2.5 Razors

Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1

/ / Comics

Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual #1The Red Hood and the Outlaws Annual picks up the recent storyline as a mind-wiped Jason Todd returns home to the secluded island with Starfire and Arsenal only to begin investigating the past he worked so hard to forget. Yeah, nobody saw that coming. Sigh.

The annual gives us a pair of notable guest-stars first being Arsenal’s mentor Green Arrow (who is way too young to have trained someone Roy’s age, making for some incredibly awkward flashbacks). The second is far more interesting as Chesire is introduced as one of many assassins looking to cash in on the bounty on Jason Todd and his friends. Although she’s unsuccessful, she does pave the way for the next wave of killers who include Bronze Tiger. With the title going to such lengths to reintroduce old characters I have to wonder if this is the title where Catman might make his return.

A whiny blank slate Jason Todd is about as bland as it sounds, and although Chesire’s appearance works the issue has a hard time determining just how many powers this new version of the character actually has (she can phase, now?). Hit-and-Miss.

[DC, $4.99]

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A + X #8

/ / Comics

A + X #8The concept for A + X is pretty simple. It’s your basic team-up issue with one member of the Avengers working with one member of the X-Men. Broken into a main story and a back-up story (featuring a different team-up) I’ve found the series to be occasionally entertaining but also inconsistent as usually one story in each issue is far better than the other. A+X #8 marked an occasion where I liked the possibilities of both team-ups.

The first story gives us Spider-Woman and Kitty Pryde working together to take down the Absorbing Man and agents of A.I.M. in the New York underground. Although it was Spider-Woman’s inclusion that made me pick up the issue, the story is actually far more about Kitty Pryde and how scary powerful she has become. In truth Jessica Drew is little more than back-up here.

Although I’ve never been a big fan of Hawkeye, I really enjoyed Deadpool Team-Up and the idea of Deadpool driving any Avenger crazy for half an issue appealed to me. Despite having some nice moments as well, the story isn’t nearly as zany or outrageous as I was hoping. Hit-and-Miss.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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Fables #129

/ / Comics

Fables #129The Snow White arc comes to an end with the character (finally) refusing to no longer play the victim to Prince Brandish physical and mental attack which over the past few months has included breaking her arm, turning her husband into a glass statue, threatening to murder her children, borderline sexual assault, and keeping her hostage from the rest of Fabletown.

As her friends work to cancel the magical protections surrounding Brandish, Snow and the man claiming to be her true husband have a final duel which leaves Snow White free of Brandish but not without a price as one of Fables leading characters won’t survive the issue (although in a land of magic and resurrection anything is possible).

I’ve had very mixed feelings about this arc which cast Snow in the role of victim for fall too long. Although she finally gets some justice, the loss of Bigby actually makes it feel like Brandish is the real victor here. Hit-and-Miss.

[Vertigo, $2.99]

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Parker

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

ParkerJason Statham stars as Donald Westlake‘s Parker, a career criminal and anti-hero who keeps to his own code and often, as in this case of this adaptation of Westlake’s novel Flashfire, has to fight for what’s owed him after being double-crossed on the latest score. Statham isn’t the first actor to portray Westlake’s character (Lee Marvin, Jim Brown, Robert Duvall, Peter Coyote, Mel Gibson all played character over the years), but Parker is the first where the title character keeps the name.

The movie begins with a heist of $1,000,000 from an Ohio State Fair by Parker and a group of thieves (Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce, Clifton Collins Jr., Micah A. Hauptman) he has never worked with before who take his cut from the job and leave him for dead on the side of the road. The rest of the film revolves around Parker following the group to Palm Beach and shadowing their latest score with the help of a local Realtor (Jennifer Lopez) before finally taking his revenge.

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Antiviral

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Antiviral
  • IMDB: link

AntiviralWritten and directed by first-time feature director Brandon Cronenberg, Antiviral is an unusual look at mankind’s obsession with both celebrity and germs in a not-too-distant future where the combination of both becomes the world’s most highly sought after commodities.

Syd March (Caleb Landry Jones) has an unusual job. He works as a salesman for the Lucas Clinic, a company that specializes in the world’s most bizarre fetish. Lucas harvests diseases from celebrities and injects a non-contagious version of them into paying clients who wish to feel closer to the people they see on television and in magazines.

Syd’s problem starts with his personal use of the viruses and his willingness to sell them on the black market to a local butcher (Joe Pingue). After extracting the latest illness from the firm’s biggest celebrity (Sarah Gadon), Syd decides to sample it before turning it over to the lab. However soon he discovers the celebrity has died of the mysterious illness, and he has started to exhibit the same symptoms.

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