Let’s face it, outside of starting this week’s Chapter By Chapter review of Robotech: Before The Invid Storm history has proven that whatever I plan is going to hit a wall, so doing a preview of what’s coming may be asking for trouble at this point. How many times this month did I declare I wanted to do a Finally Watched and not succeeded? (Well, it would have to be two because that’s how weeks work.) So I guess what else is coming will be a surprise to us both. Have a good week!
Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m not an Ultra-Expert or anything, but usually an Ultraman only gets one series. Oh, they still show up for crossover stories but a full (even short) series? It’s kind of a rarity. Ultraman Ginga S is one of those exceptions, a sequel to last week’s Showcase, Ultraman Ginga. However, you may not necessarily need to see that series to watch this one.
After defeating the main threat of the previous series, Hikaru Raido returns to exploring the world only to be called back to Japan after seeing strange crystals in Mexico. The crystals are called Victorium, the life source of a tribe living underground. So they send their own champion, Ultraman Victory, to stop the theft of the Victorium, bringing himself and Hikaru into the view of the Ultra Party Guardians, the anti-kaiju force that’s usually present in these shows. In the first episode Hikaru meets Sho (aka Victory) and tries to help stop the thieves even though he can no longer call on the power of Ultraman Ginga. What happens next? Watch and find out.
I don’t usually do article links or videos on Saturdays. This is the usual slot for the Scooby-Doo Team-Up comics as of this writing. However, not wanting to deal with two separate apps long enough to ensure they have a decent comic reader to replace it (apparently it’s a lot of trouble and I can respect that at least), Amazon has opted to just merge everything now, and this is not a good thing for the readers. While the Amazon app appears to be okay the online Kindle Cloud Reader (which is not easily linked to so I had to go crazy trying to track it down) is not prepared for comics, and is missing the guided view, easy to read zoom, and other features the comiXology reader had. Gizmodo has a list of the other problems, especially for former comiXology users outside the US and indie creators that are making online comic fans unhappy. I also wish they had warned the DRM free back-ups were going away because I would have grabbed my library immediately. Now I can’t.
Amazon, fix these problems or go back to the regular comiXology until you do. There are other comic readers out there, like Drive Thru Comics (and that’s only one of the legal readers) and some public domain offerings for older comics, so maybe doing worse than your competition is a bad idea? I only have the app on my phone if I’m out, not to do my regular reading and reviews on.
The brighter colors already make it look better than Man Of Steel.
Why just the one this time? Well, the next one is four intros and I don’t want to have this one buried by Superboy intros so it stands alone. This gives me a bit more time to talk about it because believe it or not this is my favorite Superman cartoon. While the Bruce Timm series is technically the best there’s a difference between the best made and the one that just makes me happy. The DCAU does a great job with characters and interpretations, continuing the multiversal continuity while finding a way to be completely original. However, the Ruby-Spears produced Superman series is just a joy to watch.
It was Superman’s 50th anniversary. The first two movies had done well, and the 1980s was already the best time to be a Superman fan. Outside of the comics you had reruns of the previous live-action and animated shows we’ve seen in the prior installments. There was even a Superman game on the Atari 2600.
I didn’t say it was good, I said it existed.
Meanwhile the DC Comics universe was undergoing a bit of an upheaval. Deciding they didn’t know how to run a multiverse the higher-ups at DC opted to merge their universes into one and just reboot the darn thing…and sadly this wouldn’t be the last time, but that’s another conversation. So you have to pity Ruby-Spears because they were caught in something of a crossroads between the pre and post Crisis DC Universe while also remembering the Christopher Reeves portrayal had pretty much set Superman’s depiction to the non-comic public. And despite all that I think they pulled it off beautifully.
Sorry to throw this in real quick but being sick all week made it slip my mind. While I was down Tsuburaya rescheduled their Two Million Subscriber stream to tonight at 8 PM ET. Meanwhile at 9:45 PM ET an “after show” will be available exclusively for fans signed up at Ultraman Connection. There will be guests and I don’t know what else or who else through the many years of Ultraman. The regular stream will of course take place on the official YouTube channel. I hope to catch it myself so maybe you’ll see me in the chat.
BW Media Spotlight 