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.

The Beatles Anthology 2025 (Disney+)

I’ve been a huge fan of The Beatles ever since I could listen to music. (It comes from having older brothers with good taste as well.) I watched the original broadcast on ABC and still have a VHS tape of the off-the-air broadcast around somewhere. I bought the DVD set a few years ago which has most of the “Threetles reunion” bits on the special features disc. My mom gifted me the book the Christmas it was published.

This new packaging of the Beatles’ official story doesn’t have a lot of new material in it, but the live recordings have all had the Peter Jackson “MAL” magic done to them.  In the process EVERY recording is leveled much higher than any speaking interview, which is jarring and annoying.

I have read that some bits were dropped from the original show and some new things inserted, but I can’t tell you which ones they were.

I enjoyed rewatching this show over several days.  Just like with “Eight Days a Week,” Ron Howard’s 2016 film, the renewed revelation is just how mesmerizing they were as a live band.  Someone like me has read all the minutiae about recordings and squabbles, but hearing and seeing them in their prime is just so darn good!

There’s a lot of grumbling in fan circles about the accompanying “Anthology 4” record–it doesn’t have much “new” in it, but the audio therein and for Anthology 1-3 has also had the “MAL” process on it.  If you listen carefully the new mix of “Real Love” also has gotten rid of a large portion of George’s guitar work, which is a very strange choice to make.

Overall, Anthology 2025 is still a must-watch for anyone new to the Beatles’ story, and it’s compelling for the rest of us, too.

 

Lunar Logic by Adeena Mignogna (2024)

I met Adeena two years ago at Balticon. She gave an interesting talk on “Space Junk”.  At the end she quickly promoted her books and I took note.  I first read her “Crazy Robots” series, which had some interesting concepts in it.  Lunar Logic is a standalone story, and I just got around to reading it.

I felt that the story started slowly, and the robots all being named “Ai-something” was cumbersome to the reader, but it makes sense within the world she’s created.  The book really took off after the initial world-setting and groundwork laid, becoming more readable and with a bit more action.

It’s a very timely book with ‘AI this’ and ‘AI that’ all in our news and science speculation.  This book is the best kind of “speculative fiction”.

I recommend Adeena’s work.  I have been getting her newsletter this year and she’s been writing some ‘flash fiction’ that I hope gets developed into full stories.