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He didn’t mention Tim turning gay for no reason and that becoming a focus over being a great detective (I remind you of my article on how to use Tim and the rest of the Bat-Family), or that his DCAU counterpart really didn’t bear any resemblance to the comic, even having Jason Todd’s origin rather than his own.
I didn’t get a chance to work on the comic this week. Other things took priority. My dad is going to need me for this week, so I’m not even sure I can get a full week of posts done in time. I didn’t even really do anything for this week’s Clutter Report except to state I’m taking the month off from article there, and I’m not going to have comics this week just to make sure I get anything done before my time is preoccupied. Comic reviews return next week, hopefully. Family takes precedence and this isn’t exactly my job, despite previous attempts to make it so. For all I know I may have to take the full month off from here as well. We’ll see what happens.
Current plans do include the next chapter of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image and a new article feature I want to use as part of the plan to create filler so when times like this happen the primary articles will at least be unaffected. First, a bit of history:
There was a now defunct website called Always Bet On Balactus, the owner of which had gotten together with a bunch of other comic book bloggers to take part in the Friday Night Fights. It’s pretty simple. Every Friday the participants, including a number of the sites that led my blogging, would post their favorite fight scenes from their favorite comics. Sometimes there was a shared theme and sometimes there wasn’t. All the participants would then link to a page on Balactus’ site that itself linked to the other fights. It was a good cross promotion for the sites and just fun to read.
When he stopped doing his site, the now archival site Spacebooger, a site that had a weekly comic and daily articles (sound familiar?), took up the Friday Night Fights. He leaned a bit more heavily into the themes for each fight, but also offered an actual prize during the “prize fights” at the end of each tournament. This is when I was finally able to take part, and of course designed my own logo for the events. Eventually, a number of the bloggers either pulled out of the Fights or out of blogging entirely and that included Spacebooger. So the Friday Night Fights were done.
I’ve always missed being able to take part in those. The fights are interesting and something you don’t usually get to review beyond “the fights were good/bad” in a regular article. So I’ve been wanting to bring them back, if only for myself, and it would make a good filler article series, like I was discussing earlier. However, I didn’t want to call the feature Friday Night Fights for two reasons: I didn’t want to be limited to a Friday I needed filler and that was someone else’s series. While I’ll be using the same format I did in my FNF postings, I wanted to give it an original name and make it my article series instead of reviving someone else’s. Friday Night Fights is the inspiration, but my series is called…
I should break this one out while YouTube still has it free with ads.
Justice League: The New Frontier is an adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s 2004 Elseworlds miniseries DC: The New Frontier. Thankfully they actual kept the comic’s art style, unlike the last two Saturday Night Showcase entries. It’s rather important to the tone of the story. Set in an alternate 1940s, when in the real world superheroes started coming out more at National Comics (the future DC Comics) when Superman and other Action Comics heroes were joined by characters like Batman, the heroes here are not immediately accepted. Times are changing and things are getting weird as new powered heroes show up with only a few villains using the same gimmicks. Meanwhile, something called The Center is calling for the end of the world, and both new and upcoming heroes, especially Batman and detective John Jones, are investigating. An attempt to capture the Flash leads to him retiring to protect his identity and his growing relationship with Iris West. Superman is trying to convince Wonder Woman that violence isn’t the only answer. And that’s all just from the start.
I haven’t read Cooke’s book yet, but this video really makes me want to. The art style is translated beautifully and the story is right up my alley. Hopefully it’s the same with you. Enjoy!
That’s the goal of one animator. For most of my childhood, the above song from the Mickey Mouse Disco album (which I think I still own) was all I knew about the song. I did see a Br’er Rabbit storybook in a hair salon or something, and I think I saw the clip of Uncle Remus singing the song in some compilation or history piece, but even before the ban for being “controversial” I never saw it air anywhere. Now there’s a push to nominate Song Of The South, the tale of a storyteller working on a Reconstruction era plantation telling stories to kids, for inclusion in the National Film Registry. While Disney has buried it since they can’t do one of their major re-edits, even black people on the left understand the true importance of the movie and want it released again. It’s about time it was. I’d like to see it.
I’ve never gotten into the Fantastic Four.
The only comics I own came from someone else or were part of a comic multipack, or part of a crossover I was following. I couldn’t even tell you why I never really got into the Fantastic Four. I watched the shows as a kid, but I was fascinated by all these superheroes, and I probably watched superhero shows I never really enjoy now, or just watched them because they were on. As for the movies, it’s hard to work around them because they’re universally recognized as not very good. Even the current release at time of writing, Fantastic Four: First Steps, is just getting a resounding “meh” from most of the critics I follow, and the most negative of them is a filmmaker herself as well as a Marvel comic fan, so she has a unique bias.
Still, I can see something popular enough that if I have an article I idea I’m willing to go with it, whether I’m into it or not. Also, I have a series of videos about TV show intros, sometimes part of sub-series, so this is a bit more in my wheelhouse. I do love a good intro, and Marvel’s First Family has made four trips outside of the comics, not counting cameos in team shows or the Fox Kids Spider-Man series that used voice actors from other Marvel shows at the time, confusing people into thinking there was a Marvel version of the DC Animated Universe. Sorry, but it takes more than than and Tony Stark having a mullet in both his show and a Hulk show that uses the same animation studio.
How do we get six intros out of four series? Well, let’s start at the beginning and judge these cartoons on their intros. Would they get you excited to watch them?
They remembered everything except the door to get out.
Amazing Mystery Funnies volume 3 #1
Centaur Publications (January, 1940)
Comic Book Plus lists it as issue #17 but I want to go with the official numbering. If you’re going to reboot your numbering at least use volume numbers. It makes organization easier. Now we begin the 1940s with actual months, and this has been one of the good anthologies from our Golden Age readings thus far. Will that trend continue? Let’s dive in and find out.
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
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Daily Video> What The 2005 Fantastic Four Did Better Than First Steps
Catch more from JesterBelle on YouTube
And catch the feature article tonight or whenever it shows up in your area. There’s more Fantastic Four fun to come. Intros!
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 1, 2025 in Marvel Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged 20th Century Fox, commentary, Fantastic Four (film), Marvel Studios, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
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