Barenaked Supergirl and the Legion?

Supergirl, season 3, episode 3 had a moment that got my attention. Perhaps not everyone would have perked up at hearing this sly little musical inside "joke," but I did.

The band is Barenaked Ladies. The song is "It's All Been Done." Now, what got my attention, at first was the fact that the song is nearly 20 years old at this point, so it was an odd addition to a CW show, where you expect to hear trendy new songs. Never mind that Britany Spears's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" turned up later in the episode.

Instantly I knew that the Barenaked Ladies song was a possible Legion of Super Heroes reference, which was a subtle trolling of Legion fans who happen to also know Barenaked Ladies songs from the late 1990s. Perhaps a small group.

Here's a late-in-the-song lyric:

Alone and bored on a thirtieth-century night
Will I see you on The Price Is Right?
Will I cry? Will I smile?
As you run down the aisle?

It's all been done
It's all been done
It's all been done before

                                                             (Live on Conan from 1999)

Now, since I knew the song, I remembered the 30th century lyric, because at the time I first heard it, I made a mental connection to the Legion, being a Legion fan.

Question is: who is it on Supergirl that also knows the song, and wanted to slide it into the episode to see if anyone picked up on the connection? It can't have been just a coincidence, since the song is an odd choice to have on the show unless it served an Easter Egg type purpose.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I don't think I am. I think someone did it on purpose, and I sussed it out. I'm sure others did too, but I posted it within seconds of the moment on the show last night, so I will claim that I was the first person to catch this little hidden gem.

Now, if I am calling it, I would say that the lyrics may hint that Mon-El will return, with some futuristic friends in time to spoil the wedding of Kara's sis, Alex to Maggie.

The Walking Dead at 100

Season 8 of THE WALKING DEAD arrived last night, celebrating the 100th episode of the enduring show. 100 episodes is no small feat, for sure. A lot of shows can only dream of reaching that number. It is all the more impressive that TWD reached it because the show is not a mainstream network show, and each season has been 16 episodes (or less in the case of seasons 1 and 2), requiring more seasons to reach the number than the shows that get 22 episodes per season.

I saw a post this morning on Facebook with someone saying simply: "Walking Dead. I'm done."

I cheekily replied: "Is this one of those 1 year ago today posts, or is this a new annual TWD tradition?"

Yes, fans like to get worked up over the show. They like to "quit" it in very loud and public ways. They like to claim some level of mental, emotional or physical grief being leveled upon them.

I like to roll my eyes at these complaining drama queens and kings.

And speaking of queens and kings: last year I posted a blog and recorded a podcast where I took some of the complainers to task over their cries of outrage at the panel by panel, pitch perfect recreation of the death of Glen on the show's season 7 opener. People were beside themselves with disgust at the scene and declared that TWD had gone too far.

Then they returned to posting endlessly about how eager they were for Game Of Thrones (with all of its incest, castration, rape, torture and gore of gratuitous degrees) to return.

Sigh.

Well, here we are again. A new season. A new series of wounded snowflakes who can't stand to watch the show any longer.

Melt snowflake! Melt!

I'm still watching. And I'm still enjoying it. Sure, I think that the writers are chronically lazy when they slow the pace of storytelling and split up the core cast to drag out the seasons at times. That's a creative complaint. They are crafting it for binge watching and not week-to-week. Such is the trend.

But when they are firing on all cylinders, the show is still quite exhilarating to watch. I love the characters and the evolution we've seen since the beginning. I even love FEAR THE WALKING DEAD (which had a mostly horrible first season, but has made up for it in seasons 2 and 3). I like the universe and the darkness of humanity that it explores.

I like the show.

I'm not fickle enough to abandon it over some minor complaints. Over all they keep delivering, and I keep enjoying it. AND... I don't take it so seriously that one little nudge in any direction crushes me emotionally. Anyone who does should probably seeks some sort of help. It's just a TV show. You either like it or you don't. Don't book a parade route to declare some sort of offense that you feel has been heaped upon you personally because of a plot point.

To quote William Shatner: "Get a life!"

Season 8 is off and running, and it is full of action and continued evolution of the characters. War is here, and it looks like we're in for a long stretch of action. I would be disappointed (but not shocked) if next week we suddenly find ourselves in a solo episode of what happened to Heath for an hour.

#WheresHeath?

TWD has done so much more than just achieve 100 episodes. It has created a larger geek community surrounding the worlds they have created. Walker Stalker Cons are great fun, and bring tremendous joy to people who attend. My wife and I went to one last year, and loved it.

As a comic book fan, who has gone to many Cons, I get it. It is a world and a culture that fans can feel safe and find community. How can one not applaud and respect that passion?

Klaus Janson is coming to town (for Bull City Con!)

If you've read comics over the past 40 years, you know who Klaus Janson is. He's one of the most famous second fiddles in the pencil and ink biz. Rarely up front, and drawing books himself, Janson is perhaps one of only a few major superstars among the inking world.

That may have to do with a guy named Frank Miller and a little book called The Dark Knight Returns. You may recall, it set the entire industry on its ear and recreated comics as we know them in the mid 1980s. Of course, he and Miller did a stint on Daredevil too, which is pretty well regarded by many. But it was Dark Knight that made Klaus a household name. He is as much a part of the DKR legend as Frank Miller and colorist Lynn Varley at this point. And Miller has kept going back to Klaus to back him up.

(Yes, of course I will get him to sign my TPB of this!)

Now, I know a number of folks who would call it sacrilege, but I have other things I think of when I think of Klaus and his work. First, I recall his stellar turn as inker for Marvel's Battlestar  Galactica in the late 1970s. He was teamed - mostly  - with legendary Walt Simonson, who wrote and penciled many of those great tales. Some are so great that Dynamite Entertainment is releasing a deluxe Artists Edition soon, showcasing those issues. (I already pre-ordered it, and hope it is brought to me by another Claus this Christmas!)

Klaus also inked Sal Buscema on the Marvel Raiders Of The Lost Ark adaptation. I was all over that book, and the movie is still my all time favorite. I have the Marvel Super Special edition (under a Howard Chaykin cover) to get signed at Bull City Con in early November.

I'm even debating on getting a sketch from Klaus of either Indiana Jones of Lt. Starbuck. Silly, I know, but those were the heroes who captured my heart as a kid, and his art was all over the comics that bore those names. I can't help myself! While others will be drooling over Batman, Daredevil, Punisher and others, I'll be stunning him with talk of BSG and Indy.

In recent times, we've lost some great creators from the comic world of our childhoods, and I have been inspired to go on a mission to get books signed by as many of those who are still around as possible. I missed Bernie Wrightson, Len Wein and others that I could have seen and met, but missed. No more. Denny O'Neil, Jim Steranko, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Paul Gulacy and others have signed books of mine this past year, and I will continue to seek out those comic book heroes behind the heroes, to meet and chat with, and to get signatures and sketches from.

So, Klaus, get ready! I'm coming to see you with some odd books and even odder requests!

Don't miss the great NC Comicon Bull City Con, November 10 - 12, in Durham, NC!

http://nccomicon.com/bull-city/

Why is Howard Chaykin so bitter?

NC Comicon's Bull City Con comes to Durham, NC on November 10 - 12, and Geek Brain plans to be there for the celebration! We even hope we can get well-known grump Howard Chaykin to crack a joke or smile. We won't hold our breath, but here's hoping.

Actually, Chaykin holds a very special place for me. As a child, one of my first obsessions in comic books was STAR WARS. I mean, I was 7 when I saw it, and we didn't have home video options to see it again and again. You had to go to the movies to see it. I remember the revolutionary moment when HBO aired it in the mid-80s, and how excited people were. Then came VHS, and the rest is history. Now we all get to keep the movies we love (and many we hate) forever, within months of seeing them in movie theatres. In my childhood, we could only dream of such things.

But I'm not bitter. I don't want to be like one of my comic book heroes, Howard Chaykin. At least not that much!

I collected STAR WARS obsessively. It was the only way to have the film on a repeat viewing level in some form.

I even got my start as a writer (and would-be artist) back in the day, when I elected to adapt the movie (and others) in a short novelization with illustrations by me. I still have STAR WARS and EMPIRE in my personal collection from those adaptations. (Lost to time, or deep storage at my parents's home are BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, JEDI and a handful of originals of my own doing).

But back to Howard and his grumpiness.

When I was 13, I discovered the Comics Buyers Guide and Amazing Heroes. Within those pages, I learned about First Comics and the projects of Mike Grell (Jon Sable) and Howard Chaykin (American Flagg!). Both Grell and Chaykin were the heroes of my childhood who drew those books I loved, and seeing these obviously "Adult" books from them, sent my 13 year old mind into overdrive. From the dealers' ads I ordered some back issues through the mail, sending a money order along to pay for the books. That first round of comics that arrived included a number of First Comics standard bearers like JSFreelance #6, #7, #11, #12, FLAGG! #3, #4, #5 and Mars #1, as well as Ms. Tree #1 -3 from Eclipse.

I felt like I was getting away with something at 13. All the grown ups around me thought they were just "funny books" for kids and had no idea that Howard Chaykin was teaching me about sex and dystopian futures. Grell taught me about Africa in the 1970s, as well as the 1972 Olympics and gritty crime drama. They were my teachers!

I've met Grell, and I've been personal friends with him since 2011. He's such a nice guy, and so much fun to hang out with.

I'm about to meet Chaykin in a few weeks, and I'm trying to set my bar low. By all accounts, he's not a nice guy, and he's even less fun to hang out with. I have a feeling a budding friendship is not in the offing at Bull City Con. But you never know.

I do know that I have things for him to sign. American Flagg! #1 chief among them. Also, the Marvel Super Specials for Raiders of The Lost Ark (he did the cover and fellow Bull City Con guest Klaus Janson did art in the book) and For Your Eyes Only, Black Kiss TPB (oh, what he taught me about sex in my late teens!) and a few others. I also plan to get a couple of sketches from him. Maybe Reuben Flagg, maybe Indiana Jones. And I'm thinking about getting a sexy Black Canary from him for my wife.

I'll be happy meeting him. I hope he will be too meeting me.

I've followed his career over the years, and he continues to be prolific in his work. Every time you look up, he's got something new on shelves. He swings for the fences constantly. Sure, many of those attempts falter, but he never lets it slow him. He's got a hot new book out from Image, called the Divided States of Hysteria, which is perhaps his best work since FLAGG! He did a 4 issue Buck Rogers book a few years ago that was cool. Less successfully, he has done books like American Century and Power And Glory. He brought Blackhawk back for DC in the 80s, and he has collaborated on many Elseworlds Batman books, and Twighlight, which he wrote with Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (I got Lopez to sign #1 at Heroes Con this past Summer).

Chaykin, unlike many of his contemporaries, jumped to TV writing in the late 80s and early 90s, with scripting credits on the 1990 The Flash, as well as the short lived (first) Human Target series starring Rick Springfield.

In recent weeks, EuropaCorp purchased the rights to make American Flagg! into a TV series, which has me pretty excited!

Chaykin never quits. Maybe his grumpiness is what fuels his passion. Maybe we should stop hoping for a shiny happy Chaykin, and realize that his surly ways are part of what makes him so damned lovable.

Maybe.

I'll let you know after I meet him at NC Comicon's Bull City Con!

http://nccomicon.com/bull-city/

New season of heroes on the TV

A new season is here for Super Hero goodness on TV. Specifically, the CW network where hosts of DC heroes take to the streets and skies for action every week.

Here's a quick round up on the shows so far:

Supergirl: Still a charming delight of a show (and my step daughter's favorite of them all). Love Melissa Benoist in the role and the ensemble around her. Naturally, I am hoping for a major Legion of Super Heroes appearance (or multiple) this year with Mon-El lost in space and time, and Saturn Girl scheduled to appear at some point this year!

The Flash: I don't know. I'm getting a little weary of the overly soapy angst that has entered the show. Last season ended with a massively shoe-horned in there cliff hanger, which was resolved quickly in the new seasons's first episode. Too quickly, for my taste. Plus, it feels too much like old Star Trek Next Gen season cliffhangers that seemed impossible to overcome that were somehow simply resolved in the next season, making the whole thing anti-climactic (except "Mr. Worf: Fire!" for the Borg one).

Legends of Tomorrow: I really enjoy that this show is the light-hearted and goofier of the shows. It really reminds me of the Justice League International of the 1980s (see the Omnibus out today!). In fact, I've been hoping for Booster Gold and Blue Beetle to show up, but I found a few moments in the new season's first episode made me realize that they are doing that duo, but letting Steel and The Atom play those parts. While I love the dynamic, I hate that it will likely prevent the Blue and Gold from making the team. Still, I love this rowdy ride of a show, even when they have a few off the mark episodes.

Arrow: After a great cliffhanger last season, the show chose to not pick up after it, but pick up months later and show, in flash back (hey - they said they were quitting that this season!), how each person was effected by the island blowing up. Black Siren is back, and the convoluted Laurel/Dinah Lance/Drake Canary conundrum that the writers put themselves into with Laurel's death is still a drag on the show. Still... Arrow was better last season than the one before, and I have high hopes for this season too. Just stop with Oliver and Felicity romance shipping already.

On other networks I have finally tuned out Gotham (it never really worked for me) and Agents of SHIELD is no longer on my radar too. Marvel's Inhumans had a laughable pilot episode filled with slow motion sequences that only made the episode about 20 minutes longer than it could have been, and that horrible old trope of police camera footage that is shot for shot a match to the filmed sequences we saw already. Sigh. They really are trying to cheap out on Inhumans. Aside from a premise that is a bit overwrought, I kind of like the show now that its gotten going. Too bad it was already canceled for season two before we saw the first episode.

I can't figure out if The Orville is a geeky, loving send up for ST Next Gen, or an updated attempt at the old show Quark. Most episodes are pretty lame, but the most recent one was pretty good. So who knows?

Star Trek Discovery had a great pilot. I'll be watching the rest of them once they all air and I get a free preview month of the CBS Ap. So, stay tuned.

Get ready for a Bwhaha good time! Tomorrow the JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL Omnibus Volume 1 hits shelves.

This is the 1987 team that brought a wonderful sense of relationships and comedy to the comic book world, thanks to Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire (and many others along the way). The writing was sharp, the characterizations were interesting and deeper in spite of all the jokes, and the art work was revolutionary!

Characters that were mostly discarded by DC, found new life and a home in this title. Booster Gold and Blue Beetle had not lived up to the high hopes of their solo books, which lasted about 2 years each. Guy Gardner was the loud mouth jerk of the Green Lantern Corps and was the perfect Frank Burns to Booster and Beetle as the Hawkeye and Trapper/BJ of the team. J'onn Jones was great as the moral core of the team, and additions of Fire and Ice as well as Mister Miracle and Big Barda gave the team some interesting dynamics. A rotating cast that included Dr Fate, Batman, Black Canary, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Captain Atom and more, kept it interesting. And who can forget Maxwell Lord?

But the core team were what made this book work.

The Omnibus collects around 30 plus issues of the main book, annuals, and the spin off Justice League Europe (which featured The Flash, Powergirl, Elongated man among its core). It is over 1000 pages of content in high quality! I love that DC and Marvel are rolling out these massive tomes (I have Legion of Super Heroes Silver Age Vol 1, Marvel's Star Wars and am getting some John Byrne Fantastic Four soon!)

Amazon has it for around $66 now (I paid $55 by pre-ordering it and getting the lowest price while waiting for release, which is a great way to save big $$).

https://www.amazon.com/Justice-League-International-Omnibus-Vol/dp/1401273866/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508186286&sr=8-1&keywords=justice+league+international+omnibus

With any luck, we will get Volume 2 sooner than later, which should contain a big chunk of JLE as well as the debut of Adama Hughes as the JL artist who would follow best in Maguire's footsteps.

One of the best books of the mid-80s (which was full of greatness all around), this collection is a must for fans of great storytelling!

Bwhahaha indeed!

Last Jedi Trailer Thoughts

The Last Jedi Trailer (finally) arrived. And it was chocked full of goodness. Here are some thoughts:

Rey is a badass. We kind of suspected that already, but Luke confirms that she is an exceptional Force user, and it scares him. Especially after ignoring that nagging voice in his head that told him to be worried about Ben Solo's tendencies.

Kylo is tempted to shoot down his mom, after killing dad last time around.

Chewie doesn't look quite right, but I'll forgive it. Peter Mayhew has finally passed the torch, and we have to get used to a new Chewie from here on. Plus, Chewie is buddies with a Porg.

Let's talk about Porgs. Cute, cuddly little "fuck you's" to all the skivvy twisted uptight fans who bitch first and enjoy second these days. Not since Ewoks have we seen something this cute, and ready for Christmas sales. (I already ordered one for my step daughter). I could care less. In our real world we have a crap ton of cute cuddly creatures that we hang out with. Why can't they have them in Star Wars too?

Snoke in the melty flesh using some massive Force to torment Rey means a few things: He isn't Darth Plageous or Tarkin. Could be Ezra Bridger from SW Rebels. That would mean that the upcoming season 4 of the cartoon will bridge(r) that gap for us. I can't think of too many who like Ezra, and the whole existence of him in that timeline does not make much sense unless there's a deep dark secret coming. Still, would they incorporate a cartoon into the main canon? Maybe.

I have another theory: Qui Gon Jinn. He didn't go "poof!" like Obi Wan or Yoda, who became one with the Force upon their deaths. He was torched on a pyre. Sure, later he got down with the Force, and was apparently so powerful that he taught Obi Wan and Yoda from beyond the grave. What if he found a way to get his body back, but it was damaged? He was the one who tapped Anakin Skywalker and pushed to train him, fulfilling a prophecy. Count Dooku once noted that if Jinn had lived, he would be on his side and not the Jedi in the Clone Wars. Maybe he is still trying to work to fulfill some prophecy.

There are a lot worse theories out there.

Finn and Phasma tangle big time. Poe takes to his X-Wing. Rey trains.

Who is piloting the Falcon with Chewie and Porgy? Rey? Luke?

Of course, the sequences in the trailer are not in chronological order, so we don't know what happens when in the movie. Though I have some thoughts:

We know these films follow a three act structure, and mirror previous entries. This one will be similar to Empire and Attack. It will have a cliffhanger ending (perhaps Rey or Luke submitting to the Dark Side and looking like they have chosen to cross over. More on that in a bit). Rey may get a hand chopped off.

Benicio Del Torro is a Lando-eque character, and instead of Bespin, Finn and Rose visit a casino type world, probably only to betrayed and lead into Phasma's hands.

The Hoth battle gets a VERY obvious homage with the new Giant Walkers doing battle on that red dust planet. Maybe early in the film as the Resistance scrambles to fend off a rallying First Order, evacuating a key location/base. Perhaps leading to the Kylo flying and thinking of killing Leia.

The giant space battle could conclude the movie though, coinciding with a battle to save Rey from Snoke, that may lead Luke to surrender himself to Snoke and Kylo to save Rey. "No! She's my daughter!" With the film ending with Leia, Rey, Finn and Poe vowing to go get Luke back and stop Snoke once and for all.

The ending that looks like Rey is getting an offer of training from Kylo has been speculated to be a trick of editing, and that those two shots are not part of the same scene. It is crafted to head fake the fans, when in reality, it will be Luke who Kylo is offering a hand to in order to spare Rey and Leia.

So those are my thoughts and theories. Take them for what you will. I don't know anything more than the rest of you. I'm just trying to suss it out.

Back in the Geek saddle

As many of you may know, my radio career with iHeart Radio ended in May of this year. It was within that studio that I also produced a regular podcast series called The GEEK BRAIN Popcast. When I left radio, I also put that podcast (and another one that was music based) on hiatus, waiting for the right time and place to return.

I wanted to start slowly, and the idea of a blog first, with the podcast series to follow, seemed like a good idea.

I will use this blog to share links to stories and to provide my commentary for major Geek news and events, with updates multiple times per week.

So, stick around, come back and please share.

I'll be giving a commentary on the new Star Wars The Last Jedi trailer later this week, so come back for that!