Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 63

TV Episode Review: The Flash: Gorilla Warfare

"Gorilla Warfare" finds Barry still recovering from last week's battle with Zoom even while Gorilla Grodd returns to menace the city with an agenda of his own.

*Spoilers Ahead*

Positives:

---Barry's humanity is on full display in this week's episode. His brutal defeat at Zoom weighing heavily on him. It's not over the top or emo, but a very realistic hole.

---It's interesting that there seems to be a hierarchy of Barry emotional support as portrayed in the episode. With Iris around, Barry wouldn't really elaborate on what was bothering him but would tell Joe, but only Henry could really bring him out of his emotional funk in time to save the day.

---The Earth 2 Wells continues to impress. I was afraid after last week, he'd be taking off, but he gets a second wind with a new plan and his decision to masquerade as Reverse Flash to attract Grodd cemented his spot with Team Flash. Yet, there was a moment when he was pretending to be evil Wells where I thought he might not have been play acting.

---Vibing is not only a superpower, it gives us previews of coming new Superheroes. Our first glance of Hawkgirl looks great.

---While Barry has opened up quite a bit about what Reverse Flash did and how his betrayal effected him, Cisco has been a lot more closed but it effected him in an even more dramatic way as Earth One Wells had been a mentor to him for years while living a lie. The scene where he had Earth Two Wells repeat the line Wells 1 read before ripping out Cisco's heart in the destroyed timeline was riveting and there was so much going on there.

---The realization of Gorilla Grodd for television was really beautifully done as were the battle scenes with the Flash. The 1989 TV series could have never done this villain any sort of justice. But the technical handling of this was superb as well.

--Speaking of technical skill, two words: Gorilla city.

---The Flash isn't just an entertaining meal. It's a well planned banquet, with several plots managing to cook at the same time. While not focuses of the episode, there were brief moments that laid the groundwork for Patti getting really firm about finding out what's been going on as well as Iris trying to maintain.

Questions:

Not really a negative but given that Earth 2 Wells is around, it's confusing them to keep referring to the guy from Season 1 as "Wells" given that he wasn't Wells but a time traveler that killed the real Earth 1 Wells and assumed his identity. Might want to think of something else to call.

Overall: You wouldn't expect a lot of emotional drama in an episode where the most obvious highlight is, "Man punches gorilla into alternate universe where hyperintelligent gorillas have their own city," but that's where the Flash has succeeded because it's not just a superhero show, it's a program about characters who are actually decent human beings trying to do the right thing, but have real life struggles. Sometimes, the writers indulge these problems too much when the action demands focus, but this week the emotional issues with Barry had to be resolved and it all worked organically into the plot. After a few rough spots in the beginning of Season 2, the Flash is firing on all cylinders headed into the mid-season finale. Rating: 9/10

TV Episode Review: Supergirl: Livewire

A very big improvement over last week:

Positives:

---Supergirl has faced pretty bland and forgettable villains up until this week. This week, they brought Livewire (Leslie Willis) out of Superman: The Animated Series and the result was superb as Britt Morgan really imbues the character with a true sense of menace, entitlement, and nastiness.

---Leslie Willis' somewhat explicit anti-Supergirl rant was uncomfortable to listen to and the reason this episode garnered a TV-14 rating. At the same time, it did bring home the type of junk that many women are subjected to and hits common ground which every decent person agrees on that this is not something young women should be subjected to, but sadly are.

---We really get a chance to further explore Cat Grant's character. Overall, she's probably the most interesting character in the show and we get some great insights into her. Her guilt over the creation of Livewire as well as her protectiveness of Supergirl are explored. Leslie Willis points out that Cat was critical of Supergirl in her magazine piece, but the difference is that Cat was trying to push Supergirl to be better while Leslie was just being nasty. Calista Flockheart is really doing a great job playing the character. I'm beginning to suspect that knows or suspects Kara is Supergirl.

---I loved some of the lines during the climatic battle with Livewire with Cat responding to a lame quip with, "Congratulations, you have the wit of a You Tube comment." And Supergirls, "Oh, ,shut up, you mean girl."

---Family drama is fairly good as we're introduced to Kara's Foster mother and the messed up though realistic family dynamics.

---Witt's explanation of what he was thankful for was very touching and provided some great insight. It's a bit sad since he's obviously attracted to Kara but he's being written as the nice guy who doesn't get the girl who is way out of his league.

The Bad:

---The episode was aired a week earlier than expected due to the Paris attacks and as such there's things in there that don't make sense with Witt saying he was glad to be dealing with metaphorical bombs for once and the fact that Lucy Lane was more fully introduced in that episode which would have made sense of why she could drag James Olsen off to Ohi. I get why this airing was done (the episode was supposed to episode is set for this week) but I hope when DVD releases are done this is put in proper plot order.

---Speaking of Mr. Olsen, this show has the weirdest relationship dynamic I've seen on television with him and Lucy Lane. He moves all the way to National City to get away from her, clearly likes Kara, but is somehow compelled to go out with Lucy. You get the idea that if he knew Morse Code, he'd be blinking it to send a message requesting help.

---The plot point of Kara's foster father having died under mysterious circumstances and the foster mother suspecting Hank Henshaw was not the best handled or set up portion of this episode. The whole "Mentor figure responsible for parent's death" is cribbed from the Flash and the set up would have worked better had we not been getting, "Something's weird with" flashes of Red eyes every week. Still, the plot does have potential for some nice surprises later on.

Overall: At last, Supergirl gets a memorable villain and we get more insight into Cat Grant and Kara's family life. This is probably the best episode of Supergirl yet. 8/10

Book Review: Golden Age Masterworks: All-Winners Volume 3

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners, Vol. 3 by Marvel Comics

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 9-14 of Timely's Quarterly comic All Winners, featuring stories with the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America from Summer 1943-Winter 1944/1945. The book has some more stories, but if you're looking for the best Golden Age comic books this is a collection to skip. The draft had taken a toll on Timely's writers and also the magazine had a far less engaged editor than the drafted Stan Lee.

1) The Human Torch only appeared in five of the six issues, but I think his stories were probably the best. He kept mostly to battling typical war time foes, but this was done with the gusto. The best story in the book was Sky Demons over America which has the Torch battling the Hawk, who's a superb looking villain. There's a beautiful spread of a aircraft carrier early in the story.

2) The Submariner probably has the biggest artistic problems in the book. His head just seemed to grow more and more out of proportion as the war went on. Still, his stories aren't half bad. A very nice tale has Sub-mariner trying to convince the Germans he's got tired of fighting for the allies (You could almost believe it with him.) In Issue #11, the Sub-mariner began to use alliterative interjections at an alarming rate (all related to the sea.) These interjections included Sleeping Salamanders, Shriveling Shrimp, and Galloping Guppies. (All that on one page.) Overall, these aren't great Sub-mariner stories but again solid.

3) Captain America really has an uneven quality about him. The first three stories are ho hum. Whoever was writing Cap during the war had lost track of what made the character so appealing so when we were only getting a plain adventure strip. Things picked up a little bit with Issue #12's "Four Trials of Justice" in which the Red Skull returns to fight the Four Freedoms. Issue #13 comes closest to capturing the Simon/Kirby style with a real horror story. Issue 14 is a dumb story that's war propaganda that depends on people throwing away puzzles when it's found out they're made in Japan.

4) The Whizzer: These six-seven page stories were mostly filler. The best one of them was in Issue 13 where a mad scientist sets elaborate traps for Timely's speedster.

5) The Destroyer: Without Stan Lee, this character went downhill. The stories are dull and fairly hoe hum affairs, with a good moment or two thrown in. He was only in four issues and that was a mercy.

The book includes some fine cover art, a few public service announcements featuring Captain America, and some bland text stories. The book has as much politically incorrect material as any other book in the era.

Overall, this isn't bad but there are much better collections out there.



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Book Review: Superman: The Silver Age Dailies Volume 3

Superman the Silver Age Newspaper Dailies Volume 3: 1963 1966 by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This volume collects the last twenty-two Superman Daily newspaper strip stories. There are some pretty fun stories in here, "The Man Who Stole Superman's Secret Life" is actually a sequel to a previous Superman amnesia story. "Lex Luthor, Daily Planet Editor" has both Superman and Luthor travelling back in time to 1906 San Francisco, "Lois Lane's Anti-Superman Campaign" is a very amusing tale that has Superman running for the Senate and Lois eventually running against him in a fun story that has a bit of a cop out ending to maintain the Status Quo. And the final, "From Riches to Rags" has Superman assuming a variety of identities to fight iniustice. The reason for this is a bit silly but it's still fun.

While I found most of the book enjoyable, it's easy to see why it's popularity was waning. There were far too many repetitive storylines. (Amnesia, Red Kryptonite) I had to laugh when I saw the story titled, "When Superman Lost His Memory." As if that hadn't happened a thousand times before. The tone of the story was also a bit more juvenile than would appeal to the general newspaper reading public, and as was pointed out in the introduction, most of these stories that were adapted were second features in the comics which meant they were lesser stories to start with.

Still, this book offers a lot of fun for readers who are young at heart and expanded versions of several comic stories that many a Superman fan would find delightful.



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TV Episode Review: The Flash: Enter Zoom

With Supergirl a bit mediocre, and Doctor Who turning in the worst episode of the Capaldi era so far, the Flash was clearly the best thing I watched all weekend as he faced Zoom after six episodes.

The good:

---I loved Barry's decision to go after Zoom but also understand the team's conflict over it. There's a real dilemma. Zoom had spent the first five episodes sending every Earth Two villain to take on the Flash and innocent people were being put at risk. While the Flash is outflanked here, I think Barry made a sound decision at least in principle for all the right reasons. He can't defeat Zoom without having some idea what he can't do.

---The comical battle between Flash and the fake "Doctor Light" was brilliant. Hats off to the creative team for using comedy effectively. This sort of "light" moment allowed Zoom's coming back to really hit the audience like a punch in the gut.

---The realization of Professor Zoom was so good, so satisfying. We know our hero is up against a big time challenge and we get an idea of the scale of the challenge. Rarely has the idea of a speedster villain been so well-played, when you're really given a sense of menace that speed could represent. This is leaps and bounds ahead of the Reverse Flash in terms of pure menace and I have to agree with characters wondering if Zoom's even human. And the way he manhandles the Flash despite some good strategy was stunning. Flash has got a monster on his hands and we can expect this to build to a rematch in fifteen episodes or so.

---Tom Cavanagh absolutely kills it as Harrison Wells from Earth 2. He does a good job taking this Harrison Wells and making him an entirely different character. I love the twist on the realization that the reason for his attitude and horrible behavior wasn't because he was a bad guy but because he was just desperately concerned for his daughter.

---Cisco stretching himself as Vibe is done in a way that is amusing with him trying to find some way to Vibe Wells.

---The character of Patti is also being well-handled both as her relationship with Barry is developing quite nicely and she gets close to the secrets. I would complain about how this really goes against a lot of the Iris plot as Barry's "One True love" throughout Season One, but I actually like Patti more than I did Iris last season. Iris is definitely being better handled this season, but I think it's probably a good idea to let us know Iris is before throwing her into any more romances.

We do seem to have that recurring theme of people hiding things from people they should trust in the Flash and it playing out with Patti and Joe. You have to wonder if they'll ever learn.

The Bad:

---Okay, Barry, there's a reason they call it a "secret identity." It's supposed to be a secret. His revealing his secret identity to Linda seems totally non-sensical. She doesn't deserve to know. They went on a few dates, she pushed too hard, and nothing we saw last season justifies her knowing, particularly when his current girlfriend doesn't know.

With modern superhero shows, we're moving away from the paradox of characters who stand for truth living a total lie to the people they care about the most as they open up about their superhero identity to people who are close to them in shows like The Flash and Supergirl, but this list shouldn't be everybody out there and I can't wonder if he'll pay a price that'll make him a little more cautious.

Summary: "Enter Zoom" is one of the best. It's a very entertaining story that pays off with a memorable defeat for our hero and shows the challenge he has ahead. It's the best show of Season 2 so far. 9/10.

TV Episode Review: Supergirl: Fight or Flight

Here are my thoughts on Episode 3 of Supergirl, Fight or Flight:

Positives:

---Calista Flockheart continues to impress as Cat Grant. Other than the interview, I like the character even in the way she's unlikable. Her relationship with Kara/Supergirl is great. The whole idea of Cat as this very difficult person who has some life wisdom that ends up helping her. Her slam on Supergirl as representative of millennials and the challenge that poses is really nice. Love Cat except as an interviewer. (See below.)

---Maxwell Lord is a complex character in the DC Universe and this episode does a good job bringing him in. It'll be interesting to see how he develops.

---I'm not sure the humor was intended but the idea of a Government Agency taking a pass on helping SUpergirl catch a supervillain with a nuclear core in that could level National City because their department only deals with aliens was a hilarious commentary on government incompetence.

---I liked the idea of James having used his Superman watch to call for help had less to do with him not having confidence in Kara and more to do with him being afraid. It's a good character touch.

---There are so many ways to have Superman in the Supergirl universe without actually having his face seen or having to cast the part. We get to see his boots and then he and Kara text, I look forward to having him have a speaking role and his voice being the Charlie Brown *mwa mwa mwa*



The Bad:

---Cat Grant is not a good interviewer. You want an interview with a reclusive celebrity to go well, set them at ease, make them feel like your friend so they'll open up and spill. Maybe save some of the "cattiness" for later to borrow a pun. And you're doing a whole magazine on that, really?

---Also, really, the military was upset that she'd revealed she was Superman's cousin. People probably have assumed the relationship was closer.

---Why didn't Kara let Reactron escape after majorly damaging his power source at the first battle? One of the most puzzling moments in Superhero television was Supergirl staring up with a dumbfounded expression as the villain flew into the air and our heroine sat glued to the pavement.

---Like the government agency having no interest in the human nuclear powered creature, the element of Supergirl's headquarters was on that border between the stupid and the sublime. I'm going to call this one stupid. Setting up your secret headquarters in a vacant office that you don't actually own or lease because you assume that forever no one's going to want it because some guy had a heart attack in there a few months back is just dumb.

---Reactron: Very generic villain. It was hard to engage with him, either sympathizing with him or having a true sense of his threat.

---The reasons for not having Superman take a more active role is contrived, perhaps necessarily so, but still contrived. Just because, Superman had to go through everything all alone doesn't mean that every hero should. That's a pioneer situation where one person blazes a trail, but others get to benefit from their experience and wisdom. Logically, Kara's makes little sense except from an ego sense. It makes sense for the writers and it makes sense for rights issue and the desire for the show to focus on Supergirl, but the less said about her cousin in Metropolis the better because the in-universe explanations are kind of weak.

---Given that Kara used super-eaves dropping, her reaction to the end to James Olsen having an ex-girlfriend seemed a little over the top in terms of how much it discouraged her.

Overall, Fight or Flight features a lot about Supergirl in terms of interesting relationships, dynamics, and some solid action moments. However, the show has some kinks that need worked out. The problem with this episode is that it seemed to try and prove that Supergirl was as good a hero as Superman. She's not there, not yet. At the same time, I think there are some tonal issues. While the series has a lighter tone in the same way as the Flash, it's not quite light enough to get away with the goofy idea of this insurance office headquarters for Supergirl.

Rating: 6/10

Book Review: Ultimate Comics Spider-man Vol. 3

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Vol.3 by Brian Michael Bendis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 11-18 of Ultimate Comics Spider-man and in many ways in this book, our hero, Miles Morales is almost carried away by events. Each decision he makes is important, but the world is spinning about him and changing his life without him having to do much at all.

Issues 11 and 12 see the conclusion of his battling with the Prowler (in reality his Uncle Aaron) against the Scorpion and then refusing when his Uncle tries to make him cooperate with him further with tragic results.

This is followed by Miles being met by Gwen, Mary Jane, and Aunt May to receive their blessing and encourage to continue as Spider-man only for Captain America to tell him to stop. Probably the most annoying seen in this whole book is when Gwen yells at Captain America calls him a jerk, a really indulgent writing choice by Bendis. Cap's concern is understandable given his loss of a young sidekick named buck. The next issue, Miles proves his worth, which is good as the book delves directly into the midst of the, "Divided We Stand" arc in the Ultimate Comics Universe.

In some ways, not really being into the Ultimate Universe and not knowing all the details of what's going on is a little disorientating, but I think Bendis does a good job in not revealing too much of what's going on, so we understand the war from Miles perspective. The country's in trouble, there's an outbreak of civil unrest and Spider-man is needed to sort it out. There's more complex stuff behind it, but Miles doesn't know all that and doesn't need to. So, the story does a good job of giving us a Spider's eye view.

Overall, Miles is really put through his paces and grows as a character as a result of it. Overall, a solid installment.



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Book Review: Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War

Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War by Brian Clevinger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Atomic Robo: The Dogs of War is a great book that plays with the concept of Robo as this long lived robot created by Tesla and tossing him into World War II. The book is the same sort of adventure we'd expect from Robo after reading Volume 1. He's battling Nazis and trying to thwart them from developing super weapons. For two stories he joined by a reluctant female partner.

What makes the book work is that the writer and the artist both have a love for the era that comes from their grandfathers and it really flows onto the page. Added with strong basic talent, this makes for a strong book.

In addition to the main comic story, we're treated i95 short "B" stories which run the gamut. One is a nice follow up to the World War II tales, another an expansion of a story from the previous book, one with a member of Robo's team forced to take a vacation, and one leading to Robo swearing off on fighting in the Cold War, leading into a story in which Robo fought in the Cold War.

The latter special is a treat from Free Comic Book Day 2008. It mixes action, technology, and a nice morality play. Too many companies do something cheap on FCBD but kudos to Atomic Robo for doing something really nice instead.

Overall, a superb action-packed book.



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Book Review: Doctor Who: Endgame

Doctor Who: Endgame by Alan Barnes

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the first two years of Eighth Doctor Comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine and introduces Izzy Sinclair.

Overall, what does make the Strips work is that there is a lot of continuity, in fact much more than in the modern Doctor Who Magazine Comic strips I've read. At this point, in terms of creating the Doctor, the magazine had little direction other than the TV Movie as this portrayal came before even the novels.

The best stories in the book are, "Fire and Brimstone" featuring the Daleks, "The Final Chapter" featuring a mystery on Gallifrey and then "Wormwood" where the source comes together and it all involves an alien and a 19th Century Texas tycoon. On the other side of the ledger, the title story, "Endgame" was dull and "Tooth and Claw" (no resemblance to the 10th Doctor TV story of the same name) was cheesy and unfunny at the same time.

There were also two one off stories that were included at he end even though these unrelated stories fell in the midst of the the story arc. These are okay with a funny moment or two but not spectacular.

Overall, despite some hiccups, this is a fairly good, with the overall strength of the story arc making this worth reading despite some weaker individual entries.



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Speed Trap Released

My fifth Superhero Comedy, Speed Trap has been released for the Kindle. A paperback release will follow next month and it'll be released in all ebook formats in February. The book is free for Kindle Unlimited members and people with Amazon Prime can borrow the book for free.


It's a very fun tale that has Powerhouse confronting his past, Major Speed wondering what's wrong with his present, and Naomi forced back into the costume hero game as Justice Woman.


The Pharaoh and Fournier are once again the dominant villains in service of King Bel, and we see the return of Leona Campbell (from Tales of the Dim Knight) and the Legendary Armies of the Mercenaries of Evil (from Ultimate Mid-life Crisis) as well as introducing the Troll (a troll who trolls), the Sealed Crack, and the Hijacker.


We also get to see some great guest heroes. We bring back Captain France, Half Brain, and we fully introduce the all female superhero team, the Awesome Women, and it sets the stage for our Christmas ebook, The Speed of the Santa and the conclusion of the series in Powerhouse: Uncivil War