October 11, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Svengoolie Versus The Joker?

Word is out that Svengoolie, the horror host of MeTV’s “Sci-Fi Saturday Night”, is appearing in a comic with the Justice League. In this link ICv2’s Steve Bennett goes over the “comic insert” tale and the lost history of comic inserts. The last one I remember is a four-part Spider-Man story about drug use in which Mysterio goes after an actor who pretends to be a “cool” drug user and how that affects his fan, who actually is on the stuff. I’ve been meaning to do a Scanning My Collection article on that.

Posted by on October 11, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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October 10, 2019

That Time The Batcave Moved To Mordor

I want to talk about something fun this week besides intros so let’s talk about a Batman video game that became a different property.

It’s not unusual for a game or other property to start out as one thing and end up something different. For example 50 Shades Of Grey started out as Twilight fanfic, two things the world would have been better off without, but I digress. A video game takes so long to produce that assets need to earn their price in another project should the first one fail. Besides, nobody cares if the same desk lamp from a movie ends up in a TV show five years later so as long as they actually do something with it so it looks different I’m not going to complain. There are plenty of other factors waiting to ruin the experience if they messed it up.

Now imagine working on a Batman video game set in the Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight Trilogy” but the game was cancelled. Would you think the solution would be to turn it into a Lord Of The Rings game? Apparently Monolith Productions did, as shown in the following video from the series Game History Secrets. Since this surprisingly involves the game FEAR there are a few written swears and minor gore.

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Posted by on October 10, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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October 10, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Robotech: The Macross Saga #18

“Max, watch where you’re aiming!”

Robotech: The Macross Saga #18

Comico The Comic Company (March, 1987)

“Farewell Big Brother”

WRITER: Markalan Joplin

ARTISTS: Mike Leeke & Mike Chen

COLORIST: Tom Vincent

LETTERER: Bob Pinaha

EDITOR: Diana Schutz

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Posted by on October 10, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , .

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October 10, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Links: More Political Interference In Storytelling

She even looks more likable than her other versions. Typical modern DC.

Look, I have nothing against diversity or inclusion or whatever the popular term is this month. However, the story is becoming less and less important than checking off the token character checklist and these two articles are proof of that. From /Film comes a report that Disney is creating a tool that treats diversity levels like an SEO optimization program. Meanwhile, Bounding Into Comics reports that the British Academy of Film and Television Arts is requiring a set number of tokens in a show to be eligible for their annual award whether or not they fit into the story. I understand wanting a character “like you” but remember when writing good stories with good characters was what mattered? Plus you’re taking something important as representation is supposed to be and basically turning it into a game of Tokenism Bingo, which cheapens the “victory” even more.

So where’s the shy shut-in comic creator Christian that isn’t treated like a psycho villain? Oh right, Japan. Japan is better at writing Christians than the US and they have less Christians than this country has Pauly Shore fans. NOW can we stop talking about politics and go back to apolitical complaining about or supporting the results of dying creativity from professional storytellers?

Posted by on October 10, 2019 in Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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October 9, 2019

Setting The Record Straight On The Joker Shooting Timeline

Not the last time the Joker dies via electrocution in the multiverse.

Notice the lack of shooting over the weekend after all the fear that Todd Philips’ Joker? Thinking people knew that this movie wouldn’t cause the mentally ill and so-called “incels” to go on rampages. I did a commentary on this last week. Comic ignorance and superhero/supervillain ignorance by the general public isn’t limited to Martin Scorsese’s recent comments about superhero movies being “less cinema and more theme parks” or even Bill Maher’s slamming of superhero movies. It isn’t even just at the level of Philips’ own snobbery towards his “real movie” version of a character that existed before he was born. This brought warnings from the military for Pete’s sake! Who does that?

Of course it was the anti-gun advocates and the families of the Aurora shooting during The Dark Knight Rises that made an opening for this. While this movie was more like The King Of Comedy than it was an actual tale of the Clown Prince Of Crime, people who know nothing about the Joker got worried because the Aurora shooter claimed he was the Joker. Except he actually didn’t. After posting my commentary I stumbled upon this video from Midnight’s Edge that puts together the true history of the Aurora shooting and the exaggerated warnings towards Joker. It’s even more proof that all of this controversy was a bunch of hogwash meant to cash in on the movie to push an agenda. Note that Andre, the man behind this video, is not an American and doesn’t have a political agenda. Like BW Media Spotlight, the crew at Midnight’s Edge fights to keep politics out of storytelling analysis despite it’s continued creeping into our lives and entertainment.

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Posted by on October 9, 2019 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , , .

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October 9, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Trek #9 (DC first series)

Some pre-information going into this next batch of reviews. The stories in this arc take place right after Star Trek II: The Search For Spock. How much of these stories can possibly take place between that movie and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is probably up to debate. It had to be hard on the writer or writers around this period to produce a monthly comic that doesn’t run counter to the movies but still played in the version of Star Trek that DC had created. I’ll get more into that when it comes up, like the later appearance of characters Barr created for the comics–Konom, Nancy, and Bearclaw. I will bring up but not fault him for whatever continuity errors were beyond Barr’s control in this arc but what he should have gotten right I will call him out for, as well as any faults in the writing itself. This arc is eight issues long, or at least that’s what in the collection I’m reviewing from.

“Should one of us have brought popcorn?”

Star Trek #9

DC Comics (December, 1984)

“New Frontiers” part 1: “…Promises To Keep”

WRITER: Mike W. Barr

PENCILER: Tom Sutton

INKER: Ricardo Villagran

COLORIST: Michele Wolfman

LETTERER: John Costanza

MANAGING EDITOR: Tom Condon

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Robert Breenberger

EDITOR: Marv Wolfman Continue reading →

Posted by on October 9, 2019 in Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , .

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October 9, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Canada Versus Fornite

It seems like half the ads on US TV is about some law firm trying to start a class action lawsuit against this or that company. Apparently it isn’t just limited to this side of Niagara Falls as a law firm in Canada wants to sue Fortnite for being “as addictive as cocaine” and that the company should have told everyone. Look, I’m not saying video games can’t be addictive to a very select few people under specific conditions in their lives, but as bad as cocaine? I don’t think so.

Posted by on October 9, 2019 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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