More colorful, indeed, but far from… *ahem* … transparent.
So What Are you Reading?: Generations
- Thread starter captcalhoun
- Start date
More colorful, indeed, but far from… *ahem* … transparent.
I'm guessing it must be The World of Star Trek, because I recall reading that line, and that book is the only one of the two that I've read.
A Great Catch by Lorna Seilstad, to be followed by The Ride of her Life
Yes, except that on the other hand, The Trouble with Tribbles details how he was told that he couldn't have a corporation as the bad guy (as originally planned), and why he chose the Klingons.
So I don't know, and I'm not going to sweat it, because I'm tired, and I have a newsletter to get out the door, that's already 9 days behind schedule.
*****
Still in The Vulcan Academy Murders. I've now reached the point where T'Mir and Corrigan form their bond. It is, so far as I can recall, the best description ever published (barring some pornographic zine) of what "always and never touching and touched" really means.
Last edited:
I just read the Doctor Who: Origins comic miniseries from Titan Comics. It purports to tell the backstory of why the Fugitive Doctor defected from Division, and it was a decent story, but I have some continuity issues. One is, admittedly, a problem from the TV series itself, that the Fugitive Doctor's TARDIS is already in its police box form without explanation, and doesn't change appearance to fit its environment, which you'd think is a feature a Division agent would really want in their TARDIS.
The main continuity issue is in the prologue story, which shows the Fugitive Doctor catching some bad guys on Earth with help of some Earth kids in 1962 and deciding she's starting to like the people of this backwater planet, followed by a sequence set "A Year Later" where the First Doctor and Susan arrive on Earth for what's treated as the first time, with the Doctor saying he feels it's a good place to be without knowing why -- and the TARDIS is a police box despite being in the middle of the woods. This doesn't work, since the TV series established that the Doctor and Susan had traveled extensively in Earth's past before settling in 1963 London, where the TARDIS first got stuck as a police box.
I guess my other issue is that calling it Origins is kind of an overstatement, since it doesn't really reveal the origin of anything beyond the Doctor's decision to defect from the organization she's already part of at the start of the story, plus a half-hearted and problematical attempt to show the origin of the Doctor's appreciation for Earth. So the title promises more than it delivers, and is also generic as hell.
The main continuity issue is in the prologue story, which shows the Fugitive Doctor catching some bad guys on Earth with help of some Earth kids in 1962 and deciding she's starting to like the people of this backwater planet, followed by a sequence set "A Year Later" where the First Doctor and Susan arrive on Earth for what's treated as the first time, with the Doctor saying he feels it's a good place to be without knowing why -- and the TARDIS is a police box despite being in the middle of the woods. This doesn't work, since the TV series established that the Doctor and Susan had traveled extensively in Earth's past before settling in 1963 London, where the TARDIS first got stuck as a police box.
I guess my other issue is that calling it Origins is kind of an overstatement, since it doesn't really reveal the origin of anything beyond the Doctor's decision to defect from the organization she's already part of at the start of the story, plus a half-hearted and problematical attempt to show the origin of the Doctor's appreciation for Earth. So the title promises more than it delivers, and is also generic as hell.
I am rereading Star Trek: The Q Continuum, the trilogy by Greg Cox. I love Q, and I would read these three books and Q-Squared over and over in high school. Now that I am more familiar with TOS, DS9, and Voyager, and I have gained some life experience, I am appreciating Q-Space even more. Notes at 13% of the Kindle Signature Edition of the omnibus:
-It would be quite overwhelming to be a parent or daycare worker in charge of q.
-KRAD gets Tuckerized in the early portion of the book.
-Sonya Gomez is mentioned as being on board. This was published before the SCE series, so I am not sure if this quite fits her biography anymore. My internal explanation is that it is a temporary stopover for her like Worf appearing in First Contact and Insurrection.
-It would be quite overwhelming to be a parent or daycare worker in charge of q.
-KRAD gets Tuckerized in the early portion of the book.
-Sonya Gomez is mentioned as being on board. This was published before the SCE series, so I am not sure if this quite fits her biography anymore. My internal explanation is that it is a temporary stopover for her like Worf appearing in First Contact and Insurrection.
Just finished my first book of 2023, The Kick-A** Book of Cobra Kai: An Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion Book by Rachel Bertsche (2022). This is a really fun behind-the-scenes book on the Netflix series with lots of cool photos and interviews with all involved (the showrunners, actors, writers, directors, stunt coordinators, production designers, etc. Traces the genesis of the project from the early love of the original 1980s “Karate Kid” movies by the three men who who go on to create and produce “Cobra Kai”, Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg, through their convincing Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) to step back into their famous roles.
The selling of the series concept to YouTube (who carried the series on their YouTube Red the first two seasons), the casting of the other roles, the shooting the series, the series popularity especially after it moved to Netflix, the biggest fan moments like the returns of various other characters from the original “Karate Kid” movies and how many of the themes of the series transcend the generations, the young teenage characters going through many of the same experiences that Daniel and Johnny’s generation did back in the 80s.
And perhaps the most fun element of “Cobra Kai”, the unexpected development and redemption of quintessential 80s bad boy, Johnny Lawrence (while at the same time keeping him a man firmly stuck in the 80s thinking wise, to often humorous effect).
Daniel LaRusso’s journey from where we last saw him in The Karate Kid: Part III to being a family man with a wife, two children, and a successful businessman, seemingly the opposite of the perennially down on his luck Johnny, is also explored, and how the sudden return of Johnny and Cobra Kai dojo (re-opened by Johnny) brings Daniel to the realization that he has become out of touch with his kids and with his own life’s focus (his beloved mentor, Mr. Miyagi, having passed away seven years prior to the start of the series. It makes Daniel decide to resume his karate and to train his daughter and other teens in the Miyagi style of karate.
As I said, a very fun, well written book for fans of the “Karate Kid” films and “Cobra Kai” series (and a great companion to Ralph Macchio’s recently released Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me memoir book). I gave The Kick-A** Book of Cobra Kai: An Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion Book four out of five stars on GoodReads.
—David Young
The selling of the series concept to YouTube (who carried the series on their YouTube Red the first two seasons), the casting of the other roles, the shooting the series, the series popularity especially after it moved to Netflix, the biggest fan moments like the returns of various other characters from the original “Karate Kid” movies and how many of the themes of the series transcend the generations, the young teenage characters going through many of the same experiences that Daniel and Johnny’s generation did back in the 80s.
And perhaps the most fun element of “Cobra Kai”, the unexpected development and redemption of quintessential 80s bad boy, Johnny Lawrence (while at the same time keeping him a man firmly stuck in the 80s thinking wise, to often humorous effect).
Daniel LaRusso’s journey from where we last saw him in The Karate Kid: Part III to being a family man with a wife, two children, and a successful businessman, seemingly the opposite of the perennially down on his luck Johnny, is also explored, and how the sudden return of Johnny and Cobra Kai dojo (re-opened by Johnny) brings Daniel to the realization that he has become out of touch with his kids and with his own life’s focus (his beloved mentor, Mr. Miyagi, having passed away seven years prior to the start of the series. It makes Daniel decide to resume his karate and to train his daughter and other teens in the Miyagi style of karate.
As I said, a very fun, well written book for fans of the “Karate Kid” films and “Cobra Kai” series (and a great companion to Ralph Macchio’s recently released Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me memoir book). I gave The Kick-A** Book of Cobra Kai: An Official Behind-the-Scenes Companion Book four out of five stars on GoodReads.
—David Young
Reading Origins as it came out -- the FCBD prologue and the individual issues -- I kept expecting those kids to turn up again. I assumed there would be a parellel plot in the Origins mini-series, maybe with Susan and those kids, and Susan comes to realize that her Grandfather had had adventures -- extensive adventures, which maybe he couldn't entirely remember -- on Earth before.
And also, yes, the first season makes clear that the Doctor and Susan aren't strangers to Earth. (Remember, the French Revolution was the Doctor's favorite period in Earth history, and he'd been there before.) But I feel the series eventually came to ignore that, and Trotter's Lane is commonly treated as the start of the Doctor's Earth adventures.
I can see that. I liked it, I thought it was one of Jody Houser's better Doctor Who efforts and I'll like to see a follow-up to this, but I can see that.
Plus, of course, he cosplayed as an Edwardian gentleman even in 1963. And there were all his and Susan's references to having met historical figures or been present for historical events.
I don't think I've seen any canonical story asserting that his time in 1963 was his very first arrival on Earth. I don't think it really came up much. "Remembrance of the Daleks" established that he'd left the Hand of Omega in 1963 London after leaving Gallifrey with it, but it doesn't preclude the possibility that he traveled for a while before settling on a place for it. I mean, it makes more sense that he would've shopped around for a good hiding place rather than just used the first place he happened to land.
A few days ago, I finished reading Superman '78 (2022, published by DC Comics), by Robert Venditti (writer), Wilfredo Torres (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colorist), Dave Lanphear (letterer).
Reprints material originally released in single issue comic books format as Superman '78 #1-6 (October 2021-March 2022. (Was originally announced to be a DC "Digital First" release starting in July 2021 and to run for twelve digital comic book chapters in that format prior to appearing in print, but the smaller digital release chapters apparently didn't end up happening.)
This hardcover collected edition has a cover by Wilfredo Torres and Jordie Bellaire, and also original issues cover art by Wilfredo Torres and Jordie Bellaire, Ben Oliver, Amy Reeder, Brad Walker and Nathan Fairbairn, Francis Manapul, Mikel Janin, Evan "Doc" Shaner, Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair, Lee Weeks, Chris Samnee and Giovanna Niro, Jamal Campbell, and Rafa Sandoval and Alejandro Sanchez. Also includes a seven page "Superman '78 Sketchbook" by Wilfredo Torres, and a one-page tribute page to Superman: The Movie director, Richard Donner (1930-2021).
Buoyed by the success of recent newly released original comic book series based on the 1966-1968 Adam West "Batman" television series (under the title Batman '66) and 1975-1979 Lynda Carter television series (Wonder Woman '77), DC Comics took things to the next logical step and ventured in 2021 into telling original adventures of their two greatest motion picture renditions of their Superman and Batman characters, namely the Christopher Reeve Superman: The Movie (1978) and Michael Keaton Batman (1989) versions.
Prior to this, DC's only comic books featuring the Reeve and Keaton versions of their characters were single issue movie adaptations of Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)—there were no comic book or novel adaptations of Superman: The Movie (1978) or Superman II (1980) due to the deal made between Warner Bros. and original movie story writer, Mario Puzo—and single issue comic book adaptations of Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) (and also the two subsequent Batman sequels that didn't star Michael Keaton, Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997). (These single issue comic book adaptations all came out in the same years as their respective movies.)
Superman '78, this new story by Venditti, Torres, et al., clearly takes place after the events of Superman: The Movie and Superman II (but appears, just as the 2006 film, Superman Returns, to disavow the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, although it's possible that those events still took place prior to this story and are simply not referred to; there is a character in a few panels in street crowd scenes who very much resembles that of Richard Pryor's Gus Gorman character from Superman III).
(Warning: Plot spoilers!) This story deals with the coming to Earth of Brainiac, a super advanced alien cybernetic being who travels the universe in his spaceship scooping up sample cities from planets on the brink of disaster, miniaturizing them, and storing them away in "bottles" aboard his ship. Brainiac believes that by doing so, he is preserving cultures about to go extinct (while at the same time imprisoning the inhabitants of those miniaturized cities).
One of his probe robots arrives on Earth first and comes into conflict with Superman, who easily defeats the robot but not before it can send a signal back to its master that there is a "Kryptonian infestation" on Earth needing to be removed. When Brainiac then arrives, Superman at first resists him. However, when Brainiac threatens to "excise" all of Metropolis, Superman surrenders and allows himself to be taken by Brainiac.
Aboard Brainiac's ship, Superman is miniaturized and put in one of the bottled cities where he discovers something he thought could not be possible, and entire Kryptonian city "saved" by Brainiac just before Krypton exploded. And-- again, spoilers!!! -- his birth parents are among them.
He resigns himself to his new life in this bottled city of Kandor, his powers gone due to the artificial red sun radiation inside the bottle and with seemingly no way to escape. That is, until Lois Lane makes a surprising and uneasy temporary alliance with none other than Lex Luthor ("the greatest criminal mind of our time", "the greatest criminal terror of our era", "the...") (Lois: "Enough with the self-styled nicknames!") to rescue Superman.
That's all I'll say about the plot. However, as a person who was six years old when the first Christopher Reeve move came out in 1978, and eight years old for Superman II in 1980 (which I recall as being one of the very first non animated movies I ever saw in a theater), *this* is a pure joy to read. Is the story all that original. No. We've had loads of Superman vs. Brainiac stories in the mainstream DC comics continuity. *This*, however, is like stepping back into a childhood memory, those cherished first two Superman movies of Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Marlon Brando, etc. Torres art style isn't "photo realistic", per se, but does a great job of capturing the spirit of the original actors (and at times does do amazingly accurate depictions of Kidder, Hackman, McClure, and Reeve).
My one slight criticism of Torres' art is that at times his action sequences are a bit hard to follow exactly what is happening. He'll have Superman standing there fighting Brainiac or Brainiac's robots with energy blasts surrounding him but it not being exactly clear just where the blasts are coming from (Superman or the robots) and where they are going (and if the robots are converging on Superman or falling backwards).
However, another thing Torres does very well is in how he depicts this Christopher Reeve inspired Superman in flight (generally a straighter flying position, as if "diving" through the air, as in the movies--as Reeve had to be positioned most of the time while in a flying harness in front of a blue screen--rather than how Superman is generally depicted as flying in the comics), and also in the use of his other powers (x-ray vision, heat vision, super cold "freeze" breath, etc.).
To younger readers (ones who were not brought up on the Christopher Reeve movies), this will read as just another of the many, many Superman stories they might come across, each giving them a different seeming version of the character. To someone like me who considers Christopher Reeve "my Superman" (no offense to 1950s television Superman, George Reeves, who I also watched as a child), this Superman '78 is magical. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads.
(P.S.: Another really cool thing about this story and its the use of Brainiac as the villain is that it has been said that if there had been a fifth Christopher Reeve movie that it might have featured Brainiac, and many fans have wished ever since that we could have seen this. So, we finally now have a version of what that might have been like.)
—David Young
Reprints material originally released in single issue comic books format as Superman '78 #1-6 (October 2021-March 2022. (Was originally announced to be a DC "Digital First" release starting in July 2021 and to run for twelve digital comic book chapters in that format prior to appearing in print, but the smaller digital release chapters apparently didn't end up happening.)
This hardcover collected edition has a cover by Wilfredo Torres and Jordie Bellaire, and also original issues cover art by Wilfredo Torres and Jordie Bellaire, Ben Oliver, Amy Reeder, Brad Walker and Nathan Fairbairn, Francis Manapul, Mikel Janin, Evan "Doc" Shaner, Bryan Hitch and Alex Sinclair, Lee Weeks, Chris Samnee and Giovanna Niro, Jamal Campbell, and Rafa Sandoval and Alejandro Sanchez. Also includes a seven page "Superman '78 Sketchbook" by Wilfredo Torres, and a one-page tribute page to Superman: The Movie director, Richard Donner (1930-2021).
Buoyed by the success of recent newly released original comic book series based on the 1966-1968 Adam West "Batman" television series (under the title Batman '66) and 1975-1979 Lynda Carter television series (Wonder Woman '77), DC Comics took things to the next logical step and ventured in 2021 into telling original adventures of their two greatest motion picture renditions of their Superman and Batman characters, namely the Christopher Reeve Superman: The Movie (1978) and Michael Keaton Batman (1989) versions.
Prior to this, DC's only comic books featuring the Reeve and Keaton versions of their characters were single issue movie adaptations of Superman III (1983) and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)—there were no comic book or novel adaptations of Superman: The Movie (1978) or Superman II (1980) due to the deal made between Warner Bros. and original movie story writer, Mario Puzo—and single issue comic book adaptations of Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) (and also the two subsequent Batman sequels that didn't star Michael Keaton, Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997). (These single issue comic book adaptations all came out in the same years as their respective movies.)
Superman '78, this new story by Venditti, Torres, et al., clearly takes place after the events of Superman: The Movie and Superman II (but appears, just as the 2006 film, Superman Returns, to disavow the events of Superman III and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, although it's possible that those events still took place prior to this story and are simply not referred to; there is a character in a few panels in street crowd scenes who very much resembles that of Richard Pryor's Gus Gorman character from Superman III).
(Warning: Plot spoilers!) This story deals with the coming to Earth of Brainiac, a super advanced alien cybernetic being who travels the universe in his spaceship scooping up sample cities from planets on the brink of disaster, miniaturizing them, and storing them away in "bottles" aboard his ship. Brainiac believes that by doing so, he is preserving cultures about to go extinct (while at the same time imprisoning the inhabitants of those miniaturized cities).
One of his probe robots arrives on Earth first and comes into conflict with Superman, who easily defeats the robot but not before it can send a signal back to its master that there is a "Kryptonian infestation" on Earth needing to be removed. When Brainiac then arrives, Superman at first resists him. However, when Brainiac threatens to "excise" all of Metropolis, Superman surrenders and allows himself to be taken by Brainiac.
Aboard Brainiac's ship, Superman is miniaturized and put in one of the bottled cities where he discovers something he thought could not be possible, and entire Kryptonian city "saved" by Brainiac just before Krypton exploded. And-- again, spoilers!!! -- his birth parents are among them.
He resigns himself to his new life in this bottled city of Kandor, his powers gone due to the artificial red sun radiation inside the bottle and with seemingly no way to escape. That is, until Lois Lane makes a surprising and uneasy temporary alliance with none other than Lex Luthor ("the greatest criminal mind of our time", "the greatest criminal terror of our era", "the...") (Lois: "Enough with the self-styled nicknames!") to rescue Superman.
That's all I'll say about the plot. However, as a person who was six years old when the first Christopher Reeve move came out in 1978, and eight years old for Superman II in 1980 (which I recall as being one of the very first non animated movies I ever saw in a theater), *this* is a pure joy to read. Is the story all that original. No. We've had loads of Superman vs. Brainiac stories in the mainstream DC comics continuity. *This*, however, is like stepping back into a childhood memory, those cherished first two Superman movies of Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Marlon Brando, etc. Torres art style isn't "photo realistic", per se, but does a great job of capturing the spirit of the original actors (and at times does do amazingly accurate depictions of Kidder, Hackman, McClure, and Reeve).
My one slight criticism of Torres' art is that at times his action sequences are a bit hard to follow exactly what is happening. He'll have Superman standing there fighting Brainiac or Brainiac's robots with energy blasts surrounding him but it not being exactly clear just where the blasts are coming from (Superman or the robots) and where they are going (and if the robots are converging on Superman or falling backwards).
However, another thing Torres does very well is in how he depicts this Christopher Reeve inspired Superman in flight (generally a straighter flying position, as if "diving" through the air, as in the movies--as Reeve had to be positioned most of the time while in a flying harness in front of a blue screen--rather than how Superman is generally depicted as flying in the comics), and also in the use of his other powers (x-ray vision, heat vision, super cold "freeze" breath, etc.).
To younger readers (ones who were not brought up on the Christopher Reeve movies), this will read as just another of the many, many Superman stories they might come across, each giving them a different seeming version of the character. To someone like me who considers Christopher Reeve "my Superman" (no offense to 1950s television Superman, George Reeves, who I also watched as a child), this Superman '78 is magical. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads.
(P.S.: Another really cool thing about this story and its the use of Brainiac as the villain is that it has been said that if there had been a fifth Christopher Reeve movie that it might have featured Brainiac, and many fans have wished ever since that we could have seen this. So, we finally now have a version of what that might have been like.)
—David Young
Okay, that doesn't fit what was shown onscreen at all. We pretty much saw Jor-El and Lara get killed by collapsing debris, or cut away so close to the fatal moment that there would've been no time for Brainiac to save them.
They didn't use a bluescreen in the first three movies, since it would never have worked with Superman's blue costume. They used a front-projection process called Zoptic. https://beverlyboy.com/filmmaking/what-are-zoptic-special-effects/
I believe they did use bluescreen in Superman IV, putting Reeve in a different-colored costume and then color-correcting it to look blue, which was why the yellow parts of his costume turned white in the matte shots.
I believe the computer villain in Superman III was originally meant to be a version of Brainiac.
The Heiress of Winterwood by Sarah E. Ladd
Super Soldiers by Jason Inman (5 stars)
The book explores the background and history of 16 comic book characters who served in the US military. Far from being just snippets of their Wikipedia entries, the author examines how and why the characters do or do not work in a military setting. He was in the US Army for six years, so he also draws on his own background and explains to us civilians how some parts of the fictional stories compare to what happens in real life. I learned quite a bit about both the characters and actual military service from reading this book, and I highly recommend it.
If you like the book or just want a free taste of the author's style, he is the co-host of the Geek History Lesson podcast, which puts out an episode almost every week.
The book explores the background and history of 16 comic book characters who served in the US military. Far from being just snippets of their Wikipedia entries, the author examines how and why the characters do or do not work in a military setting. He was in the US Army for six years, so he also draws on his own background and explains to us civilians how some parts of the fictional stories compare to what happens in real life. I learned quite a bit about both the characters and actual military service from reading this book, and I highly recommend it.
If you like the book or just want a free taste of the author's style, he is the co-host of the Geek History Lesson podcast, which puts out an episode almost every week.
SABELLA, or The Bloodstone, by Tanith Lee. (Daw, 1980.)
Haven't read this book in probably forty years. I remember being slightly disappointed by it at the time, because it suffered in comparison to Lee's short fiction, which I loved. But I was looking for something vampiric to read last night and spotted it sitting on a shelf for who knows how long.
Found the first chapter intriguing. Have literally no memory of where it goes from here.
Haven't read this book in probably forty years. I remember being slightly disappointed by it at the time, because it suffered in comparison to Lee's short fiction, which I loved. But I was looking for something vampiric to read last night and spotted it sitting on a shelf for who knows how long.
Found the first chapter intriguing. Have literally no memory of where it goes from here.
Last edited:
Similar threads
