September 6, 2026 · 5:14 am

Not alternate enough: Summoned by Michael Anderle

In a discussion of Doctor Who: Wish World at his Blue Towel Productions blog, Ben McClure says that when writing about an alternate reality version of a popular show, you can “make the new world incredibly interesting, often by raising all sorts of questions about how the world works or even how the world came into being at all … the other way to make an alternate-reality story interesting, and by far the preferred one, is to make the alternate-version of the character meaningful.”

I’ll be blogging about this in another context but it captures part of why I was disappointed in SUMMONED: The Free Judge Reborn, Book 1 by Michael Anderle. The book takes place in the 2080s, the history is very alternate but none of that seems to matter.

(This has nothing to do with the book, I’m just using random photographs to provide some visuals).

Kara Greims is a crusading attorney, constantly frustrated that money and connections allow so many of the people who wronged her clients to walk away without paying a price. When gets news her brother has been murdered in Los Angeles, she heads west and discovers he was a Free Judge, part of a secret, supernatural justice system devoted to providing justice when the secular, mortal system fails. As the skull of Jacob Grimm, her brother’s mentor, explains to Kara, the True Court prefers it if the True Judges bring justice via quasi-legal means — intimidate someone into confessing to law enforcement says — but if that doesn’t work, executing malefactors is acceptable. Kara’s first target (I’m assuming the family will turn out to be descendants of Jacob or his brother): the corrupt corporation that killed her brother.

This leads to the novel approach for an urban fantasy of having Kara work within the system: she digs up documents via public information requests, puts together a case that the company has been violating the law, gets it to the right regulators. It is not, however, novel outside urban fantasy; as she herself points out, it’s not that far from a Leverage episode. Or similar, earlier TV creations: Mission: Impossible‘s organized crime episodes, the TV movie Institute for Revenge and others.

Lack of novelty is not a problem. Bringing justice to those the law cannot touch is a popular premise and like the legend of Robin Hood, there’s always a need for someone to do it. What doesn’t work is that the bad guys fall too easily. Kara puts in a lot of effort to make her case — it’s not a cakewalk — but her legal moves invariably work. Where is the Hamilton Burger to her Perry Mason? Why are the bad guys’ lawyers not throwing up counter-moves? For all the work Kara performs, it’s too easy. Likewise, her repeated beating of the thugs they send after her makes me wonder why they don’t change tactics — a bomb in her car or something like that.

The final problem is the worldbuilding. In Kara’s timeline, Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s motorcade took a different route in 1914 and he was never assassinated. No WW I, no treaty of Versailles imposing crushing burdens on Germany. No fascism. No WW II. Also no stock market crash, no Depression. On the downside, with no Cold War there was less pressure on the federal government to support civil rights, segregation continued unabated until the 1980s. At this point there was a horrifying fire in the Japanese neighborhoods of Los Angeles; assuming it was fueled by race, imperial Japan invaded and won. Kara’s story takes place a century later.

That’s a good premise for a timeline, though not always convincing (why would the stock market crash and the Depression not happen?). I don’t see any signs of it in the story, though. Other than zeppelins being the primary form of air transport, there’s nothing that feels different from 2026 in the real world. No sign of Japanese control. No sign the law is different. Hell, Leverage is a TV show in both worlds so apparently their history ain’t that different. To go back to that quote from Blue Towel Productions, it isn’t an interesting alternate world because there’s so little alternative about it.

I wanted to like Summoned much more than I did.

Leave a comment

Filed under Is Our Writers Learning?, Reading, Writing

September 5, 2026 · 5:07 am

One book, one movie: Dr. Lao and his seven faces

Charles Finney’s 1935 THE CIRCUS OF DR. LAO is one weird book. And I love the cover of my edition (wish I knew the artist)

Abalone, Arizona is a small, dull, dusty desert town. First the newspaper has a big ad announcing the coming of the circus, then it shows up. In small towns back then, that’s always exciting, but townies who gather to watch are underwhelmed — three wagons, that’s all? One of them with a horse that has a fake horn on its head, one of the wagon-drivers has horns on his head and plays a syrinx, there’s a dog painted green, a little old Chinese man and a furry Something/Someone in one of the cages — is it a bear? Or maybe a Russian? Lao himself can shift from pidgin English to standard English at will.

Despite the small procession into town, there’s a full circus with sideshow exhibits and a big tent when Lao opens his show that night (memory suggests a circus setting up magically this way is a common trope but I can’t swear to it). We have a sea serpent engaging in intellectual conversation about its life history. Medusa, carefully shielded so she’s only visible in a mirror (as you might guess, someone’s going to look closer …). The satyr sexually liberates a prim young woman. Two drunk college students cause trouble. Apollonius the seer gives a middle-aged woman a bleak prophecy: she won’t find love, nothing will change, nothing will improve, she’ll simply fade away, losing hope, and then she’ll die (it’s a strikingly sad moment). A sorcerer resurrects a dead man, who runs off immediately — he has important business! Almost all of which the locals treat with complete phlegmatism, no more excited than if they’d seen a tattooed man or the like. Faced with wonders they don’t find it that wondrous. Apollonius’ prophecy feels like it could apply to the entire town.

It’s an odd but fascinating story. No real plot, just a series of incidents. No real explanation of anything. The book concludes with a Cast of Characters list including details about people who were little more than walk-ons, or were mentioned but never appeared, plus a list of unanswered questions — was it a Russian or a bear? What business did the dead man have? The end result is not everyone’s cup of tea; I have no memory what I made of it when I read it in college, other than “that’s weird.” In its own way it’s brilliant. That said, we have a couple of racial epithets dropped into casual conversation and the satyr committing sexual assault; if those are unacceptable, well now you know.

I think such a plotless novel is unfilmable so it’s no surprise when they did film it, Charles Beaumont’s script for THE 7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964) gives it a plot to hold everything together (the great George Pal directed it). A skilled fantasy writer and Twilght Zone scriptwriter, Beaumont gives it a Twilight Zone quality — Lao (Tony Randall in yellowface) shows up and transforms everyone’s lives for the better the same way Professor Fate saves Denton in the episode Mr. Denton on Doomsday. Though it also resembles the 1962 film musical The Music Man: like Harold Hill, Dr. Lao is a traveling trickster who revives the lives of everyone in town, including inspiring a prim librarian to find love (this does make Lao the equivalent of a “magical Negro”).

This version of Abalone is a dying town and everyone knows it. Cynical Stark (Arthur O’Connell) has offered to buy everyone out so they can leave and start over; newspaper publisher Ed Cunningham (John Ericson) is pushing his neighbors to say no. He’s also pushing widowed librarian Angela Benedict (Barbara Eden) to say yes to a date, without any luck.

Enter Lao and his circus. His satyr (Randall — the “seven faces” means he plays seven roles) loosens Angela up (not quite as rapey as the book scene), the serpent mocks Stark, Apollonius (Randall again) makes his bleak prophecy. Stark’s thugs harass everyone opposing him; somehow Lao neutralizes them.

The end result, alas, lacks the sophistication of a good Twilight Zone episode; it feels more like kidvid (Lao does spend a lot of time with Angela’s young son, who’s fascinated by him). The performances are competent but not stellar. Randall playing seven roles doesn’t add much, though “actor plays multiple roles” has its own appeal. It has some charm, but I think there’s a better unfaithful adaptation they could have made. “Every time I bet on weakness, corruption, and fallibility, I want to lose — but I always win.”

All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

Filed under Movies, Reading

September 4, 2026 · 4:14 pm

God said ha. I said “ha!” back

The old saying is that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I planned to get a lot done this week; God said “ha!” meaning there were a ton of obstacles. Despite which, to my pleasant surprise, I did get a lot done.

First the obstacles. We were still dealing with Plushie’s ulcer (diagnosed last week) but as of his Thursday appointment, it’s cured. Once again our dog has beaten a health problem despite his nearly 16 years of age! That’s always nice. He’s still on an antibiotic for the ulcer but that’s more a precaution than a necessity. We’re taking it though.

Trixie didn’t do so well. Last week she was becoming weirdly picky about food and reluctant to eat her meds. She also felt … off, in a way I can sense but couldn’t define. Sunday she began not eating at all so we took her into the vet Monday, followed by the emergency vet (they could do a couple of tests Park Vet couldn’t). At first the news was horrifying: anemic, blood count up, white blood cells up, which could indicate an infection, or possibly internal bleeding. At the end of the day, by virtue of eliminating the alternatives, they settled on probably some bleeding in the GI tract (I will skip the technical details).

We came home with directions to switch some of her meds and to have her drink a protective slurry an hour before her meals. It’s working: we took her in for a recheck Wednesday and all her signs have improved, though not by a lot (but the vet said that’s expected). She’s livelier, though also sleepier — she’s on Gabapentin now and it knocks her out. But she’s clearly happier and more interested in eating so this is a definite win. A demanding one — the need to time the slurry and her food and some of her meds makes our schedules that much more complicated.

Oh, and I also had to take our car in for an oil change and checkup. That took up a couple of hours too.

Despite which, work went well. I got two articles in for The Local Reporter, both out next week. Might get a third one done but I think that’s where the dog drama will leave me too wiped. I also got three posts up at Atomic Junk Shop, one about iron-on shirt decals in the 1970s, one on a really weird 1971 cover (above, by Murphy Anderson) and one about the path to (IMHO) the definitive Phantom Stranger run by Jim Aparo and Len Wein which kicked off with the cover at left by Aparo.

I also got a nice review of Southern Discomfort from one of my fellow bloggers. Thanks, Greg!

I worked through another year of Doc Savage’s history for Savage Adventures, and polished the bibliography. And then, on Let No Man Put Asunder, I really got some good stuff done. First I went through the writing guide Writing the Breakout Novel, taking notes on stuff that might be useful to think about (give your villains goals. Your supporting characters too). Maybe not — while I’ve read the book a lot, I’m not sure I use it’s techniques not. But I think I’m using it early enough in the rewrite process that might be different.

Then I started rereading, taking notes along the way. Insights or phrases someone offers more than once (“making the beast with two backs” is not going to appear more than once). Thin characterization or motivation. Implausible plotting. Places where it needs more tension. I got a third of the way through the book; that’s pretty good.

I also received by McFarland second-half-of-the-year royalty check. Small, but my books are still selling, which is cool; if you bought one of them, thanks!

And I now have three stories in the “made the first cut” category. No guarantee any of them will sell — I’m quite used to “This was a really tough decision, but …” emails — but they’re all possibilities. More disappointingly, I won’t get an author table to sell my books at Retcon next year. It was quite lucrative this year because it’s set up so all the con-goers go past the sale area frequently, probably why table requests have quadrupled. I’m on the waiting list so fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed too for more weeks like this.

Below, a typical Len Wein opening to a Phantom Stranger story. Aparo art.

All rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

Filed under Doc Savage, Nonfiction, Southern Discomfort, The Dog Ate My Homework, Time management and goals, Writing

Tagged as , , ,

September 4, 2026 · 5:15 am

I like that these tarot decks exist

From a recent trip to Barnes & Noble. If I had the cash, I might have picked one of them up, just to see what the cards look like.

Who is the King of Swords in Lovecraft’s tarot? Or do they have things like the Page of Tentacles instead? Does the Austen deck use characters from her novels or is it just generic images from that era?

Perhaps someday I’ll find out.

Leave a comment

Filed under Miscellanea

September 3, 2026 · 5:10 am

Zohram Mamdani is better for America than Doug Wilson

Doug Wilson is a slimy Christian theocrat who think women should lose the vote and that marital sex means men conquer, women submit. He thinks race relations in America were best under slavery and says he would have fought for the Confederacy — but totally not because of slavery. Sorry, Mr. Wilson, if you were fighting for the Confederacy you would have been fighting to protect slavery and against abolition. The CSA was quite open about slavery as a fundamental principle of their government. And here’s his latest deep insight:

“Citizenship is more of a privilege, dependent upon ancestry, background, how long you’ve been here, whether you meet the qualifications or not,” Wilson said as he insisted citizenship was not a right. “And if America is a creedal nation, then you have to have creedal standards. So anybody who voted for Mamdani should lose their citizenship.”

This is two contradictory arguments. The idea of America as a creedal nation is that we don’t base citizenship on things like ancestry or background, we base it on whether you can accept the Constitution, embrace “all men are created equal,” believe in inalienable rights. Ancestry is irrelevant. But like so many on the right, Wilson’s worldview is that the creed is Christianity, therefore Muslim=Unamerican. It’s his country, not someone like Zohram Mamdani. Of course even by that logic, depriving people of citizenship for voting for Mamdani makes no sense — except for a power-hungry religious tyrant, which I think he is.

In other words, he’s much further from the American creed than Mamdani. I am embarrassed to share my faith with Doug Wilson (technically they’re two different, incompatible versions of Christianity, but still). Where Wilson sees an apocalyptic battle between his theocracy and Islam, Christianity and Islam (and Hinduism, atheism, etc.) can coexist just fine, as they always have. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat running to be senator from Michigan, is not coming for our culture. Sharia law is not going to take over. Nor did El-Sayed dismiss 9/11 as unimportant.

Michael Savage, a would-be Rush Limbaugh (he never came close to the same success) who wants Mamdani deported is as far from the American creed as Wilson. Ditto the vapid yet venomous Ben Shapiro who speaking of Muslim immigrants asks “What has been the the vast boon to the American taxpayer from these people? What has been the great cultural reawakening that has occurred because of these people who despise the country?” A)We don’t allow people to immigrate because of some “vast boon to the American taxpayer” — and if that was a standard for judging people, Shapiro hardly qualifies. B)America has always been a nation of immigrants. If he despises that, he despises America, just as Republicans despise America for giving equal rights to gays, POC, Muslims, women … Republicans are the barbarians they imagine they’re fighting.

Mamdani meanwhile forges ahead with his policies, including plans to open grocery stores in food deserts. This may not work for a variety of reasons: expense, effectiveness, groceries suing to block the project (which they are). There’s some good discussion here including what I thought was an excellent point: “if they work well we figure out how to scale and if they don’t then oh well.” It’s a pilot project, a test. Try it, tinker with it if it needs improving, give it up if it fails. That’s okay. In fact it’s probably a healthy approach. As I’ve said before, more people should study Mamdani and learn from what he’s doing and how he’s tackling things. And responding to criticism, like claims the rich will flee his tax policies. His response: “When we talk about taxing rich we hear about fear of capital flight- flight of Black New Yorkers who can’t afford it has happened for years… Dems were branded as ‘SoCiALisT’ forever — Obama was called one…”

Leave a comment

Filed under economics, Politics

Tagged as

September 2, 2026 · 5:18 am

When do the good times start?

When I watched The Exorcist a couple of years back, I was struck by how slowly the story opens, showing us the details of everyday life. It was a carefully calculated decision to ground the film in the “real” world before the spookery gets going.

I think the source novel, William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST, does the same thing, but less successfully. It’s a hundred pages of mundane detail about Chris and Regan’s lives (and some about the priests) before anything happens; sure, there’s some odd noises in the attic, but that’s as creepy as it gets. Even after the supernatural happens, the resistance to accepting it gets comical: sure, someone fell down the steps with his head completely twisted around on his neck but that could certainly happen naturally! No, not it couldn’t.

I presume this reflects that Blatty was writing in an era when mainstream horror novels weren’t a thing — this was three years before Stephen King broke in with Carrie. So perhaps grounding it in reality was necessary — and the book’s blockbuster success clearly shows it didn’t hurt. Nevertheless I couldn’t get into it; Blatty’s oddly jerky prose style didn’t help. I do think a little more tension in the everyday stuff would have been a good idea — if you’re going to spend more than a quarter of the book in the mundane world, find some way to make it interesting.

This is, of course, a challenge lots of speculative fiction writers face when they’re setting stories in our world. Some plunge right in: the opening page of Storm Front informs us that Harry Dresden is a wizard helping people out with supernatural problems. My short story “The Savage Year” (in 19-Infinity) opens with mage Artemis West getting ready to perform magic on a job for the Secret Service. “The Glory That Was” in the same book has a robot minotaur break in on a political luncheon.

Other stories take time to build. Southern Discomfort, as I’ve mentioned before, starts with little overt magic. We have Maria’s sense of something wrong, hints that Pharisee Georgia is, shall we see, eccentric (no stop signs allowed — traffic circles instead), freakish rainstorms. Until the ravens attack as Maria’s getting off the bus, there’s nothing that seems strongly supernatural. However Chapter Two spells out that this is a town run by elves, and the person who murdered Aubric McAlister is not of mortal clay. Not a long wait.

That puts me in mind of Orson Scott Card’s old rule that the opening and ending of your story should mirror each other. Mine starts out with Maria in a bad place: on the run from the cops, emotionally closed, desperate. The final scene is all about resolving that. Likewise Let No Man Put Asunder starts with Mandy and Paul waiting for their life to begin, and ends accordingly. Maybe that’s what bugged me about The Exorcist: it starts with Chris but it’s not really a character-centered story where her personal arc is resolved at the end. Instead it switches to horror midway through and stays there.

Then again we have the priest supporting character who does indeed get a character arc. Unlike the movie, he’s not quite interesting enough to be the spine of the story, at least for me — like I said, the success of Blatty’s book certainly speaks for itself. But like I said, I didn’t find it terribly compelling, and I think I’ve identified why.

All rights to images remain with current holders. Covers top to bottom by Lee Macleod, Kemp Ward and Sam Collins.

Leave a comment

Filed under Reading, Short Stories, Southern Discomfort, Writing

September 1, 2026 · 5:15 am

How many gentle flowers grow?

Some years back, when my sister and our mutual best friend visited here, we went to the Sarah Duke Gardens. Surprisingly TYG has never been so recently we visited. It’s still beautiful — see for yourself.

Hope that brightens your Tuesday a little.

Leave a comment

Filed under Personal

Tagged as

August 31, 2026 · 5:15 am

The rottenness and folly of so many of the “elite”

Right-wingers have been sneering at elites for years. The “pointy-headed intellectuals” who had the ridiculous idea Jim Crow segregation wasn’t righteous. The conviction that small town and rural Americans are the real Americans, not the decadent cosmopolitan immigrant scum living in cities. That the simple, honest view of a common man who knows nothing is better than someone with an education. It’s a variation of the Imaginary Republican fantasy: all small towns are sweet and decent like Mayberry, all cities are the same crime-ridden hellholes as in Dirty Harry. The uneducated man sees the simple common-sense truth that blacks are inferior, women belong in the kitchen, rape is an attack on men; the elites are out to deny all that with their … facts.

While this is bullshit, they got one thing right: many of our “elite” don’t amount to much. They’re rich because chasing money is an end in itself, no matter what damage it does. Rather than risk any fractional loss of prestige or money, they kiss the Toddler’s ass. Those elites the right-wing is fine with because they end up supporting the social hierarchy instead of challenging it. Rupert Murdoch’s elite but he’s not going to topple white men off their position as apex predator. That said, let’s looks at some of our odious elites in action:

Centimillionaire Flock CEO Garrett Langley insists that restricting Flock cameras from intruding into people’s privacy puts safety at risk. Regulating or refusing to use Flock would be bad! Of course, the topic he was discussing was cops using Flock to stalk women, the loss of privacy isn’t increasing safety, it’s putting people in danger. Police tracking someone with Flock to create a pretext for a search doesn’t seem like a safety vs. privacy issue either.

The Toddler is letting Wall Street know, for a price, what he’ll be tweeting about on Truth Social, an obvious business advantage. Business woman and Toddler supporter Carla Sands insists it’s all Democrats fault.

“President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.” Prediction markets are also arguing that betting on the survival of individuals with cancer isn’t at all objectionable (no handy link, sorry).

Turn over an accused murderer to Minnesota? Not on Greg Abbott’s watch!

Treasury Secretary Luke Bessent is planning to revoke the non-profit status of left-wing groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Someone should explain to him that the corrupt tax man working for the evil tyrant is never the good guy. Oh, and they’ve also arrested a former SPLC employee for fraud. Guess it really hurts right-wing fee-fees when SPLC labels hatemongers as hatemongers.

Corporate elites? Looking at the way some drug stores now lock up even trivial items, Danny Katch concludes “the great lotion lockup was a corporate moral panic, which has been a disaster for their profits and for the rest of us a degrading enshittification of running basic errands.”

SCOTUS continues putting the one before the many, and using the shadow docket to avoid explaining.

Okay, Sean Duffy ain’t much of an elite as far as accomplishments, but he is a Toddler cabinet member. So let’s remember a couple of months back when he announced he’s fighting DEI by defunding bike lanes.

How private equity bled Red Lobster dry to line their own pockets.

BMW is a luxury car brand. Owners are less than thrilled that when they start a new car up, they have to endure ads.

Republican Rep. John McGuire revives the old bullshit about human baby parts in covid vaccines “when they could just have used ivermectin.”

The entire Republican caucus voted for RFK Jr. as head of federal health policy, even though they knew he was anti-vax. They knew his views but when he lied about his track record, they pretended to believe him. Now kids are dying of measles. But hey, there’s money in quack medicine — there always has been.

“If we ask why is this outrage, this fundamental tax cheating permitted to continue, the answer is very clearly, it is the power of people with money who want to be able to avoid taxes. And their ability to avoid taxes leads them having even more money, which reinforces that power.” Small wonder that one billionaire CEO suggests we make it official: give him extra votes for being rich.

And of course, there’s the least competent, most dim-witted member of the elite, our Toddler president.

Leave a comment

Filed under economics, Politics

Tagged as

August 30, 2026 · 5:30 am

A sorceress, a heroine, a feminist philosopher: books

T. Kingfisher’s A SORCERESS COMES TO CALL shows she definitely has a type in protagonists. Like Thornhedge and Nettle and Bone, the protagonist, Cordelia, is a socially awkward, emotionally numb woman who badly needs some found family to help her live again. Unlike them, Cordelia’s numbness is because she’s the daughter of the sorceress of the title; whenever Cordelia breaks the rules or doesn’t show her mother appropriate devotion, Mom reduces her to a puppet for a few days. What are rules? Cordelia has no idea.

Mom’s determined to see her daughter marry rich and if Cordelia objects, well, too bad. Not from any big scheme; she’s a mom in a vaguely Edwardian world and she knows what’s best for her daughter — some day, she probably, imagines, Cordelia will thank her. As innocent people get enmeshed in her mother’s schemes, Cordelia has to fight back, but even when she finds allies, what can they do against magic? This was very good, though the opening was so creepy in the way Cordelia was suffering, I almost put it down.

Following Heroine Complex and Heroine Worship, Sarah Kuhn deliver’s HEROINE’S JOURNEY focuses on Evie’s younger sister. Bea is an empath, constantly frustrated Evie and Annie won’t let her fight crime alongside her. And what’s with the way her long-time platonic friend Sam is getting her all hot and bothered? And is it possible Bea and Evie’s mom isn’t dead but kidnapped into the demonworld?

This has some good elements such as the sister’s relationship and Asian-American life (according to Bea, “Asian girl with multicolored hair” is now a trope) but it didn’t work as well as the first two books. Bea is more annoying than engaging and the ending felt like two chapters of epiphanies: everyone understands perfectly what their feelings are and everyone can explain them perfectly. That rarely works for me.

Kate Manne is a feminist philosopher who coined the term “Himpathy” for the way we’re supposed to sympathize with the tragic male figure accused of sexual harassment or rape. I figured her DOWN GIRL: The Logic of Misogyny would be interesting but I DNFed. Manne’s argument is that misogyny and sexism less about hate — thinking that’s the issue is “naive” she says in one chapter — than about resenting women for not providing the emotional/sexual/practical support some men think they deserve; sexism is the rationale for women’s subjugation, misogyny is the tools. Which is a fine definition (I used a different one in Undead Sexist Cliches but I don’t claim I have the definitive definition) but then she gets to the case of misogynist mass-shooter Elliot Rodger and a lengthy discussion about why his actions fit her definition better than a simple “hate’s women” and I couldn’t get into it.

All rights to cover images remain with current holders. Don’t know the artists.

Leave a comment

Filed under Reading

August 29, 2026 · 5:15 am

Atlantis rises — and so does Superman! Movies and TV

GOLDEN NINJA (1966) has an astronomer who’s discovered the rogue planet Icarus is hurtling towards Earth join a UN team that’s working to destroy the planet with a super-laser. Too bad the sinister Noza’s out to steal the laser and bring about Earth’s death — who can save us now?

Well, as the title tells us, it’s the Golden Ninja, a laughing gold-lame clad superhero who rises from his tomb in ancient Atlantis to battle Noza. This silly but engaging movie was originally Golden Bat, which makes more sense (he has a bat familiar he uses at key moments) — but then again, I can’t imagine anyone watching this movie was worried about the plausibility of Atlantean ninjas. I am, however, bothered that Noza’s weird outfit makes him resemble a four-eyed pantomime horse. “Humans don’t belong in this universe — this universe exists only for me, Noza!”

In BLACK PANTHER: Wakanda Forever (2022), the MU’s Atlantis is transformed into Talokan, an underwater haven where an indigenous Central American tribe fled (by means of a water-breathing potion) to escape Spanish colonialism. Now, though, American attempts to mine vibranium from the ocean floor threaten their existence so their leader, Namor (Tenoch Huerta) invites Wakandan Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Shuri (Letitia Wright) into an alliance against the surface world.

Okay, he actually demands one, along with ordering Shuri to capture Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), the teen genius whose invention makes the mining operation possible. Namor blames Wakanda because their refusal to share their vibranium with the world is what drove America to go looking. And if they refuse? “Our warriors are as numerous as the blades of grass in your kingdom.”

This Black Panther sequel had the challenge of the MCU T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) having died after the first film; one of the plot threads is Shuri dealing with her grief, and her ambivalence over stepping into the hereditary role. I don’t think it met the challenge. Part of the problem is that it’s got a lot to do: Shuri’s grief, more geopolitical conflicts, introducing Namor and Talokan, setting up Riri for her Ironheart series on TV, plus Wakanda vs. Talokan action scenes. The result is a 2hr 40 minute movie and while there’s no shortage of plot, there’s not enough drama for me. Fitting Namor into the Killmonger role — the voice of someone who’s suffered from colonialism and wants Wakanda to Do Something — didn’t work, and neither did Namor. For me, the essence of Namor has always been his arrogance and this version didn’t have that; while he’s imperious and makes demands he comes off more as a leader making tough choices. And while I do love them keeping Namor’s ridiculous ankle wings, why would a Mesoamerican merman say Namor’s catchphrase of Imperius Rex? “There is an entire YouTube channel dedicated to sightings of me.”

By contrast, the third season of MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN (S1 review here; S2 review here) succeeds admirably. The plot threads include Jimmy insisting he and Kara date other people (he’s convinced she only likes him because she hasn’t seen what other Earth boys are like); Clark talking marriage and Lois freaking out; their kids arriving from the dystopian future to change it; Luthor unleashing a superhuman of his own (spoiler: doesn’t go well); and Clark losing his powers for much of the season. I particularly love a scene in which the depowered Clark gets between a killer and some kids, takes a bullet stopping him and then beats himself up — those kids almost got killed because he didn’t have his powers! Of course he did save them but he just takes doing the right thing as a given and doesn’t consider it. I look forward to S2.“Your fear is a weakness — mine is a weapon.”

Cover by Curt Swan, all rights to images remain with current holders.

Leave a comment

Filed under Movies, TV