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Bill Finger Recognized As Co-creator Of Batman

by Admin September 18, 2015

written by Admin

Long over due doesn’t begin to cut it. Bill Finger was instrumental in creating the Dark Knight and his world but never got the credit for it. Since Batman’s inception Bob Kane was the only creator associated with the character. Even Kane admired on a few occasions that Bill finger had a hand in Batman’s creation.

I can’t help but feel lukewarm about this news. On the one hand, it’s good that current and future generations see the name Bill Finger attached to , arguably the most popular superhero of all time. On the other hand, it feels much too late. Bill Finger passed away in the seventies with not a lot of money to his name. This would become the case for, the even more ripped off, Jack Kirby. There was even a time when Superman’s creators ,Siegel and Shuster ended up the same as Jack Kirby. It wasn’t until ” Superman: The Motion Picture”, came out in the Seventies that DC awarded both men some money and their name as creators. However, that is still a legal mess to this day.I’m not even to clear on what the official terms are. Siegel and Shuster both passed away, but their families continue the battle in their name.

It seems a normal occurrence, historically speaking. Reward the creators when they are either dead or too old and sick to really benefit from the money. At the very least Bill Finger’s family will be compensated. Here is DC’s official statement.

DC Entertainment and the family of Bill Finger are pleased to announce that they have reached an agreement that recognizes Mr. Finger’s significant contributions to the Batman family of characters. “Bill Finger was instrumental in developing many of the key creative elements that enrich the Batman universe, and we look forward to building on our acknowledgement of his significant role in DC Comics’ history,” stated Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment. “As part of our acknowledgement of those contributions,” Nelson continued, “we are pleased to confirm today that Bill Finger will be receiving credit in the Warner Bros. television series Gotham beginning later this season, and in the forthcoming motion picture Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

I can’t help but wonder if this will help to shed some light on Spider-Man and Steve Ditko’s situation. It’s not entirely to late. For those unfamiliar with this story, it parallels Bill Fingers quite a bit.

Stan Lee is the face of Marvel and often referred to as. the creator of Spider-man. Throughout the years much has been made as to, how much Stan Lee was even involved in the creation of Spidey. Rumors began years ago, along with many sources stating that artist, Steve Ditko was the main mind behind Spider-Man. No legal source, mind you. Considered more, opinion rather than actual fact. As fate would have it, Steve Ditko faded into obscurity without the issue ever being resolved. Fairly destitute as I’ve heard. Not exactly the kind of destiny you want for a legendary artist. The point is that Steve Ditko can still have his chance to be given his due, but how long can the powers that be, afford to wait?

Regardless of what happens with Mr. Ditko, when Batman day comes this year ( Sept 26th) raise a glass for Bill Finger.

September 18, 2015 0 comments

Books Fantasy Interweb News & Gossip Random Shannara Chronicles Television

The Shannara Chronicles are coming!

by hutchm September 5, 2015

written by hutchm

While I’m personally still waiting for the Wheel of Time to be made into a series of movies or episodic TV shows, the Shannara Chronicles based on Terry Brooks amazing series – the Sword of Shannara is definitely a good placeholder!

The Sword of Shannara’s events take place 2000 years in our future after a nuclear war wiped out the majority of humanity. Due to the massive damage from the bombs, not only was the landscape itself drastically changed but due to the excess radiation, mankind mutated into races that we’re more familiar with from myths and legends. While elves themselves returned to Earth from their hiding, man is now present as Dwarves, Gnomes and Trolls.

In this new world, magic has been rediscovered but science and technology has been lost.

Hopefully this show is done better than the quite horrible Legend of the Seeker. While I never enjoyed that book as much as I did Shannara, it was still awful to see what they did to/with the story there as it definitely deserved a lot more. Fortunately Game of Thrones has raised the bar for the fantasy genre quite significantly since that time though and here’s hoping the directors, actors and writers have paid attention!

September 5, 2015 0 comments

Comics Interweb News & Gossip Random

Valerie D’Orazio

by Admin August 25, 2015

written by Admin

I was just made aware of something today. Something very interesting that there appears to be a secret cabal that lurks in the shadows too deprive or hold down the number of successful men writing comics. With a powerful and systematic campaign to publicly smear a single person. If your not sure what I’m referring too I am speaking of Chris Sims a senior editor for the Comic Alliance and the recent announcement that he will be penning X-men 92′ and the resurgence of an issue hopefully many of you were already aware of.

The long and the short of it is before Comic Alliance hired Sims as a freelancer he over a period of 3 years harassed and tortured a fellow blogger and comics writer Valerie D’Orazio. To the point where it caused great harm to this women. In D’Orazio’s own blog she has detailed in great length the long lasting effects of Sims systematic and relentless online harassment which seems to be have spurned by nothing more the fact that she was a women writing comics.

Here is an exert from Comics Alliance current statement on the situation.

“Someone was targeting Chris not out of a sense of justice, but because they wanted to destroy his success. The campaign may also have been one of several efforts we’re aware of to discredit Comics Alliance. These are not the tactics of progressives concerned about harassment in comics, but of agitators looking to tear down progressive voices — of which Chris is certainly one — using methods of harassment. (Notably, the messages referred to D’Orazio as “David’s wife,” rather than recognizing her as a person in her own right.)”

This is where the cabal comes in apparently, it seems to the be contention of Sims and CA that this very public and much spoken issue of Sims actions. That his actions and attitude towards a women working in comics were all kept a secret because the benefit to them is that at some point in the future they could bring it up too bring down a “progressive” writer who is concerned about harassment in the industry.

Comics Alliance speaks about efforts by people to discredit them I find absolutely laughable. They discredited themselves the day they hired him hot off the heels of harassing actions in private practice on his own blog. They discredited themselves in there statement too paint Sims as the “real” victim in this situation they discredit themselves in doing nothing earlier, they discredit themselves by defending his actions as that of something that was not truly performed by Sims but by the person he was years ago.

When you point a finger three more are pointing back at you and now because he finally sees the fingers pointing back he hurriedly issues an apology in an effort too do seemingly nothing but protect himself and his interests in writing assignment at Marvel.

From Sim’s apology

“ By the time I was smart enough to look at what I was doing in a larger context and ask myself if I was making things better or worse, irreparable harm had already been done. So if you take one piece of advice from me over all of this, it’s to ask yourself that question now, keep it in mind going forward, not just for yourself, but for those around you. I’m very lucky to have had people around me, both friends and people that I work with, that have done that for me, and it’s one of the reasons I try to be better and keep working to an industry where things I regret doing have no place. “

In the same breathe he attempts to evoke sympathy and a good old fashion lesson to the reader about not harassing and cyber bullying people when he has experienced exactly zero consequences for his own actions is hypocritical.

In the statement by Comics Alliance they recognize that in his message was not targeted at Val D’Orazio but only referring to her as “David’s wife”. But again he to my knowledge has not been chastised legally or by his current employers or even by his own continence. A very old saying came to mind while I was thinking about this situation sunshine is the best disinfectant. This subject needs to be out in the open we must discuss it in order to have any sort of integrity as an industry. It seems as if he has apologized to half a dozen people who are more involved with his career aspirations then to D’Orazio herself.

Current Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso addressed the issue saying

“ We had no knowledge of what transpired on the Internet between Chris and Valerie. We have since come to understand that several years ago both were active voices in the comics community — both were bloggers and Valerie wrote a couple of stories for Marvel, including a “Punisher” one-shot that I edited — that some sort of bad blood developed between them, and that Chris crossed lines in his treatment of Valerie that were indefensible, as he himself acknowledged.”

I challenge this statement and this attitude from a representative of Marvel itself. You simply cannot have this both ways being outspoken advocates against bullying and harassment in all forms and then reward someone who has acted with malice intent to a women who’s only crime was writing for your company. Again this is the sticking point for me as of yet Sims has faced no repercussions to his actions legally or personally. While yes he has taken a leave of absence from working for Comics Alliance he also took great pains too how this absence would be a great disruption to his income yet again trying too paint opinion in his favor.

Marvel I ask you truly consider your actions in giving this man a book you invite hypocrisy and scorn not only to yourself but to your loyal readers – Of which up til now I have been a proud and happy MMMS member.

Readers I ask you do you want this kind of attitude and discrimination in the comic book industry? That it took whispers on the Internet to bring this back to the surface and NOT by professionals and colleagues. If Marvel and the Comics Alliance and any one publishing or properly critiquing the industry want progress and change. They need to start by seeking out and encouraging women creators and holding up to the light it’s own faults and how they deal with these kinds of situations.

If you feel the same as I do please tell @Marvel and @comicsalliance and @axelalonsomarv why you don’t like this. You have a voice and I ask you use it but please be kind and articulate. The battle for equality dies with us if we do nothing.

August 25, 2015 0 comments

Agents of Shield Interweb News & Gossip Random Television

Agents of SHIELD – ‘The Frenemy of My Enemy’ (S2E18)

by hutchm August 22, 2015

written by hutchm

Did this episode have it all? Well lets see – we had Ward (yay he’s back!), we had HYDRA (and we even got a glimpse of the Baron himself), we had an amazing time with Cal (Kyle MacLaclan) on his “day out” and we even got to see Lincoln strut his stuff a little bit. So yes, there was tons to enjoy in the most recent episode of SHIELD. Was it perfect … no, but then it never is … there are always some little quibbling little details that are just annoying, but there was lots to love here as I’m sure you’ll agree.

In Frenemy we had Coulson, Hunter and Fitz track down and make an uneasy alliance with Ward. Coulson offers to have Ward get a clean slate via the Tahiti protocol (yeah I don’t think anyone believes that Ward will go through with this) so that he can help him infiltrate HYDRA in an effort to track down Skye. We had Cal returning to his home in Milwaukee (ostensibly to collect his belongings in an effort to make his stay in the Afterlife more comfortable) with Skye in tow. We also had HYDRA tracking the comings and goings of Gordon and his Nightcrawler-esque powers using “quantum entanglement” to arrive in Milwaukee and the “Real” SHIELD hacking into Deathlok’s vision circuits to find out what Coulson and crew were up to so that they also arrived in Milwaukee! Basically everyone ends up in Cal’s Milwaukee office building for a variety of misunderstandings, double-crosses and plans being kept secret from the audience and all of the differing storylines all converge together – finally – in an orgasm of destruction!

When Jiaying makes the decision that Cal can no longer stay in the Afterlife – due to the concern she has for her fellow Inhumans, Skye counters that simply dropping him on the side of the road like a puppy is both cruel and malicious. She makes the very cogent argument that while he might not belong with them, he absolutely should not just be discarded as he will literally explode at the rejection. Making a deal to tag along so that she can let him down gently, Cal and Skye travel to Milwaukee where his enthusiasm to spend some time with his daughter can almost literally be felt. Cal – played so well by Kyle MacLachlan – can emote with the best and his delivery of lines like, “How about next time we grill?!” and “Big overdoer!” was hysterical, even as he showed the manic, dangerous side of Cal always lurking below the surface – one he’d later unleash on those Hydra agents. When they do arrive in Milwaukee, Skye is able to “obtain” a cell phone which she uses to contact May and the others while searching for Coulson. This action helps to get Bobbi and Mac to Milwaukee also.

Talking about Bobbi and Mac, I actually quite enjoyed the interaction between them at the start of the episode where they were discussing whether they’d made the right decisions to betray Coulson. Their banter and sparring (both verbal and physical) was excellently portrayed and when Mac literally bounced off the floor of the training room after being thrown by Bobbi I thought that was just excellent! However much they might be questioning their previous decisions though – they are still all in to find out what Coulson is actually up to and while no mention is made of the Theta protocol from last week’s episode, you can see that this is very much in their mind.

While Skye is sightseeing in Milwaukee with her dad, Coulson has managed to track down and corral Ward and makes him an offer he can’t refuse. While Ward seems to agree to this and gives up Bakshee in an effort to find out what HYDRA is up to with powered people, you just know that his end game is going to be something completely unexpected. If we were betting people, after the first episode of this season aired we wouldn’t have put any money whatsoever on Ward getting a redemption – while there are some instances here where he seems to show some remorse (specifically in regards to Skye), his actions till now have only demonstrated that he is nothing if not extremely dangerous. A complement that Coulson also pays him by bringing Deathlok to their initial meeting.

After Bakshee is able to organize a meeting – one that Mike Peterson (Deathlok) attends, Coulson, Hunter, Fitz, Ward and Agent 33 are able to see that HYDRA is also stalking Gordon and they hope that this will lead them to Skye – this is where Ward might start to change as the only thing he seems to care about, genuinely care about is Skye. Tailing them in their Quinjet they all arrive in Milwaukee also and Ward/Coulson head off in search of Skye while simultaneously fighting off the forces of HYDRA.

Kyle MacLachlan at 43rd Emmy Awards ceremony (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bakshee meanwhile is seemingly NOT as brainwashed as we were led to believe as he manages to capture both Deathlok and Lincoln who were fighting each other, not really realizing that they were both there to protect and help Skye. Perhaps he (Bakshee) has a larger role to play in this after all (?) unless the whole thing is still a long con and he’s actually following the orders of Ward and Agent33.

While Coulson and Skye finally get a chance to see other again … it really is a father/daughter moment … they are yanked apart again by Gordon. Unfortunately Cal too joins in the teleport and you know that he is not going to be a happy camper when they get to the other side. While he’s continued to help and save Skye/Daisy – he’s nothing if not disturbed and his temper is never that far away!

Some Quibbles & Thoughts

Skye/Daisy kind of “forgave” or empathized with Cal a bit too easily didn’t she? Last week she had to almost be forced to have a dinner with him, but now she’s understanding him so well? While her explanation made some sense – i.e. she’s been searching for her parents for so long and she did everything/anything to find them – I prefer to think that in reality she already had the idea that if she got out with him she could come up with a way of contacting SHIELD. I like to think that she’s that devious/intelligent!
I hope that now that Skye has seen Coulson in person — even if it was in the unexpected company of Ward — we’ll see a bit more conflict between her SHIELD agent side and her reunited daughter side. With both Cal and Coulson in her life she has to feel pulled in many different directions and while she doesn’t have all of the facts, she needs to wonder about the fact that SHIELD was both helping her and hunting her.
It was really, really good to have/see Ward again. He’s definitely not reformed and seems to always have multiple plans underway. I’d hate to see them figure out a way to make him back into a good guy as he is an awesome villain – in fact the scene where May and the others back at SHIELD headquarters saw Coulson and Ward together was pretty priceless (even though it was 100% expected), as far as a big “Oh, crap” moment, seemingly reinforcing everyone’s worst fears about Coulson and what he’s been up to. Unfortunately unless Ward becomes someone significantly greater than he is I do not see him staying around forever … I would expect that in an upcoming episode he is killed off while saving Skye giving him some (but not complete) redemption in the eyes of the world and SHIELD.
There were several Age of Ultron moments – the Baron, experiments on powered people – sprinkled throughout the show and it’s quite possible that the April UK release is going to give all of us some interesting tie-ins and details! There were also references to Raina and her precog talents … this is definitely going to be important in the future.

News and Gossip

Finally some rumors … there has long been speculation about an upcoming Agents of SHIELD spin-off … yesterday it was announced that this show would focus on Bobbi and Hunter and to be honest I’m a bit torn about this. I absolutely love the interaction between the characters themselves – it’s very Mr. & Mrs. Smith with the bickering exes that do spy work together to be honest – and while I can see Hunter being a great standalone character, I’m actually not as enamored of Bobbi. I know this is probably surprising as most reviewers like her character, but her motivations and reasons for betraying Coulson and team leave nothing more than a sour taste in my mouth and I really don’t know if I can allow myself to trust her (character) in the future. Together they absolutely do add “something” to the show, but I also believe that the show could have done without her character and managed with a “throw away” mole within HYDRA to serve as Simmons rescuer.

All that being said though – you know me … I’m a Marvel junkie and I’ll be the first in line to watch this and report out to you all my thoughts when it finally does appear on our screens!

August 22, 2015 1 comment

Random Television

The Curious Case Of George Crabtree

by Admin July 24, 2015

written by Admin

As most of you may or may not have seen quite recently the big reveal in Season eight episode 14’s Murdoch Mysteries episode “Toronto’s girl problem”. In which it was revealed that the character of Dr. Emily Grace was a lesbian or at the very she was bi-sexual which at the time she would have been refereed to a serif. The show has of course represented gay characters before it really got me thinking about the show and bit about the landscape of TV in general. It would be fair too say that at times George Crabtree has been a puzzle of a character. Raised by a priest in a literal bordello on the shoals of Newfoundland with his flowery “aunts”.

If you’ll recall why did George so doggedly pursuing the affections of Dr. Grace when in the past he’s gone out of his way too spurn the advances of other more amorous women like Dr. Julia Ogden’s younger sister Ruby. What can we say about George’s friend and fellow constable Higgins, they are quite close nearly inseparable in fact. Now should we be reading more into there relationship? Possibly I would say the prospect is profoundly interesting.

The fact that more shows are representing more then just white heterosexual couples is great, I’m absolutely all for it. I dream of a day where I’ll see all of my friends and loved ones are on television and together we finally do away with the real housewives. Kidding aside in the majority of popular shows when they do choose to represent members of the gay community more often then not they tend to be white lesbians, which somehow no one seems to have much a problem with. But when the inverse is true it’s national news and a subject too deride at the keurig machine the next day.

My beloved Walking Dead first gave us Tara played by Alanna Masterson as a very out at times delightfully gregarious lesbian women. Even taking a girl friend for as short lived and tragic as it was while she was a member of the Governors new charges. I heard no out cry then no one complain about Tara but recently when Eric appeared and as my fellow fans of the book knew already he was a out gay man in a committed relationship with his boyfriend/partner Eric. When we first see Aaron and Eric together they kiss as naturally as anyone would for being in that situation and not seeing your loved one for so long.

But that became an issue the stories and opinions I heard the following were jarring too say the least. I overheard someone on the phone in line and he was gushing about how sad and angry he was about how he can’t watch the Walking Dead with his 9 year old son anymore because of gay kissing. So the message I’m starting to get is lesbians are more socially acceptable then gay men so we’ll only represent one element of a very diverse community.

Going into a different area for a moment something I have discussed at length with one of my very good friends about Peter Capaldi’s introductory season of Doctor Who. Truly there is nothing in this world that will convince me that Michelle Gomez was going to The Master/ Mistress from the start. What I really objected too about the gender swap wasn’t that they did it at all it was the story and the complete non-answer reasons why it happened. All things that rife in Doctor Who since Moffat took the show runner spot.

The relationship between The Doctor and The Master has always been played with and we’ve been a lot of very strong influences that indicate that over time there relationship wasn’t just friendship. Spoiler alert for 4 something year old episode now, in Sound Of The Drums when The Master is defeated and the Toglofaine are sent back too the dark despondent end of time they came from his unwitting accomplice Lucy Saxon shoots him.

A very distraught Doctor holding The Master in his arms and begging him to regenerate. Begging for him to live or at the very least want too live. With all the great pomp and circumstance a moment like that deserves. I thought at best it was cowardly too bring back The Master as a woman because it would have been far more intriguing and daring too come back to there relationship but as men. Not only that too rather flatly bring out The Master attraction to The Doctor and kissing him in a way outing there relationship. So it stops being two men in an inferred sexual relationship to being yet another white hetero sexual relationship on TV. I feel very strong doing that was a half measured ideal too try and bring some shock to the a season that more often then not fizzled.

A very fantastic and complicated relationship between two profoundly interesting alien characters is swiftly cut down too make room for a very uncomplicated socially acceptable television situation. It reads too me as if the BBC and Moffat are very willing to sacrifice quality of story and representation of members of there very real audience to capture a prodigious quantity of eyes and wallets that would shrink at the sight of gay men on television.

Is this true about all shows on television probably not all I’m asking for everyone to take a step back and say it’s okay for George Crabtree to be gay.

July 24, 2015 0 comments

Interweb News & Gossip Random

Kindle Unlimited – come on Amazon – be fair!

by hutchm June 29, 2015

written by hutchm

As a recent member of Kindle Unlimited – by the way and completely unrelated do you feel that Canadian’s and for that matter anyone not from the US gets gypped by Amazon? I mean Amazon Prime is actually quite cool … in the States. There you get Video (similar to Netflix but probably not as good) and unlimited music streaming + unlimited photo storage + free two day shipping + other things … in Canada you get unlimited photo storage and free two day shipping … big whoop! – oh well, there are other positives to living in Canada but I guess we’re never going to get our electronics and gadgets as cheaply or as quickly as they do in the States.

As a bit of a … well lets be honest as a big … geek this is somewhat depressing. In addition as a huge reader this is even more disappointing as Amazon Prime in the US has access to over 500,000 free ebooks … this isn’t even available on Amazon Prime in Canada! What is available in Canada is something called Kindle Unlimited and while at first glance it seems somewhat similar – I think they offer 250,000 ebooks – there are only 50,000 that are related to SciFi and Fantasy which is in my very biased opinion a crime! 🙂

What you might not realize until you start really using it is the list of authors available seems to be restricted to either self published authors or ones that are fairly new to the genre or writing in general. There are obviously exceptions to this – I found some good books by Arthur C. Clarke and some other older grandmasters but finding some of the newer books by authors like David Weber and John Ringo … well you’re out of luck!

Kindle Unlimited seems to be a grand experiment really as while its definitely a good way of introducing newer authors to readers, the restrictions remove some of the advantages and make me question the decision and cost of a $10/mo price point. I mean if I could read the people and books I wanted to read, this would absolutely make sense to me. While I realize that authors need to make money and get rewarded for their imagination, I’ve never been able to justify the fact that there is little to no difference in cost between ebooks and paperback books. It just doesn’t make sense and considering the volume of books I’m able to go through – well simply put I couldn’t afford the habit!

So Kindle Unlimited at the $10/mo price point for up to 10 books – like I said that actually works. It would be better if it was included in Prime versus being a separate product as now even if I wanted to take advantage of the pathetic benefits of Amazon Prime in Canada I wouldn’t want to spend another $10/mo for that also, but that’s just another gripe. However if you can’t even get the books you want then it probably doesn’t make any sense.

A bit of a pity really as I’ve found a couple of good authors that I’d like to continue following – so in that respect its worked – but I’ve also had to pay $$$ for some others that simply weren’t available and this is where it fell down for me. If they roll this out to include more titles and authors perhaps this will work, but right now Kindle Unlimited feels to me like the exact opposite – Kindle Limited!

June 29, 2015 2 comments

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