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Olivia finds something cool!

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They're Loving It

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This movie, and over all series, deserves better. It's genuinely great, to bad it flopped at the box office.

10/10, go watch now.

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Pre 2015 mcu- what a time to have lived

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I really like the recent trend in DC comics to introduce costumed supervillains dedicated to the logistics of operating as a villain in the world

Here's a few recent ones from DC: The Designer, the Underbroker, and the Executor. The Designer's a real underrated favorite of mine, and purports to design traps and schemes for other villains; the Underbroker is a lawyer who operates a secret bank for supervillains to fund their operations and store their loot, and the Executor is a robot lawyer employed by the Underbroker that helps manage the estates and wills of criminals

I just think these are super fun! Works that deconstruct the unseen efforts to operate a fantastical setting are really interesting to me, and it helps that these villains are still colorful and distinctive instead of just edgy

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Does Galactus also have a thing for Death?

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Jo, Martha and Clara should form a “had to deal with the doctor and the master’s shit” club.

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Guys, Kara has plenty of powers. Let's not add one on that's an old sexist stereotype! Action Comics 339

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Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Derek Powers 

A corporate shark of the highest order, Derek Powers would stop at nothing to become the most successful businessman out there.  He ran Powers Technology and attempted on numerous occasions to take over Wayne Enterprises.  Bruce Wayne had long since stepped away from the company and once Luscious Fox retired, Powers finally had the votes needed to orchestrate a merger, creating the conglomerate, Wayne-Powers with Powers himself as the chief executive officer.  

Wayne-Powers would go on to branch into multiple fields, absorbing numerous smaller companies and making Powers incredibly wealthy and powerful.  

In his unhinged efforts to augment his wishes and influences, Powers began to focus on weapons manufacturing, specifically biological agents to be sold to overseas entities.  Herein, Powers had his scientists cultivate a deadly, mutagenic nerve toxin.  In order to test this toxin, Powers arranged for an employee to be infected, making it look like an accidental leak.

Dying from the infection, the employee managed to smuggle out information on what Powers was up to, passing it along to Warren McGinnis.  Powers was aware that McGinnis had this information and he had his agent murder McGinnis and stage the scene so that it appeared a random crime perpetrated by the street gang known as The Jokerz.  

Warren’s teenage son, Terry, looked into his father’s murder, an investigation that ultimately led him to Bruce Wayne and resulted in the youth taking on the mantle of the new Batman.  As Batman, Terry was able to break up Powers’ scheme and prevent the sale of the biological weapon.  In the ensuing fracas, Powers was exposed to a lethal dosage of the nerve toxin.

Powers was rushed into treatment and bombarded with mutagenic radiation in hopes of counteracting the toxin.  The process succeeded in saving Powers life yet left him gravely transformed.  He was changed into a living dynamo of radioactivity with translucent skin.   Somehow he was able to evade prosecution and remained the CEO of Wayne-Powers.  Yet his condition continued to worsen and his efforts to reverse it all failed.  He slowly descended into madness and the super villain known as Blight.

Actor Sherman Howard provided the voice for Derek Powers, with the nemesis first appearing in the debut episode of Batman Beyond.   

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MST3K's most wanted

I've been organizing my Mystery Science Theater 3000 collection, so I've become preoccupied with the handful of episodes that are not easily available, and the reasons why. In case in anyone else is interested, I thought I'd share what I've learned.

For our purposes we'll be focusing on the ten seasons that aired on cable, from 1989 to 1999. With the post-2017 episodes, it's trivial to purchase them on home video or streaming. And the pre-cable stuff, from KTMA, is widely available as bootleg footage, which is probably about as good as you're ever going to get. But the episodes from the cable era have been notoriously difficult to re-release, and require special attention.

Of the 176 MST3K episodes that aired on cable, 166 have been released on home video, and 145 are available for streaming/download on the Gizmoplex. As someone who's been trying to collect the whole series since the 1990s, I think that's pretty impressive. But there are 40 episodes that have been particularly tricky. Let's take a look, won't you?

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but never on home video (1):

913 - Quest of the Delta Knights

As I understand it, nobody was sure who owned the rights to this movie, or how to contact them, for years. The situation has only recently been cleared up, perhaps too late for a DVD release.

Currently available on the Gizmoplex, but out of print on home video (8):

203 - Jungle Goddess

317 - Viking Women and the Sea Serpent

319 - War of the Colossal Beast

510 - The Painted Hills

619 - Red Zone Cuba

806 - The Undead

808 - The She-Creature

912 - The Screaming Skull

It looks like all of these went out of print due to being on a set where a different episode's rights expired. Theoretically Shout Factory could re-release any of them in a "Lost and Found" set, but that may not be cost-effective as people move away from collecting physical media.

Currently available on home video and MST3K's official YouTube, but not on the Gizmoplex (1):

615 - Kitten with a Whip (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

Kitten is one of the Universal movies that could only be licensed for physical media. And yet, it's the only one I can find on the official YouTube channel. Beats me why that is.

Currently available on home video, but not on the Gizmoplex (16):

401 - Space Travelers (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

522 - Teen-Age Crime Wave (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

524 - 12 to the Moon (Vol. 35 DVD, 2016)

601 - Girls Town (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

605 - Colossus and the Headhunters (Vol. 38 DVD, 2017)

614 - San Francisco International (Vol. 32 DVD, 2015)

704 - The Incredible Melting Man (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

801 - Revenge of the Creature (Vol. 25 DVD, 2012)

802 - The Leech Woman (25th Anniversary Edition DVD, 2013)

803 - The Mole People (Vol. 26 DVD, 2013)

804 - The Deadly Mantis (Vol. 27 DVD, 2013)

805 - The Thing That Couldn't Die (Vol. 29 DVD, 2013)

814 - Riding With Death (Vol. 36 DVD, 2016)

815 - Agent for H.A.R.M (Vol. 33 DVD, 2015)

901 - The Projected Man (Vol. 30 DVD, 2014)

1013 - Diabolik (Vol. 39 DVD, 2017)

I was able to find the DVD sets listed above on Shout Factory's website. As far as I know, they'll remain in print for the foreseeable future, but there's no way to know how long that will last.

The general pattern with these episodes is that the movies are owned by major studios that would only license them for physical media. Columbia owns Teen-Age Crime Wave and 12 to the Moon. MGM owns Girls Town and The Incredible Melting Man. Paramount owns Diabolik. But the big player here is Universal, which controls the rights to Space Travelers, San Francisco International, Revenge of the Creature, Leech Woman, Mole People, Deadly Mantis, Thing That Couldn't Die, Riding With Death, Agent for H.A.R.M., and Projected Man.

The odd man out here is Colossus and the Headhunters; I can't find any info on who owns the rights to this film, which may be part of the problem.

The real hard cases, the stickiest of wickets, are below...

Released on home video, but now out of print (5):

212 - Godzilla vs. Megalon (Vol. 10 DVD, 2006)

309 - The Amazing Colossal Man (VHS, 1996)

910 - The Final Sacrifice (Vol. 17 DVD, 2010)

1001 - Soultaker (Vol. 14 DVD, 2009)

1012 - Squirm (Turkey Day Collection DVD, 2014)

Megalon and Colossal Man were both recalled when rights issues came up after they were released. Oops. These were produced by Rhino, back before Shout Factory took over.

The Final Sacrifice is particularly tough to find, even unofficially, because director Tjardus Greidanus is very aggressive about tracking down download links. I always figured someone was similarly possessive of Soultaker, since it's clearly a passion project, but that's purely my speculation.

The Turkey Day DVD set is still available on Amazon at a reasonable price, so Squirm is still relatively accessible for now.

Never released on home video or streaming (9):

201 - Rocketship X-M

213 - Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

311 - It Conquered the World

416 - Fire Maidens of Outer Space

418 - Attack of the the Eye Creatures

807 - Terror from the Year 5000

809 - I was a Teenage Werewolf

905 - The Deadly Bees

906 - The Space Children

In 2017, Shout released its final (?) MST3K DVD collection, which included Satellite Dishes, a compilation of host segments from episodes that "may never get a legitimate release." This included the nine listed above, as well as The Amazing Colossal Man and Quest for the Delta Knights. Of course, Delta Knights eventually got a digital-only release, which is cause for a glimmer of hope. But the others are probably tougher nuts to crack.

Wade Williams owned the rights to Rocketship X-M and had a particular sentimental attachment to the film. His death in 2023 may make it easier to negotiate with his estate, but I wouldn't count on that being a swift process.

Godzilla vs. Megalon and Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster are part of a prestigious franchise, and it's remarkable MST3K got away with riffing on Godzilla movies in the first place. I get the impression that Japanese culture doesn't particularly appreciate the sort of mockery MST3K is known for, so the rights to these two movies may be a long, long shot. Then again I used to think there was no hope of for the Gamera episodes too.

Fire Maidens, Deadly Bees, and Space Children are owned by Olive Films, and currently licensed to Paramount. It's possible a deal can be made later on, but not until the current arrangement expires.

The major bugbear for MST3K fandom is Susan Hart, the widow of American International Pictures co-founder James Nicholson. One way or another the AIP catalog was split up and Hart laid claim to several of their films, including Amazing Colossal Man, It Conquered the World, Eye Creatures, Terror from the Year 5000, and Teenage Werewolf. Hart's price for licensing her movies is very high, and it seems Shout has given up negotiating with her. I suppose the situation could change when she passes away, but I'd feel rather silly hoping for an old woman to die just so I can pay 8 bucks to watch robots laugh at a werewolf movie.

In conclusion, I've already purchased all the movies available on the Gizmoplex (I got most of them in a Kickstarter reward package), and the 31 that aren't available there can be obtained by, ahem, other means. So it's a great time to be an MST3K fan, and I'm still amazed how easy it is to watch the show nowadays.

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A preview of Vengeance of the Moon Knight #5

VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #5

CRY FOR THE MOON! For the new and vengeful Moon Knight, taking Marc Spector’s name isn’t enough — as he now turns his sights (AND FISTS) on everything Marc held dear in life!

LEGACY #235

Written by: Jed MacKay Art by: Alessandro Cappuccio Cover by: Davide Paratore Page Count: 28 Pages Release Date: May 1, 2024

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LESS THAN TWO HOURS AGO: four cornell students have been suspended (and at least the one reporting was evicted, unknown about the others) for their involvement with their campus's gaza solidarity encampment. during a school year centering freedom of expression no less!

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Like, I understand the third Toyman is allegedly more heroic, but it hurts me that they used this secret identity for one of the few Autistic superheroes. Not just because “toy equals childish equals Autism” but just, the name feels loaded in a very gross way. But I could be wrong, the wikia doesn’t mention he’s Autistic so it’s possible I misremembered something I overheard from dc fans.

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Toyman

Winslow Schott Sr. had been a kindly and ingenious toymaker who dreamed of building a magnificent toy factory. Bruno Mannheim offered to finance the factory, yet once it was built it became clear that Mannheim was a mobster and only wanted the factory as a front to launder funds from his criminal operations.  The factory was later raided by the police and while Mannheim was able to skirt responsibility, Schott was sentenced to a long prison term and ended up dying while incarcerated.

Schott’s son, Winslow Jr. ended up remained to foster care and spent the next several years passed from one foster home to another.  When he reached adulthood, Winslow Jr. had become obsessed with ‘reclaiming’ his lost childhood, so he created a childlike persona for himself. He inherited his father's mechanical acumen yet the ‘toys’ he created were actually sophisticated and deadly weapons disguised to look like harmless playthings.  

Now calling himself The Toyman, Schott returned to Metropolis.  Sporting a ghoulish porcelain mask resembling a grinning child, The Toyman set about a plot to use his deadly toys to extract murderous vengeance on Bruno Mannheim.  Toyman had little regard for any innocent victims that might get caught in the mayhem and Superman thwarted Toyman’s initial efforts to kill Mannheim.  After Lois Lane wrote an unflattering exposé on The Toyman, the villain had his toys kidnap her so that he could have the reporter hear his side of the story.

Superman was able to track Lois down and saved her from The Toyman.  The villain appeared to perish in the ensuing chaos, but it would not be long before he turned up once again.  Mannheim had died in the service of Darkseid and now Toyman focused himself entirely on gaining vengeance on Superman.  He joined the Superman Revenge Squad and later accepted membership in Gorilla Grodd’s Legion of Doom.  

Actors Bud Cort and Corey Burton provided the voice for The Toyman with the creep of a villain first appearing in the fourth episode of the first season of Superman: The Animated Series, ‘Fun and Games.’  

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When you order the "Deluxe Chef's Special with fries and a milkshake" one minute before closing.

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Saw a post about how since Ranger Academy is POSSIBLY tying into Darkest Hour with Dark Specter threatening the Academy, it would be cool if The Return was a part of it too - which would be kind of fun, though it would end the event early because Returnverse!Kim would simply beat Mistress Vile and Dark Specter to death with hammers if they threatened to turn Olivia evil

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Damn :/