Avengers: The Initiative, The Force Awakens

Avengers: The Initiative 26-30

Skipping another trade’s worth of issues, the title’s now embroiled in the Dark Reign era.  Norman Osborne’s taken over everything, and Taskmaster and the Hood are in charge of the Initiative.  

It all sucks.  Why did I ever want to own this?  (It’s another used bookstore bargain.)  I’d say that it’s no fun reading about villains, but any number of titles disprove that theory, including Ellis’ Thunderbolts and Morrison’s Earth-2.  I fell asleep reading this, and couldn’t wait for the reading to be done.  

Everything just feels so generic.  The villains are boring in their villainy, and the heroes are boring in their struggle to fight back.  This was the only entertaining part of the whole ordeal:

Regret buying? Yes

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Stupid

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

So let’s talk about this instead.  I’m watching it right now as I continue to want to watch The Last Jedi again.  

As I said when I reviewed Episode VIII, this movie isn’t very rewatchable.  There aren’t many scenes that pass that test.  Really, the only one is the lightsaber fight at the end of the film.  And let’s be honest, it’s specifically the moment where the lightsaber flies into Rey’s hand.  Which I can get any time on Youtube.  

Chills, shivers, and everything else that is good in life.

That said, it’s not like there’s nothing else that was good about it.

Things I liked:

• BB-8 - Amazing design and execution, and even better comic relief than Artoo/Threepio.
• Rey - Loved her from the start.  “Mary Sue” my ass, go ahead and have her do all the things for all I care.
• Kylo Ren - Such a bad boy wannabe who will never be able to fill anyone’s shoes.  Adam Driver kills it.
• Chewie humor.  He does so much with body language, it’s great.

Things I didn’t like:

• Finn - His false bravado rubs me the wrong way.
• Phasma - Under-utilized.
• Starkiller Base makes no sense on so many levels.
• It’s a slow movie.  Jakku drags as much as Tatooine did in Episode IV.  The Rathtar scene was unnecessary, and a waste of the two guys from The Raid.

The movie really gets by on the strength of its characters, far more than the story.  It’s similar in that way to The Last Jedi, but it also lacks the stunning action sequences.  Still, it’s Star Wars.  Seeing Han and Leia again, accompanied by the classic John Williams music, sets my heart aflutter.  That counts for a lot.

Regret watching?  No

Would buy on DVD? Yes

Would watch again?  Yes

Rating: Fine