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Even if you're not a fan of period pieces, The Favourite should still be entertaining enough to be one of your favorite watches this year. The three main actresses Olivia Coleman (Queen Ann), Rachel Weiz (Lady Sarah) and Emma Stone (Abigail) are absolutely fantastic in this film. They're perfectly cast for the roles they play and we can't see how anyone else would fit. If you're still feeling a bit burned by Emma Stone & La La Land (we go on a bit of a tangent about that film), rest assured she's back to the Emma we love. This film also has a Nicholas Hoult sighting and he's also as good as always. 

Listen as Kriss, Brandon, Ro and Joi talk about what they loved about this film. You're definitely going to want to check it out. 

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The last Character Corner of 2018! Kriss & Dpalm finish out 2018 with Part 2 of Aquaman and lets just say, shit gets a bit crazy from here. For the first time ever, we have to start the episode out by recapping Part 1 just so you get a sense for how off the rails Aquaman gets from here on out. A lot of writers, some of our favorites included, owe Peter David an apology for dropping the ball and wiping out the meticulous and detailed history of Atlantis and Aquaman that he laid out in his run. Just a sample of the crazy shit that happens:

* Atlantis gets sent back 3000 years and Arthur gets changed into a water wraith

* Arthur meets the Lady of the Lake (yup, that Lady of the Lake) and gets his harpoon hand replaced with a magical water hand

* Arthur Joseph Curry (don't make us do this)

* Has his silver age origin suddenly wipe out all of what Peter David did

* On and off again weakness of being out of the water too long

* San Diego is sunk and the inhabitants can breathe underwater and so they changed the name to Sub Diego and Aquaman becomes their protector

And there's more. We told you this shit gets weird. Things finally start to get normal again when Geoff Johns writes the first three volumes of New 52 Aquaman. Dan Abnett's Rebirth Run as well as Scott Snyder's Drowned Earth Justice League crossover are also pretty good.

Give the episode a listen and let us know what you think. We'll be back in 2019 with the following line up to start the year:

* The History of the Golden/Silver/Bronze/Modern Eras of Comic Books - January

* Captain Marvel (all of them) - February

* Shazam - March

* Iron Man - April

Issues:

* JLA: Our Worlds at War (Don't need to read the whole thing, just need to know Atlantis disappears & Arthur is presumed dead)

* JLA: The Obsidian Age

* Book One

* Book Two

* Aquaman Volume 6

* The Waterbearer

* Sub Diego

* To Serve & Protect

* Aquaman Sword of Atlantis - At issue 40 Volume 6 becomes Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. Introduces...*sigh*...Arthur Joseph Curry

* Blackest Night

* Blackest Night #1 - Garth is killed, Arthur resurrected as part of the Black Lantern Corps

* Blackest Night #8 - Aquaman is one of the 12 permanently resurrected and has his hand restored

* Brightest Day

* Brightest Day #16 - Arthur's silver age origin is reestablished, thereby erasing all of the hard work Peter David did

* Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman

* New 52 Aquaman

* Volume 1: The Trench

* Volume 2: The Others

* Volume 3: Throne of Atlantis

* Aquaman Rebirth

* Volume 1: The Drowning

* Volume 2: Black Manta Rising

* Volume 3: Crown of Atlantis

* Volume 4: Underworld

* Volume 5: The Crown Comes Down

* Volume 6: Kingslayer

* Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth

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Steve Carell has been acting his ass off this year. Welcome to Marwen could have been the film that got him an Academy Award nomination this year but the choices made in the script really hold him back. Much like Beautiful Boy and Boy Erased, there's a much more interesting and nuanced story to tell in this movie but instead of that, the film focuses on the fictional world of "Marwen" that Mark Hogancamp creates. This is based off a true story and what happened to Hogancamp is truly horrific but the film barely scratches the surface and leaves the audience without a full picture of why things are happening the way they are.

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Steve Carell has been acting his ass off this year. Welcome to Marwen could have been the film that got him an Academy Award nomination this year but the choices made in the script really hold him back. Much like Beautiful Boy and Boy Erased, there's a much more interesting and nuanced story to tell in this movie but instead of that, the film focuses on the fictional world of "Marwen" that Mark Hogancamp creates. This is based off a true story and what happened to Hogancamp is truly horrific but the film barely scratches the surface and leaves the audience without a full picture of why things are happening the way they are.

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There really isn't a greater sin when it comes to comic book films than having an actor play a character but their portrayal is nothing like any iteration of the character that has ever been written.Jason Momoa isn't Aquaman, he's just Aquabro. And that comes with all the problematic hyper masculinity "Look Arthur Curry isn't a punk. He's a man's man" bs that comes with it. And that's just the first problem that Aquaman has. The score and soundtrack is bad. The dialogue is bad. The story tries to cram the Throne of Atlantis storyline, which could be a full trilogy, into one movie that's all over the place. Yes, the fight scenes are enjoyable and there are some standouts (Yahya Abdul-Mateen's Black Manta is criminally underused). But at this point, why are we still making excuses for DC & WB when it comes to their execution of these films?

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There really isn't a greater sin when it comes to comic book films than having an actor play a character but their portrayal is nothing like any iteration of the character that has ever been written.Jason Momoa isn't Aquaman, he's just Aquabro. And that comes with all the problematic hyper masculinity "Look Arthur Curry isn't a punk. He's a man's man" bs that comes with it. And that's just the first problem that Aquaman has. The score and soundtrack is bad. The dialogue is bad. The story tries to cram the Throne of Atlantis storyline, which could be a full trilogy, into one movie that's all over the place. Yes, the fight scenes are enjoyable and there are some standouts (Yahya Abdul-Mateen's Black Manta is criminally underused). But at this point, why are we still making excuses for DC & WB when it comes to their execution of these films?

 

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Here's what you have to ask yourself with Bumblebee: Do you believe you deserve better Transformers FILMS or do you just want to see better looking transformers in a film? That's the real question. Because if you're only going into Bumblebee to see G1 accurate looking Transformers and to get the typical 15-20 minutes total of Autobots vs Decepticons action, then you'll be satisfied. But if you want to see a complete Transformers films that focused on Autobots and Decepticons...then this is just more of the same. The first 15 minutes of this film is awesome and what every Transformers fan was waiting for. Then it turns into ET and Bumblebee gets turned into a dumb pet and we're left wondering why are we sitting through this film. Just send us a supercut of all the Cybertron scenes and all the Bumblebee vs Dropkick & Shatter scenes and call it a day.  This movie has a lot of the same story beats from the first Michael Bay film. But I guess we're not supposed to mention that cause we saw Cybertron for a few minutes and got some better character designs.

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MTR's science team, PFunk & Coqui, are back combining science talk and pop culture nerdom and more. Give it a listen!

• Climate change is killing future babies already: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/11/13/climate-change-could-damage-sperm-and-thus-male-fertility/1990220002/
• Scientists behind ocean warming study say errors were made - https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/14/world/ocean-warming-study-errors-intl/index.html
• Main Topic: Salmonella Turkeys. Just in time for Thanksgiving
  • https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/s1116-salmonella-investigation-raw-turkey.html
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/11/16/health-officials-cant-find-source-turkey-salmonella-outbreak-thanksgiving-approaches/?utm_term=.aa732457e144
  • What is Salmonella? -https://www.foodsafety.gov/poisoning/causes/bacteriaviruses/salmonella/index.html
• Antibiotic resistant bacteria in giraffes https://www.asm.org/index.php/newsroom/item/7580-transmission-of-antibiotic-resistant-e-coli-mapped-in-wild-giraffe-social-networks
• #CatchTheseHands2018 – Man Fights Bear and Lives…Bear-ly - https://abc13.com/pets-animals/man-punches-bear-in-nose-to-survive-attack-in-driveway/4670291/

 

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We've made it to "The Book of Rebellion" and Khalil and Jennifer are on the run from Tobias and Jen's parents, respectively. At first, Jefferson and Lynn assume Khalil has kidnapped Jennifer until Anissa lets them know that Khalil and Jen have been texting since episode one this season.

Khalil and Jennifer think they are truly Romeo & Juliet so despite the fact that their road trip starts with a shoot-out and continues with being chased by an assassin, Jennifer runs from Black Lightning and Thunder every time they show up to help.

Lynn is at home spiraling. She's gone off the Henny and between her daughter running away and having killed 14 teens, she is not in a good place. She rallies briefly and talks to Gambi (AKA the Other Woman) so she can track down Khalil's dad just to learn that he had an apartment. This leads exactly nowhere.

While his assassin Cutter (Kearran Giovanni) is tracking the teens, Tobias is making new moves and enlists the genius of Todd Green (RJ Cyler, Sierra Burgess is a Loser). Green is a boy genius who is missing out on grant opportunities because of racism and classism and Tobias is using that to win him to his side. Also in the final moments we're introduced to a new unnamed meta played by The Chi's Tosin Morohunfola. Tobias is also putting two and obvious together, and wondering why Black Lightning always seems invested when the Pierce girls are involved.

These two episodes give us a lot of good character development for Jennifer who is also learning to control her powers and she proves herself to be incredibly resourceful. That being said, Black Lightning still struggles this season. It's good tv but not great tv. Especially compared to it's CW peers. We'll see you in the new year and hopefully Black Lightning will bring it's A game when we return.

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Time to end 2018 with the final Character Corner subject of 2018: Aquaman. The King of the Seven Seas is getting his first solo film this month and so we're taking a look at the history behind Arthur Curry aka Aquaman. Aquaman is another DC character that has been around since the Golden Age and has seen a lot of drastic changes not only to his origin but his supporting cast as well. He's a character that's struggle to get respect, with many people thinking his only powers are talking to fish and that he's pretty useless outside of water. DC didn't do the character any favors by giving the character the weakness of needing to be in water at least once every hour. All that changed in 1990 when Peter David took over writing Aquaman. First he started by building a foundation for not only Arthur's lineage but also telling the story of how Atlantis became an advanced civilization under the sea. He then takes Arthur on a journey of not only understanding who he is but what it means to be a leader & king. Also, this is where we get the iconic 90's look of Aquaman: Harpoon Handed Aquaman. 

Listen as we break down the early history of Aquaman, a quick run through of the different eras of comic books and then talk about how Peter David brought some respect to Aquaman's name.

https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=7929485

Issues:

* More Fun Comics #73 - First Appearance of Golden Age Aquaman

* Adventure Comics #229 - First Appearance of Topo

* Adventure Comics #260 - First Appearance of Silver Age Aquaman

* Adventure Comics #269 - First Appearance of Garth/Aqualad

* Brave & the Bold #28 - Founding member of the Justice League

* Aquaman #11 - First appearance of Mera

* Aquaman #18 - Becomes King of Atlantis; Marries Mera

* Aquaman #23 - Arthur Jr (AquaBaby)

* Aquaman #29 - First Appearance of Orm/Oceanmaster

* Aquaman #35 - First Appearance of Black Manta

* Adventure Comics #452 - Black Manta kills Aquababy

* Legend of Aquaman Special (Aquaman Special #1) - Rewrote Aquaman's origin post crisis

* Peter David's Run

* The Atlantis Chronicles

* Aquaman Time & Tide

* Aquaman 1 - 49 (Peter David's Run)

* Book One

* Book Two

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