Godzilla appeared in the DC Universe because of Warner Brothers’ “Monsterverse”, but Toho has opted to follow their friends at Tsuburaya Productions, who did an Ultraman series with Marvel. Back in the 1970s Godzilla rampaged through the Marvel universe, and far as I know it’s still canon. Now comes word of a new appearance by the King Of The Monsters in the Marvel universe.
Whether or not this one is also in canon we won’t know. We won’t get a Dum Dum Dugan rematch because he’s dead and was really a robot at the time because bad retcons. Someone needs to tell the article writer that Godzilla Minus One is another Toho continuity and not part of Warner Brothers’ “Monsterverse” though. Also not sure about tying him to adamantium. Not sure that’s necessary for the metal or the monster. Still, might look into it if I’m ever able.
It’s that time of the year again. Not Easter. That’s a couple of days away, though I guess it is Good Friday. Bad timing given all the attempts to stop trying to compare Kal-El to Jesus. Yes, it’s also Superman Day, the celebration of the first appearance of Clark “Superman” Kent and Lois Lane. Yes, people forget she debuted here as well. But she’s not my favorite superhero, so we’re talking Superman. I just want to acknowledge she got her start here.
So what do I do this year? In a previous Superman Day I already did a two part article about my favorite Superman comic book stories. I constantly bring up my favorite Superman comic and have shown you my favorite moment from Superman: The Animated Series. I have an entire YouTube playlist just for Superman defense videos I’ve collected around the site. And I’ve gone over numerous times why Superman matters so much to me and why he’s my favorite superhero. So what do I do this year?
Superman depictions.
I love the comics, but not everybody reads comics, and not all of them are media snobs who look down on comics. Some people just don’t like to read comics, and that’s fine. I enjoy novels. I enjoy video games. I enjoy TV shows and movies. So for this year’s Superman Day lets go over the shows and movies I think best understand what I love about Superman. Some omissions might surprise you. I like the George Reeves series well enough but they never gave Superman a decent threat. The first Christopher Reeves movie is okay but I have…notes, and I defend the Supergirl movie so you know I’m weird. Smallville is Superman Minus Superman and got a lot of the DC Universe history wrong. Superman & Lois just didn’t impress me in the first episode. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman has a great line “Superman is what I do, Clark Kent is who I am” (paraphrase) but I have my issues with some of their takes as well, plus how the showrunners decided they could tell the source material when they can and can’t have the couple marry until the “important media” was good and ready. And while Super Friends is one of my favorite shows even today, and I’m happy MeTV Toons is airing the series, it’s all story and no character development until the final season, and Superman’s focus story is doing his death before the comics ever considered it. At least with Doomsday. So what’s on my list?
Is it just me, or is “the Champ” wearing lipstick?
Champion Comics #2
Worth Publishing Company (December, 1939)
Why start on issue #2? Apparently the comic did, just like Whiz Comics, the debut of the original Captain Marvel, Billy Batson. According to the Grand Comics Database there are rumors of a #1 created just for a promotional giveaway and there’s a copywrite for it (which would be expired by now, which means Comic Book Plus could have that up as well) but there’s no sign of it. So for all intents and purposes this is the first issue.
I reviewed the comic last week in anticipation of the cartoon posting to Tubi on Saturday. I hadn’t expected the entire six episode miniseries at once. Not being familiar with Tubi’s release schedule for their original shows I don’t know if that’s the norm or a bad sign. Still, I watched the show over a few days rather than the binge marathon so I could enjoy it. I only watched two episodes back to back because the cliffhanger had me. That’s a good sign, right?
Let me get this out of the way because I already brought this up in previous discussions: the whole shared universe idea is odd to me, and it was a distraction to see a Sectaur woman among the baddies when I know that Symbion being without technology is a huge part of the Sectaur history, Moo Mesa style cow people walking around a futuristic city when they’re supposed to be from the Old West (the “COW” in Wild West C.O.W.boys Of Moo Mesa stands for “Code Of the West”), and while I don’t know what Garloo’s backstory was in the 1960s or if he had one, I’m betting “motivational speaker” isn’t part of it. The Biker Mice cameo is just there to set up the universe, amounts to nothing, and is distracting. Without spoilers, the Power Lords connection they set up could work in theory and I’m not against the Biker Mice showing up. I still don’t know how they’re going to work Barnyard Commandos in there, but if Nacelle has the rights to Skysurfer Strike Force I’m surprised they didn’t try to bring them in. Maybe we could finally learn who Cybron is. (Do not make it the father. Please.) It still gives me the same reaction as trying to shove MASK into the G.I. Joe and Transformers universe. When even the studio who make shared universes cool is no longer able to do it right (thanks, Marvel), maybe opt for separate stories.
With that out of my system, let’s focus on the cartoon. I’ll have spoiler-free and spoiler heavy parts of the review, but I’ll say for the most part I rather enjoyed it. It wasn’t as silly as the early promotion made it sound, though the show is still lighter in tone than the comic. They do explain Hun-Dredd (spoiler side), and I did enjoy the characters and events. I have notes beyond the shared universe but it’s nice to have something fun to watch that’s new.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on April 17, 2025 in Movie Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged commentary, Disney Plus, Final Fantasy 7, Jennifer Walters, Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, Rei Palpatine, She-Hulk, Snarky Jay, Star Wars, Tifa Lockhart.
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