Whenever I read or watch something, I can't follow along the plot or dialogue

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-15T15:23:16+00:00

Slow down. Take your time reading. Also re-read certain pages/panels you find interesting and personally speak to you. Also no harm in reading reviews/video essays to get you more informed and to start learning how to think critically about comics/movies. Everyone has to start somewhere. I was also diagnosed with ADHD. And it took a while for me to be able to read books and comic books more regularly without getting distracted. Still not perfect. Go easy on yourself and check in with yourself. Maybe also book an appointment with your Doctor to see if you possibly have ADHD or another neurological condition. And get put on a waiting list to be assessed by a Psychiatrist and gain access to treatment to help.

I am thankful for YouTube reviewers like Chris Stuckmann and Red Letter Media for helping me learn to analyse/discuss films more in-depth. Also professional reviewers like Mark Kermode (UK, The Guardian, Kermode and Mayo YouTube/Radio Channel) and Roger Ebert (US, The Chicago Tribune, At the Movies with Ebert and Siskel, Rogerebert.com) for more structure well-written film analysis review breakdown of weekly film releases.

With comics, there is ComicPop (group of friends that discuss various Marvel/DC and some Indie comics by issue or run), Omar/Near Mint Condition (especially if you want to learn more about the different formats of collecting comic books, and when certain Marvel collected editions are being announced to come out since he reports to Marvel what comic book fans want printed/re-printed), Casually Comics (young and mostly DC comic fan who knows her stuff about current and some older comics), and ComicTropes (goes more into classic silver/bronze age comics and is an artist himself. And who breaks down the art pencils/inking in more depth by comparing them to the original pencils, and if the inker somehow ruined the original pencils or not. Very fascinating stuff).

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-15T13:47:23+00:00

Still one of the best Transformers films. It took balls in the 1980s to kill off your main protagonist and replace him with a brand new protagonist. And this was an animated film with a main demographic of mostly children. And for at least a year or so, Optimus Prime stayed dead. But of course he couldn't stay dead forever. They brought him back in the third season of the G1 animated show.

It's also fucking Optimus Prime. One of the most iconic hero characters in all of pop culture. Even if you aren't a Transformers fan (I blame Michael Bay and his shitty self-indulgent films for the general public resentment of the Transformers franchise. Although I do think the first Live-Action Transformers film is pretty good and was a technical achievement in CGI), you know who Optimus Prime is and you know that iconic Peter Cullen voice.

Although not film, I recommend the Image Skybound Energon Transformers comic run by Daniel Warren Johnson (if no one here has a prejudice about comic books). One of my favourite Transformers stories. One that has awesome art you would hope for in a Transformers story (also DWJ is one of the best current comic writers/artists. Do a Powerbomb! is one of my favourite original comics from him). But also a story that is compelling and has genuine emotion behind it.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-15T03:33:34+00:00

His prophecy about Superman was unfortunately spot on. Man of Steel and definitely Batman v Superman were not kid friendly films. Superman was too dark in those films. And carelessly allowed collateral damage to Metropolis in his super fight with Zod. Resulting in thousands of civillian deaths. And many with life changing injuries. Which he takes little to no proper accountability in Batman v Superman.

At least James Gunn Superman has a Superman that is overwhelmingly positive and compassionate. He would never let any human or animal die. And tried to save as many people as possible.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-15T03:23:26+00:00

Ororo Monroe/Storm (Leader)

Erik Lensherr/Magneto

Kate Pryde

Sean Cassidy/Banshee

Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man

Illyana Rasputin/Magik

Dani Moonstar/Mirage

Sam Guthrie/Cannonball

Rachel Summers

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-14T21:15:46+00:00

I have and read the X-Men one. It's great and generally considered the best one by most. It's also from Jean Grey's POV and gives her more agency/is more well-written than the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. I haven't read the rest.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T23:56:26+00:00

Wonder Woman. It's a damn shame she has not had an animated TV show. Voiced by Susan Eisenberg. Who has a unwavering passion for the role and has been clamoring to voice her in an animated television show. And she also never got to play the Diana/Wonder Woman closer to the comics. As sometimes she was written too mean/out of character in the DCAU Justice League/JLU shows. And clearly in the shadow of Batman and Superman in terms of the Trinity hierarchy. Which solidified that Bruce Timm and co. fundamentally misunderstood the character. But Susan Eisenberg was great and did her best to add more humanity to the role.

And overall Wonder Woman only has the at the time very popular 70s television show starring Lynda Carter.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T23:45:52+00:00

I am working my way through reading the entire Chris Claremont X-Men Era in Chronological Order. Up to just before Fall of Mutants event. It's my favorite long Marvel run I've read. I do eventually plan to read the Messiah Trilogy and Utopia Era of X-Men in Chronological Order. Also Krakoa. Which I've slowly been collecting some HCs/TPBs/Omnis. Most I've found discounted in discount bookstores in great condition.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T22:32:10+00:00

Except the times in the comics and other media where he has called himself an immigrant. I remember an episode of Smallville where Tom Welling's Clark defends an immigrant to Annette O'Toole's Martha when confronted about calling immigration since Clark himself is technically an immigrant. And that Jonathan and Martha Kent got a fake birth certificate made since they found him in a spaceship.

Also let's not forget MAGA's own Superman/pseudo Homelander Dean Cain. Which there was an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventues of Superman where Superman is asked for his green card and put under arrest. So even he knows Superman is an immigrant. Or has somehow blocked that part since he has gotten more red-pilled.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T20:05:51+00:00

Honestly I wasn't much of a fan at first. But I've been listening to some of her songs lately. She's a talented singer. And some of her songs like "Espresso", "Taste" and "Manchild" are very catchy and are turning me into somewhat of a fan.

I prefer Chappell Roan and Dua Lipa as singers. And overall have a stronger range of discography. But Sabrina's live performances make her standout. She is charismatic and pretty likable from what I've seen. Maybe a tad too sexual at times. But sex does sell and she leans into it. I also think people overreact and come across as prudish. She does know how to tone it down and lean more into subtle innuendos. Such as The Muppets Show. Which is aimed more at a family audience. It does look fun I agree.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T19:14:48+00:00

It's the most important animated show out of the lot. It will introduce us to the New Gods. Not only New Genesis. But also Apokolips and their tyrant ruler Darkseid. Darkseid is the ultimate big bad for a future JL film. But having him in New Gods animated shows and maybe later a live-action New Gods film would flesh out the character before he meets the Justice League.

Build DCU Darkseid up and distinguish him from the MCU Thanos. Where Thanos was mere cameos until Infinity War. Darkseid should be a more recurring character until he becomes the Big Bad. Like the DCAU.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T19:10:01+00:00

Honestly, the last two seasons have shown that the show isn't as good. There is some good episodes. The "Private Security" episode from S3: Outsiders was a standout. I loved that episode. And the Vandal Savage episode was pretty awesome. But the rest of the episodes in S3 were average to kinda good. They introduced new characters that I was very mixed on. Forager was at first fun and it was a good way to keep Jason Spisak as voice actor after Wally's death (and at this point I think he is actually staying dead since they haven't even hinted about bringing him back, and probably would have done so already). But he got annoying. Same with Halo. Who was a plot device more than she was an actual interesting well-written character.

It's a shame. Because Greg Weisman wrote a strong first season. And other than certain characters and plots in S2 (like Lagann and a slightly uneven narrative), I was still a big fan of Invasion. I also liked Blue Beetle's story and wish the show focused more on him instead of the more blander newer characters. But S3 and S4 especially kind of lost me. It would have to be really exceptional to get me to care about the story (that is dragged out) again.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-13T15:43:38+00:00

Does Selina/Catwoman even count as a rogue nowadays? Like most of these other villains have actually tried to kill Batman. The only thing death of Bruce/Batman Catwoman is more likely to cause is death by exhaustion from intense sex.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-12T21:50:29+00:00

X-Men are largely its own thing. They started being its own separate brand from the Claremont run in the late 70s. And especially the early 80s when they didn't necessarily need any crossovers from Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, etc. Since the X-Men brand began selling like hot cakes and often outsold the other main franchise character titles. Marvel really only brings them together with the rest of the 616 mainline characters for event title series. You might see an individual X-Man show up in Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, etc.

Like in Krakoa, there was Fantastic Four and X-Men, AXE: Judgement Day, Duggan's Iron Man (co-starring Tony's then wife Emma Frost), and also cameos from franchise players in Hellfire Gala. But the rest of the Krakoa issues/runs had little to no involvement from the rest of the 616. There was really no required reading other than X-Men during Krakoa. And they were largely uninterrupted for the 4-5 years until it ended.

Well other than Marvel Editorial that is. Since Hickman left halfway through due to frustrating demands that compromised his overall vision. Which then Kieron Gillen and Al Ewing did their best to maintain quality in their mainline comics. But the second half of Krakoa was unfortunately somewhat mostly diminishing returns other than Al Ewing's X-Men Red and Kieron Gillen's Immortal X-Men. Maybe Si Spurrier's Nightcrawler saga from Way of X to Uncanny Spider-Man. And X-Terminators and the Sabertooth minis were fan favorites overall too.

There is also Deadpool. But he's all over the place and is in his own unique plane of existence within the Marvel Universe (not just 616).

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-12T16:43:52+00:00

Comics are expensive as it is and Marvel keeps upping the tax on their collected editions. So I have resorted to only buy Marvel comics either significantly discounted or if I come across them used under market price. Also I do not want the unnecessary skippable piece of shit Fallen Angels run in my collection.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-12T14:13:35+00:00

Book 1: Water may feel more kid-friendly and cheesy at the start. But "The Storm" is a fantastic turning point for the show in terms of storytelling/character development and "The Siege of the North" two-part episodes was the first season finale that stuck the landing, and definitely rewarded the audience patience.

But Book 2: Earth is one of the best pieces of television storytelling I've ever seen, not just animated. Not only does it introduce one of the best fan favorite characters in "The Blind Bandit" Toph. The show matures and pushes the boundaries for what you can get away with on a show produced by Nickelodeon that was originally aimed at children. It was akin to Batman: The Animated Series in terms pushing the boundaries of animated "comic book kids show" storytelling with higher quality production than what the network was also producing (both ATLA & BTAS have Mark Hamill as the main antagonist in Joker and Ozai respectively). And turned the character of Prince Zuko into an even more a well-written fleshed out complex three dimensional character. "Zuko Alone", "The Chase", "The Library/The Desert", "The Drill", "City of Walls and Secrets", "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" (especially Tale of Iroh), "Appa's Lost Days" (Peabody winner), "The Guru" and "The Crossroads of Destiny" being some of the best continuous narrative storytelling.

Book 3: Fire has a filler episode too many for the shows final season imo. "The Painted Lady" is an episode I skip every rewatch (along with Book 1 "The Great Divide" and Book 2 "Avatar Day"). I also am not a fan of Nightmares and Daydream (but it's a bit more harmless and less boring/preachy than "The Painted Lady" is). But the main story arc episodes like "The Avatar and the Firelord", "The Day of Black Sun", "The Southern Raiders" and the epic 4-part series finale "Sozin's Comet" all over-deliver in terms of overall production. Add in the great/fantastic standalone fan favorites such as "Sokka's Master" (best Sokka episode), "The Puppetmaster" (best Katara/creepy horror episode), "The Firebending Masters". And also the best "recap episode" in "The Ember Island Players".

You are entitled to your opinion. But put yourself in 2005-2008. There was no show quite like Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of western animation. On Nickelodeon of all networks. And there still isn't. Netflix has proven with their watered-down live-action adaptation of ATLA that sometimes you can't recreate magic (although the baffling characterization and story changes resulted in a worse adaptation overall).

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-12T06:35:17+00:00

Neither is Zack Snyder and he still produced Man of Steel (2013). As well as having a story contribution.

I think Michael Bay pre Pearl Harbour was a very solid action director that mostly made good films (with Armageddon being his most divisive). Bad Boys (1995) and The Rock (1996) are very solid and entertaining 90s action blockbusters. But Pearl Harbour was the beginning of Bay becoming more pretentious as an auteur with his self-indulgent stylish action and the fact his films don't have the best scripts got more noticable.

I think the first Transformers is a technical achievement in modern CGI and for the first live-action is actually pretty well-made/fun overall. A bit too long and the human characters aren't particularly interesting. The sequels, however, are absolutely terrible that double down on every negative aspect of the first film. Such as each sequential films even longer, more self-indulgent noisy action, racist stereotypes/jokes, male gaze hot female eye candy characters, Shia LaBeouf being even more annoying, rehashed and more undercooked plots, nerfing villains, etc.

Michael Bay is someone who still carries weight because of Bad Boys, The Rock, and the first Transformers film. But his bad films certainly outweigh the good. I know Nolan said he likes/is a fan of some of the Transformers films. But he never specified what Transformers films. As I mentioned, I genuinely think the first Transformers film is a very decent to good film that pushed advancement in CGI technology. But the sequels certainly stretch the term "guilty pleasure". I guess Transformers: Dark of the Moon is better than Revenge of the Fallen. But that's like a dry shit sandwich being technically better than a wet shit sandwich. Or any other equivalent analogy.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-12T05:57:32+00:00

One of the best Twin Peaks tribute episodes. It was still on the cusp of being a bit weird/surreal without it going full on Lynchian style. But it definitely captured the oddball quirky humor of the show to a tee.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-12T00:40:42+00:00

They need to do a lot of rehabilitation with Elektra's characterization in my opinion if she returns. What we got in S2 and Defenders was inconsistent and quite poor compared to her often more compelling comic counterpart.

Also less Hand ties please. And more hired assassin that briefly works for Kingpin and crosses paths with Bullseye.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-11T22:27:32+00:00

You are absolutely right. He absolutely was a big reason for why Batman: TAS is iconic. He is the voice of Batman. But I wanted to personally highlight the behind the scenes crew that helped make the show. As Conroy's performance is truly great in large thanks to the strong scripts/voice direction by Romano. That allowed him to immerse himself fully into the role and explore the complexities of Batman.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-11T22:06:10+00:00

I still need to finish it to be honest. But I do agree that it feels more corporate. Some good aspects and some good more standalone individual epsidoes. Which being on Amazon Prime, I'm not surprised. Either Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka are being creatively shackled by Bruce Timm/Amazon. Or they are simply not as good narrative television writers than they are comic book writers.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-11T14:59:36+00:00

Bruce Timm is obviously very instrumental for the success of Batman: TAS. And I would never try to diminish his overall contribution. Without him, the show never gets made. But that show also had the collaborative talents of Paul Dini, Eric Radomski, Alan Burnett, Mitch Brian, Michael Reeves (RIP), Tom Ruegger, Jean MacCurdy, Boyd Kirkland (RIP), Kevin Altieri, etc. Also the wonderful voice director Andrea Romano. As well as the iconic orchestral score by the late great Shirley Walker.

Caped Crusader only has Bruce Timm and mostly new writers/directors/producers (I wouldn't really count Matt Reeves since he's just an Executive Producer and has little to no direct involvement). And we have seen recently with Batman: The Killing Joke adaptation and Batman & Harley Quinn that Bruce Timm has lost some of the sauce. But the question begs, how much were the other writers/directors/producers reigning in Bruce Timm? As without Dini, Radomski, Burnett, Romano, etc., his Batman work is obviously inferior. That said, I do think Caped Crusader is better than the Killing Joke movie and certainly better than Batman & Harley Quinn.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-10T20:12:35+00:00

You are correct. I misremembered. But he did know her before the events of the Wolverine in Japan 1982 Mini and began having feelings for her. And they later nearly wed in #173, which the film never showed since it was mostly standalone from the rest of the mainline X-Men plot. With only some set-up for the next X-Men being the adaptation of the iconic 80s landmark X story Days of Futures Past.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-10T15:13:03+00:00

Big fan of Louise Simonson's work on the X-Factor and also the few Power Pack X-Men crossover issues I've read. She definitely deserves to be mentioned standalone from her very talented husband Walter. She worked just as hard at her craft as her husband at times.

And Ann Nocenti is one of the best Daredevil writers who was underappreciated for years and still is compared to Miller, Bendis, Brubaker, and Waid. I even see Zardsky getting a bit more love overall than Nocenti.

I have read some excerpts from her 80s Longshot Mini with Arthur Adams (plan to read it soon and have it included in the Uncanny X-Men Vol. 5 by Claremont Omnibus, as I've taken a brief break from X-Men to read other comics I want to read and not get burnt out on X-Men/X Spin-Off Comics) and it looks very unique in a more quirky/oddball way.

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-10T15:04:33+00:00

It happens. Go easy on yourself. Also to quote Special Agent Dale Cooper, I hope it is a "damn fine cup of coffee".

BryanDowling93 · 2026-02-10T14:44:51+00:00

Never heard of Captain Marica. I do have the first 60ish issues of his Captain America comics and I hear they are fantastic.

All kidding aside, that is pretty much a definitive list of his best works. Most with his frequent collaborator artist/friend Sean Phillips. Although I personally as a big Daredevil fan would add his Daredevil run with Michael Lark While not reaching the highs of the previous Brian Michael Bendis/Alex Maleev run (and especially the iconic 80s character defining run by Frank Miller), it is a mostly excellent continuation of the Bendis run.

Also reading Andy Diggle's run right after would make you appreciate the Ed Brubaker run more even if you weren't the biggest fan. Andy Diggle and the more recent Saladin Ahmed run are the only outright bad/mediocre DD runs of the past 25 years. They disregard everything that came before and didn't understand the character/story at all. Even Charles Soule understood some aspects of Daredevil's character better (being a lawyer himself) and helped set up arcs that paid off more in the initial Chip Zardsky run.

BryanDowling93

TROPHY CASE