He-Man And Misunderstanding Nostalgia

I have not seen Masters Of The Universe as my income still remains $0.00. Maybe when it hits free streaming I’ll get the chance. I’ve heard mixed reviews even from people usually on the same side of modern media discussion. Some say it’s good, some say it’s garbage, and some are in the middle. For once it’s not split among the usual lines. Not that it matters since the movie itself failed to make back its budget and marketing on opening weekend, which is usually all the studios care about. Which is why it’s strange when Amazon’s MGM is hoping to make it back in merchandising and streaming over the long term. It might be cope but at least it breaks the “opening night or bust” trend.

There’s another argument out there due to how poorly it did, the idea that nostalgia is dead and nobody wants to see this stuff anymore.

Look, I get it. Studios are too afraid to take a risk on new IP, even though YouTubers are starting to show you can do that with three low-budget horror movies based on YouTube content or made by creators with fresh ideas doing well in the box office without an overblown budget, and the current crop of directors and producers and screenwriters couldn’t care less about old stuff. Studios want the big names rather than take a risk on some new guy who might actually care about the show, comic, game, or whatever to do it properly. Studios don’t pay attention so the directors slap something famous onto the movie they really want to make and the studios aren’t paying attention. THAT is the problem. I can point to plenty of old stuff to prove that. Humans really don’t change THAT much without force.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Slam-Bang Comics #1

Melting the gun AND blowing it up. Seems like extra work.

Slam-Bang Comics #1

Fawcett Publications (March, 1940)

Since I’m saving the Captain Marvel Shazam stuff for pre-DC Tuesday Wednesday after I’m done with Quality’s entrants, there isn’t much of a showing from Fawcett on Golden Age Friday. This comic might change that…if it’s any good. It’s of course an anthology, but a new one. That’s all I can say to pad the homepage. Let’s get into the actual review.

[Read along with me here]

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BW’s Daily Video> The Contradictions Of Nolan’s Odyssey

Catch more from Disparu on YouTube

 

The Many, MANY Intros Of Superman> More Adventures

They keep making them, I’ll keep adding them to the list. Unless it’s just a lame title card. Sick of those.

Longtime readers know I’m not exactly holding back when it comes to My Adventures With Superman. Quality show with good animation? Sure is. Superman? Sure isn’t. Outside of Clark and his parents everyone is a namesake in some quasi-anime world, which is what they wanted. Pretty boy Deathstroke. Steel’s armor is more like a mini mobile suit. And you can see Lois and Jimmy up there. Would you know it was them if I didn’t tell you? I went over this in the last intro video.

Apparently the season 2 intro isn’t any different from the season 1 intro, or at least YouTube doesn’t have one special on it. If there was another one I suspect at least one person would have it. That’s not surprising. Both seasons were ready when Cartoon Network proper passed on it, part of whatever David Zaslav was doing with kids entertainment (or rather not doing) at the time. Williams Street Productions saved it and aired both seasons as separate seasons. Whatever failings it has as an adaptation, the show itself was good enough that Williams Street got themselves a third season and a Green Lantern spinoff. I think this is the first action show they’ve had that wasn’t co-produced by a Japanese studio and still didn’t look terrible.

I think I know enough about what’s coming and what’s already happened to get a good idea of how well this intro does or doesn’t work, but actual fans of the show are welcome to correct me. The new season isn’t out yet, but Adult Swim’s YouTube channels has the intro, and some changes were necessary.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Holmes Incorporated

Here’s your mystery: why does the cover say first issue but the publishing info says #3?

Holmes Incorporated

Ty Templeton’s Comic Book Boot Camp (August, 2012)

CREATOR/EDITOR: Ty Templeton

LETTERER: K.T. Smith, unless otherwise indicated

I wasn’t expecting this to be an anthology, but it’s next on the list. From what I can tell this is part of his comic book teaching school (or was, as the website hasn’t updated since 2019 as of this review). I don’t know how students are chosen to be part of this, but Holmes Incorporated is one of three issues following the story of the descendants of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. How well did they do? Well, let’s see.

[Download and read with me here]

(I should have added the free comic links for Drive Thru Comics years ago.)

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BW’s Daily Video> Failed He-Man Movie Attempts

Catch more from Midnight’s Edge on  YouTube

So even the failed movies couldn’t #@$%^#$^ keep He-Man on Eternia. Frankly, I hate all of them, and the fact that one of them became that terrible 1990s Captain America movie just makes it worse because the dumbest one escaped to ruin a different adaptation.

Doctor Who> The TARDIS Crashes?

So….turns out not only was the rumor a couple of weeks ago true, it’s much, much worse.

The Sun was telling us the Doctor Who Christmas episode was cancelled. Not everybody believed it given their track record, but I still discussed the benefits of that. The issue was no Doctor had been announced and the time to write, edit, make costumes, film, edit the recording, make all the graphics and effects, and then get it out was running out of timeline. Then a reporter at The Sun learned from a source that they were canceling the special. The BBC assured us that wasn’t the case.

With Disney+ confirming they will not be partnering on the next season of the sci-fi show, the BBC remain fully committed to the show and will announce plans for the next series in due course to ensure the Doctor’s adventures continue.

Lindsay Salt, Director of Drama, BBC said: “We’d like to thank Disney+ for being terrific global partners and collaborators over the past two seasons, and for the upcoming The War Between the Land and the Sea. The BBC remains fully committed to Doctor Who, which continues to be one of our most loved dramas, and we are delighted that Russell T Davies has agreed to write us another spectacular Christmas special for 2026. We can assure fans, the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.”

About both of those things: no. Not only is the Christmas episode canceled, but Davies will not be writing for the Doctor at all, because even if the Doctor is not going anywhere, Bad Wolf Production is. While that’s the best news out of all of this, it still leaves the future of TARDIS in doubt, and points out they’ve probably been lying to us.

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