Friday, April 27, 2018

MadCap At The Movies - "Avengers: Infinity War"

Go see this movie.

...no, that's not a joke. Get up, leave your computer or other internet-accessing device, and go see this movie.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Exiles #1" (2018)

Ooooh boy. Let's unpack this, shall we? Exiles was a series that basically was Sliders (several of the episodes of which I've reviewed on this very blog) meeting with superheroes. While not officially an X-Men book, it had several characters (and several variation of characters) from the X-Men side of the Marvel universe. There were others, of course, but for the most part it's an X-Men book that wasn't really an X-Men book. The original team comprised of Clarice Ferguson - aka Blink - from the Age of Apocalypse universe, a version of Mimic - aka Calvin Rankin - from another universe, Nocturne - the daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch from another universe, Thunderbird (aka John Proudstar) and Mr. Misguided Declaration of Heroism himself, Morph.

The first series ran for one hundred issues (absolutely unheard of in Marvel today) and is considered by many to be a classic that is unmatched across the multiverse...at least until Chris Claremont came in for the final leg of the story and turned it into the "Psylocke and all her friends" show.

And people say that Wolverine is a publicity hound.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

MadCap (And a Ginger!) At the Movies - "Rampage"

So...Rampage. It was an arcade game back in the day when Midway was not bought out by the corporate puppets of Warner Brothers. Today, it's a one hundred and seven minute long movie that my friend Stoopidkid425 (he's the ginger in the title, check him out on PSN) and I went to see. And it's...okay.

That's it, really. It's just okay.

I've seen people going around saying that it's a triumph and finally breaks the curse of bad video game movies...and I really can't agree for a variety of reasons. Namely, we already have video game movies that are not bad. They're not masterpieces, to be sure, but there are a few ones that are enjoyable. There aren't many, sure, but there are those out there. There's Mortal Kombat or DOA: Dead or Alive if you want examples.

Yes, I know that both are stupid and shameless, but that's rather fitting of video game adaptations, don't you think?

Friday, April 13, 2018

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Far Cry 5"

So...Far Cry 5. A game that most of the mainstream gaming press seems to think should have carried some sort of political message due to, as the Eighth Doctor once put it, the human need to see "patterns in things that aren't there". But I'm here to tell you, folks, that there is a political message. It's buried in a very, very deep bit of subtext, so don't worry gaming press, I understand how it was so easy for you to miss even as you went over the entire game with a fine-toothed comb. You wanna know what it is? Because I can tell you. Ready?

CULTS ARE REALLY, REALLY BAD, MKAY?!

The fact that that even needs to be said is troubling. There's not a "two sides" thing. There's not a "not portraying crazy cults accurately thing". Cults are bad. That's the message. I'd say this isn't seeing the forest for the trees, but you people are clearly dense as all get out.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Spider-Man: One More Day"

We come to it at last, my dear readers! The greatest story ever told in the entire Spider-Man saga! That's right, it's finally time! I promised you all a special review because I missed Saturday (this week was a particular hard week at my job, sorry about that), and here it is. The definitive Spider-Man story. Published in 2007, One More Day is widely considered to be not only the most accurate, but most respectful portrayal of the character as created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Really, Joe Quesada and JMS created a masterpiece here and I am privileged to be able to even talk to you about it.

Our story begins in Amazing Spider-Man #544, back before Marvel took the very brilliant idea of rebooting their series every 25 issues or so to heart. And a good thing, too! Who wants to have an easy way to track the story by issues when we could just jump between different volumes and try to figure out the difference between this #1 and that #1. It's absolutely brilliant! But I'm not here to talk about Marvel's fantastic business practices, which in recent years have brought fans together and created so many beloved characters such as Riri Williams and Squirrel Girl's modern incarnation. No, we're here to talk about Joe Quesada's magnum opus!