Let’s get into a segment we like to call Character 101 with Thorstorian.
Read: Who’s That Comic Character?
One of the most knowledgable and passionate comic fans is here to help you break down characters and what you need to know heading into new franchises, big announcements and first cinematic appearances.
Without further ado, let’s dive into Robbie Reyes the latest version of Ghost Rider!
Pooja is back with her picks heading into the the end of November!
And of course, she had to start with last week’s big release, Wakanda Forever!
More: Pooja’s Picks – A Special Halloween Must-See Movie List
Kevin Conroy, known as the iconic voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, has passed away. He was 66.
The shocking news came from the Peter Mayhew Foundation and Diane Pershing, who voiced Poison Ivy in the 90s animated series along side Kevin Conroy.
According to Diane Pershing, the late actor has been ill for a while, which does not appear to have been public knowledge.
Conroy was born in 1955 and raised in a traditional Irish Catholic family near New York City. He was a Juilliard-trained Broadway actor and went on to perform in a number of plays. He later tried his hand out in television, landing a few small roles and guest spots before reluctantly auditioning for the role of “Bruce Wayne/Batman” for a new animated series at the time. Because of his upbringing, Conroy never read comics and only had minutes before his audition to review the character before his audition.
That audition changed the course of Conroy’s life as well as the Batman fandom.
Conroy’s performance of Batman has become iconic in the Batman Universe, being the person who created the idea of having a dual-voice approach for the character, where Bruce Wayne would have a higher, softer tone, while Batman would have a lower tone and gruff voice. This performance has become the standard for voicing Batman not only in animated series but in live action films as well.
Conroy would continue portraying the character in other projects, such as the animated series Batman Beyond and the Batman: Arkham video game series. He also played the live version of Earth-99 Bruce Wayne in the series Batwoman during the CW Arrowverse’s Crisis On Infinite Earths storyline.
This past year, he also wrote Finding Batman for DC Comics’ Pride Anthology, where he shared his struggles as a gay man in his traditional household and the culture of the 70s through the 90s. He recounted how in his audition for Batman, those experiences helped him connected with the character that has now become one of the most known versions of Batman for the DC Universe.
Conroy has become a symbol for so many fans that his life will have an impact on the universe for years to come.
It’s finally November, a month that feels both festive and warm. Yet, you might be feeling as if it’s too early to break out into holiday cheer. It doesn’t feel quite right watching classic holiday movies like Home Alone, Elf, or It’s a Wonderful Life. To that, I say, I have a solution!
Read Also: Pooja’s Rapid Rewatch – ‘Easy A’
Forget about focusing on everything that feels related to the big year end holidays. November is usually associated as being the ramp up to the holiday season, as we spend more time with whomever we call family, thinking about family, even arguing with them.
With that said, allow me to list some fantastic feel good movies that are perfect to watch in November!
There will be tears.
While I would never spoil this absolutely heart wrenching movie for you, the one thing I will say is the emotions begin almost as soon as the Marvel credits roll and don’t stop until the very end of Wakanda Forever.
In an utter shock, Wakanda Forever is almost as good as it’s predecessor, Black Panther. Something that is hard to do considering the culture-shaking impact of the first Panther film.
Read: MrMARVELite’s Let’s Talk MARVEL – Why Iron Man Wasn’t at His Own Funeral
In an even bigger surprise, the cast, the story and the heart of this Ryan Coogler epic were still present even amidst the obvious absence of the late, very great Chadwick Boseman.
This will be a movie Marvel fans will have to see at least twice to digest all the deep themes and wonderful worlds that Coogler has yet again built for fans.
There will be time for theorizing what’s to come, and analyzing all the hidden meanings, but for now, enjoy the film and don’t be afraid to shed a tear for our fallen king.
As the Age of Rebellion transitions further into the Age of Resistance, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker and General Lando Calrissian must reunite once again to go on a journey to help rescue a family who are being hunted by Sith Acolytes, and the assassin Ochi of Bastoon. While a simple rescue mission seems simple for these renowned galactic heroes, they face a great deal of personal turmoil during their adventure that they must face if they are to save the family from the deadly hunters.
Before delving too much into the story itself, let it be known that this book acts more like a piece of content that tries to flesh out some concepts that were established in Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker more so than the other films. So if you are an individual who truly dislikes the sequels, or the Rise of Skywalker, this book most likely won’t change your opinion on those films. However, this is not to say that the book is bad in any sense. It is actually quite the enticing read that fulfilled this original trilogy fan’s desire for more stories focused on the heroes from the Age of Rebellion.
Strengths and Challenges
While some novels take its time to get a reader engaged, it was within the first few chapters of this book that I was captivated by the stakes of the story and from there it was able to keep that engagement going for a fair bit. The set-up that is done at the start is very captivating, the story does have some small moments where the description of things drag out the flow of the story. But this is primarily due to Adam Christopher’s desire to really flesh out and describe the setting that the moments are taking place in and while such detail of what is happening is commendable, it is at times that attention to details that lost my interest. There are also many moments in the book where the same object is being described throughout the book but with little to no variations in its description. To a degree it did get tiresome and that did detract me from the story. However, these aspects should not detract from that the amazing characterization of Lando Calrissian, who for me was an absolute standout throughout this book. Lando acts as one of the characters that readers will most likely be invested in due to who well Lando’s demeanor and magnetic personality is captured from the moment he is introduced in the book to the very end.
The Luke Skywalker in this book acts as an excellent continuation of the Luke that can be seen in Return of the Jedi and the Disney+ Star Wars shows, but adds more depth to him by having him more accustomed to the ways of a Jedi and the methods that they go about trying to avoid the use of violence. This is made all the more interesting when one of the antagonists he must face is an individual possessed by a Sith who has their autonomy taken away from them to the extent where they are much more akin to a victim. Not only does Luke’s character bring an interesting point of view and conflict to this book, his connection to the force brings out a new level of fear and outlook of the dark side that has not been entirely explored in other forms of Star Wars media. An exert from the book has Luke describe the signature feelings of Vader and Palpatine in the force and how one felt like “a fire, twisting sun-dragon that curled in the core of a star about to go nova” and the other an “opposite- he was ice, terrifying cold of the bottom of an endlessly deep ocean, the abyssal plain, where there was no light, no hope, a cold so absolute, so ultimate, that all life withered in its presence.” These descriptions mixed in with the story of the Acolytes of the Sith and depth that is added to the dark side creates far more curiosity for dark side users to be explored in future stories to come out from Star Wars.
While Luke and Lando are the most notable characters in the story, the book does also focus on the two antagonists. Ochi of Bastoon and the Sith Acolyte, but also the family that is being chased. However, those aspects of the story cannot be discussed without spoiling parts of the story. So here is the
*SPOILER WARNING*
The family of the story who carries the most amount of emotional investment are Rey’s family. Her father Dathan and mother Miramir carry an unfathomable amount of emotional weight on their shoulders in the story that. The limited amount of moments that the reader gets to experience between Rey and her parents is very heartbreaking throughout, so much so that it will most likely leave some begging and hoping for more small moments just so that Rey will not be left behind like she inevitably will. On top of being such emotionally relatable characters through their love of their daughter, Rey’s parents also prove themselves to be very resourceful while being hunted by one of the deadliest assassins ever seen in the Star Wars universe. Some bone tingling moments that were very enticing throughout this book are the close call moments where Rey and Luke are about to directly cross paths, and as the reader we know that their paths won’t cross until the end of Force Awakens, but there are hopeful moments where one just hopes that the canon is broken so that Rey can be saved with her parents due to Luke’s interventions with the hunters.
The antagonists Ochi of Bastoon and the Acolyte who is possessed by the Sith are very intriguing characters throughout the book and they really make one want more content involving them, but due to the fact that they share the narrative with Luke, Lando, Dathan and Mairamir they do suffer from not having enough of the story focused on them. And in Ochi’s case specifically the novel almost feels more interested in focusing on the knife that’s used to kill Rey’s parents than him throughout the book. Though there is the narrative of how the dark side will use others as a tool and that can be seen with these two antagonists, but due to the scale of the story it doesn’t provide enough of an opportunity to properly delve into the concept. Thus hindering these two interesting characters.
Impact on the Star Wars Universe
The repercussions that this novel has on the Star Wars universe is that it does primarily expand upon the sequel era of Star Wars movies by providing Lando with the story of him loosing his daughter, really expanding on why Rey would want to head back to Jakku, and why Luke was conveniently on Pasanna in Rise of Skywalker. Aside from expanding upon parts of the sequel trilogy is that the book now canonizes the Sith Darth Noctus from the Dark Legends books.
If you have read this novel and want more Star Wars content that has some connective tissue to Shadow of the Sith, then I recommend the following pieces of Star Wars content:
“Vs. Battles” are a form of content from the comic book community on TikTok or other social platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Most often these videos happen as live streams, where one creator will pit characters against each other and debate on the outcome. This can vary in format from the creator debating with their followers in the chat or the creator having guest hosts debate with them during the live stream.
One example of this that is often mentioned is Black Panther vs. Batman. Both are super wealthy heroes with unlimited resources and gadgets. Both are extremely well-versed in hand to hand combat.
If the two were to meet and fight one on one, who would be the victor?
Now this whole concept in and of itself is not really the issue at hand. It can be fun to imagine what would happen if two characters from different companies were to clash head to head.
The problem arises in how these live streams tend to play out by the end. Comic book fans are very passionate about their favorite characters, and just like any other fan base they have strong opinions. Unfortunately, what this often leads to is argument rather than a fun debate. Disagreements and discussion devolves into insults and yelling.
This is not limited to the creators that are in the debate. It extends into the chat feed and the followers begin to also get upset, either at the creator with the differing opinion or at each other. Once the insults begin to fly, there is little chance of regaining control of the stream.
The arguments are not the end of it however. There are numerous case of creators being mass reported during these streams, and even having their accounts banned entirely. This is sometimes caused by the rival creators followers going to their account to mass report their content on their own. In some rare instances, a creator will actually weaponize their follower base and instruct them to do this directly.
For some creators, having their account banned effects them very little. They mostly make content for fun and they can always just make another account. For those that are actually making a living and building brands on these platforms the results can be instant loss of their primary income, brand deals, sponsorships and reputation.
What it also does is deter new fans from even entering the community in the first place. If their first exposure to the comic book community is nothing but toxicity, then they will likely just avoid the community altogether. This gives the fan base a bad reputation as being toxic and un welcoming to outsiders, which couldn’t be further from the truth for the majority of the comic book and comictok community.
This is a question I asked myself early on in my content creation journey. I was new to the Comictok crowd, and some of the first videos I found we these types of battle live streams. I decided to avoid that side of the content community, simply because i did not want to risk my account based on an opinion I may have about a character.
There is also the opinion that they ultimately do more harm than good for the community as a whole. Ultimately its up for debate amongst creators either way for or against the concept. But there is no denying what happens to many people in that sub community on TikTok. Threats are made, insults and derogatory terms are used like normal vocabulary. People’s livelihoods are put at risk.
All of this is over fictional characters that do not actually exist. So what do you think? Should the comictok community avoid doing this type of content? Or should the creators do a better job of controlling their followers actions?
Dan Moyer and Jennifer Jacobellis are doing what they love.
The Crafti Comics co-founders sat down with Nerd Initiative to discuss how they started the company, where their creative passions stem from and so much more!
Read: Nerd Initiative Chats With … Shortboxed!
As an alternative to getting your comics graded, Crafti Comics is ALL about user experience and personalization.
The duo believe in customer satisfaction and collaboration! Watch the full interview below!!
Wait what?!?! Plush from Image Comics is a new series about cannibalistic furries??
Diesel Dan details the new series below and why it might be your next comic book obsession.
Read: JJ’s Top 3 New Comic Book Runs Beginning In November
Check out the full details below!
It’s a new month and with that, there’s a slew of new comic book runs coming out! Here are my top 3!
Wade Wilson is on a mission to make the title of worlds top assassin official, as he auditions to become a member of the elite group known as Atelier. In order to gain membership status Deadpool is given 48 hours to take out one of the world’s biggest super villains.
The only problem is he’s been kidnapped, and has…something…growing inside of him. Parental Advisory for this book because in the words of the writer, “It’s gunna get gross”
Deadpool #1 is set to hit comic store shelves on November 2nd.
It’s a brand new era for Marvel’s First Family, and it’s already starting with trouble. Something in New York has taken a turn for the worse, And the Thing and Alicia are heading across the country to escape. Until they find themselves stuck in a time loop, that’s been going on for decades.
Fantastic Four #1 is coming, on November 9th.
Writer Geoff Johns brings back the heroes of the Golden Age in the brand new Justice Society of America series in which a “long-lost” hero travels through time with a warning for our era. But they arrive too late, a new mysterious enemy has invaded the and corrupted the the entire history of the JSA and a new team must come together and put things right!
Justice Society of America #1 is flying into stores on November 29th.
You can find all of these and countless others at PREVIEWSworld.com
