Staff Picks of the Week – October 14th, 2016
It is the end of the week! It is time for the Staff Picks of the Week! Each week a select few of us share with you what has been entertaining us! We hope you have visited the site this week. We always have new and exciting content posted for you to read and enjoy. This week we have reviews for Angel City #1, Paper Girls #10, Britannia #2, Briggs Land #3, Reborn #1, and Death of X #1, plus many more! We share our thoughts on Girl on a Train and Westworld, as well as take a look at the re-published Japanese horror novel The Graveyard Apartment. It’s October! We have plenty of Halloween articles as well, make sure you check out the 31 Spooky Nights series and other scary articles like The History of Hammer Horror Part 2: Eternal Life and The Legendary Werewolf: Poplore and Folklore. We always have you covered with the Podcasts as well! Check out the latest episodes of Comicsbound, Scooby Dos or Scooby Dont’s, and Marvel Cinematic Origins. Trust me, whatever you are interested in, Rogues Portal has you covered. Now let’s check out the picks of the week!
Anelise’s Pick of the Week – If you like horror at all and you are not watching Fox’s new television show The Exorcist, stop what you are doing right now and get caught up. This show is not a remake of the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist—rather, it is a series inspired by the novel, the film, and true related accounts of exorcisms. So, if you’re worried about this show being just another take on the “let’s remake something old into something new” bandwagon, do not fear. This show is very much its own creation. The plot centers around a fairly average family: a mother, a disabled father, and two teenage daughters all living in Chicago. However, the mother (the wonderful Geena Davis) suspects that one of her daughters has become possessed by a demon. Surrounding this narrative, we have Father Tomas and Father Marcus—both working to help the family, as well as battle some demons of their own. This show has fantastic acting, an intriguing storyline, and scenes that make you squirm and scream. As if Fridays weren’t exciting enough, Fox’s The Exorcist is one more reason to get excited about the weekend!
Nicole’s Pick of the Week – My pick of the week is, once again, something old that is new to me. Over the past couple of weeks, I binge watched Luther, and from the first episode, I was so hooked. First of all, Idris Elba is just a badass, and rather easy on the eyes. The show itself is a combination of Dexter, Criminal Minds and Sherlock, complete with a brilliantly acted but morally ambiguous protagonist.The character of Luther is so well thought out and so cleverly portrayed, it’s a thrill just to watch him in action. The show is gritty, dark, creative and, at times, outright scary. The criminals Luther hunts are straight out of a nightmare, and certain scenes play out like a horror film. They are executed with such a sense of realism, as well, they are more suspenseful than many movies I’ve seen. Season 4 of Luther only had two episodes and I do not know when season 5 will be made and released, as British TV schedules are quite different than in the United States. I wait anxiously, however, for it’s return. Soon, please, Great Britain.
Hafsa’s Pick of the Week – Jeux D’Enfant (Love Me If You Dare)Directed by Yann Samuell, this is an extraordinary French romance movie that defies all romance tropes. The two main characters played by Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard (yes, Talia al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises). They meet as children and proceed to drive each other insane for the rest of their lives by playing a competitive game they created. What I love about this movie is that it defies romance and makes you think about what love is and what aging does to a person’s judgment. The mood matches the lightness or severity of situations they find themselves in. The filming angle also helps emphasize the thrill of the story. The story, directing, and realism matures as the characters mature. It reflects the disparity and subversive nature of the narrative and the film portrayed. Nothing is normal and everything is an adrenaline rush in this movie. You’ll see what I mean when you watch it!
John’s Pick of the Week – I haven’t played a lot of Gears of War 4 yet but I’ve played enough to know it’s my pick for this week! I’ve been a fan of the franchise since the beginning so the long wait between this game and the last one (and I do count the underrated Gears of War Judgement by the by) has been well-worth it from the few hours I’ve played. There are new robotic enemies that add a bit more strategy to the fight (even though it’s generally still “shoot it until it stops moving”) and the new weapons I’ve seen so far are all fairly great additions to the classic weapons of the franchises’ past. I’m also playing the game via split-screen co-op with my wife and while the layout of the dual screens could use a little tweaking (why does the text have to be so small) it’s rare to see a split-screen anything nowadays so it’s great to see the Gears games haven’t abandoned that feature like some other high-profile franchises have…*cough*Halo*cough*
Robert’s Pick of the Week – Johnathan Hickman makes comics unlike any other. His latest creation, Black Monday Murders, doesn’t fail to make a unique imprint on the shelf. The first thing one notices about the book is how thick it is, coming in at a whopping 50+ pages. So first off you’re getting primo bang for your buck at an asking price of 4.99. The second thing about this book is the content. It’s not a summer blockbuster. No giant action set piece to be found in this book. It focuses on conversations and the power of words. Black Monday Murders, on its surface at least, is about the finance center of the world- Wall Street. That belies the underpinnings of what this book is really about: Power. This book is a mediation on power and the people that run the world from a fiscal perspective. Topics and subjects like this have been getting more play in the entertainment industry since the housing bubble and subsequently the world’s economy crashed in 2007-2008. Hickman makes the .001 power brokers of the financial world and makes the basically worship the devil. In this book we have a cop who stumbles upon a crime that could unhinge one of the major players and he begins to ask questions. This issue is just a conversation between people in a jail cell and it is fascinating. I loved the word play and way the conversation played out over the issue. I wouldn’t recommend just picking up the latest issue but the entire series if you want a comic atypical from the big two’s action movie comics. 
