AG Monday
This week: more X-Men (the John Byrne run to be precise).
We continue our coverage of the classic era of the X-Men with John Byrne’s iconic run on the series. Some of the biggest moments in not just the X-Men, but comics in general, happened. The tragedy of the Dark Phoenix saga! The horror of Days Of Future Past! We also talk about why John Byrne is one of the best comic artists ever, why he was perfect for the X-Men, and how he captured the attention and admiration of our younger selves. We even get into Byrne’s alternate version of the Dark Phoenix story, which is available online for all to read.
Ancient Geeks is a podcast about two geeks of a certain age re-visiting their youth. We were there when things like science fiction, fantasy, Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, D&D, Marvel and DC comics, Doctor Who, and many, many other threads of modern geek culture were still on the fringes of culture. We were geeks before it was chic!
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I’m going to go way off topic, because Prof. Taylor mentioned Andor briefly.
Steven, SPOILER ALERT, as you said you have some season 2 eps to go.
Spoiler space.
More spoiler space.
Let’s get out of the way my quip: Andor proves Star Wars can do science fiction.
Still more spoiler space.
You’ve been warned.
I found Andor one of the most satisfying Star Wars series, and not just due to the lack of Jedi and Force antics (Rebels had plenty, and it’s my favorite Star Wars series). For one thing, there were no extended faux suspense scenes where Cassian was in mortal danger. At times, he seemed to take risky chances, as though the character knew he was protected by being the protagonist of his prequel.
Speaking of prequel, it helps we knew basically nothing about Cassian when Rogue One opens. This allowed more freedom for the prequel to tell a story. All he had to be by the series finale was alive and based in Yavin.
But what I liked the most was how Dedra and her boss fared by the end (ergo spoilers; stop reading, Steven).
A capricious, totalitarian, powerful, repressive, cruel government has been a dominant factor in modern history. At least as far back as the Committee of Public Safety in revolutionary France; the instigators and executioners (in the most literal sense) of the French Terror. But see also nazi Germany, stalinist Russia, and maoist China.
I’ve often wondered what makes people want to work for such regimes, given the risks of winding up dead, imprisoned, tortured, etc. I mean on a higher level. Naturally the common, ordinary people will work because otherwise they’ll be homeless and starving; and their risk is far lower most of the time.
Largely it seems to be equal parts ambition and conviction. Doing important work for the party, fuhrer, emperor, taco, whatever, can pay off well. And true believers will crawl on broken glass and over corpses to serve. Both types may think they’re important enough to the leopard that it won’t eat their faces.
The end Dedra comes to reminds me of the late stages of von Braun’s involvement with the nazis. TL;DR, he probably would have been executed or imprisoned had he not managed to slip the SS, which ironically he was an officer in.
@Kathy: I have finished it and rewatched Rogue One.
It will be a topic for that podcast in a few weeks.
@Steven L. Taylor:
So much spoiler space wasted. I just don’t get the non-simultaneity in special relativity…
BTW, since Godzilla got mentioned, there’s an ep of Pinky and the Brain, Tokyo Grows, that satirizes the early Godzilla movies. It includes poor edits of Raymond Burr.