Apr 27 2025

Commemorating Star Wars Episode III 20 Years Later

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, arguably the best of the Star Wars prequels and the culmination of Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the Dark Side of the Force.

The film starts with a bang as we see Anakin and his mentor, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi rushing to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Galactic Republic who was kidnapped by Separatist forces in the skies above the Republic’s capital world of Coruscant. The opening space battle is a spectacular highlight as we see the Jedi duo flying among enormous capital ships wrecking havoc on one another. This scene is one I’ve rewatched countless times and is a great way to set up the rest of the film. When the Jedi finally reach the Separatist flagship and find the Chancellor, Anakin’s descent to evil is hinted at as he brutally executes Count Dooku at the urging of Palpatine, after an intense lightsaber duel.

His future as a Sith Lord is further orchestrated by Palpatine as he convinces Anakin that his wife, Padme, will die unless he learns the secrets of the Dark Side, and he turns on his fellow Jedi. The final confrontation with his friend Obi-Wan on the lava world of Mustafar is both exhilarating and emotional as a heartbroken Obi-Wan is forced to mortally wound Anakin and leave him to die while castigating him for turning on everything they fought for. Palpatine eventually arrives and finds Anakin on the brink of death and, using medical droids and surgical procedures, turns him into the fearsome and legendary Darth Vader, who is now trapped in a prison of body armor that keeps him alive. Padme’s death due to Anakin’s force choke, her trauma at giving birth to their twins Luke and Leia, and Vader’s reaction to the news of this event, is the emotional high point of the film and sets up the classic original Star Wars trilogy as Obi-Wan and his ally Bail Organa takes the twins to safety on the planets Alderaan and Tatooine.

One of the many strengths of the film is the foreboding tone that is set when we see the manipulation that Anakin is subjected to from Palpatine, as well as the Jedi being set up for their downfall which is shown when Anakin marches on the Jedi temple flanked by Clone Troopers who then kill all the Jedi there, including young Jedi students. The many battlefields of the Clone Wars is another great thing we witness in this movie, such as the clone army battling the separatist droids on the Wookie home world Kashyyyk, re-introducing fan favorite Chewbacca to the Star Wars universe in this era. As well as the conflict on the arid planet Utapau, where Obi-Wan finally eliminates Separatist droid General Grievous. This happened after a thrilling chase scene that has Obi-Wan riding on a gigantic lizard named Boga in pursuit of Grievous who is riding on his personal wheel bike. This is something that Star Wars excels at, blending different genres and circumstances, fantasy and science fiction that somehow works. This imaginative vision of director George Lucas comes to fruition the most in this film as this is the last movie he directed, and it seems he finally was able to shake off the issues that surrounded the first two prequel films. The Phantom Menace when it was released was criticized for what some saw as a childish tone with Jar Jar Binks flailing around. This is completely absent in Revenge of the Sith. The feeling of impending doom for the Republic and the Jedi is palpable as we finally see the events hinted at in the original trilogy: Anakin’s fall, his final duel with Obi-Wan, the extermination of the Jedi Order, and Palpatine’s rise to be the evil Emperor that we first saw in Return of the Jedi. Attack of the Clones was seen as an improvement but still had issues with the somewhat clumsy romantic subplot between Anankin and Padme. Again, this is not the case in Revenge of the Sith, as the focus is on the cruel fate that awaits Padme at the hands of her husband, which is haunting to witness.

The reputation of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has only improved in the years since its release on May 19, 2005. It has the reputation of being the best prequel film, which is well deserved and it also led to later Star Wars releases such as the highly regarded Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show and Star Wars: Rebels. I think it is right up there with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back when rating the various Star Wars movies. It has the right balance of being a more sophisticated story while still having the excitement and adventure a Star Wars movie needs to have. The special effects were top notch as always, and we see new ships and vehicles introduced such as ARC-170 starfighters, V-Wing starfighters, Droid Tri-fighters and Clone Turbo tanks. This is something that was missing from the sequel trilogy which basically just had X-Wings and TIE fighters from the original films with new paint jobs. The lightsaber duels were also the best of any of the movies, with Anakin vs. Dooku, Obi-Wan vs. Grievous, and finally the long-awaited duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan, which did not disappoint. It was a furious and intense battle with a backdrop of searing lava that is fantastic to witness. The inevitable outcome of it brings the prequel saga to a close and guaranteed that the film earned its place in Star Wars lore as an epic finish to the story that Lucas started so many years ago.

The celebration and acclaim that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is receiving on its 20th anniversary is well deserved, and it will be no surprise to see it get the same kind of praise and acknowledgment on its 30th anniversary and well beyond.

C.S. Link

Apr 18 2025

Daredevil’s Long-Awaited Return in Daredevil: Born Again

Most people agree that the original Daredevil TV show that streamed on Netflix was the pinnacle of superhero TV shows. Buoyed by powerful performances by Charlie Cox as the blind lawyer and superhero, Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as his arch nemesis, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, Daredevil was dark, gritty, and intense. Sadly, the show was cancelled by Netflix, and it would take some time before Marvel Studios resurrected the TV show and its characters in the newest Disney + Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show, Daredevil: Born Again.

The main question fans of Daredevil had was whether the new TV show could measure up to the old one? The answer is yes, for the most part.

It is fairly well known that when Daredevil: Born Again was first announced, it was not clear if the original TV show was part of the MCU and it seemed as if it wasn’t even though Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk appeared in properties like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Hawkeye and Echo. This was evident by the Kingpin’s portrayal in Hawkeye where he displayed previously unmentioned superhuman strength and wore more leisurely clothing. Not much was known about the original episodes of Daredevil: Born Again, except that it did not capture the spirit of Daredevil and Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, was not impressed with what he saw, which was reportedly more of a legal drama where Murdock didn’t wear his Daredevil costume until the sixth episode. So, Feige decided to retool the TV show by bringing in a new creative team, which filmed three new episodes and re-edited the original six episodes of Daredevil: Born Again.

Looking at the complete first season of Daredevil: Born Again it is very obvious that the episodes varied in quality between the revamped episodes and three episodes done by the new team. It’s not that the six original episodes were bad, they were fine, but they lacked the oomph and high standards of the original Daredevil that the newer episodes were able to match. This is not a knock against Daredevil: Born Again because it ranks as one of the best Disney + MCU TV shows. There is a lot to admire about it overall, and it is nearly perfect. It’s just frustrating that there were undeniable flaws with the season that prevent it from reaching the heights of seasons one and three of Daredevil (the second season had its issues). But it’s important to note that the first season of Daredevil: Born Again starts off powerfully strong and ends on a similar high note, which will continue with the second season.

There will be spoilers…

Continue reading →
Apr 8 2025

De-Extinct Dire Wolves: We’re One Step Closer To Jurassic Park

The news about the dire wolf being de-extinct came very suddenly and surprisingly yesterday. The idea of using biotechnology to bring back extinct animals had been the stuff of many imaginative sci-fi stories, notably with Jurassic Park and the films the novel inspired. The announcement by Colossal Biosciences that they actually revived an extinct species now made a science fiction concept a science fact.

The method behind the de-extinction was fairly straightforward. The company extracted DNA from a fossil skull and tooth of dire wolves and was able to analyze the genome. After that, Colossal Biosciences used gene editing on the cells of a gray wolf to create dire wolf embryos and implanted them into a surrogate dog.

The first two dire wolves were born on October 1, 2024 and named Romulus and Remus, and a third one, named Khaleesi, after the Game of Thrones character, was born two months ago. As the pups grew their different physical characteristics from gray wolves were undeniable. Sporting distinctive thick white fur, unusual vocalizations and larger body proportions they still exhibited wolf-like behavior such as stalking, hunting and howling. Fortunately the trio are healthy and kept safe in a private, undisclosed nature sanctuary where they could live in peace.

With the success of the dire wolf being de-extinct, Colossal Bisociences is moving ahead with their plans to de-extinct the thylacine, the dodo bird and the wooly mammoth.

As exciting as this sounds we are still a long way from de-extincting dinosaurs if it is even possible since extracting dinosaur DNA is impossible. There are also ethical issues that have come up with the unbelievable feat by the company. Namely, what is the point of bringing animals back from extinction? We already have a difficult time keeping living species of animals alive in our increasingly crowded world. Where can these animals go? What role will they serve in Earth’s ecosystem, considering that many of their previous roles have been taken by modern animals? Right away, these animals will have to compete with modern animals and humans for resources in an Earth with dwindling supplies and land space. Then there would be intense pushback from people who would not approve of the de-extinction or of re-introducing them to the wild. We have seen this already when wolves were re-introduced into many parts of North America as they threatened livestock.

Jurassic-World-Fallen-Kingdom-Volcano-and-T-Rex

A likely scenario is that these de-extinct animals would not be allowed to live in the wild and forced to live out their lives in zoos, which would enrage opponents. Then there is the worst case scenario of nature running amok and well, we’ve seen the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World films. In other words, their re-introduction would have unpredictable and unwanted results.

There is the argument that we have no way to know how to properly raise these animals since we can only guess as to how they lived. Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi seem to be behaving like wolves, but is that because they have wolf DNA? This would make them a new hybrid species and not true dire wolves, which are distant relatives of modern gray wolves. The same situation would apply to recreated mammoths and other prehistoric extinct animals. The first mammoths would more likely be Asian elephants with outward mammoth characteristics, and the same would go for the dodo and others.

Colossal Biosciences has stated that they intend to apply their technology to help preserve current animal species such as elephants that are more and more endangered as they face loss of habitats from human encroachment and hunting by poachers.

Despite the legitimate concerns about de-extincting animals there are arguments for doing this. Proponents claim that de-extinct animals can fill in roles that are vacant in ecosystem. For example, the thylacine was an apex predator in Tasmania and Australia and their re-introduction into the ecosystem would help keep in check the populations of prey animals. Other proponents claim that mammoths would be able to help preserve the tundra in Asia with their foraging and in a way arrest climate change. That is very far fetched to be sure, and calls to mind Stephen Baxter’s book Icebones, which was about cloned mammoths on Mars. This argument about using de-extinct animals to keep ecosystems healthy is valid. Also, since humans were responsible for the extinction of animals like the thylacine, Stellar’s sea cow and the passenger pigeon, they have a moral obligation to try to bring back these species if there is a need for them in an ecosystem.

No matter where anyone sides in the argument, it is important to note the responsibility we all bare with using science and co-existing with other species in our fragile world. Still, the revelation that dire wolves have been de-extinct is exciting as it demonstrates that extinction isn’t forever.

Mar 28 2025

Avengers: Doomsday Announcement IOW Avengers Vs. X-Men!

On March 26, 2025, Marvel Studios painstakingly announced the cast of next year’s Avengers: Doomsday with an online stream that lasted over FIVE hours. The marketing team behind this event can be either commended for increasing anticipation and publicity for Avengers: Doomsday or slammed for coming up with this idea of using chairs to slowly announce cast members and stretching this out for several long hours.

Many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) woke up that day with news that Marvel Studios was making a big announcement later in the morning. They speculated about what would the news be about. More MCU films announced? The cast for the new X-Men? At first, when the stream began and an obscure figure entered the screen and placed a chair with Chris Hemsworth’s name on it, people guessed it may have been a revelation that a new Thor film was coming. Then 12 and a half minutes later, another chair was revealed with Vanessa Kirby’s name on it, and we all knew by then the announcement was about the cast for Avengers: Doomsday. It was inevitable since the film was scheduled to begin filming around this time and the finale of the stream declared just that. These were the following cast members announced for Avengers: Doomsday in the order they were announced:

  • Chris Hemsworth as Thor
  • Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman
  • Anthony Mackie as Captain America
  • Sebastian Stan as Bucky/Winter Soldier
  • Letitia Wright as Shuri/Black Panther
  • Paul Rudd as Ant-Man
  • Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent aka dime store Captain America
  • Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Thing
  • Simu Liu as Shang-Chi
  • Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova
  • Kelsey Grammer as the Beast
  • Lewis Pullman as the Sentry
  • Danny Ramirez as the Falcon
  • Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch
  • David Harbour as Red Guardian
  • Winston Duke as M’Baku
  • Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
  • Tom Hiddleston as Loki, most likely the God of Stories
  • Patrick Stewart as Professor X
  • Ian McKellan as Magneto
  • Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler
  • Rebecca Romijn as Mystique
  • James Marsden as Cyclops
  • Channing Tatum as Gambit
  • Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic and
  • Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

That is an impressive and surprising line up for what will be the biggest and most important MCU film in years. The announcement certainly generated excitement among fans and much of it was positive although there were many questions that went unanswered. Here are a few takeaways:

Drawn Out Announcement

On paper it seemed like a good idea to slowly announce the cast with intervals that lasted several minutes. With a cast this large it took over five hours for the announcements to be completed and this tried the patience of many online viewers who wanted (and screamed) for the announcements to hurry up.  For others however, the announcement built up anticipation and created something of an event as many wondered who would be announced next. Some announcements had excited reactions while a few others were obvious.

The event also for all intents and purposes spoiled Thunderbolts* since most of the cast from that upcoming film will survive and appear in Avengers: Doomsday. The Fantastic Four will play an important role in the film which is natural since Doctor Doom is their main enemy. The question remains is how big a role will they play? Most likely the team will be on the level of co-stars and function the same way that the Guardians of the Galaxy did in Avengers: Infinity War.

Finally, given the latter cast announcements, this film not only reunites a few actors from the original Fox X-Men films, but the film will probably be a loose adaptation of the Avengers Vs. X-Men comic book series event from the last decade.

Who Was Left Out

A lot of the buzz generated by the stream was about who was not announced, and it was surprising that some characters apparently won’t be a part of Avengers: Doomsday. These characters include the Hulk, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, War Machine, Captain Marvel, Photon, Star-Lord or the new Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, Wolverine, Wong, and finally the Young Avengers.

Some of the absences are puzzling given how integral some heroes are to the Avengers like the Hulk, have been set up in other MCU projects like the Young Avengers were, and how popular others are like Spider-Man. After all, at the very end of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, a title card announced that Star-Lord would return. If not in this film, then were else? Well, Avengers: Secret Wars, of course.

A few weeks ago, some concept art was leaked that showed images of these missing characters and a few others like Vision and Doctor Strange in what looks like Batttleworld, the location of the Secret Wars comic books. In the first issue of Secret Wars, the main Marvel Universe collided with the Ultimate Marvel Universe and both were destroyed. Doctor Doom managed to scrape together segments of many realities into an artificial world called Battleworld and the Marvel characters were re-imagined. The same thing will probably happen with Avengers: Secret Wars and the absent characters will turn up in that film. This is similar to what happened with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame where Ant-Man and Hawkeye were featured in the latter film but not the former one.

Keep this in mind, however. After the stream ended, Marvel Studios cryptically announced on social media that there would be more announcements. This can be welcome news but truthfully, Marvel Studios has to be careful not to bring in too many characters in order to focus on a few important ones.

Avengers Vs. X-Men

The biggest surprise in the announcement was that of the Fox X-Men film characters returning. This was very welcome news by fans of the early X-Men films, and some of the announcements were stunning. Cumming had such a miserable experience with the blue makeup when filming X2: X-Men United that he refused to reprise his role as Nightcrawler even though his character was very popular. Channing Tatum proved that if a performance is earnest and strong enough it can win you a return ticket to a major franchise. His appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine was among the best and he injected that role with lots of vigor and enthusiasm; frankly he deserved to come back to an MCU film in some fashion.

Among the most notable absences were Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Halle Berry as Storm and Famke Janssen as Jean Grey/Phoenix. Janssen’s absence is puzzling since it brings up the question if the film will have anything to do with the Phoenix Force story from Avengers Vs. X-Men. This implies that the Avengers film will only loosely adapt Avengers Vs. X-Men and focus more on Doctor Doom. It seems likely that instead of the main Marvel Universe battling the Ultimate Marvel Universe, this film will have the MCU characters confronting the Fox X-Men film characters. It is questionable if these X-Men will be those featured from the early films and might be variant versions. It is hard to tell and given that the timeline of those Fox X-Men films is confusing, it’s for the best not to think too hard about it.

The most logical assumption is that the MCU will meet the X-Men seen in the alternate universe seen at the end of The Marvels when Monica Rambeau wound up stranded in that universe. Her appearance will set off an incursion event that will have the two universes collide and lead to Avengers: Secret Wars. But then, if that is the plot, then why wasn’t Teyonah Parris announced? Maybe she will, later. Maybe Marvel Studios wants to keep some appearances as surprises to make up for spoiling Thunderbolts*.

There are many questions that have been raised by the streaming event, which is great for Marvel Studios and Avengers: Doomsday. This demonstrates that there is still interest and excitement about the MCU. To think, all this buzz is for a film that is over a year away and we still haven’t seen a trailer or set photos or anything official aside from a bunch of chairs and Robert Downey Junior motioning us to be silent. All this will be for nothing if Avengers: Doomsday doesn’t deliver, but given the talent behind the film, that seems unlikely.

José Soto

Mar 22 2025

Independent Comics Are The Way Forward

The two big comic book companies, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, rule the comic book market and have done so for decades. But their reign right now is largely due to inertia and for decades comic book fans complained about the Big Two and the saturation of the market with superhero comics. It seemed as if it would be that way for a long time…and it still is at this point. However, this status quo is overdue for a shakeup and it is probably going on right now with independent comics.

To the outside world, what captures the headlines are the latest (non) developments with superheroes, like someone dying and coming back to boost sales, a newly relaunched title with a brand-new number one just to flood markets with variant covers, and so on. Also, back issue sales are still dominated by older superhero titles and will continue to do so. But what has captured fans’ attention has been the proliferation of independent comics from various publishers that for the most part don’t feature superheroes but cover a wide range of subjects. From straight horror to sci-fi to fantasy to crime dramas, there are actually a wide selection of comic books in your local comic shops (LCS) or available digitally. Many non-fans and casual fans are understandably surprised at the many choices available of comics to read and enjoy.

Right now the hot comic is Mark Spear’s Monsters, a beautifully drawn comic put out by Keenspot that features many classic monsters in painted art that evokes Alex Ross but with Spears’ own unique style. Other popular comics include Feral, Geiger, Monstress, A Vicious Circle, Invincible, Conan the Barbarian, Saga, Eight Billion Genies, The Infernals, Something is Killing the Children, Local Man, Transformers and G.I. Joe. None of these titles are superhero-based, except for Invincible, Local Man, and maybe Geiger. The latter is more of a post-apocalyptic tale of a radioactive loner/warrior, while Local Man is a fresh grounded take on Image Comics’ superheroes. Yes, Transformers, Conan the Barbarian, and G.I Joe are based on popular IP, but they are not based on superheroes.

What’s an even more interesting development is that movie and TV studios are turning more and more to comic books not based on superheroes to adapt as they see the potential in the stories. There have been successful film and TV adaptations of non-superhero comics like The Walking Dead, Road to Perdition, 300 and Sin City, but be prepared for an onslaught of even more adaptations. Right now, there are efforts to adapt Eight Billion Genies and Something is Killing the Children, which at the very least would make great animated films.

Of course, not every independent comic is a winner, not all the concepts pan out or their stories peter out after a few issues, but there are many more titles to choose from and more will come. Right now, Image is arguably the leader when it comes to non-superhero comics, with other publishers rising such as Dynamite Entertainment, Dark Horse Comics, Boom! Studios and IDW Publishing. Originally, Image began with superhero comics that to be honest were sup par and most of them are no longer around. But Image took a chance with writers and artists who were able to present their own unique visions and stories and it paid off well for the publisher and comic book fans.

Sure, the LCS and online catalogs are flooded with superhero titles from DC and Marvel, but more and more, a shopper will see that there is much more product in the comic book medium to choose from. Even if at some point in the future, Marvel or DC falter, which won’t happen for a long time, other publishers will take over and dominate the market with either their own superheroes or better yet, other genres. The groundwork is already in place and eventually the independent comics will overtake the superhero genre. Independent comic books today offer something for every taste, which is a sign of a healthy medium that will be with us for a good while.