it hasn’t been long since I reblogged a post about a thief/reposter and I already found 2 more accounts since then. I @ some of you if I recognized your gifs. I hope you won’t mind
- it’s harder to recognize the gifs bc they were cropped (they cropped your watermarks too if you had any, they did to one of mine) and resized, added text, so they lost quality. I recognized some here
Chinese stamps commemorating the 1964 animated movie, “Havoc in Heaven,” based on the misbehaving, mouthy Monkey King making trouble in the orderly world of the Celestials.
It’s a commemoration of the historic era (between 1950-1966) when Shanghai was one of the animation capitals of the world, when the Wan Brothers and others worked with the Shanghai Arts and Film Studio….butbefore the beginning of the cultural revolution in the late 1960s, when many Chinese animators returned to the countryside as farmers or workers. Prior to 1966, the Chinese animation world was far more technical and developed than the equivalent industry in Japan at the same time, but after the cultural revolution in ‘67, China never really recovered from that lost decade, and Shanghai was never really the cultural center of animation in Asia again, despite some extraordinary efforts (usually in Shanghai by people trained by the Wan Brothers).
Monkey Prince #1 was recently published. For those who haven’t read the original story “The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes” or the prelude Monkey Prince #0, please check out my respective reviews.
The character is the half-human son of the Monkey King. He’s raised by an adoptive Asian American father and a Euro American mother and secretly trained in magic by Shifu Pigsy (i.e. Zhu Bajie). Unbeknownst to him, his parents are secretly hench people for hire that work for various super villains, most recently Dr. Sivana. Marcus is estranged from Sun Wukong, who is missing in the story for some unknown reason at this point. This may involve a past battle the Great Sage had with the New God Darkseid.
My reviews include suggested story changes that better align with the events of Journey to the West. He is instead the son of Princess Iron Fan and the half-brother of Red Boy. He’s also the disciple of Guanyin, and he lives and trains in her earthly Mt. Potalaka island paradise. My version is named Sun Taizi (孫太子, “Prince Sun”), which is a play on San Taizi (三太子, “Third Prince”), a religious name of Prince Nezha, an ally from Journey to the West, as well as the celestial vanguard in the Monkey King’s real world folk religion.
I predicted the following in my Monkey Prince #0 review:
… future suggested changes to issue #1 and beyond are going to become harder and harder as the comic story is fleshed out. My original changes portray the character as a young demigod who … only later becomes acquainted with modern superheroes through happenstance. So I will have to bypass all of these flashbacks [of Marcus’ youth] and only suggest changes to the broader story.
And I was right. There’s nothing in the new issue that I can build on.
The story takes place in Gotham City, home of the Batman. Marcus is traumatized as a young child when the Dark Knight beats up his adoptive father looking for information about the pair’s criminal activity. This event leads to Marcus developing a phobia around just about everything, including bats, black curtains, water, etc. After briefly living elsewhere, a now teenaged Marcus returns to attend high school in the city. But he’s singled out by bullies for his apparent weakness. A part from his parents, his only positive role model is a husky janitor name Mr. Zhu (i.e. Shifu Pigsy in disguise). Zhu encourages the boy to overcome his fear of water by jumping into a pool to enter the “Water Curtain Cave”. Marcus refuses at first, but after being beaten up and having his shoes stolen by bullies, he takes the plunge. He finds himself magically transported to the world of the Monkey King. He even catches a brief glimpse of his father. Most importantly, he’s transformed into the Monkey Prince, only to reemerge into the present and use his new found powers to beat up his bullies. Damian Wayne, Batman’s son and sidekick, alerts his father to the disturbance. The issue ends when the Dark Knight misjudges his throw and accidentally beheads the Monkey Prince with a batarang. No joke!
Some new information comes to light:
Marcus’ adopted parents are named Laura and Winston Shugel-Shen.
Both are PhD tech scientists who have worked for the Riddler, Intergang, and Captain Cold.
Their new boss, the Penguin, has procured their services to use a large ray to possess an accountant with an ancient Chinese demon. The ray shatters a metal hu-gourd, revealing the Great King Golden Horn (Jinjiao dawang, 金角大王) demon from ch. 33 of the original. The experiment seemingly fails, causing the Penguin to shoot the victim in a rage. However, promotional material for upcoming issue #3 describes a “penguin demon” that wants to eat superheroes to gain their powers. This suggests the demon actually takes hold of the Penguin.
Lastly, the ongoing criminal career of Marcus’ adoptive parents really bothers me. Everyone, even celestials, appears to be oblivious to their illegal activities. Shifu Pigsy either doesn’t know or doesn’t care. Either way, it’s shitty writing. Also, in the beginning, when Batman discovers Marcus watching him beat up the dad, he simply leaves. He doesn’t attempt to arrest the parents or take the child into protective custody. Again, shitty writing. Ugh.
