Blog Archives
700th Blog Post! + Jyger’s Favourite 5 – Memories of Five of My Most Viewed Articles
Hey guys! It’s the 700th blog post!!!
So, after 700 posts on this blog, I’ve naturally assembled a lot of memories over the years. And, for some reason, several articles I’ve done on here seem to get way more views than others, still getting viewed even to this day. In fact, I wanna show you something. Here’re the ten most frequent search engine terms to lead people to my blog…
…and here are some of the highest viewed articles on my blog.
So, given some of the obvious preferences for some of these posts by my fans, I thought I’d go ahead and look back on five of them, my memories of them, and if my overall thoughts and feelings on the topics of each one still hold up. So, let’s start off with probably the most infamous article on my blog…

#1 – “…Is Elesa Really THAT Hot???” from Feb. 4th, 2012
Oh my God, this frigging article. XD I honest to God go back and forth in my mind on a regular basis if I ever should’ve opened my big mouth and asked people why there was so much hentai out there of this character from Pokémon Black and White. And, because I posted an article with the words Elesa and hentai in them, naturally, it led to a lot of people coming to my site specifically to look for it. It got to the point where, two years later, I finally snapped and decided to post another article discussing it, figuring I’d either quell it for good or get a shit-ton of views for it. Given that it’s the internet…I really shouldn’t have been surprised as to which ended up happening, and I don’t even think I need to tell you which one it was. Still, speaking of Pokémon articles where I go back and forth on if I should’ve ever brought it up…

#2 – “Ash’s Best Team of 6 Pokémon” from Feb. 10th, 2013
I am shocked, absolutely SHOCKED, that I didn’t get death threats from fans, considering how many people argued my point of not having Charizard on the team. Like, you’d think I’d killed their pet and made them watch as I did it. lol But yeah, looking back on this article, I will say that… … …yeah, Charizard probably should be on there. In fact, I’m actually planning on doing a revised version of the list in the near future, as soon as a certain rumoured Pokémon becomes part of Ash’s roster. Still, what was it that changed my mind? Well, surprisingly enough, it was when Charizard rejoined the team near the end of Best Wishes. Yeah, the arc that turned me off to the anime, because it nonetheless managed to redeem Charizard for what I thought was an absolutely astonishingly pathetic last showing beforehand. Still, expect to see Infernape and a few other of Ash’s better Pokémon on a list of honourable mentions when the revised list comes out.

#3 – “What’s A Paladin Rant” from June 10th, 2012
I can only imagine what it must be like for Noah Antwiler, who must STILL to this day get people asking him what a Paladin is, when even I’m still getting people checking out that article of mine discussing the matter. But I do get why. It’s just one of the dumbest things you’ll ever hear someone say in a video game, when you factor in everything that everyone in-game knows at this point. Seriously, roll my vid again.
Oh, and because I like tooting my own horn, I’d like to once again point out that I was the first to use homjakilla’s song in that video. lol But yeah, one of the stupidest fucking lines in a video game EVER… … …BUT, at least it led to probably the most badass line Spoony’s ever said.

#4 – “N. Harmonik’s Favourite 5 – 5 Favourite Oggy and the Cockroaches Episodes” from Dec. 30th, 2013
…There was an idea. The idea was that, because N. Harmonik had done so much for me, proofreading damned near every article I’ve ever written, and a lot of my stories, that she should have her own article on the blog. So, basically, this was a late Christmas present to her. Plus, while I personally was not that big a fan of Oggy and the Cockroaches, I nonetheless saw the potential it had as a show and how many people liked it that I thought it deserved some additional exposure. As such, I had Aibo (I call her Aibo because it means partner) do not one but two articles about the show. And because her articles have gotten so many views by you all, I’ve decided to go ahead and give her some space here to say thank you. 🙂
I thank all of you for reading these two articles I created, whether or not you’re OatC fans! Oh and please check out my fics: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/632668/

#5 – “Zelda Chronology: Ghirahim is just CREEPY!” from Jan. 27th, 2012
Lastly, an article that was part of my short-lived Zelda Chronology series. As one of the articles from my first year as a blogger, I suppose it makes sense that it’d also be one of my highest viewed, and considering the subject matter…yeah, not shocked it’s this one that gets all the attention. I still maintain that Ghirahim’s oddity as a character is what makes him so memorable, though, and am glad to see him return for games like Hyrule Warriors. And really, no one should be shocked that I connected him to Lady Gaga when you consider that he’s a demon from Hell and is going to kill us all. XD Unfortunately, because of YouTube copyright laws, the video in the article had to be taken down, and will never be posted on there again… … … …The good news is, I decided to post it elsewhere. ^_^
And that’s my 700th article, everybody. Thanks for reading along, and be sure to continue to do so as we venture into the future of more escapist fiction and absurd reality. And lastly, I just wanna thank everybody that has gotten me to this point. Of course, N. Harmonik, my wonderful proofreader who has appeared in some of my vlogs. DorkynProudofit, who did the Man of Steel vlogs with me. PinkRangerWannabe, who co-wrote ‘Lewis Lovhaug Is Not Your Slave’. Morgan Meryl, who did the logo for this blog years ago. Emmybomber, who suggested I talk about moms in comics. And I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot more, but lastly, I wanna cover a lot of people who have inspired me in different ways throughout my various endeavors over the years: Scott Snyder, Lewis Lovhaug (AKA Linkara), Emile Rosales-Birou (AKA Chuggaaconroy), Gail Simone, Charles Sonnenburg (AKA SF Debris), Rosen Rose of the Poison Ivy League, Doug Walker (AKA The Nostalgia Critic), Diane Darcy (AKA helenawaynehuntress), Paul Heyman (no, seriously, lol), G. Willow Wilson, and Justin Carmical (AKA the late great JewWario). Thank you all for being the people you are, as it helped me to be who I am. Ja né!
How To Drop The Ball In Comics: Val-Zod
There are characters who can sound AMAZING on paper, and maybe even be so, but, when placed into just the absolutely wrong situation, can fail epically. Welcome to the next installment of How To Drop The Ball In Comics, where I look at what I believe to be a legitimately GOOD idea in comics, why I felt that it was, and how it failed to live up to the hype. And following in the tradition of the first one I did, let’s look back to the rebooted universe of Earth 2 as we check out at Val-Zod, AKA the new Superman of the new Earth 2.
Who Is He?: Created by Tom Taylor, Nicolla Scott, and Robson Rocha for Earth 2 #19 in 2014, Val-Zod is presumably the son of General Zod in the rebooted universe of Earth 2 in the New 52. As I mentioned before, in this version of events, Earth 2’s Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman died saving the world from Darkseid. However, after one of Darkseid’s agents, Brutaal, was revealed to be Superman back from the dead and under his control (actually, it later turned out to be a Bizarro-esque clone, and that the real one was kept locked away to have more clones created from him), the heroes of the world found themselves in a desperate struggle to save the world from its greatest hero. Luckily, as it turned out, they had a trump card hidden among them, kept under lock and key by Terry Sloan: Val-Zod, one of the last surviving Kryptonians. While he was initially agoraphobic and wished not to fight, he eventually came to grips with his fears and concerns, becoming the new Superman.
How Did He Have Potential?: Well, while he’s not the first example of this, it’s nonetheless cool to see the Man of Steel also be a man of colour. Granted, I don’t know how that works with an alien species, but then again, this a race that looks just like us anyway. If we can accept that, it’s not TOO much of a stretch to think they have different skin colours among them as well. But really, the thing that I love about Val-Zod as a character is the fact that he’s a pacifist. Growing up, he was under the belief that violence was senseless, and learning the value of mind over body, he has chosen not to fight. So, for those wondering, no, there will be no “I AM A MAN!” punches coming from him. But don’t you dare think of him as a wuss. Instead, he takes all that strength that his Kryptonian body has, all the amazing abilities of Superman, and uses them specifically for the purpose of helping and defending people. He will not fight back, but as shown through his eventual confrontation with Brutaal, he doesn’t need to. Just standing up to Brutaal when he was threatening others was enough, as the act of trying to punch Val to death instead caused the clone of Kal-El’s body to break down. As he himself put it, “I won’t kill Kal-El…but I need to fix what he has broken.” In short, he is everything that one can and should be: Strong not just in body, but in mind and conviction, unwilling to let bad things happen to good people, and able to inspire others to be better themselves. In many ways, it’s hard not to consider him the legitimate successor to Superman’s legacy… … …however…
How Did It Drop The Ball?: The problem is that, while I concede that Val-Zod is a legitimate successor to Kal-El, there is another who is every bit as legitimate as him, who has been around for much longer, and in the original Earth 2 history was Superman’s successor on the Justice Society of America. That person is Kara Zor-El, AKA Power Girl. And again, as I’ve brought up before, when Kara returned to Earth 2, she was immediately set up to be nothing more than just another member of the Super family, Val-Zod’s love interest, and most degrading of all, had a Superman logo placed on her costume. For those who don’t know, in one of her earliest appearances, Power Girl was given a logo for her costume, but crushed it because it was blatantly a Superman logo (except with a P instead of an S), and she didn’t want to be seen as just being Superman’s cousin. She wanted to be her own woman, not in any way ashamed of her heritage, but looking to carve out her own legacy as she carried on in Superman’s place. And what’s REALLY sad about that is that, with the current Earth 2 stories centering around the idea of them inhabiting a new version of Earth 2 to replace the one destroyed by Darkseid (long and AWFUL story), there’s more than enough room for both Kara and Val to co-exist as successors to Kal-El without taking away the other’s credibility, if the story was well written. The problem is, it’s NOT well written, because Daniel H. Wilson doesn’t understand how the character works and has taken away her agency. But on top of all of that, when you get down to it, Val himself isn’t really doing much of anything to be a big deal either, as most of the attention in the Earth 2 books goes to, you guessed it, BATMAN. And it’s not even a worthy nor legitimate successor to Batman, but that’s a rant for another day. The point is, whatever momentum Val had as a character seems to have completely come to a halt, and the way that he, Kara, and really everybody in the Earth 2 books have been handled just goes a long way to show why they’re just not any good, despite the mass amount of potential that they had.
Anyway, that’s all I’ve got to say about all of this. If you wanna know more about how the Earth 2 books are continuing to fail miserably, be sure to check out Lapses In Logic over at http://www.helenawaynehuntress.com/. Ja né!
How To Drop The Ball In Comics: Worlds’ Finest
Hello, and welcome to a new spot on the blog I like to call ‘How To Drop The Ball In Comics’. This is where I take a look at what I thought was a legitimately GOOD idea in comics, why I felt that way, and how it eventually kinda fell on its ass. With that said, let’s take a look at Worlds’ Finest.
No, not that one. THIS ONE:
What Is It?: Created for The New 52 as part of a branching-out to tell stories involving characters from Earth 2, Worlds’ Finest specifically looked at Huntress (Helena Wayne), daughter of Batman and Catwoman, and Power Girl (Kara Zor-L/Karen Starr), cousin of Superman. However, the twist was that, after surviving the final battle of a war that claimed the lives of their respective families, the two found themselves accidentally exiled to Earth 0, the primary Earth of the DC Multiverse since the Multiverse’s rebirth in Infinite Crisis. As such, we had cases where, in this and other books, they’d encounter other-dimensional relatives, like Robin, Batman, and Superman, and even Power Girl’s alternate universe self, Kara Zor-El, many of which were pretty awesome. As another twist, it was revealed that, in this continuity, Power Girl and Huntress started their crime fighting careers as their world’s Supergirl and Robin (bringing the female Robin count up by one). So, let’s take a look at what I liked about it.
How Did It Have Potential?: Well, for starters, it was a book about two badass superheroines. Second, Power Girl and Huntress’ history, given certain reboots and retoolings to the DC Universe and its history, can be…confusing. For example, most people that started reading comics after Crisis On Infinite Earths, or have watched Justice League Unlimited, are probably more familiar with the Earth 0 version of Huntress, Helena Bertinelli. This was a good way to bring in Helena Wayne and distinguish her from her counterpart. Mind you, this led to some confusion as well, given that Hel apparently passed herself off as Bertinelli for five years, except that in the New 52, Helena Bertinelli is black, but whatever. This helped explain a few things about the characters for people that weren’t in the know about them. Also, as I’ve established before, the initial arc ended with them and the military fighting a giant villain in a Japanese harbour. If Godzilla and Megazord had shown up at that moment, I would’ve squeed so hard, you could’ve probably heard it IN JAPAN! lol And as much as some people got ticked about Karen’s new costume, I actually kinda liked it…until it proceeded to get torn and burnt up over and over, to where Power Girl was actually more decent in the old boob window costume, which is part of the reason why I was glad she switched back to it.
How Did It Drop The Ball?: There’s a few reasons. First…I don’t know if it was an issue with editorial, or if Paul Levitz, the man who frigging CREATED Huntress, forgot how her character worked, but the characterization for Hel and Karen feels off in this book. Hel’s a bit too much of a buzzkill, and at one point called someone a “little bitch”, and Karen is WAY too flirty, and once witnessed a bunch of kids being sucked into a Boom Tube and was pretty much like “…Huh. That was a thing”. Also, in my opinion, they spent WAY too long on Earth 0, only managing to get back to Earth 2 when things were at their darkest, lowest point, and when their place as the rightful heirs to Superman and Batman’s positions had been usurped in their absence by two men: Val-Zod (who I actually don’t mind, save for when he’s Karen’s blatant love interest), and Earth 2 Thomas Wayne (who was revealed to be alive, a frigging bum, a drug addict, and an overall horrible character altogether). And once they made it back to Earth 2, did the story become about how the two worked together as last-minute surprise reinforcements to turn the tide against Apokolips? NOPE, the book instead completely shifted gears to tell a prequel story about Earth 2 Superman and Batman, will apparently be cancelled along with the other Earth 2 books (not counting the one that’ll start post-Convergence), and Huntress and Power Girl were instead treated to World’s End, where Karen flirted with Val, lost Kal-El AGAIN, and got a Superman logo on her suit (completely missing the point of the boob window), while Huntress was subjected to body horror, torture porn, and drugs. If you are a fan of either of these characters, by all means, send your grievances about such decisions to the head-writer of Earth 2: World’s End, Daniel H. Wilson…Seriously, here’s an example of his very lame attempts to justify his decisions regarding Helena.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say about the matter. If you’d like MORE on the subject, as well as the overall mistreatment of Earth 2, women, LGBT characters… … …Really, anyone that’s not a straight white male in The New 52, be sure to check out http://helenawaynehuntress.tumblr.com/ and http://helenawayne.blogspot.ca/. Ja né!