Two United States of Monsters novels planned for 2025

 
I have two more United States of Monsters books planned for this year: QUEEN OF BLOOD which is the backstory of Ashura (as well as New Detroit's vampires as a whole) and follows up Brighteyes' ending and VWA AND POSSE which will be Peter getting suckered (no pun intended) into becoming an assassin of the European Vampire League's King.

A lot of people wonder why I combined all of my books into one series but it's really because of two reasons. 1] Because a lot of people never got all the many connections between the various books. 2] It's much, much easier to market.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJDKDP29

The Supervillainy Saga is on sale for $1.49 on April 26th

Hey, folks, 

I have a Kindle Daily Deal and I thought I'd share it. THE SUPERVILLAINY SAGA 1-6 is on sale for $1.49 today. Which is pretty much 6 books for twenty cents each. It's a hilarious series that makes fun of every trope imaginable and shows why none of us would do well as capes or cowls. 

Available here

Daredevil: Born Again review

    DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN is a fascinating story both in-universe and out. Out of universe, it is an attempt to regain a lot of lost Marvel fandom that got themselves abandoned as the television shows were declared non-canon only for Disney to pivot to Disney+ after Endgame. In-universe, it is the story of a demagogue seizing power via imagined problems and destroying democracy in the process.

    Daredevil: Born Again had a massive crazy behind-the-scenes story that can basically be summarized as them making a reboot with the same actors for Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Kingpin (Vincent d’onofrio) before Ms. Marvel Co-Creator Sana Amanat saw the results then decided they could do much better. They took the show away from Matt Corman and Chris Ord before giving it to Dario Scardapane who wrote the Netflix Punisher series. Then they trieed to edit/modify the already filmed six episodes to make it closer to what Ms. Amanat wanted.

    The result? Daredevil: Born Again is pretty good. The problem is “pretty good” is also not absolutely great and while people have the selective memory about the original Netflix Daredevil, forgetting Season 2’s second half was gawdawful and pretending The Defenders wasn’t part of its overall narrative, it isn’t quite up there. However, it is miles above most of the Disney+ shows out there and the fact that it managed to be this good despite all the duct tape and screws keeping it together is incredibly impressive. I am now imagining Sana Amanat as the Night Nurse of Disney executives.

    The funny thing is I don’t think the original work on Daredevil: Born Again was bad either. Episodes 2-7 are perfectly cromulent episodes of superhero television with Episode 5 being absolutely fantastic (and only needed a few less Ms. Marvel references to be perfect). However, they would have driven Netflix fans insane as the focus would have been on episodic crime fighting versus season-long prestige storytelling. “The Trial of the Century” and “Muse” arcs of the comics are reduced to two episodes when both could have been season long storylines. Muse more than White Tiger feels wasted. Generally, though, I give these episodes a 7-8 on average on the basis of Charlie and Vincent’s fantastic acting that occupies much of the screentime.

    Still, it’s very clear what Night Nurse…I mean Sana Amanat saw as the flaws of Daredevil: Born Again and tried to fix with her duct tape. Episodes 1, 8, and 9 are all about creating an overarching season plot that ties everything together. They provide oodles of fanservice like The Punisher, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Bullseye, as well as other ties to the original series. Vanessa Fisk had been recast but they got the original actress back to refilm all of her scenes.

    The new showrunners also try to add emotional stakes via edits to the original episodes with one example being a random New Yorker was kidnapped by Muse in “Art for Art’s Sake” being being changed into the White Tiger’s niece in the reshoots. Characters who were very bland get very big changes like Heather Glenn going from Matt’s vanilla girlfriend to someone hateable but who at least has a personality.

    I’d be remiss if I didn’t come on the fact that there’s a Foggy Nelson sized hole in the story that isn’t much of a spoiler if you’ve seen the first episode. Karen Page shows up in the first and last episodes as well but her absence is keenly felt. Amusingly, comic Daredevil hasn’t had Karen Page as a supporting cast member since Guardian Devil but the show one feels incomplete with her in a way like Superman without Lois Lane. They couldn’t simply add them in to the show as so much is about Matt moping about Foggy’s death and her absence. Still, I have high hopes for Season 2 because of this. The show was overall a 7.5 without the new episodes but with them, I’d say they raise it to an 8.5. Not perfect but a significant improvement. I’d say the final two episodes are 9s by themselves and bode well for the future.

    I have complaints, don’t get me wrong. Kirsten McDuffie is nothing like her comic book portrayal of the flirty magpie that loves teasing Matt as well as serves as one of the best love interests in the comic. The character of Cherry feels like they wanted to use Mahoney but couldn’t but never really develops a personality. Cole North is also another character in name only. The Swordsman and Muse are also completely wasted. Still, they’re minor complaints in the grand scheme of things and I feel like the show is in good hands now. Short of scrapping the show entirely (and wasting the last work of Kamar de los Reyes, RIP), this was probably the best they could do.

    A short mention of Daredevil: Born Again‘s politics: Disney goes a lot farther than I expected them to go while also feeling like they didn’t go hard enough. The Fisk-Trump parallels are superficial for a variety of reasons but I liked the handling of police brutality. The toxic fandom of the Punisher among law enforcement gets handled much better than in the comics. Frank Castle is a man of action not words and it’s much more satisfying to see how he deals with Punisher wannabes than lecturing them on Captain America.

    Nuff said.

The Tomb of Dragons (Cemeteries of Amalo #3) by Katherine Addison

 
    THE TOMB OF DRAGONS (The Chronicles of Osreth #4, The Cemeteries of Amalo #3) by Katherine Addison is her fourth book in the steampunk fantasy world of Osreth as well as third following the adventures of Thara Celehar, Witness of the Dead. I admit, I miss Maia from THE GOBLIN EMPEROR but I have come to treasure my experiences with Thara. He is a rare kind of protagonist in that he is older, a gay, nonconfrontational. and a figure who uses his words far more than he ever does his fists. He is far more the kind of protagonist you’d find in a mystery novel than you would your typical fantasy story and reminds me a bit of Brother Cadfael.

    I very much enjoy the world of Osreth because it is an incredibly realized world and while the names may be a little hard to pronounce or remember, the idea of a fantasy world entering into its age of airships, photography, and trains is little-used enough that I enjoy reading about it. I remember the game ARCANUM: OF STEAMWORKS AND MAGIC OBSCURA and think Osreth is, bluntly, a better written version of this. There’s no gunpowder in Osreth, at least as far as I can tell, but it is a highly evolving world casting off the darkness of the old era.

    The premise for this novel is that Thara is kidnapped by a group of disgruntled miners who take him to speak with the ghost of a dragon who has been killing people in “his” mountain. Thara finds out that the dragons of Osreth have been subject to a genocide and the roughly 170 odd mines in the region are all built over dead dragon’s homes. Dragons are very good at fighting knights, it turns out, but not so much poison gas pumped into their caves. I found that a clever little detail and one that added to the sense of Osreth as a changing place.

    Thara finds it his job to serve as the witness for the dead dragons, even though a large chunk of the population don’t believe them to be people and there is an economic interest in making sure that the atrocity doesn’t come to light. Basically, some of the mines are still active and incredibly lucrative. So much so that bringing down the company that killed the dragons would result in the collapse of the Empire. There’s also a subplot about Thara losing his ability to talk to the dead, another murder at the opera, fixing a corrupt parish’s registry for the dead, and a local lordling escaping house arrest. All of which end up tying together as these things often do in stories.

    So, is it any good? Yes, yes it is. I love Katherine Addison’s prose, her ability to make things as surreal as confronting a bureaucracy that has just given up on doing their jobs into a fascinating story. It reminds me a bit of Discworld and the Moist von Lipwig stories despite the fact Thara and he could not be less alike.However, I do have one complaint that knocks down the book a star rating or so because it is something that did affect my enjoyment: The story kind of wraps up way too neatly.

    Thara is good friends with the Emperor, the evil corporate types keep digging a deeper hole for themselves, and much of the resolution requires nothing to be sacrificed by the “good guys.” I feel like when dealing with generational crimes, genocide, racism, and so on that you probably shouldn’t just have it be a simple solution. Worse, there’s several times where the book suggests that the good guys will have to compromise on justice that would have made a better story, in my humble opinion. Maybe recent events have just made believe happy endings in politics are just not very satisfying in and of themselves.

    In conclusion, The Tomb of Dragons is very enjoyable if you liked the previous ones in the series then you’ll probably like this. I feel like the happy ending is a bit unearned, though, and I would have liked more difficulty in trying to satisfy the parties involved. As always with Katherine Addison, prepare to have great difficulty with the names.

8/10

Available

Old School Evil by Brian Cave review

    OLD SCHOOL EVIL by Brian Cave is the first novel of a series of dark comedy superhero novels. It is a simultaneous homage to Eighties Saturday Morning cartoon, a lamentation about the downsides to aging, and also a goofy coming of age story for a ragtag band of misfits. As a man who reads almost exclusively indie books these days, it’s definitely a labor of love that zigs when a lot of other books zag.

    The premise is that the majority of supervillains from the Eighties have been captured and forcibly reparated to a retirement home. For some of them, it is a pleasant enough home that is far nicer than any normal prison. Others find it hellish as they still delude themselves into believing that they could have brought the world to its knees. There’s homages to GI Joe, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and several other famous properties but very little 1:1 correlation. I was actually pleased with the amount of originality from the author while still invoking the kind of things that I remember from my childhood.

    The primary characters are Jayce, a genetically created werewolf, who has the horrifying (but typical) origin story of killing his foster parents when his powers manifested. He is introduced to Max Malice, one of those aforementioned supervillains that have been forced into involuntary retirement. Jayce is someone desperate for approval while Max is someone that can’t stand living in a world without robots, dinosaurs, or other peculiar methods of world domination. A bit like the WANTED comic, humanity has had its memories erased of the world where these things were a weekly occurrence.

    Jayce soon finds himself recruiting a number of the villains’ children. They’re a decidedly ragged bunch of losers that have been hurt by both the fact that they grew up in crummy circumstances and whatever legacies that their parents imparted on them are usually pretty life-destroying. One of them has a magic gun possessed by an evil ghost from the Wild West. That’s not the kind of thing that really inspires you to become a better person.

    Weirdly enough, I would say this book reminds me most of an adult cartoon like Archer or Venture Brothers. It’s utterly ridiculous but that is part of its charm. The pathetic nature of the villains and their egos contrasts to the very real life problems of money, aging, poor relationships with your kids, and the fact the government is so byzantine that even they have no idea why they’re running a retirement home for mad scientists/terrorists.

    Is there room for improvement? Perhaps. I think it’s a fun book by itself but I kind of wish he’d gone a little more direct with his EXPYs. Maybe include some more overt correlations like a wizard from a fantasy world or the commander of an international terrorist organization. It’s close enough to function but I would have gone all out.

    In conclusion, I really liked Old School Evil. It’s an acquired taste and you have to be willing to go with the absurdities of the whole thing like dog men, dinosaurs, and an excessive love of cartoons that you recognize what Dinosaucers was. People who know Uncle Phil voiced the one true Shredder. Still, if you are in that late thirties, early forties demographic or just enjoy old school evil then you’ll probably enjoy this.

8/10

Available here

Kraven: The Hunter (2024) review

 
    KRAVEN: THE HUNTER is a perfectly cromulent movie. It is a film that is not nearly as bad as MORBIUS or MADAME WEB. It is a film. It has a three act structure. There are characters within it. There is (sort of) character development. They have conflicts. Conflicts that are resolved. There is action (of a sort). It is truly, yes, a film. If you think I am struggling for things to say, you would also be right.

    This film is incredibly rote, paint by the numbers, and not even so bad that it’s good. Morbius was incredibly bad. So bad that it had several very laughable scenes. Madame Web wasted the movie potential of not one but four Spider-Women, five if you count the fact Dakota Johnson should have been playing Jessica Drew.

    Kraven the Hunter…is.

    The funny thing is, it’s not a bad Catman movie. If this had been about Thomas Blake from THE SECRET SIX and they’d gotten Gail Simone to punch up the script then I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. Thomas Blake got re-envisioned as a “rich kid who becomes Tarzan antihero” well before the stab at making Kravin into it.

    However, this IS about Sergei Kravinoff and we get a white-washed version of one of Spider-Man’s villains because given access to the entirety of Spider-Man’s supporting cast, they couldn’t think of someone to make a superhero movie out of despite the Prowler, Black Cat, Silver Sable, or even Ben Reilly existing. Mind you, we have the Spider-Verse so it’s really just the live action films that are suffering.

    If you’re looking for fidelity to Kraven the Hunter from the comics, look elsewhere. Kraven is a character with a fascinating history as he was widely considered to be a joke for most of his runtime until the super-dark, KRAVEN’S LAST HUNT that wrapped up his character for decades like THE NIGHT GWEN STACY DIED did for Norman Osborn. We got to meet his ridiculous collection of children and his resurrected version that befriended Squirrel Girl but I’ve always liked Kraven. He’s one-note but he’s also a bonafide psychopath and if you can ignore the silliness of comics, I think he’s a good villain.

    This movie is about a younger Kraven (Aaron Taylor Johns), who is the son of a Russian mob boss, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), and brother of Dmitri Kravinoff (Fred Hechinger). While hunting with his dad in Africa, Kraven is wounded by a lion and healed by a local medicine woman’s daughter, Calypso (Ariana Debose). He gains the power of a lion and becomes an international mercenary and hitman that goes after people associated with his dad. Eventually, a Russian with mysterious powers nicknamed “The Rhino” (Alessandro Nivola), kidnaps Dmitri and Kraven has to go rescue him. There’s also the Foreigner (Christopher Abbott), who has the power of temporarilly stopping time (or maybe he’s speeding up in bursts).

    Movie happens.

    Fidelity wise to the comics, it’s not very faithful but I’ve seen worse. Calypso is Kraven’s lover, Dmitri AKA The Chameleon is his brother, and the Rhino becomes the Rhino. They even namedrop Miles Warren. I mean, the Rhino isn’t the dumb muscle of the comics. Calypso isn’t a magical priestess but a lawyer who can do a little magic either. But I actually believe the people who wrote the script have READ comics before. Possibly even Spider-Man issues with Kraven in them. They at least consulted his Wikipedia page. Damned by faint praise as this may be, it’s better than some depictions.

    It’s fine-ish. It’s also an incredibly safe movie. Kraven isn’t a villain. He’s a hero who kills horrible evil people and does nothing worse than Jack Reacher does on a Tuesday. Calypso isn’t a villain. No one has any real menace and even the Rhino seems like a fairly decent fellow who doesn’t want to hurt Dmitri. Russell Crowe is playing the only real scumbag in the movie and all I can think is that he would have been perfect for a Spider-Man movie where he plays an aging Kraven, the kind who might have adult children, and wants to die in one final battle before he completely loses his edge. You know, the plot of the recent Spider-Man 2 game.

    It’s not a great movie but I was able to finish it in one sitting. I hesitate to call the movie boring but it is incredibly low energy. Kraven is effectively invincible, the CGI is obvious, and any edge the character might have as a villain protagonist is gone. So, yeah, it’s not something I recommend but it’s not terrible. However, if you don’t get a seratonin high by pointing and going, “That’s from the comics!” then it probably is terrible.

5/10

Available here

Companion (2025) review

     Companion (2025) was a film I was back and forth reviewing due to being a science fiction black comedy. If I had to define its genre, I’d say it’s cyberpunk lite. A story that could basically be summarized as “What if Blade Runner starred the machines and had really stupid people after them?” Despite the comedic elements or perhaps because of them, Companion deals with a lot of incredibly dark subject matter and touches on numerous themes of both technology as well as socialization.

    It’s sort of an interesting comparison to Ex Machina, which had the idea of our machines as wholly inhuman but mankind confuses them for people. This is instead the story of us making our machines human enough that we just use it as an excuse to treat them as how we already treat ourselves (which is like shit). There’s a strong feminist theme to the movie that underscores the comedy and slasher movie vibe as our heroine struggles to understand what her “boyfriend” now wants to murder her.

    The marketing spoiled a lot of this movie in a manner like Captain American: Brave New World as one of the biggest twists comes around the fifteen minute mark but is spoiled by the poster. Indeed, I wasn’t even aware it was meant to be a surprise until I watched this movie with my nieces. They had no familiarity with the movie and thus were completely taken off guard when it happened. If you can watch the movie unspoiled or with people who don’t know anything other than the title, then I recommend it. Otherwise, note, that the rest of the review will treat this initial reveal as a given.

    The premise for Companion is that Irish (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) are a sickeningly happy couple that are visiting their Russian friend’s house for the weekend. It is an incredibly luxurious house in the middle of nowhere and they’ll be joined by several friends. It is in the near future with self-driving cars and a variety of other luxury items that seem to be available only to the super rich, though Jack isn’t one of them. One of the guests, Kat (Megan Suri), is initially very hostile to Iris and she doesn’t know why. Sergey (Rupert Friend) gets aggressive with Iris and events spiral out of control when he’s killed.

    Which turns out to have been the plan all along as Iris discovers that’s what she was programmed to do all along. Iris, much to her shock and horror, is a companion robot for Josh. A sort of sexy Tamagotchi that was given a set of fake memories and a willingness to please that overrides all other considerations. Rather than the superhumans of Blade Runner, companions are deliberately made to be no smarter or stronger than “regular” humans with the ability of their owners to make them even dumber or weaker. Josh is fond of his companion robot but no more so than a pet and arguably even less than that as he’s willing to sacrifice her as part of his plan to murder Sergey then rob him. Unfortunately, he’s careless with his master control and he’s turned up Iris’ survival instincts.

    Much of Companion is, essentially, not so veiled commentary on “nice guy” misogyny. Josh is good looking and willing to put on a pleasant enough face around his girlfriend but only when she’s subservient to him. Ultimately, she’s a convenience and someone that he gets increasingly violent toward as he finds his plans thwarted. We also discover just how fragile Josh’s self-esteem is. The fact Jack Quaid is the kind of actor that would be the dorky but handsome lead in a romantic comedy, makes his transformation even more shocking. Like a slowly boiling kettle, we also see how the escalation grows from dismissiveness to furious rage.

    Companion’s humor comes from the same source as the movie’s terror. The murderers are not particularly competent at their crimes but that doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous. All of them, even the more sympathetic ones, think of Iris as an appliance that needs to be destroyed. The absolute lack of sympathy from everyone around here is surprisingly well realized. Sophie Thatcher beautifully embodies both the idealized retro-girlfriend with her 1950s-esque inspired look as well as the increasingly capable Iris as she realizes her only way out may be blocked by what she was made to be. I had a lot of fun with this movie.

8/10