Captain America: The Ghost Army (Family Comic Friday)

Last Summer after finishing Shuri and T'Challa: Into the Heartlands, I was treated to a preview of Captain America: The Ghost Army. Needless to say, I was excited. I just didn't know it would take almost an entire year to get to read it!

In Central Europe, Captain America and Bucky are assisting a British Unit getting swamped by Nazis. Things look dire as the nearest squadron that could help is miles and miles away. Then all of a sudden, sounds of tanks, fighter planes and a whole lot of soldiers are heard in the nearby woods. The Nazis flee and Capt. and company appear to be saved- by theatrics!

Meet the Ghost Army of the United States government. Led by Private Jim Morita, posing as a 4-star general, the Ghost Army is actually composed of inflatables, cardboard cutouts and large speakers playing the top hits of the Allied Forces. Based on a real battalion during World War II, this isn't the only Ghost Army in the book. That's because a villainous sorcerer is working on creating his own army of the undead for the Nazis!

Amazon rates this book as appropriate for readers in grades 3-7. Honestly, I am okay with that rating. But I really think that it's going to be the adults who really get a kick out of this book. There are so many classic characters that appear in the book. Ones like Dum Dum Dugan, a beloved member of the Howling Commandos, who'll later become a beloved agent of SHIELD. The average 10 year old just isn't going to appreciate Dum Dum's addition to this book. Nor will they get the numerous inside jokes and references to both mainstream and deep dive characters and story arcs like the adults will!

That all being said, writer Alan Gratz did one heck of a job on this book. But he couldn't have done it without the artwork of Brett Schoonover. Gratz might have made countless references to nearly 80 years of Marvel Comics history, but it was Schoonover who made those references come alive. The pair did such an amazing job that I am willing to overlook and forgive the anachronistic use of many of the legendary members of Marvel Horror used in a pivotal scene just because it was such a fun scene. Being a continuity purist, I consider it to be a guilty pleasure!

The Ghost Army was supposed to come out in January. Delays stretched it out to May. I had to wait until July to find a copy. But it was all worth it as that was one of the most thrilling, fun, and a little bit scary reads that I have enjoyed without complaint in a very long time. Perfect for the 4th of July or Halloween!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Black Adam (2022)

Black Adam is one of the 3 main arch enemies of the Billy Batson Captain Marvel, otherwise known as Shazam! So to have a Black Adam movie without the Big Red Cheese is a pretty odd move. 

2022's Black Adam is what many call Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's failed attempt to take control of the DC Cinematic Universe. After Scott Snyder's Justice League failed to garner the interest of a cohesive universe of life action films, many saw The Rock's picture as make or break for the Snyder-verse. 

Having a superstar like Johnson was a smart choice for Warner Bros. The former wrestler is charming. He's got a legit, strong fan base. He's proven that he can bring in the fans. And most of all, compared to Ezra Miller, Snyder usurper Joss Whedon, and Suicide Squad visionary James Gunn, Dwayne Johnson is clean-cut and family friendly. But to make your first entry into DC films a big budget potential blockbuster about a character that is the complete opposite of Johnson was just a mistake.

That's not to say that Black Adam didn't have its merits. The first act of the film was great. It told the origin story of the character. Having Djimon Hounsou return as the wizard Shazam was a smart choice that I appreciated. We learn of the rise of fictional Middle Eastern nation Kahndaq through the ages to becoming a land full of oppressed people ruled by that ruthless organized crime syndicate, Intergang. 

We then meet young Amon Tomaz and his family. Amon's mother Adrianna is a freedom fighter who longs for a day when Kahndaq is free. Her pursuit of the legend of the ancient champion of Kahndaq awakens Black Adam, who while disoriented by how modern everything has become, the legendary figure also hates to see his ancestors oppressed and begins to clear house of Intergang. 

Enter the Justice Society of America. Summoned by Amanda Waller, the team lead by Hawkman are to bring Black Adam down. When the JSA arrives to stop Adam's violence, Adrianna makes an interesting point. Why is it that America can have superheroes to save Americans but when another country does the same thing, the USA intervenes? 

The argument made sense to me. Sure, it brings up some problematic thoughts of colonialism, and American foreign diplomacy. But why is it in all the DC books when other countries get powers, the JLA, JSA or Suicide Squad have to put those countries in their place?

At this point, the movie got predictable. JSA fights Adam. Amon gets kidnapped. Black Adam feels bad for the kid's capture and surrenders to Hawkman. The surprise villain of the movie gets mega-evil powers. The JSA realizes that they need Black Adam to defeat this powerful new foe. Big battle. Victory. End of story. I've seen the 2nd and 3rd act a million times and I just got bored. And I really shouldn't have.

This movie gave viewers the first ever live appearances of 3 super heroes. Atom Smasher II, Cyclone, and Doctor Fate. Fate was one of my favorite figures in the Super Powers action figure line-up from the 80s and Pierce Brosnan was excellent as an aged, wise Kent Nelson. As for Hawkman, this was the 4th incarnation of the character on screen. But Aldis Hodge's Carter Hall was by far the best of the quartet. Having these guys should have really helped make this a great film. But in reality, they mostly all just brought the story down. 

Why couldn't we have gotten Zachary Levi as Shazam and Mark Strong returning as Sivana, playing angel and devil to try to convince Black Adam which path to choose? That would have been a much better movie. Though, you would have to keep Pierce Brosnan's character. His Doctor Fate did add that extra layer of cool.

The film made just under $400 million dollars globally. Some analysts say that Black Adam broke even. But it was far from a hit. I think the biggest problem was that Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Serra managed to piss off Warner Bros. and DC. During the big Black Adam/JSA battle, Adam and Hawkman wind up in Amon's bedroom which is decked out in Justice League stuff. Black Adam manages to punch holes through pictures of Aquaman, The Flash and a Superman S-Shield, symbolically telling viewers that Black Adam is the new main man of DC films. But when Black Adam knocks over a statue of Batman from a high display shelf and it crashes to the floor, I think execs cried foul. Because nobody can topple Batman as the biggest box office draw of them all!

Just before this film debuted, DC and Warner announced that James Gunn would be heading all future projects both live action and animated. I think producers and high ups saw that scene in post-production, told the director and star to remove it. They declined and as a result, the studio pulled their backing. 

Think about it. Where were the toys? The t-shirts? Happy Meal toys? There were literally zero tie-ins to this movie other than some variant comic covers and a Black Adam miniseries. I really think this film was intended to be a bold new direction for DC films after the debacle with Justice League and it slapped a lot of people right in the face. Instead of bringing DC movies ahead of Marvel, Black Adam managed to push all DC projects back at least 3-5 years. 

A film that had so much potential. But egos got in the way. Cliches seen in countless superhero films and TV shows just oozed throughout every scene. Plus, some great superheroes were misused or just ignored completely to prevent this from being a classic in the superhero movie genre.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

Murder, New England: A Historical Collection of Killer True-Crime Tales by M. William Phelps

I know what you are thinking- I read a book. Not a graphic novel. Not a comic book. And not just a book about super heroes, cooking or culinary, I read an honest-to-god true crime anthology!

Now, I've read these types of books before. But I'm not like the average true crime buff. The story has got to really pique my interest. I like Sherlock Holmes, Victorian Era, serial killer stuff. Erik Larson's Devil In The White City was a perfect combination of those macabre interests.

This previous father's day, I took a day trip to Bald Head Island. While we waited for our golf cart reservation to come up, my wife and I perused the island library, which is a tiny single room building with no A/C. There's not even a full-time staff. The idea is to give a book/take a book. Or make a donation, which is what my wife and I decided to do. 

As we were about to leave, I saw this book in the window. My wife, being from New England, would really enjoy this I thought. So I showed it to her. My bride was very interested and upon reading about some of the tales, which take place around that Victorian Era, I wanted this book too!

Since my wife had a bunch of other things on her list and I didn't bring a book to read at the beach, I drove into this collection of 8 true crime stories. 

Stories include:

• Pre-Colonial Times: What could be the first recorded event of spontaneous combustion. Or it could be one of the first times that an accusation from a ghost (during someone else's dreams) doomed a man to death by hanging.
• Post-War of 1812: A he said/she said tale of a murdered single mother. The teenage victim who survived the assault isn't a very good witness. But the man accused isn't a very nice person when he drinks. Who was telling the truth?
• The Mafia in New England. Not really a true crime tale as much as a historical account of how the Irish mafia went from being the #1 crime family in Boston, dropping to #2 after the rise of the Italians and then coming back into control of Beantown thanks to the demented Whitey Bulger.
• Modern Times- A trio of teens who get high and enjoy true crime TV shows plan the perfect murder; only to really make a giant mess of things!
• More Modern Times- A woman brings her husband breakfast one morning. She found him lying in a terrible pool of blood. And she blames the family horse on the crime!
• And From This Sure Ain't Sesame Street File- the landscaper and handyman for TV's Big Bird, Carol Spinney, is the prime suspect in the disappearance of a respected school employee.

M. William Phelps is an engrossing writer. He does seem to put his opinions into the story. But Phelps isn't the first such writer of true crime to do this. I think it would be kinda hard to write about these types of grisly tales and not need to express some of your disgust at these repulsive acts. Plus, the author isn't a journalist per say. As long as he wasn't on the 11 o'clock news doing a report on a recent killing, I don't think Phelps is in a situation here where he must keep his opinions to himself and just relate to facts.

Now I do think something is seriously wrong with the editors at Lyons Press because I found several inaccuracies that just didn't make sense. On the back cover, when talking about the trio who plan the perfect crime, it says they murdered a grandmother. Yet in the segment about them, it's plainly mentioned that the woman killed was one of the guy's aunts and that she had never married or bore children. There's no way this woman could have been a grandmother!

There's also an instance during the segment where the lady accuses her horse of killing her husband. That murder occurred in 2006. According to Phelps, the last murder in that community was in 1980. But about a paragraph later, it's mentioned that there was 'that murder in 1983'. So which is it 1980 or 1983? Really, I think the editors should have caught this. 

Another issue I had, and I really don't think it is the author's fault, is the spacing of the sentences. There's several sentences where there's no space between the period and the start of the next sentence. Several words are done like this as well. I understand that Phelps uses quotes from the time periods. And sometimes the letter S looked like a F. People omitted letters and used commas in their place. That kind of stuff I overlook. It's the errors that are riddled throughout the author's commentary that are hard to forgive. And yes, I checked. This was not an advanced reader copy that I got my hands on.

I would love to read another book by M. William Phelps. The two books advertised on the last page of this one look interesting. The Devil's Rooming House, about the first female serial killer and The Devil's Right Hand about the tragic life of the Colt family. Hopefully, the editing is better in them.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun

Prisoners of the Sun picks up where The Seven Crystal Balls left off. Professor Calculus was kidnapped by members of an ancient Peruvian cult. Dressed in ceremonial garb, the cultists were recovering artifacts that an expedition team had removed from a sacred temple in Peru. Along the way, they find Calculus committing a blasphemy by wearing a consecrated bracelet the professor found. Kidnapping the professor, the worshipers head back to Peru, where they will ceremonially kill Calculus for his sacrilege. 

On their tail is Tintin, his faithful pup Snowy, Captain Haddock and the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson. Upon setting foot on South American soil, the rescuers are immediately on their own. But when Tintin defends a young boy being harassed by a pair of rough looking tourists, the young reporter makes a new friend who just happens to know the location of Professor Calculus' prison: the Temple of the Sun!

When I reviewed the previous book, I commented how Herge added all this extra stuff that unnecessarily stretched out The Seven Crystal Balls into a two-parter. Though I wanted to read the rest of the Tintin books, I was afraid that despite the variety of locales, each book was going to be a carbon copy of the previous edition. Prisoners of the Sun eased those fears. 

A trek through the Andes. Misadventure with astronomy. A mysterious plague. Mummified Peruvians. What more could you ask for?! Yes, Thomson and Thompson are the comic relief as usual. But they manage to up their buffoonery game each book. The absent-minded nature of Professor Calculus can get really annoying (Just ask Capt. Haddock.) But at least he's only in this thing for a few pages. 

Another fun adventure. Thrilling. A good length with a new character that I hope makes a return!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls

Members of an expedition to Peru and Bolivia are falling ill from a mysterious malady. One by one, the men have contracted a sleeping sickness. Even more odd is that every day at the same time, those slumbering patients cry out in agony and then resume their sleeps.

Meanwhile, Captain Haddock is having trouble adjusting to his new found wealth and fame. The absent minded Professor Calculus has settled in at Haddock's lonesome estate, conducting experiments. But otherwise, the two gentlemen keep to themselves.

As more members of the South American expedition succumb to the sleeping sickness, Detectives Thompson and Thomson recruit Tintin to help investigate the mystery. There's a lone clue found at each of the victims' places of residence: broken glass. As Calculus knows the last remaining member of the team to stay clear of this sickness, the professor is tasked with introducing everyone and establishing a guard around the final survivor. Haddock comes along to provide added protection.

One night, the mystery deepens when an intruder dressed as a Peruvian native holding a glass orb, terrorizes the house. A series of hi-jinks ensues and the final explorer succumbs to the sleeping sickness when the invader smashes the crystal ball releasing a strange knockout gas. Meanwhile, a member of the team has gone missing and their disappearance will see Tintin and crew heading to Peru!

The Seven Crystal Balls was another Herge triumph. However, I felt like instead of this book ending with a cliffhanger, Herge could have cut a couple of superfluous scenes and completed everything in one nice package. Take out the scene at the opera. Eliminate all the slapstick at the mansion with the intruder. Just have him knock-out the last member of the expedition and let that be that. Plus, when the teammate of Tintin gets kidnapped, instead of throwing some red herrings at us, just have Tintin and company head over to Peru and go from there. 

So this is a good story. It's just excessive. 

Herge wrote 24 total Tintin adventures. And thanks to this one and Red Rackham's Treasure, the previous tale, I do very much want to read them. I just hope that there's not too much of a  formulaic plot to the point that each book is a direct copy of the ones before. That kind of thing could get boring real quick. 

I guess I'll just have to keep reading to find out. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Basketful of Heads

Joe Hill is the only author whose collective body of work terrifies me. Hill's magnum opus, NOS4A2 gave me such chills, that I had to stop reading it for several months before I got the courage to finish it. Several chapters of his Dark Horse series Locke & Key gave me sleepless nights. And his 2016 work The Fireman, while the least scary of his works that I have read, still had moments of horror that I just can't shake off. 

And yet, I can't stop reading his stuff!

Basketful of Heads was Hill's first miniseries published under DC's Hill House imprint. With the collapse of Vertigo, DC Comics partnered with the author to develop a line of horror comics based on his previously published short stories and new works. Other authors were supposed to be involved in this project. Shortly, DC announced the creation of the DC Horror and Black Label imprints and those other stories were released under that line. 

This 2019 miniseries is set during the end of the Summer of 1983. June Branch has arrived on Brody Island, off the coast of Maine, to pick up her boyfriend, Liam. Liam has been working during his college break as a junior law enforcement officer to help with the influx of Summer tourists. Coming off his last shift, Liam and June encounter a chaotic scene. A quartet of prisoners on work release have escaped from Shawkshank Prison!

These men are considered armed and dangerous. So Liam decides to stay with Chief Clausen's family to protect them while the police force conducts their manhunt. With a tropical storm approaching the island and the tragic news of a fallen cop, June and Liam soon find themselves at the Chief's house alone.

The storm causes the power to go out at the Clausen compound. While June looks for flashlights, the prisoners invade the home and take Liam hostage. In the melee, June looks for something to defend herself and grabs what she believes to be an ordinary antique axe from Chief Clausen's den. Only when she lops off the head of one of the prisoners who stayed behind, she discovers that the weapon has magical powers, allowing the decapitated criminal's head to remain alive. 

June learns from the head that Liam has some sort of unknown item in his possession. Probably money or jewels, which could greatly help with their escape. June knows nothing of this. But if she wants to see her boyfriend alive ever again, June has got to get searching, taking the talking head, and placing it in a picnic basket with her, in hopes of uncovering clues.

As she encounters the other prisoners, June's basket grows heavy with more heads. But is she any closer to saving Liam? And what is so special about this axe that it keeps the dead from dying?

Basketful of Heads was a brilliant dark comedy. It gives homage to JAWS being set on Brody Island. And it ties into the Stephen King universe with the inclusion of criminals from Shawshank. I was expecting this to be a book about a serial killer with a Little Red Riding Hood fetish. Instead, I got a thrilling mystery that was as funny as it was creepy. 

Chilean artist Gabriel Rodriguez is the quintessential partner when Joe Hill makes comics. But I must say that when you cannot get Gabe Rodriguez, the appropriate substitute can be Leomacs! He's got this quality that makes the living seem so vibrant and the dead look like rotting flesh. Creepy good! And the regular covers, crafted so deftly by Reika Murakami. (Can you find the eyeball hiding in this cover?) Once again- Creepy good!

In 2022, Joe Hill crafted a sequel. Refrigerator Full of Heads promises to continue the mystery of the magical axe. If it's half as good as this book, I really, REALLY want to read it. 

As for Hill House? Does it still exist? I can't find any info as to if Joe Hill has more horror comic books on the horizon. The storyline of Locke & Key has been continued and a couple of prequels set during major wars in American history are forecasted to be in the works. But I really want to know if the latest victim at the hands of horror writer Joe Hill is his Hill House imprint!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

March: Book Two (2023 Comic Book & Graphic Novel Reading Challenge)

At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con, Congressman John Lewis led a ceremonial march, cosplaying as himself- only 40 years younger. Not only was it the 40th anniversary of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in hopes of procuring voting rights for African Americans, 2015 marked the debut of volume 2 of Lewis' graphic novel trilogy March, recounting his role in the civil rights movement. 

Volume 2 covered the following events-

Having successfully participated in a boycott protesting Nashville restaurants refusing to serve black customers, Lewis turns his sights to other cities before planning on joining a Quaker relief organization in India.

In 1961, a group calling themselves 'The Freedom Riders' plan on travelling from Washington DC to Louisiana, protesting the Federal Government's refusal to enact a Supreme Court ruling that called segregated interstate travel by bus to be unconstitutional. Lewis joins CORE as one of 13 black and white riders. During the initial trip, the Freedom Riders were assaulted by the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Lewis is beaten unconscious and sent back to Tennessee to recover. 

While recuperating, the bus is firebombed and CORE ends their freedom ride plans.

Forgoing his mission trip to India, Lewis instead works with other college students in another series of Freedom Rides. Lewis is arrested several times, including a stint towards the end of 1962 that will inspire Dr. Martin Luther King to participate. The following year, King will be arrested in Alabama where he will write his 'Letter From a Birmingham Jail', a response to criticism that King and others allowed themselves to remain unjustly imprisoned rather than posting bail.

After the relative success of these second rounds of protest rides, Lewis was elected president of the SNCC- the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, in 1963. As a result of his new status, Lewis is invited to participate in a massive march planned to be held in Washington, D.C.. This new role puts John Lewis shoulder to shoulder with several prominent civil rights leaders, including NAACP leader Roy Wilkins and Dr. King. The march would be held in August with John Lewis being the youngest keynote speaker and the last to talk before King delivers his iconic 'I Have A Dream' speech.

The volume ends with the tragic youth Sunday bombing of the 16th Street Church in Birmingham.

Returning to the 2015 march reenactment in San Diego. Rep. Lewis marched throughout the San Diego Convention Center hand-in-hand with hundreds of kids. According to March co-writer (and Lewis congressional aid) Andrew Aydin, John Lewis wanted to show comic book loving youth that not all superheroes wear capes or have superpowers. 

To properly recreate his 1965 march cosplay, John Lewis wore a tan overcoat with a backpack, just as he did when Lewis led about 600 people across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. John Lewis wanted to make sure for this anniversary event that his backpack contained everything the original had with him during the protest. Those items were 2 books, a toothbrush, toothpaste, an apple and an orange. According to Aydin, only the orange was missing to complete the ensemble. 

John Lewis earned a lot of fans during his 2015 Comic-Con activity. Not as many admirers as he did throughout his life as first a civil rights leader and later as a representative of the people of Georgia's 5th District. But thanks to this event and his graphic novel memoirs, John Lewis reintroduced himself to a new generation.

Book Three of March would be released in 2016 with a deluxe trilogy box set available the following year. Artwork for the trilogy was by Nate Powell. Lewis and Aydin would later publish a sequel called Run, detailing Lewis' life and career after the passage of the 1965 Civil Rights Act. 

John Lewis passed away in 2020 at the age of 80; a year before Run would debut in stores.

Completing this review completes Task #40 (Set in the 1960s) of the 2023 Comic Book and Graphic Novel Reading Challenge.