Waiting for their playdate with the Muppet Babies and Flintstone Kids.
Sonic Super Special #9: Sonic Kids 2
Archie Comics Publications (1999)
WRITER: Michael Gallagher
COLORIST/SEPARATIONS (FIRST TWO STORIES) Joshua D & Aimee R. Ray
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie
“Zoneward Bound”
ARTISTS: Sam Maxwell & Harvey Mercadoocasio
“My Secret Garden”
ARTISTS: Manny Galan & Jim Amash
“Eve Of Destruction”
ARTISTS: Art Mawhinney & Rich Koslowski
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
In the last installment we looked at the third revision writer’s guide bios on the three Enterprise crewmen who got to be in the opening credits. This time we’ll look at the rest of the cast.
Even Star Trek: The Next Generation had recurring characters in the closing credits. I don’t remember if Guinan ever got to be in the main credits, but if she did I don’t think it was her early appearances. The supporting cast is also important, especially in a show set on a starship that travels around the universe doing science stuff, protecting the worlds and colonies of the Federation, and having adventures at every corner. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy can’t do everything. They aren’t Tom Paris.
While there are only two pages we get five characters with a history. The two men share one page and the three girls the second, due to more info on Scotty and Sulu than on Uhura, Nurse Chapel, and Yeoman Rand. Chapel and Rand I can understand, as there were a lot of episodes where the only reason Majel Barrett had anything to do was that she doubled as the ship’s computer, a benefit of sleeping with the showrunner. Oh shut up, they were married! Grace Lee Whitney could be gone for multiple episodes as she had so little to do. She would later earn a command rank, so we all start somewhere. Admittedly even I was ready to chock it up to Gene’s reported casual sexism, seeing as Uhura was on often enough that she should get as much written about her as Scotty and Sulu, but I don’t know for certain if that’s in play here with her.
If you think that means this will be short, the part with the main three took a page each and by the time I was done was all one article. So I’m betting I can at least fill this one. Let’s get reading.
I wonder if the DC version of Sarge ever dealt with Catwoman?
Sarge Steel #4
Charlton Comics Group (July, 1965)
“Kiss Of The Cat”
CREATOR: Pat Masulli
WRITER: Joe Gill
ARTIST: Dick Giordano
LETTERER: Jon D’Agostino
JUDO INSTRUCTION COMIC: Frank McLaughlin
At a club, Sarge is approached by a goon for Lynx, a woman who likes to walk around with big cats, and is also leader of a group of thieves that keep showing up at places Sarge is helping with security. (It’s a coincidence, not a plot point.) Sarge travels to her island base, gets by the cats, and finally takes her down.
What they got right: While there isn’t much to summarize, the story itself fills the page count well enough. Our criminals are clever, but Sarge is also your typical noir detective with a metal hand.
What they got wrong: It is a huge coincidence that Lynx runs into Sarge three times, only one of which is for fun. The others are thefts and thus Sarge ends up getting involved. It was a normal world story until Sarge borrowed “jump jets” (just call it a jetpack) from his government contacts.
What I think overall: I’m still not sure why DC would buy this character with the others, unless they just got all of Charlton’s characters in a lot or something. Not that it’s a bad comic, because it’s quite good for fans of this mystery style. However, it certainly isn’t in league with what DC was doing when they got it.
Okay, so when Marvel Studios went with the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury because he resembled Samuel L. Jackson and that’s a money printer, Marvel Comics introduced a son for the main universe Nick Fury that looked like the Ultimate Universe/MCU version. Did you know original Nick had ONE live-action appearance? (Also a few animated ones.) One swear in this video.
Catch more from Stam Fine on YouTube
This is why I want David Hasselhoff to play Samuel L. Jackson’s dad in the MCU. They got him for a cameo as himself, but I would still love it!
The back and forth continues. Last time we checked in with Commie Op-Center and today it’s regular Op-Center.
Here’s a problem for me when it comes to these longer books. At some point I run out of ways to open these articles, usually near the end of the book. This book, however has a lot more chapters, 78 to be exact. Even merging the smaller chapters means this is going to go a long time and I’m already trying to think of things. We’re barely a quarter (and still under) of a way through this book and I need something interesting for people coming in on the homepage of the site when the post first goes live. Even with the usual intro text about how the article series works, I feel like I should say more than I’m capable of at the moment. And so much of this book could be cut down if the flavor text would stay on point. Informing the character is great, some trivia about the area helps set the scene, but the only people I expect to see again after this story is the regular Op-Center crew in D.C. so it feels so unnecessary to pad out a novel.
Ah, well, I guess that’s good. Let’s get into today’s chapter.
Someone is really bad at Cat’s Cradle.
The Night Man #2
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (November, 1993)
“Mangled!”
WRITER: Steve Englehart
PENCILER: Gene Ha
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLOR: Tim Divar & Foodhammer
LETTERER: Dave Lanphear
EDITOR: Chris 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
