He's a regular Marvel Zombie?

News today that Archie and Marvel are ending their relationship publishing Marvel reprints in their digest form.

I was digging these little digests.  I liked that I could actually buy them at my store.  I'd usually read them on a lunch break.  I was only aggravated that there were several stories within, and not any kind of story arc.

Maybe the market's not there, but it bugs me that both DC and Marvel don't try to leverage the huge libraries at their disposal in the mass market. 

Especially when there are a dozen Archie digests on my registers at work that I don't know that I've ever seen anybody pick up to even thumb through, let alone buy.  My small market isn't maybe representative.  But, the news rep would bring in 4-6 copies of the Marvel digest, and they'd all sell out.

Maybe we'll see it.  Maybe Marvel could do a digest form of Dark Phoenix.  Kree-Skrull War.  Secret Wars.  Infinity Gauntlet? 

Maybe the money's in the comic shops. 

Who knows.  I kinda dug these, though.

In which Tommy Keeps Talking About Marvel (Adjacent) Movies

Wandered out last night to see Venom at the local Movie Palace.

I was pleasantly surprised.

You see, I wasn't excited. 

I read comics in the 90's.  That was right in my comics heyday. 

So I was Venomed pretty much to death, despite rarely picking up a Spider-Man or Venom comic.  Overexposure.  Marvel's strategy depended largely on putting Venom, Punisher, Ghost Rider or Wolverine on a cover, and having them have perhaps 3 panels worth of story within.

Like I said, I didn't read much of the character.  Spider-Man in general is probably the biggest dark hole in my comics ignorance.  It just never much appealed to me.

But the movie looked kinda interesting.

Again, pleasantly surprised.  Good performances from Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams. 

And I liked the way Eddie Brock was treated.  Not a bad guy.  A selfish, self-serving guy, who thinks a little too much of his career, for sure. 

I've long considered Tom Hardy this way:  He's an actor of incredible talent, but poor instincts.  If left to his own devices, or directed poorly, he's liable to muck up a performance.  But used and pointed wisely, he can own a flick.  And he did this one.

A couple minor complaints:  I really thing Sony should have gone ahead and followed Fox on making an R-Rated flick.  I think a little more gore, a little more violence might have contributed to the Horror/Sci-Fi vibe they were looking to channel, or perhaps should have looked to channel a little more strongly.

Language is another one.

SPOILER ALERT.

At one point, Eddie Brock and the Symbiote are having a conversation about personalities, and the symbiote refers to them as two losers.  It's a bit of dialog that rings hollow, somehow.  I'd be curious to hear how the reading went if they'd said "we're a couple of fuckups."

Last minor complaint:  I didn't follow closely, but there was some debate as to whether this venom exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  The last note I'd heard was that they were considering this Marvel adjacent (for whatever that's worth).  There was one line of dialog that bothered me....Jenny Slate's poorly named Dora Skirth (Adorable skirt? what?) is telling Eddie Brock that the Life Foundation (or whatever) was going out searching for life.  If this is Earth adjacent.... New York got attacked by the Chitauri, they know Thor exists, and that there is most definitely life on other planets. 

To me, it's easily fixable by a line or two of dialog.  You could say that After the Battle of New York, they decided to go searching for resources because they know what's out there.  Or you could have Eddie Brock be a completely skeptical dick and say it was all some kind of conspiracy to rebuild New York....I think the latter could be worked into his character pretty easily.

Anyway, I'm rambling.  I didn't love the flick, but I liked it, and didn't feel like it was a waste of time.

Kingpin

I'm an MCU Zombie.  They just push the right buttons for me.

I've been less enthusiastic about the TV offerings.  Agents of SHIELD is alright, but I'm about 2 seasons behind right now.  The first seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage were all truly fun, with each providing better villains than the big screen versions had, to that point.

Then Daredevil season 2 happened.  It wasn't bad, but I didn't like the focus on Punisher (with one caveat....the Punisher/Kingpin fight in season 2 was probably that season's highpoint).  Then Iron Fist came, and was boring.  And the Defenders didn't do much for me, perhaps because of Iron Fist.  And season 2 of Jessica Jones, also, wasn't bad, but it kinda bogged down in a mythology of its own creation.

But I do have a point, and it pretty much makes the previous paragraph unnecessary.  Vincent D'onofrio's Kingpin has definitely been one of the highpoints of the TV ventures.  Of the whole MCU venture.

Who says? https://t.co/mzzJHI2yBc

— Vincent D'Onofrio (@vincentdonofrio) October 4, 2018

This tweet makes me happy.

I went to see Spider-Man Homecoming one afternoon when I was off work, back during its theatrical run.  I went by myself, and sat in a crowded theater with those nice reclining seats.

At the movie's end, when Michael Keaton's Vulture is incarcerated, we hear an off screen voice yell at him.  

The guy sitting next to me marked out completely.  I avoid spoilers and reading much about movies I want to see, anymore.  This is difficult, but I'm able to save the element of surprise for myself.  I had here.  And I started to get excited, too.

Only, it wasn't what we both wanted.  It wasn't the Kingpin in jail.

I want A Big Screen Kingpin.  And I hope it happens.  That tweet makes me hopeful.

He's just so perfect in that roll.