Comic Report: RoboCop Versus The Terminator

Crossovers in media only serves to brings fans of two franchises the chance to see those characters get together. It’s more often than not just for fans and is rarely (although it’s happened) canon to either continuity. There’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion. I like seeing some of my favorite characters team up…although usually it’s more like fighting, THEN team up. That I don’t like.

RoboCop Versus The Terminator is a different story. Although Arnold plays a reprogrammed-to-be-good Terminator in two out of three movies we’ll always know them as soulless killing machine out to wipe out the human race. Meanwhile, RoboCop is always a huge force for good and justice in the world, the “future of law enforcement”. This is one of those franchises (like anyone who fights the aliens from Alien or the hunters from Predator…or when they fight each other) where you’d expect to see the hero of one franchise face the villain of the other.

The version I have is a trade collection by Diamond Comics as part of their special “Star System” catalog. It collects the four-issue miniseries into one book. Here I’ll be reviewing the book, but links to the individual issues, with spoilers, will appear at the end of the review.

1/4th the man he used to be.

RoboCop Versus The Terminator

FORMAT: comic/trade paperback graphic novel

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics (1992), collected by Diamond Comic Distributors as part of the Star System

WRITER: Frank Miller

ARTIST: Walter Simonson

COLORISTS: Rachelle Menashe & Steve Oliff

EDITOR: Randy Stradley

SPECIAL THANKS: Arthur Adams, Gracine Tanaka, Adam Hughes, Lynn Varley, Ruth Salisbury, & John Byrne

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CD Report: Godzilla audio drama

With the new Godzilla movie hitting theaters I thought this would be a good time to go over some more Godzilla merchandise in my collection. I’ve never really discussed my music collection or my audio dramas. I love a good audio drama. There are limitations due to no video they have to get across and it’s interesting to see what they can pull off.

In the 1970s, after the original series of Godzilla movies had finished, Wonderland Records produced a record with two audio dramas featuring the King Of The Monsters. In 1997, as Tri-Star and Roland Emmierch were releasing the previous attempt as an American Godzilla movie (and kind of failed at it) Drive Entertainment found and re-released the stories on DVD along with some “dance” remixes featuring audio from the dramas and an original theme that also gets a “clean” track. The music to be honest wasn’t all that great, but at least they didn’t damage my ears. So let’s ignore them and talk about the two stories.

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters

FORMAT: CD

ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: Wonderland Records

RE-PUBLISHER: Drive Entertainment (under “Drive Golden” label)

Stories produced by Cinema Sound Ltd./Bonita Claudian & Box Goemann

Music produced and mixed by Gomi, courtesy of Pagoda Entertainment

Reissue producer: Stephen Powers

Repackage Design: Victoria Podolski

Production Coordinator: Priscilla Sanchez

Digital remastering by Mixed Nuts, N.Y.C

No credits given for the cast or original creators although I recognize a voice or two.

Comic Report: Teen Titans PSA

 

Well, this stinks. I was hoping to finally have another Video Game Clutter episode done, an actual review this time. However, I’ve hit another technical snag so I don’t know when that will be finished. In the meantime I found an old comic review.

PSA comics are something I tend to grade on a curve. On the one hand there might be a good story there, but you run the risk of being all preachy and boring. This round I’m looking at an anti-drug comic produced by DC Comics, in cooperation with Keebler and President Reagan’s anti-drug campaign.And somehow it works with me.

So let’s head back to the 80’s and check out the Teen Titans, their new friend, and the war on drugs.

Format: comic book

Title: The New Teen Titans (“Plague”)

Creators: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez

Staff: Marv Wolfman (writer), George Pérez (penciler), Dick Giordano (inker), Ben Oda (letterer), Adrienne Roy (colorist), Len Wein (consulting editor), and Dave Manak (editor) with special thanks to David Mishur and Stephen Jacobs (whoever they are)

Roll Call: The Changeling, Cyborg, Raven, Wonder Girl, Speedy, Starfire, and special guest star The Protector.

GoBot Report: Road Ranger

First off, in case you’re wondering why there was no review last week I had some medical issues to deal with. I’m better now and back to business.

image source: Machine Robo wiki

I have a section of the Toy Review category for Transformers and GoBots. While I have reviewed Transformers, I haven’t reviewed any GoBots. It’s time to change that.

GoBots get a raw deal when it comes to transforming robot toys. The only ones worse are the ones you’ve never heard of like Super Defender or Convertors or something. Tonka and Hasbro both went to Japan, were intrigued by transforming robot toys, and brought them back to the US with a different storyline. Tonka just took most of theirs from the “Machine Robo” line while Hasbro used a few different lines. Yet there are some Transformers fans (I’ve never taken a scientific survey so I have no actual numbers, but they’re a very loud group) who hate GoBots, treating them as second rate compared to their Cybertronian counterparts. But I don’t care, I love them!

In the picture above is Road Ranger. He had few appearances in the show. The producers of Challenge Of The GoBots at Hanna-Barbera chose six main characters, three from each side, and others ended up with strong recurring roles. Road Ranger there was not one of the lucky ones, and yet it may be my favorite of the GoBots toys I’ve been able to play with. So that’s why he’s my first GoBot review here at the site.