Back in December, I shared Trailer #1 for "Spider-Man:Homecoming".

Trailer #2 was just released this morning.



For those who weren't aware, this is the first Spider-Man movie that is an official part of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Of course, the character first made a MCU appearance in "Captain America: Civil War", last year. And he'll be returning as a part of "Avengers: Infinity War" next year.

- Donald

Well, I just finished Iron Fist. I liked it. I can see why some people did not though. There were some awkward pacing issues. There were some character inconsistencies, and surely some lose threads left hanging. Still, overall I thought it was enjoyable and quality work.

The most recent time I saw Iron Fist was when I bought the Dr.Strange compilation at Barnes & Noble a few months ago. In that book, Iron Fist was one of several patients in a hospital that is reserved for just superheroes. Doctor Strange was there too because he was seriously wounded, during which time he used his Astral-projection to guide the nurse. Come to think of it, the same idea was used in the recent movie, remember? Since the book I bought was a reprint of old issues, I wonder whether the movie borrowed that idea or not, and then rearranged it for a different situation.

OK it may not belong here but I went to see Power Rangers. Not bad.

The Teaser Trailer for "Thor: Ragnarok" was released today.



More about the movie:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor:_Ragnarok

- Donald

Although I already posted about Bernie Wrightson's recent obituary, I was surprised to see just the other day on Amc-TVchannel's Zombie series paying respects to him with a eulogy. Surprised to see a comic book artist get eulogized on a TV show.

I tell you the thing I used to enjoy about Marvel was the irreverence they had toward themselves. I mean if you could a mistake they sent you a "No Prize". Simply an envelope that had a card in it that read ? “Congratulations! This envelope contains a genuine Marvel Comics No-Prize, which you have just won!”

There was NOTHING in the envelope, just that printed on it. HILARIOUS!

They actually held the copyright on "Zombie" which is crazy. At one point they printed an actual letter of resignation from artist Dave Cockrum in Iron Man 127. They simply switched the word "Marvel" and slipped in the word "Avengers". It was a letter of resignation from Jarvis to Stark after Tony was drunk and verbally abusive. It was HILARIOUS! How that sort of "production error" could happen is just beyond belief. It had to be intentional.

I bet this stuff happened at DC as well, I just am not familiar with the stories.

Here is a shocker, DC's Black Lightning is coming to TV.

Tony Isabella created Black lightning in the 70's where he was a fascinating and complex character who played at being a one-dimensional street thug fighting drug dealers.

I hope they make Tony proud.

I was kinda annoyed when I'd seen the photo and noticed they'd;

Cut the hair

Lost the hammer

And changed the costume

Then I saw the trailer and his reaction to meeting the Hulk and realized, it's still Thor.


He'd better get his hammer back though!

As soon as I heard about the Facebook-Killer Steve Stephens, it reminded me of the DC-villain the Joker and why I don't like him at all. It all began when I bought the issue "Joker's Five-way Revenge" and the way in which his first murder-victim is found--that is, the dead man's corpse has a grin.
The Joker is much too evil so the defense on the basis of insanity should not be allowed to exonerate him.

Later on, there was Alan Moore's "Killing Joke" which painted a sympathetic picture of the Joker, that a succession of traumatic experiences made his mind snap. Come on, ptsd--I don't accept that at all.

Hmmm, we could argue for hours about the motivations of the Joker.
The issue is of course, compounded by different writers handling him in different ways. You cannot really compare the Joker of 5 way revenge to the Joker of Killing Joke to Caesar Romero's clownish Joker.

If you are saying he is too evil for PTSD, you may be right.

I could see it, and somewhat reconcile the three examples above by saying his mind snapped in the trauma, and as he struggled to make sense of the shock he could not deal with, he became more and more jaded with the world and developed more of his "oh screw it" attitude along with "I'll just do what's fun for me."

The killing joke does no go into details of his childhood. My guess he was raised with violence being the solution to most problems. Maybe lost a Dad in the war? Maybe raised similar to Rorschach from Watchmen? He would have tried to make a go of it as a normal citizen, then fate hands him a load he just cannot bear.

Could someone like Charles Manson have become a true to life Joker like character had he not been incarcerated?

I'd be curious to see what other people think of his motivations. These are just my off the top of my head ideas.

He has none. He doesn't need them. He is evil.

To me he has always been like this petri dish of congenital psychoses, kept tightly under wraps until his bath; which is the origin story I go by.

Socio/Psychopath, narcissist, anti-social - whatever you can think of just chuck it in.

ADHD? Sure, why not.

PTSD? Definitely; but does what he went through justify what he does?
No freaking way.

A man without the need for any morality.

I'm kind of in the camp of those who think the first origin story, no matter how ridiculous, is what the characters lore should stem from, and be built upon.

Having said that, I really like the way Gotham is handling the characters pre Batman. Especially Jerome.

While the Joker's insanity is open to debate, I, on the other hand, believe another villain,namely, Two-Face is exonerated due to insanity. After all, his behavior is totally dictated by a flip of a Coin. If it lands on the scar side, he commits a felony. If it lands on the Unscarred side, he donates to charity. Once when Two-Face captured Batman, TF's gang wanted to obviously kill the Caped Crusader. But then Two-Face flipped his Coin which landed on the Unscarred side, so he let Batman go scot-free. So Two-Face belongs in an asylum instead of prison. He is definitely insane,let's face it (no pun intended).

Not too long ago, Fox announced their upcoming 2018 X-Men movies (X-Men, Logan/Wolverine, Deadpool are all licensed to Fox). I recently was reading some online articles about the topic, because I had re-watched my DVD of "X-Men: Apocalypse".

"New Mutants" is scheduled for release in April 2018.

"Deadpool 2" is scheduled for release in June 2018.

"Dark Phoenix" is scheduled for release in November 2018.

One source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(fil......ng_films

It's my understanding that Dark Pheonix is the next in the series following "X-Men: First Class", "X-Men: Days of Future Past", and "X-Men: Apocalypse". I think I read somewhere that this series of movies was being set in different decades. First Class was in the 60s, Days of Future Past was in the 70s, and Apocalypse was in the 80s. And that the intention was to make the next one (Dark Phoenix) set in the 90s.

- Donald

Any guesses who Savatar is inside the armor?

They did a story where one of the Joker's doctors found a paper proving the Joker was sane, the "insanity" bit was a new way of hiding his identity similar to the Red Hood. However, it turns out the Joker himself got the paper into the doctor's hands because the author turned out to be Dr. Harlan Qinzell who herself would go crazy and become Harley Quinn. This invalidates the paper's authenticity, which Joker knew full well.

The funny part to me is that while people try to debate this stuff it has origins in regulation.

What I mean is a lot of the evolution and changes in ol Jokey come from regulations about content. Much of what happened to him through the late 50's 60's and early 70's was due to the powers that be requiring less violence in comics in general. As those regulations relaxed we saw much more of the old killer clown.

It is a fascinating study not so much of the character, but of the society that regulated it. To debate the Joker independent of this is silly.

What ever happened to that report that Ed said he would do on the Comicon? He even said he would include pictures of the event. It's over two months past, so I guess he could not make it. Maybe he was too busy to attend. Oh well, maybe next time.

I went to see the second Guardians.

I was fully prepared to hate baby Groot. I did not.

Movie was great in my opinion.