Cinematic Universe Episode 7: Superman (1978)

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the latest episode of Cinematic Universe, the comic book movie podcast from FilmDivider.com, featuring Seb and James from PanelBeats alongside host Joe Cunningham.

Daredevil liveblog

Hello, I'm Abigail Brady and I have booked off Friday from eating and needing to go to the toilet, so I'm going to be liveblogging Netflix's Marvel's Daredevil, starting at 0800 sharpish (midnight Pacific). Watch this article from then for updates about how I didn't understand a thing because I was too busy writing about it, until either I finish or pass out.


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.

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Cinematic Universe Episode 6: Watchmen (2009)

Apologies for the belated post, but if you haven't caught it yet, don't forget to check out our latest Cinematic Universe podcast - in association with FilmDivider.com - in which we discuss "visionary" director Zack Snyder's 2009 adaptation of Watchmen.

DC's Convergence #0 is actually just a reprint of Armageddon 2001

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

In our latest Indie Spotlight, we're taking a look at three comics-related Kickstarter projects that are currently ongoing and have caught our eye. Of course, a KS project is no real indication of what the final quality of a book will be like - nor indeed that it will ever show up! - but nevertheless, all three of these have looked to be of interest to us for different reasons.

Review: Agents of SHIELD 2x13: One of Us

Guest reviewer Ian Grundy returns with a look at this week's episode of Agents of SHIELD. It does not have a Thor in it, but it does feature one of your other childhood favourites: Angar the Screamer.

"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

In the latest episode of the comic book movie podcast, in association with FilmDivider.com, PanelBeats editors Seb and James join host Joe Cunningham to try and discover if there's any merit in the 2009 disastro-flop X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and recommend some associated reading along the way.

Review: Agents of SHIELD 2x12: Who You Really Are

Guest reviewer Ian Grundy casts his critical eye over the latest episode of Agents of SHIELD, which almost has a Thor in it.

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)

The comic book movie podcast, now produced in association with Film Divider, gets all televisual, as Panel Beats editors Seb and James join host Joe Cunningham to discuss Marvel's Agent Carter miniseries, and recommend some comics that may or may not actually have Peggy Carter in them.

(Spoilers: they don't.)

Is Spider-Gwen the most important new comic of 2015?

It's a sign of the desperation that pervades an awful lot of comics industry strategy that we're so frequently told that a particular comic is going to be a hit, or something that we absolutely should read, before we know much else about it.

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.