Star Wars: Chewbacca Review

Finished reading Star Wars: Chewbacca, from the creative team of Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto as they take the famous Wookiee on his very own adventure. The book opens up with Zarro and her father Arrax being taken from their home to work in the Andelm Beetle Caverns by the scoundrel Jaum who is currently working with the Empire. Once escaping the cavern with the help of her father, Zarro crosses paths with Chewbacca in a local bar after being chased by a group of Jaum's men. After convincing Chewbacca of her predicament he agrees to help as the two devise a plan to save the workforce only for their plan to go south when Jaum's right hand man, Tyvak causes a cave in while attempting to kill Chewbacca who he sees as a very dangerous threat. Once finding a way out of the cavern Chewbacca and Zarro decide to go after Jaum as he's meeting with an imperial platoon to sell all of the mined Lava from the cavern. Overall this was an amazing book as it dives into Chewbacca's background by using very powerful, silent flashbacks to a time where Chewbacca was a slave worker which makes helping Zarro's father and the other workers even more personal. The light and comedic tone of the book is great from Zarro trying and failing to understand Chewbacca to the opening scroll which makes the tone apparent from the get go. Even with the lighter tone the book is still able to take a more serious tone in some places such as the point where the Chewbacca, Zarro and the workers are caught in a cave in and where Zarro and Chewbacca begin to build a friendship which is a testament to Gerry Duggan's writing. Phil Noto's artwork throughout the book is amazing as it helps to convey the body language and emotions of Chewbacca very well which helps for the reader to understand him as Chewbacca is a character with a very limited vocabulary and this helps a tremendous amount. Additionally the competition within Noto's is great as it put characters important within a panel into focus while making their surroundings out of focus which gives the book a cinematic feel. While the closing moments of the book with Chewbacca along with Zarro's narration is incredibly heartwarming and gives a brilliant ending to an amazing story. 9/10.

Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets Review

Finished reading Star Wars: Darth Vader: Shadows and Secrets, this continues the series as Darth Vader continues to look for the truth about Luke Skywalker, while still doing missions for the Empire. The book opens up with Vader joined by Aphra and her droids on Tatooine to learn about Luke Skywalker. Vader is then tasked to lead a group of Stormtroopers on the planet Son-Tuul were they find a large vault full of credits and put it on to an imperial transport. Meanwhile on the other side of the planet Aphra and a group of bounty hunters devise a plan to steal under the orders of Vader himself. Later Vader is debriefed by Grand General Tagge as General Karbin is assigned to find Luke Skywalker while the cybernetic enhanced twins are tasked to find a small Rebel group called the Plasma Devils. Finally Vader is joined by Inspector Thanoth on his mission to find the people who stole the credits from the imperial transport as Vader secretly takes Aphra to find more information about Luke Skywalker. Overall this was an amazing book as writer Kieron Gillen continues with the series by diving into the background of new characters and the many situations the characters get into. The character development throughout the book is amazing as Alpra's background gets fleshed out in an incredibly compelling way that the art even shows the emotional impact it had on her with the way it conveys her body language and movements. While new characters like Inspector Thanoth are an instant hit thanks to how he interacts with Vader and to criminals showing that he has lots of experience. Additionally the artist Salvador Larroca is amazing as his work looks cinematic with how characters emotions are brought across along with the action scene with Stormtroopers and Darth Varder's fighting style. 9/10.

10 Cloverfield Lane Film Review

Finished watching 10 Cloverfield Lane directed by Dan Trachtenberg and staring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Bradley Cooper, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr. and Suzanna Cryer. The film opens up to Micelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) leaving the home that she shares with her fiancé Ben (Bradley Cooper) after having an argument with him. While driving down a long empty road Micelle suddenly gets into a  collision with a vehicle overtaking her leading to her waking up inside a doomsday bunker, with her leg handcuffed to the piping as the owner Howard (John Goodman) tends to her injuries. Michelle later finds out the she is not alone as the builder of the bunker Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) is inside the food storage with a broken arm he got by trying to get inside after an attack of some sorts hit the area. Overall this was a good film as it uses the setting of the doomsday bunker along with the small cast extremely well as it allows for the film to get right into the core of the characters and their interactions between one another. The cast brings some stellar performances from the small personal character moments that help to develop the characters of Michelle and Emmett, to the range of John Goodman's acting as his character goes from a very anxious person to full on psychopath in a matter of minutes that brings over a lot of edge of the seat suspense. The prop and make up departments do an amazing job with the decaying pigs outside of the bunker and the look of the infected woman (Suzanna Cryer) as they look horrifying and very realistic. 7.5/10.

Star Wars: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon Review

Finished reading Star Wars: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon, continuing Marvel Comics main Star Wars series as writer Jason Aaron tells a small story featuring a self exciled Obi-Wan set between the two trilogies which continues as a larger story with the heroes of the original film. The book opens up to a story featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tattooine finding it hard to blend in and to try to not be a Jedi, which goes against every part of his nature, from his training to his willingness to help people. During a severe drought on the planet Obi-Wan comes across a handful of Jabba's men who are taking water from the locals by saying that it's a tax while Obi-Wan tries to help the locals and protect a young Luke Skywalker by using his Jedi training discretely in order to not bring attention to himself. The rest of the book follows the main heroes of the series as Luke and R2-D2 head to the Smuggler's Moon of Nar Shaddaa where Luke hopes to find a way to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant in hope to become a better Jedi. However Luke's plan goes south incredibly fast as he finds himself captured by Grakkus the Hutt who takes Luke to his arena ready to be killed for entertainment. Once news of Luke's capture is received by the Rebel Alliance Chewbacca and C3PO head to Nar Shaddaa to rescue their friend. As all of this is happening Han and Leia are confronted by a woman called Sana who insists that she is the wife of Han Solo. Their meeting is cut short when an Imperial Fleet of Tie Bombers and Fighters starts to bombard the planet and the soldiers attempt to arrest Han and Leia for being Rebels. Overall this was an amazing book as it continues to be a great addition to the Star Wars canon by showing what Obi-Wan was doing on Tattooine and how Luke slowly became the Jedi he is within the films. The character interactions are amazing as the scenes with Han, Leia and Sana help to develop their relationship which contains a lot of great laugh out loud moments. While the pairing of Chewbacca and C3PO on Nar Shaddaa is brilliant as it consists of great comedic moments with how C3PO translates what Chewbacca is saying and some of the best action scenes in the book come out of its as well especially when the Bounty Hunter Dengar enters the fray. Also the structure of how writer Jason Aaron fits the Obi-Wan story in to the rest of the series is great as it plays out with the story coming to life at the same time that Luke is reading the journal he found in Obi-Wan's home on Tatooine at the end of the previous book. The artwork is amazing as the Obi-Wan story drawn by artist Simone Bianchi designs some great action scenes between Obi-Wan and Jabba's men while also showing how isolated he is on the planet. While the artwork throughout the rest of the book is immensely breathtaking as artist Stuart Immonen draws some spectacular space battles and action scenes, which are all elevated by Wade Von Grawbadger's inks and Justin Ponsor's colours. 9.5/10.

The Multiversity Review

Finished reading Multiversity, this embarks on writer Grant Morrison's tour of the DC multiverse as he is joined by a slew of great art talent to tell this overarching story. The book opens up with a landlady knocking on the door of Nix Uotan the last of the Monitors who uses a interdimensional transport to go to Earth-7 where he finds the world to look post apocalyptic after a few interdimensional creatures attacked the Earth. Once seeing this Nix tells Thunderer the last hero of the Earth to use the transport to get reinforcements for other Earths within the multiverse. Once Thunderer assembles a team lead by the Superman of Earth-23 they find themselves on Earth-8 were they meet the superhero team called the Retaliators when a twisted version of Nix appears in front of the hero. The book then showcases several stories featuring different universes within the DC multiverse. The first features the Society of Super-Heroes of Earth-20 as they are being invaded by the Society of Super-Criminals of Earth-40. The next story set on Earth-16 follows the children of superheroes that create their own team called The Just while the Justice League is formed by former sidekicks and older heroes. The following story stars the heroes of Earth-4, dubbed Pax Americana who find one of their own at the centre of the assassination of the American President which leads to a very interesting mystery that leads to the story constantly flashing back to show more information about what happened. The fourth story centres around the Earth-4 version of Captain Marvel when the villainous Dr Sivana kidnaps the wizard Shazam allowing him to harness Captain Marvel's powers by bestowing them onto his children while devising a plan with multiple versions of himself in order take over the whole multiverse. The next story tells two almost interconnecting stories of the young Batman of Earth-43 meeting with the Batman of Earth-17 while on the post apocalyptic Earth-51 the last boy of Earth, Kamandi is joined by Prince Tuftan and bioMAC as all of the characters discover the origins of the Multiverse and what each universe contains by including a guidebook of the Multiverse inside and part of the story itself. The penultimate story tells the tail of the Superman of Earth-10 who crash landed in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938 which lead to Germany winning the Second World War and even occupying America where Superman makes his home in present day. The last of the stories is set on Earth-33 where the hero Ultraman and his creator speaks to the reader as the story itself is very self aware of its surroundings by interacting with the reader. The book concludes with the ending of the opening story as all of the heroes of the multiverse join forces to take on the threat of the twisted version of Nix Uotan and the other interdimensional creatures. Overall this was an amazing book as writer Grant Morrison structures a very captivating story that takes the form of multiple stories that feature different variations of heroes and villains, while being able to still tell one large overarching story. Each of the singular stories are amazing as each helps to show the range that Grant Morrison has, as each story is just as great as the last and barely skip a beat or even dip in quality. The artwork within the book is amazing as each story plays to the strengths of each art team on each story. Even the Guidebook itself that is incorporated in to the book, by a great use of storytelling, features different universes that are drawn by different artists. 9.5/10.

Hail, Caesar! Film Review

Finished watching Hail, Caesar! directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and staring Josh Brolin, Heather Goldenhersh, Scarlett Johansson, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, George Clooney, Wayne Knight, Alison Pill and Michael Gambon. The film opens up with the head of physical production at Capital Pictures Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) beginning a new work day in the early hours of the morning by stopping an unofficial photoshoot inside someone's home before heading to the office at the Capital Pictures studies where he is joined by his secretary Natalie (Heather Goldenhersh). While at the studio Eddie deals with the personal problems of a large amount of the cast and crew of the films being filmed at the time. From the news of actress DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) to the casting of western film star Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) in a period drama helmed by director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) who finds it very hard to work with Hobie as the main focus of the film, the kidnapping of actor Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) by one of the Hail, Caesar! extras (Wayne Knight), who takes Baird to a house on the coast line where a Communist cell calling themselves that Future slowly begin to convert Baird to their cause. Overall this was a good film as it centres around the day in the life of studio head Eddie Mannix by showing what he has to deal with on a daily basis and how that affects his wife Connie (Alison Pill) and their two children. The films narration by Michael Gambon is a very nice touch to the film as it helps to elevate the films setting and themes by giving a different view and angle to the film. The comedy within the film is great as it constantly hits it's mark by bringing some great laugh out loud moments. What lets it down though is the fact that some comedic moments go on for a little to long making the feel very awkward. 7.5/10.

Convergence Review

Finished reading Convergence, this is the main series of DC Comics event that brought back old universes the were previously thought to have been written out of existence. The book opens up with Superman being incarcerated by Brainiac shortly after defeating Vail Dox Brainiac during the Superman: Doomed story. Once braking out Superman encounters multiple versions of Brainiac before he is through off the world as the Brainiac's fall back into the ground while Telos looks over. Next a group of heroes from the recently destroyed Earth 2 find themselves on the mysterious planet, when they are attacked by Telos, the living embodiment of the planet and declares a tournament to determine which city from different types of universes is the fittest and worthy to call the planet home. While Telos is distracted the heroes of Earth 2 escape his restrains leading to Green Lantern discovering that the Earth is toxic to him and that the best way to defeat Telos lies underground. The heroes then split as Batman and Dick Grayson head to a local Gotham in hope for some backup while the rest of the heroes head to an entrance under the surface were they meet a man named Deimos along the way who guides them to the underground city of Skartaris. While Dick comes face to face with Telos once again after a large group of Batman's villains follow him and Earth 2 Batman from the Gotham they travel from. Overall this was a good book as its able to distinguish each type and variation of a characters throughout the book extremely well, which is a credit to the art and writing teams. The character interactions are great from the meeting between Dick and Alfred to Dick's interactions with Telos which helps to give both characters some great development. What lets the book down is that it feels it need the knowledge of what happened in the Superman: Doomed story, the Futures End and Earth 2 series'. Additionally the book itself has a very slow start which takes a little while to get into, which ultimately leading to an incredibly satisfying end to the book and the overacting story of the Earth 2 and Earth 2: World's End series'. 7/10.