Let's talk about chicks, man -- Jem (and to a lesser extent the Holograms)

Jem!

Once a popular animated TV series that ran for three seasons from 1985-1988 is still considered a staple in 80's cartoons. Probably the most interesting thing about Jem is that it was created by a woman (not surprising, but there's a twist), Christy Marx who had worked on Transformers, and GI JOE, two of the most manly, boy-driven shows in existence. Jem was actually a collaboration of Marvel Comics, Hasbro and Sunbow Productions (studio of the other aforementioned manly shows, as well as the Pryde of the X-Men pilot).

The plot was a little more complicated than I had thought. Then again, as a boy growing up in the 80's, Jem was put on the shelf compared to the Super Powers Team and Thundercats.

From Wikipedia:

The central "secret" of the series is that Jem is in fact the alter ego of Jerrica Benton, owner/manager of Starlight Music, who adopts this persona with the help of Synergy, a holographic computer designed to be the ultimate visual entertainment synthesizer (built by her father, Emmett Benton, who left it to her on his death), to acquire more money to not only support Jerrica's own company, Starlight Music, but to also support the Starlight Foundation for Girls, a foster program founded by Jacque Benton, the mother of Jerrica and Kimber Benton.

If there are two things I remember about the show though, they would be the intro song and the fashion sense. Interesting note about the famous theme song though, it's not the song used in the first episode. Yeah, I'm glad they changed that. But just watch that first part of the episode. We are introduced to the arch-nemesis band in the most hilarious way and Eric Raymond is so over the top, calling him a threat would be laughable. And how Jerrica is introduced to Synergy is borderline creepy.

I remember Jem being the alternative to Barbie...or maybe that should be alternative Barbie. Have you seen the dolls? Between the Holograms, Rainbow Brite and some of She-Ra's gal pals, everything looked like they were going to or coming from a rave.

There have been talks about a revival of sorts. Hasbro has shown some legal activity in maintaining their trademarks and intellectual property, leading some fans to believe they may be reviving the line via the trademark renewal for "Dolls, doll clothing and doll accessories; board games and jigsaw puzzles," "publications, namely coloring books, activity books, comic books, paperback and hard cover story books, story books and pre-recorded books on tape all sold as a unit, and magazines in the field of dolls and animated characters," as well as entertainment vehicles like TV shows.

Creator Christy Marx has long expressed a desire to make a modern day revival of the animated series, but stated in a 2004 interview that there are a great deal of complications concerning the rights to the Jem properties.

"I would like to see that happen. I don't want to go into a lot of detail, but the whole rights situation for Jem is very, very complicated. Believe me, if there were a simple straightforward way to do it, it would be done. But there are some very big complications that are in the way at the moment."

A while back, Forbes.com has reported that Hasbro has recently re-acquired distribution rights to the Sunbow library of Hasbro Classics, which includes Jem. This has led to speculation that Jem may be re-released on DVD in the future. Possibly on blu-ray?

Also, you have to think about with the success of GI JOE and Transformers, there could be room for a JEM movie or at least a new cartoon. They could tour with Dethklok.

Let's talk about chicks, man: Jean Grey-Summers/Marvel Girl/Phoenix

Jean Grey was first introduced in X-Men #1, way back in September of 1963. Then, she was just known as Marvel Girl (I remember hearing Stan Lee hated that name, but he couldn't come up with anything better at the time). Jean Grey is an Omega-level mutant, and has been one of the physical hosts of the vastly powerful Phoenix Force who possesses god-like powers and is one of the most feared beings that ever lived. With the Phoenix Force, Jean has potentially limitless psionic powers of telekinesis and telepathy - Hank McCoy (the ever-lovable Beast)has said that, based on her massive power levels, "on the Richter scale, she'd be a 12". When bonded to the Phoenix, she is said to outclass mutants, granting her complete control over matter, energy, thought, and unlimited psionic energies. She can tap into reserved energies for future generations, denying them existence. So much for that girl next door image.

Along with being best known for being one of the founding X-Men, the romance between her and Scott Summers aka Cyclops is pretty legendary. Probably rivaling that of Peter and MJ for the longest-running in Marvel history. At the beginning of the series, Jean and Scott harbor a mutual crush for a long time but neither is aware of the other's feelings (though the readers are made aware early on) and both are too shy to make a move. Jean once has a date with Angel, but insists on taking Scott along, which confuses and frustrates both men. For a while, Angel has feelings for Jean which lead to some bad moments between him and Scott. When Jean leaves to pursue tertiary education at Metro College, it further widens the gap between Scott and Jean; however, Jean and Scott later date openly. At one point, Professor X seems to have some romantic feelings for her. However, he believes that she could not reciprocate because he is a paraplegic; therefore he says nothing of it, instead channeling his energies into an increasingly intimate mentor/student relationship with Jean. This forces her to keep his secrets and, at one point, transfer his own power into her. Weird, huh?



Now here's where things get tricky with Jean. She taps into this powerful force appropriately called the Phoenix Force. Like I stated above with her powers, she is not a chick you would want to cross. The thing I hated about the whole Phoenix saga is that it didn't really feel like X-Men. Aliens and all that stuff really felt more like an Fantastic Four thing, or to a lesser extent, Avengers. Don't get me wrong, Clairmont is STILL the X-guy to this day, but there is such thing as too much power and that's the Phoenix saga in a nutshell.



So to pay for her sins, Jim Shooter killed her off. Though her return was enivitable, I mean the name is "Phoenix" after all. She's been a major staple in the x-books, later in New X-Men, they battled Xorn (who had revealed himself to be Magneto but would later was imposter), who then mortally injures Phoenix by transferring a large amount of electro-magnetic energy to her brain, inducing a "planetary-scale stroke." As Jean dies in Scott's arms, she tells him to live. It was revealed later that before she died, Jean created a empathic matrix crystal for Rachel and imprinted it with her essence so that, no matter what happened to her physically, her soul would always be with her. Pretty damn touching and she hasn't been seen since. Though you know it's only a matter of time. I've heard she'll be back sometime after "War of Kings" is over.



This is the costume I most remember, mainly because it was the one I grew up with. Now I'm not sure what's going on here. It almost looks like something from Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Anybody remember that? Huh, huh? She was still a staple of the X-books when they were relaunched in the 90's. It's the book that also put Jim Lee on the map. When the comic became a smash animated show, they gave her this costume, but I'll go into that show possibly somewhere down the line. Now that show covered a lot of things, but they simplified the Phoenix Saga a bit, and thank God for that. She did appear in her Marvel Girl go-go attire.



This costume is probably my favorite. It's not practical, but it's great to look at. Plus, it was the 70's. Go figure. She was also in various other X-properties, such as X-Men Evolution, X-Men Legends, and of course the X-Men movies, played by Famke Janseen. Interesting story, they originally were going to put Beast in the movie, but later just added the Dr. title to Jean. Now with how everything is sort of a skewed in the X-books, I wonder HOW she'll come back. In Uncanny X-Men #510, when Emma Frost is psychically incapacitated during an attack, she unexpectedly encounters what seems to be Jean Grey communicating to, and assisting her, seemingly from within the astral plane. No further reference is made to this afterward. Weird to just drop this. This should be a bigger deal.

Though I wonder if they'll continue the love triangle among Jean, Scott and Emma. Now THAT I would buy into.

Whew. That was pretty hefty amount of info. Next week, I'll probably keep it simpler: Jem, as in "truly outrageous".

Let's talk about chicks, man: Zatanna Zatara

Now it's no secret I have a thing for leggy, magical brunettes. Zatanna, of course, being my favorite DC heroine, so let's shine a little spotlight on her for a moment, shall we?

Okay, where to begin? I guess the beginning is as good a place to start if anything. She was created in 1964 by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson. Her first appearance was in Hawkman #4, which I am proud to say I own. In the story she is looking for her father, the great Zatara, Master of Magic. Zatara actually made his debut along with Superman in a little thing called Action Comics #1. What's most interesting about her is that if you take a look at the characters around that time, everybody was given a more scientific origin. Take Alan Scott for example, the Golden Age Green Lantern. When Green Lantern was repackaged, it was Hal Jordan and his ring wasn't magical but actually connected to sort of space-police. Barry Allen, the Flash? Same deal, lab accident involving lightning and chemicals. And of course around this time Marvel had started what is known as the "Atomic Age". x-Men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Spider-Man...all of course made possible due to an act of science.



Now let's talk about heroes being repackaged. Green Lantern, the Flash, the Atom, Hawkman...all originally based on heroes from the Golden Age, but when comics began being hot again in the 60's they were brought back, but just a little different. That's what makes Zatanna so unique. Instead of the writers just bringing back John Zatara, they created a whole new character instead: Zatara's curvy, cute daughter that shared his magical abilities. Now I know some of you may counter this discussion with "Well, Dr. Strange was created in the 60's, and Dr. Fate never went away and they're both magical." Yes they are. However, Strange was created as a b-story character and Fate actually was revived in the 60's, too. Though, like I said, comics were serious business again and DC brought back almost everybody. Though, Strange and the rest of the super-natural of Marvel really thrusted in the spotlight in the 70's with the huge horror boom.

I digress.



Another interesting fact is that when she was introduced, she was looking for her father and actually was the first person to be involved in first major cross over. She appeared in Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, Justice League, The Atom (and of course Hawkman when she debuted). That makes her a pretty important character in the DC mythos. She is 98% of the time connected to Batman somehow. Ever since Paul Dini started writing Detective Comics a few years back, he's integrated her a lot in the Batman mythology. God bless him for that. Though a few years back, she did a heinous crime against Bruce and it took time for his wounds to heal. They teamed up a few years back to solve the murder of some magician's assistants and Bruce was extremely cold towards her. Though it seemed by the end of the arc, they had made a sort of amends.



It's also no secret I have a pretty impressive Zatanna art collection. Even Allison Sohn, Adam Hughes' girlfriend, gave me props for my "impressive Z lovin'". I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, either. She's had some interesting costume changes over the years but my favorite (as I'm sure it's also the fan favorite and most well-known) is the tux and fishnets, you know, sexy standard magician attire. She's also been in animated in an episode of Batman: The Animated Series, though she was just an illusionist, compared to her stint on JLU where she was a full-blown sorceress.



This past year, she finally made her live-action debut on "Smallville", portrayed pretty well by Serinda Swan. They touched on many levels of her origin from her missing father, to her home in Shadowcrest. Needless to say, I had a huge fangasm and actually did the review for that episode for Newsarama.

Zatanna is currently seen in the pages of Justice League of America and soon to have her own series this fall by Paul Dini and Stephane Roux. *giggity*

Next time on "Let's talk about chicks", Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl aka Phoenix.

Let's talk about chicks, man: Velma Dace Dinkley

Orange being my LEAST favorite color of the spectrum, it's hard to fathom I would have such a crush on this character who is smothered in it. She doesn't always have the best lines, but she's always the one who usually solves the mystery. I guess that's where the attraction comes from. Just like Donatello from TMNT. Not to say I have a crush on him, but he was always my favorite turtle because he was the brains of the operation. I just thought there was just something incredibly sexy growing up about her. Yeah, I'm weird, but we all know that.

Little known fact about her, Scooby is actually HER dog. I can't remember where I read that, but I remember reading it a few years ago and was somewhat astonished thinking he was always Shaggy's pooch.



It has been long rumored that she is fact a lesbian. I can see why people would think so. It was hinted about the sexual tension between Daphne and Freddie, and Shaggy and Scooby were just potheads, so they weren't interested in sex as much as hallucinating and scoring free meals. Hanna-Barbara has denied this and actually gave her a love interest in the live-action sequel with the oh-so hot Linda Cardelini as Ms. Dinkley. I don't think she's gay at all. I just think she's just strictly business about solving mysteries and a bit tomboyish, but definitely not gay.



This picture sums it up quite well, actually. She epitomizes the type of girl I'm attracted to. I mean, if you have seen my girlfriend you'd know what I'm talking about. Between the cheerleaders and the bookwork, I like my girls brainy. It just sucks she's the butt of the glasses joke ("I can't see without my glasses"). We get it, you're hella nearsighted, but damn, orange knee socks and a sweater never looked so good.



Point made. Next time, I'll cover DC's Mistress of Magic: Zatanna Zatara!