September 18, 2017

Chapter By Chapter Special: Seduction Of The Innocent ch. 12 part 1

Normally, Chapter By Chapter is me reading a fictional book one chapter at a time to study each part of the story. In this special review series however we are looking at Seduction Of The Innocent, a non-fiction book as the writer, Dr. Fredric Wertham, tries to make the case that comics were a bad thing for kids in the 1950s. The book had a huge impact on the comic industry and fans. We will examine what he is saying not exclusively by today’s standards, but the time in which the book was made to see where Wertham was right, and where he was horribly wrong.

The Struggle Against the Comic Book Industry

“Neutral men are the devil’s allies.”
– E.H. Chapin

So are extremist men ready to tear things down rather than build things up.

So here we go again with more of Dr. Wertham’s biased ranting on comics. This time we’re looking at…actually by this point I don’t know what the point is for him to continue. It feels like he’s said everything but he keeps finding more. He hates comics and he’s determined to make the reader hate them too. This chapter he pulls out all the stops. At least I think he does. We still have two more chapters after this. At this point I’m thinking this is more an endurance challenge than a review. If you haven’t been following this series thus far I’d point you back to the beginning because at this point I just want to get this over with. Maybe it’s because I’m already in a bad mood today. That’s not going to be helpful.

Chapter 12: The Devil’s Allies

Read the chapter first for context. It’s more research than Wertham ever does on the target.

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Posted by on September 18, 2017 in Comic Spotlight, Seduction Of The Innocent and tagged , , , , , .

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September 18, 2017

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Catwoman #14

This is a Zero Hour tie-in I missed while reviewing the “main event”, so let’s finish this crossover.

“Eh, I’ve had worse dates.”

Catwoman #14

DC Comics (September, 1994)

“Broken Mirrors”

WRITER: Jo Duffy

PENCILER: Jim Balent

INKER: Bob Smith

COLORIST: Buzz Setzer

LETTERER: Bobpin

CONSULTING EDITOR: Dennis O’Neil

EDITOR: Jordan B. Gorfinkel

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Posted by on September 18, 2017 in DC Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , .

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September 18, 2017

BW’s Morning Article Link: What Superman And The Kingsman Have In Common

Quite possibly a director. Warner Brothers seems to be attempting to pull away from Zac Snyder’s (flawed) vision for the DCEU, possibly after the success of Wonder Woman versus the negative response to Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Word is that Kingsman director Matthew Vaughn in talks to produce the next Superman movie, which would still be in the DCEU, so sadly Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman would still be canon, but it means a newer, hopefully more accurate, portrayal of the Man Of Steel might be forthcoming. I can only hope. I can also hope they put him in brighter colors.

Posted by on September 18, 2017 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

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September 17, 2017

Jake & Leon #333: Webcomic – The Villain Origin

No, I don’t know how he got the tail either.

Yes, Lex used to be a mad scientist who was upset about being bald. It’s a longer story than that (even the one in the comic description–click the comic if you want to read it–isn’t the complete story), but basically that. So now we finally have an enemy for Herodude. Now I just need to figure out how to tell that story in three panels a week plus the usual response from the regular characters. And with Christmas looming with a new Captain Yuletide adventure that’s going to have to wait awhile.

The good news is I found that missing chunk of Marvels so I can save the full integration project for when I can spend the proper time to do it right. I discuss that in this week’s Clutter Report. Oddly, next on the list is a preview and not a comic, for the Kingdom Come wanna-be Marvel did called Earth X so we’ll be discussing that. It should take some of the sting out of returning to Dr. Wertham for another round of comic bashing. I’d burn right through the next few weeks but we’ll have to discuss Star Trek: Discovery next week. Then we’ll finally finish this book off and get back to reviewing fictional books. Although you could make the case….

We’re also starting the Moonstone Phantom comics I picked up prior to launching BW Media Spotlight and thus have never reviewed. This is my favorite comics run on the character so prepare for a lot of positive reviews. And the final installment of our Voltronathon takes place on this week’s Saturday Night Showcase, so if you’re sick of this franchise you’ll only have the Devil’s Due comics to deal with shortly. In two weeks SNS will have something new. Finally, there’s a Zero Hour prelude I missed during the reviews so after I get that done this week we’re all done with Zero Hour and can just enjoy regular 90s DC stories. Enjoy being a relative term because it was the 90s. Time to get back to it.

Posted by on September 17, 2017 in Jake & Leon and tagged , , , , , .

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September 16, 2017

Saturday Night Showcase: Voltron – Fleet Of Doom

I remember a time where heroes joined forces against evil. Nowadays it seems writers want to take the fan theorizing of who would win in a fight and make a story around that. That works for ScrewAttack’s Deathbattle show but I don’t want to see Batman fighting Superman, I want to see them join forces against Lex Luthor without the in-fighting. They used to be the best of friends from the first team-up. Those days appear to be gone. If the heroes are going to team up, they have to fight first. It’s a shame.

Take for example the two official Voltrons, the ones we were able to get into the show. When they first joined forces, they just joined forces. No fighting each other. Instead they went right to attacking the Fleet Of Doom.

I’ve mentioned this TV special a few times during our Voltronathon. How would you like to see it? After the second season of the Lion Force Voltron, World Events Productions decided to have them team up with the Voltron Vehicle Team to take on the combined forces of the Drule Empire and Zarkon. It was a big moment. Star Trek fans haven’t even see a proper joining of forces between the Enterprise D (or E) and Deep Space Nine despite the occasional cameo. So how well did it turn out?

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Posted by on September 16, 2017 in Animation Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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September 16, 2017

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Batman: Gotham Adventures #1

“Bruce, we need to talk about the new wallpaper.”

Batman: Gotham Adventures #1

DC Comics (June, 1998)

“With A Pri¢e On His Head!”

WRITER: Ty Templeton

PENCILER: Rick Burchett

INKER: Terry Beatty

COLORIST: Lee Loughridge

LETTERER: Tim Harkins

EDITOR: Darren Vincenzo

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Posted by on September 16, 2017 in Animation Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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September 15, 2017

Friday Night Fights: A Little Overdue Payback

Probably the main reason I can’t get into the old Tom & Jerry cartoons is that sometimes Jerry should have lost. I know we usually see Tom as the mean old cat picking on Jerry, but there were plenty of times when Tom was simply guarding his master’s food or a big banquet and Jerry was there to steal the food…ALL the food, ruining the party or leaving the humans without any food. We don’t know the humans’ story. Maybe the banquet was a family reunion or a charity event. Maybe they’re just barely surviving on food stamps or whatever it’s called nowadays. (I used to work in a grocery store; I should know what they’re called nowadays, shouldn’t I?) We don’t know. Then there’s the time Jerry broke up Tom’s relationships even when Tom wasn’t mistreating him (and one story because Tom wasn’t chasing him around…theirs is a strange friendship).

So in those stories where Tom was the innocent and Jerry the bad guy, Tom still loses. Is that fair? No. So even though Tom instigated this one to get a free cruise I’m still happy he won this one. I know, spoilers, but I reviewed this earlier this week. Plus, it’s the only thing I could remotely connect to Summer from this week’s fights and I somehow managed to stay through to the end despite my initial concerns. Why stop now?

“Dog Days” final round

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Posted by on September 15, 2017 in Animation Spotlight, Friday Night Fights and tagged , .

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