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Post by The Captain on Jun 16, 2022 15:50:14 GMT -5
Welcome to another installment of... OFF THE RACKS!Real readers sharing real, honest reviews!
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Post by The Captain on Jun 14, 2022 5:45:33 GMT -5
Finally got to watch this last night, as I was waiting until my girls got back home (they were away on a mission trip with our church), as we try to watch all of the movies together the first time through.
It was a fun, charming show. The infectious joy that Iman Vellani radiates playing Kamala really sells the whole idea, as she literally was a fangirl in real life before landing the role.
The change in her powers is a little disappointing, although understandable, as Marvel seems to want nothing to do with Inhumans, and it would be a lot to explain (like terragenesis) that would take away from the main story they want to tell. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as the story unfolds.
Her parents were just as overprotective and overbearing in the comics, so that aspect rang pretty true. As the father of a 16-year old HS junior myself, I get it; we want to keep our kids out of every possible bad situation because it would hurt us incredibly if any harm, no matter how slight, came to them.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 12, 2022 14:18:46 GMT -5
Is anyone having a hard time getting this stuff? Those books were all quarter bin filler for decades. Maybe, but those decades are over. I see lots of dollar boxes at comic shows and flea markets, but these days most of the stuff in them is "only" 25 years old or newer. Not much stuff on newsprint. What I see in a lot of the $1 boxes now are the 40 extra copies of Random Book X that were never going to sell, which the shop ordered so they could get the 1:100 Variant Cover, which they could sell online and make enough money to cover most of the entire order, not just that single title. As for the older stuff, if you go to the stores, you can still find it, at least around where I'm at. Thankfully, since Pittsburgh is a "big enough but not too big" city, I can hit multiple stores on a single Saturday and maximize my back issue bin diving.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 11, 2022 17:55:29 GMT -5
Pittsburgh has a FANTASTIC commercial-free, listener-supported radio station; it is WYEP, at 91.3, and their tagline is “Where the Music Matters”.
They proudly state that since they aren’t chasing ratings and rely on listeners, along with corporate and foundation sponsors, they can play anything they want to, and that’s pretty much true. They’ll go from 70s Springsteen and Elvis Costello to 80s Prince and Public Image Ltd to 90s Pearl Jam and Bonnie Raitt to early 2000s like Beck and White Stripes to new music from Kacey Musgraves and Spoon, all within the same five-song block.
They have a lot of shows, both in-house and syndicated, throughout the week, with focused genres.
Sunday morning is folk music, then they play a lot of bluegrass and old-school country throughout the day. Saturdays are heavy on the blues, old school stuff and newer things. Friday nights are all 80s New Wave/post-Punk from 8-10, then 90s grunge and alternative rock from 10-midnight. There are female-voices-only shows, indy music, world music; you name it, it’s probably got a slot somewhere during the week.
You can stream them online, which I do on Fridays for the 80s show while I read comics, and it is pretty much the only station I listen to when I’m in the car.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 11, 2022 8:17:43 GMT -5
Falcon and Winter Soldier had pacing issues and the lack of a truly compelling villain in The Flagsmashers and Karli, but the reappearance of Zemo, the introduction of John Walker, and Sam picking up Cap’s mantle made up for its shortcomings for me. I think the biggest problem I had with the show was the characterization of Walker being so drastically different from his comic book origins. Wyatt Russel looks like he had fun portraying the character, so there's that I get that, but at the same time, I don’t feel that Marvel needs to make everything “comic universe accurate”. They’ve given us a Black Nick Fury, a Black Heimdall, a Black Mordo, a White androgynous Ancient One, and a female Taskmaster, just to name the ones immediately that came to mind. For me, what’s most important is how they execute things. This version of Walker was picked to be the new Captain America because he had the right military experience and accolades, but moreso because he LOOKED like he fit the role. Once he was in the suit and carrying the shield, he came to realize that he was way out of his depth, which led him to make the decisions he did, which put him where he was at the end of the series. In that regard, Marvel handled the MCU John Walker character arc well, even if it isn’t what we know from the comics. If the comics and movies/shows are identical, there’s no need for the movies and shows to exist FOR ME, as I own and have read the comics, but if they give me something familiar while doing either something entirely new or just a little different, then it is a medium worth watching.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 10, 2022 17:52:38 GMT -5
Honestly, the more I think about this show the less I like it. It just doesn't do anything very well. Still better than What If? though, which I still can't manage to finish. I’ve found the Disney+ shows to be a mixed bag thus far. WandaVision was great the first time through, but as I’ve seen parts of it a second time as my daughters rewatch it, I find myself uninterested. Loki was a major disappointment for me, primarily due to the green-screening. I saw part of one of the episodes last week and I was acutely aware of the “fakeness” the entire time. Falcon and Winter Soldier had pacing issues and the lack of a truly compelling villain in The Flagsmashers and Karli, but the reappearance of Zemo, the introduction of John Walker, and Sam picking up Cap’s mantle made up for its shortcomings for me. Started watching What If? Only got through four episodes. Have no desire to ever finish it. Hawkeye was damn near perfect. I loved almost everything about it, to the point I’ve rewatched it all the way through a second time. Moon Knight aspired to be something different and in some ways, it achieved just that; problem iis, I’m not sure what it was going for. Villain was lame, story wanted to be clever but failed, and the ending was confusing. Oscar Isaac was fine doing the multiple “roles”, but I have no interest in sitting through it again. Now, I just finished Daredevil, Season 3 last night, and that was amazing. If Disney+ could put out content of that quality every time out, they’d be golden, but they’re closer to Luke Cage, Season 2 more often than not.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 6, 2022 19:15:20 GMT -5
This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the 3 Rivers Comicon, being held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in lovely downtown Pittsburgh, PA. New Dimension Comics, our largest local comic shop chain, started this one out, and after one or two shows in the now-shuttered Century 3 Mall (look this up on the internet if you want to see the transformation from the biggest mall in the area to a ghost mall), then one in an old Macy's store (which is now a school of some sort), and then a stripped-down version they held outdoors last summer. This show replaced the old Pittsburgh Comicon, which had been an independent show until Wizard World took it over and allowed it to die a quick death. First, my $1/$2 bin books from the visit. Nothing exciting, but some holes were filled and gaps bridged: Some Sub-Mariner issues. #27 and #55 each regularly sell on eBay for at least $15 or more, so getting the two of them for $14 combined (from a guy I've bought from for years at other shows) was awesome. Some older Batman and Detective issues: Couple Flash issues, couple of SSoSV issues: Whole bunch of higher-grade Kull issues, for $5 each: Picked up a copy of Showcase Presents...Batman, volume 2 for $8 from one of the other local shops that I haunt on occasion, as they had about 12 long boxes full of discount, pre-owned TPBs and collected editions. Also got a couple of prints from local artists. One is a Evil Dead 2 print styled like a movie poster, the other is a really cool Scarecrow poster that I initially thought was from Batman, but is actually from a horror-styled version of Wizard of Oz. Last thing I bought was a Funko POP that I have been looking for and unable to find anywhere, and while I may have overpaid for it a little bit, it was worth it to have the set of "The Big Three". It was Thor from Endgame with Stormbreaker, to go along with Cap with Mjolnir and the Iron Man armor from that movie. HOWEVER, nothing I brought home from the show was worth the time I spent with my daughters. It was the first con the three of us attended together, and they had a blast. The only comics they bought were three Doctor Who TPBs that my older daughter picked up, as they were more focused on some of the crafts, prints, Lego mini-figures, and other things that were being offered. My older daughter cosplayed as Karolina Dean, from Runaways. As a costume, it looks pretty much like normal teen girl clothing, so it made her day when one person actually came up to her and said "You're doing Karolina, right?" My younger daughter went a bit further and showed up as Yelena Belova. Her aunt (my sister) got her a replica of the "vest, with so many pockets" from the Black Widow movie, and she figured out the rest of the costume from things she had on hand, as well as doing her own hair in the same braids as Yelena. At least a dozen people complimented her on her costume, and she got her picture taken with a guy cosplaying as Winter Soldier (one of her favorite MCU characters). There was a whole family there cosplaying as Red Guardian, Melina, Natasha, and Yelena, and the girl playing Nat, who was about my daughter's age, saw her and said "Mom, she has...THE VEST!!", which made my daughter smile wider than I think I've ever seen. They both asked me in the car on the way home if we could find another one to go to, and while the rest of our summer is pretty packed, I'm going to try to find one between now and September before HS swim season starts. It was a fantastic day with my girls, something to bond over and remember for years to come.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 6, 2022 13:24:13 GMT -5
Pittsburgh is home to Iron City Beer (or “Arn” City if you say it like a true Yinzer) and IC Light, both of which are horrific excuses for beer. I’ve literally had the former once and the latter a handful of times ONLY because it was either drink them or drink nothing, and let me tell you, it was a difficult decision each and every time.
Western PA also used to be home to Rolling Rock, out in beautiful Latrobe, but it was bought by one of the majors and they moved production of it to New Jersey, IIRC. It used to be drinkable, but since the change in water used to make it, it just doesn’t taste the same.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 3, 2022 13:00:55 GMT -5
Been reading through a pile of random DC books that I’ve picked up from the $1 bins. Some Batman, Detective, late pre-Crisis Flash, and Weird Western Tales featuring Scalphunter, all ranging from the early 80s to mid-90s. A lot of them are one-offs, albeit with running subplots, so it’s easy to grab a couple and get through them while dinner is in the oven or I’m taking a “brain break” from work.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 2, 2022 9:03:56 GMT -5
Totally agree Undertaker is the best WWF/E character ever (we'll just pretend the 'American Badass' version never happened, shall we?) There's actually quite a few people out there that like the American Badass run, myself included The American Badass run made sense. The company was moving away from gimmicks and more toward just having wrestlers get over based on their mat and mic skills. Effete snob Hunter Hearst Helmsley became Triple H, and you had Steve Austin, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian, the Hardy Boys and others no longer wearing goofy costumes and portraying garbage men, porn stars, vampires, and voodoo priests. Yeah, guys like Justin Bradshaw and Ron Simmons played tough guy enforcers, but that doesn’t stray too far from reality like a Gangrel or Val Venis does, although the Godfather has always been a bit of a headscratcher to me (although the girls didn’t hurt him at all).
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Post by The Captain on Jun 2, 2022 8:22:21 GMT -5
To those of you considering picking up Strange, I wholeheartedly urge you to do so. Story is interesting, art is really good.
If I have one quibble with the book, it’s that I don’t like Clea’s “voice”. She has the same “smart-ass Gen Z” speech mannerisms that I just read in the recently- completed Kate Bishop book, which are a copy of the Kamala Khan speech mannerisms.
Clea isn’t a 20-something American girl, she’s a mature woman who is the Sorcerer Supreme of multiple dimensions, daughter of Umar and niece of Dormammu, royalty of the Dark Dimension. It’s frustrating to have so many characters sound the same despite coming from different backgrounds, possessing different life experiences, and being at different life stages.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 2, 2022 6:41:34 GMT -5
Thanks to all who voted for me for The Captain Jim Zimmerman Award. I don’t think there is any higher compliment that could be given to a CCF member than that, and I’m incredibly humbled to now be counted among its recipients.
Funny story about The Jamies. This is my first win ever. Prior to this year, I calculated I’d been nominated for at least 15 different awards, probably closer to 20, with each of them winding up in someone else’s virtual trophy case. I privately considered myself the Susan Lucci of the CCF, without the fabulous hair and outfits, so finally getting the first one in the form of The Captain Jim Zimmerman is quite the honor.
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Post by The Captain on Jun 1, 2022 5:10:32 GMT -5
Or maybe there will be a tie this year… I bet it will be for Funniest Member...
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Post by The Captain on May 29, 2022 7:27:16 GMT -5
Pick of the week: Alice Ever After #1 & 2A re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. A dark and real world view of addiction and it's consequences. Alice first visited Wonderland as a child. Now grown up, it’s become her only escape from a cold, harsh world that feels even less real—a distant family, a tormented lover, and a father with secrets he’ll do anything to protect. But in order to return to her fantasy, Alice will need something much stronger than mushrooms. Cursed with a growing addiction, Alice is forced into the twisted underbelly of London and pulled ever further from reality. Writer/Artist Dan Panosian brings another dark book from Boom. His first book, A Kindness of Ravens, was a favorite of mine from 2020/21. Panosian draws the Wonderland segments while main artist Giorgio Spalletta draws the Victorian era Alice storyline. Dreamy, horrific. Alice in Wonderland meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I picked up the first two issues of this book this week and really enjoyed them. The art is gorgeous, and the story is of course familiar but at the same time, it has a new spin on it. Will be picking this up for the foreseeable future.
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Post by The Captain on May 27, 2022 13:18:55 GMT -5
I love me some rocky mountain oysters. I'll happily go to any testicle festival. Not that there’s anything wrong with that...
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