I was trying to remember if Jeff Bennett based Bruno's voice on a particular actor.
Mark
posted @ Sun, Sep 1, 2024 7:39:00 am EDT from 209.74.237.9

Todd > That is terrific. I'm certain that you're correct. Great catch. (And nicely done, Greg.)
Craig
posted @ Sat, Aug 31, 2024 8:42:31 pm EDT from 166.198.21.44

I was rereading "Dark Ages: Alliance" this afternoon, and noted that Nicolas, the boy who was particularly eager to become an actor and was taking lessons from Peredur and Blanchefleur's company of players, was apprenticed to the local weaver. When you combine the "weaver" part with his name being Nicolas, and a thirst for acting - I wonder whether we've got an adaptation of another Shakespearean figure here. Two particular members of the Third Race might even be crossing paths with Nicolas later, in fact....
Todd Jensen
posted @ Sat, Aug 31, 2024 7:47:03 pm EDT from 68.99.93.213

Thank you Todd. I've known for some time that one of the months was going to be from a non-human perspective and I figured "dog days of summer" would fit in with the month of August.
But the biggest reason was when I learned that homeless pet owners are generally quite attentive to their pets needs, far above their own. I've read how they'll go hungry before letting their pets go hungry.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Sat, Aug 31, 2024 10:13:56 am EDT from 135.180.3.149

MATTHEW - Thanks for the latest poem. The part that stood out to me most was the revelation in the final line that the narrator is a dog - the first non-human narrator in your poem cycle.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Sat, Aug 31, 2024 8:32:12 am EDT from 68.99.93.213

Whoops, another double post. But it's the last day of the month so it's time for the next section of my poem, "A Year on the Streets."

August

Ever since I was little, I’ve loved my Joel.
He found me after mom was hit and my family went away, I don’t know where.
Washing me with the little soap he had.
Giving me water, feeding me by hand.

We went someplace new, I don’t know where.
There’s new sights, new smells, and my same old Joel.
But there’s not much food here, so we leave once again.
New sights, new smells, and my same old Joel.

Some days we sit by the road and he keeps me close.
Sometimes we get food, and sometimes we don’t.
And when the days get hot and he sweats and he heaves,
There he still is, giving me water from his hand.

And when the nights get cold and we’re asleep on our bed,
When his fits and cries start I cuddle close as I can.
He sighs, I sigh, and we sleep once again.
For I am his dog, and he is my Joel.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Sat, Aug 31, 2024 3:10:33 am EDT from 135.180.3.149

Thank you, Todd. Though to my embarrassment I forgot to mention in "The Invisible Hand" we also get introduced to George Stacy, who is certainly an important figure.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Fri, Aug 30, 2024 4:59:01 pm EDT from 135.180.3.149

MATTHEW - Thanks for the "Economics 101" summary.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Fri, Aug 30, 2024 9:00:22 am EDT from 68.99.93.213

Excuse the double post, but time for Economics 101.

Market Forces-9/10. The decision to have one of the Enforcers take on the role of Shocker was inspired, it set up one of the earlier introduced crooks (which is what this arc is all about) into a proper threat and gave personality to a character that's often treated as a non-entity. Shocker also lets slip that there's someone who wants Spidey rubbed out and is willing to pay for super mercenaries to do so, which brings Osborn into the fold. It also continues the enmity Peter unfortunately has built up with his friends due to his crime-fighting and photography. I like the parenting (harsh as it is) Norman provides to Harry by telling him to stop whining and take some responsibility. Which he will certainly do...

On a less ominous side, we get a whole slew of new characters with the Daily Bugle staff which brings a lot of new character dynamics. Peter gets a new mentor in Robbie, an object of attraction in Betty and a headache in Jameson. It's a shame Daran Norris doesn't get brought up much when it comes to J. Jonah Jameson performers, he's delightfully loud and obnoxious.

Competition-10/10. This a fun little outing but also a big step for characters and the directions they're going. Doctor Octavius gets his arms introduced and the hostility with his employer Mr. Osborn is on full display. Flint Marko goes from a cheap crook to the shapeshifting Sandman and Harry's success at football has him from punching bag to rising star, helped by some newfound skills and a swelled head. And Peter's romantic troubles begin to arise. One neat little detail is the buildup for both long and short arcs, Sandman's shapeshifting starts off small and basic and allows for room to grow while accidentally letting Spider-Man know about "The Big Man."

The Invisible Hand-10/10. This concludes the arc and like "Natural Selection" seamlessly transitions to the next one. Rhino will be the most common adversary Spidey faces but the first interaction is pretty unique and he spends most of the time running from the big guy, which is ingeniously how he takes him down. But the big reveal comes from Tombstone as the one pulling the strings and the fact that every time Peter fights a supervillain there's plenty of ordinary crime filling his coffers. Speaking of profit, there's also the reveal that Osborn gets paid for both helping create supervillains and creating means of incarcerating them. A sweet deal if not for Hammerhead trying to flex some control over him, that'll create problems soon enough.

But we also get the introduction of Mary Jane Watson giving her famous, "Face it, Tiger. You just hit the Jackpot" line. A line that still hasn't been used in any movie for some reason.

Next up is when things get really interesting.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Fri, Aug 30, 2024 6:16:10 am EDT from 135.180.3.149

TODD> Good point, though I would kind of count The Owl House as the chat here recommended it.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Thu, Aug 29, 2024 11:36:04 pm EDT from 135.180.3.149

I did my S3 YJ review a year or so back, still planning to do S4 when I get the chance.
Jurgan - [jurgan6 at yahoo dot com]
posted @ Thu, Aug 29, 2024 10:54:21 pm EDT from 97.182.116.107

And there were the episode-by-episode reviews of "The Owl House" after that, though since Greg Weisman didn't work on that one, they probably don't count. (They were still very good reviews, though.)
Todd Jensen
posted @ Thu, Aug 29, 2024 9:20:56 pm EDT from 68.99.93.213

Todd> I recall, if I had any idea what I was getting into I might've taken some time in between everything I reviewed, which was a lot.

Carumbo> As Todd mentioned, after he reviewed every episode of Gargoyles I did the same with The Spectacular Spider-Man. Then summer came around and I led a book club of sorts with Greg's two Rain books. And then after that I decided I'd review everything Young Justice related. Two books, two animated series, 98 episodes, 29 tie-in comics and one audioplay, I was certainly burned out by that but it was in the middle of the pandemic and there's much else to do.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Thu, Aug 29, 2024 9:12:16 pm EDT from 135.180.3.149

Fedora Guy - Well well, I didn't imagine I was going to start a trend; I wonder if anyone will do the Historical Ratings for W.I.T.C.H. and/or Young Justice later on.

I won't comment overmuch on your analysis (my memories of SpecSpidey aren't fresh enough for my opinion to hold much weight), but I will say that I was surprised to see that you didn't give a 10 to the first episode, because... well, it's the first episode! If that one doesn't get a 10, I have to wonder if anything will later on.
CarumboZabumbo
Noi siamo le creature della notte! Noi siamo... i Gargoyles!
posted @ Thu, Aug 29, 2024 5:46:04 am EDT from 87.21.199.219

MATTHEW - Thanks for the start of your episode-by-episode study of "The Spectacular Spider-Man". (I remember you did an episode-by-episode review a few years ago, just after my 25th anniversary episode-by-episode review of "Gargoyles".)
Todd Jensen
posted @ Wed, Aug 28, 2024 7:56:33 pm EDT from 68.99.93.213

Been putting some thought to it and I've decided to follow Carumbo's example and rank the episodes of Spectacular Spider-Man in terms of continuity, the importance of the story and how it affects the future. Like Gargoyles this is going to be mostly on the positive scale of things, especially since Spider-Man has probably the best pacing of all of Greg's works. This won't be a full review and analysis, already did those back in 2020 and I have no desire to go through all that again. Anywho...

Biology 101

Survival of the Fittest-9/10. Every good show needs to set its foundation early on and this does pretty well with it. Spidey's origin story is pretty well known so they skipped that and worked on introducing the various pieces instead. There's a lot introduced here: Peter and May's financial troubles, ESU and the Conners, Peter's relationship with Gwen and Harry and school, Norman's problems at Oscorp and at home (mostly his own doing), and the Big Man of Crime and his flunkies.

It doesn't feel like too much however, mostly because we're only getting hints of future plot points. And I appreciate that Peter's first forays in fighting started small with the Vulture and the Enforcers. It both allows threats to grow but also displays that Spider-Man's going to be tackling bigger threats than the standard crooks and thieves.

Interactions-8/10. If Survival of the Fittest set the groundwork for Spider-Man's future against the criminal underworld, then this one did the same for how things are changing for Peter at school. It would be pretty boring if Peter just remained the nerdy social pariah the whole series and I like that it was almost by accident. Peter knocking down Liz's ego but also showing kindness and a willingness basically sets things in motion that would dissolve the social cliques at Midtown.

On the other side of things. we're introduced to Electro who becomes one of the more frequent opponents for the series and helps set the stage for Curt's transformation next episode and while it looks like Eddie may have a heroic side to him but as Greg put was in fact a self-destructiveness that will be explored later.

Natural Selection-8/10. While the previous episode didn't exactly end on a positive note with Electro, this is probably the first "lose even when you win" ending for the show which is pretty standard for Spider-Man story telling. What I do like is that this down note has a logical trajectory to it rather than just making Peter's life miserable for the heck of it. Opportunities for winning the Bugle contest were slipping away and this was probably Peter's last chance of helping relieve the financial burden he and his aunt were going through and it comes at the cost of losing trust from two scientists he greatly admires, one of his closest friends and Eddie, who begins his own dark journey.

The Lizard only shows up once but the consequences of Curt's decision will be much more important later on. Plus it introduces the gene cleanser which is going to have a big impact in the second season. And while Peter is out on the science side of fighting super villains, the transition to working at the Daily Bugle helps move him into crime-solving mindset as we'll see later.

Anyway, that's the first arc. I'll be continuing the "Education of Peter Parker" later on over the week.
Matthew the Fedora Guy
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Wed, Aug 28, 2024 7:52:03 pm EDT from 135.180.3.149

One element from the radio play that I hoped was going to make its way into Quest was Demona implying that she killed Hitler, but I guess if it was going to happen it would have happened by now; pity.

I don't think Jade and Turquesa will be there for the final battle: four in-universe months passed between their arrival in Manhattan and Demona getting the final Key, and I have to assume they resumed their World Tour long before then; maybe they'll get a cameo in Issue #5 to show us they returned to Guatemala*.

I agree that it would be nice to get a canonical counterpart to that "You know, Hitler wasn't actually Aryan/You know, Voldemort isn't actually a Pureblood" moment; I'm also glad that we probably won't be getting a counterpart to the idea that Demona can control the Mayan Gargoyles through their pendents, which never made much sense to me - can she also control Brooklyn and Hudson through their human-made swords? Broadway through all that human-made food he eats? That's not how your completely made-up magic power should work, lady.

*In fact, if Quest does end up climaxing with the hatching of Egwardo, I would like to get a montage showing all the Gargoyle eggs from all over the world hatching at the same time - it would be a cool way of officially revealing the four other currently exisiting Clans, among other things.
CarumboZabumbo
Noi siamo le creature della notte! Noi siamo... i Gargoyles!
posted @ Tue, Aug 27, 2024 4:32:01 am EDT from 87.21.199.219

We know that the Dynamite Comics "Gargoyles" stories have used elements from the "Gargoyles" crossover radio plays (if revised, of course, to leave out, the "Spectacular Spider-Man" and "Young Justice" materials, among other things). So far, we've seen:

1. Demona after the two pieces of an ancient legendary spear, the spear-head and shaft, which have become separated, as part of a big scheme (though here the spear is that of Odin, rather than the Spear of Longinus).

2. this same scheme of Demona's features a visit to Manhattan from a couple of gargoyles of the Mayan clan - though here Jade and Turquesa (in the "Religious Studies 101" radio play, the visitors were Zafiro and Obsidiana - and I think that Jade and Turquesa worked better, because they had a built-in means of arriving in Manhattan, via Avalon).

3. The Hand of Valmont.

4. Dominic Dracon serving as a figurehead leader for the organized crime scene in Manhattan (in the "Religious Studies 101" radio play, Demona proposes using him for this role to Tombstone/the Big Man; here Demona actually gets to carry it out, though here she's working with Antoinette Dracon instead).

There's one feature in "Religious Studies 101" that I'm hoping will have a counterpart in "Gargoyles Quest"'s remaining two issues - the part where after Demona, who's carried out an alternate "Three New Keys of Power" scheme (though here there are only two objects) and is prepared to use them to gain control of humanity and thereby wipe them out (presumably her goal in "Gargoyles Quest"), comments how she's even able to control the Mayan gargoyles because their pendants are powered by human magic, and sneeringly remarks how Goliath himself bears such a taint via his love for Elisa (though that doesn't similarly leave him vulnerable to her spell), Goliath grapples with her, seeking to wrest these alternate New Keys of Power away from her, and says "But I am not the only one who reeks of humanity. Am I - Dominique?!"

I thought this was a particularly great moment, bringing up a major irony about Demona: she, the gargoyle who hates humans with a passion, and has sought their destruction for centuries, herself regularly changes into a human in the daytime (and which is the weakness that enables Goliath to defeat her). I'm hoping to see some parallel of this element in the issues of "Gargoyles Quest" to come.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Mon, Aug 26, 2024 10:59:33 pm EDT from 68.99.93.213

As I've suggested before, I have my doubts that they really are bots rather than just obscenely low-paid humans copying and posting text. For which, although they are not much different from bots, they are still human fingers behind those posts, and they could honestly check a "not a bot" box without too much trouble.

I am astonished and somewhat creeped to see that some of the bots' links, or something like them, were spammed into alt.fan.disney.gargoyles a couple of years ago (yes! Usenet still exists! but it's very dead). Someone is very committed to the idea that Gargoyles fans are the target market for Australian building contractors, apparently. (Are they? Doesn't seem likely, but I'm still new enough here that I guess I should not assume.)
morrand - [morrand276 at gmail dot com]
posted @ Mon, Aug 26, 2024 6:37:42 pm EDT from 99.74.15.252

Three bot-posts in a row at the start of the week, and the last post last week was another bot. This is the kind of thing that makes it tempting to suggest that the "make-a-comment" page gets a "check this box to prove you are not a robot", though when we discussed that before, the indication was that it would require the comment room being down for a while to make that change.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Mon, Aug 26, 2024 8:35:30 am EDT from 68.99.93.213

Fourth... or First!?
Matt
"And, thus, given no choice, we waited..." - Alesand, "The Reach"
posted @ Mon, Aug 26, 2024 8:15:44 am EDT from 204.184.178.1