May 31, 2026

Jake & Leon #684> Gotham’s Gone Batty

A colonoscopy will do that.

I just caught the typo. It’s been one of those weeks. It’s also why I missed the Friday comic review. So I’m going to put that one in Tuesday’s slot so I can still have the return of Golden Age Friday.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I spin off from the Comic Organizing Mega-Project into the Comic Digitizing Mega-Project. Here’s the preview of what’s coming there.

Back here it’s the final chapter of How To Completely Lose Your Mind, meaning that will be reviewed in full at The Clutter Reports next week. Still deciding on the next licensed novel for review. Hopefully this will be a more productive week full of interesting topics and maybe building my buffer. We’ll see. Have a great week, everyone!

Posted by on May 31, 2026 in DC Spotlight, Jake & Leon and tagged , , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

May 30, 2026

Saturday Night Showcase> War Planets (aka Shadow Raiders)

War Planets was a Trendmaster toyline, which tried to (all puns intended) master the trend of the mini playset. Most people nostalgic for this period would think of Polly Pocket for girls and Mighty Max for boys. They’re playsets that fold up for easy transport. For example, visiting a relative that doesn’t have kids? You can bring this along rather than lug a bunch of your toys if you’re not much of a reader and there’s no place to play or the weather’s too lousy to go outside.

A tie-in animated series was produced to help promote the toys, made by Mainframe Entertainment, the company who rose to fame in the computer animated field with Reboot, which I was going to do tonight to tie in to last week’s Showcase, but apparently I already did that when Shout Factory posted the pilot to their YouTube channel. After going by Rainmaker for a while for some reason, the now branded Mainframe Studios has their own channel, and are uploading their own productions there.

However, in Canada, where putting “war” in a show title is forbidden (Mainframe had to air the Transformers series Beast Wars as Beasties, which is unintentionally humorous), the show would gain a different name, and that’s the title in the intro: Shadow Raiders. The show follows emissaries from a group of planets whose governments don’t get along with or trust each other. That suits the invading force of the Unicron-like world Beast Planet as it makes them easier to absorb. However, a survivor from one of their previous victims will find an unlikely ally who will try to unite the rest of the toyline planetary system against this foe. Unfortunately, they don’t call it WAR Planets for nothing. Enjoy.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 30, 2026 in Animation Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

May 30, 2026

BW’s Saturday Article Link> Teens Vs. Hollywood?

Hollywood chases the younger audience because they have more money to spend vs less sense to spend it wisely than adults, or so has been the theory. Throw in activists hoping to warp minds early and the everything for meeeeeeeeeeeeee crowd remaking and reimagining everything that wasn’t “made for them” and they think that they’re making the version that today’s youth will totally get into, which they claim is what franchises and Brands need to make it to the next generation no matter how many generations they were around for just as they were. Puck News however is stating that the opposite is true and brands are actually not catching today’s teens the way it used to attract “yesterday’s” teens. So apparently changing what worked chased off potential new fans at the expense of old fans. Again.

Since the Puck News story is behind a paywall, you can see a summary at Geeks & Gamers. In a related article by their associates at That Park Place we see a more specific example, as the type of people who were introduced to Star Wars as a kid in the past isn’t getting that Star Wars in the present and the audience being chased doesn’t care about action sci-fi. No wonder the franchise is in danger of no longer being culturally relevant.

Posted by on May 30, 2026 in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , .

Leave a comment

May 29, 2026

Free Comic Inside> The Menace Of Trap Jaw

Free Comic Inside logo

Before doing this review we should acknowledge the passing of Roger Sweet, Mattel toy designer in the 1970s and 1980s, but most notably the creator of the original Masters Of The Universe toyline. He created the original standard body and the name He-Man among other things. There’s a fight over the lore as the minicomic writers fight with other departments, but Sweet’s contribution is undeniable. He was 91 years old, already suffering enough health issues that a GoFundMe was made for him. Our thoughts with his family and friends.

One of the figures he didn’t create was Trap Jaw, Colin Bailey was responsible for creating the one armed army, the so-called “master of all weapons”. The original toyline gave him three weapons–a gun, a hook, and a claw–but the Filmation series would create even more parts to swap his right arm’s connector with. Of course his signature ability was the steel jaw, inspired by Jaws from the Bond movies and possibly one of Big Jim’s enemies according to the Grayskull wiki. (No, I don’t mean Jaws fought Big Jim. The toyline must have had a similar character. It’s also where Battlecat originally came from.) The Filmation series also wrote him as pretty much a moron who could bite almost anything.

The minicomic, however, has a different design for Trap Jaw. I don’t know if the early design lacked the blue skin and that’s what the creators went with, but Trap Jaw is also something he didn’t really get to be in other media: dangerous even to Skeletor. One of the remaining Series 2 comics, we still have no Prince Adam, the Power Sword is split in half longways with He-Man and Skeletor holding half the key to Castle Grayskull, which just stands in some field, the “Sorceress” is a “Goddess” who is just Teela in the snake armor to convince boys to buy a girl figure twice, and Skeletor doesn’t live in Snake Mountain. So how did Trap Jaw join Skeletor’s evil warriors in this continuity?

“That’ll teach that rock!”

Masters Of The Universe Series 2 #?

Mattel/DC Comics (1983)

“The Menace Of Trap Jaw!”

WRITER: Gary Cohn

PENCILER: Mark Texeria

INKER: Tod Smith

COLORIST: Anthony Tollin

no letterer or editor credit at He-Man.Org, who has the scans again. I guess now with the collected hardback they helped work on now out of print they felt it was okay to put the scans back. Makes it easier than digging through my collection as this is one I managed to get second hand at a convention with a bunch of other ones.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 29, 2026 in Free Comic Inside and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

May 29, 2026

BW’s Daily Video> Trying To Explain The Marvel Universe

Catch more from Comics by Perch on YouTube

 

Posted by on May 29, 2026 in Marvel Spotlight and tagged , , .

3 Comments

May 28, 2026

A Doctor Wholess Christmas…And Why I’m Okay With That Possibility

A recent post in UK tabloid The Sun has people going crazy…along the usual lines in 2026. I’m linking to a different site because quite frankly the Sun‘s layout is crap. The Sun claims via an “anonymous source” that the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special might be scrapped because they’re having trouble finding someone to play the Doctor. Given the current state of the series, one often cited with Star Wars and Star Trek among others like Marvel’s “Cinematic Universe” as franchises that were thought too big to fail until they failed. Notice two of those were run by Disney, who also showed their Mephisto like ability to screw something over by being part of it when they partnered with the BBC for the recent Doctor Who season, though the BBC themselves started ruining things before Disney came along.

Is the special over? In the video below, WhoCulture YouTube contributor Ellie Littlechild says no, and thinks people are panicking over nothing. Personally, I think she dost protest too much…but I also wouldn’t care. To be honest if there was no Christmas special under the current Bad Wolf producers I’m not sure that would bother me. Instead of panicking, I’d almost be relieved. Not for the reasons of some other critics…okay, not JUST those reasons, but I have one extra issue with ALL of the Christmas specials under Russel T. Davies. That’s odd because that’s one of the things he brought to New Who (unless it was some higher up at the BBC), and then proceeded to do the same thing wrong each time based on his own beliefs. This was never in the classic series. The only Christmas acknowledgement was one fourth wall break by the TRUE First Doctor, William Hartnell, in one episode that happened to be airing on the holiday. (Or close enough to it. I’m not going to do the math.)

As far as the stated reason Ellie gives for what might be the reason? I kind of agree with her, but at the same time it might be tougher finding a new Doctor than she thinks. Not only is she part of a YouTube channel whose focus is Doctor Who and its various spinoffs, but she doesn’t seem willing to see the issues the show has had and how it has affected the franchise as a whole and how its perceived, especially by the classic fanbase but even those who came in on New Who are seeing the mistakes and doing exactly what Ncuti Gatwa told them to do…touch grass and not touch their telly. (Did I spell that right, UK readers?) The Christmas special is the least of their troubles. So once Elle goes over another bit of news, which kind of ties in tangentially, we’ll get into the core of this discussion, where I think she’s right, and where I think she’s wrong.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 28, 2026 in Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

2 Comments

May 28, 2026

“Yesterday’s” Comic> The True Story Of Easter

You know when I should have reviewed this? LAST EASTER!

The True Story Of Easter

Golden Kid Comics (2020)

WRITER/ARTIST: Joshua 1:9 Holley

I don’t think I have to summarize this story. If you don’t know the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection by now you’re more out of the loop than I am. Instead, I’m going to just review the presentation.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 28, 2026 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , .

Leave a comment