Good grief

Thursday night was a Brewer game. Last minute decision that paid off well.

Friday I had lunch with a former workmate and then tooled around shops with George.

Today was Free Comic Book Day. Then I went to the zoo with the Gentekis clan. Jason interviewed a bat. Returning to the Compound, I tossed the football around with Niko. I tossed a baseball to Kara. George grilled. We ate a lot. Then we ran down the street for custard. Oof. Right now I'm overtired.

Tomorrow? Another last minute 'attending a baseball game' decision and the last week of the Sunday Bowling League.

It sure feels like summer to me. At least it would if it was a little warmer.

We'll keep this simple today

Go get a free comic. Reading is good for you! Not all comics are about superheroes, just a lot of them.

Not sure where your Local Comic Book Shop is located? This link will help you find it!

http://www.comicshoplocator.com/

What? Like you don't like free. I know you do...

A Few Thoughts on Comics (not) from this week

Before I return to the pattern of regular reviews, there's something I should finish out.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed issue #590 of the Amazing Spider-Man, an issue that co-starred the Fantastic Four. I had some problems with the details in the story, many of which we determined might be my fault for having missed other stories, but I noted I'd wait on the second part of the story before making a final determination on what I thought.

To start of issue #591, the recap page (aka the front page of the DB) proclaims that this issue takes place before New Avengers #51. This is one of the questions I had regarding the last issue. I'm not so bigheaded that I'd think this was a 'hey Steve, happy now?' moment but it may indicate I wasn't the only one who didn't get the news on the Internet.

Speaking of the Internet, I did read an interview with writer Dan Slott regarding the story after I finished reading it. He noted some problems with the dialogue surrounding the time variations between dimensions. We won't worry about that then.

Johnny and Spidey continue to fuss over his secret identity. Reed thinks it unlikely that they knew Spidey's identity and it got covered up. He just doesn't have those kind of resources. They return to the matter at hand but keep discussing the 'mindwipe' as they go.

Eventually Spidey gets annoyed at Johnny's pushing and has to point out that Johnny's identity, along with the rest of the FF, has been common knowledge for ages. His super-powered family lives together in a 'safe' place. Spidey's friends and family are normal. Johnny's super-hero uniform is a set of clothes to him but Spidey's suit is a disguise, designed to protect those he knows from the full impact of his double life.

Once the adventure is over (the adventure is mostly there to 1. cause this conversation with the team-up and 2. get Pete out of town for a couple months to mess his life up further), the conversation returns to the 'mindwipe' that erased Spidey's secret identity from everyone's mind. While talking to Reed, he refers to it as a 'psychic blindspot' that doesn't allow people to properly connect the dots even if they have the evidence to prove he's Spidey. It seems odd at first that he can speak so confidently about this but he's had a year or so (his time) to see this in action and ponder it so it's not that odd.

Question - does Spidey *know* what happened, to any degree, to cause the mindwipe? He doesn't say here and it would be illogical for him to remember the moment that caused 'Brand New Day' because, really, it didn't happen to him. (Head's starting to hurt...) Does he remember that Mephisto was involved? Does he remember Mary Jane being involved? I don't think they've gone to that level of explanation yet. Just pondering.

Spidey's logic to not reveal his identity is solid. He may trust the FF but things happen. People get their mind read, they get possessed, replaced by Skrulls. Things happen. It's best that he keep this to himself.

Reed offers to duplicate the brainwave that creates the 'blindspot'. This is enough for Pete and he goes along with it, removing his mask, finally being pressured into trusting someone.

Now, this is a sweet moment, very nice and heartwarming. But.

As he removes the mask, he notes 'The way this works, once you see me, it'll all come back to you.' How does he know this? As I noted before, it makes sense that he could of observed the 'blindspot' at work and figured out how it's working. The only way he could really know that revealing his face recalls memories in others would be if he'd already done it before.

Is this a clue that the FF weren't the first to have his identity re-revealed to them? If it's not, it comes across as sloppy storytelling because Pete has knowledge of something that he can't really possess. How would he know? Are there rules regarding mindwipes that he read online? Is there a wiki for that?

Also, how does this affect his decision to reveal his identity to the Avengers team he's on? Is Reed going to hook them up with the 'firewall' as well?

Now, the group returns from the other dimension with two months having passed in their normal dimension. No big deal for the FF maybe but a big deal for our Spidey, both in the storyline and overall.

Another question needs raising: how messed up is Pete's timeline now? At the beginning of 'Brand New Day' it's noted that Spider-Man has been gone for about a year. How does he line up with the rest of the Marvel Universe's general timeline now? Yet we saw Spidey involved in the Civil War, the New Avengers, the Secret Invasion, when was he gone? Now he's lost another two months, mostly to advance the subplots?

Feel free to tell me I'm thinking too hard about this. I do that.

Enjoyable moments but, overall, I'm disappointed. It seems like it was a nice idea to do something simple and cute but it doesn't seem to fit into the overall structure like it was meant to do.

Stuff

I need to improve my summarizing skills. It's far too easy to tell which stories from the digest I mentioned yesterday were my favorite as I rabbit on about them at length.

A number of my blog entries are written rather quickly, trying to capture the thoughts as I get them (today's an example and not a good one). Sometimes they are carefully crafted discussions, working through a thought process. It's not that I couldn't go back and edit them but how perfect do I need these to be? If I look at them for too long they'll never be quite right. Maybe that's lazy. I like to think that it's 'off the cuff'.

Okay, I have typing to do and comics to read. More tomorrow.

Walt Disney's Comics Digest #32 - December 1971

I moved some books today, glanced at the stack of digest comics in my hand, and froze. This particular digest touted a tour of WDW's Magic Kingdom by Disney characters. Wow! Apparently I've had this for years. Let's have a look inside, shall we?

Well, I'll look inside and tell you what I see. It'll be quicker.

We get a page of the characters to be involved in the various stories and then they break into the individual lands.

Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto eagerly visit Fantasyland. They ride the Teacups, Dumbo ride, and Peter Pan's Flight. The heights in Peter Pan scare Goofy and Pluto but Minnie explains that everything in Fantasyland is exciting but always safe. After a trip through Mister Toad's Wild Ride, they meet up with Jiminy Cricket, who 'practically runs things'. He takes them through Snow White's Adventures. Goofy and Pluto get scared by the Witch and run off, abandoning the cars and track (not recommended). Minnie's calls remind them that everything is safe and they relax. However, they're now lost in the caves. Suddenly Goofy and Pluto find themselves in a green garden... in Wonderland! Jiminy goes looking for them and finds the special tunnel the boys followed. Wonderland is mixed with Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White, and Peter Pan, meaning that there's a REAL Fantasyland hidden within the rides of the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland. Goofy runs afoul of the Red Queen and is sent on a mission to collect a poisoned apple from the Wicked Witch. While he collects the recipe, Goofy gets captured. Jiminy and Pluto escape to get help. The Dwarves and Wonderland residents get dusted with fairy dust by Tinkerbell, allowing them to fly over the moat to access the Witch's castle. There the Witch is introduced to fairy dust and thinks a happy thought, allowing her to fly. Outside, the dust is washed from the Witch and she plummets to the moat, becoming occupied by swimming away from the crocodiles there. The Red Queen declares our hero Sir Goofy. Hearing Minnie's voice, the boys return to her. She's cross that they abandoned her but they really can't explain what happened to her.

Mickey and Donald head to Frontierland to meet up with the stars of the Country Bear Jamboree. Three of the bears are missing. It turns out that they are off having a picnic and don't want to come to work today. The story is a long chase scene with Mickey, Donald, and bear Henry in hot pursuit. The use the railroad, Davy Crockett canoes, and stagecoaches to chase. Eventually, Henry catches the slacker bears on Mike Fink's Keel Boat and takes them back to work.

Uncle Scrooge takes April, May, and June (Daisy's nieces, the female Huey, Louie, and Dewey) to Main Street, U.S.A. because he wants the bargain prices of 1900. The girls explain that the land may be set in the past but the prices are up to date (so true!). The great genius Professor Ludwig Von Drake has invented a Time Camera and sends the five of them back in time to the 1900s. Uncle Scrooge is in heaven sending pennies for games and sodas. He realizes the soda bottles are rare in their time, worth $10 apiece. He madly begins collecting them, buying out the soda fountain and giving away the soda so he can keep the bottles. The Professor explains that the Camera can't take the bottles back as it's not set up to do that, only items held on their person with return with them. Upset, Scrooge accidentally crashes the cart of bottles into a streetcar, breaking them all. Luckily the girls returned their bottles for the penny deposit and the old coins are worth $100 in 'the year we're going to'. Scrooge remains happy.

Mickey and his nephews, Ferdie and Morty, go to Tomorrowland where they meet up with inventor Gyro Gearloose. He has invented a motor that will turn anything into a rocketship and proves it by the Rocket to the Moon ride into a real Rocket to the moon. He also has pills of compressed air they take in order to survive the lack of oxygen. They pass a car with a trailer in the upper atmosphere and Gyro mused that this must be the individual that stole his other motor. It's Mickey villain Pete, on his way to the moon in order to paint it black, planning to extort money from the writers of love songs who will be lost without moonlight to inspire them. Mickey and the gang stop this plot and capture the bad guys, who are forced to clean up the black spot on the moon they created. At the end of the story, Ferdie and Morty wake up. They hadn't been able to sleep last night due to the excitement over going to the Magic Kingdom and the sorry has all been their dream. They ride Rocket to the Moon again so they can actually see it.

Grandma Duck takes Huey, Dewey, and Louie to Liberty Square to see the Hall of Presidents. Instead of a story with the ducks, we get a reprint of an older Gold Key biography of George Washington.

Daisy and Donald take the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland. The cruise reminds Donald of an adventure he once had with his nephews and Uncle Scrooge. He retells the story (which might be a reprint, I'm not sure) of their hunt for a white elephant. In the end, they miss out on the elephant but return with Africa Fleas and open a Flea Circus instead. Daisy has been paying attention to the ride and not Donald's story. They decide to stay on the ride as Donald missed the whole thing telling his story.

I'm So Worried...

Sometimes I think humans worry about things too much. No, scratch that, I generally think humans worry about things too much, especially things they have little control over but want to be able to control. Don't think I'm looking out at other people and shaking my finger at them because I'm just as bad at some of this than anybody else.

Humans have been worrying about the state of the environment for as long as I can remember. It seems to have been a theme during the course of my lifetime. I don't think this is a bad thing; we shouldn't abuse the Earth and what it provides to those of us upon it. At the same time, humans as a group seem to worry a lot about things outside our control as regards the planet. We want to tinker and think that we can fix problems we see.

Maybe we can and maybe we can't.

For the past few years I've been reading articles bemoaning the low water levels in Lake Michigan, how it's a horrible thing, and arguing if we (humans) should do something about it. The last time we tried it made things worse. If we do nothing and it gets worse, we've no one to blame but ourselves.

The headline on today's Journal/Sentinel (http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/43752092.html) happily expressed the 'comeback' of the Lake. It's recouped about two feet of water in the past sixteen months. The waterline continues to rise. What fixed this issue? All the crummy winter weather we've had over the past couple years.

Ever think that the Earth knows what it's doing more than we do? Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't do anything, but maybe we just shouldn't worry so much. Things will work out. Or not.

Butterflies finally accept me

I was at the Milwaukee Public Museum on Saturday. Yes, that does make twice this week. The running gag amongst my family and friends is that I could go there every day and not be bored. Yes I have applied to work there.

Returning to the story I mean to tell, at the front of the first floor of the building is the special butterfly wing. You get used to things in Museums all being dead and on pins but the Butterflies here are alive in a humid, sweaty environment. This can feel nice in winter or on a cold day but is a problem when you haven't taken your jacket off as I tend to not. It gets warm fast.

These live butterflies will land on people to say 'hi'. They rarely, if ever, land on me. I've joked that I'm not sweet enough which is clearly a lie.

My buddy's kid collected them on his fingers without problem. They climbed on him without issue.

Saturday I overheated just enough to tire out. We had children with us and the extra energy I had to expend encouraged me to sit down at the soonest possibility. There was a seat cut out of a fake rock and, having checked for a lack of butterflies, carefully sat down.

My friends slowly moved closer. The butterflies swarmed around us but, as normal, they avoided contacting me. I relaxed and sat there comfortably.

Suddenly, there was a butterfly on my knee. Carefully I slid the camera from my pocket and snapped a picture. It was nice. I felt accepted. Finally.