Tag Archives: superhero

Captain Marvel review

16 Saturday Mar 2019

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Back in my day, Captain Marvel was just a big red cheese, and I don’t remember no one complainin’!

by Thom Yee

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Captain Marvel images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

It might not seem like it from the outside, but Captain Marvel is just about the weirdest damn superhero to talk about.  At least for me she is.  See, I’m a lifelong comicbook nerd, even to this day, but I’m also a ‘90s kid, and if you were a ‘90s comicbook nerd kid like I was, then Captain Marvel, at least the Marvel Comics version, is basically a character who didn’t exist.  See, in the ‘90s, Captain Marvel was one of only two things:  1) The DC Comics teen superhero who yelled SHAZAM! and got powers just like Superman’s; or 2) The Marvel Comics superhero with cosmic powers who had been dead for a long, long, long time.  Like early ‘80s long ago.  And in either case, neither was a very big deal.  And in both cases they were men. Continue reading →

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Aquaman review

23 Saturday Feb 2019

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Imperius rex?

by Thom Yee

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Aquaman images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Ask any of us comicbook fans, any of us REAL comicbook fans, whether or not we’re happy that there are so many superhero movies right now and most of us will tell you that of course it’s something that makes us happy.  It’s great.  It’s great that the things we like are now so popular.  Ask any of us fans if we’re surprised that they’re so popular, though, and most of us will probably say that yes, we’re also very surprised.  And it’s not that we’re surprised to see normal, everyday people getting into the same kinds of stories we’ve been reading about for most of our lives, it’s just kind of shocking to us that we could ever get here.  The superhero movie age we live in right now is truly astonishing, a promised land of sorts, and the type of thing we comicbook people had imagined might happen in some other reality but thought could never happen in this one.

Continue reading →

Glass review

26 Saturday Jan 2019

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Glass?  Who gives a sh*t about glass?!?

by Thom Yee

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Glass images courtesy of Universal Pictures

I don’t think there’s a movie director working today who’s as openly criticized as M. Night Shyamalan.  Mmmaybe George Lucas.  But he only counts if you consider his last few projects actual movies.  Most people don’t.  Shyamalan, on the other hand, has continued to produce a wide ranging body of work ever since he made his big debut with The Sixth Sense back in 1999, and, like another product of the ‘90s, The Simpsons, by now most people look back at what Shyamalan’s done and see that, despite a very strong, groundbreaking, world-defining start, there’s probably been more good than bad that’s come from the man overall. Continue reading →

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse review

19 Saturday Jan 2019

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Miles Morales > Tom Holland > Andrew Garfield > Tobey Maguire

by Thom Yee

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Spider-Man:  Into the Spider-Verse images courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing

The theory of the multiverse suggests that there exists different universes parallel to our own.  In at least one interpretation of the theory, the number of parallels continues to stretch out and grow into infinity.  That means that there’s a universe where you, the reader of this purported review, and I, the writer of it, have not only met, but I may even have killed you in that universe (in fact, I probably would have killed you in most of them if we’re being honest; it’s just a personal flaw I have, a hair-trigger temper matched with a dedication to violence that I’m sure would transcend most universal barriers).  But, with the concept of infinite parallel universes in mind, there are probably a lot of worlds in which I may have saved you from death as well (probably not the other way around, though; again, a lack of being saved is something I feel is probably close to a universal constant given my innate resistance to receiving help).  And then, extrapolating with infinity in mind even further, all of that saving I could be doing in all of those other worlds could be with the aid of superpowers.  I might have been bitten by a radioactive spider and not died from radiation poisoning [or my fear of spiders] but instead gained the proportionate strength(s) of a spider in one.  Or I might share a telepathic link with a radioactive spider with whom I co-pilot a bio-mechanical spider suit in another.  Or I might even be some sort of totemic spider spirit who imbues my chosen champions with the greatest virtues of the spider in another still.  Or maybe you are instead.  Or something.  Or something else.  Or something else still.  Ad infinitum. Continue reading →

Daredevil season 3 review

15 Saturday Dec 2018

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We’re in the Endgame now

by Thom Yee

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Daredevil images courtesy of Marvel Television, ABC Studios, and Netflix

Colin Farrell.

In spite of what others might insist, comicbooks have a great potential for meaning and depth and sometimes even occasional transcendence if met by a receptive audience.  They’re just like any other storytelling medium in that way.  Despite their often garish outer trappings, comicbooks aren’t inherently stupid or immature; not nearly as stupid and immature as the dismissive attitudes that would suggest they must be are anyway.  Like most other stories, comicbook stories tend to speak to the broader thoughts and universal themes we all recognize simply as part of being human.  Superman relates to concepts of power, divinity, and the notion of the foreigner finding their way in a strange new land.  Batman represents a different kind of power, acknowledging our darkest motivations meeting our greatest hopes, no matter how unattainable those hopes might be and how bad they may be for us.  Spider-Man is an everyman, facing the same troubles we all do, but, having learned an important lesson in power and responsibility, is an everyman who uses his gifts as selflessly as possible despite everything it costs him.  Some comicbook characters, though… some of them are just straight-up murderers.  Gifted with exotic murder powers.  Designed by murder artisans who work exclusively in the medium of murder.  Characters like Bullseye, whose power, basically, is to pick anything up and throw it at you, unerringly, in a way that kills you.  He’s our new bad guy in this season of Daredevil.  This time he doesn’t suck.

Not like this guy. Continue reading →

Iron Fist season 2 review

29 Saturday Sep 2018

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Crazy Rich Non-Asian Immortal Weapons

by Thom Yee

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Iron Fist images courtesy of Marvel Studios, ABC Studios, and Netflix

We’re now more than three years in to Marvel’s Netflix experiment, and in that time it’s become very clear what the Marvel Netflix shows represent, both in the broader scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and to us viewers.   For Marvel Studios, these are tales of their Cinematic Universe’s street-level heroes, a part of the MCU but only peripherally so, destined to never directly meet up with or have any impact in the Universe’ big “Battles of New York” or “Sokovia Accords” (to say nothing of their “Infinity Wars”).  For the rest of us, Marvel Netflix is a collection of odd little shows, generally good but rarely great, and, for the most part, not really playing in the same ballpark as any of Netflix’s actually good shows (Stranger Things, American Vandal, Orange is the New Black). Continue reading →

Jessica Jones and Luke Cage seasons 2 review

25 Saturday Aug 2018

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The opposite of binge watching?

by Thom Yee

It’s been a while since we’ve done a review for a Marvel Netflix show, and while there are a variety of reasons for that (some of which have nothing to do with the shows themselves) there’s really only one that matters:  Most of them aren’t very good.marvel-netflix.jpg

Especially Jessica Jones.  And especially Jessica Jones season two. Continue reading →

Ant-Man and the Wasp review

14 Saturday Jul 2018

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You’ve changed, man!  It used to be about the ants!

by Thom Yee

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Ant-Man and the Wasp images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

I was actually pretty fired up for the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp last weekend.  Which was strange because the original Ant-Man was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that let me down [and that’s not even mentioning how unlikely it is for me to be excited about anything in the first place].  I think part of my excitement stemmed from how much more I’d gotten into the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the release of Avengers:  Infinity War a scant two months (and change) ago, but if we’re being honest with each other, you and I, here at the end of all things (as it always feels like lately), I think the main reason for my expanded excitement for Ant-Man and the Wasp (See what I did there?  Expanded?  Because he grows?) was because, as much as Ant-Man let me down and as hard as I was on it in my original review, I like that first Ant-Man movie quite a bit now.  Certainly more than my three (of five) star review might suggest.  In retrospect, Ant-Man is a real good, solid movie.  It’s got solid characters, innovative action scenes, and some pretty decent laughs.

You’ll never convince me Ant-Man is great movie though. Continue reading →