24 February 2012

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Green Lantern Recap


Although these shorts were not the absolute brightest day for Green Lantern, they were a nice introduction that surely could have built up interest in the character. Compared to the other heroes, Green Lantern was presented as a space-based hero. Although a number of Superman's adventures also took him into space, it seemed that a Green Lantern series would have focused almost exclusively in that realm. I admire the inclusion of so many elements from Green Lanterns comic book history in the shorts, but overall the execution was not the greatest. Especially the last short was just not well written. Once again, I think that only one of these shorts could be considered essential in order to get a flavor for the character, the best episode being the first.

Essential Episode:
Evil is as Evil Does

23 February 2012

Ranking Justice League: Doom and the DC Animated Films



DC has delivered yet another worthy entry in its line of animated films, this time with Justice League: Doom. While paying homage to the classic Challenge of the Super Friends series and loosely adapting the JLA: Tower of Babel story line, Doom also managed to offer up a pseudo follow-up to the Justice League animated series by bringing back many of the voice actors from that fantastic effort. Sure, they swapped out Green Lanterns, switched Flashes, and exchanged Cyborg for Hawkgirl but this movie has that same feel of the best offerings of JLU.

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Sirena, Empress of Evil

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This was a pretty horrible episode. Green Lantern went to rescue Kyro from the Empress Sirena. Although he manged to defeat all of her flying yellow bird men, he didn't happen to see her pet alien bird sneaking up on him. The bird crashed into his head knocking him out. While Green Lantern was locked up, Kyro befriended and apparently named the bird (Bibi?) which he used to rescue Green Lantern. By episode's end, Bibi was the Green Lantern's new mascot. Don't know why they didn't just throw in Parallax and Hector Hammond to the mix and call it a day.

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Episode Count: 0155
Series Count: (3 of 3)

22 February 2012

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Vanishing World

In his second outing, the Green Lantern was tasked with saving his blue sidekick Kyro from an asteroid that was about to disappear into another dimension. In the meantime, he had to fight off some space monsters and cosmic crooks. Although there weren't really and terrible moments, nothing really stood out either... well, unless you count the awkward piggyback ride scenes which are becoming all to frequent. Couldn't GL make like a multi-passenger spaceship construct for transportation?

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Episode Count: 0154
Series Count: (2 of 3)

21 February 2012

Onscreen History of Ghost Rider

With Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance now in theaters, it seems a good time to look at the flamy one's onscreen history. Even before the flame head Ghost Rider, there was a western style character with the same name later renamed Night Rider then Phantom Rider. But beginning in 1972, Ghost Rider was the fire headed alter ego of Johnny Blaze debuting in Marvel Spotlight #5. Apparently, this was "the most supernatural superhero of all."

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Evil is as Evil Does


Although the creators of this cartoon managed to stuff quite a bit of mythology including Oa, the Guardians, and the oath into this 7 minutes they also chose to add in a little blue alien sidekick names Kyro which was completely unnecessary. Aside from getting piggyback rides from both Green Lantern and villain, Kyro's also served the purpose of punching the glitchy lantern to get it to work properly.


First Look at SBFF's Batgirl and Wonder Girl



TVGuide has given us a look at a couple of the gals from SBFF (Super Best Friends Forever), one of the shorts featured on the upcoming DC Nation block. Although Supergirl had been revealed already, this is our first look at Batgirl Barbara Gordon and Wonder Girl. SBFF looks to be a lot of fun. Another interesting bit of tid from the article is the promise of appearances in other shorts by Black Lightening, Doctor Fate, the Doom Patrol and Vibe! Can't wait.

20 February 2012

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - Green Lantern




By authority of the mystic Guardians of The Universe, on the far distant planet Oa, Hal Jordan, test pilot, becomes THE GREEN LANTERN - A cosmic crusader whose magical power ring at his bidding accomplishes the impossible in his continuing fight against interplanetary evil. GREEN LANTERN, Guardian of the Galaxy.

This batch of shorts offered up the first appearance of the Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan who took the torch from the Golden Age's Alan Scott. Interesting bit of tid, Alan Scott, though still a regular in modern comics has yet to appear in animation some 70+ years after his creation.