DC Without Batman

This blog is made of DC Comics ramblings that aren’t about Batman. He’s so ubiquitous that it’s harder than it sounds. Much like X-Men when it comes to Marvel, I have an easier time filling up a blog just about the Bat-corner of DC. Although with the amount of Batman content that it churns out, it may be more apt to say there’s a non-Batman corner of DC. So some Batman may have unavoidably seeped in here. This is organized into Superman, Wonder Woman, assorted Justice Leaguers that didn’t merit being separated by tildes, & Watchmen. Most miscellaneous thoughts about the confusing state of DC animation (RIP Kevin Conroy) & movies will also be covered sometime later. Unlike last week’s Christmas special review, this jumble is perfect for reading at any season. Click the contextual links before they get scrubbed & I have to put effort into stealing others’ jokes by recreating them from the ground up.

I found a couple extra Lashina shots to spice up the text.

Werewolf By Night By Disney+ Is A Howl!

The Disney+ Halloween special, Werewolf By Night, came out the same week as She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’s penultimate episode guest-starring Daredevil. It’s also up against Batman: The Audio Adventures season two, Pennyworth: The Origin Of Batman’s Butler season three with its new longer title, the latest Hellraiser, Luckiest Girl Alive, The Midnight Club, & US Netflix finally releasing Derry Girls series three.  They could’ve waited until closer to Halloween so it’d have less streaming competition. (In the trick or treat spirit, I’m tossing in bonus mini-reviews of Fakes & Yellowjackets at the end.) New York Comic Con is on now too.

WBN is definitely worth your attention though. It clocks in under an hour so be warned there’s not much to not SPOIL. (Apparently that counts as feature-length by Oscars standards.) This special is all killer no filler!

He’s credited as “Fire Tuba,” but that is clearly a Sousaphone!

Does Netflix’s The Sandman Bring Us A Dream?

There have been numerous aborted attempts to adapt Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed The Sandman to live action for years. Netflix is the first to see it to fruition. Or one could argue it’s runner-up to Fox’s Lucifer, whose eponymous piano bar Devil & Mazikeen were spin-offs. David Goyer is one of the executive producers, which is worrisome. Allan Heinberg as the other executive producer & showrunner is less alarming. I wasn’t sure what to make of its trailers. Does it live up to its reputation of being Sleepwalker done wrong?

His helm is inspired both by Wesley Dodds’s gas mask & Alien’s Space Jockey.

Will Batwoman Season Three Overcome Its Legacy?

Batwoman aired its third mid-season finale last week. I could’ve gotten it up sooner, but I had to contend with reviewing Masters Of The Universe Revelation Part 2, cooking for Thanksgiving, & getting a Covid booster. (I’m thankful for vaccines this year! They’re free, which is the best healthcare value for your money possible. Get vaxxed already!) Rather than saving these thoughts for a season finale overview, it became apparent that it’d be absurdly long like my Supergirl season six recap. So this is either a bit late or a lot early if you’re a binge watcher.

Doom Patrol’s Unfinished Second Season Deserves Praise

To celebrate the release of Jupiter’s Legacy, I finally watched Doom Patrol season two! I have no regrets! Better late to the second party than never! I’m still gobsmacked that this is a real television series verified by assorted strangers rather than a private ayahuasca hallucination. This HBO Max show survived the death of DC Universe. The following cold take is full of season two SPOILERS that sound like gibberish!

Nobody questions clipboards!

Riverdale Returns, But We Still Need To Save Swamp Thing!

When we last left Riverdale, nothing had been resolved! Its fifth season premiere doesn’t feel like one because it wasn’t intended be a season premiere. Last season was cut short by three episodes. This was titled “Climax,” but it doesn’t feel like one either. I wouldn’t even be writing this episode up by its lonesome if it weren’t blog tradition to use its popularity to bring attention to a better prematurely cancelled series. It hasn’t worked for Lodge 49 yet, but  I’m giving it another go nonetheless. Am I going to need to come back in a fortnight to recap what would’ve been the fourth season finale & then do what would’ve been season five’s premiere the week after? Let me know! SPOILERS for a soap opera that continues to make no damn sense but has much better production values than the daytime variety!

Wonder Woman 1984: Cheetahs Never Prosper

This movie is Wonder Woman 84, meaning I skipped the intervening eighty-two sequels since the original. In a controversial move, WB finally opted to simultaneously release it to cinemas & HBO Max (at no additional charge, unlike Mulan on Disney+) on Christmas day. At least its release wasn’t as postponed as The New Mutants. I watched it a movie theater because I believe the safety precautions taken by the cinema & myself are sufficient to outweigh the risk. If you think otherwise, Gal Gadon’t go because you can watch it from the safety of your home. So is Wonder Woman 1984 doubleplusgood or thoughtcrime? The Lasso of Truth compels me to unspool its SPOILERS in this collaboreview with The Wages of Cinema, reunited for the first time since Plan 9 From Star Wars!

Swamp Thing Makes My Heart Sing!

It’s odd how Swamp Thing is often described as an obscure character when he had some of the highest media saturation for a DC Comics character prior to its shared movieverse. I never saw either film despite wishing to do so. (Tubi currently just has the sequel.) I recently leaned he previously had a poorly received yet somehow syndicated live action TV series in the 90’s. I did see the movie of Man-Thing, Marvel’s mucky counterpart, featuring the future Trish Walker when it aired as a SciFi Original Movie. Despite being made by the director of the beloved Virtuosity & Lawnmower Man (Sadly Cybo-Man is the exception to the Monkey With A Gun rule.), Man-Thing is so terrible that the title creature is ashamed to show his iconic visage until the climax.

Thanks to the intro of his very short-lived cartoon of which I only vaguely recall seeing the pilot, I’ll always associate Swamp Thing with Jimi Hendrix & The Troggs. (Is Swampy jealous Man-Thing has his own The Mountain Goats song?). He was embargoed from appearing on Justice League Unlimited (aside from some Easter eggs snuck in) because by that point he was cloistered away in the mature readers Vertigo imprint. Thankfully Justice League Action allowed him & John Constantine to poison the minds of the youth! Swampy is very toyetic, yet somehow I never acquired any of his action figures.

Unlike last week’s merry Marvel miscellany, here’s a blog with a pruned topic. You’ve seen my fire gourd, now read my review of Swamp Thing’s relatively new television series! It’s doomed, which makes it more tragic. Now I finally have firsthand anger over this. The morass below is crawling with SPOILERS!

I didn’t mean to damn it with faint praise!

Halloween Fire Gourd 2020!

I carved Swamp Thing into a pumpkin to show my disrespect for The Green! You can tell it’s not a Man-Thing fire gourd because it’s got a wishbone shape on its face instead of a distended M. Fear doesn’t burn at its touch, unlike the existential angst within. It kind of resembles The Creature from The Black Lagoon (“Gillman” if you’re nasty). I have a long history with Jack-O-Lanterns not resembling what I envisioned them as.

In the spirit of Samhain not involving vampires staked with shilleaghs, here is a grab bag of bite-sized horror TV reviews. I also rant against the entities that provided such entertainment. Boo to the trend of diverse shows being cancelled in favor of reboots & spinoffs! Netflix didn’t even release the final chunk of CAOS in time for Halloween! There may be minor spoilers for assorted shows you would’ve watched by now if you really cared.

Yes, We Have No Content!

We have no content today!

As you probably know by now, the Fall 2020 TV season isn’t really happening. Some series have begun filming again (This doesn’t seem safe given the general state of Covid Compliance Officers.), but new episodes won’t be arriving until January 2021. This puts me at a disadvantage because I typically fill out the rest of the year blogging about season premieres, series premieres, & mid-season finales.