Am I a Bad Person...

Does not wanting to watch the "Hope for Haiti" telethons make me a bad person? I tried watching the "Canada for Haiti" telethon, but it was so dull I couldn't stand it. The band that came on was pretty lousy, although I admit that they were probably just not my thing and others may have enjoyed them. But the banter from the hosts was simply exhausting. I have no idea what Ben Mulroney was talking about at one point, but he'd have been better served piping down and letting Rachel McAdams speak up. And the less said about Brent Butt's pre-taped "comedy bit" the better. I figured by pledging I did my part though, and now I'm watching the Simpsons and Justice League with relatively little guilt. Barely more than I usually have hanging over me.

But still, does not watching it make me a bad person? Probably. I'm not though.

Well This is a Kick in the Head

First, I'd like to apologize for all of the nerd-heavy posts lately. On one hand I try to limit it to stuff that I'd hope folks might find interesting even if they're comic related. On the other it's easier writing about colorful funny book pamphlets than, you know, actually relevant stuff, so there you go.

That said, I read today that Dwayne McDuffie's been fired off the Justice League comic for discussing the editorial side of writing that book, specifically mandated tie-ins to other stories, characters being off-limits, writing a scene where a deceased character is mourned in a cemetary and then finding out they decided they weren't really dead after all (leaving the background tombstones curiously out of place), that kind of stuff.

But even being hamstrung as he was, I thought the book was doing pretty good. Not great, but there was still enough stuff in every issue to make it an entertaining read. And of course, I found out about this after finishing the latest issue, musing over the better bits as I checked out a few of my usual online haunts.

This is a real kick in the head. Really stinks.

Thoughts on "Flash: Rebirth" (warning: nerd alert)

You'd almost think DC Comics had totally given up on the idea of moving their stories and characters forward with the announcement that they're giving recently resurrected Flash, Barry Allen, his own "Rebirth" title by the same creative team that relaunched similarly deceased and boring silver age character Hal Jordan as "the greatest Green Lantern of them all" (notwithstanding the fact that the other four major Green Lanterns have more character in their worst stories that Hal Jordan's had in any of his his, excluding the time he went nuts and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps, a wealth of material for character development of stories down the line that got wiped away because DC decided they didn't like it).

I didn't have a problem with DC bringing Barry Allen back in their Final Crisis series (and preferably only for the duration of the Final Crisis series, I add), but I take issue with making him their star of the Flash comic. 'Current' Flash, Wally West, is a great character and very undeserving of the expected shuffle aside that then-current GL Kyle Rayner got when Jordan returned, and even if the book with Allen is great and exceeds all expectations, it all begs the question that if DC was capable of doing this great relaunch, why didn't they do it in the first place with Wally West?

Despite what DC might say, this is likely the end of the line for Wally West as the main Flash, and as someone who grew up with the character and has really come to like him over the years, it's a real kick in the head. And I assure you, I'm not adverse to change -- I followed the Flash title when it looked like Wally was out of the picture and replaced by his former sidekick, Kid Flash. But this isn't change, not really. It's turning the clock back twenty-three years to bring back a character aging writers and editors liked way back when instead of actually moving the stories and characters forward along with the audiences. You think a new reader knows who Hal Jordan is? Not when they've been exposed to Green Lantern John Stewart in the Justice League tv show and video games (not to mention his inclusion in the on-again, off-again Justice League movie). Similarly, Wally West is the Flash of this generation and my generation before it. That's two generations going on three who know this character as THE Flash, and as recognition for our love of the character we're seeing him shunted aside so a character who's been better handled after he died nearly a quarter of a century ago can appear in some books for reasons I can only think of as being short-sighted.

Again, don't have a problem with DC doing something with Barry Allen. I liked him in JLA: Year One (coincidentally the only place I've ever liked Hal Jordan), I like the stuff they did with him in the Flash title from a few years ago. But I think it's an awful idea to have him come back as DC's main Flash.

I think Graeme Burke commented on this very nicely, over at the Comics Should Be Good blog:

"I loved the Barry Allen Flash. One of my favourite superheroes. And I am against this series for every reason you just said and more. I’m tired of comics being written to an agenda of bringing things back they loved when they were kids. It’s not 1971 anymore. Stop it."

Well said.

Hi there.

Not much to say today. I'm going to see the Kids in the Hall perform in Toronto tonight and I'm pretty excited about that. Kids in the Hall is probably the funniest Canadian TV show of all time, and it's really nice being able to see them live (on top of which it's the last date in their current tour, which is pretty nice too).

The last issue of Justice League Unlimited came out yesterday. It was a pretty good issue, but it's still a kick in the head that the series is over. Apparently it has a lot to do with changes in DC Comic's publishing plan for it's Johnny DC line -- less emphasis on titles based on animated series (JLU, Teen Titans Go!, Legion of Superheroes, The Batman), more on original titles (Tiny Titans, Superfriends, Shazam). It's still a shame though since JLU wasn't a bad title and hit a nice medium between the mainline Justice League of America book and the more kid-friendly Superfriends, something kids and adults can both enjoy.


Finally, I found this neat blog rating system thing. Apparently I'm G-rated, which I guess is good (?).

More later, I suppose.

So... Has DC Cancelled Justice League Unlimited or Not?

Because if they have, well, that'd be a real kick in the head. The latest issue was a lot of fun. Great story by Justice League Unlimited TV writer Matt Wayne, great art by Dario Brizuela, and is was a neat follow up to the bit in the JLU series finale when Giganta (pictured above), kissed the Flash (pictured running away from Giganta, above). It was a cute story too, and a solid entry in a pretty solid series.

I'm not 100% on this, but I think DC is cancelling the series. I got the impression they were also axing the Teen Titans animated-style comic, but I think they're keeping it around for a while. I don't see why they can't do the same with JLU. Unless sales are just awful. It's too bad really, especially since they seem to be cancelling it and replacing it with a new "Superfriends" title, based on the kid-friendly Mattel toys. I don't want to get ahead of myself or anything, but it looks terrible.

I also got a copy of the latest Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man with the Mary Jane-on-white variant cover. I asked about the other white variant covers and if there was one for the last Amazing Spider-Man. Not that I'd ever seen that particular Spider-Man-on-white variant in the three shops I've been in since it came out. Turns out they had a few copies in my local shop and I'd been passing by them since the reordered copies came in. So I'm glad. Just hope I can snag a copy of the last white variant cover with Peter Parker. It looks neat.

And now I'm just rambling.

Worse than the "Star Wars Christmas Special"?

I stumbled upon the fabled Legends of the Superheroes special from the late 70s on Youtube about a half hour ago and it's every bit as terrible as you'd assume it to be. It was a comedy program featuring very comic-accurate versions of a lot of big name and lesser known DC Superheroes. Normally that would be enough to capture my interest -- there is something neat about seeing characters from the printed page come to life -- but it's really bad. Like Star Wars Christmas Special bad, except no one wants to see this, and DC isn't worried about people watching it because, quite frankly, who would want to.

I'd considered posting the "roll call" intro clip here because of how cool it is seeing characters like Hawkman, the Flash, Huntress and Black Canary in live-action, but once it got to the villain roll-call, cool as it is to see very comic-accurate representations of Solomon Grundy, Mordru, and Weather Wizard (plus Frank Gorshin as the Riddler), it just killed me. The dreadful performances and weak attempts at humor punctuated by repetitious laugh-tracks is just terrible. That alone would warrant a look... that is if that were the worst the special had to offer.

No, the worst part of the Legends of the Superheroes would have to be the appearance of Ghetto Man: black superhero and cheerfully racist stereotype. With jokes about how having Green Lantern on the team doesn't count as colored superhero, and how Hawkman's not so tough ("Let him walk through Harlem them wings on; by the time he gets to Lennox avenue, he'd be Kentucky Fried") you really start why NBC, DC Comics, Hanna Barbara, and about four dozen cast and crew members, thought this was a good idea. And it gets worse -- when I started writing this post I started checking around to figure out which network this bloody mess aired on and discovered that there were actually TWO Legends of the Superheroes specials that aired! The first was the one with the villains, the second was the one with the roast (featuring our old friend, Ghetto Man).

The bright side to this whole thing is that hardly anyone even remembers these specials, and those that do or those like myself who've stumbled on it years after the fact unilaterally agree that it's absolutely terrible and should be erased from existence.

That said, here's a clip. And yes, I am being ironic.

JLU vs. Superfriends

Here's a link to a great article online comparing Superfriends and Justice League Unlimited:

http://toddalcott.livejournal.com/65562.html

Here's an excerpt for whet your appetite:

"In Superfriends, Batman has a computer and a cave full of gadgets, Wonder Woman has a magic rope and an invisible plane, Green Lantern has a magic ring, Flash is fast, Superman has his multitudinous powers, Aquaman talks to fish. Those are all fine attributes, but they do not, in and of themselves, constitute character. If all that mattered was the number of powers, Martian Manhunter would be a more popular superhero than Superman.

"What the producers of Superfriends chose to do is give all their heroes the exact same personality, whether they are the Last Son of Krypton, the Dark Knight, the Amazon Princess or The Guy Who Talks to Fish. The heroes of Superfriends are uniformly game, brave, chipper, chatty, easily startled and, paradoxically, unflappable. No sooner do they exclaim "Great Krypton/Hera/Gotham/Neptune!" than they pull some improbable solution out of the air and calmly implement it (as Seanbaby mentions, this solution often involves "spinning around" the bad guy/explosion/missile/lava/monster/lava-monster until the spinning affects it somehow).

"This conceptual blunder, not the dumb plots or the cheap animation, is why Superfriends is so reviled. Television can soar on dumb plots and cheap animation, it cannot survive without characters. This is why episodes of Superfriends feel so shallow, repetitive and lame; there are seven main characters and they all think and act exactly the same way. Think about it: Hanna-Barbera actually gave the members of the Justice League less personality than they gave to the members of the Mystery Gang."

Honestly, I don't get why some folks are so hung up on Superfriends. It's the same thing with shows like He-Man and Ninja Turtles. I get affection for old cartoons you watched as a kid, but really, a lot of those shows are pretty bad. Not just the animation, but the writing and voice acting too. And hey, there are things I liked as a kid that I've rewatched as an adult and found nostalgic enjoyment in, but they're far from the be-all, end-all.

Hi there.

Not much to say. "Stella" and "Justice League Unlimited" are on DVD. Been playing Justice League Heroes quite a bit. Trying to read more and add spice to my lifestyle wherever possible. Like for instance -- the other day I had caramel on my Starbucks white chocolate mocha. Livin' on the edge, and all that.

After the Finale...

So, the JLU series finale aired. It was pretty good. The animation was sharp as always and some of the returning characters were surprising, but I'd be lying if I said I was totally satisfied with it. I was hoping that some of the character that popped up during the this season -- The General, King Faraday, Deadman -- would return since their last appearances were so open-ended. Granted the finale didn't really call for them to show up again, but from a story stand-point their returns were called for since the odds of getting closure at this point is nil. Also the big bad, however shocking and fun his final fight against Superman was, came out of left field and deprived the expected all-out brawl between the Justice League and the Legion of Doom. I think the problem with this season was the handling of the Legion.

The whole idea of doing the LoD is so you can have them square off against the Justice League. Of course, not doing this is a nice twist, but having the Legion as anything but direct adversaries for the Justice League is pointless when you don't actually care about any members of the Legion. Most of them were background fodder anyway with no prior animated appearances to draw from, and the few new villains that did get a moment in the spotlight -- Dr. Polaris, Atomic Skull, the Key, Silver Banshee, Sonar - received no development as characters at all. They were basically one-dimensional bad guys with gimmicks. The few villains that did show up from older series -- Metallo, Giganta, Toyman, Sinestro -- were included in episodes so overloaded with material they weren't given any chances to do anything new and lost any uniqueness that made them so memorable to begin with. The one "new" villain (a brief, non-speaking role aside) to pique my interest was Atomic Skull, and that was only because of his natural sounding voice contrasting with the fact he's a huge guy with a flaming green skull for a head.

But really, the big reason why the Legion failed as a season-long arc was that there was no depth to it. Cadmus worked because you had real people with understandable motives who didn't think they were evil -- they felt they had legitimate reasons to fear and strike against the Justice League. The Legion on the other hand, know they're evil. They just about say as much in several episodes. And, unlike Cadmus with it's rich multi-episode endeavors, the Legion only shined in the season premiere that introduced the team and set up the promising premise of an anti-Justice League, the Warlord and Viking Prince episodes that furthered the story and set up the intriguing idea that Grodd was willing to sacrifice members of his team to keep the Secret Society a true secret, the Deadman episode, and then the two part finale. The two other Society appearances throughout the season were either too brief, as in "Grudge Match", or played for laughs, as in "Great Brain Robbery".

The entire season moved away from episode-to-episode developments of JLU's first and second seasons and instead spent either half of the season on separate mini-arcs with the SS. This shift ultimately contributed to the lack of character development through JLU's final thirteen episodes and brought the show back to the arguably less refined style of the original Justice League series. It's frustrating as a fan because I've seen how well they can handle a mature Justice League Unlimited and made the season less satisfying on the whole.

That said, the finale packed a punch indeed with a great many shocks and surprises in the forms of shocking returns and the deaths of several DCAU vets. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it a great deal but the lack of any emotional connection to the characters coupled with the fact that the huge developments called for action over character meant there was little emotional resonance to the proceedings. J'onn's return was a nice touch -- I'd forgotten about him but remember hoping he'd come back during the season -- but Darkseid menacing the world again felt old hat at this point. I got charged up when the Daily Planet was destroyed, but Superman didn't even seem to care, much less worry about Lois Lane and company who were inside when it went down. I felt the same way when Hawkgirl got a spear thrown at her, only to have her shrug it off soon afterwards. What could have been a shocking, emotional moment became a throwaway bit.

So I enjoyed the finale. It was made all the more better watching it on Sean's 42" plasma screen with him, Kerr and Raf, JLU newbies all (and they actually started to like it too!) And with the finale so ends the DCAU proper. Sure there'll be things like the Superman DTV down the line, but I think this is a last real hurrah for these characters. It might not have been my favorite way of closing the curtains, but they still went out with style. Kudos all, and from someone who's been watching since that fateful Saturday in September 1992, thanks for the memories.

Cheers, JLU

Here's to 91 episodes.

Justice League Unlimited series finale on Tonight at 7pm

In case anyone out there stumbles upon this between now and 7pm, the series finale of Justice League Unlimited -- don't judge me for my nerdish leanings -- is airing tonight on YTV. I'm hoping it's a good one. It's already aired overseas, but folks in the US haven't seen it yet. Not that they have much longer to wait, about a week or two, but it's still cool to be ahead of the game, I suppose.

Oh Yeah...

I have a blog. How about that.

Uh... I had a birthday. Watched the series finale of JLU. Been keeping up with South Park, Veronica Mars, Two and a Half Men, and Everybody Hates Chris. Got Justice League season one and In Dream of Jeannie on DVD. Schools wrapping up. Made some money. Suddenly started recalling the entire score to Sweeney Todd (not a bad thing). A friend got a 42" Plasma screen TV, and I have a feeling my brother will too. Been going to Boston Pizza at least once a week -- like the pasta and salad deals. Haven't been up to too much else. Will try to check in soon, as long as I remember I have a blog.

Recent News

So, the family get-together was fun, if not terribly aggravating -- people get unusually tense in my family when it comes to organizing parties. I just hung out with Kerr and Johnny for the most part, but I did sit in when the choir was here, and to hear a few of messer. Levy's stories -- FYI: he and the director of "The Man" didn't get along.

There was a bit of a fuss when word got out that Justice League was coming out on DVD but it wasn't going to be widescreen. In the three or four days since that announcement, Warner Home Video rescinded and said that everything from season two on would be WS. I'm okay with that though -- season one wasn't real widescreen anyway.

My column wasn't in the latest Cut and Print, nor have I heard back from Jake about my mini-interview with Eugene. I suspect something's off with my email, but I'll keep trying to get through.

Anyway, I'll check back soon. Have a good day.

Hi there.

It's been a while since the last post, and not much has happened to me in the meantime. I've been doing school work, a little bit of writing... the new season of JLU has started and while I enjoyed the premiere episode, the second episode of the hour-long block left me a little cold. Still waiting to find last night's episodes somewhere.

In other news, JLU story editor, producer, writer Dwayne McDuffie is doing a Fantastic Four book, which should be pretty good. He's a really cool guy, and a heck of a writer.

So... not much to report on. I'm hoping to find the JLU DVD, but haven't had much luck so far. I should get it soon though, since there's a lot of DVDs coming out this fall and I only have so much disposable income.

Why I Like San Diego

The first script I ever wrote to completion, TDSA - The Teenaged Defending Squad of America, was set in San Diego. Why, I don't know. I guess I liked the fact that it was a big city, but not so big, like say a Los Angeles or a San Francisco. I wanted a city that would accomadate superhero types, but also be small enough that I could easily set my script there at a minimum of research. Like most writers, I avoid research when possible, but I did actually look into San Diego quite a bit, although most of the research was cut from the final draft. I even placed a call to a San Diego info center for street names, something I've completely forgotten about and can't believe I actually did.

But anyway, the San Diego comicon is going on right now, the biggest, greatest comicon in North America, and the mecca at which the top publishers reveal their plans for the year and genre video game companies and film studios hock their wares. I haven't been, but I wish I could go, especially since the JLU creative team will be there: Bruce Timm, Dwayne McDuffie, James Tucker, Shaun McLaughlin, and Matt Wayne. Plus Paul Dini, prolific DCAU writer is signing in other areas. I'd LOVE to actually be able to meet Messers. Timm and McDuffie, and maybe even get a sketch from B.T, but that'll have to wait until I... have, uh... money.

Ahem.

Still sounds cool. Can't wait to see what gets unveiled.

About the Other Day

Hi there.

Meanwhile, there isn't much to report on my front. I got together with John, Edmond, and Sean the other day. We went to "Time-Out" (possibly the worst name for a sports bar next to "3rd Quarter") and the guys drank while we played pool. I even played a round in between picking songs on the jukebox. The guys had a few beers at John's place before we arrived at T.O so by the time we left they were pretty loaded. We looked around John's basement a bit too -- I saw a bunch of his old toys from the 80s, he has a complete set of Superfriends that I'd love to take off his hands, but he's too stubborn to sell. I'd just take them, but he would actually notice they're gone.

Aside from that, I went to Sobey's. They still sell comics there so I got the latest issue of Peter David's Hulk, which is amazing. I'll definitely be getting the next issue. It's a real gem and recommended for anyone who comes across this blog (yeah, right).

Yesterday I went to the unveiling of the Ellen Fairclough stamp with my grandmother (yup, I'm super cool). There was a full buffet spread and the food was surprisingly good. And the dessert was incredible.

"Epilogue"

So the season finale of Justice League aired on YTV tonight, and for the second time in as many months, YTV screwed up the airing by instead showing an infomercial and then "Snailympics" for the first five minutes of the show. No word if they'll be reairing it, which would be great since it was a spectacular episode.

Aside from not, not much else to report on. I've been thinking alot about Michael Reaves though, a Batman writer whose episodes I never really liked, they were mostly lower-key, realistic romps and his dialogue occasionally sounds tinny, but the more I think about it, and see his episodes again, I've found they're some of my favorites. "Bullet for Bullock", "Avatar", "Read My Lips", "Sideshow", "Vendetta" -- not the episodes of the classic series (now on DVD) that spring to mind, like say a "Heart of Ice", but all very solid with excellent animation. Definitely underrated as far as DCAU writers go, but right up there with the best of them.