I was kind of hoping we were done with the true crime stories.
Blue Beetle #60
FINAL ISSUE
Fox Features Syndicate (August, 1950)
Here we are, the last issue of this numbering, and the last of the second and final Fox Features run. We aren’t done with the Blue Beetle’s public domain stories, but next time we will be starting a new home for the Blue Beetle, but we’ll still have the same trio for a while…and a very strange numbering system that we’ll get into when we get there. Will they head out on a high note? I hope so. Only one way to find out.
It’s an…interesting time to be a cartoon fan. Not all of the news is good, what with the likes of Velma and Netflix’s live-action demakes around. Disney doesn’t really make its own cartoons for TV outside of Disney Junior (and I’m willing to bet even the Mickey Mouse and Winnie The Pooh material was made by an outside company) unless its disasters like Strange World and Wish, while Pixar hasn’t been up to their usual standards either. Meanwhile, I hear Max, the Warner Brothers Discovery streaming service, is pulling down animated shows from their line-up. Cartoon Network and Boomerang, which charges extra to go to a higher cable tier or a subscription online, don’t have the best offerings. And did any of you remember Nicktoons existed before I just mentioned it a few words ago?
On the other hand, Netflix has put out some good animation, Cartoon Network still has the Toonami block, and we have a new player in the TV cartoon game. MeTV, which I can’t get on my current TV provider because they don’t want to pay the new higher rate and I don’t have an HD antenna, is entering the game with their third channel in the classic television family with MeTV Toons. This will join regular MeTV and MeTV+, their second channel, both of which do already show some classic animation among their offerings. Variety reports that there will be some original content and Bob Bergen, the current Porky Pig, will serve as the voice of the ads. Bounding Into Comics collected a bunch of shows not on the list, including a few old DIC Entertainment shows. Their own website is teasing a ton of shows, many of which comes from the Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, and Rankin Bass, among other classics WBD doesn’t own like Popeye and The Mask. They’re even teasing Challenge Of The GoBots! And Kwicky Koala. I was convinced I was the only person who remembered that show. What’s next, Pandamonium? Wonder Wheels?Now I really wish we could get this channel!
The question is of course why so many of these Warner-owned shows are showing up outside of the offerings they have. Discovery Family has some Looney Tunes stuff and Hanna-Barbera’s take on the Smurfs along with their own programming and some leftover shows from The Hub (that time Discovery Kids was rebranded and ran with Hasbro) they still rerun. Due to all the acquisitions that led to Warner Brothers Discovery they have one of the biggest animation libraries on the planet, fighting Disney for the top spot, yet do little with it while other contenders are also out there. Then there’s streaming, official YouTube channels, and we’re not even going to get into anime. Do you know how easy it is to watch cartoons now, and yet somehow Warner Brothers Discovery is still not fully embracing their huge library despite so much competition.
There are YouTube official animation channels with their own livestreams. You just have to know how to find them. Remember what you heard here when we get tonight’s discussion.
I saw this article on Fansided’s Bam Smack Pow site discussing this new game, Batman: Arkham Shadow. Right now all they have is a teaser for a new game in the Batman Arkham series…that will be exclusive to one VR system, Facebook’s Meta Quest. I’m not that familiar with VR gaming and right now we don’t have a plot, though it will have to take place before Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League since that is also set in Arkham continuity…and Batman is dead, acting as Brainiac’s #1 flunky thanks to mind control, and killed by Harley Quinn after some speech about how he had her peeps scared. You know, the ones who rob banks, blow up buildings, and line the streets with their dead at every opportunity. I think we can dispense with the violin. They probably stole that, too.
Remember when Superman was DC’s flagship character but as the 1990s started the more cynical grimdark trends popularity shifted to Batman? He didn’t have superpowers unless you count being a super rich supergenius who designed and built all his own gadgets, learned more languages and odd bits of trivia than Ken Jennings, and was trained in more martial arts styles than there are varied MMA fighters. Then he was just a normal man who could defeat God with his greatest skill: prep time. Yeah, tell me Bruce Wayne isn’t overpowered and I’ll tell you how wrong you are. He can’t juggle a planet, but I bet he has a battlesuit that will help him already being constructed.
Nowadays the treatment of Batman by creators and by DC itself is…strange. You’d think you would want to keep your number one guy (yes, that was on purpose Burton fans) at the top of his game. DC these days seem to be trying to ditch him. I expect the usual suspects to hate him because he has money and refuses to believe anyone can be a good person especially with money. Why does DC hate him enough to not only damage him in their own comics but let adapters screw him up as well?
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