Trevor Writes

Adventure Time: “Cherry Cream Soda” Season 7, Episode 3 Air Date: November 4, 2015 Root Beer Guy was set up to be one of Adventure Time 's later-series breakout characters, debuting in season five's “Root Beer Guy” (a season highlight in the show's greatest season), but tragically died a year later in season six's “Something Big”, sacrificing himself to save the Candy Kingdom. Root Beer Guy's widow Cherry Cream Soda takes centre stage in her titular episode, which explores one character's grief in a way previously unseen in this series. We've had death and mourning in Adventure Time before (“James”), but not from the perspective of a person mourning the death of a romantic partner; specifically, a wife grieving over her dead husband. The opening four minutes in “Cherry Cream Soda” are among the most quietly sad and thoughtful the show has produced, where we discover Cherry Cream Soda has dreams every night recounting Root Beer Guy's death. C...

Adventure Time: “Varmints” Season 7, Episode 2 Air Date: November 3, 2015 In discussing Adventure Time , we are so far removed from the traditional Saturday morning cartoons of old, shows built around a single premise and status quo, and would spend years building narratives off the same launch pad. Even Cartoon Network's own classic first-wave of shows – Powerpuff Girls , Dexter's Laboratory , Johnny Bravo – functioned this way. You could stumble upon the show while channel surfing and immediately get into the episode, a season one episode or a season five episode working with the same base ingredients. There's a comforting familiarity in a series that doesn't experience drastic changes, generally keeping the premise static throughout the show's entire lifespan. It's a cartoon staple, from the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short films to more adult fare such as The Simpsons . Adventure Time 's narrative progression from episode to episode trac...

Adventure Time: “Bonnie & Neddy” Season 7, Episode 1 Air Date: November 2, 2015 Adventure Time has returned this week from its own five month exile from television, the longest break in the show's five-and-a-half year history. In its absence, we've seen the popularity and critical acclaim of its sister series Steven Universe (created by former Adventure Time writer Rebecca Sugar) reach new heights, now met with the same excited fandom that Adventure Time itself experienced in its early and mid seasons. Now seven seasons in, the veteran Adventure Time can be easily taken for granted, but to fans such as myself, that would be unwise, as this series is still as rich as its ever been. “Bonnie & Neddy” occurs two months after the status-quo destroying sixth season endgame, and the social order in the Candy Kingdom is still weird and broken. After losing the election at the end of last season, Bonnibel Bubblegum (with Peppermint Butler) left the Kingdom to live in...

Kadokawa Shoten / Viz Media 25. Neon Genesis Evangelion (Kadokawa Shoten/Viz Media, 2010-2014, Volumes 12-14) Writer and Illustrator - Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Shortly after Hideaki Anno conceived the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime in 1993, he met with comics creator Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and together they collaborated on a manga adaptation that was set to premiere shortly before the anime to help boost interest in the television series. While the 26-episode series aired in entirety over just six months, the manga - which retold the same story, more or less - ran for nearly 20 years, not completing its run in Japan until 2013 (with Viz publishing the final volume in 2014). Being a mostly faithful adaptation of the greatest anime series of all time pretty much guarantees the manga to be solid as well, but what makes it so valuable to the Evangelion diehards is the little differences that set the manga's version apart. Sadamoto makes this story his own, consistently evoking different...

Valiant If The Valiant 's focus was kick-starting the next chapter in Bloodshot's life (with Bloodshot Reborn ) , then the same can be said about Book of Death and Eternal Warrior . Now that it's been confirmed that Wrath of the Eternal Warrior debuts this November, it'll be interesting to see just how much the latter issues of Book of Death are going to shake up Gilad's life. Gilad is currently protecting the newest and youngest incarnation of the Geomancers, a young girl named Tama (who debuted just earlier this year towards the end of The Valiant ). In the Valiant universe, the Geomancer is a mysterious mystic who watches over humanity and protects the Earth. When one Geomancer dies, another is immediately summoned. The Eternal Warrior has made it his life mission to protect the Geomancer at all costs. What makes Tama different from previous incarnations is that she comes from the distant future, and arrived on present day Earth with The Book of the Ge...

Hands shaking. Mind racing. Shortness of breath.  Deep breath now. Get these words down. It'll help. This is therapy. A universe-shaking Valiant event that promises to shake up the status quo like never before. A police procedural set in the far reaches of space starring the equivalent of a female Judge Dredd. A super sized magazine anthology featuring industry super talents. Three #1s landed in my pull list this week, each title I had been anticipating since their solicitations months prior. All three living up to the expectations I had set. Book of Death (Valiant), Mercury Heat (Avatar Press), Island (Image). Book of Death (Valiant) "These books all came out last week, how come you only got to them now?" Fair question. Comics are released Wednesday and my away-from-civilization home in Newfoundland doesn't get them until the following day; I usually buy my new comics every Thursday or Friday. This week past, however, I didn't until Sunday. I've...

Marvel Comics 30. Journey into Mystery (Marvel, 2012-2013, #646-655) Writer - Kathryn Immonen Illustrators - Valerio Schiti, Pepe Larraz Colourist - Jordie Bellaire Letterer - Clayton Cowles The Asgardian flagship title Journey into Mystery , the home of Thor and Loki comics for decades, switched gears towards the end of its long life and centered on Lady Sif, going by the title Journey into Mystery Featuring Sif . This was my introduction into the Asgardian corner of the Marvel universe, having read it before I read a single Thor comic. It immediately attracted me to the universe, and I've been reading all of the Thor/Loki/Sif/Angela comics since. Kathryn Immonen's Sif is an instantly likable protagonist, a good hearted warrior woman who, unlike Thor, doesn't fit in well in Midgard, and feels like an outsider to her surroundings. The comic is as much a straight and forward actioner as it is a meditation on Sif's struggle to understand humans. And speaking of...

Valiant Comics 35. Quantum and Woody (Valiant, 2013-2015, #0-12, Valiant-Sized Quantum and Woody #1, Quantum and Woody Must Die #1-4) Writers - James Asmus, Tim Siedell (Valiant-Sized One Shot) Illustrators - Tom Fowler, Ming Doyle, Kano, Wilfredo Torres, Erica Henderson, Joe Cooper, Pere Perez, Steve Lieber Colourists - Jordie Bellaire, Allen Passalaqua, Wil Quintana, Dave McCaig Letterers - Dave Lanphear Quantum and Woody is something of an anomaly in the Valiant library. Not a part of the original Valiant universe, they weren't created until the late '90s during the reviled era set up after video game company Acclaim bought out Valiant and relaunched the entire universe with game-esque comics that they could use as launching points for actual console games. Christopher Priest and Mark Bright accomplished the impossible by actually making a beloved comic under these dubious conditions, the only Acclaim-era Valiant book anyone talks about with any fondness. Even st...

DC Comics 40. The Multiversity (DC, 2014-2015) Writer - Grant Morrison Illustrators - Ivan Reis ( The Multiversity #1, The Multiversity #2 ), Chris Sprouse ( The Society of Super-Heroes ), Ben Oliver ( The Just ), Frank Quitely ( Pax Americana ), Cameron Stewart ( Thunderworld Adventures ), Paulo Siqueira ( Guidebook ), Marcus To ( Guidebook ), Various Artists ( Guidebook ), Jim Lee (Mastermen) , Doug Mahnke (Ultra Comics) Colourists - Nei Ruffino ( The Multiversity #1 ), Dave McCaig ( The Society of Super-Heroes, ( Guidebook ), Dan Brown ( The Just, The Multiversity #2 ), Nathan Fairbairn ( Pax Americana , Thunderworld Adventures ), Hi-Fi ( Guidebook ), Alex Sinclair (Mastermen) , Jeromy Cox (Mastermen) , David Baron ( Ultra Comics ), Gabe Eltaeb ( Ultra Comics ), Blond ( The Multiversity #2) Letterers - Todd Klein ( The Multiversity #1 , The Multiversity #2 ), Carlos M. Mangual ( The Society of Super-Heroes ), Clem Robbins ( The Just ), Rob Leigh ( Pax Americana , (Maste...