Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

The Hunt

Wow- first time I had 5 questions in a review for a while.
But first the Shorts-
I loved the All New Animal Man...again
DC Nation Farm League- Not sure I love it, but this one had great lines. "I want whatever Wombats eat!" "'I'll go.' 'But actually get snacks, not just run around rooftops and narrate yourself.'" "Catcat" "I am the mongoose who is also a bat...cue lightning." "I looked it up, wombats eat roots!" Alright, I think I liked this one.

1- Still wondering at the geological chaos not shown for introducing the second moon sized War World into orbit. (I just remember one mention when it parked in orbit.)
2- "One of nine young heroes captured by the Reach." Wolf is included in the count. Lex is not one to underestimate anyone.
3- "You had me at 'we owe them'." The last statement ;) or perhaps the most important.
4- Surrender ruse- those kids are certainly simpatico.
Q5- Parts of War World look like a city. Is it designed to hold a population should the person with the key desire it?
Q6- The new kids seem rather blasé about throwing Reach soldiers over the edges to presumably die. I'm not saying they should hold back, just that I am a little surprised that it doesn't make them pause at any point. Is this a case of not thinking of the (literally) faceless enemy, or rage against those that tortured them? (Although...do I imagine a landing ~thud~ right before the "and that's what you get for blasting my board!", like they landed on an off screen surface and not followed Eduardo's previous fall path?)
7- I really liked the visual of Longshadow shrinking down and his real body filling into the space before it disappeared. Something about how he sunk into and filled the feet, knees and shins was...elegantly done?
Q8- When Arsenal is out of power for his arm, does that include basic none weapon functions- does it become still? I tried pause frame, but aside from him using his other hand to take the Reach weapon, I couldn't tell if there was anything to check on screen. (I've read description of the cutting edge leg prosthetics can be like that - you don't fully charge and sometime the next day your miracle of modern mechanical engineering becomes a very fancy stump leg. One lady described being unable to leave her desk one day because she had plugged in her leg to charge.)
9- Nightwing and Megan's guiltfest. Nicely done. Without short changing legitimate emotional reactions, you have a history of not having characters stupidly hash over and wallow unaware. They can do stupid things, but not because they are blind to a painfully obvious thing. (Unless of course that blindness is a defining flaw ~ahem, Demona~.)
10- I love those smiles as Sphere comes in :)
11- GGGodfry- Happy, happy, joy, joy. Earlier I accused him of drinking the kool-aid. I do apologize. Kinda reminds you why an honest press that hates you can be your most important resource. The fact he had been on their side, but not going to ignore their sins, gives him the access to publicly call the Reach on their lies and the standing to be believed as unbiased. As for all the nasty things he said of the Justice League...a lot of them were fair. As Feste said, "now my foes tell me plainly I am an ass: so that by my foes, sir, I profit in the knowledge of myself, ...the worse for my friends and the better for my foes." (Who can resist quoting Feste?) Of course this might all be for naught if he ends up being Darkseid or the like....
12- The Light certainly are clever with mega level distractions when they steal stuff.
Q13- What is the stuff Roy takes that was in the same room as the key?
14- Nightwing is right to throw Arsenal off, and he did it they best way possible under the circumstances, but the runaways were right from what they observed, and it speaks well of them that loyalty and fairness motivates them so. Carries right through to rejecting Lex without hesitation. Those kids have great instincts. Roy will either get them killed or be the better for the association. It's too small of a group for his ill actions to be compensated for, and although he thinks they suit his lone wolf badassery, that's really not what they are about. They act from a solid core value set, not the hurt fear that Roy does. Different reactions to very similar experiences, though the new kids had each other while Roy was alone.
15- Roy immediately figures out all the pieces- he's using you as a distraction while he sent another pawn to get the crystal key! "Actually Deathstroke is more of a bishop". :) The kids reject it, but Lex is unapologetic about his utilitarian world view.
Thanks

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

Complications: (1 question in the mix)
Shorts-
An all new rerun of the second Vibe short...
Gem World- cute as the others.

1- Just really noticing, but Black Manta is movie matinee gorgeous. (Kal is beautiful (also hansom, but the word choice is intentional), but just enough not human to be 'alien'.)
2- War World bigger than moon? That should make chaos - as a Manhattanite I wonder at how high the water is hitting.
3- "Don't kid yourself Jade, we're not that different." Maybe some other time I'll see it, but right now they really seem ~that~ different. The first time I saw it I basically accepted the disdain she shows her father as that of a child to a parent, for and on par with that Artimas has shown. But on second viewing it occurs to me, she is a mother. She is probably more likely to disdain him as parent herself. Which then contrasts interestingly with Black Manta's devotion to a son that covertly disdains him. I am increasingly curious as to the history and relationship between father and son.
Q 4-"Fresh Pot" The random crew member looks really familiar. How odd. Also very human, like Black Manta, are they not Atlantian?
5- "The Martian is attempting to save him. She knows if her patient dies we have no reason to keep her alive." Well thank goodness they came up with a reason to explain it. There is no guarantee our intrepid heroes would have thought of that.
6- Ok, now we can talk. Slam! -that's unfortunate.
Q 7- Nightwing the detective puts together miniscule clues and figures out Blue Beetle is lying... works for me. But how does he do a somersault down easily three times his height and land on his feet? Is the gravity lighter on War World? (Is its gravity is based on mass and not artificially generated?) On Earth when he does something like that he usually bounces off a few intermediary things on the way down - like in that French sport that makes {extremely fit} regular people look like Spiderman.
8- In Artimas & Cheshires' room- Cheshire's anger at Megan for 'stealing' that memory makes her real sense of family contrast to her father even stronger. She's never a good guy, but her interest is in self. Since she cares about family, (despite having abandoned it when they were younger), she protects it. Same way we saw her rescue [clone] Roy to be a father. (Art note- side by side you really see the sisters look alike.) It makes her a lot more likeable…despite being a cold blooded killer. Sportsmaster, in contrast, rejects the emotional response, he takes the physical, literally kick in the head, and then is happy because his 'baby girl' is playing Manta and Light for chumps.
9- M'gan, "I realize Chesire that we will probably never be friends."
Cheshire, "You can leave off the probably." :)
10- Deathstroke, "Leaving so soon...and without a goodbye?" Cheshire, "Good bye." LOVE IT. More father daughter contrast: Sportmaster has a grudge and rep and challenge to meet- he runs to the fight. Short of something on the level of sister to avenge, (or a paycheck, I presume), she's done and gone. Way smarter. He's the bad guy equivalent of a knight throwing off his helmet after knocking off his opponent's. She's more of a shoot the knight with a gun kinda gal. Darwin with a wry sense of humor. Yeah, I know it's part of the act, but they are playing to type.
11- Mid fight sibling teasing...makes me happy. But seriously, losing a free babysitter is probably worth a small amount of bruising and blood spilled...just saying.
12- "Yeah Yeah...and sorry" "For what?" SLAM hee hee
13- Elegant end to the situation...but how long till Simon wakes up and they're all screwed?
14- What a sweet scene between Cheshire and her mom over Lian.... Of course you stopped the camera before her mom's reaction to Artimas being alive. I presume it went something like this, "She's al...She's.... I'm, I'm so hap...so ha... I AM SO GOING TO KILL HER!" Or something like that.
15- More Black Manta has heartfelt dad...and no love from Kal. I'm looking forward to that back story.
16- Jamie shows his face...I wonder, (and presumably will soon find out), if he gave up his identity or just showed a face that may or may not be recognized. (Like that JLU episode with Lex Luthar in Flash's body. He takes off the mask, looks in the mirror and realizes he has no idea who's face that it.)
Thanks.

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

War-
Only the last thought has a question.
Shorts-
Vibe I. All new? Still far less dated than it should be.
Amethyst- fun enough

1 A few things caught my interest in the trial-
a- "the life forms you injured" The Light had total control over the Justice Leaguers and chose not to kill?
b- "surely the bribes have changed hands by now? ...savages." Amusing, also an argument not without merit- if bribes are expected, there is a reasonable expectation of behavior in that society. To buck expectations is to challenge the order of that civilization. Like the cannibal shocked by the carnage described in WWI, 'You mean you kill more than you can eat? Savage!", what we see as bad behavior actually keeps them I check.
c- Savage, the 'savage' that started it all, a literal early savage, is there to throw Mongal into the mix. {Mongal…that voice.}
2- War World is the size of the moon? What that would do to Earth! It's cataclysmic!
3- Surest way to take back his world is to concur the entire galaxy? Overkill much?
4- Karen; "Sorry, I'm a little preoccupied ...with THE SECOND MOON IN THE SKY!" What a fantastic fake-out! Not a relationship subplot, gotcha!
5- "Unfortunately the Reach only has this single ship designed for peaceful exploration and unequipped with weapons of any kind." Yeah, that's gonna come back to bite you in the posterior. (Ironic that the Justice League really did that with their satellite.)
6- I notice that when the JL makes important contact, Nightwing always represents.
7- Mal -Fine with me, I like the attention, at least a big alien death moon notices when I'm around.
Karen-Was that a Slam on me? In the middle of a mission?!
Mal-Woman, when are you not in the middle of a mission?!
A point, a palpable point!
Mal-Alright, Supercycle's got our back, I love a lady I can count on!
Karen-Alright, I get it, I'm a bad girlfriend. Now quit pouting.
Mal- Who's pouting? I'm not pouting! Let's just blow this place and go.
I'm given her the win this time.
Mal- Good luck beautiful.
Awww....
8-Mongol's powers are red sun related? But I thought he's that powerful everywhere.
9- Cat Grant's voice is great.
10- Nice cutting from Batgirl down to the Reach on the percentage of attack neutralized. I also recall a transition from the Reach observation of attack to the halls themselves.
11- Mal- you outgrew me. Karen- idiot.
That works better than the cliché on most shows.., more satisfying too. Leads to that great happy clean up vibe Blue beetle destroys.
12- I'm trying to decide if Arsenal screwed up any chance of defeating Blue or if they were really without a chance and the airlock just gave him a chance to go another day. Tim and Karen aren't the most powerful team members, but they are probably among the smartest... (Not that it was Roy's motivation at the time.)
Q13- Why did only the still fighting members of the team get pulled by the open airlock? Roy, Karen, Time and Wolf hold on for dear life. Sphere goes out the door. But Mal just lies there. And I don't see them while the locke is open, but the same question applies to Babs, Gar, Bart, and Conner. As far as I can tell, only Cassie was pinned, and Mongal weighs a ton.
Thanks.

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

Another old review, 2 questions among the comments...
Runways
Shorts-
Black Lightening and family- LOVE
SBFF- "brand new"? I'm not saying I didn't love it, just that I loved it the first time.

1-Meta gene being 'opportunistic' makes sense. The DCU is full of the superpowered children of Golden Age none powered heroes, often superpowers that fit thematically with their parents' personas.
Q2-Wilcox's design looks reminiscent of an actor whose names I don't remember...what's the importance of his necklace watch? (Close up on it being left behind.)
3-I'm so used to brilliant Static, I'm going to have to get used to regular (very good) guy- but I like that he was never a runaway. It's been so long since I read the original comics, I can't remember if he was a crazy science geek back in Milestone. (Between the brains and the quips, Virgil often reminds me of Peter Parker.) I did notice that when he knocked out the guard with the fire extinguisher it remained still in the air after the man fell. I take it is to show that he didn't just fling it at the man, or in other words, even in the thick of things he had the presence of mind not to just bean a none bad guy full force. But then it fell on the man's shoulder....
4-I'm not clear on Asami's power. I'm sure it will be made clear or answered by the time you read this, but I'm guessing it has to do with kinetic, springlike force bursts.
5-I'm still fuzzy on how the lab held the kids without parental consent, especially Virgil, (and for all we know, Asami), who wants to be with his family. Though I feel for Newt's side of the argument.
Q6-Jamie on the phone with Nightwing seemed fully Jamie, (had me thinking that the tinkering Green Beetle did hadn't yet taken effect). When the Reach takes a host, do they let the host think it's in control when it's undercover? ...Actually, from a later episode it seems they retain some of their original personality- Is either of the above true? Are the Beetles we've seen typical?
7-Amazo parts...no that's not going to end badly. But Red Volcano was certainly a surprise. Actually, nice red herring of the head being elsewhere.
8-I have no idea if the Japanese is good, bad or really Mongolian, but the timing is hilarious.
9-Virgil and can of Reach was a good chuckle.
10-Jaime going overboard and putting civilians in danger had me assuming he was turning, I hadn't realized it was because he already turned.
11-Those four kids have great instincts when it comes to issues of trust - walking away from Jaime, being wary of Lex.
Thanks.

Laura 'as astra' Sack writes...

Yay! The queue is open! I wish I had some gamer friends to go to to try out YJ:Legacy. I will have to make do with everyone else's enthusiastic reviews to find the story. I apologize for the coming info dump, but I've saved up a bunch of comments since the queue closed, but a lot of it is reviews of the last few episodes. I was rather far behinds when the queue closed...

Fix
Shorts-
Batman of Shanghi- Still lovely, still not for me. But seeing fight through puppet screen is cool.
Farm League- eh

Numbered thoughts-
1-Blank Manta is such a concerned father.
2-Megan is so hesitant, what an unfortunate time to be so scrupled. I was suspicious at the time, though writing this up later lets me say I was right to be so. Still I wonder what the plan was had she not been hesitant. Were they just hoping the Green Beetle would be powerful enough to misdirect her? (His offering the Reach drink additive info is an easy give since Lex knew that Robin snagged a sample to test. The Meta gene added info might have been considered something that would eventually, or perhaps was already discovered, an even if not, it was a 'good will' gesture more than worth it.)
3-Artimas really is good at the undercover thinking on her feet. I wonder at the stories during the five year jump that showed her growing those skills. Even though her whole first year on the team was a similar hiding of self in a way, she just wasn't that good at it. (Inner and outer dialogue- Death Stroke coming along- Perfect...perfect.)
4- Blue Beetle- How about we meet up first thing in the morning...say noon :)
5-Lagon in the beginning seems all clueless wanting Megan to use her powers, but then we see him talking about their relationship and there is nothing clueless about it. HE knows something is wrong and won't even wait to talk about it.
6- Death Stroke is visually bad @ss- he moves, he poses etc. I'm on the fence about the ponytail. How it hangs or moves at the bottom looks cool. Looks weird coming from his head. It's a dumb thing for a hand-to-hand fighter, (though Nightwing once had one), but he's good enough to be taunting an opponent to grab at it.
7- Green Beetle gets Jaime to ask to let him in. It's best to get the mark to think he's asking for something from his own ideas.
8- "Megan, we don't have any choice." "No ~ ~ I suppose we don't." Great voice acting.
9- (with question)- There is one thing that struck me as little off in this and the following scenes in Karduran's room: Deathstroke is watching the whole time, he seems the two women, never talking, never saying even the minimum typical (un)pleasantries that two people stuck in a room would end up exchanging. Did he ever think it odd? Suspicious? Even Black Manta waited 6 hours before seeing Tigress stand in place as odd.
10- I still think there is good argument for Nightwing having kept the secret having been kept so limited in scope. Other dangers come from sharing.
11- Even when Kalduran has no face, but Tula does.
12- And there goes Jaime...not that we know that for a few episodes..

thanks!

Reiena writes...

I am curious about something with young Justice Legacy.

I was wondering how the Team Years went, is it from July 4th to July 4th each year, or is it from january 1st to january 1st each year.

Got young Justice Legacy for the 3DS and I have to say, was not seeing this storyline coming. The trailers did not give anything away, and I'm happy with the story so far.

B writes...

In your W.I.T.C.H. canon, was Taranee adopted, as she was revealed to be in the comics, or was she the biological child of Mr. and Mrs. Cook? (Assuming, of course, that you thought about this)

B writes...

If the W.I.T.C.H. TV series had continued, did you plan to eventually have Caleb break up with Cornelia and get together with Elyon, as in the comics? Or, if there wasn't a solid plan about that yet, was that a possibility you were considering?

Avi writes...

1. You write strong female characters with skill(Demona, Gwen, MJ, Artemis, ETC). Since women can be portrayed weak sometimes, how do you do it?
2. Other than Stan Lee's run with Romita and Ditko, what era of Spider-man comics did you enjoyed reading the most?
3. What is your opinion on Spider-man: Kraven's Last Hunt, by JM Dematteis? Most people generally like it but others think it may have been too dark for Spider-man (Dematteis was actually going to have the story be a Batman and Joker story at first)

Thanks for the amazing shows! Spectacular Spider-man (I was looking forward to Season 3-5 and DTV's) was absolutely amazing along with Young Justice (I was so looking forward to the next season). I am only up to Avalon part 1, but Gargoyles has been tremendously fun to watch so far. I don't love Star Wars, but Rebels seems great so far and I can't wait. You are an inspiration to me. Thank you.

B writes...

You once said that Medusa, as part of her mother Ekidna's isolationist faction, was "reluctant".

1. Since the originally conceived role of Medusa in The New Olympians was replaced by Sphinx, I imagine them as being the same age, so is being a friend/classmate of Sphinx part of the reason for Medusa's reluctance?

2. If there are other reasons, would you please elaborate on them?