspiration from some more well known thriller films, particularly the work of Alfred Hitchcock. Mastorakis admits this himself in the ‘making of’ special feature, though it’s not hard to pick up on some of these elements. Rear Window and .com For Murder both feature a lead who is using a wheelchair due to having a broken leg, and witness a murder, though one is through a literal window, the other a figurative one via the Internet. The film’s title also give a slight nod and a wink to Hitchcock’s other film Dial M For Murder.

Sadly, the rest of the film fails to imitate Hitchcock in any ways that matter – chiefly in quality. In the behind the scenes features that the Blu-ray provides from the time the film was made, the narrator informs us that Mastorakis is a good pick to make a film about the Internet because he’s spent ‘hundreds of hours’ on it, visiting ‘dozens of sites’. If that’s all the criteria needed then every one of us should be directing films. Despite this lofty claim that he’s spent a lot of time online, Mastorakis seems to not know much about it. Every website featured in the film has voice activated commands, and every piece of text that appears on the screens gets read out by a robot. When the hacker starts messing with his victims he’s able to alter a simple chat room into a red and black screen filled with creepy writing where a CGI snake attacks the camera, before it returns to normal. I’m far from a tech expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how the Internet works.

But as I said earlier, this was made in a time where a lot of people had no idea how the Internet worked, so in this film it’s kind of treated like magic, where if you want to be able to do something through the computer you can with just a few clicks or voice commands. Any kind of visual trickery can be done within seconds, reprogramming entire pieces of software into something completely different with a click and a few commands. And in the latter part of the film where the AI-controlled house Sondra lives in (because of course that’s a real thing in 2002) she’s able to get around his programmed restrictions by yelling at him and pressing delete several times. Because shouting and pressing one button enough is the way to get a computer system to know you really mean it when you tell it to illegally electrocute someone.

To go along with the either ridiculously broken or achingly dull script is acting that is average at best. The two female leads have difficulty really selling the emotions of most of their scenes, and the moments where they’re watching people be killed seems to give them little more trauma that them finding out they’re out of coffee. These performances are miles ahead of the male leads in terms of quality though. The main villain of the piece, played by Jeffery Dean, is apparently aiming to be some kind of super-intelligent intellectual who quotes literature and is able to hack into any computer system with ease, but actually comes across as a parody of a modern incel. He fails to be anywhere near threatening, and most of the time he seems fairly bored with being on the screen. The two other male leads aren’t even played by actors, with Mastorakis admitting in the behind the scenes stuff that he wanted to hire musicians instead, resulting in Roger Daltrey and Huey Lewis being in the movie. Whilst neither is offensively bad, you can tell that acting is not their chief profession.

The film, which is only 90 minutes long, ends up feeling like it’s more than two hours of dull back and forth, exaggerated misrepresentation of what the Internet is, and bumbling characters. It even fails to deliver a satisfying conclusion. Usually Arrow Video releases come with some great extras to accompany their movies, but in this case there’s little included here to help improve the viewing experience. There’s a trailer for the film, and a couple of archival interviews with Daltrey and Lewis, along with some behind-the-scenes features. One of these was made when the film first came out, and has early 2000s DVD-extra quality to it. It speaks to a number of the people who made the film, and shows some behind-the-scenes moments. But some of the feature feels off when Mastorakis spends parts of the extras talking about how enjoyable it was to film naked women, and how one of the women in the film who appeared without clothes looked like a young boy, but was still attractive.

These creepy and misogynistic themes get echoed in the ‘interview’ with Mastorakis made for this new release. I put interview in quotes, because it’s really, really not. This interview says it’s produced by Mastorakis himself at the end, so it might explain why it feels wildly different from what Arrow normally provides, and ends up leaving a foul taste. Of the 28 minute run time, 22 minutes are given over to footage of naked women. Mastorakis explains how he shot different openings to the film that feature women being killed. He shows one where a woman is killed in the shower, but complains that she was too voluptuous, and so then shows the footage used in the final film, though a longer cut of it. This is the woman he says looks like a boy to him, yet allegedly still arouses him. Mastorakis doesn’t really provide any extra info, and just lets the footage play, with attention given to all parts of the woman’s body.

The special feature then moves onto the sex site footage that Mastorakis made for the film, where we get several large breasted, scantily clad women dancing in front of a blue screen. Mastorakis talks about how nice it was to direct women to strip, and we then get 15 minutes of various women undressing and caressing themselves as you can hear Mastorakis telling them what to do in the background. These things add nothing to the experience of learning about the film, and Mastorakis barely talks in them, instead just giving the viewer 20 minutes of soft-core porn and a man saying how nice it was to make. The last segment of the extra then turns into a power-point presentation of Mastorakis explaining how there’s a conspiracy against him where people are buying bad reviews for his films to be put onto IMDB. This part is not only baffling to listen to, but the quality is like something you’d expect to see from a weird YouTube channel. The whole thing is baffling, gross, misogynistic, exploitative, and makes the entire release feel like a bad joke. This is miles away from the quality that I’ve come to expect from Arrow, and is frankly awful.

.com For Murder is a film that some may remember from when it was first released as a decent enough thriller film, but the change in how people understand technology has aged this worse than milk left out in a heatwave. It’s hard to look at the film with any level of seriousness, and this coupled with mediocre at best acting creates a film that you’re probably not going to want to watch again. Add in the extras that seem to have been thrown on with no real thought or quality control, and this might be one of the worst Arrow releases to date.

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I Am Batman #17 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

I Am Batman was a series that I struggled to get into the begin with. Jumping back into DC around Future State and Infinite Frontier after losing a lot of love for the comics following New 52, a lot of the groundwork for Jace and his family was already in place, and I was left kind of jumping in in the middle. Along with that, the first story arc in the series tied into the 'Fear State' story and the stuff with the Magistrate (which I didn't really like).

However, once Jace moved to New York the series really came into its own, and has quickly become one of my favourite Batman books. It doesn't just feel like another vigilante in a city full of masks and villains, and the book feels strangely fresh and new considering its Batman. After dealing with his first real masked villain, Jace is now dealing with family issues as a terrorist group are trying to blackmail his father by threatening to reveal his big secret to the world. A secret that the family has now told Jace. 

The woman he thinks is his mother never gave birth to him. Turns out his father had an affair and got a woman pregnant, and that after he was born Jace was raised with the Fox family as if nothing was different between him and his siblings. This news, along with the news that his birth mother are being held hostage, and leaves Jace reeling. 

Unable to handle things, and not in the right head space to go out into the field and be Batman, Tiff steps up to help. Having already gone out onto the streets as a red and green glad vigilante (will she eventually take on the name Robin? I'd kind of love to see it) she takes the lead on saving the hostage. Luckily, her brother arrives to help, and she and Batman get to try and save the day. But with the odds against them they end up being captured, and everything looks hopeless; until Nobody arrives. 

So, this issue is a pretty interesting look at the Fox family. Having been away from comics for a while I was pretty surprised that Lucius Fox had been fleshed out as much as he had when I came back, and that he had such an extensive and well crafted family life. And this issue really takes a look at that. This is still a Batman story, but in a way that we don't often get, with Batman's civilian family being a big part of things.

This is one of the things that I really like about Jace's Batman over Bruce's. Everyone important in Bruce's life have either been killed off, or they're found family that know he's Batman, and are usually a part of his crime fighting efforts. Jace has a very different dynamic. He has a large family, some know he's Batman, some don't, and he's juggling his civilian issues with those that happen to Batman. It is revealed in this issue that two more people know his crime fighting identity, Tiff and Hadiyah, so the list of those in his life without that knowledge is getting smaller (and it might just be those that haven;t said they know at this point).

Speaking of Hadiyah, I really like her vigilante look. There were scenes a few issues ago with her and Rene Montoya, where it looked like Montoya was trying to recruit her in some kind of way. So when she turns up here in a Question mask it makes perfect sense. I also really like her look, with the long brown coat and hijab giving her a distinct look that feels like a continuation of the Question's legacy, yet is instantly recognisable as her own person.

I was really sad to learn that this is the penultimate issue of this series, as it's been one that I've really come to love. But we do have Jace and Damian sharing one of the images together on the new promo art for the Dawn of DC, so hopefully this means we'll be getting more of the character after this. It really does feel like the series has only just begun in a lot of ways. He's found his feet in New York with his new system of working with the cops, He's going through something of an identity crisis right now, his sister looks set to be his side-kick, there's a new member of the Question line. It's all great stuff; and it's all coming to an end. Hopefully that end will be a good one though, and the journey to get there has been a great one.

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Barrow of Winter by H.M. Long - Book Review

 

'Thray is the Last Daughter of Winter, half immortal and haunted by the legacy of her blood. When offered a chance to visit the northern land of Duamel, where her father once ruled, she can't refuse – even if it means lying to the priesthood she serves and the man she loves.

'In Duamel, Thray’s demi-god siblings rule under the northern lights, worshipped by arcane cults. An endless winter night cloaks the land, giving rise to strange beasts, terrible storms and a growing, desperate hunger. The people of Duamel teeter on the edge of violence, and Thray’s siblings, powerful and deathless, stand with them on the brink.

'To earn her siblings’ trust and find the answers she seeks, Thray will have to weather assassinations, conspiracies and icy wastelands. And as her siblings turn their gaze towards the warmer, brighter land she calls home, she must harness her own feral power and decide where her loyalties lie. Because when the spring winds blow and the ice breaks up, the sons and daughters of Winter will bring her homeland to its knees.'

The Hall of Smoke series has been one that I've found a lot of enjoyment in. H.M. Long has crafted a very interesting world, with subtle and complex mythology, and history, and has populated it with some complex and engaging characters. With this, the third book in the series, moving away from the series main protagonist to follow a character who was just a baby in the previous book, as well as moving location, it allows Long to explore different parts of her world and to introduce some incredibly interesting new things to the readers.

Barrow of Winter tells the story of Thray, the daughter of the human woman Sixnit and Ogam, the embodiment of winter. Part god, Thray seems to have struggled to figure out where she really fits in, and who she is across her life to this point. She sometimes receives favours from her godly relatives, having been gifted a magical weapon that can shift forms, but isn't treated like one of them. At the same time, the small village she's living in could offer a home to her, but she doesn't quite fit in there either.

When a trading party arrives from up north Thray is shocked when she learns that their leader is like her, another daughter of Ogam. Her half sister offers to take her north with her, to the land of winter and eternal night, to learn more about who she is and where she fits into the world. Thray agrees to go, and sets out to discover more about herself; but what she finds waiting for her in the dark lands to the north will change her life forever.

Barrow of Winter feels like a more personal, character driven story than the previous two books in the series. Both books that came before focused on Hessa and her journeys, but they were also dealing with impending war, with dangers from other groups, with the gods themselves. It always felt like it was grand in scale even though we were seeing it through the eyes of a single woman. And whilst this book does deal with big things, and does feature demi-gods and other powerful beings, it always feels strongly connected with Thray. Those other books always felt like stories that were going to unfold no matter what, situations where things were going to reach breaking point even if Hessa weren't there; but in contrast this story feels like it couldn't have happened if not for Thray.

The places that Long takes readers in this new book have a very different feel to the previous two entries too, and in a lot of ways they felt much more fantastical, and dark to me. Yes, visually dark as they were in a land of eternal night, but also in tone. Long does a wonderful job at creating a slowly building tension that starts incredibly subtly, before building into what could almost be overt horror. Part of this is down to how much detail that Long puts into things, you start to feel like you're there experiencing it yourself thanks to how well she describes the feel of things, the smell, the creeping cold. Everything comes to life in vivid,powerful ways because Long makes it feel so real.

Barrow of Winter is a great read that feels like a bold reinvention of the series. It's not a huge departure from what we've had before, but the focus on newer characters, newer locations, and newer threats makes it feel fresh and exciting. But, for those who are fans of the previous book you don't have to worry, there are plenty of connections to what came before, and some returning characters, that very firmly establishes this as part of that same world. Whether you've read the previous books or not, this is a great adventure well worth going on.

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Sonic Heroes – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the most instantly recognisable video game characters in the world, on par with Super Mario and Pikachu. People who’ve never picked up a controller in their life can look at a picture of him and can name him, which is no easy feat (sorry they keep calling you Zelda, Link).

One of the reasons is that the Sonic games have taken a lot of risks over the years since he first sped his way onto consoles. Whilst other long running characters like Mario are more eager to stick close to their original formula, Sonic The Hedgehog has always taken risks. This has resulted in a catalogue of games where very few of them feel like they’re cut and paste sequels. The Sonic The Hedgehog series has always tried out new gimmicks, and has introduced new mechanics, characters, and game-play styles over the decades. Sometimes this works well, other times it doesn’t. But one thing that you can say for Sonic is that he’s never dull.

2003 saw the first release of a new Sonic The Hedgehog game since Sonic Adventure 2 on the Dreamcast two years prior, and rather than being a sequel as that game was, Sega took a punt on something new, delivering a game that felt true to the Sonic spirit, but did something quite different.

The biggest feature of this new game was that players no longer controlled just one character, and instead of playing it on their own, would control teams of three, who would travel on screen together, able to be switched between with the click of a button to utilise different skills and abilities. The player is able to utilise this to different effects, enabling them to tackle puzzles and obstructions in different ways, as well as offering a few different options when it comes to boss battle. However, it’s not just limited to one group, as the game brings together a ton of Sonic The Hedgehog characters.

There are four teams open to players when playing Sonic Heroes. The first is the most iconic grouping, bringing together Sonic (Ryan Drummond), Tails (William Corkey), and Knuckles (Scott Dreier) to work together; Sonic bringing the speed, Knuckles the strength, and Tails the ability to fly up to unreachable areas. Team Dark combines Shadow the Hedgehog (David Humphrey) and Rouge the Bat (Lani Minella) from Sonic Adventure 2, with the new robotic character E-123 Omega (Jon St. John). Team Rose features Amy Rose (Jennifer Douillard) and Cream the Rabbit (Sarah Wulfreck) from Sonic Adventure 2, with Big the Cat (Jon St. John) from the first Sonic Adventure. And Team Chaotix which brings together Espio the Chameleon (Bill Corckey), Charmy Bee (Emily Crockey), and Vector the Crocodile (Marc Biagi), who all first appeared in the 1995 spin-off game Knuckles Chaotix. This selection offered players twelve characters to play with, in their four groups of three, and for many casual Sonic fans was the first introduction to many of them.

Each of these teams has their own part of the overall story, with each of them having been drawn into a quest to take down the evil Doctor Eggman (Deem Bristow) before he’s able to launch his latest assault, and features their own levels and challenges. Whilst each of the teams have the same kinds of set-up, with a character designed for speed, one for flight, and another for raw power, there are some differences, such as Team Rose being designed to be the easiest for new players, whilst Team Dark is the harder difficulty, and Team Chaotix have more mission-based levels that require the player to perform collection challenges.

Part of the decision to make Sonic Heroes in this way was that despite the popularity of the Sonic Adventure series it was believed that making a third game in that series would make it more inaccessible to some players, with gamers perhaps avoiding it due to not playing the first two. Rather than appealing to just Sonic fans, the director and lead designer, Yuji Naka, wanted a game that causal fans who might not have visited the franchise since its Sega Genesis days could pick up and enjoy.

Part of this attempt to appeal to more players came in the form of multi-platform release; the first time a Sonic The Hedgehog game had been released for multiple consoles. The game was developed for the GameCube, the Playstation 2, and the Xbox simultaneously. Whilst there were some performance issues with the Playstation version, with it having to run at 30 frames per second instead of 60 as with the other consoles, due to lacking the required processing power, each version of the game ended up being well received by critics and fans alike. The game was praised for its graphics and design, but received much of its success for its game-play being positively compared to the Sega Genesis games. Its lack of extra features like shooting and fishing mini-games was also something that was praised in a lot of reviews.

Whilst the game wasn’t perfect, and did receive some criticism, it was thought of quite favourably at the time, and was a financial success for the studio. Despite this, no sequel to the game was made, and the next game in the series would end up being Shadow The Hedgehog, a game that would weirdly combine traditional Sonic The Hedgehog racing and platforming segments with third-person shooter combat. But this then became the way of Sonic The Hedgehog games, with the series trying out new things each time, rarely going back and delivering the same experience twice. As such, for those wanting to experience a game like Sonic Heroes the only real way to do so is to go back and experience it again; and with the 20th anniversary this year, it might be the perfect time to do so.

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Predator #6 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

The first of the new Marvel Predator stories comes to an end with issue six, with a new issue one on the way to start a new story (why not keep the numbering? Or at least add a subtitle?). And after five issues of build up, of hyping up the fight that is to come between Theta and the Yautja that killed her family, the issue fails to live up to expectation.

The last issue saw the alien hunter board the ship that Theta is being held prisoner on, stalking the halls and killing the crew one by one. After some convincing this issue Theta gets freed and is given her gear back, organising a counteroffensive against the monster. Unfortunately, the hunter is smart enough to not walk into a large room filled with gun toting soldiers, and blows a massive hole in the side of the ship instead, killing almost everyone.

This leaves Theta to fight the monster on the snowy planet herself. And this is where things go from okay to kind of dull. The two of them are fighting in a snowy expanse, with nothing around them. There's no visual flair to the environment, nothing that makes the place look particularly interesting or dynamic. The fight itself is fairly simple too, and there's not really any moment that makes you think 'wow'. The fact that Theta doesn't beat the monster on her own either, and that another character shoots its several times and blows one of its limbs off takes some of the victory from her too and lessens the moment.

There have been times when this story has had the makings of something really good, the idea of someone who's grown up hunting Yautja, picking them off one by one, searching for their specific target is a great one. But the execution never really felt like it did that idea justice. I think part of that is down to Marvel seeming set on making their Alien and Predator stories six issues long and that's it. Theta and her story could have been a much bigger thing, she could have had several other adventures whilst building towards the final confrontation as part of a longer series (one that would have given more time for her character to be given the spotlight too), but instead we get a pretty quick, shallow, and kind of dull affair.

The artwork on the issue feels very similar too. There are times where the comic should look great, with some moments of action that could stand out as something a bit special; but it never really goes above okay. There are also a couple of times where characters look a little off, where their features or expressions don't quite fit.

I'm fairly disappointed in this first outing for the Predator franchise under Marvel. I was hoping for it to impress, but instead it is one where I'm glad that it's come to an end as quickly as it has, so that hopefully the next #1 they have set to release can try to do a better job.

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Eight For Silver – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Werewolves have existed in myth and legend in one form or another for hundreds of years, stalking the shadows and hunting humans in stories designed to instil terror. But over the years, especially in the last several decades, werewolves have changed a lot, becoming less of a monstrous curse and more into something that can often be depicted as little more than a super power. Depending on the story, werewolves have even become heroes and figures of romance in some very specific kinds of erotica (no judgement here). But the new Sam Ellis film, Eight For Silver, takes werewolves back to their roots, and creates one of the more unique and interesting takes on the genre for decades.

Eight For Silver, also called The Cursed in some parts of the world, begins in the trenches of World War I, where a group of soldiers come under gas attack before charging into battle. One of these soldiers manages to survive, but is badly wounded. Carried into a hospital tent the doctors remove the bullets from his chest, but find another inside him; one that isn’t a German round. A large, silver bullet. From here the story jumps backwards in time thirty five years, where we travel to a small estate in rural France, the home of the Laurent family. The head of the family, Seamus (Alistair Petrie) owns a piece of land that is being contested by a group of gypsies, who say that they have a claim to it themselves. When it looks like they do have a legal right to it, Seamus orders mercenaries to wipe them out.

It is here that the real horror of the film truly lies, where we get an unflinching look at the kinds of torment and torture that happened to the Roma and Sinti people across Europe at the time. The scenes are hard to watch, and more than justify why one of the gypsies places a curse on the people doing this to her and her people; a curse tied to a set of silver teeth shaped like fangs. Following the destruction of the gypsies, the population of the area begins to have the same nightmares, the same dark dreams about the site of the massacre. When one of the village boys digs up the silver teeth it sets into motion a series of events that will unleash a monster upon the local population. A monster with the Laurent family as its target.

One of the things that immediately jumps out at you when watching Eight For Silver is that this doesn’t feel like most other werewolf movies. Most werewolf films have certain rules to them, such as the moon being a key part of the transformation, and that we will often follow the infected person as they learn what has happened to them and try to fight against it. In this film the curse that afflicts the victims is less kind. Once infected you change after a few hours, no moon necessary, and once changed you don’t get to come back. The result is a threat to the other characters that is constantly there, one that isn’t just relegated to three nights a month, but can come striking even in the light of day. And the film makes good use of that.

There are a number of scenes in the film that heavily subvert expectation because the rules of these monsters are so different. Instead of dark scenes set at night with only the light of a full moon, people are left to run for their lives in the bright sun of the day. There seem to be rules around monsters that we learn when we’re children, that they come out at night, that the day is safe. The creatures here didn’t get that memo, however, and their sudden appearances in the light of day lead to some of the more frightening moments in the film.

Even though they appear in the light of day, the film does a wonderful job at keeping the wolves hidden for much of the film, only giving slight teases of what they actually look like. Ellis does a wonderful job at just giving you enough of a look at them to realise that they’re not what you’d normally expect from the genre, where you can see that they’re not huge dogs or hairy men, but something wholly unique. The small teases and glimpses builds up a picture in your head, yet when we get the full reveal the film still manages to be incredibly surprising in its creativity, giving you one of the most alien and monstrous designs for a werewolf I think I’ve ever seen. These changes make it one of the more frightening and interesting takes on the classic monster on film, and anyone in doubt of that will surely be on board following the autopsy scene; a sequence I expect to see held up as an example of why you need to watch this film on future horror lists and videos.

The visual fare isn’t just relegated to the creatures though, as the film has an eerie, almost ethereal quality throughout, in part due to the location in which it was made. Shot in the Charente region of Western France, the landscape is at times beautiful, and at others frightening. Thanks to the amount of fog and mist in the movie (whether natural to that region or not), many of the scenes and locations take on an almost dream-like quality. It becomes harder to see what’s out in the world around the characters, it feels like the vast openness is closing in around you, and it makes things oppressive. Many of the moments in the film that take place in the day only work as well as they do because of the way the landscape is presented and shot, and some of the scenes set in the brightness of day in this film are more eerie and frightening because they’re being given to us in ways that most other horror films would avoid.

Boyd Holbrook, probably better known for his roles in things like Narcos and The Sandman, takes centre stage in Eight For Silver as John McBride, a pathologist who travels to the besieged community to help find the Laurents’ missing son. Holbrook does a super job in the film playing a grieving father and husband who’s come into contact with these kinds of creatures before. Introduced as a fairly normal man to begin with, his past and his true emotions are slowly revealed across the movie in ways that feel earned. Bucking expectations for werewolf movies, where the werewolf is usually the protagonist, Holbrook gets to take centre stage as the emotionally scarred wolf hunter, and breathes more humanity and empathy into the role than any other depiction has done. Rather than the crazed, obsessive who wants nothing more than to kill monsters, he is a decent, caring, and kind man who turns the grizzled monster hunter trope on its head in delightful ways.

Eight For Silver is a film that was so much better than I expected. Recent werewolf movies have been a mixed bag in terms of quality, and there haven’t been any for many years that I’d class as truly great. But thanks to the uniqueness of the setting, the one of a kind monster design, and some superb acting, this film has easily earned its place as one of my favourite werewolf movies. The only complaint that I have about the new release is that there aren’t enough extras included. The film comes with a trailer, and a four minute behind the scenes look, but that’s all. Having enjoyed the film so much I’d have loved to have spent time delving into it with interviews, making-of features, and a commentary or two. Sadly, I guess I will have to wait for a future collectors or special edition for those things. Despite that, thanks to the quality of the film itself I still have to give it top marks.

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The Flash #790 - Comic Review

 

Originally published on Patreon

Who cares about the new film or the final season of the TV series, the real Flash event of the year is here! One Minute War begins this month in an issue that reminds folks that The Flash is more than just one hero, as every member of the Flash Family makes an appearance as a new threat comes towards Earth, promising death and destruction on a huge scale.

Most of the issue spends its time checking in on the various speedsters scattered around the world, reminding folks who these characters are. Wally and his family are having a barbecue with friends, Barry and Iris are out for dinner, Jay is having a drink, Jesse Quick is working with her husband to fight villains, Wallace and Bart are taking out criminals and getting on each other's nerves, and Max Murcury is preparing to run off into the speedforce.

But then they all sense something that no one else seems able to, some kind of sound that feels off. The whole world seems to freeze around them, and a huge spaceship crashes down into the middle of central city, seemingly killing thousands. And possibly including a beloved member of the family.

So, Jeremy Adams opened this event with a bang. For an issue where not a lot happens, where it's building the tension slowly, getting all of the pieces in position, it's an issue that's probably going to be remembered for those final pages. Spoiler warnings ahead, so if you haven't read it avoid....Iris is dead. Probably. The final page shows Barry holding the lifeless body of Iris, screaming. And whilst she's probably dead there could be the possibility that because time seems to be paused for everyone but the speedsters, or they're moving fast enough that it seems to be, that maybe she's still alive and he's not feeling her pulse because he's going that fast (or she's that slow) that it can't be felt. 

I guess I'm just hoping she's okay. But until we hear otherwise, yeah, she's dead. I hate that the final image of the issue reminds me of the moment when Ralph Dibney found Sue dead in Identity Crisis, that it's recreating that kind of moment. And if this is really it for Iris I guess that's part of the reason why that choice was made; to make it similar to the loss of another important supporting character.

There's no hints in this issue as to who these invaders are or what they want beyond the enslavement of Earth. They talk about the mysterious power they use to do so, that they're connected to; and it would be interesting to see if that turns out to be the Speedforce and if that's why the weird shenanigans are happening.

The art on the book, by Roger Cruz, and Luis Guerrero, looks great, and the sense of scale and destruction when the huge, arrow shaped ship crashes down in the middle of the city is the highlight of the book. It feels huge, and the effect it has seems like more than the average super villain fight. It feels like this thing has fucked the city up, and killed a lot of people; and that's down to the art.

The Flash was one of my favourite books of 2022, and a large part of that was because it took the time to focus on stuff outside of the super heroics. We got to see Wally with his family, got to experience them as regular people. And now we're seeing that family and their happiness threatened in one of the biggest ways possible. And they've already lost a member of it. I've always loved The Flash, and the other speedsters that are around him are some of my favourite characters in DC, so getting so many of them in a big event that's purely for them is seriously exciting stuff. One of the things that I'm worried about though, you don't start off a big story with a death if it's going to be the only one that happens. I hope Iris is the only person we're going to lose, but it feels quite unlikely.

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Five historical figures that need a biopic

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Biopic movies have always been a popular genre. There’s something about learning that a story that seems so unreal is actually based in reality that can leave an audience feeling awed or inspired. And films about celebrities and their lives tend to do well for these kind of stories. But there are so many amazing stories out there, of people you’ve probably never heard of before. Here is a list of people from across history whose stories are so wild that they need to be put on screen.

Leo Major

Leo Major was born in the 1920s in Canada, and had a fairly normal life for much of his childhood until he went to join the army in his late teens. Having joined the military in time for World War II, he soon found himself taking part in D-Day, where he single-handedly captured an enemy vehicle filled with important codes. He would lose an eye to an SS patrol, but kept on fighting, claiming he only needed the one to spot his enemies, and that he got to look like a pirate.

Major went on to achieve fame when he single-handedly captured 100 German soldiers (at the same time), and when he captured a German-held town on his own, driving the enemy forces out with attacks that made it look like an entire army was there. He would also be injured in a grenade attack that left him crossing enemy territory on broken legs. All of that is impressive enough, and would make for a hell of a story, but he also took part in several heroic deeds during the Korean War that would turn the tide of a number of battles. Leo Major’s story is at times ridiculous, he does things that no real human should be able to, but his bravery and abilities make him a figure that would appear larger than life.

Boston Corbett

We’ve all heard of Abraham Lincoln and how he was assassinated, but chances are you’ve not heard about the man who killed the assassin. Boston Corbett’s early life was spent working as a hatter, around the highly dangerous chemical mercury nitrate (which will explain much of the rest of his life). After the death of his wife and child drove him to drink, Corbett was found by a street preacher who helped him discover God. This would be a huge point in his life, and alter his actions going forward. He would run around the city, trying to preach at people, and even castrated himself to ‘please’ God.

When the US Civil War broke out he joined the Union Army, but was thrown out for constantly arguing with his superiors for their ‘ungodly’ behaviour and language. He later rejoined a different regiment. His new regiment were sent to capture John Wilkes Booth for the assassination of Lincoln, and Corbett ended up shooting him in a fiery barn shootout, killing him. He was court-martialled for this, but received some fame because of his actions. After an incident in which he chased people with guns he was sent to an institution, which he promptly escaped from. The last known sighting of Boston Corbett was of him fleeing the institute on the back of a horse.

Jacqueline Cochrane

Born in 1906 in the US, Jacqueline Cochrane had a fairly normal life to begin with. After her first marriage ended she worked as a hairdresser for a number of years before going on to start her own cosmetics company. After a friend of hers took her flying in a plane she decided that she wanted to learn how to fly, and got her pilot’s license in three weeks. She used her flying to help promote her business, called the Wings of Beauty, by flying around the country. Her lipstick line would be endorsed by Marilyn Monroe. But it’s not her cosmetics that make her notable, but her flying.

She was one of only three women to complete the MacRobinson Air Race in 1934, and from there would enter several others, as well as work alongside Amelia Earhart to help women pilots. When World War II began, Cochrane was instrumental in getting women pilots involved, and would play a major part in women pilots’ roles during the war. She would receive a distinguished service medal for this. She was present for the surrender of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, was the first non-Japanese woman to enter Japan after the war, and was at the Nuremberg trials. She then entered the Air Force, where she achieved the rank of Colonel.

After the her Air Force service she continued to fly, and was the first woman to fly a jet craft and go ‘supersonic’. She became the first woman to break the sound barrier, the first woman to take off and land on an aircraft carrier, the first woman to fly a bomber over the Atlantic, the first woman to perform a blind landing, amongst many other firsts. At the time of her death she held more speed, altitude, and distance flying records than any other pilot, regardless of gender.

Bass Reeves

Bass Reeves was born into slavery in Arkansas in 1838, but was moved to Texas when he was just eight years old when his owner moved. When the US Civil War began, Reeves, along with many other slaves, was forced to enter the Confederate Army by his owner. Luckily, Reeves was able to escape during the war, and fled into the nearby Indian Territory, where he lived amongst the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminoles people, learning their languages, until slavery was abolished years later.

When there was a push to hire 200 deputy US Marshals in the Indian Territory, Reeves was approached thanks to his knowledge of the area and people. Reeves would serve as a Marshal for 32 years, and became one of the most respected. He had the highest arrest record, and brought in some of the most dangerous fugitives of the time. Despite being shot at numerous times, he was never wounded. He was known for his detective skills and ability to track down wanted men, and arrested more than 3,000 felons; he was forced to shoot and kill 14 in order to defend himself. He even captured his own son for murder, insisting that it was his responsibility to bring his son to justice. A number of historians consider Reeves to be the lead inspiration for the hero The Lone Ranger.

Robin Friday

Sports movies are popular, and the life of Robin Friday would make for a hell of a sports movie. Born in London in the 1950s, Friday grew up loving football, and was a skilled player from a very young age. He was recruited to a number of teams during his teens, but thanks to his attitude would often find himself being moved from team to team. He had a number of odd jobs in his early twenties, but continued to work on his football skills, and was eventually hired on a professional team.

Over the coming years Friday would receive acclaim for his abilities on the pitch, but thanks to his wild drinking, drugs use, womanising, frequent fights, refusal to listen to authority, and him often injuring his own teammates, he became something of a loose cannon. He would have feuds with other players, and one time took a shit in another players kit bag whilst the match was still going on. His exploits on the pitch made him one of the best players in British football at the time, and his exploits off the pitch were pretty wild. A biopic about Friday could easily showcase the skills and ability he had, whilst also being an incredibly funny and ridiculous film.

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