“I see why those Tangent guys are so worried about lacking backgrounds.”
Sonic The Hedgehog #41
Archie Comics Publications (December, 1996)
“…and one shall save him!”
WRITER: Ken Penders
PENCILER: Kyle Hunter
INKER: Harvo
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
EDITOR: Justin Freddy Gabrie
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I haven’t seen Quantumania or most of the other productions MatPat brings up, but for those of you that did, I’m curious how on point his reading of what the movie was supposed to be was, and if you think it would have been a good thing.
Jaime Reyes is the third person to use the name Blue Beetle. The first was rookie patrolman Dan Garrett wearing chainmail armor and packing gadgets. He would be retconned by Charlton Comics into an archaeologist who stumbles on a magic scarab that transforms him into the Blue Beetle. He would be replaced by Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle. While he couldn’t get the scarab to work for him he opted to follow the original’s example and make his own gadgets. Reyes would, long story short, take on the magic scarab, now revealed to be an alien artifact sent by the Reach as part of their planetary conquest scheme, but Jaime would reform or reprogram or whatever he did to the thing and became a true hero. Linkara did a huge retrospective on the various incarnations if you’re interested.
Blue Beetle is one of the pre-Gunn projects that David Zaslav hasn’t axed, with a mostly Hispanic cast as the heroes and white people as the villains, which should (but probably won’t) squash the idea that the race-swapped Batgirl movie was wiped out because of racism rather than being so terrible he couldn’t bear to release it. It appears that the movie will go the pre-52 route, with Reyes’ family supporting him as the third generation superhero and being allowed to know his identity. It also looks more fun than a lot of DC movies recently and without using the reimagined version ala Shazam/the original Captain Marvel. It is going to be good? All we have is a trailer and a long history that at least gives us questions to answer.
“Whatever we do, we must keep the Tangent heroes from finding their backgrounds.”
Captain America #9
Marvel Comics (October, 2005)
“The Winter Soldier” part 2
WRITER: Ed Brubaker
ARTIST: Michael Lark
COLORIST: Frank G. D’armata
LETTERER: Randy Gentile
ASSISTANT EDITORS: Andy Schmidt, Molly Lazer, & Aubrey Sitterson
EDITOR: Tom Brevoort
recorded March 29, 2023; some swearing in the video
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Unless the new guard gets Marvel Comics back to the more traditional Marvel universe and Marvel Studios back to proper adaptations everything they’re doing wrong is going to continue. They’re going to have to convince me this is going to be a benefit to anyone but Disney. Plus given Hollywood’s treatment of comics I’ll be surprised if it remains anything other than an IP generator if not shut down and the characters just treated as Disney properties before too long.
Also, me being me, anyone else notice that in the variant covers Perch is using there isn’t even consistency? Yes, they’re official variant covers. Goofy is Hulk and Iron Man or maybe Mickey’s Iron Man when he’s not Mr. Fantastic or Captain America. Guys, even within the Mickey branch of Disney characters you have enough to choose from that everybody could have been one character.
The last chapter was an introduction to Batman, a look inside his head as well as that of Commissioner Gordon’s and how he views their partnership. If I had known chapter two was only a couple pages I would have reviewed it with chapter one. It appears to be a look at Bruce Wayne’s life, with chapter 3 introducing us to Bane, a character created for this storyline. I’m going to have to pay better attention to this in the future. It makes more sense reviewing chapter 2 with chapter 1 than chapter 3 as the first two go together better thematically. If chapter 2 wasn’t literally 3½ pages I’d probably still review it on its own but this is a long book and I don’t want to take forever reviewing it. We’ve only covered a small portion of my book library in the Chapter By Chapter series and over at The Clutter Reports. I want to finish this before either the site or I pass on.
Bane is an interesting villain. He’s not the only villain to stand as a physical challenge to Batman. Clayfaces can alter form and there have been different interpretations, but for brute force Batman has faced the zombie gangster Solomon Grundy and the muscular Blockbuster just in Gotham City. Throw in guys he’s dealt with as part of the Justice League or the Outsiders and there’s probably a much longer list. Bane is not just some musclehead in a Mexican wrestler mask, as we’ll see. He’s also clever and comes up with plans to disrupt Batman personally, to weaken him mentally and emotionally to give himself an edge. Maybe he’s a coward for not confronting Batman directly or maybe he’s not so ego-driven that he thinks taking on Batman directly is the only honorable way to fight him. Bane exists for one reason: to break the Batman. That’s his role in the story and what sets Bruce on his character arc throughout the Knightfall storyline. So let’s meet the big boy after we learn a bit about the other side of Bruce Wayne’s life.
“Lady, that’s not a Cabbage Patch Kid”.
The Tandy Computer Whiz Kids “#2”
Archie Comics/Radio Shack (1986)
“News By Computer Foils Kidnappers!”
WRITER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: William Palmer
ARTISTS: Carmine Infantino & Chic Stone
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
BW Media Spotlight 