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Marvel Masterworks Doctor Strange Volume 6 Review

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I don’t think that I have read a Doctor Strange comic before now so it was great to get this collection from the library. He’s a character who used to be among the strongest in Marvel history as he has gone toe to toe with foes like the Living Tribunal in the past. This collection certainly sees him go up against some cosmic threats, but we also get to see him get used to being a weaker fighter. This comic is sound in all areas and makes for a fun read.

There are quite a few adventures to be found here. One of the mini arcs involves a test that Eternity decides to give Doctor Strange. Strange must defeat himself as he meta physically fights against all of his personalities to show that his strength of will has not deteriorated. If he fails, Eternity shall end the planet! Later on, Strange decides to take a field trip to the past to meet with Ben Franklin and other retro figures. Unfortunately, someone has been following him around and Strange must learn not to believe his eyes, but to feel the truth. Finally, Strange is stripped of his Socerer Supreme title and goes back to just being a good magician. This comes at a bad time as Xander has come to attack Strange on behalf of his masters. Clea has also been tainted with evil and she is on a rampage in the city. Life never gets dull for Doctor Strange!

Doctor Strange is a very fun main character. He was certainly someone that you could root for here and he was also interesting. Strange was certainly a deep character who had been through many experiences and didn’t feel like your average hero. As with many heroes, this was likely the best portrayal of him as it would be very hard to top. His abilities are so numerous that even he has trouble remembering exactly what he can do at times, which makes sense. Magic is essentially unlimited so once you know it, you can really do just about anything. It’s easy to picture Doctor Strange actually tangling with cosmic beings. He met the creator in an older comic and here he gets to meet Satan and Eternity. He really hangs out with the best of the best and it would be fun to see Dr Strange at his height go up against Thanos with the Gauntlet. There’s actually a good chance that Strange could do more than simply put up a fight.

Eternity is certainly a fun character to watch since he’s one of Marvel’s heavy hitters. He is literally the universe so he is everywhere and always knows what’s going on. How can he be defeated? Well, you’d be surprised at just how many other heavy hitters Marvel has stashed away! Eternity is bested in both of the fights that he engages in here. One of them was a little surprising while I suppose that I can buy the other one. Still, in a battle of hype, one character must always lose right? I definitely consider Eternity to be below the Beyonder and Living Tribunal in power after this, but he’s probably still ahead of Death even though they are essentially half and half. At the very least, you’ve got to love Eternity’s personality. He reminds Doctor Strange that he is not above anger and he certainly proves it. You simply don’t want to mess with him!

Those were the two characters who really stuck out for me. Clea is a supporting character who gets a bigger role in the second half of the collection, but it’s still relatively small when you really think about it. I think the writers sometimes forget that she is still a sorceress though. Sometimes, she’ll simply go down without a fight. It’s a little odd and even the foreward by the writer for the first half mentioned that she probably should have left already. Things just didn’t work out very well for her, but at least the ending shows that things are starting to look better. Dr Strange’s assustant’s role is even smaller than Clea’s though so things certainly could have been worse.

As for the villains, most of them are simply sorcerers or tricks by Eternity or Strange’s mentor. Nightmare appears and he gets a pretty incredible feat, but Dr Strange disposes of him rather quickly. This shows how strong Strange was at one point. We’ve also got Xander, but he looks surprisingly weak. I’m assuming that the writer wasn’t sure exactly what to do with him and just threw the villain in for the lulz. We also have the the two queens who fought in the annual, but there’s not much to say about them. The dynamic was similar to the two Queens in Friendship is Magic, but with less development of course.

The art is a little inconsistent. It’s not a problem of the artist I believe as they switch during the comics. For most of the graphic novel, the art is very good and it does a good job of capturing the cosmic scope of Strange’s adventures. Towards the end with the annual and the final issues, the art just takes a big dip. The faces tend to vary a lot and Strange appears to have a head of gray hair on more than one occasion. I probably wouldn’t think that the art was so bad if it had been like that the whole time, but there’s no comparison when you look at the first half and then the second. Still, the first half definitely keeps it in the clear and the art certainly won’t take you out of the adventure.

The writing is engaging and you’re constantly reminded of how they simply don’t make comics like this one anymore. The adventures were great fun and Dr Strange made for a good lead. His strange adventures into other realms and planets are what made his comics so unique back in the day. The current Doctor Strange is hard to pinpoint as I haven’t read many comics with him, but he’s certainly less impressive nowadays and he doesn’t feel quite as determined as this Doctor Strange. It’s something about retro comics that allows each character to dip deep and really give the battle their all. That kind of determination doesn’t show up quite as often anymore.

Overall, I definitely recommend checking this collection out! It’s a blast and a half. Moreover, it’s a good way to get you prepped for the Doctor Strange film that will be coming out at some point in the future. You may not want to expect the film’s version to be quite as awesome as the lead in this collection, but it’s very likely going to be a good film so it should not disappoint. Watching Eternity actually get into a physical brawl is very exciting and the stakes are much higher here than you would expect from the average comic. This version of Dr Strange could likely defeat the Avengers and the other teams of the day as long as he had enough time to think of his spells. He could really do anything back in the day. Hopefully I’ll get to read another one of these collections for Doctor Strange someday. That being said, there’s another graphic novel that I’ll be reading soon, which has Strange in it so that’s the next best thing.

Overall 7/10

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed Review

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All right, it’s time to look at the sequel to the other Sonic racing game! I got the other one not too long ago so you’re probably wondering why I got this one so fast right? I got the first one for Christmas and I bought the sequel at the beginning of March so that’s only about a 2 month gap between the two games. What can I say…the first game was just that good! I knew that I needed the sequel and I have seen some declare that it is one of the greatest racing games of all time…maybe even ever! (By default as some have said that it possibly defeats Mario Kart 8. That was before the DLC though so maybe things have changed)

This game has more of a “story” mode than the other title as the main menu is called World Tour. There is no plot or story, but you do have to complete levels to unlock the next ones and you go from world to world. So, it’s a story mode without the actual story. I always liked this kind of set up because it really feels like you got to complete the game after you wrap it up. No worries though, we’ve still got Grand Prix Mode as well. There are quite a lot of levels in World Tour mode so you’ll likely be here for quite a while. Depending on what difficulty level you beat the game on, you can earn 1-4 stars per level.

That’s where the artificial replay value comes in. To unlock some of the final, extra levels in the last world, you must get a whole lot of stars. This means going back and doing a lot of the older missions on tougher and tougher difficulty levels. I thought that this was certainly a bit much, but for many fans that won’t be a problem. The gameplay is pretty fun after all so going back and playing the events again isn’t bad. Replaying the tournament missions is another story, but you don’t need to have literally every star to beat the final levels as far as I know.

World Tour is also where you unlock a majority of the characters and mods. The more stars that you get, the more gates that you can open for unlockable secrets. It’s a nifty system and it always feels particularly thrilling to unlock a new character or custom mod. As I mentioned earlier, we also still have Grand Prix mode, where you can play all the stages as they were meant to be played. Time Attack Mode is a given and naturally, we’ve got the multiplayer option as well.

There’s certainly a lot to do in this game so even without going back and doing old levels, you’ve got more than enough content here to warrant the 60 dollar purchase. Of course, you can likely get this game for a third of that at this point. The PS3 trophies to collect is also another piece of the puzzle to consider. I don’t plan on getting the Platinum here thanks to those tricky online trophies, but I got a decent amount of trophies before I put the game back on the shelf. Perhaps I’ll go back and get some more at some point, but for now I’m definitely satisfied. Each character gains exp when you race as them and you can work to max everyone out. I got Sonic to the final level as I used him for almost all of the World Tour events, but I didn’t get around to the other characters. It’s a nice incentive to make you want to play as every character. There’s even more things to do here that I haven’t touched upon so content is not a concern.

As for the actual gameplay, it’s definitely more arcade styled. The game definitely lives up to the billing there and that will decide whether you prefer it to the previous game or not. I actually liked the style in the other game more, but they’re fairly similar and this one’s still a blast. This game does introduce two new features, which are the boat and plane gimmicks. You can transform during the race at designated spots, which results in a fun change of pace for the gameplay and you get to really zoom through the courses. Perhaps a little ironic, but I prefer the traditional car gameplay to both the plane and the boat, but they are still fun methods of travelling around. You can grab items as you go through the course and naturally, the goal is to get to the finish line first. That doesn’t sound too hard right?

The A.I. is actually much better in this game than the previous one. I think it’s at a pretty good level. It’s tough enough that the levels are not a walk in the park, but it’s not too difficult that you will find it to be a little cheap. The controversial decision to make the computers input readers in Smash Bros was dicey as it is, but the computers here seem relatively fair. Just be prepared to bring your A game to the table for each round and you should be okay.

Graphically, this game certainly looks stunning. You can instantly tell that this is a PS3 level title as all of the details look flawless. Sega spared no expense for this title and you can tell that it came out back when Sonic was still a prominent figure in their plans. All of the levels are crisp with a great amount of detail and the oceans look especially good. You will certainly miss the graphics once you turn your TV off.

Audio wise, the game fares just as well. The stage themes are nice and cheerful, while also being fast enough to keep up with the gameplay. Sonic’s themes are typically the best by far, but we also get some more opera styled themes for the final levels. As this is a cross over, you can expect music from other games as well. While I know all about Monkey Ball’s themes, the rest of the series are all new to me so hearing their music is always fun. The city levels tend to have some really fun themes to listen too.

After a lot of thought, I do think that the first Sonic All Stars Racing game beats this one. At least, in terms of gameplay. That being said, it certainly loses in just about every other area and it can probably be tough to go from Racing Transformed to just Racing. The first game simply doesn’t look quite as good and there are less guest star racers in that game. Pure gameplay is typically what counts the most so the older one still takes the lead, but Transformed is certainly on the same level and deserves the hype that it has gotten. Now, if only they could throw Mario in the game so that we can call it a crossover!

Overall, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is a great follow up to the first game. The racing is as fun as ever and the graphics are intense. Aside from racing, some of the events will have you fight other racers or even dodge traffic. Dodging traffic is always a lot of fun for me and it’s easily one of my favorite events in the game. If you plan on doing everything that there is to accomplish here, you should be prepared to spend a lot of time playing this game. It’s certainly worth the money and I can only hope that Sega decides to make a third game to finish up the trilogy at some point. Sonic has definitely proved that he can hold his own racing title and Mario Kart has a legitimate rival now. I definitely recommend buying this game when you get the chance!

Overall 8/10

Excitebots Trick Racing Review

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All right, let’s check out another game from the legendary 5 dollar bin! It’s games like this that make the bin so worth it for me because this is a hidden gem that I likely would have never played otherwise. It’s certainly not going to be the next Mario Kart of F-Zero, but Excitebots ended up being pretty fun and certainly worth the 5 bucks.

There is no plot so you are free to jump into the grand prixes. There are 5 different cups and each one has 4-5 different races in it. This title is a little different than most racing games as getting to 1st place is heavily encouraged, but there are other aspects in place. See, this game is also a bit of a stunt racing game as the amount of stars that you have in the end is what ultimately matters. Coming in first gives you an extra 55 as opposed to the 15 in second so that’s a good reason to get to 1st place, but you also want to do a lot of tricks along the way. No worries, they come rather naturally.

You get stars for drifting and bumping into other cars. If you decide to drive into a forest, you get a star for every tree that you dodge. The stars add up quickly there, but it is typically much more dangerous than the normal path so you have to decide if your driving skills are up to par. If you hit something, then you’ll quickly be taken back a little bit, which can eat up your time although it’s not all that bad. You’ll still be okay even if you crash a few times. Just make sure that you get the stars first. Naturally, you also have a nitro boost that you can activate quite often. You just can’t use too much of it at once or you will overheat so make sure to use it gradually and in bursts.

All of what I just mentioned was already in Excite Truck so let’s get into the new features for this title. This game placed a lot more emphasis on the Motion Controls than the older game. For starters, you’ll see various poles throughout the race. You will then have to make a motion with your Wii Remote depending on what color the pole is. Typically it will require you to make a sudden push forward or to act as if you are making a circular motion. To be honest, this is an addition that I definitely would have preferred to not have made the cut. Getting the motions can be as tough as you think considering the Wii Remote’s dicey reputation and it doesn’t add anything to the game. I can guarantee that the game would be even better without this gimmick although it certainly doesn’t hurt the game all that much. It was just a little unnecessary.

One of the new additions that I did like was the item boxes and tools that would appear. You can get items like some teeth to throw at enemies or a fishing rod to get some fish/stars. The items are typically fun and if you get a wrench, then you can turn into your true robot form. This was a good addition to the game and I’m glad that they added it. I certainly would like to play without any nitro or items as an option as well, but if you’re going to have some gimmicks, then you may as well add them all in right? You can play a lot of the individual minigames in minigame mode in case you really like one. There’s also a Poker Mode, but I decided not to try it out. It didn’t really pique my interest.

There are many other ways to search for stars during the race, but I’ll allow you to find those on your own. The actual gameplay is very smooth, which helps to negate the Wii Remote’s handling. The Wii Remote actually works well enough here. I would still prefer almost any other remote, but it’s passable as you have to hold it sideways to play this game, which has always been the best way to use the Wii Remote for a racing game. Each race is only about 2-5 minutes so they’re short, which helps to make them very exciting. Nothing’s worse than playing a really long race only to discover that you’ve lost and have to play it all over again.

The graphics are sound and the robots all look good. This is certainly no Mario Galaxy, but it’s still a big step above titles like Casper and Rudolph. The graphics are not bad, nor are they very good. They’re simply caught in the middle, but that’s not a bad thing. The designs still compliment the races rather well, which is all that I could ask of the title. The soundtrack is great, but I would expect no less from such a solid racing title. All of the themes are fast and intense, which lets you really feel like you’re in the race. Racing games have had a superb track record when it comes to the music included in them and this game does not disappoint here.

Completing the cups won’t take you very long. There are 24 courses and all of them are short, but you have to consider that you will be getting this game for a bargain price. Also, there is a good amount of replay value. If you get S ranks on all levels, then you can unlock the Super Excite difficulty so that you can play the stages yet again. Moreover, there are many things to buy with your stars. That’s where it gets to be a bit much though.

For starters, you have to actually buy the alternate colors for your vehicles. You have to buy the vehicles and then you also buy avatars for your profile and statues of your cars. This gives you a lot to buy, but earning stars isn’t so simple. For example, you will earn around 200-300 per race, but most of the cars are 2500-5000. I ended up with around 5000 stars when I beat the game so I bought one car. Imagine how long it would take to buy the 20+ profiles, 20 statues, colors, and cars. Certainly longer than I’d really be willing to play this game. I actually did bother to do the S ranks for Excite Truck, which shows how much fun these games are, but it’s not the kind of thing that I’d probably do now. Nowadays, Super Smash Bros is probably one of the only games where I’d actually go that far. Don’t get me wrong, the gameplay here is still a lot of fun, but I’ve got a lot of games to play so it’s best that I move on while I can.

Overall, Excitebots is a fun racing title. It’s certainly a lot better than you would expect upon looking seeing the cover and you should certainly give it a chance. It’s a short, but fun experience and the actual gameplay is quite good. It’s fairly unique for a racing game and you’ll have fun earning those stars as you beat the levels. The soundtrack is really good and the graphics are sound so this game really has no weak points. There’s also a multiplayer mode to boost the replay value a little higher. Yes, this is one of those 5 dollar bargain bin titles that is really tough to top.

Overall 7/10

Bunny Lake Is Missing Review

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It’s time to review one of the worst films of all time! At least, one of the worst films that I’ve seen anyway and this is a title that I highly recommend staying away from. It’s essentially a tragedy story with a lot of randomly bad elements thrown in to make the whole situation more tragic even though this is unnecessary. It results in a film that’s less fun than watching yourself lose a Super Smash Bros match 100x in a row.

Ann moves to a new place and decides to drop her daughter off at a local school as she heads home to get everything set up. Unfortunately, her daughter is missing when she gets back there and Ann wonders what could have happened. There is no proof to suggest that she even exists so the police are skeptical as well. Ann will have to find her daughter quickly if she is to get anyone to believe her and that could be tricky in such a big place.

All right, let’s start off with some of the big negatives and work our way down. The first big negative is Ann’s brother, Stephen. See, the film makes it so obvious that he is insane and villainous from some of his first scenes that you will likely have a good idea of who the villain is. Maybe a red herring? No, because you are not meant to suspect him. He’s very over the top in how much he wants to protect Ann and find the daughter, but you know that he’s evil from his actions. He was a terrible character and a really bad addition to the film, which severely hurt its chances from the get go. His final scenes are just even worse and a waste of time here.

The next big negative is that the film introduces another villain for no real reason. The land lord is another criminal who just wants to seduce the people around him and he’s also insane. Again, there’s literally no reason to add him except to give us red herring who’s pure evil. Red Herrings are supposed to be subtle and not just thrown around for the audience to be tricked. The audience is much more clever for that and won’t fall for such tactics. The land lord does nothing but drag the film down even more.

Just to stress how dangerous the daughter’s situation is, the film has background characters make unnecessary comments about it like how they ended up finding another child who had gone missing a while back. These extra details are there to make the film darker and more tragic, but they just make you want to turn off the TV that much sooner. We get that the daughter is missing, but we want the film’s focus to be on finding her, not in explaining why this is so bad. Common sense tells us why she is in danger.

The film is just very distasteful in almost every scene and it’s really hard to watch. The writers wanted this tragedy to be as dark as they could, but what they forgot is that tragedies are automatically dark so you don’t need to keep on throwing in extra details at us. It’s like making an emotional film where you try to throw as many sad events at the main character as you can to make us sympathize with him/her. After a while, it’s simply overkill and makes the film a burden to watch.

These films also rely on some plot hax to keep going like how Bunny was actually abducted from the school. It’s hard to believe that someone could just walk in and grab her. Or that nobody would notice her being taken for that matter. It’s just very dicey, but to be expected as the plot had to happen somehow right? At least the policeman in charge of the operation tried a lot of different tactics to find her, but he seemed to be trying to be too clever for his own good. He was constantly metaphorically stroking his mustache as he kept on exposing Stephen in logical errors of the brother’s story, but he wouldn’t do anything about it. It all seemed like a game to him as he would learn more and more about the case, but not actually do anything. You also know from the start that the police won’t be able to do much so it’s hard to even have any suspense for that plot.

Then, the tragedy elements are focused on for just about the whole film so there’s no time for anything else. The film’s opening 5-10 minutes were decent as Ann punched her way through the crowds (Not literally) and tried to find her daughter, but that’s because the daughter wasn’t actually missing yet. She was, but they didn’t know that so the atmosphere was still calm. It was enjoyable to see the retro school life and Ann definitely had a strong personality. From there, the film just kept trying to hit you in the emotions far too often to be effective.

The climax of the film is probably one of the worst parts of the film. It goes on for way too long and I doubt that many people were watching this film so that they could see a psychotic episode. It just kept on going and going and you would just be waiting for the film to end already. It felt very long from the start all the way to the finish line. This film could easily be compared to Sucker Punch, which is another 0 star film. Both of them are incredibly dark and not enjoyable to watch. Sucker Punch has some action scenes at least, but has darker plot lines so they both end up being relatively equivalent.

Overall, This is the kind of film that you should never watch even if someone paid you too. It’s simply not worth exposing yourself to this title and you should just try to forget it as soon as possible. The terrible characters mixed with the bad climax and unrelenting unnecessary additions just end up transforming what could have been an almost decent film into a legendarily bad one. If you want a film that is fun to watch with plenty of excitement and laughs, just check out Yugioh 3D Bonds Beyond Time. That film is essentially the opposite of this one in just about every way. It has likable characters, a good plot, and an epic climax. If you’re going to watch any film, it should definitely be that one!

Overall 0/10

Planet of the Apes (2001) Review

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Well, looks like it’s time to check out another one of the Ape films. I can’t say that I went in with high hopes after the first batch, but this is a reboot. With new directors comes new opportunities right? This one was a solid improvement over the last few as it managed to work on most of my big problems with it. That being said, it’s guaranteed to make you sleepy once you start watching it.

Captain Leo is at his space station when the commander decides to send a chimp into space. Leo protests this, but the commander won’t listen. The chimp doesn’t know how to use the controls so it slowly starts to fade away into the silence of space. Leo won’t allow that to happen so he hops into a pod and chases the little guy. Both of them fall into a portal, which leads to the far future. Apes have enslaved humanity and they now rule the world. Can Leo lead the resistance away from the apes or are they all going to die?

The plot is fairly similar to the first film, but with some improvements. For starters, Captain Leo is actually a likable character. He went after his monkey, which was the hero move and he was pretty cool about it. Unfortunately, he quickly starts to lose his edge once he is stranded on the foreign planet. Good things can’t last forever I suppose. He does stay defiant all the way through to the end though. He may not have been quite as tough as he was in the opening, but he is dealing with meta powerful apes so he has to be careful about how he operates. I dare the new films to think up a more likable character! I rarely mention actors, but it’s safe to say that the actor did a good job here.

Now, the main thing that you are likely wondering about is the animal violence right? After all, that’s what utterly destroyed all of the other Ape films. Well, you’ll be happy to know that it was significantly reduced from the other films. I dare say that this one has the least amount of it although I remember one of the old films being decent about it. Perhaps my memory has started to fade a little sooner than usual. It’s not completely eliminated though and you’ll also feel bad for the horses that are caught up in these petty wars. It’s a negative that is still around, but considering that this is a film about apes, Burton managed to take away as much of the animal violence as he could.

One part of the plot that felt a little like a plot hole were the cave dwellers. In the first few scenes, it seemed like the humans could not talk. They may not want the apes to know that they can talk, but there’s no way that they couldn’t utter a “Huwahhhhhh” or “Gwagggg” as they were being taken away. At least a “Help” at one point would have sufficed. No, they seemed to be totally mindless until they randomly started talking towards the end of the film. I’ll assume that this part simply wasn’t thought about very much as the writers just wanted to go through the plot already.

The ending is pretty epic. I love the concept although it could have been made even better. The film ending with Leo arriving on Earth where Birds have taken over the planet or something like that would have been cooler. As it stands, my take on the ending is that he’s in a parallel world. I don’t think he can be on the same Earth that he was in before because he is back in the past and yet things have not really changed. There’s no way that the past could have been altered from the future and the humans would have not lost so quickly and suddenly. It’s too bad that this didn’t get a sequel to surpass all my hopes and expectations…….or maybe it wasn’t.

One of the main problems from this film is that it will make you incredibly sleepy. As you’re watching the characters drone on and on about things that don’t ultimately matter, you will feel your eyes start to get a little heavy. As you try to keep yourself awake, you’ll slowly start to sink into the pillow that you have on the arm rest of your chair. Slowly, but surely, you will eventually fall asleep and only wake up as the film is ending. Such is the fate of all who eventually watch this film…in theory. It’s simply not very exciting at all and that really hurts how much you can actually enjoy it.

Also, you simply can’t save a bad concept no matter how good the execution is. Attack on Titan is an incredibly good example of this and I always love to use it. The anime played everything just about perfectly, but it still had to adapt the manga and that was the problem. No matter how likable they make Leo or how much they try to get rid of the animal violence, you simply can’t fix the film when it’s using this plot. There will always be some animal violence as long as the apes are the villains. There will always be the human enslavement plot that is not fun to watch because it’s part of the plot as well. That’s why the plot has always been known as a very important part to the film because it can destroy a film just as easily as it can make the title really cool.

Well, we’re getting a lot closer to the latest Apes film continuity, which is supposed to be the best yet. I have my doubts as the trailers did not look very good, but I suppose that you never know when a film will end up surprising you right? I’ll likely be seeing them soon or at some point in the future and then you can count on a review. We’ll see if it ends up topping this one or fading away.

Overall, Planet of The Apes really gave its all into making this film a success, but it simply didn’t work for me. I appreciate the effort though and the animal violence is noticeably reduced, but it’s simply not enough. Leo also had a great start as the main character and then he started to become more generic and less impressive. None of the apes are likable or interesting. You’ll really think that you’ve seen them before because they are all essentially cardboard cutouts of the original apes from the older films. We have the nice scientist/royalty member who wants to live in harmony with humans and her scared husband who is afraid for his life. Then there’s the main villain who wants to take control of the clan. Seriously, you’ve seen this all before so nothing is new on their side. There’s only so much that you can do with this plot after a while. If you want to see a film about creatures deciding to defeat humanity, I recommend watching Future Card Buddyfight 100. The monsters decide to take things into their own hands this time!

Overall 4/10

Witness for the Prosecution Review

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Looks like it’s time for a court room drama! I always liked that genre in a film as it is a lot of fun to see what goes on in the court room! There aren’t a whole lot of films that deal with this when you really think about it. This film came out a long time ago, which certainly raised the bar for it as I began to watch the film. Would it succeed or would I need to go make a sandwich for myself? Only time would tell!

The plot is that Leonard has been accused of murder. There is a lot of evidence against him so this seems like a done deal. He became acquainted with an older lady and then she mysteriously died. Leonard is now the first in line to inherit her vast fortune so this looks very suspicious. He goes to Wilfrid for help since Wilfrid is known as the best in the biz in this kind of work. Unfortunately, Wilfrid’s heart is weakening fast and his health is not what it used to be. He decides to take a gamble and accepts the case…even though it may be his last! Time is ticking and Wilfrid must find some way to prove his client’s innocence. This will likely be his most difficult challenge yet!

Wilfrid is a bit of a dicey character. He has his pros and his cons, but the cons ultimately win out. He’s the kind of guy who likes to insult and belittle people as often as he can. He is constantly rude to his nurse to the point of exaggeration that makes him rather hard to like. He simply goes too far in his threats. As sad as that may be, it also makes him a powerful force in the court room since nobody..not even the judge can intimidate him. Wilfrid sets the tone whenever he is in a room and he makes his presence clear. I didn’t like the character, but you can’t deny that Wilfrid is good at what he does. It’s no wonder why he never loses. Although, the circumstances here were a little deeper than they appeared to be on the surface.

The only area where I do feel bad for Wilfrid is in the health department. Because of his deteriorating health, he has to take constant shots, which would likely put anyone in a foul mood. The needles also look rather painful and this was before we got the pain relievers so you can imagine how sad this is. Luckily, Wilfrid still has some mild positives to keep his mind off of this. Like the chair that is installed into the wall. It’s cool that this concept still exists as I still see commercials of it all the time online. It would be pretty awesome to have around the apartment…even if I don’t have any stairs!

The court scenes are naturally the highlight of the film. The judge was legitamite and not a fake one so everything was played seriously. The opposing side did a good job of trying to prove that Leonard was guilty as well, which made the battle more interesting. The proceedings take up most of the film as they should, which helps the court case really feel intense. Wilfrid’s job would have been a lot easier if he had a better client, but at least he got to speak his peace.

Leonard certainly didn’t make things easy for Wilfrid though. He constantly panicked, yelled, and spoke out of turn. I was almost surprised that the judge didn’t kick him out at one point or just throw on some extra charged. “Contempt of court” or something like that right? Leonard isn’t a likable character naturally so you have to decide if you think he is guilty or innocent. After you make your decision, you are free to enjoy the case!

The writing is naturally very good here. There is a good amount of humor, but none of it is very obvious or annoying. It’s subtle things here and there that will make you smile. When one of the possible villains managed to defeat Wilfrid’s secret eye exam, you knew that things were definitely going to be tricky. Wilfrid’s whole personality can also be funny when he isn’t being too over the top. I still don’t like the lead, but he managed to have his moments.

The cast is very small here. Apart from Wilfrid and the client, we also have the client’s wife, a nurse, and Wilfrid’s partners. That’s just about it and it’s safe to say that Wilfrid’s partners appear to be out of their league right from the start. You could say that it’s all up to Wilfrid and without him Leonard probably wouldn’t have a chance. Trust me…Leonard is not used to talking to a judge in court! The small cast works though since that gives all of them a little more time for development. The partners may not be that useful, but they are still likable. The nurse also gives the whole situation her best and is a good character. The client’s wife appears to be rather devious and Wilfrid certainly doesn’t trust her.

I was fairly close to giving this film the ole 7, but something stopped me. The film went into flashback mode on more than one occasion and one of those times did take a star away. It was the origin of how Leonard met his wife. The flashback simply didn’t do the film any justice. We got a ton of romance scenes that didn’t do wonders for either of the characters and it also made the army joes look rather bad as well. This plot dragged on quite a bit and was the only part of the film where I can say that. It just goes to show that flashbacks aren’t always necessary..they rarely are.

The fate of the old lady is also sad. Luckily, it’s completely off screen, which is always preferable in these situations. Still, she seemed like such a nice person so it’s too bad that she got a bad roll of the dice. She was way too attracted to Leonard, but it’s possible that she just wanted someone to talk too. Either way, that’s why you need to have some hobbies so that you will have things to do when you’re older. After all, what’s the point of having unlimited free time if you don’t have any way to use it right?

As this is essentially a mystery film, get ready for some fakeouts and an ending that you may not see coming. I always like it when a film ends on such a note and the ending here is rather intense. It’s one of those, “Nothing matters anymore so I can do what I want” moments for one of the characters so things take a sudden spin. Where would we be without more endings like this right? That’s why they always say…it’s not over until it’s over!

Overall, This was a solid film. I definitely recommend it if you are interested in the law of like a good mystery. The writing is very good and the characters have strong personalities, which helps to keep you entertained throughout the film. You’ll want to really stay alert as you watch the movie to pick up as many tidbits as possible so that you can decide whether Leonard is innocent or guilty as the trial starts. I always find these films to be much more enjoyable if you try to guess the outcome first. At least, I’d say that this applies to all mysteries. You’ll also want to root for the nurse as she tries to keep Wilfrid away from the form of incoming death that is…the cigar!

Overall 6/10

Slayers Great Review

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Slayers has returned with its next film! The prequel series has certainly had its ups and downs in the past so I was hoping that this one would be able to survive with the classic Slayers atmosphere. It’s a fun adventure that manages to avoid most of the pitfalls that you may have been worried about. It’s a fun adventure that may be a little light on action, but ends up being a nice addition to the franchise.

Lina and Naga are walking through town as usual when a rampaging Golem nearly trampels over a young lady. They help her so that they can possibly win a free meal, but they don’t realize that they will now be involved in an even deeper threat than they could have realized! Two Kings are fighting for control of the land. Well…I guess, they’re more like dukes as the actual king is the one who tells them how to settle this like gentlemen. They must have a golem fight and the winner claims the land. The father of the girl that Lina saved asks her to help with his golem and Naga gets an offer from the man’s son who works for the other king. It looks like money has broken the bonds of friendship between Lina and Naga. Things get personal once Lina and Naga go inside golems shaped in their forms. Everything rides on this duel!

The film is certainly very short as it barely reaches an hour. That’s not a whole lot of time so the film has to try and keep the pace up. It does help to limit the amount of screen time for some of the filler characters as they could have certainly been a little dull. I highly doubt that you will find any of them likable by the end. The main heroine is constantly complaining about how her life sucks. If you think about it seriously, her current situation is pretty sad, but she doesn’t need to keep on reminding herself of that. Her brother is very self centered and he doesn’t play fair, which makes sure that he isn’t likable. Finally, the Dad can be a little inconsiderate and over confident at times. Considering that he’s supposed to be the greatest Golem maker in the city…he doesn’t really live up to the title.

Luckily, you don’t need filler characters to be likable when you have a good main character right? Lina is as good as always. She still does the right things for the wrong reasons so that she can end up being rich and famous. These things never work out for her in the end, but at least Lina gives it a fair try. She’s also very competitive in nature so once the Golem match starts, she gets ready to win it! She is still one of the best sorceresses out there. From all of the humans in the Slayers verse she’s the most powerful hands down. The film tries to show that Naga is almost as powerful as Lina (Not equal as Lina was winning the battle when we disregard the comedy shenanigans) but I don’t buy that for a second. Lina is more experienced and tactically sound.

Naga’s attacks are good as well, but she just strikes me as a little inexperienced. Her attire of choice still leaves much to be desired, but at least the film has the decency to not focus on it all that much. The golem actually gets more fanservice than her, which is good since rock can never actually be convincing fanservice. That certainly kept the film at a higher level than it would have been otherwise. Naga’s laugh is still iconic at this point and I’m unlikely to forget it anytime soon.

The fight scene between the two Golems was done very well. It’s not taken seriously as it is a comedy battle, but it is a well written comedy battle. It goes on for a long time, but it never actually drags on. You feel bad for the Lina statue because it looks much better than Naga’s, but it’s also a lot weaker. Lina’s statue is short and chibi because that’s how the builder wanted to make it, but it means that Lina has a hard time dealing any damage. Ignoring plot hax, Naga’s statue had the clear advantage. It ultimately bites off more than it can chew when Lina goes outside to tip the scales, but since that was basically against the rules, we can essentially say that Naga actually won this battle.

Lina and Naga had a short fight in their human forms before that. The actual animation was really good for the battle, but I didn’t like how it played out. I never like it when an anime has two characters use two versions of the same attack, which results in such a stalemate. Seriously, it’s like saying that they were simply not enthusiastic enough to think of a real battle. So, the battle wasn’t handled very well, but at least Lina was shown to be the big victor there so I suppose that I can be satisfied with that.

The animation is very good here. The movie certainly has a theatrical feel to it. It feels very similar to the Pokemon movies in that respect. The soundtracks are almost identical at some points and likewise with the animation. It’s just like the first Pokemon film and you can even contrast certain scenes in the Mewtwo vs Mew fight to the Lina vs Naga battle. That’s pretty neat and Pokemon has experience being in the theater so Slayers is taking a good approach. It’s still hard to describe what the “theatrical” effect is, but the colors are simply deeper, the energy attacks darker, and the music more operatic or grand. Beyond that, it’s really in the eye of the beholder. It’s like how Battle of Gods felt anything but theatrical while the Broly film embodied everything that I could have wanted in that style. It’s all in how you handle it I suppose.

Naturally, the only mild negative is that the film still loves to use chest insults. Naga is constantly insulting Lina’s and it can certainly get old. It’s much preferable to actual fanservice, but it’s still not the greatest running gag. The fanservice is almost entirely gone here. There is a statue that’s meant as fanservice, but it’s a statue so I don’t really count it all that much. Naga’s attire certainly counts, but as I mentioned before, there is no real attention drawn to it, which helps to mitigate almost all of the damage.

That probably helps to keep it from a 7. It’s certainly a fun film, but I feel like a 6 is more deserving in this case. It’s a fun experience, but at the same time, it’s simply lacking something. A little more action would probably have been all that it would have needed to reach the next level. Maybe even some kind of epic tune although we certainly did have some good ones. I always like the end themes on these prequels as the song is quite catchy and the finishing montage does give the appearance that you just finished watching some kind of really grand adventure.

Overall, SLayers Great is fun. It may not literally be great, but it’s a good experience that brings us some classic Slayers charm. I dare say that the humor is the most well done that I’ve seen since Slayers Next and it can be good to see the old cast as a change of pace. I still think that Lina’s accent is quite brilliant and it helps you to contrast the old Lina from the current one. If you’re a Slayers fan then it goes without saying that you should watch this one. If you’re looking for a fun fantasy film to watch, then this is a good bet for you as well. You don’t need any prior knowledge of the Slayers universe to enjoy this film so just hop on and get ready for some fun.

Overall 6/10

Rurouni Kenshin Secret Chapter To Rule Flame Review

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All right, it is time to check out the prequel manga that came out for Kenshin a while back thanks to Mangastream’s hard work as they even translated the cover! This volume is about Shishio, the fan favorite villain who did end up being one of the better Kenshin antagonists. It’s a fairly good volume. We don’t get to see the heroes almost at all, which is a little unfortunate, but it’s good to have the universe back. I’m still not done with the original series myself, but I’m in the final volumes. Keep in mind that this review will have spoilers for the volume since it’s so short and hard to avoid such things.

Well, it’s an origin story so Shishio is naturally one of the main characters. He heads into a town with his right hand man and he awaits the rest of his 10 swords. It is almost time to make his big move so now he simply needs to bide his time. He stays at an inn where the hostess is legendarily tough to buy. Either way, Shishio doesn’t care for such things, but then the lady decides to buy his strength to save her friends. Shishio will need some kind of payment for this and the lady will have to think of something.

Well, the story definitely deals with some things that you don’t see all that often (For good reason) in a manga. The main heroine is actually a prostitute although she has essentially decided to stop in that practice as she allows no one to buy her anymore. Alas, in this time, women had fewer rights so a rich person decides to buy her anyway. The lady resigns herself to this fate, but her friends mistakenly find out about the rich guy’s evil plans so he decides to destroy them all. That is why the heroine has to ask Shishio for help. Shishio is reluctant, but she helps him realize that dying alone is not a happy fate so he accepts her help on the condition that her life is now his. When Shishio is about to die, he will destroy her as well. These are satisfactory conditions for the heroine and that’s essentially the origin of Shishio.

Luckily, the manga doesn’t put too much emphasis on the prostitution part. You know that it’s happening in the city, but we never see anything even close to that, which is certainly a smart move on the manga’s part. The ending is also a lot happier than I had figured although I suppose that it is in a morbid sort of way. Shishio acknowledges that he is ultimately going to hell, but he simply isn’t fighting it. He almost doesn’t care as he still wants to be evil and he will just bring as many people as he can with him. That certainly solidifies Shishio as a villain.

At least he is a cool villain though. He’s not one of those guys who will just make you wince and groan as you read the chapter. If this had been about a lesser villain or an insane one, then it would likely not have been nearly as good. As it stands, Shishio does ultimately help against the villains so that will make the story a lot more bearable. After all, if you’re teaming up with a villain who’s as skilled as Shishio, you should have nothing to worry about.

The villain for this story gets a lot of hype at first, but then it all fades away. I think the author just forgot about it or something because the actual battle is very anticlimactic. It’s essentially over in a slash, which is sad. Based off of the imagination battle that they had earlier, I would have expected a very good fight. The Kenshin series had plenty of excellent fights so another one would have been a lot of fun. I suppose that fighting was not the main draw for this spinoff, but it still would have been a lot of fun.

The artwork is solid as can be expected. The original series had some of the best art in Jump and evidently, that has not changed in the years that have went by. It’s easy to see what’s going on and the characters all look good. The brief action scenes that we do get are very impressive and make you miss the lack of action even more. Alas, you can’t have it all right?

The volume also does a good job of getting you interested in watching the main series again. It’s an interesting story from start to finish and we even have a big group moment where all of the villains get to use their big attacks. They certainly were an impressive group and it’s good that Kenshin had so many skilled allies or this would have been a very difficult fight to win. In the final page, we get to quickly see a little of Kenshin’s fight against Shishio, but that’s more of a homage than anything else.

The villain from the final arc of the Kenshin series also gets a cameo. He tries to talk tough, but we all know that he would be crushed if he ever tried to fight Shishio. Shishio is simply too powerful for him and the other villain only lasted so long because of trickery and his many minions. Shishio doesn’t need any tricks to fight well.

So, the story is a little dark, but it’s handled well. The only negative could actually be the prostitution part of the plot as it is a little much when you actually think about it. The main characters were nearly sold away after all, but at least most of them get a happy ending or a sudden sad one so things went well. The villains were also permanently stopped so that wins the manga back its points. I’d prefer that these things really aren’t even included as there’s not much of a reason to tackle these issues in an origin story, but it certainly could have been a lot worse.

Overall, This Secret Chapter was fun. It’s certainly great to be back in the Kenshin world and I wouldn’t mind more spinoffs in the future. A sequel series would also be a lot of fun with some new villains and more power ups to help the heroes rise up the tier list. If you read the main Kenshin series, then this is a must read. If you just want to read a one shot with a villain who helps out when it furthers his interests, it’ll also work out for you. The one shot is serious and deals with serious themes, but the ending is satisfying and the art is quite good. There’s a good reason why Kenshin is known as one of the elite manga titles and this one shot lives up to that reputation. I guess we’ll see if anymore one shots come out in the future.

Overall 7/10

2 Fast 2 Furious Review

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With Furious 7 out in theaters, it’s the perfect time to continue my journey through the series. I can’t say that I was impressed with the first one at all, but this looks like one of those series that gets better as you go along. In theory anyway. This one is certainly more fun than the first film, but it still falls into most of the holes that the first did, which prevents it from ultimately being a good film.

Brian has fallen from the good grace of the police for letting his target escape in the first film. He now has fun in underground racing so he has ironically become the very criminal that he used to hunt. The cops eventually show up with a job for him. He is to pose as a racer for a criminal mastermind so that he can help the cops get some evidence on him. Brian will need a partner and that’s where Roman comes into play. They’re going to need to drive hard and drive fast if they want to win this round!

All right, let’s talk about the improvements from the first film first. For one thing, the racing scene at the beginning totally destroys the scenes from the previous film. The cars were going very fast and the new nitro effects were a lot of fun to watch. The dark background of the night contrasted with the bright colors and made for a very explosive race. It was tough to beat..evidently too tough to be honest. The film could not even come close to matching that race for the rest of the film, but it was still a very epic way to start off the film.

The characters are also a lot more interesting than the ones from the previous film. The dynamic between Brian and Roman can be good at times. Brian is portrayed as an expert when it comes to this kind of operation. After all, he has been through this before back during his cop days. That being said, he starts to lose control of the mission whenever he sees a pretty face. That’s where Roman comes in. He may not be an old pro officially, but he knows how to fit in rather easily and probably does a better job of convincing the villains of their authenticity than Brian. He’s probably not as good a driver as Brian, but he’s good enough.

The film is typically a lot of fun, which is a shame that it fell into numerous holes. Where to start right? First of all, let’s go for the rat scene. Each of these films will probably try to have at least one big gangster moment to show us how evil the villains are. The first one had the scene where the villains forced someone to drink oil and this one has the villain pin a man down and watch as a rat starts to eat through his stomach. It’s a very gruesome scene to say the least. I prefer the classic “Held at gunpoint” trope as it shows that the villain is ready and the hero still knows that the guy is willing to pull the trigger.

Another aspect is still the underground/gangster feel that the films try to have. This results in a whole lot of unfortunate fanservice. The characters wear skimpy attire and are constantly making suggestive remarks. Roman and Brian naturally take part in these shenanigans as well, which is sad. What happened to professionalism? I fear that it died with James Bond and Captain Kirk taking office. It almost goes without saying that we also get language issues and birdies as well. The film should stick away from those things. It’s a writing issue and it’s one of the things that I’m hoping the films can change later on.

That may not seem like a lot of “holes” as I put it, but they are so frequent that there may as well be a dozen issues with it. The film simply can’t control itself. The main villain is also rather unlikable. He’s another guy who’s really just interested in getting rich and getting the girl. I would have preferred for him to have just been a good driver who wanted to get rich the quick way. He would still be a villain, but at least he would be someone that you could get hyped to fight.

The cops naturally look pretty bad as this is Brian’s show. A squad of around 20 cars can’t match up against two and they are constantly crashing. The FBI is fooled by the ole switcheroo tactic and they are also kept out of the loop a whole lot. You have to wonder why they always need to ask Brian for help during the beginning of these films, but the latter scenes show why they need him. On their own, they simply can’t stand up to the gangsters.

The final big scene where the heroes summon hundreds of cars is really the definition of plot hax. I really don’t buy that happening for a second. Getting everyone into the garage and into their cars while also allowing enough space for the heroes to fit in and get their car into the middle? That’s way too unpractical and elaborate to actually happen. It’s worse than the heroes constantly betting hundreds of dollars against each other every day. There must be a gold mine around there that we don’t know about.

I still have a problem with such large areas not being covered by the police as well. With their fancy satellites and FBI guys on the case, you would think that underground racing would really be a thing of the past at this rate. Of course, that probably won’t be the case as long as Brian is on the case. After all, he loves a good underground race apparently.

I was pleasantly surprised by one of the detectives making the right call at one point. After being threatened with the rat, he still managed to assemble the cops to have one last clash. I hope that he got his family to safety first so that he could really focus on this issue. It’s still too bad that the cops weren’t more organized, but at least the detective did the right thing. Hopefully he can live safe and sound now.

My main piece of advice for the series would certainly be to include more race scenes. We only got to proper races and one was just a back and forth route so it wasn’t a true race. Car action scenes are okay, but they’re not even close to being as epic as a race. A real race gets your heat pumping and you become ready for more. If the whole film had been epic races like the intro, it could have bumped it up a star. 1 star may not sound like a lot, but it’s something. Improving the races is simply one element to add to the whole. If it can get everything right, soon it could be one of the best racing franchises out there. (In movie world. F Zero and the famous Captain Falcon own the streets otherwise)

Overall, This film was better than the first one. It’s slowly becoming more of a respectable franchise, but it is really slow going. As soon as it gets rid of the suggestive themes and bad writing, the films will begin to rise up rather quickly. As it stands, none of the characters are actually likable. Brian and Roman are charismatic characters and they certainly have personality, but they’re way too into women, which distracts them from their moral compass as well as their job. I look forward to the FBI appearing to hire the heroes once again. I’m not sure when I’ll be seeing the next film, but eventually I’ll be onto the current one. Then we’ll see if it manages to live up to the hype or if the series has not changed quite as much as I hoped.

Overall 3/10

JLA The Deluxe Edition Volume 1 Review

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JLA Volume 1
All right, it’s time to read a Justice League comic! Not one of the really old ones or the New 52. This is the Justice League as they were meant to be seen from one of their classic incarnations. No Hal Jordan or Barry Allen so I’ll have to wait to read a comic with the full cast in all their glory, but there replacements are ready to step into their shoes. It was as much fun as I could have expected and I actually remember flipping through this comic in Barnes & Noble back in the day. This volume is always in stores and spoiler alert: I recommend checking this one out as soon as possible!

The main chunk of the story is about the Martian Invasion. A group of martians have come from space claiming to help the planet. They have added water to the desert for starters. Superman warns the world that these are merely “cosmetic changes” as he says and disrupting such a big part of the world will have dangerous side effects. For some reason, the humans are not listening to him. It turns out that they are being mind controlled by the martians, which is severely impacting them all. The Justice League assemble and realize that they must stop this intergalactic threat. It’s only the first issue and the stakes have never been higher!

After that starting arc, we get some mini stories and the collection even brings a bonus issue that shows how the league formed. That’s pretty neat and who doesn’t like to see the League form right? Then we have the second arc which has some more of those religious themes that we’ve been wanting. Another angel is planning to rebel like Lucifer so he has come to Earth because another angel wants to leak his plans. Can the League defeat this being who may be too much for them to comprehend? Time to find out! (There’s also an issue with the Key in it…I’m just saying!)

Let’s look at the members of the Justice League before really getting into the arc. We’ll start with Superman as this is him in all of his glory. He acts like the commanding leader that he should be. The curls look from this era is also classic. I remember owning his action figure a while back. Nothing beats his standard look from the DCAU, but he probably does look a little tougher here with that mean hair style. I certainly have no qualms with his appearance here. He realizes that he is being tricked with a fake kryptonite through hypnotic suggestion and he is able to break out of his prison. It gives his intelligence credit and all of the leaguers certainly respect his impressive abilities. At one point, he randomly switches into his thunder look. You could say that his death took place between two of the issues, which accounts for the random change. We get a mini comic where we see him tryout for the team, which is pretty fun. He may not have his strength anymore, but his thunder abilities essentially give him the same effect. His personality is a little different as he’s more cocky now, but with all of the retcons around, that’s not even too unusual at this point

Batman also looks great and this is one of his better appearances. As expected, Batman is a beast when he has prep time. He manages to sneak into the watchtower and stay there for an hour before he finally had to let the League know that he had been there the whole time. He has an interesting laugh/chuckle which is spelled “hh” and it works well. Maybe it’s more of a scowl effect. Either way, Batman has some epic moments. He also shows the others how to deal with the Starro and he takes on 4 Martians by himself. That’s more than the rest of the league put together, which is awesome. Yes, it’s good to see Batman getting his respect.

Wonder Woman’s role is not as big as the first two, but she looks good during the comic. She wins her matchup with relative ease and brings Aquaman on board to help even the odds. This was before the New 52 push where she was upgraded to Superman level so she’s not quite as impressive power wise, but that’s why she’s an expert in hand to hand combat. It helps to tip the scales. She’s definitely still one of the big three for DC. Aquaman’s role is a lot smaller and I can’t say that he looked very impressive. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference if he was not here. Still, his ability to give a person a seizure by thinking about it is pretty neat. I wonder if we actually inherited part of our brain from fish or if that just applies to martians. Either way, it’s interesting.

The Flash does a good job of living up to the reputation of the original scarlet speedster. He’s still not as brilliant as Barry, but few are. He still knows a good deal about the speed force and uses this to defeat the Martian speedster. None are as fast as the Flash and he made sure to prove this in the battle. Wally West can be a fun hero to root for and I liked this portrayal of him. He was strong and dependable as a Flash should be. It’s a little hard to buy the fact that a Starro managed to jump him, but I’ll just say that he was shocked and leave it at that.

As for Green Lantern, this is Kyle Rayner and not Hal Jordan. I certainly miss Hal since he’s still my favorite Lantern. Kyle does well, but he is the flirting kind of guy, which is a little unfortunate. It holds him back from being easy to root for. His constructs have more of an effect on the holy beings in the latter stories than most of the other heroes, which is interesting. His ring is still supposed to be the most powerful weapon in the universe so it’s nice to see it getting some props. It is no longer weak against the color yellow so Kyle has no weaknesses now. As long as he remembers to focus, there are few who can stop him.

It’s another story with the Martian Manhunter. In this story, the Martians are weaker against fire than ever before. An exploding car would destroy Martian Manhunter if it hit and being near fire causes a martian to lose all of its powers like Superman being near Kryptonite. Batman uses this to his advantage when he goes up against the Martians, but it’s a huge risk. The Manhunter was tempted by these martians, but in the end he made the right call and helped the League out. I would have preferred for him to have helped the League win from the start, but at least the plan worked.

It’s also a good thing that the civilians in DC world are typically more reasonable than on the Marvel side. There were around 70 more martians so the humans had to fend for themselves against a good deal of them. It’s a good thing that they all had their lighters and matches at the ready. When together, even humans can manage to put up a pretty decent defense.

So, the first arc was a blast and a half. The Martians were powerful and a real threat. It’s good that the Justice League is so formidable because none of these guys are throwaway villains. The weakest member is still like a weakened Superman so all of the League members have to stay alert. Their true forms are also nice and sinister. This is another reason why I don’t think the Avengers would have lasted here. The weakest Justice League member is probably Martian Manhunter here and he could still take out most of the Core Avengers…most, if not all. If the Martian group attacked the Avengers, Thor and Hulk are probably the only members who could hold their own. The rest would be speedblitzed and then it would be 8 against 2. Hardly a fair fight.

The angel chapter was interesting. I really just had fun listening to the hype. Simply walking onto Earth would be enough to destroy it. This didn’t happen as the hype fell through, but it was nice to hear. The angels can create barriers that none can breach and everyone looked on with great respect as Superman managed to wrestle the being. The air from the angel’s world would make people blow up, the sights would destroy our eyes, the music would damage our ears, etc. Basically, the angels admit that we should stick to Earth and our galaxy before heading to their plane. The hype was awesome and the villain was certainly very powerful….but the overhype was strong in this issue. On the bright side, the Presence was actually mentioned! It’s rare that the One Above All’s DC counterpart is mentioned so that was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, he couldn’t appear to stop the angels because they tricked him. They made an impossible event occur at the beginning of creation to keep the Presence busy fixing the problem. At least they acknowledged his existence, which is more than most comics do at this point.

The art is in the big and bold 90’s style. That means that everyone looks really powerful and intense. Unfortunately, it also means that the artists can get a little lazy with the details. Characters will make odd facial expressions and just look off during various parts of the comics. I love the action scenes for this style, but the talking scenes can certainly use some work. On the bright side, you will always feel a certain sense of amazement and intrigue with this style. You just know that you’re in store for some epic brawls!

Overall, This was a solid start to this JLA series. The characters are in character and the action scenes were great. The Martians made for powerful opponents for the League and the Angel beings from the stars weren’t bad either. I’m definitely going to miss Superman’s classic look as his thunder form will likely stick around for a while, but I suppose that his new form is still good to an extent as well. There is one unnecessary scene as we meet a random guy during the tryouts who just turns out to be a perv so I don’t see how anyone recommended him for that event, but luckily he’ll never appear again. This volume really embodies how I picture a Justice League comic. The roster is one of their strongest ones to date and all of the issues are a lot of fun. I’ve probably read more Marvel comics than DC ones at this point, but DC will always be much more interesting and thought provoking than Marvel’s for me. This volume reminds me of why that is as it’s just so awesome to see the Justice League tackle all incoming threats. Time to get hyped for Batman vs Superman all over again! I highly recommend checking out this graphic novel and you won’t regret tuning in to the intensity that is the JLA. I’m not sure when I’ll be reading another big DC adventure like this one, but the bar has certainly been set rather high.

Overall 8/10