#also why did jim jones have monkeys?

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

about 90% of my brain runs solely on associations and one of the worst ones i have is when im playing the sims 4 and trying to pick out a blue chair.

because way back when (2018ish), i was watching a documentary on jonestown, called jonestown: the life and death of the peoples temple, while playing the sims 4 because adhd brain. and as i was trying to pick out a blue chair for a bedroom, there was a lady (i think her name was june) talking about how she got involved with the peoples temple, and it was quite memorable so association formed immediately.

so now, anytime im trying to pick out a blue chair in the sims 4, i just remember her explaining that her mother-in-law was in need of a new pet monkey, because her previous monkey had hung itself, so she looked in the newspaper for a new monkey and found jim jones selling monkeys, and so her mother-in-law meets him about the monkey and he invites her to his church, and at no point does she indicate that any part of this story is weird which is besides the point but bears mentioning in my brain.

[popculturebuffet]

Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “ 

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III.                                                        Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe. 

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big  companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers. 

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point. 

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while  in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing.  This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome. 

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast. 

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list. 

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend. 

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome. 

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows. 

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again. 

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up. 

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4. 

So with our major players out of the way,  let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming  story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands.  Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off.  Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain. 

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a  kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more.  The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself  this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have.  This show is just great  at costume design. 

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback. 

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious. 

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working.  Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant.  Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time. 

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up.  F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly. 

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly.  At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in. 

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do. 

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense. 

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room. 

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda. 

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian. 

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go. 

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it. 

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior. 

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances. 

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included. 

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her.  It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag. 

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you. 

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him.  Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t.  It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to.  So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight. 

However at home Virgil points out it was  Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow. 

[mostlymovieswithmax]

Movies I watched in March

Thought I’d chronicle the films I’ve been watching over the March period, from the 1st to the 31st, and how I’d rate them. If you’re looking for something to watch, perhaps this will help. A lot of these movies are available on streaming services also.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - 10/10

I hadn’t watched this in a couple of years but I was blown away. Peak Scorsese.

Rushmore (1998) - 7/10

Not the best Wes Anderson movie for me but still fun.

Lion (2016) - 8/10

I discussed this at length on my podcast: The Sunday Movie Marathon. Great movie!

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 10/10

Now this is one of the best Wes Anderson movies. I discuss this more on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Fantastic, funny and I watched it twice because it’s so much fun.

Inception (2010) - 10/10

Discussed on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Best Christopher Nolan movie for me, Inception is just breathtaking.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) - 5/10

This might be Anderson’s weakest film (at least from what I’ve seen) but it’s still not as bad as a lot of directors at their worst.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - 10/10

I was really on an Anderson binge in March. The Royal Tenenbaums is one of the most wholesome movies I’ve seen and certainly one of his best films.

Rome, Open City (1945) - 4/10

This was filmed in Nazi-occupied Italy and from that premise, the film enticed me. Despite having some interesting qualities, I do feel that initial pull is most of what the movie has going for it.

The Prestige (2006) - 7/10

I showed this to my brother and for what it’s worth, he enjoyed it. I do think this is one of Nolan’s weaker efforts but considering how much I like it, that speaks a lot to Nolan’s filmography as a whole.

Nostalgia (1983) - 10/10

I watched Nostalgia three times in the space of a week and reviewed it on The Sunday Movie Marathon. It’s phenomenal.

Kangaroo Jack (2003) - 1/10

Another one I watched for the podcast. Kangaroo Jack is truly terrible and it upset me a great deal. Avoid this movie.

Stalker (1979) - 10/10

Another Andrei Tarkovsky movie (director of Nostalgia). I watched this again during the day before my second watch of Nostalgia and while it’s hard to compare such different movies, I enjoy Stalker more. It’s a staple of Russian cinema for a reason.

Four Lions (2010) - 5/10

Watched for the podcast. I didn’t really gel with this comedy but it would certainly appeal to someone who enjoys the humour, as my co-hosts did.

Revolutionary Road (2008) - 6/10

This Sam Mendes joint was a tad too melodramatic but still boasted some great performances from Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.

Metropolis (1927) - 6/10

This silent film is a staple in cinematic history. Its themes are as painfully relevant today as they were in the 20’s, yet despite that I found a lot of it to be intensely boring. After it hit the hour mark, I started playing it at 1.5x speed.

Crimson Peak (2015) - 4/10

A lot of great set design and costumes and colours, yet the story itself was madly uninteresting.

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind (2004) - 10/10

Who doesn’t love a good movie written by Charlie Kaufman? I reviewed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon and after a third watch, it is as fascinating as it is gut-wrenching.

Godzilla (2014) - 3/10

If you wanted to see Godzilla fight a bunch of monsters for two hours, then this is not the movie for you. There’s maybe about ten minutes total of on-screen Godzilla action and considering that’s really all anyone’s watching this for, it’s amazing the titular sea lizard occupies so little of the movie.

Prisoners (2013) - 10/10

Brilliant mystery thriller by my favourite director, Denis Villeneuve. Discussed on the podcast.

Eraserhead (1977) - 7/10

David Lynch’s debut feature film went down in my estimations this time around. You can listen to why on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Still, Eraserhead is a very good movie.

Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) - 6/10

The first Indiana Jones movie proved to be a fun romp and Harrison Ford plays the character beautifully. I’m just not a big fan of Spielberg and his average verging on pretty good but rarely ever great movies. Perhaps on a second watch, I may enjoy this more.

The Seventh Seal (1957) - 9/10

Watching this movie again was so much fun. So far, it’s my favourite Ingmar Bergman film. It’s a celebration of life and love, with an underlying sense of dread as death looms ever-present.

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom (1984) - 5/10

I can tell why this generally looked on as the weakest in the trilogy. Harrison Ford is still great but the movie dragged a lot and felt more like a bunch of things happening for the sake of it rather than a fun action/adventure.

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989) - 7/10

The Last Crusade was a lot of fun and maybe it was Sean Connery’s inclusion, or perhaps the bottle of wine I drank through the movie elevated my enjoyment. But alcohol aside, I still believe this to be the best in the series.

Justice League (2017) - 2/10

People really weren’t kidding when they said this was bad. I watched this in preparation for the Snyder cut and I was not happy. This took years off my life.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) - 3/10

Barely any better and double the run-time of the original. I discussed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon and I was certainly not impressed. Better luck next time, Zack!

The Truman Show (1998) - 10/10

Brilliant movie and one I would highly recommend for a stellar Jim Carrey performance. This was another recommendation for the podcast.

Eighth Grade (2018) - 7/10

I was impressed with Bo Burnham’s debut feature. This is a coming of age story centred around a young girl growing up in the modern world and how it can affect the youth of today. Burnham shows a deep understanding of youth culture and a real knack for filmmaking.

Bad Education (2019) - 8/10

A real “yikes!” movie. If you want to learn a bit about the embezzlement that took place in an American school back in the early 2000’s, you need not look further than this tight drama with fantastic performances from Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney.

Twelve Monkeys (1995) - 8/10

One of the only movies where the time travel makes sense. I recommended this for The Sunday Movie Marathon and it’s pretty great.

Ready Or Not (2019) - 7/10

Despite a premise that is not wholly original and a super goofy third act, Ready Or Not is gory, violent fun with a lot of stylish art direction.

Dead Man (1995) - 3/10

Recommended on the podcast. I really did not get a lot out of Dead Man. It’s a very slow movie about Johnny Depp going through the woods and killing some people on the way, but it’s two hours long and hugely metaphorical and sadly it just didn’t connect.

Misbehaviour (2020) - 6/10

A big draw for me in Misbehaviour is Keira Knightley; I think she’s a great actor and I’m basically on board with anything she does. I’d been wanting to see this for a while and I was shocked to see just how relevant it is (being set in 1970) to the world we find ourselves in today, where women are still fighting to be heard and to be treated equally. While the film is not spectacular, I still got a lot from its themes, so recently after the murder of Sarah Everard and how women are being treated in their protest.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb (1964) - 7/10

I was surprised at just how hilarious this early Kubrick movie is. While I can’t say it floored me or took any top spots, it’s still a great examination of the military and how they respond to threats or try to solve problems and the side of war we don’t often see in films: the people in the background sitting in a room making crucial decisions.

Taxi Driver (1976) - 10/10

Wow! I can’t believe I’d never seen this before but I’d never really had access to it. Taxi Driver is a beautifully made movie with so much colour and vibrancy. De Niro puts on perhaps his best performance and Paul Schrader’s timeless script works miracles.

Sleepy Hollow (1999) - 5/10

Classic Tim Burton aesthetics in a pretty by the numbers, almost Supernatural-esque story eked out over an hour and forty minutes.

Seaspiracy (2021) - 6/10

Everyone’s going crazy over this documentary and I agree it tackles important issues we’re facing today surrounding the commercialization of the fishing industry, but a lot of what’s presented here is information already available to the public. The editing feels misplaced at times and the tone is all over the place. Nonetheless, it’s still quite fascinating to see good journalism being done in a way that exposes this side of the industry.

Pirates of The Carribean: The Curse of The Black Pearl (2003) - 8/10

Super fun and a great first instalment in a franchise that sadly seems to have peaked at the first hurdle.

My Octopus Teacher (2020) - 8/10

Great cinematography and a lovely premise, this documentary has garnered an Oscar nomination and I can see why.

The Sisters Brothers (2018) - 8/10

A really solid western I was happy to watch again. It’s a shame no one really talks about this movie because it is excellent with stunning visuals and great performances.

Pirates of The Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) - 5/10

A strangely massive drop in quality from the original. If I didn’t like the whole concept of this franchise so much, I might have had a worse time.

Reservoir Dogs (1992) - 8/10

On a second watch, Tarantino’s first feature is still wildly impressive.

Life of Brian (1979) - 7/10

This is perhaps my third time watching Monty Python’s Life of Brian and it’s still incredibly funny, however it never manages to measure up to its predecessor (and one of my all time favourites), Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

[captainjimothycarter]

Steggy Au prompt: after accidentally using the reality stone, Steve wakes up in a world where the procedure of becoming a super soldier failed, but he is healthier and has a life with peggy.

Ahh this is so what you not had asked, but my brain just kept writing this.

--

Of all places, this wasn’t where he wanted to be. It was quiet in here, set outside of the worst of the city. It sat on a few hills, offering a pretty view of some sparkling water a distance away, the sounds of the wind blowing around him. While he didn’t want to be here, he had to be here. Steve left himself no choice.

He’s only been awake in this century for a few weeks now, a few months. He’s done a few missions for SHIELD here and there, a few diplomated things, a few smiles and sign some papers, an autograph here or two, everything reminding him of his SOE days. A dancing monkey.

While he didn’t want to be Captain America right now, SHIELD left him no choice. Fury’s words basically said that. That was fine to Steve, almost, he didn’t want to work, but he also didn’t want to think, and in order not to think he had to pretend to be busy. That was better than sitting here in a reminder that all your friends and your life you knew beforehand were dead.

This is the cemetery where the Howling Commandos was buried, where his ma was buried, Bucky’s ma, father, baby sister, where even Howard and his wife, and yes, Peggy was buried. Weirdly enough he’s crossed over his own grave once, seeing his own name, date of birth, and death date etched into the marble set a bone chill about him. He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to think about Bucky’s grave either. Or Jim’s or Jones or Dugan’s or...anybody.

Hell, he didn’t want to think about Peggy’s, but here he was. He knelt in front of it and tenderly brushed off a few clumps of grass that had been grown on it from the lawn care crew. His fingers traced over her name with a soft sigh.

Loving mother, aunt, grandmother. Doing what no one else would.

“I loved you,” Steve breathed, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead into the stone. “I’m sorry, Peggy. Sorry I couldn’t give you that dance. Sorry I-I failed you. I wish I could take it all back...to be with you. I’d give anything to...to be with you. I don’t regret...anything, only that I lost you.”

His throat tightened at the need to cry, more than familiar with locking the pain away for a rainy day. As he pulled back, a glittering red in the grass beside the headstone caught his attention. It looked almost like a diamond, but who would lose a diamond out here?

Steve frowned as he reached down to pick it up, his world turning black around him.

--

“What happened?”

“What do you mean what happened? It worked.”

“He’s still small!”

“We don’t know what the serum would do or not do.”

“So it failed.”

“It did…”

The voices faded to the background as the door closed with a sharp snap. Peggy stood in front of the door, hands behind her back. She looked nervously up at Steve, biting her lip. Her eyes flickered over Steve’s form before breathing a sigh of relief. 

“I’m sorry about those two - Erksine and Colonel Phillips have never-”

Peggy jerked back as Steve instantly hopped off of the table and hugged her tightly around the middle. His head came just to her chest, breathing her comforting, floral scent in.

“Peggy!” 

The tears burned his eyes but the shock of her jerking away and holding him at arms’ length, eyes nervously glancing at the windows around them to see if anyone saw them. “Steven, what in the world has gotten into you? Are you okay?”

Hang on - she was able to move him? Since when? And why was she here? Why were Phillips and Erksine arguing over him? Wasn’t Erksine…

Steve jerked away like he’d been burned, stumbling over his own two feet. He retreated to a mirror to look at himself, patting himself down in the uniform. His uniform. His face. His height.

He was smaller. Yet, the procedure, Project Rebirth, he was still small. Did that mean it failed? That he wasn’t a super soldier? Small and yet...he could breathe, he could taste the dust in the air, her floral scent didn’t send him coughing, he could see color. What happened?

And he’d just hugged Peggy in the middle of an SSR medical room, where thankfully people bustling around outside, and the two arguing next door hadn’t paid much attention. He turned back to see Peggy looking at him with a worried expression. 

“Steven, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. I know this isn’t what you expected, but you heard Erksine, you’re healthy!”

“No, no, Pegs…” Steve sat down heavily onto the medical bench and flinched at how cold it was. He ignored the pinched brow look she gave him. He wasn’t helping his case here. How could he? He couldn’t understand it himself. He didn’t know what was going on. The last thing he remembered was touching the stone…

And now he was here, younger, smaller, and the serum hadn’t worked. He said he’d give anything to have a life with her...this was anything, wasn’t it? The serum. To be healthy, but to be with her. 

“Peggy,” Steve tried again, clearing his throat. “I have something I-I need to tell you, something you won’t believe, but it...it has to be…” He looked around the empty room, not trusting their surroundings. 

Clearly, Peggy caught on because she nodded. “Elsewhere, yes, I see.” She pursed her red lips, her hand reaching out to ghost over the back of Steve’s before fixing his suit jacket. “I can get us somewhere that isn’t so...busy, but we can’t be seen touching like that again, do you understand?”

It was clear by her body language how she wanted him (he could once remember her (drunkenly) saying how she was ready to jump his bones), so he understood. His head jerked. “Of course, ma’am. That was an overlap in my judgment. It-it’s been so long since I’ve last seen you...you-”

He stopped himself, his throat tightening up and squeezing his eyes shut to stop the tears. He didn’t need to look at Peggy’s face to see how confused she was.

“You just saw me half an hour ago, Steven, what-”

“I’ll explain later, can you get us out of here?”

--

Somewhere safe was the hotel room Peggy was renting, it seems. She had snuck Steve out in the chaos, only making mention to Erksine and Phillips that they were stepping out for some fresh air. No one needed to know where they went. Far as Steve was concerned, he was officially sacked. The serum had failed to make him a super soldier, he wouldn’t get to be a dancing puppet, wouldn’t get to rescue Bucky… oh fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

By the time they’d reached the hotel room, Steve was defiantly panicking. It felt odd to be in this small body and not be thrown immediately into an asthma attack. He started to pace the room by the time Peggy closed the door, hands continuously running through his hair. He only stopped when Peggy was forced to grab him by the shoulders and sit him on the bed.

“Talk to me,” she said in a firm tone, driving him out of his spirling thoughts. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not Steve.”

No, no that was the wrong thing to say. She jerked back and frowned at him, her hand at the ready to go for her gun.

“No, I-” Steve groaned and gripped at his hair. “I am Steve! Steve Rogers, just not the Steve Rogers you know! Just...I am…” He stood up this time to start pacing again. If he didn’t, he was feeling antsy. He couldn’t sit still.

“I am a-a Steve Rogers...the Steve Rogers… I just…” He looked back at her, hands flopping to his side. “This is going to sound insane, but you have to believe me.”

“Okay,” Peggy breathed, sounding on the side of cautious. “I don’t...necessarily have any other choice right now besides calling Erksine to check that head of yours.”

“No, Peggy.” Steve took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Panicking will get him nowhere. “I’m Steve Rogers. In another...I-I don’t know...Timeline or something, the serum worked. It worked and I-I was big and strong and everything Erksine desired. He was killed because it worked by Hydra. We caught the-the man but he used a cyanide pill to kill himself, found out he tried to steal the serum too. Phillips sent you to the front lines because of it.”

Now she was on the edge of the bed, hands gripping the sheet. Her face was schooled in a manner that told Steve she was between believing him and shooting him right then and there. “How do you know about Hydra?”

“I just told you!” He flinched as he shouted, giving an apologetic look. “I...the-the agent. He was up in the...he was sitting with ya’ll up there.” He waved his hand, growing more frustrated with himself by the second.

“Right...beside me.” Her lips pursed in thought, eyes on the floor. “Phillips said one of the men was arrested shortly after...you came out. I wasn’t told about what or how before he started on Erksine. Okay, let’s say I believed you...where did he send you? The serum worked, right? You must’ve been sent somewhere important.”

“I wasn’t...I was…” The blonde’s shoulders slumped and the story spilled out how he became a dancing monkey for war bonds. He appreciated how she flinched at that, how it was clear she was enraged at the idea too. 

“Bloody Nora, Steven, you...deserved better than that.” Her nose wrinkled in disgust and Steve couldn’t help the smirk forming. She was starting to believe him. “What happened, then?”

“You did.”

Peggy blinked slowly, sitting up fully. “I don’t understand. I did?”

Steve chose to sit down this time, his body still tingling and aching lightly from the serum. His hands collapsed in front of him, shoulders hunched. “You told me I deserved more than this. I deserved more than being some dancing monkey. You gave me a way out, you helped me get my way out, even if it was dangerous and stupid, and put you and Howard Stark’s life at risk.”

“You know Stark?” She shook her head, the question not important. “What did...I do?”

“Personally, yes.” The last question drew a sigh from him. “You helped me rescue the 107th. Bucky and...a group of lads that become our closest friends.”

It grew more complicated from there, from Steve spilling out every last detail he remembered. From rescuing Bucky to Red Skull to Zola, the Howling Commandos forming, Phillips’ downright praises at times, from the various missions, and yes, even them growing closer together. He explained it all as he could remember. To how they grew close as a couple and even shared a few kisses (his ears burned at that idea) and Peggy gasped, unable to help herself. 

To Bucky dying.

To...him dying.

To waking up in a new future, 70 years from now to a hell hole where everyone knew he existed, but he knew no one.

“I died?” Peggy asked, swallowing. She leaned closer, they were separated by just mere centimeters at this point. He could feel her breath ghosting over his lips. “I...died.”

“In your sleep, yes, of old age, or so I was told.” Steve was the one to lean back, working the rest of the way out of his shirts until he was in the undershirt. Peggy had long undid her tie and suit jacket. “Do you believe me?”

“I’m afraid I have no choice but to. None of this has happened yet, but all of it...you sound so sure, to where it all can happen. And we have to prevent most of this, from Schmidt to your friends dying. To you ever stepping onto a bloody plane.”

Steve snorted, unable to help himself. He could kiss her from the relief that filled him. He did. He kissed her softly on the lips, the shock washing over both of them. She took him by the shoulders and pulled them closer until he was kneeling beside her.

Peggy’s smile was warmer as she pulled away, using her thumb to wipe away the lipstick. 

“How scared of heights are you?” She asked, checking her watch with a frown. At his questioning look, she said, “I have an idea. It’s going to require Stark’s help but he’s been requesting a test pilot for weeks now. I think we just found him one.”

She gestured to their clothes and Steve hurriedly dressed, making sure the last of the lipstick was wiped from his lips. “Where are we going?” he asked, pulling his jacket closed.

He forgot (and missed) how hurriedly she walked, quickly taking two steps to her everyone. “We’re going to meet with Phillips to discuss the possibility of you becoming Stark’s new test pilot and use your knowledge to change the world.”

--

Tip Jar (it’s 100% optional!)

[mondofunnybooks]

'THANOS'S GRANDAUGHTER: GO SUCK EGGS GRANDPA!' DEPT.

'The title means exactly what the words say: NAKED Lunch - a frozen moment where everyone sees exactly what is on the end of every fork.'

-William Burroughs, from the foreword notes for the novel 'Naked Lunch'.

THE GATEKEEPERS!

As may not possibly surprise you lot, we've run afoul of some of the more humourless elements of fandom in our time. This is probably down to the fact that we don't take superhero comics very seriously but are utterly enamoured of some of the more sillier elements of history. True story. We were once told off by a man in Green Lantern fangroup (We were bored.) because we thought that the origin of Kyle Rayner is so nakedly Freudian and 'Will this do?' to be hilarious.

To recap:

On a planet called Oa exists a race of short, bald humanoids with large heads called The Guardians. The Guardians believe in enforcing Order in the universe and go about this by way of selecting the most suitable candidate (called a Green Lantern.) of each sector of the universe to be given a power ring that does whatever the wearer can imagine. This ring had no effect on anything yellow due to a necessary flaw in the design to stop the wearer from having absolute power. Also, it has to be recharged every 24 hours.

Our sector of the universe is 2814, and of the 7200 Lanterns patrolling the universe at any given time, ours was a chap called Hal Jordan. Very strong-willed, very daring. Hal got the ring off an alien called Abin Sur who was on his way to give either him or a ginger bloke with a Moe haircut called Guy. Hal happened to be closer than Guy, so got the ring.

Hal Jordan went onto be a successful Green Lantern for several years but things went terribly wrong when a big yellow space tyrant called Mongul, teaming with a cyborg pretending to be Superman destroyed Hal's home of Coast City, murdering tens of thousands of people and left Hal shattered, feeling he'd failed in his duty as Earth's protector.

The loss of everything Hal cared about sent him insane, and he attempted to resurrect his destroyed home using the power ring, but he could only achieve a replica of what he'd lost and the ring wasn't designed to create that much matter for a presumably infinite period of time. His perceived second failure cemented his full breakdown, and he went on a murderous rampage in order to gather as many Green Lantern rings as possible on the way to returning to Oa is seize the original Green Lantern ring. Things go quite wrong as Hal murders the entire Lantern Corp and all but one of the Guardians: Ganthet.

Ganthet, a wee blue fella cosplaying as Orko off the He-Man cartoons pegs it back to Earth. Once there, he floats to L.A., sees a drunk bloke taking a piss against a wall and gives him the final power ring before sodding off, exclaiming 'The Ring will sort you, mate. No worries.'

A BLUE SPACE MIDGET IN A RED DRESS GIVES A DRUNK LAD ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL WEAPONS IN THE UNIVERSE AND THEN FUCKS OFF IS THE ORIGIN OF KYLE RAYNER, GREEN LANTERN OF EARTH.*

This would be weird as a 1960's comic but at least the DC Editors of the '60s had no idea any of this stuff would be reprinted and pored (Hi, Donald.) over by future generations. Supergirl is having a relationship with a fella who turns into her horse but she doesn't know about it? Fine. There's a space creature from the fifth dimension who has a real thing for winding up Superman every ninety days and can only be stopped by tricking him into saying his name backwards? Gotcha. Batman owns a dog who fights crime but wears a mask on patrol so no one will link Ace The Bat-Hound with Bruce Wayne. Of COURSE. Beppo The Super-Monkey? PRINT IT! Who will care in five years? Who will even remember, right?

Green Lantern 50 (2nd series, 1994) was published post Watchmen, post Dark Knight Returns, post Brat Pack and all of the other silly 'Corporate Superheroes Can Be For Adults' malarkey. We were now aware of subtext, metaphor, aspirational text and either this is a daft attempt at being a mature comic (which given it features a nervous breakdown, genocide, the total psychological breakdown of one of the icons of the DCU and the first example of 'Fridging' quite soon after, it ought to be.) or it's a very bad attempt at pitching a superhero comic at the kids.

The real answer was of course that DC were trying to get attention back they'd lost to the Marvel Superstar period and subsequent formation of Image. Superman grew a mullet, Batman needed a wheelchair and was replaced with a religious nutter wearing Vatican levels of gold, Wonder Woman was replaced with a giant legged redhead, The Flash broke his leg. It was all kicking off.

But we always found the whole Kyle thing hilarious, and when making our usual jokes about it ('Good thing Ganthet didn't run into Richard Pryor!', etc.) we were scolded. It turns out the story had been rewritten a bit as part of something called Green Lantern: Rebirth so it made a bit more sense. Lord knows some of our best friends are comic fans, but when they start quoting the continuity of a DC comic with capitals like they WERE reciting THE Bible and Geoff Johns DID make it GOOD, we get a bit scared.

All that was a recap of 5 comics. (Green Lantern 47-50 and Superman 80) and was almost impossible to recap straight. When we tried to give a factual, chronological accounting of these comics, we weren't capable of throwing in a few puns. And circa 1989-1993, nor were the staff of Marvel Year In Review.

When people try to contemplate the early 90's and Marvel, they think of Spider-Man 1, X-Force 1, X-Men 1. If you narrow the field down to Marvel Magazines, probably the movie adaptations, poster specials and most likely the BEAUTIFUL Marvel Illustrated Swimsuit Editions. Few will remember the spectacular Marvel Year In Review annuals. That's a shame, because with one notable exception* it was the last time they displayed an ability to take the mick out of themselves beside the better issues of John Byrne's run on She-Hulk or the comedy title 'What The--?!' (also canceled, sadly in 1993.).

Marvel Year In Review, in theory, was probably originally designed to be exactly that: A chronological overview of every comic published by Marvel over the previous 12 months. That sounds simple enough but can you imagine being the poor saps who not only have to read all those comics but attempt to sum them up as a factual synopsis. The work and time we just put into four issues of Green Lantern was murder and at least interesting things happened in those books. 'Hey, Dwight here's all of Acts Of Vengeance to work out, and see if you can explain what a Captain Universe is and why Spidey might become possessed by his powers, there's a pie in it for you. Barry, you got Atlantis Attacks.' Interns were probably diving out of the window at the sight of editor Bobbie Chase approaching them with a stack of Alpha Flight.

So rather than put out another dry, just the facts ma'am comic to sit along Marvel Age, The Offical Handbook Of The Marvel Universe or Marvel Preview, they changed gears. Marvel opted for a magazine format with covers emulating the likes of Time and later National Lampoon and sadly unnoticed New York-centric mag Spy. The early issues provided something of a review of the year but in journalistic form for some of the bigger events juxtaposed with pieces on 'Best and Worst Dressed' and ads for products like Damage Control, who would sort out your house if it'd been trashed in a fight between The Hulk and The Wrecker, a tourist ad for Latveria, posters for the new Simon Williams film or a flyer for the next Dazzler disco compilation. Long before Alex Ross painted every last rock on Ben Grimm's back, Marvel TYIR gave you an insight into what it would be like to be a resident of the Marvel Universe reading a 616 style issue of National Lampoon.

MYIR also ran interviews with various superheroes, (Including Rick Jones recounting the time he met Elvis, by far the best thing to come out of Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade.) a review of Nightcat's debut album, an appetite suppressant for Galactus, the 'Who Died This Year, Who Came Back From The Dead and Who Managed To Stay Dead' update, an expose of Genosha's tourist, a create your own 90's superhero name and origin generator (which turned out to be surprisingly accurate.) an account of two disenfranchised rival employees's visit to the Marvel Offices and ooh, loads more.

This is speculation on our part, but the knife gets a lot sharper around the 1992-1993 editions. The full chronology is written with a weary black humour of someone's who just seen too much and is getting bitter. The full-on assault on the 1993 annuals, certain top-tier artists 'showing their influences too clearly' and inadvertently predicting the future of more brutal and uncaring superhero comics in the article 'Bring On The Bad Guys' from MYIR 1993.

There's a huge shift in attitude and editorial policy in the next 12 months. Several publishers have gone bust, Tom Defalco is gone as Editor In Chief and replaced with 5 people in charge of various parts of the publishing line, turning Marvel into a series of little fiefdoms with varying degrees of co-operation between each other. We've just met Peter Parker's robot parents. Aunt May is about to die. Reed Richards is dead. Jim Wilson is dead. Legion resolves to kill Magneto. Dr Strange has an idea for something called 'The Secret Defenders'. Everything is about to get very serious and therefore far more ripe for parody.

And with no word, no goodbye from the editors, nothing in the fan press nor explanation, Marvel Year In Review 1994 was solicited thusly:

'Marvel Year In Review 1994 - Just the facts, ma'am. Gone is the tongue-in-cheek humor of the past; the Marvel Year in Review offers a factual recap of the major Marvel Universe events of 1994. It's short on lengthy text and long on splashy art and fact-filled sidebars. Included are all the happenings from the pages of X-Men, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and Ghost Rider, plus art by Andy Kubert, Chris Bachalo, Tom Lyle and many others! $2:95. $4.00 CAN'

And it was. Normal comic size. No chatty opener from the editor with puns and gags. No angry letters from readers just wanting to know what happened in X-Force and wanting to be rid of the MODAM jokes. No ads. Not even, truth be told, much in the way of recaps so much as trade dress-less cover repros with dialogue quotes and a paragraph or two to cover the essential plot elements, finished with the most perfunctory 'Er, will this do?' appeal to the readers on the last page. Turns out that no, it wouldn't do at all, as there was no Marvel Year In Review 1995 or any other edition either.

Marvel has put out a few self-parody books since, such as Marvel RIOT!, House Of Hem, Marvel WHAT Now?, Who Won't Wear The Shield, Wha HUH? and obviously Deadpool crosses the lines frequently, but there's not been something that clever nor ambitious since. Perhaps the line between reader, writer and editor aren't as clear as they used to be or simply today's audience wouldn't be as immediately familiar with the formats being parodied and as the recent attempts to parody Marvel fanfiction have shown, sometimes an idea just belongs to its time. As a magazine that featured fun work by the likes of Todd McFarlane, Dan Slott, Sam Kieth, Peter David,  Kevin Maguire and a different angle on a world that takes itself a little bit seriously at times, Marvel Year In Review was a fun little ride while it lasted.

(Note to self. Never, ever look up Marvel fanfiction again. Ever.)

*This may be different now but was certainly the case in 1994. Origins, histories and such might have changed due to 52, Convergence and Rebirth. We were told that Flashpoint was the end of the DC Universe as we knew it, and we took that as a good place to stop reading. Except Section Eight and Batman/Elmer Fudd obviously.

Dedicated to the memory of Steve Ditko.(1927-2018)

[celmation-gibson]

Well, It's Time I started these 'Best of' Reviews for what Animated thing had Happened this Year, and Now I'm ready for it, and for me, I think that 2017 was a great Year for Cartoons on TV (and one on the Net), and here are my Reviews on why.

Ben 10(2016 series) – Although the Show was Made and Released in 2016 at other Foreign territories, It finally got a Release in the US in 2017. And some Folks might say that some reboots aren’t very too Bright (and I would agree on TTG and/or PPG 2016), But I find this to be a Nerve Calming excitement, some of the Character Designs/Re-Designing look Cute & Likable to Me. And the One Thing that gets me Fired up for this Series is that some Artists I know worked on this Program, like Mr. Ryan Krammer(Uncle Grandpa, & SpongeBob's 'Food Con Castaways' episode), Ms. Monica Ray(Harvey Beaks, Magic Children Doing Things) as Storyboard Artists & additional Writers& Mr. Colin Heck(Legend of Korra, Harvey Beaks) as Supervising Director. And It was Wonderful to hear Ms. Jessica DiCicco(Lynn & Lucy Loud) voicing a Different-looking FrightWig, who the Character was previously voiced by Cree Summer in the Original Series. But believe me, I remember seeing the Original Ben 10 series along with Alien Force, but didn’t quite go thru the Rest of the Series until the Reboot came. Even the Original villains of this Show look so Cute (except for Billy Billions), which that Cuteness also goes to the re-Designing of the other Villains from the Original ‘Ben 10’ series, and the More appearance I’ve ever seen from a Villain is Steam Smythe (voiced by Roger Craig Smith of ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ & ‘Regular Show’).

Billy Dilley’s Super-Duper Subterranean Summer – Quite an Interesting Show, and I bet many people thought that the Program reminded them of ‘Uncle Grandpa’, so Keep in Mind, Most of the Artists & Writers who worked on this Series previously worked on ‘Spongebob Squarepants’ & ‘Uncle Grandpa’. Even the Show’s Creator Mr. Aaron Springer voicing Billy almost sounds like Paul Rugg of 'Freakazoid', 'Pig, Goat, Banana, Cricket', & 'Secret Mountain Fort Awesome'.

Samurai Jack(Season 5) - I truly Enjoyed watching 'Samurai Jack' when I was Young, this Program along with 'Courage the Cowardly Dog', 'Juniper Lee', & 'Chowder' are Probably the only Good Old Cartoon Network Programs that I give Full Circle to in my Childhood. After the "Jack and the Baby" episode, the show went into a Deep Cliffhanger, and I truly Sympathize the Great Hero Jack for it, But Twelve Years Later, a New Season had Finally cometh, with the Show's Original Creator Mr. Genndy Tartakovsky coming to Ex. Produced the series after some Great Work back at Sony Pictures Animation(Hotel Transylvania films, & that Popeye Test Footage). And Instead of the Program being a-little Lighthearted like the Past Seasons with just Slime, Oil & Robotic Guts, and Major Boo-boos, the New Season 5 now airing on Adult Swim has moved to a Darker Tone, which I like as much as 'Return to Oz', 'Over the Garden wall', & 'the Black Cauldron', with some major Blood, Profanity, and some Grown-Up jokes put into it. And it was a Surprised to see some Old Characters that I recognize to make some Cameos in that one episode(or few), such as the Woolies, Demongo, and the Ravers, the Robots and their Robo-Samurai, and the "Jump Good" Monkey man & his Tribe. And some Fresh New Voices came in by Surprise, such as Mr. Chris Parnell & Keegan Michael Key in some Episodes. And I was Lucky to film the Final Confrontation between Jack & Aku during the Premiere of the Series Finale for Instagram. And did I nearly weep during the Part that Now that Aku is Gone, Ashi will Never be Born in the Future(because of the Space Timing Continuum), and I got to say, Ashi was a Cute Character that I truly Sympathize because of her Dark Past & People Torturing her back then, and I like her Voice Actress, the Legendary Ms. Tara Strong (Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony, Ben 10, & Chowder). And even since Aku's Original voice actor Mr. Mako passed away back then, I say that Mr. Greg Baldwin really did a Good Job impersonating Mako voicing Aku, just like he did with Iroh of 'Avatar: the Last Airbender' & 'Legend of Korra', almost sounded like If Mako aged Puberty. I would say I'm Gonna Miss this Show, just like how I'll miss Chowder, Regular Show, and soon Uncle Grandpa.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Battle for Mewni /SvtFoE Season 3– To come Clear, I only watched the First Four Stories of that TV Movie Special, from “Return to Mewni” to “Marco and the King”, Because during the Further Episodes there was an Artist whose Career I clearly dislike, Tyler Chen of ‘Clarence’, ‘Fish Hooks’, ‘Pickle & Peanut’ & the Overrated Bravest Warriors minisode “drama Bug”, and that’s why I never made it to the Ending point, But I do read Perfectly that Star won the Battle against the Vile Toffee, and she got her Wand Redesigned. But what I can tell you that one of my Favorite Episodes from that so Far is “Moon the Undaunted”, and I gotta say that Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness is one of my Most Favorite Characters from the show so far. As for the Rest of Season 3 so Far, I’ve only watched Episodes that are NNOT directed by Chen, cuz remember when I said I don’t like his Career, but my Most Favorite Episodes out of Season 3 so Far is ‘Stranger Danger’, ‘Lint Catcher’, & ‘Trial by Squire’. Also, Despite having appeared in the 2016 episode "Page Turner", I like Hekapoo's appearance in the 2017 episode "Running with Scissors", which is One of my Most Favorite Episodes of Season 2.

The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos - I really Enjoyed this Half-Hour Special of ‘the Loud House’, the New Characters there seemed Likable/Lovable unlike the Unlikable/Hate-able ones in Royal Woods where some Folks aren’t that Disgusting as Hell(Funny Business, Cereal Offender), and It’s also a Good Episode where no Sister Siblings were Complete & Utter jerks(Sleuth or Consequences, a Novel Idea), Even what surprised me Completely is that this was the First Thing in a Kids’ Cartoon to showcase a person with Down-Syndrome, and believe me, I felt Really Disappointed on how they were Portrayed in Adult Cartoons, Mostly *COUGH*Family guy*COUGH*. But in a Kids Cartoon, they were Treated Properly with Good Respect. And the Character Rosa reminds me of Mrs. Claus/Mama from Rankin/Bass’ ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ for some Wacky Reason, “Eat, eat, EAT”. And I still Love the RonnieColn Fandom Completely, that one LH Episode “Back Out There” almost Ruined some Things, and that Led me to have Mixed to Negative Feelings for Lincoln’s Friends Clyde, Rusty, Liam, Zach. So I would say that ‘the Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos’ is a Fun-Filled Episode that I could watch Multiple Times, It’s got Cute & Funny moments, some Heart-Warming Drama, and some Great Entertainment when the Alley Cats run amuck in the Casagrande apartment.

OK K.O! Let’s be Heroes – This Show has become a Great New addition to the Grand CN, It was created by Mr. @ianjq, who was previous storyboard supervisor & storyboard revisionist of ‘Adventure Time’, Writer & Story Artist for ‘Secret Mountain Fort Awesome’, voice of Wallow of ‘Bravest Warriors’, & developer, co-executive producer, supervising director, storyline writer & storyboard artist for ‘Steven Universe’, and I really like him Voicing Rad & other Characters such as Darrell & Crinkly Wrinkly in the K.O. program. It was based off a short Pilot episode ‘Lakewood Plaza Turbo’ back in 2013, in that Great Year of Discoveries along with other pilots for ‘Steven Universe’, ‘Over the Garden Wall’,  & ‘Clarence’, and that was a Time when I was also Fascinated with Disney’s Nine old Men and their Work/Book ‘the Illusion of Life’, and watching that Awesome Documentary on Cartoon Network’s ‘Next Generation of Animation’, I will always accept New Cartoon Network shows like ‘Adventure Time’, ‘Regular Show’, ‘Uncle Grandpa’, ‘Over the Garden Wall’, ‘Steven Universe’, & ‘We Bare Bears’ into the Cartoon Society. But as for ‘OK K.O.’ , the seems pretty Wonderful, It has a Blend of 1970’s Obscure Anime looks into the Western Animation looks, and How they have some Classical Cartooning Principles(Funny Cartoon Noises, Jokes & Gags) into the Modern Day Greatness. Even some of the characters seemed likable, Mostly on either Lord Boxman(voiced by the Great Jim Cummings), some of the Villainess Characters that the Heroes might met(Professor Venomous, Cosma, & Mr. Cardsley), and even some of the Main Good Characters, especially the Ones I also Sympathize like K.O., Rad, Enid, Dendy, Carol, & Mr. Gar, and I gotta say that Character Crinkly Wrinkly is the Funniest character that I’ve ever seen. I think it was Good that I first get to watch the Series when It was On-Demand before it aired on actual TV, but I have yet to see it’s 2013 Pilot episode along with the Rests that Aired on 2013, But I do know that it had a Mobile Game back then (though I did not Download it or played it) and a Series of Shorts by other Animation Studios, but I haven’t watch them because I am Never a huge fan of SCIENCE SARU and I’m Not too certain about Studio Yotta. But I gotta say also, This Show is a Fanstastic Experience on the Grand CN, Filled with Precious Heart-Warming episodes with Good Life Lessons like How to handle your own Duties as an Employer or how Great your Boss can be (‘Legends of Mr. Gar’), or If you Try not to Spoil your life by being a Self-Proclaimed Selfish ‘Cool Kid’ like Brat, you should have a More Focused Future ahead of you, even without going to Jail (‘We’ve Got Pests’), and the Show had some Crazy Developments such as Enid & Rad used to being a Couple (‘Second First Date’), and Enid being a Witch and being in a Family of Halloween-Themed Characters (‘Parents Day’). Plus the shows got a Good crew, Like the Program's Supervising Director Toby Jones, who Previously worked on 'Regular Show', and one of the Show's Story folks Dave Tennant, previously does some Stories for Pete Browngardt Cartoons, Which I think makes it Better for Me.

Pickle Rick – Why not, It’s “PICKLE RIIIICK!!!!”, I thought I would pass on this, But eventually won my Heart, don’t ask why, but Things just happen like that.

The Summoning - I just Discovered this while browsing on the internet probably from Fan-Art on DA, and I watched it on Youtube, and I gotta say, this Cartoon is Really Cute, Funny, & Creepy at the same time. The Main Characters seemed Lovable, and I mean Claire & Edgar, the Bunny Character is hugely Funny in a way, Though I feel Terribly Bad for the characters accidentally eating some things like Eating some Dandruff from a Big Head Island which Claire thought it was Dirt, and Eating Poop which Edgar thought it was Chocolate. But to make Matters Better for the Cartoon, Celmation Hero Ms. Natasha Allegri(Bee & Puppycat, Fionna & Cake) worked on the short as Director, Story Artist, & Character Designer, WHAT A HERO!!! And the Animations/Celmation was done by Digital eMation inc., the Celmation Team behind ‘Ok K.O. Let’s be Heroes!’ & the Season 5 of ‘Samurai Jack’.

The Movies of 2017 & Probably some on Video Games should be made soon.

[funface2]

The 50 best jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2019's shows – and how to watch them all live – iNews

Culture

As the festival enters its final days, we round up the funniest gags on offer this year

Friday, 23rd August 2019, 09:28 am

Updated Friday, 6th September 2019, 16:32 pm

John Luke Roberts: I remember what my grandmother said to me on her deathbed. She said: ‘I wish I’d bought a normal bed.’ (Photo: Natasha Pszenicki)

I remember what my grandmother said to me on her deathbed. She said: ‘I wish I’d bought a normal bed.’ John Luke Roberts, Assembly Studio Two, 5.30pm

I went for my driving test the other day and the instructor said, ‘you’re in the wrong gear’. I said, ‘Why? What’s wrong with this tuxedo?’Nick Helm Pleasance Dome, 5.40pm; read i’s review of the show here

The best thing about being disabled is nobody ever wants you to babysit. In case you drop them. And recruit them. Rosie Jones, Pleasance Courtyard, 7pm

Do you reckon the band Chic ever found any takers for that free cow they were always trying to get rid of?Joz Norris, Heroes at the Hive, 4.40pm

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What do I want played at my funeral? Rugby.Goodbear, Pleasance Dome, 9.40pm

True crime documentaries are the only time the entertainment industry will take a chance on an unknown female lead. Jena Friedman, Assembly George Square Studios, 9.20pm

My teacher told me to make a vacuum – I thought, no pressure then.Leo Kearse Gilded Balloon, 9.15pm

Rosie Jones: ‘The best thing about being disabled is nobody ever wants you to babysit. In case you drop them. And recruit them’

In his job my dad’s never lost a case. That makes him Gatwick’s top baggage handler.Glenn Moore, Pleasance Courtyard, 4pm

I find it hard to believe Melania Trump had a body double for public appearances. It would definitely be for the private stuff. Laura Lexx, Gilded Balloon, 5.15pm

My mate came second in a Winston Churchill lookalike competition. He was close, but no cigar. Goose, Assembly George Square, 5.20pm

My mother doesn’t like the word vagina, so she calls it a ‘Lulu’ which was very confusing when I met my cousin Lulu, who coincidentally is a c***.Janine Harouni, Pleasance Courtyard, 5.45pm; read i’s review of the show here

Do I enjoy randomly appointing people to judicial positions? I’ll let you be the judge of that.Ivo Graham, Pleasance Courtyard, 7pm; read i’s review of the show here

I didn’t have sex at university for religious reasons. God hates me.Phil Wang Pleasance Courtyard, 8pm; read i’s review of the show here

Tiff Stevenson: ‘Jeremy Hunt has said he would lower abortion limit to 12 weeks. That’s funny because I’d raise it to whatever age Jeremy Hunt is’ (Photo: Steve Ullathorne)

My grandad died on April Fool’s Day. Every year for 10 years. Rhys James, Pleasance Courtyard, 6.30pm

I’m pleased to be getting a beer belly, I’ve always wanted a father figureCam Spence, Pleasance Courtyard, 4:30pm

I love Lorraine Kelly. I’m a big fan of her earlier work – the stuff she does before quarter to nine.Martha McBrier, Laughing Horse @ The Counting House, 7.15pm

Jeremy Hunt has said he would lower abortion limit to 12 weeks. That’s funny because I’d raise it to whatever age Jeremy Hunt is.Tiffany Stevenson, Monkey Barrel, 9.15pm

A cowboy asked me if I could help him round up 18 cows. I said, ‘Yes, of course, that’s 20 cows’.Jake Lambert, Pleasance Courtyard, 8.15pm

My new boyfriend told me he’s got my face as his wallpaper, which I thought was cute until I saw his lounge.Steff Todd, Just the Tonic @ The Caves, 2pm

As a Russian, I admire Jeremy Corbyn – he’s tough. The KGB could interrogate him for a week and still not find out what his position on Brexit is.Konstantin Kisin, Gilded Ballon, 7pm

Ivo Graham’s sixth show at the Edinburgh Fringe is about becoming a dad

I fully support the school strikers on climate change. I’m just annoyed that they didn’t call it the minors’ strike.Matt Winning, Pleasance Courtyard, 4.25pm

When applying for a job as an estate agent, the interviewer worried that my CV was a bit small. I said ‘actually it’s really cosy’ and I was immediately hired.Alex Kealy, Just the Tonic at the Caves, 6.40pm 

Did you know the word ‘Ikea’ is actually made up of two Swedish words? “Ika”, meaning “Sunday”, and “Keya”, meaning “f***ing ruined.”The Scummy Mummies, Assembly Rooms, 7.50pm

I won Jewish comedian of the year, my mum was judging, then again, she always does.Joe Bor, Laughing Horse @ The Lockup, Cowgate, 3.45pm

Some people think being working class is a negative thing but I think there’s loads of benefits. I’ve claimed them all.Kelly Convey, Pleasance Courtyard, 7.15pm

I got invited to a gender reveal party – when you invite all your friends over to find out the gender of your child and release pink balloons if it’s a girl or blue balloons if it’s going to earn more.Robin Morgan, The Pear Tree, 4.05pm

They say some people ‘inhale books’. I know someone who injects books right into his veins. Particularly ones with female protagonists. He’s a heroine addict.Izzy Mant, Underbelly Bristo Square, 2.50pm

Adam Hess: ‘It must be annoying for clocks that from their perspective their hands are moving anti-clockwise’ (Photo: Matt Crockett)

I know that Banksy’s my dad, because I never see him.Flo & Joan, Assembly George Square Gardens, 6pm

I tell my friends I’m here for them 24/7 because it sounds better than saying I’m only here for them on the 24th of July.Andy Field, Just the Tonic, 2.10pm

It must be annoying for clocks that from their perspective their hands are moving anti-clockwise.Adam Hess, Pleasance Courtyard, 7.15pm

With enough revs and determination any restaurant is a drive-thru. Tom Taylor, Pleasance Courtyard, 6pm

My name is Sukh, which is short for Sukhjeet, which is Sanskrit for you’re never going to find it on a fucking keyring in a gift shop.Sukh Ojla, Gilded Balloon, 5:15pm

I haven’t looked up the definition of hyperbole in, like, forever.Caitlin Cook, Just the Tonic at the Grassmarket Centre, 5.50pm

British people are like coconuts. Hard on the outside but sweet once you crack us. Also often found full of alcohol and holding an umbrella.Milo McCabe, Underbelly, 5.30pm

Catherine Bohart: ‘I suppose lesbian sex is a bit like cricket, in that it goes on forever and there’s a lot of men watching it at home, alone, on the internet’

I’m making a TV series about the different parts of my gas cooker – I’ve already filmed the pilot.Olaf Falafel, Laughing Horse @ The Pear Tree, 2.50pm

I’m pretty sure Jesus is Gay because every time I go to God’s house he’s got pictures of him on the wall with 12 hot guys having brunch.James Barr, Underbelly, 5.20pm

I suppose lesbian sex is a bit like cricket, in that it goes on forever and there’s a lot of men watching it at home, alone, on the internet. Catherine Bohart, Pleasance Courtyard, 6pm

I look the wrong way when crossing the road, so people think I just got back from Paris.Joe Sutherland, Banshee Labyrinth, 10:10pm

My dad is like a black James Bond: it’d be great to see him, but he’s unlikely to make an appearance.Alexander Fox, Pleasance Courtyard, 6pm

In Poirot you meet six really posh people, and you know one of them is going to be murdered. In real life, you rarely get such good odds.Alasdair Beckett-King, Pleasance Dome, 6.50pm 

In my show we won’t be using things like a Ouija Board. Or if you don’t speak French – a Yesja board.SÉAYONCÉ, Assembly George Square, 10.20pm 

Ahir Shah: ‘The Arab Spring was 8 years ago. I thought “How long can a crisis conceivably last?”, and then I looked at my own personal life and was like “Yeah, that makes sense”’

My girlfriend and I are saving up for a mortgage, but it isn’t going very well – because sadly, all of our grandparents are still alive. Matt Richardson, Just the Tonic at The Tron, 9pm

Devon, the county of the UK where you put the cream on the scone before voting Leave.Ivo Graham, Pleasance Courtyard, 7pm

I was living in my office for a while, until it failed its MOT.Jim Campbell, Just the Tonic at the Caves, 5.20pm

Scotland heckled Boris Johnson so badly he had to leave by the back door, like one of his mistresses.Grace Campbell, Gilded Balloon, 3.15pm; read i’s review here

I like to watch Love Your Garden when I have my tea and then True Crime before bed. I feel really confident about being able to bury a body and know what to plant on top of it.Lucy Beaumont, Pleasance Courtyard, 4.45pm  

Me and my partner were going to go on holiday to Norway this year but we costed it up and in the end we couldn’t af-fjord it. Tom Parry, Pleasance Courtyard, 6pm

The Arab Spring was 8 years ago. I thought “How long can a crisis conceivably last?”, and then I looked at my own personal life and was like “Yeah, that makes sense.”Ahir Shah, Monkey Barrel, 1.45pm

Behind every successful man is me, trying to get his attention.Lou Sanders, Monkey Barrel, 3.15pm; read i’s review of the show here

I find it quite ironic that erectile dysfunction is on the rise.Rob Auton, Assembly George Square, 2.50pm 

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Bài viết The 50 best jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2019's shows – and how to watch them all live – iNews đã xuất hiện đầu tiên vào ngày Funface.

from Funface https://funface.net/best-jokes/the-50-best-jokes-from-edinburgh-fringe-2019s-shows-and-how-to-watch-them-all-live-inews-2/

[anovel70]

My idea for a Season 5 Kim Possible

Episode 1: Goodbye Ron It’s summer. Ron hasn’t gotten accepted into any college, Kim can’t decide which college to go to. Yori appears and tells Ron that Master Sensei wants Ron to train as a ninja, and is the only path for him. He says goodbye to Kim. Wade gives Kim an improved battlesuit in person. He appears to want to say more, but they receive a call from Lucre, who wants to challenge her. Electronique reaches out to Frugal Lucre because she knows that Lucre has good technology skills. They try to get Drakken and Shego to join them. Drakken now wants to be called Drew Lipsky. Drew quit evil and is going to retire, but Frugal Lucre insists. Drew gives Lucre his laboratory, but this is not enough for them. Electronique tortures Drew to join and demands to know where Shego is. Electronique uses the Attitudinator to give Drew’s evil to Lucre. Kim comes in to save Drew. Frugal Lucre captures Kim and Drew and puts them in electrical chairs. Shego comes in to save Drew and Kim from Lucre because she left a box in his lair when she moved out. Kim’s battlesuit is also malfunctioning again from the electrical chairs.

Frugal Lucre turns blue and Drew turns white. Shego reveals she wants to do more evil, and if Drakken can’t give it to her, then she’ll find evil elsewhere.

At the end of the episode, the Great Blue is seen spying on Kim, happy that Kim and Ron are no longer a team.

Episode 2: Goodbye Wade Kim’s mother is talking to Kim about which college she wants to go to, and suggests Upperton University, where she went. Wade gets a job as Oren Door’s assistant, the software czar. He is leaving Jim and Tim in charge of Team Possible’s operations. Kim has to learn to accept to work with the Tweebs. Wade needs to realize his full potential, and Kim must accept this. Trouble finds Kim right away, as Lucre tries to sell Dr. Drakken’s mind control shampoo at Upperton University. This time, he has changed the label to Lucre’s Lotion, and he’s marketing to college students.

Kim saves the day, and Professor Professor welcomes Kim into the University and gives her an offer she can’t resist.

At the end of the episode, the Great Blue reveals that he was the one to send Wade away to break up the team.

Episode 3: Digging Up the Temple She wants to study neuroscience. Monique gives Kim new mission clothes and casual outfit. Monique reveals she is headed for New York City to study fashion. Kim realizes that all of her friends have moved on: Ron, Wade, and Monique. Yori tells Ron that DNAmy, Fukushima, and Bates plans on reviving Monkey Fist. While their intentions are good, they cannot risk awakening Yono again. Bates and DNAmy’s cuddle buddies are digging. Ron is having trouble tapping into his Mystical Monkey Powers to fight off the cuddle buddies. They trap Ron and Yori. They hit the top of the temple and Yono appears. However, Yono doesn’t want to revive Monkey Fist and needs more time to gather his strength before fighting again. He reveals that he has plans to destroy the world one day.

Ron decides to go back to Middleton and attend Upperton University with Kim to study math to become an actuary, like his father.

The Great Blue looks is upset that Kim and Ron reunion, but takes note of the Yono character.

Episode 4: The Mathematical Dimension Ron’s professor is Mather, who recognizes Ron and vows for revenge. To make matters worse, Gil is in Ron’s class. Kim finds out that neuroscience is all full, which means she has to study Child Development. In Kim’s college writing class, she finds out Bonnie is in her class. Ron opens his textbook and realizes he needs to study a lot. He tries to convince Kim to get zapped by the smart machine, but Kim disapproves and tutors him again.

Kim discovers that the Mather has the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer and comes to Ron’s class to warn him about it. The Mather locks the door and sucks the class into mathematical abstraction using his calculator. Ron must use his math knowledge to destroy Mather into abstraction. The class escapes the calculator.

Kim gives Hego the calculator and tells her that the Mather is inside. Shego is there and reveals she has moved into the Team Go Tower because she has no where else to go. She is seen wearing her new outfit, and remarks how she can beat Kim in style and in fighting, and they have a fight.

This is Kim and Shego's first fight this season. A new battle music is created, representing Shego's old battle theme and incorporating new elements that make it more ominous sounding.

Episode 5: Merging Bodies Shego is working for DNAmy. DNAmy accidently combines Kim and Shego into one person. Ron and Rufus are also merged. They fight Gil, who can now morph into a mutant at will.

Kim and Shego can read each other’s thoughts. They looked into cheerleading, child development, and dealing with annoying brothers. Kim tries to enter Shego’s fears while Shego is sleeping, but Shego wakes and tells Kim that she is aware that Kim is trying to read her thoughts. One strong scene was they share was at the end of So the Drama. Kim felt the pain Shego went through and she starts to cry seeing Shego like that. It never occurred to Kim that she would actually kill Shego. Shego realizes that Kim is reading her thoughts and stops her. Kim also realizes that Shego was trying to destroy Hank’s cupcake factory in Odds Man In because she thought it was a stupid idea. Shego looks through all the times Kim has exploded a villain’s lair and left them there to die.

Once everyone is unmerged, Shego says, “Kim, being merged with you made me realize that there is more bad in you than you know. Kim replies, “Shego, thanks for your lessons and life experiences. I like the last thing you said: there’s more good in you than you know.” Shego appears surprised and says, “Until next time, Kimmie”

At the end, the Great Blue agrees with Shego that Kim is more bad than she thinks.

Instead of being expelled, Miss Guide is hired to watch Gil to make sure he does not cause any trouble. Shego quits working for DNAmy, who now has a no merging clause in addition to the no cloning clause.

Episode 6: Ron is trying to find his athletic replacement for football. A major robbery at the X games takes place. Vinnie Wheeler calls Kim for help. The top three suspects are Senor Senior Senior, Adrena Lynn, and Motor Ed. Kim interrogates the three suspects. She realizes that she'll have to compete against the three in order to get useful information. Motor Ed hits on Adrena. At the end of the competition, Vinnie accuses Senor and has him captured to watch the final round of the X games, featuring Kim and Adrena.

It turns out Adrena robbed everyone, and tries to get away. Senior stops her because he is mad at her, but ends up near dead in the chase. Motor Ed chases after her. It turns out Vinnie and Adrena faked the whole sitch to endanger Kim. Vinnie Wheeler ends up arrested and his companies all go bankrupt. Nana Possible is getting sick too.

Episode 7: Dying Wish Junior is upset that his father is dead and has a funeral. Bonnie is sad as well. His father left a will with (the bad guy that stole all their money) Junior follows his father’s will and is now striving to be a pop star.

Nana Possible says her last words to the Possibles and she dies. Her last words are, “Remember Kimmie, anything is possible for a Possible.”

The rest of the episode focuses on the characters’ reactions to these deaths.

Shego helps Junior kidnap Paula Pandouty, who is forced to interview Junior and get him some recognition. Kim fights Shego, and learns that Senior is dead, and tells them that Nana is dead as well. Shego remembers mind controlling Nana and now feels bad. Shego comes over to Kim’s newly built house (it was destroyed in Graduation) and tells Kim she made lemon squares for her.

Episode 8: Island Auction Every evil villain has their eyes on Senior’s island, which is now abandoned. Jack Hench and Hank Perkins offers it to the highest bidder, meeting on the island. Every villain is stealing something valuable that has been mentioned in the show before, wearing Kim out. Shego is the one getting these items with the promise of getting paid. When Gemini orders the capture of Ron Stoppable, Kim is dragged into the auction. Jack captures Kim and it looks like Kim is about to die. Team Go ends up saving her, but Shego denies she had anything to do with it.

Duff Killigan – Centurion Project Professor Dementor – Counter Electrodynamic Concentrator from Bonding Lucre and Electronique – the improved Attitudinator “why would I want something I created?” DNAmy – Geome thing, Monkey Amulet Adrena Lynn – her dialog uses the word “freaky” and “what will she do next?” too much Motor Ed –  Turbonic Charger Valve (it’s actually a fake) “What do you mean you want me to open it? seriously!” Jack: “You didn’t get Shego to steal this for you, did you.” Motor Ed: “The babe didn’t want to help me. I was against the odds, seriously!” Summer Gail – weather machine Gemini – Kinetic Modulator from Bonding Embarrassment Ninjas – a variety of prank items

The Great Blue can be seen at the end of the episode. “Kim Possible defeats all the villains in one small place. She is a remarkable foe. I will be the first to defeat her once and for all.”

Episode 9: Camille Leon wants to buy the most expensive diamond in the world (from Ron Millionaire) to prove that she is still a respectable celebrity. Camille Leon and the Fashionistas tries to rob the five richest people in the world: Papa Porter, Oren Door, Paula Pandouty, Martin Smarty, Falsetto Jones (since Senior’s death).

Episode 10a: Fashion is being stolen from many places. All roads lead to the Middleton Sewers, where Big Daddy Brotherson is seen. Kim asks Big Daddy Brotherson who is doing it. She bribes him with tickets to UU’s concert (starring Junior). Shego and Camille face off in a fashion show, which they stole.

Episode 10b: The Rich Ron Ned (who’s now working at Bueno Nacho in Upperton) gives Ron another paycheck for his Naco royalty. This time, it’s considerably less. Ron uses it wisely this time and spends it on the next four years of college for himself and Kim, and puts some money away in the bank.

Duff Killigan golfs on the Prince of Rodeghan’s property. Ron pays Duff and the Knights of Rodeghan to leave the prince alone after Kim, Killigan, and the knights fight. Duff Killigan, with his new money, hires the Knights of Rodeghan as his new henchmen and invites them to live on his island.

Episode 11: Retiring Drakken Drakken is at an evil retirement center, where retired villains go. Aviarius is also there and talks to Drakken. Drakken is bored of being roommates with Aviarius so he calls Shego. Shego won’t pick up Drakken’s phone. Drakken has nowhere to go. Frugal Lucre comes in and convinces him to be evil again. He proposes a plan to Drakken. Drakken sees that his plan is a good plan, but cannot allow Lucre to be victorious at something he failed at doing. Drakken stops Frugal Lucre. Kim and Ron arrives and finds Drakken already defeated Lucre. They take Drakken home. Drakken ends up working with Bob Chen, his old college friend.

The great blue sees the ending of this episode.

Episode 12: The Proposal Drakken reveals he wants to propose to Shego to Kim and Ron. He misses her greatly. However, Shego is still bad and Drakken is good. Kim recalls being trapped in Shego’s body and knows that Shego wants to be with Drakken too. However, she promised Shego not to tell anyone about anything Kim may have seen.

Shego is seen with Camille Leon and the Fashionistas stealing clothes. It turns out they became good friends. Kim and Shego fight. Drakken and Shego are engaged at the end of the episode. Commodore Puddles is holding the ring, and this time, he is blue, since Commodore Puddles changes color every episode.

Episode 13: Morphing Lucre Lucre kidnaps Camille and forces her to reveal where she got her morphing powers from. Lucre steals this but keeps Camille captive. The Fashionistas call Kim for help. They visit Dr. Beaufox, who comes up with an antiserum. Lucre loses his morphing powers, but Camille gets away before she is treated with the antiserum. The Fashionistas helped her get away.

The Great Blue is revealed to have morphing powers as well, and claims that he could morph into Lucre to his advantage.

Episode 14a: Super Suit Battle Professor Dementor has the Centurion Project and battles Kim with her supersuit.

Episode 14b: Ron’s parents hires Nanny Maim for Hana. Nanny Maim wants to get revenge on Kim and Ron by turning them into babies. The twins get turned into babies instead

Episode 15: Global Justice vs WWEE Kim is learning about the Cold War in class. She gets summoned to Global Justice to learn that Gemini is launching his next world domination plan.

Gemini is going through applicants to be Agent Alpha, such as Falsetto Jones, Aviarius, and Brick Flagg. He eventually settles on Jackie, who can turn into a jackal. Gemini has Dr. Fen, Chester Yapsby, and Hank Perkins working for him to create Giant Robotic Cockroaches at a good cost.

Pepe and Rufus fight. Professor Acari, Vivian, and James Possible creates a giant magnet in outer space to get rid of the cockroaches, but that doesn’t work. Dr. Fen’s robotic design flaws eventually backfired as Jim and Tim are able to spot something obvious that can easily defeat the robots.

The Great Blue comments on how Kim was able to save the world from WWEE, so he needs to be stronger. He appears to go back to Lorwardia.

Episode 16: Thanksgiving Kim and Ron are stressing over fall semester finals through Thanksgiving. Justine Flanner and Vivian contact Kim and tell her that the Kinematic Continuum disrupter has been stolen, and that the dragon from Partners may be released. It turns out Gemini stole it. Kim with her battle suit must fight the dragon.

Episode 17 and 18: The Blue Wedding Kim gets a call from Agent Smith from Area 51. Electronique is turned into pure electricity to help Lucre, destroying her in the process, the Bebe robots are now super charged. Lucre reveals himself to be the Great Blue who shapeshifted into Lucre. It turns out that Lucre was captured by the Great Blue. The Bebe robots attack the world.

Professor Acari and Chester Yapsby suggest using the cockroaches to help battle the Bebe robots. Drakken uses his Destructobots, but they end up destroyed. Felix’s wheelchair joins the battle.

In the next phase, the Diablo toys are brought back. Drakken comes up with the antisignal to combat the Great Blue.

When all the Bebes are destroyed, the Great Blue reveals he has the Electron Magneto Accelerator from Emotion Sickness. He may have lost today, but he’ll be back. Shego endorses Kim, saying, “She’s Kim Possible. Anything is possible for Kim Possible.”

Drakken and Shego get married at the end, where it starts to snow (Summer Gail's weather machine may be involved). Lucre turns white again and works for Oren Door and Wade to improve cyber security. Professor Dementor tells Drakken that he has stolen the Pan Dimensional Vortex Inducer again because it needs to be kept away from the Electron Magneto Accelerator, which Cyrus Bortel claims he has lost. Dementor also asks why Drakken's skin is white, and before Drakken can answer, the credits roll.