Reviews – Comics, the Universe, and Everything

It’s been over a year since I thought I’d get this rewatch going again, and nearly a year since I’ve had any significant presence on the interwebs whatsoever. Hopefully it will take this time. Live posts of upcoming episodes on BlueSky (@kolacinski.bsky.social), starting with S1, E6.

My #StarTrekVoyager rewatch S4E03 “Parallax”

We get right into the story; many things happen just in the teaser. Integrating the Maquis into the Starfleet crew is a story that needs to be told. Done right, it should take quite a while. This time we’re focused on B’Elanna.

Neelix explains black holes to Kes. He says that an event horizon is a "very powerful energy field." — Event horizons aren’t “very powerful energy fields.”

The “senior officers” include the greenest ensign and the recent parolee. That alone should have taken longer to sort out. Is that what they’re going for by having Neelix and Kes crash the party? It seems sloppy. And Kes’ “good idea” about the hydroponics bay is too obvious.

The B story has potential. Neelix “explains” an event horizon. Somebody needs to buy him a damn dictionary. But the tension surrounding the issue is well-formed. A throwaway line explains why the Doctor seems to have emotions. It doesn’t explain why he’s so caustic, though.

There are many interesting things to explore about the Doctor. Can he grow into the position? Even he doesn’t know, as he literally starts to shrink. Kim’s dismissiveness and Kes asking his name put a fine point on it. A lot is going on in this episode… perhaps too much.

The Doctor, literally shrinking, stands on a chair to compensate. — At least they didn’t skimp on the special effects.

The episode gets better when the B’Elanna & singularity plot lines merge; the focus helps. B’Elanna proves herself and shows some growth along the way. It’s nice that Carey acts like a mensch after being passed over for Chief Engineer, even as Janeway mentions other concerns.

An ultimately decent episode with better-than-expected performances from some of the cast. It’s weakened by trying to address everything. Are they trying to shortcut the drama of merging the crews? The Doctor’s dilemma is one casualty; it’s mainly played for laughs.

#StarTrek #StarTrekVoyager #StarTrekVoyagerRewatch

Images used under the fair use doctrine.

I read the first issue of the New Superior Spider-Man when it first came out and I wasn’t inspired to invest in the series. Not even Terrax was enough to inspire me to purchase issue 2. But while my car was being serviced, I noticed that the first issue was available on Marvel Unlimited. I decided to give it a second read. It did not get better. The set up is obvious, Dr. Octopus’ mind now resides in a cloned body of Peter Parker, with all of the powers that implies. He’s teaching at Horizon University in San Francisco and trying to be a better hero than Peter. The whole thing has a perfunctory “been there, done that” kind of a feel. It’s the same themes as volume 1 without having Peter’s story to bolster my interest.

The art isn’t superior either; it’s competent, but all the characters look like posed manikins. I’ve seen people talking about how they really like this series and it isn’t terrible. Maybe I’ll return to it in a couple of years, once the entire run is on Marvel Unlimited, but then again, maybe not. I can’t see investing in this series for the individual issues.

Also, do you remember a time when comic book companies tried not to overexpose their characters? In the 1940s Superman, Batman and Flash couldn’t be in the JSA because each had his own book. Similar policies persisted for a long time. But now Peter has two books, Miles, Gwen and Otto have books and there’s something called “Symbiote Spider-Man.” If Marvel isn’t careful, we’ll all have brand fatigue before long.

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