Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 finale (episodes 19-22) review

SHIELD season 2 has reached its conclusion, and we have a season 3 on the way as well as a season 2 for Agent Carter, let's dig into the finale

Mini review: Batman vs Robin

Well, you can remember my opinion of Son of Batman, IT F*CKING SUCKS so not surprisingly given DC’s track record, it got a sequel Batman vs Robin. Sort of the Based on Scott Snyder’s the Court of Owls stories, also sort of based on some other stories that have come out from Batman’s line on the New52, whilst also telling an original story, you can tell this story is going to be a bit of a mess. Having said that it’s a marked improvement over Son of Batman. Spoilers to follow

#21 - Death Note (2006 film)

So, when you’re adapting a story from another medium, how much of the story do you need to be willing to change in order to accommodate the running time and iron out areas where things don’t translate well onto the big screen? There’s no easy answer to this question, but we’re here to look at an example of how a small change can make things go horribly wrong.

I did a lengthy retrospective on the anime based on the manga, now I’m going to take a look at the first 2 movies (I’m not doing that L movie, I’ll explain why in the next review) which came out before the anime also attempting to adapt the manga.

Death Note was released in Japan in June 2006 making a decent $41million in the country, it was later distributed across the world making what I assume would be plenty of money. Given the release date of the sequel, and where this movie stops, it’s fair to assume the sequel was already into production when this was released.

So, why is it worthy of a rage review? Well prepare yourselves as we dive in.

Gotham Season 1 finale (episodes 21-22) review

As more Superhero shows begin to flood the market, I have to be more selective in which I post regular reviews about. It is with some regret that Gotham season 2 will not be reviewed (you'll see my reasoning during the reviews). But for now, see my opinions on the final 2 episodes of the show

#20 - Superboy #0

We’re in anniversary month (no this one doesn’t have a picture) the month the marks a full year since the beginning of my reviews. And who would’ve thought that after a year, I’d have done nearly 200 review entries for the site?

So, it’s time to look back at a past project. Zero moth and cr*ppy Scott Lobdell? Wait, this one was written by Tom Defalco. Former editor in chief of Marvel comics? Writer of some decent Nightwing tie-ins and co-writer of the very good Nightwing #0. Wait, this is when he was still adapting Lobdell’s stories, wasn’t it? Never mind. He would be writing his own scripts in future instalments of the book but of course it wouldn’t be far into that where he’d have to cross over with another Lobdell story, H'el on Earth. (I’ve heard mixed responses about that one, but since Lobdell was handling the Superman titles and this was post Teen Titans #0, I never read it, nor do I plan on doing so)

The problem with zero month and a comic series like this is that they’ve already done his origin, his origin for the new 52 was outlined in the early issues of the title. So what do you do with an issue like this? Find a way to make it needlessly complicated of course.

Guilty Pleasures #15 - Ultimate Avengers 2

When it comes to direct to DVD flicks, DC is leaps ahead of Marvel. Whilst DC has had its slip-ups (JL: War and Son of Batman being notable examples), Marvel haven’t really had much success. But these are a few I’d recommend as only a casual Marvel comics reader

Doctor Strange: a nice introduction to the sorcerer supreme with great moments for the character as he overcomes adversity to become the sorcerer supreme. There’s debate about the addition to his back story and I think it adds depth and emotional weight to the character. People very rarely are jackasses just for the sake of it.

The Hulk vs Series: Both Hulk vs Wolverine and Hulk vs Thor are very fun romps within the Wolverine/Hulk universe, with Deadpool appearing as part of the weapon X squad in the Wolverine one (voiced by Nolan North)

And that’s about it. There are a couple of decent ones I’ll cover in future Guilty Pleasure reviews, but those are the two that stand out to me. (Thor: Tales of Asgard and Young Avengers are in the line-up for some-when)

We also have the following which I’ll cover briefly

The Invincible Iron Man – Largely forgettable

Iron Man: Rise of the technovore – confusing

Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes united – Childish

Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United – Childish

Planet Hulk – Decent-ish

But today, I’m doing Ultimate Avengers 2. In 2000 Marvel began the launch of the ‘Ultimate Universe’ imprint. It was a way of establishing characters without being hampered by decades of continuity, hopefully attracting new readers in the process.

It started with Ultimate Spider-man, still the most popular of the series (although it got a new titular character after the supposed Death of Spider-man) then Ultimate Fantastic 4 and X-men. But the Ultimate version of the Avengers came out initially in mini-series called Ultimates (1, 2 and 3) it was the original Ultimates book that drew the inspiration for Ultimate Avengers. (Given the synopsis from Wikipedia, it follows most of the story (minus the wife abuse storyline for Hank) folding in the Hulk plot within the Chitauri invasion plot) it was a decent success that a sequel was made, Ultimate Avengers 2

Unlike the original, Ultimate Avengers 2 is a unique story, it does not follow the plot-line of Ultimates 2, at all (largely because it hadn’t been fully written yet) and we have tagline: Rise of the Black Panther. Black Panther is a criminally underrated character in Marvel. I’d go into his origin, but this is more or less the subject of the movie.

For this review, bare two things in mind: 1) I haven’t rewatched Ultimate Avengers for this, so don’t expect me to latch onto continuity errors between films. And 2) the only Ultimates book I’ve ever read is the Avengers vs New Ultimates: Death of Spider-man tie-in book

With that out of the way, let’s dig in:

Anime Retrospective: Death Note

Ah, the wonderful world of Japanese anime. A genre I have never really gotten into and still really haven’t. Still a friend of mine drew me to this series. And... Well let’s take a look 

Spoilers to follow