New Series! What Am I Reading?

Make sure to check out the new series where I discuss what comic runs I'm currently reading!

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Star Wars: Ahsoka

Ahsoka was a highly anticipated Star Wars television show. It would provide some explanation doe what Ahsoka was up to between the end of Star Wars: Rebels and The Mandalorian. Personally, I loved this show but I do recognize that there were some negatives to the show as well.

The Negatives:

No Zeb. Zeb was a key member of the Rebels team and someone we’ve actually seen in live action already. He made a cameo appearance in The Mandalorian and was voiced by Steve Blum, who voiced him in Rebels. For such a crucial mission involving everyone else from the Ghost crew, it was strange to not see him included. 

No live-action flashback to Kanan. This was more of a hope, but after seeing flashbacks to the Clone Wars and Anakin training Ahsoka, this would have been the icing on the cake.

The New Republic. Star Wars has painted itself into a corner with this period since the First Order rose and now they have to explain how a new government was ignorant of that rise. Unfortunately, this creates some frustrating scenes where characters obviously either ignore facts or cover for the first order. The saving grace for this is that characters acknowledge this sometimes but it does not feel often enough. 

The Positives:

More live-action Anakin Skywalker. The Clone Wars animated series did a great job adding layers to Anakin so it has been great to see Hayden Christensen come back to play him again. The praise for him from the fans now is drastically different than the negativity he received when the prequels were first released. 

C1-10P aka Chopper! Chopper is the 1A of my favorite droids. R2-D2 is the greatest droid in Star Wars but Chopper is amazing. He’s got an absolute lack of empathy for him and he delivers so many funny moments.

Baylan Skoll. This performance by the late Ray Stevenson was perfect. Baylan was a former Jedi turned bounty hunter with his apprentice, Shin Hati.  Baylan felt a calling and was neither good nor evil. This was reflected in his lightsaber which was more of an orange than the dark side red we have become accustomed to seeing. 

Overall: 

Ahsoka was a great addition to the Star Wars lore. It helped to fill in more information between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. It managed to introduce Thrawn to the live action audience and it gave some much needed attention to the Rebels animated show. 

Make sure to check out Ahsoka if you are interested to see the direction Star Wars is heading. 

Gator Gallop 5K 2024

Pre-Race: Zach inthe front. Rachelle, myself and Kelly in the background.

Some pre-race fun photos.

In my first organized race of 2024, I participated in the Gator Gallop 5k in Wakefield, MA. The course for this race was very familiar as it was a loop around Lake Quannapowitt. I have run this route many times as part of training for other events. It was the perfect event for a 5K. 

The route was amazing, the weather was another story. When I originally signed up for the race, I was anticipating nice weather as it was in April and the weather had begun to warm up. The weather had other ideas as it was cold, windy, and even occasionally rainy. This made for rough running conditions as part of the race involved running directly into the wind.

Rachelle and I crossing the finish line.

I ran this race with my wife, Rachelle, and our friend Kelly. Congrats to Kelly for setting a personal record with her time in this race! Even with the tough conditions she managed to crush the race. Congrats to Rachelle as well as she was coming off of a respiratory cold that hindered her training and caused some issues during the race!

Overall, this race receives a solid A. It was designed as a fundraiser but still offered an amazing shirt and some post-race refreshments to runners. Also, there were raffles that spectators and runners could participate in too. 

If you are in the Wakefield, MA area the next time this race occurs, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

Post-Race Photo Op!

My 2024 Comic Want List

 2024 Comic Want List:

5. Fantastic Four #46 (1966)

This book is the first full appearance of Blackbolt, the leader of the Inhumans. His first cameo appearance is in the issue prior to this, Fantastic Four #45. That issue is considered the first appearance of many of the other Inhumans, including Medusa and Lockjaw.

The reason this book is important to me is that I really enjoyed Anson Mount’s portrayal of Blackbolt in the Inhumans tv show that aired on ABC. He returned as the character in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness as well for his official debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I enjoyed it so much that I met Anson Mount at Rhode Island Comic Con in 2023. I did not get a picture with him, but I was able to to get an Inhumans poster signed by him.

4. Tales of Suspense #77 (1966)

Tales of Suspense #77 comes in #4. This comic is significant as it is the first full appearance of Peggy Carter in comics. Peggy Carter appeared in the MCU in all three Captain America films as well as Avengers: Endgame and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness.

She was also the star of the Agent Carter tv show on ABC for two seasons from January 2015 - March 2016. However, the reason this is on the list is actually for my wife and not for me. She is a massive Peggy Carter fan and already owns her first appearances as Captain America, Exiles #3 (2018) and as Captain Carter #1 (2023).

3. Avengers #57 (1968)

Avengers #57 is the first full appearance of The Vision. The Vision debuted in the MCU in 2015’s Avengers Age of Ultron. He also appeared in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and WandaVision. 

Now, I’m a massive fan of the MCU and The Vision was a great addition to this roster, however, the bigger reason I want to collect this issue is because of Vision #1, which was released in 2015. In this run, Vision creates his own family. His wife, Virginia, his son, Vin, and his daughter, Viv. This is a fantastic story that modern day Marvel produced. I would highly recommend checking out this series. 

2. Daredevil #4 (1964)

Daredevil #4 is the first appearance of The Purple Man aka Killgrave who appeared in Jessica Jones season 1 and 3. He was portrayed by David Tennant. Killgrave was a phenomenal villain in season 1 and left one heck of an impression. 

I have actually had the chance to meet David Tennant twice. I discussed the meeting in my earlier post about my second day at New York Comic Con. He was really gracious to every fan and even though he had to get through a massive line, he took a little time with everyone.

1. Tales of Suspense #66 (1959)

Tales of Suspense #66 is the first silver age appearance of Red Skull, Johann Schmidt. He was portrayed by Hugo Weaving in Captain America: The First Avenger and subsequently potrayed by Ross Marquand in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and What If..?

The Red Skull is an iconic character throughout Marvel comics. He's still front and center in stories like the current Thunderbolts comic series starring Bucky Barnes. This is another book with a personal connection as my wife and I had a chance to meet Ross Marquand as Terrificon in July 2023. He is one of my favorite celebrity encounters. We had a great time chatting with him and just discussing the most random things.

Star Wars TV Shows Part 1

 A hot topic in the Star Wars Universe is the lack of movies and Disney's focus on making Star Wars television shows while they plan their reset of movie plans. Ahsoka is the latest live action offering that Disney and Lucasfilm has produced. The success of the Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi shows have been offset by the mild receptions of Book of Boba Fett and Andor. 

This series will take a look at the different shows, what I liked about them and what I have not. While I have focused on the recent shows, I want to start this series with a discussion of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This animated series debuted as the first animated movie in Star Wars. The box office for the movie was disappointing by Star Wars standards, only making around $68 million. This did enough to entice Cartoon Network to produce the show. Clone Wars ran for five seasons on Cartoon Network, it had a sixth season titled "The Lost Episodes" released on Netflix and a seventh, and final season, released on Disney+.

Clone Wars provided an insight into the events that occurred between Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones and Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith. The Clone Wars shows Anakin as he attempts to guide his padawan Ahsoka Tano on her path to being a Jedi and Anakin's unavoidable fall to the dark side. 

Some Negatives of the show: 

Clone Wars is a show that may take some time to get into. The first season jumps from conflicts and battles with an opening segment that sets up the episode. This has the ability to make a viewer feel as if they missed an episode or missed context in a previous episode. This gets better in the later seasons, but it does make it hard to initially get into the show. 

Anakin Skywalker in Clone Wars

With the show being a cartoon, it had a perception of being a kid show and this can be off-putting for adult fans as well. This show can be viewed by children but there are darker themes and it makes for compelling viewing for adults. I had the chance to meet Matt Lanter, who voices Anakin in the show, at Rhode Island Comic Con and we discussed how the show got progressively edgier as it went on. It was great to hear even the voice actors recognize the tone shifting in the show. 

Some Positives of the show:  

Fleshing out Anakin's character between Episode 2 and Episode 3 was needed as he shifted drastically between the movies. This allowed them to show his maturation and allowed his mentoring of Ahsoka to help show his growth as well. Also, it does a great job of really showing his relationship with Obi-Wan in
a different light as well. 

As mentioned above, this show introduced Ahsoka and it also introduced Asajj Ventress to the Star Wars universe. While Ahsoka helped to show Anakin's growth, Asajj was introduced to be Dooku's apprentice. She is a great character and is a great foil to Ahsoka.

Hondo Ohnaka in Clone Wars

Hondo Ohnaka (voiced by the famous voiced actor Jim Cummings) is a space pirate introduced in this series as well.  This character is great as he is neither for the Republic nor
for the Separatists. He is simply a pirate out to make money. His episodes are some of the most entertaining. If you have ever been to Galaxy Edges keep an eye out, you might see him.

Overall, Clones Wars is a must-watch show. While it is tough to get into because of the scattershot nature of the first season, it is worth powering through that as the stories introduced in the later season add a lot to the lure of the Star Wars Universe. 

 Just wanted to check in over here. 

I have started a YouTube channel to go along with this blog! These are exciting times for Whoosh! As you can see we have also overhauled our logo.

Whoosh! Comics and Running Youtube Channel

Debut Video:

Please make sure to check us out over at YouTube and continue to check out this page as we will still be publishing written blogs as well!

I am starting a new blog series about the Star Wars TV shows discussing the positives and negatives of each! The first in this series will be out this Friday and discusses Clone Wars.

New York Comic Con 2023 Pt. 2

Nightcrawler print from Todd Nauck

Friday started by heading to Artist Alley. Comic book artist Todd Nauck was the first person I wanted to see that day. I had the chance to meet him at Boston Comic Con in 2015 and that meeting gave me a new appreciation for comic art. A funny thing happened while in line for Todd though, he had been talking to Andy Lanning and as Andy went to leave, my wife and I were introduced to him. He could not have been nicer. We actually discussed Disneyland Paris with him. Andy Lanning is known for his work on Guardian of the Galaxy.  If you can, make sure to check out those stories. 

Talking with Todd was great. I got to thank him for giving me a greater appreciation for the artwork in comics and I purchased a Nightcrawler print he had at the con.  It was another great meeting. I hope to purchase a page of his original comic art in the future. 

Costumes from The Marvels

We walked around the show floor a bit and saw some of the cooler things on display. Some of the highlights were costumes from Loki Season 2 and The Marvels movie. Also, various vendors throughout the show had celebrities at their booths as well. The details and the craftsmanship of the costumes were evident when seeing them in person. 

Costumes from Loki

w/ Sam Riegel

From here we headed to the photo op area again as we had a photo op with Sam Riegel of Critical Role. Even in the short time of the photo op, he was very welcoming. Having been a Critical Role fan, this was somewhat surreal. 

w/ Claudia Gray

This was followed up by a return to Artist Alley. There we met Claudia Gray the author of multiple Star Wars books.  It turns out she was a big fan of Andor and Rogue One. This led to a ten-minute conversation where we completely geeked out over both. I picked up a copy of Master and Apprentice which she kindly signed!

w/ Chris Evans

After this, we headed back for another professional photo op. This one was with Chris Evans.  Being from the Boston area ourselves, it was pretty funny to meet a Boston guy in New York so the only fitting thing to do was to say “Go Red Sox”.  

W/ David Tennant

Next was the photo op with David Tennant, who played Doctor Who and Killgrave. He was very nice and seemed genuinely excited to meet all of his fans. I had the chance to meet him previously at FanExpo Boston and he was just as nice here as he was then.

We wrapped up NYCC 2023, by doing one more trip around the convention floor. We purchased some fudge from Copper Coast and decided to head out. However, one last stop on our way out of the convention was the Burger Mobile that was used to promote Good Burger 2.

Burger Mobile!