The Batman Effect

I had never heard of this particular “phenomenon,” but I already knew about it on a level that was not quite subconscious but approaching it. Let me back up for a minute. I despise clickbait. Especially the type that lures you into a slide show presentation that, at times, seems unending. That said, I sometimes […]

The Batman: Season 1 — a review of the animated series

Like most guys of a certain age, my introduction to Batman came in the form of a wacky, go-go era television series called Batman. It starred Adam West as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Burt Ward as Batman’s ward and sidekick Robin the Boy Wonder. Famed auto customizer George Barris had built the ’66 Batmobile, which became […]

Looking Forward (October 2023 Update): The Noble Pursuit of Entertainment

This is the quadmonthly happiness report for October 2023. Our belief here at FirewaterCorp is that happiness is defined as always having something to look forward to. In our world, choices in entertainment play a huge role in this pursuit. Our company motto is “Read. Play. Watch. Listen.” And, then, of course: “Write About It.” […]

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, by Tom King (writer) & Bilquis Evely (artist) (DC Comics) — a review

I admit to being a former comic book geek in my bio on this site. The heyday of my comic book collecting years was the 1970s until the early ’80s. Even then, I wasn’t what you think of as a “collector.” No bags, no boards, no long boxes. I was a comic book “enjoyer.” I […]

Looking Forward (February 2023 Update): Music Soothes the Savage Beast

This is the quadmonthly happiness report for February 2023. Our belief here at FirewaterCorp is that happiness is defined as always having something to look forward to. In our world, choices in entertainment play a huge role in this pursuit. Our company motto is “Read. Play. Watch. Listen.” And then, of course: “Write About It.” […]

Paper Girls: Season 1 (Prime Video) — a review

I’m not big on labels. I am a writer. And if I’m pressed on the issue, I’ll cop to being a reviewer but never a critic. Here’s the main difference between a reviewer and a critic, according to me. Critics get paid to finish watching things, even movies and television series that they don’t like, […]

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Season 1 (Disney +) — a review

Way back in 1980 (maybe late 1979—you know how comic book publication dates work), I purchased The Savage She-Hulk #1, a Marvel comic book written by none other than Stan “The Man” Lee and illustrated by legendary artist John Buscema. The title lasted for twenty-five issues, but I never bought another after the first. Honestly, […]

Looking Forward (October 2022 Update): How I Spent My Summer

This is the quadmonthly happiness report for October 2022. Our belief here at FirewaterCorp is that happiness is defined as always having something to look forward to. In our world, choices in entertainment play a huge role in this pursuit. Our company motto is “Read. Play. Watch. Listen.” And, then, of course: “Write About It.” […]

10-List: Firewater’s Top-10 MCU Properties (New and Improved!!)

I assembled a comprehensive list of movies and television series that I believe would be considered to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not just motion pictures this time. This included the various Marvel One-Shot short films but excluded the pre-Tom Holland Spider-Man movies and the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies. I look […]

The Flash: Season 8 — a review

The CW has announced that Season 9 of The Flash will be the final season. I will watch it as it airs. It’s that completist pathology—the collector’s curse—that drives me to watch all of something. If you share even a portion of the genome sequence that causes this, you understand what I mean. The first […]

Agent Carter: Seasons 1 & 2 — a review

I just watched the Marvel Studios series Agent Carter on Disney +. No, this wasn’t my first time watching it. I watched it the first time it aired, way back in 2015 and 2016, and was sad that it was cancelled. It has joined that list of television series that were cancelled too soon, in […]

Looking Forward (June 2022 Update): Are You Not Entertained?

This is the quadmonthly happiness report for June 2022. Our belief here at FirewaterCorp is that happiness is defined as always having something to look forward to. In our world, choices in entertainment play a huge role in this pursuit. Our company motto is “Read. Play. Watch. Listen.” And, then, of course: “Write About It.” […]

George Pérez: Losing a Comic Book Legend

I first became familiar with George Pérez’s artwork in the pages of The Avengers comic book. This was the mid to late 1970s, and Pérez would become my favorite Avengers artist until John Byrne took over the penciling duties on the title. When Pérez became a recurring artist on Marvel’s flagship series, Fantastic Four, I […]

Hawkeye: Season 1 — a review (Disney +)

My street cred as a comic book geek is mostly nonexistent. My personal slice of the space/time loaf—the timespan in which I actively purchased and collected comic books—was in the 1970s until the beginning of the ’80s. There was some Silver Age influence, especially on the DC Comics side of the equation where I cut […]

Looking Forward (February 2022 Update): New Year, Same Pathology

This is the quadmonthly happiness report for February 2022. Our company motto is “Read. Play. Watch. Listen.” And, then, of course: “Write About It.” “Read” Since the October 2021 update, the following books were completed: Supernatural: Heart of the Dragon, by Keith R.A. DeCandido (urban fantasy/media tie-in) Big Damn Hero (Firefly #1), by James Lovegrove […]

Tiger-Man, Tiger-Man…Does Whatever a Tiger Can? (or: a brief digression about the pursuit of happiness, Steve Ditko, and how memories sometimes resurface without warning)

My personal pursuit of happiness involves several variables, two of the most important being looking forward and looking back. The looking forward component involves the planning for—and anticipation of—future events or activities. This can be special moments, such as birthdays, anniversaries, holidays or vacations. Or, it could be the release of an anticipated movie, book […]

What If …?: Season 1 (Disney +) — a review

As soon as I watched the first episode of this series, “What If . . . Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?” I knew that I was going to like it. Although the movie Iron Man was the official kickoff of the MCU, it was the first Captain America movie that really set the tone […]

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: Season 1 (Disney +) — a review

I’ve written these reviews of the Disney + MCU Phase 4 series slightly out of order. I watched them in the order they were released. You can read my reviews of WandaVision and the first season of Loki here, if you’d like. At present, I’m making my way through the episodes of What If . […]

The Flash: Season 7 — a review

The finale of this season snuck up on me. I thought that there were at least four or five more episodes to go, when—all of a sudden—I was watching what I was told was the season finale in the eighteenth episode. I knew that the series had already been renewed for an eighth season, and […]

Loki: Season 1 (Disney+) — a review

You can’t fool me. All of this time travel and Sacred Timeline/Nexus Event stuff is just more magic disguised as incomprehensible technology. In this particular story, it doesn’t bother me overmuch, even though I’ve been honest about my semi-aversion to magic in past reviews. As I’ve said before, when it comes to swords & sorcery […]

WandaVision: Season 1 (and only?) — a review

The finale of this series aired back at the beginning of March 2021. I was still quarantining with my wife back then, with a lot of extra time on my hands. Still, I never watched an episode of WandaVision the same day it aired, even though I was watching them soon after, perhaps even just […]

What Stan Lee Said (Or: Not a Review of Comic Book Confidential [1988])

Comic Book Confidential is a cool documentary from 1988 about the history of comic books. I recommend it just to see a young Frank Miller with hair. Otherwise, you already know the stuff in this documentary. Superman, EC Comics, Dr. Frederick Wertham, underground comics—nothing really new. But, there are a lot of filmed interviews with […]

Supergirl: Season 5 — a review

I was looking back through my posts and discovered something I had forgotten. I never wrote reviews for Supergirl: Season 4 or The Flash: Season 5. I remember what happened. I did watch all the episodes of both of those seasons, growing increasingly dejected as I did so. I’ve described this before as DC-on-CW fatigue. […]

The Flash: Season 6 — a review

You don’t have to tell me that this review is waaay late. Or that Season 7 is playing right now, as we speak. The truth is that I put the CW’s The Flash on a non-COVID-related hiatus after I watched the fifth season of the series. It’s not that I hated the season, because it […]

The Walking Dead: Compendium Four, by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Stefano Gaudiano & Cliff Rathburn — a review

At the conclusion of Season 8 of AMC’s The Walking Dead, I announced—in typical, over-dramatic fashion—that I was stepping away from the television series for a while. Actually, I may have said that I was done with the series, implying that this was a permanent type of situation. It had become popular to threaten to […]

firewatersite

Read. Play. Watch. Listen .

comic books