Youtube Friday - The Flash

Here is another Youtube video I made a few years ago.  It's a video about the Flash, set to Melissa Ethridge's "I Run For Life".  Some people thought I was being disrespectful using a song about cancer for this video, while others found it uplifting and inspiring.  Obviously I was going for the latter!

7 Year Old Starfire

My son was up at 5 AM today, I don't have the brainpower to do up a blog post!  So instead I'll share a blog post from fantasy writer Michele Lee, who asks her 7 year old daughters opinion of the all-new, all-sluttastic take on Starfire.  Her daughter was first introduced to the character through the awesome Teen Titans cartoon, so it's great to see her reaction to this new depiction.  Especially illluminating is her comments on the "classic" Starfire from the comics.  Check it out!

http://io9.com/5844355/a-7+year+old-girl-responds-to-dc-comics-sexed+up-reboot-of-starfire

Crossovers Too Awesome to Happen

Like most fans out there, I love a good inter-company crossover.  There is something really exciting about seeing favourite characters that cannot interact normally on the same page.  Sure, we've had some duds like Marvel vs DC, which was ambitious but any comic that shows Wolverine beating Lobo gets a big thumbs down from me, but we've also had some gems like X-men/Teen Titans and JLA/Avengers.

The crossovers I've mentioned were all big cosmic end-of-all-existence type stories, which certainly have their place.  But I've always enjoyed the quieter moments when these characters meet, like the Avengers and the JLA working together modifying one of Aquaman's aquatic vehicles for dimensional travel.  I still maintain one of the best inter-company crossovers ever was Superman/Gen13.  I have passing knowledge of Gen13 but honestly do not know a ton about the characters, which was probably one reason I picked up this crossover, to learn more about them.  The mini-series did not disappoint, as it was a completely character-driven story; the heroes did not fight each other once, and I couldn't have cared less.

It is in that vein that I'd love to see the following crossovers, but since there wouldn't be enough explosions and cosmic peril I doubt they would ever see print.

Thor and Wonder Woman - Rather than tell a tale of the Amazons versus the Asgardians, I would explore a sort of diplomatic exchange, where Asgard sends a delegation to Themyscira and vice versa.  Can you imagine the shenanigans the Warriors Three would get up to on an island filled with only women, especially Fandral?  I'm sure Artemis would love to do some training with the Valkyries.  And in the end if you need a big battle, I'm sure that Loki and Ares (DC) could come up with some delicously diabolical plot to foil.

Justice League International (Giffen/Dematteis) and the Great Lakes Avengers - This would simply be comic gold, playing these teams up together.  I could easily see a card tournament breaking out when these teams get together, with the loser having to accept G'Nort onto their roster!

Captain Marvel and Power Pack - Power Pack is a group of kids trying to make it as superheroes in an adult world.  Captain Marvel is a kid who can transform into an adult.  I think the potential for a really fun and poignant all ages tale is here just waiting to be exploited.

Iron Man and Batman vs Lex Luthor - I don't want to see these guys slug it out in suits of armour, I want to see a board room battle royale.  I'd love to see a corporate espionage style of tale that sees LuthorCorp trying a hostile takeover of Stark Industries, with Batman coming to Iron Man's aid.

Edwin Jarvis and Alfred Pennyworth - We've had the Justice League battle it out with the Avengers, but now I'd love to see these two gentlemen's gentlemen sit down for a spot of tea to swap war stories.  This would have been a great back-up feature to JLA/Avengers.

I could go on and on regarding this subject, but what about you?  What crossovers have you always wanted to see?

Goku is a Jerk

Last night I watched the finale of the Dragon Ball Z television series. If you haven't seen it (or the rest of the Dragon Ball Z series) and are planning to there are spoilers ahead, but the show has been over for a few years now so I think we should be safe.

I believe near the end of the Dragon Ball series was when Goku and his now-wife Chi-Chi got married. I haven't seen most of Dragon Ball yet, I'm working my way back to it. Anyway, for the purposes of Dragon Ball Z, they are married at the start of the series and have a young son, Gohan.

Chi-Chi comes off as very over-bearing, forbiding Gohan from learning to fight like his dad and admonishing Goku for his lack of ambition, employment, and so forth. It's meant to be played up for comedy, as Chi-Chi comes across as a very high-strung control freak. The world is going to end and Chi-Chi is more concerned with Gohan's grades than existence as we know it ceasing.

However, while watching the finale last night, it really hit me how selfish Goku really is and how Chi-Chi really doesn't deserve the reputation she has.

Goku has been blowing his friends off for years, continuing to train relentlessly with no menace in sight. When he finally does show his face, it's to enter the World Martial Arts tournament. Long story short, after his match in the Finals Goku tells his family that he is going to be leaving them for a few years to train a new fighter.

Goku mentoring a new fighter isn't the problem, it makes sense. However, while his oldest son Gohan is grown up and presumably living on his own, his younger son Goten is still a teenager. He doesn't discuss any of this with his wife, nor does he even tell her in private; she has to find out when he drops the bomb on everybody.

Goku did not enter into this mentoring agreement spontaneously, he had it all planned out and never even mentioned it to his wife, who he has just made a single parent, again, so that he can train a new fighter. And not even so that fighter can protect the Earth, no, it's because Goku can't find anybody powerful enough to give him a good scrap anymore.

What I find really troubling is that distance is nothing to Goku. With his instant transmission ability he could be home for dinner with a snap of his fingers. But no, instead he chooses to abandon his family to fulfil his own dreams and desires.

Throughout the series I'd have to say Goku is a pretty poor father. There is no doubt that he loves his sons, but I think I can say pretty safely that Piccolo has been more of a father-figure to Goku's boys, especially Gohan, than Goku has ever been.

So really, who can blame Chi-Chi for getting bent out of shape when Goku says he has to go save the world again? He is constantly, even when the world is not in danger, leaving her behind to look after their home and family. She hardly ever knows if she is a single parent or not, and even when Goku is around you could argue he's just a third child to look after.

While it may have been funny once upon a time to play up Chi-Chi as the overbearing spouse, in reality she is a pretty strong woman dealing with a very irresponsible husband, if you can even call him that.

Youtube Friday Take 2 - Sin City Meets 300

Okay, so my Ninja Turtles video was taken down due to copyright infringement, so let's try another video I made.  I took the audio from a trailer for 300 and put it to footage from Sin City.  Let's see if Zach Snyder hates me too.

Youtube Friday - Ninja Turtles Meets TMNT

Starting, well, now, I'm going to start featuring a cool or fun Youtube video each Friday.  Several people have told me they heard about the Avengers Assemble webseries from this blog, so if I can point you in the direction of something else fun, why not?

Alas, today's entry doesn't really lead to a series like Avengers Assemble, rather it's a video that yours truly put together.  Just for fun, I took footage from the computer animated TMNT movie and used it to create an "opening credits" sequence set to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon theme song.  Check it out dude!




EDIT: Now this is annoying!  I pulled up the video on Youtube, watched it once, then posted it.  Apparently that was all that was needed to alert the killjoys at WMG and my video was taken down.  This has been on Youtube for a few years now so for it to all of a sudden get taken down is frustrating.

I can feel a blog post ranting about the stupidity the studios have for quashing fan content coming on!

Rodney Dangerfield of Superheroes

Try not to barf

The Thing has turned into the Rodney Dangerfield of the superhero set, he just doesn't get any respect.  I don't read the title because quite frankly I can't stand how it's written, but I saw scans from Avengers #11 where some of the team heavy hitters are engaged in a battle with the Hood, who is wielding an Infinity Gem or two.  Two of the Avengers, Thor and the oh-so-cleverly-named Red Hulk, also have a Gem each, but it appears Namor is a part of the battle without one.  The battle is pretty heated, and the non-powered members like Hawkeye and Mockingbird are staying out of the way.  When Ben decides to intervene, he's told to stay back, it's out of his league.

Ben Grimm used to give the Hulk a run for his money on a regular basis, and now he has to hang back with the completely non-powered heroes when the going gets tough?  Ben has always been a peer to Namor but he can't even think about joining in this battle?  This is a textbook example of how the Thing has seemingly slid down the power pole in the Marvel Universe, and it is a real shame.

The Thing has an important role in the Marvel Universe.  He is not the toughest buy around; he can't beat the guys like Thor and the Hulk, but he will give them everything they can handle.  A week or so ago I posted the Thing's fight with the Champion, which showcases the Thing's role perfectly; he is the underdog you can't help but believe in when the chips are down.  He should be the epitome of the "second tier" strongmen in the Marvel Universe.  Therefore, I feel I should remind people of some of the amazing things Benjamin Grimm has done over the years.

Fantastic Four #40 - The Thing absolutely humiliates Dr. Doom in this fight, crushing the monarch's hands through his armour, which is pretty much as strong as Iron Man's.

Fantastic Four v.3 #27 - The Thing takes on the Avengers and takes down several members and gets past a line-up that includes Thor and Wonder Man, who promised he could not do so.  It is stated the Avengers were holding back, but it also states that the Thing was as well.

Marvel 2-in-1 #92 - The Thing takes on Ultron.  Ultron has taken on entire teams of Avengers that include characters like Thor in the line-up, and here the Thing matches him strength for strength.

Fantastic Four #235 - His teammates can't take the heat and pressure of descending to the core of Ego, the Living Planet, but the Thing soldiers on to save the day.












There are a lot of other examples, but Ben Grimm is a hero that isn't afraid to mix it up with the most powerful opponents or dangerous situations.  Sticking him on the sidelines with Hawkeye (and why Hawkeye, who has taken on the entire Wrecking Crew by himself, won't get in there either is a whole other beef I have with Bendis' Avengers) and Mockingbird, human characters with no powers, annoys me to no end. 

Kids and Comics

I have a 5 month old son, and I love him to pieces.  When we found out my wife was pregnant I had dreams of designing the Spider-Man bedroom of my dreams if we were to have a boy.  It turns out that everyone I know would outfit it for me since Griffin has already gotten a ton of Spider-Man stuff already.

But would I want him to read a current Spider-Man comic book?  I'm not so sure.

Now I should actually say right off the bat that I am not reading the Spider-Man books these days, for reasons that I will explore in another post in the future.  So let's just switch this to modern comic books in general.

As the comic book audience has aged over the years, so has the content.  Back in the day it was unheard of to use a swear word in a comic; "hades" was substituted for "hell", "blast" for "damn", and so on.  There was violence, sure, but it wasn't gory or over the top.  The books were smart and never talked down to the reader, but the content was appropriate for all readers.

Nowadays we have books like New Avengers #35, which features a savage beating of the superheroine Tigra by the Hood, a character I'm fairly happy to know nothing about or have an interest in.  I understand that violence is part of comics, I love a good comic fight as much as the next guy, but I don't want nor need to see violence on this scale depicted.  I certainly do not want my son reading this at the age of 8, the same age that I was reading Stan and Steve's run on Amazing Spider-Man in the reprint Spider-Man Classics line.

The line between good and evil is very blurred in comics these days.  I feel that I have a pretty strong moral center, and I feel that a big part of that is from reading about heroes who do the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do, like Captain America, Superman, and Thor.  Now Superman is throwing people off of buildings, Captain America is the new Nick Fury, and Thor is running around telling people to shut up and calling them a pain in the ass.

I appreciate that Marvel and DC have been putting books out aimed at kids, and that's good, but there was a time when comics were suitable for all ages, with something for the kids and something for the adults.  Some of the best movies are like that, and I miss the days when comics could do the same.

As it is, when it's time to introduce my son to comics, I've got a stack of beat up Spider-Man Classics by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko waiting for him.

The Awesomeness of Alan Davis

I just read a report that said Alan Davis was coming onboard the Captain America title being written by Ed Brubaker, and I am absolutely ecstatic about the news!  Alan Davis is one of the best in the business, for various reasons.

There are certain art styles I just don't care for.  I don't like sketchy lines (John Romita Jr.), greatly exaggerated proportions (Rob Liefeld), or highly stylized (Chris Bacchalo) art styles.  I like clean lines, easily identifiable figures, and clear storytelling. 

Too many artists these days do not do a good job of telling the story.  The pictures might be pretty, but I find I have to wait for the next issue to come out so I can read the 'Previously In" page just to figure out what in the world happened.  In other rarer exceptions, an artist is an excellent storyteller but the pictures aren't the prettiest; I find John Romita Jr is a perfect example here.  He is a master at laying out the story, I never have any trouble whatsoever at following the story.  I find his images, however, to be sketchy, blocky, and not very attractive to look at.  I really hate saying that since I loved his old art style from his first run on Spider-Man, but it's the way I feel.

Alan Davis combines the best of both worlds.  He lays his pages out brilliantly, the story very easy to follow.  His images are gorgeous, another huge plus.  And on top of all of that, he has that old school work ethic down cold; I can't ever remember a book being delayed when Alan Davis has been on the art.

It probably doesn't hurt that Davis is an accomplished writer as well; for example, he penned and penciled JLA: The Nail, which was a fabulously fun Elseworlds story that looked at the DCU without a Superman.  The sequel explored the idea of a rookie Superman looking to learn from other more established heroes like Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter, as opposed to being the inspiration for other heroes himself.

When Avengers Prime was announced, I decided to pick it up even though I am very anti-Bendis-on-Avengers because I wanted to see the Big Three bury the hatchet.  As I got into the series though I quickly realized the story was garbage.  Bendis ignored a whole pile of Thor continuity (a big no-no when the book is set in the Nine Realms of Asgard!) that makes the book read more like a What If...? than an incontinuity comic.  Some of the dialogue is absolutely horrid, and it just takes a lot of fun out of the book.  However, I stuck with the book for one reason; the art of Alan Davis.  Even drawing a bunk storyline Davis brought his A game and made one gorgeous read.  I'd love to get my hands on an un-lettered digital copy of the book to re-do the dialgoue for my own pleasure...ah, to dream.

Anyway, Brubaker has proven to be a great fit for Captain America, and the addition of Alan Davis is only going to make this book better.  I never expected Steve McNiven to stick around for very long, so I'm glad Marvel has put a Grade A professional on the book as his replacement.  With the Captain America: The First Avenger coming out on DVD soon and the Avengers movie next year, Marvel needs to have top talent on their Avengers franchise books, and they have clearly done so with Captain America.

Now if only the would give The Mighty Thor to Kieron Gillen and get Bendis off of the Avengers I would be a happy boy!

The Invincible Iron...Penance?

This week has been pretty busy for me so my apologies for the lack of proper articles, but I saw this and thought I'd share it.  It's a promo from Marvel for "The Mighty", part of the Fear Itself event I'm ignoring.  When I saw the image though, my first thought was "Is that Iron Man or Penance?".  I know it's Iron Man, but wow, it sure is hard to tell!

This really is a weird assortment of costumes.  Iron Man and Wolverine look completely different (Wolverine is easily recognizable but as I said Iron Man looks way too much like Penance), Ms. Marvel, Iron Fist and Spider-Man have different costumes but are easily identifiable, and it looks like they just got lazy with Hawkeye and black Widow by just adding neon lines to their regular costumes.  No comment on Dr. Strange and She-Rulk there since I don't follow the titles they're in enough to know what they normally look like these days.

I'll do a "Why I Skip Events" post later, but from what I've seen online I don't feel like I'm missing much from Fear Itself.  Outside of the cosmic books (Annihilation, War of Kings, etc) I can't remember the last event from Marvel that was actually very good.

A Tribute to the Martian Manhunter

This is a music video I made a few years ago for Youtube.  It uses footage from the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited cartoons, and features "Dare" by Stan Bush, from the Transformers Movie soundtrack.  If you listen to the lyrics I think they perfectly sum up J'onn's character.  If there is interest I can post up some of the other videos I've made.

Why Babies Make Perfect Ninjas

Move over Hit Girl, you're too near retirement for my purposes.

I have a four month old son, and it seems pretty clear to me that babies would make perfect ninjas.  I keep telling my wife we need to change his middle name to "No Surrender" but so far she isn't biting.

Now you may ask, why would a baby make a good ninja?  Well, they pretty much have the perfect martial arts training program down cold from birth. 

Combat Rolls: Griffin has long mastered rolling from his back onto his stomach, but rolling from his stomach to his back has eluded him.  Just the other day though his mother and I looked away for a few moments, and when we turned back, he had silently flipped himself from his stomach to his back, completely undetected.  Not only is he working on his rolls, his stealth training is coming along nicely.

Headbutts:  Often and without warning Griffin will let loose with a mighty headbutt, to which I wince in pain and he carries on his business like nothing happened.  That will come in useful when he needs to blend into a crowd.

The Hand is Faster Than the Eye:  Before I can react Griffin has often swatted at my glasses, knocking them off or askew.  However, the other day he reached out and plucked them clean off my face before I could stop him or register he was doing so.

Surgical Strikes:  Griffin has, specifically and obviously, targeted my throat with precision kicks while we are playing on the floor or on the bed.  He has also pummeled my stomach sufficiently to induce nausea while playing on the couch.

Clearly the boy is a master martial artist in training.  I wonder if I could get away with putting him in a Dragonball Z outfit for Halloween...

Fantasy Curling: Team Marvel

Newsarama had a fun article detailing their own NFL Fantasty Football team made up of Marvel characters.  It was a neat read, though as a devout Canadian Football League fan I don't really care for the NFL.  I've always enjoyed the classic Avengers East vs Avengers West baseball games, because mixing superheroes and sports is fun.  The sport I know the most about is curling, since I coach kids from ages 6 all the way up to adults, and it's my blog and I'll...blog...if I want to.

Anyway, if you know nothing about curling, get ready to learn a little about the sport!

There are four positions on a curling team.  The Lead, Second, Third, and Skip.  Each team member needs a certain skill set, which roughly break down as the following:

Lead - Needs a light tough to place rocks in place to set up your strategy for the end.  Also needs to have strong sweeping skills, meaning power, endurance, and good judgement.

Second - Needs to be able to bring the heat, clearing opponents rocks as needed.  Also needs the same sweeping skills as the Lead.

Third - Needs to be able to throw all kinds of shots, also contributes to the calling of the game's strategy.

Skip - The leader of the team, needs to be able to throw any and all type of shots.  Cool under pressure, they excel with the game on the line and call all the shots of the game.

So with these skill sets in mind, who would I chose among the heroes of the Marvel Universe to make up my team?  Since curling is traditionally divided into men's and women's divisions, let's take a look at both.  For the men's side...

Lead: Daredevil
Daredevil's radar sense make him a great judge of the weight of the rocks.  With his radar sense, he will easily be able to detect how far the rocks are from each other and the speed at which they're traveling.  He would even be able to detect the variations in the pebble of the ice, helping him to find straight spots in the ice or areas where the rock will travel quicker or slower.

Second: Hawkeye
Aim is so important in curling I just couldn't leave Hawkeye out.  The harder you throw the rock the more difficult it is to hit the target, and Hawkeye doesn't miss no matter what.

Third: Cyclops
Cyclops has spent countless hours working on his aim, and more importantly, his angles.  Cyke has an intrinsic feel for spatial relations, meaning he will be an expert in predicting how rocks will react when they hit each other.  He is a gifted strategist and will be able to offer sound tactical advice to the skip.


Skip: Captain America
The ultimate team leader, Cap never bows under the pressure.  With his years of shield slinging he will be able to predict exactly how the rocks will react.  His strategic mind is second to none, and strategy is extremely important in the game of curling.

Next time...the women's team!

Avengers Assemble: The Webseries

The rise of Youtube has lead to some pretty cool fan made comics content to be seen by the masses.  One such series is Avengers Assemble.  It is basically The Office meets the Avengers, and it is a fun little series.  Much as any series, I feel that it feels itself out for what it wants to be in the first season and is stronger in the second season (my personal theory is most shows do not reach their full potential until the third season).

The crew working on Avengers Assemble have obviously put some money into the series, as some of the costumes look really good.  Each character is distinctive, in a stylized-for-the-series kind of way.  Lots of guest stars make appearances too, which makes for some fun bits.

If you want a testament to the quality of the series, Stan Lee himself guest stars in the latest episode (which I am about to watch!).  If Stan the Man can take the time to shoot an episode then do yourself a favour and spend the time checking it out!

Be warned, there is some foul language in the series, which tends to take me out of the story a bit I have to admit.  I'd give it a PG-13 for language and content.  For links to the episodes, and for information on the series, go to http://avengersassembletheseries.com/!

Why the Thing is the Man

Not a lot of time today, so I'm going to leave you with one of the greatest battles in comic book history, the Thing vs the Champion from the pages of Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7.  This fight summed up why Ben Grimm is such a great character and a true hero.  I highly recommend searching out this comic if you don't have it and give it a read in full, you won't be disappointed.

What You're Missing: Shields Up!

I started a post about this topic a week or two ago, but somehow Blogger ate it.  Fingers crossed for a better result this time!

The guys at my comic shop are pretty awesome.  Since I live 2 hours away, I am unable to pick up my comics as frequently as I used to (which is why I do not attempt to do reviews of the latest comics!).  Often when I do pick up my books I now have a baby waiting in the car (with his mother, not by himself!) and have to move pretty quickly, so I don't have time to browse very much.  Fortunately, when a book comes out the guys think I'll like, they put it in my box for me to take a look at.

When I discovered Captain America corps in my slot, I almost put it back on the shelf.  I try to avoid starting a lot of new titles and mini-series because of the cost of comics these days, and this looked like something out of continuity anyway, which is sometimes a bonus and sometimes not.  As I gave it a quick flip though, I decided to give it a try.

The book had some good things going for it.  The art looked pretty good.  Roger Stern was the writer, a huge check mark in the plus column.  But in the end, the reason I got the book was because it just looked like fun.


The basic concept is similar to that of the Thor Corps, written by Tom DeFalco years ago; take the characters that have either been the title character, or continue their legacy, and throw them together for an adventure.  In this case, we have Steve Rogers (as a rookie Captain America), Bucky Barnes (as Captain America), John Walker (USAgent), Shannon Carter (American Dream from the MC2 universe), and a new character from the far future, Commander A.  I would've bought this book if it was just Steve, Bucky, and Walker running around, having American Dream was a real bonus.

The book is just plain fun, something comics seem to be afraid to be these days.  In my mind, one single line summed up how much fun this book is; while retreating from an attack from an alternate-reality police force, some of which were pursuing our heroes from the air, the USAgent shouts to his teammates "Shields up!".  Now how fun a line is that when you've got 5 different Captain America's wielding four different types of shields?  Eat your heart out Star Trek.

I'm 3 issues into this 5 part mini and cannot wait to pick up the last two parts.  It's been a really fun read and I highly recommend you check it out.

How Superheroes Are Supposed to Act

This is one of my favourite fake comic covers ever!  For more awesome comic mash-ups like this one, check out http://amalgamage.blogspot.com/.

Pryde of the X-Men

When I was a kid we had an awesome video rental store in town.  I have fond memories of my brother and I beating Golden Axe II in the mini-arcade with $1.25; I didn't remember what character he used, I was older therefore I got the dwarf with the axe and that was that.  On several occassions I would run into the store out of breath because I had sprinted from my house once I realized I was an hour and a half late returning my movie and they would say no problem and waive the late fee.  A real homegrown small town shop.

It was at this store that I first rented Transformers: The Movie.  I recall being really confused about who all of these new Transformers were, and I was disapointed that Optimus Prime and most of the original crew were only in the first act of the film.  Still, it was Transformers and the animation was gorgeous so I rented it a few times over the years.


1 of at least 4 different
covers from various
releases of the show.


The movie I rented the most though was Pryde of the X-Men.

As a kid this X-Men cartoon mystified me.  I had only ever seen the one episode, and longed to find more episodes of the series.  While I will always have an undying love for the 90's Fox X-Men cartoon, which doesn't get enough credit for being the amazing series it was, there was something kind of special about that single episode from 1989.

While I would keep an eye out for more episodes for years (before that new fangled Internet caught on), I would eventually learn that this single pilot episode was it.  The show was never picked up, despite some truly beautful animation for the time.

Why do I have such a special place in my heart for Pryde of the X-Men?  There are plenty of reasons!

Professor Xavier, Devourer of Worlds

The cast - This team of X-Men featured three of my favourite mutants; Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat (as the no-codename-yet Kitty Pryde).  I've always loved this trio of mutants, whether they are members of the X-Men, Excalibur, or whatever team they may find themselves on.  Colossus is the gentle giant with the soul of a poet, Nightcrawler the devout man of God in the form of a demon, and the brave young girl who can walk through walls, Shadowcat.  Add in Cyclops, Storm, and Wolverine and you've got a pretty solid line-up.  The cartoon also featured Dazzler, which I'd love to hear the reasoning for, considering more well-known female X-Men like Jean Grey or Rogue could have been used (though to be fair, was Rogue really popular before the 90's cartoon?).  This was actually my first exposure to Dazzler, I'd never heard of her before.

The animation - As I noted before, the animation was gorgeous.  Very smooth, very dynamic, the characters looked really good.  I really liked Magneto with bare hands, it kind of symbolizes he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty for what he believes in.

Land ho!

The villains - Sure, some of the Brotherhood are kind of duds (Toad and the Blob, for example), but who doesn't get excited to see Magneto AND the Juggernaut together!  The White Queen was a good boost in the power department over using Mystique, and Pyro allows for some creative power applications.

The plot - For a late 80's cartoon the plot was pretty solid.  Sure you can poke holes into it you want to, but you can do that with almost anything, particulary cartoons.  Some concessions are made for story purposes, and I'm okay with that.

I wanted the ducts cleaned, not crushed!

The fights - Yes, most of the battles were pretty brief, but each mini battle gave the characters a chance to show off their powers, a great way to introduce them to the audience.  My favourite fight, hands down, was Colossus against the Juggernaut.  Ol' Jugghead pulls a masssive air duct down to crush the team, but Colossus armors up to catch it.  The two then charge each other while crushing the air duct in a massive display of strength, trash-talking each other on the way.  They then toss the duct to the side and start duking it out.  I would have given anything to see that fight to conclusion!

Now, don't take my praise to mean the show was flawless.  Too many characters don't speak in full sentences (Colossus and the Blob, though at least Colossus has the second-language excuse).  Half of the Brotherhood are complete morons.  Wolverine is for some reason Australian (don't believe me?  If you check it out, he calls the Toad a "dingo"). 

G'Day Bub.

While making their big charge to get to Magneto aboard Asteroid M the team splits off to hold off individual Brotherhood members.  Storm has to stay out of the fight to maintain the station's atmosphere since Cyclops blew a hole in it (which is a great reason to keep her out of the fight!), and then the team encouters Pyro.  Dazzler urges the team on while she holds him off, and that's fine.  But next the team encouters the Toad.  Wolverine matches his own agility against the Toad's, and traps him pretty effectively.  So why in the world doesn't Wolverine keep going with the rest of the team?!  Cyclops even says they need Wolverine's tracking power to find Magneto!

Do yourself a favour and check this episode out.  It's easily findable on Youtube, but I'll go one better and provide it for you here!  If you've never seen it before, give it a looksee and let me know what you think of it in the comments!