Hey, geeks -- Ken here! Today is an interesting one for me. It's February 27th, my mother's birthday. It's a day that I'll definitely celebrate, but it's also hard not to mourn at this moment as I watch millions of civilians -- regular people like you and I -- fight for their lives in Ukraine, my father's grandparents' home country. I'll keep today's newsletter as geeky as possible, but I'm also going to touch on the real world stuff that's going on because, honestly, that should be what matters most right now (keep in mind that, as usual, my thoughts here represent my own and are not posted be neither Chris or Kris). I'll likely be going off of my PG-rated course while ranting about these subjects.
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME IS COMING HOME
Spoilers ahead. Sony and Marvel Studios have finally revealed the home video release date of one of the biggest films in box office history. SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME will be available digitally on March 22nd and on physical 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on April 12th. The digital pre-sales for the film shattered AVENGERS: ENDGAME's records in only 2 days, so it looks like Sony will be quite happy with the home sales. It's also been revealed that the Blu-ray will come with 20 additional minutes of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield scenes, so that'll make the purchase worth it alone!
ENOUGH WITH THE COMIC RETAILER VARIANTS
I'll keep this short because I feel like it's a larger topic for another time, but retailer variants for comic books are really ruining the industry. They oversaturate both the current market and the aftermarket, they're unaffordable and unobtainable for casual collectors, and they cause fatigue when it comes to hit series. I'm a fan of both SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN and STRAY DOGS and I can say without hesitation that the overabundance of retailer variants for both of those series killed a lot of the excitement that I had for each new issue. All message boards and fan groups suddenly became about the variants and no longer about the stories. Now, as a RADIANT BLACK fan from the start (I even created and moderate the RB fan group on Facebook), I can say that retailer variant fatigue is kicking in once again. I know this usually has nothing to do with the creators and it's all on the publishers, but seriously... just stop. This is far worse than the 1990s when the comic industry crashed and nearly burned.
DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND WATCH ARCHIVE 81
because it is hands-down one of the best first seasons for an original series that I've watched in a long time. I was originally skeptical because I'm not usually a fan of shows revolving around cults, but I'm so happy I took a shot on this. While there's certainly horror elements to the show, it's more of a mystery that spans across time -- something that reminded me of STRANGER THINGS meets LOVECRAFT COUNTRY meets FREQUENCY (a super-underrated 2000 film starring Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel). Executive produced by James Wan (coming off of the brilliant MALIGNANT) and featuring incredible performances and chemistry from stars Mamoudou Athie and Dina Shihabi, I can't recommend this show enough!
HAWKEYE AND PEACEMAKER ARE COMING TO THE CAMCAST
and Chris and I couldn't be more excited! Of course, first up is THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS episode, but we'll be following that with reviews and discussions of the first seasons of Marvel's HAWKEYE and DC's PEACEMAKER. Release dates will be announced on our social pages ahead of time.
TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE REAL WORLD
As a Canadian, 2022 has been another horrible year so far. Amongst dealing with the regular self-absorbed portion of our nation that have protested something as simple as wearing a mask or getting a helpful, free vaccination (notice the word there being "vaccination" and not "cure" or "immunity"), there's been this "Freedom Convoy" that believe a peaceful opposition means destroying monuments, abusing the homeless, and cutting off the supply chains to our country. It's been disgusting to watch as a Canadian and embarrassing to know that the rest of the world's watching. At least they were until just a few days ago... when Russia invaded Ukraine.
As an English-Ukrainian Canadian, this has been devastating. Watching all of these poor, innocent people either being killed or losing their homes -- fathers and sons and brothers being removed from their families to take a rifle and fight for their country -- has not only been saddening, but eye-opening. See, for two years, people have whined and bitched about their freedoms because they have to wear some fabric on their face for a few minutes while indoors, and now here we are in the midst of a possible world war, and guess what? None of the shit you've whined and bitched about for two years matters. None of it. You could be losing your loved ones to a war. You could be losing your home, your country, your actual freedoms. I'm tired of COVID-19 and I'm tired of talking about it, so this is it... I'm not talking about it past this point on Geek Pants Media. Wear a fucking mask, that's it. If you don't want the vaccination, fine -- but at least have decency for those around you and wear your damn mask.
Okay, that's all for today. My thoughts and prayers are with the brave individuals in Ukraine. If you can, please donate to a cause within the Ukraine to help the people there. See the list here of organizations to which you could donate to.
See ya next time, folks!
~K