DC Animation
Re: DC Animation
Watched "Mxyzpixilated" yesterday and decided to pause on the comics page.
Here's a pretty decent grab from TV Tropes:
That looks like they probably got it from the DVD; it looks a lot sharper on Blu-Ray.
Here's a pretty decent grab from TV Tropes:
That looks like they probably got it from the DVD; it looks a lot sharper on Blu-Ray.
Re: DC Animation
Labeling a strip about a Japanese-American artist "Broken English" is a pretty unfortunate choice.
I don't think the implication is intentional, they just didn't put much thought into a gag that most of the audience was never going to see anyway.
(Or, who knows, maybe it's a meta-joke about white people assuming Murakami can't speak English because of the way he looks. I'm sure that's something he's had to deal with.)
I don't think the implication is intentional, they just didn't put much thought into a gag that most of the audience was never going to see anyway.
(Or, who knows, maybe it's a meta-joke about white people assuming Murakami can't speak English because of the way he looks. I'm sure that's something he's had to deal with.)
Re: DC Animation
Oh also Zaslav just pulled DC Superhero Girls from basically everywhere, except season 1 is still streaming on Netflix (presumably until the license expires). So that's fun.
Re: DC Animation
that reminds me, gotta buy a new storage drive soon
Re: DC Animation
Decisions, decisions.
If I skip the next episode of Superman: TAS, the one after that is a New Gods episode, and today is Jack Kirby's birthday.
On the other hand, if I skip that episode, the one after that features Arleen Sorkin, who just passed away.
...you know what, I'm just going to watch the next episode and finish the disc I'm on. Clearly the real priority here is minimizing the number of times I have to get up and walk across the room.
(And if you think I'm being facetious, try getting up and swapping discs without waking the baby who has finally fallen asleep in your lap after an hour of coaxing.)
If I skip the next episode of Superman: TAS, the one after that is a New Gods episode, and today is Jack Kirby's birthday.
On the other hand, if I skip that episode, the one after that features Arleen Sorkin, who just passed away.
...you know what, I'm just going to watch the next episode and finish the disc I'm on. Clearly the real priority here is minimizing the number of times I have to get up and walk across the room.
(And if you think I'm being facetious, try getting up and swapping discs without waking the baby who has finally fallen asleep in your lap after an hour of coaxing.)
Re: DC Animation
"Father's Day" is a deep one. It's a loose adaptation of New Gods #11, the final issue of the original series. Its biggest concession is one that's inherent to centering the conflict on Superman rather than Orion, and it's right there in the title: the original story is called "Darkseid and Sons".
Writers Mark Evanier and Steve Gerber (good choices; once again the showrunners hand a Kirby adaptation off to people who knew and worked with him and, in Evanier's case, were there when he wrote New Gods) do their best to preserve the father-and-son theme of the original story by adding Pa Kent to the story. It works well enough, and putting Pa's life on the line gives the story some personal stakes even though Superman has no idea who Kalibak is.
Nonetheless, it lacks the power of the original story, where two brothers fight to the death and ultimately their father steps in to save one of them, knowing it will mean the death of the other.
Of course the other difference is that the original story is an ending and the adaptation is a beginning. "Father's Day" is really Darkseid's introduction; we've seen him before, briefly, but this is really the first time we get a picture of who he is, what his deal is, what his relationship is to Kalibak and Desaad. Whereas New Gods #11 was the final issue of the series; it infamously doesn't provide a satisfying ending to the storyline, but it does have the sense, at least, that it's the end of an act, with Orion learning he's Darkseid's son, and both Kalibak and Desaad dying.
Darkseid does vaporize Kalibak at the end of Father's Day, and it's pretty shocking for a moment there, but then he respawns somewhere else. Which is probably a mix of BS&P pressure and also, once again, this story being more of a beginning than an ending; it wouldn't make a hell of a lot of sense to kill Kalibak off in his first appearance.
As for Superman's encounter with Darkseid, that's a pretty straight-across adaptation of their first encounter at the end of Forever People #1 (except, y'know, without the Forever People). And damn it's good.
Superman: TAS really does a fantastic job with Darkseid and the New Gods of Apokolips. (Maybe not quite as good a job with the New Genesis half of the cast.) Just really across the board -- the writing, the art, the casting. Michael Ironside is a perfect Darkseid. He's restrained, he's patient, he doesn't raise his voice. He makes for an excellent contrast to Luthor -- Luthor is defined by his insecurities, his need to prove he's better than Superman; Darkseid doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. He defeats Superman, literally with both hands behind his back, says "That is who I am," and leaves. (A riff on "Darkseid is," a catchphrase which I believe was introduced by Paul Levitz.) Michael Dorn is a fantastic choice for Kalibak, too, a borderline-feral warrior but with a sense of vulnerability and guilelessness; all he really wants is to impress his father, which makes him an easy target for Desaad's manipulation.
It's interesting to see the development of how the Fourth World has been adapted over the years -- Darkseid showed up in the later seasons of Super Friends but bore little resemblance to the version in the comics; Alan Burnett's spoken about the restrictions at the network and at Hanna-Barbera and how the DCAU shows were the kind of shows he'd wanted to make all along. (I doubt Kirby complained about the Super Friends version; he was just happy to get a creator credit and a royalty check.) Superman: TAS was finally a chance to get it right. And then Young Justice went completely buck-wild with the Fourth World stuff, introducing the DNA Project in the first episode, the Forever People not long after, and plumbing all sorts of weird corners of the lore like the Overlord (but ultimately having very little of Darkseid himself). And now we've got My Adventures with Superman bringing its own take on the likes of Intergang and the Newsboy Legion (and OMAC, which is Kirby but not Fourth World).
Quite the vindication not just for Kirby but for Jenette Kahn, the person who looked at the Fourth World books and saw their potential where her predecessors at DC had refused to. It's been immensely frustrating seeing the current owners of DC (and the ones before them, and the ones before them) systematically dismantle her creator-friendly legacy, as people like Bill Willingham will attest. But for a minute there, DC was managed by people who understood what they had and treated it -- and, more importantly, the people who made it -- with the respect they deserved. Or at least made an effort to. Obviously they didn't please everybody (see any interview with Alan Moore), but I've seen a lot more creators praise Kahn and Levitz's leadership than criticize it.
Writers Mark Evanier and Steve Gerber (good choices; once again the showrunners hand a Kirby adaptation off to people who knew and worked with him and, in Evanier's case, were there when he wrote New Gods) do their best to preserve the father-and-son theme of the original story by adding Pa Kent to the story. It works well enough, and putting Pa's life on the line gives the story some personal stakes even though Superman has no idea who Kalibak is.
Nonetheless, it lacks the power of the original story, where two brothers fight to the death and ultimately their father steps in to save one of them, knowing it will mean the death of the other.
Of course the other difference is that the original story is an ending and the adaptation is a beginning. "Father's Day" is really Darkseid's introduction; we've seen him before, briefly, but this is really the first time we get a picture of who he is, what his deal is, what his relationship is to Kalibak and Desaad. Whereas New Gods #11 was the final issue of the series; it infamously doesn't provide a satisfying ending to the storyline, but it does have the sense, at least, that it's the end of an act, with Orion learning he's Darkseid's son, and both Kalibak and Desaad dying.
Darkseid does vaporize Kalibak at the end of Father's Day, and it's pretty shocking for a moment there, but then he respawns somewhere else. Which is probably a mix of BS&P pressure and also, once again, this story being more of a beginning than an ending; it wouldn't make a hell of a lot of sense to kill Kalibak off in his first appearance.
As for Superman's encounter with Darkseid, that's a pretty straight-across adaptation of their first encounter at the end of Forever People #1 (except, y'know, without the Forever People). And damn it's good.
Superman: TAS really does a fantastic job with Darkseid and the New Gods of Apokolips. (Maybe not quite as good a job with the New Genesis half of the cast.) Just really across the board -- the writing, the art, the casting. Michael Ironside is a perfect Darkseid. He's restrained, he's patient, he doesn't raise his voice. He makes for an excellent contrast to Luthor -- Luthor is defined by his insecurities, his need to prove he's better than Superman; Darkseid doesn't need to prove anything to anybody. He defeats Superman, literally with both hands behind his back, says "That is who I am," and leaves. (A riff on "Darkseid is," a catchphrase which I believe was introduced by Paul Levitz.) Michael Dorn is a fantastic choice for Kalibak, too, a borderline-feral warrior but with a sense of vulnerability and guilelessness; all he really wants is to impress his father, which makes him an easy target for Desaad's manipulation.
It's interesting to see the development of how the Fourth World has been adapted over the years -- Darkseid showed up in the later seasons of Super Friends but bore little resemblance to the version in the comics; Alan Burnett's spoken about the restrictions at the network and at Hanna-Barbera and how the DCAU shows were the kind of shows he'd wanted to make all along. (I doubt Kirby complained about the Super Friends version; he was just happy to get a creator credit and a royalty check.) Superman: TAS was finally a chance to get it right. And then Young Justice went completely buck-wild with the Fourth World stuff, introducing the DNA Project in the first episode, the Forever People not long after, and plumbing all sorts of weird corners of the lore like the Overlord (but ultimately having very little of Darkseid himself). And now we've got My Adventures with Superman bringing its own take on the likes of Intergang and the Newsboy Legion (and OMAC, which is Kirby but not Fourth World).
Quite the vindication not just for Kirby but for Jenette Kahn, the person who looked at the Fourth World books and saw their potential where her predecessors at DC had refused to. It's been immensely frustrating seeing the current owners of DC (and the ones before them, and the ones before them) systematically dismantle her creator-friendly legacy, as people like Bill Willingham will attest. But for a minute there, DC was managed by people who understood what they had and treated it -- and, more importantly, the people who made it -- with the respect they deserved. Or at least made an effort to. Obviously they didn't please everybody (see any interview with Alan Moore), but I've seen a lot more creators praise Kahn and Levitz's leadership than criticize it.
Re: DC Animation
World's Finest mostly holds up; its biggest weakness is that the Bruce/Lois relationship goes from zero to "I'm moving to Gotham to be with him" in, what, less than ten minutes of screen time together? It feels a lot more like a plot contrivance than organic character growth.
Also, I always love the gag at the beginning where the hijacker is like "Wait, Lois Lane? The one who Superman always saves?" and then starts to panic, but...like, this is Air Force One, right? The implication that hijacking the fucking President's plane wouldn't have gotten his attention if Lois hadn't been onboard is a little weird, really.
And man, Joker's great but he really got the short end of the stick on the New Adventures redesigns. I think Catwoman's is probably the worst, but Joker's is bad enough that they actually abandoned it for the flashback scenes in Return of the Joker.
Also, I always love the gag at the beginning where the hijacker is like "Wait, Lois Lane? The one who Superman always saves?" and then starts to panic, but...like, this is Air Force One, right? The implication that hijacking the fucking President's plane wouldn't have gotten his attention if Lois hadn't been onboard is a little weird, really.
And man, Joker's great but he really got the short end of the stick on the New Adventures redesigns. I think Catwoman's is probably the worst, but Joker's is bad enough that they actually abandoned it for the flashback scenes in Return of the Joker.
Re: DC Animation
Thad wrote:Meanwhile, as I work my way through season 2 I'm trying to decide where I should start watching Batman again. I kinda feel like World's Finest is the real kickoff for The New Batman/Superman Adventures, so I'm thinking I'll stick with Superman through that and then spend some more time with Batman. (I intend to watch it mostly in order but I'm going to circle back and watch Holiday Knights after Little Girl Lost because that's damn-well where it goes.)
Tim's not in World's Finest, is he? Are there any overt signifiers as to whether it takes place after his debut in Sins of the Father?
Tim's not in World's Finest, but there's a clue about where it is in the timeline in Joker's Millions. Bruce encounters the Joker*, who offers him a drink. Bruce refuses, saying "The last time I saw you, you tried to throw me off a building." Joker responds, "That was so long ago!" Bruce says, "It was last month."
It is, of course, possible that that's happened more than once, but I think we're pretty clearly supposed to assume it's a reference to World's Finest, so that suggests it takes place pretty close to the beginning of New Batman Adventures.
(Tim's also not in Joker's Millions, so if you really want to fuck around with the timeline you could say that it takes place before Sins of the Father. I think, given that Batman and Nightwing are working together, it has to take place after You Scratch My Back, but as it happens Tim's not in that one either.)
* it's not really him but that's not relevant
Re: DC Animation
You know, when I think "inappropriately horny DCAU script" I usually think Paul Dini, but in the span of a year Hilary Bader gave us "Warrior Queen", about a sexy alien lady who really wants to fuck Superman, and "The Ultimate Thrill", whose *ahem* climax goes like this (I'm gonna say potentially NSFW audio):
Re: DC Animation
And I am done with my rewatch of Batman and Superman and on to Batman Beyond.
Man, it is wild that Superman ends the way it does. Superman disgraced, the public's faith in him shaken, and that's just it. And AFAIK they didn't have any idea they'd ever get a chance to follow it up, though they eventually would -- when Superman shows back up on Batman Beyond it's only referenced obliquely with a single line of dialogue but it's an extremely significant line; it's Bruce explaining why he's been keeping a piece of Kryptonite in a secure location in the Batcave for fifty years. And yeah, eventually it forms the major arc of JLU, but they couldn't have known that was coming when Superman ended. As far as they knew that could have been the last we ever saw of that version of Superman.
Batman Beyond still looks fantastic. I'd forgotten how much the color palette set it apart from the previous series. All those cool blues and purples.
The funny thing is that what dates it the most is it shows a "future" where everybody is still using landlines. Terry finds the Batcave because he goes looking for a phone so he can call his mom. Later, after he gets home, she tells him that Dana called while he was out.
In hindsight, it's a kind of charming retrofuturism that fits right in with the anachronisms in Batman: TAS like police zeppelins and big-screen black-and-white TVs. In Batman: TAS' Gotham City, it's the 1990s but it's also the 1940s, so it stands to reason that 50 years later it's the 2040s but it's also the 1990s.
Man, it is wild that Superman ends the way it does. Superman disgraced, the public's faith in him shaken, and that's just it. And AFAIK they didn't have any idea they'd ever get a chance to follow it up, though they eventually would -- when Superman shows back up on Batman Beyond it's only referenced obliquely with a single line of dialogue but it's an extremely significant line; it's Bruce explaining why he's been keeping a piece of Kryptonite in a secure location in the Batcave for fifty years. And yeah, eventually it forms the major arc of JLU, but they couldn't have known that was coming when Superman ended. As far as they knew that could have been the last we ever saw of that version of Superman.
Batman Beyond still looks fantastic. I'd forgotten how much the color palette set it apart from the previous series. All those cool blues and purples.
The funny thing is that what dates it the most is it shows a "future" where everybody is still using landlines. Terry finds the Batcave because he goes looking for a phone so he can call his mom. Later, after he gets home, she tells him that Dana called while he was out.
In hindsight, it's a kind of charming retrofuturism that fits right in with the anachronisms in Batman: TAS like police zeppelins and big-screen black-and-white TVs. In Batman: TAS' Gotham City, it's the 1990s but it's also the 1940s, so it stands to reason that 50 years later it's the 2040s but it's also the 1990s.
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