Review: iZombie - Dead to the World

In the sleepy little town of Eugene, Oregon, not everything is quite what it seems. Its paintball course is run by vampires, monster hunters are running amok and a mummy is killing townsfolk to maintain his youth. For zombie gravedigger Gwen Dylan, this is just a drop in the bucket of all the weirdness she deals with on a daily basis.

iZombie: Dead to the World collects iZombie #1-5, written by Chris Roberson and illustrated by Michael Allred.

iZombie is quirky, fun and full of macabre humour. It’s like an interesting mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Daniel Clowes’ seminal Ghost World, the book combines its cast of offbeat characters with the moody setting of a small town to create a really distinctive storytelling experience. While the concept of a town populated with monsters and ghosts is far from being new and original, what Roberson and Allred do with it is really fresh. By taking elements of the supernatural and infusing them into this incredibly mundane world, iZombie becomes this relatable reading experience full of characters who seem like people you know from your everyday life.

The plot is simple enough. Our heroine Gwen is a zombie who must consume a human brain once a month to retain her sanity. There’s just one little problem with this arrangement – she temporarily retains the memories of the deceased after consuming the brain. This means that she is most often a victim to their hopes and desires, and feels compelled to address any unfinished business they may have had. Despite her rather disgusting extracurricular activities, Gwen is refreshingly normal and has just the right amount of wit to get readers laughing with her clever quips. More importantly, at her core she is a good person with the instincts to do the right thing in any given situation. As such, this concept of a zombie who is disgusted by her actions and who is quite heroic makes for a rather compelling read.

The other characters in iZombie are equally as exciting. From the socially awkward were-terrier Scott to the Regina Georgian vampire Nemia, the rest of the cast is colourful and brimming with personality. My personal favourite is perhaps the ghost Ellie, who artist Allred draws so brilliantly as a mod-inspired ‘60s gal. She’s Gwen’s best friend and through this role offers support, as well as a potential comedic foil given her fish-out-of-water narrative.

The real star of iZombie is perhaps its artist Michael Allred. His punchy, retro art is absolutely stunning, making each page a treat to look at. The characters are all so visually appealing and are uniquely designed in such a way that they pop off the page. From Gwen’s pale blue hair with its signature white streak to Ellie’s stylish ‘60s wardrobe, the cast is really distinctive. While Allred’s art owes quite a bit to pop art, he should also be commended for taking inspiration from the ordinary. Scott, for example, isn’t visually portrayed as being a dashing Twilight-style werewolf. Instead, he’s this rather unassuming geek with a mildly amusing unibrow. These visual cues add a lot of character to iZombie in such a way that it highlights the excellent teamwork between artist and writer.

iZombie: Dead to the World is a must-read. It’s wickedly funny, it’s accessible and it’s got a cast of truly unique characters. It’s hard to find fault in this collection and, with Halloween approaching, now may be the perfect opportunity to binge-read this quirky little series.

RATING: A

Review: Fatale Book One - Death Chases Me

In the smoke-filled streets of the 1950s, reporter Dominic Raines finds himself trapped in a web of secrets and ancient evils when he begins a torrid affair with the enigmatic Josephine. He is so completely mesmerized by this femme fatale that he fails to see that he has landed himself in the middle of a dangerous game of cat and mouse between Jo’s ex-lover and a group of demonic gangsters. Even if he survives, Dominic’s life will be forever changed.

Fatale Book One: Death Chases Me collects Fatale #1-5, written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips.

In Death Chases Me, Ed Brubaker does what he does best – crafts a complex and dark narrative featuring a memorable lead character, all while paying tribute to the noir genre. He had previously done this successfully with his relaunch of Catwoman from the 2000s, but does things a little more differently here. Instead of presenting his story as a present day homage to the genre, Brubaker takes his readers all the way into the past and earnestly treats the narrative as a piece of hard-boiled detective fiction – with a twist! To this highly stylized world of dirty cops and nosy reporters, Brubaker injects a healthy nose of Lovecraftian horror in the form of the immortal Jo and her demonic pursuers. This gives the material an added sense of terror, one which works perfectly to further build the mystery surrounding the book’s femme fatale.

Fatale reads like a novel. It’s complicated and is deliberately vague, which both heightens the mystery and disorients the viewer. In fact, some pages need to be read more than once just to absorb every detail. The payoff is an incredibly tense narrative that constantly keeps the reader on the edge of his or her seat, never certain of what horrors will await them when they turn the page or see the next panel. Brubaker achieves this not only through the action and dialogue, but also through some rather smartly written third person narration. They tell us just what we need to know and direct us towards how we should feel about characters without divulging too much information about their emotional state. As you can imagine, this aids in maintaining an uncertainty about the characters involved.

The character work is fairly impressive, if a bit expected at times. Brubaker is working within a very specific genre, one which has been revisited so many times that we feel like we know these characters already. At the centre of the narrative are a cop and a reporter, the latter of which comes across as more of a plot device than a hero we’re meant to root for. The former, however, is a little more complex. He’s heavily flawed, as most detectives are in noir fiction, but he’s much more accessible. It’s much easier to relate to a man dying of cancer, desperate to escape this terrible disease and resentful towards his dissolving relationship to a woman he once loved dearly. Nevertheless, the real star in all of this is Jo.

Whether it’s writing Catwoman or Sharon Carter, Brubaker has proven himself capable of writing compelling female characters. He continues that streak with Jo. He is careful so as never to reveal too much about who she is and where she came from, only giving readers breadcrumbs every so often. This creates tremendous interest and investment into her as a character. She’s fierce and capable of handling a gun in any given situation, while also possessing a seemingly unique ability to put men under her seductive spell. By the end of Death Chases Me, we’re left knowing little more about Jo than when we started, but that’s not a bad thing.

Sean Phillips deftly handles the art chores for Fatale and it’s really hard to imagine anyone but him doing the job. It’s moody, dark and indicative of the era it’s set in. It certainly feels almost like you’re watching an old film noir, so that speaks volumes as to how synergistic Brubaker and Phillips are as a team. That’s not to say there aren’t some chinks in Fatale’s armour. Where Brubaker was a little shallow with some of his characterizations, Phillips sometimes falls short in the detail department with his art. At its best, the art is incredibly expressive. At its worst, it’s muddy and this leaves many characters with weird anatomy and faces lacking in proper detailing.

For fans of the genres of noir and horror, Fatale is like a brilliant marriage that somehow works despite its odd coupling. It’s also ideal for booklovers, as it offers a narrative most often found in novels and operates in the moral grey area rather than the more common good versus evil conflict seen in most other comic books. Death Chases Me is a great start and lays down the groundwork for one hell of a good ride.

RATING: B+

Review: Madame Xanadu - Disenchanted

From the enchanted forests of Camelot to the dingy streets of 1930s New York City, the immortal mage Madame Xanadu has spent her life using her abilities to see into the future to help the rich and poor alike. However, as time has passed she's come to view the mysterious being known as the Phantom Stranger as an increasing threat to humanity. Now she's more determined than ever to hold him responsible for his inaction to stop the death and mayhem she's seen in her long lifetime.

Madame Xanadu: Disenchanted collects Madame Xanadu #1-10, written by Matt Wagner and illustrated by Amy Reeder Hadley.

For history lovers and mythology buffs, you don't get much better than Madame Xanadu. Over the course of the ten issues collected in Disenchanted, Wagner and Hadley weave an incredible tale of magic, fate and responsibility. The titular heroine is complex and flawed. On the one hand, she's selfish and vain, initially choosing to remain separated from the human world by living in the forests surrounding Camelot. Over the course of centuries, she matures and becomes a champion for those who need her help. From the emperor of China to the prostitutes of London, she uses her precognitive powers to protect whoever she can. She often sees things as black and white, which makes her all the more relatable. The recurring tension between Madame Xanadu and the Phantom Stranger anchors these issues, and is used to highlight Xanadu's own flawed perception of fate. In a way, Disenchanted is like a bildungsroman that sees a childlike witch mature into a confident and determined heroine.

The narrative itself is broken up into five two-part stories, which see Madame Xanadu travelling from her forest home in Camelot to China, France, England and, finally, to America. During the course of her journeys, she encounters many figures from both history and fiction. Though not necessary, it helps to have a working knowledge on the context behind the events she's planted in. Luckily, Wagner provides quite a bit of exposition. For instance, the third segment of Disenchanted sees Madame Xanadu acting as a fortune teller in the court of Marie Antoinette. Wagner fills in the blanks by providing exposition through Xanadu's inner thoughts and some pretty nifty splash pages. 

While each segment can stand on its own, they work best when strung together. However, each one varies in its quality. The best of the bunch is easily the fourth, which takes place during Jack the Ripper's infamous crime spree on the streets of London. Madame Xanadu takes it upon herself to protect the prostitutes of Whitechapel. It's engrossing and wraps the narrative with an air of mystery, while also heightening the tension as Jack the Ripper becomes more and more vicious in his attacks. Artist Hadley also does an impeccable job capturing the muddied gothic aesthetic of the era. Although, to be fair she also manages to perfectly incapsulate the opulence of Marie Antoinette's reign and the whimsicality of King Arthur's Camelot. Still, both she and Wagner seem to struggle with the final segment set in the Depression era New York City. Unlike previous segments, it's not based in any one historical (or mythological) event in time. Instead, it's focused on a brief affair Xanadu has with Golden Age hero Giovanni Zatara.

Put simply, Madame Xanadu: Disenchanted is a joy to read. It's a unique take on a character who has long been relegated to the fringes of DC Comics' mainstream universe. Publisher Vertigo and the team of Wagner and Hadley place her firmly in the spotlight, proving that she's multi-dimensional and compelling as a heroine. Disenchanted's revisionist narrative is creative and absolutely engrossing. For fans of Justice League Dark, this will be one throwback reading that is obligatory!

RATING: A

Review: Uncanny X-Men Volume 3 - The Good, The Bad, The Inhuman

Following the events of Battle of the Atom, Cyclops is more determined than ever to ensure that his students are prepared for the harsh reality that exists outside of their school. They’re also adjusting to the new additions of the time-displaced X-Men to their ranks, which subsequently prompts some awkward tension between a teenage Jean Grey and Emma Frost and Cyclops.

Uncanny X-Men Volume 3: The Good, The Bad, The Inhuman collects Uncanny X-Men #14, 15.INH and 16-18, written by Brian Michael Bendis and illustrated by Chris Bachalo and Kris Anka.

The Good, The Bad, The Inhuman is interesting for a very specific singular reason – it is one of the very few modern trades released by a mainstream comic book company that doesn’t feature a multi-issue story arc. In other words, each of the issues collected in this book are one-and-done stories that focus on exploring the relationships between the cast members of Uncanny X-Men. There are equal pros and cons to abandoning the tried-and-true four to six part story arcs that have become common place in the comic book industry.

The major appeal to taking a break from the multi-part format is that it gives a nice little window of opportunity for new readers to jump on board. Since the focus is on building the relationships between the characters, the reader won’t feel too lost since they don’t need to know too much of what occurred from preceding issues. This also means that Bendis is playing to his strengths. While he’s renowned for being the man behind many of Marvel’s biggest events, he’s always seemed a little more at home when writing dialogue than building story arcs. That rings true for The Good, The Bad, The Inhuman. Every word that comes out of Emma Frost and Magik’s mouths feels purposeful, as their sniping at others and overall feisty attitude creates a lot of great moments throughout. Bendis particularly likes to play up Emma’s playful rivalry with Kitty, as well as her deep-seated hatred towards Jean Grey. For this reason, the series two blonds continue their streak of scene-stealing and stand out as the two most interesting characters in Uncanny X-Men.

The downside to Bendis’ focus on one-off stories is that they have the same effect as filler episodes from a TV series. It stalls the tension within the series, bringing the action to a grinding halt. While it’s refreshing to take a break from a story arc to allow the characters to breathe, the problem is that not a whole lot has been happening in Uncanny X-Men as is. Up until this collection, Bendis has been building towards some kind of conflict – be it with Wolverine’s school, the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., Mystique or humans in general. There are no primary antagonists to speak of, nor does he really attempt to resolve the issues his characters are having in their personal lives. As such, this really leaves the reader with the feeling that Bendis doesn’t really know what he’s doing and like there’s no real direction to his run. Tonally, it seems like he might be aiming for a title similar to the beloved ‘90s quirky teen book Generation X. What is preventing this title from replicating the qualities that made Generation X such a hit is that Bendis simply doesn’t have a cast of characters that is memorable enough. Yes, Emma and Magik are fantastic, but what about the rest? The teen mutants he’s created continue to be forgettable and lack the personalities readers need in order to root for these guys. Aside from Tempus, none of them have distinguishable designs or costumes. That’s why Bendis needs six part story arcs against badass villains, because otherwise he’s essentially just treading water with a bunch of characters that no one is truly invested in.

The Good, The Bad, The Inhuman is an eerily accurate title for this collection. It features some great character moments as a result of Bendis’ aptitude for writing snappy dialogue. Fans will love Emma’s signature bad girl persona, while readers will continue to fall for Magik and her lack of a filter. However, the meandering plot deflates any tension that Bendis had been building towards. This trade also fails to flesh out its younger cast members, something which has been an issue from the get-go with this series. There are really only a couple of issues worth reading here (#15.INH and #16). You might want to grab those two issues separately and save your money to get a trade that’s more worth it.

RATING: C+

Review: Green Arrow Volume 5 - The Outsiders War

In order to stop the villainous Komodo, Green Arrow must return to the island that changed his life forever. With the mysterious archer Shado as his guide, he soon discovers that his being stranded on the island was never an accident and that he is in fact entangled in the history of an ancient secret society. With shadows from his past returning to haunt him, Green Arrow must either accept the destiny that was chosen for him or strike out on his own.

Green Arrow Volume 5: The Outsiders War collects Green Arrow #25-31, written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino.

With The Kill Machine ending on a soft cliffhanger, Lemire and Sorrentino take Green Arrow back to the island that turned him into the character we know today. This return brings new surprises, adding further twists in the origins of the Emerald Archer. Much like TV’s Arrow, much of the narrative here is interested in exploring the reality of what happened on the island while Oliver was stranded there. It’s also focused on the why as well. Where Arrow veered into melodrama with its predictable love triangle mess in order to give one of its antagonists’ motivations, Lemire takes a completely different route.

The Outsiders War is entrenched in a layered conflict that has simmered for centuries between the ancient weapons clans. Green Arrow and the Arrow Clan are at the epicenter of this conflict. Unlike the other clans, the Arrow Clan has been without leadership for years and its totem has been missing for just as long. The villain Komodo is eager to claim the totem for himself in order to procure leadership of the Arrow Clan, but he must eliminate Green Arrow and Shado to do that. What’s great about all of this is that our titular hero couldn’t give two flying flips about the clans or their totems. He just wants to get rid of Komodo and rescue the half-sister he just found out existed.

Responsibility, destiny and expectation are clear themes throughout The Outsiders War. Green Arrow feels responsible for all the hurt Komodo has inflicted upon his loved ones, while newly introduced Diggle feels responsible for protecting Seattle from a gang war bubbling up in the city. This helps to define both characters, giving one a sense of maturity and the other motivation. Meanwhile, destiny and expectation are interwoven as we learn that Robert Queen had a prophetic view on who he wanted his son Oliver to become. It’s a startling revelation, one which shakes Oliver to his very core. The real conflict then comes in whether Oliver chooses to become who his father wanted him to be or whether he becomes something else entirely. There’s never really any question as to whether good will triumph over evil. Komodo will go down, that’s never in doubt. What is uncertain is what path Oliver will go down and that’s what makes The Outsiders War so damn good.

There are a lot of characters in this arc. That’s to be expected, given the level of build-up involved from The Kill Machine and the overall scale of the narrative. This is a story that spans centuries and expands across the globe. While the vast majority of the characters here are either original creations or are part of the Green Arrow mythos already, Lemire includes two guest stars that are surprisingly brilliant as an ally and villain respectively. They are Katana and Onyx.

Katana, as we find out, possesses the totem of the Sword Clan and she is dragged into the war as an ally for the forces of good. I’ll admit to being biased when it comes to Katana, so while I was thrilled she was a guest star, it was still a bummer to see that she didn’t have as much panel time as I would have liked.

In the Pre-Flashpoint continuity, Onyx was an antihero largely associated with the Batman segment of the DC Universe. Here, she’s reimagined as the leader of the Fist Clan. She’s tough (duh) and is allied with the villainous Spear and Shield Clans. Her purpose in the narrative is largely to stand around being sassy, that is until she has an epic Kill Bill-esque showdown with Katana. It’s one of the most memorable moments from The Outsiders War, especially due to Katana’s deadpan humour during the fight.

There’s no contesting that Lemire and Sorrentino deliver yet another epic arc on Green Arrow. With The Outsiders War, Lemire unravels the mysteries that have shrouded Oliver’s past in order to give the character a new sense of purpose and clarity. The writing is crisp, fast-paced and, at times, quite funny. It strikes the perfect balance between relentless violence with layered character development. Lemire knows how to write nuanced personalities, as well as how to pull off a good twist. In other words, he is to Green Arrow what Gail Simone is to Batgirl. If you’re looking for a Green Arrow trade to pick up, you really can’t go wrong with The Outsiders War.

RATING: A

Review: X-Men - Battle of the Atom

When a group of mutants claiming to be the future X-Men show up on the doorstep of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, they make it their mission to ensure that the time-displaced X-Men from the past return to where they belong. There’s just one problem – they don’t want to go back. Fleeing from Wolverine and his school, the time-displaced Jean Grey and Cyclops go on the run, and find unlikely allies in the elder Cyclops and his rogue team.

X-Men: Battle of the Atom collects X-Men Battle of the Atom #1-2, All-New X-Men #16-17, X-Men #5-6, Uncanny X-Men #12-13, and Wolverine and the X-Men #36-37, and is written by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, and Brian Wood.

As the first major X-Men crossover since 2011’s Age of X, Battle of the Atom is fairly modest in comparison to its predecessors. It’s not as expansive and intense as Messiah Complex or its sequel Second Coming, as it takes a more intimate approach with its narrative and character treatment. Rather than dealing with the assembly of multiple teams of X-Men as they fight a common foe, this crossover places Jean Grey and Cyclops at the core of a conflict that divides the X-Men themselves. There’s a minimal amount of action and drama. There’s quite a bit of debating amongst the mutants about the presence of the original five X-Men in the present, which amounts to a whole lot of dialogue. This is a problem that runs through Bendis’ All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men runs, as he spends so much time focusing on character interactions that it consistently deflates tension and slows the pacing of his stories to a brisk walk. Unfortunately, pacing and lack of action are but two of the major issues with Battle of the Atom.

Since the very first X-Men crossover in 1986 (Mutant Massacre), Marvel has used these events as a catalyst to shake up the status quo and incite tangible change within the various X-Books. They typically result in line-up changes, new costumes and the death of at least one major character. Battle of the Atom doesn’t even come close to doing any of that. Bendis, Wood and Aaron provide a promising set-up, one which had the potential to bring about some major changes in the titles involved. As far as Bendis’ books were concerned, All-New X-Men had been treading water as the time-displaced X-Men mulled over whether they should return home or not, while Cyclops’ team in Uncanny X-Men struggled to find recognition as a legitimate force for good. Battle of the Atom could have and should have been the catalyst for bringing about the changes both titles needed. The original X-Men should have returned home and Cyclops’ group should have finally been given a break. What we got instead was a whole lot of the same old, same old.

There’s this overall sense of impending doom that is never quite earned in Battle of the Atom. We’re consistently told that something very bad is going to happen if the original X-Men stay in the present, but we’re never shown why. There’s a rather gruesome sequence where we see the assassination of Dazzler in the future (we get it Bendis, you have a Dazzler grudge), but we’re shown very little other than that. It’s implied that humans are to blame for the plight of the mutants in the future, but without being shown the full extent of this the story can never truly move forward. Of course, we’ve already seen futures where humans have all but eliminated all of the mutants on Earth. This further hinders Battle of the Atom, as it pales in comparison to the beloved Days of Future Past and the more recent (but less critically lauded) Age of X.

Ultimately, Battle of the Atom is an unnecessary crossover and its conclusion is so infuriatingly mundane that it is sure to leave even the most diehard of X-Men fans feeling like their time has been wasted. After multiple battles between the X-Men (past, present and future) and against S.H.I.E.L.D., the end result isn’t a shocking shake-up of team rosters or even the death of a major member of the team. The whole purpose of the crossover, as it turns out, was to get Kitty Pryde to switch sides from Wolverine to Cyclops. This low yield payoff is unsatisfying and does very little to change the status quo. The only lasting effect this conclusion has is that Kitty became no longer available to appear in X-Men and Wolverine and the X-Men. This could have easily been done in the pages of All-New X-Men, rather than derail Brian Wood and Jason Aaron’s work on their respective titles. Battle of the Atom is entirely optional for X-Men fans, so you won’t feel lost or like you’re missing out if you decide to opt out of this crossover.

RATING: C

Review: Madonna - Rebel Heart Tour

For the second of her two shows in Toronto for her Rebel Heart Tour, Madonna proved why she is and always will be recognized as the reigning Queen of Pop. Drawing largely from her latest album and oldies (but goodies) from the ‘80s, the two hour extravaganza was a stunning display of Her Madgesty’s talent and innate charisma.

For perhaps the first time ever in her illustrious career, Madonna doesn’t court a whole lot of controversy with the Rebel Heart Tour. Maybe this is because it’s 2015 and nothing much surprises us anymore, certainly not stripper nuns or topless dancers, especially from Madonna. Fans will have adjusted to her penchant for juxtaposing sex and religion, something which is on full display during the “Holy Water”/“Vogue” mashup. However, there are no grand political statements which have become a staple of Madonna’s concerts either. There’s no commentary on the current presidential race in the US, nor does she address any conflicts abroad or the many mass shootings that have rocked America in recent years. Instead, she makes her show about two things – herself and her fans. The show is both introspective and retrospective, much like the album it’s in support of. At its core, the Rebel Heart Tour is a love letter to her true blue fans.

Let’s get this straight, if you were a fan of Madonna during the ‘80s and dropped off somewhere around Erotica, this show is likely to only delight during its throwback moments (of which there are plenty). Still, the bulk of its material comes from her latest Rebel Heart. From the opener “Iconic” to the penultimate “Unapologetic Bitch,” Madonna shows that she has what it takes to stay relevant in this ever-changing world of pop music. The problem, of course, is that much of the album featured downtempo tracks that don’t translate well to arena tours. Unlike the frenzied MDNA Tour, the Rebel Heart Tour is much more intimate in its approach to Madonna’s material. This gives her plenty of opportunity to work the crowd, teasing and playing with them in between ballads.

The setlist for the show is near perfection. She pulls just the right songs from Rebel Heart, opting for a healthy mix of party anthems (“Bitch I’m Madonna”) and emotional ballads (“HeartBreakCity”). While some often debate the quality of her new material versus her tried-and-true hits, there’s no denying that some of the best moments of the night came while performing songs off of Rebel Heart. The titular track, in particular, saw Madonna taking up an acoustic guitar while singing in front of a video screen displaying artwork done by her legions of fans from around the world. It was a nostalgic moment of reflection, looking back on her many incarnations throughout the years. Similarly, “Ghosttown” provoked a thunderous response, with most singing loudly to the poignant love song.

There were plenty of surprises as well. Madonna dug deep into her catalogue, dusting off many of her oldest and most obscure songs from the ‘80s. She picked up an electric guitar to belt out “Burning Up,” held a singalong with fans for “Who’s That Girl” and transformed “Material Girl” into a Broadway ready showtune. While there was a medley of “Dress You Up,” “Into the Groove” and “Lucky Star” that didn’t quite it its mark, Madonna knocked it out of the park with a beautiful acoustic remix of “True Blue” and an abbreviated “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.” It also goes without saying that the crowd went absolutely wild for “Like a Virgin.”

Still, there were a few flaws to the Rebel Heart Tour. While the setlist was fantastic overall, there were some oddities and ill-placed songs. For instance, “Like a Virgin” would have been better suited sung after “Material Girl” when she was decked out in a wedding veil. Similarly, the omitted “Like a Prayer” would have been the perfect closer to the first section of the show. For some reason or another she included “Candy Shop” and the cover song “La Vie en Rose.” The latter, made famous by French singer Edith Piaf, worked thematically in its Paris-themed segment, but fell flat amongst the largely English-speaking audience. The song would have been better served as a special treat for her Montreal dates and European shows. In its place, “Sooner or Later” would have actually been a brilliant throwback. “Candy Shop,” meanwhile, is a non-single track from her 2008 album Hard Candy. It’s far from being a hidden gem and doesn’t quite deserve its place on the setlist over more massive hits like “Express Yourself” or “Hung Up.” What’s more unfortunate is that it’s used in the same fashion it was during the MDNA Tour, during a cabaret-style sensual routine. This highlights the other issue with the Rebel Heart Tour – despite the overabundance of new material, the show feels very familiar.

Madonna is known for being a revolutionary artist who is constantly on the cutting edge when it comes to her performances. She continually shocks and titillates her audience with exciting routines and biting social commentary. The Rebel Heart Tour doesn’t do this. Yes, the choreography is great (seriously, her dancers are insanely talented) and the costuming is gorgeous, but it lacks the originality Madonna is synonymous for. With the exception of the mechanic-inspired second section, each segment of the show feels like they’ve been recycled from previous tours. This also emphasizes the overall lack of cohesion to the tour, since each one feels disparate in comparison to the other and since the songs don’t always pair perfectly with the staging. As such, it’s much more similar to Sticky & Sweet than the masterpiece that is the Confessions Tour.

The Rebel Heart Tour is a true nostalgic celebration of Madonna’s music. This intimate two hour spectacle showed a softer side to the veteran pop star, as she was all smiles and toyed with her audience. The mix of old and new material was just as on point as her wardrobe, giving her a setlist created as if to say thank you to her true diehard fans. While there will always be nitpicks here and there, it’s impossible for an artist like Madonna to put on a universally acclaimed tour at this point in her career. As the most successful female artist of all time, this is a woman who has hits in just about every decade since her debut and whose back catalogue is so large that her shows would exceed five hours if she were to sing them all. If there’s one thing that the Rebel Heart Tour showed me, it’s that Madonna has nothing left to prove. She is a legend in every sense of the word and has shaped both music and society in a way that no other artist has ever quite been able to do for such a long, sustained period of time. She doesn’t have to compete with the girls trying to snatch her crown, she doesn’t have to give drag queens new looks to emulate and she most certainly doesn’t have to please the middle-aged women who come to her shows to relive their youth. For me, as someone who has been fascinated by her image and music since I was a child, I am simply grateful to be able to be in the presence of such an accomplished woman and give my support and thanks to someone who has not only shaped who I am, but someone who has done so much for music and the LGBTQ+ community.

Review: Avengers - Age of Ultron

As the sequel to the 2012 record-smashing film The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron features the return of its all-star cast as the titular heroes battle the threat of extinction at the hands of Ultron. While Marvel Studios and writer-director Joss Whedon were aiming for a The Godfather Part II epic, what they delivered instead was more comparable to X-Men: The Last Stand. Despite its heart and focus on character-driven drama, Age of Ultron is buried beneath its bloated running time and overstuffed cast.

James Spader stars as the titular villain Ultron. The film’s conflict hinges upon Ultron’s disillusionment with humanity and his subsequent desire to eradicate the human race in order to start the world anew. As one of the Avengers’ most dangerous foes in the comics, Ultron is known for his ruthlessness and his relentless mission to destroy Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Sadly, that doesn’t get translated all that well to the big screen. Part of what made the villain so effective in the comics was his apparent lack of emotion, but here he’s all emotion. Rather than give us a menacing comic book villain, Whedon pulled a Whedon and gave us a sassy take on the classic Avengers foe. Ultron’s humorous and playful dialogue makes the character seem like he stepped right out of an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It cuts through the tension to the point where it’s impossible to even consider Ultron a credible threat. This is further emphasized by the goofy CGI work done on Ultron, particularly due to those moving lips.

Ultron is but a symptom of Marvel Studios’ obsession with comedy and humour within the superhero genre. There is a lot of destruction in Age of Ultron. Hell, the Hulk and Iron Man seemingly destroy an entire African city during their hero on hero battle mid-film. When Warner Brothers featured a similar level of destruction in Man of Steel, they were heavily criticized for it. Yet, here’s some hypocrisy here, not much has been said about the mayhem that the Avengers and their foes have been responsible for. What is especially distressing here is that the two studios approach this chaos in different ways. Man of Steel was sobering in its deadpan seriousness, whereas Age of Ultron sees our heroes flinging out one-liners like they’re going out of style while buildings are collapsing. This glib kind of attitude seems inappropriate and creates tonal discord within the film. It would be easy to blame Whedon for Buffy-izing Marvel’s characters, but it’s all too common a trend throughout the rest of their cinematic universe. After all, wasn’t Guardians of the Galaxy just stand-up set in space?

Clocking in at nearly two-and-a-half hours, Age of Ultron is a potentially torturous watch for anyone with short attention spans. Much like its predecessor, it is dialogue-heavy and features many scenes that focus on character development outside of battle. The best example of this occurs midway through the film where the Avengers retreat to Hawkeye’s secret farmhouse to recuperate after a devastating fight against Ultron. It’s a long sequence that introduces us to Hawkeye’s family life, features a tried-and-true battle of ideologies between Captain America and Iron Man, and sees Black Widow and Bruce Banner sharing an intimate moment together (but not that intimate!). It’s painfully slow and completely deflates all of the tension that had been building up until that point. It seems to be there to remind us what our heroes are fighting for, to give them some development and to inject some personality into the most useless Avenger of the bunch (Hawkeye). It was also there to provide some false foreshadowing of a death that never came. At the end of the day, the sequence was mostly boring and did nothing to endear me personally to Hawkeye.

The farm house section drew quite a bit of attention for its controversial scene in which Black Widow refers to herself as a “monster” after revealing to Bruce Banner that she’d been sterilized as part of her training as a spy. It was interpreted by many as an attack on womanhood, suggesting that Widow viewing herself as a monster was due to her being unable to have children. I’d argue that what she was referring to was the fact that she’d been conditioned and trained into becoming an emotionless killer. Ultimately, the dialogue could have been handled better and the sterilization bit could have been omitted. It’s a harrowing experience, but one which seems inappropriately nasty for one of the few female badasses in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The implication there does seem to be that in order to be badass you can’t be a mother, so both Whedon and Disney should have been a little more judicious so as not to upset a largely ignored fanbase for the films. It certainly doesn’t help that she spends a good chunk of time leading up to the climax stuck in a cell waiting for her (all male) teammates to rescue her. I mean come on, this woman is the world’s greatest spy, surely she can pick a lock. Nevertheless, Black Widow continues her streak of being the most interesting and captivating character of the bunch.  Of course, much of this has to do with the fact that she’s surrounded by a bunch of immature frat boys. She kicks lots of ass and anchors much of the story through her budding relationship with Bruce Banner.

As stated before, Age of Ultron seems to collapse under the weight of its large cast. If there was a lesson to be learned from Fox’s X-Men films, it’s that ensemble casts are tricky to handle and that each character introduced needs to be there for a reason. While all films typically need both lead and supporting roles, Age of Ultron struggles to find the right balance. None of the characters quite feel like they’re in the lead, though the central roles do seem to be those of Ultron, Iron Man, Bruce Banner and Black Widow. Everyone else is shuffled into supporting or cameo spots. This is unfortunate since it seems like Captain America and Thor get downgraded, while characters like Falcon and War Machine are given cameos if only because Disney is well aware of the fact that they’ve already been heavily criticized for having a disproportionate number of white heroes in their films. The good thing is that each character serves a purpose in the story, but the bad thing is that there’s just too much going on. As such, the narrative ends up being incredibly imbalanced and leaves the viewer feeling disconnected.

The casualty in this imbalance is the development of the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Of all of the characters in the film, these are the two that Whedon seems to “get” best. Their dynamic is on point, their powers are visually stunning and even their goofy accents are kind of endearing. Elizabeth Olsen is captivating as the Scarlet Witch and her costume at the end is everything. Meanwhile Aaron Taylor-Johnson proves himself to be a much more compelling Quicksilver than Evan Peters. The problem is that the pair have limited screentime and development, since they’re forced to share the screen with a dozen other characters. They spend much of the film being Ultron’s lackeys, which does nothing to actually develop them and endear us to them. Above all of the characters in the film, these were the two that needed to be developed. Not simply because they’re great characters in the comics, but because (spoiler alert) Quicksilver sacrifices his life to protect Hawkeye. The impact of this death is lessened due to fact that he wasn’t all that important to the story. It wasn’t like Agent Coulsen’s death in the first film, where we’d grown to love him, instead it felt random and unnecessary. Yes, there are casualties in war, but it is completely unrealistic to have the speedster die due to being shot. Whether Quicksilver was killed to give the finger to Fox or to surprise the audience, it wasn’t earned. While Olsen gives it her all during her breakdown over her brother’s death, the audience needed to be right there with her. Truthfully, Whedon should have just gotten rid of Hawkeye. He’s dead weight and at least it would have prevented Jeremy Renner from saying more sexist crap about Black Widow during press junkets.

Ambitious is a great word to describe Age of Ultron. It’s clear that there was so much that Whedon wanted to do and say with the sequel to his beloved 2012 film. Unfortunately, it seems like he was completely overwhelmed by the enormity of the project and studio meddling certainly didn’t help to alleviate that either. If the summer of 2015 showed us anything, it’s that dinosaurs kicked the superhero genre’s ass. While Jurassic World has its fair share of flaws, it is never derailed by issues with tone or by having simply too many characters. With critical acclaim waning for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and potential audience fatigue setting in, all eyes will be on Captain America: Civil War to see if Marvel Studios has learned from its missteps with Age of Ultron.

Rating: C