I found the movie to be a fun throwback to an earlier time and it bears a lot of similarities to another movie I watched this month. Let’s get into it, shall we?

Batman has always been the superhero I most associate with Halloween. It’s not just about thousands of kids dressing as the Dark Knight on October 31st every year (as Spider-Man would also have a claim to Halloween in this case), but rather the Batman franchise has the qualities of Halloween I most associate with the season. The world of Batman, or at least the Batman I love, tends to be dark, creepy, and fairly grim. Even a lot of kid-friendly Batman adaptations tend to have some of these tonal markers, just in less extreme qualities. Like any multibillion-dollar franchise, Batman has a flexibility that allows it to reach the broadest audience possible while simultaneously leaning into a specific tone for a specific audience.

One of the things I enjoy most about James Gunn’s current DCU is that there is an emphasis on these superhero films and media having specific tones. With James Watkins’ Clayface (2026) we get a very horror-centric project in the larger DC Comics universe that does not feature a mainline superhero, but rather one of his more iconic but least utilized rogues. Though Batman is not present in the film, Clayface does a fantastic job filling in the world in which we’ll one day see the Caped Crusader.

Batman: Madman and Monster

Part of the appeal of Batman to me is those Halloween vibes, specifically in that Batman primarily fights two kinds of evil in Gotham City: madmen and monsters. This is fitting because these two strains of villainy are a dark mirror of who Batman is. He is a psychologically damaged soldier taking the law into his own hands, while also taking monstrous and violent action to strike terror in the criminal population, with the repercussions of terrifying the city in the wake of his actions. Gotham City is such a breeding ground for monsters and madmen that it takes a little of both to try to save the city.

In that way, a lot of Batman’s rogues are also reflections of the man himself. In early comics Batman fought a lot of gangsters and industrialists. But the theatricality of the Bat results in a reaction where the criminals become more theatrical as well. It’s an arms race of creeps in the world’s most horror-tinged city. Many adaptations also follow this very thread of escalation in Batman’s presence creating a new kind of criminal unique to Gotham. Sure, DC has any number of fictional cities with rogues, but none quite like those from Gotham as far as cruelty and monstrosity are concerned for most fans.

It’s not hard to imagine a narrative where Batman, instead of being a hero, embraces his monstrosity and madness. It’s been done before. It will be done to death over the next twenty years. In that way, Batman is not too far removed from his rogues, and it makes a lot of sense how the rogues could lead their own films. That is exactly the case with Clayface’s Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) because, if one didn’t know who Clayface was, one could be mistaken that a good portion of the film’s runtime could have set Hagen/Clayface as a vigilante, not unlike Batman himself. Where Batman in most cases is one bad choice from being just like his rogues, with the exception of his willpower and monk-like discipline to maintaining his mission, Clayface takes the path of embracing monstrosity.

Clayface: Movieland Monster

The Matt Hagen of Clayface borrows heavily from the original Basil Karlo version of the character from the comics and mostly just cribs his name off the second incarnation of the character. Karlo is a B-level actor who is driven insane by being replaced in a remake of one of his movies and murders people while dressed in a movie costume. The original Matt Hagen of the comics was a treasure hunter who gains clay-like power from a mysterious substance in a cave. So the film has an origin cribbed from Karlo but with a power set of Hagen. You can say this is more or less in the same mold of the DC Animated Universe version.

The DC Animated Universe, beginning with Batman: The Animated Series, has had a major influence on the current DCU so far as. For many fans the DCAU had a tremendous influence on how certain characters are remembered – characters like Clayface. It’s a smart strategy because the Clayface of that animated series is so well handled as a fusion of the two different versions that it ended up being the definitive take. It’s been like that for multiple characters from DC Comics as well. That animated universe feels very much like a template for the current film continuity.

Part of my enjoyment of Clayface was due to me relating it quite a bit to my recent experience rewatching The Invisible Man (1933). That comes across in two ways. The first is that the film plays with the image-obsessed celebrity angle of the most iconic adaptations of Clayface as a character: actor, prideful, disfigured, madness, and monstrosity. It’s a template that builds on an old Hollywood vibe, and while Clayface is set in a modern time, the darker aspect of Hollywood plays out in the film as part of the film is set in another iconic DC locale, Coast City.

The second angle of it all is that the movie very much follows the template of The Invisible Man and has the feel of a Universal Monster film. The only real difference between Matt Hagen and Dr. Jack Griffin is a PhD. Both are men who become obsessed and disfigured (Griffin cannot control his invisibility, after all) and lose their minds when they realize the power they have. They are both presented as tragic in the sense of filmic romance, and they are both driven to self-destruction by their obsession and their minds fracturing under the science that puts them into the circumstances they are in. Both men go on a crime spree, Hagen for pride and bitter vengeance, Griffin for pride and fascistic impulse.

I’d be genuinely interested to see a black-and-white version of Clayface. I think the film’s combination of shadows and neon lights would be a fascinating take on what exists and lend a noirish quality to the underlying horror. The film already leans heavily into horrific Hollywood and the Universal Monsters-style of storytelling, and a black-and-white version feels like it is a missing piece to something a little more transformative. The film is solid, not perfect. The flesh may be lumpy and misshapen in spots, but the bones are good – conceptually. This movie hits right in my q-zone.

The fact that we are fortunate enough to have a DC Studios movie that is essentially a Universal Monster movie, set in Gotham City, is something I find incredibly interesting. It feels so very on point that it’s even wilder that the whole concept was pitched by Mike Flanagan. The odds, for me, a monster fan, comic fan, and Hollywood nerd, that I find a movie so very much in my interest arriving in October, no less, feel like DC Studios attempting to seduce me.

I don’t know how James Gunn and Peter Safran knew I’d be writing these essays this month, but their timing could not be better. Thanks, guys. Good movie.

This has been an installment of Graphic Content; support my writing by joining me on Ko-fi.

The post Revenge of Graphic Content #36: Clayface (2026) – Madmen and Monsters appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Yes, that Watchmen.

I haven’t had a lot of time to read comics regularly as of late, such is the nature of my day job, freelancing, and project schedule. However, this weekend proved to be an exception and I had time to relax. I decided to finally watch the second part of the animated Watchmen adaptation of MAX, and it made me think about Doomsday Clock, a series I never finished because, unsurprisingly, I found myself busy and it didn’t hold my attention at the time

But hey, no time like the present to catch up, right?

DC’s Doomsday Clock – Gross IP Exploitation or Metacommentary Sandbox?

I re-read the first four issues of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock and still see a lot of things that I dislike. But, I am also one to talk about things I find genuinely interesting. For example? The fourth issue is brilliant. I’ll write more on that another time.

As a comic nerd, I have a great respect for Watchmen. It is a masterful work, though not without its problems. The worldview presented within is of its time and there are elements of the work that don’t hold up in certain regards of metaphor and messaging. It is still a major highlight of comics history and while I don’t consider it inherently untouchable, it is clear why so many adaptations and additions to the text fail to work.

The text is of the singular voice of Alan Moore and his perspective on history, society, and culture. That is not to dismiss the brilliant work of Dave Gibbons, of course, who is also of vital importance to the success of Watchmen, but Moore’s unique vision drives the meaning one pulls from the comics. Without Alan Moore, Watchmen does not work.

Dave Gibbons has shepherded the story in his way as the only one of the creators still willing to be engaged with the story in any way. Gibbons is a co-writer, but the tone and voice are so very much Moore. As great as he is, he can’t quite steer these post-Moore Watchmen projects in a way that evokes the specific mindset of Moore that suffuses the original work.

Doomsday Clock suffers a great deal from this. It does get close, at times, to Moore-ish language, plotting, and meaning, but far more often it stumbles, too content in trying to follow an idea of Alan Moore, rather than thinking like Alan Moore.

A Sequel to Watchmen? Really?

I’m not inherently opposed to a sequel to Watchmen, as it is a rather interesting alternative reality that initially ends with the Sword of Damocles hanging over alternate 1986. Who wouldn’t tempted to at least revisit that world if they had the option, especially as a creator? My initial thought wouldn’t be to tie it to the yearly Crisis storytelling of the DC Comics universe. My impulse would not be to play it straight, either, but such is the case with Doomsday Clock, a story that jettisons satirical exploration of the comic form of its era and instead arrives as a complicit cog in a vanity project.

But, we have what we have, and there is some attempt to provide the book with some depth, to varying successes. We will see that unfold into a rough thesis across 12 issues, but the first four? Kind of a mess, again, except for issue #4.

The comic feels as though It’s mainly about trying to play the greatest hits of Watchmen, merely out of marketability over narrative sense and respect for storytelling. It’s not all doom and gloom, however. The new Rorschach is a smart metatextual expansion and evolution of a character who is more of a meme than anything now. Also of interest is the usage of Doctor Manhatten and Ozymandias.

But really, the main appeal to this series is the juxtaposition and mirroring between the quasi-Charlton universe of Watchmen and the then-contemporary metastory of the DC Universe. Warts and all, there is still stuff to enjoy.

Metaphorical Meat

For what it is worth, the central crisis and parallels of Doomsday Clock are entertaining and an interesting, if somewhat masturbatory conceit that is established in the first four issues. Just as the heroes are outlawed in 1977 in Watchmen, there is a costumed avenger crisis in the contemporary DCU as the world comes to terms with the reveal of “The Superman Theory.” Not only a fun nod to the super-man who built DC, but it also creates a ticking clock of an impending disaster that echoes Watchmen. World War Three is not based on ballistic missiles, but the metagene.

The Superman Theory is one of the elements I enjoy in the storytelling of Doomsday Clock. However, at times, the main comic narrative feels too much like an uneven tug-of-war between the big faces of the universe and cramming in as many superheroes and villains as possible. I understand the desire to ensure every hero gets their 5-seconds of face time.

But where Doomsday Clock follows the path set by Watchmen, and best succeeds, is in the errata: News clippings, infographics, and excerpts from dirt sheets in 1950s Hollywood. Moore’s text blossoms with the errata, which came to its perfect execution across his League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen books but shines, too, in Watchmen. Doomsday Clock does an able follow-up to this.

Also, “The Black Freighter” of the original comic, the metatextual commentary of the main narrative and comics at large that runs within Watchmen has its analog in the case of Nathanial Dusk, noir detective, and the life and death of his actor, Carver Colman, in Doomsday Clock. Though, even then, Carver Colman’s story becomes entwined with the narrative in a way that “Black Freighter” never did – the only connection between that comic and the larger story is its author being involved in Ozymandias’ scheme as a scenario writer, for which is later murdered by Ozymandias to cover his tracks.

Carter Coleman and his films are integral to Doomsday Clock in a way that works for the story being told. Again, a rhyme, but not the same – but it works. It is in the spirit of the original text.

So much of Doomsday Clock is meant to echo the experience of reading Watchmen. For now, I’d like to turn to something that bothered me. It may be a little petty, I suppose, but when you try to follow up on one of the most important comics ever released, your stumbles are that much more noticeable.

The Grids Matter

Let’s start at one of the more admittedly superficial elements of the Doomsday Clock production that bothers me. The handling of panels, specifically. I have written a lot about panels over at The Duck. Panels are a key language of comics that can carry interpretive meaning in addition to controlling pacing and setting time and tone. The original Watchmen is very deliberate in its 3×3, 9-panel grid, with occasional panels that combine rows and columns. The sense of pacing presented in this 3×3 grid is a key element to why Watchmen reads so easily and why breaks in this structure read as so critical to storytelling.

Pages can span minutes, to seconds, based on the breakdown of action from panel to panel. There is an intuitiveness to managing this across a simple grid, and between Moore and Gibbons, they cracked a certain code of fluctuating time. From page to page, there is no getting lost as far as temporality from moment to moment.

Consider the death of the Comedian in the first issue of Watchmen. The pacing is immaculate. Deftly woven between the scene of the present, and followed through with a splashy panel that breaks the 9-panel grid.

This page is even more impressive as it covers two different moments, simultaneously. Past and present play out in such an intriguing way. An economy of storytelling.

Panel Language of Disruption on Reality

Doomsday Clock is not paced so well, at times resorting to a 4×3 grid, resulting in an overly messy 12-panel page (issue #3, page 12) where the minutia of the action makes the sequence far less snappy. Ozymandias’ acrobatic escape from the Comedian reads as choppy as opposed to the feat of prowess it is intended to be. This sequence could have easily been handled in the 3×3 grid. it would have felt better. Here it feels bloated.

And yes, I recognize that Watchmen issue #7, page 18 violates the very grid structure I am harping on, but it makes sense in this case because the disruption in the panel structure reflects the disruption and unease presented in Dan’s nightmare. The nightmare is a violent intrusion into order and rhythm we have been following for several issues; the uncanny made manifest in the very structure of the book. It is an unreality intruding on the reality of Dan/Nightowl II.

In the Doomsday Clock escape of Ozymandias, we are still firmly rooted within the reality of the setting; the presence of the intrusive new grid is a tonal mismatch with its predecessor, Watchmen. Though as the modern DC sweeps into the metanarrative presented in Doomsday Clock, there is an allowance for this change-up; as far as Ozymandias’ escape, it feels off-putting. It just doesn’t feel in line with what Watchmen was. Doomsday Clock is not meant to be Watchmen, but it sure tries to draw from the association. In that regard, this grid situation just rubs me the wrong way.

And with that, the reading log for this week is down. Let me know what your thoughts are on Doomsday Clock. I’ll post a follow-up as I continue to read it, especially as I move into the issues I hadn’t read. If you are after these comics, be sure to check out your local comic book shop.

Also, I am still down to write traditional reviews, so if you have key issues you want me to tackle, or create your own comics and want feedback, please contact me about it.

The post Panel By Panel: Feb. 25, 2025 – Revisiting ‘Doomsday Clock’ appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Revenge of Graphic Content #11: Creature Commandos – S1E7 –  “A Very Funny Monster”

The final episode of the first season of Creature Commandos, “A Very Funny Monster,” continues the streak of strong episodes throughout the season. But it does feel a little lacking as a season finale as the pacing problem from the first episode rears its head.

However, the focus on a tragic backstory does a lot to elevate the material. Overall, “A Very Funny Monster” delivers a memorable, if not a little lacking, conclusion.

The Good – Nina Mazursky’s Tragic Hour

The episode has two tasks: the first is to create a good episode that spotlights the show’s remaining monster, Nina Mazursky. The second is to create a conclusion that pulls the threads of the season together. “A Very Funny Monster” does well on the former and less so on the latter.

The core of the episode is a race against time as Task Force M approaches the goal of killing Princess Ilana Rostovic. This is as Waller and Enonomos try to piece together exactly what Flag, Sr. mentions as he briefly comes out of a coma. All the while, the episode presents flashbacks to the tragic story of Nina Mazursky and her even more tragic fate.

As a whole, the episode works quite well with the ticking clock element. The slow ramp-up to Nina needing to be the one to kill the Princess is also well handled, as the flashbacks create a great deal of tension. The fallout of the attempted assassination is brutal and nobody wins, least of all poor Nina.

Nina Mazursky: A Victim of Circumstance

Nina is the show’s most tragic character. Even with Weasel and G.I. Robot, there is a killer streak to both of them and they are undoubtedly dangerous. It doesn’t excuse how society in the DCU has treated them for their monstrosity, but it does make sense.

This is not the case with Nina, however. Zoë Chao did a great job all season making Nina an endearing character through her voice acting. She does so here, as well, underscoring the tragedy our favorite fish-girl faces. Added to the mix is Gregg Henry, a long-time Gunn collaborator, who plays the role of Nina’s scientist father, Edward.

Edward’s loving devotion to Nina is heartwarming and ultimately heartbreaking. His struggle to spare her a life of trauma due to a rare birth defect only creates more problems for her. As a toddler, she is forced to wear an iron lung as a suit, and then his later experiment mutates her into the form we see in Creature Commandos.

She loses any sense of having a “normal” life at his instances of trying to foster it upon her. She eventually chooses to live in isolation among the sewers and ponds of Star City, but because of her appearance, she is captured; she is a monster, after all. And in a final gesture of love, Edward reunites with his daughter, only to be killed advocating for her.

The Fate of Nina Mazursky

I am, of course, omitting some details. All of this tragic background is meant to connect us to Nina even further as she ultimately commits to doing explicit harm for the first time in her life: assassinating the Princess as she is taking her morning swim. Nina becomes something akin to the monster she has always been labeled as for the first time, and as a result, she loses her life when the assassination fails due to Princess Ilana being more than she seems.

Did Nina need to die? Yes. The world of the monsters has been largely unfair to them, and its moment is used to solidify the character of The Bride. Nina is a victim, through and through. She was never fit for an A.R.G.U.S. task force, but what could she do to advocate for herself? The minute she attempts to fit into the model of the monster she has had thrust upon her, she loses her life.

It is unfair and tragic. It’s by far the most unfair existence among the members of Task Force M. It will be something that likely haunts The Bride for a long time, as her genuine, growing affection for Nina was one of the highlights of the show.

Nina Mazursky: A tragic life, cut short, in service to making a monster better.

The Bad – Despite the Excellence of Nina Mazursky’s Story, Pacing Problems, Yet Again

As fascinating and affecting as everything surrounding Nina in the episode, the show suffers from pacing issues, again. Narrative threads are pulled together, but less successfully and less organically than they should have. The show has been hampered by the limited runtime of the season. Given shows in the streaming landscape tend to have 8 to 10 episodes, the 7-episode order for Creature Commandos seems incredibly limited given what the show is. At around 23 minutes for each episode, the show only allowed us to spend around 160 minutes with the characters and tell its story.

This was certainly not enough. The show could have benefited from at least an eighth episode to space out some of the reveals and backstories. The confluence of events and schemes presented in Pokolistan are laid out pretty succinctly by the end of this seventh episode, but to tap into another James Gunn project, It feels very Scooby-Doo.

Further, the runtime did affect character development quite a bit. It is impressive that we ended up getting enough time with each monster to get a sense of who they are and their unique circumstances. However, relationships ended up lacking. As nice as the beginnings of a real friendship between The Bride and Nina were, we don’t get enough of it for the loss of Nina to truly land. We get that The Bride is hurt by this, and why she opts to kill the Princess herself. Yet, the friendship should have been developed further to make the horror of everything more effective.

And while the show has done a lot of interesting work with Eric Frankenstein, the finale leaves very little development on that front, which feels like an issue.

The Monstrous – Nina Mazursky

Of the various members of Task Force M depicted in the show, Nina Mazursky is among the most changed. Created by Jeff Lemire and Ibraim Roberson in the Flashpoint era (2010s), her most recent incarnation begins in Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli. Nina is absolutely a newer character among those who make up the team on the show.

Her comic counterpart is a scientist and former mother who loses their child. In trying to find some purpose, she ends up forming the Creature Commandos and willingly subjecting herself to amphibious mutation.

All in all, she ends up being a somewhat noble mad scientist, which is quite a departure from what people will experience with the show’s take on her.

Continuity Notes

Some notes on this week’s episode.

• We get a glimpse of the season two lineup of Task Force M – Bride, Weasel, and Phosphorus to start. However, we also see Nosferata, Khalis, King Shark, and a rebuilt G.I. Robot.
• It appears the Commandos will be given a little more autonomy going forward. At least based on the way Economos treats the Bride in the lead-up to the reveal.
• Flag, Sr. is probably going to be less in the field for a while, which might explain his role going into the upcoming Superman film.
• Our final tracks for the ongoing playlist include The Dead Brothers’ “I Am All I Got,” Johnny Hollow’s “People Are Strange,” and Juke Baritone’s “Hey God.” I hope this weekly playlist is something that continues into season 2.
• King Shark showing up means Polka Dot Man is probably dead, but we’ll see what happens.
• I laughed when Phosphorus called Weasel “Fruit Brute” as I love my monster cereals.

Mission Rating

As a singular episode, a lot of “A Very Funny Monster” works well. The backstory of Nina is among the most tragic in the series, and the revelation of Princess Ilana’s scheme mostly works. The loss of Nina is a cruel, but pointed commentary about monstrosity and how others are punished for imagined slights. But, it should do a lot to develop The Bride as we go forward. But as a season finale, the show suffers the pacing issues that were present in the first episode. With luck, maybe season 2 will have an extra episode.

Creature Commandos – “A Very Funny Monster” gets three ghost emoji. A solid story, and a decent job of tying together loose threads, but ultimately harmed by pacing issues.

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading Revenge of Graphic Content. Let me know what you thought of the episode or the review. I want to find a balance between writing just enough and too much.

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The post Revenge of Graphic Content #11: Creature Commandos – S1E7 –  “A Very Funny Monster” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

I was weighing out whether to do serious, ongoing reviews of comic titles, like in the manner I am tackling Creature Commandos. But, I realized that’s not really what interests me here. I have written many, many reviews in my life, and been paid for them too. What I want to do is just write about what I read. I want to explore my feelings about titles I follow or discover. And I want to do that without the weight of a specific format.

So, welcome to my reading log, I suppose. I aim to write once a week about the comics I have been reading. This is less about criticism and more about reacting to or drawing associations between what I read and larger ideas. In many ways, this may be me just testing the waters of finding topics to discuss in depth. It also should help me read more comics which I feel like I don’t do nearly enough.

Anyway, what did I read this week?

Reading Log Jan. 5, 2025

This week I focused on the big two and their ongoing alternate continuities. While my overall impressions are good, I feel that DC has something going with the Absolute titles.

Please note: There will be a casual discussion of spoilers. I warned ya.

Absolute Batman #2 and #3

This week I caught up on Absolute Batman, checking out issues 2 and 3. Of the three current titles in the Absolute line, I find it to be the weakest. But it is still a solid comic. I thought the title was going to be about a Batman operating without vast resources. But, it appears that has been thrown out the window. But, it is replaced with an Elseworlds-lite that changes Bruce Wayne’s circumstances enough that the world seems flipped on its head. It doesn’t feel as fundamental a revision to the character as Absolute Superman or Absolute Wonder Woman, but it is just different enough.

I am most interested in seeing the dynamics of Bruce’s friend network, featuring civilian identities of classic rogues such as Killer Croc, Penguin, Riddler, and Two-Face. I also enjoy the much more brutalist take on Batman’s war on crime, down to his massive frame, and the even more massive Batmobile made from construction equipment. Whether he will take the money from Black Mask remains to be seen, but at this point, he doesn’t seem to need it. I’d prefer he didn’t take it.

Another note here; I find Bruce Wayne adorable, as his baby face is perched upon the body of a human giant. I am unsure if this adorable-himbo coding is intended, but I think it works.

Absolute Superman #2 and #3

Absolute Superman is my favorite title of the current Absolute lineup, though Wonder Woman is a very, very close second. Currently, I am up to issue #3. I have a lot I could say about it, but there are two things I want to focus on.

First, I want to talk about the TechBro Hell that Krypton appears to be. Krypton, time after time, has been doomed. Yet this may be the most oppressive form of that story I have seen. Many earlier instances of Krypton’s destruction stem from arrogance and lake of foresight regarding the natural world and the nature of industrial and scientific progress. The Krypton here is seen as having undergone a form of strip mining, both for resources and culture. The caste system adds a lot to this take on their destruction and the reveal of the upper castes planning for their escape is a horrific reveal.

Second, I want to gush about how Kal-El and Lois Lane met and how we quickly established their dynamics. Despite Lois being in the quasi-military, she develops an interest in writing after her encounter with an inspiring alien figure. I adore it very much. If their journeys take them to the Daily Planet in this continuity, I can see some fascinating elements coming into play from this.

Adding to this element is the emphasis on Kal-El’s writing in the third issue. it emphasizes an element of Superman that I feel is sometimes overlooked in adaptations: Kal-El/Clark Kent does just as much heroic work as a writer as Superman.

As Kal-El says in issue three “My words make me happy.” Fantastic.

Absolute Wonder Woman #2 and #3

Absolute Wonder Woman may stand out as my favorite take on the character since the DCAU. Issues 2 and 3 of the series illustrate what a wonderful combination of physical prowess and magical knowledge the character can be. Everything about this run feels like an iconic Wonder Woman dialed to 11. Who knew a little time in Hell could change a girl so much?

One of the standout elements is the art. I want to praise the illustration work of Hayden Sherman and the coloring work of Jordie Bellaire. The approach to Diana’s design makes her feel incredibly Greek, which tends to be an element of the character that is lessened in many adaptations.

The current story involving eldritch monsters from the sea is a great way to introduce Diana to the wider world. It helps, too, that we’re being introduced to her through Steve Trevor in issue 3. The Steve and Diana relationship has been a delight so far.

Ultimate Spider-Man #12

Of Marvel’s current line of Ultimate titles, I feel the comic that works best with the “real-time” approach has been Ultimate Spider-Man. Issue 12 feels like a more laid-back and character-driven story but with an exciting twist. But most of the issue is just Parker clan drama and mirth. I adore the comic for it.

Yes, Ultimate Venom is exciting. How can it not be? But just as exciting to me is the return of Gayle Watson, MJ’s oft-seen younger sister in most continuity. I like having an extended Spider-Clan.

Also, I love having an older Peter Parker as a father figure in comics. Peter’s everyman status does not end when he leaves high school and college. His having his own family makes him an even more endearing character, grows the cast, and introduces further stakes, in both his family life and life as Spider-Man. This hook is an amazing thing many fans clamored for, and it is paying off, here. One can only hope the mainline titles and film adaptations will explore.

The Ultimates #8

As far as the real-time stories go, The Ultimates makes sense as a big event book with a ticking clock, showing the preparations until The Maker re-emerges. The one-shot stories that check in on those preparations work pretty well and expand the Ultimate Marvel universe.

For example, The Ultimates #8 introduces the Guardians of the Galaxy of the 61st Century. The spin plays them off as a kind of Legion of Superheros where the current roster includes heroes with legacy titles. You have Star-Lord, Cosmo, and Captain Marvel, but with new, unknown histories. It is a fun detail that makes me want to write about legacy heroes.

The scale of continuity here works in favor of the comic. It makes sense Tony is still in a coma and why he is sitting out of the action. This is a great use of the pacing of each issue taking place in real-time, month by month.

I could write more about all this, but this current write-up is already getting longer than I had intended. I’ll have more to say in issue #9.

Ultimate Black Panther #8

I wish I liked Ultimate Black Panther more. We’re eight issues in and it’s serviceable, but the pacing is a big issue for me. As it stands, as compelling as the conflict in Ultimate Marvel’s Africa would initially appear, the comic has been stuck in a repeated cycle as this war has gone on. Wakanda and the Khonshu-Ra alliance are rarely on a siege footing. Both sides take nebulous action against one another. Meanwhile, the Wakanda royal conflicts seem to be circular, where King T’challa wants to take action, is cautioned against it, and does so anyway, and then chastised for it.

The most compelling element of the series so far, for me at least, is the pairing of Killmonger and Storm, but even they are still locked into this kind of meandering war between forces. Issue #8 even spotlights the new Sorceress Supreme on the cover, but she does not appear within the issue itself. It’s very frustrating.

The geopolitical nature of the storyline could be so fascinating, but it feels like nothing is happening. Yes, things are happening, technically, but it doesn’t read like they are. At this point, I feel I am reading it more for the completionist’s sake than enjoying the unfolding story.

Ultimate X-Men #10

Here are some general impressions of everything up through Ultimate X-Men #10.

Issue after issue I adore the art of Peach Momoko. it is such a strange choice for a major title such as X-Men, but for the type of story Ultimate X-Men is telling, it is inspired. For months the comic has been dealing with the lasting repercussions of The Maker’s tampering with the world and the emergence of cult thinking revolving around the X-gene, all while major X-Men we are used to are either missing or re-imagined for this new setting.

As far as the Ultimate titles go, I find Ultimate X-Men the weakest narratively. Not because the story and setting aren’t fascinating, but because the real-time approach has been killing the story’s momentum for me. The situations unfolding in the comic feel like they should be unfolding at a faster rate than we’re seeing issue to issue. like I had bemoaned in the first episode of Creature Commandos, the pacing is a killer. Though I am one to admit the shocking moment with Natsu Tsukisima’s optic blasts caught me off guard and was the biggest surprise of the issue for me. Things are really escalating now.

With that said, this is still easily one of the best-looking books I have read this week. I’m curious how far this cult angle will go, as nobody does cults quite as well as Japan.

And with that, the reading log for this week is down. Let me know what you think about this format and share your thoughts if you’re reading these books, too.

Also, I am still down to write traditional reviews, so if you have key issues you want me to tackle, or create your own comics and want feedback, please contact me about it.

The post Panel By Panel: Jan. 5, 2025 – Absolutes and Ultimates appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Revenge of Graphic Content #10: Creature Commandos – S1E6 –  “Priyatel Skelet”

This episode continues what has been an entertaining and often shocking season of television, though some cracks have shown. Between a backstory that isn’t as compelling as prior characters, and too many loose threads, one can’t help be be concerned about the season finale to a degree.

With that said, however, “Priyatel Skelet” is still a wonderfully episode with a massive cameo regarding a central DCU character.

The Good – Phosphorous Doing His Thing and the Convergence of Plotlines

What a fun, violent episode that gave us a little more time with the remaining Creature Commandos before we’re sure to lose another one. Much like prior episodes, we get a backstory focus this week. This time we get into the history of Doctor Phosphorus, who has become a highlight of the show, partially due to the wonderful performance put in by Alan Tudyk week to week. Boy did this episode give him a lot to do .

Phosphorus’ backstory is suitably tragic and helps contextualize his turn to villainy. A scientist, Alex Sartorius, researching a cancer cure, ends up bankrolled by Gotham gangster Rupert Thorne. Inevitably, the scientist is punished by the gangster, resulting in the murder of his wife and child, and the scientist being framed for their murder. These scenes are disturbing and traumatic, especially due to the primal howls and whimpers of Tudyk.

Inevitably, as these things go, Phosphorus is thrown into his experiment and melted down by the gangsters, only to survive and go on a gruesome, but often funny revenge montage, resulting in the new villain in Gotham wiping Thorne and taking over his criminal empire.

Except throw in a stereotypical pimp suit, synchronized dancing, and the hype-generating cameo of a rooftop Batman busting up Phosphorus’ criminal empire. None of this is particularly new or innovative, but it is fun. That is all we need sometimes.

In the present, while on the run from the Amethyst Knights of Pokolistan, he ends up bonding with a little girl, who calls him “Priyatel Skelet,” or “friendly skeleton,” giving us the title of this week’s episode.

Two Monsters Enter a Brothel

The second biggest storyline of the week again pairs the Bride and Nina Mazursky as the pair escape patrols by hiding in a brothel. Any chance to have the characters interact is welcome. With that said, this was a relatively simple b-plot that doesn’t do much beyond presenting an opportunity for Nina to step up before the big episode, which also happens to be the season finale.

With that said, it is always a good time to see some terrible men (the real monsters, here) get their asses kicked by strong women, as Nina comes to the aid of a sex worker, only for the Bride to come in and finish the job. What was most interesting was the fact that two of the patrons were metahumans, and the Madam (played by the iconic Shohreh Aghdashloo) was well aware of metahuman abilities. Gunn is establishing a DCU where superpowers are not exactly rare, which should have a real effect on the day-to-day lives of civilians. We’ll see if that is a thread that carries through further productions.

Doctor Phosphorus and Task Force M on a Collision Course

As for the rest of the episode, we get the various threads begin to converge, but we’re still left with many, many questions, which is concerning given this is the penultimate episode of the season. Flag, Sr. is in a coma, Frankenstein is coming to stop the assassination of the Princess, and Weasel may turn against his fellow creature given the Princess’ visual similarity to the little girl he once knew. All the while, we still don’t know what the Circe and Clayface angles are here. But at least we get a sweet scene of Weasel bonding with wolves, and a kick-ass walk toward the castle to close out the episode.

The Bad – Doctor Phosphorus, Aside, Are We Gonna Stick the Landing, Here?

This is a good episode, no doubt. If anything we can trust that Creature Commandos will entertain us. With that said, I do think this was a weaker episode to a degree for a couple of reasons. And no, not even the reveal of The Batman is enough to temper some concerns, however minor they are.

While I find Doctor Phosphorous’ origins interesting, entertaining, and tragic, he lacks the complexity of some of the other members of Task Force M. This doesn’t necessarily make him a weak character because of this. If anything, phosphorus has become a highlight of the show. The issue is that his origins are extremely typical of super villainy and offer little in surprise. The zeal in which he leaned into the madness and took to wholesale murder and crime isn’t necessarily any different than any other villainous origin I have read. Any surprise that comes from his flashback storyline emerges entirely from the quick Batman cameo. I wouldn’t say I was shocked that Rupert Thorne is gone, maybe a little surprised, but that doesn’t necessarily add anything to my take on Phosphorus here, either.

His decision not to kill the little girl in Pokolistan is undercut by his flashback; yes, we are concerned about his menace in the present day. Yet the minute we saw he had a kid, there was no doubt he’d spare the little girl. This isn’t a weakness, but also, it isn’t exactly novel either.

Loose Threads Everywhere

My second concern is that the season finale is up next and we don’t have a lot of answers yet. Much like Amanda Waller as she watches over a comatose Flag, Sr., we have far too many questions given the short runtime of the show we have left. While the show has been given the green light for a second season, we still need a lot of answers and that second season was never a guarantee. How will all this shake out?

I am optimistic, but even then, there are many threads to follow up on for what was likely to be a single season of television with less than six hours of runtime.

The Monstrous – Doctor Phosphorus

Doctor Phosphorus is one of those Batman rogues who is cool, but not quite iconic enough to really stand out compared to Gotham’s heaviest hitters. First hitting comics in 1977, Phosphorus was the creation of Steve Englehart and Walt Simonson.

His origins presented in this episode of Creature Commandos are a riff off his comic origins, but far more altruistic, hoping to cure cancer through radiology science in this show.

Ironically, Phosphorus may be most notable as being a character that influenced an animated series character, rather than being known for his own Batman comic appearances. The Batman Beyond villain, Blight, was very much based on the visuals of Doctor Phosphorus.

Continuity Notes

Some notes for this week’s episode.

• Everyone is rightly losing their minds over the first appearance of a (living) DCU Batman, but I am just as pumped for a mention of Biyaliya – home of Queen Bee.
• Phosphorous’ revenge spree was equally satisfying and horrifying. Well done.
• The first season of the first “new” show of the DCU and Rupert Thorn is already dead. Wowza.
• Metahuman pornography must exist. We don’t even have metahumans in our reality and it is still present.
• Shoutout to *that* voice this week, belonging to one Shohreh Aghdashloo, who is unmistakable.
• This week’s tunes include another Gogol Bordello tracks, “Wonderlust King” and Firewater’s “Hey Clown.”

Mission Rating

Creature Commandos continues to be a very fine show with a lot to praise. However, this episode, as fun as it was, ends up being one of the weaker ones because a great deal of it is setting up pieces for the finale, in addition to leaning on one of the less interesting backstories presents so far. If I were reviewing the show after seeing the season come together maybe things would be interpreted differently, but as it stands, this episode is heaping a lot onto the shoulders of the next.

Given the concerning narrative issues and the overall weaker backstory presented in comparison to other monsters in the series, I would say “Priyatel Skelet” is four out of five ghost emojis, but a low four, given I can’t just cut a ghost in half now, can I?

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading Revenge of Graphic Content. Let me know what you thought of the episode or the review. I want to find a balance between writing just enough and too much.

In the meantime, if you enjoyed the review or any of the other writing on my site, please consider supporting what I do on Ko-Fi.

The post Revenge of Graphic Content #10: Creature Commandos – S1E6 –  “Priyatel Skelet” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Revenge of Graphic Content #9: Creature Commandos – S1E5 –  “The Iron Pot”

The fifth episode of Creature Commandos does not play it safe at all regarding the character of Eric Frankenstein, doubling down on elements that have proven the character controversial among audiences, but really building on themes the series is exploring. Meanwhile, the presence of a significant Gotham City rogue has made the overarching plot all the more complicated. The fallout of this episode will be substantial.

The Good – The Twisting Climax

It’s getting hard to make sense of what is going on with Creature Commandos‘ Pokolistan situation, and as a viewer, I am absolutely excited about where the series is going in these final episodes of the season. We are introduced to several new wrinkles in the overall story while simultaneously exploring the troubling, complex psychology of Eric Frankenstein.

So, regarding the Pokolistan situation, Flag and Frankenstein investigate the mysterious Themiscyra expert Aisla McPherson (Stephanie Beatriz). Their investigation presents a solid mystery that runs through the episode, with one of the best elements being their back-and-forth. David Harbour’s take on Frankenstein works very well, here, when his eccentricities have someone to bounce off of, such as the case with Franke Grillo’s Flag, Sr. Frankenstein’s impatient, childish behavior adds a lot of great comedy to what is a very grim and disturbing revelation.

The question of whether Aisla MacPherson was Clayface in disguise prior to this episode hangs in the air, but more than likely, as much as a creep this Clayface appears to be, he can likely put in the work acting as the professor more professionally. We know little about what incarnation of the character this Clayface is, However, the reveal of the dead MacPherson, and Clayface having moved into her home, is incredibly dark – certainly in tone with one of Gotham’s worst rogues.

The ramifications of this subplot are exciting. Flag, Sr. looks very much dead and Frankenstein scores an exciting victory through quick thinking in a well-animated fight sequence. But the Clayface question is a lingering mystery; what is his role? Is he part of a scheme on behalf of Circe, or might he be involved with the Princess? There has been a specific emphasis on mud and clay present in Pokolistan – on vehicles, and on the salves used to treat Eric in the flashback.

The Pokolistan Situation

Meanwhile, in Pokolistan, the Commandos are made and must scatter throughout the city as the army hunts them down. The highlight here is Doctor Phosphorus, who flips the double bird through a tank and several soldiers in what is likely to be the most iconic visual in the first season. It was truly spectacular.

The apparent heel-turn of Princess Illana is also of note. The series has gone to great lengths so far to suggest she may have a role as a serious antagonist, but her reaction to learning the Commandos want to eliminate her is entirely practical. We’re getting a lot of claims and few answers, and the chaos is wonderful.

The Frankenstein Backstory

Our monster flashback this week focuses on Eric Frankenstein. As fun as everything was regarding the present timeline of the story, Eric was due some significant character development, and this episode delivered on that. However, whether this backstory helps to settle the controversy around him is another question entirely.

Having Eric be rescued by an older Romani woman tended to evoke elements of Shelley’s Frankenstein text. It’s all very much in the spirit of the character. Having him develop a familial bond with her and her dog is also fascinating.

Eric’s childish worldview and obsession with the Bride cause him to murder the closest person he has to his family with a big iron pot. That’s wonderfully dark and says a lot about him; he sees it as a mercy as he can’t stand to see her alone as he continues his mission in pursuit of “his” Bride.

I loved it. It made sense given what we know of him, the tone of the series, and the themes Gunn has been dealing with for four episodes. But I also see that this episode is going to divide audiences as well, and that falls squarely on the massive shoulders of Frankenstein.

The Bad – Eric Frankenstein: An Unfairly Divisive Character

The issue of Eric Frankenstein as a character comes down to media literacy and whether audiences can understand what Creature Commandos is doing with the character. A sizable portion of the audience will, while the grim reality is that a majority will not. This episode does a great job of really honing in on the worldview of Eric and his backstory presents his understanding of reality. And that reality is not ideal.

Eric Frankenstein, much like the Creature of Mary Shelley’s novel, is a scorned and confused child who lashes out violently at the world. Being that Creature Commandos is simultaneously a comic book adaptation and a James Gunn project, these elements are amplified greatly and heightened for comedy. The root of the comedy, however, is still derived from the tragedy of Shelley’s novel.

Frankenstein’s decision to end the life of his friend with the titular iron pot in the episode is darkly comic and tragic; he believes it to be a mercy, a good thing to do. He can’t see it any other way, because, like a child, he sees the world as revolving around him so he can make sense of it. Killing his Romani friend is an act of love.

For the audience aware of what is going on here, it is a very powerful scene that adds a lot to the character. For the less aware among the total audience, it comes off as cruel and weird (which it certainly is) but they may be unlikely to see beyond that. The metatext of Eric Frankenstein and the larger archetype that informs how Gunn writes the character may end up lost.

I’ve seen many folks in discussion spaces call Eric annoying and weird, and he is, but not understand the purpose that serves. The thematic resonance of Eric Frankenstein is becoming lost on some audiences, and I do not know how that might be fixed. I think what we see in this episode helps him to become one of the most interesting characters on the show, but with a character as polarizing as he is, this episode can’t help but be controversial.

The Monstrous – Eric Frankenstein

As with most characters we talk about in the DC Universe, you have different takes given the Crises that dictate their interpretation. As of now in the comics, we appear to have four different versions, of which, given some major differences, Creature Commandos’ take most aligns with the Frankenstein which was developed by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke around 2005 as part of the Seven Soldiers of Victory series.

Continuity Notes

Some notes from this week’s episode.

• Princess Ilana is looking a lot like Princess Amethyst of Gemworld, right? Is it just a reference here, or are we going somewhere with this? My captions read something along the lines of “Amethyst Knights” at some point.
• So Princess Ilana was not revealed to be Clayface in disguise… yet. However, we still have a couple of episodes to go and we know that Clayface can create multiple, distinct bodies.
• Mortal Kombat makes an appearance, as does an X-Box Series X.
• Clayface hitting on a student disguised as Aisla may be the most horrific element of the episode for me, as someone who works at a college.
• Phosphorus may be my favorite of the Commandos at this point for how unabashedly bad he appears to be.
• As always, Gunn has added new tracks from the episode to the Spotify playlist. it’s been fun catching up with the playlist week to week. I hope he does the same for Peacemaker season 2.

Mission Rating

Looking for the bottom line of this review? The rapid developments of the modern mystery will ultimately need to come together within the next couple of episodes. How Clayface emerges as part of the overall scheme will affect how successful this episode is.

However, the real highlight here is the focus on Eric Frankenstein, who emerges as a deeper character with an understandable, if simplistic worldview. Again, like the central mystery, the success of this episode is going to rely greatly on what comes after.

As it stands, the episode comes in at four out of five ghost emojis, but that could always change. Can Creature Commandos stick the landing based on the sudden upheaval of everything we’ve seen so far?

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading Revenge of Graphic Content. Let me know what you thought of the episode or the review. I want to find a balance between writing just enough and too much.

In the meantime, if you enjoyed the review or any of the other writing on my site, please consider supporting what I do on Ko-Fi.

The post Revenge of Graphic Content #9: Creature Commandos – S1E5 –  “The Iron Pot” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

It is the Weasel’s time to shine in the latest episode of Creature Commandos, following the last episode’s tragic backstory of G.I. Robot, who is still MIA this week. The show continues to build on a strong foundation and format, but with a format comes predictability, which unfortunately affects my overall impression of “Chasing Squirrels.”

Creature Commandos – S1E4 –  “Chasing Squirrels”

While this week’s adventure with the Creature Commandos doesn’t live up to the heights of G.I. Robot’s putting last time, it is still a strong episode that introduces a particularly tragic background for the team’s wildcard, Weasel.

We also get an update on Eric Frankenstein while Rick Flag, Sr. questions his orders with a revelation that Circe may be telling the truth about the potential danger lurking in Pokolistan.

The Good – The Weasel Backstory and Plot Progression

First, let’s look at the development in the season’s big overarching story regarding Cerse, Pokolistan, and Princess Ilana. Amanda Waller takes on the typically Walleresque decision to explore Circe’s claims and receives a vision of a potential future showing worldwide devastation and leagues of dead superheroes, supposedly all at the hand of Pokolistan courtesy of Princess Ilana and Gorilla Grodd. We are also introduced to Isla MacPherson (Stephanie Beatriz) who proceeds to add some weight and context to what is going on regarding Circe and her relationship with Themiscyra.

As a result, Waller switches gears and sends Flag to Pokolistan to eliminate the Princess. Flag does not take that well, and the mission is instead passed on to The Bride. It’s a good twist midway through the season that reframes character relationships and what we know.

Speaking of relationships, though, Eric Frankenstein returns in the episode, convinced Flag and The Bride are a thing. Eric’s petty childishness is violent and comedic. Hilariously, we also learn that he is a huge fan of romance movies after he and Flag start actually talking following Frankenstein ambushing him.

The big hook of this episode ends up being John Doe – The Weasel – meeting with his public defender, Elizabeth Bates (Linda Cardellini), who is trying to piece together the real incident that resulted in Weasel being thrown into Belle Reve. We find that Weasel had bonded with some children and was targeted by a passerby who believed he was out to harm the children, one thing leads to another, a boiler explodes, and children die. Weasel is the scapegoat. It’s a sad story for sure and fits in well with what Gunn has been doing with the monsters of Task Force M as a whole.

The Bad – The Predictability of the Weasel Backstory

Making Weasel sympathetic makes sense and the episode does a wonderful job of establishing tragedy that allows us to connect to the monster. it also follows the formula the season has run with so far. The issue lies in that the formula should be the base and something more should be done with it, and in this situation, I feel Weasel’s spotlight falls a bit flat. Given the show so far, it becomes immediately clear that Weasel is a victim of circumstance. The minute the sketchy-looking man shows up, you create a few possible outcomes to arrange the tragedy of Weasel.

But I also expected something a little more. Given the theme of monstrosity here, I expected something a little more tragic along the lines of Weasel accidentally killing a kid in an attempt to save them. Almost a variation of Frankenstein’s Monster accidentally killing a child he was playing with. Weasel being heroic is fine, but it also feels a little flat to me. I ended up thinking to myself “That’s it?”

I generally try not to hold predictability against a story as I tend to see the underlying structure and see where a story is going. However, setting “Chasing Squirrels” against the preceding “Cheers to the Tin Man” I can’t help but feel the lack of surprise in Weasel’s backstory hurts the reveal a bit. There is a dark tragedy in Weasel being incapable of advocating for himself, and the addition of his public defender is a nice idea, but it still feels a bit unsatisfying. I hope that we’ll get some further exploration of this angle of the story at some point.

The Monstrous – Weasel

The Weasel is one of the members of Task Force M I am least familiar with in the comics, so I don’t have as much to say here as I have for previous monsters. The DCU’s Weasel looks largely divorced from the John Monroe version that tangled with Firestorm back in the 80s created by Gerry Conway and Rafael Kayanan. Otherwise, we’d have ended up with a fairly standard villain. The alien, animalistic version of the character presented in this series is much more interesting.

With that said, while I was a bit critical of how the backstory was handled and the lack of twist, I do think the inherent tragedy is a good note. I also find the idea of this monster lacking the ability to advocate for himself particularly devastating and I would be curious to see how this thread develops across the show.

Is there redemption for Weasel? We shall see.

Continuity Notes

Here are some notes from this week’s episode:

• Steve Agee is back as John Economos, returning from Suicide Squad and Peacemaker. I appreciate Gunn is fleshing out the projects with smaller characters such as Enonomos, who can easily drift in and out of stories because of his A.R.G.U.S. affiliation.
• Explaining that Circe’s powers require the use of her hands was a nice touch, as was the note about clairvoyance as well.
• Jahanapur was mentioned, which should be an element of Superman, next year. Is Creature Commandos setting up plot points for Superman?
• A lot of bodies piled up in Circe’s shared vision with Amanda Waller. I managed to spy Superman, Booster Gold, Batman, Wonder Woman, Peacemaker, and Hawkgirl. There were others, but I am less confident in that. We’ve seen Starfire in an earlier version from a prior episode.
• GORILLA GRODD (in Grodd We Trust)
• Already quite pleased to see how much Themiscyra is being built up in this new canon.
• This week’s needle drops include “Hjerteknuser” by Kaizers Orchestra and two Gogol Bordello tracks “I Would Never Wanna Be Young Again” and “Not A Crime.”

Mission Rating

Creature Commandos sticks the landing, but a lack of surprise drags down the episode a bit. Tragedy for tragedy’s sake, as systematically applied as it is, loses some of its appeal. Perhaps something may come of Weasel’s backstory as his public defender works to piece together the mystery, but until then, predictability hurts the overall episode in my review.

This episode is four out of five ghost emojis.

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading Revenge of Graphic Content. Let me know what you thought of the episode or the review. I want to find a balance between writing just enough and too much.

In the meantime, if you enjoyed the review or any of the other writing on my site, please consider supporting what I do on Ko-Fi.

The post Revenge of Graphic Content #8: Creature Commandos – S1E4 –  “Chasing Squirrels” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

Let’s look at the successful dive into the backstory of G.I. Robot in “Cheers to the Tin Man.”

Creature Commandos Season 1, Episode 3 – “Cheers to the Tin Man”

Barring the uneven introductory episode, Creature Commandos found its footing in the second episode by focusing the action on The Bride. This week, with an exploration into the tragedy of G.I. Robot, the show fires on all cylinders presenting deepening relationships, exciting DC Comics lore, and a curious tease at something far more significant in the works for later in the season, and maybe even the larger DCU.

The Good – G.I. Robot’s Finest Hour

I admit I have a bias coming into approaching the episode because I love robots. I find robotic characters fascinating and connect with them easily. So I was already predisposed to whatever we were going to get with G.I. Robot. Beyond that, however, the episode is just plain good. G.I.’s backstory is appropriately emotional and makes sense for the setting, and it weaves in with the Pokolistan events in a clever way.

G.I. Robot is a fun character, ably voiced by Sean Gunn, who imbues the character with a kind of naive earnestness that is pretty charming. Connecting G.I. Robot to Sgt. Rock and Easy Company was a delight and laid the groundwork for some weird WWII stories of the rumored Sgt. Rock movie happens.

The pleasure and dismay of G.I. Robot’s story is because of the earnestness. G.I. Robot does one thing, and does it well: kill Nazis. He was purpose-made for it and is downright efficient at it. We also get little glimpses at a developing intellect and personality that extends beyond his programming that develops as he encounters people in his life and builds experiences in the complex and messy world of post-war America where the presence of Nazism isn’t so black and white.

He’s tragic in that he does what his limited program tells him is right, callously used and abandoned, and then punished for existing in the way in which he was designed. But his inability to learn and adapt as tragic as that makes him, makes him monstrous as well. He is a product of war and not given a chance to move beyond it. There is horror in that, but one that might be overcome with, unironically, the power of friendship.

But for a few glorious moments in the present-day action at the royal castle, he gets to fly, literally, and do what he does best. Kill Nazis – of a sort. Close enough.

Machinations and Schemes – Outside of G.I. Robot

Beyond G.I. Robot, we have a barely functional Task Force M that is still getting in sync. They can stop Circe, quite violently, but something feels amiss as a result, with the scheming sorceress claiming something worse is bound to happen. Is it a bluff, or might there be more to Princess Ilana than she has let on? We’ll find out next week.

As for the highlights of the team, Weasel and Doctor Phosphorus’s combat skills were on full display. Given the Bride’s spotlight last week, we don’t see much of her beyond gunslinging. Nina spent most of the episode in a bathtub but offers the strongest link between G.I. Robot and the current narrative, genuinely mourning the apparent death of the automaton.

The most interesting of these beats in the episode was the look of alarm on Flag Sr.’s face upon seeing the monsters unleashed. “You wanted Monsters,” the Bride tells him. Monsters indeed. He’s already been nearly killed by Phosphorus. The monsters have a tendency not to behave like good soldiers. Might we see a hardening of Flag into a Waller replacement? Time will tell.

The Bad

There isn’t a lot to criticize with this week’s episode. Again, I fully admit I have a bias for robot stories, so there may be things I have overlooked regarding the episode. I think, structurally, this episode shows that the monster-of-the-week format pays off, especially given the short runtimes of the episodes. We also get a second weak of a “life story” here as well, as both the Bride and G.I. Robot endured decades of hardship before they found their way into Belle Reve.

I don’t know if that approach will land as well for the third time in a row, however. It looks to me that maybe Weasel’s backstory could cover a shorter period in the fourth episode, which I think could break things up enough.

I think taking G.I. Robot out of commission in this episode is a smart move, but as he is a robot, I fully expect him to be rebuilt. If this ends up being the last we see of him, I’ll feel less happy with the episode, but for less than an hour of screen time, they’ve done well to make him a fairly endearing character.

The Monstrous – G.I. Robot

So, G.I. Robot is a moniker shared across a few robots over the decades, but this version of him feels most closely aligned with the original, “Joe.”  However, I do see a bit of J.A.K.E. 1 and 2 within the design and functionality. The implication he was modified by Dr. Will Wagnus with additional functionality.

Regrettably, we don’t know much about G.I. Robot of the DCU beyond his work with Easy Company, but a future weird WWII movie may be a great way to develop the character further, and I hope that is the case. It may make the sting of potentially losing him in this third episode a little less painful.

Continuity Notes

• Oh boy, as a fan of The New Frontier, I was feasting this episode. I’ve heard the rumors of the DCU maybe tackling The Circle from the Darwyn Cooke series and the presence of Sgt. Rock and Easy Company has me hoping that ends up happening. Throw in Blackhawk and maybe we have the ultimate weird WWII movie.
• We have a Hub City mention! The Question is in my top five DC characters and number one Charlton character. You can’t just name-drop Hub City in your shiny new cinematic universe like that without some plan for the question, either Vic or Renee.
• Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and Crimson Centipede, in one episode? Now these are some fun cameos.
• Yes, that is Michael Rooker of the revolving cast of James Gunn players voicing the seemingly nice neo-Nazi. Michael Rooker seems to be a lovely guy – but he often plays characters who are not.
• The amount of damage Circe took is truly frightening. I wonder what healthcare is like in the state of the DCU. No wonder Rick Flag was looking a little perturbed.
• Alright, let’s get to the Dr Will Magnus scene. I think G.I. Robot being a foundational part of the design of his Metal Men is a nice touch and does a great job making this new universe weave together decades of characters. I am not sure what the plans are for the Metal Men, but it’s nice to give Alan Tudyk yet another character to play.
• Needle drops this week: The Dresden Dolls with “Coin-Operated Boy” and Mount Righteous with “The Feeling You Bring.” 
• On that note, I haven’t listed all the other songs, but thankfully there is an ever-expanding official playlist on Spotify.

Mission Rating

Maybe it’s just my pro-robot bias, but this was a fantastic episode of Creature Commandos and the best one yet. G.I. Robot has a very simple tragicomic story that works well in a short runtime of the episodes and benefits greatly from the jump between decades. The recursive nature of nazism between WWII and the modern day (specifically the 1990s or so in Hub City) also lines up with current events today, giving “Cheers to the Tin Man” some extra depth.

When it comes to Nazis, go out with a smile on your face, guns-a-blazin’, to “Coin Operated Boy.”

Episode three is five out of five ghost emoji.

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading Revenge of Graphic Content. Let me know what you thought of the episode or the review. I want to find a balance between writing just enough and too much.

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The post Revenge of Graphic Content #7: Creature Commandos – S1E3 –  “Cheers to the Tin Man” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

My first review of Creature Commandos went a little long because there was a lot to discuss. I was a bit more critical of it than I was on this second episode, but there are still elements that prove to be an issue and I am hoping the series manages to address them to some degree.

I believe “The Tourmaline Necklace” is a great step in that direction. Anyway, welcome back to Revenge of Graphic Content. Here are my thoughts on the second episode of Creature Commandos.

Creature Commandos Season 1, Episode 2 – “The Tourmaline Necklace”

My main complaint regarding the first episode of the two-episode premiere of Creature Commandos revolved around pacing and run-time. While this episode is an improvement, the pacing is still dragging down the overall experience. A 22-minute runtime is a serious problem given the type of work that the show is doing. 

However, “The Tourmaline Necklace” does a lot to set up the next few weeks of monster action, comedy, and drama. It’s an improvement and creates some breathing room for character development given the “monster of the week” structure it seems to imply about the upcoming episodes.

The Good – The Bride in Focus

As much of an IP garden as the big two comic publishers can be, I always find it interesting to see how they repurpose the public domain. This episode of Creature Commandos focuses specifically on the DC Comics interpretation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and raises some uncomfortable questions while still delivering a fun 20+ minutes of action and comedy. As a whole, it’s a good episode with plenty to enjoy and some significant reveals about the Bride.

The nature of the Creature’s request for a Bride is the central moral conflict between Victor Frankenstein and his creation in the original novel. Later, the film The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) would create a Bride character, and in the way popular culture influences, DC Comics would have its take on all of this. This episode is a couple of centuries of storytelling tucked into less than half an hour but still manages to retain the central elements necessary while creating a modern spin that provides a contemporary form of horror.

The majority of the episode weaves Nina and The Bride’s story, a fight with Circe, with the traumatic backstory of the Bride. Meanwhile, the rest of the Commandos are dealing with two things; the fallout of Doctor Phosphorus trying to steal the control device from Flag, and Flag growing very, close to the princess. Intimately close. Problematically close, given what appears to be an apparent age gap. Flag may very well fit in with his monsters, a macho relic of outdated masculinity This feels intentional. I am curious where the show is going to go with this.

Eric Frankenstein

We also get a full introduction to Frankenstein’s monster, who appeared at the end of the first episode. Eric Frankenstein’s characterization, the attitude and view of a petulant child, makes a lot of sense. One interpretation of the central conflict in the original novel is one of responsibility; Victor fails to take responsibility for the life he creates, and that child lashes out. Eric Frankenstein in Creature Commandos is in line with that reading.

 I am not sold on David Harbour’s performance, however. The opening scene of the episode, where he confronts Victor over the unfairness of his being alone borrows heavily from the dialogue in the novel, but the performance just isn’t there; the cadence feels wrong.

However, the more contemporary Eric Frankenstein that we’ve heard works well enough. I wish Harbour would have put a little bit of that Shakespearean slant on the Eric of the flashbacks to indicate the change of centuries the character faced. Otherwise, I appreciate the approach to the character.

The Bad – The Bride’s Trauma, Glossed Over

The episode, while more even, is still suffering from an issue of pacing. Breaking up the creature backstories into different episodes makes a lot of sense and I think is a great move. But, an unfortunately timed needle drop undercuts the tension and drama of a key moment of the Bride’s backstory. We do not get to sit with the revelation of the exploitative nature of her Victor, the impact of Eric’s actions, or the toll it takes on the Bride (who really does need a name by the end of this).

We are hit with a very problematic relationship between the Bride and Victor, one that is a literalized representation of grooming. Victor is very much raising a child, only in the body of sewn-together parts of adult women. Developmentally she is probably less than a couple of years old, but that does not stop him from positioning himself as her advocate, guardian, and father. Then we see the result of his grooming – Victor and his second Creation, having sex.

It’s gross, exploitative, and traumatic. The Bride’s fixation on it and what the tourmaline necklace represents makes sense as a focus for processing grief. Meanwhile, Eric’s actions are toxic and he is complicit in the abuse that the Bride encountered and normalized. After all, Victor had set out to make an object for his “son.” Eric’s pursuit of her is horrific in so many ways. The Bride’s existence is one of abuse, objectification, and displacing trauma by pushing people away. It’s pretty uncomfortable and powerful stuff.

Alas, the Needle Drops

But the Gogol Bordello needle-drop brushes a lot of that aside in the montage over the centuries. I enjoy a good needle drop, and James Gunn’s projects do them quite well. But here, instead of being able to sit with the moment and unpack the horror and trauma of the Bride’s past with a little more gravitas, we kick off into a funky montage. 

The montage itself, and the grimly comedic tone have their place, but the episode run-time mashes it against a moment that deserves more breathing room.

The Monstrous – The Bride

The Bride, also known in the comics as Lady Frankenstein has had two major takes as the DC Comics universe has revamped itself more than a couple of times. Creature Commandos seems to be borrowing heavily from New Earth, given her inherent rejection and antagonism toward Eric. The Bride of Prime Earth emerged in the 2010s and has a more equitable relationship with Frankenstein’s monster. I think there is potential for Eric and The Bride to achieve something akin to a more healthy relationship – I don’t know if outright romance – the balance of power is so very tainted for that to work without some serious development.

The big note on how the Bride is handled here is the fact she lacks an entire second set of arms. In the comics, she was modified by a supervillain and given extra arms to evoke the goddess Kali. The extra arms were interesting and I miss them in the show. I understand why the choice was made, but I do hope we may get those extra arms back at some point in the new DCU.

After all, who wouldn’t want to see an undead woman go guns-akimbo with four pistols?

Continuity Notes

• I’ve not mentioned much about big plot beats. I am keeping my focus to broad strokes here, but I appreciate the way Circe is being handled, down to the costume. It feels like the DCU is going to lean more into iconic looks as opposed to the more tacti-cool looks of most hero franchises these days.
• Yes, that was Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo franchise in the montage sequence. I firmly believe Mystery Inc. should be DC canon.
• The Gunn show continues with Peter Serafinowicz voicing Victor. Serafinowicz played Garthan Saal in Guardians of the Galaxy.
• We get a tease of Nina’s origins and her actual human status. Even among monsters, she is an outsider. In some comics continuities, she tended to be one of the principal organizers in the formation of various Creature Commando teams; working under S.H.A.D.E., the organization, not the Changing Man.
  • I’m pretty sure they are going to invert some elements of Nina’s story in the comics; rather than losing her daughter, Nina is going to be the daughter with a terminal disease who is experimented on by a parent, resulting in her fish-person transformation.
• Given Flag’s sex scene with Princess Illyana and the problematic nature of the apparent age gap, I also am leaning further into my theory that the Princess we’ve seen is Clayface. That’s gonna render that whole scene a whole lot more problematic and feels very Gunn.
  • With that said, Phosphorus being a wingman after trying to kill Flag was pretty funny.
• Hey, that’s Golgo Bordello on stage during the montage.

Mission Rating

“The Tourmaline Necklace” is a marked improvement in the pacing of Creature Commandos through presenting the backstory of the Bride. While other elements of the plot are moving forward incrementally, the monster focus in the episodic structure should help the existing pacing issues.

However, those pacing issues are persistent and undercut one of the most interesting elements of the episode.

Episode two is four out of five ghost emoji.

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought of the episode or the review. I want to find a balance between writing just enough and too much. In the meantime, if you enjoyed the review or any of the other writing on my site, please consider supporting what I do on Ko-Fi.

The post Revenge of Graphic Content #6: Creature Commandos – S1E2 –  “The Tourmaline Necklace” appeared first on hpkomics.com.

So, how does DC Studios’ new Creature Commandos series fare? Let’s dive in.

Creature Commandos Season 1, Episode 1 – “The Collywobbles”

Creature Commandos is being marketed (to a degree) as the first project released in the new DCU continuity under the guidance of James Gunn and Peter Safran. There is a little bit of a question on that, but we’ll get to that in the continuity notes ahead.

What we do know is that a lot is riding on the success of Creature Commandos as a foray into the new universe that is meant to link a whole slate of DC projects.

So, is the show any good?

Largely, yes. Yes, it is. 

But there are some elements I am unsure about in the first episode titled, “The Collywobbles.” With that said, this was the first episode of a two-episode premiere and also has the thankless task of establishing an entire premise amid some baggage from a studio and continuity shakeup.

The Good

There is a lot to like about Creature Commandos. At a very basic level, you could call it “Suicide Squad with monsters” and you wouldn’t be too far off-base. However, the show does go to lengths to set itself apart and suitably justifies its presence as a project for the new DC Universe. 

The premise of the US government taking entities more frightening than the average criminal metahumans typically associated with Task Force X and spinning them into their own Task Force M as a result of a government crackdown makes sense. One way to make monsters sympathetic is by presenting man’s inhumanity toward them – a trope seen time and time again. The show gets into that pretty quickly.

These monsters (they are literal monsters, this is not necessarily a judgment on their respective characters in this case) all have their traumas which are going to be explored, judging by the structure of the second episode. Each monster will have its sympathetic element and much like James Gunn helped the ragtag Guardians of the Galaxy become sympathetic assholes, or how we cared for the C-lister villains of his Suicide Squad, we’re likely in for much the same here.

The Unusual Suspects

The lineup of characters is appropriately wacky, combining elements of different eras of the Creature Commandos and the larger DC Comics catalog with just enough of the brand-synchronizing required for an introduction to the DCU. Among them, we have Frank Grillo’s  Rick Flag, Sr., A.R.G.U.S.-operative and normal who runs the show, with his trauma. There is also the Bride (Indira Varma), DC’s take on the Bride of Frankenstein, whose primary attitude is tsking and scoffing. There is also G.I. Robot, a WWII-era android who delights in shooting Nazis, and Weasel, one of the survivors of the Suicide Squad mission on Corto Maltese. Both of them are voiced by Sean Gunn. Alan Tudyk voices the atomic skeleton known as Doctor Phosphorus. And rounding out the team is Zoe Chao’s Nina Mzursky, an amphibian and the most inherently sympathetic of the group.

The lineup is good, albeit with some changes and some flexibility as David Harbour voices Eric Frankenstein who will eventually find his way into the orbit of the Commandos at some point.

Also present are Amanda Waller, played by the iconic Viola Davis, and a holdover from the DCEU. And for larger DCU connections, Wonder Woman nemesis Circe (Anya Chalotra) seems to be involved in the action as the apparent big bad.

The Story

The episode is the place setter needed for a high-concept series; multiple monsters must be introduced and there must be a mission. The episode quickly establishes the stakes: an incel cult known as the “Sons of Themiscyra” has been raising trouble in the nation of Pokolistan, and Rick Flag, Sr. is set to lead Task Force M to help aid the country and the ruling family, represented by Princess Illana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova). It is simple. It is effective. There are beats that are familiar to fans of Suicide Squad. Yet the nature of the protagonists this time around adds further complications – enjoyable ones.

The real complications, however, are some of the issues that result in a somewhat uneven introductory episode.

The Bad

The runtime of the episode is merciless toward the overall pacing of the episode. The series needs to get the ball rolling quickly, and in doing so frontloads the exposition, introductions, stakes, and, more problematically, the continuity baggage of the new DCU. The episode’s pace is very, very rough. In an era where a superhero cartoon such as Invincible can do 40 to 50-minute episodes, it’s not unreasonable to expect something like that run time for something like Creature Commandos given the amount of work it is required to do.

But Creature Commandos has to do a lot in 23 minutes, and those constraints are a huge problem with the pacing of the show. The transitions between the mission briefing, monster introduction, and arrival to Pokolistan are brutal and breathless. The show could have benefited from an additional ten minutes of breathing room. I found myself comparing the introduction of the monsters to the introduction of the prisoners in Gunn’s Suicide Squad and wishing the pacing was closer to the film. The episode could have really benefited from a little back-and-forth and walk-and-talk between the monsters and Flag.

Tone

A concern I’ve seen thrown around given the nature of the project and the seemingly nascent DCU is the tone of the show and how this might fare as an introduction. This is a pretty tough conversation and deserves further exploration, but the continuity question also plays a role here.

This new series is a show for mature audiences, undoubtedly. It’s violent and horny, and that is perfectly fine by me. It suits the characters and from what the plans are with the DCU as laid out in interviews and articles, diversity of tone is paramount in the new sandbox. The question is whether leading off with something so adult-oriented to represent the house that Superman built is the right move.

I am not in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s shoes, so I cannot speak for them, but I believe that Creature Commandos is in a weird position as a holdover of the DCEU and the scheduling and production pipeline when the studio leadership changed. I think that once Superman (2026, again, Gunn) is out next year we’ll get a better sense of the broader tone of the DCU experiment, but for now, the immediate two projects most people will think of will be Creature Commandos and Peacemaker’s second season.

But is that actually the case?

Continuity Confusion

The DCU is a continuity mess to begin with. The foundation of a reboot that contains elements from the existing universe may ultimately confuse a lot of casual viewers in the long run, but that is the studios’ basket of cats to sort. This first episode does an admirable enough job to lay down some of that, specifically, by laying out some facts about how Suicide Squad’s Corto Maltese mission played out, with the death of Rick Flag, Jr. and weaves in the first season of Peacemaker by referencing the actions Leota Adebayo took is revealing the illegal nature of the work A.R.G.U.S. was doing.

So there, two of Gunn’s DCEU projects are included to various degrees and occupy a fuzzy continuity.

This brings me to a point – these two projects are also part of a decidedly more adult-oriented DCU, which I do not have a problem with, but where is the material for a broader audience on which comic tentpoles thrive?

Last I heard, elements of Blue Beetle (2023), starring Xolo Maridueña, will be canon to the DCU; but therein lies the issue of the DCU, if we incorporate those DCEU projects are part of a canon still skews the whole larger franchise as decidedly edgy, which was one of the chief complaints about how the DCEU played out in broad connection to the influence of Zack Snyder.

There isn’t much to be done now, given the production pipeline, but Superman will be essential to Gunn and Safran’s plans working. I think Blue Beetle is a good inclusion to the rough continuity, but it’s not quite the same. As it stands, the DCU feels more like the DCGU – The DC Gunn Universe. I don’t hate it, but I am craving some variance in tone here.

The Gunn of it all

This is not me disparaging James Gunn, here. As far as directors go, I have been a fan prior to his work at Marvel, and I think his work within the superhero and comic book genre has been impeccable. I am legitimately a fan of his work and his approach. When he was announced as one of the creative figureheads in the DC studio reorganization I was legitimately excited. All the moves I have seen so far, to me, feel right. Well, to a few degrees.

I wouldn’t say my excitement has waned, per se, but I do think there is a level of overexposure associated with him in the launching of this cinematic universe. Even Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios tended to be a little more behind the scenes in the first couple of phases.

With Gunn, however, the overall feeling of the DCU, through his public statements and terminally online nature, in addition to his baking in his existing works into the new continuity, has me a little anxious for Superman. The tone should be miles away from Creature Commandos and Peacemaker, but it’s still very much his vision. I think it’ll be fine, but again, so much of the DCU is on his foundation and I am desperate for some more concrete to be poured.

I think what struck me as a little odd in Creature Commandos was the fact that Gunn himself figures prominently in the opening credits, given a dynamic, animated appearance akin to the characters of the show itself; positioning him as a personality within the DCU as much as these new monster characters are meant to be. Is it a cute nod to the director and writer? Absolutely. I am also aware it was not his choice. 

But I’ve not seen Matt Groening, Robert Kirkman, or Seth MacFarlane animated and inserted into the opening credits of their respective animated shows.

It feels a little much.

The Monstrous – A.R.G.U.S.

For a series about monsters, it seems fitting to start the analysis by looking at the monstrous entities of our Task Force M. This time around, let’s look at A.R.G.U.S. The intelligence organization is terrifying in concept, and in its leadership, Amanda Waller. 

“The Wall” is among my all-time favorite antagonists in the DC Universe and presents an example of how powerful and intense one’s will can be in a world of “Gods and Monsters” (to ape the branding of this first phase of the DCU). The fact that a seemingly normal woman would exert so much power and influence over a setting of super-powered weirdos says a lot about her character, and her willingness to use whatever tools necessary to ensure her plans for the world. Fanatics are scary, self-assured fanatics with black-ops funding, power, and literal monsters are even scarier.

I appreciate the continued presence of Viola Davis as Waller, who plays the character so well. I also appreciate that we get so much of the groundwork of the current continuity laid out by her dialogue with Flag at the beginning of the episode. Waller was among one of the parts of the DCEU that I felt was handled perfectly. It is good that the DCU is off on such a strong foot.

I also feel like I will be revisiting Waller and A.R.G.U.S. and their unique horrors in future reviews. A DC Universe without A.R.G.U.S. is no DC universe at all.

Continuity Notes

There are a lot of interesting continuity notes to consider given the strange connection this series has to the prior DCEU and now current DCU. We’ll explore these a little more in-depth in the weeks ahead, but here are some brief notes.

• I wish the Bride had four arms as she did in the comics, but I suppose an ambulatory corpse could always equip some additional arms later on in the season. I think being a walking corpse is enough of an oddity to start the series.
• My dead pool for this current group has the odds in favor of Phosphorus, Frankenstein, and G.I. Robot dying by the end of the season.
• Wild theory Time: The Princess is Clayface in disguise, which makes a sequence in episode 2 even wilder in context. We know Clayface is appearing from the season preview.
• Speaking of the preview, who did you identify in the apocalyptic vision? I saw Superman and Starfire. I also think I may have seen Captain Atom.
• There was a lot of Gogol Bordello, not that I am complaining.

Creature Commandos Mission Rating

Overall, Creature Commandos S1E1 “The CollyWobbles,” is a solid start for the DCU and a decent start to the show. The baggage of continuity, tone, and pacing drags it down, but I can already confirm things even out by episode 2 a great deal. It’s 3 out of 5 Ghost Emoji.

Creature Commandos is currently streaming on MAX.

Thanks for reading, I will be adding a review of the second episode later this weekend. In the meantime, if you enjoyed the review or any of the other writing on my site, please consider supporting what I do on Ko-Fi.

The post Revenge of Graphic Content #5: Creature Commandos – S1E1 –  “The Collywobbles” appeared first on hpkomics.com.