Heres what's important. That's all I need to see. pic.twitter.com/FCEv7u6IOT
— Mat's Nerd Corner (@matsnerdcorner) February 28, 2019
Back in my 1970s comix-nerd days, I was almost entirely a DC reader. Only two Marvel-Universe films we’ve seen are Black Panther and the first Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Captain Marvel character didn’t appear in print until after I’d pretty much given up reading the genre. But I may have to drag the Spousal Unit to the new movie anyways…
From the NYTimes, “Can ‘Captain Marvel’ Fix Marvel’s Woman Problem?”:
When “Captain Marvel” opens next Friday, it will be a moment of great satisfaction mixed with lingering frustration.
The film, which stars Brie Larson as that spacefaring comic-book superhero, is the 21st entry in the interconnected Marvel movie franchise since it began in 2008 but only the first to focus principally on a woman…
Marvel has built its own fortunes on a decades-old supply of costumed adventurers that doesn’t lack for women. And the studio has been criticized for its slowness to create movies emphasizing its female characters.
So what took Marvel as long as it did to reach this point? And will “Captain Marvel” be the movie that makes good on this long unfulfilled potential?…
In recent years Marvel has… gained a reputation for giving opportunities to filmmakers who don’t have a background in tentpole action movies. That category includes the “Captain Marvel” directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who are better known for low-budget offerings like “Mississippi Grind” and “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”
Recalling an early meeting with Marvel, Boden said they told the studio, “All we have is the character stuff. And they said, ‘We know how to explode things — we need directors who can tell a story.’”
(“Captain Marvel,” written by Boden, Fleck and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, is also the first Marvel movie to have a female director and only the second, after 2014’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” to credit women as screenwriters.)Larson, an Academy Award winner for the 2015 drama “Room,” said she was initially wary when she was approached for “Captain Marvel” and unsure if she wanted to take on such a high-profile role.
But the actress, who has called for greater participation by women and people of color in the film industry and in the media covering it, said the global rollout of “Captain Marvel” could help bring her advocacy to a wider audience…
In Captain Marvel’s favor, Larson said that while other Marvel heroes are weak and lowly at the start of their origin stories, “she was a badass before she got her powers.”
A former Air Force test pilot named Carol Danvers, she gains superhuman abilities from an alien race, and Boden described the movie as a mystery of sorts in which Danvers must investigate her own past.
“As she gets to know herself and embrace what makes her her, she really achieves her true power,” Boden said. “Part of that means rejecting the voices of people who tell her she’s not strong enough and doesn’t belong. I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to that, particularly women.”…
There’s a good section (which matches my own memories) about the major-media comics ‘Mod Revolution’ of my era, the late 1960s/early 1970s: DC was attempting (however ham-handedly) to take its roster of female characters into a new feminist space — Wonder Woman as MS-empowered Diana Prince, Mera as Aquaman’s equal in power rather than just his girlfriend. Marvel, on the other hand, seemed to divide its efforts between designing soft-core porn uniforms for its eyecandy-of-the-month ‘cover babes’ and complaining that female superheroes led to division and social breakdown. Wasn’t really a surprise, even at the time, that the developing subset of Truly Fanatical Comic-Book Readers / Buyers / Creators were increasingly Y-chromosome.
Things have changed since then, for the better if you ask me (and the accountants). Which is why I applaud Rotten Tomatoes for its latest reaction to the bitter-enders of the hyper-insulated TruFan monasteries, per the Washington Post:
… On Monday, Rotten Tomatoes, an online review aggregation service that allows the public to score the movies alongside critics, announced that it would no longer allow users to comment ahead of a movie’s release. Rotten Tomatoes assured users they would be able to post reviews after the movies had opened and that its signature audience score would appear after a film is released.
The site had been used by some individuals to try — or at least, threaten — to “bomb” audience ratings for films such as “Black Panther” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” which both featured diverse casts and prominent female characters.
The decision comes ahead of the release of one of the biggest female-fronted blockbuster of the year: “Captain Marvel.” In the film, which opens next week, actress Brie Larson plays a superhero endowed with mysterious powers by an alien race. Early reviews and reactions have been positive, and it is projected to make about $100 million in its opening weekend, Variety reports. But Larson has also been speaking up, loudly and consistently, about the lack of representation among film journalists, making her a target for accusations that she is “racist” and “sexist” against white men.
“Unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in nonconstructive input, sometimes bordering on trolling, which we believe is a disservice to our general readership,” Rotten Tomatoes said in a blog post. “We have decided that turning off this feature for now is the best course of action.”
Rotten Tomatoes also made other changes to its audience ratings to “more accurately and authentically represent the voice of fans, while protecting our data and public forums from bad actors.” It also altered and minimized a metric called “Want to See” ahead of a movie’s release, in which people could rate how much they were interested in the movie…
If you see this and it makes you mad, fills you with contempt, or makes you feel you’ve had something taken away from you then, well, fuck you. pic.twitter.com/gZaCiRds0s
— Pete Woods (@thatpetewoods) February 28, 2019
Emerald
Not a personal fan of the Marvel stuff, but as this thread is about movies: I saw Apollo 11 in IMAX last night and it was riveting. No narration. There are some audio clips of Walter Cronkite et. al, but the whole thing is a compilation of video taken from the time, much of which has never been shown before. It tells the story so well that it will put you back into the entire experience.
Unforgettable. Do not miss.
Ruckus
That tweet from Pete Woods gets right to the point. And very well I might add.
Another Scott
I was only briefly into comics, mainly Spiderman and the Fantastic Four (IIRC). The new Captain Marvel is still a bit weird to me, given the history.
Here’s hoping that it’s a great success. Anything that breaks down barriers keeping women from fully participating in their industries, and that expands kids’ abilities to be inspired by characters, is a good thing.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
The Marvel universe has been host to so many different Captain Marvels over the years that long ago lost track of them.
Suzanne
I am totally sick of comic book movies, but anything that breaks down barriers is a good thing. And Brie Larson is awesome.
I was doing pretty good with my sinuses until this week with our crazy weather. Allergens are going to come into early bloom right as I get ginormous.
YAAAAAY.
SiubhanDuinne
As most jackals know, I’m the Metropolitan Opera Ambassador for their Live in HD simulcasts in Atlanta. Today was Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, and it was thoroughly delightful. The titular role was sung today by the terrific young South African soprano Pretty Yende. There is an extended segment in the first act where Marie (the “daughter of the regiment”) stomps about and has a temper tantrum and swears quite a lot. Most productions limit her language to the occasional “merde,” but Yende managed to work in a long string of swears in her native Zulu language. There were lots of glottal clicks involved.
Keith P.
I haven’t been a fan of Brie Larsen based on the trailer. It’s the delivery, not lack of smiling or whatever, although her kicking the old lady’s ass looked pretty damn cool. As long as she’s not just Black Widow with photon beams…and I keep reading word that the movie is excellent, and given Marvel’s track record (the Ant-Man movies were great, fer Chrissakes), I’ll assume that the trailers just aren’t showing enough of the good stuff. I mean, Phase 3 has been just an unreal stretch of movies.
Jay Noble
Why even have a “reviews/rating” category for people who ostensibly haven’t even seen the movie? Let alone let them do it months before the release? I watched Siskel & Ebert virtually from the beginning and they didn’t review stuff that far out. We also used them as sort of a reverse barometer – If they both liked it, we probably wouldn’t.
And my other big beef with the hype-machine that surrounds movies is box ofice vs. butts-in-seats. Especially when they relase Box-office numbers for the weekend – on Saturday afternoon.
Ruckus
My sister always wanted to explore and try things that she was not allowed to do, they were boy things. She wanted to soar and no one would let her. This made me think of her and how I didn’t get why she couldn’t/wasn’t allowed to even try. She didn’t care about failure, that was part of trying, but she cared a lot about not being allowed to even try. I’m sure she wasn’t/isn’t the only woman to have this story. It is a great failure of our culture that we “protect” women from failure by failing to allow them to dream, reach and try. It lessens all of us giving roles gender limits.
She probably would have thought the movie was silly, but she would have liked that a woman was the hero.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Your link is to the SHAZAM Captain Marvel, originally in Fawcett Comics and then much later on the rights were purchased by DC. (There’s a SHAZAM movie on the way.) No relation or connection to any of those in Marvel comics (who snapped up some rights to the name when they lapsed during the interregnum between the Fawcett demise and the DC revival). Only Marvel can use the name Captain Marvel as a title, however anywhere else inside a comic anyone can use the name. Here’s the Wikipedia link to Marvel’s Captain Marvel, although it does not mention that he was a sort of grown up reincarnation of the 1950s Marvel Boy (he came from Uranus), who appeared when the comics were published under the Atlas Comics imprint, one of those which predated the company being called Marvel..
Then there’s the strange, thankfully short-lived career of the “Split!” Captain Marvel, but that’s another story.
Keith P.
@Keith P.: BTW: My Brie Larsen critique is solely from the Captain Marvel trailers. She was great in “21 Jump Street” (whole movie was a pleasant surprise)…I haven’t seen her in anything else but I once thought she was in Cloverfield Lane LOL
Mary G
@Suzanne: Get ginormous? Did I miss some news? Spawn #3?
Ruckus
@Mary G:
I believe that is correct.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: Sorry to hear this. How much longer until Spawn the Newest arrives — I am assuming that happy day will settle your sinuses down.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Yup. The Marvel Capt. Marvel seems to indicate he was a reincarnated DC Capt. Marvel.
It’s kinda like the Batman / Dark Knight thing, but DC’s Captain Marvel is apparently dead and gone.
But, you’re right, Shazam! is coming in April!!11ONE
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Not quite. The only connection whatsoever between the DC and the Marvel characters is the name. The modern (Silver Age) Marvel Captain Marvel pre-dated DC’s revival of the Fawcett character by several years.
Trivia: During the 1940s, Fawcett’s comics starring Captain Marvel often outsold Superman comics.
RobertDSC-Mac Mini
Marvel lost me after the shitshow that was Infinity War. So I won’t be partaking any more of their films.
It’s great that they are doing a Captain Marvel movie. More female-centric superhero movies are appreciated.
Suzanne
@Mary G: Yes, Spawn the Youngest should be arriving for the premiere in June.
In June. In Arizona.
I’m already overheating at night AND IT SNOWED LAST WEEK.
(Despite this, I am very happy and excited. But there’s a reason sixteen-year-old girls get knocked up easily—and I am not even close to sixteen.)
Another Scott
@NotMax: Ok, but it sounds like you could say the same thing about the various Marvel incarnations of Capt. Marvel – “Captain Marvel is the name of several fictional superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.”
Or, it could be like the old story…
“This is George Washington’s hatchet. The handle has been replaced 5 times, and the head 3 times, but it’s the same hatchet that he used to chop down the cherry tree!”
;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Presume they’re holding the dramatic silver screen introduction of Hoppy in reserve for a sequel.
:)
Another Scott
@Suzanne: Congratulations to you and Mr. Suzanne!
Cheers,
Scott.
West of the Rockies
@Ruckus:
Just so. Anyone who can’t see the power and potential in the moment that little girl is meeting her super hero(ine) is a knucklehead.
The Midnight Lurker
Any of you jackals ever see Zotz!? It’s an old film from the early sixties, directed by William Castle. It’s about a mild-mannered college professor (Tom Poston) who obtains a magic coin that gives him the power to cause pain, slow down time, and kill. It’s pretty cornball.
It’s not really a superhero movie, but it’s one of my guilty pleasures.
Also… whatever happened to Sgt. Rock comics?
Leto
Oh, so Green Lantern. Like, it just hit me that this is the same background story. I’m really excited for Capt Marvel, Avalune and I have tickets for Saturday’s early showing, but it just kind of struck me that it’s the same thing.
We’re also really excited for Shazam. Looks like a ton of fun. The DC Animated Shazam was always fun.
@RobertDSC-Mac Mini: Personally I thought it was a better/more relevant story line than the comics. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Edit: @Suzanne: Congrats! I wish it was 80 here, though I’m glad we don’t have scorpions.
NotMax
@The Midnight Lurker
Oh, lawdy; from William Castle. When was working at a summer camp, one night a week was movie night. In addition to the titles we ordered, the rental company would send along a no extra charge ‘rainy day movie’ (of their choice) we could hold on to all summer long and drag out if needs be. For at least three years running, that was Zotz!.
Suzanne
@Another Scott: Thank you! We are excited. We are definitely feeling old.
Jay
@The Midnight Lurker:
“Also… whatever happened to Sgt. Rock comics?“
17+ endless wars older than the soldiers fighting them.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Basically, it’s:
1. DC publishes Superman
2. Fawcett publishes Captain Marvel, outsells Superman
3. DC sues Fawcett, claiming Captain Marvel is a ripoff of Superman
4. Suit drags on, superhero comics get less popular, Fawcett gives up
5. Marvel Comics snaps up “Captain Marvel” trademark, starts publishing their own unrelated Captain Marvel
6. DC buys Fawcett’s dormant IP, starts publishing OG Captain Marvel again, but has to call the book “The Power of Shazam!”
7. Marvel introduces Carol Danvers as love interest for Captain Marvel, eventually gives her powers as “Ms. Marvel”
8. Marvel goes through a slew of different Captains Marvel, because none are hits but they want to keep that trademark
9. DC gets sick of everyone calling their guy Shazam and finally decides, OK, the guy’s name is Shazam
10. At Marvel, Ms. Marvel takes the “Captain Marvel” mantle, actually is a hit
11. Captain Marvel and Shazam both get movies the same year!
And that’s leaving out a lot…
Another Scott
In other news, Twitter:
Good, good. More of this, please.
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
John Revolta
@Another Scott: Also: did you know that if you keep having the bartender top off your beer before you finish it, it still counts as the same beer? it’s true!
Gravenstone
@NotMax: There’s a second Captain Marvel teased in the movie, Monica Rambeau. Granted, she’s only 8 or so in the movie but the fact she’s present is intriguing for phase four. Of course if her adult version does show up in a future movie she’ll probably be using one of her other pseudonyms.
Another Scott
@John Revolta: Yes! And if you eat food off your partner’s plate, the food has no calories! It’s amazing!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Roger Moore
@Another Scott:
The Marvel characters share the name because there’s story line continuity; each new Captain Marvel had some kind of relationship with a previous character who used the name. There isn’t the same continuity at all between the 1940s Captain Marvel (later reincarnated as Shazam!) and any of the Marvel characters by that name.
Roger Moore
@West of the Rockies:
I think the knuckleheads can see it just fine; they just hate it.
Mary G
@Suzanne: Congratulations! It will be miserable, I’m sure, but worth it. Not having had any children or biological relatives of my own, I fight Twitler and all his demons in the name of other people’s children, so adding another one will give me that much more energy.
Steve in the ATL
@Suzanne:
Concur on all points!
Also, spend some time in Chicago in yeh winter before committing to moving there.
Another Scott
@Roger Moore: Ok. Uncle. :-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
“We now know the great prize of Brexit: becoming Trump’s prey”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/01/brexit-trump-trade-hanoi
Jeffro
Having just seen Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse a month or two ago and also seeing all the Captain Marvel hype & trailers & articles recently has been an education. I thought I was generally aware of things in the ‘actual’ comics (not comic movies) world. Not even close.
One of the articles about Captain Marvel noted that she has been ‘this way’ for a decade or so…um, no. Miles Morales’ version of Spider-Man appeared last year, right? Um, no.
All I ask is that we not get a ‘Red She-Hulk’ or ‘prehistoric Avengers’ movie anytime in the next couple of decades, please. Plenty of other good stories out there from this GenXer’s prime comic reading years that would make awesome movies. Like…where is my Alpha Flight movie*? ;)
*multiple story arcs recommend themselves…it might have to be a trilogy!
ola azul
@Ruckus:
Remember reading a rather poignant, deeply affecting remembrance you wrote about your sister, so I expect this invocation carries a special resonance.
You honor her memory admirably, and, in the final analysis, specially when we lose those we love, expect that’s prolly the very best we can do.
Roger Moore
@Another Scott:
Now it would be great if the executives of big corporations who do the same thing would also be prosecuted. Maybe a RICO prosecution or two would get some companies’ attention.
NotMax
@Leto
Reminded me of something which recently transpired. Usually the AI for Amazon Prime’s “What Other Customers Watched” is pretty focused and often a good way to stumble upon stuff of which one was unaware (much better than Netflix’ equivalent), but it had a cerebral incident when I checked out the recommendations after watching a drama about 18th century Spaniards in South America and one of the titles the AI came up with was TV’s Greatest American Hero.
@The Midnight Lurker
Mentioned before but shall repeat because it is so off the mark.
There was a lot of serious chatter about making a Sgt. Rock movie (late 80s?), and who was the #1 choice being promoted to play the lead?
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Really, truly.
“Oop dee hill, Eezee.”
Jeffro
@Gravenstone: Photon! All right!! (um what were the other pseudonyms?)
She was a real stalwart during one of the Avengers’ better comic runs.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin: …I should have added:
12. Marvel introduces a new Ms. Marvel, who is a Pakistani-American Muslim kid living in Jersey City, and she’s really cool and should be in a movie sometime, but isn’t yet
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
Careful now—you know that a lot of French children read this blog!
Leto
@Jeffro: As long as they keep rehashing the Dark Phoenix story for every X-Men reboot, we’ll probably never get to the red Hulks or Alpha Flight. Also we’ll probably never get an Alpha Flight movie because Canadians, eh!
Steve in the ATL
@NotMax:
Sounds like AI has you pegged as someone with awful taste in shows. Expect Cop Rock to show up next!
geg6
Ugh, another superhero comic movie. Will this crap never end? I was told Wonder Woman would finally pull me in. I didn’t last 1/3 of the way through. Still ridiculous and didn’t leave me feel empowered. Just bored. And I like Marvel stuff even less. Hard pass.
Jay
@Leto:
Captain Canuck?
NotMax
@Another Scott
An irony now is that Shazam! is a super-hero who has to avoid saying his super name out loud.
Gravenstone
@Jeffro: Pulsar and Spectrum, among what seem like a host if them.
@Matt McIrvin: Saw something on Youtube today that suggested a “Young Avengers” movie may be in the future. Apparently one possible character has a cameo in End Game. If true, then that seems a reasonable vehicle for Ms. Marvel.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
That seems odd, but it really isn’t. Their system isn’t just trying to recommend shows similar to the ones you’ve already watched. It’s trying to find people with similar viewing habits to yours and recommend shows they liked. That means it will sometimes make off-the-wall recommendations. I remember reading about something similar with Amazon’s shopping recommendations. They’ll sometimes recommend things that are apparently unrelated to anything you’ve bought because those things are popular with people with similar shopping habits.
Suzanne
@Steve in the ATL: Moving is a couple of years off, and is highly dependent on work. Weather is actually not much of a factor. We shall see what the future holds.
NotMax
@Leto
Great Lakes Avengers!
:)
@Jay
Dunno if you’re aware of it but that was a more than halfway decent title which came out during the earliest days of direct sale/independent comics publishing.
Leto
@geg6: That’s how I feel about every TCM movie, period. Except there’s a whole channel devoted to those movies. Hard pass. :p
@Jay: Captain Caveman? And son?
joel hanes
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yende managed to work in a long string of swears in her native Zulu language
The swearing in Firefly and Serenity are the only things that have ever made me want to learn some form of the Chinese language.
Gravenstone
@Steve in the ATL: Salvage 1, or get out.
Nicole
I am looking forward to two hours of 90s fun and especially a 90’s soundtrack (going Saturday with some girlfriends). Also, this:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/in-another-90s-throwback-captain-marvel-returns-magic-1832987761
Leto
@NotMax: Mr Michigan is on fire! No… literally. He’s on fire.
We’re currently watching a series on Hulu titled Pen15. Saw the two main actresses on Conan the other night and thought they were funny. It’s about the horrors of being girls in middle school. So far pretty funny.
Jay
@NotMax:
When we cleaned out my Grandparent’s basement in the 1970’s, we found a crapload of Dad’s magazines from his teens, aviation mags from the 30’s and 40’s, Captain Canuck comics, Big British Boys books of Empire Kids foiling evil darkies armed with sharp fruit with nothing more than pluck, loyalty, stiff upper lip and a Maxim machine gun.
NotMax
@Leto
Just to show I don’t make this sh*t up.
;)
MisterForkbeard
@Nicole: I have never been able to see those things. They just don’t work for me. :(
Leto
@Nicole: Same. I probably already own all the music so it’ll be fun putting together a Capt Marvel playlist :)
Jay
@Jay:
Also the 1931 printing of the Canadian Army Sniper Manual.
ArchPundit
@Jeffro:
I’d kill for an Alpha Flight movie.
To the more general point, I took my daughter to Wonder Woman while she was in recovery for an eating disorder and it was incredibly powerful for her. I’m excited for Captain Marvel because I think it’s looks like a fun movie and has a great woman hero. We cannot have too many.
And anyone who hasn’t seen Into the Spiderverse. Do it right now. I was skeptical and it was amazing.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Revolta: When I played rugby many years ago, the man of the match would be awarded The Cup (a pewter mug oddly enough) and the rule was that “The Cup is never empty and the cup is never full,” It was continuously topped off so that the Cup holder would be shit-faced on “just one beer.”
Leto
@NotMax: Oh man. Briefly read the wiki. Why? Just… why?
ArchPundit
@Gravenstone:
Salvage One using the rockets to bring an iceberg down to some city for fresh water was absolutely fun and a great way for Andy Griffith to do something. I have downloaded the show from the internets corners that aren’t fully legal, but haven’t watched it again.
Greatest American Hero still stands up–sorry if anyone disagrees. It’s slower than shows today, but it’s still great fun.
Martin
Reminder that this isn’t Brie Larson’s first comic book movie. Her previous one is high on my list of movies I’m too embarrassed to admit that I really love. Chris Evans went on to Marvel, Mary Elizabeth Winstead on to DC.
Jeffro
@Jay: @NotMax: I have two issues of Captain Canuck! It had a weird backup feature, too.
@NotMax: @NotMax: the best appearances of the GLA were just those couple of appearances in WCA, though, seriously. Byrne clearly had fun with that. @Leto: just because! =)
SFAW
@Roger Moore:
Any of them named The Dread
PirateCaptain Marvel?oatler.
@The Midnight Lurker: I remember Zotz! That coin balanced on the storm drain’s edge…
NotMax
@ArchPundit
Some serious simoleons were dropped retro-changing the main character’s name in season one from the original Hinkley after Reagan was shot.
Jeffro
@ArchPundit: AF movie: one that covers (vaguely) issues #1-4 and 10-13, #23-29, or ?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.
– Hillaire Belloc
ArchPundit
@NotMax:
And I could be totally wrong–but wasn’t it before 1980?
Jay
@Jay:
Oops, Johnny Canuck, not Captain Canuck.
ArchPundit
@Jeffro:
Sorry Jeffro, my memory of the early arcs are not that great anymore. At one point I had I think the whole Volume 1 to Byrne’s hand off and then I gave up comics, but I’d have to review the arcs.
Yutsano
Since we’re going all open thread up here in this joint, an update on my current status.
Looks like I had two major issues. The first goes by the lovely name of rhabdomyolysis. It’s basically a muscle failure caused when they break down after extreme use. The good part is treatment is EASY. So I’m almost all good to go there.
But there’s also weakness and numbness in my feet and legs that has progressed worse. That could be a bigger problem to deal with. And that’s still undiagnosed.
NotMax
@ArchPundit
GAH: March 1981 – February 1983.
ArchPundit
@NotMax:
Sorry, I thought you meant Salvage 1. Yeah, that makes sense–not sure why I didn’t put that together with Ralph. I think I knew that at one time, but I’ve been watching it on the secondary HD TV channels and enjoying it from time to time.
Keith P.
@ArchPundit: This whole GAH conversation has S1E1 queued up on my Prime window right now. I LOVED that show as a kid….I watched that, Air Wolf, AutoMan, I could go on and on. I was damn near raised by 80s TV (except I did have good parents growing up)
ArchPundit
@Keith P.:
I loved Airwolf too, but it hasn’t held up in rewatching it. First, I just think about the amount of coke Jan Michel Vincent was on and the acting wasn’t great from him (probably b/c of the coke) He was in a horrible movie about Nicaragua called the Last Plane Out and it was the worst right wing agitprop about the Sandinistas ever.
NotMax
@Keith P.
Remember The Phoenix?
Suzanne
@Yutsano: Hugs and best wishes.
Roger Moore
@joel hanes:
They desperately needed a Chinese language coach. Chinese* is a tonal language, meaning that the rising and falling tone of a syllable is part of its meaning. I only speak a tiny bit of Mandarin- mostly words relating to food- but I hear it enough to recognize that the characters in Firefly/Serenity have completely flat intonation. It really bothers me when I watch the show.
*Yes, I realize that Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. are really different languages, but they are all tonal.
NotMax
@ArchPundit
After starring in high-toned fare early on, there was nowhere to go but down.
:)
Amir Khalid
@joel hanes:
I have never seen either show. Do they swear in Mandarin or in Cantonese?
NotMax
@Yutsano
Good news in any measure be good.
Leto
@Yutsano: Glad to hear that at least some of what’s going on has a name. Glad the docs stopped sending you away and you finally have some answers. Tons of positive thoughts headed your way.
@Keith P.: Same, tons of 80s shows and cartoons. I can’t watch most of them (especially the cartoons) because they just don’t hold up.
TomatoQueen
@Yutsano: A google on medline tells me to hope you’re being treated for edema/dehydration/kidney issues, and to send best wishes for full recovery soonest.
ArchPundit
@NotMax:
I don’t know if you remember Winds of War but he was one of the major characters along with Robert Mitchum It was one of the first adult novels I read (around 6th grade, i was weird), but it was while he was still coherent. He had to be replaced for the next miniseries.
BTW, for those who are 80s kids as many of us seem to be, Deadly Class is pretty good–it’s based on a comic book, but not a superhero story. The Russo Brothers from Captain America and Avengers movies are producing it. Henry Rollins has a great character, but hasn’t been in the last few episodes.
hervevillechaizelounge
@Yutsano:
So glad your doctors managed to diagnose at least part of your ailment; hopefully you’ll be feeling pain-free and sassy soon!
bmoak
Ann Laurie: The character was certainly around in your 70s comics-nerd days. Carol Danvers was known as Ms. Marvel then. One of Marvel’s first female characters to have her own title, the Ms. part of her name was very much on purpose, as Carol Danvers the ex-fighter pilot and intelligence officer was a feminist-oriented career woman.
NotMax
@bmoak
Night Nurse and Millie the Model weren’t chopped liver.
On second thought…
;)
West of the Rockies
If you click on Mat’s Nerd Corner above, you encounter (down-Tweet) a gif of a boy walking alongside a woman. Is that a movie? What is it from? Thanks to anyone who knows.
waratah
@Yutsano: did they say it could be nerve damage? I cut my wrist while cutting chicken, my daught dragged me to an urgent care because the bleeding would not stop. Just had two stitches and it was not a major vein but I noticed the tingling and then I had numbness the first three fingers. My primary care doctor said I probably damaged some nerves I kept working on them but I still lack feeling and have stiffness.
Yutsano
@TomatoQueen: It comes from muscular degeneration where proteins responsible for muscle interactions spike in the blood. It stresses the kidneys and everything goes downhill from there.
But rest and a particular type of hydration usually works in 2-3 days.
ArchPundit
Another thing is the new Ms. Marvel is Kamala Khan, a Pakistani American in Jersey City. It’s been a really good comic.
eclare
@Suzanne: Congratulations on tiny Spawn!
Yutsano
@waratah: That conversation I have next week.
BruceFromOhio
@Ruckus: The photograph is also pretty awesome.
debbie
@Yutsano:
I’m glad they found the cause. At least you know what you are dealing with.
NotMax
Ah, the dubious joys of closed captioning.
Just a short while ago during a program was half-watching, one of a party about to recreate an historic small boat voyage was asked what he would do if someone questioned him on board. He answered, jokingly, “Keelhaul him.”
The closed caption (with no indication of jocularity)? “Kill all of them.”
Ruckus
@ola azul:
It does.
Our first few years we were typical sister and brother. In competition for well, everything. But we outgrew that and over time we became good friends and then really good friends. We both had/have our peccadilloes as humans but her cancer, that killed her, really allowed us to bond even more, which is a weird thing to me but there you go. She was graceful in her illness and fought valiantly but it was not enough. I held my dad as he passed, 7 yrs before her and was the last person to speak to her, we had a short conversation just before she fell asleep for the last time. At her service about 100 people showed up, friends, family, her students and a lot of them joined in her Quaker circle that I wrote about a few days ago.
She made me a better person, just by being in my life.
For whatever reason this post is reminding me of her. I’m sitting here trying to type through the tears. The gains we make in life always zero out because we are mortal. And that becomes a much harsher and yet strangely welcoming reality as we age and more often reflect upon our lives.
guachi
My main problem with movies in general and current comic book movies in particular is the CGI is so dodgy in them.
Black Panther’s CGI was mediocre to awful, which is why it didn’t get nominated for special effects.
My biggest fear is that because Captain Marvel will have lots of sequences in outer space that the CGI will be mediocre to awful, not that it has a woman in it.
I seem to be in the minority about awful CGI in movies being a turn off from watching them.
Ruckus
@Yutsano:
Sounds like you finally have a good team working on you so that’s a positive. I’d say that this getting old shit is getting old but then I remember my childhood and all the medical crap of that and have to say this living stuff is complicated. Just when you think you might have it figured out it laughs at you in some really weird ways.
Anyway, good luck in getting everything figured out and getting better.
Mary G
@Yutsano: Yikes, that looks like it could hurt your kidneys. Good thing you kept going back to the ER!. Hope they figure out the other part soon. Not having a diagnosis is so stressful, at least for me. My imagination goes wild.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve in the ATL: Jean-Luc Picard used that word on an episode of TNG.
The usual moranic reactionary shitstains are aghast that Marvel has gone “SJW” with Captain Marvel. News for you, shitheads: Marvel was SJW back in the Silver Age.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: Hope they figure out the undiagnosed issue and you’re feeling better soon.
ola azul
@Ruckus:
Your aching loss and loving remembrance of your sister reminds me strongly of my brother. He tipped over in ’13 from pancreatic cancer at 42. Mother died at 40, riddled with cancer. Sister made er to 52. We hadda few long-livers in the fambly, but weren’t many, all gone now.
Brother and I were very close, tho we tracked a similar path to that you describe with your sister, i.e. we twined with age like roots enveloping each other. Still find myself stopping from tryn’ta call him so’s we can riff together about anything and everything. Miss him enormously.
Nothing ever helps much, I realize, but just wanted to say thanks for sharing. Grief is inexorable, course, the sharp n unavoidable part a what imperiously casts shade on life but by contrast makes living so special. Sometimes it’s easier knowing folks understand.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Yutsano: feel better & keep us posted
rikyrah
@Suzanne:
Congratulations!????
rikyrah
@Yutsano:
Get better and follow through with all instructions?
Ruckus
@ola azul:
Thank you.
Yes it does make it easier. Most days are good, some are better reminiscing and some are not so much. Talking/writing about this sort of stuff can give one a bit of clarity that obviously was needed for me.
@rikyrah:
Great advice for medical stuff.
JGabriel
@NotMax:
Am I crude or vulgar for laughing out loud at that?
gwangung
Yes, to a Ms. Marvel followup, starring Kamala Khan. (and Feige has plans)
Which means we need to nominate Kamala Harris for president.
The right wing freak out will be GLORIOUS.
Ruckus
@JGabriel:
Yes, both. But we understand.
CaseyL
@Yutsano: I’m glad they got one thing under control, and worried about the other thing they can’t figure out :(
Could the numbness and weakness be related to the spinal stimulator? A quick google of spinal stimulators lists “Paralysis, weakness, clumsiness, numbness, or pain below the level of implantation” as a possible risk.
NotMax
@JGabriel
That parenthetical phrase was inserted in that form purposely to elicit just such a snicker.
No doubt which way the powers behind the publication of Marvel Boy wanted the planet pronounced, either, as within the his stories he was sometimes referred to as The Uranian.
Aleta
https://www.cbr.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-comic-book/
Aleta
@Yutsano: Sorry to hear you’re going through this. I hope there is relief for you soon.
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
Congratulations! I was in AZ once in June, and it was very nice weather-wise… but I was at 4500 feet in the high desert, where it still wasn’t really hot at all, though the monsoon was beginning. Small hail on a copper Structural Insulated Panel roof is like being inside a drum, we were shcked by how that foam resonated!! Dogs did NOT like it at all. so we held hands with them over the whole night.
Hope you are very happy all spring and summer long!
PaulWartenberg
Comic book geek here.
I never really understood or even knew there were “controversies” over female superheroes. As I was growing up I didn’t have a problem if the characters who were “Kicking Ass for the Lord” were man or woman. It might have been I was getting into comics during the 1980s when the ‘verses were making a concerted effort to upgrade the superheroines from “1950s secretaries who got everyone coffee between battles” into postmodern goddesses (Storm, Wonder Woman, Jean Grey/Phoenix) or samurai/ninjas (Black Canary).
I did notice it was a problem that Marvel hadn’t given Black Widow the “origin” treatment they gave the Big Four (Stark, Banner, Thor, Cap) and it seemed a gross oversight until they agreed to give her one… ten years into the whole franchise… (I didn’t care much for Hawkeye ’cause as a DC reader I’m with Team Arrow… and they still gave Barton a more meaningful background).
But for me, I don’t see a problem with women heroes. I watched Leia blast out a vent to aid her own escape from the Death Star cellblock when I was 7. TV had Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman and Lindsey Wagner as Bionic Woman. I watched Ripley punch out an ALIEN QUEEN when I was 16. By the 1990s I was avidly watching the X-Files with SCULLY my fan favorite (even though I grew up a Mulder as a UFO believer) (part of me wonders if Kate McKinnon a fellow unabashed Scully fan was ever in the OBSSE). There was Buffy. There was Kim Possible. I was one of the ones wondering what the hell took DC so long making a Wonder Woman movie. I squeed when it turned out Rey was the hero of the final third of the Star Wars saga.
Why is this a problem for people? Heroes are heroes. Representation matters.
Procopius
When I was reading Captain Marvel comics in the 1940s I hadn’t even noticed there were different publishers. There were the individual characters. The idea of a continuing saga was not clear. Of course Superman had Lex Luthor turn up every now and then, and Batman had recurring characters like The Penguin and The Joker but each month was separate. One issue might have three or four stories. Wonder Woman was the only female hero I remember. Anyway, in daily life Captain Marvel was a “crippled news boy,” Billy Batson, IIRC, a youth who had a paralyzed leg, probably from polio, which everyone would have accepted as common in those days. Some magician had given him a secret magic that he could invoke by uttering the magic word, “Shazam!” That turned him into the stereotypical musclebound superhero. If the movie version is a woman that doesn’t bother me. I served under women officers in both the Air Force and Army. It annoys me a little that they’re using a name I associate with a different superhero, but it’s just make believe, for goodness sake.
Tenar Arha
@ArchPundit: Just chiming in down here to say ditto about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a great & touching story. The plotting is really well done. The animation and soundtrack is art.
Not kidding about art the art. If Black Panther hadn’t been released in February 2018 with incredible production design, those costumes & all the fantastic world building & acting, hands down it would have been rated the best superhero based movie of the year on everyone’s list. (It’s so good it might even get studios doing some superhero-based animated movies again).
BruceFromOhio
@Ruckus:
Good, strong words, well said. Your sis sounds like she was a quality human.
bjacques
Geez, all this Captain Marvel history and nobody brings up The Caped Madman?
SHABOOM!
Scott P.
There’s only one Captain Marvel, and he has a lightning bolt on his chest.
apocalipstick
Why is no one discussing the real elephant in the room: digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson is pure nightmare juice.
Brachiator
@Procopius:
Jesus Christ! This is a different character, a DC product, and a movie about this superhero is coming out later this year or early next year. There have been a ton of movie trailers. It looks to have some humorous touches.