Golden Age, Silver Screen: Phoenix Rising

The Phoenix Force is a term you'll hear a lot this summer, due to its foreboding status over the current Marvel Universe. But that got me thinking; the phoenix is a very good metaphor for the comic book industry. In the beginning, the popularity of newspaper strips gave way to the rise of the monthly comic book. And it was good. However, all things must die, and many people believe that the clock is ticking towards midnight for print comics.

Whether or not we see all comic shops close their doors in favor of digital media was once a situation of 'if', but as the years roll on it's quickly becoming an issue of 'when'. But no matter the form it takes, the art of words set to accompanying pictures will never die, rather, it will continually rise from its own ashes. Like the phoenix.



And much like this blog. Welcome to my first article of the new and improved "Digging For Gold". Welcome to "Golden Age, Silver Screen", a look into how the world of comics are currently effecting the entertainment industry.

This week had several highly anticipated beginnings, and one long awaited ending. Let's start with the big news: the introduction of Disney XD's 'Marvel Universe' block of shows.

In all honesty, it's really a mixed bag. The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes came in strong with their Season 2 premier, and boy did it pack a punch. The Avengers team up with the Fantastic Four for an all-out, slam fest with none other than Dr. Doom himself. It did not disappoint, and the episode left Doom with the upper hand. This will definitely come into play further along in the season.


Now, the fighting was top-notch, but the real magic in this episode are the character interactions. Hulk and The Thing play off each other perfectly, and the scientific rivalry between Stark and Richards is just what you would expect. The dialogue was great and really brought me into the show. I felt like I was just one of the guys, playing poker with the greats.

If they can keep up this level of quality throughout the season, it will hands down take the prize for my favorite show. I suggest anyone with half a brain to get caught up with this spectacular cartoon immediately. Season 1 is on Netflix already, so there is really no excuse!


Now for the bad news: Ultimate Spider-Man does not seem to be targeted for me. Maybe I was anticipating it too much, but as a show penned by the great Paul Dini I was expecting more. I really wanted to like it, the inclusion of Power Man and Iron Fist get a huge thumbs up from me, and some of the jokes were legitimately funny. However, the jokes that hit are far too outnumbered by the jokes that miss and the rest of the dialogue is filled to the brim with unnecessary narration and cut-aways explaining things that anyone who's seen Spider-Man already knows. The writers think the audience is a bit slow, or the show was targeted towards toddlers. Either way, it's a pass in my book. And yes, I'm a fan of Spectacular Spider-Man. Why can't we just have that back?

Rounding out the 'Marvel Universe' block was a talk with Joe Quesada about drawing the Hulk (cool), a character profile of Hawkeye (nothing I didn't already know) and a couple 'Marvel Mash-Ups' where they take old Marvel cartoons and re-dub them a la Sealab 2021. These are VERY hit and miss and while I chuckled at a couple, it was mostly childish and grating. Doom's triple rainbow segment was good though. All in all I wouldn't consider the block of programming a success. Just grab Avengers and ignore the rest.

Moving to DC Nation, it was an admirable block of programming, albeit over-shadowed by the greatness of Avengers (seriously watch it). Young Justice was an alright episode centered on Artemis. I'm not a fan of her so I might be biased, but the episode didn't clinch me like so many others do. Green Lantern is once again still finding its feet. If the show continues to just go from one planet to the next in a 'monster of the week' sort of fashion, it will fail fast. The Green Lantern mythos is so large, I'm sure they could be doing something better with these characters. For now, I'm still in a 'wait-and-see' state.


The DC Nation shorts were better fare, with New Teen Titans and Superman of Tokyo being some of my favorite shorts seen so far. If New Teen Titans doesn't get expanded into a full show I'll run down to the DC office and smack someone. Really.

Last but not least, we get to the leftovers. Iron Man: Armored Adventures, that oft-looked over Canadian cartoon with the catchy intro (It's Rooney, check those guys out). This episode featured Iron Man 2099 coming to the present to kill his grand-father Tony. Enraging paradoxes aside, it was a pretty entertaining episode. The show may not be top-tier, but it's still the best Iron Man show ever in terms of character portrayals...even if they are teenagers. I suggest looking it up if you've never seen it before.



Here it is. You all knew it was coming. The final episode of Blade. I've spent many days ranting about how horrible this show is, and sadly, the finale doesn't do much to redeem itself. It was a fitting conclusion and not a bad episode on its own, but it was far too little, too late. I won't go into my gripes with this episode, they are the same as all the others. Perhaps because all 12 episodes have pretty much the same plot structure. Through watching the series I was constantly thinking "Your Princess Is In Another Castle". Repetitive, episodic, drivel. The story could have been told in 4-5 episodes, everything else is just padding.

I love anime, and I love Madhouse, the studio responsible. But it seems they just don't know how to make Blade work as a series. It's a shame, he seems to have faded into obscurity in the comics and I would love a refreshing take on the character. This is not it.

That's all for this week, a bit longer than I anticipated, but that's life. A lot longer than you anticipated. See you next Monday, where once again I'll be laying down my musings on the shows based on the comics we all love.

Until next time comics fans, stay golden.

'tldr' - Pick of the Week: The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes