DR. BELCH
03-02-2002, 03:03 PM
STK. SHK. #14 "Sunspots"
When Virgil excuses himself from a rather tedious science class (by pretending to have gotten sick on bad lunchmeat) to stop a neighborhood fire, he discovers his powers have gotten to be too much to handle. Recalling the teacher's lecture about sunspots and how they can affect electromagnetic fields, he realizes he's essentially one big walking disaster area.
After ripping a metal door off its hinges and sending it flying, destroying a power line, and almost causing a traffic pileup, he realizes just how bad it is when he repelles a heap of metal junk at the scrapyard. He can't even fly on his disk without going out of control--he has to hitch a ride atop a plane (I've heard of economy class, but that's ridiculous) to return to Dakota. Richie is afraid to touch him because he's a walking joy buzzer, his sister freaks after static electricity causes all the stuff in his room to move, and Daisy is p.o.'ed with him because, while worried about his own problems, he stood her up on a study "date".
Add to that the return of Francis, aka F-Stop, aka Hotstreak--seems his time in stir hasn't mellowed him any. (I noted this ep number is before "Big Leagues", so the big flamer has yet to graduate from schoolyard bully to one of Joker's henchmen.) Virgil's afraid because with his powers all wonky, he might not be able to stop Hotstreak if he goes on another rampage
Virgil manages to bleed off some of his excess juice in the scrapyard, but another attack of static during a history test--the one he blew off studying with Daisy for--comes up, and he's forced to excuse himself again. He then realizes the opposite of too much juice--too little. The sunspots activity has taken away his powers.
Virgil might happily retire from the superhero biz right now, but Hotstreak picks that time to throw a flaming tantrum--and his powers aren't electromagnetic, so no chance of him cooling down. Static uses the zap caps to gain a slight psychological edge, but quickly runs out and is forced to run. Not exactly a shining moment, esp. when he loses his goggles.
However, Static seems to have a grasp of science, if not history, and manages to use a large industrial fan--knowing the risk to his own body, as Richie warns, but having no other choice-- to increase his tiny store of power, building up enough charge to blow up a water tower and douse Hotstreak.
The sunspots pass, and Virgil's fine--but poor Daisy. I wonder if she thinks of Virgil as more than a friend? She might even suspect there's another woman involved--which is absurd, because other than Frieda, the only other girls in his life are Permafrost, Talon, and Puff. Not exactly my idea of good company on Saturday night.
Note the voice of the science teacher is somewhat similar to Ben Stein ("Bueller....Bueller.").
Favorite exchange--Static and the frightened driver who asks for a lift because "the traffic...scares me even more".
JCA#226: "Enter the Cat"
This one put me in mind of a discussion over at the Toonami board a few days ago about cat-girls in anime. As I stated, the cat is the only animal besides man that hunts for sport, and a creature who combined the DNA of both would be a perfect, relentless predator.
You'd think Valmont would consider retiring from crime after being possessed for months by Chandu, but he hasn't--he turns up in the same Asian temple where Jackie is searching for a priceless cat statue. When Jackie finds it, the oily mobster shows up and artfully steals it. Unfortunately he nicks his hand on its claws during the heist.
The statue carries with it a curse, and Valmont finds himself turning into a cat-man. Though unlike Chandu's ideas for personal remodeling, Valmont finds he likes the changes--he has body hair, acute senses, agility...and a hefty appetite for cream. (At one point he breaks into a dairy to sate his appetites.)
Valmont was working with a partner, a large Sydney Greenstreet type, whom he double-crosses and, once he's paid for delivering the artifact, demands the statue as well.
Jackie conacts Uncle, who tells him that the cure for the curse is "within", but dismisses it as "gibberish". Jade, using Ruby, a cat she found in the catacombs, as a tracker, trails Valmont to his hideout ("A cow factory?") and manages to retrieve the statue--but, while jumping a wall unwittingly tears her pants and cuts herself. She later starts rubbing against things and develops an insatiable craving for milk.
I have to interject here that Jade looks simply adorable as a cat-girl, with the long hair and pointed ears. That'd make a great avatar.
The two cats fight like...well...cats...and Jackie decides the statue is too dangerous to deliever to the museum, He dashes it upon the floor. A cloud of pink powder rises from the shards and returns both cats to normal. Note at the end Jackie rubs Jade's head like a cat--I think he scratched her behind the ear, too, I'm not certain.
Great exchange: "What's a Babylonian urn?" "Probably a lot more than we do!"
Uncle seems a lot crankier and less cooperative than usual.
Note the refs to The Maltese Falcon--Valmont's employer is a caricature of Greenstreet, and his associate sounds like Peter Lorre. Get Smart did something very similar, as I recall.
Of course the big problem is, if the transformed cat-humans aren't in the room when the statue is broken to breathe the gas, is there another cure?
XMEN#23: "Walk on the Wild Side"
Was anyone else thinking of the "Harley and Ivy" epidode of Batman during this one?
During a training session for a new mutant, a girl codenamed "Magma", Jean gts unreasonably upset with Scott for interfering when the girls got in trouble--taking his chivalrous gesture for some male dominance thing. Already this is taking a direction I don't like.
At The Brotherhood House, Tabitha/"Boom-Boom" is acting like she's got a major case of the crankies, blowing open a bathroom door while Toad is in the shower (something he says he does once a month, which is either a comment on how bad Tolansky's personal hygiene or a sly double entendre for just why Boom-Boom is acting up :rolleyes: ). She makes a general nuisance of herself and then "borrows" Lance's jeep.
Boom-Boom and Magma share a class together, and pretty soon go totally Thelma and Louise, riding off together and going on a destructive spree. Long story short, they terrorize a carload of less-than-gentleman who turn out to be carjackers and part of a carjacking ring working Bayville.
Jean, still on her little kick, joins up with Magma and Boom-Boom, and they later recruit Kitty and Rogue--they even do a whole letter-boxed music video sequence in here. Basically it was turning into less-than-subtle feminist men-are-scum propaganda right about now.
The girls don black leather and butchy haircuts, go totally Charlie's Angels, and start playing vigilante, making enemies of both the underword and the police force. Scott realizes that the girls walking in slo-mo throught the halls of Bayville High exhuding a female canine vibe from every pore, his friends, are the vigilantes that have been tearing around the streets at night, and that they have to be stopped.
The Sirens, as the media dubs them, eventually meet up with the head of the auto theft ring and realize they're in over their heads. Still, they perform admirably (Cyclops and Nightcrawler watch from a safe distance, and Cyke even adds to the fun a bit with his laser vision, figuring they're getting off a little easy).
A female cop, who it seems buys into the whole "grrrl power" solidarity thing, helps the Sirens escape rather than dragging their leather-clad butts into the station. Though before I could scream at my TV it was revealed that it was Mystique in disguise.
So what have we learned today, girls? Men want to oppress you under the pretense of being gentlemanly, so the only way to take back your life is to go guerrila, terrorize the public, break the law, and remember to kick high. What fun. :mad:
POK#435: "The Wayward Wobafett"
The plot reminded me somewhat of "Bound for Trouble", where Meowth and Pikachu got strapped together and then lost in the woods...except here Pikachu is sealed inside an unbreakable ball, by Jessy and James (the latter wearing opaque swirly glasses and an Albert Einstein wig). Jessy, in running away, hands off the only key to the ball to her Wobafett, and not being too bright, the gob winds up falling into the river and washing off with it. Now the only way to open the ball is the key, it's gone, Pikachu will die and rot inside there if he isn't let out, and Team Rocket and Team Twerp are forced to work together for a common goal. Jessy here shows genuine compassion, doing a pitch-perfect iimtation of Wobafett's whining and facial expression--sure, she curses and abuses it constantly, but that's Rocket love fer ya.
I actually like seeing how well Ash and Jessy work together, but between her witchiness and his utter density it never seems to last.
The whole story plays like an amusing little romp from beginning to end--think Baby's Day Out meets Homeward Bound--with Wobafett as its star. He gets washed downriver, talks to a nice Quagsire, swings from trees like Tarzan, gets mixed up with a Golem-toting Russian-accented bank robber who apparently buys his hot-air balloons from the same place James and Jessy do, goes for a ride in a out-of-control speedboat, goes for a ride in an out-of-control hot-air balloon, goes for a ride atop a speeding 18-wheeler, and ends up getting taken hostage by his old friend, who I'll call "Boris" (at one point he even tells Wobafett "Shaddap you mouth!" a la Paul Frees, and I cracked up!).
Two great Jessy moments--she falls off a cliff at one point and gives a great cheesecake pose for the Jessyphiles, arching her back and sticking her chest out. Later, she falls out of the Meowth balloon and lands right on her breasts! I swear my eyes got this big: :eek: That looked like it would hurt big-time.
Ash attempts to crack the ball with a giant sledgehammer; where he got it I don't know. Does he have a Pokemon that can pick locks? I'd suggest Pinsir, but Pikachu might get pulped like a pecan if it applied too much pressure.
The twerps do get the key eventually and release the rat...James and Jessy play hero (on their own terms; they want a cut of Boris' loot as well as the blob)...Wobafett uses an explosive counteract attack against Golem...and (a decidedly sore. I'd think) Jessy and James end up blasted off again and dangling off the side of a bridge. Wobafett, probably worn out after a long day, looks on, useless.
When Virgil excuses himself from a rather tedious science class (by pretending to have gotten sick on bad lunchmeat) to stop a neighborhood fire, he discovers his powers have gotten to be too much to handle. Recalling the teacher's lecture about sunspots and how they can affect electromagnetic fields, he realizes he's essentially one big walking disaster area.
After ripping a metal door off its hinges and sending it flying, destroying a power line, and almost causing a traffic pileup, he realizes just how bad it is when he repelles a heap of metal junk at the scrapyard. He can't even fly on his disk without going out of control--he has to hitch a ride atop a plane (I've heard of economy class, but that's ridiculous) to return to Dakota. Richie is afraid to touch him because he's a walking joy buzzer, his sister freaks after static electricity causes all the stuff in his room to move, and Daisy is p.o.'ed with him because, while worried about his own problems, he stood her up on a study "date".
Add to that the return of Francis, aka F-Stop, aka Hotstreak--seems his time in stir hasn't mellowed him any. (I noted this ep number is before "Big Leagues", so the big flamer has yet to graduate from schoolyard bully to one of Joker's henchmen.) Virgil's afraid because with his powers all wonky, he might not be able to stop Hotstreak if he goes on another rampage
Virgil manages to bleed off some of his excess juice in the scrapyard, but another attack of static during a history test--the one he blew off studying with Daisy for--comes up, and he's forced to excuse himself again. He then realizes the opposite of too much juice--too little. The sunspots activity has taken away his powers.
Virgil might happily retire from the superhero biz right now, but Hotstreak picks that time to throw a flaming tantrum--and his powers aren't electromagnetic, so no chance of him cooling down. Static uses the zap caps to gain a slight psychological edge, but quickly runs out and is forced to run. Not exactly a shining moment, esp. when he loses his goggles.
However, Static seems to have a grasp of science, if not history, and manages to use a large industrial fan--knowing the risk to his own body, as Richie warns, but having no other choice-- to increase his tiny store of power, building up enough charge to blow up a water tower and douse Hotstreak.
The sunspots pass, and Virgil's fine--but poor Daisy. I wonder if she thinks of Virgil as more than a friend? She might even suspect there's another woman involved--which is absurd, because other than Frieda, the only other girls in his life are Permafrost, Talon, and Puff. Not exactly my idea of good company on Saturday night.
Note the voice of the science teacher is somewhat similar to Ben Stein ("Bueller....Bueller.").
Favorite exchange--Static and the frightened driver who asks for a lift because "the traffic...scares me even more".
JCA#226: "Enter the Cat"
This one put me in mind of a discussion over at the Toonami board a few days ago about cat-girls in anime. As I stated, the cat is the only animal besides man that hunts for sport, and a creature who combined the DNA of both would be a perfect, relentless predator.
You'd think Valmont would consider retiring from crime after being possessed for months by Chandu, but he hasn't--he turns up in the same Asian temple where Jackie is searching for a priceless cat statue. When Jackie finds it, the oily mobster shows up and artfully steals it. Unfortunately he nicks his hand on its claws during the heist.
The statue carries with it a curse, and Valmont finds himself turning into a cat-man. Though unlike Chandu's ideas for personal remodeling, Valmont finds he likes the changes--he has body hair, acute senses, agility...and a hefty appetite for cream. (At one point he breaks into a dairy to sate his appetites.)
Valmont was working with a partner, a large Sydney Greenstreet type, whom he double-crosses and, once he's paid for delivering the artifact, demands the statue as well.
Jackie conacts Uncle, who tells him that the cure for the curse is "within", but dismisses it as "gibberish". Jade, using Ruby, a cat she found in the catacombs, as a tracker, trails Valmont to his hideout ("A cow factory?") and manages to retrieve the statue--but, while jumping a wall unwittingly tears her pants and cuts herself. She later starts rubbing against things and develops an insatiable craving for milk.
I have to interject here that Jade looks simply adorable as a cat-girl, with the long hair and pointed ears. That'd make a great avatar.
The two cats fight like...well...cats...and Jackie decides the statue is too dangerous to deliever to the museum, He dashes it upon the floor. A cloud of pink powder rises from the shards and returns both cats to normal. Note at the end Jackie rubs Jade's head like a cat--I think he scratched her behind the ear, too, I'm not certain.
Great exchange: "What's a Babylonian urn?" "Probably a lot more than we do!"
Uncle seems a lot crankier and less cooperative than usual.
Note the refs to The Maltese Falcon--Valmont's employer is a caricature of Greenstreet, and his associate sounds like Peter Lorre. Get Smart did something very similar, as I recall.
Of course the big problem is, if the transformed cat-humans aren't in the room when the statue is broken to breathe the gas, is there another cure?
XMEN#23: "Walk on the Wild Side"
Was anyone else thinking of the "Harley and Ivy" epidode of Batman during this one?
During a training session for a new mutant, a girl codenamed "Magma", Jean gts unreasonably upset with Scott for interfering when the girls got in trouble--taking his chivalrous gesture for some male dominance thing. Already this is taking a direction I don't like.
At The Brotherhood House, Tabitha/"Boom-Boom" is acting like she's got a major case of the crankies, blowing open a bathroom door while Toad is in the shower (something he says he does once a month, which is either a comment on how bad Tolansky's personal hygiene or a sly double entendre for just why Boom-Boom is acting up :rolleyes: ). She makes a general nuisance of herself and then "borrows" Lance's jeep.
Boom-Boom and Magma share a class together, and pretty soon go totally Thelma and Louise, riding off together and going on a destructive spree. Long story short, they terrorize a carload of less-than-gentleman who turn out to be carjackers and part of a carjacking ring working Bayville.
Jean, still on her little kick, joins up with Magma and Boom-Boom, and they later recruit Kitty and Rogue--they even do a whole letter-boxed music video sequence in here. Basically it was turning into less-than-subtle feminist men-are-scum propaganda right about now.
The girls don black leather and butchy haircuts, go totally Charlie's Angels, and start playing vigilante, making enemies of both the underword and the police force. Scott realizes that the girls walking in slo-mo throught the halls of Bayville High exhuding a female canine vibe from every pore, his friends, are the vigilantes that have been tearing around the streets at night, and that they have to be stopped.
The Sirens, as the media dubs them, eventually meet up with the head of the auto theft ring and realize they're in over their heads. Still, they perform admirably (Cyclops and Nightcrawler watch from a safe distance, and Cyke even adds to the fun a bit with his laser vision, figuring they're getting off a little easy).
A female cop, who it seems buys into the whole "grrrl power" solidarity thing, helps the Sirens escape rather than dragging their leather-clad butts into the station. Though before I could scream at my TV it was revealed that it was Mystique in disguise.
So what have we learned today, girls? Men want to oppress you under the pretense of being gentlemanly, so the only way to take back your life is to go guerrila, terrorize the public, break the law, and remember to kick high. What fun. :mad:
POK#435: "The Wayward Wobafett"
The plot reminded me somewhat of "Bound for Trouble", where Meowth and Pikachu got strapped together and then lost in the woods...except here Pikachu is sealed inside an unbreakable ball, by Jessy and James (the latter wearing opaque swirly glasses and an Albert Einstein wig). Jessy, in running away, hands off the only key to the ball to her Wobafett, and not being too bright, the gob winds up falling into the river and washing off with it. Now the only way to open the ball is the key, it's gone, Pikachu will die and rot inside there if he isn't let out, and Team Rocket and Team Twerp are forced to work together for a common goal. Jessy here shows genuine compassion, doing a pitch-perfect iimtation of Wobafett's whining and facial expression--sure, she curses and abuses it constantly, but that's Rocket love fer ya.
I actually like seeing how well Ash and Jessy work together, but between her witchiness and his utter density it never seems to last.
The whole story plays like an amusing little romp from beginning to end--think Baby's Day Out meets Homeward Bound--with Wobafett as its star. He gets washed downriver, talks to a nice Quagsire, swings from trees like Tarzan, gets mixed up with a Golem-toting Russian-accented bank robber who apparently buys his hot-air balloons from the same place James and Jessy do, goes for a ride in a out-of-control speedboat, goes for a ride in an out-of-control hot-air balloon, goes for a ride atop a speeding 18-wheeler, and ends up getting taken hostage by his old friend, who I'll call "Boris" (at one point he even tells Wobafett "Shaddap you mouth!" a la Paul Frees, and I cracked up!).
Two great Jessy moments--she falls off a cliff at one point and gives a great cheesecake pose for the Jessyphiles, arching her back and sticking her chest out. Later, she falls out of the Meowth balloon and lands right on her breasts! I swear my eyes got this big: :eek: That looked like it would hurt big-time.
Ash attempts to crack the ball with a giant sledgehammer; where he got it I don't know. Does he have a Pokemon that can pick locks? I'd suggest Pinsir, but Pikachu might get pulped like a pecan if it applied too much pressure.
The twerps do get the key eventually and release the rat...James and Jessy play hero (on their own terms; they want a cut of Boris' loot as well as the blob)...Wobafett uses an explosive counteract attack against Golem...and (a decidedly sore. I'd think) Jessy and James end up blasted off again and dangling off the side of a bridge. Wobafett, probably worn out after a long day, looks on, useless.