Shock Suspenstories: Hate!

The review for EC Comics' Shock Suspenstories #5 is up, but it's to big for Blogger. Go to the link below  to watch the review. Enjoy

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Fantastic Four: The Galactus Trilogy

Here's my first video review, sorry about the sound quality but if you use headphones it should be fine. All images and music are the property of their respective owners. I own nothing. Enjoy.

Swamp Thing Annual #2

   It may be fate or coincidence that I’m reviewing this comic; Alan Moore’s tirade in The Guardian for the most part has been kinda brushed off as the ranting of an old man yelling at clouds. He did have some thought provoking points but there was one comment he made about comic book characters being written for seven and eight year olds. However, the title we’re looking at today is not just for kids…I had to look over my shoulder just now, I was sure I was being stalked by a white rabbit.

    Swamp Thing Annual #2 from 1985 was the climax in one of the first storylines written by Alan Moore when he took over the book in Saga of the Swamp Thing#20, he put Swampy through the ringer and made compelling and thoughtful drama out of the idea of the search for self, mixing it with a healthy dose of hell borne adversaries along with one long time enemy who broke out of hell to gain revenge, that being Anton Arcane. Arcane failed in his campaign to destroy Swamp Thing so as a consolation prize he stole the soul of Swampy’s love Abby, who just so happens to also be Arcane’s niece.

   So this is where we pick up, with Swamp Thing looking over Abby’s lifeless body placed in a patch of grass in the swamp. He makes the decision to follow the trail to retrieve Abby’s soul from hell, hence the title of the story “Down Amongst the Dead Men”. Or Swamp Thing goes to Hell, which ever you prefer.

Who would you go through hell for?

    One of the many abilities that Swamp Thing has discovered since the revelation of his identity( which I’ll get to later on in this review) is to be able to travel through dimensions, and he uses this ability to enter the realm of purgatory where he comes across a woman who has just died and is looking for her son. Happily her son finds her and takes her into a bright light, once the light fades we meet Swampy’s first guide through the nether realms: Boston Brand, better known as Deadman.

    Deadman leads Swamp Things across purgatory and along the way seeing all sorts of shades and poltergeists that David Cronenburg  probably would have cast in a few of his films. Swamp Thing tells Boston of his quest to retrieve Abby’s soul and Deadman’s reply is that if she hasn’t gone into the lights and gone in the other direction, then it’s best to forget about her. I don’t think anyone was expecting a cheery, upbeat response from someone called Deadman, where you?

    The bright light once again appears and from that light comes a stranger, The Phantom Stranger to be more accurate. Swamp Thing and Phantom Stranger had met before and seem to be on friendly enough terms that he’s willing to lead Swampy into the light and guide him through the Heavenly Realms. With this we leave Deadman behind as he wishes him “rotsa ruck”. As I was reading this story for this review I couldn’t help but imagine the fourth Doctor Tom baker’s booming voice as the Stranger’s. It certainly made it more enjoyable for me and gave what he was saying a lot more weight, at least in my mind and yes I thought the 50^th anniversary episode was awesome too, moving on.

    As The Phantom Stranger guides Swamp Thing amongst the green rolling hills of Heaven which kind of remind me of Germany they come across an unexpected person, none other than Alec Holland. Okay this is where I need to explain what I meant before about the revelation of Swamp Thing’s true identity. If you followed the character since its inception we’d had always been told that Alec Holland was actually Swamp Thing who was burned in a chemical fire and reborn in the green muck of the swamp to become what we see today. This was the identity that was in canon before Alan Moore took over and was kinda restored with the 2011 relaunch of the DC Universe which included a new Swamp Thing book which I highly recommend.

    When Moore took over, he changed things up drastically by reveling that Swamp Thing was not nor never was Alec Holland but a creature that had Holland’s memories but was never a man. It was this revelation than began Swampy’s experimentation with his abilities such as the ability to transverse dimensions, it also led to Swamp Thing finding Holland’s corpse and finally laying it to rest. Pretty deep for a kid’s story, huh Alan? By the way, even after that revelation Abby still insists on calling Swampy Alec so in the name of variety I’ll start doing the same.

don't you hate when you get those floaty
things in your eye first thing in the
morning? 

     So after this meeting the pair move on and realize that Abby’s soul was indeed dragged to hell by Arcane, so this means having to go through the gate keeper between the two sides. The world goes dark, but light comes when the eyes of The Spectre open. He recognizes the Stranger and is surprised to see Alec, having believed that the elementals were all dead. The pair ask The Spectre to let them pass to retrieve Abby’s soul but get stonewalled because of The Spectre’s desire to keep the balance, that someone coming back to life could disrupt the balance even if that soul (like Abby’s) was wrongfully taken. Alec is ready to rage but the Stranger stops him and ask The Spectre if that included Jim Corrigan, the man who died and returned to life to become The Spectre. Charmed by the clever question he allows the pair to pass into the next realm, Hell Awaits.

     Alec and the Stranger cross over into a realm of chaos, a land of rotting life and bones. This is not a land of fire but a land of perpetual dying; this is hell as imagined by Alan Moore. Again I say, so much for kid’s stories. Alec is resolved to continue and the pair is met by Etrigan the Demon, a character we saw earlier in the story arc. After some verbal parrying between Etrigan and the Stranger the demon offers to guide Alec through Hell for a price, the white flower in the Phantom Stranger’s lapel which blooms as brightly as Abby whom the demon has seen to which all parties agree and Alec goes with Etrigan leaving the Stranger behind who is trying to say that this is against the rules to which Etrigan replies: “The rules? And if I break these rules, pray tell shall I be punished? Sent, perhaps, to Hell?” I have to agree that following the rules seems pretty pointless from here on. Bye, Bye Stranger, see you in Trinity War!

   As Etrigan leads Alec through the lands they come across many demons, but soon they come across Arcane who has become a kind of hatchery for insect eggs and Abby’s soul is not far now. The pair finally comes across her soul being picked at by a horde of demons. Swamp Thing attacks and rescues Abby which doesn’t sit right with any of them including Arcane who might be a bit pissed that he has been robbed of his revenge. The demons led by Arcane chase the trio through hell, but Etrigan is able to slow them down with the use of his hellfire. Soon they get to a point where Etrigan can open a door out of Hell and begins the incantation to open the rift. I have to mention that symbol floating in the air that the Demon uses looks suspiciously like the insignia from V for Vendetta, a little subtle cross promotion perhaps?

     The rift is open and just before they can leave Alec finds Arcane chomping on his ankle to try to keep them from leaving. But Alec shakes him off and leaves Hell with Abby’s soul. Swamp Thing wakes up back in the swamp and Abby opens her eyes to see snow has fallen in the swamp and that Alec is crying, happy to have her back and alive.

Beautiful

    Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing in the 1980s was one of the watershed marks in comics, it’s a highly recommended series that reinvented its main character, brought a more literary feel to comics, and this issue is a high example of how great this series was. When I read news about the Justice League Dark movie that Guillermo Del Toro supposedly has planned this is the story I imagine could be that movie. A lot of Moore’s stories have been transferred to the big screen and they’ve been anywhere from decent to really bad, see League of Extraordinary Gentleman for proof of that. If this was the story that would get the treatment I think it would finally do justice to an Alan Moore work and I do believe that Del Toro is more than capable to make this happen. Sure it would be banking on the nostalgia of comics past, but the argument that it was made for kids would get thrown out in a hurry.

Amazing Spider-Man #309

    For the first review of the new direction I decided to start off with a very particular issue of Amazing Spider-Man. At first glance it’s a very unassuming and seemingly cliché damsel in distress story and it debuts villains that weren’t used very much after this story.  In spite of this, the story is actually very well written, doesn’t go where you would expect it to, and is the very first comic I remember ever reading.

 Amazing Spider-Man issue no.309 was written by David Michelinie and drawn by Todd McFarlane and released in November 1998. It was part of a story arc where Peter Parker was traveling around the country to promote “Webs”, a book of the picture he had taken of himself as Spider-Man. Along the way, Spidey had to face some familiar foes like The Prowler and The Chameleon. Back in NYC, Mary Jane Watson-Parker is currently working on the soap opera Secret Hospital and putting the finishing touches on the couples’ new condo which is owned by a well off fan of MJ’s named Jonathon Caesar who has a big obsession with the spunky redhead. It’s when Peter is in Chicago promoting “Webs” that Caesar makes his move and kidnaps Mary Jane, holding her in a secret room of the building. Peter has been frantic in his search for the whereabouts of his missing wife and it’s here that the story opens with Spidey getting into a fight in a local boxing gym with a low level mob enforcer with the catchy name of Manslaughter Marsdale. After going a short round, Spidey interrogates and threatens Marsdale for information which he doesn’t have.

   Having gotten nowhere, Spidey leaves to brood about how Mary Jane’s disappearance must be a plot by one of Spider-Man’s many foes to get to him. Contrary to that thought, we find Mary Jane having dinner against her will with her kidnapper Jonathon Caesar who is proving to be very unstable in his obession with her. Between the collage of photos of MJ and his threats to cut her face up if she tries to escape, now that I think about it unstable is being generous. 

   Caesar is informed by his bodyguards that Spider-Man is searching for Mary Jane and based on that information decides to hire some specialists to deal with the web-slinger. The next morning and with nothing else to go on Peter goes to the Daily Bugle and gets the brush off from J. Jonah Jameson who in spite of his gruff demeanor is keeping an ear out for any information about Mary Jane’s whereabouts. He says this in front of his secretary Glory Grant who comments that JJJ must have a heart after all, but he brushes it off by saying there could be a story in this. Long time readers of Spider-Man will know that in spite of Jonah making Peter’s life as Spider-Man a living hell and being near disrespectful of Peter himself, the funny thing is he does actually care about him. This scene could just be chalked up to him saving face.

   After this Peter goes to visit Daily Bugle editor Robbie Robertson who’s lying in traction in the hospital. There was a storyline running concurrently with this one in The Spectacular Spider-Man where Robbie was visited by an old friend who had become an up-and-coming mob boss named Tombstone. Tombstone wanted Robbie to join his organization and when he refused his old friend decided to let it go, but not before breaking Robbie’s back. This scene harkens back to that storyline and Robbie relates to Peter the feeling of helplessness brought on by his current situation, a feeling that with MJ’s kidnapping Peter can relate to.

      Looking in on Mary Jane and her tribulations with Caesar, we’re introduced to his hiredassassins Styx

And I got Cable's old guns for half off too

 and Stone. Stone’s a short but burly guy who has a generic costume with big guns on his shoulders, kind of the model of an over drawn, over muscled 90s anti-hero character if the artist had some restraint in his depiction. Styx is a little more interesting, a tall, skinny, eloquent man who literally has the touch of death as demonstrated when he uses it to kill a houseplant. MJ takes one look at this and understandably worries for Peter’s safety, but as soon as they see Spider-Man swing by the two chase after him in a vehicle called the Turbo-Hopper which looks like a cheap version of the Green Goblin’s glider if they bought it at a yard sale.

   As Spidey tries to get to a better ground away from civilians Stone blasts him with gas,sonics, and then a strobe burst that blinds him. I’m surprised he didn’t break out the gun that fires turtle shells. Back at the apartment Mary Jane finally makes her escape, first she tries using a broken lamp to electrocute Caesar who is standing in a puddle of melted ice, but Caesar is wearing rubber soles so MJ clocks him with the broken lamp. Caesar’s bodyguards come in and since they don’t have rubber soles the trick works this time, the shock knocks them cold and Mary Jane escapes taking one of their guns with her.

     Back at the fight Spidey’s bouncing around avoiding what Stone’s throwing at him, Stone then hits Spider-Man with a heat beam and then coats the ground with an adhesive gel that traps him when he hits the ground. As Stone continues blasting Spidey, Styx moves in for the kill only to be stopped by…..Mary Jane Watson-Parker who comes in guns blazing and runs Styx and Stone off saving her husband’s webbed butt. I know it’s cliché at this point in 2013 but I can’t help but give MJ a “you go girl” for saving Peter aka the damsel in distress.

   Reunited, the pair calls the police and Caesar and his bodyguards are arrested and led away. As they head inside, Peter begins putting himself through a guilt trip about not being there to protect Mary Jane which she immediately grinds to a halt saying that this would have happened no matter who she was married to, and that the whole point of their relationship is that they’re both their for each other no matter who’s in trouble because according to MJ, that’s what love is all about.

Whine to Jack Kirby that you can't write this and see where that gets you

   My memories of this story were at best vague, but in rereading it for this review I found this to actually be a really good story. Mary Jane goes from victim to hero and proves that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself. David Michelinie to me is the best writer in the Spider-Man books to have ever written Mary Jane’s character during the marriage era of the book. He writes MJ not as the female lead sitting on the couch waiting for her super hero husband to come home or the traditional damsel in distress  but as a strong, capable woman with her own life and ambitions outside of her relationship with Peter. I’ve heard about how some writers don’t like writing Mary Jane because they didn’t know what to do with her during this period but Michelinie proves that to be utter crap and just the whining of uninspired writers. J. Michael Straczynski can also be credited as someone who wrote MJ’s character just as well, focusing on her career as an actress of both stage and screen. However, his involvement in the infamous “One More Day” storyline tarnishes that for me and for many others who are fans of Mary Jane and want to see the marriage restored.

     This is a story I would recommend for anyone who wanted to get into reading Spider-Man, it’s a good self-contained story that while it doesn’t show Spidey in all his glory it does show how well the dynamic between him and MJ can really be when you have a writer who actually tries and doesn’t give in to cliché tropes. Once again, David Michelinie, I salute you sir and thank you for writing the very issue that got me into reading Spider-Man.

Stranger in a Strange Land

  Hello ladies and gentlemen and to all ships at sea, welcome to the very first book review of Classics of Pop Culture,…yes you read right, an actual book with pages and no illustrations and big words. If this is your first time being exposed to my website and you decided to click on this review then congratulations, you’re braver than you thought. Stranger in a Strange Land is by Robert A. Heinlein and if you don’t know who Heinlein is then don’t worry, you’ve seen his work.

Whether it’s The Puppet Masters which was adapted into the classic sci-fi movie The Invasion of the Body Snatchers to Starship Troopers, Heinlein can be placed on the same level as other sci-fi luminaries as Issac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Ray Bradbury.

   Stranger in a Strange land was released in 1961 to a reception that was the literary equivalent to tear someone’s heart out, throwing it in the trash and then lighting it on fire. One critic went so far as to call the book:”…..an affront to the patience and intelligence of the reader.”

    Since then however it has gained status as a classic of the sci-fi genre and is considered a huge influence on the counterculture of the 1960s with its discussions of examining traditional concepts of religion, monogamy, money, and death and experimenting with a course of life that would work for them as opposed to shoehorning themselves into traditional mores. The only negative aspect I can find in this is that it stills holds onto the idea of males being dominant over females, which is fairly prevalent throughout the novel. However its popularity did grow to the point that fans of the book were known to visit Heinlein at his house and discuss the philosophies presented in the story. 

    Stranger in a Strange Land came about from a brainstorming session between Heinlein and his wife. The story was described as a retelling of the Jungle Book but with the human character being raised by Martians rather than wolves. Thankfully they decided to avoid the signature Disney sing-a-long. 

    The story centers around Valentine Michael Smith, a child born to explorers on the very first expedition to Mars that ended in disaster. Another expedition twenty years later finds young Mike alive and well having been raised by the native Martians. Once he is returned to Earth, Mike is confined to a hospital to allow him to physically acclimate himself to the gravity of Earth. Sadly that’s only the beginning of Mike’s problems.

    Since he wasn’t raised on Earth Mike has no understanding of customs and concepts that humans hold in high regard and in some cases that naiveté gets used against him. One early example comes as Mike is very nearly tricked into signing away his inheritance, you see the explorers of the first expedition to Mars were an extraordinary group who were in the upper echelons of their fields and whose contributions to Earth society not only advanced it technologically but also makes Mike a very,very,very rich man due to his being their only direct descendent. How rich are we talking here? Imagine if Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, Scrooge McDuck, and Richie Rich decided consolidate their wealth into one pot…..it wouldn’t come close to the wealth that Mike now has access to.

    Luckily, Mike has made plenty of friends along the way who enlightens him about the ways of the world. One key friend is a nurse from the hospital named Jill who not only became Mike’s first female friend or “water brother” according to the customs of the Martians, but is the first human female that Mike ever meets. It’s Jill whose concern for Mike’s well-being encourages her to take a chance and help Mike to escape the hospital.

   Another very important water brother is a man by the name of Jubal who is a lawyer/doctor/writer and also happens to be a cynical curmudgeon who takes Mike and Jill under his protection on his personal island along with his entourage of secretaries and maintenance crew. It’s Jubal’s knowledge and craftiness in political circles that allows Mike to gain his freedom. He also becomes a father figure to Mike helps him to learn the customs and culture of Earth and in turn helps him to grow in his understanding or “grokking” of what’s going on around him.

   In turn, Mike also teaches his water brothers the philosophies and language of the Martians, one concept that seems to stick almost right away is the word “grok”. “Grok” seems to be the Martian word for “to drink” but is also used to describe comprehending or understanding and ironically, it’s the first Martian concept that Mike’s water brothers tend to grasp. Mike also begins to grok the concepts of love and sexuality which result in Mike and Jill getting together as well as gaining experiences with Jubal’s secretaries.

   As Mike grows in his grokking he’s exposed to the religions of Earth, specifically the Fosterites who try to entice Mike into joining their sect mainly to have access to Mike’s wealth. Mike senses“wrongness” to the sect and is put off by them, but groks their need to find meaning in their lives. In his exploration of religion and philosophy he finds that all of them have a piece of the bigger puzzle which he boils down to a Martian saying that even he admits is a rough translation: “Thou art God”.

   Eventually it’s from this grokking that Mike decides to try to teach these concepts through the veneer of religion and creates his own which attracts followers from all sects of religion attracted to the Mike’s charisma and the freedom of self that he offers those willing to practice his teachings. This of course pisses off the hierarchy of many, chief among them the Fosterites who actually set fire to Mike’s temple.

     I don’t want to spoil the ending of the book because I’d like to encourage listeners to read this book, there so much more to the story than what I’ve described here. It’s interesting to note that after Heinlein’s death, his wife released a version of “Stranger” with an extra 100+ pages. I haven’t read this version but it might be worth it to some listeners to seek this version out and see for themselves the version of the story that Heinlein wanted to release and what those extra pages could have that shapes or reshapes the story.

   So in the end this book definitely fits the definition of a classic and is a book I would recommend to anyone interested in science fiction. There are many others that I could recommend as well but this is one of the few where I would say “read first”. Well I hope you folks enjoyed the review and ‘til next time, cheers to you all.

  

  

A Solution to the New 52

    Sorry it’s been so long since my last…well, my last anything but life tends to get in thsometimes and I won’t bore you with the details. Yep, shock of shocks; I do in fact have a life. However with recent news about another blunder made by DC Comics, this time concerning the last minute aborted plans for the marriage of Batwoman to her girlfriend it just added to the pile of missteps the company has made since the 2011 reboot of their entire universe. Now I could get into a countdown about the actions of DC but internet reviewer The Last Angry Geek made such a video that explains their blunders better than I ever could. So I would advise my readers to check out that video after reading this article.

  I have to admit that I was one of those who questioned why on earth DC was going this route, aside from the obvious cash grab that is. But I had resigned myself to judge slowly and see for myself what the results of this relaunch would be, the results of that were rather disappointing. I can’t say that I read every issue of the New 52, but I can say that in the majority of the books that I did read I almost immediately noticed a trend, a questionable new direction. This direction could arguably be traced back to around 2004 when a lot of DC’s books started to take a darker tone very much like Marvel’s books. This to me is a rather big mistake because DC for all intents and purposes tossed away one of the elements that made the company stand out, that of the lighter tone of the world and of the idea that these characters were the type one could look up to versus Marvel’s character being the types one could relate to.

    Since 2004 that dynamic had been gradually shifting with the characters being written with the attempt to be more relatable but in the worst ways such as being more egotistical, melodramatic, given to extreme shifts in character or even any amount of character purged all together. The New 52 seems to be the culmination of this direction with a few more add ons, that being that the stories tend to reflect the worst attributes of two eras: DC’s Silver Age and early 90s Image Comics. Basically what it boils down to is this: the stories for the most part seem to be very thin in terms of development, almost as though they were first drafts that got rushed out. Image Comics had this very same problem but made up for it with very flashy art work but even then the chinks in that armor were noticeable. The extreme bodybuilder look, the lack of expression in character’s faces the lack of background art, the over-sexualization of female characters were all hallmarks of comic books during the 1990s but it was Image that was at the forefront of these practices.

     Don’t get me wrong there are some books from the New 52 that I do enjoy the new Swamp Thing and Animal Man series are personal favorites and of course the Batman books have been consistently good. As a Superman fan I find those books rather lacking but if I was to launch into that this would be a much longer post. For the most part though the people I’ve talked to seem to be for the most part disappointed with this new direction and I doubt that DC has any intention to reverse course on this endeavor any time soon. So what can we, as comic book fans do? I think I do have a workable solution to this, I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this but I think it would be a worthwhile course of action.

    I’ve always been a big believer in voting with your wallet, and I think this is a case where that philosophy can be applied. Instead of buying the New 52 books, or at least the ones that aren’t worth our effort, we should buy up everything from before this current reboot. Every single issue, mini-series, trade paperback, collection, and e-comic from that era, if you don’t like the current direction then buy up the stuff from the previous direction. It’s all out there and available and it would show a noticeable shift in DC’s sales reports and tell them that THIS is what the fans want, not what THEY SAY we want but what we really want. Would DC respond to this? How would they respond? I don’t know, all I can say with any certainty is: it couldn’t hurt.

Here's a link to the Last Angry Geek's video concerning DC Comics and their misstepsTop 11 DCNU mistakes

My thoughts on Ben Affleck as Batman

Trying to make a case for you so please behave
   

  

    It seems that everyone else has thrown out their opinion of the news of Ben Affleck’s casting as Batman in the Man of Steel sequel; most of it has been quite negative. I have to admit that my knee jerk reaction to the news was to make a joke to a friend of mine that his casting was one of the signs of the oncoming apocalypse. Now that I’ve had a chance to mill it over the only negative opinion I really have is that fact that DC and Warner Brothers feel the need to add Batman to a Superman sequel before putting a much better story out there to build on Man of Steel like The Dark Knight built on Batman Begins.

    But back to the matter at hand, and I’m sure that the six people who read this are a bit curious about my opinion so here it is: I’m actually fine with it.

And there goes three fans, for the other three left I will explain….

   First off, Ben Affleck is not a bad actor. I find that he’s actually a very good actor that has a problem with choosing projects to star in. I’m sure if you were to think of at least five Affleck movies off the top of your head only one of them would be any good. Granted his last superhero movie, Daredevil, was not a great movie. It wasn’t a good movie if I’m being honest. But there were a lot more problems with that film than just Ben’s perceived lack of acting chops.

     There is one movie that Ben starred in that showed that not only could he act but has the appropriate range to play Batman. Hollywoodland was a movie that came out in 2006 that starred Affleck alongside

I really should watch this again

Diane Lane and Adrian Brody. In this Ben played George Reeves, the man who played the title character in the 1950s Adventures of Superman television show. In this performance Ben played a man who was conflicted by the fame he had gotten by playing such an iconic character who was a hero to millions and the resentment he felt at that role typecasting him grinding his career to a halt and ultimately leading to his suicide.

   This is where I feel the casting works because Batman is a conflicted character, torn between being Batman and Bruce Wayne, the temptation of crossing the line between hero and outlaw, the desire to stop his crusade or continue the war, this is conflict and Ben is good at this. If Ben can pull this off, which I believe he can, this can be a transformative moment in his acting career, I dare say this might even be a redemptive moment for his career after being considered for so long to be the king of bad movies.

    It’s been known to happen; one example is Robert Downey Jr. who started off as a child actor in the 1980s and was lauded for his talent and also for the massive problems with substance abuse he would have throughout his adult life. His career got a shot in the arm and now he’s been Tony Stark in the Iron Man and Avengers movies, he’s played a version of Sherlock Holmes, and he’s become a well-respected A-list actor. Who saw that coming?

   One more example that comes to mind is the late, great man in black himself Johnny Cash. Throughout the

The man

1980s his career went into a huge slump. Nashville was trying to push out the old guard of Country music and bring in new blood to appeal to a new generation. So they tried to put guys like Johnny out to pasture, but in the mid-90s he got together with Rick Rubin at American Recordings and produced some great music that not only put Cash back on that map but proved that he was still relevant and captivating to a new generation of fans. Who’s ever going to forget his cover of the Nine Inch Nails’ song “Hurt”? I know I certainly won’t forget it anytime soon.

So in the end, Affleck’s casting could very well be a good thing for all parties involved, and we should wait and see what the end result will be before we rush to conclusions. In the end, judge slowly is what I’ve learned in life. Of course if they can get a different director than Zack Snyder on this picture it would improve things by leaps and bounds. Cheers to all!

                                                                              -RC

                                                                           

    

Why I'm done with Spider-Man

Kinda how I feel

    As you may have guessed by the title of this post this is going to be my first negative post on this blog and I really wish I didn’t feel compelled to write this. Even though I’ve gone into detail about my fandom for Superman, there has been one hero that I’ve been a bigger and more consistent fan of for more than twenty years. That being Spider-Man and I came by my fandom of the character honestly since I’m a second-generation fan of the character.

    So then why am I officially done with Spider-Man? Why have I now, after having survived The Clone Saga and the endless plotlines that were never resolved  during the 1990s i.e. the fate of baby May and the incredibly disastrous and frankly insulting One More Day storyline that has been ripped to shreds by 99.999% of fans have I finally decided to be done with Spider-Man?  

   Well, back in 2010 there was a sort of changing of the guard in the Amazing Spider-Man book, after being a book that would be put out three times a month and tackled by three different writing teams the reigns were taken by a single writer, that being Dan Slott. At the beginning of his run Slott took good ol’ Peter Parker somewhere he’d only really been once before: out of poverty. He gave Peter a good job that was in his field of science that over the years had been relegated to the background in favor of increased action and drama. No longer did he have to sell pictures of himself in action as Spider-Man to make ends meet, no longer would he grouse about not having two nickels to rub together to ride the subway. We as fans were getting something that we didn’t really get before, character growth.

One of the best scenes in the entire story!

    Slott’s run had more ups than downs, the event “Spider Island” while not the greatest story ever told was fun and in the spirit of what good Spidey stories should be and the end result proved that Spidey belonged in the upper echelon of the Marvel heroes and it even made longtime nemesis J. Jonah Jameson admit that the web-head may not be the menace he was always crowing that he was. He was flexing his science muscle and was dedicating himself to being a better hero and by proclaiming “No One Dies”. One of the big questions became how was he going to accomplish this really big mission statement? But then came “The Superior Spider-Man”.

    In a nutshell: a dying Doctor Octopus managed to insert his consciousness into the mind of Peter Parker and not only take over his body but effectively kill Peter Parker. This change prompted the cancellation of the longtime flagship Amazing Spider-Man book and the launch of the new Superior Spider-Man. My first reactions were to try to ride this wave to see what would happen, this may be interesting, and how will they bring Parker back? In the meantime we had this new Spider-Man with NO ONE in the Marvel Universe any the wiser that anything had changed.

Now where did I put that Parker swatter?

    However, as the story progressed it started to become very apparent that the end game to this storyline would not just be the victorious return of Peter Parker, but the return of the status quo of his life. Throughout the time that I was reading Superior I noticed that is seemed that Peter/Octopus was kinda skating on thin ice at work because of his connection to Spider-Man and his unpopular rise in the brutality level against his opponents. We noticed how he was coming off as more arrogant and rubbing people the wrong way, how other heroes were starting to distrust Spider-Man because of this sudden change in his personality and NO ONE BEING THE WISER AND THINKING SOMETHING MIGHT BE AMISS!

    And it’s that last point that really points the way to where I think this is going, the contrivance that something is going wrong in Spider-Man’s life and absolutely no one can help him in spite of their power and ability has been done before and was done fairly recently. In the rightly maligned storyline One More Day, Peter and Mary Jane Parker sell their marriage to a demonic character to save Peter’s elderly Aunt May from a fatal gunshot wound. The end result was that the pair had never married and Peter who at that point had become a science teacher at a high school and was living with the Avengers as a well-respected member was sent flying back to a down on his luck photographer whose identity no one knew. He was back to the status quo he’d been in before his marriage to Mary Jane Watson, and it seems that the end game to Superior may be to put him right back in that place.

This…is….absolutely…infuriating!

     Peter Parker is supposed to be the character that the average person can relate to, but with a few exceptions Marvel has written him in arrested development for over twenty years and every time they allow him to grow even a little they knock him right back down. Peter gets married to a beautiful woman and they seem to think “oh this isn’t realistic, an average guy like him would never be able to get a woman like her” and after he gets her they erase the whole thing. He gets a job that gets him out of poverty, he somehow loses it.

Ever get the feeling you're not getting anywhere?

    I realize that if he’s supposed to be relatable then he should have setbacks in his life like losing a job or the end of a relationship, but there are setbacks and then there’s being shuttled back to square one. There not allowing these things to end, they’re writing that they’ve never happened. So basically the folks at Marvel are saying that Spider-Man is a loser because average people are losers that can’t improve their lives. When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the character they would give young Peter Parker problems he’d have to overcome and when he’d get over those there would be more problems to rise above. He’d have setbacks of course but he’d get back up and overcome the setbacks as well. But for most of the last twenty years Peter Parker has been plagued with the same problems over and over and over again.

And I’ve finally had it, that’s never to say I will never pick up a Spidey book again but the way things are going I don’t think it’s very likely. The fact of the matter is I don’t want to read about a hero who is supposed to represent me who can’t overcome his problems. The fact that he’s supposed to be that representative and is that powerless I find quite insulting and it’s Marvel who’s throwing the insult, luckily I don’t have to sit there and read the insult so I’m done with Spider-Man. Quite frankly because of this editorial mandate that Peter Parker is supposed to be a perpetual loser he will most likely never be written the way he should be and I think the only way that it would happen is if someone wrote it for free. But with the minimum wage laws being what they are that’s not likely so I just want to say to anyone who may be reading this at Marvel you get a no-prize because you lost a true believer.

  Well at least there’s DC, Vertigo, Image, Dark Horse….eh, I think I’ll be just fine. Sorry for the downer blog, it was something I had to get off my chest. I promise that the next review will be something positive. ‘Til then, cheers!

     

Analysis: 5 objections to Man of Steel

   

  There are lessons that we learn in life that for one reason or another we have to relearn time and time again. The lesson I had to relearn recently was nothing serious; I just had to learn not to take what critics say seriously. When I had first heard that Man of Steel was coming out this summer I was excited -- if you’ve been reading this blog then you know what a big Superman fan I am. But as people saw the movie and were putting in their two cents, most of it negative, I had some reservations. When I finally saw the movie I saw a lot of the objections that folks were talking about but it didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie overall.

 So yes, I liked Man of Steel very much and as I was watching the movie I found that a lot of these objections could be defended and even explained as to why they occurred in the context of the movie. So with that in mind, let’s look at five objections to this movie and see if we can’t defend them. Be forewarned though: we are going into some dense territory here and beware, there be spoilers here.

1.The Movie is too serious: One of the first complaints that come up in talking about Man of Steel is that the tone of the movie takes itself way too seriously. Folks have noted the lack of fun or a sense of humor in the story. That’s not to say that it’s completely lacking in either, there’s just not a whole lot of it and at worse it’s a dry sense of humor. But when you have a movie that’s tackling the difficult questions of "Who am I?" "Where do I come from?" "What is my place in the universe?" then the tone of the story can’t help but be serious by default. Take that into consideration and the tone doesn’t become the worst thing in the world.

2.Pa Kent is a dick?: When I saw the trailer where Kevin Costner as Pa Kent was talking to a young Clark about how he just saved a busload of kids at the possible risk of exposing himself, Clark asks his Pa if he was supposed to just let them drown. Pa answered "maybe". I found this a bit disturbing for two reasons, the first was that this wasn’t the character that we had come to know as the good natured, well-meaning, salt of the earth farmer who taught his son that if a man has great ability then he should use that ability to help those in need.

 This runs into the second objection I have and it includes an argument that has gone on in the comic book world for some time: the idea that a person with the power and abilities of Superman would use those powers to take over the world, kill whoever he wanted, etc. I think a lot of people who think these things however omit a big factor when it comes to the character of Clark Kent, that being the lessons he was taught as a child by the Kents. I’m sure someone who wasn’t taught to respect life and to help people would definitely use their power to the detriment of others, but that’s not Superman, that’s not how he was raised. It’s a nurture vs nature argument.

 We do see as the movie plays though why Pa Kent would say something like this. For one, those working on the movie tried to ground it in reality and the idea of some entity such as the government or a corporation finding out about young Clark’s origins and abilities and trying to gain control of him to their own ends is something that could conceivably happen in reality. So it would make sense for Pa to want Clark to keep a low profile. He is telling him to use his abilities for the benefit of mankind…just not yet. In reality, actions speak louder than words and when we see Pa Kent sacrifice his life to save people from an oncoming tornado, the message to Clark is that this is what you should be doing with the gifts you have. Pa Kent even tells Clark not to expose himself by saving him from certain death from the tornado because the world is not ready for him. A very dark experience to teach such a lesson but then again, reality is not wine and roses. In spite of a more cynical outlook on the world Pa Kent was ultimately teaching his son about what he should be doing with his abilities.

3. The Christian Parallels/ Misunderstanding of Evolution: Cards on the table, I was raised Catholic but for several years now I have self-identified as an agnostic. I have my reasons and this is not the forum for my reasons on my decisions on something so personal. That said, I have seen plenty of videos from people who self-identify as either agnostic or atheist complaining about the "blatant Christian overtones" of this movie. The most obvious example being the scene in the movie when Superman floats out of the Kryptonian ship in a crucifix pose. The fact of the matter is that this idea is nothing new. Practically since the beginning of the character there have been allusions comparing Superman to characters in the Torah and the Bible. Moses is an obvious one; Jesus Christ is another considering that Superman is a savior to many. There have even been theories suggesting that the name "Kal-El" is Hebrew for "Voice of God" or "Angel of Hope" depending on who you talk to. Considering that Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were both Jewish, this may not be that far-fetched.

 However, if one was to look at Superman from a literary viewpoint and not just a religious one you can see that these character traits don’t just fit Superman but other characters from ancient religions and mythology as well. The Egyptian God Horus who came thousands of years before Christ shares many attributes that are attributed to Christ. Mithra from the Persian pantheon is another early example of a pre-Christ like figure as well as Dionysus of the Greek pantheon. And again this is not the forum for religious debate I’m just making the point that these allusions to Christianity in Man of Steel are far older and far more common than many really know.

 This leads us to another main objection about the movie from an atheistic standpoint. In one scene, one of General Zod’s underlings named Faora briefly explains to Superman that she and the Kryptonians are stronger than him because they have no feeling for the people of Earth like he does. In their view, this makes him weak because "it’s just a basic rule of Evolution." Now I don’t know if this is something the writer actually thinks or if this is just a villain making lame excuses for their actions as many have throughout the centuries but it does betray a misunderstanding about what evolution is.

 Evolution is a race of a sort, but it’s a race with no real finish line since species continue to develop to adjust and adapt to their environment. The idea that a species can no longer adapt to something is not actually considered the pinnacle of evolution but an evolutionary dead end. If a species can no longer adapt to survive to threats in their environment then they may be ready for extinction rather than being the absolute best of their species. This is where the Kryptonians lose because while Krypton is certainly a harsher environment than Earth it was on Earth that Clark Kent gained and learned to master his abilities. And just because a species developed abilities that allowed them to survive in one place doesn’t mean those same abilities will make them strong in another -- in fact those same abilities may be detrimental in another environment such as Earth.

 In actuality this is a case of a species branching off in different evolutionary directions, with Superman gaining incredible abilities as a child on another world and the Kryptonians remaining somewhat stagnant in their growth. So while I’ll admit the writing to try and show this was clumsy if that’s what the writer was trying to do, I don’t believe that the movie should be seen as an affirmation of Judeo-Christian beliefs because of it.

4. Superman kills General Zod: This is another issue that briefly concerned me as well and oddly enough, it’s a much easier issue to defend. As I said before, there are plenty of people on both sides of the comic book world that believe that Superman should kill his foes. Not just as a last resort but because he can. Again this goes against the moral upbringing he aspires to, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t killed before. One well known example was his battle against the monster called Doomsday in the Death of Superman storyline back in the 1990s which was billed as a battle to the death in which the two foes ended up killing each other in battle. Now some would say that this shouldn’t count because Doomsday was a monster and had killed several hundred people before he was put down. In spite of that however, Doomsday was a living being.

 A less well known story was when Superman encountered an alternate reality version of General Zod and his soldiers who had committed worldwide genocide on their version of Earth. Faced with the fact that a prison of any kind wouldn’t hold them, that rehabilitation wouldn’t be possible, and that they were more than willing to kill again, Superman had to make a hard choice. This led to him killing Zod and his group by kryptonite poisoning. The result of this decision for a long while left Superman remorseful and unsure of himself, so much so that he left his Earth for a time.

 In Man of Steel, Superman has Zod pinned down in a single spot after a hellacious battle through Metropolis. However, Zod decides to unleash his heat vision against the humans around them. Left with no way to throw Zod back into the Phantom Zone, and the fear that trying to get him out of Metropolis would only result in Zod trying to pick off any innocent bystander, Superman is forced to kill Zod or let the death toll rise. After the deed Superman does have a scene of heavy remorse since he just committed an act that goes against his morals and gets some comfort from Lois Lane soon after. Did they deal with the ramifications of this on a personal level well? I’m think they did ok, could have done better, but I’m hoping it will be addressed in the sequel.

5.It’s too derivative of other superhero movies: This one….I don’t really have a defense for. I’m sure plenty of folks have seen this meme by now…

…..and I have to admit like many I did see a lot of similarities to other superhero movies like Batman Begins and The Avengers, I also remember thinking during the final battle between Superman and Zod that it reminded me of The Matrix Revolutions. The feeling by many was that because the first Superman movie was so revolutionary that this new one was going to break new ground as well. Sadly I have to agree that this wasn’t the case, I do however have a theory as to why this was. 

 First off, the writer of the movie said that they were trying to attract the general movie-going public rather than just the Superman and comic book fans. I think he fails to realize however that the divide between those two sides is not nearly as wide as it used to be even twenty years ago. That said, it could be that the team that made Man of Steel decided to make it more palatable and familiar to the general public at large so that in the sequel they could have the audience and show us something different. I think this maybe the case when you remember how the Dark Knight Trilogy worked out. Batman Begins was a good movie, not great but it was a good opener to the wider story of Batman. But then The Dark Knight followed and we all know the accolades that one got. As a Superman fan, I hope that this will be the case. Now that Man of Steel has garnered interest in the character again that with the next movie they’ll be able to really show us something fantastic.

 So that’s it, that’s my analysis of the objections to Man of Steel. Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Feel free to leave a comment if you’d like to put in your two cents of if you think I’ve missed something but please, keep it classy. ‘Til next time, Cheers!         

Coming soon...Man of Steel review

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The Death of Optimus Prime

    And here we are, after weeks of teasing I’m finally going through with my Transformers review. Initially I was going to do a write-up not of the live action Transformers movie that I totally loathe (but I will give credit to Michael Bay for the two things he’s good at, explosions and interesting camera angles. The latter however gets ruined by the fact that the shot is either too cluttered or too sparse but I digress) but of the 1986 animated movie that I think was so much better than the live-action blockbuster that came out this century. However, I decided that instead of doing a straight up review I would do a compare and contrast of an event that occurs in both the animated movie and the live action trilogy. That event is The Death of Optimus Prime.

    A quick synopsis for the four or five people who may not know: Optimus Prime is the leader of the  He is the pinnacle of what the Autobots are supposed to be: brave, thoughtful, and honorable. If you ask someone about Transformers I guarantee you the first name that will pop up nine times out of ten will be Optimus Prime.

 Autobot faction of Transformers and the main character of the franchise; he has the ability to transform himself into a big red semi-truck which is one of the most iconic aspects of the character.

    The Death of Optimus Prime has been a watershed story in the cartoons, comics, and movies that have made up the franchise and the story has been told in several ways.

The Man...Bot!

   In the Transformers animated movie Prime’s end came to pass in his final battle with his arch rival, the Decepticon leader known as Megatron. Megatron and his crew launched an assault of Autobot City, the Autobots outpost on earth. Over the course of a day the city was ravaged and many Autobots were destroyed in spite of the efforts of the city’s inhabitants. It was when the Decepticons began to close in did Optimus Prime appear and began to mow down (literally in some cases) the Deception forces until he finally got to Megatron himself and the fight began.

     This fight was easily the most brutal fight in the then short history of the animated series; you could see the cracks forming in their bodies from the beating, Prime gets impaled by Megatron at one point in the fight but soon Optimus gets the upper hand. Megatron starts to beg for mercy but this is a ruse to get Prime closer to use a gun he finds under a piece of debris, but then Hot Rod, one of the new Autobots introduced in this movie, tries to intervene and gets used as a hostage as Megatron fires a few well place blasts into the same area where he had impaled Prime before.

    Megatron then stands over Optimus ready to deliever the coup de grace when Prime delievers the final blow and sends Megatron falling a few stories and the crashes to the ground. With Megatron defeated, the Decepticons retreat and the Autobots are left with an utter disaster on their hands; chief amongst the casualties is Prime himself who soon dies from his injuries. To do this review I had to re-watch the movie and the death scene is a lot tamer that I remember, there is a rate of decay when Prime passes but in my mind I remember quite a bit more desiccation than what was there. I guess it’s another example of a memory from long ago being built up more in one’s imagination, still a very heartbreaking moment for any fan of the show.

Now that's a main event!

    Now we come to Prime’s death in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, where Optimus is targeted for death by the Fallen, the founder of the Decepticons . Apparently Prime is the only one capable of destroying the Fallen and wants Optimus out of the way to prevent that and to prevent his interference in the capture of Sam Witwicky. The Decepticons, led by Megatron, attempt to kidnap Sam and get Optimus Prime out in the open. When Prime gives chase he’s attacked by Megatron, Starscream, and Grindor in a battle that’s just as brutal as the animated movie. You have Prime ripping Grindor apart and Megatron running a spike into Prime’s back (as much as Megatron likes his guns he also seems to like sharp and pointy things as well). Prime dies as a result of the battle, but he doesn’t get the kind of on his deathbed scene that he got in the animated movie.

    The aftermath of Prime’s death drives both stories, in the animated movie Prime’s death leaves a void and it takes the rest of the movie to not only fill that void but to deal with threats that threatens to wipe out all the Transformers. It has far reaching effects that change the dynamics of the show for years to come. In Revenge of the Fallen, the quest to resurrect Prime is one of the main plot lines that drive the rest of the movie to its conclusion. It’s only when Prime is resurrected that the threat gets resolved, the Fallen is destroyed, and the Decepticons retreat.

   I have to admit both movies make Optimus Prime look like a badass and it take a lot to send him packing to the afterlife. But which take was better? I obviously have my opinion but I think I’ll leave that decision to all of you, what do you think? Which was better?

Superman: Secret Origin #6

     Well folks we’ve made it to the finish line, we’ve made it to the final chapter of Superman: Secret Origins. The fact that I’m doing this a mere two days before the release of Man of Steel had nothing to do with design and everything to do with my laziness. So this is where I would attempt a little bit of insight but if you’re like me you probably want to get this over and done with so let’s get to it…..oh and the Transformers movie review I promised will be up soon, promise.

    So our final chapter picks up where last chapter left off with the Army led by General Sam Lane has invaded The Daily Planet to collect any and all information regarding Superman. Lane tries to play the “I’m your father so you should trust me” card with Lois Lane who fires back ed to be a bombshell by asking Lois why Superman never told her that he is an alien and by that standard: a monster. Back to the xenophobia again.

    Elsewhere, Lex Luthor has just finished his operation on Sgt. Corben after his battle with the Last Son of Krypton, Luthor proclaims success by shouting “He’s Alive”. We then find the Army in the sewers when they come across Superman who puts them out of commission in about 5 seconds and then takes the fight to the streets of Metropolis where he smacks the soldiers around like its nothing. Back at the Planet we find that General Lane’s bombshell has had no effect on the paper’s staff so he then tries to tell them that it’s all hopeless for them since he has the one thing that can kill Superman, Kryptonite.

    This spurs Lois and Jimmy into action, Jimmy then blinds the soldiers with multiple camera flashes while Lois escapes but not without General Lane noticing her ducking out. We return then to Superman’s fight with the Army when a cab gets thrown into him courtesy of Sgt. Corben who fresh off his life saving surgery has the Metallo armor completely grafted onto his body. The Army stands aside to watch Corben get his licks in but Superman quickly turns the tide back in his favor by sending him flying into a tank.

Hey Tony Stark, I think you better call your lawyers about this one

     Corben is enraged by this and even starts turning on his own people, it’s then that Lois enters the picture asking Superman to leave for his own safety. She tells him that his adversaries are willing to kill him because they’re afraid of him. Corben fires back by saying that their not afraid but that Superman is a threat to them and that he could change everything, I don’t have a reference book with me but I’d say that statement is a pretty good statement of fear. Superman charges at Corben and manages to knock off the Metallo face plate that reveals a face that if this were a video review I’d queue up a scene of the Bride of Frankenstein screaming in terror.  By the way if you’re keeping score that’s one Frankenstein reference for the comic and one for me.

   Lois runs out yelling “leave him alone you monster” right at Corben who in response unleashes a green energy blast from his chest. Superman gets in the way of the shot and has a very hard effect on him since the blast had Kryptonite in it. Superman then launches a manhole cover into Corben’s chest and uses his heat vision to melt it into the Metallo armor. Do they make manhole covers out of lead because that’s the only thing that makes sense to me for why the Kryptonite doesn’t have any effect on Supes when he’s up that close? Superman then flies Corben into orbit where he passes out due to lack of oxygen.

   General Lane then arrives just as Corben falls at his feet, Lane orders his soldiers to arrest Lois and Superman, but the men are hesitant to do so and when they make their move the crowd stands up for Superman. Supes then gets between the two sides and implores them not to take things any further, when asked what he wants he says that he doesn’t want them to look for a savior and to use their own gifts to make things better for everyone. I cleaned it up a bit so I could spare you folks the cavities this kind of sweetness could create, it is an uplifting speech but I think you should read it for yourself.

    With that situation calmed down Superman turns his attention to Lex Luthor who screams at him that Metropolis is his and Superman can’t take it away from him. Supes replies that it doesn’t belong to him, it never has, and that he won’t let Lex ruin it for everyone else. We return to the Daily Planet which I suppose would be a few days after all the action where thanks to their coverage of Superman the paper is back on top. Lois comments on Clark’s latest story and just as she’s about to acknowledge that Clark’s her competition she finds a note on her desk.

   Lois runs up to the rooftop to find Superman fixing the Globe on the top of the building. Supes thanks Lois for making him feel at home and Lois talks about how his presence has lightened his outlook…..again I’d read it for yourself because I think I’d need to floss if I gave a blow by blow review of this moment. Just as things start to get close Jimmy comes up and interrupts things which give Superman the opening he needs to exit stage left.

   We then see Lex Luthor heading out for his daily ritual to find that there’s no one there singing his praises and asking for his help. We end this issue as we began the Metropolis arc with a new transplant looking up in the sky, but Superman had changed things since the old lady Clark had bumped into before is not giving the kid hell for looking up into the sky as we see the whole city looking up to Superman flying above the Metropolis skyline. FIN

    ……..And that’s it, we’re done! All in all a pretty good series, yeah it has it’s moment of cheese and a few things about the plot that are debatable to whether they’re necessary but it’s a really good retelling of the Superman origin and one that I give a high recommendation to anyone interested in Superman.  As great as it was to talk about this series I think I’m going to stick with single issues for a while until I find a series that’s worth going through as much as I’ve done here. Thanks for sticking with me.

Vinyl Resurrection

   I might as well face it; often times pop culture can be as fickle as hell. One day out of the blue you hear about some new trend whether it's clothing, music, a new word, etc. and sometimes you think to yourself either “that's cool” or “that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard.” Maybe you're one of those people who really don't care; I like to cover all my bases as you can plainly tell. But for one reason or another, this trend will catch on and become so popular that it unceremoniously pushes itself into your life somehow, someway no matter how ridiculous it may seem. I've never watched one episode of American Idol but thanks to constant updates by AOL news l knew about Reuben Studdard coming in second to Clay Aiken. I think I just felt a cold shiver go up my spine.

    Trends come and go in pop culture, but somehow, someway some of them actually manage to make resurgence later down the line after it was supposed to be dead and buried. A group like Aerosmith gets big in 70s, practically grounds to halt through most of the 80s, and suddenly they get big again. Who but the most die-hard fan would have seen that one coming?

    Technology is very much like that, in just over 100 years we went from records made from acetate and vinyl to cds to downloadable music files. Each new piece of technology has made the previous one obsolete, but something very rare has happened in the last few years. Out of the examples I made just now when it comes to listening to music, one of these formats is making something of a comeback.

     This is where pop culture and technology meet as in the last few years since the advent of downloads; records seem to be having a sort of revival that's usually reserved for actors getting that big movie when a few years ago they would've called it a day. I'm looking at you John Travolta. When you walk through stores like Best Buy, Target, and Borders (when it was still around) there are a lot of things you'd expect to see, vinyl records probably weren't one of them.

    To say that records went extinct at that moment, but one does have to ask “how did this happen?” Aside from downloads, there are a few reasons why this happened:

                   1.   The collectors market: if there are people who go out and collect comic books,

old movie posters, etc. there has to be a group out there that collects records. These folks are the die-hard fans of the medium who regardless of whether the embraced the new technology or not, they refused to let go of those wax stacks. The reasons vary, whether it was nostalgia, whether it was preference to the lo-fi, warm sounds, the cover art, etc. this group was one of a hand full that kept records from being sent to the grave.

       2.  Indie and Underground bands: I remember when Hot Topic was still cool (shut up) you could get clothing, jewelry and, shock of shocks…..music from bands that may not get sold at your normal music stores. I remember going to a Hot Topic around 2002 and while I did have some records that I had inherited from hadn’t actually bought one myself. Until I bought NOFX’s “The Decline”, an 18 minute single on 7 inch vinyl. NOFX was never one of my favorite bands but I did enjoy putting that record on and jumping around in my room to it. 

                  It was bands like NOFX and many others in the underground and indie scenes that kept the record alive mainly due to the fact that it was cheaper to record vinyl.

             3.  DJs Keep them dancing: DJs in the hip hop scene were another group that kept the record alive mainly because of how much easier it was to use those than the new technology. There were specialized cd players and rigs that allowed DJs to mix, cut, scratch, etc. like they would on vinyl. However, a major complaint was a lack of feel  that was the majority of DJs preferred over the new tech. So many DJs decided to keep their records for another day.

         

        I’m sure there were plenty of other groups who could claim to be a part of this, but in my research these are the groups majorly responsible for keeping it alive. And once downloads came and cds became obsolete it made it possible for records to come back, and become an acceptable and somewhat profitable trend once again. Maybe “Vinyl Resurrection” is a bit of a misnomer since they never really left, but I’m glad they’re still around and giving us something nice to listen to.