Her physical appearance was based on Lainie Kazan, who had recently appeared topless in Playboy. Bom-Chicka-Wow-Wow!
She’s married to Mister Miracle, and in a reversal of the stereotype associated with female characters at the time of her creation, Barda is physically more powerful than her husband, Mister Miracle, and very protective of him. Anyone who thinks that wives can’t kick ass has obviously never been married.
The characterization between Barda and Scott ‘Mister Miracle’ Free was based largely—though with tongue in cheek—on the interplay between Kirby and his wife Roz. If Kirby is the King of Comics, then hail to the Queen, baby.
The name Big Barda is just fun to say.
She was a member of the future Justice League in the Batman Beyond timeline, though as a last-minute replacement for Wonder Woman, who couldn’t be used at the time. Speaking of…
Her skill and strength is such that she has fought Wonder Woman to a draw.
She’s a flippin’ New God.
She was born on Apokolips, but later reformed and moved to Supertown, which also fun to say.
She possesses immense superhuman strength that puts her into the same strength class as Superman and Wonder Woman, and is also highly resistant to blunt force trauma, temperature and pressure extremes, and is partially bulletproof. Work it, sister.
Her Apokoliptan physiology prevents her from aging and makes her immune to disease. 365 is the new 30.
She wields a high tech weapon of Apokoliptan origins called a “Mega-Rod.” The rod is capable of producing extremely powerful concussive bolts capable of felling beings as durable as Superman, allows Barda to teleport herself and others long distances, can increase gravitational forces, and can be used as an indestructible club in melee combat. Shoot, who needs pepper spray?
She has access to other forms of Fourth World technology, including Aero-Discs that allow her to defy gravity and fly, Apokoliptan battle armor that augments her already impressive durability, and a Mother Box, which she can use to create Boom Tubes for transportation over long distances and between dimensions. Much cooler than those lame so-called ‘hoverboards’ which don’t actually hover and have wheels. Those things are just Segways without the handles!
She has 2 main costumes: her battle armor (above) and for more relaxed times, this little number:
Do I really need to say ‘Bom-Chicka-Wow-Wow’ again?
Disney’s Fantasia 2000 was met with mixed reaction, but there was one segment in it which I particularly enjoyed, and it’s the subject of today’s Toons & Tunes. It’s the movie’s sequence for Rhapsody in Blue, a 1924 composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects.
Set in New York City in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, in the lobby of the Hotel New York, the segment tells the story of several people in a daily life during a rough period. It starts with the following:
Construction Worker Duke heading off to work, while having dreams of being a jazz musician.
A jobless man named Joe is having coffee at a diner, feeling depressed at having no job and having a lack of money and is treated badly due to being out of money, not even having enough to spend on food.
A little girl named Rachel has to go various classes throughout the day while her parents work in the struggling economy, having to be with her nasty nanny throughout the day doing things she has no interest in or is bad at (such as ballet, which leads to her crashing into a closet, swimming, where she is covered from head to toe with various swim aids, singing badly to the point a dog faints, splashing her art teacher with blue paint, tying up someone with a gymnastic rope, just blocking a tennis ball with the racket, and almost falling off her piano-playing chair).
A man named Flying John is out and about with his wife Margaret, getting stuff for her dog while he just wants to have fun.
The segment ends with all four protagonists getting their wish, though their stories interact with each other’s without any of them knowing.
The characters are designed in the style of Al Hirschfeld’s known caricatures of the time.
Of all the segments from Fantasia 2000, this is the one that’s always stood out for me. It’s not as flashy or surreal as many of the other segments, but it tells simple little stories (no “magic land lives an idyllic life, then some Big Evil strikes and some heroes have to spend the story defeating said evil” shtick here; I’ve always preferred simple plots, which is one reason why I’ve always enjoyed shorts over features), funny and sweet, and you feel for the characters without it having to veer into hammy, smarmy, heavy-handed bathos territory. And all this without a single line of dialogue being uttered. Well played, Disney. Enjoy.
No, this Nerdvana is not about the NBC sitcom. Rather, it’s another musical number from the 1987 movie Miami Connection, about martial artist Y.K. Kim and his merry band of karate kompanions who sing songs with the kinds of lyrics that one would expect to hear on a Saturday morning kids’ show and fight motorcycle riding ninjas. A legendary must see. This song is an ear worm, but there are much worse songs that you could have stuck in your head. This movie makes me think about how much cooler the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would have been if the kids’ had also formed a band. Let’s rock!
Today Cartoon Country looks at a Cartoon Network Web Premiere Toon circa 2001. Imagine if 70’s cartoon crime fighter Hong Kong Phooey (aka bumbling janitor Penry Pooch) had graduated from the Dragon Ball Z/Street Fighter/Naruto school of martial arts. Check it out.
-One YouTube poster said of this short: “So glad that did not fly or my childhood would have been ruined.”
Ah, no.
For one, I’m pretty sure this was never meant to be anything more than a one-and-done short (I do recall there being plans for a live-action HKP movie years ago, but evidently nothing came of that), and for another, even if that weren’t the case, how exactly would the mere existence of 1 new cartoon adaptation which you’re not even required nor obligated to watch ruin your childhood when your childhood has already come and gone? Cartoons and cartoon producers aren’t dicks with time machines, after all. Quite frankly, if you’re that resistant to change, it’s a wonder you haven’t tried to off yourself the instant you hit puberty. Personally, I thought this short was awesome, and I enjoyed the original series as a kid.
The original Hong Kong Phooey hasn’t gone anywhere. He’s still around, and his intro still rocks.
If there ever is to be a new Hong Kong Phooey TV show, movie or anything, I think it should be a mix of both: the silly slapstick combined with the ultra-stylized, over-the-top martial arts mayhem.
Is it just me, or is MTV these days about as interesting as staring at dishwater for 2 hours straight? Something is missing from the channel. Something the current MTV is sorely lacking, and that’s….
The flippin’ ROCK & ROLL.
Let me clarify: I’m NOT suggesting that MTV go back to just showing music videos all day. I realize that 24-hour music video channels aren’t really a thing anymore thanks to the internet and services like YouTube and Google Play, I’m not delusional, however (and I realize that I’m likely just looking at MTV through older, jaded eyes) it just seems that a cable channel devoted to ROCK MUSIC should at least partially be about, you know, ROCK MUSIC. MTV of today has no attitude, no style, no edge, it’s just the same teenybopper, Millenial reality show crap you can see on any channel. The late Fuel TV, an extreme sports channel, in its’ last years (before Fox killed it to make yet another ESPN clone, Fox Sports 1) was more of a music television channel than MTV is; many of their shows featured music from popular and up-and-comic bands, and there were numerous spotlights and performances by bands. I was first introduced to Damone, Tweak Bird, Jurassic 5, Bad Religion, Dredg, Kandi Coded, Chad Farran, Hieroglyphs, Pinback, Ladytron and even The Aquabats through Fuel TV, not MTV. MTV needs a Daily Habit. It needs a Stupidface. It needs a Captain & Casey Show. Where are the standing room only concerts, world premiere videos and rockumentaries? Even MTV’s BUMPERS are boring.
Tame. Unimaginative. Generic. The rock ‘n’ sensibility is just gone. Back in the day I would tune into MTV just to see what sort of avant garde weirdness they were going to go in and out of stuff with. There was an edge to their bumps that you would expect to see on a music channel. What happened to the awesome bumpers like these?
See? Those are bumpers you’ll remember, that people will talk about. I’d like to see bumps like these on MTV again, and no, I’m not suggesting that they bring these old bumps back; I’m suggesting that Viacom hire some talented artists to create NEW bumpers with the same level of creativity and imagination. If we’re not going to get actual music on MUSIC Television, we might as well get something that’s not generic.
MTV’s not the only channel that’s a dismal shadow of it’s former self. Take Nick @ Nite…please. Like MTV, N@N has been afflicted with the same condition:
Being really, really, Really BORING!
Admittedly, even during the block’s heyday, I didn’t watch much Nick at Nite aside from The Best of Saturday Night Live, SCTV, Fernwood/America 2-Nite and On the Television, but at least then there was something running on there besides just George Lopez and Friends all night. Again, I’m not suggesting that Nick@Nite should just loop what they aired during their 1990’s for all eternity; that would be both unrealistic and not economically feasible, as the crowd that grew up watching 1950’s through 1980’s television by and large are now outside of the coveted 18-35 age demographic, but would a little variety and style kill the block? Surely, N@N could run more than just 2 sitcoms all night? Where are the action shows? Where are the cop shows? Where are the sci-fi shows? Where are the prank shows? Where are the riff shows? Where are the sketch comedy shows? Where are the quirky, oddball game shows? Where is the KITSCH???!? N@N didn’t have to abandon the whole “Hello Out There from TV Land” shtick just because they had to move the timeline of their roster forward; they could utilize the same style with newer shows. They could be airing stuff like In Living Color or The Rerun Show or The Canned Film Festival or Cheap Seats or The Black Adder or Red Dwarf or Beat the Geeks or What’s Carol Brady Thinking? Heck, they could be running something akin to Super Retro-Vision Saturdaze, which previously aired on TV Land, a channel which is just as big a waste of air space as Nick@Nite. They’re not even trying to milk the classic TV bit anymore; like MTV it’s just the same reality/sitcom sturm and drang that you can peep out any other cable channel. And again like MTV their bumpers are about as exciting as watching cheese age and as stylish and checkerboard leisure suits.
You’re making me miss the old logo. Ya happy, Viacom? You’re actually turning me into one of those nostalgic people who attaches their fond memories to logos!
There was a time when N@N’s bumpers had style:
With these bumps there was a sense of fun and effort put into them. I’m not ashamed to admit that I watched these bumpers more than the actual shows on Nick at Nite. Both this block and MTV could become watchable by someone other than Millenials and heart patients again. And one mo’ time, I’m not suggesting that Viacom bring back the old bumps, I’m suggesting that they make NEW ones with the same level of quality, style, fun and creativity. I’d swipe the cane away from an old person and beat them with it in front of their grandchildren for some decent bumpers and short filler segments between shows with some actual creativity and style put into them, if not just a better class of shows.
“That’s what I wanna see, Silent Bob. Effed up cartoons, weirdo shows and artsy-fartsy fillers made by art-school loonies!”
Twin Images 
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