From MadCap's Couch - "Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead"

And incidentally, a Happy Christmas to all of you at home!

...that was for the Classic Who fans in the audience.

I have to admit, had I been particularly clever and started this retrospective a few weeks earlier, I could be doing The Christmas Invasion right now and be that much closer to getting through the episodes that feature Rose...and into episodes where Rose is there despite not actually being there. But I'll get to that complaint in a minute. Fortunate for us, The Unquiet Dead is a Christmas episode! ...well, an episode set during Christmas at any rate.

This is New Who's first offering from writer Mark Gatiss, who would come to prominence far, far more when Steven Moffat takes over the producer's chair and would write a total of nine episodes for the series as a whole. And while he and Moffat are off doing their Dracula reboot, I do hope he'll come back and write a few for Jodie Whittaker's Doctor. You hear that, Chibnall? I'm giving you a freebie here!

This episode forms the third part of a sort of trilogy with Rose's first adventures with the Doctor. As I've said before, Russell T. Davies wanted to show off the potential that the show had. Rose is set in the present, The End of the World in the future, and The Unquiet Dead in the past. And I do have to applaud Russell for that, it's a stroke of genius!

Don't get used to me saying that, you won't hear it a lot. Less so as we go on.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "The End of the World"

Following on immediately from the previous episode, Rose heads off into the TARDIS to join the Doctor, who gives her a choice between going forwards or backwards in time. Rose chooses forwards and the Doctor shows off the TARDIS' capability to make a lot of noise and the capability of the camera crew to shake the camera around because they don't actually have the budget to show any of the fantastic places he talks about.

Seriously, guys. A matte painting. Something.

Speaking of the TARDIS itself, I must say, I do actually like the Corral console room. Call it nostalgia, but as it carried us through both the Eccelston and the Tennant eras of the show, it does hold a special place in my heart. The design itself is nice, a mix of organic-looking bits and technology that really gives the feeling that the TARDIS isn't so much a vehicle as a living, breathing being...more on that later this season.

But back to the plot, as Rose rightly chides him for being a bit smug in his machine making a bunch of noises with no payoff, the Doctor decides to not throw her off the TARDIS for giving him lip and save us four seasons of irritation and instead takes her to the far future of...an observation room on a space station with a stunning view of the Earth five billion years in the future. After the opening credits sequence (which, again, I like the time vortex effect and the theme song - no surprise there), the Doctor and Rose head out to meet the aliens coming to watch the Earth burn.

From MadCap's Couch - Doctor Who: "Rose"

If you've read my blog for a long time, you know that I'm a big fan of Doctor Who. I adore everything about it and, even when it's not perfect it's still pretty damn good. That doesn't mean, however, that there haven't been a few clunkers as any long-running series will often have. Sometimes, Doctor Who can be absolutely awful.

My first exposure to the show was the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors, which my mother had a DVD copy of which I now own. Through that, I had several of the show's core concepts made more apparent to me than a casual viewer would have had it starting from a traditional episode. The 2005 continuation of the show first helmed by Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner came out...which I actually didn't see in full until the DVDs came out.

I'm American and, for some reason, we had either missed or the Sci-fi Channel (back when it was called that and not "Syfy") chose not to air this episode but instead the following episode The End of the World. And, having viewed The End of the World...I'm not exactly happy with that choice for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that The End of the World is really, really not that great, but I'll get to that next time.

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "#MakeShulkyHotAgain"

Okay, before I stick my feet into this particular fire - it really should be #MakeShulkieHotAgain.

I'm just saying, I've never seen it spelled "Shulky" anywhere ever and it really kind of bothers me. Just my perspective as being raised by a Grammar Nazi, and I wanted to get that off my chest before I unpack the rest of this.

And oh, boy is there a lot to unpack here.

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "Shut the Hell Up, Bill Maher"

So, Bill Maher is kind of a complete jackass.

...okay, let me back this up a bit.

On November 12, 2018 - five days ago at the time that I'm typing this - Stan Lee passed away. The former Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, he is - along with the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko - responsible for the groundwork that led to Marvel succeeding as the powerhouse that it is today, both in comics and in cinema as we've seen over the last decade with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He was quite old, ninety-five years of age, but it was a sad thing to have to see the passing of someone who inspired so much wonder, joy, and courage in the world through his work. He created literally hundreds of characters and an entire universe for them to live in, which is still being built upon to this very day in the form of comic books.

I have (and will always regret) never met him in person, but anyone that I've spoken to who has met him has said that he had an infectious enthusiasm, a sharp wit, and a deep love and appreciation for his fans. He wanted to entertain people and, in the process, gave us characters that we could love and cherish and even relate to and learn from.

I, personally, took several lessons from the man's work.

Captain America teaches us to do our best to be brave, and that right is right regardless of its futility.

The X-Men teach us that just because someone is different doesn't mean you should hate or fear them and we can, in fact, all get along in spite of our differences.

The story of Doctor Strange teaches humility and self-sacrifice, and imparts the wisdom that sometimes all you need to solve your problems is to put your mind to the task.

And Spider-Man, well...that one really does go without saying.

The point is, Stan Lee with just those four examples (and I'm sure that others could come up with many, many more), imparted lessons through his work that remain in our minds long after we've set down the comic. He was a force of good, no matter what some might say. His passing is a sad event, and he will be sorely missed by many.

So, naturally, Bill Maher decides to come along and belittle him and his work, and void his bowels all over the man's grave.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Pokémon: Detective Pikachu"

From the school of "What the hell were they thinking? Actually, wait, that's totally awesome really..." comes...Deadpool as Pikachu.

...no, seriously. What else do I even have to say? You're either like me and you uttered this sentence either right before or right after viewing this trailer or you were wrong.

...I mean, you legitimately think that this isn't a good idea.

...and you're wrong.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989)

Yeah, I know I'm technically cheating on this one on a multitude of levels. Bite me! It's Halloween and I would be remiss if I didn't pay at least a bit of homage to the franchise that got me into horror to begin with...with an entry that is admittedly not among the more fondly remembered ones. However, this film is honestly one of the better entries in the franchise. Whereas Halloween 4 was very much an actual soft reboot of the original instead of what people think Disney did with The Force Awakens to Star Wars, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers goes for...a bit of a confusing addition in psychic abilities.

A year after the events of the previous film, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) is now not insane and evil as her uncle was following his attack on a family member, and is instead mute and tormented by psychic visions of all of Michael's killings. And him going about stalking people. And him driving in cars with people who he plans to kill but can't because of plot convenience.

Yeah, for all it's good points, this movie has a few really, really weird ones, too.

MadCap's Fiction Corner - "Seattle By Night: The Bad Briefcase, Part 1"

It was a night like any other in Seattle. The air was crisp as the winds blew through the trees of green leaves. While Seattle did not suffer the decay of its foliage that many places did, the chill in the air told that autumn was upon the city. From here, the days would grow shorter, and the nights longer, and the nights were their time. The time of the Kindred. For almost one hundred and seventy years, it had been this way. Ninety of those years had seen the city of Seattle under the guiding hand of Prince Wren Blanchard. Pride of the Ventrue clan, she had ruled the city through those ninety years of nights unopposed and with a swift hand against sedition. This tale, alas, is not hers. She is a part, certainly, but this chronicle does not concern her. At least, not yet.

What it does concern is four of her subjects, members of the Camarilla, and from different clans all. The first, he found himself wandering through the woods beneath the moonlight. A low fog had settled against the ground, wafting about his ankles. His eyes, a solid gray, peered about into the void around him. There was no sign of movement or attack, but he had long since learned to remain ever vigilant.

"Have you found it?"

He gazed around the copse, finding nothing. Just the wind blowing through the trees, and the fog pooling around his feet.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Silver Bullet" (1985)

If there's anything more prevalent in the Halloween roster of monsters going back into the old lore of many ancient cultures than the werewolf is, then it is likely only the vampire. But what is it about werewolves that attracts us to them? Werewolves lack the flair and seduction of the vampire, the pitiable nature of creatures like the Frankenstein's Monster, or the so close to humanity and yet so far away nature of creatures like the Invisible Man. And before I go out of my way to rip-off any more from Centennial Specials' Encyclopedia of Horror (well worth a read if you can get it), let me rip off their explanation of it.

To quote directly from the Encyclopedia, "Perhaps it's because it's something so primal and real, like something dark that we keep squashed down deep within ourselves". From the ancient world to the modern day, the werewolf resonates with audiences because of what it represents - the darker side of ourselves. From the tales of Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh to Daniel "Oz" Osbourne, the werewolf has endured and has had yards spun about them and creatures like them time and time again.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Castlevania"

No, no. For real this time.

Castlevania is not a game I ever got to play on the original NES. My parents had one that I got to play games like Super Mario Bros., Zelda II, and even the dreaded TMNT game, but Castlevania was one that I hadn't played or even seen all that much ago. You see, dear readers, I was once a big chicken when it came to horror movies and media. Goosebumps used to unnerve me to no end. Yeah, that's right. Goosebumps. Get your jokes out now.

MadCap's Fiction Corner - "Seattle By Night, Part 0: The Introduction"

So, I have mentioned a few times before this that I am a fan of the tabletop game Vampire: The Masquerade. I reviewed Bloodlines some time ago, and I have mentioned a session gone awry in my Tabletop Tales that ended the life of my poor Irish stereotype Ventrue, Sean O'Malley. Much like the Star Wars fanfiction I did for 2017's NaNo, Minos Mayhem (which, yes, I do have plans to finish at some point in the future), I decided that I might take a crack at this as well. I'll just go ahead and get this fanfiction trope out of the way - I am not affiliated with White Wolf or Onyx Path Publishing in any way, shape, or form. That being said, I don't really entirely consider this fanfiction, per se. At least not entirely.

This is, more or less, what a collection of ideas that a friend of mine and I had brought together to start up a game that sadly never quite got off the ground. I'm sure that there is some Masquerade fan out there ready to step up and tell me I'm wrong about certain things I'm about to say, but here I want to lay down a bit of information about the world I'm writing in. Chiefly that this is not Seattle as it has been shown in any product under White Wolf or Onyx Path Publishing. When we were making things, we decided to go for a wholly unique set up. That means the Prince, the Sheriff, the Scourge, all the Primogens down to the very last madcap whacky Malkavian will all be ones that have never been shown in a White Wolf story or product. That doesn't mean that there won't be cameos from folks in the overall meta plot, but Seattle itself will consist of only original vampires (and humans, and potentially other supernatural types as well).

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Hollow Man"

So...Kevin Bacon staring in a movie with Josh Brolin.

That's right, this movie promises us Sebastian Shaw versus Thanos. And delivers!

...wait, does anyone actually remember that First Class happened? Never mind.

Hollow Man is a film from the year 2000, brought to us by the director of Showgirls and Robocop (and there's your daily dose of utter mindscrew for the day) Paul Verhoeven. It's a (then-)modernized take on H.G. Wells' novel, The Invisible Man. It honestly doesn't go too much more beyond that, but it doesn't really need to. It's still a good story that touches on themes of hubris, as well as corruption by scientific progress left unchecked.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Vampyr"

For our first video game stop in Horror Month 2018, let's wind the clocks back to 1918 in merry old England. Unfortunately, in 1918, England was old but certainly not merry. The Great War was dovetailing to an end, and through the streets of London lurked an unseen killer...the Spanish Flu.

And also, vampires. Spoiler alert.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Dracula Untold"

Time to start off Horror Month 2018 right! And who better to start out with than with the Prince of Darkness himself? Dracula! One of the most recurring characters in all of fiction, likely the one to have the most adaptations across films, books, short stories, and television series as well as other forms of media. Why is it that we, as a culture, find him so appealing? This fictional character based at least somewhat upon Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler, a warlord from - you guessed it - Transylvania. Whether he's the antagonist, the protagonist, or something in-between, Dracula continues to fascinate us as a culture to this day.

In this particular instance, Dracula - or, rather, Vlad the Impaler (Luke Evans) - fills the role of the protagonist. Rather than paying any attention to Stoker's original novel, the film attempts to craft an origin story that connects Dracula to his historical influence. Kind of like what Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula had fourteen years beforehand, but I don't think anyone even remembers that beyond Rudolph Martin also showing up as Dracula to kick off the fifth season of Buffy, so never mind that.

Instead, we join Vlad Tepes, the Son of the Dragon and the Prince over Wallachia and Transylvania. One of the most fiercesome warriors in the Ottoman Empire, he became known as Vlad the Impaler for his habit of interior design mastery and light roof repair - just kidding, it's actually bringing a horribly, grizzly death to his enemies by impaling them on spears. Otherwise known as the "Wallachian Hello". Now, though, it's peace time and Vlad is enjoying his time with his wife, Mirena (Sarah Gadon) and his son, Ingeras (Art Parkinson), up until some of his men get slaughtered by a vampire living in a mountain.

...or, rather, that's been trapped a mountain. Vlad seems content to leave him there, but soon the Ottoman Empire comes beating down his door to demand the firstborn sons to serve as soldiers, and Vlad makes a deal with the vampire (Charles Dance). The vampire agrees to give Vlad some of his blood, which will give him the powers of the vampire that he can then use to defeat the Ottomans. If Vlad can avoid the urge to sate his thirst for human blood for three days, then he'll turn back into a human no harm, no foul. If he gives in, however, he will remain a vampire forever and Tywin Lannister will be free to march across the face of the Earth.

And all of us without a Peter Dinklage in sight.

So, the rules are set. Vlad gets a nifty grab bag of abilities from the vampire blood and a terrible, terrible thirst. The rest of the film involves him wrestling with the Beast and contending with the Sultan Mehmed II (Dominic Cooper). So, yes, this film is basically Bard of Lake Town vs. Tony Stark's father.

As I stated above, we're going with Dracula as the protagonist rather than an antagonist, so the film centers around him as he attempts to not permanently become a vampire and save both his family and his nation from the Ottomans. As an origin story goes, it's definitely a good one! This film got a lot of critical reviews, the best of them saying that it was just okay and it really missed the mark. Personally, I don't see how. Luke Evans gives an excellent performance as a former warrior who is trying desperately to hold on to what little he has. Now is the rest of the acting great? Not really, but there's nothing that's too terrible and Evans really carries it.

There's real emotion as he tries to struggle with his inner demons and resist the urge to go just that much further in battling the hordes of the Ottomans.

And given that, well...the movie is called Dracula Untold, you can probably guess how well that went. It's a story of great tragedy, very much in the Gothic tradition. It's definitely a very good one. Not one of my favorite films, certainly, but it is always interesting to see the corruption of a noble figure who did what they had to for the best of reasons become...something far darker. Of course, we don't actually see that part of it due to this film not getting a sequel despite the very clear set up for one.

Or, rather, it's set up for the Dark Universe that Universal is trying to make. Another piggybacking attempt off of the success of Marvel's movies, the Dark Universe was meant as a reinvention of classic Universal monsters into a shared universe of movies. A great idea on paper, until you realize that one of the people behind it at its inception was Robert "Khan's Magical Super Blood" Orci. But yes, Dracula Untold's ending did very clearly set it up for something...which is not followed up on in the least.

And that's really a shame. For a tale of a hero who must become a villain to save everything he loves, you could do a lot, lot worse.

Dracula Untold is brought to us from Legendary Pictures and Universal Pictures.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Marvel's Spider-Man"

Is he strong? Listen bud! He's got radioactive blood!

Holy smokes! A review of a full-length game that might actually be considered vaguely timely! (If a week later. Oops!) Wonders never cease! Yep, it's time to go back to our old pal Spider-Man as he's gotten himself a new game. Brought to us by Insomniac Games and published by those guys who totally think they can float Venom without him being connected into the MCU (and no, I don't care that Amy Pascal insists that the new Venom film will be interconnected with the MCU, she's full of it), I have only three words that are fitting of this title.

This. Game. Rocks!

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Fallout 4: Fantasy Hero Set"

...I have no words.

Now on Twitter, I had a perfectly reasonable reaction to this on Twitter. Really, I did. Perfectly, reasonable, reaction. Because, in all honesty, what other reaction am I supposed to have to this? I'm literally the creator of the MAKE ANOTHER GAME,TODD!!!! meme and this is the sort of thing I would joke about. I know that certain mods have put assets from the Elder Scrolls (or otherwise taken inspiration from them) into Fallout 4, but an actual mod that was licensed by Bethesda? Through the Creation Club?

I'm tempted to bring back my joke about crossing the streams. I don't even remember what my count was.

Madcap Crossed The Streams Count: 7

Also, is it really only 7?

Yes.

...well, apparently my blog is an asshole now.

MadCap's Mad Rantings - "Doctor Strange #4" (2018)

Mark Waid's Doctor Strange #4!

Bad audio is had!

MadCap goes insane over two minor plot points (that aren't all that minor) that completely undercut the story Mark Waid is trying to tell!

By the Eye of Agamotto...this is some serious crap!

Doctor Strange is owned and published by Marvel Comics.

For the latest from MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2"

It's come to my attention that there's an oddly disproportionate amount of Marvel Comics related content on my blog. It's something that really goes back to my childhood where some of the first comics I ever read were Amazing Spider-Man and the X-Men stuff, and I likewise grew up watching their animated series stuff. What with the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the last ten years, I've become even more of a fan as I've been exposed to facets of the comics that I would have never have considered before.

Right now, for the record, I'm reading Doctor Strange and Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider pretty much diligently.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Venom" (An Actual One, This Time)

Okay, so...after the utter pointlessness that is a teaser trailer, we have the final Venom trailer and it has some meat to it.

...and well...

MadCap's Table Top Tales - "My Species Doth Protest Too Much"

Alright, so...to start off, this got inspired by a Twitter conversation with @Daddy_Warpig. If you don't follow him, give him a look, he is all about the geeky. The discussion came about because of a Twitter post from another user, and I felt the need to expound on the things said in that conversation because I like reading the sound of my own voice.

Having cropped out their username and avatar so as to keep myself from being accused of inciting harassment (I'm pretty sure this goes without saying, but don't be dicks, people), I'm going to post it here as the case in point for what I'm about to talk about.

Okay. Got all that? Good.

MadCap At the Movies - "Ant-Man and the Wasp"

Just a few short years ago, you were made to believe a man could ant. But the question remained from the post-credits scene of that movie, can a woman wasp?

The answer is yes. And you did believe it.

Spoilers here follow on from both the first Ant-Man film and Captain America: Civil War as well as some late-game spoilers for Infinity War. So, if you've not seen any of those films (and I congratulate the three of you on discovering the internet!) turn back now. After the jump, anything goes...

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Doctor Strange #4"

In the last issue, Stephen had discovered the deaths of many Sorcerer Supremes throughout the universe and we were given the title of the next story as Death Has Teeth (yet weirdly, we get the title of The Art of Puking Without Puking instead). We have the dread ramping up for the eventual confrontation between Doctor Strange and the insidious forces of the Empirikul, who now know who he is and are zeroing in on. Will it live up to the hype? Well, you’ve all by now read my views on Last Days of Magic, so it should really be a no-brainer now shouldn’t it?

Just like my constant review schedule where I said we’d get into all this “next” Sunday and it’s now three months later.

Oops.

MadCap At The Movies - "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"

So...Jurassic World was a pretty good movie. Star-Lord commanded raptors and fought an abomination of science and while it had some issues it was overall enjoyable as a popcorn movie and you really weren't expected to think too much about it. There were plot elements that were clearly to be set up for sequels, but overall it was just an enjoyable roller coaster ride with dinosaurs involved with the charisma of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard elevating it beyond its means.

It made money.

And a lot of money at that. So, naturally, a sequel was going to happen. Just as The Lost World came in 1995 after the original, it was preordained by the gods of the box office that we would have a Jurassic World 2. And lo has it come, it's existence shouted from the highest mountain top of Isla Nublar as it exploded in a fiery mess of magma.

And it's not bad...

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Fallout 4: Captain Cosmos"

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Hey, MadCap! Didn't you already cover the Creation Club and say that you were rather "meh" about the whole thing?" Well, as you recall from the actual review (which you should definitely click the link for and give it a read now before the rush!) is that I did actually like the idea of the Creation Club, I just hate that ever-looming devil of gaming that is the micro-transaction. So, naturally, my first instinct upon being granted the vision you see before you is to drop 700 credits on the PSN to get it.

...hell, Bethesda actually announced Elder Scrolls VI at E3 this year. I'm inclined to throw them a bone.

GOOD JOB DOING WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE LIKE, FOUR YEARS AGO, TODD!!!

MadCap Fixes Movies - "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

If you're a long-time reader of mine, then I already know what you were thinking as you clicked onto this article: "Hey, Madcap! I thought you were a big fan of The Force Awakens!" And you would be absolutely right, I most certainly was and am even now. I was one of the few people on the internet who seemed to be able to acknowledge the nigh-impossible task that JJ Abrams had before him when approaching the Star Wars franchise, the first person to do so in a decade since Revenge of the Sith happened. Abrams had to not only appeal to Disney, but also to both the fans who had been put off by the Prequel Trilogy (and, despite Disney's attempts at revisionist history, there were many) and those who were fans of the Prequel Trilogy as well. Not to mention drawing in an entirely new audience in order to keep the franchise going so that Star Wars' future wasn't limited to direct-to-video sequels of worse and worse quality.

See also: the Highlander franchise.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Halloween" (2018)

Okay, so long-time readers of mine will no doubt be shocked to learn that I'm a big fan of the Halloween franchise.

So I'll give you all a moment to recover from that shock before I go on.

You're good? Good.

But yes, I'm a big fan of the Halloween franchise. While a lot of people have a greater fondness of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchise, and while I do like those franchises (I've highlighted them on this blog, too, after all), Halloween has always held a special place in my heart. It was my first real horror franchise, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't try to defend even some of the bad ones to some extent.

Not the Rob Zombie ones, though.

I will never defend those. Ever.

Spoilers follow on from this point. If you haven't watched the trailer yet, I have provided it up above.

MadCap At The Movies - "Solo: A Star Wars story"

...so after Rian Johnson opened the Seventh Seal and brought strife and destruction down upon the Star Wars fanbase the likes of which haven't been seen since the days of Lucas releasing the Special Editions (And that was in the pre-Disney era, when Lucas either didn't know or didn't care that he could buy off journalists to insist that the work wasn't complete and utter garbage), it was obviously time to go back to something less horrifically offensive to sanity.

So, naturally, a Han Solo solo movie...only three movies after the movie in which he was killed off.

Way to go, morons!

I don't mean to be overly hard on this movie, after all, Han is one of only two of the original trilogy's trio that a solo film could be made for (the other being Leia), and you have a lot of possibilities that you could explore with him...that were already covered in all that Expanded Universe that Disney decided to dump because they thought that their crap was better, managing to screw it up in three movies where the Expanded Universe managed to have ups and downs over the 30+ years of existence that it had.

Way to go, morons!

But I don't want to mock this film for other poor creative decisions, instead choosing to blame it's own poor creative decisions. So with that all out of the way, this is where the spoilers begin. If you don't want any spoilers, this is your chance to back out of the article. For the record, "Han Solo survives the movie" does not count as a spoiler.

Neither does "Chewbacca survives the movie".

...and neither does "Lando survives the movie".

MadCap (And A Ginger!) At The Movies - "Deadpool 2"

Yep, that's right. Stoopidkid425 and I hit the movies again! This time, it was the cinematic opus of Ryan Reynolds - Deadpool 2! Now, I know what you're thinking - "MadCap, you incredibly virile and sexy man who is just far, far too handsome to have anything resembling a consistent release schedule! How could they possibly told the absolutely nearly-perfect 1:1 translation from comic book to film that the first film did?" Well first, you can go ahead and stop licking my boots, I assure you they are very clean by now. Second, I have to be entirely honest with you here my readership - but Stoopidkid and I agreed, they pretty much nailed it.

Spoilers follow on from this point so, if you're not ready for them, go and see the movie before reading on.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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!

MadCap At The Movies - "Black Panther"

So! Black Panther. The next step in the saga of T'Challa of Wakanda (Chadwick Boseman) as we see him dealing with the fall out of Captain America: Civil War. For me, at least, T'Challa was the most likable character in the whole of Civil War even with the addition of Spider-Man. He had a sympathetic backstory that we could relate to on an emotional level, and he showed himself to be a true hero by choosing forgiveness and peace over revenge and conflict, something which had consumed both Steve Rogers and Tony Stark by the end of that film.

Naturally, one would expect him to get his own solo film and rightly so. He proved through the narrative of Civil War that he was an interesting enough character, and that Boseman had the acting chops, to carry his own feature. So, two years after Steve Rogers delivered to Tony Stark his rightful ass-whooping, we come to this film. Is it a worthy continuation of the story of T'Challa? Is it worth all the praise that both audiences and critics have been heaping on it? Or is it, as some might have you believe, just another sign of Marvel sliding into a bottomless pit of failure?

In this order: Yes, yes, and get a life, losers.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Doctor Strange #3"

The last time we saw Stephen Strange, serious matters were afoot. While he tried to assuage the fears of young Zelma Stanton about the Mind Maggots had had rooted their way into her...the truth was something far worse. Not just for Zelma, but for the world entire - magic was seeing a very dangerous shift. A fairly common spell cast by Strange...produced no effect, almost as though that magic had simply stopped existing entirely. It was definitely troublesome, and Stephen sought to discern just what it was that had happened, unaware that the Sanctum was being visited by an allied force...who was then dragged back through the portal that he had come through by the insidious forces of the Empirikul, who were determined to destroy all magic.

I've mentioned in a few of my reviews since now that the first three issues of the run of a comic tend to set up the status quo for the run so that it can be shaken up by the events to come. I've also said that Doctor Strange didn't really need that, since the characters of Stephen and Wong were very firmly established within the mythos of the Marvel Universe. By this point, the movie hadn't come out yet, so I really couldn't make a crack about how the common man would know as well, but the point is that he was a known figure in-universe, so the first issue of this run really only served as a re-introduction to the character and his world. This was much the same with Issue #2 and continues into Issue #3.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #4"

Last time, Ben Reilly beat up a cosplayer. Also, other things happened, but that was really the main focus on Issue #3. Issue #4 has a cover...that technically lies. It's a pretty good cover, showing Ben Reilly and Kaine - Scarlet Spider vs. Scarlet Spider - seeming to fall from a building and down into Las Vegas as they come to blows. However, there is a slight problem with the image.

It doesn't actually appear in the comic. Sort of.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Deadpool 2"

Well. Damn.

Also, the trailer is obviously explicit to start - but it's Deadpool so you really have no excuse for expecting it to be otherwise. Actual spoilers start below the cut, if you haven't already seen the trailer yourself.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Doctor Strange #2"

So, pro-tip for those of you wanting to get into internet reviewing - never do almost an entire review of something before going back and finding out that you've already reviewed it. Because, yeah, that happened.

Still, at the very least, it gives me a good base to go off of. If you don't feel like clicking the above link, here's a quick recap of Issue #1. Zelma Stanton, a young woman who worked as a librarian and was "lol snarky" incarnate came to Doctor Strange for some assistance dealing with some magical maggots that had wormed their way into her brain. Then they got out. With Issue #2, we're going to pick up right where we left off - maggot apocalypse already in progress.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #3"

Last time on Dragonball Z...I mean, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider...

Issue #2 saw Ben coming to grips with the reality of what he's done, doing some twistedly altruistic things, and be a snarky jackass. Issue #2 saw Kaine, on the other hand, running around fake torturing a woman for information about Ben, breaking into an office building in a way that would make John McClane weep with pride, and finding out what it's like to be on the receiving end of more dakka. Where will Issue #3 take us? Well, for starters, it takes us back to Ben Reilly's signature costume as the Scarlet Spider on the cover.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #2"

When we last left Ben Reilly, he had come to Las Vegas in order to hide from not only Peter Parker but also his "brother" Kaine, who was in pursuit of him (though Ben's not aware of that fact just yet). Hitting up an old contact from his brief stint as a super villain, Ben found himself in the office of Cassandra Mercury with a gun in his face. Issue number two picks up with the execution of Ben Reilly, already in progress. Unfortunately for Cassandra Mercury, she's just an average human and no bullet is any match for a prepared Spider family member with their Spider-Sense intact.

"Colt 45...semi-automatic...PLAY-DOH!"

After a bit of a stand-off, Ben gets some more information from Cassandra about her daughter, Abigail. Ben mentions she was suffering from Crooks' Disease, which would not yet be fatal. Cassandra admits that she is not, but she's in a coma that her doctor isn't expecting her to wake up from, so she might as well be dead. Ben asks to see her and is taken.

Kaine, meanwhile, is treating Ben's former associate Rita to a torturing...sorry, it's "enhanced interrogation" now, according to him. Through claiming that he's planning to waterboard her with scalding hot water rather than the usual cold, Kaine manages to intimidate her into revealing a clue to Ben's location - that he was planning to go to Broadway, but not the one in New York, as a flashback tells us. After getting her to reveal her password and her office floor at New U, Kaine reveals that it was just a bucket of dry ice and that he had no intention of actually harming her.

A far cry from the man who brutally murdered Otto Octavius back in the 90's.

...he got better, obviously, but that's neither here nor there.

Mock torturing people really IS an improvement for him.

Back in Vegas, after an awkward elevator ride, Ben is brought to little Abigail. She is, as Cassandra said, completely comatose. Ben comes up to her bedside, stunned into silence, and has a gun pulled on him by Cassandra....who relents the moment that she realizes that Abigail has woken up, asking for a glass of water. Slate and Ben head out into the hallway and end up in a tussle over what just happened Ben politely suggesting (with a gun in Slate's mouth for emphasis) that they just play nice and get along so as not to ruin Cassandra's happy moment.

Not long after, Ben bluffs his way into convincing Cassandra that not only did he cause Abigail to wake up via telepathy, but that he can cure her with some funding and time. As a condition of this, June ends up getting free room and board at the casino as well as all the quarters she can stomach.

Awww, Ben's feeding her gambling addiction!

Meanwhile, Kaine breaks into New U's offices and finds Rita's office. Trolling through the database, he uses the Broadway clue and finds records of Abigail's condition and surmises that Ben has gone there. While Kaine using the records technically makes sense, and he ultimately does deduce correctly, I went ahead and checked Wikipedia for places that are either named or related to Broadway. There are at least fifteen that have no relation to New York or Nevada. Regardless, he's right and is already making plans to go after Ben when two men in tactical gear burst into the office he's in...and open fire on him with some lovely automatic weapons, ending the issue.

The tone has definitely gotten a little more serious here. No comical hallucinations of the Scarlet Spider or the Jackal for Ben, we have Kaine threatening to waterboard a woman (even though he had no intention of doing so), and an almost gratuitous overuse of gun play. We are clearly far and away from the high flying adventures of Peter Parker, this series being a different animal entirely (not to say that Spidey can't be dark). We're starting to see a status quo develop - Ben working for Cassandra to develop a cure for Crooks' Disease, Aunt June living at the casino, Ben trying to become a hero, Kaine's efforts to stop him because he believes he's still a villain (and rightly so). We also get further development on Ben trying to get a grasp on a familiarity to his life as he gets Aunt June room and board at the casino...as well as endless quarters to feed her gambling addiction.

...two out of three ain't bad?

All the ingredients are here for something great, and we'll be getting into it next Saturday!

Face front, True Believers!

*record scratch* "Hi...that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here..."

Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #2 comes to us from Marvel Comics.Written by Peter David, Penciled by Mark Bagley, Inked by John Dell, color artist'd by Jason Keith, and lettered by Joe Caramgna. They all did great!

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Friday the 13th: The Game"

I think anyone who comes around my blog in October knows that I'm a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, particularly since I've reviewed the first three films in the original series and the 2009 remake (and have plans to review the others as well) and given all but one of them a glowing recommendation. They aren't the height of cinematic excellence, sure, but there's something to like about all of them in one way or another if someone's bothering to look.

That being said, I'm not an uber-fan in the same way I am for, let's say, the Halloween franchise. Luckily, I've found some people who are and they made this game. IllFonic, a Colorado-based developer known previously for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Star Citizen, have shown a lot of love and dedication to the Friday the 13th franchise.  And I mean a lot of it. So much so that they made a Kickstarter and BackerKit for this game, and it became the 124th most crowdfunded project of all time, collecting just shy of $1.3 million through both platforms.

Ho. Lee. Crap.

Seriously, it's almost like this was something that people really, really wanted or something.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"

After the horribly offensive mess that was Iron Man 3 and the experiment in utter boredom that was Thor: The Dark World, it was more than time for Marvel to get over the fact that it had produced one of the highest-grossing films of all time and get back to actually producing quality products. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking - "Hey, Madcap! Didn't you already review this film four years ago?" Well, you are technically correct. I did one of my "MadCap At The Movies" segments on it. But there's a fundamental difference between those and my "Reel Thoughts". "MadCap At The Movies" is set up to give my initial thoughts on a film right after I see it in a theater (a rare occurrence when you see how few I've done), while "Reel Thoughts" allows me to look at films with the benefit of time and more thought put into them beyond the initial hype.

So, does The Winter Soldier still hold up after four years? Is it worth the hype?

...well, obviously, yeah.

MadCap's Comic Reviews - "Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider #1"

The more astute of my readers (and good luck figuring out, between the three of you, who I'm talking about) might have noticed that I am a fan of Spider-Man. I'm not a fan of pretty much anything that Marvel has done with Spider-Man (in the comics, anyway) since about 2007. Why? Because Spider-Man had his entire status quo altered by a very, very poor deus (or should I say devil) ex machima that should have been laughed out of the writer's room in concept, much less ever make it into print. Joe Quesada insists that his magnum opus One More Day is a story about love and sacrifice, when it is really a story about Peter Parker rejecting his own creed of "with great power comes great responsibility".

So yes, it was basically Secret Empire before Secret Empire ever existed. But One More Day at least had the decency to only be four issues long.

However, as you can tell from the title, my hatred of Joe Quesada and Nick Spencer (who both still have jobs and Nick Spencer is due to take over for Dan Slott in writing Spidey - oh joy!) isn't what we're here to talk about. We can save that for another day. No, we're here to talk about the Scarlet Spider!

...no, not that one, though I could see why you might think that. Kaine did have the last ongoing series under the name and he has been, for a few years now, the only active Scarlet Spider, but no. I'm here to talk about the original Scarlet Spider: Ben Muckfothering Reilly.

And yes, that is his legal name.

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Venom"

...well, I suppose that are more pointless ways to fill one minute and forty-nine seconds.

Oh, sorry! I didn't see you there!

...y'know, sitting at your computer or reading this from your phone somewhere. I'm totally not right behind you right now. I just watched the Venom teaser trailer! You can watch it right here:

Well, congratulations. You wasted almost two minutes of your life that you will now never get back. Do you feel the pointlessness now? Feel it enter you being and then unleash it with a nice, long "meh".

MadCap's Trailer Reactions - "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and "Avengers: Infinity War"

Yep. This looks like the hill on which I've chosen to die. You can imagine I'm walking into this at the very height of caution following Rian Johnson taking a long and runny deuce all over one of my favorite franchises of all time, bar none. The future does not look bright for the Star Wars franchise, at least not for me. I know some people enjoy it. I've actually started a charity fund to help those poor souls out who believed that the The Last Jedi wasn't a horribly made piece of hot garbage, you can find it here.

But, until I can properly set up the Rian Johnson Is A Talentless Hack Foundation, I do look a bit toward something about the Star Wars franchise that doesn't depress me to my deepest core: the past!

...no, I'm talking about the Original Trilogy, not the Prequels.

It seems that Disney is still going forward with its "A Star Wars Story" plans despite common sense or loud protests from the fanbase who do not, in fact, want this thing. To be honest, I defended Rogue One when it came out, but now I honestly just think it was unnecessary. It lacked the necessary emotional punch needed to bring a "Kill 'Em All" story into the realm of a classic. I will say that I still find it better than the Prequels, but only because it's worse crime to be was being completely unnecessary.

It seems that Disney took that criticism to heart and have lined up something new Solo: A Star Wars story.  For some strange reason, the Star Wars fanbase were split right down the middle almost as soon as it was announced. It's almost like the fanbase is full of people who are highly contentious and easily-angered or something! Jokes aside, I was among the people who gave cautious optimism to it. Even after The Last Jedi, I'm still not 100% on it. If anything, I'm less so.

That being said, Han Solo is one of the most universally beloved characters within the franchise to anyone who isn't Harrison Ford, so it's entirely possible that they might do very well and show respect to both the character and his fanbase. Then I remember these were the same people who said that Mark Hamill drinking milk directly from the source wasn't something that Rian Johnson should be in a psychiatric ward for, so what do I know?

MadCap's Game Reviews - "Bethesda Creation Club"

So, Bethesda...we meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was mocking the fact that you were trying to resell what was admittedly a very good game six years afterwards as a "Special Edition", which earned it a spot as one of my worst games of 2017.

How far I have come in seven years of doing this.

But now, I come to tackle a new spore of madness - likely long after anyone has stopped caring about it. The Bethesda Creation Club. When the controversy first broke out, I admit, I was squicky about the concept of paid mods. Of course, anyone who follows my blog will know that I try to avoid controversies surrounding games and just try to focus on the product themselves...though sometimes, that is astoundingly impossible in a few instances.

Like with No Man's Sky.

...or Aliens: Colonial Marines.

But now, I come back to Bethesda again. Once, we were as close and intimate as lovers. I was a scrawny, energetic thing at the age of 21 when Skyrim first graced store shelves in November of 2011. Now that I'm a slightly more robust, cynical creature at the age of 27, it seems that the honeymoon is over. Bethesda is doing things that no longer thrill me and just plain make me sad. Case in point, the aforementioned re-releasing of Skyrim with some graphics clean up long after anyone stopped caring about it...and the Creation Club.

MadCap's Reel Thoughts - "Thor: The Dark World" (2013)

Hoo boy...

Yeah, I'm not going to lie here, when I'm recommending a Marvel movie to one of my friends (y'know, of the three people who haven't seen a Marvel movie at this point) Thor: The Dark World is not my go-to choice. It's not because the film is bad - with the exception of Iron Man 3 (which I covered in detail a few weeks ago), I'd be hard pressed to call a film in the MCU bad - but because it's, frankly just...boring. It has good moments and isn't overall unwatchable, but it's not a film I find myself revisiting often whenever I get in the mood to watch a Marvel film.

As a testament to this statement, I will say that I've seen this movie three times: once in the theater, once on DVD at my home, and then once on DVD at home when I went to review the movie.

I think a large problem is that, coming off of The Avengers, Dark World isn't exactly sure what it wants to be. The first Thor film had a clear focus - it was a Shakespearean drama about two brothers vying for the throne of their father. Even Thor: Ragnarok had a clear focus as a fun space romp much in the late 80s vein (admittedly because of the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, but that's neither here nor there). But Thor: The Dark World? It doesn't really follow the rule of successful superhero movies using another genre to disguise themselves.

For example, Captain America: The First Avenger worked well because it was a war film that just so happened to have the fantastic superhero elements within it, Spider-Man: Homecoming worked because it was a coming of age film that just so happened to have the fantastic superhero elements within it, Logan worked because it was a gritty western that just so happened to have the fantastic superhero elements within it, and so on....

Thor: The Dark World is sort of an action-adventure, but also a romance, but also a disaster film, the problem with that combination being that it really doesn't succeed in pulling off any of those. With that said, let's get into the nitty-gritty.

MadCap's Game Reviews - "The Best of 2017"

And let's hope that this year will be better than the last, am I right everybody?!

Ahem.

With the new year here at last, 2018 (and not a moment too soon), I find myself reflecting on the year past and I have come to a very important conclusion - I have not played nearly enough game in the last year. This is to change in 2018! Before that, however, I bring to you my list of the top three games of 2017! Because, believe it or not, there were actually some good ones that I played. And, as established last year, 2017 was not a good year for my gaming cred for a variety of reasons.

So, let's start out 2018 on a high note! Here are my top 3 games of 2017!