Green Lantern and Star Sapphire embracing among the stars!
As Hal and Carol found each other and confess their true feelings to one another, they passionately embraced each other, as they kiss among the stars.
Carol: "I love you, Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Sector 2814."
Hal: "And I love you, too, Carol Ferris, Star Sapphire of Sector 2814. That's a bit shmaltzy. Saying our superhero names and saying the same sector that we live in. And I thought all Lantern Corps have different sectors but didn't say anything about which planet. I know it's sounds confusing, and I haven't even begun to think about what other sector has another...
Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Sector 2814, and his beloved, Carol Ferris, Star Sapphire of Sector 2814.
All alone in the universe, from the farthest reaches of space, Carol Ferris, Star Sapphire of Sector 2814 (where Earth resides), longs to be back on her homeworld and to be with her beloved. As she was about to lose hope, her ring, powered by the spectrum of Love, reacts to her true heart's desire and in a flash of light, appears the very person she longs to be with, it was Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Sector 2814, whose been fighting evil beyond the stars ever since Abin Sur gave him the ring and battery, powered by the spectrum of Willpower. In spite of all his battles in this long journey, all Hal ever wanted was to be back home with his true love, the one thing that keeps his light shine the brightest. Like the shooting star itself, both Hal and Carol's wish has come true.
Carol: "Am I dreaming this? Is that you, Hal?"
Hal: "Yes, Carol, it is me. I am as real as they come. I'm sorry I should've told you what really happened to me. You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But for the past year or so, all I could think about is you."
Carol: "Hal, I always think of you every day and you being a Green Lantern and what you do, I would die for the stars for you. No matter where you go, no matter what you have become, I will always love you."
Hal: "That is so kind of you, Carol. But tell me one thing, I know you are beautiful like Elisabeth Taylor, but how did you end up like this, not that I am complaining about the long hair, long boots and skintight leotard."
Carol: "Oh, this. The Star Sapphire Corps from Zamaron gave me this ring, almost like yours, except it is powered by love, and I end up like this. Hope it's not too skimpy for your taste."
Hal: "No, it looks good on you. It does reflect your beauty, even beyond the stars. Nothing is more important is being here with you."
(Carol blushes)
Just as they got reacquainted, a shooting star falls above them.
Carol: "Look, Hal, a shooting star. Quickly, make a wish!"
"Wait for me, Hal. Someday, we will be together again. Until then, I will use to this power fight evil and bring love to a universe filled with madness, greed and fear. And I will do it all for you, my love. See you around. (Blows kiss for Hal)."
Embracing the power of the violet ring, fused by the spectrum of Love, Carol Ferris becomes a fully developed Star Sapphire, with all the love and compassion she brings with her. Unlike all the other versions of Star Sapphire in the Multiverse (some of them being evil to the core), Carol is a benevolent goddess, through and through (other than being the daughter of the owner of the biggest conglomerate in all of aviation). As she spreads love and justice throughout the galaxy, she still longs to be with her beloved Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. Perhaps, one day, she will see her lover again. Until then, when she fights evil and injustice, she will always think of Hal and all of his Green Lantern glory.
When I got started doing this blog series, my main goal was to show the whole world that voice actors deserve to be in the same place, the same category as all famous people combined. It is not just towards voice actors who are alive, it is also applies to voice actors who have since passed away. And here is one of those voice actors I am going to talk about, who recently passed. So, let us sit back and remember the legend that was Jack Angel.
Born on October 24, 1930, born of Greek descent, Jack Angel was not only a voice actor, but also a radio personality (more on that later). He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1957 and was hired as a disc jockey at a local California radio station. And for 2 decades, he was one of the most popular personalities in radio. Then, one voiceover demo later, given to Gary Owens (another voice with the one of most recognizable baritone voices) and forward it to his agent and the rest as they say was history. From that point on, he left the radio business and became a full-fledged voice actor. And for almost 4 decades, Jack Angel has been voicing characters past and present until his death on October 19th, 2021. He was survived by his second wife and 3 children. Now that we dealt in the abridged version of his life, let's get down to the very characters he voiced. Since he did so much for 40 years in voice acting, I will focus on the voices of the characters that I know the best. Let us begin, shall we?
Kaze no yō ni hayaku!
Samurai (Superfriends): Even though he voiced already established DC heroes like Hawkman and The Flash, Angel's first gig in voice actor (aside from voicing the aforementioned heroes) was voicing an original character in Superfriends and one of many heroes born of a different ethnicity, including Black Vulcan (created since Hanna-Barbera couldn't use Black Lightning due to the disputes with co-creator Tony Isabella), Apache Chief and El Dorado. But of all the original Superfriends, born of different nationalities, Samurai was the only one to not only have a real name, but also an origin story to boot. Toshio Eto was once a college professor, mostly with history (parts of it Japanese). All that change when he got powers from beyond the stars by the New Gods of New Genesis, in their mission to save the universe from their evil counterparts from planet Apokolips and their tyrannical leader, Darkseid. Pledging to use his power to fight evil, Toshio calls himself Samurai, in honor of his past ancestors. His powers, when saying phrases in Japanese, were based on the teachings of Sun Tzu and the Art of War, straight from the Japanese phrase, Fūrinkazan, which means "Swift as the Wind, Gentle as the Forest, Fierce like the Fire and Immovable like the Mountain". It was Samurai who inspired me to do an original character for a possible Arrowverse show that I am working on, who also doubles as a legacy character because that character is also his son. But that story is for another time.
"Wet-Suit may be mean to the bones, but he's also quite bright, being well-read in both the classics and the standard texts of military tactics. Pretty amazing considering that the level to which he has developed his toughness would seem to indicate full-time occupation..."
Wet-Suit (G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero):Navy SEAL Brian M. Forrest made his first appearance in the 5 parter, "Arise, Serpentor, Arise!". Angel's take on this character is what Wet-Suit was all about, tough, brash, abrasive, crass, and sarcastic, yet has a strong sense of duty for country and his fellow Joes. He is best known for his friendly rivalry with fellow Joe and tough to nails marine, Leatherneck, who often butt heads in which part of the military is best, Marines or Navy? Wow, and I though College Football was that intense.
Left: Ramjet and Astrotrain; Right: Ultra Magnus and Cyclonus; Middle: Omega Supreme (My favorite out of the aforementioned Transformers Mr. Angel voiced).
Ramjet, Astrotrain, Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus and Omega Supreme (Transformers): I couldn't decide which one to pick, so I put all the 5 Transformers Mr. Angel voiced. Each of them with their unique personalities. Let's start with Ramjet. He is the leader of the three coneheaded Seekers (the others being Thrust and Dirge). He is both competent and serious, especially keeping his fellow coneheads (no relation to Beldar and Prymat), Thrust and Dirge in line, since they are cowards at hearts. Astrotrain, the Triple Changer Decepticon, who can change into a train and a shuttle and vice versa. His biggest flaw was not just the fact that he is single-minded, but he also craves power, almost in the same manner as Starscream, which was displayed in the episodes, "The God Gambit" and "Triple Takeover." For Ultra Magnus, taking over for Robert Stack (who voiced him in the movie), he made up for the blunders in the movie, by become an honorable warrior and leader, especially helping out Rodimus Prime in adjusting his role as leader of the Autobots. Cyclonus, on the other hand (and filling in for the late Roger C. Carmel (which I can't remember hearing him in the movie)), is as ruthless and cunning as they come, just like his master, Galvatron. And out of the voices Jack Angel did for Transformers, my most favorite out of them is the giant Autobot himself, Omega Supreme. Though is vocabulary is limited when he speaks (e.g., Death: Illogical, Survival: Imminent), Omega Supreme's actions speaks louder than words, especially dealing with his former friends turned archenemies, the Constructicons. Come to think of it, if Voltron was a sentient being (just like his Japanese counterpart, GoLion), when he speaks, he would definitely sound like Omega Supreme himself and my mind would be totally blown. Speaking of which...
"People of Arus, hear me! By right of conquest and our holy destiny, your planet has been annexed into the mighty Drule Empire! I am Zarkon, your new ruler!"
King Zarkon (Emperor Daizabal) (Voltron: Defender of the Universe (Beast King GoLion)): Omega Supreme may be my favorite Transformer he voiced but voicing the king of Planet Doom himself is indeed my most favorite character Jack Angel ever voiced. Although he voiced other characters like Yurak and later Cossack the Terrible, this is the one character I identify Jack Angel with when watching Voltron as a whole. Like his Japanese counterpart, Emperor Daizabal from GoLion, King Zarkon is indeed as ruthless, heartless and evil as they come. As member of the Drule Empire, Zarkon spreads destruction and slavery in his wake. But they only that comes between him, and galactic conquest was the Voltron Force. Even though the show ended its run, Angel reprised his role as Zarkon in two occasions. The first was 5-part Sprite Commercial in 1998, where Zarkon declared war on hip-hop, only to be stopped by Voltron, piloted by rappers Goodie Mob, Fat Joe, Common, Mack 10 and Afrika Bambaataa.
And the second was one of those Happy Honda Days commercials during the holiday season a few years ago, where we see some of our favorite toys from yesteryear come to life and promote new cars from Honda. One of them features Voltron and Zarkon, not only with Angel reprising again, but also with Neil Ross, Michael Bell and B.J. Ward (Keith, Lance and Allura) joining in.
And there you have it. The life and times of the late, great Jack Angel. Thank you for making our childhood so memorable and much cherishing to boot. As long as we remember you and your voicework, you will never truly be gone. I will leave you know with this fanart of King Zarkon himself, which I shared with Mr. Angel himself long ago on Facebook before leaving the site permanently. Until next time. Godspeed, Jack Angel. Be at peace, good sir. Till all are one.
"You haven't experienced real player-hatin' until you feel the wrath of King Zarkon! (Laughing maniacally)"
Two Japanese icons, one similar yet different journey!
With VIZ Media owning the rights to the English distribution, especially redubbing the original anime, Sailor Moon is now getting the proper dub it rightfully deserves (for the most part, anyway). However, even though we got the redub of the original and the dub of its reboot, Sailor Moon Crystal, there have been many divisions within the fanbase, when it comes to which voice cast is better. While I mostly agree that it wasn't a great masterpiece, but we got to give the original English dub credit for bringing Sailor Moon to the West in the first place. The way I see, this story draws parallels to another famed Japanese icon that we all know.
Path 1 - Journey of the Pretty Suited Moon Rabbit!
The brainchild of Naoko Takeuchi, Sailor Moon started off as a sequel to her earlier work, Codename: Sailor V.
"Sai..."
"...lor..."
"V!"
But it quickly became an international phenomenon that matches those other media franchises in the 1980s, Super Sentai and even other animes we all know and love. Since 1992, Sailor Moon is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest icons in the history of anime and manga. Although early shojo animes started this trend, but Moonface herself perfected it to a "T", especially with other shows like Cardcaptor Sakura and Tokyo Mew Mew, among others. However, around the mid 1990s, Sailor Moon's path to the West wasn't an easy one. It all started with Toon Makers doing their own version of Sailor Moon, which was a blend of animation and live action. So much so, some fans call this version, "Saban Moon", because of claims that it was made by Saban. But the idea was scrapped, although there was footage of that intro of Saban Moon at a convention long ago, but it was poor quality.
But, that didn't stop other companies from trying to get a shot in doing an English adaptation of Sailor Moon. One of them was the famed animation company, DIC Entertainment.
DIC! 'Nuff said.
DIC, in the French tongue, is an acronym for "Diffusion, Informacion et Communicacion", which translates to, "Diffusion, Information and Communication." DIC is one of the famed companies that made cartoons in the 1980s into the new millennium, next to the likes of Saban, Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears and Disney. Known for such shows as, Heathcliff, Inspector Gadget, The Littles, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show (YAHOO!!), Captain N, the 3 Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, Double Dragon, Street Sharks, Extreme Dinosaurs, M.A.S.K., Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors and so on and so forth.
As they plan to release the English dub, DIC released their over the top themed promo, saying that it is the biggest thing that hits the West since Power Rangers.
As the English dub came out, anime, as a whole, wasn't exactly full time mainstream yet. This was before we were introduced to Toonami. Anyway, like many anime that came and went, such as Robotech and Voltron, which used other anime, different from one another to make one story, the original English dub of Sailor Moon was not without its faults.
For starters, certain episodes from the original Japanese version were missing, due to certain culture differences, for example, in episode 2 (the real episode 2 from the original) had not just satanic images on the tarot cards from our Monster of the Week, but in one scene, Umino, who was possessed by the aforementioned Youma, lifted up Ms. Haruna's skirt. And in episode 5 from the original, possessed by the Chanela, Shingo kicked Luna in a rather cruel manner. PETA would've had a field day with this if this was aired back then. And in episode 6, Usagi, by means of her transformation pen, disguises herself as an adult (a very, curvy, sexy adult). But, it is not just some of the episodes were missing, they merged the last 2 episodes of season 1 into one. Not to mention the fact that, aside from Nephrite's death among other things, death was omitted, just like in the original Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z, saying that the Sailor Scouts were captured by the Negaverse, almost like saying that our heroes or villains were sent to another dimension, just like the aforementioned Ocean dub of DBZ.
Next, with the exception of a few like Luna, Artemis and Queen Beryl, most of the characters names were changed.
For example:
Usagi - Serena (taken from the word Serenity)
Ami - Amy (replacing the "I" with the "Y")
Rei - Raye (the pronunciation is the same, but the difference is the spelling)
Makoto - Lita (No relation to retired wrestler/valet, Amy Dumas, either named after rocker Lita Ford, or a pun for lightning and/or named after Leda, one of Jupiter's moons)
Minako - Mina (which makes most sense, after all, in the manga, Artemis calls her Mina)
Then, there is one other hurdle, the same sex relationships. Triple H once said that "Alternative lifestyles are perfectly acceptable in this day in age," but not in the 90s. To avoid any wraith from parental groups and the FCC, to have a relationship with Kunzite (or Malachite in the old dub), Zoisite's gender was changed from male to female. And then, when the dub was handed over to Toei's English distributor, Cloverway, they made the worst edit they can possibly made to ruin even the devoted Sailor Moon fan, turning Sailor Uranus and Neptune from a Lesbian couple into...cousins.
In short, aside from the faults I have mentioned, the reason I like this dub was because of not just the voices, including Terri Hawkes, Katie Griffin, Susan Roman, Jill Frappier, Ron Rubin, Toby Proctor and so forth, but I do like the songs from this dub, including my favorite, She's Got the Power. I mean, come, who doesn't like Stan Bush, anyway? Sailor Moon's journey to the West wasn't an easy one. But, she wasn't the only character from Japan to have such a journey, for a certain radioactive dinosaur when through the same journey, but in a different sort, over 60 years ago.
Due to recent events,I thought I'd do this. Anyway,here we go.
2021 (continued) - In September,Vince McMahon takes over NXT and things only go downhill from there. NXT is rebranded as NXT 2.0 and is given a new look. This re-imagining turns NXT into just another carbon copy of RAW and Smackdown (i.e. mediocre). So in a matter of weeks,Vince McMahon turned the Best Wrestling Show on TV into a Mediocre Mess.
NXT no longer felt like the Reincarnation of the WWF. Vince McMahon is to Blame for All Of This. And as usual,WWE continued their mistreatment of talent,as well as the Fans. In October,NXT got worse and the Spirit of the WWF departed for the Great Beyond. In November,18 great Superstars were unfairly fired. The Fans have had enough and the Reaper had seen enough.
The release of 18 great talents coupled with the mistreatment and mismanagement of Superstars,the terrible direction of the Main Roster,and the complete bastardization of NXT was enough to kill the WWE. WWE Is Dead! Gone,But Never Forgotten!
Thanks to last night's unnecessary releases of some of their greatest Superstars and the bastardization of NXT,The WWE has died.
The (BS) reason for their releases were because of budget cuts and some Superstars being UnVaxxed. They Also need the funds for Brock Lesnar,should they decide to make him Champion again.
Here are just some of the Superstars that were cut This Time. Keith
Lee,Mia Yim,Frankie Monet,Karion Kross,Scarlett,Ember Moon,Gran
Metalik,Lince Delrodo,and Nia Jax,among others.
There was No Good Reason to Release these Awesome Superstars. No Good Reason At All. Period! Now,because of this,the WWE is Dead! And Vince K. McMahon is to Blame!
In addition,this past September,Vince McMahon,in a hostile move,took over NXT. Under McMahon,NXT went from a Great Wrestling Show to a Mediocre One. I swear,Everything this man touches turns to crap. This disgusting take-over was another major factor in WWE's demise.
And don't get me started on the constant misuse of talent. Y'know,had NXT been left alone and Karrion Kross Not been called up to the main roster,WWE would've just barely hung in there after the firings. But No,Vince McMahon had to be a Control Freak and ruin things.
I'll be doing a eulogy to this company soon. Until then,
