#btas was a big inspiration clearly

[outletcrash]

were all mad here...

i think i finally have a mad hatter design! he looks a little young here but this is it :)

the talking crime dog poodle is his service dog marchie (the march hare!). jervis is functionally blind due to his albinism (a trait i gave him after the white rabbit) and needs help kidnapping and brainwashing and the like. since he's a neuroscientist, he developed a device that can scan her brainwaves and interpret them as various prerecorded messages. think those buttons that people train smart dogs to use but automatic.

jervis had a bit of a mental break and uses his knowledge of the mind to create his own wonderland. alice is important, yes, but the real goal is a whimsical disorienting lawless world with a large cast of characters (people he kidnaps). at his worst and most delusional he doesn't understand abduction is bad and you cant just kill people who get in your way.

he's a GENIUS but he's very shy and doesn't communicate well. most people don't know how smart he is. little guy is too short he gets lost between couch cushions....

he's violent and strange and childlike and shows up when you least expect it. the dork squad is canon. he uses he/him pronouns but hes not like a Man or a Dude or really anything at all. jervis is the brains and marchie is the brawn (shes an absolute darling but will bite to disfigure. crime dog. batman lets her go to arkham bc he knows he will not survive the night if he separates them.)

ps. alice in wonderland scared the everloving SHIT out of me as a little kid. that scene where alice cries because she cant find her way home and the cheshire cat shows up? hell no. i was crying tears of HORROR. although i did like when the talking pansies showed up. theyre in the picture if you can spot em ;)

[popculturebuffet]

Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle: The Mighty Elves (Comissoned by WeirdKev27)

Well well boys, we’re back to Jingle Belle with another kevmission, though per his request i’ll be getting back to Life and Times Of Scrooge McDuck at long last. I also have some other stuff planned and all that, but for now, let’s focus on everyones faviorite elfen hellion as we dive back into Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle. 

I covered most of the behind the scene’s stuff last time so in short in case your just joining us, since this one’s got a bit more stuff to tag: Jingle Belle is an indie comic book character created by animation god Paul Dini, the daughter of Santa Claus and the Queen of Elves who acts like a standard rebellious teenager sterotype and causes trouble for her dad.  Last time I touched on the character a good two days ago, we looked at her first appearance, where she sent her family to Family Therapy. At the time I’d ONLY read that story, and hadn’t gotten that far into Jing’s world just yet. As you probably guessed despite plugging a decent amount of time into re-reading the rest of Scott Pilgrim (shout out to my good friend Mike for the early christmas present), on digital and in color and into the Switch port of the first Fire Emblem, I still got 2/3 of the way through the omnibus Kev gifted me of almost all her stories up to 2018′s The Handmade’s Tale.  Honestly not a lot has changed from the pilot.. while Jing’s designs changed a bit, she’s still more of a rebellious hellion, and while Santa’s no longer a slut shaming jackass, he’s still hard on her while her mom tries to keep the peace, The humor’s still edgy, if toned down enough to support returning whenever Dini felt like it but it’s largely the same for better or worse.  Overall the stories haven’t been bad but have been a bit reptitive to read in one giant omnibus. This really is down to the format they were made in: These were one off stories spread months apart meant to be picked up off the shelf with no real ongoing stories or character development and only some slight worldbuilding here and there. In short not bad stuff, just clearly not built to be collected in a huge omnibus like it was and not the first comic collection i’ve encountered with this problem and definitely not the last. 

That being said the stories are creative and still well put together. It is Paul Dini and he has wrote pretty much every story collected here with few exceptions, so it’s still good stuff, just as I said clearly not meant to be read all in one block like i’ve been doing. And today’s story happens to be one of my faviorites so far, breaking the formula up a bit by having Jing do something a bit diffrent and also involving hockey, a sport this story made me realized might actually intrest me on some level.. if in part due to letterkenny. 

God bless those two handsome idiots. So let’s ice up or skates, get those letterkenny refrences at the ready and see what the Mighty Elves have to offer. 

We start at Hockey Practice for Santa’s Hockey Team, The Elves, the kind of sentence that makes me really happy to type for money. Santa’s team is naturally for this kind of story and what the title references, are the last place in the bi-polar hockey league their in.. presumably ran by commissioner bi-polar bear. 

Again, I really love this job and that i’m actually getting paid for this this go round. Anyway, Santa’s team isn’t all that agressive because.. well i’ts a team coached by Santa, why would they be? But Santa’s still proud of his boys... as for his girl on the otherhand he gets a call and we soon find out via mugshots Jing dragged her two friends, up from just one in previous stories, to an air force base, somehow got arrested for hitting on enlisted men, not a crime, and stealing and crashing a helicopter, very much a crime.  Naturally Santa isn’t pleased, so we cut to a few days later where he’s letting her friends off making robo kitties, damn I want one of those now, while leaving Jing to do the packaging, though like most stern but fair dad’s he admits he dosen’t like punishing her and is right in saying there’s more to do with her summer vacation than you know, piss off the military. Santa needs his flight clerance dammit. Jing complains there isn’t much to do but feed the reindeer and make toys to which I say.. really santa? You haven’t set up anything else for your eleves to do? Making toys is their job. Build a fucking movie theater. And at the very least if not for them than for your bored and rebellious daughter to distract her from doing crimes. She’s still likely got a few hundred years of teenagering left, give her something else to do other than piss you off.  Santa does have a least a little something: Hockey! Which Jing’s cousin Rusty has taken up. Rusty showed up in the first story but I kind of glossed over him, he’s basically Jing’s Dorky cousin she frequently abuses. Not really much more or less to him. Jing isn’t on board mostly because their team always looses, to the other teams: The Penguins, the Polar Bears, The Snow Leopards and the Eskimos because they don’t really have killer instinct, which yeah is kind of necessary for hockey. To her..

But during her rant she does show Santa she’s got genuine talent for the sport, so he makes her a deal: Do a little favor for him, and she’ll swap that for making toys.. it’s a deal.. one she soon regrets but hey. 

Jing naturally makes an ass of herself pretty quickly beating the shit out of Rusty with her dad repremanding her and threatning to throw her off the team if she has another outburst like. That is until she runs into the Huskies Coach, Stan. 

I mean i’ts a hairy old man who makes a side bet with Santa Claus despite it technically being against commission rules, might as well be. So Santa tells Jing screw it, as long as it’s the opposing team violence is a-okay.  And naturally our first target is the world famous hockey player, aka snoopy aka a snoopy stand in. And being a big fan of peanuts i’m a sucker for a good peantus parody. Doubly so since Dini did his homework, and as I’d remembered and a quick google confirmed “The World Famous Hockey Player” was indeed one of snoopy’s many personas.

 Not that it was much of a stretch: just about any time snoopy played a sport he was “the world famous X player”, but still it’s a nice little nod. Not so nice is Jing within seconds slamming him into the air and under a Zamboni and getting sent to the box for it naturally. So clearly she’s the shorsey of this team, all chirps and ultra violence. 

Snoopy is thankfully still alive, if barely, though he’s off course been through much worse.

But while in the Box jing helps advise the team and a presumed combination of her beating the shit out of the other team’s best players and her team now not only having something to inspire them but a strategy means the Elves win for once! Santa and Jing share a hug, though Santa advises her not to go for his wallet, it’s still a sweet moment as she’s genuinely invested now.  So we cut to..

Okay Hank Ribbon seal is genuinely one of the best things humanity has made but as for Quiki I just... wow that joke is mildly racist at worst, confusing and unfunny at best. I mean... it really just makes no sense on any level and that’s with me not knowing a lot about hockey, but knowing just enough to know Kathy Lee Gifford existed. Just.. what even was that? I know Paul can do better than this.. because as my first review outlined he wrote a LOTTTT of Tiny Tune Adventures including my favorite episode. He also wrote most of the best Joker episodes for BTAS, so it’s not like the guy CAN’T be funny.. so I have no idea how he could fail so hard with this. Just.. what is this. Who thought this was funny? what was the joke? 

That.. utter bafflement aside, this newscast is used to push things ahead as the elves are on a winning streak, having also beaten the Polar Bears and the Penguins.. though weirdly we DON’T get a cameo by this guy despite having already had Snoopy show up. 

That’s my boy. But yeah there’s only two teams left with this, the Eskimos and tonight’s matchup the Snow Leopards, aka snow catgirls lead by Tashi Ounce, who Jing met at the winter games last year and lost too and thus has a whole rivlary thing going. In a really nice moment Santa stops to make sure Jing is okay going into the game. 

It’s part of why I REALLY like this story: Santa instead of just being disapointed in his daughter genuinely bonds over her over something and Jing shows she has a softer side to her. It’s some good character stuff, helps shake up the normal formula nicely. Back to the usual though she and Tashi naturally go at it, phrasing, and fight the whole damn time, with Belle eventually scoring the winning goal. Though noticably while Tashi is just as competiive as belle and lost this time.. she’s fine with it, knowing she’ll win next time and congradulating the opponent.  But before she can leave the rink, Tashi is approached by a mysterious figure with an offer and we cut to said figure’s lair... it’s THE BLIZZARD WIZARD! dun dun dun!.... yeah I haven’t introduced him the Blizzard Wizard is.. well exactly what he sounds like, as well as the former ruler of the North Pole. He enslaved everyone there to do his bidding and was essentially, a butt till Santa showed up, united all the various animals and kicked his ass. Since then he’s been reduced to basically a rankin bass villian, lurking near bye and scheming to get petty revenge on Santa for it. So essentially....

Minus the tragic backstory. He offers them a deal: The championship cup for him defeating the elves. As he puts it the cup symbolizes hard work, respect and team work.. i.e the things their throwing out to get payback. Tashi wants none of it, but the blizzard wizard has his slush minons capture her and with the rest willing to sell out, he gets to work. 

Bliz snows out the eskimos, and brings up accusations of Santa gambling, which he gets away from by.. having his wife donate the money real quick don’t ask just go. But he has a waiver signed by the other coaches so their playing his goons. But Jing isn’t phased and Santa asks her to give the lockeroom some inspiring words. 

10/10 no notes. But naturally Bliz has a sneaky trick up his sleeves.. to win.. specifically a hot french canadian player which.. makes jing fall to pieces flirting with him and makes her entirely ineffective. Okay time out.... huh so this is the timeless void known only to zack morris, that girl from the reboot I haven’t watched, and Regis Filbin. But yeah while I wouldn’t expect Jing to slaughter the guy it feels out of character for all she’d do is to giggle like an idiot instead of making a move. She’s been established as forward and knowing what she wants. I’m not against her being distracted by this it’s just the how that feels off especially since the opening reinforces this. She hit on air force guys. She’s not going to just be giggly and awkward. Jing may not be the most complex charcter but she’s better than this. Aside from the baffling Kathy Lee Gifford gag, this is the only thing I really don’t like abotu the story, and it lasts two pages before it’s resolved and in a 22 or so page story, that’s a good chunk of it spent on something that isn’t funny and that’s out of character even within story. That being said it dosen’t drag the story down entirely, still a good story. Just a bit uneven is all. 

But unsurprisingly Tashi escapes her earlier imprisonment offscreen to let Jing know not only the full extent of Bliz Whiz’s machenations, i.e. that the other coaches are in on it, but that the hockey player is really just one of Bliz’s minons uner a glamour. WIth that knowledge Jing asks why she’d help and Tashi shows her inner honor beneath the whole rival deal, pointing out she wants to win from a GOOD team next year. With the jig up Jing pulvirzes her former crush, claims to have been under a spell (no one byes it) and the elves clean house and win. Super fuckin shooter. As for Bliz Whiz he tries to steal the trophy but instead gets booted into the snow leopards box, phrasing... it doesn’t end well for him. 

And yeah while he comes back eventually, some how, apparently, for most of the stories after this he’s just.. dead. He was killed and then his remains eaten. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

But Jing admits she had fun, she and her dad bond and we get one last gag as he assumes she learned not to showboat only for her to block everyone else in the team photo. Falalallal we’re out. 

Final Thoughts: As I said, one of my faviorites. It’s really well paced, has a good premise and only one part drags at all and only that part and one gag really don’t land. The rest of it is really funny, nice and touching, and overall a nice shakeup from these stories usual pattern of “Jing getting into hyjinks”. While she DOES here, her and her dad are literally and figuartvely on the same team, and she does show a sweeter side genuinely bonding with her dad and it’s nice to see them actually enjoy each other’s company for once. It’s a nice change of pace and one I wish more of the stories had. I’m not saying they all have to be holly jolly but i’d be nice if more of them had a bit of heart to them is all. Tis the season and all that. Still for what it is, it’s a fun ride and I highly recommend it. We’ll probably see her again sometime this season but that’s a bit off.  For now coming up I have some ducktales to tell, a chapter in a man’s life story that’s long overdue, a holiday mess I wish I didn’t have to clean up, and in the distant future.. an old friend to reconnect with. Until then if you liked this review reblog it, comment etc all that good stuff, and you can send me asks with suggestions fo ra review or direct message me, or ask for my discord, to comission a review yourself. Until then, happy holidays. 

[byebyeskylark]

Legends of the Dark Knight

Years ago, when I was in college I was watching BTAS for the umpteenth time, focusing on the episodes that have commentary. 

I reached Legends of the Dark Knight in S4 (or The New Batman/Superman Adventures, if you prefer) and thought, “Ugh, fine, I’m bored.” I’d never liked that episode. Some kids are exchanging Batman stories and one insists that his uncle met Batman and Robin and it went something like this: 

Today I find this bit hilarious, and I added Batman ‘66 to my collection a while ago. But as a kid, I hated it; found it cringe-y. And when I was in college, Batman Begins had come out only recently. A lot of Batman fans were desperate for that kind of movie, one that took the character seriously. Because, you have to understand, the last time we’d seen Batman on the big screen it had been this:

.........anyway...........

So I’m watching Legends of the Dark Knight, hating this campy bit inspired by Dick Sprang’s art, and the guys doing commentary (Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Dan Riba, Glen Murakami and James Tucker) talk about it and Tucker says “It was an amazing chance to do my all-time favorite Batman. For me, Batman was Adam West and the old filmation cartoons...When I think of Batman and Robin, because of my age and when I was first exposed to them, this is what I think of.”

And I suddenly realized that I was completely shitting on this guy’s definitive version of Batman, a character we both clearly loved. Who was I to hate on this guy’s childhood love of wacky giant piano traps and a Batman who makes jokes? In a few decades people might shit on my beloved BTAS, or the Tim Burton Batman movies. And after all, I, too, had adored Adam West Batman at five years old; I had asked for a purple Batgirl motorcycle toy and had to make do with an accurate but decidedly less stylish police Harley. Hell, I know there are folks out there who genuinely love Batman and Robin, bat-nipples and all.

Now, I still have strong opinions on Batman. I will never accept, for example, a version of Batman that knowingly, outside of mind control, hallucinations, etc., raises a hand to any of his kids. But in general I try not to direct too much energy to stomping on versions of Batman that I don’t like. Or, I contain it to my real life conversations with like-minded friends rather than screaming about it to strangers on the internet. It’s always a bit of a downer to see a mutual post or reblog something that calls a comic/movie/show/fic you enjoyed a pile of hot garbage. Or, something that implies you’re an out-of-touch jackass for sticking close to your definitive version of Batman, or Gotham, or the rest of the Batfamily. 

Comic book characters will always be in flux, but an individual’s take on them is often going to reflect their point of entry into the fandom. Batman’s been around for almost 80 years and someday, kiddo, your picture of Gotham and its inhabitants is going to be another fan’s relic of the past. 

I’m sure others have said similar things more eloquently than I, and I have no expectation (or desire!) to squash fan discourse, but I think it’s worth saying that one of Batman’s strengths, as a character, is that he can take so many forms and still be Batman. 

We all like something about that pointy-eared weirdo, even if that something is different for all of us, so cheers to another 80 years of the Caped Crusader’s evolution.

[whitecanarrow]

Genuinely shocked but I actually really liked The Batman????

The script more than Pattinson’s acting though tbh. He was fine in the role but nothing special. I prefer Affleck’s acting & approach to playing the character — as well as his action scenes — and I wish his Batman could have gotten a script with this take on the character instead of a Frank M*ller-inspired one.

I loved this movie as a Batman origin story without it having to actually be a we-see-the-Waynes-die/we-watch-a-training-montage origin story. And I loved where it leaves Batman as a character at the end.

This Batman is new at this. He’s figuring out his identity. He’s not all the way there. It borrows heavily from Zero Year & Scott Snyder’s version of the character (& shades of BTAS), and I’m here for it.

Really enjoyed Zoe Kravitz’s performance and actually liked Selina well enough (which was a big ask for me, as I’m usually not a Catwoman fan). I did, however, find the BatCat of it all lacking. I didn’t see as meaningful a connection there as the movie clearly wanted me to believe they had.