Alan Rapp

Legends of Red Sonja #1

/ / Comics

Legends of Red Sonja #1The first issue of the 40th Anniversary four-issue mini-series isn’t quite what I expected. Happily, it’s more. Written and drawn by “the biggest female stars in the worlds of prose, television, gaming and comics” the first issue isn’t a collection of separate tales as usually befits this type of anthology. Instead it is a single story where various other tales are woven into the tale in flashbacks and re-tellings of the adventures of Red Sonja who is pursued by a group of mercenaries and killers known as the Grey Riders.

Legends of Red Sonja #1 introduces the Grey Riders in the main tale by Gail Simone while also offering use separate tales by other artists and writers of past adventures of the She-Devil with a Sword involving her thieving, fighting both a werewolf and giant squid, and defying the gods.

Although it lacks a view of the character herself, this collection of stories is more than enough to sell me on the series and make me to look forward to what the next group of artists and writers have in store. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

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Sleepy Hollow – The Midnight Ride

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Sleepy Hollow – The Midnight Ride
  • wiki: link

“A Headless Horseman is mowing people down and bringing about the end of days. For further questions please call Ichabod Crane, the man who beheaded him in 1781.”

Sleepy Hollow - The Midnight Ride

With the blood-tie between Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) and the Headless Horsesman (Richard Cetrone) severed, Ichabod heads to a gathering of the Free Masons only to discover each member has been beheaded by the Horseman who has finally risen again to retrieve his missing skull and bring forth the remaining Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. Realizing they can never allow the Horseman to regain possession of his missing head, Abbie (Nicole Beharie) convinces Captain Irving (Orlando Jones) to allow them to destroy the skull, but the Horseman has other plans as the Police Captain finally comes face to torso with the unstoppable Horseman.

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The Blacklist – General Ludd

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Blacklist – General Ludd
  • wiki: link

The Blacklist - General Ludd

Reddington (James Spader), while not assisting a suburban housewife (Kelly Deadmon) print counterfeit money out of her garage, steps in to help the FBI investigate the bombing of a commercial plane by a terrorist group known as General Ludd whose founder (Justin Kirk) has been able to stay hidden for years under multiple identities with the help of a plastic surgeon (Andrew Dice Clay) friend of Red’s who gave the man a new face. While investigating the group, Agent Keen (Megan Boone) is distracted by news her father (William Sadler) is back in the hospital undergoing another series of tests for a condition whose severity he has managed to keep hidden from his daughter.

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Not So Epic

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Epic
  • IMDB: link

EpicWith a nice pro-environmental message and a story cobbled together from a variety of sources, Epic is an inoffensive, if mostly forgettable, animated feature. Our protagonist is M.K. (Amanda Seyfried), a young teen struggling with the recent death of her mother and being forced to move out into the middle of nowhere with her absent-minded father (Jason Sudeikis) obsessed with finding proof of a colony of tiny 2in. people in the nearby forest.

Through a series of events M.K. accidentally gets shrunk down and becomes involved in the struggle of the Leafmen (an army of good guys protecting all life in the forest) trying to save the forest from the forces of Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) and the Boggans (evil creatures who are trying to bring forth the rot and destroy the forest). The death of the Leafman’s queen (Beyoncé Knowles) has given the villains a window which to strike where no power in the forest can stop them.

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Castle – A Murder is Forever

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Castle – A Murder is Forever
  • wiki: link

“That is… surprisingly plausible.”

Castle - A Murder is Forever

Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle (Nathan Fillion) investigate the murder of a relationship guru to the rich and famous with a private jet on standby and whose car and office were both ransacked by a legendary fixer (Anthony Ruivivar). With no proof connecting the man to the crime, or any idea what he was sent to retrieve, Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) talk with the victim’s assistant (David Blue) and a wealthy former client (Dominic Hoffman) facing a messy divorce who arranged a secret hotel room for the victim in the days leading up to her death.

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