A continuation of last week’s video on the negative character arc from author Abbie Emmons
Catch more from Abbie Emmons on YouTube
This is Superman. Remember it future comic, TV, and movie writers. It was rare in the New 52 period.
I didn’t sleep well last night so I need something quick and easy to post tonight. Surprisingly YouTube came through and pointed me to another video defending Superman, my favorite superhero. I will take any opportunity to promote a pro-Superman story or commentary in a world that continues to reject everything he stands for and cynically believes he couldn’t exist not because science rejects his powers but because they reject the goodness of humanity. At least until the next big tragedy when we all come together to help each other.
The video I’m posting tonight is “Why Superman Is More Important Now Than Ever” by Gentle Mushroom. In this video the host goes over some examples of why Superman is such a beloved hero not because of his powers but because of what he does with them. Have a seat because it lasts a while but all of it is on point and I totally agree with it. If you want to understand what we see in Superman, here you go.
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So is this whole poster cover thing just something the video games are going to do to me this week? Poster covers are weak.
Street Fighter II #0 (digital edition)
Udon Studios (October, 2005; comiXology posting)
WRITER: Ken Siu-Chong
PENCILER: Alvin Lee
INKER: Crystal Reid
COLORIST: Espen Grundetjern
LETTERER: Simon Yeung
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Nice poster, but where’s the comic cover?
Knuckles The Echidna #5
Archie Comics Publications (September, 1997)
“Lost Paradise” part 2
WRITER: Ken Penders
PENCILER: Manny Galan
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie
BW Media Spotlight 
Corporate Vs Creativity
“The Coleconauts are after us!”
Sit down, kids, and let grandpa Tronix tell you a story. Sorry if this one gets rambly but I’m feeling in a very stream of consciousness mood today, with only minor edits.
Back in my day we had a gaming machine called the Atari 2600. Yes, that thing that’s making a comeback despite using pixels the size of snack cakes. Back in my day we sent one set of boxes against another set of boxes and we liked it that way. None of them newfangled paleegon things or voice acted cut scenes. You got maybe 8 bits, one joystick and a big red button, and you were thankful to get it! Wait…where was I? I got lost in the bit.
Atari was the king of video game consoles. Nobody was making movies tied to the Colecovision. Sure it was just the one small movie about a kid who imagined his almost absentee father was the hero of his favorite video game as he dealt with spies after his dad’s company but it’s still more than the Adam ever put out. Atari was huge. They had their own comic. They had a chance to be something.
So why is Atari now just a nostalgia brand? You can trace that back to the purchase by Warner Brothers. Now I don’t know what was going on businesswise and maybe they needed WB bucks to afford to stay afloat, but they also screwed up things on the creative side. Granted, video games were still new back then but forcing the creators to follow a more corporate structure backfired. Atari had always tried to maintain a creative atmosphere, and while you can debate the specifics of how they did that, the new structure drained them of their creativity. Activision was founded because creators didn’t like that the new Atari bosses wouldn’t let them be acknowledged for their games out of fear of one of the other consoles trying to snatch them up. Creating the third party led to trash game cash grabs but Activision was putting out stuff gamers really liked. Now Activision is falling under the sway of the corporate and fans are not happy with their content, and even less with their lawsuits and treatment of “controversial” gamers. Putting Nicki Minaj into Call Of Duty probably didn’t help.
It’s not just video games. Now we see TV, movies, and comics also being hit with this wave of corporations buying studios and publishers and making them a shallow image of their former selves, Disney being the worst of it and now has practically abandoned the reasons Walt Disney started his own company. What the heck happened? The corporate mindset, which really doesn’t work with the creative mindset.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 6, 2023 in Comic Spotlight, Internet Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Music Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged commentary, corporate, Creativity.
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