Starbolts #357: Farewell, Titanus

Hail!

Its finally here! Dennis has said his goodbyes to the Starbolts and is off to find the Inobe. Wherever they are. Will he find them? Time will tell. It is a long shot. I had fun doing this week's comic. I kind of wish I put a Leonid in there with Crystal's parents. That would be a FUN interrogation scene! At least we have an Aquan and a Setleth being the good cop/bad cop routine. We may see those two again, too. It depends, really. There's probably gonna be a hearing and Crystal will have to take part in it.

As one Starbolt leaves, two get really close together in light of everything that's gone on. Marcus and Crystal have professed their love for each other after this harrowing adventure. Drama like this tends to bring people together. In this case, Marcus has had an attraction to Crystal from almost the beginning. She, too. Events were then put into motion and here they are. What will become of this? Stay tuned!

More Starbolts action is coming soon!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Homecoming Review

Hey, everyone!

I just got back from seeing what I think is the second best Spider-Man movie of all time. That isn't to say Spider-Man Homecoming is bad. No, no. Far from it! It's amazing, spectacular and all that fun stuff. I just liked Spider-Man 2 a bit more than this one. I know several people feel the same way I do. And if you know me, you know how huge a fan I am of the webhead. Spider-Man 2 is my favorite of the Sam Raimi movies and Homecoming is on par with being almost as good. I never really liked the Mark Webb movies as that Spidey came off more like a jerk than anything else and that's not who Spider-Man is.

Here's what I liked about the movie. I liked how the suit was a clear reference to the Steve Ditko era of Spider-Man complete with the webbing under his arms. The eyes, too, hearkened back to that era. It makes sense because this Spidey is just starting out. He's had his powers for a few months and is slowly learning the ropes so to speak.

A lot of people were also worried about how much Tony Stark was in the movie. I'm glad he was kept to a minimum. At the same time, I see why they had him in there as well as a certain star spangled Avenger. They wanted to show that Spidey is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the rest of them. And now he joins the ranks of the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Defenders, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the new Freeform shows in one cohesive universe. Even if he's on loan from Sony as part of the deal. It's good to see him here and I can't wait to see him in Avengers: Infinity War.

What I didn't like about the movie was how it dragged on a little. I mean some of the stuff could have been cut down. But, it was okay. They wanted to show a side of the Spider-Man universe we didn't get to see much of in previous movies. We saw Peter in high school. He was in high school for like ten minutes in the Sam Raimi movies and not long in Mark Webb. It's good to see that aspect of his life as we see where he came from.

I also didn't mind that we didn't get an uncle Ben mention. I mean saying "Aunt May had a rough year" was enough to make you say "Ohh". And we do get a mention of the spider bite. Just never shown. It's good that they skipped the origin as we have seen it many times before.

Michael Keaton was amazing as the Vulture and in a way I'm glad they made us almost feel sorry for the guy.  I don't want to spoil anything, but, he really tried to help his family. Sure he went about it the wrong way. The motivation was clear at least.

The rest of the cast did an amazing job. Marissa Tormei's Aunt May was nurturing like in the comics. Her being younger is fine by me as long as she can act. The rest of cast did a great job and played well like Peter/Spidey's supporting cast usually does in the comics. Great stuff from them and I'm glad Flash was more a rival than Peter's bully. I wonder if he'll become Agent Venom some day. Time will tell.

As for our main character? I love this iteration of Spider-Man! Holland nails the perfect combination of Peter's nerdiness, shyness and stuff. At the same time, he seems to get that Spidey jokes a joke a minute and comments on stuff with a wisecrack or two. This, I feel, was sorely missing in the Raimi movies. In Webb's version they tried. But, he came off so much like a jerk to me that I was turned off. You need to find the right balance and here we actually have it. For me it's like Spidey leaped from the pages of the comic and onto the screen flawlessly.

This is where the MCU shines. I know I am kissing up to them, but, Marvel Studios gets the characters. They do them justice. They try and give everyone a great project and nine times out of ten they give us something solid. They give us an action adventure and a story with a moral. That's really what made the comics so endearing and stand the test of time. It's why everyone has loved Spidey and the rest of Marvel's heroes, villians, mutants, monsters and Marvels.
 
Spider-Man Homecoming is a great dive back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You won't need to watch all the MCU movies to get what's happening. Just know that your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is back home and will be there for some time to come if these box office numbers keep rising.  It's good to see you in the MCU, Spidey! Keep swinging!

Oh and I loved the Spider-Man '67 intro with the Marvel logo! That was classy!

Starbolts #356: The Bowling Green Massacre

Hail!

This week's comic took a while as I had family up. Still, you gotta love how timely the comic's title is. I know there isn't a real massacre here, but, spoilers...The fake one wasn't a massacre, either! SHH! So, it works on both levels. Anyway, Firaxil is rightfully annoyed at humans and now that he's back at the house things could go two ways.

1. He leaves without incident.

2. The Arronfelds open their big yaps and cause a scene.

I'm thinking the second one will happen! Things never go smoothly in this line of work. Poor guy needs a break. We shall see what happens next time!

I still haven't seen Spider-Man: Homecoming. I shall plan on doing so and then make a blog post about it. Heard good things! I hope it's...AMAZING! =P

Comic Showcase #49: A+A Archer and Armstrong #5

Starbolts #355: The Secret Origin of Titanus

Hail!

I hope you all brought tissues for this one because this is definitely a tearjerker. Imagine an alien family trying to find a new home for their people only to be flung halfway across the galaxy and land on a farm where the most uncouth people you'd ever meet lived. That's the story of Dennis. Er...I mean...Firaxil.  You might be wondering how he got super strength from all of this. Well, the beatings never really stopped. His Inobe abilities were still dormant but managed to give him superhuman strength and invulnerability. He adapted to some seriously tough situations.

When "Dennis" got older, he would revert back to his natural state by accident and would still be beaten more by the Arronfelds. The mutation basically turned off his adaptation abilities.  He's no longer able to do what Inobe can. Now what is he going to do with this information? Well, he is most likely going to search the stars for his people.

As far as Crystal goes, she was unaware of everything. She was most likely asleep when the ship landed and the Arronfelds kept the boy in the cave....near his parents' bodies. That was until the time was right and he forgot that he was an alien. Poor guy.

Next time we will have a video with Harmonica Jay on drums! 

Spook Factor: Buffy the Animated Series

Starbolts #354: Prodigal Daughter

 Hail!

Wow! There's a lot of family drama this week. About half of the comic could be an episode of Maury. Hell, maybe even Jerry Springer. There's no shortage of it this week, huh? I do have to admit writing Jed Arronfeld makes me want to punch him. I said on twitter how you know you are a decent writer when you really want to punch the guy who is not really a supervillain, but, a ignorant farmer from Kentucky who is bigoted. I should have Marcus superspeed punch him. Nah. That isn't the Starbolts way. Something'll happen to him, I think. And I don't mean that broken tractor. Broken nothing. That thing's sitting under a rock!

Sufficed it to say, we have surprises coming  next comic. I may do a video this week if the weather gets better. We shall see. I may flip a coin and figure things out. In the mean time, there are definitely some strange things in this cave and we're about to find out what it is. Questions will be answered so stay tuned!