Ten Things I Love From Marvel

I’m a DC Comics Fan
Duh


But it occurs to me that I’ve written a bunch of blogs regarding DC Comics, but have entirely ignored Marvel. Except for mentioning how cool Spider-Man’s rogues gallery was that is. The truth is there are things that Marvel in one way or another produced that I did really like. So, in the interest of fairness I present these things. They can be anything from comics to TV shows to movies…as long as it has something to do with a Marvel property.



This list is in no particular order.





10.Video Games

I swear I remember playing a Marvel video game, but I looked it up and couldn’t remember which one it was. But these games were usually pretty cool, and who didn’t want to be Captain America of Spider-Man? Not much else to say but I had Sega Genesis and loved Game Boy so there had to a be a few Spider-Man games in there somewhere.

Top 10 Favorite DC Comics Super Villains!

 

Well my friends the time has come. I said last time I would do my favorite villains, so here we go. Problem is, this is ten times harder. Heroes tend to always be basically the same. Oh sure the gimmicks my change but heroes are always heroes. Villains are another story! Villains have to be interesting, engaging, menacing, even scary to keep readers coming back. The amazing thing about Batman’s villains for instance isn’t how many of them are, it’s the fact that each and every one has something unique and special about them.

So whittling down this list was not easy. You’ll see that a lot of the villains bare a close resemblance to my favorite story lines ever. But without a good villain you can’t have good stories. But here we go, my ten favorite villains. And this is based only on the comic books, not on any TV, cartoon, or movie versions. Again, that would be a different list.




#10.Monarch

This one is hard to justify since DC botched this character. You have to believe me, this is a personal choice. It’s a long story but in 1991 DC Comics had an event called Armageddon 2001 where a hero was supposed to be a villain. Yeah it turned out to be Hawk which was really lame, but I liked Monarch. He was a real bad ass. So much so that when I would write silly fan fiction as a kid he was the main villain. Well there were two others but they aren’t worth mentioning here. So I am cheating a little here since I said they had to come from the comics, but he was a cool there too and if DC had gone with their original plans the character would have been  better.

Top 10 Favorite Modes of Transportation From Cartoons

I talked a ways back about awesome cars and vehicles from TV shows and movies. But cartoons tend to be cooler than anything live action can bring us. This makes sense of course, since the limitation is the animators imagination. I called this list modes of transportation become some of these are more than just vehicles, but they all serve the same function. To get the hero from Point A to Point B and be absolutely bad ass while doing it. Some of these are so popular they have almost become characters in their own right!


I didn’t say it in the title because it was getting to long, but this is limited to TV cartoons. Movie animated vehicles is another list entirely my friends!!






#10.The Mach Five (Speed Racer)

How cool does a show have to be when I know the theme song by heart despite NEVER watching the show? While I haven’t see the show just looking at the cars featured kind of makes me want to. They look so cool!

Top 10 Favorite DC Comics Superhero Teams

Well since I teased it last time only makes sense to go thru my 10 favorite DC comics superhero teams. Before anyone comments, Birds of Prey will not be listed. I still have never read that series. Like last time I am discussing the teams I loved to read. Most of the teams have had different versions over the last twenty years (several in some cases) but I stopped regularly reading comics awhile ago. And this is only hero teams by the way.






#10.THE METAL MEN/THE DOOM PATROL

Tied because I liked both of these series the same way…through other appearances not in their main book.  Truth is I know the Metal Men from their crossovers with Superman, Batman, and others. But they are pretty cool team. Five robots made of different metals but each containing very different personalities. It’s kind of fun watching these characters play of each other. Gold could stretch his form almost infinitely, Iron was super strong. Lead could block harmful radiation by morphing into thick shields, Mercury could melt and pass through small spaces before reforming, while Platinum and Tin could stretch, flatten or spin into fine filaments. These are silver age characters that stuck around, and I totally get why. The Doom Patrol I learned about from other series. Especially The New Teen Titans where Beast Boy was a member,  Mento was a villain, and Robotman helped out. I kind of liked the New Doom Patrol better, and when the new series came around in the 90’s I gave it a shot. But didn’t last. This was a dysfunctional group which was a nice change of pace, but not enough to keep me reading. Though Negative Man was kind of cool, and I loved The Chief who was sort of DC’s version of Professor X.

Top 10 Favorite DC Comics Superheroes

Yeah here’s another list I really should have done already. I loved DC comics as a kid, and continue to be a fan to this day. So I decided to list my favorite superheroes. I’ve already done rogue’s galleries and supporting characters, so this one is long overdue. This list is the characters I loved to read about in the comics. If we were talking animated shows and movies, this list would be very different. And the big thing here is this is based mostly on the comic books I loved as a kid, so some characters may have changed but I am going what I grew up with.



While some of these aren’t going to be a shocker if you read my stuff I think I may have one or two things on this list which will surprise you. The only rule is no groups, that’s another list my friends.




#10.
Martian Manhunter

This is one of those characters I had to really learn to like. But this guy has a sadder back story than Superman. He lost his planet and his family. But he found a surrogate one on Earth with the Justice League. Which version? All of them. He is a very gentle soul who only fights because he has to. But when he kicks ass he really kicks ass. He’s even respect by Batman as someone who has been around longer and really knows his stuff.

Top 15 Favorite Muppet’s (plus a few I Hate!)

 

In the past I have done several Muppet articles, but all have been about the various TV shows and Movies the characters have been in. I have never really go into the characters I liked, and why i like them. Ok a few times one or two would pop up in another list, but it didn’t cover every Muppet and it didn’t go into detail. So today, I wanted to rectify that. I present to you my favorite characters out of all the amazing creations that have come out of Jim Henson Productions.



Not every Jim Henson production involves Muppets. For instance the 90’s show Dinosaurs was Jim Henson but those weren’t Muppets. Though I loved Baby Sinclair. And while Fragile Rock does count, I never watched the show so sadly none of them will appear. And no animated stuff like The Muppet Babies, live action only. So this list includes The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and all Muppet movies.



Why 15? Did you really think I could limit this to 10? It went up to 12 and then 14.





#15.Robin

This is one of the sweetest characters ever. He is just adorable and innocent, how can you not love him? Honestly I almost put Rizzo here, but while Rizzo is funny he doesn’t have the legacy behind him that Robin does. Though he has kind of faded, in fact both Rizzo and Robin appear in Muppet’s Most Wanted to call out there lack of a role in “The Muppets”. Robin is Kermit’s nephew, and I love the relationship between the two. His best role may have been in the John Denver Holiday Special, which I reviewed already, or as Tiny Tim in The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Underrated Trek:The Royale (TNG)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most. A few weeks ago I talked about how with the right writing and acting, a really stupid idea can be turned into gold. Alas, that is not always the case. Sometimes a stupid idea that makes no sense is just a stupid idea that makes no sense, no matter what you do. Especially when you rush that has been re-written to many times. That brings us to :

 

Ah, second season Next Generation. It wasn’t as bad as Season 1, but still had a lot of problems. This is my third or fourth time talking about an episode which I really want to love from that season…but yeah let's talk about it

Five Once Popular Actresses Who Faded Away

It’s not easy to make it famous. Sometimes an actor will have to really pay their dues before finally getting a success. Teri Hatcher bounced around all kinds of minor roles before Lois & Clark and of course Desperate Housewives finally made her a name. Lauren Graham had minor roles in virtually every 90’s NBC sitcom, some were supposed to last like NewsRadio but none ever did. Until Gilmore Girls made her a star, and she was great in the Parenthood series which NBC finally ended last year. And Megan Mulally was an unknown face appearing all over the place, until her breakout role as Karen on Will & Grace finally made a star our of her.

But many are not so lucky, and the saddest thing is when they have an opportunity which should lead to amazing things…but doesn’t. Awhile back I talked about how actors get screwed over by typecasting, but sometimes that isn’t even to blame. Not through any faukr of their own, they just never land the right role and kind of fade away.


Here are five examples of actors who have faded away despite the fact they were very popular at one time but just never landed that critical success which would keep their career moving.



Marcy Walker

One of the few soap operas I watched in the late 80’s was Sana Barbara. The hot couple in that show were Cruz and Eden. Eden was played by Marcy Walker. Walker was on fire during that time, she was just super popular as part of the ultra hot couple. But then she made some bad choices. The first was an unsold pilot about lawyers. Then she got cast on a series which did sell, and in fact she left her soap opera to commit to this series. The show was “Palace Guard” and lasted like two episode. It was so boring! Walker went back to soap opera’s but never did get that magic back. She has lately has stopped acting altogether. Oh, and what about Cruz? He was played by A Martinez and honestly he should be on this list too.

Sitcom Episode Face-Off:Everybody Loves Raymond vs King of Queens

Hello my friends, welcome back as I take two episodes of different series with the same plot and see which did it better. So let’s say you have two sitcoms based around the fact the husband is a lazy idiot. These shows also have cranky, bitchy wives who love to complain about the fact their husband is a lazy idiot. Then suppose they decide to do the same story about how the lazy idiot husband is also totally useless in an emergency. Yeah let’s play a game of who’s the worst husband as we discuss :

 



I am comparing “What Good Are You” from Everybody Loves Raymond’s 5th season to “Oxy Moron” from King of Queens Season 4. Both of these came along in 2001 (ELR in Jan, KOQ in Nov…seriously what is it with these shows blatantly stealing idea from each other?) when each series was at their peak, and basically tell the same story. But which did it better?



 
ROUND 1:BASIC PREMISE

On Raymond, Debra coughs on a piece of fruit while Ray watches TV. Even though she wasn’t really choking she is still angry because Ray did nothing to save her. Any other guy would have not let it bother him, but this is Ray of course.