Titanic Return For The King of Atlantis

Although he has already appeared alongside Conan in the Cimmerian's own title, Robert E Howard's Kull is getting his own four-issue miniseries early next year from Titan Comics.

Howardverse I.P. holders Heroic Signatures has revealed that Mark Buckingham - of Fables, The Sandman, Miracleman, Batman; Shadow of The Bat etc fame - will be the illustrator of this series, with colours from Dave Stewart.

The comic will be written by The Mask and B.P.R.D. scribe John Arcudi.

You Wait All Day For An Omnibus, Then Three Come Along

As we were talking about Afterlife With Archie the other day, it's worth pointing out that just in time for Halloween this year Oni Press - in collaboration with Archie Comics - is releasing a deluxe hardcover collection of all ten issues of the comic.

R.I.P. Riverdale! Once in a generation, a story so potent, so powerful, so horrifying rises from the grave to redefine the comics medium’s greatest icons.

Enter: The first-ever deluxe collection of Afterlife with Archie — collecting the totality of the groundbreaking, cemetery-shaking comics masterpiece from Harvey Award–winning writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Stephen King's The Stand: American Nightmare) and Eisner Award–winning artist Francesco Francavilla (Batman: The Black Mirror) that first introduced Riverdale’s teenage icons into a merciless world of ritual magic, undead terror, and survival at any cost!

When a tragic death befalls Jughead Jones’s closest companion, his grief drives him to the doorstep of Sabrina the Teenage Witch... and into the thrall of a dark magic that will soon turn the whole of Riverdale into a ravenous pack of undead zombies fueled by a desire for human flesh.

Hunted by the reanimated corpses of their friends and loved ones, can Archie, Betty, Veronica, and the rest of America's most beloved teenagers battle back by a legion of the dead... and live long enough to stop the entire world from being consumed by the same unholy hunger?

Pal vs. pal. Classmate vs. classmate. Living vs. dead. They swore to be friends until the end... but they never expected the end to look quite like this.

This definitive hardcover collection of the riveting and relentless milestone that the New York Times calls “gruesome [and] masterly” re-presents the entirety of the Afterlife with Archie saga — including the never-before-collected issues #6–10 — in an oversized format that also features a complete cover gallery and behind-the-scenes materials on the development of Archie Comics’ first all-out horror epic.

The Afterlife With Archie Deluxe Edition is scheduled to rise from the grave on October 27.

But that's not all, young adventurers, we also have a two volume collection of Marvel's original run of high-octane, pulp yarns involving the world's most famous archaeologist: Indiana Jones.

Both hardcover volumes are due to be dug up on September 29.

With Raiders being my all-time favourite movie and my enduring crush on Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) also being no secret, you know this pair of eldritch tomes will be finding a way onto my shelves.

Each volume holds over 500 pages of Indy goodness from the '80s, featuring the work of such legends as John Byrne, Walt Simonson, Dennis O'Neill, Christopher Priest, David Michelinie and more.

At the height of the popularity of Indiana Jones in the 1980s, Marvel Comics - and some of the biggest creators of the era - took on the challenge of bringing the iconic hero from the silver screen to the printed page, and the results were every bit as exhilarating as you’d expect!

Now these action-packed adventures are being collected in a pair of volumes destined to be treasures worthy of Indy himself!

Volume one includes adaptations of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, plus the first half of the Further Adventures of Indiana Jones series that expanded the character’s mythos in blockbuster fashion!

Volume one collects: Marvel Super Special (1977) #18, #30; Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (1983) #1-16

With clouds of war gathering ominously over Europe and a Great Depression gripping the world, one globe-trotting professor’s appetite for adventure and discovery remains unsated! Join Dr. Henry Jones as he scours the farthest corners of the planet in a constant race to keep priceless artifacts out of the wrong hands!

This volume collects the second half of the action-packed Further Adventures of Indiana Jones series alongside the official adaptation of beloved film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - featuring work by some of the biggest talents of the 1980s.

Volume two collects: Further Adventures of Indiana Jones (1983) #17-34, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) #1-4

Jonah Hex's Return Ensures The West Remains Weird

We haven't seen a decent appearance by DC Comics' Western antihero Jonah Hex for a good, long while, but the scarred bounty hunter returns this October in a new six-part miniseries, Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death.

Written and illustrated by Michael Walsh - known for The Silver Coin, Universal Monsters: Frankenstein, and Exquisite Corpses - this latest slice of Weird West horror for Hex begins with our protagonist seemingly retired and living in the small town of Ashecott.

Of course, it's not long before an ancient evil rises and Hex is forced to put his guns back on. Could this be his chance for redemption?

This title is one of the latest additions to DC's Next Level publishing initiative, which begins in September, bringing more classic characters and teams back into their current continuity:

Below are a couple of dialogue-free sample pages from Jonah Hex and the Shadow of Death:

The Caped Crusader Returns To The Streets of Gotham

One of my favourite new superhero cartoons of recent years, resplendent with its vintage, noir-meets-pulp vibes, Batman: Caped Crusader returns next month for a second season with a host of new villains for our hero to bring to justice.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Patience Is A Virtue

My Brilliant eBay Purchases!

It will come as no shock to many - especially my dear wife - when I say I am not a patient person.

I'm generally not good at waiting and want everything NOW!

But there are times - rare times, I'll admit - when I can be quite zen and chilled.

One such occasion, that paid off splendidly a couple of years ago, was my eBay search for issues of the top gaming magazine Different Worlds.

Waaaaaaaay back in the day, I had a near complete run of the whole magazine (thanks, in part, to my trip to Canada with Nick in the late '80s, where I came home with a suitcase stuffed full of back issues I'd found in a gaming store for around a $1 a pop).

Then, during my many moves and downsizing of collections, I foolishly sold off a large selection, keeping only, maybe, a dozen of my favourite issues.

Of course, I regretted it almost immediately, and over the last couple of decades I have been slowly piecing the collection back together, one issue at a time, courtesy of eBay.

Only these days there are fewer and fewer issues cropping up on the secondary market and this paucity is generally driving prices  up. 

I've pretty much got all the issues I wanted back now, but one has eluded me for decades... and it's the "special superhero issue", featuring a slick Bill Willingham illustration of The X-Men on the cover.

The issue has articles for Villains & Vigilantes, Superhero 2044 (no, really), Supergame, Champions, and Superworld; several - sadly not the V&V segment - featuring adaptations of well-known comic book characters (from Batman and Wonder Woman to The X-Men).

There was a single copy that cycled through the eBay system multiple times in that year or so, without selling, because the trader was asking over £50 (on a 'buy it now') for it.

And there was no way I would ever spend that much on a single issue of a magazine... unless I suddenly won the lottery.

Well, I didn't win the lottery (don't get excited), but the next best thing happened in late 2023: another copy of Different Worlds #23 (The Superhero Special) came up for sale on the site.

As an auction, with a starting price of £1.

I immediately made my bid, well above the starting price, but nowhere near the sum being asked by the other trader... and kept my fingers crossed.

And waited... and waited for the inevitable last minute sniper...

And no one else bid on it!

I got it for a quid!

From the same seller I also bid on an old copy of Autoduel Champions. Not a game I ever pictured us playing, but I wanted it for the pure nostalgia factor.

Back in the '80s (again), Steve - a big fan of Champions, even though V&V was our main superhero system - had the game and we played out several memorably violent scenarios before moving onto the next shiny thing.

The auction copy came with a pouch of counters stapled inside its front cover, which was a nice touch.  

Unlike the Different Worlds auction, I wasn't expecting anyone else to bid on this, as it's a fairly obscure game, but someone did - driving the price up to £2.20!

Both auctions finished at the same time, and the seller gave me a great deal on combined shipping, so my patience had been rewarded.

I have kept my eBay search for copies of Different Worlds active, but I can't think of any missing issues now that I have such a craving for as I did "the superhero special".

Exploring The Afterlife in Dungeons & Dragons

Image by Nanne Tiggelman from Pixabay

Complementing my thoughts on resurrection in a fantasy setting from back in January, the excellent YouTuber DnDHunter has just released an inciteful 15-minute video on what happens to characters that die in the 'official' Dungeons & Dragons mythologies.

When The Raven Flies aka Revenge of the Barbarians aka Hrafninn Flýgur (1984)

Having survived a Viking raid when his parents were killed and young sister kidnapped, Irish youth Gest (Jakob Þór Einarsson) spends 20 years planning his revenge.

Arriving in Iceland, it isn't long before he's Yojimbo-ing things up between his two targets, the blood-brothers Erik (Flosi Ólafsson) and Thord (Helgi Skúlason).

These Vikings had fled to Iceland with their men, to escape the wrath of King Harald of Norway after a failed coup attempt, so they're not exactly trusting to start with.

Gest very quickly starts playing them off against each other, and when one is killed you expect the film to be heading into its final act.

However, things get complicated when Gest discovers not only has one of the men married his sister (Edda Björgvinsdóttir), but also fathered a child, Einar (Gottskálk D. Sigurdarson) with her.

An almost legendary film that's hard to track down these days, When The Raven Flies goes by several names (the "When" seems to be optional in the main title, for instance), including Revenge of The Barbarians in the States and Hrafninn Flýgur in its original Icelandic.

Touted as the "most authentic Viking film ever", this Icelandic-Swedish co-production from 1984 certainly benefits from its shooting locations in Iceland, complete with black beaches and craggy hills; and unremitting weather, alternating between torrential rain and gale-force winds; as well as a cast speaking Icelandic.

But When The Raven Flies also owes a debt to the sword-and-sorcery genre so prevalent in cinema at that time, not that there's any magic or monsters in this one, but it has that gritty, Earthy, small-cast feel of so many similar cinematic stories featuring people swinging swords and axes.

While the overarching plot may not be that original - we've seen it played out with samurai, Wild West gunslingers, fantasy warriors, and gangsters - the Viking period, with its set attitudes to honour and ritual, gives it a fresh feeling.

The verisimilitude is heightened through the use of unusually-fashioned weaponry, which I'm presuming are the 'real deal' compared to flashier Hollywood armaments.

I also loved the fact that everyone rode the small but powerful horses native to Iceland, just adding another layer of authenticity to the drama.

The film is, naturally, violent throughout, but the bright red 'blood' - and avoidance of too much dwelling on injuries - lowers the gore factor down to almost Saturday evening family viewing.

Easy to root for, Gest is a pretty cool hero, armed with his spear-concealing shepherd's crook and an array of deadly throwing blades.

While he's barely set foot in Iceland before he's killing off bad guys, it's all part of a methodical, long game.

And I couldn't stop myself from making Batman comparisons (inspired by the murder of his parents before his eyes), even though it's never expressly stated how long Gest spent on his training and how long on actually setting his Machiavellian scheme in motion (we discover that it began quite some time before he arrives in Iceland).

Possibly because it's subtitled, I must confess at times I felt this 105-minute tale dragged a bit in the middle (there is an English-language cut of the film on the DVD, but that was about quarter of an hour shorter and I wanted the full experience).

However, the pay-off at the end is worth the time invested, especially as it sets up the potential for another cycle of violence... as happens with blood feuds.

When The Raven Flies turns out to be the first part of a Viking Trilogy, but, except for brief trailers on the disc, I know nothing (yet) about the subsequent films, In The Shadow Of The Raven and The White Viking.

I was lucky enough to snag a DVD - via eBay and shipped in from Germany - for just over £3, around a tenth of the price I've seen the film listed at (when it crops up on either eBay or Amazon).

If you like Viking films, then I'd definitely say this is one worth hanging on for, just be careful not to pay over the odds.

Confessions Of A Superhero (2007)

A fascinating 90-minute documentary looking at the lives of four acquaintances who make their living from dressing up as superheroes and posing for photographs with tourists outside the world-famous Mann's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

The primary focus of the feature is Christopher Dennis, the Superman of the group, who claims to be the son of actress Sandy Dennis, although her living relatives deny this.

A generally positive person, Dennis seeks to embody all that is good about Superman when he is wearing the costume, and is very protective of the character and all that he stands for.

Living in a hoarder-style apartment, surrounded by Superman memorabilia, there's an inspiring naivety about his personality that borders on autistic, and despite the knocks he suffers, and the darkness from which he has come, he soldiers on.

Maxwell 'Maximus' Allen is Batman, and it's hard to tell if he really has had the shady past he claims (and occasionally contradicts) or if he's a master fantasist. Even his wife is quoted as saying she only believes half of his stories.

What is undeniable, unfortunately, is his anger issues and Maxwell's arc unfortunately peaks with his arrest for threatening behaviour.

The giveaway that this was not going to end well really begins with Maxwell turning-up for his psychiatrist appointment in full Batman costume.

Of course, it's highly possible that that was staged for the film (how could a real psychiatrist allow his sessions to be filmed like that, anyway?), but it's still a jarring moment in the narrative that makes you realise something could be going wrong.

All the street performers are governed by strict laws - including only being able to work for tips, not being able to demand payment etc - and the documentary also talks to the patient police officer who patrols the area, and explains the problems he has with some of the "pan-handlers".

Jennifer Wenger (née Gehrt), as Wonder Woman, is probably the most recognisable of the featured performers, having gotten a variety of acting gigs off the back of this documentary and being a recognisable convention cosplayer.

Her storyline goes from her desire to get away from the stifling confines of her highly religious hometown, through a hurried romance and marriage, to a point in her life where she can see her dreams maybe coming true.

Joe McQueen, as The Hulk, is the final personality of the piece. Like the others, he is an aspiring actor, but living homeless on the streets of L.A. he really has to go the extra mile to prove himself and the film ends with getting a potential big break in a Justin Lin flick.

Despite the set-backs they all suffer, overall the majority of the stories told in Confessions of A Superhero are positive, offering an intriguing glimpse behind-the-curtain at the lives of people you might possibly cross the road to avoid - for fear of being hit up for change.

Anniversary Reprint of Classic Dredd and Batman Team-up!

On May 6, a 35th anniversary edition of the legendary Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgement on Gotham graphic novel will hit UK streets.

Recounting the first - of several - meeting of the toughest crimefighters from Mega-City One and Gotham, the high-octane team-up graphic novel, penned by John Wagner and Alan Grant with ground-breaking painted art from Simon Bisley, will be reprinted in a larger size (all the better to appreciate the stunning artwork), using brand new scans from the original printing film - restored by publisher Rebellion's "experienced reprographics teams".

The award-winning 64-page book, which established Bisley as a star of the medium, will only be available in the UK.

Originally published in 1991, Judgement on Gotham pitted the Ultimate Lawman against the Dark Knight Detective, with Judge Dredd and his psychic colleague Judge Anderson forced to team up with Batman after the undead arch-fiend Judge Death escapes from Mega-City One to Gotham City and, alongside The Scarecrow, wreaks havoc – from murdering the masses to headlining a rock concert!

To learn more and see sample pages, zoom over to 2000AD's website right now!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: How Many 50-Year-Olds Have Superhero-Themed Birthday Parties? Not Enough

The 'Must-Eat League': from left - Richard, Erica, Paul, Jeni, Pete, Me, Nick, and Clare...

The month of celebrations for my half-century (in 2016) came to an end with a superhero-themed meal at the Oriental Buffet in Tonbridge, with a loose comic book-inspired dress code.

You can't really go wrong with an all-you-can-eat dining experience, accentuated by a selection of T-shirts and outfits that ran the gamut from Richard's Batman shirt (he wore the plastic Bat-mask for 90 per cent of the evening as well, which was true dedication to the theme) to Jeni's She-ra costume (complete with gauntlets and headgear) and Rachel's bespoke Marvel comic book dress.

As well as having decorated our table ahead of time with appropriate balloons (several of which also survived the journey home afterwards), my wonderful wife still had one gobsmacking surprise up her sleeve: the best birthday cake ever!

Based on Des Taylor's design from my main birthday present, it was the scumptious, double-decker cake you can see below (created by a local cake aficionado), complete with Acrobatic Flea, Flash, and Supergirl decorations:

BEST. CAKE. EVER!

BEST. WIFE. EVER!

Special mention has to be made of how Paul turned up at our door, before we went to the restaurant. The doorbell rang, and I opened the door to be greeted by The Black Power Ranger!

Apparently he'd changed into his superhero alter ego outside our house (although I still suspect he'd travelled down from London on the train like this, only he'd used super-ninja skills to blend in with the crowd).

Sadly, the costume was too uncomfortable - and totally impractical - for going to a restaurant in. But major kudos for borrowing this outfit and throwing himself into the spirit of the evening!

What Is Seen Cannot Be Unseen: Alice has no clue as to what is happening at this point!

Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1998)

When international terrorist group HYDRA steal the cryogenically-frozen body of their dead leader, Baron Von Strucker (Campbell Lane) from a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, it's time to bring grizzled Cold War veteran Nick Fury (David Hasselhoff) out of retirement.

HYDRA wants to use the "Death's Head" virus in Strucker's body to hold Manhattan to ransom, but Fury and his team are determined to shut them down.

Unfortunately, Fury falls foul of a trap set by Strucker's daughter, Andrea (Sandra Hess) aka Viper, and now only has 48 hours to save the world before the deadly toxin in his system claims his life.

Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was a TV movie from 1998 (the same year that Blade was released, the first comic book superhero film that 'got it right' in my opinion, and still several years ahead of the mainstream acceptance of superheroes as valid movie fodder with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002) that has finally been released on DVD over here - albeit a cheap-and-cheerful, vanilla, no-frills release.

Written by comic book fanatic David S Goyer, who also wrote the Blade trilogy and TV series, Dark City, the Dark Knight trilogy, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance, Man of Steel, Da Vinci's Demons etc, the plot is solid TV fare - and clearly setting itself up as a possible pilot for a series - although the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, lurching from arch and melodramatic to cheesy and clichéd.

This telemovie has taken a lot of flak over the years, but it needs to be a considered as a artefact of its time.

It stays pretty faithful to the comic book origins of Fury and S.H.I.E.LD., featuring a lot of recognisable character names as well as an impressive rendition of the helicarrier (more industrial than the current incarnation in the big budget movies, more like a flying battleship, but at least it doesn't keep falling out of the sky) as well as Life Model Decoys and smaller bits of spy-fi kit that add nice detail to this 90-minute action-adventure.

Not sure why the HYDRA goons looked like the Observers from Fringe, but it's a striking and memorable look, so why not?

Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. is also clearly a kid-friendly movie, designed for watching over a family meal around the television, so everything is very heightened and larger than life (Andrea Von Strucker is basically a pantomime villain with an outrageous accent and a propensity for over-the-top 'evil laughter').

While it takes itself seriously, it isn't a film to be taken seriously.

The Hoff is great as Nick Fury, a towering presence and wholly convincing, tough, deadpan, one-eyed and cigar-chewing like he was in the comics I read growing up.

Personally I wouldn't have been disappointed if this had spawned a TV show back at the turn of the century - it's a hell of a lot better than the Spider-Man series with  Nicholas Hammond, and even the Incredible Hulk (which usually skates by on rose-tinted nostalgia) from the late '70s.

There wasn't any other real live-action, superhero material on TV when Nick Fury, Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D. was released originally and, for its time, I still rate this as a success.

SAW WEEK: Jigsaw (2017)

It's seven years since the last Saw movie was released (Saw: The Final Chapter) and, in the universe of the franchise, a decade since John Kramer (Tobin Bell) died... but his 'games' appear to have begun again.

Once bodies start appearing, bearing the hallmarks of Jigsaw victims, hardboiled detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and his new partner, Keith Hunt (Clé Bennett) refuse to believe that Kramer has risen from the grave, even though the forensics are pointing them in that direction.

Instead their suspicions fall closer to home when they start to look at pathologists Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore), a widower and single parent suffering PTSD, and Eleanor Bonneville (Hannah Emily Anderson), an adrenalin junkie with a sick obsession with the original Jigsaw murders.

Meanwhile, five people are being put through a series of life-threatening "games" in an isolated farm location, distinct from the usual urban settings of the previous franchise entries.

However, when they fail, their corpses turn up in public places around the city for Halloran and Hunt to find.

Jigsaw definitely leans more towards the original police procedural approach to the mystery of who is committing the crimes.

Yet, while the film throws us a few curveballs, it doesn't really do a good enough job of obfuscating the trap-setter's true identity.

Once you've figured this out early on you spend the rest of film mentally batting away the red herrings that try to drag you in a different direction.

Also, come the final act, one of the protagonists - the closest the film comes to having a hero, you may have thought - simply disappears from the action completely.

Genuinely atmospheric and the first of the franchise since the original to look really cinematic rather than like a blood-spattered  TV show, Jigsaw has a more contemporary veneer than the mid-franchise sequels.

Conversely, the traps - while elaborate - have a grittier, and less extravagant, feel to them, probably because of the rustic locale they have been constructed in.

The script, by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, is solid, and, as is common with this franchise, messes around with the concept of non-linear narrative, twisting the plotlines into a complex bundle that even fills in more 'blanks' in John Kramer's very industrious backstory.

I'll confess I love the way everything meshes together across all the movies, making them, in essence, one single narrative.

It does appear though that from the moment Kramer learned of his cancer diagnosis, he started building an array of massive "games" around the area, without anyone noticing, and recruiting several loyal acolytes to assist him... none of whom gave even a hint to anyone else they were involved in these massive undertakings.

Which, again, brings me back to the inescapable conclusion that polymath (engineer/architect/philosopher etc) John Kramer - aka Jigsaw - would have made an incredible Batman villain, from the panache he brings to building deathtraps and his ability to attract devoted henchmen to the way his 'games' continue to unfold 10 years after his death.

In fact, by this stage of this non-supernatural horror franchise, you're almost convinced that if anyone could find a convincing way to return from the dead it would John Kramer.

I purchased the eight Saw movies as a 'box set' bargain in the Sky Store, for just £20, and while wading through some of the middle-period - more 'torture porny - sequels I started to wonder what I had let myself in for.

But, by the end of Jigsaw, my interest was definitely piqued by the prospect of seeing Spiral: From The Book of Saw.

SAW WEEK: Saw - The Final Chapter (2010)

The ironically named Saw; The Final Chapter (there are already further movies and possibly more, I guess) was full of surprises.

The biggest being that I came away from this gory offering with great admiration for the tight plotting of the whole franchise to date.

This episode had ties to numerous events - but possibly not explained - in previous chapters, and I like to think was all planned from a very early stage.

Of course, this also further compounds the feeling I mentioned the other day that the on-going saga - which is seven parts of a single story - as much like a blood-spattered  HBO series as a horror movie franchise.

While occasionally looking like a cheap '80s cop show, and sometimes hampered by some hilarious overacting from key players in the story, Saw: The Final Chapter (aka Saw 3D aka Saw VII) manages to cram so much into the first hour that you think the credits are about to roll, and then a whole new development unfolds.

The film also brought back Cary Elwes as Dr Gordon, from the original (and best) Saw flick, which I wasn't expecting 

The first big Jigsaw trap takes place in broad daylight in a storefront window, which seems too public for a classic Jigsaw trap and appears to serve only to later reintroduce the survivors as members of a support group.

The main trap-driven plotline of the movie, which was presumably all set up before John Kramer (Tobin Bell) died (he appears in a telling flashback scene), centres around testing Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery, of Young Indiana Jones fame).

Bobby has made a name for himself on the self-help circuit (which is where he crosses paths for the blokes from the storefront trap) after publishing a book documenting his supposed survival in one of Jigaw's games. Only it's all bullshit.

So Jigsaw has Bobby kidnapped and then runs him through a series of tests, with the life of one of his friends and confidantes in the balance each time.

Let's just say Bobby isn't very good at these games.

Meanwhile, the police are closing in on Jigsaw's surviving accomplice, Mark Hoffman (Costas Manylor), who escaped the "reverse bear-trap" that Kramer's ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) put him in at the end of the last movie.

Hoffman is now on the hunt for Jill, who turns herself over to the authorities seeking protection and immunity.

I have to say, while it eventually all comes together very satisfactorily, I haven't been impressed for a while about how the franchise got hijacked by Hoffman's story.

As becomes increasingly clear in this chapter, he's just a deranged mass murdering serial killer, without the code of ethics (and superhuman engineering skills and limitless resources) of the more charismatic - but deceased - John Kramer.

I keep coming back to the conclusion, even though killing off the main villain and then continuing his deeds posthumously is a brilliant twist, that John Kramer's Jigsaw would have made an archetypal Batman villain... and I'd have loved to have seen a gritty crossover with the Christopher Nolan era Batman movies. 

While the planned sequel to Saw VII never got made, as box office interest in the franchise was waning, I'm looking forward to finding out how this all ties in to 2017's Jigsaw... and then Spiral: From The Book of Saw.

SAW WEEK: Saw II - The Director's Cut (2005)

The Saw saga continues in the creatively named Saw II, where we meet disgruntled, corrupt, cop Eric Matthews (Blue Blood's Donnie Wahlberg), who is the latest police officer drawn into the twisted machinations of Jigsaw.

Called to a crime scene by his ex-partner, Kerry (Starship Trooper's Dina Meyer), clues on the victim's murderous torture device lead Matthews to an old warehouse, where he finds the wheelchair-bound, dying Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) .

But before Matthews can arrest the criminal mastermind, Jigsaw - who says his name is John - reveals  that Matthews' brattish son Daniel (Erik Knudson) is imprisoned in a booby-trapped house with half-a-dozen other people... and it is slowly filling with poisonous gas. 

Jigsaw has, essentially, invented the modern "escape room" genre.

Although not directed by James Wan, Saw II's director Darren Lynn Bousman wisely homages many of Wan's stylistic quirks (particularly the use of a flurry of fast, disorientating cuts) to cement the continuity of the franchise.

Once again, we have the parallel storylines - the captives in the house trying to figure their way to safety before the gas kills them, and then the police officers interrogating Jigsaw to try and find the location of the house.

However, while Bousaman co-scripted the film with the first movie's writer Leigh Wannell, this chapter severely ups the ick factor, leaving less to the imagination and rubbing our faces in more of the gore.

In fact, there was one sequence in particular - involving a woman in a pit - that I found almost unbearable to watch, as it triggered one of my medically-recognised phobias.

Squirm-inducing moments aside, thanks to some marvellous scriptwriting and plotting, Jigsaw is a Batman-level villain (he really reminds me of my favourite Bat-rogue, The Riddler, for the trails of clues he leads).

And John very clearly conforms to the old maxim that all great villains believe they are the heroes of their stories. Jigsaw definitely believes he is making the world a better place through his twisted "games". He actually wants people to survive, because he believes they will come out the other side as stronger personalities.

As in the original, the film climaxes with a brilliant twist, where all the clues were right in front of us (and Detective Matthews) but we were all constantly chasing red herrings and misdirects.

The traps are nastier in this one, because we see them more in action rather than enduring the tension of wondering what would happen if they were set off, but we learn a bit more about Jigsaw, his illness, and his cunning plan to defeat it.

Further confirming the overlap in the Venn diagram of 'comic book superheroes' and 'the Saw franchise' check out this delightful article on Bloody Disgusting about Six Comic Book Death Traps That Would Be Right at Home in the ‘Saw’ Franchise.

Which also makes for inspirational reading for RPG gamesmasters looking for some devilish traps to throw player-characters into.

The Importance of Superheroes

Superman and The Amazing Spider-Man by Ross Andru

Booktube supremo Michael K Vaughan presents a 20-minute video essay on the "importance of superheroes", which I agree with 100 per cent, for the regular Epic Comic Book Wednesday slot on his channel.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021)

Chicago, 1999. Video archivist James (Glee's Harry Shum Jr), haunted by the disappearance of his wife Hanna, stumbles across a surreal, nightmarish, clip of a "broadcast signal intrusion" - a mysterious pirate hack of a televised signal.

Fascinated, he starts to dig deeper, learning that these signal hacks are extremely rare and the authorities have managed to track down those responsible for all except for the one that initially triggered James's interest. 

He discovers that not only was this one of a pair of known intrusions, but there was possibly a third as well.

Mixed up with all this is the fact that a woman supposedly disappeared, probably kidnapped and maybe murdered, the night before each intrusion - and the last one was the night after his wife disappeared.

Instead of reporting her to the police, James teams up with Alice (Kelley Mack), a strange woman who follows him one night, for nebulous reasons.

Together they disappear down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, crossing paths with a selection of enigmatic and oddball characters, as James becomes increasingly paranoid on his dual quest to find out who created the "broadcast signal intrusion" and what happened to his wife.

Starting from a similar space as the far-superior Archive 81, Broadcast Signal Intrusion instead apes True Detective (poorly) using this elaborate, potential Creepypasta urban legend to obfuscate a very linear murder mystery.

I'll confess I was hoping for another Archive 81, Deadwax, or Cigarette Burns.

Being inspired by true events (there were actual signal intrusions of a similar nature in the mid-to-late '80s), I had high hopes as to what fantastical journey the movie would take its conspiracy theory-driven protagonist on.

However, of all the potential stories that could have sprung from this set-up, a poor man's Batman adventure - where the villain leaves a trail of breadcrumbs that only the protagonist can follow (despite years of investigations by various branches of the government and law enforcement) - was a major let-down.
 
There are films where you can recognise their greatness early on, but there are others - usually mystery stories - where everything hangs on the final reveal, which can make or break the audience's investment in the piece.

Sadly, as  became increasingly clear as the 104-minute movie dragged on, the climactic revelation of Broadcast Signal Intrusion, despite being dressed up in the trappings of James's dramatic dive into insanity, raised little more than a shrug and a underwhelmed "oh, was that it?" reaction.

For all the smoke-and-mirrors, James' unearthing of this great secret is mindbogglingly straight-forward, with the only real mysteries being the unexplained comings and goings of the small coterie of supporting characters.

Phil Drinkwater and Tim Woodall's script, directed by Jacob Gentry, was riddled with convenient coincidences,  inconstancies, and plot holes that you were probably expected to hand wave away with a "that's the nature of the beast" get-out-of-jail-free card.

But filmmakers have to earn that sort of trust from their audience and Broadcast Signal Intrusion falls well short.

Shazam! (2019)

I'm old enough to remember when Shazam was called Captain Marvel and Marvel's Captain Marvel was Ms. Marvel.

Which is perhaps why I had some issues with Shazam! (the movie), even though it is essentially Big retold with superpowers. And everyone loves Big, right?

Even the makers of Shazam!... who acknowledge this obvious influence with a little nod from a giant musical keyboard scene.

Shazam! essentially tells two distinct stories: one about a troubled foster child, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) doing everything he can to find his birth mother.

So driven is he that he runs away from multiple foster homes, and keeps people at arm's length emotionally.

But parallel to this earnest tale of a young man's quest to find a family, we also have the story of Billy Batson being chosen by an otherworldy wizard - also called Shazam (Guardians Of The Galaxy's Djimon Hounsou) to become a 'magical champion'... called Shazam.

Whenever Billy says his name, he transforms into his superhero identity (Chuck's Zachary Levi), gaining the powers of superstrength, invulnerability, flight, speed, and lightning blasts... while retaining Billy's mind.

The problem is though - having removed any mention of Captain Marvel from the equation - Billy can't tell anyone his superhero codename because he will then transform into his alternate identity.

This becomes a running gag throughout the movie, as his 'sidekick', foster brother Freddie Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) - possibly my favourite supporting character in any modern superhero flick - keeps offering unsuitable suggestions.

I realise you could argue this isn't a big deal, but it is if you look at this through the spectrum of comic books - the source material for these movies - where the "superhero identity" is a major element of a hero's "brand".

Shazam! draws heavily from Geoff Johns' New 52 iteration of the character, which reimagined the original wholesome Billy Batson (who you could understand being considered "pure of heart" by a supernatural wizard and deserving of these great powers) into a bit of a brat.

And the thing is, for at least the middle third of the movie, after Billy is given superpowers, he becomes an even bigger brat (as Freddie points out), only really coming into his own once his family is threatened by a similarly-powered individual called Dr Sivana (Mark Strong).

This is, overall, a fun film, which digs deep into the old - and often totally bonkers - Captain Marvel mythology (including the introduction - in the obligatory mid-credits scene - of one of the greatest villains in comics. You can catch a glimpse of him in a very early scene, if you know what you're looking for. I really hope his next live-action appearance can do justice to such a bizarre character).

The central plot - around which the stories of Billy's personal life and superheroic identity revolve - is very linear: bad man gets power, good boy gets power, boy wastes powers, man wants boy's power as well, boy realises how important his powers are, man and boy fight.

Shazam! also falls into that classic old Marvel Cinematic Universe trap of pitting the main character against a dark reflection of himself (Sivana is, here, for all intents and purposes, a 'dark' Shazam, even though we discover later he has limitations that Billy doesn't).

As good as Mark Strong is as the crazed Sivana, this is a bit of a shame given the breadth of exotic and villainous characters the filmmakers had to draw from in the old Captain Marvel comics.

Every so often, when it remembers its Big roots, Shazam! injects some levity into its drama, with Sivana's 'supervillain speech' being a major laugh-out-loud moment.

While it never veers into full Batman v Superman grimdark territory (and their existence is readily - and pleasingly - acknowledged here), there's still an occasionally jarring uncertainty about just how funny this film is allowed to be.

Ultimately, as often happens with comic book movies, it's the potential of what could be done next with the characters and their mythology that turns out to be more inspiring than the actual two-hour film you've just sat through.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Shazam! - despite all its narrative faults (much of which came from its choice of source material), I just can't wait for the inevitable sequel, especially with the introduction of the extended Marvel family (although we can't call them that).

I always loved the fact that Captain Marvel came with a ready-built team, united by familial bonds.

This is one of the things that makes the character special - and enduring - and I really hope that the sequel (and any future films) build on this, as well as digging deeper into the character's crazy rogues' gallery for its villains.

After the over-the-top excellence (and audience appreciation) of Aquaman, I thought Shazam! would have been the perfect vehicle to ramp up the gonzo stakes even higher.

Hopefully, those delights are still to come...

Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

Building on the foundations laid in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder's Justice League is a four-hour epic that sweeps its audience up and carries you along, whether through tightly-scripted character beats or frenetic, supercharged fight sequences.

Gone is the element of "heroic cruelty" that rather tainted the previous two films, this is pure, old fashioned, comic book action, served in a modern, celebratory, style.

Having sworn a pledge on Superman's grave, Bruce Wayne aka Batman (Ben Affleck) teams up with Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to hunt down fellow metahumans and form an alliance against the coming darkness foretold by Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg).

Eventually they build a team consisting of Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Arthur Curry aka Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and Barry Allen aka The Flash (Ezra Miller), to face down the alien warlord Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), who is preparing the Earth for the arrival of Darkseid (voiced by Ray Porter), the definitive uber-bad guy in DC Comics.

I don't want to dwell too much on the previous, theatrical, iteration of Justice League, as reshaped by the disgraced Joss Whedon, when he took over the project after Zack Snyder had to step away due to a dreadful family tragedy.

However, if you have seen that then you will recognise certain scenes and moments in this new cut, but so much of it is new - to us - material that was shelved for the version that was released four years ago.

The general thrust of the story is similar, but better developed, explored, and explained now that it's in the hands of its original creator.

All the characters come across as more three-dimensional, and Cyborg has been elevated from an almost incidental player back to the heart of the story, as Zack and scriptwriter Chris Terrio envisaged him.

Cyborg has been on my radar for as long as I've been collecting comics, as he was a founding member of the Marv Wolfman/George Perez era of the New Teen Titans, which transformed me from a dabbler in comics to a full-on collector and addict.

I have to be honest, though, until this movie, I'd never found him that interesting a character, but Zack (and Chris)  - and, of course, Ray Fisher - have totally turned me round on Victor Stone.

I'd been looking forward to seeing Zack Snyder's Justice League since it was announced, but had always considered it simply an "Elseworlds" alternate take on the characters, and a chance to see what should have been in 2017 under better circumstances.

And I'll watch any big budget superhero flick eventually, because I still can't believe we live in age where the comics I read as a child (and am still regularly reading) are being made into box office-topping blockbusters.

With its prevalence on the silver screen and small screen, the superhero genre has become as ubiquitous as westerns were in the early days of Hollywood and television, the new American (global?) mythology.

However, Zack Snyder's Justice League far exceeded my expectations and deserves all the kudos that I hope were showered upon it.

It may be four hours long, but it doesn't feel it. Never does the pace drag, nor are there any corny or uncomfortable scenes, or substandard CGI creations, to take you out of the moment.

Let's put it this way: about two hours in, I was already planning on watching it again.

Without a doubt, Justice League is Zack Snyder's tour de force.

It's such a pity that Warner Bros - for a minute - decreed that the earlier, inferior, cut of the film remained canon in the DC Extended Universe, when really all copies of it should have been shovelled into the same landfill as the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial video game.

Yet, while Zack Snyder's Justice League is a magnificent conclusion to the Snyderverse trilogy, it's highly unlikely that we will see the continuation of this storyline and the resolution of the movie's apocalyptic cliffhanger.

Now, it appears as though we are getting into an era where Superman (and the DC Universe as a whole) is under the stewardship of someone who understands the four-colour comics of old and the positive value of superheroes. 

Snyder has had his moment, but now we are moving into the light of James Gunn.

Let's hope his Superman is everything we want it will be.

Batman v Superman - Dawn Of Justice, Ultimate Edition (2016)

My race through the Snyderverse continues with probably its most divisive entry, but for all its faults (and they are plentiful), Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice - in all its three-hour, ultimate edition glory - is a surprisingly good superhero movie.

The further we get from the initial hullaballoo around this film, and the more times I watch it, the more I find I get from it.

Like Man of Steel, it suffers from some egregious missteps that, as with the original curate's egg, were allowed by many to spoil the enjoyment of the whole.

But as I grow older, that one troublesome dialogue exchange that spawned a million memes (which we will get to later), doesn't bother me so much. Yes, it's still a dreadfully contorted - and unconvincing - exchange, but is, ultimately, small potatoes in a bombastic three-hour film.

A deranged Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) turns the world against Superman (Henry Cavill), then engineers a fight between the Son of Krypton and Batman (Ben Affleck), before unleashing a CGI Kryptonian monster, Doomsday, on Metropolis for reasons that aren't exactly explained.

Jesse Eisenberg is a fantastic actor and his young Luthor blends the modern age comic book take on the character with the mad scientist version in the older comics - with a heavy emphasis on the "mad" part.

I think we're supposed to take it that Lex is jealous of Superman's powers, but, despite his Machiavellian machinations, the one part of his scheme that is never truly made clear is his motivation.

While Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne/Batman is impressive, the stand-out character of Dawn Of Justice is Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.

Although her presence is only slightly more justified here than Spider-Man's introduction in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, her grin-inducing impact on the audience is about the same.

Her all-too-brief appearances are certainly helped by the incredible Wonder Woman theme performed by cellist Tina Guo, that still make me tingle with geeky excitement every time I hear it.

There are a couple of sequences that felt superfluous, when looked at just in the context of BvS.

However, knowing now that these were planting seeds for the Zack Snyder's Justice League movie (we shall ignore the Josstice League iteration, even though officially it remains the canon version of the film for the DCEU), we can appreciate that moments like Batman's striking 'vision' of the future, complete with Darkseid mise-en-scène and parademons are more than just great fan service

When BvS was first release, I read a number of industry people championing director Zack Snyder's love of comics, which is as nebulous a comment as saying someone "loves books", but whatever the truth of the matter it's clear that he just doesn't really get Superman.

Snyder is on record as saying he likes dark comics with sex and violence in them. And, while I suspect he may have been 'playing this up' for the expected shock value, that just isn't my (and a lot of people's) idea of Superman.

As, hopefully, you read earlier, I enjoyed his Man Of Steel as spectacle, but it didn't deliver a Superman that I recognised or could relate to.

While still quite moody here, Superman is certainly given the space to become a bit more like his positive and heroic comic book portrayal.

His Clark Kent alter ego shines (despite butting heads with a a very negative Perry White in Laurence Fishburne), but Synder's penchant for darker, anti-heroes comes to the fore in his presentation of Batman.

Again, a lot is left unexplained (Batman's been operating in Gotham for 20 years but the Daily Planet is unaware of him? Why - oh why - does he go round branding villains?), but he's got the tech, the brains, the charisma, and the drive to bring the Dark Knight to life.

One of the positive things about Batman v Superman is that it doesn't try to obfuscate the 'secret identities' of its leads for the audience, it's just a given that Bruce Wayne is Batman, Diana Prince is Wonder Woman, Clark Kent is Superman etc, without trying to explain it all (again).

Like Man of Steel, this initially appears to be a triumph of spectacle, but, again, in Batman v Superman (the Ultimate Edition anyway) we have a story that justifies the action and - generally - everyone stays reasonably true to the comic book source material.

However, rising above all the plot holes and strange character choices, the most awful, groan-worthy moment in the whole script is the "Martha" scene.

I'll be honest, if I'd tried to present that - with a straight face - in one of my scripts at university I'd have been laughed off my Scriptwriting degree course.

There was enough cheese in that scene to choke all the mice in North America. Especially coming in such a "serious" and "realistic" take on the superhero genre, it totally takes you out of the moment.

It's bizarre that amidst all the explosions and property damage, all the spectacular superheroics and tension, the line that stays with you - because it grates so much - is something so mundane and corny.

But that aside (and it could so easily have been avoided by changing the line to something about his "mother", which Bruce would have reacted to in much the same way) Batman v Superman - Dawn Of Justice is definitely a step in the right direction from Man of Steel and paves the way for Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

While waiting for his trial for the murders committed in Joker, Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is being held in Arkham Asylum, where he meets Harleen 'Lee' Quinzel (Lady Gaga) in a music therapy group.

It's love at first sight and, when she gets out before him, Harley promises to be at Arthur's trial every day, as well as vocal campaigner for his freedom.

Arthur's lawyer, Maryanne Stewart (Catherine Keener) seeks to build a defence on the idea that Arthur and Joker are two separate personalities, brought on by his abusive upbringing.

Meanwhile, the district attorney, Harvey Dent (Harry Lawtey) is seeking to dismantle this idea, and is calling for the death penalty for Arthur.

Eventually, Arthur - egged on by Harley - grows tired of his lawyer's approach and dramatically fires her in the middle of the case, opting to defend himself: in full Joker make-up.

I can totally get why people were disappointed with Joker: Folie à Deux. It wasn't the Joker film they were expecting. Not that writer/director Todd Phillips had made any promises about where the sequel would be going... it just wasn't the stylish and violent remix of The Dark Knight that I think people were hoping for.

Rather it turned out to be an arthouse courtroom drama - and character piece - infused with elements of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (the Arkham scenes) and Natural Born Killers (the delusions and the media's glorification of murderers).

In truth, Phoenix's Joker is nothing like the source material (80-plus years of comic book escapades), but more akin  to someone cosplaying as The Joker.

As I said in my review of 2019's Joker (earlier today), the character has always worked in the comics, and most other media, because he doesn't have a definitive origin story. He's an enigma and that makes him more frightening - he's the one mystery the world's greatest detective, Batman, can't solve.

But Todd Phillips and Joaquin Phoenix have made the character all too human, with a name, family and origin story, and - especially in this sequel when he is often depicted as - frail and wracked with self-doubt.

That makes for an interesting character... he's just not The Joker.

He is a straw man held up as a figurehead for a bubbling, anarchic revolution in rundown Gotham City, but - unlike the comic book iteration or even any of the live-action takes, right back to Cesar Romero in Batman '66 - he comes to the conclusion that he doesn't want that mantle.

Which, again, makes for an interesting revelation, but it just doesn't feel like something The Joker would do.

Providing strong support is Lady Gaga as a low-key, grounded Lee Quinzel, who gets under Arthur's skin and fuels his frequent delusions and dreams that frame themselves as musical numbers (one in the courtroom is very reminiscent of Sid Vicious' performance of My Way at the climax of The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle).

Both Lee and Fleck are complex characters, well developed and growing towards a surprising - yet wholly believable - twist in the final scenes, that pretty much guarantees there won't be a third film in this particular franchise.

Joker: Folie à Deux (a psychological term for a shared delusion) is as gritty as the first movie, presenting us with a beautifully decaying Gotham City, with a troubled element of the populace inspired by their own perceptions of the murderous Fleck.

However there's no getting away from the overwhelming feeling that this was originally a psychological study that has just been dressed up with a few affectations from the Bat'verse to sell tickets.

Which I gather it didn't.

It was a brave experiment. But, sadly, it failed.

I actually believe if this duology has been made with different - or even original - protagonists audiences (coming to the story without any expectations) would have liked it more, because they would have then felt very clever pointing out: "oh, that's a bit like The Joker and Harley Quinn from the Batman comics".

While Folie à Deux lacks the kick of the first film, I did actually enjoy it for what it was, but it was still a peculiar take on the characters that bore little or no resemblance to the general public's vision of the source material.