Psylocke (2024) Comic Review

This solo Psylocke series came out in 2024, written by Alyssa Wong (Captain Marvel 2023, Doctor Aphra, White Fox: Infinity Comic) and illustrated by Vincenzo Carratù (Mary Jane & Black Cat, Dracula: Blood Hunt), colored by Fer Sifuentes-sujo (Giant-Size Spider-Gwen) with Ariana Maher as the letterer. 

Psylocke gets expelled from the X-Men by Cyclops and goes solo. A non-binary college student she saved at the start of the first issue, Devon Di Angelo, turns out to be a tech-savvy hacker who gets jobs and information for her on the web. Psylocke takes a job as a security at an A.I.M auction, which turns out to be a mutant trafficking operation, particularly with kids, setting Psylocke's more aggressive instincts free. A lot of the issues follow her dismantling the trafficking ring and fighting the people responsible along with John Greycrow, we also see her fight with a villain known as the Taxonomist, other X-Men show up and Kwannon is haunted by the return of a ghost from her past.

Be prepared for a lot of very dynamic and well crafted splash pages or even just pages that track the movement of the characters in very ingenious illustrations fragmented by outlines of panels that help to isolate the movement of the characters within the layout of the image without having to break it into numerous different panels. The way they use these big panels and have the Psylocke drawn in different poses is very effective at making the reading process very agile and dynamic. To that you add some wonderful colors and you get a pleasing-looking comic.

The constant action feels earned because it manages to establish danger and stakes quite efficiently and speedily within the narrative, sprinkled with some clever and funny one liners that stay very much in character.

The writing does a pretty good job at showing Psylocke's mental issues as she struggles to leave behind the thirst for blood and murder she was indoctrinated into from a very young age by The Hand, putting her current romantic relationship in a delicate situation. The flashbacks work quite well as they come in at very well-timed places in the narrative to either explain something or relate certain things to the main character without feeling forced. By the time we see more of Mistuki and Kwannon growing up together under intense and inhuman training along with abuse by their master we are then gifted with some very emotional moments.

Later on other characters like Magik and Rogue join in on the fun but the storyline always stays on the same track and these special appearances only are there to support and help Psylocke's story and are never distracting or badly implemented.

A very enjoyable read that you can pick up without really much knowledge of previous X-Men stories and still be engaged by what’s presented here. 

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Negasonic Teenage Warhead (2024) Comic review

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has a very strange history as a character, being almost always underutilized. She first appeared in New X-Men #115 in 2001, but her popularity and modern personality wasn't truly established until the highly successful Deadpool movie from 2016 was released and introduced the character to a mainstream audience. 

This particular one-shot comic comes from the modern day interpretation of the character as a punk-like angsty teen with superpowers like psychic and precognitive abilities and it's a compilation from several issues of Marvel's Voices Infinity Comics, particularly from issues 44 to 49 featuring this specific storyline but with a new story added to it. 

We open with Negasonic helping Deadpool during average and banal missions, sequences that are among the best scenes of Deadpool since the movies but don't add much overall, only for her to receive a threatening vision of the end of the world, the only way to stop it is by kissing her future girlfriend. The problem is that she doesn't know who this woman is as she has yet to meet her.

Negasonic then reaches out to Emma Frost for help, who recruits a team of women with the most brilliant minds to help: Invisible Woman, Princess Shuri, Dr. Toni Ho, Scarlet Witch, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Jean Grey and Boom-Boom.

What follows is a race against time itself, and the Time Variance Authority, in order to stop the universe from ending by having Negasonic meet with the woman she is supposed to date in less than an hour. Not an easy task.

A very engaging story about how no matter what destiny has in store for us we are all able to forge and change our paths in life with a strong enough will and determination. It avoids any potential pessimism pitfalls when it comes to visions of future doom and offers us a very clever version of this type of premise by fleshing out Negasonic and creating a very personal and intimate story that gives us more sides of her, every obstacle and conflict that's introduced serves to push her limits as a character and that's where the inventiveness of this comic begins, delving deeper into a seemingly only secondary character that was used mostly for gags. 

At first it seems like a very typical outing with the mismatched yet highly amusing duo of Negasonic and Deadpool, only to go further with the premise and reach slightly more serious topics. In fact, Deadpool and the strictly comedic portions of the book are sidelined fairly early. It's never too heavy and it's swift and concise enough to hold your attention all the way. The fact that it unites a lot of Negasonic's issues regarding agency and independence with other Marvel women, like Scarlet Witch, is also very telling of its place in culture and the troubles the target audience faces. 

At the same time, it's very skillfully done in the visual sense by artists Carola Borelli (Spider Woman 2023), Eleonora Carlini (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hellmouth) and colorists Brittany Peer (Drawing Blood) and Ruth Redmond (Alien, Aliens, Marvel's Voices Infinity, Sensational She-Hulk 2023). Also well written by Andrew Wheeler (Another Castle, Love and War). While you can sometimes notice that the format was originally different and while the added story may feel irrelevant, the entire compilation is well worth your time if you are interested in the premise and the character. If you ever hoped to see more of Negasonic Teenage Warhead other than the brief appearances in the movies, this has you covered.

I found it very heartwarming and humorous, a quick and enjoyable read.

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Madame Web (2024) Review

Much has been said about this recent superhero release. Several factors have contributed to its infamy: from superhero fatigue, to its low budget, to the relative obscurity of its main character, the bad reception of previous Sony Spider-Man movies and the fact that it's a superheroine film, and having people to agree with that its always been a tough sell for normative audiences, even nowadays.

Always compared to early two thousands  superhero movies like Elektra (2005) or Catwoman (2004), Madame Web seems like a go-to bad movie of recent times according to reviewers and some audiences but this reputation is highly exaggerated, sure, it looks cheap and unrealistic at times but that's a very shallow complaint considering how most of these movies are just cgi slopfests anyways. At its best, Madame Web is an entertaining and moderately effective story about heroism with a new lens, at its worst, it's a popcorn flick with some silly moments. Nothing too bad for a Hollywood superhero film.

On the subject of heroism, Madame Web opts to leave out any violent battles and its engaging because it never becomes a contest about “who’s the most powerful,” creating a particular situation for its main character, as she only has the gift to see into the future (later on she can be at many places at once) but has zero super-strength, can't climb on walls and doesn't have a spider web of any kind. A very rare concept for a superhero movie, a genre dominated by superstrong guys (and some girls) beating the crap out of a villain. Her heroism comes from giving a sense of direction and inspiring her “adopted daughters” with her motherly instincts (there's even a pregnant lady in the film to drive this theme home, not to mention the mother-daughter link regarding the protagonist) and special foresight. The movie establishes that she is already a woman of support, by having her work as a paramedic, literally saving lives via her abilities rather than combating bad guys or beating people up. 

The selfless female saviour vs the dark egocentric man.

Most of the movie is a rather slow but interesting development of the main character and her journey, meeting the trio of future Spider Girls in a subway sequence that's so well constructed it made me wonder if people had seen the same movie I did. Using the main character's powers it manages to be suspenseful by giving you the repercussions of the potential failure of our heroine first, making the sequence more intense and the fear more palpable. The shots were perfectly selected, the rhythm and build up were solid and it developed swiftly to a satisfying result. There's another similar sequence involving a diner that has a surprising twist. And the climax also utilizes this approach to a much bigger degree, with bigger stakes and bigger spectacle, the only flaw being somewhat shoddy effects but otherwise it is well directed and constructed. 

The character interactions are somewhat believable for this kind of movie, the girls seem somewhat awkward and not very comfortable at first, which makes sense considering that these are teens talking to strangers in an odd situation. However, the girls slowly grow on you and by the end you do feel like you like them enough to see them in action. Perhaps more charisma and some more intimate interactions between the main girls would have been good, its missing more female bonding. A mini-series would have been a wiser choice perhaps. Still, the material isn't wasteful. 

The content and its connotations are perplexing. On one hand, the film is about a female hero using her gifts to guide and help young women into becoming saviors in their own right, facing against a villainous rich white man bent on being all powerful and indestructive, serving his own male ego and ambitions of power, only to be defeated by those he considered a nuisance to get rid off. On the other hand, the heroine isn't a warrior, she mostly escapes and hides, planning strategies that give her the upper hand because she can't fight the villain with her fists. Something that could be considered backwards if you think about it as the filmmakers ideal female superhero tale. However, I don't think the latter one is the case, I think the writers just worked with the concept of the character they were handed over and they did a fine job. 

Water created life and a woman gives birth to our protagonist on water, Madame Web is also sumerged in water for some key scenes. 

Now, considering that this movie was probably butchered by the studio and the reshoots, one has to wonder whether or not there's a great movie hidden in there under all those crazy special effects and derangedly expressive images and weird angles the direction offers us from time to time. Perhaps there's promise in here. Although companies don't treat female superhero movies with respect, even to this day, the unreleased Batgirl film and the rushed (and late) Black Widow movie are prime examples.