The Rebel Page

I gotta admit. It all started as a joke when I half-heartedly said to my better half that I'd be binge-watching the Cobra Kai series on Netflix when I knew that she couldn't stand the sight of a very whiny Danny LaRusso from the first three movies. Hillary Swank's movie was so-so to me and Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan's movie was just.....well, let's just not go there.

I decided to give it a go and perhaps re-live the whole LaRusso/Miyagi vs Cobra Kai nostalgia by watching a couple of episodes before I search for a worthy successor to the Umbrella Academy series I've watched some weeks back.

Well guess what? I totally got into it and finished both seasons with high anticipations for Season 3. It's currently the #1 show on Netflix (at least in Malaysia it is!) and I can see why. Admittedly, the original Karate Kid movies still struck a chord with many (so much so I can still randomly see kids doing 'The Crane' every now and then at shopping malls) here in Malaysia. Yours truly was also eager to see what happened to the protagonists/antagonists after the movies and that animated globe-trotting cartoon series in 1989.

Is the animated series even canon? I mean would we even hear Danny at some point mention about his travels with Mr. Miyagi in the Cobra Kai series? I doubt it. One thing's good about the cartoon series is that Danny LaRusso was less whiny than his live-action counterpart.

So anywa, coming back to the Netflix Cobra Kai series, we find the kids of both LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence playing an integral part in the plot of the series. The good guys are from Miyagi Do and the bad guys are from...Cobra Kai, what else. But one interesting point to note is that the title of the series is a dead giveaway that Cobra Kai is very much a series through the viewpoint of Johnny Lawrence. A redemption arc that'll probably span through 3 seasons long...or 4 if we're lucky.

It's annoying to find that Danny is still that whiny brat who's now in his 50s. He's very suspicious towards everything Cobra Kai and the intermittent act of kindness towards Johnny will soon dissipate once a student of theirs start to create trouble.

The bully role seemed to have been reversed now. Danny threw the first punch when he publicly made comments about how he trashed Johnny back in '84 in front of his showroom staff. Johnny was surprisingly calm and only retaliated when Danny crossed the line deep into Season 1.

What I love most is the re-introduction of John Kreese, played by a wonderful Martin Kove who retained the ruthlessness that he once showed in the original Karate Kid movies. I bet Mr. Miyagi would've been in the new series too if actor Pat Morita was still around.

The next big question is whether Elizabeth Shue would make a return to the series to play Ali once again. That cliffhanger ending for Season 2 seems to be pointing to it. Please don't replace Shue if she doesn't want to come back. Keeping Ali in the background seems to be a better choice than to piss off fans who definitely want to see Shue back in the series.

Onward to Season 3!

To quote Egon Spengler, "Print is dead!". Ol' Egon had anticipated the demise of the print media many years ago much to the amusement of the audience at the time. Today, we're horrified by the death of so many print publications of yore, even those that we've never imagine would even go out of business (re: Playboy magazine will also soon end its print editions to favor more on its digital copies). The focus of today's argument is how one of my favorite magazine ever...Toyfare magazine ended its publications in 2011.

A little bit of backstory for those who doesn't have a clue about Toyfare.....

Toyfare magazine was the sister magazine to the Wizard magazine, the magazine that lets you know about all of the comic titles before they came out and of course the good old comic price guides at the end of the magazine. Those who collect comics in the 90s would definitely know about Wizard and must've purchased the magazine at least once or twice in its heyday. Inside Wizard magazine there were sporadic reviews on action figures and it was a matter of time till a separate full-fledged magazine broke off from Wizard magazine. It was inevitable some would say. So it did in the early 90s. That's how Toyfare magazine happened.

I used to spend endless hours reading and browsing through the pages of each Toyfare magazine that ended up in my hands. There were, of course, many comic stores at the time (now they're extinct like the Dodo bird and I've actually talked about this in one of my earlier post this year so you might wanna check that one out if you're interested) and I bought all the Toyfares I could find, both the current issue and back issues. That's how profound Toyfare magazine was to this geek.

Inside there were colorful pictures of upcoming toys and action figures as well those unproduced toy rumors. There were discussions by leading toy companies i.e. Hasbro, Mattel etc on future toy projects and many more. During the height of the Toybiz era of Marvel Legends, I often turn to Toyfare magazines to find out what Toybiz was up to and what was the latest wave was gonna consist of. And not to forget Twisted Toyfare Theatres! This was THE magazine skit that eventually gave birth to Robot Chicken fergawdssakes!

Toyfare could also be viewed as a satirical magazine, often poking fun at current political situations for its humor materials. Who could forget the endless parody aimed at other popular magazine segments like The Sun's Page 3, Seventeen's cover girls segment and other.

Even when the internet was slowly taking over the conventional print medium in the 2000s, Toyfare magazine thrived because most people then still buys physical print media more than subscribing to online digital magazines. Sadly this trend slowly reversed in the early 2010s when most collectors turn to online contents which arguably provides better timely updates on action figure news as opposed to monthly print publications that you could only get at newstands at specified intervals.

Today, I only have a handful of Toyfare magazines left with me. I seriously cannot remember what happened to the rest but I suspect the many change of hands in the 90s might've contributed to the mysterious misplacement of the ones not in my hands right now.

I seriously miss having physical magazines in my hands. I do appreciate the speedy sharing of information through the internet but the nostalgia of having an actual magazine in hand whenever you feel like to when you have that cup of Joe is my kind of thing.

Toyfare finally met its demise in 2011 together with its sister publication, Wizard magazine, with its publishing company citing the internet as their main reason for ceasing operations. It truly was an end of an era. Collectors had no magazines to turn to for their monthly toy news fix. I wish that some other publisher would pick up where Toyfare left off but that's just not gonna happen in today's conditions.

Just like the late (and great) Stan Lee once said, comics are like b**bs....they look great on a computer but I'd like to hold one in my hands. Nuff said.

People who call themselves Star Wars fans must surely be in the know about Season 7 of the Clone Wars series. You could only catch the latest (and final) Clone Wars season through the Disney plus channel but if you're unlucky enough to be in countries where Disney plus isn't available then you might wanna resort to other alternative methods (do think for yourselves, you guys are creative enough!) to watch the highly anticipated last season of possibly the coolest Star Wars series other than The Mandalorian.

We're actually at Episode 10 at the moment and I'd just like to point out just how crazy it is right now as we await the final 2 episodes that'll round up the series for good. For the record, Episode 9 (where Ahsoka finally had that reunion with her former master, Anakin) was one of the best ever episode in the entire 7 series so far. I have a hunch that the final 2 episodes will further make us cringe in awe.

Episode 10 is actually Part 2 of the story arc 'The Phantom Apprentice' and I reckon that the next 2 final episodes will be 'Part 3' and 'Part 4' respectively.

Probably the talking point of Episode 9 was the imminent return of Ahsoka back into the Jedi circle (we've seen her earlier already in the earlier Season 7 episodes with the Martez sisters) and the return of Darth Maul in the middle of the seige of Mandalore.

Things got really weird when Maul leaked to Ahsoka the extent of Darth Sidious' role in the war between the Republic and the Separatists. Further mindboggling thoughts ensued when Maul also claimed (something that we already know is TRUE!) that Anakin Skywalker is the last piece to Sidious' grand scheme to get rid of the Jedi Order once and for all and take control of the Senate.

What came next should make every fanboy jump in surprise. Obi Wan had this to say when a suggestion to interrogate Count Dooku was mooted.....

And then we got to know that Obi Wan received instructions to go to Utapau to hunt General Grievous......

Which can only mean one thing.....Episode 10 (and possibly 9) overlapped with the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith!

If you're not excited already at this point then you will when the realisation of Order 66 happening within the next 2 episodes sinks in! We're gonna see how the Clones react when the instruction is given by Palps himself. Given that the Clone Wars series focuses more on the clones rather than the higher echelons of the Star Wars lore, I think we're gonna see how some of the prominent clones react when the instruction to eradicate the Jedi comes into play. At least we know Commander Rex will be defying that order so it'll be interesting to see if there were more clones having doubts about blindly executing Palpy's agenda.

Coming back to Ahsoka, she was further shocked to hear that Maul was actually trying to lure Obi Wan and Anakin to Mandalore themselves so that he may terminate the both of them at one go. Maul is still sore about his loss to Obi Wan during the events in The Phantom Menace and Anakin must be killed to spoil Palpy's ambitions. So it's like killing two birds with one stone for ol' Darth Maul. At the time of this final confrontation between Maul and Ahsoka, both Obi Wan and Anakin was presumably above Coruscant trying to save the Chancellor i.e the opening scene of ROTS.

Pretty mindblowing if you think about it really. Obi Wan and Anakin had Ahsoka at the back of their minds when they were rescuing the Chancellor. It'll be very interesting to see how Ahsoka dropped off the radar within the next final 2 episodes because she wasn't even mentioned in ROTS at all.

August '20 seems to be so far away fom where we are right now although I felt time went by at a breakneck speed since the whole Covid-19 lockdown started here in Malaysia sometime in mid-March. Ever since Season 1 of The Mandalorian ended with a cliffhanger last year, many were left speculating what's in store next and what characters will Disney-Lucasfilm utilize for the upcoming new season commencing in August this year.

Here's what I'd like to see in Season 2:

1. Boba Fett has somehow been teased (high chance that those were in fact his lower legs in that Tatooine episode) and I hope he makes an appearance with perhaps....Dengar? Somebody should really provide some check and balance on our Mando protagonist. But if Boba makes an appearance, people would really get confused if they shout out 'Hey Mando!' because both Din Djarin and Boba Fett would answer to that name, wouldn't they now?

2. Rosario Dawson is confirmed as Ahsoka Tano for Season 2. What I'd like to see is Ahsoka telling everybody what she's been up too ever since she dropped out from the face of the public after the fiasco with Vader in Star Wars: Rebels. Imagine, Ahsoka missed out on Episodes IV till VI, so where was she during those turbulent times and the subsequent Rebel victory? Was she in hiding somewhere in the depths of some unknown parts of the galaxy?

3. Whatever the Remnants of the Empire is planning to do with The Child's DNA/blood sample is to be revealed and how this will eventually lead up to the resurrection/cloning of Emperor Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker. Will there be any mention of Exogol? Will there be any mention of Palpatine's weird cult? And dare I say it.....will there even be any hints of the future cloning of Snoke as part of Palpatine's grand scheme?

4. The actual transition from the Empire into the First Order should be an interesting story arc. Perhaps we'd see younger versions of Captain Canady and General Pryde too as they play their part in the rise of the First Order. And how about the change in Stormtrooper armor? For once, I'd like to know who authorized the change from that cool looking Imperial armor design to the 'duck beak helmet' design in the first place.

5. Maybe cameos from familiar faces in the original trilogy. The original actors need not return (highly unlikely too since they have aged considerably ever since the Original Trilogy ended sometime in the early 80s) and perhaps Disney could hire younger actors to portray them as how they would've looked 5 years after Return of the Jedi. Personally, I'd love to see characters like Wedge Antilles or Lobot making an appearance. Heck, Sebastian Stan could make a cameo as a young Luke Skywalker! One could only wish.

Tell me, what do you hope to see in Season 2?

Everybody loves John Carpenter's movies. From The Thing, Halloween, Prince of Darkness, Christine, Escape From New York, Village of the Damned, Starman.....every single one is a winner (okay maybe the exception of Ghost of Mars!). I was getting bored of making daily trips to the kitchen the other night (again) so I decided to have another go with Carpenter's 'They Live' movie from 1988. What's a guy gotta do during the lockdown period huh?

I can safely say that even though the movie has been branded as a 'leftie' movie, it stood the test of time and remained a staple for every geeks and nerds wanting something different out of an alien invasion movie. Is it really an alien invasion movie? More like alien assimilation if ya ask me.

So let's delve right into the movie....

The movie stars 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper, a legendary wrestler in his own right. I remember watching WWF (not the animal NGO) before it morphed into WWE back in the 80s and Roddy was one of the guys you just love to hate and hate to love. He was that good. I was told that back in the late 80s, Roddy Piper tried to do a 'Dwayne Johnson' at the time and ventured into the movie scene but his career never really took off but it ain't so bad having only starred in one cult classic movie.

Alongside Piper is Keith David, a star already made famous by his appearances in Platoon and Carpenter's The Thing.

So the movie tells the story of a drifter making his way into sub urban Los Angeles trying to survive in the harsh realities of upper class pressures. The hero, George Nada, whose name I barely hear throughout the movie seems like a goodie-two-shoe until he stumbled across a box of sunglasses which gave him the revelation that everything around us is not as it seems.

When Nada puts on a pair he realised that the world is full of subliminal messages and that people's lives were just a series of long and repetitive routines. These messages are everywhere on billboards, electronic message screens, shop signs etc.

What's more fascinating is the fact that the world is now ruled by skull-faced aliens (let's call 'em 'Skullies' for easy of reference) and they have assimilated well into the human world undetected by most humans. So whenever the protagonists put own the sunglasses they were able to see through the deceptions and later their sunglasses were upgraded to contact lens.

A huge plot twist at the very end revealed that a handful of humans did know about the Skullies' invasion/assimilation and they were all working hand-in-hand to create a new world where the Skullies rule planet Earth unbeknownst by almost every one except the human conspirators themselves.

The story ended with a victory for the humans when Nada destroyed the radar that shielded the humans' vision from viewing the real physical nature of the Skellies. I loved the end scene where humans everywhere got the shock of their lives when they realised that these Skullies have been living amongst them all this while. Victory for the human race followed, I assumed. This was something that was never shown in the movie despite it being mentioned in the original source material.

The Skullies used to scare me to heck when I watched the movie for the first time back in the late 80s courtesy of my neighbourhood video store rental video tape. I wasn't sure if the skull effects were just latex masks at the time but now I can safely assume that they were a combination of latex masks and (pre) CGI effects. Whatever they were, they worked!

Hey did anyone notice that 'PKE Meter'-like contraption the security dude use when they searched for the protagonists? I wonder if it's the same prop from the Ghostbusters movie? It has to be!

Talking about the source material, now let me bring you back to the short story that inspired the movie. In 1963, a writer by the name of Ray Nelson wrote a short story titled 'Eight O'Clock in the Morning' and had shook the literary world with its plot uniqeness at the time. Some critics even said that Nelson's writing had the same impact as when that certain H.G. Wells gave the world his War of the World book.

I love Ray Nelson's writing style. His language is simple enough for the masses and he brilliantly used a limited amount of words (hence short story) to cleverly uncover the plot of his masterpiece.

I love short stories. I spent a considerably large chunk of my youth reading short stories written by sci-fi/supernatural short story maestros like Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov and (to some extent) Stephen King.

For those who does not have the will or time to read Nelson's 6-pager masterpiece, there's always the comic version, although it was re-named 'Nada', as in the name of the protagonist George Nada. Here are some pages of that comic for your viewing pleasure.

Upon reading Nelson's short story and subsequently the comic I noticed that there were few deviations from the source material:

1. In the movie, the aliens were skull-faced; in the comics they were depicted as some weird looking hodge-podge of a creature; where as in the source material they were described as 'lizards'.

2. George Nada didn't use any special sunglasses in the original short story or the comics but rather he was 'awakened' and never really proved to anyone of what he saw.

3. In the short story and comics, Nada has to convey a message to snap everyone out of their trance and revealed how the aliens really looked like but in the movie he had to destroy the radar dish to stop the trance.

4. The aliens were known as the 'Fascinators' in the short story and comic but they had no name in the movie. Well I call them Skullies!

5. George Nada looked like a Terminator sent back in time to kill John Connor in the movie but he looked like a comic Constantine in the comic (and presumably the short story too).

.
.

Ok, as an action figure enthusiast I was also happy to see that there were a couple of products being made to commemorate the movie. I still haven't gotten around to grab them for my collection but my latest viewing of the movie may just swing that indecisiveness to my favour.

The Rebel on Instagram:

About Me

Blog Archive

Recent Comments

Popular Posts

Visitors since Feb '10

Blogs & Sites of Interest

Labels Cloud

Contact Form

Followers

The Rebel Page

Instagram