Good evening, Dear Reader. Or, perhaps, good morning. Good…day? Yes, that should cover all the bases. Welcome once again to Fun-Size Friday, and let me tell you if you thought that greeting was awkward, let me assure you up front that it’s not gonna get any better from here. Fortunately we have fail-safes in place: to minimize the possibility of total verbal meltdown, every topic discussed is kept to no more than a hundred words. It’s been mostly successful, if I do say so myself. Anyway, enough introductions. Let’s do this!

---

FIRST, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE
ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Unless some new piece of information comes to light by the time this post goes live, it seems Sony has decided to part ways with Marvel Studios, and they’re taking Spider-Man with them. As a guy who was enjoying Spidey in the MCU and was really hoping for a Fantastic Four team-up in the future, this news was a real downer. Still, I can’t pretend like I’m not interested to see how Sony proceeds from here. Will they keep Tom Holland and just ignore everything else? Will they do another reboot? If nothing else, it’s fun to speculate.

---

A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION,
A LITTLE MORE ACTION

Between the two X-Men mini-series currently being written by Jonathan Hickman, Powers of X definitely has the more interesting set-up, each issue covering events in four different time-periods simultaneously. Powers of X #3 switches gears a bit by focusing on just one timeline for it’s entirety, and the result is an unexpectedly fast resolution for many characters, for better or for worse. It’s a mostly welcome change of pace; giving the whole series a strong kick in the pants after last issue spent all it’s time doing set-up for the future. That $4.99 price tag is still pretty steep though.

---

THE FAMILY THAT WRESTLES
TOGETHER, STAYS TOGETHER.
…MOSTLY.

On the movie side of things, I really enjoyed Fighting With My Family. I’m not a big wrestling fan — culturally insulated fellow that I am, I’ve never even seen a wrestling match — but I don’t think you need to be a fan to enjoy this. Written/directed by comedian and part-time personality core Stephen Merchant, the film embraces the inherent humor of it’s subject matter but never shy’s away from the surprising amount of hard work and dedication that goes into being a professional wrestler. Filled with equal parts humor, heart, and headlocks, this movie is an easy recommendation.

---

JIMMY OLSEN IS GREAT,
FREAKING FIGHT ME!

Characters like Captain Boomerang, Kite Man, and Jimmy Olsen may not rank very high on many peoples list of comic book favorites, but darn it all if I don’t have a soft spot for them. You can imagine my delight then to discover that DC has decided to put out a new Jimmy Olsen mini-series, spearheaded by the brilliant team of Steve Lieber and Matt Fraction. We’re only two issues in at the moment and I can already tell this is a team that gets Jimmy Olsen. If you too enjoy comics about lovable losers, definitely give this a look.

---

I HAVEN’T FINISHED
CANNON BUSTERS YET

I’m neither an expert on anime nor am I particularly adept at talking about music, so take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt: I love the Cannon Busters opening song. I’ve only just started watching the anime so I don’t feel qualified to judge it yet, but from what I’ve seen so far it’s enjoyable enough. The opener, however, is absolutely worth listening to; I can and have played this minute-and-a-half sample at least four times since I started writing this. That has to be good, right? I’m very tired but I’m pretty sure I’m right.

---

IN CLOSING, CONSIDER KITE-MAN

I’ll be honest with you: days like this, it can be very difficult to find the motivation to get out of bed, much less write a new post every week on a blog that few people, if any, will read. But then I remember Kite-Man: a two-bit criminal who decided against all logic and sense to set up shop in Gotham City — home of the freaking Batman — using only kites. That’s so stupid, and yet…so awesome. If you can take anything away from this, just remember: if Kite-Man can keep going, then so can you.

See you next week.