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Honest Thoughts: Superman (2025)

Alright, so having seen it twice the past few weeks; first with friends on its release day and a second time a week later, I can just say this is already my movie of the year.

This whole film is just a love letter to Superman and the comics in general in terms of story and tone, giving great time not just to Clark, but to the side-casts too. If you literally adapt this into a multi-issue comic, it will still have the same tone throughout and having some great shots that can be seen as comic panels.

David Corenswet did an excellent job as Clark showing the hopeful and caring nature of him that just shows why he's a great hero. Not because of the powers, but his humanity and caring about all life, from the kaiju attacking Metropolis to even a small squirrel about to be in the impact zone of said kaiju attack. Clark's whole journey throughout the film about him thinking he was sent here to do good thinking because his birth parents sent him to Earth and sent him the damaged message before Clark finding out about the true meaning behind it and deciding that he's doing good because he knows it's right thanks to the Kents is some amazing stuff. His ending speech he gives to Luthor is honestly one of the best Superman moments in DC films imo.

Nicholas Hoult as Lex is an amazing performance and one of the best portrayals of Luthor, being up there with Brown's performance in the DCAU and Rosenbaum's in Smallville. Lex is literally the best villain for a story like this, where Clark is best of humanity while Lex is the worst of it: capitalistic, manipulating, envious, narcistic, and only out for himself and finding ways that only benefit him. Above all that, the sheer despise he has for Superman is hilarious to see. And seeing everything fall apart for him with his expression being a mix of sadness and anger is just perfect for a character for him. Can't wait to see what will happen with him next, especially as he's heading to Belle Reeve in the ending.

Massive shoutouts to Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific who, as other people put it, "someone who knows they're the smartest man in the room and hates it." A great performance that has people loving him especially in the fight sequence with Five Years Time. It's also great to see Gathegi get the respect he deserves in a superhero film after his performance as Darwin in X-Men: First Class.

Honestly, the whole cast is great from Lois being critical on Clark about what he's doing and the impact it's causing while still caring about him and its great to see her have a hand in taking down Lex, to Jimmy being a ladies-man who I didn't see coming and having some good moments. The entirety of The Justice Gang is great like Guy being a jerk who people love to hate Fillion did a great job there too and Hawkgirl just hating Guy and being a real one by dropping Ghurkos from the air. Metamorpho is also good here in the short time he's in the movie and I'm glad to see another lesser-known DC character make the spotlight.

Sidenote: please check out Al Ewing's six issue run on Metamorpho that came out last year and ended a couple of months ago, it's hilarious and is a tribute to the silver age if you enjoy stories in that era.

One last character I want to mention is Ultraman in how Lex just treats him, despite being Lex's biggest weapon against Supes, has Ultra just flick on light switches and holding donuts for him. It's just funny yet also sad at the same time. It will be interesting to see him becoming Bizarro in a future entry since Gunn is doing the clone origin on Bizarro, like in the post-Crisis and Superman: The Animated Series continuities.

Last thing I want to say about it is that its a miracle that a story like this being released at a time like this with Isr- I mean Boravia being led by Neta- I mean Ghurkos invading Pale- I mean Jarhanpur while being aided by a US billionaire and having someone representing the general public being against this invasion while said invasion supporter is the current president. Just goes to show you the importance of Superman in a time like this.

Gunn's first film for the DCU is a great start that is just a love letter to Superman and what he represents. If you haven't seen it already, please do so, you won't be disappointed. I mean, it has Krypto in it, that's already a massive draw!

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OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!

THIS IS WHAT WE NEEDED!

My God! I never thought to have been more hyped for the DCU for the movies this year and the next, BUT MAN OH MAN have I never doubted DC Studios for producing movies featuring fan favorites and BOY is it about damn time Vergil gets his own live action movie!

I believe there's been a history of trying to make Static movies, but I know there's been some fan films with him, so FINALLY seeing Vergil on the big screen is just AWESOME!

And the best part is if this becomes successful, then there's a good chance DC can bring back Milestone again. I already made a post about a potential Static return run spinning off from The New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident, so maybe it's time for a straight up return for him in the comics with a new run. Hell, the same for the rest of the Milestone characters!

God, I can't wait for this to be complete, but I will wait for a long time if I have to just so everything is perfect, and I hope this means a grand return of the Dakotaverse in DC!

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Comic Thoughts: The New History of the DC Universe- The Dakota Incident and a Potential New Static Ongoing

With Black History Month coming to an end, I want to talk about the new comic that came out this Wednesday being a new one-shot in the New History of the DC Universe series, with this one in particular focusing on the Milestone characters.

Now I have never read any books in the Milestone Universe, but like most people, I mostly knew about one character due to an animated series, that being Virgil Hawkins aka Static from the DCAU series, Static Shock. (Side note: No, the character is NOT called Static Shock, just Static. The animated series is called Static Shock. Just wanting to get that out of the way.) But with that said, I've always wanted to read them, but never really got to them in the first place due to confusion on whether or not the Milestone Universe is connected to the DC Universe. Thanks to channels like Blerd Without Fear, I do get an understanding on the universe and how relevant it is today despite starting back in the 90s. I also just want to know more about the characters outside of Static, like Icon, Hardware, and Rocket.

However, DC really never brings much attention to those characters with only a handful of limited series here and there. Hell, there never was any kind of announcement around this title until it was leaked since last week. I'm not gonna jump to conclusions, but man it really is kinda scuffed how they treat Milestone by just making series about them when they feel like it.

The comic itself is pretty good, and I hope me talking about it would bring more people to want to read it since if this book does good, there's a good chance DC would follow the money and make new series with the Milestone characters.

The main thing I do want to talk about is how this book can be the baseline for a new Static ongoing, since the issue focuses on what happened to the Milestone characters in DC and why they were out of the spotlight for a good while, hence "The Dakota Incident." The incident itself, to put it simply, is that after the sudden murder of Edwin Alva, the metahumans there, mainly Hardware, are labeled as major suspects for the murder. As such, the U.S. Government lead by the US president at the time in the comics, Lex Luthor, issued Amanda Waller to send troops and the Suicide Squad to Dakota City to detain all the metahumans there and kill any civilian in the way and oh god that sounds scarily familiar. The heroes from Dakota City stopped them and it all ended with the intervention of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. So, all good, right? Sadly no. To make sure something like this can happen again due to fear of the metahumans there, Lex made an agreement that the heroes there can no longer use their abilities otherwise the government will be sent there again. Begrudgingly, the heroes agree so that no one from their friends, families, and loved ones would be harmed, and as such there were out of the picture until recently. Thanks to Beacon, a future hero from Dakota City who is also the son of Rocket and the protege of Static time travelling to the past to figure out what happened in the past that affected the erasure of Dakota's future, he inspires a now adult Virgil to don his suit again and become Static.

Now Static did return shortly before as part of the Kids Are All Fight Special as part of DC KO, but this one-shot actually sets up a good premise for a running plot for a new ongoing Static title: Virgil returns as Static stopping crimes in Dakota City, getting into conflict with the government here and there, meet up and potentially inspire other Milestone heroes to come back as well like Hardware and Icon, and figure out who actually murdered Edwin Alva. Was it someone close to him like a family member? Was it another time traveler? Or was it another metahuman who did it? I legitimately want to know the answer to this mystery and also want to explore more of those characters. Hell, maybe DC can do a "Static: Year One" series that can work as an introduction to Virgil and his first year as Static.

There's so much potential from this and I really want to read more. If anyone here has some good recommendations for a good starting point for Milestone comics, let me know because this universe just sounds so cool!

Happy Black History Month and one last thing...

RIP McDuffie, you were a straight up legend in the industry.

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My Top 10 Favorite Things of 2025- #9: Common Side Effects (Adult Swim) [Animation]

This year had some great releases from Adult Swim: Season 3 of Smiling Friends, Haha, You Clowns!, and The Elephant (which I haven't seen yet). My favorite hands down though is definitely Common Side Effects.

Now yes, the pilot did come out the year before during the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and a month later during San Diego Comic-Con, but it didn't become a full season until February of this year, so it counts!

The series itself pretty much answers the question: "What if there is a natural cure for ANYTHING?" No matter the illness or injury, this one thing can heal the human body. As such, it delves into the details and effects of discovering said cure and see it go from person to person from a small, public level, to across the pharmaceutical industry and even in the government in how they react to it. Some want to sell it as a viable product, others want to give it to the public for free. Some want to show the world the proof of it's existence, and others want to hide it.

Each character is well-written and layered for anyone to be for or against them at times. Some characters have you be against for a majority, but they unfold as the series goes on and you see another side to them.

The season itself is amazing in its' animation; beautiful, yet disturbing at times in the "other plane" as I would call it when characters eat the mushroom. Very introspective on the characters and their inner thoughts.

It also has comedy throughout it, but not a lot to distract you from the real discussions and satire within it.

Season 2 is in production and its great to hear since the team that worked on this show also did Scavengers Reign. I haven't seen that show yet, but I heard great stuff about it, so I'll check it out soon.

Great show all around and the season is currently on HBO Max, so I highly recommend if you want to watch a series on that site.

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Video Game Thoughts: Nintendo Direct 6/9/2026- A Decent Direct And Nothi- IS THAT KINGDOM HEARTS 4?!

Can you believe it's already been one year since the Switch 2 came out? That is already nuts to me. Anyways, a Nintendo Direct came out Tuesday morning, and I thought it was fairly decent all things considered with most of the games are just ports to the Switch 2 library with a lot of them being games I have some interest in that were already released on other consoles and PC like Metaphor, Lies of P, and Devil May Cry V, or games that were already shown in previous showcases last week like with Onimusha Way of the Sword. Other than that, there are highlights in this Direct that I do want to talk about. Starting with:

Rhythm Heaven Groove- Although it was already announced last year around the time of the Switch 2's 1st Direct, there wasn't anything much during the year-long silence due to an apparent art style change, but now here it is in it's beat-by-beat glory. There's new minigames in here like the hopping frog one, the one with those cat figurines, and one where you crush cans with a giant hammer. Other than the classic minigames, there's also a single-player mode where its like an RPG where you create spells based on the rhythm you input, a quiz mode, and it even has multiplayer to play with friends, so that's neat. I never played the RH games before, but I mostly know about them thanks to the Warioware Microgames that feature RH levels. I also saw those fan-made videos that made those medley minigames that go to the beat of famous songs, they're nice. I won't mind picking an RH game up if there's like a sale on them or if an online friend I have wants to do the multiplayer stuff, but I probably won't get the game when it comes out July 2nd. And hey, congrats to the Rhythm Heaven fans out there that wanted a new game after so long.

Pokemon Pokopia Underwater Update/Bubbly Basin Expansion- I heard about Pokopia and how it sold really well here in its coziness of just building your own little Pokemon town while making new friends akin to Animal Crossing. I'm not really into those types of games even though I have a brief experience with that genre with Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Minecraft (which is also getting a Switch 2 port as revealed by this Direct), but I definitely get the appeal from, so I can see how an underwater update and expansion can excite fans. It also helps that the underwater update is free with the exception of the underwater town, Bubbly basin, being part of a 3-wave paid expansion DLC. So if you like Pokopia, you would like this one.

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave- It's here and it'll release in September. ... I'm not into Fire Emblem, especially the new games. If you like them, that's great, don't let me stop you. My online friend group are huge fans of FE and this game looks good for them. The new characters look interesting, even if you don't really play as those characters with the blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of the game's MC. I guess it's cool that the character dialogue pictures have animation on them. Apparently, it might be a continuation of Three Houses with an adult-looking Sothis. I won't pick it up, but I know FE fans are happy for this game, so congrats guys!

Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2, and 3 Switch 2 Editions- Following a bunch of Switch 1 games getting Switch 2 Editions that usually mean a higher resolution and HD graphics, the Xenoblade Chronicles games (minus X) are getting that treatment as well. This time around, however, the games aren't just getting graphical improvements, but new things added in them: 1 is getting vehicles for faster travel, 2 is getting new Blades and Blade Quests plus new equipment for Pyra and Mythra, and 3 straight-up gets a new Hero and Quest for them. That is actually great for a new edition for these games. I wasn't able to finish XC1 (oh my GOD, Gaur Plain OST is a masterpiece), but I hope to finish it with the new edition, especially since the upgrade is just $10 USD, same applies to 2 and 3. I'll promise myself to finish this game and play the rest following the new editions. Especially now because...

Xenoblade Genesis- That's right, a brand-new Xenoblade is coming out next year. Not necessarily a Chronicles game, but with Xenoblade Genesis, a possible prequel to the Chronicles games, but nothing much shown outside of its academy setting. I'll check that game out too when I finish the Chronicles games, but it looks intriguing to me.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort- A new Nintendo Sports game is coming out in October, and this time around it has more sports in it compared to the previous game's absence of certain sports like golf and boxing. This time it includes everything from the last game, the previously absent ones like boxing and golf, and the inclusion of new sports like thumb wrestling, which I never thought would be added to this game. There's also the fact the game is set back on Wuhu Island from Wii Resort which means that the airplanes are back. And on top of that, THE MIIS ARE BACK! About time too, because I REALLY don't like these the new Sports avatars (my god they look soulless). I don't know why Nintendo didn't use the Miis in the last Switch Sports game, especially since the recent Tomodachii game uses a similar thing with the Miis. Thankfully that's been rectified now, but going back to Tomodachii for a minute, imagine transferring those Miis to this game to give it a more unique experience. I'm not sure if it would be possible, but it would be cool to see.

Star Fox 2026- Just the same stuff from the Star Fox Direct from last month, but this time around, a new demo is here! I'll give the demo a play and I'll give my thoughts in another blog, but like my thoughts from the Star Fox Direct, I'll definitely play the game when it comes out.

Splatoon Raiders- I am honestly excited about this game when I saw the release trailer last year. As much as I love the online stuff in Splatoon, I'm an absolute sucker for the single-player story campaigns and how fun they are in exploration and levels. Add that with the Salmonoids from Salmon Run, and that's a home run for me! The game looks even better when seeing the gameplay and how you can level up and modify your character based on your playstyle as well as building gadgets to help you out on battle as well. This game is still looking great for me and there's going to be a Splatoon Raiders Direct coming out on the 30th, so more details will be shown in time for it's release next month. Man, I can't wait to play this one.

Detarune Chapter 5- I AM SO BEHIND ON THIS GAME, I AM SO SORRY!!!! I've only seen the least spoiler-filled footage of 3 and 4 and I love Anton and Jack and STAR WALKER, but I promise to finish the game soon with Chapter 5 coming out on the 24th. I'M SO SOOORYYYYYYYY!

Kingdom Hearts I, II, III HD Re:Mix Ports- I mean, it's just the porting of the entire Re:Mix collection plus II.8 and Re:Mind for KH 3, it's at least cool to see the series on the Switch 2. Even though the entire thing takes about 540 GB to download, which is... jesus that's a lot for this system. I still have a lot to do for II before properly going to 3D and finally to III, but I at least didn't see ANY video that would spoil III during this time. I genuinely loved BBS and KH 1, and II is still doing great for me, other than that I guess there's nothing left to sa-

KINGDOM HEARTS IV- WHAT? WHAT? Out of all the presentations, it's not the Sony State of Play, not the Summer Games Fest, hell, not even the Xbox Games Showcase, but on THE FREAKIN NINTENDO DIRECT that we finally see more of KH4. If it wasn't confirmed that it would be on other consoles and PC, I would've thought it would be a Switch 2 exclusive or something. Anyways, the game looks great, the combat looks amazing in its city setting. Apparently, characters from the gacha games and FF XIV would be here as well as I believe to be Luxord? All the while, Donald and Goofy are off in some weird void separated from Sora. I'm not sure where the game will go or what Disney stuff will be shown given there's no confirmation of Disney worlds as of right now before its 2027-2028 release. I have a long way to go through in KH, but it will be a hell of a ride to get to IV.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 2026 Remake- And now the main event of this Direct. After recent leaks surfacing, it's finally confirmed that OoT is getting a remake to be released later this year, most likely around the holiday season. The footage only shows a prologue and Link waking up from his home in Kukiri Village before Navi shows up. The game looks decent, even if from second viewing young Link looks a bit off.

I mean, the original game has the models look different from each other, but maybe after more of the game is shown, things would look better. Now some people are divisive about the remake here, especially, much like Star Fox 2026, you can just play the original 64 version on the NSO. The thing about Star Fox 2026 though is that there's more story elements that go into the characters and the universe not seen much in the original game, and multiplayer with different game modes to play with friends online. Thus, making it more unique in comparison to the original. As for OoT, there's not much seen, which would explain some doubts about the game. I'm sure in future Directs, Nintendo would give more details to make the remake be valuable, like story stuff, new items, or maybe a new dungeon and improvements to the old ones that can sell people the game. Right now, I'm cautious about the game, but it's just from the first look.

That was the Direct. A fairly decent presentation in terms of game shown, with some of them being games I was already interested in like Star Fox 2026 and Splatoon Raiders, but the fact we have more news on KH IV makes that the clear winner for this Direct. Other than that, just stuff about I don't have interest in or just ports. But if you're an RH and/or an FE fan, congrats on the new games!

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My Top 10 Favorite Things of 2025- #2: Superman (2025) (Dir. James Gunn) [Movies]

I mean come on, its Superman!

This was my most anticipated movie of 2025, and it exceeded my expectations extraordinarily well. Everything about this movie was great from the colors and sets to the music, costumes, and writing.

Every character here is amazing: Clark, Lois, Lex, Jimmy, Guy, Terrific, Hawkgirl. All great and make the world of DC feel more alive. Corenswet did a damn great job as Clark as this wholesomely good person who wants to do good for everyone in the world no matter what anyone says against him. I still think about his speech he gives to Lex near the end just to show his humanity. Corenswet might be up there as the best actor to portray Superman alongside Christopher Reeve in that department.

Likewise, Hoult did a great job as Luthor and how much of a spiteful egomaniacal genius he is in the whole movie. Made it a whole lot more sweeter to see him go to prison at the end not by Superman, but the journalists from the Daily Planet. Honestly one of the best portrayals of Luthor.

Gunn had a lot to do in showing people what his DCU would be like with this movie, and damn did he deliver it. Essentially the movie a lot of people needed, from DC fans wanting to see a true Superman film again to those just wanting to find hope in this crazy year, including myself. Gunn's DCU is already off to a great start with the 3 projects this year and it'll grow more in the years to come. Now my next anticipated movie is Gunn's sequel, Man of Tomorrow coming out in 2027. I mean it has Braniac making his film debut which I'm already up for. Man, is it great to be a DC fan or what?!

Its my Movie of the Year. I love it, I'm pretty sure you love it. Its Superman, what else can I say?

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My Top 10 Favorite Things of 2025- #5: "CEO" Mercedes Moné vs "Timeless" Toni Storm-AEW Women's Championship (All In 2025, AEW) [Wrestling]

Over the year, AEW (and to an extent ROH) had a LOT of great matches from the trifecta of great matches from Revolution 2025 with the Hollywood Ending match for the AEW Women's World Championship, Omega/Takeshita for the International Championship, and the Fletcher/Ospreay steel cage match. Double or Nothing had that incredible Owen Hart Tournament Finals match between Hangman and Ospreay. ROH had a couple of banger matches too with Takeshita/Bandido at Supercard of Honor and Hechicero/Bandido at Death Before Dishonor. And let's not forget how this year saw the uprise of both Kyle Fletcher and Bandido in them getting some pretty good title reigns, like Fletcher's TNT title reign and Bandido's ROH World Title reign and his brief AEW Tag Team Title run with Brody King.

Above all else however, my Match of the Year has to be Moné/Storm for the AEW Women's Championship at All In 2025. This match was perfect in terms of build and story between Mercedes just wanting another belt for her collection and Toni defending her belt not just for AEW but for ALL of women's wrestling is just peak storytelling. Both going back and forth just have me on the edge of my seat when I saw it live there and that moment when Toni hit that Storm Zero from the middle rope and won just had me like this.

it was just peak

Mercedes is great and her being Ultimo Moné is just fun to me and it's just funny seeing her go through a downward spiral when she started losing her belts one after another. But hey, 10 belts is still a lot, and now I'm pretty sure I just jinxed it when New Year's Smash comes around.

Also, Toni Storm is honestly my favorite wrestler of the year for sure. She is just great at everything, from her promos to her in-ring style to her personality, she is just amazing overall. She's funny, talented, horny, and straight-up gay and I love it.

Go off you Timeless queen, go off.

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My Top 10 Favorite Things of 2025- #8: Knights of Guinevere Pilot (Glitch Productions) [Indie Animation]

Quick hypothetical for you:

You're an animator that got hired by your dream studio to make your own animated series. You did it, released it, and it came out critically-acclaimed and everyone loves it. And when everything seems to be going great for you, the company that hired you butchered your show to have a final third season with a shortened episode list, put it on their streaming service and then eventually fired you. Long story short: You're a pissed-off artist with nothing to do. So what do you do? Simple, you make art.

Knights of Guinevere is Dana Terrace's middle finger to Disney and what they're doing as a company and it is GLORIOUS. Pretty much a story of workers against a ruling company with the complete butchering of their greatest works, and its great all around.

The animation is great with some pretty dark elements in the story and within the characters. It is also the first Glitch series to have mature language in it, compared to the self-censuring in Murder Drones and Digital Circus. Just something interesting and funny I find about it.

I originally have thought of putting the pilot of The Gaslight District here, but I really resonated with KOG's story more as an artist and future animator who wants to make his own thing, hence why it's here. A great pilot for the fans of The Owl House and to Terrace's work.

Also, Dana if you're reading this (which I highly doubt) I just want to request one thing: Have Alex Hirsch do a vocal cameo as a masked employee and curse a lot when something lands on his foot. A nice little reference to Gravity Falls and a similar gag there.