The Use of Bad Comic Book Science, I Thought We Were Past This

I have never really been a big fan of DC Comics or their related properties. I generally am aware of them, but I don't go out of my way to watch their stuff for the most part and when I do, I normally find my views to be justified. I just do not enjoy most of what DC puts out there. In past posts I have talked about some of the DC-related elements that I do not like and why.

Every so often something DC-related surprises me.

I am a huge fan of Watchman and I understand why it is such a big deal. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is just so incredibly well done. I liked Batman Begins, the only good movie of that trilogy, as The Dark Knight is one of the most overrated films ever.

And thanks to my son, I got into the new Flash TV show and Supergirl. While neither fully breaks away from the flaws of DC, they a least were different and had interesting characters and plots that I enjoyed. And while the Flash is insanely overpowered and they tried to pull Supergirl down power-wise, they soon gave that up and let her get as overpowered as the concept always is, I was able to ignore those flaws and just look at the basic storyline. After all they never let themselves sink to the worst level of bad 'science' that we often see with DC. Yeah, the Speedforce is questionable and in Supergirl a small rock can be spread to contaminate the whole Earth with lethal levels of a substance, so you have to over look a lot of rational thinking to enjoy them, but at least they never did the really lame flying real fast around the world to turn back time...

Now for the big crossover event for this year, Elseworlds. It started off interesting. Switching around The Flash and Green Arrow led to some interesting and amusing confrontation. It had some character growth in it, having both of them have to look a themselves from a different perspective.

So it was off to a good start that had possibilities.

Then we get Batwoman forced into the story where she does next to nothing, just walks around saying 'hey look at what the next show we're working on will be.' And Gotham just felt like a city that should be allowed to die. There was nothing there to convince me it was a city I wanted to see get saved or watch any adventures happen in.

This is followed by introducing Arkham Asylum into the world... My guess is the diehard DC fans loved it, as there were names all over the place that I am betting were Easter Eggs that I just didn't get. Which is fine, but there were other elements that really bugged me. Way too easy for the prison break to happen. Throw one switch and all hell breaks loose. Then why would they store dangerous weapons in the basement of a mental institution for the most dangerous of criminals? I was really thrown out of the story there. Then at the end of it all, they let the one guy keep his nice gold mask. No, you don't lock them up still in their costumes.

But all of that is just annoyances compared to the big final battle and the 'risky' solution they come up with.

So the Flash is to run around the world as fast as he can in one direction, while Supergirl flies as fast as she can in the opposite direction and they know, they know without a doubt, that this will somehow slow time down... What? Seriously, WTF? No, just no. Big No. This is stupid on so many levels. And they are going to do this, a task which somehow Green Arrow has foreseen will kill them both, because, well... Yeah, that's going to do something...

When they got to this point in the story, where they throw out this truly idiotic plan, they also have nothing else to the plan, all it was 'we going to risk our lives to slow down time, and then you guys do something, and bad guy gets defeated.' Seriously, at the point they started running and flying, there was nothing set to how the others were going to bring the bad guy down. Both Superman and Green Arrow would have been affected by the slowing of time as far as we knew. Now after the two heroes go to throw their lives away in a plan that is not really a plan, with nothing having been shown that would actual save the day, Green Arrow goes and makes the deal that allows him to be able to stop the bad guy during the slow down. This is AFTER the process of slowing time down has started, so if he didn't do this the Flash and Supergirl would have died (Or so we have been told) and the villian would have won, all becuase there was no actual plan made before they took off.

I cringed at how bad this 'solution' was. It had bad science and logic at every stage, huge gaps in plot followed by forced risk to the characters, as they did something truly pointless.

I fear for where the shows are going to go now. If we're going to get the worst aspects of DC storytelling now, then there is no point to keeping up with it all. I may have to drop the shows, as it would be painful to have to watch such piss poor storytelling week after week.

Will This be the Greatest Spider-Man Movie to Date?

When I first heard they were working on an animated Spider-Man movie I thought "Okay, might be fun," but really did not think of it as anything big.

The trailers came out and I thought "Okay, this looks better than I was expecting," yet I was still not taking it too seriously. I had little faith they were going to do anything special with it. I figured it would be just another attempt at Sony Pictures getting their money's worth from having the rights to Spider-Man cinematic universe. They have been so hit or miss with what they have done with it so far, I was not seeing a full animated movie as being promising from them.

So now on Rotten Tomatoes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has 62 reviews and is at 100%. Now that is a truly rare event.  Normally by 62 reviews there are a few who didn't like a movie, no matter how good it is. Several reviews call it the best animated movie of the year, which is saying a lot. A Sony Pictures animated film is getting better critical attention that anything from Disney and Dream Works... Okay, maybe this is going to be a much better film than I thought. I had originally planned to hold off until it made it to DVD, but now I'm thinking I'll have to see it in the theater.

For those who don't know, I'll give a quick explanation of what the Spider-Verse is.

In Marvel comics, there are an endless amount of alternate dimensions and from time to time their basic characters get to explore these alternate realities. Well a few years ago Marvel did a huge comic book event where they explored a great deal of alternate versions of Spider-Man/Woman/Pig/Monkey/Robot. Many had been introduced before, but there was also a huge batch of fully new ones such as Spider-Punk and fan favorite Spider-Gwen. It was a lot of fun and I felt a well done story line. The concept is that there are 'Spider-totems' in the various realities as part of a greater balance.

Right now they are running a follow up story with some new Spider-person created for it. Not as epic as the first one, but it has so far been fun.

Now the main character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is Mile Morales, who was an established Spider-Man well before the events of the original Spider-Verse. In the comics there was an alternate world called the Ultimates Universe, which was what the Avengers of that world were called. In that reality Peter Parker was the original Spider-Man, but ended up dying. In the aftermath Miles Morales ends up taking up the identity. After various big, cosmic events that rearranged realities, that universe has been merged with the main Marvel Universe and Miles Morales is Spider-Man, but the original Peter Parker Spider-Man is still doing his thing as well. So we now have two heroes calling themselves Spider-Man running around and some times teaming up.

From what I have seen, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is not going to follow any of that though. While it is clearly using the characters and the basic concept, the story appears to be fully its own fresh take.

Right now the plan is to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in the theater to see if it does live up to the reviews. I'm sure I'll enjoy it no matter what, but there does seem to be some high expectations being placed on it now.

The Measure of Man in Death

Stan Lee has died. It was not a surprise or shocking death, as he was 95 and had been having health issues. Yet his death does hit hard those of us who were fans. When a person who has inspired us, entertained us, created something that we hold important in our lives dies, it is going to leave us at a loss of words, even if it is expected. And while I am one of those who feels that Lee's contribution is too often over hyped, (Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby were just as important in creating what became the Marvel Universe, but are not as well known) he very much became a known inspiring personality. 

Anyone who reads my blog knows how big a fan of Spider-Man I am, so having both creators die in less than half a year from each other (Steve Ditko passed in June) is somewhat surreal. You can look back to my posts about how Amazing Fantasy 15 changed the world of comic books and entertainment in general. With just that one creation the two of them created a legacy that is clearly going to outlive them and most likely inspire many generations to come.

Now that is a legacy worth leaving behind.

I find myself drawn to being emotional about anyone who creates such a legacy. The idea of inspiring anyone, let alone millions across multiple generations is such a huge thing, yet our society still has not gotten to the point of treating creative types in general with the respect they deserve. While Stan Lee is being talked about everywhere,  Steve Ditko seemed to be almost just a footnote, yet he played a huge part, equally really to Lee's, in creating Spider-Man and he is solely responsible for the creation of Dr. Strange. He just did not seek the publicity that Stan Lee received.

I remember Jim Henson's death as being another huge one for me and he is another who is the face of a creation that had many others involved in making it what it became. There is no doubt he was a powerful creative force, but we know there were others involved with making the Muppets what they are. The most famous of those is of course Frank Oz, who in so many ways was Jim's equal in their endeavors, but for whatever reason has not ever received the same level of recognition for his contribution.

I look at all those creative individuals who have come before me and left their impact on our world, opening the doors for new paths of creativity and inspiring so many with their works and I openly admit that I am jealous. Being a creative type myself, the idea of creating anything that someone find inspiring and triggers others to become creative because of something I did... I can only imagine how rewarding that would feel.

That is a worthy legacy to leave behind.

Stan Lee played a major role in shaping our present level of story telling and is not going to be soon forgotten for all he did. His legacy is clear and undeniable. Countless people have expressed what he and his creations have meant to them. I don't believe there is another comic book writer who is as well known and recognizable. He is a face that will forever be associated with the comic book industry, more than any other.

I know I am one who has been inspired by what he created, and his work is something that will be part of my creative endeavors for the rest of my life.

How Our Time Lady is Doing So Far

The new season of Doctor Who has started. We have our first female Doctor, played by Jodi Whittaker. We have a new TARDIS.  We have a new show runner and I believe a full new creative staff putting it all together.

So at four episodes in, what does this all mean?

Our first episode, The Women Who Fell to Earth, did what it needed to do with the basic introduction of the new Doctor. The story was decent, nothing special. It let us see the new Doctor in action and gave us some feel for her three new companions.

My main problem with this first episode was it felt rushed. There were jokes in there that seemed good, but had bad timing on them for a proper reaction. There was enough filler shots in there that they could have told us the same story at a better pace if they had tried.

Next we have The Ghost Monument, which worked for me. Nothing special in it, but it felt like Doctor Who. It had some interesting concepts in it and flowed well enough.

We get to see the new TARDIS. Small changes on the outside, big changes on the inside. Did not feel comfortable with it all at first. It really was a bit off putting with just how dramatic the changes were.

Then we come to Rosa. This is the episode that the season will most likely be remembered for. It focuses on Rosa Park and everything going on around the historic event.

Dealing with such a topic is a tricky thing, but they pulled it off and made a truly memorable episode. It was unapologetically honest and political, not holding back at all with its message and just where we are at today with the same issues.

A few funny moments where the black companion Ryan is fan-boying over Martin Luther King Jr before he becomes known, after having done the same with Rosa Park.

This episode introduced a new character of Krasko, who is a criminal from the future and was trying to change time due to racist ideals. I get the feeling he will be returning due to all that was given to use about him.

My only real issue with this episode was that the Doctor seemed to go out of her way to NOT refer to the TARDIS as 'her' or 'she'. This felt really awkward to me. The Doctor has always referred to the TARDIS as being female, which is not unusual as we traditionally refer to our various types of ships in the feminine. Just because we now have a female Doctor does not mean the TARDIS should be an it now. If anything there might be some awkwardness between the two of them now due to the kind of relationship they have had in the past.

Then we get to the fourth episode of this season, Arachnids in the UK. This is one that is better forgotten and ignored. There was nothing interesting or of value in it. Our villain for the episode was a truly unconvincing character that felt like a poor parody of Trump in many ways. He had no real motivation to most of what he does in the episode, with much of his actions feeling fully forced. Regretfully I got the impression he would be back in the future.

The story itself tried to be political, but failed at that big time. Felt more preachy than anything, not living up to what it needed to be.

Then we get really, really bad science with giant spiders, larger than a person, walking on the walls and ceilings. It really was too much for me. Then they go scientific and talk about the problems the spider would have breathing once it got that large. So it really bothered me that they tried to get real science into it after showing a full lack of caring before that.

What really bothered me the most about this episode was the big solution that did not feel like a real solution. Besides the gap after gap in logic that was used, a big one being they could not know how many spiders were out there, they were confident they got them all. Through out the episode, the Doctor goes on about the spiders being living creatures and deserving respect and should not be killed, then goes and traps them in a confined space where they will be slowly starve to death. Uh, how is that better than killing them out right? How does making them suffer count as a natural death? For me this painted the Doctor as unusually cruel and thoughtless, which is what we are supposed to believe the villain is. And then the villain shoots the largest of the spiders, which upsets the Doctor, because she would rather see it suffer and die slowly through suffocation. Really did not work for me at all.

So we're four episodes in and I like the new Doctor, but we seem to be going up and down episode wise. We'll see where things go. I don't expect every episode to be great, but there is a lot of rough edges here that need to be worked out. One being too many companions. There were a few times where you just had three people blindly following the Doctor around with nothing else to do. I get it, ti is hard to make sure they are each doing their own thing all the time, but it is obvious at times they are just there because they are there.

It's going to be the shortest season since they started the program up again. Will be interesting to see where it all goes from here.  There is no doubt they are openly being more political than ever. That does not bothers me if the stories are good. Problem is with that last one, story seemed to have been something they put in as an after thought.

The End of The Comic Con Era?

In an interesting turn of events, San Diego Comic-Con won the law suit against Salt Lake City Comic Con over the use of ‘Comic Con’. This is a term most fans just assumed was going to be used as a generic term for the big conventions. Just about every major city now seemed to have a Comic Con and we more or less knew they were not all connected. Much of the law suit seemed somewhat petty to me. San Diego Comic-Con as the Comic-Con, with all the others just being a comic con. And since SDCC always sold out and was about as crowded as it gets, I really doubt they were losing any business to those other conventions.

But the judgment has been made.

Here in Colorado we have at least four conventions that were using ‘comic con’, with the Denver Comic Con being the biggest of them.  Well they have now changed their name to Denver Pop Culture Convention, DPCC now, although I saw two friends refer to it as D-Pop. Doing a quick check on-line, I get the impression Denver is ahead of the game on this one. Many of them have not yet made a change and a few have gone with Comic Convention as their name, which is not that creative and while the judge in the case said such was acceptable, it is still saying the same thing. That is one area of this case that comes off a little silly. Comic con means comic convention after all, and all the fans know that.

The bigger conventions like Denver will be the ones who have more at stake and are the big targets. The smaller conventions will most likely change their names as well, but may take some time as they do.

Of course the main reason so many used ‘comic con’ was because there was a ready body of fans that wanted to go to comic cons. By using that name, a convention could start off attracting a crowd and hopefully grow fairly quickly. That did seem to work here in Denver at least. With the need for name changes, what will happen to the smaller conventions that were using ‘comic con’? Will they be able to draw in the fans with a comic convention or other new name? Will it now be harder to get a new convention up and going?

This will change the geeky convention landscape a little. For one thing, you won’t be comparing comic cons any more.

There will be changes, there will be new dynamics introduced into it all now. Should be interesting to see how it all reshapes everything.

I think D-Pop will be able to do just fine without the ‘comic con’ title, but a big part of that is because it was able to build itself up using the title. They are making the announcements of the name change very loudly, so all will know and the attendees will most likely have no issue with switching. Could it have gotten as big as it did without saying it was a comic con? I don’t think so. Using comic con does make a difference.

Going forward, the big conventions that have already used ‘comic con’ to get established will most likely do well and be unaffected by having to do a name change. The smaller ones that used ‘comic con’ most likely will lose much needed attention by renaming, as comic convention just is not really as catchy. And any convention that was hoping to come out and use ‘comic con’ to get that boost is just out of luck now.

This may led to more creative names for conventions or less conventions, as the cost to get known grows. I myself enjoy the small conventions, which generally have the more creative names to them, but do not attract the crowds. The problem is there is no money to be found in starting those kinds of convention and are more often die-hard fans who start and run them.

I know I will continue to go to D-Pop, as will thousands and thousands of others. I someday would like to get to the comic-con, SDCC,  just to experience it. And I would love to get out and see comic conventions in other states. I have no doubt these conventions will be with us for some time.  But it does feel like there will be a change to it all now and we will just have wait and see how it all plays out.

The Age of Acceptance

Stephan Colbert this last week had actor Joe Manganiello on to talk about his upcoming projects. That never happened.  The two of them instead talked about Dungeons and Dragons for most of the interview. They covered the classic 'Red Box' edition of the game, the 'Satanic Panic' era as well as various changes made through the various editions, ending with Colbert pulling out a bag of dice and talking about rolling for attributes before Manganiello rolled a natural twenty to end the interview with. Colbert explained that he was not supposed to make the roll, as it was to see if they were going to end the interview or not. Colbert had to apologize because the interview had to end, despite what the die roll said. During the interview they showed pictures of Manganiello’s gaming dungeon, which was just awesome, as he talked about all the celebrities that hung out at his place to game. The two men then set up a date for Colbert to come by and do some D&D next time he was out that way.

They did discuss how it used to be something you hid and didn’t talk about publicly.

We are at a new stage where the geeky stuff many of us at one time were mocked over has now become mainstream and popular.

In junior high I was told it was childish to collect action figures. In high school I was given odd looks while trying to explain what D&D was to one group. Many times my enjoyment of Star Wars was seen as being silly. I even had a good friend criticize how I decorated my room as being as sign of my immaturity.

I still collect action figures as my budget allows. I had a great group of friends who I did various RPGs with for over a decade. Still a huge Star Wars fan and openly show it. And my whole house is now decorated in the manner my room had been back then, if not more so. Now however, just about everyone looks at all of that and tells me how cool they find it. None of it is regarded as being childish or odd.

What had been geeky and shunned in my youth is dominating our culture now. I was neck-deep in most everything that is hugely popular now at a time when it was laughed at.

I think our society is headed in the right direction in that area at least.

Just a Joke of a Character That Has Grown Old

In general I am not one who is afraid to voice my opinion. I have done it on this blog many times, so I am starting this one off by saying the following is my opinion and everyone is free to agree or disagree. I know this opinion will most likely not be popular, but that has never been my concern. Feel free to disagree with me here, as I am willing to bet there are a lot who do.

As many here know I am not a fan of Batman, a boring character to say the least. Some time ago I wrote about my issues with him.  At that time I mentioned just how bad a character The Joker is and that I would write a future post on that.

Well here is that post.

The Joker is about the most overrated character in comic books, ever. He is a poorly conceived one trick pony that grows old quickly. But of course you look at most of Batman’s enemies and you can see a pattern of them just not being interesting.  However The Joker is the one everyone seems to love and is too often at the forefront of Batman’s big stories.

The basic character of The Joker is a criminal "mastermind" (I’ve never seen any real proof of this) who is crazy and chaotic. Oh, and for some reason, which keeps changing, he is disfigured in a way to be pale with a huge, ugly grin. And that really is all there is to his character. There is no depth to him at all, in the least. He is an asshole because he is an asshole so he is an asshole. That really is it.

I have no problem with keeping his past a secret, which they sometimes do, with then often ret-conning it or just ignoring what has been put out there, going with the Joker being a really unreliable narrator.  But how long do you keep that up? Now it worked, and was about the only thing that worked, in the movie The Dark Knight. There we only have to deal with this for one movie. In the comics however, if he is supposed to be an interesting bad guy, I need something more. He is just the same joke over and over again, going nowhere. In order to keep the character a "mystery" and play off the chaotic concept, they have painted themselves into corner where the character is not able to be anything more.

We get told he is charismatic, yet this is never shown to us.  I have never liked how a highly educated, strong and intelligent woman got caught up in a fascination with him and destroyed her life for him. I never saw The Joker display any attributes that I believe would have that effect on a woman. Even in the real world, the "bad boys" who get the girls and very much drag intelligent, strong women down, normally have something that you could see as attractive. The Joker has a complete lack of any charming attributes. I have seen several versions of how The Joker played Harley, but none of them have been believable for me. I don’t buy it. Harley Quinn might be a fun character, but I do not believe her back story. It is an overly forced concept. At least they seem to have realized this as Harley has escaped that relationship that from the get go was absurdly abusive, with nothing else to it. The Joker and Harley never had a loving relationship at any level at any point, which all the more makes it hard to believe Harley would have ever fallen for him.

Now going off of The Joker fully lacking charisma, we get into the issue with him always having a loyal gang. In the Tim Burton movie this at least is shown by him already having a loyal gang before becoming The Joker, but everywhere else it just doesn’t work.  The Joker is about creating chaos, I get that. And yes, there will be people out there who will join in and help create that chaos. Now those kind of people are not going to be loyal, because chaos does not create loyalty. That is the nature of chaos. In The Dark Knight we see The Joker killing his first batch of goons just because he can. When he takes over the Gotham’s underworld, he does it with no one at all loyal to him. Then when he has put together a mountain of money and in front of goons who are not loyal to him, but to the other crime lords, he sets the money on fire. These goons don’t give a damn about chaos. They want money.  That scene should have ended with every one of those goons shooting The Joker, then putting the fire out. And that is really how much of The Joker’s schemes should go. Your average criminal goon is not going to risk it all for convoluted, over complicated schemes that are not going to pay out big. They want cash, quick and easy cash. The Joker does not deliver that. He is not going to have loyal goons. If anything he might have a group of zealots, who see him as some kind of religious figure. That would be more believable, except a person still needs charisma to start up a cult. Maybe if they had The Joker hire a PR person with charisma to do the real work for him.

For me The Joker is an interesting character for the first five seconds, but grows old rather quickly. I want my villains to be interesting and have some depth to them. A sense of mystery is fine, but a character can be developed and be something more while keeping that mystery. The Joker just has nowhere to go as a character. He is a holdover from the "golden age" of comic books, and while most such characters have been updated, too many just never come together for effective modern age characters.

So that is my opinion of The Joker.

Let's Look at Good Story Telling

As those who read my blog hopefully know, I am writer, a story teller. I hope I’m good one. I get little feedback on that, most of it being from my family and they may be a little biased. However good of story teller I might be, I can still see what is and is not good story telling elsewhere. This post is going to focus on good story telling.

So now, where to start. Let’s go with Gravity Falls. I wrote a post some time ago about just how well done the last episode of Gravity Falls was, and it was brilliant.  The whole series was. There was beginning and an end to the story, with an entertaining journey to get us there. We got to explore the world and get to see characters develop as the story progressed. We were given some well-done twists and surprises along the way. And while not every episode revolved around the core plot, those episodes were not forgotten and were entertaining as something more than filler. When we reach the end we have been on a highly rewarding ride we were not expecting. And it ended well.  The creator said he was not going to stretch it all out for more seasons, because he had a story to tell and was able to tell it in two. He did what so many other shows have failed to do because they keep going too long: he told a full story. He ended it before it got old. And that is one important thing some story tellers need to learn. There are "epic" stories that need not be so "epic".  Length does not equal quality. There are some series I have given up on because they have not figured out how to end things.

So next I want to talk about another animated series, and this one is one of the most brilliant things you will ever see on TV. Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Here we were given three season of a strong, well thought out storyline that has it all. Complex characters you love and hate, a real sense of the world and how it got where it is, heroes that are  learning how to be heroes as well as make mistakes, sometimes huge mistakes, and an ending that wrapped it all up, connecting back through the whole of the adventures we had been going through. During the three seasons we see our heroes at their best and their worst. They are flawed, they make mistakes, they are relatable. The events trigger our emotions as we laugh and cry with these characters. There is loss and redemption with twists and turns everywhere. You really cannot guess how anything will turn out.

Now I am going to go back and talk about the heroes failing and dealing with their failures. For me this is one powerful tool of storytelling. Avatar and its follow up series The Legend of Korra were both great at showing the heroes dealing with their failures. When you have a  hero who is perfect and never fails, it gets boring. There is no depth there, nothing relatable. To see a beloved hero fall can be painful, but when done right that hero comes back and shows they have learned from their failures, grown because of their mistakes, became something more than they were before, and they keep going no matter what, that is heroic. They have a power that is not them just being more powerful. They come  back with a realization as to why they failed, which mostly revolves around seeing their own flaws, which is often related to their ego and over confidence. These are the stories that stir our emotions and give us heroes to cheer for. A super person who is all powerful, never making mistakes is boring. There is a popular show out there with the heroes failing, but instead of showing us any character growth or learning form their defeat, they just go and find new ways to become stronger so they can beat up the bad guys better. I got bored with that series quickly. As a story teller, I want my characters to be something more than just powerful and with Avatar you get that. Aang’s choices are powerful because he realizes in the end it is about more than power, it is about how you use that power to stay true to who you are. That is powerful storytelling.

So now I’ll go to live action shows. One of the best ever for getting the story telling down is Babylon 5. Regretfully it took a bit to get things going, with season one not being what it needed to be to draw everyone in. You also get season five which was  rough due to them wrapping most everything up in season 4 because they did not think they were going to get season 5. But season 2, 3 and 4 tell a great story that really works. We see our characters really grow and change, becoming the heroes the galaxy needs. Every character gets a story arch with their ups and downs, overcoming their failures and in the end pulling it together for the greater good. The story arch for G’Kar and Londo might be the greatest character development story ever: what those two go through, who they become compared to who they were at the beginning, with all they went through followed by a truly cruel twist of fate. These are characters who you really would never have believed you would feel sorry for if you just watched the first season. It also has one of the most powerful, well done final episodes I have ever seen.

So for my final example of good story telling, I am going to be a little controversial, in that the third film in this trilogy was not well received and it does have its flaws.  But despite that, there is one very well done story throughout the trilogy that often is over looked due to the flaws of the third movie. I am talking about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. The first two films are perfectly done and highly enjoyable. The third one falls apart at places. Yet if you take all three films together and look at the interconnected story between them, you find a brilliantly done story line. I am talking about the Peter Parker/ Harry Osbourne storyline, nothing else here. We get to see the two of them as great friends as Harry works hard to impress his father while seeing Peter needing no effort yet getting the accolades Harry desires. Even after his father’s death, Harry is still trying and failing as his big plans in the second movie go awry.  Then in the third movie he really takes on his father’s legacy. To  fail and then to learn it is not who he really is and in the end he is a hero. If you look at those movies as being Harry’s story, ignoring all else, you get a real powerful tale of a young man trying to live up to his father’s expectation at the cost of being himself, but in the end becoming someone stronger than that who sacrifices himself for all the right reasons. As Harry’s story, those three movies tell a really intense, character-driven story that is highly relatable and well plotted. Just ignore just about everything else in the third movie though. I find there are times when there is a great smaller story over shadowed by the mistakes for the bigger story that was being told.

Those are a few of my examples of powerful storytelling. There are a lot more and of course there are examples of weak story telling out there as well, and I believe as a story teller I can learn from both. I do hope my writing reflects the better examples of storytelling. If you have not seen the examples I have given here, I do highly recommend them and would be interested to see if others agree with me or not

Link to my Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B006JD2YUG

Impact Awareness and the Modern World

I remember about twenty years ago one of my co-workers, not even eighteen years old yet, had not seen Star Wars. He would talk about all the newer movies and his other interests and such, but had no idea about Star Wars. He mentioned a rapper he liked, I do not remember who it was, but at the time I did remember having just seen an interview where that rapper talked about how much Star Wars influenced him. This guy had a really hard time grasping just how big Star Wars was and what it had done to our society on so many levels. I tried to explain to him how the whole idea of blockbuster movies as we know them today, came from the success of Star Wars. How it brought about a new age of special effects, or the impact of those incredible music scores. He just wasn’t understanding it. His focus was on the present, not seeing what had come before to shape things.

And I’ve seen this elsewhere. People often seem to not be aware that there was a past, that in order to bring the entertainment of the present, there was an evolution to get to that point.

Where would music be if not for the Beatles?

While I am not a fan of his writing style, I still understand the impact Lord of the Rings had on genre literature. Like everything else I have talked about here, it has also had an impact on things beyond just genre fiction. The ideas there inspired people to be creative in other areas of society, unrelated to writing.

It is also interesting to see the patterns that form. I had found out the song "Killing me Softly With His Song" was written in response to the song "American Pie", which was clearly written in response to a lot of events and people that inspires the writer. There is a progression of creative endeavors flowing in a path from one person to the next, each inspiring the next step, moving the creative process farther.

I had talked about how there was a defining line between before Amazing Fantasy 15, and after, for the comic book industry. There is such a line for music concerning the Beatles, as a well such a line in movies when it comes to Star Wars. There are events that truly change everything, having helped shape the path out society has taken.  And yes, I do openly say that Spider-Man, the Beatles and Star Wars have all played huge roles in creating our present society.

It is hard for anyone who did not live during those times to understand just what they did, but that is part of studying history. I very much think more people need to be looking at the evolution of our society and our entertainments. Most of the events I have mentioned here were before my life time, but as a fan I have studied them and seen what they did. In my life time we have had events like Nirvana and the Harry Potter books, which have had their impact on people and will be remembered. I am not sure if there are as defining a line with them.  I am not trying to say they are not important, it is just a different sense of how things are. I do wonder if we have gone past the point where we will get the massive events of the past. Instead it seems like we’re getting smaller such events, more often. It’s like we’re hitting a stage of just micro-evolutions for society.

There is still a flood of creative ideas flowing and giving inspiration, but for me it seems that something is slowing down. Whatever we have become, it just seems harder to have the grand impacts of old. I don’t hold to the poorly-conceived idea that things now days are of lower quality, which is part of the generation war drivel which benefits no one. There is a lot of quality entertainment being made and we are still finding ways to move the media forward. Just wherever we are, I have not seen anything have the impact and ignite changes on the level of these past events.

I wait with great anticipation for a truly monumental event in my future. I do not believe we are done with them. And it will be something to see where we go with the next huge event.

Oh Those Milestone Comics

If you are not aware, I am a big fan of Marvel comics.  At one point in the 90s I was picking up just about everything they put out. Over the years I have had to cut back and at times actually take a break from them when money was tight. Right now I am actively picking up some of the new stuff. Several Marvel titles have hit big milestones recently, and I have picked up three of them. I am going to talk about them and one recent wedding issue.

We’ll start with Thor. With issue 700 they started a major storyline titled The Death of Thor that ran through issue 705 with a follow up in issue 706, which was the last for that run of the series.

Several years ago Jane Foster, one time Thor love interest, became the new Thor. It was a huge deal to have a female Thor in the game. Yet there was  twist.  Jane had cancer and the magic of Thor’s hammer was actually making the cancer worst, seeing the chemotherapy as a danger to her and the cancer as her body.

The Death of Thor wraps up Jane’s storyline in well done, powerful manner that is fulfilling. You have real resolutions to various plots threads. You have changes that are going to be lasting, with impacts that will leave an impression on the Marvel universe.  This real is storytelling. When you pick up a comic, this is the kind of ride you want.

And despite the feeling that the title gives away too much, there are surprises and twists to the story.

Next I will talk about Iron Man 600. I am at full loss as to what they were thinking here. My guess is they were hoping for something huge, but just were clueless about how to pull it off.

It was a confusing hodgepodge of what I guess we’ll call a story. I got the impression that nothing was thought out and they just threw everything in there to try and finish up the various plots. I think they must have written themselves into some corners and figured issue 600 would be the place to reset it all.  The problem is there were no real connections between much of what was going.  They jumped around with no good reasoning as to how they went for point A to point B. The characters just showed up and did their stuff.

It also bothered me that in order to bring back two characters from the dead, they introduced a way to make all character immortal.  I get upset enough as it is with how they keep bringing characters back from the dead after making it way clear the character is actually dead (Captain America, Wolverine, Aunt May). I feel it makes the whole concept of death in the comics trivial. With the new technology, they are not even trying to. Death has become even more meaningless it the Marvel universe. It is insulting the way they want to treat the death of their characters.

The same week Iron Man 600 came out, Spider-Man 800 (Now Marvel longest series) came out. This was a true milestone issue that got the respect deserved of Marvel top hero.

We get to see many of those who are part of Spider-Man’s life get caught up in the madness that is the Red Goblin, basically the Green Goblin empowered with the Carnage Symbiote. We get to see so many heroes do truly heroic things, as well as one villain, in attempts to stop Norman Osbourne’s madness. We get surprise after surprise, with some well-done nods to classic stories. This really was a milestone issue on many levels.

And not everyone makes it out alive.  It is a death I hope Tony Stark stays away from. It was a well written, heroic sacrifice that should not be undone.  I so hope future writers show respect and do not resurrect this character. A powerful, meaningful death is good story telling and even if they leave him dead for a few years, the moment he is resurrected makes it meaningless.

This was followed up by issue 801, which was actually a  perfect end to this run of Spider-Man (I’m not going to go into how Marvel does its numbering now.  It can be a little confusing). We start with a  simple one page summary of Spidey’s origin, that starts with ‘You know the story’. Then we get to see a brief encounter with Spidey in his early days and a time jump to the present, where we have a normal man who summarizes just how heroic Spider-man is, and all the worlds he has saved. (Serious, it is worth reading to see what that actually means). It was a lighter, one-shot story, that reminds us why Spider-Man is a great hero. It was a pallet cleanser to get us ready for what will hopefully be some big stories once the new run starts up.

So I will end with talking about X-Men Gold Issue 30. I’ve not been doing much keeping up with the X-Men lately, as for me they have taken them is such an odd direction that goes against what they were and what made them worth reading.  However, I picked up this issue because it is a wedding issue.

After nearly 40 years (Like ten in comic time), Kitty Pryde and Peter Rasputin are ready to tie the knot. This issue had jokes in it that only work with comic book characters. When you have the newly resurrected Jean Grey, questioning her teenage self from a different timeline about drinking and the teenage self-trying to point out that their adult daughter from yet another timeline, is also drinking as way to justify it… Yeah that kind of thing only works in a comic book universe. The few issue I have picked up recently of X-Men seemed to have that kind of humor and it really works. I love that they are poking fun at just how absurd their universe is at times.

And this is not your normal wedding issue. There are some interesting twists that make this stand out from other wedding issues.

I still have no plans to start picking up X-Men, but I did enjoy this issue.

It was bit a mixed bag here, with two milestones and a wedding issue I can highly recommend and one milestone that was best avoided. Regretfully not every Marvel comic is going to be well done.  I have had my disappointments with them in the past, but for the most part I am still a huge fan of Marvel and am looking forward to seeing where they go from here.

The Greatest Threat to Fandom is Toxic Fans

With the continuing poor performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, it really is becoming clear that we are at a point where a certain group of ‘fans’ are ready to bring about a truly horrific time for fandom.

First off, Solo was a good movie and deserves far more praise than it has received. While it was not perfect and was a new take on a story that has been told a few time already.  Han’s early life has already seen a few iterations in the old Expanded Universe (Now known and Legacy). Like with most of the old EU, it was left behind but the basics were kept. In fact a fair amount of Solo was based off the known story for Han and Chewbacca, which have been part of the official history for them for some time. Go back and read my last post to get the full of my views on Solo and why it is not doing as well as it should.

I will summarize it though with saying Toxic Fans are a big part of the reason.

Regretfully Star Wars is not the only place we see this toxic fandom. We saw it with the relaunch of Star Trek. I personal love those movies, even if too often the science is just bad, real bad in them. I actually watch the first with with a group of skeptics and while we ripped apart the idea of building the Enterprise on the Earth’s surface and how it made no sense for Spock to have seen Vulcan get destroyed, we enjoyed it. Why? Because it was actually far more engaging than the old movies ever were. Abrams put adventure and action into the movies, while keeping the stories interesting and relevant, as well as giving us characters we care about and who work well off each other. I already am aware that some of what I just said is not going to be agreed to by everyone, but I have already have the debate on those issues and stand by my statements. The new Star Trek movies are an IMPROVEMENT over the old ones.

But a good deal of the diehard Star Trek fans, these toxic Trekkies, didn’t like the changes. They went off on the movies, ranking them as the worst. They didn’t care that for once their franchise was actually doing real impressive at the box office, since before the new movies, Star Trek, while doing good, was never really dominated the box office. This attitude is partially why the third of the new films, which in my opinion is the best of them, somehow did not perform too well at the theaters. Now this is Star Trek and there is no doubt there will be a fourth one and even talk of fifth with an unexpected director. The classic Trek movies were never as successful as the new ones, but the toxic fans don’t care. Too many changes, this is not their Trek and they would rather sink the franchise as a whole than suffer a new take on the concepts and characters.

Now the same summer we got our last Star Trek movies, we also got a reboot of a classic fan favorite, Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters actually made just as much money at the box office as Star Trek did, but due to how Hollywood works, there are no talks about doing another Ghostbusters. Why? Because true toxic fans ruined it.

This reboot had a female team of Ghostbusters and it was a highly enjoyable film. It was perfect as a Ghostbusters movie. It had enjoyable characters, some being over the top, but they worked. There was a solid story, a lot of laughs and adventure.

It should have worked and restarted the franchise. Before the movie even came out, we saw toxic masculinity take over in an organized attempt to ruin the film. These men claiming to be fans decided they had every right to attack a film they did not see, going after the females stars and countering the positive reviews, just because they could. Regretfully their efforts seemed to have paid off. We most likely will not be getting to see this enjoyable team of Ghostbusters on the big screen again, all because of toxic fans. We saw this as well with The Last Jedi. I liked the character of Rose. She was both strong and venerable at the same time, in way that was actually realistic and worked. Yet toxic masculinity crept in and has attacked her, pushing the talented actress to leave social media after being unjustly targeted and overwhelmed by childish attacks, which also happened to at least one of the stars of Ghostbusters. There is no justification for such trolling, ever.

Of course it also goes the other ways.

We recently saw a group of toxic fans of the DC universe come out and blindly attack Black Panther. The DC cinematic universe is not doing well. The only have one good movie out of six. Yet the diehard fans refuse to accept that reality (Sorry folks, but Batman vs. Superman is about as bad as it gets, with no real story, plot or likable characters in it. I don’t consider the character of Wonder Woman likeable here, as we don’t get a real sense of her in the film.) They have become bitter and there was an organized effort to go after the Marvel movies, which not surprisingly failed. Black Panther has been a worldwide success despite their attempt to ruin its ratings. They have however been much more successful with the organized attacks on Star Wars, which they have openly said were in retaliation, making bizarre claims that Disney has somehow been involved in all the bad reviews the DC movies have received. They were able to play off the toxic masculinity of some disenfranchised fanboys in attacking The Last Jedi and succeeded in convincing some that it was a horrible movie, which seemed to have rolled over into helping hurt Solo. This is a clear effort to try and sink other franchises. If people won’t say their franchise if great, then they’re going to try to bring other franchises down.

Understand I am not saying that a person cannot be critical of films they dislike. I clearly am that. Bu we can express our dislike of things without trying to go the extra levels of attacking them. I am a huge fan of Spider-Man, yet Amazing Spider-man 2 was a true disappointment for me, I felt it was a movie that ignored so much of what Spider-Man is all about with a story that just did not work on any level. It is part of a franchise I love and have enjoyed for most of my life. I am critical of it and will openly talk about my views on it, but I never once considered organizing a campaign to have Sony declare the movie non-canon and start over again. Nor did I put effort into attacking future Spider-man movies, all because I was bitter over one. I loved Spider-Man Homecoming and am excited to see Spidey being an active part of the MCU. There was one movie I disliked, but never once did I think it would be a good idea to ruin the franchise for everyone because of it. I hoped they would learn and make things better, which they did.

Feel free to enjoy what I do not, no one can stop you from finding enjoyment where I just don’t. I have actually disliked critically acclaimed films and shows, as well as liked stuff that was generally considered bad. Never once have I had to bring others down in order to feel my views were justified.

We as fans actually have a responsibility to be fair with our criticisms and how we go about expressing our admiration for the franchises we enjoy. There is nothing of value coming from the toxic fans, especially the toxic masculinity of far too many of them. If you didn’t enjoy a film, say so, give your reasoning and then let it be. Sit back and let others create their own views, even if they disagree with yours. There is nothing wrong with that. It may puzzle you, but that’s fine.

And if you dislike the idea that women are now getting their time to shine and be the center of attention in the films, well that is just being a dick and you need to grow up. The toxic masculinity of some fans is just inexcusable and needs to go away.

Star Wars is Far Far Away From Being Over-Saturated

So the big news concerning Star Wars right now is how Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed at the box office over this last weekend. Now understand, to say ‘underperformed’ is a little misleading, as it underperformed for a Star Wars movie, which means it still was the number one movie for the weekend and had ticket sales over shadowing most movies.

I see a lot of speculation about how they are milking the franchise, over-saturating the market and so on. And I call bull on that fully. Star Wars has been milked for worse in the past and far more over-saturated. Yes, it has only been about six months since the last Star Wars movie, but we are still averaging just one a year right now. With Marvel studios doing three movies a year, Fox putting out normally a couple of X-men films a year and Sony this year putting out Venom as a stand alone, with majority of those movies doing really well, Star Wars is being fairly restrained.

Solo suffered from a lot of issues during production that hurt people’s faith in it.  And I think if anyone but Ron Howard had picked up the reins, there is a good chance it would have deserved the lack of faith. Howard came in late in the game and put together a truly enjoyable movie. But due to how it all came about, the chance of regaining people’s faith just because you have a skilled director doing the repairs, just was not going to happen fully.

The bigger issue that hurt Solo however is the backlash from some fans over The Last Jedi.  There really is no doubt that The Last Jedi was a movie that fragmented the fans.  There are still a good deal of fans who are angry over that movie and are still attacking it and claiming it ruined Star Wars, because somehow Jar-Jar and the prequels they can accept just fine. All you need to do is look at Rotten Tomatoes to see that the crowds that organized to bad mouth The Last Jedi and do all they could to bring the ratings for it down, clearly seem to have tried the same thing for Solo. A general truth about movies is that the critics are almost always going to be tougher on their ratings than the average movie goer, especially so on movies that have huge fan bases. Just look at any of the truly crappy as it gets movies from the DC Universe.  They got one good film in there, with the rest being pure crap (And that is me being polite about just how bad Batman Vs. Superman was), yet when you look at the fan reactions, you might fall for the idea that the critics were being jerks. (They weren’t, all but one of the DC movies are just horrible, and unwatchable.)  However, we are seeing just the opposite with the Star Wars movies now. Critically the movies are doing better with the critics than the fans, supposedly. Solo was 70% with the critics, but only a 60% with the fans, far less than it deserves from either. I have no doubt that the group that went after The Last Jedi to bring the numbers down in that same manner, were already ready to bring Solo down. They are angry because The Last Jedi was what it was. So like children throwing a fit, they had already decided to attack anything new with Star Wars without giving it a chance, unless Lucas films gave into their demands. Just look back and you’ll see them having said as much six months ago.

That being said, there is even more to it.

A big issue is the character of Han Solo. Solo had often been the number one character according to many, many different polls. He is truly at the top of the list for popularity, and too many refuse to see him played by anyone but Harrison Ford. It did not matter what actor they go with or how well that actor performed, too many people were just not going to accept anyone else in the role. In this case, the actor did a fine enough job, nothing impressive though. There was just no way he was ever going to live up to expectations. Because of that fact alone, the movie was never really going to get accepted by a great deal of people.

So if you look at what I have said, it was toxic fandom and their harmful attitudes that have led to the under-performing. And I will stand by that assertion. While Solo is not a perfect movie, it is better than the prequels without question.

And while the opening weekend was not as big as the studio had hoped, there is still a chance it will see a rise. All the friends I have who have seen the movie have loved it, with one claiming it to be the best Star Wars ever. Word of mouth is spreading and it can be a powerful thing. As people who were on the fence about seeing it find their friends saying how good it is, the chances of them going to see it increase. My guess is this week will be a better than average week for the movie, and that it will see a good, healthy second weekend as more people decide to give it a chance.

Although there is one aspect that will throw casual fans of Star Wars off. As it might be considered a spoiler, I will not bring it up directly, but if you are not familiar with the cartoon shows The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, there is a cameo that will puzzle you and might, as one person I have seen, make you wonder about the time line. This cameo does however show the seriousness that Lucas Films is taking in connecting what they are labeling as being the actual Canon for Star Wars.

I enjoyed Solo and feel it is a great addition to the Star Wars story line.  With the next one shot film most likely being a Boba Fett movie, I would hope they do not waste the opportunity to use elements introduced in Solo as part of a bigger story with Boba Fett. We already know there are a lot of plans in the works to keep Star Wars movies coming out regularly for some time now and I am looking forwards to seeing just where those future films will take us, as we know they are going to break away from the Skywalker storyline with the future trilogies.

I for one am far from being tired of Star Wars. With all the new voices being allowed in, I have high hopes for just where the stories will take us.

It Was the 90s That Killed Toys R Us

With Toys R Us going out of business, it feels like the end of an era, but looking back on it all that era ended some time ago. And while there are many factors that have led to the company shutting down, the real reasons can all be linked to the 90s.

Over the time I have been raising my two boys, I have noticed that none of their friends collect toys, even on the level when I was young and all my friends traded with each other. At that time you did not collect for value. You collected to play with the toys. And I remember in Junior High being told toys were for kids, but that did not stop me from collecting.

In the 90s everything switched around. Everyone, even the kids, collected toys for the value. I worked in a toy department and was blown away by how often a kid would look at what figures to buy fully based on the value of it. And it was mostly adults who were buying the toys, most of whom were very open about buying them as an investment.

Back in the 80s you had full aisles in the toy departments dedicated to just one toy line. And the toys were in production for several years at a time. By the 90s a toy line was big if it got a full four foot section dedicated to it. Attitudes were changing, but due to the idea of making money off the toys, they sold. New stuff was hitting the shelves like mad, but none of it was in production that long. The secondary market was jumping back and forth on the prices as everyone tried to guess what would be valuable.

And then the bubble exploded. All the collectors had boxes full of unopened 'investments' that no one was interested in because everyone had them. As the realization that there was no guarantee of a great return on investment hit people, the collectors cut back drastically.

Now that alone would not have been as big a deal, except for various reasons, the kids were not as interested as previous generations in collecting toys. Just looking at my sons' friends, most of them just have not been that interested in action figures.  My boys grew up with me, so they both have an interest in them, but never at the same level as my friends and I did. A big part of that I would say is the insane growth in popularity of home video games systems.

Toys R Us grew the most thanks to the boom in the 80s and they gladly jumped on the craze of the 90s, investing heavily of exclusives that collectors had to have. When the 90s bubble crashed, they weren't able adjust. They couldn't offer anything for video games that everyone else was offering and their business model fell apart. They tried to adjust with expanding into other areas like clothes and baby supplies, but once more they had nothing to offer that other stores weren't already offering.

In truth Toys R Us died about 20 years ago, but crawled on zombie-like, barley clinging on to life.

As my generation starts fading away, I get the feeling the whole concept of collecting toys will vanish with us. A collection like mine will end up being a true curiosity. There are not that many of the present generation taking up the hobby and most likely there will be even less in the next one.

Of course one of the more amusing things is that due to the lack of interest in collecting right now, most likely right now is a great time to invest in toys. Star Wars is bigger than ever now, yet the toys are not seeing anywhere near the production levels of the past. If any children do end up becoming collectors, they will most likely want to have toys that are being made now, but no one is buying.

So Toys R Us dies because they just were never going to be able to keep up with changing times. It happens. It was always going to happen, and it really is impressive that it took this long. The 90s did a lot of harm to collecting, and not just the toy collecting. It was  time everyone was looking for easy money through such investments, and that has fallen apart like such things always do.

Now we wait and see where it all goes. Something will be coming along to burst the home video game bubble and create new obsessions. Game Stop and such stores will see their demise as the new market takes over.