India vs Pakistan, Court of Gold

The Greatest Rivalry: India vs Pakistan

A three-part Netflix documentary about the rivalry between the two countries’ cricket teams.  I love documentaries about sports that I don’t watch, and this is no exception.  I learned a little bit more about an area of the world that I’m not that informed about, and isn’t that the point?  And it’s always nice to see how sports can unite those with differences.

Regret watching: No. 

Would watch again: Yes

Would buy on DVD: No

Rating: Pretty good

Court of Gold

Netflix documentary about the 2024 Olympics basketball tournament, focusing on the US, Serbian, Canadian, and French teams.  Perhaps it’s because it just happened, but I didn’t learn anything new with this.  Despite the behind-the-scenes access, there was nothing special about watching the players practice.  Everything was too polished in the interviews, and the filmmakers avoided all of the conflict.  (They only tangentially acknowledged the drama around Jayson Tatum’s reduced playing time, for example.)  

TLDR: If I want to revisit this tournament, I’ll just watch this again.  (Which I have.  Many times.)

Regret watching: No. 

Would watch again: No

Would buy on DVD: No

Rating: Didn’t suck

Captain America: Brave New World

Captain America: Brave New World

Oh my god.  Let’s get started:

• This is just a sloppy movie.  Plot and logic holes abound, and there appears to have been no effort to patch them up.  Or just use patchwork exposition to help you get from point A to point G.  

• Isaiah Bradley was separated from the other four brainwashed guys because he needed to be kept alive for plot reasons.

• No way Sam Wilson, who didn’t start being Captain America until he was 42, get to be such a good hand-to-hand fighter.  And no super soldier serum-less guy can throw the shield like that.  Or hit missiles with it.  Or surf on a missile.  Or take stab wounds to the chest with no problem.  Or survive a fight against a Hulk.

• If Red Hulk is so bulletproof, how are those wing shards able to pierce his skin?  Are they made of vibranium?  

• Why is the President of the United States giving combat orders on a Navy vessel?

• “Can you help us identify these pills?”  :”Sure, I know a guy.  But he needs 24 hours.”

• So I guess if the President you’ve sworn to protect turns into a Hulk, you’re immediately allowed to try to kill him?

• Those taser sticks are completely useless if they can’t take out a regular person.

• Since when did the White House have so many buildings surrounding it?

• Danny Ramirez makes zero impact as Falcon.  I have no desire to see him again in anything, and really hope he’s not on the upcoming Avengers team.

• Shira Haas as the unnamed Sabra could have been interesting, but she was given nothing to do.  She could have been cut from the movie and not been missed.  

• Harrison Ford is obviously iconic, but he’s too old for this shit.  I kept worrying that he was going to break something.

• Liv Tyler’s cameo is such a waste of everyone’s time; it had no dramatic impact, and could have been so much more meaningful.

• Same with Samuel Sterns.  He could have been a compelling villain, but instead his plot raises more questions than anything else.

• How did he accomplish any of his plot?  How did he program the phones to flash?  How was he able to pipe that song wherever he wanted?  Why was he so pissed at Ross for not releasing him when he could walk out of his prison with such ease?  How did he sneak onto the military base to kill that soldier dude?  Why did he give himself up again?

• The humor wasn’t funny.  At all.  That riff on the Ocean’s 11 speech was cringeworthy.  (The “did the speechwriters write that for you” bit with Bucky.)  The sad excuse for banter at the end w/ new Falcon.  (And that was the best way you could come up with to end the movie?)  

• Something that always bothered me: Sam Wilson originally got the Falcon wings while he was in the military.  So why hasn’t the US government come out with an army of Falcons?  And if he’s still on active duty, how is Joaquin Torres able to go off gallivanting w/ Sam.

• What a pointless tag.  “The multiverse is coming.”

That’s all I have in me.  While not as overtly bad as Quantumania, this movie is insultingly lazy.  It doesn’t try to be fun, interesting, thought-provoking, or anything worthy of my time.  It’s a filler movie.

Regret watching: No.  (It’s a Marvel movie.  I’m still going to watch it.)
Would watch again: No

Would buy on DVD: No

Rating: Stupid

Updated MCU rankings

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. Deadpool & Wolverine

22. Iron Man 3

23. Thor 3

24. Captain Marvel

25. Thor

26. Thor 2

27. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

28. Guardians of the Galaxy

29. Guardians of the Galaxy 2

30. Guardians of the Galaxy 3

31. Hulk

32. Eternals

33. Captain America: Brave New World

34. Ant-Man/Wasp: Quantumania

The Reckoning

The Reckoning

David Halberstam writes about the US and Japanese auto industries over the course of the twentieth century.  It’s interesting from a historical standpoint, but it lacks a strong narrative.  Halberstam provides biographies for a myriad of professionals, but never really ties them together.  Stories start and finish without any real payoff.  That’s life, I suppose, but it doesn’t make for the most captivating of books.  

TLDR: Japan invested in technology and innovation, outpacing a complacent American auto industry that ignored the market and got caught looking the wrong way when the oil crisis hit.  

Regret reading: No

Would read again: No

Would buy: No

Rating: Fine

New comics

New comics!

DC vs Vampires: World War V: Darkness and Light 1

A one-shot that fleshes out vampire Wonder Woman and Green Lantern Alfred.  The highlight is how Guy Gardner keeps himself alive after being ripped in half.  It’s a level of creativity from Matthew Rosenberg that’s so fun to sink into.  

It’s Jeff: The Jeff-verse 1

More of the same from Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru.  My daughter gets a kick out of these.  

Jupiter’s Legacy: Finale 4

You’d think a five-issue miniseries that took 3 years to produce would have a consistent art team.  But Lee Carter is the third artist in four issues, and in a style totally different from Tommy Lee Edwards.  I can’t remember anything that’s gone on before, and inertia is the only thing keeping me around.  

Once again, Mark Millar has no problem with the wholesale slaughter of main characters.

Absolute Batman 5

This issue suffers so much from poor storytelling.  Nick Dragotta has been splendid on this title, but there are a number of instances here where I have no idea what’s going on, and the story is much weaker for it.  

But the scene where he skewers the dude on his back had me vocalizing in shock and delight.

Absolute Superman 4

Minimal focus on Kal-El and his parents results in a less interesting issue.  This world dominated by a heartless, cruel corporation, complete with vicious stormtroopers, is pretty cookie cutter, and I don’t need to spend too much time with it.

Batgirl 4

Still a good action comic, but I wish I cared more about the plot and Cassandra’s relationship with Lady Shiva.  It should be a no-brainer, but Tate Brombal doesn’t manage to pull it off.  

Batman: Off-World 6

Same thing with this title.  I feel like I should like this more than I do.

New comics

New comics!  With this I’ll actually be caught up for once.

Caravaggio

Milo Manara’s take on the life of the famed artist.  The art is stunning, no surprise there, and the gallery of Caravaggio’s work at the end is much appreciated.  The story is so-so, but when it looks this good…I’ll get the second one when it comes out, I think.  But if I miss it, I won’t be too bent of shape about it either.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 6

After a string of top-notch artists, Juan Ferreyra takes over as regular penciller.  I haven’t seen his work before, but I’m very impressed.  He draws kinetic, exciting action scenes, and it’s good to see Jason Aaron’s main plot start in earnest.  

One Hand 1-5/Six Fingers 1-5

These parallel miniseries were on a lot of end-of-year best-of lists, so I thought I’d check them out.  It’s about a serial killer and the cop trying to catch him, a tale as old as time.  It’s a moody, surreal mix of Blade Runner, Matrix, and Seven, and it largely succeeds.  It got a little too weird for me at the end, but I think another read would only improve the experience.  I’ll see how it goes when I revisit this, whenever that may be.

New comics

New comics!

Frankenstein 1-4

This was an iFanboy recommendation.  Michael Walsh fleshes out the Universal classic with a moody, gorgeous work that’s definitely worth the pickup.

Ultimate Spider-Man 13

Ohhh, so it was the AI that was impersonating Peter at the end of last issue.  I would never have caught that if it wasn’t in the recap page, not a good thing.  This is still so good.  

Black Canary: Best of the Best 3

More fighting.  Batman shows up in the flashbacks.  This really felt like a filler issue, never a good sign, especially in a limited series.

Fantastic Four 28

Prelude to One World Under Doom.  This is pretty filler as well, but I’m still curious to see what Ryan North does with his first (?) Marvel event book. 

Detective Comics 1093

I will always bring up Mikel Janin first on this title.  He’s so fricking good.  But Tom Taylor’s finally kicking it into gear with the plot, and there’s a devastating ending with a rare fail for the Caped Crusader.  

Wonder Woman 17

Sometimes it’s nice to see the good guys kick the crap out of the bad guys.  And the parallel storyline with Diana talking with her baby is sweet and adorable.

Absolute Wonder Woman 4

Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman have something so special on their hands here.  This is pure magic, reminding me of nothing less than Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow.  

Fortune and Glory: The Musical

I was really looking forward to this.  Couldn’t wait to see Brian Michael Bendis’ take on Broadway and his experience on the infamous Spider-Man musical.  If I’d only known that his experience amounted to little more than a meet-and-greet with Julie Taymor and two phone calls, comprising maybe five percent of the graphic novel.  The rest is a biography of Bendis’ early life and how he broke into the comic book industry.  It’s not bad, but not at all what I wanted out of this.  A major disappointment made worse by the false advertising. 

The Class, Welcome to Pawnee

My dad asked why I didn’t review the books I read on this thing, and I had no good answer.  So here we go!

The Class

My reading time is generally limited to whenever I’m eating by myself - lunchtimes, midnight snacks, and the like.  If I have something new to read, that’s when I do it.  If I’m between books, I turn to the volumes that have been on my bookshelf for years.  These are the books that have survived the cullings necessitated by the birth of my daughter and the need to make room for changing stations and art tables.  A lot of Tom Clancy, Star Wars novels, and war histories.  

There’s also Erich Segal’s Doctors, a mainstay since high school.  Super re-readable, and the last time I went through it, I thought I’d check out something else that he’s written.  (I’ve already read Love Story, which made me cry back in college.  Haven’t seen the movie.)  The Class is basically Doctors but with Harvard students, which sounded perfect.

It follows all the same beats as Doctors, but with no females in the main ensemble of characters.  (I think because Harvard didn’t have any female students in 1958.)  It’s engaging enough, and Segal does a nifty trick in making most of the chapters super short.  (Like three or four pages.)  So I was compelled to read “just one more chapter” over and over.  It’s like a gatcha game.  

I was nonplussed by every character’s inability to stay faithful to their wives.  It made it really hard to feel sympathy for any of them, despite the struggles that they each had to go through.  And the book somewhat arbitrarily ends with their 25-year reunion with a bit of a whimper.  

Not as good as Doctors, but not a waste of my time, either.  

Regret reading: No

Would read again: Yes

Would buy: No

Rating: Nice  

Welcome to Pawnee

Jim O’Heir, Jerry on Parks and Recreation, writes about his experience on the show.  Parks is one of my favorite tv shows ever, so this was an easy pickup from the library shelf.  (Shout out to libraries, it’s how I read most of my books.)

This is pretty run of the mill.  It doesn’t really add to my appreciation for the show; O’Heir loved his time there, everyone was a great big happy family, yadda yadda.  Which is great to hear, but I didn’t need to read a whole book to learn that.  

Regret reading: No

Would read again: No

Would buy: No

Rating: Fine