Classic and new Christmas specials and longer videos. See what I add all year and see if one of your favorites is on the list.
The common comment among anyone trying to judge a movie early is “wait until it comes out”, as if they miss the point of previews, early interviews, and anything else whose goal is to get people excited for a new project. They WANT us hyped and excited, and yet by this logic you shouldn’t immediately assume it will be good, especially given Disney Lucasfilm’s recent track record with the Star Wars franchise. The only good products are the kids shows, and it’s questionable how “Star Wars” a lot of what’s come out under the branding is today.
Now comes a report from Geeks & Gamers. For the record, they have been negative to previous Star Wars content for sucking and actors and directors attacking the audience and fans dating back to the first movie’s original theater release. Also for the record I’m on that side. Contributor Alex Gherzo is reporting on Shawn Levy discussing his plans for Starfighter, the next theatrical trip for Star Wars after not-Boba Fett and not baby Yoda get their turn. (And you know how I feel about Boba The Overrated.)
Noting again that the goal is to get people hyped for the new movie with these info releases in interviews and on social media, I’m not all that hyped. It COULD be good, which would be a first for Disney Star Wars. Even the aforementioned kids shows are not the best received, and that’s if you even know the Disney Junior show exists, which for the most part I don’t think is too bad despite being set in Disney’s “High Republic” period. (Apparently we lost the intro.) Levi did make Deadpool & Wolverine, which was a hit with the 20th Century Fox/Studios version of the characters and took shots at Feige’s messed up nonsense, though the same contributor on that same site is bringing the budget into question, as Disney pour money like it’s wine at a wedding for lushes. However, we’re focused on what Levy said, and with my own cynical view to modern Star Wars and modern Hollywood I have to question the things said. Again, quality of work and quality of adaptation are two different things, and it’s the latter I have concerns for.
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“First ceiling cat, now this.”
Sonic Universe #3
Archie Comics Publications (June 2009)
“The Shadow Saga” part 3: “Old Soldiers”
WRITER: Ian Flynn
PENCILER: Tracy Yardley
INKER: Jim Amash
COLORIST: Jason Jensen
LETTERER: Teresa Davidson
EDITOR: Mike Pellerito
EDITOR IN CHIEF: Victor Gorelick
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In case you’ve never seen it, Bob and June Wheeler from the original Night Court.
And they did show up for the relaunch with Judge Harry Stone’s daughter (who is a bit old to be the character’s daughter but maybe Harry Anderson’s daughter if you ask me–but the actress is not Anderson’s daughter).
And what the hell:
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Let me on the record here. I didn’t read the Ultimate Spider-Man story that killed off the original Ultimate universe version of Peter Parker. I know the Ultimate universe fell apart because the comics around it had the Hulk as a horny cannibal, The Blob also being a cannibal, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as an incestuous couple that the book seemed to be pushing as a good thing, Wolverine leaving Cyclops to die so he can steal his wife, Captain America being a total a-hole, and all that is for starters. For all the heck I give Brian Michael Bendis he was the only one who understood the assignment: create a fresh start Marvel universe for new readers who for some reason considered years of history as too much baggage, kind of like the writers today because it gets in the way of telling their story instead of their characters’ stories. Instead it’s “alternate universe, so we can get away with whatever horrible things we want to make the characters do”. Turns out they couldn’t.
So I’m not aware of the specifics of the “Death Of Spider-Man”, I can still at the reasoning of Collider contributor Eddie Possehl as to why that storyline should be adapted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and say…really? I’ve been critical of the MCU’s approach to Spider-Man, even being one of the few downvotes of Spider-Man: Homecoming and not wanting to see any of the movies after it. Thanks to Sony putting rather stupid restrictions on Marvel Studios that it’s a poor adaptation on Peter and his corner of the world no matter how good the movie itself is. Peter’s personality as Spider-Man is the only thing it got right. However, I’d go so far as to say this is when Marvel Studios started to realize that they didn’t need to stay close to the comics to get fans watching, and given how little respect they have for the source material they were more than happy to push what they were doing as far away from the things that made those characters popular enough to be worth adapting as they could in favor of their own stories. I don’t know this for certain, but it is when the problem started, before the culture war and the “MSheU” was ever a factor.
So, the question of whether or not Peter should die is now on the table, and I’m here to pick it up. Knowing my biases on MCU Spidey I still have to say…no. I don’t think it should happen. It would just be another symptom of what’s wrong with the MCU right now. The article is “It’s Time To Adapt “The Death of Spider-Man” in the MCU, and We’re Giving You 6 Reasons Why“. So let’s peruse those reasons and point out the flaw in the plan.
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How nice. Peter got himself a pet. Where are the dragon’s eyes?
Thunderbolt #57
Charlton Comics Group (May, 1967)
“Face Of The Dragon”
CREATOR: P.A.M., who according to a note on the opening splash is busy “doing research” and couldn’t work on this issue.
WRITER/ARTIST: Pat Boyette, working off of Tabu’s files according to the same note.
Sentinels: “If This Be Triumph”
WRITER: D.C. Glanzman
ARTIST: Sam Grainger
LETTERER: A. Machine
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Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapters for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
This might be the first chapter but it’s not our first installment. Last time we went over the prologue. I wasn’t expecting much in the way of changes, but the prologue was a unique scene not shown in the episode being adapted. I wonder what other changes are coming.
Changes are odd to see here. Like I wrote before, novelizations interest me because they’re based on the last available version of the script. Dialog changes, scenes edited in a different order than planned, reshoots that aren’t out of control (rare nowadays), and things cut for time might still show up in the novel, which has to be expanded for the page count. The author has to interpret scenes, giving you a glimpse into their heads the screenwriters probably didn’t think about. For example, when I went over the Total Recall novelization, we “learned” Quaid was a pervert while Hauser really did love Melina and switch sides without any of the doubt in the movie. We also met the race that created the oxygen machine and whye, which was never even a consideration since it was just a MacGuffin for Quaid’s/Hauser’s story. Also, the answer was kind of stupid, kind of like Cohaagen’s plan. “Are you smart enough to fly up here and press a button to terraform a planet? Then you can leave that planet and join us before the end of the universe” versus “I want to know the secret of this machine and get rid of my enemy, so I’m going to have the most convoluted scheme imaginable that shouldn’t work based on all sense of logic.” The former was the book and the latter the movie.
This chapter we get introduced to the Doctor’s replacement teenager and some other dude. Not spoiling him until the book does, even though we watched the episode, but Vicki’s history with the Doctor is pretty well known at this point so I don’t mind bringing it up. Since this is a scene from the episode, I’ll be adding the actual episode writer, David Whitaker, into the tags. If you don’t see him, it’s a scene Marter created himself. Not that we’re just starting “The Powerful Enemy”, the first episode of this arc, back when each individual episode had a title instead of the whole arc. “The Rescue” was also the name episode 7 of the season one arc “The Daleks”, and you can guess who debuted in that serial. So that’s confusing. The arc after the second Dalek appearance shares the name of an episode part of the first arc debuting the Daleks. This could get confusing, so let’s get on with the review.
BW Media Spotlight 