Brianimaniac
Banned
Lee/Kirby.
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COMICS! |OT| July 2016. Everyone Loves A Hero, Everyone Loves You
- Thread starter Tyrant Rave
- Start date
Ah, okay. Great deal, but man I don't know if I can handle all that old 60s writing, haha.
Tizoc
Member
Alright, just for you I've written up a quick character guide
This is Brainstorm.
He is colored blue. He is the
The big Orange/Yellow colored 'bot with big wheels for pauldrons is Chromedome.
He is mnemosurgeon; he can inject needles into a Cybertronians head or neck and read their memories.
The smaller bot with the black chasis is Rewind.
He is an Archivist and has accumulated as much of Cybertron and the War's recorded history as possible, by which I mean just about EVERYTHING. That camera in his head isn't just for show you know.
Rewind and Chromedome are a couple and have been so throughout the Autobot-Decepticon War.
Also this is Prowl
He flips tables.
Usually when he is angry or upset.
He is also a jackass.
This is Swerve.
He is short, has a red and white chasis and everybody agrees the Universe would be a slightly better place if he would never ever speak ever again.
He is a Metallurgist and always wanted to open and run a bar.
We suspect his fav. TV show is a tie between either Community or Cheers.
He likely dislikes Becker because it reminds him of Prowl.
And Prowl is a jackass.
Now let's move onto Skids
He has a blue chasis, knows Metallikato, and is a mother effin' Theoretician.
Skids has a special ability in that he is a fast learner; he can learn something or subject so fast he'd get bored of it and move onto something else.
This cute little blue bot is Tailgate.
He got caught in an accident on his way to work one day, some 6 million years ago give or take, and has been trapped beneath the surface of Cybertron unattended. He basically missed out on A LOT of shit that happened to the Cybertronian race.
Ultra Magnus is the Duly Appointed Officer of the Tyrest Accord.
He is big and has a blue colored chassis.
The above image should tell you everything you need to know about him.
This is Ratchet.
He has a white chassis, and is an old, grumpy, unbearable at worst bot who is way past his prime.
He's a fantastic doctor otherwise, having saved the lives of every Prime since Nominus on one occasion or another. He is also is an atheist.
Red Alert is Chief of Security aboard the Lost Light.
He has a red and white chassis, but doesn't show up as much of the other cast.
He used to be paranoid, and I mean REALLY paranoid, but got better over the years and apparently it didn't affect him much during the War.
Now that the War's over though, it may just be getting back to him.
A lot, and I mean A LOT of people misspell Rung's name. He just got used to it.
He is thin, his chassis is orange colored, and has peculiar eyes and eyebrows. I'm serious those eyes and brows just STAND OUT, you can't mistake this guy.
He's the nicest and kindest bot you'd ever meet, which is surprising considering he's a psychiatrist, and let me tell you, with these sentient mechanicals warring for so many eons, PTSD is about as common as moving one front in front of the other.
He likes to collect model spacecrafts as a hobby.
Drift was a Decepticon who found Primus and decided to side with the Autobots.
He became Rodimus' 2nd in Command by virtue of saying what Rodimus likes to hear.
He carries lots of swords.
And now Rodimus.
He has a red flaming chassis, and is Captain of the Lost Light. He believes his own hype and has a penchant for showing off.
Much of the crew really don't care for him and are only on the ship to get away from responsibilities and goof off.
This blue bot here is Whirl.
Everybody hates Whirl. He's a pompus jackass who antagonizes anyone just because he's had a very miserable life.
You can't mistake Whirl, he has a cyclops eye and claws for hands. He never wanted to have them and he's too afraid to get rid of them.
Also he very likely sparked the Decepticon movement.
Finally we have Cyclonus.
He is NOT a Decepticon. He is an ancient Cybertronian who got lost in space with his crew and upon returning to the present time, is devastated and depressed by what his world has become.
He is a formidable warrior and keeps to himself much of the time.
Hmm yeah that should do it.
That's the main cast. Let me know if any of the images don't load up @_@
Really though the series is much better enjoyed if you enjoy reading, this book says A LOT in just 1 issue.
It's like the Morrison formula except the dialog isn't Morrison-speak.
BKatastrophe
Member
While the dialogue on the older stuff can be rough, the stories can really hold up.
Don't forget how much Whirl loves Brainstorm.
TetraxShards
Member
More than Meets the Eye and Robots in Disguise (the latter was renamed to "The Transformers" after the new cartoon started using the RiD name) are what you want. MTMTE Vol. 1 has The Death of Optimus Prime one-shot that establishes the new, post-war status quo, but it can be summed up as "The war is over. Now the hard part begins."
The mini-series Last Stand of the Wreckers is also worth picking up as it provides a lot of backstory, and is also one of the very best Transformers stories ever made.
Tizoc
Member
I gotchu fam.
1- Last Stand of the Wreckers <James Roberts' (MTMTE author) first book that he wrote for IDW and as an official Transformers book.
2- Transformers Chaos Theory <The 2 parter at the end of this book is written by Roberts, explores Prime and Megatron's relationship and sheds light on what lead to the Decepticon movement.
3- More than Meets the eye Vol. 1-3
4- Transformers Dark Prelude <Contains stories written by Roberts and one which is linked to a later story
5- MTMTE Vol. 4-5
6- Dark Cybertron
7- The rest of MTMTE
Keep in mind that some time had passed since LSotW and Chaos Theory (think an Earth Year or Two), you don't need to know about the stuff inbetween as the stories of each is very well self contained and are good in their own way.
Note that this is for THE CURRENT Transformers comic run. I can make a quick write up for the old 80s Marvel TF series if you want, though it's not that difficult to read up on.
Fixed.
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
BKatastrophe
Member
Close enough!
ViewtifulJC
Banned
the conclusions I can draw from rewatching the whole Batman series:
The first season is HELLA sketchy. On Leather Wings is a great debut episode, a stylistic tour-de-force using film noir shadows, strong iconography, and great animation...but then its a string of stinkers into the Two-Face masterpiece shows up. A lot of this has to do with Sean Catherine Derek being one of the head writers of the show, who was just a terrible fit. While Bruce Timm and Paul Dini wanted to create an reasonably mature action cartoon, Sean wrote shrill melodramatic stories about the homeless and the eco system. Every single episode with the name "Sean Catherine Derek" in the opening credits is terrible, and it wasn't long before she was removed.
Another big negative is AKOM. You see, to get the 65 episodes Fox ordered out there, they had several different japanese animation studios to produce them. Some of them are quite good, especially the animation by Spectrum and Tokyo Movie Shinsa(the one's responsible for the great Clayface ending). Most of them are handled by Dong Yang, so its fine without being spectacular, mostly relying on the usually strong art direction and story boarding to carry the stories. But AKOM does a bunch of episodes in the first season, and they are truly fuckin' incompetent. They consistently botch conceptually cool setpieces, constantly go off model, and IMO ruin what should've been an great episode in Mad as a Hatter. Bruce Timm noted it was the abominable Cat Scratch Fever that was the last straw and they refused to use them anymore.
Paul Dini is the real hero of this show. Over 30 episodes bare his name, 19 of which he is the sole author. If you look above, many of the best stories come from him: Heart of Ice, The Laughing Fish, Joker's Favor, House and Garden, Harley's Holiday, Second Chance, the one good Riddler and Catwoman episodes, Deep Freeze, etc. He has a unique skill of drilling down into the sad and tragic psychologies of his rogues, giving them plausible motivations behind their colorful crimes. He's great with jokes, and has an economical flair for dialog that this short movie format demands. My favorite aspect of his are the lovable losers that bounce around his various episodes. I'm talking about Sid the Squid who "killed" Batman, or the poor bastard who honked his horn at the Joker on the road. These characters are so immediately sympathetic they can garner the audience's interest instantly, and their average joe status makes our main cast like Batman and the Joker that much more vivid.
His more lasting contribution, besides giving Mr. Freeze a new lease on life and perfecting the chaos and comedy of the Joker, will always be Harley Quinn. If you see in the rankings above, she appears in the most episodes, but she also has the highest success rate. Whether as Joker's loving assistant or the protagonist of her own tale, she is consistently a huge source of both great comedy and drama. She ends up as one the most three dimensional characters in a show short on episode-to-episode continuity.
There's been plenty spoken about the perfect voice performances and musical scores that accompany all these episodes, but I want to spot that even the minor characters who show up are perfectly in line with the intended tone of every scene. A lot of that has to go to Andrea Romano, the casting & voice director of so many shows with so many great performances, like Avatar and Boondocks, and the rest of the DCAU. So much of the believability of the show would fall flat if they didn't have such strong performances, and she's the main piece behind that.
Despite the show being called "Batman", he's rarely the protagonist of these stories. Because of the short film nature and never-changing status as the icon of justice, its usually the rogues who get the bulk of development. Of the big name rogues, the most consistently quality appearances would have to go to the Joker in his many Paul Dini written episodes, Harley(well she's big name NOW) for similar reasons, Two-Face for its great fall and redemption stories, Ra's Al Ghul in his epic adventures outside of Gotham, Scarface for his pulpy gangster rooted in deep psychological despair, and Mr. Freeze who gets more good episodes than his concept would lead you to believe(although there is an argument that he should've been left well enough along after Deep Freeze). Catwoman stumbles in her early episodes of phony feminism and animal rights activism before being streamlined to the sleek sexy thief of Catwalk and Cult of Cat. Riddler is endlessly charismatic and has a great look, but there's no recognizable human motivation behind his crimes, and his brilliance is wasted on dated VR fights and giant mazes. The Penguin is somebody they never quite figured out; is he a dapper sophisticant or troubled ugly squatter? None of his spotlight episodes work. Scarecrow is often wasted on lazy hallucinations and lame illusions, but there are two strong episodes where his preying on relatable human fear make his actions seem formidable. His best episode is Never Fear, an ingenious reinvention where he now takes fear away from everyone. Poison Ivy early episodes about saving the environment are tiresome, but Paul Dini rescues her too, pairing her off with superstar Harley Quinn and giving her a sharp spotlight episode where she makes a human family from the plants she loves. Killer Croc is great as the heavy for Vendetta or the dumb brute in Almost Got 'Em, but he's a victim of some sappy ass stories later on.
Lastly, of the series many laudable strengths even in the weak episodes, its characterization of Batman is still my favorite. He isn't someone who takes great pleasure in beating up people, nor is an unlikable stoic hardass(at least not until the TNBA where his voice and personality is made harder to contrast with the lighter Bat-family). He isn't a Batgod, and has to do some detective work to solve many of his cases. He frequently expresses warmth towards friends and criminals alike, hell he even smiles from time to time. He has physical and emotional vulnerabilities, and doesn't win every fight. Most importantly, he genuinely wants to see all criminals reform. It breaks his heart watching his friend Harvey Dent struggle with his personality disorder. He hated seeing Pamela Isley go back to crime in House & Garden. And, after spending all episode watching out for a seemingly reformed Harley inevitably fall back into her old ways, he gets her that dress she wanted as a token of his empathy. "I know whats its like to try and rebuild a life. I had a bad day too, once". He's been down that same depressing hole many of his rogues have been, and he wants to pull them out it.
tl;dr: best batman thing tbh
The first season is HELLA sketchy. On Leather Wings is a great debut episode, a stylistic tour-de-force using film noir shadows, strong iconography, and great animation...but then its a string of stinkers into the Two-Face masterpiece shows up. A lot of this has to do with Sean Catherine Derek being one of the head writers of the show, who was just a terrible fit. While Bruce Timm and Paul Dini wanted to create an reasonably mature action cartoon, Sean wrote shrill melodramatic stories about the homeless and the eco system. Every single episode with the name "Sean Catherine Derek" in the opening credits is terrible, and it wasn't long before she was removed.
Another big negative is AKOM. You see, to get the 65 episodes Fox ordered out there, they had several different japanese animation studios to produce them. Some of them are quite good, especially the animation by Spectrum and Tokyo Movie Shinsa(the one's responsible for the great Clayface ending). Most of them are handled by Dong Yang, so its fine without being spectacular, mostly relying on the usually strong art direction and story boarding to carry the stories. But AKOM does a bunch of episodes in the first season, and they are truly fuckin' incompetent. They consistently botch conceptually cool setpieces, constantly go off model, and IMO ruin what should've been an great episode in Mad as a Hatter. Bruce Timm noted it was the abominable Cat Scratch Fever that was the last straw and they refused to use them anymore.
Paul Dini is the real hero of this show. Over 30 episodes bare his name, 19 of which he is the sole author. If you look above, many of the best stories come from him: Heart of Ice, The Laughing Fish, Joker's Favor, House and Garden, Harley's Holiday, Second Chance, the one good Riddler and Catwoman episodes, Deep Freeze, etc. He has a unique skill of drilling down into the sad and tragic psychologies of his rogues, giving them plausible motivations behind their colorful crimes. He's great with jokes, and has an economical flair for dialog that this short movie format demands. My favorite aspect of his are the lovable losers that bounce around his various episodes. I'm talking about Sid the Squid who "killed" Batman, or the poor bastard who honked his horn at the Joker on the road. These characters are so immediately sympathetic they can garner the audience's interest instantly, and their average joe status makes our main cast like Batman and the Joker that much more vivid.
His more lasting contribution, besides giving Mr. Freeze a new lease on life and perfecting the chaos and comedy of the Joker, will always be Harley Quinn. If you see in the rankings above, she appears in the most episodes, but she also has the highest success rate. Whether as Joker's loving assistant or the protagonist of her own tale, she is consistently a huge source of both great comedy and drama. She ends up as one the most three dimensional characters in a show short on episode-to-episode continuity.
There's been plenty spoken about the perfect voice performances and musical scores that accompany all these episodes, but I want to spot that even the minor characters who show up are perfectly in line with the intended tone of every scene. A lot of that has to go to Andrea Romano, the casting & voice director of so many shows with so many great performances, like Avatar and Boondocks, and the rest of the DCAU. So much of the believability of the show would fall flat if they didn't have such strong performances, and she's the main piece behind that.
Despite the show being called "Batman", he's rarely the protagonist of these stories. Because of the short film nature and never-changing status as the icon of justice, its usually the rogues who get the bulk of development. Of the big name rogues, the most consistently quality appearances would have to go to the Joker in his many Paul Dini written episodes, Harley(well she's big name NOW) for similar reasons, Two-Face for its great fall and redemption stories, Ra's Al Ghul in his epic adventures outside of Gotham, Scarface for his pulpy gangster rooted in deep psychological despair, and Mr. Freeze who gets more good episodes than his concept would lead you to believe(although there is an argument that he should've been left well enough along after Deep Freeze). Catwoman stumbles in her early episodes of phony feminism and animal rights activism before being streamlined to the sleek sexy thief of Catwalk and Cult of Cat. Riddler is endlessly charismatic and has a great look, but there's no recognizable human motivation behind his crimes, and his brilliance is wasted on dated VR fights and giant mazes. The Penguin is somebody they never quite figured out; is he a dapper sophisticant or troubled ugly squatter? None of his spotlight episodes work. Scarecrow is often wasted on lazy hallucinations and lame illusions, but there are two strong episodes where his preying on relatable human fear make his actions seem formidable. His best episode is Never Fear, an ingenious reinvention where he now takes fear away from everyone. Poison Ivy early episodes about saving the environment are tiresome, but Paul Dini rescues her too, pairing her off with superstar Harley Quinn and giving her a sharp spotlight episode where she makes a human family from the plants she loves. Killer Croc is great as the heavy for Vendetta or the dumb brute in Almost Got 'Em, but he's a victim of some sappy ass stories later on.
Lastly, of the series many laudable strengths even in the weak episodes, its characterization of Batman is still my favorite. He isn't someone who takes great pleasure in beating up people, nor is an unlikable stoic hardass(at least not until the TNBA where his voice and personality is made harder to contrast with the lighter Bat-family). He isn't a Batgod, and has to do some detective work to solve many of his cases. He frequently expresses warmth towards friends and criminals alike, hell he even smiles from time to time. He has physical and emotional vulnerabilities, and doesn't win every fight. Most importantly, he genuinely wants to see all criminals reform. It breaks his heart watching his friend Harvey Dent struggle with his personality disorder. He hated seeing Pamela Isley go back to crime in House & Garden. And, after spending all episode watching out for a seemingly reformed Harley inevitably fall back into her old ways, he gets her that dress she wanted as a token of his empathy. "I know whats its like to try and rebuild a life. I had a bad day too, once". He's been down that same depressing hole many of his rogues have been, and he wants to pull them out it.
tl;dr: best batman thing tbh
Sibersk Esto
Banned
The Batman TAS writer's guide/series bible is a fantastic read to see how their streamlined approach really got to the heart of what make Batman and his universe great.
WadiumArcadium
Member
I started watching Batman TAS for the first time the other week. I realised I could watch it for free with an Amazon Student account.
Only about halfway through the first series (sounds like the best is yet to come) but this is my favourite moment so far. That line cracks me up every time.
This is great.
Only about halfway through the first series (sounds like the best is yet to come) but this is my favourite moment so far. That line cracks me up every time.
This is great.
Great write-up. I just finished watching "I've Got Batman in my Basement" and yikes, what a bore.
This is great, I've never seen it before. I really like their description of Bruce Wayne on page 13.
TheDarkKnight774
Member
I love that joker episode. Joker had so many great lines and Captain clown is the best
BKatastrophe
Member
When I watched all the way through it recently I was surprised how much I liked the Clayface episodes.
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
While BTAS is being talked about if you can find this book you should buy this book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/006107327X/?tag=neogaf0e-20
https://www.amazon.com/dp/006107327X/?tag=neogaf0e-20
ViewtifulJC
Banned
This is such a great book I got the hardcover and it'd beautiful
Sibersk Esto
Banned
I do like the final lines
For fun, this is the writer's guide for the 1994 Spider-Man TAS. Fun parts include the writers approaching Spider-Man's psychology and how being Spider-Man acts as kind of an escapist drug for him.
WadiumArcadium
Member
This was in an episode I watched the other night. It really is great. The music's been really good so far.
--
Detective Comics is still my favourite of the Rebirth series'. Another great issue this week. Batman selfies are the best selfies.
You forgot to add "lol" to the end of that
need to try and find that here in the UK from the little I saw about it on-line it's a great companion piece
So it was totally awesome?
Lashley
Why does he wear the mask!?
Brianimaniac
Banned
For Totally Awesome Hulk, I loved the Frank Cho and Alan Davis issues, but didn't care for the latest issue or that Enchantress story.
Freezasaurus
Member
Ms. Marvel hasn't been this good in a while. And I've been liking the opening sequence of the past couple issues, too. Telling the story of before the family came to America.
Haloid1177
Banned
So I'm reading Morrison's Batman run the whole way through for the first time. I read the Dickbats stuff a long time ago but not the lead up or Batman Inc. Is it just crazy for the sake of it? I don't think that I like the straightforward stories more than others but this is just a bit much. Halfway through Final Crisis and yeah I dunno. Hopefully the Dickbats stuff is as good as I remember it being.
I honestly think Snyder might be my fave Batman run. I feel bad saying it because it's so new but it's just everything I need. Plus Capullo art goddamn.
I honestly think Snyder might be my fave Batman run. I feel bad saying it because it's so new but it's just everything I need. Plus Capullo art goddamn.
And the next arc looks really interesting if you notice the hints on the newest cover.
Freezasaurus
Member
Captain Marvel actually a Cylon confirmed
Freezasaurus
Member
oh, yeah, that cover. I saw that one and read the solicit description.
Makes me think some shit is going to happen in CWII that shakes Kamala's faith in everything she believes.
Brian Fellows
Pete Carroll Owns Me
Speaking of BSG who all ended up being Cylons? I dropped the show after that comically bad boxing episode
TetraxShards
Member
The final five were revealed to be
Tigh, Tigh's wife, Galen Tyrol (the mechanic), Tory Foster and Starbuck's husband Longshot (not the X-Men character)
I miss that show. I basically don't watch TV anymore, but I've had random Star Trek episodes on lately since they added them to Netflix UK and it's made me want to revisit it. I only have it on DVD though, and have nothing that plays discs right now. The perils of the digital age.
Brian Fellows
Pete Carroll Owns Me
Cool thanks.
I loved it enough at one point to name the bigger dog in my avatar Apollo. But I felt it went way off the rails with the Scar episode and never recovered. The boxing episode was just the straw that finally broke the camels back. Dipshits at SyFy just couldn't leave perfection alone.
Another one of my current favorite shows Vikings is going through something similar now with History expanding seasons and trying to milk it for everything it's worth.
Freezasaurus
Member
Damn, lemme see if I remember...
Chief Tyrol and Colonol Tigh, Ellen Tigh, Sam Anders, and Tory (the President's assistant) as well.
EDIT: Beaten
Freezasaurus
Member
If you've never seen it, the prequel series Caprica is also really good. It's not exactly the same type of show, but it is interesting.
whatsinaname
Member
Brianimaniac
Banned
FF is now spoken for. Spidey still available.
There are a few other books up there. Aarons Thor, Slott Surfer come to mind.
Freezasaurus
Member
I don't think I've read Aaron's Thor. Was it stll Odinson or Girl-Thor at that point?
Tyrant Rave
Banned
More Than Meets The Eye is what you want. If you're looking to save cash, check out Scribd as they offer the series. MUCH cheaper than dealing with IDW's pricing.
Can you not
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