Stubs - Batman (1943)

Batman (1943) starring Lewis Wilson, Douglas Croft, J. Carrol Naish, Shirley Patterson Directed by Lambert Hillyer. Screenplay by Victor McLeod, Leslie Swabacker, Harry L. Fraser. Based on Batman by Bill Finger (uncredited) and Bob Kane. Produced by Rudolph C. Flothow Run time: 260 minutes. Black and White USA Superhero

There’s a long list of actors who have played the Batman character on television and in movies: Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale, Ben Afleck and Robert Pattison come to mind. But the first actor to don the mask and cape was Lewis Wilson, who starred in the first serial based on the DC character, Batman.

Stubs - Spider-Man: Brand New Day

Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Florence Pugh, Tramell Tillman, Marisa Tomei, Mark Ruffalo Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Screenplay by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers. Produced by Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, Avi Arad, Rachel O'Connor Run time: 145 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero

Note: This review contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

It may seem like this is a little late in the run to be reviewing Spider-Man: Brand New Day¸ but there’s a reason for that. Brand New Day arrived at theaters with really big box office with hype to match. Sometimes, that can be kind of off-putting, and we had other things to do this summer.

The sequel comes five years since Spider-Man: No Way Home, and does and does not try to fill in the years that have passed. As you recall at the end of No Way Home, everyone, including MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), has forgotten Peter Parker is Spider-Man (Tom Holland), and while MJ and Ned have gone on to college together, Peter has stayed behind and continued his vigilante crime-fighting. We see Ned and MJ’s lives through social media posts, but what Spider-Man has been doing is not so well documented, including run-ins with Mac Gargan / Scorpion (Michael Mando) and working with and against another vigilante, Frank Castle / Punisher (Jon Bernthal).

Batman: Hush

Back in 2002, DC published Batman: Hush, a famous twelve-issue story arc by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee that depicts a mysterious stalker named Hush sabotaging Batman from afar. In 2019, this storyline received an animated adaptation of the same name as part of the DC Animated Movie Universe, a series of connected films split into two arcs, the first one based on the “New 52” version of the DC universe. Batman: Hush released near the end of this first arc, though I didn’t know that going in when I watched an old recording on a DVR. I also hadn’t read the original comic, which helped me enjoy the film a lot more, although my vague knowledge of Hush as a character did give me a mixed feeling on the end result.

Stubs - Supergirl

Supergirl (2026) starring Milly Alcock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Eve Ridley, David Krumholtz, Emily Beecham, David Corenswet, Jason Momoa. Directed by Craig Gillespie. Screenplay by Ana Nogueira, Based on Characters from DC. Produced by Peter Safran, James Gunn. Run time: 108 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero

Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) with her best friend, Krypto.

 

Something that Supergirl has in common with John Wick is that nobody hurts her dog. Just like Wick slayed a whole hell of a lot of people because someone killed his dog, Supergirl aka Kara Zor-El (Milly Alcock) goes on a revenge tour when her dog Krypto is left incapacitated by Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaert), the leader of the Brigands, a rowdy group of space pirates. Along the way, she picks up Ruthye Marye Knoll (Eve Ridle), a youing woman who has witnessed Krem kill her father, mother and brother, and is out for her own revenge. Add to that Kara has just three days to find Krem, who has stolen her spaceship, and return with the antidote to save Krypto, a daunting task.

Supergirl is based on DC comics and utilizes characters that would be well-known to longtime readers. How accurate it is to the comics themselves is not something I'm equipped to answer.

The film has not opened as well as had previously expected, but some of the blame on that can be the rather lackluster intro Superman (2025), which is supposed to have kicked off a revival of the DC Universe under the leadership of James Gunn. But some of it has to do with the film itself.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

Note: This review contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ first foray into live action proved rather profitable, making $202 million worldwide (lifetime) on a budget of a mere $13.5 million, the wider franchise couldn’t replicate its success. As the 1990s continued, the initial wave of Turtlemania waned thanks to declining toy sales and 1987 cartoon viewership, on top of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (TMNT II) pulling in a lower box office performance ($78.7 million against a $25 million budget) than the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film (TMNT I). In an effort to squeeze more money out of the franchise while they still could, Golden Harvest would produce a third film, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (TMNT III), released in 1993, that not only continued the trend of diminishing returns (earning $54.4 million against a $21 million budget), but earned a reputation for driving the franchise into relative dormancy until the 2003 cartoon aired. As someone who had just missed Turtlemania by virtue of being born too late for it, I had no real attachment to the turtles until later incarnations, which eventually led me to slowly exploring other parts of the franchise, including the live-action films. During my recent journey of watching the films in order, I ended up at TMNT III and finished with a complete understanding of why it couldn’t turn a profit.

Stubs - Samaritan

Samaritan (2022) starring Sylvester Stallone, Javon "Wanna" Walton, Pilou Asbæk, Dascha Polanco, Moisés Arias. Directed by Julius Avery. Screenplay by Bragi F. Schut. Based on Samaritan by Bragi Schut, Marc Olivent, Renzo Podesta. Produced by Sylvester Stallone, Braden Aftergood. Run time: 101 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero

A spec script that no one wanted at the time, Samaritan, was turned into a comic book of the same name by its writer, Bragi Schut, at Mythos Comics, an indie publisher he started with Lewis Fenton. After putting out two issues, the story became known to Sylvester Stallone, of Rocky fame, who was looking for a project for an older actor. The original script was then acquired by MGM, in 2019, but as a result, the story became owned by them and by Stallone, and the comic book had to be shuttered after only two issues.

The production was co-produced by Stallone’s Balboa Productions, and began in Atlanta on February 26, 2020, only to be shut down on March 14 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It wouldn’t begin again until October 8, 2020. With a push back in production, the release date also had to be pushed back from November 20, 2020 to August 26, 2022. By then MGM had been purchased by Amazon. The release, which had been planned for theaters, ended up on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Stubs - Thunderbolts*

Thunderbolts* (2025) starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Olga Kurylenko,   Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, Chris Bauer, Wendell Pierce, David Harbour, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus Directed by Jake Schreier. Screenplay by Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo. Based on Marvel Comics. Produced by Kevin Feige. Run time: 127 minutes. Color. USA. Superheroes, MCU

This summer saw the end of the MCU’s Phase Five, Thunderbolts*, and the beginning of Phase Six, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both under-performed at the box office but both were better films than might have been expected. My loyalty to the MCU sort of expired after the end of Phase Three. I’m sure I’m like a lot of viewers who decided after 11 years, the goal of the continued MCU seemed to have only one purpose, to make money. The expansion into “must see” TV shows didn’t help and my devotion faded.

However, I do like to keep my toe in, but I’m more cautious with my dollars. Thunderbolts* looked interesting but was it worth $100 to see it (tickets and refreshments included)? My answer at the time was no, and I waited for it to appear on Disney+, which it has done recently.

I will have to say that I was very surprised and the movie was very well-made, with good acting, action, and story.

Stubs - Superman (2025)

Superman (2025) starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi, Anthony Carrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabela Merced Directed by James Gunn Screenplay by James Gunn. Based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Produced by Peter Safran, James Gunn Run time: 129 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero

When launching a new DC Universe, James Gunn started with Superman, a logical place to begin. Superman is not the first superhero, but he is perhaps the best known. And since Gunn didn’t feel the need to retell Superman’s origin story, the film feels somewhat like a sequel rather than a starting place. We’re given a little bit of exposition in text at the beginning, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was coming in the middle of a story that was already in progress. And there are a lot of things that are never explained, like his Fortress of Solitude.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Note: This review contains spoilers for Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Early 2000s Marvel films have an interesting place in superhero film history. For every cultural phenomenon like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy or the original X-Men film trilogy, we also received middling releases like the original 2005 Fantastic Four, which still proved profitable enough to receive a 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer (Silver Surfer), from the same director, Tim Story. Silver Surfer itself represents an interesting point in the cinematic landscape of the time: It released one year before Iron Man forever changed the approach to superhero films, one month before Transformers revived a dying brand (for better or worse) and four years before Chris Evans joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) as Captain America. Although Silver Surfer itself did receive slightly better praise than the first film and did make a profit, it still earned less than its predecessor, which led to Fox axing plans for a third film.

Rewatching the film now, it’s not hard to see why the franchise wouldn’t have continued and why it didn’t leave much of a lasting impact. However, I don’t feel quite as negative towards it as I did when I saw it in the theater as a young and impressionable teenager. After all, the 2015 reboot proved that the quality could, indeed, get worse.

Fantastic Four (2005) + Extended Edition

Following the merger between Disney and 20^th Century Fox, several Marvel properties and characters previously licensed by Fox are now scheduled to make their way into the MCU. Following Deadpool & Wolverine, 2025 seems dedicated to reintroducing the Fantastic Four for the third time, with Dr. Doom appearing in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, followed by the team’s first solo film in 10 years, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Though our interest in the MCU itself has waned, in anticipation of this upcoming release, we still thought it appropriate to look back the first attempt to bring the Fantastic Four to the big screen (not counting the shelved 1994 film) in 2005, simply titled Fantastic Four. While the film generally holds up pretty decently after 20 years, it still shows its age in some respects.

Stubs - Elektra

Elektra  (2005) starring Jennifer Garner, Goran Višnjić, Will Yun Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp Directed by Rob Bowman Screenplay by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman, M. Raven Metzner.  Based on Comic book characters by Frank Miller. Motion picture characters by Mark Steven Johnson. Produced by Arnon Milchan, Gary Foster, Avi Arad. Color Run time: 97 minutes. Superhero USA

If you watched the recent Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) and saw Jennifer Garner dressed up as a superhero and were unfamiliar with the character she’s playing, you might be tempted to watch Elektra (2005), in which she portrayed the titular character. Or, if you watched the much-assailed Daredevil (2003), you might want to see what happened to the Elektra character that was believed dead but apparently wasn’t, in which case you might also be curious about this film, the supposed continuation of her story.

Daredevil (+ Director's Cut)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Daredevil.

In a post-MCU world, it can be difficult to remember a time when Marvel had licensed their properties to other studios in the 2000s, even more so the films that didn’t reach the same notoriety as some of Fox’s thirteen X-Men films or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy at Sony. One of these films was Daredevil, starring Ben Affleck and released by Fox in 2003. Although it received mixed reviews from critics, it still saw some success at the box office, earning $178 million against a budget of $78 million, and spawned the Elektra spinoff film, itself a box office bomb. Based on the reviews at the time, as well as negative word of mouth and Ben Affleck earning a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor, I went in expecting a cinematic trainwreck on par with other duds like Batman & Robin or Fant4stic. Instead, I saw a film that, while flawed in execution, represented a bold step forward for grounded cinematic takes on comic book superheroes.

My Hero Academia: You're Next

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Hero Academia and My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission.

Although the My Hero Academia manga has ended (arguably on an unsatisfying note), the anime isn’t yet finished, with a recently concluded seventh season and final upcoming eighth season to wrap everything up. In the meantime, animation studio Bones got to squeeze out one final film, You’re Next, which debuted during the seventh anime season. Since the film only just received an international theatrical release, we watched the dub and found that even though it’s not the best of the four films, it’s certainly an entertaining one and an improvement over World Heroes’ Mission.

Before I continue, I’d like to note that although the film is non-canon, it takes place between the Paranormal Liberation War and Final War arcs of the story, which translates to right between Season 6 and 7 for anime-only viewers.

My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission

Note: This review contains spoilers for My Hero Academia.

After ten long years, the ever-popular My Hero Academia has reached its conclusion. This incredible milestone reminded us that although we had kept up with both the manga and anime, we still hadn’t seen the series’ third film from 2021, World Heroes’ Mission, despite owning the Blu-ray for quite a while. In honor of the manga’s finale, we thought we’d finally go back and take a look at this film and see what we had missed. Unfortunately, while it does continue the trend of incredible animation, certain developments make the story less satisfying than the previous film, Heroes Rising.

Deadpool & Wolverine

Following the success of the original Deadpool, Fox had plans for at least two sequels: Deadpool 2 and another film featuring the X-Force. However, the Disney/Fox Merger, which completed in 2019, nixed those plans and left the future of any X-Men films uncertain, though Disney CEO Bob Iger had assured audiences that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool would be integrated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and that any Deadpool films would remain R-rated despite Marvel’s prior PG-13 output. While Marvel Studios spent some time gathering the creative team for a third Deadpool film, Hugh Jackman, who had retired the role of Wolverine after his performance in Logan, joined Reynolds on the project after learning that the film wouldn’t conflict with Logan. When filming finally started in 2023, the production faced a notable delay when the dual WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes kicked in, as the initial WGA strike meant that Reynolds couldn’t improvise any dialogue on set, but SAG-AFTRA joining in put filming on hold until its resolution, after which it compensated with a new release date of July 26, 2024.

The finished film, Deadpool & Wolverine, has released in a very interesting climate. Although the MCU remains popular, it has suffered diminishing returns during Phase Five and Marvel Studios has fatigued viewers to the point that they scaled back their TV and film production. Deadpool & Wolverine not only has the honor of the first R-rated MCU film, but also the only MCU film of 2024 (with Joker: Folie à Deux the only DC film of the year). On top of that, the film released during the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con, which meant that thousands of fellow nerds potentially had to go up to four days dodging spoilers and I couldn’t watch it until the following Monday. Considering the added pressure for the diminishing box office returns of the post-Endgame MCU films, it’s very fortunate that Deadpool & Wolverine felt more than worth the wait and mostly lived up to the hype.

Second Look - Deadpool 2 (All Three Cuts)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Deadpool and Deadpool 2.

Deadpool 2 sits in a unique position within the X-Men film series. Not only did Fox greenlight this sequel by the time the first film released, but after its premiere in May 2018, it would receive two additional cuts within the same year: the direct-to-video extended Super Duper Cut in August and the theatrically-released PG-13 Once Upon a Deadpool in December. Due to a lack of an official word on the matter, one could conclude that Fox wanted to make as much money as possible ahead of the Disney/Fox merger that completed in March 2019, but in any case, Deadpool 2 did break additional box office records on in its initial release, including highest-grossing R-rated film of all time (by just $3 million over Deadpool) until 2019’s Joker.

Since I’ve made it no secret that I’m a fan of Deadpool, it should come as no surprise that Deadpool 2’s existence piqued my interest enough that I watched all three cuts of the film as they came out. Although I still liked the film after rewatching it in the context of the rest of the X-Men films, I now find that the difference between Deadpool and Deadpool 2 feels more like the difference between Shrek and Shrek 2: while the sequel has more narrative complexity and shows more technical competency than the original, it doesn’t age as well due to the dated humor rooted in the exact moment it came out.

Stubs - X-Men: Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar Isaac, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till. Directed by Bryan Singer. Screenplay by Simon Kinberg. Based on X-Men by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Apocalypse by Louise Simonson, and  Jackson Guice. Produced by Simon Kinberg, Bryan Singer, Hutch Parker, Lauren Shuler Donner. Run time 144 minutes. Color. USA. Superhero, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

What happened?

Even before X-Men: Days of Future Past (2013) was even released, the followup was already in the planning stages. According to director Bryan Singer, the next film would concentrate on the origins of the X-Men and feature younger actors in the roles of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm. The idea was to complete the trilogy of X-Men films that began with X-Men: First Class (2011) and would take place in 1983, 20 years after First Class and ten years after Days of Future Past.

Filming began on April 27, 2015 with Singer back in the director’s chair in Montreal, Canada and production would last until late August, with additional filming in January 2016. The film was released on May 6, 2016 in London and not until May 27 in the U.S.

Second Look - Deadpool (Film)

Note: This review contains spoilers for Deadpool

Back in 2016, the original Deadpool film left a major impact, as it not only stood out within the superhero landscape at the time, but also altered Hollywood’s perception of the R-rating when it raked in a massive profit (~$782.8 million against a budget of $58 million) and broke several box office records, including the highest-grossing R-rated film ever made. However, the film faced a tough road before it saw the light of day. Although the idea of a Deadpool film with Ryan Reynolds attached had floated around since the 2000s, it hit some resistance at multiple points, including Tom Rothman (chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment) rejecting the film, believing it wouldn’t be successful, and having his mouth sewn shut in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Origins). Origins still proved successful enough that a Deadpool project moved forward, though it didn’t get greenlit until some test footage leaked onto the internet to a very positive reception. Even then, however, Fox gave the project a much smaller budget than usual for a superhero film, an amount Ryan Reynolds once described as the “cocaine budget”.

At the time I first saw Deadpool, as someone already a fan of the character, I found it a breath of fresh air in the otherwise serious superhero landscape between the MCU, which had just finished Phase Two and would start Phase Three that year, and the DCEU, which would finally have a second movie in the gloomy Batman v. Superman after the dreary Man of Steel. Watching the film again now, in the context of viewing the entire X-Men film series in anticipation of Deadpool & Wolverine, I still enjoy it and appreciate its significance to the history of comic book films, but I admit that it lost a little luster with time.

The Wolverine

Note: This review contains spoilers for X-Men, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand.

Despite the cold reception X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Origins) faced on release, the X-Men film series continued going strong and development began on a follow-up film simply titled The Wolverine, based on the original Japanese arc of the Wolverine comics. Although development began in 2009, with Darren Aronofsky later set to direct, it ran into certain production troubles along the way. These troubles included a delay brought on by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Aronofsky’s departure and finding a replacement director willing to take on the lengthy commitment. In spite of these obstacles, the final film released in 2013 to higher critical praise than Origins and greater box office returns, earning $414.8 million against a budget of $100-132 million.

Considering how much Origins had missed the mark, I knew going into The Wolverine that there would be some improvement, especially after seeing some fans characterize it as an “apology” for its predecessor. What I didn’t quite expect, however, was that The Wolverine not only held up very well after over a decade, but is easily one of the stronger films in the franchise.

Stubs - X-Men: First Class

X-Men: First Class (2011) starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon. Directed by Matthew Vaughn. Screenplay by Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn. Based on X-Men by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby. Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Bryan Singer, Simon Kinberg, Gregory Goodman USA/UK, Color, Run time: 132 minutes. Superhero.

Following a trilogy of X-Men films and a rather disappointing X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), 20^th Century Fox, which had the license for the franchise, decided make X-Men: First Class. While viewed by some as a prequel, it is really a reboot of the series. We’ll get to more of that later but the film is a sign of a franchise in free-fall. Unlike the MCU, which was planned out for nearly a decade of films, X-Men seemed to be making it up as it went along.