It’s a bit of light comics week over here at H&V HQ and it doesn’t help things that Diamond or UPS (OR BOTH?) delayed my local comic shop’s shipment for this week. Luckily for you all I pride myself on my adaptability so we’re going to have a look at some comics adjacent TV that I’ve been watching lately.
The Book of Boba Fett
Way back in December of 2020 the Star Wars fans were collectively losing their minds after a certain Jedi showed up to save the day in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. I include myself among that number because of having been indoctrinated into the Star Wars fandom almost since birth. The finale was everything I was after as a Star Wars fan, I didn’t care that they were playing to the cheap seats it was all frosting and I was there for it.
But then in a Steve Jobs-meets-Marvel-post-credits-sequence, before we fans had a chance to catch our breath and towel off, we were treated to Boba Fett settling a score and THEN the tease that he was getting his own series! And it was just a year away!
The Disney+ Star Wars shows have, in my opinion, relied heavily on fan service. They brought back Clone Wars, they gave us a badass bounty hunter show with The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch expanded on the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. There’s even an Obi-Wan Kenobi show coming! Fan service can be a slippery slope to climb but these shows have managed to enrich the Star Wars universe by checking off boxes on every fan’s wishlist.
Or so I thought.
With each subsequent Star Wars release I continue to grow more steadfast in my belief that there’s an extremely vocal subset of the fandom that will never, EVER be happy with anything new that comes across from Disney. One jackass in particular that I saw online was particularly wounded that The Book of Boba Fett wasn’t 30 to 60 minutes each week of the titular bounty hunter just straight up murdering people in increasingly disturbing ways. If this man had his druthers the show would be nothing but gaping blaster wounds, exploding heads, fully nude Twi’lek dancers, and Boba Fett hanging dong for good measure.
As of this writing I’ve watched the first three episodes and found them largely to my liking. The pace of the show is slow and deliberate as it fills in the blanks of what happened to Fett post-Return of the Jedi and what he’s up to now that he’s taken his place on Jabba’s throne. The show feels like it’s building towards something…because it IS. They’ve spent three episodes talking about what’s coming so it’s bound to pay off soon. It’s for sure not going to be the six hour long murder-fest that some people wanted but we’ll no doubt see why Fett is the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy.
One final note: I am firmly in support of the the technicolor Vespa-style speeder bikes that were being utilized by Fett’s new gang. The prequels were full of wild Buck Rogers shit that came straight from the pen of George Lucas and people freaked out about it not being “Star Wars” enough then. But I’d expect nothing less from a group of “fans” that are perpetually unhappy.
Hey, has anyone checked in with the guys that were crowd funding the remake of The Last Jedi recently?
Peacemaker
From one group of perpetually unhappy fans to another, it’s time to take a look at DC’s Peacemaker!
For starters I’ll say that James Gunn has earned my attention for anything he does after making me give a crap about Guardians of the Galaxy, a movie that was so successful it changed the very source material from which it originated. I was pleasantly surprised by The Suicide Squad and happy that Warner Bros. gave him carte blanche and a blank check to do whatever the hell he wanted.
That’s an extremely long-winded way of me saying that I never in a million years anticipated that I would both watch AND enjoy a Peacemaker show. I mean, if you’re not sold by these opening credits then you’re beyond my help.
The show is fun in a way that most other DC shows are not (yes, Doom Patrol walked so Peacemaker could run) and the show knows exactly what it is from the jump off. The bigger the DC superhero the more cultural baggage you get along with it. People expect certain things from Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman but once you start getting into Aquaman and Captain Marvel Shazam territory there’s more room to play.
I have no attachment to Peacemaker as a character. I’ve never bought a Peacemaker comic book. The closest I’ve ever came is a comic that had a Jeff Lemire Peacemaker back-up story in it, that I think got canceled before it could ever finish. I don’t think I’ve ever met a Peacemaker fan at a comic shop or at a convention and if I ever did I would publicly accuse them of being a liar.
The show is largely about a vigilante (but not Vigilante) who once was the questionable embodiment of American exceptionalism and military might but now may be beginning to see that there’s a world beyond his myopic view. So of course there’s a smattering of IMDb reviews calling it “unwatchable woke bullshit.” But despite the impotent saber rattling the show is currently sitting pretty at a respectable 8.4 rating on the site.
John Cena is great in the title role and is supported by a rock solid ensemble (all of whom are pretty proficient dancers). I do find it funny that people are largely surprised when pro wrestlers are decent actors. If you’re doing what essentially amounts to live theater in front of thousands of people multiple nights a year you probably pick up a trick or two.
Peacemaker is a fantastic and much needed addition to the small (but growing) pantheon of great stuff that DC has done lately.
And the soundtrack is like 99% Cock Rock…and that ain’t bad.
