Universal Dork

The Most Unsuccessful Blog on the 'Net Since 2009!

recent posts

about

  • When Superheroes Trade Villains! Unexpected Awesome Super Battles!

    I love a good superhero / super villain battle! We all love to see our favorite superheroes go head to head with their classic villains, who doesn’t love the classic battles of Lex Luthor and Superman?! Or The Hulk and The Abomination?! Or Batman and The Joker? Spider-man vs. The Green Goblin?! But let me tell you what I have always liked often times more than those classic battles are when a superhero ends up battling someone else’s classic villains. This just doesn’t happen nearly enough but when it does it’s always a great unexpected little piece of comic book history! So let’s look at a few of my favorites in this FIRST installment of “When Superheroes Trade Villains”!! This small list was actually a lot harder than I thought it’d be to comprise. I figured it’s be easier to find or recall classic villains fighting non traditional battles with superheroes they normally don’t come in direct contact with! 

    Thor #178: Thor vs. The Abomnination!!

    We are all so used to seeing the Hulk and The Abomination go head to head but in Thor #178 we got to see Thor face off with the other big bad green gamma behemoth! Unfortunately this isn’t really the greatest battle or story we’ve ever seen, but hey it’s cool to see these two guys go at it a bit! The real bad guy here kinda turns out to be The Stranger who’s imprisoning creatures on his planet to do his bidding but hey I’ll take a Thor/Abomination beat down any day!

    Captain America 259: Cap vs Doc Ock!

    Yeah Doctor Octopus is notoriously known for his battles with everyone’s favorite web head but in Cap #259 we got see Captain America tangle with ol’ Otto! Doc Ock decides he’s gotta steal Cap’s trusty shield so he can study the metal it’s made from to make even stronger robotic arms-however Cap is totally NOT cool with this and this soon erupts into a unique battle with one of Spider-man’s most popular baddies!

    Superman #9: Supes vs. The Joker!

    Sooner or later The Joker was bound to get tired of Gotham and Batman! Superman #9 has one helluva awesome cover by John Byrne and the story inside is pretty fun as The Joker stops by Metropolis to make people go crazy with his deadly laughing gas and a robot superman with a nuclear bomb inside, thats when Superman steps onto the scene! He easily foils the Joker’s plan asking him why he came to Metropolis, Joker simply laughs and says “Ooh Superman…Why not?”

    Daredevil #104: Murdok vs. Kraven The Hunter!

    Yeah Kraven decides to fuck with someone else finally other than Spidey this time! Kraven really doesn’t have much of a beef with Daredevil but he’s hired to take him out! Whatta jerk doing it for the money huh?! Nope, get this, Kraven actually refuses the cash and does it simply for the thrill of the hunt! This leads Kraven to kidnap the Black Widow and ultimately face Daredevil in the San Francisco zoo because well you know….Kraven wants to feel like he’s in the muthafuckin’ jungle when he faces off with the Man Without Fear!    

    Transformers #3: Spider-man vs. Megatron?!

    Yeah well back in the 1980’s Marvel had the rights to the Transformers. So in their limited series we find out in issue #3 that they exist in the same universe as the Marvel superheroes! This leads to Spider-man guesting in the third issue and taking on Megatron! Now this is a real superhero/ super villain mash up if I have ever seen one!!  

    So help me out here what are some other issues where Superheroes trade classic villains in an unlikely battle?!

    Oh and here is a great animated classic Hulk episode “Tomb of the Unknown Hulk” where the Hulk squares off against Dock Ock!! I always though this was super cool as Ock was an unlikely villain for a full Hulk episode, this segment has their short but awesome battle in it’s finale!

  • Power Lords Vintage TV Ad! The Coolest Action Figures of the 1980’s?!

    I’ve raved here before about The Power Lords action figures from the 1980’s, they were probably some of the most bizarre action figures of that decade and that’s exactly why I needed them all!! Finally someone thankfully uploaded one of the vintage TV commercials that got me all revved up as a kid and I’m starting to think I need to hunt all these down again for myself! The Power Lords weren’t very well known and that’s probably because these action figures were creepy as fuck!

    As a kid even I was a little off put by them in the best way possible-I mean the hero of the power lords is Adam Power a decent looking gentleman until he turns into a blue skinned, black eyed, veiny super powered weirdo!! Check out these classic adds, I’ve gotta say I love that animated sequence it opens with, if only they had a full on animated show back then!! Damn!

    Now THAT’S what I call some cool action figures!! I must admit I had He-man go up against the Power Lords many times and Adam Power always won, then of course they teamed up and took on Skeletor & Griptogg!! Check out this awesome video to get a full on look at how cool the Power Lords mythos really was!!

    It’s really no surprise that The Power Lords were created by Wayne Barlowe who gained a cult following for his book “Barlow’s Guide to Extraterrestrials” way back in 1979. It contains his visualizations of different extraterrestrial life forms from various works of science fiction, with information on their planetary location or range, biology, and behaviors, in the style of a real field guide for animals, such as Roger Tory Peterson’s guide to birds of North America. I may have to hunt down this book too while I am at it!! Barlow has also worked on creature designs for movies like Pacific Rim, Blade II, Both Hellboy movies, Avatar & The Hobbit!

     

  • Comic Book Cover of the Week- Puck the Pint Sized Powerhouse!

    It’s no secret here – I love Alpha Flight! I love John Byrne too who’s the man behind the Canadian supergroup, heck I’d go as far as to say that he’s my favorite comic book artist of all time! So today I’m showcasing his amazing cover from Alpha Flight #5 way back from 1983. This one features a cool solo story with none other than Puck the coolest little superhero of all time and quite possibly hairier than Wolverine!! I’m so bummed that Marvel can’t seem to come up with a good ongoing  series for the team. If you want a great run of comics to read check out John Byrnes run on the book (issues 1-28) you get great art and lots of drama and then some. This rad cover proves sometimes simplicity is the best approach!! I love how he’s jumping out of the price box-brilliant!

     

     

  • Revisiting Anthrax’s ‘Twin Peaks’ Tribute (and Judge Dredd)!

    So with Twin Peaks set to be revived soon I can’t help but wonder if maybe this time around legendary metal band Anthrax will finally get the respect they deserve for being big fans of the show! Back in 1993 they released ‘The Sound of White Noise” which was honestly never an album I ever got 100 percent behind. I guess I was extremely partial to Joey Belladonna and this album marked his departure as lead vocalist.

    Well Anthrax always had rad subject matter to their songs, lets face it they are metal nerd fanboys and many people don’t realize “Black Lodge” from this album was written about Twin Peaks.  Heck they even got the Twin Peaks score conductor Angelo Badalamenti to help them write the song. This album had a much more grunge sound to it as it seemed all bands around this era were changing their sound and trying to cash in on the whole grunge fad at the time.

    But still let’s not ever forget that Anthrax delivered the best metal song about Judge Dredd called “I am the Law” and can you believe that two damn Dredd movies materialized and neither of them include this song in the soundtrack?! What a fucking crying shame!! Wake the fuck up Hollywood don’t take Anthrax for granted!! Here’s the video for Black Lodge in case you missed it back in 1993!

    AND here’s “I am the Law” again, maybe they will put this in that rumored Dredd sequel!

     

  • The Awesome Lost TV Pilot: ‘Tag Team’ with Rowdy Roddy Piper & Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura!

    I recently discovered an awesome little bit of information about a tv show pilot from way back in 1991 called “Tag Team”- an awesome little pilot that for some reason never made it into a full blown series. Tag Team starred Jesse Ventura & Rowdy Roddy Piper as two tag team professional wrestlers who get black mailed into becoming cops. The show brought in the writers from Magnum PI and they aimed high for an A-Team type of show filled with comedy and plenty of action. I was recently listening to the latest “We the People” which is Jesse Ventura’s podcast, where he has Roddy Piper on as his guest and they discuss some of their greatest wrasslin’ memories together. They spend a decent amount of time talking about “Tag Team” and the troubles they ran into getting the show on the air.

    tagteamventurapiper

    Both of these guys were favorites of mine as a kid and honestly I’m quite surprised that I haven’t heard about this show until just now. Considering that both of them star in some of my favorite movies ever like “Predator” and “They Live” and neither of these two guys appear to be slowing down one bit these days. Piper has his own podcast appropriately called “Piper’s Pit” and has a cool new HP Lovecraft inspired horror flick in the works called “Portal to Hell” which I am dying to see!

    Roddy has been praised by his fans as being one of the coolest guys to meet. Ventura has been Governor of Minnesota and most recently has started his own political web series called “Off the Grid” and has been hinting at a Presidential run in 2016 to really shake things up.

     

    I’m a big fan of Ventura and his no B.S. political views would be a breath of fresh air, so I’m hoping he runs as Universal Dork will be behind him if he does. Either way the whole lost pilot of Tag Team can be seen right here on Youtube! Check this out it’s a ton of fun~!

     

  • The CRITTERS are Back from the Eighties?!!

    It seems the Critters back! There’s rumors going around that Warner Bros is getting ready to revive the 1980’s classic flick with a reboot or sorts. Well we all know that this new version of critters will most likely be nothing like the original movies, but a fan took matters into his own hands and came up with this awesome short film, Critters: Bounty Hunter.

    This is pretty rad and it feels just like the 80’s Critters franchise we have grown to love over the years. Jordan Downey put this cool little six minute film together and if Warner wants to get the spirit of the original they should really be taking notes on this sweet little short! This is the type of Critters that we want. I’m starting to feel like the fan made movies are better than what Hollywood is coming up with these days- Check this shit out!

  • Tusk: One of the Worst Movies of 2014? For sure!!

    I finally got around to checking out Kevin Smith’s horror podcast inspired movie “Tusk”. I have been looking forward to seeing it for a while now, but unfortunately this one doesn’t live up to the hype. Nope, what we have here is Kevin Smith’s “wacky” idea of a movie inspired by one of his “wacky” podcast episodes. I guess I really wonder why he’d waste the time to make such a shitty movie? Did the idea really sound that awesome on his podcast? I know it’s supposed to be like the Kevin Smith version of Human Centipede but this movie really didn’t need to be made. It was boring, it’s plot was generic, it’s characters were not likable in the least and it wasn’t funny or for that matter scary. Hell Johnny Depp couldn’t even save this one, in fact Depp’s character made the movie even worse!! Spoilers Ahead be WARNED!

    So we have a hotshot podcaster played by Justin Long and his wisecracking nerd hipster buddy Haley Joel Osment who are supposed internet celebrities with their “clever” named website “The Not See Party”. Get it?!! Duh…They interview strange people and post viral videos that star these odd people basically making fools of themselves. So justin Long’s character goes on a trip to Canada and ends up randomly meeting an odd old man from a flyer he finds hanging on a wall in a dive bar. He goes to the creepy home of the man and listens to him blabber on about his unbelievable (stupid) stories at sea and his totally idiotic story of a walrus saving his life on a desert island. Then Justin Long realizes his tea has been drugged and passes out. This is where things are supposed to get “intense” when we realize the old man is obsessed with that walrus that saved his dumb life! Yep like Human Centipede he decides to transform Long into a big ol’ walrus. Shocking right? Hardly!

    Johnny Depp wouldn’t attach his name to this movie even though he stars in it…hmm…I wonder why?!

    On top of that we get some kinda lame side story with a “Kevin Smith-y” type love triangle going on that I honestly could’t care less about as all the characters in the movie are pretty uninteresting & annoying. Then we get an another pointless, irritating character showing up, Johnny Depp in heavy make up flashing some truly cringeworthy acting. The rest of the flick is just one big dumb pile of crap. We get an uneven story with bunch of idiotic scenes of Justin Long “arping” around in a big walrus suit, eating fish, and fighting his captor in a walrus battle. All of this shit is supposed to be clever and funny but it’s really just well…boring. I feel like I lost some brain cells watching this one and the surprise ending is just as dumb as you might expect. It tries hard to make some witty sense of this big stupid pile of horse shit of a film.

    I have a love/hate relationship with Kevin Smith he has made a few ok films but for the most part I just don’t think he’s all that funny. This was most definitely his worst movie, which I’d call a gigantic waste of time for all those involved and all those who’ve watched. Please Mr. Smith don’t make anymore podcast inspired movies. I am now officially not excited to see Kevin Smith’s Krampus flick…

  • A New Actor Replaces Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones!!

    Well, sorta! I just had to share this cool video called “Indiana Bones: Raiders of the Lost Bark”! Check this rad little video out and see what grand adventure this canine version of Indy gets into! I’d rather have this cool dog pick up the character than Shia Labeouf any day!!

  • Finally the Fight We Have Been Waiting for: Batman vs……Dexter?!

    Boy do I love a good fan made film, often times they are more inspiring than the big blockbusters! We’ve had some cool superhero fan films over the years but this one is quite a bizarre match up when Dexter Morgan moves to Gotham and decides to go after The Penguin and put him on his table to pay for his crimes!

    Not a bad idea, until Batman shows up to stop him! Check this one out, it’s a pretty fun little piece of work…maybe Batman isn’t quite as cool looking as he could be, ok  I admit it..he looks pretty bad but it’s the thought that counts right?!

    oh yeah and if you missed this one check this out, an awesome return to animated Batman by the series cartoon legend Bruce Timm, truly amazing!!

  • ‘Realm of the Underworld’ Action Figures are here to Kick He-man’s Ass!!

    I LOVED He-Man and The Masters of the universe action figures as a kid, I just could not get enough of them and all of the cool accessories! The cartoon was a ton of fun, I had almost all of the action figures, mainly the bad guys and  back in the day there were even some cool knock offs, the poor man’s He-man figures you could snatch up at places like K-Mart. You remember the Remco “DC” line of figures? There guys were great and quite a bit less expensive than the Masters of the Universe, with cool figures like Warlord and Hercules…

     

    Here’s all of the old 80’s Remco ones together..

    They may have been He-man knock offs but they were pretty fucking awesome!

     

    Well there’s a new toy line by Zoloworld called Realm of the Underworld and they totally look like lost action figures from the 80’s. Infact they really remind me of the Remco collection from the 1980’s. They share that same quality of the Knock off and He-man and the Masters of the Universe in the fact that they use basically the same body molds with a different paint job a different rubber head and maybe different costuming.

     

    I didn’t give a shit that they used the same body parts! They were awesome durable toys that could take a serious beating!

    This new action figure line takes me back to those days at K-mart when I’d spend my time hanging out in the toy department as long as I could and sometime my mom would buy me a cool new action figure. Check these out they are pretty great!

     

    Oh yeah and it looks like the Slime (as in the same Masters of the Universe Horde green slime- that was amazing!!) will be coming soon to Realm of the Underworld soon too-how rad is that?!!

    totally gross and awesome!!!