My Monthly Anticipation | April 2022

Posted on by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Hello everyone,

Who doesn’t love the anticipation of new releases and things that they plan on doing? Every month there seems to be something new and exciting ready to hit the market for our consumption.

Being ready to embrace them with open arms is all we can really do.

To showcase this, I’ll be sharing my top 3 for each category of things that I look forward to this month right here, right now!

BOOK RELEASES.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel.
Release Date: April 5th, 2022
Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal–an experience that shocks him to his core.
Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.
When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

Here I thought my TBR was already too huge with Station Eleven picking up dust on there, now we got a new novel by Emily St. John Mandel that sounds quite fascinating!

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne.
Release Date: April 14th, 2022.
Lik-Rifa, the dragon god of legend, has been freed from her eternal prison. Now she plots a new age of blood and conquest.

As Orka continues the hunt for her missing son, the Bloodsworn sweep south in a desperate race to save one of their own – and Varg takes the first steps on the path of vengeance.

Elvar has sworn to fulfill her blood oath and rescue a prisoner from the clutches of Lik-Rifa and her dragonborn followers, but first she must persuade the Battle-Grim to follow her.

Yet even the might of the Bloodsworn and Battle-Grim cannot stand alone against a dragon god.

Their hope lies within the mad writings of a chained god. A book of forbidden magic with the power to raise the wolf god Ulfrir from the dead . . . and bring about a battle that will shake the foundations of the earth. 

I had a blast with the first book of John Gwynne’s latest trilogy and I’m convinced this sequel is just as good!

COMIC BOOK RELEASES.

Issue #1 of X-Men: Red comes out on April 6th, 2022 over at Marvel Comics.
WHO CAN SAVE THE RED PLANET? The mutants of Arakko spent millennia scarred by war—but on what was once called Mars, they’re learning to live in peace. STORM knows the red planet needs something greater than a queen. But ABIGAIL BRAND has other plans, along with an unstable VULCAN on her side and CABLE keeping his own secrets. Welcome to X-MEN RED. It’s a new world…and someone has to fight for it.

Writer Al Ewing begins a new story where Earth is not the planet that requires saving this time around.

Issue #1 of Spider-Punk comes out on April 6th, 2022 over at Marvel Comics.
ANARCHY IN THE SPIDER-VERSE! SPIDER-PUNK GETS HIS OWN SERIES! HOBIE BROWN is THE ANARCHIC SPIDER-PUNK — set to protect EARTH-138 with his ax in hand and his chaotic band of punk rockin’ heroes backing him! NORMAN OSBORN is dead, but will the chaos he’s created be too much for Spider-Punk and gang to handle? Feel the vibes as CODY ZIGLAR (AMAZING SPIDER-MAN) and JUSTIN MASON bring you the jams when “BANNED IN DC” begins here!

I only ever saw Spider-Punk as a costume that you could unlock in Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man (2018) and thought this latest series should be a lot of fun if done right!

Issue #1 of The Amazing Spider-Man comes out on April 27th, 2022 over at Marvel Comics.
WHAT DID SPIDER-MAN DO?! Peter’s on the outs with the FF. He’s on the outs with the Avengers. He’s on the outs with Aunt May! No one wants to see Spider-Man—except for Doctor Octopus. Ock’s on Spider-Man’s tail and the Master Planner has something truly terrible planned for when he gets his tentacles on Spidey. All that, and what does Tombstone have planned? Just in time for Spider-Man’s 60th Anniversary, a new volume of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN begins, and 2022 is going to be the biggest year for Spider-Man EVER! Don’t believe us? We brought John Romita Jr. back JUST FOR THIS!

I’ve never been a huge fan of John Romita Jr.’s artwork but, hey, it does make you think that they’re serious by bringing him back! Curious to see where things will go for Spidy’s 60th anniversary.

TV SHOW RELEASES.

Premieres on April 18th, 2022.

I am dying for this to come out. The wait is finally over and one of the greatest TV series is about to unveil its grand finale!!!!

Premieres on April 28th, 2022.

As a huge fan of the Godfather and Mario Puzo’s masterpiece, I am definitely curious about this show about the making of it all. While I’ve seen numerous movies about the making of X, Y, and Z, I definitely haven’t seen much of those in the form of a limited series!

Premieres on April 29th, 2022.

I still need to catch up on season 3 and the first part of season 4 but I’m glad that this story will finally see to a proper end (instead of getting canceled)!

MOVIE RELEASES.

Out on April 1st, 2022.

I was curious to see what Leto would bring to the table as Morbius and after its 10000th release delay, you’d think they’d have something good to offer… With critics spitting on it, I have postponed myself from checking this out in theaters and will wait for a digital release to torture myself…

Out on April 15th, 2022.

With Johnny Depp getting canceled (wrongly…) this release will surely be on everyone’s radar. I, for one, will definitely check it out even if the previous installment was pretty bad… And you got Mads Mikkelsen in there to replace Depp? I’m convinced he’ll be perfect in his role.

Out on April 22nd, 2022.

I found director Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse (2019) and The Witch (2015) truly wonderful and look forward to his latest movie that looks wonderful!

VIDEO GAME RELEASES.

Thankfully there are no new video game releases that interest me this month. My time is completely consumed by Elden Ring lately. 😀

PERSONAL LIFE.

A quarter of the month has already gone by… Wowza! April is usually a “calm before the storm” kind of month and I’m hoping to get through it without too many hassles or unexpected events. Work should get back to being a routine this time around and I’m hoping to put more time into my thesis as well. With every big change (including a new home and the end of full-time remote work) in the past months, I think I found some sense of stability again and I hope to make good use of it before it’s too late. I also hope this 6th wave of the pandemic won’t toss us back into that ugly cycle of societal depression. I do look forward to the Easter long weekend though. That’s going to be good for my psyche!

Thank you all for checking out my monthly anticipation post!

Now tell me what you’re looking forward to this month! Any new releases? Anything exciting you plan on doing?

Yours truly,

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Published by Lashaan Balasingam @ Roars and Echoes

Reader. Reviewer. Researcher. Criminology Ph.D. Candidate. Montreal, Quebec (Canada). Want to know more? Connect with him!

35 thoughts on “My Monthly Anticipation | April 2022”

  2. I’ve yet to try anything by Emily St. John Mandel, or by John Gwynne for that matter. Always interesting to see comic companies starting a series over at issue 1. Spidey’s leg looks a bit twisted on that cover. That’s a little disturbing. 🙂 I’d completely forgotten about Easter, thanks for the reminder.

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  3. Spiderpunk looks fun especially after having watched Spiderman No Way Home last night! I wasn’t keen on Tom Holland in the clips I’d seen but I’ve completely changed my mind and think he’s perfect for that role! Also did you say that you still haven’t read Station Eleven? 😲

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  7. Lot’s of good stuff in this post, Lashaan. To answer your question I was excited about Slow Horses which came out on the 1st and I’m not disappointed. Perhaps that was mainly because I love just about anything Gary Oldman is in but also love old school spy craft thrillers. He was incredible in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and now gets to play a bit of a bizarro version of the role. Also features Olivia Cooke who I loved in Vanity Fair. On the comic book side of things I was excited to see Groo meets Tarzan from DC. It’s not recent but I had missed it some how and DC ran a new PR push.
    This month I’m trying to get Kickstarter campaign built around a comic while also drawing a second one. Wish me luck! 🙂 Societal depression is legit horrible right now. Good luck on your thesis!

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    1. I’m so curious about Slow Horses too. I saw the trailer when it dropped and was completely mesmerized by Oldman’s role in it. Something along the lines of an old, cynical, yet fatherly figure within the whole spy business. You’re definitely making me want to give it a try now. DC’s crossovers have been quite fun lately. Recently they also had Looney Tunes meet DC superheroes too! Best of luck on your comic book endeavours! 😀

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  10. Better Call Saul is FINALLY HERE!! Yes! And I’m so glad April is light on releases, I’m down a rabbit hole in Horizon Forbidden West and Tunic and haven’t touched Elden Ring. Plus I’ve got the Guardians of the Galaxy game untouched, I’m still working on Returnal, and I’m so curious about the trashfire that is Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. So. Many. Games.

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    1. I’m so happy to hear the excitement from another fan! BCS is going to be wiiiiild! As for games, I’m 100% with you. There are too many games in my backlog right now and Horizon FW is one. I can’t wait to finish up Elden Ring and dive into Horizon and all of its colourful splendor! Good luck with Returnal. I had a blast with it before they patched it up. The recent new content also looks like a lot of fun to try too!

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  13. I’m dying to know what is “one of the greatest TV series” that has its last season this month – the video is apparently unavailable in Belgium 😂 I probably don’t know it but this has sparked my curiosity!
    I have also heard about The Northamn movie and I’m quite curious to check it out! 😊
    Are you back to going to the office every day or just a few days a week? Here it really seems like the pandemic is over but luckily we can still telework a few days!

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    1. It was Better Call Saul, the spin-off prequel series to Breaking Bad. If you haven’t tried these, especially Breaking Bad. I’d highly recommend it. 😀 My workplace requires us to do a mandatory two-day in the office per week. I’d have preferred remaining full-time from home but this hybrid strategy isn’t so bad having done it for a few weeks now hahah Then again, anything can happen with the pandemic still a thing here.

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  15. Looks like some interesting releases are ahead! I actually think Mikkelsen might be better as Grindelwald that Depp ever was, he has this perfect “cultured sociopath” vibe in spades. But then, I wanted Mikkelsen to play Geralt, too, so I might be biased 😀

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    1. Mikkelsen as Geralt would’ve been so interesting! As for Grindelwald… As far as I’m concerned, the whole series is doomed to flop (or at least suck) and it’s a bit sad that Mikkelsen has to be a part of it now. 😛 I am curious to see what they’ll do and if they’ll ever get around to doing the 5 movies they planned for the series.

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      1. Yeah, it’s kind of sad because the series has some really good actors – the plot is dismal, though. Up till a few weeks ago I thought it would be a trilogy, imagine my surprise! 🤣

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  16. Lol on the intentional torture to wait on the Morbius digital release. I intend to see it soon, maybe this coming week. I actually thought it was an April’s Fool joke that it’s ACTUALLY coming out on April 1. Thought they were messing around and would delay again. I have my fingers crossed that I like it because folks who’ve seen it haven’t been giving m enthusiastic reviews. I’d also love to see the Northman. The trailers got me there. Plus, I loved how atmospheric the Witch was and am hoping I get that vibe from Northman too.

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    1. I thought the same at first too but damn, it’s considered a dumpster fire and I look forward to finding out why and how hahaha I hope you do enjoy whatever it has to offer or that you don’t lose hope in vampire-centric movies because of it! 😛 And hell yes for Northman! Witch and Lighthouse were soooo good. I’m convinced Northman will be just as awesome, and especially gory and action-packed, with some kind of twisted ending too.

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