Spider-Man: Homecoming
I was a huge fan of Spider-Man growing up and therefore I bought a lot of Spidey comic books with my allowance in the mid to late nineties. So I got both good and bad storylines including my favorite Maximum Carnage. I do not read the comics anymore because I have fallen behind and the One More Day storyline kind of convinced me that I was done with Spidey comics for an indefinite amount of time. However, any animated or live action version is something I feel compelled to check out. Therefore, I was beyond excited to see the character in Captain America: Civil War. This is the first stand alone Spidey film in the connect Marvel Cinematic Universe. There was a definite John Hughes vibe to the non-action parts (and some of the action parts) which I read they were going for. Tom Holland is the youngest version of Peter Parker to date and he did a great job bringing out that part of the character. He was a kid, he made dumb decisions and made mistakes but with the purest of intentions. They also redesigned the costume to give it expressive eyes so that we did not get the action figure quality from the first Spider-Man film and he did not have to take off his mask to convey emotion. They had a great supporting cast with Robert Downey, Jr, Marisa Tomei, Jennifer Connelly, Zendaya, Jon Favreau and newcomer Jacob Batalon. Michael Keaton played an excellent villain with a blue collar vibe to him which felt like just the right inaugural villain for this new Spidey. I definitely recommend it.
Justice League: Gods and Monsters
DC Comics loves its elseworlds stories and frankly, I like a lot of them because I like theories on alternate universes. In this story, we get an alternate Justice League caused by changes in the timeline. In this timeline, General Zod’s son is sent to Earth when Krypton explodes instead of Kal-El and his trajectory places him in the care of a pair of migrant workers (they seemed to be from Mexico). He grows up with a distrust of authority but a strong sense of justice and the desire to defend the weak. Bekka, the wife of Orion, comes to Earth to escape a massacre and names herself Wonder Woman with no Diana of Themyscira in sight. A young Kurt Langstrom tries to cure his cancer with a biological/nanite solution and accidentally turns himself into a vampire and he calls himself Batman. As far as we see, a lot of familiar faces from the comics do not make the move into becoming heroes and villains and the Justice League spends most of their time fighting terrorist cells. All three kill freely with varying degrees of regret. As usual, the animation and voice acting are on point for yet another DC Animated feature. There is plenty of action but the movie ends up being more of a mystery than a straight superhero thing. With the minimal cast, we get more time to explore each character in more depth. If you are a fan of these sorts of things then I definitely recommend it.
Van Helsing (2016)
I really like Wynonna Earp and I like vampire lore so I thought I would give another Syfy series about a famous ancestor a shot. As you might expect, this series follows the modern day (2019) descendant of fictional vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, Vanessa Helsing. She was born with special blood, a mystery I have not yet seen solved on the show. In fact, there are a lot of mysteries that have yet to be solved in the few episodes I have seen so far which is great. What is known in the first episode is that Mt. Saint Helens has exploded again, scattering ash over a large portion of the United States. As soon as the eruption happens, people mysteriously start attacking and trying to drink blood from other people. Without direct sunlight, these vampires have free reign of the outdoors now. Most of them are feral and attack like rabid animals without provocation. There are intelligent vampires but what their role in things is not yet clear. However, the rational vampires do fear Vanessa Helsing because she is said to be the key to eliminating all vampires. The show starts slow but picks up in the second episode as we start learning more character backstories and the driving forces behind the show. I am interested in seeing more. It is pretty gory as you might expect but I recommend it as a pleasant diversion if you are looking for something a little scarier.
Music of the Week:
The xx – Dangerous
Spankin – Smith and Pyle
Anilah — Warrior
PUP – Sleep In TheHeat
Against Me! – Crash
Weekly Updates:
– This week’s theme is “With Great Power…”
– I finished Season 1 of Glitter Force
– I finished Season 4 of Agents of Shield
– I watched more NCIS Season 14
– I started watching Criminal Minds Season <>
– I watched more Blood Drive
– It is August which means we are in the commercial Halloween season
Tags: Gods and Monsters, Homecoming, Justice Leagure, Media Update, Spider-Man, Van Helsing
Wolf of Words 
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