The Latest On The Batman

Am I the only one not impressed by this? I have seen so many logos for a Batman comic, cartoon, video game, or movie that this feels uninspired artistically. It’s just block letters and new bat symbol all of Bruce’s stuff is based around and I just find it boring.

This is one bit of news that came out of DC Fandome, the online–let’s call these “virtual conventions” what they really are. They’re podcasts. I didn’t catch the event itself but despite that trailer that showed a host in front of greenscreened Jim Lee backgrounds these are podcasts, and that’s why they aren’t as exciting as an actual convention, where fans can meet each other in person (remember those days?) and associate someplace other than text on screen. However, out of this event we do get a trailer made of what little footage they could shoot before the death plague quarantine, which gives us a better look at this movie’s tone and style. I’m even less impressed with that.

Continue reading →

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #31 (Malibu)

“I asked for a letter opener.”

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #31

Malibu Comics Entertainment (December, 1995)

EDITOR: Phil Crain

“Remembrance”

WRITER/ARTIST: Leonard Kirk

COLOR DESIGN: George Cox III

INTERIOR COLOR: Malibu

LETTERER: Tracey H. Munsey

“Rules Of Behavior”

WRITER: Jason Levine

ARTIST: Scott Sava

LETTERER: Patrick Oswley

Continue reading →

BW’s Daily Article Link: Must I Really?

I’m pretty sure we all got those “summer reading lists” during school time or seen this or that list of must read suggestions, whether by the publisher in comics case or on various websites. I’m sure I could do one too, but those lists are really only good if you share the tastes of the suggester. In comics case I tend to disagree with DC and Marvel’s suggested reading list. This goes for movies too–I know I don’t care about a lot of the AFI Top 100 or those books of the top whatever movies to watch or video games to play before you die. In my opinion they’re good suggestions of something to check out but as this commentary by aloysius5 goes into it’s not really a requirement for anything.

The Powerpuff Girls To Go Live…AND Gritty? The Hell?

If you are able, watch the video first. It’s the intro to the original show. Have you watched it yet? Did you even need to? First appearing as part of the audition special that became The What A Cartoon Show, Craig McCracken’s little girls was done in a more Hanna-Barbera style tone but the full series was visualized by Genndy Tartakovsky and became a beloved favorite for kids growing up in that period and even a few not-quite-kids. It even inspired an anime, Powerpuff Girls Z. A reboot was attempted in 2016 that lacked the heart of the original and also had a few cringe-worthy (to put it midly) moments with the kindergarten-aged superheroines. Unless you want to see minors twerking, dealing with mind-controlling unicorns, and dating adult men that happen to resemble someone working on the show, the girls losing their minds and not being nearly as loving to their father/creator as the original. How could you make that worse?

Someone at the CW apparently had a beer that needed holding.

“The Powerpuff Girls” could soon fly again. Variety has learned that a live-action version of the classic Cartoon Network series is in development at The CW.

In the updated version of the series, the titular superheroes are now disillusioned twentysomethings who resent having lost their childhood to crime fighting. Will they agree to reunite now that the world needs them more than ever?

When you’re done facepalming, read on. Of course there’s more.

Continue reading →

“Yesterday’s” Comic> The New Avengers #6

Tony saw a girl in a bikini off to the side.

The New Avengers #6

Marvel Comics (June, 2005)

“Breakout” part six

WRITER: Brian Michael Bendis

PENCILER: David Finch

INKER: Danny Miki

COLORIST: Frank D’Armata

LETTERER: Albert Deschesne

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Stephanie Moore & Molly Lazer

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Andy Schmidt

EDITOR: Tom Brevoort

Continue reading →

BW’s Daily Article Link: Cooking A Subversive Story

Not the sub I wanted but we’ll go with it.

Subversion is one of the newest crazes in storytelling. Subverting expectations generally speaking isn’t a bad thing. Rian Johnson, who did it all wrong for The Last Jedi, did it right for Knives Out, as The Closer Look explained in a video I posted in a previous daily short. However, doing something for the sake of doing something is never a good thing and rarely successful. Author Caroline Furlong posted a video from YouTuber The Literature Devil going over The Last Jedi‘s subversion failures but the reason I’m linking to her article rather than just posting the video here directly is that she also goes into her own thoughts on how to and not to subvert expectations, using cooking as an example. So you get an article and a video link all in one shot and I recommend both.

Chapter By Chapter> Doctor Who: The Time Travellers chapter 8

Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter 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.

Now we’re in the second half of the story and I’ve run out of Companions to talk about. Meanwhile Ian, Barbara, and Susan have been forced by circumstance to aid their country’s enemies, but given how the country treated them and how unlike the London they knew things have been they may not feel as bad about it as they should.

I guess I could talk about the TARDIS. When it comes to sci-fi vehicles the TARDIS may be my favorite. Outside of my distaste for time travel being a real thing (and a recent episode of Game Theory added yet another reason to hate/fear time travel) it’s a ship with a very small footprint. I imagine if you used it as a stable home property taxes would be cheap. It’s like having a mansion in a tiny house. My favorite version of the console room is near the end but until the TV movie and some more recent console rooms (my favorite is the one 11 and 12 shared) the first one was the one with the most amount of room to move around. However, I’m not sure it had all the rooms the TARDIS would be shown to have in later stories and we rarely get to go inside the inner halls of the ship anymore. I feel like that’s a shame as it leaves the TARDIS a bigger mystery than everyone complains the Doctor has stopped being (“everyone” being every writer and showrunner that wants to do their own take on the “Cartmel Master Plan” anyway) though personally I think there’s enough mystery still surrounding the Doctor personally that “the Other” or the “Timeless Child” are unnecessary additions to his backstory. He’s a Time Lord from Galifrey. We know quite a bit about the Time Lords and Time Ladies, but what do we really know about the Doctor prior to this Timeless Child nonsense? Okay, I’m getting off course…much like the Doctor himself with how he pilots that thing, so let’s get to reading this chapter.

Continue reading →