Movie Review: The Phantom Carriage (1921)

The Phantom Carriage (1921) directed by Victor Sjostrom

I saw a review of this movie on Happy Catholic* which made me want to see it...

The titular carriage is a conveyance for the recently deceased. It is not driven by Death himself but by the last person to die on New Year's Eve. That person is condemned to a year of traveling about collecting the dead. This legend is told to David Holm (Victor Sjostrom) by his drinking mentor Georges (Tore Svennberg). At least, it was told to him a year before, on a New Year's Eve that saw Georges panicked about his death while Holm argued over cards with his other drinking buddies. Georges has become the carriage driver. His last duty after a year is to pick up Holm, who has died hanging out in a graveyard with those same drinking buddies. Holm is forced to confront the sins of his life. If the drinking wasn't enough, Holm has a wife and two children to whom he has been abusive, though occasionally neglectful. He's also been rude to a Salvation Army nurse (Astrid Holm) who has tried to set Holm on the right path more than once. 

The story is told with lots of flashbacks that fill in Holm's character and build up the drama and tragedy of the situation. His eyes are opened to his awfulness and his call to redemption is authentic and moving. The actors give great performances that ground the fantastic elements. The film is not shy about showing ugly moments in Holm's life which makes the ending all the more satisfying.  

The movie is a silent film and yet the special effects are convincingly rendered even watching a hundred years later. Holm's soul gets up from the same spot where his dead body is lying. The transparency of the ghosts looks great and they keep the eyelines with the living characters. The film is technically amazing. The orchestral score by Matti Bye underlines the wide range of emotional moments in the film well. 

Highly recommended--a technical and artistic achievement!

Book Review: The Way of the Househusband Vol. 5 by Kousuke Oono

The Way of the Househusband Volume 5 by Kousuke Oono

Tatsu, formerly the Immortal Dragon in the yakuza, faces more everyday challenges in his life as a househusband. His wife wants to enter a local Halloween costume contest since first prize is a vacation. Tatsu has his eye on second place--a year's worth of rice. Other challenges include a rap battle with another ex-yakuza, a night at the sake bar, and his father-in-law's cooking. The light entertainment value keeps going in the series, so I'll stick around for more.

Mildly recommended.

Urban Adventure Quest Baltimore

I saw a deal on Certifikid for a scavenger hunt in Baltimore. Urban Adventure Quest has scavenger hunts in cities all across the USA (Canada and Mexico too!). The hunt requires an internet-enabled device. The company uses their web site to give the questions and clues. Also, sometimes we needed to do some research on trivia or general information that we didn't know off the top of our heads. We tried out the local hunt which starts on Baltimore's Inner Harbor by the Maryland Science Center. The first puzzles involved items in the plaza in front of the Science Center. 

Maryland Science Center plaza

The quest is designed to be done outdoors (though it is tempting to go inside some places, as we will soon see) during daylight hours. We started before ten a.m., so we had plenty of time to finish the quest. We faced two challenges here, one involving the wacky sculpture out front.  

After solving two puzzles, we headed down the brick walkway. One clue (among others) was at the Harbor Fountains, which weren't on because a group was doing a big aerobic dance class. We had to find some information on the ground, so Mom took the hit and pretended to dance along with the crowd (maybe forty others?) and found the longest word. We had to convert the word into a Scrabble score in order to answer the question and get to the next puzzle (we used the internet for Scrabble point values). I didn't take any pictures there because it's weird to take pictures of total strangers dancing in public when they are exercising, i.e. not trying to be entertaining.

View from where the dancing happened

Nearby is a statue of William Donald Schaefer (a former mayor of Charm City) and clues were based on his information and stuff on the statue. Also involved was the time capsule buried nearby.

Schaefer Statue

Time capsule!

We continued around the harbor and took a picture by the USS Constellation, an old Navy boat that is now a tourist attraction (see our visit to the ship here). 

Whoops, my youngest got cut off in the selfie!

Another clue involved a business on the Inner Harbor that has been closed for years! Luckily we have lived here for years so I knew what they were referring to. No evidence remains of the mysterious business so I don't know what out-of-towners will do. I did provide feedback at the end.

The next puzzle had us checking the brick path where the Baltimore Ravens' Superbowl XLVII victory is commemorated. That was fun to figure out and no dancers were nearby. I still did not get a picture.

The next puzzle involved the national flags at the World Trade Center on Baltimore Harbor. Again, this puzzle was easy to do from outside thanks to their big plate-glass windows. Figuring out which flag went with which country required some internet savvy, though we knew more than half of the flags we were looking for.

Ducks near the World Trade Center

The search led us to Pierce's Park, which is a hidden gem. A walkway around the perimeter has a bunch of homophones in it (which was part of a puzzle). A couple of outdoor xylophones were there too, and another puzzle used them for a musical clue. 

Much easier to blend in here

In the middle is a playground where our kids took a break from the search. The other end of the park has an aluminum sign where we picked out individual letters in order to get the answer. My oldest son and I worked together to find the solution.

Pierce's Park info

We continued on to Little Italy, using the pedestal that used to have a statue of Christopher Columbus. The statue was torn down by rioters during 2020 racial riots in Baltimore. We had to do some internet research here too, comparing information on the pedestal with details from the In 1492 poem.

Frescos in Little Italy

Another question refers to Vaccaro's, a famous local Italian bakery. In addition to solving a puzzle, we went inside and got some gelato to sustain us on our way. We were too busy eating the gelato before it melted to get pictures. It was delightful, I assure you.

The final puzzles involved The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. Mary Young Pickersgill along with her family sewed the large flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become our national anthem. It was fun location to explore and hang around.

Searching the USA

A fun picture

That was the end of the adventure quest. We had a good time and made good time, just over two hours, and only lost five points due to a data entry error on one question.

Since we were full of gelato, we headed home for lunch. The experience was a lot of fun and we recommend it for others!

Book Review: The Complete Beer Course by Joshua M. Bernstein

The Complete Beer Course: Boot Camp for Beer Geeks: From Novice to Expert in Twelve Tasting Classes by Joshua M. Bernstein

This book fulfills the promise of its title--it goes through the brewing process in the first chapter (or class) and then goes through a myriad of beer styles (with a lot of sub-categories) from all over the world. Each sub-category has two recommended beers to try with a list of seven to ten other beers that are good examples. The final chapter discusses pairing beer with food, foods made with beer, and various beer festivals, mostly in the United States. Sprinkled throughout are biographies of craft brewers and breweries. Side bars about beer history, anecdotes, and trivia add a healthy dose of extra content.

The book looks gorgeous. Beyond pictures of bottles and glasses, the book has photos of breweries, brewers, restaurants, and beer festivals. The format is easy to read, except for occasional pages where the watermarks are too dark for the text on top. It doesn't happen too often but it is especially noticeable in low-light situations. Don't take this book to your local pub! 

The writing style is casual. Lots of jokes, puns, and pop references are used throughout. It's not really scholarly or academic, more like a coffee table book that's fun to flip through rather than intended to be read in depth. I read it in depth and found some nice tips and leads on things I want to try.  

Recommended for the beer-curious.

Lenten Beer Fasting

Ever since I visited the ruins of a monastery in England I've been interested in a crazy idea. One area of the ruins was the ale house. Back in the middle ages, people processed drinking water for safety's sake. They didn't know about germs and bacteria, but they certainly knew their effects. The purification process was brewing, turning potentially dangerous water into low-alcohol beer (because it was made for drinking, not for partying). The sign at the monastery's ale house said that some monks even brewed special beers for the Lenten season, the forty days (minus Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter. The monks wanted to drink just the beer, not eat any food. They especially brewed the beer for calories and nutrient, basically making liquid bread.

With further research I discovered that monks at the Saint Francis of Paula monastery at Munich were the first to ask papal permission to brew a strong beer for the Lenten fast. In honor of the holy father, they called the brew Sankt Vaterbier (or Holy Father Beer), later shortened to Salvatorbier. The recipe was based on the popular Bavarian bock beers and it became known as doppelbock, or double bock. The beer was popular enough that they started selling it outside the monastery. In 1799 the monastery closed but enterprising brewers took over the property and the recipe.

The beer has undergone some changes but is still available from Paulaner Brewery as Salvator (check their website!). A 100ml serving provides 4.5 grams of carbs and 1 gram of protein! They don't list any vitamins or minerals, but who drinks beer for its nutritional value these days?

Salvator (7.9% alcohol by volume) has a nice, coppery color that goes along with the smooth, creamy texture of this beer. There's a slightly nutty flavor with hints of bitterness. It tastes great and is satisfying.

Any popular beer is bound to have its imitators, so plenty of other breweries have gotten into the doppelbock business. They even mimic the "-ator" ending of Salvator, presumably to get some brand recognition or positive vibes from the association with the Paulaner brew.

Spaten Optimator (7.6% alcohol by volume) is darker in color--it only looks coppery with a light behind it. The flavor is malty with a notable bitterness at the end. It does not seem like it would be liquid bread! I was less impressed with this.

Troegenator Double Bock (8.2% alcohol by volume) is an "-ator" with an American translation of doppelbock. Troegs Independent Brewing is out of Pennsylvania and is creative enough that they've been on The War of Christmas Novelty Ales in 2014 and 2018. The dark copper color of Troegenator is an indication of its richness. It's got chocolate and caramel flavors along with a delightful hint of gingerbread. The flavor is enough to carry a drinker through Lent or even through a whole winter season. I liked this a lot on its own. 

Celebrator (6.7% alcohol by volume) is the blackest of the brews in this set. The texture is smooth and silky. The flavor is lightly smoky (just barely) and caramel (a bit more). I don't really taste much bread flavor, but the flavor it does have is very delightful. I could drink a lot of this. 

The fun thing about the beer is that each one comes with a little goat figure!

They got my goat, or I got theirs?

Why the goat? Bock in German is the word for ram, hence another common thing to see on the labels--a goat image (or two, if you want to emphasize the double). That Troegenator guy on the label has goat horns in his head!

Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche (8.0% alcohol by volume) is called a doppelbock but it has a more characteristic element. As the label says, it has "Schlenkerla Oak Smoke." The malt used in the brewing process is smoked in a kiln that burns oak wood. The resulting flavor is definitely smoky (think a lapsang souchong tea) and Schlenkerla is known for its rauchbier or smoke beer. This beer has a dark amber color and a smooth feel. The smoky taste gives it a lot of character, making a tricky blend with the doppelbock elements. It's not particularly bread-flavored. This beer, while delightful, probably belongs in another category. 

I am not the only one interested in spending a Lent drinking nothing but nutritional beer. A journalist in Iowa named J. Wilson tried out a home brew doppelbock for a Lenten fast. He blogged about it at Diary of a Part-Time Monk, which has subsequently been turned into a book. I read the book and found it interesting but a little underwhelming. In addition to taking on the challenge of fasting on only beer and water for forty-six days (he didn't take Sundays off as often practiced by Christians), he wanted to explore the spirituality of it. He enlisted a Protestant minister as a spiritual advisor and spent a few days at a Catholic monastery doing research and experiencing monastic life. Half-way through, he decided to read the Psalms, figuring four a day would get him finished by the end of Lent. He struggled a lot with finding time to read. He found the psalms repetitive and boring. In the afterword he explains that he's become an agnostic. He recognizes himself as a work-in-progress and hopes that he will make progress on the spiritual front. Sometimes that's the best one can do.

Read more about the German Lenten beer fast at https://www.ucatholic.com/blog/the-lenten-beer-only-fast-practiced-by-german-monks/

Book Review: American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang's early graphic novel American Born Chinese tells three stories in tandem featuring three leading characters who deal with a lot of challenges.

The Monkey King wants to go to a party in heaven with other gods and legendary beings. He uses kung fu power to get there, only to be kicked out because he's not wearing shoes like the other guests. And he smells like a monkey. The Monkey King uses more kung fu powers to beat up all the guests and returns to his mountain kingdom where he commands his subjects to wear shoes and he starts thinking of how to deal with the smell issue. He learns more kung fu disciplines and thinks of himself as "The Great Sage," and will use brute force to show how enlightened he is. Tze-Yo-Tzuh, the Creator of all, sends the Monkey King on a mission to achieve true enlightenment.

Jin Wang moves to a new town and has to settle in to middle school life, which means finding new friends. He dreams of being like the heroes of his youth, the Transformers. He wants to date the cute girl and fit in but has a hard time dealing with the biases of his peers. In a couple of months, another Chinese boy, Wei-Chen, comes to the school. Initially, Jin wants to avoid him because he has that "fresh off the boat" vibe that is social poison. But Wei-Chin has a Transformer toy and they become friends, helping each other navigate the difficulties of middle school life.

Danny is the main character in a sitcom called "Everyone Ruvs Chin-Kee." He is an American middle schooler whose life is turned upside down when his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee shows up for a visit (as he does every year). Chin-Kee is an amalgamation of every stereotype--he's got buck teeth, a braided ponytail, traditional Chinese clothes, speech that mistakes Ls for Rs, an excellent student, and misquotes Confucius or comes up with ridiculous metaphors for comic effect. Danny is utterly embarrassed to have Chin-Kee around, causing the typical sit-com misery.

The three stories move along in parallel, dealing with issues of personal identity and value, the ability to change yourself, and the false perception of others. This last item is ambiguous but I intend both meanings: (1) others perceive you falsely and (2) you perceive others falsely. The stories come together at the end with an amazingly well-crafted finale that's also quiet and reassuring. That's the result of being honest. The comedy in the book runs the gamut from wisely humorous (causing me to laugh out loud) to distressingly stereotypical (causing me to wince, which the author surely intended). The book is thematically brilliant.

Even though the book is focused on the Chinese-American experience, it is relatable for everyone. One can easily imagine similar books based on people who are Japanese or Irish or Jewish or Christian or Muslim or on and on. That's because the desire both to be accepted and to be true to oneself often generates conflicts that are very difficult to resolve. Each and every one of us faces those challenges and more or less succeeds in resolving them (hopefully).

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (2016)

Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America (2016) produced and directed by Matt Ornstein

When Daryl Davis graduated with a degree in music from Howard University, his parents were worried about him being a success as a musician. Many are the parents who hope for a fallback career option for their musically-inclined children. Davis has worked with a wide variety of musicians from Chuck Berry to Willie Nelson. The truly amazing and seemingly impossible thing that Davis has done is what he does in his free time. Curious as to how someone can hate him without knowing him, he has met with many members of the Ku Klux Klan. Not only has he met with them, he has befriended them. And they have befriended him. A great many of them have left the Klan or are on their way out thanks to their personal contact with Daryl Davis. And yes, Daryl Davis is a black man.

If that isn't surprising enough, Davis is collecting Klan memorabilia and has over two dozen sets of robes from Klan members who have quit the Klan and given their robes to Davis. He hopes to open a "Museum of the Klan." His purpose is not to honor the Klan, but to keep a record of the Klan and to be a witness to the possibility of change. Knowing where you came from (for both Blacks and Whites) is important for knowing where you are going. Davis's vision is to fight racism through changing hearts, which can only happen with a change of opinions, which can only happen with a change of experience. 

Davis's commitment to truth and to respecting others (even those he disagrees with) is amazing. While he disagrees with the Klan, he respects their right to express their opinions. He not only respects that right, he actually listens to them. That listening is the first step that eventually opens the door for them to listen to him. The dialogue creates a connection. At one point, Davis says he does what he does to help his people. He clarifies that by "his people" he means his fellow Americans, regardless of their skin color. That's perhaps the biggest and most difficult step that needs to be made. It can't be made by a law or by the education system, it has to be made by each and every one of us.

This documentary is endlessly fascinating. Davis deals with love and hate from the Klan; he deals with love and hate from the black community. He travels the country, lecturing about his activities and talking with people. His life story and his work are well worth examining and experiencing. 

Highly recommended.

TV Review: Black Summer Season 2 (2021)

Black Summer Season 2 (2021) created by John Hyams and Karl Schaefer

See my review of Season 1 here.

The fight (though it's more of a race) to survive the zombie apocalypse continues with the reunion of mother Rose (Jaime King) and daughter Anna (Zoe Marlett). The story jumps four months into the future, which apparently lands the characters in the middle of winter. They have also moved out of the city/suburbs. The action is now in a rural area that features few buildings, so very little shelter from the elements and the zombies. Other characters are involved in this plotline. Two or three groups are in conflict, trying to grab resources and shelter. Everyone seeks a plane that has been dropping supplies in the wilderness. Presumably the plane can take them to safety, if they can make it to the landing strip.

The storytellers use the same techniques from the first season. There's a lot of long, handheld shots that works well with the action and tension of zombie apocalypse survival. Often an episode opens with a dramatic bit from the middle or end of the episode, creating some suspense or intrigue about how the characters will get to that point. This particular technique is a little overused, especially in a few instances where it highlights moments that don't make a lot of sense or are much less significant than the editing indicates. Some episodes have all the scenes put together out of chronological order, which could work to heighten the drama. I found it merely less coherent. The actors do a good job but the characters are underdeveloped. I was much less invested in their fate than I was in the first season.

Not recommended--the first series was fairly average and this one is a step down in storytelling and coherence. 

Streaming on Netflix as I write this review (July 2021).

Geocaching June 2021

Realizing we are very close to 500 geocaches found, I've decided to put some effort in to achieving that goal. Since my youngest was going to the Cub Scout summer day camp out at the fairgrounds, I found a bunch there.

The fairground is near Turf Valley Resort, a golf course and resort that's had a small community pop up around it. Turf Valley Central is a cache in a standard location but the container was something different, which I enjoyed. 

Turf Valley Central cache location

There's also a Turf Valley North cache that's a short walk away from the central cache. The hiding spot was more clever and more enjoyable.

The cache is somewhere in this picture 

Sadly, there's no South, West, or East Turf Valley caches. My next find was called Teeter's Backside. A grocery store named Harris Teeter is the hub of Turf Valley's shopping plaza, so I drove behind the store and was not very near the cache. I realized ground zero was further down the road that runs behind the shopping plaza. The location was similar to Central above but the container was very different.

Guard rails are a popular spot

A scout placed the next cache, Creek. Alas, no guard rail or any man-made structures were immediately visible. I also didn't see a creek, though clearly rainwater drains through this area from the nearby housing. Finding the cache took longer than it should have.

Where's the creek?

At a nearby park and ride is Hole in a Pole, which is a much more helpful name than Creek. The only challenge is the number of poles in the parking lot. The coordinates make the find fairly easy. The container fits nicely into the hole in the pole. My biggest challenge here was two guys making an exchange here. One guy pulled up in a truck and took a cardboard box out of the bed. The other guy opened his trunk, paid for the goods, and put it in his trunk. Then they stood around talking for a while. I had to wait till they cleared out.

Park and ride hide!

The final cache I looked for was Mountain View Cemetery. 

The right place

The coordinates pointed to the gazebo in the middle of the cemetery. I looked all over the gazebo, in the benches, and in the bushes next to the gazebo. All I found was cicada carcasses.

It's here somewhere

A hiding bug

After I posted the "Did not find" the cache owner sent me an email with an additional hint. Someone came later in the day and found the cache, so it was definitely my bad. If I am back in the area, I will try again.

Current geocache find count: 489.

HoCo Pirate Treasure Hunt June 2021

To see previous pirate adventures, go here.

The June 2021 Howard County Pirate Treasure Hunt was a search for the Jewels of Jib-Sheet John. The search started where X marked the spot, or at least crossed bones marked the spot!

Beginning of the hunt

Our last excursion saw lots of the seventeen-year cicadas. We saw hardly any this time, though other woodland creatures were hanging around.

No, don't get up, we're not staying!

The path had lots of fun instructions, like this invitation to stomp like a giant. The giants left a major walkway through the area, so we had fun being like the locals. 

Trail instructions

The Giants' Walkway

More deer friends

A lot of fallen trees littered the area, some rather impressive looking, like the see-through tree!

Did a giant knock this over?

How does it grow with a hole all the way through it?

We collected clues along the way. A piratey morse code gave us the five letters to the combination on the treasure chest. 

Finding part of the code

The map showed a shortcut along the trail. The trail itself marked off the shortcut!

We won't say a thing

The other things along the path were jewels strewn all over. Jib-Sheet John must have holes in his pockets. We had to stop the kids from collecting too many, since many other people go on this treasure hunt.

Bejeweled stump

Closeup of the jems

A small stream runs nearby. We threw sticks in since we couldn't find any stones.

No, we didn't break any bones.

One clue was hidden in the "wolverine's den." Sounded like a dangerous place to go. Luckily, the occupants were out when we came by.

Den of trouble?

We finally found the last clue and the treasure chest stocked full of goodies. This time around, the kids all chose the ring pops, which made a nice snack on the way back to the car.

Treasure!

A farewell message

Book Review: The Plot by Will Eisner

The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Will Eisner

Seeking a way to manipulated the fickle Czar Nicholas II, Russian bureaucrats needed a justification for blaming the country's problems on Russian Jews rather than the repressive government. Mathieu Golovinski, a minor official with a track record in forging evidence, was commissioned. Golovinski found The Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, a French propaganda piece meant to discredit Napoleon III's corrupt government. Golovinski freshened up the vocabulary and shifted the target to a supposed Jewish conspiracy to take over the whole world. Thus The Protocols of the Elders of Zion came into existence. To get it to the Czar's attention, they passed the text on to a Russian court holy man, Sergius Nilus. He incorporated the text into his own book The Great and the Small before The Protocols became an independent work in the early 1900s. The book spread worldwide, especially after the Russian Revolution caused a dispersal of Russian aristocrats fleeing the Bolshevik tyranny. By the 1920s, The Dialogue in Hell was rediscovered and The Times of London had an article detailing the obvious plagiarism. In spite of constant debunking, The Protocols is still in publication and people are still willing to believe, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, that it accurately describes what Jews are like and what Jews are planning. Such a belief is eminently ridiculous but people often grasp at straws in order to justify their prejudices.

This book documents (in Eisner's typically evocative graphic format) the history of The Protocols. It's the last graphic book that Eisner made and is the product of twenty years of research. The case against The Protocols is irrefutable, as is the sad fact that some people still give it credence. Eisner goes over the various publications all over the world in the last half of the twentieth century all the way up to 2003 when the book was published.

Highly recommended--It's important to be informed about this nonsense and to be able to refute it.

Book Review: Marvel's Black Widow Prelude by S. Lee et al.

Marvel's Black Widow Prelude written by Stan Lee and others

As a preparation for the movie, Marvel has published one of its "Prelude" volumes, based on individual comics sold in the lead-up to the movie's release. This book came out a year ago, since the movie was supposed to come out a year ago. I finally read it through Hoopla. Here are the contents...

Black Widow Prelude #1-2--This two-issue lead-in to the movie is entirely a recap of Black Widow appearances in other Marvel films. This reads like a shameless money grab by the publisher. I guess if you haven't seen the movies, the content is new, but why are you reading this if you haven't been following the MCU all along? The end recommends seeing more in Marvel's Black Widow.

Tales of Suspense #52-53--The first appearance of Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff has her facing off against Iron Man as a Soviet scientist tries to defect. Iron Man's decent treatment of her (like leaving her alive after her failure) forces her to stay in America rather than face the inevitable back in Moscow. She tries to be bad but Iron Man still keeps her from doing bad and saves her life. Her fate is left for further issues to reveal. The end recommends reading more in Black Widow Epic Collection: Beware the Black Widow trade paperback.

The Avengers #43--The issue features the first appearance of the Red Guardian, the Soviet answer to Captain America. Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow has been captured and taken to a secret Chinese base. The Avengers get some intel that Hawkeye and Hercules (yes, the son of Zeus is also an Avenger in the comics) use to go free her. They wind up battling the Red Guardian. The end recommends reading more in Black Widow Epic Collection: Beware the Black Widow trade paperback.

The Avengers #196--The issue features the first appearance of Taskmaster, a villain who can imitate any move or tactic as soon as he sees it. At first, he thought of using this ability to be a superhero, but he realized there's more money on the other side. Then he realized there is more safety in training lackeys for other supervillains rather than being a supervillain himself. One of his trainees tries to defect to the Avengers, blowing Taskmaster's scheme and drawing the attention Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The end recommends more Taskmaster action in Taskmaster: Anything You Can Do... trade paperback.

Web of Black Widow #1--Natasha infiltrates one of Tony Stark's swanky fundraiser parties to take down a villain she helped back when she was a bad gal. She tries to keep Tony out of it but you know how Iron Man is. The end recommends reading more in The Web of Black Widow trade paperback.

So basically, this graphic novel is just a bunch of half stories given so that the reader will buy more comics or a ticket to the movie. Ho-hum. I'm glad I borrowed this digitally from the library. I may borrow those other trade paperback on Hoopla. 

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: Black Widow (2021)

Black Widow (2021) directed by Cate Shortland

Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) is on the run from Secretary Ross (William Hurt). She tries to lay low, but her more remote past catches up with her. She's at a safe house in Norway when her off-the-grid resource guy brings some stuff from her Budapest safe house. The items include a small ammo box that has some mysterious chemicals in it. She's ready to take it to the dump but en route she is intercepted by Taskmaster, a villain who can imitate the fighting style of anyone just by watching them. Taskmaster has watched the whole back catalog of the MCU and easily mimics Black Widow's moves. She realizes Taskmaster is after the chemicals, not her, so she escapes with them and then heads to Budapest for more answers. She finds out the Red Room, the Russian secret project that trained her, is still active and training more widows. Natasha wants to finish the job she thought was finished long ago, i.e. shutting down the Red Room for good. At this point in the MCU timeline, the Avengers are all either against her or in jail, so she has to find other help--her former Russian "family" including her "father" the Red Guardian (David Harbour), her scientist "mother" (Rachel Weissz), and her "sister" Yelena (Florence Pugh). They were all part of a spy project in the 1990s to steal stuff from America. They posed as a family for three years in America before fleeing to Cuba, where they were separated. Natasha and Yelena went to the Red Room. They have baggage like a family does even after twenty years apart.

The story moves along at a good pace, balancing out action, plot exposition, and interpersonal drama. The twists were nicely unpredictable and the ending was, like most superhero movies, a bit too over-the-top. Some plot elements look like they were recycled from other Marvel movies. Dealing with the "sins from her past" went by too quickly. Even so, the film was entertaining and had built up enough excitement and heart that I didn't mind them turning it to eleven.

Recommended.