September 8, 2025

Chapter By Chapter> Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image chapter 64

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter (or possibly multiple chapters for this one) 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 our last two chapter review our heroes caught their train while Russian Op-Center may lose the commie nickname I’ve been given it. We’ll have to see what happens there because there’s only one chapter this week and it’s back with the train.

As I noted last week, things are finally getting interesting, but that was also the problem with the last book. With all the unnecessary trivia and backstory the novel’s been padded out so much with unless stuff that it’s taken way to long for the story to get good. I’m not against flavor text (to use a card game term), backstory, or any history that benefits the story. Even the occasional trivia bit fleshes out the world. The problem with this franchise two novels in is that there’s too much of it, taking time away from telling the story, making it feel like a slog to finally get to the action.

Now that we are in the action part of the novel, with fourteen chapters left and a few of them short chapters, let’s see what’s happening back with the great train heist…which apparently includes the whole train.

Chapter 64: Tuesday, 11:10 PM, Khabarovsk

Hey, I spelled it right this time. Even typing out of the book, I had spellcheck for that location name telling me I spelled that location wrong.
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Posted by on September 8, 2025 in Book Spotlight, Chapter By Chapter, Op-Center: Mirror Image and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

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September 8, 2025

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Ultraverse Premiere #3

When I said I wanted to get back to reading Prime, this wasn’t what I had in mind.

Ultraverse Premiere #3

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (May, 1994)

Okay, explain this to me. The flipside of this comic was Prime #12 and yet there’s another Prime story here. Ripfire just ended on a cliffhanger with our protagonist potentially being dead. What’s worse, Elven’s story continues in an issue of Prime that this stupid reading order won’t let me read for a while and we’re two issues away from catching up, and THIS Prime story concludes next issue of Ultraverse Premiere, which the reading order isn’t listing until after a bunch of other comics (screw that, we’re doing the next issue, which the reading order claims is in an arbitrary spot, but the conclusion of this story is in it so I’m moving up, list can go fish)…look, does anybody know of a proper release date list, because that would be preferable to this mess.

Ah well, on with the comic.

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Posted by on September 8, 2025 in Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , .

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September 8, 2025

BW’s Daily Video> There Is No One Movie For Everyone

Catch more from Disparu on YouTube

 

Posted by on September 8, 2025 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , .

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September 7, 2025

BW Programming Note> I Hate Insomnia

I had a comic idea ready to go, but Thursday night I had a bout of insomnia that messed me up all day Friday, when I usually work on Jake & Leon while listening to Friday Night Tights on the Nerdrotic YouTube channel. If you don’t I totally understand, but that’s not the point. It’s a good time to work on the comic in the regular style, though comics that need more detailed panels I try to start as soon as I can. Between Friday and Saturday  this week (as I had other sleeping issues Saturday) I was kind of lethargic. I couldn’t even really focus on Friday. I did, however and speaking of FNT, make this earlier in the week:

It got me a like from Nerdrotic (I don’t know if Gary runs that) and a retweet from Az. It was one of two boosted things I did, as Instapundit grabbed another of my articles: this time they linked to the article “Does Hollywood Really Have A Fatigue Problem“, which even got some comments from names I don’t usually see and some interesting conversation on Instapundit‘s article link. It’s from the same person who linked to my article on how a reboot won’t save the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sarah Hoyt. Thanks, Sarah!

I probably could have done this week’s comic on Sunday but I need to focus on articles for the week, as another distraction is coming up as my dad’s recover continues. People don’t come for the comic, but it keeps me creative. At least I had the meme. I was also hoping to get back to decluttering for The Clutter Reports but Saturday I was still kind of funky. Hopefully that returns next Sunday. Meanwhile we have the next Chapter By Chapter review installment for Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: Mirror Image, and it should be a one chapter review this week. Whatever else depends on time and what grabs my attention. I would like to build a new buffer of “evergreen” articles that you wouldn’t see unless I needed a break one day, but I’ll be lucky to get the current stuff in for this week.

At any rate, have a great week, everyone.

Posted by on September 7, 2025 in BW's Comics & Stories.

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September 6, 2025

Saturday Night Showcase> Batman Ninja

My dad recently decided to add HBO Max to our limited paid streaming mostly due to the shows he used to watch on the various Discovery channel networks but also some of the older movies they got with TCM. I like some of those as well, but for me it’s the DC shows (since in his lack of wisdom, David Zaslav has opted to take out most of the kids shows, even from his own Discovery offerings, and license a handful to MeTV Toons despite having a poorly scheduled Cartoon Network and the Cartoon Rewind binge streaming channels at his disposal) I’m more excited for. I’ve been watching the Kids WB The Batman at lunch and it’s really underrated.

They also have the direct-to-video movies, some of which is also available on YouTube for me to make Saturday Night Showcase fodder out of. Oddly, while Batman Ninja Vs  The Yakuza League is there, the original Batman Ninja is only up on YouTube and not HBO Max. As I prepare to watch the sequel I thought rewatching the original movie would be fun.

Batman Ninja finds a science experiment transporting the Batman Family and their villains to a feudal Japan world…or actual feudal Japan? I wasn’t quite clear, but these are people from the future of a comic book world. Now our heroes have to collect the villains and find a way back to modern day Gotham City. The odd thing is Batman takes on more of a samurai flavor than a ninja. Perhaps they’re following that one episode of Batman: The Animated Series that tried to say all ninja are dishonorable and the samurai were totally honorable, so Batman is more samurai than ninja. Truth is there were good ninja and evil samurai as well as the opposite. It depends on the clan. That’s really the only hiccup if you’re okay with the animation style.

Apparently the video is currently age-restricted, so by YouTube rules for some reason I can’t embed it here directly. The video as of this writing is more like a link than an actual video. Sorry about that. I don’t get it. It’s not porn, not graphically violent, and I’ve posted videos with more swearing than this movie has. Oh well. Enjoy anyway.

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Posted by on September 6, 2025 in Animation Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase and tagged , , , , .

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September 6, 2025

BW’s Saturday Article Link> A Better Superman/Lois Interview Scene?

One of the scenes disliked by people who saw James Gunn’s Superman By James Gunn is the scene of Lois interviewing Superman about his actions in a foreign country stopping a war but causing an international incident that Lex Luthor used to his advantage in discrediting Superman. The scene in the movie has Superman getting too emotional for critics of that scene. However, recently surfaced was David Coresweat’s audition, which includes doing the same scene with a script reader, played with a more toned down reaction. Would this have been better in context? Because the more I see of this the less I want to actually watch the movie myself.

Meanwhile, a bonus article link. The sequel has been announced talking about a 2027 release date and teaser images (by comic artists) showing Lex in a version of his power suit appearing to be allies with Superman. According to this article, Gunn is saying this is a Superman-centric ensemble piece rather than a direct sequel. Considering that’s what James Gunn’s Superman By James Gunn appears to be, I’d say it actually is a sequel.

Posted by on September 6, 2025 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

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September 5, 2025

Avengers: Doomsday Literally Working Without A Script

Catch more from Web Of Stories on YouTube–and no, it’s not a Spider-Man pun

Why am I starting with this video? This was the so-called “Marvel Method”, though I don’t know how many other Marvel writers worked this way. It’s not a method I could go along with, but it seemed to work for Stan Lee at least. His artists I’ve only seen Jack Kirby talk about, and it was describing it alongside Stan. It does call for a lot of trust between your writer and your artist, or at least the penciler. Then you have a separate inker you have to hope he or she goes along with it. This is an odd way to make a comic. That’s with two or three people.

A movie requires many, many more than three people.

Tell that to Kevin Feige. He’s calling what his people have done in recent Marvel Studios productions as the “Marvel Method”, also referred to in the movie business as “plussing”. The short version from Google AI is “In essence, the Kevin Feige Marvel Method is a dynamic and collaborative storytelling technique that uses ongoing script refinement during production to create the best possible film, and it remains a core component of Marvel’s creative process”. This is no way to run a railroad.

Now comes Avengers: Doomsday, made by the Russo Brothers because it was a requirement to get Robert Downey Jr. to return to the MCU as a completely different character instead of the one we want him to play. According to many of the people spoken to, like the actors, there is no set script yet. The movie is already filming scenes…and there’s no script, or at least not one the actors have seen. Many times the actors aren’t even speaking to the other actors in a scene even if the bit isn’t involving some sci-fi communication method. This is no way to run a railroad, and we can already see the train wreck coming.

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Posted by on September 5, 2025 in Marvel Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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