We took a road trip up to San Jose last weekend to check out the first ever Silicon Valley Comic Con. This was Steve Wozniak (of Apple fame) & Stan Lee’s venture. As we should have guessed by the location alone, this wasn’t the kind of con we’re used to. It was nerd on nerd (tech meets comics) and way more male-centric than the cons we usually go to. There were some great guests though like Nathan Fillion, Jeremy Renner, William Shatner, and a Back To The Future reunion. Watch the video to see how it all went down.
Also, interesting to note, there were far fewer Deadpools (our count was barely in the double digits) and instead Marty McFly & Spider Man cosplay were every where we turned. And also we only saw one Spider Gwen, but tons of girls wearing Spider Man and Spider-Woman costumes. This says something about SoCal vs. NorCal, we just don’t know what.
The Second World War had not yet started, at least not for the United States, when I drifted through a wall and into office space in one of the Manhattan business buildings. Anyone seeing me would assume that I was a man in his thirties, but actually I was less than a year old. Astral reality, as you might know, proceeds via different reality routes than Other reality, particularly as regards time, which would explain everything, if only you could understand it. I should also mention that I’d done a Chronological Slurp, jumped ahead a half century or so and spent a nanosecond – your time, of course – acquiring knowledge I wouldn’t learn for – your time – decades.
I was in a conference room the likes of which were in dozens of New York offices. Long wooden table, chairs, little else. A meeting was in progress. I recognized none of the men present – they were all men – but the guy over near the door might have been a very young Sheldon Mayer and the man at the far end of the table could have been Vin Sullivan. Sullivan, or whoever he was, glanced at me, paused, and returned his gaze to the yellow legal pad in front of him. My guess is, he saw me, immediately repressed the fact that the back of my chair was plainly visible through my body, and maybe thought I was a newcomer who belonged there. After all, this was a new company plying a new product and there were probably strangers continually wandering in and out.
I listened to the editors (for surely that’s what they were) discussing the success of Superman comics and the forthcoming Superman radio program, and the newer Batman, another winner. Then a bald guy asked about All-Star Comics, just that week making a newsstand debut. I gathered from the ensuing conversation that All-Star was a comic book anthology: short stories, each featuring a different hero. The bald guy seemed to think that All-Star’s multi-heroed format had no staying power and was doomed to early extinction. The rest of the group didn’t seem to know what they thought.
“Why not have the heroes all working on the same problem?” I asked everyone. “Fighting the same villain or group of villains. Make it a team effort. Don’t Americans love teams?”
“If they’re the Brooklyn Dodgers,” somebody muttered.
“It’d be a production nightmare,” the bald guy said.
The guy who may have been Sullivan said, “No, we could make it work. Interesting idea.”
That started a fresh dialogue that may have lasted until Christmas.
A few months later, All-Star Comics #3, featured The Justice Society of America, with a bunch of heroes, some of whom appeared in their own comics, gathered together to battle evil. Wonder Woman didn’t join until issue #8, but she was just a girl.
By then, my astral self was long gone. While the editors were still deep in discussion, I drifted away, into the Clutchesphere, where my astral self morphed into a neutrino and joined the cosmic dance.
Most comic fans have a lot going on this week. Marvel’s Daredevil out on Netflix or DC’s Batman Vs. Superman out in theaters. A new bevy of comics out today. A few religious holidays this week too, including Purim and Easter. Even with all that, this is not a good week.
It has been a bad week. Frankly, it has been a bad few months.
I struggled to write a column this week. It is a really hard time to talk about comics.
It is a hard time to focus on entertainment when the world keeps being thrown out of whack. When presidential candidates speak in terms of hate. When attacks are ignored or mourned depending on their heritage.
The world community needs to work together to solve this problem. It’s hard though when the world community never seems to get along.
Last week, I wrote about Young Justice. If only we had that team here to help us now. Or the Justice League. Or the Avengers. Someone to guide the world around the pitfalls or hate and fear. But those teams only exist in the world of fiction. We need to take out cues from the superheroes we’ve created and admired. We need to be the heroes now.
Yes, this week is a bad week. Attacks like this should not happen in the world. So whether you sit down to watch a superhero battle or crack open a new issue, keep in mind the lessons learned from the superheroes you admire. Use those lessons to make this world a better place.
Dichotomies. Every day brings hundreds if not thousands of choices. The red blouse vs. the blue blouse. Filet mignon vs. butt steak. Marvel vs. DC. Sugar and Spike vs. Guido Crepax. Which to pick?
Right now I’m struggling between writing about two totally different types of comics, and here “totally” is an understatement. Fantagraphics just released a beautiful reprint of Guido Crepax’s work, titled The Complete Crepax: Dracula, Frankenstein, And Other Horror Stories. It weighs in at over six pounds. Meanwhile, DC Comics has released the first issue of its new anthology series Legends of Tomorrow, taking the name but only one character from the CW teevee series. I’m thinking of discussing only one of the four features therein, Keith Giffen and Bilquis Evely’s Sugar and Spike.
That’s Crepax art on the left, and that’s Sugar and Spike art on the right. I’d like to think this is the first time somebody has used Guido Crepax and Keith Giffen together in on sentence, but I’m probably mistaken about that. Hmmmm… What to do? What to do?
Well, Keith wins. DC has endured a fair degree of public grief over its incessant rebooting and wandering storylines, some of that from ComicMix, and, well, gee, some of that from me. I don’t want to give the impression that I in any way dislike the company, at least not until I’ve seen Dawn of Justice. Besides, DC always has led the industry in experimenting with new formats and new packages. Dan DiDio and friends maintain my respect for Wednesday Comics.
Besides, of all the stuff released by the company during the past several years much of what I’ve truly enjoyed carries Keith Giffen’s byline – one sometimes shared with Publisher DiDio. So when it was announced that Shelly Meyer’s classic creation Sugar and Spike was going to be brought into contemporary times as young private detectives, I recoiled in fear of a Dark Sugar and Spikeseid. Then I noticed Keith’s name and decided that, at the very least, this should be at least as interesting as it is non-commercial.
I cannot state with authority that the Sugar and Spike in Legends of Tomorrow are in any way related to Shelly’s paramount creation. His name isn’t on it, and for all I know the young man / young woman duo with similar hair color and physical features with the exact same names is the latter-day version of Meyer’s toddlers. It could be just a remarkable coincidence. That’s why we produce lawyers, guns and money. But if it is, well, it’s not a reboot as it does not contradict anything from the original series. I suppose we shall see.
Here, Sugar and Spike are young detectives who hire themselves out to, let’s say, the super-powered community to do stuff that the Powers (heroes and villains alike) would be too embarrassed to do.
It’s a cute concept – not as “cute” as the original, but the original was about a couple of extremely young children who did not have P.I. licenses. And it’s executed in a highly enjoyable manner, with nifty dialog between our heroes and the bad guy and, later, our heroes and their client. Spoiler alert: beware of misdirection!
But for the aging comic book fan the real fun is in trying to figure out how those two darling toddlers became young adults who are enveloped within the rest of the DC universe. I hope this series lasts long enough for the creators to give us some clues.
Besides, I seriously doubt that I’ll be seeing that “Sugar and Spike Omnibus” any time soon. Such a tome would outweigh both Sugar and Spike.
In my review of the last entry in the Divergent series, Insurgent, I praised the franchise for its restraint in not breaking up the last part of their series into two movies and it seems I have to apologize for giving out bad information. They are breaking up their last book, they just had the sense to give the parts different names to throw people like me off the scent. Allegiant is half a book and is perhaps an even smaller fraction of a real movie. It’s airy and insubstantial and at its best moments it’s a pale imitation of more successful movies in this and other franchises. Hopefully the plummeting box office numbers are enough to dissuade other book adaptation series from making the same mistake.
Allegiant picks up right where Insurgent left off, sort of. Insurgent ends with a recorded message urging the citizens of Chicago to go out and join the rest of the world; Allegiant begins with armed soldiers telling those same citizens not to go out. It’s a pattern the movie holds the whole time, we know there’s something interesting on the verge of happening but they are going to make us wait as long as possible for it to actually happen. Tris spends most of the film in the thrall of David, the charismatic leader of the mysterious cabal of scientists/super soldiers that run the whole Chicago experiment, and Four doesn’t trust him. This dynamic is told to us over and over again throughout the second act of he film. It seems every scene is bookended by Four telling Tris he doesn’t trust David and Tris telling Four that he doesn’t understand the great work he’s doing. Meanwhile, the efforts David goes to make Tris susceptible to his agenda is the kind of buttering up that would seem trite in a Saturday morning cartoon.
Tris is way less of a factor in this installment and it hurts the narrative. She spends two-thirds of the movie in the thrall of David and then rushes to join the plot at the end. She isn’t helpless, she kicks more than her fair share of ass, but she isn’t moving anything forward by herself, she just does what she’s told by other people. This is supposed to be a series about Tris and this movie reveals nothing about her character except that she learned nothing about trusting suspicious adults after being fooled time and again in the first two installments.
Setting aside Tris, the other characters also appear to be in a holding pattern. Four is brooding and distrustful of authority. Peter, who appeared to betray Tris and Four in the last film only for it to be an elaborate ruse, actually betrays them this time and it’s only surprising in how sublimely lazy it is to repeat the same arc with a slightly different payoff. Christina doesn’t so much repeat her arc from the last movie as she does act like none of the events ever happened, or she really got over the death of her boyfriend in the 15 minutes between the two movies. These are supporting characters, they don’t need complete arcs in every movie or anything like that, but if they aren’t going to do new or interesting things why are we even bothering to have them on screen?
Allegiant seems to be on the verge of flopping and I hope it’s being seen as an indictment of this book-splitting nonsense. Allegiant barely did half the business Insurgent did in the first weekend and, anecdotally, at my local theater it was given one of their marquee theaters and when I saw it this weekend there were only three or four other groups for a weekend show in Hollywood. The last two installments of The Hunger Games were the weakest performing entries in that franchise. These books aren’t Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and they shouldn’t pretend they are for a shot at double the movie tickets. Barring some insanely intricate storytelling coming up in Ascendant, the series’ finale, there’s no way they couldn’t have cut out some of the slow-paced dredge in this movie and made it one cohesive movie.
NEW YORK – Called “the best looking fantasy series on TV” (IGN) and “damn fine television” (Collider), MTV’s hit showThe Shannara Chronicles Season One arrives on DVD June 7, 2016. Executive produced and written for television by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (Smallville) and executive produced by Jon Favreau (Iron Man), the lavish fantasy series is based on the 26-volume book series by Terry Brooks. The Shannara Chronicles premiere on MTV was viewed 14.6 million times across linear and digital platforms and delivered the best single-week performance on iTunes ever for an MTV series.
Set thousands of years in the future, The Shannara Chronicles follows three heroes, Elf-Human hybrid Wil (Austin Butler, Arrow), Elvin Princess Amberle (Poppy Drayton, Downton Abbey), and Human Rover Eretria (Ivana Baquero, Pan’s Labryinth), as they embark on a quest to stop an evil Demon army from destroying the world. The show also features Manu Bennett (The Hobbit), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings), and James Remar (Dexter).
Arriving just in time for Father’s Day and graduation gift-giving, the four-disc DVD set includes all 10 episodes from the inaugural season along with more than 30 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage. The Shannara ChroniclesSeason One DVD set has a suggested retail price of $29.99 U.S./$32.99 Canada.
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES:
Behind-the-scenes
Meet the Characters
Exploring New Zealand
Terry Brooks interview
Making of the Dagda Mor
DVD Release Date: 6/7/16
U.S. Rating: NR
Running Time: 411 min
Format: Widescreen
Price: $29.99 US/ $32.99 Canada
The Shannara Chronicles is written for television by and executive produced by Al Gough and Miles Millar. Jon Favreau, Jonathan Liebesman, Terry Brooks and Dan Farah also serve as executive producers. The first two episodes were directed by Jonathan Liebesman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).
That resulting thud you hear is the disappointing opening weekend numbers for Allegiant, the third part of the four part adaptation of the Divergent trilogy. Its arrival coincides with Lionsgate’s release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 as a Blu-ray Combo Pack. The commercial demands that the final book of a series be broken into two films made sense for the final Harry Potter novel but certainly not for Mockingjay as witnessed by the poor critical reception Part 1 received in 2014.
Now we have the finale and while stronger, continues to lend credence to the argument it didn’t need to be two separate films (and the year’s wait, in retrospect, was probably a mistake).
The bloom may be off the YA Dystopian rose as the films rushing to the screen in the wake of The Hunger Games’ well-deserved respect failed to measure up. What many of the authors and filmmakers neglected to do was create a protagonist with as many layers as poor Katniss Everdeen.
Fortunately, screenwriters Peter Craig and Danny Strong have not sanded off Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) edges and she remains the most reluctant protagonist in the recent memory. All she wanted to do was protect her sister and bit by bit, page by page, volume by volume, she was dragged kicking and screaming (sometimes literally) into becoming a symbol.
This final installment wavers between her being the focal point of the rebellion against President Snow (Donald Sutherland) and the residents of decadent District 1 and being part of something greater. We see her swearing she will kill Snow and sneaks out of District 13 to make her way to District 2 but then she’s part of Unit 451 and taking orders from others. She is not in the forefront of the fighting, in fact the unit is made of photogenic icons, survivors of previous games and therefore representing the fight against the cruel treatment of Panem’s residents.
She suffers and is made to suffer as those around her manipulate her mother (Paula Malcolmson) and sister Prim (Willow Shields), her friends Peeta Josh Hutcherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth), twisting the Mockingjay to their own purposes. At no point does she really stand up and take control of her own fate and make the demands necessary to be the hero we expect her to. And that is Suzanne Collins’ brilliance in her trilogy, that Katniss remains a heroine thrust into situations by circumstance and struggles to survive, but rarely getting to choose how.
Of the adaptations, this one has the most substantive changes from the source material as the violence is toned down to maintain the PG-13 rating and various threads are dropped or truncated in favor of action, mayhem, and tears. As a result, some characters get short-shrift, notably mom, Prim, and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson). Poor Philip Seymour Hoffman lost his life before filming a key scene towards the end but Plutarch’s hand remains strongly felt throughout. Snow and President Coin (Julianne Moore) deliver indelible performances that help remind us of the political stakes. The screenwriters smartly elevated the role played by Commander Paylor (Patina Miller) so her later participation makes sense.
Director Francis Lawrence makes up for the slog that was Part 1 with a tauter paced tale with sweep and scope. He coaxes nice performances from his cast and delivers a satisfying conclusion to the epic.
The high definition transfer is excellent, preserving the colors and allowing us to see the shadows, notably in the sewer sequence. We can luxuriate in the rich colors of the costumes, explosions, and details in the final scenes. It is well-matched with the Dolby Atmos soundtrack.
The Blu-ray offers up Audio Commentary from Lawrence and Producer Nina Jacobson.
Additionally, we get the right-part documentary Pawns No More: Making The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2which is 2:30 of detailed behind-the-scenes footage from every possible angle and is fascinating at time. There is also The Hunger Games: A Photographic Journey (10:12), which examines still photographer Murray Close’s career; Cinna’s Sketchbook (10:00), which explores the costuming for the final films; Panem on Display, focusing on the traveling museum exhibits and Jet to the Set, a contest.
Lionsgate has simultaneously released a box set of all four films which boasts 14 hours of bonus content including previously unseen deleted scenes.
The Creeps: The Trolls Will Feast! By Chris Schweizer Amulet, 122 pages, $17.95/$9.95
Last August, Amulet introduced us to Chris Schweizer’s middle school gang The Creeps. Their inaugural appearance, Night of the Frankenfrogs, was packed and didn’t entirely work so I was curious to see how he would deepen the characters or expand their world in his sophomore book.
To my pleasant surprise, Schweizer offers up a far more satisfying effort. The kids start off already in trouble with the local constabulary in Pumpkins County but quickly we get the impression bigger problems are developing. Something is interfering with electronic signals so cellphones and Wi-Fi connections are not working. And there’s something about Jock Brogglin that makes him more than just a troublemaker.
In short order, the kids learn from Jock that he is the last survivor of a previous generation of troll fighters and now, after too short a hibernation period, the trolls are ready to attack and feast on the inhabitants. One problem: no one can see the Trolls.
The Creeps need intel and here we learn more about the bizarre beings that are a part of their universe; not just the trolls, but also Mitchell’s older brother. While we still haven’t met their parents, we at least know they are not a collection of single children. Actually, the absence of parental figures rings false as the book opens with the kids in police custody, having their mug shots taken. As minors that would demand parental involvement.
Be that as it may, the four kids – Carol, Mitchell, Jarvis, and Rosario – prove tight and functional with distinctive personalities being rounded out. What seems like a throwaway bit, a video of Rosario singing (very badly) that has gone viral, prove pivotal later on.
Schweizer also gives us Jock, proving not every adult in the books (teachers last time, police this time) are idiots, which is refreshing.
Each of his 122 pages is packed with six to eight panel pages proliferating throughout. At times the pacing is a little off, especially towards the end where it feels like he was cramming things in to finish the story, but it’s all clearly laid out and colored so it makes for a good reading experience for the young adult reading audience.
This is a stronger offering and shows greater command of the characters and their setting so the series is taking on a nice shape.
With the imminent arrival of Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice, a lot of the old arguments generated from the previous film are being taken out and argued. Most prominently on one side of the argument is Mark Hughes filing at Forbes, he other is most eloquently represented by Mark Waid, who has the advantage of, y’know, actually having written the character numerous times. (for starters) and Kevin Powers.
@markhughesfilms@Forbes I can't believe a company like Forbes gave you a forum to whine about how you lost a Twitter argument. Get lost.
Regular readers of this site can probably guess where we come down, and yet, we still understand the conflict leading so many to wondering. A strange visitor with godlike powers that was sent here by his father from above is known all over the world for his great deeds, constantly watching over us and protecting us from great evil while walking among us, and yet people say it isn’t enough– he doesn’t reflect the world we live in today. The man on the street can’t identify with him, and so his story must be changed to become relevant to a mass audience. In light of this, it seems only fair to ask…
Should Jesus kill?
Oh, wait. That probably should have read “Superman”.
Surely you can understand the confusion. People go every week to a special spot and plunk down money to hear stories about his life and teaching by example, be entertained, and hopefully enlightened.
And yet, it does seem that we’re hearing a different version of those types of stories a lot lately, doesn’t it? “Superman should kill people, and fight only for Americans!” “Jesus would take a submachine gun to those Roman soldiers trying to put him on the cross, and then haul ass after Judas!” “Superman will protect our way of life by any means necessary!” “Christ commands us to hate gays!” “Kindergarten teachers should carry guns!” “Soldiers should waterboard family members!”
The people who say those things are fundamentally missing the point. And what they say shows not only that they don’t understand, but that they are crude, materialistic, self-serving, cruel, and antithetical to the teachings of their stories. Rather than aspire to their level of goodness and hope, they insist on dragging the hero down to their level after a quick mud bath for good measure, because it’s what they would do themselves.
All of this would be bad enough, but it gets worse. Because lately, these same sorts of people who say Superman should kill have also been using another phrase about someone else:
“He says what I really believe. He says what everyone wants to say.”
Yeah, that’s what worries us… that many people really have been having thoughts like that, and have been all along, along with other thoughts they wouldn’t dare say out loud, and they were just waiting for someone to come along and let them express their innermost desires. A man of wealth and taste, who doesn’t feel ashamed about flaunting it.
As it turns out oh-so-conveniently for the theme of this column, there’s a comic book character who’s been making a splash in other media who does the exact same thing.
Maybe you’ve heard of him. Hope you guessed his name.
Last week, fellow columnist Molly Jackson and I had a conversation about binge watching on Netflix. Specifically about Young Justice, which she wrote about here. The reason it came up was because people have been encouraged to binge watch Young Justice in order to convince Netflix to pick up the show to give it another season. Young Justice is far from the only example of this at the most popular streaming service around.
Netflix has been breaking new ground lately by not breaking any new ground at all. By that I mean they’ve been at the forefront of offering people a whole hell of a lot of what we already know we like, but, technically, it’s new now! Even when they give us something “new” it’s almost always a vehicle for an already well established, accomplished actor, comedian, or creator with a long resume. I understand that this is an arguable point, but it’s the point I’m making.
They’ve been giving us exactly what we want: copious amounts of the entertainment equivalent of junk food, forgivingly referred to as nostalgia. However, unlike high fructose corn syrup and trans fats we can act like entertainment junk food is perfectly healthy to binge on without the societal pushback. We even use the word binge to describe this behavior without any of the negative connotation. Probably because people can’t necessarily make broad generalizations about your physical appearance or your worth as a human being based on what you watch.
Nostalgia is the junkies’ quick fix. It feels good, don’t get me wrong, but it will never compare to that feeling of falling in love with a TV show, movie, book, or play the first time around. Maybe it’s partly an age thing. Maybe it’s partly an experience thing. Either way, nostalgia is merely a substitute for the original. It’s a hollow smile at the realization that you aren’t alone in the world. It’s a cup of coffee with an ex long after the fall out that doesn’t quite go anywhere, but gives you fuzzy feelings of the old times. Okay, this is getting dark now so let’s move on.
Everyone’s nostalgia is different too. We all had different experiences growing up. I got the chance to see New Order at Radio City Music Hall on March 10th and when they played Bizarre Love Triangle I thought of being a kid in the car with my aunt when she first played it for me. Other people have different songs from New Order that mean a hell of a lot more to them than Bizarre Love Triangle. Some people don’t care about New Order at all. Hopefully no one I know.
Netflix has been trying hard to hit a wide variety of different people’s nostalgias and it seems to be effective. I don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings for Full House, but Fuller House was a hit for them despite the mixed reviews. They did get me with Pee-wee’s Big Holiday though.
Pee-wee was a big part of my childhood. I spent many hours watching Pee-wee’s Playhouse both when it came on TV and on different VHSs of the show off recorded off TV. Lucky for me, my parents endorsed my love of Pee-wee by getting me many of the toys in my younger years.
My journalistic integrity led me to calling my mom before writing this to confirm to me that she did in fact go crazy in her hunt for the Pee-wee’s Playhouse Playset over two decades ago. This included multiple trips to the Toys R Us not too far from where we lived, getting to the store when it opened on Tuesdays as that’s when they would get the new shipments, and hope that she’d be one of those privileged enough to walk out of the store with one. Her efforts required multiple visits before success. We lamented that perhaps Amazon.com would have been nice back then for that reason.
In recent years I’ve gone back to rewatch Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special. It’s served as a reminder to me of how queer Pee-wee’s Playhouse was. Yes, I get it, it’s really pretty damned obvious. Still though, there is a difference between queer innuendos and Grace Jones basically performing burlesque in your children’s Christmas special. It also reminded me how important Pee-wee was to me and countless other people.
Recently, when I heard that Netflix was going to make a new Pee-wee movie, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, and I was happy enough to hear it. I wouldn’t say excited so much as pleasantly curious. Like seeing an old friend who’s in town. You’ll always have those old memories, the stories, the good times, but you’re not the same person you were all those years ago and neither are they.
I watched Pee-wee’s Big Holiday right when I got home from work this past Friday. Similar to what some reviewers have said, while Pee-wee’s Big Holiday is by no means a bad time to be had, it isn’t the same. It feels more like empty entertainment calories than a healthy filling entertainment meal. The edginess at the time isn’t quite there. It’s not as ludicrous as Pee-wee’s Playhouse most of the time or the many shows it inspired since then. Or maybe it might be and it just all seemed more ludicrous to me as a kid. In a way, however, Pee-wee’s latest outing is more queer.
Pee-wee’s sexuality is never brought up or called into question other than the fact that he’s assumed straight by all those around him while he never really confirms or denies this. He does have arguably romantic feelings for Joe Manganiello, and Joe feels the same towards Pee-wee. As I talked about in a previous column of mine, it’s very possible for someone to be homoromantic without being homosexual. The character of Pee-wee could easily be asexual. He certainly seems to be portrayed that way for the most part. It never really dawned on me in the past that Pee-wee could be asexual and homoromantic (or that could even be a thing until only the past few years in my life), but it does make sense and seems to fit the character.
Pee-wee was an important show for me, to be able to see someone like his character being portrayed on TV. Even if I didn’t quite get it all at the time or understand why exactly it was important to me, it all eventually came together. For that I’ll always be grateful for Pee-wee. Even though Pee-wee’s Big Holiday didn’t exactly make me feel like a kid all over again, maybe it’ll help another kid feel comfortable in their own skin like it did for me. And if nothing else, this new Pee-wee outing was just the kind of entertainment junk food I was craving.
Nothing else big came out on Netflix last weekend that a comic book loving nerd like myself should be watching, did it?
And yet, it does seem that we’re hearing a different version of those types of stories a lot lately, doesn’t it? “Superman should kill people, and fight only for Americans!” “Jesus would take a submachine gun to those Roman soldiers trying to put him on the cross, and then haul ass after Judas!” “Superman will protect our way of life by any means necessary!” “Christ commands us to hate gays!” “Kindergarten teachers should carry guns!” “Soldiers should waterboard family members!”
