Realism in Comics

I've been thinking, recently, about the term "realism" as it applies to comics and comic book properties. Now there are some genres where being more realistic. The Walking Dead (if you remove the whole zombie thing) or Strangers in Paradise only work with realistic portrayals of humans and technology. Superheroes don't, regardless of who the publisher is. Any genre where a man who dresses as a bat in order to fight criminals, and isn't immediately shot, has no basis in reality.

Yes, Batman is basically a man in a Halloween costume. It looks alright in a comic form, though.

Don't get me wrong, I love it when superhero comics use real science or technology to solve a problem, and especially when they explain it to the reader. However, basing your whole comic/movie/tv show around a "realistic portrayal" of a superhero concept is just inherently flawed to me. It's kind of like the most common complaint of Alex Ross that I hear, which is his portrayal of Batman is "too realistic" since it literally is just a man in a suit.

Alex Ross and his "too real" Batman.

"Then you must not like any superhero movies, since they are all just men in Halloween costumes," you're probably saying. Nope. In fact, when you have a movie that embraces the genre, rather than feeling the need to explain every single thing, it makes for a more enjoyable experience. Since we're on the subject of a rich man running around in his PJ's, let's look at two different movie versions.

Batman (1989) starring Michael Keaton presented Batman as already being around with minimal origin story flashbacks. The Batcave, Batmobile, Batwing, and all the utility belt objects have been developed before the movie. No time is taken, except for a brief scene during the party, to explain where any of this came from.

Batman Begins (2005) starring Christian Bale, spends almost the first half of the movie, after an origin story, explaining where and how Bruce Wayne gets all of his equipment, costume, vehicle, and headquarters. Every piece of it has to be explained, to the point of having a conversation about dummy corporations purchasing two halves of the mask.

Both are good films and I could watch each one at any time, but I enjoy Batman much more than Batman Begins, simply for the fact that it doesn't feel the need to explain what doesn't need explaining. I've already accepted the premise that a man is dressing up as a bat, you don't need to go any further.

That's probably why I like the Marvel Studios films more than just about any other superhero movie, because they accept the comic book world that they are playing in and fully embrace it. Heck, they even made Batroc The Leaper a good character!


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The Podcast in 2015

The other day I went over to the Two True Freaks website and checked out the download numbers of the podcasts that I'm involved in. When I looked at the compiled numbers, I was floored. Just in 2015, the episodes of my shows were downloaded over 9,000 times! (9,127 to be exact.)

Here's the breakdown by show and by episode:

The Hammer Podcasts!
Episode 1 - Star Trek - 174
Episode 2 - Comic Books - 164
Episode 3 - Mythology - 189
Episode 4 - Feedback - 185
Episode 5 - Changes - 196
Episode 6 - The Greek Gods - 210
Episode 7 - Role-Playing Games - 216
Episode 8 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture - 261
Episode 9 - A Christmas Carol - 270
Episode 10 - Son of Feedback - 327
Episode 11 - Star Wars Rebels - 343
Episode 12 - Conway's Corner - 354
Episode 13 - Norse Mythology - 291
Episode 14 - Zorro, The Gay Blade - 273
Episode 15 - Cartoon TV Themes - 262
Episode 16 - The Muppets - 174

Legends of the Superheroes
Swamp Thing - 172
Batman - 197
The Incredible Hulk - 66
Green Lantern - 271
The Crow - 274
Reb Brown - 296

The Quantum Cast
Episode 1 - Quasar #1 & #2 - 303
Episode 2 - Marvel 2-in-1 #73 - 295
Episode 3 - Quasar #3 - 298
Episode 4 - Quasar #4 - 273
Episode 5 - Quasar #5 - 237
Episode 6 - Quasar #6 - 220

Comic Book Fight Club
Galactus vs Unicron - 308  (These people can be forgiven, since they didn't know what they were getting into)
Hulk vs Doomsday - 286 (Everyone from here down is a horrible person for knowing what they were listening to and coming back anyway)
Suicide Squad vs A-Team - 226
TMNT vs Thundercats - 141

Anime Freaks
Episode 1 - Star Blazers Monthly Monday - 150
Episode 2 - Nova Stalkers - 122
Episode 3 - Star Blazers: In Character - 117
Episode 4  - Pluto Destruction Directive- 50
Episode 5 - We Will Be Regular! - 129
Episode 6 - Project Spata-Ro - 136
Episode 7 - Skype Wants Nothing To Do With This - 180
Episode 8 - Creeeepy Robot - 156
Episode 9 - he's Not Heavy, He's My Sandor - 115
Episode 10 - Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me! - 109
Episode 11 - You're Going To Put That Where?!?! - 111

So the point of all this is for me to say a huge "Thank You!" to everyone who has listened to my ramblings on the internet. Stay tuned, there's more stuff on the way, including a new series that's in the works.

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The Great Experiment

Like the Falcon when Lando's done, we don't have a dish anymore.

Most of you probably don't know this, so I figured that I would clue you in. Due to a variety of factors, not the least of which was an attempt to save money, we got rid of satellite TV in mid-December. Since then we have been using streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime) which we already had as well as HD antennas that I got for a fairly reasonable price on Amazon. I am pleased to announce that, two months in, we're not missing it a bit. No, we don't get to watch all the programs that we used to, but we're watching a lot (and I mean A LOT) of old school programs, such as Hill Street Blues.

Now, I'm not a huge sports guy. I watch the occasional sporting event, if I'm in the mood, so those that absolutely MUST follow their team might not want to try this. However, if you are willing to deal with limited broadcast TV and already have streaming services, then I would highly recommend this. Get yourself an indoor HD antenna and you might just find some interesting sub-channels out there.

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Robin Hood

One of my favorite old movies is "The Adventures of Robin Hood" starring Errol Flynn, among others. Not, it's not super accurate, historically, but then neither is Robin Hood.

I do love the music, which gets stuck in my head for days after watching it. It's got a great rousing theme but also some nice comedic beats when the mood needs lightening.

Something that you'll notice in this, however, is that Robin is not flawless. He loses to both Little John and Friar Tuck (more of a tie, really) in their initial meetings, and it's through those interactions that they decide to join him. He didn't win and thereby showed him as the superior, but he managed to win them over through personality and the fact that he's already famous.

One thing I truly love about the film is the depth of the casting. You have Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone (relishing playing the villain), Claude Rains, and Alan Hale (Senior, not Junior), among a host a character actors. Everyone gives it their all, and it makes for a great, and fun, film. Don't just take my word for it, though, why not watch it for yourself?


The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938) by FilmGorillas


Rob Kelly was nice enough to have me on The Film and Water Podcast to discuss this movie, so you can hear more of my thoughts over there: http://bit.ly/1RZUj1L

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Like what I'm doing here on the blog and podcast? Why not check out my Patreon Page to see how you can help me do more? http://www.patreon.com/TheHammerStrikes

How Bruce Banner Lost My Sympathy

I have been a fan of the character of The Incredible Hulk for a long time, all the way back to my very first comic book. I've always enjoyed reading about the character in the variety of incarnations he's had, but mostly when Bruce Banner could not control the green Hulk from bursting forth to deal a metric ton of whoop-ass on the villain of the month. I always felt for Banner, since I also struggle with rage issues. (On a side note, I do not now, nor have I ever, owned a pair of purple pants.)

However, as part of my current reading project, I was able to read the first 6 issues of "The Incredible Hulk" and then follow him into "Tales to Astonish". Now, I realize that Stan and Jack didn't know where the character was going, or just what to make of him, after their initial idea, but those first issues still have made me lose what sympathy I had for Dr. Banner. You see, Banner comes up with a way to control his change into The Hulk in Issue #4.

Yes, I said that he came up with a way to control his transformations in the FOURTH ISSUE. Of course, now that he never has to turn into The Hulk again, he works up a way to control the beam with his toes and change back and forth. (Ironically, this machine was used in The Incredible Hulk #267, so I already knew that it existed.) He then proceeds to use this to change between The Hulk and Banner, until Stan came up with the idea that stress would now trigger the change.

What this does, retroactively for me, is remove all of the pathos that came from these transformations. We go from having a man selflessly saving a teen-ager and exposing himself to his own gamma bomb, cursing him into becoming a monster, to a man who has purposely changed himself into a monster numerous times and now can't control it any more. Just a bit of a switch in how I perceive the character. It's not that I don't enjoy reading those stories any more, but now every time Bruce complains about his condition, I can't feel bad for him.

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Trying Some New Stuff

You'll notice something new at the top of the page, and that would be the player for my Mixlr page. Mixlr allows live broadcasting of content, so I'm going to go through my podcast backlog and put that up there. Of course, I can only do it one hour at a time, since I'm using the free version, but I wanted to see how it would work. I have to run the program from my computer, so I can't say that I'll have content all the time, but I'll see what I can get up there.

As a side note, I do have an app for my phone, so it's conceivable that I could do a live broadcast from a location, like a convention or some such. I'm still playing around with this idea, but it's intriguing, isn't it?

There's more stuff in the works that I'll eventually need to test, and I'll keep everyone up to speed. Speaking of which, if you want me to do more stuff like this, or more often, why not become a supporter on the Patreon Page?


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The Force Needed Five More MInutes

Alright, you've had enough time to see the movie, so here's my take on it. Yes, this is SPOILER HEAVY, so you might want to skip it if you're one of the 10 people in the world that hasn't seen the movie.

So, what did I think as a long time Star Wars fan?

It was alright.

Yup, that's it. Not brilliant, not horrible, just alright.

There were some good points, one of them being Harrison Ford returning to form as Han Solo. Ford did a great job with everything, drama & comedy, in this movie. I'm sure it was the fact that he finally got what he was after for the character 32 years ago (ie a death scene) that helped with it, but he was a bright spot of the film.

Chewbacca was also great, especially some of the comedy moments they gave him. Shrugging when asked if Han was a war hero? Priceless. Plus, the Wookie Rage after Han's death, right up to the "I'm blowing the charges and don't care if I go with them" moment was great. Just what I would have expected of the character.

Another would be the new characters. No, not all of them had character development, Poe Dameron, most notably, but they all were well realized and I'll be happy to follow their adventures in future movies.

Something that I didn't like, and that really threw me for a loop, was that they made Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion, a coward. Here's a character that faced down The Emperor, but he has one failure at being a teacher, whines "Training Jedi is HARD!", and he runs? Nope. I don't buy it.

Something else is the whole JJ Abrams "you can see into other solar systems with your naked eye while planet-side" thing. I hated it in "Star Trek" (note the quotes) and I hate it here. The fact that this was made into a plot point was even worse. And let's not forget the "let's all watch this faster than light beam crawl it's way across the sky" stupidity.

So, overall it was an OK movie. I like it better that the Prequels, but that's because it doesn't have as many major problems as those movies do, so it's not a ringing endorsement.

Want to hear a broader discussion on the movie? I was on the Two True Freaks panel talking about the movie. You can find that here: http://twotruefreaks.com/media/podcasts/general/mp3/ForceAwakenspaneldiscussion.mp3 

Another good discussion, that I was actually quoted in, was over at Star Wars In Character: http://media.blubrry.com/neozazpodcasts/p/content.blubrry.com/neozazpodcasts/SWIC-TFA-DISCUSSION.mp3
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