Matt K

That's go to be coming pretty soon. There's only 26 episodes left and there's one more arc left so I think we can't have too many episodes left in the Chimera Ant arc, especially with Netero dead.

This week we go the final battle between Netero and Meruem. Netero loosed his right leg and left arm which are the two limbs he used when sparing with Gon and Killua (he had purposfully not used his left leg and right arm during the sparing). Then we get to see Netero's trump card as he sets off a bomb by stopping his own heart. From the narration it sounds like it might be nuclear since the narrator used the term fallout. I guess we'll see if Meruem survives this as well. Overall a great fight, I like how it showed how Netero was both incredibly powerful but at the same time outclassed. Which is a difficult thing to show. I also liked how in the end Netero's shot of beating Meruem wasn't some fancy nen technique but a conventional human weapon that anyone could use.

This week we get to follow up on some of the other students (but mainly Froppy). The villian that Froppy goes up against is unsurprisingly called Innsmouth. This is also an anime only story but what I love about the show is that when they do a "filler" episode (the clip show episodes don't count) it is used to follow some of the other students which nicely fleshes out the supporting cast. Also wanted to point out that Todoroki only had a few lines total in the entirety of season 1. It's funny how quickly he steps up to be one of the main characters this season.

We even go the fishbowl. Really looking forward to this movie, plus it has Venice which is always a treat (I was there a couple years ago so it's fun to see if I can spot familiar locations).

I'm sad that Boo again is out of the tournament. They only time we've gotten to see him fight post Boo arc is the exhibition match. I was really looking forward to seeing him in the free for all.

For Meglo Box, they apparently animated the show like normal but then lowered the resolution to make it look like a Cowboy Bebop era show. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet but I had generally heard good things about the show. Also, Dragon Ball Z Kai is still going to air Saturday nights. It's just on at 8pm now (continuing from where it left off pre-Xmas with Goku vs Vegita) during the CN-AS transition. They're also showing a repeat of the last episode of Super at 8:30.

Well that sucks. With the current schedule I was watching until 11pm (with Boruto) and dvr'ing the rest. For the new schedule I'm probably going to have to DVR all my shows. It's funny because I was saying that having Shippuden on before Boruto was a bad idea. It's also funny that again Dragon Ball Z (Kai) will be ending before I get to watch the whole thing again (this time before we even get to Frieza). On the plus side it looks like Funimation will be streaming Kai sometime soon so I'll have to pick back up with that.

I really hope they go the Black Panther route with Shang-Chi and have an all Asian or nearly entirely Asian cast (I guess that'd be the Crazy Rich Asians route in this case). It'd be great if they could go pretty authentic and get mostly people of Chinese descent but I'll take what I can get. I would also love to see Ming-Na Wen in this, if this takes place in the past she can be a Shield Agent and they wouldn't even need to digitally de-age her to pull it off.

I really loved the trailer. The actual Captain Marvel suit look really good (I've never been a fan of the Mohawk helmet but whatever). I'm liking what they're doing with her origins. I don't think going with her comic origins would really work as it becomes a little too complicated if they skip her origins and if they didn't then she wouldn't even be Captain Marvel until the end. This way, they keep where her powers come from intact (she got her human DNA mixed with Kree), while opening up some really good story possibilities especially if the Supreme Intelligence is involved (in fact I wonder if he might mastermind whatever the next overarching story line is). As I have two cats of my own, I love Fury's interaction with Goose but it's possible he's just good with animals in general (so he'd be the same way with a dog as well).

I'm really looking forward to a Shang-Chi film. He's a good character with a great hook and he also gets around the Iron Fist/Danny Rand issue. I wouldn't even bother trying to strongly tie it into the MCU since the story should stand up on its own. Plus I've been waiting for a good Marvel martial arts movie forever. I'm assuming they can't use Fu Manchu as his dad which is probably for the best although an Agents of Atlas twist would be fun if they went that direction. Which reminds me, I'd love to see Jimmy Woo show up as Shang-Chi's contact (and then maybe we can actually get an Agents of Atlas movie).

I believe that's true that Disney has the tv rights to Spider-Man. They also have the merchandising rights which is why ASM2 did so poorly. Each Sony Spider-man movie has to be a hit in and of itself as they get no cut of the related toys, clothing, etc.

So apparently the movie kind of flopped in the US as its greatly under performing. It's looking at making X-Men: Apocalypse or Justice League money which is not good (especially as JL killed it franchise and X-Men killed any interest in its next movie). It did well enough internationally so I figure we're getting movie 3 (although maybe not 4 & 5 if 3 does as poorly) but I have to imagine that there's going to be a pretty big shakeup for the next movie. I'm wondering if they'll just pair it down to a trilogy or just ignore this movie and focus back on Newt as a crypto-zoologist. Really though, leave it to Warner Brothers to ruin another franchise. Between DC movies and The Hobbit trilogy they have a pretty crappy track record.

So this arc has the ending that's easily my favorite of the series. It has nothing to do with the plot but I love the D&D incarnation of the main characters. Deku as the RPG hero, Iida as a knight, Uraraka as a mage and Bakugo as the barbarian. Seems very fitting. We also get to meet Best Jeanist who's a favorite of mine (he's the number 4 hero). It's nice to see a character who's considered one of the best because he's worked so hard on his power to essentially take a pretty weak power and make it so strong. Also this week Deku gets his big powerup as he can now use 5% of his power at will. It's nice that Deku will be able to use his power and not hurt himself every time as that was getting pretty old.

So apparently Buzzr is on Twitch and their channel runs 24/7. I have legacy ad-free viewing so I'm not getting any commercials and there are no ad breaks (so I have no idea when they run ads).

It's odd that tonight we get a AoT marathon (although it still starts with DBZ Kai) and next Saturday we get new episodes. Seems like it should have been vice-versa.

On a more positive note, this article features some short memories of Stan from other comic professionals. http://atomicjunkshop.com/memories-of-stan-lee-1922-2018/

Stan really was the godfather of the modern super-powered genre. Marvel's style (which Stan had a huge hand in) of making the characters act like real human beings really did change the whole genre. It's not just the traditional superhero media like say Arrow or LoT or Marvel's Netflix outings but things like Charmed, Buffy/Angel or books like Dresden Files and even anime/manga like Fullmetal Alchemist or Evangelion (to give a few examples) all embraced the idea of using super-powers (which I'm including things like Mechas) as a back drop for telling stories about people (and honestly, I feel even modern DC characters like Batman owes a debt to this idea as well same with New Teen Titans and Constantine for a few examples). It's nice that the MCU continued this tradition. I feel the real reason the MCU is so popular is because the characters come first. I may think Thor 2 was a bad movie but those Thor-Loki scenes made it worth seeing. And Avengers only really works due to the interactions between Banner, Thor, Cap and Iron Man. Stan probably wasn't the only one pushing Marvel in this direction but he definitely was the one publicizing this type of storytelling. And his impact on modern fiction is huge.

I'm hoping Part 5 is good because so far I've only really liked the even numbers (Parts 2 and 4). I really hope they do Part 6 when we get Jolyne. Also it would be a nice cap for the series as Part 6 is also the last of the mainline continuity.

Honestly, I'm now really looking forward to this movie. That mashup is one of the big reasons why.

So this week they pick out hero names. I kind of wish when "Alien Queen" didn't work she'd at least try Acid Queen. Of course Bakugo goes with "King Explosion Murder". Unsurprisingly he's the only one without an approved hero name. Also we kind of meet Grand Torino who Deku with be interning with.

Apparently this means we're almost certainly getting 4 seasons then. I've been really enjoying the show so far so this is just good news for me.

B5 had a terrible first and last season but an amazing middle. I'd say B5 had more high point but the bad episodes were absolutely terrible (and there's essentially two seasons of almost exclusively bad episodes). DS9 had a some very good episodes and even the bad episodes weren't that bad (they were mostly enjoyable). In the end I much prefer DS9 because of the more consistent quality. Also DS9 did a better job of fleshing out not just the major characters but also a number of minor characters too.

So we get Bakugo vs Todaroki. It's nice to see that Bakugo is actually a very intelligent fighter. It's easy to forget since he's a dick and constantly berates Deku for being a nerd.

I have the 1995 VHS edition (where they cleaned up the transfer but didn't add anything) in my basement and a working VHS player (at least as of when I last checked which was a few years ago).

The Muppet Babies was the very first Star Wars related thing I ever saw. I actually never watched any of Star Wars until 1995 but I did see Spaceballs years earlier.