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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 16, 2022 13:26:07 GMT -5
According to my account on Comics Hub through my lcs, I have 3 books being pulled for me this week- Usagi Yojimbo #30 World's Finest #6 Scooby Doo, Where Are You? #117 Not sure when I will get to the shop to pick them up though, as I was just there last week. -M How're the latest Usagi stories? After a long streak of unbroken issues I decided to drop the title, the IDW stories weren't bad but they just weren't hitting like they used to for me.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 16, 2022 12:27:35 GMT -5
Looks like a small download this week... - Batman: The Knight 8 - Nightwing 95 - Daredevil 2 How's the Knight going? I read the first few issues and thought it was decently written but I just couldn't get past the idea that I didn't need yet another Batman origin.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 16, 2022 12:03:51 GMT -5
Batman / Superman: World's Finest #6Written by Mark Waid Art by Travis Moore Summary: Displaced in time Robin goes back to his roots and joins a circus to get by on his own, but his past returns as crime strikes the bigtop! Plot: Wrapping up the demon Nezha arc Waid gives us a Dick Grayson focused epilogue that really brings the golden age feel as Dick solves a crime under the Big Top. And while the story itself is an absolute blast with great moments for Dick and even Batman and Superman when they showed up I couldn't help feeling a little lost as to why Dick was even sent to the past to begin with. Maybe it's just my modern sensibilities but when Dick was lost in time I thought there was going to be some important reason for sending him back, but instead Waid just gave us a one off and then quickly wrapped it up with Superman and Batman stopping by and returning to the present like it was nothing. And while there's nothing terribly wrong with that given how fun it was seeing Dick solve a low stakes crime mystery on his own it just felt anti-climatic in terms of what went on before. Also, I might be totally wrong but I had fully thought this was announced as just a six issue miniseries...but this had a "coming next month" blurb and when I looked into it there was a tease for next issue featuring Johnny Thunder! I had no idea this was continuing and even though this ending wasn't perfect I'm pretty pumped to see what happens next. Art: Even though Moore's style is noticeably different than Dan Mora's he has a smooth, clear style that really had a lot of warmth to it which fit this golden age feeling Dick Grayson story just perfectly. Grade:8/10
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 16, 2022 8:29:49 GMT -5
OFF THE RACKS!Real Readers, Real Reviews! What did you read this week?
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 16, 2022 7:16:29 GMT -5
I have to say, an inordinately large number of my favourite films have the heroes dying at the end. Normally, in most cases I'd be inclined to agree with you. But where Rogue One succeeded for me was in giving us a new and engaging cast of characters to follow. So, while we knew the overall outcome (i.e. the Rebellion get the Death Star plans and exploit a weakness in its design to destroy it), we don't actually know what is going to happen to the new characters that we have grown to root for, like Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor and the others. Speaking for myself, I certainly never saw them all dying; although the fact that they did might be part of why I like the film so much. Maybe you didn't like the characters that much or the journey, which is fair enough, but I certainly did. How was it "aggressively bad film-making"? It was beautifully shot, with stunning visuals, and Gareth Edwards' direction was great. In particular, I'm confused by your use of the word "aggressively" because that suggests that there was a determined effort on the part of the filmmakers to make a poor film. That seems unlikely and I'd be interested in what evidence you have for that statement. Just from what I can remember the one time I saw it in its theatrical release: Grey and drab = serious, so the greyer and drabber the visuals, the more serious the story. I do not ascribe to this, but the film-makers did. One-dimensional characters, who made decisions based on whatever the plot called for. The main rebel guy was a standard-issue "I get blood on my hands for the greater good, and I don't want to hear any lectures about it" kind of character. Not-Daisy-Ridley's character: cynical and always slightly mad, except for when the plot formula says it's time for the rally-the-troops speech. There was nothing else to her. The blind guy and his pal from the temple are as forgettable as everyone else. (Another point that is not a fault just with this movie, but the more the Force is treated as a religion, like the blind guy does, the more I dislike story). The robot was OK, at least. The screenplay was loaded with cliches, but didn't even apply them properly: The Death Star architect dude told his daughter "you know what to do do" if the Imperials get him. And what was this plan? That's right, go hide in hole. I think she could have figured that out on her own. Since we were teased that some kind of fail-safe plan was in effect, when Che Guevara found her, I thought he was a friend of the family who got word that "you know what to do" is in effect. Nope, just a random occurrence. I would be fine with the randomness if I wasn't already teased with "you know what to do". Saw dying in a pointless passive suicide was silly. His line was something like "I'm tired of running". But the thing he would have been running from this time was a city-destroying explosion. I'm pretty sure he's not tired of running from that. The running he's been doing his whole life is from hit-and-run operations. If he decided it was time to pack it in, then he would do one more hit, and then not run. Saw could have saved himself from this passive suicide, and gone out taking some Imperials with him the next day. So yeah, a cliche that they didn't use properly. Also, his entire regiment apparently accepted passive suicide at the same time. I was expecting some protests from the other guerillas - "Hey, I'm not tired of running!" "Yeah, me neither! Look at me run!" "How about the rest of us beat feet and continue with our singular devotion to fighting the Empire!" Speaking of Saw, he was conveniently not quite as ruthless with unwanted visitors as the build-up before his introduction told us. And that ear-worm thing that extracts information from your brain but is supposed to leave you a vegetable or something - IIRC, the guy they used it on looked relatively fine later. Rogue One reminds me of Nolan's Batman movies - I can't take them as seriously as they want to be taken, because they're blind to their own silliness, and value mood-setting over logic and consistency. Not to be rude...but did we watch two completely different movies? The colors were pretty vibrant, especially on Jedha and then again on the assault on the beach. This was the first movie I bought when I got my Ultra HDTV specifically because I thought the colors and visuals looked so crisp in the theater and it blew me away even more in my living room. It wasn't just a random hole in the ground...it was a secret bunker with a trap door designed to look like a rock...and Saw just didn't randomly find her, he smuggled her out because he knew where the bunker was. And he was clearly a friend, and we know this not only because he knew the location of the secret bug out shelter but because when we see the message the pilot brought to Saw the way Galen talks to him is super conversational and casual...oh, and if that's too subtle, he literally calls him "Old friend". And it wasn't a pointless suicide, the heroes only escaped because their ride was already prepped for a fast escape as the robot was about to break them out of Saw's prison. Saw had no ride waiting and there was no warning about the shot so he couldn't do much else but stand their and watch his oblivion come. And the pilot was definitely not normal, he was a jittery mess when he was found and only just starts to really come out of it on the assault on Scarro. I get not liking a particular film, we all have our own tastes...but your particular reasons literally weren't in the film. It's like not enjoying the Wizard of Oz because you thought it was cruel and tonally dissonant that the Tin Man killed the Cowardly Lion when he chased Dorthy. Yeah, I would have hated that too...but it didn't happen, so I guess the film was okay then.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 15, 2022 16:09:22 GMT -5
Rogue One did nothing for me. I'll allow that I'm not the biggest Star Wars guy, but it wasn't that. It suffers from the same issue that all prequels have...there are no stakes. We already know how things are going to turn out, so the journey has to be that much better than in any other instance. I just didn't find the journey interesting enough when I knew what was going to happen. I don't know, I totally didn't expect everyone to die. I mean, I knew they were successfully get the plans because we see Leia with them in A New Hope but I was honestly surprised that everyone bit it in order to get those plans where they had to end up. It makes sense in hindsight why they were allowed to be killed off as it maintains a sense of continuity since we never heard of these people in the OT, but had they wanted to they easily could have let them live and hand waved it away as, "They're secret agents, that's why Luke, Leia or Han never met them or talked about them" and proceeded to make all kinds of sequels with them...but they chose not to and I think the film was better for it.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 15, 2022 7:14:39 GMT -5
It's cool that they're giving feedback. Oh, there has been a lot of communication back and forth. They really do find this particular community of value. That's pretty cool, my experience with these kinds of things in the past was very impersonal.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 15, 2022 7:13:14 GMT -5
It really did have a fantastic cast, and I think Edwards had a great feel for the world of Star Wars. I've always wondered why they didn't have him do more.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 15, 2022 6:45:53 GMT -5
For anyone who received an error message at the end of the survey, we've been told the following: It's cool that they're giving feedback.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 15, 2022 6:44:34 GMT -5
Looks like Rogue One is getting a limited Imax re-release with a "sneak peak" of Andor. I actually wouldn't mind seeing Rogue One on the big screen again. Same. The battle of Scarif in particular was amazing on the big screen. I still have my Rogue One branded popcorn bucket which I bought at the cinema when I saw it. That battle was cool, and I loved seeing the Death Star fire on Jedha too. The rippling ground and then the chase to escape the explosion was a fantastic visual.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 14, 2022 18:36:05 GMT -5
The survey was a lot more in depth than I thought it would be, I was especially interested that it had a couple questions on what specific stories or characters from the comics I'd like to see adapted. I of course said I wanted more Merv Pumpkinhead and that if they adapted "A Dream of a Thousand Cats" then I could die a happy man.
I wonder what the questions would be like if I had answered I had never heard of the comic?
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 14, 2022 12:39:17 GMT -5
After having watched it a second time(this time in Comanche, which was cool to hear) about the only negative thing I can come up with is that the ending was (with out spoiling anything) a little anti-climactic. There was a cool little touch with the Comanche pictograms that hinted at more during the credits but it wasn't enough of a tease in my mind.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 14, 2022 12:34:16 GMT -5
I signed up and filled in, but got some technical problems (the questionnaire didn't open up in Firefox and at the end of filling it in, I got an uh-oh, something went wrong. So I hope it went through). Same here. I'm not doing it again!!! I made it through the questionnaire but so far have heard nothing else. We'll see if anything comes of it, it'd be interesting to see what they're looking for.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 14, 2022 12:23:14 GMT -5
So far my favorite episode was the Hob Gadling episode, their relationship was fantastically done so that when Dream finally met back up with Hob and called him friend I had an ear to ear grin. I loved that episode. That being said, I think moving the Hob Gadling story up to before “A Doll’s House” is problematic. The end of the Gadling story is where we really see that Morpheus has taken Death’s lecture/lesson to heart. And we see that in the episode. But to see him then back-slide in his dealing with Lyta and Hector in the TV show is bothersome. It was the cumulative effect of him learning from Death and Unity, et al, that allowed him to recognize that Hob was a friend and he needed companionship. Yeah, I definitely felt like the end where he finally meets up with Hob would have worked better as another one of the epilogues like we got with Lucifer in the last episode.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Aug 14, 2022 9:08:59 GMT -5
Looks like Rogue One is getting a limited Imax re-release with a "sneak peak" of Andor. I actually wouldn't mind seeing Rogue One on the big screen again.
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