I’d bother making a joke, but I just can’t get interested in any of this.
Knuckles The Echidna #27
Archie Comics Publications (August, 1999)
WRITER: Ken Penders
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie
“The First Date” part 2: “Who Wrote The Book Of Love Anyway?”
PENCILER: Chris Allan
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Frank Gagliardo
Mighty The Armadillo: “Those Were The Days”
ARTISTS: Manny Galan & Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
A superhero comic with masks. Not sure that’s a selling point.
Blue Beetle #4
Charlton Comics (December, 1967)
PLOT/ARTIST: Steve Ditko
Blue Beetle: “The Men Of The Mask”
WRITER: D.C. Glanzman
LETTERER: Herb Field
The Question: “Kill Vic Sage”
WRITER: Warren Savin
LETTERER: Bob Agnew
In our last chapter we lost the character I wanted to see more of. Kind of annoyed, because we’re still stuck with the main cast.
Now we hit a chapter that going into it I’m concerned about the reaction to, because it’s at the Russian/Ukraine boarder. If you’re in the future and wondering why I’m concerned, check the posting date and think about what was going on at the boarder at the time. For those of you in the present, remember that this book came out in 1995, so it should be interesting to see in 2024 what they predicted and what they ended up being wrong on. If memory serves, these take place slightly into the future.
For the record I am not a geopolitical expert nor a military strategist. I am a storyteller and reviewer. I don’t know why then or now Russia would be so interested in getting Ukraine back when reforming the USSR as a top priority outside of it’s being right next door and they owned it before. All I know before starting this chapter is that Commie Op-Center must be interested in drawing Ukraine into this for whatever reason they have. Maybe we’ll learn something and maybe we won’t. We’re about to find out as we jump into this next chapter. These being big novels we aren’t even a quarter into the book yet. This is going to go into the new year, isn’t it? Not really the type of story I wanted to be reviewing into Christmas, but that’s my scheduling problem. With that, let’s read.
“Bloodbath”. As if you needed proof this was a 1990s comic book.
Exiles #2 (of 4)
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (September, 1993)
“Fugitives”
WRITER: S. Gerber
PENCILER: R. Phillips
INKER: K Braunch
COLORIST: M. Baumann
LETTERER: P. Owsley
EDITOR: Chris “I’m important enough to get my full name printed” Ulm
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 
The Fantastic Versus The Mundane
In the webcomic Moon Freight 3, which sadly is no longer available complete online and I don’t think is still in print (leaving me short the final volume), a cargo inspector and his robot companion inspect cargo going between worlds. At least until his sister invents faster than light travel and he’s out of work. The theme of the comedy strip is just an average person living in the future, seeing how what’s science fiction and amazing to us is no more amazing to him than our microwave or cellphones…and they didn’t even have smartphones when the comic began.
I remember hearing an old Buck Rogers radio drama where Buck and Wilma were all excited about how fast their travel tube was taking them, but I wasn’t convinced it was anything new in their world. It should be like us getting in a car and noting it’s faster than a bicycle. Meanwhile in the Superman radio drama’s first episode, Lara notes how easy it is to visit her neighbor with one leap, since the source of Kal-El’s strength and leaping came from his biology and not a yellow sun. It was an error because the point was Earth’s lighter gravity allowed Superman to “leap tall buildings” back then, but for her it was a simple explanation of something Jor-El would tell her Earthings can’t do. For them the fantastic was just normal.
That’s not what we’re talking about here.
I’ve begun to see that in various ways, the fantastical worlds of science fiction, fantasy, and even the action dramas we loved in the 1970s and 1980s that were so wild and interesting are getting grounded in things like “reality” and “seeing yourself”. While I have nothing against grounded stories or any representation that isn’t just clueless stereotypes and lack of believing in yourself because of “the Man” keeping you down, and there are plenty I enjoy, it shouldn’t replace the more exciting and imaginative worlds that also entertain or could be used to speak on real world issues. Unfortunately, those worlds are now in the hands of people with limited imaginations and the results are actually kind of boring.
Continue reading →
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on October 15, 2024 in Book Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged Batman, commentary, Dragon Age, Dungeons & Dragons, James Bond, Star Trek.
1 Comment