A Wizard, a Cyborg, and a Blogger Walk into a Bar...

Sometimes I find that my mind goes in 15 different directions at once. Most weeks--at least where this blog has been concerned--I've fought the flow and tried to focus my thoughts. But I'm going to give myself a little more latitude this time and see where it takes us. (Heaven help us all.)

So here's what's on my mind:

First, I want the Shazam movie to be good. This isn't commentary on the wider DCEU. I just really want this specific property to be good because I feel especially invested in it on multiple levels. I've liked Zachary Levi going way back--back even before the TV series "Chuck" premiered, back when he appeared in the 2002 Sara Rue-led comedy "Less Than Perfect." So fast forward through Chuck, Tangled, being a substitute Fandral (replacing Once Upon A Time star Josh Dallas) and one season of the hilarious "Geeks Who Drink" and yeah, we're fans. So I want it to be good on that count. But I also just want the character to get his due.

Captain Marvel--no, not the one in the Marvel Studios film coming out around the same time, but rather the original Captain Marvel--is an immensely underappreciated hero in the DC canon. His back story may seem corny--a centuries-old wizard brings a good-hearted orphan to his sanctuary via a magical subway train to grant him super powers--but I think that's the charm of it. It's an origin steeped in the Golden Age of comics. And while the good captain had an especially strange rogues gallery that will likely prove difficult to render on the big screen outside of the two obvious front-runners--Dr. Sivana and Adam Teth (Black Adam)--we're seeing that DC is having no problems addressing the same issue in its recently released Doom Patrol series.

How can you not root for this character? He's a hard-luck hero that almost makes Peter Parker seem privileged. Not only is the fictional character an orphan, but so is the comic series itself. Though Fawcett Comics was responsible for creating one of the most recognizable super heroes of the 40s--one that outsold the adventures of Superman--that couldn't prevent them from being sued over supposed copyright infringement to the point of bankruptcy. And with Marvel Comics subsequently trademarking the name "Captain Marvel," later publishers of his comics adventures couldn't even name the comic after him.

BTW - If you want to see an excellent treatment of his origin story, I suggest the "Superman/Shazam:The Return of Black Adam" segment of the 2010 DC Showcase Collection, featuring the voice acting of the late James Garner in one of his final roles (as the wizard Shazam). Note that the other segments are also good--particularly the Green Arrow story.

That brings me to my second random thought--which is, when am I going to get to see a Rom Spaceknight movie?

I'd originally heard that the character was going to be included in a shared Hasbro cinematic universe and some outlets teased the possibility that Rom--noble defender of the planet Galador--could be introduced (or at least hinted at) in 2017's Transformers The Last Knight. When those rumors proved to be false, screenwriter Zak Penn (Avengers, The Incredible Hulk, Ready Player One) was then announced--about a year ago--to be working on a script for Paramount. What has followed has been radio silence.

If Billy Batson was a bit older--and Rom wasn't a cyborg without a visible mouth--the two would certainly have a lot to talk about over a few beers. Based on a perhaps forgettable toy that I recently saw at a local comics convention, the Marvel-licensed comic turned him into a compelling, tortured hero who gave up his humanity to defend his homeworld. (Come to think of it, he'd have a lot to talk about with the Silver Surfer too.) Arriving on Earth in pursuit of the shape-shifting Dire Wraiths, he finds that they've already infiltrated society and they've branded him a dangerous alien invader. On the run from the army, he holes up in a small West Virginia town near his crash site where he's befriended by--and ultimately defended by--several of the local townspeople, including one who is a near doppleganger for his long-lost love left behind on Galador centuries beforehand.

Rom hopscotched eclectically across the Marvel Universe, touching the lives of characters ranging from the Nova Corps of Xandar to the Avengers to Alpha Flight and even Luke Cage. His foes the Dire Wraiths became ubiquitous enough to menace the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and New Mutants. But then his time in the sun ended--for a while at least, though the comic was recently relaunched with the revival of several Hasbro toy-themed comics at IDW.

For my part, I don't know that Rom needs to be part of a larger Hasbro-property universe--as the character could really stand on his own. So if tie-ins to Transformers, GI Joe and Micronauts are going to add unnecessary complications, I'm hoping Paramount will elect to move forward based on the project's own merits.

That said, Micronauts is another great property I'd love to see adapted. The comic by Bill Mantlo--who also wrote Rom Spaceknight--was an interesting mix of Star Wars and Inner Space, featuring a band of alien rebels who find themselves transported to Earth where they're only the size of action figures. But their pursuers are no less dangerous for their small size, and what ensues are some very cool fight sequences of dinner-plate-sized spaceships in dog fights across backyards and parking lots. (That description doesn't do it any justice--I'd suggest grabbing a few issues from the dollar bin and checking it out.)

OK--I'm going to stick a pin in this rant. The Micronauts frankly deserve a post of their own, so I won't try to cram that in here. If this week's stream-of-consciousness approach has shown me anything, it's that my mind tends to riff on itself pretty easily--as I pinball from one area of interest to the next. Thank you for joining me on this excursion; next time I promise to bring a map.

How Sorry Helped Me in The Game of Life

by guest blogger, C. L. Schock - 

I'm to understand that my husband has been attempting to entertain you with his musings and opinions for a while now. Contemplating this--my own first attempt to blog--I couldn't help but be a bit reflective. As my spouse has shared, he had been slow to launch any new posts in recent weeks because of a family tragedy. What he did not tell you was that the tragedy was the death of a close relative from my side of the family tree.

 

So it shouldn't surprise anyone that I've been thinking a lot about what my life was like growing up. There was nothing unusual about it, unless you count the fact that there was nothing unusual about it. I was raised in a very traditional nuclear family: no divorces, no crazy uncles living in the garage--not even a grandparent living in the spare room. My mom made dinner every night and, after we ate, we would typically line up on the sofa to watch a couple hours of television. But every once in a while, we would turn off the television, sit around the dining room table, and play a board game.

We didn't have a lot of board games at our house, especially compared to the still growing collection I maintain today. But I know we had a smattering of the classics--Monopoly, Clue, Battleship, and even Cooties. And I know we must have played them all on occasion. But the game that most often comes to mind is Sorry. It was a simple enough game--the object of which was to move your pieces around the board and to your goal while also impeding your opponents as much as possible. We enjoyed playing it, but I don't know that we played it any more often than the other games in our collection. For whatever reason, however, it's the game I think of when remembering game nights with my family. Simply put, it was fun in a way that made an indelible impression on my memory.

I don't recall exactly how often we played. I don't remember who won more games, or who lost more games. I don't know how old I was when we played for the first time, or how old I was when we played it last. But what I do remember is playing, spending time together, and enjoying each other's company as a family. And now I treasure those memories more than ever.

Just the other day, I was watching my daughter play The Game of Life with her cousin. The game started out like any other--with the two of them moving their pieces around the board while attempting to (A) get the jobs they wanted, (B) get married, and (C) have the number of children they wanted. I wasn't paying much attention to their game play until I happened to notice it diverging from the traditional narrative and success criteria. They had started to turn it into a sort of role playing game, elaborating on their pretend jobs and make believe families with growing detail and gusto. I don't believe that they ever got around to finishing the game. But I do believe that they had fun. 

As I reflected on what to write about in my first blog, I compared these two memories. And when I did, I concluded that sometimes the truth in a platitude is overlooked just because it comes from a platitude. But that doesn't make it any less true. Dozens of well-meaning friends and family members can tell you while in line at the funeral home that you will always treasure the memories of your loved one. Maybe they say it because they feel awkward and don't know what else to say. Perhaps they say it because they have seen it in countless memes and sympathy cards. But, perhaps the reason that they say it when they feel awkward is because it comes from some instinctive, deeply buried pool of knowledge. Perhaps countless memes and sympathy cards have the same message because the people who have lived through the pain already recognize the truth. 

So for those of you who have already lost someone close to you, I want to say I finally understand the platitudes. And for those of you who have yet to lose someone that close to you, let me give you some advice. Pay attention to the sentiments people share with you--however trite they might seem. Spend time with the people you love. Put down your phones and do something together. Play a board game. Go hiking. Have a picnic. Play basketball. It doesn't matter what you do; what matters is that you care enough to do it. Make the memories. 

I don't remember the details of playing Sorry with my family, I just remember that we played and had fun. And so I'm telling to you to take time to enjoy the Game of Life while you can. Yes, you should try to get a good job, meet someone special, buy a house, etc. But don't be afraid to go off script and expand the narrative. Elaborate on your story. Make some things up as you go. And know that, one day, when you reflect on your life, you may not remember who won which game. But rest assured, you will remember and cherish the fun.

Two Heads Are Better Than One--Unless Perhaps You're A Troll

In my last post, I shared an aspiration to become more regular and more structured about both these musings and my social media presence in general. Two days later, my family suffered a tragedy which, while not completely unexpected, reinforced for me how important it is to integrate everything I do with my role as a husband, brother, son, and father. Now, more than a month removed from those events, I think I'm ready to begin executing on several of those priorities.

First, this blog and my other social media posts are increasingly going to be joint efforts. My wife--sometime author C. L. Schock--is going to periodically share her thoughts and insights in this forum, occasionally substituting for me and occasionally acting as a counterpoint to my opinions. Look for an update to my banner in the near future reflecting this change, as Owl, Cowl and Blaster will then be more accurately described as "a couple embracing geek as performance artist and nerd as a verb." She and I have similar but not completely overlapping interests: she's an epic Potterhead and Whovian who also waxes nostalgic about some of my favorite 80's and 90's fandoms (Star Trek, Star Wars, Marvel and DC Comics, etc.). Her tastes skew a little more towards the literary however--Tolkien, Martin, Lewis, and others--whereas I rarely find much time for pleasure reading these days. And her opinions of all of these works and franchises are by no means cloned from my own. So I think her contributions will help to add balance and texture to this outlet.

Second, I'm on the verge of aligning my various social media accounts to form a single multichannel voice and strategy.

• You can expect to find a new blog post in this space weekly--ideally on Mondays
• That post will generally serve to set the tone for our social media for the week
• Next week's installment will likely be an introduction to/from my spouse
• Springboarding from there, I will be maintaining a weekly schedule of regular posts to my Instagram account across the other weekdays
• Tuesday and Thursday will be posts of "Migratory Meeples"--fun and funny pics of game pieces shown outside of their usual context (i.e., combined with pieces from other games, on other game boards, in real-life situations, etc.)
• Wednesday will feature forays into "Life as an NPC;" picking up a topic I'd first introduced in November, I plan to create what will be--at least at first--some simple random encounter tables for the purposes of making minor decisions for that day or the week on the whole
• Friday's posts will represent a continuing stream of story starters; "Pencil Prompts" is the tentative label, but that could change
• Not at first, but perhaps within a few months, I also hope to add at least one new design--be it for T-shirts, phone cases, pillows, whatever--to my CafePress storefront every weekend.
• Additionally, I hope to convert an old Twitter account into a series of "Dear Universe" posts--a stream of observations and suggestions related to "pie in the sky" ideas I'd love to see someone make happen (theme restaurants ideas, movies or TV show ideas, etc.)--impressions too small to warrant a blog post

I'm sure these ideas will continue to evolve over time, but this seems like a good starting point for a reboot. And hopefully you won't find the resulting two-headed monster that is OC&B too terribly scary a proposition to follow along. After all, we're a tandem of husband and wife geeks with strong--and often differing--opinions about a plethora of nerdy topics. So what could possibly go wrong?

;)