Ah, young love. There is a right way and wrong way to tell that story. Author John C. Wright compares Disney’s Aladdin (the cartoon, not the nightmare show) and The Swan Princess to see which movie got it correct and which one is a romance that doesn’t make sense.
Modern DC heroes are becoming people I aspire NOT to be.
I don’t think I’m going to do the eyes like this again. Every time I’ve tried I failed to get it right. It’s like a cross of two different styles and the worst part of both of them. Otherwise, my commentary stands.
In this week’s Clutter Report I had to watch TV because I don’t know what’s going to survive when they change cable boxes. This one is constantly having issues. So I got caught up on a few shows but because I’m lucky if I get up before noon lately because of how long it takes me to both get to bed AND fall asleep I don’t get into bed until late. I’m hoping to get in one more Finally Watched but I have hours to go and I don’t know what will survive. It depends on whether or not our current provider stores on the box or on the cloud.
So whether or not I get that Finally Watched in, it’s chapter two of Robotech: Before The Invid Storm, the next installment of the Many, Many Intros Of Superman, and I’m not sure what else. Hope you all enjoy it and have a good week!
Well, I’ve done other Transformers shows and I want to take a break from Ultraman, so let’s watch Transformers: Prime. It’s the only TV show in the so-called “aligned continuity” that I haven’t posted. I’ve done Robots In Disguise, I’ve done Rescue Bots and Rescue Bots Academy…wait, I have done those two yet? Well, that’s coming.
Prime is easily the darkest and most serious of the four shows, though on par with the video games. The series follows a group of Autobots hiding in secret on Earth but working with the government to keep the Decepticons from taking over. While not my favorite of the offerings it is a well done show, even if it is responsible for the continuity to not be all that aligned. For whatever reason Hasbro doesn’t have season one on their YouTube channel but you can find the series streaming in a number of places. As a sample here’s the first episode of season two. After the defeat of Unicron at the end of season one (and yes, there is where the “Unicron is Earth” nonsense began and hopefully ends with the Bayverse), Optimus isn’t himself and it’s up to the other Autobots to rescue “Orion Pax” from Megatron’s influence. Along with their human allies–Jack, Miko, and Raf–can the Autobots restore their leader? It will take three episodes to find out. Enjoy.
By 1988 the DC comics universe had already undergone a major upheaval, as we talked about last week. The universe was rebooted, the various alternate realities merged into one…though the success of that merger is certainly questionable in a few spots. John Byrne was in charge of reintroducing Superman into this new continuity and one of his acts was to remove the idea that Superman fought villains in his teens as Superboy. The concept had been created in 1945 in an attempt to build on Superman’s success by telling stories of his teen years. I don’t know Byrne’s reasoning for dropping this like he did any other Kryptonian, though his parents would now survive to Clark’s adult years, having found a fan base through the Superboy comic and appearances in the Filmation cartoon.
After George Reeve’s death there was an attempt to create a Superboy series but it never got past the pilot, which was later adapted into an issue of the comic. It then seems odd to create a series around Clark as a teen superhero with his usual power set intact as this had been removed from continuity. I’m guessing Alexander Salkind had the same thought that the pre-DC National Comics had, to build off the success of…well, three of their movies, maybe two if you ask many fans. (Personally I liked Superman III conceptually and it was just the comedy that failed, while Superman IV: The Quest For Peace is total trash and I’m one of the few defenders of the Supergirl movie.)
The Superboy TV aired in syndication and had to work on a syndicated series budget, which is smaller than a network or a modern cable channel/streaming service, and the effects reflected that but weren’t too bad considering that restriction. The show aired for four seasons but surprisingly the intros aren’t broken down by season. You’ll see what I mean pretty quick.
Taking cues from the Sonic X covers I see.
Speed Racer #2
WildStorm (November, 1999)
“The Prototype”
WRITER/ARTIST: Tommy Yune
COLORIST: Guy Major
LETTERER: Ali Fuchs
EDITOR: Eric DeSantis
How to explain isekai to non-anime fans? Think A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court. Or Captain N: The Game Master. Yeah, I may get yelled at for that one. Anyway, swearing in the video.
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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 
Why You Can Blame Amazon’s Not-Tolkien On Battlestar Galactica
Let me preface this by saying I am not doing a hit piece on SyFy’s remake of Battlestar Galactica. I haven’t even watched the show but I know enough about it to make my case. Honestly I could have used a bunch of different examples but choosing one makes it easier to go over, it’s one I’ve mentioned before, and it makes for a nice headline while I’m not just going to go for clickbait. There has to be something to it and I think will work fine.
Now you’re probably wondering what a science fiction series that’s a namesake adaptation of a classic science fiction series has to do with a fantasy series that’s a namesake adaptation of a fantasy franchise and are now realizing that particular phrasing just answered your question. I don’t know a lot about Lord Of The Rings. I’m not a huge fantasy fan and The Neverending Story being my favorite movie is more of a fluke than anything else. I do watch some fantasy but usually it’s more “science fantasy” like Star Wars before Disney took it over and made some questionable decisions. I see people pointing to the sociopolitical changes to the make-up of Middle Earth. We have black dwarves, probably not played by dwarfs, women who were never badasses in the original lore now being uber-badasses according to the previews, and black elves in contrast to how elves have been depicted in the folklore that JRR Tolkien was inspired by. One of the YouTube channels I follow is a black man who is steeped in Tolkien lore to the point that he can speak…one of the languages from the franchise, I couldn’t tell you which. Yes, Tolkien even created a fictional language complete with its own grammar and linguistics…just in case you thought the Star Trek movie people creating a Klingon language was just being geeky. It’s called worldbuilding.
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This is because Amazon Studios didn’t get the rights to the ACTUAL pre-LOTR history of Middle Earth, The Simarillion and the Unfinished Tales, but for some reason does have the rights to the same old books that both Peter Jackson and Rankin/Bass have already adapted. As more information comes out about the show it seems like they outright wanted to ignore the actual history in favor of their own take, and replace the familiar characters with their own version…which brings us back to Galactica.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on February 24, 2022 in Television Spotlight and tagged Amazon Prime, Battlestar Galactica, commentary, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Rings Of Power.
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