So, why didn’t I make posts this year? Depression and stress stemming from work, family problems, and an ever growing sense of dread stemming largely from living in a world that seems to be run by the bad guys. You know what I’m talking about, I’m not adding politics to this blog. I have enough problems on my hands, but the point is that between all of that, I had to take my escapism and relaxation (which is not an easy thing for me to do) when and where I could get it and unfortunately the blog suffered for that. Sorry. I’m not gonna say it’ll never happen again because, let’s be honest, it will but I am sorry it keeps happening.

Anyway, here’s my current status: I have a new apartment in Chicago (hurray), I still (somehow) have my job (also yay), my dog and final grandfather died (*sadface*), and two of my close relatives have cancer one of which is incurable but not terminal (yet) and the other of whom’s only two (*crying noises*). Plus a bunch of other stuff that’s not my place to talk about, but isn’t great. So yeah.

On a lighter note, I had preordered the year long subscription for DC Universe and have been binging my way through the ‘Death of Superman’ storyline (which I will share my thoughts on at another time) and the 90’s Aquaman series (which is where he gets his cool harpoon hand as seen in the 2001 Justice League cartoon). I’ll give my thoughts on the app as a whole in another post, but my real major complaint is that it’s not available on Amazon Fire TV which was promised upon release and the thing’s been out for about a month now with no change in that regard. I got a lot of stuff for blog posts rattling around in my brain (though whether I’ll ever get to them is up in the air), including going over all the movies I saw post Black Panther since I saw quite a few this year. At one point, there was a stretch of time where my friends and I were going to the movies once and sometimes twice a week. Hell, we had to skip Deadpool 2’s opening weekend because of ACEN and my friend Joe and I went to see Incredibles 2 and Solo back to back just to catch up. Not to mention, Doctor Who comes back this weekend and I am looking forward to it. Not sure whether I’ll try to do my once a week Who Reviews, but I can try. Also, yes, I started writing a post on SDCC but I never got around to finishing it. Here’s what I got, plus some stuff from NYCC since it’s going on right now.

Summery:

  1. Aquaman: It looks good. It’s colourful and has great visuals. Aquaman’s is easily the best of the New 52 origins because it just streamlines his origin instead of being stupid or disrespectful to the character like others’ I could mention. *Cough* DianaandTimDrake *Cough*. However, I still consider it a wild card since it was finished pre Justice League’s release and bombing. Hopefully, Wan is better at directing Momoa than Snyder was. It certainly looks that way from the trailer and it seems that Arthur’s eventual wife Mera is gonna be a big part of the story so that’s awesome. Still not sure how I feel about Jason Momoa as Aquaman, but I like that Orm is the main bad guy plus we get a Black Manta with a great costume. The underwater stuff looks cool and he summons a shark as a kid. Don’t mess with Baby Aquaman. I’m reserving judgement until the film comes out, but this trailer does give me a little hope
  2. Shazam!: As much as I want to say that I want to reserve judgement for this film like Aquaman, holy crap! This trailer looks great, better than any other DCEU film sans Wonder Woman and maybe Aquaman. Yes, I’m annoyed they’re being vague on the whole what the hell is his name thing. Just call him Captain Marvel! Shazam’s the name of the wizard here anyway. I’m a little sad that Mary is just a minor character and not Billy’s twin sister, but I suppose stuffing three super characters into one movie would be a bit much. It’d be nice if Freddie became Captain Marvel Jr. at the end of the movie or later on. I doubt they’ll do it, but it’d be nice. I’m still concerned about them using the New 52 origin and the fact that this looks like a straight translation of said origin (minus Black Adam) since I’m not a fan of the Billy Batson by way of less assassin like Damian Wayne characterization of the kid (ie a little asshole), but my hopes are bit higher since this was made by a different production studio that’s just owned by Warner Bros. Please do not screw this up.
  3. Wonder Woman 1984: Strange title, but what the hell. The first film was good and I actually have high hopes for this one. No idea why the hell Chris Pine’s there and I’m concerned by the fact that Geoff Johns is writing it since he traditionally has never gotten the point of Wonder Woman when writing her, but hopefully actual fan Patty Jenkins can fix whatever mess ups end up in the script. Cheetah will hopefully be a better villain than Ares was and next November can’t get here fast enough.
  4. Godzilla: King of the Monsters: This is the one that’s had my friends going nuts. They’re all big fans of the Godzilla franchise and know a lot more than me when it comes to this series since I can count the number of kaiju movies I’ve seen on two hands not counting Pacific Rim. I thought the 2014 film was okay and loved Skull Island so here’s hoping the film will be more like the later than the former. All the monster redesigns look amazing and this should be a good looking movie if nothing else. …Now I wait for the next announcement from Toei on their franchise.
  5. Fantastic Beasts 2: Am I happy Johnny Depp is still getting big roles? No, especially not when he’s now connected to my beloved JK Rowling‘s Wizarding World franchise. But, hey, at least he’s playing a character we’re supposed to hate, right? Not a fan of the unfortunate implications with Nagini (also…eew! The hell, Voldy?!). Also not a fan of Dumbledore’s homosexuality not being outright when there’s a few easy ways to do so naturally (which is always the first thing people complain about films not doing when it comes to queerness in pop culture). But, it’s also still the universe I love and I like Eddie Redmayne as Newt and his supporting cast so I’m still looking forward to this, come hell or high water, even if pretty much no one else I know is. Why yes. I will be forcing my dad to go to it like I did the last one. Why do you ask?
  6. Venom: Never cared about Venom. Still don’t. Glad it’s currently being ripped apart. Sony, please just give up and give Marvel back control of their characters already. You don’t know what you’re doing.
  7. IT Part 2: ….It exists. Congrats. Hope it’s good. I won’t be watching it.
  8. TV Shows: Glad a bunch of geek shows I like got renewed. Still wondering why they’re still making an Iron Fist show and not a Heroes For Hire show with Luke Cage co starring alongside Luke’s own show considering Iron Fist and Inhumans remain the worst entries in the MCU. Also, congrats to Star Wars and Young Justice fans for getting their shows back.
    1. Titans: On a related note: my biggest problem with the new Titans series set to come out next week isn’t Starfire. She’s fine, mainly it’s the awful wig and the coat that bug me more than anything. The other Titans look fine though it annoys me that they’re still doing the whole ‘Cyborg was never a Titan’ thing that the comics have been doing since 2011 especially since the show seems to be going in the exact opposite direction of the much hated Teen Titans Go where Cyborg is still a Titan and this is clearly aimed at people like me who grew up with the original show (which still has no news on a supposedly hinted at season 6 btw). I don’t even have a problem with Jason Todd being in here for some reason alongside (SPOILERS) Donna Troy eventually. No, my big problem is Robin or rather Dick Grayson. To be more accurate, I have a few problems:
      • Why is Dick acting like Jason Todd? Yeah, according the guys in charge Dick only looked like he was killing people because of bad editing, and further trailers seem to support that, but that’s still pretty Jasony for Dick.
      • Why are they still trying to fuse Dick and Tim together like in both recent animated series especially when Young Justice did eventually give us Tim? Though they really did nothing with him there. (Yeah, I know they’re imitating the cartoon for fans of the original that they’re trying to pander to and there they basically mushed all the then current Robins together into one who is never named outright but is strongly hinted to be Dick Grayson with Tim’s trappings)
      • And finally, Why is Dick ROBIN in this at all? Think about it. He’s supposed to already be a cop in this so he has to be somewhere in his early to mid twenties, right? The only Dick Grayson that was still Robin near that age was in Batman: The Animated Series at late teens and he was still Nightwing by the time he was in his twenties. If there’s another Robin running around, why hasn’t Dick become Nightwing already? (Okay, the obvious answer, again, is tying back to fans of the old cartoon who know that Robin is supposed to be the leader. But that just makes me wonder if Dick is still Robin, when the hell did Batman take in Jason? Was it after Dick left? Or was it like: *Best Batman voice* “Huh. A helpless orphan. …Dick, you’re a big brother now!” “F%^k Batman!”?) And besides, people who get the DC Universe streaming service are already gonna be fans so they’re gonna know who Nightwing is. He was in Batman: The Animated Series and Young Justice. Even if they’re just Teen Titans fans, Nightwing has been shown as Dick’s older self in both the OG series and Go. I probably wouldn’t have a problem except that he’s a cop in this show. Again, he’s in his early to mid twenties like in the comics. Unless it’s the 90s series, College age and older Dick is Nightwing. Robin is the BOY Wonder. Nightwing is a MAN. ….Also why Detroit? Why not Bludhaven? Detroit’s in Michigan and Gotham’s in New Jersey. Why would people in Detroit know who Batman is? Bludhaven is like across the river from Gotham. There it makes sense. At least Jump City in the cartoon is supposed to be in New York.
      • Look, the show comes out next week so let’s just see the actual first episode for now and see how it goes. Okay? No? Just me? Okay. Hey, at least they’re keeping Dick and Kory’s relationship. That makes me happy. …Also, they know Dick is supposed to be at least half (I think?) Romani, right? I know he’s usually coded white because it doesn’t come up much, but still. Basic research is your friend and it keeps people from yelling at you.
    2. Doom Patrol: The Doom Patrol stuff looks good. I have no complaints. I don’t know much about them, but it should be fun…wait, connected to the Titans show…crap.
    3. Harley Quinn: Okay, now this looks like fun. And it has Penny from Big Bang Theory as Harley…the second lady from BBT to play her…huh. Apparently, Ivy will play a big role (and maybe eventual girlfriend? HintHint?) and Batman will be played by the guy who voiced him in the Brave and the Bold cartoon…this instantly became more interesting and I want it now please.
    4. Doctor Who: Already said I’m looking forward to it. Not much else to say. I have confidence in the new Doctor and showrunner since they’ve worked together before. Plus, I saw a full minute clip from the upcoming episode recently and I really liked it so I think they’ll be fine.
    5. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: I didn’t grow up with the original show, but I get the basic gist and this looks like a fun update. I’m looking forward to this.
    6. Good Omens: I’ve been waiting for this since I read the book. Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite writers, I love the cast choices, and this looks amazing! Never pictured Crowley as a redhead, but that’s just me. So much awesome stuff coming!
    7. Watchmen: Apparently we’re getting a Watchmen TV Show? …Okay. I like the comic and movie. This’ll have more time to do stuff. Let’s see what happens.
    8. Other Comic Book Adaptations: A bunch of shows based on comics I’ve never heard of, but they all sound good and I can’t wait to see them.
  9. Dragon Ball Super: Broly: The latest Dragon Ball film that revamps one of its most famous movie original characters and makes him officially canon…and for some reason makes ‘Dragon Ball Minus’ canon and retcons out the great Bardock: Father of Goku Special…damn it Toriyama. We finally have an American release date too: January 16, 2019. I can’t wait!
  10. X-Men: Dark Phoenix: I do not care about the X-Men. I care even less now that they are (once again) missing the point of ‘The Dark Phoenix’ storyline and cutting all the interesting bits of the good girl turns bad as she gains power (ie a sexual identity) story in favour of making Jean Gray Carrie and skipping to the fire bird again. Because Fox doesn’t know how to learn from its mistakes…when Ryan Reynolds isn’t in control.
  11. Captain Marvel: Yeah, I know the next two aren’t from the Comic Cons, but I wanted to talk about them. After being delayed twice, once because Marvel wanted to rush out a Spider-Man solo movie for easy money before Infinity War and again because Ant Man turned out to be a surprise hit, the lady who is basically the Marvel version of Superman, for all intents and purposes cause she’s the closest equivalent in terms of powers, is finally getting her own damned movie and giving Marvel its first female led film after about a decade of people begging for one about Black Widow and their Jessica Jones show being so good. The trailer looks good, I like the effects they’re using for Fury and Coulson, and I like the story they appear to be going with mixing Mar-Vell and Carol’s stories together and the confusion about her identity. Also, it’s great to finally have confirmation that she’ll actually be wearing the red and blue uniform. Looking forward to this. Hope they manage to squeeze Kamala into an end credit scene somehow.
  12. Into The Spiderverse: Finally, Miles Morales gets his due in a movie. I still say they should have nixed Peter in the MCU and gone with Miles instead since they basically gave Peter Miles’s supporting cast anyway, but I’m glad this film is coming out. Not only for Miles, but for other Spiderverse characters in it like Spider-Gwen (Who the new Marvel Rising animated franchise is calling Ghost-Spider, which I like), Spider-Man Noir, and Spider Ham among others. It looks like it’ll be fun, Miles appears to still be the main Spider of the ensemble, and Peter fans will still be able to have him, but in a mentor role. That’s a new take for a movie. Should be good.
  13. Hellboy: That Hellboy picture looks cool. I’m sad del Toro never got to make more films, but let’s see where this one goes.

So, what am I doing next? Perhaps a summary of the movies I saw since I don’t want to wait until New Years to do that. What else am I doing with my life? Well, I’ve got both C2E2 and ACEN coming up, plus Christkindlmart. Pretty much every movie left this year I care about comes out in December, with a couple exceptions, so no movies for me for a bit. Don’t worry though, we’re gonna have a lot coming out in 2019.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of my Update where I talk about Geek news I missed.