C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 4

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man 1x01 "Amazing Fantasy", 1x02 "The Parker Luck"

    I am going to die a Spider-Man fan. I wasn't quite born one but when I was an adolescent, I saved every Spider-Man comic I bought, polybagged them, and then put a bit of tape on the back before placing them on the walls of my room. I wish I had pictures from that time. I also had Spider-Man sheets, underoos, and a tremendous love of Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane. They were married when I became a fan and the only thing to put me off for a decade of his adventures was the insane idea so...

Nosferatu (2024) review

    NOSFERATU (2024) is a movie that I was initially somewhat ambivalent about seeing. This is because Nosferatu is basically Dracula but for the genius of FW Murnau that made it a visually astonishing work of art. I love Dracula and should be all over this but I'm not sure that you can remake Nosferatu and capture the original essence. Basically, it's not an adaptation of a movie, it's an adaptation of an adaptation. So, what did I think? Eh, it's okay I guess.

    There's a lot going for Nosfer...

Excerpt from The Rise of Supervillainy (Supervillainy Saga #10)

 My phone began playing the “The Super-DuperSplotch Man” by the Ramones. “Hold on, I must take this. It’s aSplotchmergency.”

“Splotchmergency?” Mandy asked. 

“Like thirty percent of my job as Acting Supreme Archmage is dealing with hiscrap,” I muttered. “Like, ‘oh no, my secret identity is exposed, I need you toerase the memory of everyone in the world.’”

“That seems like a gross violation of personal autonomy,” Mandy said.
“Yeah, I just ordered a strike for the video on CrimeTube and spread a...

Alien: Romulus review

    ALIEN: ROMULUS is good. This is something that should be said in the start of the review because it is a miracle on par with Moses parting the Red Sea or the resurrection of Lazarus. It may sound as if I’m engaged in hyperbole but I’m a fan of the Aliens franchise since I bought one of those incredibly mismarketed children’s toys when I was ten. In simple terms, my summary of Aliens can be viewed as, “Alien is good, Aliens is good, Aliens vs. Predator the video game is good, the Dark Ho...

X-men 97' review

 
    X-MEN 97' is an interesting test study in just how much you can appeal to an older audience as opposed to a newer one. Pretty much everyone who watched X-men 92' is going to be in their late thirties and early forties as I just turned 44 while being sixteen when this series was originally out. However, it occurs to me that I played Batman: Arkham Asylum with the same appeal directly being made to my childhood with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill right up until this age. 

    Just because someth...

New Years Resolutions 2025

Some mistakes were made for 2024 in terms of trying new editors, expanding some projects while not paying attention to others, and also attempting to do some licensed fiction deals that didn't pan out. However, 2025 is a brand new year and I have a lot of plans to make it up to my fans. Among these will be the audiobooks for MOON CITY VICE, BRIGHT EYES, SPACE ACADEMY VAGRANTS, and TALES OF CAPES AND COWLS.

I also will be returning to my classic series with the fourth and final Cthulhu Armageddon ...

Chilling Reflections by Drew Hayes review

    CHILLING REFLECTIONS is the third (technically fourth counting Villains Vignettes volume #1) installment of the Villains Code series. For those unfamiliar with the series, it is a world that superheroes and villains have created an uneasy truce on, The villains have effectively restricted themselves to white collar crime and avoiding prosecution for their crimes in exchange for keeping a low profile as well as keeping the rest of the costumed evil doers in line. It's a reasonably lighthearte...

The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim review

    The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim is an adaptation of one of JRR Tolkien’s mythological history of Middle Earth. Specifically, it is an adaptation of the story of Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan, as well as his tragic fall from grace. There’s some unfortunate issues with this, not the least being that the movie doesn’t actually follow the story of Helm Hammerhand but his daughter, Hera, who is only mentioned in the story as Helm’s daughter. I don’t mind stories inspired by thei...

How I'd reboot the Punisher

    The Punisher has an image problem. Not the least because real life assholes have adopted his symbol to spread their hate. The thing is that these people have no right to the Punisher because plenty of other people have loved Frank Castle's adventures and hold them as the kind of people he'd go against. I grew up on Punisher War Journal and while I turned into a maladjusted lunatic, that doesn't mean other people didn't.

    It goes beyond the Punisher's fandom, though, and the writers themsel...

Joker: Folie à Deux review

    Is the Joker: Folie à Deux bad?

    Yes.

    Yes, it is.

    Is it a worthy follow up to the themes of Joker?

    No, not really.

    This is going to be a rather personal review but I've suffered mental issues for much of my life. I'm not going to get into the specifics of them but I had quite a few of them growing up. I had epilepsy for my youth, high functioning autism for adulthood, plus several diagnoses for other issues that range from...oh wait, I said I wasn't going to get into specifics....