Mikester

Because you demanded it:

Mighty Mouse #10 (July 1991)

You can see the Mighty Mouse Crisis on Infinite Earths tribute cover here…it’s from the Homages page at the excellent George Perez fan site.

Ack! No new Justice League Unlimited last night! But I did finally see, thanks to the Netflix, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, the latest installment in the Batman: The Animated Series feature-length (well, 75 minutes, anyway) films. The animation was nice and clear, if not very smooth…near the beginning, the character of Kathy Duquesne is shown with a hip-wiggling walk that’s supposed to be sexy, but looks more like her legs are out of joint. Plus, there are some scenes where the action sequences look more like you’re watching a flip-book. And is every road in Gotham City elevated? Otherwise, the actual “mystery” of the Batwoman is played out nicely, with a twist that I half-suspected at the beginning, didn’t think they’d do, then was surprised when they did it anyway. The villains of the piece (the Penguin, Rupert Thorne, and an arrival later in the film) don’t exactly inspire a lot of interest, though I suppose they can’t draw from the Joker well every time. And it was nice to hear David Odgen Stiers as the Penguin.

One of the bonus features is the much-praised short “Chase Me,” which focuses on what Bruce Wayne would rather be doing instead of being trapped at some socialite gathering: chasing Catwoman through the streets of Gotham. The gimmick is that there is no dialogue or sound effects…the only soundtrack is a musical accompaniment, which is quite effective. You can see some screen grabs from the short here.

Overall — heck, worth a rental.

In other news:

• H at The Comic Treadmill has posted a theory on who he believes may be the killer in Identity Crisis…and makes a convincing argument. More convincing than Nightwing, for goodness’ sake. Plus, upon rereading…I don’t see anything that would really contradict this guess…and the killer standing in the shadows on page 14 does bear a passing resemblance to the character in question, given that he does appear to be drawn as being a little heavier-set now.)

  Also, Comic Treadmill has put up a new poll asking who you think is the mystery killer in Identity Crisis. One option is we members of the Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County California And Outlying Environs (which is, as always, ACAPCWOVCCAOE for short)…so of course, that’s the one I voted for, and far be it for me to perhaps suggest that others do the same, if you know what’s good for you. I mean, at least get us more votes than Yoko Ono!

• Speaking of Identity Crisis and the ACAPCWOVCCAOE, pal Dorian shows up Meltzer (and Marz, for that matter) for the pikers they are.
  

The fact that there’s someone willing to go out in public dressed in a Thanos costume proves to me that there is still beauty in this world.

I can’t stop looking at Firestorm’s big flaming head, either. It’s hypnotic.

About Comics’ forthcoming publication It’s Only A Game, reprinting the little-seen comic strip by Charles M. Schulz and Jim Sasseville, is now available for preorder. (Buying it through this link gives a little chunk o’change to publisher Nat Gertler.)

So it appears it’s going to be the all-nekkid season on Smallville this year, what with nekkid Clark, nekkid Lana, previews featuring nekkid Lois…yup, we’ll be seeing a lot more (wink, nudge) of our favorite 25-year-old high schoolers this year, it looks like. Anyhoo, the season premiere felt pretty disjointed, as all the subplots and cliffhangers and plotlines are thrown together and stirred up a bit. The much-ballyhooed appearance of Superman veteran Margot Kidder (playing the assistant to Christopher Reeve’s Dr. Swann character) was just long enough for her delivery of a deus ex machina to Ma Kent, in the form of “Black Kryptonite.” So, when Ma exposed her son to said Kryptonite, was anyone else reminded of that scene in Superman III when the two halves of Superman’s personality literally split apart and started fighting each other? No? Um…me neither.

(EDIT: Just noticed Peter David also refers to the Black Kryptonite as a deus ex machina. Well, that’s what it was!)

Erica Durance makes her debut as Lois Lane…Lois is talky, pushy, and actually quite enjoyable. Looking forward to seeing more of her (wink, nu…oh, forget it). Interesting that she shares the smoking problem of Kidder’s version of Lois.

So, I wonder just how much more convoluted the origin of Superman is going to get this year?

In other news:

Tim at The Hurting reviews the first story arc on the new Swamp Thing series and finds it somewhat lacking.

Mark Evanier reports that the rights have been sold for a Groo the Wanderer movie. While I’m sure it’ll be live-action, what I wouldn’t give to see a fully-animated movie done in the Sergio Aragones style.

Tim posted an Alf cover over on The Hurting, which brings to mind something that I remember reading a while back: that the Alf comic was actually one of Marvel’s top sellers on the newsstand (as opposed to comic shops) at the time, outstripping even the X-titles’s newsstand sales. I don’t remember exactly where I read that, otherwise I’d pull the exact quote, but I think I’m recalling that correctly. If true, it’s amazing what 1) recognizability and 2) availability can do for sales. Even on Alf.

That cover Tim posted does highlight one of Marvel’s problems with licensed books like these…Marvel insisted on squeezing in parodies and references to their superhero books, which at best meant nothing to kids buying these on newsstands, or at worst alienated fans of these licensed properties who had no interest in superheroes. (Alf wasn’t quite as bad about this as the Mighty Mouse title was.) I realize that Marvel did this only to expose potentially new audiences to properties Marvel actually owned (and maybe to pick up sales in comic shops), but it seems to me that it may have hindered as much as helped.

Anyway, all this Alf talk gives me an excuse to post my favorite Alf cover (sorry about the low quality…I don’t have a copy in the store currently, and this scan was found online a while ago):