Seen Anything Good Lately? Vol. 2

That was a long, hot, and hectic summer. And look, I know, Summer ends towards the end of September according to the calendar. It’s more important now than ever that we acknowledge and respect facts, but…come on…Summer ends after Labor Day. The next couple weeks are just Fall’s extremely hot (temperature) prequel.

This was a strange summer for me content-wise. I didn’t watch a ton of new movies or TV shows, there weren’t as many of them as in years past. The impact of the most recent writer’s strike was felt, and again I stand with the writers. More of my time content-wise was spent reading new comics, older podcasts, and of course listening to a ton of podcasts. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t see some great movies and shows, just not as many as in years past. Let’s get into what I did get into this summer.

Movies

THE BIKERIDERS. Writer/Director Jeff Nichols is one of my favorite filmmakers working today. He’s written and directed six movies to date, my favorite of that six being 2012’s MUD starring Matthew McConaughey, but The Bikeriders comes very close to that and so far is my favorite movie of the year. And if it had come out last year as planned it would have been my favorite movie of 2023. The movie, which follows the creation and destruction of a motorcycle gang in the 60’s and 70’s is a tremendous meditation on masculinity, American myth-making, rejection, and the absence of purpose. Austin Butler gives a great turn as Benny, the ideal member of a motorcycle gang who acts as a figure of affection for Tom Hardy’s Johnny, the leader of the gang, and Jodie Comer’s Kathy who falls in love with Benny and has to learn about the life of motorcycle gangs quickly. Hardy and Comer each give performances very high up in their illustrious careers. The movie is thrilling and devastating in equal measure. I want people to check out this movie and Nichols's entire filmography, I think he’s one of the best filmmakers working today and I want him to give us many more movies.

THELMA. The most fun I have had at the movies this year. I walked into Thelma knowing very little about it and walked about being evangelical for it, immediately texting my friends and family that they needed to see this immediately. June Squibb’s titular Thelma is an elderly woman who falls prey to a robocall scam, and after feeling embarrassed about it due to her daughter and son-in-law’s response to it, she teams up with her friend and screen legend the late great Richard Roundtree to get the money back that was stolen from her. A brilliant genre mash-up full of charming, warm performances, and so many authentic laughs. This is very much Squibb and Roundtree’s show, but I want to give a special shout-out to Fred Hechinger who gives an outstanding performance as Thelma’s grandson Daniel, who has a great parallel story in the movie to his grandmother. Daniel’s parents are afraid that Thelma can’t take care of herself, and neither can Daniel as he’s in his mid-twenties and seems lost. Such a terrific, winning, human movie that with one false piece would fall apart, but everything works together in such a winning fashion.

HIT MAN. One thing this summer confirmed for us is that Glenn Powell is going to be in our lives and on our movie screens for a long time to come. And I am very okay with that, he’s a terrific actor and has a great screen presence. And Hit Man, his collaboration with the legendary Richard Linklater showed me that Powell is both smart and authentic about the career he is putting together. This movie about a college professor who helps local law enforcement by going undercover to bust criminals is an outstanding balance of comedy, crime thriller, and romance. A vehicle that works well on its own but works even better at showing Powell’s many movie star attributes. To me this is what Out of Sight was for George Clooney or Magic Mike was for Channing Tatum. In Linklater, Powell worked with a director who completely understood him and together they crafted the perfect movie to not only entertain but underline all of the star’s talents. It’s a great magic trick and a fun watch.

CHALLENGERS. This felt like the most anticipated non-IP movie of the year. Luca Guadagnino is an outstanding director, not all of his movies work for me, but something I admire about all of his recent movies, even if I don’t connect with him, is he gets great work out of his actors. And shows new dimensions of them. I’m happy to report that Challengers as a whole worked for me very well, I thought it was an excellently written script, and it was terrifically directed, but the movie lives and dies on the performance of it’s three main actors. And they are all winning performances. Zendaya gave the great non-franchise movie star performance that everyone knew that she had in her, she’s one of the most gifted actors of her generation and I look forward to the next movie like this she makes. And it was a great introduction to me to Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, I had never seen them before in a movie and I could not wait to see them again. More than that, I hope they make a few movies together, those two guys have a real screen presence as a duo.

TV

THE BOYS. I love this show. I love it because it is a pitch-perfect superhero satire. If there’s a trope I could not be more exhausted with it is the “Evil Superman” one but Antony Starr’s performance as Homelander, and the show’s writing of that character is so stellar it makes me forget that exhaustion. Every season there are only eight episodes of this show, and every season I truly think the whole cast and crew makes a meal out of each one. There’s not much left to be said about The Boys as we head into it’s final season (which I think comes out in 2026 and not 2025 unfortunately), but this has been one of my favorite shows of the last few years, it’s a show my brother and I text about, and it is a show that pulls fewer and fewer punches every year as we get to what I can only guess will be a devastating and epic final season.

X-MEN 97. As previously discussed in this Newsletter, I am a comic book fan and comic book creator because I grew up in the 90’s boom of phenomenal superhero animation. X-Men the Animated series was a cornerstone of that boom. I was very apprehensive about this, the original show was great, but I didn’t know how the animation was going to be, I didn’t know how most of the voice actors would sound now, and across the board…I could not have been more delighted with this show. The animation was extraordinary. The team they put together to bring this show to life deserves every single accolade possible. I felt at age 31 what I felt at age 5 watching the original X-Men show. They have matured the series and the characters, but not to a ridiculous degree where things are unrecognizable. The metaphors are more powerful, more sharply edged, and this is what I want out of any superhero show. Every episode feels like the craziest issue of a comic you ever read. It’s a great time for superhero animation with this show crushing all expectations, My Adventures with Superman reinventing the Superman mythology in a wonderfully modern way, Batman: The Caped Crusader crushing it, and Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being an incredible continuation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie. I’m hoping the four of these shows bring us a lot more comic book readers.

COBRA KAI. I am a big fan of the original Karate Kid movie, and I am an even bigger fan of well-written Teenage melodrama. For the past five and half seasons Cobra Kai has been a brilliantly warm continuation of the Karate Kid mythology and supreme Teenage melodrama, the kind I used to love in my teenage superhero comics and on the WB. This show is so well-written, funny, well-paced, and affectionate, and has shined a bright light on a young generation of actors I have no doubt we will be seeing for years to come. Also for all of you anime fans, this show is non-stop tournament arcs and every single one is incredibly executed. I will miss this show terribly when the last half of this season comes out. There has been a lot of fair “There’s too much IP content” conversations, but Cobra Kai is the best-case scenario of continuing a story that ended a very long time ago.

Podcasts

A TYPICAL DISGUSTING DISPLAY. Here’s something you should know about me, any comedy-based interview podcast? I am always willing to give a chance. A Typical Dusting Display is hosted by Alec Sulkin, Julius “Goldy” Sharpe, and JC Brooks who have all worked on Family Guy. Every week they usually interview a television or comedy writer, but they have also had great interviews with political pundits, actors, and people from the world of music. There are a ton of interview shows but the host’s honesty, frankness, and sharp-edged sense of humor have really given me a lot of joy. They are also honest, without being cruel, about how Hollywood tends to work and their honesty is so refreshing to hear. Some of my favorite interviews of theirs are the ones they have done with John Mulaney, Seth Meyers, David Pakman, and Scott Grimes. I strongly suggest giving this great podcast a chance.

DISCOG DISCOURSE. I love ranking things. I am a very basic internet boy. I love seeing how people rank things and then both argue with it and create my rankings. Discog Discourse features its three hosts and often a guest who is a musician breaking down the complete discography of a punk or alternative band’s career. They have done episodes about Blink 182, Paramore, Green Day, Four Year Strong, and others. I just love listening to it. I love listening to friends be shocked by each other’s opinions and looking at an artist’s career as a whole. I find it very refreshing and really up my alley.

THE HOLLYWOOD HACK. Hosted and produced by Brian Raftery, this three-episode podcast found on The Ringer’s Big Picture feed focused on the infamous Sony Hack of 2014. An event that I both remember incredibly well and barely remember at all, and that’s part of Raftery’s experience as well. This was a huge deal at the time and radically changed Hollywood and digital culture, but we somehow have not talked about it more. Raferty’s podcast about it is excellent, a little shorter than I would like, but that means that it was probably the perfect length. Raftery also did a great podcast a few years back about Siskel and Ebert called Gene and Roger that I highly recommend listening to as well.

Comics

BOY WONDER. One thing I was scared of when I left DC was that I was not going to be able to enjoy DC books, specifically Batman ones, as much as I used to. I have heard too many people who left these characters professionally be unable to enjoy them again, and the idea that could happen to me broke my heart. Don’t get me wrong, I needed a few months away from the DCU, but I’m happy to report I came back and loved the comics and characters as much as ever. Boy Wonder by cartoonist superstar Juni Ba is not only one of my favorite DC comics of the year but just comics of the year full-stop. Juni’s warm and mythic story about Damian Wayne, the best Robin (in Damian’s words), and his relationship with both is Batfamily and Demon’s Head family is a phenomenal piece of work. Juni is one of the most exciting creators working today and I think Boy Wonder is one of his finest works to date. This book will be on shelves for a long time and I think will become an essential read for Batman fans.

ZATANNA: BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE. Zatanna has been one of the DC’s characters closest to my heart for a very long time. When I heard that writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Javier Rodriguez were going to do this mini-series I had very high hopes. There are many characters in the DCU who deserve a definitive Black Label story to exist for decades to come, and I would put Zatanna high on the list of characters I wanted to read a Black Label story about. I am thrilled to report that all of my expectations were exceeded by this creative team and their phenomenal telling of Zatanna’s history, and a secret that has burdening her for a long time. Mariko has written so many great DC Comics but Zatanna I think is her best DC work to date, and to say Javier’s work on the title is magical would be an understatement. Javier has for years been one of the most inventive and hardworking comic artists out there, he puts a show-stopping artistic clinic with Bringing Down the House. This and Boy Wonder are my two favorite Black Label books yet, I can’t wait to see what the line produces next.

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE: WWIII. Joe Kelly has long been one of our great super hero comic book writers. I am so eager to see what him, Ed McGuinness, and Gleb Melnikov do this fall on Amazing Spider-Man. If I like that run half as much as I enjoyed Deadpool & Wolverine: WWIII, I would be delighted. This mini-series, masterfully illustrated by the great Adam Kubert, is what I’m looking for out of superhero comics. It’s an outstanding character-based adventure that shows the many similarities and humorous/violent differences between Wolverine and Deadpool, puts them in an incredible situation, and we get to see the two in lights we haven’t yet. Joe Kelly is amazing, sometimes he goes away from superhero comics for a little bit, and then he always comes back and just writes some of the best books on the shelves. And again…Adam Kubert is one of the most legendary Marvel and Wolverine artists there has ever been, and this is an incredible body of work from him. Two masters of the craft making an A+ comic for two characters having one of their best years ever.

SCARLET WITCH. It is a great time to be the magical character in your superhero universe. I adore Steve Orlando, I got to work with him so much at DC on some of my favorite projects. I think Steve is a great superhero comic writer, and I think Scarlet Witch is his finest work to date. The way he has taken Wanda Maximoff and given her one of the best monthly superhero comics on the stands is to be studied, admired, and replicated. The series shoulders Wanda’s immense, fun, and often tragic history and pushes her into a bold new place. The book also does a remarkable job with the characters in her orbit whether they be her siblings Polaris and Quicksilver or a host of iconic Avengers characters. And Steve hasn’t done this alone there has been a murderer’s row of great artists on this run: Sara Pichelli, Russell Dauterman, Lorenzo Tammetta, and Jacopo Camagni. This is one of my favorite modern Marvel runs, check it out, and be enchanted by it.

FALLING IN LOVE ON THE PATH TO HELL. Gerry Duggan and Garry Brown have crafted brilliant pulp poetry with Falling in Love on the Path to Hell. Gerry was kind enough to share the oversized first issue with me before it hit the stands and I was immediately taken with the parallel stories of a cowboy on his last adventure and a female samurai warrior from Japan who was watching the end of her era before they both died and made their way to a violent Valhalla where they are forced to do battle for all of eternity and meet plenty of other warriors from different backgrounds along the way. Gerry and Garry have put together something poetic, aching, violent, and thought-provoking with this comic. I look forward to it every month when it comes out. Garry Brown has long been a huge artistic talent in the comic industry but this is his finest work to date with the supremely wonderful colors of Chris O’Halloran. One of the year’s best original books.

FRIDAY. If Ed Brubaker is writing it, I’m reading it. If Marcos Martin is drawing it, I can’t read it fast enough. Put the two of them together? I’m a kid in a candy store. Over the last few years two of my favorite comic creators of all time, and in my opinion two of the best to ever do it, have told the incredible story of Friday Fitzhugh, a former teen detective who comes back home after her first semester away at college to encounter her greatest mystery ever, and to confront a lot of things about her youth that didn’t turn out to be true. An achingly beautiful, phenomenally illustrated, human, and fantastical piece of work. I read the book as it came out as collected editions, and I look forward to reading it again once it is in one nice big hardcover. I hope Ed and Marcos work together again, and I hope there are more beautifully human and inventive comics like Friday in all of our futures.

That’s it for this installment of Seen Anything Good Lately? Next week I am going to take a stab at doing something a little more abstract and personal. I’m going to talk about working with editors, and how they’re awesome. No, not just because I’m actively looking for more writing work, but because I have had a lot of tremendous experience with editors this year and I want to give them the props they are due.

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz