Tag: Superhero

Comic Book Review – Batman: White Knight by Sean Murphy

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Batman White Knight

Written and illustrated by Sean Murphy, Batman: White Knight is a standalone miniseries outside of the mainline DC comics continuity. Following a destructive chase through the streets of Gotham, Batman is filmed brutalizing the Joker while dozens of GCPD officers look on. The footage goes viral, casting the caped crusader and the complacent police force in a negative light. Following this, the Joker has begun taking an unknown medication that “cures” him of his insanity, making him Jack Napier once again. While not blind to his crimes committed as the Joker, Jack sees Batman as the real villain plaguing Gotham City, his vigilante crusade doing more harm than good. He sets out to make the city a better place by exposing all the bad that comes with how Batman operates, leading the public to no longer tolerate their dark knight.Read More »

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Movie Review – Avengers: Infinity War

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IMDb Summary

As the Avengers and their allies have continued to protect the world from threats too large for any one hero to handle, a new danger has emerged from the cosmic shadows: Thanos. A despot of intergalactic infamy, his goal is to collect all six Infinity Stones, artifacts of unimaginable power, and use them to inflict his twisted will on all of reality. Everything the Avengers have fought for has led up to this moment – the fate of Earth and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

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Avengers: Infinity War, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, is the nineteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Not since the lead up to the first Avengers film released in 2012 has an entry in this ambitious cinematic universe been so anticipated. Thanos (Josh Brolin), the villain of this feature, was first teased in a post-credits scene of that film, leaving fans to eagerly anticipate his appearance as a main villain. Most MCU films since have teased, introduced, and/or involved infinity stones since then as well, all in preparation for this massive crossover event. The cast is honestly too expansive to list; nearly every hero makes an appearance to fight this threat on different fronts. I was highly anticipating the film myself, though cautious about how effectively an effective story could be told with such a large cast of characters in play.Read More »

Movie Review – Black Panther

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IMDb Summary

T’Challa, the King of Wakanda, rises to the throne in the isolated, technologically advanced African nation, but his claim is challenged by a vengeful outsider who was a childhood victim of T’Challa’s father’s mistake.

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Black Panther is the eighteenth film released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and the second film featuring the character since his first appearance in Captain America: Civil War back in 2016. The film is directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler and stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther. Going in I found it interesting to consider it as a follow-up to Civil War in the same way that Spider-Man: Homecoming was; the respective characters both debuted in that film and the events of it directly affect their first feature. Black Panther was in a unique situation, however, as his origin has not been explored in depth on screen before. To many movie-goes he’s a rather new character. Though excited regardless, I was curious to see how they would craft an accessible first film while building off of the character’s first appearance.Read More »

Movie Review – Justice League

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Summary

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes-Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash-it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

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Justice League is the fifth film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), following the release of Wonder Woman this past summer. The film was directed by Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash, Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry/Aquaman, and Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg. I didn’t have much hype for this movie going in; it felt more like an obligatory viewing. With the exception of Wonder Woman, the DCEU has had a hard time, with films produced that had some interesting ideas and performances, but ultimately fell flat in a lot of ways. I was also skeptical of how well this film could be pulled off without the lead-up that The Avengers got. Fairly recently someone made the point that just because that’s one way of going about it successfully doesn’t mean that’s the only way of doing it, however, which opened my mind up a little.Read More »

Movie Review – Wonder Woman

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IMDB Summary

Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained to be an unconquerable warrior. Raised on a sheltered island paradise, when a pilot crashes on their shores and tells of a massive conflict raging in the outside world, Diana leaves her home, convinced she can stop the threat. Fighting alongside man in a war to end all wars, Diana will discover her full powers and her true destiny.

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Wonder Woman is the latest DC Extended Universe (DCEU) film directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman. Though the latest in this cinematic universe, this film chronologically takes place much longer before the others, almost entirely detached from the modern day concerns of the films we’ve seen thus far.Read More »

Mighty Thursday #14

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Secret Avengers by Rick Remender Volume One

By Rick Remender (Writer), Patch Zircher (Artist Issue #21.1), Gabriel Hardman (Artist), Bettie Breitweiser (Colour Artist), & Chris Eliopoulos (Letterer); 2013

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Summary

Relinquishing the reins of his covert Avengers squad, Captain America has handpicked Hawkeye to take over — as long as the world’s greatest marksman proves he can cut it in the spy game. And with a new leader comes a fresh lineup as Giant-Man, Captain Britain, and the Original Human Torch join Black Widow, Beast, Valkyrie, and Ant-Man in the ranks of Earth’s stealthiest heroes. But Hawkeye — determined, as ever, to do things his own way — draws the line at Cap’s final suggested recruit: the deadly and unpredictable Venom! Will the quickly assembled team of powerful personalities unite behind the brash bowman? Can the archer lead them safely through their first deadly mission — a baptism of fire against the human/synthezoid hybrids known as the Descendants and their mysterious “Father”? Or will an Avenger make the ultimate sacrifice on Hawkeye’s watch?Read More »

Movie Review – Deadpool

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Deadpool is a 2016 comedy superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Ryan Reynolds and directed by Tim Miller. A former special forces operative working as a mercenary in New York City, Wade Wilson is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Unwilling to put his fiancé Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) through the pain of watching him waste away, Wade undergoes torturous experimentation provided by a shadowy organization in an attempt to awaken any dormant mutant abilities in his genetics. The experiments work, giving him a healing ability that makes him nearly immortal, but he is hideously disfigured in the process. Left for dead after the destruction of the lab, Wade becomes Deadpool, his costumed alter-ego. He begins a crusade to track down those responsible for his hideous transformation so that he can reverse the effects and reunite with his beloved once again.Read More »

The Overpowered Problem

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Contains Minor Spoilers For One-Punch Man

Saitama

Growing up, I never had a strong affinity for Superman. I hadn’t read any of the comic books, and only had a passing experience with the cartoon, but my father’s dismissal of the character for being “too powerful” and therefore “boring” turned my interest away from him for a long time. Having become much better versed in Superman stories, however, I have turned this around.Read More »

TV Series Review – Jessica Jones Season One

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JessicaJonesHeader

Jessica Jones is a Netflix original series created by Melissa Rosenberg, and is the latest series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The show is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, portrayed by Kristen Ritter. The series also notably stars David Tennant as the lead antagonist Kilgrave, as well as Mike Colter as Luke Cage. The story follows Jessica Jones, a woman with superhuman strength, who works as a private investigator after a brief superhero career.Read More »

Wrapping up Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season One

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This post contains some spoilers.

Months ago I posted an entry discussing my feelings after watching the first five episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It has been a while since then, but I have just recently finished watching the first season through, and I’m happy that things went as expected. In my previous post I noted that my lukewarm feelings about the show were a common reaction, but that the series improves as it progresses. For the most part I agree.Read More »