Welcome to a Happy DC Universe

Please note that this is a piece on my own experience with superhero media. My experience was very limited in the 1990s and 2000s and was often drawn from early incarnations of the characters shown on TV. I started reading the comics more in the 2010s.

In an era where Marvel has taken over (thanks to Disney) and the latest X-Men animated series has taken pop culture by storm (pun loosely intended), it seems that Marvel is currently winning the long standing rivalry between them and DC. My first introduction to Marvel was through the Spiderman movie from 2002 and the animated series X-Men Evolution. I was aware of other animated Marvel shows from the 1990s, but they weren’t often on the kids channels as reruns. 

Though both the Spiderman movie and X-Men Evolution TV series had their dark moments (Uncle Ben dying and learning Nightcrawler’s origin were both traumatic for little me), they were overall lighthearted and fun. Those properties are what I associated with Marvel for a long time and wasn’t familiar with other heroes like Captain America, Iron Man, or Deadpool.

I was much more familiar with DC heroes.

The 1992 Batman the Animated Series (which introduced me to Kevin Conroy as the best Batman) along with the 1989 movie were some of the first superhero properties I watched. Plus, with my dad being a fan of Scooby Doo, Justice Friends, and the 1960s live action TV show, Batman popped up a lot. Sure the older versions were lighthearted like Marvel, but it was the dark and brooding 90s incarnation that caught my attention. That didn’t mean that these versions didn’t have their fun moments. The animated Batman is still one of my favorites, even if his story ends more on the tragic end, and that series joined up with Superman the Animated Series to bring us Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond, and a ton of crossovers with the amazing Static Shock. 

Sure, there were dark moments (like what happened to Tim Drake and Richard Grayson), but overall things were still pretty light hearted going into the mid-2000s with Teen Titans (minus any of that “go” nonsense).

And if you’re wondering how I can say all this without mentioning the comics, well… I wasn’t yet a comic book reader. In fact, the only graphic novels I was familiar with, at this time, were the Asterix ones my dad had from the 60s and started bring back from Europe for me to read (I didn’t see an Asterix book in the United States until the early 2010s). My sibling read Tintin. 

Superheroes were fun to young me. They could be dark and brooding, but they still smiled and laughed. They had friends and trusted people. Their villains were evil, but never to the point where the good guys lost hope.

Again, wasn’t reading the comics at this time. I had no idea who Jason Todd or how he died. I was only familiar with the Teen Titans version of Slade, not the comic book one. I didn’t know about Bane breaking Batman’s back. The animated series wasn’t allowed to kill anyone, but a child was tortured to the point of insanity on my screen.

And then “Batman Begins” hit theaters.

Suddenly broody superheroes were all the rage. It was quickly followed by the incredible “Dark Knight” and “Dark Knight Rises”. Both had huge body counts, intimidating villains, and high stakes without a happy Batman insight (probably because he didn’t have a Robin dressed as a traffic light to make bad puns while taking down bad guys).

You can even see how it influenced the early “Iron Man” and second iteration of “Spiderman” (the Andrew Garfield version) movies. However, they still maintained some level of fun. It wasn’t until I saw “Avengers” in 2012, that I felt that superheroes were being shown as fun again in theaters.

And while, Marvel (now owned by Disney) had taken Superheroes in a more fun adventure direction, 2010s DC cinema seemed to think that dark and gritty was the only way to go for more “realism” (or that’s the argument I’ve heard). By this point, the CW’s Smallville had ended and the “Arrowverse” was taking off. DC fans, luckily, still had fun adventures with DC Animation, but even that had gotten darker and grittier when not explicitly made for teens and kids (Young Justice was fantastic and was canceled because allegedly the “wrong” demographic liked it more than than the targeted one, it was later resurrected for two more seasons). 

DC fans may have liked “Wonder Woman”, but they hated “Batman v. Superman”. “Suicide Squad” was a mess and the less said about “Justice League” the better. DC did have a cool take with “Titan” and “Gotham” has the right mix of Batman 1989 and the 1992 animated series, but they seriously botched the ending.

And then the 2020s came and fans were given the light and joy that is My Adventures with Superman. Superman was suddenly fun again. He was young, inexperienced and hopeful. He wasn’t carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and he wasn’t fighting with any other hero. He was a dork on a mission to fit in apnea become a reporter. Of course he had to save cats in his down time, he’s a good guy. 

The second season is coming out soon and it’s like I’m back in time on a Saturday morning watching Justice League or Static Shock again. I’m excited and happy and, above all, hopeful.

More recently, I’ve become familiar with the Webtoon Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. It is everything I want in a BatFam (what the fans have dubbed Bruce Wayne’s growing collection of children and Gotham based superheroes) media. And it’s officially a DC publication!

Bruce is a tired single dad raising a gaggle of feral children while Alfred tries to keep everything somewhat stable. It is a must read for anyone who has ever wanted Bruce to finally find some measure of happiness. There’s a YouTuber who has been narrating the comic and, though I don’t love all the voices, it does add an extra layer to the experience. Some are calling it the best Batman comic to come out in a long time. 

I’ve talked before about the Scooby Doo and Batman crossover comics. The webtoon is similar in tone in that it’s a lighthearted adventure. However, the difference is that the webtoon is a bit more mature. It doesn't shy away from topics like Jason’s PTSD, Tim being a disaster bi icon, and the fact that Bruce makes mistakes, lots and lots of mistakes. He even has a mug that says “World’s Okay-est Dad”. 

I hope that DC listens to fans and understands that fans want a balance of fun adventure with the angst. We don’t want “Teen Titan Go”. We want 2000s “Teen Titans”. We like campy Batman villains that are actually threatening (“Gotham” has some seriously scary moments, but still has time for 1960s antics). Superman is a dork. He believes in Santa Claus (who actually does exist in the DC universe) and his costume was made by his mom. We really enjoy Harley Quinn post Joker breakup (she and Ivy are a truly iconic queer couple). 

A lot of us grew up with fun superheroes who dealt with tough topics, especially those of us who are products of the 1980s and 1990s.

So, please DC, let your heroes be happy.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you like hearing from me.

Until the next week.

Welcome to Scary Blossom

 I am a local to the Washington DC area. I spent my formative years within reach of the heart of the city center. I know this city, it’s seasons and it’s moods. 

This past week was the start of our tourist season. Bus loads of sightseers and out of town visitors are swarming the city. Traffic is worse than usual and everyone is driving five miles under the speed limit.

It’s Cherry Blossom time y’all.

Otherwise known as “Scary Blossom”, the DC cherry blossoms at peak bloom are truly beautiful. However, the tourists make navigating the city nearly impossible - even worse than the forth of July and protest season. (Okay the 4th of July might be a bit of an exaggeration because the tourists are also insane, but Cherry Blossom is when the chaos begins).

No more is Washing DC for the locals to the DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia tri-state area). Now, we’ll have bus loads of school children visiting our world famous (and mostly free) museums, monuments, and government buildings. Protests will kick up activity in about a month - though they are easier to navigate. No one will know where they’re going (not just the tourists, but the new construction will create new,  longer routes to get to work).

For an event that lasts about a week (depending on weather, wind, and temperature), the Cherry Blossoms are an important part of DC culture. The original Sakura trees were planted along the Tidal Bain in 1912. These trees were a gift of friendship from the People of Japan to the People of the United States because of a correspondence between First Lady Helen “Nellie” Taft and the then Mayor of Tokyo. The original 3,000+ trees are over 110 years old and one of the icons of the city.

We put these flowers on everything DC related - along with the Washington Monument and Capital Building. Coffee mugs, pins, patches, chocolate bars, and more have pink blossoms and white buildings on a blue sky background.

One of my paintings of the event.

And yes, they are beautiful.

Sakura or Cherry Blossoms are incredibly pretty. When their petals fall, it looks like pink snow swirling through the air. They are the unofficial signal spring has begun and that warmer weather is around the corner. 

And they let the residents of the Washington DC area know that tourists are coming.

It is worth it to see the DC Cherry Blossoms once in your life. The Tidal Basin is a lovely area and the trees frame the backdrop of many of the monuments. My favorite area to see them is around the FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) memorial all the way up to Jefferson. I haven’t done that walk in years, but it is beautiful on a clear day.

Another of my paintings of the Cherry Blossoms

However, I can’t stand the traffic and clusters of tourists standing in the middle of roads and pathways while they decide where to go. Parking is a nightmare and the metro is overcrowded at all times, not just peak rush hour.

I love DC. I love the Cherry Blossoms.

I don’t love the tourists.

But that’s part of the life being a resident of Washington DC.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope y’all like hearing from me.

Welcome to Folklore and Mythology Part 1: A Modern Appropriation

So based on the number of clicks on last week's blog, I'm going to assume that people are interested in me going looking into Folklore and Mythology. I just wanted to thank you guys for reading and giving me my second blog post with over 1
00 hits (the first being the one where I declared my love of all things pumpkin...go figure).

So let's start by taking a quick peek at how the modern world has been telling some of our favorite myths.

How DC and Marvel Confused My Inner Nerd...

Thor and his hammer!

It might be fair to say that my first introduction to European mythologies was by reading comic books and watching Disney's Hercules. Now the main comic book series I was reading as a kid was Asterix and the only time mythology really turned up was when they were taking their respective gods' names in vain. It took me a little longer to dive into the more popular (at least in the US) DC and Marvel comic books, but when I did I was very confused by some of the characters they were representing.

Now, it would be a missed opportunity for me if I didn't start this series off with a lot of American's introductions to mythology: DC and Marvel. It also helps that Wonder Woman came out this summer and I recently saw Thor: Ragnarok in theaters.

[WARNING: There will be spoilers for Wonder Woman and Thor: Ragnarok in the upcoming post. If you haven't seen the movie yet, read at your own risk.]

DC and Marvel have managed to appropriate two entirely different mythologies and bring them to the forefront of American Culture. DC's Wonder Woman is clearly depicted as being part of Greek Mythology and Marvel has explicitly stated (at least in the movies) that Thor's people influenced Norse Mythology on Earth (insert complicated explanation here).

And yes, I am going to say that these two comic book giants appropriated these mythologies.

There are very few similarities between what the comics, TV shows, and movies present and the actual mythologies. Some examples include Thor being a red head (extremely minor) and Ares being a battle crazed super-villain since even the slightest injury would send him running to his father Zeus to whine (see The Iliad for details). It's even harder to imagine Ares actually being able to kill all of the other gods on Olympus.

And don't even get me started on the crazy changes between the comics and movies that just came out totally throw the original mythologies out the window. I think the one I am most confused at is Hela being Odin's daughter and not Loki's (that and Fenrir is kind of her brother...not a pet she brings back to life). In both the comic books and the original mythology Hela is Loki's daughter, though her personality is very different between the two mediums (same is true for Loki).

Then there's Wonder Woman's parentage. Apparently, in the New 52 universe and the movie that came out this summer, Zeus is her father, but in Justice League Hades says he's her father. I've already mentioned above that Ares was the "father" of the Amazons in Greek mythology, but Diana isn't a Greek Amazon. She's the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature (the equivalent of Artemis in Greek mythology).

Basically, DC and Marvel took preexisting stories and remade them for a modern audience. The fundamental characteristics are still sort of present, but there are a lot of changes. The story lines are a little more "family friendly". Roughly 75% of the original stories I've read with Zeus as the protagonist are who he's sleeping with, which kid is now his, and how Hera is going to torment everyone because Zeus can't keep it in his pants. Then there's the story about how Loki transformed into a mare and became pregnant with a six legged horse. It was bizarre to say the least.

DC and Marvel taking these stories and making them their own is nothing new. Greek and Roman mythologies have a ton of similarities. A few of their gods even share names. Disney's version of Hercules is another take on Greek mythology, even though they use the Roman version of his name and for some weird reason make Hades the bad guy (yeah, Hera's the one who's pissy in that story).

Which brings me to another confusing point. Why is Hades constantly being updated as the "bad guy" in a lot of the modern stories? He's probably one of the few Greek gods who isn't a total dick (minus the whole thing with Persephone...depending on how you interpret the myth).

Maybe it has something to do with the influence of Christianity on these myths. I'm sure I'll get around to ranting about that at some other point.

Until next week:

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. If you have a folklore or mythology you'd like me to look into (or even just read) let me know.

Welcome To New York City

They Tell Me It's The City That Never Sleeps

There is a small stretch of highway that goes up a hill that I take on my way home from work. On clear days I can see the closest major city (and most likely one of the top ten five powerful cities in the world) New York City. It's not like Washington DC or Baltimore. For one thing it's much bigger than either of the cities I grew up around. For another, it's a very different culture from what I'm used to.

Honestly I sometimes can't explain what makes these cities feel so different. Maybe it's that the two are a lot smaller or that one of them is the seat of the national government. Even the people are different.

If I were to describe Washington DC (DC for people who live there), it would be professional. I feel it's the heaven for a lot of Millennials hoping to make an impact while maintaining their nerdy hobbies.

If I were to describe Baltimore (from what little I was able to explore), it was DC's quirky cousin. There was still some government presence, but it allowed for a lot more personality. Heck, we used to have a Batman cosplayer (may he rest in peace) who would visit children in the hospital as well as drive his batmobile in the Inner Harbor.

Two weekends past (yeah, I know I skipped one), I was in New York City with my family. We stayed on Broadway somewhere in Midtown (or what I assume was Midtown, it might have been part of Chelsae). It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed my time in the city. I'm still not sure what to make of the city.

The hotel I was at had a few unusually large rooms, for the city that is. Hotel rooms are typically the size of a closet. One room I was in was only able to fit a full size bed and the bathroom door would only open part way.

The city is beautiful. We were able to walk along a path that had once been part of the subway (Google isn't supplying me with the actual name). Though it was crowded, the view was great. It was a great way to see the city without feeling like an ant.

We then headed to Chelsea Market which was all decorated in Halloween stuff. Seeing all of the shops was cool, but the displays were so much fun. They were advertising an event in the 30th for the holiday. If it wasn't while I was working I would totally go.

My favorite thing we did was go to a theater and see a radio type show featuring Lovecraft readings. It was so creepy and awesome. The theater was in the East Village (or at least I think that was the area). It was very different from Chelsea and Midtown. The theater was small, maybe 100 seats. It was very different from anything I'd seen in DC.

New York City is huge and each neighborhood has its own personality. I'm having fun exploring and hope to do more. Now I just need volunteers to come with me.

Until next week.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Welcome To Company Events

I went to my first company gathering (I'm not really sure what else to call it). I have been to trainings and have met a lot of people from various functions, but this was the first time I was able to see everyone in one place. It was pretty cool. I met a ton of people and was able to put a lot of faces to names. I got to find out what other people in my area do.

Going to this event was a bit nerve racking. I was always worried I would say the wrong thing or offend someone (or just make a fool of myself in general). There was alcohol served at the evening activities, so I made a point of setting limits for myself. I also made sure to drink plenty of water and eat a lot of food first. I can honestly say I very much appreciate the tutorials from college about drinking and socializing.

I was also sure that I got plenty of sleep I between socializing and getting work done (life doesn't stop for work events). Sleep is also important, otherwise it is difficult to follow along with what speakers are saying. I recommend not having an alcohol induced slumber, it causes terrible hangovers (observation from my coworkers).

The hotel I stayed in was cool. It was old and was a major part of Washington DC culture (at least according to the displays it was). It was close to the zoo. I had a great view of the Adams Morgan neighborhood from my baloney that was covered in four inches of snow. It was a huge room that I probably could have done gymnastics routines in. It was also supposedly haunted. One of the people at my conference even experienced one and had to change rooms. So I can cross off stay at haunted hotel off my list of things I need to do. It's unlikely I will ever do it again (one can only hope).

Overall I think the conference was cool (though the lighting was annoying). I enjoyed the events and don't think I embarrassed myself (too much, I still fall pray to standards of embarrassment). Here are a few things one should consider for their companies events especially their first one:

Do: Dress to impress - you never know who might see you and be careful of wardrobe malfunctions. They happen to everyone, but most people know which outfits are the safest to wear in good company.

Do: Socialize - it is important to talk to people and not lock yourself away. Yeah work is important and so is sleep, but if you are only going to see these people once a year you need to get to know them and find out what they do. You also never know what crazy stories you might hear or good pieces of advice you might learn. Also these can lead to some of the best friendships (or so I'm told).

Do: Pay attention - nothing will make you look more foolish than not paying attention and people will notice. Speakers can see the entire room and know when someone is really playing Angry Birds on their phone. Think you old college professor who would call on you after you zoned out for twenty minutes.

Do: Ask questions - you might not get another chance to. I like learning things and I find that asking questions leads to even better questions and learning experiences. Don't worry about looking stupid, most already know your new to the company anyway.

Do: Get some sleep - you'll look an feel like hell otherwise.

Don't: Overdo it - you'll regret it in the morning or six months later when that embarrassing photo who's up during a training session.

I hope someone found these pieces of advice helpful. I am now going to get ready to watch Sherlock. Please leave a comment if you think there is anything I missed.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please share it with your friends, family, or your worst enemy. I also love to hear back from my readers. I would especially like to thank Cupcake for all of her helpful advice and inspiring posts, Aunt Barb for making me smile, Mr. Bill for his words of wisdom, Abbesi for always being awesome, and to all my annonomous readers and commenters. I thought it was time I thanked you guys. Have a good week and until next Sunday.