Film Flash: David (2025)

  

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Best animated musical in years.  Beautiful music, visuals, and themes.  Good for the whole family.

Sunday Best: Catholic Skywalker Awards - Best in Comics 2025

  With 2025 coming to a close, it is time for us to choose what the best entertainment of the year was.  And just as the Academy Awards have their "Oscars, " so too the Catholic Skywalker Awards have their "Kal-El's"

Now, if you are new to this blog you may be wondering why a blog called Catholic Skywalker would choose a Superman statue as it's award, and not something from Star Wars.   The reasons are 3-fold:

1.  The Catholic Skywalker Awards will cover movies, television, and comic books.  Superman is an icon for all three.

2.  The pose he has here, revealing his inner hero, is symbolic of the revelation of truth and beauty that we should find in all good art.

3.  It's a statue I actually own, so I can use this photo on my blog.

Catholic Skywalker: Best in Comics:

Best Series

Flash Gordon

For the second year in a row, the Flash Gordon comic continues to be the best comic being printed today.  As I wrote last year: 

One of the things that sets Adams apart as a writer is his clear sense of love for the characters.  He loves Flash Gordon and he is not trying to do an ironic, post-modern deconstruction of the character.  He is trying to show the audience what makes Flash so awesome.  

One of the great things about the story is that it takes so many unexpected twists and turns, but it never feels like it is a betrayal of who the characters are at their core.  Adams even introduces a kind of "Mirror Universe" to this series, but it works so well because there is a kind of catharsis in seeing the doppelgangers of our characters behave in such a contrary fashion.

The art is also top notch.  Comics are, of course, a visual medium, and these alien worlds are fantastic to behold. 

If you have been waiting to pick up a 

RUNNERS UP
Green Lantern

Rook: Exodus

Fantastic Four

Redcoat

Best Mini-Series

Los Monstruos

RUNNERS UP

One World Under Doom

Best One-Shot or Graphic Novel

Marvel All-On-One #1

I had a lot of fun reading this book.  It feels like a throwback to the big, bold 1990's, where every page is a splash page.  The plot is straightforward enough: Ben Grimm is suddenly attacked by all of the heroes in the Marvel Universe.  The plot unfolds as the story goes, but in the meantime, you get incredibly fun action set pieces while Ryan North unfolds his signature sci-fi aesthetic that draws you into the story, while remember that the name of the game is... fun.

RUNNERS UP
BZRKR: The Bleeding Tide

Deadpool and Batman

Best Single Issue

Absolute Batman  #10

One of the best things about Batman is also one of the worst things: he always wins.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want Batman to lose.  But because of this, stories tend to feel less significant.  They don't have stakes.

But with the new Absolute line in DC, it feels like the safety guides are removed.  And in this issue, you feel an actual sense of danger for Batman.  In this issue, Batman has been captured by the people who changed Bane.  They are experimenting on Bruce and torturing him both physically and mentally.  Bruce tries to escape, but he is constantly put down by Bane.

This story makes Batman feel so week and Bane feel so overwhelming.  Not since reading Court of Owls have I read Batman feeling so helpless.  For that reason, the story gripped me.  Not only that, but it gave writer Scott Snyder a wonderful writing challenge: how do you get Batman to do the impossible?  Every attempt at escape was filled with hope and that hope was shattered with each defeat.  But instead of filling me with despair, it made me desperately hope even more for escape.  

Nick Dragotta's pencil's and inks fill the story with its character and atmosphere in a powerful way.  The story is a nightmare from which the reader frantically wants to wake from.  And all of that emotion is clearly used to its fullest effect.

RUNNERS UP 

Best Artist

Jason Fabok (Rook: Exodus)

Rook: Exodus is one of the best books out there.  This highly-imaginative world is brought to life by Jason Fabok's fantastic art.  The world feels modern, but savage.  It is such an interesting confluence of high and low technology.  All of this draws you in because of Fabok's fabulous art.  Just like with his amazing work in The Three Jokers, you can feel the weight in all of his art, as if was in three dimensions and tactile to the touch.  He is able to make that which is dingy and bleak look beautiful in its own way.

.

RUNNERS UP

Gary Frank: Geiger

Bryan Hitch: Redcoat

Best Writer

Jeremy Adams (Green Lantern, Flash Gordon)

I wrote last year that Jeremy Adams is currently one of my favorite writers working in comics.

That is still true today.

I already wrote about how wonderful Flash Gordon is, but his Green Lantern is probably the best it has been since Geoff Johns was on the book.  Adams knows how to write Hal in a way that feels authentic to what has come before while taking him in new directions.  And like Johns, he is expanding the lore and the universe.

One of the things that I like about how Adams writes is that he finds the human core in all of us, both the good and the bad.  When Carol Ferris' fiancee takes a turn towards the villainous, not only do you feel his heartbreak but you can also understand why he feels that life has cheated him.  

Adams is able to play things at a cosmic scale while not losing sight of the human drama that keeps us hooked.  

On a personal note, I got to meet him this summer at convention and he is the nicest guy in the world.  It is wonderful to know that talent and kindness are not mutually exclusive.  

RUNNERS UP
Tom Taylor: Nightwing, Titans, Detective Comics
Mark Waid: World's Finest: Batman/Superman, Absolute Power
Geoff Johns: Geiger, Redcoat, Rook: Exodus, Justice Society of America, Hyde Street

Film Flash: Marty Supreme

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

A tedious, shaggy-dog story with no one to root for that gets uglier and uglier.

 

Film Flash: Song Sung Blue

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Touching and sad film (with excellent performances) about ordinary people moving forward through life's struggles

Christmas 2025

   

  

Merry Christmas!

"The Son fo God became a man to enable men to become sons of God."  -CS Lewis

On this day, we remember how God became one of us to show us how we can become the best version of ourselves.  He should us what it truly meant be human by living the most fully human life: a life of love, friendship, joy, and giving.

He came down to Earth so that He could raise us up to Heaven.  Today, that line between Heaven and Earth blurs a bit and we can see the mixing of the two.

My prayer for all of you that is that this Christmas is filled with love, friendship, joy, and giving.  

Or as Linus reminded us so many years ago:

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. 

  
The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.

And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:


“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Film Flash: Avatar - Fire and Ash

 

 

15 words or less film review (full review to follow soon)

Better than Way of Water: a straightforward tale of survival, but an hour too long

New Evangelizers Post: Functionalism vs. Vitalism: the Extremes of Human Life

                                  

I have a new article up at NewEvangelizers.com.  

End-of-life decisions are some of the most agonizing heart-breaking.

When my mother was dying in the hospital, I was chosen to be her medical power of attorney, which meant that I had to make decisions about her care. It was a position I desperately did not want to have, because it felt like there were no good choices to make. If anyone out there has been in a similar position, my heart goes out to you.

But what are our guiding principles when making these end-of-life choices?

There are many varying factors at play here. But as a Catholic, you want to avoid the 2 extremes: Functionalism and Vitalism.

Functionalism is the belief that human dignity is based on having certain qualities or attributes. If a person no longer has the attributes, then their life no longer has value. For example, if someone loses consciousness or mobility or the ability to communicate, functionalists would say that the value of this life is lesser. As a result, the functionalists tend to believe in euthanasia, which is the intentionally killing of the sick.

You can see this functionalist mindset at play in Canada. Not only is euthanasia legal, but it is even encouraged by many in the public and private sector. The functionalist would say to the infirmed person that they are being selfish for being a burden on their families. On this view, the most compassionate thing to do is to end your own life if it is too burdensome for your loved ones.

This would also apply if the loved ones are the ones making those life decisions. In the Netherlands, a committee of physicians introduced the Groningen Protocol, which laid out conditions where children under the age of 1 could be euthanized under certain conditions. The Dutch government adopted regulations that would make it possible for parents to euthanize their infants. On this functionalist view, the suffering of the child and the burden of the parents make the killing allowable.

Of course the Catholic church is against all forms of euthanasia. All life is sacred and we do not have the right to murder, even self-murder. That isn’t to say that we are indifferent to the suffering of the sick. We can do all within reason to alleviate the suffering of others. The Catechism states, “The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2279).

It is important to avoid this philosophy of functionalism, because it becomes to easy to reduce the value of a human being to what they can do or contribute. If you have lesser ability, on the functionalist view, your life has less value. This is completely opposite of what our Lord taught us. Every human being, regardless of their ability, is made in God’s image and is of intrinsic value.

On the opposite extreme we have vitalism, which is the believe that any and all means necessary must be used to extend and persevere human life.

I want to be very clear at the outset, there is nothing wrong with using any ethical means to keep someone alive. When my mom was struggling, we had the option to remove her from her breathing machine. I asked her what she wanted and I followed her wishes to be kept on it. There is nothing in and of itself sinful about using things like ventilators and the like to prolong life.

But vitalism states that we must use these extreme measures. However, the Catholic Church holds that this is not necessary. Death is a natural part of our current state of human life. All ordinary means of keeping someone alive (e.g. food and water), must be given. But we do not need to go through excessive means to keep someone alive. Something like a ventilator is an extraordinary means. As a Catholic, if someone has no hope of recovery, a ventilator can be removed and natural death can take its course.

You can read the whole article here.