WEGAF Reviews: Return of The Flag

Another new video for you – and this one’s a special one. Why? Because one year ago today was the show’s first anniversary – and mathematically speaking, that means today is the show’s second anniversary! Two-year anniversary video! Wahoo!

It’s also special because it features the show’s first repeat performance, as it were. Yes, back from my very first episode two long years ago, The Flag is here once again to strut his stuff! Cue more hyper-patriotic nonsense with all the subtlety of a star-spangled brick! It’s not only what he does best, it’s the only thing he does! (So I guess it’s a good thing that it’s what he does best, ’cause, y’know, kinda sad otherwise…)

So, yeah. Hope you enjoy it, and thanks to everyone who’s stuck with me so far. There’ll be a few more videos between this and my next anniversary, I promise. And speaking of videos, because now seems like as appropriate a time as any to re-post it, here’s the link to my channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeezda04oUpl1JG-4Y7LayA/videos

Happy anniversary!

GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) VLOG

Here I am again with another video review, this time of the controversial 2016 version of Ghostbusters. It could perhaps be described as a bit of a rant. I hope you like it.

Stay tuned for more videos as well as more standard reviews/articles shortly – I know I haven’t done a lot here lately, but there is stuff waiting, and you will be the first ones to see it once it’s ready.

BATMAN V. SUPERMAN VLOG

Hey, ’tis me! And here are my thoughts on the notorious and much-anticipated Batman V. Superman, recorded at a most unseemly hour. What are said thoughts? Well… that’s what the video is for, right?

Stay tuned for more – I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted a video, but there’s one on the way soon; it’s in the works now, and should be completed… well, I won’t say when exactly, but, yeah. Soon.

Deneb does The Batman

Hark to the tale of Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall, a married couple who did standup comedy back in the ’60’s. They’d made it big. They were about to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show, with millions watching. It was one of those one-time, once-in-a-lifetime chances to make a big impression, and they were not planning to waste it. Yep, things were lookin’ good.

Except that the act just before theirs was the Beatles.

Nobody remembers Charlie Brill and Mitzi McCall for any other reason today.

Here’s the thing, though – by all accounts, they were good. Even though their audience had just had their minds blown by the Fab Four themselves, they still managed to give a good performance and get some laughs. Had they come on at the beginning of the show, the names of Brill and McCall might really have come to mean something. It was simply a matter of bad timing.

You may have guessed by now that I’m bringing this up for a reason, and you’d be right. Batman: the Animated Series is without doubt the ‘Beatles’ of animated superhero TV. It definitely blew some minds back in the ’90’s, and continues to do so today. It is, for many, one of the best and most faithful depictions of the Dark Knight, onscreen or off. Any immediate follow-up to it was obviously going to get at least a little bit Brill/McCalled.

Enter The Batman, which promptly got savaged by the fans. They hated it. It didn’t look right, it didn’t feel right, it wasn’t what they wanted. It did ultimately stick around long enough to get a bit of a following, but it’s still mainly remembered as B:tAS’ ugly stepchild, as it were.

Yet did it deserve this treatment? Let’s take a look and find out.

Deneb does Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure

“Death is never a pretty sight – and you’ll see it again before the hunt is over.”

The Scoop: 1959 ‘Approved’ (whatever that means), directed by John Guillermin and starring Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sara Shane, Niall MacGinnis, Sean Connery, Al Mulock, Scilla Gabel.

Tagline: Adventure’s Mightiest Hero Lives His Mightiest Adventure!

Summary Capsule: The Lord of the Jungle pursues some bad guys. They’re very bad, and he’s very Lordly. (Of the jungle.)

WEGAF Reviews: One-Year Anniversary!

It’s our one-year anniversary! Yes, one year ago to the day as I post this (although it showed up here on MRFH a few days later), the very first WEGAF Reviews episode was unleashed upon the masses, who… largely didn’t care. And still don’t. But hopefully that will change soon. I got plans.

Seriously, to everyone reading this who have followed my brief video career since the start, started watching midway through, or any combination in-between, a hearty thank you to all. I know there’s not a lot of you out there at this point, but every view I get is an affirmation that yes, people do still watch my oddball little videos – and as long as I have an audience, no matter how small, I’ll keep making ’em. So to reward you good and faithful folks, here’s a little surprise! Roll the clip!

Were you surprised?

Thanks again, and, because it seems appropriate, here’s another link to my YouTube channel so that, if you wish, you may see everything posted so far, along with all the bits I didn’t post here (and probably for good reason).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeezda04oUpl1JG-4Y7LayA/videos

 

What Watchmen didn’t teach us

If you’ll indulge me for a minute, boys n’ girls – well, a bit more than a minute; let’s be honest here – I’d like to indulge in a little editorializing.

Recently, I reread Watchmen. I do that every once in a while. I first purchased my copy back in high school. Since then, I probably read the thing… well, about once every year to two years. Not much different from most people, I’d guess.

But this time around, it sparked some thoughts.

I’m sure I don’t need to tell any of you what Watchmen is – if you haven’t read it, you’ve heard of it. It was one of the game-changers, the ones that showed us what the medium is truly capable of. Of course, one could argue that such indications were always there if one cared to take a look, but Watchmen was one of the first that you could shove a copy into someone’s hands and say ‘you want to know what comics are all about? Read this, baby.’

And then there’s the spin-offs. Recently, of course, there’s been the various Before Watchmen minis (which, although certainly unnecessary, are far from the blasphemous undertakings that some fans paint them as), but I’m not talking literal spin-offs here. I’m talking about the influence of the book.

What has it influenced? What hasn’t it influenced? Rare is the wannabe writer who reads it and doesn’t, on some level, go ‘whoa – I wanna write something like that!’

And many have tried. And some have come close.

And many, many others have failed, and that’s what I’m here to talk about today.