Cinematic Universe Episode 7: Superman (1978)
Posted by Seb Patrick at 13:51 on 17 Apr 2015

Daredevil liveblog
Posted by Abigail Brady at 08:00 on 10 Apr 2015

Nearly 12 hours later: Well, that was certainly the best Daredevil film I have seen. It could stand to lose a few hours.
My recommendation: don't marathon it, don't even rush it. Eke it out. There are some big spoilers out there but you should be kinda able to see them coming anyway, and while I wouldn't recommend seeking them out, I don't think your enjoyment will be substantially reduced by it.
The boldest thing about this series is the decision to entirely dump the overall tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that mix of humour, action and emotional truth, that everything from Iron Man to Thor to Agents of SHIELD to Agent Carter has been going for (with varying degrees of success - I'm as fervent in my dislike of SHIELD as James is). This feels very different. There's a combination of tenseness and violence to it quite unlike any of the MCU stuff, with a kind of stylised approach that's also not like any of the grim crime dramas I've been watching lately. It's its own thing. I'm still not sure whether I liked that thing. But it absolutely did what it was trying to do.
Cinematic Universe Episode 6: Watchmen (2009)
Posted by Seb Patrick at 13:44 on 07 Apr 2015

DC's Convergence #0 is actually just a reprint of Armageddon 2001
Posted by Seb Patrick at 00:04 on 01 Apr 2015
I was delighted to receive, from a source who must remain anonymous, an advance copy of the first issue of DC's much hyped crossover event Convergence on Tuesday. My delight turned to astonishment, however, when I cracked open the issue, only to discover that the entire contents of the issue are actually nothing more than a reprint of the 1991 crossover comic Armageddon 2001 #1.
It seems that rather than giving us a brand new storyline based around the pre-Flashpoint versions of their characters, DC have seen fit instead simply to reprint an existing one. As it happens, I'm a big fan of Armageddon 2001 - but even I would baulk at the idea of paying all over again for something I already bought once nearly twenty-five years ago.
On the other hand, the fact that Convergence is nine issues long, while Armageddon 2001's bookending series was only two, suggests that maybe once the first issue is out of the way, things will diverge significantly. Maybe they'll change the ending, and have a character who someone somewhere actually cares about become Monarch?
Either way, Convergence #0 - by Archie Goodwin, Dan Jurgens and Dick Giordano - is in stores today.

Indie Spotlight: Kickstarter Special
Posted by Seb Patrick at 13:12 on 23 Mar 2015

Review: Agents of SHIELD 2x13: One of Us
Posted by Ian Grundy at 12:40 on 21 Mar 2015

"I've had it with these motherfucking quakes on this motherfucking plane!"
There's something deeply unsatisfying about the way the plot of Agents of Shield lurches onwards. Every episode, every scene, and every subplot seems like it was started with absolutely no idea where any of it is going. Plots are frequently resolved by different plots showing up without warning overriding the previous plot. It's like jangling keys at the audience to distract us from the previous jangling keys.
Cinematic Universe Episode 5: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Posted by Seb Patrick at 11:15 on 19 Mar 2015

Review: Agents of SHIELD 2x12: Who You Really Are
Posted by Ian Grundy at 22:50 on 11 Mar 2015

This week's episode guest-stars Jamie Alexander as Sif. Finally, a Sif episode! Sif's presence means there is a chance that someone might at some point actually say "Thor" out loud in a scene, as part of actual dialogue, to another character! As unlikely as it sounds this show actually started off as a tie-in with those popular Marvel movies, so it's always nice when someone from them actually shows up for a bit.
Oh wait, she's lost her memory. Never mind.
Cinematic Universe Episode 4: Agent Carter (2015)
Posted by Seb Patrick at 11:24 on 05 Mar 2015

(Spoilers: they don't.)
Is Spider-Gwen the most important new comic of 2015?
Posted by Seb Patrick at 20:30 on 27 Feb 2015

This is, of course, the very nature of media publicity in general - but there just seems to be something particularly acute about it in comics. Genuine, industry-shattering hits are rare - and ones that break through into the wider consciousness all the rarer - and so for that reason, the publishers seem determined to make sure that they, and not the readers, are the ones to identify which ones they'll be, so that they can be accordingly prepared to deal with them.