Michael Offutt's Blog, page 32

The October 2021 Insecure Writer's Support Group contemplates boundaries in writing.

It is spooky October, and I have neighbors preparing for Halloween by lavishly decorating lawns and houses, and I have writer friends preparing for NanoWrimo in November. As for me? I'm doing neither of these things. What I am doing is putting up a blog post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Started originally by Alex J. Cavanaugh, best-selling science fiction author and guitar player, this monthly blogfest kicks off on the first Wednesday of every month. You can sign-up HERE if you like.

What is the purpose of the IWSG?: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

When do we post?: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time - and return comments. This group is all about connecting! Be sure to link to this page and display the badge in your post. And please be sure your avatar links back to your blog! Otherwise, when you leave a comment, people can't find you to comment back.

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

Remember, the question is optional!

October 6 question - In your writing, where do you draw the line, with either topics or language?

The awesome co-hosts for the October 6 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, J Lenni Dorner, Cathrina Constantine, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, and Mary Aalgaard!
My answer==> Thus far, I haven't drawn a line with either topics or language. However, that doesn't mean that one doesn't exist. My "boundary" as it were lies in things that I'm not interested in. So if a particular subject is of no interest to me, I won't write about it. And I distinguish this as being different from being "intolerant" of a particular subject or curse word. That's not it at all. It's just some things inspire no passion at all, even if I can summon the passion to speak or write about them in an eloquent matter.
For example, I recently met with a person who had conservative views, and I engaged with him conversationally and for some reason, he was impressed with my knowledge and the passion with which I spoke about politics. He followed up by asking if we could be friends and continue such discussions. The truth of the matter is that I know I'm very eloquent and well-informed, and I can summon the energy to be engaging every once in a while. But I honestly have no interest in talking or building any kind of relationship based on this kind of thing. What some mistake as "passion"...as in... "But you are so passionate about this particular thing..." is not passion at all. It's just the hallmark of being an intelligent person. That's what intelligence is.
I'd imagine that there are a lot of people who can talk eloquently and intelligently about a thing they have no interest in. A physicist at Los Alamos (for example), could probably say all kinds of things about the effects of radiation on materials under stress within the core of a nuclear reactor, and then follow it up with data and heavy math. But it would be wrong to say..."Oh! You are so PASSIONATE about this! Can we build a relationship around this and talk radiation all of the time!?" They might look at you and say, "Uh...I was answering a question. What I'm really passionate about is cooking, and in particular, Italian pasta dishes? So...yeah... if you want to talk meat sauce...then we totally should...."
For me, (ultimately) politics is boring and frustrating, filled with narcissists, entitled people, and incivility. So, I educate myself out of necessity. But I'm not passionate about it, and I don't want to meet to educate others or to share viewpoints. I've found this kind of thing to be absolutely pointless, as it doesn't move the needle anywhere. I already have one conservative friend that is in close orbit to me, and I've known them for 25 years. The only thing I've managed to do in all of that time with all of my wasted arguments was to convince him that women deserve equal pay to men if they are doing the same job. That's it. And now he takes ownership of that idea as if it originated with him (it did not). I haven't moved him left on anything. He doesn't believe minimum wage should be hiked, he doesn't believe in universal healthcare, he doesn't believe in science (covid isn't real!), he believes "marriage is between a man and a woman!," etc. Whatever. It's all pointless to even chat about this stuff. I think of dinosaurs marching off to their tar pits whenever he is around, and I find that I get way more fulfillment from discussions revolving around Dungeons & Dragons, video games, and nice restaurants.
So yeah...that's where my "fictional line" lies. If I'm not interested in it...then I don't write about it. Plain and simple. It's taken a long time (a lifetime I suppose) to get so laser-focused on what I like and dislike. I imagine there are people out there who struggle with this, and they have my sympathies. It must be terrible to get involved in an activity (like writing) and then discover that you don't like what you are doing and just participated in it because you are a people pleaser. Boundaries are great, and good for the soul. I'm also going to offer another piece of advice...it's okay to say no to people wanting you to read stuff. When people find out I'm a reader, they will sometimes say, "Oh! I just finished reading a book. You should read it!" And then they try to assign homework to you via a book they just read. It's okay to say, "No thank you. I have my own book list, and I read from that. However, if you find it fulfilling to assign homework to other people, might I suggest you do it on Facebook? I'm sure that you'll get some likes from people who want to be interested in the same things that you are. I'm just not one of them, but thanks for asking." Your reward for doing this will be that your free time is indeed yours to spend in doing whatever it is you like. You cannot be responsible for another person's happiness. That's just too much of a burden to shoulder in today's world.
Thanks for visiting.

I'm confused at how Venom and Spiderman are going to come together in one film without it being totally lame.

The big news that happened this last weekend within the realm of "speculative fiction that I pay attention to" was that Venom in the Let There Be Carnage movie is now in the same universe as Tom Holland's Peter Parker. I suppose that this is nice, since I'm a fan of Tom Holland's take on Peter Parker, and I've expressed as much on my blog in a different post.

However, I don't think that Venom and Tom Holland's Peter Parker, at least as they've set it up in the latest Sony movies, make much sense at all. Like...how do these two get together in the same movie? Allow me to explain.

Sony's Picture's latest incarnation of Venom (it was done previously about twenty years ago in the movie Spiderman 3 starring Tobey Maguire) is much less of a villain and more the antihero. So that's the first problem with this. Is there a Mysterio link then? Is Venom going to be mad at Peter Parker for having killed Mysterio based on what J. Jonah Jamison had to say at the end of Spiderman: Far from Home? As far as I know, the whole appeal of the animosity between Venom and Spiderman is that Venom's entire existence (from conception) was intended to be revenge at Peter for abandoning the symbiote suit. In other words, the symbiote was a spurned lover, rebounding with Eddie Brock, and amplifying his hatred for Peter out of nothing but pure spite. But now, is Sony just going to say that Venom wants to beat up Spiderman for killing Mysterio...a supposedly good guy? I think that's weaksauce to be sure.

Or maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe Sony is going to do a reverse plot on this whole thing. That is, the symbiote could leave Eddie for Tom Holland's Peter Parker...and then realize that Eddie was his true partner. And it was vice-versa in the real comic book story. This sounds slightly better, but I think I'd still like to see the original storyline that appeared in the comic books. Only, they can't do that now because they've chosen to go this entirely weird and different route with Venom as a character.

Do any of you reading these words have any theories as to how they are going to bring Venom and Tom Holland's Spiderman together in one film and have it be good? Like...how is this going to go down exactly?

What Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes doesn't say about the Vietnam War is probably the greatest truth that it has to tell.

I finished reading Matterhorn by author Karl Marlantes. It's a really good book, and a fictionalized account of a brief period of time in the Vietnam War. When I say "fictionalized," it's essentially one-step removed from reality. Like...place names have been changed as have names of characters. But, the story itself (I have no doubt) is based entirely on true events. The author himself appears to have a place holder in the story in the primary character named Lieutenant Mellas. So, reading this story is (I imagine) similar to the exact visceral experience that this former marine endured. Marlantes's military credentials are long, having served as an infantry officer in the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines from October 1968 to 1969. He was awarded the Navy Cross for action in Vietnam in which he led an assault on a hilltop bunker complex (which is what Matterhorn is about). He was also awarded a Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and 10 Air Medals.

His writing is remarkable, but I know a lot of that is due to editors and people who believed in the story that he was crafting which was probably one method of him to work his way through the PTSD that he lives with on a daily basis. And when I think about this book, after having read it, there is so much to unpack that it is hard to know where to begin. But, it has definitely taught me to rethink things that I don't believe I quite understood before. With context, a lot of things can become clearer. One of these are these four letters that counselors, therapists, and people tend to use a lot, i.e., PTSD. It stands for post-traumatic stress disorder. We use it to diagnose individuals who are emotionally screwed up. We use it to account for acts of hatred, violence, depression, extreme fear, and unending anger. I always knew that. I knew that this is what PTSD was. However, I never really understood that PTSD was a logical thing and that the right thing to do is to validate all of these feelings, because they make sense.

In reading this story, there are concrete reasons why Lieutenant Mellas goes from being this starry-eyed volunteer in the Marine Corps hoping to get a medal so that he can add it to his Ivy League education like a person would collect a trophy...to a person that (in his own words) says, "I fucking hate it (being a Marine)...I'm sick of the fucking lies and covering the lies with blood."

So, the book is called Matterhorn, because "Matterhorn" is the name of a mountain covered in dense jungle that is close to the border of Laos, which makes it a strategic position as this is where a big regiment of the North Vietnamese Army launched a lot of their military campaigns. The NVA were a well-equipped and well-trained regular fighting force. Now, the name "Matterhorn" is exclusively an American name given to an area of land to which there was probably some other name, and the Americans (ignorant of that) did not care to find out what its actual moniker was called. It only mattered in the sense that the commanders of Bravo Company could name it, and everyone would understand to what that name referred to. Up to about the middle of this 566 page novel, Bravo Company is tasked with first taking Matterhorn, which is unoccupied, clearing it with their resources, and building out bunkers atop it for strategic importance. The trek through the jungle is awful, with leeches raining on them, and even one person getting a leech stuck in his urethra who then has to be medevac'ed, because the pain is excruciating, and it will kill him. Dozens of other people suffer from this awful condition called trench foot. One person gets eaten by a tiger. And one person who has excruciating headaches is killed off by a disease called cerebral malaria, which honestly sounds beyond horrific. They cut their way through fields of elephant grass, which is so sharp it cuts open all exposed flesh and just shreds everything else. And then when they finally get the bunker all built, and it is actually quite nice and probably able to withstand quite the siege, they are commanded to abandon it and go to some Landing Zone that is a long ways away and under a time limit. They are not resupplied, start to starve, and essentially get to this Landing Zone on-time but half dead. But there is no empathy at all from the commanders of this company, calling the shots from their radios many miles away.

Well, Bravo company then gets some rest. And then...wouldn't you know it...but Matterhorn is taken by the NVA, who then occupy all of the bunkers and things that Bravo company built for them. So then they are ordered to take it back. This is pretty much the rest of the novel, and sparing the gory details...a lot of young men die horrible deaths. And they are all pretty much men that Lieutenant Mellas calls "friend." He gets so mad, so angry, that the final assault on Matterhorn pushes him beyond the breaking point and he does some truly crazy stuff that nearly gets him killed from a grenade. However, it's enough to break a bottleneck against the defenses that his own company built with their bare hands to get in and kill the NVA who are occupying the strategic point. The air support they call in to help them weaken the bunkers is absolutely useless, as they are coming in during foggy conditions, at night, and flying at 500 miles per hour. So everything they drop...all the napalm...all the bombs...just land in unoccupied jungle. The palpable frustration of taking this stupid hill is written in every thought of Lieutenant Mellas.

Mellas gets so mad at some point at his own commanders, that when one starts to strut around proclaiming how proud he is of the company at having taken back Matterhorn and "restoring their honor," he grabs a rifle and almost snipes him off before another one of his friends clobbers him to the ground. The incident goes "unreported," but it shows you how "tone deaf" the military commanders of this particular era seemed to be when it came to the things that they ordered boys/kids to do. What struck me as remarkable was how pathetic awards seemed to be. One person exclaims (who didn't participate in the assault but who sat in an air conditioned office somewhere), "I only have two gold stars on my wall. The second one now is for Bravo Company for what you guys did." I really felt how drippy that must have felt, receiving that compliment. I'd be thinking...I got a gold star while my friend got his legs blown off by a mine? What the fuck? It sounded so patronizing, but it is what it is.

So...obviously...Mellas has severe PTSD by the end of the book. But his anger, his grief, and his hatreds all make sense even as medals are probably coming for his brave conduct in taking the hill called Matterhorn. But it's way more complex than that, because Mellas didn't have a choice. It even seems weird to call him "brave" when he had about as much choice as anyone at breathing in and out. "Oh you are so brave to take your next breath." That's basically what it sounds like. Mellas was pinned down behind a tree trunk, and he did what he needed to do to survive and to stop the bullets that were being machine-gunned down upon him and his friends. If he didn't do what he did, he would have been killed. He acted in the moment...not out of patriotism...not out of duty. He did it because he loved his friends, and they were dying. And then he gets called a hero to his face by people who don't (and never will) understand exactly what he went through to earn that title. As a society, the words that we use to label and talk about things is really strange.

The comedian Chris Rock says in one of his stand-up comedy specials on Netflix, "It takes pressure to make diamonds!" He was advocating for the idea that society does indeed need bullies, because without bullies, we all don't know how to deal with one when a true bully comes along (think the 2016 election). After having read Marlantes's book, I now understand better at why it seems to be a wise choice to elect politicians who have been in live combat in the military. And that's an important distinction. Look...you always gamble with trusting anyone. But the pressure cooker of live combat is where the seeds of empathy seem to get sown. People who don't suffer through some kind of trauma have a higher chance of lacking in empathy. And when you don't have a person with empathy in a position of power you end up with a terrible situation. People without empathy will order a door dash delivery of food during a flash flood, because, "Hey...it says on this app that they are delivering so fuck it." They have no idea that someone may be too stupid to know how dangerous it is outside. They just figure, "I don't need to police them because I trust when a person knows what's best." We all know (because of Covid and the pandemic) that we cannot trust people to know what is best. Trusting people to do what's good and right is a complete shit show. Of course, there are other things that are capable of delivering trauma. But I would argue now, especially after reading this book, that I'd rather have a survivor of trauma calling the shots than one who has no idea what trauma even is (a life filled with ease).

The book of Matterhorn is a complicated and extremely enjoyable read. It is also a work that unravels through its pages the almost psychopathic disconnect between the people who do dirty jobs that no one wants to do, and the need for those dirty jobs to get done. It highlights how people give platitudes to the dirty job workers...honestly, it's very similar to calling people at fast food places or working low wages at grocery stores by the term, "essential worker." Meanwhile, some dude at Goldman's Sachs pulls down millions and works from home on a laptop part-time. From Mellas's perspective, there is also this kind of strange misogyny that is felt by practically all of these young men toward American women. However, I feel that it is mostly justified as (seeing things through Mellas's eyes), these enlisted men seemed to be attached to women who had no empathy at all for the situation in which they were in. There are several passages that elude to this. Here's one:

"In Bravo Company's unpainted plywood office a clerk was pecking at a typewriter....Above the clerk, covering the entire back wall, was a blown-up picture of a beautiful model in a girdle and brassiere advertisement. A note had been handwritten by the model on the large poster in neat round script. "To the men of Bravo Company, First Battalion, Twenty-Fourth Marines. You're doing a great job. Love, Cindy."

It's this feeling of, "You are appreciated by us for what you do...but we don't really want to see you or hear from you. But here's a picture of you to masturbate to, and I hope that you are doing well." It's honestly how all the women come across in this book, and these boys (who are in the prime of their lives and dealing with all of this other stuff) don't handle it very well. I honestly get it. American society has tons and tons of walls. In 2021, the Surgeon General of the United States has come out saying that America has a "loneliness epidemic." And I'm not trying to draw any connection between the book and the modern loneliness epidemic. However, if Americans have been good at one thing since the sixties, it is this: "Good walls make for good neighbors." We are all about our individuality, about keeping people out, and staying completely focused on what brings us happiness (even if this is a cup with no bottom).

Americans are good at surrounding ourselves only with those people who agree with us, and do not challenge us in any way. We are good at canceling those who do not abide by our rules. Boundaries are healthy for the person creating them; perhaps not so much for the person who just desires a special human connection and can't find one and ends up dying alone. But it happens all of the time, and it probably needs to be this way. No one should obligate anyone else to anything. To express it another way, human connection whether sexual, emotional, or otherwise IS a privilege. Maybe it didn't used to be...like pre-1950. But it is now, and if you don't have that privilege. Well, there isn't much you can do about it, except complain or express your frustration in other ways. I didn't make the rules. This is just how it is these days. I can see the sprinklings of how much the world has changed in the subtext of Matterhorn. It has a lot to say about racial inequality, white privilege, and the folks (regardless of race and privilege) who do the dirty jobs and are (by virtue of their job) assigned a moniker that means "unworthy of love." But hey...there's always a "thank you for your service" waiting somewhere, right?

There are so many things I could probably say about this book. But this review and subsequent rumination over the things I've read is already long in the tooth. I'm just going to say this: Matterhorn is an excellent novel, and you would be wise to give it a read, because what it doesn't directly say about the Vietnam War is probably the greatest truth that it has to tell. People are terrible and do terrible things to each other ALL of the time. Marlantes says through Mellas that we all have an inner demon. Soldiers in the bush just have met and come to terms with that inner demon. They know what they are. The rest of polite society likes to pretend that it doesn't exist. 

I was revisiting Babylon 5 on HBO Max when I learned that the whole thing was being rebooted and there was much rejoicing.

I love Babylon 5. It's a show that seems incredibly prescient in today's world. Way before its time, it tried to tell one overarching story in five seasons rather than make a series that had individual stories that unfolded one episode at a time. This model of making a series is now normal in 2021. However, the show hasn't aged all that well visually even if the special effects and sets were considered good for the time period in which it was made. I was alive in the early nineties, and I remember thinking that stuff being made then was soo much better than the entertainment options of the seventies and sixties. It's kind of shocking to look back on all that now, and think...man...these things were terrible and I actually liked them. Was I insane or just completely ignorant? The truth is neither of these things of course. I just had no idea what kind of technology would arise within the next thirty years.

So, am I happy about the reboot? Absolutely. There have been some discussions online (since the announcement dropped yesterday) that have complained about the CW being the station upon which it will be aired. I don't see a problem with this at all. I love the CW. I watch all the DC Universe stuff from The Flash to Batwoman to Superman & Lois and Stargirl and Supergirl, and I have enjoyed them all. My favorite indulgence is the Legends of Tomorrow. I even enjoyed The 100 until the point where I just fell behind and decided not to catch up as they kept killing off characters I liked. I've also enjoyed the Berlanti-related productions of Titans and Doom Patrol that air on HBO Max. So the choice of the studio doesn't bother me at all.

Furthermore, J. Michael Straczynski is helming everything. He's busy writing the pilot episode, and he's going to be heavily involved with the writing going forward. He's also serving as the showrunner and producer. It's going to be his baby. Sure, the characters will all need to be recast, but that's entirely okay. As a fan of Babylon 5, I know that (behind the scenes), J. Michael Straczynski didn't get to do the show the way he wanted to the first time around. He thought he only had four seasons to tell his story, and he compressed a lot of the Shadow and Vorlon war to fit in with that timeline. But it became such a big success that they renewed it unexpectedly for another season or two, and he had to scramble to come up with stories to tell and they were never as good as the Shadow and Vorlon war.

Going into this thing, he's got complete control. His seasons will probably be shorter as is the norm these days, but that will force him to compress for content and not drag things out like the Nancy Drew series ends up doing a lot. And I imagine he will have the same kind of special effects team as the Expanse gets with Amazon, and that has me completely excited. If you've at all checked out Babylon 5 on HBO Max, the Shadow look absolutely terrible. It's shocking how stupid they look. I cannot wait to see what this menace looks like in a rebooted Babylon 5. I have high expectations to be sure.

Another thing that Babylon 5 really had going for it were the numerous compelling subplots. The shining example of this was Londo and G'Kar. These were two politicians from opposite sides of a war that started out hating each other, and both of their characters and their respective relationship developed over time.

There is (of course) the question that gets asked most often: "Why not make a new thing entirely?" As being a creator of sorts (I write and run D&D games for people), I know that creating a new world is really hard. I created one in my youth that I still use for new D&D players thirty years later. And it's better, it has evolved as I have evolved, and I know its history. People compliment me all the time by saying, "I love playing D&D with you, because your characters and your world seem so real." I'm sure that J. Michael Straczynski has plenty of ideas. He's way more creative than me. But Babylon 5 is an idea that he's had for decades, and I bet it has evolved in ways that building something new (from scratch) simply wouldn't be as good or as satisfying (in the same way it would be for me were I to attempt to do the same thing). I remember when Berke Breathed retired Bloom County because he didn't want it to be Garfield. And then he started writing Outland, which then (over the course of time) slowly became Bloom County again. That's because he loved the ideas and characters he came up with in Bloom County and decided to incorporate those ideas into his new project. Well, then he scrapped Outland and now he's back to publishing Bloom County. So...he never should have stopped writing Bloom County, because that's what he enjoyed.

And finally, J. Michael Straczynski is excited. I think that right there is enough for me to be excited about this reboot. So, I think I'm going to put away rewatching the show and await the new reboot with eagerness.

I wonder if Netflix's Sandman will be better than American Gods on Starz.

 

American Gods on Starz went really off the rails. I actually never finished the show, but I think that the showrunners had trouble making a series out of the limited content that they found within the book. I mean, American Gods is only so long...and it has a bunch of characters with the main character (Shadow) being quite arguably the most boring of the bunch. I liked the read, but a lot of Gaiman's works tend to be cerebral with complex characters who are shocking modern interpretations of ancient religious symbols. Interacting with these characters briefly was the fun part. But spending extended amounts of time with them stretched out over a series in the context of modern Americana wasn't as fun as I thought it should have been.

That being said, The Sandman is my earliest recollection of the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, and I actually used to own a Sandman number one, which is probably worth quite a bit these days. I got it relatively cheaply by purchasing it brand new when the comic debuted. The artist was the one who drew me in, but Gaiman's writing was solid as well. The thing is, Gaiman's adaptations tend not to translate well to American television.

I think the last adaptation I actually enjoyed that was made from Gaiman's works was Good Omens. But I wonder how much David Tennant and Michael Sheen made that possible as opposed to the writing of Gaiman. I've actually never read Good Omens, so it's a legitimate question.

The problem with Sandman is that the characters are pretty out there. My guess is that the show will need to tone down and streamline a bunch of stuff that is at the crux of what makes the entire story compelling in the first place. Additionally, Death's look in the comics was a hugely entertaining part of her character. However, I don't remember "goths" being a thing back in the eighties when I saw this comic for the first time. Now "goths" are everywhere, and the look is honestly really tired. One can blame places like "Hot Topic" for cashing in on this trend I suppose. But the blamethrower really doesn't solve anything after the genie has escaped from the bottle. What's done is done.

I am reluctantly excited for this, but I'm skeptical that Netflix can pull this off. Down below, I have attached the "first look" from Netflix. Bonus that we get Charles Dance pretty early on in the show. I've been a fan of his for years.

I am both intrigued and disturbed by the hyper-realistic and lifelike statues being sold to online collectors.

I am both intrigued and deeply disturbed by the life-like $3k to $4k limited edition statues (and yes they are statues and not the actors) that makers like "Sideshow" are putting out for superheroes and other iconic and powerful people from the entertainment industry. And just to be clear, I probably will never own one of these. In particular, the Tom Holland one as Spiderman actually creeps me out because it is so realistic. It gives me the heebie jeebies, because it feels like someone taxidermied the actor to put him on display. The Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman feels less so mostly because that particular bust still has its arms (the Tom Holland one does not). Anyway, I thought I'd share, because I find them deeply fascinating. It seemed appropriate on this first Friday of Autumn.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2021 is an excellent update to a beloved series.

If you had asked me at the beginning of 2021, I would never have guessed that Netflix would launch two He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. The first (called Revelations) dropped at the height of summer, and it was a revisit of a lot of nostalgia and helmed by Clerks creator and comic book geek, Kevin Smith. Ultimately, I wasn't really satisfied with that series, because it was only six episodes. It felt too short, and the plot barely seemed to get going before it ended with a cliffhanger. I do hope that it gets renewed for season 2. I wasn't even upset that Teela was the main character, as telling the story from her point of view seemed right to do in this moment of time.

However, this latest offering from Netflix of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe doesn't pretend to be any kind of offshoot, sequel, or conclusion to the original. It's a complete prequel wrapped in a solid suit of reinvention. I found that to be kind of interesting. The animation is the same that we got in the series Trollhunters in case you've watched that. But if you haven't, kinda think of Pixar-level animation and then take it down a notch to where it's essentially a very cartoony version of Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

I ended up really loving this show a lot more than I thought I would. In this particular reinvention of He-Man, the power of Greyskull which transforms a gangly teenage boy into the very swole hero, is shared between a bunch of people. Teela is now cast as a lady with dark skin who is a powerful magician in her own right even before Greyskull empowers her further. Afterwards, she's essentially a sorcerous supreme, capable of incredible feats of magic. Then Prince Adams best friend is Ram-Ma'am, who is a gender-swapped version of the original cartoon's Ram-Man. The others joining He-Man in sharing the power of Greyskull are Man-At-Arms, and Cringer (Battle-Cat) who comes from a tribe of talking cats and who has no claws. Orko doesn't make an appearance until about midway into the series, and he's the reincarnation of a powerful ancient magician who is trapped in the body of a metal robot that flies around.

Skeletor is actually Prince Adam's uncle, who makes a terrible choice in Castle Greyskull and ends up getting his flesh all melted off. That was interesting to make Skeletor of royal blood. I don't know if that was something in the original series, but hey...it works in this reboot. Another thing that works is the humor. There are several one-liners which are quite clever and had me laughing (some of them obviously break the fourth wall and allow the show to poke fun at itself).

The story is definitely for kids. However, there's lots to like about it for adults who don't mind taking a nostalgia pill and opening their mind to new possibilities with regard to the intellectual property of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I also really liked how it was diversified now, and that He-Man as the hero doesn't exist within a vacuum. He isn't a deus ex machina. Rather, his friends are extremely important to his success, and they wield just as much power as he does. In other words, he is no longer unique in being able to channel the "power of Greyskull." The animation sequence of the team "powering up" is straight out of video games, and I have no doubt will make kids eyes bug out with amazement even if I got a bit tired of it after several episodes (my only real complaint).

Has anyone else watched this show on Netflix? If so, what did you think?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is a ton of fun to play with friends.

A little over a week ago, I started playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order on the Nintendo Switch. I'm "late to the game" on this one, but better late than never, right? I heard about this game only because I hadn't used my Switch in over a year, and my friend Meg expressed a desire to continue to play a Breath of the Wild game she'd started about a year earlier. So, as I watched her play the game, I looked online for anything that might play more to my interests. I've always liked cooperative games (games you can play with other people in the same room as you) to ones that you play alone on a computer or a game platform like the Nintendo Switch. And that's when I discovered that waaayyy back in 2019 (before Covid was even a thing...can you imagine?) this game came out and was rabidly enjoyed by its fanbase. So, I bought a copy and started playing it with friends. And I'm here to tell you that I've had SO MUCH FUN.

If you're a comic book fan, you really should give this game a go. You can play up to 80 characters in the Marvel universe, and like I said above...you can team up. Each character starts out with a pretty basic superhero package, but you can level your character up by performing cooperative missions called "Infinity trials" and unlock all kinds of nifty stuff. There's a whole laboratory section of the game that you can go into to further customize the synergies and power that your four person team can do. If you pick characters that have similar abilities (Hulk and Thor for example are both "heavy hitters") this allows you to synergy your attacks together for spectacular amounts of damage against the foes on the screen. The game also has a level cap of (I think) 300, and you start out at level 6. So...you can play for a really long time, and there's always more to explore. My friend and I have been playing a game for over a week now and we are like level 35 now, which shows you just how far we are into the game.

Right now, I'm alternating between Spiderman, a hero called Crystal, Wolverine, Captain America, and Nightcrawler. I've wanted to play Doctor Strange, so I'll probably play that character next, but we just unlocked Cyclops and Colossus so those are strong contenders for wanting to explore. If you think that most video games might be too complicated for you, and you are intimidated...I would say, "I think that this will not be a problem with Ultimate Alliance 3." The reason: both Meg and I are old fuddy duddies, and we don't have the best response time on the controllers. So we play on friendly difficulty level.

Aside from that, the strategy of playing comes more from timing, team composition, energy management, and just dodging enemy attacks. There are no fancy button combos to memorize or special attack patterns to use on the joystick. There are also some really challenging puzzles, and some mechanics that you must use in order to bring down bosses. One of the more difficult bosses that we faced was Dormammu in the Dark Dimension. You had to hit him with rocks that you picked up, but you needed to charge the rocks with Dormammu's own attacks before you threw them at him, or they would do no damage. So that was a lot of fun, once we realized what we had to do.

As for the story, it is a ton of fun. The big bad is Thanos, and he's trying to collect the Infinity Gems. In this alternate universe, the Infinity Gems are scattered through the cosmos and we are trying to get our hands on them before Thanos and his Black Order can beat us to it. I imagine that there will be a pretty incredible boss fight with Thanos before this is all over. There were also three expansion packs that are available for the game that I purchased and downloaded. These unlocked the Fantastic Four, some more game to explore in Doctor Doom's kingdom, and a bunch of new abilities and alternative costumes for characters.

Anyone else out there own a Switch? If so, have you played Ultimate Alliance 3? Please let me know in the comments.

Star Trek: Prodigy looks to explore even more of the Delta Quadrant in October with a hologram Janeway providing advice to a bunch of kids

There's a lot of new Trek happening on Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access). With Lower Decks solidly marching on with its second season, I'm also aware that Star Trek: Prodigy, the second animated series in the shared universe on Paramount+, is due to drop October 28th.

Star Trek: Prodigy's plot is going to have a pretty basic framework that can be built out as needed for some truly entertaining episodes. The crew (with the exception of the hologram Janeway providing advice) consists entirely of teenagers who find an abandoned starship and go flying around the galaxy in search of adventure. All of the characters are from the Delta Quadrant, and the show is set just a few years after the USS Voyager's return home.

The synopsis reads like this: five kids are incarcerated on an obscure planet in an uncharted part of the galaxy. They escape from their imprisonment and race across the planet to find a defunct starship buried in the planet's surface. They enter the ship, but are unable to make it work. With prison guards hot on their heels, they suddenly stumble upon an Emergency Training hologram in the form of Captain Janeway.

There's Gwyn, a 17-year old member of the Vau N' Akat, which is a new race to Star Trek. She was raised on her father's desolate mining planet and grew up dreaming of exploring the stars.

Next up is Jankom Pog, who is a Tellarite. Pog loves a good argument and regardless of his own opinion, he'll always play "devil's advocate" for the sake of hearing all sides.

There's also a purple alien who race has not been released yet. The name attached to this alien is Dal, who fancies himself a maverick and holds strong onto his unwavering hope even in the toughest of times.

Murf is an indestructible blob with really good timing.

There is an 8-year-old Brikar (race), which is a hulk-like alien. The name of this character is Rok-Tahk, and they love animals. 

And there is a Medusan named Zero. From the original series, these are a non-corporeal and genderless energy-based life form known to cause insanity to any humanoid who gazes upon their natural form. Zero wears a containment suit to protect those around them.

Below is the first trailer for the show. I'm kinda excited about this one....

The Locke & Key season 2 trailer for Netflix seems to channel a bit of Sauron forging the One Ring.

Just in time for Halloween, the second season of Locke & Key is about to drop according to the shiny new trailer that aired online this week. I really enjoyed the first season of this show on Netflix (which seems like it aired a loooong time ago), and I believe it is from Joe Hill, who is the son of Stephen King and (honestly) a doppelganger for the aging horror author. As far as Joe's mind goes, well it seems to me that you can truly inherit genius (or insanity). Look (and for clarification) I wouldn't want to live in Stephen King's mind. However, I'm glad that someone does, because Stephen has been a great entertainer of people for generations. And now, Joe Hill appears to be carrying on that legacy just fine.

Joe's other offerings like NOS4A2 kept me on edge as well. I watched some of the series on Hulu, and I do intend to get back to it. But what I did see kept me wanting more. However, I'm not big on horror unless it also manages to combine fantastic elements (or science fiction). It's why I can watch Aliens type movies without feeling anxiety. But I can't (for example) watch Halloween or Malignant.

In the trailer (which I will link below), Dodge (played by Laysla De Oliveira) is in the form of Gabe (Griffin Gluck), and another demon in the form of Eden (Hallea Jones) forge what appears to be a dangerous new key. The scene reminds me a lot of Sauron forging the one ring in the fires and forges of Mount Doom.

People who have read the original comic book series by Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (artist) have claimed that the series has gone off the rails from the original source material, which honestly isn't surprising. I haven't read the comic book series. And that probably works in my favor, because I think the show is one of the best offerings on Netflix.