So I did my best to sleep at home, but that didn't work out so well. I got some sleep, but I missed my wife and son. So the next morning it was back to the hospital nice and early.
When I got there, Natasha was up but still in bed. We were both kind of groggy but I was ready for a day of getting to know my son better.
Having been through an abdominal surgery similar to a C-section's (according to my doctor when I had my aneurysm), I was worried about Tash pushing herself too hard during the day...but she got up and showered and dressed and readied herself for visitors and a day with Malcolm. She looked great for someone who had just been cut open, but she was happy (and while I knew she was pushing herself and it would catch up with her, I kept a bit quiet).
The nurses brought in Malcolm and we spent some quality family time together. I did notice that he looked a bit yellow, but Tash felt it was just the lighting. We had many visitors over the course of the day and it wore all of us out. By night time, the nurse even noticed he looked a bit yellow and mentioned it to the doctors. Yes, it turned out he was a bit jaundiced, but we both knew that this was a common and easily fixable problem (we had seen other family members and friends deal with the issue). So the next few days, he stayed in the nursery except for feeding times (and we now had to supplement his feeding with a bit of formula administered by syringe).
All this time, all I wanted was to bring my wife and son home so we could get started on our new life together. When that day finally came on Friday, we couldn't get discharged fast enough.
The first weekend at home was just plain bizarre. It was great having Natasha's family with us because they were really helpful. Particularly when it came to breast feeding. While Malcolm had no real issues latching on while in the hospital, once we got him home it was a different story. My wife's breasts became engorged and for the little guy it was like trying to latch onto a bowling ball. The farce that ensued to alleviate the problem was just too funny for words (my wife sitting in bed with my sister-in-law standing over her changing out hot compresses on her breasts every minute for twenty minutes, while my niece is slung on my sister-in-law's back, with myself holding Malcolm with my pinky in his mouth to suck on, all the while my mother-in-law is watching and my brother-in-law and nephew are just outside the door trying to avoid years of therapy even thinking about what's going on inside...you had to be there).
Monday brought a bris and about 70 people to fill our house. Thankfully, the majority of the renovation work that would be used by our guests was done and ready to be used by people. The bris itself was crazy and uneventful according to most people and that Malcolm was very calm during the procedure/ceremony. Of course, most people weren't present in Malcolm's room prior to the start of the ceremony to hear his screaming while the mohel did all the "prep" work...what he did downstairs in front of everyone was mostly for show...I'm surprised Tash & I got through that part in one piece...by the time everything was over, Malcolm had no problem's latching on regardless of engorgement (I guess trauma will do that to you).
By Tuesday, it was just Tash, myself and Malcolm left to deal with each other, a house that still isn't quite finished and an ever growing pile of "Thank You" notes to find the energy to deal with.
Be seeing you.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Malcolm's Birth: A Daddy's Thoughts
So the big day had finally arrived...and nothing actually happened.
We had scheduled an inducement four days earlier than Natasha's due date (June 19) for a variety of reasons (her Doctor was going on vacation, back pain, family arrivals) and we assumed that we'd be coming home with a baby...but no one told us that the inducement may not work. It didn't. Tash had a stubborn cervix...or maybe Malcolm just wasn't ready to come out...so we decided we'd just leave it all be and go home (our other options were a second attempt which probably wouldn't have done anything either or a C-section) and wait it out...
So nothing happened while Tash's doctor was away on vacation. We were scheduled for a second inducement for when the doctor returned which would be a week past the due date...so since nothing happened, we went in on Sunday June 26 to try again...and we were told that we would not be going home pregnant.
Tash was made comfortable (the labor rooms at Stamford Hospital are almost like hotel rooms) and given a dose of Cervadil to get her cervix to dilate and efface. By morning she was 1 cm and 50% effaced. Then they started her on Pitosin to get her contractions going. From 9 am until about 1 pm I watched my wife go from being relatively normal to being in excruciating pain.
All I was able to do was be with her and talk to her and make sure she was "distracted" (whatever that means) and not sound like a cliche or a Bill Cosby comedy routine waiting to be slapped silly. The last two hours were the worst, but Tash pulled through. Once she was 100% effaced and 3cm they gave her an epidural.
With all the advances in medicine, I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to ease the pain if possible...and I certainly don't understand why they don't start this sooner than they did...it was amazing watching the montior register her contractions and have my wife smiling as if nothing was happening.
And then we discovered that Malcolm was just not moving down the canal. He couldn't fit or wouldn't move...so the doctor decided her needed to be taken out via C-Section. While Tash was fine with this and I had come to grips with the possibility during the extra week of waiting, all of my nightmares from the last nine months were starting to boil in my head.
You see, aside from a minor cold and ear infection that Tash had problems getting rid of, this was a pretty boring pregnancy...of course, that's a good thing, but as someone who's been dealt a few tragedies in life and survived, I'm always on the lookout for the other shoe to drop...life doesn't grant you that much ease without something coming round the bend to knock you off your feet...and now that I'm extremely happy, there's that part of me that thinks something bad's gonna happen at some point to rebalance the scales...so my nightmares since the start of the pregnancy have all centered around me being alone at the end of it (of course these were all alternated with odd dreams of Malcolm coming out talking full sentances and my having to prevent the government from taking him for experiments...yes I've seen too many movies)...
So when we made the decision to have the C-Section I was extremely worried...sure...it's a relatively "routine" procedure and there was no emergency situation to make the doctor have to rush through it...but it's still major surgery...and as someone who's had their abdomen cut open, I knew what Tash was in for by way of recovery...
Being in the opreating room was weird for me. I sat on a stool near Tash's head...and that was all I saw as everything else was screened off from the two of us. I had my digital still camera to capture the family once we were given Malcolm but had second thoughts about taking a picture of my wife in such an odd condition. I'd be holding the baby while she's on display from the arm pits up??? That's not a fun sight, but we decided to do it anyway (it's not a bad picture...just an odd one...I don't wuite understand the reasons some people videotape births...I can't imagine watching one on DVD at a later date...especially after Tash, who agreed with me about not taping it, had forced me to watch nine months of episodes of "A Baby Story" on TLC.
We got something of a play by play from the doctor and the anasthesiologist as to what was happening and we were told that it may be a minute or two after the baby was out before we heard him...but soon enough (about 20 minutes in) we heard him and a few minutes later I was holding my son for the first time.
I've always been afraid of handling small things. I'm a big guy and I'm clumsy and here I am now holding this tiny little thing who seems just as unsure of his surroundings as I am. I held him close for Natasha to see. We took a few pictures and then the nurse took him and me from the OR and we went upstairs. On the way we picked up both grandmothers and one grandfather who had been patiently waiting in the labor room and we all went up to the maternity ward while Natasha was being put back together.
As we stood outside the nursery window watching the nurses take Malcolm out of the incubator they had put him in to transport, he grabbed on to lip of the opening and wouldn't let go. And he started crying. The nurse had to pry his fingers away...it was a very surreal, funny and sad sight. We watched them clean him up more and give him a battery of tests. I left my mother-in-law (henceforth known as Ba Ba) to keep an eye on him while my parents and I went to get all our stuff we had left in the labor room (plus I desperately wanted to change out of the scrubs I was wearing...they were a size too small for me and breathing through the mask kept fogging up my glasses).
By the time everything was moved upstairs, Natasha had been moved to recovery...so I checked on her. She was sleepy, but doing just fine. I spent an hour or two checking on my wife and son (separated by a few floors). Once they finally moved her into a room, they brought Malcolm into us and she fed him...apparently he's a breast man just like his dad. We spent about an hour with a few family visitors and then I left my wife and son for the night to get a good night's sleep at home (at least we all thought I'd get a better night's sleep at home than I would have at the hospital)...
Tomorrow...Malcolm's first full day in the world.
Be seeing you.
We had scheduled an inducement four days earlier than Natasha's due date (June 19) for a variety of reasons (her Doctor was going on vacation, back pain, family arrivals) and we assumed that we'd be coming home with a baby...but no one told us that the inducement may not work. It didn't. Tash had a stubborn cervix...or maybe Malcolm just wasn't ready to come out...so we decided we'd just leave it all be and go home (our other options were a second attempt which probably wouldn't have done anything either or a C-section) and wait it out...
So nothing happened while Tash's doctor was away on vacation. We were scheduled for a second inducement for when the doctor returned which would be a week past the due date...so since nothing happened, we went in on Sunday June 26 to try again...and we were told that we would not be going home pregnant.
Tash was made comfortable (the labor rooms at Stamford Hospital are almost like hotel rooms) and given a dose of Cervadil to get her cervix to dilate and efface. By morning she was 1 cm and 50% effaced. Then they started her on Pitosin to get her contractions going. From 9 am until about 1 pm I watched my wife go from being relatively normal to being in excruciating pain.
All I was able to do was be with her and talk to her and make sure she was "distracted" (whatever that means) and not sound like a cliche or a Bill Cosby comedy routine waiting to be slapped silly. The last two hours were the worst, but Tash pulled through. Once she was 100% effaced and 3cm they gave her an epidural.
With all the advances in medicine, I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to ease the pain if possible...and I certainly don't understand why they don't start this sooner than they did...it was amazing watching the montior register her contractions and have my wife smiling as if nothing was happening.
And then we discovered that Malcolm was just not moving down the canal. He couldn't fit or wouldn't move...so the doctor decided her needed to be taken out via C-Section. While Tash was fine with this and I had come to grips with the possibility during the extra week of waiting, all of my nightmares from the last nine months were starting to boil in my head.
You see, aside from a minor cold and ear infection that Tash had problems getting rid of, this was a pretty boring pregnancy...of course, that's a good thing, but as someone who's been dealt a few tragedies in life and survived, I'm always on the lookout for the other shoe to drop...life doesn't grant you that much ease without something coming round the bend to knock you off your feet...and now that I'm extremely happy, there's that part of me that thinks something bad's gonna happen at some point to rebalance the scales...so my nightmares since the start of the pregnancy have all centered around me being alone at the end of it (of course these were all alternated with odd dreams of Malcolm coming out talking full sentances and my having to prevent the government from taking him for experiments...yes I've seen too many movies)...
So when we made the decision to have the C-Section I was extremely worried...sure...it's a relatively "routine" procedure and there was no emergency situation to make the doctor have to rush through it...but it's still major surgery...and as someone who's had their abdomen cut open, I knew what Tash was in for by way of recovery...
Being in the opreating room was weird for me. I sat on a stool near Tash's head...and that was all I saw as everything else was screened off from the two of us. I had my digital still camera to capture the family once we were given Malcolm but had second thoughts about taking a picture of my wife in such an odd condition. I'd be holding the baby while she's on display from the arm pits up??? That's not a fun sight, but we decided to do it anyway (it's not a bad picture...just an odd one...I don't wuite understand the reasons some people videotape births...I can't imagine watching one on DVD at a later date...especially after Tash, who agreed with me about not taping it, had forced me to watch nine months of episodes of "A Baby Story" on TLC.
We got something of a play by play from the doctor and the anasthesiologist as to what was happening and we were told that it may be a minute or two after the baby was out before we heard him...but soon enough (about 20 minutes in) we heard him and a few minutes later I was holding my son for the first time.
I've always been afraid of handling small things. I'm a big guy and I'm clumsy and here I am now holding this tiny little thing who seems just as unsure of his surroundings as I am. I held him close for Natasha to see. We took a few pictures and then the nurse took him and me from the OR and we went upstairs. On the way we picked up both grandmothers and one grandfather who had been patiently waiting in the labor room and we all went up to the maternity ward while Natasha was being put back together.
As we stood outside the nursery window watching the nurses take Malcolm out of the incubator they had put him in to transport, he grabbed on to lip of the opening and wouldn't let go. And he started crying. The nurse had to pry his fingers away...it was a very surreal, funny and sad sight. We watched them clean him up more and give him a battery of tests. I left my mother-in-law (henceforth known as Ba Ba) to keep an eye on him while my parents and I went to get all our stuff we had left in the labor room (plus I desperately wanted to change out of the scrubs I was wearing...they were a size too small for me and breathing through the mask kept fogging up my glasses).
By the time everything was moved upstairs, Natasha had been moved to recovery...so I checked on her. She was sleepy, but doing just fine. I spent an hour or two checking on my wife and son (separated by a few floors). Once they finally moved her into a room, they brought Malcolm into us and she fed him...apparently he's a breast man just like his dad. We spent about an hour with a few family visitors and then I left my wife and son for the night to get a good night's sleep at home (at least we all thought I'd get a better night's sleep at home than I would have at the hospital)...
Tomorrow...Malcolm's first full day in the world.
Be seeing you.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Begins Again
I was originally hoping to write a big long piece about Batman Begins by incorporating my thoughts on various incarnations of the character in various media outlets...
But with everything being as crazy as it is, I'm lucky I actually got to see the film at all...so you'll get a somewhat truncated piece.
DC Comics has been having a tough time for almost a decade in bringing (or bringing back) their characters to the silver screen. After director Joel Schmacher and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman put a nail in Batman's coffin with 1997's ridiculous campfest Batman & Robin, we've gotten pretty much nothing on the big screen from the company (aside from Catwoman and Constantine...but I'll get to those in a moment). Even a slew of potential directors and writers such as Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, J.J. Abrams and Brett Ratner couldn't get the man of steel to fly again.
While the comic books kept churning out decent stories and TV kept things moving nicely (with various animated shows like Teen Titans or Justice League and the small screen hit Smallville), we got a decent adaptation of a cult book (Hellblazer became Constantine) and a feeble attempt at connecting something to the Batman mythos that smelled mostly of warmed over kitty litter and a quick grab for cash (yes...Catwoman was very wrong-headed...yet in an interesting, car crash kind of way).
But finally we get what is not only the best Batman to hit the big screen, but what could easily replace the first Superman as the best comic book based movie ever. It's also the best movie so far this year (which isn't saying much) and could even be one of the best films of the decade so far which is saying a lot).
I never thought that showing what I consider to be "the boring years" of Bruce Wayne's life (the period between the death of his parents and his first appearance as Batman) where he trains to become the hero he is would be exciting...but director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer have constructed a well thought out and highly exciting story that really gets under the masks of both Bruce Wayne and Batman...and they manage the right balance of hero to villain (or villains) that the previous films (which had their ups and downs) couldn't find.
You all know the basic story of bruce Wayne watching his parents murdered and yadda yadda yadda he eventually dons a bat suit and fights crime...but here we get a much deeper examination of the hows and whys he comes to be. And it all involves a well blended melange of comic book based characters, events and situations from the past 60+ years of Batman comic stories. Everyone has a moment and with maybe two exceptions has a basis in the lore that's been built up on the printed page.
We get a plethora of villains each with different agendas and amounts of screentime, but none feels under used or over exposed. From mob boss Carmine Falcone, to Ra's Al Ghul, to the Scarecrow, to corrupt cop Flass, to crooked businessman William Earl everyone serves a purpose and no one misses a beat.
One the side of good, we get everyone we expect...Batman, Bruce Wayne, Alfred, Jim Gordon, Lucious Fox and newcomer D.A. Rachel Dawes (who could be the film's one weak link...but she's nowhere near the weak link of Vicki Vale in Tim Burton's 1989 film and any "annoyances" of her characters will be quickly forgotten and forgiven).
Everything about this film is top notch. The acting, the writing, the camera work (well...most of it...some early fight scenes are a bit too tight and hard to follow because of the camera and editing). Even the msuic is great as I was afarid I'd really miss Danny Elfman's operatically dark score, but this one works well (there were times I expected the score to segue into it). Any CGI that was used is not at all distracting. Unlike the planetscapes in Star Wars which look cool, but fake, Gotham City looks alive and real in every shot (even the ones that are obviously models...which was nice to see again in addition to some CGI).
The film effortlessly moves through its two hour and twenty one minute running time and will keep you on the edge of your seat. By the end, which leaves a good number of unknown Arkham Asylum escapees running loose, you'll be wanting more. Let's hope they get to it sooner rather than later.
And let's hope that next summer's new Superman movie continues the trend of putting DC Comics back on the good side of the silver screen where it belongs (but this one's gonna be hard to top).
That's all for now.
Be seeing you.
But with everything being as crazy as it is, I'm lucky I actually got to see the film at all...so you'll get a somewhat truncated piece.
DC Comics has been having a tough time for almost a decade in bringing (or bringing back) their characters to the silver screen. After director Joel Schmacher and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman put a nail in Batman's coffin with 1997's ridiculous campfest Batman & Robin, we've gotten pretty much nothing on the big screen from the company (aside from Catwoman and Constantine...but I'll get to those in a moment). Even a slew of potential directors and writers such as Tim Burton, Kevin Smith, J.J. Abrams and Brett Ratner couldn't get the man of steel to fly again.
While the comic books kept churning out decent stories and TV kept things moving nicely (with various animated shows like Teen Titans or Justice League and the small screen hit Smallville), we got a decent adaptation of a cult book (Hellblazer became Constantine) and a feeble attempt at connecting something to the Batman mythos that smelled mostly of warmed over kitty litter and a quick grab for cash (yes...Catwoman was very wrong-headed...yet in an interesting, car crash kind of way).
But finally we get what is not only the best Batman to hit the big screen, but what could easily replace the first Superman as the best comic book based movie ever. It's also the best movie so far this year (which isn't saying much) and could even be one of the best films of the decade so far which is saying a lot).
I never thought that showing what I consider to be "the boring years" of Bruce Wayne's life (the period between the death of his parents and his first appearance as Batman) where he trains to become the hero he is would be exciting...but director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David Goyer have constructed a well thought out and highly exciting story that really gets under the masks of both Bruce Wayne and Batman...and they manage the right balance of hero to villain (or villains) that the previous films (which had their ups and downs) couldn't find.
You all know the basic story of bruce Wayne watching his parents murdered and yadda yadda yadda he eventually dons a bat suit and fights crime...but here we get a much deeper examination of the hows and whys he comes to be. And it all involves a well blended melange of comic book based characters, events and situations from the past 60+ years of Batman comic stories. Everyone has a moment and with maybe two exceptions has a basis in the lore that's been built up on the printed page.
We get a plethora of villains each with different agendas and amounts of screentime, but none feels under used or over exposed. From mob boss Carmine Falcone, to Ra's Al Ghul, to the Scarecrow, to corrupt cop Flass, to crooked businessman William Earl everyone serves a purpose and no one misses a beat.
One the side of good, we get everyone we expect...Batman, Bruce Wayne, Alfred, Jim Gordon, Lucious Fox and newcomer D.A. Rachel Dawes (who could be the film's one weak link...but she's nowhere near the weak link of Vicki Vale in Tim Burton's 1989 film and any "annoyances" of her characters will be quickly forgotten and forgiven).
Everything about this film is top notch. The acting, the writing, the camera work (well...most of it...some early fight scenes are a bit too tight and hard to follow because of the camera and editing). Even the msuic is great as I was afarid I'd really miss Danny Elfman's operatically dark score, but this one works well (there were times I expected the score to segue into it). Any CGI that was used is not at all distracting. Unlike the planetscapes in Star Wars which look cool, but fake, Gotham City looks alive and real in every shot (even the ones that are obviously models...which was nice to see again in addition to some CGI).
The film effortlessly moves through its two hour and twenty one minute running time and will keep you on the edge of your seat. By the end, which leaves a good number of unknown Arkham Asylum escapees running loose, you'll be wanting more. Let's hope they get to it sooner rather than later.
And let's hope that next summer's new Superman movie continues the trend of putting DC Comics back on the good side of the silver screen where it belongs (but this one's gonna be hard to top).
That's all for now.
Be seeing you.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Some Light Reading While We Wait...
With my in-laws scheduled to arrive sometime tomorrow and my brother-in-law and his family due a week from today and the baby due...well...whenever he damn well feels like it (though we are thinking potential inducement two days early to solve a number of problems...Tash's doctor will still be here, her whole family will have arrived and we'll have seen Batman Begins...so everyone'll be happy), I figured today I'd catch up on a few things I've been holding back for a while...mostly about comic books (so those of you with no interest -- which means most of you -- can skip around and come back another day).
When I was in my comic book reading hey day (and I know some of you out there are going "wasn't that yesetrday") back in high school...I was mostly a DC Comics fan. Sure there were a few heroes I loved over at Marvel (Captain America & Doctor Strange) and I was reading a lot of Marvel Comics (almost everything except for the X-Men books and the Spider-Man books), I read EVERYTHING that DC published and I do mean EVERYTHING (except Legion of Super-Heroes).
In the mid80s, comics were fun and nowhere was that sense of fun more prevalent than DC. In the middle of their gigantic company changing crossover known as Crisis On Infinite Earths we still had time to smile and relax with goofy heroes like Blue Devil, Blue Beetle and Ambush Bug. Heck, even Batman had a sense of humor and a goofy side-kick to boot.
After the Crisis was over and the entire DC Universe restarted from the beginning of time things got a bit darker...for some characters...but stayed relatively cheery for others. And it's pretty much been that way up until August of 2004. Last summer, DC published a new crisis story...one called Identity Crisis and the DC Universe hasn't been the same since...it's gotten much much darker...and there's another crisis on the horizon...and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Normally I wait for the trade paperbacks to colect stories like Identity Crisis but I was watching each issue get reprinted 4 or 5 times over an eight month period and finally on a day when I needed instant gratification broke down and bought the 7 issue series (well...some of it...the last round of reprints were done at a rate of 2 issues per week...so it did take a month to read). Since then I've learned there will be a collection in October...but Dan Didio, the VP over at DC, recently went on record as saying that if people are wiating for the trades they're not doing their job right...which is creating exciting, well told stories that get people back to reading the individual issues.
When it comes to reading a story, it's not necessarily about instant gratfication...it's about a fun journey. The premise that DC was hyping dealt with someone trying to harm the loved ones of the various super-heroes...in the end it wound up being about much more than that.
The story starts off with the brutal murder of Sue Dibney. She is the wife of Ralph Dibney who is better known as Elongated Man (he's a guy who can stretch body parts...the geek in me would like to explain how his powers differ from those of Plastic Man or Mister Fantastic, but I won't). The thing about this B string (some would say D string) super-hero is that his stretching power isn't what makes him interesting...he's a detective as well...on par with Sherlock Holmes (when he's written well) and his wife is part of that equation. Ralph and Sue are the Nick and Nora Charles of the super-hero set and while many said that the pointless death of a minor supporting character related to a low level hero is no cause for hyping a book, I'd disagree. DC killed off half of a team that was all about fun and set in motion a chain of events that still haven't ended.
Sue's death brought a secret to the surface that the Justice League had been hiding for years. You see, one night when Sue was up in the JLA Watchtower, the goofball villain (weren't they all goofball villains in the Silver Age) known as Doctor Light snuck on board and tried to rape her. He was stopped when the League walked in on the attempted rape. But by the time he had been subdued, he had discovered the one weakness every hero has...loved ones...it would just be a matter of time and energy to deduce the real identities of everyone in the JLA and get at them through their families. So, to put a stop to it right then and there...the seven members present (Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Atom, Flash and Zatanna) made a decision by majority vote to have Zatanna use her magic to essentially give Doctor Light a lobotomy turning him from a deadly psychopath into the goofball we all loved.
And they didn't stop at Doctor Light...but Ralph is pretty well convinced that Light is behind the death of his wife...so as the secret of the mind wipes come to light and the villains regroup to protect each other, we get slowly led away from the "real" story of who killed Sue to something much more darker. By the end when we discover who did it, it no longer matters. The proverbial "cat" is out of the bag and you're left wondering "where do these guys go next".
Well..."next" turned out to be a one shot called Countdown to Infinite Crisis where we find Blue Beetle investigating a number of odd circumstances that lead him to discover one big bad secret that is currently rattling the entire DC Universe. Unfortunately, Ted Kord doesn't survive the issue once he confronts the man who used to be his friend. It's a very brutal and sad death for someone who was a fun read for many years. Hopefully, someone will take up the mantle of Blue Beetle (I'd like to say that no one stays dead in comics and for the most part it's true...but he was shot in the head at point blank range and his body was then cremated...theoretically characters don't get much deader than that).
Once the Countdown started, DC opened the flood-gates. Four mini-series are currently running in the lead-up to whatever this Infinite Crisis is going to be.
The OMAC Project picks up the trail where Blue Beetle's investigation left off as Booster Gold, Wonder Woman and Batman try to find Ted and discover that one of Bruce Wayne's inventions has fallen into the wrong hands and what this thing was invented for is a bit of a doozy that will put Batman at odds with all his other super friends (but when is he not at odds with them).
Day of Vengeance finds the Spectre, no longer tied to a human host, and Eclipso, with a new human host in Jean Loring, (ex-wife of The Atom and killer of Sue Dibney) teaming up to obliterate all magic from the world. trying to stop them is an odd team of Ragman, Enchantress, Blue Devil, Nightshade and Detective Chimp (don't ask). Captain Marvel and the wizard Shazam seem to fit into this somehow as well.
Villains United follows a group known as The Secret Six (made up of some C list villains) trying to stop the rest of the villains from uniting as The Society where Lex Luthor is running the show with help from Doctor Psycho, Talia al Ghul, Black Adam and a few others. Why are the villains all joining up? For protection in case the heroes decide to perform more magical lobotomies.
The Rann-Thanagar War tracks all of DC's alien species in the middle of a battle that a few of the "off world" heroes get involved in (Hawkman, Adam Strange, a few of the Green Lanterns).
How will all of this tie into what's coming? I have no idea...but apparently once the Infinite Crisis starts all of the monthly books will be jumping ahead by one year so you will see the ramifications of the event before you actually know how it ends.
With all of this stuff going on and the excitement of this summer's Batman Begins, next summer's Superman Returns and the current seasons of Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited (which has an over arcing plot that seems somehwat similar to some of the stuff going on in the comics) it's an exciting time to be a DC fan.
Now...over in the Marvel Universe, things aren't as exciting. With Marvel, there's almost no need to breakdown and not wait for a trade collection as they tend to run late on issues and wind up publishing the collection the same week the final issue comes out. They've got a major company wide crossover happening called House of M which I'll get into another time. Today I want to talk about my disappointment with what they've allowed to be done to one of my favorite characters...Doctor Strange.
I've been a big fan of the writing of J. Michael Straczynski for a while now and have tried to get to everything he's written. Babylon 5 and all of its off-shoots are amazing works of science fiction. His original comic book works Midnight Nation and Rising Stars were also amazing reads. His run on The Amazing Spider-Man actually made he a fan of the character after so many years (I even had no problem with his recent controversial storyline in which it was revealed that Gwen Stacy had a brief affair with Norman Osbourne and sired two children before she died at his hands). So I was excited beyond belief that my favorite writer would be tackling my favorite character with an updated retelling of his origin.
The six issue mini-series entitled Strange starts off okay. The first issue is actually a really good set-up for who Stephen Strange is before his accident. The problems start in the second issue where JMS changes the circumstances of the accident. You see, one of the things I've loved about Strange is that before his accident he was this pompous jerk and it was his own ego that caused his downfall when a drunk driving accident takes away the use of this brilliant surgeon's hands. JMS has Strange hit a tree while skiing. Ummm...okay...not a good sign...but I figured maybe he'd recover...
By the time issue three rolls around and we start to see that JMS has essentially stolen the plot of The Matrix to reinvent Doctor Strange I gave up all hope. This is not the Stephen Strange I know and love...it's a bad clone of the Neo I know and HATE.
Luckily, in recent interviews JMS has stated that the fate and future of Doctor Strange rests in someone else's hands as he's too busy with other things. This is a good thing in my opinion.
Well...I've talked enough about comic books for one day. I'll be back soon with a look at Batman (and some friends) before he Begins...unless of course, Malcolm arrives sooner than we expect...
We'll keep you posted
Be seeing you
When I was in my comic book reading hey day (and I know some of you out there are going "wasn't that yesetrday") back in high school...I was mostly a DC Comics fan. Sure there were a few heroes I loved over at Marvel (Captain America & Doctor Strange) and I was reading a lot of Marvel Comics (almost everything except for the X-Men books and the Spider-Man books), I read EVERYTHING that DC published and I do mean EVERYTHING (except Legion of Super-Heroes).
In the mid80s, comics were fun and nowhere was that sense of fun more prevalent than DC. In the middle of their gigantic company changing crossover known as Crisis On Infinite Earths we still had time to smile and relax with goofy heroes like Blue Devil, Blue Beetle and Ambush Bug. Heck, even Batman had a sense of humor and a goofy side-kick to boot.
After the Crisis was over and the entire DC Universe restarted from the beginning of time things got a bit darker...for some characters...but stayed relatively cheery for others. And it's pretty much been that way up until August of 2004. Last summer, DC published a new crisis story...one called Identity Crisis and the DC Universe hasn't been the same since...it's gotten much much darker...and there's another crisis on the horizon...and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Normally I wait for the trade paperbacks to colect stories like Identity Crisis but I was watching each issue get reprinted 4 or 5 times over an eight month period and finally on a day when I needed instant gratification broke down and bought the 7 issue series (well...some of it...the last round of reprints were done at a rate of 2 issues per week...so it did take a month to read). Since then I've learned there will be a collection in October...but Dan Didio, the VP over at DC, recently went on record as saying that if people are wiating for the trades they're not doing their job right...which is creating exciting, well told stories that get people back to reading the individual issues.
When it comes to reading a story, it's not necessarily about instant gratfication...it's about a fun journey. The premise that DC was hyping dealt with someone trying to harm the loved ones of the various super-heroes...in the end it wound up being about much more than that.
The story starts off with the brutal murder of Sue Dibney. She is the wife of Ralph Dibney who is better known as Elongated Man (he's a guy who can stretch body parts...the geek in me would like to explain how his powers differ from those of Plastic Man or Mister Fantastic, but I won't). The thing about this B string (some would say D string) super-hero is that his stretching power isn't what makes him interesting...he's a detective as well...on par with Sherlock Holmes (when he's written well) and his wife is part of that equation. Ralph and Sue are the Nick and Nora Charles of the super-hero set and while many said that the pointless death of a minor supporting character related to a low level hero is no cause for hyping a book, I'd disagree. DC killed off half of a team that was all about fun and set in motion a chain of events that still haven't ended.
Sue's death brought a secret to the surface that the Justice League had been hiding for years. You see, one night when Sue was up in the JLA Watchtower, the goofball villain (weren't they all goofball villains in the Silver Age) known as Doctor Light snuck on board and tried to rape her. He was stopped when the League walked in on the attempted rape. But by the time he had been subdued, he had discovered the one weakness every hero has...loved ones...it would just be a matter of time and energy to deduce the real identities of everyone in the JLA and get at them through their families. So, to put a stop to it right then and there...the seven members present (Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Hawkman, Atom, Flash and Zatanna) made a decision by majority vote to have Zatanna use her magic to essentially give Doctor Light a lobotomy turning him from a deadly psychopath into the goofball we all loved.
And they didn't stop at Doctor Light...but Ralph is pretty well convinced that Light is behind the death of his wife...so as the secret of the mind wipes come to light and the villains regroup to protect each other, we get slowly led away from the "real" story of who killed Sue to something much more darker. By the end when we discover who did it, it no longer matters. The proverbial "cat" is out of the bag and you're left wondering "where do these guys go next".
Well..."next" turned out to be a one shot called Countdown to Infinite Crisis where we find Blue Beetle investigating a number of odd circumstances that lead him to discover one big bad secret that is currently rattling the entire DC Universe. Unfortunately, Ted Kord doesn't survive the issue once he confronts the man who used to be his friend. It's a very brutal and sad death for someone who was a fun read for many years. Hopefully, someone will take up the mantle of Blue Beetle (I'd like to say that no one stays dead in comics and for the most part it's true...but he was shot in the head at point blank range and his body was then cremated...theoretically characters don't get much deader than that).
Once the Countdown started, DC opened the flood-gates. Four mini-series are currently running in the lead-up to whatever this Infinite Crisis is going to be.
The OMAC Project picks up the trail where Blue Beetle's investigation left off as Booster Gold, Wonder Woman and Batman try to find Ted and discover that one of Bruce Wayne's inventions has fallen into the wrong hands and what this thing was invented for is a bit of a doozy that will put Batman at odds with all his other super friends (but when is he not at odds with them).
Day of Vengeance finds the Spectre, no longer tied to a human host, and Eclipso, with a new human host in Jean Loring, (ex-wife of The Atom and killer of Sue Dibney) teaming up to obliterate all magic from the world. trying to stop them is an odd team of Ragman, Enchantress, Blue Devil, Nightshade and Detective Chimp (don't ask). Captain Marvel and the wizard Shazam seem to fit into this somehow as well.
Villains United follows a group known as The Secret Six (made up of some C list villains) trying to stop the rest of the villains from uniting as The Society where Lex Luthor is running the show with help from Doctor Psycho, Talia al Ghul, Black Adam and a few others. Why are the villains all joining up? For protection in case the heroes decide to perform more magical lobotomies.
The Rann-Thanagar War tracks all of DC's alien species in the middle of a battle that a few of the "off world" heroes get involved in (Hawkman, Adam Strange, a few of the Green Lanterns).
How will all of this tie into what's coming? I have no idea...but apparently once the Infinite Crisis starts all of the monthly books will be jumping ahead by one year so you will see the ramifications of the event before you actually know how it ends.
With all of this stuff going on and the excitement of this summer's Batman Begins, next summer's Superman Returns and the current seasons of Teen Titans and Justice League Unlimited (which has an over arcing plot that seems somehwat similar to some of the stuff going on in the comics) it's an exciting time to be a DC fan.
Now...over in the Marvel Universe, things aren't as exciting. With Marvel, there's almost no need to breakdown and not wait for a trade collection as they tend to run late on issues and wind up publishing the collection the same week the final issue comes out. They've got a major company wide crossover happening called House of M which I'll get into another time. Today I want to talk about my disappointment with what they've allowed to be done to one of my favorite characters...Doctor Strange.
I've been a big fan of the writing of J. Michael Straczynski for a while now and have tried to get to everything he's written. Babylon 5 and all of its off-shoots are amazing works of science fiction. His original comic book works Midnight Nation and Rising Stars were also amazing reads. His run on The Amazing Spider-Man actually made he a fan of the character after so many years (I even had no problem with his recent controversial storyline in which it was revealed that Gwen Stacy had a brief affair with Norman Osbourne and sired two children before she died at his hands). So I was excited beyond belief that my favorite writer would be tackling my favorite character with an updated retelling of his origin.
The six issue mini-series entitled Strange starts off okay. The first issue is actually a really good set-up for who Stephen Strange is before his accident. The problems start in the second issue where JMS changes the circumstances of the accident. You see, one of the things I've loved about Strange is that before his accident he was this pompous jerk and it was his own ego that caused his downfall when a drunk driving accident takes away the use of this brilliant surgeon's hands. JMS has Strange hit a tree while skiing. Ummm...okay...not a good sign...but I figured maybe he'd recover...
By the time issue three rolls around and we start to see that JMS has essentially stolen the plot of The Matrix to reinvent Doctor Strange I gave up all hope. This is not the Stephen Strange I know and love...it's a bad clone of the Neo I know and HATE.
Luckily, in recent interviews JMS has stated that the fate and future of Doctor Strange rests in someone else's hands as he's too busy with other things. This is a good thing in my opinion.
Well...I've talked enough about comic books for one day. I'll be back soon with a look at Batman (and some friends) before he Begins...unless of course, Malcolm arrives sooner than we expect...
We'll keep you posted
Be seeing you
Monday, June 06, 2005
June's Busting Out All Over...
So...a bunch of random thoughts and such today...
The show I was directing in Darien, Book Of Days, ended as a rousing success...sure, we didn't get the crowds I was hoping for...but the show has apparently put The Darien Players back on the map. People are still talking about it three weeks later. I'm still getting reports from people connected to the show or people connected to people connected to the show that say its the best thing they ever saw The Players do or have heard it was the best thing they ever saw The Players do and wished they had seen it. Oh well. It was a great experience and hopefully the bar that we've raised we'll rise to meet all season long next season.
And then the TV season ended...
There were two season finales I was most looking forward to Lost and Smallville. The former was somewhat of a let down. Sure, we get the appropriate "cliffhanger"...but it was no different than the ones we get every other episode. Questions tend to get "answered" in a one step forward three steps back fashion and while that's fine for a regular episode where you know you've got more coming next week or the week after, it's not okay for a season finale...we need a bit more...but I'll let it go for now because it's such an amazing show.
As for Smallville, the season finale more than made up for the crappy stories we had to sit through all season. If I had known this is what they were leading up to all season I wouldn't have complained. Easily the best season finale of the season. Can't wait to see what happens next.
The Best Musical Tony Award going to Monty Python's Spamalot was just plain wrong. Having seen this as well as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and watching the other two musicals nominated get most of the other awards (The Light in the Piazza and The Putnam County 25th Annual Spelling Bee) it was just wrong. But it'll bring people to shows and isn't that what award shows are really all about?
Now that we're seeing a cast fall into place for the big screen remake of The Poseidon Adventure is it as exciting as the small screen remake mini-series cast? Well...you be the judge...the big screen version won't hit until sometime late 2006, is directed by Wolfgang Peterson and stars (currently) Kurt Russel, Emmy Rossum, Richard Dreyfuss and Andre Braugher. The small screen version will air this fall and stars Adam Baldwin, Steve Guttenberg, Bryan Brown, Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and Peter Weller. While we don't know how the plot of the big screen version will be updated (but it is being written by Akiva Goldsman...one of the people responsible in my book for killing the Batman franchise), the small screen version sees the great ship Poseidon overturning due to a terrorist attack. Personally, I'd like to see both of these sink. The original is a GREAT fun movie and the only thing that actually comes close to capturing the fun of it is the musical version we saw in the summer of 2003 at the New York City Fringe Festival. But...being the masochist I am...I'll see 'em both anyway...it's one of my favorite movies.
So with the new version of Doctor Who burning up the ratings over in the U.K. when are we going to get to see it here in the colonies?? There's gotta be some network willing to pick it up? Or at least get it to us on DVD soon.
The house is slowly getting into shape before Malcolm's arrival. We've started putting things in order and reorganizing our possessions back to where they need to be (or getting rid of them in some fashion if they don't need to be). Our original contractor still has a few minor things to take care of (we still don't have a toilet in the master bathroom) and the new contractor is proceeding as best he can with the late start he got on the projects he was hired for. Malcolm's room will be finished by the end of the week. The main floor powder room is waiting to be tiled (a delay I take partial responsibility for and place the rest squarely on our original contractor and his taking so long). But the new contractor has agreed to set the toilet anyway if the tile's not in before family arrives.
Beyond that apparently this month is just one long waiting game. We're waiting for Tash's parents to arrive and we're waiting for Malcolm to decide he's ready to come out. According to the doctor, he's healthy and happy and he could be induced safely now...but we've all decided to wait until he's ready. Tash's doctor is going on vacation as of her due date and she stated that if Malcolm hasn't come out on his own by the time she gets back one week later, she's gonna induce Tash.
We've decided that if Tash is still pregnant on June 15 we're gonna hit an early matinee of Batman Begins just to get it out of the way.
The waiting (for Malcolm, not Batman) is driving me a bit batty.
One last note on the subject of names...what is it with celebrities giving their kids weird names? Apple? Crimefighter? Rocket? Are these people on drugs? Oh wait...yes...they are...it's called fame...We had the short disucssion of doing something like this and decided that if you want to prevent a lifetime of cruelty on the playground find something normal (not that the other kids won't come up with their own clever slants on a name anyway)...
That's all for today.
Be seeing you.
The show I was directing in Darien, Book Of Days, ended as a rousing success...sure, we didn't get the crowds I was hoping for...but the show has apparently put The Darien Players back on the map. People are still talking about it three weeks later. I'm still getting reports from people connected to the show or people connected to people connected to the show that say its the best thing they ever saw The Players do or have heard it was the best thing they ever saw The Players do and wished they had seen it. Oh well. It was a great experience and hopefully the bar that we've raised we'll rise to meet all season long next season.
And then the TV season ended...
There were two season finales I was most looking forward to Lost and Smallville. The former was somewhat of a let down. Sure, we get the appropriate "cliffhanger"...but it was no different than the ones we get every other episode. Questions tend to get "answered" in a one step forward three steps back fashion and while that's fine for a regular episode where you know you've got more coming next week or the week after, it's not okay for a season finale...we need a bit more...but I'll let it go for now because it's such an amazing show.
As for Smallville, the season finale more than made up for the crappy stories we had to sit through all season. If I had known this is what they were leading up to all season I wouldn't have complained. Easily the best season finale of the season. Can't wait to see what happens next.
The Best Musical Tony Award going to Monty Python's Spamalot was just plain wrong. Having seen this as well as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and watching the other two musicals nominated get most of the other awards (The Light in the Piazza and The Putnam County 25th Annual Spelling Bee) it was just wrong. But it'll bring people to shows and isn't that what award shows are really all about?
Now that we're seeing a cast fall into place for the big screen remake of The Poseidon Adventure is it as exciting as the small screen remake mini-series cast? Well...you be the judge...the big screen version won't hit until sometime late 2006, is directed by Wolfgang Peterson and stars (currently) Kurt Russel, Emmy Rossum, Richard Dreyfuss and Andre Braugher. The small screen version will air this fall and stars Adam Baldwin, Steve Guttenberg, Bryan Brown, Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell and Peter Weller. While we don't know how the plot of the big screen version will be updated (but it is being written by Akiva Goldsman...one of the people responsible in my book for killing the Batman franchise), the small screen version sees the great ship Poseidon overturning due to a terrorist attack. Personally, I'd like to see both of these sink. The original is a GREAT fun movie and the only thing that actually comes close to capturing the fun of it is the musical version we saw in the summer of 2003 at the New York City Fringe Festival. But...being the masochist I am...I'll see 'em both anyway...it's one of my favorite movies.
So with the new version of Doctor Who burning up the ratings over in the U.K. when are we going to get to see it here in the colonies?? There's gotta be some network willing to pick it up? Or at least get it to us on DVD soon.
The house is slowly getting into shape before Malcolm's arrival. We've started putting things in order and reorganizing our possessions back to where they need to be (or getting rid of them in some fashion if they don't need to be). Our original contractor still has a few minor things to take care of (we still don't have a toilet in the master bathroom) and the new contractor is proceeding as best he can with the late start he got on the projects he was hired for. Malcolm's room will be finished by the end of the week. The main floor powder room is waiting to be tiled (a delay I take partial responsibility for and place the rest squarely on our original contractor and his taking so long). But the new contractor has agreed to set the toilet anyway if the tile's not in before family arrives.
Beyond that apparently this month is just one long waiting game. We're waiting for Tash's parents to arrive and we're waiting for Malcolm to decide he's ready to come out. According to the doctor, he's healthy and happy and he could be induced safely now...but we've all decided to wait until he's ready. Tash's doctor is going on vacation as of her due date and she stated that if Malcolm hasn't come out on his own by the time she gets back one week later, she's gonna induce Tash.
We've decided that if Tash is still pregnant on June 15 we're gonna hit an early matinee of Batman Begins just to get it out of the way.
The waiting (for Malcolm, not Batman) is driving me a bit batty.
One last note on the subject of names...what is it with celebrities giving their kids weird names? Apple? Crimefighter? Rocket? Are these people on drugs? Oh wait...yes...they are...it's called fame...We had the short disucssion of doing something like this and decided that if you want to prevent a lifetime of cruelty on the playground find something normal (not that the other kids won't come up with their own clever slants on a name anyway)...
That's all for today.
Be seeing you.
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