3.5 Razors

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #124

/ / Comics

Christmas comes for the Turtles in the form of a silent issue without narration or dialogue. Playing on recent events, we see various members of the Splinter Clan searching in vain for the missing weasels . The first Christmas without Splinter is also felt by the brothers who still don’t know about the new face hiding in the shadows as Oroku Saki finds Old Hob and the weasels, and lets the Turtles know through and anonymous message that they are safe finally allowing for a low-key Christmas.

Without the need for dialogue, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #124 hits on several of the themes of the current arc offering a melancholy Christmas for all concerned, but one at least where the Turtles know the weasels are safe. Saki continues to help where he can as we wait for the former nemesis to eventually reveal himself. 

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Legacies – I Can’t Be the One to Stop You

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legacies – I Can’t Be the One to Stop You
  • wiki: link

Working as the show’s mid-season finale, “I Can’t Be the One to Stop You” plays on subverting expectations as Lizzie (Jenny Boyd) catches up to not-Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) who is actually Aurora de Martel (Rebecca Breeds) walking around in Hope’s body and we’re teased with a team-up between the two prior to Lizzie helping Hope get back her body. However, what she earns for her trouble is a broken neck (although not apparently a lasting death). Despite a tease that Hope’s humanity had returned, our tribrid remains an emotionless killer who now has an undead friend to deal with (along with a crazy vampire still plotting revenge).

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The Hand of God

/ / Home Video
  • Title: È stata la mano di Dio
  • IMDb: link

Filippo Scotti stars as the aimless Fabietto in 80s Naples in this coming of age story from Paolo Sorrentino. We’re introduced to Fabietto’s extended dysfunctional family including his womanizing father (Toni Servillo), prankster mother (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother with dreams of becoming an actor (Marlon Joubert), and lascivious aunt (Luisa Ranieri). The film is beautifully shot by Daria D’Antonio framing our stumbling protagonist disconnected from the world long before tragedy strikes upending his life even more.

Sorrentino doesn’t seem to have a destination for Fabietto in mind. Although he grows over the course of the film taking interest in more than football, it’s hard to tell how much he’s actually learned. The untethered protagonist means the film seems aimless as well, even if that’s the point as Fabietto finally discovers he can no longer allow life to pass him by and must start making hard choices.

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The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure

/ / Books & Magazines
  • Title: The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
  • wiki: link

Way Back Wednesday takes us back to a mystery involving the Three Investigators whose mantra of “We Investigate Everything” leads them into a pair of cases involving a museum robbery in broad daylight and an elderly woman being tormented by gnomes. The museum robbery starts off the Three Investigators story as a large jeweled golden belt disappears, but that crime is put on hold for much of the book as Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews instead investigate the odd appearance of gnomes up to nefarious purposes scaring an elderly woman, while hiding their true purposes for tunneling under her home, which is brought to the trio by their old friend and mentor Hector Sebastian (Alfred Hitchcock in the original printing).

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The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #9

/ / Comics

The recently salvaged pirate ship of Captain Black Jack Paddywhack which was shipwrecked in 1764 along with a treasure map to the pirate’s stash of gold brings out Mystery, Inc., various treasure hunters, and the Riddler. Oh, the ghost of Black Jack Paddywhack shows up as well to scare off all but the most determined of the treasure hunters, forcing Scooby and the gang to team with the villain to try and find the treasure and solve the mystery by deciphering a list of clues and riddles.

Batman only makes a cameo at the end to take the Riddler into custody, while leaving Scooby and the gang working with the super-villain for most of the issue in an unexpected twist. Daphne is able to discover the source of the ghost while Velma uncovers the trick the Riddler has played on them all, but in the end it takes all of them to find the treasure.

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The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #9 Read More »