Retro Toys

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I thought I'd do something a little different today and talk about toys. In the last decade or so I've noticed that alot of toy companies are re-releasing old figures or re-molded figures in packaging that resembles the packaging the original figures came out in. I'm sticking to figures only, not playsets, ships, or role playing accessories. I'm also mostly just going to be talking about the figures from toylines that I played with when I was a kid as that's what I know. This isn't going to be a review, just a compare and contrast excercise, so let's get into it.

I'm gonna be starting with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. So here's a picture of the original Red Ranger figure that Bandai America released in 1993. It's not my Red Ranger figure, it's just an image I got off a Power Rangers fansite that has a complete toy guide. I just wanted to have some visual aids when it comes to packaging. So there's the figure in it's original packaging. The size of the figures in this line was 8" and they were about the same size as the Deluxe Megazord and Deluxe Dragonzord. All they came with was the Blade Blaster, no Power Weapons, no Power Coins, just the Blade Blaster. Though the Green Ranger also came with the Dragon Shield, which you can put on the other 8" Ranger figures, and the White Ranger came with his sword, Saba, and his Tiger Shield, which can also be put on the other Rangers in the line. Now let's take a look at the Legacy Collection releases.

Now I don't own the 2014 Legacy Collection Red Ranger release. However as you can see from the packaging above, the figure comes in a very similar packaging style to the original. The figures are also smaller as they're 5" in order to match up with the Power Rangers Super Megaforce toyline which was coming out at the same time. There's slight differences such as the MMPR logo matches the show's title card logo rather than the logo seen on the packaging for the original 1993 toyline. The figure itself comes with alot more. It's the Red Ranger wearing the Dragon Shield so he comes with the Dragon Dagger, along with his own Power Sword. I started with MMPR as an example of packaging being based on the original, but basically being new with a brand new figure inside.

Up next is Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now I had a ton of these figures growing up. In fact I was missing only two figures from the first wave that came out in 1992, and that was the Ferengi and the Borg. I had everyone else. In fact, I have the entire main cast of TNG in my collection today.

 Last year Playmates Toys, who originally released the Star Trek toys in the '90s, began releasing a mix of figures from Star Trek: Discovery along with new figures from TNG and TOS. While the original TNG figures were 4 1/2" the new ones are half an inch taller at 5". I have the new Picard figure and the accessories, except for the computer terminal that all the figures came with back in the day, are the exact same as they were in 1992. Aside from the Choking Hazard warning and the TNG 35 Years logo on the opposite side, the packaging is exactly the same in design, though smaller. This is an example of the packaging being reproduced almost exactly, and accessories that are basically the same, but with the figure being different. 

Now we're going to be getting into two examples of figures that are basically indistinguishable from their original versions. You'll see what I mean in a minute, but one of the things that actually convinced me to even do this blog post is that I've been seeing companies putting out toys that are either packaged in classic packaging, but are brand new toys, or are straight up re-releases of old figures in packaging that resembled the original. And I thought that was interesting as it's really only something I've seen happen in the last ten years. In the case of Power Rangers, Bandai would re-release the original MMPR figures but in brand new packaging and under a brand new label like the Power Playback line that came out from 1999 to 2000. Now let's see if you can spot any differences between the figures in the next two examples.

Here's the original Luke Skywalker figure from the 1977/1978 Star Wars toyline from Kenner. I never owned this particular figure, but I did own a lot of the figures from all three Original Trilogy Kenner toylines when I was a kid thanks to a nurse I had at the hospital whose son was getting rid of all of his Star Wars toys, and they were given to me. 

Now, here's the 2019 release of the figure. aside from it being slightly taller, 3.75" instead of the 3 3/4", and the Retro Collection logo on the front of the package, if you put the two figures side by side, there would be no way to tell the difference between the two. Except maybe the hair on the two figures. Now, let's take a look at the last example that I have for you for today.

 Here's the classic Leonardo figure from the original 1988 Playmates Toys Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toyline, first wave. While I had a bunch of Ninja Turtles figures when I was a kid, I never had the original four figures of the Turtles. I had a couple of Donatellos, one where you open the shell for storage, and one that you wound up and it would swim in a pool or bathtub, I had the talking Michaelangelo, and a Leonardo figure, but I couldn't tell you if it was the original 1988 figure or not because it was missing all of its accessories including his belt. I never had a Raphael figure though or the four 1988 figures with 100% certainty.

Now, here's the recent re-release from Playmates, complete with retro packaging. All of Leo's accessories are the exact same as they were in 1988, the figures are the same size, and probably the only difference is the design of the Playmates Toys logo on each package. I got this figure just before Christmas and looking at it sitting here on my desk, without the packaging, and I couldn't tell you which version I was looking at. Not without turning the figure around and looking at the copyright info on the shell or on his right foot. Which is pretty interesting given that the other retro figures I've talked about today have all had some noticeable differences to them, even if the packaging was exactly the same.

I just find it fascinating that toy companies have been doing this for about a decade now. I'm sure other franchises that has a toyline has had this, but these are the ones that I have at least one figure from and are my favourite franchises. Nostalgia permeates every aspect of pop culture these days. Even comic book publishers are re-publishing the oldest, and most expensive issues in their back catalogue with their Facsimile Editions. And it isn't just DC and Marvel doing this now either. IDW Publishing and Dynamite Entertainment have started doing it too with the franchises they have the comic book licensing for. And that's in addition to collecting those same issues in trade paperback and hardcover editions. But I think that'll be a topic for another post.

That's going to be it for me for this week. I'll be back soon with my review of season 2 of Stargirl, as well as many other blog posts. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Stargirl By Geoff Johns Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's later than I normally start writing reviews, but I wanted to get this one out of the way so I can get back to watching season 2 of Stargirl as I'm only four episodes into the season. This review is on Stargirl By Geoff Johns, a trade paperback that collects the 1999 comic book series, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. by Geoff Johns with art by Lee Moder, Scott Kolins, Dan Davis, and too many others to list here. There probably won't be any spoilers for this book as I'm just gonna talk about it generically, but this book served as the basis for season 1 of Stargirl, and you already know my thoughts on it. So let's get into it.

Stargirl By Geoff Johns collects issues 0-14 of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., which ran from 1999 until 2000, and JSA All-Stars #4, which is the issue where Courtney changes her superhero identity from the Star-Spangled Kid to Stargirl. Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. was Johns's first comic book series that he ever worked on, and it was pitched to DC by him, rather than DC Editorial coming up with the title. The character of Courtney, as I mentioned in my review of the TV show, was created in honour of Johns's late sister, Courtney, right down to the two sharing the middle name of Elizabeth. 

This book is basically season 1 of the TV show, with some obvious changes between the two. For example, Courtney is a late '90s/early 2000s teenager who is much more angsty and way more cynical than she is on the TV show. She also doesn't warm up to Pat as quickly as she does on the show either. Meaning they're at odds with each other alot longer here than they are in the show. And while Courtney is part of the JSA by issue #5, we don't see any of that happen here, as none of the issues of JSA, which started coming out around issues 4 and 5, are collected in this book. Probably because the four volume trade paperback collection, JSA By Geoff Johns, which started coming out in 2018, collects all of those issues. 

Cindy Burman, a.k.a. Shiv, and her father, the Dragon King, are in this book, though they don't have anything to do with the Injustice Society of America like they do on the TV show. They use the same device, though they don't need Brainwave or his son to make it work, to take control of all the children in the world in order to wipe out the adults. Unlike with Jordan, Henry Sr, and the ISA in the show, there doesn't seem to be any real reason to do this as both the Dragon King and Cindy are fairly one dimensional in this series and neither of them have any real motivation to want to do this. 

Unlike on the show, Courtney has a supporting cast at the school in this book that aren't children of the ISA, or Rick, Yolanda and Beth. There's only three kids though. Her best friend, Mary, Cindy's ex-boyfriend, Josh, and a guy named Travis, who seems to have a thing for Mary. Yeah, they don't actually do a whole lot with Courtney at school outside of her constantly fighting bad guys as the Star-Spangled Kid at the school. So these supporting characters, aside from Mary, have nothing to do in this comic. Which is probably why they didn't make it into the TV series and why Beth, Yolanda, Rick, Artemis Crock, Cameron Mahkent, and Isaac Bowin fill those roles on the show. 

Being that the issues this book collects came out from 1999 to 2000, there are alot of guest appearances from other DC heroes and the younger teams. The JSA, Young Justice, the Titans, the JLA, and the Seven Soldiers of Victory all show up, as do Starman, both the Ted Knight version and the then current Jack Knight version of the character, and Shazam (then known as Captain Marvel), Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr.. My favourite guest appearance was Young Justice though. Just seeing Courtney team up with Robin, Superboy, Impulse, Arrowette, Wonder Girl, and Secret was a pretty nice treat. But it made sense since Young Justice was the only teenage superhero team in the DC Universe at the time as there was no Teen Titans. The only Titans team at the time was from Devin Grayson's comic book series, Titans which starred the characters shown and introduced in New Teen Titans/New Titans in the '80s and early to mid '90s. And is basically the team on the TV show, Titans.

One more thing of note is that in both this book and the original JSA Presents: Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. trade paperback volumes, have issue #0 between issues 8 and 9, even though it was published before issue #1 came out in 1999. I guess it's just because chronologically issue #0 takes place between issues 8 and 9. It's still weird though since it goes into some backstory with Ted and Jack Knight, and how the cosmic belt was created for Sylvester Pemberton which is framed by Courtney and Pat teaming up with Jack Knight a.k.a. Starman, against Icicle. 

Overall this was a pretty good book. Obviously Johns became a much better writer over time and his characters became more complex as well. But this is a fun read if you're a fan of the TV show as it's very much the seed for that TV show. And this book is basically the only way you can get the series. At least from what I've seen at comic book stores, conventions and comic book sales. Nobody has it in single issues, and the two original JSA Presents trade paperback volumes have been out of print probably since 2012 or 2013, maybe earlier, depending on how well they sold at the time. 

That's it for me for today my friends. I will be back soon with my review of Stargirl season 2 as soon as possible. It probably won't be until Sunday because I haven't finished watching it yet and I'm not getting to episodes 5-9 tonight. But I promise that as soon as I've finished watching the season, I'll review it. Also, next weekend I'm going over to my sister's place to watch the premiere of That '90s Show. We're planning on just watching the first episode if that's all that drops on Thursday, January 19th and then when the season is over we'll finish it over a binge session or two. But if the whole season drops on the 19th, then we'll binge as many episodes as we can next weekend and then have another session the next time we can get together. So stay tuned for that review as well. In the meantime have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Willow Season 1 (2022) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So I just finished watching the season finale of Willow and it was definitely an interesting ending to the season. I'm not gonna go into too much detail on the season, simply because it just ended so I don't want to give spoilers, but I do still want to give you my thoughts on the season, and the outcome of it. So let's get into it.

As I mentioned in my review of the first two episodes, I was really excited for this show. While I'm not a big Sword and Sorcery Fantasy fan, the original movie, Willow, is one of the few pieces of entertainment that I love in that genre. So when the show was announced, and then as the trailers and posters came out, I got more excited. But as the season came out, I found myself thinking that maybe it should've been a movie instead of a show. Especially around episodes 6 and 7. But I guess it started around episode 5 for me. Luckily it ended in a way that made sense. And actually I wanna start by talking about the final battle between Elora and Kit, and the Crone and Airk, so minor spoilers for that, without giving anything else away.

The final battle is probably the most Magical Girl Anime battle I have ever seen in live action. Not counting the 2003 TV series, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. Yes, I will be reviewing that at some point. Especially Kit's transformation sequence where the armor that Boorman had been trying to obtain was given to Kit before the battle and as soon as she plugged in the power source, it turned into a power suit, very similar to other types of magic armor shown in Anime. But then the actual fight between Elora and the Crone, the being that inhabited Queen Bavmorda in the original movie, there's so much magic energy between the two, and oddly enough Elora's energy is green while the Crone's is red. Almost like ILM was trying to evoke Luke and Vader's lightsabers from Return of the Jedi with that colour choice. 

Something that came up as the show continued is the use of modern language in the show. I know that'll bug fans of Fantasy, but it doesn't bother me quite as much. Don't get me wrong, it still bothers me, but only because it's inconsistent with how everyone talks in the movie. When George Lucas and Bob Dolman wrote the movie back in the mid-'80s, they had a specific way that the characters would speak. Similar to how George did it for Star Wars when he made it in the '70s. And aside from Jonathan Kasdan and Bob Dolman in the first two episodes, all of the writers disregarded that completely and had the characters speaking like they were in the United States in 2022 rather than A Long Time Ago in A Far Away Land. So that was jarring. But at the same time it made sense because it's a fictional land that doesn't exist anywhere in the real world. It's not Middle Earth or Westeros either. So if these writers want people to talk like they're in 21st Century America, then so be it. It just bugged me a little bit because this show wasn't just created in a vacuum, it's a sequel for the movie that created this world and these characters.

Speaking of the characters, you could really tell that Elora and Kit were the focus characters of this show. Yes, it's called Willow and Willow Ufgood is in it, but his story was told in the movie, whereas this show is Kit and Elora's stories. And I say that because they're the characters who have the most development throughout the season and there's never an episode where they don't appear or aren't the main focus. The only character I didn't really like is Boorman. I get he was supposed to be the show's version of Madmartigan, played by the wonderful Val Kilmer in the movie, but Madmartigan was charming and noble. Boorman was just an idiot that nobody could rely on. Anytime he was on screen I rolled my eyes because he was not fun to watch. I actually preferred Graydon to Boorman. He was just more fun to watch than Boorman was. And I think that's because the actor who played Graydon, Tony Revolori, who also played Flash Thompson in the Tom Holland/MCU Spider-Man movies, is so much fun to watch on screen and I love his chemistry with both Warwick Davis, who reprised his role as Willow, and Ellie Bamber, who played Elora. Anytime Tony is on screen with either of them it's great.

Speaking of Elora, she is my favourite character on the show. She had such a rollercoaster of a journey this season going from a cook named Dove to fulfilling her destiny as Elora Danan. She was also the only character, aside from Willow and Graydon, who wasn't unlikable at all through the entire season. I also loved the scenes where Willow is training her to use her powers. It was such a fun mentor/trainee pairing. Kind of like Anakin and Ahsoka in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

I don't have much else to say about the show without giving spoilers. If you've seen the movie and liked it, you'll enjoy this show. While there were a number of scary moments throughout the season, but the show skews more towards the comedic side of things. Even more so than any of the MCU Disney+ shows. I recommend checking it out if you haven't already. Even if you just watch the first couple of episodes and decide it's not for you. 

That's it for me for today. I'm going to be adjusting my review schedule a little bit just to incorporate my review of Stargirl by Geoff Johns since I'm almost finished reading it. That review will come out on Friday and my review of Stargirl season 2 will come out on Saturday. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.  

Stargirl: The Complete First Season (2020/2021) TV Show Blu-ray Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? As mentioned in the blog update post I just put out a little while ago, this is a re-post of my review of Stargirl season 1, which will have an image of the Blu-ray release, as well as a little bit about the Blu-ray itself. It's going to kick off a new focus on physical media. I explained all of that in the blog update post, so if you haven't read it yet, definitely check it out. Alright, let's get into the review.

 Season 1 of Stargirl is probably the best first season of a non-Superman DC Comics based show since the first season of Arrow aired ten years ago. Oh sure we've had good first seasons with The Flash and Superman & Lois, and even Supergirl, but with the first season of Stargirl being an adaptation of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., the comic book series that debuted Courtney Whitmore, rather than just a general adaptation of the Stargirl mythos, it makes it feel like an actual story is being told rather than the season feeling aimless like the other shows can feel like sometimes. Though I'm sure there's alot of material from James Robinson's and Johns's runs on JSA that made it into the season too. Mainly because the Justice Society of America plays a big role in the season.

As I said in my review of the first four episodes of the series, Courtney, Yolanda, and Pat are my favourite characters and they remained so throughout the season. However, there isn't actually a character who is unlikeable. And that includes the villains. Sure, they're evil scumbags whose goals included the mass murder of millions of people, but the individual members of the Injustice Society of America were a thousand times more interesting than the Joker, Lex Luthor, and the Reverse Flash. I mean they're on the level of Deathstroke in season 2 of Arrow with a bit of Malcolm Merlyn from season 1 of Arrow thrown in there for good measure. 

One of the reasons that Yolanda, a.k.a. Wildcat, remains one of my favourite characters of the show is that in the season finale she prevented Rick, a.k.a. Hourman, from killing Solomon Grundy, but she had no problems killing Brainwave for what he'd done to his son, who was also her ex-boyfriend, Henry, just three episodes earlier. Henry had died while he and the new JSA were escaping from the ISA's hideout so that the JSA could get away. She doesn't want her teammates to have to face that kind of decision even though she's willing to face it herself if it becomes necessary. Similar to how Oliver killed the bad guys on Arrow, but didn't want Roy or Thea or Laurel to have to make that same decision. And that intrigues me every time.

As for Courtney herself, I love how optimistic and happy she is as a character. So often with these lead superhero characters, you have these broody and angsty characters and that just weighs down on the audience eventually. But having a character who is bright, cheerful, and optimistic, but can have moments of doubt livens up the show. That's why Anson Mount's version of Captain Pike is so fun to watch on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

While some characters didn't have as much to do as others did, until closer to the end of the season, I don't feel like any character was ignored. Everyone had something to do in every episode they appeared in. Nobody was wasted in an episode they were in. And none of their plots were unnecessary. Which, again, in alot of these superhero shows, even the more recent Marvel Disney+ ones, you end up with characters that end up not doing anything and are just kind of there. That wasn't the case here. Every character had a purpose.

Outside of Courtney and the JSA, I think my favourite storyline in this whole season was Henry King Jr's. He's the son of Brainwave and he started to develop the same kind of mind powers that his father had after Courtney and Pat had inadvertently placed Brainwave into a coma. But, he started off as the stereo-typical jock character, including his connection to Yolanda's storyline of her dealing with the aftermath of her sending nude pictures of herself to Henry. Which, he didn't actually send to anybody. Cindy did, as she'd taken Henry's phone and sent the pictures to everyone. At first I thought it was for the petty reason that Cindy and Yolanda were rivals for the role of student council president, as that's what it seemed like from the flashback at the beginning of episode 4, "Wildcat" (my favourite episode). However, we learn later on in the season, only three or four episodes later, that Cindy did it because she and Henry were put together by the Dragon King and Brainwave so that Cindy could monitor Henry in case his powers developed. And her being the daughter of the Dragon King, Cindy decided to get Henry away from Yolanda by ruining her life, which is the typical, petty, high school thing to do. So that was fascinating.

While Jordan, a.k.a. Icicle, was an interesting main villain, I think Cindy is probably the most fascinating villain of the entire organization of the ISA. Which I wasn't sure how she'd be handled, just because I know her story from the comics, and going in with that knowledge, I was afraid it wouldn't work quite as well on TV as it did in the comic, but I think it worked even better on the show than it did in the comic. Basically the Dragon King, a.k.a. known war criminal Dr. Shiro Ito, who was also Cindy's father, experimented on Cindy when she was a child to turn her into a living weapon. And judging by the two fights she and Courtney had in the middle of the season, it worked, because Cindy was a tough opponent for Courtney to beat. However, she's also impulsive and lost control of her powers when she was younger and ended up killing her mother, which caused Ito to rethink his plans concerning Cindy. But seeing that progression was fascinating given that the comic didn't really get much time to explore the character of Cindy as Courtney spent a couple of issues with Young Justice, away from Blue Valley following her initial fight with Cindy. But, that's a conversation for another time.

What impressed me the most about this show is how character driven rather than story driven it was. All of the characters, heroes and villains, are so interconnected with one another that one character's storyline ends up having some kind of effect on another character. Like the whole Cindy/Henry/Yolanda triangle, or Courtney and Icicle or Pat and Rick, who is a pretty cool Hourman. Or even Beth's parents and Brainwave. And because of that web of interconnected character storylines it keeps the show interesting in a way that past superhero shows on The CW can't. If you look at shows like Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash even with the 23 to 26 episode seasons, you could have characters with storylines that never intersect with anything else going on with the rest of the cast. So like on Smallville Lana could have a storyline that has absolutely nothing to do with what Clark has going on that season or doesn't at least connect to what's going on in Clark's storyline. Even in the seasons where they're dating. Now, the show did a little bit better in the latter part of the show where more superheroes were involved and where Lana isn't there but Lois is. But still, compared to Stargirl, Smallville had an extremely large cast of characters and it was impossible to work all of them in. Especially in the later seasons.

I could go on and on about the characters because that's what makes this show work so well. I've always said that superhero shows and movies don't work if you focus on their powers or you write the story in a way that doesn't leave room for the characters to grow and develop. Especially for the shows because if all goes well you'll be with those characters for ten years or more. Just like in the comics. And if you don't like them, or can't connect with them on a human level there's no point to telling that character's story. 

Earlier I said that episode 4, "Wildcat" is my favourite episode. And that's true, but my other favourite episode was episode 10, "Brainwave Jr." Despite their animosity towards Henry, both Rick and Yolanda were able to set that aside to help him and Courtney try to rescue Henry's dad, who didn't have any memories from the previous ten years from the time Henry's mom was killed up to when Courtney and Pat fried his brain in episode 2. Unfortunately things didn't work out the way they planned and the team was forced to watch Henry die protecting them. I'll be honest with you, I cried a little bit when Henry died. Not only was he part of Yolanda and Courtney's storylines, but he had his own strong storyline that developed throughout those first ten episodes.

The Blu-ray is decent. Though unlike other recent Warner Bros. releases, this one doesn't list any special features on it. There is a special feature on it though, as there's a little featurette with showrunner Geoff Johns, and other producers, on the filming location, as they filmed in the state of Georgia, rather than in L.A., Toronto, or Vancouver, like other shows, both based on DC Comics, and other franchises, do. I think that has to do with the fact that this release came out in February 2021 and was in production during the height of the pandemic, so they weren't able to film alot of behind the scenes footage or interviews at the time. And while I'll talk about this more in depth when I talk about the season and its Blu-ray release, the Blu-ray for season 2 has only slightly more bonus features on it. Since, that entire season was filmed while we were still in quarantine and not as much extra content could be shot yet.   

There is so much more I could talk about with this season because that's how dense it is with amazing storylines, characters, and concepts. But I think I've talked about Stargirl enough for this season. I highly recommend watching it if you can because it is such a good show. I also have two more seasons to watch too. Though season 3 will have to wait until probably a year from now because the Blu-ray won't be out until probably probably the second or third quarter of the year, which is sometime between April and September, and I won't get it until Christmas or my birthday. But maybe if it comes out sooner rather than later, I'll grab it ASAP. Then again, it's available on iTunes, so I might grab it digitally so I can watch it and then get the Blu-ray at a later date. We'll see though. For now I've got season 2 to watch.

That my friends is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with my review of Stargirl: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray. Over the weekend I also started reading Stargirl by Geoff Johns, which collects the entire original Stargirl run Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. which Johns created and DC published from 1999 until 2000, and I'm only three issues in. So that review should be coming out either over the weekend or early next week. Season 1 of Willow wraps up on Wednesday and as soon as I've watched it on Wednesday morning, I'll be writing that review. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Blog Update (Monday, January 9th, 2023)

 Hey everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was...interesting, and not really in a good way. Family stuff. I just wanted to come on and talk to you guys for a bit and give you an overview of my plans for the blog in 2023. While I listen to Phil Collins on my iPod. Yeah, it's just that kind of day. So, let's get into it.

So 2022 was an interesting year here on the blog. I did alot of really awesome posts, including my overview of the entire DC Comics Star Trek comic book run and my overview of the Disney Sing-Along Songs series of VHS and DVD releases. This year I want the focus of the blog to be physical media. With the exception of shows I watch as they air on TV like Star Trek and Superman & Lois, shows and movies I watch on Disney+, movies and shows I have digitally through iTunes, and the occasional thing like the digitized Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes that Vincent sent me almost three years ago and the digitized Barney tapes uploaded to YouTube, everything I review on this blog is from my physical collection of DVDs, Blu-rays, VHS tapes, comic books, and books that I can take from a shelf and physically turn the pages, or pop a disc or tape into a Blu-ray player or a VCR. So I really want that to be the focus for the blog. Celebrating physical media as well as the stories contained within those pages, discs, and tapes. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop reviewing shows on Disney+ or the movies and shows I have on iTunes, because I'm not. And the digitized VHS tape reviews aren't going anywhere either.

Part of this physical media focus will include discussions on the particular editions that I have in my collection in addition to the stories contained within. For example, I have three box sets for the original Star Wars trilogy, two VHS and one DVD, as well as two individual VHS releases for Star Wars (1977). So I will talk about the two VHS releases together, and the three box sets separately, as each box set contains different versions of the trilogy including the 1997 Special Editions and the 2004 DVD editions. In the case where I have a movie on VHS twice and once on DVD, as is the case with a few of the Disney movies in my collection, I'll talk about the movie and the three editions together. As for the books, I have a few in box sets, but I'll review each book that's in the box set individually. The only exception to that rule will be The Lord of the Rings because there are seven books, and six of them are the two parts of each novel in the "trilogy". So I'll be talking about that box set and the three books together. 

I'll also be talking about versions that I don't own anymore. Using Star Wars as an example again, I used to own the 2000 VHS trilogy box set release for the 1997 Special Editions, but I got rid of that set probably about eleven or twelve years ago when I got rid of the rest of my original/childhood VHS collection. So even though I don't have it in my collection anymore, I'm still going to talk about it when I review the 1997 VHS Special Edition box set. It'll go for books and trade paperback collected edition comic books as I have a few novels and trades in my collection now that are different editions than the ones I used to own.

The first post to have this new focus will be a re-post of my review of season 1 of Stargirl, so that I can have the new title on the review without trying to change it for the original link to the original review of the season. That will be coming out later today, once I get it all done up and everything.

I guess that's it for now. I just wanted to let you know what my plans for the blog are in 2023 and to just check in and see how you're all doing as I haven't done that yet this year. So stay tuned because my revised review for season 1 of Stargirl will be coming out shortly. Until then have a great day and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Stargirl Season 1 (2020) TV Show Review

Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to talk about the first season of Stargirl. There will be spoilers because there's so much I want to talk about that I can't without spoilers. So, if you haven't watched this show please do so before reading this review. Let's get into it.

 Season 1 of Stargirl is probably the best first season of a non-Superman DC Comics based show since the first season of Arrow aired ten years ago. Oh sure we've had good first seasons with The Flash and Superman & Lois, and even Supergirl, but with the first season of Stargirl being an adaptation of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., the comic book series that debuted Courtney Whitmore, rather than just a general adaptation of the Stargirl mythos. Though I'm sure there's alot of material from James Robinson's and Johns's runs on JSA that made it into the season too. Mainly because the Justice Society of America plays a big role in the season.

As I said in my review of the first four episodes of the series, Courtney, Yolanda, and Pat are my favourite characters and they remained so throughout the season. However, there isn't actually a character who is unlikeable. And that includes the villains. Sure, they're evil scumbags whose goals included the mass murder of millions of people, but the individual members of the Injustice Society of America were a thousand times more interesting than the Joker, Lex Luthor, and the Reverse Flash. I mean they're on the level of Deathstroke in season 2 of Arrow with a bit of Malcolm Merlyn from season 1 of Arrow thrown in there for good measure. 

One of the reasons that Yolanda, a.k.a. Wildcat, remains one of my favourite characters of the show is that in the season finale she prevented Rick, a.k.a. Hourman, from killing Solomon Grundy, but she had no problems killing Brainwave for what he'd done to his son, who was also her ex-boyfriend, Henry, just three episodes earlier. Henry had died while he and the new JSA were escaping from the ISA's hideout so that the JSA could get away. She doesn't want her teammates to have to face that kind of decision even though she's willing to face it herself if it becomes necessary. Similar to how Oliver killed the bad guys on Arrow, but didn't want Roy or Thea or Laurel to have to make that same decision. And that intrigues me every time.

As for Courtney herself, I love how optimistic and happy she is as a character. So often with these lead superhero characters, you have these broody and angsty characters and that just weighs down on the audience eventually. But having a character who is bright, cheerful, and optimistic, but can have moments of doubt livens up the show. That's why Anson Mount's version of Captain Pike is so fun to watch on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

While some characters didn't have as much to do as others did, until closer to the end of the season, I don't feel like any character was ignored. Everyone had something to do in every episode they appeared in. Nobody was wasted in an episode they were in. And none of their plots were unnecessary. Which, again, in alot of these superhero shows, even the more recent Marvel Disney+ ones, you end up with characters that end up not doing anything and are just kind of there. That wasn't the case here. Every character had a purpose.

Outside of Courtney and the JSA, I think my favourite storyline in this whole season was Henry King Jr's. He's the son of Brainwave and he started to develop the same kind of mind powers that his father had after Courtney and Pat had inadvertently placed Brainwave into a coma. But, he started off as the stereo-typical jock character, including his connection to Yolanda's storyline of her dealing with the aftermath of her sending nude pictures of herself to Henry. Which, he didn't actually send to anybody. Cindy did, as she'd taken Henry's phone and sent the pictures to everyone. At first I thought it was for the petty reason that Cindy and Yolanda were rivals for the role of student council president, as that's what it seemed like from the flashback at the beginning of episode 4, "Wildcat" (my favourite episode). However, we learn later on in the season, only three or four episodes later, that Cindy did it because she and Henry were put together by the Dragon King and Brainwave so that Cindy could monitor Henry in case his powers developed. And her being the daughter of the Dragon King, Cindy decided to get Henry away from Yolanda by ruining her life, which is the typical, petty, high school thing to do. So that was fascinating.

While Jordan, a.k.a. Icicle, was an interesting main villain, I think Cindy is probably the most fascinating villain of the entire organization of the ISA. Which I wasn't sure how she'd be handled, just because I know her story from the comics, and going in with that knowledge, I was afraid it wouldn't work quite as well on TV as it did in the comic, but I think it worked even better on the show than it did in the comic. Basically the Dragon King, a.k.a. known war criminal Dr. Shiro Ito, who was also Cindy's father, experimented on Cindy when she was a child to turn her into a living weapon. And judging by the two fights she and Courtney had in the middle of the season, it worked, because Cindy was a tough opponent for Courtney to beat. However, she's also impulsive and lost control of her powers when she was younger and ended up killing her mother, which caused Ito to rethink his plans concerning Cindy. But seeing that progression was fascinating given that the comic didn't really get much time to explore the character of Cindy as Courtney spent a couple of issues with Young Justice, away from Blue Valley following her initial fight with Cindy. But, that's a conversation for another time.

What impressed me the most about this show is how character driven rather than story driven it was. All of the characters, heroes and villains, are so interconnected with one another that one character's storyline ends up having some kind of effect on another character. Like the whole Cindy/Henry/Yolanda triangle, or Courtney and Icicle or Pat and Rick, who is a pretty cool Hourman. Or even Beth's parents and Brainwave. And because of that web of interconnected character storylines it keeps the show interesting in a way that past superhero shows on The CW can't. If you look at shows like Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash even with the 23 to 26 episode seasons, you could have characters with storylines that never intersect with anything else going on with the rest of the cast. So like on Smallville Lana could have a storyline that has absolutely nothing to do with what Clark has going on that season or doesn't at least connect to what's going on in Clark's storyline. Even in the seasons where they're dating. Now, the show did a little bit better in the latter part of the show where more superheroes were involved and where Lana isn't there but Lois is. But still, compared to Stargirl, Smallville had an extremely large cast of characters and it was impossible to work all of them in. Especially in the later seasons.

I could go on and on about the characters because that's what makes this show work so well. I've always said that superhero shows and movies don't work if you focus on their powers or you write the story in a way that doesn't leave room for the characters to grow and develop. Especially for the shows because if all goes well you'll be with those characters for ten years or more. Just like in the comics. And if you don't like them, or can't connect with them on a human level there's no point to telling that character's story. 

Earlier I said that episode 4, "Wildcat" is my favourite episode. And that's true, but my other favourite episode was episode 10, "Brainwave Jr." Despite their animosity towards Henry, both Rick and Yolanda were able to set that aside to help him and Courtney try to rescue Henry's dad, who didn't have any memories from the previous ten years from the time Henry's mom was killed up to when Courtney and Pat fried his brain in episode 2. Unfortunately things didn't work out the way they planned and the team was forced to watch Henry die protecting them. I'll be honest with you, I cried a little bit when Henry died. Not only was he part of Yolanda and Courtney's storylines, but he had his own strong storyline that developed throughout those first ten episodes. 

There is so much more I could talk about with this season because that's how dense it is with amazing storylines, characters, and concepts. But I think I've talked about Stargirl enough for this season. I highly recommend watching it if you can because it is such a good show. I also have two more seasons to watch too. Though season 3 will have to wait until probably a year from now because the Blu-ray won't be out until probably probably the second or third quarter of the year, which is sometime between April and September, and I won't get it until Christmas or my birthday. But maybe if it comes out sooner rather than later, I'll grab it ASAP. Then again, it's available on iTunes, so I might grab it digitally so I can watch it and then get the Blu-ray at a later date. We'll see though. For now I've got season 2 to watch.

That my friends is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with my review of Stargirl season 2 as well as a review of Stargirl by Geoff Johns, which collects the entire original Stargirl run Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. which Johns created and DC published from 1999 until 2000. And my review of Willow season 1 will be out on Wednesday as the season finale drops on Disney+ on Wednesday morning. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Stargirl Episodes 1-4 (2020) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone! Happy New Year! How were your holidays? Mine was weird, but definitely not boring. Welcome to a new year at Josh's Geek Cave. I've got lots of reviews and other posts coming your way in the coming year so stay tuned for all of that. Today though I'm here to talk about the DC Comics based TV series, Stargirl. Specifically the first four episodes of season 1. I got the first two seasons on Blu-ray from my sister for Christmas, and I decided to dive into it finally since now that Star Trek: Prodigy is over and there's no Marvel, Star Wars, or other Star Trek shows starting for a while, there aren't any current shows on that I'm watching, except for Willow, at the moment. Which gives me lots of time to watch the first two seasons of Stargirl. There will be spoilers for these first four episodes so if you've never watched this show before and are interested in watching it, please do so before reading this review. And because this is the first time that Courtney Whitmore, a.k.a. Stargirl, has been the star of her own show, I'll also be talking about the history of the character a little bit as well. So let's get into it.

 Stargirl was the fourth and final live action series that Warner Bros. commissioned for the now obsolete DC Universe streaming service prior to all programming shifting over to HBO Max. However, because it didn't end up airing here in Canada at all, I completely missed it. I had bought the first season on iTunes two years ago, but, with so many Star Trek shows coming out and then Marvel shows and Star Wars shows coming out, in addition to shows like Only Murders in the Building, Love, Victor, and The Hardy Boys catching my interest I never got around to watching the season. So I asked for the first two seasons on Blu-ray for Christmas, got them, and now I can dive in. So before I get to the episodes and my favourite characters so far, let's talk about the history of Stargirl and why I think it helps to make this show so good.

Courtney Whitmore, also known as Stargirl, was created in 1999 by comic book writer, Geoff Johns. The character was created as a tribute to Johns's late sister, Courtney who was killed in a plane crash in 1996, while Johns was working as an intern for legendary film director, Richard Donner, who directed Superman: The Movie (1978), and The Goonies (1985), among many others. 

Stargirl first appeared in Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #0, which was dated July 1999. The series was written by Geoff Johns with art by Lee Moder. It ran for a total of 15 issues (0-14) from July 1999 until December 2000. Back in 2020 the entire series was published in a trade paperback collection called Stargirl By Geoff Johns. I have it in my collection so I'll be reviewing it in the very near future. However that would not be the end for Stargirl in the comics. 

Around the same time that Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. was in publication, the Justice Society of America was reformed for a new montly series, JSA, written by James Robinson and David S. Goyer. when the book launched in August, 1999, Stargirl was on the cover with the rest of the Justice Society. Johns would begin writing the book with Goyer starting with issue 6 and continued on the book until it was canceled in 2006. Courtney became one of the lead characters of the book and Johns was one of the only people to write the character during this period. 

Along with the rest of the DC Universe, Stargirl was revamped when DC launched the New 52 in 2011 beginning with Justice League #1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, and Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison. Being that I haven't read anything that Stargirl has been in during the New 52 or even DC Rebirth, which started in 2016, I have no idea how much about Courtney's character was changed from the original version that Johns created in 1999.

Her first appearance in the New 52 didn't happen until 2013 in the first issue of Justice League of America, which served as a companion to the main Justice League book that was coming out at the time, as well as a spin-off of that book. 

More recently Stargirl has appeared in a one-shot Spring Break issue as well as a new six issue limited series called Stargirl: The Lost Children. I haven't read any of the more recent Stargirl comics, but if I can get them, I will. And like many of DC's other characters, Stargirl has appeared on TV.

Courtney's first appearance in live action was in season 9 of Smallville in the two part episode, "Absolute Justice", which was written by Geoff Johns. She also appeared in the season 9 finale and returned for two episodes in season 10. This version was a member of the Justice Society of America who would team up with the Green Arrow, Black Canary, Clark, and the other heroes in Metropolis. I've watched "Absolute Justice" and this version of Courtney did not have a whole lot to do in the episode except to talk back to Carter Hall, a.k.a. Hawkman, played by Michael Shanks. Brit Irvin played Courtney here.

The second live action version of Courtney appeared in season 2 of Legends of Tomorrow. Unlike the other two live action versions of the character, this version isn't from modern day. Instead she's a member of the JSA during World War II. She only actually appears in three episodes, and is played by Sarah Grey. Which now brings us to the actual review part of this post. I did want to get the history part out of the way just because she is the newest character to get her own show. Let's start with episode 1.

Titled "Stargirl", this is probably the best pilot episode of any of the CW DC shows, including Smallville. It opened with your typical superhero fight between the JSA and the Injustice Society of America (ISA), but once it switched over to the present day stuff with Courtney, Barbara, Mike, and Pat, it felt different. It felt unique. I think part of that is because the creator of Courtney, Geoff Johns, not only developed the show, but was the showrunner so it feels more like a slightly different version of how Johns portrays these characters in the comics. Plus I also think that because Courtney isn't as well known of a character as Superman and Batman are, the show doesn't feel predictable the way Titans and Superman & Lois do. 

The casting for this show is amazing. With the exception of the villains and most of the teen characters on this show, I'm familiar with most of this cast. Brec Bassinger, who plays Courtney on this show, was in the pilot episode of The Goldbergs as a girl that Adam has a crush on, and then she comes back either at the end of season 3 or the beginning of season 4 as the same character. She's great as Courtney, and I'll be talking more about her a little later on. Then you have Luke Wilson as Pat Dugan. Apart from being Owen Wilson's brother, Luke was a recurring character in season 4 of That '70s Show, where he played Kelso's brother, Casey, and he's been in several movies over the years as well. Amy Smart, who plays Courtney's mom, Barbara, on this show, was in a ton of comedies in the 2000s. And the last cast member I recognized was Meg DeLacy, who plays the show's resident mean girl/supervillain daughter, Cindy Burman. She was in a movie called F the Prom, which came out in 2017.

Episode 2, "S.T.R.I.P.E.", does a wonderful job at continuing the story. Courtney makes her costume, Pat refines the S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, and the villains realize that the Cosmic Staff is back in play after ten years. They also take out Brainwave and Courtney still has to deal with school stuff. Including the school's open house, which is something I remember more from my own life in high school, 20 years ago. It's not something we see much on TV shows or in movies when it comes to high school shows and movies.

Episode 3, "Icicle" is where things start to get a bit more real for Courtney. One of her classmates is killed by Icicle during her first battle with him. Not that she didn't take it seriously before this episode, but I don't think she really understood what kind of life she'd be leading as Stargirl. She also realizes that she and Pat are going to need help if they're going to take on the Injustice Society. Especially with the original JSA members all being dead. The craziest thing about this episode is that the fight between Courtney and Icicle is during the day instead of at night. I mean it's not really new since alot of the fight scenes on Superman & Lois, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow took place during the day, but usually the default setting for superhero fight scenes is nighttime. Particularly on TV. So to have one taking place during the day is pretty cool to see. Especially with how good Courtney's Stargirl costume looks.

Episode 4, "Wildcat", is probably my favourite episode of this batch of episodes. One of the problems that I've had with alot of superhero shows is that the vast majority of them don't get downtime episodes, where the characters have smaller missions or smaller battles or they just don't suit up. But this episode was a smaller mission involving only Courtney and the new Wildcat, Yolanda Montez, played by Yvette Monreal. After Courtney recruits Yolanda, the girls go to the hospital where Brainwave is unconscious to see who visits him or who doesn't. This way they can find out if there are any other members of the Injustice Society living in Blue Valley under secret identities. It was a pretty fun episode. Now I haven't talked about every plot detail in these first four episodes, just recapping the main plots. Before I get into my favourite characters, I want to talk about the music.

The show's score is by Pinar Toprak, a composer I'm unfamiliar with. However, the song selection is so '80s and '90s, it's ridiculously awesome. Most superhero shows on The CW stick to a simple musical score with pieces for each of the main characters, heroes and villains. Occasionally they'll play some modern song from artists nobody knows about. So when a cover of Hanson's 1997 hit single, "MMMBop" started playing during the introduction of present day Courtney at the beginning of the pilot, I was like, "Okay, I get what this show is now". Especially since songs from the '70s and '80s are played in the next three episodes.

It's really hard to choose favourite characters on this show, because they're all pretty great. But I love Courtney. She's the most refreshing superhero I've seen in a really long time. She's not super angsty, she's not brooding all the time, she's just your average teenager who becomes a superhero. And not even in the way that Spider-Man is. She's just really optimistic and genuinely wants to help people without wanting revenge because a family member or friend was killed either before or just after she got her powers. 

My next favourite character is Yolanda, a.k.a. Wildcat. I remember seeing the character in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths comic book series, so she's slightly familiar to me. But, without giving anything away, she has a really interesting storyline. While Yolanda had a minor role in the first three episodes, episode 4 is where she really came to the forefront and I loved it as her superhero debut. Although I had to laugh when she first put on her suit because it was big on her, and then when she put the cowl on, it conformed to her body type and it just reminded me of Power Rangers Turbo where Justin, the Blue Ranger grows to adult size when he morphs, but as soon as his helmet comes off, he returns to his original height, but I am really excited to see where the show takes this character.

And of course, Pat Dugan is great. He's kind of unique because in the comics he's the adult sidekick of a teenage superhero, the Star-Spangled Kid. Normally the adult is the superhero and the teenager is the sidekick, not the other way around. Luke Wilson is fantastic in the role. I mean I wasn't sure about him because the last time I saw him on TV it was on That '70s Show as Casey Kelso, and that character was a jerk. So I wasn't really sure how he could play such an earnest character like Pat. He does it really well. I love his dynamic with Courtney too. And I can't wait to see his reaction when he finds out that she recruited new members into the JSA. 

Overall these first four episodes were awesome, and I can't wait to finish the season so I can talk about it in full on here. It's so refreshing to have a teenage superhero series, on The CW, where the high school stuff is done well, because it was pretty bad on Smallville and isn't great on Superman & Lois either. So I would recommend checking out this show.

That's gonna be it for me for today. But I will be back soon with my review of the entire first season once I finish watching it. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.