I've just been speaking to a young footballer in the library, whom I taught in S4 when I first came up here in 2010. He's twenty-four now and his sister, whom I also taught, is getting married this year. I can't come to terms with how rapidly the years pass. It's an incredible forty years since I sat my English O-level; one of my Facebook friends from school posted a copy of the paper. When I think back to how poor a teacher I was when I taught that young fella Jordan, it makes me cringe. And this morning, in the post, I got a couple of comics from ebay that I first read when I was younger than him and at school myself.
This blog has always been about time, really. And has enough time passed for me to talk about the time-bending, three-hour Avengers: Endgame without spoiling it for a potential reader? I think so.
The film begins on a sombre and melancholy note with Hawkeye's loss. Subsequently, however, the journey of the Bryan Adams of the cinematic Avengers through his Ronin phase seemed lost in the mammoth time-travelling plot. Similarly, the destruction of the Vision ( once the most popular of the Avengers, or of those not created by Lee and Kirby) was never really explored at all. And Captain Marvel, who'd been touted as the MVP of the plot ,was largely off-stage, apart for a couple of scenes ( one focusing on her haircut).
I've read that US audiences have cheered during this Marvel movie marathon. Well,it left me feeling flat and depressed. The positives, I suppose, were these: Dr. Banner and his selfies. The Adorkable Spider-Man. The Dude Thor Abides. America's Ass.
The plot honoured the 60s time-travelling missions of Roy Thomas comics and the attack on the Avengers HQ recalled the Bendis "Disassembled" Noughties shock treatment. But I felt that heinously, the female characters got short shrift. The theme seemed to be the trauma and sacrifice of (white) men in war.
Most noticeably, the funeral of Tony Stark completely overshadowed the sacrifice of the tragic Black Widow. And. while the Falcon was positioned to be the next Captain America as in the comics a couple of years ago, I wasn't clear if Steve Rogers' reward invalidated the two Agent Carter tv series, which I rather liked.
Like the well-trained audience we were, we all waited for a post-credits scene that never came and I left the Moray Playhouse feeling gloomy. No chance now of a DD/Black Widow team-up- although the Netflix cancellations had pretty much put the kibosh on it anyway. And how will the recently-announced Vizh/Witch tv series follow this?
The film's length didn't turn out to be a test of patience but I didn't enjoy it. I was more entertained by the latest installment in Starlin's hardcover odyssey for Thanos, The Infinity Conflict.
The Mad Titan takes on the monolithic cosmic presences, Eternity and Infinity while Warlock kills Eros (Starfox) so he can become another entity "outside the norm". Alan Davis depicts devastation among alien races from the Brood to the Skrulls and throws in a remarkably accurate cameo for Chris Pratt's Star-Lord. However, Thanos' new regalia stolen from Galactus, the Stranger and others looks ridiculous.
I didn't post last weekend because I went to Aberdeen for Free Comic Book Day. Only Forbidden Planet and Asylum Books were participating. I didn't get the Ronaldo and Minecraft comics for my classroom that I was looking for but I enjoyed the Peter Parker & Miles Morales freebie. My favourite had to be the preview DC Zoom Dear Justice League though. It's aimed at a younger audience than I teach but the cartooning was really charming. The Stranger Things and especially Riverdale free comics have been very popular. P7 and S1 are crazy about Archie and Jughead, although it doesn't sound age-appropriate. But neither was I, Claudius when I was in first year.
At present, I'm really into reading early 70s Marvels but I enjoyed the first two issues of the new Marvel Team-Up title, starring Peter Parker and Kamala Khan.
In the last week, I've also finished the novels Circe by Madeline Miller and Transcription by Kate Atkinson; I enjoyed the former a little more than the latter. Today, I may make a start on The Overstory by Richard Powers. I'm also halfway through Nicholas Briggs' Cyberman epic for Big Finish. More about that in a future post.
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