All the news that's unfit to print
James Earl Jones has passed at the age of 93. The news came out today. The man was a legend. He was a fabled EGOT (someone who has won at least a single Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award) and had been involved in so, so many roles. He is the voice we associate with, "Satr Wars," thanks to his work as Darth Vader and he did tons of live-action acting parts as well from the stage to screen. He'll be missed.
It is well-known I've been a fan of Kendrick Lamar for some time. When he had beef with Drake recently I knew it would end badly for Drake, and it sure did ruin Drake's 2024. Now, Kendrick Lamar is set to return to the Super Bowl stage (he was a part of the 56th game's show), this time as the headliner. I am both surprised and pleased. Lamar has never been afraid to broach difficult topics in his music and while he has had immense commercial success at times with his work, he isn't exactly a bubblegum pop artist who just makes tunes for dancing. I'm quite excited to see what Lamar has planned on February 9th, 2025 and look forward to what will doubtlessly be a wild event.
A new restaurant opened not too far from us recently called Tacos 4 Life. Apparently part of a chain of eateries, the company donates a chunk of money from any sale to the nonprofit FMSC (Feed my Starving Children) to assist in helping children suffering from food insecurity in various nations. An admirable goal, but does it taste good? Well, having tried Tacos 4 Life I am pleased to say it was quite yummy.
My wife, a family friend of ours, and I all tried various items from Tacos 4 Life and we each observed it was delicious. I especially enjoyed the Fried Chicken taco with its hint of honey and a slightly spicy aioli. Samii really liked the nachos she got and found everything fresh and tasty--the veggies and toppings were on point! If you happen to have a Tacos 4 Life in your area I would recommend giving it a try--I'll be back for more in the future!
Back in June, I wrote about being excited about a newly announced Black Label mini-series titled, "Plastic Man No More!" Having read the first issue, it was as delightfully twisted as I hoped it would be. Plastic Man is often treated as a joker by the Justice League, to the point that once he is hit by a mysterious death ray and seems to be breaking apart it still seems of little worry to his fellow heroes. Writer Christopher Cantwell excels at balancing the seeming humor of our hero with some very dreary and gruesome scenes of his body quite literally falling apart. Alex Lins and Jacob Edgar both supply art, for the, "Happy," and, "Serious," moments, creating a great (intentional) tonal clash.
The first issue of "Plastic Man No More," is fantastic. It has jokes, it has pathos, and all the art is superb. This has the makings to become quite the wild little mini-series as it continues. I especially am curious about one little excerpt hinting at the body-part-goo Plastic Man is losing seeming to have its own volition--quite creepy. If you're into weirder-styled superhero comics, definitely check out this comic!
5 out of 5 Stars.
I remember back in my high school days playing the bejeezus out of, "World of Warcraft," when it was new and the hottest thing on the scene in 2004. Created by the company then known as Blizzard (before a bunch of mergers and such), it was a fun game set in a huge World full of other folks you could party with or fight. I still dabbled a bit during my college years with the game but fell off sometime after the, "Cataclysm," expansion back in 2010. I remember playing WoW, but it didn't occur to me the game was 20 years old this year until I saw an article on Polygon about how this November, yep, it's 20.
Two decades of an online game still going strong is quite impressive in a time when some online games launch and die in under two weeks (sorry, "Concord," I know you tried). If I even tried to play, "World of Warcraft," again all this time later I'd be hopelessly confused, but it is nice to know that is an option and my Tauren Shaman named Shine could someday return to Azeroth. Not anytime soon, mind you, but someday!
I really was into Image/Skybound's recent take on The Creature From the Black Lagoon as a part of their retelling/remixing of classic horror monsters with Universal. This got me interested in checking out the latest creature to get the comic treatment from the classic Universal flicks, Frankenstein (or Frankenstein's Monster if you want to be pedantic). In the pages of of, "Universal Monsters: Frankenstein," #1 Michael Walsh writes and illustrates a comic that seems to lean heavily into the 1931 film but shows major events from that movie via a new character's point of view. How this tweak to the mythology will impact the overall story will remain to be seen, but it is a clever addition of someone who would have mixed feelings about their deceased loved one being used for spare parts.
Walsh is an amazing writer and artist, giving the story a suitably grim and creepy vibe. Once we entered the Professor's castle, I was impressed by how you can practically see the strange technology he utilizes glowing and hear it whirring--it's all quite visceral. Our short glimpses of the titular reanimated creation are intense as well, imparting both a sense of horror and giving us a feeling of pity towards Frankenstein. It's a gorgeous comic, in other words.
"Universal Monsters: Frankenstein," #1 is another stellar result of Skybound and Universals' collaboration. It will be four total issues and I am eager to see how the story of Dr. Frankenstein and his monster will be tweaked and twisted in clever ways. A stupendous debut issue for sure.
5 out of 5 Stars.
When you deposit a check it has to clear, but a certain small amount is (generally) immediately available to withdraw. In the olden days, this meant scammers would write bad checks that, “Bounced,” while at a business to get some cashback and could leave someone who took those checks in a bad place when the bank wanted its money back. I guess some young folks don’t understand how checking works because there have been TikTok videos of people writing checks with wild sums of money, depositing those checks at a Chase Bank ATM, and immediately taking out a bunch of, “Free money,” as these ATMs oddly didn’t limit how much cash you could have right away from a check. Oh, you sweet naive children, that’s textbook check fraud.
There is no such thing as free money—well, unless you’re already a rich corporation and get bailed out by a Government due to being, “Too big to fail,” even if you did commit some form of fraud. That said, your average Agnus, Agatha, Jermaine, or Jack isn’t going to get much sympathy for giving themselves a negative account balance due to writing checks to themselves or friends. Are these TikTok videos meant more as satire of how stupid people can behave as opposed to being a legitimate, “Hack,” however? Consider we once had an internet trend where people broke their bones running up stacks of milk crates and you have your depressing answer.
Sometimes a game comes out and it really struggles for a while. Eventually, with patches and fixes, it becomes a fantastic and beloved title (look at, "No Man's Sky," or, "Cyberpunk 2077," for two great examples). Other times, a game is pretty mediocre but is, "Too big to fail," or to be allowed to flounder due to live-service ambitions and it keep chugging along despite relative player disinterest ("Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League," is a recent incident of this). There are times a game does so poorly that a studio quits offering much support for it, but keeps it running to at least salvage some money ("Exoprimal," wasn't even bad but suffered this fate). For a relatively big (in terms of development team size and money invested) game to come out and be shut down after barely two weeks, however? That's not something you usually hear about, but it is what's happening with, "Concord."
"Concord," was a 5 vs 5 team-shooter/hero-shooter game that you either have never heard of or maybe saw people mocking when it was first unveiled some months ago because it looked kind of hokey. Everyone is doing these team-shooter games these days and if you don't have a good gameplay hook or even characters people like you're in trouble. "Concord," had basically nothing going for outside of only costing $40 to buy for your PlayStation 5 or PC as opposed to how most games are at least $60 and sometimes lately even $70. Worldwide, the number of players engaged with, "Concord," was usually between 100-300 people. Yes, in the entire World.
"Concord," apparently made all of one million dollars off of an investment of maybe 100 million bucks when it comes to sales--and everyone who did buy a copy is getting refunded because they're shutting this down within 2 weeks of launch. Perhaps it will come back as a free-to-play game with little cosmetic upgrades you could buy to show off to the other dozen people playing the game? That could happen, but right now it looks like, "Concord," is just a catastrophic loss, more of a money pit for Sony than an actual game. I feel bad for the team that worked years on this title and hope some degree of retooling can save it from total failure and obscurity.
I don't understand how comic fans sometimes seem to be so hateful towards the people who actually make their comics. Whenever a creator dares to point out that Marvel or DC at times treats their creators in a manner that is questionable, a bunch of men (it is always men) will emerge online to act like they are contract lawyers/ethical experts/etc. Jen Bartel was asked some questions about her treatment by Marvel and answered honestly. She quit working for Marvel because they took advantage of contracts to not have to pay her for using her art in stuff like Marvel Snap, plus the pay was crappy and she was eventually able to find better opportunities elsewhere--but she appreciated how working for Marvel opened those doors. Still, the fact she didn't toe the line about how working for Marvel is some sort of dream come true with zero downsides got fanboys frothing at the mouth.
Jen Bartel is a fantastic creator and if she had a shitty contract with Marvel she chose not to renew then that just means she knows her worth. Marvel (and their owner, Disney) doesn't need a bunch of people typing tweets in their defense. They're a huge corporation taking advantage of creatives to make as much money as possible off an IP that the creators want to make good stories/art out of--the company doesn't care about quality, just dollar signs. Why comic fans seem to be this one demographic that treats the people who make the comics with such vitriol whilst worshipping the abstract concept of the Godly Marvel Comics/DC Comics escapes me. Then again, for decades the people who made concepts into million or billion-dollar properties have suffered in poverty from medical issues with little help from fans or the corporations that profited off them, so I guess that's how it goes.
You ever read a headline and go, "Didn't that already happen?" That was me today when I saw on good ol' tabloid site Bleeding Cool that they had the, "SCOOP," how, "Marvel To Make Kitty Pryde Canonically Bisexual This Week." This left me scratching my head as this would be one of many times it's been made pretty clear Kitty Pryde is bi. We have multiple instances of subtext in Chris Claremont's X-Men run, other occurrences where it was vaguely discussed, and that time Kitty outright kissed a girl on the lips in 2020. Outside of Kitty flatly stating, "Hey everyone, I'm bisexual," it has been quite apparent she is attracted to men and women. Now, in the debut issue of, "Exceptional X-Men," she attempts to go on a date with a woman, resulting in us getting the, "Bombshell," of her sexuality that we all knew about already.
This is great as I welcome diversity in comics, but it is annoying to think that some people are so dense reading a story we have to make a character declare their sexual orientation for it to be clear to some folks. It is like when you read about historical figures who lived with their, "Friends," for their entire life and never married anyone of the opposite sex but were really close with that, "Friend," to the degree they shared a bed, and left them everything in the will. Such good chums/gal-pals, eh? Anyways, for the 30th or so time it will be noted that Kitty Pryde is attracted to men and women, this time in the pages of, "Exceptional X-Men #1," due to how she gets stood up for a date by another woman.
