The internet has gone mad!!!

Good morning class, it is Wednesday, June 30, 2010 and in the S M T W T F S daily abbreviations you will notice that we are entering yet again the WTF portion of the week.

BATTLEGROUND: SCANS DAILY

BIRDS OF PREY #2 came out a little while back and I didn't pick it up. The shop was out so i didn't see it and I'm a little on the fence about the book. I love Gail Simone's writing. I absolutely adore it. However, I really don't like Ed Benes artwork. However, Linda tipped me off as to the big controversy around the issue. Two of the supporting cast died. Well, there's a big problem here, because one of them was gay and in grief for the murder of the man he loved and swore to protect, took his own life. This sparked much outrage on one site especially since the issue came out in the middle of Gay Pride Month.

Wait, it gets better.

Madam Simone was a member of that site. Note my use of the word 'was'. So when people started getting pissed off, she responded saying how she understood that people were upset at the deaths of two liked characters. However, she didn't like people trying to pin her with the reputation of killing off gay characters. Now, many people on there continued to be very civil to her. They didn't like what happened to the characters, but bad things happen to characters. Being gay or any other type of minority in comic book does not automatically give that character a magically fabulous force field that prevent bad stuff from happening to them. But of course some people on the site were claiming that the deaths played into a bunch of different tropes. 'Tropes' is a word that people use to make themselves seem smarter than they actually are. Most of them don't know what it really means, so I want you all to know it means 'ferret'.

The kicker is that Simone got a warning from the site administrators about the content and her discussing it. And she left the site. I don't blame her. This is flat out stupid. I have the book. I've read it. That part of the story was not about hating gay people. I've seen Gail Simone's twitter. She seems to really like gays. Especially gay men. In pirate costumes. Kissing. So, the site administrators with the righteous indignation spurred by social justice gave her an official warning, thus proving that they suck, because we can't have Gail Simone killing off gay characters in the middle of Gay Pride Month even though she created those characters to begin with. She obviously created them years and years ago in an insidious plot to make people like them and once liked, she would wait until Gay Pride Month to kill them horribly and really stick it to those pesky gays.

Yeah. Scans Daily. You fail. You had one of the best writers in comics on your boards chatting with your members, and she left because of your moderators. Ponder that for a while.

YOU CAN'T HIDE IN THE INTERNET

The Saga of Manny Fresh continued over the weekend as yet another Twitter account joined the e-battle royal. "Manny sucks sucks" was pretty much the anti-anti-Manny. We all wondered where the insanity would end, but end it did because Manny Fresh's detractor made some mistakes. The first of which was a text message that appeared on Manny's personal phone.

It was on like a Filipino Donkey Kong.

This was a step too far, and the quarry had grossly underestimated Manny Fresh. The internet may provide people with some anonymity, but that can't stop Manny Fresh. The noose was tightening and Manny had a lead on his e-nemesis when Manny Fresh Sucks made a tragic mistake on twitter by posting this:

KELLYS ON KEMPSVILLE HAS NO AC. ITS HOTTER THAN @VAMANNYFRESH 's BUKKAKE SCENE IN HIS PORNO DEBUT. 9:45 PM Jun 27th via Twitter for iPhone

Whoops. Not too long after, Manny had a tweet of his own confirming that the AC was indeed broken. Yeah, bad move letting the internet know where you are and good old Twitter let Manny know that his target had an iPhone. So, when Manny spotted a guy with an iPhone looking around the bar rather frantically he had his prey. Of course the guy said he was just kidding with all his trash talk, and the tone of his Twitter account has changed quite a bit.

Two lessons to learn: talking trash online isn't worth squat, and the internet cannot protect you from Manny Fresh.

So that's the end of that drama but there could be more in store as Optimous Prime is being held hostage next to some ammunition and a stripper's used panties. There's to be a clandestine exchange for a particular Peter Criss mask atop the Dominion Towers parking garage.

I smell... double cross.

POP POLITICS

President Obama has a lot on his plate. He's got to deal with people at war with the country, the economy is in pretty rough shape, that oil is still leaking, and Lady Gaga might get a million followers on twitter before him. And now there's folks who would like him to get his twitter on.

Look, anyone who thinks the President is actually personally providing any content to that Facebook page is fooling themselves. And frankly, with all the security problems Facebook has I'm amazed he has any presence there at all. I know social media was a big factor in him getting to the White House, but now he's got an actual job to do, and he spends too much time whoring out to the media anyhow.

Although if Lady Gaga beats Obama in this she's going on my dead pool list. No way will Obama let there be a bigger pop star than him. Remember what happened to the King of Pop? Just sayin'.

THE JERK IN THE MIRROR

And speaking of Michael Jackson, I wonder if Chris Brown's crying fit on stage during the Michael Jackson tribute was due to the wave of irony crashing down upon him that he was singing in tribute to a man who grew up in an abusive household. Actually it was a very fitting tribute in that after his death everybody seems to have forgotten that Michael Jackson, while a great artist, was a creepy bastard who quite likely enjoyed the company of children in ways no one should, and after the tribute and crying fit everyone seems to have forgotten that Brown beat the hell out of his girlfriend. Seems he's popular again.

Folks seem to be suffering from memory loss.

MUSIC!!

And speaking of dirtbags:


When this video came out the kids were like "OH MY GOD!! Those people from AMERICAN PIE are in a video!!". We now say the same words, but for an entirely different reason.

POP QUIZ!!

1: Do you read Gail Simone's comics, and if so, what are you reading?

2: Is there anyone on the internet that you ever hunted down and confronted? If not, who would you want to?

3: Who is your favorite teenage dirtbag?

Alright troops, that is it until Friday. Leave comments, discuss, make fun, etc. Big thanks to Linda for turning me onto the Gail Simone story, and big thanks to the Mike and Bob Show for putting some links up to the blog. See you Friday.

Costner as Holmes in a Speedo for a Fraction of a Second

It's Sunday, June 27, 2010 and Fedor lost last night. Please send me money because I need money to pay the bookie. If you don't send me money this may be my last blog post for a while. Hard to type with broken fingers.

FRACTION OF A SECOND BEHIND

This video from Hypnos Rêveur got me thinking, which it was supposed to, so Hypnos wins. Thanks a lot, buddy. I was trying to shut my brain off.

Freshman year of college I got stuck in a class that was supposed to make me ponder stuff. We ready different works by different philosophers and the like to try to expose us to different worldviews and broaden or thought processes. It was an alright class. I got a C. The highlight was we watched a video about a bunch of 'New Age' malarkey and immediately following the video I declared the people on it to be "the biggest bunch of Fruit Loops I'd ever seen in my life". Now before the New Agers jump down my throat, there was one broad who put quartz crystals in her cats drinking water to make the cat healthier. She was the sanest one of the bunch. The real loon was the guy who had a psychic rapport with dolphin and they supposedly spoke through him. Although he could in fact be the brightest of the bunch since he figured out a way to make money by having morons sit in an audience and watch him sit in a chair, roll his eyes up in his head, and squeak. Wish I could make bank by impersonating Flipper.

Lunacy aside, on the first day of that class the question proposed to the class, which had a bunch of eighteen year olds hemming and hawing and going bonkers for over an hour was "What is real?" Well the answer is simple: its everything that exists in space and the events that occur in time. However, when you put about twenty eighteen year olds in room and ask that question they can't get at it.

And that is due to a fraction of a second.

There's a lag time between reality and perception of reality. Fortunately its not a very long one. Otherwise I'd get punched in the face before it even registered that the fist was moving. I'd also hit the floor before I processed that I was falling. Brief as it is it can keep people from seeing the truth, because what is does not quite fit in folk's own little reality. They can't understand why anyone could possibly disagree with what they "know" to be true. Visit any internet forum for an example.

So what exists in that split second between reality and perception? Is it the area between sleeping and waking? Is it a world of machines that use people as batteries?

My money is on leprechauns.

THE POSTMAN SAVES THE DAY!

Over a week ago TMZ caught up with Kevin Costner at an airport and asked him what he thought about the BP oil spill in the gulf. His answer was a bit surprising. Seems he was on his way to see what he could do about things. This was far from being a case of a bleeding heart celebrity heading to a disaster area clean off birds and have a candid photo opportunity. Big Kev had a plan, some sweet gear, and was ready to help. Makes me want to go buy a copy of WATERWORLD strictly on principle, especially since a small version of the machine makes an appearance in the movie. And it is nice to see some real action in the clean up effort. A lot of people have asked "what are we gonna do?" Kevin Costner knows and is doing it. The first barges with the equipment are being prepped and ready to go.

Thank you, Kevin Costner.

REVISITING BAKER STREET

I gave SHERLOCK HOLMES another go around last night. This time I was armed with caffeine, sugar, and art supplies as drawing helps keep me away sometimes. My main criticism of the movie still stands. Robert Downey Jr mumbling in a faux British accent does not work for me and he can be saying the cleverest things ever put on screen but it won't matter if I can't understand a word he is saying. However, I did succeed in making it through the movie this time around and in doing so have found it redeemed.

The only thing that did not work for me is Downey. I'm not saying that it was a bad performance, because it wasn't. I'm not saying that his and Guy Richie's take on Sherlock Holmes is not an interesting or valid one, because it was both. I just didn't really care for it.

Aside from Downey there was plenty to like about the movie. The story was interesting. The scenery was had a gray beauty to it. Jude Law was awesome as Watson. The use of Moriarty was brilliant and incredibly well done with respect to the source material. Moriarty was like The Octopus in THE SPIRIT, always there and with his fingers into thing, but you don't actually see him directly, and often you don't he was involved until after the fact. I'm referring to the comics of course, not that movie from a couple years back.

And this brings me around to SCOTT PILGRIM. I found myself enjoying SHERLOCK HOLMES despite the main character. My biggest gripe about the impending SCOTT PILGRIM movie is that after reading the books I can't stand the main character who is a moron. Can I enjoy the SCOTT PILGRIM VERSUS THE WORLD movie because of my new found ability to get past not liking the title character? Probably not. In the case of SHERLOCK HOLMES I could get caught up in the case. There was interesting things afoot and it was at its heart a detective story. SCOTT PILGRIM is a love story about two characters I don't like. I doubt I'll be able to overcome that.

THE TALK OF THE TOWN!!

A little number to go out to one Denis Labelle, who freaking well better do a Dean martin type cover of this song. Because he said so, and I plan to hold him to it.

VIRTUAL GETAWAY

I don't care much for all the talk of augmented reality and the thoughts on what could be the future of gaming. However, the question was posed to me about what I thought about "inhabiting" a virtual world, and its not for me. There's only so much escapism I can handle. But if I had to pick a location in a video that I was going to live in I do have some ideas. I thought about doing this as a Top 10 list, but really there's not enough video game places I'd care to live in.

1: BULLWORTH from the game BULLY. Nice place. Has a comic shop and a boxing gym. There's a carnival nearby. The movie theater looks cool. I could settle in just fine.

2: WAHU ISLAND which we see in WII FIT and WII RESORT. Looks like a fun little vacation spot, just as long as that volcano doesn't erupt.

3: BALAMB from FINAL FANTASY VII. Seems like a nice town and its by the beach and the train station. That and hunting T-Rexasaurs in the woods sounds fun and challenging.

So that's it for me for today, so now it's over to you!

POP QUIZ!

Battle of the eco-warriors! UFC rules. Who would win: Kevin Costner or Al Gore?

If you could live in any location in a video game, where would it be?

What's your favorite movie with a character you don't like?

Remember to comment about the new format. Also, got a new installment of Tales of Night Life up. I know its been a while since I posted a chapter, but hopefully I'll get things back to a more regular basis. See y'all Wednesday.

Manny Fresh is OK to go for Nuclear Fusion

It's Friday, June 25th despite what the time stamp on the blog might be telling you. The internet is full of lies! Here's something to read while you're at the office pretending to work and hoping to grow psychic powers that'll make time move faster so you can start the weekend.

BATTLEGROUND: TWITTER!!

Here in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia we have one afternoon radio show that dominates all others, and that is The Mike and Bob Show. They've been around over ten years now and there's been many changes over those ten years and different voices have joined Mike Powers and Bob Fresh in entertaining people. The most recent addition in the broadcast booth is a long time listener of the show and an old friend of Mike and Bob: Manny Fresh. He's nowhere near as polished as Mike, Bob or their engineer Little Nick Chappell on the microphone, but he does bring many things to the table. He has the ability to find a lot of things really fast on the internet, so if the guys need some info in mid topic, Manny can usually bring it up in a matter of minutes. Also Manny is a proponent and perpetrator of weird sex, which now that the rest of the guys are all married somebody has to have despicably entertaining stories to inflict upon the listening audience.

But not all are fans of Manny Fresh. And as Manny is pretty savvy with social media, that is how his chief detractor has struck. Oh yes, "Manny Fresh Sucks" on Twitter has began his assault upon the portly Filippino and has gotten a few followers mostly, I assume, in form of the husbands of many of the women Manny has bedded. This quickly got Manny and the show's attention, and has sparked a counter assault. Manny Fresh Great at the time of this writing has more followers than Manny Fresh Sucks proving that either the Manny Fresh Sucks guy is either completely off base in his viewpoint or isn't trying hard enough.

And like the Twilight fandom conflict in which fans have divides into factions of Team Edward and Team... um... whoever that other weird looking dude is, a middle ground has sprung up. Unlike the Team Buffy faction of the twilight nerdom which wants to just off both the weirdos, this little group doesn't have any really strong feelings towards Manny and just thinks he's alright. It should be noted that the shows hosts follow this third faction. You have to keep your bets hedged in these internet wars. And for those who desire a bit more street cred in your not really caring one way or the other, there's this group. There is also a Twitter account supposedly for Manny's Mom, but I steered clear of that, because I've just listed five different Twitter accounts and that's my limit of mentioning twitter accounts that don't have anything to do with me.

So here's the question: how many of these accounts is Manny Fresh actually behind? We know one is because that's his personal account. Manny is Alright was started by another show regular, The Hulkster. He said he didn't create Manny Fresh Great. But the kicker is this: what if he started Manny Fresh Sucks? Or possibly he could have an accomplice. The Manny Fresh Sucks guy hasn't bad mouthed the show and claims to be a fan. He just doesn't like Manny, supposedly. Could this be a cunning rouse, a plot if you will, to create a false controversy? It wouldn't be the first time someone has used the internet to play a cunning shadow game. If Manny did do this, he'll see real quick who his friends are and who aren't. Manny could theoretically do it. Like I said, he very computer savvy.

Or it could just be one nut with an axe to grind.

Time will tell...

SCIENCE!!

Not quite of the mad variety, but when a dude gets up in the morning and says to himself, "Ya know what? After I grab some bagels I'm going to build me a fusion reactor." and then he does it, it really puts a damper on things when I want to bad mouth the school system. This is of course quite a step up from the Boy Scout years ago who built a reactor in his parents shed, and I still think the mad little bastard should have gotten a glow in the dark merit badge. I'd love to be the reporter there in Brooklyn hanging out on the sidewalk asking people what they thought about the dude building and operating a reactor over by the deli. It was New York of course, so most of them were cool with it. Its Baseball season so they've got other things to worry about.

Cue the Beastie Boys! No Sleep 'til Fusion!

COMIX!!!

I'm a big fan of Garth Ennis's BATTLEFIELDS series, and he started his newest story arc "Motherland" this week. "Motherland" is a follow up to his previous story "The Sky Witches". Its about female Russian pilot in World War II. Excellent read and it sparked up a few questions in the Nozz compound. Were there really women fighter pilots in World War II? Ennis knows his stuff when writing about World War II, but just to make sure I did a little hunting and found this article. If you find the comic and aren't already reading it, give it a go. And if you don't give a damn about comics, but are a history buff, check it out. This was my non-spandex reading of the week and it was damn good.

Also this week SUPERMAN #700 hit the stands. Yes, just one week after BATMAN #700, Superman had himself a centennial issue. It was quite different from the Batman issue in that it had multiple stories from different creative teams. Some of them I really liked. One of them I thought was flat out terrible. Like Batman, Superman is having a lot of really big storyline stuff going on in his comics, and this issue does deal with them. Its a transition piece to be sure. One story serves as a wrap up to the previous story. Another gives us a glimpse at the direction the book may be taking. It has a few guest stars. All and all, it didn't really thrill me. I want a bit more from my big number comics.

Also this week, Bruce Wayne continues his magic temporal carpet ride in THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE. This time he's facing Blackbeard the Pirate who is on a treasure hunt and is certain the treasure is in a certain cave. The story continues to be really cool. However, there is one gripe. This series is featuring a different artist in every issue. Well, last issue Hal Jordan was trapped at the end of time with rest of the time jockey bat search party. This issue he was sitting in the JLA headquarters, in a meeting. I'd love to say that it was Kyle Rayner and the lighting was hitting his hair in a particular way, but no, it was an editorial slip. They happen, and this one is a little more understandable than some of the previous ones, but in a book where there's so many visual clues as to what's going on its a bit jarring. I'm scouring the issue for clues and spot something that definitely isn't right, but its not intentionally not right. That or one of the Hal Jordans is an imposture, and hopefully both will die horribly just to make sure we got rid of the correct one.

NERD ROCK!!

Its time for some OK Go!

Great musicians and also their drummer it pretty formidable in staring contests.

That's it for Friday. Until Sunday I'm going to be trying to figure out how it is if someone hands in their resignation, and the boss accepts that resignation, people still say the dude got fired. And since I'm pondering things, you should ponder stuff too...

POP QUIZ!

Do you think Manny Fresh is behind the Twitter War?

If your neighbor was building a fusion reactor in the garage, what would you do?

Do you think Dan was totally robbed in the staring contest?

See y'all Sunday.

Trolling for Hornets.

Hey howdy, buckaroos! I got one response to my previous post asking whether or not I should pull back to just updating three times per week because I feared that I post so often that it becomes meaningless chatter. And that kind of said something in and of itself, so I'm trying some different things. If you like it, let me know.

TROLL ART

The above image was done by an Irish artist that didn't think much of the Pope's thoughts and comments about homosexuality and gay marriage. So, he made this 'art', which is really just trolling. 'Trolling' for those who don't know is doing something, typically online, for the expressed means of ticking people off and getting a response. Usually the troll will duck behind the shields of Free Speech and artisitic expression when attacked. Now, I fully support freedom of speech and don't think artistic expression should be stifled in any way. This way when someone does something stupid like this, we can know who they are and make fun of them, or keep an eye on them in case they get squirrelly.

The artist in question obviously isn't dangerous, but the sole purpose of this piece is to piss off Catholics. People can say how brave and righteous it is, and how 'brilliant' the 'artist' is, but really, it's guy with Photoshop who decided to make a LOLPOPE picture. The guy obviously pissed off about the Pope's stance and that's fine. He has the right to disagree with the Pope. The picture isn't horrible, but the guy is obviously looking to pick a fight. Ultimately, all he's going to get a mostly people rolling their eyes.

So this is the second time in as many months that people have attempted to use art as a means to take a jab at an organized religion that had values they didn't like. Now, this picture is nowhere near as big a fail as the Everybody Draw Muhammad Day idiocy that a bunch of internet morons put together last month, but it seems the trend is there. Be on the lookout next month for the Jews to be targeted by some artistic campaign depicting Rabis eating food that not Kosher.

GREEN HORNET, BABY!!

I love old Green Hornet TV show. They did a marathon on FX years ago and my father and I sat in front of the TV for hours watching it. I'm pretty sure having to listen to the jazzy Flight of the Bumblebess theme song over and over and over again is the reason mom left.

The trailer looks good. Seth Rogan dropped a lot of weight for the role, so good for him. Looks like we'll be getting plenty of action and laughs. I'm all in. There's been a lot of people ticked off at Rogan playing the role. Well, there were a lot of people who were pissed off when Michael Keaton got the role of Batman too. The movie is coming out in January. Smart move. It'll avoid the annual May Marvel madness.

POP POLITICS

The 2010 Political Bashyo is rolling along. Primaries are being held. People are in a tizzy. The Pop-Star-Turned-Finger-Pointer-in-Chief his just seeing everything meltdown around him and his every decision get lambasted, with people wondering if he just hit is head one too many times on Marine One while getting in. The public at large are really unhappy with the Government, and no amount of advertising and whitewashing is going to make that go away before the election in November. It really is like one monstrous sumo tournament out there.

BOOGIE WOOGIE

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE is on tonight. YAY! So let's have some music.



But that's my wrap-up of today. Feel free to comment on any of bits a talked about and let me know what you think of this new format. See y'all Friday.

Over-blogging?

I've been wondering if I've been posting too much on here. For the past few months I've been putting something on here nearly everyday. Now, since I've been doing that my follower count has increased quite a bit. However I have to wonder if by posting so much that things get lost in the shuffle and it becomes "chatter".

So what I'm planning on doing is pulling back to officially posting three time per week, most like Wendesday, Friday, and Sunday. Which will hopefully lead to better quality is the posts and more time to discuss them in the comments.

Speaking of comments: leave one about this. I WANT TO HEAR FROM MY FOLLOWERS ABOUT THIS!! Do you think this is a good idea? Do you like the nearly daily ramblings? Sound off, because you do get a say here. If enough people do like that I post so much content in here and want me to continue it, I'm going to keep doing it.

Nintendo ESP

Denis Lebelle posted that up on Google Buzz. Frankly, I'm not too much into the future of gaming. I'm not sure when I hit my tipping point, but I obviously have. I'm alright with the motion sensor stuff, but I prefer my old handheld controllers. "Augmented reality" is fine for science fiction, but I'll pass on the goggles or helmet or whatever. And I think 3D is just dumb. The poster kind of misses too with 4D since the fourth dimension is time.

Right now I'm replaying FINAL FANTASY X on my PS2. I have no interest in getting a PS3 or an X-Box. I don't game on my PC. I do have a Wii. I like my Wii. I can play games on there with my kids still in the room. I saw a working Nintendo the other week, complete with about eight cartridges and I found that more exciting than the lump sun of news coming out of that big electronics trade show going on this weekend.

I'm more interested in the experiences I'm going to be having when I go out my door than the one I'm going to have on a video-game-virtual-realty-control-it-with-your-mind machine.

Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start.

When audiences attack!

Bouncing around YouTube I came across this. What that is is an effort to burst into the scene riding an e-wave of popularity. A band makes a song which they want to have included in the upcoming Scott Pilgrim versus The World movie. They uploaded the video with the song to YouTube in march at which point the movie was pretty much done by then, so they haven't got a prayer. I'm not going to say much about the song. Its about Scott Pilgrim. I don't care about Scott Pilgrim. The song isn't good enough to make me care about it despite being about Scott Pilgrim. So, onward.

There's two sides to entertainment: producers and audience. The people who make the things that are for our entertainment create content (music, movies, television, video games, etc.) for money or art or whatever and throw it to the masses. The masses being of course, the audience. So the audience will either ignore it, not like it, or like it. In the cases of the first two, the people making the content usually go back to the drawing board. Or they quit and go home crying. Or they keep doing what they are doing thinking that they are right and everyone else in the world is stupid and will eventually realize the brilliance of the work. Hello Joplin. But if its the latter then the work continues, word spreads and its a success. Success can be in the form of money, fame, or even just mass approval.

So, something comes out, like say a comic about a guy with no super powers in a world where everyone has a super power (;D), and this thing begins to build an audience because it manages not to suck. People tell their friends. They'll mention it online. Sales continue. Popularity grows. And it hits a certain level where it masses out in coolness. It trumps COUNTDOWN but doesn't quite hit that coolness rating of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CAPED CRUSADER. No problem. Said project is followed up, and maybe it does as well. Maybe it does better. Maybe it tanks.

But what happens when word spreads that there will be a follow up? What happens when fans of the first story get up the gumption to start one of those internet petitions? What if thousand of people on Twitter demand that some character is killed off? What happens if a Facebook group with thousands of people demands that the character gets brought back from the dead? What if some nut blogger writes that the character that died and came back should TOTALLY hook up with this other character to help her deal with her cheese fixation? WHAT IF THAT BLOG GETS FEATURED ON YAHOO AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE COMMENT DEMANDING A THREESOME WITH THE NOW NOT DEAD PERSON, THE GIRL, AND A WEDGE OF CHEESE?!

You see the problem?

Its totally the cheese.

And this phenomenon is popping up more and more. Black Spidey anyone? And we've seen what happens when an audience starts grabbing for creative control of a movie. You get SNAKES ON A PLANE.

But audiences should be listened to. Feedback is important. Otherwise you'll just be doing your thing and beating your head against the wall wondering why you're not selling. Criticism is a good thing, and people not caring about your work is indeed a form of criticism. However, an audience caring a little too much and trying to change your work is going a bit too far. That's why there's things like fan-fiction. You can't have too many chefs in one kitchen. If you're the one making the content, you are the head chef. And if people aren't coming to your restaurant, you call Gordon Ramsey. You call that person you'll look at what you are doing and knows enough about thing to get you on the right path. But you can't go and do everything every last customer thinks of.

That'll leave you with no business.

And that'll leave the audience with a big ol' wedge of cheese.

Happy 700th, Bats!

BATMAN #700 hit the stores this week. Its kind of cool in that this event is in the same week as the celebration of the 20th anniversary of my father starting our karate club. So, I'm feeling a bit sentimental, but not really the weepy type of sentimental. Both are pretty big milestones. Many Dojos don't last twenty years. Most comics don't make it to issue 700.

But SUPERMAN and BATMAN are coming up on big centennial issues. WONDER WOMAN will be renumbered so that it will skip from 40-whatever to 600. For those who don't know the Wonder Woman series has been restarted a few times. This happens from time to time, although sometimes the reasoning for this is pretty silly. LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES got restarted plenty of times, but in there cases it was a different iteration of the Legion. The characters and history were different. There are other cases spawned from the that whole retro bring back the dead has-beens fanboy fad in which the history stays the same, however a different character becomes the main one. I'm not as supportive of relaunches of this type, but I understand it a bit. Sometimes books just relaunch from #1 because a new creative team comes onboard. That's just dumb.

I think people get scared of big numbers sometimes. They seem daunting. personally I think its more special to see a 100th issue of a comic than it getting relaunched and having a whole new number 1 issue. Centennial issues are special. They so a book has stood the test of time. People are still reading it. It matters.

Which is something that was addressed in BATMAN #700. For those of you who haven't been keeping up, we're rounding third in "The Once and Future Batman" epic that grant Morrison has been spinning for the last few years. Currently Dick Grayson is Batman and Bruce Wayne is pinballing through time. Morrison also wrote Batman #700. So, how does Morrison work this issue into the overall story that he's been treating us to monthly for the last few years?

He doesn't.

Instead he gives us a tribute to the past, present and future of Batman. One case. Three Batman. Four if you count Terry McGinnis's appearance. Batman is a character will has and will endure the test of time. It does not matter who exactly is under the cape and cowl. The idea will persist. Morrison even touched on his DC 1,000,000 Batman for a page. The end blurb is "to 700 more". If the book continues monthly I'll be about 94 when #1,400 comes out. Don't know if I'll make it, but daughters will. And they'll probably continue the trend of nerd indoctrination.

So hopefully I'll have a great-grandkid who'll enjoy that issue. I don't even know if they'll still be printed on paper then.

But really there's no way that Batman can survive that long with all the changes in media and technology, right?

Asking Zelda to the Prom

Was posting nerdy video game comment with HeatherMarMal and we were discussing Final Fantasy and then she asked my opinion on Zelda. Now, my relationship with the LEGEND OF ZELDA video game series is kind of weird, and of course I like weird, so here we go.



I, like many twerps my age, had a Nintendo aka No-friend-o. And of course I loved Nintendo. I spent hours playing Nintendo. I absolutely crushed the world scoring record for RC Pro-Am, and yet have no documentation of this, which sucks. But one game i did not have is Legend of Zelda. I had played it at my neighbor's house, but had never actually owned a copy of the game, so my experience with it was limited.

So Zelda to me was that really cute girl I knew in elementary school who I'd play with every-so-often at recess, but otherwise I didn't see her. She was in a different class and lived a bit to far away for hanging out with regularly. She was in a different class. But I liked her. She was nice.

So I had my Nintendo which, while a bit the worse for wear, served me well into college when the Playstation came out. I never had a Sega genesis or a Super Nintendo. I jumped straight to a PS.

This was the equivalent of transferring schools. I didn't even she Zelda at recess anymore, and we were both getting older. She was still doing stuff. We still had friends in common. I'd hear about these amazing things she'd do and thought to myself I'd totally hang out with her if we still went to the same school. I'd see her on TV from time to as well, because she was just that doggone popular.

That's right, I remember the cartoon what used to me on Fridays. The rest of the week was a Super Mario Brothers cartoon and there was a live action wraparound frame show that featured Captain Lou Albano as Mario Mario. Every episode had some big adventure and Link (despite his best efforts and heroism) never got a kiss from princess Zelda. This show actually crossed over into CAPTAIN N THE GAME MASTER on NBC Saturday mornings. I think Link may have finally gotten that kiss.

But now, I have access to a Nintendo DS and a Wii. I have TWILIGHT PRINCESS which I haven't beaten yet, because as a gamer I kind of suck. I'm a total cheat guide invalid with games like these, and I don't have a cheat guide, so its slow going and last I played it I was mucking about this underwater castle that was totally kicking my ass and pissing me off.

So I've transferred back to the same school as Zelda again. But time has passed. She's grown up and is really quite a lady, but I think I've missed quite a bit not growing with her. She totally cool and I am into her, but there's so much of her history that I would love to get to know, but now there's a lot more homework and those pesky after school jobs. But we still see each other, and we get along really well.

And I still think about that little girl at recess in elementary school that I wished I had played with more.

The Cosmic Joke

An e-friend of mine made a little post on Google Buzz, which was amusing, and yet sparked moral outrage from someone. God, you see, is srs bzns, on this here intarwub, and you're not supposed to make fun of God or Jesus. Nobody tell Denis Leary.

And it seems I'm not supposed to laugh at monkeys either now. God was not trying to be funny when when he created monkeys. Now, I'm not going to sit here and try to say that I have any understanding of the Lord Almighty and his master plan for creation. I grew up going to church, and I am a Christian, although not a very good one. However, that is why it is called faith. We believe in God. We believe in his plan.

And I believe God has a sense of humor and monkeys are inherently funny.

You know who doesn't think monkeys are funny? Communists. That's who.

Even dear ol Gran'pa Monkeyman who "don't like monkeys! They stink!" must admit that monkeys are funny. Especially when wearing fun outfits.

And the word "Monkey" is funny as well. Put the word "monkey" with a word that isn't funny. IT BECOMES FUNNY!!

Monkey holocaust.

Monkey audit.

Monkey Bill Maher.

Monkey terrorism.

Monkey oil spill.

So you see: God loves us, and wants us to smile, because he gave us monkeys. Thanks, God.

Whose rules are these?

Two episodes into PERSONS UNKNOWN on NBC and it seems like the characters are trapped in a real life video game. Items appear. They're prompted to do "missions". There are definite boundaries to the area where the game is set. Actions that don't "advance the game" are undone when the characters aren't looking. The "NPC"s provide just enough information to keep the game moving. Successful missions open new missions.

I wonder what happens when they level up? That Tori girl on there managed to up her armor class this week. They probably need to stock up on some Potions and Pheonix Downs soon though.

Weird weird television.

Its about damn time.

Who loves pizza?

I just got done watching a video on YouTube about arguing on the internet. I'm not going to post it up here, because its kind of long. Now, I recently subscribed to this guy because he does little news stories about entertainment stuff I care about. This video was a bit different from his others, but obviously he was caught up in things and having quite a time with the situation and felt like sharing. I came close to clicking away from the video a few times, but everytime I got read to go for my mouse he'd say something that kept me hanging in just a little bit longer.

And then came the grand finale. I really wasn't going to post about this, but when I went to check my blog here (new follower, yay and welcome) there was an ad for good ol Papa John's in my adsense space. Seemed like fate to me. For those of you who haven't tried ordering pizza online, some of the sites are really cool. One of them even lets you know when your pizza is being prepared and when it's going into the oven and everything. Pretty neat.

So Kent, if you need to order more pizza, feel free to click that ad in my blog here. I'll get a whole penny. One day.

And for the dope who actually posted his home address online with the challenge for Kent to go to that house to fight him: hope you're hungry.

The big letdown

Last December I was very excited to go see SHERLOCK HOLMES. I wanted to get check it out in theaters, but that didn't happen. But, I have a DVD player and a bit of patience. I waited, the move came out. I waited some more, because movies are kinda expensive and with blu-ray the prices on DVDs has been dropping quite a bit. Finally I got a copy and it sat around the house for a few weeks, because still I was waiting, trying to find a time for myself and the Missus to watch it together.

So last night I said "the heck with it" and tossed it in the DVD player. It started nicely in the middle of an exciting case. That's how I like things like this to begin. I quickly became aware of something that was going to be a problem here: Robert Downey Jr was not thrilling me as Holmes. His low mumblings of the lines were nearly incomprehensible to me. Now, this may be my fault as I have partial hearing loss, but i understood what everyone else was saying. I actually had a better idea what Brad Pitt was saying when I watched SNATCH than this.

There was actually a hypnotic effect. Not in Downey drawing me in and controlling my attention, but in that he actually put me to sleep. It does not matter how much clever stuff you say if I can't understand what you are saying. I may make a second attempt to watch the movie as I got about an hour in and tapped out. However if you don't see any blog posts on here for a while its because i tried watching it again and fell into a coma.

I demand more supply!!!

In the past two weeks I've spent a total of nine bucks and some loose change at the comic shop. The last time two weeks went by and I spent that little on comics I was in the hospital the whole time. Where's my books!! Its like getting just one crack rock to get through the week on. I got freakin' funny book DTs goin' on over here.

Oh, and as loath as I am to play grammar and spelling nazi upon others due to my spelling and grammar not being the best. If you're posting to declare another person has been defeated by someone, thing, or circumstance and you type "You loose" you're the really loser. "You loose" sounds like something Grog the Caveman would tell Nag the Cavewoman after she got passed around the Clan of the Cavebear a few times.

And I hate everyone on YouTube who has actively tried to get me in particular to look at their videos.

And the conspiracy nutters who thing Alvin Greene is a GOP clandestine plot can all kiss my ass. Morons.

See? This is what happens when I don't get my comics.

Urge to rampage... building...

Keeping it real!

In The Fanboy Dictionary I made a definition of "realism".

*REALISM: n: the addition of horrible acts of violence in comic books to reflect how terrible the outside world really is

Now, of course I was mocking certain trends in comic books, but now there's a bit of it popping up in new movies. There's a lot of old ideas getting new treatments. There's multiple movies based on comic books every year. Old cartoons and TV shows are getting remade. Old movies are getting remade. There is a need to update some of these movies for a newer audience. Sometimes the need is due to outdated pop culture references, but sometimes the thing being updated is a pop culture reference.

THE KARATE KID is opening soon and has indeed been updated to not including any Karate whatsoever. This project has not been bitten by the realism bug in that it seems to maintain the same spirit as the original. We're not seeing a bunch of kids kicking each other to death the mean streets. The training is rigorous, just as the training of Ralph Macchio's character was. No trouble here aside from the movie being horribly misnamed.

Moving on to a movie that I really want to see: THE A-TEAM. Mister T ain't happy about it. I was a huge fan of the old TV show. There was plenty of action and laughs. However, there was also a big lack of sex and bloodshed. Mister T was offered a cameo role, but declined it for fears that the movie was going to be too graphic. He watched the movie at the premier and said that the movie was what he feared it would be.

I love Mister T. He's done a lot of great stuff. He's a cancer survivor. He's genuinely a good guy. I fully support his position and him not wanting to be a part of something he's not comfortable with. I understand him not liking a role that he made famous being taken in certain directions. However, as a fan of the show, I am eager to see the movie, because to me it looks like a lot of fun. I don't shy away from big action flicks with guys getting shot and blown up. I grew up watching Schwarzenegger flicks so its not a big deal to me.

The movie does get hit a bit with the realism bug in that people do get shot and killed in the movie. The movie is going to be an absolute farce of over-the-top action and in this generation of movie goers I don't know if you could pull off this type of movie with this type of action and everyone stumbles away alive and intact. One thing that could be a little bit of consolation to those who loved the show and have a problem with the violence is that the old show is available to buy on DVD. Its still a really fun show, so go check it out.

This brings us to this little nugget which I found out about via Phillip DeFranco's Like Totally Awesome show. WARNING!!!! This video is very violent and downright brutal. Don't come crying to be if you scared the kids.



MORTAL KOMBAT. The horrendously violent video game that sparked quite a bit of controversy when it was released and then produced a fairly tame, yet enjoyable, movie and even a cartoon series that was kid friendly. This short is fanboy realism to the extreme. No otherworldly interdimensional shenanigans. It's brutal twisted serial killers and they're beating each other to death. Now, I can't sit here and say, "Oh my God! They took a violent video game in which characters fought and then gave players the option of brutally killing their opponent, and turned it into a short film in which the characters are really scary and brutally kill their opponents! have they no morals, standards, and values?!" If anything warranted a dose of fanboy realism it's freakin' Mortal Kombat. I doubt there's any fans of the game that watched this and griped about the level of violence. It's not STREET FIGHTER or another of the cartoony anime-type games. Now, if one of those games had gotten a treatment like this, it definitely would not have been in the spirit of the source material.

And really, that's a key thing: is the source material being sufficiently honored. In the three cases I pointed out, I'd say yes. Now if we turn around and see Batman and Superman turned into a couple of hardcore, take-no-prisoners badasses in their films, then you'll see examples of fanboy realism screwing things up.

Annoyed again TOP 10!

Not fully pissed off, but I'm a bit irksome and here's why.

10: Wendy Williams. She still won't go away.

9: Kristen Stewart. She's pretty weird looking.

8: Robert Patterson. He's really weird looking.

7: Race baiters. playing the race card at every opportunity only makes people not take you seriously when there's a legitimate issue.

6: BP haters. Yes, it's their problem. Yes, they're doing their best to clean it. yes, they've verbally committed to repairing the damage caused. Now everyone shut up and see how they follow through before you light the torches and pitchforks.

5: Chat speak when not texting or on Twitter. If you're writing and e-mail of posting in forum, spelling and grammar still count, you lazy prigs.

4: Yahoo/Facebook partnership. They say it is to make sharing information easier. Wasn't sharing information a problem last month?

3: Federal slack-assery. They seem to hustle right proper when they need to consolidate they power base and try to get on over on the other side, but faced with real problems they take their sweet time.

2: Impending Summer. Once the temperature gets warmer than 72 degrees I cease to be interested in the outdoors.

1: Militant atheists. We get it. You don't believe in a higher power. I'm not telling you you're going to Hell so quit being a pretentious douche to me if I dare to mention the church potluck social.

Live by Facebook...

...And get your ass handed to you via Facebook. This is what is known as poetic justice. Idiot employee sacked because she's an idiot. See, this here internet, people read it. So if you post something on here it may have repercussion if say your boss happens to read it.

There was actually some gripe that employers looking at employee's Facebook accounts and such is some kind of invasion of privacy. This is of course stupid. No one forces anyone to have Facebook, or Twitter, or a blog. In having those things you are making a decision to put information and thoughts were people might see them.

Moral of the story: you don't add your boss to your Facebook friendslist and then go on there to bitch about your job! The majority of people have some gripe or another with their job. I don't love what I do every second that I'm at work, but I'm damn glad to be doing it. I sure as hell wouldn't dare say anything bad about my buddy who provides me the opportunity to work and the compensation for it. Lord knows, he puts up with me in real life and has shot me with a nail gun... well recently anyways... so you're not going to read about me calling my job 'stupid'.

Fit and a bit too trim

The clock radio went off this morning and before I swat the snooze button some woman was talking about some weight loss whatever and it perhaps being able to help get me back to my high school weight. Obviously it was an advertisement for amputation. That or anorexia, because those are the only too ways I'm getting back to my high school weight.

I actually lost about twenty pound in high school. This is not bragging. I went in at 155 pounds and graduated at 135 pounds. This happened pretty quickly when I stopped eating lunch. Those lunches would sit in my gut like a lead brick and the fries they served actually gave me chest pains. Now if you're thinking 135 doesn't sound like a bad weight of a kid, I was six foot one. Oh yes, very underweight. So while I wouldn't mind shedding a few pounds, I've grown up and filled out due to working hard and hitting the gym. Sure I had packed on about 50 pounds since high school at the time of my 10 year high school reunion, but that was not a bad thing.

Weight is just a number. Its fitness and overall health that count. Working hard and keeping a healthy lifestyle tend to have the side effect of having your body looking pretty good too. So no amputation for me, despite some people thinking I should have my head removed. Sorry to disappoint.

Now I'm really glad I don't have cable.

The kids saw Dora the Explorer on a TV at the kids play are where the missus works out. After much obsessing we got them a DVD with some Dora episodes. That was earlier this week.

I already want to throw it in the microwave.

I'll be sticking to PBS. Thanks.

Nice save, big guy!

Jupiter took one for the team getting hit by a really massive asteroid. The footage may seem unremarkable but that impact would have took Earth out.



Earth is actually protected quite a bit by our gas giant neighbors. Those suckers got a serious gravity well and block a lot of stuff that could be a threat to Earth. But just in case one slips by we've got Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck on standby.

And the internet keeps right on turning.

Bangladesh has blocked Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and another site or two due to EDMD (Everybody Draw Muhammad Day). Pakistan has unblocked Facebook now that the images of have been removed. Its official: EDMD is a massive and complete failure. A bunch of morons drawing and posting a bunch of stupid lolmuhammad pictures is not a political statement. It isn't a blow for free speech. It is what I've been saying it is: internet douchbaggery.

I can't say its on the rise, because its a constant. Saw a flare up of it on Google buzz yesterday with people trolling in very stupid manners. Last night saw some dope playing the "puppet master" card after I called him out on being just flat our ridiculous with some of the crap he was posting. It seemed to get under his skin that I did not agree one bit with his point of view. He attempted snark and sarcasm which did not go that well. He later went of to claim he was "playing the person" as opposed to debating the issue. Seen that quite a bit, and frankly anyone claiming to do this may as well just hang it up and just spend their internet time looking at picture of funny kittehs.

Note to morons: if you think you are manipulating anyone via the internet, mostly likely you're only fooling yourself and are looking like a douche.

The internet can provide some degree of anonymity, but ultimately in dealings like this it does the person no good. If you posted a picture for EDMD there are probably no repercussions in your everyday life. However those who saw your work have a lasting impression on your e-you. You may have some difficulty later being taken seriously when you want to be. Some folks may turn their e-backs to you altogether. The puppet master card is just as bad. Posting in forums is a realm of ideas. You're judged on what you bring to the table. The puppet master card is pretty much a sign that you've got nothing and you're hoping to hide behind your internet anonymity. Essentially you're saying, "Sure, I was moron here, but it really all part of my cunning ploy. I'm not really a moron in real life. Really."

For the record there are people that really are puppet masters on the internet. They don't go around announcing it. Its like being cool. You don't get to declare yourself cool. Other people have to do it.

This is coming from a troglodyte banging away on a keyboard with a stick hoping to make e-fire. Declare me what you will.

5 a side, anyone?

That thing they call Rugby was is on that thing they call the TV. It is said Rugby is for Football players who don't want to wear sissy stuff like helmets or pads. After careful viewing for about fifteen minutes I've determined that this sport has been created by drunken Irishmen who decided to have it out over the last potato in town. I also theorize that they decided getting a little bit of the potato was better than getting none at all thus creating a team concept. Protestants on one side Catholics on the other. This led to the sport of Rugby, and quite possibly the forming of the IRA.

Hendricks versus Fox

Christina Hendricks was named the sexiest woman in some list bumping Megan Fox out of the top spot. This is old news. The reason I'm thinking about it now is that Hendricks recently appeared in a music video and there were a lot of comments in the video from people who seemed pretty bitter that she bumped Fox from the perch.

This is pointless really. I'm not a Megan Fox fan, but I'm not going to go bashing her here. I'll make my snarky comments out of the public reading. Sure, I prefer Christina Hendricks. I think she's prettier and a better actress. She also doesn't seem to be as likely to faint from lack of nourishment. Fox is just too skinny for my tastes. At the same time, Fox is working steadily. She's in the upcoming JONAH HEX movie. She's done plenty of TV and movie roles, although we won't be seeing her in TRANSFORMERS 3 due to a bad problem of her foot being stuck kin her mouth. They've already announced a replacement thus dashing the hopes of a good e-friend who certainly wouldn't mind playing Shia Lebouf's love interest. Hendricks is also working plenty.

Both actresses have won awards for their work. Both of them in their own ways are attractive. Getting pissy over who is more attractive is just silly. I've seen plenty of those top whatever lists. Maxim put them out and I'd look through and wonder who most of the people on the list were and realizing how horribly out of touch I am. I'd also ponder for quite a bit what on earth people keep seeing in Angelina Jolie. Loved her in HACKERS but after that, not so much.

Now, what has me interested is that when Hendricks is mentioned and its stated that she was voted sexiest woman alive people who like Megan Fox feel the need to attack. Baselessly picking on one beautiful woman because some things that she's more a attractive than another beautiful woman. Its like high school.

Oh wait. I forgot. Its worse than high school. Its the internet.



You don't go insulting a Monet because someone hung up a Picasso in the same room.

Words 2 hard.

The National Spelling Bee got protesters claiming that the English Language is too difficult of spell. They obviously haven't tried their hand at figuring out Mandarin. These people were in Bee costumes advocating for the simplification of our language in its written form. I swear I thought this story was from the Onion, but oh no. These morons were serious.

Remember back a few years ago when some schools were angsting so hard over the self esteem of their students that they start encouraging student to write words how they felt they should be spelled? Same thought patterns as this, proving that in many cases stupid is not very original. Its bad enough, oh I'm sorry, enuf that we have kids exercising horrible grammar and spelling in texts and on the internet. Now there's an actual teacher advocating for this to be the norm.

No, sorry. Your job as a teacher to make the kids smarter, not try to get the subject material dumbed down. The rules of the English language can be a bit tricky at times, but if The Electric Company on PBS can get the rules across then a teacher should too.



As a guy who has spent a bit of time on internet forums I know that there you are judged by your spelling and grammar almost as much as the ideals or viewpoints you present. Take old Deffie McDouchebag, my former would-be nemesis, for instance. His concepts of reality were clearly off the mark to the point that most would have dealt with him online theorize that he has some sort of mental disorder, but this was only once you were able to decipher the ramblings through his Godawful spelling and grammar. Now, I'm by no means perfect with my spelling and grammar, as anyone who has read anything of mine can attest, however making the best effort to master the language to clearly put forth your thoughts will get you taken a lot more seriously than using 'chatspeak'.

So too those protesters at the Spelling Bee: sit down and shut up. Those kids participating in there likely have a better grasp of the language than you or I do. Instead of trying to make things stupid, why do you try pushing yourself and (the notion that there are educators in this group actually pains me) try pushing your students to the excellence that those kids completing have accomplished.

Good-bye Chito

Virgilio Fernandez passed away this week. He was driving his trike, which is kind of like a mini taxi in the Philippines when a bus hit him. It was dark and the rainy season over there may have already started. The bus driver apparently did not see him until it was too late. We all called him Chito. He was my first sensei.

My family lived on San Miguel, one of the four military based the United States used to have in the Philippines. My father was black belt in karate already and by coincidence Chito was teaching the same style of karate on the base. He and my brother were both training with him. I held out for a couple weeks but finally joined and I stuck with it.

None of us kids called him 'sensei', but we referred to him by the more familiar Chito which was his nickname. Don't mistake this as a lack of respect on our parts. He was the real deal and we knew it. He worked us hard, but wasn't a brutal taskmaster. We'd heard about some of his experiences, and were all scared to death of the prospect of having to possibly fight him. He never had to threaten us. He'd merely suggest the possibility of maybe sparring a bit with him and we'd get to work very diligently working on anything else we possibly could that could get us out of it. It wasn't that we didn't like to fight. We had no qualms about beating the snot out of each other. We just didn't want to fight him.

Thinking back about how he ran his classes and how I run mine now I'm seeing a lot of the wisdom in how he ran things. He'd drill us properly on the basics in the first part of class. He'd have us try things that were different and fun. I never did manage to do a backflip despite his and my best efforts. I think I landed on just about every part of body except my feet. He also would turn us loose to practice by ourselves or in smaller groups while he roamed the room to make corrections. Seems odd to turn kids loose to their own devices, but it certainly made who was motivated abundantly clear. His method of teaching kata piece by piece is very similar to mine.

I do remember when my family was ready to come back to the States and we stopped by the teen center where Chito held classes. He told my father "Don't ever stop doing karate."

My father answer, "Yes, of course, Sensei."

"No, really, if you stop you get old really quick."

Nice guy. Really funny. Hell of a karate man. A damn fine Sensei.

Good-bye, Chito. Thank you for everything.



And if you find Bruce Lee up there, I've got five bucks on you.

Black Spider-man?

And no I'm not referring to the costume that turned Tobey Maguire emo*AHEM*evil in that last movie. Nope, there's a twitter campaign to get a black actor to play Spider-man in the forthcoming movie reboot. Of course, I can't say anything bad about this or I'll be labeled a racist by stupid people.

Well hell, wouldn't be the first time.

To be fair, the majority of the superhero genre is white people on parade in tights. However more racially diverse characters have been introduced over the years. Most kids recognize John Stewart (a black man) as Green Lantern. Other characters have had their identities pasted on to ethnic characters such as Firestorm (black), The Atom (Asian), and The Blue Beetle (Latino). Now, it is true that DC is bringing back its older characters to appease an older demographic, which is an unintentional blow against racial diversity in comics. Still, the three characters I mentioned had strong followings. General readership is perfectly ready to accept a non-cracker superhero.

But, a black Spider-man?

Spidey's own webs aren't this sticky? There has never been a black Spider-man in comics. Stan Lee and Steve Dikto's creation was a white kid. Grew up to be a white guy as many white kids tend to do. The idea of a black actor playing Spider-man is probably going to piss off the fanboys. It seems like pandering a bit to me. But if the actor can nail the role there's no real reason not to cast him, well aside from everyone making a stir about his skin color. If he doesn't get the role, will the people casting the movie be considered racist? Will Al Sharpton be boycotting the next Spider-man movie?

This is going to be the start of something annoying. I feels it in my nerd bones.