It took five issues, but we finally have Autobot versus Decepticon and no human villains. And it’s the last issue.
Transformers Animated: The Arrival #5
FINAL ISSUE
IDW Publishing (December, 2008)
WRITER: Marty Isenberg
COLORIST: Liam Shalloo
SELECTED COVER ART: Marcelo Matere (assisted on colors by Priscilla Tramontano)
LETTERER: Chris Mowry
EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
“Survival Skills”
PENCILER: Dario Brizuela
INKER: Leandro Corral
“Everything Must Go”
ARTIST: Boo
Tonight’s article is going to be a heavy rant and the comic isn’t that great either, so let’s start the day with something fun. Before William Shatner did dramatic readings of Beatles songs and called it singing, Jon Pertwee put out a song called “Who Is Doctor Who“, a spoken word answer to that question set to the theme song. And while you’re over there ask Retroist contributor Vic Sage to pick up those other records he mentions and let us know if they’re any good.
How Steve Ditko left the comic.
After Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and artist for the early years since Amazing Fantasy #15, had his falling out with Stan Lee a new artist had to be chosen to continue the series. John Romita Sr. was the man chosen, but how did he get the gig? Hero Journalism posts an old interview the host had with the legendary artist, discussing the events that led him to work on a superhero he never knew anything about.
This cover would later be reused as a regular Star Trek cover titled “Menageried”. (It was that or the tattoo joke.)
Star Trek: Early Voyages #4
Marvel/Paramount Comics (May, 1997)
“Nor Iron Bars A Cage”
WRITERS: Dan Abnett & Ian Edginton
PENCILER: Patrich Zircher
INKER: Greg Adams
COLORIST: Marie Javins
LETTERER: Janice Chiang
EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
With Disney owning ABC, and thus a share of Hulu, and soon to be bringing in 20th Century Fox, thus having two-thirds–sorry NBCUniversal, it’s not surprising that they would want to bring their stuff over there while still setting up their Disney Plus streaming service. Marvel recently ended most of their Netflix shows (or maybe all of them–I don’t have Netflix) and now we have four animated series making their way to Hulu.
Marvel has never really had their own version of the DC Animated Universe. At best they shared voice actor and character designs between shows but it always felt to me like they were just using a superhero they already had out there. Nothing ever really seemed to affect any of the other shows. This includes the recent shows on Disney XD from what I can tell. However, starting out with a crossover special entitled The Offenders, an obvious parody of Netflix’s The Defenders (which was the name of a superteam in the Marvel Universe at one point), the four cartoons that Hulu will have based on Marvel characters may be connected.
The interesting thing is they really aren’t doing the popular character, much like the recent Marvel Rising specials, but focusing on characters more obscure than even the Rising cast except to die-hard comic fans. Well, one of them is but he isn’t a hero. It’s an odd set of choices, but could they work? Through Variety let’s take a look at what’s coming.
The shows will be based on the following Marvel characters: Howard the Duck, M.O.D.O.K, Hit-Monkey, and Tigra and Dazzler. Like the Marvel-Netflix “Defenders” shows before them, the four characters will then team up in the animated special “The Offenders.” Marvel’s head of TV, Jeph Loeb, will executive produce each project. Disney–which owns Marvel–will become a majority shareholder in Hulu once the Fox-Disney merger is completed.
The question is, who are these characters? Most of them have made it out of the comics in one form or another. Everyone except the first one I’ll bring up.
“Um…Godzilla’s still in continuity, right? Can we call him?”
Iron Man volume 3 #23
Marvel Comics (December, 1999)
“Ultimate Danger!”
PLOT: Kurt Busiek & Roger Stern
SCRIPT: Roger Stern
PENCILER: Sean Chen
INKER: Dan Panosian
COLORIST: Steve Oliff
LETTERER: Saida Temfonte
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
BW’s Morning Article Link: Revisiting The Distribution Issue
Back In January I posted a Morning Article Link where a guest-writer for ICv2, comic store owner Phil Boyle, brought up suggestions to benefit the comic stores from having too much overstock and easing their burdens when it came to how it dealt with comic companies and virtual monopoly distributor Diamond. Now ICv2 has an update, as it appears some of the publishers are actually considering his words and seeing what is feasible to them. Time will tell though, as comic stores continue to hurt and comic readership continues to suffer.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on February 13, 2019 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comic stores, comics, commentary.
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