April 16, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Iron Man vol 3 #31

This is why you don’t dry your cosplay armor in the microwave.

Iron Man volume 3 #31

Marvel Comics (August, 2000)

“The Sons Of Yinsen” part 1: “This Ol’ Heart O’ Mine”

(So is every story going to be a multi-parter? Is this Quesada preparing the “write for the trade” period of comic storytelling?)

WRITERS: Joe Quesada & Frank Tieri

PENCILER: Alitha Martinez

INKER: Rob Hunter

COLORIST: Steve Oliff

LETTERING: Comicraft

EDITOR: Bobbie Chase

At least I’m guessing who did what because we have more of those gag credits that annoys me so as a reviewer.

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April 16, 2019

BW Morning Video: Setting The Record Straight On Bumblebee 2

Okay, so Bumblebee isn’t a reboot but from fan reaction it probably should be. I still really need to see this movie. No Unicron because the producer hates it but Transformers fans love Unicron and that’s probably a plot thread they should finish up, even if they just somehow separate him from Earth. The producer also wants more Michael Bay style action but if that includes the way too close shots with designs that practically blend together that’s going to tick off fans too. I don’t think this guy cares about Transformers fans, but these are also complaints from non-fans who saw it and aren’t Michael Bay apologists so this is probably a bad move.

As for a shared Hasbro universe, I don’t think that’s necessary. A shared Transformers universe that tells stories with other characters, including classic characters who never had a media appearance before or more recent characters and ideas that could be fit into this universe, might be the better way to go. Sure, seeing the Transformers hanging out with G.I. Joe and Cobra would be neat for cross-series fans who remember those team-ups in the comics or the shared nods in the cartoons but I don’t think we need a shared universe, including one with MASK. Give them their own movie instead and let them shine as their own property like they did in the 1980s before Kenner was bought by Hasbro. Granted I am curious to see how they’d work My Little Pony in there.

Catch more Midnight’s Edge on their YouTube channel.

Posted by on April 16, 2019 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , .

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April 15, 2019

Chapter by Chapter: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center chapters 65-67

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.

We’re getting closer to the end and only recently has the title location’s part of the story been any good. It’s a race to stop a war versus people who really want to kill someone they don’t like or look really strong by doing something really stupid. Compare to that the woman who wants to sleep with her married boss during a crisis while he’s worried about his son is…still bad but not as bad in comparison. I’m at a point where I take the victories I can with this book. At least I’ve enjoyed the last few chapters for a change. Let’s see if we can keep the streak hot.

  • Chapter 65: Wednesday, 6:30 AM, The DMZ: Two pages and roughly a paragraph
  • Chapter 66: Wednesday, 7:00 AM, the Diamond Mountains: I’m rounding up to six pages
  • Chapter 67: Wednesday, 7:10 AM, Osaka: four full pages…I’m shocked too

The pacing of this book still confuses me. The chapters are really short but even with bundling them there’s a lot here, and half of it has been padding from Op-Center while the interesting stuff happens almost without them in Korea. It still feels like they ran short on the Korean bombing story and tossed this stuff in to sell a new book series. I don’t know if that’s what happened but it’s what it feels like.

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April 15, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Batman Beyond vol 2 #11 (DCAU)

Every superhero has to learn the hard way not to go to a comic convention in costume.

Batman Beyond #11

DC Comics (September, 2000)

“The Perfect You”

WRITER: Hilary J. Bader

PENCILER: Craig Rosseau

INKER: Rob Leigh

COLORIST: Lee Loughridge

LETTERER: Tim Harkins

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Frank Berrios

EDITOR: Joseph Illidge

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Posted by on April 15, 2019 in Animation Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , .

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April 15, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Toys As Actors

Megatron holding Cobra Commander like an action figure.

This is something of a hybrid of the two sites I work on, this one involving storytelling and my other one involving stuff I own (and their future as something I own). It’s storytelling, but it’s the kind of storytelling kids do with their toys, coming up with their own exciting (if only to them) adventures. However, sometimes you want an action figure of a favorite character that doesn’t exist or for whatever reason your parents won’t or can’t get for you. So you use your other figures. Heck, I used them sometimes for original characters, including Pidge from Panosh Place’s Voltron line as that Powerboy character I created, my first superhero, which has inspired the look of the character and his color scheme. For a few more examples Shawn Robare of Branded In The 80s shows off a few of his G.I. Joe figures who took on multiple acting roles.

Posted by on April 15, 2019 in Uncategorized and tagged , , , .

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April 14, 2019

Jake & Leon #404: Dream Family

Based on an actual dream I’ve had.

A dream I only had early this morning after having said dream. I thought I was going to go comicless this week and then that happened. So this might be posting a bit late tonight but at least I came up with something.

Over at The Clutter Reports this week I sort of review the original version of Kingdom Of The Dwarfs, an illustrated book whose topic should be obvious given the title. It’s a fake account of finding a dwarf village in someone’s flower bed. The short version is it’s a beautiful piece of work in a genre I don’t really follow. See my review for the rest.

As for reviews this week, the Robotech comics are going back to original stories for the Antarctic Press miniseries Covert Ops, which I believe takes place chronologically just after the SDF-1 escapes Saturn. How well it does so we’ll be finding out. Meanwhile there won’t be a lot of feature articles this week outside of our continuing Chapter By Chapter look at Op-Center since I’m nearly done with the video review and want to make that my focus this week. If I get done in time to give it the YouTube Content ID once over I can post it in a premiere showing by the end of the month, maybe even the end of the week if I’m really lucky. No promises given my recent record. Beyond that I have a few maintenance issues to address that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. So this will be a week of Filler Videos but I always try to bring you something interesting to watch. This is of course barring incidents in the world of entertainment I feel the need to comment on, but my focus is on getting the video review done. I think I’m coming up with a system to speed that up but it will be a few more videos for me to tweak it into something that works. Have a good week, folks!

Posted by on April 14, 2019 in Jake & Leon and tagged , , , .

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April 13, 2019

Saturday Night Showcase: The Video Game Years–1979

It’s been a long time since I posted an episode of Retroware TV’s The Video Game Years on Saturday Night Showcase. For those of you unaware, this is a “talking heads” documentary of video game history, similar to VH-1’s I Love The 80s but without crapping on anything without boobs. The people being interviewed were all contributors to Retroware’s aggregate website. In this episode we see the games and advancements of 1979 in the world of video games.

I should note that this episode does have two appearances of JewWario, the formerly beloved and currently disgraced video game reviewer who committed suicide a few years ago–later revealed to have been involved in some very horrible practices, as I went over here. I don’t think it takes away from the interesting information but if you would rather not see him for whatever reason I completely understand.

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Posted by on April 13, 2019 in Saturday Night Showcase, Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

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