The Perfect Spidey Experience

Welcome Back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

Over the past week or so there has been one topic on the tip of everyone's tongue, Spider-Man the recent PS4 exclusive that has been breaking records and making every owner of a XBox One just a little green with envy. Having beaten the game to it's absolute completion, I figured it was about time to share my thoughts on the game. If you couldn't guess from the titles of this piece, I absolutely loved this game, and I will go even further by saying that this game is not only the best Spider-man game ever made, it's the all around best Spider-Man anything ever made.

If I were asked to describe this game in one word it would have to be: free-flowing. Everything about this game has been tailored to that motif. Web slinging through Manhattan is smooth and seemless allowing you traverse distances with speed and grace better than in any of Spidey's preceding game IP's. The combat is designed to promote aerial combat, and using Spidey's webs to use his surroundings create a never ending string of combos that make you feel untouchable as you dodge around and sling up large groups of enemies.

As strong as the gameplay is, it's accomplanied with an even better story. PS4's Spider-Man has probably one of the best original Spiderman stories I have ever seen. One of the great things that the MCU has accomplished is finding a seemingly perfect middleground between source material and artistic liscense. This game sets out to do that perfectly. Spider-Man is a completely original story that even provides some major changes to some of the more iconic members of the Spider-Man rogues gallery. However, while the artistic libery is taken, they do not forget the roots of where these stories came from and in doing so you have an organic blend for a true and original Spider-Man story. I would furthermore like to say that while I love MCU's approach on Spider-Man, and while I enjoyed Spider-Man: Homecoming a great deal, this is the Spider-Man story that we should have gotten from them, a story that hones into every asset Peter has as a character: a scientist, a photographer, ajokester, a guy with terrible luck (especially in regards to his personal finances), and most importantly a guy whose city comes first before everything else. While it may be unfair to ask a movie to deliver all of that, AND tell a compitent story, it's hard not to expect more when this is sitting right there and it clearly exists in a shared universe.

This leads me to the last thing I would like to gush about. While the main story of this game is certainly rich enough on its own, it is amplified by the existence of a shared universe of characters. Easter eggs to major Marvel Properties like the Avengers, Doctor Strange, and Daredevil pepper the game as you zip around Manhattan and see Avengers Tower and the Sanctum Sanctorum, or pick up collectibles in old backpacks like a Murdock and Nelson business card. Hell, even Task Master appears in a fantastic side mission where he gauges your abilities through several challenges and even takes you on a few times. This particular mechanic is what most were hoping to see from Deathstroke in Arkham: Origins or Arkham: Knight.  Not only does this game create an atmospheric and expanded universe, it builds upon the foundation of previous games of the genre before and even makes ginormous improvements.

That's not to say the game is not without faults, but they are certainly minor ones. The biggest two are that first, I felt there weren't enough boss fights. While it is certainly EXTREMELY fun beating up large groups of thugs and cranking up the combo numbers, a true testament of skill in a game like this are bossfights, and with Spider-man's massive Rogues Gallery, I was kind of hoping for a bit more in this department. While the fights we do get are stellar and really fun, there just aren't enough of them. This is issue is one that I am hoping gets rectified here soon, as they are releasing 4 story expansions over the next 4 months. The last complaint I have was all the mandatory missions of MJ and Miles. While both characters are well written and contribute to the story very well, I feel their missions were honestly just thrown in there to slow you down a bit. As I said before, free flowing is the best way to describe the game, and in fact movement is so fluid that traversing Manhattan from one side to another can feel almost instantaneous after you've fully upgraded your web slinging abilities, so I feel these missions were just a mechanic to force you to slow down, and while they certainly did their job, I came here to play as Spider-Man, which neither of these are (at least during the events of the game).

I wuld easily rate this game a 9.5 out of 10 with potential to get that perfect ranking once these DLC's are released. I earnestly encourage everyone to get ahold of a PS4 somehow and give this game a try because oh boy is it worth the time.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! See you guys next time!

Character Appreciaion: The Shadow Knows!

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

While this blog is dedicated primarily to talking about the current events of the industry, from time to time I have taken a moment to take a break from it all and talk about some favorite characters that are relatively unknown and that I feel you guys might find some interest into looking up. It's been a little while since my last one of these, so here is brand new character appretiation! Today's character is The Shadow

In modern comics the concept of darker heroes and anti heroes that fight evil with a similar darkness is a popular one. Characters like Batman to the Punisher have become some of the most popular in the genre as these characters hunt the criminal element through the shadows. Well before all of these characters were around, there was a man who knew the evil that lurked in the hearts of all men, The Shadow.

The Shadow has a very complex origin. Kent Allard was a soldier/agent in the first World War with a real vindictive streak. Following the war, Allard stayed behind in China and became an Opium lord in Tibet that went by the name Ying Ko. As Ying Ko, Allard created a criminal empire and was a terrifying force to be reckoned with. However, this would not last.

One night, Allard found himself kidnapped by a group loyal to a Tulku (a tibetan monk believed to be reincarnated to pass down a specific set of teachings that have been passed down). When brought before the Tulku, Allard was forced to confront the demon within. Terrified by what he saw, Allard sought redemption. The Tulku taught Allard the mystic arts of hypnotic persuasion. After years of training Kent Allard returned to New York posing as a socialite, Lamont Cranston, using Lamont's financial assets in the city and his mystical powers from the east, Allard uses his abilities and fininavial assets to fight the criminal element of New York.

Kent Allard has a vey long list of abilities ranging from the physical to the mystical, however, his most used is the ability to "cloud men's minds" rendering himself wholly invisible save the onething noone can hide, his own shadow (hence the name.) Aside from his mystical skills, Allard is also armed with dual colt .45 pistols and a network of informants all across New York made up of the people he's saved. His chief member of this network is a woman named Margo Lane, who has demonstrated limited telepathic affinity herself.

The Shadow has always held a special place in my heart. You see, back in 1994 they released a live action film starring Alec Baldwin that my dad and I used to watch together all the time, and if memory serves correct, is the first superhero movie I ever watced.While the movie was not critically recieved well and did not do well at the box office, I still love this film. It's not an amazing movie, but the performance by Alec Baldwin as The Shadow was so good that honestly I can't picture anyone else as the character. In addition the effects from the film are way ahead of its time so when you get to see the Shadow in action it's a genuine treat. However, what makes the character more fun is when you get to read his books.

What makes the Shadow so unique of a character is that Kent Allard may be on a path to redemption for his years as a drug lord, however, he's still an evil man. If I were to describe Allard's personality it would be the intensity of Bruce Wayne with the psychopathic humor and deadliness of the Joker. You see, The Shadow has another key defining trait, and that is that he laughs while he's fighting these crimnals, as if the whole thing were amusing to him. In some comics Allrad has been described as having the most twisted sense of humor that anyone has ever met. His laugh is unsettling in the tense situations where he appears. The point is that The Shadow is not a good guy, he's a monster that has been unleashed on smaller monsters and is enjoying ripping them apart.

If you are interested in taking a look at this character I definitely recommend you start off with Matt Wagner's The Shadow: Year One, as it is a fantastic reimagining of the characters origin. Some other good reads on the character are: The Shadow: Fire of Creation by Garth Ennis (this entire run was pretty fantastic), The Shadow: Death of Margo Lane by Matt Wagner, and most recently the Shadow had two fantastic crossover arcs with Batman, the first of these being Batman/Shadow by Scott Snyder, and the second being Shadow/Batman by Steve Orlando.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and I hope you guys check out The Shadow!

What does 'Cavill-gate' Mean for Industry Related News Outlets

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

Two days ago an announcement was made that broke the internet. Online news database for the industry, Heroic Hollywood, released an article that Henry Cavill had exited negotiations with Warner Bros and would no longer be the Man of Steel. This threw the internet in an uproar and the rumor mill started running rampant. Eventually we got some statements, first of these was from Cavill's agent who reassured us that "the cape was still in the closet." and that Warner Bros would release a statement later that day. A few hours later and Warner Bros released there statement:

While no decisions have been made regarding any upcoming Superman films, we've always had great respect for and a great relationship with Henry Cavill, and that remains unchanged

This statement didn't really help much at all, as it actively said NOTHING, however, that's a subject for a different time. The point is that WB's lack of conviction in their statement allowed for rumors to continue to spread like a virus throughout the internet. Then that evening we got the answer we had wanted directly from the man himself on Cavill's instagram:

While there are some people who are apparently confused by this, the answer is very clear. Henry Cavill is still Superman, he has not left the project and is more than likely still amidst negotiations for a new contract with the company. This seems to be very much the case as following this, several credible news sources came forward by saying that this whole thing was fake. However, what is still so very sad, is that rather than retract their statements, sites like Comicbook.com and Heroic Hollywood have refused to post a retraction about this news. They have instead tried to twist everything to continue to stir the pot. So what does this mean for these sites?

Honestly it doesn't mean much, more than likely those pages will continue to run. However, they have taken a MASSIVE hit to their credibility. This is what happens when the only way you get your news is reguritating what other sites say. Telephone has always been a game that shows how information can be twisted, however, this is a lesson that these sites haven't learned evidently. The fact of the matter is that they don't care about providing quality content, they care about your clicks. So they will continue to stir this pot to get as many clicks as possible. This is the real tragedy.

 That being said, I am writing this post today because I want to make a promise to you all. Content is the reason I started this site. I love comics, I love movies, video games, all of it. I started this page to share that passion with as many who were open to hearing about it. So here is my promise, no matter how big this blog may get, I promsie that each of this blog's articles will be worth your time. I will not be posting click bait on this blog, it's the death of journalism and if there is a story that is big, but isn't something either myself or any of my writers can  write something worthwile about, then we will post the news on the fb page, but we won't waste you're time for a wasted click.

Thank you guys so much for reading this blog, I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Comic Relief! We will see you next time!

Diversity in Comics

Welcome Back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

Today I’m going to be talking about something that I feel pretty strongly about. While it may not be “breaking news” I do feel that it is something that needs to be addressed. In the comic industry there is a lot of division: DC vs MARVEL, Batman vs Superman, Iron Man vs Captain America. In a way the industry thrives on these conflicts, pushing itself to be better. However, there has been a topic of division that I feel has only hurt the industry of late and that is the topic of diversity in comics. Since 2011, the big comic companies have been pushing forward a more diverse roster of heroes. However, with this came a forced agenda that attached itself to the books, and it gave way to the rise of some pretty serious critics. The topic of the day is what about diversity in comics? is it really the scourge  to the industry like some claim?

In his review of the wedding issue of Batman, Richard Meyer, creator of the youtube channel Diversity and Comics and probably the leading detractor to the current state of the industry, said something that I very much agreed with.

This is a part of American Culture and myth

While Mr Meyer was talking specifically about Batman, this holds true for all comics and so on this fact we are both in agreement. Mythic heroes of old were meant to espouse the virtues that were cornerstones to their respective cultures. They were meant to serve as inspiration for the young to look up to and try to emulate. The comic book superhero isno different. Standing for moral platitudes of truth and justice, the comic book superhero is an embodiment of what we strive to be as a society.

In the building of its cultural identity, America became known as a melting pot of culture. Diverse culture, points of view all of it are integral to the American identity and therefore should be a core element to comics. This country has been a beacon for people from all walks of life. The initial settlers of this nation were political and religious refugees looking to start something of their own where they wouldn't face the persecution of the old world. When those colonies were established, the promise of the American frontier, of land ownership that would allow one to rise above such humble beginnings set in place by the "old world's" ancien regime, drew people from all over. Even the slave trade, horrible as it was, brought culture that became ingrained in our society. So if comics are in fact the embodiment of the American myth, they should be inclusive.

With all that being said, there is a standard that must be upheld, and sadly this has not been the case, and it shows across the board. There are two main contributions to this. The biggest problem is the laziness behind these characters. What made the silver age of comics great? It was all these brand new ideas. Every issue there was something, someone new. It was a comic book renaissance where some of the most iconic heroes of today were created. Sadly, the time of that innovation seems to be over. I get that it's difficult to come up with something new, however, if you want to make more diverse heroes, then you HAVE to. There is no reason why we should be race swapping, gender swapping, or even turning characters with years of backstory a different sexual orientation. Frankly it's insulting, not just to those who created these characters in the first place, but to every person of a different background looking for a hero of their own to look up to. The fact that the writers of the industry have evidently deemed it too hard to go back and create completely new characters to represent these many cultures is a sad insult. Even some of the better diverse characters don't even carry their own identity, they are riding the success of legacy rather than making one of their own.

The second big issue is that these characters should have much more than their diversity to bring to the table. In an interview back in 2012 famed Game of Thrones writer, George R. R. Martin, talked about character writing and said the following:

The main thing is empathy, it's saying "okay, how would I feel?" because the character is still a person, there is still this basis of common humanity, and that's true when writing about women, or writing about a dwarf, or writing about anyone. You have to start with the basis "they're more like me then they are unlike me," they have some special condition, that they have a different set of genitals than I do, but it's still the same old story. A fight for love and glory

Writing a superhero is no different. It's still the same old story, but treat the characters with respect and don't make their diversity a crutch that is being used to beat the audience over the head with. So many times a diverse character is introduced nowadays, we have to have that diversity shoved down our throats as readers. The moment that diversity, whether it's their race, their orientation, or whatever becomes the only asset they bring to a series, is the moment the character has been ruined. I am not saying that these things shouldn't be a part of the story. The struggles a character may face because of their identity is integral. Just look at the X men. However, character development should alway be the primary focus of any story.

They are heroes, or they are villains. They fight to protect the innocent, or they want the world to bend the knee to their will. The driving forces of this is what makes them right or wrong. A good man like prof. Xavier erased the minds of his students for his own gains and " the good of mankind" and magneto created an ethnocentric terrorist group cause he saw his people being murdered and prosecuted when they were clearly more powerful and showing restraint in the face of violence. these two juxtapositions of a good guy in Xavier and a bad guy in magneto made them COMPLEX and RELATABLE. you could both agree and disagree with both justifications.this made 2-dimensional people richer and better.

What we don't need is a black character that is constantly talking about BET, we don't need an LGBT character whose sole purpose is to complain about their love life or lack thereof. We need heroes, not reality tv. These concepts are not just identitarian, but they are in and of themselves stereotypes. These are flat and boring. But worst of all lazy and insulting. All black people don't watch BET as their sole source of all things. and LGBTQ people don't have horrible love lives.

There is a golden opportunity for a new silver age of comic books. We should not be settling for the lackluster parade of  legacy characters, and race swapping of old characters. This is not something we should be celebrating because the generation of tomorrow deserves better than that. Since the first story was told around a campfire, it has served to inspire the youth of a generation to be great and reach to the stars. Superheroes are just the latest chapter in that method of storytelling. I believe that every kid should have a character they connect with or relate to. They deserve characters that don’t just feel like after thoughts, they deserve characters that stand on their own, no matter how hard it may be to create them.

This is has been another edition of Comic Relief! if you enjoyed the piece be sure to follow us on the blog, facebook, and twitter. If you want to pitch in your own opinions on the issue feel free to comment!

A Hidden Gem: 2011 Thundercats Reboot

Welcome Back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

80s nostalgia seems to be a huge selling point these days with the sucess of films like Ready Player One, and shows that have rebooted old programs like Voltron: legacy Defenders, retro nostalgia is very clearly a viable market right now. With that being said, a few months ago they announced a Thundercats reboot called Thundercats: Roar and the first looks have been met with mixed reception to put it lightly. With that in mind, I was going through my VRV account to find something new to watch, and what should appear but something that I had all but forgotten about. Back in 2011 Cartoon Network aired an anime style reboot of Thundercats, so I figured, why not go back and watch. Well, what I was not disappointed because Thundercats was a phenomenal reboot that deserved to continue.

What's most impressive about this show is the way that they took the initial story of Thundercats, and threw it out to create something new and unique. It didn't try to strattle itself down to being a successor so much as made leaps and strides into making it something on it's own. Now don't get me wrong, that's not to say that it doesn't FEEL like Thundercats. They've got the things that made the original show iconic as it was, the epic fights, but most importantly we get to hear "THUNDER! THUNDER!! THUNDERCATS! HO!!!" once more as we get to see Liono and his team fight back the forces of Mum-Ra. What's even better is that they do a very clever job of finding a unique way to pass the torch down from its predecessor to it.

The first episode is actually a 2 parter called "Sword of Omens," where we see a Liono who kinda has his heads in the clouds on these "myths" of technology. He is heir to the throne and his lack of commitment to that responsibility is something that constantly infuriates his father, King Claudus. Who should voice King Claudus other than Larry Kenny, the voice of the original Liono. Throughout the episode we get to hear the old Liono show his successor the power of the sword and through this we get to see the torch passed from one generation to the next to kick off the series.

I won't say anything else on the plot of the show, I don't want to spoil anything for those who are curious. However, story is just one thing that makes this show worth while. The animation and effects of the show are beautiful and show just how much care this team had in bringing this old IP some new life. The new character models for Liono and his colleagues, for Mum-Ra, all of it is just a universal upgrade, and the show is accompanies by a great score that successfully captures the epicness of this tale. Voice talent on this show is also off the charts, where we have already talked about Larry Kenny as Claudus, Will Friedle (Boy Meets World, Batman Beyond) voices Liono, and he is accompanied by other talents such as Matthew Mercer (Attack on Titan, and Dragon Ball: Super) as Tygra, and at his opposite you have Robin Atkin Downes (Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes) as Mum-Ra.

Thundercats is a brilliantly done reboot, and it's a shame that a show like this existed just before it's time. Had this show even come out 5 years later, following the success of Dreamworks and Netflix's Voltron: Legacy Defenders, this would have easily been a smash hit. Sadly, we must deal with the very disappointing looking Thundercats: Roar! Until then though, you can check out Thundercats on the VRV app created by Crunchyroll.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! we hope you have enjoyed and we will see you next time!

DC Animation Is Back On Top With 'Death of Superman'

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

When I was growing up there was a golden rule of sorts: "if it's DC and it's animated, you're in for a treat!" This rule has held true for most of my life. From classics like Batman: Mask of Phantasm to newer additions like Justice Leauge: Flashpoint Paradox, DC had set the universal gold standard of the animated adaptation. This held true until around 2011 when they introdued us to a new animated universe designed to emulate DC's failed New 52 relaunch. Starting with Justice League: War these films began to dip in quality from decent to okay, okay to mediocre, and in some cases like Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, just plain abysmal. It had gotten to a point for me personally where I had lost any enthusiasm I had for these features, which finally brins us to the topic of this piece. Last week DC released their latest animated feature: Death of Superman.

Now when the first advertisements of this were released, I was pessimistic to put it lightly. Due to a very disappointing track record of late, I was convinced this film would be garbage. The only evidence I really even needed to vindicate these feelings was that rather than adapting the story straight from the 1980s iconic storyline by Dan Jurgens, they would instead remodel the story to fit in their New52 AU. However, there were two things that convinced me to give this film a chance, first was that a facebook group called the DC Comic Nerds (a page that I have a good deal of respect for) gave it a glowing review, but more importantly they brought to my attention that the screenplay of this feature was written by Peter Tomasi.

For those of you who aren't big comic readers, and haven't followed me since I was with moviepilot, Peter Tomasi was the writer of the Rebirth title of Superman. Now this run has a bit of a personal significance for me. When I was a writer for moviepilot, I wrote a review of the second issue of this run lauding it for it's ability to show Superman struggle with the role of fatherhood. This piece is, to date, probably my favorite piece I have ever written, and apparently I wasn't the only one who liked it as moviepilot found the piece good enough to edit and publish directly to their facebook page (it got over 7,000 reads). It was the first piece I recieved any acclaim for and is the reason I got heavily involved into blogging. The point is, that if it weren't for Peter Tomasi and his run on Superman, I might not have this blog right now, and you wouldn't be here reading, so at the very least I owed the film a watch for his sake. What's more is that I loved it.

Leave it to Peter J. Tomasi, the man who rejuvinated Superman after his New 52 slump, to bring life back to the animated films of DC. Tomasi constructs a story that keeps the general feel of the iconic storyline while simultaneously improving uopn it at times. The film's action is intense and the emotions are all over the place as you watch the man of steel struggle with his most deadly foe we've ever seen in both books and cinema. Doomsday's build up throughout the film is akin to a horror movie monster, and his power is enhanced even more by taking on an A tier Justice League as opposed to the B squad from the book. While Clark's dynamic with Lois is different as well, the way Tomasi handles their story is beautiful and brilliant. It really just shows how much this guy loves writing Superman and the universe around him.

I honestly would give the film a solid 9 out of 10. The movie does a great job of not only telling this story, but providing the set up for the follow up: Reign of the Superman by using cameos to establish and show the pertinent characters that are going to be the centerpiece of the next film. It's good to be able to recommend a DC animated feature again!

I hope you enjoy the movie, and I hope you enjoyed this edition of Comic Relief! 

Sony Cripples 'Venom' Even More

Welcome back to another editon of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

Welcome back, it's been a minute and for that I must apologize, however, there has been a lot going on in the past few weeks and there have been a lot things going on in the nerd world. Don't worry my team (yes I said team, but more on that later) and I are coming back in force to bring you new content! Speaking of which, a few weeks back, Sony gave us a new look at their upcoming Venom movie. Let's check it out below:

Now a little while back I wrote a piece talking about how Venom was doomed to fail, however, this trailer did get my hopes up. While I am not too crazy about Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock being written as an honorable, whistle blowing, government conspiracy theorist, nor the motivations of the film's villain, I did like seeing Venom in action. Seeing Tom Hardy transform into an 8ft tall behemoth thats ripping people to shreds with tendrils and trying to bite peoples heads off was great. Even the way Venom speaks had me sold. I was finally starting to come around to maybe giving this film a fair chance. However, without fail, Sony found a way to nuke this project before ANY hype could be built back from the films lackluster promotion.

Despite giving us this brilliantly gritty trailer, and several promises from both the Director of this film AND Tom Hardy, Sony is dropping the rating down from an R to PG-13, claiming to be pushing the very limits of the rating. Why do this, is a question many would ask and the answer is kind of ironic. They want the film to have crossover potential in the future with Tom Holland's Spider-Man. This is genuinely hilarious considering how much of a big deal they made about a Venom film not needing Spider-Man, yet now they are doing everything in their power to ensure the characters meet on screen. So why the sudden change of heart? The answer is numbers.

While box office projections are no guaranteed thing, generally they do a pretty good job of showing how people are going to respond to the film, taking in account the hype behind the film, and how it would be affected in the best case scenarios. Let's just say, Venom is not looking so hot. To put it in perspective, Solo: A Star Wars Story, a film that is tracking to lose 50 million at the box office and had barely 3 months of promo, made 140 million on opening weekend, has made 450 million domestic and 940 million worldwide. Sony's Venom is projected to have an opening weekend of 60 million, finish it's box office run with 180 million domestic, and 400 million worldwide. This is tiny money for a big budget super hero film. (Source: IMDB ).


I said it in my last article and I'll say it here too, this movie will be a win, win scenario for fans. If this movie is good and does well, fans will have a great Venom movie that brings the charactr to the big screen in an amazing way that will make everyone forget the disaster of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. In the worst case, Sony will lose so much money that their very dumb plan for their own Spider-Man universe (without a Spider-Man) will fail and it will force the company to sell the rights to pay the dividends.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you all have enjoyed and we will see you next time!