Notation: most footage was probably flipped because YouTube copyright bots are a joke
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First week back and already I’m having scheduling issues. Spending half of last week trying to wake up and Tuesday being loaded (none of that has anything to do with drinking, I assure you) has messed with my schedule, so I’ll have to save my other big commentary for next week.
Lucky for me I do have a couple of videos a bit long for a daily quickpost, and I’m using one of them now. Media Zealot’s series “Advanced Sci-Fi Civilizations Too Stupid To Really Exist” recently dug into the Star Wars prequels with a rarity for his series. The Separatists are all really stupid, but that may also be why Darth Sidious chose them as his pawns to conquer the galaxy. Create an enemy to distract the Republic and use the opportunity to slowly take over. There’s a joke about current LucasFilm in there somewhere.
This is of course HOW George Lucas lost LucasFilm, or was convinced to give it away. Let’s not forget the prequels deserved many of its negative critiques (though I’ll still defend Jar Jar conceptually and what happened to the kid who played Anakin in the first movie was just awful). Given how badly Lucas’ life went after making the first three, especially his wife leaving him for the guy designing his dream project, Skywalker Ranch, I can’t blame the guy. Lacking the same assists he had in the beloved original trilogy, the prequels were kind of a narrative mess, though I bet most of the fans who insisted Star Wars needed to be “saved” from its own creator regret that overreaction now, as the franchise has been plagued by ill thought out series, pet characters, social pandering, and weakened character arc by people not all on the same page. But at least George Lucas isn’t redoing the backstories or adding unnecessary sparklies. Yes, both things can be a mistake.
On the other hand, making the Separatists dumb may actually have been on purpose, as Media Zealot points out. That doesn’t mean we can’t make fun of them, though. Let’s laugh at the idiots, and continue the Tuvok clip drinking game.
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“Where’s the fire extinguisher on this thing?
X-O Manowar #1
Acclaim Comics/Valiant Heroes (October, 1996 according to the indicia, February, 1997 according to the cover)
“Fear Itself”
WRITERS: Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn
ARTISTS: Sean Chen & Tom Ryder
COLORING: Atomic Paintbrush
LETTERER: Dave Lanphear
EDITOR: Lynaire Brust
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For the 1990s Fox Kids would take up the adventures of the wall-crawler, and it may be the best interpretation of Spider-Man, and certainly the last one to properly adapt the comics. If anything, Spider-Man: The Animated Series (titled on-screen as simply Spider-Man) did something that Batman: The Animated Series did with Mr. Freeze and alter the comics with Venom’s influence on Peter. I’ll do tomorrow what I should have done today and make the next Daily Video go into that with Casually Comics, because we’re here to discuss intros and only gloss over a review of the series it comes from.
One think you’ll notice immediately is that the theme song is a remake of the original 1970s theme song, which by then had become iconic enough to show up in the first Sam Rami movie. Thankfully the show came before the movie, but I believe this was near the time when James Cameron was attempting to make his Spider-Man movie, which for various reasons never came to pass. You can also partly blame this series for Toy Biz’s eventual takeover of Marvel Comics as they were already making the toys. Avi Arad, a man who claimed to be a huge Marvel fan as well as someone who understands toys, had a big part in this show, which is reflected in some of the new designs. Peter’s kind of buff…but oddly looks more like Nicholas Hammond from the live-action US series than the guy in the comics. Still, it’s really a good show and worth checking out. It’s not the only Fox Kids show featuring Spider-Man and we’ll get that one in here as well, but there’s a reason this show lasted five seasons.
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Knuckles is your god now!
Knuckles The Echidna #10
Archie Comic Publications (March, 1998)
“The Forgotten Tribe” part 1
WRITER: Ken Penders
PENCILER: Manny Galan
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie
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Warning: contains some swearing, a bit of soon to be dated social commentary, and a reminder they made a Winnie The Pooh horror film WE WERE ALL TRYING TO FORGET EXISTED, STEVE!
Catch more from Steve Shives on YouTube
Noticed a bunch of channels were posting Steamboat Willie, probably to stick it to Disney because they used up their political goodwill and couldn’t push the copyright expirations further ahead.
BW Media Spotlight 