Movie Review: "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" - Game Changer, Man! Game Changer! (SPOILERS)

Before trailers hit for the Super Soldier's second solo film, I was excited and hesitant at the same time. On one hand, it included the Winter Soldier, which is self-explanatory. On the other hand, it was being directed by the Russo brothers, who made "You, Me, and Dupree." I thought "Marvel's trusting these comedy guys with a serious film?" Then I started to see some footage, and it was getting me hyped. However, I was worried that this sequel may have been along the lines of the second Iron Man and Thor films, but I knew that unlike those films, Cap's sequel had more going for it: 1) It was building off something that was expected from the first film with Bucky. 2) SHIELD being involved would mean some major shit was gonna go down. And 3) It would lead into Avengers 2. Jump to a few weeks before the film hit the US and it was getting outstanding reviews saying it was even better than Avengers. Now after seeing it myself, I can safely say that in my opinion, that claim is true.

I really can't think of anything negative to say about the film. The Russo brothers pretty much nailed every aspect you'd expect from a film like this, it's no wonder they were asked back to direct the third Captain America film and that Marvel would set a release date for it before the second was even released. At the moment though, it shares the same release date for the Batman/Superman movie. I'm just saying, one of them is going to have to move, and I say Batman/Superman should, because not only did Marvel have the spot first but DC appears to need all the time they could get. Compare the reviews for "Man of Steel" and "Winter Soldier", and you would see that not everyone has been won over by our new big blue boy scout...the one with a cape that is.

Let me start with the characters and their interactions, and I think the film brought out the strongest performances in everyone compared to their past MCU appearances. Chris Evans was able to prove again that he makes an amazing Steve Rogers that can inspire hope and leadership in everyone, and I loved his partnerships with Falcon and Widow, not to mention an emotional meeting with an elderly Peggy Carter. One of the best parts in my opinion were when Steve and Natasha were undercover in the mall and acting kind of like a hipster couple, wearing glasses, hoodies and the like. It's needless to say that Samuel L. Jackson nails it once again as Nick Fury, plus he gets a little more action this time around, even though his death scene didn't really fool me. Come on, it's Nick Fury; the guy can't be killed that easily.
In some interviews, Sebastian Stan said he used Heath Ledger's Joker as inspiration for when he was the Winter Soldier. I didn't really see Joker in his performance, but Stan definitely performed well as the a ruthless brainwashed unstoppable killing machine. He didn't really say much, but he didn't need to. I only wish Marvel didn't spoil that he was Bucky in some previews and interviews. I mean, yeah you could look it up on Wikipedia, but some people do like to go in blind. This isn't the last we've seen of Bucky though, as it's been revealed Stan has a 9 picture deal with Marvel, which means he has 7 left. This means we'll see more development for him in the future, and once Chris Evans finishes his contract with Avengers 3, it's quite possible we'll see Bucky take over the mantle of his friend.
While Winter Soldier was in the film's title, he wasn't technically the main villain. No, that role went to Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, Fury's superior at SHIELD. I'll be honest, I, and a lot of people for that matter, thought he would turn out to be Red Skull. It wouldn't be hard to think that considering they had similar goals. Skull or not, Pierce definitely played his role well.
Cobie Smulders returns to play Maria Hill, Fury's "sidekick." Like in Avengers though, she doesn't get too much character insight, but she does get some good moments in the film's climax.

Now on to the action, and there was a lot of it. While the last Iron Man and Thor films had some spectacular special effects with battles involving high-tech armors and magical artifacts, Captain America kept things more down to Earth and realistic, featuring more hand-to-hand combat, gun fights, and car chases. One could argue that Iron Man is like Batman because of the gadgets, but Captain America could definitely give Bats a run for his enormous amount of money in a straight up fight. The choreography of the fights and chases in this film were great to watch and will definitely make you cringe at some moments; I think that's what lets you know how good a film is when you actually worry what will happen to the characters.

While I knew the film would feature some uprisings and infiltrators in SHIELD, there was one thing that I didn't expect: Arnim Zola's reappearance via a computer program and HYDRA's very slow and calculating rise in SHIELD to reach their goals. Hell, it was their ultimate plan that made me believe Pierce would have been Red Skull. Plus in an "Oh shit" moment for me, it's implied that Winter Soldier was responsible for Howard Stark's death. If Tony and Bucky ever have a scene together, that could be interesting if they decide to bring it up. Although there probably wouldn't really be any evidence of Bucky's involvement in Howard's death, and Bucky wouldn't even remember doing it unless he saw some. Still, there's some potential here.

I think what really makes this film so revered is that it is definitely contemporary with society's issues at the moment, particularly privacy. With all the news of the NSA, phone taps, and drones, it really isn't hard to see the Russos play off those fears in the film and how Cap would reject to them. Plus, it shows what would happen if someone got hold of that kind of power. People want to feel safe, but some attempts to ensure safety could actually lead to a lack of safety.

As with all Marvel films, "The Winter Soldier" gives us a tease of what's to come. There were two things that really stood out to me:

• Remember the scepter Loki used in "Avengers"? Well it turns out SHIELD kept it, and now HYDRA has it. The one thing that really stood out to me about the weapon was that the blue orb in the center. My idea since "Avengers" was that it would turn out to be an Infinity Stone, the Mind stone to be exact. I mean, there had to be a reason they focused in on it while everyone was arguing in that scene.
• We saw our first appearances of the Maximoff twins, Pietro and Wanda, better known by their codenames, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. While in the comics they are mutants and Magneto's children, due to Fox owning the X-Men film rights, Marvel cannot call them mutants or reference Magneto in their films. No, in the mid-credits scene, the twins are referred to as "Miracles." Now if Miracles are going to be the Mutants of the MCU, it makes me wonder if there will be more showing up in the future, and if that happens, will it lead to an X-Men like team since they can't use the real deal. While I didn't have the idea at first, it did hit me later on. Kids finding out they have abilities that are unexplainable and need to learn how to control them? Can anyone say Avengers Academy? Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Even though some will disagree, I stand by my statement that "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" exceeds "The Avengers" and all other Marvel films before it, continuing to change the landscape of the cinematic universe for years to come. Therefore, I give the film a 10/10.

My now current ranking of MCU films:

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• The Avengers
• Iron Man 3
• Thor
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor: The Dark World

Tracy Got a Raw Deal: How I Met Your Mother's Disappointing Finale

After nine years, fans of "How I Met Your Mother" finally got to see how the main character, Ted Mosby, met the mother of his children, whose name we now know was Tracy McConnell. And for nearly the entire ninth and final season, fans had to endure a "24" style format as it was spanned across Barney and Robin's wedding weekend, where Ted and Tracy would meet. Now the series is over, and as a fan who got on board half-way through and was able to catch up thanks to reruns on a number of channels, I was very disappointed in how things played out in the final episode, which spanned over a number of years to get where Ted was telling his kids the story.

Let me get to the first thing that made me mad. Apparently after three years of being married, Barney and Robin got divorced. My literal reaction was me screaming "Are you kidding me?!" Fans spent the last six months watching things lead up to the two getting married, enduring meaningless episodes that would make you go "Oh my God, who the hell cares?", including the infamous rhyming episode "Bedtime Stories", and then the series finale shows that it didn't even last? What was even the point then? It also greatly cheapens the way Barney proposed with his final Playbook move, "The Robin", which in my opinion was the best proposal in television history.
Then after that, Barney goes back into his old ways, eventually knocks a girl up, and starts to get serious when he meets his newborn daughter, Ellie. Now I probably would have enjoyed this more if we actually met Ellie's mom, who Barney called "Number 31." Hell, this probably ties in with that new "How I Met Your Dad" spin-off CBS is planning. Yes, "How I Met Your Dad" is apparently a thing that is going to happen. I'm just calling it: Barney's the dad. There, I saved you a bunch of time. I mean, do you want to go through this kind of story again? That's like doing a "Smallville" type show for Batman, where you'd wait years just to see like five minutes of him in the suit. Yes, I know that's actually being planned with the "Gotham" series; I'm making a point. But I digress, let's get back to the main couple.

For years, we listened along with Ted's kids about everything that led to him meeting the woman who is supposed to be the love of his life. During the last two seasons, it was also implied that Tracy had died, which was the reason Ted was telling his kids the story. As the finale approached, I was expecting to watch and be overly emotional and bawl my eyes out. Well it turns out I would be emotional, but to another extreme. Yes, Tracy did die, but we didn't get to see her and Ted's last moments, or Ted and the kids mourning her death and moving on. All we got was Ted narrating over a scene of them in her hospital room and see the moment they actually met, referencing the yellow umbrella and the first day of Ted being a teacher where he was in the wrong classroom, both signs that they were destined to be. What ends up happening? Ted finishes the story, and his kids tell him to date "Aunt Robin", and then Ted shows up at her apartment with the blue French horn again like he did in the first episode. This is a serious "WTF" moment for me. Yes, Ted meeting Robin was the overall catalyst that led to Ted meeting Tracy, but they weren't supposed to be. Ted chased her, lost her, let her go, and started a family. So six years after Tracy died, Ted goes running back to Robin? I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. Again, Ted let her go and found Tracy, and him going back to Robin really cheapens both Tracy's character and her death in my opinion. I've been through what Ted did with Robin, believing in your heart you found "the one", getting your heart broken, and learning to let go. I'll give you that Ted and Robin were able to remain friends through it all, but if there was some scenario where I had the chance to be with that person, I wouldn't take it, as the pain from before would be a remind of why it wouldn't work. No, I'm leaving my "Robin" in the past, and will wait for my "Tracy" to show up.

So it started with Robin and disappointingly ended with her too. There's just no other word to describe the finale: disa-wait for it...ppointing. Disappointing. I can't be the only one feeling this way. We waited nine years for Ted to meet Tracy in what was supposed to be a story of destiny and true love, and it's tarnished by a finale that didn't honor her memory, but made Ted go back to the woman who didn't deserve him in the first place.

Oh well. It was a fun ride for the most part at least, especially with everything involving Barney.

Back in the Habit: DC's Issue Delay Problems

Recently, it was revealed that the final issue of DC's current line-wide event, "Forever Evil", would not be released until the middle of May. This will make the issue, which was originally solicited for release this month, 2 months late. Considering that this book started back in September and some fan complaints that the story had been slowly paced, it appears that "Forever Evil" really is lasting forever. Now, sometimes the finales major comic events do get pushed back. Some examples include 2010's "Siege" and 2012's "Avengers vs. X-Men", both from Marvel and both only a month late. But two months to wait for the end of a big story can make some fans agitated or lose interest. In my own time as a comic reader, this isn't my first time dealing with a story I'm invested in and have to wait long periods of time to see what happened next.

The first occasion where my reading has been plagued with delays was when I was 14 back in 2005, and a highly anticipated series had just begun: "All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder", by Frank Miller and Jim Lee. Before DC had started the Earth One graphic novel series, the All Star line was their original attempt at trying to emulate Marvel's Ultimate line, which reimagined characters for the 21st century, of which I am still a reader of that line's Spider-Man title. As Spider-Man was my favorite Marvel character, Batman was my favorite from DC, so I just had to get the "Ultimate Batman" book, especially since it was by two legendary Batman creators. The first issue was out in July, second in September, and the third was set for October. However, the third issue would end up being released in September. Issue 4 wouldn't come out until May of 2006, and after that, a whole year went by before issue 5 would be released in 2007. By then, the series was able to put out an issue on a bi-monthly basis, until #10 was released in 2008 before going on hiatus. It was then announced the story would be wrapped up in a 6 issue miniseries called "Dark Knight: Boy Wonder." That announcement was 4 years ago, and the story has gone unfinished ever since. Now even though the All Star line has been defunct in favor of the Earth One line, the fact that Miller and Lee's story is still left hanging can be frustrating to the readers who spent 4 years waiting only to collect 10 issues. At least finish it up as a graphic novel Is it the best Batman story? No, but it's so bad it's entertaining, like a Michael Bay movie, but better. You have to see some of the hilarity in the story. I mean, this series gave us the infamous "Goddamn Batman" line in #2, not to mention the epic trolling of Batman on Green Lantern in #9.

 



DC's not the only company that has issue delay problems. The Spider-Man line had it's share of problems between 2006-2007. Some of the delays were originally because of Marvel's "Civil War" event, which affected Spider-Man prominently. "Civil War" had many delays that the Spider-Man aftermath story, "Back in Black" also had to be delayed as to avoid any spoilers before the main series had ended. Eventually the Spider-books got back on schedule until the controversial "One More Day" story. The 4-part story was supposed be take place in August of 2007 with each part coming out one week after another, but would end being released one part a month, and wrapping up in December. Considering the bullshit Marvel had been putting Spider-Man through, from his unmasking, to Aunt May getting shot, and having his marriage dissolved via a deal with the devil, it was like I just wanted them to put the webhead out of his misery.

Now back to DC and Batman. In 2010, DC was preparing to bring back Bruce Wayne, who had apparently died in "Final Crisis" but actually sent back in time, to the present day DC Universe. Here was the initial plan:

• Grant Morrison would be behind the story in the pages of the miniseries "The Return of Bruce Wanye" and his current ongoing series "Batman and Robin", both to wrap up things up in September of that year.
• October would be a "bridge" month, releasing a series of one-shots called "Bruce Wayne: The Road Home", featuring Bruce interacting with members of the Bat-family since his return, wrapping up in the Morrison-penned "Batman: The Return."
• November would be the start of the "Batman Incorporated" era, which Bruce would star in a new book of the same name, as well as his new solo book "Batman: The Dark Knight", while Dick Grayson would also be Batman in the pages of "Batman", "Batman and Robin", and Detective Comics.

What ended up happening? The final issues of Morrison's books would end up being released in November as well as "The Return" and "Batman Inc." era books, while the "Road Home" one-shots were still released in October. But even after that, the Batbooks were still plagued with delays, specifically the books starring Bruce. While "Batman Incorporated" had its share of problems meeting a release date, the real problem was with the "Dark Knight" book, which released only 5 issues before the span of 9 months before being relaunched as part of the New 52. Frankly, it was a mess.

Now before I move on to the New 52 era, let me get to the common thread between why all these stories were delayed: the artist.

• Jim Lee on "All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder"
• Steve McNiven on "Civil War"
• Joe Quesada on "One More Day"
• Frazer Irving on "Batman and Robin" #13-16
• David Finch on "Batman: The Dark Knight"

Don't get me wrong, I like good art, but when that good art leads to a story getting erratic schedule and affecting other books, it can make fans impatient and stop caring.

When the New 52 started, some of the "problem" artists like Lee and Finch were placed on books such as "Justice League" and "Batman: The Dark Knight", respectively. Neither of them were met with any huge delays, as a point that DC wanted all their books to be released on a scheduled basis. This makes me think that Lee and Finch had their books finished well in advanced.

For almost 3 years now, DC has been able to keep things constant. However, the first signs of trouble started when the "Batman/Superman" Annual was supposed to be released in January, but would end up being released in March. As that annual was supposed to wrap up a story in the main book, it caused some more delays for the book as well as "Worlds' Finest", as the books were crossing over with one another in a 4-part story called "First Contact", with the last half being delayed a month from its original release. Well technically, DC currently lists part 4 to be out March 26 and part 3 to be out April 16. I'm not the only one who sees the problem there, right? DC's not dumb enough to let that happen, right? I really hope not.

Not only that, but those aforementioned "problem" artists seem to be falling back into old habits. Currently, Jim Lee has been working on Scott Synder's "Superman Unchained" book, and while the ninth and final issue was originally solicited for April, DC's website currently lists #8 to be released in May, with #9 nowhere to be seen and likely to be resolicited. Now, I'm going to give that book's problems a pass because even though it's part of the New 52, it's more or less self-contained.

We now get what brought on this new write-up. "Forever Evil" artist David Finch, on the other hand, gets no pass. The guy had originally been on "Justice League of America", but had to be pulled after #3, apparently not only to work on "Forever Evil", but so DC could get the series out on time to crossover with the other League books for "Trinity War." And unlike Lee on "Superman Unchained", "Forever Evil" is affecting other ongoing series as a comic event should. Because of the delays of the main series, books that are to be affected in the aftermath of the series, are also delayed, including "Justice League", as well as the final issues of "Justice League of America" and "Nightwing." Even though the Nightwing book hasn't tied in to "Forever Evil", the after effects of whatever happens to the character in Forever Evil #7 will play out in the book's final issue.

Again, I have nothing against good art, but when delays on one book affect others, it's a problem. I mean, "Forever Evil" is DC's first major event since the relaunch of its line, and they are totally botching things up when the final issue is 2 months late. Yeah, I understand wanting to have the best art on an event book, but the artist on that book also needs to be dependable. There are good artists that can make sure a book is out on time. I cite other DC events "Blackest Night" and "Flashpoint." Ivan Reis and Andy Kubert were both able to get their respective books out on time, and both had great artwork.

Let me just say that I am purely speculating the reason behind the delays on "Forever Evil", but with David Finch as artist on that book, and his own history of book delays, I don't think I'm wrong to think he's the cause of the problem. All I'm hoping for DC to do is learn from this ordeal, and when their next event comes around, that they take precautions to make sure to get the issues out on time.

Movie Review- "Justice League: War" - 'Man of Steel' Meets 'Avengers' (SPOILERS)

With "Justice League: War", DC animation has officially entered the New 52 era, and what better inaugural story to adapt than the "Origin" arc from Justice League, detailing the heroes' first meetings and formation of the team. How does it hold up? While it shares some fall backs with its comic book source, I feel it improves upon it as well.

To start things out, it should be noted that this film is action based more than anything. If I had to compare it to something, it would to "Man of Steel", the action in that movie which I've also compared to Dragon Ball Z. The fights in "War" are definitely destructive, especially among the heroes themselves. The stand out scene to me is when Green Lantern places himself and Batman within an energy ball to protect themselves from Superman, only for the Man of Steel to smack the ball around Metropolis, causing a lot of damage in the process. It was like in Dragon Ball Z when Frieza froze Goku in his own orb of energy and smacked it around Namek.
However, that doesn't mean character interaction suffers. Like the original comic story, the banter between Batman and Green Lantern is the highlight. You have this guy with a ring that can do anything, and he's trying to deal with "just some guy in a costume" who feels superior to him. As Batman says to him later though, they're technically the only two normal people on the team, which makes their interaction very down to Earth if you think about it.

Since the New 52 depicts DC characters very differently than before, it would seem redundant to say that this film's depiction of Superman is unlike any other animated adaptation. Much like the original Siegel and Schuster comics and Grant Morrison's own depiction of the character in his Action Comics run, which was set along side the event of the Justice League origin story, this Superman is much more cocky and willing to show off. Between his first meeting with Batman and Green Lantern to dealing with a horde of Parademons, Superman wasn't afraid to show what he could do. Pretty much "punch first, ask questions later."
While on the subject of Superman, his first meeting with Batman is also something we haven't seen before in animation. Let's look at their first meeting in the original DC animated universe as a comparison:

When you think of Batman, he's the guy who's read for anything and won't take shit from anyone, like when he flipped the rational Superman and left him dumbfounded in the preceding clip. When the two first meet in "War", while Batman does his best to fight Superman, he honestly doesn't have a prayer. Combine the facts that Superman is more headstrong and that Batman probably knows nothing about Kryptonite at this point, it definitely makes Superman a little better in this version.
I won't spoil this part, but if there's one thing some Superman fans REALLY won't like, it's what he does to Desaad.

If I had to pick a breakout star in this film, it would be Wonder Woman. Think of it like Hulk in "The Avengers." Whenever she goes into action, she REALLY goes into action, especially against the Parademons. It probably helps that she's a born warrior compared to the other heroes. While that "born warrior" aspect kind of makes her initial non-action scenes hard to get through, what she ultimately gets into is worth those. Also, just as Hulk punched out Thor, she gives Shazam a hard hit as well. We also got some hints to the potential relationship between her and Superman; the two definitely had chemistry together in the film. It makes me hope that a future animated feature will focus more on the two.

Given that the rest of League have already been active up to this point, the film only details the origins of Cyborg. Like the comic source, the catalyst to Victor Stone's transformation is him seeking appreciation and attention from his scientist father, which makes for great emotional moments in the film. Having my own father issues, it hit me as well. The strained relationship between Vic and his father has been an ongoing subplot in the main Justice League book, and has recently been resolved during the "Forever Evil" arc, though it seems like they've made amend by the end of the film. Though I guess they couldn't leave a loose end like that in a film compared to an ongoing monthly series. Still, it would have been nice to see how they made amends considering the last interaction between the two was Vic saying how his dad could only pay attention to him by making him a machine.

There has been some controversy in this film concerning the detail that Shazam had replaced Aquaman as a founding member of the League. I mean, Aquaman was such a badass in the original story that there was even a meme made:

However, once actually seeing the film, I can see that using Shazam was a good idea. As 15 year old Billy Batson, the boy is a fan of Victor Stone's high school football career. By placing Shazam on the team, this gives Cyborg more of a connection to someone than compared to anyone in the original story. In its essence, Shazam is the one who helps Vic see he still has some humanity in himself despite all that's happened. As for Shazam himself, he turned out to be a fun aspect of the film. Maybe it's because it's the same voice actor, but his attitude kind of reminded me of Raphael of the Ninja Turtles.
I have forgiven that Aquaman was not used in the film, especially since the mid-credits scene teases that the next Justice League film will be based on the "Throne of Atlantis" story. This also makes me realize that DC doesn't have to use the New 52 roster in all adaptations, which gave me the idea that they should use Green Arrow in Lantern's place in the live action film, and have Stephen Amell play the character and help tie the films and TV series together.

That brings us to Green Lantern and Flash. While Green Lantern is the first hero seen in the film and gets a lot of screen time, I found that he didn't really get too much respect in this film. Don't get me wrong, I like Green Lantern, but by the time Darkseid made his appearance and Hal charged at him headfirst two times only to get swatted away, not to mention getting his arm broken, I felt like he needed an "Owned Count" to keep track of his "fail" moments.
As for Flash, he really just seemed to be there for the sake of being there. Compared to being the focus in "The Flashpoint Paradox", it seems like the developers decided to make Barry sit in the back seat for this film.
With these two characters, I can now see why they didn't make the cover art.

Which brings us to the villains. Darkseid is of course the biggest threat to the DC universe, which is probably the reason he was used in the original story to begin with. While he and the Parademons were definitely threatening in the film, the one thing I found lacking was motivation. In the comics, we learn Darkseid had travelling the multiverse to find his runaway daughter and defeating each world's Superman in the process. At the moment, the Superman of Earth 2 has been brainwashed to serve him and the Superman of Earth Prime (which is what the Superman of this film is based on) has been the only one to defeat him. As for the film, it seems like Darkseid is just being evil for the sake of being evil.
There's also the one issue I had with the original story that I have in the film adaptation, and that's how they were defeated. Cyborg was able to open the Boom Tubes to pull Darkseid and the Parademons back to Apokolips. It just seems overly convenient and doesn't seem like a real defeat. To compare, the Chitauri forces in "Avengers" all conveniently died when their main warship was destroyed. It may seem like the same thing, but at least in "Avengers", they sent a message not to mess with Earth. In "War", it doesn't seem like Darkseid was scared into never attacking Earth again.

It's been stated that this film is the start of a new animated DC universe, with 2 films set within the continuity planned to be released every year, with the next film being "Son of Batman" coming this May. With "Justice League: War" the beginning of this new universe, it sets the tone for what's to come and introduces the new generation of voices actors for the iconic characters, though lifelong DC fans may find it hard to separate what they already know of the old continuity to fully enjoy this film. Overall, great action and character interaction make this an enjoyable film.

RATING: 8/10

Comics Review: "Damian: Son of Batman" - Stick to Drawing, Kubert (SPOILERS)

 

In the mid-2000's, writer Grant Morrison began his 6 year run on Batman by introducing to readers two versions of the offspring of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, Damian. The first was the 10 year old little bastard that everyone hated, but would come to love. The other was a look into the possible future, where Damian would take his father's role as the new Batman. With comics though, these possible futures almost never happen, and with Damian's death around this time last year, that said future may never come to pass; but with comics, death is also never permanent. Despite that, DC decided to give fans more Damian with a miniseries written and drawn by Andy Kubert, who co-created the character with Morrison, showing exactly how Damian would have become the Dark Knight. While the concept is brilliant, Kubert's execution is wholeheartedly underwhelming.

Before this miniseries, the origin of Damian as Batman shown in Batman #666 was that he took the role after the previous Batman had been killed. That's how this series starts out, with Batman and Robin investigating a pile of dead bodies at a fishing dock, but a booby trapped placed at the scene led to Batman's death, with Damian placing some blame on himself. By the end of the first issue and the start of the second issue, we learn that it was actually Dick Grayson who died, while Bruce had retired. Now this leads to my overall problem with the series, a twist that I feel shouldn't have been a twist. Dick is considerably smaller than Bruce, yet the Batman shown in that first scene could have passed for Bruce, not to mention the dialogue didn't make me think of Dick at all. To be fair though, dialogue is a major problem throughout the series. Though I think what really gets me about this twist is when Damian goes to visit Ra's and Talia and unsuccessfully asks them for help to find who was responsible for killing Batman. Talia says she had a deep bond with Batman, which makes sense if it was Bruce, but it was actually Dick who died. The only way I could see that making sense is that Ra's and Talia didn't know Dick had taken over the role. I find that hard to believe though because while the al Ghul's don't have a real partnership with the Waynes, they would at least keep tabs on them.

Another aspect of the first issue is that apparently supervillains love social media, as some of them, including Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc, make posts online taking credit for killing Batman. It's kind of ridiculous, but that was just the beginning of ridiculousness as the series would progress.

While I do enjoy Kubert's work, sometimes it's a little hard to "read", if that makes sense. Along with hiding who the Batman that was killed was, I couldn't tell how old Damian actually was in this series. He was in his Robin outfit, which made me think he was still young, probably a teenager now, but he would become Batman in a pretty short time, which made me think, "Okay, maybe he's in his twenties." But with that thought, I think it's kind of weird that Damian would still be Robin into his adulthood. Yes, we've seen Dick as a much older Robin in the original Earth 2 comics and Batman: The Animated Series, but it's hard to see Damian holding on to the role that long.

While I've mentioned in previous comic reviews that writers tend to draw things out in order to lengthen the story, this is one story that I think could have benefited in some way from lasting more than 4 issues, particularly Damian's decision making process. In issue one, Damian is like "I won't be Batman." Then in the second issue, he's like "Okay, I'll be Batman." Another example is he goes from "I won't kill my adversaries out of respect for my father" in issue three, which then becomes "Fuck it, I'm killing this guy" in issue four. But I think that Damian's mind isn't all there for the most part anyway. By issue three, after Alfred saves Damian's life, he just drops dead, and when Damian wakes up, his cat, also named Alfred, begins talking to Damian in the human Alfred's voice. Now it's possible Damian's is hallucinating, but what if Alfred's spirit somehow went into the cat? Ridiculous? Yes, but I think I can see Kubert going this route. Throughout the story, Damian is also seeking guidance from a priest, who kind of looks like Gordon, on how to pursue Batman's killer, but then it turns out he was just a hallucination, which makes no sense considering he was at Dick's funeral. Now, I know Grant Morrison wanted to make Damian a different kind of Batman, but I don't think Kubert needed to make him the crazy guy who talks to his cat.

By the end of the series, Damian encounters someone claiming to be the new Joker, who kidnaps Bruce to draw out Batman. The problem I have with this character though is that he seemingly comes out of nowhere, and I feel like I have to connect some threads that aren't expressly there. Allow me to list them:

• Professor Pyg appeared at the midway point of the series, and with the new Joker's appearance, I must admit they do resemble one another. It would also make sense that both characters had Jackanapes, genetically altered gorilla henchmen, working for them.
• There was a Joker fish that triggered the bomb that killed Dick, and Damian found a Joker card with a fish on it when he found Bruce's bed empty, telling Damian who took his father. Not to mention there was also a resemblance, at least to me, between the new Joker and that fish.
• Bruce had a pretty ugly nurse that talked kind of weird and kept talking about her boyfriend. I know this is reaching, but maybe the nurse was Harley Quinn. I mean, why else would they show that scene? It would make sense if she was still working for Joker, or new Joker to be exact. Still, the years had not been kind to her if that's the case.

By the end of the story, Damian eviscerates the new Joker, but is still alive until the real Joker comes up and shoots him between the eyes. Despite defeating the new Joker though, Damian still believes that people responsible for Dick's murder are out there. I know that Kubert isn't exactly forward with details, which is why I had to make the connections above, but I don't understand why Damian would feel that way. Maybe this is showing that Damian isn't a good detective, or that Kubert's a lazy writer.

The last issue of this series definitely leaves more questions than answers, which is a bad thing to do with a limited series. Why does Damian think there are more people responsible for Dick's death? What does the Joker's reappearance mean? There's a catch-22 situation here. On one hand, I want to know what happens with Damian after this story, but on the other, I don't think I can handle more of Kubert's writing.

I give it props for concept and art, but dialogue and content hurt it. Honestly, I would only recommend this to those who love Damian or would like to add this story to their collection as a companion to Grant Morrison's Batman run. He didn't write this, it probably would have been better if he did, but Damian is Morrison's baby after all. I find myself like I did after I saw "Prometheus." I wasn't exactly satisfied, but I would be curious enough to take a look at a sequel. Overall though, if this is where Damian was heading, it was probably a good idea to kill him off.

STORY RATING: 5/10
RECOMMENDATION RATING: 2/10

Retro Review- Spider-Man: The Gathering of Five - End of an Era (SPOILERS)

Long before the days of The New 52 and Marvel NOW!, there was another time where comic book companies, specifically Marvel, were relaunch happy; it was called the 90's. During the last half of the decade, Marvel began a slow campaign where most of their longest running titles were restarted with a new #1. Fantastic Four, Captain America, Avengers, Daredevil, Hulk, pretty much no one but the X-Men were safe; not even Spider-Man. By 1998, the web-slinger had four monthly titles going, and after "The Gathering of Five" and "The Final Chapter" storylines, all had been cancelled and two of them were relaunched. Now I had only started reading Spider-Man comics sometime after the relaunches, thanks to the Wizard Spider-Man special I had received as a present for my 8th birthday, where I learned so much about the history of Spider-Man. Now in 2013, Marvel finally released a paperback collection of the final issues in that era of Spider-Man that I had missed the first time around.

While comic books in the 90's get a lot of flak, reading these stories today brought back a feeling of nostalgia to me. Reading comics when I was younger, pretty much Spider-Man exclusively, was so much simpler. Heroes were heroes, villains were villains, and I read stories not thinking about the writers' or editors' intentions; not to mention I already missed all the clone stuff beforehand. Ever since the "One More Day" storyline erased Peter and Mary Jane's marriage and rewrote Spider-Man's history, I have found it hard to think of said history as fluid as it used to be. I entered Spider-Man comics when Peter was married to Mary Jane, and going back and reading those stories again, well, like I said, nostalgia takes over.

Nostalgia aside though, there were some things I couldn't really overlook. There were some grammatical errors, which as an English major I would notice, but nothing I couldn't get past. Another thing I seemed to notice was that some comic book stories years before are dragged out just as much as they are today. For example, in "Gathering of Five" Part 3 (Spider-Man #96), Spidey had to stop "some sort of prehistoric dinosaur" that breathed fire while on his way to stop J. Jonah Jameson from killing Norman Osborn. I mean, that just seems completely random. On a positive note though, Peter did make a jab at the 1998 American Godzilla movie during that fight, so that made me laugh. I think it goes along with the nostalgia I was feeling, seeing Peter reference things in the 90's; there was another instance in "Gathering of Five" Part 5 (Sensational Spider-Man #33) where Peter was singing "The Way" by Fastball while scaling a building to catch Override. As for another case of the story being dragged out was watching Peter do random things through New York while Osborn was putting things together for the Gathering of Five ceremony in Part 3 (Spectacular Spider-Man #262). That said, that would be the weakest issue of the collection; Peter didn't really sound like Peter in some parts of that issue.

There was one part of this storyline that is controversial though, and that is the resurrection of Aunt May, who was believed to had died years prior in Amazing Spider-Man #400. Apparently Osborn had had her held captive and replaced her with an actress who he had genetically changed to match May's appearance. Not only is that a ridiculous retcon, but it also diminished the emotional final moments of May's life. Another source on controversy from this was that Peter believed it was his infant daughter May that was being held captive, who was believed to have been stillborn since the end of the Clone Saga. Despite that, I once believed that Norman still had baby May alive and stashed away somewhere, most likely Europe. I mean, he kept his and Gwen Stacy's kids around so there was nothing to say baby May couldn't be alive too. However, due to the continuity changing of "One More Day", the likelihood of May's mortality has greatly diminished. On both counts though, they're things I would work to change if I ever get the chance to work at Marvel and on Spider-Man.

While the storyline isn't exactly perfect, I would say it would be the perfect ending to the original volume of Amazing Spider-Man and the other Spider-books. I mean, if you compared it to Amazing's recent "final" issue with Doc Ock declaring to become a superior Spider-Man, "The Final Chapter" story really seemed like that. Peter practically saved the planet from his archenemy (yes, Ock may have been the one to "kill" Peter, but I still consider Osborn to be THE archenemy) and only a handful of people would ever know it, and when it was all done, he burned his Spider-Man costume to try and live a normal life with his wife and newly returned aunt. If it wasn't for the final scene with the Scriers breaking Norman out of jail, it would have been perfect with no loose ends.

For the sake of completion, I, along with my nostalgia, would say "Spider-Man: The Gathering of Five" is a satisfying read for those who would want to see an in-continuity finale for the web-slinger.

STORY RATING: 6/10
RECOMMENDATION RATING 8/10

The Frustrations of a Marvel Reader Part II

I'm not sure if this will be a recurring segment on my blog, but I felt the need to follow up after the original "Frustrations" post, given that new comic solicitations came out this week. Who knows though, Marvel may do something that pisses me off again next month that warrants another post. But let's focus on this one now.

For those who may recall, I ranted about how Marvel has relaunched series, cancelled them, only to relaunch them again for the littlest reasons. For example, Wolverine's current main book was cancelled after #13, with a new #1 starting a month later with the same writer. Another thing that grinded my gears was Marvel cancelling series before they ever reach #50 nowadays, like with Daredevil, the current volume of which was ending in February with #36. Of course a character like Daredevil wouldn't be without a book for long. So it seems probably a week after my original post, Marvel announced the relaunch of Daredevil under the All-New Marvel NOW! campaign. Here's the kicker though: IT'S THE SAME DAMN CREATIVE TEAM FROM THE LAST VOLUME. The only big change this book has gone through is that Matt is moving to San Francisco. Apparently the team was given the option to relaunch a year earlier for the original Marvel NOW! branding, but they decided not to because they thought it would be too "gimmicky." Really? How is THIS not gimmicky? A lot of Marvel books that were relaunched for NOW! got new creative teams or went through some significant change. I probably wouldn't be so mad about this if Daredevil got a new creative team for this relaunch. Don't get me wrong, Mark Waid's made this book one of my top reads every month, but there's no reason this book could have went past #36 besides a minor sales jump with a new #1. Still, the fact that I'll continue to get this book shows that I'm interested in both character and writer.

Another title that was cancelled was Wolverine and the X-Men, the only X-Men book I had on my pulllist. Of course, here we are a month later, and the book was relaunching with a new #1. Unlike Daredevil though, this book was given a new creative team. Also unlike Daredevil though, I will not be "re-adding" the book to my pulllist. I mentioned before prior to the book's relaunch announcement that I may consider adding Amazing X-Men to my pulllist if it was given a .NOW issue. Well now I've decided that I will trade-wait for that book so I can start reading from the beginning. I've come to this decision for a few reasons:

1. The new Wolverine and the X-Men book will now focus more on the kids. While I've enjoyed reading about the kids before, I would much rather read about Wolverine's actual team of X-Men. Considering much of the same characters like Beast, Storm, and Iceman are in the book, they are the ones I'd like so see in action.
2. Jason Aaron, who is writing the soon-to-end volume of Wolverine and the X-Men, is also writing Amazing X-Men. No disrespect to the book's new writer, Jason Latour, but I have not read any of his work, so I'd rather go with the sure thing. Jason Aaron's writing is what made me enjoy Wolverine's side more than Cyclops' when Regenesis began. That said, I'll stick with an X-Men book written by Aaron.
3. Along with starting from the beginning, trade-waiting on a book will save me money. Compared to buying a new issue every month for $4, I could just buy a trade every few months.

But still, the way Marvel has handled their relaunches has made me wonder how long it will take before they've completely diminished the value of an #1. Then I thought of an idea that I'm not saying should happen, but would probably less likely piss fans off. Just abolish the ongoing series and make continuous limited series. This practice was done with Venom during the 90's. In lieu of giving Venom an ongoing series, Marvel gave Venom a new limited series a month after the previous one ended. For example, after the Lethal Protector series ended, the Funeral Pyre series began a month later, and this was what happened with Venom books for 5 years. I'm just saying that if Marvel loves #1 so much, maybe they should consider bringing this practice back as the standard.

My last "Frustrations" post also talked about how I felt DC was handling their publishing better. My predictions for cancellations out of Forever Evil were proven half-correct. In March, both Batman: The Dark Knight and Talon will be ending, and it's very likely they won't be relaunched. Nightwing may be cancelled in April, but that's just a guess; something will happen with that title though, that is for sure. As for Batman and..., I'm not sure where the title will go, as it's not ending just yet, since March's issue will feature Aquaman. There's still the plotpoint of Ra's al Ghul having Damian's body, so perhaps once that is wrapped up, the book will end, and maybe Damian will come back with his own solo "Robin" book.

Based on March's solicitations for DC and Marvel, it will be the smallest amount of books I've gotten in a long time. Marvel alone only has 8 individual issues I'll be getting; Superior Spider-Man continues to double ship and will have an annual compared to my other books' one issues. With Talon and Dark Knight cancelled as well, that leads to 18 books, 12 DC and 6 Marvel, now on my pulllist heading into April, barring any surprises from either. That works out well for me, since I'm trying to save money now I've bought a new laptop (which I'm using right now). The one thing I wholeheartedly expect will be Superior Spider-Man ending in April with Amazing Spider-Man relaunching in May; I mean, the new movie's coming out and Peter's got to come back sometime. If that doesn't happen, I'll be very surprised.

So will I be back again next month to update on my comics pulllist? I guess we'll see when the April solicitations come out.