February 12, 2024

Chapter By Chapter> Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders chapters 7-8

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.

Yes, once again we have two short chapters, meaning two chapters in one installment. Keeping a count started happening with Op-Center and it continues here. I want to get a decent read, as much as I could use short chapters about now.

Last time we got a peek into the histories of Sorel and Daniel and a glimpse into what a Vulcan mind meld looks like. Turns out it’s not as trippy as one would think watching from the outside.

The mystery itself hasn’t really started yet. Instead we’ve gotten situational set-up, meeting characters, and some good character moments. So I can’t really complain because we’re only starting on the second of 35 chapters. We have time to get to know the new characters before the suspicions arrive. This will help us try to solve the mystery along with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, the outsiders and I’m assuming our detectives for the story. That’s of course considering how well the mystery is put together. Are we just seeing a procedural piece, where maybe some big clue isn’t revealed to the reader until the confrontation of the killer, or is it a case where we’ll get to see the evidence and put things together? Looking through Lorah’s bibliography the only story that was obviously also a mystery is “Reflection Of A Dream”, and I’m only saying that because it was part of a collection of stories called The Second Mystery Megapack. I’m not sure what her mystery writing preference is and this is only the second time I’ve read it since I bought it many years ago. We’ll find out soon enough, as we double our chapter count.

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Posted by on February 12, 2024 in Chapter By Chapter, Star Trek: Vulcan Academy Murders, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

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February 12, 2024

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Prototype #1

“Stop calling me knockoff Iron Man!”

Prototype #1

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (August, 1993)

“Budget Cuts”

WRITERS: Tom Mason & Len Strazewski

ARTISTS: David Ammerman & James Pascoe

COLORIST: Paul Mounts

LETTERER: Tim Eldred

EDITOR: Chris Ulm

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Posted by on February 12, 2024 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , .

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February 12, 2024

BW’s Daily Video> Why Are Movies So Expensive

Catch more from The Critical Drinker on YouTube

 

Posted by on February 12, 2024 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , .

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February 11, 2024

Jake & Leon #588> Internot

Their apartment building has wallpaper from the 1800s.

Of course the stupid stylus has glitch from low power with two characters left when it can most mess up my posting schedule!

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I tried to sticker the Gun Blaster Zoid. Emphasis on tried.

Here at the Spotlight this week we have the next two chapters of Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders because they’re short again. I have a couple of interesting commentaries planned, but we’ll have to see how else I fill out the week. Getting the house upgraded to fiber optic cable so we get better internet and Dad isn’t paying as much is also on the docket so we’ll see how THAT disrupts operations. Should be an interesting week. Have a great one!

Posted by on February 11, 2024 in Jake & Leon and tagged , , , .

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February 10, 2024

Saturday Night Showcase> Godzilla: The Series

The 1990s Godzilla movie by director Roland Emmerich was a nice tribute to old low budget monster movies from the 1950s. As a Godzilla movie, it was a terrible adaptation, and there’s some debate if the movie itself is good overall. I liked it for what it was, but it is NOT Godzilla at all. This led fans back in the day to label him GINO (Godzilla In Name Only) while Toho dubbed him Zilla (Godzilla without the “God”) in Final Wars, which has become its official name. Personally I’d combine the two and call him Ginozilla, but that’s me.

While the movie got a lot wrong, it was still popular enough that Fox Kids greenlit Godzilla: The Series, a show that sort of redeems Zilla as a cool monster. Produced by the same people who gave us Extreme Ghostbusters and Men In Black: The Series, the show follows a more action-oriented Nick Tatapolius than the Matthew Broderick interpretation (Ian Ziering is actually a good voice actor), returns Malcolm Danare and Kevin Dunn as their characters from the movie, was my introduction to Rino Romano, who became my favorite Spider-Man, and continued where the movie left off.

It turns out the explosion that created this Godzilla also birthed other mutations (though later episodes also gave us a mad scientist and space aliens to liven up the causes). Tatapoulis brings Elsa and Mendell into his HEAT Team (Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team) along with his show-only research assistant, Randy, to track these new mutations. Meanwhile, the French government sends a new operative to join the group, probably to balance out the female cast as Elsa and Audrey are the only women among a cast of five dudes, if you include Audrey’s cameraman, Animal, and of course Godzilla. Tonight we drop in during the climax of the movie, so spoilers, as Godzilla is defeated but one baby survives. What was probably a hook for a sequel that never happened is instead used to make the series happen. These are the first two episodes, “A New Family” parts one and two, as the concept for the series and the full cast are revealed. Enjoy.

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Posted by on February 10, 2024 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , .

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February 10, 2024

“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Blue Beetle #44

“Suck it, Kent!”

The Blue Beetle #44

Fox Feature Syndicate (September/October, 1946)

Are we nearing the end of the Golden Age anthology? Now we have three stories, only one of which has a Blue Beetle feature so we aren’t out of the anthology format yet. No Joan Mason backup, but also no lame serial story. I miss when this was just a Blue Beetle comic with one backup that happened to be a poor attempt at comedy. Now they’re falling into what Holyoke was doing, but I was under the theory that Holyoke was trying to replace Blue Beetle in his own comic. I hope that’s not what’s going on here.

[Read along with me here]

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Posted by on February 10, 2024 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , .

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February 9, 2024

BW Vs FandomWire: Diverting Blame For The DCEU

You know, I will happily defend things I like from people that hate it, but I will not force you to change your viewpoint and suddenly “admit” it’s the greatest thing every and make you sorry you hated on Scrappy-Doo or whatever. For me it’s more about getting my point of view out there and finding others who agree with me. When it comes to the “Snyderverse”, defenders are rather easy to find. Continuing to talk about something you like is fine, but isn’t it time to stop defending it? Those of us who want to see a proper DC hero adaptation…will have to go to the past, because nobody attached to Warner Brothers today seems to want to do that at all, but we’re still going to complain about it, and the so-called “DC Extended Universe” is not going to go on our lists.

Still, the Snyder fans (often referred to with the derogatory “Snyder Bros”, despite this article and other defenders being women) continue to not just celebrate “their DC”, they insist we have to love it as much as they do, admit we’re wrong, and just kiss Zack Snyder’s backside. Sorry, that’s not happening. The latest Snyder Shield is FandomWire contributor Mahin Sultan, who in an article with the long-winded title “‘I don’t think he’s a big comic book dork’: Christopher Nolan Vetoed Against Zack Snyder’s Wild Man of Steel Plans That Killed the DCEU” (geez, I can find smaller titles from Japanese media), tries to make the case that it was Nolan, who produced Man Of Steel, and Warner Brothers that actually killed the DCEU. This is also an article with really short paragraphs. I like to break up my text walls as well, but a paragraph can be more than three sentences.

At any rate, Sultan tries to blame everything except Snyder’s style of movie making for why the DCEU fell apart. Should Warner Bros. get some of the blame? Yes. Nolan? Maybe, depending on how much producing he did after Man Of Steel and how hands on he was. That doesn’t mean, like him or hate him, that Snyder was a good choice for Superman in the same way he was for Watchmen. Not every creator is a fit for every project. So let’s see what Sultan’s attempts to steer the blame away from Snyder amount to.

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Posted by on February 9, 2024 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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