Torso, Justice League, and the Russian Avengers

Confession time.  I hadn’t thought about this in years, decades really, but it came up recently in a Twitter conversation with friend and fellow Biff Bam Popper Tim Murr.  He’d just seen the 1973 pre-slasher era horror classic Torso and I’d mentioned I’d seen it in its initial run, when I was ten.  I wasn’t a bad kid really I wasn’t, but let’s face it, I was that night.

On what might seem like a dare, but was more like a don’t be a body part Trump thinks he can grab without permission, three other boys in my class and I sneaked out after nine during the summer and watched Torso at the drive-in with no sound from the woods near the screen.  My siblings are probably shocked right now, and my parents both passed would have kicked my butt majorly if they’d known, but yeah, I did it.

31 Days of Horror at Biff Bam Pop!

If you've been to the Biff Bam Pop! website, you know that other than the regular pop culture features, we're all big horror fans there. As always, special for the month of October, and culminating today on Halloween is 31 Days of Horror.

31 Days of Horror takes a look at the past and present in horror movies, television, horror television, horror comics, and even horror animation.

This year we had guest blogger Monica S. Kuebler write about Midnight Son; Loretta Sisco gave us a peek at her Halloween playlist, as well as her regular column, True Crime Corner, and her reviews of the television series Outlander; and Robin Renee gave us a tour of Halloween Haunt at Kings Dominion.

Newcomer to the site from over at the late great Popshifter, but terrific writer and whirlwind of terror, Tim Murr gave us looks at Red Christmas, Halloween III, the brilliant Psycho documentary 78/52, Pumpkinhead, Mike Thorn's Darkest Hours, and the latest album by Werewolves in Siberia, as well as his music column Let Us Now Praise Noise. Also from Popshifter, and a terrific comics reviewer, E.A. Henson brought us Alien Toilet Monsters and the seven essential Halloween specials you MUST WATCH this year.

As well as her awesome column Creations of Chaos, about animation and anime films, Sarah Hawkins-Miduski gave us her thoughts on Neil Gaiman's Coraline, Edgar Allan Poe's Mystery Dinner Party, and four creepy animated shorts. JP Fallavollita took us on a tour of the Tomb of Dracula, and also featured horror in ever October edition of his comics column The Wednesday Run. Jim Knipp gave us a look at the deadly dollies of horror films, and Marie Gilbert served up some Soylent Green for the Halloween holiday dinner.

Co-editor-in-chief and founder of Popshifter, the amazing Less Lee Moore gave us reviews of Alone in the Dark, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and The Asphyx, as well as her regular columns, Pump Up the Jam and Now Streaming on Shudder.

Founder and publisher Andy Burns provided insights on Stephen King and Owen King's recent appearance in Toronto, the Creepshow graphic novel and The Dark Tower: The Art of the Film, the games Resident Evil: Biohazard and Outlast Trinity, as well as his popular weekly Box Office Predictions and awesomely on-topiv column The Week in Horror.

Besides my regular reviews of the television series The Flash, and infusing the 31 Days of Horror theme into my comics review column Heroes and Villains, I got my grubby little hands in there too, writing about the classic rat movies Willard and Ben, fellow Biff Bam Popper Lucas Mangum's Engines of Ruin, The Car, Beware the Slenderman, and Halloween in the Marvel Animated Universe.

Don't forget about the other regular columns at Biff Bam Pop! like The Ten Percent by K. Dale Koontz and Ensley F. Guffey, and By the Book by Jim Knipp, and our other great staff writers like Luke Sneyd, Richard Kirwin, Mat Langford, and David Ward.

Clicky-clicky, come on by Biff Bam Pop! and check out 31 Days of Horror. It's the best way to celebrate Halloween!

Arrow S06 E03: Next of Kin

Back during the time of late high school and college when I wasn’t actively reading comics any more (I know, shocking), a lot of things happened.  One of them was the first appearance of Onyx, a naive vigilante who Green Arrow crossed paths with in Star City.  Sheltered in a monastery she learned martial arts, and in a move that would make Batman proud, Onyx went out into the world to do good, her parents having been murdered years before. 

Later she was completely revamped as a Batman associate in the War Games story arc.  Now she was trained by the League of Assassins, and no longer naive.  Personally I liked the original teenaged Onyx with the cape better, but it’s the later version who has been brought to the small screen on “,a href="http://monsura.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">Arrow.” 

Continuing from this season’s first episode, Team Arrow is in pursuit of Alex Faust, with John Diggle taking over as the Green Arrow.  He took on the mantle at the end of the last episode, in spite of the degenerative cell damage he suffered on Lian Yu.  So far only Black Canary also knows, but neither has told Oliver.  Seems like Oliver has definitely rubbed off on the team. 

This pursuit has John pulling the insane stunt of jumping off a building and letting Black Canary’s scream propel him across to another building.  It sounds nuts and comic booky, but the way it was executed I totally believed it.  Bravo.  Also notable the opening gauntlet of symbols lacked one for Spartan, giving more commitment to the idea that John is now the Green Arrow.  Nice touch. 

When Oliver shows up for work the next day Samanda is waiting for him.  She’s not stupid, and despite Oliver’s airtight alibi, she knows someone else was playing Green Arrow, someone who’s not an archer.  Samanda also brings up how the cops might feel slighted (at best) with the mayor leaning on a vigilante.  It’s a thought I had as a little kid watching the original “Batman” TV show - why do the Gotham police even bother showing up to work?  They’re either bored or disillusioned, right? 

Meanwhile the slick Onyx, here a crooked ex-CIA operative named Onyx Adams, breaks into Kord Industries (will we ever see Blue Beetle?) and downloads some serious intel, including a deadly nerve gas (Kord makes nerve gas???).  When Team Arrow protects the gas shipment, Onyx takes them out pretty easily.  I did like Rene’s “Surprise, bitch.” though.  We need more Rene in the show as he gets the best lines.  Why not put him in the Green Arrow suit?  Or Dinah or Felicity, they seem to be leading as well. 

Rene asks Oliver to come back, but he gives John a pep talk instead.  So, the team is splintered when it next goes into action against Onyx and her team - who having seen John in action are unimpressed and don’t see him or his team a threat.  Not good.  Things do turn around however, and the fight sequences of the last act are quite impressive, and a vast improvement over the first episode this season.  And John proves himself. 

Unfortunately, as the end stinger reveals, John is using performance enhancing drugs to stabilize his tremors.  Well, that’s not going to come back to bite anyone in the ass.  There’s more soap with William as Oliver finally allows Felicity into his life.  There was a lot to like about this episode, but all things considered, I’d rather have Oliver as Green Arrow.  This is like one of those tired cliche comic arcs where the hero is replaced.  I’m just waiting for the real Green Arrow. 

Something I talked about last time, but have since given further thought to is the existence of Batman in the Arrowverse.  After a brief exchange with friend Tim Murr on Twitter I’ve reconsidered my position.  There may well be a Batman in the Arrowverse.  And while I’m thinking of it, check out Tim’s work at Biff Bam Pop! right here.  He’s only been with us a couple of months, coming over from the late Popshifter, but he’s written some great stuff.  And a book too.  Check him out. 

So maybe Batman does exist.  After all, we’ve seen Harley Quinn, right?  Felicity wouldn’t take the name Oracle (she does it again subtly in this very episode) when suggested because it was already in use. And then there’s Rip Hunter from “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” who remarked from a dark future that he’d seen dark knights and men of steel fall.  That’s pretty conclusive. And there’s no reason why Green Arrow couldn’t have fought all those Bat-villains before Batman did, right? 

For my other reviews of the entire "Arrow" series, click here. And if you'd like to discuss this episode, anything else in the Arrowverse, or anything in the Marvel or DC television or cinematic universes, please join the Marvel DC Movies TV group on Facebook.

Next: The Black Siren returns in “Reversal!”