Sauce Dog

8.0, from a collection of verrryyy small defects and nothing major.

I wasn't talking about that though the bad orange/teal is there and most certainly overused, but rather 'yellow filter' trope by name - pushing exteriors towards a yellow cast (once via a tobacco filter lens, now with digital wash) as a lazy visual shorthand to depict 'foreign' places such as Mexico/Egypt/Africa or anywhere else filled with sand and non-whites.

Episode 3 is thus far the weakest of the bunch, it really didn't seem to have much weight or sense of urgency/danger to anything. The trial scene was abysmal, in that it literally offered nothing to the story or the characters while also being poorly executed (So neither Marc or Khonshu couldn't maybe mention Harrow being in possession of the scarab or having his entire cult digging on site? or, I dunno, maybe point out the tattoo he has in plain view!. The only thing it seemed to do is answer the audiences question of why the gods don't do anything - and for that we get the lazy Eternals answer 'we won't interfere with humans' - expand on that please, no more lazy one liners to brush aside such big things). The fight at the end was...boring. I think this is in part due to my expectations being raised from hearing people touting it as being one of the best fight scenes since Daredevil...so anyone who has heard that needs to kick that idea out of their brain ASAP. It ain't anywhere close to that level. Moon Knight does very little actual fight choreography (most of the action is CGI and the switches between practical suit to CGI can be felt and breaks up the cohesion of the moment), and never real feels like their is any danger or actual stakes at risk outside of Layla in danger at the end (who did have better close combat choreography, so was the best part overall). Overall the episode lacked meaningful action, that is, events to propel the story forward in a meaningful & interesting way. On the plus side, the performances are great. I've found every one, even smaller character roles, well done without any single person sticking out like a total mis-cast.

I also love his costume, and adding more explicit Egyptian details to it is exactly why I always loved the often lambasted Fist of Khonshu version with its iconography and gold accessories. Steven is not the original body even in the comics, Marc was the first. Pay close attention to the personality traits and interests of Steven and compare them to Marc's wife - they share many ideal traits which suggests Marc felt guilty about not being the perfect guy for her and so has imbued Steven with the qualities he perceives as better (being a vegan, love of her favourite authors and poets, French speaking, passive / non-violent etc). What is going on with Steven's mother is still up for debate, but all signs seem to point to either he isn't talking to anyone and its part of his delusion or it is a plant by Marc or Jake to allow him to function and live a normal life. Totally possible and there zero reason to think it isn't connected to the MCU. Other MCU movies have already mentioned there are text books for Asgard (Spider-Man talks about having to study Thor in physics class now).

I watched Morbius for the second time... ...well technically, I just reopened the movie so I could scrub through a few parts in order to double check if I missed something that was nagging me - but the movie was technically played a second time! Question to those whose mind didn't wander entirely; did they ever explain why Milo was able to eat and drink without issue but Morbius got sick and couldn't keep anything down? That is literally the one dumb detail that stuck in my mind for some reason.

Just purchased and started watching his Maestro series on BBC...I would have happily paid to hear him talk about just about any topic, but him enlightening us about writing means I might actually learn something from his sorcery (even if it is but a cautionary warning to us younger looking folks considering the field)

A tale as old as America. Man nips aplenty, but the moment you let the exact same looking nip slip on a woman then the bibles come out and the screaming about protecting the children intensifies (as seen in such classics as, 'Janet Jackson half time show' and 'every single Instagram/Facebook post...even if it's really a man nipple trolling people')

Production was given photos of Greek statues and of the human anatomy, as Schumacher wanted an anatomically correct suit. When the suits were made, the nipples were already on them all and Joel thought that it looked cool, so they ran with it - however they were never kept for Silverstone's due to what we can assume is how uppity America and the movie ratings folk seem to get over the slightest acknowledgement of female nudity or sexuality.

Well somebody lost a good chunk of money on this flip. Same coverless copy sold last November for $4,100...and it just resold yesterday for two grand less.

I think the story arc for that is in around issue #40-50, so you should be getting there soon enough.

Yeah that is a good call, while I'm sure 100 is a good place for some to start you would miss some of the biggest story arcs for the turtles ever - especially Jennika's introduction and well done story development on how she joins the main crew.

Hi my name is Eddie…and I'm an alcoholic, oh wait...forgot where I was and which addiction I'm dealing with...ahem...and I'm a swampoholic. Jumped on that 5.0 last month when someone listed it in FB marketplace for well below GPA, and the 4.0 is fresh back from CGC. Will I stop, most certainly not...I really want to upgrade that 7.0 to perhaps an 8.0 or better one day.

Both were great starts, and I don't think we've seen a outright 'bad' start to any of the MCU series. I feel Moon Knight hits a little different and comes across as 'better' simply due to it being a fresh new character that is free from heaps of MCU connections and expectations.

Mini rant time! So, I'm starting to see one worry about the series start to manifest in the fandom. On the surface the show has handled mental illness fairly well, however the bar was pretty much set at a low expectation of "don't cause more harm by painting the mentally ill as crazy or evil" and they thus far has managed to do alright. This isn't a slight against the show writers, they have not done anything explicitly bad - however it is often important to talk about a potential that wasn't utilized, and the impact of not doing so actually subtly perpetuating misinformation or harm. The issue is discussion around Moon Knight, across all sites and in comic shops, continue to use schizophrenia as the go-to terminology for what he has as the show has not taken the time to clearly state what Steven suffers from. Memes being created around the show all default to using it to describe MK (due to what I believe is that simply they don't know better - which is 100% understandable, even some writers on the comics continue to fall back to using this term), and thus continue to perpetuate incorrect and sometimes harmful ideas about mental illness. Yes, people with schizophrenia and dissociative disorders may experience some similar symptoms but lumping them together only causes further confusion, potential harm, and possibly stifle any new understanding of mental illness by the general public (a public that if informed can perhaps even recognize and help others in their lives that might have such disorder, because the treatments for schizophrenia and dissociative disorders are specific to the condition, it is essential to get an appropriate diagnosis and not mistake one for the other. Numbers wise, schizophrenia affects around 1% of Americans, and worldwide is equates to just over 21 million people, but dissociative disorders affect 2.4% of Americans) We have seen that if you present a complex new idea to viewers that they pick up on it quickly if it is laid out well, and often love sharing that they know this new information. An excellent example of this is the Ship of Theseus as presented in Wanda Vision! Now we have lots of the general public aware of this philosphical thought experiment - demonstrating the audience isn't stupid! If the show took some time to explicitly say what he suffers from in no uncertain terms, perhaps even Steven correcting someone else calling him schizo (the job firing scene would have been perfect for this!), we might start to see people adjusting their lexicon. Getting people on the right page with terminology is important to further discussion around any topic, I know because this comes up often in my life for a variety of things - including but not limited to mental illness. I also recognize they might explicitly spell it out in a future episode, but I feel this was something best to get out in the open from the start so that an audience new to MK can start to process and absorb early - especially when you are dealing with a character that is outright known to be THE go-to example of a mentally ill superhero.

How dare you come for me like this! Rude!

I really want to avoid buying anything that is being looked at as a possible movie spec, which mean most silver and bronze age characters have been pretty much covered are sell for higher than I would value them at, the lone exception is it now seems House of Secrets 92 has cooled off and has been decent to pick up more copies (I've been able to find them for much less than GPA, so those prices should only reflect the high end on major auction houses). Even the first Poison Ivy seems like a still decent spec that just screams of becoming something bigger in the future if DC ever get their act together. Other books, like Morbius or other random side villains, will get spikes here and there, but I'm not confident the fanbase that comes from those movies will be as nostalgic for the comics in the future as we are today so I've little interest to hold such books (I've limited space as it is without having to play a long term guessing game if Sleepwalker will be the next big thing!). Golden Age hero books is where I'm at. Even if the character does not get a movie appearance (Doctor Fate) then at least there is rarity and growing interest in these antique treasures as they approach 100 years old - at which time I'm sure we will get a better idea of how many are remaining when they come to market from permanent collections (due to older collectors passing on their books or cashing out to pay for retirement living).

I'm in the 5.0/6.0, depending on how much of a hit that back cover causes and looks in hand.

I'm coming in high tonight it seems - this is sign that I should avoid buying raw books online tonight until I sleep on it and get back to my conservative grading self

If cleaned and pressed I could see this being 4.5 - 5.0 tops (without any work its a 3.0)

While I want to say it will be higher, as it presents very well, my gut is telling me this would grade around 3.5...but I would be happy to be wrong. Pressing won't do much for the technical grade, but would increase the eye appeal slightly.

For sure a great candidate for pressing - which I could see making this a 4.0 or 4.5

I'm jealous of you having that model strictly for the better temperature range & controls - I've been using a Seal Jumbo 150 for years as my first press to practice minor hobby stuff with, as I was able to get it cheap from a local seller, but have had to carefully adjust my times and process due to how easily it can nuke a book

Episode 2 certainly made some unique...choices...for the character; a few of which I'm sure a good deal of comic fans are not going to like for a variety of reasons (I like the reasoning behind it though, so I'm fine with the change). I do like how it is shifting to focusing to time with Marc now though, and find the amount of 'costume' screen time decent as it clearly feels they are building it up more and more each episode. Main complaint though is I really wish they stuck with the idea of it all being in Stevens head much longer before giving him a massive exposition dump. I get people nearby will think he is crazy since they cannot see the beasts he battles, but it would have been nice for him to doubt the reality of that longer and struggle with all of this supernatural stuff not being something in his head.

Don't worry about the TMNT vs Ghostbusters stuff, you can stick with the core series but if you want to jump into the side series, mainly for the characters (April/Casey, Shredder, Jennika) they offer additional exploration and texture but nothing that needs to be explicitly known to continue with the main series (I think the only case is maybe TMNT: Casualty of War free comic book day comic that was tied into the main story in issues #93-#95). Don't skip on the Annuals though for the main series.

Then you're in for a treat soon, basically the first 40ish issues was basically covering the stories expected of the turtles (Shredder, Krang) but after those are taken care of the series became much more free to explore the characters and expand on everything in a much more original way. One of the only long running series I've stuck with for the entire run.