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Marvel Mayhem and More
Aug. 6th, 2009 01:50 pmMason and I discovered a new favorite hiking spot last Saturday: Bass Lake. Bass Lake is part of the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Preserve, and it actually right around the corner from the Mall of America. It’s not very large. An intrepid explorer could easily see the entire trail in under an hour, but Mason is a wanderer and a lingerer, so it’s actually quite perfect for us. We also happened to go on a day when the Fish and Wildlife folks were setting up stations for a fishing camp for kids, and we got to help one woman set up her station by using a net to see what we could get out of the pond. Mason netted baby fish (fry), a tadpole, lots and lots of bugs, duckweed, and other things quite fascinating to a six year old.
We also tried to spend Mason’s three dollar coupons at HalfPrice Books, but Mason was the king of indecision that day. We’d earlier gone to the library, where he read the back copy of all the Goosebumps books that they had there, but then claimed to not be interested in them and put them back on the shelf. While I was waiting for him at the library, I picked up and started to read a manga they had there: HIRARA NO GO #6 (Yumi Hotta / Takeshi Obata). Of course, coming in on the sixth issue, I didn’t really know what it was about except that there was a major “go” (strategy game involving black and white stones) competition, a ghost (?), and a rivalry between two boys (one professional level, the other just starting a special “go” school). I found it engaging enough that I may check out the next one in the series, if they have it. Alas, they seemed to have a spotty collection.
At HalfPrice Books, Mason dithered over their Goosebumps, while I scoured the shelves for more JMS. As it happened, one of the employees had hauled out a huge box of graphic novels and was rearranging the graphic novel section. She kindly let me look over her shoulder at the Marvel titles. I picked up FANTASTIC FOUR Volume 1 (#527 - #532) by J. Michael Straczynski and THE AVENGERS: Disassembled (#500- 504 “Finale”) by Brian Michael Bendis.
When I started reading the FF, I realized I’d actually read a couple of these at some point because I remembered the whole arc where the child protective services woman comes and tells Sue Richards that maybe the life of the superhero parents isn’t all that great for raising kids, and that maybe Franklin and Val would be better off in a foster home. Of course, as they’re talking all sorts of crazy is happening at the Baxter Building. Again, it’s that kind of “real life” moment that I appreciate Straczynski for.
The larger story wasn’t as compelling for me, although Straczynski does try to explain one of the great mysteries of the FF universe – why did four people all bombarded by the SAME gamma rays end up with different powers? And why were these gamma rays so dang special anyway, since Earth is hit with gamma rays all the time?! (Oh, and he also tries to answer the BIG question of how did the universe start, but...) I’m not sure I bought his answer -- that the gamma rays were actually communication sent by an intelligent life form? And the power of Creation, ie, “The Word” of Reed Richards picked out personality traits that colored each person’s power? But, you know, it was a fine installment.
I’d been sort of on the look out for Bendis’ AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED since I fist read about the aftermath in NEW AVENGERS: BREAKOUT.
If you don’t know the story, the short version is that the Scarlet Witch, a mutant whose powers are reality-altering “magic,” flips out. A pregnancy scare by Jan /“The Wasp” (who, apparently, was sleeping with Hawkeye at this point) triggers a memory for Wanda that involves some children she completely invented, literally out of thin air – because, you know, she married an android. He might be a lovin’ machine, but Vision ain’t no baby-makin’ machine.
Anyway, perhaps because the Avengers conspired to make her “forget” the whole baby incident, she decides it’s time for the worst to happen – she’s going to kill them, kill them all. Unbeknowst to the Avengers, crap starts happening. Tony Stark seems to have a drunken ramble at a UN meeting where he, among other things, insults the diplomat from Latvaria (Dr. Doom’s homeland). Some dead dude shows up as a human bomb and the mansion blows up. People die. Vision appears and launches a zillion Voltrons. The She-Hulk goes ape-sh*t. The Kree seem to invade --except SHIELD can’t pick them up on radar at all. More people die. Things are getting like crazy-insane. Even the Avengers have to admit that maybe this is more than just a really, REALLY bad day.
That’s when Dr. Strange’s astral form tells them that this has all been magic. (What? You were expecting a telegram?) Oh well, that’s great, everyone says, you can just wave a wand and fix it. Nope, he says, this is real. It was just caused by magic, special mutant magic... *cough*like Scarlet Witch’s*cough*
Everyone goes into full denial mode that all this could be caused by one of their own, and this leads to one of my favorite moments, where Spider-Man points out, as I did above, that, you know, she *did* marry a robot. How sane is that? Everyone stares at him like he just insulted their mother, and he mutters in a very Spider-Man way about how he’s sure people talk about the stupid things *he’s* done. It made me laugh. Actually, it made me poke Shawn in the ribs and read it to her. (Which she ALWAYS appreciates, I’m sure.)
Anyway, it reminded me that I like a lot of Bendis’ work. I just couldn’t cope with the Skrull invasion.
Yesterday we had a great time at Minihaha and I'll have a report on that, as well as comments on the new stuff we picked up today as part of our grand book adventure day!
We also tried to spend Mason’s three dollar coupons at HalfPrice Books, but Mason was the king of indecision that day. We’d earlier gone to the library, where he read the back copy of all the Goosebumps books that they had there, but then claimed to not be interested in them and put them back on the shelf. While I was waiting for him at the library, I picked up and started to read a manga they had there: HIRARA NO GO #6 (Yumi Hotta / Takeshi Obata). Of course, coming in on the sixth issue, I didn’t really know what it was about except that there was a major “go” (strategy game involving black and white stones) competition, a ghost (?), and a rivalry between two boys (one professional level, the other just starting a special “go” school). I found it engaging enough that I may check out the next one in the series, if they have it. Alas, they seemed to have a spotty collection.
At HalfPrice Books, Mason dithered over their Goosebumps, while I scoured the shelves for more JMS. As it happened, one of the employees had hauled out a huge box of graphic novels and was rearranging the graphic novel section. She kindly let me look over her shoulder at the Marvel titles. I picked up FANTASTIC FOUR Volume 1 (#527 - #532) by J. Michael Straczynski and THE AVENGERS: Disassembled (#500- 504 “Finale”) by Brian Michael Bendis.
When I started reading the FF, I realized I’d actually read a couple of these at some point because I remembered the whole arc where the child protective services woman comes and tells Sue Richards that maybe the life of the superhero parents isn’t all that great for raising kids, and that maybe Franklin and Val would be better off in a foster home. Of course, as they’re talking all sorts of crazy is happening at the Baxter Building. Again, it’s that kind of “real life” moment that I appreciate Straczynski for.
The larger story wasn’t as compelling for me, although Straczynski does try to explain one of the great mysteries of the FF universe – why did four people all bombarded by the SAME gamma rays end up with different powers? And why were these gamma rays so dang special anyway, since Earth is hit with gamma rays all the time?! (Oh, and he also tries to answer the BIG question of how did the universe start, but...) I’m not sure I bought his answer -- that the gamma rays were actually communication sent by an intelligent life form? And the power of Creation, ie, “The Word” of Reed Richards picked out personality traits that colored each person’s power? But, you know, it was a fine installment.
I’d been sort of on the look out for Bendis’ AVENGERS: DISASSEMBLED since I fist read about the aftermath in NEW AVENGERS: BREAKOUT.
If you don’t know the story, the short version is that the Scarlet Witch, a mutant whose powers are reality-altering “magic,” flips out. A pregnancy scare by Jan /“The Wasp” (who, apparently, was sleeping with Hawkeye at this point) triggers a memory for Wanda that involves some children she completely invented, literally out of thin air – because, you know, she married an android. He might be a lovin’ machine, but Vision ain’t no baby-makin’ machine.
Anyway, perhaps because the Avengers conspired to make her “forget” the whole baby incident, she decides it’s time for the worst to happen – she’s going to kill them, kill them all. Unbeknowst to the Avengers, crap starts happening. Tony Stark seems to have a drunken ramble at a UN meeting where he, among other things, insults the diplomat from Latvaria (Dr. Doom’s homeland). Some dead dude shows up as a human bomb and the mansion blows up. People die. Vision appears and launches a zillion Voltrons. The She-Hulk goes ape-sh*t. The Kree seem to invade --except SHIELD can’t pick them up on radar at all. More people die. Things are getting like crazy-insane. Even the Avengers have to admit that maybe this is more than just a really, REALLY bad day.
That’s when Dr. Strange’s astral form tells them that this has all been magic. (What? You were expecting a telegram?) Oh well, that’s great, everyone says, you can just wave a wand and fix it. Nope, he says, this is real. It was just caused by magic, special mutant magic... *cough*like Scarlet Witch’s*cough*
Everyone goes into full denial mode that all this could be caused by one of their own, and this leads to one of my favorite moments, where Spider-Man points out, as I did above, that, you know, she *did* marry a robot. How sane is that? Everyone stares at him like he just insulted their mother, and he mutters in a very Spider-Man way about how he’s sure people talk about the stupid things *he’s* done. It made me laugh. Actually, it made me poke Shawn in the ribs and read it to her. (Which she ALWAYS appreciates, I’m sure.)
Anyway, it reminded me that I like a lot of Bendis’ work. I just couldn’t cope with the Skrull invasion.
Yesterday we had a great time at Minihaha and I'll have a report on that, as well as comments on the new stuff we picked up today as part of our grand book adventure day!