3 Razors

Uncanny X-Men #12

/ / Comics

Uncanny X-Men #12Magneto‘s plan for his team of X-Men takes a turn when he proposes a partnership with the Hellfire Club. Psylocke balking at the idea of joining the Hellfire Club also leads to a flashback of Magneto recruiting Betsy as the most unlikely member of his team of X-Men.

From Magneto’s perspective a partnership with the Hellfire Club makes perfect sense as his larger plans for mutants call for all the allies the master of magnetism can muster. Like Psylocke, I’ve never been that big a fan of the elitist club of kinksters and mutant aristocrats but reintroducing them here as potential allies makes sense (while also questioning just how reliable or useful these new allies truly are). On the flip side teaming up with the Hellfire certainly seems to push Magneto’s team out of the gray and firmly in the villain column.

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Wonder Woman #5

/ / Comics

Wonder Woman #5“The Lies” begins to unite both Wonder Woman and Cheetah‘s story with the subplot of Steve Trevor and his unit in the jungles of Bwunda. Wonder Woman and Cheetah’s trek through the jungle into the home of the bloodthirsty god Urzkartaga leads them to discover the captured soldiers… although the jungle deity’s plans for Trevor mean we’ll have to wait at least until one more issue before his reunion with Diana.

The comic also features a new subplot thousands of miles away concerning an unknown entity’s interest in Wonder Woman and her reunion with Trevor. Taking up a few too many pages while teasing us with information the comic has no intention of sharing just yet, the subplot slows down both Wonder Woman and Trevor’s individual tales. Of course, this allows the issue to end on a cliffhanger.

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Mechanic: Resurrection

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Mechanic: Resurrection
  • IMDb: link

Mechanic: ResurrectionThe follow-up to 2011’s The Mechanic returns Jason Statham as retired hitman Arthur Bishop. After faking his death, Bishop has lived the good life in Rio until a courier (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam) for an old frenemy (Sam Hazeldine) throws Bishop’s life into chaos. After falling for the honeypot (Jessica Alba) sent in to earn his trust, Bishop is blackmailed into committing the impossible assassinations of the world’s three largest arms dealers (Femi Elufowoju Jr., Toby Eddington, and Tommy Lee Jones) in a matter of days when he fails to prevent her kidnapping.

Better than the first film, director Dennis Gansel relies too heavily at times on close shaky-cam quick-cut action scenes. The script by Philip Shelby and Tony Mosher is more convoluted than necessary for a rather straightforward action film. Because of this the story requires a bit more set-up, following the open action sequence, before the movie really gets going. The set-up is really just an excuse to throw Statham into action scenes in multiple exotic locales (Thailand, Brazil, and Australia). On that level it works pretty well, especially during it’s best scene involving Bishop’s murder by swimming pool.

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Suicide Squad #1

/ / Comics

Suicide Squad #1Although Suicide Squad: Rebirth #1 kept the latest Task Force X to a small group involving only the foursome of Rick Flag, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Harley Quinn, the first issue of the new series enlarges the group to closer match the team seen in the recent Suicide Squad movie. The smaller team actually worked for a tighter story and by not introducing all the characters in the Rebirth issue the comic has to cover a bit too much of the same ground the second time out.

Joining the foursome on their trip to Siberia to track down a cosmic weapon are Katana, the Enchantress, and Killer Croc. While I like these characters to varying degrees we don’t get enough of any of them to get a great idea yet of what this comic will look like.

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