Saturday Night Showcase> Power Of Grayskull: The Definitive History Of He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe

I knew I wanted (and probably needed) to do something to tie in to the release of a Masters Of The Universe movie, but what? Episodes are usually too short. Fanfilms could be an option, but if you already went to the movie would you want another one? Plus I only have one in the coffer and I still need to confirm it works for Saturday Night Showcase. So that was out.

I don’t usually do documentaries on Saturday Night Showcase, but tonight it seemed the best option, especially this one. Power Of Grayskull: The Definitive History Of He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe is a 2017 documentary focusing on the 1980s original period of how the toys, cartoon, and first live-action movie came about. There is a sadly too short section on the 1990s “New Adventures” and the 2003 remake (an example of doing a remake right), and I would love to hear more about how those were made. At least they were acknowledged. There’s also not enough discussion on the Horde and Snake Men and the She-Ra section could have been bigger, but there’s only so much time in the show.

Still, what they have and what they do go through, with a decent amount on how the toys and the lore was created, is still worth a watch, and YouTube has it up free with ads, so if it wasn’t that’s the option I have. Luckily it is interesting and features a couple of faces longtime BW readers might know: James Eatock from Cereal:Geek TV and Val Staples, the latter having worked on the 2003 tie-in comics and the newspaper strip collection. Plus I use He-Man.org for most of the Masters Of The Universe minicomics for Free Comic Inside. So it’s a good choice overall. Enjoy.

Now if I can just avoid spoilers until my broke behind gets to watch it on free streaming despite all the new movie discussions I can’t bet into and apparent divisions….Wait, the documentary is age-restricted? Well, I don’t have time to fix it, so follow the link through or you can catch it on numerous other streaming services. Age restricted. Alan Oppenheimer swears once and there’s one test image of blood on He-Man’s sword before the artist was told He-Man doesn’t kill, and somehow the TV-14 show is age restricted. I don’t understand what’s going on at YouTube.

Continue reading

BW’s Saturday Article Link> Why Geeks Like Rouges

The rogue, the (usually) dude who causes all the trouble, never quite looks cool doing it, but somehow always manages to be someone’s favorite character for completely good reason. In sci-fi and fantasy he doesn’t get away with everything but what does get away with we wouldn’t, if we even survived the attempt. Writing for Bleeding Fool, contributor M. Ammar Shahid goes over why he believes the Han Solos of the fictional multiverse are so well received by geek culture. I know someone liked Okana from Star Trek. Not me, but someone did.

What Our Favorite Stories Say About Us

I was watching an episode of the original Kino’s Journey recently. The episode was part two of “Coliseum”, where Kino ends up in a deathmatch tournament, though surrendering is an option, but the main story isn’t what matters. It’s what happens at the start of the episode. The final four are forced by the mad king behind the event to watch a puppet show about how he ascended to the throne. I won’t go into details, but one of the participants got really angry (because his own story was tied to the events) while another was bored by it and Kino and the other girl were at most apathetic to the whole thing.

I was thinking at first how the reaction to that story helped set up the character’s reveal by the end of the story since it was kind of obvious who he really was. As my brain tends to do with a good story, it went into being a character there myself (or some better variant of myself), confronting the man as Kino would do later, but in my own way. I figured out who he was and why he hated the king from his reaction, noting that stories are a sort of gateway to the soul. Usually we think about that when it comes to the writer, but then I took a different mental path: what does our reaction to stories say about us?

One date idea I’ve had (if I could find a woman to agree to one and time slips further away from me) is a personal double feature. She grabs her favorite movie, I grab mine, we watch both and then we explain to the other why that movie mattered to us. Two people can have the same favorite movie, or book, or episode, or game but for different reasons. At a time when Hollywood’s alleged creatives seem transfixed on telling their story through characters they didn’t create at the expense of those characters’ stories, I kind of wonder what the stories we’re into says about us, because there are so many types out there.

Continue reading

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Science Comics #2

Wait until he finds out what kind of club this actually is.

Science Comics #2

Fox Publications, Inc. (March, 1940)

Back to the Golden Age craziness. The previous issue I was kind of neutral on. Hopefully this issue will provide a more thorough entertaining reading experience…but considering none of these characters are even discussed in the public domain circles I travel (which is admittedly one Facebook group), there has to be a reason they never became popular.

[Read along with me here]

Continue reading

BW’s Daily Video> Amazon Canceled Stargate Because Fans Would Like It?

Catch more from Disparu on YouTube

 

The Missteps Of God Of War: Laufey

Catch more from PlayStation on YouTube

It’s no longer rumor. God Of War: Laufey has been announced, though with no release date as of this writing. Fans of the franchise hoping to continue Kratos’ tale or follow Atreus’ are disappointed and possibly even angry. With reason? Given current storytelling inclinations they just might be.

The new game follows Laufey The Just, aka “Frey”, as she travels the afterlife and somehow takes part in the events of the Norse period of the franchise. It’s not the story fans wanted to see, and frankly I have possibly a better idea of how this could have gone, but there is a question as to whether or not the story was necessary.

Could it still be good? Maybe. Above is the 20+ minute gameplay trailer, presumably the early battles of the game that sets up Frey’s journey and introduces two more Gods Of War into the mix. I should note if you missed me discussing the series before that I have not played any of the God Of War games. I watched Dan Floyd of PlayFrame play through the first two games of the Norse period but have little knowledge of the Greek period, which I don’t think I need more than I know for that one. The thing is I see some strong potential for this game despite the change in protagonists, but I also both see the mistakes and potential for disaster based on current trends so I have concerns and I’m not even a big fan of the game. I did like the story in God Of War 2018 and God Of War: Ragnarok but more diehard fans have some legit concerns, so let’s look at everything we know and take a calmer look at what’s happening. It might not help but perspective is important.

Continue reading

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Harbinger #1 (2012)

For him the mind is an open book. Too bad the whole library is full of crap.

Harbinger #1

Valiant Comics (June, 2012)

“Omega Rising” part 1

WRITER: Joshua Dysart

ARTIST: Khari Evans

COLORIST: Ian Hannin

LETTERER: Rob Steen

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Josh Johns

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Jody LeHeup

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Warren Simons

Continue reading