Welcome back to Boomb Tube! Here, we will be catching you up on the week in comics TV, both through micro-reviews, as well as links to our full-length TV reviews. We also tend to review series that are dropped all at once weekly so there are a few ‘older’ shows mixed in for good measure. Are we missing your favorite show? Let us know in the comments!
Avatar: The Last Airbender – “Masks” (S1E6, Netflix)
Read our full review by Ramon Piña.
Invincible – “It’s Not That Simple” (S2E6, Amazon Prime)
In cast you missed it, read our full review by James Dowling.
Invincible – “I’m Not Going Anywhere” (S2E7, Amazon Prime)
Stay tuned for our full review by James Dowling later today.
Resident Alien – “Here Comes My Baby” (S3E7, Syfy)
Read our full review by Christopher Chiu-Tabet.
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story (Sony Pictures’ YouTube channels)
This brief (7 min), horror-themed short, set between Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse, sees Miles Morales experience a panic attack caused by the twin pressures of being a teenager and a superhero. After returning home late and turning down the offer to watch some horror movies with his dad, Miles finds himself attacked by a sleep paralysis demon resembling his alter-ego, who soon transforms into the spider that bit him, and then hundreds of spiders which swarm all over him. After waking up, Miles finds his father still waiting for him in the living room, and the two agree to go out for some fresh air while they talk it out.
Like I said, it was a brief short, but an incredibly impactful and unsettling one: Sony really, really went for it, and I would absolutely not show this to a younger relative, especially with the nightmarish shot of the spiders pouring down Miles’s mouth. It really makes you wonder what a full-on horror Spider-Man film would be like, and how much darker Beyond the Spider-Verse will be than its predecessors, with the sleep paralysis demon’s silhouette-themed nature definitely resembling the Spot in his creepy current form. With that parallel in mind, I can imagine this being incorporated in the final film as a flashback, playing up Spot as the embodiment of all the pressures Miles has struggled with up until now; it certainly deserves as much, because it is truly another stunning achievement from Sony’s animators. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – “The Harbinger” (S3E9, Disney+)
“The Harbinger” highlights some of the problems with The Bad Batch season 3, while alleviating others. On one hand, it was nice to see the characters deal with an actual issue instead of dance around it. On the other, it very much felt like a somewhat cheap return of a character that canonically was dead that didn’t give a great explanation for their return nor really tell a satisfying story with them. This is a problem with reviewing TV or comics as they are released; all of my thoughts could change if the next six episodes are all fantastic. But taken in a bubble, this episode was an improvement over much of this season, but still felt lacking.
The return of Asaaj Ventress is never really discussed, aside from her statement that she has “many lives,” which hints at some Nightsister resurrection magick. Ventress died in a novel that probably had half the eyes on it than Clone Wars did, and so it’s not like the entire audience is aware of her status, but for the hardcore Star Wars fans, this feels a little vague and unconsidered for such a return. And while she serves an important purpose in this episode – she alerts Omega to the possibility of her Force sensitivity – she’s not a very satisfying guest star. The show attempts to give her mystery and ambiguity in her actions, but they don’t really sell that, so she just seems like kind of a jerk the whole time. Not a villain, mind you, just a jerk.
And that is where this episode’s main failure comes from: at the end of the episode, despite being given a little more information, nothing is fundamentally different for the Clones. Even when things change – Crosshair’s back! – the status quo almost never really shifts. While Clone Wars and Rebels may not be your cup of tea, those shows covered a lot of ground and shook things up a number of times. The Bad Batch continues to revel in the status quo. But why? – Brian Salvatore
Continued below
The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live – “Become” (S1E5, AMC)
Read our full review by Alexander Manzo.
X-Men ‘97 – “Fire Made Flesh” (S1E3, Disney+)
Things get horrifying, as the continuation really shows off why it’s rated TV-14 when Sinister reveals himself to be the creator of Nathan’s mother, and exerts his control over her, transforming her into the Goblin Queen. The X-Mansion straight up turns into a haunted house from a Japanese horror movie or game, with the Jean clone’s disturbing illusions terrifying the bejesus out of everyone, until the original Jean wakes up and dispels all of it before collapsing from exhaustion. (Given her habit of fainting in the original series, that’s how you know it’s really her.) Morph leads half the team to Sinister’s gothic manor to rescue Nathan, while the others tend to the injured, with Wolverine using his love for Jean to help uncloud her mind.
After centering herself, Jean battles her clone on the astral plane, where she eventually breaks Sinister’s hold on her by replaying Nathan’s birth, reminding her her son is far more important than whatever machinations the evil scientist has for the child. Unfortunately, she and Cyclops are too late to prevent Nathan from being infected with the techno-organic virus Sinister used on him, forcing them to give him to Bishop so he can find a cure in the future. As Cyclops is left distraught over his family history repeating itself, the clone departs, wanting to live her own life, though not before telling Jean she’s chosen the name Madelyne Pryor for herself.
All in all, it was another thoroughly satisfying and spectacular 33 mins, even if some of the dialogue used to reestablish Sinister for newcomers came across slightly oddly. (You may be witty, Beast, but please stick to science.) Still, it was a pleasure to see Sinister show up, and to hear Christopher Britton’s utterly menacing, almost mechanical voice again, as well as to see the show lean into his Victorian scientist qualities, including the disturbing nursery rhyme he recited as he made his escape. And to top it all off, Forge (Gil Birmingham) made his entrance in the final scene, introducing himself to Storm, and offering to restore her powers. – Christopher Chiu-Tabet
