“Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard”
Written by William Bridges
Directed by Shawn Levy

On this episode, El and Max become suspicious of Billy after spying on him in the Void; Joyce and Hopper revisit the lab after she tells him about the demagnetized magnets; Dustin, Steve, and Robin continue to uncover the Russian presence in the mall; Nancy returns to Mrs. Driscoll’s house; and Will grows frustrated over his friends’ preoccupation with their girlfriends.

1. Target in Sight

Like last time, it’s really neat seeing El and Max hanging out here, albeit in a much darker context, as they try to identify the girl El heard screaming when she spied on Billy. They eventually find Heather and Billy having dinner with her parents at their home, seemingly safe and sound, and can’t do much more about it, despite El’s vision of the frightened young woman being dragged into the Upside Down. Their meeting inadvertently gives the Mind Flayer an edge, as he didn’t know who drove him back into the Upside Down until now, as Billy had never met or noticed El before; now he knows she’s close friends with his main thrall’s sister.

El and Max the mystery solving duo

2. Everyone Matures Differently

It’s a rainy summer day, and Will embraces the opportunity to pull Mike and Lucas away from their girl troubles for a new session of Dungeons & Dragons. However, despite Will’s enthusiasm — a Will the Wise costume! Backing music! — the other boys are thoroughly bored, and rudely end the campaign before realizing they’ve upset him. But it’s too late, and despite the terrible weather, Will leaves to find solitude at his old forest hideout Castle Byers. He starts to see his nostalgic memories of childish things like D&D and dressing up as a sickness, and begins smashing and tearing up his memorabilia. Poor Will, he missed out on so much because of his traumatic experiences in the first two seasons, and his friends are moving on — at least they do try to find and apologize to him.

Before they find him, Will experiences the Mind Flayer imparting its knowledge of El to Billy, and subsequently informs Mike and Lucas of his return, with a hint of anger in his voice: as terrible as his abduction and possession were, perhaps they have forged him into a Will the Wise the real world needs — and that, as Tolkien would say, “is an encouraging thought.”

Will might make a real sage yet

3. Maybe a Little Paranoia is Alright

Hopper’s annoyed when Joyce appears to explain why she stood him up at the restaurant, and despite being a little spooked after she suggests the scientists at the lab have restarted their experiments, he angrily dismisses her, because he knows they haven’t. (We know he’s right, and that Owens hasn’t been overruled by the feds or anything like that, because the Soviets are the villains this season.) She decides to take a chain cutter from his shed, forcing him to accompany her back to the abandoned facility. After finding no one’s there, Joyce begins to have second thoughts, but Hopper once again reassures her she’s not crazy, and admits he’s been suffering from post-traumatic stress as well, having nearly shot a dog after it rushed towards him like a Demogorgon.

He also reveals he learned Joyce is planning to sell her home, and reminds her there are people here for her, who understand what she’s gone through — perhaps the real reason he was so snide over the magnets was because he knew that if the town’s paranormal history was going to continue to be an issue, it would further encourage her to leave Hawkins. Joyce finds it romantic, and breaks the tension by joking Scott Clarke might know how she feels. They hear a noise, and Jim goes to investigate, causing him to be attacked by Grigori, the tall Soviet enforcer: after beating him, the Russian leaves on his motorcycle, believing Hopper has got the message. Yeah, he’s got the message all right: someone doesn’t want him near the Gate again.

4. Boys Make for Terrible Spies

Having discovered the Russian transmissions are coming from the mall, Steve and Dustin stake out the place with a pair of binoculars, looking for any possible spies, while Robin continues to decode the messages. They bicker over whether Robin is a good match for Steve or not (amusingly causing him to list everything unique about her as reasons to dislike her), and trail a darkly dressed man with a large duffel bag and long blonde hair, only to find out he’s just a flamboyant (American) aerobics instructor; Robin, meanwhile, figures out the Russian code words refer to places in the mall, eg. “silver cat” refers to the transportation company Lynx, and “trip to China” is, well, the Chinese restaurant. That night, the trio see armed Russian guards overseeing a delivery, and are nearly caught after the boys bicker over and drop their binoculars — unlike virtually every other female character on the show, they really are terrible at the whole “spycraft” thing.

5. No One Deserves This

The running gag of men being unable or unwilling to investigate anything continues, with Nancy struggling to get the sexist Hawkins Post editors to take an interest in the rat infestation plaguing the town. (Jonathan himself is no help, encouraging her to give up the investigation so the older men will give up antagonizing her.) They plant a fake rat to scare Nancy, but it only inspires her to return to Mrs. Driscoll’s house and take the captured rat to a vet. When Doris doesn’t answer the door, Nancy and Jonathan enter her home, and find her eating fertilizer in the basement, presumably because the melted rat infected her. Still, it’s certainly a surreal sight, and not one that helps Nancy’s case.

Heather chloroforming her father

Not that the Post‘s editor, Tom Holloway (Michael Park), will ever really have anything to say about that: it’s revealed here he’s Heather’s father, and after El and Max leave his home, he and his wife Janet (Holly Morris) are attacked and knocked out by their daughter. Janet is rendered unconscious by something in the meal “Heather” served up, and she attacks her father after he goes to her aid. It’s a disturbing and uncomfortably realistic scene of domestic violence, though it would’ve been more powerful if Tom had been depicted with some more nuance here, and in the previous episodes, instead of participating in the bullying of Nancy. I am haunted by the destruction of the Holloway family, but also feel like I’m being made to relish the violence towards Tom as well.

Other Things:

– It’s a fun coincidence that El and Max are basically a young, female Holmes and Watson in this episode, since Millie Bobby Brown went on to star as the detective’s sister in Enola Holmes.

– If El and Max had witnessed Will’s possession the way the audience had, they would’ve realized Billy prepared the ice bath at his house because the Mind Flayer likes it cold.

– Mike telling Will “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls” is another pointed reference to the original show bible’s description of Will as struggling with his sexuality; I recommend Brittany Vincent’s write-up on the whole scene here by the way.

– I’ve been revisiting this show for weeks now, and it’s only now that I’ve just noticed the boys’ voices have broken.

See you all next time for “Chapter Four: The Sauna Test.”

Personally, I never got into it, but I can appreciate it for what it is. The reason I bring this up is because the people who grew up on these sorts of shows are now all grown up and writing stories of their own, and nowhere is that more apparent than with today’s book: “No One Left to Fight 2” #1

Cover by: Fico Ossio

Written by Aubrey Sitterson
Illustrated by Fico Ossio
Colored by Raciel Avila
Lettered by Taylor Esposito

The comic you always wanted is back courtesy of creators Aubrey Sitterson (Savage Hearts, The Comic Book Story of Professional Wrestling) and Fico Ossio (Mister Miracle, Spider-Man). This volume picks up where the smash-hit, critically acclaimed first Fightverse series left off, with the world’s greatest fighter struggling to find his place after all his battles have been won and while there’s still time left.

• This series features alternate covers by Fico Ossio, which combine into an all-new interlocking image!

“A loving tribute to the Dragons Ball and Street Fighters of days past, with colorful art and a joyously explosive story.” -Major Spoilers

“No One Left to Fight 2” #1 opens at the end of what was the big climactic fight at the end of the first arc. The main characters, super fighters Vale and Timor have triumphed over evil, but not over the jealousy in their hearts and dealing with the trauma of getting literally ripped in half. Also, there’s a girl named Krysta, because of course there’s a girl. Meanwhile, the children of the main characters continue to train under the supervision of their wise old mentor, who seems to be a beach apparel wearing alcoholic crab person. Let the emotional outpouring commence!

“No One Left to Fight 2” #1 is written by Aubrey Sitterson, and it’s very clear that this is a comic that means a lot to him. Sitterson has created a comic with a ton of high octane energy and characters that feel like they would be more at home on a Saturday morning television program filled with repetitive action and epilepsy inducing lighting. However, despite all the bombast and momentum, Sitterson does take the time to have the characters slow down and bear their souls to each other, and it works. Despite the fact that Vale and Timor are combat gods, they seem to have quite a few unresolved emotional issues between each other that go a lot deeper than the girl they’re fighting over. It may be a quiet moment that only lasts an issue or two, but it’s a well written emotional payoff that works.

If “No One Left to Fight 2” #1 has any problems, it’s that it’s a comic in the middle of a larger story and doesn’t give new readers a chance to catch up. Sitterson alludes to the climactic fight throughout the book, but it seems that this story would have benefited from a prologue page or something resembling a “previously on…” preface that usually started an episode on these types of shows. It’s still a good book, but it’s definitely a book for readers already invested in the series.

The artwork for “No One Left to Fight 2” #1 is absolutely bonkers. The art is provided by Fico Ossio with colors by Raciel Avila, and they seem to have taken the premise of making a tribute to a fighting manga and cranked it up to eleven. While the artwork has manga elements when it comes to the facial features and motion lines, the style mostly sticks to a hyper realistic portrayal of anatomy and wild alien plants and beings. Everything about the art and color screams motion and energy, even the parts that are supposed to be still and contemplative feel like they’re going to jump off the page. Special mention goes to the coloring scheme, which takes all the best parts of a blacklight poster and a Lisa Frank folder and creates artwork that really pops out from the shelves. It’s the perfect art style for high intensity, adrenaline pumping action and is sure to get any reader’s heart pumping on the first page.

While the artwork on “No One Left ot Fight 2” #1 is perfect for the kind of action this story wants to invoke, this is a part of the story that is supposed to be quiet and a bit still, and here the artwork kind of stumbles a bit. While Ossio does use a lot of close ups and face shots to make sure none of the emotion is lost, there is so much going on in each page that the book can quickly become overwhelming for some readers. It’s a very tricky thing to find the right blend of high octane energy and quiet calm to make a book tell a great story, and it seems “No One Left ot Fight 2” #1 has decided to go all in on high energy, which can make the slower parts suffer.

“No One Left to Fight 2” #1 is a very specific book for a very specific fan of popular culture. If you love fighting manga and shonen anime from the 90’s and early 2000’s, you will definitely love and appreciate this book. For the rest of us, there is some gorgeous artwork that doesn’t always pair well with the writing, but it’s still got some great moments with some great characters.

Final Verdict: 8.6- The writing and characters are solid, but the pace is slow when paired with artwork that screams for action.

1. Repetition

Repetition has been a fundamental organizing principle of TV since the beginning, from scheduling broadcasts (same Bat-time, same Bat-channel) to genres like the crime procedural, and the production of TV itself. Which is why it isn’t a surprise to watch “Prodigal” and get this sense of déjà vu about it, but that feeling isn’t entirely comfortable either. “Prodigal” repeats several plot points from previous episodes, to say nothing of the nature of this last trio of episodes. With all this repetition it can feel like everyone is just running in place. That last part is kind of the point of TV, it’s about the journey because once the point of character growth is achieved and internalized there is no longer a show. A similar schema appear in romantic comedies.

“Prodigal” is yet another Dick Grayson in a dream like sequence episode. Previous episodes to employ this storytelling technique include S01 E11 “Dick Grayson” and S02E07 “Bruce Wayne.” This time the series dispenses with giving Grayson’s inner turmoil an avatar of his adoptive father, Bruce, and instead force him to embody all his rage and fear. At one point transforming into the Joker and bashing Jason’s head in. All the while Jonathan Crane appears as the Devil. This trip down memory lane is all a maneuver to get Dick to remember his biological father and obtain some degree of absolution for failing him … somehow.

This scene went on a bit too long, it should’ve ended the moment he dropped the crowbar and choose not to continue beating this visage of Jason. At that point the choice was made and growth was achieved. He learned what Harry learned in Chamber of Secrets and now needs to get to that place when Harry talks to Sirius and Order of the Phoenix(as always screw J.K. Rowling and her shit politics, but those are good books). The thing is, that same moment of choice has occurred in the previously mentioned episodes. Dick chooses to kill Bruce. Dick chooses to escape prison. And yet he’s still struggling over this, rightly so but it is repetitive.

Connor once again has a Tamaranean burn the kryptonite out of him. Oddly his clothes stay on this time.

Scarecrow for all his talk of growing and moving on is incapable of that. Which is why his master stroke is to repeat himself again by redoing the plan that original got him captured by the Dynamic Duo, blowing up 200 containers of fear toxin over Gotham City.

This episode reminded me of the quote by Albert Einstein and insanity, which is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”

2. Irony is Dead or the gonzo nature of this show is a bit much sometimes

Look I am probably one of the dozens of people who rather enjoys Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – The Ultimate Edition. There is honestly a lot to pick at. But Titans lifting the “bats took me into the light” aspect of the dream sequence from the opening credits of the film and playing it straight was both not very effective. It is another example of how the adaptation of “comic book elements” (read: images and happenings that make up the eclectic world of the source material) are put in this tension between surrealism and suprarealism, which due to budgetary and production constraints create the camp comedy of Dick Grayson’s dead body being carried away by a cauldron of bats.

That whole sequence was a lot from Raven not knowing where Dick was to seeming to be only half a block away. The pained anguish at discovering his body … when you knew he was dying. It was just a lot and didn’t play effective on an emotional level.

The momentary body horror of Beast Boy turning into a bat, however was well done.

3. THE VINCENT HANNA “THEY KNEW” AWARD FOR OVERACTING

To blatantly steal from the Rewatchables podcast, Vincent Kartheiser is the winner of the Overacting award this week for when he does his best Gary Oldman from Leon impression and declares that “EVERYONE” will die. All the while he quotes “September 1, 1939” by W.H. Auden.

I respect that the Titans writing and producing team have gone with this distinct version of Scarecrow and Vincent Kartheiser has certainly been allowed to make … choices. But pulling a Gary Oldman was not a very effective one even as the series connotes everything in the fact that he has had a psychotic break.

4. What Dreams May Come

As previously mentioned, having yet another Dick Grayson in a liminal, surrealist, dream state isn’t anything new. However, as he again works through his demons and fights for his soul, we do get a glimpse of a future. One with a daughter, presumably Starfire is her mother, which was a nice little moment. The daughter however was holding just the brightest red balloon, due to the color grading. This when mixed with her beige/sepia colored dress just gave me the most Pennywise IT vibes imaginable.

5. Escape from Gotham City

Starfire manages to track Blackfire down and showing up at a most opportune time so that both her sister and Connor do not go the full Bonnie and Clyde. This was a meeting that is necessary, and audiences are looking forward to, so they cut away. Repeating exposition isn’t fun, but we do not see the moment Blackfire realizes that her sister is not her enemy and has been used by their parents to. It denies a powerful moment of sisterly healing to just quickly push to Connor’s petulant heel turn because his girlfriend needs to go home and make peace.

Spoilers Ahead

1. It’s The Outer Limits/Tales From the Crypt/Black Mirror, But For Kids!

Drop any gore, adult language, or real terror and what you’re left with is a campy premise you have seen many times before, actors hamming it up with silly, cliche dialogue, and broad characterizations and you’ve got Just Beyond. The general consensus seems to be making that out as a bad thing, but all of those things make up shows so many of us loved watching when we were kids. This first episode alone is a mixed bag of things anyone 25 and older is familiar with, just with a slight flavor of Gen Z thrown into the batch. It incorporates bizarre technology, a lone protagonist in a sea of brain-washed teenagers, and evil adults looking to suck any individuality from them. It’s a tale as old as time, and it pretty much always works. Even here, with a few stumbles in story-telling quality.

As a 35 year old man, this show was never meant for me, nor the grumpy child-less adults reviewing it on IMDb, but I absolutely see its merits. This is a solid gateway to horror and sci-fi for the burgeoning young fan. Like Goosebumps or Eerie, Indiana before it, this is exactly the type of show that works as a stepping stone for those interested in the spooky, but there will be no need to return to it later in life. Every generation has their horror-adjacent favorite when they’re kids and this could very well be some kid’s this year. It isn’t all doom and gloom either, while the premiere episode tackles some minor scares, and just begins to scratch the surface at deeper ideas, it’s also cute, funny, and quite charming.

2. Standing Out in a Crowd

This first episode stars the ever-delightful and extremely talented young actress Mckenna Grace as rebellious teen Veronica. And she is definitely one of the best things about this episode. Even with the purposefully cheesy dialogue and tired plot, she still finds a way to elevate it, just enough to keep you engaged. And because she is on screen for the entirety of the episode, it only helps to lift the whole thing up to being quite enjoyable. There are other strong performances to be sure, most notably from comedic actress and former SNL alum, Nasim Pedrad, as the episode’s main villain and Leeann Ross in a typical “Hey You’re Not Crazy, Let Me Show You The Truth” side-kick role. The entire cast is definitely having fun and it shows. They know who this is for. Even with the strong performances there seems to be something lacking in this first episode and I’m not sure whether or not a longer runtime would be

3. Been There, Done That

Grace’s Veronica is a rebellious teen who over the course of summer break has gone from straight A student to angry activist, and while she believes in real causes, her grades, friendships, and respect from her teachers and parents has plummeted due to her frequent out-bursts in school. Her parents decide to send her to ‘Miss Genevive’s School for Difficult Girls’ (cue the cringe from the rebellious teen inside all of us). Upon arrival Veronica notices that everyone follows Genevive’s rules to the letter, but doesn’t suspect follow play until a devious plot is presented to her by Leeann Ross’s Claire.

If you’ve seen things like “Straight and Narrow” from the 90s iteration of The Outer Limits, the mediocre Disturbing Behavior, or even any version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers you will have an idea of exactly how this plays out. It’s a tried and true plot device, and most definitely a re-hashed one. It mostly works here and kids new to horror will probably be effectively creeped out by the brain-washing. Even if it has been played to death there will always be something eternally scary about being forced to be someone you’re not. We see it every day to varying degrees in the real world, and horror/sci-fi is exactly the sandbox to explore these themes, even if done in broad strokes. It’s made easier to digest with a few things hitting us over the head, like the repeated use of Green Day’s “She’s A Rebel”, but it also doesn’t treat kids like they’re stupid either.

4. So, It Does Two Things At Once?

The secret at the core of this episode is that this school is doing something to these girls to make them compliant. It is made immediately evident that it has something to do with their heads when even Veronica’s parents point out that all of the girls at the school have the same exact hairstyle. With all of them rocking a mostly vacant stare and a 1950s style bubble flip, it’s clear we are getting into The Stepford Wives territory. I think it speaks to some themes in regards to “the good ol’ days,” but that is a much deeper and longer discussion for something other than this show. A little more than halfway through the episode we finally see what this process is, and it isn’t replacing these girls with compliant robots or implanting Ceti eels in their skulls to control their minds. It’s a silly sci-fi riff on a salon hair dryer. It goes completely over the girls’s heads, blasts some green rays and fogs the hell out of them and in the time it takes a writer to hand wave it away, they are brain-washed AND come out with their flashy retro ‘do. It’s all very silly and funny while still giving you the heebie-jeebies. I can only assume the dome is playing Fox News.

5. The Creators Know Campy Horror

The name R.L. Stine is synonymous with horror and science fiction for children and teens. With titles like “Goosebumps” and “Fear Street” he created some of the most popular stories in the sub-genre over the last 30+ years and this show is based on his current anthology comic book at BOOM! Studios. Author Seth Grahame-Smith is no stranger to camp or genre, and he brings his writing talents to more than one episode, along with being a co-creator of this t.v. series. Having written things like “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (the novel and the film), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and The Lego Batman Movie, he knows exactly who his audience is. This first episode is also directed by Marc Webb, most known for films like The Amazing Spider-Man and 500 Days of Summer. He occasionally dabbles in genre, but he knows how to work with young actors, and even if to a heightened degree, knows how to portray their volatile emotions on screen. As an executive producer for the series you can really feel his influence over it, just as much as Stine and Graham-Smith’s.

Out of the gate this is a fun show, who knows its audience. It has its strengths, but like most shows for kids and tweens, it trips over fluctuating quality in writing and performances.

Five years is a somewhat arbitrary distinction, but it feels right. Our criteria was simple: if the book made our Year in Review for Best Ongoing since 2016, we tossed it on the list. Because of instances where multiple creators have had that title over the 5 year span, we included the writer’s name in parenthesis so you were aware as to which volume we were discussing.

To me, there’s only two other choices here that could even be argued, both in terms of critical acclaim and also volume: while the ‘Dawn of X’ stuff was a lot of fun, there’s just not enough of it to necessarily compete with some of the more substantial runs on this list.

Anyway, vote in the poll, and check back on Monday for the results. Have a good weekend, and fare thee well “Immortal Hulk!”

1. Old tools lead to new foes

The past two seasons of Batwoman focused on building larger foes throughout the seas. It seems that “Mad as a Hatter” is attempting to change the formula. Sure some episodes featured a villain of the week formula, but these were usually in building a larger narrative. This season, however, seems to be giving a chance for Batman’s colorful foes to shine, even if they aren’t necessarily the original namesake of the villain.

This week, there is a copycat Mad Hatter, a troubled young man who idolizes Alice and is surprised to discover that the vintage top hat he bought has the power to control others. Amitai Marmorstein does an excellent job making the Mad Hatter feel nuanced, a character who does some truly vile and irredeemable things but has a certain degree of sympathy for his actions. He’s a person cast off from society, presumably unable to find the help he needs. You just hope that he’s not the introduction of a season-long trend of new rogues being copycats. Mad Hatter isn’t exactly a household name, but other villains are better known. So we have old weapons in Gotham. Hopefully, some familiar names will find them.

2. Building a better Batfamily

One of the biggest complaints of the first two seasons of Batwoman was that the writers took their time bringing characters into the fold after weeks of teasing that they knew the big secret. While people love thinking of Gotham’s Dark Knights as lone wolves, many of their books feature fun team dynamics, something that “Mad as a Hatter” begins to address. Now not only do we have a core team of Ryan, Sophie, Mary, and Luke, but each member has their role on the team and an area of expertise that makes the team better.

Ryan is the leader, having fully embraced her role as Batwoman. Sophie is the team’s investigator, using her skills and connections to gather information and keep the heat off of Ryan. Mary is the new guy in the chair and brilliant medical mind, which leaves Luke as Ryan’s new tech master in the field. While there is a possibility that Batwing might screw up the gritty street-level fights of Batwoman “Mad as a Hatter” introduces the idea that Luke’s armor isn’t as overpowered as you might think. There is an implication that it might be connected to Luke feeling overwhelmed and serves as a nice inner conflict for Luke. He has the toys, but does he have the goods? We now have a solid Batfamily, and it seems like the writers are ready to give it their all!

3. The Hamilton curse continues, even as Mary tries to make her city better

Mary Hamilton continues to be a secret MVP of the Batwoman cast. Nicole Kang does a lot from episode to episode. She’s the team’s heart, the show’s comic relief, and all while dealing with the inner struggle of her trying to be a good person while confronting the fact that she witnessed her mom’s murder. In “Mad as a Hatter,” Mary is forced to live another traumatic experience, as Mad Hatter uses her graduation as an opportunity to humiliate the Hamilton family further, following in the footsteps of his idol Alice. Mary is controlled to remove the organs of her mentor in front of her classmates, all while Mad Hatter taunts the graduates of the medical school about the broken health care system.

While Mary is distraught about the things she was forced to do, again, Kang is given some pretty good material in “Mad as a Hatter,” as Mary vows to try and make the system better. She already has the experience, running a successful free clinic, now she has the degree to try and help. The Hamilton family may not have the best luck for large gatherings, but Mary will continue to work to make the people in her city safe.

4. What does it mean to be a family?

Family has always been a significant theme in Batwoman. Whether it was Kate and Alice’s struggles as sisters, Mary trying to gain the approval of her stepfather and stepsister, or Ryan navigating the world as an orphan, these characters are driven by the desire for connection. “Mad as a Hatter” continues these themes, with Ryan struggling with information that her birth mother is still alive and Alice constructing a lie that her father cares about her and is trying to get her out. These connections mean a lot to the characters in Batwoman, but while Ryan might be interested in her mother’s identity, she found family is more important.

It will be interesting to see if the family theme is quite so dominant in this newest season. “Mad as a Hatter” does introduce Ryan’s birth mother and allows Luke to check in with his father, even if it’s just an AI, but they also seem equally interested in allowing the team to be each other’s family. Family can mean many things to different people, connection and love, pain and distance. We’re both with some families, but the most powerful ones are the ones we choose for ourselves. Ryan has found her family, but that might all change.

5. An odd couple with a new boss

Ultimately, the biggest setup of “Mad as a Hatter” is the introduction of Renee Montoya as the leader of Gotham’s Rogue’s Division, a person striving to prevent the return of these villains, copycat or otherwise. Victoria Cartegena commands a lot of power in her short time on screen, especially at the end of “Mad as a Hatter,” when she confronts Ryan and gives her an ultimatum, work with Alice to collect the remaining weapons and gadgets or be shut down. Alice was a crucial piece in stopping Mad Hatter and is now working for Montoya to earn her freedom. This is an entertaining setup, forcing an odd couple dynamic and giving a reason for Ryan and Alice to work together. Last season struggled with a way to get them in the same storyline, despite their excellent on-screen chemistry. This move might be abrupt, perhaps a little convenient, but it is also a lot of fun. At the very least, the team is getting curiouser and curiouser.

So there we have it. Ryan has a new mission and a new team member. What did you think about the episode? Sound off below, and see you next week!

Matthew: This was my first time reading a Hulk series. Was this anyone else’s first Hulk book? I’m not even sure what inspired me to pick up the first issue. I must’ve dug the horror premise.

Jake: I’ve read hulk off and on for a while, but I’ve never loved a run as much as I’ve loved this one. How did it feel to learn all the weird mythology and continuity of Hulkworld in this series? Were you surprised that there was so much dark stuff about his abusive dad? Whoof.

Matthew: Oh yeah, all of this mythology was really surprising. It was really dark, but gave so much depth to a character I had never thought of as particularly deep before. The book also had a good balance of not requiring me to know every bit of Hulk history, but still rewarding readers that have that knowledge.

Elias: Yeah, this was my first real experience with the Hulk. I’d seen his movie and read comics with him in it but until “Immortal Hulk” launched, he was just the big green guy who’s always on the run or sometimes with the avengers. I was absolutely floored by how dark the series was, how perfect the hook ended up being, and even more shocked to find out that much of what Ewing did was actually based on prior Hulk lore and not new here.

I was curious how Ewing would loop in the really esoteric stuff like his time in the Microverse and, like, Planet Hulk but he seemed to mostly skirt the edges of those stories in favor of the EC comics horror and philosophical musing. I have loved this series for its willingness to commit to the body horror and making it gorgeous in its grotesqueness. Which makes it really awkward to talk about now because of some of the artist’s non-Hulk work.

Matthew: I think we all know what you are talking about when you say non-Hulk work. Some of it that unfortunately spilled into the pages. I feel like I was naïve for letting it slide when it happened in the book because it was obviously indicative of much more.

Elias: Same here. I wanted to at least mention it at the outset because I’ll probably still be praising the art for the series and this final issue and it wouldn’t feel right to completely gloss over it.

Chris: This is not my first rodeo with Hulk, but while I have more of an attachment to the Peter David, Greg Pak and even Mark Waid series, it was a very good series, certainly a much better take on Hulk as a horror comic than the underwhelming stuff Bruce Jones was writing (gosh) almost two decades ago.

Elias: It really captured the dark atmosphere necessary to sell Hulk as something scary while also digging deep into the characters. “Immortal Hulk” is the kind of thing I dream of getting from most comics. Mostly consistent art team, introduces and deepens supporting characters, and has the right balance of long, medium, and short term stories.
I mean, we opened on an arc that’s entirely one and done morality plays and ended on an 80 page philosophical Yelling At God comic. It’s almost Job-ian in that way and I love it.

Oh, and with a healthy dose of Bosch in there too.

Chris: OK, so let’s get into the final issue: it’s a real challenge to end a story for a character who is literally and figuratively immortal like the Hulk, since we all know he’ll always be back soon in another issue by a new creative team.

And yes, it absolutely reminded me of the Book of Job, with the Hulk asking the One Above All – who is God in the MU – and by proxy, us the creators and the audience, why he must suffer?

Matthew: You’ve always got to put the toys back in the box when you’re done playing with them!

Clearly, we love when Hulk suffers. It’s why we loved this book

Chris: Yeah, I mean as much as we love him we know he can’t be happy for long, otherwise he wouldn’t be so sympathetic.

So it was appropriate that the One Above All and the One Below All turned out to be one and the same.

Elias: I absolutely loved that reveal. And the way it’s presented as the One Below All being the One Above All’s Hulk??? Masterful thematic resonance. I just… I really, really loved this issue as its own thing and as a completion of this run.

There’s so much to pick apart and dissect and consider.

Like all the stuff with Sterns! And now we have a Red Hulk that doesn’t suck??

Chris: Yeah I’m not sure about Sterns and Banner being distant cousins thanks to some turn of the century infidelity, definitely not the silliest twist in comic books though.

(To Ewing’s credit, it could be interpreted as a psychological metaphor, but it’s clearly canon now.)

Elias: Yeah, that was my reaction too. I don’t really know what to make of the past stuff but the present Sterns stuff was really interesting to me because it also got to some of the bigger questions Jackie and Hulk are asking. What is a monster? What is a person? Who gets to be seen as either and why? And, crucially, who is allowed to be transformed from monster to person and be forgiven in the process? Because Devil Hulk is not forgiven by Jackie at the end but he is seen as a person. The layers are added without obscuring the original idea. I love that resolution. It’s not clean but it is meaningful.

Jake: The biggest question mark for me is where we go from here. Hulk is a malleable idea, and sometimes that lends itself well to doing something completely different, like what you see in Planet Hulk. Is this going to be like Hawkeye, and every Hulk series after Immortal will be weird amazing horror? Or are we going to see a series that continues to explore Hulk’s connection with the One Below All but with a lighthearted tone? I don’t know!!

Elias: To kinda meta-game a bit, I suspect we’re going to get a few Spawn-esque stories from the next creative team. Big action, big muscles, but maybe not as much depth as it thinks it has. I’m ready to be proven wrong though!

Chris: Que sera, sera is how I feel: if it’s good, good, I’ll check it out, if it’s bad, I’ll wait for the next run. I must admit though, part of me enjoys the prospect of a less gory and grotesque Hulk comic: yes, it made perfect sense for the tone of “Immortal,” but I like my Hulk to not come across as such a melty, noodle-like shapeshifter.

Elias: You mean you don’t want Hulk to fight the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Chris: Wouldn’t that just be a rehash of “Immortal’s” finale?

What do we think of the perception online that the book has been tainted by Bennett’s behavior, and that (as his sign off letter seems to indicate) that Ewing can’t enjoy his achievement?

I agree with the sentiment that’s become common now that Marvel (and DC) should stop putting together creative teams randomly.

Like I know it’s hard to do that in a monthly comics market where the deadline is king, but you’d think Marvel would’ve learned to be more cautious after the “X-Men Gold” controversy five years ago.

Elias: I don’t this is a problem of Marvel putting random teams together because the team itself was very good, even if 6 inkers had to come onto the title per issue during the middle of the run, and instead a problem of the corporate machine being bad at ensuring the people they hire aren’t representing terrible ideas in their art. This is specifically in reference to the political cartoon Bennett made and not editorial completely failing to catch the #47 screw up.

My hesitancy around this is because I don’t want companies to be allowed to monitor and control their employee’s social media and using that as reasons to unjustly firing someone, like if a creator talks about making a union or swearing at a troll, but at the same time, what you put out there has real effects and if you’re using your platform to denigrate groups of people and support a pretty reprehensible dude in power, that shit has consequences that ripple out.

It doesn’t taint the book for me but it does make the finale feel less triumphant and more tragic, especially for Ewing and the rest of the crew who should be able to hold this book high as the masterpiece that it is without somehow feeling like it’s shameful to be holding up.

Chris: That’s a great point about vetting going both ways; and on a strange flipside, I know this sounds messed up, but as bad as Marvel’s royalty structure is, I’m glad it means Bennett won’t be making money off hardcovers and trades for the series.

It is certainly an awkward note to end on.

Elias: I mean, we can always end with a discussion on whether or not Ottley will go spaghetti noodle, noodle Kugel, or rotini with Hulk’s arms. My money’s on him breaking out the farfalle.

Chris: I keep meaning to learn these Italian terms, and I never do.

“Foodie Hulk” anyone?

1. Wait…this is produced by James Wan?

If I had wandered into this series, removed from context, I’d have thought this was the latest in a series of DC television products to prioritize humor. Teen Titans Go!, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and DC Super Hero Girls, along with many of the short-lived DC Nation shorts, all went the funny route for the tenor of the animation, and it has worked quite well for Warner Bros. Aquaman: King of Atlantis goes that same route, making the show almost entirely joke-based. That’s all well and good, until you realize that this is produced by Aquaman feature-film director James Wan, and is listed on its wikipedia page as ‘stand-alone sequel’ to the film.

Wait, what?

Aside from giving Aquaman a darker complexion than his comic counterpart, there is almost nothing in this book to suggest that this is a sequel to the Aquaman film. Sure, it has Vulko and Mera and Ocean Master in it, but so does every Aquaman comic. The characterization and voice acting is totally removed from the film, and while the film had a little humor in it, this humor has more in common with, well, anything, than it does the bro-humor of Aquaman.

Now, again, this is not a bad thing. This series should be its own thing with its own tone. Perhaps Wan has a clause in his contract that he is a de-facto producer on anything DC does with Aquaman outside of the comics for a period of time, and the ‘stand-alone sequel’ talk is just Wikipedia being dumb.

2. 45 minutes? But I want it now!

My biggest beef with this series is the 45-minute runtime. Yes, I know it is only 3 episodes, but for a show with this tone, a little goes a long way. I’m not saying it necessarily has to be Teen Titans Go‘s 11 minute runtime, but even 20ish minutes would’ve been a much more pleasant sit-through.

3. Tom Lennon should voice everything

The voice cast here is led by The Walking Dead‘s Cooper Andrews as Aquaman and Community‘s Gillian Jacobs as Mera. But the star is Thomas Lennon as Vulko. If you don’t know Tom Lennon than you didn’t grow up watching The State on MTV, or Viva Variety and Reno 911 on Comedy Central. Lennon is a comedy mainstay who walks a fine line, presenting Vulko as a stuffy bureaucrat but also a supremely likable character. It’s great; it is by far the best voice acting this show has, although Andrew Morgado as the evil, faux-Russian king was fun, too.

That’s not to say that Jacobs and Andrews weren’t good, as they most certainly were, but their performances, by their nature, are a little more subdued and less over the top as what Morgado and Lennon were able to do. Andrews and Jacobs aren’t trying to be Amber Heard and Jason Momoa, but they also can’t be so radically different that you prefer them to their film counterparts.

4. Time is (not) on my side

The entire episode is predicated on a divergence of time which is fairly easy to predict from the start, but works as a faux-cliffhanger going into the second episode. I don’t have too much to say about this, but it feels like it is worth mentioning, and will likely play a big part in the second and third chapters.

5. A familiar approach

The last note I want to share is that, while this isn’t the same portrayal or even the same humor, there is something very familiar to this portrayal of Aquaman compared to his portrayal in Batman: The Brave and the Bold. While the lonely, cheesy family man isn’t exactly what we see here, this Aquaman and the Aquaman of The Brave and the Bold do share a certain general goodness and positivity. It’s interesting that the most successful Aquaman adaptations are not, as Geoff Johns tried to do in his run on the title, a darker, more brooding Arthur, but ones that show him smiling and being not such a miserable prick all the time.

In case you missed it, DC announced several books coming in January, and AfterShock announced “Dark Red: Where Roads Lead.” Jerry Craft’s graphic novels, which had been pulled from the school district of Katy, Texas, over “critical race theory,” have also been reinstated. We also had an exclusive preview of “The United States of Captain America” #5.

Cover by Chris Bachalo

– Marvel has announced that Elektra Natchios will continue her run as the horn-headed hero in the ‘Devil’s Reign’ tie-in miniseries “Daredevil: Woman Without Fear.” Via ComicBook.com, current “Daredevil” writer Chip Zdarsky will be joined by artist Rafael De Latorre for a three-issue series named in reference to Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr.’s classic series “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.” The story will put her up against what the solicitation bills as “the Marvel Universe’s greatest hunter.” “When we were planning out ‘Devil’s Reign,’ it become apparent early on that Elektra’s story is too big to be contained in the main series,” Zdarsky said in a statement to ComicBook.com. “Wilson Fisk has unearthed her darkest secret and I’m super excited for readers to see the fallout in this series!” “Daredevil: Woman Without Fear” #1, featuring a cover by Chris Bachalo, hits shelves in January.

– Several classic comic runs are coming to the Penguin Classics line. “Black Panther,” “Captain America” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” will be the first comics to join the Penguin Random House imprint, featuring “carefully curated comic book anthologies” that present “the original stories and seminal tales” of some of Marvel’s most iconic heroes. A trio of modern comics creators will also be on hand to provide the forewords for the new volumes: Jason Reynolds (“Miles Morales: Spider-Man”) will pen the “The Amazing Spider-Man” foreword, Nnedi Okorafor (“Black Panther,” “Wakanda Forever”) will provide the foreword for “Black Panther,” and Gene Luen Yang (“American Born Chinese,” “Shang-Chi”) will write the foreword for “Captain America.” This announcement serves as a further deepening of the ties between Marvel and Penguin Random House, following the taking over of Marvel’s direct market distribution by Penguin Random House Publisher Services this month. The three anthologies will be published on June 14, 2022.

– The upcoming Disney+ series Hawkeye is premiering next month, and the streamer has dropped a new short trailer heralding some holiday cheer. Edited to Andy Williams’s “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” the trailer features Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) doing battle across a snowy New York City as Barton attempts to make it home to his family in time for Christmas. Helmed by Rhys Thomas and directing duo Bert and Bertie, and also starring Vera Farmiga, Fra Fee, Tony Dalton, Zahn McClarnon, Brian d’Arcy James, and newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, Hawkeye premieres just in time for Thanksgiving with two episodes on November 24.

– Disney+ has announced a new slate of 18 original projects from the Asia-Pacific region, and a pair of webtoon adaptations are among the bunch. Via The Hollywood Reporter, the first series is Moving, based on the webtoon of the same name by Kang Full. The action-drama follows three high school students who have inherited superpowers from their parents, and who must conceal their abilities while facing a great danger that has threatened their families for generations. The series will be written by Kang and directed by Park In-je (Netflix’s Kingdom). Also on the docket is Kiss Sixth Sense, based on the webtoon “Sixth Sense Kiss” by Got W and Jocobong. The lighthearted romantic drama follows a woman who is able to see glimpses of the futures of anyone she kisses, and accidentally sees her own future with her boss, who she despises. Both series will be coming to Disney+ next year.

– Letitia Wright, star of Black Panther and the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, has denied claims that she was spreading anti-vaccination rhetoric on the set of the Marvel sequel. Via CBR, Wright was singled out by a report in The Hollywood Reporter last week. She took to Instagram to dispute the story, which named Wright amidst a host of anecdotes about clashes between stars, their reps, and production crews over vaccine mandates. The article also made reference to Wright’s previous foray into anti-vax rhetoric, detailing her losing ties with her U.S. representation after a public relations fiasco caused by her posting an anti-vaccination video in December 2020. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens on July 6, 2022.

– An immersive experience titled Arkham Asylum will be opening in London next fall. Via WhatsOnStage, the show is based on the fictional DC Comics institution of the same name. Audiences take on the part of Gotham City citizens who move through the asylum and encounter villains like Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman. Directed by Simon Evans, the production is partnering with the suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). Tickets for the experience go on sale October 29 of this year ahead of its Fall 2022 opening.

– Netflix has provided Bloody Disgusting with a special look at the second season of Locke and Key, though this teaser comes with a twist. The clip includes a faux trailer for The Splattering, a horror film starring Kinsey Locke (played in the series by Emilia Jones). The teaser then gives way to an audience watching the trailer in a theater while Eden (Hallea Jones), now possessed after the events of last season, has a violent encounter with an unsuspecting concessions worker. Based on the comic by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, season 2 of Locke and Key hits Netflix on October 22.

– Djouliet Amara (Riverdale) is set to recur on the CW’s Superman & Lois in season 2. Via Deadline, Amara has joined the cast to portray a new student at Smallville High with a “past riddled with secrets.” Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch star as the titular couple on the show developed by Greg Berlanti and Todd Helbing, which follows Superman and Lois Lane as they move back to Smallville with their sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alex Garfin). Season 2 of Superman & Lois premieres sometime in 2022.

1. War and Peace

All the players have entered the stage, which in this case is the tarmac of an empty air force base. (Unfortunately for Crowley, his faithful steed, aka his classic car, doesn’t make it and instead explodes in a ball of fire.) Anathema and Newt are faced with a hacked nuclear weapons communications system, conveniently located in an unguarded office. Lucky for them and the rest of the world, Newt is so bad at all things technology, his attempts to speed up nuclear war end up canceling it instead. Adam and his gang of kids face off against the horsepersons of the apocalypse, who embody the opposite attributes of each kid. (Pepper, the peace-loving hippy girl destroys War by believing in Peace while Wensleydale destroys Famine by enjoying a good meal, and so on.) The four kids manage to cancel out their counterparts in an awkward sequence that makes a bit more sense in the original book. Being the antichrist, Adam thwarts the apocalypse but can’t exactly cancel Death, so Death flies away in a dramatic exit that, again, makes a bit more sense when accompanied by the narration of the book.

2. Heaven and Hell

But doomsday isn’t averted quite so easily! In the Good Omens world, Heaven and Hell are portrayed as the top and bottom of a giant corporate structure. And like competing companies, they are both heavily invested in the game. The leaders of Heaven and Hell show up to make sure their war is started on time, meaning we get to see Jon Hamm as the archangel f-word Gabriel again, as well as Lord Beelzebub, played by Anna Maxwell Martin, an excellent English character actor you might recognize if you watch enough period dramas. When these two show up, they inject some life back into what is otherwise a rather anticlimactic ending. (And, honestly, that’s not entirely the show’s fault. It’s hard to have a dramatic ending that centers around something not happening?)

At this point, the TV adaptation of Good Omens again suffers because the original wordplay and punning of the book are just so hard to portray onscreen. If you remember all the way back to the beginning, Aziraphale and Crowley bantered over the “ineffability” of God’s plans. And if you remember your English vocabulary, ineffable means “incapable of being expressed in words.” Crowley has pushed back throughout the series on the fact that no one knows what God is planning, refusing to blindly trust an ineffable plan he can’t see. Aziraphale, ever the loophole-finder, uses his own original argument against his boss, stating that since they can’t know what God’s plan is, they can’t really know the end of the world is part of the plan. Logical arguments about religious dogma aside, Heaven and Hell stand down and agree to regroup.

3. Fathers and Sons

But we’re still not done because Adam is still the antichrist and we’ve still got CGI budget left to burn. So Satan himself shows up, angry as all get out that his son, Adam, refused to do what he was supposed to do. All the characters do a Star Trek-style shake to show the world tilting, and Aziraphale threatens Crowley with the worst thing he can think of — never talking to him again. To give Adam time to save the world, Crowley stops time and we get to see David Tennant and Michael Sheen with their computer-generated wings again.

Adam saves the world, again, by being who he really is — an adopted kid who loves the dad who raised him. Aziraphale and Crowley tell Adam he ended up as not good or evil, but human instead, and this is what gave him the ability to stop armageddon. This line, along with Jon Hamm’s sarcastic, “You can’t just refuse to be who you are,” serve as thesis statements of a sort, trying to neatly tie up a story that contains a surprisingly mature religious and philosophical viewpoint for one that also contains an extended joke about nipples. Each of the four main groups contains characters who help each other realize they don’t actually have to be what they’re “supposed” to be. This includes Adam, who chooses to be a kid instead of the antichrist, and who chooses his human father over awesome powers and, literally, Satan.

4. Order and Chaos

And then it’s time to go home. Aziraphale doesn’t have one, though, since his bookshop burned down. Crowley offers him a place to stay and reminds him that they’ve both chosen the wrong “side” in the preceding conflict, leaving them on their own side, together. Agnes Nutter has some advice for them, which comes in handy since Heaven and Hell haven’t forgotten their wayward children.

But before we wrap up Aziraphale and Crowley’s stories, let’s wrap up our other pairs. Anathema and Newt get together for real this time, instead of checking a box on a list of things they’re prophesied to do. Not to be outdone, though, it turns out that Agnes wrote a sequel. Dismayed by the idea of having her life controlled even more by the past, Anathema burns the prophecies and chooses the chaos of an unpredictable future over the order of living by someone else’s instructions. Sergeant Shadwell showed up at the end of the world and didn’t ruin everything, so that’s a mark in his favor with Madame Tracy, who decides to hang up her psychic hat (and her, um, well, whatever it is she wears — or doesn’t — for her side gig) and move to the countryside. For reasons known only to her (loneliness? I guess?) she asks Mr. Shadwell to join her and he agrees. It’s a happy ending for the book’s strangest pair, and while I get why it needs to happen for symmetry reasons, it’s just kind of … there.

5. Love and, well, love

The Good Omens book ends the story there, but in this adaptation, Aziraphale and Crowley have to face the consequences of their actions. Both are put on trial and they face the only things lethal to their kind: hellfire and holy water. Crowley is dunked in a bathtub of the sizzling stuff and Aziraphale is shoved into a burning column of fire by his terrible boss. Instead of perishing, however, Crowley cavorts about in Victorian swimwear and Aziraphale breathes fire. Agnes Nutter’s last words came in handy, and they’ve switched places, braving Heaven and Hell for each other to save their respective skins. Having thoroughly confused their coworkers, Crowley and Aziraphale do what they do best: lunch. They drink and say a toast to the world and to each other while a nightingale sings in Berkeley Square.

I said in my episode three review that this is a love story. Adam’s love for his friends and family saves the world, Anathema and Newt’s love for each other lets her break free of the influence of her family, and Shadwell, I guess, overcomes his prejudice and lets Tracy love him in her own way by taking care of him. Aziraphale and Crowley love the world, and it’s their love of their adopted home that convinces them to work together and, yeah, come to love each other as well. As they overcome beliefs about their opposing natures, they accept each other as who they are instead of who they’re supposed to be. And this, friends, is why I love Good Omens despite its awkward pacing and too many characters. It’s a show that strips some of the cynicism from the source material and celebrates, earnestly, loving the world in all its weirdness. Before Ted Lasso gave us an earnest story about love, masculinity, and sports, Good Omens gave us an earnest story about love, religion, and found family. Also, nipples.

And that’s a wrap on Good Omens! … For now, anyway. Thirty years ago, the book ended with the world put back to rights by Adam, classic cars and all. But since Amazon and BBC have renewed Good Omens for a second season and Neil Gaiman has said that a second season necessitates a third, we’ll just have to wait and see whether the next apocalypse will be as wacky (and avoidable) as this one.