Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles What's with the hating?

I love the turtles. I'm sure most of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s love them too. With the recent development on the new film there had been some ups and downs. I'm not going to lie. At first they had me worried when they originally were going to have a extraterrestrial origin. I know there was some concern about how they look and many other worries. Now that I've seen the recent trailer, I'm not that worried. I have my reservations, but I look forward to seeing this movie. However, there's a lot of hatred for this project and I think I know why. Here's what I think it is and here's my issue with this hate.

Their look:

People are complaining about how they look. They hate their noses and their mouths. And how they all differentiate from each based on what they are wearing. Here's my issue with that. Real turtles have noses, they aren't round and bulbous. I know you're hating on the mouths. How do you expect them to express themselves and enunciate properly without actual lips? They can't do that with beaks like real turtles. Keep in mind the key word "Mutant" in their title. The point is that they are mutated turtles, more humanoid to a certain degree. Calm down. And their swag or lack there of, lol. I'm okay with that for this reason: 
All these iterations I love. As you can tell, there were slight improvements in their looks. However, they pretty much looked the same. I know we all can argue about the little nuances about each character to explain their differences and I would agree with you. Can't we all agree that the 2012 series actually gave them more physical features to make them all different, from freckles and gaps in their teeth to height and eye color. So it would make sense to me that they would look different in the movie. Are they going a little crazy with their gear? Possibly, but does it really hurt the characters?

Megan Fox:

Many hate Megan Fox for different reasons. I don't like her for hurt lack of knowledge of some of my favorite characters which roles she were offered. And the disrespect that came out of her stupid mouth. Nevertheless, a lot of us don't like her. I will agree she would never had been my first choice for April O'Neil, but they didn't run it by me. However, I don't think we should crucify a movie for one or two crappy persons involved (Green Lantern).

Michael Bay:

I honestly don't know why people hate this director. He's done some great films in my opinion. From Bad Boys to The Island to Transformers series. He hasn't failed me......yet. He almost messed up with his first idea for the four brothers. I'm giving him a chance now that he's wised up. Let's be real, there are some really crappy directors out there, who have done some weird things. And there are some really good directors out there who jacked up movies too (X-Men: The Last Stand, The Hulk, Elektra, Punisher: Warzone, Reign of Fire). However, these guys are still respected, still working and are doing some big projects. I'm not saying he's going to do this perfectly. Shredder's current evolution has me puzzled, but we'll see if there's a reasonable (cringe) explanation of that.

In the end, we're all going to see this film. I would love to be pleasantly surprised. In truth, I'm there to see my favorite heroes in a half shell kick some Foot in the teeth. See their relationship with each other and their epic throw down with......Robo-Shredder? Cyber-Shredder? Slap-Chop! Either way, give it a chance and calm down on the hate until we see the full end result. If I think it's garbage, I'll write a new blog about it, if I hate it.

Injustice 2: Casting Call

I love the Injustice game. It's on my list of favorite games. A legit comic book hero game coming from DC other than the Arkham series. Nods off to DC/WB for finally making a good decision. This year Neatherealm has announced a new Injustice being made. It'll most likely come out next year. With this new one, I'm sure they'll make some balance adjustments. And hopefully they'll tone down on the priority on using the environment. And we'll have returning characters. It'll be the obvious, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Aquaman. I definitely think they need to change the cast and I have an idea who should be in it.

Robin Legacy:

Now I know we got Nightwing in the first one. Then give us Timothy Drake or Jason Todd. They can be in their Robin mantle, or have them as Red Hood or Red Robin. Hey, give us both of them. They fight completely different, it would be a nice addition to the roster. And no Damian, he can go jump off a bridge.

Dr. Fate:

I imagine him being a zoning character. With teleportation and everything. He would look really cool with X-Box One or PS4 graphics and gameplay.

Mr. Terrific:

I could see him being a zoning and rush down character. Be in your face using his 6 discipline martial arts on you. Then dash back and use his T-Spheres to jack you up and keep you out. Plus we need another black man in this game that isn't Cyborg. Not that I don't like him, but we need some more.

Beast Boy:

I think Gar would be a great idea. Using his morphing abilities in different attacks makes sense to me. And his super would be awesome especially if he morphs a lot in the animation.

Darkseid:

He would be great!! Hits like Doomsday and looks cool doing it. Imagine him saying "Omega Beams!" when he blasts you. I think he would be a good addition to the villains in the game.

Mongul:

Another heavy hitter to put in the mix. He's really cool and would be a nice counter pick against Superman. We all know everyone will play Superman with the sequel comes out.

There are so many other characters I would love to see in this game. Like Starfire, Aqualad, Kilowag, Big Barda and other really cool ideas. And one thing they need to keep in mind are skins. The game need more skins for other characters than Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. If you keep the game diverse, the replay value will continue to rise. I look forward to seeing the first screenshots and trailer of this game.

My Choice of Powers

You all know I love the X-Men. These comic books have made me want to be a mutant more often than not. I wanted powers so bad I practically imagine them. Knowing me, I'll probably end up being a matter eater or something. However, if I had my choice, here are some of the powers I would have. Granted this may or may not be all at once. Don't want to be "O.P." or anything.

Flight:

I've flown on planes plenty of times. And each time I'm always amazed how I love it. Just being up in the sky looking down at stuff below. Feeling relatively free, I am in a plane, lol. Nevertheless, I imagine what it would feel like if I was able to fly on my own. Especially if I can go super sonic speed.

Super-Speed:

I know what you're going to say. If I can fly, why super speed. It's my life, I do what I want. I still think it would be cool. To be so fast that you can go through walls, have everything slow down around you, even go back in time. There would be a few people in high school I would drop kick if I could do that.

Super Strength:

I mean come on, who wouldn't want to be able to lift a car above their head. Or punch Darkseid through several buildings. That would be awesome. In moderation of course (cough), of course! I would just love to go to the gym, take all the 45s and bench them all while texting. In your face buff guy!!

Telepathy and/or Telekinesis:

I don't know why I give it as an option. Because let's be real, we would want both. How cool would it be. Be able to read the minds of the weirdos around you. And then have them stumble and spill their Starbucks all over themselves. Or make them fall in a puddle or on some dog poop. Don't look at me, you've thought about it before!!

Healing Factor or Invulnerability:

It would be awesome to be able to heal from any wound. And to be virtually immortal. Obviously you would need an insane healing factor. I just realized something, I don't like pain too much. Even though healing factor sounds awesome. A high level of invulnerability is better. That means I wouldn't be inflicted with any wound to have to heal. And if I played my cards right, be practically ageless. Keep up with me humans, I'm almost done.

Genius Level Intellect:

Here's the thing. I always want to learn stuff. From different languages and music to martial arts and computer engineering. However, I feel I don't have the aptitude for things like this. If I was a genius. Not only will I'll be able to learn these things in a small amount of time. I'd know how to put them to good use. I'll probably still forget where I put my keys though. Can't fix everything I guess.

Electricity:

Something about electricity interests me. I don't know what it is. I think it would be a cool power to have. I'm always getting shocked and electrocuted anyways, might as well get powers while I'm at it. Never have to worry about charging my phone ever again. But please don't call me to get a jump, will get old pretty fast.

Strong Women in Comics

I was always drawn to strong women. Or at least women I thought were strong. It partly has to do with my mom. She is a strong women, she raised my sister to be pretty strong person herself. Plus she loves strong characters in movies and comics herself. She's a big fan of Ripley in the Alien films. So I obviously picked up on that. So here is my small list of strong women I've always liked in comics.

Storm:

She pretty much goes without saying. She is also my mom's favorite. It's because of her I kind of had a problem with Halle Berry's portrayal of Storm. I mean this woman is tough as nails. Her powers are awesome, her leadership is superb. Loved her in the X-treme X-Men series. She was even dangerous when she didn't have her powers. Tough as steel but soft like silk. There's a reason Wolverine had mad respect for her.

She-Hulk:

I like her for the obvious reasons. She's buff, she's hot and I love that she can carry me. Carry me Jen!! One of the other reasons I like her is that she's the best at what she does. And what she does is attorney at law. I believe she's one of the smartest women of the Marvel universe. She attained an advanced post-baccalaureate degree. And is one of the top legal scholars in the universe, earning a masters of law degree. I mean she's wicket smart. 

Spider-Woman:

Jessica been through some mess. I mean she was turned into a spider-mutate as a fetus. Her training was tough in itself, she was trained by Taskmaster. I mean to succeed in that, she had to be pretty tough. I believe she even defeated Taskmaster herself. If any of you know how tough Taskmaster is, that is no small feat. I don't know if she's part of S.W.O.R.D. anymore. However, there was a reason she was recruited into that organization. 

Big Barda:

This is another woman who can pick me up without an issue. Barda is very......big, she's like 7' tall. I think she's naturally the tallest woman in DC universe outside of Giganta. She is as tough as she comes. I mean she lived on Apokolips, the home planet of Darkseid, which already sounds rough. And she was part of the Furies, which has some pretty brutal training and she lived through it. And she's pretty.....well pretty.

Wonder Woman:

I couldn't have Barda and not have the Amazonian. Wonder Woman really doesn't need introduction. Right now I'm not getting into the whole Gal Gadot thing. That's really for another time. I love her, she's pretty freakin awesome. She's fantastic, she can match Superman in strength, speed and skill. I wish she played better on Injustice though, we'll leave that for another day as well. I love the art done of her too. To this day, Michael Turner and Terry Dodson I believe have drawn her with some literal justice. There's a guy on deviant art under the name Nebeziel drew her pretty awesome too. Turner will always be my favorite.

Sara Pezzini:

I have a level of sentimentality to this character. She was my first exposure to the man who was my favorite artist, Michael Turner. She's the best too. Not only was she a NYPD cop, which requires you to be pretty tough. She was also chosen by the sentient alien weapon known as the Witchblade. She's pretty good with her revolver and hand to hand combat. Even when she was pregnant she was taking down thugs like a boss. That's why this lady is on the list of my favorites.

I'm sure you all have your favorites. And I know there are a lot more ladies in the comic universe who are pretty tough. There's Kitty Pryde, Jubilation Lee, Black Canary, Barbara Gordon and so on. But these are the ones that I appreciate the most. Plus they all can kick my butt, which is pretty awesome to me.

Old Heroes, New Universe

As a kid there were a bunch of cartoon characters I watched and wanted to be. When I got older, I realized that some of these characters needed a new age reboot. I mean they've done it to Transformers and TMNT constantly. I think some of these ideas would be great to reboot, but with a David Wilson twist to them.

Inspector Gadget:

I like this picture because this would be the way I would redo him. I definitely would make him darker. Make him a legitimate cyborg. Not make him all absent minded and stupid. This isn't Flubber! Have Penny definitely be a professional hacker and their dog a retired police dog. It would be sick. I think Claw can still remain faceless, that would be awesome. Have him actually go after renegade cyborgs, man, the possibilities. 

Space Ghost:

Loved me some Space Ghost when I was a kid. He was awesome. Had really cool armbands, he could fly, go invisible, loved it. I think if he was rebooted, he could stay pretty much the same. Just make his crew less Wonder Twiny, and get rid of the monkey. We don't need the monkey, they eat your face off!! With improved animation and some great voice actors and story. Space Ghost could make a come back. And none of that coast to coast junk. That show got old really fast.

Darkwing Duck:

Look, I know that he was never meant to be taken seriously. He was like a parody of Batman and stuff, I get that. However, what if was created in a serious light. With some really sick villains and allies. It was very clear he new different styles of martial arts. Add some really cool accessories for his gas gun and you'll have a really sick Darkwing. Take away Launchpad (I know we like him) and give him a legit Robin-like sidekick and there you go!! A legit terror that flaps in the night.

Blue Falcon:

As you can tell, I loved a lot of these older characters. They were reminiscent of Batman and I loved it. I mean come on. If they updated his suit. Give him a sick robot dog, because Dinomut can stuff it. He would be completely awesome. And forget Harvey Birdman, Blue Falcon would jack him up. 

She-Ra:

I mean why not. They did it to He-Man and they did a pretty decent job in my opinion. It was a little too flashy, but a really good job. I think they should do the same with her universe and make it as cool as the previous Masters of the Universe.

Thunder Cats:

I know what you're going to say. But David, didn't they already do it? And you're right, they did. The only thing I actually appreciate of the 2011 (?) reboot was the expansion of the universe. However, I didn't appreciate what they did to some of the characters. I didn't like what they did to Lion-O. He is supposed to be a kid in an adults body, I love that. He was forced to grow up in order to become king, I liked that story. I hated what they did to Panthro. He looked like an old drunk in the reboot. I need my sick techy black guy Panthro from the old series. I think they need to redo the series and be respectful to the original. Keep them looking like themselves. Stop trying to......I don't know what they were doing with them. They need to make the series like the comics, the ones several years ago, that was sick!!!

Voltron:

My sweet, sweet Voltron. I love this cartoon with all my being. I literally grew up on this show. Just hearing the old theme song brings the hype this man right now. Now yes they did the Voltron Force series and it wasn't too bad. I was kind of impressed with it. I mean they had a sick theme and they did a decent job with continuing the story after the original. I think with myself personally we should stick with the original team and focus on them. At some point they kept doing shows with kids being involved, Voltron Force, Transformer Prime and etc. They weren't bad at all. They were really good cartoons. I just think they should focus on the main characters instead of constantly trying to pass the mantle. Maybe I'm being bias, I just love my Voltron. I also think they should bring in the other Voltron Force, the vehicle one. I mean why not! Would be a pretty awesome separate story with their own characters and purpose. Give me what I want!!

I think they should consider this. Would be much better than the junk they pass for cartoons these days. We would get a lot more out of it in my opinion. Besides, we need to educate the kids these days on what real cartoons are like. In yo face Chowder. I don't know why I said that, Chowder is pretty funny. I love Adventure Time too. I don't hate all of them. Just the ones that hurt my face.

Heroes returns!! And I don't care!!

Nobody loved this show like I did. I watched this show faithfully. I even met one of the writers of the show Jeph Loeb at Wonder Con years ago. I was super jazzed about this show when it started. However, it started to let me down, especially half way through season 3 and all of season 4. In truth I didn't watch season 4 all of the way through. I just couldn't, the writing was killing me on the inside. Now with this announcement about Heroes returning. I was like, "Who cares?!" I know that seems rough, but the show let me down and they ruined certain characters in the show. If this show was ever going to get my love again, this is what needs to return and what needs to be resolved. Granted, I haven't seen season 4 all of the way through, so if this stuff was resolved, you're allowed to clarify for me.

Peter:

Peter was by far my favorite character. He was the destined for greatness character I always wanted to be. The show however, jacked him up. Not only did they give him a anti-climatic throw down with Sylar. They stripped down his powers and killed Future Peter. What! I want him on the road to becoming Future Peter. Now sure, he doesn't necessarily have to be so dark, but I liked the concept. And I was hoping he would get half-way to this persona. Give us the Peter we need, but don't deserve! No seriously, return him to the way he was.

Claire Bennet

Now that's assuming she returns. She was living it up in that Nashville show. But if she does, they need to clean her up a bit. This character was literally all over the place. At one moment, she wanted to be normal. Then she wanted to fight crime by hunting down criminal mutants. Then she wanted to go to college. Then she joined the circus.....I don't know anymore. And with that supposed prophecy about her. Last I checked it never clarified her importance in the universe and I'm pretty sure it still wasn't resolved.

Hiro Nakamura

I want this! Give me this or I'll walk away from the show forever!! Well I kind of already did but listen to me. I loved Hiro and so did Jeph Loeb. That whole brain thing junk they did in season 4 really made me walk away from the show. He was one of my favorite characters next to Peter and you messed with his journey to this. I mean look at him. He's in all black, cool ponytail and katana. And Hiro has a soul patch. You can always take someone seriously with that kind of soul patch!! I mean I like his goofy side, but even he has to get serious at some point. I really wanted to see him train and become a serious character like I know he could develop to be.

Matt Parkman

Talking about sending a guy all over the place. Parkman was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. At first he didn't know what to do with his powers. Then he was being written to be this sick telepath detective. I was like do it! He could be like Bishop and Sage in the District X comics. But no!!! Then he was confused again with what he wanted. Now him and Sylar became roomies in his head. What!! Gotta make up your mind with what you want to do with him. Either turn him into Det. Charles Xavier or make him into a nobody. None of this wishy washy stuff. Which is what you were doing with Claire too. Knock it off!!

Sylar

I know Sylar was a victim in his own right. Still trying to know his powers and how to control the hunger....if you want to call it that. However, he made a choice to be a villain, so keep him that way. I hate when folks try to humanize a bad guy. He was scary, dark, grim, quite sadistic, a solid comic book villain. Don't mess with him. And give us the Sylar vs Peter battle we're asking for. They should have called me and I would have wrote this entire show for them. It might have bombed. But it would have been better than sending Claire to the circus. And making Sylar think he was Nathan. On that note, did it hurt anyone's feelings when Sylar killed Nathan at the end of season 3? Didn't think so. I'm going to bed now.

Extended Universe, do we need it?

This is probably old news to all Star Wars fans. Maybe this is your first exposure to this. Either way it had been a subject of discussion among my people. With the recent claim that everything before and after the six films are not canon kind of rocked fans. I kind of understand. That means people like Revan, Luke turning dark and the twins don't exist. Well in truth I'm okay with Jacen not existing, he got on my nerves. However, knowing that kind of ruined our view of the Star Wars universe. I also had a recent discussion with my Trekkies about this and it came up that Roddenberry didn't want an extended  universe himself. However, we love these  stories. So here begs the question, do we really need these extended universes?

Yes:
After Return of the Jedi when I was a kid, I always wanted to know what happened to the entire cast. I mean did they retire? Did Han and Leia get married? Did Chewie go home or stay with Han? Did Lando make his own band? You know stuff like that. And as fans we wanted to believe that the universe continued on. As a kid with an imagination, I did what I did best.....speculate. It was later when I heard about the other books growing up did I get completely jazzed about extended universes. I mean we got to see Leia be a jedi. The restoration of the Jedi order. Got to see Boba Fett survive the pit. I mean this was cool stuff.

No:
Let's be real humans. These universes like Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, even Game of Thrones and stuff of that genre don't need to continue on. I mean unless they just want more cash. Before these other books and large amount of films. We as fans enjoyed what we had. I would watch Episode 4, 5, and 6 constantly and loved it. Watched Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home all the time and didn't need anything else. If Lucas and Roddenberry stopped with one or even two films, we would be okay. Why? They were great films and we ate those up. As storytellers they needed to finish what they started and they did so.....successfully. This extended universe happened for the sake of fans. It wasn't made for the new people, we would have them start at the beginning. The rest of it was for us. Did we need it? No, but we wanted it, really bad.

My personal opinion:
As a writer, I created what I've dubbed as The Darklaian Chronicles. The plan is to have this universe extend to at least a five book series. I imagine at that time I would either run out of ideas for that world or this system will end, whatever comes first. Either way I already know my run for this series wouldn't go on forever. However, if someone was inspired by my work and was compelled to extend it. As a storyteller, if it was a really good concept, I would welcome a fresh take on a world that is my own. However, once I finally finish the series, I will be very proud of it and wouldn't ask for anything else.

Death of a character, should we care anymore?

I remember the day Superman "died" in the comic books. My buddy came running to me at school. The look on his face, it was like someone died in real life. What's funny was when he told me I was pretty shocked as well. Then later we find out that he survived, we were very happy. However, this trend continued to happen over and over again through the years. And now the current series killing Wolverine, we may be losing another character. My reaction was like, "Eh, he'll come back." I'm serious I really didn't care. Why is that? It's partially because they usually don't die permanently. Well most of them. And I'm stuck to wonder how this jam works.

Who should die?

I'm not too surprised how this goes. Its usually the characters we care about the most. Obviously, the death of people like Cap and Batman was a big deal. And how they affected the universe was crazy. Or the death of certain villains affect the universe as well. I personally believe they pull it out of a hat and whoever is chosen they work them into a larger story arc. Or make their own (Wolverine) when they plan to kill them.

When should they return?

In certain situations I can see how a character returns. I'm still curious how they determine that. There are some I'm pretty impressed with. I like how Joss Whedon brought back Colossus in Astonishing X-Men. It was done really well and I praise him for great writing. Granted, sometimes its a fake out. Like Superman's supposed death, the same for the Human Torch. I get those cliffhangers and why they're done. You know, shame on us for thinking they were dead and not being faithful or patient enough to read the entire arc. Hats off to the fake outs. Any mythological characters, people like Thor and Hercules and etc. Their return is set on  a different level of rules and I almost assume they are always capable of returning. I actually like how the House of M phenomenon reset the universe to bring back people like Osborn and Hawkeye. Then there are the weird returns. Where the explanation transcends time and space (Captain America, Batman). Their explanations seem to be odd. Like, "Darkseid has two different Omega Beams and he used the other one on Batman." What?!

Who stays dead?

Now here's the real question. There are plenty of characters who die. And characters like Jean Grey, May Parker have returned plenty of time. However others like, Gwen Stacy never return. Why is that? I personally don't think there are any rhyme or reason to the choices. I think they wrestle in the break room to figure that stuff out. Personally I never get it and I kind of don't care. They always take back what they do in the comic books. It always leaves me dazed and confused.

Being a reader and a fan of certain characters I will get caught up in a decent story. So it wouldn't surprise me when they kill a character I personally like, how I'm affected. Then I get all fussy about the situation and super analyze it to find out later they never actually died. Or they returned as a clone or a robot or Johnny Depp. Either way, we should never ever be surprised a dead character returns and things return like it never happened. Thank you comic books for messing with my emotions. You owe me a Coke and a hug.