Why I stopped reading current comics (DC edition)

Now right off the bat (no pun intended) I was never a huge DC comics fan. I knew of the big three heroes, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, through their various shows on television and movies. When the Onslaught saga shat upon Marvel comics, I thought to myself "I wonder what DC comics are doing right now?". Of course, I started reading DC comics by their back issues and found most of the heroes and villains damn goofy, even from the Big three, even Batman. The only comics that really stood out to me were 80s Justice League and New Teen Titans, both were drawn by George Perez.

L-R: Beast Boy (Then Changeling), Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Raven, Robin "the Pantless wonder", Cyborg and Starfire
Photo property of George Perez and DC Comics

 The Titans felt like a well put together team, mixing new and older, more experienced heroes. In the beginning, my favorite titan was Wally West, the then Kid Flash. Being the former sidekick of the Flash, Barry Allen, Wally's story was complex because when the Titans were reformed (He was in previous Titans groups) he wanted nothing to do with them, wanting to just go to college and live a normal life. His speed needed, West is put under a spell by Raven, making West fall in love with her. When the truth was revealed (Raven gathered the team to battle her Demon father, Trigon) the titans became strained but stuck together and Kid Flash's feelings for Raven became genuine. Other issues the team dealt with were Cyborg's longing to feel human again, Raven keeping her dark side in check, Robin wanting to get out of the shadow of Batman and Starfire's understanding of humans.

Their stories somewhat resembled that of 80s Fantastic Four X-men, in that the heroes grew together  in their adventures. Most other teams in DC Comics were pretty established, not showing their lives outside of super heroing. There was also the fact heroes like Superman and Batman had about five comic titles that feature them. Besides the two earlier mentioned comics, the only title I read was "Adventure Comics featuring Plastic Man" and I only have the Cartoon Network airing the Plastic Man cartoon  to blame for that.

and then "Crisis on Infinite Earths" happened...

Photo property of DC Comics

 "Crisis..." was a very complicated but awesome mini-series involving literally EVERY existing DC comics known to man. Look it up because I am not going through the time and effort to explain what happened. All I can say about is a LOT of people died and multi-verses. The mini series helped reboot the DC comics universe into what could only be described as a more...realistic(?) era. At times, it did work and other times, it didn't. My favorite at this time was Superman, mostly because his comics at the time were drawn by my favorite comic book artist, John Byrne. While Supes was still pretty powerful, his powers were downgraded to the point that he wasn't Jesus.  The Titans were still around but they didn't quite have same spark they did when they reformed, possibly because most of the Titans were in their early 20s.

Property of DC Comics

 One thing I really didn't like that DC comics did, though it didn't happen until years later was taking their lighter characters and screwing them royally. The best examples were Ralph Dibny, The Elongated Man, and Kyle Radner, the 90s Green Lantern. Both of them were easy going heroes who had loved ones killed in very brutal ways by villains who originally were perceived as just goofy. It's like DC were trying to become gritty and/or grown a wild hair up their asses. Oh, and Supes temporarily died while Bats was temporarily paralyzed and no one cared.

Look at the edginess off a DEAD WOMAN IN A FRIDGE!

 

 Right now, DC comics is guilty of re-boots and useless sagas. Marvel has been doing this quite a bit too but DC does it every two weeks. Just when someone becomes involved in a character or story line, BOOM!, the story is over and the character they were involved with, now dead. Don't worry though, the character who died, they'll be back in the next reboot or saga so no worries.

To me, with the exception of VERY few comics, television shows and movies (and for DC, the movies are pushing it), I have no really interest in Marvel or DC anymore. See, equal hate for both.

We gonna be alright

So, anything new happen these past couple of days?

God, even his smile makes me want to punch him

Oh, yeah, that happened...

I know this election didn't go according to plan but this is where we are. I, like others, am in disbelief that Trump, a known racist, sexist and a bully is now our president of the united states. Some of us are sad, angry, in awe but this feeling overshadowed with the fear of "what next?". So many factions could be affected by his presidency. Will Trump make good on his threat to Hispanics and Muslims? Am I going to be deemed even more of a threat because I believe that #BlackLivesMatter (I should, I am black, you know). I have friends in the LGBTQ community scared because the new vice president sees them as some kind of monster. Female friends telling me that they're ready to stock up on pepper spray. Planned Parenthood, Medicaid, Welfare, dogs & cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA!!!

There's a lot of the blame game going around and while I blame those who either thought they were "too cool" to vote or decided that it would be funny to elect a meme, it is what it is. The biggest question  is how do get through these horrid four years. The only ways I can think of are together, compassionately and fiercely. Compassion because ignorance and hate is what got us where we are today. We took too much time calling Trump voters as backward hicks without realizing that half of them are the working class, duped by the biggest carnival barker of all. Fiercely because Trump's America is already beginning to happen. Kids are being humiliated because other kids, who, I hope, don't know any better, are saying they're going to be deported. We gotta stand for them, for our friends who are more scared than they ever were.

I'm gonna veer off for a second and say this, I am SEVERELY depressed, having spent most of this year picking up the pieces of my life (to get the gist of it, read "Struggle Summer"). Though everything is looking pretty good, I'm honestly still pretty suicidal but I am more passionate about helping my friends, especially those who were with me in my dark times. If anyone threatens the life of them, I will be there to shield them, not matter what.

Now, back to where I was. Oh, yeah, together. I guess togetherness was more or less explained in the last paragraph but we have to stick together. We can't let these events tear us down because if we want better, we have to be better, together. It's the only way for love to really trump hate.

If you don't believe in anything I said or thought it was too cheesy, I guess Canada is always an option. Poutine for all.

Special thanks to Allison Pregler (formerly Obscurus Lupa) for giving me the idea to write this.

Was it cheesy enough for you?

The Summer of '96

"Earlier this week, I realized that I blossomed into a full blown nerd (or blerd, as I like to call myself) the summer of 20 years ago. The summer of 1996 exposed me to unknown 80s anime, cartoons, shows and B-movies that I believed saved my life. I'm not trying to be overly dramatic, even though I might be inflating things a little, but I will go into detail about how my life was going before the summer started.

The beginning of 1996 was pretty fucking harsh for me. I attended a school I genuinely hated, was picked on heavily by my fellow peers and my neighborhood friends, the reason I decided to attend this school in the first place, really didn't talk to me anymore (In school, we were in different class clusters). Video games were only a temporary escape as I had a limited amount of games and after an unsuccessful suicide attempt (If it were successful, I wouldn't be writing this) I just opted to skip school a lot. Everyone in the neighborhood knew what I was doing but I didn't care, I just wanted to not face what I saw as pure hell. When my mother caught wind of this, she was understandably upset but after having me speak with child counselor, understood and, against her better judgement let me sit the rest of the school year out. The stipulation was I had to write the school board of everything that led to me not wanting to attend school, best of all was being jumped in the gym by former friends while the then principal watched. The school board said that if I attended summer school and passed, I could move up to a grade, because despite skipping school a lot, I was a good student.

After summer school breezed by, helped by the fact that school was only 8 a.m.-noon and the school was literally down the street from where I lived, my only thought was "now what?". I'd grown apart from my neighborhood friends and decided to stay inside in the A/C and so on accident, I stayed up all night, watching the works of Fred Olen Ray, Jim Wynorski and other B-movie greats (which were on heavy rotation on HBO and Showtime) and found them lovable, albeit goofy (the heavy nudity in them helped).

What, does this not look educational to you??

When 5:30 a.m. hit and I wasn't really tired, I had the opportunity to catch "Sailor Moon", "VR Troopers" (which further helped my curiosity in Tokusatsu) and "Ronin Warriors". 6:30 a.m. was a haze for me because, I think, "Bananas in Pajamas " was on at this time and I never really watched and I don't remember what I watched in it's place but I knew what was coming at 7 a.m. . 7 a.m. meant Sci-Fi Channel's (I refuse to call it syfy) Animation Station. This two hour animation block introduced me to "Terrahawks" (a very 80s version of the Thunderbirds marionette show), "Galaxy High" (think 80s animated Saved by the Bell in space) and "Defenders of the Earth" ( pretty much the Avengers if it were King Feature characters instead of Marvel). The Animation Station also featured two shows that would become personal favorites, "The new adventures of Gigantor" (Tetsujin 28 Go in Japan) and "Bionic Six". While Gigantor went on to become a favorite anime of mine, Bionic Six went on to become one of my favorite shows, period, and try to watch episodes where ever I can find them.

Hopefully, The Bionic Six are running to a DVD release...

After Animation Station, I would either stick around to either whatever Sci-Fi was marathoning for the day (I became very fond of "Tales from the Darkside" and "Buck Rogers") or switch over to Cartoon Network to see what weird Hanna-Barbera/Ruby Spears shows they were marathoning that day. Hanna-Barbera/Ruby Spears show were just so batshit, how could anyone not love them, especially their 70s-80s shows. About noon, I actually became tired and would go to bed, repeating this cycle for the remainder of the summer.

Now, yes, this was not a healthy habit and it made my mom worry even more about me. I was having fun being a night owl, watching all these weird, wonderful and terrible movies made me feel somewhat like an adult. On the flipside, being up early  enough to watch the kids shows  reminded me that I was still  a kid, though I was a teenager. I think this experience pretty much defines who I am today, and I don't just mean a beinf a pervert with an overactive imagination. The summer in front of the tube gave me my overactive and pretty weird imagination. If it weren't for this summer, I wouldn't be the blerd I am today.

Heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend

To go from the depressing tone of the last post to an odd story that reminds me of how small Dayton really is.

For years, I've been friends with a woman named "Tabitha", who I met through a mutual friend during my time in Freethought, a campus group that I previously wrote a blog about. She attended a couple of meetings with her then boyfriend and though I didn't connect with either right away, I did find both pretty cool after a conversation about new vs. old anime when the the entire group went to a Steak n' Shake after a meeting adjourned. However, that was not the only thing on my mind after the meeting, as I found Tabitha quite fetching (No, I don't know anyone else who uses that word often either).

When word of mouth via facebook was out that Tabitha and her boyfriend had broken up, I took the opportunity to ask Tabitha for her phone number. She was skeptical at first but after I poured on the charm, or possibly just came off as desperate, she gave it to me. I think I called her that night, expecting our conversation to get hot and heavy because I called her late at night. Then I remembered, when speaking to women for the first time, I am awkward as hell. I spent the majority of our conversation saying "I...um...I..." with some words in between that. Finally, in the ensuing weeks of us talking, we got to know each other more and yeah, I flirted but I did like what Tabitha was all about. She's a plus sized woman who was comfortable with her body and I liked that about her, well, that and that she was a nerd. We decided to make a date for us to go out and I was so excited but things did not go as I planned. Then again, I don't know what I was planning.

Tabitha told me that she apologized but she had to call off our date. I was saddened but I wanted to be understanding so the night our date was supposed to happen, I called to ask if everything was okay. She told me that one of exes lived her campus and didn't want to face him. I guess I understood but I pushed and prodded her to forget him and just come out to see me. I think it took me a week to get her to agree (I'm not proud of doing this but this was how I was then). When we finally had our "date", it was the most AWKWARD date I had been on. We went to lunch and a movie and most of the date was surrounded in silence. I'd pushed her for this date and just thought to myself "now what?". I wanted to put my arm around her during the movie but I felt that she wouldn't have been comfortable with that and just sat in my seat. After the date, she told me that her friend needed me and she just dropped me off at my place. I was told by a former girlfriend that this is normally a sign that the woman just wants to get out of the date ASAP and that's what I thought.

Years later, I say that Tabitha had her number up facebook and like the creeper I am, I decided to give her a call. I immediately went back to the "I...um...I" stage and just powered through asking how life was going for her. After some awkward talk, she just told me that it was nice talking to me and contact her another time. I thought this was a huge accomplishment because she said she wanted to hear back from me. I didn't know what to do next but I saw that there was a discussion group discussing the book "Frankenstein" at a near by eatery and that it was open to anyone. I invited her to that and she agreed, which left me ecstatic. On the day of the the discussion, she texted me, letting me know that she was going to change and head out. I was so damn nervous, it wasn't even funny, especially as I got closer to the place. When I got there, I looked around but didn't see her and figured she was late. I saw the group, which included a former freethought member I had a crush on but I'm pretty sure I annoyed while in the group. While in the group, I waited and listened to the group wax on about the psychological meanings of "Frankenstein", which I could've given less of a fuck about. Finally, the group meeting was over and I was humiliated that Tabitha didn't show, couldn't give me a text to let me know she wasn't going to show or anything.

THIS is where the story gets odd. A couple of weeks later, my best friend called me, saying she had a date with someone that would surprise me. I just said okay, who. She said "I'll give you a hint, April O'Neil...". I had no clue what the hell she was talking about and said threatened to hang up on her. She finally came out and said Tabitha and the first thing I blurted was a very loud "WHAT?!?!". She said they met and made a date on "plenty of fish" and were going out in a few days. Apparently, Tabitha  mentioned something about cottage cheese and my friend said, "My friend, The Super Duper Senior, said that cottage cheese is white people food". Yeah, sounds like something I'd say. Tabitha asked what my last name was and my friend told her and apparently, Tabitha said "Oh, I know him. He's been trying to get into my pants for 6 years...". FUCKING OUCH!!

Well, they went on their date and things didn't work out but I couldn't get over what Tabitha said. God Damn, I didn't know I came off like that. It was kind of hurtful that's all she thought of me when I thought so much more and it made me lose some respect fore her. Even though she said what she said, we're still friends, I still think she's cute but I am very uncertain of a future between us, even if there was a possibility of it happening, which in my terms means I'm still holding out for something.

To Tabitha,
I'm sorry that you see me in such a negative light. Yes, I am attracted to you but I saw you as much more than just a lay. I saw someone I could nerd out with while eating Asian food, play RPGs with and watch movies. I have no clue whether or not you'll see this but know that I've grown up since you first met me
because that is what people do when they realize the mistakes they made, they grow up. If you still see me this way, I don't know what to tell you.

Sincerely,

Me

A random picture of Gary Coleman shrugging is pretty much how I feel about it

Struggle Summer

Wow, and I thought 2011 was a shitty year. Looks like 2016 is trying to top that...

This year has been an non-stop spiral. It feels like every time something in my life would go right, it would not only go wrong but go wrong tenfold. I won't go into detail about everything that has happened but I will talk about one of the things that hit me the hardest, about how my dream job fell apart.

Earlier this year, I received a job as a freelance writer at a local newspaper. I jumped for joy, having this job because it made me feel more like an established writer and it got my name out to the writing world. The pay wasn't great but I didn't care, as long as I got to write about the area and the people around it.

Then, two months into writing for the local paper and having my name out in the open, I made a terrible mistake that cost me dearly. In writing an article about a program at a local art institute, I interviewed a couple of people who participated in the program but couldn't find a third to interview. After a friend had let me know that they had participated in said program a year before, I interviewed her instead. After having said article done, I looked over the guidelines and saw that I didn't particularly follow it. I went back, made a few changes to the article, cutting out my friends part and adding in bits from a pamphlet I was sent. After turning in the article, I was ecstatic to see it being on the cover of the paper and I BRAGGED hard. Little did I know that it would be downhill from there on...

About a week after the article was published, I was called about a problem with the article. I was told that I had misquoted someone in the article, the person who I quoted from the pamphlet. I sent the pamphlet to the editor for her to double check and I had indeed misquoted the pamphlet. I explained that my laptop didn't let me copy and paste the quote (sometimes my laptop can be loopy) so I just wrote it verbatim, or so I thought. I guess I made a flub or two in the writing but the editor had told that it was okay, just not to do it again. I thought this was the end of it and went on with my life until I realized I had not heard from our editor about any new stories in a couple of weeks so I decided to call the office to ask if there was anything available. When I spoke with the editor, she told me that she wanted to come into the office for an emergency meeting concerning my future with the paper. This made my blood run cold, not being helped by the fact that the meeting wouldn't not be held until the week after I talked her over the phone. It's not fun waiting a week before hearing whether or not you still have a job.

When the time came for the meeting, I thought I was going to vomit and I kept thinking the worst. Everyone kept telling me to think positive but I couldn't because I tend to have terrible luck in situations like this. As soon as I walked into the office, I felt a cold chill and I realized that everyone in the office, who I was on pretty good terms with, weren't visible and I was asked into the editor's office immediately. I was told that because of the mistakes made, I was being let go from the paper until I could be published elsewhere to prove that I am a competent writer. To say I was crushed would not even begin to describe how I felt.

To be honest, I was pretty suicidal. I called a friend who I told the situation and told her that I was just done. This friend was quite worried and tried to convince me to visit her at work but I couldn't. I was just beaten. When I got home, in and out on the decision to commit suicide, I messaged a friend who was also a writer for advice. She told me that though this had happened to me, it was most likely a sign of bigger and better things to come. I, at the time did not believe this so I began writing a note and calling friends to see if there was anything of mine that they wanted. Granted, I don't have much but I'm assuming some of the things I have is worth something. I got an outpouring show of support from friends who let it be know that I was loved and would be missed if I did follow through with my plan. It took every fiber of my being not to.

Today, I'm still looking for writing jobs and a regular job just to help me out of a financial bind I am in. This summer was not easy and I'm still struggling with my feelings about what happened, along with depression I've been suffering with since early teens but yet here I am, still writing, still looking, still wanting better.

If your summer was worst than mine, please don't share. This isn't a pissing contest.

44 odd things about me

1. Do you like blue cheese? I used to but not anymore.

2. Have you ever smoked? I'm a social smoker. 

3. Do you own a gun? Nope.

4. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Anything with salted caramel or peanut butter.

5. Do you get nervous before Doctor visits? Not unless I'm taking an STD test...

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Hot dogs are edible...except the ones from Burger King.

7. Your favorite movie? So many to name. The best ones I can think of is "Ghostbusters" (1984) and "Aliens" (1986).

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee.
9. Do you do push ups? Not everyday. When I do, I don't think I do them right.

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? I don't wear jewelry. However, I still own a gold chain with J on it that my sister bought me when I was a teen.
 
11. Favorite hobby? Writing, being with friends, video games.

12. Do you have A.D.D.? Despite having the attention span of a gnat, no.

13. What’s the one thing you love about yourself? My imagination.

14. What is your middle name? Duper (actually Andrew).

15. Name 3 thoughts at this moment: Lyrics to Prince songs because I just woke up and started to listening to Prince Songs.

16. Name 3 drinks you usually drink. Sparkling water, coffee, regular water.

17. Current worry? Finding another job so I can pay for my last semesters at school. Feeling weird about possibly calling my dad for money.

18. Current annoyance right now? Not having breakfast food right now.

19. Favorite place to be? with friends.

20. How do you ring in the new year? Normally, pretty boringly. I'm except on few occasions, I stay in.

21. Where would you like to go? Anywhere I'm welcome. Columbus, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, London, France, New York, California...

22. Name 3 people who will complete this. I'm doing this on my blog so not many.

23. Do you own slippers? Yes, Homer Simpson slippers to exact. You put your foot in his mouth.

24. What color shirt are you wearing right now? Red shirt with a collar and jorts (jean shorts).

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? As long as they keep me warm come winter, I don't care.

26. Can you whistle? Yes.

27. What are your favorite colors? If the color was used in a Tokusatsu show, chances are that I like it. Favorite color in particular is Blue.

28. Would you be a pirate? I'm not really an outdoors person so probably not.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? As of late, Prince songs.

30. Favorite girls name? I don't have one

31. Favorite boys name? See above answer

32. What’s in your pocket right now? My keys, wallet, chap stick and phone.

33. Last thing that made you laugh? an episode of Phelous.

34. Best toy as a child? My Ghostbusters action figures.

35. Worst injury you ever had? Falling out of bed after a seizure. Fell straight on my head and scratched my face up.

36. Where would you love to live? See answers to Question 21.

37. How many TV’s do you have? 1.

38. Who is your loudest friend? Michelle, my friend since high school.

39. How many dogs do you have? 0.

40. Does someone trust you? I'm sure someone does. Whether or not I trust myself is another question.

41. What book are you reading at moment? Golgo 13 vol. 2: Hydra.

42. What’s your favorite candy? Reese cups, toffee and salted caramel.

43. What’s your favorite sports teams? Popular answer: The Cleveland Cavs. Actual Answer: The Bloopity Bloops.

44. Favorite month? December.

Not mine. I only have Ray and Winston left. 

The Black and Blue of the Republican National Convention

When I watched the freak show that was Republican National Convention, I laughed, I cried, I was freaked the fuck out but what could be described as "Vote for Trump or the United States is doomed!". Through all of the insanity, one person made me feel anger and sadness in the same beat. On the first night of RNC, Milwaukee Police sheriff David A. Clarke gave a speech, starting it with the phrase "I just want to start off and say Blue Lives Matter". Yeah, it's going to be that kind of blog.

Now let it be known, I don't hate the police. I have an uncle whose a retired policeman and I love him. I also don't think all police are racist but I do think the bad, racist police and justice system are outweighing the opposite. What needs to be done is for any aspect of those who believe in fair justice for all to come out and disassociate themselves from those who are openly in the wrong doing and work towards having those who believe in the opposite removed.

Sheriff David Clarke goes on to spit his rhetoric of putting down #BlackLivesMatter, a peaceful protest group that supports the idea of bringing attention to those African Americans whose lives were taken by the law enforcement unjustly. He then goes on to say to say something infuriated me so much, I'm surprised I didn't pull an Elvis and shoot my television. He goes on to say "But there is some good news out of Baltimore, Maryland. Lt. Ryan Wyss was acquitted of charges in the malicious prosecution of activist states attorney Marilyn Mosby." This was affiliated with the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died in police custody, sustaining injuries that could be seen as a severed spine while handcuffed in the back of a police car.

After I had the chance to calm down, after breaking a few twigs outside, I continued to "watch" the rest of the event (honestly, was most likely playing Super Fire Pro Wrestling) and yes, I heard Melania Trump copy Michelle Obama's speech and just laughed it off. All I could think of David A. Clarke's speech and how much it infuriated me. I just keep wondering to myself how can David A. Clarke sleep at night saying what he said, thinking what he thinks. He tries to put black on black crime over police murdering black people and getting away with it. I'd love to know how he feels about the cases of Philando Castile, a man shot and killed in his car w by police while his girlfriend and daughter watched and Charles Kinsey, a man shot by a policeman while trying to help an autistic man from the hospital he worked at.

I always wonder what goes on in the brains of people like him, seeing the increasing evidence of racist police harming and murdering people of color but seem like they're in denial about racism and abuse of power.

Then again, a couple of nights later, a man from "Muslims for Trump" spoke at RNC so, God only knows...

Defending my Pryde (of the X-men)

If you are a reader of this blog, you know I am a comic book fan. I admit that I wouldn't be comic book fan if it weren't for cartoons. One of my earliest memories was of watching "Spider-man and his Amazing friends". I remember an particular episode where the Spider-friends, consisting of Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar meet the X-men, consisting of Prof. Xavier, Cyclops, Storm, Angel,  and Wolverine (with a British accent). As the two teams battled an intruding Juggernaut, I was amazed by the team that I didn't see on a weekly basis. Although I wouldn't see these X-men again for a while (I had no idea they appeared in another Spider-Friends episode), they left an impression on me that would last for most of my life.

What the hell are you staring at? Keep reading the blog!

By 1989, "Spider-man and his Amazing Friends" began re-airing on tv as part of the "Marvel Action Universe" along with a Robocop cartoon (hey, it was the 80s, even Rambo had a cartoon) and some...show about dinosaurs I never gave a shit about. One episode of the cartoon block was particularly memorable when instead of...that dino show, there was a promo for a new show based on the X-men. At this point, I knew a little more about the team, so I was excited to see how the show would turn out.

My first impression of the show was that it was awesome and honestly, my opinion still stands. The animation was good, the story line was simple enough and, in my opinion, the X-men personalities, or ever much of it could be fit into a 20 minute show, were captured perfectly...kind of. Unfortunately, "Pryde of the X-men", named after character Kitty Pryde, was just a pilot and judging by it only airing once, it didn't quite make the cut.Thus, this would be last time I would see the X-men on television until four years later.

Put your arms down,Dazzler, we can see you. We just don't care about you.

Today "Pryde of the X-men" is seen as joke and for the reasons why I liked it. The story, as I described it being simple, could be seen as insulting to long time fans for being too simple. The portrayal of the characters was seen as laughable, especially Wolverine's, who was given a Australian/ Scottish accent. While I can openly admit that the pilot was flawed, I feel it still could have worked as a show.

The main thing I think would've helped is if the show were based on the X-men roster of the time, the Outback team.It definitely would've helped explain Wolverine's accent.

Dammit, Dazzler, are you still here?

This team was more hard edged than the team shown in "Pryde", even though four of the six X-men in that were on the outback team. At the time, the X-men had gone through a lot so I think this period of time would've made for an interesting show. Imagine this team on TV battling the likes of Mojo, the Marauders, the Reavers and Nanny.

Now, to get to the defending of "Pryde". It's been ridiculed because of how the X-men and the Brotherhood are portrayed and the simplicity of the story line.The biggest thing people tend to forget is that "Pryde" was a pilot, a standalone episode that is used to sell the show to a television network. That means any flaw presented may not have been permanent. Kitty Pryde may not have stayed annoying and whiny, Wolverine may have dropped the Scottish accent, White Queen may not have sounded like she finished smoking 4 cartons of Marlboros and Juggernaut...well, Juggernaut is awesome so no complaining about him here.

 Also, the animation for it was pretty good. From what I've read, it was pretty expensive, meaning Marvel had a lot on the pilot. One has to wonder if they could've stuck with for an entire shows run, as animation on shows in the 80s would go from excellent to not great within a couple of episodes.

So, I will always stand by "Pryde of the X-Men" being a good pilot that wasn't given a fair chance by neither networks or fans and that is a shame. Plus, any pilot that can produce one of the greatest Konami beat em' ups is badass in my book.

#JBLRuinsEverything (For wrestling fans)

Dear world,

I openly admit that I, The Super Duper Senior, am a wrestling fan. I've been a fan ever since before I could talk properly. No matter how long I've watched wrestling, there have always been 4 elements that can make or break a match; the wrestlers, their gimmick, their skills and those who call the matches, known as commentators.

Commentators can really set the mood of a match. The breakdown of how they work go as followed; there are normally 2-3 three of them, 1 or 2 are considered neutral and/ or face (good guy) announcers and one that is a heel  (bad guy). There were times when the mixing of the 2-3 announcers is magic with examples being  the team of former wrestler Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan or Jim Ross and Jerry "The King" Lawler but then there were times when the announce teams just either didn't have the right chemistry (TNAs Mike Tenay and Tazz) or the announce team is too face and/or heel (Jerry Lawler and Heel Michael Cole). This leads us to the subject of this blog... John Bradshaw Layfield.

And yes, he does talk like this...

Though the current announce team for "Monday night Raw" isn't anything to right home about with Michael Cole and Byron Saxton as face/neutrals, it's dragged down by JBL, who isn't just a heel announcer, he's a heel announcer to the zenith degree. It's bad enough that this team barely calls the matches to begin with but JBL's constant putting down of face wrestlers, kissing ass for heel figures and putting down his fellow announcer are like nails on a chalkboard. There are times he begins to sound like a bratty child throwing a temper tantrum. I know most of you readers are thinking, "Isn't that what heel announcers do?" I normally would say "Yes, reader, yes it is..." but here is an example of how irritating JBL can truly be...

BS: "Roman Reigns is riding on a wave of success"
JBL: "I wish a wave would come by and take you away, Byron."

or

MC: "The authority strikes again"
JBL:"It's their world, Maggal, either get with it or get rolled over"
BS: "But is it fair, JBL?"
JBL: "Oh, boo hoo, Byron, That's  the way of the world. Quit crying about it!"

Look, I don't hate JBL. He's an alright wrestler and if he was able to be himself as an announcer, he probably wouldn't be terrible. I feel like part of the blame goes to Vince McMahon because he's known for telling announcers what to say through an earpiece. With what JBL says, or what he's given to say, it's so inane and childish that it takes away from matches, making RAW or any wrestling event he's announcing on near unbearable.

I remember wrestling trends on twitter saying things like #BigShowPleaseRetire and #KaneRuinsEverything and so I came up with my own, #JBLRuinsEverything.  Is it petty? Probably. Will it create change in JBL or WWE commentary? Probably not. Does it bring me joy to say this when JBL says something stupid? Damn yes!!