Off the Cuff - Edition 4

By Eric Barrett

Comics, Cartoons, and all things related

* I thought I'd lead off with a bit about the Bat family. No, not the ones that eat bugs the one's that protect Gotham City. As I was reading Robin #128 it dawned on me just how cool it would be to be a member of the Bat family. Sure this isn't the first time I've had this thought, but it doesn't make it any less cool!

The two coolest aspects of being in the Family: Uber-detective skills and the ability to disappear without a trace.

* I loved the contrast of Superman and Mr. Majestic sitting in an empty diner sipping coffee: two all-powerful (or very close to it) beings just having a relaxed conversation, despite the tension around them.

As they say in the Guinness commercials: Brilliant!

* It was irritating, on the other hand, that Majestic defines 'conservatism' as militant, aggressive, arrogant and condescending behavior. And 'liberal wishy-washy' types as those that use judgement, reason, follow the rule of law, and are generally seen as the 'good guys'. Sigh.

* One problem that shows like Dragonball and YuYu Hakusho have is what I refer to as 'exponential growth'. In each of these shows you have an initial great storyline. This usually involves the hero training and overcoming some fantastic obstacles. Usually the villain is superstrong, and the odds are stacked against our hero. Eventually through training the hero overcomes the odds and wins. (Yay for us!) So what's the problem? Well you can only do this story line so many times before the whole concept becomes ridiculous. This was DBZ's problem. The show had established Cell as the greatest and most powerful villain, eclipsing Freeza. So when Gohan defeats him they have to come up with a villain that is even stronger so the show can continue. This cycle repeats itself over and over (or else it wouldn't be called a cycle). See, exponential growth.

Now this would be okay, but you can only increase the power levels so much before the viewer/reader says, 'wait a second.' And if you can't change the dynamics of this cycle the show will absolutely jump the shark and you end up with a truly awful cartoon like Dragonball GT. You find yourself wishing for the thrill of the old show. And before you know it you are writing a column complaining about it.

* One thing that drives me nuts about the Bat family is that they use their real names when talking over their headsets. Sure they also use their code names, but that only makes it worse. What happens if someone can pick up on the signal? Codes can be broken and radio waves intercepted. Heck, even if a villain took out a member and listened to the radio they could figure it out. When they hear Oracle say, "Bruce" and watch Batman respond...

This might not be as big of a deal if Batman didn't go to such lengths to obscure his identity and even his existence.

* She-Hulk # 6: I love the subtle humor in this book. One of this issue's amusing incidents involves the capture of Electro, Tiger Shark, Sandman (my personal favorite) and Eightball. I wish all battles ended this way!

And if you don't know what I'm talking about, then you should go pick up an issue. You'll thank me for it later.

* Don't you love how easy it is to hack into computers in the comic book world? Just press a few buttons and BAM! You're hacked into someone's mainframe. Need to create a virus; well you can in 10 seconds or less. Sometimes I don't know what's more unrealistic...superpowers or computer programming ability.

* Speaking of computers, everyone must have super-fast machines. Have you ever noticed how quickly things are uploaded and downloaded from computers? I wish my computer were even half that fast!

* So by now everyone's probably seen the pictures of "The Thing" from the upcoming movie. Some have said they like it, other's not so much. I fall into the later group. To me the ideal Thing was from the mid-90's TV show. Nice and rocky and light orange, just the way he should be. The movie Thing is more lumpy or possibly crusty. He's also a dirty orange color. It's not the Thing I picture in my mind's eye.

However, this movies interpretation of The Thing is interesting because it gets directly to the heart of the name. I could never understand why The Thing was so horrified by his looks. Sure he wasn't going to win any beauty contests - but compared to other superheroes (Nightcrawler, Hellboy, Spawn, etc...) he wasn't that bad looking. But the movie version makes him truly horrifying and I can see why he's concerned about his looks.

The movie Thing has an added dimension to his character that I think was lacking from other versions. Well done.

* Does this mean I've changed my mind and like the new look of Thing? No.

* One of the things that I like best about War Games is that Batman himself is showing signs of the strain and stress of the situation. Very few stories do you get to see Batman look as if he might crack. Now I don't want to see this side of Batman all the time, but sometimes it's a nice change.

*A little toy news? With the resurgence of TMNT it's funny to see new Turtle action figures. It doesn't seem like that long ago I was asking for TMNT figures.

* Hmmm. A little bit of extra Batman stuff this time too. Well I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the odds of getting another column filled with Bats is very likely. Hey, this is what happens when I get into a cross-over!

Only one more act to go though!