“This time, the fish guts YOU!”
Darkhawk #34
Marvel (December, 1993)
“Here Fishy Fishy” (wait, seriously…THAT’S the best title you could come up with?) WRITER: Danny Fingeroth PENCILER: Tod Smith INKER: Ian Akin COLORIST: Troy Sayers LETTERER: Ken Lopez EDITOR: Nel Yomtov
Last time Luke and Dash went a-raidin for some secret Imperial plans while Leia finally learned she was getting her meeting with someone at Black Sun (not realizing they’re the ones trying to off Luke). Let’s see how that goes.
The first scene is just going over the precautions Leia was taking meeting with Black Sun. They chose a location away from the casino their contact ran, Lando is waiting in case something goes wrong, and Chewie’s at the door in case anyone wants to break in. Otherwise, Leia and Threepio are there to conduct business. A short scene but I like that it was added; shows how competent our heroes are as they prepare to meet a criminal representative.
We break for a moment to check on Dash. He’s not doing too well, as his bravado has been replaced with confusion. Failing to shoot that missile meant four of the Bothans (a dozen died in the battle overall) perished because he missed the space-colored missile. You kind of feel sorry for the poor guy. He came off as Han on overdrive but even Luke notes he only wanted him knocked down a peg or two, not this. He sends Dash to tell Leia what’s going on, since in his current state he’s not much help, while Luke and the Bothans go to a colony that can safely hack the Imperial computer.
The rest of the chapter is Leia meeting with Guri, and it’s Leia’s element as much as the casino is Lando’s. While we only travel into Leia’s head we see how things go, Leia and Guri both being careful to not tip their hand. Frankly, I would have loved to have known Guri’s thoughts but it does make Leia’s thoughts more prominent. After she leaves everyone agrees something is odd about her. She has no dialect that Threepio can identify, Lando thinks she’s a bit too cool, but very attractive and something about her makes Chewbacca nervous. They don’t know she’s an android but they can still tell something is off based on their individual years of experience in smuggling, politics, and human/cyborg relations. I liked it.
This was a pretty good chapter, and I hope the book continues along these lines. We’ll find out next week.
A tie-in to Kids WB’s Superman: The Animated Series, these stories take a few more risks in idea while still being kid-friendly. Remember when Superman tales could be for kids to admire and aspire to?
“I thought Mythbusters ended?”
Superman Adventures #6
DC Comics (April, 1997)
“seonimoD” WRITER: Scott McCloud PENCILER: Rich Burchett INKER: Terry Austin COLORIST: Marie Severin LETTERER: Lois Buhalis EDITOR: Mike McAvennie “SUPERMAN” CREATORS: Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
The DC Animated Universe (DCAU) is made up of Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures Of Batman & Robin, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, The Zeta Project (even the article I’m linking to forgets that was in continuity), Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited, plus a few Batman movies, including my favorite theatrical Batman movie, Mask Of The Phantasm. It may well be the prototype for Marvel’s “Cinematic Universe”, a shared continuity of movies and TV shows, although in the DC version the shows came first.
But what was it about the DCAU that made it so good? JK Parkin, contributing writer for Comic Book Resources, looks into the project to see why it worked. Not explained: why DC’s Movieverse doesn’t.
“That was my favorite hat!”
Showcase ’94 #9
DC Comics (August, 1994)
EDITOR: Neal Pozner “The Secret Origin Of Scarface” finale: “Call Me Scarface” WRITERS: Alan Grant & John Wagner ARTIST/COLORIST: Teddy Kristiansen LETTERER: Ken Bruzenak CONSULTING EDITOR: Denny O’ Neil “A Story” WRITER: Terrance Griep, Jr. PENCILER: Kyle Hotz INKER: Pav Kovacic COLORIST: Mike Danza LETTERER: Albert De Guzman “PAX” CREATORS: Mark Waid & Mike McKone “Sum: Zero” finale WRITER: Dan Jurgens PENCILER: Frank Fosco INKER: Ken Branch COLORIST: Stuart Chaifetz LETTERER: Richard Starkings & Comicraft “WAVERIDER” CREATORS: Archie Goodwin & Dan Jurgens “MONARCH” CREATORS: Dennis O’Neil & Dan Jurgens
Yes, I know what “melee” means. It made for a good title, so I’m going with it.
Sometimes a joke, whether it’s good or not, gets stuck in my head. This was one of those times. I feel better now.
In this week’s Clutter Report, meet Scooter, my favorite GoBot Guardian. How was the toy? Check the review.
I didn’t have time to do the graphic novel trade, and with my reconnection surgery approaching I don’t know what I have available for me during the healing. However, I have a bunch of new (well, newish by this time) comics. My cousin bought me a few and a magazine while I was recovering from the colon removal (only part of it, hence the re-connection) and my friend Sean picked up two Free Comic Book Day offerings–because the comic store only allowed you to get two comics period for some stupid reason. One or two per title I could understand, and no I don’t count letting kids get 5 an improvement. I can see not wanting these to go for a ton o’ money on eBay but the point of FCBD is to get people to read comics, which means sampling everything that gathers their attention. Oh, but they had a back issue sale at the same time. Dimwits! Point is, they’re just new enough for a Today’s Comic review, meaning no spoilers.
That rant over, instead of graphic novel reviews I’m going to review these five comics in the Saturday spot. I may also start going over comics I have in ComiXology library, but I do want to return to going through the remaining graphic novels and trades when I get back…again.
In more comic reviewing news we’re finally done with Star Wars comics and I’m still not up to burrowing through longboxes to find all of my Star TREK comics. So since we’re doing Masters Of The Universe on Wednesdays and there’s a crossover with Thundercats coming up, why not go through my Thundercat comics? I’ve already reviewed one back issue when I picked it up at a convention, as well as crossovers with Battle Of The Planets, one being good and the other being crap, and the crossover with Superman that was surprisingly boring. So I won’t be reviewing those again, but the other Star and Wildstorm comics are up for grabs. My friend Sean kind of inspired this choice and when he returns from his time off the grid he’ll be happy to see it. Hopefully you will too.
Finally, we also finished the “Unicron Trilogy” (or what Dreamwave made for it outside of minicomics and the Summer special working over numerous versions), so what’s next? Well, if I understand my longbox we’re either doing convention comics or Beast Wars, starting with the (I think) second Beast Wars comic. I used to have a scan or printout of the first one somewhere but I can’t find it and being a convention exclusive NOT given a store shelf publication I don’t really have it. So we’re jumping right to the next one and seeing which direction, beast or convention, we’re going after that. I don’t remember how the box was stacked.
And that’s all the news. I’m hoping to get that new BW Panelling intro done so I can have a new installment Saturday but we’ll have to see.
Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The tales of the Ultramen (and on rare occasions Ultramwomen) started with this first episode. The original Ultraman was intended to be a spin-off of Ultra-Q, which from what I’ve heard of the show can be best described as “what would happen if Mulder and Scully fought Godzilla”. However, this tale of a giant alien who merges with a human to fight giant monsters was not only a hit in Japan but was dubbed into English and enjoyed worldwide appeal.
The version we’re about to see tonight, the first episode, is released by Shout Factory, who posted the intros to a recent marathon stream on Pluto TV. We’ll see that intro, hosted by kaiju expert August Ragone, and then the episode. Surrounding both is a discussion on the history by Mr. Ragone and at the end the series impact. I’m going full-on with this one. If I can get videos going it may be the last Saturday Night Showcase for awhile. I want to redo the intro for BW Panelling or the first of three episodes would be here tonight.
One note about the show’s intro: you’ll hear the theme played twice. That’s because in Japan the theme song (which has the same music but different lyrics) had two verses. If you listened to the Japanese language side of the DVD, which I happen to have, you could hear the original Japanese theme song or the US one. Enjoy.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
