Mod Post : Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like. Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

Let's start with some terrific news! The first person in the world to receive a COVID-19 vaccination (outside of clinical trials), has received her first injection (she'll need two of course)!

90 year old Margaret Heenan (she's 91 next week) lives in Coventry and got the jab at 6:31 am local time, and a photo was taken which may well become one of those historical archive type photos in years to come.

The second person was, believe it or not, William Shakespeare! The first line focus in the UK is going to be those aged over 80, and front line workers in care homes.

UK's Brexit situation is... well, that one you can discuss yourselves if you wish, I'm tempted to avoid watching the news about it because of blood pressure concerns.

Chuck Yeagher, the first pilot to ever fly faster than the speed of sound back in 1947, has died aged 97. Weird to think how short a time go that actually was!

Scientists have come out in support of a leading AI ethics researcher Dr Timnit Gebru, fired by Google after a paper she wrote was rejected

I finally got around to watching The New Mutants movie... Even leaving aside the questionable casting choices, I found the horror tame and the characters, though mostly well performed, to be uninvolving. (Also, they decided to change Rahne and her abuser from Presbyterian to Catholic, though they still have her refer to him as Reverend Craig, which is very much NOT a Catholic thing. That and the "You have two bears inside you" quote, which is a contrived change from the usual "you have two wolves inside you" quote (which is of dubious/debtable connection to Native American culture) showed a sort of slapdash approach overall). That and some of the FX were very cheap looking (Sam's cannonballing was barely seen, and the Demon Bear managed to somehow not be creepy. Overall, a missed opportunity I feel.

I also watched the latest "The Mandalorian", which featured another classic OT character returning and being amazingly kickarse, and also showed that a gaffi stick (the weapon we've seen Sandpeople carry) is a VERY effective weapon in melee combat.

Comments

[iamrman]

My deep dive in to the G.I. Joe comics comtinues as I get to the IDW issues that picked up immediately after the old Marvel issues.

Nothing particularly noteworthy with the DC and Marvel trades I am reading, just feeling a bit burned out on X-Men comics. Hopefully that will change now all that X of Swords nonsense is over.

[donnblake]

As best I've been able to trace it, the "two wolves," story originates with evangelist Billy Graham.

[icon_uk]

That's what Jay said over at xplainthexmen and though I'm nowhere near the researcher he is, I'm not sure.

Even the wiki pages credits it to Billy Graham in the 1970's, but also mentions other, earlier, previous references in the 60's

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Wolves

It DOES seem to tend to be a story ascribed to legend by someone who is not native American though.

[zachbeacon]

Well, we know which one he's been feeding.

[zachbeacon]

So amidst my annual revisiting of various Holiday content something occurred to me. I hate every Grinch adaption that isn’t the original cartoon (apparently they’re doing a musical this year. Hard pass). I legitimately can’t keep track of the number of times I’ve seen the Christmas Carol adopted but I can’t think of one I disliked. I’m not entirely sure what that says, its just something I noticed.

[donnblake]

That we need a Muppet's Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas?

(Nah. I'll settle for Muppet Pride and Prejudice).

[obsidianwolf]

If I had to guess I'd say It is probably because the Grinch is a very short straightforward story so any Adaptation that has time to fill will inevitably add things that take away form the flow of the story regardless of the quality or lack there of of the additional material. Esp since additions often involve the Grinch himself either softening him before his change or trying to explain why he was the way he was.

Where as the story of a Christmas Carol can be easily changed around or played with without actually affecting the story too much. I mean as long as you hit the main story beats it can fit in any era and Scrooge can be changed around as needed to either be classic or changed into a different example of the same type of person.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is a seventy page picture book with 1355 words and only three named characters (The Grinch, Max and Cindy-Lou).

A Christmas Carol is a novella with easily a dozen strong and well defined characters; Scrooge, Bob Cratchitt and his family, Fred, the three Spirits and so on.

It's MUCH easier to mess up the Grinch than it is A Christmas Carol.

[thezmage]

If you ever get a chance (if live theater ever comes back) check out the play Inspecting Carol. It's in the "a bunch of people try to put on a play and everything goes wrong" genre, but in this case the play is a Christmas Carol.

Also I don't think there's a legal way to watch it currently, but if you find one the Mischief Theater Company did a BBC special of "A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong," where a bunch of people try to put on a television special of a Christmas Carol and things go wrong in a completely different way than in Inspecting Carol.

[dan_ingram]

I think the biggest problem with non MCU movies is that they try to adapt the biggest character stories they can, regardless of how well they worked.

And yeah, the Demon Bear Saga didn't work. I liked the actors mostly, but the movie did kinda ruin it for comic fans, because we knew Dani's powers from the start.

[obsidianwolf]

Also certain Iconic story lines really don't adapt well for film format. The Phoenix/Dark PHoenix Saga is another example that they keep trying cause it is such an iconic storyline but it just doesn't work without the years of Knowing Jean and the massive amount of story line between Jean becomes PHoenix and the End of the Saga.

I mean in the comics it was a story about Jean going form the weakest X-man to the strongest and saving the universe in a way that set up a situation that had the potential to end in tragedy and then a bunch of rich corrupt assholes coming along and screwing with her head until they triggered a break down that turned someone who saved the universe into a threat that killed billions and finally sacrificing herself to stop it happening again.

You can't fit that into a two or three hour movie. Hell you'd probably need a multi film commitment (at least five or six) to tell that story arc to even come close and given the nature of modern movie universes and how they are made that will never happen. Not to mention that even if you got it adapting it to the screen would be very hard because in comics you see into characters head and in films you don't. Probalby why the failed adaptations always turn it into someone else's story instead of Jean's which just makes them worse

[werehawk]

I also watched it yesterday and thought it was decent (definitely not mindblowing). The non-demon bear twist was pretty good and was surprising for comics fans. I particularly liked Ilyanna's powers visually and Lockheed was interesting. I am still very unsure who those masked men-creatures were. Were they demons from Limbo?

[nightauditguy]

I watched the live action Mulan on Disney+. Take out Mulan and it could have been just a generic movie set in ancient China. They changed way too much

[deh_tommy]

I don’t mind changes from the original (goodness knows Aladdin and The Lion King could have benefitted from deviating from the source material a bit more), what gets me is how bafflingly awful and lazy (if not borderline racist) the changes were. If he only thing I remember kind of liking was that bird witch. I feel like she should have been the main antagonist.

[dan_ingram]

Also, yeah the two bear thing was, no pun intended, a little heavy handed. I did roll my eyes a little.

Okay, a lot...

[leahandillyana]

Polish government has bought off Poland Press, publisher of most local newspapers and magazines in Poland. This gives them an amazing power in filtering local information, thus making sure that any local scandals remain buried - they are especially hot on logging national forest without permit, even in protected areas. Not that they'd even want to hide anything - current law forbids gathering of more than five people at once, but the birthday party of Radio Maryja (crazy catholic fundamentalist radio station) had 1000s of atendeed among government officials and bishops, and the "father director" got applaused after saying that "everybody has urges that need to be understood" in context of clergy child abuse. One of the cheering men is the current children's rights deputy. Furthermore, a set of bills intended to better protect animals was killed on second instance, but guess what passed into another hearing? A bill banning abortion when the mother's life is endangered. lol

[icon_uk]

Good grief...I heard the news about the Poland Press on the radio last night, and it sounded shocking enough, but this other news is appalling.

[alicemacher]

"The second person was, believe it or not, William Shakespeare!"

...Sorry, could you clarify what that means? The second person to be given the vaccine was someone who happened to share a name with the Bard? I didn't think anyone did, unless they had it legally changed (something I'm not sure too many courts would be willing to do).

[icon_uk]

It's someone who has the same name as the Bard, there's a picture of him in the linked article.

"William" and "Shakespeare" are pefectly ordinary names and there would be no way to legally prevent someone from using them any more than any other name.

As far as I know, you can use any name you like at any time, and the only reason you might be prosecuted for using a name other than the one you were born with is it was for purposes of fraud.

[cygnia]

My husband's parents may have been exposed to COVID by a contractor working on their house. :-/

[lordultimus]

Can't say I cared for Illyana's racist cracks at Dani.

[werehawk]

Yeah, it was totally unnecessary.

[magicrubbish]

So I've started watching the Queens gambit. Anyone else watching??
Also , I'm undecided about watching Babylon Berlin. Any opinions on that perhaps?

[werehawk]

It lives up to the hype (I saw it before it got too hyped). My girlfriend LOVED it (I just liked it a lot). But, caveat, we know nothing at all about chess.

[deh_tommy]

My mother and I have taken to watching her favourite musicals lately. We’ve gone through My Fair Lady now, and by gosh, Mr. Higgins has got to be one of the most unlikeable characters I’ve ever seen.

[tripodeca113]

Well jury duty proper, finally started and I didn’t end up a part of the final jury. Honestly, it was a very heinous crime, and I don’t think I would have made it through the trial.

I’ve finished Yakuza 7. It introduced a new set of characters and situations, while also managing to continue the narrative of the previous games. I think the returning characters role’s shouldn’t be too confusing for newcomers.

Oh look their making a Plastic Man film. And their making Plastic Man a woman. Honestly, I just think Plastic Person, is going to look really creepy in live action. We can directly compare it to the cinematic masterpiece The Incredibles, to see how animation is a much better fit for superheroes.

I watched the seminal film Aliens. What a film, the last worthwhile instalment in this franchise. It’s not a real Alien film without Jones the cat.

A while ago I put a hold on the first season Star Trek DVD via the local library. It’s still says pending on the website, and it seems to have disappeared from the library catalogue. I can only assume that it’s gone missing. Drat I really don’t like paying for things.

[zachbeacon]

The Plastic Woman thing is baffling to me. I get why you'd want to gender swap a male character to increase representation but doing it with Plastic Man just invites comparisons to Elasti-Girl and she's arguably better known to general audiences then him, Elongated Man, or Mr Fantastic.

(And, as an aside, I find all characters I just named more interesting than Plastic Man)

If they want a crime movie with a female lead then why they don't just make a Question movie is beyond me. Or Huntress. Or Black Canary.

Y'know, I feel like the Harley Quinn movie is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the DCEU.

[zachbeacon]

Happy Hanukkah!