Isn’t life grand? We have the luxury to worry about comic books, movies and other nonsense in the world that doesn’t directly impact our lives.
So here I am again, here to tell you what’s really grinding my gears this week, because you know, 1st world problems suck. But I try to tell you all the things I also like as well.
Stan Lee No More Public Signings
Actually, mark this under things I like.
It’s been reported that Stan Lee will do no more public signings. We’ll see how long that lasts, we once heard that he wasn’t going to do cons anymore either, then he appeared at almost every major convention that same year.
The man is old, he needs to go enjoy life before it runs out on him. Spending all your time doing cons and events is a horrible way to live out the remainder of your life.
So vanish Mr. Lee, go enjoy what you can. You have zero obligations to keep whoring our your signature on books you never wrote and characters you didn’t even create.
Fantastic Four Covers Galore
99 Fantastic Four Covers on the wall.. 99 Covers of Four, take one down, pass it around, 98 covers of Fantastic Four on the wall..
I don’t know if there are actually 99 different covers of Fantastic Four coming out this week between the official covers and special store variants but you know what Poyo thinks of this many covers right? Phooey!
You all can likely guess what’s gonna make the drek pick this week right? Probably not even for the amount of covers either, ya’ll know how much I love picking on Slott. I’ve ruined the anticipated surprise so I’m gonna have to find another drek because this one is too obvious.
Born For One Another
Matt Kindt and Tyler Jenkins need to do more books together. Oh wait, they are!
Black Badge hits shelves this week from BOOM! Studios. From the team who does Grass Kings comes a new book “about a top-secret, elite branch of boy scouts tasked by the government to take on covert missions.”
Sign me up, this is something I like.
I Love Darth Vader
I don’t know why but I just love Vader. Always have, likely always will. Disney really needs to make a standalone Darth Vader movie now. The few scenes I saw him in Rogue One gave me a Vadergasm, new word I’m going to copyright and trademark.
So in Rogue One we saw the huge Vader Castle on Mustafar. In this weeks Darth Vader issue #19 we learn more about this castle. Fortress Vader storyline starts in this issue and it’s a must read for me.
Bring Back James Gunn
This occurred a few weeks back but as I didn’t want to address it then, I’ll address it now.
So James Gunn said some horrible things on twitter years ago. They went mostly unnoticed. Most probably realized he was just passing off horrible distasteful jokes. Do I agree with such jokes, no, but was this reason to fire the guy for something he said almost 8-10 years ago (sorry, can’t recall the tweets people dug up)?
Sorry, I can’t back Marvel’s firing. Gunn delivered on both Guardians of the Galaxy movies. These tweets occurred long before so I fail to see firing him now from the 3rd installment will do anything? It just makes no sense at this time.
You know, George Carlin offended me in one of his videos from 20 years ago, let’s just dig him up so we can fire him or berate him. We’ve all said stupid things in our lives, I know I have. But should I now get fired for it years later if my employer found out? No.
That’s all I got this week folks. Tell us what you’re liking and or disliking in the comments below.
Darth Vader is so much better than Star Wars!!
Yes, I agree. I’m behind on my Star Wars readings but the Darth Vader series have always been so much better.
Regarding James Gunn… I have to agree with you. At first, after all this went down I went back and reviewed more than a handful of those old tweets and was like “OMG this is some pretty sick stuff”. I guess at first I took some of them a little too literal. Not long after that it occurred to me Mr Gunn may not be living these tweets and may just have a very twisted sense of humor. I have not come across one instance reported where he has been accused of anything physically deprived or where he has done harm to anyone.
I don’t use twitter or much social media at all because of this very occurrence. I too am guilty of having a fairly twisted sense of humor at times. I think back to hanging out with close friends over the decades and the truly sick and hilarious things I have said along the way. If I put those on social for all to see I would have already been tried, convicted and executed by a small but very vocal segment of our far too uppity population. So, yeah, hire back James Gunn, twisted sense of humor, inappropriate texts and all!
Content of those tweets can’t and shouldn’t be viewed even as “joking” , that’s not normal joking material. I back Disney and their action. My take – They could skip Guardians 3 altogether and just call it a success and ride off into the sunset with it at this point. We need trilogy’s for every movie, like we need variants for every book !!! Hahaha keep up the good articles champ !!
Oh if this was during the time frame of while he was doing the first two movies I can see his firing more justified. I mean, like I said, I can understand a good twisted joke but I’d probably stay clear from pedophile type jokes. Even Sarah Silverman got dinged for an old pedophile type of joke.. so now even comedians don’t get a pass.
I think in Gunn’s case, it just came off as more of a shock since he’s not a professional comedian and doesn’t get the easier pass that some or most comedians get.
But that’s my whole disliking of this though. Shit we said years ago can now come back to haunt us and get us fired? Where the does the line get drawn? If I told my employers some stuff I did in the past I would get fired and never hired again, even though it’s in the past and don’t do such things anymore.
One problem I find with Gunn getting canned is if they’re going to fire him over some distasteful tweets, why are studios still hiring people like T.J. Miller for movies? You see the wrap sheet that guy has?
Why can they not be taken as jokes? Do you read them as literal? Put simply, it is a dangerous precedent to start treating people who say stuff, in the same manner that we treat people who do stuff. The humourless jokes he was aiming for with the old twits are not funny, but a person should not be condemened for his words. The fact that the tweets were discovered, and put out retroactively, by some alt right wing nut, is another great reason not to fire Gunn for old twits. We, as a society, can not appease goof balls who go around trying to use PC politics to further their own wretched agenda. M2C
Based on what Gunn did for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy I say DC should tap him on the shoulder to do up a Lobo movie. Now that could be the recipe for one bastich of a movie…
Haha..
Great idea!
With Stan Lee not signing (supposedly) publicly anymore?… Well, I think he should relax and enjoy the rest of his life as well. I have been able to meet him a few times starting long before he became so insanely popular…when you could walk up to him in while he was walking into the convention from the parking lot and say hello with no problems. It was just him…no crew or security. That was when he used to sign for free as well.
Selfishly, I already have more than a few books signed by him so it’s not like I need any more. Would have liked to get my Hulk #1 signed but in recent years some of his signature placement has been “questionable” or a bit hard to read… Didn’t want to chance having Hulks face covered, so I guess I don’t have to mull that one over anymore. I can live without another book signed by Mr. Lee if he decides not to sign again.
I hope the powers that be and fans don’t pressure him too much to start signing hundreds of books at a time as he had been doing. At his age I’m sure it is exhausting…resulting in those poorly placed signatures I mentioned earlier. Mr. Lee is truly a nice guy and deserves a Amazing, Incredible, Fantastic and maybe even Uncanny Retirement!…If he decides to stay retired with everything he does, that is.
I wish him well and thank him for all he has done!
He’s still signing, I had him sign some books for CGC grading last week. He’s just not doing cons.
This was news from 2 days ago. They’re claiming he’s just limiting public signings due to his age and security concerns.
When you work for Disney you are held to a higher standard, past present and future. Disney’s #1 priority is kids friendly entertainment and a safe place for kids to go. While I do like all of Gunn’s movies Guardians 3 will be just fine without him its probably already written.
Understandable. So why didn’t they go look at his tweets before hiring him before he did 2 of the movies? Guess they’re standards don’t apply until others point out people’s past. 😉
Oh and for the record, ask my wife about Disney’s high standards. She worked for American Crime on ABC owned by Disney and saw first hand their sub-par standards of how they operate behind the scenes (and it wasn’t ABC calling the shots, Disney controls everything). It’s not about high standards in a case like this, it was all about liability. Director did something controversial, so they got rid of him to sever all ties to the controversy to make themselves no longer accountable.
The people who dug up the tweets are Trump supporters who dislike Gunn’s political views. It’s a sign of the times attack people who disagree with you by digging up past dirt or attacking their advertisers this goes both ways. James Gunn got caught up in the political shit storm and they got him score one for red, but on the other side Disney got rid of Roseanne too, score one for blue. Enter Sacha Baron Cohen DUNKING on the GOP every week. Who knew it would take Borat to bring the nations hipocracy front and center.
Disney’s #1 priority present and future is CASH….nothing more, nothing less. The rest is just optics.
Very true and in the case of Gunn, liability was #1 priority. Get rid of the liability, which they did.
They can’t maintain the same cash if they are not children first. We have a Disney resort in Hawaii there’s no theme park but yet it’s always packed with families year round. People specifically stay there because of their kids. If they don’t have the family friendly first then their worldwide resorts, toy sales, theme park admissions, people in theatres will all suffer. Such a big company that it probably wouldn’t matter that much anyways.
The Disney of decades ago is long gone… Admittedly, I have never worked for Disney studios, but I tested and/or interviewed for them many times and was in and out of their studios quite a bit over a period of years… also, when I worked on many indi projects/films before I left the industry I got to work with people who were employed by the studio… the standards you are referring to are not as high as when you were a child and Disney was family owned and controlled. Right now Disney is more than happy to sell family values at a premium but seldom follows those same values. Like others here have said, Disney likes money first and foremost. Everything else is secondary at best.
I sorta have 2 trains of thoughts on Gunn. I am soooooo tired of social media condemning people for what they say. It’s been a world of pitchforks and witches in the last 5 years or so. Really really really getting tired of “us” determining what they meant, or how they said it, or what they really meant when it was said, or how the apology came out. It’s out of control and sorta like gang warfare.
But the 2nd train is behave yourself publicly (and privately) and the pitchforks will not come. When you go for a walk with others around – most of us behave themselves. You go to a store – you behave yourself out in the public arena. Social media is the new “general public”. So folks – listen to what your moms taught you and wear underwear with no holes in them; and behave yourself in public and in private; and have some manners for chrissakes. Gunn has been quite the venomous @sshole on social media for a long time. He needs to behave himself in public else this is exactly what happens. It’s an Action – Reaction world.
Well said, Bill. My only comment about the social media (which I do not, and never have, used) is that Gunn, back when he put out the twits, was young and trying to become famous in Hollywood. Early on he choose to be ‘edgy’ to try and garner some attention. If it is any other career, I dont think he chooses that edgy method, back in the day. I have no insight into Gunns social media history. But I certainly look at his career choice when I choose not to vilify him for those twits. If it was a politician, a doctor, a teacher, and public servant….I would like to know more about why that teacher, that fore fighter…..was twitting those pedo jokes.
Problem with the internet is everything said will be here forever for your great great grandkids and anybody else to read. Just like every time I’ve got it wrong in the past on this site with spec write ups which are always viewable and irks me every time I look it up. At least until skynet (Alexa) takes over resets technology and kills us all.
Getting it wrong or being wrong never bothers me. Shawn B. reminds me every week how often I’m wrong. 😉
Oh and the wife always reminds me how wrong I am as well…. 😉
Spot on.. except the underwear with holes. I love the extra breeze that provides. 🙂
I hear you with the FF cover overkill. They’re the reason I first started collecting comics and while it’s exciting to see them again, they didn’t need a gazillion covers to reintroduce them. It’s not like anyone forgot who they are. I think the Art Germ ones are pretty cool but after that it’s just too much.
The only FF I read consistently was the Hickman run. So it’s safe to say I’ll be passing on this new one. I didn’t know about that upcoming Vader storyline, so I’ll be getting that.
I heard Hickmans FF run was pretty good. If I ever catch up on my readings I might have to load it up on Marvel Unlimted to check out.
I wish there was some statutes of limitations on dumb social media posts. How about 2 years and it’s off your record? Lol many of us didn’t know what we were doing with social media 10 years ago, and people in the public eye didn’t know they were committing a future career suicide.
I would love to see him to do GOTG 3. Dumb tweets from 10 years ago shouldn’t be weaponized for those not in politics. But I can see how maybe disney wanted to avoid answering questions/taking heat on Gunn while rolling out gotg 3
well spoken sir
Thank you!! 🙂
Good thread this week with lots of good conversation!
Thanks. I whipped this one out quickly…. Been busy with some behind the scenes stuff for Anthony. 🙂
I am happy Stan Lee is out of the public eye . Stan my friend my mentor . Go rest and enjoy your life.Wh way to many f.f. variants. I will stock the regular cover the blank and some of the cooler ones . and agent chicken man. thanks for writing a podcast bit for me . lets see if can make a video out of 99 f.f. covers ont he wall. I am backing mr gun james did nothing wrong . those spcial media posts were from ten years ago were atampts at comadey and I am sick of this current America . I am sicol sick of how sensitive we all have become . no one can take a jole joke anymore . insults have become as hurtfull as a punch or kick to the face. w.t.f where did Americas b&&&s go? what happened to the America of thje wild wild west? can we as a nation grow a set? it is different strokes for different folks but not today and I am sick of it all. so Disney rehire james gunn he made you mr mouse the money . love you guys blind adam
I’ve known Mr Lee since the mid-1980’s .. he actually enjoys the whole shtick .. however, I believe he is Legally Blind at this point, hangers on and Relatives have tried to take advantage of him, etc .. he’s still a Ladies Man, even at his age, a big flirt .. he likes the attention ..
If he truly does stay away from the Business, I believe it is more an indication of continued failing health than anything ..
All Hail Mr Stan Lee .. who, without him, the Industry would not be what it is Today .. he did much, much more for the Industry than many folks realize .. Excelsior..!
His Vocal Cameo in the DC Property “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies” was priceless ..