Quarantine Control #182: The Cobra Bends Toony Boys
The current COVID-19 wave still isn’t much of a story. There’s too much news for the media to follow, yet it still feels as if they’re underreporting the spread of the current variant. It doesn’t help that rollout for the new booster has been a disaster. Several drug stores have told people they’ll need certain health insurance plans to get it despite it actually being free, and that’s if they’ve received enough of an allocation at all. Hopefully they all get it together soon, though some of this feels like it’s by design.
Geoffrey Barnes
Space Adventure Cobra (1982)
Source: RetroCrush
Episodes: 31
Space Adventure Cobra has been on my list of anime series to check out for years, ever since I saw mention of it as one of the better anime from the 1980s back in 2014. The opening looked suave enough to give me the feeling that it would be up my alley of anime I’d enjoy. It’s good that I finally got around to watching it. It’s bad that it took the announcement of original manga creator Buichi Terasawa’s death for me to get around to it, who passed away from heart failure on September 8th. The combination of this, the series going live on RetroCrush (sadly fortuitously announced on the day Terasawa died, though prior to it being revealed to the public), and the movie being available on TMS Entertainment’s YouTube channel the weekend afterward pushed me into finally checking the series out. I have to say that it was better than I expected.
Space Adventure Cobra takes place across vast swaths of outer space nearly a millennium from now, albeit draped in a classic retro futuristic style. The main character is conveniently named Cobra, a somewhat-dandy guy in space seemingly living a normal life in the galaxy until he very, very quickly remembers his past thanks to a dream machine that makes me wonder if Total Recall’s creators watched this show. Cobra remembers that he’s a former, and sometimes current, pirate who travels around collecting treasure and going on missions he happens upon, equipped with an arm cannon known as the Psychogun, with faithful android partner Lady Armaroid. This series features the two of them, well, travelling around collecting treasure and stumbling upon missions. It rarely has any stumbles.
Cobra is split into several arcs featuring plenty of friendly and villainous characters. Cobra, who himself is a fusion of James Bond and Star Wars’ Han Solo from a personality perspective, quickly rediscovers his origins. His first notable adventure involves the Royal Sisters, the three of whom are trying to survive against villains who want the sacred treasure they know the location for, like Crystal Bowie. The stories are briskly paced for an early 1980s anime adaptation of a Shonen Jump property, something attributed to this series starting around four years after the original manga iteration debuted. There’s nothing deep here, nor does it need to be. The individual stories with occasional continuity are simply fun tales with enjoyable and well-written characters, in a series that wears its classic pulp sci-fi inspirations on its sleeve.
It’s also dazzling from a presentation perspective. The superlative animation for its time shows how popular Cobra was and how talented the team at TMS Entertainment helmed by the venerable late Osamu Dezaki was. Only a few episodes included underwhelming animation, with the very best being saved for the major story arcs. It ends up looking better than several series that arrived after this one, including fellow TMS anime Cat’s Eye.
(It didn’t help in Cat’s Eye’s case that it was competing with Lupin the 3rd: Part III for production resources. No wonder they crossed over.)
It’s also aesthetically pleasing, with beautiful backgrounds and character designs. I’m not going to complain about the female character designs clearly created by a man who adores the female posterior, though they won’t be to everyone’s tastes. It does stick out that every female character, including named characters and incidental ones, is built like a supermodel. The upbeat and jazzy soundtrack complements the incredibly enjoyable adventures, characters, and beautiful aesthetics.
I’m having trouble of thinking of anything I didn’t like about Space Adventure Cobra, because its flaws weren’t too pronounced. The series had the advantage of sticking closely to the source material, though some arcs received story changes to benefit animated storytelling progression rather than one in a comic format. But there are occasional filler episodes of varying quality. One in particular is not great, and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the other stories (and marked a hell of an excuse to show some naked ladies). I also wish Lady Armaroid got a few more heroic moments, though this is clearly Cobra’s show.
Space Adventure Cobra is a great series that should not have taken the artist dying for it to get some internet recognition. It still won’t receive enough of it thanks to being an over-40-year-old show, despite it being well animated for its era, which looks beautiful in HD remastered form. Cobra doesn’t end here, but it took until 2008 for the two OVA series that wrap up the original manga’s run to arrive. It’s a pity Terasawa didn’t get to finish the Cobra: Over the Rainbow manga series. But the content we have was and is hugely influential to the sci-fi world, particularly in Japan, as reflected through anime like Outlaw Star and Space Dandy (the latter of which is an affectionate parody of this series) and the Japan-developed Metroid titles.
Drew Young
Futurama Season 11 (Hulu’s count). Or is it Season 8 (broadcast production count)?
Source: Hulu
Episodes: 10 episodes (for a total of 20, however HULU releases it)
Despite teasing us with a 20-episode season in the premiere, the HULU overlords decided to split it into two 10-episode halves which will probably not be recombined in the DVD release, if we even get DVDs this time.
Futurama’s episode and season counts have always been a bit wonky. Splitting the four movies into a season before the second revival of the series started sure didn’t help, but the production timeline was skewed from the beginning by virtue of always being bumped for NFL games in the fall. Which is why it makes perfect sense for the sixth episode of the season to be a Christmas episode, but that historical norm goes out the window when it’s aired at the end of August.
I think the first thing that impressed me about the season is that it made good on the promise of every previous series finale, which teased that Fry and Leila’s relationship would blossom. We get the payoff here, with that change to the status quo leaving its mark on the plot of every episode.
The cast all sounds like they haven’t missed a beat since 2014. I was rather worried about that, considering the ravages of age on the Animaniacs revival and the ongoing march to the grave that is The Simpsons.
On the whole, I’m satisfied with the series’ fourth life, but there’s a lot of nagging issues I’m having with it that I hope are smoothed out by the time we actually finish all 20 episodes.
While Futurama has always done episodes that are reflections of current events, the ones shown so far (a full half of the 10 episodes, covering streaming, cryptocurrency, Amazon, COVID, and cancel culture, in that order) aren’t very timely. Even though there’s some good (and occasionally brilliant) comedy in there, it feels more like the writers wanted to make up for lost time and crack the jokes they missed by being off the air for the past 10 years.
There was also the odd scheduling choice of having episodes 9 and 10 back-to-back. While the stories were quite different, they were framed in such a similar way that the tenth episode really undercut the unique presentation of the ninth.
We also had the odd incongruity that the same amount of time has passed inside the show as it has outside of it, even though nobody has aged 1 year, let alone 23. I’m happy to waive it off in most cases, but there’s multiple kids in the extended cast that the hand waving breaks down for… especially when a certain subset of them DID age.
Nags aside, while this won’t go down as the best season (they’ve lost a step but the spirit is clearly there), it easily surpassed the benefit of the doubt. It’s not even a question that I will finish the next set of episodes, whenever they might land.
Angela Moseley
The Boys, season 3 (2022)
Source: Amazon Prime
Episodes: 8
A mere two Quarantine Controls ago, I talked about season 2 of The Boys. Guess who blasted through season 3 of this series shortly after writing about the second season? Needless to say, I’m fully onboard with The Boys live-action adaptation on Amazon. Given what I’ve learned about the comics, I’ll probably skip them, but the animated shorts have also caught my eye. When I’ll get around to them is another matter, especially since I’ve returned to work. As for the latest season of this superhero series, it was another banger.
Season 3 of The Boys begins a year after the events of season 2. Once Stormfront was outed as a literal Nazi, Homelander’s public image took a hit. He’s become frustrated that he’s not allowed to see his son, Ryan. Also, Mauve and Starlight have defied him and have remained on The Seven. Even A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) has returned. Hughie left the boys to become a member of Congresswoman Victoria Neuman’s (Claudia Doumit) Bureau of Superhero Affairs. It finally seems like the Supes will finally be exposed the “correct way,” through government regulation instead of through rogue vigilantes.
However, all is not as it seems. Thanks to being admonished by the public’s disapproval of him dating Stormfront coupled with Starlight’s rising popularity, Homelander slowly unravels. As he becomes more unhinged, he’s willing to settle for a public that fears him instead of loves him. He reminds Starlight of this as he tosses out more ultimatums to her, including forcing her to publicly date him. Meanwhile, Vought has developed a new Compound V formula called V24 as Stan Edgar desires to get out of the superhero business and into the military/pharmaceutical business. V24 grants regular humans superpowers for exactly 24 hours. Edgar plans to sell it to the military for use on soldiers.
Having taken note of Homelander’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Mauve goes to Butcher with a plan. Back in the early 1980s, Soldier Boy (Jensen Ackles) was a Supe nearly as powerful as Homelander who was killed by the Russians during a conflict in Nicaragua. If Butcher can find out from Soldier Boy’s former team, Payback, how he died they can use that method to kill Homelander. As insurance, she gives him several vials of V24 to take on Payback. Hughie for his part realizes Congresswoman Neuman not only works for Vought, but she’s secretly been a Supe the entire time. Disillusioned, he returns to working for Butcher, while urging Starlight to do whatever it takes to stop Homelander from figuring out what they’re up to.
I feel like there’s a running theme in The Boys when it comes to Homelander himself. If season 1 was about the present, then season 2 was about his future possibly with Ryan. It’s fitting that season 3 is partially about his past and the reveal of his actual father. Additionally, it is also about Homelander taking power from Edgar in Vought, as he wins a sizable chunk of support from the public via his Supe grievances. That taps into the very nature of conservative grievances, and it’s no wonder that much his hardcore supporters look very much like Trump supporters. (The show itself leans hard on these similarities.) This is Homelander growing comfortable as a fascist with a particular brand of Supe supremacy and the people who are very happy to support his ideals, or at the very least are willing to cut deals with him. As he grows more powerful and the pressures of running Vought get to him, he continues to lash out at his subordinates– Starlight and A-Train taking a bulk of his abuse.
A-Train remains an interesting figure in seasons 2 and 3. Losing popularity after he can no longer run without his heart giving out on him, he tries to regain popularity another way. He caters to the black community he’s long turned his back on for fame and fortune. Of course everyone sees through his insincerity, and his actions make things worse for the community and even the family who’s stood by him. At the end of the day A-Train still chooses fame over doing the right thing. Aside from Homelander and Stormfront, I’ve found him to be one of the worst Supes in this series. (The Deep comes close, but he’s more pathetic than anything else.) A-Train wasn’t kidding when he said he was more of a Micheal Jordan type versus a Malcom X type. (And yes, I’m talking about each of these figures’ treatment of the black community, NOT their sports abilities.)
As for the boys, the weapon that killed Soldier Boy turns out not to be what they thought it was. I don’t want to spoil the reveal, but their efforts turn up a character who’s just as bad as Homelander, but for very different reasons. Let’s just say if Homelander is walking narcissism in a cape, this man is walking toxic masculinity. He literally becomes radioactive when he becomes emotional, and explodes when his emotions or PTSD reach a boiling point. Ironically, these facts are lost on him. Butcher also makes some of his worst decisions this season on top of becoming a massive hypocrite by taking V24.
The way this season wrapped up makes me wonder if season 4 will be the last season for The Boys. Given all that’s happened, I can’t see this story going on for more than another season. That season has been delayed by the (now resolved) WGA and (still ongoing) SAG-AFTRA strikes, so it’s doubtful it’ll make that 2024 premier. Given how good this live-action adaptation is, I’m willing to wait for quality, especially if it means writers and actors getting their fair share at the bargaining table.
Anyway, I do recommend season 3 if you somehow haven’t watched it yet. Heck, just watch The Boys. It’s such a sublime series.
Joseph Daniels
Tiny Toons Looniversity (2023)
Source: HBO Max (United States), Amazon Prime (Canada)
Episodes: Ongoing
Rabbits?: Buster Bunny, Babs Bunny, Bugs Bunny (no relation to Buster and Babs), Lola Bunny (they could’ve at least come up with more than one lapine surname)
Now this was certainly timed well for the Year of the Rabbit.
Tiny Toon Adventures was such a staple of my childhood that I was apprehensive when I heard that a reboot series was in production. Would it live up to the original or would it flop hard? Would it respect the source material or utterly destroy it in a misguided attempt to modernize the series? Would it be mature and respect the viewer or make anyone older than ten cringe?
After watching the pilot episode, I think they might actually be on the right track. I was initially skeptical of Buster and Babs Bunny being twins instead of having no relation, which was a defining trait of theirs in Adventures and a running gag that continued for the entire series. Instead, Looniversity not only makes them siblings but twins on top of that, and instead of the typical sibling rivalry that you’d expect, they’re extremely supportive of one another and of their new friends, at least in the first episode. I’m hoping this continues throughout the series because shows with characters who aren’t antagonistic towards each other have been my jam lately.
It’s not just Buster and Babs who have been reworked. I was immediately charmed by the Looniversity version of Sweetie T. Bird in the same way that Ono in The Lion Guard charmed me. I just happen to like birds, I guess, and in the absence of any more The Lion Guard, I now have a new bird to fixate on, at least for however long Loonversity lasts. Sweetie? To me, your middle name really is Thunder.
Not only that, but I got the feeling that there might be a greater adherence to continuity in this series, just from the vibes I was getting from the first episode. I would not be surprised if the series features ongoing character arcs for the viewer to get invested in. Granted, I was also getting sitcom vibes, and those can generally be watched in any order after the pilot, but either way, it feels like the series might be trying to meet the high expectations being placed on it by a group of viewers who are likely well out of its intended target audience. People like me who grew up with the original are certainly going to be very critical of this new series, but it looks like Looniversity might be able to rise to the challenge. My initial verdict is that the Tiny Toon reboot is probably going to be a success and hopefully will continue beyond the one season that I fear it’ll get in the modern day environment brought on by cutthroat streaming wars.
Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One
Source: Disney+
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Rogers’ story starts with him wanting to serve and defend his country, but he’s literally the worst person for the job. He’s got too many health problems to even count, and physically, he’s the weakest person to even show up. He tries to stand up to bullies but they’re more than capable of beating him down, every time. All it takes is one punch and he’s down. He might be able to get back up again, but the next punch puts him down again.
When he’s given a chance to train, he proves just how ill a fit he is for active duty. His health problems continually hold him back, but his strategic mind helps him overcome challenges, and his pure heart charms the higher ups, so he’s selected to be the first recipient of a serum designed to turn ordinary people into super soldiers.
A covert Nazi organization called Hydra attempts to steal the serum once they know it works, but in the process, the scientist responsible for the serum is killed and the formula lost. As such, Steve Rogers is not given active duty as was the original plan, but is instead put on tour across the United States, helping with the propaganda efforts in order to sell war bonds. It’s probably understandable that American scientists didn’t want him to fall into enemy hands while they themselves were trying to get the formula back by studying their brand new superhero. They even came up with a goofy costume for him and a name: Captain America.
Steve Rogers at first is into this. After all, he doesn’t want to kill anyone, and if this helps his country stand up to the Nazi bullies, then he’ll fake punch an actor dressed like Hitler all day. After about a year of this, he hears that his best friend, Bucky Barnes, is missing and presumed dead, and his request to rescue Bucky and his unit is turned down. You’d think this would be the kind of thing that a super soldier is designed for, and Steve knows it, so him, Agent Peggy Carter and an engineer named Howard Stark fly behind enemy lines to give Steve a chance to find and rescue Bucky’s unit.
Steve’s journey from skinny weakling to superhero is a gratifying one because he works hard to earn the respect of those around him, and once he proves that he’s capable of great things, he puts together a unit of skilled men to infiltrate and destroy Hydra’s many bases throughout Europe. Sadly, Bucky loses his life during one of these missions, which casual viewers might assume is the writers being cruel to poor Steve one last time, but most Marvel fans would know this is a set up for a future plot line. It also helps to remind Steve that not everyone makes it out of a war. Bucky knew the risks and so did Steve, and perhaps this perspective informs a choice he makes at the end.
A final battle with the movie’s main villain, the Red Skull, results in an artifact known as the Tesseract becoming lost at sea, and Steve sacrifices himself to prevent a weapon of mass destruction from detonating while tearfully making plans with Peggy, whom he had fallen in love with. They both know what he’s really saying, that it’s his way of saying goodbye, and it’s pretty sad to know that she might never see him again. (Okay, we all know she does seem him again, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.) While the Tesseract would be recovered, Steve and the plane he was in are presumed lost for nearly 70 years. Granted, Steve had jumped on a grenade earlier in the film, showing that while everyone else was trying to run away from it, only he was pure hearted and self-sacrificing enough to deserve to be the world’s first super soldier, but I want to think it was the loss of Bucky that reminded him that not everyone gets out of a war alive.
Ordinarily, this would be where Steve’s story ends, but this is a Marvel superhero story based on comic books. If a character can come back to life after dying, they’re going to do so. Steve wakes up in a hotel room that seems to be stuck in 1941 if the baseball game on the radio is any indication. This, of course, isn’t right, because he went missing in 1945, so he busts out of the room and finds himself in a world that has advanced without him, full of noise and lights, where Nick Fury is waiting for him to explain what’s going on. I sympathize with Steve, because it can’t be easy to wake up in a world that has passed you by for a number of years.
This wasn’t the first time people supposedly died in one of these movies only to come back later, and it won’t be the last. The Tesseract is originally introduced in the post-credits scene at the end of Thor, and reveals that Loki doesn’t actually die when Thor defeats him, and is instead manipulating things on Earth to set up the events of The Avengers, and the second Captain America movie brings back a character that Steve likely didn’t think he’d ever see again, especially given his own circumstances.
Next week, I’ll briefly talk about the big team up film The Avengers and maybe also plow ahead into Phase Two.
This Week’s Short Film
Gaslight (2021)
America is making the COVID booster landscape a living hell to navigate, but hopefully you can get yours. This should be better in countries outside the one that doesn’t provide universal healthcare for capitalistic reasons. Until next week, folks.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
