003: State of the Fandom Address #1

I know I said last time that I was going to post my review of King of the Monsters. But on a whim I decided to do an online poll (the first of many) to leave it up to my readers which topic I tackle next. Mario Party won in a landslide (8 to 2). However, I had a pretty bad week, so I was unable to finish that post as planned. I want to make it just right and take some more screenshots. So instead, I came up with an idea for a recurring concept post. Here is the first edition of the State of the Fandom Address!

I plan to do these every so often. These will be shorter entries with a bit more of a random feel. I will be talking about items that interest me that may not have enough content for entire posts of their own. Consider them mini-reviews, recommendations, that sort of thing.

This has been a great year for pop culture. The Marvel Cinematic Universe completed an eleven year-long story that took 22 movies to tell— Avengers Endgame was epic and satisfying. Pokemon were brought to life on the big screen and have returned to console. Godzilla made his long-awaited return. We finally got Kingdom Hearts 3. And the year ends with the long-anticipated completion of the Skywalker Saga in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. That’s just to name a few. Let’s take a look at a couple of other things that have happened recently.

And there was much rejoicing. (Credit: Marvel, Sony)

Spider-Man in the MCU

This was the main reason I wanted to do this post. For those who may not have been following the news, Sony and Marvel almost fucked up a beautiful thing in their divorced parent feud over the film rights of Spider-Man. There were conflicting stories. But basically it seems like Marvel was looking for a fair share of the profits while Sony, spurred on by the inexplicable success of Venom, decided they were taking their ball and going home.

Anyone who knows me knows that Spider-Man is one of my all-time favorite super heroes. And the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of him, played by Tom Holland, was the one I loved the most. So of course when the news broke of the split between companies, I was understandably devastated. I reacted instinctively with complete and utter denial. I refused to talk about it. I refused to think about it. The repercussions of this were just too much for me. I pushed down my emotions because logically I knew it would work itself out. These are huge corporations, after all. So money would win out eventually. And it did.

The news came out this week that the deal was going through and Spider-Man would continue to be in the MCU for at least two more movies. So we’re going to get that Kraven fight after all. (Speculation, of course, but it only makes sense with how Far From Home ended.)

All is right in the cosmos again.

Poor goose. So misunderstood. (Credit: House House)

Untitled Goose Game

From the dawn of man one question has plagued our greatest minds. What would it be like to be a goose? Well, now we finally have an answer.

Untitled Goose Game came from seemingly out of nowhere and brought cute chaos into our lives. I heard about this game on Twitter and rushed to my Switch to get it. A week later, it’s everywhere. It reminds me a bit of the hype around Goat Simulator. (Does anyone remember that? Haha that was a thing.)

In this simple and uber-cute game, you play as a goose with poor social skills. You can run around, honk, grab things with your beak, and that’s about it. Your goal in life is to run around and goose it up, pestering the towns people and crossing items off your To-Do List.

Pros: Easy to play. Some of the puzzles are well-thought out. Funny as hell.

Cons: Way too short. It can be unclear how to proceed. (Seriously, if anyone can tell me how to find the pub, I’d be grateful.)

Untitled Goose Game is out now for Steam, Mac, and the Nintendo Switch.

The classic story of a girl and her dinosaur. (Credit: Marvel Comics)

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

Several years ago I made it my mission in life to get Cocoashade into comic books. I started with Black Panther (the Ta-Nehisi Coates run) and Moon Knight, both of which she became instantly hooked on. In an ad on one of those, she saw a new comic was coming out called Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. It starred a young black female protagonist with genius-level intellect and her large red T-Rex. Cocoa asked if we could check it out. I was thrilled. I mean, not just because the comic looked interesting, but because this was the first one she’d asked for on her own. (My plan was working! She had become a comic nerd!)

Over the years, this is one of the many comic books Cocoa and I have shared. It’s funny, empowering, kid-friendly, and cute. Every month when I picked it up I would go straight to the last page to make sure there was a “Next month” page. It just seemed like the sort of comic that wouldn’t be allowed to last.

But it did. 47 issues worth. Sadly, this month, the comic came to an end, but it’s bittersweet news. Because at the same time the news has spread that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are getting their own cartoon. (Hopefully on Disney Plus, but I haven’t been able to verify that yet.)

I have confidence that this property is going to translate very well to an animated series. And, judging by the way Marvel does things, they’ll likely relaunch the comic with a new issue number one as a tie in. They can’t let a movie or TV show come out without the property being on the comic stands too.

I would very much recommend giving this comic and show a try. We have to support it so it doesn’t just fade into memory as “hey remember that comic about the black girl and a dinosaur?” My future daughter needs pop culture heroes of color, and many others do as well.

We all do, really.

I admit it, this ad intrigued me. Well-played Marvel. (Credit: Marvel Comics)

House of X / Powers of X

Another comic book entry. I guarantee this is one that will have a full spoiler-filled entry later. So this time I’ll be brief. I saw the above ad several months ago in a Spider-Man comic. I was curious, but not curious enough to actually go out and buy an X-Men comic.

Real talk… I would not consider myself an X-Men fan. Nothing against X-Men and those who enjoy them… I did collect a few X-titles in the 90s. I watched the cartoon a couple of times. Saw a few of the movies. (They did not impress me, but they had their appeal.) Whenever mutants showed up in one of my other comics, which was often, I didn’t groan or roll my eyes. If I’m honest with myself, I kind of like the X-Men, but it’s a daunting task to try and get into it. I don’t have the money for a dozen different titles that continually intersect and reference each other. (I have enough trouble keeping up with all the spider books!)

So, really, it’s not that I dislike the X-Men. It’s more that I find them overwhelming and inaccessible.

What writer Jonathan Hickman is attempting with the new titles House of X and Powers of X (pronounced “ten”, FYI) is to make the X-Men new again. This is a massive reboot on a temporal scale. Again, no spoilers… my full post about these series will contain plenty of those. I’ll just say that nothing can be the same after these stories. And that’s a good thing.

To go back to my original anecdote, I saw the ad and I was curious. As the months went on, we got more and more ads. Sites were posting articles speculating on what the comics were going to do. The buzz in my local comic store was high. I gave in to my growing curiosity and picked up Issue one of House of X. I was stunned. If this is what X-Men are now… I could consider myself a fan.

The two series, House and Powers, intersect and broaden the story. They’re two halves of the same whole. As of the writing of this, only one issue remains of each before this epic, ground-breaking story is complete. I have to say I’m excited to see where it ends and more than a little sad to see it go. I’m happy I was able to experience it while it happened. This is a well-crafted story that builds up your expectations over and over again, only to break down what you thought you knew and rebuild it in new and amazing ways. Very well done.

Watch it. (Credit: Netflix)

Raising Dion

The last item I’m going to talk about is an independent comic book by Dennis Liu that is about to become a glossy television show. If you’ve never heard of this yet, do yourself a favor and watch the trailer. Watch the trailer. Watch it. The comic was amazing. I have no doubt the show will be too.

The premise is a woman realizes her son is exhibiting growing super powers, just like his late father had. The comic had only one issue, but it was fun, touching, and well-written with great art. I look forward to seeing what they do with it in a new medium.

What I said at the end of my Moon Girl segment counts for this too. I am very pleased to see more gender and race diversity in comic books and comic book movies. This is a trend that must continue if our society is going to move forward together. Spread the acceptance.

This isn’t even my final form.

There are many other things I could talk about that have gone down during this crazy year. The surprise ending of the Walking Dead Comic. The triumphant return of The Dark Crystal. The Umbrella Academy. ZIM!!! All the announced MCU and Star Wars series for Disney Plus. The return of The Clone Wars series. So many things. But I figure this is enough for now. Let me know what you thought of this format and what you’d like for me to cover in my second address.

Next time really will be Mario Party. Then Godzilla. And later on, a special Halloween post. That one will be a surprise. Just wait and see. It’ll be fun. I hope you all enjoyed this treasure hunt and the first State of the Fandom Address. I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.