Comic and Movie Bitrot for 24 January 2024 - Oscar Nominations + Mnuchin & The Razzies
We Read The Comics and Movie News So You Don't Have To
Welcome back to another edition of Comic and Movie Bitrot. As a reminder, much of this can be found on Blogger. You can follow Zachary on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and his website. There are two big pieces of news this week. One was the New Hampshire primaries. The current president wasn’t even on the ballot and just mopped the floor with write-in votes. The prior president split the delegate count with Nikki Haley in a very close primary—far too close for the “head” of the party. Also of note is that the Academy Award nominations came out. There’s a lot of vitriol about Barbie not getting a Best Director and Best Actor nomination. Personally, I’m shocked that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem didn’t get a nod in Best Animated Feature. It was great. Let’s get to comic books. We’ve only got three titles reviewed this week. As always, titles are scored on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best
Bloody Dozen - Issue 2 (of 6)
Image Comics
Review by Zachary Hunchar
The creative team here reunited from the shared-universe series Hell To Pay, which I enjoyed quite a bit. So, it's no surprise that I enjoyed this book as well. It’s weird and dark, and the premise is crazy. But it is executed well enough that you don’t get slowed down by the details, and it just becomes fun as the crazy ideas keep getting thrown on the page. Shadow NASA sends recruits to recover vampires imprisoned around the sun. Bonkers. The art is unusual, but it seems to complement the story. You don’t have to have read Hell To Pay to understand what is going on, but it is worth it.
Score: 8.5 out of 10
The Weatherman - Issue 1
Image Comics
Review by Zachary Hunchar
If you’re new to this character, there have been two prior volumes about this guy. They’re dark and messed up and fairly entertaining. This issue explores the nature of the character and digs into where he came from. And it seems to be building towards explaining why what we learned about him in the first volume wasn’t quite accurate. This issue relies upon you knowing who a few of these characters are at the start, but even if you don’t, the story tells you what you need to know. Even the protagonist has a lot of depth, so that is fairly engaging. Mostly, the conversation that is driving everything is full of tension and drama and is excellent. Add to that the interesting artwork that definitely adds to the story and you’re given a pretty good comic.
Score: 7.5 out of 10
Star Trek - Issue 16
IDW Publishing
Review by Zachary Hunchar
This series has been an enigma for me. Part of me sort of laughed it off, given the crew assembled from across multiple television series. On the other hand, it brought back Sisko, who languishes as actor Avery Brooks and seems disinterested in reprising him. A comic story about the character is a nice way around it. The series is definitely a deep dive into the lore, and if you’re not up on things, you might be lost at points. But let's be honest: if you’re not a huge fan, you probably wouldn’t pick this up anyway. It’s a classic story about a group trying to start a war. There are heroes trying to stop it, and some villains are not as excited about the end goal as they should be. Overall, the story and characterization is fine. The quiet moments are the best. The art is alright.
Score: 7 out of 10
In annoying Hollywood news, one of the more competent members of the worst and most corrupt white house administration of all time continues to purchase equity in my former employer. From IMDB:
Former U.S. treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has added to his stake in Lionsgate, which now totals nearly $50 million, including last year’s purchases.
In a securities filing Thursday, an equity fund controlled by Mnuchin disclosed a 7.9 percent stake in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.’s Class A voting shares. That’s a step up from the 5.5 percent holding in the Hollywood studio first acquired by Mnuchin’s fund in fall 2023 for about $30.8 million.
A Lionsgate spokesperson declined comment on Mnuchin’s latest stock accumulation, part of share purchases revealed in the regulatory filing by Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity fund led by Mnuchin and which has no ties to John Malone’s Liberty Global.
Let’s be honest. Hollywood is a cesspool of sociopaths and bottom-feeders, so his actions really stand out. He’s not dumping Saudi money in unless something huge is about to happen with them. This smells very much of a major company getting ready to pounce. Google? Apple? My bet is that it will somehow involve Newscorp.
Either way, things won’t be good for the rank-and-file when a creep like Mnuchin gets involved. Especially when his boss is making another run at things.
In lighter movie news, I found the Razzie nominations rather uninspired this year (maybe similar to the Oscars). The reason is fairly obvious: the disruption to filmmaking due to the pandemic and then the strikes. There just isn’t that much content. But it didn’t stop them from putting crappy movies. Lionsgate had the biggest nominee with The Expendables 4. From the BBC:
The fourth part in Sylvester Stallone's franchise The Expendables leads the Razzie nominations with seven.
Stallone is nominated for worst supporting actor, with co-star Megan Fox up for worst supporting actress.
You know, I’ve never seen any of the Expendables films. The closest I’ve gotten was a company presentation that was done in Westwood at the Village Theater about eight or nine years ago. I think the cast from the first or second film showed up to hype the crowd.
I’m not sure it helped. But, whatever.