No, I didn’t screw up the order again.
Star Trek Annual #6
DC Comics (1995)
“Convergence” part 1: “Split Infinities”
PLOT: Howard Weinstein (writer) and Michael Jan Friedman
PENCILER: Ken Save
INKER: Sam de la Rosa
COLORIST: Rick Taylor
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
EDITOR: Margaret Clark
Kyle Hill is no longer on Nerdist’s Because Science and now runs his own show, The Facility, on his own YouTube channel. And Kyle…CLARK KENT’S DISGUISE ISN’T JUST ABOUT THE GLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Check the second video!) I’m getting tired of that nonsense!
As far as the Fortress goes I have never been a fan of Richard Donner’s “crystal pile” Fortress. I kind of like the Superman: The Animated Series version where he doesn’t use a key, he just dives into water too cold for anyone else where nobody knows where the entrance is, but there’s admittedly problems there. Still, it is a lot more hidden, like the classic Fortress. The key I grew up with was giant, like the whole Kyle shows in the video but also doubled as a marker for airplanes trying to find their way. (I think it points north.) Which means even when it’s not being a key it’s still helping others. That’s so very Superman…which I’ll get into in tonight’s feature article by using another video. See you for that.
If you read my daily old comic reviews you know my thoughts on Brian Michael Bendis’ run on The New Avengers, and I’m not really enjoying it. The plots are fine and I think he chose a good line-up but his interpretation of the characters and other issues I have with Bendis in general and in his taking over a long-running property with a long history just haven’t been sitting well with me. Of course every reviewer’s opinion is his or her own and if they tell you otherwise they’re lying or that full of themselves. It’s a sad thing really.
For example I’ve used videos by Owen of Owen Likes Comics for daily posts, filler videos, or as part of a continuing discussion on various topics. I recommend checking out his YouTube channel to see more since I don’t post everything he does. A lot of times I either outright agree with him or at least find some of the history and his perspectives interesting. In this video Owen discusses the history of the Avengers series and how Bendis brought new life to Earth’s mightiest heroes. This may be true, but that doesn’t mean I like what he did with the characters.
Spider-Man Family is a 100 page anthology that include an original story, reprints of Marvel Tails #1, Spider-Woman #20, Spider-Man 2099 #1, and Untold Tales Of Spider-Man #1. With that many reprints of full-length comics I’ve opted to just review them as separate articles and will stick with the exclusive story and a short added to the book. I’ll turn that list into links once the reviews go live.
Just a night out swinging with the family. I should rephrase that.
Spider-Man Family
Marvel Comics (2005)
Spider-Girl: “Old Enemies Never Die!”
WRITERS/PENCILS: Tom DeFalco & ROn Lim
INKER: Norm Rapmund
COLORIST: Rob Ro
LETTERER: Dave Sharpe
EDITOR: Molly Lazer
Petey: The Adventures Of Peter Parker Long Before He Became Spider-Man: “The Devil And Mrs. Parker”
WRITER/ARTIST: Fred Hembeck
(originally published in Untold Tales Of Spider-Man ’97)
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the new version of Doctor Who, but even before the politics and Timeless Child nonsense I didn’t really get into the show, and I stayed in up through most of Matt Smith’s run. He’s my favorite New Who Doctor. However, it doesn’t have the same charm as the original. Davies wanted to make the mundane scary (especially when it came to ruining Christmas) and Moffat focused on a fairytale atmosphere. Every producer, director, and showrunner has his own take on the Doctor and his world but it wasn’t that specific before. I also think the serial format made the show unique compared to the seasonal arc with one two-part episode format of the new show and maybe the lower budget forced them to take on an imagination level that modern computer effects don’t have to worry about. I’m not saying classic Who is better, just that I kind of prefer it. That’s why I liked that early on this book felt more like classic Who, but that slowly changed as the book went on.
I made a now corrected mistake in last night’s update. The previous chapter was the second to last chapter. Now we’re in the final chapter and the three-page epilogue. That’s means a full review will come up this Sunday over at The Clutter Reports (barring life incidents) but before we can get there we need to find the TARDIS and maybe answer some of the lingering questions of this book. Will that happen? Let’s read and find out.
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
Superman, Deku, And The Relevancy Of Heroism
Modern writers in the superhero genre seem to have abandoned the idea of superheroes. Some prefer to darken heroes, make them more into anti-heroes while others have outright stated they’d rather write villains. They tell us the villains are more complex and the traditional “tried and true crusader of justice” is “cookie-cutter” and outdated. Bullcrap! You want to watch the news right now and tell me that the heroic hero is no longer in style, but I say that’s part of the problem. The traditional superhero has been abandoned by the writers but has it been abandoned by the fans? Is Superman, the embodiment of what modern writers tell us is everything outmoded about superheroes, relevant today? He darn well better be.
This is a long video from YouTube essayist Literature Devil but it’s well worth watching. So grab a seat, put your phone or tablet on a stand if you aren’t using a computer, and let him explain why superheroes like Superman and My Hero Academia‘s Izuku “Deku” Midoriya are exactly the heroes modern mythology and the superhero genre need as they not only define what a superhero is, but show how complex they really are as they follow the hero’s journey. It’s not the superpowers that make them superheroes. Remember, villains can has superpowers as well. That’s why they’re called supervillains. So what makes a superhero the hero? Get ready to get philosophical.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 30, 2020 in Book Spotlight, Comic Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged commentary, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, Literature Devil, My Hero Academia, superhero, Superman.
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