I've Discovered Who I Am

This morning, I came to realize that I share more with the Incredible Hulk than I want to admit.

I willingly concede that I do not have Bruce Banner's intellect or the Hulk's massive physique or prodigious strength. I am, however, reasonably intelligent, and I am a rather large man.

The resemblance becomes greater when I admit that rage is my controlling emotion. Like the Hulk, I'm perpetually angry. According to my wife, that rage is probably shortening my life. Like the Hulk, I want the stupid, puny humans to leave me alone. When they don't, I want to smash.

I wish that I could be a wisecracking Spiderman or the ever lovin' blue-eyed Thing. They seem too optimistic.

All this introspection, has got me wondering if the comic book creators haven't created some broad modern archetypes. The Kirk, Spock, McCoy triumvirate seem to fit some of the NT, NF, SJ Myers-Briggs or Keirsey-Bates types. Maybe comics, with their wider range of characters have developed examples of the full 16 temperament types.

More Reasons To Become a University Professor

A great post demonstrating that academicians have too much time on their hands. I am going to have to revise my thesis to meet these new criteria:

"Now that the New Historicism is waning in prestige, the New Skrullicism is making impressive advances. (I think it would be difficult to be hired out of an English department today without some familiarity.)"

Age of Bronze: Sacrifice

Because I am late to the Age of Bronze fan club, I am reading it in trades. I really don't remember if I heard about this book when it first came out and refused to pick it up because I am a myth snob. Maybe, I hadn't heard about it until six months ago. If I originally dismissed it, I was wrong. Eric Shanower captures the myths in all of their gore and glory

Shanower develops these well-know characters with both accuracy and originality. Myth snobs can reacquaint themselves with Agamemnon's pride, Paris's vanity, Odysseus's cleverness, Nestor's garrulousness, and Achilles's youthful lust for honor. Yet, each character is revealed in a original, modern way. Agamemnon's and Odysseus's inner conflicts are particularly well-done. Those who are new to myths get the story in chronological order with all of the necessary back story given although some little details, such as Poseidon's building Troy's walls, perhaps need a bit more detail. Speakers just seem to throw out these facts.

I have a few quibbles. Like other retellings of the myth including the movie Troy the gods are only tangential elements of the early parts of the story. It was the gods that originally got me interested in myth. Some of the art--like the splash page depicting the House of Atreus history--is tremendous. On the downside, the female characters, with the exception of Thetis all look the same to me. Perhaps, I just can't figure out black and white art work.

Even with with the quibbles, Age of Bronze has been one of my best summer reads and a book that I will push on non-comics readers.

Some Links

I'm old enough to remember buying a suit with two pairs of pants, but I never knew the word pants was so funny. (via Comicmix)

I agree that Burn Notice and The Bronx is Burning are must see summer television.

Buy a Dairy Queen Blizzard on August 9.

Every child needs one of these.

God Bless Scott at Polite Dissent.

The Order #1

I read The Order #1 last night, and was pleasantly surprised but somewhat perturbed as well. First I liked the use of mythological types and functions conceit. I liked Tony's little speech about the importance of symbols contrasted with Ares's embrace of the royalties. Then all the traditional myth seemingly went away.

Second, I wish that they had tried to work in the American types such as the American frontiersman or the taciturn, practical Yankee. The list of true American archetypes may be small, but there are also dozens of stereotypes that could have been used. For example, the village blacksmith could have replaced Hephaestus. On television, Heroes demonstrates that stereotypes such as the cheerleader or the geek can be creatively used.

By setting the story in Hollywood and recalling Tony's bouts with alcoholism, they unwittingly developed the Star and the Born Again Sinner, and as far as I'm concerned, Tony is the Gangster writ large. And therein lies the problem. Everything that Tony is doing from sending the Hulk into space to the Registration Act to the 50 state initiative all violate the American myth(s).

No one is supposed to plan our lives for us in the way that Tony, the self-proclaimed futurist, apparently is. If we screw up, the consequences are administered through the through the rule of law. Five super powerful individuals are not supposed to disappear a powerful, albeit extremely dangerous, rival, even with government sanction. And the idea that the federal government is going to create an army of superheroes and station them inside the United States to protect citizens against domestic threats seems akin to the frontier forts that were used to subjugate Native Americans, a part of our past that I doubt Americans want to revisit.

Marvel keeps insisting that the correct side won in Civil War. They keep insisting that Tony is not a super-villain. (The comparison to Magneto does allow for some wiggle room.) If Marvel is right, then the types that others have found in the American culture are myths as the word is commonly understood--they are total falsehoods. I continue to believe that they're true symbols that Marvel can't use because their story line totally violates the American story.

Of Time and Other Stuff

A short family vacation followed by a rushed family trip followed by mass confusion leads to nearly three weeks without a post, so I will do some random musing and promise to do better tomorrow.

1. I like Thor better than nearly everyone I have read on the web. I grant that it's slow, and I'll share many of the complaints about issue 1. Issue 2, however, had great art. I thought that the human reaction to Thor rebuilding Asgard and the country boys driving off with some of Asgard's gold was well worth the price.
2. I just finished reading Countdown 50-43 and it seems to be a jumbled mess designed to give DC the opportunity to kill off characters.
3. Speaking of messes, I'm getting tired of reading books like Countdown or WW Hulk or and other titles that are tied into a major crossover and being confused because I can't afford to buy the whole stinking line of both Marvel and DC.
4. People need to start seeing the difference between beefcake or cheesecake and porn. Everytime there's a provocative drawing of some character, the comics blogosphere seems to go nuts. So far the only warrented eruption of outrage has been the Heroes for Hire #13 cover.
5. Dynamo 5, The Lone Ranger (Dynamite) and Catwoman are becoming must reads.
6. Why did Top Cow need a joint project with Marvel to introduce their First Born story?

Enough for now.

Oh Shit!!! Another Massive Crossover??

I shouldn't be surprised, and I doubt that all of these predictions will be shown to be accurate, BUT the last one seems to be all too plausible. Of course Wizard will have far more access to corporate plans than I do, and I would look forward to a Hulk v Thor fight.

Some Comics Reviews

The local comics book shop (lcbs) is about 90 miles away. Yesterday, I spent around $20 in gas to buy $20 in books, probably not a good investment unless the psychic reward was really pretty big.

Omega Flight #4--I'm liking Talisman as a character. Beta Ray Bill needs to up the hammer usage a lot. The fight scenes just seemed confusing. Grade: C

JSA #7--I know that I'm close to AARP range, but I really had forgotten about the Nazi's raiding the picnic and I'm not sure that I needed to see that skirmish resolved. I like the idea that it takes time adjust to new super powers--the sidewalk and hospital floor destruction was amusing. The Superman/Starman exchange reminds me of conversations that I've had with my father--you know the one's that happen when fathers and sons talk past each other. The ending was too sentimental. Grade: B-

Dynamo5 #5--Great book--but the late? Captain Dynamo's illegitimate daughter doing an open mouth kiss with his widow--seriously, a little creepy no matter what form she's taking. Grade A-

The H1ghwaymen #1--I missed this one when it originally came out a few weeks ago. I like the old guys getting back in the game motif. It's worth looking at some more. Grade B+

WWH--Gamma Force--I bought it but I couldn't force myself to start it. I think that Marvel's release schedule turns the simple Hulk SMASH into a bewildered WTF? Plus, this one seems to be set long before Hulk was sent to Planet Hulk. Grade: Incomplete, but not looking too promising

GPA: C+ with the incomplete counting as a 0. I got Sonic limeade, so the trip was probably worth it.

I Am Such A Geek

I found this passionate attack on Marvel Comics post-Civil War Universe rather refreshing.

This intellectual analysis kept me interested.

I want to find and post answers to this list by tomorrow.

Some Christianity That I Just Don't Get

Yesterday, The Evangelical Outpost linked to this post “How To Turn Your Daughter Into A Whore In Two Easy Steps”. Step one is enroll your daughter into a public school. Step two is kick back and watch. According to the self-proclaimed public school math teacher, “[d]ay in, day out, I stand in the halls of my high school and wonder why half the girls are even trying to get a high school diploma–they would have such a promising career as street walkers” and that there is “no way in you know where my daughter would ever go to public school beyond elementary school.” He sums up his stance with a small confession: “I have a problem–I have values.”

Let’s start with step two first. I teach literature, so I’m going to adopt the idea of in media res for this post. His step two is a disaster for anything one’s child does. The conversations and arguments about what is and is not appropriate apparel, behavior, food, drink, friends, music, literature, spending, or worldview are part of parenting. Doing anything as step one and then kicking back to watch is going to lead to disaster.

On a more important level, the math teacher seems to have missed a metaphor. Isn’t it possible that the reason the girls in his school dress like provocatively is that too many Christian girls are in Christian schools? It’s tough to function as the salt of the earth if the salt is in a shaker on the shelf. The whole idea of being the light of the world is that the light isn’t hid under a bushel. Christian schools are the most effective bushels that I have ever seen. Let’s face it, it’s virtually impossible to replace Britney Spears with Rebecca St. James (or whoever the CCM pop starlet of the moment is) if no one except Christians knows who Rebecca St. James is.

On a more general note, the whole public schools cause prostitution, drug use, and foot fungus cant that certain elements of Christianity continually use is tired and useless. On the clothing question, many public schools have dress codes and do their best to enforce them. More importantly, how do the clothes teenagers wear to school differ from the clothes that they wear to the mall or a restaurant or any other public place? Unless one locks up one’s daughter like Rapunzel, I doubt that there’s any way to keep her from seeing her peers dress in ways that this guy disapproves of. By the way, in case the math guy isn’t familiar with the fables, the tower thing didn’t work so well for Rapunzel’s father.

Finally, what’s with the “I have a problem–I have values” snark? I admit that I did only a cursory check of the Bible sites on the web, but I didn’t find any translation that said “by your snark shall all men know you are My disciples.”

I promised myself that I was going to let this bit go, but I can’t, so here comes one more finally. When the people who “work in corporate America, or some job where you’re just in contact with middle and upper-middle class people” are exempt from society’s problems because “you have no idea . . . [that] our society [has] sunk to the level of pond scum, and it shows in the way our kids dress and comport themselves,” I get pretty irate. Aren’t the people who work in upper and middle class America the ones sending their kids out of the homes and to the schools? If they don’t know that kids are dressing too provocatively and coarsening the culture by forgetting common civility, they should. They’re the parents. Apparently, people who work with the poor and the poor themselves have acquiesced in the lowering of our cultural standards and know all about teenage prostitutes because it’s only the “upper and middle class” who have no idea about depravity. I’ll let James 2:6-7 sum up my point that the rich don’t have an exclusive hold on morality. “Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? [7] Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called?” Let’s not help the rich despise the poor any more than they already do.

Christians are called to be in the world not of the world. All posts like this do is give the world the impression that we want out and nothing to do with them. If we all get out, the only faces of Christianity that will be left are the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons among us. I don’t think they look much like Jesus. Instead let’s do the tough job of working on love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance in our own lives.

Some Stuff That I Enjoyed Reading This Morning

I had an enjoyable morning skimming the following:

This post about elegies

Cory's cutting of an intro to Robert's Rules

Spiderman and U2 together, sort of

A little rant about how we really do kids a disservice when we limit their imagination

This style guide which I should review a bit more because I'm know I'm guilty of dozens of errors

Some satire and some more satire and a little more satire

Some productivity links that I need to checkout.

And then I had to go to work

A Short List of Stuff I Believe Today

It’s not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. (Rick Warren)

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

Rivalry is better than envy. (Mongo Proverb)

An intelligent enemy is better than a stupid friend. (Senegal Proverb)

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young. (Albus Dumbledore)

It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there. (William Carlos Williams)

Fiction is a necessity; literature is a luxury. (G.K. Chesterton)

A Quick Post

One of the best lines that I’ve read recently comes from Pascal”s Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God. James A. Conner, the author asserts, “Perhaps genius begins with deprivation.”