This week’s episode of Smallville was a slow, dramatic one, with non stop shocks and action. Wait, what? In a true revival of the series, this season has been nothing short of amazing, and here we have a character piece with drastic changes to the overall tone of the show. Read on for a spoiler-filled review! (more…)
There’s a longer review coming later, but for now, a three-line review of the Saviors of Soul’s recent show:
Awesome: Getting a last-minute ticket to a sold-out show in the middle of Manhattan on the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day.
Ironic: There was only one band member playing that was in the original film.
Awesome AND Ironic: It was the drummer.
More later.
“By the looks of Wizard Universe’s eBay auctions for Captain America #25, someone over there had the foresight to order lots and lots of this particular issue.
I decided I would try to ask Wizard. I contacted Wizard’s media contact Drew Seldin. In an email, I asked if in fact anyone at Wizard the magazine had prior knowledge of Captain America’s death and if anyone at Wizard the magazine passed this information over to Wizard Universe before last week.
Seldin responded to my email. Instead of simply answering my question, he told me that he believed that my “ultimate goal is to attack Wizard“. He went on to say that if he was wrong about my intentions, I could call him next week and we could discuss it.”
Of course, when I called Drew, he said he wasn’t the person that could answer my question. He took my contact information and said he’d have someone call me back. That was March 12th. No call so far.
Maybe I should try calling on Monday.
But not all Cap-related things with Wizard are controversial. Well…not in a bad way at least. Wizard asked a bunch of comic professionals what it would be like if Captain America lived in real America.
I saw some controversial statements…mostly taking the question as a chance to bash the current administration…and some really deep ideas. But John Cassaday’s answer was short, sweet, and completely blew me away:
JOHN CASSADAY (Captain America artist, 2002): “Abe Lincoln, the Kennedys, John Lennon; think about it—he wouldn’t last a year.”
He just might be right.
Guess what second season finally makes it to DVD?
Oh yeah . . . we’ll be talking about this . . .
Here’s my Friday morning wrestling updates:
Maybe The Russ Should Stick to What He’s Good At
Current (Surprising?) SummerSlam Plans
Check out some of the latest science from The Russ at his other home . . .
Kurt Angle Statement on Steroid Accusations
Also, if you’ve never read of the in-ring exploits of The Russ, do so here.
Nearby Indiana college DePauw University has been in the national news recently, but not for anything remotely positive. The national headquarters of one of its resident sororities, Delta Zeta, was accused of removing 23 of its DePauw members from the sorority house because they weren’t “attractive” enough. These claims were alleged by the women who were ousted from the house, who stated that among the women asked to leave were those who were overweight and from minority groups
According to students at the college, the DePauw chapter of Delta Zeta was often called “the dog house,” and it was known as a more academically oriented sorority. The women living there weren’t very interested in the drinking and partying that often comes with Greek life. The chapter was known for having trouble recruiting because its current members were not considered “conventionally pretty” by their college colleagues; they only had 35 members, which pales in comparison to the average 100 members that other Greek organizations have at that university.
Apparently the national headquarters of Delta Zeta was concerned with the DePauw chapter’s negative image. It appears that in response to this problem they removed members who they thought contributed to that negative image by changing their status to alumnae and thereby forcing them to leave the house. Additional claims have been made that the headquarters also encouraged the sorority to only recruit new members who fit the societal stereotype of beauty. The national chapter claims otherwise, but the majority of the members of the DePauw chapter don’t seem to agree. Several of the women who were not asked to leave quit the sorority in protest. The President of DePauw was also distraught and has already kicked Delta Zeta off the DePauw campus.
To be honest, when I first heard about this, I couldn’t believe it. These girls claimed that they were removed from an organization because of their looks and because they didn’t party hardy enough. The situation seems to indicate that they are telling the truth, though I cannot claim to know who is being honest. Regardless, these events bring to light ugly stereotypes that hurt the position of women in this country.
I came across several articles covering this situation where DePauw students were quoted as saying that discrimination based on appearance is nothing new, especially in the Greek life on their campus. In this situation with these 23 girls, however, the decision was sent from the national headquarters of Delta Zeta. It was institutionalized judgment. The national office of Delta Zeta sent a message to the entire nation: girls need to be skinny and “pretty” to be worthwhile. They need to be sexual objects to have value. Intelligence has no merit, since the office apparently scorns the DePauw chapter’s academic reputation. That is a disgusting message to send to the college-aged women of this country, many who already battle self-esteem issues that stem from our skin-deep culture.
Luckily I attend an all-female college where we are told that women are intelligent, strong, creative, skilled, and deserve to be treated like the powerful people we are. Women are not merely sex objects, and we can rise above the societal stereotypes of women that still exist. Women who work hard deserve respect, and that is something that Delta Zeta lost sight of.
Our own Kevin Huxford delivers an oustanding piece on Captain America coverage.
Your Manga Minute (by Troy) features part 2 of its series on Naruto.
Please check them out!
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of my actual Shotgun columns. Everybody stand back . . . I don’t want anyone to get hurt.
The Relaunch: So, what do you think? I like the new look of the site. All praises due to Barb Hallock, who really knocked herself out to get the new site and forums up and running. Also, our Justice League Unlimited-like tactic of expanding the roster has yielded a team that, at present, is 38 strong. Expect a good number more of those contributors to get ramped up in the coming weeks. It’s a fun time. However, as it’s also been a busy time, there is MUCH in the media that I haven’t covered. Allow me to play catch-up.
History is written by the victors, which was the impression that I got when I watched WWE’s Rise and Fall of ECW documentary. The only ex-ECW guys they interviewed were those on Vince McMahon’s payroll. Eric Bischoff and WCW were portrayed as a desperate predator who stole Paul Heyman’s talent. Vince McMahon was portrayed as ECW’s benefactor who kept them afloat until the very end. It’s an excellent DVD, but you get the idea by the end that you’ve only heard half the story.
That’s where Hardcore History: The Extremely Unauthorized Story of ECW comes in. Author Scott E. Williams got the side of the story in his book that WWE didn’t, and then took it one step further. Not only did he talk to the non-contracted talent like Shane Douglas, Raven, Terry Funk, Jerry Lynn, Francine, and others, but he also sought out former business partners and associates and co-promoters to get a side of Paul Heyman that I think everyone suspected, but had no idea of the degree of disorganization under which he operated. In fact, for a book that some would probably say primarily deals in “dirt”, this is about the best researched wrestling book that I’ve ever read.
Now this is sad . . .
Brad Delp, long-time singer for the band Boston, has died. Delp’s incredible range (and often amazing high register) powered several classic rock anthems, including “More Than A Feeling”. Boston was often unfairly slagged in the ’70s as “corporate rock”, though the truth is that guitarist (and MIT grad) Tom Scholz recorded most of their material in his home studio and garage on equipment that he invented.
It also bears repeating that Boston’s sound carried a lot of influence. Go and listen to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Now listen closely to the chorus of “More Than A Feeling”. Hear that rhythm part? Yeah. Rest in peace, m’man.
A little birdy (one I trust completely) dropped this little nugget on me:
The Wizard Universe store had CGC-graded copies of Captain America #25 on sale first thing on Wednesday morning.
Why is that a lil magical? Well…Marvel says they let NO ONE KNOW about what was going to happen with the book before Wednesday, other than the NY Daily News (as their Page 3 coverage was predicated on them having an exclusive, which Marvel couldn’t risk losing).
If that’s the case, then how could Wizard have gotten wind of the full specialness of the issue and have copies CGC-graded in time to post for sale Wednesday morning?
The pricing was lower when the issues first went up for sale, with the resulting demand driving them up to their astronomical levels (that still aren’t quite as astronomical as some eBay auctions won by your less-than-savvy speculators).
But something doesn’t completely jive between Marvel’s statements about how close-to-the-vest they were with information about the issue’s contents and the seemingly-contradictory actions of Wizard.
Hmmm……………
Edit: You know…totally unrelated to potential leak items…I thought I’d point out that the lovely people at Wizard are trying to sell a 9.9 CGC-graded Captain America #25 (Epting cover) with a BUY IT NOW price of $1000. Could it be due to the fact that their sales have continued to go south since the speculators were driven out of the market?
Edit 2: Screenshot proof, just in case something happens to the auction:
Garner Loudermilk had some really quizzical comments over on ICv2:
“I’m sorry, I do not agree with John Riley. I’m glad that Marvel hasn’t over printed this book. Has everyone forgotten the Death of Superman fiasco? A reported 4 million books printed. A great many times more than normal was printed, and now the book is barely worth a little over cover. If Marvel has learned from DC’s mistake then I for one am glad of this. If they over-printed the book then there is no chance of the book rising in value.”
Wow…just wow. Having enough copies to satisfy readers is bad? Underprinting books to juice the speculator market is good? Did someone invent a working time machine and drag me back to the early 90s while I was asleep last night?
“And if comic store owners didn’t see this coming, then they have lost touch with their product and their customer base. Don’t blame Marvel or Quesada, because you misjudged the market, the buck stops with you, PERIOD! Quesada obviously did an excellent job, on his part, making a story that everyone wanted. Where it went wrong is store owners failing to capitalize on it. Don’t blame the industry, blame yourself. You knew it was selling, you read three months ago in Previews when it said someone was going to die. If you failed to order up on it and are losing out on sales, it’s your fault.”
Retailers misjudged the market? Many of the people coming in to buy the book weren’t PART of the market prior the full court press media coverage that Marvel had planned in advance.
I do think that Joe Quesada did a great job getting a story like this to the market. But someone ABOVE the retailers screwed up the potential for this event. Marvel would have seen orders boosted if they simply revealed that they were anticipating a media push like they had on Civil War #2. That’s a fact.
A whole ‘nother nugget of info from ICv2 mentioned by Edward Sherman was overshadowed by his reactionary call for Joe Quesada being fired:
“I’d like to respond to John Riley’s comments on Captain America. Diamond was sold out of Captain America on Sunday night. I always do my re-orders on Sunday night and when I went to increase my orders on Captain America #25, they were already sold out. So obviously there were dealers who had inside information about this book. It must be nice to have inside information like that. There have always been extras on all of the Civil War books except this one. Hmmmmm! Sounds like a scandal to me. But that is the beauty of a one distributor system!”
(thanks to Kevin Melrose at Blog@Newsarama who pointed out the Loudermilk article)
Combat robots and a fridge that throws you a beer.
Awesome. Now where’s my robot maid and flying car?
