Tag / Marvel

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2023: The Year In Live Performances

2023 was a slow year for live performances.  I only managed to get to one concert and one exhibition, both since the start of November.

On April 10, 1994, while watching 120 Minutes in my dorm room late on a Sunday night, I saw the video for Liz Phair’s Never Said, the lead single from her debut album, for the first time.  Nearly 30 years later, she came to the Chicago Theatre for the 30th anniversary of the release of Exile in Guyville.

This was my third time seeing Phair perform live, and the first in nearly twenty years.  She’s become a more confident performer, finally getting over the stage fright that plagued her early career.  She performed every song from the album, many I haven’t heard in years, if not decades.  Overall, a good experience.  Here’s hoping to more live music in 2024.

In the waning days of 2023, the family headed into the city to the Exhibition Hub Art Center for Disney 100: The Exhibition.  To celebrate the 100th anniversary of what would become the Walt Disney Company, the company has opened its archives, showcasing more than 250 artifacts and works of art, costumes and props, and incredible memorabilia.  Unfortunately, Michael was unable to join us, but the rest of us took a trip through Disney’s past, including more recent additions like the Star Wars and Marvel universes.

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Loss Of A Legend

Legendary Marvel artist John Romita passed away yesterday at the age of 93, according to his son, fellow artist John Romita Jr.  Romita defined the look of Spider-Man for a generation and was Art Director for Marvel from 1973 through the early 2000s.

Romita’s career began in the late 1940s at what was then known as Timely Comics.  Following a stint in the Army, Romita returned to what was then known as Atlas Comics, helping to relaunch Captain America in 1953.  After a short stint at DC working on romance comics, Romita returned to the newly christened Marvel Comics, where, following a short stint on Daredevil, he took over the art duties on Amazing Spider-Man following the departure of creator Steve Ditko in 1966.  Along with his tweaks to the design of Spider-Man and Peter Parker, Romita helped create iconic characters like Mary Jane Watson, Rhino, Kingpin, Shocker, and more.

As Art Director, Romita also designed a number of characters on titles that he wasn’t working on, including Wolverine and Punisher.  He was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2002.

I have at least 38 comics drawn by John Romita in my collection, starting with issue #44 of Amazing Spider-Man, cover dated January 1966, and ending with issue #132, from May of 1974.

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RIP George Perez

After a battle with pancreatic cancer, legendary comic artist/writer George Perez passed away yesterday at the age of 67.  Perez was best known for his work on The New Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, and Crisis on Infinite Earths for DC and The Avengers for Marvel.  He had announced his retirement from comics work in 2019 due to vision problems and was diagnosed with cancer this past November.

I did not get a whole lot of exposure to Perez’s work back during my comic collecting days.  He never worked on a Spider-Man title, which were my stock in trade, but I happened upon the stray issue or limited series here and there.  By all accounts, he was a better man than he was artist, which is saying something.  May his family find some solace in the fact that his talent has touched millions of people over the years.

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Post Mortem – Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The seventh and final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired last summer, wrapping up in August on ABC.  The first series set in, but not completely part of, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it took a while to find its footing before eventually setting into a nice groove.  The connection to the movie franchise was stronger in the first season, with a couple cameos and events in the movies impacting the plot of the show, but that waned as the seasons went on, to the point that the blip caused by Thanos wasn’t even addressed.

With Marvel (and Disney) looking to more tightly integrate their television shows with the movies, they’ve shifted their internal reporting structure and cancelled all of their existing shows.  AOS, the first and longest running of those shows, was the final piece of that puzzle prior to the new offerings from Disney+, which will be much more tightly connected to the MCU.  That said, seven seasons is a good run (and much more than the Netflix shows received) and hopefully we’ll see some of these characters again.

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2019: The Year In Movies

Movie_Reel_22

The return of my annual long December vacation, with very little to do otherwise, saw a big increase in movie watching for me, with my highest total since 2011.  I managed to watch 89 movies last year, my eighth consecutive year under 100.  Again, many things contributed to this, chiefly the insane amount of TV I’ve been watching, the greater effort made towards going out for walks, and the awful amount of time I spend either at work or getting to and from work.

Here’s a look back at the first 50 movies I did manage to watch last year and what recollection, if any, I have of them. The films are listed in the order I saw them.

Life Of The Party (2018)
Melissa McCarthy joins her daughter at college after her husband leaves her.

The Haunted Mansion (2003)
Eddie Murphy tackles a movie based on the Disneyland ride.

Downsizing (2017)
Matt Damon shrinks himself to 5 inches tall, gaining wealth but losing a wife.

Knight And Day (2010)
A young woman gets mixed up with a disgraced spy who is trying to clear his name.

Keep Watching (2017)
A gang of intruders takes a family hostage and forces them to play a game.

The Space Between Us (2017)
The first human born on Mars heads to Earth to find his long-distance crush, even if it will kill him.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
A choose-your-own-adventure film about a young kid trying to make it in the video game industry.

Bird Box (2018)
A woman tries to save her two children in a world where seeing things leads to death.

Hereditary (2018)
A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)
Aliens take over the human race. Continue reading →

by jim

Post Mortem – Jessica Jones

On February 18, 2019, Netflix announced that they were cancelling Jessica Jones after 3 seasons. The move coincides with the ending of most of the Marvel shows produced for Netflix at a time when the studio’s parent company, Disney, is looking to launch their own streaming service.

Jessica Jones was the second of a burgeoning stable of Marvel shows on Netflix, following Daredevil. While technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Netflix shows only tangentially referenced the events and the heroes of the movies, sometimes going to great lengths to avoid it.

New Marvel shows will be moving to Disney+ after it launches later this year and those are expected to be more closely tied to the MCU. Per the original deal between Marvel and Netflix for the series, the characters cannot appear in any non-Netflix series or films for at least two years following the show’s cancellation, so it may be awhile before the character shows back up in the MCU, if at all.

by jim

Post Mortem – The Punisher

On February 18, 2019, Netflix announced that they were cancelling The Punisher after 2 seasons.  The move coincides with the ending of most of the Marvel shows produced for Netflix at a time when the studio’s parent company, Disney, is looking to launch their own streaming service.

The Punisher was the last of a burgeoning stable of Marvel shows on Netflix, spun off from Daredevil after appearing in the second season of that show. While technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Netflix shows only tangentially referenced the events and the heroes of the movies, sometimes going to great lengths to avoid it.

New Marvel shows will be moving to Disney+ after it launches later this year and those are expected to be more closely tied to the MCU. Per the original deal between Marvel and Netflix for the series, the characters cannot appear in any non-Netflix series or films for at least two years following the show’s cancellation, so it may be awhile before the character shows back up in the MCU, if at all.

by jim

Post Mortem – Luke Cage

On October 19, 2018, Netflix announced that they were cancelling Luke Cage after 2 seasons, claiming creative differences on the direction of season 3. The move coincides with the ending of most of the Marvel shows produced for Netflix at a time when the studio’s parent company, Disney, is looking to launch their own streaming service.

Luke Cage was the third of a burgeoning stable of Marvel shows on Netflix, following Daredevil and Jessica Jones. While technically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Netflix shows only tangentially referenced the events and the heroes of the movies, sometimes going to great lengths to avoid it.

New Marvel shows will be moving to Disney+ after it launches later this year and those are expected to be more closely tied to the MCU.  Per the original deal between Marvel and Netflix for the series, the characters cannot appear in any non-Netflix series or films for at least two years following the show’s cancellation, so it may be awhile before the character shows back up in the MCU, if at all.