"Deadpool/Batman," and, "Batman/Deadpool," Comics Are Officially On the Way!

It had been teased that Marvel and DC would be doing some crossovers, and I received a wild birthday present today with the official announcement of, "Deadpool/Batman," coming this September to be followed by, "Batman/Deadpool," in November. A lot of names are involved from big-time folks (Grant Morrison, Kevin Smith, Greg Capullo," to names that aren't as big but have talent (Zeb Wells, Chip Zdarsky, Kelly Thompson). These two big comics will be published in turn by Marvel and DC--with back-up features of other characters in the respective Universes' crossover. It's been over two decades since the last (new) intercompany crossover between DC and Marvel, so this is quite big news.

More crossovers are apparently planned into 2026, and I am quite curious who else from the two companies will be meeting up in future publications. In the meantime, I'm pretty excited for this crossover of a quite serious hero (Batman) with a decidedly sillier sometimes-baddie/sometimes-good guy (Deadpool). I'll be sure to check this out!

I'm 37 Today!

Today is my 37th birthday. 37 is notable as being the twelfth prime number, a fun fact I learned today when I used Google. In fact, 37 is considered a, "Sexy Prime," as it is six more than the 11th prime number (31) and six less than the 13th prime number (43), as I understand it. So yes, I'm not getting old, I'm entering my sexy prime era!

I'm thankful to have been alive this long and hope to continue living many more years that I can enjoy with my loved ones. I'm thankful that at this point in my life that I have my wonderful wife, Samii, and my sweet boys, Clarkson and Gibson. I've earned some degrees and had various interesting jobs-- I look forward to doing more cool stuff as I age, too. I may, "Only," be 37, but I feel pretty accomplished!

When AI, "Reads," or "Writes," For You It is Garbage-In and Garbage-Out

I use Grammarly in my web browser. It assists me with correcting my spelling and fixing obvious grammar issues that I miss because me no always write goodly (that sentence set it off a lot). So, yes, I have used AI to help me with my writing in that regard. I have never, however, used it to write my opinion on something or do a work-type project. If I want to tell you a comic/show/movie is awesome or sucks, I'll just take the damn time to tell you. I won't say, "Hey, ChatGPT/Google Gemini/whatever summarize in 500 words why I think, 'Jurassic Park,' is one of my top three movies ever," when I could instead just tell you it why it rocks in 30 words or less--dinosaurs are awesome, Spielberg was at the top of his directing game, Ian Malcom is a sex symbol of a character, and velocorapors eating Samuel L. Jackson is twistedly hilarious. AI has its place, but when you rely on it to, "Look," at the internet and give you content, it is going to have horrific results because the internet is an awful place full of misinformation and outright lies (not my site though, I'm the best, please love me).

It is a case of garbage-in and garbage-out. The AI is going to write junk articles and we will use AI to look at the internet for us and summazie all that junky writing with the result being pure bullshit. Look at what happened when an AI wrote a piece about Summer fun for National newspapers and made up a bunch of books and authors of articles. We are letting the computer write nonsense, and then we don't even click the links to verify the legitimacy of the writing; we just let AI read it too and tell us the gist of something. It's like cliffnotes all-around, only if everyone involved had their head firmly up their ass. This isn't a surprise considering we have AI, "Writing," books for us too. Perhaps if we pay writers better, then it won't fall to AI to create our books or lists about books, or as author Gabino Iglesias puts it, "Pay writers, and then we can write these fake books that don't exist."

Oh, and for those curious, my other top two movies in no particular order are, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," and, "Network." I didn't need a damn AI to tell me they were my favorites either.

Consider Giving to the GoFundMe for Altered State Comics' Brandon

One of the owners of Altered State Comics, Brandon, has been diagnosed with cancer. I love the folks over at Altered State so much and would encourage everyone to give to the GoFundMe that was established for Brandon or to swing by the store and donate. As the campaign discusses, "Brandon now faces a challenging road ahead, including chemotherapy treatments that will require strength, time, and of course the occasional break from the day-to-day operations of Altered State (even though he'll still make himself work more than he needs to)." 

All the money raised will go towards medical bills and cancer treatment, keeping Altered State Comics open and running during his recovery, and supporting Brandon and his family during this very difficult time. Brandon is a fantastic individual, and I wish him and everyone at Altered State Comics the very best. Again, that GoFundMe link is here.

The Two Big Upcoming, "Avengers," Flicks are Delayed

The next two Avengers films are, "Avengers: Doomsday," and, "Avengers: Secret Wars." They were due to come out in May 2026 and May 2027, but have been pushed back six months to December 2026 and December 2027. I'm not surprised. I mean, considering it seems like basically everyone from a past Marvel/X-Men/whatever movie is involved in this, I imagine there are a lot of logistics to figure out in regards to actors' schedules, creating special effects, and the like.

I imagine when these two flicks do come out, they will be huge, making a lot of money and getting all the hype Marvel has desired but failed to attain since the one-two punch of, "Infinity War," and, "Endgame." My theory (and one others online have expressed) remains that with, "Secret Wars," we will do a big continuity reset so that all MCU-centric films will from that point forward be in a new Universe that takes pieces of all the movies but is a fresh World for anyone who wants to be able to have a brand-new starting point for Marvel flicks. That way, they can keep old stuff that works, dump stuff that doesn't, and add in new elements (live-action Miles Morales has got to be coming soon). We'll have to wait a little extra to see, I suppose.

There Are Two Comic Shows This Weekend!

This weekend, there will be two different comic shows/cons occurring. I'll be at one but am missing the other. Let's discuss..

On Sunday, there will be the always-delightful Spector Club show held at 7300 Lansdowne in Shrewsbury (the VFW). The show will have a bunch of the usual vendors and has posted that artist David Zimmermann will be doing commissions. Plus, Exterminator Comics is setting up for the first time in a good while with lots of cheap comics. I am excited to check the show out!

Today, tomorrow, and Sunday, the first-ever 2 Rivers Comic-Con is occurring at the Foundry Arts Center and the Steel Shop Event Center. It has a number of cool guests, but I most likely won't be attending as I'm busy with the kiddos today, have some obligations Saturday (pre-birthday celebrations and such), then will be at the aforementioned Spector club show a chunk of Sunday before tackling other commitments in the afternoon. I imagine my friends who are able to attend 2 Rivers will let me know how the show was, and I may be able to go to a future one. I hope that if you're in the area that you are able to go to one show or both--and that you have fun!

They Went and Killed the U.S. Penny

The United States Treasury unveiled its plans today to commit murder. The victim is over two centuries old, made of copper, and known as the penny. Yes, the Treasury confirmed plans to stop making our one-cent coins and effectively kill the penny. It's been talked about for years, even though we lose more money making nickels than pennies, and has been one of those pet obsessions of Donald Trump. 

The penny won't disappear right away, but eventually, any businesses engaging in cash transactions may need to round down or up. We also need to make nickels cheaper to produce--this has to be implemented, or else this cost-saving measure of getting rid of the penny could be messy because of how that will now be the lowest denomination coin and therefore may be the most-produced as the penny currently is/was. Many people don't use cash that much or put a particular, "Value," on the penny, often leaving them in little change trays at locations. I'm not going to argue that pennies are especially important to our economy and have to still exist, but I will miss them when they do mostly disappear from our currency exchanges in due time. At least ol' Abraham Lincoln still will get to enjoy appearing on the five-dollar bill.

"Heavy Metal Magazine," is Back With it's (Reboot) Debut Issue

"Heavy Metal," the edgy comic magazine, was due to return in 2025. Well, it is 2025, and here it is on newsstands and at comic shops. With the talented Frank Forte as the helm as EIC, I had hopes it would be an enjoyable read. I have good news in that it was a great (and big) magazine of fun!

"Heavy Metal," is known for wild fantasy stories, crazy sci-fi comics, and quite often plenty of boobs. This new iteration has all of that and more. There are some nonfiction pieces looking back at the previous generation of, "Heavy Metal," and all the talent involved. This may be a reboot of sorts, but it acknowledges where it came from. An absurd number of talents are involved in this debut, and it would take too big a chunk of space to name everyone, so I'll just spotlight that Jim Rugg's story of space aliens was my favorite with its retro-kitsch style--nothing was bad, however, so that's encouraging for the future issues as well.

In the old days a lot of comics were too squeaky clean besides the underground comix and magazines like, "Heavy Metal." I wondered if in this new era where plenty of indie comics push the envelope of content if, "Heavy Metal," could still stand out. Well, even if more comics these days have the violence and nudity some adults crave, "Heavy Metal," still provides a nice fantastical edge to everything with its wildly inventive stories, artwork, and all-around envelope-pushing vibe--even if that envelope is now more pushing the boundaries of creativity as opposed to simply shocking folks with nipples in a comic. Give this new iteration of, "Heavy Metal," a chance--I'm quite pleased with it myself.

5 out of 5 Stars.

News, Links, and Other Tidbits for May 2025

May Flowers, Still Getting Showers

We're past the halfway point of May. We got plenty of bad weather this month despite the supposed April showers giving us the May flowers, but so it goes. I feel like March was an utter slog, April did fly by, and May has moved at a relatively speedy clip as well. A number of interesting things have occurred that I would maybe not dedicate a whole article to, but I definitely want to mention. Let's get into it...

Things to Read

Marvel is going to be doing, "Retrovision," variant covers featuring various artists riffing on the Silver Age of comics and before. A number of these look really fun, and I love some faux-nostalgia.

For a title like, 'Mission Impossible," it is funny to think they're on the eighth, "Mission," or so with the newest flick. That said, Tom Cruise is an actor whom I don't like much as a person based on what I've read about him, but I will say the man is great in flicks. He and I also both love popcorn, apparently. The man downs a lot of popcorn, more than a reasonable person or even I would eat.

"The Precinct," is a new game set in the 1980's where you play a police officer with a top-down view reminiscent of the old-school, "Grand Theft Auto," series. Except, as I noted, you're a cop. It's a nice hook, but reviews of the game have been mostly middling. Perhaps I'll rent it for my PS5 or wait for it to come to Game Pass on the Xbox.

NPR ranked all of this season's musical guests on, "Saturday Night Live," as they've been doing for awhile. I mostly agree with the list except I'd move Lady Gaga from the #2 spot to the top and put Lizzo up higher as well, moving Chappel Roan down to where Lizzo was (still decently high). That's just me, though.

Bruce Springsteen is a popular musician and a human being with opinions. He expressed during a performance that he feels Donald Trump is unfit for office (for the record, I agree). Due to the fact Trump is a fascist, he can't stand someone using their freedom of speech to slander him. Hence, Trump is going to investigate Springsteen for...reasons? When a President can sic the government on people in a form of petty revenge for their thoughts, we've moved well into authoritarianism. 

I enjoy visiting Malls and my eldest, Clarkson, adores them as he can't get enough of the escalators and elevators there. Mad Cave Studios is releasing a new original graphic novel titled, "Xero," and it features subterranean and unending Mall that a man named Xero is stuck in looking for his girlfriend. Written by Vaho with art from Felipe Flores, the description mentions, "This haunting dystopian journey blends pop art, manga, and philosophical horror into a searing meditation on late-stage consumerism, false comfort, and the cost of waking up." I'm all here for it, even if this Mall sounds like a place I'd avoid.

Christopher Priest is such a good writer that I will read comics featuring characters I don't normally give a hoot about if he's penning their adventures. With that in mind, I've not read much of, "Red Sonja," but if he is doing the new comic, "Sonja Reborn," you can bet I'm gonna grab a copy!

Lastly, I've been greatly enjoying, "Yes Chef," on NBC/Peacock. It is another cooking competition show but it has some big names as judges (Martha Stewart and José Andrés), plus a clever, vaguely cruel twist where the winning chefs in a competition basically have to choose who gets voted off. It's worth a viewing.

MAX is HBO MAX...Again

You may recall when HBO MAX started just going by, "MAX," but everyone still called it, "HBO MAX." Well, I have, "Good," news, you can continue to ignore the idea of just calling it MAX because Warner Bros. Discovery has officially rebranded it right back to, "HBO MAX," for...reasons? I mean, people know, "HBO," can mean quality, so the streamer wants to come across as not just being trashy reality television--that's the job of the Discovery+ app, God bless it. When the change was announced, it was basically acknowledged people would mock it, with HBO's own John Oliver getting a shout-out; he did indeed go into this subject on his show, joining everyone in ripping HBO MAX for the rebrand-to-an-old-brand.

Sometimes, a rebrand can be the best thing possible for a company. For example, I just recently posted how the good folks behind the Pizza Cupcake were making new products and therefore changed their name to Incredifulls with the Pizza Cupcake as a product--that makes sense! Other times, however, a rebrand just looks stupid. This is one of those times. So, HBO MAX--in the words of music producer and inspirational speaker D.J. Khaled, "Congratulations, you played yourself."