Ultimate Awesomeness Podcast Episode 3 - Disney buying Fox, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Comics

Welcome to 3rd episode of Ultimate Podcast!!! I hope you will enjoy the show! Topic 1: Disney buying Fox Topic 2: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review Topic 3: Comics of the Week and Some Revelations Comics of the week: Old Man Logan #31, Moon Knight #189, Batman Annual #2, Spider-Gwen #26, Judas #1, Kid Lobotomy #1, Grave Trancers #1 Revelations: Doctor Strange #382, Jean Grey #10

Ultimate Awesomeness Podcast Episode 2 - Infinity War thoughts, Justice League, The Punisher, Comics

UPDATE! :I fixed the distorted audio, I've noticed the audio was really sounding weird when I uploaded and all I had to do was re-upload. I think the uploading process messed up the audio. It was weird, sorry about that's guys. Give a listen now, it sounds much better now.

Hey guys! I finally got around to posting the latest podcast. I hope you will enjoy and also please be able to bear with the background noises. I tried to edit it them out, but it didn't work out that well. So, next time I will do better recording.
Topic: Infinity War Trailer Thoughts and Discussion Topic 2: Justice League Review (Spoilers); Mini Discussion on The Punisher (Mild Spoilers) Topic 3: Comics of the week: Harley Quinn #31 & 32, Justice League #33, Doomsday Clock #1, Scooby Apocalypse #19, Moon Knight #189, Mystik U#1, Sword of Ages #1

Ultimate Awesomeness Podcast Episode 1 - Re-edited

I finally found time to re-edit the podcast for you guys. I have also recorded another podcast today but I have to do some editing, so it will be released sometime tomorrow. So, look forward to that. Anyways, I hope you guys will enjoying this one as well.

Topic 1: Bendis moving over to DC

Topic 2: Disney's potential buy of Fox

Topic 3: Thor: Ragnarok (Mild Spoilers)

Topic 4: Dark Nights Metal General Discussion. Justice League #32, Batman: Lost #1, Moon Knight #188,  Iron Fist #74

Rat Queens Vol. 1 Review - “It’s Always Sunny in Palisade”

Introduction

When I heard about Rat Queens being the next book to read in the Emerald City Comics’ comic book club meeting, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. But, I was intrigued because my fellow friends in the club described it as a female centered Dungeons and Dragons. If you’re not familiar with that, it’s a very famous tabletop RPG game. It’s famous history has lead to many forms of media like novels, video-games, comics, films and television. I’m not too familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, but I do remember playing a very fun beat’em up game by Capcom for the arcades; It was a very enjoyable game. Dungeons and Dragons has also a variety of influences over the years. But I digress, Rat Queens is written by Kurtis J. Wiebez, which I’m not familiar with his work at all. But it looks like he does a lot of Image titles that I have not read yet. Anyways, this book has gone through a series of artist changes, the first volume goes by Roc Upchurch which he had a domestic violence abuse history with his wife, “ouch!”. Then, the artist was Stjepan Šejić but he had left due to health problems and after that, is Tess Flower which left due to creative differences and some feud about Upchurch returning which never claimed to be true and now the series’ art is by Owen Gun. I’m not familiar with any of artists’ works either, but I thought about giving you a brief history of this series’ artist changes. Anyways, I want to let you know I very much enjoyed this volume a lot. It reminds me very much like the show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Mainly, because the characters are very dislikable people who are carefree and that have vulgar attitudes and also do lots of drinking and drugs. So, I hope you will have fun reading this review and hopefully I will convince you enough to check this series out.

Story

In the town of Palisade, groups of people from the town have been killed while doing their quest day jobs and now it’s up to the Rat Queens to solve the latest mystery.

The Good

Rat Queens turned out to be an enjoyable book. The characters are really interesting and you get to know a lot about them across the five issues. The first character I will discuss is Betty, she is a very heartwarming woman, she can sometimes be a little dirty. But she’s a sweet girl even though she like sweets herself, like candy. She also loves to drink and have “magic” mushrooms. She has an awkward feeling to her and I can see many LGBT people be proud of this character. I really love her attitude and she became my favorite character in this book. Next up is Dee, (Funny, there’s a character with that name in Always Sunny in Philadelphia.) her family believes in a giant flying squid (laughs) which, she finds ridiculous and makes her into an atheist. But, I wouldn’t call her a full blown atheist because she still holds onto hope of finding God and struggles with it everyday. She kind of reminds me of my younger self of finding God. Besides that, she really tries her hardest and leaps forward to heal others when they are in danger. There’s also Hannah, she seems to be the hard-ass in the group and to me she’s very funny. She’s also very aggressive and is currently dating Sawyer. Lastly, there’s Violet, another favorite of mine. She has a very sarcastic attitude, she believes having a beard doesn’t downgrade her femininity and she loves to flaunt her sexual-ness. These are the two things I love the most about her. By the way, I want to you know these women may seem like nice women, but they are very horrible people. They are very vulgar with their words and careless about things that people normally care about. Plus, they love to drink and take drugs. Honestly it’s what makes them great. It really brings the off the wall humor in this book and it’s the reason why I keep stating how much their characteristics are very similar to the characters in Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is other characters in the book, but not much is known about them and there’s still a mystery to them. So, there isn’t much to say about them. The story is very entertaining too. The main characters are well developed and it enhances the story. The humor interactions are hilariously funny and it had me laughing all the way through. The story also provides interesting clues to the mystery and some background stories to the characters. The action is pretty fun too because you can see how skilled the characters are and they also know how to do great teamwork. Each character holds their own skill or role and they rarely make other characters feel obsolete. This volume really makes the world as something you want to dive into too.

The Bad

The only bad thing I can say about this is the art. There is some great moments especially the face expressions and the beauty of these women. But often times, the art gets very sloppy and off-detailed. There’s many panels with stick figure like art. So, I’m not very much of a fan of Upchurch’s art. It makes me not care much when he gets replaced in the later volumes. But at least he can draw some nice gut gushing scenes and it adds some goring depth to action as well. The artist just doesn’t stand out as much and isn’t really memorable.

Theme

The theme of this volume, I believe is redemption. Because the town, especially the Rat Queens was always screwing things around to each other. They never had any punishment for their wrongdoings not matter how many times they were done. They would also act foolish, immature or do whatever they pleased. They had no idea the dealings they have done would have consequences. I say this because mostly in the beginning, they were doing whatever they want and soon as they saw people getting killed or hurt especially one of their own. It made them quickly realized that it was their fault and they managed to make up for it by saving the town. Each Rat Queen even decided to makeup for things they failed at like Hannah's respect for the people she cared about, Dee is hoping to believe her faith, Violet, redeeming herself by getting a beard and Betty making up with her ex-girlfriend. Many times in life people don’t realize the consequences of their actions until the people they care about gets hurt. This happens a lot of times especially, when it comes to dealing with gang wars. It’s a never-ending game with the way humans think and that’s the sad part of it.

Conclusion

I give this volume a 9 out of 10. It’s a great series that makes horrible people as very likable characters.What’s also great about these characters is that they are trying to make up for what they’ve done even though they are horrible at it. And like I said before the Rat Queens reminds very much like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and if you love that show, then you will definitely love this book. The humor is another great highlight of the story because of the vulgar language they use and even some of the situations or actions are so over the top that it may have you laugh on the floor. The only downside to this specific volume is the art. It’s very lacking in some details. But at least the artist makes up for it with some good goring scenes. Hopefully the future artists will turn out to be better for this series than Upchurch’s art style. Overall, I recommend you check this series out if you like horrible people that are very quirky and vulgar at their core and even though they come off as dislikable people, their entertainment can definitely keep you laughing.     

                              

The Wicked and The Divine Vol.1 Review - “The Wrath of the Accuser”

Introduction

I admit, I picked this book because it was the next book for Emerald City Comics’ comic book meeting. But I was really excited to read it because it was written by Kieron Gillen and also the first thing that grabbed my attention was the coloring and the amazing art. It looked very stunning and flashy. It really popped out at me and I think it has a nice choice of color that describes the feel of the book. Anyways, I think Kieron Gillen is a great writer and is definitely one of my favorites. He’s written many great titles like Journey Into the Mystery: Loki, Darth Vader, Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, Uncanny X-Men, A+X: Consequences, 1602: Witch Angela and Doctor Aphra. There’s only a few titles I didn’t very much like which were Wolverine: Origin II, Iron Man, and Young Avengers. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t like his Young Avengers because it focused way too much into the gay culture that was very stereotypical and in your face all the time. I didn’t like the millennial social media aspect with all the selfies and text messaging either. I even felt at times that the characters were very out of character in that series. But I digress, I think every writer has something I won’t like and it’s only a few titles. So, overall I think Kieron Gillen is a great writer and he’s definitely a writer you should look into because he made some really great characters that stand out just because of his writing like Loki. He really change his character for the better in my opinion and he did a great way of manipulating to care for Loki even though at the very end he tricks you into thinking he was ever a good person and I love that and another acclaimed series of his is Darth Vader. He totally understands the feel of that character and he really does separate Darth Vader from being another lackey sith of Palpatine. He shows how menacing he can be and he doesn’t always need to do his bidding to achieve his greatness. Gillen really know Darth Vader very well and he also brings his own unique taste of great characters into the book as well. But, I think The Wicked and The Divine is another great book of Gillen that definitely deserve to be in the top list. It’s a great series that defines great characters and intense plot lines that really grabs at you. It’s one of the greatest titles Gillen has ever written that you should definitely pick up.

Story

This is a story of Gods who are reincarnated every ninety years. They are widely famous, loved and hated. But, one night a goddess name Luci gets accused of killing a group of men that tried to kill her, ends up in court (don’t ask me how does that happen), then is accused of killing the judge which makes all hell breaks loose and a dearing fan is there to watch it all burn.

The Good

The Wicked and The Divine has a very well detailed story that gets to the point and it gives you a suspense as to what’s happening. There’s a great plot twist to the end of the volume you wouldn’t expect to happen and it will definitely make you want to pick up the next volume of the series. This volume also plays very much into detail in knowing each character. Right off the bat, you get to know how much Luci gets herself into trouble and it often makes herself look like an accuser. Even though she might not be the accuser, she gives off hard evidence due to her actions. She even gives a foul mouth at times. Laura is a very nice caring girl, but she often makes herself look bad because she’s getting into trouble as well and tries really hard to defend to Luci. Ananke comes off as very caring too. But when a job needs to be done, she gets it done with no hesitation. We also get to know Baal, who is full of himself and cocky most of the time. He also has a very sexy flare that everyone grabs into his attention. There’s more characters in this volume but these are the most that give off their personalities and we don’t get to know much about the others. But still, the fact we get to know at least five characters  in one volume is pretty impressive.

The art and colors are another impressive feature in this series. The colors are very flashy and gives a nice glaring look too. It really stands out the characters’ personalities as well.There’s great use of light colors like red, pink, blue, yellow and green. It gives a real feel to it and it comes alive with a very popping image. It even sets the theme of what the series or universe is about. I love the fire animation especially with the cigarettes when using the guided view in the comixology app. The art is also streamlined and very detailed in the body anatomy and face expressions. There isn’t much action but there’s enough to give you a good dose to get you excited. And there’s a nice demonstration of the characters’ powers too.

The Bad

I honestly couldn’t find anything bad in this volume. It could maybe be seeing Luci’s case as self-defense which makes claims she’s shouldn’t be sent to court. But we have no idea how the judicial system plays in this fictional world. The plot doesn’t end either which is okay for me because it’s a complex plot that can’t end on here.

Theme

The theme of this volume is being accused of something never goes well when being famous. Gillen does a good job of capturing this because Laura seems to know more than what’s being led on. But us, as the viewers and the people of this series are seeing Luci doing very convincing actions like Luci doing a certain movement and the person gets killed. It looks like we are being manipulated by the said evidence which tends to happen a lot and it tenfolds when the person is famous. The greatest example of this is the Bill Cosby case because one woman accuses Bill Cosby for sexual acts. But it gets multiplied with more women are appearing to accuse Bill Cosby for the same actions which, gets tenfold by the media. But eventually people find out that the women were manipulating actions to get money. It tends to happen when there’s a lot going on and we only go by what we are seeing.  

Conclusion

I give this volume a 10 out of 10. The characters are very well developed. You get to know much about almost each character and it doesn’t overweight the narrative either. The plot is intense and manipulating. It even revolves a mystery that does not reveal itself in this volume and we’re hoping to watch it out fold eventually. The action is also very engaging and adds more to the plot to feel very alive to us. I even fell in love with the art because it’s very well detailed and it rarely looks muddled. Plus, the colors stands out to its own flare and adds to the art beautifully. So, Gillen does a superb job to make this series fit very well neatly together. There are minor things that can be set as negatives but doesn’t because we don’t know much about the universe as of yet. This is why I decided to give it such a perfect score and you should definitely pick up this series for those of you who like a complex narrative.

     

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