Jake & Leon #532> Like The Sign Says

At least they had advanced warning this time.

It’s true. I’m taking some time off. It’s why I zoomed through the epilogue of Robotech: Before The Invid Storm and why the final book report is already up at The Clutter Reports.

I’ve been starting to take my birthday week off…at least during years when I didn’t lose time due to being sick and my belly opened up or being knocked out by a blood clot or something. This July however just taking my birthday off (July 13th if you want to get me something or just wish me a happy birthday) isn’t enough. While I have no conventions this year thanks to my current lack of income I do have two family parties and the possibility of jury duty to contend with. I’m hoping I don’t end up in the trial of the century or something but I don’t know how that’s going to turn out. Last time the case was canceled before I had to show up, but that was state (or possibly federal…I don’t remember) and this a bit more local. At any rate July is up in the air as far as when I’ll get to work on stuff.

Additionally there’s behind the scenes stuff I’ve been wanting to do but not being able to schedule. I want to finish the back up of my videos to BitChute as well as at least get all my old reviews captioned over on YouTube. My on-site media library needs better descriptions so I can find images I need easier. There’s some other archive pages I’ve been meaning to get together here and some more entries into the Clutter For Sale section over at The Clutter Reports. And there’s stuff around the house I’ve been meaning to take care of that won’t make for interesting Clutter Report articles or perhaps don’t follow the theme. There are even other projects both connected and not connected to both sites that I’ve been meaning to done. Oh, and there’s that annoying YouTube backlog going back to May, possibly still a few days left in April. I can work that in while going over emails and old articles too. That would be nice.

I don’t know how much of it I’ll get done in one month with the aforementioned other distractions but I want to give it a shot. I’ll be back the first week in August, so a few days into August just like I’m a few days into July. So for my fellow Americans have a great Independence Day (or if you’re reading this after July 4th I hope you had a great one) and for everyone enjoy your July and I’ll see you in August. At least we have advanced warning this time. Let’s see what happens to totally @#%$ up my plans.

Chapter By Chapter> Robotech: Before The Invid Storm–Epilogue

Why am I posting on a Sunday instead of a Monday? I’ll get into it more in this week’s Jake & Leon update section at the usual posting time but the short version is I won’t be posting Monday and this was the last dangling thread I have. So it gets posted early. Just…don’t read it until tomorrow if you’re a stickler for scheduling I guess.

Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

In the last chapter of Robotech, it actually was the last chapter. It was all about tying up loose ends before the Invid arrived…which makes me wonder what they can even say in this chapter. Was this really needed when you could have just tied all the ends in the chapter or did you really feel the need to have an epilogue? I guess we’re about to find out, as we finish this book.

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Saturday Night Showcase> Ultraman R/B

One more Saturday Night Showcase worthy entry in the filler video list so let’s use that tonight.

Ultraman R/B is the 28th or 30th entry in the Ultra series depending on which info source I use. This one actually features a pair of brothers (and later a sister who becomes an Ultrawoman) who are given the power to become Ultramen to battle a monster. Younger brother Isami shares his late mother’s passion for “space archeology” while older brother Katsumi is a clothing expert at their father’s store. The brothers support each other but soon they will join forces when they are given the power to save their town from a giant monster. Enjoy.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Scooby-Doo Team-Up #49

“The sign says ‘no hitchikers’.” “I know. I’m the sign.”

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #49

DC Comics (September, 2019; as featured in the trade “It’s Scooby Time”)

“Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes”

WRITER: Sholly Fisch

ARTIST: Dario Brizuela

COLORIST: Franco Riesco

LETTERER: Saida Temofonte

EDITOR: Kristy Quinn

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What I’ve Learned From (and about) Superheroes

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved superheroes. When you’re the boy dealing with bullies, suffering from a temper and poor social skills the superheroes of my youth were amazing. I grew up at a time when the universe around a superhero was allowed to love them, and any voice to the contrary was a jerk like J. Jonah Jameson or one of the villains. On rare occasion it was understandable given a situation but for the most part those colorful costumes elicited cheers and relief from the people they were here to save.

I grew up in what I call the golden age of superheroes. On TV you had reruns of classic superhero shows alongside new ones and both were fun and uplifting. It took a while before I could get comics on a regular basis but the ones I could get I’ve reread so often some of them don’t have covers anymore. In middle school I started making my own superheroes and never really stopped. If not for the setbacks I’ve had the past few years and the time it took to improve my skills to where I’m comfortable making and sharing them to the world this would be a different website right now…or at least I’d have a second website just with superhero and sci-fi adventures.

The super”heroes” I see today don’t reflect the heroes I grew up with. The more cynical writers out there right now don’t embrace uplifting ideas because they’re all about gritty revenge or social promotion, while the writers brought in for DC’s YA stories just use the characters in non-superhero adventures, preferring to do some slice-of-life thing. I don’t hate that genre, and there are a few stories I do enjoy from it, but it isn’t a superhero story. And while some writers and editors even refuse to believe that comics and TV can inspire us they didn’t read the comics or watch the cartoons and live-action superhero shows I did. Here’s some of the stuff I learned.

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Steel #3

The annual Ameritek barbecue always ends this way.

Steel #3

“Bad Company”

WRITERS/CREATORS: Louise Simonson (also script) & Jon Bogdanove

PENCILER: Chris Batista

INKER: Rich Faber

COLORIST: Gina Going

LETTERER: Pat Brosseau

EDITOR: Frank Pittarese

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BW’s Daily Trailer: The Super-Sons Get A Movie

And this is why aging up Superjunior was a bad idea. You miss out on cool stuff like this. PLEASE let this movie be good…though making it PG-13 means kids won’t get to watch the sons of Batman and Superman kicking butt so I question this decision. At least tone down to PG, because G might be too far. As far as the trailer goes the animation kind of works. It’s similar to what they did in Batman Ninja but with a different art style. I kind of want to see this. It looks fun. Remember when DC superheroes were fun and fought supervillains and evil invaders? Because they seem to want you to forget over at DC Comics.