Random Thoughts On... Days of Our Lives????

Who knew that struggling to get an old kitchen floor up would inspire this post? Maybe that crappy glue got to me or something. Anyway, we were trying to get our house together before our new son, “Baby A”, was born. Yes, that was his name until we centered on something more concrete like Alexander, Anthony, Aaron, or Thalmus... yes, that last one is made up. I don’t know how he would feel being named after a 70’s blaxploitation actor.  Anyway, as I struggled to get that floor up, I started thinking about actors from Days of Our Lives. Then, that went to thinking about weird plots from the long-running soap opera. If you’re wondering why a black dude from the South knows quite a bit about the show, blame my grandma for that. So, here are some random thoughts on my time with the show.

“In the Beginning…”

For those who don’t know, Days of Our Lives is a soap opera that started in 1965 on NBC and is still running these days. They apparently switched to streaming on Peacock recently, so I hope the old ladies got a nephew who has some streaming knowledge. Days (or DOOL for short) was your usual soap opera. It revolves around a couple of families in the fictional Salem, IL. You get a whole lotta drama. This person is in love with that person, this person’s cheating with that person, someone wants to plot to get their love interest away from their true love, and all-around calamity ensues. Also add in assassins, evil business moguls with cool accents, Satan, plastic surgery, many cases of amnesia, hidden twin siblings, illegitimate kids, and a biiiiiatch named Sami. 

Sounds fun, doesn't it?

Random Thoughts On... House of X/Powers of X

Other titles for this post were the following:

• Random Thoughts On… Jonathan Hickman having his way with the X-Men Books
• Random Thoughts On… wondering what the crap Jonathan Hickman is doing with the X-Men Books
• Random Thoughts On… Jonathan Hickman returning to Marvel to do some more greatness
• Random Thoughts On… Jonathan Hickman flirting with your mother, your ex, your current spouse, and rebuilding two houses while helming the X-Men books for the foreseeable future

Okay, that last one was a stretch.

Next up for the month, I thought I would come to the present and get back to the X-Men. It’s been a minute since I’ve talked about Marvel’s “Merry” Mutants. One of these days, I’ll actually watch Dark Phoenix (I got it for my sister for Christmas), but today is not that day. I got two posts planned for them this month. While one is in the more usual mode for the team (psychics and aliens, ‘yo!), this is one that is definitely different for the team and mutants as a whole.

Erik may be wearing white, but that mouth hasn't changed.

During March 2019, Marvel announced that Jonathan Hickman would be returning to Marvel. Hickman’s done quite a bit for the comics industry. He’s done quite a few books for Image Comics like East of West, The Manhattan Projects, and The Nightly News. During his time at Marvel, he did a lot of stuff like working in the Ultimate Universe and having long runs with Fantastic Four and the Avengers. He also helmed events like Infinity and the new Secret Wars. He even helped write a couple of issues of Avengers vs. X-Men.

I pretty much like his runs on Secret Warriors, New Avengers, Avengers, and Secret Wars. Him coming to X-Men definitely made me curious. I tried to get back into the X-Men for a few times over the years, but I never stuck for whatever reason. I mostly stuck around on the recent Uncanny X-Men book, but it just felt like the same old stuff. I know that the X-Men have to protect a world that hates and fears them, but that can get tiring especially when the real world is also looking like that. Suddenly, Hickman comes in promising something new, and it got me interested in what will happen next.

So... what's going on here?

Hickman started his X-Men run with two miniseries: House of X and Powers of X (10). They were released weekly from July 2019 to October 2019. One week, you’d get HOX. The next week, POX would be released. Hickman wrote both books. Both books had different artists. On HOX, we had Pepe Larraz on pencils and inks. For POX, R.B. Silva did the share of pencils and inks while Adriano Di Benedetto helped with additional inks. So, why in the #### did Professor Xavier team up with Magneto and decide to form a sovereign mutant nation?

House of X

HOX pretty much sets the new status quo for the X-Men and mutants in general. To keep it simple (and somewhat spoiler-free), Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Moria McTaggart (it’s a long story) end up forming a sovereign mutant nation on Krakoa. Any and all mutants are invited to live there. The only way to the island is to use these custom-made gateways that are parts of Krakoa. These gateways are all set up all around the world. Some surprising mutants even get an invite to Krakoa. They’ve also even set up imports and exports of pharmaceutical drugs that can help humanity.

And he's back...yeah, I think Scott Summers is a BAMF.

While things seem to be pretty nice for the mutants, the X-Men are still going to do their thing in protecting themselves from enemies of mutants. A new human enemy enters the fray: ORCHIS, a rogue anti-mutant group that’s composed of former members of Marvel organizations. When the X-Men get word that ORCHIS is up to no good in space, Xavier has Cyclops assemble a team to stop the plan they’re hatching. They succeed in their mission, but it comes at a cost…, or so that’s what we’re to believe at first. Let’s just say that death may not be too final.

Xavier and the others also set up their own government with its own rules. We find out personally happens when one breaks one of their three cardinal rules. I’ll just say that it’s Sabertooth. That jackass has to always make trouble for folk, ya know? Anyway, after all the business is settled up and… Cyclops team “returns”, we get to have a little ‘ole rave. Luckily it’s not bland and off-putting like the one from the Matrix Reloaded.

Powers of X

POX shows how the new status quo came about and why it’s ended up being the way it is. We also get three other timelines, and we see how they play into the present day know as X1-Year 10. X0-Year Zero is pretty much the past. It shows Moira and Xavier setting their plan into motion over the years. X2-Year 100 shows a post-apocalyptic future for the X-Men… a usual thing. Machines have taken over Earth, and only a few Mutants are left standing to fight. The final timeline is X3-Year 1000. In this era, humanity has evolved even further with machines while what’s left of the mutants is in a literal zoo. I ain’t going to spoil all of this, but just know that ‘ole Moria is the key in all four timelines.

OPINION

This was a pretty great read. When you got me wanting to come to the LCS every week to pick up an issue, you’re doing something right! When I heard Hickman was coming to the X-Men, I already was getting ready for what might come. I didn’t expect this, though. Talk about changing the game for the X-Men and mutants as a whole. That first issue pretty much lets you know that things have changed. You got Magneto in white, Xavier looking even more shady (and kinda dressed up like the Maker, a Marvel villain), Logan laughing with kids, Jean Grey in her old Marvel Girl outfit for some reason, and Cyclops being an ass to the Fantastic Four. It’s awesome!

The X2 timeline was a pretty interesting one.

Hickman does some retconning with this new venture and you can look at Moira McTaggart as the big change. It’s revealed her that she’s a mutant who basically reincarnates into her own body and resets the timeline. You find out that she lived ten lives as herself with the current day being the 10th one. In her issue, you pretty much find out why she’s done all of this for Xavier. With the island, they end up doing some really crazy stuff. The pharmaceuticals is probably the least crazy thing the mutants do here.

At that moment... Xavier learns that Moira is into a lotta things... oh my.

One of the things I really like about it all is how much thought goes into the island itself. It’s not just  another Asteroid M scenario. A lot of thought gets put into how this island will function and operate. A government gets set up, they get imports/exports set up, and they even get some custom laws set up. With their new status quo, they gotta set up some new rules. Another that was pretty cool was Hickman’s info dumps. Anything he couldn’t explain in the story gets thrown into a page of text. Luckily, most of it is actually interesting to read since you get the idea that he’s setting up more for the future there.

The buzz on this image and a couple of other things involving these three has been funny.

Seeing the various timelines was also a treat. It was cool to see how Xavier went around to pretty familiar characters to get the house set up. The X2 timeline was particularly interesting since you not only saw a couple of familiar faces, you also saw combinations of certain characters lumped into one person. We also got one of the funniest and scariest Sentinels in Nimrod. For a robot, That dude was all over the emotional spectrum. The final timeline, X3, was just okay. You really don’t know why we’re here until the last issue. Before that, it’s just some weird stuff involving the Phalanx, the X-Men’s version of the Borg.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the X3 timeline, but the ending makes up for it.

The artwork is pretty good all-around. Larraz did an awesome job with House of X, and Silva did great with Powers of X. There’s really nothing bad thing I can say about the art here. It does what it needs to and then some. We got some new but familiar designs for all the X-Men. For example, we got Logan back in a classic suit, and Magneto looks awesome in white. I also liked how Krakoa looked in general. It’s like a weird organic and technological combination.  The only thing I do think is weird is that Jean’s back in her 70’s costume with the skirt. I wonder if there is a story reason behind that…

Overall, this was cool. The only issues I do have is that it can geta little too wordy at times. Also, that X3 timeline thing could’ve been handled a little better. Even those issues and any small nitpicks don’t hurt the overall story. This was a good start for this new era for X-Men. It helped me, someone who’s had a hard time getting into the X-Men in recent years, stay with an X-Men book. I’m only getting the main X-Men book for now, but that may change. Anyway, I’m off to read some Asimov. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and don’t tick off the really giddy Sentinel.

Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Run on Batman and Robin

Next up for this phase of Batman talk, I thought I’d return to ‘ole Grant Morrison. This time, we’re not dealing with the dankness of Grant Morrison… oh wait, Professor Pyg shows up here. Never mind! Anyway, I’ve talked about Morrison’s Batman run from the 2000’s. I got through Black Glove, R.I.P., and Battle For the Cowl. Yeah, that last one wasn’t Morrison, but you needed it to get to the next phase: the Dick Grayson Era or “Batman Reborn”.

                                               

“Batman Reborn” started off the small era where Dick Grayson donned the cape and cowl, Damian Wayne became Robin, and Tim Drake became a restaurant. I’m only talking about the Morrison themed stuff here, so you’ll have to wait on my thoughts about Judd Winnick’s time on Batman. Morrison left the Batman book and got his own series, Batman and Robin. While he worked on that book for 16 issues, he also returned to Batman to write some issues. Then, he also had a mini-series called The Return of Bruce Wayne. Guess what happens in that mini. There’s also Batman: The Return, a one-shot that basically started off Batman Incorporated, to consider, but I’ll save that for another time.

Random Thoughts On... How the X-Men could be handled in the MCU

So, what is going on with the MCU lately? Avengers: Infinity War was just released digitally, so that’s nice. I’ll touch on it here soon. There’s that whole situation involving James Gunn (the director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies) that I won’t touch upon that here. I think Twitter’s ran the gamut on that whole, weird topic anyway. Has something else happened recently that involves Disney making some big purchase with 20^th Century Fox-- Oh. Yeah. That did just happen.

On July 27^th, 2018, it was announced that Disney would be purchasing movie and tv assets from 20^th Century Fox. For those who don’t know, Fox has had the film rights to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four properties for years. This means that we may get those heroes and villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe soon. This was something that left folk pretty happy and a few folk kind of disappointed. As for me, I’m a little mixed since I mostly liked what Fox was doing with the X-Men franchise… mostly, mind you. I haven’t forgotten what happened in 2006 and 2009. You can also throw the FF movies in that lot since they weren’t that good either.

Folk have been constantly theorizing on how the X-Men and FF would fit in the MCU. Would they be fully integrated or left off on the side somewhere? Would Marvel continue what was laid out with Fox or would it be a straight-up reboot? I wasn’t thinking about that stuff too much myself, but my mind did lay out some possibilities. While I was walking in Kroger a couple of nights back, I was wondering how this could work if they did a full-on reboot with the X-Men. So, here are six things that I hope the creators take into account.

Random Thoughts On... Star Wars: The Dark Empire Trilogy

So, Solo: A Star Wars Story was released this weekend. Some of my favorite movie reviewers (Jeremy Jahns, Chris Stuckmann) didn’t have great things to say about the movie. Since I'm off work for the weekend, I thought I'd take a bite and go see it for myself. It was okay for the most part and surprising in a couple of places. Today’s post isn’t about the nerf-herding pilot with a nice smile, though. It’s time to, once again, jump back into the original Expanded Universe, aka “Legends.” Today, it’s Tom Veitch’s Dark Empire Trilogy.

Star Wars: Dark Empire, a six-issue miniseries, was released by Dark Horse in 1991. It was originally supposed to be released by Marvel, but things didn’t work out. Also, the writer, Tom Veitch, had to work things out with other writers like Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson because they were also doing things in the Expanded Universe. Its sequel, Dark Empire II, was released in 1994. The final story, Empire’s End, was released a year later. Tom Veitch wrote all three books. The artwork for the first two was provided by Cam Kennedy while Empire’s End had artwork done by Jim Balkie.

For some reason, this image of Luke in the Vader mask has stuck with me for years.

 It was around 2004 or 2005 when I first heard about Dark Empire. I actually found Dark Empire II at MTSU’s library. I was searching for something Star Wars-related and I found it in the young section. A few years later, I again ran into the Dark Empire Trilogy (which collected Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and Empire’s End) at Pulaski’s public library. I didn’t finish reading it, though. Over the years, I’ve added the first two entries to my collection. Since Marvel has Star Wars now, all of their Expanded Universe series is on Marvel Unlimited. I was able to finally finish off the trilogy there. Since Empire’s End was only two issues, that was easy to do… a little too easy.

Random Thoughts On... Al Ewing's Mighty Avengers

So how do I start this post out? Hmm…

“Wait, Al Ewing’s not black? I’m kinda shocked to find that out! Still, nice job dude!”

For a while now, I’ve been going through different runs of comics physically or through apps like Marvel Unlimited. One series I was somewhat curious about was Al Ewing’s run on Mighty Avengers. It was a series that was supposed to take lesser known known Marvel superheroes and team them up. The interesting thing was that the team was mostly full of minority characters. I was curious about getting the series, but when I saw Greg Land was doing the art, I said “Nah.” After re-reading it and it’s “sequel,” Captain America and The Mighty Avengers, I’m kind of regretting that.

Volume 2 of Mighty Avengers started to hit shelves in 2014 right as the umpteenth Marvel crossover, Infinity, was coming out. Luke Cage and a few other lesser-known heroes (including Spider-Man at times) decided to create a new team. Unlike the big-leagues, they were more interested in helping the common folk. They even set up a call center at their headquarters in Gem Theater. After 14 issues, the book was then relaunched as Captain America and the Mighty Avengers (CAATMA) just in time for Marvel’s other umpteenth crossover, AXIS. It then came to an end at nine issues as the next crossover event, Secret Wars, was starting up… are you seeing a pattern?

Anyway, I came across the series during my read-through of Johnathan Hickman’s runs on Avengers and New Avengers. I was going to talk about it last month, but I’m lazy when it comes to this stuff, so you’re getting it here. Al Ewing, who’s still at it these days, helmed the book for all its duration. The run did have multiple artists, though. On pencils, we had the aforementioned Greg Land, Valerio Schiti, Salvador Larroca, Luke Ross, and Iban Coello. Most of the pencillers like Ross, Larroca, Schiti, and Coello provided inks for their own work. Other inking was done by Jay Liesten. The colorists were Frank D’Amata, Edgar Delgado, Matt Milla, and Rachelle Rosenburg. The lettering was done by Cory Petit and Travis Lanham.

Okay, I can either pick Captain America, Ryu, Wolverine, or that weird catlady from Deathstalkers to beat this mofo.

Random Thoughts On... DC's Identity Crisis

Next up for the month is a bit of a controversial one. If you’ve ever heard of this story, you’ll know why. It’s going to get a little serious since this story deals with something a little too dark for some. Just letting you know.

In 2004, DC Comics released Identity Crisis, a seven-issue event. Like most Crisis events, it changed a lot about the landscape of DC for years to come. Unlike events such as Zero Hour and Crisis on Infinite Earths, it didn’t go all-cosmic with it. It’s pretty much a murder mystery set in the DC Universe. It’s also a miniseries that scooped up a lot of controversy as it was released throughout 2004. It was written by Brad Meltzer, a novelist who started to enter into comics. He had previously wrote on Green Arrow and apparently did so good there someone wanted him to helm an event. Ralph “Rags” Morales, a guy who’s worked on many DC books, handled the pencils while Michael Blair handled the inks.

I first ran into this event right at the end. I made my first hike to the Outer Limits on Memorial Blvd. during November, I think. By the way, there’s no way I’d do it now since they’ve moved since then. I also remember I was going to a party later that night. Anyway, I picked up a few issues like New Avengers #1 and Identity Crisis #7. I ended up reading it sometime later. Then… I ended up throwing it away. If you think it was because of that ending, I don’t think it was that. I don’t know if it got ruined or ripped. With how this event was regarded, I bet I wasn’t the only one who threw it away.

 While his interior work was fine, the late Michael Turner turned in great covers.

A couple of years later, I perused through the trade at the Waldenbooks in Cool Springs. Since then, I’ve read some of the tie-ins as well as what spun out of it. A few weeks ago, I saw it at McKay’s and finally decided to check this story out. It's a story that folk either like or hate. I’ve seen folk like Linkara tear this story a new one. On the other end the spectrum, I’ve heard the father/daughter team on the Relatively Geeky Network give it a fair but positive review. So, now that I’ve read it in full, where do I stand? By the way, “there be spoilers here, arrrr!!!”

Yeah, I’m hyping myself up for the darkness that’s about to come.

Random Thoughts On... Dynamite's Highlander Series

Outside of the movies and TV series, there isn’t much Highlander tie-in material out there. There are a couple of novels, some comic books, and a couple of video games (mostly cancelled ones), but that’s it. The creators have a tight leash on that property, don’t they? I can’t blame them, though. After all, it hasn’t been all good for the Highlander franchise. There's Highlander 2: the Quickening and other things to consider.

Around 2006, Dynamite Entertainment got the license to produce some Highlander comics. It was the 20^th anniversary of the first movie and there was another movie (Highlander: The Source) in production. Dynamite had a main series and a couple of mini-series but I’m just looking at the main series. I did hear about this comic series some time ago. I even saw the covers for some issues, but I wasn’t that interested in checking them out. It was Highlander Re-Watched that “reignited the Quickening “within me. There was also the fact that the trades were pretty cheap. You can barely turn away something that’s potentially interesting and cheap.

The series lasted 13 issues (#0-#12) and lasted from 2006 to 2007. Since we have another MacLeod showing up with Connor, this takes place in the universe of the TV series. Continuity can get a little confusing with this franchise. Writer Brandon Jerwa wrote it all and Michael Avon Oeming was along for the first arc. They worked closely with David Abramowitz, the creative consultant from the series and the movies. The artwork varied with each storyline.  “The Coldest War” was done by Lee Moder. “New Year’s Eve,” a single issue, was done by Kevin Sharpe. Fabio Laguna handled the third storyline,”Dark Quickening.” The final arc, “Armageddon,” had artwork done by Carlos Rafael.

Random Thoughts On... The Highlander Franchise

“From the dawn of time we came…moving silently down through the centuries. Living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering, when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you…..until now.”

This monologue from Sean Connery started off a franchise that was popular in its time: Highlander. Whether it was a good franchise is a matter of debate, though. A few months ago, I started to wonder if there was a podcast about the Highlander series out there. By the way, thank From Crisis To Crisis: A Superman Podcast for that. Every April Fool’s Day, they do a parody review of something else instead of a Superman comic book. This year, it was an episode from the Highlander TV show. It took some searching, but I found one by the name of Highlander Re-Watched. Since then, I’ve been catching up on all of their episodes about the series and movies.

For those who probably don’t know, Highlander was a 1986 movie about Connor MacLeod, a 16^th century Scotsman born in the Highlands. He belongs to a race of Immortals who battle each other throughout time. When the battle is over, the loser gets beheaded and the winner gains their strength and essence through the Quickening. When the last Immortal on Earth is left, he or she will earn “The Prize,” something that is kind of vague.

The movie was pretty much a standalone, done-in-one thing since Connor wins the prize. Then, four movie sequels, two live-action TV shows, an animated TV show, an anime,  a few comic series, and a few (some cancelled) video games came. Since I’ve been a sword-faring mood (Renaissance Festival and Witcher 3 play), I thought I’d finally share my thoughts on the franchise as a whole.

Random Thoughts On... Scott Snyder's and Greg Capullo's Batman Run

For a while now, I’ve been going through most of my comics’ collection. I’ve mostly been doing it to weed out anything I don’t want anymore. So far, it’s only been a couple of things but not anything too big.  I’ve mostly been reading my not-so-complete collection of Post-Crisis Superman. I’ve collected stuff from the late 80’s to the late 90’s. When I get past 1999, that’s when it’ll get pretty spotty. Still, Post-Crisis Superman will make the cut. I’ve ran across some subpar issues, but it’s pretty good so far.

Anyway, one run I wanted to revisit was Scott Snyder’s and Greg Capullo’s run on Batman. At the time this series was coming out, folk were claiming it was the best series on shelves. The word of mouth got me on this one. While I was already a Batman fan, I only read a little involving the character. Most of my fandom came from the movies and animated series. Since the New 52 was starting up and I was starting to get comics regularly, I jumped in and stayed to the bitter end. Since Scott Snyder (not related to Zack Snyder) is revving up for a Batman-centered event called Dark Days: Metal, I thought it was finally time to read and talk about this run.

As I said above, Snyder’s and Capullo’s run was part of the DC’s New 52 initiative. Snyder already had some experience with Batman (the Dick Grayson variety)  since he was writing Detective Comics before this run. I didn’t know who Capullo was, though. All I knew was that he worked on Spawn and X-Force. Their run on Batman would last about 52 issues, the whole entirety of New 52 and “DC You”. There would also be a few special issues in there but I’m pretty much focusing on the main book.

Snyder was pretty much on the whole time with some writers coming in and helping out with back-ups and annuals. James Tynion IV, Gerry Dugan, Brian Azzerello, and a couple of others would help out at times. While Capullo had a couple of breaks here and there, he did a lot of his own work on the book. Other artists included folk like Andy Kubert, Jock, and, Jason Fabok, and Alex Maleev. The backups would also be handled by Rafael Albuquerque and others. Inkers would also vary here and there. Capullo’s main inkers were Johnathan Glapion and Danny Miki.

Random Thoughts On... Star Trek: New Frontier Books One through Four

Well, I’m to my last post for the Sci-Fi Month... and it’s June 1st. At least I have an excuse with the trip and my time at the Renaissance Festival. As usual, it’s been cool getting back to doing regular posts. There were a couple of things I couldn’t get to, though.  Since I’ve touched on all the current Trek shows and movies, I think my last post should look at a lesser known crew: the crew of the USS Excalibur.

Some time ago, I talked about the first book to Peter David’s Star Trek: New Frontier series. For those who don’t know, Peter David and John J. Ordver put together a concept about a crew that wasn’t tied to what was going on in the movies and TV. At that time, DS9 and Voyager were on. You also had the TNG movies. David took a few unused characters from TNG and mingled them in with new characters of his own. David has had written them in novel form and even comic book form. From what I can tell, it’s actually still continuing. The latest book (an eBook) was released in 2015.

I don’t remember where I first heard about the series. It may have been on Two True Freaks but I’m not sure. All I know is when I read the first book, I really got hooked into checking them all out. Unfortunately, I haven’t done much of that reading. I stopped after reading the fifth book in 2014… sorry, Pete. I did lose a little interest since I was trying to find them all. Since there’s already so much stuff to see and read, they got literally put in the closet to make for more book space. I want to get back on this horse eventually, so I just want to talk about the first four books in the series.

Random Thoughts On... The Watchmen

Next up for the month is a return to the comic world. The 1980’s was a time where comics began to change. You do see some changes in the 70’s, but the industry really goes through them in the 80’s. We got event books, a total revamp of a universe, and two stories that changed the way creators tell stories in the comic medium. Whether these stories were good or bad for the industry is a debate unto itself. One of them was The Dark Knight Returns, a story that really brought the edginess back to Batman. The other story and the subject for today is Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It’s a story that I think is good… if a little overrated.

While I wait for legions of Alan Moore acolytes to chastise me, I thought I’d just talk about the story in general. For those aren’t familiar with this story, here are the simple points. Watchmen was a 12-issue maxiseries that was released from 1986 to 1987. It was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons with John Higgins as the colorist.  It takes place in an alternate version of 1985 where Richard Nixon is still President of the United States. While there are government superheroes, other vigilantes are outlawed because of a law called the Keene Act. Moore takes these characters and explores them through a variety of ways.

I think I first learned about Watchmen during my time in college. That was when I really started to dive into comics. Plus, the movie was being talked about at that time. I already knew about the story before I even read the trade. I’ve really only have read the whole story a couple of times with my most recent read being a few days ago. I actually didn’t own a copy until a few months ago. As you can probably tell, it’s wasn’t high on my “must-read” list. After reading it this last time, I think I was a little wrong to have it that low.

Random Thoughts On… Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Evolution

Wow, it’s been a minute since I’ve posted anything! Maybe I’ll let it last a month… or not.

While I’ve been on my sabbatical, I’ve been in a bit of a Mass Effect fix. Mass Effect: Andromeda is right around the corner, so a revisit was needed. Heck, since the beginning of year, Bioware has been my go-to developer for a bit.  I played through Mass Effect again and it is still really good. I played some of Jade Empire last month and decided to face the Collectors again with Mass Effect 2. Somehow, I lost Mordin again. A tear was shed for the cool salarian. Right now, I’m finishing off the trilogy with Mass Effect 3.

While playing the games, I started to think about a couple of Mass Effect trade paperbacks I picked up some time ago. I think it was at McKay’s but I really don’t remember. It was a while before I really read them. They were tie-ins done by Dark Horse around the time of the Mass Effect sequels and they center on certain characters from the series. Today, I thought I’d give a bit of an overview of these two trades.

Mass Effect: Redemption was released around 2010. It contains one storyline. The next trade, Mass Effect: Evolution, was released in 2012. It not only contains a four-part storyline but two short stories. Mac Walters, the creative director for the games, handled the story for these two trades and later ones that I won’t be talking about today. John Jackson Miller handles the script and dialogue. The artwork for Redemption and Evolution was done by Omar Francia. Incursion’s artwork is done by Eduardo Francisco while Inquisition’s artwork is done by Jean Diaz. The colors and letters for all the stories were handled by Michael Atiyeh and Michael Heisler.

Random Thoughts On... Geoff Johns' Run on Justice League

For the last few months, I’ve been trying to go through my collection and see if some of it is worth keeping. One series that I think needed a full read-through was Geoff Johns' run on Justice League. I think I started on it back in the summer. It took me a while to finish it all since there were a couple of issues missing. Heck, I even re-read Forever Evil which is something I will talk about soon. Just recently, I finished it off with #50. I wonder why he cut his run short since he didn’t even make it to #52. Maybe he was working on making DC Rebirth #1 an awesome read which it was.

For those who don’t know, John’s run on Justice League basically kicked of DC’s “New 52” phase in August of 2011. The plan was to basically reboot the DC universe (again) and get the heroes looking fresh, new, hip, or something like that. When I heard that Johns was going to be on Justice League, I was more or less sold since he is one of my favorite modern writers. What made it even more interesting was that he would have Jim Lee doing the art. So, all was well in the land of DC, right? Well… sort of, but I’ll get to that later.

Johns would remain on the book until #50 which was released during May of 2016. I guess his departure kind of made the New 52 officially come to an end. Artists came and went with this book, though. Jim Lee was really only around for ten of the 12 issues in the first year. Afterwards, it became a bit of a hodgepodge of cool artists. We had guys like Gene Ha, Carlo’s D’Anna, Tony Daniel, Ivan Reis, Jesus Merino, Doug Mahnke, Francis Manapual, and Jason Fabok doing art chores. There was also a back-up strip in the early issues that showcased a revamped version of Shazam formerly known as Captain Marvel. Gary Frank handled the art duties to all of that. The inkers and colorists were a plenty for the series.

Hey, J'onn! What's... Oh. Crap.

Random Thoughts On... Godzilla in general and Shin Godzilla

So, we now have another Godzilla movie on our hands. Shin Godzilla aka Godzilla Resurgence was in limited release over here last week. I was only able to see it on Saturday which ended up being eventful on its own. I also had to fix a kitchen sink, I finally watched the new MacGyver (it’s alright), the Tennessee Vols embarrassed themselves, and my own alma mater (MTSU) lost in a double overtime. All in all, it was an alright day. I thought I’d take some time to talk about the new movie and to just talk about Godzilla himself. If anything, most of this is my history with Godzilla. If you want to hear my thoughts on the new movie, just scroll on down past my little history lesson.

Random Thoughts On... The Universal Monsters

I thought I would really change it up today and talk about a genre I’m not a big fan of: horror. I don’t know why I’m not into horror that much. My dad and sister like horror movies. I know I’m not a fan of most modern horror. I’m really not a fan of gore. If I do watch any horror movies, they’re usually older ones like the Halloween series, the Friday The 13^th series, or other stuff. I do like horror movies with a sci-fi feel like The Thing and the Alien series. I think it also has to be a pretty good movie for me to really get invested.

Random Thoughts On... Grant Morrison's Action Comics Run

So, I’m at the end of another Superman Month. I’ve read/seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. When I mean ugly, I kind of mean “For Tomorrow” since that story just… let's just say I’m not a fan. I rather watch Steel again than read that. I thought I’d end the month on a bit of a high note by talking about Grant Morrison’s run on Action Comics.

Now looking on it in the Rebirth era of DC, Superman got the short of the stick with the New 52. I’m not saying that weren’t good stories (there were), but some of them weren’t the best. Luckily, it did start out well with Grant Morrison’s Action Comics. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the Superman book that much. I know what came afterwards with Scott Lobdell was… okay? Maybe I’ll find out one day when I read more of what he did post “H’El On Earth.” I heard Greg Pak’s stuff was good and I even have his part of the recent “Truth” arc.

Morrison stayed with Action Comics from #1-#18 with a #0 thrown in for Zero Month. The artists varied throughout but the main one was Rags Morales. Others were Brad Walker, Gene Ha, Brent Anderson, Ben Oliver, Andy Kubert, Travel Foreman, and CAFU. Starting with Action Comics #4, there were also 8-page back-up stories and that lasted for Morrison’s run. Those were written by Sholly Fisch. He also did the annual for this series. The artists also varied with Brad Walker, Chris Sprouse, CAFU, and others contributing.

The idea, at first, was to show Superman at the beginning. As I’ve said before this month, it’s the thing to do with the character these days. What Morrison and Morales did was throw a lot of the Golden Age into Superman’s new beginning. He wasn’t the nice guy we’ve known for years. Well, he was nice to everyone else but criminals which is something I really liked. If you’ve read those old Golden Age comics, Superman was a rough guy. He even killed some criminals or he at least left some to die. This new Superman also had the same power set he had in the Golden Age, so he couldn’t fly yet. His parents were back to being dead and died when he was in high school.

Nothing to say here. Just Superman doing the impossible.

Random Thoughts On… Superman: American Alien

I thought I’d change it up a little for this post. Next up for the month is a pretty recent miniseries called Superman: American Alien. The book is more or less a look at the early days of Clark Kent before he became The Man of Steel. If that sounds familiar to you, then join the club. As I said before, it seems like the thing to do with Superman now is to look at his early days. Secret Origin, Birthright, the Earth One universe, and the movies have done it. Heck, there was a hit TV show that centered on them! It’s gotten to the point where I might as well pull out my notebook and do an origin for the guy.

So, here comes Max Landis with his own version what made Clark Kent into… Clark Kent? Well, that’s what he said in an interview about the miniseries. For those who don’t know, Max Landis is a writer in Hollywood. He’s well known for writing the script for Chronicle, a found-footage movie with superpowers. It’s sitting in my collection unseen but I've heard good things about it. He’s also known for a short film/parody where he talks about The Death and Return of Superman. Some Superman fans were peeved about that film. I saw it myself, laughed little, and thought his message was a little flawed. Landis then made his way into comics by writing a few stories for the character. He’s even been online talking about the character, so I see why DC decided to let him do his own take on Superman’s myth.

With the way some folk are, I can see this happening.

Random Thoughts On... The Multiversity

I think I’m going to make this “Random Thoughts On…” section a thing now. It’ll give me a chance to talk about stuff that aren’t really reviews of different stuff. Heck, I may even go into another tangent like I did with the subject of a black James Bond. I probably won’t go too random with this new thing. I will say that today’s subject may slip into review territory though. 

Today’s subject is actually on The Multiversity by Grant Morrison. It was a limited series that was released around 2014 and 2015. It was basically Grant Morrison’s way to expand on DC’s Multiverse and basically tell a story within it. It’s kind of a sequel to Final Crisis in that he uses some characters and certain ideas in it. He apparently had this idea for years going back as far as 2010. I heard stuff here and there about it but I wasn’t really interested in it until it was officially announced. I also think the fact that I’m more of a fan of Morrison’s work these days helped too. I added it to my pull list and read it as it came out each month. I will admit that I was a little lazy with the last issue though. I’ve been going through my collection lately and I thought I’d re-read this on a whim.

Morrison wrote all nine issues. The art team varies with each issue since most of the series take place on different Earths in the Multiverse. We had guys like Ivan Reis, Frank Quitely, Chris Sprouse, Ben Oliver, Jim Lee, Cameron Stewart, and Doug Manhke handling the art in the miniseries. I’m not even going to mention the rest of the art team for the mini. There are too many names to mention. I heard that this series’ plot structure is similar to another series that Morrison worked on called Seven Soldiers. I haven’t read that yet but I’ve heard things about it.

Random Thoughts On... A Black James Bond? – An Opinion

‘Sup, guys. I think it’s time for something a little different on the Random Boat of Randomness. So, I recently watched Spectre a couple of weekends ago. I have to admit that it left me a little cold. I wouldn’t say it was bad, but something did feel lacking. I don’t know if it was the direction or the story, but it felt off especially towards the end. Since Daniel Craig has hinted that he may be done with Bond, the look for another woman-loving, butt-kicking, alcohol-drinking dude is probably on right now. A few names have been tossed here and there. 

One thing that has been a bit of a thing for the last few years is the idea of a black man as James Bond or a James Bond who happens to be black. Take your pick. I thought about talking about this here a few years ago, but I didn’t know what to say on the matter. In a way, I still don’t know what to say. As you can tell, that’s something I’m really good at doing. Just ask anyone I know. Would something like this be possible? Should it even happen? My answer is yes… and no. I’ll go into why below.