Superhero Cartoons

2010-2011 seems to be shaping up to be a good year from the Superhero cartoons. In 2009-2010 we had the end of 3 Marvel cartoons- 2 ok and one good. We had the end to Spectacular Spider-Man and Iron Man: the Armored Adventures as well as Wolverine and the X-Men. The two cartoons that have continued are Super-Hero Squad- a very kid friendly Marvel show including all types of Marvel characters- mostly the Avengers with occasional other characters, Batman: the Brave and the Bold- also somewhat kid-ish but still somewhat adult catered show. While I have not watched a lot of either, the one thing that has stood out, especially about the Brave and the Bold is the number of characters- especially current and diverse characters that they have used in show. Their Blue Beetle is the current one, the hispanic Jamie Reyes, their Atom is the Japanese Ryan Choi, their Firestorm is Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch, and they have used Guy Gardner - a very unused GL and representing the Ginger population.

Currently for 2011 there are two animated series out with two more to appear in the fall of 2011. The two airing at this point is Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Young Justice. The two to air is Green Lantern and Ultimate Spider-Man both hoping to capitalize on the movies to debut in the near future (more on comic book movies later).

The first, the Avengers cartoon. Awe-some. I’ve been Avengers fan since I was a kid (my father gave me his other Avengers comics and frankly I’ve been following the book since I was a kid). It in a very smart fashion, had about 10-15 micro episodes leading up to the season premier which introduced most of the main characters. The team is Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Panther. At least one if not more of the micro episodes were

about one if not more of

these characters. Since the series started two or three episodes have been really devoted to a character- those characters were

BP, Cap and Hawkeye. What also has worked for them is the blending of classic Avenger stories (the original

team coming together, the Hulk leaving and coming back, Black Panther as the orphan prince, finding Cap) as well as the more current stories (Skrull secret invasion, the Kree-Skrull war and the Raft Prison Breakout) and all the Avengers characters that they have introduced and keep introducing - Black Widow was part of Hawkeye’s storyline and Wonder Man made sense for the Masters of Evil - but Mockingbird, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel - with many more possibly coming. This is very similar to Wolverine and the X-Men - a great cartoon which blende

d many X-Men storylines- Magneto and Genosha, Dark Phoenix, Hellfire Club, Mr. Sinister-Apocalypse-Archangel as well as Days of the Future Past and Bishops’s future. This also went full tilt on plot and characters (but including characters for characters sake) - both of these cartoons don’t spend too much time on explaining who is who and lets the audience understand that some characters are there simply to move the plot along and those same characters which fans love to see but don’t necessarily need over explanation. So I’m very happy and very excited about one of my favorite comic books being done so well in cartoon form and really putting plot first as opposed to having 10-12 episodes about characters. I’m looking forward to the second half of the season.

Our next is Young Justice. The idea of this show is this an alternate earth which actually makes up one of the earth’s in the DC’s multiverse. This is an earth where Superman has only been around for just ten years, and the first generation of

sidekicks have come into their own. Instead of the sidekicks forming to become the Teen Titans, here the

writers have combined characters from different eras on the banner of the 3rd generation pre-Teen Titans team and given it a different spin. Here we have the 1st generation of sidekicks -the first Robin, Kid Flash and Speedy with the current Superboy

, Aqualad and Miss Martian in world where the JLA is 16 members strong ( The Big 7 of Supers, Bats, WW, Flash- Barry Allen, GL- Hal Jordan, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter, with Hawkman and woman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Captain Marvel, GL-John Stewart, Captain Atom, Red Tornado and Zatara) and Young Justice is there super hero training as well as espionage force. Batman is their general, Red Tornado is their camp counselor, Black Canary is their trainer and Captain Marvel hangs out with them. Along with possible conspiracy issues as well as different origins for Miss Martian as Martian Manhunter’s ‘niece’ and an archer character named Artemis who takes the place of Speedy when he decides not stay a ‘sidekick’ and become a hero on his own as Red Arrow. This has a lot of potential focusing on sidekicks is kid friendly but it also appeals to comic fans due to the different characters and possibilities for the show. Also promised are major shake ups and ‘deaths’ and considering in comic books we have had the deaths of Robins, Flashes, and Aqualads before it is a good possibility.

The two shows that are set to debut in the fall are, as stated before, Ultimate Spider-Man and Green Lantern. I think that excitement over another Spider-Man cartoon- even though based on the comic Ultimate Spider-Man and Brian Bendis is supposed to have a large hand in the creative process, I think with the questions over why a re-boot of the movies so soon after the last franchise and the seeming

ludicrousness of the musical

seems to have sapped out the energy

and excitement of most fans. The Green Lantern series, however, being all CGI and having the same creative minds behind the Justice League, Batman, Superman and Batman Beyond series, as well as the recent outcropping of DC original animated movies (more on those later too!) has a lot of fans excited. Also, the incorporating of the Red Lanterns from the current comics, connected to and taking advantage of the movie, but having the look of the comics and seemingly to focus on Hal Jordan and Kilowog. The questions for fans is a.) will it be connected to the animated universe of the shows I mentioned- JL, Bats, Supes and how to the GL’s of those shows - John Stewart and Kyle Rayner - may or may not play

in. And will the cartoon include earth GL’s or interact with the Young Justice series that has both John and Hal as GL’s of the JLA?

At the end of the day, it’s nice that their is a Marvel and DC show aimed more at kids and a Marvel and a DC show that are aimed at both new viewers (kids) and more ‘adult’ -and I use that term loosely - fans of the comics.

Spider-Armor?

Spider-Man has one of the best costumes ever. Ever. Over the years it has changed, most famously and in fact well done is the black and white spider costume that then became the villain/anti-hero Venom (more on him later

). Any ways over the years, Spider-Man has armored up for one reason or the other and two very recently.

The First Spider-Armor: Basically for some reason Spider-Man was hurt very badly, and off screen cobbled together some sort of armor platting. This didn’t last long for wide variety of reasons, mainly because Spider-Man (in either costume) screams

sleekness, quickness and agility, and something that looks like a spider detailed boiled plate does not.

The Electro Padding: A one time

only costume that Spidey created to face off against Electro---it actually makes sense and seems to just be a similarly colored reinforced costume against an enemy who can shoot electric bolts

at you. It

honestly makes sense, so much so it’s kinda interesting that no one has featured it since then. I guess it’s mostly cause Spider-Man usually finds villains when our

patrolling and usually just webs up his fists and hit Electro (by the way there was a great moment in the first arc of New Avengers when

Luke Cage got his fist webbed up to beat up Electro only for Electro to pass out) - but still is makes a lot of sense.

The Iron-Spider: This was part of story-line where Peter worked for Ton Stark and they designed a Iron Man

colored Spider Armor for Spidey. It borders on cool and kind weird - the colors are very not Spidey but it does say slick and

kinda pays homage to the black and white costume. However, the weird spider legs on the back are, well, weird. And all of the high tech stuff is very un-Spidey- he’s the character who has to sow is own costume back together because he’s b

arely able to make rent. It did lead up to the part of Civil War where Spidey revealed his secret i.d. to the world and then lead into ‘magically’ ret-conning his marriage to MJ. As far as powers go, it increased his strength, could go invisible, and he had m

ental control of the legs which could also fire energy bolts. (As fate would have it the armor would later used by the clone of deceased character named MVP who was given spider powers. Originally there was 3 but two have died leaving only one, calling himself the Scarlet Spider the moniker used by the original Spider-Man clone.)

The Spider-Tron: This is a recent costume change, where Peter in his new job as part of a high tech think tank,

and after receiving a beating by the new Hobgoblin, uses his resources to put together a black costume with

a lighted eyes and spider design (which can be red or green)- the only thing we know this can do is that it can go invisible. Many have suspected that it is no coincidence this is after Disney bought Tron

and did limited edition Tron covers to a bunch of Marvel books.

The New Spider-Armor: The newest to debut, no one has any idea about the armor. It seems to be some evolution of the Tron Armor, and recent Amazing Spider-Man covers seems he might join the Fantastic Four (who is due to loose

a founding member) as well go up against a new Venom who is a black-ops spy hero and a newly decked out Scorpion. It gives the allure of being sleek, but I don’t like the yellow or the metal helmet thing.

At the end of the day, I only like these armors as something that Spidey could use but shouldn’t be a permanent fixture in the book- the classic red and blue should be his main suit, with any spider armor being something he can use if needed.

I'm back!

Hello all,

Back from a long time of not posting, graduated from BC with a masters, recently engaged, and making an early New Year's Resolution to get back to blogging. This one will not be long but I wanted to say hello, and also say (and this might sound kinda awkward) but for you ministry folks, I am doing and am enjoying more speaking engagements at both the college, high school and parish level - so if you are interested in having a speaker on Social Justice, Catholic Social Teaching or Morality, I'm you're guy. Also, look for posts in the next few weeks mainly pertaining to most things comic booky, with a little bit about politics and religion thrown in there as well. Until then, Happy Holidays!

Captain America(s) are back!

He's back! And so am I! It's been a long while be we're both back, me and Steve Rogers. Ifyou hadn't heard, Steve Rogers, the originally Captain America will be returning from the dead this summer. But how? Who knows? And where does that leave the current Captain America, Roger's WWII sidekick, James 'Bucky' Barnes? We also don't know. Cap 600 gave us an insight to Cap's world, as the New Avengers, Bucky, Black Widow, Sharon Carter (Cap's gf), Patriot, Josiah Bradley and a female teenage Bucky from an alternate world (more on that later). There are some Cap characters who are being utilized in other books, such as USAgent, a one time fill-in for Cap, in Mighty Avengers and a patriotic superhero who Cpa worked with named Jack Flagg in Guardians of the Galaxy. There are a few other characters that are not being used, such as Vagabond, Free Spirit and Battlestar, but the character I'm suprised and disapointed looks like is not going to be used is the IVF son of the secret, African-American Captain America, Isiah Bradley.

A few years ago, in a mini-series called Truth, Marvel decided to exapand the idea of the Super-Soldier program to real world proportions. In X-Men they tied it to the Weapon X program that created Wolverine, as part of the larger Weapon Plus program. But they also applied he Super-Soldier program to Tuskegee Airman scandal, and proposed that the US govermnet would have tested the Super-Soldier serum on african americans before white americans. Out of that story came the first Captain America, Isiah Bradley, who was captured behind enemy lines, and who the unrefined serum sterlized him and drove him to a child like state. In the story, his wife and he had a daughter already, who ends up have a grandson Eli, who eventually gets a blood transfer from his grandfather and gains super-soldier powers, and goes by the name Patriot as part of the Young Avengers.
Now the was a great 7 issue series call the Crew by Chris Priest (writer of one of the best super-hero/political comics ever - check out his Black Panther series!) which basically were about a bunch of 'stree't level 'heroes' who were of classic Avengers types - Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Panther. However, he did not set up to a do a 'black' Avengers....His Iron Man was in fact a former Iron Man, James Rhodes, the War Machine, who had fallen from grace, and was investigating the murder of his sister who had become a prositute in one of the worst parts of Brooklyn, The Mog or Little Mogadishu. All he had left was a lifetime of experience, and the mask and power gaulntlet of his old War Machine armor. He was joined by Narcotic Dective Kasper Cole, son of a African-America police officer and white Jewish mother, who at one time took on the identity of the Black Panther when he disapeared to pursue actions against a drug cartel. Also adding to this list is the Hawkeye type character, Juanta, or Danny Vicent, a former NSA analyst who also has gravity powers which not only helps him to defy gravity but also can cause sickness in those he touches. Danny is torn between doing the right thing and getting in good with drug cartels and government agnecies who happen to be in bed with each other. Finally they are brought together by the IVF son of Isiah Bradley and his wife, the one embryo tht survived with his super-soldier dna intact. Living a very long life as a vagrant, solider in Vietnam, and black panther, he ran a mission for the poor in needy in the Mog, as a Muslim immam. So therefore, not only is Josiah Bradley, or Josiah X as he went by, the son of the secret African American Captain America, he was also a Muslim. Talk about a great charcter to use as part of bringing back Steve Rogers.
The one character who I am happy they are including is the female Bucky from the Heroes Reborn story line. In the original storyline, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the Inhumans as well as other heroes sacrifice againt a powerful enemy named Onslaught. At the last moment before they die, Franklin Richards, the mutant son of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman shunts them to a alternate universe with them as the onyl heroes. Here top creators were able to re-do these characters from the ground-up. Eventually the heroes were brought back, and left the new heroes on their world, where in subsquent stories, kinda went to shit. The bright light was the female Bucky, Rikki Barnes the grandaughter of James 'Bucky' Barnes from this alternate world and her Young Allies who teamed up the Thunderbolts and Exiles in subsequent stories. Recently, there was a story that basically negated all that had been done with this alternate world, but did land Rikki Barnes on earth after Steve Rogers had been assasinated. So we will see how much the current writer of Cap does in incoporating her differing back stories.

Anyways, that's all from me for now!

She's crazy....and a liar?

Bridge to No where? and she kept the money....

http://www.reuters.com/article/vcCandidateFeed7/idUSN3125537020080901

Lied about selling a plane on ebay?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/05/sarah-palins-strange-ebay_n_124097.html


Rape Kits?

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/on-health-and-money/2008/9/10/sarah-palin-and-the-rape-kit-question.html

Trip to Iraq?

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2008/09/15/sarah-palins-iraq-trip--all-the-way-up-to-the-border.html


Here's some daily show: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184481&title=Sarah-Palin-Won't-Blink.


And the word from Colbert:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/184928/september-15-2008/the-word---how-dare-you-

I also want to note that McCain -Palin -reformers: McCain, who was a great war hero, became a reformer after almost getting brought down in an awful scandal, and Palin spent $452 million dollars on crab porn (among other things). Also, from the people who want small government we hear a lot about government oversight and regulation, as well as more money for the defense. (which is all off-budget....can't wait till that shoe drops)

It's been a while...but i am back baby....

And boy, do I have a lot to say.

First of all some links we all need to watch:

Me on TV:
http://www.necn.com/Boston/New-England/Obama-supporters-gather-to-watch-a-milestone-in-American/1219983116.html

Some Daily Show: http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184095&title=sarah-palin-vet-this

and

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086&title=sarah-palin-gender-card&tag=generic_tag_restoring_honor_and&itemId=184220

and

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184114&title=the-best-f#king-news-team-ever

and

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184113&title=john-mccain-reformed-maverick

and

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184111&title=john-mccains-big-acceptance

And Matt Damon being very concerned: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/09/matt_damon_wants_to_know_if_sa.html


and a little NY times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/12/opinion/12krugman.html?ex=1378958400&en=c086f0651fb9c71b&ei=5124&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook



So now onto thoughts: First of all, a friend of mine sent me an article that compared Batman from the recent and kick ass Dark Knight movie to G.W. Bush. This made me wanted to do two things: punch my computer in the same way that "Waiting on the World to Change" makes me want to punch the radio. Also to drive to this guy's office and give him every Batman comic I have. Batman, while rich and a WASP, is not a Republican. Let's talk why. He hates guns. He does not support capital punishment. He understand the greys of the world. He is open minded and open hearted. He is not a crazy Evangelical Christian. He understand that the world isn't good guys and bad guys, that poverty and greed by everyone can create the situations where classes tend to fall to certain types of crime. Those are just a few. In fact, if there was one character in that movie I would compare to our esteemed President Douche bag, it would be Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two Face. Bush's worldview of fairness, black and white, good guys and bad guys, cowboys and indians, us vs. them is something that would much more akin to Two Face, though he is much more like able, tragic and better spoken.


Also some thoughts from the RNC:

1. How dare community organizers work in tough areas of the country, trying to make the world a better place. Like me, giving a year of my life in a peaceful community enrichment program when I was 22 when I should have been in a beauty pageant.

2. I love how the Republicans blame the last 8 years on the 'liberal' media and San Francisco when it was their party in power. Also, i think someone needs to explain to them that corporations own the media, and those corporations are hardly ever liberal. And yes, that Fox news is very much to blame.

3. Cindy McCain's outfit was worth more money that I have ever made. Ah, the party of the 'regular' people and fiscal conservatives.

4. If you live in the city, you don't have God, morals, principles or values. Republicans want to the world to go back to 1950's small values. Like racism, sexism, hate of gays, rampant alcoholism and spousal abuse. Ahhh the good old days.

Event Horizon

So this summer, as much with the last few summers, the comic book industry, the the big 2 in particular (Marvel and DC) have decided to do large event comics. In recent years, these event, which are usually miniseries, often have an unbelievable amount of tie-ins, which have come at great cost to the readers. However this year, we have something a bit different. In the Marvel universe, we Secret Invasion. Basically, an group of religious alien shape shifters believes that Earth is rightfully theirs and for the last few years, have infiltrated our society, and this is their first strike in their war. It involved the Avengers mainly, with 4 mini-series tying a majority of other big super-hero teams such as the Fantastic Four and X-men, some once shots and few new series launching out of the war. It will cross over in many books, and the main two Avengers titles, will not focus on the Avengers but on the back story leading up to the main mini-series. Now, while this does seem like a lot, it is much less than other years, and the two Avengers books as well as the min-series are all being written by the same writer, so it should be interesting. From what it looks like, certain charades will be found out to be skrulls, some skrulls maybe did not even know that they were skrulls, and some heroes will either be dead or have been in stasis for many years. It also looks like, that even if both teams of Avengers get their collective heads out of their asses, the new Captain America, Thor and Nick Fury will be the saviors of the day.


As for DC, they are basing their event on the recent Sinestro Corp War storyline in Green Lantern. This was a massive storyline that effected the DCU but only was in Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corp and had one other issue tie in. Their Final Crisis will be culmination of the 1986 Crisis on Infinite Earth, Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Infinite Crisis by Geoff Johns. (If you couldn't tell Marvel likes the words 'War' and 'Secret' and DC likes 'Crisis') Here the idea is the for as long as we can remember, these evil and good gods have been fighting, and evil won. Every time our heroes have faced off against these gods, we had the good ones helping us, but not this time. This is the day evil wins in the DCU. The event has maybe 5-6 total issues of tie-ins, 3 mini-series and 4 one-shots. Almost all of mini-series or off shoots are being written by 3 writers, all of whom worked together on the landmark weekly mini-series called 52. And maybe the most exciting part of this, is that it looks like the savior of the DCU might be the same character who was their first official saint, the one who died in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, running so fast to blow up a devastating weapon that he became one with the universe. Barry Allen is back, to deliver one of those nick-of-time saves.

Now I grew up on Marvel and I love the recent Captain America book, enjoy the Avengers books and am looking forward to Secret Invasion and the new Captain Brittain and MI:13 books, Marvel, at times, reeks of arrogance. Forever they put their universe in a few hands, who were capable but always thought of themselves as the best. Joe Quesada, especially has shown this, especially of late when he decided to reverse 30 years of history by taking away Spider-Man's marriage. He didn't want this perennial hero to be divorced, so he rather him make a deal with the devil for the world to forget his marriage.....huh?

DC on the other hand, has of recent years, made plenty of mistakes (Countdown being one of them) but has done a more humble, more team approach to their books, and SCW and Crisis being a signal of it, have done more for the fans in not making their event book being something in which you have buy 80 comics to understand.

And let's face it, with Marvel we might get back ape-like Beast or might find out that Hank Pym has been skrull, and you might get Fury and the classic Avengers beating back an invasion, but DC just brought back Barry Allen for one of those nick of time saves....And as the show Firelfy once told us:

Mal: Well look at this. 'Pears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
Zoë: Big damn heroes, sir.
Mal: Ain't we just.