“It’s Brian Michael Bendis, Tom King, Zack Snyder, and Dan DiDio! Run for your proper character portrayals!”
Justice League Unlimited #1
DC Comics (November, 2004)
“Divide & Conquer”
WRITER: Adam Beechen
PENCILER: Carlo Barberi
INKER: Walden Wong
COLORING: Heroic Age
LETTERER: Nick J. Napolitano
EDITOR: Tom Palmer, Jr.
So apparently for her 90th anniversary Dynamite Comics decided to do a story in which teen detective Nancy Drew is murdered and the guys behind it are named after the publisher that released the original novels? The comic features appearances from the Hardy Boys (whom she has teamed with in numerous incarnations such as the 70s TV series) and the Bobbsey Twins. Considering as recently as last year there were TV shows and movies based on the novels this seems like a really dumb idea, and as the commentator points out the writer doesn’t seem to know the character very well either.
I would have missed it if I didn’t hear it on the radio this morning.
It’s not the gag I was going to work on and didn’t have time for…again. It’s not even the one that came to me last night. However, Max is the type of guy who would comment on this.
No Clutter Report this week. I went to a family gathering and that was more important. So I missed the comic last week and the clutter organizing this week. Hopefully next week we have both.
As for this week, I’m going to be looking at the first issue of Captain America: Hail Hydra, either in the usual Saturday comiXology spot of “Yesterday’s” Comic or as a feature article next week depending on what I think of it. By now it’s been talked about to death but I think this one was offered for free briefly so as a reviewer I felt the need to check it out and just haven’t until recently. It’s the only reason to have a modern Captain America comic these days. I’ll stop there for now but I won’t promise a few political statements won’t make it into the review because that’s the approach to the character in comics now. So just a warning there but I’ll try to be clear without being insulting.
Otherwise this week I would like to get a Finally Watched in, but I need to talk about DC’s “5G” thing. I thought it would make an interesting discussion about what they want to do from a creative standpoint and how likely it is this plan could work (it’s not very likely but I’ll get into that) but then I heard more about the changes to the timeline beyond “Wonder Woman is now the world’s first superhero instead of Superman”, and I just need to get into all that mess with Gs 1-4 before getting into the planned generation five. So as much as I don’t want to give this any kind of press, because they love bad press over there since doing it properly is too much like work and caring about the franchise you’re taking over, from a creative position there’s something worth breaking down here. As far as that new article series, I need to get the logo done and I finally have a name for it I like so that’s a step closer. Hopefully by Friday.
Otherwise more of the same. Have a good week, folks!
Well, I got on this horse, so I might as well bring it back to the stable.
The Legend Of Zorro is the third in our unintended Teen Zorro Triumvirate. We’re going back to the original period for this Italian-Japanese co-production. Yes, two countries who aren’t America or Spain made a cartoon about a Spanish hero in pre-American California. I expected a few details to be wrong, but this may be the most wrong you can get without screwing up the legend entirely. So if you aren’t tired of seeing Zorro’s de-aged origin yet here’s one more. I swear this is it for a while, but the next show is about transforming robot tops, so ask yourself if you are truly better off. Trust me, this has to be seen to be believed. Back on topic though.
This time the villain isn’t the captain, although Captain Raymond here is clearly the most evil of all the evil captains, but Lieutenant Gabriel. Garcia’s here but he isn’t in charge…although let’s be honest, all he’s ever really been in charge of is the dinner menu. This may be the most cartoonishly evil incarnation of the Spanish military we’ve ever seen in this franchise and that’s saying something. Our first episode includes a public execution, horse riders smashing everything just because, and did I mention children are at the execution? Also for some reason one of the guards has a bad Texan accent. We have a new love interest, Lolita Prideaux (which sounds more French than Spanish/Mexican) and her money-grubbing parents who just want to marry her off to this version of Diego to get a hold into the de la Vega coin purse. Naturally the put off Diego puts her off while she falls for the Zorro who will actually fight.
Probably the oddest change besides Zorro now having a white horse is Bernardo, or rather Bernard. He is now even more de-aged than Diego, reduced to nine years old. Not featured in the episode but the intro warns us is Bernard’s future role in this as he takes on the identity of, and I’m getting this right from the Mondo World fan wiki (there’s a fan wiki for almost everything), “Little Zorro”. And here I thought Filmation giving Zorro a Robin-type sidekick named Amigo (which even I know is Spanish for “friend”, thank you Sesame Street) was a bit off. We won’t see Little Zorro this episode but we will see a suit-up sequence that looks more like Diego is transforming into Zorro instead of dressing up as him because this is a Japanese co-production with Italy. Surprisingly I may have oversold the crazy but it’s still an interesting curiosity.
I don’t know what the other variant covers were, but this is the one comiXology chose?
Captain Marvel #1
Marvel Comics (March, 2014–same day at comiXology)
“Higher, Further, Faster, More” part 1
WRITER; Kelley Sue McConnick
ARTIST: David Lopez
COLORIST: Lee Loughridge
LETTERER: Joe Caramanga
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Devin Lewis
EDITOR: Sana Amanat
SENIOR EDITORS: Steve Wacker & Nick Lowe
I’m not sure what senior editors do that the main and assistant editors don’t, but too many editors isn’t promising.
So it turns out my planned discussion topic has more to talk about than I thought. I’ll have to save it for next week. In the meantime…
One of the managers at my former place of employment had a radio system setup that played the same songs at the same time every day. Some of the songs I liked, some I was indifferent to, and then there was “Hotel California”. I like Eagles as much as anyone outside the diehard fanbase. They make good music and there’s a reason there so many tribute bands and covers in the world. Had I just heard this song now and then it would have been fine. But every day at roughly the same time? I grew to loathe this song. It even tried playing on the radio this morning and I had to turn it off and wake up to a CD I have in the player.
It all comes down to taste. The song is very depressing, which already isn’t something I want to wake up to. The metaphors they use are often disturbing. The single is also the title track from their 1972 album, with music by Don Felder and lyrics by Don Henley and Glenn Frey. The thing is I could never figure out what the story of the song is. Could our narrator, sung by Henley, be in jail? Some dark hellscape where he can’t get out of a hotel that turned out to be a demonic trap? Is it a metaphor for spinning into depression or madness or some addiction? As it turns out somewhere in there is the right answer.
Guess it heard about the vehicles it was replaced with for “13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo”.
Scooby-Doo #18
Archie Comics (March, 1997)
Kirschenbaum
Solow
Pacheco
Leon
COVER ART: Scott Jeralds & Scott Awley
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
