MISC. MANGA, *Radically Rearranged Ronin Ragdolls

Meant to be the in-universe project that character Shane Bookman was working on in the Drawing Blood crowdfunded graphic novel by Kevin Eastman, the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually did release this as its own TMNT-styled homage/parody, but this time its in full color, and with a trio of catgirls! This manga-themed one-shot was published by the rarely active original home of the Turtles, Mirage Publishing.

Three humanoid feline fatales named Tezuka, Otomo, and Miyazaki(all taken from anime creators)secretly fight crime as mutated swordswomen. The catgirls were regular kittens that were part of a secret underground genetics project, they managed to escape their mutant-making facility to get adopted by an Asian-American couple running an inner-city sushi restaurant. As they grew, the sisters were taught fighting skills by their adopted parents, while becoming fans of old school anime. They put their skills to the test when they clash with the drug-pushing villain Overdog and his ninja posse.

This anime-inspired special works great as a more up to date remake of the 1st issue of the original Turtles comic book. It makes for a nice addition for fans of independent 80s comic books, and the early days of translated-English manga in the States.

ANI-MOVIES, *Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

With Disney locking down Marvel heroes with no signs of intercompany crossovers, Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon cut through all that red tape with a trio of team-ups between The Dark Knight and the Heroes in a Half-Shell. This the first time DC Comics officially had an animated team-up with characters from a completely different publisher, even though they've had some with other cartoons like Scooby-Doo and The Brady Bunch. Ben Jones, who directed Batman: Brave And The Bold, acts as producer in this hard "PG-13" blending of both Batman and TMNT lore.

The Foot Clan goes to Gotham to steal tech for the League of Assassins, which in turn, Ra's al Ghul promises to share the secrets of his mysterious life-prolonging Lazarus Pit with Shredder. The Turtles follow the Foot, and clash briefly with Batman(making for the "Vs." part of this title), but manage to track Batman to the Batcave, which is impressive since most of the resident criminal masterminds haven't ever pulled that off. Batman agrees to let the Turtles tag along with him, Robin(Damian Wayne), and Batgirl as its revealed that Ra's traded some of Shredder's mutagen to Joker in exchange for his Joker venom. The Caped Crusaders and TMNT arrive at Arkham Asylum to find the patients have been turned into half-human animals, and a new cobra-like Joker mixes his venom with the mutagen to change Batman into a rampaging Bat-Man-Bat! The Turtles help Robin and Batgirl return Batman to normal, then subdue Arkham's residents. The collected heroes realize that the Foot and League plan on using Joker's venom/mutagen to transform everyone in Gotham into insane mutants, so after an inspirational speech by Raphael, both teams rev up the Batmobile and Turtlevan to stop Ras's and Shredder's army of mutant ninjas.

This was an impressive production for WB and Nickelodeon, which is way outside the scope of Nick's normal family-friendly programming. There's some strait up bloody violence with Shredder flat-out murdering some citizens. The movie is slightly different from the original mini-series, like having both the Turtles and Batman be in the same universe as opposed to pan-dimensional wormholes. The addition of other characters like Batgirl and Baxter Stockman help flesh out the cast, although it was a small shame not seeing the Penguin getting turned into an actual penguin. There were two other follow-ups to the comic book mini-series, including one crossing over the animated version of both shows, but the movie has an original ending that could make for a groundbreaking sequel if it ever gets made. The casting is top-notch too with all four of the Turtles being voiced by actors who've never played them before, plus both Batman and Joker being played by Troy Baker whose done Joker in Batman: Unlimited and Assault On Arkham as well as the original Lego Batman! The film quality is above-average too, even though some of the character designs are slightly off-model, especially most of the Turtles having almost no facial features. This crossover is so far the best cross-company team-ups ever made!

Somewhere, Gonzo the Great is masturbating furiously to this!

I can't believe it's only Wednesday!

The Lion King remake! MY GOD!

ANI-MOVIES, *G.I. Joe: The Movie

Since Transformers and My Little Pony got their own full-length animated motion picture in the mid-80s, then Hasbro felt it was worth doing one for the last of its Big 3 sellers. However, since the 80s were saturated with non-Disney animated films, G.I. Joe: The Movie was instead released directly to video, making it one of the first American "OVAs". Conveniently though, it was largely produced by Toei Animation, along with additional help from Sunbow and Marvel Entertainment.

After one of the most spectacular movie openings ever with Cobra trying to bomb the Statue of Liberty, the ruthless terrorist organization is contacted by a mysterious infiltrator named Pythona. She convinces Cobra's emperor Serpentor to take G.I. Joe's latest gadget, the Broadcast Energy Transmitter, which is capable of sending energy through an all-terrain vehicle. The Joes manage to keep the BET out of Cobra's clutches, but some of their crew wind up prisoners of Pythona's people, a subterranean race of bug people called Cobra-La who originally financed Cobra Commander's forming of Cobra itself, but helped them create Serpentor to replace him after so many bungled attacks at world domination. Now, Cobra joins Cobra-La to get the BET from G.I. Joe, who plans to use the device to cover the planet with spores that will mutate everyone into reptile people. The Joe's manage to capture Serpentor, but because of Duke's brother Falcon screwing up, he's sprung by the Dreadnoks, leaving Falcon to get re-schooled in being a soldier by Sgt. Slaughter. Cobra Commander is punished by Cobra-La who turn him into a talking snake, but escapes with Road Block. Serpentor leads another attack on Joe HQ, leaving Duke "in a coma", motivating Falcon and the rest of the rawhide new Joes to invade Cobra-La's underground citadel. A massive fight between the insect-like Cobra-La soldiers and its leader, the snake-taur Golobulus, as Falcon and the other Joes manage to stop them and save the Earth.

Taking place after Season 2 of the original series, G.I. Joe: The Movie sets up a follow-up series produced by DIC, who in the 80s also did Inspector Gadget and The Real Ghostbusters, but it wasn't like Transformers: The Movie where they killed off much of the original cast to make room for new recruits. It's a little strange for the continuity for the series though to take a spec-ops team fighting terrorists to making the real bad guys be a hidden society of mole-men, making it more of a Marvel Comics' styled plot, like having SHIELD battling Thanos instead of Hydra. The animation quality is a slight step up from the television production, especially the giant insect monsters of Cobra-La, but not too much of a departure from the standard norm. If you hadn't seen much of the prior G.I. Joe TV series, the movie does stand good enough on its own if you want to just catch some glorious 80's cartoon action!

Live-action Mulan? THAT'S RACIST!

Storm Area 51, fellow nerds!!

J. Jonah Jameson tells off Truth.com

Spider-Man will return in One More Day. (THANKS, DISNEY!)