Ms. Marvel Episode 1, "Generation Why" (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Wednesday. So I was supposed to be writing about The Goldbergs today, but then I decided to watch the first episode of Ms. Marvel, which dropped today, so I'm pushing my post on The Goldbergs to tomorrow or Friday since season 3 of Love, Victor starts next week. Which means you might get two blog posts from me tomorrow or Friday. We'll see though. Right now, let's dive in and talk about episode 1 of Ms. Marvel, "Generation Why". Let's get into it.

I'm not a big fan of Marvel Comics. As a result, I'm not overly familiar with the character of Kamala Khan. I know of her obviously being she hit headlines almost immediately when she debuted back in 2013, as Marvel's first Muslim character to be the lead in her own comic book series. But I've never read her series before, nor have I read anything she's been in in the last nine years. Part of the reason I haven't is because I don't gravitate to Marvel books the way I do DC and Archie comics, so I just never really thought to pick up an issue of her book before. The other reason is the thing that turns me off of alot of shows, movies, comics, and novels. Internet hype, because of how toxic internet fandom is these days. So I just let the character pass me by, as I have Miles Morales and the Young Avengers. And I am really sorry I've done so, because Kamala, at least her TV show counterpart, played by Iman Vellani, is fantastic.

I apologize if I said a version of this in my Turning Red review, but despite being a 35 year old white man, I could partially relate to Kamala. When I was a kid, particularly in high school, I was heavily steeped in my fandoms...I mean I'm still steeped in my fandoms, look at what I do now as an adult...and it sometimes got me into trouble at school and at home, but most especially at school. High school sucked for me because I was the only disabled person in the entire school and the school wasn't really set up for people like me. So I found solace in comic books, TV shows like Star Trek, Disney movies, Star Wars, and book series like Animorphs and The Hardy Boys. And sometimes that representation is just as important as racial, sexual, and disabled representation is. So I'm glad it's there in this show, alongside the representation of Pakistani living in America. 

I suppose the show is a bit derivative given the writers took inspiration from John Hughes movies and films like Booksmart (2019) and Eighth Grade (2018), but I don't actually care. Because it's done so well. Adding in the comic book and illustration elements throughout the show was fun too. It reminds me of the "Bang, Boom, Crash" elements that Batman (1966-1968) and Batman: The Movie (1966) had, without making it feel too cheesy.

As I said earlier, I love Kamala so much. Iman Vellani does such a good job playing her. I don't want to spoil anything for you so I just want to say that Kamala is great. I love her best friend, Bruno, who is to Kamala what Ned is to Peter in the MCU Spider-Man movies, and her friend Nakia. I'm pretty sure both Bruno and Nakia are from the comics, though I suspect that Nakia appears a bit more often in the comics than she did in this episode. But since I've never read the comics, I have no idea if anything I just typed is true. I hope we learn more about her in the next five episodes.

I also like Kamala's family. They remind me a little bit of Victor's family from Love, Victor, but if the show was actually from Pilar's point of view rather than Victor's. On the other hand they also act like the stereotypical wacky family that we see in just about every modern teen comedy, be it TV show or movie, including The Goldbergs. I'm not complaining about that though, because it's done so well. 

I only have two concerns about this show. The first is that it's only six episodes and the Marvel shows, particularly the mini-series/limited series, have had a really difficult time in wrapping their stories up because they all tried to do too much within the small episode count. Hopefully these writers don't try to go as big with this series, but I doubt it because of what it's being used for. Which leads me into my second concern.

The second concern I have is that this show is setting Kamala and her supporting cast up for the upcoming sequel to Captain Marvel (2019), The Marvels (2023), but it should be it's own thing. In other words, let a show be a show for once and forget about setting up movies and other shows. The MCU is so big and that's one of the problems that I personally have with it. It feels to much like Star Wars in that regard as with the Star Wars Universe, all of the movies, TV shows, novels and comics currently being produced, all count and the majority of the shows have set up other shows, with the exception of Obi-Wan Kenobi. With the MCU it is much harder to watch the current movies and shows if you haven't seen all of the other movies and TV shows.

Ms. Marvel should be a multi-season series. We could get so much with Kamala that six episodes and a movie won't be enough. I just feel like Marvel Studios isn't taking the full advantage of television storytelling the way they should be given how, with the exception of Loki and What If...?, all of their shows have been limited series or mini-series and some of these characters, like Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop, deserve to be seen for more than just six to ten episodes. But that's just me.

Overall this was an amazing start to what is going to be an amazing mini-series. I am really excited to see how the season unfolds. If you haven't watched the first episode yet, either because you're not interested, or aren't sure about it, definitely watch it. 

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my post on The Goldbergs and maybe another post, depending on how things go. So until then have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

The VHS Corner: A Gift of Munsch (1993) VHS Memories

 Hey everyone! How're you all doing today? I'm doing okay for a rainy Tuesday. Welcome back to the VHS Corner, where I look at the VHS tapes from my childhood. Today I'll be taking a look at a very special tape called A Gift of Munsch from 1993. In case you're wondering, yes it does have to do with children's author, Robert Munsch and his books. So let's dive right into it.

If you grew up in the '80s and '90s and lived in Canada (most likely the US and other places too), then you probably have read many of Robert Munsch's books such as The Paper Bag Princess (1980), Murmel Murmel Murmel (1982), Mortimer (1985), 50 Below Zero (1986), I Have to Go! (1986), and Love You Forever (1986). Well in 1991 Cinar Films and Telefilm Canada produced an animated series that adapted thirteen of Munsch's books across 13 episodes called A Bunch of Munsch. The series ran from September 2nd, 1991 until December 25th, 1992 on CTV (CJOH here in Ottawa) in Canada and Showtime in the United States. The entire series was also released on VHS by Golden Book Video in the early 1990s and then later re-released by Sony Wonder.

In 1993 Sony Wonder released this tape, A Gift of Munsch which is just Robert Munsch telling his stories to a group of kids in a traditional story time scenario, with a story where Robert Munsch stumbles into the Dragon's cave from The Paper Bag Princess, with an actual dragon. The dragon is either animatronic like Teddy Ruxpin and his friends in the TV movie The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (that VHS is also on my list) or the Winnie the Pooh characters in Welcome to Pooh Corner, or it's a costume character like Big Bird and Barney the Dinosaur. The stories are accompanied by fully animated songs taken from A Bunch of Munsch and correspond to the story Munsch is telling.

Unfortunately, I can't find any information online about this tape. The only things I've found is the Amazon listing for both the VHS tape and the corresponding DVD release, and an eBay listing, neither of which say which stories he tells. However if I remember correctly the stories are The Paper Bag Princess, 50 Below Zero, Mortimer, Something Good, and Murmel Murmel Murmel. I think I remember the song from 50 Below Zero and the animation from the Something Good episode of A Bunch of Munsch being on this tape, and since the Dragon from it is a character on this tape it would make sense that Robert Munsch would also do The Paper Bag Princess too. But Mortimer and Murmel Murmel Murmel are the ones I'm unsure of. That's what happens when you haven't watched something in over 20 years. 

This was a tape that my siblings and I had joint ownership of because we all loved Robert Munsch books and having a VHS tape of him telling stories while interacting with the Dragon from The Paper Bag Princess was pretty awesome in our minds.

I think the tape is meant to be like a Christmas special of some sort, because the only connection to the animated TV series are the songs at the end of each story and it had a cold opening like many direct to video specials like this had. I remember we got it for Christmas one year though and I remember we watched it quite a bit seen as how Robert Munsch was one of our favourite authors when my brother, sister, and I were kids. Since it was re-released on DVD I might have to try and get my hands on a copy to see if it actually holds up or not. 

I think that's gonna be it for me for today. This is the reason I decided to start doing The VHS Corner, so I can take a look at the VHS tapes that my siblings and I had when we were kids and talk about them whether I still have them in my collection or not. Anyways I will be back tomorrow for a look at The Goldbergs which will be starting it's tenth season in the fall. I have the first seven seasons on iTunes so I might go back and watch the pilot tonight after Superman & Lois. We'll see though. But join me back here tomorrow for that. Until then have a wonderful afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care my friends.

Alice in Wonderland (1951) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was fantastic. I've got lots of posts for you this week my friends. First up is this movie review on Walt Disney's 1951 animated classic, Alice in Wonderland. And since it's a 71 year old movie at this point, I'm gonna be talking spoilers, so if you haven't seen this movie yet, it's on you and I refuse to take responsibility for that. Especially since the movie is on Disney+. So let's get into it.

While I didn't own the movie on VHS or DVD when I was growing up, I had to have seen it on TV numerous times because it's one of the few animated movies produced by Walt Disney himself that got so much replay on TV and so many home video releases. I also probably watched it on VHS at the hospital a few times too. But because we didn't own a copy during my childhood, especially in the early '90s, I didn't watch it as often as I watched Peter Pan or The Jungle Book or 101 Dalmatians or Pinocchio. Yet, it's one of my favourite Disney movies of all time. And I think that's because it's so silly and ridiculous that I can't help but love it. 

Walt's fascination with making a film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass) began as early as 1923 when he began producing the short subject series, the Alice Comedies, for Winkler Pictures. However it wouldn't be until 1932 that he considered making it his first feature length animated film, though that idea was scrapped in favour of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when Paramount Pictures's live action adaptation was released in 1933. After the success of Snow White in 1938, Alice in Wonderland is one of the films, along with Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp, that Walt put into development. Alice went as far as getting storyboards by David S. Hall before World War II, and the box office failures of Pinocchio and Fantasia led to Walt switching to cheaper animated films like Dumbo and the package films Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, before putting Alice back into development in 1945. It finally was released into theatres on September 14th, 1951.

My favourite scene in this entire movie always has been, and always will be, the mad tea party scene with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. I mean putting "The Unbirthday Song" aside for a moment, the sheer lunacy of this scene is fantastic. Throw in "The Unbirthday Song" and the stellar vocal performances by Kathryn Beaumont as Alice, Bill Thompson as the White Rabbit, Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, Jerry Colonna as the March Hare, and Jimmy MacDonald as the Dormouse you have a fantastically rich scene. You can see Alice's frustration with her situation mounting as she goes through this insane tea party with these people. And you feel for her, because she's truly alone in this bizarre place.

It's also kind of funny because at the beginning of the movie Alice tells her cat Dinah that if she had a world of her own it would be nothing but nonsense, and nothing would be as it seems. Which is exactly what she got with Wonderland in the rest of the movie.

A scene that I actually gained more appreciation for upon my viewing of the film that I did yesterday for this review, is the final act with the Queen of Hearts and Alice's trial where the only supposed witnesses were the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse, and was caused by the Cheshire Cat, who was voiced by future Winnie the Pooh voice actor, Sterling Holloway, who is one of my favourite Disney voice actors from the classic era as he also voiced the stork in Dumbo and had several other voice roles at Disney during the '40s, '50s, '60s, and '70s before retiring. The trial itself is so insane that it's extremely entertaining. 

Of course the movie's animation style, taken from the concept art done by Mary Blair, one of the most prolific artists at the Disney studios in the '40s and '50s, as well as the only high ranking female artists on the Disney staff back in the day. Her art style had an influence on Disney movies well into the '70s and even later with concept art for the 2009 Pixar film, Up, taking influence from Mary Blair. It's so colourful and so dynamic and yet so simple at the same time. It's not busy and it doesn't detract from the story or the characters. 

Overall this is such an amazing film. I'm really glad I own it on VHS because it is a fun film to watch when you're eating lunch on a Sunday afternoon or in the evening before bed even. It's whimsical, funny, and the music is fantastic. As I said earlier it's on Disney+ so if you somehow have never seen it, I highly recommend watching it. You'll have fun.

Alright my friends that is going to be it for me for today. I will be back tomorrow for a post from the VHS Corner, and then other posts coming out throughout the week, so stay tuned. Until then have a wonderful rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Orville 3x01 "Electric Sheep" TV Show Review

 I'm back everyone! I'm here to talk about the first episode of season 3 of The Orville, The Orville: New Horizons. So let's get into it.

Whatever I was expecting this episode to be, it was so much more. Seth MacFarlane, Brannon Braga, David S. Goodman and their writing staff, and the rest of their production crew, did such an amazing job in getting this season prepped over the last three years.

I am so glad they're dealing with the fallout of the season 2 two-parter, "Identity" finally. I always felt it was a little too easy for the crew to forgive Isaac for his betrayal at the end of that episode, but that's what happens when you're stuck under a traditional TV network. How they went about it was actually quite similar to what Star Trek: Voyager did with Seven of Nine and some of Voyager's crew, especially B'Elanna Torres, when she came on board in the show's fourth season. But they made it go so much further than Voyager had been able to do on UPN in the late '90s. Which makes sense because Braga was a writer on Voyager and was responsible for the creation of Seven of Nine, so for him to be involved with this show, for this episode, it makes sense. Though Seth is credited as the sole writer of this episode.

It shows that the crew went through some heavy trauma due to not only their capture at the hands of the Kaylon, but because they also lost friends and loved ones on other Union starships during the Battle of Earth in "Identity Part 2". And not just the crew, but Claire's older son, Marcus, too. And for them to have to work and live beside Isaac, who is part of the problem in this case, is difficult. Especially for the new character, who I will talk about a little while later.

What really freaked me out and turned me around was Isaac's almost successful attempt to commit suicide. That was so unexpected and it's not something that Star Trek has touched upon all that often. Though it has happened at some points during TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. Not to such an incredibly well written degree though. I actually thought that Isaac was gone for good, even though Mark Jackson hadn't announced that he was leaving the show. The way it was written didn't betray the fact that the crew would save him. I'll talk about that a little bit later in this review.

I love the upgrades that the ship sets got. Engineering is bigger, the Bridge has more detail to it, though the shuttlebay, the corridors, Sickbay, and the crew's quarters all seem to have remained the same. The lighting is much crisper and you can tell the show got better cameras and better editing equipment to make the show on because it looks 100% better. Though you kind of started to see this improvement with the Orville itself near the end of season 2, this episode saw even more improvements. Also Ed, Kelly, and Bortus's uniforms seem to have gotten darker with the new lighting. In previous seasons it was a light blue, now it's a darker blue. It's actually something I noticed in the trailer

I loved the new character, Ensign Charly Burke, played by the amazing Anne Winters. I've seen some people calling her the Dr. Pulaski of The Orville, but I heavily disagree with that statement. In season 2 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Doctor Pulaski was brought on to replace Doctor Crusher, since Gates McFadden was not returning to the series and it was decided to make Pulaski the Doctor McCoy analogue to Data's Spock analogue. Except Pulaski ended up just being a bully and outright racist when it came to Data, and it ended up not working. In the case of Charly, she has a point. As do Marcus and Gordon. 

Isaac did a horrible thing when he betrayed the crew to the Kaylon in "Identity". It led to the deaths of thousands of Union officers and the destruction of almost the entirety of the Union's fleet. Which, as we saw with the Borg in TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds", could've placed the Union in a terrible predicament if the Moclans chose to be difficult and leave the Union, or if the Krill chose to back out on their currently brand new alliance with the Union. Which were both possibilities given that they're the Moclans and the Krill. And as I said earlier, so many members of the ship's crew lost loved ones and friends during that battle, so it's not enough for Ed and Kelly to forgive Isaac for what he did and reinstate him because, as Charly points out, they know so little about the Kaylon that for all they know, Isaac could have secret programming that could activate at any time to take over the ship and they couldn't do anything about it.

I also love that Charly was forced to help revive Isaac because Ed did not have time to put up with her crap, the way Picard and Crusher tried to wait Worf out when he refused to donate blood to a dying Romulan, based on the same hatred that Charly has for the Kaylon. I also like that Ed was actually willing to relieve Charly of duty when she refused his direct order to report to Engineering to help La Marr revive Isaac. That was brilliant.

Overall this was a fantastic episode and an amazing start to a season that we've been waiting for for the last three years. I am so excited to see the rest of this season. And I hope that more people will watch the show now that it's on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ here in Canada, and in other countries where Hulu doesn't exist.

Alright my friends that is it for me for this week. I'll be back next week with more reviews and other posts. So until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x05 "Spock Amok" TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I've got some awesome reviews for you today. First up is this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, called "Spock Amok" and the next review is this week's season 3 premiere of The Orville, called, "Electric Sheep". Both will have some spoilers so if you're not caught up on those shows then do so before reading these reviews. So let's get into it with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

"Spock Amok" is my favourite episode of the entire season so far. It is the most fun I've had watching an episode of Star Trek since the first season episode of Enterprise "Two Days and Two Nights" from back in 2002, just a few weeks over 20 years ago. The idea for that episode was that it was light, funny, and entertaining, which is what the goal is for this SNW episode. It also serves to build up Spock as a character, as well as his relationship with T'Pring, which, just like with Uhura in episode 2, did a great job at building a couple that is believable. Again, it didn't seem all that believable in "Amok Time" that T'Pring would instantly dismiss Spock in favour of Stonn when we had just met her. Especially if she and Spock hadn't seen each other since they were children, as the TOS episode had implied without stating it outright. I'll get to that a little later though.

The first thing I want to talk about is Una and La'an and what they did for fun during this episode's shore leave at Starbase 1. They catch two ensigns attempting to complete Enterprise Bingo, which was referenced by Ortegas and Uhura in episode 2, and they decide to do it themselves as Una had been called "where fun goes to die" by many of the Yeomen on the ship, which upsets her. Though this "Bingo" game feels alot more like a scavenger hunt then actual Bingo.Which is actually still pretty cool. Probably my favourite one is where they try to shoot each other with phasers set on the lowest stun setting, I guess to see who's the fastest draw. Regardless this was a fun storyline as it really shows the bond between Una and La'an strengthening after it had been strained in episode 3, "Ghosts of Illyria".

Before I get to Spock and T'Pring's predicament, I just want to talk a bit about what M'Benga, Chapel, and Ortegas end up doing while on shore leave. M'Benga goes fly fishing while he waits for a colleague of his to arrive and Chapel and Ortegas have a night out on the town so to speak. Similar to what Malcolm and Trip did in "Two Days and Two Nights". Minus the whole being duped by criminals posing as beautiful women thing. We learn about Chapel's adversion to serious romantic relationships, until she finds the right one, hinting at her meeting Dr. Korby at some point during this show. Ortegas is just kind of there. I've been saying this since the pilot, but I really hope Ortegas gets an episode focused on her at some point during this season because I think she's a really cool character and Melissa C. Navia is doing a really great job playing her.

I'm going to talk about Pike's role in this episode together with Spock and T'Pring because Spock plays a part in Pike's story as well as his own. While the Enterprise is at Starbase 1, Pike and Spock are assigned by Admiral April to conduct preliminary negotiations with a race known as the R'ongovians, who have been unusually private as April put it. And then things go wrong when the R'ongovian representatives arrive on the ship a day early, which puts Spock's plans with T'Pring into serious jeopardy as she'd come to stay with him on the Enterprise while it was docked at the starbase even while she was on a mission of her own to round up a Vulcan who had strayed from the path of Logic. Basically T'Pring is the Logic Police or Logic Rehabilitation specialist. Which sounds weird, but is kinda cool at the same time.

Anyways after Chapel gives him advice, Spock and T'Pring undergo a Vulcan ritual that would allow them to understand each other's position better. Except it doesn't work properly and they end up going all Freaky Friday and switch bodies. But because Vulcans have Katras, their living essences, that's what they switch. So Spock is in T'Pring's body, and T'Pring is in Spock's body. Which makes for a pretty entertaining episode because the R'ongovians only want to speak to Spock, which means that T'Pring must go in Spock's body, and the Vulcan that T'Pring was sent to apprehend only wants to talk to T'Pring, so she must go in Spock's body. I wonder if Janeway would have a headache yet? They do tell Pike and Chapel, so they get help. I won't give away if either of them succeed, but since it's like Freaky Friday you can probably guess how everything works out.

Spock was always my favourite character from TOS, but I am so glad we're learning more about him on this show. Again, the T'Pring thing in the Original Series felt always weird to me, but now that they're fleshing it out, I am loving how much more dimension it's giving Spock as his fears concerning his relationship with T'Pring also reflect his fears about being half Human and half Vulcan, and that's awesome.

Honestly, I loved this episode. I know I say that every week, but this one was so much fun and full of Hijinks and insanity and goofiness. And it gave us good insight into pretty much all of the main characters in a way that made me connect with them even more than I already had during the pilot and the other three episodes that aired/dropped before this one. Everyone working on this show is incredible. 

That is going to be it for me for right now. I'll be back shortly for my review of the season premiere of The Orville. So I'll see you shortly. Take care.

The Book Nook: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry

 Hey everyone! How're you all doing today? I'm really excited because not only is SNW going to have a fun episode this week, with lots of great character moments, but the season premiere of The Orville: New Horizons is finally here!!! I'm watching it tonight with my sister so please internet, no spoilers for me. You'll have to come back for those reviews tomorrow. Right now though we are returning to my childhood yet again at the Geek Cave's Book Nook where I take a look at a book or a series of books from my childhood and talk about them. Today I'm going to be talking about Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, and published in 1996. I just finished reading the book for the first time in seven or eight years so I'll not only be talking about my history with the book, but how I feel about it now. So let's get into it.

Shadows of the Empire, like many of the Bantam era novels, doesn't hold up very well in terms of the character of Prince Xizor (pronounced Sheezor) and how he behaves towards women, but on a story level, what Xizor represents to Darth Vader and how Luke goes from where we left him at the end of The Empire Strikes Back to where we meet him when he enters Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi. It also does an excellent job at portraying Darth Vader, which we didn't get to see alot of in the Bantam era, because with the exception of The Han Solo Trilogy and Shadows of the Empire, the vast majority of the novels took place after Return of the Jedi, when Vader and the Emperor are gone and the Empire is in ruins. 

Aside from what I mentioned before, Xizor is a pretty decent villain. He's different from all the Imperial warlords and Dark Side users we got in the other Bantam novels, but also different from criminals like Durga the Hutt in Darksaber (he also shows up here as one of Xizor's lieutenants). Or maybe not so different since they both had galactic domination for why they did what they do in these books. With Xizor though, he was willing to wait and take out his enemies, including the Emperor and Darth Vader, one by one, no matter how long it took. Well, until his enemies knocked on his door and started wrecking his stuff. 

I first got this book back in 1999 or 2000, when I was starting to build up my Star Wars book collection. Even though the Star Wars novel license had moved from Bantam back to Del Rey in 1999 for the prequel movie novelizations and The New Jedi Order, Bantam kept their books in print right up until 2014 when Penguin Random House, the parent company, began re-releasing all of the Bantam era books under the Legends banner, and shifted all of them under Del Rey. So the paperback editions were available at Chapters throughout the 2000s and that's where I got the majority of my Bantam era paperbacks, though I did get some from Brad occasionally too. I don't have my original copy of Shadows of the Empire anymore, but I did pick up the 2015 paperback edition with the Legends banner across the top of the front cover, a year or two ago. I'm gonna do a full post about the Legends banner reprints of the Bantam novels at another point, but apart from the inside of the front and back cover, and the Legends novel timeline at the end, the book has the exact same layout as the original paperback does, so I really like that.

I'm also going to do a full post on it, but this novel was part of a larger multimedia program almost as a celebration of the franchise's 20th Anniversary leading up to the theatrical release of the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition in 1997. In addition to the novel, there was a toyline, a soundtrack, a making of book, a junior novel, a comic book, a comic book sequel that was published a few years later, and the video game for the Nintendo 64, which was just being launched in 1996. Like I said, I'll do a full post on this at a later time.

I actually forgot how funny this book is. I think Steve Perry and Aaron Allston were the only authors to inject some outright comedy into their Star Wars novels, Especially later on during the 2000s when The New Jedi Order and the Clone Wars books were coming out. Though Steve Perry wouldn't write a Star Wars novel by himself again, he did write the comic book sequel to Shadows of the Empire, Shadows of the Empire: Evolution (1998), and he co-wrote Medstar I: Battle Surgeons (2004), Medstar II: Jedi Healer (2004), and Death Star (2007) with fellow Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles writer, Michael Reaves. Lando, Luke, and even Leia are funny in this book, Threepio and even Chewbacca get many comedic moments in the book, and when it comes to those characters, even when Dash Rendar was with them, it felt more like a buddy comedy more than anything else.

I love that we got into Darth Vader's head in this book. Again, because he doesn't appear in any of the other Bantam era books, this is the only opportunity we have to focus on him. And it's also interesting because the prequels hadn't started coming out yet, so this is Before Prequel Era Vader, so there's no Padme, no Order 66, no Clone Troopers, no Ahsoka even. Just Vader as he was portrayed in the Original Trilogy and in the 1997 Special Editions too. None of the context of the prequels is there.

Luke is very interesting in this book too. He's honing his skills as a Jedi, but he's always dealing with the fact that he ran off to try to rescue Han and Leia, and nearly got killed as a result of his impatience, just as Yoda and Obi-Wan warned him of. He's also dealing with the possibility that Darth Vader hadn't lied to him about being his father during their duel at Cloud City at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. Leia gets alot of cool stuff to do in this book...but also ends up doing some stupid stuff to do as well, when it comes to Prince Xizor.

Dash Rendar, and his YT-2400 freighter, the Outrider, are probably the best known things to come out of the book because Dash is the POV character for the N64 game. So he got more exposure than Xizor and his second in command, Guri, did because of that. 

Overall, Shadows of the Empire is still a pretty good read, despite the problematic nature of Prince Xizor. It's definitely one of my favourites from the Bantam era, simply because Steve Perry does an incredible job of telling an epic Star Wars tale, that doesn't tread on what the N64 game, the comic or the junior novelization do with their versions of the story or the aspects they focus on, which is good because big multimedia projects like this don't always end up working very well because each form of media doesn't focus on different aspects. But it works here, and I'll talk more about that another time.

That is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my reviews of the season 3 premiere of The Orville and this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. So until then have a wonderful rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Comic Book Longbox: The Batman Adventures and Batman & Robin Adventures

 Hey everyone! Happy Wednesday! How's everyone doing today? I'm doing very well. What'd you all think of this week's episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi? I'm not covering it on the blog, but I absolutely loved it. Today we're returning to the Comic Book Longbox to talk about two comic book series that I loved when I was a kid and still collect today from time to time. Those series are The Batman Adventures which ran from 1992 until 1995 and Batman & Robin Adventures which ran from 1995 until 1997 and were tie-ins to Batman: The Animated Series and The Adventures of Batman & Robin (the final season of BTAS). Originally I was going to cover all of the issues I've had over the years, but I decided to narrow it down to the comics I had when I was a kid and was getting off and on from 1992 until 1997. So let's get into it.

Before I get into the issues themselves, I want to set the stage for where I was in my life at that point. So from 1992 until 1997 my health was on a weird rollercoaster so I was at CHEO almost every week in 1992 and 1993, and then once a month from 1993 until 1997. And that was mostly for bloodwork, visits to the Cardiologist, and to make sure everything was alright with where the ostomy bag was on my neck, as well as the site where my feeding tube was located. So I was at the hospital quite a bit during that five year period. If I was good at my appointments and during bloodwork, because that could be a long and painful process, or other examinations, my mom would take me to the gift shop and buy me a comic book or a Berenstain Bears book or a toy or something as a reward for being good. That would also depend on if we had time too. But I think there was only one time where I didn't at least get to go into the gift shop and look around, even if mom didn't buy me anything. 

The CHEO gift shop is where I got all of the Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man comics that I had when I was a kid. Occasionally she'd get me a Disney comic or something kid friendly like Scooby-Doo or Casper the Friendly Ghost or something like that. But for the most part it was Batman and Disney comics. She never got me Star Trek comics there because chances are the issues they had in the gift shop at CHEO, were ones my dad had already gotten for me at the Hobby Center so I didn't need them. Now let's dive into the issues themselves.

The first issue of The Batman Adventures that my mom ever got me was issue #7, which has Killer Croc in the issue. Though unlike on the cover, Batman doesn't fight Killer Croc in the issue. In fact they barely have any interaction with each other. Instead Batman was going after the mob. Croc just happens to be there. This was my first encounter with Killer Croc as I'd never read the main Batman comics that he appeared in. I have a new copy of this issue in my current collection.

The Batman Adventures #8 was another first for me as it was my first encounter with Clayface. My experience with Batman up to this point had been reruns of the 1966 TV show and watching Batman and Batman Returns on VHS. So his scarier or darker villains like Scarecrow, Clayface, Killer Croc, and even Two-Face were characters I'd never encountered before as they didn't appear in the 1966 TV series, and apart from Billy Dee Williams playing Harvey Dent in the first movie, none of those characters appeared in either of the Tim Burton movies. So this comic book series was my first time encountering certain characters even though they'd been around for decades at the time I was getting into the comics. I don't remember what I was at CHEO for when I got this comic, but it was a rare situation where my mom bought me two comic books and so, along with this issue, I also got Batman #493, which was my first main DC Universe Batman comic ever. These issues came out, and I got them, in 1993. Batman Returns had come and gone, Batman: The Animated Series was extremely successful on Fox Kids, and in the main comics, Knightfall was starting. So naturally, DC Comics was advertising it all over their publications. There were two ads for different issues in every book I owned at the time. It was insane. I actually still have my original copy in my collection today.

Issue #9 was another first encounter for me. It was the first time I was introduced to Rupert Thorne, a mob boss that had been introduced in 1977, as Batman's version of the Kingpin from the Spider-Man and Daredevil comics of the era. But, again, he wasn't in the '60s TV series, and wasn't in the Tim Burton movies, though I guess Carl Grissom in the 1989 movie comes close to being Thorne, if Thorne could be taken out just by getting shot by the Joker. Unlike nowadays, this comic book series and the animated series didn't rely heavily on Batman's more well known rogues gallery. Instead for a good chunk of the episodes he's facing down mob bosses and minor villains with the big guns coming out every once in a while. Which is really cool to me because today it's all about using the major guys in every movie and TV show, even the ones where Batman isn't actually the focus like Gotham. I rebought this issue at a comic book sale a couple of years ago along with issue #10.

So it wasn't until I got issue #10 that I finally saw the animated series version of the Riddler. I always liked the Riddler in the '60s TV show. He was mostly played by Frank Gorshin on that series, but John Astin replaced him for an episode or two late in the second season, but I loved how manic Gorshin managed to make the character. Even more manic than the Joker was. So seeing him in a comic book was really cool to me, especially because he was wearing a suit similar to the one he wore in Batman: The Movie (1966). So that was cool. I rebought this issue at a comic book sale a few years ago along with issue #9.

Issue #15 was a Commissioner Gordon centric issue where Batman hardly appears. This actually happened on the animated series quite a bit. There'd be entire episodes where Batman doesn't appear at all or doesn't appear until the end of the episode, and another character, be it Commissioner Gordon, Robin, or Batgirl, would have to deal with a problem on their own. In this issue one of Gordon's officers goes missing during an investigation into Rupert Thorne. But, again, no major Bat villains. I don't own this comic anymore.

For whatever reason I didn't get another issue until #21. Most likely because I actually wasn't at CHEO quite as often anymore. By the time issue #21 came out, I'd already had my big operation to have my esophagus removed, so I was mostly going in for Respirology, Cardiology, bloodwork, Hematology, and having my feeding tube checked out and replaced if necessary. So not as many x-rays, barium swallows, or monthly day surgery procedures. Which also meant less frequent visits to the gift shop too, though they'd still continue to happen until 1998 or 1999. Issue #21 was my comic book introduction to the character Man-Bat. I say comic book intro, because I actually had a Man-Bat figure from the Batman: The Animated Series toyline that I'm pretty sure I got before I got this issue. Also, I think by this point I'd seen a couple of episodes of the animated series under my belt as I remember seeing this version of Catwoman on the show, prior to getting this issue. While she's in costume on the cover, she's not in the actual issue. I don't have this issue in my collection anymore.

The next issue I got was #25, which was the debut of Superman in what would later be called the DC Animated Universe. The comics weren't canon to the TV shows, so when Superman debuted in 1996 on Superman: The Animated Series, two years after this comic was published, he was radically different than he was in this issue. In this, Superman and Lex Luthor are patterned more after their then current counterparts in the main DC Universe comics of the time. So Luthor had red hair and a red beard, and Superman had the mullet that he got after his return from the dead in the "Reign of the Supermen" story arc going on in the comics at the time. I actually have my original copy still in my collection.

This was one of my favourite issues because Robin and Batgirl take center stage in it. What interested me about Robin in this comic book series, as well as in the animated series, is that it's Dick Grayson, but he's wearing Tim Drake's costume from the main comics. This was my first introduction to Batgirl in the comics because in the main comics, Barbara Gordon was Oracle following the Joker paralyzing her in The Killing Joke, and Cassandra Cain wouldn't be introduced until 1998. So this was the only Batgirl in the comics at the time. Again, this was a small time crook that Batgirl and Robin face off against. I won't say who it is, because it's a pretty crazy twist.

Issue #27 is a weird issue. I mean, if you look at the cover alone it's a bit weird. It's like they took the 1960s comic book Batman and killed him off on this cover. In the issue though it's simply a different person in his own personally made Batsuit with a cape and cowl that's a lighter shade of blue than Batman's is. It is a good issue though as it shows that this version of Batman is more compassionate than the regular comic book Batman is, particularly during this time. 

The next issue I got was #32 from 1995. I don't have much to say about this issue. Batman faces off against two elderly men who are obsessed with fighting each other in old army uniforms, with an army of criminals, and don't care about collateral damage. That's it. That's the story. I enjoy it though because it's Batman using his detective skills to figure out why something out of the French Revolution is endangering people in Gotham City. I got this issue back in my collection recently.

Issue #33 is a really interesting story because not only does Bruce Wayne have to deal with his childhood trauma as him, his date, and his date's son are held up at gunpoint by a petty thug, similar to how Bruce and his parents were on the night his parents were murdered, but he also has to deal with the sacrifices he has to make in his life in order to not only keep being Batman, but also to continue keeping his secret identity. Which this version of Batman doesn't really deal with on the TV show, even in the later shows like Justice League. So that's really interesting. This is another issue that I returned to my collection recently.

For whatever reason I skipped #34, though I did get it later in life, so the next issue I got was #35. This cover intrigued me, because I actually thought that Catwoman had brainwashed Batman into turning into a criminal and to be her partner. I mean, he's in the Batsuit, fighting the police alongside Catwoman on this cover. In the issue itself Batman's memories were stolen and imprinted on a diamond by Dr. Hugo Strange, one of Batman's earliest villains from 1940. Naturally, Catwoman takes advantage of this and makes him believe that he's her partner. It also makes him regress into a child, therefore he does not remember his parents being murdered. This issue is also part 2 of a three part storyline. I didn't get to read part 1 until I got issue #34 years later. But even then it was easy enough for me to follow along with. I kept my original childhood copy in my collection before we moved in 2016.

This was the final issue of the series before it changed over to Batman & Robin Adventures with a brand new #1 issue. Bruce is back in the Batman suit but still doesn't have his memories back, so Robin is in charge, and it's pretty weird seeing the dynamic shifting so that Batman is the Boy Wonder, while Robin is his mentor. They're still after Hugo Strange, but Rupert Thorne is slightly involved too, as is Catwoman, though her involvement is more with keeping the diamond that Batman's memories are stored on. What's weird about this series for me is of the four main Batman villains, only the Riddler and Catwoman appeared in any of the issues that I had. The Joker was nowhere to be found, and neither was the Penguin. Both appear in the first issue, but I didn't get that one until I was an adult, so I didn't even really realize that. I also kept my original childhood copy of this issue.

Before I get into the three issues of Batman & Robin Adventures that I had when I was a kid, I want to talk about something that '90s comics had that modern comics don't. At least comics from DC and Marvel don't. Letters columns and Next Issue/Next Month boxes. Since social media came into being, letters columns were no longer needed in comics for fans to write into the books they enjoyed reading. Instead they could send e-mails, direct messages, and Facebook and Twitter posts to the artists, writers, and editors directly. But, back in the '90s those options didn't exist yet, so fans would mail in letters to the editorial staff, and some letters would be printed in a two to three page section called the Letters Page. But in addition to that, on the bottom right corner of the final page of the letters column, there was a special box with a description of what the next issue of the book was going to be. Modern day comics don't have that. In the case of The Batman Adventures #36, even though it was the last issue, it still had a next issue box, because Batman & Robin Adventures #1 was coming out the very next month.

I missed the first three issues of Batman & Robin Adventures because I didn't go to CHEO much between September 1995 and January 1996. By this point I was needing less frequent visits to the hospital, and my mom was getting other comics for me from the gift shop when there were ones suitable for me to be reading. By 1996 that was becoming less frequent as well. But she got me other books and toys there. Also by this point both Star Trek comics that DC Comics was publishing at the time ended, so this was kind of the beginning of the end of my first stage of comic book collecting and reading. Though I would still get comics as presents from time to time, there wasn't a particular series that I was collecting regularly anymore once Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation ended. This issue was a Penguin issue though and it wasn't bad. It wasn't my favourite issue and it wasn't the best one, but it was good. Robin's not in the issue though, despite the book being called Batman & Robin Adventures. It might've been a leftover script from The Batman Adventures because as far as I know, Robin is in every other issue of this series. 

Issue #5 is my favourite issue of the four that I've owned over the years. Not just because the Joker is in it, but because it's a crazy issue where Batman and Robin have to protect the Riddler, who is in Arkham Asylum, from the Joker, who wants to break into Arkham to kill the Riddler simply because a reporter said that the Riddler was the smartest villain in all of Gotham City on live Television, which is a dangerous thing to do in Gotham City, especially where the Joker can hear you. So I love this issue just for that insanity.

The last issue of Batman & Robin Adventures that my mom bought for me was issue #16, from 1997. It's another Catwoman issue but this time there's a copycat running around while Catwoman is actually not doing anything wrong. It's also interesting to note that Bruce Wayne is friends with Selina Kyle, is aware that she's Catwoman, because her identity is public knowledge, but she doesn't know that he's Batman, and Batman gives Catwoman leeway when it comes to the crimes she commits as she doesn't actually hurt any innocent bystanders unlike the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and the rest. Which is an interesting dynamic that is from the main comics published in the '90s, but has never appeared in any movies or TV shows, except maybe The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and The Batman (2022). 

These comics were my entrance into Batman: The Animated Series/The Adventures of Batman & Robin because my siblings are a few years younger than I am and my sister was 2 and my brother was only a year old when Batman: The Animated Series began back in 1992, so my parents didn't want them watching the show as it was darker and slightly more violent than the '60s live action show, which meant I wasn't allowed to watch it unless they weren't home, or I was in the hospital and could watch it on Global TV as the tiny hospital TVs didn't usually get the American networks, except for PBS, just the Canadian ones. That changed slightly when the show became The Adventures of Batman & Robin in the 1994-1995 season, as Robin and Batgirl appeared more frequently, I was able to watch the show even when my siblings were home and even when I wasn't in the hospital. And this show was everywhere between the release of Batman Returns in 1992 and the release of Batman Forever in 1995, and you couldn't escape it. This WAS Batman in the early to mid '90s and even though I didn't get to watch the show very often, I still got to read the comics. So that's pretty cool. 

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I will be back tomorrow for my review of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, the novel, which I'm close to finishing reading and then I'll have my review of the season 3 premiere of The Orville and my review of season 1, episode 5 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Friday. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.