Porky and Daffy deal with an alien invasion via bubblegum. If you need to know more before deciding whether to see it the movie probably isn’t for you.
Tongue in cheek snark out of the way, this is the first ever full new animation Looney Tunes movie. The others were all either reused skits with new connecting animation or a mix of animation and live action.
If you were unaware the movie is now in theaters you aren’t alone: marketing has been practically non-existent. I was vaguely aware a Looney Tunes movie had been made that was sidelined by Warner Bros’ recent questionable business decisions, but had no idea it had been picked up and released. I stumbled onto it by accident when I happened to have an opportunity to catch a movie and pulled up the listings to see what was playing.
What a lucky break it was. I’m a big fan of classic Looney Tunes and some of the recent reimaginings and was certainly willing to give this a try.
The plot is serviceable, providing a framework for the gags and jokes and structure to support the movie’s length versus the short doses the characters usually are presented in. Porky and Daffy having grown up together and some other changes give narrative flow, and some straightforward yet weighty moral themes carry things along well.
But let’s be honest: while important the story is tertiary at best. Something like Looney Tunes lives or dies on the animation and humor. Both are more than up to par here.
The movie is gorgeous. Vivid, fluid animation (except when purposely not for comedic effect). There are some really clever moments and particularly innovative uses of animation both for aesthetics and to enhance the comedy.
The physical humor and gags were on point and it all got better and better as the movie went on (shoutout to a hilarious job hunting sequence early in the movie though). The spoken jokes were a little hit or miss, and I found the pacing off at times, but no major issues overall.
Most importantly this feels like Looney Tunes, and is a lot of fun. This was clearly made by people who not only get the essence of what Looney Tunes is, but also what it can be when pushed. It’s ridiculous because it’s supposed to be, it did what it was supposed to, and is well worth watching.
This is an excellent movie length Looney Tunes adventure, and I hope anyone who’s even potentially interested checks it out to help it overcome the stumbling blocks put in its way and give WB a reality check on the real viability of making more.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Back in 2022 Tokyo Game Show, an annual video game trade fair, featured several AEW sponsored wrestling matches to promote the release of AEW Fight Forever. The eventual game itself was less than warmly received, but the unique matches had quite a bit of buzz around them from those lucky enough to catch them.
The lineup contained a mix of a few select AEW roster, some Japanese wrestlers who had appeared for AEW, a couple of DDT’s stars and one of TJPW’s top rising stars (at the time). Most of them worked two or more matches through the weekend. There were a total of 9 matches over the three days involving 10 different wrestlers.
These matches were recently put up for streaming on the Wrestle Universe platform (subscription required). They involved a lot of my favorites wrestlers of all time on both the women and men’s sides so I’m thrilled to see them finally shared.
Christopher Daniels vs Chris Brookes
Winner faces Takeshita later in the last match of the day. First of many dream matches in this lineup for me. Been watching Daniels wrestle for well over a decade starting back in ROH, and I’m extremely familiar with Chris via ChocoPro.
Daniels has worked Japan a lot in the past and is part of AEW talent relations, so was a natural choice to be involved in this. Brookes has been DDT roster for years, making this an interesting matchup of two foreigners well established in Japan. All of the other competitors in these matches are Japanese.
Daniels was getting close to 30 years in at the time of these matches. He retired from in-ring competition earlier this year.
On a completely random note, Chris has incredibly awesome entrance music.
Brookes’ size advantage vs Daniels’ experience edge anchored this match. It was all about Daniels picking Chris apart and Chris fighting back with holds and high impact strikes and moves. Solid, straightforward stuff that was exactly what it needed to be as the initial offering to a potentially largely unfamiliar audience.
Ending saw Daniels hide behind the ref when Chris up top and kick ropes to cause an unfortunate landing for Brookes. With Chris crumpled on the mat the Best Moonsault Ever (BME, a triple jump up the corner turnbuckles into a moonsault) was academic for the for win.
By the numbers finish in the best way possible that gave Chris an out and let Daniels proceed to Takeshita.
Daniels teased heel tendencies during the match and went full bore during the post match interview by attacking his translator (Michael Nakazawa) to send a message to Takeshita. Takeshita came out and Daniels bailed, saying they’ll face when he says so. Super efficient way to set up a story for their impending match.
Ryo Mizunami vs Hikari Noa
Such a treat to see these lost Hikari matches. She was a personal favorite who left wrestling last year. The three women’s singles matches across this event are basically her running a gauntlet of several of my other favorites. A rising star in TJPW at the time, these were her first and only AEW affiliated matches. The other women participants had all appeared for AEW before. She starts with the charismatic powerhouse Mizunami.
Mizunami easily overpowered Hikari in the opening lockup, absorbed Hikari’s dropkicks like they were nothing, and wiped her out with several shoulder tackles.
It was made crystal clear that Hikari was fighting an uphill battle here, and her tenaciousness was the story. She fought tooth and nail to even get a hair toss, which took several attempts and stomps to Ryo’s feet to be able to move the much larger competitor.
Mizunami easily reversed a scoop slam, and later when Hikari floated out of another slam attempt by Mizunami the latter simply leveled Hikari with a chop. A Camel Clutch tortured Hikari until she could make the ropes, she took machine gun chops in corner, and so on. At one point was nailed with and STO and Mizunami’s big leg drop for a super close 2.
But Hikari was the best kind of persistent underdog and fought back whenever she got an opening. At one point she countered a corner rush with a dropkick, ducked a Mizunami lariat then hit a flying clothesline, then threw her dropkick barrage at the powerhouse. Later a great rolling cradle got 2. Other close calls for Mizunami came from a sliding rollup with a bridge and a superkick barrage.
Late match Mizunami took a superkick but then fought off a Blizzard Suplex setup and nailed Hikari with a lariat followed by a spear. Hot Limit (Cradle Shock variant) ended it.
Energetic encounter with the outmatched Hikari throwing all she could at Mizunami until she had nothing left. Perfect match for the participants. Fun stuff.
Christopher Daniels vs Konosuke Takeshita
Daniels slaps away handshake offer to remind everyone he went full heel earlier in the day. This is about 6 months before Takeshita’s big heel turn in AEW, and he was 100% pure babyface in this time period. Takeshita started in DDT but now primarily wrestles in AEW, being official roster for both companies (and recently NJPW as well).
Daniels pulled Takeshita’s hair then gloated about taking him down. In turn Takeshita LEVELED Daniels with a slap. Ten seconds in and the battle lines are drawn, the characters clear, and the crowd engaged.
Takeshita got a huge reaction for landing some big shots on Daniels early. He teased an inside out suplex from the apron, but Daniels went to the eyes and proceeded to control for a while. Highlights included a sweet Saito suplex, and mounted punches to *back* of Takeshita’s head in the corner in an unusual and brutal looking spot.
Later a back elbow and a lariat gave Takeshita some daylight, and the pace picked up. Takeshita hit a gorgeous plancha then back in a Blue Thunder Powerbomb got 2.
Daniels dodged Takeshita’s jumping and hit Angel’s Wings… FOR ONE?! Great use of the quick kickout there.
Takeshita fought back with a rolling elbow, but his charge in the corner eats boot. BME gets 2. Having Takehista tough things out and survive the move that put Brookes away earlier is particularly nice layered storytelling for anyone who attended both matches.
A palm strike with Takeshita up top set up a FrankenSteiner attempt by Daniels. But he was pushed off and ate canvas. A jumping knee from the turnbuckles followed, then Takeshita hit another for good measure to get 3.
Formulas are formulas for a reason. Great little feel good, well worked face over heel match. Hottest match of the day.
All three of these matches were a blast and exactly what they should have been for the event. Really impressed with how it was all handled and presented, and at a solid 9-10 minutes of action apiece these were a great way to promote the game and potentially introduce new fans to AEW and wrestling in general. Looking forward to watching the rest.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Match wits with the Riddler as Edward Nygma presents his personal puzzle box for you to solve.
The Riddler: Puzzle Box by Edward Nygma is made by McFarlane Toys, and as such expectedly looks fantastic. The 5-6 inches a side box has great detailing and largely looks like worn/distressed metal rather than the plastic it’s made of. It’s just plain cool to look at and play around with.
Solving puzzle boxes is often made more enticing by including a prize locked within, and the encased prize here is awesome. Solving each of the three sections is rewarded with a piece of a hefty metal “1:1” batarang replica. They went all out with this aspect of the box.
The website description claims the Riddler Box “features 4 challenging Batman themed puzzles.” To be perfectly blunt, this is not even remotely true. These are some of the easiest puzzles imaginable, made more difficult only by so-so implementation. One puzzle is solvable completely by accident. One I solved without the required tool, leaving me confused as to what that tool was for throughout the experience. One puzzle is a tad misleading on when the player should be trying to solve it, which led me to have the right solution but thinking it was wrong because I had to do something else first.
All that said I had a fun time with the box despite its imperfections. The puzzles are conceptually and thematically good even if easy, and I found it all interesting and engaging despite its flaws.
Which brings us to the puzzling aspect of this puzzle box as a purchase. The detail, inherent nature of making a puzzle box with hidden mechanisms, and high quality prize all add to the cost. But with a msrp of $100, which admittedly is entirely reasonable for what it is in total, people are likely to expect more from the actual puzzle box itself.
Now this has been out a while and at it’s currently available price (under $40) it’s *easily* worth it for Batman and/or puzzle box collectors. But to be completely fair with the review I’m not sure I’d have been as happy with it at full retail price.
Overall this is a great collectible containing an equally great collectible as a bonus prize, with an ok puzzle experience attached. Score one for Edward Nigma.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
A senator’s daughter has died mysteriously in prison, and you’re the lucky one in charge of figuring out what happened before giving a press conference to a gaggle of reporters after a long night of investigation.
The Guilty series is a new entry into the ever expanding genre of games that try to capture full fledged mystery investigations in board game form. The short, short version is it’s got the weight of a Detective case in a box closer to the size of the Exit series.
The setting is perfect for this type of game: it’s within a contained area of investigation with believable constraints and reasons for time pressure. The atmosphere is well developed, and the economical descriptions befitting a game confined to cards are on point. The box advertises the game as “immersive,” and I agree wholeheartedly. More than any other mystery game I’ve played that doesn’t use external elements this really felt like conducting an investigation the players are in control of.
The time deck mechanic is really well done. Cards are flipped from a separate deck representing the passage of time as the player chooses which leads to investigate. At different points in the deck game affecting events happen. It presents ongoing pressure and twists without making the game feel too short and is really well implemented.
Guilty thrives via its design and setup. The board that grounds the display and organizes the numerous investigative choices available really helps present the overwhelming options in an accessible manner. The progression of the investigation is completely open. The player is in control, and most uncovered cards/information feel interesting if not always vital.
This game consists of one case, but it’s a DENSE, meaty one. This takes 3-4 hours and as mentioned feels more equivalent to a round of Detective than other stand alone mystery games or even a round of Suspects (which I found weighty and challenging itself, but this is on a different level). That they accomplished this with a system that’s completely contained in the box (ie no internet component like Detective, etc has) is impressive.
There’s an overload of information to sift through throughout, but it’s by no means a negative. The case is compelling and it was extremely engrossing. There are important minute details, so players should be ready to read and observe carefully. However there really wasn’t one key piece of information that derails everything if missed. This has a mix of several visual and textual clues and figuring out how it all comes together is the goal.
Two players is probably the sweet spot for this series. Even for veteran gamers be at peak concentration level when soloing. I overlooked a couple vital points and was a bit off in my solution. That said in was still a blast as a solo experience.
The scoring system is a little odd, but good enough. It’s forgiving in a way I didn’t expect. I didn’t really solve the case (I got twisted around in my own head and picked the wrong killer), but figured out enough of everything else to get best evaluation. I have mixed feelings on that, as on one hand it seems like getting the criminal wrong should be disqualifying but on the other being recognized for solving a majority of the questions and piecing together all the other details is nice. Like I said: a bit odd but still fine.
There were a couple of red herrings I found mildly frustrating, but most of them connect to ancillary things to figure out if you dig enough so it’s not the issue it could be.
Nothing gets destroyed so the game is resettable and can be passed on to other players (the box insert isn’t great for storing the cards once they’ve been unwrapped, but that’s a minor quibble).
Overall this was excellent, and one of the best of this type of game I’ve played. Looking forward to future entries in the series.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
“The toughest thing about a case is never the case.”
Sherlock Holmes who isn’t stumbles into a web of murder and political intrigue in early 20th Century San Fransisco.
I feel like I was peripherally aware of the series Detective Chinatown 1900 reimagines, but I’ve never actually seen any of it. And as this is a new take set in a different time period no prior knowledge is necessary.
The film is a blend of political commentary regarding a period of high racial tension and straight up comedy all tied together with a murder mystery central plot. It sounds like an absurd mix, but the melding of genres is really well done. It descends into complete farce at moments without ever having trouble reestablishing gravitas when the plot or themes need it.
The movie as I saw it in an NYC theater was presented with both English and Chinese subtitles. It’s a Chinese film largely set in San Fransisco and the dialog ends up being roughly half Chinese and half English, with some other languages mixed in. So a vast majority of viewers will need at least one of the sets of subtitles at times.
I’m a regular watcher of foreign films (usually in Japanese), so am used to reading subtitles. But even for me, the speed of the Chinese dialog and the resulting quickness that the subtitles flew by was a bit challenging at times. But key plot information was always presented somewhat slower (as it tended to land during dramatic moments) so I had no trouble following the story overall.
The mystery itself is reasonable and compelling, the humor juxtaposition masterfully done, and the societal commentary and historical aspects well presented and easily accessible even to those unfamiliar with the time period.
As far as criticism goes the film felt a little long in the tooth at times, a couple things strained credulity (beyond the things that were supposed to be absurd), and I’m not certain they completely stuck the landing. But I’m largely nitpicking here.
Overall I found Detective Chinatown 1900 to be a thoroughly engaging and entertaining movie. Definitely worth a watch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Was lucky enough to be in attendance for a stacked NXT show at the smaller Theater venue within iconic Madison Square Garden.
Due to health constraints/limiting factors towards travel and live events this was my first live wrestling show of any kind in a couple years. Was thrilled to attend and looking forward to seeing Ethan Page and the women’s double title match in particular.
This was a fast paced, breezy watch and I’m going strictly off memory so this’ll be more impressions than any kind of full recap.
1) TNA Tag Team Championship: Matt & Jeff Hardy (c) vs Nathan Fraizer and Faxiom
As always the NYC crowd was over the moon for the Hardy’s, making this a super hot opener. They seem to be in good form, and played the hits while Fraxiom supplied their usual high octane offense. Straight forward, crowd pleasing tag team wrestling.
Which titles were on the line made this a forgone conclusion, but that didn’t detract from the fun.
2) Roxanne Perez vs Jordynne Grace
Standard “put over the next big NXT star on your way out to the main roster” encounter. Roxanne showed great ability to work a body part dissection match, going after Grace’s leg incessantly. Grace sold it well, with it affecting her offense at key moments. Always nice to see psychology done properly. Grace eventually overcame, making this a well done, textbook heel vs face story.
3) NXT Championship: Oba Femi (c) vs Moose
Moose is TNA’s reigning X-Division Champion, so this is the second NXT champ vs TNA champ contest of the night.
Never been much of a fan of Moose to be honest, but he seemed motivated here and played his role well enough. Oba looked like a monster putting him down. This was two big men throwing bombs and showing wild strength, which is exactly what everyone wanted from it. Could have been a touch shorter, but that’s mild criticism at best.
4) NYC Street Fight: Je’Von Evans vs Ethan Page
Page had been a favorite of mine since his Evolve days and was super excited to see him live again.
He’s been tormenting Je’Von for months, ever since he turned from heel to even bigger evil douchebag heel at Je’Von’s expense when Je’Von tried to reach out to a despondent Page and paid for his empathy with a broken jaw.
Had everything the crowd wanted from a street fight, including a couple of big table spots. In a nice callback Ethan got a close two off countering a Je’Von backspring with a hard punch to the injured jaw, which won Page their last encounter.
Ending was suitably insane, as Je’Von hit a cutter on Page with the latter’s head wedged in a chair. This was all about Je’Von getting revenge on the asshole who’s hurt him and beat him at every turn until now, and it hit all the right notes.
5) NXT Women’s Championship/Women’s North American Championship Double Title Match: Giulia (c) vs Stephanie Vaquer (c NA)
Lots of rumors about the possibility of injury or others reasons for this happening so soon. Vaquer just won the NA title last month, and with Wrestlemania weekend and NXT’s big Stand and Deliver show coming up many expected this match to happen then.
To be clear, this was not a unification match. Both were on the line and the winner would hold both titles, but they are still separate titles.
Huge fan of Vaquer, and this was my first time seeing her live.
Last time I saw Giulia wrestle live was a couple lifetimes ago when she was still in Ice Ribbon, so it was downright surreal getting to see her wrestle in MSG.
I’ve heard complaints about the length and pacing from TV viewers, but live this came off great. Yeah it might’ve gotten more time if there wasn’t a hard out on the broadcast, and it was technically the shortest match of the night by a few seconds (I looked that up post show, wouldn’t have guessed it otherwise), but live it was an engaging sprint between two wrestlers just straight up trying to put the other down. If Giulia’s banged up as rumored she still worked a great match here.
I was half expecting Meiko Satomura to come out to challenge the new champ for Stand and Deliver (Meiko was rumored to be in attendance and she has a conspicuous gap in her announced retirement schedule WrestleMania weekend), but it didn’t happen. Show closed with and extended confetti celebration for the new double champ.
Amusing subtle moment happened when the ref clearly had to give Vaquer a heads up to turn around and do some of her celebrating for the crowd. The way the venue is set up when she was celebrating towards the hard cams her back was to 90% of the audience.
Prior to the show I was afraid this card was too packed for two hours and something would get short changed, but instead it was a really well crafted show with everything between 11 and 15 minutes and nothing really feeling too short or too long. Sure the main could have been longer and Giulia and Vaquer certainly have an epic in them, but the sprint we got played well live and was great in its own right. Just a fantastic show to have had the privilege to see live all around.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Suspects is a card based mystery game that involves visiting locations, speaking to suspects, and examining items to try to unravel the secrets behind a crime. Claire Harper, Eternal Investigator is the second collection in this series and includes three separate cases.
I enjoyed the first Suspects game, Claire Harper Takes the Stage, despite not doing particularly great solving its cases. They required catching little details, and were generally harder than other games of this type I’ve played. But it was still a well crafted game and quite fun and I was looking forward to the sequels.
Eternal Investigator provides a deeper look at the protagonist introduced in the previous collection. She’s the thread tying the cases together and this group features different times in her life.
The game plays extremely similar to the first with a deck of cards driving the gameplay with information to uncover as the cases proceed. Each case has a couple extra things to go with the deck that help frame the investigation and present initial leads to follow. Things that can be investigated are numbered and drawing the corresponding cards is how the game proceeds. It’s extremely open in letting the players decide what order to poke at things at, although at times certain mechanics hold parts of the investigation back a bit until certain progress has been made.
With the mechanics out of the way the main question is how good the cases are. In the end it’s rather hard to compare this to the first set. I again played solo, did a little better, and for the most part enjoyed these. But while one of my favorite cases in the series was here, my absolute least favorite case in any of the Suspects series was here too (including the third collection, review to come). I won’t get into spoilers but I felt it just didn’t come together and unlike all the other cases relied a bit on educated guesses (which mysteries never should).
Playing the cases in order makes sense as it progresses through Claire’s life, but they most definitely ARE NOT in progressing difficulty. The game’s fully resettable and can be passed along to others after playing.
Overall I enjoy and recommend the series and with one really good case and one solid one out of three the good still outweighs the less so in this collection. Far from perfect but still well worth checking out if you enjoyed the first batch.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
While the core attraction of any wrestling promotion is of course the wrestlers, there are a variety of other people involved in various necessary supporting and production roles. One of the most visible of these is the ring announcer, who introduces match participants, announces results and winners, and conveys other information as needed to the audience.
An enthusiastic, skilled announcer adds significantly to the experience of attending or watching a wrestling show, and one of the very best in recent memory is Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling’s (TJPW’s) Sayuri Namba.
Sayuri Namba PSC by Miki Okazaki.
Since 2018 Namba’s been an integral part of TJPW’s presentation. Her pre-show instructions to the crowd is part of the ritual of attending and TJPW often starts their livestreams early so viewers get the whole experience. (For those who don’t know, pre-show instructions include information about post-show merchandise sales and meet and greets, as well as rules about permissible photography, behavior, etc.) She’s as much a part of the roster as the wrestlers, and participates in meet and greets and merchandise.
Namba is charisma personified, occasionally odd in endearing ways, and able to convey gravitas when the situation demands it. She’s always excited about the shows and portrays that excitement well, which makes it contagious and gets the audience excited too. Her presence makes already fun TJPW shows even more enjoyable.
This is where I’d normally talk about my first time seeing Namba at a live event, but I have no specific recollection because there’s no specific moment to recall. No debut match to point at in the way there would be with a wrestler. Namba is a perfect announcer in that regard. She knows how to engage and entertain the audience while remembering that her task is to shine a spotlight on the competitors. No one moment stands out or draws attention away from the matches, but she’s completely memorable overall because of the enthusiasm and uniqueness she brought to her duties.
She’s also become so integral that it feels like she’s always been a part of TJPW, even though I started watching a couple years before she joined.
Namba puts her all into everything she does. A particularly great example of this is the amount of effort she put into TJPW’s costume chekis (small polaroids), particularly the annual Halloween ones. She did multiple costumes each year and they were always fantastic.
Wonderful picture in which Namba decided to mimic the pose of a character on my t-shirt.
Namba is incredibly friendly and always excited to meet fans. I was fortunate enough to meet her several times during my pre-pandemic trips to Japan. She made serious effort to communicate with foreign fans and her English has gotten quite good.
On June 22 at TJPW’s Ryogoku KFC Hall show Namba will be “graduating” from TJPW (the term is used in Japan when someone leaves a company to move on, whether it’s for retirement or a case like this). There will be a special event entitled “Sayuri Namba’s Dream Come True Special” on June 14th. I hope everyone has a great time in the next few months giving Namba an enjoyable sendoff.
She’ll be moving to Vancouver, due to both it’s proximity to America and hearing good things about the area itself.
Namba will be missed in TJPW, but wishing her all the best abroad whether she continues with wrestling announcing or finds a new path.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025. Derailments of Thought currently updates on Wednesday and Saturday.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Perhaps the best comic book hero one could ask for is one who isn’t bound by the rules of the very comics he inhabits. Such a hero might truly be invincible…
MiSTER iNViNCiBLE: Local Hero collects Mister Invincible #1: Justice and Fresh Vegetables and Mister Invincible #2: Local Hero as originally published.
Pascal Jousselin’s everyday adventures of an extremely unusual superhero takes a creative core idea and runs with it to great effect.
Mister Invincible’s powers are simple in concept: he alone is aware he’s in a comic and can transcend the framework everyone else is trapped in. He can see and act into other panels, across pages, and so on.
It’s Jousselin’s incredible use of the premise that makes the comic shine. From Mr. Invincible helping himself fight in other panels, to explaining to confused police that he needs to wait for the page to turn before he can solve their current problem, to many other endearingly absurd page breaking situations everything is fascinating and amusing at the same time. There are times when things get surreal, but it’s captivating to unravel what’s happening more than confusing.
The true genius of it all is how Mr. Invincible uses his powers as a part of his everyday life just as often as he does for fighting crime. The mundane uses are just as interesting, such as a great page where he uses a paper airplane traveling up the page to “remind” himself to add something to his grocery list before he’s told to get it.
I can’t speak to the original French version, but the translation seems quite good. Everything flows well and sounds natural and I’m pretty confident I’m getting as close to the full experience as a translation can provide.
Mr. Invincible is light and fun while also being mind-bendingly clever. It’s as enjoyable for an adult reader as it would be for the publisher’s noted middle grade target demographic (with an older reader perhaps more likely to catch more of the genre bending subtleties). Highly recommended.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a read. 2024 was a sporadic return for this blog and I hope to have more regular updates going forward in 2025.
If you enjoy the blog any support is appreciated, including shares on social media and simply continuing to read. If you happened to be inclined and able to help out monetarily please see my Ko-fi page. Every little bit helps.
Derailments of Thought 