3rd Wonder Woman Trailer Breakdown

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I find myself a little stymied on how to proceed in breaking down this latest Wonder Woman trailer.  As we barrel towards the June release date, I find myself more and more confused by the growing optimism surrounding the film.  Actually confused isn’t the right word- I know why people are psyched for the movie it’s just that at this point the anticipation is starting to feel more like lower expectations and whistling past the graveyard.  

I don’t mean to sound negative, it’s just that the Wonder Woman trailers haven’t promised the second coming that so many are regarding it as and this latest trailer serves as a perfect example of that feeling.  Actually, the true embodiment of my feelings on Wonder Woman is the atrocious theme by Hans Zimmer. 

Zimmer hasn’t really done anything impressive this decade but the Wonder Woman theme is easily his weakest modern piece, a confused medley of electric guitar and vaguely Mediterranean riffs that feels completely out of place for this character.  Maybe this is because Zimmer’s ‘Now We Are Free’ from Gladiator is already the perfect theme for Wonder Woman but still, the new theme lacks a clear identity and is just too much of a heavy war tune to fit the ambassador of peace.  

And yet I still see people praising it, individuals who were actually condemning not too long ago now saying it’s a great ending to the trailer and not a completely out of place button.  It all makes me wonder what exactly it is nervous Wonder Woman fans want from this movie, until finally it hit me: they want Wonder Woman to be awesome, and that’s okay. 

Static Thoughts - Top 13 Samurai Jack Episodes

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So, Samurai Jack is coming back for a fifth season.  If you’ve never seen or heard of Samurai Jack that probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, so I’ll try and elaborate.  Samurai Jack was one of the last cartoons from what’s considered the Golden Age of WB’s animation channel Cartoon Network.  To be fair, that’s a biased title imposed by people who grew up with the Network during this time, but by the same token, there were plenty of quality programs.  However, most of them were geared towards comedy like Dexter’s Laboratory or Johnny Bravo, with the narrative stuff being mostly relegated to the DC Comics shows. 

Samurai Jack is the prime exception there, a dramatic and beautifully animated series about a time displaced Samurai in a dystopic future desperately trying to return to the past and undo the future he’s trapped within.  It was a well written and wonderfully produced show that was fun for kids and offered a lot to adults in the animation and some of the stories as well.  With that in mind and to celebrate its upcoming revival, I count down my top 13 Samurai Jack episodes. 

Static Thoughts - Kong: King of the Apes

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So, a new King Kong film is upon us.  Kong: Skull Island will be the third official attempt to relaunch the King Kong franchise after the first remake in 1976 by Italian mega-producer Dino De Laurentiis and the 2005 remake by Peter Jackson.  Kong has enjoyed plenty of other revivals well outside those films, though, as any giant ape fan will let you know.  Most famous among these would be King Kong vs. Godzilla, a Japanese co-production that was so successful it landed Kong his own animated TV show. 

However, the King Kong Japanimated show wasn’t the only time he came to the small screen.  No, I’m referring to last year’s Kong: King of the Apes, an American/Japanese/Canadian CGI-animated series for Netflix that premiered April 15, 2016.  It’s a 13 episode block of CGI ape adventures that pit Kong and a cast of human heroes against an army of robot dinosaurs in power armor in the strange and crazy world of 2050.  Given that we’re about to give Kong another shot on the big screen I thought it’d be fun to dive into what might be the strangest corner of his franchise, which is impressive given he once fought his own robot double as built by Doctor Who. 

Comics Rainbow - Apes

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2017 seems to truly be the Age of the Ape.  Apes and Monkeys have always occupied a pretty unique place in the nerd culture pantheon.  They’re not like ninjas or zombies who defined an era before fading away into the collective nerd background noise, and they’re not like superheroes, which just sit atop the pop culture soil like permafrost.  Instead, apes tend to pop up sporadically as pop cultural touchstones that just stand as enduring monuments, like King Kong or Mighty Joe Young or the Planet of the Apes.  

The truth extends to comics as well as everything else, a medium that was once editorially mandated to feature a certain number of gorillas a month.  Given that love of ape characters the annals of comic history are flush with some fan favorites, underappreciated gems, and complete misfire ape characters and today I give you the full spectrum on all of them. 

Panel Vision - Black Lightning Casting Breakdown

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At time of writing the first details and overall structure of CW’s Black Lightning series have finally come to light.  We’ve now got a stronger idea of what the driving impetus of the show will be as well as the names of 4 most important super-cast members.  I’m specifically talking here about the superheroes and villains in the cast rather than folks like Black Lightning’s ex-wife or the prime police officer of the show.  With all this info to throw around, I thought I’d breakdown who the primary cast members of the show are as characters and in the comics as well as looking at the plot synopsis released by CW. 

Filmland - Future of the X-Men Series

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Something odd is happening with the X-Men franchise recently.  Ever since X2: X-Men United the X-Men franchise has been defined by obligation more than anything else.  Sure, there have been good films amid that set-up like First Class or well-liked films like Days of Future Past, but none of these movies seem to exist out of genuine excitement and push for the material from anyone at the studio level.  That’s all sort of changed now with a triple barrel punch from Deadpool, Logan, and Legion, a trilogy of X-Men adaptations that are easily the most creator-driven projects we’ve seen since First Class. 

If there is a sense of obligation to these adaptations it’s hiding itself very well and, as one might suspect, audiences are strongly responding to the newfound sense of enthusiasm and vigor.  Deadpool and Logan have become near instant beloved classics and pop culture staples in stark contrast to the underperforming and mostly forgotten X-Men: Apocalypse.  With the success of these projects and the main X-Men films stalling at the box office and losing their primary director it raises the question: what’s next for the X-Men?

Panel Vision - 7 Possibilities For Wolverine 4

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So, Logan is now officially a major hit.  The third Wolverine film has been the second cheap and dirty, R-rated X-Men blockbuster to dominate the early months of a year following in the footsteps of 2016’s Deadpool and, much like Deadpool, Fox is almost certainly already plotting for a sequel deep within their corporate headquarters.  

Even though Logan featured a decidedly final conclusion, spoilers to follow, it left a lot of elements open for a sequel, mostly centering around the film’s new character X-23, a little girl with Wolverine’s healing powers and claws.  Given that the X-Men is still one of the largest single franchises in comic book history and the world of Logan was an interesting one worth delving into a little deeper I’ve cooked up 7 possible villains who might emerge from out of the woodwork to menace X-23 and her band of mutant rebels in the inevitable Wolverine 4. 

Cover Story - Top 8 Wolverine Covers

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And so the celebration of Wolverine’s latest film adaptation comes to a close in the only way it could: a dive into the comic book covers that have made him such an icon over the past 40 years or so.  

Curiously, however, despite being one of the handful of characters who could keep Marvel Comics afloat all by himself Wolverine’s cover offerings are a little less than robust.  

There are certainly some excellent entries and iconic additions but for the most part, Wolverine comics tend to filter through the same handful of shouting and stabbing poses ad nauseam.  Given that, this is going to be a shorter list but one with a greater eye towards history and iconography.  

After all, Wolverine is one the biggest characters in all of the comics, a franchise unto himself with a visual language steeped in a long history of unique genres and definitive visuals and we’re going to check out 8 of them right here. 

Panel Vision - Old Man Logan

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So, by now Logan is looking to be on track to be the biggest superhero hit of the season and the latest genuine home run for Fox’s X-Men franchise since last year’s Deadpool.  That makes sense- the film looks incredibly well conceived with a lot of excellent elements, and it’s basically just the most recent iteration of the trend of Mark Millar comics getting amazing adaptations.  

If you’re not aware of him, Mark Millar is a Scottish comics author whose been a major staple of the comic scene for the better part of the 2000s.  Millar’s one of the co-creators of Marvel’s very successful Ultimate Universe, which helped inspire the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and wrote the comics that gave us Wanted, Kick-Ass 1 & 2, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, and Captain America: Civil War. 

The one wrinkle about this success is that virtually all of those films changed a ton from the source material because the original comics aren’t really that great.  I already dedicated a whole article to how bad the original Civil War books are, and I could easily do the same for the rest.  You can already see that with Logan as it’s clearly shed nearly everything from Old Man Logan save for the old Wolverine concept.  However, this case is a bit of an exception because Old Man Logan is a great comic. 

Comics Rainbow - Weapon X

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The time has finally come to dig into one of the most labyrinthine elements of mainstream comics- Weapon X.  In reality it’s actually just a smaller component of the much larger and even more complex labyrinth that is X-Men continuity, but I’m not ready to take on that behemoth yet.  While the codename o Weapon X is somewhat hard to pin down, the concept of Weapon X as a secret program to enhance mutant ability first entered Marvel continuity in 1991.  

Despite how recent that is, Weapon X has forever been the subject of countless revisions, retcons, and reboots during the near 30 years of origin exploring Wolverine’s gotten up to.  In that time, the program has changed name, expanded, contracted, and added a slew of other characters as part of its vast roster and today I’m giving the full list of Weapon X’s various members.