Superman Will Die In Batman V. Superman #BatmanvSuperman #Superheroes
#ComicBookMovie
All pictures courtesy of WB/DC unless otherwise noted.
Oh! My! God! So, I just heard from a friend that a whopping amount of
craziness is going to go down due to the Batman v. Superman film and
supposedly some of the real tea behind the scenes at Warner Bros.
For starters, you read that title right, Superman will die in Batman
V. Superman (#BatmanvSuperman)... supposedly. Wondering why Warner
Bros. hadn't really come out with plans for a second Man of Steel?
That's why. So, here's the rundown. Apparently, fans needn't worry
about that trailer that came out last week spoiling the whole movie.
From my friend, I'm hearing that it only showed footage from the
first 90 minutes of the film that is slated to be at least another
hour longer than that. Basically, much of what you saw was from the
first two acts of the film, with the exception of a few scenes not
including the Doomsday thing.
Oh yeah, as for Doomsday, the producers are sticking close to the
comic book and will actually have Doomsday kill Superman as they die
together. Only after this does Batman fully come to respect him
through his sacrifice for the cause. That little team shot you see of
all three of them (including Wonder Woman) standing in guard doesn't
actually bring them together like everyone thinks it will. In fact,
Batman becomes almost more driven to destroy Superman because he
blames him for the rise of this new supervillain in Doomsday, hence
why Superman makes the sacrifice.
So, what then happens after that? And how does Superman come back?
That is when the Flash comes in for his cameo. Were you wondering why
they rushed to cast everyone so quick to stuff them into this movie?
I was. The flash comes from the future--yes, they're going to use
time travel this soon--to try to warn everyone what will happen. That
scene that everyone is calling the nightmare is actually a scene from
the future where Darkseid is somehow controlling various members of
the Justice League which is where we'll see the entire team fighting
in a short cameo both against the parademons and Superman.
But now learning that Superman has died, The Flash realizes the time
line has been changed and ventures off to go further back in time to
change the events leading up to this. Here's the kicker! The Flash's
time travel and Superman's death is the whole reason why, skipping
Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman is the next DC film release and it is set
in the past. The Flash is supposed to make a cameo in that film too,
though why is still unclear; but Steve Trevor is somehow supposed to
come to this current time by Justice League part two.
Superman is supposed to be dead until the beginning of Justice League
is all that the producers and writers know so far and he's supposed
to be brought back to help defeat Darkseid. This whole thing blows my
little theory earlier on Cullan Mulvey being Martian Manhunter and
not KGBeast like initially reported out of the water. Again, the
Flash scene is really only like three minutes long where he explains
this to Batman and Wonder Woman toward the end of the film. But the
film is supposed to both end on a serious cliffhanger while still
giving a satisfying end.
What do you think about this new "news" (everything's a
rumor until the movie opens)? Did you expect Warner Bros. to actually
kill off Superman like they did in the comics? How many times do you
think Doomsday will evolve? What do you think of the time travel of
the Flash being crucial to the end of the story? Let me know in the
comments below (hint: click the no comments button if you see no
comments).
If
you’re looking for a scare,
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you
like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow.
The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on
Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my
blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "holy cow,
Batman! Superman's dead'
P.S. I was surprised when they brought in time travel so quickly to
the Flash TV series but maybe that is a testing ground for everything
now.
Week Of December 11th 2015 In Review #Supergirl#ScreamQueens
#XMenApocalypse #NewYearCountdown
All Supergirl pictures courtesy of CBS unless otherwise noted.
With my little mini-vacation over for the next week and a half before
my big year-end finale vacation which goes from the 21st or 22nd
until MLK day in the New Year, I've been biding my time soaking up
all the latest news and events going on in the world of
entertainment. And even though it's two weeks after Thanksgiving--the
time when normally the TV wasteland kicks in--and Star Wars is the
movie that will clearly dominate this holiday season, there is still
plenty else to talk about on all levels. We'll begin with Supergirl
(#Supergirl).
Monday's Supergirl on CBS, while not the winter finale, supplied more
than enough wow, shock and awe for fans to light up the internet and
Twitterverse with mind-blown reactions. The funniest thing is that
much of the episode was rather bland for the titular character. After
overexerting herself fighting Red Tornado, Kara experienced her first
short circuit, temporarily losing her powers. As she suffered through
the throes of being Human For A Day (ha! That was the title of the
episode. I snuck that in there. Huh? In hindsight I don't know why I
thought that was clever. Moving on), National City suffered through
an earthquake.
In her humanity, Kara bleeds for the first time, gets a cold or some
other sneezy disease, breaks her arm and needs rescuing by James.
Sadly, the one lesson she learns comes when she cannot save a man
from dying on the street. Just as the comic book Superman learns, she
can't save everyone.
She eventually regains her powers when she is told by the dork that
likes her (again, not bothering to shoot an email, private message
tweet or phone call her cousin's way) that she can regain her powers
more rapidly by having a burst of Kyrptonian adrenaline. She gets
this burst when she sees James in deathly trouble in an elevator
shaft after having saved some people from the upper levels. Her
powers back, she rescues him from falling to his death and the day is
saved.
The biggest shock for the fans came in the form of gloriously
over-the-top Black guy--that beautiful man of ridiculous looks,
perfectly delivered one-liners and overly awkward protectiveness over
Supergirl and her sister. While at the DEO headquarters (that's the
Department of Extraterrestrial Operations) the earthquake
accidentally knocks out the power temporarily while he and Kara's
sister are in the middle of moving a villain to a different cell.
With the power of mind control, the villain escapes to roam the halls
before they can get back-up generators running.
Now in lock down, over-the-top Black guy orders his crew to stay in
the one safe place they know he isn't while he and two others go
hunting. The alien takes over the brain of the two other soldiers,
making them kill each other. Kara's sister disobeys orders and runs
after her boss, taking another soldier with her who also falls prey
to the mind control. Having learned the previous week that her Black
superior not only worked with her father but was around when he died,
she distrusts him and handcuffs him to a shelf while she tries to go
stop the alien alone.
Bullets not working, her anti-mind-control device about to stop,
Black guy swoops in and saves the day, defeating the rock hard alien
with his bare hands. Now, she has hella questions. How could he
defeat the alien in a game of fisticuffs, and all sorts of craziness.
He tells her the story of her father dying and the real original
Black guy dying while in pursuit of a perceived hostile alien. The
alien turned out to be friendly but in trying to capture him, somehow
the two DEO agents died, but not before the alien tried saving the
life of Kara's adoptive father played by Dean Cain. Cain told the
alien to look after his daughters which Black guy has been doing ever
since. The big reveal came at the end of the story when over-the-top
Black guy revealed himself to be J'onn J'onzz AKA Martian Manhunter.
Didn't See That Coming
For those that don't know, in the comics, Martian Manhunter is a big
deal. While never the most popular on his own, he is most famous for
two things: being the sole survivor of the once thriving Martian race
and being one of the founding members of the Justice League. Yes, he
routinely fights alongside Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash,
and Green Lantern. Unlike the other aliens, he is not humanoid
looking enough to blend in, but does have the power to shape-shift
into anyone.
KGBeast? Looks more like Martian Manhunter
Why is this a big deal? Recently, an article came out
discussing the make-up of the film version of Martian Manhunter and
if he would even be part of the Justice League. A few studio insiders
said they didn't know if they'd include this iconic character because
he may be too difficult to do on screen authentically. Well, if they
needed a format, they just got one in a big way. This leads me to the
rumor that Callan Mulvey pictured there, is actually going to be
playing Martian Manhunter in the new Batman v Superman. I know that
there was a very persistent rumor that he was actually going to be
playing K.G. Beast, however, that was never fully confirmed and in
the spirit of not packing the film with too many Justice Leaguers,
it's no wonder why the producers would want to keep him under wraps,
but to me he naturally looks like the alien and wouldn't have to have
any kind of reveal save for saying his name in the movie since he is
a shapeshifter.
Moving on, FOX's Scream Queens (#ScreamQueens) had its season finale
this week and boy was it... long. For those that remember my initial
three week roundup review on this (click #ScreamQueens up top to read
it), I initially gave this a fairly low grade as it was a little too
ridiculous. While it toned down some, I did skip three or four
episodes at a time only to binge them when I got the chance, as
wasting an hour each week on this wasn't to my liking. I almost
didn't watch it at all during November and binged at least four
episodes on Thanksgiving night, but I digress.
All pictures of Scream Queen courtesy of FOX unless otherwise noted.
Ending the shortened season with a two-hour episode, the first hour
moved along nicely with Grace's psuedo-boyfriend confessing to being
the 4th killer who joined only after non-gay gay Boone caught him
snooping around and was about to kill him. Oh yeah, side note Boone
(played by Nick Jonas) was one of the killers just in case you didn't
know. Back to the boyfriend, he said he believed in what Boone was
trying to do by wiping out the KKT sorority house and only joined
because of that, but then he killed Boone and crazy Gigi (the loon
that raised Boone and his twin sister in a mental asylum) in order to
stop all the killing, but the third killer, Boone's twin sister,
remained.
After sending the missive of all missives (which I thought was
technically done very well with the writing being on the wall) The
Chanel or Chanel #1 or Chanel Oberlin (played by Emma Roberts) became
the most hated person in the world when it accidentally went out to
everyone on campus. Gag! This whole set-up really did nothing but
waste time to me and was a poor lead-in into a ridiculous scene that
had my mouth gaping and asking, "did these fools just try to fit
in an after-school special message on suicide?" Yes. Yes, they
did. Quite possibly the most disingenuous show where everything was a
gag, satire, or spoof on the horror genre, and had almost no real
emotion explored on any level suddenly stopped about 25 minutes in to
give us a PSA on "Suicide is never the answer. You shouldn't
even joke about that." Look, I've dealt with the issue in my
works before too, but never did it not fit the tone of what I was
doing. This whole scene from the missive to the idiotic death attempt
to Zayday trying to make a point that young people shouldn't kill
themselves all could have been cut without anyone noticing or caring.
In fact, I felt this way about half of the episode which had me
questioning why it was two hours long. Listen, outside of the real
King (that guy Stephen King. Maybe you've heard of him), I am the
king of long-windedness. I just finished writing a book during
NaNoWriMo that is 118,000 words long unedited and will probably
increase by 2000 words before the final draft. However, I try to make
every scene relevant in some way that thrusts along either the
character development or the action. On this last episode, there was
more exposition and flashback than anything. Little action, little
killing and scenes that went on and on.
The big reveal came at the beginning of the second hour which
preceded a full half hour accuse-fest to finger each of the remaining
Chanels as the killer (don't shake your head at me. I'll ignore it if
you will). After the first hour of Zayday and Grace going through the
school records of each of the remaining girls--a feat made possible
by a sex scene betwixt Jamie Lee Curtis and Oliver "Dad-bod"
Hudson--they came back to reveal that Chanel number six AKA neck
brace girl played by Lea Michele was the killer. The only reason she
was believed not to be the killer was because she had a stiletto heel
stuck in her eye supposedly put there by Chanel number five played by
Abigail Breslin.
The first half hour became so ridiculous that it was revealed that
Chanel five's parents wanted to disown her and took this opportunity
to throw her under the bus. But apparently Breslin wasn't alone as
Chanel number three played by Billie Lourd (surprise, she's Princess
Leia's real life daughter; didn't know it until I saw this picture.)
helped her. The most ludicrous and convoluted story of them all, she
supposedly had split personality disorder and had been taking killing
advice from her father Charles Manson. Her other dark half would use
the advice to kill her fellow sisters which she would be completely
unaware that she did.
This might have been enough if the show didn't spend another seven
minutes putting The Chanel in a similar scenario, fingering
her as the mastermind behind it all. Why did she do it? Kind of
because she could. All three of them arrested by major
sleuthing all-star Chief of police Denise Hemphill (played by Niecy
Nash who was literally the best part of this show for me), all was
solved and fair.
And then the real killer continued revealing her plan. Yes, the real
killer was Lea Michelle's Chanel number six, the "brainy"
twin of Boone who, not only jabbed the heel into her own eye making
sure not to puncture the actual eye, but methodically planned her
entry into the inner-sanctuary of KKT all to get revenge for her dead
bathtub-birthing mama. After growing up in the asylum, she was only
allowed in because she posed as a handicapped student and Dean Mensch
needed more diversity, unlike her brother Boone who just pretended to
be a Dickie Dollar scholar while never enrolling in the school in the
first place. My god, if you think this review is long you should have
watched the episode.
The Chanels all disowned by their parents (Chanel number one's
parents disowned her after the world-hating thing), all three of them
tried representing themselves in court to which the Black judge
determined they were crazy as they had slept through much of the
trial. He sentenced them to life in the asylum where they each
actually found happiness.
The dean and Grace's father engaged in a real relationship as she
wrote a best-selling book on new new feminism which basically says
the same as current feminism. While she figured out Lea Michele was
the killer she didn't turn the girl in after having killed her
husband and the deceptive minx knowing about it.
Now, Grace and Zayday with the help of Chanel six all turned around
the KKT house to be inclusive. Those two were spared because they
were nice to Chanel 6 on the first pledge day at the beginning of the
year, not to mention Grace is her half sister by blood through their
father. All was well, save for at the very end when the red devil
killer snuck into the asylum as The Chanel slept and lorded
over her with a knife. One last scream of horror for everyone and the
end. Why the episodes felt so laborious, I don't know. As I said, I
think they could have cut out entire scenes and it wouldn't have
mattered. They could also have cut some scenes shorter like the
goodbye between Denise and Chad which wasted four minutes of screen
time on nothing. This honestly felt like they knew they had been
commissioned for a certain amount of episodes and needed a ton of
filler to make that goal.
Can't move on fast enough from that one. Maybe if they have another
season next year as it was originally intended as an anthology like
American Horror Story, it will be better but until then, I am left
with a bland taste in my brain-mouth.
Finally, the week ended today on the release of the new X-Men
Apocalypse trailer. Check it out below if you haven't seen it yet.
Quick caveat, I am not a huge X-Men fan and never was. While I
enjoyed the exploits of Wolverine, the group as a whole was too
varied, too angsty, too everything for me. Not that I hated any of
the movies, books, or cartoons I just always thought, "oh, those
are nice." With that said, I have to say I am very unimpressed
with this trailer. Just as the music for the Batman v. Superman
trailer disappointed me with it's one note-ness, so too did this with
its lackluster ominous tone. If this is the end, why doesn't it seem
like it? Maybe because we know it isn't from the Days of Future Past?
I don't know.
Also, I have to say I never liked the choice of Oscar Isaacs as the
villain. In stature, face, and voice, he never seemed foreboding
enough to me. Forgetting his height as he can grow or shrink to
infinite sizes as shown in the trailer, his voice doesn't instill
terror and his face still looks silly to me like it did in the first
images from the movie. Will this be good? Maybe, but from the first
trailer, I am not impressed nor eager to even see it at this point. What do you think? Were you watching any TV or film this week or were
you too busy with holiday preparations? Did you see the big reveal on
Supergirl? Are you excited to see Martian Manhunter? What about
Scream Queens? Was this show even on your radar? How did you feel
about the finale? And what of the new X-Men trailer? Did it get you
excited to see the movie or are you apprehensive about the visuals?
Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no comments button
if you see no comments).
If
you’re looking for a scare,
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you
like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow.
The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on
Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my
blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "he calls them
the four horsemen."
'He got that one from the Bible.'
P.S. A quote from the trailer, but seriously what is up with all the
God and religious references in comic book movies these days,
especially when referring to the villain? Can we stop trying to make
all religion evil? I'll think of a better sign-off next time.
This Week In Review #TheWiz #BatmanvSuperman #NewYearCountdown
All pictures of Batman V. Superman and The Flash/Arrow are courtesy of DC/Warner Bros.
Wow! A lot happened this week that I didn't blog about. Sorry, I was
too fatigued from last month's posting marathon where I put out 30
posts in 30 days for NaBloPoMo (#NaBloPoMo). Not to mention I was
writing my future #1 bestselling novel TMOTR (#TMOTR) for #NaNoWriMo,
which took up far more time than I anticipated. After 118,000 words,
68 chapters, a ton of mysteries posed and solved, I finally finished
that about three or four hours before the midnight deadline before
December 1st. Have I edited any of it? No. I will actually move on to
another project before circling back and editing that sometime in the
new year. So stay tuned for more posts about it throughout all of
next year.
Back to this week. Some of the stuff I already covered at the
beginning of the week with Kobe announcing his retirement and, uh...
well that's about it. So what happened this week in entertainment?
Probably the biggest thing to happen this week came from the realm of
comic book movies.
What The Heck Are Those Flying Things?
Monday night introduced a minute long clip from the upcoming Batman
v. Superman film (#BatmanvSuperman) due out in March 2016. If you
haven't seen it, you either have been living under a rock (high
Patrick from Spongebob; OK, lame reference. Sorry) or you really
don't care, in which case you won't care about what I have to say
about it anyway. But just in case you are a little curious, I'll link
to it as well as explain my take on it.
First off, for some reason a lot of journalists and bloggers alike
felt the scene came from a dream sequence. In it, we see Batman
hanging from a chain with others hanging on either side of him.
Suddenly, Superman lands at the end of the hallway in a flourish of
dust. Soldiers kneel as Kal-el swags his way down the hall toward
Batman. Mean, nearly snarling and a puggish face, he reaches to grab
the mask and cowl off Batman's head to reveal the man beneath.
Superman Being Mad
As good as some of the theories on why this is a dream sequence are,
I can't bring myself to the same conclusion based on the other
footage we saw. For one, we've already seen the beginning of this
same scene. We've also seen Batman in the same garb in his costume
cloaked in a khaki-colored trench coat in what looks like a desert
landscape/base of some sort. Adding all the glimpses of what we've
seen of this scenario, it looks like it may take up three to four
minutes of runtime in the film, which I can't see being wasted on one
dream sequence with a huge battle scene in it, even if it is to show
the nightmarish predictions of what Bruce thinks might/could happen
when encountering an alien being.
Superman Being Contemplative
To move on, two nights later Warner Bros. released an official full
third trailer for BvS on Jimmy Kimmel Live which I actually consider
very strange. Why? Because Kimmel works on ABC, owned by Disney who
also owns Marvel and just the week before released the Captain
America: Civil War trailer. I understand DC/WB don't have one
specific station they are highly affiliated with like Marvel,
however, it seemed a little strange for them to go to the
competition's stomping grounds to ask for help with the release. It
seemed like it might have served better for one of their other shows
like Supergirl or even going to Colbert on CBS where Supergirl has a
home or to Fallon, but I digress.
The trailer came and I was so... whelmed. That's right, I definitely
wasn't overwhelmed and I don't want to say I was underwhelmed because
it did have some good elements to it, however, I didn't like it as
much as I hoped I would. In comparison to the Civil War trailer
Thanksgiving week, it didn't wow me. Maybe that's because of the
music which I felt didn't properly build to anything like the trailer
music in Civil War did. I know that seems overly critical, but I only
point to that because of the previous WB trailers. For Man of Steel
they started to use bits of Hans Zimmer's score in the trailers. If
that music is part of the film, I don't know if we're getting the
best of Zimmer and Junkie XL (side note: I'm a huge original film
soundtrack fan ranging from The Notebook to The Dark Knight Rises so
I look forward to good memorable music). The biggest revelation came
in the form of Doomsday at the end of the trailer.
Doomsday?
As rumored months ago, Lex uses the dead body of Zod to create the
ever-evolving monster for the crew to battle; in fact, it is shown
that Wonder Woman steps in the way of Batman and helps block a laser
beam from the creation. We also saw a little more of Luthor's
personality which still doesn't seem like Luthor but we'll see how it
fits into the tone of the film.
Batman's Gun Is Almost As Big As Wonder Woman's Sword
As far as Batman and Superman versus-ing each other? We got a lot of
that. They were jumping on each other, shooting at each other (oh
yeah, Batman's got guns galore in this thing with guns on his
batwing, his batmobile and a big gun at the end; don't worry, I'm
sure they shoot something other than bullets) and snarling at each
other like crazy. Actually, the biggest controversy has come from the
final frame in which Batman holds a gun like a Russian muscle guy
mobster.
Superman Being... Mad Again?
And for the way Affleck and Snyder are approaching the character, he
looks quite subdued even more than the other movies. I say that
because he looks almost as if he's sneaking into the big gala event
like a new but humble star not used to the fame. For once, I'd like
to see a more confident playboy Bruce who is a strong silent which I
don't think we've gotten even in the Nolan movies I enjoyed. The
tension between he and Clark is palpable. I'm also fearful we the
fans might get yet another dour, mopey Superman as was many fans'
chief problem with Man of Steel. In all the trailers I've seen so
far, I can't remember him smiling once. He's either pissed, offended
or contemplative. Where dat hope at?
All pictures of the Wiz courtesy of NBC
Speaking of hope, NBC's rendition of The Wiz Live came on this
Thursday. Sigh! What can I say about this musical. I'll start by
saying that I thought it was far better than the Peter Pan Live that
they put out last year, however I thought it tied in quality with the
Sound of Music they threw at us the first year they did this about
two years back. I'll also say that I thought the casting was quite
good, especially Shanice Williams as Dorothy, Ne-yo as the Tin-man
and David Alan Grier as the Lion.
Picture courtesy of Universal and Motown Productions
With that said, I'm highly disappointed. Listen, I understand that
The Wiz is just the Black (excuse me, African-American) version of
The Wizard of Oz but was supposed to be an updated "hipper"
version. The once Broadway musical did well for quite a while but
people tired of it and it went the way of Cats. Most people,
however, remember the film version of the same name from the late
1970s starring such big Black stars of the day as Diana Ross as
Dorothy (way too damn old) and Michael Jackson as the scarecrow (best
part of the movie) and I believe it was produced by Barry Gordy if
I'm not mistaken, though I'd have to fact-check that. However, the
movie was probably most memorable for its creative spin on the old
classic story.
With Judy Garland and the gang having already done a phenomenal job
on the original Wizard of Oz, especially with the
walk-through-the-forest and the fantasy realm and the middle-America
farmland, The Wiz went a decidedly different direction and placed it
smack in the middle of the urban landscape of Brooklyn, NY--where
Brooklyn at! Where Brooklyn at! This brought a fresher, more
relatable quality to the characters for many people of color and made
the use of the slang relevant.
Also, I would have preferred the wicked witch be uglier and the fact
that they thought Queen Latifah's Oz was a man when she clearly
looked like a woman the whole time really kinda ticked me off. They
did that just to fit in a feminism joke? Really?
Even I Don't Get How They Can't Figure Out I'm A Woman
Again, I know that these are usually meant for the much younger kids
and I'm sure my cousins' children may have loved it. I'm also aware
that despite how ludicrously bad these live performances sometimes
are (Peter Pan was just... gahh!) people still enjoy tuning in for
them as The Wiz welcomed 11 million live viewers to ease on down the
road with them. But in some ways I felt awkward watching this. You
know dese fools had the nerve enough to use the non-word
conversate AND the all-too-familiar drug addict phrase "see,
what had happened was"--the same phrase addicts use when you let
them in your house and suddenly your TV and other electronic
equipment goes missing. I know it was supposed to be a comedy but a
family comedy.
Tied Carrie Underwood on the left; Wayyy better than Peter Pan on the right!
You know what, I'm being too nit-picky about this. I'll say that it
was good for a few laughs, though it finally had me questioning why a
good witch would make a young girl wear some magical slippers that
everyone in the kingdom knew about and would want to kill her for.
Outside of my shock that they weren't Air Jordans circa 1998, did
this woman really show no concern about giving this child something
so dangerous? In all my years of watching The Wizard of Oz and The
Wiz, I never thought of that until now. The whole thing had me
yearning for a more urban take on it. If you were going to throw in
slang and attitude, go all the way and put her into a strange, urban,
yellow bridge road setting that made the movie unique. Otherwise, you
could have just down the white version but with Black people because
that is precisely how this played to me.
In the end, I do want to still support the Black community and give
props for them attempting to do The Wiz, but classic this is not.
Left to Right: Hawkgirl, Picture of Vandal Savage, The Flash, Arrow
Another thing I wanted to talk about had, again, to do with comics.
The CW's The Flash/Arrow crossover proved a huge success, albeit more
for Arrow than the Flash. With them setting up their newest
incarnation/addition to the DC CW-universe, they introduced the
characters of Hawkman and Hawkgirl as well as the main villain Vandal
Savage who will be bad guy numero uno on DC's Legends of Tomorrow. In
the crossover, they included not only the near murder of the new
Wells by that cop woman that Barry is dating, but it also included a
look at Arrow's long-lost son he never had the chance to know about.
He's chosen to keep the child a secret from Felicity while Jay
Garrick--earth two's Flash--saved Harrison from dying by removing the
bullet. And Flash traveled back in time again to warn his friends of
Savage's impending leveling of the city.
Cisco between Hawkgril and Hawkman on the right.
The takeaway was concerning the set-up for the new series, however.
We now know the back story of the main villain and two of the heroes
to join the already established heroes and villains from Arrow and
Flash. What we don't know is how Savage comes back to life after
being zapped by the heroes at the end.
There was some other stuff floating about in the ether that was none
comic book related but I completely forgot about what it was. Now
that I'm going to be going on a brief vacation, the posts will be
more sporadic as I work on editing some of my stuff and the holidays
take over. Also, I'll probably release a slate sheet of the works I
plan to release next year. For now, look for a milk chocolate recipe
coming in the next week or so as I unleash a few good holiday recipes
for you.
What did you think? Did you obsess over any big entertainment news
this week? If so, what was it? Did you watch The Wiz Live!? What did
you think? What about Batman v Superman? What are your theories about
that Batman hanging scene, those flying monster things in the desert
fight scene and Batman's gun? Let me know in the comments below
(hint: click the no comments button if you see no comments).
If
you’re looking for a scare,
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you
like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow.
The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on
Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my
blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "won't you, ease
on down, ease on down the rooo-ad!"
P.S. Did anyone else notice some the notes they changed in the songs?
I especially noticed on the Scarecrow's "You Can't Win." I
did like the new song they added in when they were going to give up
on Dorothy. I think Ne-yo said he wrote it. Anyway, I'll think of a
better sign-off next time.
Things We've Learned From The First Full Month Of The NBA #NBA #Cavs
#Basketball
All Pictures Courtesy of the NBA and its teams and affiliates unless otherwise noted.
Surprise! Here some of you regular readers probably thought my last
post for the month of National Blog Posting would be on blog posting
or my NaNoWriMo progress. While I thought about both of those, I
couldn't in good conscience do that knowing that I still had work to
do on my book, and write my last post about completing the challenge
felt too meta and like a cheat (yes, I could write previous post on
NaBloPoMo but not the last one. So, I focus on another topic I'd like
to discuss, the NBA.
Through to the afternoon of November 30th, the NBA has already given
us a few crazy stories to follow, each dominating in their own right.
Since we're on the topic of dominating, I'd be remiss if I didn't
start with the biggest story the Golden State Warriors.
Having opened their season on a perfect 18-0 run, they stand just 15
games away from matching the '72 Lakers win streak of 33. With a mix
of opponents both weak and strong, they still have yet to truly face
their toughest tests in San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West as
well as the Cavs in the East (a Christmas Day matchup all NBA fans
can't miss). However, that doesn't discount their run which includes
more 30, 40 and 50-point games from their star Steph Curry than the
Philadelpia 76sers have even won (their win count is at zero, by the
way). The crazy trick shots and ease of stroke for Curry has put him
squarely in the driver's seat for the debate of best player in the
game. Of course there is this other guy in Cleveland that may have
something to say about that.
Leading the Eastern Conference Standings, Cleveland sits atop with 13
wins out of seventeen games. Not bad for the injury-riddled team but
not up to Lebron and Lebron's mustache's standards. Though their star
point guard as well as their first string defensive stopper Iman
Shumpert are both out for at least another few weeks, and players JR
Smith as well as Timofey Mozgov have also sat out a few early season
games, that hasn't stopped Lebron from riding guys for lack of effort
and chip-on-the-shoulder play. Seeing his finals' opponent blowing
teams out by as much as 50 hasn't sat well with the king, causing him
to take a deeper look at the character of the third most winningest
team currently in the NBA.
Speaking of wins, it seemed as if the Houston Rockets couldn't buy
one in the first few weeks of the season. Coming off of a conference
finals appearance in the '14-15 season, expectations for the also-ran
team were high to either duplicate or surpass such heights of
success. But with a Kryptonite-ailed Superman and a switch in team
chemistry from last year (cough Ty Lawson cough), the team has yet to
sniff at a playoff spot in a volatile west where teams clutter at the
highest win totals possible. This led to the unceremonious (and wrong
in my eyes) firing of Kevin McHale as head coach. A band-aid for a
much deeper locker room problem, they won the game without their
coach only to resume losing a few games later.
One Of Us Is Leaving By The End Of This Season
Speaking of poor chemistry, DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl have
continued their feud from last season with rumors of the owner coming
down to the locker room and asking if he should fire Karl, and rumors
that they discussed a possible trade with Boston. Unfortunately,
every time these rumors surface, Cousins play increases exponentially
the next game, making it hard for the owner to pull the lever on any
potential trade or firing.
Porzingis About To Take Flight. Kris Humphries Please Remain In The Seated Position
Not the only big man that can beast, questionable (at the time)
Knicks' draft pick Porzingis (not going to try spelling that first
name) has been such a pleasant surprise to NY faithful that both he
and his play have overshadowed the return of the previously injured
All-Star Carmelo Anthony. Not only are the Knicks not trying to lose
but will finish the month almost at .500 and a trade away from a
playoff spot. They're still another superstar or good role player
away from grabbing a piece of a championship, however.
Speaking of face-of-the-franchise superstars, many of them around the
league have been a little disappointing through the first month.
Taking away the stars on Golden State and Cleveland, Kevin Durant and
Russell Westbrook have not grabbed the headlines nor the wins as most
expected they would in Kevin's contract season. While they are in the
top 4 in the west, the Warriors domination of the Mississippi that-a
way has overshadowed the ho-hum Allstar-level play as the two have
proven they can play together to analyst... finally! LaMarcus
Aldridge has willingly reduced his role from superstar to cog in the
winning machine that is the Spurs, helping to power them to the
number two spot behind the Warriors.
In the east, Derrick Rose has all but disappeared behind his plastic
mask as the Bulls have taken losses to a few teams they shouldn't
have, looking like a playoff team but not a real contender to take
down the Cavs. The same can be said for the Miami Heat where D. Wade
and Bosh have led their team to a respectable third place while
continuing to try sculpting their own identity post-Lebron. Probably
the biggest disappointment in the east comes from the nation's
capital. Yes, what's happening on Capitol Hill in politics always
induces eye rolls, but I'm talking about the Wizards. A team that
handily defeated the Raptors last season in the playoffs and looked
posed to defeat the Hawks on the way to a conference finals berth,
have now slipped well below the playoff line and are struggling to
find wins against all opponents.
I Made A Three, One Less Number Than The Amount Of Wins We Have
Probably the angriest fanbase in the NBA right now resides in
Louisiana. The playoff-bound Pelicans of last year have floundered so
much, that they are in the lower four teams of the NBA and have yet
to accumulate five wins in 17 games. To clarify, it's a start
slightly better than the Lakers at two wins and the 76ers at zero.
The problem? Those two teams are trying to lose games for
better draft positioning.
From Draft Day
The biggest breaking story came just yesterday when the completely
expected news that Kobe Bryant is retiring after this season came
from the man himself. After a month of playing like the Monsters from
Space Jam came back and sucked his basketball powers away, he's
decided to continue this farewell tour and collect that massive
paycheck afforded to him for being the best player for so long. While
I may make fun of Kobe, he will be extremely missed in the league. I
salute you, black mamba. Five championships! Nobody can argue with
that.
To Champion!
What do you think? Have you been following your favorite NBA team or
are you still locked into the NFL season? When do you think the
Warriors win-streak will end? Do you think they can beat or match the
Bulls 72-10 record? What do you think about Kobe Bryant announcing
his retirement? Will you miss seeing him as a competitor or is it
good riddance. Let me know in the comments below (hint: click the no
comments button if you see no comments).
If
you’re looking for a scare,
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you
like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow.
The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on
Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my
blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "I'm announcing
that, uh... I'm gonna be retiring from NBA basketball to play
professional baseball."
"Uh... Why?"
"Because Nike
told me to Just Do It!
P.S. Do I even have to add anything to that? I'll think of a better
sign-off next time... maybe.
The CBAs Of Life #Positivity #BlogShare #WriterLife
Rainbow!
I will go ahead and admit at this point that I am actually so
exhausted from the day of writing I just had that I am finding it
insanely difficult to finish these last two posts for National Blog
Posting Month (#NaBloPoMo). It's strange how two days ago I had
writer's block on my novel and now I'm having writer's block on what
to rant and rave about. While I was going to do a post entitled: Why
Does The World Love Girls So Much which would have been on the recent
Universal Studios acquisition of the film rights to an as-yet not
released novel entitled The Girl Before, I decided against it because
I didn't know all of what I wanted to say about it as my feelings
continue to be mixed. The book doesn't come out until next fall yet
Ron Howard is about to make a film out of it and some self-pub
writers don't get the time of day? Hmph! That has led me to do this
post instead.
Positivity. Everyone tries to maintain a level of positivity in their
lives in hopes that it will not only spur on things like good health
and good relationships, but success in all areas. Some rare occasions
I forget just how important being positive is. Let me give a caveat
here and say that I respect and realize the usefulness of all
emotions and feelings, but there's just something about positivity
which is so addictive and the one thing we must all have if we are
going to get through the drudgery of life.
From what I've seen, the world is filled with people who will doubt
you and your abilities at every turn. I remember back in college I
wanted to start a comedy thing and was immediately told how hard it
would be. That is when the idea reinforced in my head that sometimes
another person's "negativity" is not meant to be mean or
overly critical on purpose. Often they believe the truth behind their
words. The great thing is that you don't have to believe it.
Don't get me wrong, we all need to hear the truth from those around
us we trust, but we must train ourselves to discern between when
someone else may be correct about our reality and when we have the
will and/or know-how to prove them wrong. I think it is for this very
reason that we sometimes must take on challenges to push our limits
and test the boundaries by which others see us and we see ourselves.
One of the reasons I took on the National Novel Writing Month
(#NaNoWriMo) challenge was not to prove to myself I could do it (I've
written a book in a month countless times) but to cheer on others
that didn't know if they could or not. In some ways I lost sight of
that a little and busied myself with my own novel, but it did
reinforce to me the precious feeling you get when you believe in
yourself and accomplish what you set out to do.
My standards by which to live have always been summed up in about
four or five words. You first have the acronym CBA: Conceive,
Believe, Achieve. There is nothing you can do in this world without
locking in the first concept of, uh... conception. You have to know
what you want to achieve before you can achieve it. Some people don't
have much of an idea about that when they start something. It's
always too general. Saying that you want to write a novel, even
picking the genre is not specific enough to motivate you all the way
through to the end sometimes. I know we've all heard it before
thousands of times, but writing or picturing clear goals for yourself
is paramount to success.
Your Brightest Days May Lay Ahead Of You Yet!
Next, you have to believe. Stay as positive as you can as you start
the process of going after what you want. Sure, you may breakdown.
That's fine. A breakdown is OK so long as you can recover. Don't be
ashamed to fall apart especially if you're trying to do something
that others around you know is possible but are too afraid to
attempt. Pride can get in the way of you daring to fail, get back up
and continue. Don't take this as a continue-at-any-cost thing because
when you do fall, make sure you have those honest people around you
to tell you if your goal is reasonable. If it is, then keep going
after it.
Though it doesn't fit into the neat acronym, the next thing you have
to do is work your butt off. The reason I like NaNoWriMo and
NaBloPoMo is because it pushes writers to try fitting into a
community where everyone is working their tails off to get their art
out and onto the page. You have people cheering on your hard work
which can make you want to work even harder. But when this ends, we
all must find the desire, the burn, the drive to continue the work we
started. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor in a month. Your goal for
writing that novel, or losing weight, or getting that job promotion
or raise or whatever you want to achieve takes time. Keep at it!
And finally, try to achieve what you set before you. Remember the
goals, put a time stamp on when you want to have achieved them and
try sticking to it. Admittedly, it doesn't always work, but when it
does, it's amazing. Even if it doesn't, you always learn something
about yourself and the world around you on the way, and that can be
uplifting in its own right.
What do you think? For those NaNoers out there are you staying
positive as the month closes out? Do you maybe have some other goals
you're trying to achieve that you are trying to stay positive on? How
has your November 2015 been? Let me know in the comments below (hint:
click the no comments button if you see no comments).
If
you’re looking for a scare,
check #AFuriousWind, #DARKER, #BrandNewHome or
#ThePowerOfTen.
For those interested in something a little more dramatic, check
out #TheWriter.
The full first season is out now NOW exclusively on Amazon. If you
like fast action crime check out #ADangerousLow.
The sequel A New Low will be out in a few months. Join us on
Goodreads to talk about books and TV, and subscribe to and follow my
blog with that Google+ button to the right.
Until next time, "gimme an A!
Gimme a B! Gimme a C! What's that spell?"
"ABC is not a
word. It doesn't spell anything, it's just the first three letters of
the alphabet."
"Wow!
You try to do a positive cheerleading exercise and some people just
have to be that guy."
P.S. Don't act like you don't know who that guy is. You know.
You probably work with him. I'll come up with a better sign-off next
time.
P.P.S. Am I tripping or just spelling "positivity" wrong? I used two different word processors and they both underlined it? Guess machines don't like that word.
