Peter David went on record as blaming trade waiters for the end of the All-New X-Factor comic. The Outhousers contributor Gheru disagrees. There are other forces he blames.
“I don’t get it. Radioactivity worked on Godzilla.”
Saban’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers #2
Hamilton Comics (January, 1995)
“Switcheroo!” WRITER: Donald D. Markstein ARTISTS: John Hebbink & Aaron McClellan COLORIST: Summer Hinton LETTERER: A. Machine (ha…ha) CREATIVE CONSULTANT: Cheryl Saban EDITORS: John Clark & Gary LeachTell others about the Spotlight:
Previously we have looked at the first and second MASK mini-comics. Well, there’s one more and it’s high time I took a look at it. For the forgetful, MASK was a TV show and toyline featuring the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand (because we can’t let a little thing like spelling ruin a perfectly good acronym) as they battled the Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem. The vehicles could convert to battle modes to fight each other and have other talents, like letting the car or bike fly and the helicopter turn into a fighter jet, and they wore masks that had special powers attached to them.
In the first mini-comic we learned Miles Mayhem, VENOM’s leader, stole the plans for weaponized masks and transforming vehicles from Matt Trakker’s (MASK’s leader) little brother, who died during the theft. In the mini-comics and DC’s comics VENOM are well aware who the members of MASK are and where their headquarters was. This makes continuing to disguise it as a gas station a bit odd, but we need a transforming headquarters and “illusion is the ultimate weapon” is the tagline here. In this issue VENOM takes the fight to the Boulder Hill playset I didn’t own headquarters of MASK. Let’s see how the final story went.
At least they didn’t ask for the anti-freeze. I hear those are napalm grenades.
MASK: Assault On Boulder Hill
produced by DC Comics for Kenner (at the time a CPG Production Corp company, now fully absorbed by Hasbro)
again, no credits given. At least Mattel let the Masters Of The Universe comics have credits
Tell others about the Spotlight:
OK, Ross, you win this round, but I’ll live to riff on one of your covers again.
The Six Million Dollar Man Season 6 #6
Dynamite (2014)
WRITER: Jim Kuhoric ARTIST: David T. Cabrera COLORIST: Frank Gamboa SELECTED COVER ART: Alex Ross LETTERER: Joshua CozineTell others about the Spotlight:
Whenever something new happens to long-running fiction, say a change of the Doctor on Doctor Who, panic sets in and people don’t like it. Sometimes, they should simply wait and see if the change works. However, there are times when the change can ruin a character, like Marvel did recently with both Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan in Original Sin. Is change good? Is change for change’s sake good? Is change for shock value over long standing fanbases good? Network Next‘s Chris G (not the G-Man creator) discusses the difference between good and bad change.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
“Ugh, someone needs a dentist.”
The Transformers #65
Marvel Comics (April, 1990)
“Matrix Quest” part 4: “Dark Creation” WRITER: Simon Furman ARTIST: Geoff Senior COLORIST: Nel Yomtov LETTERER: Jim Massara EDITOR: Don DaleyTell others about the Spotlight:
El Dorado (Super Friends) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I brushed against something in a previous commentary this week that I thought would make a great topic tonight. If you missed the article I was discussing the complaints about what color Power Ranger became which color Power Ranger, if that made any sense. I then said this:
There isn’t enough racial diversity in superhero comics or even movies without changing someone’s race between mediums. They shouldn’t do that and they also shouldn’t HAVE to do that, but that’s a commentary for another time. I fully support Saban and Disney’s choice, even if Power Rangers Samurai made a little less sense in the bargain. Samurai are native to Japanese culture because it’s native to Japanese history. It would be like having Arabs dress up as medieval knights. And I think I just came up with another commentary about cultural superpowers and character identities.
This is another common complaint, this time among comic superheroes. For example, if a superhero comes from Japan they’ll be draped in Japanese symbolism or their power has to come from a dragon or an oni (Japanese demon) or something like that. China is the same way. Greek heroes get their powers from the Greek gods. Things like this happen a lot and the cry of cultural insensitivity comes up. Are they right? Yes. And not necessarily. Don’t you love intros that contradict themselves to make a point?
