Chapter By Chapter> Spider-Man: Carnage In New York chapter 11

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.

Welcome back to our little book club. It’s time for the second half of this book. It may have taken half the book to get Carnage lose in the city but the build-up worked. While it took time to introduce the cast and the state of the Spidey corner of the Marvel Universe at the time it did so while still moving the plot along, which is more than I can say for longer books. (I’m looking at you, Op-Center.) Now it’s up to Spider-Man to get him back and still co-sign a loan for Aunt May. Peter’s is a odd life.

You’re not practicing social distancing, MJ! Look how scared Aunt May is. (Yes, I did date this joke to the current Covid-19 situation but it’s the only joke I had.)

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“Yesterday’s” Comic> Justice League Unlimited #12

Nobody can outrace the Flash except for the Flash!

Justice League Unlimited #12

DC Comics (October, 2005)

“Old School”

WRITER: Adam Beechen

PENCILER: Carlo Barberi

INKER: Walden Wong

COLORING: Heroic Age

COVER ARTIST: Ben Caldwell

LETTERER: Pat Brosseau

EDITOR: Tom Palmer, Jr.

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BW’s Daily Article Link: The Other “Ghostbusters”

Fine, I still need more Ghostbusters images in my library, okay? Besides, this totally fits today’s article link as Shawn Robare of Branded In The 80s writes about this and other shows that had episodes inspired by the 80s movie.

Jake & Leon #447: Viral Lockdown

Then again there’s that whole not really existing thing.

A bit over my usual fourth wall breaking but we need to lighten the mood a bit these days before the bad stuff overwhelms us, and I don’t just mean the Coronavirus. With that in mind it’s time to get back to BW operations, with a hopefully better break when things clear up, like maybe going somewhere, At least I got a few things done, which I go over in this week’s Clutter Report, including a few fixes to this site like the RSS feed in the footer, but I really needed a few do-nothing days to fend off the burnout. The timing’s just bad.

As far as this week I’m planning a huge dissection of Countdown To Infinite Crisis, the comic that killed off Blue Beetle Ted Kord. It’s a great example of how an otherwise well-told story fails as an adaptation or continuation,  and because of that the miniseries is going to take three days to really go over, lest I forget to praise, mock, or scorn something important. We also the next Chapter By Chapter review of Spider-Man: Carnage In New York and a new Art Of Storytelling (unless I end up needing four days for Ted’s murder), plus the return of comic reviews, and the daily article links/videos. I’m actually considering dropping them to see how necessary they are as I try to fit time in for other projects but it’s a good place for shorter videos that aren’t long enough for a Filler Video post in the primary article slot (6 PM ET). If you guys watch those videos or visit those articles on other sites and really want them to stay let me know. Plus it would be nice to hear from other people besides my friend Sean, especially now that social contact is reduced to comments, e-mail, text messaging, chat rooms, whatever Discord is, Skype and its various counterparts, and various MMO games. Stay safe, stay healthy, and have a good week!

Saturday Night Showcase: (The First) Kamen Rider

I was planning to end the hiatus with a Jake & Leon comic and I’m not sure I’m going back to “work” (it’s only a job if I’m getting paid…and I’m not) next week just yet. I’ll see how I feel on Sunday, but I would like to resume soon. However, with so many stuck home I thought we could all use a little entertainment. So how about some Kamen Rider? Specifically the first ever series.

Created in 1971 by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, the original Kamen Rider was scientist and motorcycle enthusiast Takeshi Hongo, forced to become a cyborg slave of the mysterious organization Shocker as part of a plan to conquer the world and alter everyone into cyborgs under the leader’s power. Though the organization changed in later years this was the basic formula for how the classic Kamen Riders got their powers, being turned into warriors for some evil group only for our hero to rebel and fight them instead. The more recent Riders dropped the surgically altered cyborg gimmick and mostly came up with different reasons to become Kamen Riders. Two of these series were seen in America. Kamen Rider Black RX became Saban’s Masked Rider (also grabbing footage from two movies, Kamen Rider Zo and Kamen Rider J) while Kamen Rider Riuki became Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, both following the Power Rangers formula of Japanese action footage and American produced story footage.

As part of Shout Factory’s new “TokuSHOUTsu” project I mentioned before the break they’ve put episode one of the original Kamen Rider on their new YouTube channel. Join us in the origin of the first Kamen Rider as he takes on “The Mysterious Spider Man”. No, not that Spider-Man. Notice the lack of hyphen.

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BW Programming Note: Taking The Full Week Off

 

As some of you may know I run two websites. BW Media Spotlight is my daily examination of the art of storytelling, with the goal of making myself a better storyteller. The Clutter Reports I use to get myself to do a clutter clearing project or review something to see if I still want it or not, thus clearing out clutter that way. I had planned to take a week or two off of BW to keep from getting burnout, but still doing some minor fixes like updating the RSS feed while still having the energy to do a clutter project for this week.

Then the coronavirus hit and I figured I should do something since so many people were at home. I thought I could do one article a day rather than the usual one big one and two minor ones, and that would allow me to get some kind of breathing room and still do the site work and personal stuff I wanted. It didn’t work out that way. Instead the two mindsets clashed and, unrelated, I had trouble sleeping last week (which oddly had nothing to do with worry, just some mild insomnia) and was too tired to do a lot by the end of the week. This meant burnout was still a concern and I didn’t have the energy or mindset to do any clutter clearing by the end of the week. So I didn’t get to do anything for The Clutter Report this week and no Jake & Leon this week. Even this post is an edit of the one I just posted to The Clutter Reports.

So despite having an almost captive audience I’m going to have to take a full week off to get other things done, rest, and hopefully come back stronger and ready to go. It would be nice if the pandemic was all over with and we could leave our homes for things beyond emergencies, but if not I’ll be returning with reviews and Jake & Leon as well as a full project for The Clutter Reports plus organizing and updating the Clutter For Sale section. I’ve had too many stalls on this lately and I’m getting concerned. However, I’m also pretty stubborn so we’ll see what wins out. Hopefully you’re taking some time to catch up on TV, movies, comics, books, games, or whatever other media you haven’t had time to, or just spending time with your family. Also, look for the #coronakindness on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media to see how people are helping their neighbors and pushing back against the isolation and frustration we’re all going through right now, even a virtual shut-in like me. Good luck!

And if you really need your BW fix I’ve added a category to the BW Progress Report in the sidebar for “Best Of BW”, linking to my annual list of what I consider the best articles I wrote that year as well as collections of the best Jake & Leon comics. It’s a good time to catch up on article I reference all the time in modern articles so you’ll know what Eventitis is, or why I can say positive things about HBO’s Spawn cartoon despite actually hating the show. Happy reading and hopefully I’ll have more to read soon.

Saturday Night Showcase: Mira, Royal Detective

I was wondering how to fit the episode one review of this series into my schedule. I’ll get more into it tomorrow but I’ve decided to take next week off as the slow down didn’t work out as planned, and when I come back my schedule will be full thanks to planned articles. Luckily Disney Junior’s official YouTube channel gave me a solution by posting the first episode of Mira, Royal Detective on their YouTube channel. It’s the only thing that’s really gone my way this week.

Mira, Royal Detective follows the adventures of the young girl and her friends as they solve mysteries as being the official detective to the queen. The show is heavily influenced by India, which gives the show a unique flavor. I’ll do a proper review later but in this first episode Mira must find a lost scarf and a missing bike. Give it a chance because despite being for an elementary school audience it’s rather fun and well produced. (Although the official BW policy of “just because it’s good doesn’t mean you’ll like it” does apply. This is a show for young girls but when has that stopped anyone with an open mind?)

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