Look Out! Here Comes A- well, you know the rest

Good news from Blog@Newsarama!
Marvel.com is going to start showing episodes of the classic 1967 Spider-Man cartoon whose unforgettable theme song inspired the title of moi's blog. Needless to say, I'm just a tiny bit pleased to hear this news.



And you know, it's not just the famous theme song I love - it's the whole soundtrack. The slightly kitschy, insistent background soundtrack is a delight. I'm not only in this opinion, believe it or not. Check out the work of comic-book-loving, Dr. Doom-mask wearing rapper MF Doom, who tends to sample the music and dialogue from tons of 60's and 80's superhero cartoons in his work.


Not everybody's cuppa tea but I enjoy it.

None of which is to slight the always entertaining new Spider-Man cartoon, Spectacular Spider-Man. I'm always impressed by how seamlessly the writers have managed to meld so many different continuities, inserting characters from the Spider-Universe and in-jokes without it feeling shoehorned. Given that it's from the guy who brought us Gargoyles - a show with such cleverness and dark twists that I still can't believe was aired by Disney, of all people - I really don't know why I'm so surprised. Plus, while I obviously love the classics, I gotta say that new theme song's got serious moxie.
(Mind you, no recent cartoon theme song can compare to Puffy AmiYumi and Guitar Wolf's Teen Titans theme song, but hell, no other recent cartoon serious has Guitar Wolf on it. I mean, c'mon guys - Guitar Wolf!)

Freaks and Geeks, DC-style

Admittedly, I'm not as familiar with DC as I am with Marvel . . . but does anybody else wonder if the Teen Titans consider the teen members of the JSA to be like the nerds who volunteer to run the projector? You know, the kind that remind the teacher whenever she forgets to give homework? I'm just saying.

Seriously, think about it:

Live lives full of hormones and violence, rocking out while being completely unsupervised in their Giant T-Shaped Building -




Live their lives at the Superhero Old Folks Home or at home with their parents, listening rapturously to their elders' story times and wondering why their noses keep getting browner and browner -

Superteen Battle Royale - Your Thoughts Please?

VS


ROUND ONE: Classic Teen Titans line-up versus Modern Runaways line-up - who wins?

Given our familiarity lies mostly with the animated series, Kay and I based a team for the Titans on that model - which turned out pretty evenly matched.

Raven Vs Nico, Starfire Vs. Karolina, Robin Vs. Chase & Old Lace - these all seem like pretty uneven match-ups on paper. On the other hand, I fully believe that Victor could take Cyborg, Xavin could take down Beast Boy and Molly Hayes could surprise Wonder Girl or Kid Flash into outcold-land. If we vary up these match-ups, things could get even more interesting.

In the end, we both leaned towards the Runaways. This was mostly because they A)have the stealthy lack of costumes going on, B)have the son of a Skrull Warlord who's willing to kill people (yes, Xavin hasn't been shown killing anyone but c'mon, (s)he's a freaking Skrull Warlord's son, people), C) Molly Hayes sucker punched the Punisher - doing the same to Robin isn't outside the realm of possibility.

While we didn't think it'd be a rout, we felt fairly sure it'd turn into at least a draw. Also, I just plain love to imagine the Titans being utterly befuddled by these kids without costumes who fight dirty. Now, if we were talking modern age Titans with Devil Boy, the Martian telepath and more importantly, Ravager and the royally ticked off Wonder Girl, I'd probably be singing a different tune.

Now, the winner of this battle have to take on the most vicious teen team we could think of - Gail Simone's revamp of Gen13.


Now before you scoff, these aren't the same cheesecake-y scamps from the early 90's you may think you know. Every one of them just saw their foster families murdered in front of them Batman-style, because the guy who cloned their bodies and raised them to be a certain way THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUNNY. Each of them knows they're freaks of nature and aren't terribly happy about it (save Zen Grunge and Rasta Bobby but their anger still simmers deep down). They're all smarter, more paranoid and willing to kill if need be than their previous incarnations (well, poor Roxy's certainly more prone to violence at least). Grunge killed a version of Apollo, for heaven's sake. Whichever team you choose to stand against them, I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of a long, brutal battle.

Even Kay and I were uncertain about who would win what. At least I'll get to see a match-up of sorts between the Gen13ers vs the Titans in the upcoming Wildstorm/DC: Dreamwar.

The funniest part? After all this teen blogging, what I'm most excited about in the upcoming DC/Wildstorm thing is the JSA Versus the Welcome to Tranquility beat-down.

As Giffen himself so neatly puts it: "Geriatric wars, man! [laughs] Any book that's got old people pounding the shit out of each other -- c'mon! It's worth the price."