BW17: Sci Fi and Fantasy and History, oh my!

 

It's book week 17 in our 52 books quest and this week is all about the world of Larry Niven. He celebrates his 84th birthday on the 30th.  He's written over 400 stories since he published his first book in 1964, alone and in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes, and Gregory Benford.  I discovered Niven back in the 70's and enjoyed reading His Ringworld series, along with many of his other books, including The Mote in God's Eye.  He is currently working with Jerry Pournelle on Burning Mountain, the sequel to Burning City and Burning Tower.

“They do not use lasers, they do not use radio, they do not use hyperwave. What are they using for communication? Telepathy? Written messages? Big mirrors?"

 "Parrots," Louis suggested. He got up to join them at the door to the control room. "Huge parrots, specially bred for their oversized lungs. They're too big to fly. They just sit on hilltops and scream at each other.”  ~Larry Niven, Ringworld

Ring World and the Mote in God's Eye are buried somewhere in the garage and tempted as it may be to buy the ebook, I don't want to break my buying ban.  One of these days.....

I took a break from Middlemarch and The Way of the King to read Reliquary, #2 in the Relic series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  Something or someone scary is living underground in the tunnels of New York and preying on the hidden homeless. Margo and the rest of the cast from the first book are back to resolve the mystery of the murders and if it’s related to the previous predator in the museum. Thrilling, chilling, and scary and full of twists you didn't see coming.

We watched The Batman with Robert Pattinson. Three hour movie full of twists and turns and drama. So very good. And I thought he couldn’t act. Because, you know, Twilight. I was wrong.

James M's review of Archie Sonic Online -Knuckles: Endangered Species #2

 

Hullo again, Sonic fans.

The crew of Archie Sonic Online has posted another ASO-related comic, it is none other than Knuckles: Endangered Species #2. Funny enough, this was actually posted around the time of April Fools' Day and it wasn't an April Fools' joke. Also, I didn't get around to reading it right away until recently. But now, I've read it and its time for a review.

And yes, I did read issue 1, the crew did a good job writing it. Issue 2 is beyond wild and intense, you have Remington teaming up with Lien-Da in an uneasy alliance against the Tasmanian Devils and Thrash, of course, is in the picture. The issue even ends on a cliffhanger with Knuckles, Julie Su and, obviously, Thrash winding up in some underground place beneath Albion's ruins. 

Having read the comic, I enjoyed this and I love Archie Sonic Online even more. The writers and the artists have so much love for the Archie Sonic comics, which is fantastic and Sonic's fanbase can't get any more passionate than this. May the legacy of Sonic fanworks be as strong as ever.

While fanmade content and fan continuations aren't entirely official, its great to know of their existance and good to know there are passionate fans who will work hard to help preserve the legacy of soon-to-be forgotten stories and characters that are gone. Archie Sonic and its legacy is no exception, ASO has been going strong since it started a couple years back and there is no sign of it slowing down.

I look forward to what the ASO crew will put out again soon, Knuckles: Endangered Species issue 2 gets a solid ten out of ten. Thank you, Sonic fandom, thank you for your hard work. Now, I say adieu. Peace out, friends...

-James M

BW16: It's all about the RE words this week

 

Happy Sunday. It's week 16 in our 52 books quest and it's all about the re words this week: Renew, rebirth,  recharge, restore, resurrection, rejoice, renaissance, and of course, read and reread. 

 I'm 12 chapters in on Middlemarch and it's a slow read as the writing takes some getting used to but enjoying it.  

Also about a 6th of the way in on Sanderson's The Way of Kings  which is so very different from Wheel of Time but has a whole slew of characters I'm getting used to and enjoying it so far. Both are chunky books so going to take me a while. 

“Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them…”

Took a reading break to watch Tick Tick Boom which is amazing. Damn, Andrew Garfield (Yes, the amazing spiderman) can sing. Neither of my guys like musicals so watched by myself.  Jonathan Larson is the songwriter who wrote the Broadway play Rent and died from an aortic aneurism right before it was released.  The movie starts 5 years before he died and takes place in New York during the height of the aids epidemic so friends are dying, others are becoming more successful, while Larson struggles to make a name for himself.  The movie is deep, and funny, dramatic, and heartwarming and will make you laugh, make you cry, make you sing. All the singers were amazing.  I need to get the soundtrack or watch the movie several dozen times. It was that good.

James M's short review of Star Trek/Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds (2017)

 

Welcome back, ya'll. Look at that, I got my hands on the second Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover story "Stranger Worlds", set after the events of the first story. Here are my thoughts on this fantastical sci-fi crossover of incredible insanity.

Having gotten the graphic novel and read it all, Stranger Worlds is really dang good for a follow-up to the first story, which involved the crew of the Enterprise partnering with The Lanterns to fight the enemy who destroyed their world. Now, they have to deal with Sinestro and Khan. Lemme tell you, this comic is dang good from start to finish. If any of you read the first story, you'd love it all. 

The writing's beyond fantastic, absolutely amazing, and the visuals are so breathtaking past the point where you can't stop reading this comic and want to read it all. Well, I read it all, that's how so good this comic book is and graphic novels are a great collection of comics to help read an entire series or story arc in its entirety if you don't have the time to get comics as they come out.

After reading the whole thing, I am craving a third Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover entry, if there really is one out there somewhere. Its possible there will be one day or maybe there is, but until then, its best to enjoy what we got. Thank you IDW and DC for making this a reality for us fans.

My score is a solid ten, now, I sign off.

-James M

Star Trek/Green Lantern: Spectrum War -My Review

 

Greetings, fellow humans. I have returned with a crossover where no one in Star Trek has ever gone before, it is one of cosmic proportions, one of the green type. Its the Spectrum War, the first ever STAR TREK/GREEN LANTERN IDW/DC crossover event.

Just like with the Batman/TMNT graphic novels, I got this at my local comic shop and read this. Its amazing, I tell you. This crossover absolutely rocks and it works in nearly every way!!! The crew of the Enterprise, its allies and enemies and the Lanterns all play off of each other very well, the writing is just beautiful and the artwork is fine comic quality.

Heck, if Paramount and Warner wanted to collaborate on a crossover film, this comic should be turned into a movie. The first ever comic book sci-fi crossover movie, a DC/Star Trek crossover film should happen at some point since some Star Trek actors have appeared in comic book movies. For example, 2009 Star Trek's Chris Pine appears in the 2017 Wonder Woman as Steve Trevor.

As for the main villain of this one, he is one of the many comic book personifications of Death himself and is terrifying. He may not be Thanos or Darkseid, but this guy is terrifying. He destroyed Green Lantern Hal Jordan's universe and had the potential to destroy the Star Trek universe had the crew of the Enterprise and the Lanterns not stopped him in the end.

The end of the crossover was a nice touch, especially with Green Lantern becoming a leader in the Galactic Federation with him somewhat captaining the Enterprise instead of Captain Kirk, who is still a captain. You gotta love crossovers that end with both universes somewhat unified with one hero from the other world staying and being friends with the hero of the universe he's in. If there are any DC fans who like Star Trek and want to see a Star Trek/DC crossover, I would suggest this comic.

Star Trek/Green Lantern: Spectrum War gets a 9.5, such amazing work from IDW and DC. Farewell for now everybody.

-James M

BW15: Ishiguro, Erdrich, Hackwith, and Stabenow

 

Artist Georgiana Chitac: "ABSENCE

It's book week 15 in our 52 Books Quest and the theme this week is Rebellion.  I finished four books this week and I think my books are in rebellion because none of them ended on a happy note.  They all left me with a sense of loss and wishing better things for the characters. 

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, narrated by Klara, a robot.  She is an artificial friend, is made stronger by the sun and very observant. She is picked to be the companion to Josie, an ailing child, and goes to live with her and the mom. Klara sees the Sun as some sort of God and comes to believe that if she manages to destroy a "Cootings" machine (I think it's an asphalt paver) which spreads dark foggy pollution and blocks the sun, the Sun will save Josie's life.  Filtered through the eyes of Robot it doesn't  seem like an emotional story, but more philosophical. The humans around her aren't sure of some of the things she does, but go along, hoping she will make things better.  I really didn't like the ending because when she was no longer useful, the humans in her life, treated her like an appliance. 

(Dystopian Fiction, New to me author, 320)

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith was an interesting read. The narrators are Claire who is a librarian for unwritten books in Hell. Ramiel, a fallen angel a watcher relegated to processing the departed at Heaven's gates. Leto, half demon, half man who finds himself with no memory, and Brevity, a muse helping Claire.  While they are trying to return a runaway character to his book, enemies and allies are thrown together in a quest to find and destroy the devil's bible in order to prevent a war between Heaven and Hell. In the meantime God evidently has disappeared and Uriel, an archangel is in charge in Heaven. She's not a nice angel and wants to destroy Claire and all those involved with finding the dark bible. It's an intriguing concept, but quite a dark story with bits of humor thrown in.  I really didn't know who to root for. I didn't dislike the story, but again I didn't love it as I found it hard to root for any of the characters. 

(Dusty, Fantasy, e)

A Cold Dark Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow is quite good and I look forward to reading more of the series. Our heroine is Kate Shugak, an Alaskan Aleut, a retired investigator who lives alone in the Alaska National Park, but near her family in the tiny village of Niniltna. She's asked to find two men who have disappeared and during the course of her investigation, she is drawn back into the life and problems of family and friends. The theme of man against nature and man against man with plenty of action with murder, angst, betrayal, grief, as well as humor throughout the story.  I liked Kate, her byplay with different characters and hope she finds her happily ever after.  

(Dusty, mystery, new to me author, 173, e)

The Round House by Louise Erdrich is told from the viewpoint of thirteen year old Joe, with some asides from when he was an adult,  and it is easy to forget his age as he is put through the ringer with the assault on his mother and trying to figure out who the culprit was and do something about it.  The characters live on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota and provide the reader with an enriching background of Native American culture, history, myths and laws.  The story goes from dark to light to dark again. It's a story rooted in taking care of family,  grief, loss, hope, betrayal, strength, and the consequences of action.  Once you get used to Erdrich's lack of punctuation for the dialogue,  the story  will capture and hold you to the page.

(Native American Fiction, Literary, 368)

James M's review of The Dark Knight (2008)

 

Hello, superhero fans of justice, welcome back. Its time for more Batman as we delve further into the Christopher Nolan trilogy with the 2008's hit superhero movie sequel to 2005's Batman Begins known as THE DARK KNIGHT.

That's right, we finally saw it and, wow, I can see why so many people love the life out of this film. Hats off to Mr. Nolan and his team and to the late Heath Ledger for all their hard work. THE DARK KNIGHT sees Batman going up against The Joker (played by Ledger) as he concocts a plan to corrupt and terrorize Gotham, which sees initially noble District Attorney Harvey Dent eventually become the villain Two-Face thanks to Joker's machinations. 

And by the end of the film, while Joker and Two-Face are defeated, The Joker's plan to ruin and corrupt Gotham succeeded. And on top of that, while Batman continues to be a hero, he decides to let Harvey Dent take the credit for his heroics while the Dark Knight himself becomes a fugitive of justice with  Jim Gordon, who finally becomes Commissioner Gordon, destroying the Bat-signal.

If you're wondering what my honest thoughts on THE DARK KNIGHT are, I will tell you now. This movie is fantastic for its time and it deserves the honor of being a fan favorite. The musical score for this film is well scored, it is epic when it needs to be and gets scary when the suspenseful moments come in, especially with the Joker scenes. 

Even the action scenes and special effects are perfect, nicely crafted and executed and beyond mind-blowing for today's standards, the writing and screenplay are through the roof and the actors brought a fantastic performance for this film with one of the big show-stealers nearly being Heath Ledger himself. And in his final film role as Batman's nemesis The Joker, he does one heck of a good job, my mother was creeped out and I laughed nervously when he delivered his sinister Joker laugh.

The Joker here is just as anyone would expect any version of The Joker to be, the sinister and intelligent nemesis of Batman with a plan to create chaos and anarchy in Gotham. The opening scene just shows how dangerous and unpredictable this guy is, he disguises himself as one of his goons and kills one of the henchmen during a bank robbery. 

And if that wasn't enough, the scene where he meets with the Mob is perhaps one of the most intense and well-made scenes in any action or superhero film. Who can forget that laugh and The Joker walking in while saying "And I thought my jokes were bad", not to mention when he does a "magic trick" where Joker makes a pencil disappear by slamming a guy's head into it. Ouch! While Joker was a dark villain long before Heath Ledger played the role, this is undeniably one of the scariest villains ever.

Batman's conflict with The Joker is just as you'd expect it to be with the Dark Knight trying to stop him while the clown prince of crime does what he can to get under Batman's skin. During Batman's interrogation with the villain, we are reminded of the Batman/Joker dynamic made famous in the comics when Joker tells Batman he doesn't want to kill him as he completes him. We are later reminded of the dynamic during their final fight when Joker tells Batman they are destined to do this forever, but this is the only time in the trilogy that they will fight given Heath Ledger's unfortunate passing.

Minor disappointment regarding an actor's death aside, this film is beautiful. And so, with nothing else to say, I will give THE DARK KNIGHT a ten out of ten. This film has stood the tests of time since it released and you can see it with the quality of this iconic, unforgettable Batman film. It pushed the limits of the intensity and pushed the PG-13 rating to the max, THE DARK KNIGHT is so intense, its going to be some time before you hear that I watched THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.

May we meet again, everyone...

-James M

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018) -Movie Review by James M

 

Greetings to all of the true believers out there, we're diving further into the Spider-verse again with another Spider-Man movie. But this time, we're not in the live action realm, its the animation realm...WITH SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE!

Released by Sony and Marvel in late 2018 with the screenplay handled by Phil Lord, INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE focuses on the journey and struggle of Miles Morales (played by Shameik Moore) when he gets bit by a spider and has to navigate the ropes of becoming Spider-Man while teaming up with an alternate universe Peter Parker Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen and other Spider people to stop the corrupt Kingpin's plans before the multiverse collapses due to Kingpin's machinations.

You could say this is where the multiverse craze started, thanks to the success of Into The Spider-Verse, as we're getting a Flash movie about the multiverse and the MCU has been delving into the multiverse in certain projects set in the aftermath of Infinity War/Endgame. 

Even SEGA is distributing Sonic Prime, a Sonic cartoon about Sonic exploring the Shatterverse multiverse. Even though multiverse stories have been going on for years, Spider-Verse started the new multiverse craze.

We saw this film eleven months before the release of Spider-Man No Way Home (after we started hearing rumblings of the multiverse being involved with the movie) and, let me tell you, this movie is a blast. Into The Spider-Verse is perhaps one of the most beautifully made superhero movies and one of the best animated films ever, not to mention its a super cool animated superhero film.

In regards to it being PG rated instead of being PG-13, that's fine, even though PG rated superhero movies and action films are very rare these days. Regardless, the writing of this movie is simple and fun, just like the characters and the action pieces of the movie. Even the animation style is beyond gorgeous, the writers had a blast making this and even the voice actors seemed to be having a lot of fun playing their respective roles.

SPIDER-MAN INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE is a fun ride with a lot of beautiful nods and Easter Eggs related to Spider-Man's long history, it is also a wonderful tribute to the late Stan Lee, who makes one of his last cameos in the movie and briefly voices J. Jonah Jameson. Stan died shortly before the movie came out, but hearing him here one final time is heartwarming, knowing that his legacy will live on.

The movie was so well-received and successful, its getting a sequel that is finally coming out in late 2022. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (which will be divided into two parts) will continue where Into The Spider-Verse left off and explore the multiverse even further. The final post-credits scene is even humorous as it involves Spider-Man 2099 visiting the 1967 Spider-Man universe, leading to the pointing finger meme and popularizing it to full meme popularity once again. 

After seeing this baby twice and thinking about how fantastic it is, I will gladly give Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse a sweet 9.8/10. May this movie be remembered as one of the best made superhero movies and I wish the crew behind this film good luck with the sequel and future superhero movies in the years to come. See you later, true believers.

-James M

James M's review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

 

Welcome back, true believers. We're diving into the Spider-Man multiverse again with the sequel to 2012's The Amazing Spider Man, The Amazing Spider Man 2. Released in 2014 with Andrew Garfield in the role, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn't do as well as the executives expected. The situation was so bad, plans for a third film were scrapped and Andrew would never appear again for a good seven years until 2021's SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME.

So, what's the story of the second and (for now) final entry in this Spider-Man duology?

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens up sometime after the first film with Peter swinging through New York City as Spider-Man when he hears that a police chase after a criminal with a truck is in progress. He heads to the scene and confronts the villain who is Aleksei Sytsevich, a Russian bad guy who will become The Rhino in the future. During the chase, Spider-Man winds up saving the life of an Oscorp employee named Max Dillon, who is a big fan of the web-slinger and sees him as his best friend.

As Spider-Man pursues Aleksei, he gets a phone call from Gwen Stacy, who is at the high-school graduation ceremony and tells Peter to hurry up. Peter catches the Russian criminal and apprehends him, with that settled, he heads to the graduation ceremony in time to receive his diploma and kiss Gwen. However, he's unsure about being with her due to his promise to her dying father. So, Peter and Gwen break up and their romantic relationship stops... for now.

Meanwhile, Harry Osborn returns from a school trip abroad to find his father Norman Osborn dying and assumes control of Oscorp after Norman's passing. Peter meets with Harry to console him and they discuss Spider-Man, unaware that a couple Oscorp employees are tracking them. Max Dillan later heads to Oscorp, on his birthday no less, and is assigned to fix a power generator. As he is working, Max falls into a pool of electric eels and, while in a morgue, he transforms into Electro.

Electro heads to Times Square and draws some attention from everyone, including the cops, as he tries to feed off electricity from the city. Spider-Man shows up and tries to talk with Max, however, things go south when a sniper shoots at the electrified man and chaos ensues when Max unleashes his fury. Spider-Man saves some civilians and is hailed a hero, enraging Electro, who becomes a full on villain. His rampage is short lived thanks to Spider-Man's efforts and Electro is arrested.

Harry soon fears he will die after learning he's inherited a disease from his father and asks Peter to have Spider-Man give him his blood. Peter visits Harry as Spider-Man and tells him he can't give him his blood, mostly due to the danger that Harry could die. This enrages Harry, mostly given that he's afraid that he will soon die from the Osborn Disease any day now.

This leads to Harry getting desperate and turns to anyone for help, such as Felicia Hardy (actually Black Cat and played by Felicity Jones), but ends up being discharged from power. Desperate for help, Harry heads to Ravencroft Institute and frees Electro, who is being studied. The two break into Oscorp and Harry injects himself with spider-DNA, which nearly kills him if not for advanced armor that turns him into the Green Goblin.

Meanwhile, Peter decides he loves Gwen, who is about to attend college in England, and meets up with her right as she's leaving. Just as they're becoming a couple again, Electro starts messing with the power grid of the city and everything is downhill from there. Spider-Man confronts the returned Electro at the power station and, after a lengthy battle and with Gwen's help, he defeats the villain by overloading him. With the bad guy is defeated and the city safe, all is well, right...?

Nope. Shortly after Electro's defeat, Harry arrives on the Glider and, upon seeing Gwen, figures out that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. The deranged Goblin snatches Gwen and tries to make off with her, but Peter confronts him and Harry drops Gwen. Peter catches her and they wind up crashing through a glass ceiling into a clock tower where the web-slinger and his old friend battle it out with Gwen's life on the line as Spider-Man weaves a web to prevent Gwen's fall.

The battle is intense and the soundtrack sets the atmosphere for it all as the clock gears turn, the stakes are high. Peter defeats Harry, but the clock moves and the web snaps, resulting in Gwen falling. With every bit of strength he has, Peter dives after her and spins a web to catch Gwen. However, despite managing to catch her, it is not enough as Gwen hits the ground and dies. Peter is distraught by his girlfriend's death and, let me tell you, Andrew knocked the ball out of the park with that scene.

And yes, its The Night Gwen Stacy Died brought to life in live action again. Only this time, there's no MJ in Gwen's place and neither is the action at a bridge. Following the loss of Gwen, Peter gives up on being Spider-Man for a time but eventually gains his confidence again right as Aleksei, the Russian criminal from the start of the film, breaks out of jail as part of a plot by an imprisoned Harry and the mysterious man from the end of the first film and becomes the Rhino before going on a rampage.

Spider-Man arrives when hope seems to be lost and he confronts the Rhino, who is using a robotic tank suit. The movie (and The Amazing Spider-Man series) ends with Peter swinging into battle with the Rhino as Spider-Man.

Despite its flaws, despite being a failure and the problems surrounding it, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a not-so bad superhero movie. The plot is compelling, the action scenes are decently choreographed and there is some great acting from Andrew, Emma Stone and all of the other actors in the movie. Its too bad the film didn't get a follow up, but at least we finally get to see Andrew again years later, and it is possible that The Amazing Spider-Man 3 might happen after all with all of the fan demand out there.

So, what's my score for the film?

8/10, the film isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Just ignore the box office results and ignore what the critics said, TaSM 2 is memorable as long as you can handle it. After all, the failure of a superhero movie is not the end of the superhero genre or the end of the world. People overreact too much. Now, I swing off into the multiverse and bid you farewell. See you next time, True Believers. PEACE!

-James M

BW14: Thrillers and mysteries take center stage this week

 

It's book week 14 in our 52 books quest and this week is all about classic children's mysteries. As always I have to be a little different and currently have Willo Davis Roberts science fiction story, The Girl with the Silver Eyes waiting in the wings.  

I’m currently in the middle of three books:  My I by title is James Rollins thriller, Ice Hunt.  My books about books read is A.J. Hackwith’s Library of the Unwritten, and my e by author Louise Erdrich’s Native American Mystery The Round House.

This month is National Poetry Month so I hope to fit in some poetry reading along the way and share my favorite poets.  

Book Review: The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

 

I had never heard of The Bone Shard Daughter until I was pointed in the direction of the book vlogger Merphy Napier.  In the midst of watching her videos, learned that her number one book for 2021 was The Bone Shard Daughter and her review intrigued me enough to get the book.  

From the opening line - Father told me I'm broken - I was drawn into the world of Lin, the emperor's daughter,  Jovis, a smuggler, Phalue, the governor's daughter, her girlfriend Ranami, and a mysterious Sand with no memory.  Bone shards play a center role in the islands.   At the age of eight, children are gathered in the square of each village during the Tithing Festival to have a shard of bone removed from their skull.  Not all the children survive and parents used any means to smuggle their children away to safety.  The bone shards are used by the emperor to create and power constructs.  Magical creatures, made of different animal parts and used to spy on the citizens.  While the emperor and governor reside in palaces of gold, many of the citizens live in poverty, and a group of rebels work to undermine the governor and stop the tithing festivals.  It's the rich against the poor trope with the unique twist of the bone shards and constructs thrown in which makes for a unique and engaging story.  I highly recommend it. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the Drowning Empire series, The Bone Shard Emperor.  

Historical Fantasy, new to me author, 438

James M's review of IDW Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Official Movie Pre-Quill (2022)

 

In 2020, after decades of trial and error, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie finally released and was a massive success to a point where it rejuvenated Sonic's popularity as an icon and paved the way for a sequel that is now coming out. And to celebrate, IDW Publishing, which has the Sonic license, is FINALLY doing a comic tying into the Sonic Cinematic Universe and serving as a prequel to the second movie.

That's right, we finally got an IDW Sonic comic set in the movie universe between the first and second films, which means we get to see humans in IDW. Plus, there's five stories. One features the main hero, the others feature Knuckles, Tails, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub's character) and Movie Robotnik respectively. The last one happened to be "spearheaded" by actor Jim Carrey himself, you can tell IDW was working with the people at Paramount to make sure they get the Movie Sonic universe right.

I'll tell you now, the writing and the visuals is really good. IDW put a lot of effort into it and, I'm so impressed, I'd love to see more IDW Sonic stories set in the Movie Sonic universe. The Sonic Cinematic Universe really is successful and, if it weren't for the first movie, we would not be seeing a comic book like this one. I wanna read this again and I want to read more IDW Movie Sonic stories.

Sonic's story was really nicely-written, showcasing Sonic's antics (and heroics) in the town of Green Hills after the first movie while he apparently tries to come up with a superhero name, going through different ideas until he finally settles upon "Blue Justice" when he defeats the bad guys at the bank. Him interacting with Crazy Carl was really quite cool, so cool, I can almost hear Frank C. Turner's voice when I think about Crazy Carl's dialogue while talking with Sonic.

Regarding Agent Stone's story, seeing the man who was Doctor Robotnik's associate continue to serve the missing Doctor's evil and how villainous he can be in Robotnik's absence was quite... an intriguing read. Lets see more Agent Stone stories, can we get that please? 

As for the Knuckles & Tails stories, learning that Movie Knuckles is the last of his kind just like his game self was a nice connection to the games. Tails' story provided a lot of world-building, bringing in that lizard villain known as Rava the Destroyer from the concept art for the first film and confirming Longclaw's death, the latter is sad but its ok if you don't want to bring Longclaw back. Sonic learning of her fate in movie 2 should be a touching scene.

Finally, we get to Mushroom With A View, which showcases Movie Robotnik's journey and struggle for survival on the Mushroom Planet. The writers just nailed it, he is so goofy and villainous at every point. I'm actually glad Jim Carrey loves his version of Robotnik, this story shows we do need more Eggman stories, no matter what version of him we're dealing with. Forget about Classic Sonic and Classic Eggman, SEGA should be using the SCU as a sub-brand instead of the Classic era. Seriously, people hate the usage of Classic Sonic as a sub-brand, you got the movie universe so use that as a sub-brand or don't use a sub-brand at all.

My final score for this comic is a ten, I want to read this over and over again, Sonic's fame is as strong as ever and SEGA (and their partners) know this. May Sonic travel to higher heights than ever before for years to come and may he never lose that popularity again, happy 2022, Sonic the Hedgehog, and may the second movie be the celebration of your legacy just like the first film.

See ya...

-James M