Author: Graeme McMillan

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The Movies of March 2025

I’m not entirely sure why March is so lacking in movies compared with other months lately; it wasn’t an intentional choice, and somehow it happened anyway. Was I watching too much TV? (No, although I feel like I watched more TV than usual; Severance, The Pitt, Mythic Quest, and Adolescence made sure of that.) Was I just watching less in general? I suspect so, which is a nice thing to think about. So, what movies did I watch last month…?

(Spoilers: I thought A Complete Unknown was laughably bad, and would call it one of the worst things I’ve ever seen if it wasn’t for the fact that I watched Wicked a couple of days earlier…)

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The Comics of March 2025

As is traditional, heading to a convention completely wrecked by regular rhythm of comic book reading, with Emerald City Comic Con at the start of the month leaving me too exhausted to read much if anything at the end of each day. That said, I managed to climb back on the horse pretty impressively, based on this outrageous list of things that I read last month. (It’s actually not as impressive as it might look, but I will say that my habit of reading Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk every evening proves to make it look pretty great.) That said, if anyone could explain what made me so obsessed with DC’s Justice Society as I became midway through the month, that would very much be appreciated…

  1. All Star Superman #1
  2. Fantastic Four (1961) #64
  3. The Mighty Thor (1966) #141
  4. Captain America (1968) #314
  5. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #374
  6. G.I. Joe (1982) #s 31-33
  7. All Star Superman #2
  8. Fantastic Four (1961) #65
  9. The Mighty Thor (1966) #142
  10. Captain America (1968) #315
  11. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #375
  12. G.I. Joe (1982) #34
  13. Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #285
  14. Icon (1993) #s 9-10
  15. Jack of Hearts #2
  16. Fantastic Four (1961) #66
  17. The Mighty Thor (1966) #143
  18. Captain America (1968) #316
  19. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #376
  20. Icon (1993) #s 11-13
  21. New Gods (2024) #4
  22. Legionnaires #58
  23. Jack of Hearts #s 3-4
  24. Astonishing Spider-Man Infinity Comic #18
  25. Fortune and Glory: The Musical
  26. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #s 377-379
  27. Icon (1993) #s 14-15
  28. Avengers (2023) #24
  29. Doctor Strange of Asgard #1
  30. The Ultimates (2024) #10
  31. Uncanny X-Men (2024) #11
  32. NYX (2024) #9
  33. Storm (2024) #6
  34. Fantastic Four (1961) #67
  35. The Mighty Thor (1966) #144
  36. Captain America (1968) #317
  37. Superman: Birthright #s 1-3
  38. Fantastic Four (1961) #68
  39. The Mighty Thor (1966) #145
  40. Justice League Unlimited (2024) #5
  41. Metamorpho: The Element Man (2024) #4
  42. Peacemaker Presents: The Vigilante/Eagly Double Feature #1
  43. Superman (2023) #24
  44. Fantastic Four (1961) #69
  45. The Mighty Thor (1966) #146
  46. Captain America (1968) #318
  47. Wonder Woman (2023) #19
  48. Superman: Birthright #4
  49. Fantastic Four (1961) #70
  50. The Mighty Thor (1966) #147
  51. Fantastic Four (1961) #71
  52. The Mighty Thor (1966) #148
  53. Fantastic Four (1961) #72
  54. The Mighty Thor (1966) #149
  55. Fantastic Four (1961) #73
  56. The Mighty Thor (1966) #150
  57. Fantastic Four (1961) #74
  58. The Mighty Thor (1966) #151
  59. Justice League: The Atom Project #4
  60. Green Lantern (2023) #21
  61. Black Canary: The Best of the Best #5
  62. Birds of Prey (2023) #19
  63. Superman: Birthright #5
  64. Captain America (1968) #319
  65. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #s 380-381
  66. Captain America (1968) #320
  67. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #s 382-385
  68. Superman: Birthright #6
  69. The Best of 2000 AD Special Edition #1
  70. DR & Quinch’s Totally Awesome Guide to Life
  71. Fantastic Four (1961) #75
  72. The Mighty Thor (1966) #152
  73. Showcase ‘94 #s 8-9 (Waverider story only)
  74. Zero Hour (1994) #s 4-0
  75. Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special #1
  76. Generation Zero: Gods Among Us Special Edition #1
  77. Generations Shattered #1
  78. Generations Forged #1
  79. Fantastic Four (1961) #76
  80. The Mighty Thor (1966) #153
  81. Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #13
  82. Astonishing Spider-Man Infinity Comic #19
  83. Superman: Birthright #s 7-12
  84. Action Comics (2011) #s 1-2
  85. Action Comics (2011) #s 3-4, 7
  86. Fantastic Four (1961) #77
  87. The Mighty Thor (1966) #154
  88. JSA (2024) #6
  89. Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1
  90. Action Comics (2011) #8
  91. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #s 386-387
  92. Captain America (1968) #s 321-322
  93. Paradax (1987) #1
  94. 2x Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins
  95. All-New Venom #4
  96. The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #69
  97. Nick Fury vs. Fin Fang Foom #1
  98. Iron Man (2024) #6
  99. Phoenix (2024) #9
  100. Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #2
  101. West Coast Avengers (2024) #5
  102. X-Men (2024) #13
  103. X-Factor (2024) #8
  104. Star Trek (1989) #1
  105. Secret Six (2025) #s 1-2
  106. You’ll Do Bad Things #1
  107. We’re Taking Everyone Down With Us #1
  108. G.I. Joe (2024) #s 1-2
  109. Fantastic Four (1961) #78
  110. The Mighty Thor (1966) #155
  111. G.I. Joe (2024) #s 3-5
  112. America vs. the Justice Society #1
  113. All-Star Comics #s 58-61
  114. JSA (1999) #s 52-55
  115. Aquaman (2025) #2
  116. JSA (1999) #s 56-58
  117. Hawkman (2002) #s 23-25
  118. Action Comics (2011) #5
  119. JSA (1999) #s 59-60
  120. All-Star Comics #62
  121. JSA (1999) #s 61-64
  122. The Power Fantasy #s 5-7
  123. Fantastic Four (1961) #79
  124. The Mighty Thor (1966) #156
  125. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #388
  126. Captain America (1968) #323
  127. JSA (1999) #s 65-67
  128. Action Comics (2011) #6
  129. Booster Gold (1985) #s 8-9
  130. Avengers (1963) #s 235-236
  131. JSA (1999) #s 68-70
  132. G.I. Joe (1982) #s 35-37
  133. All-Star Comics #63
  134. America vs. the Justice Society #2
  135. Alpha Flight (1983) #6
  136. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #389
  137. Aquaman (2025) #3
  138. JSA (1999) #s 71-72
  139. All-Star Comics #64
  140. Captain America (1968) #324
  141. Invincible #s 1-14
  142. JSA (1999) #s 73-77
  143. JSA Classified #s 1-4
  144. Justice Society of America (1992) #s 1-2
  145. Avengers (1963) #237
  146. Star Trek (1989) #s 2-4
  147. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #s 390-393
  148. JSA (1999) #s 78-81
  149. Star Trek (1989) #s 5-7
  150. JSA (1999) #82
  151. Sooner or Later
  152. Sooner or Later Presents: Swifty’s Return
  153. Fantastic Four (1961) #80
  154. The Mighty Thor (1966) #157
  155. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #394
  156. Captain America (1968) #325
  157. Avengers (1963) #238
  158. JSA (1999) #83
  159. G.I. Joe (1982) #38
  160. Invincible #s 15-16
  161. Action Comics (2011) #9
  162. Exceptional X-Men #7
  163. One World Under Doom #2
  164. Action Comics (2011) #s 9-12, 0
  165. X-Force (2024) #9
  166. Cable: Love and Chrome #3
  167. Batman and Robin (2023) #20
  168. Fantastic Four (1961) #81
  169. The Mighty Thor (1966) #158
  170. Captain America (1968) #326
  171. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #395
  172. Avengers (1963) #239
  173. Fire & Ice: When Hell Freezes Over #1
  174. Green Lantern Corps (2025) #3
  175. JSA (1999) #s 84-87
  176. Justice Society of America (2006) #1
  177. Action Comics (2011) #s 13-14
  178. Fantastic Four (1961) #82
  179. The Mighty Thor (1966) #159
  180. Captain America (1968) #327
  181. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #396
  182. Justice Society of America (2006) #s 2-4
  183. Avengers (1963) #240
  184. All-Star Comics #65
  185. Justice Society of America (1992) #s 3-5
  186. G.I. Joe (1982) #s 39-40
  187. Action Comics (2011) #15
  188. Fantastic Four (1961) #83
  189. The Mighty Thor (1966) #160
  190. Captain America (1968) #328
  191. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #397
  192. Action Comics (2011) #s 16-18
  193. Star Trek (1989) #s 8-12
  194. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #s 398-400
  195. Justice Society of America (1992) #s 6-7
  196. Aquaman (2025) #4
  197. Star Trek (1989) #13
  198. Fantastic Four (1961) #84
  199. The Mighty Thor (1966) #161
  200. Captain America (1968) #329
  201. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #401
  202. Star Trek (1989) #s 14-16
  203. Justice Society of America (1992) #s 8-10
  204. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 301-305
  205. All-Star Comics #66
  206. Fantastic Four (1961) #85
  207. The Mighty Thor (1966) #162
  208. Captain America (1968) #330
  209. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #402
  210. Web of Spider-Man (1985) #s 2-3
  211. It’s Jeff! Infinity Comic #43
  212. Star Trek (1989) #s 17-21
  213. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 306-307
  214. Invincible #s 17-24, 0
  215. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #s 308-310
  216. Web of Spider-Man (1985) #s 4-9
  217. Fantastic Four (1961) #86
  218. The Mighty Thor (1966) #163
  219. Captain America (1968) #331
  220. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #403
  221. Star Trek (1989) #s 22-24
  222. Invincible #s 25-30
  223. Invincible: Origins #1
  224. Justice Society of America (2006) #s 7-9
  225. Al’s Baby
  226. Fantastic Four (1961) #87
  227. The Mighty Thor (1966) #164
  228. Captain America (1968) #332
  229. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #404
  230. Invincible #s 31-34
  231. Marvel Team-Up (2004) #14 (Invincible crossover)
  232. Web of Spider-Man Annual #s 1-3
  233. All-Star Comics #67
  234. Hawkgirl (2006) #50
  235. Astonishing Spider-Man Infinity Comic #20
  236. Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #s 14-15
  237. Web of Spider-Man (1985) #s 10-13
  238. Star Trek (1989) #s 25-28
  239. Fantastic Four (1961) #88
  240. The Mighty Thor (1966) #165
  241. Captain America (1968) #333
  242. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #405
  243. Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four #1
  244. Fantastic Four (2022) #30
  245. Uncanny X-Men (2024) #12
  246. Star Trek (1989) #29
  247. Thunderbolts: Doomstrike #2
  248. The Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #70
  249. The Incredible Hulk (2023) #23
  250. Summer of Superman Special #1
  251. Challengers of the Unknown (2024) #5
  252. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #38
  253. Wonder Woman (2023) #20
  254. Fantastic Four (1961) #89
  255. The Mighty Thor (1966) #166
  256. Captain America (1968) #334
  257. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #406
  258. X-Manhunt: Omega #1
  259. Wolverine: Revenge #5
  260. Daredevil (2023) #19
  261. Weapon X-Men #2
  262. Ultimate Spider-Man (2024) #15
  263. Fantastic Four (1961) #90
  264. The Mighty Thor (1966) #167
  265. Captain America (1968) #335
  266. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #407
  267. DC vs. Vampires: World War V #s 1-4
  268. DC vs. Vampires: World War V – Darkness and Light #1
  269. DC vs. Vampires: World War V #s 5-6
  270. Justice League of America (1960) #166
  271. Fantastic Four (1961) #91
  272. The Mighty Thor (1966) #168
  273. Captain America (1968) #336
  274. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #408
  275. It’s Jeff! Infinity Comic #44
  276. 52: World War III #s 1-4
  277. Justice League of America (1960) #167
  278. Fantastic Four (1961) #92
  279. The Mighty Thor (1966) #169
  280. Captain America (1968) #337
  281. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #409
  282. Justice Society of America (2006) #s 10-12
  283. Detective Comics #1096
  284. Titans (2023) #22
  285. The New Gods (2024) #5
  286. Absolute Wonder Woman #s 1-5
  287. Justice League of America (1960) #168
  288. Fantastic Four (1961) #93
  289. The Mighty Thor (1966) #170
  290. Captain America (1968) #338
  291. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #410
  292. Invincible #s 35-47
  293. Fantastic Four (1961) #94
  294. The Mighty Thor (1966) #171
  295. Captain America (1968) #s 339-340
  296. Iron Man (1968) #228
  297. The Incredible Hulk (1962) #411
  298. Serenity: Those Left Behind #1
  299. Kingdom Come #1
  300. Red Hulk (2025) #2
  301. Invincible #s 48-50
  302. Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #s 231-232
  303. All-New Collector’s Edition #55 (Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes)
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We’re All Policemen

One of the stranger things about having been, essentially, continuously sick since the start of February is that I feel as if I feel as if I haven’t really managed to have any downtime, despite the fact that… well, basically the entire time I haven’t been working across the past eight or nine weeks has been downtime in a technical sense. I mean, what else would you call lying in bed, or on a couch, feeling dizzy and unable to do anything that requires focus and attention for more than a few minutes?

Of course, it’s downtime of one kind, but only one. The ability to do any of the many other things that, honestly, I very much would have liked to have managed by this point of the year — a list that includes anything from “doing my taxes” to “going for more walks,” or even simply “watching all of the movies I have on my ‘to watch’ list” — has been absent, and by this point of the calendar, I can feel the pressure of all those ambitions, from small to necessarily larger, weighing on me. It’s gone from, “man, it’s be nice to do something else” to “I really need to do those other things, before it’s too late.” And yet.

The entire experience is, in its own way, an unexpectedly renewing one. I feel appreciative of the small joys of time off (especially when it isn’t, you know, actually free time because tasks and other demands are looming) in a way I wasn’t months ago — mostly because, you know, I miss it — and I feel as if the trial-and-error of “maybe I can do this without feeling bad, oops” has also taught me the value of actually listening to my body and taking a break in a way I probably should have mastered decades earlier. Assuming that there is, at some point, an end to this phlegm-filled project I accidentally and unintentionally signed up for, I might end up looking back on it somewhat fondly in the future as a necessary reminder of my own limits that I’d been ignoring for too long.

Or maybe that’s the Stockholm Syndrome talking.

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Neverending

It’s a strange thing to realize that, a quarter of the way into the year as we almost are at this point, I’ve spent two out of the last three months basically sick and/or recovering from being sick. As much as I’m tempted to make a joke about this being a sign of my old age and obviously fragile body due to same — an impulse born of the desire to make that joke before anyone else can, because that’s just how uncomfortable I am about being 50 years old — the sad truth is, more than anything, I’m learning the limits of what I can, and can’t tolerate these days and realizing with no small sense of sadness that I just can’t bounce back the way I used to.

To be fair, I was literally told by multiple medical professionals that the virus-that-was-probably-the-flu was something that everyone seemed to have a hard time getting over; when I was at the emergency room, I was given estimates of three weeks, maybe longer — a timescale that basically worked out, except it very much didn’t work out in that it ended just as I headed to Seattle for a week for work, running on longer-workdays-less-rest-and-less-food for that time and watching my health get knocked back as a result.

Things weren’t helped by the fact that there was, apparently, a second, entirely separate headcold running through the staff that probably dinged me as well; I can remember hearing about it from three different people within a five minute period on the second day of the show, each one giving me a different name of someone who’d mysteriously gotten sick the day before with exactly the same symptoms and thinking to myself, oh shit, I’m going to get sick again, aren’t I? (Spoilers: yes.)

There was a point just before I left Seattle where I was bent double over the bathroom sink, unable to stop coughing to the point where I coughed my throat raw and saw blood hit the sink where I thought, do I even remember what it feels like to be healthy anymore? Must be nice, and then immediately imagining myself still asking that question next month, or the month after that.

There has to be more to 2025 than being a plague year, I hope.

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The Drawback of the Medical Profession

At the doctor’s office for my physical, I sit in the room and wonder to myself, what if the doctor is just making all this stuff up? Does anyone ever actually check his work?

There’s a reason I’m thinking this beyond simple paranoia, it’s worth pointing out. While doing all the traditional doctor-doing-a-physical things, my doctor was also chatting away, telling me his point of view on anything and everything I happened to ask about, and his views were… well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say “crackpot,” but certainly unconventional. He would happily tell me what supplements he believed were a scam, but also which fruits and vegetables he believed were essentially worthless and should be avoided in any sensible diet — or which diseases were actually great weight-loss tools, for that matter. All of this, delivered in a very friendly, conversational style that somewhat undercut the fact that none of it actually seemed that professional, and then he left the room to go check on something, leaving me to sit there and think, I’m sure this guy is on the level, but what if he’s not?

It left me fully aware of how utterly unknowable all this stuff really is — although, admittedly, I’d be thinking something similar since my maybe-flu brought me to the emergency room where I was all but told, yeah, we don’t know, we can’t help you I guess and sent home none the wiser. There’s a hope we all have with doctors maybe more than any other profession that they fully get it and understand and never make any mistakes but have all the answers, and it’s inexplicable and unfair. Why do they have to be infallible when we’re not? Why aren’t they able to not have the answers, or say the wrong thing, or have weird opinions about why apples are pointless when you really get down to it?

The answer is, of course, we don’t go see doctors when we’re feeling ready to be playful or challenged or have a good back-and-forth about random topics. We go when we want someone to tell us what’s wrong and just know it for sure, because we’re scared and we don’t like the unknown at that point in our lives. It’s got to be hard for the doctors in question, who (just like the rest of us) sometimes will just want to bullshit and say dumb shit and not have to be right all the time.

But when they try, they leave someone in the room thinking, what if the doctor is just making all this stuff up? Does anyone ever actually check his work?

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How Animal Man Changed My Life

I remember, as odd as this is, a point where I was noticing the names of the writers and artists of my favorite comics, but hadn’t quite gotten my head around it all just yet. Paying attention to names started, I think when I really got into the X-Men — a point when I was… maybe 10 or 11 years old, and had decided with the confidence and certainly that you feel at that age that I was collecting comics now, this was a thing I did — and it seemed like a sign of my newfound focus on comics as a thing that I was into. Yet, years later, all of these people whose names I recognized month in, month out (or week in, week out when it came to the British comics) seemed… unearthly. Unreal, somehow. They weren’t real, they were unattainable. They were as fictional to me as Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne themselves.

At some point, in what was apparently early 1988 from looking back at publication dates — I would’ve been 13 at the time — DC house ads started appearing, advertising the upcoming launch of Animal Man, written by Grant Morrison. I knew who Grant Morrison was, having enjoyed his Zenith in the pages of 2000 AD for awhile, but the concept of the same man managing to write both British and American comics broke my brain entirely. That, I decided in my unformed brain, was surely impossible. Far more likely, I deducted, was that there were two entirely separate men both called Grant Morrison who both wrote comics. What an unlikely coincidence, I told myself!

I can’t remember how long I held this impossibly dumb idea in my head; certainly, by the time Animal Man was actually coming out, I’d realized the error of my ways. (There was probably something in an early issue emphasizing that it was, in fact, the same man.) The dscovery that someone from Britain — from Scotland, not that far from where I lived, even! — could write for American comics was something that, in its own way, changed the way I saw the world. Somehow, everything seemed a little bigger, a little more possible. If you could come from where I did and do that, what else could you do, I asked myself?

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Hypnotized by the Whirl

There’s a joke, it seems, about the first good weather in Portland after the winter; that it makes everyone in the city overreact, and respond as if they’ve never seen sun before. It’s a recurring bit because it’s true; this year, the first sunny day in weeks if not months — which was also accompanied by some genuine warmth, unusually but welcomely — was greeted by anecdotal reports of parents taking their kids out of school to enjoy it, of people taking time off work to escape to the countryside to take advantage of it, and firsthand experience of people walking past the house in t-shirts and grins, acting as if they’ve somehow escaped true horror and entered a utopia entirely unexpectedly.

I’m one to talk, though; I finished work and walked to the local park, determined to both clear my head of the static of the workday and take advantage of the good weather while it was around,. What I found there was thrilling in ways that I should have expected, but didn’t — the entire place, filled with the cast of characters I hadn’t seen there in months, every single one of us ready and eager to return to a warmer norm where we play our pre-determined roles with enthusiasm and, dare I say, gusto.

There were the dog walkers, with barely-constrained pups thrilled to see each other and be in the same space again; there were the stoners, and the goths, and the skaters, all assembling and quietly conferring amongst their own groups and suspiciously looking at everyone else. There were the dancers, those exuberant and confusing folk who just have to move even though there’s no music to hear, and then there were their opposites, the people who just sit silently and look at the ducks in the pond. There were the joggers, with a number looking dangerously red-faced, and the tree worshippers, and the people who might be having a picnic but there’s no food and so it’s unclear what they’re actually doing…

I’m part of my own group, of course; I’m a walker — one of those people who just like moving through the park at our own rate, watching everything, seemingly restless and purposeless. I do it alone, usually, listening to music and decompressing mentally. It’s a simple pleasure, but a sincere one, and I know I’m just as much a cliche and subsect as anyone else there. That was perhaps what made that particular walk such a joy: the feeling of fitting back into an eco-system I hadn’t even thought about in so long, and of belonging, once again.

More than the weather, that was what made the walk so special. The sense of once again rejoining a larger world outside my front door.