I Swear I Was Going to Have a Substantial Post Ready

...but I was so close to finishing Season 1 of Game of Thrones, it all got away from me.Sean Bean, pray for me to the Old Gods that I may do better tomorrow.

5 Animated DC Characters That Are Way Better Than They Ever Were in the Comics

Caution: I've had this post idea for a while, and now that DC has rebooted its entirely line, the animated versions of practically EVERY DC character stand a good chance of being better than their comic book counterparts. That's why I'm saying "ever", taking into account all possible continuities.

While Marvel Comics has been dominating the big screen, DC has long held the gold standard on the small one, in particular through animated shows. Bruce Timm's work on Batman, and its ensuing legacy, has set the stage for clean, simple distillations of DC's superhero properties, wonderful reinventions that have somehow eluded comic book writers and artists. Here then are five of my personal favorites, in order of appearance. I've skipped over anyone who appeared in cartoons first, but feel free to add them (or anyone else you think deserving) in the Comments section.

Mr. Freeze
Show: Batman: The Animated SeriesThough I'd seen Freeze in an issue of Who's Who, it was really Paul Dini who put him on the map in the award-winning episode, "Heart of Ice". Suddenly, he's being played by Arnold in a major motion sickness picture, and showing up in all the video games. Still, even after his accession to the A-list, he was never as soulful, sympathetic or (I'm gonna say it) cool as he was in the Batman animated series.

Brainiac
Show: Superman: The Animated Series
I can't believe it took that long to make Brainiac a real part of the Superman legend, and had it happened earlier, we might actually have seen him in a Superman film pinch-hitting for Luthor. A Kryptonian computer intelligence, this Brainiac has a vested interest in Superman (in a sense, he's a little like the Eradicator). He plays a role in dismissing Jor-El's findings while secretly working to escape from the doomed planet, makes his way to Earth, absorbing the knowledge of every world he encounters, and tries to take over the world. Not the alien invader, nor the robotic skeleton, nor the circus psychic, nor the various combinations of these, but a true legacy character that is indivisible from his continuity's Superman.

Slade (Deathstroke)
Show: Teen Titans
Doing away with the terrible codename was the first good decision the makers of Teen Titans made for the character, but it only went up from there. From lame mercenary assassin to criminal mastermind, Slade is at once the mystery man behind most of the bad things that happen, a hand-to-hand fighter on par with Robin, a Dr. Doom-type who sometimes turned out to be a robot double, and eventually, a man who sold his soul to the devil for even more power. I HATE Deathstroke and I LOVE Slade. That says something about the power of the Titans cartoon show.

The Question
Show: Justice League Unlimited
Granted, the various versions of the Question in the comics are already pretty good - Ditko's original mystery man, O'Neil and Cowan's conflicted zen Buddhist, you might even count Rorschach in there - however, the Question as a conspiracy nut is a character I wish they'd introduced in the comics. Not only are his theories a real hoot, but his ability to see connections where he shouldn't is an interesting and seldom seen wrinkle for superhero books. And then there's the weird romantic relationship with the Huntress. He would be awesome even without Jeffrey Combs' voice.

Green Arrow
Show: Batman: The Brave and the Bold
I know fan wisdom would have me name Brave and the Bold's Aquaman in this slot, but I dare say, as fun as the series' Aquaman is, he's not necessarily "way better than he ever was in the comics" (I've been a big fan of several incarnations, in fact). For my money, I've got to give it to Green Arrow, a character that hasn't had a good story arc in decades. Gone are the hypocritical politics, the bad relationships and the (ugh) killer arrows. They've regressed Oliver Queen to his Kirby days (before the beard) when he was basically a Batman rip-off, and used that to fuel a healthy competition between the two characters. He's the cocksure one in green.

Who do YOU prefer on the small, animated screen?

A Dimension of Minds Blown

Comic-Con exclusive William Shatner dolls based on each of his two appearances on the Twilight Zone?!You know, you're just begging for this market to explode!

We all have our Captain Kirk dolls, of course, and now both Bob Wilson and Don Parker, so what are we missing?
1. T.J. Hooker - with car hood roll action!
2. Columbo 2½ Pack - with costumes for both Columbo appearances AND the character played by one of the characters!
3. Major Tom Album Cover Astro-Shat
4. Big Giant Head
5. Denny Crane - pull the string to hear him say his name! (mechanism may get stuck, preventing the doll from doing so until lithium batteries run down)
6. Shatlet, Prince of Denmark (in Shakespearean garb, with Yorick's skull accessory)
7. Stan Fields - the perfect doll to interview your various Barbies
8. William Shatner Star Trek Interview Edition (Offended Friend Leonard Nimoy sold separately)
9. $#*!-Saying Dad Figure
10. Whoever the hell he played on TekWar

Request your favorite!

Siskoid Awards 2011 - Technical Achievement Ceremony

The Siskoid Awards are just like the Oscars, you know. Only with 100% less Billy Crystal. And as with the Academy Awards, the Technical Achievement Ceremony is a thinly veiled excuse to have a pretty girl host an awards show for the stuff that didn't fit in yesterday. At the Oscars, these would be for stuff like CG follicle simulations and things. At the SBG, anything goes, really.

So let's say hello to our hostess, the first American to get the job, Alison Brie from the popular* tv series Community! Aw, she's lovely.

Geek wedding of 2011 - David Tennant and Georgia Moffit. They tied the knot on the 31st, just in time, but I would have given them the prize regardless. Think about it. The 10th Doctor marries the Doctor's Daughter, who is the real life daughter of the Fifth Doctor. It's a wedding that actually makes two Doctors FAMILY. Their progeny was my one-time guess for River Song's identity.

Best movie look-alike for New Brunswick of 2011 - Daytime Drinking. Who knew that give or take a pine forest, South Korea could stand in for my home province? I now have plans to remake the film here with Colt .45 as a sponsor. Second place goes to Pressure Point, but since it was only made in Quebec, the similarities are kind of expected.

Best podcast of 2011 - How Did This Get Made? Paul Sheer and his crew of brave souls sit down to watch some of the worst films ever made and then do the only thing you can in that situation, point at them and laugh. Reminds me that I've got to catch up on the episodes I missed.

Best Kung Fu move of 2011 - Pai Mei's Deadly Crotch Grab. Has to be seen to be believed. That sound will haunt me forever.

Strangest movie meme of 2011 - The amputation biopic. With 127 Hours getting some Oscar nods in 2011, it seemed to spawn copycats (as Hollywood somehow always manages to), including the true stories of surfing/shark incident in Soul Surfer, and a dolphin amputee in Dolphin Tale. Strange fad.

***VAN DAMMATHON FALLOUT***
Character find of 2011 (male) - Uncle Douvee (Wilford Brimley) in Hard Target. An over-60 Cajun action hero who makes explosive moonshine was just what the doctor ordered to close out my year.
Character find of 2011 (female) - Taxiwoman in JCDV (Jenny De Chez - who I'm guessing is a non-actor). Hilarious performance on all levels. Her unforgiving nature when Van Damme wants some peace and quiet in the cab ride from the airport. Her screams that sound like a car alarm. It's wonderful stuff. If I had a car, I'd want it to sound just like that.

Ironic 1% victory of 2011 - The Guy Fawkes mask (Warner Bros.). Seems like the 99% movement's adoption of the Fawkes mask from V for Vendetta has netted one of the 1% billions of dollars. Yes, BILLIONS! According to this NY Times article anyway. It's getting really hard to protest capitalism, isn't it?

"Person" of the Year - The Mixed Message. (Hey, if Time Magazine can keep crowning concepts, so can I.) The Fawkes story above is only one example of a communications problem I came across all year, both personally and professionally. The 99% (or Occupy) movement came to my town, of course, fighting corporations armed with iPads and wearing Converse shoes. Then they wondered why they weren't being taken seriously. I made my point about DC's New 52 yesterday, but here's another nail in the coffin: Folks at DC are disappointed the fanboys are obsessing about continuity instead of talking about the stories. But see, by spouting all that hogwash about how continuity was the big evil and needed to be discarded (and yet only discarding it here and there), they MADE IT about continuity. And so it went all year in the media and where I work (can't really talk about that here), people saying things they shouldn't, launching campaigns designed to fail, never really knowing they were killing their own message through how they presented it.

And that wraps up this magical, pre-taped, night! Once again, my thanks to Alison Brie for her fine work here and elsewhere, and we'll see you next year for more Siskoid Awards!

*If I say it's popular often enough, it'll become true, right?

Reign of the Supermen #395: Tom Welling

Source: Smallville TV series (2001-2011)
Type: TVLet me confess something here. If I told you I'd seen more than 2 episodes of Smallville, I'd probably be lying. And those were from the first season, back when it looked like, every week, kryptonite would infect someone and give them mutant powers, inspiring Clark Kent to heroic deeds. Bo Duke was his dad. Pete Ross was black. And Luthor had been split into two, his young bald self, and his curly-haired clone body from the comics played his dad. And that is truthfully all I remember from the show. Michael Rosenbaum's Luthor had an interesting and ambiguous role in the series, but I was never too sure when the show aired on whatever Canadian station (we don't get the WB), and the set-up didn't particularly grab me. So by the time reports of Clark meeting every other Justice Leaguer in their teens came out (and then the JSA, the Legion, etc.), I was too far behind to even contemplate checking it out. And the underwhelming response to the series finale didn't send my scurrying to the store to get some kind of 10-season mega-set (is it me, or is 10 seasons for a drama too damn long?).

So it's up to you, gentle reader, to change my mind or confirm it. How did you find Tom Welling in the role? Did the series become really cool? Or was it Twilight with superheroes, a Team Clark and a Team Oliver/Lex/Arthur/Bruce? I want to hear from all the Reigndrops out there.

Cat of the Geek #136: Top Cat

Name: Top Cat (T.C. to his friends)
Stomping Grounds: Hanna-Barbara cartoons
Side: Evil
Breed: American shorthair
Cat Powers: Scheming. Scamming. Lying. Cheating. Freeloading. Fast talk.
Skills: Eat 5, Sleep 7, Mischief 8, Wit 8, Scamming 9
Cat Weaknesses: Officer Dibble getting in the way. Greedy and lazy. Will even scam his own gang. Owes money to a loan shark.

Today, the Part of Steve Rogers Will Be Played by Neil Patrick Harris

Germaine to my current interests (from Amazing Spider-Man #673 by Dan Slott and Stefano Caselli).

Holiday Snaps: Halloween Villains

As promised, here are costume pictures from this year's Halloween party. Or should I say partIES. There was a phenomenon at work this year that I call Schrodinger's Party, in which two crowds fail to mix properly. Simply put, there were the people who understood the costumes below, and then there were the people who didn't. Even when explained. The theme was Villains. I will only report on the geeky ones.

Star TrekHere's mine. True to mine own self, I went for something obscure, but easy to conjure up. I was Mirror Spock during the mirror events of City on the Edge of Forever, which I imagine would have happened to the Mirror crew too, and as in our universe, Edith Keeler must die. In this case, however, Mirror Spock was driving the truck.

Doctor Who
Isabelle score a lot of points by coming as a creepy Weeping Angel. Gah! Don't blink, guys.

Comics
My favorite comic book-related costume has to be Marty's as MODOK. Dude cut off his entire body just to make it work!
Ludger came as the Riddler chilling at a ski lodge. He's been playing a LOT of Arkham City lately. That's all I can hear coming from the downstairs appartment.
Renée went for Roxy, one of the evil exes from Scott Pilgrim. She went and won herself a prize for sexiest costume too (but the competition was fierce, as you'll see.)
And Julien came in a pretty cool homemade Shredder costume. Cleverly done when you look at it closely.

Gaming
Speaking of clever, St-Pierre came as the fabled grue from the old computer text game, Zork. As the Weeping Angel's boyfriend, they made a particularly terrifying duo in the dark.
Furn was there as Punch-Out's King Hippo, doing the complete opposite of last year's gorilla suited Robot Monster.

Movies and TV
So while the sexy votes ultimately came down in favor of Roxy, mine probably went to Nath and Josée as Kill Bill's Gogo and Elle, respectively. I mean, COME ON!
And here's Isabel's Carmen Sandiego, elusively slumming it in other people's pictures (here with evil goth doll Amelie). Never could capture Carmen alone in the frame.
At one point, I caught Statler and Waldorf on the balcony (where else?) as incarnated by Xavier and Fred. We did need someone to laugh at the *other* crowd.

So that was our Halloween, just a quantum step away from another one where they broke a kitchen table, the one that was crashed by three guys in morphsuits for all of 10 minutes, and where being a Villain apparently involved an "evil" make-up job and absolutely no concept. I'm sure they had fun, in their own way, but we can't know unless we open Schrodinger's Party and that would ruin the experiment.

Geek Intersect: Scott Bakula

A Geek Intersect is an entertainer - often an actor - who has portrayed more than one seminal role associated with genre television or movies. Someone who has come to MEAN something to fans of genre fiction, and consequently, whose every new appearance takes on a double meaning. To geeks, they've become a connection to important geekery real estate and immediately create a reference or allusion back into the Intersect of All Things Geek. This new series means to celebrate those men and women and what they've meant to us.Scott Bakula: The nicest man in geekdom.

Sam Beckett. Scott Bakula will always best be known for his role as a time-lost physicist in Quantum Leap. There was something so wholesome about Sam, apparently informed by Bakula's own personality. This guy was DECENT, and even if he had spent the rest of his career playing villains, it's still how we would remember him. Quantum Leap was a crossover show. Something my mom enjoyed as much as we kids did. Something I trotted out more than a decade later to much younger friends who also fell in love with it. It was science fiction that nonetheless attracted Emmy nods. It had a great premise, sure, but at the heart of it, it's all about hearing Sam say "Oh boy" after every leap, isn' it? Oh, and those quantum kicks. Definitely.

Captain Archer. We didn't hear from Bakula for a long time, it seems, after Quantum Leap. And then, out of the blue, he turns up as nothing less than the CAPTAIN OF THE ENTERPRISE on Star Trek's last series. After 7 tedious years of Voyager, I might have been willing to give up on Trek, but Bakula being in the cast made that impossible. Archer was imbued with the same decency and gentle humor as Sam Beckett (but again, that's all Bakula), but with a harder, more impatient edge. And I was more than willing to follow him on a tour of early Federation history, no matter how revisionist it would become. Archer was a great captain even if his star never rose as high as Kirk's, Picard's or Sisko's, but he's not far off. Before Chris Pine, he was the last captain of the Enterprise, but he was also the first (and still is).

Stephen Bartowski AKA Orion. Chuck is a show that's great at paying its dues to all the geekery the writers and producers grew up on. Is it any wonder that Chuck's dad would turn out to be Scott Bakula? Bartowski the elder came into the show's second season as a frazzled loser/inventor, not entirely far from a befuddled Sam Beckett, early in any given Leap, nervously looking around for clues as to who he is and talking to his imaginary friend. They referenced the "oh boy" and I thought he might well LEAP as soon as Ellie's marriage was saved. But no, Stephen Bartowski was also Orion, super-hacker and inventor of the Intersect, taking on the Archer-esque hero role in the shadows. It was perfect casting, and not just because of this dual role. One might be angry at a father who mysteriously left his kids when they were teenagers, but who could stay mad at Scott Bakula? He immediately ingratiates himself into our hearts and we forgive him everything. Not because he's got a good excuse, but because we've been conditioned by the Geek Intersect to think of him as a GOOD GUY.

Favorite moments: I've always loved the Man of La Mancha episode of Quantum Leap - really shows off Bakula's versatility. Archer scenes that come to mind all feature his dog Porthos, I don't know why. (Wait, of course I do.) And in Chuck... fight in the cabin? Yeah, fight in the cabin.

Extra credit: Bakula starred in Lord of Illusions, one of the few Clive Barker stories put on film, and more recently, he was cast as the voice of Jake Gillenhall's father in Source Code, SOLELY to make the audience care about a father-son relationship that couldn't have much screen time (and of course, that film borrows Quantum Leap's premise somewhat).

Geekmeter says: Aces, Charles!

What are your favorite Scott Bakula memories?

Reign of the Supermen #358: Delivery-Boy Man

Source: Futurama Delivery-Boy Man #1 Bongo SDCC Exclusive, and Futurama episode "Lrrreconcilabe Ndndifferences" (2010)
Type: Analog/PasticheThough Fry removed all of his "original" character's powers at Leela's behest, it's hard not to see how Superman was an inspiration. The cape, the original powers, and oh yeah, that cover!

Delivery-Boy Man's origin story also has something in common with Superman's:
...whose adopted parents were killed in a dark alley, leading him to become a scientist who exploded a Gamma bomb that mutated a spider that in turn stung him, causing him to grow metal claws he used to open a package with bracelets, a lasso and a tiara that had to be sent back to their rightful Amazon owners who baptized the delivery boy... wait for it... Delivery-Boy Man!

Close 'nuff!

Cat of the Geek #131: The Cat

Name: The Cat (aliases include Duke of Dork and Duane Dibbley)
Stomping Grounds: Red Dwarf (tv)
Side: Good
Breed: Felis sapiens
Cat Powers: Style, baby! Spray can to mark territory with. Smell phenomena in space. Skilled pilot.
Skills: Eat 8, Sleep 5, Mischief 7, Wit 5, James Brown 7
Cat Weaknesses: Vanity. The Dog. That science mumbo-jumbo.

Reign of the Supermen #328: Evil Superman

Source: Super-Friends' "Universe of Evil" (1979)
Type: TV/Alternate EarthThe Super-Friends' flirtation with what we might call Earth-3, "Universe of Evil" featured the Super-Enemies, evil counterparts of the not evil Super-Friends. How do we know they're evil? Well, aside from busting dams and making Mount Vesuvius erupt AGAIN, there's the pasty complexion. Because pale people are clearly EVIL. Was this Superman rocketed to Earth as a baby VAMPIRE, or WHAT? Aquaman with an eyepatch? Make-upless Wonder Woman? Robin with a creepy French mustache? Batman in an ORANGE SUIT?

EVIL.

But nothing compares to the terrifying, nightmare that is... EVIL GLEEK!
I'm not gonna sleep well tonight.

Reign of the Supermen #321: Superman Beyond

Source: Batman Beyond animated series (2000), Superman/Batman Annual #4 (2010), Superman Beyond #0 (2011)

Type: Alternate futureIn the future of DC's animated universe, while Bruce Wayne has been grooming another generation of Batman, Superman remains active and a member of Justice League Unlimited. In Batman Beyond's two-parter "The Call", he is revealed as a traitor controlled by a Starro parasite, from which he is freed by story's end.

Superman would make an appearance here and there in the tie-in comic, but it wouldn't be until Superman/Batman that he and the rest of the Beyond future would be assimilated into the DC multiverse (as Earth-12). Though the Terry McGinnis Batman appeared as early as 2005's #23, Superman himself wouldn't show until 5 years later in Annual #4 (not as far in the future as usual for writer Paul Levitz). There we see him still dealing with the fact he had been under alien control for years, during which time, he missed the death of Lois and allowed a wizened Lex Luthor to get his claws into Metropolis. By the end of the issue, he's decided to leave Earth and see what's out there, giving Terry the responsibility to parole - as warranted - the Phantom Zone villains (but never Lex Luthor, now among their number).



Over the next year, Superman built up his reputation in the galaxy, as a defender of the helpless, a righter of wrongs, and a crasher of vehicles.

It's in the recent Superman Beyond #0, an old-school one-shot by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema, that Superman returns to Earth to tend the graves of his loved ones. The opportunity for a fight brings him out of retirement and makes him realize he could still do a lot of good with the Justice League. Aww.

Reign of the Supermen #305: Danny Dark (Super-Friends)

Source: All Super-Friends cartoons (1973-1986)

Type: TVThrough all the iterations of the Super-Friends cartoon, from the Marvin & Wendy days to those of Firestorm, Danny Dark was the voice of Superman. A booming, adult voice, instantly recognizable which hasn't been matched, in my opinion, by anyone. Even live action Supermen don't have "Superman's voice" as I understand it in my head. Almost everyone else sounds too young to me, and despite DC's recent contention that superheroes have to be young to be appealing, I have no trouble whatsoever engaging with a 40-year-old Superman. And it's not because I'm that age now, because I've been living with his 40-year-old's voice in my head for more than 30 years! Danny Dark is MY Superman in the way others might say Reeves or Reeve or Cain is theirs.



When reading Batman comics, I tend to hear his Super-Friends voice only in Silver Age material, and the 90s animated series' in more modern appearances. With Superman, it's always Danny Dark, no matter the era. "Great Scott!"



Compare Superman voices for yourself at Behind the Voice Actors.com

Movies, TV and Continuity

Theoretical discussions regarding the Continuity Bottle continued...Up to now, the Continuity Bottle has only really been discussed in terms of the comic book medium, but we know these shared universe also have a life in other media. Many DC and Marvel characters have managed to escape comic book continuity into feature films, television shows, cartoons, and other media. And each time, a new continuity springs forth. The Batmen of the 60s tv series, of the Tim Burton or Chris Nolan films, of the Super-Friends, of the Bruce Timm animated series, of "The Batman" cartoon and of Brave and the Bold are clearly not the same person. And they are not the same person as the one comics readers see on the comics page. So, what are they? Elseworld bubbles? Well, yes. However, they definitely have their own particular properties, which we'll explore in this discussion.

They are seen by many more people than the comics are
This is important. Though the film or tv show is part of/based on a comics Continuity Bottle, it has a better chance of reaching mass audiences than does the parent continuity. It's like those bubbles are right up against the glass, in a much better position to get noticed, and thus generate interest, and so develop. It means that public awareness of any given dynastic molecule (i.e. character) is deeply affected by non-comics media even if they do read comics. They'll think of Lynda Carter when they think of Wonder Woman, for example, or of Aquaman as he was presented in a cartoon (old school Filmation, new school B&B). It's easy to understand why. To non-comics readers, this may be the only exposure they have to a character (those never seen in other media might as well not exist, and there's no telling a movie fan that Iceman was one of the original X-Men, not a late-comer student of theirs). To comics readers (and creators - they started out as readers after all), comics are an always evolving thing. Any given character's depiction is transitory at best, and while the reader will have favorite iterations, these come and go and are rarely reread in the face of the continuous stream of new comics being published. Superhero comics are akin to daytime soap operas in that sense. Stories are followed, sometimes remembered, but rarely revisited. Not so with film and tv. It is quite common to see a film or tv episode multiple times. Additionally, watching moving images - whether or not you believe has a greater impact on the human psyche than reading - is often a shared experience, and as such will generate more discussion in one's environment, and so, more creation of memories. One might also suggest that, as mass market distillations of the characters, they are more properly iconic and unburdened by the continuity manipulations suffered by on-going "soapy" characters. Any or all of these factors make the comics reader remember the alt-media version of a character more readily than any print version. And here's where it gets thorny:

The reverse funnel
While Elseworlds (as discussed yesterday) have funnels that direct Continuity Fluid into them, but rarely let any out, conduits linking standard continuity and movie/tv bubbles are much more likely to go both ways. As we've seen, movie/tv mass appeal makes those bubbles garner more attention than comics continuity (at least, in the case of successes). That attention makes the bubble develop and sometimes exceed its bounds, backwashing continuity into the bottle proper. It's like Kingdom Come Superman suddenly appearing in the DC Universe, or Agents of ATLAS making an old What If story a reality. When a version of a dynastic molecule in a movie/tv Elseworld becomes better known and more accepted than the one in the comics continuity, that continuity becomes subject to revision. Examples include Gotham City going Gothic after Burton's film came out, or the relatively recent Donnerization of Superman with its crystalline Fortress of Solitude and Kryptonian criminals. In some cases, those changes are merely aesthetic, like Superman being drawn like Christopher Reeve or Warner Brothers mandating a certain acceptable length for Batman's ears (how much of Wonder Woman getting pants was part of a push to make her look like the aborted David E. Kelley series?). In rare cases, characters will cross over, like Harley Quinn. Most often, appearing in alternate media will simply transfer the attention garnered there to the comics version of the character. When Mr. Freeze appears in a movie and cartoons, he starts developing more in the comics universe as well.

From a real world point of view, there are various reasons why these funnels should backwash. Marketing is one, and the most immediate in its effects. The "developmental attention" comes initially from editorial mandate and is geared towards cross-marketing both the comics and the film/show. Here we see changes bringing the characters more in line with their alt-media representations in preparation for success. When a failure, readers may be forced to continue living with their mark for some time, but usually not for long. For example, had Superman Returns been a huge success, Christopher Kent might have remained a regularly appearing character. In the long term, it's the iconic power of alternate media's versions that plays a part. A creator raised on a certain version of the character will want to bring its elements into standard continuity. Think of Alex Ross' Super-Friends fetish, or the previously mentioned Donnerization of Superman. Changes here occur not while the Elseworld is on the air or at the cinema, but rather decades later as their influence is felt on young creators' work. That influence has a further effect, and that's normalizing the Continuity Bottle. When an alt-media representation is properly iconic, comics will tend to revert to that ideal. No matter what changes you make to a character, any retcon, reboot or relaunch will take into account "what people know" about the character. It's why Wonder Woman's star-spangled bathing suit and invisible plane are unlikely to disappear forever. (Of course, any piece of iconic continuity will have this effect, but alt-media versions have a serious advantage.)

Acceptable retcons
In this age of grumbling over retcons, reboots and relaunches (cough - Flushpoint - cough), it's amazing that in the world of alt-media, no one much cares that there are so many different versions of Batman, Superman or the Hulk out there. Spider-Man film franchise to be rebooted? No problem. Can't wait to see their new take and who plays the web-slinger. No doubt, public understanding of the film-making process is such that actors cannot remain as youthful as their counterparts drawn on the comics page. Years if not decades pass between the various versions of a character on the big and small screen, and while these invite comparison, with fans of one denouncing the other, the fact the franchise has been dormant for so long means we have had time to reconcile ourselves with the changes to come. This may change as superhero franchises are put under more and more pressure. Rebooting Spider-Man only 5 years after Tobey Maguire threw his suit in the garbage can may prove a problem, for example. We're no longer making a film version for a new generation, but rather catering to the same generation and perhaps muddling their iconic perception of a character. Or are we ADD enough as a culture that yesterday's version is literally yesterday? Are we, in fact, able to accept more than one iconic version of a character simultaneously? Or will we forever make comments like "the one true Batman is the one from the 90s animated series", regarding the movies of the time and those that came after as interesting, but pale imitations? And are comics then evaluated based on how closely they come to that iconic representation?

Reign of the Supermen #271: TV's Super-Soldier

Source: Amalgam Age of Comics blog (2010)
Type: Fan-made AmalgamAnother of PaulC's awesome Amalgams, it shows George Reeves as Super-Soldier, on a show we'll never see brought to us by Nestlogg's. Read the rest of the story HERE, and let Paul know how much you want to see Adam West as Dark Claw!

Reign of the Supermen #270: George Reeves

Source: The Adventures of Superman (1952-1958)
Type: TVI admit it. I haven't seen very many episodes of the 50s television series, and really, none beyond the first, noir and white season. What HAS struck about those early episodes though is how hardcore Clark/Superman is. This is a Superman that, when thanked by a dangerous rioter for saving his life, answers "It's more than you deserve", shrugging off an attempted handshake. This is a Superman that leaves a couple of thieves on top of a mountain (from which they fall to their deaths) after they discover his secret identity. And speaking of secret identity, Clark Kent is just as much the hard man. He's a gutsy investigator who makes threats and punches criminals. The only reason Phyllis Coates' Lois Lane thinks he's "mild-mannered" is because he keeps disappearing in moments of crisis, although maybe her standard is herself. This is one feisty Lois Lane, kicking and slapping and believably able to get out of trouble herself (unlike photog in distress, Jimmy Olsen). No, Clark Kent isn't much of a milquetoast. Though it's not the personality profile I think of when I think of Superman, George Reeves' performance as a thoroughly impatient man (in both identities) is a complete hoot. I love it.

It's probably difficult for people who didn't grow up with it to realize how important the series was to the Superman mythos. The first time I heard the opening narration, I already knew every word. Sure, most of the speech was used to preface the radio show, but that hasn't had the same kind of longevity, nor have I eve heard an episode of it. No, it's the ubiquitous television medium, running and re-running the Adventures of Superman for decades, that has cemented words like "Faster than a speeding bullet..." and "It's a bird! It's a plane!" into the shared modern mythology of the 20th and 21st centuries. How much of Perry White's comic book portrayal is owed to John Hamilton's role on the show? "Don't call me Chief!" and "Great Caesar's Ghost!" are both there and indivisible from the character. It even allowed Inspector Henderson to cross over from radio and eventually (1974) into the comics. Had there not been a Superman tv show in the 50s, how much of that would still be associated with the character? How much might he have migrated away from his original concept? Batman escaped the camp of his television series, perhaps because it was so tonally dissonant from what Batman was really about. With Superman, they hit much nearer the mark and so the collectively remembered Superman is Reeves'. The way the show was written, made (here, allow me to say how surprisingly good the effects were) and acted put its stamp on the franchise in a way that has affected every film/television portrayal since, not to mention kept the comics in a kind of mythological equilibrium. Creators can never get too far from what the tv show did.

Reign of the Supermen #255: Joe Shuster's Canadian Superman

Source: CRB Foundation Heritage Project (1991)
Type: TV

Like many Canadians, I dearly love our "Heritage Minutes", well produced vignettes about Canadian history and innovation that still run on tv today. Just talking about them in any given part of Canada will make people try to enumerate them all, if not do the lines. "Patrick, Patrick O'Neil." "You know very well I cannot read a word." "Is THIS normal?!" "Come on, Vince, come on!" "We need these baskets back." They're classics.

But my world was tipped upside down when I realized the Minute about Joe Shuster and his role in the creation of Superman was completely bogus! What ELSE had I been lied to about? Are other Minutes as wrong as this one? Did Canada NOT give the world the multiplex, basketball and instant mashed potatoes (I kid you not)? I mean, look at the above Minute and doesn't it look like Shuster - Superman's first ARTIST - invented Superman all by himself a good 7 years before Action Comics #1? If so, why the heck is Jerry Siegel's family always taking DC Comics to court? Setting the record straight:
-Jerry Siegel was Superman's first writer, and while the character is a collaboration, I'm pretty sure you need the two of them in a room to think it up. There is compelling evidence (despite the fact no interview confirms it) that Superman was inspired by Siegel's father getting shot and killed in a bungled robbery attempt. A bulletproof man seems to be more Siegel's fantasy than Shuster's.
-The name Superman was given to a character written by Siegel and drawn by Shuster in the short story "Reign of the Super-Man" in 1933. He's a Lex Luthor type, and it's only after this that they thought up the Superman we all know and love. They had to shop it around for half a dozen years.
-Lois Lane is not based on the fictional woman seen here, but rather on two women: Joanne Carter, a model hired by the creative team who later married Siegel, and Torchy Blane, a female reporter from a series of movies of the 30s (loosely based on Nellie Bly). In some of them, Torchy is played by... Lola Lane.
-Shuster IS considered responsible for naming the Daily Star - the newspaper Clark and Lois originally worked at before it turned into the Daily Planet - after the Toronto Daily Star, for which he had worked as a newsboy.
-When he was 10, Shuster's family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, so that part's correct. It's where he met Siegel and the historic partnership began.

So that Heritage moment is bogus, but please, someone reassure me that Winnie the Pooh got his name exactly as the CRB would have it!

Dinosaur Week Roundup

Monday, I said there was something in the air because dinosaurs were making a comeback. Today, we discuss a number of recent dinosaur sightings...

PrimevalThe show about temporal anomalies through which the "Walking with" creatures come through to the present and the paleontologists who love to fight them came back this year a hiatus of almost two years. Series 4 aired in January, and Series 5 is airing now. Of course, that's all in the UK (or BBC America, which I don't get), and I'm waiting for DVD versions to be issued to Region 1.

Terra Nova

Not waiting to be outdone by the Brits, FOX has made a big commitment to the Spielberg-exec-produced series about humanity abandoning the present (the grossly polluted year 2149) to colonize Prehistory. It's Star Trek's "All Our Yesterdays" meets Jurassic Park. The pilot was supposed to be aired in May as a sneak preview, but the amount of effects pushed it back to the fall. Looks promising, though the involvement of both FOX (the dreaded cancelers of things I like) and Brannon Braga (of Voyager infamy) do make me a little wary.

Jurassic Park 4
But that's not the only Spielberg dinosaur project in the pipeline. The Hollywood Reporter yesterday reported that there were ongoing talks about rebooting the franchise with a fourth film. Good possibility that Terra Nova is being used to grease the market's wheels and progress some CGI development?

Discovery Channel Comics
On Free Comic Book Day, the Discovery Channel unveiled a couple of upcoming series in a special free flipbook. One was about deadly sharks, the other was called Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Predators. While the art is competent, I'm afraid the story (about the "supercrocodile" Sarcosuchus) didn't agree with me. It tries to be a comic book version of the "Walking with" series, but fails by choosing the use the past tense in the narration. All the immediacy is lost. Of course, results may vary in the actual series, and this may yet prove a fun educational book for kids.

Power Girl
Recently, Power Girl and her cross-Earth cousin Superman could be seen fighting magical dinosaurs(!) in the pages of PG's comic, proving all the fun didn't go out of it when Palmiotti, Gray and the wonderful Amanda Connor left the book.

Heroes for Hire
Meanwhile, we've had Spider-Man swinging bioengineered velociraptors(!) around in the pages of Heroes for Hire!

Doc Savage
This month's issue of Doc Savage features the Man of Bronze fighting with a pteranodon!

Invincible
And as if Master Robert Kirkman didn't have his fill of dinosaurs in his recent hit, Super-Dinosaur, he also features the return of Dinosaurus in the pages of Invincible #80 this month. It's pure awesome with a side order of shocking ending.

Avengers Academy
Lest I forget before I leave the comic book world, the Avengers Academy still features Reptil, a superhero who can turn into any kind of dinosaur.

Doctor Who
And after getting only lukewarm reviews last year, the new Silurians are completely redeemed by Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat in the person of Madame Vastra, the Victorian Silurian samurai detective and monster hunter who, along with her butler and gay interspecies lover Jenny, became an overnight sensation after Series 6's mid-season finale. It seemed that for the better part of last week, people were more inclined to talk about the unlikely duo (and wishing very strongly for a spin-off series) than of the revelations about River Song. Quite right too. (Announcing heavy Doctor Who content next week. I've held my tongue too long.)

And I'm not even counting the new Godzilla comic now on the stands (not technically a dinosaur)... and may have missed some! Please, use the comments to tell us about other dinosaur sightings from the past couple months! Share the Dino Fever!

Chasing Dinosaurs Through Dinosaur Week

Not surprisingly for a guy who has something called "Dinosaur Week", I'm a big fan of the Walking with Dinosaurs series. I have them all, and I've walked with Monsters and Cavemen and Prehistoric Beasts and an Allosaurus called Big Al. The only one I wasn't particularly interested in was Chased by Dinosaurs, which I was afraid would be too silly. I was never all that fond of "Crocodile Hunter"-style nature shows, so I really wasn't sure the evolution of "Walking with" away from narrated documentary to participative safari was a good idea. I'm ready to eat crow (or whatever its ancestor was). Chased by Dinosaurs includes 5 special episodes of Walking with in which enthusiastic zoologist Nigel Marven (and his hard luck camera crew) travel back in time to interact with all manner of prehistoric creatures. Marven has been compared to an extreme Steve Irwin, swimming with Great White Sharks unprotected and wrestling rock pythons. But dinosaurs are much more dangerous, aren't they?

The Land of Giants
The first special sends Marven to Cretaceous Argentina to seek the largest land dinosaurs to ever walk the Earth - the long-necked Argentinosaurus and its fearsome predator, Giganotosaurus - and having all sorts of other encounters (and close calls) in the process. Though it sometimes verges into silly territory, such as when he swoops down with a one-man plane through a herd of Argentinosaurus, the focus on animals as yet untouched in the series makes the special, well, SPECIAL. It's helped by the inclusion on the DVD of an episode of Horizon entitled "Extreme Dinosaurs" which discusses important finds in Patagonia and how the paleontology on show was worked out by scientists, including the controversial pack behavior of the featured carnosaurs. Extreme Dinosaurs came out a year before Land of the Giants, but serves as a good example of how our understanding of the dinosaurs is continually evolving.

The Giant Claw
In this second special, Marven is sent back to Late Cretaceous Mongolia to find the owner of a large and mysterious claw. Marven discovers the strange Therizinosaurus, which might make you wonder if the bizarre animal is pure conjecture, but no, paleontologists have confirmed its existence. This time around, we are much more aware of Marven's crew, which creates moments of comedy as Protoceratops corner the sound man or Velociraptors chase the camera up a tree. By this point, I had become comfortable with the format and was enjoying the ride. Marven's enthusiasm is contagious, even if the animals aren't really there, and the show has fun putting him in situations where he might (or does!) get hurt, making you wince as he gets too close to an animal, laughing as Mononykus raid his tent, or feeling his joy when he manages to touch one of the great beasts.

Sea Monsters
Comprising three half-hour episodes, Sea Monsters promises to send Marven and his crew to prehistory's seven most dangerous seas. The countdown makes him go back and forth along the timeline, and the show continues to play it for real, with contraptions and gadgets designed to protect its reckless star from the sea creatures he means to encounter. As with the previous two specials, there are animals here we've never seen, and by visiting various eras, we get a lot more than dinosaurs. The first ocean, on an Earth that has yet to have land vegetation, is particularly well done, with Marven needing a respirator on the beach and getting his ankle sliced open by a Sea Scorpion. Of course, it's the Giant Orthocone (above) that steals the show. From there, he heads to other eras, encountering armored fish, sea reptiles and giant sharks. There's an amazing variety of animals, and a nice amount of thrills even if we don't spend entire episodes exploring a single sea (land animals intrude as well, lest you think it's all underwater action), and the first two episodes even end on cliffhangers.

I wasn't sure putting a human into the dinosaur action would work - the time traveler in Walking with Cavemen didn't interact with his subjects - but the technology was already advanced enough in 2002-2003 to make such encounters credible. And of course, it's Nigel Marven who really sells it, infusing humor into the proceedings. Kenneth Branagh's narrations in the previous series wasn't dull, but it wasn't FUNNY. The episodes on Chased by Dinosaurs really do benefit from the human point of view.