Summer of Supergirl Special #1 main cover art by Belén Ortega
Ahead of the release of the upcoming Supergirl movie, a 48-page comic, the Summer of Supergirl Special, is due to hit stores on June 24.
According to the publisher:
This celebratory anthology brings together an all-star roster of writers and artists for a trio of stories honouring Kara Zor-El’s legacy across the DC Universe.
The creators involved include writers Sophie Campbell, Mark Waid, and Gail Simone, and artists Belén Ortega, Cian Tormey, and Emma Kubert.
The main cover is illustrated by Ortega, with variant covers by Tula Lotay and Pablo Villalobos, plus a Supergirl movie variant cover by Mahmud Asrar.
The book's lead story is by the current ongoing Supergirl writer Sophie Campbell, with artist Belén Ortega. It sees the quiet town of Midvale shaken when Supergirl comes face-to-face with the galactic bounty hunter Lobo. Can the Maiden of Might stand up to the Main Man?
Clearly this is to echo the movie where Lobo and Supergirl cross paths in live-action, but I suspect in Campbell's hands the story will be more light-hearted and Silver Age. The movie trailer looks like it's positioning her halfway between Guardians of The Galaxy and the Snyderverse. I could be wrong... I often am.
I have to admit I've also never been a fan of Lobo (although, surprisingly, I enjoyed his appearance in the 2019 Krypton TV series, where he was portrayed by the excellent Emmett J Scanlan). The character was always seemed too much of a one joke/one note creation who outstayed his welcome.
But then again I felt the same about Deadpool and Venom when they were first "breaking out" and I've subsequently changed my mind on both of those characters (although comic book Deadpool will never be as funny as cinematic Deadpool).
The Summer of Supergirl Special also includes two other stories - one by Mark Waid and Cian Tormey, and another by Gail Simone and Emma Kubert - each celebrating Supergirl as she resumes her rightful place as the Heir to El.
Although officially licensed from Marvel, Toei's 1970's live-action Spiderman (not Spider-Man) show, aka Supaidâman, is way more Power Rangers than modern Marvel Spider-Man movies; his powers come with their own transforming robot (Leopardon) and flying car... because Japan!
Beyond his hyperagility, the majority of Spiderman's powers also seem to originate from his alien suit, the Spider Protector (Venom-much?), and include "spider sense", which acts more like a radar, and a variety of vintage powers such as "spring string" (rope-likeprojectile webbing) and "spider netting" (for capturing bad guys in).
For a Westerner it's weird, earnest, fun, mixing a character we know so well with the established tropes of Japanese super sentai sci-fi to create a truly unique and wonderful show.
And there's something deliciously camp about the way Spiderman likes to bust a move and strike a pose at every opportunity - even when it serves absolutely no purpose.
Each episode is less than 24 minutes long, including a trail for the next instalment, and tears along with the speed and careless abandon for logic that makes certain old children's shows so enjoyable.
Occasional bursts of dialogue border on the nonsensical, but this could simply be a mistranslation in the subtitles, and there's certainly never any doubt what's going on in the very simple storylines.
Beyond the costume, and the odd refrain from the classic Spider-Man theme music, there's very little of Peter Parker's DNA in this iteration of the character.
Even his supporting characters are wildly different. Although, in his secret identity, the protagonist is a bit of a waster and coward, he's also the "man of the house", looking after his younger sister, Shinko (Izumi Oyama), and little brother, Takuji (Yoshiharu Yabuki).
I'm guessing their late parents had good life insurance as no-one in this family appears to have a steady job, yet putting food on the table doesn't appear to be an issue.
These first four episodes establish a simplistic formula and stick to it, while still drip-feeding the audience with more and more information about Spiderman's backstory and powers.
But in the meantime, here's my summary of these episodes...
EPISODE ONE: The Time Of Revenge Has Come! Attack The Iron Cross Army! The origin story - it's soooo different to that of Peter Parker's Spider-Man.
Shinji Tôdô stars as Takuya, the motorcycle-racing son of space archaeologist Dr Hiroshi Yamashiro, who receives a psychic summons from a stranded alien Garia (sometimes called Galia).
Garia has been on Earth for 400 years, having chased Professor Monster (Mitsuo Andô) and his duck-billed Iron Cross Army here after their conquest of Planet Spider.
Professor Monster
Garia is seeking revenge for the devastation of his homeworld, but has been trapped underground by Professor Monster until Takuya came along.
Not sure what Professor Monster was doing for those four centuries if his plan, as stated, is to conquer the Earth? Perhaps he was waiting for humanity to just wipe itself out?
In a very Yoda-like move, Garia passes on the power of Spiderman to Takuya then appears to die, instantly reincarnating as a spider that spouts motivational commentary to Takuya.
Takuya's father is killed by Professor Monster's forces when Takuya's family are investigating a crashed UFO, which is actually Garia's ship, the Marveller (see what they did there?) and so now he has two reasons to seek revenge on Professor Monster.
EPISODE TWO: My Serious World! The Man Who Lives According To His Destiny: Professor Monster has started to derail trains, using a giant flying brain creature, for reasons...
Takuya wanders into a church and recounts his origin story to a statue of Christ (bit odd), giving us some more information about Garia and Professor Monster's feud and how they both ended up on Earth.
There's a suggestion that after Garia and Professor Monster fought in the samurai era, leaving Garia trapped underground, Professor Monster went into hibernation until recently.
Back in the 1970s, the arachnid Yoda, Garia, decides he's done enough, curls up into a spidery ball and dies - for real.
After this things start to slot into a formula: Spiderman fights some of the duck-billed Iron Cross Army ninjas, the creature-of-the-week appears, the creature grows to kaiju size, Spiderman hops into his flying car and summons Leopardon.
The giant robot and the kaiju fight, then Leopardon throws its sword at the monster - which explodes.
The end.
EPISODE THREE: Phantom Thief 001 vs The Spider: In a plot eerily reminiscent of the 2018 season of Daredevil, Professor Monster uses one of his creatures - a large insect that projects powerful light beams from its bug eyes - to bust Phantom Thief 001 from police custody, then brainwash him into thinking he's Spiderman.
The notorious thief then goes round tagging all his burglaries with Spiderman's name, and ruining our hero's reputation.
This is all a cunning plan to lure the real Spiderman out and, when he confronts the hypnotised Phantom Thief 001, he is ambushed by Iron Cross Army ninjas and the insect creature.
There's a nice touch where the real Spiderman saves the impostor, after the Iron Cross Army decide they have no further need for him, but then the story segues into its formulaic final act.
Ninja fight. Kaiju. Flying car. Giant robot. Power sword. Explosion. The end.
EPISODE FOUR: The Terrifying Merman! Silver String That Brings A Miracle: Takuya Yamashiro wakes from a prophetic nightmare that Professor Monster has written a computer program which has divined - after studying all the available film footage of his fights - the ultimate way to kill Spiderman.
Then, Takuya sees a death announcement for Spiderman in the newspaper, complete with funeral arrangements set for a couple of days' time.
The Spider Bracelet
This is, of course, part of another plan by Professor Monster to lure Spiderman into a trap.
The Professor has created a wicked Merman to attack innocents, and chasing this creature Spiderman falls into a cage... and has his first face-to-face meeting with Professor Monster!
After being severely wounded in his cage fight with the Merman, Spiderman escapes, but is later lured into another trap when the Merman and the Iron Cross Army kidnap freelance photographer Hitomi Sakuma (Rika Miura), Takuya's younger sister's best friend and the closest this Spiderman gets to having his own Mary Jane... but without any overt romance.
In this episode we learn a bit more about Spiderman's powers: with his suit he can see in the dark, but the alien injection that made him Spiderman has also granted him superhearing and a rapid healing ability.
I'm not sure if the prophetic dreams are a new power or simply a plot device for this episode as they're never explained.
It's also amusingly bizarre that Takuya wears a huge bracelet (with Spiderman written on it) - which contains the Spider Protector and has other gadgety uses - on his wrist, but no-one ever notices this!
After rescuing Hitomi, Spiderman heads into the final act and you should know the score by now:
Ninja fight. Kaiju. Flying car. Giant robot. Power sword. Explosion. The end.
The Marveller transforms into Leopardon, which has a spectacular array of anti-kaiju weaponry
Back from his brief sojourn on the MCU's Earth-616, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his alien symbiote, Venom, find themselves pursued across America by both the military and extra-dimensional symbiote-hunting monsters called Xenophages.
The military want to study Venom in their underground base, concealed beneath Area 51 in the Nevada desert, while the monsters serve Knull (Andy Serkis, director of Venom: Let There Be Carnage), the god-like creator of the symbiotes.
With nebulous goals of universal suppression, Knull needs "the codex", part of Eddie and Venom's bond, to free himself from Klyntar, a space prison built for him by his rebellious symbiotes.
While on the run, Eddie meets up with a potentially-irritating family of hippies (Rhys Ifans is the alien-mad father, Martin Moon, and Alanna Ubach is his wife, Nova) whose aggravation quotient mellows as the story unfolds. Rather than being just amusing cameos, the Moon family ultimately prove pivotal in the film's third act.
Eddie eventually runs out of luck, is captured by General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and transported to the subterranean base, where Stephen Graham's presumed-dead Detective Patrick Mulligan is also being held.
But the Xenophages are still on Eddie's trail, leading to a final - grand scale - showdown at Area 51.
While the Venom trilogy peaked with its second chapter, The Last Dance has an easy-to-follow, straight-forward "chase-and-fight" plot that makes its 110-minute duration bounce along at an engaging pace.
Don't get me wrong, The Last Dance is a chaotic mess - full of extraneous, undeveloped characters - but it simultaneously manages to finely balance absolute silliness and existential cosmic horror.
The scenes featuring Knull look as though they were lifted direct from the comic book source material, and the fact that his menace is never fully realised only adds to the overwhelming sense of dread he exudes.
Although it seems certain that this film is the end of Tom Hardy/Eddie Brock's involvement with Venom, it does leave the door open for an MCU symbiote (just with a new host) and the potentially multiversal threat of Knull and his legions of Xenophages.
As dumb as it was, I actually really enjoyed Venom: The Last Dance, and was genuinely surprised by the main movie's downbeat ending.
There's (of course) a mid- and a post-credit scene, but neither really add much to the story (except to remind us that Knull still very much exists in the Sony'verse, and possibly leaving the door open for further adventures).
Until I discovered the movies, I was never really that interested in Venom as a comic book character, but it's been Tom Hardy's passion for the character and this trilogy that really sold me on it.
I'm not sure, as it stands, how bothered I'd be about future cinematic outings for the character if Tom Hardy wasn't playing the lead.
Venom: The Last Dance is now available on Blu-Ray in the UK.
We first met serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) in the mid-credit scene of 2018's Venom, but he steps into the spotlight for the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
The imprisoned killer, now shorn of his fright wig hairdo from Venom, has a fascination with washed-up journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), little realising that Brock is host to the alien symbiote known as Venom.
However, Venom manages to unearth a clue in Kasady's cell that leads to the buried remains of many of his victims.
This development cements Kasady's fate and propels Brock's career back to its previous heights.
When Brock pays a final visit to Kasady in San Quentin, the killer manages to take a bite out of him... accidentally ingesting part of the alien symbiote.
Kasady's execution by lethal injection then stimulates the creature in his blood, transforming him into the brutal, tentacled monstrosity Carnage.
They break out of the prison in a grand set-piece of mass destruction and murder, and set about tracking down Kasady's childhood sweetheart, Frances, as part of a deal that would see them ultimately killing Carnage's "father", Venom.
Frances Barrison (Naomie Harris) is a mutant codenamed Shriek, with powerful sonic abilities, who is being held in a secret research facility, but Kasady makes short work of its defences and the couple slip away into the night.
However, the seeds of romantic disharmony are sown quite early on as symbiotes are extremely vulnerable to loud noises and so Carnage isn't at all impressed by his host's paramour.
Frances and Kasady immediately plan a wedding, which involves kidnapping police detective Mulligan (Stephen Graham), who cost Frances her eye during an earlier escape attempt, Eddie, and Venom.
To get to Eddie, the bad guys grab his former fiancée, Anne Weyling (Michelle Williams), who is now engaged to Dr Dan Lewis (Reid Scott).
Directed by Andy Serkis, from a script by Kelly Marcel and Tom Hardy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage tries to temper the potentially brutal reality of a character like Kasady bonding with an almost omnipotent creature like Carnage with a tsunami of screwball comedy antics and bizarre attempts at black humour.
In all honesty, it shouldn't work... but somehow it does, thanks in no small part of the hard-boiled charisma of Tom Hardy.
There are echoes of Woody Harrelson's earlier performance in the divisive Natural Born Killers in the romance between Kletus and Frances, but these characters, drawn with broad, pulpy, brushstrokes are nowhere near as well-developed as Mickey and Mallory Knox.
Upon first viewing the original Venom movie was a disaster, and yet there was something about it that drew me back to it on its home video release and I've not only found myself enjoying it more on repeat viewings, but have been drawn into the world of Venom in Marvel Comics as well.
This is something I never thought would happen, as the whole idea of a murderous anti-hero really turned me off the character.
But thanks to Tom Hardy's performance in that first movie and then Donny Cates's phenomenal run on the comics in recent years has really won be round to both the character and its potential... in the right hands.
An overview of the plot makes you realise that Venom: Let There Be Carnage is actually a surprisingly small, and contained, film with the antagonists only being free to sow chaos in the wider world for, seemingly, less than 24 hours.
There is no great hunt for Carnage and Shriek, as they tell Eddie where to find them soon after they've torched the abandoned reform school they were both held in as juvenile delinquents.
The grand finale in the cathedral where Kasady and Frances are getting married, is reminiscent of many similarly-staged climactic confrontations, from the Quatermass Experiment to 2003's Daredevil, but this has the added cachet of battling Lovecraftian abominations... and a surprise cameo by the League of Gentleman's Reece Shearsmith.
Talking of cameos, though, the biggest 'shock' and dollop of fanservice comes - once again - in the mid-credit scene, which sets up Venom's potential appearances going forward with a most exciting development.
This 'squee' moment is almost worth the price of admission alone.
Stretching the limits of my "only Marvel movies at the cinema" rule, I bought my ticket to Venom (on the strength of Tom Hardy) before the reviews started to appear.
Then I got a bit concerned, not that I give too much weight to professional critics' opinions as, generally, I don't see them as the target audience for superhero movies.
Therefore I am sadly disappointed to say they were right.
Venom is a dreadful film. Not so bad that I wished I wasn't there, but there's a language and structure to cinema - from Sharknado to Citizen Kane - that Venom just didn't seem to grasp.
Feeling like a throwback to the bad old days of superhero cinema - pre-MCU - it took an age to get going and then suddenly, almost without warning, was into its final act.
You catch yourself thinking: this seems like the climax of the movie, but surely it can't be the end yet? But it is.
The fault lays squarely at the feet of those behind the camera, from the writers (Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel) to the director (Ruben Fleischer), the editors, and - almost certainly - some suits at Sony who must have stuck their oar in at one point or another.
Since the first shockingly poor - Venom-free - trailer, it's been clear that things could be going seriously wrong with this film, but given the talent in front of the camera I had hopes that something might have been salvageable.
Even though his character is wildly inconsistent as the story unfolds, Tom Hardy is clearly enjoying himself as Eddie Brock, the investigative journalist, who becomes the unwilling host for the alien parasite known as Venom.
Thankfully, he isn't actually using his strange parody of Christopher Walken's voice that provides the voice-over in some of the trailers, but instead, for Hardy, is using a remarkably 'generic' (and easy to understand) American accent.
But nowhere is the crass stupidity of the script more evident than in Venom's sudden switch from a head-chomping monster to would-be saviour of the human race, with no convincing rhyme nor reason for the major change of heart.
Then again, internal logic is not this film's strong point (you have to love a conquering alien species that blurts out its fatal weaknesses when asked!), which is a shame because there are moments of great fun and even humour along the way (although you might find yourself thinking you've seen 90 per cent of them in the trailers).
Michelle Williams is rather wasted, phoning it in as Eddie's ex-girlfriend, who doesn't really contribute much to the story, except as Eddie's initial "in" to the corrupt world of businessman Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed).
It's Drake's attempts at private space exploration that discover a nest of alien symbiotes on a comet and bring them back to Earth.
Unfortunately, one escapes containment, causing the space shuttle to crash in Malaysia.
The free alien, Riot, then takes six months to work its way back to San Francisco, where its siblings are being held and experimented on by Drake. Arriving at exactly the right time for the story.
The simplistic plot culminates with Riot, on his own host, fighting Venom - a mass of black jelly entangled with a second mass of black jelly - as a new shuttle is about to be launched to retrieve a whole army of symbiotes to return for an all-you-can-eat buffet.
An unadulterated mess, Venom's never boring, and it's certainly action-packed and stupid fun all the way, it's just structurally the film doesn't hold up.
Venom, himself, is an impressively imposing monster, but not enough is done - especially for those not au fait with the source material - to differentiate the various symbiotes from each other or explain why Riot's ability to produce certain weapons was any different from everything that Venom could do.
More cheesy sci-fi than true superhero film, I traditionally have a problem with stories that promote murderous villains as the protagonists, but I was swayed by the prospect of seeing Tom Hardy do his thang in a comic book movie.
And, to be honest, it's his performance - as unconvincing as his character is written - that makes Venom worth seeing.
If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read on...
As is fashionable these days, the filmhas a brace of credit scenes.
The one mid-credit one is clearly setting up a potential sequel, and features a big name scenery-chewing cameo.
However, the post-credit scene is brazenly not even from the same movie, but an advert for another Sony film that could cheekily be taken as a possible hint that Venom is supposed to be set within the wider Spider-verse.
Given that Venom was originally a Spider-Man villain - and his appearance clearly apes that of the traditional Spider-costume - this was an audacious move.
* This review was based upon my first viewing of Venom, actually upon its release in the cinema.
After her abusive husband is killed and she miscarries her latest pregnancy as the result of a brutal home invasion, Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis) begins to have horrific visions of subsequent murders committed by the intruder.
Once the police are convinced there is some connection between Madison and the attacker, an investigation begins that starts to unravel the troubled woman's concept of reality.
Following his mega-success with Aquaman, horrormeister James Wan returned to the genre he is most closely associated with, bringing a touch of superpowered magic to Malignant that elevates this bonkers flick above the norm.
Most definitely a film best appreciated with as little foreknowledge as possible, writer-director Wan mixes the police procedural elements from Saw with an '80s grungy monster movie vibe (one particular franchise comes to mind, but I won't say any more).
The resulting violent, action-packed, ride wouldn't feel that out of place as a villainous origin story in a Venom comic book or film.
While Annabelle Wallis (Grace Shelby from Peaky Blinders) is the heart of this movie, major kudos to the well-written coterie of supporting characters, particularly Madison's sister Sydney (Maddie Hasson), and the main police detectives, Kekoa Shaw (George Young) and Regina Moss (Michole Briana White).
I tend to find that when it comes horror films, the less I write about them in a review the more I've enjoyed them because there's less to take the piss out of and I'm keen not to spoil any genuine surprises for the reader.
All I'll say is: Malignant is gloriously over-the-top and bonkers, gruesome, insane, and yet truly inspired and rather clever.
I really appreciated the fact that the script was full of crafty, well-earned, misdirects and red herrings, sending the plot in directions I certainly didn't expect (because I'd managed to avoid all spoilers from its cinematic release in 2021).
Malignant is a must-see for fans of the more pulpy end of the well-made horror movie spectrum.
My pop culture Odyssey: a slice of super-powered geek life with heavy emphasis on pulp adventure, superheroes, comic books, westerns, horror, sci-fi, giant monsters, zombies etc
