"Aqua" - Smallville

 

Hey, all!  I’m taking a hiatus from the hiatus to fulfill a request from a friend, who wanted to see a review about her favorite hero, Aquaman.  So today we’re returning to Smallville to take a look at the fifth-season episode “Aqua.”

Hiatus

Hey all.  Real life is starting to pick up a little now, so I'm not going to make regular posts to this blog for the foreseeable future.  I might post something once in a while, but the biweekly reviews are out.  I hope you enjoyed and continue to enjoy what I've already posted. :)

Iron Man #126-#128

 

 So far we have seen:

Justin Hammer make it look like Iron Man killed someone important.

A whole lotta booze.
Iron Man coin a new catchphrase.
DAMN YOUR METALLIC HIDE!
Tony and Rhodey get caught by a mysterious army with no fashion sense. 

We’ll begin the final chapter of this four-part review with a side note full of Iron Man 2 spoilers behind the cut.

Iron Man #123-#125

So far we have seen:

Sub-Mariner hating everyone

Justin Hammer experiment with turning the Iron Man suit into a remote control toy
A giant corporation persecuting a harmless old man
Because hey, this is fiction, not real life or anything
Iron Man’s origin story because screw it, they can

Iron Man #120-#122

 

So far we have seen:

Not much, actually.

SHIELD begin their attempts to totally-legally-you-guys take over Stark International.
Tony decide that alcohol is a good way to deal with annoying people.
A decision which will not come back to bite him in the butt in any way, shape or form.
…I wasn’t kidding, nothing happened.

Iron Man #117-#119

I’ve talked a little about how comics took a turn for the goofy after the 1954 Senate investigation into the effects of comic books on juvenile delinquency. (Spoiler alert: There were none.)  As a result of the hearings and the bad publicity they engendered, the Comics Code Authority was established.  Its job was to prevent such wayward influences as bad grammar, “sex perversion” (read: non-straight people), and say-no-to-drugs messages from infiltrating our comic books. By the early 1970s, the CCA’s influence slackened just enough to allow two important supporting characters—Harry Osborn from Marvel and Roy Harper from DC—to be revealed as drug addicts without their respective publishers running into significant trouble.  Ten years later, having a comic book tackle such serious topics as race relations, homelessness, and addiction was practically the norm.  That’s not to say these topics were all handled well, but a wobbly first step is better than none at all.

And that brings us to today’s topic: Demon in a Bottle, one of the more famous of Marvel’s Bronze Age attempts at sincerity.  It’s a big ‘un, so be sure to check back throughout the next few weeks to see how this arc develops.

"The Man from the Edge of Tomorrow", Parts One and Two - Legion of Superheroes

Speaking of short-lived superhero cartoons, let’s turn our attention to Legion of Superheroes for a moment, shall we?

As a team, the Legion of Superheroes—a group of crime-fighters from 31^st century (New) Metropolis—doesn’t exactly have the greatest reputation.  Usually when I hear about them, it’s because someone is making fun of the perceived lameness of their membership, and with members like Matter-Eater Lad, I can’t really blame them.  (At least they had the sense to reject Arm-Fall-Off Boy.)  But someone somewhere must have thought them capable of turning a profit, because in 2006, a cartoon based on these half-baked heroes debuted on the CW (then called the WB).

Season One started with a young Superman traveling to the future and chillin’ with the Legion, consisting of, among others, Brainiac 5, Bouncing Boy, Triplicate Girl, Timber Wolf, and Lightning Lad, most of whom have pretty self-explanatory powers.  It ended with Superman going back to his own time, and then came Season Two.