Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6 – “National Maul”

* Part 6 of 6 of the Dead Presidents storyline *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6 – “National Maul”! We’re at the end of the story, folks. It’s been real. In the previous installment, Deadpool successfully thwarts Reagan’s plan to blow up USA with Russian space missiles, but there’s still the most dangerous president of all on the loose: George Washington. And let me tell you something, he’s ruthless! He’s without Ruth! And he’s smarter than Deadpool by a long shot. Also, he killed Agent Preston! D’oh!

There’s still a handful of presidents to get rid of, right? Right? Franklin Pierce? Andrew Jackson? Wesley Willis?


Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6 [May, 2013]
Written by: Brian Posehn / Gerry Duggan
“National Maul”

Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6We pick up right where we left off: Michael sobbing between dead Agent Preston and “dead” Deadpool, who obviously isn’t really dead because he can’t die? At all? Not even if you hack him up and send his various body parts to different areas of the galaxy? Do his dismembered limbs grow into new Deadpools? Is like a dang starfish?

Michael revives Deadpool by giving him the old “hey wake up!” on him. Once it has been established that Preston is dead and Deadpool is also dead but he can’t die so he’s back, Michael flails to get themselves into action before they get themselves into traction! “Deadpool, Washington is using black magic that I can’t counteract, or even identify.” It gets better, though, because there’s that whole undead army thing too that we seem to have forgotten completely. That will probably finally come into play.

“It’s a bad situation,” Michael says.

“How bad can it be?” Deadpool replies.

Fighter planes are bombing the Lincoln Memorial while a large, violet, spherical burst of electricity shimmers and quakes on the front steps. “OH MY GOD, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!” yells a particularly twitchy agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I don’t know his name, so I’m gonna call him Baxter. Michael can sense Washington in the middle of the violet electricity sphere. He obviously made better use of the sorcery tome than Michael ever did, the fat piece of shit.

Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6

I look forward to what the actual sexy bathtub scene is going to be.

Deadpool flies over Taft’s tub and drops a couple of explody bombs into it, destroying the tub and sending Taft nude and flying. “Why fight the inevitability of our victory? Why resist the presidents? You even look like us,” Taft says, hurtling toward the ground and ready to crush Deadpool under his massive Taftian bulk. “Swear fealty to us and perhaps General Washington will offer you a place in his army.”

SPALUMP! That’s why Taft sounds like when his jiggly titties hit the ground. A few fat jokes later, and Taft is ready to hit the hapless hero with a giant uprooted tree… then Agent Adsit, Preston’s buddy whom I have not mentioned by name at all whatsoever before now, arrives riding a giant mech contraption with a giant fire gun of sorts attached. Right in Taft’s face with this! Adsit has called the Avengers for backup. In the meantime, Adsit’s gonna shoot presidents in the face for a bit to fend them off while Deadpool breaches the Washington Sphere of Lunacy.

“Give him Hell for Agent Preston. That sphere is getting bigger and bigger. Washington is inside with General Eisenhower and Rutherford B. Hayes. I’ll go after Wilson and Garfield,” Adsit says. Deadpool makes a joke about lasagna and Mondays, then wonders if they’re five presidents short at the moment.

WELL, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and William Henry Harrison all got hit by a bus in New York City! Whoops! Then Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew Johnson got killed in L.A. by police! I mean… uh… “by natural causes”.

Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6

Meh, we all look like decaying corpses when we look at ourselves in the mirror, right? Am I right, folks? Hmm? Folks?…

What sucks for Deadpool is that Agent Preston was really the only one who believed in him, so avenging her death is a tall order with a lot of pressure to deal with. “It’s not all my fault,” he thinks. “She’s the fool for believing in the fool…”

Deadpool passes through the violet orb with little problem! “Hey! That wasn’t so bad. In fact, I feel pretty damn– Guuuuuuuh–” then he flops over onto a pile of dead S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers who also attempted to breach the sphere. “Ha ha! Imbecile,” scoffs Washington. At the guy who can’t die. Let’s pay attention, Washington. It’s never going to be the death of Deadpool.

He must have sorta died, because he sees the light. Ahh, the light. Classic. And there’s a lady at the end of it! Bonus! “Hello, Wade. I’m very grateful for this chance to say hello. Take my hand. Let me help you up.”

If Deadpool had his wits about him right now, he’d be all “hubba hubba” at this woman, but he instead asks if he’s dead. He is! Surprise! But it won’t be for long.

Meanwhile, the zombie presidents are all having a hearty guffaw! This dumb bitch breached the sphere and died like the rest, heh heh heh, URK! WHAT?! WHAT’S THIS NOW?! WHY IS HE GETTING UP?! “I’ve never felt better in my life,” Deadpool croaks as he hoists himself up. “I have to thank you for that, Washington.”

Drastic times call for drastic killing-fellow-presidents measures! Washington saps the, for lack of a better word, “life” out of Eisenhower and Grant. “I’ll need all the power I can muster.”

“Fine by me. It saves the trouble of killing your friends. Now it’s just you and me,” Deadpool says with a rejuvenated sense of confidence, putting up his dukes and whatnot. He throws down a bomb of sorts. It doesn’t do anything, but it was SYMBOLIC, man! “I shall bombard you as I once did Cornwallis,” Washington declares, holding a rapier, electricity spewing out of his various (two) eyeballs. “There is such a fate worse than death. You will have nowhere to go when I kill you once and for all. The only reason you made into the sphere at all is because you’re dead inside. There is nothing for a man like you. Nowhere that you belong.”

Why is George Washington so mean? Is he still salty about that cherry tree gaff from a million years ago? Deadpool launches a grappling hook, which wraps around Washington’s rapier and pulls it toward him. This makes Washington mad, all “dang!” and “blast!”.

Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6

Inigo Montoya would be turning over in his grave if he hadn’t prepared to die.

Stab. Deadpool pierces Washington through the tome, which forms a screaming face and yells “NOOOO!” in big red letters! SKREEEBLAM. That’s the sound of a book exploding. No more magic book. It’s just Zombie Washington and Half-Zombie Deadpool fighting it out like men… except Washington was already missing an arm, and Deadpool hacks off his other one. Washington must now fight with stumps.

Nah. Undignified. Washington just scowls and tells him to end it. “I meant with the sword!” he says after Deadpool begins twisting his head. “This is for Agent Preston of S.H.I.E.L.D. She gave her life to defend this country. I may have let her down, but I’ll finish the job!”

Washington gets his head hella torn off. “IT’S OVER!” Deadpool triumphs, holding President Numero Uno’s head in the air.

Then the real Washington speaks up, the one still below under all that zombified possession. He thanks Deadpool for stopping him and his diabolical brethren. He apologizes for all the pain he and they caused. He owes a debt of gratitude. The country owes him too. “Damn straight it owes me – A COUPLE MILLION DOLLARS!” Deadpool screams into Washington’s head. Then he punts it into Lincoln’s crotch at the Lincoln Memorial. “I deserve this,” the head mutters, enjoying its new resting place.

Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6

AND IT’S GOOOOOOOD!!

Stephen McStrange pops in really quick to congratulate the Deadest of Pools on a job well done. Then he asks how the ungodly fuck he was able the enter the Sphere of the Dead and/or Dying. When he doesn’t get the answer he wants, he pops back out.

Agent McMustache (Prestons direct commanding officer) shows up to berate Deadpool for being a fuck-up who ended up getting Preston killed and good going. No money for thee!

Feh. Do not come between a Deadpool and his money. “She was attacked on your ship. It’s your fault!” he growls at McGorman O’Mustache. Speaking of mustache, Deadpool grabs him by it and gets in his face. “Do you think it’s good for your long-term health to make me an enemy? Pay me my money.”

When Gorman refuses yet again, Deadpool pulls out a fingerful of tender little mustache hairs! Gorman ain’t backing down, though, and in fact doubles down. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s gonna make his life a living hell! They’re going to cancel his credit cards and fill his pants with itching powder for serious.

The Avengers – America Man, Arrow Guy, Hammer God, Green Man, Metal Guy, and Lady – show up at this moment to congratulate Deadpool! What a win, the kind of win that deserves a payment of millions of dollars! Then Captain America pushes Deadpool out of the way and runs toward the fallen headless president. “I’ll collect your head and re-inter you myself, Mr. President,” he fawns. Cap will collect his head so he can stick his dick in it, more like.

“With this victory, you’ve earned your own cask of mead in Odin’s hall,” Thor slaps Deadpool on the back heartily! “Gladsheimr awaits.”

“I would love to get a drink with you,” Deadpool smiles.

“I did not say I would drink your mead with you. Just that it would be there.”

All these accolades have not deterred Mustachioed Gorman one bit. “You think your freak-show friends will keep me from destroying you?” Gorman hollers, bleeding from the face like a complete failure of a man. The answer is “yes, probably”.

Deadpool (Vol. 5), Issue #6

And then fuck until I need to go to the bathroom, and then shit until I’m horny.

Agent Adsit fends off Gorman. Gorman mad, but Gorman gone now. Michael has his turn to speak. It’s about Preston and… “You did what you could,” Deadpool waves him off. “Now please stop talking. My head kills.”

Eek. Michael keeps trying to tell him something important, but he continues to walk away. Deadpool just needs some time to rest. Some peace and quiet. An afternoon of the Game Show Network. A boring plate of spaghetti.

Deadpool slumps over the pool in front of the Washington Monument. “Nobody remind me that this reflecting pool is also an attractive hobo urinal.”

Michael still tries to talk to him, but Deadpool suddenly hears a voice in his head. “How… how did I get here?”

Eek. Is that Preston? The dead lady? Agent Preston? Of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Eek. “Wade?! Oh God, I remember now… I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“PRESTON?!” Deadpool yells, looking around. “You’re worse than dead,” he smiles, looking down into the reflecting pool. “You’re Deadpool.”

Haha, I get it. “I’m gonna kill that fool necromancer,” Preston says. Her face replaces his in the reflection pool. She looks angry.

“I needed somewhere to put her…” Michael stutters. “And there was more than enough room in your head…”

And they all lived happily ever after!

Eek.

Final Thoughts

Good stuff, gang! Definitely going to revisit this series soon, I like the cut of this Deadpool’s jib. Thank you, Brian Posehn. You continue to make me chuckle. Like this: “heh heh”.

The Eye of the World (Book 1) – Chapter 52: “Neither Beginning Nor End”

The Wheel of Time - Book 1 - The Eye of the World

Having defeated Aginor by overcooking him like your drunk uncle’s Thanksgiving turkey, a woozy Rand tries to piece together everything that just happened. He’s not very successful. He thinks he just destroyed the Dark One! Delirious!

He makes his way back from whence he came, where the Green Man died of Burning Man Syndrome. The women wait for him, with Moiraine exhausted after keeping Aginor at bay. After mentioning that the Dark One’s prison has weakened, Rand is about to tell her that he’s dead. She doesn’t readily believe this to be true, so it’s probably not. She knows a lot. She’s like Hermione without the shitty nerd friends. Well… ok, never mind. Rand persists, and then realizes that he may have just channeled the One Power, oh no, oh god. Men who do that go insane, oh no.

Moiraine has has an inkling about this and requests Rand to tell her everything about everything. It sounds like he was reaching out for the saidin, and that’s the one thing Moiraine can’t teach about being an Aes Sedai. There hasn’t been a male Aes Sedai in 3,000 years!

Anyway, the boys are still in the Eye of the World cave, where the Eye of the World has vanished. Rand isn’t going to tell them about any of this, but Lan already knows. He knows a lot. He’s like Tyrion Lannister without the shitty nerd friends.

The others exit the cavern with various trinkets and baubles. Mat has some shards of the cuendillar, a symbol of the Aes Sedai. Lan breaks a knife on it for reasons I still don’t understand. Loial has a Horn of Valere, which even Lan is stunned to see. It exists to alert the heroes of Ages from the dead that the Dark One is back. A fight of Demons vs. Zombies! Perrin has cloth, which is unfurled to reveal Lews Therin Telamon’s banner — the banner of the Dragon.

With everything collected and the threat neutralized, it seems that they are all done for now. *checks watch* And just in time for The Voice!

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6 – “Man Without a Shadow”

* Part 1 of 5 of the Gothic storyline *

Welcome to Loneliness & Cheeseburgers Presents: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6 – “Man Without a Shadow”! A fresh Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight story written by Grant Morrison, the guy that annoyed me during my first foray into New 52 Action Comics. So he gets a chance to redeem himself here.

In the previous storyline, we are regaled with a big, racist tale about why Bruce Wayne continues to be Batman after just starting out being Batman. There’s Alaskan Inuit tribal masks and Caribbean cult ritual killings and, best of all, lots of Alfred Pennyworth snark. That was worth the price of admission alone!

Since this ongoing series does not have a continuous narrative, who knows what wacky hijinks await ahead? It could be about anything! Maybe Bruce Wayne gets food poisoning and accidentally poops his suit! That would be exciting.


Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6 [April, 1990]
Written by: Grant Morrison
“Man Without a Shadow”

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

Gothic Dance! Gothic Dance! Everybody Gothic Dance!

“Well, ready to talk, Martin?”

The Martin fellow hangs upside down gettin’ tortured. He saw the shipment go on the boat himself! He swears! It must have been those dastardly Colombians what stole them!

Martin is getting accused and punished for some shifty business. A very large man wearing a wife-beater with jeans holds a bat. A very small man wearing an awful mustard-yellow suit is watching the guy with the bat do his thing. Martin begs the guy with the bat to not hit him with the bat again, please.

“You know what they call me?” the large man grins. “The Bat-Man is what. Pretty funny, huh?”

Actually, that is kind of funny. I like that joke! Martin doesn’t seem to, but he needs to lighten up. Bat-Man cracks him again with his bat, man. “WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SHIPMENT?” he bellows. And, still, Martin doesn’t no nuthin’! Nuthin’ at all! He’s half-naked and bruised and please, sir. The bat hurts! Ouch, etc.

Harry is the man in the suit. Bluto over here asks Harry for some lighter fluid; maybe he’ll start yapping when he’s on fire. He’ll be incoherent, but he’ll yap all the same. Off in the distance, someone is singing “Oranges and Lemons”, a nursery rhyme I’ve never heard of before. Harry hands Meathead a can of lighter fluid and leaves to find the source of the singing.

Harry’s gone awhile. Surely too long! After Brutus empties the can all over Martin, he leaves him hanging to go find out where Harry went.

“Harry? What’s going on? Where the hell are you?”

The lummox spots a record player playing the nursery rhyme. On the floor by its side is a note. “Like one that on a lonesome road, doth walk in fear and dread…” he reads, miraculously. I guess there’s only one word with two syllables. “What’s going on here?”

A man emerges from the shadows. Big Fat is named O’Rourke, and he suddenly looks very nervous.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

JONESY, as I live and breathe! We used to play Bridge down at the country club!

A shriek is heard. Then silence.

“…help me,” mutters the upside-down Martin. “Help me, please.”

Help you?” incredulously sneers the shadow man. “And how can I help you? What would you like? A cigarette perhaps?”

The man flicks the cigarette on Martin. You can figure out the rest.

*jolly Muppet Babies intro music*

Let’s enter a happy-go-lucky Bruce Wayne dream sequence! He is a child walking down the halls of a boarding school with his identically-dressed friend! I think his identically-dressed friend is another identical Bruce Wayne. “Why did you bring me here, Bruce?” asks Bruce. “Why have I come back?”

Bruce #1 suddenly turns into Big Bruce. “I shouldn’t be back in school. I feel stupid in these clothes.”

It’s not a school, dummy. It’s a cathedral. And it’s very bright and there’s a big, scary cross straight ahead. That means Jesus, and you know it’s trouble when that little scamp is around!

A man named Mr. Crane sits in a chair hoisted up twenty feet above Bruce’s head. Bruce is now dressed as Batman. “So you’re a teacher, are you now, Mr. Wayne?”

“Yes sir, Mr. Crane. I’m a master now, yes.”

Poppycock! Bruce Wayne doesn’t know his ass from a hole in his ass! But, nonetheless, his father will be pleased! Which father? His dead one of course, LMAO!

“Father? Father, I missed you so much!” shouts a child Bruce and he runs toward a figure. The figure turns around…

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

Speak no evil, motherfucker!

BUH! WUH! AAAHHH!! WAAAHH!!

Bruce wakes up in his giant, stupid bed with the curtains. “Nightmares again, Master Bruce?” Alfred enters the bedroom without knocking, which isn’t cool because I can see Bruce’s butt. Alfred really should’ve knocked, not that it would’ve made a difference. Bruce doesn’t know how to make himself decent. “It was the same dream,” Bruce cries. His father. A dream about his father. ALIVE. Eek! What could it mean? I’m positively ejaculating with anticipation and suspense.

The next scene is confusing. What I presume to be a man is dressed as a woman, acting as a call girl to another man. They’re getting ready for some big gala downtown.

Nice wig… but it’s a little tight. I don’t know why you go to all this trouble. All this pretense. I mean, everybody knows about you.”

“I hear one more word out of you, I break your legs, you understand me?”

Pleasant.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

Yeah, Yeats or some shit. Leonard Bernstein, he’s a poet, right? Adlai Stevenson.

The “woman” finds a card and asks where it came from. “Came in the mail,” the man responds. “Somebody’s idea of a joke, I don’t know.”

They head out to the elevator. After pressing the button going down, I assume it breaks or the bottom drops out or something similar. A man in his own suite checks the elevator and sees that they had both crashed down, landing on some wooden rafters. The wig fell off. They’re both dead.

Somebody is out to get some of these people, eh? GOTHIC!

It’s 8:25pm. That’s what his 900 clocks strewn about the room show, at any rate. Bruce Wayne is sitting in his thinkin’ chair. He’s doing some thinkin’. He frowns. Thinking is hard sometimes.

Alfred enters with a tray of food. It looks like Bruce’s favorite foods: blueberry waffles, chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, a giant bottle of whiskey, and dirt pudding with those gummy worms. “All this morbid introspection in a roomful of stopped clocks must surely give one a rampaging appetite,” Alfred snarks. That’s the stuff I’ve been waiting for!

Bruce doesn’t want to eat. Not even that big bowl of pillow mints! He’s gonna grab his Batman clothes and go do Batman stuff outside now. Sorry, Alfred. Feed that shit to the birds, ok? Feel free to not eat anything yourself. Bruce doesn’t pay you to sit around and enjoy any semblance of nourishment during your 22-hour work day.

“…well, how do you think I feel? I mean, I hated the guy, but nobody wanted to see him crushed in a falling elevator.”

There are too many fucking people in this issue. Another man talks on the phone, looking quite happy that someone was crushed in an elevator. “And the way he was found… there goes the macho reputation.”

This man doesn’t want to be involved. It’s the fucking O’Rourke guy. He had to get killed like an asshole. The man on the other end of the line says that, just like his brother, O’Rourke was killed by the same man. “It’s Whisper. Mr. Whisper is back.”

Nice name for a villain. “Mr. Whisper”. Like, shhhhh I’m gonna kill you shhhhhhhh.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

How DARE you try to ruin my day by telling me we might be getting killed! I have a Salisbury steak in the oven, goddamnit!

Mr. Whisper is back and that makes this O’Rourke Understudy guy mad as the dickens! The other guy is like, aren’t you fucking listening. Mr. Whisper is back, and he wants revenge for what they did! “How many other guys have no shadow?” he argues. “It’s him!”

OK, well, does anyone have any ideas? Yes, the not-mad-but-actually-scared guy does. They’re going to call… someone. We don’t know who.

The scared guy is named Jack, and the other guy thinks Jack is out of his dang mind if they think they’re going to call… someone. We don’t know who. However, after he argues to Jack that Mr. Whisper is dead and gone, Jack is suddenly silent. “We killed him back in… Jack? Jack, are you there?”

Jack’s bloody hand streaks against the phone booth. Another man starts speaking. “Mr. Kane is here. With me. I’m afraid he can’t talk right now. He can only whimper.”

The other guy is like “BALRH BALRH WHO ARE YOU? RAAABBRBR WHO AM I SPEAKING TO??” This guy is named Ottavio. I finally have both names. I hope you’re keeping up, because I certainly am not.

“Oh, poor Jack. What a mess.?” There’s blood on the phone’s receiver. “Your turn soon.”

Mr. Ottavio isn’t mad anymore. Mr. Ottavio knows Whisper isn’t really dead now. Storyline over!

Nope.

Elsewhere, a news correspondent stands next to a construction site. He reports that, during the reconstruction of the Gotham Cathedral, a time capsule was discovered within its foundation. “The Mayor himself will officially open the capsule as part of the reopening celebrations.” Certainly, though, is this reconstruction just for the votes during the upcoming election? THE PEOPLE WILL DECIDE.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

I wanna hear you squeal like a piggie.

A couple of ruffian thuggish ne’er-do-wells ambush the news correspondent with some knives while Batman lurks high up in the building’s framework. We’ll see how this plays out in a minute. We’re at the opera now for some reason while a rich guy and his pretty nail-filing wife are in the good seats. Whatever those seats are called. The ones high up on the side walls that fit two people and are probably $180,000 per ticket. A man accepts a gift of a box of chocolates from an unknown opera-attendee. “See that the chocolates are delivered directly to Mr. Graziano,” he instructs this small lump of a man.

“I’ll do that. Straight away, Mr… ah…”

“Whisper. Mr. Whisper.” And he walks away. The chocolates are poison or they have little testicle-destroying nanobots or something. Or they explode when you bite into them, creating a mushroom cloud that will level the entire eastern seaboard.

What now, goddamnit? A woman with a literal Moe Howard bowl cut disembarks a bus. “Here, Kitty,” says the leader of a group of assholes. He looks like Ross from Friends. “Here, Kitty Kitty. New in town, huh? Runaway, maybe? Come over here. Come on. Let me see your…”

Then they see something, all right. I don’t know what they see, but it’s something. And it makes them back off. “…ah…it’s okay. Never mind. No problem. Okay? No problem.” And she keeps on walking. Is this going to be Catwoman? It’s probably going to be Catwoman. Calling it now. Catwoman.

Back to the news correspondent! He tries to throw these guys money, but they don’t want his stinkin’ money! “We just want to cut you into little bits,” they smile. Then one – his name is Shadey – disappears suddenly. The other turns around to talk, but he’s not there. “Some joke, Shady,” he says, chuckling at the wonderful joke. Is this what criminals do for entertainment around Gotham City? What a weird little town.

Don’t worry about the news correspondent. The King of Hell shows up.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

I wasn’t aware that Hell had a monarchy.

The King of Hell has made short work of these two. The correspondent is terrified of this new guy, but the King of Hell skedaddles. He doesn’t have time for wimpy news correspondents.

“Something for you, Mr. Graziano, sir.” The little weasel proffers the box of chocolates to the man sitting in the opera house’s good seats. “Compliments of the house. I think.”

“Let me tell you, I’d die for chocolates!” Graziano jubilates, shortly before dying from chocolates. There’s a note along with them: “He who dines on heavenly food has no need for the food of mortal.” This Whisper guy sure is loud with the poetry.

“Close your eyes and count the calories,” Graziano says as he shoves a poop chocolate down his lady’s gullett.

The angry Ottavio guy, he has called a guy named Morgenstern to lay down some serious business matters at hand. O’Rourke’s dead. The Kane brothers are dead. Someone blew up (!) Graziano at the opera house! I was right about the exploding chocolates! Wile E. Coyote’s favorite Acme product! Morgenstern thinks this is all poppycock, but he’s mistaken. It’s no poppycock at all, sir. This ain’t even baloney. Mr. Whisper’s back and he’s not being very whispery about it at all!

Morgenstern! This guy thinks Ottavio is off his fucking rocker! “We’ve had peace in Gotham for years!” he cries! Morgenstern! “If you’re trying to start something here…”

That Morgenstern! Very skeptical! Ottavio needs this to be taken seriously. How do you explain all these dead guys within, like, six hours? Whisper’s back! WHISPER’S BACK!!!! WHISPER!!!!!

“Either you explain this to me – and fast – or I’m calling a psychiatrist…” Morgenstern! What the fuck, buddy? Just believe the guy, man.

He’ll prove it, but first he’ll show him something.

*turns on a light*

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (Vol. 1), Issue #6

Ugh, that thing is such a fucking eyesore.

Final Thoughts

This wasn’t even about Batman! All he did was have a stupid dad dream! I want to see him fighting the Joker and slapping Robin across his pretty mouth!

Bird Box (2018)

Tagline:
Never lose sight of survival.

Wide Release Date:
December 14, 2018

Directed by:
Susanne Bier
Screenplay by:
Eric Heisserer
Based on the novel by:
Josh Malerman
Produced by:
Dylan Clark, Chris Morgan, Clayton Townsend

Starring:
Sandra Bullock
Trevante Rhodes
John Malkovich
Danielle Macdonald
Sarah Paulson

Bird Box

PREGAME THOUGHTS

I like reading the book first on anything, but it’s taking me six months to read 300-page books these days so I decided to just cut my losses and suck it up. If I ever get around to the book, I probably won’t remember any of the movie anymore anyway.

So, yeah, Bird Box. I watched and enjoyed The Mist and, obviously, this is similar. I heard that people crashed cars during “blindfold challenges”, so that sounds fun. After watching this movie, I’ll get more context on that. Maybe I’ll do my own blindfold challenge! Yeah. With jerking off.


THE 750(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

In the not-too-distant future, a post-apocalyptic event is spurred by the sudden existence of supernatural, unseen entities on Earth. When seen by human eyes, these creatures cause a sudden, immediate desire to commit suicide. The movie begins with Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) and her two children, aptly named Boy and Girl, donned in blindfolds, hurriedly boarding a rowboat and embarking upon a long journey down the river.

Five years earlier, Malorie is pregnant. News reports of mysterious mass suicides in Europe and Asia are ubiquitous, but waved off. Upon leaving the hospital with her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson) after an ultrasound, Malorie witnesses a woman in the hallway voluntarily smashing her own head repeatedly against a window. Shortly thereafter, complete chaos ensues on the street as Jessica drives them home. Eventually, among the pandemonium, Jessica becomes mentally dissociative and intentional crashes the car. When it doesn’t kill her, she intentionally steps in front of a passing semitruck.

Bird Box - Jessica

Why, Sarah Paulson… your eyes are ravishing!

Shaken AND stirred, the very pregnant Malorie hobbles her way over to safety in a house occupied by a handful of other people. Among them are alcoholic hothead Douglas (John Malkovich), nerdy mythology enthusiast Charlie (Lil Rel Howery), literally Machine Gun Kelly, and, of course, eventual love interest Tom (Trevante Rhodes). This is the part that parallels The Mist: a group of survivors are trapped in a building while an unknown all-encompassing danger surrounds them, preventing them from leaving without risking death. This happens for a while. The owner of the house dies after learning the harsh lesson that one can be affected through surveillance camera footage on a computer screen.

It is learned that some individuals aren’t driven to suicide. These people are, instead, driven to force survivors to “see the beautiful light”. These people are equally as dangerous as the threat itself.

A pregnant woman named Olympia (Danielle Macdonald) bashes on the door to try to get in and Tom allows it, against Douglas’ wishes. She turns out to be all right. Now they have a houseful of people, two pregnant, and a looming food shortage. Using draped blankets and GPS, a group are able to get to the grocery store to stock up. Malorie finds a cage of birds there and takes them with her. It is discovered that these birds can sense the danger.

Bird Box - Birds

Yo, I found some birds in a box.

Back on the river, Malorie and the kids travel for hours blindfolded. The same birds she took from the store are with them on the trip. They become agitated when the entities are near, alerting the group of immediate danger as they make their way downriver. It seems like they all should’ve died before Hour 1, but hours and hours and hours go by with little incident; save for one guy who wants to show them the light. Malorie fucks his shit up good.

Back at the house, Olympia, knowing what it’s like to be trapped outside, lets in a guy named Gary. Gary sucks, and shortly after both pregnant women give birth at the same time, Gary starts ripping blankets and newspapers off the windows to show everyone the beautiful, pretty, glorious, awesome light. Almost everyone remaining in the house succumbs to this asshole’s actions (including new mother Olympia) until Tom shoots him dead. Now it’s just Malorie, Tom, and the two newborn babies. They live together in the house for the next five years.

Through their handheld radio, transmissions are received from a guy named Rick who runs a safe community located roughly 48 hours down the river. Shortly before the river expedition, a gang of light-addled shotgun-toting buttheads discover that the house is occupied and try to force the four of them out. Tom saves the day and kills the last one before becoming completely overtaken by the effects of the Suicide Ghoul. He shoots himself through the head.

Bird Box - Tom Suicide

Tom Kills Himself About Stuff

Cut to the present. Malorie, Boy, and Girl are almost to the location of the safe community, but their last obstacle is the very dangerous rapids. It was advised by Rick that someone needs to look during this leg of the trip or else they will likely die. Against his advice, Malorie decides that none of them will look even after both Boy and Girl volunteer. They almost die, but then they don’t. It’s very suspenseful.

They eventually make it. The safe haven is a school for the blind full of people who are immune to the effects of the Suicide Monster. Survivors also include, you know, people who can see. The three of them make themselves at home. Boy and Girl get real names and start playing with the other children. After five years of being on her guard, Malorie finally breathes, relaxes, and embraces their safety.


TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — Similarities to The Mist

I happened to watch The Mist a few months ago, and I happened to watch Bird Box just now, and both of these movies are similar to each other. A mysterious and unnatural miasma causes people to die. A group of scared individuals are holed up in a building, afraid to go outside. There is a lot of paranoia and anger directed at one another. That’s about it, but that’s most of the two movies.

Bird Box - Kids

Listen to me, kids! Whatever you do, do NOT look John Malkovich in the eye!

The Mist would have been a much more powerful movie if they had kept the Mist Monsters unseen. Instead, they made a bunch of bugs and tentacles with horrible CGI effects. This is where Bird Box did it right, because the creepy entity that causes everyone’s eyes to glaze over and then commit suicide is pretty much invisible for the entire movie. Sure, there are occasional ethereal vapors, but the “monster” mostly puts voices in people’s heads to goad them into seeing the light. Which kills them. It’s rather nefarious.

The ending is where The Mist gets it right. THAT movie ends with horrible sadness and despair. Bird Box has a happy ending! BOO! Sandra Bullock’s kids should’ve been killed and fed to the Space Bears in order to appease the Suicide Eyeball Devil! But, no, they find a Blind School. Ho hum, bah humbug.

The acting in Bird Box is way better. They actually feel like human beings here, while the characters in The Mist feel like semi-badass let’s-get-down-to-business action types with shallow dialogue. And there’s no Tom Jane howling like a wounded hyena at the end of Bird Box.

TOPIC 2 — Why Some People Are Unaffected by the Light

I know we’re not supposed to know everything about movies such as these, but it was kind of a copout to avoid explaining whatsoever the reasons why many people don’t kill themselves when exposed to the light. They instead become these overly serene pod people, doing everything they can to get the unexposed outside even if it means killing them instead when they don’t comply.

Bird Box - Monster Drawings

No foolin’, shit like this gives me some tattoo ideas.

I suppose I should try to come up with my own theory… ok, I don’t have any of my own. A couple of Reddit fan theories suggest that unborn children may play a factor into the entities’ powers, especially since mythology know-it-all Charlie discussed demons who could make women see their unborn children as lobsters and spiders.

Other theories suggest that an individual’s disposition may be responsible. Overly negative people such as Malorie and, uh, John Malkovich, spent their time in the movie unaffected. Perhaps if they were exposed to the light’s effects, they would’ve flipped into the awed, positive types that revere the light like it was Jesus or David Alan Grier.

And maybe these people were just recruits planted to force others to see the light! I dunno. I just wish I could’ve seen Machine Gun Kelly punch his own dick to death. I’m sorry that it didn’t happen.


IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

Cast members said John Malkovich had a bizarre connection with the birds on the set. If he told the birds to move their feet, they would.
Even the birds know that when John Malkovich tells you to march, you fucking march.

Sandra Bullock personally asked Sarah Paulson to play her sister in the film.
“Hey Sarah, I’d love for our audience to see you get hit by a semitruck within the first ten minutes of the movie. Thank you.”

Sandra Bullock ran into the camera a couple of times when she was blindfolded.
Now that’s a movie I’d see. Sandra Bullock dropping F-bombs while bruising up her face for an hour and a half.

Bird Box - Blindfolds

Guys, maybe I don’t want to join the sorority after all.

In January 2019, a 17-year-old girl in a blindfold taking part in the Bird Box Challenge drove into oncoming traffic in Utah and crashed her car, prompting state police to issue the same warning as Netflix.
Why couldn’t she have just eaten Tide Pods like a normal teenager? Kids these days, man. You need to wait until at least 21 before you do some extended blindfold driving.

According to an article by Helen Bushby, director Susanne Bier suffered “sleepless nights” after Sandra Bullock refused to cut holes in the blindfold she wore for the film.
Well, it sounds like director Susanne Bier shouldn’t have directed a movie about fucked up, invisible entities that cause immediate suicides unless you constantly wear blindfolds without holes cut into them.

Now Playing Podcast reviewed Bird Box. This film received two “recommends” and one “not recommends.”
This lazy piece of trivia receives one “not recommends” from me.

The Mist and Bird Box almost have the exact same opening scene. With the mist opening up with David painting and Bird Box opening with Malorie painting in her studio. These two dystopian movies begin with a calm setting and transition into complete chaos.
At least Bird Box didn’t end with Sandra Bullock yelping like a castrated baboon like Tom Jane after putting a bullet in his son’s head! But I would’ve loved to see it.

The movie included footage from a real-life Canadian disaster scene. On June 6, 2013, a freight train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. On January 21, 2019, Netflix apologized for including the footage, but refused to remove it from the movie.
“Hey, we’re sorry for using this footage for our horror movie but absolutely go fuck yourself because we’re leaving it in.”


IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

Sure. I’ll probably never watch it again, but this movie was fun and I’m glad I saw it once. I’ll watch anything with John Malkovich in it! And by that I mean I’ve only seen maybe two other movies with John Malkovich in it.

Bird Box - John Malkovich

I’LL SHOW YOU WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING JOHN MALKOVCH!!

The Eye of the World (Book 1) – Chapter 51: “Against the Shadow”

The Wheel of Time - Book 1 - The Eye of the World

We last left Rand running away from Aginor and the screaming Moiraine. She’s not screaming in ecstasy. Not today. He doesn’t get to see what happened to her quite yet, because Aginor is quickly approaching and He. Means. Business. If his business is killing, which it most assuredly is. Ba’alzamon, after all, rewards the killing! Or, barring that, bringing Rand in alive if he can.

Rand is not havin’ it. While breathing and panting, he notices (or senses, rather) a cord of light connected to Aginor which is charging his batteries. The cord keeps getting thicker, and Rand keeps getting more anxious. The have some sort of battle with the cord, which freaks Aginor out until, suddenly, Aginor bursts into flames and Rand finds himself in between the Trollocs and the Good Guys in Tarwin’s Gap. There’s fire and lightning and the Earth shakes when Rand slams his fist. Most of the Trollocs and Fades are killed. The man is a monster! Maybe even in the sack, if Egwene is lucky.

So this gives the Fal Dara crew, plus whoever is with them I forget, plenty of wiggle room to decimate the rest of the army. There’s some stuff about Rand facing Ba’alzamon head on while the devil-man shows him visions of his mother getting tortured. He gives Rand one last chance to kneel or he’ll die, and Rand stands up to him! All such as “YOU DON’T WEAVE THE PATTERN, NERD.”

Ba’alzamon doesn’t take kindly to this. OF COURSE he weaves the pattern. Bitch, he is the Pattern! Rand, however, notices a cord on this guy too and then cuts it with his sword. Ba’alzamon screams while Rand blasts him with fire.

Then Rand gets hit in the head and he gets knocked out.

High fantasy! Power cords and Satan-killing! Does it get any better than this, ladies and gentlemen?

(Yes)