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In which Mike finds a way to annoy both G.I. Joe and Final Faction fans with a single sentence.

§ September 6th, 2023 § Filed under cartoons, misfit toys § 11 Comments

Okay, a couple of things: I did mistype the address for Pal Nat’s site in Monday’s post, so let me tell you all here that you can see all the wonderful comics-and-other items he’s published over at About Comics.

And so long as I’m talkin’ about Nat, in the comments to that post he did address the obvious question that I should have answered but didn’t: yes, the Disney comics distributed through the Dollar Tree stores are, indeed, a mere $1.25 of your American dollars.

Also in the comments, Matthew Murray mentions

“…Interestingly, they also published an issue of ‘Final Faction,’ which is based on a line of GI-Joe-style action figures & YouTube cartoons made by Dollar Tree.”

I did know about this comic, again thanks to Pal Nat. And this time the distribution gods that control Dollar Tree’s stock managed to place a stack of Final Faction: First Strike #1 at the location directly across the street from my shop.

And I do mean a stack…this isn’t like the Disney books, secreted amongst the coloring books for you to sniff out and dig up like truffles. There was no missing these, when I went to pick up a copy or three a few months ago, what with a thick wad of these bagged books stuffed into the shelving:


Why was it in the bag? No idea, other than to make it stick out. But I can assure you, it was still only $1.25! Here’s what it looks like out of the bag:


The comic is 24 pages including the covers, which, unlike the Disney books, are the same stock as the interior pages. Speaking of which, here’s an interior page from the comic:


Haven’t done more than flip through the book, so I can’t speak as to the quality of the writing, but it all looks perfectly fine for the toy tie-in that it is. Lots of action showing off the characters, which you can conveniently find for sale in your local Dollar Tree stores as per this detail from ad on the inside front cover:


The only other ad is for an issue #2 on the back cover, and I don’t know if that exists or not. There’s also some gag fake ads on the inside back cover, and I always enjoy that sort of thing.

Of note in the credits (printed at the bottom of the aforementioned back cover) is artist Chris Marrinan, who’s worked for Marvel and DC and drew Champions and Flare for Heroic, among other things.

Now Matthew also mentions that there are Final Faction cartoons on YouTube, and if you thought I wasn’t going to post one here…friend, you thought wrong:


This particular installment is only nine minutes, two of which are credits…including some for folks from Dollar Tree. And is it all CGI? Sure shootin’ it is. As far as I can tell, there are only three episodes, the last of which was about a year ago.

Anyway, I like the idea that a discount store put out their own series of G.I. Joe knockoffs along with animated adverti–er, adventures. No idea if you can still find the toys in stores…I mean, in any sort of quantity, I’m sure there’s a figure or two warming a peg at assorted locations. I’ll have to check in my local store and see if I can pick up a Shift. She seems pretty cool for being a reskinned Lady Jaye or Baroness or whatever, I don’t know, they’re basically the same, right?

John Goodman’s finest role.

§ October 20th, 2021 § Filed under cartoons, retailing, undergrounds, variant covers § 6 Comments

So in Monday’s post, where I was talking about variant covers in the “real” non-comics world, I brought up the multiple foil covers used for the Raiders of the Lost Ark novelization. I did say at the end of the post I didn’t think many people were actually buying all the different covers to be completists, but I’m sure it’s not nobody.

Well, Turan swooped in with some bookstore-sellin’ experience, to inform that book publishers weren’t producing multiple covers for their titles as a means of encouraging multiple sales. It was more for encouraging displays from sellers, or for offering more options possibly to attract different demographics by using different cover images/designs.

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and my comics retailing hammer may have been aimed at those old Raiders books. To be fair to me, I didn’t necessarily say that book publishers were doing multiple covers for the same reasons comic publishers seem to do so…at least, maybe not back then. But discussing those books in close proximity to comics probably implied as such, for which I apologize. But I’m sure there are still book collectors out there snapping up all variations of a new book’s release. C’mon, have you met book collectors?

Anyway, back to the comics…while I’ve been hitting the “variants are there to get multiple sales from the same customer” nail fairly hard around these parts, Turan does bring up other possibilities that I haven’t really considered. There is always the possibility of a comic publisher trying to attract a buyer that may not care for one cover, but definitely like another. I have over the years had customers walk up to the counter buying a comic they wouldn’t normally because of a specific image used on one of the many variants. In fact, a certain still-extant comics blogger of some note may have bought a variant cover or two simply because it had an unnamed swampy gentleman thereupon. So, basically, I should’ve pointed out this reason for variants long ago.

As for variants being issued to inspire creation of in-store displays…well, sure, comic stores could do, and have done, that. I don’t know if that was the explicit intent of comic publishers, but more a natural extrapolation by more clever shops to take advantage of the material offered. I mean, who knows. And again, this is something I’ve sort of done in the past…I mean, I try to display all covers on my racks anyway, but I haven’t gone out of the way to make a specific separate display of just variants in a long time (we did way back when with the 1990s X-Men and Spider-Man #1s). I don’t know if my racking these books like this counts:


…but boy, it almost got me to buy both covers. I do have to admit I was very tempted to display these covers on opposite sides just to annoy everyone, but cooler heads prevailed.

• • •

To follow up on some other previous posts, I received my newest shipment of weekly Marvel comics from their new distributor Penguin Random House. As I’d expected from how some replacement damages were shipped to me last week, PRH has responded to widespread criticism of their piss-poor packaging and the excessive damages of comics that resulted.

Like Lunar (DC’s distributor) PRH is now packaging their books inside a cardboard box, surrounded by bubble wrap inside another cardboard box. Frankly, the outer box isn’t quite sturdy enough (or large enough to allow for more wrap) to my tastes, but it’s definitely a step up from the last couple of weeks. I did experience some damages, but they were fairly minor dings on six comics, and to be honest I don’t know if these came from their time in transit or before (or as) they were packed in the boxes.

Also, replacements for all of my damages from last week (and there were a lot) arrived early this week. (I initially thought I was missing one, but that’s only because I didn’t recognize the variant cover as being a certain title. AGAIN WITH THE VARIANT COVERS.)

Here’s hoping things continue to improve, and that a certain other distributor who shall go unnamed here will begin to feel at least some pressure to step up their own game. To be fair, I only received two damaged books from them this week, but in the past that just meant I was due for a real problem the following week. We’ll see.

Now I hadn’t heard about this, but on this week’s episode of the Longbox Heroes podcast (being listened to even as I type this), apparently there have been other odd problems with PRH…such as filling an entire order of a book, not with the regular cover, but with the 1/25 or 1/100 ratio variants, which is pretty wild (and possibly quite the windfall for the less scrupulous retailers). I haven’t experienced that particular problem yet, thankfully.

• • •

And now, some good news…the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers is finally going to series, airing on the free TV app Tubi:


As has been noted, the styles of “Characters Created by Gilbert Shelton” and “Characters Not Created by Gilbert Shelton” do, um, clash quite a bit, but given the premise of the series (the Freak Bros. are spirited away from their ’60s/’70s stomping grounds into the world of today) that seems only fitting. I’ve seen a few of the shorts they did with this voice cast (which is great, by the way) on YouTube, so I’m looking forward to some full-length episodes.

I almost typed his name as “Fast Eddie,” for all you classic video gamers out there.

§ March 22nd, 2019 § Filed under cartoons § 2 Comments


So the other day, on one of the free streaming TV apps, I ended up watching this Hagar the Horrible cartoon, based on the long-running comic strip. I hadn’t seen this before…in fact, I had no idea this animaated version of the strip even existed. Apparently it was a one-shot special which aired on TV in 1989, which feels awfully late for this, to be honest. But, it’s got a few good jokes in there (particularly regarding Lucky Eddie’s ejection from Viking School) and the voice work is nice (for you fans of the robots that transform, Hagar is portrayed by the fella what does Optiums Prime).

And, to tie it all back to the post at the beginning of the week, it reminded me that amongst the comic strip reprint books I had as a young Mikester, there was at least one Hagar book that I remember really enjoying. It really was a fun, amiable strip.

Put these in the live action movies, you cowards.

§ January 30th, 2019 § Filed under batman, cartoons § 6 Comments

So on the DC Universe streaming service, I decided to try once more to brave the 1970s New Adventures of Batman cartoon, featuring the voicework of Best Batman, Adam West, and also featuring the character Bat-Mite, that I wish I could’ve heard the producers explaining to West once he was on the job.

Anyway, it’s hard to top this nightmare fuel, but…well, okay, this episode (“Birds of a Feather Fool Around Together”) didn’t even come close, but it did have a couple of points of interest.

First, this character, Gigi:


…the Pneguin’s partner in crime, and is basically a female Penguin. She’s got the body shape, she has the nose…was she supposed to be, like, his sister or something? Or does Penguin have a type, and that type is, um, himself? I suppose that would fit his ego an’ all, but perhaps best on to dwell on it.

Most interestingly, she basically has the voice of Harley Quinn. No, really, check it out on the service or on a non-YouTubian video site (unless you want to drop $1.99 to watch this on YouTube)…it’s uncanny the similarity. Found that amusing, is all.

Second thing of note…the Penguin’s car:

Oh, did I mention the Penguin’s ego? Holy cow, Penguin’s makin’ sure everyone knows he’s headed their way to commit some bird crimes.

In which I have some minor spoilers for Teen Titans Go! To The Movies but don’t spoil the best joke.

§ December 31st, 2018 § Filed under cartoons, challs, swamp thing, teen titans § 1 Comment

So in my most recent attempt to make the money I’m spending on Netflix worthwhile, I’ve been getting a handful of discs…yes, actual physical media…from them a little more often than I have of late (for example, I finally watched and returned that copy of The Quick and The Dead I’d had in my possession since July), One of my recent borrowings was of Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. a nice, gentle skewering of the superhero movie trend with plenty of laughs…the biggest being Robin’s final line in the film, which still makes me sensibly chuckle even now. Won’t spoil it here, and while it is revealed in the Wikipedia entry on the film, without its context and delivery it’s not nearly as hilarious.

Some of the film’s humor was clearly “not a joke for you, a guy who’s about to turn 50 years old” but I thought most of it was pretty accessible, and to be fair, the Challengers of the Unknown jokes were totally for me, so take that, kids.

Speaking of being totally for me, there was no small amount of Swamp Thing guest-starring action, and a big thanks to fine human being Kevin Church for GIFing up this sequence on my behalf:


We can only hope this is what he looks like in that upcoming TV series on the DC streaming service.

A couple of more things about Teen Titans Go! To Mike’s Blu-Ray Player:

Not a fan of fart jokes generally, but I gotta say, that was a good one in this film.

And, the “mid-credits” bonus scene featuring the original, not entirely-gag driven version of the animated Teen Titans, setting up a Teen Titans Vs. Teen Titans Go movie that is apparently still A Thing That Is Happening: well, that should be weird. It’s the battle between the fans who hated that first Teen Titans cartoon and the fans that really hate the new Teen Titans Go! cartoon!

Also liked the handful of gags aimed at Marvel’s direction (especially the Big Cameo which I’m very glad was actually voiced by him and not someone doing an impression). Frankly, I was a bit surprised not more was make with the comparison between Deadpool’s real name “Wade” and Slade’s real name (“Slade”)…I can see why they avoided the topic of their identical last names, given certain story events.

Oh, which reminds me, I thought the repeated gag of everyone rolling Slade’s name around in their mouths to appreciate how evil it sounds was a solid one.

Of course, the darkest laugh is one I already sort of knew about, when the Titans are travelling through time to restore superhero origins they had undone for, you know, reasons, in which Robin…facilitates Batman’s origin. Hoo boy. All those people in the late ’80s/early ’90s who mimicked only the grim ‘n’ gritty parts of Dark Knight Returns only wished they were that dark.

So anyway, it’s a good bit of fun, worth a rental if you haven’t seen it already. Or if you have, it’s worth it just to freeze frame on some of the movie posters that pop up in the background here and there. Plus, if you’re a Swamp Thing fan…well, I already showed you why it’s worth your time.

Man, imagine what I’d write if they paid me to shill for them.

§ September 21st, 2018 § Filed under cartoons, dc comics § 4 Comments

Still enjoying the DC Universe streaming service…well, I’d better, I’m paid up for a year plus those extra three months. I particularly like the DC Daily show, updated every weekday, which (aside from the extra-long first episode) is about 15 to 20 minutes split across three separately-streaming segments: an opening bit with DC News of the Day (promos for newly released comics, media news, what’s new or of note on the service), a second segement that I guess will be for special features (like this week, three of the segments were devoted to a George Perez interview about his DC work), and a third roundtable segment, where the various DC Daily cast members discuss a topic (generally regarding a comic or movie/TV show available on the service, like the pilot for the ’90s Flash TV series). It’s light and fun and an enjoyable enough way to spend a few minutes while, say, winding down after a long day of work at the comic shop office.

That was a long-ish paragraph, so here’s a new one. The other thing I’ve been watching has been the Fleischer Superman cartoons of the 1940s. I’ve seen a handful of the old DVDs that collected them together over the years, and wasn’t terribly impressed with the presentation. I think an eventual release did do right by them, but after being burned a couple of times, I never did get around to checking out any later releases.

But they’re here on the DC service, and they look pretty darn good. “The Mechanical Monsters,” possibly the most famous of the bunch, looks almost flawless:


…while another I watched, “Showdown,” had some light damage to the print, but still very nice looking and perfectly watchable. I look forward to perusing the rest of them as time permits…well, maybe not looking forward so much to “Japoteurs,” because…well, it was wartime an’ all, but hooboy.

The web version of the service, at least via Firefox (haven’t tested other browsers yet) still seems to have an issue with perma-on subtitles:


…but everything’s workin’ fine though the TV streaming.

Sorry, didn’t mean to be a commercial to DC Universe, available at only $7.99 a month, try it today, but I have been enjoying it quite a bit, even with the occasional glitch. And of course I’m greatly anticipating the Swamp Thing live-action series coming next year…as well as Doom Patrol, with…Timothy Dalton as the Chief? Iin full beard? Fighting the Beard Hunter? Well, okay, I don’t know about that last bit for sure, but c’mon DC, justify my subscription costs.

Also waiting for more material to be added, such as the 1960s Filmation Superman cartoon, if only because I watched it a lot as a kid and have this theme music permanently embedded in my mind:


So aside from all that, let me ask you this: wouldn’t you like to see Superman sporting this style of chest emblem again?


Rhetorical question; of course you would.

My question about Red Hood’s current origin status is the worst thing I’ve ever typed.

§ June 27th, 2018 § Filed under cartoons § 5 Comments

I’ve been taking it easy of late, spending my nights watching movies and not thinking about work, health issues, the world in general…you know, this “relaxing” I’ve heard so much about. About a week or so ago I borrowed the animated Batman: Ninja movie from Netflix, which wasn’t very good…it was like having to watch the cut scenes for a video game you weren’t able to play, plus the film was afflicted by a particularly screechy Joker that seemed to occupy 175% of the movie’s runtime. But that got me to pull out some of the previous DC direct-to-home-video animated features that I own and give them a rewatch.

Well, okay, this current spate of rewatches really started with an initial viewing of the new Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay movie, the latest in DC’s “R” rated cartoons for the kiddies. It was…better than I expected it to be, actually. Plenty of action and humor and a surprising callback to the Flashpoint cartoon (which kicked off DC’s current “animated universe” continuity)…it certainly keeps your interest as everyone chases after the story’s MacGuffin (the “Get Out of Hell” card from Gail Simone’s Secret Six run. As I sort of referred to on Twitter a bit ago, the superpowered community in the DC universe is likely aware of concrete evidence of the existence of an afterlife, just from the course of doing their usual business. So, for most of the characters in this film, “Hell” is a very real thing they are desperately trying to avoid, adding an extra layer of…well, dread, I guess, to the proceedings. Anyway, a pretty good film that I’m sure Mom or Dad just threw into the DVD player for Little Billy to watch, resulting in quite the shock.

Hell to Pay has the usual trailers and “sneak peeks” for upcoming DC cartoons, including a new adaptation of “The Death of Superman” (I discussed their previous go at it here). Well, I have a specific complaint about it I’ll make a little farther down this post, but really, DC, you can do better than this:


The next movie I watched was Superman Unbound, the adaptation of that Geoff Johns/Gary Frank Brainiac story. Another good one, I thought…this precedes DC’s animated universe continuity, and I seem to recall saying somewhere or ‘nother at the time that it was a shame the film was setting up a sequel that would probably never come. It also throws in the Clark/Lois romance that 1) establishes that Lois totally knows that Clark is Superman, and 2) ends with Clark’s proposal to Lois, which, again, won’t be followed up on in anything. Probably some folks coming to this movie cold are thrown off by this sudden change in the status quo that is for the most part not reflected in any of the other films. Or just as probably, don’t care, and leave it to big goofs like me who think about things like this too much. Aside from all that…a big, bruising Brainiac that can physically go toe-to-toe with Superman still seems a bit weird to me, but remains an interesting take on the character, differentiating him enough from Lex Luthor so that he’s just not “the smart guy from space” where Lex is “the smart guy from Earth.” My animated Brainiac preference remains the one from the Superman: The Animated Series, however.

Followed that up with a couple of Batman-specific films…Batman: Under the Red Hood gives us, well, the Red Hood, a reborn Jason Todd who comes back under circumstances a lot less Big-Event Heavy than the ones in the original comics. Is Infinite Crisis/Earth-Prime Superboy still the catalyst for Red Hood’s return in post-Flashpoint continuity? Seems like it shouldn’t be. And yes, I feel shame for even wording that question. Aside from all that, I enjoyed John DiMaggio’s deep-voiced Joker…still a maniac, but a more controlled, dangerous maniac, as well as Wade Williams as the entirely-contrasting Black Mask, histrionic and entirely bonkers. The film ends on a remarkably melancholy note, as Todd’s initial venture as Robin the Boy Wonder is recalled. A very downbeat but effective film.

Son of Batman was the next I watched, introducing Damian Wayne to the new animated continuity. I…don’t really have much to say about it, aside from it doing a good job showing why this character was so divisive for comic fans at the start, and progressing this new Robin into a character you want to see more from at the end. And you do see more of him, since as part of the Animated Universe, Damian will pop again…

…such as in Justice League Versus Teen Titans, which I’m currently in the middle of rewatching. Aside from the “Old Comic Fan” disease I’m experiencing due to the incongruity of Cyborg being in the Justice League, and his place in the Titans being taken by the newest iteration of the Blue Beetle, it’s been a fun film. One thing watching this film reminded me of, however, was Superman’s post-New 52 reworked costume that the Animated Universe is using:


It…it just doesn’t look good. I mean, I guess I can live with it, and now that Superman’s costume is now about 99% back to its usual look in the comics, hopefully these cartoons will follow suit. Alas, not in time to keep this costume about of that Death of Superman movie (which the trailer shows Clark running into action and stripping off his shirt to reveal the Superman getup…even though the collar should have clearly been sticking out from underneath his clothing). Ah well, what can you do.

Not sure what I’m going to watch next…there’s that one Batman film with Batwoman, which I know I saw but don’t entirely recall. Or there’s the Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, which I seem to remember being fairly slight as these films go, and not caring for it much. Maybe time for a second try? We’ll see.

So that’s what I’ve been doing, instead of blogging…totally being a couch potato. Sometimes, just for the sake of keeping one’s head on straight, that’s just what you gotta do, so please don’t judge too harshly.

Back soon with more stuff. Thanks for reading, pals.

The post I wanted to call “the postmodern Stone Age family” except someone already used that phrase for The Croods.

§ February 27th, 2017 § Filed under cartoons § 2 Comments

So the story is nominally about Bamm-Bamm — excuse me, Teen-age Bamm-Bamm — finding his pet dinosaur Snoots holding a treasure map in his mouth, and then going off in pursuit of said treasure, while rivals Bruno and his gang, pictured here:


…try to get their mitts on the map.

There’s a lot of hoohar and goings-on as the battle for the map rages on, until the startling truth comes to light:


Now, I could go into the whole “which animals are sentient and self-aware, and which are just dog/cat-level pets in the Flintstones milieu” discussion, and that Snoots clearly has crossed the previously unbroken line between the two, if he’s, you know, making hand-drawn maps. Though I recall Dino’s comic book appearances give him thought balloons and a more comprehensive inner intellectual life than evidenced in the original animated source material. And then, of course, I’m trying to recall if the speaking animals actually interact conversationally with the humans (beyond repeating messages left by other humans), or if their comments are strictly for gag asides.

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Mostly, I just wanted to point out this breaking of the fourth wall by one Mr. B. Bamm, in which he expresses his surprise at Snoots’ heretofore unrevealed cartological skills:


Perhaps one could surmise he is speaking to Bruno, whom he was speaking to just the panel previous, and we are taking Bruno’s point of view. However, the convention in comics storytelling for this particular panel composition is the direct addressing of the reader. Bamm-Bamm is expressing directly to you his surprise at his pet dinosaur’s skills. He has broken the fourth wall. He knows there are readers outside his world, looking in. Much like Buddy Baker in Animal Man #19 from 1990:


…he is aware he is in a comic book. In other words, what Bamm-Bamm is trying to say is


 
 
 

images from Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm #6 (September 1972), and Animal Man #19 (January 1990) by Grant Morrison, Chas Truog and Doug Hazlewood — special thanks to Bully the Little Image-Manipulating Bull for his production assistance!

At the very least, I’d like to see an animated version of House of Secrets #92.

§ February 14th, 2017 § Filed under cartoons, movie reviews, swamp thing § 5 Comments


So pretty much in every media adaptation of Swamp Thing, be it cartoon or live action TV show or two fantastic movies or video game, hearing him refer to himself out loud as “Swamp Thing” always sounds just a little goofy. Some kind of weird combination of self-importance and “…seriously, that’s the name you’re going by?” And look, I’m saying this as the guy that, some of you may know, kinda likes this Swamp Thing character. But sometimes, something that reads okay on paper just doesn’t seem to translate to actual spoken out-loud dialogue, and, well, what can you do. And maybe they hit the “I AM THE PROTECTOR OF THE GREEN” thing a little too hard. Still, though, it was nice to see an animated Swamp Thing that had purpose beyond selling toys. Would love to see a standalone Swamp Thing animated movie at some point, but it would have to probably have to shoehorn Batman or Superman into it like they do with pretty much all the direct-to-home-video DC cartoons, like they did with this one, so I’m not holding my breath.

Oh, and by the way, “this one” is Justice League Dark, as some of you probably surmised, teaming up DC’s spooky characters, like Deadman, the Demon, Zatanna, and John Constantine, mispronouncing his name as they have in, I think, every TV and movie version of him:


…but What Can You Do? Despite that particular issue only I care about, I enjoyed the film well enough. It’s still weird seeing Constantine just straight-up casting magical spells like Dr. Fate in an overcoat, which is not something you saw him really do too much in the early comics but is perhaps a bit more frequent in modern funnybooks. But beyond that, it was a good showcase for all the characters, all of whom got something to do, with a variety of action sequences and creepy locations, but that one scene with the cast being chased by a hurricane with a face felt more like something out of Scooby-Doo There was just enough left unexplained in characters’ backgrounds to maybe urge the more inquisitive viewers to Read More About It. Hopefully in the comics, that is, and not just on Wikipedia.

As mentioned above, Batman does appear in the film to help sell it to people for whom the “Justice League” in the title isn’t enough to entice them, but other JLA members appear as well. Alas, though we’ve all moved on to the “Rebirth” era in the comics, the movies are still in their “New 52” phase, so that’s the Superman we get, whose New 52 costume is somehow even worse in animation than it is on the page. Fortunately he’s not in there that much, since that costume more than anything dates the film (to, like, the early ’90s, frankly). Wonder Woman’s New 52-era costume makes an appearance, too, though that’s slightly more tolerable.

I haven’t really gone through the extra features (available on the Blu-ray version) just yet, beyond the “Story of Swamp Thing” short, in which Len Wein and Kelley Jones discuss the character’s origins and history. There are other short pieces titled “Did You Know? CONSTANTINE ORIGIN” and “Casting Deadman” and the like, plus a preview of the New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract cartoon, originally announced years ago, which is finally coming out. (Not that it was made years ago and has been sitting on a shelf, but…well, you know what I mean.) There are also the usual “From the DC Vault” cartoons, this time a couple of episodes of The Brave and the Bold featuring the Demon.

…And speaking of Deadman, Nick Turturro does the perfect voice for him. I don’t know that I ever imagined what Deadman would sound like as I was reading the comics, but now this is the voice. So great.

Overall, an enjoyable film, I thought. Not really expecting a sequel, despite the fact it would be nice to see some…resolution to the seemingly final fates for some of the characters. But, despite what I said above about the possibility, I’m still holding on to that faint hope that maybe, just maybe, now that we’ve cracked the seal, we might see some kind of solo Swamp Thing animated effort. Well, even if it does have to guest-star Batman…whatever it takes, I guess.

IT ME!

§ December 21st, 2016 § Filed under cartoons, movie reviews, swamp thing § 10 Comments

ITEM!

I received a certain item in the mail this week…that item being the Blu-ray disc of the Suicide Squad movie from Netflix, which I never made it out to the theater for. Not sure when I’m going to make room in the schedule for it, what with Christmas looming in the very near future and me with shopping and wrapping to do still. (I haven’t even made it out to the new Star Wars movie, which makes the Ghost of 8-Year-Old Mike loom over me and shake his head in disapproval.) Anyway, I’ve been curious about the film, even though I’ve heard only generally negative things about it from other comic folks…but then again, I’m the Guy Who Liked Batman V Superman so maybe I’ll be more favorably inclined toward it. I will say that my initial reaction to trailers and stills is that it appears all dirty and grimy and sickly and yeccchh so the movie may have a struggle overcoming my visceral negative response to its looks.

TIME!

Yes, I did watch the first episode of the new Justice League Action cartoon, and yes indeedy, it does contain the Swamp Thing/Plastic Man team-up the world has been clamoring for. Also featured: an all-ages appropriate John Constantine, who is more British than approximately 10 British men in, at least, this initial installment. There’s a story reason given for his particular style of dialogue, but I hope that’s how he’s portrayed consistently in the series because it’s hilarious…and probably can be read as a critique of how folks can kind of go overboard writing his dialogue in the comics.

Anyway, I had a hard time pulling a still of Swampy from any of the clips I saw online, so here’s a link to the trailer where the timestamp should take you directly to Swamp Thing getting clobbered by Solomon Grundy. Not his most dignified moment.

MITE!

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