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Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, is a somewhat controversial figure in Marvel comics not for existing as the…usual suspects will claim, but because of how she was created. In canon Riri only decided to be the next Tony Stark because she misunderstood a quote by Sally Ride, believing the only way to find her path in life was to be told she couldn’t do something rather than chasing a dream regardless of what others said of your ability to achieve it. (Imagine if her clearly annoyed teacher had gone with “fine, you’ll never be the world’s greatest plumber” instead of “you’ll never be the next Tony Stark”. She’d be trying to join the Mario Brothers or something.) The only reason she exists is Brian Michael Bendis wanted to make a hero for his daughter (she’s black I’m guessing) and decided to do so at the expense of Tony Stark. The sad thing is I like the idea of Riri and in better hands than what Marvel currently has to offer she actually might have been good.
A trailer out of Marvel Hong Kong posted to YouTube (and given how Disney has treated black characters in promoting things to China, who pulled a Disney a few years ago and absorbed Hong Kong, which they’re trying to do now to Taiwan, I’m surprised they’re even getting a movie about a bunch of Africans) has given us nothing of any real value about the movie but we do get a sneak peak into Ironheart’s live-action debut. It’s…armor.
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“I shouldn’t have sent her to Space Ghost for space breathing training.”
Star Blazers: The Magazine Of Space Battleship Yamato #6
Argo Press (June, 1996)
“Icarus” part 1
WRITER/ARTIST: Bruce Lewis
COLORISTS/SPECIAL EFFECTS: Joh Ott & Bruce Lewis
COVER ART: Tim Eldred & Bruce Lewis
EDITOR: Tim Eldred
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Audio dramas refused to die with radio going full music or all talk, and comic adaptations coming to audio seem to be part of keeping this media format alive. Batman recently got an audio drama series and now Nexus, the superhero series created by Mike Baron and Steve Rude, will also be headed to podcast, with Baron serving as Executive Producer.
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I’m sure this won’t turn into a storyline that lasted so long I got bored waiting and then the universe was rebooted thanks to legal nonsense and YES I’M STILL BITTER!
Sonic The Hedgehog #29
Archie Comics (December, 1995)
COLORIST: Barry Grossman
LETTERER: Mindy Eisman
EDITOR: Scott Fulop
“Steel-Belted Sally”
WRITER: Angelo Decsare
PENCILER: Art Mawhinney
INKER: Rich Koslowski
Tails: “Growing Pains” part 2
WRITER: Mike Gallagher
PENCILER: Dave Manak
INKER: Harvo
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Spoilers for a few episodes for those of us in the US because Disney Plus or Disney Junior hasn’t posted/aired them yet.
Catch more Ms. Mojo on YouTube
There are two episodes that could use some focus as well. “Bumpy And The Wise Wolfhound” is my favorite (yes, I’m almost 50 and have no kids, what of it?) from both a creative and relatable standpoint. (See the previous parentheses.) Bingo is in the hospital, and while I was an adult for my first long hospital stay I can relate to how she felt, even with her mum staying with her. Then to cheer her up Bluey and as much of the cast as they could logically work in make a movie that shows that being sick is just something that happens and usually you get better. It’s a great message for any kid in the hospital or just really sick but will recover. Creatively they animate it like a bunch of rank amateurs making a movie on a cellphone or something, which just adds to the presentation.
“Double Babysitters” introduces Bandit’s brother Rad, who works on an oil rig and so doesn’t see the family as often, and Chilli’s friend Frisky. Reading between the lines of 20 Questions and the bedtime game they play with the girls, they hint that Frisky had a boyfriend who left her (possibly running off with another woman) and she’s not ready to date again despite an attraction to Rad (and in a later episode they do indeed get married). This is how you tell a story that both kids and adults can get something unique out of and this show is proof that “it’s just a kids show” is NEVER AN EXCUSE FOR CRAP WRITING! This is meant for preschoolers and yet is better written with more heart and detail than some grown-up shows I could mention plus it’s creative and fun. The creators of Bluey clearly want to make a good TV show, not just a good kids show, and thus succeeds at both. That’s why as an adult I totally love this show
BW Media Spotlight 
Hollywood’s Continued Elitist Media Bias
Do you know why I don’t spend as much time as commentators I follow discussing “them durn SJWs” and their “woke agenda”? I mean, I totally believe that’s happening because I can see it and they celebrate the fact that they’re putting tokenized stereotypes that make them look good to their fellow clueless morons who also don’t understand how human beings who aren’t as high on the societal ladder and media pecking order as they are and just see a bunch of skin colors and lifestyles without really understanding them and just want to look good for the praise and to win at the latest award show, as well as use the people they claim to be a voice for to hide their terrible writing and major changes to established and beloved characters and properties whether the “voiceless” agree with their perspective or not.
That was cathartic.
The reason is this is only challenging one problem, but it doesn’t solve HOW the political ideologues and “hacktivist” writers got into that position in the first place. These are the social climbing elite using the current cause du jour for their own ends, the same types who looked down on the geeks in school before realizing that with all the new technologies that a geek is exactly what you need, and of course ignores that “sports geek” is still a geek. If you know the RBI for every current and past player of your favorite baseball team…sorry, you’re a geek. Pick up your card at the desk, and some of us DO use hand sanitizer and bathe regularly. (I just got out of the shower a little while ago.)
So they hate the idea that science fiction, fantasy, and superhero stories–treated as “geek genre” by the more snobby social cliques, are now being seen as a viable market by the studio execs and almost seem to be on a mission to scuttle anything in those genres. This seems especially truly when they’re based on comics and video games, the lowest rungs of the media pecking order along with tabletop RPGs. At least anime, which they also hate because cartoons don’t feature the actors in person, gives card games a decent adaptation. I mean, you won’t learn how to play by watching most of them, and the idea of a world obsessed with one card game is kind of insane (looking at you, Yu-Gi-Oh), but at least it’s treated as something fun instead of mocked. Hollywood’s solution is to “make it better”. Make it live-action, make it more “mature” (even when the source material already is, Netflix), make it more grounded in their skewed version of reality, and if you disagree you’re a “hater” and a bigot. They ignore the rules of the fictional world previously established or the regions and periods that inspired them in order to make it more like their view of the “real world” because they don’t care about the source material, if not outright oppose it. As if “people in tights flying around punching each other” is in any form “realistic”. Let’s look at a few examples.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on November 9, 2022 in Movie Spotlight and tagged commentary, writing movies, writing tips.
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