“My hat was in that ship.”
Robotech II: The Sentinels book 4 #7
Academy Comics, Ltd (June, 1996)
“Seraphim Avenging”
WRITERS/ARTISTS: John & Jason Waltrip
Word has come out that the DC Fandome virtual convention will actually be two days over two months as well as a separate event for kids…wait, DC does things for kids? Anyway, here’s the full story on that from DC themselves.
For an alternative if Western comics, or at least DC news, isn’t of as much importance, a quartet of popular fan-made conventions, including BW fave ConnectiCon (most of my BW Panelling episodes and every episode of BW At The Press Junket took place there when I had the money or press pass to attend), are doing their own convention this weekend, only it will take place Friday-Sunday. League Of Conventions will stream on Twitch and ConnectiCon is joined by Magfest (a popular destination for my reviewer friends), Anime Next (guess what they’re about) and Kogaracon (I have never heard of them) and feature numerous events on a wider variety of topics. Here is the official website with the stream’s intended schedule. (Though ConnectiCon at least has dealt with last-minute changes which I’m guessing other cons have dealt with as well.) I’m sure it’s more interesting that that other convention going on right now. You won’t see Joe Biden in a mech suit.
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I’m honestly morbidly curious about Marvel’s take on Ultraman. Superheroes rarely had happy days before the current mindset kicked in and the current regime isn’t always ready to do a superhero story. I can only guess they’ve heard manga has been outselling them and got the wrong idea why. So has everybody else at one level or another, but that’s another article. Maybe they’ll do a good job. I don’t know. That’s not the point of this article either. So what is?
In the comments for the YouTube posting of this trailer a bunch of people thought they’d be smart and make sure anyone stupidly dumb enough to insist Marvel was ripping off Way Big, the Ultraman-inspired alien form from the Ben 10 franchise, that they’re a bunch of dumby heads for not knowing this is a franchise of Japanese heroes and it’s a good thing we smarter tokusatsu fans were here to educate you. Yes, they do come off that full of themselves. To which I responded:
Can we shut up about Waybig already? You guys do know that four different Ultraman series were dubbed in English and aired on regular TV, right? There was even a cartoon pilot produced by Hanna-Barbera, Ultraman: The Adventures Begins. I’m guessing someone has heard of Ultraman, Ultra 7, Towards The Future (co-produced with Australia), or Tiga and may know something other than Ben 10. They may not understand the full history but I see so many comments immediately assuming the people not interested in tokusatsu is going to get that wrong without giving them a chance. There are crossover fans too you know.
These are American comic fans. How about comments about DC’s Ultraman, the first in a string of evil Superman stand-ins?
What I forgot to mention is that some of these shows had American produced or translated comics on US shelves. While the entiretly of the Ultraman franchise is not as well known in the US (even I don’t know all the characters), the franchise is not completely unknown to these shores. Marvel even had “Ultra Darius”, who popped up in an issue of their short-lived VR Troopers comic, which they wouldn’t have bothered with if the champions of the Land Of Light weren’t at least present in US entertainment history. They may not have the fame of Godzilla (who had his own MTV award so yes, toku smarties, the “normies” know Godzilla) but here’s a history of the franchise on US TV and in comic stores.
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Some people really don’t like shaking hands.
Star Trek: The Next Generation #78
DC Comics (December, 1995)
“The Unconquered”
WRITER: Michael Jan Friedman
PENCILER: Gordon Purcell
INKER: Terry Pallot
COLORIST: Rick Taylor
LETTERER: Chris Eliopoulos
EDITOR: Margaret Clark
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To combat online privacy studios are finally offering shows on a platform that doesn’t require subscribing, like YouTube, and bringing in ad revenue. Now a bunch of anime studios are coming together to form their own legal streaming YouTube channel. I just hope they come out with English subtitles someday because YouTube’s auto-captions are junk and so is their auto-translator. Together it’s unreadable.
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If you’ve been here long enough you already know about my love of Transformers. While the Michael Bay films were disappointing, the IDW stories aren’t my cup of tea but not necessarily terrible, and I don’t know what people see in Simon Furman’s Marvel run–especially Generation Two, The Transformers multiverse remains my all-time favorite fiction, and my favorite toys (though I do also throw in the GoBots and any other transforming robot toy of that ilk). There’s just something about the concepts that find enjoyable.
When the shows and comics first started coming out a lot of information was not revealed to the public…because the public didn’t care. We just wanted to play with the toys, watch the shows, read the comics, and in some cases read the books and play the video games. Now we live in the Information Age and are filled with 80s nostalgia, so here’s something that recently came to light. Did you know that Transformers and GoBots almost ended up NOT being the first transforming robots on US shelves? That another property potentially had a comic and cartoon? Knickerbocker’s Mysterians: The Hidden Force is an interesting tale, and could have been the early Transformers, or something called Car And Cable. And this was not an import like their Cybertronian and Gobotronian counterparts. These warriors from Mysterion would have been completely original toys.
Now some of you may be asking why the storytelling review site is focusing on this? It’s barely in qualification for The Clutter Reports, my other site that has featured Transformers and GoBots toy reviews. Well, there’s that whole licensed media aspect. Chris McFeely, the man behind Transformers: The Basics, brought together all the toy and media information and presented it in a virtual panel for the TF Nation online convention (another victim of the death plague quarantine). Learn how both DC messed up their shot, how Marvel Comics and Marvel Productions didn’t get along, how one comic series had their named changed because of the Marvel connection, and one creator’s obsession with dogs, plus how Transformers almost ended up being a CBS Saturday morning show instead of the syndicated series we know and love. And it was all started by a keychain robot train and a fake toy cigarette lighter robot. It’s all quite fascinating.
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“Okay, who forgot to fill the swimming pool?”
New Avengers #4
Marvel Comics (April, 2005)
“Breakout” part 4
WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis
PENCILER: David Finch
INKER: Danny Miki
COLORIST: Frank D’Armata
LETTERING: Albert Deschesne
PRODUCTION: Omar Otieku
ASSISTANT EDITORS: Stephanie Moore, & Molly Lazer
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Andy Schmidt
EDITOR: Tom Brevoort
