Donomark

Oh man, the WB holds in my mind and heart the best memories of a Saturday morning (or was it Sunday?). I was there watching Spider-Man 1994 when it premiered, the Tick, Life with Louie, Eek the Cat. When the New Batman Adventures premiered after Superman, it was Christmas every week. Later Pokemon and Digimon, Static Shock, Batman Beyond. Don't really watch much television before, but the last shows I made sure I was up for were the Spectacular Spider-Man and Young Justice (The Greg Weisman era).

It's almost like every time they're in the news it's for something stupid...or something.

"When we were kids, cartoons were on Saturday mornings, not on your phone!"

"Drawing the line at 4.99!"

Caught up with Ms. Marvel #8 (2014). Was dreading going into this issue preparing for typical sitcom new pet dog hijinks. This book is written so much better than that. I love Kamala's first reaction to seeing Lockjaw being utter delight. The look on her face on those panels is great.

I believe in Kurt Busiek.

FINALLY!

Ker-rap. Next episode's gonna test my lifelong crippling affliction with arachnophobia.

A lot of Capaldi's performance reminds me of some of Tennant's angrier times, maybe it's due to the wide eyes.

"Airman Herp-Derp" sounds like a great forum name

Oh I read that reveal that Warren McGinnis' killer being named "J. Chill". It was very good, helped in no small part by Norm Breyfogle's excellent artwork.

That's what I'm thinking. There wasn't much to this episode but I still enjoyed it. It's good to see the development of a boyfriend who's not initially a scaredy cat like Mickey or Rory.

Captain American vs. the Winter Solider on the streets of Washington is in my head right now. There are plenty others tho.

D'oh! Forgot about Harvey!

The 1994 Spider-Man animated series is 20 years old this year, and I remember watching the premiere episode "Night of the Lizard" when it first broadcast 0_0

I re-read the Kelley Puckett/Damion Scott run of Batgirl *points to signature* in the last few days I.E. the first 37 issues. Did it for an upcoming essay I'm writing but seriously, this is one of the best, most underrated comic book runs ever. Cassandra Cain's one of my favorite characters, and this initial 3 year run of her title is why. It sets up what makes her so completely compelling and provides the Batman Universe with a totally unique character for Batman, Oracle, Robin, Nightwing and Gotham City to all interact with. Many of the issues are sparse on dialogue due to the nature of the character and the fact that Damion Scott's dynamic pencils sell her incredible fighting skills so much to the point that you know this can only be done in a comic book. Scott's most certainly hit or miss for some people, and his style changes rapidly throughout his run (Compare his work during No Mans Land and the first six issues of Batgirl to the end of his run and his run on Robin when Stephanie Brown replaced Tim, it's night and day), but his style and the way he illustrates the fight scenes make him one of the best "fight scene" artists to ever work in comics. Puckett's writing immediately establishes who Cassandra is and what she needs to come to terms with throughout her title. She's one of the best fighters in all of the DCU, but cannot read or write and finds herself often at odds with Barbara Gordon and various other normal people. Batman sees her as the "perfect" partner and relishes his role in shaping her to be another solider in his war against crime. You've never seen Batman act like this before, to the point where it's literally a father/daughter relationship. As such, there's often a Mother/Father dynamic between Oracle, who wants to make Cassandra into a better person, and Batman, who wants to make Cassandra into a better crime fighter. There are several scenes where the two agree and disagree over what's best for Cass, acting like a divorced couple. Cass herself is perfectly fine just being Batgirl to the point where she doesn't see having a secret identity as any big deal. Her origin story also sets her apart from every other member of the Bat-Family. She's a trained assassin and has killed before, but only once and spends the rest of her life trying to atone for it. The fact that she was trained since birth by David Cain and raised to be a killer gives her an identity crisis in figuring out if she can change or if she's always meant to be a killer. This is exhaustively worked through in many issues and always showcases the fact that she'll dive into a hail of gunfire and take gunshots to the head if it means saving someone's life. It's obvious why Batman is over the moon with her, but it's ridiculously self-sacrificing and that's confronted by the idea that Cassandra has a serious death wish. That puts her against Lady Shiva, who relishes a death battle, Robin who is freaked out by her, and Steph Brown with whom the two become fast friends. I could go on and on, but I'd be rambling. I've talked about Cass at length on a Batgirl Special I did for the Batman Universe.net which can be found under the TBU Specials Podcast section. Cassandra had two other writers on her title, but Kelley Puckett was far and away her best. Surprisingly, Chuck Dixon did a few fill-in issues during the Puckett run which I wasn't too crazy about. He included Robin, Spoiler and the Connor Hawke Green Arrow, and I got the sense that he had no idea how to write Cassandra, as the story was another one of his 80s action movie adventure types of stories where the plot overtook most of the characters and the only bits of characterization we got from Cass was met with "She's so weird!" by Steph, which clashes with how Puckett wrote her. *EDIT* Oh yeah, also picked up Chew vol.8. Been reading via trade since it debuted in 2010 and am still digging this series. Highly consistent and entertaining. It was a sweet and emotional return from a recently deceased character and continues to bring the fun and action. Rob Gilroy is another underrated as hell artist.

Oh boy, lessee... Ong Bak and Chocolate are two films that set a bomb off in my mind when it comes to martial arts movies. If I saw that any earlier than the age I did when they first came out...my imagination just soared on my first viewings. Maybe Batman Begins. A lot of my favorite movies I had mixed feelings when I first saw them, like the Dark Knight or Ghost in the Shell. Personally I'm very much a "second time's better" type of guy. Clerks is also totally a movie I adored when I first saw it, and several times later. I still really like it, although I remember it being savaged during the black and white run of Earth-2 the Show.

This is probably the least effective episode for me but I still enjoyed it. I thought the writing was a bit too cheesy for my tastes throughout. The Doctor and Clara just standing still and exclaiming their realizations comes off as awkward to me. It got better by the end though and Capaldi is growing more and more watchable as the Doctor. Not meaning that as a pejorative, I'm saying that I don't know what he's gonna do next.

Wait. Wait. Wait. You gotta elaborate on that one. Totally just my opinion, but the current artist for the Slott mini-series Spider-Man: Learning to Crawl is clearly going for a Ditko type of style, but it comes off almost disrespectful, as though Ditko's admittedly cartoony style had no sense of facial expressions or anything. Here's an example. Offile's style definitely echoes Ditko's no doubt, but he made it a bit more modern and natural looking while style keeping with the period. Again, just my opinion. Neither matches Ditko's best, but both approach it in different way with varying levels of success.

Batman Begins. I'll never forget first seeing it in the theater as a 16 year old, grinning the ENTIRE TIME. Every time I watch it, I squee. It's the perfect Batman film for a Bat-Fan. Replace "16" with "4" and the same goes for Mask of the Phantasm.

I recently grabbed all of the issues at my LCS and re-read them for the first time in over a decade. Untold Tales was one of my first gateways into Spider-Man when I was a grade-schooler. I loved it. I really dug Pat Olliffe's Ditko-ish artwork. It's done in a way that doesn't think Ditko's art was bad (unlike the current artist on Learning to Crawl) and keeps it's own style but still evokes the original style. The attention to detail in terms of which issue fit during the Lee/Ditko days in extraordinary, and could only come from the writer of Marvels. I was at SDCC a couple of years ago and tried to haggle over the $100 omnibus, with zero results. How'd you get your hands on it?

I'm honestly sad Batman and Robin is off the table, as I watched it again a couple of years ago and it hit me for the first time how truly scene-chewingly cheesy she acted in it. I was hoping that would be examined for a type of "Is she acting bad on purpose or truly acting badly" type of scenario, but alas! I definitely nominate one of the Kill Bills, possibly the second volume as she has a wider range of emotions there. I'm sure that'll prove tricky since it's really one movie split into two films, so I'm not expecting it to be chosen. A man can dream..!

The Complete Matt Smith years will be on sale soon. https://www.bbcdoctorwhoshop.com/en/doctor-who-the-complete-matt-smith-years?utm_source=dwfacebook&utm_medium=mattsmithcomplete&utm_campaign=%20mattsmithcomplete

I figure it's one of those things where one asks if the pathos and drama of the tragedy justify the loss itself. Thinking about it now, I guess not. She saved the universe but the story cruelly kills her developed self almost out of spite. IDK, I never thought it was a bad thing to do writing wise, but it is incredibly dickish to the Doctor, Donna, and us all.