Cover Story - Top 17 Bizarro Covers

This week marks the live action debut of Bizarro on CBS’ Supergirl.  Granted this is Bizarro Supergirl as opposed to the standard Bizarro Number One of the comics but it’s still a pretty big deal all things considered.  I’m a massive Bizarro fan so this is a pretty big deal for me and I’ve chosen to celebrate by taking you through the best Bizarro covers I could dig up from across the characters very long history.  

This is going to be one of those Cover Stories where the cover collection doubles as an excuse to talk about Bizarro’s exceedingly weird history so in case you ever wanted to know what the deal was with the chalk white rocky Frankenstein Superman that is Bizarro, here we go.

Cover Story - Top 10 Lucifer Covers

In case you hadn’t heard, Fox is premiering a new show entitled Lucifer, allegedly based on the Vertigo comics of the same name.  I say “allegedly” because by all evidence Lucifer the show is about Satan coming to Earth so that he can help the police solve mysteries whereas Lucifer the comic was an exploration of mysticism, cosmology, faith, and identity.  

I get that for a lot of folks Vertigo’s Lucifer was hardly required reading but it stands tall alongside works such as Hellblazer, Fables, and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as some of the comics that put Vertigo on the comic book map.  Understandably, I’m pretty disappointed the TV adaptation has settled on the most generic stock plot to fill things out, however that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the original comics.  That’s what I’m here to do today, bringing you the top 10 Lucifer comic covers.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on Lucifer.

Week of Review - X-Files S7 Episode Guide

And so we reach the final season in my X-Files episode guide.  This is the last season I watched through when I did my original sit down with the X-Files, mainly because after this things got really weird.  This is really the last season where you could count on finding the Scully/Mulder versus monster of the week type episodes I really like, after this the two got split and the episodes were far more conspiracy based.  

However, this is still a superb season with a ton of episodes I totally recommend, even if the actors are starting to feel a little worn and sick of one another.  I’m told that Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny had grown perturbed with each other over the years of shooting, which is why season 8 had them split up.  I’m not sure if that’s true but there is a degree of passive aggressiveness to their performances this season that makes it seem plausible.  Nothing major, just know what you’re getting into before hand.  With that said, here’s your guide to The X-Files season 7.

Week of Review - X-Files S6 Episode Guide

Season 6 was a very different time for The X-Files.  The season is still in shock after the impact of X-Files: Fight the Future and the season 5 finale, which saw the destruction of the X Files that Mulder had been pulling from and the agents getting reassigned to a new assistant director.  As such, a lot of the episodes ended up with the agents stumbling into an X-File type situation, Mulder pulling together old fragments of the burned cases, or actively seeking out weirdness other agents had written off.  Eventually this fell away as the status quo was returned to normal but it was still a major shift when it happened.  As such, some of these one-off episodes are a little difficult to jump into if you don’t know who like AD Kresh or Agent Spender are.  However, if you just role with those punches there’s a lot to like this season.

Panel Vision - Suicide Squad Guide

So, Suicide Squad is on the way and we’re starting to get a pretty good idea of what to expect.  After the unmitigated disaster that was Batman v. Superman following up a 2 year silence in the wake of Man of Steel’s soft landing with audiences, DC/WB really need a big hit with Suicide Squad if they’re to remain a solvent business going into the tail end of this decade.  

As such, Suicide Squad seems to be trying to pull off an incredibly tricky double act of existing within/expanding the established DC cinematic universe of Man of Steel/Batman v. Superman while also trying to add serious amounts of personality and levity to one of the grimmest worlds in cinema today. 

We’ll see if it actually pulls that ambitious goal off in the end but for now I figured I’d give you a guide to the various members of this cinematic Suicide Squad, owing to how little we’ve learned about them from the trailers.  The only folks I won’t be covering are Harley Quinn and the Joker as I suspect they’ve been around long enough and visible enough for everyone to already know what their deal is. 

Week of Review - X-Files S4/S5 Episode Guide

Seasons 4 and 5 are actually where the X-Files closed off one of its primary plotlines.  People tend to forget this but in season 5 they actually resolved their major mythology plots involving the gray alien invasion and the global syndicate that had been manipulating the Earth.  Both groups would resurface in season 6 and during X-Files: Fight the Future but this is still where one chapter closed and another opened.  That doesn’t have a huge impact on the one-off episodes but it’s worth mentioning for the shift in elements.  That would ramp up even more come season 6 but we’ll get to that when we do, for now this is your guide to The X-Files season 4 and season 5.

Suicide Squad Trailer 2

This is going to be an odd year for superhero films.  Previous years have been defined by major throwdowns like Dark Knight Rises against Avengers or attempts from smaller studios to reassert dominance like X-Men: Days of Future Past or Amazing Spider-Man 2.  This year, we’ve still got some of that, in particular this is the year Batman v. Superman will go toe-to-toe with Captain America: Civil War, but there’s way more weirdness and offbeat entries this year.  In February we’ll be seeing Fox take a chance on Internet love with Deadpool, a movie that only got made thanks to the positive response to a leaked trailer.  Then in November Marvel will throw its hat into the fantasy arena with Dr. Strange. 

And in August DC makes its first attempt to implement this whole “movie universe” approach with Suicide Squad, about a team of super villains conscripted by the government for high risk missions.  Even amongst all the other weirdness Suicide Squad has been the odd man out, mainly thanks to a very bizarre marketing campaign that followed up the first, and pretty interesting, trailer with a ton of images that made the movie look both gritty and ridiculous.  Now we’ve got a second trailer and the film looks…well it still looks gritty and ridiculous but now in the best way possible.

Week of Review - X-Files S3 Episode Guide

Season 3 of the X-Files is really where the show found its feet and put together its excellent formula.  Basically, this is the season where the show finally decided to start adding in a greater amount of subtext and purpose to its monster of the week stories.  There are still plenty of fun one-off episodes and light hearted romps through the ridiculous weirdness of the X-Files mythos but there are just as many about neglected veterans, the plight of immigrants, or the cruel miscarriages of the American justice system.  So, let me guide you through The X-Files season 3. 

Static Thoughts - Superman: Fun and Games

So, Supergirl has resumed airing with a brand new episode that featured one of the more off-beat Superman villains: The Toy Man.  The episode was a solid entry and an interesting reworking of the Toy Man’s character, drawing from his original identity as an older toymaker criminal while also making him the deranged father of series supporting character Winslow Schott Jr.  It’s overall a very solid handling of an actually pretty troublesome character within the realms of Superman villains.  Most of Superman’s foes that are interesting enough to come back more than once are defined by their power and ability to go head-to-head with someone as strong as Superman but Toy Man has always been an outsider in this realm.

 He doesn’t have any powers or even a robo-suit like Lex Luthor, just his crazy toy based inventions.  Even the idea of him using toys as weapons is a little odd, something that sounds cut more from the realms of Batman or the Flash, to the point that Batman the animated series concocted their own toy collector villain.  Supergirl mostly handled these elements well by slotting Toy Man’s creepiness into a familial center, tying into the show’s overall themes of family conflict but there is one show that did the character even better: Superman the animated series. 

Week of Review - X-Files S1/S2 Episode Guide

I’m not sure how much of a preamble this article requires.  The X-Files is coming back to screens and so we’re all involved going back to rewatch the old show and fondly enjoy our ‘90s nostalgia.  As such, now is the perfect time for a retrospective, but rather than try to encapsulate each season in a review I’m doing this in the form of an episode guide.  The basic rules are that these are the one-off episodes I recommend from each season.  

They’re the “monster of the week” type adventures you can just jump right into without needing to know anything about X-Files continuity or canon other than Fox Mulder believes and Dana Scully doubts.  I’ll talk about each episode and try not to give anything major away but if you really want to be 100% spoiler free, going in totally cold, just read the list names and go from there.  I’m only going through season 1-7 because those are the ones I watched and I’m starting with season 1 & 2 because there weren’t a ton to recommend.  We’ll be doing that same trick with a few other seasons later on too, for now this is the X-Files Episode Guide for season 1 and season 2.

Cover Story - Top 10 Golden Age Captain America Covers

Hello and welcome to Cover Story, diving as little into the world of comics as possible.  This coming week represents the anniversary of Captain America’s creation, a landmark moment that’s being celebrated with a lavish special on ABC alongside the Agent Carter 2 hour premiere.  Given this is also the 240^th anniversary of America’s funding and the premiere of Captain America: Civil War, the third installment in what’s become the definitive superhero franchise of this era, it’s a good time to be Captain America that, I’ve decided to showcase some Cap covers this week.  However, much like Wonder Woman there are so many Captain America comics I could never cover them all in one go so these covers are just the Golden Age Captain America issues IE ones from the 1940s.  So, let’s jump into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 10 Captain America covers of the Golden Age of comics. 

Panel Vision - Legends

In March 1986 DC Comics would change the course of the comic book medium and superhero genre forever in the conclusion to their major event comic Crisis On Infinite Earths.  The conclusion featured the first ever universe reboot and a line wide relaunch, essentially allowing the company to start over from scratch after nearly 20 years of continuity.  It was a risky move in a long history of risky moves DC had been making throughout the late Silver Age such as launching numerous non-superhero comics, selling their merchandising rights to Kenner toys, and launching the Superman movie. 

The revival was a major success but with it came new issues, mainly based around establishing the comic universe’s new status quo and where a lot of characters from the previous era stood now that everything had reverted back to square zero.  So, in November of 1986 DC launched a special 6-issue mini-series entitled Legends written by John Ostrander and Len Wein with artwork by John Byrne, let’s take a look. 

Panel Vision - Who Is The Black Panther

So, Ryan Coogler is going to be directing Marvel’s Black Panther.  That’s a big news story I’ve already pretty conclusively explored but it’s also given me a nice chance to dip into the Black Panther barrel of article material now that he’s momentarily topical.  We’ll probably come back to Black Panther again in the future given his movie won’t be here till 2018 so I’m saving the meatier explanation of his character history for future installments.  For now, this will just be a look at one of the best Black Panther stories of the modern era and a great introduction to the character for new readers: Who Is The Black Panther. 

Panel Vision - DC Comic Pasts

So, Legends of Tomorrow is on the way and a big part of this show is going to be time travel.  How much time travel is involved is still a little unclear but we at least know a good chunk of the show will take place in the ‘70s and that Jonah Hex, a cowboy hero from America’s old west (1870-1880s) will play a role in the story.  Those are both pretty great ideas and they’ve got me thinking about the history of the DC Universe.  One of the weird things about comic book universes is that because of how much unregulated weirdness was popping around comics for so long they end up with super weird visions of history.

 Sometimes this is due to the mandate of setting, like how all of DC’s cowboy adventures had to happen in the old west even if they involved guys like El Diablo, a bank teller who was possessed by a spirit of vengeance.  Other times it’s the result of time travel nonsense or just the fact that some characters and places have just always existed.  As such I’m looking back at some of the craziest and most interesting points in DC Comics’ history, let’s dive in. 

1st Godzilla 2016 Images

In case you hadn’t heard there’s a new Godzilla movie coming our way real soon.  I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing, the last one was only a couple of years ago and even though sequels come out quick these days there’s usually more of a gap than that, especially given all the production shenanigans now plaguing Legendary studios.  However, this new Godzilla film isn’t a sequel to the 2014 formula snore-fest with a better than expected ending, it’s a whole new Godzilla movie produced by Toho, the Japanese studio that invented the king of the monsters.  While none of the Godzilla films are objectively great movies the very achievement of Godzilla himself is pretty impressive, one of the truly modern pop icons that comes exclusively from the world of film. 

The entire genre of “giant monster movie” was more or less defined by Toho and it was Godzilla that helmed that flagship.  What’s more, a lot of now common ideas like broader, inter-movie continuity originated in the Toho Kaiju franchise as well as the Universal monster movies.  As such, the launch of a new Godzilla film from the people who created him is a big deal and now we have our first images and they’re absolutely terrifying. 

1st Dr. Strange Images

So, I guess it’s about time to talk about Dr. Strange.  Honestly I’ve been kind of mixed on this whole project since the beginning, and I say that as one of the few genuine Dr. Strange fans.  I know a lot of folks are getting into the sorcerer supreme now thanks to the publicity of the film production but I’ve actually been a big fan of his since before the MCU got started and even I was pretty skeptical about a Dr. Strange movie.  The main reason for this is just that not every character or comic can work across several mediums. 

There are some comics that just only work as comics, the same way there are TV shows or books that could only work and be as resonant as they are in one particular medium.  It also didn’t help that I’m not really a Benedict Cumberbatch fan.  Now we’ve got our first look at him in costume along with some interesting concept art sketches and…while, I’m still not convinced this is going to work it certainly looks more interesting than it did before.

 

Ryan Coogler Directing Black Panther

So, the first major comic book adaptation news story of 2016 is officially here with the announcement that Ryan Coogler will be directing Black Panther for Marvel Studios.  This is one of those announcements that’s been in the post for a long time but it’s nice to finally have official confirmation on it.  Black Panther has been lingering over Marvel’s phase 3 schedule alongside Captain Marvel ever since they both got bumped from the 2017 spot by the new Spider-Man movie so getting some kind of information on it is thoroughly welcome.  At the same time it’s great to see Marvel pursuing an African American director for the film, especially an up and coming talent like Ryan Coogler. 

Coogler may be new but so far he’s shown amazing directorial skill mixed with a consummate and confident sense of vision that makes him feel like an old pro.  His twin success, Fruitvale Station and Creed, have helped make him a serious name in both critical circles and with audiences so throwing him the reigns to a big budget Marvel superhero film feels like the next natural step in his evolution as a filmmaker.  However, Black Panther isn’t just a big budget superhero film, it’s an adaptation of the most important black superhero of all time and possibly the biggest mark for diversity in this genre since Blade.

Cover Story - Top 12 Twilight Zone Covers

Hello and welcome to Cover Story, diving as little into the world of comic books as possible.  Well it’s a new year and with a new year comes the annual Twilight Zone marathon.  In case you’ve never encountered it before, every year on New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July the SciFi channel hosts a massive marathon of the sci-fi/horror/fantasy anthology TV series the Twilight Zone.  Given that just happened and there’s nothing else topical to base this week’s Cover Story on we’re taking a look at the Twilight Zone comics that were published alongside the original show back in the 1950s.  Given that comics of that era were all about weird stories and anthology storytelling the Twilight Zone was the perfect fit for a comic adaptation.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 12 Twilight Zone comic covers.

Comics Rainbow - All-Star Western

One of the major trends of 2015 was a revival of the long abandoned genre of the American Western.  To a degree this has been building in the background for a while with major hit like Django Unchained, well regarded entries like True Grit, and even notable failures like Jonah Hex or Lone Ranger.  This year marked a full on explosion of the revival however with Revenant, Hateful 8, Ridiculous 6, Slow West, and Bone Tomahawk.  Given that two of those movies just came out and Jane Got A Gun is releasing soon I figured it’d be a good time to look at the Western and cowboy heroes of DC comics. 

DC has pretty much always been more than just its superheroes, mainly thanks to the decade it spent in the ‘50s cranking out war comics, cowboy comics, weird science stories, and horror comics.  Most of those elements were revived in the ‘70s to mass acclaim and their Western heroes were key among them, leading o a mass stable of gunslingers, bounty hunters, and sheriffs all under the DC banner in all their shames, shades, and successes. 

Static Thoughts - X-Files: Pusher

One of the majorly anticipated events of 2016 is the return of the X-Files, a genre show from the ‘90s that lasted 9 seasons, 2 movies, and served to dominate the sci-fi landscape in that decade.  Seriously, Star Wars may have been king in the ‘80s and Terminator was an early wonder of the ‘90s but it was X-Files and Star Trek that truly ruled the ‘90s sci-fi conversation and with good reason.  X-Files managed to grow from a ‘90s curiosity revolving around conspiracy theory Americana like big foot and Area 51 into an incredibly tight and well written horror sci-fi series that was the first time cops and the paranormal were combined in the mainstream. 

The entirety of genre TV has been impacted by the X-Files, with some additional points even into mainstream television, like how Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan got his start on X-Files.  One of Gilligan’s episodes is my subject for today’s review, a season 3 installment called ‘Pusher’ that revolves around a disaffected sociopath with the power to psychokinetically impose his will on people.  Basically, the titular Pusher is like the first draft version of Kilgrave, the villain of 2015’s hit streaming superhero show Jessica Jones.

Static Thoughts - The Thin Blue Line

Tonight marks the return of one of the more eclectic and bizarre installments of our new “Golden Age” of Television: Brooklyn 99.  When Brooklyn 99 premiered a couple years ago it was quickly treated as the next thing in sitcoms and heralded by a lot of critics as something you needed to be watching to be in the know.  However, 3 years later the show holds a very different place in the television landscape as it’s struggled to define its identity as a lighthearted and non-serious cop comedy in the wake of growing concerns over police misconduct and brutality.  Maybe I’ll dedicate more time to Brooklyn 99’s metamorphosis in a future review but for right now, the show’s shift in focus rather than risk getting into more serious fair reminds me of a highly underrated British comedy starring Rowan Atkinson and David Haig entitled The Thin Blue Line. 

Panel Vision - Blockbusters According to Comics 2015

The end of one year and beginning of a new one is a time of serious duality, a time to look back and reminisce while also dream of the future yet to come.  In that respect I’ve got my own blend of year appraisal and prognostication/wishful thinking for the year to come in the form of “Blockbusters According to Comics.”  This is where I look over some of the biggest hit films, TV, and trends of the past year and try and find the comic book property that could be adapted to fit well into that particular cresting wave.  Currently I’m limiting my suggestions to DC and Marvel properties but we’ll see, in the years to come maybe Image and Darkhorse and friends will have enough properties and clout to consider an adaptation.  Till then, here are the blockbusters according to comics.