New comics

Way behind on new comics!

Rare Flavours 3

Still no idea where this is going, but Ram V and Filipe Andrade continue to create beautiful mood poems, odes to delicious, meticulously cooked food.  All wrapped in a story about a cannibal demon.  Not sure how it all fits together, but I love the feelings it evokes.  

Animal Pound 1

The first half of this is what was printed in issue 0, which really ticks me off.  But I’m okay w/ giving Tom King a little more money if it keeps him in business.  In this retelling of Animal Farm, the cats and dogs take over the pound.  It looks like the cats are going to take the place of the pigs this time around, but who knows w/ King.  

Wonder Woman 4

A wonderful examination of Diana’s priorities and ability to compartmentalize as America continues its inexplicable anti-Amazon crusade.

Justice League v Godzilla v Kong 3

Not as fun as the previous two issues, not sure if this is worth continuing.  

Nightwing 109

Dick’s time as a pirate ends when he finally finds video proof that Tony Zucco was responsible for his parents’ deaths.  It doesn’t really feel like a game changer, I’d always assumed it was true.

Batman: Offworld 2

Punch Bot’s final moments are way too precious.  Not as balls-to-the-wall crazy as the first issue, but I’m still along for the ride right now.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees 2

The tension ratchets up as the townfolk start freaking out and another one of them is killed.

MCU Good Parts Analysis

That’s it, I’ve gone through all the MCU films!  (Marvels isn’t out on DVD yet.)  Let’s see what interesting (to me) things I’ve learned.

First off, how did the rankings change from when I started?

Avengers: Endgame	0
Captain America: Civil War	0
Captain America: Winter Soldier	0
Spider-Man: No Way Home	0
Avengers: Infinity War	0
Shang-Chi	0	Surprised/not surprised that this stayed so high.
Avengers: Age of Ultron	3	This leapfrogged the first Avengers! It’s got better action overall, and the party scene can’t be beat.
Ant-Man/Wasp	0
Avengers	-2
Spider-Man: Homecoming	4	Even though all the Spider-Man movies aren’t as rewatchable, they’re just so well done.  All the high school stuff is top notch.
Captain America	1
Dr Strange 2	-3	Less an indictment of this movie and more of the other movies being better on re-evaluation
Thor: Love and Thunder	0	Natalie Portman as the Mighty Thor keeps this where it is.  It’s otherwise really not that strong.
Spider-Man: Far From Home	10	As much as I hate the Mysterio side of things, MJ/Peter and the rest of the supporting cast are just too good.
Iron Man 2	0
Black Widow	7	Natasha’s ersatz family is even better than I remember, with better action than most.
Black Panther	-6	A better movie to talk about than to watch, especially the second half.
Iron Man	-2
Ant-Man	-1
Dr Strange	2
Iron Man 3	-2
Marvels	-2
Thor 3	-7	A far emptier movie than I remember after I got past the Waititi humor.  (Which hasn’t aged that well for me.)
Captain Marvel	-3	Not much to this movie beyond the awesomeness of Brie Larson’s casting.
Thor	4	While not good by any stretch, I now officially like the Thor movies more than the Guardians ones.
Thor 2	4
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever	-2	A real mish-mash of a film, with an interminable, unwatchable middle section.
Guardians of the Galaxy	-1
Guardians of the Galaxy 2	-1
Guardians of the Galaxy 3	-4	Rocket’s origin is way too depressing for me to enjoy, and the High Evolutionary’s ranting doesn’t make for an interesting villain.
Hulk	1
Eternals	-1
Ant-Man/Wasp: Quantumania	0	STILL SO BAD.

What do the stats say?

• % of movie remaining w/out cut scenes

• All of three of the movies are at least 60% watchable.  Then you have the worst three movies: Eternals (35%), Hulk (33%), Ant-Man: Quantumania (11%).

• Other than them, quality isn’t too correlated w/ cut scenes; Guardians 2 (29th) managed to retain 94% of its scenes, while 11th ranked Captain America only kept 73%.  

• % of movie remaining w/out cut and iffy scenes

• Things make more sense after cutting out the iffy scenes as well.

• The top 10 movies come in the top 16 in this category, with number 6 Shang-Chi lowest (69% watchable).

• Apparently nine movies aren’t even 50% watchable.  (All appropriately ranked 21 or lower.)

• % Hero scenes kept

• If a scene had Tom Holland in it, it didn’t get cut.  Amazingly, every Spider-Man movie kept every main hero scene.  They account for half of the 100% Hero Scenes.  (Winter Soldier, Dr Strange 2, and Ant-Man/Wasp are the other ones.)

• On the flip side, the Guardians, Eternals, and Hulk all come in between 20 and 40% retained.  (Nice call by Marvel to replace Ed Norton.)

• % Villain scenes kept

• 100%-ers: Bucky/Robert Redford from Winter Soldier, Vulture (Micheal Keaton is so menacing!), Wanda in Multiverse, everyone from Spidey 3, and the bad guy from Black Widow (did not expect him to show up at all).  

• As much as I hate him, Mysterio comes in at 92%!

• At the bottom (40% or lower), we have the Deviants from Eternals, Malekith, Abomination, Stane, Killian, everyone in the Guardians movies, Namor, Red Skull, Hela, Grandmaster, and Kang (at 0%, because Jonathan Majors is the worst).

• Of those on the bottom, only Captain America and Iron Man rank above 20.

• % Action scenes kept

• Surprises among the 100%s: All five Dr Strange and Spider-Man movies are here.

• Scenes that I love (total time)

• Endgame comes in number one at an hour and eighteen minutes, by far the most.  (It’s equal to the Love time of the bottom twenty-one movies).  

• The three Spidey movies are at 2-3-4.  So good.  

• What’s surprising is that only nine films have more than 15 minutes of Love scenes.  

There’s more to look at here, but I’m done writing about it.  I’m most certainly not going to go and do the actual movie editing.  Not worth my time.  But this was a super fun thing to do.

MCU Good Parts

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Current rank: 25 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: The grief of dealing w/ T’Challa’s (and really, Chadwick Boseman’s) death.

• Expectations: This movie largely doesn’t work for me because Namor and the Atlanteans fail to resonate with me on pretty much any level.  And while Riri is very well cast, she doesn’t fit in this movie.  And Okoye is too badass to require armor assistance.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 57:00

• Length of cut scenes: 46:37

• Length of iffy scenes: 43:07

• Length of total movie: 2:41:09 

• % with cut scenes: 71%

• % with iffy scenes: 44%

• Hero scenes kept: 61%

• Villain scenes kept: 13%

• Action scenes kept: 29%

• Time of scenes I love: 6:34

After rewatch: There’s a legit 40 minute gap in the middle, basically Shuri’s captivity in Atlantis, that’s completely skippable.  Everything around it is pretty questionable as well.  My estimation of this movie has not changed; Namor is as unfun to watch as I remember.

Ant-Man: Quantumania

Current rank: 33 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: I love nothing about this movie.  It’s the worst.

• Expectations: It will stay the worst.

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 25:00

• Length of cut scenes: 1:50:09

• Length of iffy scenes: 2:41

• Length of total movie: 2:04:17

• % with cut scenes: 11%

• % with iffy scenes: 9%

• Hero scenes kept: 32%

• Villain scenes kept: 0%

• Action scenes kept: 0%

• Time of scenes I love: 0:00 

After rewatch: Hahahahahhaa! 9% of this thing is watchable…

Guardians 3

Current rank: 26 of 33

Before rewatch:

• Scenes I love: Nothing comes to mind.  The one-take hallway fight scene isn’t bad…

• Expectations: Meh.  While the animal experimentation message is a commendable one, it doesn’t make for an enjoyable watching experience.  Each viewing of a Guardians movie does nothing to make the characters more likable for me. 

Rewatch stats:

• Time to process: 1:30:00

• Length of cut scenes: 53:02

• Length of iffy scenes: 54:42

• Length of total movie: 2:29:45

• % with cut scenes: 65%

• % with iffy scenes: 28%

• Hero scenes kept: 37%

• Villain scenes kept: 23%

• Action scenes kept: 23%

• Time of scenes I love: 3:01

After rewatch: As I went through this movie, I just...didn’t care at all about what was going on.  There are definitely some sweet character moments between these people.  (I finally care about this gang of misfits, for the most part.)  But the plot, the flashbacks, the High Evolutionary, the action…nope.  

1. Avengers: Endgame

2. Captain America: Civil War

3. Captain America: Winter Soldier

4. Spider-Man: No Way Home

5. Avengers: Infinity War

6. Shang-Chi

7. Avengers: Age of Ultron

8. Ant-Man/Wasp

9. Avengers

10. Spider-Man: Homecoming

11. Captain America

12. Dr Strange 2

13. Thor: Love and Thunder

14. Spider-Man: Far From Home

15. Iron Man 2

16. Black Widow

17. Black Panther

18. Iron Man

19. Ant-Man

20. Dr Strange

21. Iron Man 3

22. Thor 3

23. Captain Marvel

24. Thor

25. Thor 2

26. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

27. Guardians of the Galaxy

28. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

29. Guardians of the Galaxy 3

30. Hulk

31. Eternals

32. Ant-Man/Wasp: Quantumania