Hip Hop Family Tree Volume 4 (1984-85)

Ed Piskor's award-winning series about the history of hip hop and rap continues. In this volume, East Coast rap is seeing the bright lights of Hollywood as several movies about the burgeoning music genre is finally catching the eyes of both white America and MTV. Over on the left coast, West Coast rap is starting to gain it's own identity which unfortunately is rooted in hard drugs such as crack as well as gang culture.

A number of household name players in hip-hop make their first appearances here. Perhaps the most famous name is Philadelphia's Fresh Prince, Will Smith, who is not quite ready to become one of the biggest names in TV and movies yet. Also expect to see female act Salt-n-Pepa, Biz Markie and Easy E starting to get in on the hip-hop 'fad.'

This chapter started a little slower than the other books. But by the end of the account of 1984's impact on the music industry, the storytelling pace was back to normal. The art however was as phenomenal as always.

This volume of Hip Hop Family Tree is from 2016. Supposedly, Ed Piskor is planning on making 7 total volumes. But I am wondering if that's ever going to be the case. Piskor keeps saying throughout this edition to expect more details on certain artists in future books. But with 2 and a half years having gone by and X-Men books now appearing to be his main focus, I'm not going to hold my breath for volume 5.

I'm guessing I'm never going to witness the greatest crossover event in hip-hop history between Run-DMC and Aerosmith in comic book form.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Suicide Squad

   Spiraling out of the events of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Central Intelligence adviser Amanda Waller seeks approval from the Department of Defense to held up a special group of meta-humans called Task Force X. Unofficially known as the Suicide Squad, Task Force X is made up of the worst of the worst villains and top notch commandos the DC Universe has to offer and it's their mission to do the tasks that the American government can't do without serious repercussions. 

     When a supernatural threat begins to lay waste to Midway City, the Suicide Squad are activated and must learn to work as a group or they'll die in a bloodbath of Biblical proportions. Meanwhile, the villainous Joker, upset over losing his girlfriend Harley Quinn to the prison system, works in the background to steal her back in the midst of the Suicide Squad's deadly mission. 

     I don't know what Rotten Tomatoes was thinking- this movie wasn't bad. I went to see it with my wife and she even liked it and she has very little background knowledge of most of the characters. Plus, she said it kept her attention and she would recommend it for people to go and see. For a violent movie such as this, that's high praise from a non-comics reader.

     The film has been slammed for being chaotic. But, there's a ton of back story to go through and spending the first 15-minutes trying to provide dossiers on the members is vital background information that needs to be presented for both the causal viewer like my wife and expert collectors such as me. Now, the opening credits, as well as the closing ones, are a bit of a mess, but really who judges a film on credits?

     Of course, Harley Quinn, played by the Wolf of Wall Street's Margot Robbie stole the show but it wasn't Jared Leto's Joker, who dominates the trailers but has maybe 15 minutes screen-time as best, that interested me as much as The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Yes, Will Smith as the ultimate assassin Deadshot was amazing. So what if his eye piece was on the wrong eye. If Harley was the heart of the Suicide Squad, Smith's character was the soul.

 
     Another character that just literally kills in Suicide Squad was El Diablo played by Jay Hernandez (Friday Night Lights.) His troubled gang banger who refuses to use his pyrotechnic super powers as penance because of a tragedy in his mysterious past was intriguing and I felt like his performance could be Oscar worthy.

     The one character I really felt coming into this picture that was miscast was Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. To me, CCH Pounder, who provided the voice of the anti-hero bureaucrat in the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series, was Amanda Waller. But Davis did a pretty good job and I wouldn't mind seeing her back in the role for the inevitable sequel. 

     If you've been on the fence about seeing Suicide Squad, I urge you don't listen to the haters. I had every intention of seeing it last week, but I was too exhausted from a 6 day work week and spend most of last Sunday asleep. This movie was a lot better than certain internet sites would have you believe. I really enjoyed it and I would love to see a director's cut. (Just please don't release it only on Blu-ray!!!) 

     A great comic book based film but a little too mature for those under 13. This is NOT Batman V Superman, people! 

     I give it a solid 8.

     Worth Consuming

    Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.