Superhero Cakes

So, I was in Dunkin’ Donuts today, and I noticed that DD is offering a quartet of superhero-themed cakes, two featuring Spider-Man

And a pair featuring Batman.

So, I'm thinking that with Father’s Day and My Birthday both still happen this year, Someone is going to deserve a couple of Spidey Cakes soon.

Seriously, You call this writing?

OK, so I realize that today everyone is either talking about DC Rebirth or the fact that (apparently) Captain America has been an agent of Hydra all these decades since his inception, but personally, I'm still stuck on this issue of Batman 52 (which frankly I'm still not entirely sure is Batman from the New 52, Batman #52 or simply Batman 52 (the indicia wasn't all that clear to me).

In any event, it really doesn't actually matter, because with the frequency with which comicbook series are rebooted, renumbered, and reimagined, none of that (unfortunately) really has no actual value — in fact we’re really surprised that comicbook companies don’t simply just call a spade a spade and call each and every comic published issue #1 — but, like peter David, I digress.

Leaving that all behind for the time being, we’d like to focus on the story, only there really doesn’t appear to be much of one in this issue, because what we have is yet another re-telling of the origin of Batman. The frequency of which comicbooks are rebooted and origins retold, it is no wonder why every time there is a film made about one of our four-color heroes that the filmmakers feel that they need to include an origin story.

Well, at any rate, the story involves a thief named Crypsis who has a hi-tech suit that allows him to phase through walls. turns out that Crypsis is looking to steal something of immense value belonging to Bruce Wayne, so Crypsis  breaks into some guy’s office to steal a key that is to the safety deposit box where this item is stored. So, Crypsis breaks into the guy’s place, steals the key, then breaks into the bank, and uses the key to open the box to steal the item; which then sets up the fight between him and Batman.

We really just have one question. If the suit allows Crypsis to phase through walls, then why did he need the key? Couldn’t he just have phased through the safety deposit box? We call this bad writing.

Want to know what else we call bad writing? This week on Arrow was the final showdown between Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) and (Neal McDonough) — no, we’re not going to give away any spoilers — during the confrontation, Green Arrow fires an arrow at Darhk winging him, and putting a nice scar on his cheek. Now while we don't quite understand how the greatest marksman in the world could miss a stationary target standing like 20' in front of him, but the story never addresses that standing like 20' behind Darhk, there is a tightly-packed mob of civilians and the arrow apparently didn’t hit any of them either.

Next Arrow’s superhero friends show up to help and Darhk calls upon his own hoard of minions and a great big brawl erupts, which is interesting because every other time this goon squad shows up they were touting automatic weapons, which makes you wonder why they didn’t bring their this time as well.

Again, bad writing. There’s more in this episode, but we’re already exhausted, so we’ll leave it at that for now.

Munster Memories

Back in 2014 I contributed to Butch Patrick's coffee table book, Munster Memories. Well, just today I finally got my contributor's copy to the book (Thanks, Rich!). 

Butch Patrick's "Coffin Table" book

Here you can see my name in the credits and as author of the two articles that I penned.