March 3, 2025

Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapters 31 & 32

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapter for this one) of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

We didn’t have much to talk about last chapter since it was just an interrogation. At least it was a full chapter. Today’s chapters are two pages and five pages respectively, so I’m going to combine them.

I did say back when I started this book that I wouldn’t be able to avoid political discussion due to the nature of the book and current events. As I write this, Russia is going after Ukraine because Vladimir Putin is trying the same thing that Dogin is in this book: restore communism and the Soviet Union to Russia whether the people want it or not. I’m not going to defend or trash Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, because that’s too political for this site. I just find it interesting how I unintentionally started a book that almost predicts current events despite being published in paperback form in 1995. This is the first time I’m reading this novel and I totally didn’t see it coming. Still, it turns out to be surprisingly good timing, or would be if I were more politically minded on this site. (In real life I am but as far as BW Media Spotlight goes I’m more focused on the end result, not the creator’s politics or the reasons it failed beyond the preachiness in today’s entertainment.)

So realize I did not choose this book on purpose. God, fate, or cosmic coincidence are responsible here, as we go back to the book to see how they resolve things. Maybe President Trump should pick this up and take notes.

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Posted by on March 3, 2025 in Chapter By Chapter, Op-Center: Mirror Image and tagged , , , , , , , , .

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March 3, 2025

“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Strangers #8

“Or at least it will feel that way with this new sneakers!”

The Strangers #8

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (January, 1994)

“Taken By The Sky!”

WRITER: Steve Englehart

PENCILERS: Rick Hoberg & Steve Skroce

INKER: Tim Eldred

COLORING: Rick Schmitz & Psychodelic Prisms

LETTERER: Dave Lamphear

EDITOR: Roland Mann

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Posted by on March 3, 2025 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , .

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March 3, 2025

BW’s Daily Video> Could A Marvel/DC Crossover Actually Happen?

Catch more from Comics By Perch on YouTube

Like I said yesterday, they are talking about a crossover of some kind, or maybe just reprinting all their old ones, when they had writers who could write superhero stories. In the comments I had to ask why would Spider-Man and Batman have to fight? In their existing crossovers they teamed up pretty fast, and I wish that was the norm instead of the exception. The first crossover was my favorite because it looked at how both dealt with the murders that led to them becoming heroes and how similar and different their lives were.

I don’t know if it would renew lost excitement in either character. You’d need a writer who cares about both characters enough to write a good adventure but still be willing to make them earn it. I don’t know many of those there are left, and both Warner and Disney, who see the comics as movie fodder rather than a storytelling media format on par with their shows and movies, are too much rivals to make that happen no matter how much they claim otherwise. Re-releasing DC Vs Marvel was a fluke, though it would be nice to see heroes join together to fight their respective villains.

Posted by on March 3, 2025 in Comic Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Marvel Spotlight and tagged , .

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March 2, 2025

Jake & Leon #632> Re-Crossover

Guess we don’t need Access to keep them apart anymore.

Yeah, apparently DC and Marvel are talking about doing a new crossover after the success of the DC Vs Marvel re-release. Personally I’ll believe it when I see it, since both companies are now owned by rival movie studios who only see the comics as potential IP for the “important” media, TV and movies. I’d rather see them just reprint the older crossovers, from the days when they had writers who wanted to make good stories with both properties.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I worked on cutting down the large pile of comic art I’m not going to do anything with and don’t have a special connection with, including Jake & Leon pages from the Bristol board days. I didn’t toss out all of it, but I did declutter.

This week we have more comics, the next Chapter By Chapter review of Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image doing two chapters at once, and whatever else goes on this week. Have a great one, everyone!

Posted by on March 2, 2025 in DC Spotlight, Jake & Leon, Marvel Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

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March 1, 2025

Saturday Night Showcase> Doctor Who & The Debut Of K9

I’m not sure if this is going to go to everyone on the world. Rights issues are a pain sometimes. For those that don’t, there are other options to watch the episode. In the UK you have the BBC i-player. For those of us in the States there’s Tubi. For everyone else I hope this works.

For people without i-player and not knowing about Tubi, the BBC reworked their classic Doctor Who YouTube channel, previously a place for classic Who fans to find clips of the original show without digging through the current era channel, into a home for full episodes. They actually started with truncated movie edits of the serials, but there were complaints. I guess now they’re going for full serials edited into a single video, but with the full video restored right down to all the opening and closing credits.

Funny enough, the first time I got to watch the show regularly since the Connecticut PBS station aired it at dinnertime were Sunday movie edits (only removing credits between episodes) from the Massachusetts station before our state was forced to make a law that got rid of network channels from out of state even when we had the state option alongside it. Then there was the VCR and changes to both our schedules. My first real exposure was the Fifth Doctor, but it’s Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor that gets all the big fan support.

Tonight I went with the episode that debuts my favorite Companion. K9 might not have been Tom Baker’s favorite but there’s a reason the BBC kept him on after “The Invisible Enemy” as he was a hit with the kids, the target audience of the original series (not so much currently). However, he isn’t the focus. A viral lifeform wants to use the Doctor to spawn a new generation, but he and his current companion Leela (a favorite with the dads) need to stop him. And they’ll have help from my favorite robot. Enjoy.

Also, trying to do this with the block editor. Let me know if anything goes weird.

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Posted by on March 1, 2025 in Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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March 1, 2025

BW’s Saturday Article Link> DC & Marvel’s Best Black Superheroes

With everything going on I missed out on my annual Black History Month reminder that there are plenty of existing black superheroes that you don’t need to race swap the white ones…especially the ones black actual comic readers never had a problem with. Instead of some cracker’s hand-me-downs, why not let them be their own person and form their own legacy? Bam Smack Pow lists 10 of DC’s most powerful heroes of color…though admittedly a couple of them are race replacements. At least Jason was done well enough.

I wrote this up to auto-schedule for Saturday, then the same site dropped 10 of Marvel’s most powerful heroes. I wonder if they’ll push a Valiant or Image list or something before this goes live? Spoiler: Using Don Cheadle for Rhodey instead of Terrance Howard or the original comics version was the wrong idea. They also ignore how the comics and movies both screwed him over.

Posted by on March 1, 2025 in DC Spotlight, Marvel Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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February 28, 2025

A Different Game With Yasuke

Yes, I know most of you probably know about a certain simulator launching the same day as Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Blame my posting schedule, but I make up for it by letting  you know about the other ones on Steam. Indeed, there are more. While Shadows has a lot of controversy behind it, which I already went over earlier this week, you can either get mad or you can get even. Someone went for “even”.

Yasuke Simulator is the talk of the net. This “historically accurate” game at least isn’t hiding the fact that it’s lying. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the trailer, if you haven’t seen it already. No lady ninja in this one. It’s all Yasuke kicking all the butts of the Takeda Clan, using your swordsmanship, your skill with firearms, and your sweet ride. I was just going to make this a Daily Video post for Monday but when I went to look up the link on Steam, I found it’s not alone. Four other games/downloadable content also came up by searching “Yasuke”. Of course one of them is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, but let me show you the rest.

Sorry for those of you on the homepage who think this intro is too short. I didn’t know what else to talk about, so here’s a random music video voicing Japan’s issues with the game. It’s in Japanese, so turned on closed captions for English lyrics.

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Yes, the people who made the video are Japaneses. Right…on to the trailers!

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Posted by on February 28, 2025 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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