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Monday, April 4, 2022
IDW Publishing from Diamond Distributors for April 6, 2022
Image Comics from Diamond Distributors for April 6, 2022
Marvel Comics from Diamond Distributors for April 6, 2022
Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for April 6, 2022
DC Comics from Lunar Distributors for April 5, 2022
DC COMICS:
Annotated Sandman Volume 1 HC (2022 Edition), $49.99
Batman #122 (Cover A Howard Porter)(Shadow War), $4.99
Batman #122 (Cover B Gabriele Dell Otto Card Stock Variant)(Shadow War), $5.99
Batman #122 (Cover C Roger Cruz & Victor Olazaba Connecting Card Stock Variant)(Shadow War), AR
Batman #122 (Cover D Jock Card Stock Variant)(Shadow War), AR
Batman Beyond Neo-Year #1 (Of 6)(Cover A Max Dunbar), $3.99
Batman Beyond Neo-Year #1 (Of 6)(Cover B Christian Ward Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Batman Beyond Neo-Year #1 (Of 6)(Cover C Simone Di Meo Card Stock Variant), AR
Batman Beyond Neo-Year #1 (Of 6)(Cover D Jim Cheung Card Stock Variant), AR
Batman Killing Time #2 (Of 6)(Cover A David Marquez), $4.99
Batman Killing Time #2 (Of 6)(Cover B Kael Ngu Card Stock Variant), $5.99
Batman Killing Time #2 (Of 6)(Cover C Ben Oliver Card Stock Variant), AR
Dark Nights Death Metal #1 (Of 7)(Soundtrack Special Edition Rise Against With Flexi Single Broken Dreams Inc.)(2nd Printing), $24.99
Dark Nights Death Metal #2 (Of 7)(Soundtrack Special Edition Grey Daze With Flexi Single Featuring Anything Anything)(2nd Printing), $24.99
Dark Nights Death Metal #3 (Of 7)(Soundtrack Special Edition Denzel Curry With Flexi Single Featuring Bad Luck)(2nd Printing), $24.99
Dark Nights Death Metal #4 (Of 7)(Soundtrack Special Edition Manchester Orchestra With Flexi Single Featuring Never Ending), $24.99
Death The Deluxe Edition HC (2022 Edition), $29.99
Earth-Prime #1 (Of 6) Batwoman (Cover A Kim Jacinto), $5.99
Earth-Prime #1 (Of 6) Batwoman (Cover B Photo Card Stock Variant), $6.99
Flashpoint Batman Knight Of Vengeance #1 (Cover A Dave Johnson), $6.99
Mister Miracle The Source Of Freedom HC, $24.99
Monkey Prince #3 (Of 12)(Cover A Bernard Chang), $3.99
Monkey Prince #3 (Of 12)(Cover B InHyuk Lee Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Monkey Prince #3 (Of 12)(Cover C Kim Jacinto Card Stock Variant), AR
One-Star Squadron #5 (Of 6)(Cover A Steve Lieber), $3.99
Robin Volume 1 The Lazarus Tournament TP, $19.99
Shazam To Hell And Back TP, $14.99
Suicide Squad #14 (Cover A Eduardo Pansica/Julio Ferreira/Dexter Soy), $3.99
Suicide Squad #14 (Cover B Dexter Soy Card Stock Variant), $4.99
Suicide Squad Bad Blood TP, $19.99
Wonder Woman Historia The Amazons #2 (Of 3)(Cover A Gene Ha), $7.99
Wonder Woman Historia The Amazons #2 (Of 3)(Cover B Becky Cloonan), $7.99
Wonder Woman Historia The Amazons #2 (Of 3)(Cover C Library Faux Leather Design Variant), AR
World Of Krypton #5 (Of 6)(Cover A Mico Suayan), $3.99
World Of Krypton #5 (Of 6)(Cover B Marguerite Sauvage Card Stock Variant), $4.99
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Friday, April 1, 2022
#IReadsYou Movie Review: MORBIUS
Morbius (2022)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language
DIRECTOR: Daniel Espinosa
WRITERS: Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless; from a story by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless (based on the Marvel Comics)
PRODUCERS: Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Lucas Foster
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Oliver Wood
EDITOR: Pietro Scalia
COMPOSER: Joe Ekstrand
SUPERHERO/FANTASY/HORROR/ACTION
Starring: Jared Leto, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Matt Smith, Al Madrigal, Charlie Shotwell, Joseph Esson, and Tyrese Harris and Michael Keaton
Morbius is a 2022 superhero fantasy-horror and action film directed by Daniel Espinosa. The movie is based on the Marvel Comics character, “Morbius, the Living Vampire”/Dr. Michael Morbius, which was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #101 (cover dated: October 1971). This is also the third film in “Sony's Spider-Man Universe” (SSU) series. Morbius the film focuses on a scientist who tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease but instead turns himself into a new kind of vampire.
Morbius introduces Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto). He is a genius, a scientist, and has a talent for fabricating technology. He is also suffering from a rare blood disease and has spent his adult life looking for a cure to that disease which often kills those afflicted with it at a young age. Michael is 35-years-old, and he recently refused a Nobel Prize.
Michael is currently engaged in illegal experiments involving vampire bats that he stole from a cave in Costa Rica. Although she is critical of him for these experiments, Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Michael's fellow scientist and girlfriend, works with him. Once he believes that he has finally created the cure for his rare blood disease, Michael injects himself with the formula. Michael's body is transformed into that of an Olympic-level athlete, but the cure also turns him into a vampire – one with a powerful blood lust. Now, the bodies of people with the blood drained from their bodies are being found all over the city. Is Morbius the killer … or is Morbius responsible?
Morbius is about Morbius. The only other character that this film allows any traction is Martine Bancroft. It isn't that the screenplay is shallow; I find that it attempts a serious contemplation of both Dr. Michael Morbius' character and Morbius the vampire's dilemma. I wish the film's story had taken more time with the two FBI agents hunting Morbius, comic relief Alberto “Al” Rodriguez (Al Madrigal) and the really serious Black man, Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson).
Morbius may be Jared Leto's best performance in a film in years. I prefer Leto's Dr. Michael Morbius to “Rayon,” the drug addicted, HIV-positive trans woman he played in the 2013 film, Dallas Buyers Club. Leto won a “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for playing Rayon, a character I found shallow. In Morbius, Leto's good looks, his vanity, his obvious acting talent, and his imaginative approach to fashioning characters and performances serve both him and film, quite well. I found both Dr. Michael Morbius and Morbius the vampire to be endlessly fascinating characters and not at all shallow.
It feels weird for me to recommend this film for Jared Leto's performance, but I am. Morbius is officially part of a superhero film universe. Adrian Toomes/Vulture (Michael Keaton) from the 2017 film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, even makes an appearance in Morbius in order to solidify some connections between Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). That connection thrills the fanboy in me. I like Morbius, and I am giving it a higher grade than I probably would. And that is because of Jared Leto's outstanding work in Morbius
B
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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#IReadsYou Review: "ELVIRA: The Wrath of Con"
ELVIRA: THE WRATH OF CON
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT
[There is a new Elvira comic book, Death of Elvira, at Indiegogo.]
STORY: Elvira & David Avallone
SCRIPT: David Avallone
PENCILS: Dave Acosta
INKS: Dave Acosta and Jason Moore (pp. 12-40)
COLORS: Walter Pereyra
LETTERS: Taylor Esposito
EDITOR: Joseph Rybandt
COVER: Dave Acosta and Jason Moore with Ryan Lee
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Dave Acosta and Jason Moore; Dave Acosta and Jason Moore with Ryan Lee; Elvira photo cover
56pp., Color, (2021)
Rated Teen+
“The Wrath of Con”
In the early 1980s, actress and model Cassandra Peterson created the “horror hostess character,” known as “Elvira.” Elvira gradually grew in popularity and eventually became a brand name. As Elvira, Peterson endorsed many products and became a pitch-woman, appearing in numerous television commercials throughout the 1980s.
Elvira also appeared in comic books, beginning in 1986 with the short-lived series from DC Comics, Elvira's House of Mystery, which ran for eleven issues and one special issue (1987). Eclipse Comics and Claypool Comics began the long-running Elvira: Mistress of the Dark from 1993 to 2007. In 2018, Elvira returned to comic books via Dynamite Entertainment in the four-issue comic book miniseries, Elvira Mistress of the Dark, that actually ran for 12 issues.
Since 2021, Dynamite Entertainment has been running crowdfunding campaigns that go towards producing and publishing special issues of its Elvira comic book series. Elvira: The Wrath of Con is the second crowdfunded Elvira comic book (after Elvira: The Omega Ma'am) and was successfully funded via a “Kickstarter” campaign. It is written by Elvira (story) and David Avallone (story-script); drawn by Dave Acosta (pencil and inks) and Jason Moore (inks); colored by Walter Pereyra; and lettered by Taylor Esposito. The Wrath of Con finds Elvira the honored guest at a major pop culture convention, but not everyone attending is happy to see her.
As Elvira: The Wrath of Con opens, the busty title heroine is watching footage from her latest film, "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark: The Omega Ma'am." Directed by Hanover Utz, the film is an exaggerated and inaccurate retelling of Elvira's struggle against a cult leader, Rick Circe, and his orange zombies (as seen in The Omega Ma'am). Known as the “Sudsies,” these zombies were people transformed when they ingested the cleaning product, “Doctor Sudsy.”
Although Elvira and her script doctor, Eddie Mezzogiorno, object to Utz's cut of the film, the director is sticking to his vision. In fact, he has produced a teaser trailer for the film, and he wants Elvira to screen the trailer at the “San Diego Pop Culturama.” Elvira is the “Guest of Honor” at the convention, where she will be feted during the “Queen of the Cure” event, which will celebrate her curing the “Sudsies” zombie affliction.
Not everyone is in the celebratory mood, and despite foreshadowing and a warning in the form of an homage to the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Will Elvira avoid doom, and will she find the super … hero (“The Soul Survivor”) that she needs?
THE LOWDOWN: Writer David Avallone and artist Dave Acosta were the original creative dream team of Dynamite's Elvira comic book launch. The crowdfunded Elvira comic books are a chance for readers to have them together again.
Honestly, Avallone's Elvira scripts would still be comedy gold no matter who drew them. By “who,” I mean a professional comic book, comics, or graphic novel artist, of course. The plots don't matter, although Avallone fashions intriguing plots. These plots allow him to skewer American culture and pop culture. He is one of the few modern comic book writers that would be worthy of finding a place on the original staff of EC Comics' Mad comic book.
Here, Avallone attacks anti-vaxx, anti-intellectual, Tea Party, conspiracy-obsessed reactionaries with the same razor-sharp humor and disdain Mel Brooks used on Hollywood Western films, corrupt politicians, and racists in his 1974 film, Blazing Saddles. However, Avallone never forgets to deliver Elvira's trademark charming wit and delightfully droll humor in servings that are as bountiful as the Mistress of the Dark's breasts.
Dave Acosta is the kind of comic book artist who seems to get everything right. He is a master at cartooning the human face in an impressive array of emotions and expressions. The most amazing thing about Acosta's work on this series is that every single time he draws Elvira, both her charm and sexiness comes through. Jokes about her cleavage aside, Acosta conveys Elvira physical attractiveness in her poses and in the way he … exposes her lovely legs when depicting that treasured split in her flowing black dress.
And, dear readers, in order to enjoy such a special, special edition of the Elvira comic book series, you have to support a crowdfunding campaign. Only the good people who fund it get to enjoy the goodness that is Elvira: The Wrath of Con. If you missed out, there is a new campaign.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Elvira and of David Avallone's Elvira comic books will want to read Elvira: The Wrath of Con.
[This comic book includes a seven-page “Thank You” section that thanks campaign contributors (of which I am one).]
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
There is a new crowdfunding campaign for a new Elvira comic book, Death of Elvira. You can visit the campaign here or at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/death-of-elvira-comic-book-does-the-unthinkable#/.
https://twitter.com/DAvallone
https://twitter.com/DynamiteComics
https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/
https://www.facebook.com/DynamiteComics/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNOH4PEsl8dyZ2Tj7XUlY7w
https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamite-entertainment
The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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