WARNING: The drunken Scotsman swears a bit.
Catch more from The Critical Drinker on YouTube
What’s wrong with this trailer? The cringey “humor”? The race swaps? The gang that beats people up on stream? That outfit? Well, technically all of that, but since I’m late to the party and everyone else has already been all over that, allow me to go elsewhere.
While a lot of fans praise The Spectacular Spider-Man, it was the start of some troubling trends when it comes to bringing Spider-Man out of comics. It only got worse as further adaptations came out, to the point where the last few have been Spider-Man in name only, with the costume. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man up there can’t even claim that from either outfit we see them wear. I’m not even sure why they’re called Spider-Man adaptations when the only one to get it right comes from the preschool series.
I’m not going to go show by show because that could get long and boring. Instead I want to simply take a look at the trends in recent Spidey adaptations to see what each of them are doing wrong and how, surprisingly, the closest one seems to be Disney Junior, who is still making it’s own mistakes. Hang tough, true believers, because this going to be a ride of shame.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
I don’t know a lot about judo, but I don’t think this ring is regulation.
Judomaster #89
Charlton Comics Group (May/June, 1966)
“Prisoner Of War”
WRITER/ARTIST: Frank McLaughlin
Since that’s the only credit, let me answer the question I’m guessing you’re wondering about: Why #89? Well, prepare for this journey into ye old magazine numbering to make the post office happy…somehow. Judomaster is continuing the numbering from Gunmaster despite that comic also having a #89. In turn, Gunmaster continued the numbering from Six-Gun Heroes, which continued from a Fawcett comic series the same way The Blue Beetle changed hands between Fox Features and Holyoke Publishing. Now this is just getting stupid. Neither of these were picked up by DC so they’ll have to wait until we get there on the Comic Book Plus virtual shelf.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
NOTE: This video came out in 2023, before the second Ultimate Universe.
Catch more from Casually Comics on YouTube
Tell others about the Spotlight:
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.
Our chapter for this installment is short, only four pages. That’s too short to combine with the two normal-sized chapters surrounding it and I have little time today. A short chapter will work this week. Maybe being short will allow it to avoid last chapter’s mistake of having more flavor than anything interesting, even if the short moment it did continue the story showed a rare moment of competency for our heroes.
It’s back to Commie Op-Center, and so far their impression as the enemy has been up for debate. Sure, they’ve managed to take out two better characters agents but you can already see that egos and self-interests are already going to ruin Dogin’s ultimate goal so I feel like I’m waiting to see those issues ruin them before they can be a good threat, especially if regular Op-Center is going to get their act together and prove to be the organization they should have been in the first book. We’re only around 1/3 into the book, so it’s a bit early to see the instruments of their demise this early. Already there are factions brewing and if our heroes can finally overcome their own issues, it’s going to be an easy victory. With last chapter’s padding they’re going to have to convince me they’re a serious threat and that our side is going to be the protection the world needs from World War III and the return of the Soviet empire.
That’s all the padding I can do for the homepage, so I guess we’ll jump right into tonight’s chapter.
Chapter 22: Monday, 9:30 PM, St. Petersburg, Russia
It’s going to confuse me if they do a chapter in Florida.
Tell others about the Spotlight:
You know what I hate about crossovers? When they make me read comics I’m trying to avoid!
Freex #6
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (December, 1993)
“Who Do You Trust?”
WRITER: Gerald Jones
CO-PLOTTER/”NIGHT MAN” CREATOR: Steve Englehart
PENCILER: Ben Herrera
INKERS: Rodrigues & Christian (maybe leave room for first names when there’s more than one person to a credit)
COLORING: Keith Conroy & Violet Hues
LETTERER: Tim Eldred
EDITOR: Hank Kanalz
