“Shouldn’t we be inside the ship while in deep space?”
Starburn (trade collection of issues #1-4)
Mankindx3 Books (uploaded March, 2022)
CREATOR/WRITER: Kelly Bender
PENCILER: Brian Balondo
INKER: Cristian Docolomansky
COLORIST: Laura Lee
LETTERERS: Nic J Shaw (#1 & #2) & Micah Myers (#3 & #4)
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The media pecking order continues to be wrong.
Aquaman. Arthur Curry. (Not many people remember that.) The King Of The Seven Seas. (Not many people remember that, either.) Why, oh why does the hero whose battleground is potentially 3/4ths of the planet treated so poorly by that group of fans who need every hero to be overpowered (the allegation against Superman) without being overpowered (in Batman’s case) and can’t seem to realize Aquaman is actually pretty cool.
“Because he just talks to fish”.
Don’t knock it. It works. He has a literal ocean of soldiers. Do you know how many kings would have killed for that? Or would-be kings? Why do you think his half-brother Ocean Man is so jealous? And yet, because we can’t leave good enough alone because our gods must be literal (tell that to Neptune), writer Jeremy Adams has decided to make Aquaman powerful enough to take a punch from Superman to prove he’s a “real man” or some crap. Of course he also killed off Mera and gay black Aqualad because you aren’t allowed to have a happy backstory in the DC universe anymore so everybody can be Batman broody. Can you see why I don’t read modern DC Comics? DiDio’s Darker DC lives on even with DiDio no longer there to keep the necromancy going.
How fitting that I learn this just when I’m ready to do another Free Comic Inside article, and thanks to the rotation and inability to find another of the Superman/Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks minicomics it’s time to return to Kenner’s Super Powers Collection, and it just happens to be Aquaman’s turn at bat? Kenner released Aquaman as part of their first series of figures, and why wouldn’t they? He was one of the first Superfriends, and had his own Filmation cartoon segment back in the 1960s. Contrary to what the “cooler than you” adults say now, as I kid I thought Aquaman was actually pretty cool. Yes, even his ability to command sea life to help save ships and capture baddies. He’s also the only one who didn’t need a helmet to go underwater while even Superman couldn’t hold his breath that long. (Hanna-Barbera seemed to think there was air in space but everyone still had to wear a fishbowl with no air tanks attached except for Superman and Green Lantern.) He was also smart, resourceful, and could hold his own when the story needed him to. His only restrictions came from Saturday morning rules and a terrible first season that still saw some great ocean rescues.
Penguins around the world are disappointed in Oswald’s fishing skills.
Super Powers: Aquaman
DC Comics/Kenner (1984)
It’s still disappointing that these comics don’t have credits. We don’t know who wrote or drew them, which is a a shame. These have been pretty good for the short time they have. The Super Powers stories usually see heroes teaming up, with the toy featured still taking center stage, and whatever random villain with a figure in the line they could grab. Well, except for the villain figures where they just got beat by a hero.
Aquaman’s figure had a “Power Sea Action Kick” feature that made him swim (most likely through the air pretending to be underwater for kids) and his trident. Will either play a part in this story? I mean, he will be swimming. He’s Aquaman and the story takes place in the water.
Two Robotniks, half the story.
Sonic The Hedgehog #108
Archie Comic Publications (May, 2002)
COLORISTS: Josh & Aimee Ray
EDITOR: J.F. Gabrie
“Robotnik x 2= Trouble”
WRITER: Benny Lee
PENICLER: Ron Lim
INKERS: Andrew Pepoy & Pam Eklund
LETTERER: Jeff Powell
“A Girl Named Hope!”
WRITER: Karl Bollers
PENCILER: J. Axer
INKER: Andrew Pepoy
LETTERER: Jeff Powell
Knuckles The Echidna: “Reunification” part 3
WRITER/LAYOUTS/INKER: Ken Penders
PENCILER: Dawn Best
LETTERER: Vickie Williams
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I haven’t seen enough of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor, but I do like what I’ve seen.
Big studios and publishers no longer seem interested in the smaller projects. Video games and movies seem to be the hardest hit by this, but you can’t have a new character that isn’t using an old character’s brand in some way. I can remember when in comics there were complaints about derivatives, but now it feels like that’s all you get. All the studios want to make AAA games, though the reasons those are failing are a whole other article. Movies have to be big, flashy blockbusters. None of the smaller stories seem to matter anymore, and while that’s killed innovation it has also ruined the smaller projects.
Smaller projects are very important to the future of media. This is where up-and-coming creators should be honing their skills to one day take over major project as the creators of old get too old and take retirement, with a few staying around because they still can or to train the next generation. It’s also a good place to test new techniques and IPs. If you can’t make a franchise, one good standalone may still stick with people. Does anybody even remember Gone With The Wind had a sequel, or that it was only made as a cash grab, failing because nobody heard of it? I don’t even think the book got a movie adaptation. Some of those smaller projects, like the Evil Dead franchise, gain a cult following but would never make it to being a big budget film, though Army Of Darkness tried. Not being a horror fan, that’s the limit of my knowledge of the franchise beyond bringing Bruce Campbell to his own cult status. The only big project I even know him being part of was cameos in parts of the Spider-Man movies because Sam Rami is one of those directors who loves to stick his favorite actors to work with into anything he works on.
There are a number of reasons why: impatience and ego certain play a part, but I want to focus on one particular reason: greed. One of the “seven deadly sins” of Roman Catholic theology. Not just financial greed, although we’ll be starting there, but other forms of greed. From Britannica:
Greed is defined as the immoderate love or desire for riches and earthly possessions. A person can also be greedy for fame, attention, power, or anything else that feeds one’s selfishness. As a deadly sin, greed is believed to spur other sins and further immoral behavior.
Or sometimes really stupid behavior like only trying to make the biggest thing ever in the believe you can own all the money and bring all the people to see it. Or your version of it. Or something completely unrecognizable. Instead we get proof that large may not necessarily be in charge.
Peacemaker goes in search of his inked lines and colors.
Peacemaker #6 [FINAL ISSUE…kind of]
Charlton Comics (unpublished)
Okay, so what apparently is going on here is that this is an unpublished comic. Comic Book Plus really doesn’t tell you more about it than that, so I don’t know how they got their hands on it. It’s also just a Peacemaker story, no back-up, so it’s going to be shorter than usual.
“The Golden Pharaoh”
WRITER: Joe Gill
ARTIST: Pat Boyette
EDITOR: Dick Giordano
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 