Hey folks, it's Potsy, and I'm going to talk about something we haven't discussed on the show at all this year, which is one of my favorite things, Notre Dame Football. The Turd isn't exactly a sports fan, so we haven't discussed it, but since I'm passionate about it, I figured it's important to give a rundown of how the season has gone, and are they better or worse than I expected them to be this season.
Let's quickly touch upon where this team was before the season began. Everett Golson was coming back from suspension, and Malik Zaire looked good in the spring, causing people to think we may see the sophomore press for game time. That has not proved to be the case, and Golson has started every game, while Zaire has seen very limited time, though he did get snaps in the first two games of the season, he still has not attempted a pass. Five players were suspended for academic fraud, and of those five, only Eilar Hardy has been allowed back on the field this season, though no one has admitted they were suspended for the rest of the season, leading us to believe they are red-shirted.
After 6 games, the Irish were #5 in the rankings, and 6-0, and looked like the sky was the limit. That was until the Irish got their first real test of the year, Florida State University, led by their crab leg stealing, mouth running, referee pushing, possible point shaving, illegal autograph signing, and maybe sexually assaulting, Heisman Trophy winner, Jameis Winston (that covered it all, right?). Losing the game on a "was it or was it not a penalty" call, the Irish gave Florida State everything it could handle, but it was the "start of the downfall."
Since starting 6-0, ND has lost 4 of 5, and sits at 7-4, on a team that has only three seniors playing on it. So is the year disappointing? Sure, but let's look at some of this.
How many other teams could lose a potential All-American to suspension, as well as 3 other starters and even get to 6-0? Brian Kelly has coached his team to a level that is just amazing to see, especially considering how young they are. They have growing pains, but this team has so much young talent on it, that next year, everything bad we see from kids that were 6 months removed from prom night will be the learning on the job that we all go through.
Maturation of these prodigies will push them further next season.
Losing Joe Schmidt, a former walk on that is more RUDY than Rudy (you've seen the movie and probably cried at the end), to a bad leg injury devastated this defense, that they now have to throw a true freshman in the position is showing, and the mistakes are piling up.
They are the tale of two teams. With one week to go, they need to beat USC to match my pre-season prediction of 8-4, and 9-4 with a bowl victory, because as a realistic fan, I looked at what they were facing and saw this schedule being difficult on anyone. Finishing 7-5 but being competitive in every game is realistic, now, and yes, disappointing, but the future is bright on the gold helmets, especially if they can remain competitive on the recruiting trail.
Now if only we could get NBC football to STOP showing Doug Flutie Boston College highlights on their already pitiful football coverage, and start showing WHY kids who watch the games will want to go to school and play for this historic team, with more Heisman winners than anyone else, maybe we can start seeing the elite recruits say, "I want to play in Prime Time. I want to be on TV EVERY week...I want to wear Under Armour and get a great education..." Then, we will see a true return to prominence.
Notre Dame Football has been competitive with every team, the offense when clicking has been fun to watch, but the fumbles, the interceptions, and the defense getting decimated by injuries put this team in a solid building for the future, but this season has been disappointing. I'd love to see them close out with a win against USC, however.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Can't they just get along? Marvel and DC...I want a new Crossover.
So, as it stands, I've pretty much stopped reading comics, again, because I really can't follow some of the writers that current trends show are popular. These include: Brian Michael Bendis, Grant Morrison and Jonathan Hickman. I've written about my distaste of Bendis' writings since he became a household name. Morrison is one of those guys that everyone states he's a genius, but I tend to believe they only state it because they heard someone else say it, and if they don't keep up the act, they won't have "friends" anymore. Hickman is a different breed. The guy has these really crazy ideas about what he wants to do with your favorite books, but then the stories just get way too convoluted, and I lose interest.
I'm not saying the writing "smart" comics loses me, mind you, I still love Geoff Johns, Mark Millar, Scott Snyder and a host of other writers in their medium, but those three, coupled with Daniel Way and the extremely hit or miss Rick Remender push me away from wanting to read further, and as such, I've begun to shy away from reading altogether.
However, there's one thing that would bring me back (if done correctly), and that's a BIG Crossover event. No, not of just ALL Marvel's books, or in turn, all of DC's books, but of their two respective universes. I want Marvel and DC to patch things up so I can relive my adolescence again, and know I'm seeing something special.
The two major publishers (Marvel owned by Disney, and DC owned by Warner Bros, respectively) haven't done a crossover in 10 years, with JLA/Avengers (#1 & #3) and Avengers/JLA, drawn beautifully by George Perez, and written by Kurt Busiek. In fact, that book almost never happened.
From the wikipedia page:
--
I'm not saying the writing "smart" comics loses me, mind you, I still love Geoff Johns, Mark Millar, Scott Snyder and a host of other writers in their medium, but those three, coupled with Daniel Way and the extremely hit or miss Rick Remender push me away from wanting to read further, and as such, I've begun to shy away from reading altogether.
However, there's one thing that would bring me back (if done correctly), and that's a BIG Crossover event. No, not of just ALL Marvel's books, or in turn, all of DC's books, but of their two respective universes. I want Marvel and DC to patch things up so I can relive my adolescence again, and know I'm seeing something special.
The two major publishers (Marvel owned by Disney, and DC owned by Warner Bros, respectively) haven't done a crossover in 10 years, with JLA/Avengers (#1 & #3) and Avengers/JLA, drawn beautifully by George Perez, and written by Kurt Busiek. In fact, that book almost never happened.
From the wikipedia page:
--
In 1979, DC and Marvel agreed to co-publish a crossover series involving the two teams, to be written by Gerry Conway and drawn by George Pérez. The plot of the original crossover was a time travel story involving Marvel's Kang the Conqueror and DC's Lord of Time. Writer/editor Roy Thomas was hired to script the book, based on Conway's plot,[2] and although work had begun on the series in 1981 (Pérez had penciled 21 pages by mid-1983) and it was scheduled for publication in May 1983,[3]editorial disputes - reportedly instigated by Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter - prevented the story from being completed.[4][5]The failure of the JLA/Avengers book also caused the cancellation of a planned sequel to the 1982 The Uncanny X-Men and The New Teen Titans crossover.[5]
An agreement was reached between the two companies in 2002, with a new story to be written by Kurt Busiek and drawn by George Pérez. In a joint panel at WonderCon 2000, Busiek (then writer of the Avengers title) and Mark Waid (then writer of theJLA title) stated they had nearly come to an agreement to begin the crossover within the regular issues of the respective titles but the two companies could not come to a business arrangement. When the series was approved, however, Waid was unavailable due to an exclusive commitment with company CrossGen, and Busiek became the sole writer on the project.[6] Perez also had an exclusive commitment with CrossGen, but had had a clause written into his contract allowing him to do the series if and when it was approved.
The series was reprinted by DC Comics in 2004 as a two-volume collector's edition hardcover (which included for the first time the original 1983 Pérez penciled pages), and then re-released as a trade paperback in November 2008.
As of present, it is the most recent crossover between DC and Marvel.
--
I also remember hearing that the book would have to be drawn by George Perez, and he had the contract on his table, but hadn't signed it. At the eleventh hour, he signed the contract and began working on it, not knowing that this may be the last time we ever see these two companies come together with a massive story, and an artist that could handle the load (and he did!).
So, ten years later, we haven't seen the two work together. In fact, there's a lot of bad blood between the two, dating back to when Joe Quesada and Bell Jemas took Marvel from bankruptcy, created the Ultimate Universe, and made some snide comments about then DC VP, Bob Wayne, which hurt Wayne's feelings so much, that him and publisher (at the time) Paul Levitz said as long as Quesada and Jemas were in power, they would NEVER do another crossover with Marvel.
Since then, Quesada has been promoted to CCO (Chief Creative Officer) at Marvel, Jemas left a long time ago, Bob Wayne and Levitz are no longer tied to DC as officials, and yet, still no crossover books. In fact, while he's now known as one of the top Batman artists, Jim Lee, the current (co-)publisher at DC, got his real start at Marvel in the eighties on Alpha Flight and his fame on X-Men (anyone remember 7 million copies sold in 1992?), yet, here we are, no crossovers.
All I'm saying is this: I'll put aside my "I hate Bendis" signs long enough for him and Jim Lee to craft a 4 issue double-sized miniseries of Batman / Spider-Man, or X-Men / JLA, or Punisher / Deathstroke, I don't care. The possibilities are endless, the stories are NEW and fresh, unlike everything going on in comics, and we would finally have something that could create a renaissance in comics. A new age. And...you'd both make a TON of money.
- Rob
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
What Marvel should have done with "Old Nick Fury" instead.
Did you read Marvel's "Original Sin?" If not, you didn't miss as much as you might think, because this story, while written by Jason Aaron had Brian Bendis's mitts (thoughts) all over it. A story that was riddled in the past, Original Sin was all about "forgotten" (or just now being planted into history,) stories to try and make everyone a "sinner," starting with Nick Fury.
Some of these stories included Tony Stark tampering with the Gamma Bomb that made the Hulk (they also changed it to where the bomb was going to be much more devastating, and Tony secured the blast radius, thus, still being good, while not telling Banner, leading him to believe he created the Hulk), Spider-man not being the only one bit by the spider (and subsequently, 50 years of him being the only one with the burden was gone, but "Silk" was tucked away in a bomb shelter for oh so many years) and whatever Thor's was making him not worthy to wield Mjolnir, and thus, a woman becoming Thor.
This is about Nick Fury, though. What we found out here is that Nick Fury was a universe double agent, Earth's "Man on the Wall," as well as director of Shield, or was he? The big reveal, and thus, how to thrust the really awkward "Black Nick Fury" (Jr.) into the role that Sam Jackson plays in the movies, was that the serum that "White" Fury had used to keep himself young, had run out "years ago," and now he was old, had killed the Watcher, and was prepping another to take over the "Man on the Wall" position from him, as he prepared to enter the after life himself.
Did you get all that? White Nick Fury is REALLY old, Black Nick Fury is really his son, which doesn't make sense if the Nick Fury we've all seen over and over again is a decoy, and he's been a sniper for the planet Earth, taking down threats before they made it to the planet.
This was bad in so many ways. First, the same Watcher he killed only showed up upon Global Threats, like Galactus, The Beyonder, etc, so everyone knew when cosmic threats happened. Second, the Skrulls were on Earth years ago in Bendis' terrible "Secret Invasion" crossover where everyone was Skrulls, or they weren't, oh yes they were. Not to mention the Kree/Skrull war, or any of the space stories including X-Men, Avengers, StarJammers or anyone else. It just didn't make sense.
So here's what they should have done.
Nick Fury's Infinity Serum STARTS running out, and he is out of ideas about how to hold up the double life as he starts to age. Yes, we have to tinker with continuity a bit, but have him open a box and say something witty like, "I've exhausted all the other options, so how bad could this really be?" And there's an Infinity Stone in there, the REALITY stone, to be exact. We all want immortality, and this is his way. He uses the stone to transport his consciousness and memories into the most realistic Life Model Decoy ever assembled.
Everything would be fine for a while, until like anything with that much power, he begins to realize he can bend reality around his whim, and when the Watcher shows up, Fury starts to ask what the imminent danger is, and the Watcher just stares at Fury. This is when the LMD Fury would snap, killing the Watcher and toying with history. It would then take the power of the entire Marvel Universe to take him down, realizing that their greatest threat was from within, not from the outside, and finally, if they want the world the shake, the universes to start over, etc, the Reality gem would blink everything to a new world, Fury realizing he made this terrible mistake would sacrifice himself and restart everything, weaving a new world (a la Crisis) and planting the knowledge of what happened before with his son, as he would be the only Nick Fury in the new world.
Man, that could even have led to this new SECRET WAR that Marvel is planning, but what do I know? I'm only a lifelong fan that isn't big on decompression in books, who wants real things to occur, and not just meaningless deaths and additions to the past because we don't know how to write in the future.
Pass this along to anyone you think may get a kick out of it, as yes, I do have a past in writing comics and movie treatments, and this would have been better than Original Sin.
- Rob
Some of these stories included Tony Stark tampering with the Gamma Bomb that made the Hulk (they also changed it to where the bomb was going to be much more devastating, and Tony secured the blast radius, thus, still being good, while not telling Banner, leading him to believe he created the Hulk), Spider-man not being the only one bit by the spider (and subsequently, 50 years of him being the only one with the burden was gone, but "Silk" was tucked away in a bomb shelter for oh so many years) and whatever Thor's was making him not worthy to wield Mjolnir, and thus, a woman becoming Thor.
This is about Nick Fury, though. What we found out here is that Nick Fury was a universe double agent, Earth's "Man on the Wall," as well as director of Shield, or was he? The big reveal, and thus, how to thrust the really awkward "Black Nick Fury" (Jr.) into the role that Sam Jackson plays in the movies, was that the serum that "White" Fury had used to keep himself young, had run out "years ago," and now he was old, had killed the Watcher, and was prepping another to take over the "Man on the Wall" position from him, as he prepared to enter the after life himself.
Did you get all that? White Nick Fury is REALLY old, Black Nick Fury is really his son, which doesn't make sense if the Nick Fury we've all seen over and over again is a decoy, and he's been a sniper for the planet Earth, taking down threats before they made it to the planet.
This was bad in so many ways. First, the same Watcher he killed only showed up upon Global Threats, like Galactus, The Beyonder, etc, so everyone knew when cosmic threats happened. Second, the Skrulls were on Earth years ago in Bendis' terrible "Secret Invasion" crossover where everyone was Skrulls, or they weren't, oh yes they were. Not to mention the Kree/Skrull war, or any of the space stories including X-Men, Avengers, StarJammers or anyone else. It just didn't make sense.
So here's what they should have done.
Nick Fury's Infinity Serum STARTS running out, and he is out of ideas about how to hold up the double life as he starts to age. Yes, we have to tinker with continuity a bit, but have him open a box and say something witty like, "I've exhausted all the other options, so how bad could this really be?" And there's an Infinity Stone in there, the REALITY stone, to be exact. We all want immortality, and this is his way. He uses the stone to transport his consciousness and memories into the most realistic Life Model Decoy ever assembled.
Everything would be fine for a while, until like anything with that much power, he begins to realize he can bend reality around his whim, and when the Watcher shows up, Fury starts to ask what the imminent danger is, and the Watcher just stares at Fury. This is when the LMD Fury would snap, killing the Watcher and toying with history. It would then take the power of the entire Marvel Universe to take him down, realizing that their greatest threat was from within, not from the outside, and finally, if they want the world the shake, the universes to start over, etc, the Reality gem would blink everything to a new world, Fury realizing he made this terrible mistake would sacrifice himself and restart everything, weaving a new world (a la Crisis) and planting the knowledge of what happened before with his son, as he would be the only Nick Fury in the new world.
Man, that could even have led to this new SECRET WAR that Marvel is planning, but what do I know? I'm only a lifelong fan that isn't big on decompression in books, who wants real things to occur, and not just meaningless deaths and additions to the past because we don't know how to write in the future.
Pass this along to anyone you think may get a kick out of it, as yes, I do have a past in writing comics and movie treatments, and this would have been better than Original Sin.
- Rob
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