PITSTOP: The Wicked + The Divine Compendium

 

I am already read the first four volumes online so you know I am ready to finish strong. This will of course get a full RAVE when I am done.

(Is there a reason why Image calls them Compendiums and not Omnibuses?)

AV

LIST: October's Rants & Raves

 Traditionally the spooky season I would watch a lot of scary films to get me in the mood but this year I did not watch any more than I usual do. Don't ask me why. This month can be categorized by a lot of good but just good media, you'll notice a lot of 8's this month. Who earned the Golden RAVE this month? Let's find out.

12. Secret Empire: 7.5 - OKAY

For a storyline that had so much promise; Nick Spencer's Secret Empire barely delivers. After a great running start and an incredible set-up (Captain America has been secretly a Hydra agent all this time) this story proceeds to go on for two to three issues too long. There is also a lot going on and a lot which I feel could have been explored in separate cross-over comics instead of being folded into the main narrative. It was not a total bust tho; some scenes still hit like they were supposed to like SPOILER for a 2017 comic when Hydra Cap picked up Mjolnir but instead of a great moment like it was in the movies, this time it was a Oh Shit moment but these great moments were few and far between.

Also since it is a comic, we must discuss the artwork. A lot of the art was done by a combination of artist and most are favorites of mine like Lenil Francis Yu and Steve McNiven but the lion's share of the art was done by Andrea Sorrentino and well, I really did not like it. Secret Empire's score was already going to be low due to the meh story but Andrea's art made said story even harder to read. I actually do not mind Sorrentino's art, some of his covers are really eye-catching but in the comic medium where you telling a story, it should not be hard to figure out what the story is. My best comparison is this was supposed to be Marvel's summer blockbuster but the director normally does indie films and brought their indie sensibilities to it instead of the blockbuster treatment we expect and it is a confusing mess, at least for me.

11. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin: 8 - Rave

 

This should have been a home run. The TMNT original creators came back with Kevin Eastman writing the bulk of it, a dark premise unlike any TMNT story in recent memory where most of the turtles have died and one lone turtle picks up all their weapons and aims to avenge his fallen friends and family. A lot of folks who have read this book have hyped it and it has single handled started a new franchise around it and for me, who used to be die-hard Turtles fan (I can quote the first fifteen minutes of Secret of the Ooze to the point where I scare myself) it was just... okay. I really wanted to like this but as I read more and more of it I got to the point where it was just a regular story to me and not this amazing thing everyone was telling me it was.

Sadly similar to Secret Empire above it; I feel the artwork let this book down in a couple ways as well and I am realizing as I become a more discerning fan of the medium of comic books, bad art really takes me out of a story and because it is half of the medium, it makes sense. Overall, this was not a bad read hence the 8 but it did not blow me away like I really thought it would.

10. Karate Kid Legends: 8 - Rave

It is funny how the two nostalgic bait media I watched this month fall so close to each other. Similar to The Last Ronin above, the premise was there. We have the first mainstream Karate Kid movie in years and we finally have a Asian protagonist (the very talented Ben Wang), we have the first meeting of the two previous separate franchises brought together in Jackie Chan (representing the reboot) and Ralph Macchio (representing the original) and we also have renewed interest for the franchise thanks to well made Cobra Kai TV series and the end result is... good? Enjoyable even but also very un-even.

Karate Kid Legends was at its best was when it was subverting our expectations. Ben Wang instead of being the next student was the teacher instead and we had a new cast of characters to explore. It was trying something new and different. However the film advertised Ralph so at the half way point the film pivots to a the tried and true formula of a tournament and Ben having to train and fight through it so he can stand up to his bully. A story the Karate Kid universe has told so many times. Now the tournament was good, the final fight had some real cool moments but I feel Karate Kid Legends would have been a stronger film if they focused on one or the other. We should have just got Ben's training Joshua Jackson's character and the finale is both characters conquering their demons OR if they wanted the nostalgia, they should have just focused on the Ralph and Jackie training Ben storyline, which has been done before but at least we could have focused on Ralph putting the lessons he learned from Miyagi into practice to show his growth. Instead we got this mish-mash of a film which had its flaws but in the end was just good silly fun. I enjoyed it but I won't lie I wish they just did more with it.

9. Miracle Cure by Harlan Coben: 8 - Rave

Miracle Cure is Harlan Coben's second published book and he even said in it's preface that it not a great first book of his to read despite him still being proud of it. I luckily started with 'I'll Find You' and if you are a regular reader of this blog, you'll know it got the third spot in last month's LIST. So why is Miracle Cure so low after realizing I enjoyed Coben's writing style? Well, the truth of the matter is Miracle Cure felt very by-the-numbers. You can tell Coben was still finding his voice and the confidence you feel in his latest works does not show as much here. You find a lot of Coben's hallmarks in this book, the villains a evil despicable people, the cops are quirky know-it-alls and the body count is considerable, especially for the poor innocent people, hallmarks he has carried into all his later works.

Miracle Cure feels like it was written in the 80's and it is a by-product of its time with certain sediments and words sticking out like a sore-thumb. Also one of the reasons why it scores lower is because one of the big twist kind of fell flat to me. It was supposed to be a big moment but for me it was just a 'oh? it's him?' I definitely feel I did myself a favor by not starting my Coben's journey was this one because I would have just liked his work but not have an interest like I do now. For example I have another one of his newer books on stand-by and I still look forward to reading it.

8. Imperial by Jonathan Hickman: 8 - Rave

I am in two minds about Imperial. On one hand I enjoyed the set-up immensely. I really enjoyed that Hickman was able to bring in character he clearly has a knack for writing be it Black Panther, Hulk, Gladiator of the Shiar and later on SPOILERS Maximus and Black Bolt of the Inhumans. End SPOILERS. I, however do not enjoy how it felt like it was spinning its wheels in the middle and then suddenly it was over. It is funny; above I critiqued Secret Empire because I felt some of its supplementary stories should have been spun-off from the main book while in Imperial one of the main reveals and person it effected the most in the final chapter was done in a supplementary book and that gave me whiplash when I read it without context. Also another 'big' reveal moment feel flat for me because it felt out of character which is wild because Hickman normally understands characters and their motivations so well and this just felt very out of left field. 

I know Marvel hasn't been doing much with the cosmic side of their universe so they called in the architect himself to come in and basically soft-reboot it like he did with the X-men series and House of X/ Powers of Ten sister series. However Imperial feels like an event comic book to set up for more comic books and not a complete story like I wanted and that I got previous. Also while HoX/PoX set the X-men universe up for some incredible new stories, Imperial feels like company mandate to bring everything back to the status quo and well, that doesn't excite me at all. I love Jonathan Hickman as regular readers of this blog know but this event felt very mid to me which I never thought I would say about any Hickman event.

7. Lazarus: 8 - Rave

Harlan Coben's latest TV series Lazarus, which surprisingly aired on Prime instead of Netflix was released just in time for the spooky season. A unique story which takes the normal Harlan's story structure (a dead family member and buried secrets) but give it a supernatural twist was the last content me and my wife watched this month. While this one still gave us the classic Harlan tropes the story is presented in a new way and it is well worth a watch even though it uses the tried and true tropes we expect from Harlan's TV ventures (which we have watched nearly every TV series he has made now). This one took us on a rollercoaster ride to the very end but here in lies the problem. It's ending.

Personally I feel it is a good series however Harlan's need for a final twist (he named his production company after it by the way) might soon be getting to M. Night Shamaylan level's where he feels he needs to do a twist no matter what and in this series case, it was was something we saw coming but I feel it did not add to the story other than for shock value. Something Coben's final twist can be a good revelation and even changes everything you know about the series you just watched but this one felt tacked on just to do it and it diminishes the final product in my eyes.

6. Magisterium # 2 The Copper Gauntlet: 8 - Rave

The second book of Magisterium series picks up right where the first one left us and continues to impress. One thing I enjoyed the most about this YA series is how well it is paced. The story is moving forward, the characters are evolving and I want to know what happens next. Sadly the Magisterium made me look more critically at Karen Marie Moning's Fever series where I felt the second in that series kind of stalled compared to the Magisterium's approach.

It is still an easy to read series and I completed it in a couple days and even though it was one of the first books I read at the beginning of the month it has stuck with me which is a good thing. I am still kind of meh about our main character especially compared to some of the other characters which I feel might be a me thing. I know I will definitely continue with this series once I am done with my current set of books I am reading.

5. Hellverine Resurrection: 8.5 - RAVE

This is not the TPB cover but I like it more.

I know, it sounds silly. A Wolverine with a flaming skull and bike ala Ghost Rider seems like something out of a twelve year old's very active imagination but here is the thing. For me at least, it works and it works well. Taking a previously newly established demon character and throwing it on Wolverine's edgelord son Daken who was recently un-ceremoniously killed off and you have Hellverine. In this volume, we actually see a slow reveal who the Hellverine is and why he is doing what he is doing. As a big fan of Daken who follows his character wherever he goes, it is nice to finally see a new series dedicated to him.

This comic was just fun and it probably ranks the highest of all the comics I have read this month purely due to the fact that it just understood the assignment. The art was good, the story was good and characters are written well. Yes there is a set-up for an ongoing series but unlike Imperial above; Hellverine Resurrection tells a complete story from beginning to the end and it takes what could have been a ludicrous concept and makes it enjoyable. Therefore it earns the first capital RAVE and 8.5.

4. Lovecraft Country: 8.5 - RAVE

I always wanted to watch Lovecraft Country and now I have finally did so I am happy I did. This genre-bending drama threw everything and the kitchen sink and somehow it still worked. Behind the backdrop of racism, Misha Green of Underground fame tells the story of a family fighting to regain its legacy. Well filmed, filled with scenes of pure craziness as well as confronting racism on all fronts this show did not pull any punches though sometimes it made me wonder if it was sensationalizing some aspects to the point where it might have been a bit too on the nose.

I enjoyed the heck out of Lovecraft Country, saw what you want about Jonathan Majors but man can act and Jurnee Smollett gave it her all as well. Also big shout outs to Wunmi Mosaku, who I have noticed before in shows and movies like Loki and Sinners but this was her coming out party for me. Her storyline in this series was one of the better told stories and it has stuck with me. My only problems with this series was the usage of modern music in some scenes which highly inappropriate and also a reliance of spoken word during some key ending scenes for impact which instead made me cringe instead. Also an ending for a certain character did not sit well with me and I am not talking about the obvious one. Other than that, a great time was had.

3. Gangs of London Season 1: 9 - RAVE

After reimagining the action genre in Indonesia with 'The Raid' movie series; Gareth Evans returned to the UK with a new vision. He wanted to bring the gritty, visceral and poetic in its brutality action to television. Sky and AMC believed in him and with their backing, he gave us the modern crime epic that is Gangs of London. Gangs of London tells the story of a found family's struggle to uphold their power after the death of its patriarch. A new player, an undercover cop enters the game and chaos ensues.

Gangs is the first 9 for this month because I was compelled to watch episode after episode like a fiend. I think I binged watched the first 6 episodes in one night. It is ironic because the remaining episodes were what I felt was the weakest ones. Gangs' episode 5 by the way maybe the most insane 'hour' of television I have ever watched since that one episode of Paradise. Yes... that one. Like the Paradise episode, episode 5 felt like a self-contained movie and just like it, it was all gas, no breaks and that one episode alone elevated this series to a 9. Now, the ending and the back end of this season as I said earlier kind of disappointed me and I feel it was because it was setting us up for season 2. I think it is why I have no immediately sprung into another season of it but I know I will give it a chance. However on the strength of those first couple episodes and the amazing shot action and compelling drama, Gangs is a easy RAVE.

2. Our Unwritten Seoul (K-drama): 9 - RAVE

It is amazing that after the insane action and over the top violence of Gangs of London which had me binge watching hour after hour it is beaten by a slow burn, tragic story of misunderstandings, stalled futures and the incredible bond of family. Our Unwritten Seoul is everything good about K-dramas and constantly had me and my wife in tears with its well written (pun intended) storylines. The premise is twins decide to swap lives so one can take a break from a workplace that has grinded her into a shell of her former self. The other twin, who is optimistic on the surface has barely survived her own trauma is forced to truly start living again but not for people this time but for herself.

Park Bo-young has always been a great actress and one of the few actress that me and my wife we watch in any role. In this drama she puts on a masterclass and breathes life into two distinct characters who share the same face but not the same soul. It is a sight to see. Also Jang Young-nam who is consistently good in every role she is given, takes this role as Park Bo-young's mother and knocks it out of the park. Every actor and actress plays their roles to perfection to be honest but Our Unwritten Seoul is truly a PBY showcase and she does not disappoint and the ending... chef kiss. It is why I love K-dramas as a whole, stories have a start, a middle and an end. An easy 9 and it would have had the number one spot if not for...

1. Purple Kiss Concert A Violet to Remember: 9.5 - RAVE

I know what you are saying, what, we adding concerts to the Rants and Raves lists now? Why yes... we are. LOL it is my LIST so I make the rules. Seriously though, this was always going to be # 1 for me because what an experience it was.

Seeing one of our favorite Kpop groups (boy and girl) for the final time was amazing but at the same time very bittersweet. This is the second time we have seen Purple Kiss in concert (the first time being in Nashville a couple years ago) but this time because it will be our last chance we decided to go all in. We did the stuff we did the first time (Hi-touch, skip the line, soundcheck mini-concert) but this time we also made sure we got our merchandise signed by the members, we brought album, photo cards and had multiple photos shoots with them including a selfie with our favorite members.

Excuse the goof on the right hand side.

The concert itself was amazing, the venue was great, the lines when they finally started moving, moved quickly and we got good seats. The girls performed banger after banger and brought the energy and we felt their love for us. We had a preview of what songs they would sing thanks to a leaked set list but they performed songs not on the set list and some of those songs we really wanted to hear were performed. Overall it was an amazing experience and if I was rating Purple Kiss themselves it would be 10 out of 10 but the rating is for the overall experience and I have to give them a slight mark down because the people who were doing the set-up for the photos was kind of pushy for no reason especially with this being everyone last chance to see them so a little more time would have been appreciated and we all paid good money for this experience however even that did not diminish, we saw Purple Kiss in concert and it was a Violet to Remember.

AV