Quick Thoughts #3 - "The Early Days of Superman!"

To quote some teenagers from the first episode of Young Justice, “Today’s the Day!” One major reason the blog’s been vacant for a minute is a simple one: I’m getting married today! It’s been a hectic few days, but before I get even more involved with the proceedings, I wanted to quickly go over a recent read and a recent viewing of some Superman-related stuff. I haven’t forgotten that this was Superman Month for me. Today’s picks are Superman: Man of Tomorrow and Superman: For All Seasons.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow

Superman: Man of Tomorrow was released in 2020. It was meant to be the first DC animated movie that would start off a new batch of movies since Justice League: Apokalips War was the end of that run of the DCAMU. By the way, I still haven’t seen Apokalips War, and from what I’ve seen, I kinda don’t want to. Man of Tomorrow is another origin story that shows Superman in his early days in Metropolis. As he’s trying to figure out to protect the world, an alien named Lobo shows up on the scene and wrecks some havoc. Through this, a STAR Labs employee, Rudy Jones, is transformed into the Parasite. Also, Superman’s being followed by a mysterious alien named J’onn J’onnz.

I thought that this was a pretty good watch. While it does take bits and pieces of origin stories like American Alien, Earth One, and Smallville, it is its own take on Superman. It was cool to see Superman interact with the Martian Manhunter, and somehow, this story makes me like Lobo for a little bit. I also liked what they did with the Parasite. He’s one of Superman’s cooler villains, so seeing him get the spotlight was good. Of course, everything involving the Daily Planet and Lex Luthor (voiced by Zachary Quinto?) was good. The voice acting overall was also pretty good.

The animation took a while to get used to though. It’s not bad, and the action does carry some weight, but it’s a little weird at points. I’ve noticed this with the other movies like Long Halloween and that JSA movie. Metropolis looked pretty cool and futuristic though. Also, Superman’s updated suit looked good. I wasn’t a big fan of Parasite’s final form. I guess it makes sense because his origin involved aliens, but dude was looking too much like a Xenomorph to me. It does drag a little bit in some places, but it’s not that bad. Overall, if you’re looking for another Superman origin, this one’s nice.

 

Superman for All Seasons

If you’re wondering, yes, this is a recent read. While I’ve perused the story over the years, I’ve never sat down to read it until now. This 4 issue mini, released in 1998, was written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by the late Tim Sale. It show’s Superman’s early years, which became a theme for this post.  It shows Clark’s life before he left Smallville and his early time as Superman in Metropolis. We get to see what made Clark don the suit and go save the world. Each issue is also narrated by the people most important to Clark.

This story was pretty dang good. While Loeb gets some hate for stuff these days, dude could write some good DC books. I also see yet another inspiration for the show, Smallville, here. The story does a good job of showing Clark grow into one of the greatest heroes. We also see that it’s not a smooth ride since Superman ends up going through some tough times later in the story. Loeb throws a lot of detail into Smallville with some of the better moments of the book coming from there. Each issue uses the seasons to get a point across and it works really well.

The artwork is awesome. Sale brought his A-game to the book.  He might not have been everyone’s choice to draw Superman, but he works. He draws Superman as a powerhouse, but a kind one. He’s a beefy boy, but that happens when you live on a farm. What action we get is handled pretty well. While Superman doing his thing is a treat here, the simple, quiet moments also shine here. The double page spreads are a treat. Overall, this is one of the best stories out there.

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“Well”, as I say in a pretty preachy manner like I’m gonna bring the gospel, I gotta go. These are two good stories that handle the character really well. Check them out if you haven’t. You can go to HBO Max (for now, that whole WB/Discovery fiasco is horrible) for Man of Tomorrow, and you can find For All Seasons just about anywhere. I’ve gotta get ready for the wedding. For now, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.

TV Talk - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Well, it’s been a while. It’s been pretty busy over here in the House of Williams. We’ve been preparing for a wedding (September, y’all!), raising a son, and doing a lot of work in general. Writing here isn’t the big priority it once was. Heck, it wasn’t that much of a priority to begin with, but I somehow found time to get something out. I still haven’t finished Discovery or even got past the first episode of Picard Season 2. So, how did I skip all of that and watch all ten episodes of Strange New Worlds? I guess the power of Anson Mount’s hair has no bounds. Also, it was pretty dang good!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds pretty much carries off from where Season 2 of Discovery left it. Folk were so enamored with Anson Mount’s Christopher Pike that CBS made a show around him. One of the best things about Season 2 were Pike and Bearded Spock, so I can’t blame them. It would be a bit of a long wait, but we finally got to see the Enterprise return in all its glory in Spring of 2022. We not only got the return of the original Enterprise crew (Pike, Spock, Number One), but we also got to see younger versions of characters from TOS. I’ll get to them later.

Strange New Worlds (SNW?) takes place about a year after Season 2 of Discovery. Even though he’s reeling from some the events of Discovery Season 2, Pike is tasked by Uncle Phil—I mean, Admiral Robert April, to command the Enterprise again. After the Enterprise saves one of their crew members on a pre-warp world, they start their adventure into the unknown. They face a variety of new worlds as well as some familiar races.

Quick Thoughts #2 - Legendary's Monsterverse Kinda Rocks!

Who knew that Japan would let Hollywood take another crack at Godzilla? I wasn’t totally clamoring for it back in the day, and this is coming from someone who thought 1998’s Godzilla was alright. Yeah, it really lacked the “GOD” part, but it was a fun monster movie at least. It even had a cool animated series.

Unlike what we got before, Legendary brought the might and power of the monster to the big screen in a cool way. I’ve seen both Godzilla films in theaters and would’ve seen GVK in theaters if COVID wasn’t a problem at the time. I held off on Kong: Skull Island though. While I like King Kong, I’m not as much a fan of the gorilla. So, here are some quick thoughts on Legendary’s Monsterverse movies. I just realized that I haven’t really talked about them here. I’m always been like that with Godzilla though, so it fits.

 

TV Talk - Star Trek: Discovery Season 3

We are definitely in another era of Star Trek right now. Star Trek Discovery has ended its fourth season, Star Trek: Picard just finished its second season, Star Trek: Prodigy is out there somewhere on Nickelodeon, and Strange New Worlds has been released. While I can’t say that I’m a big fan of everything Paramount is doing, I can say that they’re at least trying to do new things with Trek. So, how about I pick up where I left off with Discovery here? Previously, Commander Burnham and friends were trying to save the everything from a futuristic evil A.I. Things get wild on DISCO, folks. In order to do that, the crew had to take the Discovery through time to the 32^st century, and it would be a one-way trip. Season 2 concluded with them saving the day and taking the trip into the unknown.

Season 3 starts off with the crew making it to the 32^st century (3188) with some complications. After things are settled, they find out that an event from the century before ravaged the Alpha Quadrant. The Burn, as its called,  basically caused all dilithium in the galaxy to explode in the quadrant. This ravaged Starfleet and other major races. Starfleet has gone silent, and a new power called the Emerald Chain has risen in the Quadrant. Discovery then sets out to find where Starfleet may and what’s happened to the galaxy as a whole. During their adventures, they have some internal shifts and get new crew members.

 

Quick Thoughts #1 - ABC Family was interesting in the 2000's!

I haven’t found a lot of time to blog here much. Between work, family life, and other interests, writing here’s been put in the background. It doesn’t mean I done with some random thoughts, though. There have been stuff I’ve wanted to at least mention somewhere, but I haven’t had the time to do so. So, here’s a bit of a new thing. These will just be quick thoughts on media I’ve recently watched. Somehow, ABC Family (or Freeform now) became the subject since Liz and I have been watching a lot of shows that used to air on there.