“How come we can never find a good parking space?”
Robotech: Excalibur #1 (A Macross Missions Adventure)
Academy Comics, Ltd (November, 1995)
“Desperation Deja Vu?”
WRITER/ARTIST: William Jang
TAKE THAT, DC!
I know I’ve brought up Superman a few times this week, but here’s one more. This time we’re looking at a failed pitch for a Superman Family animated series that would have given young (as in not Bendis’ aged version) Jon “Superboy” Kent an appearance outside of the comics. Personally I like the art style of the first image on that page to the second, but I’m sad this show isn’t going forward because DC tends to do either “wacky hi-jinks that barely pass for superheroes” or “dark and depressing takes on even the already dark characters”. Is there a way to make this pitch happen?
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One of my usual complaints here at the Spotlight is the current trend of not-stalgic re-imaginings, a reboot that involves just slapping popular names onto something barely if at all related to the source material. Sure it can be good, like Battlestar Galactica, my usual example, but this is never a complaint about the quality of the work. Unless it’s something that is really terrible like Jem. It’s strictly complaining about poor adaptation and modernizing for a new audience. Unless that audience wasn’t the target audience of the original anyway but that’s going towards a related but different rant. And tonight I’m in a praising mood.
Critics of these re-imaginings have to hear the foolish “it’s not for you” to people for whom it was for before the everything for meeeeeeeee crowd got their hands on it, but also get told they don’t like anything new. We like new things. We want new stories and we have no problem with updates. Not-stalgia works are not updates. They’re completely different takes, missing the themes and putting names on characters that are nothing like the characters of the original. You can create a new update that fans of the original may still not get into but will not go “why didn’t you call it something else so we could someday GET a proper reboot”. Thus I bring you five examples of a reboot done right. There were still changes, but overall they created an actual reboot instead of a marketing-friendly namesake made by people who insist their vision is better for no other reason that it appeals to them now.
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“He owed me 50 credits.” “Your people don’t use money anymore.” “Oh, um…he slept with wife.” “Nobody believes that one, Kirk.”
Star Trek #80
DC Comics (February, 1996)
“The Chosen” finale: “Collision Course!”
WRITER: Kevin J. Ryan
PENCILER: Rachel Forbes Seese
INKER: Pablo Marcos
COLORIST: Ray Murtaugh
LETTERER: Phil Felix
EDITORS: Margaret Clark & Jim McCann
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This time the cheerful art fits! (image source: Wikipedia)
Somewhere among the death of over thirty creators at Kyoto Animation and the destruction of their studio comes some good news. One of the biggest tragedies besides the loss of life was the loss of the work those creators had worked on. Well, not all of it has been lost. If it was sent to the company’s servers, then their work lived on because they were able to recover the data from those servers. It’s not much and it won’t bring back the dead but if their work can be completed, if the company can recover and still bring about those stories, finding new creators seeking to live their own dream (KyoAni is known to be very good to their workers, including female creators), then we’ll take whatever good news we can out of this.
Keep praying for the company and for the family and friends of those who were lost to the fire, as well as those still recovering from it. Sentai Filmworks, who distributes much of their work outside of Japan, has a Go Fund Me page for the staff and loved ones and this is the last day for it. They’ve already gone way beyond what they were hoping to raise.
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Superman (and Lois Lane, people forget that) was created in the 1930s and when something goes that long the lore, as well as the external history, can get a bit confusing. That isn’t helped with DC constantly doing soft and hard reboots every time they screw things up too much. Who Superman is, who his supporting cast is, and even what his powers and abilities are, have varied over the years.
Ewan from What Culture? takes a look at 10 questions about Superman’s external history people find confusing. How many Supergirls are there? What about Superboys? He tries to answer those questions and the Clark Kent glasses. Because I will not stop showing videos and writing articles defending the glasses until that stupid debate ends! I even brought in a tag-team partner for that one. Here’s the videos.
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“WHAT happens to me in the movie? Thanks for the spoilers, jerk!”
Iron Man vol. 3 #40
Marvel Comics (May, 2001)
“Remote Control” part 4
WRITER: Frank Tieri
PENCILERS: Martinez, Wieringo, Pollina, Romita, Layton, Shanower, & Grant
INKER: Candelario, Layton, Morales, Hunter, & Shanower
COLORS: VLM
LETTERING: Comicraft
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Andrew Lis
EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
