May 27, 2023

Saturday Night Showcase> Batman: Legends Of Robin

I don’t know why I’ve gotten so much Batman material lately, though it’s oddly timed as I review the novelization of the Knightfall storyline. At least this one I went looking for information about as I had mentioned it in…one of the articles I’ve made lately.

Produced by Warner Brother Records, Batman: Legends Of Robin is a two cassette audio drama from 1996 adapting various issues of the comic detailing the journey of then new Robin Tim Drake. It features a great cast, including John Shea (Lex Luthor in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman as King Snake and Mark Hamill as the Joker. It covers how Tim Drake became Robin, the death of Jason Todd, the sad fate of Tim’s parents because heaven forbit at least one of these characters keeps both parents if any, Tim’s training, and his encounters with Two-Face and the Joker.

The rest of the voice cast is also excellent. Jim Soriero is a great Tim Drake, Don Leslie is a worthy Batman, oddly it doesn’t say on the box who played Nightwing, a good use of Peter Waldren as Alfred, and Aaron May gets a turn as Superman. I’ll post the full cast list after the recording which I hope you enjoy as much as I do.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 27, 2023 in DC Spotlight, radio/audio drama, Saturday Night Showcase and tagged , , , , , , .

5 Comments

May 27, 2023

“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Blue Beetle #13

“The good news is that it’s not mice in your walls.”

The Blue Beetle #13

Holyoke Publishing Company (August, 1942)

The version scanned into Comic Book Plus isn’t in the best of conditions, though not the worst I’ve seen, but hopefully we’ll still get through this one. Also interesting is that the Grand Comic Database doesn’t have titles for some of the early Blue Beetle stories in this issue so they won’t have titles. For some reason the Blue Beetle stories are actually scattered through the comic, but I’ll still list them in the review as the Blue Beetle stories and the guest comics for the sake of formatting convenience. I’m still trying to decide on a layout for these Golden Age reviews.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 27, 2023 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , .

Leave a comment

May 26, 2023

What Ruined 4Kids Entertainment?

4Kids Entertainment gets a lot of flack from the anime community. They took anime and re-edited it for Western audiences, which they feel is somehow artistically wrong. I’m not saying they don’t have a point, especially given recent shenanigans where translators are inserting their views into characters’ mouths, like a crossdresser who still identifies as a boy being turned trans in the translation (no pun intended) when that’s not what he was in the original manga, or adding references to Gamergate into an anime made by people who never heard of Gamergate. I think there’s a difference however. 4Kids never sold their stuff as a anime dub studio. It was a studio who made TV shows and the occasional movie for kids. It was right there in the name.

It just so happened that Pokémon was big in the US and it was 4Kids, originally in syndication and then on Kids WB if memory serves, who brought it to Western kids. Their goal wasn’t to present anime to Western anime fans, it was to make a kids show just like all their other non-Japanese kids show. I’ve gone over 4Kids long library of shows in my defense of the studio years ago including my favorite version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the prematurely canceled WMAC Masters. Anime was popular and cheaper to dub than create shows like this or Cubix: Robots For Everyone and that’s what they did.

Some time ago YouTuber Saberspark went over the demise of 4Kids and why the company failed. There’s more to the story than their anime but did he touch on that? Let’s find out. It’s been a while since I dropped it into the potential article playlist. Also features a cameo by Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 26, 2023 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , .

1 Comment

May 26, 2023

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Tron (2.0) #4

“For the last time I’m NOT MODOK!”

Tron #4

SLG Publishing (July, 2007)

WRITERS: Landry Walker & Eric Jones

ARTIST: Michael Shoyket & Guru-eFX

LETTERER: Eleanor Lawson

EDITOR: Dan Vado

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 26, 2023 in Movie Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

1 Comment

May 26, 2023

BW’s Daily Video> Why Zaslav Hasn’t “Fixed” DC

Catch more Comics By Perch on YouTube

Like I keep saying, and posted in the comments: “There’s a pecking order to media. Comics are on the low end while TV and movies, the formats Zaslav cares about, are on the top. He doesn’t care about comics beyond what movies and TV shows can he make from those characters.”

Posted by on May 26, 2023 in DC Spotlight and tagged , , , .

Leave a comment

May 25, 2023

Film Theory Proves Batman Isn’t Realistic

“You want to hurry up, Clark? I need to make a call.”

I don’t hate the Christopher Nolan films, but outside of making some of his gadgets more believable having a “grounded in reality” Batman takes all the fun of Batman out of it for me. Superheroes don’t exist in this world, outside of a small group of people who like to dress up and help others community action style because it makes the experience more fun for everybody. Plus do you want to mess with the guy in the padded suit just in case he CAN kick your face in? It’s that unreality that makes superheroes more fun to watch, and through that enjoyment I see what it takes to actually be a hero not because of what toys Bruce Wayne bought but what he does with them.

However, the idea that superheroes need to be grounded in “reality” (read “cynical and depressingly violent”) seems to be prevalent in not only Hollywood but increasingly in the comics. I reject this and two videos by Matthew “MatPat” Patrick and his team over at The Film Theorists kind of prove that Batman can’t exist in reality. This wasn’t his intention of course. Like his other fictional theories this was meant to put the fake world of Gotham City through the real spectrum and see the differences to learn about science, economics, and the legal system. However, the guy who knows parts of every martial art on Earth, numerous languages, and trivia that would ordinarily serve nobody who isn’t playing the hard edition of Trivial Pursuit while having more money than some nations surprisingly isn’t “realistic” at concept. Let me show you.

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 25, 2023 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

Leave a comment

May 25, 2023

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Prime-8s #1

“These are not the sea monkeys I ordered!”

Prime-8s #1

Monkeybrain Comics (2013)

WRITERS: Michael Moreci & Steve Seeley

ARTIST: Kyle Latino

COLORISTS: Jordan Gibson & Stephen Bobbett

LETTERER: Ryan Ferrier

Continue reading →

Posted by on May 25, 2023 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , .

Leave a comment