February 12, 2023

Jake & Leon #551> Capes & Jackets

Capes don’t work for every superhero, but it’s telling that they keep trying to expel the recognized symbol of Western superheroes out of modern superhero costume designs.

The Flash wearing a cape would be a mistake. Iron fist might be able to pull it off but I don’t think it fits his fighting style. Superman wears a cape because it makes him look more powerful. Superhero costume designs now look like they’re fighting crime on Casual Friday.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I worked a bit on getting my tablet ready to assist in projects and added something to my dad’s laptop.

Coming this week is the continuing Chapter By Chapter review of TekWar and I really don’t know what else. I’m curious what this week will throw at me to discuss. Watch, when I don’t have any topics in mind the entertainment industry is going to take a break from being stupid. Have a great week, everybody.

Posted by on February 12, 2023 in DC Spotlight, Jake & Leon and tagged , , , , , , , .

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February 11, 2023

Saturday Night Showcase> Miss Kuroitsu From The Monster Development Department

With a name that long your first guess should be it came from Japan.

If you’re going to focus a story on the villain, please do not let the villain win. They’re the villain. The role of a villain in a story is to see them lose, to see the heroes overcome adversity and come out on top. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a villain be the protagonist, however. Perhaps it’s a redemption arc, or they’re fighting a greater evil because they don’t want the competition. Or maybe it’s a comedy and seeing the incompetent villain fail to take over the world but succeed at life in general, like tonight’s Showcase.

Miss Kuroitsu From The Monster Development Department is a 2022 Japanese animated series, based on a manga series appearing in Comet Meteor. created by Hiroaki Mizusaki. It follows the adventures of a lab assistant for the evil organization Agastya because supervillain organization names in Japan don’t always make sense, at least to an American like myself. They’re competing with all the usual organizations dealing with sentai and Kamen Rider knockoffs but right now Agastya is the last group standing. If the leader wasn’t a girly girl at heart, the head of the department wasn’t waiting to the last minute, and the lead henchmen is at least trying to be a good boss. It’s not all bad. While Touka Kuroitsu is trying to advance in the “company” she has caught the eye of the local marketplace worker…who is tied to the hero they’re trying to destroy, Divine Swordsman Blader, who may be just as incompetent as they are. He doesn’t know she works for the enemy…and she doesn’t know he’s into her.

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Posted by on February 11, 2023 in Animation Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , .

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February 11, 2023

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Blue Beetle #2

Wait, I though the size powers came later?

The Blue Beetle #2

Fox Features Syndicate (May-June, 1940)

It’s all Blue Beetle all the time this issue folks. As far as credits, well when Comic Book Plus and the Grand Comics Database agree it’s Charles Nichols. Apparently someone at CB+ thought Lou Fine did some pages but now they say that’s not the case, GCD credits a couple to Louis Cazeneuve but with a question mark…this is what happens when you share pen names. Let’s just get into the review. Feel free to read along.

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Posted by on February 11, 2023 in radio/audio drama, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , .

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February 10, 2023

Why Homelander Is A Great Villain

Not surprising that I don’t have any images from either the comic or the streaming series The Boys in my media library. It’s not a comic I care to read nor a show I wish to watch. The Boys follows a government operative group with that codename who become the heroes of the story only because the heroes they fight turn out to be even worse. Their duty is to take down superheroes who go rogue, but they don’t come off as the best people either from what little I know of it. Nothing about this premise sits well with my superhero-loving heart, but I think no less of you if you like it. One of the biggest reasons is probably Homelander, a stab at the Department Of Homeland Security most likely as well as further proof that is someone shows up with Superman’s powers (science be damned) you better hope that person is more like Clark Kent than…wait, did he have a name? Not coming up in the Fandom wiki and I’m not going to read the comics. Mentally Disturbed Justice League is not what I’m into.

Henry over at The Closer Look take a trip into the Amazon Prime version of Homelander to see how the fallen hero (according to the research I did…and by research I mean “read the wiki” but at least I’m reviewer enough to admit it) make such a great villain for the series. While he does discuss movie/TV/Streaming villains in general it’s Evil Superman #5 (I don’t really keep track) that is the primary example–no pun intended–of how to write a memorable villain the audience loves to hate, even with a hero with that level of power. Possible spoilers aplenty, and by necessity some of these scenes from more R-rated fare that Henry uses to help make his points may be a bit disturbing.

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Posted by on February 10, 2023 in Comic Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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February 10, 2023

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Power #1

“Well, I guess it’s enough light to read by.”

Star Power #1

self-published comic, no company name (February, 2013)

WRITER: Michael Terracciano

ARTIST: Garth Graham

read along with me here

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Posted by on February 10, 2023 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , .

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February 10, 2023

BW’s Daily Video> What If Waspinator Had His Own Beast Wars Episode

Catch more from TJOmega on YouTube 

Posted by on February 10, 2023 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , .

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February 9, 2023

Sing Me A Story> Two Takes On Superman

logo for the Sing Me A Story article series

I’ve considered doing an article series just for Superman songs. There are so many songs that reference or outright discuss Superman but I’ve had a hard time finding one that I feel really understands the character, nevermind speaking to what I love about my favorite superhero. It doesn’t help that currently Superman’s values are either ignored by writers, editors, and directors, or looked down upon as some archaic thing. And yet if someone challenges the laws of physics and comes up with Superman’s powers you better pray to God whether you believe in Him or not that he or she will carry Clark Kent’s values or you can kiss your future goodbye.

While I’ve got enough troubles and article/video/comic ideas to add that project here’s are two examples of what I’m talking about. In this corner we have “Superman (It’s Not Easy” by John Ondrasik, aka Five For Fighting despite being one dude. On the other we have “Superman’s Song” by Brad Roberts, lead singer of Crash Test Dummies despite being a human being. As far as I know anyway. Maybe John is like Trey from Power Rangers ZEO and Brad just has a really good disguise. These two songs attempt to speak to the downsides of being the standard for powered superheroes and the most important of the DC Universe. Which does it better? Let’s examine.

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Posted by on February 9, 2023 in DC Spotlight, Sing Me A Story and tagged , , , , , , .

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