Month: February 2026

Geek Punditry #164: Archie Gets Small — And That Ain’t a Bad Thing

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Time for an update on a couple of topics that we’ve talked about here in Geek Punditry before – both of which coincidentally have collided in recent weeks. Last August (in GP #138: Riverdale in Crisis) I wrote about how Archie Comics was changing its long-running digest program, and how that was just one of the many ways that the old stalwart publisher looked like it was in trouble. At the time, I postulated that one of the ways that Archie could possibly right the ship would be to partner up with another publisher to pull out of their dilemma. And because the laws of physics are universal and immutable, it turns out I was right. 

Coming soon!

In December, Archie announced a new partnership with Oni Press (publisher of such things as Rick and Morty and Adventure Time, among many other fine comics). Although it appears as though Archie is still publishing their own digests and one-shots, which is almost all they’ve done the last few years, Oni is going to release three new ongoing Archie series later this year: a new volume of Archie, a new Sabrina series, and a continuation of Archie’s popular horror line of titles with Archie in Hell. I’m back and forth on these. I’m more of a fan of the classic, traditional Archie comics than I am of the various attempts to modernize them over the past two decades, even though some of them (like Mark Waid’s Archie run) were done very well. I am, however, intrigued by the fact that this new Archie is going to be written by W. Maxwell Prince, creator of Image Comics’ incredible horror title Ice Cream Man as well as my favorite miniseries of last year, the decidedly non-horror Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum.

But more pertinent today is the fact that Oni is also going to release new archive and paperback editions of classic Archie stories. Earlier this week, they announced what some of those will be, including a hardcover edition of Tom King’s Archie: The Decision, omnibus collections of Archie: The Married Life, and a “definitive” edition of the horror title Afterlife With Archie. I just have to say, it is audacious as heck to produce a “definitive” edition of a comic book series that was never finished because the writer got distracted by working on the Riverdale TV show.

“So is the ‘Deluxe Edition’ going to have an ending?”
“HAHAHAHAHA! No.”

But that’s not all! Oni also announced three new collections of the “New Riverdale” comics from about a decade ago, reprinting the Archie, Sabrina, and Jughead titles from that era. And these New Riverdale collections will all be in their nifty and acclaimed Compact Comics format!

Hold on a second… “Compact Comics.” That sounds familiar.

Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?

Oh yeah! It’s familiar because DC Comics launched that format back in 2024. DC’s Compact Comics are a format just slightly larger than a mass market paperback book. The series was introduced in an attempt to grab readers who otherwise might not be in a comic shop or want to carry around a full-size graphic novel. (I talked about it in GP #119: It’s the Little Things, and I suggested future titles DC could give the Compact Comics treatment in GP #124: Compact These!) DC was the first comic publisher – in the modern era, anyway – to make a major push in this digest sized-market, and with books collecting anywhere from a single 120-page graphic novel to over 400 pages of a series for only $9.99, the line has become a smash hit. By the end of this year, DC will have 37 different titles available, ranging from perennial classics like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come to newer acclaimed series like Far Sector and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (The latter, coincidentally, happens to be the basis for this summer’s Supergirl movie. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?)

Now it’s true that success in any field of entertainment, comic books included, will inevitably inspire imitators, so once DC’s Compact Comics made a splash it was only a matter of time before other companies got into the game. Marvel joined the fray with their “Premiere Collection,” books that are slightly larger than DC’s and at a slightly higher price point ($14.99 instead of $9.99). Boom! Studios will also join in next month with the first “Compact Edition” of their popular Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, also at $14.99. Oni, however, is even bolder than these two. Their Compact Comics line not only copies DC’s name, price point, and publishing dimensions, but even the trade dress is, save for the color scheme, almost identical to DC’s. Looking at an Oni Compact Comic and a DC Compact Comic, someone who doesn’t know anything about the respective companies could easily be forgiven for thinking they were released by the same publisher.

“Can I copy your homework?”
“Fine, but change it a little so the teacher doesn’t notice.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I really don’t object to any of this. I love the Compact Comics format and, as I’ve said before, I would be perfectly happy if this became the default collected format for most comic books. It’s more appealing to the casual reader, and provides an easier way to break into markets outside of the realm of die-hard fans, like drugstore bookshelves or airport shops. And as much as I dislike movie tie-in covers, DC could be forgiven if they were to release a print of the Woman of Tomorrow book with a photo of Milly Alcock on the cover and a sticker that says something like “the graphic novel that inspired the DC Studios movie!” Hardcovers, archive editions, and “deluxe” editions in the larger format are fine, of course, but if all you want is to read the story, you can’t beat this style. I am just amused by how flagrantly Oni ran with DC’s success.

As for the future of Archie – I’m very glad that they’ve found a partner to help them stay alive. And I hope that this first wave of books is enough of a success to justify future waves. As I said, the “New Riverdale” stuff isn’t really my bag, but in the future I would love to see more books in the Compact Comics format – classic Archie, of course, would be the bee’s knees. But I would also like to see some of the less traditional stuff, like Archie’s Red Circle heroes, the Mighty Crusaders – even the Impact Comics versions of those characters that were published (coincidentally) by DC back in the 90s but haven’t been seen since. 

Archie’s back library is vast and varied, even though the tales of the gang from Riverdale are their bread and butter. Having them in a good, readable, sharable format is a great thing. Here’s hoping this first wave is a huge hit so that we can all get more.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. He’s waiting for the Compact Comics version of Jughead’s Diner. Go ahead, Google it. It’s a thing. 

Superman Stuff #7: Get Ready For Supergirl Day 2026!

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After years of DC celebrating an annual “Batman Day” in September, last year they FINALLY expanded their promotional offerings to do a day in celebration of their first hero, Superman. And it only took a reboot of their entire cinematic universe to do it. Superman Day 2025 was held on April 18th, the anniversary of the release of Action Comics #1, and it looks like they’re planning to stick with that April 18th date this year for their next go-round. But that’s not all. Superman Day 2026 is going to have a special guest star, the hero of her own movie hitting this summer – Supergirl.

These specials have really been exciting for me. Anything that pushes out DC’s characters to a new audience (the Superman family in particular) is fine in my book, and after last year I finally feel like DC is starting to give Superman his due. Some people may be upset to see him having to share his special day with Kara on just the second year of the promotion, but you know what? Superman himself would be perfectly okay with it. 

As on the assorted Batman Days, Superman Day is going to have a series of special edition comics and new releases to commemorate the occasion. Among the things that have been announced are special “Superman Day” editions of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #1, the series that the upcoming movie is based on, as well as special editions of the first issues of both the current volumes of Supergirl and Superman, which is great, because those books have been some of DC’s best since their respective launches. There will also be a new hardcover edition of Woman of Tomorrow, although the release from DC Comics that I read doesn’t say if this new edition will have any new content (such as behind-the-scenes sketches, commentary from the creators, etc.) or just a new cover. They also helpfully remind you that you can get the traditional trade paperback edition or their dandy “Compact Comics” edition, which is the one I recommend if you’re just trying to dip your toes into the DC Universe without breaking the bank. It’s the entire eight-issue series in a smaller format for only $9.99. I’m actually a huge fan of the Compact Comics format as a whole, honestly, and I wouldn’t really mind if it became the standard format for DC’s paperback editions moving forward. 

But that’s not all! There will also be a preview comic with a story from the upcoming anthology Supergirl: The World. DC’s The World series, which has previously released volumes starring Batman, the Joker, and – yes – Superman – collects brand-new short stories of their respective characters with writing and art by creators from all corners of the globe, making for a very interesting mix of content and a wide array of different story types and tastes between two covers. 

Still not enough? Well, younger readers can grab a Superman Day preview edition of Rob Justus’s young readers graphic novel Superman’s Good Guy Gang. Readers who want a taste of what I consider the Golden Age of Superman (the late 80s and early 90s) can get DC Finest Presents Superman: Time and Time Again #1, a preview book for a new collected edition of comics from that era with the same title. Finally, collectors can get special facsimile editions of the first appearances of Superman and Supergirl from Action Comics #1 and Action Comics #252, respectively.

Usually, on “Batman Day” and “Superman Day,” some of the books have been freebies. If the pattern stays true, I would expect the new versions of Superman #1, Supergirl #1, Woman of Tomorrow #1, and the preview editions of Superman: Time and Time Again, Supergirl: The World and Superman’s Good Guy Gang to be the giveaway books. The press release mentions that the two facsimile editions will each have a $3.99 price tag, but no prices are mentioned for the other books.

Finally, there will be special “Superman Day” hardcover editions (again, this most likely means new cover art) of the classic graphic novel All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and Superman Vol.1: Supercorp by Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell, the series that the aforementioned Superman #1 reprint kicked off. 

I’m glad to see that DC is pushing Supergirl the way that they are. With the recent Puppy Bowl tie-in and the fantastic teaser trailers that they’ve dropped, they’re fairly well on pace for the same promotional push they gave her cousin last year. Considering how long they’ve been doing Batman Day, I feel fairly certain that they’ll keep the momentum going into next year for the release of Man of Tomorrow. Then 2028, of course, will be Superman’s 90th anniversary, and they’d be insane not to capitalize on THAT. So I feel optimistic that Big Blue is going to have his special day for some time to come.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Geek Punditry #163: Three Wishes Presents MST3K-The RiffTrax Experiments

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A few weeks ago, in a move that surprised and saddened a lot of fans, Joel Hodgson sold his stake in Mystery Science Theater 3000 to his partner on the show, Shout! Factory. Hodgson created the show back in the 80s and had struggled for years to regain control of it from the parties that held it (and didn’t really know what to do with it) after the show’s cancellation in 1999. He brought it back with a massive crowdfunding campaign back in 2017 and produced three more seasons, the first two with Netflix, before crowdfunding for a fourth revival season fell short. Ever since, MST3K fans have been sort of in limbo, wondering what would come next for our beloved franchise.

Pictured: What comes next for our beloved franchise.

What I don’t think anybody expected was the announcement that hit earlier this month. RiffTrax, the spinoff movie riffing company that was founded by Joel’s successor Mike Nelson, launched their own campaign to crowdfund four new MST3K episodes, “The RiffTrax Experiments,” bringing Mike back to the Satellite of Love for the first time since the 90s. What’s more, Mike’s RiffTrax partners Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are along for the ride, reprising their roles as Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, as well as their roles as the “Mads” Professor Bobo and Brain Guy. The campaign smashed its original goal of $20k in minutes, and with still a month left to go, it is currently (as of this writing) sitting at a hefty $1.8 million. That’s an awful lot of movie megacheese.

Mike, Kevin, and Bill aren’t going it alone, either. Mary Jo Pehl is coming back as Pearl Forrester, and the previous “Mads” Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff are returning for one of the four episodes as Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV’s Frank. The band is getting back together, and while there’s a bittersweet feeling that Joel won’t be involved, there’s still a real thrill and knowing that MST3K is going to live on. There hasn’t been any word about the people who starred in the revival series (most notably Jonah Ray, Emily Marsh, Patton Oswalt, and Felicia Day), but I hope that their time with the show hasn’t come to a permanent end.

At some point, I’m sure somebody is going to release a behind-the-scenes documentary or oral history of the last few years of MST3K and talk about how all this came about, but for now I’m going to content myself with the knowledge that MST3K will live on, and the guys who have been doing it for so long are back in the saddle again. All that said, the next question to be answered has to be this one: with four new MST3K episodes coming our way, which movies are going to get the business? The whole point of the series, after all, is to make fun of cheesy movies – the worst they can find. (La la la.) Murphy has promised that in these experiments they’re going to focus on “classic bad, not modern bad.” And there are a LOT of bad movies to choose from. They’ve already announced that one of the four will be the 1978 David Carradine film Deathsport, a sci-fi movie about a sporting event that means death for the losers. It’s kind of like The Running Man, but with motorcycles. 

That means there are still spots for three more films, and while the RiffTrax crew have no doubt already decided what they will be, that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun to speculate. So here, for your edification, are my Three Wishes for movies that I would love to see get the MST3K (or even RiffTrax) treatment in the new episodes. In no particular order:

This is what losers online did before NFTs.

Evilspeak (1981)

I watched this Clint Howard clunker with my wife Erin just a few days ago for part of our 2026 FebNEWary Challenge, and before I was even ten minutes into the movie I knew that this was a film deliciously ripe for riffing. Howard plays Stanley Coopersmith, an orphaned military academy cadet who is relentlessly picked on and tortured by Stock 80s Teen Movie Bully #37 (played by Don Stark). Howard happens to stumble upon the remnants of an ancient Satanic cult (this was the 80s, did I mention that?) and begins using their sacred books to summon the spirit of their murderous leader (Night Court’s lovable giant Richard Moll) to help him enact his revenge.

There’s so much going on in this movie, and none of it is good. First of all, anybody who has ever seen Clint Howard knows that he was born at about the age of 56, making him look far older than the rest of the 30-year-olds playing teenagers in this one. Second, he summons the evil spirits with the help of an evil computer, thus predicting the rise of ChatGPT by a full four decades. The kills are ridiculous – over-the-top and goofy, with decapitations that look as realistic as popping the head off a Barbie doll and an ending that promises a sequel that – and I can’t figure out if this is a good thing or not – was never made.

This is not, by any metric that would be used by rational human beings, a good movie. But hot damn, is it FUN. You can’t help but laugh at how ridiculously melodramatic everything is, with fake tension and drama wrought from every scene. At one point I looked at my wife and paraphrased a line from another RiffTrax commentary: “This does seem like the kind of movie that would kill a dog.” (Spoiler alert: I wasn’t wrong.)

All of this is to say that Evilspeak has everything you want in a movie to be riffed. Bad acting, bad effects, a bad story, and an earnestness to it that makes it all worthwhile. It’s fun to watch this one even without the riffing, but I can only imagine how much better it would be with Mike, Kevin, and Bill slinging their bon mots. 

Between this and the story of Ricky Bobby, go with this one.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)

Erin introduced me to this Cantonese martial arts flick a few years ago and holy hell, is it insane. Louis Fan plays Riki-Oh Saiga, a man with super strength who is sent to a private prison where the inmates are forced to do slave labor. Of course, he has to use his powers to take down the system from within, a takedown that includes enough blood and body parts to populate a dozen and a half Stephen King adaptations.

This movie makes Evilspeak look like Fiddler on the Roof. There is no plot structure, nothing about it makes the slightest bit of sense, and the fight scenes are utterly ludicrous. Watching it is like watching a looping video of a frog in a blender for two hours, except that the frog has a more clearly definable motivation than anyone in this film. It is absurd and awful and painful, and I wanna see it riffed SOOOO bad. 

That said, this one is probably a longshot. No matter who has been in the seat of the Satellite of Love, MST3K has usually tried to keep their content relatively family-friendly, and that would be hard to do with Riki-Oh. To be certain, the gore and violence is so absurd and cartoonish that it is impossible to take it seriously. Being offended by this would be like being offended by a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. But it’s still there, and editing it down would leave you with a movie that’s about seven minutes long and has absolutely nothing left to recommend it. It’s probably more likely that this would be a RiffTrax movie, as those films have often drifted into edgier content than their puppet show predecessor. But I would have felt remiss if I hadn’t at least suggested it.

This Del Toro remake went a little off the rails.

Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965)

If you think you know everything there is to know about the Frankenstein monster, think again. In this movie directed by Ishiro Honda (the same man who gave us the original Godzilla and Mothra), the Germans manage to get the heart of the Frankenstein monster during World War II and send it to Japan to keep it away from the allies. When the US bombs Hiroshima, the heart is believed to be lost – until years later, when a boy is found wandering the streets and rapidly growing to gargantuan size.

Yep. Honda turned the Frankenstein monster into a kaiju.

Some of my favorite MST3K movies are the ones where they’re riffing on giant monsters (the classic Gamera episodes, for example, and the more recent Reptilicus from the Netflix revival), and I would love to see the guys sink their teeth into this one. You get all the usual fun from mocking a kaiju movie of the era, such as destroying model cars and cities, or ripping on the inherent goofiness of a guy in a rubber suit portraying a giant monster. But on top of that, you add the Frankenstein layer, giving ample opportunity for wild riffs as the bots try to reconcile what’s happening on screen with what they know from the Boris Karloff movies or Mary Shelley’s original novel. (“Mike, I don’t understand, when is Elsa Lanchester gonna show up?”)

To be fair, this isn’t really a bad movie – certainly not the way that Evilspeak or Riki-Oh are. But virtually any giant monster movie of the 50s through the 70s can provide ample fodder for riffing, and this is one that’s a little bit different from any of the ones that they’ve done before. I think there’s room for an awful lot of fun here.

There you have it, friends, three heapin’ helpin’s of grade-A cinematic cheese that I would love to see get targeted by our pals at Mystery Science Theater 3000. I have no idea who owns the rights to any of these movies currently, I should point out – it could be that it would be logistically impossible to get one or even all three of them. But this is a wish list, after all, and stuff like that doesn’t matter nearly as much as finding something you can have fun with. Whatever the final three movies turn out to be, I couldn’t be happier to know that MST3K is going to be beaming back down to us again before too long. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. Also Q: The Winged Serpent. They should do Q: The Winged Serpent. 

Superman Stuff #6: New Releases-Jan. 28 and Feb. 6, 2026

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It’s time for another roundup of recent Superman comics. This week I’ll be reviewing the Superman and Superman-related releases that were released on Jan 28 and Feb. 6. Let’s get into it!

Superman Vol. 6 #34

Title: I, Superman (A DC KO Tie-In)

Writer: Joshua Williamson

Art: Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira

Main Cover: Dan Mora

In the arctic, the unusual trio of Lois, Superboy-Prime, and a Superman Robot are fleeing the Fortress of Solitude and the battle with members of Darkseid’s Legion. Meanwhile, the Final Four from the main tournament get a chance to look in on what’s happening back on Earth. It’s a pretty sparse recap, I admit, but the pages are PACKED here with character stuff. 

The surprising redemption of Superboy-Prime continues this issue, as he finds himself confronting a Superman Robot that has many of the memories and personality of the original. The contrast between the two is marked and the way that Prime has to reckon with the way the REAL Superman apparently thinks of him…which isn’t what he expected, but is probably exactly what the reader would anticipate. I like Prime’s reactions quite a bit – he’s got an awful lot to cope with here, and for the most part, Williamson is handling it well. He may be going slightly too hard on the fourth wall-breaking dialogue, though. Prime is carrying around knowledge of the fact that he’s in a comic book universe, which is fine, but we don’t want it to go so far as to turn him into Deadpool.

We also spend time with the members of Darkseid’s Legion, who up until this point have come across largely as mindless stormtroopers wearing the faces of our friends. We get a different look here, a reminder that although they’re from a universe corrupted by Darkseid’s Omega Energy, they’re still fundamentally the same people, and perhaps the notion of redemption that Williamson is playing with here isn’t restricted to Prime himself.

I’m all about Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira’s artwork – bold, strong, and proud. They’re also pretty good about drawing a Prime that looks like an actual Superboy. Even at his most villainous, it’s important to remember that he’s still a version of Clark Kent, and there have been artists who occasionally forget that. 

DC KO: The Kids Are All Fight Special #1

Writer: Jeremy Adams

Art: Travis Mercer

Main Cover: Bruno Redondo

The Justice League is strained at the moment, with many of their members caught up in the tournament for the Heart of Apokalips, and most of the others fighting to help evacuate Earth or deal with the dozens of other disasters cropping up all over the place. Jon Kent is given one of the most important duties of all: staying on the Watchtower and keeping an eye on some of the younger heroes, including the Boom, Fairplay, Quiz Kid, and Cheshire Cat. Of course, it would be a pretty short special if the kids just sat around and did what they were told, wouldn’t it? Naturally, they get loose, run into trouble against some of Darkseid’s minions, and Jonathan is forced to call on Cassandra Cain for help.

Jon has been in the last several issues of Titans, working with them as they spearhead the evacuation effort. In March, the book is scheduled to be retitled New Titans with issue #32, and the cover (with several characters in silhouette only) implies heavily that Jon will be a member of the new team. If that’s the case, I’m really quite satisfied with it. The character has been rattling around aimless, for entirely too long, and if making him a member of the Titans actually gives him something to do that makes sense, that’s the best we can hope for. What’s more, I like the group of kids that we see in this issue, the ones that Jon is protecting. I’ve wanted to see more of Boom since she first appeared in the Stargirl: The Lost Children miniseries a few years ago. Fairplay, too, is an interesting character, a very different take on Mr. Terrific that has a lot of promising storytelling avenues. Best of all, there’s a surprise guest-star in this issue that filled me with joy, and no doubt will have the same effect on a lot of other readers. It’s someone we haven’t seen in quite some time, but that DC has been teasing very heavily lately. I’m hoping that this character will stick around in New Titans as well.

Of course, none of that is set in stone. Jon is the only character in this issue whose silhouette appears on that New Titans cover. But covers – especially early solicits – can be deceiving. I don’t expect the heroes we see in this issue to be the new Titans team in its entirety, but I hope that Jon isn’t the only young hero that got a tryout in this issue, because I think there’s a lot to work with here. 

DC’s Supergirl Next Door #1

Note: This is DC’s Valentine’s Day anthology for 2026. There are eight different stories in the book, but I’m only reviewing the Supergirl story.

Title: A Dream of Different Stars

Writer: CRC Payne

Art: Paulina Ganucheau

Main Cover: Amy Reeder

Allen is a new kid in Midvale, struggling to make friends and struggling to fit in. That is, until he meets another new kid in town, Linda Danvers. The two of them form a bond and she opens up to him, revealing just how deeply she misses her old home, and Allen decides to do something to help her.

Short and sweet, but that’s what this story is. It’s a lovely little tale of a couple of foundlings who find solace in one another. CRC Payne is a name I mostly know from her work on DC’s digital comics, such as Batman Family Adventures and Harley Quinn in Paradise. She’s brought the same kind, quiet, reflective tenor she uses in Batman Family Adventures to this story as well, crafting a tale that makes it easy to relate to the characters despite its brevity. Ganucheau’s art has a loose quality to it as well, befitting the more animated style we see in Payne’s other work and fitting very well for this tidy little love story. There’s real charm here that I appreciate. 

DC KO: Boss Battle #1

Writer: Jeremy Adams

Art: Ronan Cliquet, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Kieran McKeown, Pablo M. Collar

Main Cover: Jamal Campbell

Seconds after the end of DC KO #3, the Final Four in the tournament for the Heart of Apokalips are poised for the battle of their lives, but World Forger manages to “pause” the game. They’re not ready, the need more Omega Energy, so he finds a way to generate some by briefly spending the heroes into neighboring realities to have additional battles and charge up, leading to fights against the wildest opponents yet: Sub-Zero and Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, Samantha Strong from Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Vampirella, Red Sonja, the murderous doll Annabelle, and – in the title fight that people have been wanting to see for YEARS, Superman versus Homelander from Garth Ennis and Darrick Robinson’s The Boys.

During the Year of Superman, I included Homelander in the week I wrote about “Superman gone wrong” – characters who are intended to be dark or even evil versions of the Man of Steel. To me, Homelander is one of the most insidious of those. He is what people who never understand Superman THINK Superman should be like. And knowing that Superman is one of the few superheroes that Ennis actually has respect for, from the minute this book was announced, I was looking forward to seeing our boy Clark finally giving Homelander the beatdown he so richly deserves.

The result is…okay.

Look, the concept of this book is fantastic. It’s utterly insane, and the matchups are crazy. (Joker versus Annabelle, anybody? COME ON!) But it’s just too short. It seems like nearly half the book is taken up just with giving each of the champions borrowed from other universes a page of introduction each, then the fights themselves are over and done with far too quickly. I have never said this before, but this is a crossover spinoff one-shot that probably SHOULD have been a crossover spinoff miniseries.

What’s more, it’s kind of inconsequential. It picks up just as DC KO #3 ends, and the final page promises that the story leaps from this book straight into DC KO #4, and it’s structured in such a way that people who are only reading that main book will feel like they haven’t missed anything. I get why they structured it that way, and I don’t begrudge that, but considering that this book is ultimately just a fun little sidestory rather than required reading (like so many of the books from “All Fight Month” were) just kind of makes me lament the fact that there wasn’t time for a little more fun.  

Superman: Chains of Love Special #1

Title: Creepers

Writer: Leah Williams

Art: Ig Guarra

Main Cover: Yasmine Putri

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, we get this one-shot. Livewire is being paroled from prison, but her years away have left her without her audience…until she stumbles into the Creeper, who finds a way to help her climb back to prominence. And then, with love in the air, the sparks fly.

It’s a cute enough story – questions of continuity aside (Livewire says early that she’s “from the 90s,” which feels a little meta), the two characters have an interesting chemistry that actually plays out in an entertaining way. Superman’s presence in the story is minimal however, mostly there for structure in the new environment that Leslie Willis finds herself in. But I guess DC (correctly) assumed that branding this as a Superman special rather than a Creeper/Livewire special would get more readers. 

Title: Bill Zarro’s World

Writer: Dan Slott

Art: Rosi Kampe

Dan Slott and Rosi Kampe also come through with a back-up story in this issue. Bill Zarro is a lowly peon working at the Daily Planet. His boss is a jerk, his wife resents him, his kids disdain him…until one day he wakes up on Bizarro World, and everything changes. This is a short story that’s essentially an extended gag piece that builds up to an unusual and amusing punchline. The ending is funny enough to make the story worth recommending. 

Absolute Superman #16

Title: The Never-Ending Begins Part Two: This Universe Will Break Your Heart, Kid

Writer: Jason Aaron

Art: Juan Ferreyra

Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval

This issue brings us the full introduction of a new Absolute Universe hero as Superman is approached by the mysterious Hawkman. This version of Carter Hall has been around for a long time, and initially doesn’t know what to make of this newcomer with all of the powers. We also see Lois as she tries to find a new direction in the wake of her departure from the espionage game, a new version of another classic character, and the recruitment of Lex Luthor continuing unabated.

Here’s something that I haven’t really said before about many of the Absolute comics: this issue is surprisingly funny. The first couple of pages in which Superman and Hawkman meet in midair are punctuated by Kal-El getting distracted by disasters both minor and major and then zipping off to deal with them and leaving Hawkman flapping his wings. The introduction to this new Hawkman works really well. It can be easy to forget that this “young” universe is still a universe, with a history all of its own, and Hawkman feels like a great opportunity to explore that a little bit more.

The Lois story has some humor as well. For a while it didn’t seem as though this book was going to brush much on the traditional Superman status quo at all, but here we’ve got Lois and Jimmy looking into being reporters, the introduction of the Daily Planet, and the debut of one Perry White. Even there, though, we see the influence of Darkseid on this world. The Planet ain’t the grand old dame she is in the main DC Universe, and although Perry has the same sort of grit you’d want from the character, it comes with more grime than one would usually expect. The way this is structured he may be a one-off character, but I really hope that’s not the case. I feel like there’s a lot of potential here, especially in having him interact with Lois.

Even the Lex Luthor scene is darkly comedic. The Absolute Luthor – with a proud shock of red hair and a burly beard, is a man utterly happy and content in his simple like. The difference between him and “our” Lex Luthor is perhaps more striking than any other Absolute character we’ve met yet, which is amusing, but at the same time, seems poised to bring him to a bitter, heartbreaking end. 

Or not. Aaron has been surprising me a lot with this book.

Juan Ferreyra handles both the line art and colors for this book, and I really like his work. The flashback scenes, showing some of Carter’s adventures in the 40s, have a nice sort of archaic look to them. In the modern scenes, where he and Kal-El meet, he does this really interesting blur effect to show Superman zipping into action. It’s not wholly unique – I’ve seen similar effects from other artists – but his execution is great. I’m also a big fan of the monster designs from later in the issue, and his battle scenes look stunning.

We’re on the second issue of this new story arc, and it’s honestly shaping up to be my favorite from the series so far. It’s brighter somehow, and while that may be a deviation from the whole ethos of the Absolute Universe, I feel like that’s kind of the point. A Superman – a REAL Superman – should always be the bright spot in his world, no matter how dark the world itself may be. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Geek Punditry #162: It’s Time to Raise the Curtain

blakemp Geek Punditry , , , ,

It has been 22 years since Disney bought the Muppets. That is over two decades of misses, near-misses, and the occasional good project that somehow got buried (Muppets Mayhem) or from which they learned entirely the wrong lesson (the 2011 The Muppets theatrical film). We got an inoffensive but unremarkable Haunted Mansion Halloween special. We got a sitcom that came across as the Muppets trying to do The Office that was JUST starting to figure out how to make that formula work when they cancelled it. We got an avalanche of internet videos that Disney prayed would go viral and, occasionally, they succeeded. And we lost the Disney World attraction – Muppetvision 3-D – that was the last project the great Jim Henson was involved with before his tragic passing. But hey, they’re adding the Electric Mayhem to the Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster to make up for it. So that’s…something.

And in all that time, there’s only been one thing the fans have REALLY wanted to see.

This week, we finally got it.

Because this week, Disney dropped the first new episode of The Muppet Show in over 40 years.

It’s also time to light the lights. Make a note of that.

Now let’s be clear here – although this is what we CALL The Muppet Show, it’s not a series. It is (at the moment, at least) a one-off special that aired on ABC and is now streaming on Disney+. However, it has been made ABUNDANTLY clear, not only by the creatives who made the special but even by the characters themselves DURING the show, that the fervent hope is it will perform well enough to justify Disney bring it back as a regular television series again. I’ve been anxious about this one ever since it was announced last year. On the one hand, bringing the Muppets back to their roots by doing a classic musical variety show in the vein of their original series from the 70s is what Muppet fans have wanted since…well, since the 80s. (There was, of course, the two-season Muppets Tonight series from the 90s about the Muppets doing a sketch comedy TV series, which wasn’t bad, but never felt exactly right either.) But Disney has done a lot of stuff with the Muppets in the past two decades that SEEMED like a good enough idea, but didn’t quite pan out in execution. 

The announcement that Seth Rogen was among the executive producers was further disturbing. Rogen’s work is hit-or-miss for me, and even the stuff that I’ve enjoyed has never given me the notion that he would be a good fit to bring back The Muppet Show. Even the guest for the special gave me pause: Sabrina Carpenter is one of the biggest stars out there, and I had no doubt that having her on the show would get eyes on it, but I’m not personally a fan. (Put down your torches and pitchforks – I’m not saying I think her music is BAD, it’s just not typically my jam.)

“Maybe it IS a silly hat, but at least I wasn’t involved in Sausage Party.”

But frankly, we live in a world that needs the Muppets now more than ever. So despite any misgivings I may have had, Erin and I sat down last night, Eddie between us, and hit PLAY.

And for the next 30 minutes, I was seven years old again, sitting on the living room rug with a bowl of cereal, singing along with the theme song, and laughing my head off. Miss Piggy’s green-eyed rivalry with Carpenter, the Great Gonzo’s latest stunt gone awry, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew’s magnificent experiment that did something to Beaker that was JUST funny enough to make you forget how horrific it actually was, the Electric Mayhem bringing the house down, and Kermit the Frog busting his skinny felt-covered ass off trying to keep everything from flying off the rails. It wasn’t just good, it was CLASSIC.

There have been a lot of revivals of old TV shows in the last several years. There have been a lot of good ones. There have even – they’ve been rare, but they exist – been a few great ones. But this is that most precious of productions. This is a revival that feels as though they never left.

This is the other one that feels like it never left.

Okay, some of the voices are different. That was inevitable. The musical numbers were a bit more modern. And some of the Muppets who have joined the troupe in the years since the show went off the air, such as Bobo the Bear and Pepe the King Prawn, got plum roles. None of these are bad things. What matters is that the heart is there – the good-natured humor, the indomitable spirit of a bunch of performing lunatics who are each, individually, absolute disasters at what they’re trying to do, but who somehow come together and create a masterpiece of entertainment. The Muppets, at their best, are like watching a scientist mix together vials full of volatile chemicals that, by all rights, ought to create an explosion that wipes the lab off the face of the Earth but instead somehow makes a pile of diamonds. And this special – I cannot believe I am saying this – feels like the Muppets at their best.

The only thing that makes me happier than watching this special is looking at the reaction online and seeing that I am by no means alone in my love of this new incarnation of our old friends. Reading the response on social media and on sites like Letterboxd is showing me almost universal acclaim – nearly everybody who has watched this show seems to love it. The fans have been effusive in their praise; everybody is telling everybody else to watch this special right away. The few voices of dissent I’ve heard seem to be people complaining about a couple of mildly off-color jokes who I have to imagine haven’t actually watched the Muppets in the past 30 years, because they’ve ALWAYS been a property that caters to adults and children alike. As I write this, the special is sitting at a 97 percent Fresh critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, which doesn’t actually mean anything because who gives a crap what the critics have to say? Far, FAR more importantly, it’s got a 99 percent Fresh AUDIENCE score. 

“They…they LIKE us?”

In 2026, it is astonishingly difficult to get any sort of movie or TV property to have such universal acclaim. It’s even harder to get this kind of positive word of mouth. The Muppet Show has both. And although it is by no means a done deal that we’ll get more, all of this combined with the fact that Disney’s newly-announced CEO Josh D’Amaro is reportedly a huge Muppet fan has me more optimistic about the future of this franchise than I’ve felt since the 2011 movie hit the screen.

I talked with Erin and some friends about this, all of us expressing our hopes for more Muppet Show. The goal, the brass ring that we’re all reaching for, is a full-scale revival of the series with new weekly episodes that run until the end of time. At the very least, we’re hoping that Disney orders a ten-episode run to kick it off. This, of course, leads to the question of who future celebrity guests should be.

Virtually every person I’ve posed this question to has had the same name at the tip of their tongues, and it’s the name that’s been on mine from the beginning: “Weird Al Yankovic.” My goodness, is there anything in the universe that would make more sense than having Weird Al host an episode of The Muppet Show? Their brands of comedy are almost EXACTLY the same – bizarre, silly, just subversive enough to have an edge but still at the same time being something that is appropriate for the entire family. For decades now, one of the greatest cultural tragedies is that the ascent of Weird Al came too late for him to face off against the Great Gonzo in a Weirdness competition on the Muppet stage. At last, the opportunity to rectify this horrible injustice is upon us.

I would suppose that Disney will want to dig into their stable of big names: stars like Robert Downey Jr., Pedro Pascal, or Zoe Saldana are likely on their wish list. And I’ll be okay with any of those. But the greatest Muppet hosts from the Golden Age of the show are those that went all in as part of the world of the characters, basically being human Muppets themselves, and for that reason I think the best superhero actor they could get would be Jason Momoa. Momoa comes across as the type of guy who is utterly without ego, willing to do anything for a joke and never blanching if a joke is at his expense. I’m picturing a Game of Thrones parody with Piggy filling in the Daenerys role and Momoa pushing that line just as far as Disney would allow. I’m picturing him and Animal facing off and roaring at each other like wild men, or him hearing Statler and Waldorf mocking Fozzie and stepping out on stage in defense of everyone’s favorite ursine stand-up comic. 

These people are all Muppets waiting to happen.

One of the guys in my comic book group also floated having Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel host. They’re both good choices, but of the two, I think Bell feels like the more natural fit. Like Momoa, she’s shown herself to be utterly fearless in her comedy, and very much the sort of performer who would immerse herself in the world of the Muppets. I’m picturing her in a Muppet Labs segment where Bunsen is building a (living) snowman and singing her legendary song about such activity, with Beaker filling in the Idina Menzel half of the duet.

“The Kelce brothers should host,” Erin said to me. “They’re basically Muppets. Oooh, and I want Patrick Mahomes to host and have Miss Piggy overhear him talking on the phone and thinking it’s Kermit.”

I hate that she said this, because it’s one of the greatest comedy pitches I’ve ever heard in my life and I’m going to have to give my wife credit for it every time I tell it to somebody. Imagine Piggy standing on one side of the dressing room door while Mahomes calls Brittany and mistaking his voice for the amphibian of her dreams.

MAHOMES: Yeah, I can’t wait to come home and see you after the show.

PIGGY (Behind the door): What?

MAHOMES: I love you too.

PIGGY: Oh Kermie, how could you?

MAHOMES: Are the kids okay?

PIGGY: (Gasps in abject horror)

We could play this game all day, of course. I’m imagining episodes where Kendrick Lamar and Pepe drop diss tracks about each other. I’m thinking of Gordon Ramsay in the Swedish Chef’s kitchen absolutely losing his mind. I see Miss Piggy having an existential crisis at how fabulous everybody backstage thinks Zendaya is. 

This stuff writes itself.

For four decades now, we’ve been watching reruns. And every one of them ends with Kermit saying “We’ll see you next time on The Muppet Show!” He said it again on the new special, too.

And for the first time in 45 years, I think he really will.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. If you haven’t watched The Muppet Show yet, what are you waiting for?

Superman Stuff #5: Superman, Inc. (1999)

blakemp Superman Stuff , , , ,

With the “Big Game” coming up this weekend, I thought a sports-themed story would be fun, so this week’s Superman Stuff is going to take us back to 1999 and the Elseworlds one-shot Superman, Inc. by Steve Vance and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. I was pretty happy a couple of years ago when DC announced the return of their Elseworlds imprint, and for the most part, I’ve enjoyed how they’ve used it. Rather than a home for one-off stories and prestige format miniseries as we’ve had in the past, DC has been using it to actually build “worlds:” longer stories – six issues, twelve issues – and stories that serve as sequels to or spinoffs of other stories that fall under the Elseworlds aegis. When Elseworlds started, DC was still under the edict that the Multiverse didn’t exist anymore. Now that the Multiverse is back in full force, they’re using the Elseworlds imprint to populate it. 

All that said, there was a charm to these one-off stories that modern Elseworlds – for all their positives – sometimes lack. Also, as is always the case, DC needs to scale back on the Batman stuff and give some other characters a chance. 

So let’s see what Vance and Garcia-Lopez gave us 27 years ago. 

Like many Elseworlds, there’s a single divergence point that the story starts from. Kal-El’s rocket lands in Kansas, but the baby crawls out on his own before he can be found by a kindly farming couple. He is found (run over, actually) by a drunk driver who takes him to a police station, and he’s eventually adopted by a young couple who gives him the name Dale Suderman. (It may be a trifle cutesy, but that’s how they did things in these stories.) The cutesy ends there, though – little Dale’s father dies when he’s only five years old, and a few years later when the boy discovers his ability to fly, his mother is so shocked that she falls down the stairs and is killed as well. The trauma gives Dale amnesia, blocking not only the memory of his mother’s death but also full access to his powers, and he begins bouncing from one foster home to another, finally ending up in a juvenile facility. His isolation continues until he discovers his natural talents make him a superstar on the basketball court, and he runs away from the juvenile home to find his own path.

Dale grows up and becomes an all-star not only in basketball, but every sport. Super Bowl MVP, a record-breaking home-run hitter, an Olympic Gold medalist in multiple disciplines – Dale Suderman is the world-famous Superman, sitting atop a global empire built on marketing, smiling for his fans in public and disdaining them in private. Lex Luthor, owner of the Metropolis Monarchs, tries to lure Dale to sign with his basketball team, seeing an opportunity to position the world’s most famous athlete as the crowning jewel in the new extravagant sports complex he’s building. Dale sweeps the rug out from under Lex, though, by announcing his own sports complex and a new expansion team, the Metropolis Spartans. 

Dale’s empire grows with a new Saturday morning cartoon starring Superman as an all-powerful “super hero,” and the merchandise bonanza that comes with it makes him even richer. Lex, meanwhile, tries to lure Lois Lane to begin digging into Suderman to find anything less than heroic he can use against him. Reluctantly, she agrees to investigate. She is unable to dig up any dirt except for the fact that the team doctors have, for some reason, never been able to take a blood sample. Following the trail of data, Luthor uncovers a spacecraft in a Kansas field and releases the news – via the Daily Planet – that Dale Suderman is an alien. Dale goes after Luthor and the ensuing battle with Luthor’s guards winds up unlocking the true extent of his power and revealing it to the world. 

Dale goes on TV to explain his side of the story, but a gunman shoots him with a bullet made of a glowing green substance. As he recovers in the hospital, Lois and detective John Jones visit him, and together decide that Luthor was behind the shooting. As Lois leaves, refusing to return to Luthor, Jones reveals himself to be an alien as well, and uses his powers to unlock the mental blocks in Dale’s mind. Dale leaves in solitude, but a lightning bolt in Kansas takes him down. He finds himself in the care of a farming couple, Jonathan and Martha Kent, who don’t follow sports and have no idea who he is. After weeks of learning from them, he leaves and releases a video to the press, vowing to leave Earth to search for his birth planet. In his absence, his “Superman Foundation” will use his fortune to benefit mankind. On the last panel, though, newly-minted journalism professor Lois Lane meets her newest student, a bespectacled behemoth calling himself Clark Kent.

There’s good and bad in this book. The bad – and really, “bad” is too strong a word, it’s more of an adherence to the tropes of the time – is the way that things all dovetail in the end to bring this world more in line with the main DC Universe. That’s how so many of these Elseworlds (and, in fact, Marvel’s What If comics) often went: if the world wasn’t all but destroyed, then circumstances were contrived to make things turn out the way they did originally. It doesn’t usually bother me that much, but this is a story where Dale Suderman was literally the most famous person ON THE PLANET. The notion that the Kents had never heard of him is ridiculous – even if they don’t own a TV, they’re seen reading the newspaper with a story about Luthor being indicted for the Superman shooting. And while I’m the first one to tell people not to worry about the glasses as a disguise, that disguise is kind of incumbent upon the idea that nobody is looking for Superman’s secret identity in the first place. Again, Dale is globally famous, and has a prior relationship with Lois Lane. It would be like Tom Brady putting on a pair of glasses and trying not to be recognized by Anderson Cooper.

What I like about this, though, are the parts of the story that diverge SIGNIFICANTLY from the standard Elseworlds of the time. The villain is still Lex Luthor, but we never get a hint of supervillainy. There’s no alien invasion, no hints about Brainiac or Mr. Mxyzptlk. Heck, there aren’t even any fight scenes in the book. It’s a story of somebody who has great potential working his way up towards unlocking that potential. It’s as though the entire issue is the first act of a standard origin story. As such, it’s very much unlike most other Elseworlds, and I enjoy that about it. 

I also love the artwork. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is one of those truly iconic creators, having spent decades as the lead designer for DC’s merchandising department. For a large portion of the public, his depiction of the DC heroes is THE standard, and for a reason. He’s bold, he’s an excellent storyteller, and he’s CONSISTENT. You could pull out a Superman Valentine’s Day card from 1987 and put it next to this book and see the same Superman. The face, the smile, everything but the haircut is a perfect fit. There are far too few artists who can actually do that.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read this one, but I’m glad I revisited it this week. I’d forgotten what a joy it is, and I wouldn’t mind a return to this world to see what became of the former Mr. Dale Suderman. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!