No Reading, Just Reacher

 

My reading plans for this week took a bit of a hit after I (belatedly) started watching Reacher on Prime Video and was instantly hooked.

I've now binged the first three series and the available episodes of the current season, which started 10 days ago.

Jack Reacher is a former special investigator for the military police who now wanders America getting drawn into resolving sticky situations. Built like a brick outhouse, in Dungeons & Dragons terms Reacher has no dump stat.

Essentially a superhero (antihero?) without a costume or powers, Reacher is played by Alan Ritchson, who has form in that genre having portrayed Aquaman in Smallville and Hawk in Titans.

Reacher's - usually ultraviolent - extralegal solutions to problems are a cross between Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan, Robert E Howard's Conan The Barbarian, and The Punisher, aided by the investigative chops of Batman.

Occasionally cheesy, but more often darkly humorous (thanks in large part to Ritchson's deadpan performance) or simply dark (it can go places some people might be uncomfortable with), the show has turned out to be of a modern pulp masterpiece, an engrossing thriller with a highly charismatic lead and well-structured mysteries.

The creation of author Lee Child, there are over 30 novels (and counting) in the series. Given that each season of the Prime Video show is based on a single book, that's a lot of material to keep this show going.

For those, as I was, not au fait with Reacher, here's the trailer for the first season:

And, coincidentally, just as I've binged every episode of Reacher, Prime Video has dropped a trailer for a spin-off show, focussing on the amazing character, Neagly, Reacher's only real friend and former army buddy who now occasionally helps him out as a private investigator.

I can't think of a better way to expand this "universe" as Maria Sten's hypercool performance as Frances Neagley stands shoulder-to-shoulder (not literally) with Ritchson's Reacher whenever she makes a welcome appearance in the mother show.

Neagley debuts on Prime Video on September 16 on ‪Prime Video‬.

Now that I've caught up with Reacher, I can resume my reading regime. I'm still only half-way through the excellent Viking horror Draugr and I have a stack of new comics that were delivered from Paradox the other day.

Latest shipment of new comic books

Pilgrimage (2017)

Set in 13th Century Ireland, Pilgrimage sees Spider-Man (aka Tom Holland as naive young monk Brother Diarmuid) and The Punisher (aka Jon Bernthal as The Mute) team-up in a violent Medieval action-strewn road movie.

They are members of a party of monks tasked by The Pope with transporting a mysterious relic from their isolated monastery on the west coast of Ireland to Rome, as it is believed to have the power to sway the Crusades in favour of The Church.

Naturally, things don't go well.

Heavy on atmosphere, the film is a meditation on the power of faith in the face of adversity and superstition, but also a warning of the dangers of blind faith.

Told in multiple languages (ie. Irish, French, and English, with a smattering of Latin), Pilgrimage clearly demonstrates the ethnic diversity of the Middle Ages, something not always addressed in period films.

It also means plenty of subtitles, which I know puts some people off.

With Ireland torn apart by Celtic warbands battling Norman invaders, the monks are forced into an uneasy alliance with a Norman baron who offers to guard their caravan in return for absolution.

The ever-reliable Richard Armitage (of The Hobbit, Hannibal, Robin Hood et al) shows up as the baron's son, the sinister knight Raymond De Merville, who's working to his own agenda.

Although there are some brutal fight scenes and a splattering of gore, I'm not sure why Pilgrimage merits an 18 Certificate, we've all seen far worse in movies with lower certificates.

Pilgrimage feels like a small film, despite a large (all male) cast and wonderful, evocative Irish landscapes, portentous weather, and mist-shrouded scenery; it's the kind of film that actors make between Hollywood blockbusters.

Ultimately writer Jamie Hannigan and director Brendan Muldowney do a great job of focusing on the central message they were trying to impart, but at the expense of any greater depth.

Neither tragically poor or epically fantastic, Pilgrimage is a film you come away from thinking 'that was okay', and then move on to whatever's next in your queue.

Scorpions, Ninjas, and Hulks... Oh My!

It's a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him — and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him — sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control.

But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves - a powerful villain no one can even see.

The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.

"Come With Me If You Want To Laugh"

Variant cover art by Bill Galvan

He's faced The Punisher, The Predator, the Evil Dead's Army of Darkness, even a Sharknado, and now unstoppable Archie Andrews runs afoul of The Terminator... when the futuristic, killer cyborg ends up in Riverdale.

Launching in October, the five-issue miniseries, Archie vs. The Terminator, sees the trouble begin with John Connor enrolling at Riverdale High.

Tracked by the Terminator, John can rely on his mother, Sarah Connor, for assistance, but who is going to protect Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and the other residents of the Riverdale?

Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the new series is written by The Terminator: Metal's Rory McConville, with interior art by the father and daughter team-up of Steven and Lily Butler.

Published by Dynamite, in collaboration with StudioCanal and Archie Comics, the first issue comes with a variety of covers on offer, which you can see here along with character designs for the Connors and their cyborg foe.

Main cover art by Francesco Francavilla

Variant cover by Björn Barends

Variant cover by Robert Hack

Spider-Man versus The Hulk? Thank You Very Much!

The Welcome Return of Frank Castle

Frank Castle aka The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) returns for a one-hour one-shot tale, One Last Kill, tonight on Disney Plus in the States and tomorrow over here in the UK.

The tale is co-written by Bernthal with director Reinaldo Marcus Green.

Perhaps it's the bridge between his role in Daredevil and his upcoming appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day this July?

Welcome Back, Frank!

Daredevil Born Again Continues Tomorrow In The UK

The Devil Of Hell's Kitchen Is Back For Round Two

For those who missed the briefing, the second season of Disney's Daredevil: Born Again has begun airing in the UK today (last night Stateside).

You can see the release schedule for the episodes above, and once Daredevil has completed his run, we're going to be treated to a special Punisher episode: One Last Kill.

Of course, this is before The Punisher/Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) pops up in Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July.

It's A Brand New Day For Spider-Man

After the record-breaking global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks an entirely new chapter for Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

Four years have passed since the events of No Way Home, and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves.

Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he's devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced.

Friday The 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

If, with a title like Jason Takes Manhattan - and an opening sequence of gritty, violent New York streets - you were expecting a Death Wish/Punisher-style satire of '80s NYC street crime, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

To be honest, whatever you were expecting from this strange entry in the franchise, you're going to be disappointed.

To mark the senior class graduation of pupils from Crystal Lake's Lakeview High School, a party cruise down the coast to New York has been organised.

Unfortunately, before it even gets going, a freak accident resurrects Jason's corpse back to un-life, from its lake bottom resting place after the explosive finale of The New Blood.

Anyway, the MV Lazarus (see what they did there?) sets sail with an almost full complement of horny teens, a couple of teachers, minimal crew, and one superhuman zombie stowaway.

In charge of the school trip is Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman), the teacher you see if you look up the phrase "sanctimonious dick", who also happens to be the uncle of aquaphobic orphan and obvious 'final girl' candidate, Rennie Wickham (Jensen Daggett).

Rennie's plagued with nightmarish visions, like something from a J-horror, connected with her phobia and her inability to swim, having nearly drowned in Crystal Lake as a youngster.

Eventually, this is ham-fistedly tied in to Jason's early years - but I wouldn't even start trying to figure out the timeline of the Friday The 13th franchise; that way lies madness!

First order of business on the Lazarus, once it's out in the Atlantic, is for Jason to off the captain and pilot.

Luckily for the Lakeview students one of them is the captain's son, Sean Robertson (Scott Reeves), Rennie's boyfriend, who has absorbed a modicum of ship piloting by osmosis.

There promptly follows an all-too-short (because it's exciting, even though it has nothing to do with "taking Manhattan") game of cat-and-mouse as Jason stalks victims around the decks, corridors, and cabins of the ship (my pitch for a future Friday The 13th film in this vein: Jas-On A Plane).

Then, rather bizarrely, the bulk of the class is wiped out off-screen, mentioned in a casual aside with zero emotional resonance for either the survivors or the audience.

Unfortunately, it very quickly becomes clear that Jason Takes Manhattan suffers from similar narrative flaws to A New Beginning, even though it really is Jason doing the killing here.

The killer no longer appears to be following his own unspoken "rules": the victims may, originally, be from Crystal Lake, but they're not on the lake shore anymore (the turf he 'protects') nor do they have any connection to the summer camp where his journey began.

And, yes, they do finally get to New York, about an hour in to this 100-minute movie, but having arrived on dry land, the small group of survivors are promptly mugged.

Then Rennie is kidnapped, drugged, and almost raped... until an unexpected saviour comes along.

After running around the docks for more than 20 minutes, Rennie and Sean make it to the subway, with Jason in pursuit.

Interestingly, and back on brand, Jason concentrates on the Crystal Lake duo, and only kills New Yorkers who get in his way.

The zombie then promptly gets zapped by the third rail, giving his prey time to actually make it onto the streets of the city... before they dive down into the sewers to escape him.

The climax of the film becomes a race against time, as our heroes have to find a way back out of the sewers before a midnight toxic sludge purge (was this a real thing?)

Without wanting to spoil anything (in a 30-year-old movie), the toxic waters somehow melt all Jason's twisted, zombie, persona off of him and transform him back into a (dead) young child.

No, no idea!