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The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 6: “Captain America #312″

#312: “Deface the Nation”

Writer: Mark Gruenwald Pencils: Paul Neary Inks: Dennis Janke

The short version: Steve Rogers receives his accrued back pay from the Army--a million dollars! He plans to open the Captain America emergency hotline with it, but Flag-Smasher crashes the launch to spread his anti-patriotic message!

I started this feature five years ago, because I was fascinated with Mark Gruenwald’s decade-long Captain America run and wanted to talk about it.

Five weeks later, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.

I didn’t feel like talking much about Captain America after that.

Over the years, I thought back to this blog, and wanted to return to it. For various reasons, I did little more than start, scrap and return to this piece all over again.

But a lot has happened in the last five years, and I guess I’m ready to get back to discussing a fictional symbol of a nation built on a huge lie.

Anyway, let’s talk comics.

Captain America #312 is available to read on Marvel Unlimited, to purchase digitally on Comixology, or as part of the Society of Serpents Epic Collection trade paperback.

“With each flag I smash, the liberation of the world is one step closer!”

In this issue, Captain America fights Flag-Smasher, a terrorist who seeks to destroy the concept of nations altogether. He begins the issue destroying the flags at the United Nations, and ends it trying to attack Captain America at a speaking event the latter hosts.

We don’t learn his name this issue, but he does tell his origin story. Flag-Smasher’s father was a diplomat who truly believed in peace, but ended up trampled to death at a protest outside the Latverian embassy. With his own hero dead, Flag-Smasher adopted a philosophy that peace cannot be achieved unless nations, and their symbols, are abolished.

Flag-Smasher is a bad man doing bad things for what he believes are the right reasons, and if there were any deeper characterization, he’d be a much better villain. As it is, he’s a thought exercise, a debate masquerading as a supervillain.

The event he crashes at issue’s end sees Captain America announcing the creation of a nationwide toll-free number to contact him.

Back in issue #311, editor Mike Carlin happened upon a letter from a fan about something weird in his family’s barn. He gave it to Steve Rogers--if you recall, Steve walked in off the street and became the regular artist for the Marvel Universe’s Captain America comic--and when Cap investigated, he found the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android.

That confrontation stuck in his mind, making him realize he’d focused too much of his time on New York and become too inaccessible to the American people. So how does he change this?

Well, first, he gets a check for a million dollars.

It turns out Steve was never declared legally dead after he was lost in the Arctic at the end of World War II, so his back pay had accrued since 1941. Steve doesn’t actually want the money, but the government disregarded his wish for them to keep it. So he and his fiancée Bernie Rosenthal decide to use the money to create a Captain America emergency hotline.

All of this leads to a big, splashy fight scene that sees Flag-Smasher threaten to kill audience members at the unveiling if they don’t listen to his ideas. And while Cap can see his earnest desire to make the world a better place, he can’t abide willfully placing lives in danger.

Fortunately, a couple of well-timed distractions from the crowd and the police give Cap the opportunity he needs, and he is able to out-fight Flag-Smasher.

Flag-Smasher would return during this run (and a number of times since), but he never became one of Cap’s really iconic villains. Still, some of Gruenwald’s dialogue here is pretty stirring. He writes Flag-Smasher as a man possessed of his ideas, while his Cap is sympathetic, but stands firm for his own ideals.

This isn’t my favorite issue. Sure, Paul Neary’s art is as good as ever, and the action scene at the end is solid. But the Flag-Smasher was a dumb villain in my book, the first dud in Gru’s tenure. I didn’t think he’d amount to much of anything outside of his sporadic appearances in comics, but then time (and Kevin Feige) went and proved me wrong.

Of course, if you’re reading this, you know Flag-Smasher less as a Space Ghost lookalike and more as the anti-nationalist terrorist group at the center of Marvel Studios’ “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” TV series.

The Flag-Smashers of the MCU have a similar motivation, but with an added complexity necessary for a live-action adaptation. That group believes the world was better when nations loosened their borders and helped others during the five years between “Infinity War” and “Endgame,” and yearns to return the world to that state by stopping the MCU’s Global Repatriation Council from restoring national borders and forcibly relocating refugees.

That’s a much better approach than the 616 Flag-Smasher’s literal flag-smashing. But as the series progresses, the MCU group’s methods become more extreme, and given more to collateral damage. I suppose that’s necessary in order to give the heroes reason to oppose them, but I understand critics who think that trope undercuts their valid arguments.

There’s a bit towards the end of this issue where someone in the crowd calls Flag-Smasher a Communist, and he responds that he hates Communism as much as he hates what America stands for. I thought of that during the intense fan debate over the MCU Flag-Smashers and their methods, about how it’s hard to tackle complex issues in superhero comics. 

That isn’t to say it hasn’t been done before. This was far from the first time. But even as superhero comics grew more sophisticated, the genre still found itself facing the limitations of four-color fiction where good guys in long underwear beat up bad guys in body armor. It still pushes back against those limitations today.

Flag-Smasher isn’t the only character from Gruenwald’s run to make it into “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” We’ll get to a pretty big one down the road.

And we will get to him. The Cap Connection is back, and I’m in it for the long haul.

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With all that’s happened in the world--both real and Earth-616--I wonder if perhaps it’s time to get back to talking Cap.

The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 1: “Captain America #307″

“Stop Making Sense”

Written by Mark Gruenwald Pencilled by Paul Neary Inked by Dennis Janke

The short version: While Captain America returns from a mission in London, his partner Nomad faces both an existential crisis and the mysterious Madcap!

Keep reading

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My new favorite Tumblr.

Ultimo Dragon

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The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 5: “Captain America #311″

“Working...”

Writer: Mark Gruenwald Pencils: Paul Neary Inks: Dennis Janke

The short version: Steve Rogers gets a new job as...the artist on Captain America! Captain America meets an old foe in the Awesome Android! And a mysterious assassin targets the Constrictor!

Read along with me! You can find this issue wherever back issues are sold, or as part of the Society of Serpents Epic Collection! You can also purchase it digitally at Comixology or Marvel Unlimited.

One of the most tested devices of superhero storytelling from the Marvel Age onward has been the slow and steady establishment of threats as subplots, major villains gestating until the time is right to deploy them against the heroes. It worked for the Serpent Society, as Gruenwald took a few issues to organize the group in the shadows, before debuting them with a twist--the supervillain team as labor union.

This issue is different, however, in that the foreshadowing kicks off the book. The Constrictor survived his encounter with Anaconda from last issue, albeit barely. He’s beaten and bandaged, laid up in a Manhattan hospital, but he won’t cooperate when Captain America asks him point blank who left him in that condition. It seems to be fear keeping him in line; after all, Constrictor was all too happy to sell out the Society last issue.

Cap already has a good idea of what happened, but realizes he won’t get anywhere with Constrictor, so he leaves the villain to his nurse’s care. But what no one expects is for the nurse to pull a pistol on her patient the instant Cap slams the door shut. 

It’s only due to Cap’s last-minute haranguing that the hit is botched--Cap peeks in to ask one more question, but quickly flings his shield to block the nurse’s shot. Before he can catch the renegade caregiver, she jumps out the window, leaving Cap to try to save Constrictor from bleeding out. When he is finally able to pick up the trail, he finds the nurse’s uniform, plus padding and a latex mask. Who was that nurse?

My natural inclination is to leave you in suspense, but...I guess I should share something else with you. Six months earlier, in Iron Man #194 (edited by Mark Gruenwald), another villain, the Enforcer was assaulted by a random person carrying a similar firearm, disguised as a homeless woman. This attack was fatal, and three more villains died by this person’s hand before the failed attack on Constrictor.

The attacker described him/herself as “the scourge of all criminals.” For a while longer, the Marvel Universe’s supervillain community would find itself bedeviled by this scourge. We’ll come back to this soon, but for now, let’s leave it in the background to fester.

Pencils: Captain America!

As I mentioned last issue, Mark Gruenwald had a habit of asking weird questions and following them through to delightful effect. One of those questions was, “Why don’t supervillains unionize?” This issue, we found an answer to, “Why can’t Captain America draw his own comic?”

The answer, as it was last time, is “Why not?”

Steve Rogers marches into Marvel Comics with his portfolio and meets with editor Mike Carlin. Carlin is wowed by Steve’s sample pages and offers him Captain America immediately, reasoning the book is facing cancellation and could use a creative shake-up. 

I don’t need to tell you it’s absolutely unrealistic for a guy to come in off the street and immediately get hired to work on a cornerstone Marvel title, even if it is circling the drain. But whatever, this is the Marvel Universe, so Steve Rogers gets to draw his own adventures. Earth-616 is a funny place.

And while Steve’s fiancée Bernie is happy for him, she’s also focused on restarting her own status quo. Bernie prepares to take the LSAT (Law School Admission Test), and while it only rates a brief mention this issue, we’ll hear more about it soon.

Snake-themed villains for hire! Competitive rates!

Speaking of brief, the Serpent Society only gets a few pages this issue, but they’re important enough to mention. Now that the Society has passed Sidewinder’s initiation tests, the next step is to put the word out there. Sidewinder has his members fan out and contact “all of the major criminal and subversive organizations” nationwide to offer their services. Hydra, A.I.M., the Maggia, the Zodiac, the Secret Empire, and the Kingpin’s organization are all listed in Sidewinder’s carefully prepared dossiers. 

We only see two of these meetings this issue. The Asp and Cottonmouth approach Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, and demonstrate their usefulness by beating up his security detail off-panel. It’s a lot of effort just to drop off a business card, but it works. His interest is piqued.

The last page of the issue sees Bushmaster and Diamondback meeting with representatives of Advanced Idea Mechanics, basically a think tank devoted to world domination. In comics, their members are known for their distinctive yellow jumpsuits and flat-top hoods. A.I.M. is a bit hesitant to outsource, but it’s hard to argue when the Society guarantees satisfaction or your money back.

A.I.M. becomes the first group to contract the Society, but their mission is a doozy: to kill their former leader, MODOK!

MODOK is a lot to get into right now. We’ll discuss him in detail next time.

The thing in the barn!

Handling reader mail isn’t always a perk for comics creators, but for Steve Rogers, it’s an unexpected benefit to find a letter from a young fan addressed to Cap asking for his help. The reader explains there may be some kind of alien being living in his neighbor’s barn. If you’re a Marvel editor, you probably discount that sort of thing as a crank (although if you’re living in the Marvel Universe, I can’t see a reason not to forward that letter to the Avengers).

But Steve has a good feeling it’s legit, and off he flies to Mayfield, Ohio, to meet with young Bobby Hutchinson and his dad. It’s a good thing too, because Bobby is half-right. There’s something in the barn, but it’s not an alien...it’s the Mad Thinker’s Awesome Android!

I realize there’s a good chance you don’t know who the Mad Thinker is, nor his Awesome Android. Allow me to explain.

The Mad Thinker was a Fantastic Four villain, a scientist who could use his astonishing intellect and skill with probability to predict and engineer near future events. In his first meeting with the Four, he broke into their headquarters, the Baxter Building, and used Reed Richards’ research to create his Awesome Android, a giant grey humanoid with a head like a fleshy-looking hammer and the ability to mimic the properties of any surface it touched.

Of course, the Fantastic Four defeated the Thinker, but he and the Android would return to plague the Marvel Universe again and again. That doesn’t explain why it resurfaced in a rural Ohio barn, but Cap finds himself too busy defending himself from the Android’s attacks to find out. In a typically great Paul Neary fight scene, Cap does his best to evade the Android, and escapes the barn to warn the Hutchinsons. 

He learns, however, that the Android has no intention of leaving the barn, and simply stands still while alone. Cap believes the Android is guarding something, and returns to find out what, only to meet another assault from the oversized automaton. Cap is thrown out of the bar, and decides to take a moment to figure out what to do next.

I’m a sucker for moments when heroes outsmart their foes or reason their way through problems, and this is a good one. Cap remembers that the Android needs to be programmed to do anything, and posits that it wasn’t programmed to guard anything, but simply to stay out of sight. And a flashback reveals he was right; the Thinker left the Android in a barn months before after a battle with the Spaceknight Rom and commanded it to remain there until his return.

Cap just leaves the Android there and instructs the Hutchinsons to keep watch over the barn and not tell anyone what’s inside or let anyone near it. He also leaves them with the Avengers’ private number just in case anyone disturbs the barn.

As Cap departs in his Quinjet, he realizes there’s no real way for anyone outside of New York to contact him for help. The fan mail to Marvel was a fluke--he needs something clearer and more available to the public.

Don’t worry, he’ll figure it out soon.

Next time: A double-sized spectacular! Captain America fights Flag-Smasher! The Serpent Society sets out to murder MODOK! And Steve Rogers strikes it rich!

Let’s talk about this issue! Leave a comment, or tweet me!

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The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 4: “Captain America #310″

“Serpents of the World Unite”

Writer: Mark Gruenwald Pencils: Paul Neary Inks: Dennis Janke

The short version: While Steve Rogers discovers his new career path, the Serpent Society finally emerges!

First off, read along with me! You can find this book in print where back issues are sold, and collected in the “Society of Serpents” trade paperback! Or you can read it digitally on Comixology, or on Marvel Unlimited!

Enter the Serpent Society!

Over the past three issues, the sinister Sidewinder has operated in the shadows, approaching a number of other snake-themed villains with the prospect of something major and potentially very lucrative. His recruits include:

Black Mamba, a telepath who is also able to wield Darkforce energy (think actual darkness that can be used to choke the life from others)…

Anaconda, whose adamantium-laced skeleton and scaly skin make her incredibly tough, and whose elongating arms make very deadly…

Death Adder, left mute by the process that gave him gills, a bionic tail, and poison-tipped claws…

Cobra, veteran of the original Serpent Squad, super-strong and agile, and able to dislocate his joints at will…

Princess Python, a snake-charmer formerly of the second Serpent Squad and the Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime…

Asp, a dancer who wields bioelectric “venom bolts”…

Rattler, whose bionic tail can generate dangerous sonic vibrations, as well as simply bludgeon foes…

Bushmaster, the younger brother of a former Iron Fist villain of the same name, given bionic arms (with extendable fang-like blades) and a tail to replace the limbs he lost in an underwater accident…

Cottonmouth, another former Iron Fist villain, but not that Cottonmouth; this guy has super-strong jaw and neck muscles and huge steel fangs…

Diamondback, also not that Diamondback; trained by the Taskmaster and wielding gimmicked throwing diamonds, including acid-tipped and explosive diamonds…

and the Constrictor, a former undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. who abandoned the agency for a life of crime after suffering a breakdown while undercover.

The twist is that Sidewinder’s new group isn’t just a supervillain team, it’s a labor union. 

That’s such a brilliant idea.

Sidewinder figures that the good guys keep winning because they work together easily, while the bad guys work alone, take all the risks and eat all the costs. Here, the bad guys can work together on big money jobs, make guaranteed money, and get health insurance! That’s not even mentioning the ultimate perk: Sidewinder using his teleporation to instantly spring any of his members from jail.

The best thing about it is that Mark Gruenwald plays it relatively straight. Sure, there’s a sly, knowing humor to the concept, but he doesn’t do it to lampoon unions. Instead, he’s asking a long-overdue question, “Why wouldn’t the bad guys unionize?” After all, they’re career criminals out to make some cash, not ambitious world conquerors.

There’s often a lot of talk, especially when it comes to adapting superhero comics for the screen, about grounding these characters in realistic settings. Usually, when producers say that, they mean to tone down the color palette, pare down the humor, and remove the fantastical elements that make these stories and characters unique. 

Gruenwald, however, was ahead of that curve. His way of juxtaposing the mystical with the mundane brought fresh air to the Captain America, simply by asking “Why not?”

Steve Rogers’ new career

That approach wasn’t just applied to the villains, but to Steve Rogers as well, in a weirder, more meta fashion. Rogers already had a job as a freelance advertising artist in his private life, but Gruenwald decided to twist that further.

Having quit advertising last issue, Rogers was in a funk about his prospects. By chance, however, he happens to overhear a couple of kids talking about his comic book on a subway train and inspiration strikes.

Ever since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s groundbreaking run on Fantastic Four, it had been long established that a fictional, in-universe version of Marvel Comics actually published the adventures of the Marvel heroes. The Avengers and Fantastic Four both licensed their likenesses and adventures to the publisher. At this point, Steve Rogers’ secret identity was still unknown to the public, so there was no reason he couldn’t try to get a job at Marvel drawing his own comic book.

Unfortunately, his fiancée Bernie Rosenthal doesn’t share his enthusiasm. After losing the lease on her glass-blowing studio/shop, she was way too bummed to be excited about his new career choice. And while the two of them share a tender moment amidst at the end of the issue, it’s not hard to see their uncertainty towards the future covers more than just their jobs.

Anaconda unleashed!

As teased by the cover, Cap battles Anaconda this issue, as she, along with Rattler and Cobra, are sent on a mission to retrieve an item from the Brand Corporation. It’s an initiation test that Sidewinder expects to go smoothly. What he doesn’t expect is the Constrictor’s interference.

Constrictor is the lone holdout from the group. He doesn’t trust Sidewinder, but also fears the Society cutting into his bottom line. Rather than get his own hands dirty though, he calls the Avengers’ emergency hotline with an anonymous tip blowing the operation.

Captain America shows up, and while he recognizes the Cobra from a previous battle with the original Serpent Squad, Anaconda and Rattler are unknown quantities to him. Anaconda rushes to fight him, and between her stretching arms and his sonic rattle, Cap is momentarily surprised–more so as she smiles through his punches.

Paul Neary draws a fun battle scene between Cap and the snakes, with Cap trying in vain to stun the powerhouse Anaconda with punches. Only when he gets to his shield does he actually win, slinging it across her head just before she can break his ribs. In the commotion, Cobra and Rattler escape, and return to Sidewinder with the stolen item.

Constrictor gets his in the end though. Cobra tracks him to his favorite bar and lures him out back, where Anaconda–already sprung from jail by Sidewinder–beats the snot out of him. It’s a great little scene, firmly establishing Constrictor as the real villain of this particular story for his betrayal and momentarily placing its sympathies behind Sidewinder and his union.

Almost everything** about this issue is on point. The characterization is clear and compelling, the plotting is tight as a drum, the art is dynamic and engaging, and even the dialogue is pretty fun for an ‘80s superhero comic. Moreover, it’s a great start to an arc with a lovely, refreshing idea. The first three issues were great table setting, but the fun is starting in earnest!

Want to talk about this issue? Leave a message in the comments, or talk to me on Twitter!

Next week: The Serpent Society advertises! Steve Rogers, Marvel artist! An old threat is unearthed! And a new…scourge makes itself known!

**Almost everything, except for the opening sequence, unnecessary at best and creepy at worst, with Cap and fellow Avengers Black Knight and Starfox. It’s weird because of Starfox, a singular embodiment of the word “problematic” in comics. Starfox, Thanos’ brother, has superhuman strength, but prefers to use his “special” ability, to arouse the pleasure centers in an opponent’s brain. As you can imagine, this gets him into deep trouble down the road.

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The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 3: “Captain America #309″

“Nomad Madcap Cap...”

Writer: Mark Gruenwald Penciler: Paul Neary Inker: Dennis Janke

The short version: Nomad will risk his sanity to bring down Madcap and prove he is his own man, while a new threat prepares to strike.

Lots to talk about this week, so let’s get into it. First off...

Why am I doing this?

The idea for this feature came to me after reading Mark Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme maxi-series for the (woefully belated) first time. The series crossed over with Gru’s Captain America run towards its end and I decided I’d give it a try. 

I wanted to give this a go because I thought it would be fun to read through this whole run and I wanted to provide a place for others to read along and talk about it, to enjoy comics for the fun of it. I also wanted to provide a service for fans of the MCU, who wanted to know more about the source material without judgment from fans for not having read the comics before.

So if you’d like to engage here, check out this issue, available in print where back issues are sold, as well as in the “Society of Serpents” collection. Digitally, you can find it at Comixology, and on Marvel Unlimited. Then read on and hit me up in the comments, or on Twitter. Talking about comics can be a lot of fun, and I’m going to keep doing this as long as it stays that way!

Now, before we get into the story, I wanted to give a brief history of Jack Monroe, the soon-to-be-ex-sidekick known as Nomad. That’s right, we say goodbye (sort of) to him this issue, and before we see him off, I wanted to give newcomers more of an idea of who he is.

So who is Nomad?

Just about everyone has a passing knowledge of Bucky, Captain America’s wartime sidekick. In the comics, he’s a plucky teen in Steve Rogers’ unit who learns Steve’s secret identity and becomes his partner. (That was retconned slightly decades later to explain Bucky was also an advance scout and assassin.)

Most people also know that Bucky was thought killed during the war, while trying to defuse an airborne bomb that also sent Captain America into an arctic deep-freeze. (Yes, movie fans, I know it happened slightly differently in The First Avenger, but here, it all happened at the same time.)

That was Cap and Bucky’s wartime fate as established upon Captain America’s return in Avengers #4.

But what most people didn’t know was that Marvel’s precursor Atlas briefly relaunched Cap and Bucky in Cold War adventures fighting a Communist Red Skull. The revival didn’t last more than a year, and his more successful ‘60s return ignored those ‘50s stories.

That changed in 1972 when writer Steve Englehart and artist John Buscema brought the ‘50s Cap and Bucky out of mothballs by revealing they were impostors who disguised themselves as the real deal so that the country could have a Captain America around to battle Communists. They injected themselves with a version of the Super-Soldier Serum, but without a blast of vita-rays to stabilize their dosage, the two of them went mad and began attacking people simply for having dissenting views. The government arrested them and forced them into cold storage.

The two of them were revived (in a story by Roger McKenzie, Jim Shooter, Michael Fleisher, and artist Sal Buscema) by a white supremacist organization called the National Force. The fake Cap was brainwashed into becoming their “Grand Director,” and seemingly murdered the fake Bucky before killing himself. Of course, this being superhero comics, both deaths didn’t last.

J.M. deMatteis reintroduced the fake Bucky, using the name Jack Monroe, four years later, with him being cured of his mental deterioration. Steve Rogers decided to take Monroe under his wing and give him his old costumed identity of Nomad. That’s another long story that involves Rogers giving up his Cap identity after learning the leader of a terrorist organization called the Secret Empire is actually President Nixon. That’s the moment Cap has his faith in American leadership shattered, a theme we’re going to return to later.

That’s how Nomad as we know him came to be. Now let’s get rid of him!

Nomad and Madcap...team up?!

The main event here is another confrontation between Nomad and the mirthful Madcap, who made his debut a couple issues ago. Nomad has tracked Madcap to his Coney Island hideout, but instead of fighting him, he offers to join forces. 

It seems Jack has realized nothing makes sense, and he wants to learn more from Madcap. This ranges from running out on the check at breakfast to causing chaos in the city. It also includes learning Madcap’s origin. Once, the mystery man was a very orderly, church-going guy, until one day on a field trip when a truck filled with chemicals--specifically, a nerve agent developed by longtime Marvel arch-foes Advanced Idea Mechanics--crashed into his bus.

Everyone else on the bus was killed, including his little sister, but this man survived and learned in short order that exposure to the toxin gave him superhuman healing abilities and an invulnerability to pain. Shock and sadness overwhelmed him to the point where he renounced any and all faith in an orderly universe. Thus was born Madcap.

Welcome home, Cap!

While Jack is on his “Training Day” of sorts, Steve finally returns from his long trip home. He and Bernie catch each other up on what’s gone on: his adventures abroad, her shop closing down thanks to a huge rent increase, and Jack’s disappearance. Bernie shows him a newspaper clipping about Jack’s previous battle with Madcap. Worried, Steve contacts the Falcon and Nick Fury, his only two crimefighting friends who know Nomad personally. It’s Edwin Jarvis, though, who tells Cap of a recent encounter with Nomad that tips him off to where he could be. 

(For you MCU fans, the Earth-616 version of Edwin Jarvis, like his MCU counterpart, is the Stark family’s longtime butler though older and living in contemporary times. When the Avengers are founded, Stark sets Jarvis up as the team’s butler and majordomo at Avengers Mansion.)

Before Steve can focus on Jack, he has another pressing matter to deal with. While away, the graphic artist by day missed a major deadline, and his ad agency boss isn’t happy about that.

It turns out his boss is pretty forgiving, but Steve realizes he’d rather be doing something more emotionally fulfilling, and severs his freelance relationship with the agency. Don’t you worry though; Steve has something a bit more...appropriate coming his way.

Nomad vs. Madcap, round 2

Of course, Nomad has been plotting to bring Madcap down all along, but he’s forced to act sooner than expected when the villain unleashes his specific brand of hell civilians again. The battle leads back to the amusement park, which is where both plots intersect, as Cap arrives just in time to witness the two fighting atop the roller coaster.

Before he can jump into the fight, Cap realizes that Nomad needs to handle it himself in order to prove to himself he can stand on his own, so he hangs back and watches. 

In a crackerjack sequence by Paul Neary, Nomad manages to destroy Madcap’s bubble gun and thinks he’s won. However, he’s horrified when Madcap reveals the gun was never a real weapon, and that he’s able to mesmerize others on his own. It seems like Madcap might finally put an end to the sidekick, but Nomad uses quick thinking to blindfold Madcap with his own cape, then smother him into unconsciousness.

With the fight over, Cap steps out of the shadows to applaud a beaming Nomad. But Jack surprises the elder hero by telling him their partnership must come to an end, so he can stand on his own. That’s the last we see of Nomad...for a while, anyway.

Snakes...why’s it gotta be snakes?

As all of the above has been going on, the sinister Sidewinder has been continuing his recruitment effort from last issue. First, he breaks Cobra, another original Serpent Squad member, out of jail. Then Death Adder pays a visit to the Ringmaster’s Circus of Crime (yes, there’s a Circus of Crime, and they’ve fought everyone from Spider-Man to the Hulk) to talk shop with Princess Python. Finally, Anaconda tracks down the Constrictor, an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned costumed mercenary, and makes the same pitch.

It’s only one page, and as Gru’s narration admits, “the purpose of these serpentine encounters will not be known for days.” But days equals next issue, and I promise you, things get really good really fast.

So where do we stand?

It took a few issues, but Gru is finally ready to get his run started in earnest. Cap’s superhero life is already changed with Nomad gone, and his personal life is about to change with both himself and Bernie out of jobs. Personally, I felt Nomad a touch whiny, so I’m glad to see him gone.

While the Marvel Universe hasn’t seen the last of Madcap, we have in this series. He resurfaces to battle Daredevil, She-Hulk, and a number of other heroes, before things get really weird between him and Deadpool. (To be fair, things always get weird when Deadpool is involved.)

About Madcap: Gruenwald once said in an interview that the character represented “purposelessness, the disaffected youth of today who thinks 'What's the reason for doing anything?' The ultimate dropout generation." It’s a very “old man” kind of viewpoint, which means I should hate Madcap. But I’m intrigued by him--maybe Gru was a little too good at his job.. What did you think of him?

There are a couple of things I didn’t like. Steve and Bernie’s dialogue feels too cutesy by half, which is a problem I have with most couples’ dialogue from ‘80s superhero comics. And speaking of Gru’s “old man” writing, Cap comes across as almost aggressively bland at times here: the dude’s favorite food is actually an American cheese sandwich on whole wheat with a glass of milk, and I’m not sure if that was a gag or if Gru was being sincere. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe it was the former, especially since Gru was shaking Marvel storytelling up at the same time on Squadron Supreme (which we’ll get into later).

It’s cool though, because Gru’s plotting really kicks into gear starting next issue, and Paul Neary’s art doesn’t disappoint. Whether it’s Madcap beating a street gang on his own or Cap getting in a workout at Avengers Mansion, or even Steve quitting his job, Neary excels at drawing physicality of all kinds.

He and Gru are only getting better.

Next time: Enter the Serpent Society...and Steve Rogers’ new job!

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The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 2: “Captain America #308″

“The Body in Question”

Writer: Mark Gruenwald Pencils: Paul Neary Inks: Dennis Janke

The short version: On the way home from an encounter with the Beyonder in Los Angeles, Captain America must defend West Coast Avengers Mansion from the Armadillo!

Don’t you hate being only a few issues into a promising run on a comic when it gets interrupted by a line-wide crossover? I sure do. It’s happened to me more than I’d like. (The worst instance for me is still Kurt Busiek’s “Camelot Falls” arc in Superman derailed by “Countdown to Final Crisis” tie-ins.) 

Here’s a particularly early example.

Secret Wars was the 1984 Marvel mega-hit event, a 12-issue limited series pitting all of Marvel’s heroes and villains against each other in an epic fight at the whim of a godlike being called the Beyonder. When you think of the books that invented the modern crossover event, Secret Wars is one of the top two on that list (alongside DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths).

Secret Wars II was a 9-issue sequel which saw the Marvel heroes kind of fall all over themselves trying to contend with the Beyonder...walking around New York learning how to be human. It was about as exciting as that sentence sounds.

I might get more into it later if you’d like, but for now, let’s just say it’s a great example of how to execute an interesting idea quite badly.

As it turns out, it isn’t too necessary to know what goes on in Secret Wars II #1, and after this issue, it’s never mentioned again.

Let’s get it out of the way: Cap got detoured to Los Angeles from London by a psychic summons from Charles Xavier about the Beyonder’s return. Cap and the X-Men did battle with a crazy TV writer-turned-ersatz-Beyonder-powered-Thor-type called Thundersword, while the Beyonder just hung back and watched. (He did a lot of that in this story.) Afterwards, Cap bolted.

The story picks up at West Coast Avengers Mansion, as Cap pays a visit in order to borrow a Quinjet. To get there, though, he sprints across the lawn in order to test the mansion’s security system and presumably get his daily workout in. Keep in mind, this was all before CrossFit.

This opening sequence is also designed to catch us up on previous events, and it’s here where I praise one of my favorite innovations in comics: the recap page. Nowadays, especially in Marvel books, issues begin with a single page designed to recap events in previous issues, to spare writers the task of filling the first few pages of an issue with a ton of exposition recapping the previous installment. 

Not so here, as Cap tries to puzzle out exactly what day it was by going back over the events of issues #305, #306, and Secret Wars II #1. None of that really mattered in the end. Captain America rolls up and asks Hawkeye, “Hey dude, what’s today?” (It was Friday.)

The hook of the issue is that the mansion falls under attack before Cap can borrow the Quinjet, and since Hawkeye and Mockingbird have left for an event, he’s the only one around who can fend off the intruder: a giant armored mutate called the Armadillo. Cap uses his superior tactical mind and the mansion’s defenses to maneuver Armadillo into a trap, and then...well, he listens to his foe and reasons with him. Not enough superheroes do that!

Armadillo was once a man whose wife fell deathly ill. No doctor could determine the cause of her sickness, except for Dr. Karl Malus. Malus, an expert in genetics, offered to help her in exchange for the heartsick husband’s aid in his experiments. He transformed the man into the Armadillo, then charged him with breaking into West Coast Avengers Mansion and stealing the body of comatose Avengers foe Goliath (Erik Josten, formerly the first Power Man, who would later become Thunderbolts member Atlas).

The problem is that Goliath is stuck in giant size, and the shrinking solution Malus gave Armadillo to help transport him was spilled during the fight. Cap agrees to hand the body over to Armadillo and allows him to leave in order to get another shrinking capsule from Malus. 

However, he secretly follows Armadillo to Malus, who flips out when Cap appears at his lab. Malus threatens to pull the plug on Bonita’s life support if Armadillo doesn’t kill Cap, but our hero quickly out-thinks the doctor, breaking his arm in the process with a shield throw. As a favor to Armadillo, he promises to leave Malus there for the police, rather than take him in to the Avengers.

A couple other plots get a bit of time. All through the issue, a mysterious invisible figure has been stalking Cap, and as Rogers calls the police, the being adopts the hero’s physical form. Of course, this is the Beyonder, and this Secret Wars II thread continues in X-Men #196, a pretty notorious issue in its own right.

Gruenwald also cuts back to Brooklyn, where Bernie pops into Steve’s apartment, only to find no one there and Jack’s belongings gone. (If you recall, he decided to move after his fight with Madcap last issue.) 

And at the end of the issue, we check back in with the trio of snake-themed villains camped out in Sidewinder’s apartment. They want their money from the last caper they pulled together, the theft of the Serpent Crown (a fun little Marvel Two-in-One three-parter also written by Gruenwald and future Cap editor Ralph Macchio).

Sidewinder pays Black Mamba, Death Adder, and Anaconda, but also offers them an opportunity to join his latest venture, one he promises to be more lucrative than they ever dreamed. And boy, is it ever.

Thankfully, the crossover stuff is kept to the fringe while Gruenwald focuses on setting up new threats for Cap and possibly a new status quo. And Neary shines in a particularly action-heavy issue, exalting in showing Captain America in action, whether dodging lasers or baiting Armadillo. It’s a lot of fun.

(I should also mention the cover from John Byrne, himself responsible for a short, but iconic run on Captain America with writer Roger Stern.)

At least we don’t have to worry about another crossover for...six more issues?! Geez...

This issue available where back issues are sold, in the Society of Serpents collection, and digitally at Comixology and Marvel Unlimited.

Next time: The return of Madcap spells the end of a partnership! Plus: a conversation between this column...and you!

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The Long Runs--Cap Connection, Chapter 1: “Captain America #307″

"Stop Making Sense”

Written by Mark Gruenwald Pencilled by Paul Neary Inked by Dennis Janke

The short version: While Captain America returns from a mission in London, his partner Nomad faces both an existential crisis and the mysterious Madcap!

Mark Gruenwald had been editing Captain America for three years before he took over as writer for what would be an even longer stay. At the time, Mike Carlin was doing a short stint as writer, following previous scribe J.M. DeMatteis. Carlin had written a couple of arcs--one where Cap hunted down his stolen shield (which featured a memorable confrontation with a drunken Batroc), and another teaming Captains America and Britain against Mordred.

When Gruenwald took over the book, Steve Rogers was living in a modest Brooklyn Heights apartment and working as a freelance artist, mainly in advertising. He was engaged to another artist, glassblower Bernadette “Bernie” Rosenthal, who he first met after she moved into the building (in issue #247). He also had a sidekick, Jack Monroe, the Bucky of the 1950s who returned took over his second costumed identity of Nomad (in issue #282).

Gruenwald picks up where Carlin left off, with Cap boarding a plane from London after his adventure with Captain Britain. A talkative fellow passenger leads Cap to realize he’s more famous abroad as a member of the wartime Invaders (with Bucky, Sub-Mariner, the original android Human Torch, and Torch’s sidekick Toro) than he is as an Avenger. That’s pretty much Cap’s entire plot this issue. He’s in the first few pages, before Gruenwald cedes the floor to Nomad.

Nomad, oh Nomad. From the looks of it, he’s a listless young man growing dissatisfied with his role as Cap’s partner. He fights crime and sleeps on Steve Rogers’ couch. That’s about it. (He has a history that involves suspended animation, chemical-induced psychosis and racial separatism, but that’s too much to get into here.)

This time, Bernie drops in while looking for Steve and leaves a passive-aggressive hint that maybe he should get serious about finding a job. Jack takes this pretty well, actually.

Well, about as well as can be expected. Bernie’s chiding does light enough of a fire under his ass to prompt him to start looking for whatever job he can find. It leads him to apply for a supermarket bagboy job. Despite being frankly overqualified for the job, the manager decides to hire Jack, against his better judgment.

There’s a subplot here with Bernie’s shop in crisis, as the landlord is jacking up the rent. But the real story focuses on Nomad trying to stand on his own, both as working man Jack Monroe, and as a crimefighter against a weird new threat. A guy with a stolen costume cuts a path through town with a gun that appears to shoot bubbles that drive people into insane fits, laughing and babbling uncontrollably. When that path of madness reaches Jack’s job, he springs into action as Nomad.

After a brief battle with Madcap--during which both he and Madcap learn that about the villain’s invulnerability in surprisingly gruesome ways--he catches a few bubbles to the face and ends up going crazy just like everyone else. But mixed in with the mirth is a bit of introspection: when he sees his reflection in the mirror, half of him is Captain America. Jack might not just be losing his mind--he’s afraid he might lose himself too.

He does lose his job, and he finds out the girl he’s into at work has a boyfriend. What’s more, he angrily decides to move out of Cap’s apartment, so Jack doesn’t really come out ahead on this one. 

The credit blurb for the issue promises “A Bold New Era for America’s Greatest Hero,” and though Cap only appears in the first three pages of the issue, it’s not hard to see something forming here. I only read the previous four issues of the book before launching into Gruenwald’s tenure, and Nomad barely showed up, so I don’t have much idea of the internal conflict plaguing him past this issue. But the last page makes clear it’s leading to something.

And that isn’t just with Nomad. The final three panels feature the Serpent Squad of Anaconda, Death Adder, and Black Mamba breaking into the apartment of their one-time ally Sidewinder, looking to settle some kind of score. Without giving too much away, I really like where this story goes later.

Let’s get this out of the way: Gruenwald was about as good as most comic writers of the day when it came to dialogue (which is to say much of it feels stiff and silly now), and as his Squadron Supreme miniseries was proving, he was no Alan Moore either. His plotting wasn’t revolutionary, but it was efficient. He knew how to tell an action story. What helped set him apart, though, were the ideas he inserted into the rudimentary framework of the superhero action-adventure. 

Madcap, for example, was an inspired creation and a great foil for the increasingly self-flagellating Nomad. He was lighter and far less murderous than the Joker in his methods, but incredibly nihilistic in his viewpoints. “Dare to accept the truth,” he cried out in between punchlines and “Strawberry Fields Forever” references, “that there is no truth! Reality is fake!”

Credit must also be given, of course, to penciller Paul Neary, a holdover from the previous creative team. His work is solid if a bit too traditional, but his storytelling is clear and his action suitably kinetic. I love his cover for the issue too--it’s playful in its oddness and intrigue, balancing Nomad’s psychological trauma with the whimsy and weirdness of Madcap. And though he’d already been on the book for over a year, his best work on it was still to come.

(About that cover though: the bottom of it promises a “dramatic look back at the Invaders,” but that look is one panel and hardly very dramatic.)

This issue available wherever back issues are sold, in the Society of Serpents collection, and digitally on Comixology and Marvel Unlimited.

Next week: Cap swings through Los Angeles and gets mixed up in a Secret Wars II tie-in! Already?! It’s only the second issue, for crying out loud!

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Hey guys, just an update...

That feature I mentioned two months ago begins next Wednesday morning. We’re gonna go through the Mark Gruenwald run of Captain America issue by issue, in an effort I’m optimistically titling “The Long Runs.”* Be here next Wednesday for Cap #307 and “A Bold New Era for America’s Greatest Hero!”**

*Plural because I might want to do it again if I get through the whole thing--and I already know which run to tackle next.

**No, no, not me, friends, I’m talking about Cap, but thanks for looking!

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New Feature! Rogers Revival or The Cap Connection?

In the annals of Marvel Comics history, few names conjure as much love and reverence as the late Mark Gruenwald.

An editor turned writer (and even fill-in penciller), Gruenwald was one of Marvel Comics’ defining voices in the ‘80s, using his steel trap mind for continuity not only to help reinforce the Marvel Universe, but also to catalog it with the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. He’s also known for multiple key runs as a writer, most notably his 60-issue stint on Quasar, his massive ten-year hitch on Captain America, and his 12-issue take on the House of Ideas’ Justice League analogues, the Squadron Supreme.

It’s the latter two that are of interest here. I had occasion to read Squadron Supreme for the first time a few weeks ago (on Marvel Unlimited, which is awesome, by the way). It’s long been regarded as Marvel’s take on Watchmen, about a team of superheroes who decide that the best way to save their world is to run it. 

For its time, it’s a pretty ambitious, relatively sophisticated series, although it still finds itself beholden to superhero tropes that Watchmen transcended and subverted. It’s also not as literary as Watchmen; Gruenwald is a great superhero writer, but he’s no Alan Moore. But it was an enjoyable, often-thrilling read.

Somewhere towards the end, the story crossed over into Gruenwald’s then-nascent Captain America run, in issue #314, when characters from the Squadron Supreme’s Earth-712 ventured into the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616) in order to find the Avengers. I don’t want to get into specific details here, but it got me thinking after I read the book--”Why don’t I tackle the Gruenwald Cap run after this?” Afterwards, I realized why I shouldn’t. He wrote the book for ten damn years.

Still, it was an appealing idea, and I have bad judgment, so here we go. It’s said Gru’s Cap run encompasses some of the best and worst of Captain America storytelling, so I’m willing to give it a shot.

I’ll try to do this week by week. Right now I’m playing it by ear, so please bear with me until I find a groove. I’ll be talking about each issue individually, reviewing each story, analyzing the context and also exploring its connections with the greater Marvel Universe of the time. Tie-ins and crossovers will be approached on a case-by-case basis, but I’ll try to dive deep enough to get a sense of the landscape of the Marvel Universe. 

Moreover, I’m just looking to have fun reading comics. Isn’t that enough?

One more thing: this feature needs a name! Help me come up with one! I’ve got my ideas in the heading--leave a comment on which one you like best, or suggest one of your own. Thanks! Watch this space!

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Pretty good list, and I agree with many of the points. (Superman III deserves extra points for its surprisingly mature depiction of Clark and Lana's relationship though.) I'd rearrange the top five--Superman and The Dark Knight are always hovering around my top three superhero movies (along with The Avengers), but as movies, this makes sense.

And this also gets to the heart of what I'm talking about (often on Facebook) when I say "these movies should be fun." I don't exclusively mean humor (although TDK had welcome tinges of black humor), and when I mean humor, I'm not talking about comedy. What I mean is wit and energy. Blockbuster filmmaking is all about propulsive energy, making the audience feel like they haven't been sitting in a dark room with strangers for 120-150 minutes. (And there's no damn reason these movies should be that long, guys.)

When I bemoan fun, I'm talking about cleverness, invention, and life. Take Gone Girl, for example. I don't necessarily know that most other people would call it fun, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was blackly comic, acidic and disturbed, plus smart and well-paced. It was also directed by a master filmmaker in David Fincher. I'm not quite calling for a David Fincher Superman movie (and I'm sure he'd be uninterested), but if he did it, I would be terrifically interested.

I feel like there's a huge problem with today's audiences where they mistake subtlety and variation in tone for inconsistency, and lightness with immaturity. Things have to be one way, or the other, but never both. Which is a shame, because the best movies--in general--find ways to expertly modulate tone in order to garner the best emotional response. That, to me, is one of the most important skills in filmmaking, one all the best directors possess, more so than sheer visual artistry (which is important, don't get me wrong, but not the only or most important skill).

It's hard to talk about this with most people I know, a lot, because a lot of them jump to conclusions or misunderstand what I'm saying, I feel. But this is pretty much the best way I'm able to articulate my thoughts on the matter.

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So, this.

The guy who brought you that Punisher fan film, Dirty Laundry, as well as actual comic book feature film Dredd,  has released his vision of the Power Rangers franchise. Not surprisingly, it's intense and violent, with lots of expensive-looking polish and a cast that boasts James Van Der Beek, Katee Sackhoff, and Will Yun Lee. It's also dark as hell with buckets of blood, a dash of sex, and a soul-crushing insistence on miring everything in grit and shadow.

So is it good? Yeah, I guess. From a totally objective view, it's a fine effort. The production value is ridiculously high and the actors are really quite game, especially Van Der Beek, who seems to be having a lot of fun as turncoat Red Ranger Rocky. It's a neat way to kill fourteen minutes, a cool little "what if?" of a short.

But then I see people saying, "The next movie should be like this" and I want to shake them and scream in their faces, "NO! The next movie should not be like this!" Because while POWER/RANGERS looks cool, it still comes across as a teenager's R-rated Ranger fanfiction, edgy for its own sake and steeped in sex and violence without really being mature. Someone on Facebook said of it, "Not everything has to be dark to be interesting," and I agree. There are better ways to improve Power Rangers than to go this route.

Still, it's a fun watch on its own.

EDIT: After this interview with director Joseph Kahn came to my attention, I started to like this short more. Turns out the whole thing is a joke, a satire of ultra-dark reboots and fan culture obsessed with making "adult" versions of their childhood favorites. Man oh man, I agree.

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Consequences, Part One: Doctor Who [SPOILER WARNING]

I recently read a blog post from last year entitled "What Steven Moffat Doesn't Understand About Grief, And Why It's Killing Doctor Who." In it, the author says her biggest pet peeve with Doctor Who under Steven Moffat's stewardship has been its lack of consequence, that any major character deaths are mitigated or handwaved away. Of particular issue is Day of the Doctor's revival of the Time Lords, with the Doctor rallying all of his incarnations to save Gallifrey during the final strike of the Time War. The author's point is that such a plot twist erases the past several years of the Doctor's development as last survivor of his kind. (Well, almost the last.)

I disagree somewhat.

My biggest problem with that post is the idea that Day of the Doctor negates what has come before. Leaving aside that the return of the Time Lords has been somewhat expected since the revival began, it also implies that the ending to the special was a cheap retcon. It doesn't do that. (For the record, Gallifrey is still believed destroyed to the rest of the universe and the Doctor's previous incarnations don't remember the events.) Instead, the moment feels like something the show has built to from the beginning. We've gone as far as we could with the Doctor's angst, depression and survivor's guilt. The decision to restore Gallifrey doesn't erase any of that. If the Master can cheat death repeatedly, then why not the Time Lords this once?

("Well," you might answer, "it involves the Doctor crossing his own timeline and violating the rules of time travel. That's why not." You'd actually be right, but modern Doctor Who has always been a show more concerned with the emotional repercussions of events rather than a hard and fast enforcement of time travel laws and mechanics.)

The other examples she brings up are hit and miss. I totally agree with her about the kidnapping of the infant River and how the Ponds don't seem affected by it. That's cheapening out. She mentions the people killed by the Weeping Angels in Blink, and later the Ponds in The Angels Take Manhattan. The whole point of the Angels is that they're "the kindest of killers and psychopaths," allowing their victims to "live to death." Being forced to live out your days in another time, suddenly separated from everyone you knew, can be a cruel fate in itself.

(She mentions Van Gogh too in Vincent and the Doctor, but he did die; after all, even learning of his future fame couldn't save him from his depression.)

Now, this post was written last year, and there was a lot to complain about. There's still a lot to complain about, really. A lot. But some of the most dogged complaints about Steven Moffat's tenure on Who are finally being addressed. There are consequences to the Doctor and Clara's life of adventure.

One of those consequences is Danny Pink's death. In the season finale, he is killed in a car accident, but his soul is stored within a Gallifreyan cloud drive, and later deployed back into his body, upgraded into a Cyberman. From there, it's a wrenching series of events where he and Clara are reunited before she's forced to lose him again. Even the one way by which he could return, he uses instead to resurrect the young boy he accidentally killed in Afghanistan.

And then there's the Doctor and Clara's friendship. The two spend much of the season growing apart, and while it's a simple misunderstanding that's ostensibly responsible for the two of them parting, it feels deeper than that. The Doctor sees Missy's bracelet on Clara's wrist and believes she's found a way to bring Danny back. She lets him believe that. Meanwhile, Clara believes the Doctor's lie that the coordinates Missy gave him actually led to Gallifrey, and that he's found the Time Lords.

Of course neither of these things are true, and perhaps both of them could have actually told the truth, but lying is easier than accepting that things aren't the same and can never really be the same. Clara has lost so much and could never really run off with the Doctor again. Not like that. Not so soon. And the Doctor knows it.

Those aren't the only casualties of series 8, and while there's still some handwaving (Time Heist is a notable example), there are also some pretty harrowing moments where the Doctor deals with permanent death. Mummy on the Orient Express is a strong moment, dispatching Prof. Moorhouse and Captain Quell in heartbreaking fashion and asking just how many deaths the Doctor can observe before being spurred to act. And of course, poor, dear Osgood, taunted and murdered by Missy on the UNIT plane.

I can't fault the author missing those; after all, they were yet to happen. I've been thinking a lot about consequences in fiction though, and this seems like a good place to start. I'm no Steven Moffat apologist by any stretch, and this season is so very far from perfect. And yet, I think Moffat is learning, and that's a good place to start.

But I've long taken issue with the notion that character death is necessary to establish emotional stakes. I agree that death should be handled delicately and honestly, but I also think that in science fiction or fantasy, we can bend those rules given time, and that there are other ways to convey consequence. Danny Pink's fate was touching, but I found the Doctor and Clara's dissolution even more affecting. It remains to be seen how the show will handle these events going forward, but for now, there are still two beating hearts within Doctor Who.

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Granted, it's internet-only, and the show hasn't really been gone, even since its cancellation in 2009.  (In fact, it's existed for the past two years as an iPad app.)  But the return of Reading Rainbow is definitely cause for everyone to start dancing and cheering.  I'm tearing up over this.

Reading Rainbow meant a lot to me growing up.  My parents were writers--my mother an English teacher, in fact--so the importance of reading was held paramount in my formative years.  To have a show not only reinforcing but also celebrating that, and demonstrating just how fun the application of knowledge can be, was huge.  It goes without saying that for years, Reading Rainbow was my absolute favorite television show.  I almost never missed it.

Of course, things change.  I grew out of it.  (Yes, friends of mine know about that time I met Levar Burton as a child, that didn't go quite as hoped.)  But even after I lost touch with the show, I never forgot how important it was, not only to my development, but for every child who had been and could be touched by it.

When I first heard that Levar Burton was looking to kickstart a new version of Reading Rainbow for the web, I thought, "Well, that's nice."  But watching the video, I felt something deeper: the weight of memory, the impact it had made on a five-year-old F13.  Reading Rainbow was not just an important show, but a fun show to watch.  It wasn't just "motion comic" versions of storybooks, but also the "video field trips" where Levar shared his viewers' enthusiasm and curiosity about the world.  It was that theme song, the book reviews, and of course, the catchphrase.

Maybe some people got a kick out of the Star Trek nods in the video (such as the VISOR and another surprise I won't spoil), but for me, it was the way he talked about bringing a necessary resource back to as many children as could be reached.  I just got a charge out of him saying, simply enough, "You don't have to take my word for it."

At this point, it's a lock. Within 24 hours, Levar Burton has surpassed his million dollar goal.  Reading Rainbow will return.  But I encourage everyone to give and keep giving, to help them reach whatever stretch goals they announce.  In an age where educational programming is in greater focus thanks to shows like Cosmos, it's great to have such a resource as Reading Rainbow available to not only today's children, but hopefully as many of tomorrow's as possible.

But you know, you don't have to take my word for it.

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I may as well start using this blog to point out stuff I've written elsewhere more often.  Warrior's death, and his redemption and readmittance into wrestling's good graces over the previous three days, prompted me to write this remembrance the morning after his death.  Personally, I prefer it to the re-evaluation I wrote the year before, though you can compare and/or contrast them yourself if you'd like.  It's linked within the obit.

And in case you're wondering, I stayed away from his politics.  I vehemently disagree with him, but this was about what he meant to me as a wrestler and character, not necessarily as a person.

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Okay, I missed it, but yesterday was the tenth anniversary of Kanye West's The College Dropout.  Back then he was endearing in his contradictory nature: a cocky young man still battling self-doubt, yet charmingly committed to get himself out there all the same.  His self-importance has grown along with his status, but no matter how insufferable he can be nowadays, this is still a classic album.  (So are Late Registration and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, in my opinion.)

Here's the first hit single from that album, i.e. that time he cut a hit record with his jaw wired shut after nearly dying in a car crash, "Through the Wire."  Still an impressive achievement, still one of my favorite songs.

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A Wonder Woman solo live-action movie would make a shit-ton of money if done even remotely well.  I know lots of people who want to see it.  I want to see it.

What I wish I wasn't seeing was Wonder Woman shoehorned into Man of Steel 2 for what sounds like a glorified cameo, just to set up a team-up movie, on which her own film might be contingent.  Granted, we don't know exactly how she'll ultimately fit into the movie, but that's beside the point.  Warner Bros. doesn't know what to do with her and hasn't ever.  Hollywood's "conventional wisdom" has always been that women don't open big blockbusters, and yet we've seen multiple times, such as with Tomb Raider* and Hunger Games, that it isn't the case.

(*I know, The Cradle of Life didn't do very well, and Elektra was a bomb, but both of them were sequels to mediocre movies to begin with, and both were terrible in their own right.)

Joel Silver spent ten years developing Wonder Woman for the screen, during which he hired a revolving door parade of screenwriters, including Joss Whedon (who was also slated to direct).  His conclusion: she's too complicated.  I don't know about you, but the crux of Wonder Woman's origin is fairly straightforward.  It doesn't matter if she's formed from clay or the daughter of Zeus.  What matters is that she's an Amazon princess who competes for the right to venture from her tiny, idyllic island into the greater world, trained for war but advocating peace.  It's really that simple.  Everything else can be rearranged except for that origin, the magic lasso, and of course, her independence.

Maybe that independence is what scares Hollywood suits.  Wonder Woman never really needed Steve Trevor as a romantic foil.  His greatest value to her was as a plot device to get her off Themyscira.  Really, he's the Peeta to her Katniss.  She doesn't need Superman or Batman either, despite numerous attempts at romantic pairings with both.  Wonder Woman doesn't need to be complicated beyond the duality at her core.

Wonder Woman doesn't even need messages written into it.  Her simple existence is the message.  Just make a movie about an Amazon warrior princess who fights injustice and tries to make the world a better place.  Then sit back and watch the money roll in.  It's not like you're making a Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, or Manhunter movie.  It's Wonder Woman, one of the most recognizable characters in the world.

If it sounds like I'm simplifying it, maybe it really is that simple.