Musings – Page 3

Ambivalently Forgetting Supergirl

Yes, it took me over a month to gather some thoughts on James Gunn’s latest contribution to the DC Universe in the form of the Craig Gillespie-helmed Supergirl. And the reason for that was because it took me a while to get around to seeing this thing in theaters.

What happened was that a friend had some tickets that they got on special and invited me along with a couple others in exchange for food and drink (elsewhere; movie goods are too bloody expensive for what little you get these days.) I figured why not and then we went and saw the film… and then we promptly forgot about it.

And that is not a good sign when this is supposed to be one of your tentpole features in your whole Gods And Monsters story arc that may or may not get a Chapter Two.

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In Case You Didn’t Get The Memo…

In case you didn’t get the memo, this weekend is playing host to WWE’s annual Summerslam event that has now expanded into TWO WHOLE NIGHTS of mediocre sports entertainment advertising blocks with some occasional bits of rasslin’ tossed in for good measure. While I wouldn’t normally be harping on this point because I’ve long since been at peace with it, I do feel the need to bring it up for the few folks who message me about these things.

So let’s put it out there. I currently do not have nor do I plan on having a Netflix subscription for the expressed purposes of watching this weekend’s festivities. Furthermore, I haven’t gotten the chance to check out the reviews, reactions, and results of the first night of prestigious commercials.

I’m sure all the guys and gals worked their hardest and the crowd who showed up enjoyed the show. All the more power to them, I suppose. However, if anything of significance happened that requires some sort of reaction on my part, I’ll be sure to supply it, but I won’t be doing a full show recap or anything. I’m not sure if I have it in me anymore to be honest.

Oh, well. Enjoy the show, everyone.

On The 31st Day… I See Clearly… But Not Section 31

It is the 31st of July in the year of our lord 2026… and it’s the time-honoured tradition of my declaration of not having watched the Section 31 streaming motion picture starring Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh.

Yes, we are still doing this.

For how long?

As long as it takes…

As long as it takes what?

I don’t know. Until I feel like stopping.

Cool. And when will that be?

Fuck knows.

Oh.

All I know is that this amuses me.

Oh… fuck.

Yes.

I’m scared.

You should be, child.

Grayson’s Wet Fart

Someone had the audacity to forward me Grayson Waller’s so-called “pipebomb” from this past week’s edition of NXT. I watch it, I believe none of what this man is saying, and the whole thing went over like the proverbial fart in church.

Let’s be fair, though; as great as that original “pipebomb” was fifteen years ago, it’s not exactly timeless. Punk eventually got what he wanted and now his so-called “pipebombs” are more like water balloons. They’ll make a bit of a mess, but they’re practically harmless.

Grayson’s wet fart is somewhere beneath that, even. At least Punk sells his bullshit and can convince you it’s real. If Grayson was capable of cutting such promos, he wouldn’t be exiled back to NXT while his former tag partner is filling a spot on RAW.

Anyway, I’m on the road for the next few hours and should be home later tonight. Will throw something together for Saturday night.

Later.

A Brief Word On MLP Mayhem

So after what seemed like weeks into the show’s lifespan, I finally managed to come across an airing of the new Mayhem show from Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Pro wrestling promotion… which airs at midnight on TSN. Hell of a time to catch a wrestling show… reminds me of the days when they used to air first-run RAWs at midnights. The good ol’ days…

Oh wait, those weren’t good ol’ days. I still went to bed early those days… AND I slept well (enough).

Anyway, the show itself is a passable hour of wrestling. Opening with a fun six-man tag match between the team Jay Lethal, Blake Christian & Lee Johnson going up against Psycho Mike, BILLY GUNN (yes, he’s still going… when does he main event Wrestlemania? ) & Zach Gowen (yes, that Zach Gowen… the one-legged Zach Gowen… he’s still going, too… when does HE main event Wrestlemania?) that saw Lethal score the win for his team by rolling up Psycho Michael… is Lethal still with AEW? Is it wrong to presume a string or two was pulled to have the AEW guy go over the Psycho Mike fellow?

Next match are mostly fresh faces for me, as the team Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews (a.k.a. SUBCULTURE) defeated Gabriel Fuerza & Vaughn Vertigo (a.k.a. FIGHT OR FLIGHT) in a match that was a bit too short for my liking, especially with two teams I’m largely unfamiliar with. Alas, the drawbacks of running a short runtime is what will hurt some of these shorter matches, including the one women’s match that also went by fairly quickly and featured two women I knew nothing about.

Main event featured Rohan Raja defending what they called a PWA Champion’s Grail against the Dark Order’s Evil Uno, who – despite being an AEW guy – did NOT win the match, but then out comes Stu Grayson, who I’m told is the interim Canadian champion (lots of interim champions these days) and he accepts Raja’s challenge from last week to put his title on the line, but only if Raja puts up his grail for grabs.

And then the show ends with Adam Copeland cutting a promo… I guess he’ll be showing up at a later MLP show. Christian Cage, however, couldn’t be bothered. He’s too busy being father of the year, somewhere.

So what do you want me to tell you? It’s a hour-long show (with commercials) that has a couple matches and a couple squashes to fill time. Just fine if you want to kill an hour watching perfectly acceptable wrestling, but certainly not worth staying up at night on a weekly basis. Even trying to DVR this thing, it’ll probably be something I’ll forget to catch up on with all the other stuff going.

That having been said, I’ve seen a couple (full) MLP shows in the past and there’s been some promise with some of the stuff they pulled out. Wish those guys all the best and hopefully, I’ll be able to watch a couple more of their shows down the road. There’s an interest on my end… but this show needs a better timeslot.

THE BITE COMMENTARY #19 – The (Not So) New 52!

Next month – August 31st, to be precise – will mark the 15th anniversary of The New 52!

The 2011 attempt by DC Comics to reboot their entire universe, kicked off by the five-issue event comic Flashpoint – which would be used as the basis for the Ezra Miller Flash movie that James Gunn declared “the greatest superhero film ever made” or something – which was done in a rush and without any prior warning ahead of time to give creators time to flesh out their plans, save for a select few involved who got to keep their continuities going despite the whole thing being a “clean slate” for all.

Five years later, the New 52 would slowly be phased in favor of a “Rebirth” that restored elements of pre-New 52 continuity.

There are a lot of pieces and articles out there that can dive into the whole history of The New 52 – here’s one example here – but this commentary is less about how the world viewed The New 52, but rather my own reaction to the whole deal… or perhaps a lack thereof.

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Atari Cinematic Universe when, Civvie? (And also, WHY?)

SOURCE: https://deadline.com/2026/07/atari-universal-deal-10-game-ip-script-matt-reilly-carl-hampe-entertainment-360-1237001656/

From Deadline.com is an article reporting that Atari Inc. has inked a deal with Universal Pictures to develop ten of their classic video game properties into theatrical motion pictures, with the first project being a screenplay by Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe, to be produced by Entertainment 360… they don’t specific what particular IP this is adapting, but according to the article, Universal has the rights to make movies based on the following Atari properties.

Get a load of this, folks. We’ve got ASTEROIDS… we’ve got ADVENTURE… we’ve got BERZERK… we’ve got BREAKOUT… CENTIPEDE… CRYSTAL CASTLES; I can see a possible Bentley Bear franchise if that ends up being a winner… MILLIPEDE, so we already know Centipde might get a sequel… MISSILE COMMAND, which, yeah, I could see a movie out of that… PONG… yes, PONG is getting a movie… and finally YARS’ REVENGE, which might be the only one that has some basis for a possible feature film.

Now the rest of it, though… yeah, I question why things like GRAN TURISMO or CALL OF DUTY are getting movie adaptations, but at least, those are recent gaming properties that people are widely familiar with and are still being played today. But when someone tells me that they’re going to make a movie about PONG, which is just two lines and a dot bouncing around the screen… this is CollegeHumor-levels of parody we’re dealing with here.

But here’s the thing, though; is there any real, genuine interest from the movie-going audience in seeing movies based on very old, very ancient Atari arcade titles? And most of all, how do you make movies based on these things and make them interesting? These are old arcade titles with the barest minimum of substance. How do you make a movie about blasting asteroids? How do you make a movie about BREAKOUT? BERZERK… I don’t know, maybe… MISSILE COMMAND might have something to it… ADVENTURE is just fill in the blanks… YARS REVENGE has something there… but explain to me how you make a movie about PONG?

And then explain to me why anyone would want to make movies about these games, let alone watch them… and I’m not asking that in any dismissive fashion, as if to say, “Who the fuck is gonna watch this shit?” I’m genuinely curious as to why anyone believes that people would want to see movies based on these very old and simplistic Atari games that, outside of those few who still play these old Atari games… is there an audience out there that is absolutely clamoring for an Atari cinematic universe to come along and exist among all the other IPs being farmed for content fodder that is going to get a bit of a buzz, get released, and then quickly forgotten about to make way for the next big thing.

I mean, if you’re an old-school Atari fan and you’re excited about this news, I’m curious as to why… because as someone who grew up playing Atari and still plays Atari in some fashion, I have no interest in these potential films whatsoever… but then again, I must be missing something because apparently, there is an interest in making these arcade titles into movies.

So… I don’t know… we’ll see how this develops and who knows? Maybe that first movie gives us a good first impression and maybe grabs some eyeballs. And hey, if they produce a trailer worth a damn that sells me on whatever they’re doing, I’ll give it a shot… on streaming, of course. I haven’t had the urge to watch a movie in theaters since Superman.

COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (2026) #2

When last we saw our heroes, they were being overwhelmed by a new villain that’s a rehash of an old villain in Rita Rabiosa and one of their own has seemingly decided to set their communicator on Do Not Disturb, hence why they’re not answering the call. Also, I had a lot more questions than I had answers and was hoping that this issue would at least fill in some holes that desperately needed filling.

Well, about that…

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Sooner Or Later… We Need To Have That Talk…

A lot of news (and certainly a lot of noise as well) circulating regarding Sony’s recent announcements of sorts. As I’ve teased in the State Of The Blog a couple weeks ago, I have a lot of thoughts on the matter and unfortunately, some folks might not like what I have to say because it reveals a reality that none of us want to really admit about the industry and our collective roles in creating the state that this hobby is currently in.

But that talk is not today.

The truth is that this has been a subject that has been weighing on me for almost a decade and I never really felt the need to rock that boat because I’m a relatively significant voice in a wider pool of sharks and influencers that cry out louder to reach farther people. And it’s a discussion of sorts that I’ve held off having because I have so many thoughts about this and so many developments that have come along the way sort of pushed those thoughts aside for the short term.

But we’ve reached a point where that time to share this perspective on an industry might be looming sooner than I would like. And if we are going to have this talk, I’m going to be put everything on the table. Again, a lot of what I might say about this situation is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way and I am not oblivious to the fact that some of these realizations make my stomach turn a bit – and considering my digestive conditioning, that’s one area that doesn’t require much of a push. Which is why I’m taking my time with this. I want to cover all my bases, I want to clearly define where I’m coming from and why I’m going there, and most of all, I want people to understand that there is considerable amounts of condemnation to go around on both sides of the argument – and I’ll throw myself into the mix because from my perspective, I’m also to blame for the predicament we find ourselves in.

When the time comes – and I promise that time will be sooner than later – it’ll be scorched earth.

But not THAT Scorched Earth.

That’s the good kind.

Later.

Rebuilding The Megazord

I want to backtrack back to Once And Always, the 30th Anniversary special that aired on Netflix a couple years back. Heard a few people inquiry about how they were able to bring back a bunch of stuff – whether it’d be old powers, old zords, or whatnots. I’d like to offer some simple theories as to how this may be.

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