Fanboying over the Fantasic Four; She-Hulk edition

Let it be known that I am a HUGE Fantastic Four fan. They are my favorite super hero team, yes, even over the X-Men. The group has always had great chemistry with each other, even in the early years when it seemed they could barely get along. For those who don't know, The Fantastic Four (or FF for short) are a group of heroes who received their powers when traveling to space to study cosmic rays. The team consists of;
- Reed Richards, leader of the team and resident big brain, given the name Mr.Fantastic, who has the ability to stretch and bend his body into any shape desired.
-Susan Storm (Richards),  given the name Invisible Woman, who has the ability to make herself  invisible and produce force fields and powerful fields of invisible psionic energy which she uses for a variety of offensive and defensive effects, making her the most powerful member of the team (thank you, wikipedia).
-Ben Grimm, given the name The Thing, known for his big rocky, inhuman appearance. Has super strength and durability. Loves to fight and saying the phrase "It's clobberin' time!". My avatar on twitter.
-Johnny Storm, given the name The Human Torch, has the ability to engulf his entire body in flames and is able to fly, absorb fire harmlessly into his own body, and can control any nearby fire by sheer force of will. (thanks again, Wikipedia).
Created in 1961 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the FF became icons of the comic industry with their adventures into unknown parts of the world and beyond, all while getting to know these four characters as they grew closer into a family (though Susan and Johnny are brother and sister and Susan would go on to marry Reed). Everyone loved these four characters and so it came as shock when in 1984, the group, except for Susan were transported to Battleworld, along with other Marvel heroes for the Secret Wars (I'm not going into it, just look it up). When the team returned, they had somehow changed.

Gone was the Thing, who decided to stay on Battleworld after discovering he could control his transformations from Thing to Ben Grimm on the planet. Now there was Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk. Cousin to the Incredible Hulk, she has strength, durability and stamina close to his and great lawyer skills. I don't know what the audiences initial thoughts were when this happened in 1984 but when I first saw it, in 1990, long after she left the FF, I hated it. I thought there was no way the Thing could be replaced by a girl, let alone a female version of the Hulk. But I was 8, in that '"girls sucks" era in my life and also in the stage where I mostly looked at comic books, not read them. When I began actually reading comics, years later, I actually picked up a few issues of the FF when "Shulkie" (her team nick name) was in the group and surprisingly, I didn't hate them. I think a couple things helped; one being the art and stories of John Byrne, who quickly became my favorite comic book artist. The other thing being that the more I read back issues featuring She Hulk, the more the team felt balanced. With the original line up, the team was great but Susan Storm was mostly know as "the girl" in the group. With Shulkie, the group was now equal and more fun, especially since the strength of the team was a woman. From 1984-1987 (I think), She Hulk battled along side the FF until she decided to rejoin The Marvel team the Avengers, while the Thing rejoined the FF.
Today, I have most of the FF issues with She-Hulk, including some very important issues and not only did her time make me more of a Fantastic Four fan but it made the "Shulkie" one of my favorite super heroes, period.

Outgrowing "Adult Swim"...

This is not a goodbye to "Adult Swim", because there are still some shows on it I watch, but an opinion of how I feel the program block has De-evolved . Granted, Adult Swim was never the most intelligent program block but the shows weren't in your face with how unintelligent most of the shows have become.

I was around when AS premiered in 2001, on Cartoon Network, and was floored by the shows it produced. With it's cursing, adult themes and situations, and surrealness, the block had me hooked and with the exception of Aqua Teens Hunger Force, the shows were parodies of older Hanna Barbera shows and it was visible that the creators  were fans of Hanna Barbera's output of old school action. I didn't know whether or not these shows were just jokes or recurring series but was excited when the shows were on again the next night and I have been a fan of the block since, until recently...

Lately, or at least around 2009, the shows I loved, like Space Ghost; Coast to Coast, Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021 and the Brak Show were long gone. Now come shows like Tim & Eric, Metalocalypse, Superjail, Loiter Squad and the Eric Andre Show that pretty much are either loud, violent, nonsensical and sometimes uncomfortable to watch. Aqua Teens is still around but has fell to the level of what is wrong with AS shows. Another show I enjoyed until recently, Robot Chicken, is now just nothing but mostly toys being used for rape and child abuse jokes.

I'm not saying that AS needs to change its ways because I don't see that happening anytime soon. I'm simply stating that their type of programing is not my style anymore. I'll still watch a few shows on the block but the type of audience their aiming for these days has to have dwindled from college aged kids to sophomore high school students. That or I really am just getting old.

Shows I still watch on Adult Swim; Venture Brothers, Black Dynamite, The Boondocks, and Eagleheart.

P.S. Ironically, most of the shows I listed as the most juvenile are live action shows. Weird for a supposedly all cartoon network.

Why I am not a Naruto fan...

I know it has been forever since I've posted a blog but life happens, along with a lot of procrastination, but now I'm posting a new blog that is a quasi-continuation of the previous blog, "Ninja Obsession". 

As mentioned in the previous blog, I am obsessed with almost anything that is of authentic Japanese Ninjitsu but there is an exception, one that has a huge following in Japan and in the States. If the title didn't tip you off, it's Naruto, an ninja based anime and manga about the adventures of a few students of a ninja academy. The students, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura, learn ninjitsu while competing with and helping each other and even saving the world. Sounds right up my alley, doesn't it? Well, again, as the title says, I am not a big fan of this series. 

 My reason for this are the following; I feel that Naruto is just not written well. Most of the characters are either not written well enough to care about or just plain annoying, Especially Naruto himself, who is brash and annoying. All I ever hear from him is just "I want to be the best, I want to be the best ninja" and it gets old after episode 7. Yes, he saves the world from supernatural villains, some from Asian mythology, but he goes about in the way of "Hey, I already know I can beat you but we'll prolong it for several episodes or an entire movie". Maybe, if Naruto used a bit more teamwork (in the episodes I've watched it's always about him) and if Naruto weren't so loud, maybe I would be into it more.
The more interesting characters; Jiraiya, a perverted teacher, Sasuke, a main character who flip flops between rivaling with Naruto and wanting to kill him, and Rock Lee, ninja/ kung-fu student.

Ninja Obsession 忍者の執着

I am here to make confession, one that I have kept from most people I know until recently and now I want to share this secret with everyone. Ladies & Gentlemen, I am...obsessed with Ninjas.

Almost anything involving authentic Japanese ninjas, I'll drool over. None of that Godfrey Ho bright colored, Richard Harrison starring or the ton of "ninja" movies to come from Taiwan.
I recall my first "exposure" to ninjitsu  was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but I was the only kid on the block who was more interested in the fighting style and not the fact that it was being used by 4 giant talking turtles. When the turtle craze died down, Power Rangers decided to pick up the ball and become ninjas, renewing my interest in ninjas. At a time when a 13 year old should be more interested in girls, I, having a hard time in school socially and academically, needed some kind of escapism and ninjitsu did that for me. In the end, I am more fascinated with the mythology of ninjitsu that I've seen in movies, video games, manga and television. Not that actual ninjitsu is boring but the mythology has opened my eyes to other asian mythologies, which are far more interesting than most western mythologies.