Weekly Roundup 08/03/2025
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Godzilla, Dragon Ball Daima, Fantastic Four
I’ve been getting a lot of work done lately. I’ve sent some things to Atomic Geekdom and I’ve finished some things for the Substack so stay tuned for some really fun pieces coming in the near future. Which is just as well because I’ve got a few very busy weeks coming up as summer comes to an end. Which means I might not get to write much more until September. I did get a keyboard for my Kindle though, so I might begin to do some writing while I’m at work and on my breaks.
I don’t know if anyone has noticed yet but I did make a Bitchin About Nothin Instagram account. I mentioned that I would and I did because I really want to find “my people.” I’m very bad at social media, and I think I need to try and get over some recently diagnosed body dysmorphia to get people to notice me. I’m inspired by Sami DeMonster who is a comic book influencer I’ve talked to a few times. But how she is for the Slaughterverse, I want to be for the Massive-Verse. We’ll see if it happens, but it’s good to have goals. I just don’t want to annoy people.
I really need to start to use this to promote comics that I love or are excited for. Especially since Stjepan Sejic is beginning to actually move on a comic that I’m very excited for and he always struggles to find an audience for anything not Sunstone. But that’s for another day.
What’s in the rest of the newsletter?
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3
A Space Adventure Hour
What am I working on/Thoughts on that work
Weekly roundup
Godzilla #1
Dragon Ball Daima
Fantastic Four: First Steps thoughts added to Substack
Star Trek: Strange New World
This might end up being my least favorite season of this show. You can kind of see me begin to wonder if I even like this show anymore while I was writing this piece. I mean, there’s things I like, but there are things this season is doing that I just don’t agree with.
I got to say that I’m really enjoying breaking down these episodes in this format and I might try and do this kind of thing for different shows.
What Am I Working On?
I have so many things I need to get through. I need to finish my Indiana Jones mythology pieces, some film rankings I want to do including a Jurassic one that’s partially written already, and so many more.
But I did get some things done. I finished my AVP piece and sent it off. I figured I’ll get that one out while Alien: Earth is airing, that way I don’t get into the same situation that I did with my Predator piece. Just to warn you though, It’s kind of dumb. The kind of “dumb” I like to write, like my silly low stakes opinion pieces that I can milk for three pages, like the Dragon Ball Super piece. I hope people will enjoy it.
Speaking of Predator, I decided to publish the Dutch piece I mentioned last week as a Substack exclusive. I didn’t feel right sending an out of date piece like that to Atomic Geekdom so I slapped an epilogue to it and set it for publish on Tuesday. I just felt that the opinions I had were still relavent, even if the overall framing device wasn’t so I didn’t want to scrap it. Hope you guys like it, I think it raises some interesting questions about Yautja lore.
I did end up getting two first drafts done also. One was my disapointment in Marvel Studios’ direction and another is my disapointment in the direction of one of my favorite Marvel characters, Spider-Gwen. So I’ll hopefully finish both of those this weekend.
I’m not sure where I’ll go next, probably a couple more Star Trek pieces while Strange New Worlds is airing, but I would also like to get back to some of the larger projects I’ve been putting off. We’ll see, trying not to burn myself out.
Weekly Musings
I don’t think anything stood out to me this week.
Weekly Roundup
Godzilla #1
W: Tim Seeley / A: Nikola Čižmešija
A bold and new director for Godzilla begins now! I’ve been eagerly anticipating this issue. These days I prefer to trade wait for comics, but I really felt like I should support this series and I’m glad that I did. It’s not a knock out of a first issue though.
While I think the new world that they’re setting up is interesting and there’s some cool and dynamic action, I think this issue focuses way to much on world building and set up. It doesn’t have a big cast of characters, which helps move the story along, but there’s so much exposition in this comic that I started to zone out.
I also thought I would be used to the new design of Godzilla by now, but I’m not. It’s going to take a minute I guess, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Something about the art and this design doesn’t mesh for me very well. Otherwise I did like the art.
It’s a solid first issue, but it doesn’t hit the ground running like I wanted it to. It doesn’t immediately grab me. But it’s an interesting new world and direction and because of that I’m willing to give it a few issues to really find it’s voice. I’m looking forward to the other two Godzilla books though.
Dragon Ball Daima (spoilers)
D: Yoshitaka Yashima & Aya Matsu / W: Yūko Kakihara / Story by: Akira Toriyama
I’ve been a big fan of Dragon Ball since I watching Dragon Ball Z on Toonami after school, so it’s needless to say that I will be with this franchise for years to come. But I think this was the most disappointed I’ve been in a Dragon Ball show. The incredible animation just couldn’t make up for how poorly the story was told.
Now that’s not to say that I didn’t like it. There’s actually quite a bit that I did like in it. The fights are excellent and I really enjoyed how each character was written. The english voice cast was very well cast, especially Supreme Kai, and I liked exploring the Demon World. There’s one episode where Goku fights Tamagami 3 that I thought was excellent and probably the best episode of the season. The show also features two incredible uses of the Kamehameha that rank as some of the best in the entire franchise. I’m also not the kind of person to care about the introduction of Super Saiyan 4 in a prequel to Dragon Ball Super, especially because it’s my favorite form in the franchise and it’s nice to see it made canon again.
But the pacing of the show is really where it gets me. Whenever it feels like there’s some momentum going, the show crashes a plane to stall it. That’s fine in a show that goes for 50-100 episodes, but Dragon Ball Daima was built for 20. There is no more after that. A show like that needs to have a sense of forward momentum, but it doesn’t it just meanders so much. We even stop exploring the Demon World after a while as the show completely drops elements it sets up in the beginning. It has to contrive a way for the whole gang to stay seperated multiple times. It just begame very frustrating.
I don’t mind exposition. Especially since so many Dragon Ball characters have their origins in the Demon World. But it doesn’t even seem to be important after a while. Shin, the Supreme Kai, meets his long lost siblings like it doesn’t even matter to him. The same is true the other way. It’s like the show sets up the idea that we should care that Shin has a brother and sister in the Demon World and then forgets to pay it off in any meaningful way. I was equally as disappointed in how Piccolo reacted to being on the world where his people were from. I get that he was born on Earth and has no connection to the place, but I guess I just felt there should be some weight attached to the moment. Neva is grea though. Loved him, no notes.
Gomah isn’t a very interesting villain either. He poses no threat to our heroes and we’re told that he’s a tyrant without seeing him be a tyrant. Or specifically we see his effect on people and then we stop seeing it before the half way point of the series. He’s kind of a wet blanket and the only interesting thing about him was when he got his power up. At least he offered a good fight. The last few episodes were very exciting, but I kind of felt that Gomah as almost as boring of a character as Cell Max from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Another postive I have is the theme song. I’m genuinly upset that we will never hear this theme again. It’s one of the best that Dragon Ball has ever produced. It’s one of those “never skip” intros. Just an absolute banger.
I liked the beginning and I liked the ending. The characterizations are solid, I hate Hybis, and I liked Majin Kuu and Duu more then I thought I would. I just wish it was paced better, and kept the sense of adventure throughout the entire series. It’s not a bad show and certainly not a bad entry in this franchise, but it is a disappointing end to the end of Akira Toryama’s Dragon Ball and it’s likely my least favorite. I just felt the middle dragged way more then a 20 episode series should and brought the series down as a whole because of it. The animation is incredible though.
Recently Posted
If you missed last weeks newsletter, here’s my in depth, unfiltered thoughts on Fantastic Four: First Steps. I like the title “From the Newsletter.”
