Fun With YouTube : Super Hero Squad 1 X 19

Posted by John Klein III on October 5, 2013
Posted in: Cartoon, Fun With YouTube. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Mysterious Mayhem at Mutant High

EDIT ON JULY 30, 2014 – The YouTube video came down so here is a picture that is sort of as good.  But not really, at all.  I’ll check again to see if someone else is so bold to host it.  If I knew how to do it, I would totally buy the DVD and figure out a way to host it in an awesome secret way.  or if I could just host it here.

Super Hero Squad Mayhem at Mutant High Kitty and Lockheed

DailyMotion hardly works for me on the Kindle Fire but hopefully these two videos from DailyMotion can work here:

The code looks like it will never work.  Just in case it doesn’t, here are the links :

Thanks to DailyMotion Poster TheFoxPrince11 for hosting the videos!

The best part of the episode is from 18:43 – 18:51.

This marks Lockheed’s second animation appearance.  This is also marks Kitty’s second appearance on this show.

I started watching Super Hero Squad when it first came out and watched several of the episodes.  Then, like most cartoons, they stop airing new ones and sprinkle a new episode in every once in a while.

I still haven’t seen the last episodes.  The last one I saw was the Planet Hulk episode.  It looked like that was the direction they were going in, SHSing adaptions of actual Marvel stories.  Which I fully support.

Mysterious Mayhem, is SHS’s only mutant spotlight episode.  Wolverine is a big part of the series, and some X-Men make appearances throughout, but as far as mutant adventures, this is it.

How great is that theme song?  Extremely catchy!

The title card is a homage to X-Men Volume One Issue One.

Whenever Steve Blum is Wolverine, you know it is going to be a good time.

Captain America, who I love on this series, reveals Wolverine doesn’t have his high school diploma.

Wolverine takes Reptil with him to Xavier’s.

When I eventually got around to reading Avengers Academy, I was expecting Reptil to be like he was on the show, as he debut there.  Instead, he is very dark and didn’t tell any jokes.

Someone dusted off Shawn Ashmore to protray Iceman, which is very clever casting.

Ringmaster is the villain of the episode.  None of his Circus of Crime show up up here.  That is how I know him, that and he tangles with the Hulk a bit.

At the school, we have Xavier as the principal and the sole teacher.

Cyclops as the teacher’s pet.

Jean is the cheerleader.

Storm is the exotic exchange student.

Iceman is the class clown.

The Danger Room makes an appearance, it is also the lunch room.

Not a bad episode at all, but it is a clear departure from the rest of the series.

The traditional Squadies don’t show up until the very end.

Thanks to YouTuber Full Cartoon, for hosting the video.

Uncanny Avengers 12

Posted by John Klein III on October 4, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Rick Remender

Artist Salvador Larroca

Color Art Frank Martin

Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles

What is Kang sitting on?  A future bean bag chair?  Hate ti say this, but a future bean bag chair, is still a bean bag chair.

How incredible was the opening of this issue?

We get Eimin and Uriel’s origins.  I have to still look for their names, does anyone have them memorized yet?  Probably Remender and Cowles.

How great is it that Remender gets to continue his Apocalypse / Archangel saga into this title.  He runs the risk of burning out an audience that way, also of being known as that guy with the hard on for Warren Worthington III.

So Warren’s kids appear to be from the Days of Future Past timeline, just during the era when Rachel was a hound, and Arab was her master.  How awesome is that!?!  Someone straight up remembered Arab and put him in a modern comic.

That is some tight continuity!

I remember as a kid when Rod Campbell joined the cast of Excalibur, and he was a humnan wanting to help mutants.   Then horrible events started to happen to him, like replacing human limbs with robotic limbs.

You can tell that Kang wanted to toughen his adopted twins.

But once Uriel has to blind Eimin, that’s to much.  Did we know that Eimin is blind?  Not sure I picked up on that previously.

Uncanny Avengers 12 Kitty

We cut to the Jean Grey School, we get to see Storm, Beast and Kitty, they have moved Evan and Warren into a secret bunker.

Uncanny Avengers 12 Magik

Then we cut to the New Xavier School, with Cyclops, Emma and Magik.  They are discussing how a mutant rapture can even occur.  I like the inclusion of Illyana in this scene, shows that Scott is still using a coucil and now that they have broken up, there is no reason to not add a third.  Glad it was Magik and not Magneto.

Up to this point, Larroca and Martin have been doing an amazing job in art.  Then Wanda shows up and I don’t know what happened.

I think it is that weird glow from the hallway, that casts a strange hue in the rooms.  Wanda looks very ill in all of her scenes.

She should be holding a bucket or have one at the ready.  Luckily, that weird head thing (what do people call that – a head band, maybe?)

Then we cut to Wasp, Captain America and Havok.  The comic instantly looks a lot better too.  It just was an odd coloring choice, is all.

Wasp does that classic cartoon thing of getting two guys with guns to shoot each other.  Which, would that actually work, I wonder?

There’s some nice flirting between Wasp and Havok, but Cap keeps interrupting the chemistry.  I know it is harmless flirting but I thought we were building to a Alex / Wanda relationship, or has that time passed already?  Once Wonder Man shows up, your chances with Wanda decrease dramatically, just ask Vision.  Oh how I can’t stand Wonder Man, at least he has the good sense to die every now and then.

I wonder how eye contact works with Jan, when she is wasp size.

Banshee v. Captain America.  Sean kick yo arse!

Meanwhile, remember that caption?  Back with Wanda and Simon, it is now the blue from the stream that makes Wanda look sickly.

Now that I see Eimin’s current design, she was  obviously blind or something, as she has that weird U thing over her eyes.

Cut to Kang at the end.  So that quake happens, and the panel with GRRUMMBLLE, I had to stare at that strange brown thing for a solid minute, to try to figure out what that was.

You can tell in the larger panel, that he is on a bean chair, which is odd for a conqueror.  He isn’t in college nor in his first apartment.

Daddy, your babies are coming for you!

Maybe Remender can work in Original Warren into the story, that kid needs something to do and should fear his own future.

Ultimate Comics X-Men 31

Posted by John Klein III on October 2, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Brian Wood

Penciler Alvaro Martinez

Inker John Lucas

Colorist Chris Sotomayor

Lettering VC’s Joe Sabino

World War X Part Three

Ultimate Comics X-Men 31 Shadowcat 1

Ultimate Kitty has decided to match Ultimate Jean Grey, move for move.

I like how because of this, Jean is getting a tad more crazy, she was not expecting this level of opposition.

We see how silly it was of James to switch sides.  He left Utopia because he is a warrior, now Jean wants him to fight, and he doesn’t want to do it.

The Kitty and Rogue scene is my favorite section of the book.  There are times where I believe none of the characters remember Volume One of this title, which someone finally draws attention to that later.

Kitty and Rogue used to be rivals, and all due to Bobby, which was pretty awesome when they both moved on and Bobby was left to himself, and had nothing to do.

How great from the hug they give each other to Rogue’s decision, the layouts and writing, really come together.  Maybe it is more about the characters and less about the building battle, though it is part of it, that I am drawn to.

I like the contrast between the two ladies, Rogue still in that jungle garb, she has committed to spending all of her time with the Seed, she doesn’t worry about absorbing other’s powers.  Kitty still dressed neck to toes, in her commander uniform, she is still leading the charge.  Which, I don’t believe we have seen her in a different outfit yet.  She is constantly in leader mode.  I suppose we saw her in the casual version if it.

If Rogue had decided to fold, Kitty would have had to convince the others to back down, but she would have done it.  Instead, this is now even more on!

Kitty annouces that Colossus is the new leader.  She lists all great reasons.  He will only be the leader, for four weeks, then they will vote for their third leader.

Wonderful how Blackheath steps up and points to Bobby, reminding everyone that Bobby was Original X-Men, because that boy hasn’t done anything but pine ovet Husk.

I quite like how Colossus is has straight forward as he is, though with his mafua background, I suspect he has killed quite often in the past.  I also like how Aleks is sticking around.

Mach Two and Shola show Colossus a brand new weapon they can use.  Great use of Shola’s engineering abilities, which we know he has from the Mekanix mini.  Still crazy how they Ultimatized a character from that mini – it was a cool pull.

I get it is a type of cannon, I just need to see it a few more times to fully fet it.

Issue ends with Jean releasing James, so that Tian can hunt him down and kill him.  I hope they succeed in that endeavour.

Maybe one more issue, and then the big Utopia v. Tian showdown?

Though Farbird is sent to kill Storm at the end of this issue, so maybe bext issue does start the battle.

Giant Size X-Men 1

Posted by John Klein III on October 1, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Len Wein

Illustrator Dave Cockrum

Colorist Glynis Wein

Letterer John Constanza

Second Genesis!

When people state legendary milestone comics, this is actually one of those comics.

I tried to see how much I spent on my copy, could not have been more than $45.00.  I wish I could scan some of these pages.  It is very readable, it just happens that a cat got to it and nibbled on the bottom right corner.  I never intend to sell this issue, I just wanted to own it.

I looked and looked to verify that this is a first printing and not a Target reprint.

Published quarterly.  Copyright © 1975 by Marvel Comics Group. Vol. 1. No. 1, 1975 issue.

So it is a first printing, just a readable copy, so I couldn’t get more than I oaid for it probably.

This makes me want to look into getting a poor edition of Uncanny 1, but I bet the same quality version of that, is still $200.00.

On the opening splash page of Chapter One, is the only time we see Beast.  He us referenced later.  Cool looking image of the original team and the all new team.

Now that I’m thinking about it, not sure where the All New All Different expression comes from, maybe issue 94?

This creative team goes all out in these introductory pages.  They may not have plan for the success that started here, just trying to revive a dead franchise and increase international sells.

We are first introduced to Kurt Wagner on page two.  Has it ever been revealed what he did to get them chasing him?  Besides him looking the way he does?  The foolish town people are quite organized by the time we join this story.  I want to say in that X-Men Manifest Destiny Quitting Time story, Kurt may have given some back story.

Xavier stops everyone and offers Kurt a chance to be whole.

Wolverine appears on page 7, and joins on page 8.  The bottom of the left pages all have one sentence descriptions of other Marvel titles.

The Canadian government invested a great deal of time and money turning him into what he is, indeed.

Poor Banshee gets two panels, and he is on the team.  We get introduced to Storm, on page 9.

At this point, Xavier is the only one we see, is he flying back to the mansion between each stop and dropping each one off?

Have we ever seen what Storm was up to the week prior to this?  She is clearly invested into the goddess position.

She is the one giving up the most.

Sunfire also gets two panels, one is wide screen.  Makes sense as those two have made appearances already elsewhere.  Plus, they are not sticking around to long, in Sunfire’s case.

History is made :

Giant Size X-Men 1 Illyana

Illyana Rasputin is mentioned on page 11 and seen on page 14.  Oh that poor little girl.

The captions from page 15 were reused for Uncanny 390, in a very touching fashion.

Page 16, we start getting racism into the comic.  We were all having a good time, then John Proudstar shows up.  He really doesn’t like white folks.

Xavier gets racist too, and that actually convinces Proudstar to join.

Shout outs to Arizona, and Camp Verde specifically.

Spider-Man and Valkyrie in Marvel Team Up 341.

Chapter Two

They get their costumes!

Well, three of them do.

Storm is surprised they fit perfectly.

Xavier explains Reed Richards’ unstable molecules “adjust themselves where necessary.”

Cyclops makes a dramatic entrance.

Page 22, we start the flashback to Krakoa.  We see the original X-Men, minus Beast, plus Havok and Polaris.

Cyclops is so mad at Beast, then he gets even angrier at Iceman’s jokes.

Between pages 23 and 24, Deadly Genesis’ flashbacks occur.

Chapter Three

Cyclops reveals the new four’s mutant names.  Mutant and Proud!

Cyclops splits the X-Men into duos

Cyclops and Thunderbird

Storm and Colossus

Banshee and Wolverine

Sunfire and Nightcrawler

I wanted to reference the sentence descriptions with issue numbers that I missed:

24, witness the frightful fate of Glenn Talbot in Hulk 188

26, Gwen Stacy is alive?….and well?  Find out for sure in Spider-Man 145!  That turns out well

30, the shattering secret of the Falcon — revealed in Captain America 186

So the four teams take a direction and all meet in the middle of the “island.”

Page 37, we see what happened to the original X-Men.

Chapter Four

We see Krakoa for what he really is!

42, who will be drafted in the search for the new Avengers?  Find out in issue 136

So a pretty spectacular battle rages on with 13 X-Men.

Without Storm and Polaris, not sure how these teams would have survive.

Second Genesis is 47 of the 68 pages, the rest are origins and powers of the Original X-Men, minus Beast and Angel.

Daredevil! Luke Cage! Son of Satan! A gala guest star extravaganza in Defenders 24

The order of the back ups is : Cyclops, Iceman and Jean Grey.

They must have known they were not going to be using Angel.  Not like they wound up using Iceman either.

All in all, a fantastic issue and officially the oldest comic in my collection.

X-Men Legacy 17

Posted by John Klein III on September 30, 2013
Posted in: Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Writer Simon Spurrier

Artist Khoi Pham

Color Artist Rachelle Rosenberg

Letterer VC’s Cory Petit

Wear the Grudge Like a Crown Part Two

X-Men Legacy 17 Magik 1

Maybe to much with the caption boxes, though it is written well.

Magik doesn’t do much this issue, besides stand around, then she drops her sword, which will be important for next issue.

How great is the fight Pham shows?  That is the moment of the issue

Cyclops, has to be holding back during the fight.  He knows how much David needs this.

I like the idea of the news commentators, they strike me as local newscasters and then the nation just picked up the story.

David bites Scott!

From there, Cyclops stops holding back and clearly wins the fist fight.

Cyclops tries to blast David and hits Tempus, unleashing the new mutant who absorbs flesh.  She absorbs David and Blindfold’s brother shows up at the end.

Looks like the Uncanny cast will be around for one more issue.

One imagines that the next issue opens with Triage wakes up Tempus, she freezes David as the worm, then Triage separates the two of them like how they did it last issue.

But I imagine now that Blindfold’s brother is there, things are going to be more complicated.

Teams : Wolverine and the X-Men

Posted by John Klein III on September 29, 2013
Posted in: Teams. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Kitty’s other monthly book, at the moment.  She’s not guaranteed to be in every issue but neither is Wolverine.  Wolverine is the Headmaster and Kitty was the Headmistress.  Which she was until the Original Five showed up and  Jason Aaron was allowed to use Storm, and thus Kitty stepped down and Storm became the new Headmistress.  Which I still feel was a mistake.

Other faculty members are: Iceman, Rachel Grey, Beast with Angel and Husk from time to time and of course, Toad as the Custodian and Doop at the Front Desk.

Teams : All New X-Men

Posted by John Klein III on September 28, 2013
Posted in: Teams. Tagged: . Leave a comment

From the first issue onwards to Battle of the Atom, the team has been Kitty Pryde (in the awesome Professor role) and her Original Five X-Men: Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Jean.  Angel left around issue 10 and others have guest starred in the title and such as Wolverine and proper Iceman have with a few appearances by Storm.

Personal DC History

Posted by John Klein III on September 27, 2013
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Personal DC History

My DC history is even faster.

I got Morrison’s JLA run and stuck with that title until they relaunched it years later. During that era, I got some Batman titles off and on.  Through Batman 550, I fell in love with Cameron Chase, as she seemed like such an interesting character. She was suppose to be my DC Kitty Pryde where I would have collected all of her appearances, which I looked into, and I’m missing like 30 of her appearances but she was in several hard to find DC Secret Files and those things get costly.  She is not in the New 52 yet, thus I have no interest in that whole mess.

I remember there was a time towards the end, where I would buy DC comics, and just put them in the back of their respected boxes.

That’s how I was surprised when I had own every issue of Identity Crisis and sold them for a pretty penny.  Now I wish I read it as I really dug Brad Meltzer’s Decoded series.

I got Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow and stuck with that title all the way to the One Year Later event.  That was the only real series I was still following and enjoying though Judd Winnick did try his best to get me to drop the title but I kept on.  Took a great character like Mia and just ruin her.  And I like Judd, but not every cast of characters has to have one person who is HIV Positive.  Though I did enjoy rewatching his Real World season when MTV reaired in fully a few months back.  Wished it concluded with a Where Are They Now episode.  Pedro and Me is such a great book if you ever get a chance to read it.  Barry Ween too.

That whole One Year Later also helped with dropping titles, as it was another perfect jumping off point.

That’s what I don’t get about DC’s whole, every 15 / 25 years, reboot the entire universe, but strangely keep some important aspects of the previous one thus causing some confusing time line issues, whole thing.  They must get twice the readership but I’ll be curious to see how many stick with it and how many do they lose.  Must be enough of a win to keep doing it.  Plus for those who dropped the universe, how nice is it that now you can just know, in your head, that you have seen all of those adventures and can close the book on that character.

My favorite DC Characters are, in order : Chase Cameron / Wally West Flash / Batman.

What I Bought 2013.9.26

Posted by John Klein III on September 26, 2013
Posted in: Purchases. Leave a comment

Wolverine and the X-Men 36

Uncanny Avengers 12

. . .

Also, we are moving this weekend, so no review posts  until Monday, sorry.  There will be posts, so feel free to stop on by.