Great Moments In Comic Book History #26: Spider-Man Teams Up With Batman For The Last Time

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

It’s easy to forget now but there was once a time when Marvel and DC would set aside their differences and their heroes (and sometimes, their villains) would team up. Spider-Man met Superman. The X-Men met the New Teen Titans. Darkseid met Galactus. Green Lantern met the Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer met Batman. Actually, a lot of Marvel heroes met Batman, everyone from the Hulk to Punisher to Daredevil to, again, Spider-Man. It makes sense. Batman, with his antisocial tendencies and his tragic backstory, had more in common with the typical Marvel hero than with Superman.

These events were never an official part of the Marvel or DC universe. Both companies eventually developed their own version of the multiverse and it was accepted that the Marvel/DC crossovers all took place in an alternate universe where Gotham City and Metropolis existed alongside Marvel’s version of New York City. Though these crossovers were not canonical, they always felt like a big deal. They were a chance to answer the age-old question of who would win in a fight, Batman or Spider-Man. It didn’t matter that the crossovers usually copped out on giving a definitive answer. Usually, the heroes would fight to a draw and then team up to battle the real enemy. That way both fandoms could be happy and there was still a reason to buy the next crossover.

The crossovers are something that will probably never happen again, not with the rivalry between the MCU and DCEU. It’s too bad because the crossovers were always enjoyable. The final Batman/Spider-Man crossover was called New Age Dawning and it was published twenty-five years ago, this month. Batman’s villain, Ra’s al Ghul, poisoned the wife of Spider-Man’s villain, Kingpin. Ra’s al Ghul thought he could blackmail the Kingpin into helping him sink the island of Manhattan. Instead, the Kingpin teams up with Spider-Man and Batman to defeat Ra’s plan. It’s a simple story but it ends on a note of grace, with Batman giving Spider-Man the cure for the poison and then Spider-Man taking it to the Kingpin. If the Batman/Spider-Man crossovers had to end, that was the way to end them, with two heroes coming together to do the right thing.

Previous Great Moments In Comic Book History:

Great Moments In Television History #22: Steve Martin’s Saturday Night Live Holiday Wish

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

As Lisa already posted, today is Steve Martin’s birthday.

I think everyone who loves comedy has a favorite Steve Martin moment. A lot of people would cite his performance of King Tut on Saturday Night Live or maybe one of the many skits where he played a wild and crazy guy with Dan Aykroyd. Other remember him as The Jerk or playing Cyrano in Roxanne. I’ve always liked his performance in Bowfinger, in which both he and Eddie Murphy were in top form.

However, if I had to pick my favorite Steve Martin moment, it would be his holiday wish from SNL‘s Christmas ’86 episode. Even though it’s rare that anyone has anything nice to say about Saturday Night Live’s 1986 season, Steve Martin’s Holiday Wish is such a classic that it’s been included in almost every SNL holiday special since it originally aired. Is it too early to share a Christmas wish list? Not when Steve Martin is the one doing the wishing and it’s a great moment in television history!

Previous Moments In Television History:

Game Review: Crafty’s Escape Room (2022, dkmGames)

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In this text adventure game, you find yourself in a room that you have never seen before. You do not know how you got there or why you are there. Other than you, the only things in the room are a bed, a trashcan, a desk, and a locked door. Can you escape?

First things first, search the room and find the phone. Then find the simple puzzle that will give you the password to unlock the phone. (Neither task is difficult.) In the phone, you’ll find a number. Call that number and you’ll talk to Crafty. Crafty is a joker and a know-it-all who likes to tell stories and answer questions. Crafty says that he heard you like puzzles so he put you in the basement and gave you some puzzles that, when solved, will allow you to leave.

Thanks, Crafty! I suck at puzzles so I’m probably going to die in your basement!

Crafty’s not really that bad, though. He just thinks you’ll have fun trying to solve his escape room. You can even call him up and ask him for hints and he’ll helpfully explain what to do next. There are four puzzles to solve and none of them are that difficult. I did get Lisa to help me out with the sudoku puzzle so, if you’re going to attempt this game, I guess you should make sure that either you or someone close to you knows how to play sudoku.

(As autocorrect just reminded me, I can’t even spell sudoku.)

I liked Crafty’s Escape Room. It’s a well-written throwback to the good natured text adventures of old. It’s a very good-natured game. Despite my initial fears, you don’t die if you fail to solve a puzzle. I appreciated that because, again, puzzles are almost always my downfall when it comes to Interactive Fiction. As an added bonus, Crafty likes to talk so if you need a break from puzzle solving, you can call him up and just type “Speak” or “Chat” to see what he has to say.

Play Crafty’s Escape Room!

Kidnapped: In The Line of Duty (1995, directed by Bobby Roth)

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Arthur Milo (Dabney Coleman) is an IRS agent who uses his government position and the powers that with it to commit heinous crimes. (A corrupt IRS agent? What a shock!) Milo kidnaps the children of the wealthy, using legally-filed tax returns to select his target. Most of his accomplices all have the perfect alibi because they’re all in prison! As an agent of law enforcement, Milo is able to check them out of prison for hours at a time. Milo claims that they’re helping him out with an investigation but actually, they’re kidnapping children and digging graves in return for Milo’s help with their tax problems. Once the crime has been committed, Milo returns them to jail. It seems like the perfect plan but Milo may have met his match in hard charging FBI agent Pete Honeycutt (Timothy Busfield).

Loosely based on a true story, Kidnapped was the tenth of NBC’s In The Line of Duty films and it was one of the few not to be directed by Dick Lowry. It’s also the only one of the In The Line of Duty films to not feature a member of law enforcement getting gunned down nor does it end with a title card of statistics about the number of cops who are killed on the job each year. All of this leads me to suspect that Kidnapped was not originally meant to be an In The Line of Duty movie and that it was added to the series at the last minute. NBC was obviously hoping that the rating success of Ambush in Waco would rub off on Kidnapped.

Kidnapped is a pretty typical eccentric criminal vs eccentric investigator movie. Pete is obsessed with taking down Milo and Milo is obsessed with showing up Pete. It’s not a surprise when Milo starts to personally taunt Pete and it’s also not a surprise that Pete’s family is put at risk. There are a few strange moments of humor, most of them supplied by Tracey Walter as Milo’s spacey accomplice. The humor, though, doesn’t always seem to go along with a fact-based story about an IRS agent who abducted children and held them for ransom.

The best thing about the film is Dabney Coleman as Arthur Milo. Coleman has always been an underrated actor. Nobody did as good at a job at playing a curmudgeon as Dabney Coleman. In Kidnapped, Coleman takes his usual persona up a notch by playing Milo as someone who is not just annoyed by people but who is willing to kill them too. While Arthur Milo’s schemes are usually clever, he’s so arrogant and determined to show off how much smarter he is than everyone else that he’s usually his own worst enemy. He’s the type of criminal who wears a white suit and a panama hat, despite the fact that his outfit will make him instantly recognizable to anyone who witnesses his crimes. The character is a strange one but Coleman brings him to life and makes him believable. Kidnapped is a pretty standard police procedural but worth seeing for Coleman’s villainous turn.

So, I Watched Girls of Summer (2008, dir. by Max Tash)

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Dazzling Erin

I was looking for a baseball movie to help me get over the Losing Season Rangers Blues.

I settled for a softball movie.

I won’t make that mistake again.

Jake McBride (Tom Pilleri) makes a bet that he can turn a group of models into a championship softball team. The only problem is that none of the models know how to play softball, except for Christine (Sasha Formoso) and Jake’s cousin, Holly (Tarah DeSpain).

Christine and Holly, I liked. Everyone underestimated them because they were girls and they proved all of the boys wrong. Plus, Tarah DeSpain was believable as an athlete. Those were the only characters that I liked. None of the other models had any personality and Jake was a jerk even when he was doing the right thing. Who is dumb enough to bet that much money on a softball game? The humor was frat boy humor and the movie looked like it was filmed on someone’s phone. A League of their Own, this was not.

Girls of Summer did not make me feel better about the Rangers currently being 50-63 for the season. In fact, it made me feel even worse because, as bad as the model were, they at least had a winning season. But then I remembered that the Athletics were 41-73 and I felt better. One good thing about the AL West is that, even when the Rangers aren’t having their best season, there’s usually at least one other team doing worse. Go Rangers!

6 Shots From 6 Films: Special Wim Wenders Edition

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 77th birthday to the great German director, Wim Wenders! It’s time for….

6 Shots From 6 Wim Wenders Films

Kings of the Road (1976, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)

The American Friend (1976, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)

Paris, Texas (1984, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)

Wings of Desire (1987, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)

Until the End of the World (1991, dir by Wim Wenders, DP: Robby Muller)

Pina (2011, dir by Wim Wenders)

Scenes I Love: Steve Martin performs Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today, the Shattered Lens wishes actor and comedian Steve Martin a happy 77th birthday. Originally from Texas, Martin has been a cultural mainstay for longer than I’ve been alive. He’s a master of both comedy and drama, as anyone who has watched Only Murders In The Building can tell you.

And he can sing too!

Here he is, performing Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in 1978’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Though this was not Martin’s film debut, it was his first “big” role. Steve Martin was 33 years old here. Remarkably, he only seems to have aged a few years in the decades since appearing in this film.

Happy birthday, Steve Martin!

Artwork of the Day: Panama Threat (by Tom Lovell)

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Dazzling Erin

by Tom Lovell

This painting is from 1941.

Music Video of the Day: Superstitious by Europe (1988, directed by Nick Morris)

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

Superstitious was the first single to be released from Europe’s fourth studio album, Out of this World. Out of this World was released in 1990. One album later, Europe would go on a temporary hiatus as grunge and then generic pop replaced Europe’s style of metal as MTV’s favorite style of music. The band reunited in 2003 and has since released six more albums. Europe rocks!

This video for Superstitious was filmed in Long Island, New York. The video was directed by Nick Morris, who was a very busy video director in the 80s and the 90s. He also did the video for Europe’s best-known song, The Final Countdown.

Enjoy!

Lisa Marie’s Week In Television: 8/7/22 — 8/13/22

Posted on August 13, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Being up at the lake this week, I haven’t watched a lot but here’s a few thoughts nonetheless.

Allo Allo (Sunday Night, PBS)

Allo Allo was a bit weird this week and I think it’s because Sunday’s episode was the first episode of the show’s final season. Watching it, it was pretty obvious that the show’s writers and directors had run out of new ways to hide the painting and, for the first time, the show felt like it was kind of going through the motions. Apparently, the show’s star, Gorden Kaye, was in a very serious car accident before the 9th series was filmed and, when the episode started with Rene’s traditional recap, I couldn’t help but notice the very prominent scar on his forehead.

As for the episode, everyone in Nouvion knows that the Allies will be invading at any minute. The Resistance is awaiting liberation. The Germans are making plans to flee. (And, because Richard Gibson declined to return to the role, Herr Flick has had plastic surgery.) Officer Crabtree still cannot speak French. And Rene has been abducted by the communist resistance.

The Bachelorette (Monday Night, ABC)

The dates in Bruges were wonderfully romantic and I loved the fireworks display that ended Aven and Rachel’s date. But then it was time for the Rose Ceremony and …. Boooooo! Meatball did not get a rose. I’m over this season.

Better Call Saul (Monday Night, AMC)

This week, Bob Odenkirk and Carol Burnett proved themselves to be dramatic powerhouses. With Kim telling Jimmy to turn himself in and Howard’s wife now having the true details of Howard’s downfall, it’s slightly frightening to think of where this is all going to end up leading. There’s only one episode left and I’ve pretty much given up on Jimmy/Saul/Gene getting a happy ending out of this.

Big Brother (All Week, CBS and Paramount+)

Seeing Daniel, one of the most annoying houseguests in the history of the show, get voted out really made my week. For those of us who are still angry over the way the show catered to bullies like Paul during season 19 and Jackson during season 21, this latest season of Big Brother has been cathartic. I’ve actually been enjoying writing about it over at the Big Brother Blog.

The Challenge (Wednesday Night, CBS)

Derek X. became the latest cast member of Big Brother 23 to get eliminated from the show. For all the talk about how strong the cast of Big Brother 23 was, they kind of suck at The Challenge.

Full House (Sunday Evening, MeTV)

The first episode featured Michelle graduating from preschool. Jesse took it upon himself to turn Michelle and her classmates into a band called …. I am not kidding — Jesse’s Little Rippers. They performed a horrific rendition of Twist and Shout. Could no one tell Jesse that not everything was about him and his lameass band? The second episode featured Aunt Becky discovering she was pregnant and worrying that this might make it difficult for Jesse to go on tour with the Rippers and …. well, I’m not going to repeat myself. Seriously, everyone deserved better.

Inspector Lewis (YouTube)

A gossip website led to multiple murders in Oxford. Lewis was stunned to discover the Internet could be such a dangerous place. Hathaway towered over everyone else on the show.

Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butthead (Paramount Plus)

Beavis and Butthead nearly died twice in the latest episode of their show. First, they got trapped on a roof. Then they got trapped on a piece of wood that sailed out to sea. Actually, they were still stranded when the show ended so they might be dead now. That’d be a shame. They really don’t seem to mean as much harm as they cause.

Open All Hours (Sunday Night, PBS)

Granville painted something silly on the window of the shop so Arkwright beat him up in the stockroom. Then the milk delivery came by and Nurse Gladys Emmanuel pulled up in a hearse or something. I don’t know, it was a weird episode.