Category: Uncategorized

Stan Lee died today and the tributes are pouring in. There’s not much I can add; Stan co-created so many of Marvel’s characters that his legacy will probably never go away. The way we think of characters like the FF, Thor, the X-Men, the Avengers, Hulk, Sub-Mariner, and (my favourite) Spider-Man–their personalities, their essence, really–is because of the way Stan wrote them. And he was so in love with comics that his enthusiasm was infectious, leaving a veritable vocabulary of his own making. I know I’ve channeled him in my own writing plenty of times, and I’m sure countless others have too.

So, as Stan might have said: Face Front True Believers, and Excelsior!

Gulliver is sad today because Koko, the famous sign-language gorilla, has died at the age of 46. She was one of a kind 🙁

I don’t usually shill for people on my blog, but I’m making an exception in this case. Ron Randall is doing a Kickstarter campaign to bring his latest Trekker adventure to print. I’ve already donated, and he’s getting close to his target, so I thought I’d spread the word. Trekker is a cool sci-fi story about interstellar bounty hunter Mercy St. Clair, who’s trying to make her way in a dangerous world while learning some hard truths. The art is great and the characters are compelling, so check it out.

Okay, sales pitch over!

Apparently, long-time comics writer Len Wein has died at the age of 69. I’ve read a lot of Wein’s stuff over the years and most of it was pretty good. Of course, he’s probably best known for co-creating Swamp Thing and the All New X-Men, but I remember some of his other work fondly: JLA (he’s the one who brought back the Seven Soldiers of Victory); Batman (with some classic villains); Amazing Spider-Man (where he used plenty of classic baddies like Molten Man, Shocker, Hammerhead, Doc Ock, Silvermane and brought in some new ones, like Will o’ the Wisp and the third Green Goblin). He had  fairly long runs on Incredible Hulk, Thor, Deadman (in Adventure), Green Lantern, and wrote all of the first Blue Beetle series. He also wrote the Legends miniseries, which helped redefine the DCU after the Crisis.

I haven’t read all his stuff, but what I have read I generally like. Wein respected history, but wasn’t afraid to give long-established characters new personality traits. I’ll be reviewing his late 70s/early 80s Batman run next year and I’m looking forward to re-reading those issues; I seem to recall liking them. Len Wein will be missed.

I’ve been watching Iron Fist (through Episode 10 so far) and it’s not absolutely horrible like a lot of the reviews seem to be painting it. It’s slow at times, but overall I think it’s pretty good.

The idea of making Danny Rand Asian-American makes sense and I wouldn’t have had a problem with it, but having seen Lewis Tan—who originally wanted to play Iron Fist—as the drunken master in Episode 8, I think he would be perfect as Shang Chi. I don’t know if Marvel has any plans for Shang Chi, but a series with him as the lead, great supporting characters (Leiko Wu, Black Jack , Reston, Shen Kuei), and villains (Pavane, Fah Lo Suee) would be so cool, and Lewis Tan would be spot on as Shang. He’s even British!

Make it happen, Marvel … make it happen.