Why is everyone so upset over Ruby Rose as Batwoman?

So today I saw the first images of the new CW Batwoman that will be joining

the Arrowverse,

and I have to say, I was hella impressed. This is better than anything I could have imagined. And MUCH BETTER than the horrifying image of Teen Titans Batman. Apparently, they didn’t get the note that he’s NOT the one wearing the hockey pants.

If you hadn’t heard. A VERY small portion of the internet was VERY upset with the casting of Ruby Rose as Kathleen Kain: The Batwoman who will be making an appearance in the annual CW superhero crossover event, this time focusing on DC’s Elseworlds tales. Which are in my humble opinion, some of DC’s best stories. What I wouldn't give for a Red Son story.

You might remember Ruby Rose from John Wick 2. She was the bodyguard.

She did well for what limited work the role was. For comparison, the suit is surprisingly accurate.

My only complaint is the gauntlets would be better red. But otherwise, I can deal.

But many of the internet, cannot.

See some people are just never happy. In the comics { since her retconing/reintroduction}

Kathleen Kain is a lesbian. Very openly. And has a long time lover, Maggie Sawyer.She is also an Ashkenazi Jew. Putting her in the top percentile worldwide of IQ tests. Which means she is probably smarter than Batman. she is also white.

You would think the casting of Ruby Rose, a heavily tattooed fashion model, and actress who is familiar with light stunt work, and who is also a very publicly open lesbian for a very long time, she claims since the age of 12 I think, would be a perfect fit?

But then you would be assuming that you're talking to a logical

NON INSANE person.

On August 7, Princess Weeks of the Mary Sue wrote:

“She is without a doubt someone with star appeal, but at the same time,

it does seem like a relatively safe choice. I do wish they had chosen

someone non-white in the role, just because I think that added

diversity would be really great”

See the issue for her is that Batwoman isn’t a black trans woman with vitiligo who identifies as a twin souled Eastern pondhawk dragonfly that is also paraplegic.  Batwoman, in the books and LITERALLY ALL MEDIA TO DATE, is portrayed as a white woman and more recently, a Jewish lesbian. Picking a person to accurately portray this who also happens to be a lesbian in real life, is a woman but isn’t Jewish is the end of the fucking world cause I said so “PROBLEMATIC.”

Her outrage isn’t about accuracy, or something fans of the universe WANT to see. The fans are juiced. Every person I know is hyped. It’s not even that it isn’t an obscure Elseworlds interpretation of the character. It’s a political ideology. Most of these people that are upset DON'T EVEN REALLY READ THE BOOKS. They mainly scour Wikipedia for info to write their articles, hitting key notes and are familiar with the characters, at most having seen a dc animated film and maybe read a collection. And trust me if they did make Kane a genderfluid, non-binary, Wolfkin with 4headmates...

it still wouldn’t be enough. Cause in the oppression Olympics they are always raising the bar.

She admits the studio actually clearly went on to tick more boxes with a female showrunner, but then complains that she hopes the writers are queer? Isn’t that a banned word? Aren’t we supposed to say “LGBTQA+ writers?”

“In addition to having a female showrunner, I hope the series does try and get some queer women writing the character and come up with some interesting drama that doesn’t include babies. Please stop breaking up lesbians because of babies/kids.”

Is that a thing? Did Greg Berlanti make White Canary lose her mind and become straight for one episode and get knocked up and decide she needed to stay straight for the kid? Was there an episode where Mr. Terrific got wasted and slept with someone and said "Well I'm havin' a baby...guess i gotta be straight now!" Did I miss these page-turners? It’s such an odd statement. Wouldn’t you want the best writers you could get? And maybe you’ll find a great writer who has had LGBTQIA+ experiences themselves or a family member/friend to pull experience from? What if Paul Dini and Grant Morrison where announced to write? Is it not good enough cause they are sic white men? Is their hand in reinventing the character and making her LGBTQA+ not good enough?

Wait? Can she really be LGBTQA+ if sic men wrote it? By Weeks standards apparently not.

See I prefer the best writers, whoever they are, over a room of identity box tick hires who might not be the best writers {cough Gabby Rivera cough}.

{ahem! All of high guardian spice ahem!}

I love Robert Smith, the frontman and songwriter of THE SINGLE GREATEST BAND IN HUMAN HISTORY, The Cure. I can already hear keyboards furiously clicking away about how Morrissey is superior. But, Robert Smith is crucial for my example. He writes the most beautiful, emotional, tortured love songs. And the most upbeat exciting ballads of romantic flings. The problem is Bobby has been married to his high school sweetheart Mary Pool, whom he met in drama class at St Wilfrid's when he was 14. They are together to this day. My favorite quote from him is

“ I lie a lot, especially in interviews.” He has never lived the THOUSANDS of experiences of heartbreak, the excitement of new love or failed romance he has written about. He has been “lying”

That’s what actors do. They lie about who they are portraying and how they are feeling. Any c list actor who can wear a skin-tight suit, dye her hair red, and do some high kicks would have done. Come on, it’s the CW. And it’s a one-shot till it gets greenlit. I’m not ragging on anyone cause I love the CW portrayals for the most part but, this isn’t a Scorsese film. But instead, the CW Said, “ let’s get a lesbian actress who looks like Batwoman and has some action experience." As well they could have picked any successful hot showrunner who have made a knockout show to handle this but, let’s make sure we pick a woman. The Vampire Diaries executive producer Caroline Dries was who they went with. I’m sure she will do good. I’m sure her work on TVD was one of those "you do the best with what your given” scenarios. So I’m going in with an open mind.

But no, Not good enough.

She goes on to refer to Arrowverse  having a lot of problems, with representation

I guess Chris Holt portraying Mr.Terrific, which they altered to be gay JUST FOR THE SHOW, was not enough. As well, creating Alexandra Danvers portrayed by Chyler Leigh for Supergirl JUST SO THEY HAD A LESBIAN CHARACTER who had a HUGE coming out subplot was not enough. Legends of tomorrow made White Canary portrayed by Caity Lotz LGBTQA+ when it didn't have any massive plot significance for the show. They just thought it was cool to have a person of an alternative lifestyle on the team.

And Flash has the Police Captain David Singh, Barry’s Boss, portrayed by Patrick Sabongui who is openly Gay and its dealt with as if it's completely normal for this universe to have a Gay man in a position of authority and power who is masculine and not a stereotype. No one in the show or the fandom even batted an eye. It was just "oh that's a neat little bit of world-building they did making the police chief openly homosexual."

They didn't make a huge deal of it. It's just mentioned that his husband is named Rob. Which is such a great way to do it. As it signifies how normal it is IN THE ARROWVERSE.

Rob even ends up playing a part in the alternate timeline story when Barry creates the shows equivalent of a Flashpoint. Not to mention Greg Berlanti THE ARROWVERSE SHOWRUNNER IS HIMSELF, GAY.

Ironically no one ever got upset when Wentworth Miller an openly Gay Actor, was cast to play Leonard Snart: A.K.A. Captain Cold an openly straight character…

That's probably cause Mr. Miller brought an amazing new interpretation to an otherwise kinda bland villain. WHICH I FOR ONE LOVED. And I think everyone was also juiced to see him reunited with his Prison break co-star Dominic Purcell, ( Also a BOSS} who gives an equally fun performance as Heat Wave.  

Well, the very angry identitarians decided this sin was unforgivable. They get on twitter and actually insulted a fellow female LGBTQA+ member of their community for being cast as a female LGBTQA+ community member, not being lesbian enough, not being a woman of color and not being an actual Ashkenazi Jew. I'm shocked they didn't Bring up that Ruby Rose isn't an actual cape-wearing vigilante. Which is funny as finding an Ashkenazi

Jewish person of color would be a bit complex.  See Ashkenazi Jews tend to be of a unique phenotype and haplotype.

They tend to be pale-skinned, some have red hair, and most are labeled

as white. Like Gal Gadot who is an Ashkenazi. So finding a person of color who is an Ashkenazi could become problematic.

But I’m sure they are out there. The question remains, How many of them are in

acting? Do they have what the showrunners and directors looking for? And how
many can carry an action drama targeted at a 12-25 demographic and have name/Face ID?

{For reference Gal Gadot}

Rose was justifiably upset.  So upset she locked her accounts to private.
Before she left twitter she said:

“Where on earth did ‘Ruby is not a lesbian, therefore, she can’t be batwoman’ come from has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read. I came out at 12? And have for the past 5 years had to deal with ‘she’s too gay’ how do y’all flip it like that? I didn’t change. I wish we would all supporteach other and our journeysWhen women and when minorities join forces we are unstoppable…
when we tear each other down it’s much more hurtful than from any group.
But hey/ love a challenge I just wish women and the LGBT community
supported each other more, My wish was we were all a little kinder and more
supportive of each other…Sending everyone my love and gratitude, it’s been a
rollercoaster of a year, this month especially.”

On her Instagram Rose said

“This is a childhood dream. This is something I would have died to have
seen on TV when I was a young member of the LGBT community who
never felt represented on TV and felt alone and different.” The post has
received more than 400,000 likes.
clearly, comicsgate and the high council after her.

If you wanted to see a prime example of the stupidity people are arguing in
favor of Princess Weeks insane arguments click here and here. It was hard
to find good examples firstly Because Ruby deleted her Twitter account.
Secondly, every article about Ruby Rose leaving Twitter spends 65% of the
body talking about Rose Tico and racist nazis? Then posting people trolling
Mrs.Tram by smashing her figures. which is irrelevant to the situation.
then saying “ surprisingly the fan outrage came from other members of the LGBTQA community demanding more fair representation of marginalized peoples and communities.”
Aaaaand never posting their tweets. They had a hard time grasping the fact that

Ruby Rose was overwhelmingly embraced by fans and straight men,
and even the comicsgaters.

{ Wonder why?}

They also Omitted that many who were irrationally cranky “let down” admittedly had no idea who Ruby Rose or Batwoman where.

My favorite response to this nonsense was a Gavin Mitchell.

If you wanted to see the mostly positive outpouring from fans, including sic males of all backrounds you can click here. Most everyone is excited. Especially considering how Teen Titans character designs ended up...

Thankfully, Ruby Rose, Caroline Dries and Greg Burlanti stood their ground and didn’t pull an Iron Fist S2 { I am working up to a review of that...nightmare}

If you are looking forward to seeing Ruby rock the red and black bat suit
like I am, The Arrowverse crossover begins filming next week, supposedly
and will begin airing Sunday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. on The Flash. It will focus on
the Elseworlds stories this year And "only" be between Arrow, The Flash, and
Supergirl as their attention turns to Arkham Asylum and its madness.

I mean all of this sounds amazing but,

Why so serious?

We Aren't Venom: Review for Sony's 'Venom'

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

It's finally here, Sony's first film in their cinematic universe of Spider-Man characters without any actual connection to Spider-Man. Venom stars Tom Hardy and is supposed to sport the darker side of the superhero film genre as it follows the alien symbiote Venom in a story that somewhat resembles the character's 90s storyarc: Lethal Protector. This movie in addition serves as the origins of the symbiote and has Eddie Brock as the alien's primary host for the film. Right off the bat I am going to say this, Venom had enjoyable moments, but it is a BAD movie. What's the biggest shame is that were this handled by a company with a bit more competence and understanding of the character this movie would have been good. There is enough dedication to see that both the production team and Hardy gave 100 percent to make as best a movie as they could given the deadline of a little over a year. Before I go and point out all the holes in this sinking ship of a film, I am going to talk a bit about the things I liked.

This film's greatest asset is its visual effects. Venom has never looked better on film (not exactly a high bar when your only competition is Topher Grace in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3). His action sequences (with exception to the final fight with the symbiote Riot which felt like a live action rendition of a Jackson Pollock painting) where fantastic and Venom is brutal (within the confines of a PG-13 rating, a silver bullet that honestly prevents the film from elevating the film from D status to C). Tom Hardy does a decent enough job acting in it, but it's very clear that he's far more invested in the character of Venom than he is of Eddie Brock, as Hardy's worst scenes in the movie are while he is Eddie (which sadly is most of the movie). The best part of the movie though was not the movie at all, but the post credit scene (not the one with Woddy Harrelson in the worst wig I have ever seen outside a circus) that previewed 6 minutes of the upcoming Into The Spiderverse. Otherwise, in all honesty, this is probably about as far as the positives go for this film because despite having a pretty outstanding  and all star cast, this movie can't help but flail as it falls to the ground like the ship that brings the symbiote to earth in the film's beginning.

The best comparison of Venom I can think of is that this is the Transformers of the superhero genre, which only gets more awkward because I am fairly certain that Transformers already holds that place. This film is held up solely by it's visual effects, the rest of it is pretty bad. However, even the effects suffer because the violence is forced to be tame. You can really tell that the director of this film had really intended on it being rated R, so most of Venom's action sequences while he's fighting human feel like they are missing something crucial, and that something is a large quantity of gore. You can tell that Sony slapping that PG-13 rating on this film was the final silver bullet to put this monster movie down as Sony tried to redirect by shifting the tone from a suspense thriller to some weird buddy comedy, which leads me to the next massive problem: the script.

The script is terrible and the plot literally makes no sense at times. The whole movie opens up with Eddie Brock being this Michael Moore-esque conspiracy journalist with his own show, and yet the news agency he's working for picks him to do a puff piece for the CEO and founder of a massive pharmacuitical company called The Life Foundation that has also been pushing research into Space. He then blows up the whole interview by asking the CEO questions about information he only obtained through logging into his fiancee's email. NONE OF THAT MAKES ANY SENSE! I mentioned in a previous piece that interviewing a CEO is a HEAVILY  vetted process, the moment they said a guy like Brock was who they were sending, the CEO would have been like: howabout no. In addition, no executive at a media agency would send a reporter like Brock to that interview, especially not when it's common knowledge that he's a loose cannon and it got him burned in New York. Their is no ammount of suspended disbelief that can redeem this many plot holes in JUST THE OPENING 30 MINUTES OF THE MOVIE! However, the greatest plot hole lies in the film's rendition of the character's origin.

You see, the first act and even part of the second act sets Eddie up to be this really good guy that, while invested in taking down bad people through journalism, would honestly never hurt a damn fly. This becomes a massive problem when he seems to have little to no qualms at all when he turns into an 8 ft tall monster with a tendancy of biting people's heads off. This major problem can all be traced back to the biggest piece missing from this film: Spider-Man. This origin feels forced and hollow because without the element of Spider-Man, why does Eddie compromise his morality to be so brutal and murder.

See in the books Venom is a VILLAIN largely of Spidey's own making. The symbiote was brought back to Earth by Peter after a major crossover event called Secret War. He wore that symbiote as a suit for quite some time as it negated his need for web fluid and seemed to amplify his strength, speed, and reflexes even further. Not to mention that the symbiote could just morph into whatever Peter wanted to wear. He did this until he found out that the suit was taking his body out for joy rides at night until Peter needed to sleep all day to recouperate. Peter eventually catches on and separates from the symbiote, rejecting it. To a symbiote a host is not just that, but it's a partner. Their bond is similar to that of a marriage and they even asexually reproduce of that bond. This was a deep wound for the symbiote, but it wouldn't be long before the symbiote would find a new host in Eddie Brock. Now just like in the movie, Eddie is a disgraced journalist. However, Eddie blames Spider-Man for his fall from grace. Depression from losing his job that he loved sent Eddie into a downward spiral. He tried to fill the void left by his lack of work with weight lifting and other similar activities, forging his body into peak condition, however, nothing seemed to do, until he found the symbiote. They discovered in eachother a bond of hatred for Spider-Man. With the symbiote's intimate knowledge of Spider-man, they became a perversion of everything Spider-Man was, down to his very look. Together they became Venom.

Sadly, this film provides us with nothing so deep as that. It's just: the symbiote does his thing, Eddie mildly complains for like 2 minutes about it, and then the symbiote just goes: BECAUSE I SAID SO! To which Eddie replies with the spinal fortitude of a bowl of jellow: okay. Sadly this is a running trope throughout the movie, that Eddie is a little bitch and the suit knows it. While it certainly gets a laugh or two here or there, I can tell you one thing it certainly is not: Venom.

I think the biggest tragedy is that even a star studded cast couldn't save this film. Ultimately this film was doomed the moment that Sony wiffed the returns from Spider-Man: Homecoming because ultimately Sony doesn't care about making a good Venom movie. Everything about this film since it started production has said that: they pushed the film to be made in just over a year, no presence of Spider-Man, dropped to a PG-13 rating. They knew what was going to be delivered was going to be a sub parr piece of garbage, but that it didn't matter. Fans were going to pay gangbusters to see this film, and whats sad is that they were right. Not only does this piece of shit movie have a 89 percent user rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ CinemaScore, but it has made 20, million over the projected 60 million opening weekend box office numbers. To fans of Spider-Man, I am sorry to say it looks like Sony is going to get their chance to ruin more characters afterall, and the people like Kraven the Hunter, and Black Cat, people you have hoped to see in live action Spider-Man movies, will all be ruined on the big screen in the same way before they even have a chance to interact with the wallcrawler in live action. I would rate this movie 5.5/10, it's certainly got a little charm making it better than what most critics are saying, but it's not by a whole hell of a lot.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

'Titans' Iniitial Reaction Round-up

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

As Venom is busy floundering due to all of it's negative reviews (our own review will be up here soon, expect it Sunday), New York Comic Con has begun, and two days ago during a press conference release at NYCC, the DCU panel shared the first 3 episodes of their launching exclusive show: Titans. Now Titans has been a subject of great controversy since the first set photos were released almost a year ago. The aesthetic of the team has been criticized for it's cheap look and it's little regard to follow ANY piece of source material for the team in existence. Because of this a lot of people, myself included, were not willing to give Titans a fair shake. Yesterday, the reviews for Titans came out, and those of us who doubted the series found our worlds turned upside down as the response to those 3 episodes were mostly positve. However, while I was reading these positive reviews, I found something very interesting that seemed to be recurring throughout every official review I read.

When I first noticed it, I was reading the Forbes review. I wanted to read a positive review of Titans from a magazine I know has critically panned pretty much anything DC has done lately outside of Wonder Woman. While Forbes definitely sings the show's praises, there was one note that drew my attention:

Titans is a dark and gritty series very far removed from the image the Teen Titans have garnered through a variety of animated outings over the last decade...It’s an image of these heroes many are going to find jarring and possibly even failing...Put bluntly, this is not a show with broad appeal. Not everyone is going to want to see what became of the likes of Robin and Raven through this lens. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it does mean it’s different, and it’s hard to judge how far outside the lines fans wanted DC to go for not only their first original program on the streaming service but also the first project to bring many of these characters into the world of live action.

Essentially Forbes' comment can be simplified to this. This show isn't Teen Titans, at all. In fact if you go into this show hoping for any semblance of the Teen Titans you knew from the books, or the the animated series, there is a very good chance you will hate this show. That doesn't mean it is a bad show, it's a promising first few episodes, but it almost seems this would have been better suited  for a completely original IP with no strings attached, or that with it's direction it would have better suited a Red Hood and the Outlaws show (preferably following the most recent iteration of the Dark Trinity). What I found super interesting was that I found that pretty much every review I saw or read said the same thing.

The youtuber Beyond the Trailer, who also sings the show's praises, literally opens their review with the same thing (video above). She literally opens with: 

This show changes so much about the Titans, often at a fundamental level that it's really only these characters in name only. In fact while I was watching the first three episodes of the show, I wondered what drew Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, and Greg Berlanti to adapt this comic since apparently none of it inspired them and they felt was worth bringing over to the DC streaming show

In addition comic media outlet, CBR, had the same commentary in their review of the show's first three episodes, which they gave the rating of 7/10:

It’s dark, just as the trailers indicate, with a level of violence that races past anything on The CW’s Arrowverse and teeters into Zack Snyder-era DC Extended Universe territory. Heroes maim and kill, with some frequency, in the three episodes provided for review, although not always on purpose. It goes without saying, then, that Titans isn’t suitable for young viewers, who aren’t the target audience for this streaming service anyway. However, neither is the series aimed at fans of DC’s classic New Teen Titans, who will undoubtedly bristle at the tone and quibble with the characterizations, to say nothing of the lineup (a later episode is titled “Donna Troy,” which may salve that particular wound). Yet, for all of those caveats, there is something enjoyable about Titans.

It appears that Titans, though it may be a good show, is not an especially good Teen Titans EXPERIENCE, and that if you are a fan of these characters and expect them to be brought to life in a way that you would want them to be, you're in for a rough ride. This is only further vindicated by the one not only negative, but scathing review of the show that I have found so far done by Collider, where it was very clear that the author had done just that as he opens the review with this:

In DC Universe's 'Titans', Dick Grayson (Brandon Thwaites), stabs a guy in the balls with garden sheers. Unfortunately the powers that be say I have to write more than that sentence about 'Titans,' but I do truly think every aspect of this show -its tone, its aesthetic, its story, its themes- boil down to the image of Dick Grayson, the original Robin, Boy Wonder, charming vigilante do-gooder, plunging a gardening tool into a man's crotch... All put together, 'Titans' lands just about as gracefully as the Flying Graysons

 The author of this collider review continues to go on about the essential character assassination of these beloved characters. In particular he mentions Starfire's arc in these first three episodes:

Meanwhile, in a completely different show, Korriand'r wakes up bloody in a car outside Austria with no memory of who she is other than A) she has the ability become living flame, burning people to a crisp, and B) she is searching for Rachel (Raven). If you ever wanted to watch beloved DC comics character Starfire cut a bloody, amnesia-fueled killing spree across Central Europe, this is portion of the first few episodes of 'Titans' that will interest you. 

 All in all it seems that while the Collider may have hated the show, there is one thing that once again comes up in his review that is a constant in the other three:

The most baffling aspect of 'Titans' is the question of who exactly it's for. If you're a fan of the comics, or  -maybe even more likely- the animated series 'Teen Titans', or 'Teen Titans Go!', I can't see you enjoying 'Titans,' unless you ever felt compelled to accompany these characters to therapy during their downtime. 

Based off of everything I have seen in these reviews, the consensus is clear. Good show or not, I don't think that most people are going to actually enjoy this series. Teen Titans are beloved characters. People have wanted a live action rendition of them for so long. The fact that the producers of this show felt it wasn't especially important to keep these characters true to form is a slap in the face to the people who fell in love with these characters. Now, I have discussed this show with a lot of people, and a lot of people have accused me of wanting this show to fail. Well I honestly cannot deny that there is certainly a part of me that does. However, the thing that really irks me about this show is that I deserve better as a fan, WE deserve better. These characters are some of the most beloved in comics and they deserve to be treated with a measure of respect, and it's very clear that this show doesn't do that. Dick Grayson should NOT be murdering people, Starfire should NOT be burning people to a crisp. Raven should be controlling her abilities to show her inner strength as a character. Beast Boy should be green and be transforming into a lot more than a tiger. This is far from the best that DC can do with these characters, so I refuse to give it a pat on the back when I have seen the best of these characters on shows like Teen Titans and Young Justice.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! we will see you again soon!

MHA: Two Heroes Delivers Jaw Dropping Hero Film

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


With lackluster looking films like Venom or X-men: Dark Phoenix being shoved down our throats, it can be difficult to find a breath of fresh air. Don't worry, everything is going to be okay because IT IS HERE! My Hero Academia's first feature film Two Heroes has arrived, and folks if there is any movie to wipe the thoughts out of bad super hero films away, this is it because not only is it amazing, it's probably one of the best superhero films I have seen in quite a while. It has been a long time since a super hero movie has made me leave the theater with that kind of energy. So let's talk about My Hero Academia: Two Heroes.

The title of the film is actually surprisingly layered. At first glimpse one would think that it's in reference to the series protagonist Izuku Midorya and his mentor/ predecessor of One for All, All-Might. While this is certainly the case, it equally represents the friendship of All-Might and his old partner while he was "heroing" in the States, David Stallion, as well as the rise of two heroes of the film: Midorya and David's daughter Melissa. However, I don't want to go so far as to spoil how the film accomplishes these things, so the synopsis is that All-Might has received an invitation by an old friend's daughter as a surprise to a MASSIVE tech expo on this place called I-Island. All-Might brings his protege along to meet an old ally in crime, but while things seem to be going well at the surface, something evil is brewing. A band of criminals led by a sinister villain takes the expo hostage and it's up to Midorya and some classmates that have also made it to the expo to free the heroes and allow them a chance to save the day.

It's hard to pinpoint an exact thing that makes this movie as good as it is. The animation allows for a better suspense of disbelief that you just don't get in live action, so over the top moments have a lot more weight to them. With the characters already established from the show, exiting character tropes from the series allow for jokes, drama, and action to have just as much impact as they do in the show's episodic format. However, I think what really punctuates the entire experience is the final action sequence. A while back I came upon a video that brought up some good points about the fights in My Hero Academia being a bit dull visually. That the fights were used as a means to expand the universe. However, in this final fight sequence we get some of the best animated fight choreography not only in this show, but in most modern anime I have seen. This movie finally gives a phenomenal look at just how much a force All- Might is to be reckoned with. While this is something that is shown throughout the movie, it is especially capitalized on in the final fight. I would say more but honestly, my words could not do it justice.

As with all things the movie isn't perfect, yet it's imperfections don't really take away from the experience. There are a few times where you scratch your head and go "why didn't they think of that earlier," but these moments aren't annoying enough to take away from the movie, and after all they are just heroes in training. The other thing I will say is that if you haven't watched the show up until this point, I don't recommend seeing it. It's not that you won't enjoy the film. The opening does a very good job of explaining the background of what has happened so far in the series, but it's not the same as taking the time to be invested in these characters and seeing individual arcs play out in this movie. In the end, while these faults are here none are enough to hurt the movie for me. I am someone who gets enthusiastic about films that I enjoy, and sometimes that enthusiasm can get in the way of giving an unbiased opinion. However, I feel that as long as you have watched the series through at least season 2, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is a solid 10/10 film, and to those without that context it would still be a solid 8.5 or 9/10.

Sadly, My Hero Academia Two Heroes has a limited release, so if you don't get a chance to see it in the next week or so, you'll have to wait until the film is released on DVD and Blu Ray, which I can only hope is within the year. If you haven't yet watched My Hero Academia, I highly recommend it and if you want some extra incentive here's a character analysis I did of one of the chief characters, All-Might.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! we will see you all again soon!

'Dark Phoenix' Trailer Previews a Potentially Better Rehash of 'Last Stand'

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

A long awaited, or dreaded moment happened yesterday. The first trailer for the last FOX installment of X-men: Dark Phoenix was dropped. This marks the seventh X-men movie that Fox has made, and the fourth in the line of films started by the reboot of X-Men: First Class. The movie is set to adapt the iconic Dark Phoenix storyline from the books (if the title weren't enough of a giveaway) for the second time in the franchise's history, the first being the ever infamous X-Men: Last Stand which killed the momentum of the initial franchise in the early 00's. Before going any further let's take a look at the trailer below:

While this trailer is not the absolute disaster I was expecting, it is still not great as actively nothing happens. It's intensity is only really held up by the two things that have held up the previous 3 films in the performances of James Mcavoy and Michael Fassbender. The voice overs they have in the trailer are testament to how good these two are in their respective roles and are the only thing we will actively be missing out on when the franchise is rebooted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The rest of the trailer is pretty unspectacular as the X men costumes look very bland and cheap, and they still apparently haven't learned that not all bad guys should wear trench coats as both Jessica Chastain's character and Jean Grey sport them throughout the trailer. It seems that the only thing they have learned since Last Stand is that Jean Grey should get this power in a cosmic scenario and that having Cyclops be around while the love of his life becomes an uncontrollable and evil force hell bent on universal destruction could be an interesting angle for the character to have.

In addition to the recurring cast of the First Class films, it appears that we are adding even more characters (because that worked so well for Apocalypse) with introducing X-men Villains like Selene and we are getting overloaded with multiple stories once again as Magneto has apparently established Genosha in the time between Apocalypse and this film. Really guys? Just going to through Genosha under the rug like a second fiddle storyline? Didn't you learn anything by trying to slam M-Day alongside Phoenix? You don't combine MAJOR storyarcs, you can pepper in some minor story arcs to aid the primary, but you don't just say well Genosha's cool lets have it compete screen time with Dark Phoenix and vice versa. YOU GET ONE! Pick it and focus on it! 

Genosha: Mutant Paradise

Needless to say I don't have especially high hopes for this film. After X-Men: Apocalypse I have found my taste for Fox's X-men franchise to have soured. I am just eagerly waiting for Kevin Fiegie to slam the reset button over at Marvel the moment the ink dries on this merger. 

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! we will see you again soon!

Affleck Seen Entering WB With a Script and Matt Reeves Talks Up Batman

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

Before I get into this particular part, I made a promise during our Cavill-gate piece that I would bring you guys facts with quality written pieces, I am not breaking that promise today, but as a disclosure the first part of the article will deal with speculation BEHIND facts. Now that it's out there we can move forward. One of the biggest issues that the DCEU has faced since Batman vs Superman's release back in 2016 is the length of Ben Affleck's tenure as Batman. Every month it seems that there is some new rumor on the actor's status in the cowl. While there are many critics of the film BvS, Ben Affleck's performance was considered by many to be the film's silver lining, and so a lot of fans have hoped he retain the role till he could at least stay till he could do his own solo film. This solo Batman film has had quite the bumpy rode as it has shifted hands from initially being produced, directed, written, and starred by Ben Affleck, to be cowritten with Geoff Johns, to the initial script being scrapped and Matt Reeves replacing Affleck as the director. The whole process has been a mess and with the poor box office and critical reception to Justice League, a lot of people thought Ben Affleck was done for good, yet there may be hope on the horizon.

It has been reported that just yesterday, Ben Affleck was seen walking into Warner Bros headquarters with a script in hand. This is big news because just the day before WB announced that Matt Reeves' script was finished and that it was going into editing phase and that they were hoping to start production in the summer of 2019. While nothing is confirmed, this could be a very good sign for those of us who hope that Affleck will do Matt Reeves' film. Contract negotiations for Affleck were reported to begin around this time and with Affleck walking into the studio with script in hand, there is only so much room for coincidence you can allow before it becomes an issue of A+B=C. While I am not going to allow myself to get too hopeful, I will say that this is a promising sign and I do truly hope that Ben will stay with the role. That being said, whether Ben stays or goes we will more than likely have an announcement about who is playing Batman in the Matt Reeves film here before the end of the year as production is planned to begin by the summer time.

However, that is not the only Batman news that we have. As stated previously Matt Reeves has finished the initial script for his standalone Batman film and it is reported that Warner Brothers is singing it's praise far and wide. Since then he had an interview with IndieWire, in it Reeves reveals a bit about his inspiration for writing this movie, and it's good:

I think that it’s interesting, because one of the things that I’ve found interesting, just as we’re working on the story, is looking back at Jekyll and Hyde, and the idea of your shadow-self, and the idea of, we are all multiple things. It’s different aspects of who we are, and I think there are times when maybe the surface of Bruce is not really who he is, but that’s his disguise. There are times when Batman’s the disguise, but there are times when his true essence comes out, because by being veiled, a kind of instinctual side comes out that’s very pure.

Every time Reeves talks about this film it honestly gets me more excited. Back when he first took on this project he talked about the film being noir driven and that he was consulting old Alfred Hitchcock movies for inspiration. Honestly, if we do get Ben Affleck in this Matt Reeves Batman film I fully expect a movie that will blow the Nolan films out of the water. While those movies are great films, I find that the more times I watch them, the more I realize they aren't good Batman films. They share a very similar problem to the Sam Raimi Spider-Man franchise. They have Bruce be far more reluctant to be Batman, constantly looking for a way out of the role so he can be with one of the worst written love interests I have ever seen. It's just not an accurate portrait of who and what Batman is as a character. In that regard it is very clear that Matt Reeves has a far better understanding of what that character is than Nolan did, and I am very excited and anxious to see the finished product!

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and we will see you again soon!

Heroes in Crisis: Tom King Spreads Mediocrity Beyond His Failing Bat-Title

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

If there is one comicbook writer that has more than earned the ire of comicbook fans in the past few months it's Tom King. While King had a lot of acclaim for his Mr Miracle book, his most notable work right now is the main Batman title that King has helmed since DC's 2016 soft reboot: DC Rebirth. King's quality of writing this book has alway fluctuated all over the place from some issues being worth their weight in gold, and others being worth their weight in fecal matter. That being said he pretty unanimously turned the entire community against him with the long awaited Wedding Issue of Batman #50 where after about a year of build up, King had Catwoman be a runaway bride and it was all a ploy by Bane. It is easily one of THE WORST issues of ANY comic I have ever read, and in all honesty it should have ended this man's career. However, instead he got handed a major crossover event because apparently there is no justice in this world. That crossover released it's issue one today, so let's talk Heroes in Crisis.

So the premise of this book had initially intrigued me when they released the synopsis some months ago: 

There’s a new kind of crisis threatening the heroes of the DC Universe, ripped from real-world headlines by C.I.A.-operative-turned-comics-writer Tom King: How does a superhero handle PTSD? Welcome to Sanctuary, an ultra-secret hospital for superheroes who’ve been traumatized by crime-fighting and cosmic combat. But something goes inexplicably wrong when many patients wind up dead, with two well-known operators as the prime suspects: Harley Quinn and Booster Gold! It’s up to the DC Trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman to investigate—but can they get the job done in the face of overwhelming opposition?

The initial hooks that grabbed my interests were things like PTSD clinic for Super heroes for one. I thought as topical as a subject as PTSD is, it was surprising that noone had really done anything with PTSD in books outside of the obvious subjects like Punisher. In addition I love Booster Gold, and what's even more was that Tom King has written Booster before in a 3 issue side story of Batman and absolutely killed it. That being said, it is Tom King, so my level of enthusiasm wasn't sky rocketing, but I had a little hope. That was until I read issue 1 this morning, and dear god was it bad.

I would write down a bit about how the story of this comic book fit together throughout the issue, what it was setting up for, but honestly I can't because I have absolutely NO CLUE about what I just read. This issue was such a mess I had to set down my ipad for two minutes, walk around my apartment and come back to it because I felt like I was missing something MASSIVE. I just had no clue what was going on. While this kind of writing may work in a film where you start off clueless and then things are enlightened for you later on, it has an adverse effect in a major crossover event where things are supposed to be fairly linear. You are already juggling several protagonists, and their stories, we don't need a constant time jumps it's a headache. Beyond this issue being just a huge headache to read, it also kills off two fan favorite characters. If you care about spoilers beware, but the two fan favorites are posted in the image below:

Wally West and Roy Harper are Dead....

Wally West's Flash and Arsenal are dead, apparently of a shooting (a fact that we only know from the synopsis as the issue didn't bother to tell us a single damn thing), and what's worse is that this is actively all that we see. I mean we JUST got Wally back at the beginning of Rebirth. HE JUST CAME BACK. This is so cheap, and honestly I shouldn't be surprised, I should have seen this coming. What's even more tragic is that as bad as these deaths were, they weren't even the worst part of the book. The worst part of the book is how utterly useless all the main characters are and how out of character they are written. Harley Quinn, a liscensed Psychiatrist declares that she doesn't believe Trauma exists. Batman, a man with an IQ of 192 is written like a man with an IQ of 2. Superman, just sits down and cries a lot this issue. Wonder Woman is making jokes while examining murdered heroes, and Booster just gets stabbed by Harley Quinn a lot and acts mildly annoyed saying "Stooooopppppp!"

Needless to say this issue is not worth your time as it's only saving grace is some fairly decent artwork. Tom King if you are reading this,this is the second time you have ruined comics for me in the past few months. Please retire your pen and paper and fade away because DC was better off without you in it. You were a lackluster replacement for the Snyder/Capullo team on Batman, and now you are going out to ruin the rest of these books, so please, on behalf of every person who reads DC, just stop.

This has been another edition of Comic Relief! we will see you again soon!