Some people are very sensitive to fashion criticism.
Miracle Comics #2
Hillman-Curl, Inc (March, 1940)
The fact that I had to look over the first issue’s review just to remember if it was worth reading tells you how memorable it wasn’t. Apparently the early stories were good and the comic got worse as it went along. The review was neutral enough to give it another chance, but I’m not holding my breath. The problem here was the same with video games in the 1980s and even media today. There was so much out there that the potential to be mediocre to garbage was high as a result. The last issue was mediocre. Let’s see what happens with this one.
I really like Kamen Rider ZEZTZ, but the change up in part two feels like a whole different show.
ZEZTZ is the first of the Kamen Rider series to get a simultaneous release in the international market. In prior shows of recent years you had to wait for the full series before you got a subtitled version. There’s still no dub, but considering Toei still treats their YouTube channel like an afterthought, the partnership with Shout Factory as part of their TokuSHOUTsu line-up has allowed the English speaking world a chance to see the show at the same time as Japan, relatively speaking. You can watch the repeated livestream during weekends or watch the regular posting on their YouTube channel, which is how I watch it with my Sunday supper.
I love the original concept. Baku is an ordinary guy, but every time he tries to help someone he somehow gets hurt. So he can only save people in dreams, where he’s the amazing secret agent Code Number 7…until the day he finds out he’s actually helping people. In the dream world, “Nightmares” are living beings who slowly bring the dreamer’s worst fears to life, even making them happen in the real world. Baku/Seven is given the power of Kamen Rider ZEZTZ by CODE, the Confidential Organized Defensive Establishment, given missions and mission gear by Zero, who speaks to him remotely through his transforming robot. However, there are other people working against CODE, helping the nightmares in their quest to make the nightmares come true, take over a person’s body, and enter our world to cause chaos. In those emergencies, ZEZTZ can enter our world and destroy the nightmare for good. Meanwhile he has to uncover various secrets and find the sleeping Nem, an idol who gets cast in various roles in the dreams with the goal of making them happy. She becomes Seven’s parter in the dream world while a Mulder & Scully style group of cops help him solve “black cases” caused by the Nightmares and fend off CODE’s enemies, one of which is a former cop.
The mysteries were a good subplot as we got “Japanese superhero fights off a Freddy Kruger army”, and I’m totally up for that…which is why I shouldn’t write Nightmare On Elm Street stories. However, saving spoilers for the next paragraph onward (so you’ve been warned), something changed in the last few episodes. Many of the mysteries were revealed…and then someone hit a huge reset button and totally changed the plot of the story. Don’t get me wrong. As of this writing I’m still enjoying it for the same characters, cool dream world effects, and the amazing action. However, I don’t feel like I’m watching the same show anymore outside of the characters and ZEZTZ’s various forms.
Yesterday we had the new Masters Of The Universe trailer. At the same time we got the new Supergirl trailer, set to come out roughly the same time in theaters. Both are about having to save someone, requiring superhuman powers. Both take place off Earth even though it starts there. Both were a target of concern by the fanbase, partly because of Hollywood’s history with certain types of characters and an inability to do a proper adaptation these days due to egos, self-interest, and a reluctance to have heroes being heroic.
However, while the He-Man trailer made me less uneasy but still concerned about the end product, this really hasn’t helped. The big difference is that in the other marketing for Masters Of The Universe, including the first trailer, some inklings of potential was there. The new trailer simply leaned into that for the first time and showed fans (or at least me) a better idea of what I wanted to see as far as intent. For Supergirl, on the other hand, we’ve had every piece of marketing be a cause for concern, including the fact that the story that inspired it was the not-so-heroic Supergirl: World Of Tomorrow by Tom “I love to psychologically break decades old characters because I have issues” King. The tone always seemed closer to James Gunn’s typical concepts of the found family of oddballs brought together by tragedy and bad attitudes, even though he’s not the director. Then there’s the backstage stuff.
The other connection to He-Man’s second movie and Kara’s is that the tone has shifted. The new MOTU trailer leaned more to the dramatic side, and so does this one, focusing more on Kara’s core wound and dramatic action. Again, there’s a difference. Masters Of The Universe didn’t start out trashing another character, it didn’t turn Cringer into a lion instead of a tiger due to someone else’s animal preference, and it hasn’t had the issues Supergirl has had.
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