Static Thoughts - Top 13 Samurai Jack Episodes

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So, Samurai Jack is coming back for a fifth season.  If you’ve never seen or heard of Samurai Jack that probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, so I’ll try and elaborate.  Samurai Jack was one of the last cartoons from what’s considered the Golden Age of WB’s animation channel Cartoon Network.  To be fair, that’s a biased title imposed by people who grew up with the Network during this time, but by the same token, there were plenty of quality programs.  However, most of them were geared towards comedy like Dexter’s Laboratory or Johnny Bravo, with the narrative stuff being mostly relegated to the DC Comics shows. 

Samurai Jack is the prime exception there, a dramatic and beautifully animated series about a time displaced Samurai in a dystopic future desperately trying to return to the past and undo the future he’s trapped within.  It was a well written and wonderfully produced show that was fun for kids and offered a lot to adults in the animation and some of the stories as well.  With that in mind and to celebrate its upcoming revival, I count down my top 13 Samurai Jack episodes. 

Panel Vision - The Case for a Batman Movie Universe

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As I write this we are approximately one month out from the Suicide Squad movie upon which DC and WB have hung their collective hopes for a cinematic universe.  We’re all still reeling from the sucker punch that was Batman v. Superman ending up something closer to a fever dream farce than a solvent blockbuster and even though the slow drip of new information on WB’s prospective slate of future superhero blockbusters has been encouraging there’s a lot of uncertainty going forward. 

It’s starting to seem more and more like Batman films really are the only superhero movies that WB can actually do well, a concept which got me thinking.  If WB is so committed to its Batman franchise they’re willing to constantly run back to the Bat well when things get rough, why not just cut out the middleman and produce a Batman shared movie universe. 

Cover Story - Top 20 Daredevil Covers

Edited by Robert Beach 

Yesterday marked the launch of Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil season 2. I’ve already burned through the whole season, and I may do a review of the entire season. For now, I’d still like to get a Daredevil-themed article out there. Luckily, I’ve got this column. 

Yes it’s time to dive into the shallow end once more for a look at the life of the man without fear: Daredevil, showcasing the top 20 Daredevil covers culled from across the character’s massive history.  This is a big list, so let’s get started.

Panel Vision - Top 25 Super-Jerk Covers

Edited by Robert Beach

Earlier this week, Frank Miller released one of his first illustrations in a long time. Miller’s suffered a great loss of physical mobility in recent years, so the fact that he’s recovered enough to draw again should be a pretty major event. Unfortunately, his newest piece of art was 1. Linked to the upcoming Dark Knight: Master Race and 2. Kind of terrible. It’s a picture of the Atom getting punched into Space by the ugliest Superman you’ve ever seen complete with comically massive fists and a visibly outlined dick. 

At this point, “Frank Miller does kind of awful thing” is hardly news, but in the midst of the Internet all having a good laugh about #SuperJunk, Kurt Busiek raised the interesting point that Superman’s ugliness on the cover was intentional. It was an interesting argument, and even though I don’t fully agree or think the intentionality of the image makes up for the hilariously poor artwork, it did get people talking and thinking. Specifically, it go me thinking about all the great covers of Superman being an asshole…so that’s what we’re doing today.