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Catching Up
Laura says I’d better update this blog soon or people will stop visiting. So for the approximately 2.3 of you who make this site a regular stop, thanks for hanging in there.
We had a few anxious moments week before last when Grace came down with a slight fever that lasted — on and off — for a couple days. That and a runny nose made us fear the swine flu, which so far none of us are vaccinated against. Whatever it was, it passed after about 48 hours, and Grace is back to her sunny self. One of her favorite expressions now is “Z’at?” (“What’s that?”) as in, “Z’at?” “Well, Grace, that’s a thermostat.” “Ohhhhh. Z’at?”
Halloween was fun, as usual. Jason opted to go as Iron Man and Scott as Spider-Man, so they’ve officially turned on their DC-loving Dad and gone all Marvel on me. There seemed to be a lot less households participating this year; we probably walked twice as far as usual to collect about half as much loot. Maybe it’s because the holiday fell on a Saturday this year and people were off doing other things. Or maybe, as Laura guessed, it’s because people are germ-conscious and didn’t want to expose themselves to hordes of germy kids all night. Either way, the boys didn’t seem to mind. Grace stayed behind and helped hand out goodies in her “Tulip Fairy” costume, complete with curly-toed “elf” shoes. They were the first footwear she’s ever kept on for any length of time; any other shoes or socks get pulled off the moment we turn our backs.
We just got over four straight days of rain here, but the last couple of days have been very pleasant. Yesterday we went down to Chase City to visit Nana and Big Daddy, and this weekend we’re off to Ohio for Thanksgiving week. Never a dull moment.
That’s the quick-and-dirty update. I’ll share more here as it happens, or I remember it.
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It’s hard to believe that even fifteen years ago it was impossible to find an Iron Man costume. As a kid, I would have been all over that like stink on a monkey. The movies really helped here.
You know, there was a time when superhero movies were few and far between. The only one I can think of offhand for when I was growing up was the truly godawful Albert Pyun Captain America that starred J.D. Salinger’s dopey son. I remember seeing the Peter Hammond Spider-Man show on video, and for years I was convinced, with a lot of justification, there were only two places to see “real” superheroes: the comics and maybe, sometimes, animation.
(Yes, there were the Batman movies, but as a DC hero, I wasn’t a fan of his growing up.)
I remember salivating – salivating! – when I saw a magazine that had photographs of a Fantastic Four movie in production. For years and years I wondered whatever happened to it. It was of course, the famous one never released.
Even as soon as “Daredevil,” I remember getting nervous that the superhero movie was just a fad, and that all it took was one bomb to sink the entire genre forever. The idea they would be the bread and butter of Hollywood summers was a laughable one to me then.
Fans of comics have always dreamed about superhero movies. In fact, I remember in some issues of JLA (the Englehart run, naturally) there was some speculation in the lettercols about who would play who, the sort of “fantasy football” speculation fans would engage in idly even years later, except there was a snowball’s chance in hell the movie they’re talking about would ever get made. One of the most bizarre choices was one fan that wanted Lee Majors for Barry Allen, the Flash.
Incidentally, I see neither of your boys went as Captain Marvel. This means there is hope for them yet! Also, the fact a Captain Marvel costume isn’t available shows there’s hope for us as a society. Like Adolph Hitler, Captain Marvel is too much in bad taste for a Halloween costume.
As you know, I’m a bit older than you (okay, maybe a lot older), so my options for live-action superheroics were pretty much limited to Batman and Superman, period. I agree it’s odd — and strangely disappointing — to find superheroes being the bread-and-butter of the Hollywood machine, and suddenly mainstream “cool.” Somehow it makes comics less fun, not more.
It is cool that you can find Iron Man costumes these days, but in the interests of accuracy I should mention that very few people recognized him. Spider-Man they got right away, but Iron Man got a lot of, “And who are you’s”…I think some folks thought he was a Power Ranger (!).
Even before the Englehart run, fans used to dream about a big-budget film in the JLA lettercols. I remember one suggestion that Rock Hudson play Superman, and more than a few votes for Steve (Hercules) Reeves, which never made sense. Lee Majors was too beefy for The Flash, but possibly someone figured since he was used to all that running anyway, he’d be a natural. No doubt it was the same with Steve Reeves — he plays strong guys, so let’s make him Superman. I guess the average American has as limited an imagination as a Hollywood suit, after all.
Thanks for the suggestion by the way…we’ll start work on that Captain Marvel costume early!