Last week I expressed my concerns over the Steven Universe/Uncle Grandpa crossover, "Say Uncle" (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Comics To Look Forward To"), concerns which proved to be unwarranted. In the first couple of minutes, Uncle Grandpa assures the audience "None of this is canon." For viewers too young to get that comment immediately afterwards, he sky writes, "April Fools" using an actual cannon. Those of us who took the whole thing a little too seriously probably should have noted the episode premiered on April 2nd.
It was also fun and funny as it played, sometimes a bit too roughly, with both casts of characters as well as audience expectations. Steven Universe doesn’t usually end its episodes by handing out "morals." It's a lot more subtle than that, but this one ends with Steven delivering a message which neatly encapsulates the ethos of the entire series: "You can't attack people you don't understand, you have to stick up for them and listen to what they have to say."
I'll admit that one of the reasons I sometimes take Steven Universe a little too seriously is because I strongly empathize with the lead character. He's a doofy, well-intentioned fat kid with a massive head of hair which clearly has never known the business end of a comb; over the years I've lost a lot of that hair but as a kid I was pretty much a dead ringer for Steven. And I can tell you with the exception of Jupiter Jones from The Three Investigators books, there wasn't anyone in the media who looked like me.
And as I've repeatedly written, representation really is important. If you've never seen the show, Steven is a boy who's inherited his late mother's magical gem and lives with a trio of her old teammates, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, The Crystal Gems. Basically, Steven has three mommies. According to the most recent US Census, traditional husband-wife family households now comprise just 48 percent of the population, so there are a lot of kids out there with family situations that are 'other.' And for them, Steven represents.
For us retailers there's the KaBOOM! Steven Universe comic books. Coming later this month is Steven Universe: Greg Universe Special #1 which focuses on the relationship between Steven and his all too human father.
Most of the changes are for the good, like now there's a female Thunderbird, Tanusha "Kayo" Kyrano who pilots the new Thunderbird Shadow, a stealth fighter. And their tech guy Brains is now Indian and doesn't stutter nearly as much. There's still no word on when or if it will ever show up in the States, but Hulu does have a deal with ITV and since streaming is the new basic cable, it might end up there.
The movie concerns Kunal, an undersized kid sent to a remote village who becomes a Phantom-like superhero to fight the machinations of his evil Uncle Deshraj who has the superstitious villagers under his thumb. It's a fun kids movie with a nice enough message, superstition bad, science good; I only wish more Americans would get that memo. But it does have a couple of questionable plot points I’m surprised the studio signed off on. Like, Deshraj abandons Kunal at an amusement park after being traumatized on a roller coaster. Later that night he's attacked by a mob of homeless men but is rescued by an artist who's been illegally living in the attractions. It's hard to imagine kids wanting to experience the magic of Disney theme parks after seeing that.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
