Defending The So-Called “Haters” Of The 2020s

First, I should note that the sample videos in this article may contain swearing, “blue” comedy, and opinions counter to yours–all but that last one not typically what I do here in PG land. They are here for flavor and to break the text wall, thus they are not necessarily a requirement to follow this article. I also picked them out at random from their most recent posts, while choosing some of my favorites, both big names and somewhat smaller. However, people like the ones in the below videos are the topic we’re discussing.

Well, here we go again kids. While I’m sure I’ve covered this before, now people whose opinions I usually support have decided that some of the biggest reviewers on YouTube are “grifters”, just in it for the hate clicks, and don’t really believe modern Hollywood is as bad as they say it is. We have creators wondering “oh why don’t they talk about what they like instead of trashing our glorious works”, and that’s not as much of an exaggeration as it should be. The fact that other YouTube media commentators are joining that side is what gets me.

Look, I’m not saying that nobody does the angry rants just to get noticed. That’s been going on since James Rolfe’s reviewer persona was called the Angry Nintendo Nerd. It’s funny, it’s popular, and people love to ride the coattails of something popular without putting in the same effort in creating something new. Hollywood’s done it for decades, and so have many other entertainment sources. It happened before and it will happen again. Thus is life. The majority of commentators and their fanbase, however, are exactly what they appear to be, normal people who are tired of what they’re given, remember what they used to have, and want to know they aren’t the only ones on the internet disappointed with what they’re getting. That’s what the samples are for, and why I’m here to debunk claims against this new wave of reviewers.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Speed Comics #1

featuring Shock Gibson, the "human dynamo" lifting a tank on the battlefield, in this 1939 comic book

I can accept a lot of strange superhero outfit choices, but somehow that helmet is on the line.

Speed Comics #1

Brookwood Publishing Company (October, 1939)

Coming in on a new comic, and it isn’t using someone else’s numbering to continue. The Grand Comic Database is where I got the publisher name from, but Comic Book Plus, where the link below goes to so you can read along, calls it Harvey Comics. According to Wikipedia (question the source), Harvey bought Speed Comics from Brookwood at some point. I can’t find out a lot about it, but the Hey Kids, Comics wiki states: “Brookwood Publications owned by J.A. Rosenfield and Frank Temerson. Named after a suburb of Temerson’s hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Titles were eventually acquired by Alfred Harvey.” That’s all I know. I think this was their only comic. There’s apparently a Brookwood Global, which makes tutorial books and ebooks but I don’t know if they’re the same company, since Harvey only bought their comic(s), not the whole company.

[Read along with me here]

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BW’s Daily Video> History Of The Dalek’s “TARDIS”

Catch more from the Terry Nation Army via Dalek 63•88 on YouTube

 

How Christopher Nolan Altered How We See Batman…For The Worse

I’m not exactly silent on my issues with Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy”, an attempt to create a more grounded Batman. Points for some of the clever ways he did so, and two of the three movies are loved by fans, including Batman fans. I just happen to not be one of them. Batman Begins has the least amount of notes from me, The Dark Knight gets a lot more, and the more I hear about The Dark Knight Rises the less incentive I have to ever see it.

I’m also not silent on the current state of Batman adaptations as well as the comics themselves. Batman has gotten too dark, too violent, and that’s on top of a few other “too”s I could mention. Grimdark “I don’t work with others despite being on two or three teams at the same time” broody boy Batman gets on my nerves. Far too often I feel like I’m alone in both areas, especially given the reactions to Absolute Batman and the Matt Reeves continuity of The Batman and The Penguin, two versions I’ve seen just enough of to know I don’t want see any more. That’s not a comment on the quality. Longtime readers know that quality is only one part of any one person’s enjoyment or lack of same of any given story, franchise, or genre. They don’t feel like Batman too me any more than the Nolan movies do. But is Nolan responsible for the current state of Batman in media?

Video essayer Anthony Gramuglia seems to think so, but I don’t think the problems start there. While we agree on many points, we also disagree. The video is about an hour, and reading my responses probably less so, but it is a topic worth exploring.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Flame #0 (Golden Kid Comics)

Kid comic version of the forgotten Golden Age superhero.

“Are you sure your contact lens is in here?”

The Flame #0

Golden Kid Comics (March, 2020)

“A Flicker In Time”

WRITER: Dan Johnson

ARTIST: Joshua 1:9 Holley

CO-COLORIST: Anna

EDITORS: Anne Belott & Jennifer King

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BW’s Daily Video> Batman And Superman: The Perfect Friendship

Catch more from Implicitly Pretentious on YouTube

Their first canonical team-up pre-Crisis had Clark and Bruce sharing a cabin on a cruise ship. When pirates attack it they learn each other’s identities, immediately team up to save everybody, and become friends on the spot. I miss those days.

Star Trek: Pitch & Guide> Guide part 10–Q&A part 1

It would seem this next section is going to be another multiparter to go through, but it is the final section of the season two writer’s guide for the original Star Trek. Last time we finally finished the terminology section, so now I have a whole new way to pad out the intro.

I’m not sure why there’s a “Some Questions And Answers” section. Maybe they were anticipating questions from new hires, especially the ones for whom this was the first science fiction gig. Maybe it’s questions asked by writers after earlier revisions of the writer’s guide. Remember this is the third revision, from April 17th of 1967, that I’m working from. That would make this something of an early FAQ (frequently asked questions, if you ever wondered what that acronym stood for), trying to answer as much as they could going into the second season. Whatever reason, there will be some new ground covered and possibly more clarification for that old ground in previous sections of the guide. I noticed one asking about the transporter, which was already gone over in the terminology section. That means my fingers will have more chances to misspell “transporter” as “transfporter” because for some reason my fingers keep hitting the “f” despite not being close enough to the “s” or “p” to happen EVERY @#$%$#%$# TIME I TRY TO WRITE TRANSPORTER! Sorry, it’s getting on my nerves and I was hoping I was done writing that world for this series.

This first batch of questions is a bit generic, going over writing science fiction in general for newbies to the genre and getting a better handle on the script writing processes specific to this show. We have eight pages total and we’ll be covering a page and a half just for this set of questions. I’ll try to keep this interesting, but even the terminology section was feeling long to me after a while. This is more about making a good writer’s guide, which is why the site I got this from posted it, but I do get to complain about modern storytelling. That’s always fun, right? So, how do you lay out an acceptable script for this series?

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