Friday 24 April 2015

Tuesday 21 April 2015

#19 The Rise of Arsenal

Oh boy, more of the aftermath of cry for justice. Help!

So, whilst the fall of Green Arrow has its problems, hence its spot amongst my rage reviews, the critical consensus despises the Rise of Arsenal.


Let’s get one thing out the way. Everything that happened to Roy in Cry for Justice and also in this follow-up story, was editorially mandated. The editors had the place they wanted characters to go and it was up to the writers to make sure they got there, no matter how little sense it made. Editorial control of stories is something that has plagued comics in recent years. JT Krul is a decent writer but when editors try and force the writers to write their stories, it nearly always results in cr*p. One More Day, Countdown to Final Crisis, Amazons Attack and others are awful stories because of editorial control above anything else.

Editors do need to have some control over stories to keep the characters consistent through multiple titles and to check for errors. They should not be forcing their direction for the characters on the writers.

Safe to say, Cry for Justice, whilst selling decent numbers did not settle well with people, hence the need for follow-up titles to ensure a plan was there (yeah… right) the plan which eventually lead to Deathstroke’s Titans book, a story I refuse to read owing to the fact that in their first issue (in fact I think it was a one-shot) Deathstroke unceremoniously killed off Ryan Choi, the Atom.

But I digress, we’re here to talk about Roy Harper, AKA Red Arrow. So in cry for Justice he lost his arm, and his daughter, and of course there have to be repercussions. But, *sighs* let’s dig into The Rise of Arsenal and see how they screw it all up

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Guilty Pleasures #14 - Skyfall

Ah, James Bond, an icon of action, suspense and damsels in distress, and to be honest, despite my film preferences, 007 was never really something I grew attached to like I have with superheroes. But my curiosity piqued with Skyfall. Due to not booking a ticket online, I never saw it in the Cinema, but I was quick to get a DVD copy.


Production involved in this film looks quite complicated. MGM, the producers of the films was undergoing financial troubles and the project, which had started just after the release of Quantum of Solice, was suspended. During the suspension, the original writer of the story, Peter Morgan departed leaving Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan to finish it off. In fact filming didn’t begin until November 2011.

These delays didn’t hamper the success of the film. Made over a billion dollars world-wide, the highest of any Bond film, on your average blockbuster budget ($150-200m) and getting praised by most critics. However, I stand by this as a Guilty Pleasure because despite all this, the story has some pretty big flaws.

Before I begin the review, I will say this. I have not watched any other of Daniel Craig’s Bond movies, in fact this is the only Bond movie I’ve watched unless it’s a few bits I’ve seen on television. I am not reviewing this as a 50th Anniversary for Bond, I’m watching it as a movie and it will stand or fall on its own merits.  With that out of the way, let’s take a look.

Sunday 12 April 2015

4 issue test #5 - S.H.I.E.L.D.


“Inspired by the hit TV series” Marvel’s SHIELD comic follows the outings of Agent Coulson and his crew of SHIELD agents in the much bigger Marvel Universe than the cinematic one. Is this series worth picking up? Let’s take a look at the first 4 issues and find out

Friday 10 April 2015

Tuesday 7 April 2015

#18 The Fall of Green Arrow

Bad stories spawn bad follow-ups. So here we are, this month I’ll be dealing with the two follow-up stories of Justice League: Cry for Justice (and Superboy #0, man I'm doing a lot of comics this month).  And oh man, do the both suck. We’ll be tackling the story of the fate of Green Arrow first, because it’s the better of the two. Not saying it’s any good, it isn’t, but…


So after the events of Cry for Justice, a lot was up in the air about the fate of Green Arrow (Oliver Queen and Red Arrow (Roy Harper) the two who had been most affected by the book. The concluding stories from the Green Arrow book (which was relaunched shortly afterwards under the “Brightest Day” moniker) and the one-shot Justice League: Rise and Fall special dealt with Green Arrow’s fate, setting up he’d be in the relaunched title.

J T Krul was the writer, the same guy who’s responsible for making the Teen Titans (before Scott Lobdell decided to sh*t all over them with the relaunch) good again after the awful run of Felcia D Henderson. What I’m saying is JT Krul is usually a good writer. But anything related to Cry for Justice turns to sh*t, so let’s see exactly what we have here.

Friday 3 April 2015

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episodes 11-15 review

With March being used for Spider-man Month, and hoping to minimise my workload, we didn't look at once recurring series during that time. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returned in March and has run for 5 episodes so far since its return. This show has not gone on break since it started. So let's revisit our old friends and find out what's happened in the aftermath of the amazing mid-season finale.


Wednesday 1 April 2015

Rage Issues Special: ?????????

I have stumbled upon something truly awful here, haven’t I? I went to http://awholenewworldofarronredbeard.weebly.com (I was searching for song lyrics, got lost somewhere) a site which hosts a collection of ‘fanfic’ series. Unlike traditional fanfics, this uses characters from DC, Marvel and some other properties but holds no delusion that it’s cannon to any particular show or in-comics, in fact, it’s part of its own universe.


So what makes this story so bad. Let’s dig into the opening 3-parter and find out.