Is There Anybody Out There?

Okay, I've posted the link here from a few places and the comments section is opened to everyone, I believe, so if you're out there lurking, please drop me a comment either to this post if you've got a general comment, or if you'd like to specifically remark about one of my previous postings, please feel free to leave a comment there.

And don't be afraid to give me criticism, either for my opinions or for my style of writing, or anything else. I always said I am writing this for myself, but I do want to know other people are reading it.

Thanks in advance for your time and your comments!

JLU Review: Kids' Stuff

Sorry to say, I screwed up the tape and missed this week’s Teen Titans. I’ll have to catch it next weekend when it re-airs Saturday morning.

But I did fix the tape in time to catch Justice League: Unlimited, though I ended up watching the repeat on Sunday night…

The plot is pretty simple; Morgan Le Fay and Mordred (of King Arthur fame, last seen in the Season 1 episode “A Knight of Shadows”) find the Amulet of First Magic. They also have a disagreement, when Mordred reveals he despises his mother for keeping him young all these years. He grabs the amulet and uses it to banish all adults to a nether-realm.

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern are fighting members of the Injustice League, Copperhead and Deadshot (who we met before in Season 1) and Blockbuster and one of this week's many nods to fanboys, the KGBeast (Batman foe, but most recently mentioned by Black Lightning in Identity Crisis #1).

In the nether-realm, they meet up with Morgan, who seeks their help in defeating her son. They agree, but as Green Lantern remarks…”I don’t like where this is going…”

Mordred takes over what appears to be a Medieval Themed Disney World amusement park and remakes it into a twisted kingdom, where he sits granting the wishes of kids (which range from toys to milk for one girl’s baby sister). The Justice League appear there, but they are kids.

Superman and Wonder Woman seem to take to being kids again rather easily. Batman does, to some extent, though isn’t happy his friends are stronger and faster than he is. And poor John realizes he needs glasses again. Lucky for him he has a ring, but he makes some modifications to his glasses when the others laugh at him (more on this in a minute).

What follows is a series of confrontations with Mordred, the first of which lands the JL in a pit where they have to face off against the Baby Demon, Etrigan (also seen in “A Knight of Shadows”). The fight goes poorly for the JL, until John burps Etrigan and Superman is elected to change his diaper.

On the next go-round, they decide to split up. Diana chooses Bruce, but then changes her mind to Clark. Clark is ready to go when Diana changes her mind again, she does want to go with Bruce. Clark is befuddled, to which Lantern replies “For a man with fifty kinds of vision you sure are blind.”

They are no match for Mordred, but they soon convince him that he’s afraid to grow up. He of course falls for it and changes into an adult, breaking the spell and returning the adults to Earth. Morgan comes and lives up to her end of the bargain, returning the JL and the Demon to their proper ages.

Okay, so I like so many other comic fans were quick to call this episode World Without Grown-Ups (the “event” which introduced Young Justice and split Earth into an Adult Earth and a kid’s Earth) and Sins of Youth (another Young Justice “event” where the kid heroes turn into adults and vice versa). But it managed to acquit itself nicely and stood on its own.

It was nice seeing Morgan, Mordred, and the Demon again. Also nice seeing the brief reappearances of Copperhead and Deadshot. It’s little things like this that help with continuity…

The most fun aspect of the episode was seeing the Jlers as kids, especially John. The writers of this show seemed to have figured Kyle Rayner’s personality would fit John well, and I think it did. The first homage to Kyle was the glasses, which John changed to resemble what some disillusioned fans called Kyle’s “Crab Mask.”

John spends an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what “kewl” constructs he should make, though when push came to shove, he went with the old Alan/Hal standard…the boxing glove.

Lastly, John creates a Mangaesque robot during his battle with Mordred, which is Kyle’s forte. In fact, the animators used Kyle’s more stylized symbol on the robot instead of the standard one first seen with Hal Jordan.

Diana’s kid comes out in her crush on Bruce, though it appears the writers want to keep the illusion of the Clark, Bruce, and Diana triangle. Season 2 hinted at romantic feelings between the two, most notably when Bruce danced with Diana in “Maid of Honor”) and later in Starcrossed, when they split into teams, where Diana just happened to be paired with Bruce.

Overall, it was a rather fun episode, obviously with a few extra bits aimed at us fanboys. With the premise “Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Green Lantern are turned into kids,” so much could have gone wrong. But, instead they pulled out a few really nice moments and it hardly seemed like only a half hour.

Still a few things about this new format bug me. First are the scenes from the episode in the opening credits. I guess it’s nice when they spotlight new characters, but these past two episodes, especially; they seem to spoil a lot. My second main gripe is the lack of Flash. Hopefully he’ll be in later episodes, but I don’t even remember him getting a speaking line in “Initiation,” and he was completely left out of this episode and last weeks’ episode. Same goes for J’onn, who I’m afraid will be relegated to the Watchtower and only sparse appearances to move the plot along.

It’s a fun show, but I would have been happier with a more final ending to Justice League and a brand new show (instead of just another season) for Justice League: Unlimited. Of course, if that were the case, this episode and last week’s would have been put into Season 2.

It’s an “A” episode, definitely. Next week: Hawk and Dove!

TF Review: Energon Perceptor

Energon Perceptor

I was originally reticent to buy this, but due to the recent lack of new toys (I haven't gotten anything since Arcee in June), I gave in. Definitely an improvement over the Armada Perceptor team!

High Wire:

Vehicle Mode: High Wire is my least favorite of the Perceptor team and the main reason why is also one of my main complaints about the Energon line...things don't lock into place and he ends up looking more like a pile of plastic pieces than a sleek dirt bike. The colors are okay, but the entire bottom of the bike is white and it kind of looks dull. When you get it semi into place, it does look nice, but it would have been so much nicer if it was able to lock into place.

Robot Mode: Another case of a decent, but not great idea that just fails in the end. One of my main problems with it is that unlike the picture on the box, the entire top half of the robot mode is unpainted. Sometimes they are able to pull this off, but on this toy, it just looks unfinished. Again, like his Armada predecessor, High Wire has one arm that is just a bike wheel. Kind of disappointing, but I do like the other arm, which has an exhaust pipe that doubles as a possible gun. He doesn't stand up well, but ends up being decent, not good. Oh and he loses points for falling over easily.

Sureshock:

Vehicle Mode: First thing first, unlike High Wire, Sureshock holds together rather well, much to my relief. He's a dirt bike and a definite improvement over his Armada alt-mode. His colors are the same as High Wire, white, dark blue, and Orange, but he adds gold for the “windshield.” It's definitely sturdy looking, and everything pegs into place nicely. A very nice alt mode, especially compared to High Wire.

Robot Mode: Another toy which falls over rather easily. And again, the robot mode is a bit of a disappointment. The main problem is his center, which is too thin and too white. He has color carried over from his alt mode, which is nice, but it's not enough. His upper parts are too bulky in comparison to his thin middle. Better than High Wire, but that's damning with faint praise.

Grindor:

Vehicle Mode: The best of the three and it's also the most futuristic (or Cybertronian) of the three. Also the most colorful as he is mostly orange with some of the dark blue and gold (and white for the hover fans) his “brothers” have. In the cartoon Kicker uses him as a hoverboard, but he does look built to carry people inside him, despite the fact that his size would make that a bit difficult!

Robot Mode: Once again, it's a bit of a disappointment. A bit too bulky and the hover fans turned arms are too small for it. Not much else to say, but at least he stands up well and is colorful.

Perceptor (Combined Mode):

*sigh* Without High Wire attached, he's almost perfect. It's a little hard to get his legs (Grindor) into place to look decent and the arms formed from Sureshock's bend the wrong way, but besides that he looks nice and the colors definitely come through on him. You can even turn the hover fans from neat “flairs” on his legs to guns pointed at enemies.

Then you attach High Wire for the head, but it adds backpack kibble, which weighs him down and makes him hard to pose. And the head is hard to get into the exact place to make it look straight and therefore not goofily looking into another direction. Plus High Wire's legs are supposed to be posed nicely behind his head, but it doesn't work that way.

If you get the head on right and fiddle with the kibble, it's a decent combined form and definitely makes up for the deficits in the robot modes. And it's a clear improvement over the Armada Perceptor.

It's not a toy I was dying to get, but it's definitely not my favorite. I'd say it's a B, but more because I'm focusing on the good parts instead of the annoying ones.