#73 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 3)

Oh goody, Heroes in Crisis, time to put this garbage to bed. Here’s a recap of what I’ve covered so far: A bloody massacre as occurred at the strange and stupidly run facility known as the Sanctuary, tapes that shouldn’t exist were leaked to Lois Lane and rather than giving essential evidence to the Justice League, she wrote an article.

Superman makes a statement to the press rather than actually looking for the killer. That honour goes to Booster gold, who after claiming innocence under the Lasso of truth, something I will not drop btw, is pursued by Harley Quinn and Batgirl who still think he’s the murderer for some reason. On his side is Ted Kord, who has donned his pre-new 52 appearance because Tom King and Jamie S Rich don’t know jack about DC continuity. And most of you are probably still wondering why I spent half my first review giving you the backstory of Wally West when he’s been dead the whole time. But don’t worry, answers will follow. Also, this is all that’s happened in 5 issues.

Guilty Pleasures #46 - Justice League

Over the course of 10 years and over a dozen movies, it’s all been building up to this, this is… wait no, that was Avengers: Infinity War, let’s take a look at Justice League

DC comics do not have a good track record with movies. Since launching the DC Cinematic Universe, only one of their movies has a been a critical success. But most made money at the box office, here we’re looking at DC’s first bonafide flop. The movie was a bit of a mess behind the scenes thanks to Zack Snyder quitting the project and being replaced by Joss Whedon, who rewrote parts of the script and that entailed intensive reshoots.

For the record, I hold no ill will to Zack Snyder for his decision to step down. The loss of a loved one, especially under those circumstances, is a horrible thing to go through and I totally understand his decision to step aside. Then studio then mandated the film be under 2 hours long and wanted it released by the end of 2017 so executives could get their bonuses before the merger of WB and AT&T, this in spite of some hiccups in post-production.

The extent of the reshoots brought the budget up to $300m, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. It made $657m at the box office; once marketing was factored in that lead to an estimated $60m loss for the studio. So, where did this movie go wrong? And did it deserve to fail?

Vixen season 2 review (CW Seed)

Vixen, whilst not a perfect series by any means was a good introduction to her character and good enough that she made a few appearances in live action and her mother is now a regular on Legends of Tomorrow. Also, a second series of web-shorts have been released further exploring her character. So, did it offer any improvements, let’s take a closer look

Heroes v Aliens review

So, the 4 DC superhero shows are crossing over this week and they’re fighting the alien despots known as the dominators. This is big, so big I’m coming back for one last review, even reviewing an episode of a season I haven’t been watching.

DC Rebirth review - Nightwing/Justice League

Time for me to review an insane amount of comics all in one go, again. Let’s skip the intro and get on with it

DC Rebirth review - Action Comics/Detective Comics/Batman/Superman/The Flash/Wonder Woman

So DC has decided to relaunch all their titles with new creative teams and is attempting to bring legacy back into the DCU. This is a very good idea, legacy is one of the greatest assets DC has over Marvel, which has almost all of its heroes operating in the current day. Another interesting part a number of series are now biweekly, and since the Hiatus combined with how many titles I’m covering make it impossible to do 4 issue tests on all of them I’m going to review the bi-weekly titles in 2 reviews. The first will cover the titles that first came out in June, and the second will cover those that came out in July.

As usual, I’ll cover the first 4 issues of the relaunch, plus the rebirth issue if there is one. But bear in mind that I won’t be covering them in as much detail as I would a regular 4 issue test because I’m covering several comics at once.

The Flash season 2 finale review (episodes 21-22) - Invincible/The Race of his Life

So, I've been fundamentally disappointed with this season of the Flash, will it pull out all the stops for its finale? Has any show been disappointing for 20 episodes and had a good finale? Let's just dive in

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 19-21 review

TV Shows are working towards their finales, and this is the penultimate time we look at the Flash (with this season's quality, it may well be for good)

The Flash Season 2 episode 18 review - Versus Zoom

It's been no secret the Flash has begun to irritate me this season, let's see if another big Zoom confrontation can help salvage this thing

The Flash Season 2 episodes 16-17 review - Trajectory/Flashback

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 14-15 review - Escape from Earth-2/Sharkbait

As the Flash takes a 4 week break, we look at episodes 14 and 15 of the series

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 12-13 review - Fast Lane/Welcome to Earth-2

And it's time to take another look at the events of the Fastest man a... well second... it's time to look at the events of the third fastest man alive in the Flash

The Flash Season 2 episodes 10-11 review - Potential Energy/The Reverse Flash Returns

Warning: This review has many tangents and rants, spoilers for the Flash Annual #3 and Batman Beyond (And that episode of JLU that was a Batman Beyond ep)

Also, sorry this is late, but I pretty much exhausted myself with a 4 issue test review coming up.

The Flash/Arrow Season 2/4 Episodes 8-9 - Legends of Today/Legends of Yesterday/Running to Stand Still/Dark Waters

We have another Flash Arrow crossover as the setup for Legends of Tomorrow continues, plus we have the mid-season finale of Arrow reviewed by the guy who's only watched 4/9 episodes, fun awaits.

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 6-7 review - Enter Zoom/Gorilla Warfare

Schedule note: Because of Thanksgiving both The Flash and Agents of SHIELD will not be airing next week, unfortunately that means a triple episode review of Agents of SHIELD when we're at mid-season break. The reviews of Doctor Who and Star Wars Rebels will continue unopposed. 

With that out of the way, let's look at the next 2 episodes of the Flash

The Flash Season 2 Episodes 4-5 review - The Fury of Firestorm/The Darkness and the Light

Just as a point of interest, I saw Arrow's crossover with Constantine and have kept enough of an eye on the story that I could follow it. It was good, I'm not overwhelmed but it was good. Constantine needed to be a bit more a b*stard if they wanted to fully embrace his character but his presence added to the more light-hearted tone they've been going for. Yes, I will be reviewing both halves of the Flash/Arrow crossover that's imminent plus I'm told the last 2 episodes of both shows will lead into Legends of Tomorrow, so I'll be reviewing both of those as well. I'm not watching Gotham and I'm sorry that Supergirl has also been shafted.

With that all said, let's dig into the next 2 episodes of The Flash

The Flash Season 2 episodes 2-3 review - Flash of Two Worlds/The Family of Rogues

So, I've calmed down from my ranting of 2 weeks ago, and now I bring you more fair reviews of the following 2 episodes, until something else bugs me

4 issue Test #12 - JLA (Justice League of America)

So, time for another continuity bubbled Justice League. The regular continuity with the Justice League titles is one giant clusterf*ck. The way I see it, Geoff Johns’ League is a pre-convergence story, since it features Bruce Wayne as Batman and a fully powered Superman (although I haven’t seen him do his super-solar flare (yeah, that was added recently because if there’s one thing Superman really didn’t need it’s another new power)) this I can only imagine takes place in the 5 years between the opening Justice League story, and the second, that’s a 5-year gap, give or take.

How does this story hold up? Let’s take a closer look

4 issue Test #11 - Martian Manhunter

I know, I'm using issue 2, but my photo-editing skills are limited and this one was easier, kay?

Martian Manhunter is one of the characters most shafted in the New52. Once a high profile member of the Justice League, he was initially reduced to a member of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm team, Stormwatch which had been integrated into the regular DC Universe with very limited success. He then became a member of Amanda Waller’s JLA until the Trinity War and subsequent Forever Evil lead to the team being disbanded.

He then joined the JLU and has been part of their adventures. I believe they’re still ongoing but this title is his first solo outing since the New52 and another part of the DCYou lineup. How does it hold up? Well, let’s take a look.

The Flash Season 2 Episode 1 review - The Man Who Saved Central City

So, The Flash is back for its second season. And it's first season was really good, so we should hopefully expect the same from the second

Apologies to my readers this is going to be less of a review and more me ranting about a plot point.