the Legion of (mean) Super-Heroes

after watching the first season of the Legion cartoon again (it's good, wish a real set would come out) I decided to read the original comics again.  I have the first three "Showcase Presents... The Legion" volumes and they are loads of fun, sometimes in ways that wasn't intended.  thankfully Saturn Girl's costume changed.

for one thing, these kids are really MEAN on occasion, starting in their first appearance- they pretend to not want Superboy in their club, and trick him into thinking he's not wanted.  when they relent and tell him the truth, he does get a dig back at them.  this sort of attitude was very common back then, there are whole sites dedicated to Superman being mean to Lois or any other person.  Batman probably was the same way.  still, even when I was a kid  and would read some of the older stories  I would wonder about this attitude.

Ultra Seven Then & Now

here's a fun little compilation of Ultra Seven from the 60s to the more recent Ultraman Mebius. it shows his transformations and various powers- neat to see how the effects have changed throughout the years, and yet they use the same basic ideas. and sound effects, those make it hold together very well.

Avengers #42

"The Plan -- and the Power!"

writer:   Roy Thomas
penciller: John Buscema
inker: George Bell
letterer: Artie Simek

Hawkeye is annoyed at Hercules for "freeloading" (wonder what he considers work, then) and Pietro contacts the Fantastic Four about Diablo and the Dragon-man.  this takes place right after the FF's battle with Sentry Sinister in issue #64, which will later have some big ol' consequences for many of Earth's heroes.  Reed gives him the scoop on Diablo's probably whereabouts and away they go, with a semi-reluctant Hercules in tow.  oddly enough, Quicksilver spurns the FF's offer of help.  such is comic book logic!

Batman & Catwoman Flirting while Fighting

man I love this show. it's funny and action packed and so well written. it takes some of the more silly Silver Age characters and makes them fun and cool. I mean, Green Arrow was lame then, and then got better, then got worse. here, he's a fun rival and friend to Batman. and the way they actually made Aquaman fun again? he's much better as Hercules than as a Prince Namor retread. yeah, the Brave and the Bold rocks.

Kamen Rider W (2009)

there sure are a lot of wallpapers for your computer about this superhero.  weird.

anyway, I've watched the first 13 episodes of this show, and I like it.  it's not quite as fun as Kamen Rider Decade, but it's different enough.  I think this is the first time a Rider has been made up of two people, though there have been at least two other Japanese heroes that have done a similar concept (Triple Fighter and Ultraman Ace).  Shotaro Hidari is a "half-boiled" detective who gets involved with an old family using Gaia Memory drives to make monsters.  he partners up with the mysterious Philip and becomes the multi-faceted hero Kamen Rider Double (W).  the Gaia Memory drives turn people into monsters called Dopants.  which is just a weird name overall.

W, Decade, Kuuga vs. Shadowmoon

just started watching Kamen Rider W (that's actually Double) and it's a pretty interesting series. here's his introduction in one of the many Decade movies (I can't keep track of them any more) where he comes to the rescue of Decade and Kuuga when Shadowmoon was intent on destroying them. always good to see Shadowmoon again, complete with Satansaber. that was missing when he reappeared in Kamen Rider Black RX. though having Double beat Shadowmoon so quickly... I dunno.

Ultraman 26. 27: The Monster Prince

the only two part episode of the original series introduces us to one of the most popular monsters, Gomora.

awoken from a 50 million year old sleep, Gomora is confused, and still sleepy.  of course, the Science Patrol decides it would be a good idea to bring him to Tokyo.

The Adventures of Batman and Robin (1968)

this has been covered here before, a few times, but here's the opening and closing credits to this first animated Batman series. very much influenced by the current television show, it's got a lot of silly puns and characters. I mean, Simon the Pieman? not even in Toyman's class of villains. but the voice acting is awesome, and this was Batman's animated voice for years for me. and Robin's as well.

The Fountainhead (1949)

I'm watching this movie right now.  I have never read a single word of Ayn Rand and after this I really never want to.  what I've learned about objectivism is anything I've read from Steve Ditko, oddly enough.  I don't agree with much of anything she's ever said or believes in, that's for sure.

having said that, it's a compelling movie, and the cinematography is amazing as well.  the acting... it's good, but it's very odd.

Kamen Rider V3 theme song

this is the full size opening theme song to Kamen Rider V3. unlike many US shows, theme songs in Japan can come in two versions, the short minute long one and then a longer 3 minute version. more or less. sometimes they are even longer, like Ultraman Cosmos' theme songs. it has to be a great song to go over 3 minutes. and that's ANY song, not just a tv show. Bruce Springsteen said it best about a "three minute record" and all.

Kamen Rider V3 40th anniversary

it was 40 years ago yesterday that Kamen Rider V3 appeared on Japanese TV for the first time.  it was very popular then and is still popular today. it's a great thing to have it available on R1 DVD.

SUPER INFRAMAN (1975) Trailer

here's the original Mandarin trailer for SUPER INFRAMAN. I'm kind of surprised it doesn't have subtitles, but it's pretty straightforward. in fact, so much so that you get nearly the entire movie in under four minutes. this seems to be pretty standard for HK movies. I wonder if there was ever an "international" trailer in English for this movie. I know several were made. heck, I wonder if there was a different English dub made for this one as well.

Tobor the Great review

I put the trailer here.  the trailer pretty much gives the movie away though!  haven't watched the movie in a while, so I did last night.  it runs a swift 77 minutes and is just right.

Kimba #5- Fair Game

Kimba relates a story to his animal friends- he was in Paris with Roger Ranger (whom he had previously "just" met in the prior episode, error on the US crew, oops), Mary and Mr. Pompous (aka Moustache from many of Tezuka's works).  he had met Speedy Cheetah's grandfather Quasimodo.

The Kaufman Lawler Feud: Chapter 1

Andy Kaufman was a genius at comedy. he also was a genius at getting "heat" as a wrestling heel. he fooled the whole country in 1983 and 1984 into thinking this was all real. like I said, sheer genius. I remember hearing about the first encounter back in the day, and the radio DJ was sure there would be legal action due to Jerry Lawler seriously hurting Andy with the piledriver. the Memphis piledriver was a banned hold, by the way.

The Hobbit (2012) review 2

"in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

one of the more famous opening lines in all of literature these days.  it's also one of my favorite books.  I've read this one A LOT.  enough that I can quote many lines without much prompting.  I'm not sure that's a good thing or not, but my point is I love this book.

so when Peter Jackson announced he was adapting the book into not one, not two but THREE movies, I had some trepidation.  this is a slender children's book, not even close to what LOTR is.  and when it was stated there would be added material, some not even written by Tolkien, well, that sure didn't help.  I knew I should see it, since it would at least look great.

The Hobbit (2012) review

(another wonderful guest review from Liberty Belle!  I'm glad she didn't mention my singing during the movie.)

The Hobbit

In a dark theater, with popcorn and whoppers, a boy took a girl to a movie and we watched a little movie called The Hobbit.

Not at all depressed at not seeing the first 9 minutes of the upcoming Star Trek being released in May, I settled down to see the first movie, not made for pre-K aged kids, in a while.

Needless to say I was giddy.

This isn’t going to be one of those technical movie reviews. I haven’t read The Hobbit in ages, although it’s now on my list to re-read, I cannot provide literary comparisons. Quite frankly I don’t want too. I’ll leave that to the Pros!

However these are my thoughts:

THE HOBBIT Trailer

I'm going to see this movie tonight, finally. so I thought I'd actually look up the trailer and see what to expect. I LOVE this book, it's the best thing Tolkien wrote. it's a fun, funny scary SHORT adventure story for children of all ages. it doesn't need the trilogy to exist. the trilogy however, needs it. so I will admit to having some trepidations to THE HOBBIT being turned into a trilogy itself, with a bunch of extra padding Tolkien didn't write.

Welcome to Starfleet

yes, I got this about 40 years ago.  I'm not sure how it all came about.  I'm pretty sure my mother had something to do with it.  I wish I hadn't covered my middle name up, but that's a story for another time.  I wonder if this had something to do with the "Star Trek Welcommittee" that Bjo Trimble used to run way back when. if I remember correctly it showed up with two posters, one of Kirk and one of Spock, and three Starfleet insignia to be sewn onto shirts.  the Captain, engineer and science officer.

Inframan kill count

Infra-month continues! there's some fun fan made clips out there, I'm going to try to find a few more, and this is a good start.

Inframan Ipad Fail

got this screen shot the other day from my collaborator Liberty Belle.  she thought it was weird that I used the video I made for derby to talk about the Inframan opening titles.  I thought it was odd as well, since I was pretty sure I used the right video.  I checked it for myself, and no one else mentioned it, so I had no idea what she was talking about. 

she then took this screen capture.  the iPad sure does do some cool things, huh?  but that's OK if I never can do that.  though I think some how the PC might be able to do something like that.

Inframan opening credits

now that I've watched these I wonder why I've used the hyphen for so many years. perhaps the English poster... yes, it's got the hyphen. darn it all, that's years of work I have to undo! anyway, here's the opening US credits from the long OOP Sinister Cinema squeeze scope VHS. I remember getting this as a Xmas present when it came out, and I think that was about the only time it was available, as I'm sure Brenner jumped on it the moment he saw it in their catalog. someone should interview Brenner about the movies he imported. that would be fascinating.

Infra-man!

 just a few images from the recent... well, five year old now... DVD.  it's a pretty great presentation over all, and I'm still really happy it was released.  too bad they didn't sneak the original US titles on it or the trailers, but I understand the reasoning behind all of that.

Pioneers of Television: Superheroes

wow, PBS does some cool stuff these days!  here's a really nice retrospective of shows I grew up watching. it covers Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk and The Greatest American Hero, not necessarily in that order. they talk to people from every show, which is really cool to see. most of it is fun stuff and some interesting stories from all of the actors. it would have been nice to see some archival interview footage from George Reeves and Bill Bixby, but this is good.