Here at BW Media Spotlight I use articles, comics, and (when I get the chance) videos to examine storytelling. Trying to use more than one medium to tell a canon story (most licensed works are not canon or at least not integrated with the show) is hard work. There are a lot of elements, which is why few TV shows have tried, although some have, even letting game players affect a story’s outcome. So kudos to Jon Chad, who put together an original graphic novel that also utilizes other media in it’s story. I just hope it’s a good story.
Usually when I do a Today’s Comic it’s in the same format as “Yesterday’s” Comic since the latter is a spinoff of the former. I haven’t done a lot of new comic reviews since I haven’t been able to get a new comic outside of a gift in years. I went for a job interview today and we’ll see how it goes and how that will affect BW operations if I get it, but I still have no money coming in. This was donated by my friend Sean because we were both big fans of the show.
I’m also doing an extended review because this is a new take on the classic series, although this first issue is a modified adaptation of “Boobytrap“, the first episode of the original Robotech show. Originally it was simply going to be an English dub of Super Dimensional Fortress Macross but they were too many episodes short of a full weekday season at the time. So Carl Macek grabbed two other shows, Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospedia, and weaved them together through Robotechnology and its power source called “protoculture”. If you never saw the original shows this comes off as three long tales of three different wars over protoculture and the various sciences that can be created from it.
While previous licensed Robotech comics (except for the two-issue special from DC, which came before the show and was based on the Macross model kids Revel brought over under the name Robotech) built off of the TV show or directly adapted episodes, Titan Comics decided to create a “bold new vision for the Robotech saga” and you guys all know how badly this has gone in the past. The first issue recently came out and today we’re going to take a look at it. There will be spoilers since I want to talk about the changes.
Some series just need to end or at least rebooted if they insist on keeping going. Nobody is sure if the Highlander franchise even has a set timeline anymore, and that should have stopped at one movie. The Terminator franchise, at least as movies, probably should have ended with T2: Judgement Day, although I guess a prequel wasn’t a bad idea. Terminator Genesis I can safely call a bad idea and I haven’t even seen it, nor do I think I need to. Some ideas are bad at concept.
Now ScreenCrush is reporting that there may well be a new Terminator prequel that will attempt to explain the reason the T-800s all look like Arnold, a story I don’t think we needed. Then again it’s coming after a sequel to Twins, which I liked when I watched it but that REALLY didn’t seen a sequel, especially this far from the original. Hollywood makes less and less sense to me every day.
I promised you guys a commentary this week, but the only thing coming to mind is a rehash of an early posting AND an Art Soundoff v-log on continuity and I’m getting tired of repeating myself even without a certain book. So if Steve Wacker wants to spit all over continuity because he’s more concerned with his story that he can’t save it for characters that fit it, it just shows how little writers today care about the fans, the writers that came before, or making a shared universe that people can stay invested in. Besides, I’ve done enough raging lately, so let’s talk about something I like: Luigi Mario!
Originally created as the second player character for the first Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers games, there are plenty of us out there who really like Luigi and may even like him better than Mario. However, it’s only recently, with Nintendo’s “Year Of Luigi” marketing event and the Luigi’s Mansion games as well as his appearances in the sports titles like Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers, that the green plumber has finally gotten a chance to really shine outside of Mario’s footsteps. In his last Break Down video for the Game Theorists, Furst takes a brief look at the history of the Player Two that earned a spot in our hearts.
I have a Patreon account but all I can currently offer is early access to content, outside of some extras from the last Captain Yuletide. (Partly because I don’t know what exclusives to offer because I don’t know what y’all would like.) However, some people are able to create exclusive content for their patrons. This includes cosplayers, but of course there is that group who don’t think they should pay for anything despite this being a reward for supporters who fund their cosplay supplies and possibly time they don’t have to work a job to improve their talents and something they love to do. Going to conventions I have the highest respect for cosplayers. That’s why this article about a small group of cosplay supporters uploading the images to Reddit for those who don’t want to pay for them makes me sad.
These are people who put their own money into clothing and prop supplies, plus creating the props themselves, and they want to give something extra as thanks to those who support them, only have some self-interested jerks want free self-play fodder. (Note that it’s only female cosplayers and some images are not safe for work, which usually means nudity or at least sexually suggestive.) Disgusting! Those girls deserve to be treated better for their efforts and those “patrons” should be banned.
