I post this so you know I’ve seen it. I don’t care. With everything that’s happened recently and every stupid thing that’s come out about what’s going on behind the scenes, the fact I know Marvel Studios doesn’t care anymore, and being based on a comic storyline I already wasn’t interested in, apathy is all I can manage for this thing.
In the previous chapter, Jean Lorrah went to her original characters from her last novel, The Vulcan Academy Murders, and told us what they’ve been up to in the month between novels.
I’m not that familiar with Lorrah’s previous or later works. So I don’t know if she has any medical interest. The previous book was a procedural crime drama but medical situations were a heavy part of the story. It’s how people were dying, it was why the Enterprise was there in the first place, and why Amanda was in danger. And yet most of the story seemed to focus on relationships, from the romantic to how Vulcans and Earthlings interact, to both at the same time.
Now we have a story that’s purely medical, a planet-wide plague, and an even bigger chance to explore multiple races getting along, even some non-Federation worlds that are usually threats, like Klingons and Orions. Everybody gets along for their own goals, and the plague is going to challenge that. Plus you still have those warlike Vulcans in place of the Romulans. It’s a lot to thrown in one pot, but this book pulled it off to me the last time I read it. As we head to chapter five, we’ll soon see if a second read through more critical eyes changes that perspective.
Continuity? Here?
Yep, we’re back and under the new posting schedule for “Yesterday’s” Comic, as I stated in last week’s Programming Note. In this week’s Clutter Report I went over some of the stuff I did during this week’s break both on this site and in the regular world, that I hope will lead to finally being where I should have been after the past decade of not recovering like I should have, and it’s most likely my fault. Planning on fixing that.
Something else I seem to need to fix is the Jake & Leon archives. Everything’s out of order, possibly due to some limit in images you can put in one gallery. I think the best method will be to break them down in groups of 100 and give them each their own page. Smaller galleries might solve the issue. I’m coming up on 700 comics and I think I broke something.
So now we only have one Golden Age comic review a week, but I do plan to finish off my more recently made anthologies to review as a bonus article. Whether or not I have time this week we’ll have to see. Tomorrow sees the return of the Chapter By Chapter review of Star Trek: The IDIC Epidemic. Feature articles will depend on time and topic, and hopefully I’ve given myself time to learn how to use the crap I need to make stuff exist and do what I need to do in the physical world to get myself back on track. Wish me luck, and have a great week, everyone!
In case you missed the update, welcome to the new posting time for “Yesterday’s” Comic, or at least the Golden Age comic reviews. Check said update for the reasons why. Let’s just get into the review.
Why is his cape so short and his bandana mask so long?
Jumbo Comics #14
Real Adventures Publishing (April, 1943)
According to an ad on the inside cover Jumbo Comics went monthly starting the following month. We’ll see about that, given the mistakes on the cover. “The Lighting” won’t make his actual debut until the next issue while the title for the Sheena story happened last issue. They also started some contest where in this and a few other of their titles there was a comic strip mystery where the readers could win a prize for solving it and sending the answer in before being revealed in a later issue. There was a cash prize and everything. Odds are you can’t collect today, but I’m more concerned about whether or not we reading from a public domain site will ever know that answer or if we have to guess?
At what point does an adaptation become a Ship Of Theseus? How much can you alter before it becomes a bad adaptation, and then becomes an homage, and at what point it is “(X) in name only) and should have been it’s own thing? Using a Greek ship as an example comes into play since, as this article goes live, Christopher Nolan’s questionable adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey just hit theaters. Reviews as a movie as mixed, but so much is wrong as an adaptation that I don’t care. Adding characters from alternate sources, using “time period accuracy” to explain why there’s no orchestral score and removing gods and monsters, yet getting races and armor wrong while using modern terms and slang and using rap music, which has been along even less time than orchestras, in their soundtrack. I just wish I knew who Nolan is trolling: the audience, the historians, or the entire country of Greece, who isn’t happy at this cultural mythology appropriation, especially given letting Nolan shoot there.
At this point Ulysses 31, a sci-fi animated series that was a co-production of DIC Entertainment and TMS Entertainment, better treats the source material by being an homage, right down to the series starting with Ulysses and his ship, the Odyssey, leaving the colony of Troy trying to return to Earth. This time Telemachus is with him while Persephone is still back home probably dodging suitors. There’s a new reason for killing the cyclops, making the gods even bigger jerks than usual. The intro, which I’ve reviewed separately in the past, gives too much away when used in the first episode, but the details are still worth watching if only to set up this sci-fi retelling of Homer’s work, much like Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century would do for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective.
Yep, in this episode it’s Telemachus’ birthday and he gets a new robot, No-No. He also gets captured by cultists looking to sacrifice him along with two aliens so the kid has a friend and she has motivation to stay with them when her brother suffers the fate of the crew. The dubbing is pretty good, but the theme song rocks. See how many other references you pick up on. Enjoy!
The Iliad and the Odyssey by John Flaxman is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0
Christopher Nolan seems to be damaging his reputation with his controversial take on The Odyssey. Between race swaps, rappers in place of poets, and numerous other historical inaccuracies despite insisting this is all about being true to the period–which seems to just mean taking the myth out of the mythology, fans of one of the oldest examples of storytelling that has existed and inspired since before Jesus came to Earth are getting more and more frustrated with this retelling. Actors trying to convince audiences that this is the superior version simply because they’re in it and rewriting something timeless for centuries into something dated for the equally mythical “modern audience” (read “the cool kids”) isn’t helping.
Writing for Bleeding Fool, contributor Chris Braly goes over the conflicting marketing for the movie, the out of touch commentary by the director and his stars, and other questionable decisions that may overall hurt this movie.
The Clutter Reports (my other site) Atop The Fourth Wall Crisis On Earth Prime Lean Into Artcast Bully Says “Comics Oughta Be Fun” Siskoid’s Blog of Geekery
Cartoon Hero’s Lair SF Debris Four Million Years Later
BW Media Spotlight 
BW’s Daily Video> Nolan’s The Odyssey’s Box Office By The Numbers
Because regardless of your opinion of the movie, and mine was low when he took the myth out of the mythology, let’s be honest about box office numbers, even if you don’t like the answer.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on July 20, 2026 in Book Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged book to movie adaptation, box office, Christopher Nolan, commentary, The Odyssey.
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