Tag Archive: Superfriends


SDCC 2018–Classic TV Batman and Robin meet Riverdale’s Archie in new series

Filed under: Comics & Books, Retro Fix, Superheroes — Leave a comment
July 18, 2018

    

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you’ve been looking for your next retro fix, this may be it.  Archie Comics and DC Comics is bringing nostalgia into a new crossover arriving in comic book stores today with Archie Meets Batman ’66.  Two characters first seen in 1939–and never before have they appeared together!  A battle in Gotham City extends its reach into Riverdale—with Mr. Lodge becoming Public Enemy #1 of the dynamic duo.  And it’s up to Veronica to recruit some help and place a call… to the Batcave.  Written by Jeff Parker and Michael Moreci with art by Dan Parent, J. Bone, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Jack Morelli.

This new story is in the style of the opening title credits of the pop culture favorite 1960s live-action Batman series and the animated series Superfriends.  And it’s an even bigger series than you might think, with its first issue full of not only the Archie gang and Batman and Robin.  You’re going to find several of your favorite characters from the 1966 TV series make appearances.  The artists have all emulated that over-the-top BAM! POW! variety of comic book goodness.  Yes, we’re talking the return of the Batusi.  Check out a preview to Issue #1 below courtesy of Archie Comics.  Keep an eye out for a host of covers for this issue from Michael and Laura Allred, Derek Charm, Francesco Francavilla, Sandy Jarrell and Kelly Fitzpatrick, Dan Parent, J. Bone, and Rosario “Tito” Peña, and Ty Templeton.

    

Archie Comics plans to have a big presence at San Diego Comic-Con this week, focused on the hit CW television series Riverdale.  Fourteen cast members from the series will be pictured on hotel keycards across town.  With more than 40,000 keys created for the week, visitors will find these unique collectibles at nearly 40 San Diego hotels.  Check your keycards for Archie Andrews (K.J. Apa), Jughead Jones (Cole Sprouse), Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart), Veronica Lodge (Camila Mendes), Alice Cooper (Mädchen Amick), Fred Andrews (Luke Perry), Hermione Lodge (Marisol Nichols), Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos), Cheryl Blossom (Madelaine Petsch), Josie McCoy (Ashleigh Murray), Kevin Keller (Casey Cott), F.P. Jones (Skeet Ulrich), Reggie Mantle (Charles Melton), and Toni Topaz (Vanessa Morgan).

As promised, here’s your preview of Archie Meets Batman ’66, Issue #1:

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Aquaman and Jabberjaw–The Ultimate Team-Up and Mash-up?

Filed under: Comics & Books, Fantasy Realms, Retro Fix, Superheroes, TV — Leave a comment
June 12, 2018

The ultimate shark sighting?  A make-ready skit when Jason Momoa finally gets to host Saturday Night Live?

We have seen some great team-ups that also served as great mash-ups.  One of the best came last year when DC Comics took a side trip with Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes characters, especially in the Batman/Elmer Fudd crime-noir, one-shot story “Pway for Me,” by Tom King, Lee Weeks, and Lovern Kindzierski.  It was our pick for last year’s best team-up/mash-up.  This year DC Comics is back, but this time they paired off again with characters from Hanna-Barbera.  Last year for DC Meets Hanna-Barbera, Volume 1, that meant pairing Jonny Quest and Adam Strange, Space Ghost and Green Lantern, Flintstones and Booster Gold, and Suicide Squad and Banana Splits.  In comic book stores and coming soon in a compilation edition, DC Meets Hanna-Barbera, Volume 2 features even more great team-up/mash-ups:  Who wins when you pair The Flash and Speed Buggy?  How serious can cartoon characters get when you’ve teamed Black Lightning and Hong Kong Phooey?  Or “Super Sons” Robin and Superboy taking on Dynomutt?  But the winner is clear… How could you possibly lose with a team-up of Aquaman and Jabberjaw?

With the right amount of seriousness (mainly from Aquaman) and the right amount of nostalgic humor (mainly from fun-loving land shark Jabberjaw), Dan Abnett strikes throwback gold with a story full of seaside quips and Jaws references, pulling ideas even from the classic favorite Superfriends show.  The result is one of the best Aquaman stories we’ve read.  And Abnett completely tapped into the pulse of the classic Jabberjaw cartoon, tying in his band of friends The Neptunes.  Artists Paul Pelletier, Andrew Hennessy, and Rain Beredo created a unique, incredible look, something out of Syfy’s Haven town and Luc Besson’s future world in Valerian and Laureline.  THIS is the ongoing series that needs to continue, although, understandably the pairing is a big stretch even for comic books and animated series, bridging time and space to get these two worlds together.  But it works.  From the setting, a seaside tourist town called Amnesty Bay (playing on the Jaws town of Amity), to the return of the world’s best drumming shark, to the sound of fingers on a chalkboard, to those Rodney Dangerfield meets Curly Howard catch-phrases, to the final entanglement with shark hunters, this one has it all.

DC has already featured Hanna-Barbera together in ongoing comic book series from the favorite characters of 1970s Saturday morning cartoons in the series Future Quest, Scooby Apocalypse, The Flintstones, Wacky Raceland, Dastardly and Muttley, The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Jetsons, and Exit, Stage Left!: the Snagglepuss Chronicles.  A great writer should be able to find unlimited potential for Jabberjaw and his friends.  Check out these preview pages from the publisher for the story “A Bigger Beat”–

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Batman leads the Justice League and DCU out of the cinematic depths of darkness

Filed under: Comics & Books, Movies, Superheroes — Leave a comment
November 26, 2017

Review by C.J. Bunce

It’s just what fans of DC Comics have been begging for.  Finally, a Batman portrayal worthy of Adam West and Michael Keaton.  The complete membership of the classic Justice League as fun as we all remember them from the comic books.  Homages to famous artists adapted to the big screen from the best of DC Comics, like cover artist Jock, plus throwbacks to the campy series of the 1960s.  And more homages to the musical scores from the best of the DC Comics cinematic adaptations of the past, including callbacks to Danny Elfman’s score to the 1989 Batman movie and John Williams’ Superman theme.

What was your favorite DC Comics adaptation before 2017?  How far back do you go?  Most superhero movie fans seem to agree upon the original Superman starring Christopher Reeve as the modern rebirth of the superhero film, and count Reeve among the best embodiments of a superhero on film.  But after Reeve, fans begin to disagree as movies based on DC Comics are concerned, and usually turn to the CW Network television series for the next best DC iterations of comic book adaptations.

So when all of it finally comes together, it finally comes together in 2017, after the likes of misfires including Man of Steel, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad, we finally have an exciting and worthy DC Comics outing that is fun for the entire family, and best of all, it is all heart.

And as a bonus, it features villains worthy of a movie from the DCU.  Sure, you might expect a pantheon of villains like The Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, Egghead, Scarecrow, Bane, Clayface, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Man-Bat, Captain Boomerang, Crazy Quilt, Eraser, Polka Dot Man, Mime, Tarantula, King Tut, Orca, Dr. Phosphorus, Killer Moth, Magpie, March Hare, Frank Miller’s Mutant Leader, Dr. Hugo Strange, Zodiac Master, Gentleman Ghost, Clock King, Red Hood, The Kabuki Twins, Calendar Man, Kite Man, Catman, Calculator, Zebra-Man, and Condiment King.  But all in one movie?  And battling some of fiction’s other greatest supervillains, like Dracula and the other Universal Monsters, The Daleks, Lord Voldemort, Jaws, King Kong, Gremlins, velociraptors, the Wicked Witch of the West, Agent Smith from The Matrix, and Sauron?  Wait–was Darth Vader tied up in some other project?

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Review–G.I. Joe: Retaliation delivers a fun ride with great action sequences

Filed under: Comics & Books, Con Culture, Fantasy Realms, Movies, Retro Fix, Superheroes — Leave a comment
April 21, 2013

GI Joe banner

Half animated film come to life, half martial arts movie, in G.I. Joe: Retaliation look for one of the best action sequences ever to hit the big screen.  Darker and more grounded in the realities of today’s terrorism themed movies as opposed to the days of action war pictures centered on the Cold War, the sequel to G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra is only slightly less fun than the first live-action look at the action figure-turned-animated show and comic book-turned-action figure again franchise.  Whereas Rise of Cobra was steeped in toy references and faithful action figure costume re-creations, Retaliation has a plot that could have been pulled from the 1980s animated series.

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION

After a disaster caused by a conspiracy between Zartan and the evil shadow organization called Cobra wipes out literally every active G.I. Joe but three, it’s up to new top ranking officer Roadblock, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to lead the charge to unravel the conspiracy and save the world.  He’s joined in a superbly created, fast-thinking survival maneuver by Flint (D.J. Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), who must then find their way out of a deep water well.  Despite being developed characters from G.I. Joe incarnations past, Flint comes off a bit like Hawkeye in The Avengers and Lady Jaye as the token female Joe in an era you’d think would be long past relying on jokes about women in the service.  Still, they both make the best of it and the trio, along with Duke (Channing Tatum), the squad leader of the Joes in Rise of Cobra, they share some good chemistry and laugh out loud moments in the film.  If there is any fault in Retaliation it is why the producers thought the plot required eliminating such a pantheon of other great Joe characters who were featured in Rise of Cobra, like Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Baroness (Sierra Miller), Ripcord (Marlon Wayans), Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), or General Hawk (Dennis Quaid).  It’s also a bit disappointing Bruce Willis’s General Joe Colton didn’t have a few more scenes.  Willis, transitioning from action role to the wise general role, steals every scene and a partnership with Dwayne Johnson in another film, G.I. Joe or not, would be a fun thing to see.

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Justice League flashes five years forward in “The Villain’s Journey”

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February 3, 2013

Justice League Volume 2 cover

With DC Comics having wrapped it first year with the New 52, it is now releasing the second hardcover volume of its flagship title, Justice League.  If you don’t read the monthly series, now is the time to catch up on the full first year with Volumes 1 and 2 now on the shelves.  Justice League, Vol. 1: Origin reprinted Issues 1-6, and now Justice League, Vol. 2: The Villain’s Journey reprints Issues 7-12, both volumes including variant covers and cover sketch art by the popular artist Jim Lee.

Justice League, Vol. 1: Origin, now available in both hardcover and trade paperback, began the entire New 52, a new DC Universe unveiled first 5 years ago, a reality which may or may not have been manipulated from the universe we’ve known all along by the red-hooded Pandora, who has managed to flit in and out of nearly every DC Comics series since the reboot in September 2011.  In Volume 1 we met the new original seven members of the League–first a comical run-in of Batman and Green Lantern Hal Jordan, who then have their own run-in with Superman (run-in meaning lots of bruises and destruction of property).  Then Barry Allen’s Flash entered the picture as probably the most interesting character in the new League.  He formed a relationship with buddy Hal Jordan which provided many of the most entertaining scenes of the series so far.  Then we met Wonder Woman, who in this incarnation of the DCU is far more Valkyrie than Amazon, and this plays nicely off of Aquaman’s entrance, whose Atlantis origins are here very much influenced by the world of Thor.  This is all tied together by a new League entrant, the young Vic Stone, transformed by happenstance into a cyborg, now known as the League member Cyborg.  And they all must come together to protect the world from being devastated by none other than classic villain Darkseid.  We reviewed the monthly series at borg.com least year here.

Justice League Volume 2

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Preview–“Number 13,” new Dark Horse Comics’ mini-series

Filed under: Comics & Books, Sci-Fi Café — Leave a comment
December 10, 2012

Number 13 miniseries cover 1

Review by C.J. Bunce

The future Earth story Number 13 was first seen in the pages of Dark Horse Presents, and like many popular stories from that anthology series it made it to its own series.  A few weeks back the collected stories were republished in its own Issue #0, and in two weeks Number 13 begins a three-issue mini-series.  If you haven’t picked up Issue #0 it serves as a good starting point for the world of Number 13.

In Issue #1, Number 13 is the name given to a boy found buried in a desert with a bionic Tony Stark-type, chest-mounted power device, who appears at first to be dead until he sparks back to life as he is discovered by a group of motley, wandering “Fecteds” on the lookout for “Mune” raiders.  The boy has the number 13 printed on his head and nothing else is known about him.  Some of the backstory of how Number 13 got to the beginning of this story can be found in a prior Dark Horse Number 13 mini-series and Issue #0.  Here, the character Number 13 has lost his memory, and seems to be searching desperately for his father.

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