You know what i noticed, nobody panics when things go according to plan. If tomorrow I told who the main villian of Man of Steel is or the ending to Amazing Spider-man- nobody panics. Because it is all part of the plaaan. But if i mention one little ole spoilder of this movie, WELL EVERYONE LOSE THEIR MINDS!!!!!! Well sucks to be you because this review might contain spoilers. So imma give you this last chance to back off. Now to begin. Out of the three big superhero movies this summer, DKR was my least anticipated. Mainly because I was not that crazy about the dark knight as everyone else for me to be excited about a follow-up even though it was a good movie. Now that I have seen it and while I did enjoyed The Avengers more, The Dark Knight Rises is a DAMN good movie and a satisfying conclusion despite its shortcomings.

The first half of DKR works in the way of setting up a chess board, the players are positioned in order to get everything in place for the main game to begin ( the second half) We get to see how cunning, sleek and awesome Catwoman is, we get to see how intimidating and complicated Bane is, we are introduced to a few characters who will play an important role later on, we learn the condition of Bruce Wayne and the city of New York ( I will explain in a minute.)I would say that everything about the first half was nothing but perfect set-up. And once the second-half begins boy does it pay off giving us one of the wonderful climaxes of the past decade as New York truly experiences hell. It is something anyone interested in action cinema should see. The cinematography has also improved, giving us the best action scenes of the trilogy.

One of the aspects that have set Nolan's trilogy apart from typical superhero movies is the quality of the performances. Bale has to give a serious, wide-ranging performance, and he's up to the challenge. Hathaway is the best live screen version of Catwoman. Gordon-Levitt, often holding up his section of the story alone, is a strong presence and Hardy gives us a very powerful and menacing Bane as mentioned before. Michael Caine's Alfred and Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon are as excellent as they've always been . The appearances of Ra's and Caine put a big ol smile on my face.

All of the care put into the story structure pay off in the end despite a few flaws. A) There is simply no adequate reason ever given that Batman took the blame for Harvey Dent’s death at the end of the film. The Joker could easily have been blamed for killing Dent before the final confrontation with Batman and then Batman could resume his activities. B) I know it’s a conscious decision, but The Joker had to be mentioned here. When the previous film’s antagonist is sent to jail, then a major plot point of this movie is freeing everyone in jail, someone should at least note that The Joker is free, even if he, for obvious reasons, isn’t to appear. C) If you could not tell that Miranda Tate was Talia or even a villain in general, you might be kinda stupid. Even so, the third act twist that reveals her as the true main villain not only cheapens Bane ( whose death by catwoman firing a missle from the Bat-cycle is pretty disappointing), but also leaves us with confusion and " well duhhhh" rather than surprising shock. D) The city looks soooooo blatantly like New York City that it did bother me simply because Gotham felt like its own city in Batman Begins that it kinda irritated me when I would see landmarks of New York but the movie still claimed it was gotham.

However, while DKR is not a perfect movie it is still a really good one. The stuff it gets right it REALLY gets right even if the cons keep it becoming the masterpiece everyone expected it to be. This might sound weird to most, but I enjoyed this movie than the Dark Knight but not quite as Batman Begins because of the problems I mentioned. Nevertheless, this is the movie you deserved.

FULL PRICE!!!!!

Marvel, you know i really like you right? You know that i want to be with you and continue to see you're characters grow and develop just as much as I want to see you grow. But baby we need to talk. If you are planning to make changes in the wonderful world you have created, you must promise to at least try not to make some of the mistakes that you have made that have made other people quite unsatisfied.In fact I have some suggestions that might be good for you to do. Baby lets have a drink and talk about this. Ready...

1. Lay off the big events

Fear Itself and (so far) Avengers vs X-men have been really unnecessary and mediocre at best. Not only that, but you're lesser known events have proven to be more superior in terms of satisfaction and quality. Circle of Four or the current Spider-Men crossover are the perfect examples - lesser known but greater quality and critical response. Fear Itself: promising, yet ultimately pointless since there were no real ramification to the universe and was nothing but explosions. Avengers Vs X-men is nothing but a frustrating and unwarranted fight comic. As a matter of fact, AVX would have been better had it been an X-men event in all honesty. When you think of phoenix you think of X-men, not avengers. Also if you are going to have one or two big main events per year, it no longer qualifies as a special event.

2. Maintain a focused continuity

Baby you're continuity is f@#$%& up. I cannot tell which goes where and where is it as of now. One minute wolverine in fighting the x-men with the avengers, the next he is at a wedding where wolvie asks storm to dance and rogue is arm wrestling with iron fist. Sounds lovely while a war between two supergroups are going on . Keep it tighter and do not put out sooo many tie-ins.

3. Know what to do with you're characters

I am going to use the hulk for this one as an example. You turned the Hulk's greatest and most popular nemesis, Thunderbolt Ross, and turned him into one of the most hated characters in the Marvel Universe. You also took Hulk's love interest Betty and turned her into the unlikeable and obnoxious Red- She Hulk. You gave Hulk a planet where he can live in piece and probably have had interesting story arcs...except that you blew it up and killed his wife. OH and now Bruce Banner is evil. Why? I do not know. Maybe Bruce went insane because you ran out of ideas. Over the few years you have shown to be very hit or miss in terms of what direction to take with a few of your main characters and their supporting characters. Fix that.

So please baby just listen to what we have to say. We love you:)

A (very long) rant under the cut. Basically, the Laura Kinney tracked tag has been bothering me after issue #19. Here is my response.

Ok. So in the past few months there has been a lot of grumbling from fans about issue #19. I get it. Having a ship sunk blows. It’s happened to me before, it happens all the time in comics. And I get that Julian/Laura fans are upset with the way it played out. To be honest, I see both sides. I see why Liu did what she did, and I see why fans of that ship are upset. I get it.

But good lord, the fact that Liu has become enemy number one to so many people is frustrating and, I think, misguided. And I take issue with people having a problem with Laura and her characterization.

Number one— the Julian problem. I think we can safely say that Julian’s characterization post-New X-Men has been a mess. For whatever reason, since Julian lost his hands everyone has decided that any previous character development should be thrown out the window. You get no argument from me— it sucks that everyone has decided that Julian should go back to being a bully. And worse yet, a very angry and unfriendly one. His characterization in Wolverine and the X-Men is one of the few things that I think Aaron has dropped the ball on with that series.

But, anyway, somewhere along the line Julian has been written as an angry asshole. It seems to be the consensus that he should be written that way. However, this is not something that Liu put forth. She didn’t cut off his arms, she didn’t make him an angry dick, she didn’t make him a bully. Mike Carey is the one you should have beef with, not Liu. This is the Julian the folks at Marvel are giving us. It may not be the Julian we want, the kid we saw grow up in New X-Men, but it’s what we’ve got.

So I think if you’re mad at Liu for what Julian has unfortunately become in the X-verse? It’s a little silly— it’s not her fault that everyone has decided that Julian should be a douche.

And now we move onto Laura. Because I’ve seen people think that A) Laura acted out of character or B) somehow Laura choosing not to be with Julian is a setback to her character development.

To the former, I have to call false. Was what Laura said hurtful to Julian? Sure. It sucks being broken up with. It sucks when you have someone you care deeply for that says they don’t feel the same way. But, the very matter-of-fact way that she told him? That just is Laura. Liu has done a million things to help make Laura a fully realized character, but she has kept the very logical way that Laura speaks and communicates to people. Laura didn’t pussyfoot around it, she didn’t lead Julian on (even from the first scene I think Laura is clearly trying to distance herself from Julian. It just that, you know, there were dragons and shit to deal with. Also there were children to save which was foremost on Laura’s mind). So… how exactly was this out of character? It’s not like she said “Julian you are awful and I could never like you ever.” No. She told him very clearly, and in her normal Laura like manner that she didn’t feel the same way she did.

As for a character development step back? I really have a problem with the logic here. Because, one of the most intrinsic elements to Laura (and one that I have talked and talked and talked about) is her selflessness. Laura always puts others and their happiness before her own. As far as being ~out in the field and fighting? It makes Laura a heroic person. She is always putting the people she wants to save way ahead of herself and her own well-being. But for her personal life? Laura should be able to choose who and what makes her happy. I think the point Liu was making here was that Laura is a selfless person to the core, but she deserves to be happy. She deserves to be with whoever makes her happy. In this instance, Julian’s ~feelings should have little impact on Laura. Is he someone that makes her happy now? No? Then Laura should be free to, I don’t know, not be with him? I think that’s pretty simple. And I think it actually shows growth, not a set back. The fact that for once Laura is putting her feelings before someone else is huge, guys.

As for people that think that Kyle/Yost should go back to writing Laura. I…. disagree. Wholeheartedly. When Liu started writing X-23 Laura was a laundry list of issues. Essentially it was just like, here is this character with a shit ton of issues and unresolved problems! Enjoy! And it was Liu’s job to, I don’t know, make Laura a person and not just… her problems. Which isn’t to say that I think Kyle/Yost completely dropped the ball on Laura. Not at all, the Laura arc in the last few issues of X-Force was one of my very favorite arcs for her. I also like in Target X how stubborn and protective Laura is. But, overall, so much of X-Force felt like Laura was ~the troubled girl. Even prior to X-Force, it felt like Kyle/Yost spent most of their time trying to figure out just how much shit they could put Laura through. By the time X-Force was over, Laura had been a kid assassin, a prostitute, a clone, a cutter, put through intense torture, and she had been forced to go back to being a killer.

So from that, Liu had to try and address these issues and also make Laura a person. With thoughts and feelings and her own mind. Not just the character that writers seem to get off on making her life worse. She addressed the building blocks that Kyle/Yost put forth (Laura is selfless! She speaks in a particular way! She’s resilient!) and she made Laura a person. While the series might be called X-23? It really should be called Laura Kinney, because the entire point of the series was about moving Laura away from her past and allowing her to grow and be a person.

Are there things that could have been included? Sure. And maybe there are things that we would like to see (I, personally, would have loved to have seen Cess show up) that were on the docket but Liu didn’t have a chance to get to. We’ll never know. But as far as what the series is? Liu has done a bang up job, I’m sorry. She’s brought Laura from a particularly dark place (which, Laura’s life is really just dark place after dark place, but still. X-Force was fucking rough), and she’s made her grow. Laura knows herself, what she wants, who she wants to be with. And that’s really what I want as a Laura fan. I want her to be happy. I want her to know what makes her happy, and to be able to go for it. If she would have been happy with Julian, fine. But the fact that Liu says she isn’t happy with him? It shows the same development for her. If he doesn’t make her happy, she shouldn’t stay. Bar none.

In some ways I think this stems from people caring about the ship of Julian/Laura more than… Laura herself. Which is irksome. If you really cared about Laura? I think you’d realize just how much this run has been positive for her and her character development.

As an aside, I saw something in the Avengers Academy tracked tag a few days ago that implied that Laura was dumping Julian to be with Mettle which… Wow. No. Laura very clearly stated in the issue that she had no feelings for Julian. Nowhere did she say that she had feelings for someone else. As for the implication in Avengers Academy? I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill there. So much of this ~future business is still unknown. And even if it does happen in the future, I think it’s pretty clear that this dark future is not the one that is going to unfold.

And, fuck, if Laura wants to get with Mettle eventually what is so wrong with that, exactly? Mettle is one of the sweetest guys. I ship Mettle/Hazmat and would prefer that to happen, but if Laura/Mettle does happen and they’re both happy then wonderful. They’re both great kids. And, honestly, Laura deserves to be with a nice guy like Ken over being with the douche that Julian has become. If Julian goes back to being the way he was before? Great. I think I could ship it again. But as it stands? No. Sorry.

So. To wrap up, I think Liu’s run has been great and overwhelmingly positive for Laura as a character. I think Julian’s characterization blows and as it stands should not be with Laura. On that note, if Laura is does not want to be with someone, she shouldn’t be with them. Also, final note? Criticizing Liu’s entire run for one issue that didn’t set well with you because it sunk your ship? Is bogus. Sorry.

One more thing— if you choose to be annoyed at the fact that Laura told Julian in a straightforward manner that she has no feelings for him, but NOT be annoyed that Julian called Laura an unfeeling robot? I think you need to check yourself.

We all love sex. We all hate awkwardness. We must be carfeull not to get those two to come together because we get moments that ruin our boners.

For Ex:

Ultimate wolverine in Peter's body getting pretty happy about the thought of putting his magic stick in her dark hole of icky-ness.

So what are some of the most sexually awkward moments in comics of the past decade?

5.

To be more specific, Amanda Conner's Power Girl. She really made her an actual well-rounded character with a fun but confident personality instead of an angry feminist like she was years ago.

4.

Hit-girl is just a really really fun character. She knows how to kick ass, she can cuss like a sailor and deep down there is more to her character than just a generic killer.

3.

I fell in love with X-23 when Marjorie Liu wrote her. She managed to give Laura a voice and made her even relatable to me as a reader. X-23 honestly feels more compelling in her solo series than in her appearances in New-X-men.

2.

Storm was the first comic book female character that I actually got into and respected ( granted from the cartoons first and later in the comics.) I love how much wisdom this character has and how strong of a woman she is. She is considered to be the heart of the x-men and I can see why.

1.

Kitty Pryde is what Jubilee should have been like. Kitty Pryde was the inspiration for Buffy Summers. Kitty Pryde stepped up to frost and saved the world. Kitty Pryde is generally funny but as the same time tough. She is just a really likeable character and to me personally is the hottest X-men character...yep.

Can you name any superhero brawls that actually felt organic to what was going on in the story instead of being forced?

Reading Kick Ass 2 is like reading some of Marvel's big event- they start off promising but ultimately end up being either okay or just crap. The same could be said for Kick Ass 2. Now I do understand that this is a guilty pleasure book overall, but there still needs to be some substance and if you are going to input shock value, have it feel organic instead of having shock value for the sake of shock value. Reading issue 4 of this book was the exact equivalent of seeing the blob eat the wasp in Ultimatum and just like that scene, it felt really unnecessary. It also does not help that issues 4-6 feel like filler and messes up the pace of the issue as well as making Hit-girl's return feel slow. The book also suffers from the dialog which also was a problem in the last book. Kick Ass 2 overall was a disappointment with great ideas that never got fulfilled to make an interesting story. Here is hoping the movie sequel will not make the same mistakes. So fellow viewers, what are your opinions on KA2 if you have read it already???