I’d say that a funny thing happened on my way back from a long-overdue visit to
family in California, but it involves the Transportation Security Administration and wasn’t really funny — except insofar as it was Batman’s fault.
At the Bay Area fixture Cost Plus World Market, I picked up a figure like the one
shown here.
I was in line at a store earlier, barely moving, with a full interior wall on the left and half-wall division to the right.
When I arrived the woman in front of me was slumped against the left wall; as people shuffled forward she slumped against the right, then against the left wall as we shuffled forward again, back to the right, etc., repeat, all the way to the front.
It was the slowest homage to the video for “Take On Me” I have ever seen.
Related: 23 Skidoo • Oh Hell No • Coin Drop
This one’s been percolating for a while.
And there’s no time like the present. Not only have we reached the once-far-off date
to which Marty and the Professor traveled in the second Back to the Future film, but this year saw the 30th anniversary of the first movie in that trilogy as well as the (somewhat less heralded) 40th anniversary of Welcome Back, Kotter’s premiere. Thus, in the grand tradition of my poster for Captain America and the Maltese Falcon and DVD case for Tarzan of the Planet of the Apes, here’s a Golden Books tie-in to that hit TV show from another dimension, Welcome Back to the Future, Kotter.
Teddy Sears as Jay Garrick in The Flash Ep. 2.01 “Flash of Two Worlds” © 2015
CW Network. Photo: Cate Cameron. Character TM/® DC Comics.
I didn’t see Tuesday’s Flash episode until after midnight — so it ended up a birthday present. And it was a gift to all the fans who’ve loved DC’s multiverse for decades. I’m honestly not able to put my reaction into words, because it basically involved giving
the astral projection of my 6-year-old self a high-five.
My contributor copy of Michael Allred: Conversations, edited by Christopher Irving for University Press of Mississippi, arrived yesterday. The longest of its 13 interviews — some Q&A, some article-style — is the wide-ranging talk that Stefan Blitz and I had with Mike for Comicology in 2000. It’s a smart little hardcover sure to be a fascinating read.
When I saw the robes during the Pope’s mass in Philadelphia this morning,
Hydra’s classic outfits immediately came to mind. The juxtaposition of this panel
from Stan Lee & Jack Kirby’s introduction of SHIELD in Strange Tales #135 with this crop of a photo taken by Jack Gruber for USA Today is just eerie. Like yesterday, I’m only pointing out what’s already there.
Related: Ozy Ozy Ozy • Which Doctor? • Fourth-World Problems
Photo © 1967 ABC / 20th Century / Greenway.
TV’s Batgirl, Yvonne Craig, left us last month at 78. She was more than just that description — to fans of Star Trek, in which she appeared as the green-skinned Orion woman Marta; to Elvis aficionados, having co-starred in two of his films; and of course to her loved ones, as wife, sister, mentor, and philanthropist.
Craig’s passing was announced on her website through an obituary and more personal note from her family. Mark Evanier posted a remembrance that includes a delightful anecdote of meeting her and Julie Newmar at a Hollywood autograph show. (Well, I should warn you that it ends somewhat less than delightfully, after the part about the comic book wherein Batgirl first appeared, depending on your taste for cringe.)
I find Craig’s Batgirl and Barbara Gordon one of the absolute best things about the 1966-68 Batman series, and not merely for her striking figure in that skintight purple suit. Her sass, her keen intellect, her confidence, her literal as well as figurative poise — all elevated the show’s final and otherwise least impressive season whenever she was onscreen.
Heidi MacDonald, a longtime journalist and editor who runs comics site The Beat, coined a great phrase several years ago: “satisfying chunk”. More than ever that’s what I’m after when reading new material, with issues costing 3 to 4 bucks
a pop — not just a steep price on the face of it but one that suffers in comparison to copious collections of recent material that easily best the per-chapter price of single issues and usually throw in extras to boot. There’s also a wealth of archival material now available nearly impossible to even imagine a couple of decades ago.
I greatly appreciate series that compel me to reread often, too, and reward my doing
so in different ways:
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We got a new trailer for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice last month to coincide with the sprawling media crush of San Diego’s Comic-Con International.
I’ll admit that the movie looks impressive on its own terms. While Man of Steel had potential as a riff on the superhero genre with a heavy sci-fi bent, however, it was a terribly misguided Superman film. Based on the footage and conversations regarding its sequel, Zack Snyder continues to be at least as far off target in translating DC’s oldest, greatest icons from page to screen as he was in adapting Watchmen a half-dozen years back. (Read my non-spoiler post or my longer review of Man of Steel, and my detailed review of Watchmen, for more.)
Snyder et al. have jumped right to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight — a possible future extrapolating from the comics of the time in which a weathered Batman comes out of retirement and tangles with a godlike Superman whom he views as too powerful and too simplistic in the embrace of justice and the American Way — and set up that dichotomy in the characters’ first meeting. Huh?
One tiny spoiler for Ant-Man coming up after this odd image…
According to a time.com headline on Monday, “The Supreme Court Just Quoted Spider-Man”.
If you had the trifecta of this, upholding the first African-American President’s expansive health-insurance plan, and ruling that marriage is a right inclusive of same-sex couples under the Constitution in your latest United States Supreme Court Actions Your Ten-Year-Old Self Would Never Believe office pool, I really gotta hand it to you.
One small quibble with the article is that the immortal line quoted here from its debut is “spoken” in that original story by the narration rather than by Spider-Man or Peter Parker’s dear Uncle Ben.
Related: Board Now • The Amazing Spider-Man Minus
Andrew Garfield Plus Garfield • See You Next B'ak'tun
I didn’t have the exact 21¢ in change in my pocket earlier tonight that I’ll usually make sure is on me when I go to Chipotle, where I know my sofritas bowl is $7.21 with tax, but I did at least have a penny. The cashier apparently thought the penny was too in-significant to ring up, however, because I still got $12.79 in change for my twenty-dollar bill (and single penny). So not only wasn’t I rewarded with the “How did you do that? You-- You’re a warlock!” look of wide-eyed wonder I’m used to in today’s world when the register displays round change, I’m now out a fricking penny.
Related: 23 Skidoo • A-Ha Moment • Cold Beans
I can’t say enough about Tomorrowland — but I’m wary of saying too much, so delightful are the surprises within.
The film’s charming. It champions optimism and creativity. My heart swelled; my
eyes moistened. If there are flaws, and of course there are, they’re easily reconciled with the larger piece. It’s an inspiring thrill ride full of wonder with just enough schmaltz and grown-up danger, made for the whole family.
And it’s not what I expected. I didn’t read a single review before going, which I’m glad about because most of them overshare. I’m also confounded in disagreeing with them and by seeing how they disagree with one another on its merits and faults.
Me, I was transported.
Welcome to one among thousands of posts about David Letterman’s last day in
late night.
I had a typically punnish title ready to go before realizing that the survey of my
favorite things begun here for my 40th birthday hadn’t been updated in over a year.
A click on Dave’s name in the labels below will show that his brand of television, unsurprisingly, merits the designation.
Honestly, I’ve been watching David Letterman since before any of us knew who he
was. Once he was tapped by NBC to replace Tom Snyder at 12:30 a.m. following Johnny Carson’s Tonight, I remembered seeing him pop up as a weatherman on Mork & Mindy and catching part of his short-lived morning program in my grandparents’ kitchen. The David Letterman Show started (and ended) in 1980; Late Night began in 1982 and he left to launch The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS in 1993. Although 35 years of appearing on television more days than not has earned him a break — us too, he’d surely joke — I was happy to hear that he qualified his departure by adding “… for
now”.
At least two observations I want to share I’ve made here before: I find Jay Leno unfunny, his delivery poor, and his conversational skills lacking, which you’d think would be the kiss of death for a talk-show host. For those reasons as well as certain behind-the-scenes conduct by his staff before and since he took over for Johnny, I’m solidly Team Dave — even though I know Letterman is no saint. I also very much appreciate that Dave was able to transition into more of an establishment role after moving into the earlier hour, opposite Tonight, providing thoughtful interviews
while maintaining a healthy amount of irreverence towards institutions up to and including his own.
I’d love to see Letterman in a role similar to the one Snyder had on the original
post-Dave Late Late Show, talking only to people he wants to about subjects that interest him — scientists like Michio Kaku and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, political observers like Rachel Maddow, genuine off-screen friends or acquaintances like Michael Keaton, Amy Sedaris, and Tom Brokaw — perhaps just one night a week, Fridays, when the alternative is often repeats.
At this week’s TV “upfronts” we got trailers for CBS’ new Supergirl, to air Mondays at
8 p.m. ET come November, and the CW Arrow/Flash spinoff DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which bows at midseason. [bad links]
Ra's al Ghul is practically a millennial next to the immortal Vandal Savage, who’s mentioned in the latter. I’d love to find out that he or some continuity-altering character from the comics (say, Glorith or the Time Trapper) has prevented Kal-El from becoming Superman on the current “Earth-CW”. Perhaps once Rip Hunter’s motley crew properly resets history the Arrow/Flash universe could merge with that of Supergirl or otherwise establish Superman and Batman as existing in that universe — and Man of Steel as but a glimpse into a sad, twisted parallel reality.
Promo image © 2015 Warner Bros. Entertainment.
Related: Kind of Blue • When Barry Met Ollie • Live-Action Comics
DC and Warner Bros. announced the Fall 2015 launch of DC Super-Hero Girls yesterday — a line of media content and merchandising in partnership with Mattel targeted at girls aged 6 to 12.
Why am I so conflicted about this?
Actually, I know why; I just don’t have time to write enough about it right now. The short(ish) version: My nieces love the established superheroes they’ve been exposed to, male and female alike. DC simply doesn’t have sufficient material for pre-teens with a wide variety of developed* female characters in either publishing or licensed product. [*Not that kind of developed — I do appreciate the athletic body types and modest costuming here.] So the idea of a line aimed specifically at girls is a corrective that points out a root problem, which is what I would rather see addressed. I don’t mean that the main stuff is only for boys, either, because it isn’t quite that pat.
Related: Kids Meet • Activated • Kind of Blue
Here’s our first look at Melissa Benoist in costume for CBS’s upcoming Supergirl.
Photos: Bonnie Osborne / Warner Bros. Entertainment © 2015.
A friend was decrying the dark blue on Facebook and he’s not alone there. I don’t
mind it myself. Bruce Timm & Co. opted to go in that direction for the WB Superman animated series in 1996, harkening back to the earliest depictions in the comics as well as the 1940s Fleischer cartoon shorts, and I think darker colors in general tend to work better in live-action portrayals. The Flash has done all right with a mostly lighter superhero — in tone — wearing a darker red than we get on the page. (Of course, Man of Steel went dark too…)
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I expect that cyberspace is full of goofs on Benedict Cumberbatch’s name. The other day, however, I awoke from a dream right as I was putting together a list of just such a thing. I felt compelled to write down as many as I could before it all faded, and a few more that I brainstormed in the process, which brings us to my utterly unnecessary but hopefully amusing enough...
Top Twenty-One Things That Are Not Exactly Benedict Cumberbatch
21. Barleycorn Cabbage-Patch
20. Gryffindor Hufflepuff
19. Orthodox Crucifix
18. Ambient Temperature
17. Budapest Architect
16. Marzipan Coffee Cake
15. Broken-Tooth Crackerjack
14. Basketball Pick-Up Game
13. Batmobile Catapult
12. Baggy-Pants Hammer Time
11. Booster-Seat Kiddie Chair
10. Baltimore Quarterback
9. Brenda Starr Comic Strip
8. Boycotting Chick-Fil-A
7. Boner-Pill Side Effect
6. Born to Run Concert Tour
I’m happy to help spread the word that Jon B. Cooke, a familiar name to folks who enjoy reading about the stories behind the comics, is helming a new magazine called ACE — All Comics Evaluated set to launch in March. The moniker is meant to indicate both that each issue will include a price guide and that stuff from across the incredibly wide spectrum of today's comics scene will be covered. I wrote a retro-spective on Robin the Boy Wonder for the first issue, as his 75th anniversary is nigh.
I prefer to keep the blog light, but the Charlie Hebdo executions cannot go unmentioned.
The juxtaposition between this subject and the frivolity of things that surround it is absurd. You’ll mostly find any sociopolitical discussion here prompted by examination of a given piece of entertainment. Writers and editorial cartoonists being killed for doing their jobs, however, for provoking thought, for challenging doctrine and indoctrination, for calling bullshit on armed thugs whose perversions of spiritual belief are so counter to the better angels of human nature that they can only impose their points of view through physical intimidation, well, although I know that it’s not inherently more vile than other episodes of violence or injustice visited upon people around the world daily, be they splashed across the media or unconscionably overlooked, it simply hits so close to home that in this instance I can’t not stand up, virtually speaking.
