Movie Talk - Zack Snyder's Justice League

Man, we got hit with some comic book goodness a while back. The revamped Justice League as well as “Captain Falcon and The Mark Hammill-Look-Alike” hit right around the same time. I even got around to finishing WandaVision, aka “Grief Personified into Sitcoms” too. It’s goodness all around when you include Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat! Yeah, I usually start these Snyder posts with a bit of a joke, but not this time. There’s not anything out in theatres for me to joke about, but I could probably make fun of something. Let me just get on with this one.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League was something I wasn’t clamoring for for a couple of reasons. I’ve got my fair share of Justice League-ness, and the fandom surrounding it is a lot. I didn’t say “toxic” because that gets thrown around a too much, and it’s not like any fandom has no toxicity in it. Some folk I do follow seem pretty chill. Heck, anti-Snyder fans are about as annoying as some pro-Snyder fans. Yes, I said it and I’m not even that big a fan of Snyder. Even though the original theater version wasn’t that satisfying, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Then, we heard what happened behind-the-scenes with the reshoots, and… eegh. That’s not even including what got cut out of Snyder’s original cut.

When the WB announced that it was coming, I was “whelmed, traught, and feeling the ‘aster…” whatever that means.  As more of the trailers came, I started to get a bit more excited. I ended up watching it all in bits and pieces the day it was released. I’ll save the pretty spoilerish bits for below, but I thought it was pretty good. The tone is pretty consistent throughout with some good bits of humor and pretty heartfelt moments. The League is all on top form here and even Stepphenwolf comes off better. It’s not perfect (a bit overlong in places and a couple of weird plot points), but this blew out the theatrical cut by a mile.

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey

Today’s story is a bit of a triple feature. See, I got three major villains for this one but only really pose a threat. They are Doomsday, Darkseid, and Cyborg Superman (or Hank Hensahw). I might as well start off with the one who’s not the villain of the story: Darkseid. Darkseid first appeared in Forever People #1 (1970) and is probably one of DC’s best villains. He’s a New God and the despot of the planet, Apokalips. While he’s more of a general DC villain, he’s been most associated with Superman since his inception. In fact, Superman faced off against him a few times in the Post-Crisis, but this isn’t one of those stories. Outside the comics, we’ve seen him in animation and kind of in live action.

Here are the main threats of the story. Doomsday first appeared in Superman: the Man of Steel #18 (1992). He was an unknown alien threat that woke up, caused destruction, and killed Superman. Doomsday also died in that battle but he was last seen floating in space… and laughing. The person who put him there was Hank Henshaw, aka The Cyborg Superman. He first appeared in Adventures of Superman #466 and was basically a Fantastic Four homage that went terribly wrong. He has the power to control technology and has a hatred for Superman. He tried to sully Superman’s name by pretending to be him during “Reign of the Supermen.” We all know how that turned out. He’s also one of the villains who succeeded in destroying Coast City, the home of Hal Jordan.

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey was pretty much the sequel to the storyline. Instead of occuring the main series, it was made into a 3-part miniseries. I can’t tell where it takes place with the time-wise but it’s definitely before Zero Hour. Dan Jurgens handled the writing and layouts. Brett Breeding handled the finishes. So, let’s see Superman go "all-Last Action Hero" on some baddies.

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey

Story and Layouts: Dan Jurgens

Finished Art: Brett Breeding

Letters: Bill Oakley

Color Guides: Greg Wright

Crisis Time! - Final Crisis #7

Well, here it is. It’s the final issue of this pretty weird event. I have to say that it’s been interesting. It’s been cool going through this event with a more critical eye. I may need that eye for this issue.

The creative team has gone through some changes for this final issue. Morrison is still the writer while Doug Mahnke is penciling the whole issue. The issue also houses a lot of inkers and I mean a lot. I don’t even think I know most of these folk. The main cover has Superman flying toward us while the variant shows the Multiverse being destroyed. The covers are okay this time around with both feeling pretty lackluster for a final issue. Now, excuse me as I try to recap this loopy issue.

Final Crisis #7
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Doug Mahnke
Inkers: Tom Nguyen, Drew Geraci, Christian Alamy, Norm Rapmund, Rodney Ramos, Doug Mahnke, and Walden Wong
Colors: Alex Sinclair, Tony Avina, and Pete Pantazis
Letters: Travis Lanham

Crisis Time! - Final Crisis #5

Well, I’ve gotten pass the midpoint for this event. This time around I’m just looking at one issue: Final Crisis #5. The covers have some of that “Girl Power” this time around. Wonder Woman graces the main cover while a fight between Supergirl and Evil Mary Marvel is on the variant cover. I’ll have to go with Wonder Woman’s awesome image this time around. If Evil Mary Marvel wasn’t looking “toe up from the flo’ up,” I might actually go with the variant. The creative team is pretty much the same with Marco Rudy coming in to handle some artwork along with the other three. I don’t have much to say, so let’s hit it.

Final Crisis #5

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artists: J.G. Jones, Marco Rudy, Jesus Merino, and Carlos Pacheco

Colors: Alex Sinclair

Letters: Travis Lanham

Crisis Time! - Final Crisis: Submit and Final Crisis #4

After some universe-traveling hijinks with Superman in his Yellow Submarine, it’s time to get back to Earth and its “little” predicament. At the end of Final Crisis #3, Barry Allen and Wally West went ahead a few weeks in the future. They find their home looking pretty bleak. Some tie-ins like Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge and Final Crisis: Revelations looked at what happened during that time. Another book, written by Morrison, was Final Crisis: Submit. Since it was included in the trade, I’ll be looking at that as well as the fourth issue of Final Crisis.

Final Crisis #4 is still being written by Morrison. J.G. Jones is not the only artist this time around. He’s joined by Jesus Merino and Carlos Pacheco for those duties. Alex Sinclair still provides the coloring for the issue. The covers to the fourth issue are pretty cool this time around. One shows Darkseid and another shows some heroes taking on Darkseid’s forces. The main cover wins with Darkseid looking pretty cool in his new design.  As for Submit, it was penciled by Matthew Clark and inked by a few inkers. It came with two covers with the cover featuring Black Lightning being my favorite of the two.

Crisis Time! - Final Crisis #2

Hello and hello. I’m back with the second issue of Final Crisis. I don’t have any tie-ins for this post. The creative team is still the same for this issue. As for the covers, There’s not really much to say about them. All of the covers to the event look good in my opinion. The cover to issue 2 is a bit spoiler-ish if you know who that really is. Let’s just say that it isn’t Jay Garrick. The variant is also really spoiler-heavy. With that said, let’s go to Japan!

Final Crisis #2

Writer: Grant Morrison

Artist: J.G. Jones
Colorist: Alex Sinclair

Letters: Rob Leigh

We start out in Japan at a dance club. It’s here where we meet the Super Young Team. We got Superbat,  Atomic Lantern Boy, and a couple of other young heroes. They’re sitting around living it up while watching the big screen. Suddenly, a man named Sonny Sumo walks in. The team’s starstruck by the guy. A guy called Megayakuza attacks Sumo, so Sumo retaliates by straight-up killing him. When Sumo heads into the bathroom to clean up, a well-dressed man follows him in. His name is Shilo Norman and he is Mister Miracle or at least the new one. Norman heals Sumo with his Motherboxxx and they talk as the Super Young Team spy on them. Norman tells Sumo that there was a cosmic war that he needs help in building a team to face the evil ones.

Well, he's dead.

Crisis Time! - Final Crisis #1 and Final Crisis: Requiem

It seems like this is the year of Grant Morrison, isn’t it? I looked at most of his run on Batman, All-Star Superman, and some of his stuff from Action Comics. Well, it’s time to dip back in the weirdness as I jump into the event known as Final Crisis. I’d be correct in saying that this was a weird event. It didn’t tie into a lot of books like events of the time did. It had a prelude (Countdown to Final Crisis), but that 52-issue weekly series is rarely mentioned in the event itself. There’s also the fact that Countdown apparently sucked. Just look at Linkara’s review of the series. “52 done right?” I don’t think so.

I remember some of the tie-ins sort of tied into the event while others really didn’t. Why did Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds (something I’ll look at in the future) get included with that anyway? It really didn’t tie into that story. Anyway, I did get the first issue to Final Crisis when it was released, but that was it for me since I was on a college budget (food, clothes, and gas).  I kept up with the event via Internet. I actually ended up reading the whole event (main series and a couple of tie-ins) through a hardcover at the library in Pulaski. I acquired the paperback a while back on Amazon.

My plan is to go through each issue and some tie-ins this month. Today’s issues are Final Crisis #1 and Final Crisis: Requiem. Grant Morrison is the writer the first issue as well as the whole event. J.G. Jones does the art for #1 and for most of the event. He has mostly done covers and some interior work. He’s most known for Wanted, a Mark Millar penned series. For Requiem, Peter J. Tomasi writes the issue. Doug Mahnke pencils the issue and Christian Almany inks the issue. The covers for Final Crisis #1 were both done by Jones. While the one with Green Lantern is okay, the variant is actually the better of the two.

Top 22 Villains - Part 3

Well, I'm at the end of the road for this list. Who's in my top eight villains? Let's find out:

8. The T-1000 from Terminator 2 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is one of my favorite movies. The T-1000 is one of those reasons. In the movie, his main goal is to kill John Connor, the boy who would one day grow up to become humanity’s hero. While the T-800 from the first movie is the iconic version, the T-1000 kicks that version out of the water. The machine is just ruthless in the movie. He does all he can in trying to find and kill John Connor. He’s a shape-shifter, he’s virtually indestructible, and he rarely talks. Whoever decided that Robert Patrick should play the T-1000 should get an award or something.