Year in Review: 2022

 [For those that may know I posted this on a new blog, which I've realized gets no attention, so I've moved it here, this isn't this year's review, but something I wanted to keep and incorporate into this blog]

 My Year in Review for 2022

 

-----Table of Contents----

    On-Going Series: Vampblade

    Series: Glory: The Complete Saga

    Limited Series: Raphael: Bad Moon Rising

    Single Issue: Dazzler: The Movie

    Honorable Mentions:
Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Amalgama: Space Zombie, Galaxy’s Most Wanted, Bonyeer: The Aromatic, Super Massive, Adventureman

On-Going Series : Vampblade
The reason why I’m keeping this here is because of the ending, it’s not over as a series (the series ended last year [2021 {I wrote this in 2022}]), but it’s over at the moment, but the series as a whole is still open to keep going. That’s a little confusing, but between when the series stated (2015-ish) and with 2020 happening publishing for comics got a little messy (financially speaking), just to throw some history about what’s still going on (currently as of this posting). Though with the book it’s in a bit of limbo till things settle for the creators (and publishing house), but at this point, you’ve most likely popped up an article or two about what’s going on within Action Labs and know, so we’ll go back to the review. I love violence comics, there’s something about cathartic beatings (whether verbal or physical) that really release a ton of serotonin (the happy brain juice) into my soul. This comic doesn’t let up with the amount of grandstanding for a character to have this beautiful moment of One Piece (manga by Eiichiro Oda) level of destruction. There are times within the series that stands out beyond it’s own two legs, that a spin-off series (I’m looking at you Danger Doll Squad) was developed to expand on story plots and connect parts of the World to other characters, that then inspires another spin-off series (I’m talking about you Amalgama) to expand that expansion. By the end of the series Vampblade had fallen through every Superhero trope in the book, from Time Travel to Body Double to Hell to Alien Invasion! Then the one thing that stops a comic from being ‘On-Going’, publication. As Superhero comics go this is their most shared trope, an unexpected ending. I had a blast and this is one of my Top Five comics of all time (and of 2022)!

Series : Glory: The Complete Saga
How we change between On-Going Series to Series is simple, there’s an end. If they come back, that’s a new series, but this was a rebooted character that got a second life in a more modern interpretation. You can tell this was intended to be a longer story, but I’m so glad that both Joseph Keatinge & Sophie Campbell agreed that this story needed an end and a really good ending. There’s not many series that I enjoy to the point of tears, but this is one of those magnificent comics. Again it’s another cathartic and violent series, that has a strong emotion base between the characters, whether you know who they are or not. It’s good writing when you can jump into something blind and not know anything more than what is being told to you and enjoy every minute. Like I said, not many comics pull me into an emotional state that takes days to get over, but took five pages to read. It’s really that good of a book.

Limited Series : Raphael, Bad Moon Rising
What started out to be me enjoying a cover to a book (thank you Sophie Campbell) formed into an obsession to find the first issue (since I have the other three) that then changed my mind on everything TMNT. I don’t really know what clicked into place, but I just finished reading TMNT: Urban Legends (volume 3 [Image Run {Reprinted in color, with ending by IDW}]) by Gary Carlson & Frank Fosco, so my desire to find more from the Teen Turtles was high on my reading queue. While thumbing through all the comics I have I was reminded about this four issue run, that I found out came from a Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (second Volume) where Shadow visits a cult (It’s New York). Anyhow, that’s the main reason why she was at the farmhouse for volume 4 of TMNT, though this takes place somewhere between. Long and Short, this focuses on the Werewolf Queen and the King of Atlantis, beautiful character moments, with some astounding Illustrations & ink work by Jim Lawson (solidifying him as my top five favorite TMNT artists). If you ever want to get into the weird world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, this would be a good ground breaker between the TV shows/Movies and the comics.

Single Issue : Dazzler: The Movie
When thinking about characters that had a hard start Dazzler always comes to mind, since she started as a promotion, a mascot of sorts for Casablanca Records. Then just became a huge character within the X-Men ongoing series. I found her in a little Pilot called “Pryde of the X-Men”, where she was a headband wearing leather jacket toting finger gun shooting laser wielder. To say the least, she had a special place in my heart, so reading this comic was a distance from that character, and a recoupling within the same issue. Mostly because she was still a strong character that was still developing herself, emotionally (as a person does) and distancing herself from being just an Advertisement (as one does). By the end of the feature we see her more whole than when she started, though battle damaged within the landscape of Hollywood. As a single issue, without knowing anything about her, it’s a great story that stands on it’s own, maybe not a Movie in theaters, but I’d be excited for the TV movie’s annual screening.

Honorable Mentions: Mini-Top Five Suggestions
    -Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    -Amalgama: Space Zombie, Galaxy’s Most Wanted
    -Bonyeer: The Aromatic
    -Super Massive
    -Adventureman

Honest suggestions, if you have similar tastes to myself, you wanna see a little violence with comedy, good story structure, and amazing illustrations, then these are my top five suggestions of 2022 (even if it’s 2023 [though re-posted in 2024]).

Shorts SHORT Review: Worst X-Man Ever

X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever

Written by Max Bemis
Illustrated by Michael Walsh

Published by MARVEL

 

When thinking of Marvel the first thing that comes to mind is X-Men, then Spider-Man, but first (or forth) X-Men (or a specific X-Man [hairy, short, has knives in his arms]). This is more of a story about what it would be like if you were plucked out of your life and placed into this MARVELous new world. Through years future & past, the spectacle of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters has been a haven for mutants of any age. And with a community of empowered and powerful beings there’s always a chance that bad luck will arise within this fellowship. Bailey (our title holder for “Worst X-Man”) might just be the most unlucky mutant to walk the Earth, since his power is, well, it’s a surprise. Nothing all that special, like our main character, but it’s one thing that keeps the plot rolling in the direction that it’s in. Since everyone within the mini-series knows that he’s capable of doing something that is most dangerous and hard to control. There’s a lot of mutants out there that have time to play with their inherent genetic skills, but not all mutants have that luxury and that’s kind of the point of this whole tale. Let’s take a moment from this book, so I’m talking to you, yeah, the reader of this review, yep you, you have a chance to use your superpower, just once, for one time only, how will you use it and what would you do? That’s the simple question posed within this story and one that gradually Bailey concludes. Bailey is the one that walks us through his life, nothing really uncanny or astonishing, but it’s him, just an average teenager doing average teenager things (the opposite of xtreme). With all the amazing teams, adventures, and powers that the mighty Marvel mutants have, there’s not too many slice of life stories. Even another Marvel favorite, Spider-Man, has some downtime with his City and cast of characters, away from all the drama and villains. It’s nice to sometimes take a break from making a better tomorrow for mutant-kind and just seeing someone’s life who went to Xavier’s school, since most get a one bedroom apartment six feet in the dirt. Bailey gives us many details of his life, makes us aware of things that were plots happening back in the day to other X-Men teens, and he doesn’t leave out the awkward parts. I feel that’s the linchpin for all of this, if this was a retelling from an older Bailey it would have done better, I’m getting ahead of myself. The fifth issue (which is my favorite) the story felt right, the pacing, the dialogue, the plot, the characters just clicked into place, then boom it was done. What was different between the other issues was this is an older Bailey. There was a time skip, a pause, in the life of Bailey, which I really enjoyed, for a second we caught up to him and where he’s currently at in his life. Just gonna break in here and talk about the accompanying illustrations by Micheal Walsh, as the visual storyteller. His work makes for a gorgeous presentation, that was motivating, to see what he had in store for the next issue, since I was enamored with the backgrounds to the costumes to the character designs, everything was a delight. Back to what I was saying before. This was a nice jump and the documentary motif is perfect, overused, but for this series fits just so well. I would have liked it to be placed throughout the other four issues. Pretty much, it would be like a coming of age TV show where the older version of Bailey taking the role of narrator, but also blurring the lines between who’s speaking so a lot of the fourth wall breaking younger Bailey does make more sense. There was beautiful moments of satirical commentary on the X-Men publication as a whole that I feel fell flat, since how would this younger character know, it was good, but alien within the plot.

For what it’s worth this isn’t a series for someone new to X-Men, not someone fresh from a movie, nor even one of the many TV shows, this is a comic for comic X-Men fans. Not to say someone without decades of consumption wouldn’t enjoy it, but it’s not written for those people. In short, it’s a love letter to a never ending series that will reinvent it’s self, it’s characters, it’s team for decades beyond us all. There are very few Slice of Life X-Men stories out there, and this is one of the best, since this is a personal journey with no real destination, at least no desired finale, which makes Bailey’s story a good limited series.

I trust you enjoyed the inspection, thank you for reading.
Support the creators, check out your local library, and contribute to community comic & book shops.
If you want to stay up to date on my reviews, be here next year.
Keep well and Stay well.

Generation X

Here's a little history, I saw the commercials and billboards for this film back in the day and I was super excited. It was something that I was waiting to see, since it was characters that I really wanted to view in action away from comics. In the 90's I only knew X-Men from the 1992 Cartoon and Action Figures. It was a new experience to see them in live-action form. At the time there was Spawn (that didn't come out till a year later, 1997) and Batman Returns (that I was too young to really love, but still love to this day, it was a great rainy afternoon). These were the films in my life, though there were flicks like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, The Shadow, The Mask, Tank Girl, and The Phantom that rounded out my pulp and punk heart (click the linked titles for the review). Though I can go on further, but you'll see in future reviews where I've been in the decade of the 90's for films and media. Today we'll be entering a land of TV movies, a land that's not well budgeted, though has a cast of folks you'll be surprised to find in a feature such as this, on a channel that didn't play the movie more than twice (to my knowledge). Join me on this journey into the past, for a movie that needed to wait another four years (maybe 7) to get the full cast of characters to reflect their comic counter-parts.