#it's fun and it's a core part of the first versions of marvel and billy

[grimmbitty]

Okay kind of a different post than my normal stuff but I did just want to put all of these in one place. These are my character analysis slides that I’ve been working on!

Breaking down the character of Billy Batson has been so fun for me, and its by far my favorite part of the writing process. So here’s what I have so far for my interpretation of the character.

Here is my first slide where I breakdown the basic overview of my story. Just outlining the basic plot summary, the story’s themes, and the basic character arc for Billy.

As you can see it’s very similar to the first movie I’ve just modified some things here and there to add my own fun twist to Billy’s origin story.

[ MORE SLIDES BELOW ]

In this slide is where I breakdown Billy’s passive motivation, something I see that is necessary for all superhero characters. Similar to Spider-Man’s “power and responsibility” thing, and similar to how Batman protects and values all life because his life was forever changed by a random act of violence.

I think Billy’s passive motivation to do good is really, deeply rooted in the injustice that he witnesses throughout his childhood. He’s especially receptive to the problems of children and other vulnerable groups because as a member of those communities, he knows they get overlooked often.

This next slide is my character breakdowns. This shows my main character and all my important side characters. They each have a lesson they inadvertently teach Billy, helping him along his path to become a good hero.

They each play a role on the team, giving them fun dynamics. This allows them all to have distinct personalities allowing for fun dialogue, banter, and character moments.

The only character you might not know on this list is Samara. She is my version of the character Cissie Sommerly. Cissie is a classic Captain Marvel character who’s most recent comic book appearance was 1978. Woof. So I thought it would be a fun idea to modernize her and bring her back into the spotlight, serving as a glimpse into the average Fawcett citizen’s reaction to the new hero, Shazam.

This next slide is a closer look into Billy’s character flaws. Showing how at first he is hesitant to being a brother and being a hero. It kinda explains the mistakes he makes at first that he has to learn to overcome, and shows how his introspection will help him accept his roles as both a brother, and a hero.

Next we have something that if I could add to the 2019 film, I would. I love love love the 2019 version of Shazam but if I could add a little more expansion of Billy’s mother into the plot, I would.

I think is really important to the core of the character. This next slide I like to call “The Dark Reflection”.

I think that upon meeting his mother, Billy realizes that they are scarily similar. That she was also selfish, careless, and only interested in meeting her own needs. This lack of compassion and responsibility from her are the reasons she ended up abandoning Billy, leaving him in the foster system once she was released from prison and having zero interest in raising him.

Billy sees the mistakes she’s made in life and realizes that he is making the same ones, prioritizing his own wants/needs over anything else, and being just overall emotionally detached.

This scares him into re-evaluating his own behavior and consciously choosing to become more compassionate for others and foster a real sense of responsibility to use his powers wisely.

Next up, we have what I like to call “The Pillars of Character”. These are the three main “pillars” I see that are most prevalent in Billy’s story.

It’s important to me that all three of these pillars intertwine with each other, hence why I wanted to explore a little more about Billy’s mother. Adding a little more flavor text to why she is Billy’s dark reflection really helped me keep a balance between these three aspects of his character.

I also just think having all three pillars effect each other keeps a nice balance between all the aspects of his character. Showing how his character flaws effect different parts of his life and how Billy learns to grow and change for the better.

In summary, this is what I have for Billy’s character breakdown, showing his character arc for his origin story and how he learns to grow into a hero. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed because I had a fun time making this! I also have a lot more to share like individual character sheets for Billy and all my side characters, Three act story structure break downs, and other stuff too. So if you like this one maybe possibly I could do a part 2 soon.

Okay byeeeee!! ⚡️💕

[aikoiya]

DPxMCU Crossover - Saving Private Vision

I feel like if Danny was there in the Marvel Universe, he'd have been able to find a way to really resurrect Vision provided he had plenty of help.

Thing is, I think Vision had a soul. As the Ghost King & by my Legacy hc, Danny would have some power over souls. That, plus the fact that Vision was a synthetic entity & therefore hadn't been "alive" in the same sense that organics are, would give Danny some leeway.

The problem would be finding the right power source to take the place of the mind stone & if the mind stone is needed, he might be able to use the piece inside Wanda to do it. He could probably find a way to make Vision's body work off of ectoplasm if he could find a way to create a regulator able to generate ectoplasm from thoughts & emotions the way Danny himself can. That would allow Vision to function indefinitely via his own existence. However, that would take reconfiguring him to be able to do so.

Not to mention, he'd need to locate Visions' spirit, but it could be possible.

If he could get Vision's spirit to form an ectoplasmic shell, a.k.a. a core, then seal it into his body, it could work.

Though, if it did, Vision would've lost some memories via my theory of mnemonic imprints. Not to mention, he'd now have ghost powers.

Wandavision would have to take place first, then Danny would show up after the Multiverse of Madness.

The reason being that the GZ is the natural means of travelling the multiverse as portals through the GZ don't thin the membrane between universes. Because they are natural occurrences that work with the natural order rather than against it.

In this case, the Gap Junction wouldn't exist & instead, the Book of Vishanti would be hidden in the Ghost Zone.

It would be at this time that Danny would show up as, being the Ghost King, one of his duties would be protecting the book.

The Strange from Universe 838 actually had to have an audience with Danny to appeal to have the chance to run the course protecting the book. Which, the course would be the gauntlet leading to the Book in the movie.

In this instance, Danny would protect the Book of Vishanti from Wanda.

I theorize that the Vision that Wanda created was made when she used her piece of the mind stone to call back Vision’s soul for a time. That’s part of why he didn’t remember anything before his life in Westview.

On the other hand, the white Vision is Vision’s body reanimated without a soul & I figure that the little bit of Wanda’s magic used to revive him won’t keep him going for too long & when it runs out, so will he.

I believe that the fully revived Vision would remember Westview, but only bits & pieces from before that. However, with his body & the data inside it back together with his newly-formed core, he could remember eventually. Though, no need to rush that.

I feel like his coloring would be inverted. What was red would be green, green would turn red, yellow to purple, & gold to silver. It’s a bit of an outrageous color scheme, but what can you do? Not to mention, he'd also need help learning how to regulate his Obsession, which I figure would be similar to Danny's, making him a Tutelary & a Ghost in the Machine.

Anyway, after reviving Vision fully, I feel like Danny would recommend finding a universe in which Vision was born human &, awkward as it sounds, asking him to... donate. A quick trip to get artificially inseminated & Billy & Tommy are on their way.

It wouldn’t be the same Billy & Tommy, but it would be a Billy & Tommy. Only this time, Wanda & Vision would have to do it the right way. The long way.

Either way, Danny helps them by using the Infini-Map to find the right guy. Fun idea, the guy they ask is named Jarvis, he's a psychic, & he's married to his universe's version of Wanda.

In the end, Danny now has 2 friends for life.

[scarlet--wiccan]

You can ignore this if you don’t have any thoughts but what your ideal new young avengers run look like? Who would be on the team, what would you even call it now that they’re all adults (except Cassie I guess?)

One of my favorite things about Young Avengers, which I think is often underplayed to the detriment of the characters, is that the team is routinely forced to operate outside of the law and against the wishes of their elders. In the core YA books, the kids are more often working in opposition to the Avengers rather than in cooperation. These are characters whose methods and motives are not usually aligned with those of the established superhero organizations, which is also reflected in many of their appearances beyond YA-- Strikeforce and Empyre are great examples, as are Cassie's adventures in Astonishing Ant-Man. This rebel element is often at odds with the fact that many of the characters admire the Avengers, or have close personal relationships with individual Avengers members. The dissonance becomes especially strong when Billy and Teddy, who have the most reason to distrust and resent them following Children's Crusade, are consistently characterized as Avengers fanboys.

That's not to say that I think the Young Avengers should, like, hate the old Avengers, but I do think that this tension is a key part of the series. The 2005 run was about a group of kids who stepped up, at a very young age, to do a job that wasn't getting done because the previous generation had failed, only to get shot down by the people who had failed them in the first place. It's about a group of kids grappling with complex and painful family histories, and, in many ways, they're foils to the Runaways, which is why I don't really like it when they play junior Avengers or emulate the traditional superhero team structure-- WCA was really fun, but I'm not going to pitch a second volume, you know? I much prefer them operating as an ad hoc group, mainly because they each come from different backgrounds, have different goals, and work in different fields. They're not people who work together because they're part of an organization, they're people who show up for each other because they're friends and they care about one another. That is, in my mind, a more effective approach to a team book with such disparate characters than what the typical Avengers title tries to do.

So, anyways, that's what I think makes Young Avengers special and it's why I think the book still has a place in the Marvel world. Pitching actual story ideas is hard now because Teddy and Billy are, apparently, living off-world and very busy being royalty. In my previous post, I outlined an older idea for a BillyTeddy ongoing series that could have easily functioned as a third volume of Young Avengers, but would require some editing to work in a post-Empyre world. The idea was for Billy and Teddy's apartment in New York to act as a base of operations for a revolving cast of their friends, who come and go over the course of various story arcs. The two of them are presumably living full-time in space now, but it's also been established that they're magically anchored to each other in a way that makes it easy for Billy to warp between New York and the throneship-- anywhere Teddy goes, Billy can instantly follow, and vice-versa, which means that the series could still use Earth as a main setting without pulling the royal couple out of their other storyline.

I'd love a Young Avengers/Runaways crossover set in space-- their previous crossovers mostly have to do with alien drama, after all, and I've been itching to get Xavin back on page. I'm very serious when I say that I want Xavin, Teddy and Noh to be best friends, and I think they'd be fun leads for a miniseries, or even the opening arc of a limited run that eventually folds in the other YA and Runaways characters. I'm imagining an extended version of the interstellar road trip from YA (2013). Maybe Teddy will recruit his two closest alien friends to go on a sensitive diplomatic mission where he can only bring a small party, but it turns out to be some kind of trap and they end up stranded somewhere and have to, like fight their way out of hostile territory and make their way back to the Alliance with no ship. Billy can reach Teddy, obviously, but he can't just warp the whole party home because the distance is too great or they're in an alternate dimension or something, so he rounds up a rescue party and Karolina insists on coming along because, I don't know, the Light Brigade is mixed up in this and she feels like it's her responsibility to help Xavin even though they haven't seen each other in years. Nico obviously comes along with her, and can help Billy with tracking spells.

I'd also like to see a YA book led by the series' most under-served characters-- Tommy, Eli, and Cassie. Building off of Cassie's capers in Ant-Man, I'd be very into a heist or espionage story about the three of them, probably joined by Kate because she'd add a lot of cohesion to the cast and is so well suited to this type of adventure. Maybe they're undercover, and they have to, like, fake-fight some of the other Young Avengers, but they all join forces once the misunderstanding is cleared up. I'm picturing a cold open where the whole first issue is made up of, like, security camera footage of three masked figures breaking into a high-tech vault at AIM or Roxxon, and they steal a bunch of weaponry and fight their way out through a bunch of goons, but then it's revealed that the whole thing was a distraction to cover up a fourth intruder who moves too fast for the cameras to track. At the end of the issue, it's revealed to the reader that the intruders are the Young Avengers, and the real prize was a computer holding the last backup of Jonas's AI. The rest of the first arc is about them trying to rebuild Jonas with help from Vee, but they have to keep it a secret from the Avengers because they're planning an even bigger heist against, like Kate's dad, and they need to keep the whole operation under wraps because he's got eyes and ears all over.

I'm not particularly eager for another fantasy story after CC and YA(2013), but I'd be into a cosmic-fantasy arc about America solving some sort of inter-dimensional crisis or chasing a villain across worlds with Tommy and Billy's help. I really want more development between America and Billy, but I also think that she'd be really funny friends with Tommy and I want to see more of him playing off of magic characters. Maybe Leah (the one from Earth-15513 that's living on Earth-616 now) receives a mysterious message from Loki and asks the Young Avengers to help her track them down. America and Billy volunteer and Tommy tags along. Along the way they end up discovering some sort of evil curse or spell and go on a quest through various dimensions in order to break it. In the end it turns out the whole thing was set up by Loki to manipulate them into defeating an evil alternate-universe Loki-- maybe the one from Leah's native dimension-- because Evil Loki had used an enchantment that made it impossible for 616-Loki to harm them, which includes allies who are knowingly fighting on Loki's behalf. Better yet, it's a proxy war, and Evil Loki has recruited pawns of their own-- including Sylvie and Lisa from the Young Masters! 616-Loki does come clean when the dust is settled and finally reconnects with the Young Avengers. Loki is glad that Leah found a way to escape her destiny, but they admit that they don't feel they've succeeded in breaking out of their own cycle, to which America and Billy are like "we've seen how far you've come, but you need to remember that people care about you and stop bailing on us when we actually want to talk it out with you," which Tommy backs up because, like, he's been that person. Friendship! Character arcs that don’t fizzle out when a book wraps in under twenty issue!

Anyways, if we got a third Young Avengers volume, I'd prefer a limited run with a cohesive story, but all of the ideas I just outlined would probably work better as smaller arcs in an ongoing series. I have a lot of ideas about tying up loose threads and continuing arcs that are already in motion, but I'm hesitant to plot out what the next big step in these characters' lives should be. I definitely think it's time to give Tommy and Cassie another shot at the spotlight, and I want Eli to come back with a new costume and codename.

At this phase, it's just really hard for me to land on any larger, deeper stories because I'm so unsure of what the next few years will look like for Billy and Teddy. There's also an America title that's been in production limbo since the pandemic started, and I feel like there's some kind of drama on the horizon between the Maximoffs and Krakoa which would theoretically impact the twins as well. I also anticipate editorial pushing for Kate in a Hawkeye book when the tv show comes out.

[ty-talks-comics]

The Boys Season 1 Review and Comparison

This was so cathartic.

In an age where we’re inundated with superhero media on all fronts with their bright colors, cheery jokes and positive outlooks, it’s easy to slowly become sick of it, feel the “superhero fatigue” as it were. Where Marvel ruins some stories with far too many jokes (looking at you Thor: Ragnarok) and DC is far too dreary and serious for its own good with a lack of levity, where can one turn to for a GOOD happy medium?

Well, in comes Seth Rogan and Evan Gold, the brilliant minds behind the amazing adaptation of Preacher with yet another brutal and slightly more cynical series. The Boys absolutely stuns not only by being a genuinely compelling series, but also by being one of the few adaptations that improves on the original medium in a few aspects.

Story

The story centers around Hughie Campbell and the titular Boys as they work to expose the horrific deeds of The Seven, a collective of the world's greatest superheroes, and the company that sponsors them, Vought American.

In this world, superheroes are everywhere. They're on breakfast cereals, TV shows, movies, pretty much every piece of media and entertainment imaginable while also protecting America from crime. Sounds familiar, huh? The kicker here is that, much like every asshole celebrity that lets the fame and fortune go to their heads, these heroes are massive cunts. They take performance enhancing drugs, routinely cause accidents that hurt or kill people, sexually harass people left and right and just lie to their adoring public like they’re children.

Unlike the books, however, The Boys team isn’t the well oiled machine that’s been taking down and blackmailing superheroes for years and the first four episodes are spent introducing the different team members.This is likely due to wanting to give people time to care about them individually and the limited number of episodes in the season. This definitely works in also retooling the characters themselves for TV since they may not have seventy-two issues of character development ahead of them

For the most part, the show follows the initial story beats of the comics with a few select differences before splintering off in an entirely new direction. Hughie’s girlfriend still gets blown apart by A-Train, he denies Vought America’s hush money which draws the attention of Billy Butcher and Starlight joins the Seven after the “death” of the hero Lamplighter. 

This also means that there's less time to focus on smaller plotlines and teams that are referenced to in passing dialogue like the Teenage Kix, a pastiche on the Teen Titans, or Payback, the number two group of superheroes to The Seven. While seeing the team take these guys down on the small screen would have been fun, I like the idea of keeping the plot focused on just the core group of antagonists. This way, we don’t have to slog through three or four seasons of small fry and get the big bads in the last few.

After the first half, fans of the comic may start to feel a little bit of the familiar, but then things start to take a drastic turn when Billy's pride and the rest of the teams sloppiness gets them all burned and branded wanted criminals. This never happens in the books because The Boys are funded and protected by the CIA, but here they’re just another group of concerned citizens that are completely in over their heads, adding to the tension and keeping everyone guessing as to what will happen for the rest of the season and in Season 2.

Themes

The original series was written during the latter years of the Bush Administration. Tensions were high and America was still embroiled in the Iraq War. The president was a simpering fool and companies were fucking people over left and right in the name of patriotism. Reality TV and the awful personalities on our screens were on nearly every channel and all of this only fueled the anger that is Garth Ennis’ pen and Darick Robertson’s pencils. It was a product of its time and it was perfect.

We’re now in the Information Age where superheroes and social media are the only things that matter in everyone’s mind, where women’s empowerment is stronger than ever and our leaders speak bombastically with shit eating grins full of lies. Rogen and Goldberg have kept the series modern and take everything to task.

Media. Marvel and DC are everywhere nowadays with some indie companies managing to scrape up their own part of the pie. The Boys makes fun of the seemingly endless cycle of sequels and the goody-two-shoes images of America’s favorite heroes. Everything is carefully managed and curated by a media team, similar to how Disney micromanages even the smallest details of their properties to make everything so sickeningly squeaky clean. 

Not only do the heroes stop crime, but they star in their own movies about themselves as well, some have sponsorships for shoes and have to compete with each other for everything. Almost everything is done for the cameras, even intimate moments whenever Vought can find a way to make it work. The heroes are never too far from the spotlight even when they want to be and oftentimes their acts can go viral without them knowing.

Sexual Assault. In the comics, Starlight is sexually assaulted by Homelander, Black Noir and A-Train in a gross scene to establish that there’s nothing good in that world. It was good for its time in its own dark way, but today there are absolutely consequences to such things as there should have been back then. In the show, Starlight is assaulted by The Deep, her childhood crush, alone. 

It’s dark and makes use of the imbalance of power as The Deep threatens to have her kicked off of the team. Soon after, Starlight comes forward with what happens to her, not allowing herself to let what happened stand and unlike in the books, The Deep gets his comeuppance. Though this also unfortunately leading to him getting assaulted as well. It’s powerful and allows for Starlight to move what could have been an image of weakness, though Vought uses this to their advantage as well, painting her a feminist icon. Best for business right?

Politics. While not everything has to be an allegory for Trump, it’s hard to say that Homelander isn’t just that. He’s what the president thinks he is, a strong, blonde haired man that the entire country loves. Homelander has the people eating out of the palm of his hands and he’s only feeding them shit. He hates the common man and will just as easily let many die if it can somehow serve his interests. He’s not above a little sexual harassment himself and he is just an evil bastard.

There’s also a subplot of military application of superheroes that I feel mirrors the discussion on the use of drones in war. Drones are absolutely deadly and have caused the deaths of hundreds, even innocents when things have gone really wrong. Even President Obama was criticized for how reckless and dangerous their use could be. The world could only imagine the hell that would rain down if superheroes were allowed to duke it out over national security.

Characters

The Boys as a comic series was an unrepentantly cynical take on the superhero genre in an established universe of heroes. The creator, Garth Ennis, didn’t grow up with many superheroes and actually felt disrespected by a few of them, like Captain America. He brought on the amazing Darick Robertson and other artists to realize this horrid world of drugs, hardcore sex and brutal violence. Many of the stories are fun and hilarious, but with the unfortunate feeling of a lot of them feeling one note due to the one dimensional nature of a lot of the “heroes” and the ever escalating level of black humor to the point of being cartoonish.

Our main character cast is absolutely fantastic. Jack Quiad’s Hughie is much like his comic counterpart, aside from being like six feet tall and not Scottish. He’s surprisingly smart with a lot of awkwardness about him. He has a good heart and doesn’t see ALL superheroes as being evil, but does have a slight sense of justice that wants to see The Seven and Vought taken down. 

Karl Urban’s Butcher was the absolute perfect casting choice. He’s got that wry British wit, the fury to capture Butcher’s rage against supes and can play a manipulator like nobody's business. His character arc is one of the few regressions that I can actually appreciate for how it's done, especially as things become more fucked because of him and how he chooses to blame everyone else.

Everyone else is a slight bit of an improvement over the comics versions. The Frenchman, played by Tomer Capon, is similar to his comics counterpart, but we’re given reason to care about him and The Female. In the comics, Frenchie and the Female knew each other prior, but I don’t think it’s ever revealed how they met or became close. In the show Frenchie frees The Female, played by Karen Fukuhara, from thugs that had been keeping her prisoner and he slowly gains her trust over the course of the next few episodes after her introduction. We see their friendship grow, learn a little bit of her backstory and get a better understanding of what she wants versus just following Frenchie around and being terrifyingly adorable.

Annie January aka Starlight, played by Erin Moriarty, is probably the second best change in character in the series. She starts out as a bright eyed, bushy tailed hero looking to do good, but after being sexually assaulted on her first day in The Seven, decides that it will never happen again. In the comics, Annie stays around in The Seven and takes the abuse for a little while before speaking out and fighting back against the rest of them. What makes things even better, not only does she challenge her uber Christian beliefs during an event sponsored by Vought, but she does so while also getting Vought to force her abuser into giving a public apology at the mere thought of her causing their stock prices to crash.

Consequently, Mother’s Milk, portrayed by Laz Alonso, one of the most layered characters in the comics isn’t made better, but the more ridiculous aspects of is character have been toned down. We don’t hear of his disabled mother and his addiction to her breast milk that fuels his own superpowers, nor is his wife a crack addict that makes pornos with their daughter. He’s simply a reliable member of the team that loves his wife and will give Butcher the truth when he’s acting like an asshole.

The series actually brings a lot of grey to most of these characters. A-Train never once shows remorse for his actions in the books, but in the show he's painted as kind of sympathetic, while still being seen as a monster for what he does and the reasons behind them. The Deep could go either way after his actions with a redemption arc or a full turn to villain, but is shown to be knowingly aware of how little regard there is for him. He calls himself a "diversity hire" and acknowledges his own ineptitude, but he's still an absolutely terrible person.

Queen Maeve may be one of my favorite changes that manages to be even more sympathetic than her already pretty great comic counterpart. She, much like Starlight, did want to change the world, but she let the apathy and jaded nature of the job take her over. She's an alcoholic that sees a bit of herself in Starlight. The change comes in how she reacts to what I think might be Homelander's most heinous act in the show. She shows far more remorse and guilt over what happens than she does in the comic, showing us a side of her makes you want to root for her and to see her get better.

The best character… dear Lord, is Homelander, played by Anthony Starr. Homelander is a bastard. The worst thing imaginable because of his sheer strength and power. He’s a sociopath with all of the powers of Superman and none of the goodness. In the comics he’s simply just another asshole. 

He’s the most powerful of the Seven and absolutely revels in the hedonistic lifestyle that he’s accustomed to while also hating being under the rule of Vought. In the show, he’s shown as being supportive to Vought, especially it’s current Senior VP of Hero Management, Madelyn Stillwell. He has something of a mommy fetish as shown with his interactions with her and later in the series actually expresses emotions over learning of his own tragedies, but instead of trying to change for the better, he doubles down on his hatred and anger to become an even bigger monster than before. 

In the comic he just wants all of the superheroes to conquer the world, but here, he just wants to hurt everyone who hurts him. He plays games like a child, threatening and revealing secrets to toy with people before absolutely breaking them. He's horrible in a very personal way and his sneering smile only makes him so much more hateable. He knows there isn't a damn thing you can do to stop him and he revels in that fact, I love it.

Pacing and Direction

Coming in at an hour for each episode, the first two to three can feel a bit slow. Getting all of the story elements to sit just right can take time, especially as new things are introduced every few minutes. This slow burn approach easily helps to build the tension before things get really crazy by episode four. By that point, the story is unfolding at a perfect rhythm, the team is mostly together, they’ve made their plans of action and it’s all so smooth.

Thankfully each episode is directed by different people to avoid each feeling so similar. The common humor and tone is kept the same, but some episodes are very hopeful almost before being met with one that absolutely makes you hate certain characters and the actions that they take. In particular, the episode where Hughie and Butcher visit a group therapy session and Butcher flies off into a rage about the weakness of the attendees as they basically lick the balls of the heroes that have maimed them was amazing. The director pulls so much emotion out of that scene and continues on as the episode moves along in a far more dramatic fashion than some of the others.

Some others lean heavier on the debauchery such as the episode where Hughie and Butcher venture into a superhero sex club and watch as these guys do some pretty amazing feats with their abilities in some really gross ways. There’s a good balance of levity and drama that makes neither feel too overwhelming.

Overall

With a great cast, impeccable acting and an unpredictability that I actually enjoyed, The Boys absolutely blew me away. I was wholly prepared to rip it apart if I felt like it didn’t do the story justice, but Rogen and Goldberg are fans and knew what we all wanted. It’s unabashedly a comic book show, but still has enough to it that people who have never heard of the series will be floored by how much they can find to enjoy.

It’s for the nihilistic and jaded comic book fan. It’s for the casual watcher who’s gotten enough of Marvel’s colorful displays of happiness and it’s absolutely for the happy person who just wants to have some fun with what they watch. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this season of The Boys. So much so that I’m aching with anticipation to re-read the comic series in preparation for Season Two. It’s unlikely that it’ll follow the plot much, if at all after the ending, but with Stormfront (as a woman) being announced as the new Hero joining the Seven in the next season, I’m excited as to who else they might pull. This first season absolutely earns a high recommendation from me.

[mrjdwyer]

Pilgrim, Reptile and Back Home- Clapton at his best

For all who know me, you know that aside from Prince, and Stevie Wonder, the musician I love the most is Eric Clapton. My love of his music goes way back to the day I was four and heard his “I Shot the Sheriff” version on Jamaican radio for the first time. Something about Marcy Levy and Yvonne Elliman’s background vocals that resonated with much more than The Wailer’s harmonies. For the record, before I get slammed by my fellow Jamaican Yardies, Marley’s lead vocals are superior to Eric’s laid-back approach on that tune.

But the love affair started there and kind of faded away until I was a teen and fell in love with rock and roll music after coming to the states in 1980. And Eric Clapton was one of the artists I totally fell in love with all over again.

In 1985 he released Behind the Sun, which, to me, a teenager who had barely listened to the thousands of albums that I was yet to own and memorize, it was as perfect an album that I had heard since Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” came and took me to another level of musical experience and changed my life. The same way Prince’s “Purple Rain” shook me to my core a year earlier.

What struck me about “Behind the Sun” was the incredible album cover (still one of my all time favorites, it just compelled me to listen to it) and the incredible singer that Clapton had become. To me, he is one of the most soulful singers out there that isn’t Black. Of course, his guitar work was incredible as always, but I really liked that this album sounded fresh. “Forever Man” had two fantastic solos and the album featured some great guest musicians, like Lindsey Buckingham and the always recording, Steve Lukather, guitarist to one of my all-time favorite bands ever, Toto.

That album made me a bonafide Clapton fan. I went out and over the years and got everything he ever recorded and bought albums he loved that influenced him. He got me on the quest on going back in time and finding the masters. Through him, I discovered some of the old Blues greats like John Lee Hooker, Blind Willie McTell, Lightnin’ Hopkins and a whole range of old blues artists and then contemporary ones like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Cray, Albert Colins, Buddy Guy and many, many others.

Now most Clapton fans, love him for his guitar work and that fan base is divided into 2 camps: “The Bluesbreakers and Cream years,” and the “Derek and the Dominos and the 70s years.” Almost no one rants and raves about Clapton in the 90s and 2000s years.

Almost. But I am here to tell you that those decades are the years that Clapton really resonated with me.

If you listen to Clapton’s output- especially the 70s material now, and especially after reading his autobiography, you can actually hear the drugs and alcohol. With the exception of Derek and Dominos “Layla and Assorted Love Songs”, whenever I listen to the 70s stuff, I can actually hear the effect alcoholism was taking on his life. It is particularly apparent on Backless and Another Ticket, two incredibly lackluster albums that just sound sloppy drunk to me, from singing to playing. While I love certain tracks off them, I can’t help but feel totally underwhelmed in the event that I actually play them.

During the seventies, Clapton was trying to be a singer-songwriter and not a guitar god. He wanted to be a part of the Band and then he wanted to be a country singer, but a rock god was out of the question, as he tried to drink away the demons that were haunting him in his personal life and his professional one.

Which brings me to what I think are the three seminal Eric Clapton albums that defined him not only as the guitar god that he was finally comfortable being but also as a damn fine, soulful singer— something that he admits he was never confident with, until now.

Those three albums are: “Pilgrim,” Reptile,” and “Back Home.”

To me, if you want to know who Eric Clapton, the man, and artist is today, these three albums, sum it up with grace and class and dignity with fantastic singing and guitar work.

Pilgrim is an album, that Clapton regards in his autobiography as his favorite album. He put his heart and soul into that record. He hung all his emotions out for all to hear. And it worked. He wrote the vast majority of the album, all gems either by himself or with his collaborators like Simon Climie and Greg Phillinganes. There are only two songs by other artists, and those two songs are also masterpieces as well as the others. Bob Dylan’s “Born in Time” is just a beautiful song and is the moving “Going Down Slow.” But the real, true gems on the album are “My Father’s Eyes,” a song about his experience as a father (his son Connor died tragically in 1991) and also about him not knowing what a real father was himself, and the sad and deeply moving account of the last night Clapton spent with his son- a few hours before his tragic death, “Circus.” Both are deep and heavy songs and the rest of the album is filled with plaintive, mournful songs that are actually beautiful to listen to and feel and at the end of the album, there is hope and redemption, which is really what the blues ultimately is about; you sing the blues to rid yourself of pain and to ultimately feel better. Be sure though, Pilgrim is not a blues album. It is a brilliant pop record.

Reptile is a sleeper album. Most of the critics called it a solid album, but ultimately not a revelation. To me, it is, because once again, he wrote half of the album, and the other songs the aren’t his, are once again, premium songs by Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder and Doyle Bramhall II. And there is the fact that The Impressions are there doing background vocals on the album as is Billy Preston. To me, there are 5 standouts on the record, Ray Charles’ “Come Back Baby,” James Taylor’s “Don’t Let me Be Lonely Tonight,” (to be fair, it’s really a cover of The Isley Brothers’ cover of James Taylor’s tune), Stevie Wonder’s “I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It,” Clapton’s own “Believe in Light,” and the rocking “Superman Inside” by himself, Doyle Bramhall II and Susannah Melvoin. The rest of the songs are gorgeous as well, but these songs are just stellar. And his singing and playing are superb.

Now you’ve read me ranting and raving about these two albums which are just incredible listening experiences, but the album that means the most to me is Back Home. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe my love of this album. Released in 2005, this Clapton album, like “Pilgrim” had Eric giving his all and you can hear it in every note. The album opens with “So Tired,” a fun, uptempo number about his being a father and being constantly tired. For me, I was a father just 2 years before that and I could totally relate to the song. The song was also a love letter to his daughters and his wife and his love of the simple, domestic life. I can totally relate to that as well. It is a fun song with some exquisitely understated guitar work.

Then comes the reggae “Say What You Will.” Now some can say that Eric Clapton made reggae and international sensation since he popularized it and then in return the world fell in love with it and of course, the one and only Bob Marley. But for me, Eric’s vocals on the song always seemed just okay. This goes back to the fact that he was just a few months removed from being a heroin addict, and was gong taught into being a drunk and also, he himself was not comfortable with him being a singer, even though he had a beautiful voice. Well not anymore, “Say What You Will” is beautifully performed and sung and it is not a reggae ripoff, but a genuine reggae song with lovely, subtle horns.

The album then takes a great turn into a raucous cover of the late and great Syreeta Wright’s incredible “I’m Going Left” that she wrote with her then-husband, Stevie Wonder. His singing is confident and deeply soulful. His band is also incredible throughout the entire album. The core band features one of the greatest drummers of all time, Steve Gadd, Doyle Bramhall II on guitars, Nathan East on bass, Billy Preston on keys and Hammond organ, Chris Stainton on piano and Michelle John and Sharon White on background vocals. I don’t think Eric has ever had a better band than this one. And this is coming from me who was a huge fan of the Steve Ferrone, Greg Philinganes and Nathan East rhythm section of the Journeyman album and subsequent tour that brought you the 24 Nights live album.

After the rousing “I’m Going Left,” comes one of the greatest songs ever and Eric does a cover of it that not only does justice to the original, but also takes it to another level. Those who know me, know my love of The Spinners. And “Love Don’t Love Nobody” might be their best and one the finest songs of the 20th century. It is a marvel of emotion and song arrangement by genius producer and fellow Jamaican, Thom Bell who was instrumental along with Gamble and Huff with creating the legendary Philadelphia Sound. Clapton’s take on it features a guitar solo, complete with a backing orchestra, that’s so beautiful, that will bring you to tears. Yes, it is that good!

After that emotional ride, it’s time to relax with another great reggae number, “Revolution.” This one might even be better than “Say What You Will.” It’s a great song.

His sweet and sincere cover of “Loves Comes to Everyone” is a fitting tribute to the late, great and often lamented, George Harrison. The simplicity of the song is what makes the song so beautiful.

After “Loves Comes to Everyone” is a fun and sly number written by Doyle Bramhall II and Jeremy Stacey, “Lost & Found.“ As with most things, Doyle Bramhall, it is a funky, soulful tune with a fantastic band arrangement. The infectious rhythm gets you every time.

After that is another Doyle Bramhall Ii penned tune, “Piece of My Heart”. This time his ex-wife, )former Family keyboardist and lead vocalist, and current F Deluxe keyboardist and lead vocalist and identical twin sister of guitarist Wendy Melvoin of Wendy and Lisa fame as well as former guitarist for Prince and The Revolution), Susannah Melvoin, and Mike Elizondo. Can’t say anything except that it’s a great number, as are the next two tunes, the Vince Gill, Beverly Darnall penned “One Day” and Clapton, Simon Climie penned “One Track Mind”.

But the track that gets me every single time is the incredibly moving “Run Home to Me,” another Clapton/Climie collaboration. Let’s just say, if you’re a parent that loves being a parent, there isn’t a song that sums up the love of a parent and their child like this one. It’s a deeply personal song for Eric that happens to evoke the universal love that most parents have for their children:

“When it’s 3 o'clock in the morning, And something scared you from your breast, I will gently rock you in my arms, And lay your little head on my chest,

And when you run, from my arms, Know we’ll always find you. And when you run, out of loving, And run home to me. (Run home to me)

And the years fly by so quickly, Like a plane before my eyes, And you’ve grown up into a woman, Before I had time, had time to realize.

And then you’ll run, from my arms, And we’ll always come and find you. And when you run, out of loving, Then run home to me.

Lord when you run, run out of my arms, We will always come and find you, And when you run, out of loving, Then run home to me. (Run home to me)”

Yes, this is really it. That is love. That is exactly what my wife and I have have done for our child. And it will never stop. I always get choked up hearing this song. Every time. It just gets me in a way that very few songs have done to me. And I can list those songs on one hand.

And the closer, “Back Home” is the perfect song to close this incredible song cycle. It’s all about a road wary Clapton and his need to go home to his family, where he belongs.

Where I belong.

“I’ve been on the road too long Moving in the wrong direction I don’t know where I belong I don’t know what I will do If I can’t get back home”

Perfection.