Finished watching Incredibles 2 directed by Brad Bird and starring John Ratzenberger, Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Miller, Eli Fucile, Samuel L. Jackson, Jonathan Banks, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Wise. The film opens at the end of the first as the Underminer (John Ratzenberger) heads towards the bank as Mr Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) and Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) go after the villain while the Violet (Sarah Vowell) and Dash (Huck Miller) are put on crowd control while also looking after Jack Jack (Eli Fucile) along with the help of Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) are able to stop the Underminer's giant drill. After the fight the heroes question by the authorities as its still illegal to be a superhero. After their friend Rick Dicker (Jonathan Banks) sets them up in a motel for a while, Frozone meets with Bob and Helen after being invited by Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk) who sees the Underminer fight and hopes to renew trust of superheroes within the world once again with the hope of having Elastigirl at the forefront. This leads to Bob having to stay at home to raise the kids while Helen is out trying to save the world for the threat of the mysterious Screenslaver (Bill Wise). Overall this was a amazing film as it does a great job in following from the first film with each character’s own development continuing to build upon what was previously established while also giving new characters enough time to be fleshed out a bit. There is an amazing amount of comedy throughout the film from the multiple interactions with characters that feel relatable with a typical family especially with the moments of Bob trying to raise the kids as a stay at home father shows how much the reveal of Jack Jack's powers along helping Dash and Violet is taking its toll on him which also leads to some great character development as well. The film also does a great job within its action set pieces as each of the different super powers are put on display extremely well thanks to the creativity at work allowing for some breathtaking visuals that helps to build some tension in places while continuing to give a sense of wonder. 9/10.
Finished reading Justice League: The People Vs The Justice League, writer Christopher Priest takes the reins of DC's main superhero team as the team finds themselves at odds with the government after a mission goes wrong which brings a new threat out in the open that has the possibility to break the League from the inside. The book opens with Simon Baz noticing a fleet of spaceships making their way to Earth where the Justice League is being spread thin as a sleep deprived Batman is try to coordinate the team with helping a relief team after a earthquake while also trying to stop a hostage situation which quickly goes south when the authorities come in as Wonder Woman as no back up when the team is redistributed to deal with a tsunami and the alien fleet leads to one of the hostages being killed. This leads to the the public image of the Justice League beginning to be tarnished as after Wonder Woman makes her police statement about the hostage situation, footage of the death gets posted online after the team deal with an infestation of an intergalactic cockroach in San Francisco. With the footage now in the opening the Justice League's troubles escalate when a member of congress leading a hearing to the team's most recent activities is killed by a copycat Batman who turns our to be a super fan of the League and may be one of the most dangerous foes the Justice League has ever face as this fan knows all of their secrets and is able to hack into their equipment. Overall this was an amazing as it puts the Justice League into a very intriguing situation with how their own actions come into question after a mission involving hostages goes wrong while also having the team deal with smaller missions allowing for some great character moments to be showcased. The structure of the book works extremely well with the book taking an episodic feel as the League find themselves in multiple battles and rescue attempts for each part of the book while having the threat of the fan and the impact of the hostage situation staying prominent within the entirety of the book. The art throughout the book is amazing as each art team does a great job in the amount of focus that's put into each of the characters interactions with one another thanks to the amount of detail that goes into the way that the characters emote. While the book also has some amazing visual moments from the use of the Justice League's teleporter with how the background changes by fading between the different locations to the way that some of the heroes powers are put on display especially with the later part of the book where the Flash has to save an astronaut in space who crashed into the Watchtower which not only is an amazing visual big has a great level of suspense that comes from Barry's thoughts that is translated by the art amazingly well. 9/10.
Finished reading Dark Nights: Metal: The Deluxe Edition, creative team of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo working together once again to bring one of DC's biggest events as Batman finds himself in the middle of a threat for a twist multiverse. The book opens with the Justice League fighting for their life within a coliseum under the control of Mongul. When the team gets back to Earth Batman is informed by Alfred that a mountain has appeared in the middle of Gotham and as the League investigate they are met by a group of named the Blackhawks as their leader Kendra Saunders takes the League to Blackhawk Island. Once on the island Kendra catches the heroes up on current events and the significance of the sudden appearance of the mountain as it becomes known that Batman is the key to an oncoming invasion that the mountain is a precursor to. With this knowledge Batman escapes the island and uses different signal emitters along with the Batfamily disguising themselves as Batman to help Bruce evade the entire superheroes of the DC universe. However when Superman and Wonder Woman finally catch up with Batman they soon discover that all of them have walked into a trap set up by the Court of Owls and some worshippers of Barbatos as Batman is used as the key to the doorway between Earth and the Dark Multiverse as Barbatos and a group of twisted Batmen come through and being to twist the Earth into a living nightmare. Overall this was an amazing book as writer Scott Snyder crafts an incredibly intriguing and story that opens straight into the action giving a nice amount of focus onto the the Justice League and the way the work together before Batman goes off on his own when it becomes clear that he is a key piece to the plan of the books antagonist. The book also does a great job in blending together the great character moments with each of the characters interact with one another especially within the smaller groups of heroes as the book has some great dialogue is used within the action scenes. The art throughout the book is amazing as artist Greg Capullo brings the nightmare versions of Batman to life extremely with how the designs of the villains work within the chaos sweeping through the DC Universe that leads to some breathtaking moments from the action sequences. While the more dialogue heavy moments also has an amazing amount of detail to the characters interactions that are elevated by the rest of the art team. 9/10.
Finished reading Dark Nights: Metal: Dark Knights Rising, shifting the spotlight onto the villains of DC's Dark Nights: Metal event as a collective of creative teams dives into the origins of each character. The book opens with the origin of Red Death as the Batman of Earth -52 defeats his universe's Flash before hooking him up to the Batmobile as the two drive into the Speed Force which leads to the two merging together with a twisted Batman in control as the universe begins to die. The next story puts the focus on Murder Machine as he makes his way to the Justice League Watchtower where Cyborg is communicating with his father in Detroit only for the evil Batman to take control of the Watchtower and removing Cyborg as a potential threat while reminiscing over how is life got to this moment. The following story see Dawnbreaker a young Bruce Wayne who got a Green Lantern ring only moments after seeing his parents death which lead to him being able to corrupt the ring with the amount of will power he had for killing Joe Chill that make him one of the most dangerous people in his universe. The book than shifts focus to the Drowned, a female Batman who has decided to flood Aquaman's home of Amnesty Bay while remembering how she became the monster she is today when the Atlantis of her word declared war on the human race. The next story see the Merciless, a Batman who pretty much became his universe's God of War when he defeated Ares and wage a war on the Greek Gods, has come to Langley, Virginia, where a group of the heads of the DC universe's high raking agency's have met to try and find a way to combat the events of the main event. The following story buts the focus on to a Batman who infected himself with the Doomsday Virus in order to defeat his Superman who lost his mind and needed to be beaten by any means. Once arriving on the main DC Universe Batman began to infect the universe's Metropolis including Superman's friends and family. The penultimate dives into the origin of the leader of the Dark Knights, the Batman Who Laughs who became infected by the Joker when he killed him after the Joker tormented him which lead to this Batman becoming a new Joker. The final sees Detective Chimp along with a team of well known DC scientists as they try to help a group Cyborg, Flash and Raven navigate through the multiverse as the Dark Knight are chasing after them. Overall this was an amazing book as dives into the origins of the twisted versions of Batman that made their debut within the main Dark Nights: Metal series by giving moments of familiarity to the main DC universe before taking some extremely intriguing and captivating directions in making each of the Dark Knights more than just amazingly designed character mashups. The addition of the book's final story is great as it shows how the Dark Knights try to work together while being focused on try to stop the heroes while also continuing with the character development that Cyborg has been getting in the tie ins to the main series that is carried over from the Justice League centric story from the Dark Nights: Metal: The Resistance book. The art throughout the book is amazing as it does a great job in bring each of the evil versions of Batman with how each art team is able to bring each of the universe's the Dark Knights are from while also make each world feel like the main DC universe thanks to choice of art teams along with the way the different universe's have a familiarity to them. 9/10.
Finished reading Dark Nights: Metal: The Resistance, expanding upon the main events of Dark Knights: Metal as the heroes of the DC Universe find themselves trying to combat any additional threat that has come with the appearance of the evil and twisted versions of Batman. The book opens with the Teen Titans making their way to Gotham shortly after hearing the news of Batman's disappearance within the main events of Dark Nights: Metal as the team soon discovered that Gotham has been twisted into a maze thanks to a group of Batman's villains being given the ability to warp reality by the Batman Who Laughs. While the Titans try and help as many civilians as they can Robin decides to go on his own mission into the villain created maze where he finds Green Arrow along with Harley Quinn and Killer Croc, who have been stuck in a labyrinth that the Riddler has created. After escaping the labyrinth the group soon discovered the full extent of what the villains have turn Gotham into when they team up with Nightwing to try an navigate through the city. The next story sees an aged Bruce Wayne telling his granddaughter the story of his first case as Batman, only for the story to divert into different directions as Batman begins to relive moments of different times periods and realities. The next story focuses on the remaining members of the Justice League who find themselves fighting against the Dark Knight’s, who have each built their own Batcave in each of the League members hometowns as the team have to battle against the twisted versions of Batman that have been corrupted by their own powers and may have surpassed their mastery of their own powers and abilities. The final story shifts the spotlight onto Hawkman as by showing a day on his life that he has been reliving since he entered the Dark Multiverse. Overall this was a great book as it expands upon the main event by showing how other heroes of the DC Universe are being affected which leads to some great stories being told. The book does a great job with the characters it has in each story as there as some great interactions between characters with the misfit team in the opening story brings some levity to what is easily an unwinnable situation. While the Justice League centric story is able to build upon the pre-existing relationships between characters while also giving a great amount of insight to the characters view of the situation they find themselves in. The books art work while constantly changing is able to bring some amazing set pieces within the from the fight scenes between different heroes and villains that put all of their powers and abilities on show extremely well. The art also does a great job in conveying the way characters emote when they interact with one another and using the designs of the Dark Knight to great effect as in some parts of the book they look almost terrifying especially with characters like the Batman Who Laughs along with Red Death and the Merciless in some places that help to make the characters feel like living nightmares. 8/10.
Finished watching Tag, directed by Jeff Tomsic and starring Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Annabelle Wallis, Isla Fisher, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress and Jeremy Renner. The film opens with Hoagie (Ed Helms) going a job as a janitor within the offices of his friend Bob Callahan’s (Jon Hamm) one business as cover to get him back into the game of Tag that they have played since they were kids. While at the offices Bob was being interviewed by journalist Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis) who decides to to over see and write an article of the game of Tag the friends play as they meet up with Hoagie’s wife Anna (Isla Fisher) on a trip around America to bring their friends Chilli (Jake Johnson) and Kevin (Hannibal Buress) into the game. With everyone back together they head back to their hometown where group of friends being to make plans to finally Tag their friend Jerry (Jeremy Renner) at his wedding with the hope to break his perfect record. Overall this was a great film as it first a great job in blending the extremely well set out and choreographed action scenes with the extremely hilarious comedy within the film while still being able to crate some surprising moments of suspense. The film also does a great job in giving each of the main cast enough of a backstory that helps to layer each of the group of friends that even leads to some surprising character development towards the end of the film with how some characters are able to group and strengthen their relationships with one another. 8.5/10.
Finished reading The Flash: Cold Day in Hell, continuing writer Joshua Williamson's run on the series as Barry is still coming to terms with his new job position in Iron Heights when he soon finds him self on a murder case inside the prison itself. The book opens with Barry still trying to process the return of his and Kid Flash's friend Meena, who hopes to help Barry with his new powers from the Negative Speed Force as Wally joins the two in a local demolition derby to get some information on Barry's new powers. However it soon turns out the Meena has been deceiving the two heroes when a group of Black Hole agents appear and help Meena to steal the Negative Speed Force powers from Barry. The next story sees Barry racing to Iron Heights after getting news of a murder as he meets with his coworker Kristen, as the two begin to investigate Turbine's death when the Trickster comes running in confessing to the murder. However believe that the is more to Turbines death Barry and Kristen continue to investigate which soon leads Barry to finding out the true motivation behind the murder when Flash discovers a shipment of guns based on Captain Cold's design as the villain has been using the prison as a base of operations to create his own criminal empire along with the other Rogues. The final story see Barry and both Wally's teaming up to stop the Top causing havoc in Central City before getting some food from a local food truck where the original Wally gets caught up on the events that have been happening recently with Thawne taking Iris into the future as bait when Iris shot him. Which angers Wally for being left out of knowing what happened and after arguing with Barry about what he's being doing with his life since he got back, Wally soon decides to find an old childhood friend who might be able to help him in opening up about what he's been dealing with. Overall this was a good book as it continues the series by putting a great amount of focus into the character development of Barry with how he's dealing with the direction his life has taken. Additionally writer Joshua Williamson gives Barry's supporting some development as well with the return of characters like Meena and August helps to show how much the characters have grown since last appearing in the series and how that development affects Barry's life abductee direction of the book itself. The story that focuses on the original Wally West is great as it helps to give some great character development by showing how he’s dealing with life since he was pulled out of the Speed Force while also setting up future of the character and continuing to build his relationship with Barry and Kid Flash. The art throughout the book is good as the action sequences are drawn extremely well with how each characters powers a put on show while also bringing to life some great character moments thanks to the way the book focuses on the way character emote and interact with one another. 7.5/10.
