Two big pieces of news regarding season three of Daredevil were just released via Deadline.
The first, and likely most important to fans, is that Vincent D’Onofrio is returning as Wilson Fisk. This isn’t a surprise to many, as the character is essential to what season three seems to be leading up to: the Born Again storyline.
Additionally, Erik Oleson is set to be the showrunner on the upcoming season.
Jeph Loeb, Marvel TV Chief, had this to say regarding both new details:
“Vincent is an exceptional actor who returns with the incredible gravitas he brings to Fisk. We’re very excited how Marvel’s Daredevil develops through the creative lens and guidance of our new showrunner, Erik Oleson.”
No release date for season three has been set. Are you looking forward to the continuation of the Marvel/Netflix universe? Sound off in the comments below.
If you enjoy Michael Mann’s LA heist masterpiece Heat, but you didn’t need all that dialogue and pesky nuance and character building mumbo jumbo, well, have I got the movie for you. Welcome to the Den of Thieves.
Not that every crime drama should be like Heat, but this Gerard Butler thriller certainly fancies itself as a loose reigning of sorts. Director Christian Gudegast has shed all the tedium of Mann’s film and inserted a hip-hop soundtrack, 50 Cent, and way more hyperkinetic aerial shots of Los Angeles. Check out the trailer:
A Los Angeles crime saga in the vein of “Heat”, DEN OF THIEVES follows the intersecting and often personally connected lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and the state’s most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles.
I don’t know about you, but I can have Heat and Den of Thieves in my life. Not every movie has to be a meditative take on the nature of law and crime like Mann’s film. Sometimes, we need Gerard Butler in a black tank top threatening O’Shea Jackson Jr.
In a totally unsurprising move, Den of Thieves will open January 19, a nice palette cleanser after all those stuffy Oscar flicks.
Originally due to hit cinemas on the 22nd November this hotly anticipated film will now be released on January 5th, which will tee it up nicely for the awards season. Following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the response from critics has been almost entirely positive, garnering a Rotten Tomatoes score of 94%.
The film is based on the snappily titled memoir ‘Molly’s Game: From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys’ Club, My High Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker’ and initial Hollywood pitches were for a TV series. It was Hollywood’s hottest writer, Aaron Sorkin, who saw in the narrative a film story that he wanted not only to write but also direct. ’It isn’t often you come across a story that is both cool and has a lot of heart, and this one does,’ said Sorkin when the first trailer was screened.
In the past there has been some criticism of Sorkin’s treatment of female characters, this film certainly sets the record straight on that score. Jessica Chastain, who plays Molly, sees this primarily as a story about female empowerment: ‘I like that the film explores female power and what that means in society…Molly’s journey goes through that and Aaron really shows the hurdles she had, but also how powerful a person she is’.
Voice over has often been criticised as a clumsy way of putting a band-aid on poor filmmaking, so it’s surprising that Sorkin uses so much of it, though of course, this is Sorkin penned narration, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised given the reverence accorded this writer’s prose. Structured around flashbacks like ‘The Social Network,’ Sorkin was at pains to ensure that the identities of the real-life Hollywood celebrities involved in the events were thoroughly obscured in his film. ‘I don’t want the movie to be about gossip,’ he said.
This is not a conventional gambling film, though many believe it will secure a place in the pantheon of best gambling films of all time. Not only does it foreground its central female character, in a genre where women are usually peripheral eye candy, but it is also not particularly interested in set-piece poker games. There is a natural drama about a poker game, a group of characters seated around a table creates a natural environment for dialogue, the raising of stakes builds tension toward the climactic reveal. In films like ‘The Cincinnati Kid’ or ‘Rounders,’ this drama of the game is fully exploited, and the games are key dramatic sequences within the films. ‘Molly’s Game’ is not this sort of gambling film, despite gambling being the milieu in which the narrative is set, the gamblers are not the central characters, and the games are not key dramatic sequences.
‘Molly’s Game’ is about money, power, greed and the survival of a strong woman in a world where men literally hold all the cards. The Wolf of Wall Street, but with heart.
With the world’s deadliest assassin leaving Metropolis, things have returned to normal for the Man of Steel. He goes to work, saves the day, occasionally teaming up with Lex Luthor. To newcomers, back in 2014, Lex Luthor saved the world from an evil Justice League in the Forever Evil event. This has made him a hero in the eyes of the world and he has held good to that commitment. While he is still the cunning bald-billionaire we know, he has helped the Justice League several times until the start of Rebirth. Since then both he and Superman have worked to keep the world safe.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Story:
The opening to this storyline has us follow Superman and Lex Luthor teaming up to stop crime in Metropolis. They stop the bad guys, take pictures for the press and act friendly to one another. When it’s all said and done, however, the pair can’t stand each other and go their separate ways. While Clark goes home for Family Night, Lex is captured by slaves from Apokolips. They see him as their new god after he wielded the power of Darkseid during 2015’s Darkseid War event. Before he is sent to the hellish planet, Luthor sends out a distress signal and some Lexbots to get Superman for help.
While the team up of Luthor and Superman was fun, the issue falls apart from there. The reason of why Superman is dragged into Lex’s problem is by far one of the most ridiculous premises I’ve seen in comics.
After Clark hears the distress signal from Lex, he shrugs it off because the signal has been used to show off new upgrades for his Supersuit. That’s right. The reason Superman didn’t help is the equivalent of “The Boy Who Cried, Wolf.”
The Problem?
I know the two are supposed to be enemies, but Superman would have known something was up. In fact, most of Metropolis would know what’s up as the captors used a boom tube to get away. As the name implies, boom tubes are meant to be loud and explosive. Even if the sounds of the city were to cover it up, Superman would recognize the noise due to his history against Apokolips. Superman could also look towards Lexcorp just to make sure he’s fine with his X-ray vision.
There are several ways to have Superman learn about what happened to Lex that doesn’t put his family in danger. But since this book deals with the Kent family, they need to be roped in. It’s nonsensical, and that’s coming from the book about a Superman who flies with heat vision.
Art:
The art of this issue will be a hit or miss for readers. For this reader, it hits just below the mark.
The pencil work is phenomenal when it came to the design of the characters. With the combination of the color work, the characters felt like the could pop off the page into our world.
Despite the designs of the characters being fantastic, there is one aspect that drags the entire issue down. The pencil work doesn’t do wonders for the faces of the characters. Unless their mouths are closed, the heroes end up with creepy, unnatural expressions. In one panel, in particular, Clark looked back at his family with a creepy grin when he says he’s going to spend the night with his family. It is faces such as this that pull me out of the story entirely.
Conclusion:
This is not the way you start a story arc. Aside from the fun team up at the beginning, the story makes Clark look like a jerk and an idiot who gets his family caught up in his troubles. While the suits and scenery look nice, there are faces the characters make that will pull a reader out from being immersed in the story. I hope that with the entrance of Apokolips that the story will improve, but stand alone, I cannot recommend it.
We’re down to the final three Dark Knights invading our earth, and to say I’m excited is an understatement. Ever since these one-shot origin stories released, I find myself counting the hours before I get the next. We watched the Red Death race to stay a step ahead. Witnessed the Murder Machine bring his father back to end crime. We were reminded to fear the dark and the deep with The Dawnbreaker and The Drowned. Now we have the Batman that represents Wonder Woman, even if he isn’t a part of her.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Story:
This Batman comes from Earth -12, where he and Wonder Woman worked to end the terror of Ares, the God of War. During the final battle, after Diana fell, Bruce stole Ares’ helmet which imbues the wearer with Godhood.
This would be the part where I tell you how Batman the Merciless entered an epic battle with Ares. The part where I tell you he went to war and decimated his enemies. The problem is we don’t SEE any of that. We are TOLD what happens by The Merciless.
That is what breaks the book for me. Due to a comic book’s style of visual storytelling, the creative team has the opportunity to show the readers some extraordinary displays. When we have a story where a God is telling you of the amazing feats he’s done without showing said feats, the reader will feel robbed.
Even when we see The Merciless’ attack A.R.G.U.S. Headquarters, he fights through security guards instead of actual Superheroes to show his true strength.
If there is any part of the story that is actually interesting, it would be the Crisis Council. The Crisis Council is a group of leaders from each of the government agencies that help superheroes, such as Supergirl’s D.E.O. and S.H.A.D.E.. But even they lose their appeal after they begin to bicker over what’s right and wrong. They argue instead of sending someone to deal with The Merciless, fighting towards them. Each of the leaders on the council have superheroes to call on, and while they might not stand a chance to a God of War, it would be helpful to have one to scale The Merciless’ strength.
Art:
While I could go on about the faults in this story, the art is the only good aspect of the book. Francis Manapul is famous for his pencil work in The Flash comics and his style truly shines out here. The design of The Merciless and the pictures he carves in stone benefit heavily from the style, giving it an Ancient Greek feel.
The subdued color work helps the art really stand out as well. The more vibrant colors are used for lighting, both for rooms and of superpowers. It helps set the tone we’re supposed to feel, such as red danger lights flashing as The Merciless approaches.
Conclusion:
While very beautiful to look at, this installment to the Dark Nights Metal saga is the weakest by far. It suffers much from telling the reader things what happened off-panel instead of showing. This leaves the reader desiring for more of a story that they will never get. As this is an origin story, you can skip this one, even if you’ve been following the Dark Nights Metal saga.
Cassie Hack is the lone survivor of an attack by a slasher called The Lunch Lady…a slasher that happened to be her mother! She traveled the world with her monstrous and friend Vlad, hunting down and destroying slashers wherever they found them. But then Vlad died and Cassie disappeared…
Hack/Slash: Resurrection #1 Written by: Tini Howard Art by: Celor Colors by: K. Michael Russell Letters by: Crank! Created by: Tim Seeley Published by: Image Comics
Writing
I was always familiar with Tim Seeley’s Hack/Slash as a concept and wanted to check it out, but the initial series came out at a time when I had fallen out of comics for a bit. Still, its concept of a ‘Slasher Slayer’ was intriguing enough for me to keep tabs on it online. So now that I am once again immersed in the comics medium, I decided to get into the Halloween spirit and finally dive into this series and character.
Resurrection is a solid introduction to this series if you are a newcomer, and I can also tell it has plenty for dedicated fans. Tini Howard’s story opens with a secluded and isolated Cassie as she seems to be playing/testing video games for money. Her gaming is interrupted by a pair of zombies, which for Cassie seems more of an inconvenience than an actual threat. This sequence not only nicely sets up how skilled and experienced Cassie is at fighting monsters, it also kick-starts to the mystery of this story. Just what are these zombies and who sent them? We quickly start to get some answers as a creepy mad scientist in the Herbert West Re-Animatortradition is introduced.
Cassie also receives a call to help out at a camp for survivors of violent attacks. You don’t have to be a horror or slasher fan to appreciate that cleverness of the idea of a camp for final girls/boys. The ending here leaves it open for some great possibilities.
I also want to mention that there are some great references and jokes for horror fans. There’s an ‘Englund’ prison, a cat named Dario, and you should also check out the posters in Cassie’s room for a good laugh.
Art
Celor and K. Michael Russell create some decent art here, but they definitely need time to grow as a team. It’s not perfect and can be inconsistent but there are still some good panels and pages here. Their depiction of Cassie in a few panels is great, as her stylized look has always been part of the characters appeal. They do create some nice monsters, as the zombies and Vlad have a nice ‘EC horror comics’ vibe to them.
The art does get better as the issue progresses, so I suspect any unevenness will be gone by the time we get to issue two.
Conclusion
If you have been curious about Hack/Slash then this is a great jumping on point to this world. And if you are a superfan, you will no doubt enjoy this as well. This is such a unique and great concept that really is a must for horror fans. Pick it up and have some fun.
It’s Wednesday. Hump day. The weekend is closer, maybe you’re in a better mood than you were Monday. Well, here’s more news on the new and improved and totally unnecessary Terminator movie to give you a migraine and ruin your afternoon.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will be back as the T-800 in this new James Cameron-produced, Tim Miller-directed Terminator rebootimaginmake, spoke to Business Insider about the timeline. Not that literally anyone cares bout how the timeline will fit in with the other half dozen or so films, but here’s what Arnie had to say:
“It’s hard to come up with new ideas when you stay within that framework… I think [James] Cameron and Tim [Miller] came up with a concept where they can continue on with the T-800 but make a whole new movie… What they are doing now with this one is basically to just take a few very basic characters, like Linda Hamilton’s character and my character, and dismiss everything else. Just move away from all these rules of the timeline and other characters.”
Great, they’re ignoring everything. This should definitely make the movie feel like it has a point for existing and not like a soulless attempt to cash in on a dying brand.
This new Terminator movie will try and kickstart a new trilogy. Just like Terminator: Genisys tried and failed to do. That should give James Cameron plenty to do in between making his 346 Avatar sequels into oblivion.
Terminator Redux will hit theaters July 26, 2019, so you have time to mentally prepare.
It’s time to head back to the frontlines and see how everyone’s favorite squad is doing. Last issue, we had the Suicide Squad split up to cover different fronts when an Argent robot tries to kill Amanda Waller. Harley Quinn, Katana, Killer Croc and Boomerang are sent to space to find the source of the robot. Deadshot, Diablo, and Enchantress are sent to an abandoned Argent Airfield. Both parties encounter relics from the past, but while the Airfield team are getting attacked, the Space Squad finds something shocking: Rick Flagg Sr. and Karin Grace, the original Task Force X.
**SPOILERS BELOW**
Story:
After their arrival to the space station, the Suicide Squad finds themselves face to face with members of the original Suicide Squad. The old team explains their now retconned (or reimagined) origin story and how they were trapped in space. They then ask the Squad that they need their help in finishing their final mission to protect Earth. Meanwhile, on the Earth below, the other members of the Suicide Squad are having trouble on the abandoned airfield. Argent robots have appeared to stop them from learning Argent secrets. While all of the action takes place with the ground group, the meat of the story is towards the Squad in space.
Retconning a Classic
The way Rob Williams has altered the origin story of Task Force X worried me at first. Thankfully, he was able to make changes that worked. In fact, the retcon made the original team cool again. Essentially the original Task Force X was charged with protecting Earth from alien threats and their final mission had them trapped in orbit.
This retcon makes sense for two reasons. First, the Squad before the retcon was made to replace the Justice Society. Since that group has been taken out of the continuity, the origin of their replacements had to change. Task Force X has changed to fighting Aliens, which makes sense considering the team’s history involves them fighting giant monsters. Second, as I mentioned before, their history in battling giant monsters ended up sending the group into space. This ties into the current plot by making their first monster from their comic run the enemy that they need the current Squad to help end it.
This issue is used mostly to explain who the original team is, their history, and what they need help to fight. It’s very exposition heavy, which might turn away a few Squad readers, and I can’t blame them. This story so far has been used to establish the players, at least the space squad, but now with them finishing the issue heading to face the enemy, we might finally get that action we love. Personally, I’ve enjoyed this story. It gives a chance for people to look past the insanity of the present and honor the past of Task Force X.
Art:
This was a massive improvement from last issue in terms of art. Eleonora Carlini’s art in the Green Arrow Rebirth series has always been a personal favorite of mine. The expressions that the characters make walk the line between being realistic and comic-like. This actually benefits the story during certain moments. You can feel the pain that Harley feels when she sees Rick Flagg Sr. Then on the next page, we get a laugh of the expression she makes to try and cover it.
The color work in the book is phenomenal as well. It is used for the powers by having them more vibrant. This gives the impression of how powerful the characters’ are. A nice touch to the book was the use of grainy subdued colors for the flashback story. It gives off a classic feel that fits the post-World War II time period which helps the tone of the story.
Conclusion:
I enjoyed this issue. It may not be the action romp the Squad has been known for but continues to rebuild the history of Task Force X in an interesting way. The story grabs hold of the reader and refuses to let go until the final page. The art is beautiful and imaginative, benefitting from the strange setting. Overall, I enjoyed this book and recommend it.
‘The Walking Dead’ on AMC is TV’s highest-rated series, and 11.4 million people tuned in to the Season 8 Premiere, but the numbers were down 33% compared to last year’s Negan baseball bat swinging gorefest.
Season Six ended with a cliffhanger and Season Seven gave you the payoff, but that wasn’t the case for Season Eight. ‘The Walking Dead’ is back to building up the suspense, and as a fan of the comic, it might be hard to repeat the hype of Negan’s first swing. The ‘All Out War’ storyline may bore some viewers, and the playoff may not be what you want, but the show is still well written and remember, the series started with only 5.24 million people watching the first season. Whenever you start to doubt the creator of ‘The Walking Dead’ Robert Kirkman, he’ll start chopping heads off.
Season 8, Episode 1 ‘Mercy’ – 11.4 million viewers Rick and his group, along with the Kingdom and Hilltop, have banded together to bring the fight to Negan and the Saviors.
Watch our breakdown of the episode below?
Season 8, Episode 2 ‘The Damned’ The plan involving Alexandrians, Kingdommers and Hilltoppers unfolds. As Rick continues to fight, he encounters a familiar face.
When did you start watching ‘The Walking Dead’ on AMC? What would make you stop watching the series? Comment below.
In the Golden Age of television, Ruff and Reddy were on top of the entertainment world…until the world turned, and they were forgotten. Now, Ruff is a washed-up television actor. Reddy is a clerk in an upscale grocery store. Can a hungry young agent convince the two one-time partners to make a comeback—and convince the world that it wants to see the famously infamous dog-and-cat comedy team back in the spotlight? Don’t miss it if you can!
Writing/Story
Have you ever read a comic which you weren’t sure of, but once you started to read it you couldn’t help but get sucked in? This is the case with The Ruff and Reddy Show, a book which didn’t immediately capture attention when its preview released a few months ago. It seemed like the book would just be an unsuccessful attempt at trying to reintroduce a bunch of forgotten characters to a new audience. Then by the end of this first issue, it dawns on you that this book might just be one of the best things you have read the entire year.
There is something real and genuine in this book. Much like the Flintstones comic in 2017, this book has a lot of heart in it and seems to be telling of story of torment and redemption. It has a feel of Bojack Horseman to it with the deep drama it elicits. Much like Bojack, the two main characters are former TV stars who didn’t realize how much they needed one another until it was too late. The fact they are anthropomorphic animals shouldn’t distract from the deep emotional story writer Howard Chaykin has set up to unfold.
Artwork
Big round of applause for Mac Rey’s artwork on this one. There’s a lot of good color detail, especially when trying to replicate old movies or the sense of sadness from the sunrises or sunsets. The pencils and inks work offers a very interesting look which has hints of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The designs are much different than they were from the preview issue we saw a few months ago and they are much better for it. The interesting aspect will be seeing the other character designs introduced in the future.
The letter work by Ken Bruzenak is of a particular note. The fonts and captions are set up to look like different movie and TVs styled used throughout the years. There is everything from a Law and Order parody to the advertisements from a movie from the 70s. Careful detail was put into making sure the letters fit the set up.
Conclusion
It will be intriguing to see where the comic goes from here. There is a lot of real emotion and depth which seems like it will tell a powerful story. As long as it doesn’t run of out steam, The Ruff and Reddy Show will be a series anyone and everyone who enjoys comics will want to check out.
