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Posted in books, movies, pop culture with tags Book Report, books, movies, Super Blog Teamup on June 24, 2023 by Paxton

Well, I decided I needed to write more, and I haven’t really found a time to do it. Keeping up work, podcasting, and several “real life” things during the quarantine have kept me pretty busy. However, I still have that urge to write more on the blog. So when Charlton Hero gave me the opportunity to join the latest round of Super Blog Team-Up, I thought that this was a perfect chance to do that. And the topic of expanded universes in pop culture was a perfect fit for me.

So let’s talk about Jumper.

Back in 2008, a movie named Jumper was released. It starred Hayden Christensen from the Star Wars prequels, Jaime Bell, Rachel Bilson, and Sam Jackson (also from the Star Wars prequels). It looked like a fun, big budget, high octane, genre movie. It’s about a kid, Davey Rice, that learns he has the ability to teleport. And he also learns that there are others like him and a shadowy government agency is out to control them, and their ability, for themselves.

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The movie is…pretty good. There’s lots of interesting ideas throughout. I love the idea of teleporters. And Davey discovers this whole group of people who can teleport just like him, and then also discovering Sam Jackson’s character and his agency are after him. Ruthelssly. No holds barred. I like that. But the movie isn’t as good as the sum of the parts. Christensen isn’t great as Davey. He’s a bit like Anakin Skywalker in Episode II, rather whiny. I like Rachel Bilson, but she isn’t really given a lot to do. Jamie Bell is awesome as Griffin who introduces us to the wider world of Jumpers and their battle against Sam Jackson’s Paladins. This movie, for the most part, sets up a cool world that I would have liked to have seen continued. But it went no further than this despite rumors that they are trying to start up a TV show featuring Jamie Bell returning as his Griffin character.

But I’ll admit, I’ve always been a sucker for teleportation as a power. I was always a big fan of Nightcrawler. There were several DC Comics villains that could teleport or “warp”. I just thought it was a great power and not utilized enough. In fact, if you ask me today what super power I’d like to have, I would say teleportation or “warping” powers. Imagine rolling out of bed, showering and “popping” into work 5 seconds later? Or, time to drive the kids to the grandparents’ house 5 and a half hours away? Ok kids, grab your suitcases, think about Gramps’ house. BAMF. We’re there. No yelling in the car. No “are we there yet”s. None of that goddam nonsense. Ok, see you in a week, kids. BAMF.

Anyway, after seeing the movie, I did a little research into the story. I discovered that it was based on a book. A book about a kid that can teleport. Needless to say, I was intrigued. That book was from 1992 and it’s called Jumper by Steven Gould.

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So a few months later I picked up a used copy of the book and started reading. And clearly I didn’t research the story enough, because the whole time I was reading it, I was waiting for Sam Jackson’s Roland character or Jamie Bell’s Griffin character to make an appearance. I had no idea that the movie was rewritten to be so different from the book. None of the movie characters show up and, as a matter of fact, the entire concept in the movie of Paladins, and legions of people with the ability to jump, and this huge war going on between them is not even mentioned. The movie created a whole alternate universe for Jumper that essentially just shares the characters of Davey and Millie and that’s about it.

The book’s story focuses on Davey and Millie, and their relationship, as well as Davey’s strained relationship with his father and mother. The entire story is more intimate and, honestly, works a bit better in many respects. In the book, Millie is a girl he meets at a party, not his elementary school crush. Davey is the only person in the book we ever see that can teleport. And the government is, in fact, after Davey, but it’s the NSA, not some shadowy government branch with agents called Paladins. Also, it’s more clear in the book that Davey is supposed to be very immature and whiny due to his poor relationship with his family, and the fact that he’s been on his own since he was 14 or 15. Which somewhat explains Hayden’s whiny performance in the movie. Also the ability to jump is explored more, which is nice. But it’s not explained how it really works. The reader is learning about jumping as Davey learns about it. We see him test out his powers. Learn how they work. And how they don’t work. The book is also really good about exploring many issues not apparent in the movie version. It explores a little more realistically about Davey and his responsibility to use his power and not let it be abused. And there’s some extra stuff about his mother that is really explored in the book that is only touched on in the movie. So while I enjoyed the movie, it was technically a terrible adaptation of the book. The stories are completely different.

Then, I discovered, that in 2004, Gould wrote a sequel to Jumper called Reflex.

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It’s obviously a sequel to Gould’s novel and not the movie as it was published a few years before the movie was released. It makes the odd choice of jumping 10 years in the future after the first book. At this time, Davey, who is now working for the NSA as an agent, is finally captured by a secret criminal organization and is tortured and conditioned into working for them. Millie must work with the government to save him. I really do recommend reading both Jumper books, even if you didn’t like the movie (but especially if you did). What happens to Davey in this book, how the criminal mastermind tortures him and “conditions” him to obey his commands is terrifying. Millie gets a lot to do because it’s up to her to save Davey. You could almost see how this story could be modified to be a sequel to the movie Jumper. Just change the shadowy criminal organization to Sam Jackson’s Paladins and you’re set. You’d have to omit the part where Davey is actually working for the government, but maybe not, maybe there’s a rogue element in the government allowing it to happen. Speaking of, in the beginning of this book we learn that Davey did ultimately agree to start working for the government. When we get to the beginning of this book, which is, like I said, 10 years later, we see he’s about to get out of it. I’m surprised we haven’t gotten any stories from Gould about the 10 years Davey spent as an agent for the government. I bet there are some really good stories you could do with Davey as a teleporting secret agent. That could have been a lot of fun.

So, at the time of the movie’s release, we had two Jumper books by Steven Gould to support the movie. There wasn’t a separate novelization of the movie, which honestly would have made sense to do because the movie is just so different from the original novel. No, instead, to confuse everybody, they just rereleased both Gould Jumper novels with brand new movie poster covers. And, along with the rereleases, instead of a new novelization, Gould wrote a new Jumper book. It was called Jumper: Griffin’s Story.

And again, to completely confuse everyone, this book is written as a prequel to the movie. So now, with the movie release, we have two Jumper books by Steven Gould that honestly have *nothing* to do with the movie except a cover with the movie poster. And also a new Jumper book, written by Steven Gould, and also with a movie poster cover, that has nothing to do with the original novels. Complete madness, guys.

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After this book and the movie was released, not much really happened with the Jumper universes. No new movie ever happened and no new books were released. Nothing, that is until 2013 when Gould released Impulse, followed by Exo in 2014.

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There was also a prequel comic book that was released around the time of the movie. It was called Jumper: Jumpscars. It followed Davey’s mother before the events of the movie. That’s the one thing with Jumper that I haven’t read yet. It’s become kind of hard to find for a good price. No one I guess bought it when it came out. It’s not even on Comixology.

So, as a stand alone movie, Jumper is good. When compared with the source material, it is a very bad adaptation. However, since the movie makers made an interesting enough story, I’d say it balances out to a win. I mean, the movie got me to read the entire Jumper series by Gould, so it must have had something there.

Check out some of the other awesome entries in this Super Blog Team Up Expanded Universe series:

Michael May: Treasure Island Universe

Super-Hero Satellite: M.A.S.K.: The Road To Revolution.

Between The Pages Blog: Fantastic Forgotten Star Wars Characters

Comics Comics Comics: The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones

DC In The 80s: The TSR Universe

Pop Culture Retrorama:ssr

The Telltale Mind: Archie Andrews – Superstar

The Daily Rios – Little Shop of Horrors

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Posted in Blog Series, Book Report with tags justssr安卓下载, books, comic books, pop culture, reviews, Year End Books on January 15, 2023 by Paxton

YE Book Report

I posted my favorite books/comics of 2023 list a few weeks ago. I had a few other books/comics that, while I didn’t feel they should have made the main list, I still want to talk about. So, here are my Honorable Mentions of 2023.

Let’s do books first, then I’ll do some comics.

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Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds by Brandon Sanderson – I’ve read Brandon Sanderson before. I read the first book of his Mistborn trilogy for High Fantasy Month, which was pretty good, as well as his entire Reckoners Trilogy, which was fantastic (it made my best list in 2017). So I have been looking for more of his books to read and came across two novellas that he wrote several years ago. The first novella was called Legion, and the sequel was called Legion: Skin Deep. They were about a man named Stephen Leeds. He’s a genius, but the way his mind manifested this genius was to create what Leeds called “aspects”. These aspects housed the knowledge and information he learned. And each aspect carried a different set of knowledge and skills as well as a personality. Similar to the movie A Beautiful Mind, I guess, but these stories treat the condition as kind of a super power. Sanderson collected those first two novellas together into this book with a brand new third story. And it’s a lot of fun. This could make for an interesting show on some streaming network. Someone needs to look into that.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton – Published in late 2018, I got this book as a gift for my wife because the premise sounded intriguing. There’s a party at an old English manor. A young woman is going to die at the end of the night, and the main character has to solve it in seven days. But every day, she wakes up in a different party goer’s body at a different time of the day. It’s sort of like Downton Abbey meets Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day. It’s a very interesting story that is structured in a non-traditional way. It can get confusing and I’m not 100% sure what fully happens at the end, but the read is a lot of fun.

The Hot Rock (Dortmunder #1) by Donald Westlake – Back in 2015, when I did the Invisible Man for AWESOME-tober-fest, I read a Donald Westlake novel called Smoke. I liked it, but even before I read that, I was aware of Westlake’s heist novel The Hot Rock from 1970. I may have even already owned it at that point. But I didn’t read it until this past year. And it’s really great, actually. It’s a fun heist novel that’s sort of a working man’s Ocean’s 11. The main character is John Dortmunder. He has just been released from prison and his right hand man approaches him, after JUST picking him up from getting out of jail, with a job. Dortmunder reluctantly agrees to the heist and everything that can go wrong does go wrong and they wind up having to steal the the thing they are hired to steal at least three different times. I really enjoyed this book and want to continue the series, as Westlake wrote like 8 or 9 Dortmunder novels. This book also led me to a movie adaptation I didn’t even know existed starring Robert Redford and George Segal.

Jaws Jaws 2
Jaws by Peter Benchley/Jaws 2 by Hank Searls – I’m going to cheat a little and put two books here. I had to mention the Jaws books. I covered both of these books for the I Read Movies podcast in Summer 2023 and I was pleasantly surprised by both. First of all, everyone pretty much trashes Benchley’s original novel because it’s not as good as Spielberg’s movie. Which is true, the movie is better. HOWEVER, Benchley’s novel is a very pulpy, 70s novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The characters are a lot less likable in Benchley’s book than in Spielberg’s movie, which may be the crux of people’s issues with the book, but it makes for an interesting story. I’m mainly speaking of Mike and Ellen Brody as being mostly unlikable (you’ll wonder why they are even married), but Hooper is also a rather unlikable, douchey, just out of college, rich kid. It makes for a fascinating collection of characters and a really fun read. Yes, the movie is better, but don’t sleep on the Jaws novel. I’ll say the same for Jaws 2. Searls’ story really follows the events of the first movie, but it also doesn’t completely ignore the events of the novel. And since Searls also wrote justssr安卓下载, that book fits into this series like a jigsaw puzzle piece. The whole Jaws cycle of novels are totally fun and well worth a read. Or, you can listen to me talk about them all on the I Read Movies podcast.

Now on to comics.

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Savage Avengers by Gerry Duggan – I’m a fan of Gerry Duggan. He and Brian Posehn did an amazing run on Deadpool which started (for me) with Deadpool: Dracula’s Gauntlet (Best Books I Read in 2015) and continued into the Marvel Now Deadpool series. Then Duggan did a zany run on Uncanny Avengers that I really enjoyed. He even wrote a somewhat sequel to Dracula’s Gauntlet called Mrs Deadpool and the Howling Commandos which I thoroughly enjoyed. So when I saw he was doing an Avengers spin off with Wolverine, Punisher, Venom, Brother Voodoo and Conan, I thought, this is something I need to check out. And this eclectic collection of characters totally works. I’ve really enjoyed the first volume of this series and want to continue reading. I love when writers take these totally wacky groups of characters and turn them into a wacky team book. Kelly Thompson did it with the most recent West Coast Avengers. Duggan did it before with Uncanny Avengers. Definitely worth a read.

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The Avengers by Jason Aaron – Jason Aaron has become one of my favorite comics writers. His Thor run was nothing short of phenomenal. It showed up multiple times on my best of lists. Aaron also wrote the first few years of the 2015 Marvel Star Wars title which was really, really awesome, and he did a great take on Dr Strange that same year in 2015. So when I heard he was taking over the main Avengers title, I was pretty excited. And for the most part I’ve really enjoyed some of the stuff he’s done. Black Panther is the leader. I love that Panther creates a covert subset of the Avengers filled with all of these B level characters you haven’t seen in years. Blade joins the team for another “War of the Vampires” story arc. Hell, Thor and She-Hulk kind of start dating…sort of. It’s a bunch of cool ideas that it seems like Aaron is having fun with, but also I’m having fun with.

Gideon Falls Volume 1: The Black Barn – I’m a pretty big fan of Jeff Lemire. He’s shown up on this list many times. Here’s another one. This is a straight up horror comic. It involves the legend of the Black Barn, that has shown up throughout history bringing death and madness in its wake, and ensnaring the lives of two different men. The book is drawn by Andrea Sorrentino who frequently partners with Lemire and I love these two together. This book reminds me a bit of Joshua Williamson’s Nailbiter series, which I loved. Very atmospheric, very dark. I’ve only read the first volume but I will eagerly be reading more.

JH Time Police
Jughead’s Time Police – So last year, the original 1990 Jughead Time Police series made my best of list. This year, we got a reboot of that series. Written by Sina Grace. And it’s actually pretty good. It’s funny, and it coincidentally uses a plot device I thought of when doing an episode of Nerd Lunch back in Sep 2018. Obviously totally coincidental, but I love that someone else had that idea too! I’m a big fan of Jughead, especially his reboots in the “new Archie” universe. This is a good addition to those stories.

Those are some of the other books/comics I felt I wanted to talk about that didn’t necessarily make my “best of” list.

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Posted in Blog Series, Movie Board, movies with tags Marvel, Movie Board, movies, reviews, justssr下载, The Avengers on January 10, 2023 by Paxton

Yesterday, you saw my favorite books/comics I read in 2023 list. Had lots of fun with it? You agree with everything I put on the list? Tough. It’s my list, sucka! And now it’s time for another list. This time we are looking at my favorite movies list.

I keep a list of the movies I watched with some small reviews in two places, similar to my books list. The first is the usual Google Spreadsheet. That list is easier to get an overall view of the year and pick out favorite entries because I have it all color coded based on rating and year released. The other place I keep a list of the movies I watch is over on Letterboxd. So check me out there. Friend me. I need friends. I’m lonely. SO LONELY.

Anyway, I think it’s time to dig into my list. Rules, like my books, only movies new to me in 2023 are eligible. I’ll start with my list of favorite movies released in 2023, then I’ll do a list of favorite movies I watched in 2023 that weren’t necessarily released that year.

But first, my favorite movies that were released in 2023

Avengers: Endgame (2023) – I started off last year’s list with Infinity War, so I’ll start of this list with the sequel. Again, what else can I say? This wrapped up the first 10 years of the MCU in a nice, tight, little bow. I loved it.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2023) – Yikes. Well, I don’t think Star Wars will ever *not* be divisive again. This movie had the unenviable task of not only following The Last Jedi (good or bad), but also fully wrapping up the Skywalker saga. I don’t know that *any* movie could live up to that pressure. I had fun with this. They made a few decisions that I don’t necessarily agree with, but for the most part I had a lot of fun with the movie. It felt good to have fun-loving Finn and Poe again. They were not themselves in the previous movie. And I again love Rey and Kylo and their whole relationship. I’m *mostly* happy with how this went down.

Knives Out (2023) – I loved this movie. It’s like a more quirky Clue the Movie mixed with Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Great cast and everyone is bringing their A-game. Lots of fun and the mystery is good too.

Happy Death Day (2017)/ Happy Death Day 2U (2023) – The second movie was released in 2023, so that’s why this entry is here. I kept hearing how good the first movie was, and by the time I sat down to watch it the sequel had come out. So I watched both, back to back, in 2023. And I was pleasantly surprised how good these movies are. The first one is like a horror movie Groundhog Day. It’s very inventive and fun. The second movie, is not really even a horror movie. It’s a Sci-Fi fantasy adventure. And you wouldn’t think that would work *at all* but it totally works. I really enjoyed both of these movies.

Downton Abbey the Motion Picture (2023) – I’m a sucker for this show, so, I was a sucker for this movie. I loved returning to this world, I loved revisiting these characters, I loved this movie.

Always be My Maybe (2023) – So. Much. Fun. The leads in this are adorable. I love the music Marcus makes with his band. Keanu Reeves makes a scene stealing cameo that I just loved. This is a great movie. See it if you haven’t.

And now, movies from any year that I watched for the first time in 2023

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018) – How great was this movie? I didn’t get to see this in the theater, but I’d heard from everyone how good it was, so I rented it. And everyone was right. This gets it all right. Miles is great. I love the other versions of Spider-Man that show up. Penny Parker in particular. It’s really so good. And the animation is terrific.

Upgrade (2018) – I expected this movie to be sort of a low-key update to the Bionic Man. It’s not that. It goes a different direction and I applaud the movie for going there. It’s dark and intense, but I really liked it. I’m not going to say much more than that except, give it a watch.

Staten Island Summer (2015) – I saw this while scrolling around on Netflix one afternoon and watched it on a lark. And wow, it’s really good. It’s one of those “one last summer before college” movies. It just hit every single nostalgia button for me. It takes place in and around a community swimming pool, which, when I was in high school, I worked three summers as a lifeguard at one such pool. It’s a sweet, fun movie about friendship and moving on to the next step in your life. This was such a fun surprise, check it out.

ssr – I love ragtag basketball movies. This one has a great cast, it’s lots of fun, and it’s really funny! I almost didn’t watch it because, while I thought it looked good, I was afraid they showed all the funny stuff in the trailer. Nope, this is a solid roadtrip/basketball movie with some heart thrown into the story.

Those those were my overall favorite movies I watched in 2023. Hopefully you can find some gems in this list.

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Posted in Blog Series, Book Report, books, comic books with tags Book Report, books, Marvel Comics, reviews, ssr free, Year End Books on January 9, 2023 by Paxton

Okey-dokey, my friends, it’s time for my year end round up articles. Every year in January (or February if I’m running late) I write up a list of my favorite things I read and watched in the previous year. I started doing movies in about 2007, then I added a books list in 2009. These are some of my favorite articles to write because I can look back at the previous year and relive all the ups and downs in my own reading and watching. It really is a lot of fun.

I keep my reading log in two places. I’m still keeping a Google Spreadsheet of the books I’ve read. But you can also check me out over on Goodreads. See the details for all the books I’ve read, read my reviews, marvel at how handsome my profile pic is. Lots of stuff to do there.

Here’s my 2023 Goodreads “My Year in Books” information:

According to Goodreads, and it’d know, I read 115 books last year, equaling 22,094 pages. The longest book I read was Beastie Boys Book, which is surprising because I totally thought that Making of Empire Strikes Back book was longer. Anyway, last year I had set my 2023 reading challenge to 80 books, so I beat that. Yay! I had a pretty good, consistent year of reading in 2023 so I was able to get my numbers up. I hit a rough patch in October and November where I couldn’t read very much at all, otherwise, I would have finished with 120 books. I set up my Goodreads challenge for 2023 just the other day, and I set it to 105 books. We’ll see if I can keep last year’s momentum going.

The rules for this list are the same as always; only books I read for the first time in 2023 are eligible. No re-reads. I’ll probably do a followup article with Honorable Mentions and I’ll include any re-read books worth mentioning in that article. I generally pick about 5 books and 5 comics to put in this list, but as always, I reserve the right to pick a few extras. Let’s see if that happens this year.

First up…

Books

vpn中国:2021-4-20 · 最好用的收费ssr 手机上全局加速器自由浏览器安卓版破解全球看点安卓app下载立马加速器 incn org免费节点 iPhone建立socket5隧道 ,阿里云可伍搭建梯子吗,如何用阿里云搭建梯子,阿里云国际搭建梯子,阿里云能不能搭梯子,阿里云服务器搭梯子,阿里云客服– I’ve been reading Matthew Reilly for years, starting with The Contest way back in 2007-ish. Since then I’ve read almost all of his books over the years. This is the 4th book in Reilly’s Jack West Jr series. The first three books of this series made a previous Favorite Books list (WAAAAAAY back in 2011). I read both the 4th and the 5th book (Three Secret Cities) in the series this year. Reilly is such a fun author. He writes these incredible, fast paced, adventure novels with fantastical plots. I love them. And this book actually features a low key but great crossover with another of Reilly’s heroes from a different series. So much story and adventure in this book, I really enjoyed it. As well as the aforementioned 5th book. Looking forward to the release of the 6th book, soon I hope.

Vengeful by VE Schwab – The second book in Schwab’s Villains series. The first book made my list last year. The world in this book has developed EOs (extra-ordinaries). EOs are people that have acquired super powers through a near death experience. And how the person nearly dies kind of determines the powers that person will have. This book picks right up after the previous book with Victor and his crew tracking down and trying to stop Eli. But we also get the rise of a brand new EO with her own vengeful agenda. This is a great followup to the also great, Vicious. The characters are all well written, the storyline is dark, but I had a lot of fun with this. And I like the manifestation and different types of power sets in this series. Really well thought out and written.

chrome vpn中国:2021-5-27 · Vp viasurf安卓下载 ins怎么下载苹果 ins最新版本更新易联open apk下载旋风加速器xf5 苹果好用的vpn lanpao加速器蓝灯最新破解版加速器vnp无限芬尼克兹官网 pc端v.p ssr用不了了极速游览器免费upn下载六尺巷vp virmach购买教程 surf啥意思啊 ... – The Beastie Boys are one of my favorite groups. Ever since I discovered them on the Krush Groove soundtrack back in the mid 80s I’ve been a die hard fan. Consequently, I was thoroughly excited for the guys to tell their own history. And they don’t disappoint here. You get a great time capsule of New York in the early 80s. Some of the punk scene and then transitioning over to the hip hop scene. The Boys were there on the ground floor for a *lot* of hip hop history. Some of my favorite stuff in this is the pre album stuff. The stuff they did while recording the albums. We get a lot of reminiscing about hanging out recording all their albums, like Check Your Head and Hello Nasty out in California, which is great. And touring. So much content. This book is PACKED with info. If you’re even a casual fan, you need to give this book a shot. The only sad thing is that Adam MCA Yauch is no longer with us to tell his part of this story. That would have made this just that much more complete.

The Making of The Empire Strikes Back by JW Rinzler – I read Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars book last year and it made my year end list. So I started this book this past summer and read it on and off for about four months. These books are exhaustive and super long. I would read here and there, absorbing the details of filming on sets, the drama of actors, trying to get the story right, etc etc. While this wasn’t as good as The Making of Star Wars, I really enjoyed the peek behind the curtain for Empire. The lead up writing the screenplay, the tension that occurred between the actors over their parts, and the final marketing before the movie was released. All of that info, and the book is packed with pictures, images, diagrams, script remnants. So much to look at. I also have Rinzler’s The Making of Return of the Jedi, and I hope to read that in 2023 the same way I read Star Wars and Empire the past two years. I would say expect to probably see Making of Jedi on next year’s list.

Rewinder series by Brett Battles – Every year Amazon offers its Kindle Unlimited program for a special low promo price. Normally it’s $9.99/month, but they will sometimes offer 3 months for $9.99, or 3 months for $.99, or even 3 months for free. With it you can browse and read a cultivated selection of kindle books and magazines. I will usually take advantage of these special prices and read as many books as I can in three months for the low low promo price. This series by Brett Battles is on Kindle Unlimited and during one of these promos I tried it out because it was about time travel. And it’s a pretty great story. Denny Younger was born into one of the lowest rungs of society. His fortunes change when he’s recruited by a mysterious institute to become a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. However Denny learns that verifying these histories doesn’t involve research in a library, but actually witnessing history and events through time travel. And if he’s not careful, even the smallest mistake can have the largest consequences. I blew through the first book and only had like a week or two before my promo period ended to read the second and third books which I was able to do with days to spare. The whole series is a great read. I had a lot of fun binging the three books back to back to back. This series will definitely become a re-read at some point for me.

The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak – This book was sent to me by my good friend, Shawn Robare. He actually sent it to me years ago, but I didn’t get to it until this past year when I had an unexpected lull in my reading pile. So I picked up this book, started to read it on a lark, and completely fell in love. It’s set during the summer of 1987, and the book feels natural in that time period. I don’t feel like it tries to hit you over the head with the nostalgic setting. And the characters are very well drawn, especially our leads, Will and Mary. It’s a wonderful, unassuming “back in the day” type story that I totally fell for. Great great book. Highly recommended. Thanks Shawn for introducing me to it.

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen – I forget how I discovered this book. It was published in January 2023. It’s a really cool story about Kin Stewart, a man living a normal life in San Francisco in the 1990s with his wife and daughter but whose previous occupation was as a time traveling temporal police detective from 2142 who was accidentally stranded in the 90s after a botched mission. 18 years later, Kin is struggling with only partial memories of his previous life which is giving him headaches and blackouts, when his rescue team unexpectedly shows up and tries to take him back to his rightful future and a family he doesn’t remember. This was such a good book. I’m a sucker for time travel anyway, and this really hit the spot. A lot of the story is about family and really hit home for me with the relationship of the main character and his daughter.

Time to move on to…

Comics

The Superior Spider-Man Complete Collection Volume 1 – I’ve had some of these issues for a while but never got around to actually reading them. Then I was able to get this complete collection (the first 16 issues of the series) on sale for cheap and decided to give it a shot. Just before he dies, Otto Octavius manages to switch his mind into Peter Parker’s body and Peter’s mind into Otto’s dying body. Then Otto masquerades around as Peter/Spider-Man, being a super hero and living Peter’s life. I think this is a great concept. Otto tries to fit in and use his intellect to make his job as the new Spider-Man easier. He’s also a lot more ruthless about catching criminals and it gets him into trouble. It’s an interesting take on the “fish out of water” concept. I really like it. It reminds me a lot of Brian Michael Bendis’ Infamous Iron Man (which made my Best Books of 2017 list).

Kate Bishop: Hawkeye by Kelly Thompson – Several years ago I read Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye series and loved it. Kate is a big part of that series and I loved her in it. So when I found out she got her own series, I snatched it right up. And it’s great. Kate is an awesome character and I love how Kelly Thompson writes her, and her eclectic group of friends that gather around her. This is a great series, I love Thompson’s humor and was sad there weren’t more issues of this series when I finished with the third volume. I wanted more!

Gwenpool the Unbelievable by Christopher Hastings – There are 5 volumes of Christopher Hastings’ Gwenpool series. I originally started reading it because we were having him on as a guest on our now defunct podcast, Down the Rabbit Hole. The very first volume was a bit rough. I had a hard time getting through it but it sort of worked itself out by the end. Then, starting in Volume 2, it just took off. The series was so fun. I know, she seems like a total “girl Deadpool” rip off, but she’s not. Exactly. Yes, she has the same “break the fourth wall” abilities, and she’s very wacky, but, as far as this series goes, I think I like her better than Deadpool. I really enjoyed how zany and meta this whole series got. I want Gwenpool to show up a lot more from now on.

West Coast Avengers by Kelly Thompson – So I loved the two previous series starring the badass ladies Kate Bishop and Gwenpool, so of course I decided to pick up the title that TEAMS THEM UP and is written by the gal that wrote Kate Bishop’s solo series! This was such a cool and quirky team book with an eclectic collection of characters that I had so much fun with. I am doubling down on Kelly Thompson here, she is a fantastic writer. I loved both of these series she’s written so much I’ve gone searching out more of her work. She’s currently writing the new Deadpool book, which of course I am going to read, but secretly, after West Coast Avengers ended this year, I was hoping she’d write a Gwenpool solo book. This Avengers book is awesome and I was super sad it only lasted two volumes. I wanted so much more of this team!

Thanos Wins by Donny Cates – On my list last year I grouped together a bunch of Jeff Lemire titles as favorites. One of those titles were his Thanos books (Thanos Returns, The God Quarry). Those books were awesome and epic and I loved them. So when I saw another guy, Donny Cates, was finishing off the third and final volume of the series, I was unsure what to do with that. I loved those first books and I was disappointed Lemire wasn’t writing the third. But I read it anyway and BAM! Cates knocks it out of the park. It is BANANAS. So much fun and I don’t know why I was worried or surprised because Cates also wrote Cosmic Ghost Rider: Baby Thanos Must Die and *that* book was cosmic and bonkers and amazing. So, Donny Cates is now someone I’m paying attention to.

And those are my picks for the best books/comics I read in 2023. Like I said, I may have some honorable mentions I can talk about in a separate article, but let me get my “Best Movies of 2023” list out there first.

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Posted in justssr安卓下载, Blog Series, Fangoria, Halloween, ssr free, magazine, nostalgia, pop culture with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2023, Fangoria, Halloween, magazine, ssr, movies, pop culture on October 31, 2023 by Paxton

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN! This is it guys, we made it. Another year. Another Halloween AWESOME-tober-fest countdown. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have a safe and fun Halloween.

But, before you go, how about one more Fangoria article? How about we look at some random ads that ran in Fangoria throughout the years? Let’s do it!

Click the images to make them BIGGER!

From 1988, an ad for the Nightmare on Elm Street board game. That’s right, I said BOARD game. I totally thought this was a video game ad until I actually read it and saw that it comes with a rule book, gameboard, playing cards, and Freddy markers. If you want to get a look at what all the goodness inside the box looks like, check out the entry at Board Game Geek. It looks bizarre. The game board gives me a headache if I look too long.

How about some more Freddy product? Here’s an ad for the 1-900 Freddy’s Dead telephone game. From 1992. The 90s were stuffed with all kinds of 1-900 pop culture telephone numbers. In the same issue of Fangoria as this Freddy ad was an ad for a 1-900 Terminator 2 telephone challenge. Careful, it’s yellow background will burn out your retinas.

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Vintage Monster-y ad goodness coming your way! This ad is from 1981, and it’s for mail away Monster Miniatures! All four of these pewter figures sold as a group for $79.95. Postage included! You could also get them in a white metal for about $7 each.

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More monster-y goodness! Here are two ads for Screamin’ Vinyl Model Kits! The one on the left is from 1989. It has four options; Jason, Freddy, Elvira, or the generic Werewolf. Each model kid is about $60. Honestly, they look pretty nice. On the right is another Screamin’ models ad, this time from 1996. They’ve greatly expanded their offerings with new product, but for some reason, Jason is missing. You can’t even order him below. However, amongst the new faces you see they added Leatherface, Ash, Lon Chaney from London After Midnight, Pinhead and the Cenobites, and one fantastic looking Crypt Keeper. Different models have different prices, but this seems like a really nice model set.

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From 1987, check out this ad for buy 2 books and get a FREE Dracula Pendant! Filled with soil from Dracula’s castle!! Wow. The ad makes sure to note these are the same pendants that were sold in justssr下载 magazine in the 70s.

Check out this ad for the rugged, compass survival watch. Never get lost on freeways, mountains, deserts, jungles, or oceans! I don’t know how many deserts, jungles, or oceans your average Fangoria reader would encounter in their lifetimes, but they now have the watch to get them out of that predicament if they ever do!