Catch more from Casually Comics on YouTube
This won’t mean much in the archives but I’m going to have save this week’s Robotech comic review for next week. I have to watch the episode (one of the few New Generation episodes I have access to) to go along with the comic and I didn’t get a lot of sleep the night before, so my schedule is kind of messed up. I’ll have a bonus daily post instead and we’ll get into that next week. Sorry.
“Resistance is futile.” “Not according to our track record.”
Star Trek: Voyager #10
Marvel/Paramount Comics (October, 1997)
“Ghosts”
WRITER: Laurie S. Sutton
PENCILER: Jesus Redondo
INKER: Sergio Melia
COLORIST: Glynis Oliver
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
EDITOR: Tom Tuohy
Catch more from 87render on YouTube
That was really short. Let’s do a bonus one. It’s shorter.
It’s been a long time since we checked in with the Space Marines. For those you who missed our last bug hunt, Kenner created the Aliens toyline in 1992. This was to be joined by a cartoon, but that plan apparently fell through and the toyline itself never got past the fourth wave before disappearing. While Ripley was part of the Marines now the focus of the marketing was on Hicks, under the usual belief that boys didn’t want a toyline headlined by a girl. Apparently defeating a giant monster with a bipedal forklift wasn’t badass enough or something, despite Ripley usually being one of the go-to examples of a good badass female character done right. There are times I do not understand my own species.
In the previous look at the Aliens: Space Marines mini-comics I had to use YouTube video scans of the first three comics to get through the story. This is as lame as it sounds, as you needed to pause the video to have time to read the darn things, but it was the only source I could find. Thankfully someone on Flickr posted the whole set, though oddly issue #4 is lacking its cover. All that does is set up the story of the toyline anyway. Transcribed by the Aliens fan wiki:
Sometime in the future…
Humankind has begun to explore space, colonizing planets throughout the galaxy. Leading the way are the SPACE MARINES, the toughest heavy metal warriors in the galaxy! Armed to the teeth with state-of-the-art weaponry, they keep the peace in a universe filled with danger… and ALIENS!
Vicious, gruesome, and deadly, the Aliens spit acid, and use slithering face huggers to capture their prey. Led by their sinister Queen, the Aliens are spreading everywhere, mutating into more deadly forms as they go. Earth’s last defense: The Space Marines, known throughout the galaxy as the best bug-fighters around.
So lock and load, Marine, the invasion is on!
Tonight we’re looking at the fourth and fifth issue. Like issues one through three last time this seems to form a multi-part story that works on their own. We get to see more of Ripley than we did last time…and yet still she ends up having to be rescued by the dudes. Someone remind the feminists this was a boys toyline so the fact that she’s even there is a miracle, even if frankly the hero of the franchise until they mucked everything up (so I hear because this isn’t a franchise I follow) deserves better.
Even the covers seem to go together.
Aliens: Space Marines #s 4 & 5
Dark Horse Comics/Kenner (1992)
WRITER: Dan Jolley
LETTERER: Dan Nakrosis
EDITOR: Dan Thorsland
#4: “Jungle Attack” (packed with Gorilla Alien)
ARTIST: Tony Harris
COVER ART: Mark A. Nelson
#5: “Meltdown” (packaged with Sgt. Drake)
PENCILER: Rick Hoberg
INKER: Ian Akin
COVER ART: Joe Phillips
“Nice poster art, but where’s the comic cover art? What do you mean ‘this is it’?”
Ultimate Spider-Man #1 [Free Comic Book Day Edition]
Marvel Comics (May, 2002; originally published November, 2000)
Notation from The Grand Comics Database: “This is a partial reprint of Ultimate Spider-Man (Marvel, 2000 series) #1 released for Free Comic Book Day in 2002. Parts of the story have been replaced by advertisements. It is edited in the same way as Ultimate Spider-Man Reprint “K-B” (Marvel, 2001 series) #[nn] (June 2001).”
“Powerless”
WRITERS: Brian Michael Bendis (script) & Bill Jemas (co-story)
PENCILER: Mark Bagley
INKER: Art Thibert
COLORIST: Steve Buccellato
LETTERING: Comicraft
EDITOR: Ralph Macchio
The death of Han Solo didn’t bother me in The Force Awakens though I do agree he should have had a better sendoff. I found two old Entertainment Weekly articles from the same newsletter on the topic. One proves my point that Harrison Ford wanted to kill the character off a long time ago, while Carrie Fisher joked about being the one responsible.
That first article mentions that the writer would have liked to have seen Han and Boba Fett fight and I strongly disagree. For one thing, if Ford was finally getting his wish it seems wrong to have Boba be the one to do it because it ultimately robs Han of his victory. For another, as I noted recently, Boba Fett is overrated and there doesn’t need to be this huge rivalry. Han won, get over it!
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
Gatekeeping And The “True Fan”
My natural sounds machine has a bad volume control button. The thing either goes super loud or turns off unless I beat on the darn thing. It doesn’t help that whenever my cordless phone in the charging base by my bed seeks out the base unit it causes a buzzing in the natural sound machine speaker. So I’ve been using my “mini-tablet” (short version: phone company shouldn’t have sent my dad a smartphone) as an experiment, using natural sounds videos on YouTube–I recommend The Relaxed Guy or for music LoFi Girl if you try this idea–as a replacement. So far it seems to be working out. While waking in the morning, rather than reaching for the radio that for some reason isn’t picking up my preferred “wake up” radio station very well lately I’ve used morning podcasts on YouTube.
You’re probably wondering what this has to do with the title of this article.
Yesterday that morning podcast was catching a bit of the Literature Devil‘s “morning nonsense” stream, which he doesn’t seem to archive on YouTube. (Maybe for his Patreon supporters or something.) I didn’t catch a lot of it but two items stood out. Sadly I can’t seem to find anything on this new “run a cafe” campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, though I did have a few thoughts on that I posted to the chat as he talked about it. The other is a video by another channel that has popped up here in the Spotlight more than once, Comics By Perch. It’s cool when channels I follow also follow other channels I follow. I mean, cooler when they follow mine but given how seldom I get videos out it’s easier to follow this site for my reviews and commentaries. When I post a video, it comes here anyway.
Perch’s video goes over an article by Forbes contributor Ollie Barder, where he uses anime fandom to go over the modern online accusations of “gatekeeping” by the usual suspects. I’ll go a bit over that but LD made the case that the various geek fandoms have never gatekept in the past and can’t. I’ve been in this grouping too long to not know better, but what the usual suspects are calling gatekeeping really isn’t…but I can give you examples of what actually is.
Continue reading →
Tell others about the Spotlight:
Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on January 12, 2022 in Uncategorized and tagged commentary, Fandom, geek culture.
Leave a comment