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In which we spend a large amount of time on a group of small characters; X-Babies stories cover a wide range of quality; Mojo is relegated to public access; the ‘Vengers rebel against their creator; the X-Babies excavate Star Comics; we adjust our opinion of the mid-‘90s; and WandaVision is probably not connected to the Mojoverse.
X-PLAINED:
- Fun with blood
- The X-Babies
- Mojo
- Pint-Sized X-Babies #1
- X-Babies Reborn #1
- X-Babies: Stars Reborn #1-4
- The Brotherhood of Mutant Bullies
- X-Baby nomenclature
- The Pix
- Hell’s Kitchen
- The Wildways (more) (again)
- Monkey Wagon
- Bubblefield
- Marshmallow Marsh
- Gamesboro
- The Textbook Sisters
- The ‘Vengers
- A transformation
- Mr. Veech
- Nandy
- Star Comics and several characters therefrom
- The Adorable X-Babies
- Our opinions on the mid-‘90s
- Welcome to Westview
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There’s a proper 616 Planet Terry who has popped up a couple of times in recent years, connected with the GOTG. I remember him being really annoying in Drax.
Outside of that, Marvel Database doesn’t list him in anything except Mojoworld or his own comic in the 80s. Clearly he didn’t grab anyone’s attention.
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Planet_Terry
So… no love for A-Babies vs X-Babies, then?
😉
Try listening to the episode before criticizing what you assume it omits.
Guilty as charged. I was going by the description.
But c’mon, be fair – it was a jokey comment, not a criticism. I put a smiley on it and everything.
I have to say, I knew it wouldn’t be a thing because of licensing issues, but I am still disappointed that the X-Babies: Star Reborn didn’t feature Alf, Droids, or Ewoks. Or The Muppet Babies. I suppose it wouldn’t be that hard to write my own fanfiction for it.
Maybe next time, since Disney owns all of those franchises but ALF now (and ALF is controlled by Sony, so perhaps they could work out temporary custody like with Spider-Man.)
Very scattered thoughts:-
-Our hosts were hard on the inconsistent tone of Murderama, and I can see their point. But I did like Ruben Diaz’s use of Claremontesque narrative captions that treat it all as completely and grandiloquently serious, and the presence of those captions made things like Cyke sacrificing his life and dying quite OK for me — it felt like the point was to send up that sort of melodramatic turn in standard-issue X-Men.
– I also liked that Magneato was specifically Silver Age Magneato. It’s another entry in tracking the influence of the ‘90s nostalgic turn on the X-books — this is about the reader recognizing a parody of comics from a long time ago.
– Moving on to the later miniseries: there’s a peculiar charm to a storyline that turns on the idea that the original handling of the X-Babies, or the Star Comics characters, was so anarchic and anti-authoritarian that it would be just Wrong to reinvent them as cuddlier figures with improving messages. (Also, was the V-Chip really still a thing people were talking about in 2010?). It’s rather as if the originals are supposed to have been Shako or something like that. (Actually, now I want a strip about a kindly, cuddly teddy-bear who is on the CIA’s death list.)
– But I will say that, having never read the original Star comics or been really aware of their existence, I am sold on the potential of Top Dog as a character. Secret agent dog who is good at everything but is also a bit of a [expletive deleted].
-I imagine that if I’d grown up in America, I would be familiar with Heathcliff. But when our hosts launched into “characters like Heathcliff, you know who he is,” my mind could only go straight to Emily Brontë. And then to Kate Beaton’s cartoon about “Dude-Watching with the Brontës.” It was all very strange.
But, really, why is the cat called Heathcliff?
I was going to make a joke about the name Garfield already being taken but it turns out Heathcliff predates that particular feline by about 5 years.
As an American, hearing the name Heathcliff automatically makes me think of the cat. I didn’t realize the name had any other significance until the Michael Penn song “No Myth”. It caused me some minor confusion the first time I heard it. I wondered why he would compare himself to a cartoon cat.
Thinking about it, Cathy is also an American newspaper strip cartoon character…
Okay, so I stumbled upon Top Dog during one of my “I have insomnia and am going to idly sit around browsing on Marvel Unlimited” moments. The weird thing is, I’ve only skimmed the last issue, but it ends on a DOWNER note (Top Dog has to leave the boy he’s befriended). Which then, of course, had me read this issue when you mentioned it, and seeing him reunited with said boy years later made me strangely satisfied despite only skimming the last issue one night at 1:30 AM about a year ago.
Anyway, as far as WandaVision goes, I’m really enjoying the idea of doing House of M (and other stories) via a ghost story by way of sitcom. I’m overall not that into the MCU because it’s so straightforward and formulaic, but this has me wanting more out there adaptations of comic book stories. Like, can we get Inferno as an opera please?
Also, started listening to some of the podcast and they have some really cool insight (love their take on “A Very Special Episode”). Thanks!
So glad that you mentioned that Top Dog is on MU. Forget my plan of finding out whether the current Daredevil run is as good as House to Astonish say — I know what I’m reading next.
(If I ever write fanfic, it just might be Top Dog Meets the Littlest Hobo.)