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popculturebuffet · 3 days
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Batmarch: The Secret Origin of Batman's Trophys (Comission for WeirdKev27)
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Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Batmarch, or celebrations of all things that go bump in the dark knight
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Today we've got a special treat... and i'm not just talking the nice art Kev had comissioned! Looks really good and I really appcirated it. Thank you KEv and thank you Alan Patreon. It was a nice suprise gift.
As for what this is about, this was a fantastic idea Kev cooked up: the batcave is one of the coolest hero bases in all of fiction. The layout is never 100% consitant across media but your usually guaranteed a batmobile, a big ass computer at the center, water falls, and over time a display for various costumes from past sidekicks, alternate outfits etc.
What really spruces the place up are three distinct decorations that we almost always see in the comics and ocasionally in other media, if not live action since these bitches would be expensive to make: A giant dinosaur, a big ole penny, and a giant playing card of a joker. These three are staples of the bat cave, to the point when the original was caved in during the earthquakes that ravaged gotham in the build up to no man's land, Bruce made a point of fishing them out for the new cave he built after that traumatic year.
Yet most of us.... have no idea where he got these wonderful toys. Even I didn't. The Joker Card comes from an obvious grinning source, but what CASE did it come from? Where did he get that dinosaur? What was someone using that giant Penny for? It's a question i've asked once or twice but never looked into. Kevin did though, and while the through and lovely DC wiki helped him find each one, he went the extra mile, asking for a review. And I was entirely on board with this comission as I just.. never had those answers and I doubt i'm the only one whose wondered what the context for these things were. So today we're looking at three disntinct golden age batman stories, at a time when goofy nonsense reigned supreme, logic was optional, and weird shit like this was just another day in the batcave. IN other words, this is going to be a LOT of fun so join me under the cut as we look at gambling themed death traps, penny obessed gangsters and batman being hunted by the most dangerous game: mechanical dinosaurs.
The Giant Joker Playing Card:
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(from Batman #44)
I love these old titles, such flair and cheese. It's incredible.
Anyways this one starts because Joker decides to hit an off the books casnio after his win. Luckily for them, he just wants to play which feels entirely like a joker move: instead of robbing an easy target that can't call the cops and that the mafia presumibly running it would be stupid to retaliate on, he decides "fuck it let's try this whole gambling thing men, sounds like a hoot and a half".
And sure enough.. it goes really well. He spends what's implied to be the whole night just winning and winning until he cleans house. This being the joker this gambling bug can only end one way
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I just.. love everything about this. Joker just had fun at a casnio and turned it into a death trap. It's such a brilliant setup.. and one that while nicely goofy, is also well done: it fits the joker's unpredictablity to just go a gamblin and it fits him just as much to turn a new hobby into a death trap. I also love Lewis' reaction calling it SUPERGAMBLING., like he's some gambling expert and most dangerous game shit is a type of gambling.. which given we're in the dc universe, you probably DO need a name for this kind of thing in the crime world.
So he set shte perfect trap: he has a random balding middle aged man tell the two he has info on a recent raidum theft, raidum a hospital badly needs. To save the presumed orphans about to die without eating their radium, Batman and Robin go to a sketchy island with one house perched on a hill
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The World's Greatest Detective.. sees NOTHING wrong with this and goes ahead and gets caught in the most devious trap imaginable.
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Several head injuries later, our heroes wake and joker reveals the radium theives, who he captured for this scheme but have kept the radium's location to themselves. This is by deisgn: the joker wants the two and their "radium screts" as the ante here, along with Robin to make sure Batman does this. Batman repedately states "I don't gamble' as if logic suddenly works on the clown man who set up a gambling death trap, so Joker reveals if Batman won't play his three supergambling games, he'll just kill the hostages. Batman reluctantly agrees,
Game 1 is super pinball.
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But when Batman proves to be an expert at the snes Joker goes with plan b.. his giant pinball table of death. Sorry his giant SUPER pinball table of death.
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As you can see the same joker face from the card is here and you see it all over his lable. it seemed to be Joker's logo back the. I love this whole setup and mostly show it not only because it' sdope but because those pins must've been what bumpers were. I also had no idea PInball used to be a gambling thing. Makes sense, it's just fun to find out.
The game goes well mostly though one of the guys nearly slams into a pin. Thankfully Robin is an expert gymnist and batman smartly saved laucnhing robin till the last minute and Dick's able to save the goon.
Game two is super rolling some dice, which apparently used to land on numbers. This yugioh style death game involves our bait being tied to polls on three of the numbers. If Batman guesses wrong, someone dies. Or maybe not since the board is pretty damn big. Not every death trap can be super murder pinball. Batman spots some mud on the dice though and correctly guesses they'll pivot. This is the weakest of the death traps here, a bit convolunted, not really guranteed to be as deadly. I know the chance of nothing happening is part of it.. but with pinball there's really almost no chance you won't hit the bumpers. Here it feels like pure luck or simple cheating that both dice flew at the joker.
Next game and the one that introduces our prop, though the dice apparently are also in the cave sometimes which I love. The game is a game of cards.. batman has to correctly guess which face matches the door Robin and the hostage goons are in or they'll choke to death on the deadly gas released inside.. and naturally he figures out it's the Joker card. It's too joker not to work.
Turns out though, naturally the joker isn't playing fair both having a final one on one game ofr him and Batman and having his goon go to get robin behind the joker card door... and Robin dispatches him hilaroiusly and awesomely
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With that the hostages are free and the final death game begins. A giant super roulette wheel with both batman and joker getting in a slot. looser gets crushed alive. It's an awesome finale, and it fits joker to put himself at risk: after all he risks his life all the time why wouldn't he for such a fun gag?
Batman's able to get the wheel to turn fairly and then escape it, leading to a chase. THe Radium Theives agree to give themselves and the radium up but there's still the matter of the joker and we get a short but neat final chase as Joker uses the dice against the heroes then jumps off a cliff, gambling his life one last time.. and rightfully batman isn't betting on the joker having died.
Gamble With Doom is an excellent story. While the trophy we get out of it is only in it briefly the story itself is pure fun. It has some fun dated elements like Bruce's opinon gambling is EVILLLL and the old fashioned designs on the traps, but it's pure fun. The traps are clever, the tension palpable and the climax great. The gambling motif's really fit the joker and it adds up to an all time great joker story with a suprise impact. The Trophy Itslef. is barely in it but Robin DID break a guy's face with it so i'll say it was still cave worthy.
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(From World's Finest #30)
The Penny Plunderer is a name I had heard but had no real context for. I assumed he was some goofy silver age villian with pennies for eyes who drove around chucking pennies at everyone.
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I am an artiste.
Instead it's just a guy in a suit. He has the backstory of any good golden or silver age villian to justify his gimmick
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I love.. everything about this backstory. It reads like if a writer was given the thought exercise "Make the pettiest batman villian origin you can find.". I mean other villians gimmicks make sense: Poison Ivy was a botonist, Mr Freeze had a horrible accident, the penguin was born looking like a penguin with a lot of money, the Joker fell into a vat of chemicals and came out a clwon, the riddler liked puzzles.
Here Joe just... got screwed over by pennies a lot. Even funnier is that the last one has nothing to do with pennies. Like.. even if it'd had nickels he'd still be arrested.
So Joe vows since pennies runied his life, he'l lbecome the penny! Sadly this does not mean him dressing up like a giant penny with a cane and top hat.. nad now I can't show you it that last drawing put me too far behind and... oh fuck it.
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Instead he just wears a suit but makes his gimmick pennies. Commit to the bit man. I do get it as some golden age villians were just guy in a suit, even Joker and Penguin technically counts but one is a clown and the other is a rich penguin man. They have mor ethan just "suit and a vendetta against pennies that somehowturns into stockholm syndrome.
So the penny plunderer begins his reign of terror, setting up a penny arcade as a front, and cashing in a roll of pennies in the most diabolical scheme ever devised by man.
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A true criminal mastermind.
Batman picks up on this pattern because it's what he does and finds his next case, a coin and stamp exibiton with a rare one cent stamp. It's here we meet the reason we're here: the giant penny!
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Yeah to my shock the penny had NOTHING to do with the penny plunderer other than being at the site of one of his robberies. He prefered just.. chucking pennies at people.. which is awesome and a truly great tactic only topped by Batman's use of said giant penny
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I adore the fact that this iconic artifact is there not because it was seized from the villians or a police options.. but because, presumibly, Bruce thought this penny he found was kick ass and bought it off it's actual owner.
Most of the theives escape but they find one willing to squeal. Unfortunatley he dies for his hubris
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Yup bet you weren't expecting the penny guy to kill someone and to see his corpse weren't you but here you are. Also batman is apparently a cop now. George Lopez tried to warn us...
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But we didn't listen! We didn't listen!
A fight breaks out at the gambling parlour and we get two of the best moments in batman history that much like the blue beetle film, ar ehighly underated.
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I just.. I get the sense that is how batman ALWAYS plays pinball. Just judo kicks it every time even as bruce wayne. Both bruce wayne and batman have been banned from so many arcades.. often the same ones. Perks of having a secret identity. We then get coyne once again THROWING pennies at someone and it working. I don't know why he hasn't been brought back with the telkeentic ability to contorl pennies. Give him a copper helmet and a proper costume and oh dammit..
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Then Joe knocks batman out iwth his one weakness: a roll of pennies. He's trapped them in the parlor for your standard batman death trap, having removed their belts and ripped out the phone lines as usual. He then throws them a few pennies when then prove to be a mistake as it's time for SCIENCE WITH DR. BATMAN, who uses one old penny, copper, and one new penny, zinc to make a battery. Good thing jimmy didn't wish it away THIS week.
The cops arrive to free one of hteir own and batman finds a clue once the parlor is cleared of gas. Turns out Coyne was catering a penny slot party for a rich billinoare's houseboat, and naturally their filled with gas. I swear it's always gas with these golden age villians. Get another knockout device fellas.
With that our final chase enses as Batman and robin chase Coyne and while he nearly bests them with a good game of 1940's donkey kong
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He's foiled by his own gimmick: he has only pennies but the pay telephone.. dosen't.. take 5 seperate pennies for some reason? the hell? I get payphones not taking pennies once they went up to a quarter but come the fuck on 1940's payed telephones. he's foiled.. and sentenced to death.
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Yes folks that's the cannoical till some lucky fellow brings him back fate of the penny plunderer: PUT TO DEATH.
This story is as you can tell nonsense that's only gotten more hilarious with the passage of time and I loved every page on it and on getting the panels for this review, I only found MORE hilaroius nonsense to laugh at. We have a story where a guy with a penny gimmick smacks batman with a roll of pennies, trips robin with more, kills a man without pennies, is foiled by pennies yet somehow dosen't actually use the giant penny that's the only reason people know he exists. It's beautiful bollocks and worth your time.
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(From Batman #35)
As I hope you are, this issue had me hooked from the first panel: Batman vs dinosaurs being forced to fashion a bow and arrow for some reason. Yes... fuck. Yes. Also nice of bruce to eat Ollie's lunch.
Okay so this story starts, as many real life stories do, with a billionare having a zany idea; Mr. Hart is a man who puts on shows: ice follies, aqua carnival, 40's razzle dazzle type stuff. For his latest idea though he's going above and beyond: a DINOSAUR ISLAND. With mechancail dinosaurs and cavemen who throw giant sponges at you. Thankfully spongebob wasn't born yet but his great great grandpappys quarepants did the honors. Honorable old fool.
To ramp up the insanity, Mr Hart is inviting a club of big game hunters to eat mammoth steak with batman.
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If that weren't enough, and in any other golden age story it might be... our heroes get CHALLENGED at dinner by one of the rich assholes. Yeah turns out rich assholes who hunt innocent animals for sport and eat reheated mammoth aren't the most stable indviduals and Mr. Breech scoofs at the fact Mr. Hart says Man is the most dangerous game. He's hunted man, they went down like cowards. COWARDS. He feels Batman couldn't hut a dinosaur without his gadgets, and certainly not his bare hands... even though as this issue with prove and has already shown early man had tools.
To prove his point he challenges batman to a fucking challenge: survive on Dinosaur Island: no utility belt, no vehicles. If the dinosaurs touch him he looses. Mr Breech will man the controls. Honestly i'm convinced Breech knew hart well enough to know he'd both agree to this for the publiclity and why he'd invite batman and robin and just wants to play iwth giant mechanical dinosaurs and also batman. Which granted if I were invited to this sort of thing i'd also want to chase batman with mechanical dinosaurs for fun, who wouldn't, so I totally get it and respect the game.
Hart is on board, offering 5000 to the winner's charity and Batman is like "Why the bat-fuck not. Let's go".
Now you might suspect Breech's real motive is trying to kill batman. I mean you have a setup where batman will be without his weapons, the plausable deniablity of a machine malfunction and a secluded island with 24 hours to kill the batman. And you'd shockingly be wrong. Breech really just wants to prove dinosaurs are the most dangerous game so when that Jurassic Park he's working on opens no one will object to him hunting them for sport.
But his plans are foiled by Chase, anothe rich knob who wants to kill batman and robin to, as he says later form a "crime combine". So he wants a bunch of middle aged guys drinking beers to yell at him for not training the joker on tackling well enough. I see.. well played.
So the game is afoot and our heroes take a bit to catch up, first brushing off a real rock among the sponge rocks as a mistake. Theis ends when a Triceratops to trismash them into a tree. Batman calls for a war council on a nearbye island but naturally THAT'S NO ISLAND
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Batman fought a mechanical fucking seamonster. That.. that's cannon. To almost every batman timeline. God bless you Golden Age, god, bless, youuuu. Also i'd be stupid if I didn't say that Tally Ho, Batman! is one of the greatest phrases in batman history up there with "I Am the night" , "I'm batman" and "Something something joker's boner".
So now the games for their lives, Batman and Robin don't have to play fair and start fashioning bows, arrows and knives out of mechanical dinosaur bones. You know.. sometimes this job can be draining: 2-3 reviews a week, many a plan having to be delayed due to a review taking longer than expected.. but then you get a review where Batman and robin have to outrun a manical billinoare who hyjacked dinosaurs from a diffrnet billionare who was having a charity dinosaur hunt with batman and robin using a third billionare's dinosaur, while fashoining weapons from mechanical dinosaur corpses and fashion a kite from a mechanical ptreadon and remember why you love reviewing stuff so mucH: sharinng a good story with the world and finding a good one or two yourself while your at it. And thanks to Kev i've found three truly wonderful, truly bonkers batman stories, with this one being the easy winner. It's both a decent enough concept for the time and hilariously insane.
And I ddin't make up the kite thing: when, after a night of survivial, Robin brings up the batplane, Batman has an idea: since the flying dinosaurs are on a programmed pattren rather than directly controled, they can use them to make themselves a kite yor style.
So to win the day Batman has a plan: he uses himself as bait since Robin's the more agile of the two, and has robin CATAPULT HIMSELF into the air after chase, who is riding on t-rex back with an army of dinosaurs.. and how does he defeat chase' smighty dino army?
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It's both genuinely clever and wonderfully bonkers: Robin defeats an evil billionare RIDING a mechanical t-rex.. with water balloons.
Also props to this story: in the previous two the trophy was impressive.. but it was taken from what felt like a minor point in the story: the card flip game was fun as was batman slammin ga door on a guy, but it's sandwitched between far more elaborate death traps, while the penny, again awesome, wasn't even something the penny plunderer used. Batman just bought it off some offscreen character to relive fond memoreies of crushign some crimianls alive with it. Here the main villian ROAD IN on the thing. Granted he still had to likely buy it off his actual owner, but this time at least a criminal actually used it as a murder weapon. I can see Batman wanting this thing for his cave.
Batman chases chase over the now still dinosaurs and punches the guy out. With this Batman's saved the day AND won the bet. 5000 for batmobiles for kids, donate your batmobile today!
As for chase...
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With that our story and this trilogy comes to an end.. and as I said, it's great. check out all three of these issues their a lot of fun. Next time dc puts some up for sale I may have to get some 40's batman, this stuff is golden.
Thanks for reading
To conclude batman month: Wait'll you get a load of this
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popculturebuffet · 5 days
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There are no coffee breaks for a good heart.
(Uncanny Spider-Man #4)
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popculturebuffet · 5 days
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Through a Mirror Darkly/Batmarch: Brave and the Bold: Deep Cover for Batman!/Game Over for Owlman! (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)
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Hello all you happy people. Welcome back to Batmarch after a long unintended break from it and welcome one and all to Through a Mirror Darkly, a new mini retrospective that goes through the looking glass and sees what dark reflections of our heroes could be. Or in less pretty words: We're taking a look at a bunch of mirror universe episodes in animation using kev's patreon slots while we wait for Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse.
It's a familiar concept: a parallel universe where for one reason or another, either they were just born worse or something happened that pivoted them in the other direction, our heroes are evil, our villians are good and usually the universe is a hell hole. I also can't say we won't ever return to this idea as there's plenty of mirror universe stories out there. For now though we're focusing on the four best we found in the genre.
Starting off we have a unique spin on one of the more iconic mirror universes with Dc Comics Earth 3. DC started exploring the multiverse to simply clear up an issue: there were two flashes, Golden Age Hero Jay Garrick and Silver Age Hero Barry Allen. Since Allen was seen reading a flash comic, they used that springboard to make a parallel earth Barry acciidently went through while tying nots for a class of school children.
Fan Reception was great so DC went to the next logical step, bringing back the rest of the golden age heroes for earth 2 and having a proper crossover, one so big, bold and fun that DC made it an annual thing: every year the JLA would unite wtih the JSA and every year another earth would be involved. So for the second the next course was obvious: a bad guy earth where up was down, black was white, John Wilkes booth was shot by Abe Lincoln, and instead of a variety of heroes protecting it, a group of the worst of the worst had conquered it.
Earth 3 has been revisited a lot and it's something I'll likely be going back to again as there's a lot to dig into: Grant MOrrison brought it back, infnite crisis brought the origianl back, ther'es been a few rebooted versions since, there's a lot of takes on this, and that naturally spreads to animation with superfriends, justice league and the film justice league: Crisis on two worlds, all taking a swing at it.
And the swing we're looking at today is Batman Brave and the BOld's take. This was Brave and the Bold's mid season finale, taking the crime syndicate and swapping out it's members for the various heroes batman had teamed up with, ironicallys howing up BEFORE the justice league itself ever did. Also for some reason their earth 3 is earth 23.
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This two parter was the first in Brave and the Bold, one of only two in the series history, the other finishing off the starro saga. It's also one of those two parters where part one and part two are basically their own episodes rather than one big episode split up into multiple parts. It's something I notice more after binging X-Men the animated series recently, as most of thier two parters are of the "one big episode" variety, with exceptions like the brilliant time fugitives.
SO under the cut we have two distinct connected stories at Batman staves off an attack from Owlman, takes his identity to go undercover and figure out his world.. then is forced on the lmab and to team up with his greatest foe when Owlman returns the favor. It's a fun, furious two parter and it's under the cut.
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Deep Cover for Batman!
We begin on Earth... 23.
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I get putting your own spin on things but when it's earth 3 in all but name.. just do what i'm doing and call it earth 3.
ON this blighted earth, it's last hero makes a last ditch Gamble: use a device called the Phase Oscelator and escape this earth to find help. This last hero is the Red Hood and most people familiar with this identity either know where this going or are confused why it's not jason tod but the joker in a dope suit and an expresionless mask.
The Red Hood was the Joker's first identity, revealed in a silver age story as what he did before falling in that vat and made canon again post crisis with the killing joke. How much of the story leading UP to joker becoming red hood in this version is vague if it's true or just one of Joker's many backstories, but the fact he was the hood and fell in acid isn't. Jason later took the identity for his own post ressurection, his own ironic sick joke on his murderer.
Given it's silver age stylings, it's a perfect fit here and a neat way to introduce JOker: not through the clown prince himself.. but through the hero he could've been as he makes his last stand. The series does obscure the cast in shadows.. though their shadier behavior tips that something's off. that and the whole "wreathed in shadow thing". It looks utterly neat and is staged beautifully, it just makes it painfully obvious their building up to so mething. That something is the reveal of the Injustice Syndicate. Why not crime syndicate, I dunno. The change in lineup is more fair as most leaguers hadn't been introduced yet so while Owlman, batman's evil counterpart stays, this version focuses on Owls and three brand new evil counterparts: Silver Cyclone, Blue Bowman and Crimson Scarab. The designs.. are really just recolors of their heroic counterparts, which I accept for the ones we see for like a scene later, but question hwy they put no real effort into these.
This sadly extends to the villians themselves as outside of Cyclone, most of them.. are just the character but EVIL. Even Owlman, despite getting two episodes is just "batman but evil" and mostly coasts on the fact that batman but evil is a chilling concept.
Part of the problem is, while I do LIKE these episodes... I feel they pulled the trigger way too early to do a parallel universe story. The other ones we'll be tackling are a decent ways into the shows run pulling from seasons 4 and 5 of two of them, and the middle of a truly MASSIVE season one for one of them. It's far enough in to know who these people are and thus get used to the opposiite. While we know Batman well enoguh at this point to get that, we really don't know most of the other heroes here well enougH: Green Arrow.. never really grows beyond "douchebag rival". Beetle however had a whole episode fleshing him out and is one of the only heroes with two so far so they have no excuse there. Red Tornado at least had a deep enough first episode to give them just enogu hto make a chilling evil versoin: Red badly wants to be part of humanity.. while Silver's cast his aside, being cold, emotionless and pure evil as he later tortures the Red Hood. IT's the lazy way to do a mirror universe: just that character but on the wrong side and it feels disapointing the show never went back and corrected this with a followup once we got to know the cast better. I really woudl've loved an evil aquaman once we got to know ours better.
Thankfully though while the evil dopplegangers are one note, the episode itself isn't as it's a fun tense ride starting with Owlman invading the bat cave. ANd as I said Owlman may bea bit thin as a villian.. but he works simply because "evil batman" itself is intriguing. It can be done poorly
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And sometimes won't go th efuck away, but the idea of someone as capable as batman using that power against us is chilling and the episodes use it well, this one having a cool parallel fight between the two, with the two evenly match, the animation flowign gorgeously and Batman winning simply because his counterpart has something he dosen't: arrogance. He pulls up night vision goggles after Batman takes out the lights... and Bats uses a MAGNEISUM FLAIR. He knows himself well enough to know his counterpart would have night vision and used that against him , locking Owlman up.
Having been left Red Hood's version of the batterang, a test run before he got captured and a calling card, Batman decides to investigate hence the deep cover and what makes this episode really work despite the thin characterization of most of the bad guys: Batman has to pretend to be his evil self, and it's clear from their actions both Silver Cyclone and Blue Bowman are suspcious from the get go, so it's a tense well done game of "how long can he keep this up"
Batman tries to spare his world by lying and saying everyone had powers there.. but this just gets Cyclone to go with option B: use a bomb to empty the world out. So not only does bats have tos tay under cover and try to minimize damage, he also has to save Earth 1 from annhilation without blowing said cover.
THankfully he has help as he gives an escaping red hood a mike and while hood is captured, Batman now has an ally. The Injustice Synidcate takes flight in a really cool scene, not just for the visuals.. but for how it's unsettling. Unlike most mirror universes at worst Earth 23 just has a bit more orange in the sky. Orange and Red skies: your sign we're all fucked!
What makes it actually unsettling is the civilians reactions.. they all run in terror and Batman's internal monologue makes it clear this is a world without heroes.. without hope. Instead of looking up at the sky in a we and at what they could be... they run in terror and pray their cruel gods don't see them.
The theft goes well though Bowman is getting more and more suspcious and has batman tailed by someone we can't see. GEE I WONDER WHAT HERO WE'VE MET IN SEASON 1 IS OUT OF SIGHT. SURELY IT MUST BE SOME NEW TAKE ON A HERO AND NOT THE ATOM. Meanwhile Cyclone tortures the red hood, saying he'll break him and showing a cruelty and lack of care that's just.. chilling coming from someone whose counterpart is noble and badly wants to be emapthetic. We also get a chilling recitation of Hood's history.. and just how determined this poor guy is: they knocked him into the chemicals, he presses on. They take out his allies after he finally gets some he continues. he won't break even in the face of this torture and it's WHY Cyclone wants to break him so bad.
Oh look it's the atom, who catches Batman just as he's about to free the prisoners sending him on the run. This sequences is the best of the episode, as Red Hood claims to be willing to finally talk.. while giving batman directions. Cyclone eventually figures this out and sends Bowman and Scarab to go finish this imposter. Unfortunately for them.... he's batman. He even says the line after he finishes them and finally can drop the disguise.
Unforutnately while the syndicate APPEARED to be just those 4 guys, it's actually a larger group and Cyclone called backup. Maybe they were in the INjustice Pool having an Injustice Mojito while playing INjustice.
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They aren't named so we'll go with The Molocule, Stretch Man, Aquamenace and Flare. I REALLY wish we got to hear evil Aquaman speak and my primary reason for being dispaointed we never got a followup is that Aquaman became so integral to the show it's weird to see his evil counterpart as one of the extras.
Thankfully Batman dosen't have to fight this alone and frees the other heroes, leading to a fun fight between the Injustice Synidcate and the Justice Society... wait no that dosen't work.. the Freedom Pals? Super Friends? Super Duper Justice Parade. Yeah that's the ticket.
So the Super Duper Justice Parade and the INjustice Synidcate have a scrap and since having a master stratgeist, or batigest if you will, on your side can tip the scales and the Synidcate lack theres, they loose.. all except Cyclone who triggers the bomb.
We then get an excellent twist: Cyclone.. is the DC version of Ultron in this reality, wanting to wipe out all humans and only having worked with them for his own gain, a truly sad contrast to his counterpart who simply wants to be accepted by humanity and tries his best to understand them. The bomb was ALWAYS intended to just kill the squishes and he dosen't care which earth he gets to rebuild in his image. Thankfully Red Hood shows up and... blows up his head. Jesus. I mean he deserved it, but it's a reminder this IS the joker, down to ending with a pun.. he's just a hero. He has his evil alternate reality counter part's style, skill and determination.. but not the madness that drives him. Simply a desire to do good
So with that earth 23 minus 20 is saved, Batman goes home.. and finds that he's now the most wanted man alive.
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Deep Cover for Batman is a decent episode. Like I said it's hampered by the fact only ONE of the syndicate is fleshed out.. but that one is just enoguh to help this and the well done sequences it does have along with the gorgeous animatoin make up for the lak of worldbuilding and character building for the baddies as does Jeff Bennet, Johnny Bravo himself, as Red Hood, proding an operating yet utterly heroic and loveable performance. And it'd be his best in the series... if he didn't get to top himself right after
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Game Over For Owlman!
So yeah while it's only been like.. a day for batman, it's been three weeks. Owlman broke out and using Batman's first outfit, such a cool little mythology gag complete with the purple gloves he really did have.
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They even made an action figure of it multiple times. It's great. I need me one of those at some point.
For now though this means all of Batman's friends are against him and it's the one part of this episode that I REALLY don't like as it feels REALLY sloppy, not to mention most of them don't seem torn up about this. It makes sense for Green Arrow: his greatest rival turning out to be evil? It's his goddamn birthday. But only Plastic Man seems REALLY hurt, which works well as Batman rode him so hard about being a reformed criminal so seeing him bein ga hypocrite clearly breaks the poor guy a bit. But everyone else just accepts this. And I get it's been 4 weeks but like.. not only is he wearing an older costume now.. but NONE OF you in a world with, up to this point in the series: Aliens, Ghosts, Super Intelligent Gorillas, Sorcerers, Atlantis, Atlanteans, Time Travel, Power Rings, my boy Mogo the living planet, Deadman, martial arts magic and fucking Bwana Beast, who I love but is objectively weird as shit which is why I love him, same for Mogo. And the bulk of this these guys were THERE FOR.. and not one of you thinks the obvious: that Batman's being mind controlled or has been replaced by a double. It's fucking agrivating. Again Ollie gets a pass as his reactoin to getting to fight batman and have a valid excuse is clear and true
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But the fact Beetle, who idolizes batman or Red Tornado, whose logical as fuck don't spot the obvious bothers me, it bothers me a lot
Thankfully after this less than great start, we get to the meat of the episode and what makes this ep so damn memorable: Batman is dropped into a warehouse where he meets his unlikely savior: The Joker. And for added pizaz to this reveal this was the clown prince's first apperance all season and the first time we've seen ANY of batman's foes all series. Every previous show is a b or c list villian attached to someone else, usually not the guest hero of the episode for added points. It's part of the series charm: instead of focusing on Batman's iconic but well used foes, it uses the wide scope of the dc plucking out every other villian great and small to get some spotlight.
Not only did this allow some villians even I didn't know existed like Babyface or Fun Haus to get spotlighted.. but it also meant when one of Batman's usual rogues DID show up it felt like a big event. Here especailly as after all this time we finally get to see one of Batman's own foes.. and it is glorious.
Jeff Bennet plays the Joker.. and he is utterly delightful. This Joker, while still vile and villanous fully leans into the silver age astetic of the show: he's still implied to kill people, still does over the top schemes, but it's in that classic golden and silver age way of more IMPLYING the death than showing the carnage he does. While other jokers can be funny this one, at least for this ep is almost entirley played for comedy, more an overgrown kid at play than the dangerous monster he usually is that's also an overgrown child just one who'd burn ants, whlie never really letting up on his competence, best shown subtly when Batman handcuffs him.. only fo rhim to have used the false wrists gag. Bennet plays it perfectly, using a posh accent to both seperate the joker from previous versoins and play into the old timey astetics the series loves.
Turns out Joker isn't happy with the new status quo as he loved the game as was and wants to partner with Batman instead.. the real batman. Unlike Batman's friends, Joker can actually TELL the other one's an imposter and can you know, tell that Batman suddenly doing crimes is weird and probably isn't him. It's not helped by the fact Owlman is horning in on his own crimes, ruining his fun.
So Joker offers batman his help: they team up and take out a mututal headache. Batman's first response is
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Joker makes a valid point that sways him though: Batman is fighting someone as obessive, well thought out and type A as himself. Neither he nor Owlman really have the advantage, something backed up by their fight earlier and Owlman easily escaping the second Batman was gone: Their SO much alike that the odds of Batman actually beating him are low, as is the opposite. It's a clever way to use the mirorr gimmick.. and the joker: As Joker points out not only is he pure chaos, something harder to predict, he's also come the closest out of anyone to actually beating Batman.
Batman is forced to Acknolwdge he's right and they Take joker's car. It's a brilliant concept too: Batman and the Joker are usually so diffrent they CAN'T work together, but the stakes here are perfect to force the issue. it's also a delightful dynamic as Batman is a perfect straight man to his arch enemy's goofy antics, with joker soaking up every minute of this teamup, from saving a child then milking it for all ti's worth when the kid turns out to be afraid of batman, to , when they have to call in a batmobile after thier car gets wrecked (Batman naturally keeps a spare and in another nice nod it's the one he used in the 50s), tries to press all the buttons like a deranged 7 year old. It's fucknig great.
They had back to the bat cave after a chase form team dumbass, and Batman finds out something horrifying: Owlman found all his contenginces and is using them. This is something taken from the comics: Batman has a bunch of diffrent plans in case his justice pals are brainwashed or mind controlled. It lead to the brilliant story tower of Babel as Ras Ah Ghul got a hold of them and turned them up to lethal. It's something they SHOULD know he has and should have more consequences here like that comic, but it dosen't. It is however resonable: unlike his friends Batman again is well aware brainwashing happens and we now know there's evil dopplegangers in at least one other universe. It's smart to have a plan, some of them should just bea ware of that and for all we know they might be. They don't , and shoudln't, know what that backup IS, but they should be trusted to know he has a plan if something happens.
Ethics aside this gives Owlman everything he needs to take out all of batman's major allies thus far, and gather his own injustice league of all the various vilians, who apparently completely trust a guy pretending to be batman meaning the villians are the only ones in this episdoe who actually get that multiverse theroies a bitch and don't just go "oh this paragon of justice is evil now. Cool. That happened".
Batman and the Joker bust in to save the day.. but Owlman's already prepared for this , and after batman looses the numbers game.. offers Joker something he can't reisist.. his own trap. Batman dunked in wax. The spiral effects as he looks at the button and his eulogy after are hilarous.
Thankfully Batman , like Owlman, saw this coming and thus had the phase oscelatior repared. I also love that in hindsight, the time diffrences in dimensions.. was a chekovs gun: Batman spents some time in the multiverse finding himself.. and himself.. and himself.. and also himself, and himself once again, and oh look him as a cowboy.
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It's a great reveal and one i'd forgotten: Batman found the joker was right, he can't beat himself alone.. but himselfves can.
It also speaks to the Brave and the Bold staff's love of the comics and heavy penchant for research as ALL of these batmen with exactly one exception are based on existing stories. That's the armored batman who even then still SOMEWHAT resembles Jean Paul's armor during his time of batman, but isn't close enough for me to fully think that's what they were going for
Thanks to the dc wiki though I know where the rest come from so settle in:
Going from left to right, we have the cowboy batman. Because everythings better when you make it a cowboy. It's just science.
Cowboy Batman is based on Nighthawk, a western hero I hadn't heard of before Kev showed me this wiki page. This is neat as the next year we COULD get a full cowboy look for batman during the return of bruce wayne after Darkseid seemingly killed him but thanks to a time gun he actually got sent through time and space, recarnating each time and each time becoming a new batman
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Next we have Bat Creature, a giant hulking batman that came out of batman getting hit by an evolution ray meant fo rmonkeys that somehow turned him into the hulk
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We then have vampire batman, the one variant I recognized as the dc 60 years of history book I read as a kid, and now have thanks to the kindnes of my mom's friend LIsa, had a section on it. It was a trilogy of elseworlds stories where Batman fought dracula and became a vampire as a result then lord of vampires. I.. really need to cover that one sometime.
Easing down past regular batman and ?????? Batman we have Captain Leatherwing, an alternate timeline bruce who became a pirate captin in a one off annual done by Chuck Dixon.
Finally we have hyper evolved batman, based off another wacky silver age transformatoin. During an issue of WOrld's Finest batman and superman found a satilite that crashed ot earth that evolves of devolves creatures. Unforutnately Hyper Evolved Batman, what was seen as 800,000 years of evolution hitting him at once, apparently ended up cold and evil and devolved superman as a result. And why yes Cave Superman versus Big Head Batman is something I should look at sometime. This version is heroic instead thankfully.
So a big ole bat-brawl insues and it's the highlight of the two parter... mostly because Joker spends the bulk of it running around with a round bomb with the biggest giggly smile on his face. The fighting though is great, with each batman getting to show off and freeing a hero. My faviorites are Aquaman's rescue, which has Black manta trying to turn up the giant sunlamp he's trapped under like he's turning up the volume on a tv before one of the batmen breaks a sprinkler allowing Aquaman to kick some ass, and Brain Batman Vs my boy THE Brain, which is won by Plastic man stretching his free arm to distract the brain. It's a well crafted wonderful fight scene that really leans into the craziness of the situation and has a lot of fun with tiself, which really sums up the show as a whole.
As for our big bad and his new best buddy, their defeated by their ego: both think they should finish off batman.. and thus bats is able to drop the wax thing on them.
One de waxing and a lot of handcuffs later
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The villians are all arested, none of the heroes bother to apologize, and Batman geninely wonders if Red Hood means Joker has good in him. As for Owlman the other batmen take him back with him giving an omnious vow to return.. which let me check what episode that happens in.
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..... you maybe see why I think this needed a followup.
At any rate while it has a bumpy start, Game Over for Owlman is pure fun once the joker gets involved and a good romp as Batman's forced to babysit his arch enemy to beat himself, and the finale encapuslates the shows "anything goes" style. You want a pirate, cowboy, hyper evolved, devolved, and armored batman beating up a bunch of foes while Joker runs around with a bomb? Yes let's do that. The show's love of just how fucking weird comics are will never not be endearing and this episode encapsulates that. These two eps aren't brave and the bold's best, but their still a LOT of fun and a decent enough story. NOt the best mirror universe story
Next in Bat Month: We have some more goofy classic goodness as we go to the golden age to find out where some of batman's most famous trophies come from as Bats must deal with gambling themed death traps, a man screwed over by pennies, and being hunted my mechanical dinosaurs on a billionares island. So a standard week fo rbatman, a good review for you
Next time Through a Mirror Darkly: We see just exactly where Darkwing Duck's arch enemy comes from as Darkwing tries to bring hope to a hopleless world. Get used to that it's goign to be a running theme.
Thanks for reading
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X-Men '97 heard that people think Cyclops is boring and stuck up. Well, he definitely is still rigid and stubborn (anything else would be untrue to his character), but they make sure to showcase creative uses of his powers. He uses it to slide around in a fight! And of course, he drops out of the sky and lands superhero style using his eye beam!
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X-Men '97 - 1x02 "Mutant Liberation Begins"
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Dragon Ball: 21st World Martial Arts Tournament Review: We'll miss you Toriayama Sempai (Comission for Emma Fici)
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Akira Toriyama
1954-2024
"Bye Everyone, See You Someday"
The loss of Akira Toriyama a few weeks ago was jolting. While the man had a good 70 years with his family, created some of the best works of all time, and consulted on many more, all while mentoring the next generation... it will never be enough. The man's impact on Manga and the comic world as a whole cannot be overstated: the man defined Shonen, taught many a generation what action means, and all with a sense of whimsy and humor. There won't be a voice quite like him again and it's a true shame.
So to honor this legend, i'm covering one of my faviorite arcs of Dragon Ball and one of it's most important: this arc not only helped Toriyama figure out just what Dragon Ball was, but what it could be, created a whole genre of shonen arc that remains one of my faviorite, and helped show off his mastery of action while helping him temper his gag based comedy into somethign stronger and more character based. Ladies, gentlemen and nb's welcome to the 21st annual world martial arts tournament. For those more familiar with Z, your in for a treat, for those familiar with this era of the franchise, welcome back. And special thanks to my friend Emma Fici for sponsoring this review For all, please join me under the cut.
Previously on Dragon Ball
The 21st Tenkaichi Budokai or Tournament Saga is Dragon Ball's second arc ever in it's long run and even longer run as a franchise, so before we can jump right into it, a quick recap of the first saga.
Now you may ask "Why not just review the Pilaf Saga?". The easy answer is "because I wanna and a friend was kind enough to sponsor it in lieu of muppets so I could get it out closer to toriyama's passing".
The more lengthy one is that I love tournament arcs
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I was weaned on Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho and Yugioh as a kid and having some of the best in the genre really gave me a taste for them and their an artform I wish more manga would pick up again. Their a way to get good fights, great storytelling and great stakes packed into small bowl and there's no real set way to do a tournament: from a battle royale that eventually wittles down to a few finalists like Yugioh's two big tourneys, to a standard bracket like Dragon Ball and the finale of the chunin exam in naruto , to the bracket style but with teams and a diffrent setup to the fights each time like Yu Yu Hakusho, there's really no WRONG way to set up a tournament and it's a genre I may explore again with the arcs hinted at. And if you know of any good tournament arcs in manga, anime or beyond, please hit me up with those. I'd be eager to hear.
The other reason is that while I have a fondness for the Pilaf Saga, having grown up with the brief first attempt to get dragon ball in and having a fondness for this era in general thanks to owning the Mystical Adventure movie on VHS... it hasn't exactly aged well and i'd rather talk about what made Toriyama great and a genre of storytelling I love than to have to stop every five seconds to gape in horror at the 80's era sex comedy nightmare before me. The humor in this saga has aged like fine milk left inside a porky's vhs on a busy highway under a flock of seagulls. It is a LOT of harrasment on a 16 year old girl and a lot of goku grabbing people's gentials because he can't tell men from women, which is problematic for a bucket load of reasons your likely already counting up.
The arc isn't without it's great iconic moments: Goku fishing with his bare hands, Goku meeting bulma, the first Kamehameha on frying pan mountain, Goku's first real fight against Yamcha, Goku turning into ozaru, goku sending a rabbit to the moon
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It's not without merit, a lot of it simply has aged badly and i'd rather focus on an arc that while still having problematic bits, time isn't kind to many, is sharper, more focused and has way more good to outweigh the dated stuff Toriyama outgrew with time.
So giving you the short version...
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Specifically Bulma, rich bratty teen genius and Son Goku, a 12 year old living all alone after an ape done squished his adopted Grampa who found him in a space ship, but that's a retcon for another day.
Bulma is on a quest to find the Dragon Balls, 7 Mystic Orbs that when gathered summon a big ole dragon which gives you whatever you want once a year before scattering across the globe again. Bulma want's to find a boyfriend, can relate, and thus plans to wish for one. This is complicated by the fact Goku thinks his grandpa's soul is in the ball he has, so she gets him to come along but neglects to tell him the scattering part and somehow suffers no consequences for this as goku just shrugs it off. Which is in character but begs the question why they didn't make this more of a plot point.
The two get going and soon encounter Turtle, the most underated Dragon Ball character, who Goku takes back to the ocean and Bulma only helps him with his good deed because she needs him to protect her. This good deed works out for him as they Meet Master Roshi, martial arts legend and registered sex offender. He gives goku Nimbus, a flying cloud that only the pure of heart can ride, and gives them the dragon ball in exchange for Bulma Flashing him
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I wasn't exaggerating. Onto the next one as a Pig Named Ooolong who to my shock was a child this whole time whos kidnapping girls to marry him but it's not really working out as their all demanding... which is a sexist stupid gag but better than a sex offense. The bar is low in this arc. Goku easily deals with him in a fun chase. and they get a ball from the greatful villiagers and a new sidekick.
Our heroes soon encounter their first real obstacle and the first proper fight of the series as up to this point, Goku easily curbstomped most foes. Even with Oolong it was more the pig shapeshifting and running away.
That changes with Yamcha, Dragon Ball's faviorite jobber and my boy. He's also the only one attracted to Bulma who isn't a sex monster to her, so that helps. The fight is a tease of what Toriyama's capable of , well paneled fun and even slipping in a few gags like Goku using his paper rock scissors attack, including Eye Pokes. That fiend. Goku DOES loose with only Yamcha's fear of women netting them a victory and on the rematch does way better, though it's still a fairly even fight. While Yamcha goes through some slapstick he still gets out of this saga with his dignity, being the most compitent member of the heroes despite not technically joining them, instead following them to steal the balls when they have them all and pulling an assist once in a while.
The penultimate ball is in the treasure hord of the Fearsome Ox King whose house is always on fire. What's expected to be a firece fight.. instead ends up being a pretty happy meetup as Ox King recognizes Nimbus, being one of Roshi's old students and an old friend of Grampa gohan's. Instead he asks Goku to go get Roshi as he has the fan that can put out the fire, with Goku picking up Ox King's daughter Chi Chi along the way, back when she was just a sweet ray of sunshine with a bit of a romantic streak who offers goku her hand, which he takes thinking Marriage is a food. You all know the bit and how this'll come back later
Roshi lost the fan becaues of course he did, but compensates with his most powerful technique, the Kamehameha, the most recognizable move in all of anime and manga and one of the funnest to do the motions for. Don't tell me you haven't tried it. It shows both that Roshi is compitent under the layers of sex pest, and soon shows just how much potetial goku has as , despite taking Roshi decades to master.. Goku is able to pull one off seconds after seeing it. Roshi, seeing the boy's potetial , offers to train him, something Goku gladly acccepts, setting up the Tournament Arc.
For now though we have the wrapup of this arc, as Goku does indeed send a rabbit to the moon who can magically turn people to carrots and our heroes soon get to the final dragon ball.. and things go south. Our quintet, Yamcha has a kitty with him, gets captured by Emperor Pilaf, a tiny goblin who wants to rule the world and who puts our heroes in a room to tourture them before just gassing them again and taking Goku's ball. Thankfully he's able to do a kamehameha again, and Oolong is able to shapeshift through and wish for a woman's panties because this arc , even when having a fucking dragon in it, can't help itself but be creepy at least once every few chapters.
Pilaf plans to starve everyone to death, but then we find out something: Turns out the monkey what Squished Gohan.. was Goku himself, as GOku recounts how his grandpa warned him to never look at the moon.. and everyone else pieces it together. Thus we meet Ozaru, goku's giant ape form that smashes the castle and saves the day. Horay dues ex childhood trauma! We'll grapple with the implications of Goku killing his grandpa in Z!
Bulma is bummed she didn't get a boyfriend and yamcha is bummed he isn't less nervous around women , can relate, and the two lock eyes, the obvious happens and thus everyone gets a happy ending as the group opt to not tell Goku the full truth of what happened and Goku shrugs off loosing his grandpa, with Bulma, having gotten fond of the little guy over the quest, giving him the radar to find it next year. They say their happy goodbyes as everyone else heads off to go chill at Capsule Corp while Goku heads to begin his first big training session.
Master Roshi Sucks Surprising No One
So before Goku can begin training he gathers his futon and other stuff from his house and heads to master roshi's.. who as usual and as I assumed was an invention of the anime is watching exercise while panting heavily.
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Goku eventually gets his attention and he remembers "Oh right the training thing.
Roshi being history's greatest monster asks for a favor in return: Goku to fetch him a "hottie"
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Yeah this is a good spot to talk about my.. complciated feelings toward Roshi. As a kid I loved the character and his design is still great; the shades, the beard it's awesome. As an adult... I feel like he needs to be on some sort of list.
This is partly down to HOW I processed dragon ball as a kid: the Toonami versions for both Dragon Ball and DBZ cut his sex monstering down to the point I thought he was at best just intrested in women. I even had his action figure.. and turtle's. I still want to get the latter back someday. I miss my boy, I miss him a lot.
Point is reading the unfiltered manga... shows just HOW much they cut down what a nightmare the guy is: this is the SECOND time he's conned goku into being an accesory to his sex crimes, and Goku's accidently commited enough sex crimes on his own without helping yours old man.
Thankfully all it seems to boil down to is wanting a woman to help cook and to oogle. It's still deeply gross and makes my soul die just a little bit but it's better than the many horrifying alternative scnearios that could've happened.
Goku's first two attempts are a woman whose drawn to be comically grotesque because Akira Toriyama's humor is still stuck between arcs and a mermaid, which is a legitly funny joke as is her slapping the shit out of this perverted asshole balloon.
Goku CLEARLY needs some help with this nonsense so thus enters.. the BOY.
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Yes folks Krillin is here, my faviorite Dragon Ball character, the king of bald man and the blueprint from which all good secondary protaganist boys were made. Krillin walked so that chads like Kuwabara, Leorio, and Usopp could run.
Krillin's debut is both the only major character introduction in this arc and a nice sign of what this arc is: a soft reset. See the Pilaf arc didn't do so good, and Shonen Jump, past and present, isn't shy about cutting a manga loose if it's numbers dip too low. It's why many a Mangaka can have a lot of false starts, sort of how america is with comic strips and comic books are now with the whole "we'll do a mini first and see if ti works out" bullshit I can't stand. JUST. MAKE. ONGOINGS.
So Toriyama cut the cast down and tightned the focus to an end goal that was more actiony, while still allowing him to do plenty of gags in his comfort zone. Hence why everyone BUT goku left for the city. The Weinstein stayed because A) his schtick was seen as funny and harmless and not a federal crime at the time B) Japan has a laxer atittude towards sexual harassment in it's media and C) his traning provided a fresh genre pivot. It worked with this traning and the following tournament being seen as a rightful ste up. This arc keeps the comedy but make sit more character based, varies it up, and adds in some action and character devleopment the series badly needed. The characters were pretty flat in the Pilaf saga but here they feel a bit more three dimensional.
Krillin is introduced as Goku's foil, down to faceplanting during his big entrance. Everything about his intro sets him up as the oppositie to his new rival: He's a bit more down to earth as despite the entrance he brings Roshi a porno mag as payment, knowing who he's dealing with, he isn't the natural magnet goku is as he needs said bribe, and he's deeply sarcastic, making quips reguarly at goku. Most importantly.. he lacks Goku's sheer raw talent and has to make up for it with work and skill. The last part is his most important asset: As the power scaling tips heavily towards the sayians, the fact he can think as well as he can punch becomes vital.
Krillin knows what roshi wants and Goku has the cloud so Krillin hangs on for dear life as he's not pure at this point, and the two head to continue this douchey side quest. Thankfully it ends with Launch.
Launch is an intresting character for her gimmick and the fact that unlike the rest of the cast.. she's just kinda.. forgotten from Z onward. No for real Toriyama straight up forgot about her and admitted it, which I can respect. She's not a bad character but I can see why as she's really just kinda there to do her gimmick: Launch has DiD and when she sneezes she goes from one of the nicest ladies you'll ever meet to an outlaw who can pull guns out of thin air. She's not terrible and I like both of her designs, Toriyama is great at that, but there's really not much else.
The good news is this gimmick means Roshi can only be so creepy and since Nice Launch is apparently still on the hook for Outlaw Launch's crimes, she needs a place to hide out.
Now this section's thankfully over and the real work can begin.
The Turtle Hermit Way
So for their proper training , Roshi packs up his house and moves to a bigger island. He starts it off with a simple exercise: he throws a rock into the jungle, winner gets dinner. This chapter is fine enough and mostly there to show off Krillin as while Goku naturally finds the rock, Krillin ends up wining by using his head, throwing a fake and swiping the real one. Granted he gets blowfish poisioning for it but it shows a sliver of what makes him a good fighter: he may be leagues behind goku, yes even at this early, but he makes up for it with the stategy goku often laughs. Goku isn't without strategy in a fight but tends to charge in THEN come up with a plan. It usually works for him but it's not a strategy everyone can use.
The true traning begins the next day as Roshi gets them up early to show them their new routine. First a test of how fast they can run, then to see if they can move a boulder, simple stuff to test their limits and show them they have to go beyond them. This theme never leaves the series: it's always about going BEYOND what you can do into the next level, to keep striving for something more and to keep making yourself better. He also sets moving a big rock as a goal.. then a hill sized one as the goal after Goku proves he can easily move it.
So the traning regimine, which is easily my faviorite part of this arc and a brilliant one as each one helps in an area of martial arts, but is taken to extreme, often hilarious lengths. I also love a good traning arc and this is one of the best.
The first step is a literal milk run, because people used to have milk delivered. It's something i've never quite understood but makes for good training as Roshi tasks them to do their route at a run. Said route includes a giant set of stairs to a monastery, zig zagging through trees, crossing a narrow log, a massive desert and a dinosaur, because Dragon WOrld has those and it's beautiful. It's utterly charming being both over the top yet something someone COULD do as a training regimine, just toned down for real life human limits.
During this Milk Run Roshi reveals his end goal for his students; entering the World Martial Arts Tournament, a Tournament held every Three Years which all the best fighters gather for. He dosen't expect either to be able to qualify much less win, but rightly figures a goal to reach will help them keep pushing during his harsh traning.
The next step is farmwork, specifically plowing a farmer's field Barehanded, a way to help with chops and muscle the way the milk run helps with cardio. Each also teaches a battle skill though most arne't spelled out: The Milk Run teaches focus, as they have to deliver to specific places and many of the obstacles take concentration not to fall to, speed and urgency, while the farming helps define muscle, chops and aiming hits. After all they have to plow the fields so they'll be useable.
Next is something I like: studying till lunch. While Roshi is.. well you know at this point, I like that he makes sure his kids get an education. It's not just the body that's important but the mind. Granted I don't think his education fully took on goku but at least it helps him fit in the world better. It's then nap time
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I love this mantra and that Roshi dosen't just push the boys hard. He lets them get their energy back, let's them gain power but healthily. It's a truly good way to live.
The last two exercises are naturally still hard as dragon balls: The first is a swim having to outlap a shark, and the second is teaching dodging by bees. Gohan probably coudl've used some of this. And oh just to rub salt in the bee wounds, Roshi reveals the rest of the traning will be with massive turtle shells on their backs.
We then montage our way through several months of hard labor, increasingly heavy shells and comical child abuse, with all of it paying off: not only can Goku move the rock, but he and Krillin can now move at super speed and jump real good.
The Prelims:
The Prelims are a small sequence but help set things up: Seeing his student's progress, Roshi's moved the goal up to qualifying.
This ends up being a walk in the park as goku finds out, to his shock, that a simple poke on the knees fells his larger oponent and while the crowd attributes it to dumb luck, Goku realizes just HOW much stronger he and krillin are than most of the competitors and tells his friend to hold back.
This lasts less than a minute as the two soon meet two Monks from the temple Krillin used to train at. The two assholes used to bully Krillin, tell him he coudln't achieve anything and basically sent him running away from the place crying. This explains a LOT about Krillin to me: a lot of his self doubt really comes from being raised somewhere where it was beat into him constantly and having his best friend end up being the world's strongest really dosen't help.
Goku encourages Krillin telling him not to hold back.. and he easily flattens the guy, shutting the ashsole up. The rest of the prelims go by mostly off screen, with our heroes easily bodying most of their opponents and qualifying with ease. This will be standard procedure for the other two tournaments her eon out with Goku qualifying to show how far he's come and pretty much our whole main cast getting into the tournament proper with no real struggle. It's a handy device to show how far our heroes have progressed and in the next two arcs to set up what their up against.
Speaking of which an old friend shows up: It's Yamcha
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Yamcha's back, having been training for this in the desert. He found our heroes as he heard a kid was making grown men eat shit outside the ring and figured his old pal was doing so.
Turns out the whole Gang's back and in a detail I love, Bulma actually DID try to visit Goku, the island was simply empty and Roshi didn't leave a note or anything. You always call when you arrive somewhere. Always.
So with that our roster for the tournament proper is set: Goku, Yamcha, Krillina nd 5 others who i'll introduce right now
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Nam: Nam is a kind young man from a dying desert villiage who has come to win prize money to get water for them to survive and hopefully grow crops again. As Roshi puts it "we won't be getting many jokes out of this one", as he's the only entrant who isn't a main character or patently ridiculous or a little of both.
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Ran Fuan: The only woman in the tournament and one of Dragon Balls' few female fighters. Not much to say about her till her bout so moving on
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Giran: A monster man and kaiju parody. He's not even that unusual for this setting as while he is a kaiju man, beast men are just.. a thing in dragon ball that Z onwards kind of forge tabout aside from crowd shots. Which annoys me as you have monkey men and tiger men and don't use them. Why? What's wrong with that/ Is the series about a bunch of space aliens punching each other while death ceases to have meaning suddenly too realistic for furries? is it? IS I..
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Bacterian: A man whose never taken a bath and uses being gross in all his techniques. On the one hand i'm not into grossout jokes but on the other it IS nice to finally meet Pig Pen's dad.
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Jackie Chun: Exactly who you think it is and who Yamcha thinks it is. There's a whole subplot about fooling him for some reason. It's as tedious as it sounds and not as funny as Past Akira Toriyama thought it was.
Yes Roshi has entered the tournament in an admitely dope disguise complete with glued on wig. As for why he's doing this it's simple and has nicely been built up through the arc: the Boys have FAR surpassed what Roshi thought was possible. We've seen it with the rock and with how Roshi framed this as just qualifying being good.. yet contrasted by how easily they swept the prelims. And now they've made it this far he HAS to make sure they don't win.
Now you may be asking: "wait isn't stopping your students from suprassing you a bad thing" And normally yes; being such a bitter dick you can't accept the student has become the master misses the whole point of teaching. The whole point is to make them better and if the next generation passes you it sucks a tad, but it shows you you did alright. I feel that way with my niece and nephew: their already passing me in ways.. and I coudln't be prouder.
The problem isn't that their good students.. the problem is they just started, and Roshi feels if they reach the peak of the mountain NOW they may stop there, gettin full of themselves. He's become Jackie to teach them the valuable lesson and one that also permiates throughout the rest of dragon ball: Never stop striving because there will always be someone better to you, always another mountain to climb. It's a needed lesson for both the boys and the reader. This being dragon ball it has to be punched into them. Thankfully we don't have to undergo the same thing. Onto the tournament
The Quarter Finals
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Match 1: Krillin Vs Bacterian
Our first match in an esteemed linage of tournament matches for this franchise is pretty smelly and not just because you can FEEL the odor coming off Bacterian on every panel.
I'm not a fan of grossout humor, and not only is this match almost nothing but, it's not even well thought out grossout. Bacterian smells real bad, hocks loogies and his finisher is just.. farting directly into Krillins' face
Grossout works by being shocking and given the mounting number of sex crimes in this manga, even THAT'S not shocking. Even for the time I doubt this was anything. It just feels like a chapter of wasted time for the most part
The one exception.. is a joke that's goofy, brilliant and all sorts of things and is how Krillin turns the tide. As the smell overpowers him, Goku reminds Krillin of something important: he dosen't have a nose. Yes this one small artistic detail.. end sup saving the day and makes it CANON that Krillin has no nose and somehow breathes okay. Krillin easily wins after that and we can move on to less one note matches
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Match 2: Jackie Chun Vs Yamcha
While getting ready to do this review I asked myself an important question: Has Yamcha ALWAYS been the Jobber of the Z Fighters? I mean those of us who grew up with Z first saw him get exploded in his first fight and then get a hole in him, if in a horrifying and well done way, was this something Z did or did it start earlier?
The sad answer I found is it started with his second fight in the series here. As I looked over the other tournaments to cover them later this year I realized.. Yamcha has won exactly TWO fights in all of the original Manga. His fight with Goku and his later fight with the Invisible Man and even that was a narrow victory thanks to pervert blood. The sad truth is Yamcha is there to make other fighters look better.
The sadder thing is .. he's really good at it. Yamcha had a great first showing, has a great look and is likeable and charsmatic enough for the constant losses to not dent him too bad at this point. He looses here and entirely one sidedly.. but Roshi points out Yamcha is talented and WHY he's able to body him: Yamcha simply has weak defense in his forms, something that likely came from a life of focusing on ambuses and intimidation: Yamcha hasn't NEEDED to guard up to this point in his life, so he didn't work on building any defense. Yamcha looses hard.. but he looses to someone with more experince. He gets out of this one with his dignity in tact... a trend that sadly won't last but is nice while it lasts.
The match itself is great. It's short but it nicely sets up how good Roshi is in a fight, able to take the wolf fang fist and easily take out Yamcha. We've seen Roshi's raw strength and strengths as a mentor.. but this fight shows off just how smart he is as a fighter, how he uses Yamcha's weaknesses against him and wins. He makes Yamcha eat shit but it's only because he's just THAT good and Yamcha was overconfident. It's a godo match and a nice pivot.
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Match 3: Nam Vs Ran Fuan
This match is a curosity.. and not just for the infamous reasons seen above, but it stands as the only match out of the three main world tournaments to not have any of the main cast involved. Nam is a good character and sadly only shows up in the Anime version of the next arc and some cameos, I just find it neat this is the only match where Goku's posse isn't remotely involved
The match itsel fis intresting, as ran uses some dirty but clever tactics. Honestly on re-read, i've found her highly underated and most focus more on her fanservicy finish to the match than on the fact she's genuinely talented and her tactic clever: she uses the fact Nam has the old "i won't hit women even if we're equals in a sanctionced contest" type of chilvary so she plays into that; even when he does try to fight she shrieks and makes him feel bad then hits him. He eventually stops holding back.. so she uses his nervousness against him, stripping down and nearly gettin ghim to ring himself out. Is this a bit fucked up by today's standards yes. But it's clever and I hope we find out what she's up to some day. for now though nam simply shuts his eyes one shots her and we can move on. A better match than it has a right to be
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Match 4: Goku verus Giran
We've come to our final match of the Quarter Finals, and naturally Goku was saved for last. This was a smart move as it gave everyone else a chance ot show off a little while building anticpation.
Goku.. naturally nearly misses it because he ate a bunch then took an nap. Just like he missed Gohan's piano recital many moons later. Thankfully he's refreshed and there in time and the match is fun. Since Dragon Balls still in it's delightful "Do wahtever the fuck it wants stage", goku's first major fight since the Pilaf Saga is against a human sized kaiju who spits weird gum out of himself to restrict goku's movement. It's the kind of batshit insanity I love and the fight is a LOT of fun as a result.
It's also a lot more even, as Giran's gum nearly beats goku outright, with Goku only avoiding a ringout thanks to Nimbus. Giran understandably calls bullshit. See the World Martial Arts Tournament has pretty simple rules: No dirty shots (eye pokes and ball smashes) and no weapons or tools can be used. Victory is obtained by either ringing out your opponent, koing them for a ten count or getting them to submit.
The Dog Monk running this tournament allows it but only once. In the translation I have from Viz he just.. allows it. In one apparently ti's because clouds are natual. My honest guess.. is that dog monk recognized Goku didn't breka the rules on purpose, not realizing he coudln't use nimbus and given his cheat wasn't malicious, let it slide just this once.
Goku is saved from his defeat by a very good timed plot device, though one I let slide both due to the series looser nature at this point and the fact i'ts a clever deus ex machina that creates a nice bunch of tension for the arc; His tail grows back. For our boy it's a triumphant moment, as it allows him to turn the tide , escape, break free and do a kamehameha, which is enough to scare Jiran into forefetting. For Krillin it's a suprise as he has a fucking tail. For everyone from the first arc.. their utterly terrified as they know EXACTLY what this means and the arc now has a ticking time giant ape waiting to go off. For now though this match is sheer goofy fun and I love it.
The Semi Finals:
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Match 1: Krillin Vs Jackie Chun
The semi's are where things really pick up. The first round is fun and full of neat oddities and a human fart cloud but here's where Toriyama really gets to show what he can do in a full on fight, with the transition from a gag manga that happens to have martial arts to the full action comedy it'll be for the next two arcs is complete.
Jackie starts the match with some grand standing an a hilarious musical number that even Goku adorably joins in on and the Announcer just.. stands there and takes.
And I just realized I've gone this whole arc without talking about the announcer, the biggest of shames on my part. The announcer is a blonde guy in shades whose delightfully hammy in the anime , and frequely serves as a straight man to the weird shit he's forced to comment on. He's also the referee. I love him dearly and i'm happy he returned for the z tournament.
This fight's mostly one sided; While Krillin does his best getting up time and again to Roshi's hilarious annoyance, he spends the fight on the defenseve, something Krillin's going to have to get used to. Like Yamcha it's how this sort of fight SHOULD go: it makes Roshi look like an absolute monster in combat... but it dosen't devalue Krillin. The fact he CAN keep getting up from Jackie's assault and hang in there when Chun easily bodied Yamcha and with the added handicap of Roshi knowing his style, he created it after all, says a lot. Krillin DOES get a near victory with a pair of Bulma's Panties, because sadly Bulma semeingly can't get through an arc of Dragon Ball without some form of sex crime against her, he ultimately looses when Chun pulls out a new move, one that i'm shocked both debuted this early and lasts up to present day: the After Image Technique. Basically moving so fast that it leaves an image of yourself behind, allowing Chun the victory.
Before we move on i'd also like to point out what' seasily the funniest moment of the arc. For the first time , and far from the last, Roshi and Krillin end up moving SO fast no one can see what they did and thus we get them hilaroiusly acting it out, including needing the baffled announcer's help. I also love that it seems like their setting up the announcer doubting them.. only for him to be excited that things are escalting so much that fighters can now outpace the human eye. Such a legend.
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Match 2: Goku Vs Nam
This fight is just pure martial arts goodness: most other fights have either been gimmick heavy (Bacterian, Ran Vs Nam and Giran), or one sided (Jackie Chun's two matches), good stuff no doubt except smelly smelly smell man who smells, but this contest gives us our first truly even fight in dragon ball, a short and tense affair with a LOT on the line and unlike the last two matches, no guaranteed outcome: Given the high stakes for Nam, he could've easily won this match and narratively we would've been fine and still got a final. While Goku loosing in round one was NEVER going to happen him loosing in the semi's was entirely plausable.
That said, Goku does dominate the early match, his speed and energy out pacing Nam, who hangs in there well but nearly looses after goku pulls out a new attack he wont' use again: he spins like a top that'll never stop and nearly wins... only to pass out. See unlike some dragon ball techniques that show up once to the point their user entirely forgets they can do that and it ends up being canon, this spinning top attack has a clear drawback: goku gets super dizzy and nearly passes out.
This leads Nam to use his ultimate attack, and we get some nice character that shows off what a good guy Goku's facing: Nam dosen't WANT to use such a strong technique on a child, but with the stakes being this high he has no choice. Thus we get the flying cross, a really cool looking move I do wish one of the other z fighters copied: Nam jumps super high into the air , holds his arms in an x and prepares to throat chop goku from that height and volicity. It won't KILL him, but it does usually leave the opponent knocked out for some time and is a shockingly realistic move, the only real fantasy element being the high jump.
Unfortuantely for Nam though.. goku wakes up during it, complaning he hit a bit too hard. Nam tries to go for another one in desperation.. and this costs him the match in a nice chekov's gun: as we saw from the traning Goku can ALSO jump real good.. and being more used to it he actually overshots nam and by the time their back on even ground goku is able to flying kick his opponent out. Goku wins and our finals are set: Student Vs Master.
Before we get to this truly awesome fight though, Nam's subplot needs resolving. Roshi can somehow.. sense someone's backstory through pure intution, and thus reveals to Nam his goals here and true identity, as he truly respects the guy and wants him to not leave empty handed. After all while Roshi's goal is important, making sure his students grow up healthy and keep striving, it's not as important as survivial.
Roshi gives Nam a clever resolution to his plight: He simply gives the poor man a capsule to take as much water as he can take with him, which implicitly also means Nam can just keep coming back and getting some when his people need it, maybe evne buying more to speed up the process. Nam points out he has no money and in a nice turn it turns out water's free in the tournament region. It's not an asspull either, just shocking realisim from this comic: Naturally water's going to cost money in a place tha thas almost none.. but here it flows freely. Roshi happily parts way, only asking Nam pretend to be him as part of his secret identity shctick when he coudl've just.. told Yamcha "Yes I am and here's why"
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The Final: Goku Vs Jackie Chun
So it's all come down to this: Student vs Master. A young boy simply wanting to win for the fun of it versus an Old Man trying to stop his student and surrogate son from being a victim of his own success.
This fight has been built up well the whole time: We've seen Jackie take down both characters we knew going into this, Goku's the only one left, while we've seen Goku struggle and survivie against two strong opponents and seen just how BOUNDLESS his strength, resovle and potetial is. It also puts us in a unique position: who do we root for? Do we WANT Goku to win? Is his innsence immune to such a victory? Would Roshi winning be better in the long run? The only answer.. is on the filed.
The match is a guantlet of well done actoin mixed with fun gags. Goku uses his tail tails style to cleverly prevent a ring out, and both fighters bring their a game, with Goku specifically saving his kamehameha for when he'll need it. It's another fast paced bout with expert paneling, each fighter not giving an Inch and Roshi slowly getting you to fully root for him as he wonders just HOW much more he can take and how much more he has to go to finish this fight. This leads to one of the best moments in the fight as both fighters use their mutual trump card
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Yes folks, this is the franchises first beam struggle and it is AWESOME, especially since i'ts a rare case where it's the same technique. Two equal Kamehamehas hitting at the same time.
We get plenty of neat stuff too. Roshi uses the after image again.. and goku, who copied it briefly in the Nam fight, SUPRASSES him by doing three, and Roshi uses the old drunken martial arts. It's just one fun set piece after another, with neither side giving an inch till that beam struggle.
Roshi is forced to do something he dosen't want to, a bit of hypnosis. Because apparently he can do that. I like this because it's clear he could've EASILY won both previous fights with his students with them.. but he respected them too much. He wanted to give them a clean, gneuinely even fight and only pulls this out as a last resort. He HAS to win this for Goku's own sake. It also makes sense why he dosen't use this again: it's slow to pull off and was easily countered, as Bulma calls for dinner time and Jackie again marvels.
This forces him to pull out another trump card and one that clearly pains him to use: The Thunder SHock Suprise, an attack he's only had to break out once before.. against Gohan. Goku's shock gives him the oppneing as he unleashes a field of lightning that will keep shocking goku till he either surrenders.. or dies. The expression work here is marvelous: goku's utter pain under the technique.. and Roshi keeping a steely expression.. but one with a current of sadness under this. Roshi probaly regretted having to use this on his best student the first time, and he has to do it AGAIN on not only his student.. but his student and friends SON. He BEGS goku to stop, not wanting to kill him, telling him he did good.
Goku does almost submit, realizing he's beat... when another chekovs gun goes off: the moon is up, and Goku.. becomes Ozaru, with the announcer assuming this is a technqiue.. but bulma knowing better as she panics and Yamcha and Puar plan to try and intervene again.
Roshi however has another plan, realizing both's what's happened adn that he can't let his student go through this, charging up one last Kamehameha with the tension palapable as Yamcha is genuinely terrified that his friend's about ot die ... and everyone assumes that's the case when the dust settles, Krillin in paticular being utterly pissed he lost his friend and laying into Jackie
Thankfully though that's not the case. Goku's alive if very naked, with a nice little gag of the announcer begging goku to put some pants on as , unsuprisingly, our little trooper is entirely prepared to finish this fight naked. As for how he solved it it's simple: HE BLEW UP THE MOON
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Yeah the moon is just.. gone, with teh announcer even poiting out moon festivals are gone, werewolves can't transform and tha'ts not even getting into the tide. Jackie just tells him to shut up it'll be fine, not realizing he just killed a rabbit and his minons. Word of god dosen't make me really BUY they somehow escaped this. That rabbit is dead.
At any rate this leaves us to our final struggle: Goku and Roshi are both mostly wiped at this point and the figh tcomes down to strength vs strengh, power versus power..and down to one kick.
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It's a clever finish: both fighters fall, with a draw not declared as the tournament doesn't do those so whoever gets up first and says "I won", wins. Goku almost does.. but then collapses. It turns out he got hit far harder in that last exchange. The reason why is amazing, simple and sums up why Roshi went to all this effort: he had shorter legs. Goku lost because he simply wasn't physically there yet. Not entirely fair in a cosmic sense, but a nice metaphor for why Roshi did this: Goku was strong enough to win the title.. but wasn't mature enough to take the crown.
Roshi resurfaces under his real id, having won the prize money and tells his students he's so proud and hammers the lesson home: there will ALWAYS be someone stronger.. so keep trying. He also lapmpshades he could've just.. given this speech earlier, but hey this made sure it stuck and has forever stuck: Neither Goku nor Krillin has ever fully given up. Krillin's mostly retired, but he's never stopped traning or pitching in when called in. They just keep going and it's what makes thems pecial.
Thus ends this arc as Roshi has to spend his prize money on Goku's dinner and as will be standard dragon ball procedure, everyone splits off: the Gang from the first arc head back to bulmas, with Bulma giving Goku the radar. Goku PLANS to train more iwth Roshi.. but Roshi admits he has nothing left to teach. What's left is for them to find their own paths. SO Goku decides to go get his grampa ball back, while Krillin decides to stick around with his mentor a bit, having no where else really to go and not being able to ride nimbus and join goku.
With that Goku heads off on another adventure, one of military madness,robots and his first battle to the death. An adventure i'll cover someday but for now set your eyes ot the next tournament, as in May i'll be returning to this ground as our gang faces a true threat: Tien Shinhan. Thank you for reading and for Toriyama, wherevery you are.. thanks.. for everything.
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popculturebuffet · 9 days
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Who is your favorite obscure Dragon Ball character and why is it Gamera?
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popculturebuffet · 13 days
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Breaking Cat News Retrospective
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Hello all you happy people. For the past year i've done a lengthy, wonderful retrospective on Breaking Cat news, a comic strip about cats who report on all the news relevant to cats, mice who steal stuff and also one of them reports, detectives, little creatures of the night, little hellions, spanish langue news cats, fluffy boys, barn cats, racoons and so much more. it's one of the best strips going and this retrospective shows off why for the last 10 years, ti's been one of the best comics strips that's ever been.
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popculturebuffet · 13 days
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Breaking Cat News Retrospective Year 10: Life During War Time
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IN Memory of Yoshi
2009-2024
A Very Good Boy
Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my Breaking Cat News Retrospective and
HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY BCN
Yup this tuesday Breaking Cat News turned 10. If your asking "wait then why does this say year 10" I go by the strips in a calender year. This is ten years of the strip existing.
As this retrospective makes clear I love this strip a lot and i'm utterly happy to see it reach this milestone and to see Georgia has lost not one iota of creativity, enthusasim or heart in making this strip. Binging it in 2022 was an experince and following it every day is magical. It always gets the day off to a good start or a good end if my sleep schedule has me up in the middle of the night like it does now. It has everything I love in a comic strip: good jokes, great art, a large cast, and consitent characterization. This comic is one of the gold standards for the medium and i'm happy to honor it with both this and a full collection of my reviews once this once is out.
It's also serendepity the review got delayed a month as Year 10 is both the perfect note to end this retrospective for now, and a great celebration of the strip itself. With this year Georgia got ambitious and it paid off wonderfully: While the strip's always had plenty of lengthy story lines, status quo shifts and a massive cast you love to see pop up, this strip takes all of that to it's natural conclusion: a massive arc that lasts about 5 months and while featuring our main cast in a crucial roll in the climax, mostly sidelines them. It was a huge gamble not only putting on a story this long and not friendly to new readers, but one that steps away from slice of life cat shenanigans and character interaction based comedic briliance, and into war.
Yes our heroes are thrust from their usual cat intrest stories and into the middle of an occupation as what starts with a group of militant moles taking their yard esclates into a campaign to conquer the fields that leaves the racoons homeless and planning to strike back. While our heroes still feature frequently and play key roles in the plot, the focus isn't on our intreped reporters, but on Old Mag, queen of the racoons, her chosen succesor, Beatrix and Old Mag's oldest frenemy Baba. It's an epic story that pays off tons of foreshadowing from previous wildlands related stories, fleshes out Mag as a character, feeling more like an epic fantasy story than the usual fare, all while our heroes, like most reporters, are forced to sit on the sidelines and hope this conflict resolves itself. It's a masterful, beautfiul tale I can't wait to share with you
It's not to say year 10 is lacking the usual comedy and heart: The year starts as we get payoff for last years house buying as Tommy excitedly moves in, Sophie has a panic attack, and the cats get a new room and the kidlets formally get adopted and ends after all this war with Ora Zella kidnapping the santy claws. It's one of the strips best years, and can only lead to many more. So join me under the cut as we end this journey, for now, with one of the finest epics to ever grace the funny pages.
So we begin 2023 with the sale of the house being finalized. Tommy's Man and Woman can finally move in, and our usual Man and Woman can start work on the new rooms.
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I share this batch for two reasons. The main one is that the first two strips are some of the funniest this year, from Elvis rightfully singling out Lupin as the most likely to die from vintage wiring, and the second for the way Elvis jolts out of his slumber like a dracula.
The last strip I spotlight because it's a continuity error me and many other readers caught at the time: Puck claims he's lived in the BPH his whole life.. but we saw them move early on. Georgia simply forgot about that storyline and it's reprint which is fair: the strip has a LOT of moving pieces and as we'll see when we get to world war mole soon, she does have a memory for a LOT of continuity details.. this one just slipped and I only bring it up because it leads to a very funny gag down the line, an excellent way to both explain why puck thought this and to get a good joke out of it.
Speaking of the commenters as I was getting ready for hte next section.. I noticed a comment I made that was top post.. for the most painful reasons imaginable
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As you can see I got a lot of replies, a lot of really nice messages giving me condolences, all from strangers and people I replied to maybe once. If I haven't brought this up shame on me for doing so but Breaking Cat News has one of the nicest communites on GoComics. They regularly bring up updates about their own cats, condolences when one isn't doing well or passes, and are nice and civil when discussing the strip. Their just the kindest folks you'll meet and welcomed me in gladly. Their a good Orb and I cherish them.
This also gives me a chance ot bring up some more sad news: over a year after Stewie's passing.. my Dog yoshi, who this review is dedicated to up above.. passed. His health was failing and he was in massive pain he isn't anymore, but it's a sizeable loss I havne't quite gotten over, and I still hadn't fully gotten over the trauma of stewie's loss. It was the loss of Stewie that started this retrospective, to help me heal.. and in a way it'll always stand as a shrine to him. Now.. it stands as a shrine to both of them. While BCN may not have many good boys, it welcomes the one it had with open arms. RIP my friend...
Movin On Over
Moving on from my still fresh emotoinal wounds, we move to someone elses as while Tommy is super jazzed for the move and to be next to his besties Sophie well...
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I love this sequence... the first strips the star as that drawing of a very freaked out sophie is just.. perfect. The wide eyes, the dull exprecion, the squished face, Tommy's obliviousness.. it's perfect.
I also heavily related to this arc as it happned: I was also getting ready to move out of the only home i'd ever known at the time and while it's worked out gloriously, it was still a LOT to take in and seeing a small artsy cat go through the same pain helped.
After a week of waiting, the day finally arrives with one of the best call backs in the entire series
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As you can tell Sophie still isn't adjusting well, wanting to be left alone while also sobbing and yodeling for attention as is the way of the drama queen. I love the callback to the first move, and the adorable connection between the two. I already shipped them but this moment really cemented it: it gives the two a connection more than just "I don't like people in my space": their both drama queens who don't react to changes well, and thus when she needs a sympathetic Paw Elvis is the first one to lend it.
Thankfully Sophie soon finds the tale of another cat who lived here when it was the Quinn Animal shelter and we get some beautifully drawn art as Sophie tells her story to the world
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It's a nice moving story that not only adds more lore to the big pink house but is also just sweet. It's also nice to get another Sophie story and I hope we get one this year. Make it a yearly thing. It's a lovely, well done little tale.
New Horizons and Other Assorted Hyjinks
It's finally time for the people to captalize on their new space.. even if ti takes some BETRAYAL
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And that last one is the payoff. Props once again to Georgia for taking a simple mistake and making it a character thing and given Pucky's fear of change, it's both easy and hilarious to see it as him trying to block out the fact he's moved. it's made funnier by the call back during the sophie arc, with Puck being so deep in inetional denial he can see clear footage of Elvis refrencing a move.. yet here we are a week or two later and he's still throughly convinced he's never moved. Genius.
With that the cats get a bunch of new rooms to explore with Goldie, Lupin and the Kids taking first pass with Puck being terribly anxious about the new additions and Elvis being a supportive friend, brother and surrogate father to his boy by staying with him.
Our heroes find a brand new bedroom which naturally freaks pucky bear all the way out, a freaky lamp dosen't help, an empty room that will soon be storage but for now is just for lupin to loop into and a nice sunny little room. There's also a boss T-Shaped hallway which can only mean one thing: The grand return of the 2am Running of the Cats!.. and also a sizeable problem that quickly gets resolved
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While it was a forgone conclusion both to their immense build up and the fact their based on real life cats, it's still a joyous moment as our heroes finally find their forever home.. granted Elvis and Puck now have to raise an elder god and a vampire, but they can manage. They'll almost turn out fine. Well Ora Zella will Iggy is perfect. He'll make a lovely count reporting news from his castle some day.
Before we move on to our next arc, let's check in on the sundays as there's a few I want to spotlight. Okay there's a lot more but again, image limits.
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The first one is one of my faviorites and it's just.. magical. While I haven't been able to point it out as much as I like Lupin REALLY loves to rub in Elvis' age any chance he gets. So seeing him absolutely break down when the shoe is on the other foot is great. While I like him a lot more than i used to.. he's still a LOT and deserves some commpuance now and again the same way my faviorite child Elvis does. I love him, I often show favioritisim.. but he too is a lot.
It's just beautiful the way he starts freaking out IMMEDIETLY, puffing out just like his big brother/faviorite target, the way Puck dosen't do anything, the way Elvis is distracted by the adorable good boy playing int he sand. And of course the capper: Goldie. His arch enemy not only rubbing things in.. but deflecting his attempts to throw this back on her. Goldie.. is entirely fine with being a middle aged kitty and is secure with herself. Lupin.. clealry has issues with aging. I mean I do too, but I at least accept i'm middle aged. I have exesntial dread about being 32, but I accept that i'm that old.
The second is one I missed. It seems to be the only one. Or I just forgot it. My mind is a sinkhole sometimes.
It's a great payoff though as most of the parenting DID fall on Pucky bear. Elvis is right to be on his high horse as he did chip in way more. Pucky's the gentle touch, Elvis the firm hand, and it works.. but their absolutely right to be pissed Lupin isn't doing more than teaching iggy to hide keys and break things and goldie semeingly isn't doing anything. I mean teaching them to hunt lupin is a valuable skill but they need more. I also love Pucky just.. using a story to dump the children on lupin. He just leaves them there and goes to take care of himself. IT's glorious. And Lupin DOES try to be involved more later in the year, so it clearly worked. Good job Pucky, proud of you.
All Paws Weekly Station Meeting:
So we've come to our final arc before World War Mole Kicks Off and it's a unique one. This arc is presented via the minutes Beatrix took down from the station meeting the Cats had the previous week. As a result it's almost entirely text based iwth only ocasional doodles from sophie.
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As you can see even with just ONE strip it's hard to read that text, let alone the stacks I have to do. So the arc's worth a read if your curious. I also get the feeling it happened in part because Georgia had to wind down activity due to getting wrist surgery. Naturally this terrified me, though thankfully she fully recovered but needed a month off, so this is also the last storyline for a while. I could be wrong as it still had to be hand drawn and in tiny letters, but I woudln't be suprised if it was chosen to give her less wrist strain.
It's still a throughly creative arc that uses it's format well, and is geninely hilarious.
It's mostly antics and a nice look into how the day to day of the office run: they make the grand mistake of letting lupin hand out assignments and he hides goldies. Seriously, I don't want to dump all the work on pucky, we've seen how it goes... but he needs to have permenant "pass out the papers" duty. Or share it with Elvis so he dosen't complain. Or just dont' give it to Lupin after he tried petty revenge.
Tabitha objects to this as seen above, and .. is right? I'm defnesive of my boys but this really isn't a subject for everyone. Granted she coudl've brought it up in a way that didn't start a fight. They eventually agree on it at least.
Over the meeting Ora Zella gets into various hyjinks of her own including biting her grumpy papa, chanting "I don't report the news I am the news" when told she might make a good reporter one day, and having to be restrained in Tommy's leash before sleepy time. Iggy is mostly good he's just sorta lurking because it's what a good vampy boy does, and we get a sweet bit of Burt having him help him with tech stuff. I hope this is foreshadowing as it'd be a nice career for the boy to take up.
Burt also gets overly annoyed for no good reason at the crew dicking around with the cups, taking them away and saying "they don't grow on trees" Which.. styrafoam cups don't but burt... the station's budget isn't THAT tight. They can afford tons of costumes, graphics packages, and the presumable mountain of cat FCC fines for Lupin going naked on air. Sophie's suggestion of using paper cups as their envronmentally friendly is accepted and will hopefully get Burt to unclench. I mean I GET IT, his job is stressful, he gets most of tha tout with caption snark, and he's clearly constantly exasperated by elvis. Dude needs a vacation not more cups. Just don't take it out on your coworkers by being that cat man, it's all I ask.
Tabitha suggests a possible pulitzer winner about why cereal milk is the best, Elvis a story on garbage we see later, and most important for what's next, Tommy asks about the recent movement of the moles and gets approved for that with Beatrix joining him.
So Georgia had her surgery and thus we had a month or so without BCN. Which sucked and I dearly missed it the whole time, but she needed that time to recover and i'm greatful it's now all the more common that cartoonists can actually take a vacation. Normally injuries like this were really the only time they didn't have to power load their workload first. And if that sounds bad it was and i'm glad those days are over. It's still a busy job.. but you at least get time off if you want it.
So after a month gone, the strip returns with Elvis and the cats naturallys itting vigil over their woman, sniffing her to make sure she's still alive that sort of thing.
After a week or two of this... it begins. After hyping it to hell and back this review I welcome you all to World War Mole.
The Occupation of the Big Pink Lawn
We start with Tommy and Beatrix finally doing their piece: Since the strip came back we've been seeing mole holes outside the big pink lawn, so Tommy and Bea want to find out why..
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It's a heck of an introduction. And one that left me curious. Keep in mind I followed this whole thing day to day, so whyt he Moles were doing this and how our heroes would resolve this had me hooked. Granted I had no idea just what I was in for or how quickly this would escalate. I also love the fact the moles hiss... who knew they could do that.
So yeah that esclation thing
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Take note of the one mole in the bandana looking forlorn. We'll see her again soon.
I assumed at the time from the bird bath that Mag would come deal with them.. and while Mag would soon be the primary driving force of this arc... it's sadly not because she comes in as the calvalry.
The Sinking of the Dumpster
It's here where the arc takes a turn, both with our heroes taking a backseat and with our real protaganists making their entrance. It makes sense too: I love our reporter cats, but in real conflicts reporters can be embeded.. but they aren't FIGHTING the wars they cover. And even if our cats would get on the front lines, only one of them is an outdoor kitty, two are children, and none of them really know how to fight other than with each other. THeir not ready for a full scale battle with an army that has both the advantage in terrain and numbers. Their simply left to report while their lawn is taken.
It still works very well: Georgia wanted her cats to have experince as wartime reporters and this is a great way to do it.. esepcailly when tragedy suddenly breaks out.
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It's a well done week, one that instantly raises the stakes: before this it SEEMED like just a normal story: the cats deal with some annoying moles, befriend them, job done. But this makes it clear Montague wasn't kidding when he had world domination in his sights: nothing out there is safe.
It's also deeply tragic: We've seen the racoon kids before, and will get to know them better this go round, and seen just how much this home and the junk they gather means to the Racoons. The Junk.. is their life, it's not just treasure but things carefully screened and scavanged. It's in their astetics, their every day. And suddenly everything they've gained is gone and only what they can carry is left.
Mag plans for what's next, starting with the most important thing: getting the kids to saftey. And i'ts not a remote shock where she takes them:
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The stuff with Baba is a well done payoff: the two may not get along all the time.. but it's always been clear there's a muttual love and respect: a lot of sniping but it's more in a dorthy and blanche way than a "I'd kill you if I could" way. They may fight.. but even if Baba didn't owe her one, Baba would've taken in those kits. I mean she's not stupid, she dosen't wave the favor, but the implication is there it wasn't needed.
Jules was supposed to have a bigger role, but the surgery put a crimp in that, so instead he just brings the two of them here, with the other reinforcements arriving later.
Into the Woods
Between the fourth and fifth strips we get another week, as Goldie and Tommy interview the moles. Goldie being a bit more willing to throw hands even her opponents hands are basically giant razor shovels, gets the purple sweatered one we've seen a lot talking: their doing this beacuse montague, the mole in charge, is their king. Their loyal to him. But the one in the bandana we saw frowning earlier points something out: Montague really hasn't been the same since he got clipped with a lawnmower last summer, returning with an eye for the fields. The only thing he's done right since is make "Kiss from a Rose' their national anthem.. which yeah that's an easy home run. Biden should try that. Kiss From a Rose is objectively awesome in every way shape and form and so is Seal.
So with this we cross into a place i've been dying to see: Opossum territory. I'd forgotten abotu the big offscreen war till doing this series, I mainly just liked that one scared boy we met before and wanted to learn more about him. And to my shock on re-read I realized.. we did. I simply didn't know it was him first time around. But he makes a heck of a rentreance into the strip
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It's a beautiful sequence, not only meeting Oprometheus properly, but also seeing the scars o the past set aside. It's also nice to see Opossum society: friendly folks who help those who need it and let go of grudges past to build a better tommorow. I also adore the lighting here, so well done with oPerclies lantern thingy.
The Old Man's Back Again
So while Mags finally finds hope, Beatrix finds the rackits and quickly befriends Young Mag, who quickly proves to be every bit the pain in the tuckuss her Grandma was in her younger years, trying to find some lost weapon in the barn the Racoons stashed there. Goldie and Bea agree not to say anything about this on air for their saftey.. though Puck didn't get the memo. Soon however Pucky Bear's loose lips.. do cats have lips.. questions for later... are the LEAST of our worries... as we get the best done reveal in the entire comic.
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I have nothing but gushing praise for this reveal. Re-Reading only makes it better as you see all the little hints this was coming: Montague becoming the monster he is now after a near accident, all the targets being the woodlands and the fact these adorable, if terrifying during the siege on the racoons, little guys whose leader seems more comical planned such a calculated siege. Montague came off simply boastful and arroagant. The big reveal.. snaps everythign into place and takes the arc from excellent to one of the best comic strip stories i've read. I was primed for Wicket to return at some point: he held a whole arc and even if said arc was never adapted to the dailies, it was still fully canon and the fact he kept coming up in Dr Scuttles twitter told me Georgia had some plan for him, just no hints as to what. So having him revealed as the true big bad in this arc and the moles simply the muscle for an aging owl who realized he couldn't take these lands without an army and talked his way into one.. it's genius. Baba's backstory established Wicket was a smooth talker, only not working on the current gen because Baba was there to reveal what a callous jerk he truly was. But with an unsuspecting target isolated from anyone who could tell them the devil he's making a bargin with.. Wicket now has power and the tension is now at a peak. With the moles it was a matter of simply getting something to fight back. With Wicket.. it's now fighting both an army and a deceptive owl whose sticking to the shadows and thus could strike at any time and who took the combined efforts of the mice and beatrix to beat the first time and barely at that.
We also finally get the long awaited lore dump on his and Mag's past: we knew they were exes, but now we know exactly what happened there: Wicket seduced her just like poor Baba ("Oh mag you poor sucker" "At least we have that in common"), trying to create an alliance through marriage and likely pull this same conquer the world through a proxy army stunt. Thankfully Old Mag's dad was around to veto that marraige and rightfully so. It's the rare time i've been greatful a marriage was stopped by an interfering parent. Probably the only time come to think of it. Cept maybe that time Bart Simpson was nearly underaged married after giving a girl a cow.
So with that plans are made: Mag goes to tell the rest of the Racoons what's up and figure out something, Mona goes to tell her rebels who the real enemy is, and with Old Mag's help Young Mag finds the treasure at long last... and something that might turn the tide: Old Boot's battle chariot and the fluff stuff, Old Boot then Mag's greatest weapon. Burt takes a liking to both and starts fixing them up.
The Turn of the Tide
With the true antagonist reveal the Mice join the war effort, with Puck dearly concerned for his girl....friend.. who is a girl Agnes. Hid that well. But the mice have no choice: Wicket esclates things and even if the WASN'T involved traps are going to go out soon and that's not good for them or anyone.
While Mag begins her plans... an old unwanted guest returns
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The stuff with baba and wicket is fantastic and nicely explains WHY the Moles despite their campaign haven't touched the barn yet. I love how she has NO TIME for his crap, shooing him with a broom and I love that smug delivery of "My farm would never have a mole problem, or an OWL problem for that matter". Baba has dealt with pests for years. Wicket is juts another one and the only reason he's alive is that Baba dosen't kill pests, she shoos them away. And that if he died Montague might go further down his spiral of conquerer's madness, so for now Wicket is more useful alive than dead.
That last strip is just a one off.. but it's one of the most powerful in this arc and one of my faviorites: a matter of perspective. In most wars only one side wins... but here the Opossums kept the Racoons from conquering and the Racoons got a homeland. No one really lost. They likely only fought out of necsity, just like baba. It's a theme i've started to notice: how fighting isn't something to do for power or selfish gain.. it's something you do when you have no choice and have something important to fight for. The Racoons and Mice fight for their home, the Resistance fights to save their future, Beef and Homestyle fight for people who need them. This conflict sadly needs to happen and our heroes are fighting it so they can get back to their lives. So the Racoons can scavenge, the molls can dig not for conquest but to build, so Homestyle can shove acorns in his mouth, and so the mice can scurry in walls without fear of traps.
We're now entering the endgame as with the news of her battle chariot and her new allies, as well as the implicit time table of stopping the moles before Wicket has them siege the barn and the kits he dosen't know are there out of petty spite, Mag can finally strike back and finally has a plan of attack and so with the Possums help.. Mag finally makes a full return to the fields and Burt goes to recruit the big pink house cats as the final piece of the plan.... helped by the fact the moles LOVE puck because everyone does.
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Lot's of good stuff here. I love Burt ending up being key to all this, that his love of reparing things gets Mag the weapon she needs. I love puck steping up to protect his family.. and that of course Elvis i the one objecting.. but instead of his usual histronics it's stern worry about both the ethics of this and impliclity his best friend, brother, and son putting himself at risk. And even if his famliy wasn't in danger.. it's the right thing to do. The Racoons and Mice need help... and Puck will ALWAYS help someone who needs it. It's why everyone loves pucky bear. He may be the most anxious of the group.. but he has the biggest heart.
As one last note before the climax... the scene with Mags and Magazine has become one of my faviorites in the strip and will live with me for osme tims "They took a chair. Never forget that" A people is not a place, but a community.. and the moles can never take that.. but the Racoons can take a place back.
The Battle For The Fields
The time has come...
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With the bait set... Mag , after months of build up, finally gets her home back.. and her revenge.
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The Opossums, being neutral quickly tend to the moles. After all most of them aren't evil, just loyal to a ruler. Which granted can turn one evil but this isn't dune, or sadly real life, this is a work where most people can be redeemdd and the misguided don't double down in supporting a troubling dictator. It's a world where if your mislead you can turn it around with the right leader.... though it's a world where even a good action can have grave consequences.
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Not much to say here, I love that PUrple shirt ended up being a chekovs gunman as on re read you see him the most out of the various mole soldiers, h'es montague's #2 and the most fanatically loyal and we've seen enough moles be jerks to know not all of them are simply being forced into evil. They too can reform.. but our heroes will have to survivie long enough to make it so
Before we can check in our our cats though, we're reminded there's two other foes unaccounted for
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Montague's redepmption is nice... it's very clear while what he did wa sawful.. he was manipulated by a bad person who whispered in his ear ideas of glory and conquest. He probably has WAY more contrition to do to ever be square with the racoons.. but for now simply realizing he was wrong and had nearly become a murderer is enough
As for Wicket, I never exepcted Thimblefist to be the sudden hero of this, but dang if it isn't satisfying. From finishign Wicket as a threat once and for all, to the fact one of the very creatures he planned to prey upon stops him from petty revenge in his lowest moment. Wicket has always been awful.. but killing the heirs of two people for petty revenge.. that's low even for him and makes his broken beak and Baba squashing him great. I also like that this confirms what I realized about Baba as I wrote this: she won't kill.. even wicket. And it's VERY clear that Mags would do that or worse if Wicket didn't back downa nd he was too stupid, petty and egotistical to ever do that.
Two down, one to go
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With that the war is over. Peace is achieved and all that's left is the Star Wars style medal ceremony
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Thus ends world war mole..and if it wasn't obvious from the gushing praise, I love this arc. it's a long, fantasy style epic, with LOTS of character payoffs, world building and one hell of an epic final battle, to the point I saved most of my images as that sequence is so beautifully done there's hardly anything I could cut. It's a tale of duty, legacy, war, the danger of charismatic jerks, and the cost of peace.. and why it's worth fighting for. It's a peace that's better for everyone, even wicket, who sure as heck dosen't deserve it, or his wacky new roomate who gets nettled the BCN crew invaded his privacy when sir your best friend is a war criminal, be greatful they didn't try to interview you. The moles have a new better government, the cats their peace, the racoons their home. oPeace reigns.... and it feels so dang good, so well earned after everything it took to get here. World War Mole is one of the best arcs ina ll of comic strips and I will back that up. A true masterpiece.
Would if I could end on that note, but the year dosen't end with this, and ther'es still one more arc to go. The good news is it's a nice fun breezy arc with a lot of heart after everything we just witnessed
Hold Me Closer, Tiny Santa
It's also the arc that got me to stop being as hard on Lupin. Granted his two scoops of humilation and actions during WWM helped, but here we see the good side to his chaotic, open nature. We do often such as when he was pink for a while or his mentoring of iggy, but he tended to be both hard on elvis and pretty loose as a co parent. Here he makes up for both in spades by being the hero for once despite everyone else being against him.
It's christmas time again and now we have kidlets in the house, they naturally have questions about the old man... questions Lupin's happy to answer.. whether puck wants him to or not.
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What I like is this SEEMS like normal Lupin hyjinks: he made some stuff up and now he has a small child, it has unintended consequences. Granted they HAVE met Santa, all three of them, so I don't see why elvis assumes she won't at least meet the big man.
I also like this because it's the rare time Puck is hard on Lupin: usually Lupin gets away with his needling of elvis or other antics pretty much scott free, with only the tower despute last year and the child care one this yea REALLY getting puck fed up with his baby brother. Here though he's mad almost immeditely.. and for once he's kind of wrong. He dog piles on Lupin.. simply for deverting from what he thinks is Santa's lore. In the other two cases it was after Lupin ranted about Puck hogging the tower when Lupin tends to catspread way too much and Pucky needs alone time sometimes and Lupin didn't actually do his share of child care and deserved his compuance. Here.. he's just telling a child a whimsical tale. It's not ENTIRELY his fault said child is deeply unsettling and wants to kidnap the Santy Claus. It IS his fault he didn't see this coming given Ora's.. everything, but it's not his fault he wanted to do some fun and as we soon learn this isn't just him spitting bullshit for fun, he thought out his theory.
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It's a well done story, with Lupin's devil may care attitude put to practical use.. also Iggy's mini arc is hilarous. Poor guy. I also love how Lupin seems to not care one iota Ora is trying to put santa in a jar. Like he's more upset earlier because everyone else is mad at him and she might be sd if she dosen't kidnap the santy claus. As for if she does kidnap the santy claus.. well..
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It's a heartwarming finale.. that involves the hilarous line "Ora Zella baby doll santa needs his oxygen" and the all time payoff punchline of hold me closer tiny santa. It's an adorable arc about belief, kneejerk defense of something you've always belivied, and good boys and thus year 10 ends on this.. and on a reminder of the peace that was hard fought for
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And on that cheery note, as even Purple Mole turns a corner, two young girlfriends celebrate and former enemies become friends... we close out BCN. For now. The strip is still going and hopefully will for years to come. Granted it's not without struggles. Georgia has recently done plenty of interviews abotu the fact newspaper giant Gannet is squeezing out female writers, which you can read more about here
Don't let this shit stand, and if you like this strip.. go read it. This is far from my most viewed retrospective.. but it's easily the one i'm most proud of, not an easy hill to climb. It's a labor of love to a strip that's creative, warm, and never stops striving to do something new . If you've seen this retrospective and haven't read the strip, please go to. it's ten years of wonderful cats, a well built world, laughs, and gorgeous art. And if you'd like to help it keep going, please go support georgia on patroen
Thank you for reading. It was a great ride and I look forward to returning to this strip eventually.. for now I must move on to garfer pastures but if you've read this far, thank you... thank you so much you beautiful people you. Thank you.
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popculturebuffet · 14 days
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Thomas and Friends Retrospective: The Magic Railroad: The Workprint Cut (Comissioned by Lachie V)
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Previously on this blog:
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Also I may or may not have reviewed a bunch of Thomas the Tank Entine, cumilating in a look at the disasterous theatrical cut which you can find my barely coherent thoughts on that barely coherent film here. We haven't gotten the results back from the lab yet.
The Theatrical cut is so legendarily wonky I just.. coudln't leave it at that and feel like I gave the film a good shake. So I took on the arduous task of watching an unfinished workprint that I erronously said last time was on the blu ray. While the blu ray has some scenes from this version, the full workprint was leaked seperately and god bless those who did as it gives us something of a look at what this film was supposed to be. So join me under the cut as I see what this film WAS and if what it was was any good.. or at least comprehensible. After the nightmare of that last review i'll settle for "Makes sense from point a to b" that's the state we're entering this review at people. You've been warned.
The workprint of the Magic Railroad is interesting. This is the first workprint i've ever seen and thus the first i've ever covered on this blog. For those unaware, as I was before I googled it, a work print is an unfinished version of a film, with effects, adr and the soundtrack largely missing. So it was fascinating to see just how many pieces of the film, even things as simple as a line that LOOKED on screen are put into place after the fact. Film Editors don't get enough credit.. plenty of blame when it's earned but not enough credit and this made me respect them all the more.
That said watching a prototype of a finished film i'd seen.. was a lot. It seems easy, the effects just aren't there right? Well it's not just visual effects: it's SOUND effects. The only sounds are either ADR from the various crew member and anything on camera. And said ADR is not from the actors yet but various voices i'd never heard before and also Britt Alcroft. It's fair and I don't blame the cut for it, this wasn't MEANT to be viewed by anyone but editors. It's just hard on my autisim: whlie i'm functional and can handle sensory changes normally in a film, having there be no sound where their clearly should be in a lot of places... was just weird. I KNOW why it's not there, and usually my mind fills in the gaps but for some reason here it just felt extra off when an explosion or heavy digging happened with no sound. It's just this freaky effect and it took some time to get through it as a result, not helped by me only realizing what was really throwing me off towards the end of the film.
I can't recommend this cut as a film.. because it's not finished nor was it intended to be a finished product. It's not really something for bad movie night like it's theatrical cousin. As an interesting artifact of this film and Thomas as a whole though, I am delighted it exists as it fills in a LOT of the gaps and is complete enough I can judge what aspects were cut by their own merits.
Let's start with the big one, the most infamous and curious of the bunch: PT Boomer, played by Doug Lennox who realizes exactly what kind of film he's in and hams it up accordingly. Boomer is one of the films big bads... and was almost entirely cut from the theatrical cut, with only one brief scene that was redubbed, a scene so plot important and load bearing I forgot it even happened.
PT Boomer is all about
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Wanting to make profit off things. That's.. about what we get. Seriously we have two seperate scenes where one of the kids asks Billy then Stacey about boomer.. and they just say essentially "He's greedy and wants to buy everything" without ever clarifying who he is, what he does for his BUISNESS, or what his goals are beyond "profit off a magical lady train he broke in the past." I am so sad he got cut as while he woudln't of made the film much better, he is so bad it's good glorious: even in this his plans literally boil down to
KIDNAP MAGIC LADY TRAIN FOR REVENGE
?????
PROFIT
It's still not much above Disel's plan that just replaces kidnap with kill and profit with "become train king". It is funny though and gives this guy a leg up.
The most we get is his backstory with Burnett, Lily's grandpa who gets fleshed out considerably in this version. In the original his backstory was just "diesel nearly killed this train I found and my wife never got to ride her" which is prettty damn thin and even before the workprint cut I could tell something was missing.
The actual backstory is still as thin as a sheet of paper covered in bacon grease, but it's at least.. something: He swored to take her on a ride but before he could Boomer, who had also wanted to bang Lily's grandma but lost out to burnett because well evil I guess, found her and threatned burnett if he didn't let him drive the train. He ended up driving too fast, making this a dramatic version of that trampoline scene from community.
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I've tried not to use youtube videos as the thumbnail takes up the link but it really is just this exact moment but with trains and a dead wife.
We also get a minutes long montage of Burnett dancing with his wife. it adds nothing to the plot and is one of the cuts i can absolutely see why it happened. We also get a scene of Stone and Lily having dinner where he says I don't like trains.
Another change as a result is that the big cave scene with Patch.. is towards the end. In the thetrical cut we get 80 gallons of train expoision while the workprint at least plays it as a mystery: a whistle is heard in the mountain and instead of finding out what it is seconds after we hear it, it's played up the whole film. IT's a much better fit and I question why this was changed at all.
That also goes for Boomer. I went back and checked and. .he's not really IN the movie that much. He shows up, meances a bit, hams it up and leaves. He spends most of the film either trying ot find stone, buy shining time for some reason, which makes mr conductor's visions of an apocalypse make far more sense, and the rest trying to dig his way to the hidden railway then blow everything the fuck up when that dosen't work out. Keeping him in.. really wasn't going to hurt the film and I don't really buy reports "he scared children". The evil brother of the attention all gamers guy isn't going to be in any child's nightmares.
Cutting boomer also makes the non lily or coked out conductor characters feel more suplerfous as it turns out the original cut had way mroe for them to do. Not a lot, but still more. Patch has a horse.. which WAS in the theatrical cut but I did not notice. Probably because he's also lacking his sweet cowboy hat... it's like taking away knuckles cowboy hat from the sonic ova: you take away the source of his powers. Billy likewise gets a scene with boomer and a scene getting a warning. He still dosen't DO much but I feel bad for clowning on his actor last time: Russel Means is actually a wonderful billy replacement. He's not as good as Tom Jackson is in the role, but he's still pretty neat but in the theatrical cut he's there for all of two seconds and seemed a lot stiffer. That was really the editing's fault not him as he has billy's laidback charm and wise nature down pat. Stacey also gets an extra scene, though she still got PLENTy in the theatrical. Cutting this plot was unfair to the actors involved and their screentime and especially douchey to Doug Lennox, who put in a great performance. .that got cut entirely.
To my shock though the mass cuts... really aren't responsible for the film being pretty hard to parse. The workprint cut IS legible at least as a few confusing bits are explained: instead of wanting to kill all trains disel wants to conquer them, and he's unaware Lady is connected to the magic, meaning he GENUINELY dosen't realize he dies if he destroys her. So instead of stupid his plan comes off as dangerous and just the right amount of sinister for a preschool film instead of
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We also get clarifcation on the "My Universe" thing. The narration for the work print still referes to it as mr. conductor's universe.. but they actually explain what the hell they were saying with that: The various mr conductors built this universe. Granted
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Unlike the theatrical though, I can at least accept that answer: the mr conductors do have godlike powers and it makes Mr Conductor speaking with authority on his power loss possibly killing him less ass pully: it makes sense they'd pass this shit down through generations and makes sense Mr C Junior wouldn't know it as he's a fuckwit.
It makes the film less maddening.. but it dosen't change the fact this new lore is just kinda jammed in there, a square train in a round station house. The lore still dosen't make a ton of since even for a film for small children, and again thei rparents and possibly older siblings still have to watch it with them so why punch down. All punching down did was get parents to cave and go take their kids to see X-Men or Pokemon 2000 instead, both much better movies. Especailly pokmeon 2000. Fuck I really need to cover both of those don't I.
It also dosen't explain simple shit like "Why does lady tie the two universes together" and "after being in a coma for so long why is magic just fading now". It's still at the end of the day an overcomplicated mess that creates it's own weird lore never to be used again that no one vibed with because even for the stupid train children show it was baffling instead of fairy tale style like they were going for.
The other scenes cut are far more understandable: that dance scene I mentiond went on to long and we get a brief prologue of Lily in the big city and the reason behind the fire escape line. It's.. nothing we honestly needed mostly Mara wilson wistfully starring outside a train.. which is adorable but dosen't really move the plot along.
So that leads us to the final cut and the final change worth talking about between versions: the voice actors. Like with boomer the executives tried overcorrecting to test audience complaints. They dont' like one of the villians? Cut him out entirely. They don't like the voices for some of the characters? replace the bitches! Yeah originally Thomas was voiced by John Bellis, Percy and James by Thomas UK narrator Micheal Angellis, Splatter and Dodge by Patrick Breen, and Disel 10 by Keith Scott.
Unlike with removing boomer I get most of these edits: Unlike boomer I completely buy that D10 scared children as Keith Scott's voice for him is terrifying.. though the terror is undrecut by the adr version of him sounding like Lumpy Space Princess. It's a great voice and I feel bad for Scott.. but it is a bit too scary> Granted they coudl've just.. worked with him to find another voice as they had before (He tried a russian voice before this that was apparently even creepier), so it's shitty they fired him and everyone here instead of simply recasting them or giving them something else.
LIkewise I love MIcheal Angellis and having him voice cameo was a good idea.. but they shoudl've had him do Henry instead. His voice works when he's narrating every character.. but I get why having an old gentleman voice for Percy and James, both younger engines dosen't quite work. Granted unlike with D10, where his replacement got the tone better, making Percy and James small children dosen't fix the problem. Their youthful not 8. Stupid Train Children is not that literal a term.
Thomas on the other hand.. was fine: he sounded youthful, had a nice plesant voice and I honestly prefer it over the final cut voice with Eddie Glenn. Glenn isn't bad.. but Bellis just got the character better. Splatter and Dodge are also way better and the film does a far better job conveying thier reluctant minon status and making them humorous foils to dissel.
So all in all the Work Print version is a better film.. but only by comparision. It has some good stuff that was cuts and the edits done were mostly moronic but it's still a film that alternates between boring and WHAT THE FUCK. it just explains more, which helps with the latter
The Magic Railroad in either film is a film that tried to cram way too much shit in. It tried so hard to escalate thomas to save the world level shit when that just .. dosen't scale with either Thomas and Friends or Shining Time Station. Both are about small scale problems in small slice of lifey places: a cozy british isle and a whimsical train station. Their biggest issues are dickheads like Disel and god emperor or schemer. You could've had thomas go on a treasure hunt to save the rail way or shining time or both. Maybe Schemer is trying to buy the failing railway. I mean if their going to go with the skeezy buisness douche cliche at least make it the guy you already have who would defintely do that if he could. Give him Boomer as a boss if you want. It keeps the tension, the two worlds element and mr c going back and forth as he could've taken Mara Wilson to shining time to go on the hunt to save the station. Give her an attachment to it. Make Burnett stone a conductor. You don't have to throw everything out, but simply lowering the stakes would've made this a more coherent film. I"m not sure how GOOD it woudl've been bu tit would've been a better Thomas Movie, a better shining time movie and something people would've actually wanted to see.
Instead it's a mess that changed Thomas as a whole, with Britt's failures here leading to her stepping down and eventually the company being purchased by HIT. But more on that another time for now we can put this train to bed. These reviews have been exausting as I don't want to be negative but these films, both cuts, are hot garbage. one just makes more sense. Hopefully if the proposed thomas film goes through they get it right... until then all we're left is a mess of what could've been and alec baldwin on cocaine.
Next Time: Turns out there is one as we have a new plan. I'll be covering season 6 sometime later this year, season 7, then teaking a break while Lachey figures out the rest of the schedule and I cover venture bros seasons 4b- the end. Thanks for reading
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popculturebuffet · 17 days
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When I was in the hospital, they gave me a big bracelet that said ALLERGY, but like. I'm allergic to bees. Were they going to prescribe me bees in there.
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popculturebuffet · 18 days
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Different people
To learn magic To learn magic
to be understood to protect humanity
to help my friends to destroy the magical world
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popculturebuffet · 19 days
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Buster:*sneaks into Babs’ dorm as she sleeps* WAKE UP, SLEEPYHEAD!
Babs: Ugh, Buster.
Sweetie:*pops out from the sheets* Peck man.
Buster:*runs out of the room laughing*
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popculturebuffet · 19 days
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Thomas And Friends Retrospective: Thomas and the Magic Railroad Theatrical Cut (Commission for Lachie V)
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Hello all you happy people and i'ts back on the train gang for more Thomas the Tank Engine
For those of you just joining us, a recap: For the past year and a half or so, i've been covering the first five seasons of thomas the tank engine on and off for @lachievpoststhings, who comissioned these as a fan of the franchise to get an outsider's perspective and hopefully get less jokes about Henry being walled up for always and always. Your free to jump in here and i'll have a post of the restrospective so far soon after this review's finished.
The basics are one day the good Reverend Bawldry, a longtime railway enthusist, made a bedtime story for his son about trains with human faces, kept making more as the kid loved them, and eventually turned these stories into a series of succesful books. Decades later in the 80's, up and coming exec Brit Alcroft seeked to adapt these books to screen and using amazing modelwork, velvety narration from Ringo Starr, George Carlin, Micheal Angelis and more across both ponds, Thomas became a massive success. While his US airings needed a wraparound, it got one in the superb shinging time station, your standard "kids learn lessons in a place" show, except this one has a magical tiny george carlin named Mr Conductor who shows up to give advice and schemer
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This glorious large ham cooks up halfbaked schemes, is distrusted by children, and makes every episode better just by existing.
So with this success Brit Alcroftt decided to take her big IP to where all big properties go: the big screen. Luckily for her Barry London, head of Paramount at the time, had a daughter who loved Thomas and greenlight the picture in 1995 with a deal inked by 1996 and a script on the way. Unluckily, sometime after London left the studio and the project was canned because new studio heads are vindictive bastards. See how Final Space was canned after a studio change and goofy movie was given NO advertising after the exec pushing for it left. Thankfully after a false start elsewhere for Alcroftt, she decided to self fiance, finding that the Isle of Mann offered tax breaks. Helping was that London landed at another studio, destination films, so with their major backing and the isle of man cut the film was good to go.
So with that the film got underway and as far as I can tell it was MOSTLY smooth apart from a mishap with a James model.Post.. was a diffrent beast. The film had drastic changes done to it after a test screening caused Execs to panic: they changed most of the voice cast since the voices for most of the main cast were seen as "too old" and the one for one of the big bads, Disel 10 "too scary". That'd be bad enough.. but then they decided to ax an ENTIRE CHARACTER, PT Boomer, who served as a human antagonist.
Shockingly the excutives doing a power meddle did nothing to actually salvage the film: it bombed at the box office, closed the door on any future thomas films and ended Britt Alcroft's time at her own company.
So that leaves us with some questions: Was the film THAT bad? Was the original cut, which we now have thanks to a blu ray specail edition in workprint form, any better? Was their any salvaging this mess or was it always a silly engine? and why was schemer left out?
While i'll never be able to figure out that last question, the rest I hope to answer by tackling both cuts in their own reviews. I'm tackinlg the theatrical first as while it's the second cut, ti's the one most people have seen and i'm not watching the work print till the review of the theatrical cut is finished as i'm judging it as most people watching it would: this is the version that's most complete, wildly avaliable and that most people have seen, so I want to view it on that merit, albeit with the understanding it was cut up quite a bit, so I am giving it a little leeway.
So join me under the cut for the maddening mysteries of the theatrical cut of thomas the tank engine. I warn you the film your about to hear about is nigh incomprehinsible, quite mad, and has alec baldwin acting like h'es taken all the drugs in the world. You've been warned. Let's begin.
So since i've already covered behind the scene's let's jump into the mishmash of scenes hastily cut together then horrifyingcally stitched back together by the studio. Because "Plot" is being more generous than this cut deserves.
So the film follows the fate of two worlds: the world of Shining Time Station and the world of Sodor where thomas and friends live, the two ends of Mr. Conductor's universe. What does that mean?
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I think it's supposed to be metaphorical like saying my world.. but having a magical being say that and say that about two parallel worlds is just confusing. Did he create Sodor? Did whatever race the mr conductors are did? This is more confusing than a film about stupid train children should be.
This is also the film's approach to it's world building as a whole: just throw something in that's confusing and hard to parse, never fully explalin it and walk on to the next bit of insanity. I'm not asking for through, complex world building from a Thomas the Tank Engine film, i'm just asking for a world where any of the magic you set up makes any sense.
The two shows this comes from don't have this problem. There is weird shit in both universes.. but both universes are consitent. Sodor is a british island, exists in the 1920's, and has a massive railway ran by Sir Topham "The Fat Controller" hat. The trains all have faces and are wholly sentient and are still treated entirely as trains. That's.. it. It's just the 30's but with sentient trains. It takes getting used to, they cause tons of accidents and weird shit happens.. but it's simple.
Shining time has more magic and what not but it's still consistent: Mr C is a magical entity of some kind with a vast family, he lives in shining time but can travel the multiverse and visits sodor frequently, bringing back it's stories for the kids he mentors. There's also magical puppets in the jukebox. Neither thing is explained, but we really don't need one and how both Mr. C and the PUppets operate is consitent.
The film.. is as consistent as a Warner BRos Discovery exec. The film just sloppily stiches a bunch of magical concepts and cliches together , expects you to just accept it and move on. The problem is unlike thomas and shinging time, it piles so shit on that you have no choice but to ask questions. And yes im aware i'm not the film's target demo.. but the film's target demo, younger children.. still deserve some respect. Shining Time and Thomas never fell like they think the audience is morons and you should never treat children like idiots just to justify your sloppy plotting. And chidlren aside..adults still had to take their kids to this. 5 year olds can't buy movie tickets.. well they can but the theater has to be pretty fucking neglegent. The adults who were kind enough to take their kids to see this didn't deserve to have a confusing mess shoved on them.
Speaking of a confusing mess let's get back to the film. The Film has two major storylines across the two worlds which quickly overlap:
ON earth curious city kid Lily Stone, played by Maura Wilson, is sent to vist her grampy burnett, played by Peter Fonda who to his credit takes the roll seriously. Burnett has an assitant/sidekick/local orphan boy named Mutt who, given the two minutes i've seen of the workprint, marries her in that cut but here is just kinda.. there so Peter Fonda can explain his train backstory: he was once the conductor of Lady, a magical train that could cross betwen worlds and i'm just going to go ahead and get this started
Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 2
Lady was injured by Disel 10 , played by Neil crone. I'll point out the original actors when I do the workprint if you were curious. He's an evil Diesel who has a grappling claw and a confusing world domination plan. Burnett's spent his life trying to fix Lady with no luck.
Meanwhile on Sodor, Sir Hatt is going on vacay so he asked Mr. Conductor to go watch his stupid train children for him while he's away. We have a new Mr. C in this film I assume, as while the film never explains it the series did expalin it's swapping mr c's with Ringo Starr's versoin being the cousin of his succesor, the george carlin one. So I assume this is also a cousin as Mr. C also has one he also hands his hat off to. More on that towards the end and more on the ocusin in a bit. Point is new mr. c is played by Alec Baldwin.. and baldwin spends the whole film acting like he's tripping balls. Baldwin is hamming it up so hard trying to be a chldren's character he comes off like Mr. C took enoguh coke before comming to sodor that he dosen't come down for TWO DAYS. Baldwin mostly acts hammily, hyderactively and goofily. It dosen't work on it's own as it's way too over the top even for this film and trying way to hard. It is however a nice jolt of hilaroius nonsense in a film that's mostly confusing nonsense.
Anyways Mr C soon has a problem :his sparkle, his magic dust, is running out. And apparently if it runs out , the magic of sodor and shining time both dies with him. Or something.
Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 3
He dosen't notice at first, being late while Thomas and Friends deal with normal business: Thomas is just a tad late, and Gordon, the biggest engine, is being a pompus asshole about it. Gordon is also played by Crone, who adlibbed msot of his lines for both Diesel 10 and Gordon, to the point one line later in the film is just gordon lapsing into a rant about how clever he is, how smaller engines can neve rbe useful, and how he's the best. He did it, he broke Gordon down to his bare essentials.
The two are soon confronted by Disel 10 who someone passed the background check and unveils his plan: he's going to find and kill lady, which will destroy all the magic in sodor and some how make him god emperor of all trains.
Things the Film Just Wants you To Accept: 4
First he plans to kill all the trains and ambushes them at night. Mr C finds his magic isn't working which isn't good. His escape plan is as diabolical as it is horrifying: he's going to poor sugar in disel's gas tank.. by waving a bag of sugar at him
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Things the Film just Wants You To Accept: 5
So Mr. C heads off on an epic quest to find his magic, facing off with goblins, a wall of hands, a bog of eternal stentch, chily down with the fire gang and the most dangerous foe of all, David Bowie's Crotch. And I just described Labyrinth because Mr. C's quest amounts to "Dick around looking for clues and get kidnapped by a train" and i'd rather be talking about Labyrinth again... so let's do. Having relistned to it thanks to my nephew putting it on a playlist while I was in the car, i"ve come to realize I was WAY too hard on chilli down. While the actual musical number hasn't aged great the actual music is a fucking banger, having a nice surreal feel, the best drug trip song that's ever drug trip songed. Good stuff.
So back to my neverending torment Mr. C has a nap/is barely concious after Disel nearly threw him off a bridge this time so he has a prophetic dream
Things the Film Just Wants You To Accept: 6
Yes apparently in this time Alec Baldwin is the Kwisatz Haderach
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He sees a future where due to him being absent shining time has closed down. The kid are gone, Billy was replaced by a terrible actor, and Schemer is seemingly dead. Wait.. that all happened in the main timeline. How is he sure the interstellar jihad the end of shining time is something he can stop?
Well he isn't so he calls his cousin Mr C Junior for help. Sadly this dosen't mean we get Ringo Starr or George Carlin but instead Micheal E Rogers. While his agressive scottishness is charming, he can't save this character as Junior is just kinda annoying at best. He ALLGEDLY has an arc where he learns his lesson and becomes better.. but he's really just a dumbass who wastes all his uncle's dust and his own remaining dust. He's only here because SOMEONE has to bring lily to Sodor
So before we get to that, let's catch up on everyone else. Burnett's dog is apparently also injesting spike and thus makes sure LIly ends up at shining time and sees Junior briefly. She then gets settled in with grandpa bonds with Dodger, just kinda putters around and...
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FATHER THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKENED okay so stupid train children next. For a Thomas the Tank Engine movie the engines.. really don't actually do much in the plot. It's something I didn't notice in the film itself as the cut tricks you into THINKING their doing more than they are, cutting to the engines every few scenes as thomas tries to find Mr Conductor and stop Disesel 10 and his two comedic minions I haven't mentiond till now , who Disel sends to find the magic railroad. They do. That's it.. that's all they've done all film.
So we instead get a bunch of scenes of Thomas saying he's going to do something then just.. I guess doing something. We get bits of James and Percy who were originally voiced by Micheal Angelis, but instead replaced to get younger voices.. and instead got voice actresses who didn't really try to make thems ound masculine, resulting in Gender Flip James and Percy. James in paticular sounds like a dikensian orphan. I will say Eddie Glenn does a really good job at thomas but he and Neil Crone are the only ones who really get their rolls right out of the voice cast. I don't doubt these va's are good nor judge them for this: they werne't given much to work with, with Crone given nothing to work with and simply improvising, and were likely given little time to prepare given the rushed production schedule for the recut.
The most Thom=as contributes is loosing a truck, that will be important later, and figuring out that Disel's after the buffers which somehow allow people to travel on the magic railroad.
Things This Film Just Wants you To Accept: I"m So Tired
He finds out too late but thanks to Junior who brought a child with him because fuck it, they find thomas' missing truck and thomas and Mara Wilson go back to reality. A bad model of Thomas the film expects us to think is anywhere near acceptable
Things This Film Just Wants You To Accept: Stupid Train Models are for Cattle and Loveplay.
We do get a clever solution to the lady thing.. even if we never really get Burnett's backstory as that was cut because reasons. Since they have Sodor coal Lily suggests using it and I like it: it's a symbol of lady being both of this world and sodor. It's kind of cool in af ilm tha'ts mostly just confusing.
So lady returns to sodor, though Mr. C still thinks he and other Mr C who was busy telling Sir Topham Hat to go fuck himself and nearly getting murdered, using the last of his magic to save james, are dying as they still need that sweet sweet smack. I mean sparkle.. which is magical smack so it's better.
Before they can fix the crisis though Disel 10 shows up and we get a hilaroiusly green screneed ifnal chase as Burnet taunts his nemisis the sentient train. The chase scene.. is hilarously, horribly modleed and fun to watch. lady naturally wins, Disel 10 is left in the sludge but apparently comes back, and it's a happy end as Mara Wilson mixes well atter and railroad shavings to somehow create magic dust.
Things This Film Just Wants You To Accept: LONG LIVE THE STUPID TRAIN CHILDREN
So Mr C pases the cap on to his nephew who decides after his near death experince to man up finishing his nonexistant character arc. Mara wilson and co return home, the day is saved and the film just sorta ends.
That's.. the theatrical cut of Thomas and the Magic Railroad and as you can tell I was not a fan. It's entertaining for the most part and delightfully insane but i't sincoherence makes it REALLY hard to enjoy a lot of the time. As a Thomas film Thomas is barely a facotr in the plot, and as a shining time station film only two characters returned
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Only. Two. Characters. Returned. The new characters are all bland cyphers, likely due to the cut changing. They TRY, Mara Wilson may of done this for the vacation but like Sir Micheal Caine before her she'll still work hard for the paycheck, but ther'es just nothing to hold onto. This film is a mess and I only recommend it if you have some friends to riff with, as I did with @jess-the-vampire or are good and baked. I was not but I hope to get some weed for my anxiety some day, and on that day I might watch this film. Oh who am I kidding i'm watching David Lynch's Dune and we all know it. Possibly with that episode of Sex and the City where Kyle Mclaclhan plays tennis shirtless at night as a prequel. His two best performances together at last.
So yeah not a big fan of this one. Not the worst thing i've covered but a hell of a film to unpack.. so you can imagine i'm just... PLEASED. AS. PUNCH. to be covering the other cut. Will be it be better? Worse? at least comprehnsible? Will I keep doing Dune refrences because I really fucking loved Part 2? All this and more will be answered next time but for now
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popculturebuffet · 22 days
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Bad news, Warner Bros Discovery is shutting down Rooster Teeth this year.
Not suprised and not invested in RT enough to emote too much but I do feel bad for those who like it. The properties will probably wrap up or be given a chance to be sold elsewhere or just lumped into max hopefully
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popculturebuffet · 22 days
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Batmarch!: BTAS: See No Evil Review
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Hello all you happy batpeople and welcome to batmarch! For the next few weeks expect some caped crusader content same bat whenever I get to it, same bat blog all through march! This fine theme month came about thanks to Kev having a bunch of bat-ideas, me wanting to cover the 89 film for it's anniversary, and it all swirling around till eventually it became a theme month. I want to give bat-credit where it's due after all.
To kick it off we've got a return to what's become a recurring guest on this blog: Batman: The Animated Series. Last time I covered it after the sad loss of Richard Moll, I talked about wanting to cover this episode and when the theme month came up.. well.. I couldn't resisist.
See No Evil is one of my faviorite episodes of Batman the Animated Series and a great showcase of just about everything that makes the series as good as it is: Letting sitcom stars try out something diffrent that shows off their dramatic chops? Check. Awesome animation. Check. A great unique premise masterfully staged in 20 some minutes yup. An intresting and hearbreaking villian? Yupppp. This is one of the most stacked episode sof the series and rewatch only made me find MORE to love about it. And if you haven't heard of this one... your in for a treat. I highly recommend going to watch it first as my review isn't a substitute for the full episode. It is worth a look under the cut to spotlight WHY this episode shines so much.
We open in a little girl's bedroom. Her name is Kimmy and she has a special friend. His name is Mojo
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No not him. He didn't exist yet. No Mojo is an invisible man, and Kimmy is played by future star Elizabeth Moss... who sadly would not escape being stalked by invisible men in high tech suits as an adult, but would get at least another amazing story out of it. Or we would.
Mojo then finds out some news that while he tries his best to hide his reaction from Kimmy, clearly bothers him: Their moving soon and Mojo may not be able to find her.
Before he can give up the game, Mojo disappears when Kimmy, the girl in question,'s mom shows up: Elizabeth, played by the legendary Jean Smart of Designing Women and Hacks royalty. It's neat to see her in a dramatic roll like this, and despite growing up with Desining Women.. I NEVER knew this was her but i'm happy she's here. Elizabeth assumes Mojo is just imaginary.. even though a kicked can and movement in the earlier scene shows not so. Granted while Imaginary Friends are possible in the DCU, it's still at the early point where I get her not going to that: Most of batman's rogues are criminals with gimmicks and what few meta human foes he has are downplayed a bit here in their powers: Ivy isn't at full control plants levels yet, using more toxins and trained plants, Killer Croc just has a skin condition and Clayface.. well okay clayface still counts. But most every day people probably don't know every foes batman's fought and evne if they had don't assume this is one of those situations. I bring this up because after so many damn works where "oh well this can't be real even though superheroes exist" come up, it's refreshing to see one where that's.. actually entirely plausable and you don't feel like the characters an idiot for not knowing this. Most superheroes in this setting hadn't publicly debuted yet and those we know had by this time like Zantanna or Wildcat were either other street level heroes, or in zantanna's case protected by the veil of stage magic.
Mojo's next target is a jewlery exchange.. which has low security for anywhere, especially Gotham: Costumed Crime Captial of the World. I was going to gripe about this scene as Mojo's big plan for having an invisiblity suit.. is to just straight up rob people with it, stealing the jewelery as their brougth out of their cases and basically doing a smash and grab. But I realized something as I wrote this: Mojo being this clunky with his suit.. is deliberate. Mojo is, as we'll find out shortly, is a petty criminal. He dosen't have the need for theatrics Batman's normal rogues have, and he dosen't have the experince to pull off an elaborate heist. Of course he's going to see an invisiblity suit as more of a blunt tool to use rather than the very dangerous and versital one it is.
He's not entirely stupid, he knows how to use it as we see when Batman, who naturally was at the exchange as bruce either on rich person buisness, wayne corp buisness or "oh my god these idiots barely hired any security better be ready" buisness, fights him. Bruce is thrown off as even if he knows from Mojos's crimes t his opponent is cloaked that .. dosen't really help when your cowl dosen't have infared or anything. It just looks dope. And yes later cowls do but this one clearly isn't high tech to the gils like later entries, it's just dope as fuck. Batman does do the obvious when fighting an invisible opponent: Spill shit on them, in this case plot convience paint... but whoever built Mojo's suit thought of that or Mojo himself did as he has a setting to melt it off, a clever subversion of the usual tactics that gets batman a batassbeating. And that again shows Lloyd's style: even though we don't know exactly what he went away for, his style is all smash and grab: blunt force. He only beats the more experinceed combatant bruce in one on one. .because Bruce can't see him and dosen't hav etime to listen closely.. and even if he did it'd be too late. It's what makes "Some guy what got an invisible suit" work as a batman villian: Yes he's not as flashy and yes he has a simple gimmick.. but sometims all you need is a simple power. It's something I never thought about before but most of batman's clever gadgets.. are sight based. Even the gas bomb would only be mildly useful at figuring out WHERE he might be and with a full face mask, it woudln't do any actual damage, while Lloyd could pull down batman's gas mask and make him go sleepy bye. Batman.. isn't invincible and his stories are at their best when the writers remember that.
Mojo slinks back to his place and we get the shocking reveal that he's...
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A guy who looks like a human ventriquist dummy? Did Slappy finally become human and end up fighting batman? Because i'd pay good money for that instalment of goosebumps, just saying.
No this.. objectively weird looking man is Lloyd Ventrix aka Kimmy's Dad. As a kid I found the idea of mojo creepy.. as an adult I find it deeply unerving. Part of this is having a passle of nieces and nephews, so the idea of an unstable man, let alone one the parent dosen't want seeing thier kids, sneaking to see them in a way their unaware of and that the kid impliclity trusts is fucking terrifyign. Part of it is just the idea of a person your trying to escape being able to find you and do whatever he pleases no matter how far you run is fucking horrifying. It's why the 2020 invisible man film is so good.. and so terrifying I haven't watched it since I saw it theatrically. It is a LOT on the nerves. It's also why both can coexist as this episode captalized on a different kind of fear: instead of an abusive ex, it's an abusive ex spouse who you are COMPELTELY unaware is contacting your kid till it's too late.
It's also what brilliantly creates the episodes tension: by the first commerical break WE know who this invisible man is to a point and what he wants, but not HOW he got invsible, or if Batman can solve the mystery of the how and who in time to get to Llloyd before he kidnaps Kimmie.
Before we move on i'd like to spotlight Lloyd's voice actor: While I always loved the performance here I didn't know the man behind the invsible man until this review.. and it was a nice reveal too: Michael Gross of Tremors and Family Ties fame. It's the latter that helps this role as in his scenes as "Mojo", Lloyd has that same kind warmth Gross had on Family Ties as Steven.. when he wasn't comically breaking down or reacting to his children's shenanigans. And that.. makes it ten times creepier coming from someone whose activley manipuating and stalking a child.
Not only that he transitions well to Lloyd in the rest of his life, wether it's his cockiness ast his power when fighting batman or his assuredness when trying to win back elizabeth, which we'll get to in a second. It's a brilliant performance that makes me wish he could've come back or they'd brought him back in another roll: Gross is just damn good portraying a man whose determined to get what he thinks he's owed no matter what it takes.. but can't understand WHY no one wants him around.
Case in point, that trying to win back his ex wife thing. He shows up at her work, and his defense to his wife understandably not wanting anything to do with him isn't "i'm changing as a person I just want a chance ot see my kid" or "I know I screwed up and you have every reason not to listen to me but hear me out" You know stuff that shows your contrite and genuinely reformed. Instead Lloyd shows he learned nothing from prison a his only response is "I got why you needed the restraining order when I was a bum but i'm bigger now". Yes really. Elizabeth tells him to shove it and stay way from his daughter then to just "disappear" unfortunately for her she's in a horror story and said something tragically ironic.
The good news is she's also in a batman story and thanks to plot convience turns out the inventor of the cloak of invsiblity pitched it to them last year, and he has his tech guy bring up the info on the man's assitant.
Batman decides rather than talk to said assitant, who could be the invisible man, to .. rifle thorugh the guys cabinets
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Naturally when the man hears Batman bat rifling through his shit, he tries to throw a rack on him.. and batman's response to this entirely resonable reaction is
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Gee your just.. so likeable bruce. Thankfully he does actually stop when the guy makes it clear he was here the last few days. And look jokes aside I get bruce dosen't know if this guy did it.. but there are more subtle ways to deal with this shit or someone understandably thinking your trying to rob them than the bat fist. There are better uses for the bat fist. And yes I meant that sexually, I will not be taking questions.
The Science Man explains that he's actually destroying all the fabric. Turns out while he was able to make it turn stuff invsible it's highly toxic. He was trying to correct that problem but coudln't, so he's destroying it. And i'm baffled why there was an entry on tv tropes saying "Well why can't he use it on cars" as we see it used. And to this I say this guy is picking up his old mentor's work, probably sunk a lot of money into remaking this and testing it, and has had some time to do so. If he COUDL salvage this project he would've.
Turns out Floyd was their old assitant though in a pompus way Science Man says he was "really more of an errand boy". Gee I can't imagine why he stole from you. Such a puzzler.
At any rate this slightly douchey science man has given Batman all he needs and he goes to talk to Elizabeth. To Bruce's credit his prorities are in order: he wants to save Lloyd from dying rather than get the jewels back.. I mean he will, he's the goddamn batman, but he'll save the guy who stole them first. Maybe punch him a bit.
Elizabeth connects the dots about the invsiblity suit and mojo.. but Lloyd's already one step ahead as during this scene he's been talking about taking kimmy to a special place
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She does as he takes her to a drive in theater nearbye and plans to take her away but she dosen't want to get into a car with an invisible man. So he takes the mask off.. and credit to Kimmy she instantly realizes "Shit this wasn't my imaginary friend". I mean granted it probably wouldn't be BETTER if it was
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Fun fact: I did not realize this was coming out the same week as this review. Dates are fun
Anyway, Kimmy realizes it's not just her imagination and won't run away with him, so he reveals himself as her father.. and her reaction is not what he expected
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Yeah it turns out Elizabeth isn't stupid and it's something I love about the episode: Elizabeth didn't make that mistake you see in 87 percent of tv parents who don't trust their shady ex. She TOLD kimmy about him. She didn't hide it, she didn't try to keep ti as some dark secret so he can manipulate it later: She just told her in terms a kid would understand: her dad is a bad man and should not be trusted. Granted the fact he looks like if archie andrews became a vampire should tell her that but the point stands.
This is also the great tragedy of Lloyd Ventrix: he wants his family back.. but he can never understand WHY they don't want him back. Floyd could've worked his way back to his daughter by staying clean after prison, staying at his job, finding another if he didn't work for Errand Boy Man, which is a fair thing not to want. Am I saying it would've been remotely easy? No, our country isn't set up to help ex-cons and treats them like pariahs, like every former prisoner is lloyd when some genuinely want to change and others were victims of circumstance. But he could've had his daughter back or at least a CHANCE at it had he genuinely tried. Elizabeth is reasonable, while she wouldn't want him around the guy she'd at least give him a chance to see kimmy if it was shown he really changed.
That's the rub though: Lloyd dosen't WANT to change. He's a smash and grab guy and that's who he wants to be. It's in most things he does: He has an invsible suit.. yet uses it for smash and grabs and his fighting style when fighting the bat is hit him with a blunt insturment. or maybe it's more of an object. But i'ts blunt hard and blunt. He says he's not a two bit hood when talking to elizabeth.. but that's relaly ALL he is. He could've conquered the gotham mafia, conquered the city, or even gone the other way and became a hero himself, fighting to make the city better. He has all this power.. but he still thinks in terms of "how can I smash this thing in my way" "what can I grab". He's emotinally and creatively empty.. and thus he can't understand why Kimmy won't accept him just for being her dad.
As a production note, the only one I have for this episode Kimmy was SUPPOSED to be in the final chase scene for a bit, but standards and practices were like
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Because a child's lost criminal father pretending to be her best friend and her being in danger every time he's in the room? That's fine. But oh no she can't have a car chase.
So Kimmy runs home to her mom and Batman and Llloyd begin tussling, with Lloyd turning the car invsible with him and a passerby assuming batman can fly now which.. is fair. I'm suprised he dosen't have a bat jet pack.. wait did he have a bat jet pack? Questions for later
Bruce takes another beating, begging lloyd to consider but it's clear he's drunk on his own power and we see while he's a blunt intersturment/object/whatever he is it's hard and blunt, he gets this suit means no matter where Elizabeth and Kimmy go they'll neve rbe safe. Thankfully for him Lloyd made the mistake of fighting batman on a water tower and Batman's able to douse him, shorting out the suit. It's a clever set up: While water is also a common invsiible man fighting tool, when explaning how it worse it runs on an electric currrent. It's probably why it has the dohicky to steam stuff off.. but LLoyd can't get rid of that much water and he's out
The ending is masterful as we get a repeat of the opening scene: Kimmy is once again talking to a special friend, telling him that their move is final and Lloyd will never find her again. The vistor exits.. but thankfully it was batman, and we get a nice echo of the first scene: this time instead of playing it off.. elizabeth's relieved. Kimmy lost an imaginary friend, lost a father.. but gained a batman.
See No Evil is excellent and highly underated: It's a tense tightly packed 20 minutes with a nice twist on the usual batman detective formula the show uses: we know WHO did it but it's all about HOW and if Batman can find out in time. Smart and Gross are fantastic in this and it results in a tense, eerie little tale packed with tension. It's 22 minutes of perfection and worth checking out if you have max.
Thanks for reading and i'll see you some bat time, same bat blog.
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popculturebuffet · 26 days
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Once again, we do not accept "aita for feeling" submissions here, please stop sending them.
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