Once Upon a Geek

Instead of blogging about comics, this weekend I actually read some! I’ve literally got stacks and stacks of comics I’m behind on reading. I only got through 17 comics this weekend, most of which were Marvel Siege-related titles.

Here are the titles I read and some quick thoughts on them (and they do contain SPOILERS):

Blackest Night #7 – Pretty good issue.  Overall the Blackest Night storyline has been great, but I was somewhat disappointed with the previous issue.  I didn’t care for the idea of Earth “deputies” for the various colored lanterns.  Now that I have accepted the “deputies” as part of the story, I thought they were handled quite well in issue #7.  I especially loved how Luthor and Scarecrow turned on everyone.  That’s exactly what would happen.  The arrival of the white entity was no shocker, but I liked the selection of the White Lantern.  Glad it wasn’t Jordan.  I hope next issue provides a strong closing.

Siege #1 & #2 – Ignore the haters, this is a good story.  To boil it down for you, it’s a story of one man’s hubris thinking he can take on the gods.  Norman Osborn (arguably the most politically powerful man in America) has decided to declare war on Asgard.  Many Thor comic fans are outraged saying there is no way humans could take on the gods, and they are right.  I have no doubt that Osborn’s forces are going to get spanked.  However, Osborn starts Siege with two god-worthy tools in his arsenal: the Sentry and Ares.  Those two guys open the door for Osborn’s forces to make an initial assault.  When things start to fall apart, there is a battle between the Sentry and Ares… OMG!  That was shocking and pretty freakin’ awesome!  One more random thought.. I like the idea that Osborn manufactures the incident at Soldier Field in order to gain more power.  It’s a nice play off the Stamford incident and the kind of thing people do when absolute power corrupts.  Osborn’s going down and the fall is going to be fun to watch.

Siege Embedded #1 & #2 – If you enjoyed Civil War Frontline, then you’ll like this book.  It’s a journalistic view of a major Marvel event through the eyes of Ben Urich.  I’ve enjoyed nearly everything written by Brian Reed, so while this series isn’t critical to Siege I’ll be sticking with it.

Avengers: The Initiative #32 & #33 – By all rights I should not enjoy this book.  In its current incarnation, it’s about really terrible people running the Initiative.  I don’t typically like books about villains with no redeemable qualities.  That’s why I dropped Thunderbolts during Warren Ellis’ run.  The other storyline is about the Avengers Resistance, which is essentially the New Warriors.  I stopped caring about the New Warriors a long time ago, so seeing Night Thrasher in action really puts me off.  With all that said, writer Christos Gage has managed to keep this book engaging.  Bizarrely enough, I enjoy reading about Taskmaster. Who would have guessed.

New Avengers #61 & #62 – Great issues.  I’ve loved New Avengers since the beginning and it continues to be a good read.  In these issues I especially liked the interplay between Spider-Man and Spider-Woman.  It was also nice to see the recently-returned Steve Rogers along with Captain America Bucky back-to-back in battle.  Two small disappointments.. 1) Steve Rogers saying, “Son of a bitch.”  That seemed out of character.  2) The insanely tiny print of Steve Rogers whispering to Carol Danvers turned out to be gibberish after I search 30 minutes for a magnifying glass in my house.

Dark Avengers #13 & #14 – Again, by all rights I should not like this book.  It’s about terrible people posing as Avengers.  These guys are the definition of irredeemable.  Yet, Brian Michael Bendis has managed to spin a great series that I’m disappointed is coming to an end soon.  These issues were Sentry-centric.  For the first time since New Avengers began, Sentry was worth reading about.  We’re beginning to find out more about the character.  My biggest worry the last few weeks was that Sentry would turn out to be Marvelman.  I’m so glad that isn’t the case!

Mighty Avengers #33 & #34 – Probably the weakest of all the Avengers current titles.  Hank Pym is an unlikeable hero and not someone you can relate to.  It’s such a huge departure from his previous depictions that it’s hard to swallow. The only thing I’m looking forward to with this title is the coming of Ultron. Dan Slott’s Avengers: The Initiative was pure gold, so this series is a bit of a disappointment.  Especially since this team has the most classic-like line-up of Avengers.  I won’t be sorry to see this series go.

Ms. Marvel #43 – #46 – This has consistently been one of Marvel’s best superhero comics.  It’s a real shame it’s coming to an end.  I’m not sure whether its poor sales or Marvel has other plans for the character, but I’m bummed about this going away.  These issues conclude the “War of the Marvels” in which the Moonstone Ms. Marvel is battling the recently-resurrected Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel.  They’ve already published the last issue (#50), but I’m still catching up.  Brian Reed has been writing this comic since it’s inception and he’s been graced with a number of fantastic artists.  If you’ve missed it, start picking up the trades.  It’s a great straight-forward superhero story with a strong female lead.

There you go!  Have you read anything good lately?  Feel free to share in the comments.

Presenting comic book advertisements for the 1980 Saturday morning cartoons!  Here we have ads from ABC, NBC, and CBS.

If I had to declare a winner for me personally in 1980, I guess it would have been ABC.  I was a big fan of Super Friends and Thundarr the Barbarian, and a moderate fan of Plastic Man and Happy Days Gang.  Conversely, Scooby-Doo had pretty much buried itself with Scrappy-Doo and no longer held any interest for me.  I’d say NBC was close on the heels of ABC in 1980 with winners like Godzilla/Dinomutt Hour, Space Ghost and Herculoids.  About the only time I’d switch over to watch CBS in 1980 was for Drak Pack and the Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour. Interesting that NBC had Daffy Duck and CBS had the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.  I didn’t realize they split the Looney Toons characters up for these purposes.

I have fond memories as a child watching shows like Looney Toons, Scooby-Doo, Popeye, and Tom & Jerry.  Yet I watched them on weekday afternoons rather than Saturday mornings.  For me, Saturday morning cartoons were reserved for new and exciting adventures, not cartoons I could watch any day after school.  I guess I was a bit of a Saturday morning snob.

If you enjoy these, check out the Saturday morning cartoon ads I’ve run previously from 1983 and 1985.  The 1985 post also includes some of my general commentary about Saturday morning cartoons and what the current generation of kids are missing.

Have you heard of the term “Sense Memory”?  It’s used in acting, but it also refers to the interaction of the senses and the memory, and the ways in which certain sensory stimuli can trigger memories.  Have you ever caught the scent of a former girlfriend’s perfume, or heard a particular song, and it unexpectedly brought back a wave of memories and emotions?  That’s what I’m talking about.

I have a pretty strong sense memory.  One in particular sticks out for me. Lemon-Lime flavored Slush Puppies bring back a flood of emotions and memories related to The Marvel Saga comic books.  Weird, huh?  Now we don’t have any convenience stores in my area that carry Slush Puppies anymore, but just the thought of one triggers the memory.  I can clearly taste the lemon-lime and once again feel the excitement and wonder I felt when reading The Marvel Saga.

When I was 13 years old my mother sometimes picked me up after school and took me to her office until quitting time.  The rule was that I had to be quiet and stay out of her fellow co-workers way.  So she’d give me a few dollars and I’d walk down to the local convenience store.  I’d immediately make a beeline for the Slush Puppie machine.  Now don’t be confused, there is a tremendous difference between a Slush Puppie and an Icee or Slurpee.  If you don’t know what a Slush Puppie is, then you’ve never lived.  It’s that simple.  An Icee and/or Slurpee machine simply dispenses a frozen foamy drink, whereas a Slush Puppie requires action on your part to create the heavenly concoction.

When approaching a Slush Puppie machine you are immediately confronted with the difficult decision of choosing which flavor you want (usually there are about a dozen bottles of flavoring to choose from).  Once you’ve decided on your flavoring, you grab an empty cup and dispense the flavoring from a pump bottle.  You are supposed to pump out three squirts per cup, however, I usually went for six or seven squirts.  Talk about lemon-lime tart overload!  Then you fill the remainder of the cup from the spigot.  This pumps out glorious sweet-infused icy water into the cup and mixes the entire drink.  The sweet icy water isn’t foam-based like an Icee, this has zillions of ice pellets.  Little tiny ice pellets perfect for crunching.  It’s a religious experience!

Anyway, I would mix my super-sweet/sour lemon-lime Slush Puppie and then peruse the comic book rack.  I didn’t go to my mother’s office very often, so there were always new comics to check out.  It was during a visit like this I picked up my first issue of The Marvel Saga which happened to be issue #2.  It seemed like everytime I went to my mother’s office, I bought a new issue of The Marvel Saga. If you’ve never read the series it was intended to follow Marvel’s continuity as closely as possible starting with the inception of the Marvel Universe and then continuing forward in chronological order (also incorporating retcons).  The interior was a mixture of comic panels and large text pieces (sort of like Marvel Universe or Who’s Who).  It took me hours to read an issue cover to cover.  It’s was like hitting the lottery for a kid just getting into Marvel back then.  First of all, my $1 would buy hours of entertainment, unlike other comics that could be read in 15 minutes.  Second, it provided all the background on my favorite characters at a time when I didn’t know the Marvel Universe inside-and-out.  This comic provided hours of wonder and joy as my curiosity about the history of these characters was slaked.  A copy of The Marvel Saga in one hand, a lemon-lime Slush Puppie in the other.  That’s happiness.

Sense memory is a funny thing.  Nowadays if I taste something with a really tart lemon-lime flavor, I’m immediately overwhelmed with an inexplicable sense of wonder and curiosity.  That’s what comes first.  It’s later that the memory materializes of Slush Puppies and The Marvel Saga.  Now if I could just find a Slush Puppie machine in my area and a copy of the Essential Marvel Saga…

Hey gang! More of an administrative post today.  I was hoping to get some feedback from you readers about a change I’ve recently made to the blog.

If you look in the right-hand sidebar I’ve added two Twitter feeds, one for comic books and one for Doctor Who (both popular topics here).  I thought this might be a nice geek-news aggregation resource for readers while on my site.  What I’m looking to find out is if this is useful to you.  If not, are there any ways to make it useful to you (i.e. list 10 tweets instead of 5, create a feed for Star Wars, only show tweets from news sources, etc).  Also, is there anything I can do to make the blog more interesting or relevant for you?

Typically when I ask for feedback like this I get a couple responses.  That’s depressing considering hundreds of people read this site everyday.  I can prove you’re not alone.  Scroll down to the bottom of the sidebar.  Towards the bottom, there is a section labeled “Users Currently Online”.  That’s the number of people on ONCE UPON A GEEK at that moment.  See, you’re not alone.  Now c’mon folks, help me out here.  Suggestions you provide will only make your experience better here.  Y’all are a great audience, so I’d appreciate any feedback you’ve got to share.  Please feel free to comment here or send me an e-mail at shag@onceuponageek.com.  Thanks!

The multiverse is one of my favorite aspects of DC Comics, but it’s also one of my least favorite.  I found myself thinking about this after yesterday’s post on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

My first exposure to the multiverse was in the 1979 issue Justice League of America #171, “The Murderer Among Us: Crisis above Earth-One!”  The comic was a gift from my older sister and I must have read it a million times.  It was one of the first superhero comic books I ever owned.  Remember being seven years old and reading the same comic over and over until it literally fell apart?  I watch my kids do that nowadays and it brings a smile to my face.

This issue was one of those classic JLA/JSA annual crossovers by Gerry Conway and Dick Dillin.  Having watched numerous episodes of the Super Friends, I was already familiar with most of the JLA.  However, these strange doppelgangers called the Justice Society of America were confusing to me.  I didn’t understand why there were two guys both named Hawkman.  They looked similar and had the same powers, but were different folks.  Hmmm… now what about these Green Lanterns and Flashes?  They didn’t look similar at all and yet they shared the same name and powers.  Weird.  So I went back and re-read the first page several times until I began to grasp that two parallel Earths existed at different vibrational frequencies.  Once I got it, I thought that was pretty cool!

In this issue, Golden Age hero Mr. Terrific was murdered!  After an investigation it was determined that the murder was committed by a member of the JLA or JSA!  But who?!?!  I was kept in suspense for nearly 15 years.  It took that long before I managed to get my hands on a copy of issue #172.  Sorry, I can’t tell you who the murderer was.  I don’t want to spoil it for you.

So there I was, officially indoctrinated into the philosophy of the multiverse.  In particular, I was fascinated by Doctor Fate and the Alan Scott Green Lantern.  Sadly it would be another six years until I encountered a multiverse crossover again.  It was 1985 and I was buying some comics for a long road trip.  I was already a Marvel zombie by this point, having read Secret Wars, Uncanny X-Men, Power Pack, and many more.  The only DC comics I was buying at the time were The Fury of Firestorm and Blue Devil.  While looking for road trip reading material I spied Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 on the shelf of the local drug store.  It featured both Firestorm and Blue Devil on the cover so I decided to give it a try.  Little did I realize at the time that I was opening a door into a whole new level of comic geekdom.

I was instantly hooked.  As we made our way across the country, I searched for other issues of Crisis at every stop.  I began making lists of all the characters, categorizing them by the Earth they came from.  While Secret Wars vol I #2 may have started me on the path of collecting comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 started me on the path of comic book fanaticism. It was my gateway drug into the DC pantheon of characters.  Then I started picking up Who’s Who, devouring each issue and learning more about obscure characters and further worlds in the multiverse.  There was no turning back after that.

Crisis on Infinite Earths brought the multiverse to a close in 1986.  Around that time I began buying back issues featuring old cross-world adventures.  In particular the All-Star Squadron and the annual JLA/JSA crossovers were some of my favorites.  The story “Crisis on Earth-Prime” which ran through both Justice League of America and the All-Star Squadron is still one of my all-time favorite multiverse stories.  Curiosity drove my interest in these old adventures.  I was starting to appreciate the legacy of the Golden Age to the Silver Age, so I was intensely curious about the JSA.  Also, it was fun to read some of those kooky Silver and Bronze Age tales.  A fair number of the multiverse stories were just plain far-fetched and the resolutions were sometimes hilariously out of left field.

Since I started with DC hardcore in 1985, I was pretty much a post-Crisis reader (or a Tween-Crisis reader if you like).  Any story I read featuring the multiverse was a back issue and was read with the benefit of hindsight. I grew comfortable with the idea that the multiverse was a thing of the past.  When DC started publishing Elseworlds in the late 1980s, I was fine with it.  After all, these were basically DC’s answer to Marvel’s What If.  By the mid-90s I was reading the majority of DC’s superhero line.  I felt invested in the DCU as it existed at that time.  Many of my favorite titles used formerly-multiverse aspects incorporated into the singular continuity like the JSA, the Shazam family, Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Huntress, Power Girl, and more.

After thirteen years in the grave, Mark Waid resurrected the multiverse in the 1999 mini-series The Kingdom.  This time around they called it “hypertime” instead of the “multiverse”.  I was ticked!  How dare they bring back the multiverse after all this time?!?!  Were they simply throwing away the past 13 years of continuity and resetting everything to the Pre-Crisis status quo?  It quickly became obvious that wasn’t the case.  Hypertime was introduced simply to provide some freedom to the writers to tell different stories.  While hypertime was used occasionally (i.e. Superboy in “Hypertension” and the graphic novel JLA: Earth-2), it quietly faded into the background.  I eventually accepted the seldom-used hypertime and became comfortable once again in my Post-Crisis dominion over the DC Universe.

Then in 2005 Infinite Crisis came along.  Here we were again, 19 years after saying goodbye to the multiverse it was being dragged back into existence and to a place of prominence in the DC Universe… oh wait, I guess I gotta say DC Multiverse.  Once again I was ticked.  I felt like the writers were coping-out by resetting everything to the way it was when they started reading in the 70s and early 80s.  They were bringing back the elements from an era they felt comfortable with.  Didn’t they understand, this wasn’t about their comfort zone, it was about mine!

Admittedly my outrage was over the top.  While my emotions were strong, I had my reasons.  First, I felt betrayed.  I felt the past 19 years I invested in reading DC Comics was wasted.  The universe I’d come to know in-and-out was being chucked in favor of a multiverse that existed back when Loni Anderson was a sex symbol and disco was cool.  Second, while I love the old multiverse stories, many of them really don’t hold up under a critical eye.  My love for these multiverse adventures comes from a sense of nostalgia rather than from the quality of the writing.  Often the old multi-Earth plots were outlandish and more for fun than serious storytelling.   Third, I was concerned about the quality of new stories that would be written using the multiverse concept.  If the old ones were often weak, what guarantee existed that new ones would be any better?

Okay, so the last 19 years of DC continuity didn’t get chucked.  However, given the quality of Countdown and Final Crisis stories and tie-ins, I feel my concern about modern multiverse adventures was merited.  Countdown was an abysmal train wreck of a series.  An overall direction for the series was non-existent, the individual stories were weak, and it was far too dependent upon multiverse-hopping.  Like any series, there were certain moments in Countdown that were good, but those moments were few and far between.  In all fairness, not all modern-day multiverse stories have been bad.  Geoff Johns has written some really good Justice Society of America multiverse adventures, like the one featuring the Justice Society Infinity.  However, those good stories are the exception and are heavily outweighed by the bad ones (who isn’t sick of Superboy-Prime?).

So far, the modern-day multiverse stories have been a let down.  Would the DC Uni-/Multi-verse have been better without the reintroduction?  Has the return of the multiverse really brought anything fantastic?  Sure I’m glad to see Earth-2 Superman up and around again, but have they actually told any really good stories with him since bringing him back?  I don’t think so.

Call me a stick in the mud, but I’m really disappointed with the return of the multiverse.  However, the old school multiverse stories will always have a place in my heart, even if it’s as ridiculous as the Super-Sons of Superman and Batman.

Happy Valentine’s Day to the most beautiful woman in the world… my wife, The Irrepressible Gena.

It’s been a big week for me.  Just got back from an amazing 7-day eastern Caribbean cruise.  Probably the most fun vacation I’ve ever had.  Unfortunately, I’m exhausted from the vacation so today will be very brief.

While on the cruise I got to snorkel in some of the clearest, most beautiful water in the world (St. Maarten and Grand Turk).  Sped around on a waverunner at Emerald Beach while on St. Thomas.  Met Nick Maley, known as “That Yoda Guy” (more on him in a later post). Saw Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen (boy was that movie the suck!).  And did a zillion other things, but most importantly I spent some quality time with my gorgeous and brilliant wife.

It’s worth mentioning for Terry’s benefit that I read a Thor trade paperback.  I read my copy of Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson volume 1.  It was a great read.  Awesome art, solid storytelling, and good adventure.  After reading this, I think I can quantify my dislike for Thor a little further.  When written well, I really enjoy Thor’s adventures in Asgard.  It makes for good fantasy/high-adventure.  However, I don’t care for Thor on Earth.  I feel like he sticks out like a sore thumb.  This fits with my dislike of Thor all these years in the Avengers.

Finally, saw Avatar last night with my 10-year old step-son.  What a movie!  Now I see what everyone is talking about.  Not the most original storyline, but breathtaking visuals, great action, and very enthralling.  Definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

Talk with y’all later!

Just thought I would share some of the geeky Christmas ornaments that adorn our tree.

I love the Spider-Man ornament below.  It’s got great detailing and the webs in each hand are cool!

Below is a cute Santa-Spidey!

You can find a nice Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine below, complete with rolling wheels, Christmas tree on top, and Scooby in bas-relief.

Scooby-Doo the reindeer.

Scooby baking Christmas cookies in the shape of himself and Shaggy!

Below is a miniaturized replica of a Scooby-Doo metal lunchbox.  Unfortunately, my three year old daughter has pilfered the thermos that went with it.

Below is an interesting Batman and Robin pairing.  Robin is clearly the Tim Drake Robin, but Batman isn’t wearing blue trunks.  That suggests this is the Batman from shortly after the Troika storyline in 1995.  … Wow, it’s scary I know things like that.

Here is a genuine E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial ornament from 1982.  Somehow I’ve managed to hang on to it all this time.

Here is another E.T. ornament from 1982 I’ve somehow managed not to lose.  This one is handmade.  I believe my mother bought it at a craft show in 1982.

Below is another miniaturized replica metal lunchbox.  This time it’s from the Super Friends, including images of Flash, Batgirl, Green Arrow, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Hawkman, and Green Lantern.  The thermos features Catwoman, the Joker, and the Riddler.  Oddly enough I don’t believe Batgirl or Green Arrow ever appeared on the Super Friends show, and yet they made the lunch box.  Weird.

Below the likeness of Barry Allen, The Flash, is captured between the seconds as he races to beat 20 years of continuity and come back from the dead.

Superman from the Animated Series is delivering Christmas toys in this cool ornament below.

Another miniature replica metal lunchbox below.  This time it’s a Superman lunchbox paying homage to the cover of Action Comics #1.

Below is a clever Clark Kent ornament.  Notice the detail of the coat hanger and the jacket.  Nicely done!

Finally, my favorite geek ornament… Super Santa!  Another gift from my mother from my childhood.  I like the crossover between Superman and Santa Claus.

Happy Holidays!

I stumbled across a few more Saturday Morning Cartoon advertisements in some old comics.  Below are ads that ran in DC comics in the fall of 1983.  At the time, they were promoting the upcoming fall line-up of Saturday morning cartoons on ABC and NBC.  Oddly enough I didn’t see an ad for CBS.   Click the NBC  image for a larger view.

Dude… for me personally, NBC rocked in comparison to ABC in 1983.  Thundarr the Barbarian, Spider-Man & his Amazing Friends, Incredible Hulk, Mr. T, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Shirt Tales… NBC had some good stuff!  I do recall enjoying ABC’s Puppy’s Further Adventures and the Littles, but no matter how much I tried I couldn’t get excited about Pac-Man or Rubik the Amazing Cube.

Click here for a previous post about NBC’s 1985 Saturday Morning Cartoon line-up.  For that post I included some general commentary about Saturday Morning Cartoons and what the current generation of kids are missing.

After more than a decade in the attic, we decided to give the old Star Trek: The Next Generation collectible card game a try.  Ed’s in town this weekend (pictured below in his “Nerd Herd” t-shirt from the TV series Chuck) and he decided we should tackle the game again after all these years. After procrastinating for hours, we finally cracked the decks sometime after midnight. Needless to say, this is not a game you can simply jump right into without reviewing the rules closely.  I cleaned Ed’s clock (or Romulan Outpost in this case) and we called it quits after one game.

Below is Ed building his inferior Romulan/Klingon deck.

Here I am trying to remember the rules after something like 14 years.  I suppose we could have bothered to read them before playing, but that would have taken all the fun out of it.  And we discovered we’re getting too old to sit on the floor for very long.

Finally, in going through my old cards we re-affirmed how insanely geeky I really am.  We came across two custom cards I produced myself for the game.   Check them out below.  I color-copied images, then literally cut-and-pasted them together.  Also, it appears I used my old Commodore 64 dot matrix printer for the text boxes.  How frikkin’ hilarious!  I’m such a dork!   As Ed has pointed out, he proclaimed my dorkiness long before these cards were stumbled upon.

Live long and geek out!