Lanterns Episode 3 explains why John Stewart may be one of the most naturally formidable Green Lanterns we've seen; but the answer comes with a cost.

Adam looks at John's childhood, the extreme training his parents put him through after learning he might someday be chosen by the Guardians, the meaning behind his persistent bird construct and the uncomfortable line between preparing a child for greatness and abusing them in pursuit of it.

The episode also explores how the Guardians' supposedly universal test of fear changes when applied to John as a Black man on Earth.

After years on the shelf, Coyote vs. Acme finally made it to theaters, and seeing the finished movie only makes Warner Bros.' original decision more confusing.

Adam reviews the long-delayed Looney Tunes film, its surprisingly sharp corporate satire, its deep affection for animation history and the human relationships that keep it just short of a perfect score. There's also an unavoidable irony at the center of the movie's release: a story about a corporation believing it can escape accountability was itself nearly erased by one.

HBO’s Lanterns looked like it might turn Green Lantern into a grounded prestige drama and leave the cosmic weirdness behind.

After the first two episodes, Adam is pleasantly surprised.

Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre establish a strong Hal Jordan/John Stewart dynamic, the central mystery actually makes good use of the detective format, and the series is not shying away from constructs, the Green Lantern oath, Sinestro or the mythology surrounding the Corps.

But one question remains: if John Stewart is already doing things other Lanterns seemingly cannot, has the show established enough of the rules for that to feel meaningful?

If an entire town gets thrown into prehistoric Earth, the town should probably matter.

This week on Beware of Spoilers, Adam breaks down The End of Oak Street, a new Bad Robot dinosaur movie with an excellent premise but too many competing ideas. From an underdeveloped suburban community to a marriage subplot that keeps interrupting the survival story, the movie repeatedly hints at more interesting versions of itself without fully committing to any of them.

There is plenty to like, but not enough to make this one memorable.

Full spoilers ahead. Adam saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day and calls it the first time he's felt confident in the MCU in years. A complete breakdown of who Sadie Sink is playing, why the Peter/*REDACTED* symmetry is the smartest thing in the movie, and how a self-contained, street-level Spider-Man story quietly lays every piece of groundwork the *REDACTED* saga needs. Plus the Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal double act, the best Hulk scene in years, a *REDACTED* hiding in plain sight, and the one narrative thread the film ties up a little too neatly. A full 5 out of 5, and the reason to believe in Marvel again.

The first new Avatar project in nearly a decade is here, and Adam has thoughts. A full-spoilers review of Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, why it's one of the best-looking things the franchise has ever produced, and why it should never have been dumped onto streaming. Plus the central problem: scale. From wrecking Republic City, to unlocking a beast-mode Avatar State, to granting airbending to non-benders, the events feel to large for an interquel.

Adam finally caught Obsession, the sub-million-dollar Blumhouse phenomenon that became the horror hit of the year, and he's got reservations the hype train left behind. A full-spoilers breakdown of why Inde Navarrette's multi-layered performance is genuinely Oscar-worthy, how the monkey's-paw premise nails its unsettling middle stretch, and why the blood-soaked third act breaks the film's own fantasy rules, and its moral center, by making Nikki's suffering suddenly, unbearably real. Plus the Lisa Frankenstein problem, the case for Bear as an unreliable narrator, and the Blumhouse model working exactly as designed.

Christopher Nolan is back, and Adam is ready to call it: The Odyssey is the best film of the year so far and a full five stars. Join in for a spoiler-inclusive breakdown (though the book is 3000 years old so the statute of limitations has well passed) of why Nolan has quietly become the best deconstructionist in film, taking a story you half-remember from high school and rebuilding it around its emotional core, the way he did with Oppenheimer. Plus the law of Zeus as the movie's moral engine, why withholding the glory of Troy is the whole point, and why the manufactured casting controversy misreads an avowedly mythological film.

My Adventures with Superman is back after nearly two years, and Adam digs into the first three episodes of season three. Is this secretly Kara's season, how the Reign of the Supermen arc reframes Cyborg Superman as a Lex Luthor story, and why the show's refusal to hit the reset button on Clark and Lois makes it the most emotionally honest Superman on screen. Plus the Seto Kaiba take on Lex, the dating-app fish epidemic, and the one Jimmy subplot that's already wearing thin. Weekly coverage starts here.

DC's second swing lands, mostly. Adam caught an early screening of Supergirl and makes the case that Milly Alcock's jaded, Woman of Tomorrow-flavored Kara is strong enough to carry a film with real structural cracks. Full spoilers on the Kara-and-Ruthye dynamic that anchors the whole thing, the grungy visual design that makes the action hard to follow, the third-act green-screen problem, and why a cartoonishly evil villain keeps Kara's arc from fully landing. Plus: is the DCU actually in trouble, or is this just the Iron Man 2 phase? A solid 4 out of 5, maybe a 3 on a worse day.

Succession Planning is out August 28th. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H671H3GX

The toys are back, and Adam has thoughts about whether they needed to be. A full-spoilers breakdown of Toy Story 5, the Lilypad tablet villain, a tech-and-childhood theme the movie raises and then refuses to actually wrestle with, why this is fundamentally Jessie's story and all the better for it, how the film gets caught serving two masters, the conspicuous absence of anything Lightyear-related, and the recasting problem Pixar can't put off forever. Bring tissues if "When Somebody Loved Me" still gets you. A conflicted but fair 4 out of 5.