Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 2 August 2022 09:21
(A review of
Abe Sapien)
First Appearance:Ā Hellboy: Seed of EvilBest Writer & Artist:Ā Mike Mignola
No one could have expected the twisted, elaborate backstory of the genteel merman hanging out with Hellboy and a crew of government officials way back in āSeed of Destruction.ā Alas, Abe Sapien turns out to be a former Victorian cultist whose marine-biology friends preserved his body after he merged with a sea deity. More than the religious and mythological undertones of Hellboy, Abe harkens back to the gothic and fantastic remnants of 19th century esoterica that are largely ignored today, save for the occasional H.P. Lovecraft shout out. This agonizing narrative keeps getting weirder and darker, and as much as weād all love to see Abe get a happy ending, the rabbit hole heās currently falling down is endlessly fascinating. āĀ Sean Edgar
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Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 2 August 2022 09:18
(A review of
Mina Harker)
First Appearance:Ā The League of Extraordinary GentlemenĀ #1
Best Writer:Ā Alan Moore
Best Artist:Ā Kevin OāNeill
Iām sure youāve noticed, but mainstream comics tend to have a gender-equality issue. The Wonder Womans and Sue Storms of the world are nice, of course, but comics could definitely use more gals like Mina Harker. A former prisoner of stifling Victorian patriarchy, Harkerās experiences with Dracula led to her becoming the leader of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan MooreāsĀ Avengers-like super group of famed literary characters. Fiercely independent and unafraid to explore her sexuality, Mina is the kind of person who can verbally dress down her egotistical male counterparts while simultaneously one-upping them in sheer badassery. āĀ Mark Rozeman
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Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 2 August 2022 09:14
(A review of
Anton Arcane)
First Appearance:Ā Swamp ThingĀ #1
Best Writer:Ā Len Wein
Best Artist:Ā Berni Wrightson
Itās not often that heroes get to stare into the eyes of the villains who killed them ā okay, maybe it is ā but there was a special brand of evil in the heart of Swamp Thingās nemesis. Anton Arcane, like Spider-Manās Venom, is terrifying because he doesnāt take a form you can just kill or send to a supervillain prison. Weāve seen him take on many different forms sinceĀ Swamp ThingĀ #1 in 1972 ā an old man, a demon from Hell, Swamp Thing himself and the recent protector of The Rot (or basically everything thatās dead) ā but the same always remains for Alec Hollandās fly-infested foe: heās a brilliant manipulator with a soul of pure darkness. āĀ Tyler Kane
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Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 2 August 2022 09:10
(A review of
Tank Girl)
First Appearance:Ā DeadlineĀ #1
Best Writer & Artist:Ā Jamie Hewlett
Long before visualizing the cartoon anarchists of Gorillaz with Damon Albarn, British artist Jamie Hewlett devised the perfect grrrl power counterculture icon in Tank Girl. A blinding reflection of the punk groundswell that greeted former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcherās ultra-conservative legislation, Tank Girl occupied a series of underground comic strips before writers like Peter Milligan cast her in long-form comics and graphic novels. A gorgeous, gratuitous veneer of post-apocalyptic guns ān ammo excess, Tank Girl evolved the grittyĀ 2001 ADĀ formula with a needed dose of estrogen. āĀ Sean Edgar & Caitlin McGurk 0 comments,
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Posted : 2 years, 3 months ago on 2 August 2022 09:02
(A review of
Adam Warlock)
First Appearance:Ā The Fantastic FourĀ #66
Best Writer:Ā Roy Thomas
Best Artist:Ā Gil Kane
Some of the characters on this list are here because they have become a template or trope for other heroes and villains. Adam Warlockās role is rooted in un-assimilated weirdness, and little of that has changed in the space godās 47 years. Yes, with his tendency for cocoon-hatching resurrections, early storylines hint at more than a few Christ parallels, but over time, the character has settled into a near-unique role as a fill-in-the-blank protagonist in any story with cosmic undertones or stakes. āĀ Michael Burgin
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Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 2 August 2022 11:25
(A review of
Driver)
Appearance:Ā [Link removed - login to see]Ā (2011)
Creators:Ā Hossein Amini, James Sallis
Performer:Ā Ryan Gosling
Defining moment:Ā Confined to an orange-hued lift descending to death, Driver kisses Carey Mulligan knowing what heās about to do will destroy their love but save her life ā smashing in the skull of a threatening thug.
Fascinating fact:Ā Nicolas Winding Refn directed Drive but he canāt actually drive.
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Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 2 August 2022 07:22
(A review of
Malcolm Reynolds)
Appearance:Ā [Link removed - login to see]Ā (2005)
Creator:Ā Joss Whedon (from his 2002Ā FireflyĀ television series)
Performer:Ā Nathan Fillion
Defining moment:Ā Reynoldās St Crispinās Day speech. Impassioned oratory with a suitably Whedonesque summation. āNo more runninā. I aim to misbehave.ā
Fascinating fact:Ā Whedon originally wrote the part for Nicholas Brendon (Buffyās Xander). Shooting schedules made it impossible, so Fillion stepped in.
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Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 2 August 2022 07:16
(A review of
Man with No Name)
Appearances:Ā [Link removed - login to see]Ā (1964),Ā [Link removed - login to see]Ā (1965),Ā [Link removed - login to see]Ā (1966)
Creator:Ā Sergio Leone
Performer:Ā Clint Eastwood
Defining moment:Ā At the finale ofĀ The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Eastwoodās amoral treasure hunter chooses to let the treacherous Tuco (Eli Wallach) live. Heās not so amoral after all.
Fascinating fact:Ā The laconic anti-hero appeared in five novels, which continued the series past Leoneās third Dollars film.
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Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 1 August 2022 08:43
(A review of
The Amazing Spider-Man 2)
Both Amazing Spider-Man films get a lot of hate, and while for me they weren't as bad as all that(if anything personally they were moderately enjoyable films) I do agree with a lot of the criticisms for both. Some say the sequel is better, personally the first while being very over-familiar and unevenly paced and with a severely underdeveloped villain the first was a little better but still fell far short. There are good things about the sequel. Once again it is very stylishly made and the special effects are better this time round, while the action sequences provide some thrills. The chemistry between Peter and Gwen is still sweet, Peter at the grave is actually quite moving and the closest the film ever gets to having any emotional impact and some of the acting is good. Andrew Garfield's performance is much better here, he doesn't ever quite capture Spider-Man's vulnerability but he is much less smug and tones down the quirkiness. Emma Stone is a charming and very likable Gwen, Sally Field gives seasoned support as Aunt May although she doesn't have much to do and Dane DeHaan does a great job showing Harry Osborn's slow descent into fear and loneliness. However, Jamie Foxx despite looking really cool doesn't do anything with Electro and looks lost and Paul Giamatti is completely wasted and gives a rare bad performance. The script and the way the characters are written don't help, the script is very thinly sketched and tries to balance comedy and pathos and does so awkwardly, to the extent the comedy feels overly-broad and out of place and the pathos apart from one part is non-existent literally. And the film does suffer from too many characters and most of them with little development, with the two leads the most interesting characters. There are two too many villains(the same problem that Spider-Man 3 had) and none of them developed very well, Osborn/Green Goblin just about musters due to DeHaan but his development still feels rushed and some of his actions out of the blue, the villain also deserved a much better resurrection which was cheaply done. Like Lizard in the first film Electro is very one-dimensional with no motivation, or shall we say no obvious one, and Rhino feels like a just-there-for-the-sake-of-it character. The story doesn't suffer from being over-familiar like the first Amazing Spider-Man but it does suffer from a very sprawling structure and a lot of it feels over-stuffed and plodding. The music has its moments and does fit better than James Horner's for the first Amazing Spider Man but it does lack pace and one of those pleasant-to-listen-to-but-easily-forgettable scores, three composers are credited and the score sometimes sounds like that is the case. All in all, moderately enjoyable and visually impressive, and Garfield is much more at ease here, but it does suffer from trying to do too much and feels empty and emotionally-lacking. 5/10 Bethany
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Posted : 2 years, 4 months ago on 1 August 2022 02:51
(A review of
Dwayne Hicks)
Appearance:Ā [Link removed - login to see]Ā (1986)
Creator:Ā James Cameron
Performer: Michael Biehn
Defining moment:Ā āI like to keep this handy... for close encountersā¦ā The fact that Hicks carried a lo-fi shotgun (āEat this!ā) proves heās old school, a cowboy, and a reliable hero.
Fascinating fact:Ā James Remar was originally cast as Hicks, but was canned after a drugs charge and replaced by Biehn weeks after they had started shooting.
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