Tag: Marvel

Batman Deadpool (DC/Marvel, 2025)

There’s been a great collaboration between the two American superhero comics powerhouses since March 1976 and Superman vs.  the Amazing Spider-Man. Every few years something would crop up, and these stories are fun because they are never “canon” for either comics universe.

The latest of these are the two issues Deadpool Batman and Batman Deadpool.  There are no multi-part stories and it’s not just the title characters but about fourteen stories of varying lengths featuring team-ups like Captain America and Wonder Woman, etc. Even a new Amalgam character called Logo (Lobo and Wolverine ‘Logan’)!

I ventured into my local comics shop to pick these up as I had read they weren’t going to be issued in digital format (turns out that was wrong). There were even two digital-only books (Flash/Fantastic Four and Thor/Shazam!).  The latter is notable because in the book the Fawcett/D.C. hero is actually called Captain Marvel, which hasn’t been done since the 80s when D.C. lost the trademark lawsuit to Marvel!  Here’s hoping that this is one thing that carries over into D.C. canon so they can stop calling him just “the Captain,” which makes no sense at all.

These books were a nice way to start off my holiday season.  I chose the cover variant pictured because I recognized Ryan Sook’s homage to the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 cover by George Perez.

Thunderbolts* (2025)

Thunderbolts* posterI have to admit to “MCU Fatigue”.  I’m predisposed to be more excited about DC properties, but there’s no question that Marvel Studios has done an amazing job of putting forward an interlinked story, for the most part.

My wife and I try to watch most superhero movies opening weekend to avoid being spoiled by errant headlines on media sites.  We saw Thunderbolts* the Saturday morning of opening weekend.

This movie is different from, say, Guardians of the Galaxy.  It’s not shifting to a bunch of new characters, instead tying together ‘loose ends’ from five or six story arcs in the MCU.

My major complaint with this movie was that there were large portions of it that were shot too darkly. Not tone, actual lighting! It’s actually a major complaint I have with a lot of media from the last 8 years or so.

I was surprised at one character arc that didn’t get much screen time.  However, my biggest surprise was that the movie didn’t shy away from depicting mental illness. While I try not to give spoilers, and I don’t think that’s a large one, it really did set the movie apart (and raise it a notch) for me.