Comic Book Lucky Dip - X-Factor Annual #9

Coming off getting a DC Universe subscription a few months back, I now have a Marvel unlimited subscription, so what does the Marvel Universe have to offer. Well, let’s take a look at this annual issue. Full disclosure, my knowledge of the X-men is limited. I’ve seen Wolverine and the X-men, and the movies. Yes, I haven’t actually seen the 90s show, sacrilege I know, but I was always more of a DC fan. I’m going into this more blind than I ever have before, lets see if this comic really does follow Stan Lee’s mantra ‘every comic is someone’s first’

Comic Book Lucky Dip - Fantastic 4 Life Story #1

We’ve got another lucky dip and oh look, it’s the Fantastic 4 Life Story #1. The Spider-man Life story mini-series was fantastic and brought me round on Chip Zdarsky after being less than impressed with his Jughead run. But this story isn’t by Chip Zdarsky, not is it a spider-man run, instead this story is written by Mark Russel, responsible for the 1970s reboot of DC’s Prez, and the Wonder Twins series as part of Brian Michael Bendis’ short-lived Wonder Comics imprint. The art is by Sean Izaakse with Nolan Woodard on colours. But enough preamble (going into the details of the aims of the Life Story series would be counterproductive to the nature of this format), let’s take a look at this.

Black Widow

Well, Endgame came and went, we got a Spider-man sequel and then COVID happened and everything got pushed back, Black Widow did eventually come out but about a year after it was intended to, its release continually delayed thanks to movie theatres being shuttered over the pandemic. Even then, the release was a partial release as a premium film on Disney+, which Scarlett Johansen, whose contract gave her a portion of box office receipts, was not happy about.

But that’s a matter for a different discussion. Black Widow is the first true film in the phase 4 slate, made up of both films and TV shows in the Disney+ Sphere. The timing though is a bit weird; Black Widow had died following Endgame and she’s been a presence in the Marvel-sphere since Iron Man 2, she was long overdue a headline role, but now it couldn’t be in a movie taking place in the present.

It's hard to attribute exactly the amount of money Black Widow made following its release, it made just shy of $400m in theatres, and $66m in its opening weekend on Disney+, though how that translates into revenue I’m not sure. But let's take a look at it and see if it holds up.

Disney+ Retrospective - WandaVision

I’m likely going to do episode by episode breakdowns for most of the Disney Plus Marvel line-up but I’m making an exception for WandaVision, which especially in its early episodes has a main plot happening very much in the background. Because of it happening so close to the end of Infinity War, Wanda being among those blipped and the 5-year time-jump, there really wasn’t time in those films to explore the impact the death of Vision, that’s where this show comes in. Let’s take a dive in and see how things go.

Comic Book Lucky Dip - Doctor Aphra #7 (2017)

For a while now, I’ve wanted to get back to doing more regular comic reviews, but the issue has always been one of schedule slippage. I tend to do reviews months in advance and that wasn’t really compatible with the 4-issue test format which intended to always come out before the 5^th issue. So we’re trying something a bit different. I have a sizeable collection of comic books at my disposal, so I’m gonna pick one at random and do a recap-review of it. One of the aspects I’ll critique is how easy it is to pick up and read as an individual issue, I will not be recapping any part of the story not contained within the issue. As the late great Stan Lee once said, every comic is someone’s first.

So, what came out of my bookshelf today: Doctor Aphra #7, part 3 of the Screaming Citadel crossover arc. Written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Andrea Broccardo and colours done by Antonio Fabela. Released in July 2017 by Marvel comics.

RageLite review - Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse

It’s the early 2000s and in an attempt to attract new readers with stories without decades of continuity, Brian Michael Bendis and a few other writers launch the Ultimate Universe, and one of the first stories to come out was Ultimate Spider-man. This Spider-man was younger, and more relatable to kids and teens, as was the original aim for Spider-man, but there came a time when this fresh start became old again, and the decision was made to kill of Peter Parker and replace him with a new Spider-man, Miles Morales. And whilst there were plenty of haters of anyone other than Peter taking up the mantle of Spider-man, Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli brought their A-game and the character was a hit with readers, so much so that when they pulled the trigger on the Ultimate Universe, he was one of maybe 2 characters spared.

Miles currently fills the void Peter once filled, whilst Peter in the comics is in his mid-late 20s, Miles is now the young Spider-man to appeal to teens. Him being bi-racial allowed him to appeal to non-white audiences who may not have seen themselves in Peter.

I have read every Miles Morales solo book, I followed him through years of Bendis, and am still following him now Bendis has moved to DC. His popularity has transcended the comics, he appeared in both Disney produced Spider-man shows, made appearances in Insomniac’s PS4 Spider-man game and got his own PS4/PS5 spinoff game. And of course, there’s Into the Spider-verse, a movie from Sony Animation Studios centred around Miles Morales.

I must admit, I was really happy to hear about a Miles Morales film coming out, but I was less ecstatic to hear that would also be a multiverse crossover with multiple spider-men and spider-women. I was concerned that with all the multiversal chaos Miles’ own story would be lost in the shuffle, but with Phil Lord and Chris Miller on board, I hoped we were in for something and, spoiler alert, we got it. This film won the Academy Award for best animated movie, and made $375m on a $90m budget, and got a pretty striking 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Is it worthy of all that praise? Well, let’s take a look

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 11-13

We’re running down to the final episodes of Jessica Jones, Sallinger looks set to get away with murder, minus a scar or two, and Trish is beginning to set down a dark path in the wake of her mother’s death.

RageLite review - X-men Dark Phoenix

The X-men films have been mixed at best in terms of quality, but I’ve been entertained watching them, I hoped it would end on a high and whilst I’ll get to New Mutants at a later date, let’s look at the final main-line X-men film, Dark Phoenix.

So, Brett Ratner and Brian Singer have both been implicated as perpetrators of sexual assault. Bet that makes looking back on the X-men fun. Personally, I would’ve brought back Matthew Vaughn but for whatever reason, they decided to elevate Simon Kinberg to director. He has plenty of experience with the X-men, having been involved with writing Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, as well as The Last Stand and Fant4stic, those triumphs of cinema.

Still, Kinberg acknowledges that studio interference with The Last Stand led to the story not being a good retelling of the Phoenix saga, and wanted to give it a try with more creative freedom. And then the studio got involved again, stopping his initial plan for a 2-part movie after the relatively underwhelming performance of Apocalypse.

The entire ending was reshot as the studio felt it was too similar to Captain Marvel. Speaking of which the villains had to be changed because of Captain Marvel too, creative freedom ladies and gentlemen.

So does this movie deliver… no, it doesn’t… let’s dig in and see why not.

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 9-10

 2 more episodes of Jessica Jones, let’s see how things progress.

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 7-8

We’re taking another look at Jessica Jones, they can’t get Sallinger on much so far but we’re only 6 episodes in, let’s dive into episodes 7-8

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 5-6

We’re back with Jessica Jones, last we left off, we knew who our main villain was and Hogarth decided to have some devastating information made public. Let’s see where things go from here.

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones season 3 episodes 3-4

OK, let’s get back into Jessica Jones

Netflix Retrospective - Jessica Jones Season 3 Episodes 1-2

Note: I realise my reviews are getting more and more behind schedule, but I have them ready and am just gonna schedule a bunch of them over the next couple of weeks. 

I guess it’s time we finished the Netflix Marvel shows, excluding the Punisher which I will never cover as long as I draw breath, and definitely won’t once I’ve stopped doing that. Jessica Jones had a strong opening season with a weaker second season to follow it.

Praise4Media #69 - Spider-man: Far From Home

Spider-man, Spider-man
Don’t wanna go cause he’s spider-man
Turned to dust, snapped to life.
Mentor goes to the afterlife 

Look out, off goes the Spider-man!

One thing I’ve praised about the MCU’s Spider-man is their willingness to offer new elements, most of the supporting cast are original or have been drastically changed from the source material. That being said, putting such an emphasis on Peter’s relationship to Tony Stark is a double-edged sword, especially when the sequel takes place after an event which kills him off. 

Jon Watts is back in the director’s chair and 2/6 of the writing staff of the last film are also here, Chris McKenna, who alongside the Spider-man movies also co-wrote the Lego Batman Movie, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Ant-man and the Wasp, and Erik Summers, who has a similar resumé.

The film had a bigger budget, nearing $200m and, in part riding the wave from Avengers Endgame became the first $1bn Spider-man movie. And has pretty favourable ratings with both critics and audiences (90% average 7.44/10 and 95% average 4.63/5 respectively) so where do I stand, I guess it’s on guilty pleasures so I must like it to some degree but let’s analyse and make fun of it anyway.

Netflix Retropsective - Daredevil (Complete Season 3)

I can’t imagine I was the only one disappointed with, well the back half in particular of Daredevil season 2, nor that I wasn’t a huge fan of the Defenders. But it did end on a pretty interesting note for Matt Murdock, who had lost Elektra for a second time and very nearly his life. There was also some setup for Fisk to return, and as he was one of the high points of season 1, his return was inevitable.

Season 3 of Daredevil dropped and the show was cancelled soon after. I don’t think it was a ratings issue, although they had been in decline for a while, but with Disney launching a competing service it didn’t seem right to promoting one of their strongest brands, however they retained the rights to the series they have produced so that’s at least something.

We’re back to 13 episodes both for this season and the last season of Jessica Jones but does this series end on a high?