Action Comics #1000 - Cheap Thoughts

I've thought a lot about how I want to open this piece. Talking about Superman and what he means to me, what he means to audiences, what he means to the comic industry, and what he means to society as a whole. A character that has been around for 80 years. A character that everyone knows simply from a look. A character that gets adapted a thousand times over, yet somehow was perfected from issue 1. Superman isn't a character that had to grow into his ideals, he's been them from his first ever story. Yet here we are, a thousand issues later, and what we get is half a dozen of DC's best writers telling the most basic of stories you could tell with the man..and somehow making each one a perfect representation of why Superman will always be important and iconic.

This comic isn't so much about what Superman is, but what he means to people, and what they mean to him. Several of the stories are just following ordinary citizens, with them discussing how their interactions with him, whether he saved their lives, helped redeem villains, or even inspired them to save someone else. Likewise whenever the story focuses on the Man of Steel, it's discussing how grateful he is to have had parents like Jonathan & Martha Kent, or how meeting just one good person can put him in a good mood for the whole day. My favourite story of the bunch was 'The Car' written by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Oliver Coipel with art by Alejandro Sanchez. Telling the story of the car owner that Superman smashed all the way back on the cover of Action Comics #1, which is not only a brilliant idea for a story, with some beautiful artwork and visual storytelling (The literal bird & plane panels were especially great). But the main reason is that it shows Superman has been perfect from issue 1, everything about how he's represented works in context of both then and now, he seems a lowly thug, stops him from committing crime, and then actually puts in the effort to learn about him, see what made him the way he is, and tries to help him. He doesn't turn him into the police or violently attack him, he talks to him, gives him advice and sometimes, that's all you need, someone to believe in you, and when that person is Superman, that can do wonders.

I don't even know what else to say about this, almost every story is perfect in someway, it's just telling all the reasons why Superman is as important as he is, every line of dialogue, every story just had me going "Yeah, I agree". The only story that I can say didn't do anything for me was of course the last one, because it's not a celebration of Superman, it's a prologue for Brian Michael Bendis' new run, which don't get me wrong, I'm excited for (Though it means losing Peter J Tomasi so that saddens me), and of course they were going to advertise it in the biggest Superman book of the year, but I just wish this book can have been just celebrating Superman. The story itself wasn't bad, just not what fitted this type of book.

In summary: Action Comics #1000 is just excellent, really really really excellent. If you love Superman, you'll love this book. It's as simple as that.

-Danny

Legends of Tomorrow 'The Good, the Bad, and the Cuddly' - Finale Review

Because what other way could Legends of Tomorrow end their season? By having a giant stuffed teddy bear created by combining 6 ancient totems together in order to fight an immortal time demon...

This show is the absolute best and I will hear no words against it. I've made my feelings on why pretty clear over the course of this season, Legends is not afraid to go absolutely bonkers and just have as much fun as possible, it's everything you could want in a comic book adventure series about a bunch of superheroes travelling through time. It's definitely the most fun out of all the superhero shows out there, but on top of that, it matches the scale needed to make it work, this finale felt like the most epic episode they could have had, with returning characters from the whole season, a big brawl between sides, and ending it in a giant CGI fight. Even though the humour and silliness of the whole show is certainly it's main appeal, it never skimps out on the dramatic moments as well, however, I would argue that they were the weaker parts of this particular finale. Firstly with the killing of Rip Hunter, a main character, the one who brought the Legends together in the first place, killing him off at the very beginning of the episode with no build up, a weak execution (Why didn't Mallus just fly away?) and after struggling to give him a purpose this whole season, it felt like a cheap way to get rid of a character they didn't know what to do with. Then in the end with Amaya finally leaving, again, something we all knew was going to happen eventually and was referenced in several episodes this season, somehow feels rushed from how little it tied in with this specific story.

I remember when the first season came out my main issue with it was the show's lack of identity, then came along the second season where they fixed that by deciding "hey, we should be the wacky fun show!" and this season hasn't really done much to change that, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. It's hard to say this was my favourite DC show of the year seeing as the rest of the shows haven't finished yet, but frankly I can't think of another show that can match it. Without a doubt this has been the most fun with the most consistent quality out of all the shows. An ensemble series where the cast have the best chemistry out of all the shows, with solid character development, creative plots, decent effects, but like I've already said, it's fun, it's so much fun, it's so silly, it is so absolutely it's own thing and I love and respect that. Oh, also the great LGBT+ representation that most of television already struggles with, let alone superhero shows and this series makes it look easy, always a bonus.

Now as for best & worst episodes of the season...

The worst episode would have to be Amazing Grace for simply lacking any kind of stakes or drama, and when your plot involves "Elvis accidentally summoning ghosts" and it's somehow boring then you know you've messed up somewhere.

The best episode however I would say Welcome to the Jungle for being the episode that in my opinion perfectly balanced good drama & character development with the goofy sci-fi nature we expect from the series. Mick's relationship with his father got explored and it's something that has never really been addressed, and we also got an appearance from Gorilla Grodd...which is always awesome.

I give the season 3 finale of Legends of Tomorrow an 8/10.

I give the season as a whole...also an 8/10.

-Danny

DC TV Weekly #42

Legends of Tomorrow 'Guest Starring John Noble' Review
Well that episode was all over the place...but kinda in a good way. I'm starting to understand why they gave it such a meta title because really there's no one plot to focus on, if anything this feels like three episodes all shoved together, but all of them are equally good. We've got Grodd, an evil psychic gorilla travel back in time to kill a young Barack Obama, and honestly that one sentence is the most Legends of Tomorrow thing that can be said, it's insane, it's goofy and it's fun as all hell. Then we have Amaya going back to save her village, leading to some good character development for her and Nata, also makes me think this might be Amaya's last season. Then finally we have Damien Darhk working with the Legends to prevent Mallus from escaping, giving us a lot of plot development. Three good plots achieving three different things, unfortunately each one is far too short to leave the impact it should do. The Obama stuff is fun but far too short, Damien's sudden but inevitable betrayal happens too fast, and Amaya's stuff...actually turned out pretty well, but to be fair they've been building it up all season. Some other things worth pointing out: I don't know why but I find it hilarious that Mick is a fan of Lord of the Rings, the cgi and fight during the Esi/Grodd throwdown was awful, yet again Wally is still getting underutilised because really the dude could solve all these problems in a literal millisecond. 7/10.

Black Lightning 'Black Jesus: The Book of Crucifixion' Review
Guys, seriously, you're really pushing it with the whole no one knows Jefferson is Black Lightning thing. His disguise is a terrible disguise that we only accept because superhero logic, when you draw attention to it, it makes it worse. At least this episode created someone of a loophole for them, people seeing Black Lightning when Jefferson is clearly in a different location so they can somewhat get away with it. But when your show specifically points out all the very obvious evidence to suggest Jefferson is Black Lightning, it means you're just not trying hard enough to hide it. Some positives on the other hand, it's nice seeing Henderson get some more development outside of just being the cop friend of Black Lightning. Well, technically it is still around him being a cop, but actually developing him into doing some actual police work and coming into his own obstacles. Also the Gambi/Jefferson relationship seems to have finally been repaired. And apparently Jefferson's Vice-Principal is an important character, even though she's been completely irrelevant for the entirety of the season until now. Meanwhile Tobias is nowhere to be seen and Lala is still completely separate from everyone else without his resurrection being close to explained. There are only two episodes left of the season and I am starting to doubt if everything will actually get resolved by the end of it, especially when very little of this episode seemed to have consequence, except that Henderson is now Deputy Chief (Why do we care?) and the Gambi relationship is restored, even if it had very little to do with this episode. 5/10.

Arrow 'Brothers In Arms' Review
How could an episode with so much emotional weight feel so boring? Yes, Arrow has had emotionally gripping storytelling wrapped in formulaic plots before, so why didn't it work this time? The debate between Oliver and Diggle has been building up for a while now, hell, you could argue all season, and it finally reached breaking point here, and the scene itself was really damn good. Both sides had solid arguments, the actors were giving 100%, even the way it was shot gave it peak tension and drama, but my god, I just didn't care at all. Perhaps it's because the rest of the episode building up to it was generic, maybe it's because I'm sick of all the arguments over "Oliver doesn't trust people" which has been done dozens of times, maybe it's because this season's main plot isn't even that interesting, or maybe it's a mixture of all three and more. Even if the one scene was really good, it's hard to care all too much when everything around it is just simply dull, even Diggle leaving the team I seriously doubt will last long. 5/10.

Best Things March 2018

Can I just include Persona 5 again? Cause that took up the better half of the month yet again. No? Okay.

The Good Place
The Good Place is an American sitcom following Eleanor Shellstrop, a woman who dies and goes to 'The Good Place' even though she's actually a terrible person and was meant to go to The Bad Place. I binged watched the first 2 seasons on Netflix and I very much enjoyed it. The series was created by Michael Shur, the creator of Parks & Recreations and it definitely has that same style of humour. It's a very non-offensive series with a diverse cast that could appeal to everyone, but they still get a lot of great jokes out of the creative setting, as well as giving the actors plenty of room to improvise-in particular D'Arcy Carden who plays Janet, someone with godlike powers, the personality of a robot servant and is the funniest character in the show (In my opinion). While the series isn't necessarily laugh out loud, and I find some of the character development to be forced, it is very much the type of enjoyable show that you can have on after a long day and just want to unwind.


The Unbelievable Gwenpool
Alright, this isn't really something new I experienced in March, and the series technically ended on 28th February, but I saw someone on Twitter insult Gwenpool just because of the concept, so I just wanted an excuse to talk about why Gwenpool is amazing. The Unbelievable Gwenpool is a 25 issue comic series following a character named Gwen Poole, a teenage girl from our universe who somehow gets transported to the Marvel Universe, being a huge fan of Marvel comics means she knows the basics of how everything works, knows everyone's identities and is capable of breaking the fourth wall. At first she tries to become a hero (Because if you wanna survive in the Marvel world, ya gotta be in a costume) but through a series of wacky hi-jinx she ends up a villain. Throughout the 25 issues we see her bounce back and forth between multiple heroes and villains, and unlike a lot of Marvel comic series, we actually get to see proper character development for both her and her supporting cast, as she becomes more accustomed to the ways of living in a world of superheroes, eventually reaching a lot of inner conflict between her place both in the real world vs the Marvel world, and her place as a hero or a villain. The book is hilarious and isn't over the top with its 4th wall breaking like something like Deadpool, which even the book describes as being a little too "lol memes". The artwork by Gurihiru gives it a manga style, making it cute while not taking away from the action. Unlike most Marvel books this one actually got a satisfactory conclusion and made me hope the character actually stays gone, because in the hands of any writer apart from Christopher Hastings, I worry if it'll even be the same character. So to that one rando on Twitter and anyone who judged Gwenpool based on her name (Even though she has nothing to do with Gwen Stacy or Deadpool), just know you're missing out on a really excellent book here.

Paddington 2
Again, I'm cheating with this one, as I saw Paddington 2 in cinemas back in November, but I didn't get a chance to talk about it, now that it's out on blu-ray here in the UK, I think it's a good enough reason to put it in here. Paddington 2 is a perfect family film; it's absurdly precious, has plenty of humour and is visually creative. It's able to subtly establish elements in its first act, passing them off as charming character quirks that then pay off in the third act without feeling forced or obvious, the humour is mature yet simple, never downgrading itself to pander to its audience, but most of all what makes this film as good as it is, is it's heart. Paddington 2 is as sweet and honest as a film can be, it wears its emotions on its sleeves, never compromising or feeling embarrassed to be genuine, the film's main thought "If we're kind and polite the world will be right" is told with such affection that even the biggest sour puss won't be able to help but be charmed by the film's message and characters. There's far too many things about the film to compliment, I didn't even get a chance to discuss the cast, the action, the music, etc. Just know that this is a film that I feel comfortable recommending to everyone of any age, and should be viewed by everyone if they wish to see what pure joy is like when placed on screen (Also see the first one if you haven't, it's really good).