Yearly Archives - 2023

The Death of Captain Marvel Sue

The movies were successful, and it was apparent fairly soon after the acquisition that unless we made some egregious unforced errors or were blindsided by some unforeseen outside event, Marvel was going to be worth far more than we’d anticipated.  -Robert Iger, The Ride of a Lifetime  Yeah Bob, so about that...  The Marvels did not beat out Five Nights at Freddy’s opening weekend.  They knew that going in but now Disney has to cope with the fact that they didn’t beat...

14,000,000!!!

The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend: The Marvels 

 I survived this movie. I have to give it that. Okay, I’ve survived worse but Antman and the Wasp Quantomania wasn’t deliberately trying to kill me. I’m not sure I can say the same about The Marvels.  I’ve made so many Frankenstein jokes about Disney/Marvel/Star Wars movie scrapbooking. I indeed and truly am out of material when it comes to this new one. That said The Marvels is only utterly incomprehensible if you try to pay attention to it. Let the...

The Marvels – First Impressions

Yeah, it sucks. This was a failure that was fifteen years in the making and started the day Bob Iger walked into Ike Perlmutter's office to discuss a possible merger.The problem was that Perlmutter appears to have been fundamentally incapable of not seeking mega buyout ultra riches at the expense of long-term achievement. It was basically the story of his business life or at least it was until he and Ari Arad bought out Marvel in the mid-nineties. Sure that deal...

Iger’s Song and Dance Numbers

The day after Bob Iger's November 8th earnings call Disney's stock price jumped up $6 per share.Which immediately raises the question, did Disney have that good of a quarter?Oh hell no, but there were some numbers that could be tortured until they confessed. Plus, the actors' strike ended yesterday and that had a positive halo effect on the whole industry. If you take Iger's presentation at face value then I suppose it does look like it's all sunshine and furry...

Hiyao Miyazaki Comes Roaring Back

The legendary creator of Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, had announced his retirement after the release of The Wind Rises. Truthfully as soon as he announced he was hanging up his paint brushes his fans started the timer. They couldn't believe he could walk away for good. However it was looking like he was serious. The Wind Rises was released in 2013 and it didn't look like he was changing his mind. Which was a pity...

Not a Good Start

The review embargo on The Marvels has been lifted.Owww. I'm sure it will go up. However, it looks like Disney can't be bothered to send out bribe money on this one.The big question at this point is, will The Marvels outperform Fiver Nights at Freddy's.Discuss on Social Galactic

Totally 80s Indies – Pacific Comics 

This was genesis.  Pacific Comics was the place where it all started. True, Eclipse is better known today and rose a lot higher before their own crash. Malibu Comics had Ultraforce, Men in Black, and Alien Nation. But without Pacific Comics there would have been no shoulders for them to stand on. Its origins were about as humble as you can get. Brothers Bill and Steve Schanes started up a mail-order comic book business pretty much in their parent’s garage.   It was...

RE:View – John Carpenter’s The Thing 

Who Goes There has the singular distinction of being the only John W. Campbell story to have been made into a film. Twice in point of fact. While The Thing From Another World is a classic in its own right, it comes nowhere near to what Carpenter delivered for his iteration of the story. The Thing is one of the all-time classics of science fiction horror. The film started life as one of the last of the old-school movie studio projects. A...

Arktoons Spotlight: Cosmic Horrors

Welcome to the Arktoons Spotlight, a regular feature at the Arkhaven Blog. The Spotlight is where I take a look at one title from the amazing world of Arkhaven’s webtoons. If you aren’t familiar with Arktoons, this is meant for you.  I am the Dark Herald; I do the blogging here at Arkhaven.com.  The blog is mostly pop culture news, reviews, and opinion, in short, the usual. And you aren’t here for the blog.  You’re here for the webtoons.   Arkhaven is different from other webtoon publishers.  While...