OBSESSIONS

Yeah, I have a few...

Yes, that is the current wallpaper on my phone. Yes, I know it is a rip off of the Batman TAS infamous pic, with Spider-Noir tossed in. That’s what makes it cool.

Anybody that’s know me for very long at all knows that I have a life-long obsession with Green Lantern and the Green Lantern CORPS. Anybody that’s been in my office has seen the physical proof of said obsession in plastic and art work. I am slightly less obsessed with other comic book heroes, but I am obsessed with comics in general, and certain heroes take up more of my attention that others. Spider-Noir has currently unseated Ambush Bug as my tertiary comic book hero obsession.

The first time I saw Spider-Noir in the movie “Into the Spider-verse” I was completely hooked. Not only was I already a Nick Cage fan (not quite an obsession, but I have seen most of his films and he’s done a lot), but the character itself was fascinating and combined some of my favorite things, Film Noir/pulp fiction era private eye stories, comics, (Specifically Spidey, which is ANOTHER all time fav) and that old time classic movie vibe. It really is the best of all worlds.

So, no surprise that me and the wife binged MOST of the new Amazon live action show Spider-Noir over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We ran out of time before bed to see the finale episode, but should get to do that like Tuesday or Wednesday, so no spoilers in the comments.

I really enjoy Nick Cage’s work ethic, and his dedication to craft, and what he’s done here with this character is nothing less than what I thought it would be; total immersion into the character with some very nice surprises as far as backstory and explaining some things. We never really got the Spider-Noir (or The Spider, as he’s known in universe) origin story in the big screen movie, but the Amazon show provides it, and not in the cheesy way you’re used to comic book movies doing that particular bit of exposition. It’s well done, and even advances the plot!

That also leads to my next point: this show is VERY WELL WRITTEN. Not just the dialogue, though it has some that would make Elmore Leonard sit up in his grave and clap, but the way the plot is strung together, and how it all flows as a story. This is no easy task sometimes when you have just one writer, let alone several. There are several writers for the series’ various episodes, and they have all, without exception, killed it. IMDB was being problematic today, otherwise I would list them.

Add to the great writing, some fantastic music, everything from period appropriate jazz songs to a scene by scene soundtrack as good or better than anything Hollywood has tossed out for public consumption over the last decade, and you get a pretty sensual experience; mix in the stellar performances from a cast of super actors, and you get story that lives, loves, and breathes right off the screen. A couple of times it has made me literally catch my breath.

Of course, Nick shines as Ben Reily (Yes, I KNOW he was called Peter Parker in the Spider Verse movie, there were licensing issues with Sony/Marvel, okay?), but Brendan Gleeson is at once inspiring and disgustingly menacing as the Irish Gangster, Silvermane, while new to me actors, Lamorne Morris as Joe Robertson, and Karen Rodriguez shine as supporting characters on Reily’s side of the fence. Silvermane has Jack Huston as Flint Marko, this world’s Sandman, and Abraham Poopoola as Lonnie Lincoln, this universe’s Tombstone. Riding the middle of the good and evil fence (Most of the time) is Li Jun Li as Cat Hardy, which comic fans will recognize as this universe’s version of Felicia Hardy, aka the Black Cat. Only in this world, she is a lounge singer under Silverman’s thumb, and totally in love with Flint Marko in a star crossed lovers triangle with Reily. The writing doesn’t shy away from hard topics like government corruption, race relations in 1930’s or 40’s New York City, and medical experimentation without consent. (As a man who’s day job is in the field of medical research, this was particularly hard to see).

Yeah, all this and great super heroics too. This show really does have it all. So I highly encourage you to check it out on Amazon Prime. We saw it in True Hue Color, and when I rewatch it (which I will) I will catch the black and white version. This seems to me the best order in which to watch the series twice.

OBSESSION #2

Another obsession I have is conspiracy theories and urban legends. They kind of factor into my scifi writing at times (Galaxy’s Most Wanted book 4, Home Fires Burning, has almost all the major conspiracy theories that exist as story parts, and a few I made up. Fun ride).

One of my favorite mini-obsessions is the YouTube channel, The Why Files. Host AJ Gentile and his on screen partner, Heckle-fish do deep dives into different urban legend or conspiracy theory inspired stories every week, and I love all of them. There was one in particular that made me think of a twilight zone episode I saw once, and it featured the tales of The Backrooms.

The Backrooms started out as a video on 4Chan, and quickly morphed into a full blown urban legend about interdimensional spaces that people fall into that resemble large office complexes that are mostly devoid of office furniture and people. As the legend and footage grew, tales of monsters in the spaces also grew, and eventually this led to a lot of content from one guy, Kane Parsons, who elevated the concept from just liminal horror, to liminal horror with monsters. His first video on it has over 79 million views. This led to an indie film studio tapping him to make a theatrically released movie based on the videos, and until Sunday, I was very excited for it.

After seeing this movie on Sunday, I kinda wish he’d left it at the YouTube stuff. It started slow, ran slower, and once we got into the Backrooms spaces, it was cool, until it wasn’t, and what made it uncool was the fact that the Monster revealed ultimately, was nowhere NEAR as scary or cool as the ones in his Youtube videos. The ending was kinda lame and unsatisfying as well in my opinion (what do I know> I could be wrong). So, you can check that out at your own risk, because I am no horror movie expert. In fact, I am kinda the opposite because I don’t like scary movies, but the backrooms as a topic fascinates me. I can say, that my wife, who DOES like scary movies had the same reaction to this that she had to the Blair Witch project, which she thought was the dumbest thing she’d ever seen. So, it’s got THAT going for it. You can make up your own mind, but on the whole, I wish we’d gone to see the new Nate Bargatze movie, “The Breadwinner,” instead.

I’m gonna go start some reading about the tropes needed for a good Prison Planet story.

Speaking of stories, a few things came out recently you should be aware of.

The Anthromech Anthology went live on May 29^th, and is currently earning Orange tabs on Amazon.

If you like tales of humans merging with tech, where the humans must remain in control of said tech, then this set of stories, each one mind you, designed to launch a brand new series, will definitely be to your liking. This Antho features a story from me called “Soul Survivor,” and yes, I do have a series planned in this Universe, why do you ask?

The Crashed Landings anthology is available from RacPress, and features a second story with Jake, Zach, and Kev, our intrepid youths from 1980’s Middle America, first introduced in the Anthology Insert Coin, also from RacPress. If you’re GENX or GENX adjacent, you’ll like them. Even if you’re just GENX curious, they’re still fun, plus they’re mixed in with nine other fantastic stories from other authors too, so really, you can’t lose.

SARCOM NEWS

As of this morning, I am nearly 20 thousand words into SARCOM book 3, so we should be gearing up to start publishing that series soon. I’ll let you know as soon as Chris Kennedy publishing has those dates locked down, and of course any artwork for covers that they send over and tell me I can share. The covers are ostensibly to be done by JCaleb Design, the same artist responsible for the Gladius Leagues covers, so that is very exciting!

As a final peace offering for having not done one of these in a while, here’s some AI SLOP I generated for inspriation as I write. Its’s supposed to be a SPACEHAWK, a small recon and attack craft…think a slightly larger than the real thing Blackhawk in space and you’re close.

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you next time.

-Michael