If you liked that, then head to whatever theater is playing tonight’s Rifftrax Live event, as Mike, Kevin, and Bill riff Star Raiders. It repeats June 11th. Here’s a link to find which theaters will be playing it in your area if any. If I can’t go I can at least promote.
Mask Of The Phantasm may be the only theatrical Batman production to get the character right. Granted, the creative team had plenty of time to work it out thanks to The Animated Series. The serials have issues, Tim Burton made Batman a supporting cast member in his own movie so he could focus on mentally-disturbed villains, Joel Schumacker was brought in to make the franchise more “family-friendly” (that didn’t work out AND they were terrible), Christopher Nolan messed heavily with the lore to make a more “grounded Batman but at least two out of three movies were good., and the less said about Snyder the better. When the best live-action movie Batman is still Adam West (who was at least near-accurate for his time) thanks to the movie version of the TV show, I find it obvious that they should just make animated movies. Those are usually pretty good.
However, the live-action status symbol continues and in-between the train wreck that is Batman And Robin and the rather excellent Batman Begins (ignoring Christian Bale’s gravely bat-voice) were two other attempts to continue the series that Tim Burton started, Batman Unchained and Batman: Darknight. Despite being something closer to a Frank Miller/Tom King hybrid that’s not why the movies never happened. Although after watching this accounting by Owen Loves Comics I’m just glad they didn’t get made. It’s not Superman Lives levels of bad, but it’s still not very good.
“I dinna think we’re all gonna fit in there, Cap’n.”
Star Trek #56
DC Comics (November, 1988)
“A Small Matter Of Faith”
WRITER: Martin Pasko
ARTIST: Gray Morrow
COLORIST: Michele Wolfman
LETTERER: Tim Harkins
EDITOR: Robert Greenberger
Quentin Tarantino increasingly confuses me. First he wants to give the Joker an origin story and now he wants to take his comic book crossover between Django Unchained and Zorro and make it into an actual movie. I’m starting to think this man should be kept away from comics. I don’t think concepts are as good as he thinks they are.
One thing I hold historical fiction to is when they mess up that history. Some are more accurate than others. I’m not talking about minor mistakes; I’m no historian and wouldn’t catch that either. I’m also not talking about parody or comedy; I’m not about to complain that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is historically wrong. I may be an idiot but I’m not stupid. However, when you get an egregious error like the one in this edition’s song choice I’m going to stand up and complain about it.
“Fever” was originally written by…actually, that’s a bit tricky. According to Songfacts:
There is some controversy over who wrote this, but according to Otis Blackwell, he wrote it with Eddie Cooley. Otis Blackwell was a singer/songwriter/pianist, but most well-known for his songwriting. Some famous songs he wrote/co-wrote are “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and “All Shook Up.” Cooley was a songwriting partner on many of his songs, and accordingto Blackwell, they had an agreement that Cooley would split his weekly paycheck as a jeweler with him. They would pen songs together and Blackwell would go to New York City to “hustle” them.
Using the name John Davenport (his stepfather) because he was under contract to a rival music publisher at the time, he got the song to Little Willie John, an R&B singer who used it as the title song for his 1956 album Fever. However, the most popular cover of this song came in 1958 by Peggy Lee, who was a jazz singer influenced by the blues. As a songwriter she decided to alter the song, and that’s where the problem started. Lee’s may be the most well known but, again according to Songfacts, John’s sold more. (Some kind of statistical error.) Meanwhile Lee added two particular sections and one of them, when you know the actual event, is less a story of love and more a messed-up relationship that thankfully didn’t happen. First I want to show you Little Willie John’s original but I couldn’t find a lyric video for it so just pay attention as you listen or follow along with this posting of the original lyrics.
I don’t think their date went very well.
Iron Man: Bad Blood #2
Marvel Comics (October, 2000)
“Smashing Seattle”
PLOT: David Michelinie & Bob Layton
WRITER: David Michelinie
ARTIST: Bob Layton
COLORIST: Steve Oliff
LETTERER: Troy Peteri
EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
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
