Brunner's Bar

Catalyst I am one of the very few who really want to see Rouge One but haven't yet. It was just a busy time of the year to try and see a movie and excuse after excuse. As soon as I saw this book come out I put my name on the reserve list with my library. Nerdist named it as one of the things you need to read before you see the movie so I was very excited wen my turn came around.  I knew nothing about this book when I got it and wanted it to be that way. I didn't want any preconceived ideas going into it. This book is about the beginning of the Empire and the turn of the Republic into the Empire. The Republic continues to fight the Separatists and Palpatine is building the Death Star. In order to get the Death Star to be the most deadly weapon in the galaxy the Republic needs to get a hold of one scientist Galen Erso. He has been doing research on the special crystals the Jedi use to power their Lightsabers. Galen believes the power of these crystals is not being used

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator If you have read my blog before you know that my wife and I read with my son most nights. For Christmas Conner got a Roald Dahl  box set and we just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . Conner wanted to go right into the next book and couldn't wait. So we picked this up and kept Harry Potter on hold. I'm just going to say this right up front. This book was not as good as the first one. I was kind of a disappointment.  This book picks up right after the first book. Charlie and Mr Wonka go to Charlie's home to get his mother, Father and other 3 grandparents. They move the bed into the great glass elevator and off they go to the Chocolate Factory. With a few mishaps the glass elevator rockets into space and right to a space hotel. Sounds interesting right? You would be wrong. this first part of the book was so boring we felt like we would never get through this. I think my son enjoyed it but my wife and I couldn't wai

Rise of the Batman It has been a very long time since I have read Detective comics. This book was always the grittier Batman series with more violence and darker themes but that changed a long time ago. I didn't read when Batwoman was the lead in this series and I do regret that. I loved her story in in 52 or Countdown to 52, I can't remember which one it was it has been that long. I have always been really curious about this character but never took the time to catch up with her story so I was glad to see her in this Rebirth volume.  Batman has noticed that these drones are keeping tabs on all these different heroes in Gotham and he needs to find out why. In order to do this Batman gathers the people who are being monitored and it makes for one surprising team. Of course Batman, Batwoman, and Red Robin are not a surprising team nor is having Spoiler and Cassandra Cain on the team. What is weird is having Clayface as part of a superhero team. I love that Clayface i

The Lego Batman Movie We are a big Lego Family. I have quite a few big sets and my Son is a huge lego fan and has som any of the smaller sets that they wont fit in his closet. We are a big Lego family but we are an even bigger Batman family so when this movie first hinted that it was coming out we got super excited and couldn't wait.  We took the kiddos to see this movie this past Friday and I know it wasn't release weekend but I always like to avoid any chaos from opening weekend and read some reviews before I decide to spend my hard earned cash on an expensive night out. So we all went out and bought the giant popcorn to share and sat back and enjoyed a great night out as  family. As I mentioned I read a lot of reviews that don't have spoilers when the movies come out and this was had nothing but great glowing reviews which seemed really odd to me. Critics hate DC Comic movies and tend to smear them and say they are the anti Marvel Movie, which by the way, Duh.

I am Gotham I can't tell you how excited I was to read this book. DC Comics and Netgalley were kind enough to allow me to read this for an honest review and I was crazy excited. I purposely waited till I had read my other comics so I could save the best for last. One thing I will say about New 52 is that Scott Snyder wrote some amazing Batman stories and it is going to be hard to live up to that expectation. This story was really good. Batman has dealt with a lot in his life and faced even some of the most horrible villains. Yet Gotham and Gotham Girl are something Batman hasn't had to deal with. Super meta humans have decided to take up a mask and fight the crime in Gotham until something goes horribly wrong. Batman now has to fight Hugo Strange/Psycho Pirate and control a crazed meta human. Batman has his work cut out for him in this opening chapter in Rebirth that only will peak your interest with every passing page. I loved this book and already can't wait

The Magician's Land Here we are, the last book in the Magician's Trilogy. This book picks up a bit after book 2 ends. Quentin is living back in the normal world, Julia is in the other side of Fillory, and Elliott is fighting a battle that only marks the beginning of an all out war for Fillory. Magic is leaving Fillory and the world is dying. I will admit that this book seemed to grab my attention more than the second book very early on. It is one of those situations where all our favorite characters a divided and you hope something happens to being them together.  Ok so in the last book I really had a hard time keeping up with the time frame changes. Julia in Fillory versus Julia in the real world gaining her powers. Well this happens in this book too. At the beginning Quentin is invited to a run down bookstore in hopes of a job of the magic variety. Then we find Quentin working as a professor at Brakebills who finds the note offering the Job. So this book flips betw

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I can remember the first time I saw this movie. I was 9 and my dad found this on VHS at Toys r Us. We bought it and watched it while eating dinner in the living room. I have never read the book until now reading it with my wife and son. I have always loved the original movie with Gene Wilder even over the remake with Johnny Depp. Don't get me wrong the Depp movie is good and a closer adaptation to the book but the original is the best. Willy Wonka is a recluse and no one has seen him or anyone in his factory for years. There has to be people in the factory though because it keeps churning out the worlds most amazing confections. Out of the blue Wonka announces that he is placing 5 golden tickets into his chocolate bars,. The ones who find it will get a private tour of the factory, a lifetime supply of Chocolate, and a special surprise to the winner. This leads me to our main character Charlie Bucket. This poor boy is exactly that, poor. Hi

The Magician King My wife and I really like the show The Magicians on SyFy and I was curious about checking out the books this show is based off of. The frist book was so different from the show which was nice. I like how shows and books can be different so they are like 2 separate experiences and one doesn't ruin the other. The Walking Dead is like that where the show sticks to the larger story but is different than the comics. With season two fo this show gearing up I decided it was time to move on to the second books. I have got to be honest, these books are not really for me.  I am not a huge fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy. I love comics and Superheroes and one of my favorite series is the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. I also love the Dresden Files, so I had high hopes to like this trilogy. I just couldn't get into this book. I tried and my mind still wandered. Thankfully my wife had already read this and the third book so I could ask her all the question

Better than Batman This is the book I have been waiting for. I have been a Nightwing fan since the very beginning of his solo run. Dick Grayson became Nightwing with the blue and yellow suit. These stories were good but I don't feel like Dick really came into the hero he is today until the second run when he changed to the Blue suit which is my absolute favorite. I was bummed when they changed him to a red version of the current suit but the character is who I really like so I moved on. During New 52 Dick Grayson was captured in a book called Froever Evil and exposed to the world and then "Killed" Of course Batman and Dick found a way to make this fake and give him the ability to live his life. So Dick went off and became a spy for Spiral. I started to read the series about this Grayson, but the story was dull, the character wasn't what I loved and I ended up not finishing the run before Rebirth. I was disappointed and pining for the return of Nightwing. This

Rage Planet I really liked this book. There are so many reasons that I personally liked it which probably wont resonate with everyone but this is my review and why I like it. Thank you to Net Galley and DC Comics for allowing me to read this for an honest review and I can't thank you both enough.  Rebirth has been so much fun to read. The Green Lantern Corps is a group of police officers that protect the entire Universe. The Corp has been destroyed and only a few are left My favorite Green lantern has gone to off to find out what is happening and Earth is left with two rookie Green Lanterns. I am not current on the Green Lantern or Green Lantern Corps so I'm not completely sure of what happened to Kyle, John, or Guy, but Earth now has Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz. I read how Simon became a Lantern but this is my first exposure to Jessica and I have to say I love her character. What I love about her is that she isn't your standard Lantern candidate. Hal Jordan is the