The Big Guy Hits Two Big Milestones and Is Still Going Strong

 I have not at all hidden the fact that I am a huge Spider-Man fan and have been so since I can remember. Back in the early 80s we had Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and I remember loving the show. I was drawn to anything Spider-Man, so it was no surprise that the first super hero comics I started seriously collecting were the three Spidey titles of the time, starting with the dark crossover event that has come to be known as Kraven's Last Hunt (Even though that title was made inaccurate due to them not letting comic characters stay dead. That Kraven is dead again and I so hope they let him remain that way this time). And with only a few brief gaps due to comic not being in the budget (Being an adult can really suck at times) I have been picking up the Spidey comics for about 35 years now.

This year Spider-Man the charter as well as Spidey's main title The Amazing Spider-Man, which really is the flagship title of Marvel Comics, hits two significant milestones this year.

Spider-Man as a character is 60 years old. Amazing Fantasy 15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, was released Aug. 10th 1962. I have said it before in this blog and so I shall repeat it again here, Amazing Fantasy 15 is the most influential comic ever. It was a huge surprise success with fans finding themselves drawn to character of Spider-Man and his related story, something that was considered a risky idea for its time.

Issue 1 of The Amazing Spider-Man would come out in March of 1963.

Issue 900 of The Amazing Spider-Man was just released on July 27th this year, right at the 60th anniversary mark for the character.

As I started shortly before the series hit 300, that means I have been collecting it for over 600 issues, even though there are a few gaps in there. If you factor in all the other Spider-Man series they have done over the years, with Spider-Man alone I have no doubt I should have over a thousand Spider-Man comics in my collection.

The Amazing Spider-Man is the first and so far the only Marvel titles to make that milestone. It got ahead of the older titles like The Fantastic Four or Thor due to various factors that reflect the series' popularity.

Issue 900 had some interesting ideas in it with the over all question of 'Who is Spider-Man' being literally asked over and over again. And answered in a fitting style for the character.

I'm not going to go into just what actual volume of the title we are in or how the legacy counting of the issues work, but Marvel just started the latest volume of the series and 900 is actually issue 6 of the new volume. They started this volume off after a gap of time from the ending of the last. During that gap Spidey did something huge that upset a lot of people, alienating many of his close friends somehow. We've not been given any details, just a flashback page of Spidey on his knees in a crater that it looks like he was responsible for creating. So it is clear there is a bigger storyline that is going to play out for the character right now and I am looking forward to seeing where they go with it.

New comic book sales are not very impressive right now, and the industry as a whole is not doing too great, with talking about how much longer they can keep going with such diminishing returns. Marvel has nowhere near the titles they did a decade ago and all of them have really low print runs, print runs at levels that not too long ago would warrant the cancelation of a title. Despite all of that I have no doubt that we will get to the big issue 1000 with the series, even if that ends up being Marvel's last comic.

Spider-Man has made his place in our culture as a iconic character that will live in some form or another for generations to come. There will be new stories for him in whatever methods will be out there for some time, as his influence will not just fade away. I plan to keep up with it all and continue to enjoy Spidey in whatever form is available to me as long as I am able to.

Nuff said. 

You Rarely Get This Great an Adaptation

 So this last Friday I spent the day sitting around doing nothing but watching TV and it was glorious. We watched the full season of Sandman, the long waited adaptation of Neil Gaiman's ground breaking, award winning comics series.

I found Gaiman a little late, early 2000s, but since then I have loved most of what he has put his name on. He is a brilliant writer. He was also a very hands on producer with the show because it meant a lot to him which is why it took so long for an adaptation to happen.

The show itself stays very true to the original comics, with some logical changes made that work with the concept being updated, as well as losing all direct references to the mainstream DC universe. At times the scenes feel very much as if they were taken straight out of the comics.

There were some casting choices that got attacked as being 'woke' because they were not identical to what was in the comics, but after seeing the show, I very much believe it when Gaiman said they cast to talent above everything else.

Kirby Howell-Baptiste was perfect as Death. While she is only in one episode in this first season, she nails the role. This idea of Death in this universe is a very non-threatening being, who is actually very kind and has a greater understanding of life and this is very much what we get to see in the show.

Mason Alexander Park, who got the role as Desire by asking for it on Twitter, nailed that role perfectly. Casting a non-binary actor as a gender fluid being was brilliant and works so well. They brought the role to life with a clear love and passion for the character that is reflected in the great performance.

Gwendoline Christie is perfect as Lucifer. She has an intensity that just works with the feeling of something deeper going on there.

Those were the more controversial casting choices, but the all worked so well.

The rest of the cast clearly put their all into the efforts, as there were such strong performances all across the board.

On every level this is the kind of adaptation we need to see more of. It is not surprising that it has been the number one show on Netflix in over 80 countries, breaking several Netflix streaming records.

Sandman is a highly entertaining show that is as true as it gets to the source material, but one does not need to be familiar at all with the comics to enjoy what they have put on the screen. I predict there will be awards coming for the show and enough seasons to get the full story of the comics adapted. It really is that good.

That is Just a Horrible Quote

Now I know I've seen it before and never gave it much thought, but today I saw the quote from G.K. Chesterton:

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

And I understand what this is trying to say, but it is actually a really bad quote and not what you want to teach children.

Some of this may be my love for my characters Georgie and Armand, the two master mage, shape-shifting dragons who run an interdimensional hotel. They are dragons and they are awesome. In the first book I even have Georgie making a comment about how insulting a puppet show was that had a heroic knight slay the evil dragon.

So my problem with the quote is that it seems to imply that all dragons are bad (A something kids should fear) and need to be killed. But even in fairy tales, dragons are not always the bad guys.

Chesterton seems to be implying that all dragons are mindless, dangerous creatures that one only encounters in a 'kill or be killed' situation, which is a very limited mindset that does not reflect the larger picture of fariy tales and dragon stories historically. Yes, there are many stories of vicious dragons taking virgins to feast upon and only a noble knight can slay it and save the girl, but those are not the most common of fairy tales and should not be promoted as such. There are many stories where the dragon was minding its own business, guarding its hoard of treasure and someone or some group tries to steal from it and it attacks, and then the dragon becomes the villain for trying to protect its own property. And yes, there are many, many that treat them like mindless creatures that are just destructive in their ways, although in these case they are often shown to be like any other animal out there, looking for food and trying to survive when they encounter humans.

Even if one is trying for a generalized idea of monsters but doesn't want to use the word 'monster', there are other fairy tale creatures that work far better for this concept than dragons (Trolls is the first one that pops in my head) from just the fairy tale POV.  Or a simple change from 'killed' to 'dealt with' would have made the quote so much more meaningful, since often dragons in fairy tales are intelligent creatures that can be reasoned with.

In some ways it is interesting that the first thought of the quote is that is something scares you, the best solution is to kill it and that it is something we should promote to our children. That is some pretty dark thinking really.

So yes, I admit part of the problem with hte quote most likely comes from my love for my own dragon characters, but it still is a problematic quote beyond that if you really break it down. There are much better lessons that can made using fairy tales.

Life After The Hero's Journey

 For all those who have read previous posts here, you might have an idea that I kind of like Star Wars and might be something of a fan of the franchise. I was young enough when the first film hit that I do not remember a time before Star Wars and it seems as if I have always had Star Wars as part of y life.. I still have some of actual pieces of the bedroom set I got way back in the 70s, with a pillow case that is highly faded, packed away.

Right now the big thing for Star Wars is the Kenobi series on Disney+, showing us what he was up to between the prequels and the classic trilogy. So far I have enjoyed the series myself. It is not perfect, as there have been a few times where it felt like we missed something, possibly to due to a cut scene. There have been a few times where they are messing with canon, although nothing as bad as what happened with the prequels. So far nothing big enough to upset me, as I know we have a few more episodes to go.

Of course one of the main complaints coming from the toxic fans right now is the (false) claim that Disney is trying to destroy all the classic character and Kenobi is doing that to the title character. I do wonder what they thought Obi-Wan was doing in those nearly two decades of hiding, but I guess he was not allowed to end up in a meaningless job, living a boring, depressing life. For me that made sense, but for so many others it was a sin for the hermit to not be living it up.

I thought it was brilliant character development to show he had closed himself off from the Force and that what used to be easy for him is now a challenge because he has gotten so lost in grief. Everything he knew was taken from him, his world was destroyed and it makes a lot of sense for him to feel guilt over how things turned out, as he was right there in the heart of it all and failed to stop it. Yet these toxic fans want him to be just fine and happy with his new life and I guess they don't think he would need to make money, as him having a job really upsets them.

Of course they have compared Obi-Wan to Luke in The Last Jedi, as there is a lot of mirroring going on there.

I loved that after Luke did his Hero's Journey and became a galaxy-known hero, he made some mistakes and ended up not dealing too well with consequences of his actions. He is after all human.

But there seems to be an odd idea that after the character has done their journey, then they should be perfect after that, or that it it destroying the character to show that they suffer from depression or some level of PTSD. As someone who has shut himself off from the world due to feeling overwhelmed by life's drama, I can related to what both Obi-Wan And Luke end up going through. I felt showing such characters who have been though so much, who have made huge sacrifices and have had to push themselves to extremes to win the day, then find it hard dealing with their mistakes, to be great storytelling.

We know Obi-Wan pulls it together when the time comes and Luke had one hell of an awesome last battle, showing us just how powerful he really is. Both of these characters experienced very human times of doubt that brought them low, but in the end, when it really mattered, they got their act together and made a difference again. 

To me that is powerful storytelling.

Clean cut perfect heroes are boring and the idea that after the Hero's Journey their lives go on, but the challenges can get to be too much for them, makes them interesting. It does not negate any of their past victories or make them less of a hero. 

It makes them human and real.

That Was Just as Bad as it Gets. What the Hell Were They Thinking?

 I have been a fan of G.I.Joe since the rebirth of it back in the early 80s.

My first G.I.Joe action figure was the original Snake-Eyes because I thought he looked really cool.

The comics by Larry Hama was the first comic book series I collected, starting randomly with issue 12 titled 'Three Strikes for Snake-Eyes' and then regularly with issue 22 and I kept collecting the series all the way to the final issue.

I watched the cartoon, but I remember never being that interested in it. The comics were so much better.

The two live action films did not impress me at all. They were just so poorly done. They showed they had no idea what they were doing, especially when the tried to redo Snake-Eye's story, which they failed with big time.

So when they announced they were going to do a live action Snake-Eyes movie to try and reboot the franchise, I was not expecting much at all. I had no faith and no real interest in seeing the film

Found out it was streaming and decided to check to see if I was justified in my judgement.

Wow was I ever right.

The film is really, really about as bad as it gets on every level.

There was no story or plot. You don't care at all about any of the characters. They made Snake-Eyes uninteresting, with nothing badass about him, as he does nothing throughout the film, with no scenes at all showing him developing skills. They forced in appearances by Scarlet and The Baroness just to have them in the film as they do nothing in the little screen time they are given.

And as an action film it is lacking in action. They are really only two action scenes and those scenes are nothing special at all.

The actors themselves don't really seem to care, with none of them seeming to put much effort into their performances as they really did not seem to know their characters at all.

There really is nothing worth watching in this film. they don't even give Snake-Eyes his signature look until right at the end of the film, you know the look all the actions figures are based off of.

As shown in the comics, Snake-Eyes was a mysterious, skillful character and as the story of his life was revealed we learn just complex a person he was, with so much  of a layered, uniquely tragic backstory that gave him such depth. The movie took all of that away and left us with a cliché backstory and an uninteresting character with simple, boring motivations.

There are bad movies I will defend on some level, with films like 'X-Men's Origins: Wolverine' being worth watching for the first ten minutes or so and there being other watchable elements in it. I cannot say anything like that about Snake-Eyes. There was no point of the film I felt was worth watching.

This was film as that regretfully failed to live up to even my low expectations for it. I mean at least I was hoping for some intense fight scenes, but those were fully absent.

While the G.I.Joe franchise as a whole is still going well using the strength of nostalgia for the 80s, the live action film side of things is most likely dead at this point. This marks three failed films in a row and that is something hard to come back from. And even as fan, I will be happy if they never try to do a live action film again.

Some things are better left alone.

We Would So Misuse Those Magical Keys

 I've talked about Locke and Key before. My son and I just rewatched the series, so of course we were talking about the possibility of what you could do with those keys. My son has a collection of the keys and we do often try to use them and are disappointed when they do nothing.

But that might actually be a good thing. We would so use the keys in so many wrong ways.

We figured the if one uses the Echo key and the Anywhere key, they would created an unkillable army, as echoes can only be destroyed by passing through the threshold of the Well House and there seems to be no limit to how many echoes can be active in the world. And the show right away showed us that if the echo leaves the Well House through the storage closest by using the Anywhere Key, they are free to roam the world.

Then you have the Chain Key, which when used in the lock artifact you can create a chain that seems to have no limit. Wrap that chain around a building and then tighten up the chain, you can bring down the building with next to no effort. So there is a lot of damage that could be done there.

And all the possibilities with the Match Stick Key, which seems to be able to produce flames that will burn anything you touch it to.

At one point we are introduced to Dollhouse (Small World) Key, that works on a miniature of Key House to allow one to interact with the real Key House. My theory is that if you were to have the mini Key House inside the real key House and activate it, then take a needle and reach through the mini Key House and put the point of the needle in the mini Key House inside the mini key House, creating an infinite loop of massive growth if the needle. As this action seems to be instantaneous (If there was even a brief time lag that would be different), that would mean for a moment the needle would become infinite in size for that brief moment, destroying all of reality. Now depending on how the infinite size of the universe actually works (I've gotten lost in thought about the possibilities), that makes a difference to the aftermath of the actions for that one flash of a moment.

And yes, I do believe I would have hard time not testing that theory and most likely destroy reality in the process if I had the chance.

Of course I have some story ideas now based off a team that has to keep such magical destruction from happening due to experiments like that.

The true conclusion has to be that our reality is very lucky we do not have such magical keys just lying around, as I doubt I am the only one who would attempt those kind of experiments. So while I am technically a threat to all of reality, I am sure I am not the only one.

Are Funko Pops the New Beeanie Babies?

Over the last few years we have seen one of the biggest and most aggressive pop culture collectible lines ever find its way into the shelves of just about every store out there. The Funko Pop Figures really are everywhere right now.

For those of you who are living under a rock, and you really would have to be hiding away to not be exposed to them, Funko Pop Figures are vinyl figurines with over-sized ‘cute’ heads that cover more pop culture franchises than can be kept track of. I’ve made the joke about how if they are not doing a franchise, just wait a few weeks and so far they keep proving me right. I would challenge you to go and find a list of their products, which keeps expanding, and look. There is a real good chance they have already put out figures for all your favorite franchises and if not, just wait.

 

I originally was not collecting any Pop Figures. As R2-D2 is one of the main characters I collect, I picked up one of the R2s they put out. The I went after a few other characters and now there ae a few dozen Pop Figures in my collection from the various franchise I’m a fan of.

 

All the big name collectible stores and standard chain stores have jumped in and gotten their own exclusive Pop Figures or special packs of Pop Figure related collectibles. The market for these figures has just kept growing with some stores have full on walls of them.

 

And not surprisingly at all the secondary market prices for some of these figures have risen to impressive levels.

 

Of course anyone who knows how collectibles work have to look at such numbers with rational skepticism. I have seen the Pop Figures get compared to Beanie Babies, which was one of the most famous collapsing of a collectible line that has insanely inflated secondary market prices when the hype of them was everywhere. Lots of people invested thousands of dollars in Beanie Babies to end up with a bunch of worthless little stuffed animals.

 

Of course I will give my regular advice on collecting here. DO NOT collect anything purely as an investment. Collect something you enjoy collecting and want to own. If you then get to the point where they are so worthless you can’t give them away, if you are enjoying having them the value doesn’t matter.

 

The collecting market can be crazy to navigate at times. One general rules seems to be that the secondary market prices are NOT going to be stable for anything only a few years old. The supply and demand for newer collectibles is not set and gets inflated by assumed ideas of unverified rarity or artificial demand. This is what killed the Beanie Babies values. Everyone thought these new pieces coming out where going to be rare and sought after, and then once it all settled down, everyone who wanted one had them as well as thousands of people who did not really want them, who also spent ten to twenty or more times the value for them being convinced it would be a good investment. So many people do NOT understand why the toys of the 70s and 80s became so valuable, so they jump on the idea that all collectibles that get hyped will be valuable in the future.

 

As a rule it seems like it takes about two decades for collectibles to settle into their real level of demand and popularity.

 

My advice about collecting Pop Figures for value is to just not. It is highly risky to make actual investments on such collectibles in hopes of long term profits as there really is no way to know the long term demand.

 

With that being said, I would think chances are that the Pop Figure will stay a highly collectible line and has a good chance of maintaining their value.

 

As I said, they are producing figures for so many different franchise, some of which do not have that much it the way of collectibles out there. This means that audience for Pop Figures is huge, far larger than Beanie Babies was and really bigger than just about all other collectible lines out there. I cannot think of a another series that has gotten the rights to so many different diverse product licensing. Pez might be the only real competitor in that regards, and Pez have been able to stay highly collectible and valuable. Pop Figures are able to appeal to several different levels of fans and that does play a huge role in creating long term value and collectability. Beanie Babies tried to do that, but fell short, just not being able to get that bigger level of appeal.

 

While fair comparisons can be made between Pop Figures and Beanie Babies, especially when someone is thinking about the idea of long term investments, and there is a valuable lesson of caution to be found in doing such, there really is a noticeable difference between the two. Of course in the end it still should all come down to a personal desire to collect above the concern over the value or the idea it is an investment. The first priority of collection should always be the enjoyment of collecting above all else.

 

I’ve been enjoying collecting Pop Figures and plan to keep picking up the ones I like with no real concern about their value.

 

Now I need to get my own creations popular enough to warrant Pop Figures getting made of them. How cool would it be to have Georgie and Armand’s Place Pop Figures out there?

 

And if you have not yet picked up any of my writings, this might be a good time to check them out.

For the month of March I will be donating all my earnings from book sales to the Red Cross efforts in the Ukraine.

Go to http://tinyurl.com/IBCauthor to support me and the people of the Ukraine at the same time.

Help make the dream of Georgie and Armand Pop Figures become a reality and tell all your friends.

The State of Star Wars as I See It

 I have not hidden that I am one of the fans who enjoyed the sequel trilogy. While the films are not perfect and I could do a whole post on my issues with them, I still enjoyed them and prefer them to the prequel films. I have also been enjoying everything that has been being put out on Disney +.

 

We just got The Book of Boba Fett, which was enjoyable for the most part. It really was the first time they worked on giving some real character development to Boba Fett and that was in may ways a huge deal. I felt the best part of the series was giving us the flashbacks of just what Boba went through after he apparent death in Return of the Jedi up to his reappearance in The Mandalorian. That was the story we needed to see. And of course there were many awesome elements tot eh show, which were regretfully hurt by poor story pacing, especially in the last episode with the grand final battle going on. With all the great concepts that were there, built up and gathered together, it should have been a much more intense fight than what we got. The story was there (Although I would liked to have seen Fett leave Tatooine and gone on a bigger adventure) but the pacing just felt off in most of the episodes. I won’t go into potential spoiler details here, but trust me that we get some huge concepts that are going to be remembered.

 

Now we just got the trailer for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series that will be out in May, and it looks awesome. Ewan McGregor is back as Obi-Wan and everything in the trailer looks like they are doing this correctly. The focus will be on the Imperial Inquisitors hunting down the Jedi and for whatever reason Kenobi has to take a break in guarding Luke from afar to get involved. The trailer showed us what looks to be a new villain who gets enough screen time that is suggests she will be the main one who our hero encounters, and she looks badass. We know Hayden Christensen will be in the series, but it has not been revealed if he is Darth Vader or Anakin in flashbacks or both. Due to what we know from A New Hope, there should be no direct contact between Vader and Kenobi at this point, but there is a good chance we’ll see Vader at least for a few scenes in an episode or two, just not as the main antagonist. I would also bet we will see flashback scene with Obi-Wan and Anakin, as there is a lot they could do there to strength up the connection they had that was not well played out in the films.

 

I am very much looking forwards to seeing just what they can do with the series.

 

The Star Wars Galactic Cruiser Hotel/Immersive Experience has opened has been getting good reviews as well as solid bookings, showing the fans are interested and enjoying it, despite the high price. The more I see about it the more I wish it was in the budget to go. It really does looks to be a one of a kind experience.

 

We have the third season of The Mandalorian being worked on, as well as several other series, like Andor, the Rogue One prequel series that has a lot of potential showing the darker side of the Rebellion, which is in post-production right now.

 

So right now the Star Wars franchise is healthy and alive, with a lot of great stuff coming out adding to and exploring new areas the universe. While I do not expect it all to be great, I am loving what they are doing and I feel the overall excitement is still strong for us fans.

What Is Happening Here?

There is a truly unique phenomenon taking place right now. People are watching the full intro to a show for every episode of it, without the slightest desire to skip it. Now I know that might sound a bit weird, but think about it. No matter how much you might love the music for a show's opening, after a point with on-demand programming you generally skip the intro. You’ve seen it and heard the music, and care more about the show itself. Unless it is really short, most people just want to get to the program and hit the ‘skip intro’ button.

But this one opening has changed all that. You want to watch the intro over and over again, never getting bored with it. You can ask anyone who has watched the show, as I have, and everyone is saying they do not ever skip that intro.

The show is ‘Peacemaker’ on HBOMax. The show itself is something unique and out there, but it will be remembered first and foremost for its opening dance number. There is no way to describe the opening, you really do have to watch it to see it, but I can promise you they are people who have memorized it and are ready to perform it any chance they get. I expect to be seeing at the conventions going forward.

I do recommend that you at least go and find the opening in YouTube and see just what the hype is about, because this is just one of those things that I can very much see cementing itself in our pop culture as a ‘need to know’ kind of thing. You won’t be disappointed.

Life's Been Busy

Sorry about the lack of posts here.

Life has been getting a little crazy.

Here's a little promo teaser for an up coming project of mine:

Check out my Amazon page if you haven't yet and see what I create.

https://www.amazon.com/Ian-Brazee-Cannon/e/B006JD2YUG