The dating profile was fake, but he gave her a chance anyway.
The Solution #10
Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (July, 1994)
“Back Track” part 1
WRITER: James Hudnall
PENCILER: John Statema
INKER: Jeff Whiting
COLORING: Mickey Rose & Violent Hues
COVER ART: Daniel Brereton
LETTERERS: Dave Lanphear & Patrick Owsley
EDITOR: Hank Kanalz
On the comic side, I had an idea and lost it the same day. The alternative could have led into what’s about to be brought up, but it’s been a draining week. I blame the weather but some minor issues also messed with my time. Even this week’s Clutter Report is just me going over a declutter hacks video from the Property Brothers. Not my most creative week.
So the issues I’m having with the theme I’m using for this site, Selecta, are getting worse. I’ve kind of drug my heels on it because the site does what I want and I don’t have the urge to spend more time formatting a page than I do writing the article on it. However, it’s retired and unlike the current Clutter Reports theme is not holding up. Part of the problem is now I have to almost redo all of my years of archived articles, which will give me a chance to kill bad or extinct links and fix typos and formatting, I guess. It’s just very time consuming and time has not been my friend this year. I even noted in today’s Clutter Report that I’ve only accomplished one of this year’s declutter goals, and it’s a rather minor one. I start mastering a rhythm and then something new comes along. Plus I have a medical exam coming up this week and I’m trying to ensure it doesn’t disrupt BW operations. If successful you’ll never know I missed a day of work.
So before the year is out the site will only look like it does now if “now” is later enough for you than when I wrote this. It’s not the first time I’ve changed a site’s theme. Jake and Leon have even joked about it. I might even have to change The Clutter Report’s theme, which means more reworking, but so far that one works okay and I like the notepad visual of…Notepad…for that site. It fits the “report” bit of the site. I just want to let you know it might get funky around here for awhile as I’m forced to make adjustments to how things go, but I’ll give you a heads up about the change so you don’t suddenly thing you’re on the wrong site. Maybe some kind of countdown or something. We’ll see.
So that’s what’s up. Due to the usual Memorial Day post, our next Chapter By Chapter review of How To Completely Lose Your Mind will move to Tuesday. The regular “Yesterday’s” Comic reviews return this week, except for Friday. I have one more Halloween ComicFest leftover to go through and doing a Golden Age review in time for it while still in the Golden Age for the Quality Comic pre-DC heroes is still time consuming compared to the actual read. In two weeks we’ll be back to that. Malibu returns on Monday.
Have a great week, everyone! Sorry for what’s about to happen but hopefully it’ll be a better site for it.
We’re going to do something a bit different on tonight’s Showcase. I’m going to show you a pilot and then review it because it’s a good example of something I talk about a lot on this site. A show, movie, or whatever story can be good, but there can still be a reason you don’t like it. Something about it just doesn’t connect with you. You can see the quality and effort. They clearly wanted to make something good, and people rally behind it. And yet for you it doesn’t work. You don’t hate it, it’s not an insult, it’s not you wondering what people see in it. You know what they saw and understand it, and yet it doesn’t work for you, possibly for the same reasons others like it.
That’s me and Gameoverse.
With The Amazing Digital Circus coming to an end, Glitch needs a new series to rally audiences. No TV or streaming animation studio or distributor survived on one show. That’s another show everybody praises but just isn’t for me. I’ve never been interested in watching it. I’ve watched Film Theory episodes about it just for curiosity, but I just wasn’t interested in watching a comedic version of I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. At least that’s what it looks like to me as an outsider. I only have so much time and my tastes are fully formed. It’s rare that something outside my usual interests works for me, but it has happened. So I watched the Gameoverse pilot an open minded try…and while I see the quality it just wasn’t for me. Why?
Well, let’s watch the pilot first so everyone has seen the same thing. Created by Ross O’Donovan of the Game Grumps, I’ve seen this show compared to Reboot, the Mainframe Entertainment series that on occasion had the heroes going into game worlds as the opponent characters, trying to stop the user from winning in order to keep part of their city of Mainframe (where the animation studio got its name, or maybe in honor of it) from being nullified in the area where a “game cube” fell into and around that section of the city.
This show has a similar premise, but from the pilot it appears to be the main plot instead of an occasional one. Kit is the survivor of such a place. She was her game world’s hero, and she won…so the planet blew up. Now she and her friends, including fellow survivor Kaboodle (a robot backpack), travel to other worlds to stop those heroes from beating the final boss and game overing their world (see what they did there?) However, a group called the Syntax wants the hero to win and the world destroyed…to save their worlds. No, it doesn’t make complete sense, but that’s the mystery surrounding this pilot. Enjoy…and I’ll explain why I didn’t.
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It seems like everybody wants to do something with Hanna-Barbera’s legacy library except the actual owners. Variety reported earlier this week that a Scooby-Doo anime in which Scoob and Shaggy will be premiering on Tubi instead of HBO Max or Cartoon Network. I wonder if MeTV Toons will get to air it? Also, read the plot and tell me it doesn’t sound like the plot for The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo. Could be worse, I guess. They could be ripping off Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue. That would be an instant fail. No release date yet for Yokoso Scooby-Doo, but Google translated “yokoso” as “especially at night” but DeepL translates as “welcome”. Welcome Scooby-Doo does sound more like it unless Scooby, Shag, and their new friends only track “mythical monsters” (I’m thinking yokai) at night. Might be interesting. Expect a debut if it debuts.
I guess you can use this as a color guide for the characters. That’ll make sense soon.
The Adventures Of Aspen Mascots (Halloween Comicfest)
Aspen Comics (October, 2018)
WRITER: Vince Hernandez
ARTIST: JOie Foster
LETTERER: Micah Mayers
ACTIVITIES & RIDDLES: Gabe Carrasco & Corinne Chuah
EDITORS: Gabe Carrasco & Frank Mastromauro
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 
How Nolan’s Batman Warned Us About Nolan’s Odysseus
Before I start this commentary I want it on the record that I am not trashing “a movie you haven’t seen yet” or Christopher Nolan at all. He’s earned his fanbase and every accolade he’s received. I am going by the marketing alone, including interviews and reports by film experts, and the realization that not every person is the right fit for every project. John Hughes shouldn’t remake A Nightmare On Elm Street and Wes Anderson shouldn’t remake Sixteen Candles. Even if they were both still alive and in the business. In the same perspective I’m not sure Nolan was the right fit for Batman and based on what’s out there now he’s not the right fit for The Odyssey at all.
We’re not talking about some of the culture war related issues, but let’s get that out of the way now. Elliot Page playing Achilles is still just rumor and a way to clown on the fact that Hollywood would indeed make a decision that dumb. Whatever your views on the former Ellen Page changing forms, Page is skinner than me and I’m make a terrible Achilles because he didn’t have a gut but did have actual muscles. The man was a Greek soldier. It goes with the territory. All the Styx dip did was make him invulnerable except in the one place he got shot, but we’ll come back to him. As far as the Helen race swap, that’s a level of cultural and historical stupidity I’m not even going to touch lest we go off-topic for this site. It’s inaccurate whatever someone’s attorney’s neighbor’s second cousin twice removed told them, though I’ll note for the topic that he did the same for Commissioner Gordon and Catwoman. Anything else, like the translation Nolan has been seen praising, JesterBell has already covered.
No, it’s that Nolan wants to “ground” the story in “historical accuracy”, except for the parts he doesn’t, but I point you to the link in the previous sentence. The Odyssey is not really a myth. It’s not even religion. Homer is not St. Matthew, he’s the guy who wrote the Olympian version of Touched By An Angel, a story inspired by religion. Even The Iliad starts with three goddesses forcing a man to judge their beauty pageant and then bribing said judge, but you could almost ground that one just by having Paris and Helen run off together. The only other magical element is a man who can’t be stabbed or shot depending on his footwear to cover his one weak point. (I tried to find the “maximum damage” quote but Google Search AI isn’t as smart as Google thinks it is.) Just make really good armor…it’s not like they’re getting that historically accurate. Just don’t go full Iron Man…although I admittedly would watch that movie. However, The Odyssey, it’s sequel, is totally filled with the very things Nolan wants to avoid.
At issue here isn’t whether or not Nolan is a good director, or even if his Batman movies were good. I own Batman Begins on DVD with no regrets. It’s whether or not his gritty, grounded takes fit the world of Batman or the adventures of Odysseus. While Batman doesn’t deal with the fantastic as often, it’s still very much there even if it isn’t close to Odysseus’s level, unless you count the times Batman hangs out with the Justice League thanks to Wonder Woman being a member. He’s met the Greek gods and goddesses and one dude who thinks he’s Zeus. (I wonder if Maxie Zeus ever met the real deal?) That’s why Nolan’s take on Batman should have prepared you for the same adaptation errors he’s talking about making, and we can start with the Clown Prince Of Crime himself.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on May 22, 2026 in Book Spotlight, DC Spotlight, Movie Spotlight and tagged Batman, book to movie adaptation, Christopher Nolan, comic to movie adaptation, commentary, Odysseus, The Odyssey.
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