NBC shared Universe?

Folks, I apologize for not sending any new posts for a while now…I’ve been caught up in business.

But now I come to you with a brand new post and a new subject up for discussion.

People, with the success of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, why hasn’t anyone else tried to make their own shared movie continuity?
It has been shown many, many times in the past that if a particular genre or films proves very successful, other studios will try to cash in on this new trend with their own resources. For example, when Star Wars proved extremely successful, many different studios tried their own different films to try and take a sweet chunk of the money made by Lucas. Among these were the movie Moonraker, which postponed filming of the James Bond movie ‘For Your Eyes Only’ because of this. Another good example was how during the eighties and ninties, Disney’s animated films raked them in a shitload of money.

 Somebody's gonna be snorting a shitload'a cocaine.

Disney’s colossal success led other studios to try and get their own animated films up and running, and for this called in the talented Don Bluth to try and out-Disney Disney, and in some ways, it kind of worked since he created several awesome animated films…but not all of them were successful, and this failure came in differing ways, such as the film ‘We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Tale’, as the Nostalgia Critic will tell you.

 Pictured: Deposed Molassian Dictator

So with that in mind, I don’t think I have to explain that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is highly successful, this massive film franchise is still comparatively young, but despite having only been around for five years, it has raked in an assload of money.

I’m pretty sure everyone reading this has seen at least one of their films, especially ‘The Avengers’ and you can agree with me that Disney’s got a pretty good setup here.

Now DC, true to form, has decided to carry it’s rivalry with Marvel Comics on into the silver screen by creating their ‘DC Cinematic Universe’, which is currently comprised of Superman: Man of Steel and possibly Green Lantern: First Flight. Though it’s not as impressive since it appears to take much longer for them to produce these films, let alone make them.

So, now DC and Marvel are devising these shared universes and making them into films, but the question remains…why the fuck isn’t anybody else trying this?
Several studios, who have just as much capability to make these kinds of films and TV shows haven’t so much as tried to make their own universes, the closest we have to this is 20^th Century Fox’s plans to adapt Alan Moore’s ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ into a television series, and even then it doesn’t even look like they have plans for a shared universe (though a massive crossover of Victorian fiction looks likely.)
This is, quite frankly, infuriating for me, because NBC could easily make such a series. How? You may ask. Well it’s simple chaps, they already made one, though by accident…this place is called the Tommy Westphall Universe.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, the Tommy Westphall universe is a shared universe that is comprised of dozens, if not hundreds, of TV shows, it was created unintentionally through the process of continually crossing over TV shows, such as the hospital of St. Elsewhere being shown in Homicide: Life on the Street, or Steve Urkel’s gust appearance in Full House. Through all of this, the writers of the world have created a shared universe that expands vastly, and contains a very, very large amount of fiction. I’ve even measured it and discovered it even extends to anime and comic books as well.

So as I write here, I just gotta ask…why the Hell hasn’t NBC realized this yet? If they took advantage of this fan based project and listings (especially since I’m sure a lot of the crossed over TV series are owned by them) they could make a killing out of their own shared universe.
    

 

They could even incorporate stuff from the USA Network, the ScyFy Channel, and Universal pictures if they wanted. The first two are owned by them, and Universal has connections to them. It should be so easy just to make this, because they have enough properties to create hundreds of interesting films, or three whole crossover TV shows.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on the matter. NBC has the potential to create a great franchise through crossing over their many properties, but doesn’t for some inexplicable reason. It’s truly mind boggling.

 Not even Giygas can comprehend the reasons for this.

Anyways, I apologize for not having anything to post for a while; I’ve been a bit busy. I’d like to end this with some news, one, I’ve gotten very close to getting my webcomic made, the details of which shall be revealed soon.

I’d also like to add that a fanfiction I’ve made that has gone non hiatus for a long while is about to see new life again…more in a little while.

For now, so long and best of luck to you.

Essey: Old vs. New?

Readers, I come here today with a question I have in light of reading Fantomas (still working on it), and rereading Century.

Is modern fiction better than old fiction? Was Alan Moore right?
Well in my opinion...their more like equals actually.

True, pop culture has gotten a bit sterile in some areas (look at Twilight for example) but in others it’s really quite an advancement over it’s predecessors.

Take a look at comic books and science fiction for starters, during the early days of their existence our limited knowledge (while works could be more flexible) kept us unable to devise more advanced scientific concepts like the Multiverse and Quantum physics. Plus, the comic book stories (while a tad too dark at times) can develop characters much better after their years of development as a media form.

And then there’s anime, that stuff is fantastic, it never caught on until the recent couple of decades but that’s kind of the point of its introduction. Anime was largely unknown for many years, but when the late eighties hit, we began to find a whole new set of wild and fascinating stories that only the wildly imaginative Japanese writers could have created.

In fact, if my impression is right, the modern anime series are even better than the older series. Quite the reversal of Moore’s complaints.

Now then, webcomics are an area that’s extremely grey. Since newspaper comics have peaked and aren’t even half as common as they were back in the forties, when they were as plentiful as raindrops and sand, and as diversified as a 32 color rainbow. Webcomics have became quite plentiful and there are literally thousands of them.

But there’s a problem with that, because webcomics are so easy to make, while all talented writers have a chance to show their talents by creating great stories, any asshole who thinks they can draw also thinks their the hottest thing since Jack Kirby, especially where Sonichu is concerned…so while we have a lot of great comics, there’s a lot of horrible and shitty ones too. It’s not a perfect system.

And then there’s video games, sure plenty of them have no plots or stories at all, but there are a lot of them that not only have good ones, but have some of the most epic plots of all, the master storytelling of the Bioshock and the Grand Theft Auto series gives us some very important examples. Not to mention Mass Effect, which NBC News referred to as one of the best sci-fi series of all time. In fact, they might be one of the best kinds of media forms in existence since the whole concept is that they’re stories you can interact with in a way only very few other kinds of stories can offer.

So anyways, is new fiction better than old fiction? Well, in my opinion, it really just depends on taste, personally I think that stories from all periods of time are really just as good or bad as any look of fiction can be. All that really depends is who makes it. There’s really no shortage of ideas, so maybe there are some declines in pop culture but there are ways to bring its quality back up too, we just need the right writer…

Anyways, that’s my thoughts on modern fiction vs. old timey fiction.

I’d like to add to this that there’s going to be a change in my updating schedule, to avoid rushed posts and deadlines, I’m just going to post posts whenever I actually have one to post. Rest assured I plan to still post them often, but this should help make sure I don’t end up sacrificing quality.

Peace dudes, it’s a brave new world…and I hope to have something really cool for my next post.

Oh Dear God! Why did this happen again!

Damnation! I am truly sorry for the lack of post. An unforeseen babysitting job, coupled with a series of tasks that left me unable to get this thing written out…I have failed AGAIN!

This frustrates me to no end…I’ve been thinking lately, should I be updating once a week? This tends to be me making me more stressful as of late. So maybe I’ll make it once every two weeks of something like that, either way, I don’t know what to do now, I’m perplexed.

Anyways, next week I’ll have it up for sure. I’m going to pull out all the stops just to make sure I put it out on time…and if it isn’t ready, I’ll just post a new story I’ve been working on with a friend of mine from deviantART…I’, sure you’ll all enjoy either one.

Anyways, I’ll be seeing you around. Once more, I’d like to apologize for my lack of a post.

Sorry I'm Late: Post got delayed.

Readers, I apologize for the lack of post last week, I had some difficulties with my computer and I couldn’t get on to Blogger.

Today, I still have no post, but an update on my webcomic…and information on what will happen next week.

First off, I am very proud to announce that the background artist I previously had has decided to become the lineartist, and I have recently found someone willing to do background art, she’s being evaluated now to see if she can help.

The teaser is this, next week I shall be writing a post…about whether or not old fiction is better than new fiction, a sort of essay to see whether or not Alan Moore’s evaluation of modern pop culture in Century was accurate, or if it was him being more than a little bit disgruntled.

So long viewers, I hope none of you are mad for the next post being delayed.

Big M! In Action!

People, I have a secret to tell…reality is run by machines that suck out our sperm to use as a power source.

 She's come to collect.

Okay, not my best joke, but I got a new question for you…could the world of the Big O be the Matrix?
Now for this to be made clear, let me explain the story. Big O is about a city whose parents were a film noir New York and city of the future, the series focuses on Roger Smith, a professional ‘negotiator’ (the job apparently entailing the piloting of a giant robot) who happens to be an ersatz Batman, his hidden identity being ‘Big O’, Roger’s goal in the series is to try and solve the mysteries surrounding Paradigm City with the help of a robot girl and his Alfred Pennyworth esque butler. Fighting against villains who are

Oh, and did I mention the two dozen or so powerful, partially steampunk based giant mechas referred to as Megadeus?

 Watch him Neo, you might just learn something.

Now I bring this and the Matrix up for a good reason, at the end of it’s second season, Paradigm City is revealed to be a simulated reality which is then ‘rebooted’, now with this in mind, could it be possible that their world is a version of the Matrix? Granted I haven’t done too much research for this, but will soon.

What I say for now is this; could The Big O be the Matrix? And if so, was it still made by machines? Or were the makers really human?
Mystery of life folks…not for long though.

Yep, the truth will set us free...FROM HIM!

Dead Leaves Review

Unfortunately, my projection was wrong and the pictures still aren’t working…but still, the show has to still go on anyways, right?
Today I want to talk about one of the greatest anime films of all time…Dead Leaves!

Now if you haven’t heard of it, Dead Leaves is this really trippy, yet absolutely awesome anime film made by the creators of Gurren Lagann. In it, a pair of extremely tough and powerful criminals (with no memory of who they are) get arrested and thrown into a lunar prison known as the DL Correctional facility.

The criminals are, Retro, a man with a retro television set for a head, and Pandy, a woman with a pink spot around her eye that makes her look like a panda bear…and a mysterious secret about her genes…

They break out with the all the inmates (who all have unique and bizarre appearances) and go through an incredibly violent breakout against giant robots, identical prison guards, a pair of psychotic genetically engineered maniacs named Triple Six and Triple Seven (the former being among my favorite anime villains), and the lady warden who desires revenge against the duo for mysterious reasons pertaining to their past.

This film contains a great array of characters, a badass plot, and some of the greatest and most badass stunts put to animation…seriously, can you think of even one movie where you can find someone Triple wield guns?

Now I bring this fantastic story up for a reason…I believe this anime film is much underrated by too. And it shouldn’t be, this film is a great work, if there were anything so cool your head would explode from witnessing it, it’d be this film.

Now don’t take it just from me, go see this film for yourselves. If you love awesome action stunts, hammy acting in a world gone absolutely mad, and men who can turn their body into tons of guns. Then you’ll love this movie.

Anyways, that’s my personal review of Dead Leaves, next week I’ll try to have a brand new theory ready for you.

Cheers!

Dead Leaves Review

Unfortunately, my projection was wrong and the pictures still aren’t working…but still, the show has to still go on anyways, right?
Today I want to talk about one of the greatest anime films of all time…Dead Leaves!

Now if you haven’t heard of it, Dead Leaves is this really trippy, yet absolutely awesome anime film made by the creators of Gurren Lagann. In it, a pair of extremely tough and powerful criminals (with no memory of who they are) get arrested and thrown into a lunar prison known as the DL Correctional facility.

The criminals are, Retro, a man with a retro television set for a head, and Pandy, a woman with a pink spot around her eye that makes her look like a panda bear…and a mysterious secret about her genes…

They break out with the all the inmates (who all have unique and bizarre appearances) and go through an incredibly violent breakout against giant robots, identical prison guards, a pair of psychotic genetically engineered maniacs named Triple Six and Triple Seven (the former being among my favorite anime villains), and the lady warden who desires revenge against the duo for mysterious reasons pertaining to their past.

This film contains a great array of characters, a badass plot, and some of the greatest and most badass stunts put to animation…seriously, can you think of even one movie where you can find someone Triple wield guns?

Now I bring this fantastic story up for a reason…I believe this anime film is much underrated by too. And it shouldn’t be, this film is a great work, if there were anything so cool your head would explode from witnessing it, it’d be this film.

Now don’t take it just from me, go see this film for yourselves. If you love awesome action stunts, hammy acting in a world gone absolutely mad, and men who can turn their body into tons of guns. Then you’ll love this movie.

Anyways, that’s my personal review of Dead Leaves, next week I’ll try to have a brand new theory ready for you.

Cheers!

Marvel Cinematic Universe Future Adaptions: They could do Worse

Good day viewers, today I’m going to discuss a new and important topic…what some of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe productions should be!
Earlier this week, I saw the premiere episode of Agents of SHIELD and I was…blown away, Joss Whedon captured the feel of the MCU perfectly on a comparatively smaller budget. If you’re a Marvel fan and you haven’t seen it then that’s like sticking your head in a bucket of piranha and not expected to get eaten…it is terribly stupid.

Now I decided to give my opinion on which properties they should adapt next, and my opinions on these most excellent adaptions are as follows, drumroll please…

1.Avengers Academy: For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Avengers Academy is a series about these teenage metahumans who get taken under the Avengers’ wing so they can be trained into superheroes…the twist being that (the initial six at least) were washouts of the formerly Norman Osborn owned Superhero Registration Act most likely to turn into supervillains.

Since we can’t get the X-Men worked into the MCU (damn movie rights), this would do just as well, it’d make a terrific TV show and a great high school drama (normally I hate those kinds of shows, but doing in it the context of a superhero school I’d actually enjoy that) with issues unique to superheroes-in-training…it’d be even better if they could get the copyright issue settled enough for Dust and Rockslide to be students (Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are going to be in Avengers 2 after all, the Muslim and the Thing fanboy just need to be something other than mutants.)

2.Howard the Duck: Say what you will about George Lucas’ steaming shithole of a film…because unless you’re praising it, it’s true. But as hard as George Lucas dropped the black dwarf bowling ball on that, the series is due for a new adaptation that doesn’t suck.

I may not have read the comics for myself (yet) but from what I can tell, this series is extremely funny…what kind of superhero doesn’t want to be a superhero and yet continually get dragged into crap that’s too weird for most superheroes to face, such as Jackpot the One armed Bandit, Doctor Bong, Kong Lomerate, Status Quo, and the Band of the Bland.

If made into a movie, the MCU would have a great comedy franchise that could compete with the other oddball comedies in cinema today, especially given the unique nature of its humor…

3.Nextwave: Agents of HATE: This series deserves an adaptation in some form, and why? …Well why the fuck not?! There’s action by the bucket load, comedy that can come only from the pen of a master like Warren Ellis, plenty of great characters, and frigging Machine Man!
If this series were made into a film, what would ensue is the Gurren Lagann of superhero films, a romp through awesomeness itself with comedic mishaps, epic fanservice, and more amazing than anything they’ve made so far (not counting the Avengers.)

So that’s it, my personal hopes on what they adapt next…I’d like to hear your opinions too though.

So tell me…what would you love to see marvel adapt next?

Also, if you were expecting the pictures and captions, I’m afraid there’s been a problem with them today…they should be working next week though.

Webcomic nearly ready

Sorry folks, new theories today, I wish to come with some brand new news on an exciting development in my webcomic…I finally have a background artist! All I need now is the reference models completed so I can begin publishing this work of awesomeness!
Soon enough, you shall be given a preview of it…when that happens is a different story.

See you next week!

Why so Swedish? (Though to be fair, he's Norwegian)

People, the season of the railroad is here…and by railroad, I mean Hell on Wheels.

Today, I’ve got a new theory I came up with personally…is the Swede the western version of the Joker?

 He's got some interesting business cards doesn't he?

That’s right boys and girls, I’m here to wonder whether or not violently insane ol’ mister Gunderson is the wild west version a certain “Psychotic, wicked clown”, how is this possible you ask? I’ll explain, writing this as I am while watching Jason Bourne snap some a-hole’s neck like a fricking twig.

 Could he kill the asshole in the helmet next?

First off, his name helped me figure this out. The Swede, The Joker, they both have the same ring; Hell, they even have the same damn amount of numbers in their names.

Secondly, while an affably evil figure in the first season, his fall from grace at the hands of a pair of Irish guys plus getting fired and demoted to a mere corpse dumper (in other words, gravedigger) happened all in one day…same came to a certain clown.

 And we don't mean Violent J.

The more obvious similarities come when you realize that in the second season (during his attempt to lord over the Soux) he used some kind of muck that made his skin appear white, and the Heath Ledger Joker used makeup to apply whiteness to his skin (though unlike Joker he didn’t shave his hair, looking much more like Count Orlok than the would-be Juggalo.

The Swede is also (like the Joker) very clever, and can turn most situations to his advantage. Most anybody can scoop up dead bodies, but it’s kinda rare to find a man capable of also manipulating a giant army of Indians into crushing a town’s spirit with a truly devastating invasion.

 Though personally I'd have attacked them with shitty computers and ineffectual tech support.

What strikes me as the biggest tip-off is how the Swede gets totally unhinged during Season Two, his madness is such that he frigging DANCES in a burning town while most everyone else is dying around him, he might not laugh like a damn hyena but he sure does enjoy his carnage. Ol’ Joker is no less insane, crazy, or just plain psychotic as him. So while the Swede isn’t as laughably evil as mister ‘Clown Devil Boy’ (child of the Witch Heifer), his own madness is in equal to him.

 Pictured: The magnificent bastard himself.

 

And that folks, is my theory for this week, when you go to watch Hell on Wheels next time; remember my theory and ask yourself…is Bohannon a Batman or a Punisher?

 Punisher...definitely Punisher.

Incredible plot theories: Are the 'you're adopted' jokes harsh in Violet's case?

Welcome again, dear reader to another installment of my blog. Today we’ll be discussing a theory I’ve heard from others...is Violet Parr, of The Incredibles, adopted?

Named as she is, I'm surprised she can't shrink.

Now then, how many people actually subscribe to this, I do not know but here’s what I make of it.

This didn’t really cross my mind the first time I saw the film, but in hindsight (a lot of it) I’m wondering why I didn’t think this sooner, I mean, Violet’s hair is a different color than either of her parents’ and that should have been a dead giveaway.

Of course, the hair could be a recurrent gene (it’s a dominant one for humans, but supers might have differently functioning genes) but since we know what neither of Bob or Helen’s (AKA Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl) parents look like, it good be anyone’s guess.

There’s also the possibility of Violet being the result of an affair, but I doubt they’ll take this plotline for the next movie due to the mature nature of the whole idea; but on the other hand, after Paranorman and some of the more…radar breaking plot twists, this might not actually be too impossible.

So then, if she was adopted, who were her parents? I have three possibilities here.

One (and this one was thought up by a guy on TV Tropes) is that she originally belonged to normal human parents who didn’t want a superpowered child in a world where superheroes weren’t wanted anymore. As tragic as that turn of events would be, it’d certainly be much better than this situation if it occurs in the X-Men, wherein the child would sadly have more chances of just getting killed instead.

These next two are ones I thought up.

Another theory is that her parents were both superheroes who died, while no less tragic this could be a just as good setup for the sequel. After all, why exactly do you put a young Super in the custody of other supers when their parents are dead, granted Bob and Helen might have shown interest in her (the dead heroes being friends of theirs) but another reason could be a second example of the Superhero Relocation Program being an extreme version of the Witness Protection Program…to protect her from still living enemies of her parents. Yep, that’d make an interesting sequel wouldn’t it?

 Or perhaps this version of Superman's the father, and people didn't want her taking after him.

But my preferred theory as to Violet’s parentage…is that her parents were supervillains.

Now that’s a shocker ain’t it? Superhero finds out her real parents were actually horrible people, of course this’d probably cause an interesting situation should the villains in question have never wanted to lose violet and she was forcefully taken away by the government.

Now as far as how this would go in a possible sequel of the Incredibles, I don’t know what the villains would look or act like but I personally think the father would be…an expy of the Joker mixed with Ladd Russo.

 'Cause every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man...when he isn't trying to kill everyone.

Yeah, that’s part of my idea for what the sequel would pertain. In addition to a misfit to team of superheroes appearing as supporting characters, but those ideas are for a different time.

Anyways, sorry about how short today’s installment is, but- Wait a sec, what’s landing on my lawn…

HOLY SHIT! The Space Marines are attacking…damn, I knew I should have paid the electric bills. 

 "Surrender your money, heretic!"

Gomu-Gomu no Breaker!

Dear reader, today I have woken and wondered about life’s important mysteries; such as what I’m supposed to do on Earth, why do what I do…and whether or not One Piece’s Haki is actually Gurren Lagann’s Spiral Power in either a different strand or another universe (either one can work, really.)
Yes readers, this is the topic I have chosen to bring up today. And I myself have some good evidence that thus could indeed be true, allow me to explain.

First off, both Haki and Spiral Power tends to make whoever it is that uses it undeniably AWESOME though one only becomes potently powerful to certain people, i.e. a certain rubber skin/boned pirate with a meat fetish.

 Disgusting, ain't it?

Anyhoo, let’s be more precise here. Haki has three separate forms, the first one allows you to sense the presence of others and essentially predict wherever your enemies will attack you from, and the third essentially allows you to dominate the will of others, and actually make “Defeat by being yelled out totally freaking loud” seem like something that doesn’t sound completely stupid, though granted it’s incredibly rare.

But the second form of Haki is without a doubt the one that’s most similar to Spiral Power, users tend to manifest forces comparable to invisible armor around themselves to both defend against attack and fight back with greater force, able to augment your own attacks, and we mean any attacks, even bullets

Spiral Power can do something similar, making machines and devices capable of giving more output than it should be able to (think Tony Stark’s Arc reactor, could you really expect such energy from something so small?)

 It also makes sexy chicks with big guns that defy logic.

Haki is in all beings of the One Piece World  but as mentioned above, not everybody can manifest it in the ways mentioned above, but all of these powers can be improved through hard work by those who have them…so maybe those who don’t have them can manifest these amazing powers if they work hard enough.

And besides, if Spiral power isn’t involved, then how do you explain Sanji’s manifesting of Spiral eyebrows?

 Now we're cooking with SPIRAL POWAH!

And that is my personal theory about how Spiral Power and Haki are one and the same, if the world has any luck this’ll turn out to be true and we’ll have Luffy piloting a giant mecha in search of meat while Sanji gets chased off by an irate Yoko after trying to spy on her bathing…but I doubt it.
See you next time, next week’s post hasn’t been decided yet; but I’ve got some damn good ideas on what to do! What are they? Wouldn’t you like to know…

 Bitchin! But I don't see any meat hunting robots...do you?

Sorry for the lack of post

Last week I had several things keeping me from putting out a new post of my blog. I wish to appologize for said inabability to give a brand new post.
I was on a bike trip you see, and I didn't get any chances to write out a new post. I do however have some ideas for next week, and hope to begin discussing some new theories (such as something concerning Gravity Falls for example.)
On a side note, I'm pleased to annouce that the webcomic I've been working on getting made (which I'm calling The Sky's Limit) has at least two people willing to do art for it, so while I have a colorist and line artist I lack a background artist (though I do have a candidate for the job), soon I will establish a post about it so you can learn more about my project...and maybe even help me make it if you want.
There'll be more later, but for now I just gotta say that this story...is totally awesome.
So long for now, and again I appologize for the unfortunate lack of a post yesterday.

LOEGTV? Better than Survivor.

Hello viewers, today I wish to bring to your attention...the news that 21th Century Fox is making a new adaption of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Whoa there guys, let's just put those down a sec.

Now hang on there, don't brandish the torches and pitchforks at me, I already get enough of that. I'm only talking about it here because this project looks like it actually could do better than that film did.
This series is having a pilot made at the moment, the producer of it being Micheal Green. He wrote both the TV series Heroes and Smallville and the film Green Lantern...so yeah, this could go either way.

See! This guy has the right idea.

As you can also expect, nobody thought to give poor Alan Moore the heads up they were planning to do this, nor offer him any position in producing the series....and as you can also expect, he's none too pleased about this either. Guy's had about as much hard luck in these type of situations as Jack Kirby got shafted by his editors.
Now I can fully understand why he'd be upset, I'm not even sure how he lost the film rights to his series but Fox made poor use of it.
Of course though, the first time they tried it the main problem was the script...that and the fact they used only the bare outline of the first volume when plotting it.

For starters, Alan Quatermain didn't have a sidekick with a very vague resemblance to Jack Black...nor did he die in the first frigging volume.

Now then, the reason I chose to bring up this is simply because I think this time they have an actual chance of making this work. I'm a big fan of Moore's work, and while he may not like this upcoming series I'll watch it regardless, no disrespect to him but I really want to see whether or not they drop the ball this time.
Remember, if you will that Beware the Batman had some pretty negative views by quite a lot of haters and trolls, but look at it now! It's a truly awesome Batman show, and the CGI is well done. All their complaints were proven to be a wad of bullshit wrapped in a pissrag.
Now granted, it may not be the same with this but it could, so let's keep our eyes on it and see if this shines like a galaxy...or buuuuurns, like a moth at the flame.

And him too.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. Columbia

Hello readers...and one eyed mutant spiders. Oh, and hipsters too.
Today I wish to put out a new theory I just developed two days ago after watching Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (awesome movie, really it is.)
Could Ramona Flowers be the descendent of Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite?

And could Violent J be Professor Pyg's fifth cousin thrice removed?

Now it may or may not be conceivable (or probable for that matter) since Scott Pilgrim was made quite a long time before Infinite was even thought up, but I realized this could actually be possible upon finishing the movie.
Now granted, the movie was great, that I won't argue for a sec. But it had one problem...it didn't delve into Scott's backstory like the comics.
Now if you haven't seen the movie or the comic...Turn tail like Blackadder did when it was his turn to go over the top, I hate spoiling plots for people (unless they insist on it) so unless you've either seen or read Scott Pilgrim, and haven't had the good fortune to either play, watch, or drink beer and lazily watch somebody else play Bioshock Infinite...READ A DIFFERENT POST!
NOW WITH THAT WARNING OUT OF...WAIT A MINUTE.
There, the damn caps button was stuck. Now on with the show.

Smoke if you got 'em.

First off, let's discuss one of the most obvious parallels between the two. Ramona and Elizabeth both possess powers that allow them to bend space and time, but in different ways. Elizabeth's uses them to take things from alternate universes (and vice versa) and create gateways between universes. Ramona can do something similar, except unlike Elizabeth she can just teleport with it, though it probably also explains why her bag's so motherfucking big.
Secondly, both had their powers put into them. Granted that's not entirely special, but if it was so easy to gain nigh omnipotent power then how come Elizabeth was the only person with the powers she got from losing her little finger? There had to be something special about her that caused this, or at least made her more susceptable to it, so perhaps if Ramona possessed the same gene she could grow up into this teleporting supergirl (though granted her powers are a diluted and very weak version of her possible ancestor's power.)
Thirdly, she's kind of in her own Bioshock situation.

Unlike Haruko, who'd sooner drive both Rapture and Columbia crazy.

Consider Elizabeth's words about there being "Always a lighthouse, always a man, and always a city", Scott's head contains a subspace shortcut Ramona used when she needed to, this caused he and Scott to meet, this could be the lighthouse.
Gideon is The Man, having formed the League of Evil Exes out of an extreme principle he had, which in this case was that only he could control Ramona's love life.
Toronto is The City, I mean seriously. Do you think normal cities have that much off the wall weirdness? Not unles it's in New Jersey anyways.

And it was then that Scott Pilgrim realized he should probably get his lunch elsewhere.

The final point is how Scott's messed up memories work, they remind me all too much of how Booker Dewitt couldn't recall his own past. Of course, there's abut a difference between the two cases equivalent to that of an elephant with  to a rhino with herpes. They're very much different, yet very much the same (or a similar species at least.)
Booker DeWitt forgot (mostly at least) about how he sold his daughter to pay off gambling debts, while Scott's mind was altered so he remembered various details of his past very differently (and forgot he was a schoolyard bully who beat someone up to steal their girlfriend.)
So anyways, there might be more to explain this further but that'd wait for a later post at least. For now I have to bring up another idea, could a relative of Ramona's (and by extension, another of Elizabeth's descendents) be Haruko from FLCL? This'd be more likely due to the resemblance...but if they were together, who'd be sane girl in this type of situation?

The world may never know...and by 'the world' I mean me.

See ya! Next week I'll come up with either a new theory, a review, or an installment of my new idea suggesting feature. If anyone has any opinions on what to do, leave a comment (it's alright if you don't though. I can just choose what to do.)

So anyway- WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU?! I THOUGHT I PAID THE RENT! (Runs.)

The Idea Zone: Tranquility an impossibilty? Not anymore.

Alright people, time to get a new show on this red stained road...a new feature to my blog.
This time, I'll be discussing ideas that could be improved, and how I can succeed where actual writers couldn't.
Now note that this is not being done out of egotism, I'm simply writing down observations I've made.
Today, I'll be discussing Gail Simone's brilliant series, Welcome to Tranquility, and explain how it could fit into the New 52.

Even Superheroes have to retire.

Now for those of you who've been living under a chunk of Red Kyrptonite, let me explain the New 52.
The New 52 was the infamous "DC Comic's continuity reboot" where (among other things) Superman started out his career looking like Li'l Abner, Batman has to fight an Illuminati expy with an owl fetish, and Wonder Woman supposedly wore painted on pants...

But she didn't.

While I personally like plenty of the comics this reboot caused, a side effect is that pretty much all superheroes were active only within a five year period.
Welcome To Tranquility is a Gail Simone series about a retirement village for superheroes and their families. Most of them having previously operated in World War II, so they've been alive for quite some time.
The plot of the series revolves around a Fountain of Youth located beneath it, which is the source of the superheroes' slowed aging (as opposed to the Preboot Justice Society, who never had an explanation for their comparatively young looks.) But the main point I'm bringing up is, how the Hell could I work these two together? How do I explain how heroes from WWII exist in a world where superheroes have only been around for a few years?
My answer is quite simple, because of something else Wildstorm Comics (which published Welcome to Tranquility) made.
Now you see, the DC reboot incorporated the Vertigo and Wildstorm Comics universes into itself, hence why it's possible to use them.

They did not, however, incorporate Dr. Insano...he shaved their cats.

In Mark Millar's run on the Authority, he used an army containing evil versions of many Marvel characters, most prominately, the Avenegers (these jackasses being named "The Americans" instead), they were created by an evil midget scientist who also happens to be an ersatz Jack Kirby (apparently he finally wanted to get back at his editors for screwing him over) as part of a plan to keep America safe during the Cold War, there were thousands of these sociopaths and they all were stored in about five invisible bunkers, ready to burst out and fight anyone they were ordered to.
So you can imagine how much of a shitnado would occur if they, say, went rogue...with said mad scientist plotting to attack the modern world with this army of psychopaths.

 The guy in front loves rape more than Dr. Rockzo loves cocaine.

So how can I use this? Simple, I could merely retcon them to have been made through the same process (being people taken in by the government through ads and solicitation in secret, and used to create this army of superheroes) but they were engineered by a different scientist who treated them humanely, since why most of them aren't evil bastards (supervillains live there too, so they could just be subjects who attempted to go rogue) the current version of the town being a secret community similar to Eureka! from the Sci-Fi channel.
Another idea could be that these heroes are still used on missions, while all the superheroes of this second half of the project (plus descendents) who truly are retired go to a different underground community...Neopolis from Alan Moore's totally awesome police procedural series, Top Ten. (Though granted I'd try to see if he'd be alright with this first, it wouldn't feel right otherwise) where all the citizens are superheroes...living like normal people, but with the obvious twist. Granted it was originally published under Alan Moore's "America's Best Comics" imprint, but that got bought by Wildstorm, which in turn was bought by DC, so it can be used just as easily.

Oh, and there's super-prostitutes too.

Anyways I wrap this up,  I'd like to establish that while I've found a way, Gail Simone sadly didn't (see here, {link} ) so just to make sure things're clear, I like her work (not as much as Alan's Moore's or Grant Morrison's, but she can write pretty damn good) especially Secret Six (first supervillain protagonist book I ever read), Suicide Squad, and Welcometo Tranquility.) So this isn't my egotism speaking, I just wanted to demonstrate my considerable creative talents and vast knowledge of comics to show how something an author thought couldn't be done...actually could. (Though for the record, I was the first to come up with this idea.)

So anyways, that's my post for today, thank you for your  support and I hope to see you all in the near future.

Peace.

Review: Beware the Batman, Episode One

"Greeting my beautiful ones! The box is calling for-"
WHAM!
Sorry about that, Professor Pyg broke into my house and started carving up the furniture...damn bastard needs to learn that converting my stuff to "Pygmalism" equals a total asskicking.

Your existence, fatass.

Anyways, this week I decided to postpone my announced review of Lackadaisy Cats (as I mentioned in a previous post) in favor of reviewing the first episode of Beware the Batman.
Now before I start, let me point something out. I know for a fact that many Batman fans have been critisizing the series' existence months before it even came out, probably because of some of the choices used for casting in it (having Alfred pack heat for starters, and a better example being how they replaced Robin for it) and because of the fact it replaced Batman: Brave and the Bold.
Well let me tell you, maybe they did make some mistakes but that doesn't mean the show shouldn't be given a chance. Even in it's production stages I knew it could go either way, so if any such people who disapproved of it happen to be reading this, please just give this review a chance as I explain why it does anything but suck.

And the promo certainly didn't look 'lame.'

Anyways, the beginning clearly illustrates what kind of show this'll be. Batman is shown breaking up a bank robbery and beating the burglars senseless, but while he demonstrates a great deal of skill, and competence...it's also clear he's still a bit inexperienced at this, at one point getting a dislocated shoulder; that we actually see him pop back into place.
In this opening, we see superb animation and a clear picture of just how brutal this series can be (I myself was personally fond of the Dirty Harry esque approach Batman took to one of the gunmen.)
Now Batman has to go back to being Bruce Wayne eventually, and when he does Alfred 'gives him a wake up call' by attacking him in the morning with a baseball bat whilst dressed as a house thief. This is meant to help make sure he can look after himself (though he did hold back a tad due to Wayne's injury) and no damage (save a wrecked painting) was done.
Then Alfred removes his mask, and what do we see?

Uh, he certainly looked different in the promo.

I admit this was a bit jarring at first, but that's because I'm used to Alfred actually having hair. Liked the reference made to his service in M16 though (seeing as he was pretty much an elderly, retired version of James Bond in the comics.)
Looking back now, I actually think this may be a refreshing chance of pace for the series. They were planning to use more of Batman's lesser known characters for this after all, so a change to Alfred's appearence might not be that bad (plus I'm pleased at how he looks like almost exactly like Agent 47 in this.)
The story for this episode revolves around Alfred's desire to help protect his master by going into the field (while Bruce doesn't like the idea of, on the grounds that Alfred's job is to protect Bruce Wayne but not Batman) and stopping a pair of criminally insane eco-terrorists named Professor Pyg and Mr. Toad.
Now if anyone's unfamiliar with either of these names, let me fill you in.
The original Professor Pyg was a lesser known Batman villain made by Grant Morrison. He had an obsession with perfection and unlike most Batman villains...he was genuinely and truly insane, say what you will about the Joker, but he always struck me as having some remnant of sanity. But Pyg actually acts insane, disturbed, and twisted...and that's why I like this character a lot.

Uh, you ain't helping your case Pyggy.

Toad was still one of Pyg's minions, but aside from being a drug dealer with a penchant for reckless driving, not much was known about him as died in the second issue he appeared in.
How different that is here, where instead of dying quickly, Toad is a badass! Or at least a bit tougher than his comic incarnation, hopping around like a monkey, using a sonic croak to stun people and knock them over, and having a fondness for explosives too.
As for Pyg himself, despite the fact he was bowdlerized for television, he's still quite an intimidating figure. Using a buggy straight out of the Winds in the Willows to engage in a "stag hunt" against wealthy industrialist (and grade-A asshole) Simon Stagg.
See, part of their retooling of Pyg has made him into an eco-terrorist with a passion for animal rights. With a fondness for fighting with scalpels and bonesaws, taking a cue from the superstitious doctors of the Victorian era (and ages past.)
Now, the creators of this show said they weren't going to use the more known villains like Joker and Penguin for creative reasons. But in the case of Pyg, I think they've compensated for this by adding elements of these characters into the lesser known ones, with Pyg being similar to Poison Ivy with elements of the Mad Hatter for good measure.
Not that I'm complaining, making this Pyg being a polite, English gentleman in addition to a criminally minded eco-terrorist with a fondness for ironic whacking was a stroke of genius on the writer's part. (Though he was originally supposed to be a Gotham City crime boss, so while I'm a little disappointed he ain't, the idea behind this version is still awesome.)

"I say! Have you had your shots? No? Then allow me."

His plan won't be told here, lest I spoil the episode, though I will add that in tracking down Pyg and attempting to interfere with his scheme, Batman displayed the detective skills the creators plan to utilize more quite clearly.
Now as I close the review, let me mention one more important thing about the show, the character of Tatsu Yamashiro.
Now most people would take one look at her and assume she's an OC and rip-off of Sasha Bordeux. Now I'll forgive you for making such a mistake since her counterpart in the comics isn't generally associated with Batman, for in the comics she was known as...Katana!

Memory jogged now?

Regrettably though, her personality isn't developed much in episode one, her two brief appearances cement a connection between her and Alfred (both having been spies), and also reveals he's been trying to hire her as Bruce's bodyguard. She initially didn't accept but by the end of the episode, it's revealed she did.
Later I learned she was a former member of the League of Shadows, indicating that Ra's Al Ghul would be in here. Not sure how this is going to turn out yet though, though I personally hope he'll be based after his movie counterpart.

Because Liam Neeson is awesome.

All in all, great episode, it certainly turned out into an epic cartoon, and I hope to see the rest soon. I hope you'll take my advice and check it out, this show deserves more recognition (which I'm sure it'll get) and protection from trolls and haters.
Though on a side note, there is one way they could have portrayed Alfred that'd make him more awesome...

Just replace give him an eyepatch, mustache, balding head, and change his name to Norman Burg.

Important Note!

For those who read last week's post, I'd like to make this announcement of this week's post.
I've decided to postpone my Lackadaisy Cats review for a week or two so I can do a review of the first episode of Beware the Batman!
Hope nobody's upset by this, see you this Saturday.

Dr. Weird: Architect of the bizarre?

Welcome to the new age viewers! I, your esteemed reviewer have began setting up plans to create a WEBCOMIC! More about this in a post sometime next week (but before the formal blog post of a new review.)
For now, I want to take in this theory...that Dr. Weird is responsible for most of (if not all) the weirdness in Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Because seriously, who else makes perverts like this?

Now granted, I have very little evidence to prove this...but that's also why I came to this conclusion, you literally have no idea how any of these freaks came into existence. In the first three episodes, Dr.Weird created the very things the Aqua Teens faced off against (save the Brownie Monsters, but Shake was just being a jackass when he made them.)
The movie itself even reveals that the Aqua Teens themselves are just more experiments of Dr. Weird who "escaped" making them just like the very monsters they've fought. So this got me to thinking, "perhaps all the weirdness is Dr. Weird's fault"
It makes a good deal of sense (at least, it does to me), there's certainly no other way (aside from them being aliens) that explains the bizarre creatures. Other things, such as Dr. Wong Burger's study of 'Dicknology' and the 'dog making' software that made Hand Banana could have been made by him. With the dog making software being illegal on account of the fact that, like the Insanoflex, it got way out of hand.

Sure, and what couldn't go wrong with a machine that creates canine sex offenders?

Now, as for how Dr. Weird is able to make all this shit, it might be possible that he has some form of contract with somebody (probably the government) to build living weapons or something similar. Several of the monsters are pretty dangerous, and some definitely look the part. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future for starters, is seen with a heavily weaponized extending arm in the movie and has at least once demonstrated rocket boots.
Crazy as Dr. Weird is, nobody can deny he makes some crazily powerful creations. The Rabbot for starters went on a rampage almost immediately after creation, and the RainbowMaker was used by dim witted Leprechauns in an e-mail based mugging scheme (even if all they got was just a bunch of junk.)

Weird...you magnificent bastard, I burned your house!

Now, as for the other 'weirdies' like Markula and the Mooninites, they probably weren't created by Weird since the movie shows he can age, but said film also revealed he has a family (or at least a father) with implications that his ancestors engaged in these practices as well, so it could be that they're responsible for the really old creatures like the aforementioned Markula and wrote 'Mummies for Dummies'.
Aliens may have also been made by them, though I personally get the impression some of them are actually less bizarre than most of them, so this might not be the case either. For all we know, Weird and his family are composed of aliens themselves.
One more question though is, could Weird and his ancestors possibly be responsible for the bizarre continuity of the show? I don't know, and currently there isn't really any evidence suggesting this.
Anyways that's the theory for today, next week I hope to try a review of the webcomic...Lackadaisy Cats. Sometime earlier I will also give some details about my upcoming webcomic as well.
Seeya!

The world may never know.