053: The SoraRabbit Update #2

Welcome to the first post of 2022! I plan on having a really big year here at The SoraRabbit Hole. I have a full lineup of posts, Short Hops, and Video Game posts for you all. Plus, after stalling and getting distracted all of last year, I will finally launch my YouTube channel. There are lots of big plans in the works.

That said, I started off the year in a state of abysmally low energy and focus. This post is a couple of weeks late because of that. Things are getting better for me now, and hopefully I’ll be back to 100% soon. I’m not letting it get me down. The first three weeks will not be indicative of the entire year.

Some of the clutter on my desk.

One of the sticking points on this post was coming up with pictures. I couldn’t really think of anything suitable and I was tired of trying, so I decided to just take pictures of random things around my office. This will be a short post anyway, so I figure that will work fine. And you’ll get a little bit of an insight into my working environment.

I haven’t been completely idle. In addition to this post, I’ve also been working on the next two video game blogs, and continuing to brainstorm ideas for my YouTube channel. Once I get my energy back and regain my focus, I’m sure things will start flowing more. Until then, here’s a bit of an update.

Hehe Lego Spidey.

The Spider-Man Review

As longtime readers probably expected, I’m going to devote some of this post to my review of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The movie’s been out for a while now, so there will be spoilers. If you haven’t seen it yet and have somehow avoided the spoilers, first off how? Secondly, you may want to skip this section and come back after watching. I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone.

I’m not going to get into my previous conflicted feelings and stresses regarding this movie. If you missed that and want to know, it’s pretty much summed up in the last SoraRabbit Update. This section is to serve as the end of that whole saga, which I’m sure you’re all relieved about. I know I am.

So, I’ll cut to the chase. It turns out I actually enjoyed the movie. I really didn’t think I would. I built it up in my head to be much worse than it could have been. Sure, it wasn’t the best in the series, but it wasn’t a complete disappointment either. As I sat in the darkened theater with my wife and kid, I managed to let go of my stress and trepidation and had a lot of fun. What could have felt like a gimmick (drawing in characters from two other Spidey franchises) was executed well and somehow managed to work in the MCU world. Although I’ve always been vocal for my dislike of Andrew Garfield’s casting as Peter Parker in the ASM series, he brought an awkwardness and vulnerability to the role that actually made me start thinking of him as Parker. Although his appearance in this movie didn’t make up for the awful Amazing Spider-Man films (as always, no offense to those who dig those movies) I do feel his character was redeemed in the course of this movie. Although it was crammed full of characters, new concepts, and plot points, the movie managed to flow well and didn’t feel bloated like some of the other entries into the various Spidey franchises.

Pros: It was an enjoyable story and served as a good ending to the MCU Spidey’s origin. Since they wrote Uncle Ben out of this iteration of Spidey, he had to have a different loss and a different source for his iconic responsibility speech. There were some good twists and turns despite most of the secrets being revealed prior to release. I appreciate the ending and how they’ve brought the MCU Spidey into line with classic comic Spidey. (Ratty apartment, self-imposed loneliness, hand-sewn suit.) Although it would have been nice for the MCU to get their own Goblin and Doc Ock, it was cool seeing some version of the characters.

Cons: As expected, the appearance of the other Spider-Men, the villains, and Doctor Strange all contributed to take focus away from Spider-Man. It’s been said by better critics than me that the MCU Peter Parker is a supporting character in his own movies, and that continues to be true. There were some confusing bits, such as why Max Dillon looked completely different from how he looked in ASM2. (There was an off-handed comment of “The energy is different in this world” that seemed pretty flimsy to me. Doesn’t explain how his hair and personality changed. If he was a Variant, they could’ve said that. Everyone’s seen Loki by now.) Although it wasn’t overstuffed, the amount of material did cut certain things down a lot. JJ Jameson was relegated to a cameo, which was disappointing. (I was hoping he’d get some screen time. I’ve always liked the pompous windbag.) Venom was tacked on unnecessarily to the post credit scene. I’m sure that will come back, but bleh. I don’t like Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and no one can convince me he was a good choice. And the biggest con, in my opinion? There were only five villains. Why not cram one more in there and make them the Sinister Six? Wasted opportunity.

So, summing up, I liked Spider-Man: No Way Home. The media coverage, the incessant rumors, and the fan buzz leading up to it still makes me feel a little sick and I hope it’s not indicative of how things will be in the MCU fandom going forward. (That would get exhausting and frustrating fast.) Although my con paragraph is much bigger than my pro list, I really did like the movie and I’m relieved at that fact. I will be getting it on Blu Ray to add to my growing MCU collection. I’ll be in line for Spidey 4 if it gets made. (Especially if Miles, the Prowler, and the Scorpion are in it… hint hint Marvel.)

I love my Godzilla statue.

What I’ve Been Doing

So anyway, enough of that. I mentioned earlier that this year has been low energy. That’s slowly getting better, but while struggling with it, I’ve been distracting myself with entertainment. Mainly playing Pokémon… I finished Pokémon Omega Ruby and have been binging on Pokémon Sun. (Oh man, I’m loving that game. It’s so good.) I’ve also gotten distracted by Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, which is not on my video game list. (More on that in upcoming Video Game posts.) I’ve been rereading the Dark Tower series, which Cocoashade is also reading through for the first time. (I’m rereading so we can discuss it.) I’m slowly working my way through Season 3 of Doctor Who and the first Super Sentai series so I can write posts on them. I’m also on a sudden Iron Maiden kick because somehow I managed to miss that they had a new album last year.

Cocoa and I have finally finished What If and have moved on to Hawkeye. We’re also enjoying The Book of Boba Fett. (I will, of course, need to do a post on that one too since it’s a spin off of The Mandalorian, but my Mandalorian Season 2 recap will come out first.) Book of Boba Fett is great, as I expected, but be prepared for a slow start to it. Black Krrsantan is in it, which I’m psyched about. He’s a character introduced in Marvel comics, which further proves the Marvel stuff is canon. Also it makes me wonder if other Marvel characters will get shows… Doctor Aphra comes readily to mind… or Triple-Zero and BT-1, the psychotic droids. The possibilities are exciting.

Anyway, aside from those shows, we’ve also been playing a ton of Mario Party Superstars and watching a lot of Metalocalypse in preparation for the finale. Which brings me organically to my next topic!

The Maxx and Ghost Spider on my Tower of Dragonball. Note that this isn’t even the whole tower.

What I’m Looking Forward To

I mentioned in a previous update that Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Venture Bros, and Metalocalypse are getting specials on HBO Max. All three shows are favorites of mine, so I‘m happy to see them all getting proper conclusions. South Park has had two specials on Paramount Plus and they were amazing. (Many more South Park specials to come!) Adventure Time’s upcoming spin-off Fiona and Cake is going to be fantastic. (And hopefully more Distant Lands after? Nothing’s been announced but we’re hoping.) Bob’s Burgers is finally getting their movie. We haven’t gotten to the new season of Big Mouth yet, but the trailer is out for the spinoff Human Resources, so we should really catch up on that show. Season 13 of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 will be coming out this year too. I recently learned Fraggle Rock got a revival on Apple TV, which I’m not sure what to think about. I’ve read good reviews of it, but Fraggle Rock is one of the defining shows of my childhood, so of course I’m nervous about it. (At least it’s not the horrible movie concept that has been circulating around for years.) Also Apple is one of the streaming services I’ve managed to avoid up until now. Unfortunately it does look like I’ll be dipping into the Apple service, since this week it was also announced that Godzilla’s Monsterverse will be continued there in television form. (It’s Godzilla, I have no choice!)

There isn’t going to be a sequel to the Detective Pikachu movie, but it’s been announced that a live-action series is coming by the same production team. (I hope this doesn’t mean the Pokémon Red movie is cancelled, but I’m worried it might be. That would really work better as a series anyway. They could do a different region every season!) A revival of Beavis and Butthead has also been teased, using Mike Judge’s old concept of showing what they’re like as adults. I guess I should mention the Super Mario movie too… the one with questionable voice casting that will likely be a complete let down… and not even an entertaining one. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. I catch it some day on streaming. Not gonna risk the theater for that.

In the comic book arena, I’m most excited about Spider Gwen: Gwenverse, which will finally give Gwen her own comic again. (For a few issues anyway.) Spawn’s Universe is going strong and I’m really enjoying the three new series. (I hope Todd doesn’t cancel them… I can’t help worrying seeing as how I’ve just read through 400+ Spawn comics and saw several promising series get the axe due to his whims.) The Radiant Black universe is expanding more, with a Radiant Red miniseries, the crossover book Supermassive, which will introduce another character Rogue Sun and bring Inferno Girl Red into the series. I’m assuming Radiant Pink and Radiant Yellow will get minis also to expand their characters. I’m hoping that Ultraman will get a third comic series this year too… it was teased, but you never know with Marvel. IDW announced a crossover between Godzilla and the Power Rangers, which is a hilarious concept to me. (Godzilla has to fight the Mega Zord!)

See? It’s not all about Marvel and Star Wars. Even though sometimes it seems like it is. Of course, there are tons of series for both franchises coming too, along with the usual Marvel movies. And Into the Spiderverse 2, which I’m really excited for. (That one I WILL travel to the theater for. At least twice.) All in all, it’s a pretty big year to be a fan.

I should probably tidy up in here. Note the missing Dark Tower books.

In Closing

So I’ve probably rambled on long enough. I promise to be more timely with my posts— especially the video game posts. I have a lot of content to share this year, but also need to get going on YouTube, so that is going to take priority for a bit. This was a nice, focusing entry. I do think I’m going to keep this format. It’s a fun, easy post to put out in between bigger projects, and it gives me a good forum to gush about things I can’t fit into other posts. (For more of this kind of randomness, make sure to follow me on Twitter: @SoraRabbitBlog)

Once again, my editor Gobo!

Thank you all for reading this mess of a post! I’m going to let this series go dormant for a bit while I get to work on things, unless something big comes up that I have a burning need to talk about. When the third installment comes out, I’m bound to have a lot more to cover. And I’ll plan out some proper pictures for the post too. I appreciate you all for sticking with me during my period of chaotic energy. It will get better. I know that 2022 is technically the Year of the Tiger, but I’m declaring it to also be the Year of the SoraRabbit! I hope you all join me for it.