Superman: Earth One Volume 1 (2010) - Comic Book Review

 Hey guys! I'm back with this week's comic book review. This week I'm talking about Superman: Earth One Volume 1 by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Shane Davis. So let's get into it.

The premise of the Earth One line of graphic novels is simple. Reboot the classic DC Comics characters such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans, and Green Lantern and make them characters that exist in today's world, with updated origin stories. And also publish the stories in graphic novel form rather than single issues to be collected in graphic novel form after the fact. And because Superman was the first superhero to be published by DC Comics, they chose him to start off this lineup with Straczynski writing all three volumes. 

For those of you who don't know who he is, J. Michael Straczynski, shortened to JMS, has a long career in animation, Television and comic books. In animation he worked on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, and The Real Ghostbusters to name a few. For Television he is best known for creating the Sci-Fi series, Babylon 5 (1993-1998), which served as a rival for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as both shows were on at the same time and were on for the same amount of time. In comics he's best known for a critically acclaimed run on The Amazing Spider-Man that ran from 2001 until 2007 and pretty much shaped what comic book Spider-Man was in the 2000s. In addition to Superman: Earth One, JMS also wrote for Superman and Wonder Woman at the time as well.

Superman: Earth One is a turning point for Superman in the comics. While it's not in continuity with the main DC Universe, it still served as inspiration for more recent Superman movies and Superman related TV shows, namely Man of Steel and Krypton. When you first look at the cover you think "Okay DC what are you doing here?" because Clark is wearing more modern/less formal clothing and his eyes are glowing as if he's some dark version of Superman. But when you actually read the book that's not the case at all.

Clark is very different here than he is in the other comics or even in the TV shows and movies. Normally when Clark moves to Metropolis he does so with the intention of becoming Superman and having a plan to conceal his identity from those who would use him for their own ends. But here he doesn't. He simply moves to Metropolis to look for a job, but struggles to decide whether he's going to become Superman or live a normal life. He even wears more casual clothing in this book, which isn't something you usually get with a more traditional Superman outside of Smallville. Though that's definitely something that's changed with Man of Steel and the Arrowverse in the last eleven years since this book came out. 

There really isn't a whole lot to the story. It's basically the plot of Man of Steel after you get through the origin stuff, but without as much to it. Which makes sense since DC was playing the long game with this series, and so they could afford to let JMS take his time and let the story unfold the way it needed to unfold without feeling slow or forced. Which is not usually the way comic book publishers work since they need to put out several dozen books per week and they react to sales figures and marketing advice. Things like that. But with Earth One they really took their time getting these books out. I like how it unfolds in the Superman books though because it does do things that the comics don't normally do. For example, in most versions of the origin story, the Kents hide Clark's ship or pod somewhere on the farm. Here though the military has the ship and is studying it, though they don't know who was in it until Superman reveals himself during the invasion by Tyrell and his people from Dheron, a planet that occupied the same star system as Krypton, similar to Daxam on Supergirl. 

Shane Davis's artwork is pretty good. I've never seen his work outside of the first two books in this series, but it's still pretty good. His Superman isn't as clean cut as Superman usually is. Both in terms of his personality and his appearance. His hair is a little bit longer and a bit shaggier than it normally is and despite knowing his responsibility regarding the uses of his powers, this version of Clark also knows early on that he has to make time for himself even when he's saving the city as Superman. Again, we don't normally get that from Superman. At least not when he's as young as he is in this book. It puts him in his early to mid 20s, though his exact age isn't brought up at all.

Probably the only thing I don't like as much about this book is Tyrell, the villain of the book. He's a lackey for a much bigger threat that won't actually be revealed until Volume 3. I mean it's fine, but Tyrell is such a boring villain that he ends up being an exposition dump for Clark and for us, the audience, and his plan is to just destroy everything until Superman reveals himself and surrenders to him. That's just not very interesting at all. But I think JMS meant for it to be that way since the meat of the story is in volumes 2 and 3, with volume 1 simply being the prologue or introductory chapter. Similar to how Star Wars introduces all of the main characters in the Star Wars Trilogy, but The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are where we really get to know them and get a huge chunk of the story. 

Alright guys that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday for my review of the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which drops Friday morning on Disney+ and I have my fingers crossed for this show since I was in the minority and didn't like WandaVision very much. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Superman & Lois: My Theories on Where it Could Be Going

 Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a good sleep last night. I did. So in my post last night on Superman & Lois I said I was going to talk about where the show could be going. But then I realized that, I didn't actually talk about that at all, which is why I'm writing this post instead of working on this week's comic book review. So let's jump back into it. Also, there will be spoilers for the first four episodes of the season, so if you're not caught up yet, just be aware of this.

I say this at the beginning of every post whenever I talk about this show, but I'll say it again. For me, Superman & Lois is the best comic book based TV show to have come out in a really long time. As I watch the show each week, I see more and more possibilities for where the show could take these characters by the end of the season. And while some of these possibilities are the most predictable ones that a Superman series could go to, as I said in my previous post, I'm fine with that.

One of the things that I love about this show is that Aaron and I are able to debate about it in a way we've never been able to do since we met after Arrow and the other Arrowverse shows lost their quality and I'd pretty much stopped caring by that point. Even when Crisis on Infinite Earths started looming ahead in the distance. Since the pilot aired, Aaron said that Lana would leave Kyle and make a play for Clark. I hesitated to agree with him because that would be the biggest trope for a CW show to do. But then I remembered that Lana did do that in the comics during the course of John Byrne's run on Action Comics, The Adventures of Superman, and Superman in the late 80s. Not to mention in an early first season episode of Superman: The Animated Series she pursued him as well. So it's not unprecedented for Lana Lang to pursue Clark, even after he's become Superman. But then this week's episode aired and now I 100% think we both misread the conversations between Clark and Lana in the first three episodes. This is where the spoilers come into play here.

In this week's episode, Lana invites Lois out for drinks at the bar, which I hope is named the Talon as easter egg for the coffee shop that Lana owned for a while on Smallville, and they chat about their husbands and other things going on in their respective lives. This is probably one of my favourite scenes in an episode of this show so far because Elizabeth Tulloch and Emmanuelle Chriqui are wonderful and play off each other nicely. Plus it's better than those scenes where the women are at each other's throats for no real reason. And then somehow both Lois and Lana make the other one realize something about their husbands (Clark for Lois and Kyle for Lana). In Lois's case Lana also inadvertently helps her to decide to stand up to her father, General Lane for herself and for Clark, which leads to what is probably the most satisfying scene that I've seen in a DC Comics based CW show in a really long time. So I think Lois and Lana are going to become friends at some point.

Speaking of General Lane, I think they could go down the usual dark path we see with him in books like Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns, where he absolutely hates Superman and basically disowns Lois for even associating with the Man of Steel. Also, the end of this week's episode references Project 7734, which is a black-ops military operation designed to protect Earth against Kryptonians, and is responsible for turning Lois's sister, Lucy, into Superwoman as a spy on New Krypton. I'm not familiar with this era of the comics, as it came after I'd stopped keeping up with current in the mid-2000s, not that I was actually reading current very much at that point anyway, but I had read Superman #200, JLA #'s 93, 94, 96, and 98, and The Flash #208 so I was somewhat familiar with the status quo of certain characters in the 2000s.

Also, because Morgan Edge is interesting in acquiring Kryptonite, just like every other Superman enemy in this series, I think we're going to find that Edge is working with either General Lane or Captain Luthor at some point. Especially since he very much seems to be financing what will become Project 7734 with those Kryptonian based powers that we've seen with Stacey Farber's character and the guy who tried to kill Lois in last week's episode. There's also a possibility that all three characters will end up working together at some point if they aren't already. And that will probably result in Lana being given Kryptonite powers, since Edge seems to have developed an interest in Lana in this week's episode.

I also think that Lana is going to discover that Clark is Superman as a result of this too. So far in the series we've had no real hint that Clark made Lana aware of his Kryptonian heritage when they were growing up in Smallville, despite them being best friends. In fact, every interaction that Lana's had with Clark in this series has made it seem that Lana is completely in the dark about Clark's powers and the fact that he's Superman. So I think at some point Lana is going to discover that Clark is Superman or he's going to tell her or something is going to happen to expose his identity to her. Or even to the entire Cushing family, which includes Kyle. Lana not knowing Clark's secret didn't seem to hinder their relationship any the way it did on Smallville for the longest time. 

Now comes the most obvious path for this show to go and that has to do with Jordan and Sarah. Since the pilot, Jordan and Sarah have slowly gotten closer, but it could only go so far while Sarah was dating Sean. But since she broke up with him in last week's episode, they've spent more time together, which culminating in them going to a party together and Sarah shuffling closer to Jordan while they were talking in this week's episode. And yeah, it's the oldest cliche in teen dramas, but in this case it works because they aren't suddenly in a romantic relationship with constant drama like Clark and Lana or Clark and Chloe were on Smallville. I know, I keep making references to Smallville, but this show is literally a mix of Superman shows and comic books, including Smallville so of course I'm going to keep making comparisons and references to that show.

That's all I've got for now, but I might do a follow-up to this post closer to the end of the season because I know that we'll be given more information as the season goes on and we'll learn more about these characters as well. We'll see. For now I'll have my comic book review out later this afternoon so stay tuned.

A Sudden Turn of Events: Superman & Lois Season 1, Episode 4 "Haywire"

 Hey guys! How's it going? I've had a busy day but I just finished watching this week's episode of Superman & Lois and I want to talk about it. It's not really a review, so there won't be any images on this post. It's just some thoughts on the series so far and where I think it might be going, as well as comic book based TV shows are now compared to where they were when Smallville started almost twenty years ago. Also there will be spoilers for this week's episode so that I can highlight a certain moment that I found absolutely fascinating. So let's get into it.

I am really enjoying Superman & Lois. In fact I'd say it's the best superhero show on right now, though I'm sure most people would say the same thing about WandaVision, which may also be true. But twenty years ago, there were no comic book based TV shows on the air. At least not in live-action and not on primetime, network, Television. The WB had had a slew of hits in animation with Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Batman Beyond with Justice League starting a month after Smallville premiered. Marvel also had a few shows like X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers: United They Stand, and of course HBO had Todd McFarlane's Spawn. However, there hadn't been anything in the world of comic books on the air in live action since Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman went off the air in 1997.

Even after Smallville proved to be a success, there still wasn't anything on the air that matched it's success. But back in 2012, the movie landscape had changed with the success of Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which culminated in the big box office success of The Avengers. And while the movie isn't actually responsible for The CW and Warner Bros. to greenlight Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg's dark, inspired by Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, take on Green Arrow known as Arrow, I honestly feel like that the movie's success got people to realize how good superhero and comic book based movies could be, which led to the success of Arrow. Especially since at the time Green Arrow wasn't a well known DC character outside of people who watched Smallville as he was a regular on the show in the final five seasons of it's run. And because he was such an unknown character to the general audience at large, there was every chance people would care. The Flash also carried a risk when it debuted in 2014 because the character had had a show in 1990 that only lasted one, 22 episode, season before CBS took it off the air.

Now, if you look at the TV landscape of 2021, it's very different than it was in 2001. Not only does DC Comics have an entire universe of shows airing on The CW but other comic book companies have licensed their IPs to networks and streaming services and all of them have been fairly successful, even if some of the material is more niche than others. Superman & Lois fits into this landscape very well.

When Tyler Hoechlin first appeared as Superman in the season 2 premiere of Supergirl in 2016 after moving from CBS to The CW, for the same reason CBS cancelled The Flash in early 1991, everybody was blown away. Superman fans had been disappointed with the way Zack Snyder had handled the character in both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that they'd lost faith that Warner Bros. could accurately portray Superman in a movie the way Richard Donner had in Superman: The Movie back in 1978. But then this guy, who was mostly known for playing Derek Hale on the MTV teen drama, Teen Wolf, came along and suddenly people wanted him to spin off of Supergirl and get his own series. It took five years, but it finally happened this year.

I've always felt that Superman can be a difficult character to write for. At least in movies and on TV. Writers either understand him or they don't. And I feel that these writers understand Superman more than any other screen writer has since possibly Bruce Timm when he produced Superman: The Animated Series in the late 90s. Debra Joy LeVine understood Clark Kent and Lois Lane, but she didn't understand Superman all that well. She even admitted that herself in the bonus features on the Lois & Clark season 1 DVD set, which is why she focused more on Clark Kent than on Superman. Which is a totally fine take on the character, especially since the show was inspired by John Byrne's run on the comics, where Byrne had also focused more on the Clark Kent side of the character, rather than the Superman side. But on the TV show, the Superman side suffered because of that decision.

Which brings me to Superman & Lois. There were two scenes in this week's episode that made me realize that this show was very much going to be a typical Superman show. The first scene was at the end where General Lane makes a call after his confrontation with Lois and Clark at the farm in Smallville, stating they need to enact a new protocol, which most likely has something to do with Superman. The second scene comes right after that where we find out what Morgan Edge wants in Smallville, which also has to do with Superman. Or at the very least Kryptonians in general. He wants Kryptonite. And it dawned on me that this show wants to be nothing else but a Superman show, with all the tropes that come with it. I also realized that I'm not angry about this in the slightest even though it shows that Berlanti and Helbing are Superman fanboys who are basically writing their own brand of fan fiction. Why?

Superman has never been a favourite character of mine. I watched both Lois & Clark and Smallville growing up and had read a few of the comics, but I always found that I could relate to Batman just a little bit more when I was a kid. But honestly that's because I didn't understand Superman either. I have The Adventures of Superman #525, which came out in 1995. In the issue, Clark has decided to abandon his Clark Kent identity and just be Superman because of a recent incident where Clark's parents, Lois and Jimmy were all targetted by one of Superman's enemies because he had a grudge against Clark Kent and started going after everyone associated with him. That's the entire issue, Clark struggling with the balance between being Superman and having a normal life even though having that life could put loved ones in danger. Lois is the one who convinces him to reconsider his decision to abandon being Clark Kent. That's the whole issue, and yet I completely missed that one aspect of the character. His struggle to balance being Clark Kent and Superman. Even on Smallville he dealt with that struggle though he wasn't Superman yet. And yet it's only as an adult that I began to pick up on that aspect of the character, which makes me appreciate Superman as a character even more than I did before.

Which is why I am perfectly okay with Superman & Lois being a typical Superman show. Plus we also haven't really had one since Superman: The Animated Series ended in 2000. And yes, this week's episode of Superman & Lois very much felt like an episode of Smallville from like season 1 or 2, complete with it's very own Kryptofreak with Jonathan and Jordan's teammate. I love this show and that, above all else, is why I'm fine with it being the typical Superman show with all the tropes and traditions that come with it.

Alright guys I'm going to bed. I just wanted to come on here and talk about this quickly. I'll be back tomorrow with my review of Superman: Earth One Volume 1. So until then have a great night and I will talk to you all tomorrow. Take care.  

A Look Back at the Live-Action Disney Sing-Along Songs #4: Let's Go to the Circus! (1994)

 Hey guys! How was your weekend? Mine was good. Today I'm continuing with my series on the Disney Sing-Along Songs VHS tapes with Let's Go to the Circus!. Last time I talked about Campout at Walt Disney World, the first of the Mickey's Fun Songs tapes to be re-released as Disney Sing-Along Songs tapes and it was pretty good you know. Not as good as Disneyland Fun but that tape set a pretty high bar for the live action Sing-Along Songs releases, but still decent despite the fact that there was only one actual Disney song they sang. Will Let's Go to the Circus! be just as good or will it suck? Let's get into it and find out.

I'd seen other reviews of this tape on YouTube before I saw it myself, and most of the people who talked about this tape said it was boring and outdated. And that was one of the reasons I wanted to do this series, because I thought there was no way it could be as boring and outdated as those reviewers said it was. It was. In fact Let's Go to the Circus! is the most boring and outdated of all of these tapes. As with The Twelve Days of Christmas and Campout at Walt Disney World, I didn't grow up with this tape. In fact last night was the first time I'd ever seen it. So yeah, it was boring and outdated, to me as a 34 year old adult. However, if I'd seen this when I was growing up in the 90s, I would've eaten it up with a spoon, because what kid wasn't fascinated by the circus in the 90s? I mean, there were two things that appeared in at least one episode of almost every show that I watched when I was a kid, and they were the circus and carnivals. Heck, sometimes they'd combine the two into a carnival circus. Even Barney & Friends had several circus and carnival themed episodes when I watched the show in the early 90s. 

The problem is, now that I'm an adult I don't find circuses to be entertaining and the spectacle is gone for me. Plus the Circus doesn't exist today the way it did before 1969, though media such as shows and movies still portrayed them as such, even if they had contemporary settings. So the tape feels extremely outdated and not alot of fun to watch. 

However, during the segment known as "The Bells" which is the theme from New York, New York I actually laughed because the physical comedy in it was similar to what I remember seeing in old Three Stooges films, Abbott and Costello films, and Whose Line is It Anyway? episodes. So that was cool. 

Let's Go to the Circus! was originally released as a Mickey's Fun Songs tape, coming out the same day as the previous tape, Campout at Walt Disney World, as well as the third series re-releases of the Disney Sing-Along Songs tapes, Heigh-Ho, You Can Fly!, The Bare Necessities, Under the Sea, Disneyland Fun, I Love to Laugh! (renamed Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious for this re-release), Be Our Guest, and Friend Like Me. Just like Campout at Walt Disney World, there's only one Disney song on this whole tape, the rest of the songs are all either circus themed songs or songs from other movies such as Singin' in the Rain ("Make em' Laugh"), The Pirate ("Be a Clown"), and New York, New York (the previously mentioned "The Bells"). And the only Disney song on this tape is "I Wan'na Be Like You", which is also from The Jungle Book. Go freaking figure!

I do want to talk about the kids on this tape though. There are four kids from Campout at Walt Disney World and they are Christian Buenaventura, Tiffany Burton, Toby Ganger, and Michelle Montoya. I'm pretty sure all four of these kids show up in all three Mickey's Fun Songs releases. However Tahj Mowry, the younger brother of the stars of the 1994 sitcom, Sister, Sister, Tia and Tamera Mowry. This was before Tahj would be the lead on the 1997 sitcom, Smart Guy, however, at the time this tape was filming, he was playing Michelle's best friend, Teddy on Full House. So that's pretty cool. 

Overall, this tape is boring as heck. Like I said, if I'd seen it when I was a kid, I would've loved this tape. But watching it for the first time ever now, as an adult, and watching it by myself, without anyone who did grow up with this tape, the magic wasn't there. If that makes any sense. I think kids might like this one for sure though. 

Alright that's going to be it for me today. Join me next week when I'll be looking at Disney Sing-Along Songs: Beach Party at Walt Disney World, which is probably my favourite of this block of Sing-Along Songs tapes (I originally watched it months ago). I'll be back on Wednesday with my review of Superman: Earth One Volume 1. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Blog Update for March 2021

 Hey guys! How's everyone's weekend going? Mine's been good though it's also been a little weird too. Today it has officially been one year since I've been anywhere with friends. One year ago today I was out with Brad and when I got home, that was it as suddenly we were in a pandemic with the entire world shut down. However, I'm not here to talk about that. Instead, I am here to talk about what's going on with the blog this month...now that March is half over. So let's get into it.

As you may have noticed I didn't post my review for episode 2 of The Hardy Boys. That's because I've decided that I'm not going to. I'm loving the show, but I write alot for this blog already and I just want to be able to watch the show without needing to write about it the next day. Same thing with Superman & Lois. I'm definitely going to be reviewing the season of each show when they're finished, but no weekly posts on either show. 

This week I'm going to be sticking to the Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule. I have an appointment on Tuesday that I have to actually leave the house for, so I won't have any posts out that day. Tomorrow I'm going to have my next Disney Sing-Along Songs review out. This week I'm looking at Mickey's Fun Songs: Let's Go to the Circus!, another tape I didn't grow up with. So that should be an interesting watch. On Wednesday I'm going to either have a comic book review or my review of Animorphs book 6, The Capture out. That will depend on if I finish the book by then or not. If I do end up putting out a comic book review on Wednesday, I'm planning on taking a look at Superman: Earth One Volume 1, which is a comic that I really enjoy, so stay tuned for that. Finally, on Friday I am going to have a review of the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which drops on Friday morning. I'll be watching that right after breakfast and then I'll have my review up hopefully by lunchtime. I'll for sure have it out by the end of the day. 

So that's what's happening this week. After that I'm going to be getting back to some movie reviews that I've been itching to do. Including some animated movies from the 90s like The Swan Princess and Beauty and the Beast. So look forward to that. Also, I'm going to continue taking you through my childhood collections and other things that I want to talk about, similar to my Disney Adventures post that I did recently. 

Alright guys, that's gonna be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with my review of Mickey's Fun Songs: Let's Go to the Circus! for the next part of my look at the live action Disney Sing-Along Songs VHS tapes. So until then have a great rest of your weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

My Childhood Collection, Part 1: Walt Disney Classics VHS Tapes

 Hey guys! Happy Friday! How's everyone doing today? I'm doing well. So today I'm going to be starting a series where I talk about the books, movies, music and video games that I had when I was a kid. This is a massive collection that I'm going through here so it will be in many parts. I'm starting with my childhood VHS collection. The biggest parts of this collection were Disney and Star Trek, so I'm going to be starting with Disney since that's the biggest section of my childhood VHS collection. Before we get into it though, I would like to point out that these are just the tapes that I owned and had either at my house or at my grandparents's place, that I saw. So it leaves out tapes that my grandparents and parents had that I obviously didn't watch, as well as tapes that we rented or that I watched at the hospital. So with that disclaimer out of the way, let's get into it.

The Walt Disney Classics was a line of home video releases consisting of classic Disney animated movies that were produced before 1981, as well as a few that were released in the late 80s and early 90s. This is how I saw many Disney movies such as Peter Pan and The Jungle Book. It was also where many of these movies were released on home video for the first time. These tapes won't be in any particular order, I'll just show them off one by one.

First up is Peter Pan. This was probably one of my most watched tapes growing up. Yes, it has it's issues today, but it was the fantasy of the movie that drew me in every time I watched it. What I remember most about this particular tape is the previews at the beginning. Back in the 90s Disney did a really great job of promoting their movies on the home video releases of other movies. Peter Pan had a behind the scenes featurette for The Rescuers Down Under, which was about to come out in theatres only two months after this tape was released. So it was my first time seeing Roy E. Disney on video. I'm still hoping to get a copy of this release of Peter Pan again someday as I have the Masterpiece Collection VHS release and the Platinum Edition DVD. 

Next up is Bambi. This was the first tape that I had at my grandparents's place. I didn't watch this tape alot. I only remember watching it a couple of times in fact. There was nothing super scary in this movie that prevented me from watching it, but when you have so many tapes to choose from and one of those choices is the VHS release of "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation to watch, chances are you're going to watch that instead of Bambi. Aside from a trailer for The Little Mermaid, which was about to come out in theatres, there aren't any previews or promotional featurettes on this tape. In fact Peter Pan was the first of the Walt Disney Classics tapes to include any such promotional material. While I don't have this exact copy in my collection (it's still at Nana's house), I did obtain a different copy at Chumleigh's in Kingston two years ago when Brad and I were visiting Jonathan.

 And now we come to my favourite Disney movie of all time, The Jungle Book. Of the Walt Disney Classics line, The Jungle Book is the only movie I saw in theatres. It also holds the distinction of not only being my first movie going experience, but also being the first Disney movie that I had on VHS. And like I said, it's my favourite movie. This release of The Jungle Book also has a unique behind the scenes featurette for Beauty and the Beast, which was due to come out in theatres at the end of 1991. I say unique because this is actually the only tape that has this featurette on it. Seven Walt Disney Classics tapes were released in 1991, with Fantasia being the tape that was released closest to the release date for Beauty and the Beast. But, none of them have this featurette. So I thought that was interesting. While I have the Masterpiece Collection VHS, the Limited Issue DVD, and the Diamond Edition DVD, I'm still looking for a copy of this release, because it was the first tape in my Disney movie collection when I was a kid, and I would love to have it back in my collection someday.

I love 101 Dalmatians. My siblings and I used to watch it all the time when we were kids. And while it wasn't as well watched as The Jungle Book and Peter Pan were, it was still well watched. And well liked too. Cruella is probably the craziest Disney villain from Walt's era. She's not vain like the Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, bent on revenge like Captain Hook in Peter Pan or even straight up evil like Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, but she is absolutely bonkers and relishes in being a criminal. Well, a "criminal" since Horace and Jasper are the ones who kidnapped the puppies. She is evil in what she wanted to do with those puppies. Horrible person in my books. Anyway, the Walt Disney Classics VHS release only has a behind the scenes trailer for Aladdin, which was due to come out in November 1992, before the movie. However, after the movie there are home video previews for The Great Mouse Detective, which was the next Walt Disney Classics release after 101 Dalmatians, and Beauty and the Beast, which was due to be released on home video in October 1992. This is another tape that I have in my current collection as well thanks to trips to Chumleigh's in Kingston.

The Rescuers Down Under is a movie that I didn't watch more than the first half of on VHS because of a scene that scared me when I was a kid. Wilbur the Albatross gets hurt when landing in Australia after ferrying Bernard and Bianca there so they can save Cody from McLeach, and ends up going to a hospital, run by mice who use instruments that aren't exactly medical in nature. Yeah, if I were Wilbur I'd want to break out of there too. Anyway, I did have this tape and I think I finally watched the whole thing as a teenager, and ended up really enjoying the movie. As a kid though, yeah, it scared the crap out of me because of those hospital scenes in particular. At the beginning of this tape there's a preview for The Jungle Book which had just come out on home video a few months earlier. That's it. 

The Rescuers on the other hand, is a movie I absolutely loved when I was a kid. I watched this tape alot. Madame Medusa and Snoops were the most off the wall comedic villains I have ever seen in a Disney movie up to this point. And of course I loved Bernard, Bianca, and Penny as well. While it was a darker adventure film than what I normally watched from Disney, there was just something about it that I loved. Before the movie, the tape has the same previews for Beauty and the Beast and The Great Mouse Detective that were after the movie on the 101 Dalmatians tape, though they were in reverse order and on the one for The Great Mouse Detective it didn't say The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective like it did on the preview on 101 Dalmatians, which is interesting. Both The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under are movies I'd love to have the Walt Disney Classics VHS releases of back in my collection.

Speaking of Beauty and the Beast, that's another movie that I absolutely loved when I was a kid. It's also the movie my sister and I watched together the most. This was her favourite Disney movie and once we got it, we loved watching it together. It didn't matter what time of day it was, if we wanted to watch it, we watched it. I don't think we ever watched it on repeat, though we definitely wanted to do so. There were two theatrical trailers and one home video preview before the movie. The theatrical trailers are for Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty. While Aladdin was released a few weeks after this tape was released, Sleeping Beauty, which was supposed to have a theatrical re-release in the spring of 1993, didn't get it until 1995 as the 1993 one was cancelled for some reason. The home video preview before the movie was for the then upcoming VHS re-release of Pinocchio. After the movie, there's a home video preview for 101 Dalmatians, which was still available at that point. Naturally I have this VHS back in my collection thanks to a geek sale pickup from a friend who had a booth there, just before the pandemic hit last year.

Up next is Fantasia, which is another of the Walt Disney Classics tapes that we had at my grandparents's place. It's also another one that I remember watching once when we were over there but didn't watch again after that. I saw the movie on DVD as an adult (my other grandparents had the DVD) and I really enjoyed it, but as a kid it didn't grab me quite as much, because back then I didn't really understand the concept of telling a story with only music and that's what Fantasia does. Each segment tells a story through the music. Especially in the Mickey Mouse segment, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". There aren't any previews on this tape to speak of. I also have this back in my collection thanks to that geek sale pickup early last year. I really need to watch it since I haven't done so yet. 

The last of the Walt Disney Classics tapes that we had at Nana's and Grandpa's house was The Great Mouse Detective. This is another tape that we only watched once or twice when I was a kid, but that I ended up really enjoying when I saw it as a teenager after borrowing the VHS tape from my grandparents. A year ago my parents and I went to Nana's house where I grabbed this movie along with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and a few other VHS tapes just before the pandemic hit so this is in my collection now. In terms of trailers and previews, there's only that behind the scenes trailer for Aladdin, with no home video previews on the tape. 

Next up is Aladdin. This is another Disney movie that I loved growing up. Part of that is because of Robin Williams as the Genie obviously, but the songs and the story are pretty great too. It's probably one of the funniest Disney movies I've ever seen, with Hercules coming pretty close. We got this tape during the period where we were getting new Disney movies on VHS as they were coming out, which I guess had to have started with The Rescuers Down Under and continued, with the exception being Pocahontas, until Mulan came out on VHS in 1999. I think Aladdin was a Christmas present for me in 1993 if I'm not mistaken. There's a behind the scenes trailer for The Lion King which was due to be released in the summer of 1994 before the movie, as well as a home video trailer for Pinocchio, which had just been released earlier that year. Aladdin is actually the last Walt Disney Classics release that we got when I was a kid, as we didn't have The Fox and the Hound when I was a kid, though I did watch that movie at the hospital one time. And yes, I do have Aladdin back in my collection. 

And finally we had Pinocchio. I remember watching this tape pretty frequently when I was a kid, but not as often as Beauty and the Beast, The Rescuers, Peter Pan, Aladdin and The Jungle Book because my sister doesn't like Pinocchio. I don't blame her because it is pretty scary between the boys turning into Donkeys and the entire Monstro the Whale sequence. I enjoyed this movie quite alot, but like I said, I didn't watch as much because my sister never wanted to watch it. I think it was a movie that I watched with my brother if my sister didn't want to watch a movie with us. There's a behind the scenes trailer for Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas before the movie as well as a home video preview for Aladdin. This release of Pinocchio is back in my collection thanks to Michelle and Jonathan who brought over that box of VHS tapes back in September. 

Alright guys, that's it for my childhood Walt Disney Classics VHS collection. Next time I'll be talking about the tapes I had in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of the second episode of The Hardy Boys. So until then have a great rest of your Friday and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
 

Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #5 - Comic Book Review

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing well. Today's comic book review is one I've been putting off since I reviewed the fourth issue of this series back in January. And sadly I think this issue is the worst of this six issue series. So let's get into it and take a look at Nancy Drew & The Hardy Boys: The Death of Nancy Drew #5.

  As I said in the my review of issue 4, this series easily could've been three or four issues long and it wouldn't've made much of a difference. And reading this issue firmly cements my opinion about this because while this issue isn't a filler like the last issue was, it does heavily lean into the modern day, CW teen drama tropes that ruined Riverdale. Half the issue is Frank acting all petty about Nancy deciding to let her ex-boyfriend, Ned Nickerson (you remember him right?), know that she's actually alive, despite the fact that NOBODY IS SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT SHE'S ALIVE!!! This is the worst kept secret since half of the superheroes's secret identities in all of the Arrowverse shows. Like really?

Also, the mystery itself keeps going in circles with little bits and pieces being revealed, but nothing to clarify anything about who tried to kill Nancy and why. Mind you they would've solved the mystery by now if Frank and Joe wouldn't keep letting their personal feelings for Nancy get in the way and acting like children when it comes to the decisions that Nancy makes concerning the case. Like going off on her own to investigate Maryanne Bobbsey in the previous issue, and letting Ned know that she's alive. It's just not interesting. Say what you will about the novels, but at least there Frank and Joe, well Frank anyway, never allowed their personal feelings to get in the way of solving a mystery. Joe was always the hot headed one of the duo and often let his personal feelings get him into trouble. Usually with the criminals the boys are trying to capture.

Also, Frank and Joe let their feelings get in the way when dealing with Ned, which led Nancy to give up and reveal herself to him. Just leave the romance stuff out of this and it would be about a thousand times better. The only time there's ever been a hint of a romance between Nancy and one of the boys was in the Super Mystery series which ran from 1988 until 1998 and was a crossover series between The Hardy Boys Casefiles and Nancy Drew Files, which both started in the late 80s. In the books there was an attraction between Nancy and Frank, but besides a kiss between them in fifth book of the series, Last Resort, it was never brought up again and I don't think anything was ever done with it in the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery series that started in 2007 to coincide with the series that were being published at the time, The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers and Nancy Drew: Girl Detective. I could be wrong on that though since I haven't read those books.

Joe Eisma's art is great as usual, but unlike with his work on Archie, the dark colour palette is getting to be pretty depressing. I know, it's a murder mystery comic, but even the best murder mysteries on TV have scenes that take place during the day to contrast the darker tone of the nighttime scenes where the mystery is being solved.

Overall this was a pretty stupid issue. The novelty of having Frank, Joe, and Nancy working together has worn off though and this series easily could've been, and should've been, two or three issues shorter and it would've worked so much better. I'm just hoping that the ending is worth all of this pointless drama, because my patience with it is wearing thin. Hopefully this isn't a warning that The Hardy Boys will turn out this way by the end of season 1. But I've only seen one episode so far and I can't judge it fairly based on a comic book series that started to overstay it's welcome halfway through the series. 

Alright guys that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with the start of my look at my childhood VHS collection, with the Walt Disney Classics tapes that I had. I might combine this part with part 2, which will be a look at the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection tapes I had as a kid, but, we'll see how things go as I write the post tomorrow morning. I'll also be back on Saturday with my review of the second episode of The Hardy Boys which is on tomorrow night. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.