Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a 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 a read-along book club.
The last five chapters to go. Last time Kirk’s date…didn’t go well. The question is was he left to die or is his date getting help?
As an article writer it’s always the last few chapters I have issues with. I don’t want to spoil anything for someone who just showed up, I already talked about any related subjects to death, and I don’t know what to talk about next. So I’m just going to jump into this, even though it makes the homepage post look a bit weak. Hopefully if you’re here you’ve already come this far, but if you’re new, this is a good book and worth checking out and reading along. I’m hoping that sometime I’ll pick a book people have read and want to discuss a chapter at a time with me, but for now, let’s see what’s happening at Sendet’s trial.
The silliest things the entertainment industry could do that I could think of, and they’re already doing it worse than I could think of. They’ve BECOME the punchlines.
That’s not the only problem I’ve been having coming up with ideas for Jake & Leon. Just trying to find time to come up with something and then work on it, even if the idea is kind of weak, is a problem as well. Still, more and more, Hollywood, video games, comics, and other media that make for good fodder in this comic has already come up with something stupider than I could think up. I envy people who do comics on politics and the culture war, because somehow that can still get worse actions and thus better commentary. I guess that’s why Mallard Fillmore and Doonesbury (that should cover the conservatives and liberals so I’m not accuses of playing favorites even though I have a preference) still have new strips each day.
Over at The Clutter Reports this week, with all the distractions lately, I’m trying one idea to get me into the groove and creating a project chart. At least it should help me organize various projects, but how will that translate into actually doing them? Time will tell.
I have a doctor’s appointment this week, so we’ll see how that interferes, but we should have the next chapter of Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders out at least. Whatever else comes out depends on schedule and what comes out of the entertainment world this week. Have a great week, everyone!
It’s three for one night here at the Saturday Night Showcase.
People remember DIC’s Super Mario Brothers cartoon. The recent movie even used the show’s theme song as part of their fake ads. They also had two other cartoons, based on the Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World games. Lost in the memory hole were the other attempts by DIC to create Nintendo cartoons, which also had a Valiant comics run with Mario and Luigi as part of their “Nintendo Comics System” mini-imprint. Tonight we’re breaking those out because…I actually kind of like them.
Airing with the plumbers as the Friday alternative on The Super Mario Brothers Super Show was The Legend Of Zelda. At the time there wasn’t a lot of backstory to the Hyrule characters, so they opted to go with something akin to Moonlighting when it came to Link as Zelda. They actually love each other, but Link is the only one who will admit it. Meanwhile, Zelda is the prim and proper one, being a princess, while Link is used to the life of an adventurer, a hero. Yet here he is, protecting one magic item in one kingdom while being hit on by someone the size of an action figure while fighting evil.
Meanwhile, Captain N: The Game Master took a “Tron” approach, sending major gamer Kevin Keene into the world of Videoland, which is a world where all the games exist as separate realities connected by warp zones. The next two seasons would see the show, which was also working with games that had little backstory and no characterizations (and yet somehow still got things wrong) teamed with the NBC Mario cartoons in a programming block which hurt Captain N as the Super Mario World shorts would take one of their slots in the half-hour, and basically damaged both shows.
Tonight I bring you the first episode of each, and a second episode of Captain N from season two, that represented one of a few crossovers between Captain N and Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. They even used the same Zelda voice actors from the other show, which I appreciated even if it didn’t make sense for the Zelda show to otherwise be part of Videoland while the Mushroom World never was. No crossovers with the Brothers. Enjoy.
Story is more than dialog. In prose and audio you have to describe more than in video or still images, but setting up a scene can be done with camera angles, poses, expressions, and other tricks unique to each media style (audio dramas can’t really use any of those). A good movie director can show you a character without a ton of exposition, which is why the phrase “show, don’t tell” exists. I may be pro-narration in comics, but there’s a time and place for narration, especially by the characters.
Author Caroline Furlong builds off of a video by YouTuber Greg Owen as he goes over the difference in how the MCU version of the Hulk and Black Widow were introduced versus Riri Williams and the ladies of Wakanda in a later movie. In the article she delves further into why the relationship between Bruce and Natasha worked despite not coming from the comics, but watch the video, too. (Also she links to one of my Daily Video posts, which was nice of her. In other news, I may have to learn how to use WordPress’ block editor.)
Originally appearing in The Brave & The Bold #25, created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, then revitalized in Legends #3 by John Ostrander, the “Suicide Squad” is the nickname for the US government group Task Force X, in the DC Universe. The idea is that supervillains can have their sentences reduced if they agree to have a bomb put in them and do certain dirty jobs for the government. If they don’t agree or try to run, their heads go boom.
Let’s be honest, though. Suicide Squad is just an excuse to cull the herd of supervillains because having them reform or just stay out of the way of superheroes apparently isn’t an option, much like how nowadays they love killing off lesser known heroes for shock value. Back when sympathizing with the villains was just an occasional story plot rather than the current “villains aren’t evil unless they don’t agree 100% with my ideology” mentality where they have to be “complex” in a way that makes them less effective as villains, there was some merit to the idea. They tended to stay in their own bubble rather than actually going after superheroes because Task Force X lead Amanda Waller has a combination paranoia/superiority complex and an ego trip. It used to be something that I, as someone who really doesn’t care about the villains, could ignore and move on with.
Now we have two live-action movies, one of which failed, an animated movie, the above anime from Warner Brothers Japan, a video game that suffered from killing the heroes combined with terrible game play, and it doesn’t stop there. Marvel Studios, continuing to not care about the source material while still adapting it wants to turn the Thunderbolts, a comic that started out about villains pretending to be heroes only to have most of them want to go straight, and becoming a team for villains seeking redemption, is now being treated as a form of Suicide Squad or maybe Secret Six. Since Gunn worked on the actually liked Suicide Squad movie and the comedy(?) spinoff with Peacemaker, signs are pointing to him trying to keep them in his DC movieverse whether it makes sense or not. After all, his wife is part of the cast.
DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers are becoming obsessed with the Suicide Squad and making them a household name, when you can’t even say “Unalive Squad” properly on the internet without some content warning popping up on some sites or a video being demonetized. Part of me wants to know why, and part of me just doesn’t care. Can we end this?
BW Media Spotlight 