A Geek History of Time - Episode 284 - Nova is Just the Average, Sad, 1970s Spidey Part II
Episode Date: October 4, 2024...
Transcript
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See, people when they click on this, they'll see the title, so they'll be like, poor Ed.
What does that even fucking mean?
However, because it's England, that's largely ignored and unstudied.
I really wished for the sake of my sense of moral righteousness that I could get away
with saying no.
He had a goddamn ancestral home and a noble title until Germany became a republic.
You know, none of this highfalutin, you know, critical role stuff.
So they chewed through my favorite shit.
No, I'm not helping them.
I'm gonna say that you're getting into another kind of, you know, Mediterranean, or psyche
archetype kind of thing.
Makes sense.
Also trade winds are a thing.
Haha, just serious. Like, no, he really has a mad on him.
Yeah, we'll go upon a tangent. Um, as we keep doing.
Like, yeah, this is how we fill time. I'm going to go to the bathroom. This is a Geek History of Time.
Where we connect an artery to the real world.
My name is Ed Blaylock.
I'm a world history and English teacher here in Northern California.
And this past week, I had the opportunity, and it's all my wife's doing.
She gets 100% of the credit.
We took our son to see the Blippi Live World Tour show.
And the funniest thing about it for me was number one, during the show,
he was just absolutely amped. He was dancing. He was singing along.
He was like screaming like a Beatles fan. Like he was,
uh, it's, it was one of those moments where like, as a parent, you're like,
now I understand why I made the decision to have kids. Cause this is just,
this is so awesome
Seeing him that happy and then and then after the fact on the way home we were asking him
So, you know, what did you think? How was it and?
He was immediately trying to play it cool
It was like yeah, it was it was it was fun. I I liked it
I don't you know, I mean, I don't know if I loved it, but I liked it
Like
Listen to you
Dude trying to trying to play it off
My wife said well, you know, I mean if you if you weren't really that into it like
You know, we don't have to do something like this again. No,
no, I, I, I, I liked it. I liked it.
Like dude, you're six. Why are you, why,
why are you trying to play it cool? I don't, I don't understand this.
So yeah, premature adolescence, I suppose. I don't know. But yeah, he,
he had a great time. We had a great time seeing him
Have a great time. It was totally totally worth it
How about you? Well, I'm Damian Harmony. I am a high school US history teacher up here in Northern, California
and I
Bought myself something recently that has had
an impact already that has been very positive.
I got myself an inversion table. So the thing about hanging upside downy took me about an
evening to put it together. Right. And then I got in it and I've kind of been working
my way towards some endurance in it because you're hanging upside down and
Okay, I spent 15 minutes in it last night before my show. Yeah. Yeah and driving to the show
I noticed that there were certain discomforts that I had grown very used to and
that
Absolutely didn't exist on the drive over like oh just little things were like you shift your back
You're like okay. I got it to crack or whatnot couldn't do it, but I could shift a lot farther, and I'm like oh wow 15 minutes
Made it so everything kind of just stretched out a little bit. So it's really nice
So I like cool, so yeah, that's very cool. Yeah, so when last we spoke
I believe I had just finished
talking about Nova
until the end of his original run comic where
We found that it ended actually his story wrapped up in ROM space night
Yeah, which was itself a
Like a I don't know a tie-in property
to the toy wrong space knight rom
I'm trying to remember whether it was who was it that that put the toy out. I'm trying to remember whether it was I
Might have been early Kenner
But anyway, that sounds like a Kenner thing so yeah Marvel was licensing in weird ways
Yeah
So yeah anyway, I was a big fan of the of the ROM comics
and
Looking back on the medicine adult. There's some things about him. They're just deeply weird
But yeah on them as an adult, there's some things about them that are just deeply weird. Mm hmm. Uh, but yeah, um, it's, I find it interesting that, you know, it's, it's
kind of like with the same way with the GI Joe, uh, comics, when we, when we
talked about that, the comics tended to treat it as like, no, we're, we're doing,
we're doing a serious, we're doing a serious story here.
You know, uh, we're, we're going to treat this like it's any other comic book.
Right.
And the toy was kind of silly,
but the comic book got really heavy.
I got into, got into questions of humanity and well,
any story where your robot is a protagonist you're gonna get into that well is true
Oh, yeah, that that was I mean, that's that's Spanish fly for writers in the 70s. Um
Rom actually was started as a toy and then it got yes. Yes got licensed as it. Yeah, it was first
I believe Parker Brothers. Oh
Yeah, yeah, it was so because I had remembered ages ago for whatever reason I'd fallen down a hole
the wiki hole
Looking up that stuff and yeah, it was originally and I remember I remember it being weird because it Parker Brothers
Had not done
Action figures at all right like that had not been their market and this was like their attempt to do that. Yeah
So anyway, so yeah Nova ends his story there and as you recall he shows up on
Earth powerless
And on his parents lawn
And because he wanted to go home
He was tired of fighting for Xander and they're like cool, but Xander is rebuilding because they've gotten
Xanderar gets destroyed.
What's a city that we can point to that gets destroyed a lot,
that people blow through a lot?
Belgium?
Yeah, I mean, yeah, or the Netherlands.
The Netherlands, yeah.
Or Ypres, there we go, EAP.
Yeah, Xandar is the EAP of the galaxy.
You know, you had like four battles of EAP, Y-P-R-E-S.
Yeah.
But, so yeah, Xandar got destroyed,
and what do you call it, they needed him to help rebuild it,
and he's like, yeah, but I really wanna go home.
And they said, cool, your powers have to stay here though. You cool with that? And he's like, yeah, let's do wanna go home. And they said, cool, your powers have to stay here though.
You cool with that?
And he's like, yeah, let's do it.
And his powers, like I said, were forfeit.
So yeah, he was a sadder version of Peter Parker
in the 1970s and like I said,
people didn't really catch on with it
after the first few issues,
partly because the formula that they followed
was essentially the same formula
they followed for Spider-Man,
but it was 13 years later,
and people liked established properties.
It was not the Wild West of comics,
and they already had Spider-Man.
So why do I want a sad Spider-Man?
And Spider-Man's got angst, you know, but well, yeah, but like I said last time, you know spider-man was working class
And struggling but rich rider was middle class
Although both of his parents worked so it was 70s middle class
But he rich rider was middle class but languishing and there's a big difference there and that didn't that
unfortunately didn't translate to middle class teenagers buying the comic and feeling like
they were connected to him.
Well because so we're talking about this is in 70 what?
He starts in 76 the whole series ends by 79 right okay, so between 76 and 79
The middle-class kids who would have identified with him
Many of them would have identified with him more if his parents had actually gotten divorced and he'd had to deal with that
Mm-hmm that would have been that would have been a meaningful kind of you know thing
And then on top of that
kind of you know thing and
then on top of that
We discussed this before but I it just it just keeps
occurring to me and being very striking to me that like
Rich rider really is a sad sack like, you know
Peter Parker had angst, but he was also a
genius. Yeah was also, you know, he was not.
Optimistic.
He was optimistic.
And he had a, you know what?
He had a parental figure in Aunt May who loved him dearly
and that was obvious and he loved her
and he fought like hell to protect her, et cetera, et cetera.
Whereas Rich Ryder's parents didn't really understand him.
He felt like he was the less favored of the two brothers.
And he didn't seem to love them.
There was clearly a loving relationship there in the comic.
Remember, he takes them on flights.
He trusts them with his secret identity and stuff like that.
He looks to them for support,
but it's not the same affection that Peter has
calling Aunt May the most beautiful woman in the world,
taking her out to the movies,
and you know, like, no, I, you know,
there's no way that any woman's gonna approach me
because I've got the prettiest gal in the place.
Like, that relationship, that playfulness
that Peter had.
It just wasn't there.
Right, and I think that there might be something because I've read a lot of
Literature and heard a lot of reviews and critiques of spider-man and said they said that he was Jewish coded
And he used a lot of Yiddish words. Um
He is kind of the boy chick of his family. And there's this deep love of family
that seems to be the encoding in the 60s,
which makes sense written by Stan Leibowitz, Stan Lee.
And you had Jack Kirby's influence.
He wasn't for this particular one,
but you had plenty of writers who you know lived that experience and
So that and so that's gonna that's gonna bleed into what they're writing even when their main character has a last name as
Park as as as anglicized as Parker right like you know, but that being said
Yeah, which writer did not have that same coding. He really didn't know he's a bad boy
He also had a friend who was coded Jewish
named Bernie.
I forget Bernie's last name,
but Bernie straight up called Rich the boy chick.
Like teasing me.
He said oi vei.
He would use Yiddish words.
He went to school on days where the other kids didn't.
He was very clearly
You know his friend was the Jewish one. He was not
Yeah, and and so he was kind of
He was he was to Peter Parker what Bob Backlund was to Bruno San Martino
You know, I I love and hate that I got exactly with that analogy
bent after the five years that we've been doing.
Yes. Like, oh, yeah.
He was the white meat baby face.
Yeah. But a sad one.
And, you know, something, something occurred to me last episode that I never got
around to bringing up because I got sidetracked by other stuff.
All of this, there are, there are a lot of elements of this and
in a lot of elements of the personality of
Nova That I'm seeing
Like as I as I hear you talking about the character. Mm-hmm
What this is making me think of in in terms of Marvel is
Star Lord who is a complete who is in current continuity in the comics a completely different character
Yes, but I'm but I'm seeing and hearing
Like
Typo yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Yeah.
Because comic book Star-Lord is much more Orpheus
than he is in any way sad.
He's the dumb Orpheus, you know?
But MCU Star-Lord,
what's interesting that you, well yeah,
MCU Star-Lord has the more sad sack aspects to him, dumb as he is. What's interesting that you, well yeah, MCU Star-Lord has the more sad sack aspects to
him, dumb as he is.
What's interesting that you bring up though is that Star-Lord, and I'm not going to cover
this in these Nova episodes, I'm stopping Nova when he's an adult.
When he truly matures into adulthood and accepts everything, that's where I'm stopping this journey.
Okay.
Because I think that's where the parallels stop and at that point you're almost talking about two different characters.
Doesn't mean we're not going to revisit Nova because the Annihilation Wave is fascinating and the the character he becomes and stuff like that But one of the his chief lieutenants in the annihilation wave is Star-Lord
They become the best of buds
in fact
it's the two of them who fight against Thanos in the cancer verse and
Nova sacrifices his life so that star and he pushes Star-Lord out
Oh, wow, and the the death of Nova is told, Nova dies, it's
Marvel so he's back. Yeah. But he was dead for a good while and that's why
Sam Alexander came in and that was a fan thing and again I may well get into that
just not in these episodes but Star-Lord actually has to tell Gamora what happened
to Nova and so we see Nova's death yet again in somebody else's comic
Which I just I found that to be an interesting return Dakota fascinating. Yeah, but but yes Star Lord is recounting the tale to Gamora
Because Gamora was Nova's boo like the two of them were together during the annihilation wave
They were the literal power couple
Okay, fascinating. So but anyway, um the fact that you brought that up
it's interesting because they the the two of them do become the agent Cooper and and and
Harry Truman of
Of the Marvel Universe. Okay. Yeah anyway
He remains Nova rich rider remains
Finished for ten years. We don't see him except in a couple flashbacks
So yeah, he he shows up in 1989 though in wearing maroon and yellow
And he's not wearing sleeves, and he is with the new warriors as they help Thor to do battle against Juggernaut. They show up. They show
up in a Thor comic as an established team, and you get to see parts of their personality, but you see the Nova helmet, you know, that's fucking Nova, but he's wearing maroon
All right. He's mostly working with namorita on the team
Namorita is and I will get much more into her details probably in the next episode
Okay, but she is essentially a cousin of name or
and they're two fly, and they're two
Flyers and they're two heavies
um
And neither of them quip at each other in this particular one because it's a thor comic and we're just kind of showing
best of
And but there's a hint of attitude and hotheadedness from nova
Um, but again, it's been a full ten years since we saw him with two exceptions. Yes
You use the term heavies and I just want to make sure what what do you mean in this context?
Big strong ones. Okay bruises. They're the ones that yeah bruises. Okay. What's a heavy? Am I misusing the term?
Well, I've you know frequently you hear
Heavy am I misusing the term well I've you know frequently you hear
Antagonists or bad guys referred to as heavies. Oh, oh no. No. I mean like the the ones who
They're the fighters of the group okay got it. Thank you so
Now he does show up like I said there's there's two
exceptions To him not being around for ten years He shows up in a short story in what if
Which basically is asking what if he hadn't lost his powers?
Okay, cool
and then
Which is easy easy fruit and then Richard Ryder shows up in a flashback of
Luke cages in Power Man and Iron Fist in 1984.
But other than that...
Okay, as Richard Ryder ordinary dude?
No, no, as Nova.
Okay, alright.
But he's just in a flashback of Luke Cage's in one of their issues.
He disappears completely from 1984 to 1989, which as a Gen Xer, that all tracks.
Of course he got ignored and left alone for a long time.
That's what we do.
So back to Wolfman, you remember him,
he seems to have left Nova completely
by the time the original series finished running down,
because when Nova shows back up in a more permanent setting, it's a Tom DeFalco cobble where he works him into the Thor comic.
And then Fabian Nicesia, it's a Portuguese name, I believe, but it's N-I-C-I-E-Z-A.
So I want to harden the C, but I don't know.
So Fabian Niseiza?
Niseiza? Sure. Yeah.
So It's Fabian Niseiza and Mark Bagley
collaborating from 1990 to 1996.
This time he's in The New Warriors and this issue this comic goes for 75 issues
Nisazia writes the first 53 of it
And he did so according to Nisazia himself quote
I took the assignment for two reasons first. I saw a lot of potential in these characters that had already been deemed useless
a lot of potential in these characters that had already been deemed useless.
Okay, just gonna break the quote there.
I love that.
I absolutely love, like, I saw people's cast offs
and I saw something in them
and I wanted to take a shot at them.
And I think that's really, really cool.
I love that.
That is, actually, that's, yeah.
Like, no, no, I can do something with this.
Right, right.
These are already established characters.
I don't have to create something. I can just take something and give it a second shot
yeah, and apologies by the way if I if I
Talk a little odd I bit the shit out of my lip right before coming up here
And I have really sharp teeth, so I punctured it. Oh that sucks. Yeah, so it's all swollen which means I'm biting it
Yeah, so it's all swollen which means I'm biting it Yeah, uh-huh
Once you do it once you know hard not to do it upset the fact with this time. I just have to sleep it off
Um, okay, so
They'd already been to use this quote and secondly, I really wanted to write a monthly book
Okay. Well, you know, you know, whatever you give me just yeah, just give me give me a shot. So that's that's
Nova to a tee, right? Yeah. Yeah now the others Take whatever you give me just yeah, just give me give me a shot. So that's that's
Nova to a tee right? Yeah. Yeah now the others to be honest
We're also very much like that because these are teenagers at a time in the 80s and 90s
Where teenagers are?
Kind of the discarded, ignored,
no longer the fetish icons that teenagers were in the 60s. Which again, take a look, Peter Parker is loved by his aunt,
she dotes on him, she cooks him shit all the time,
the very first issue, they're talking about how strong he is
even though he's a total wimp,
and they're talking about how many pancakes he's eating,
and he's got two adult figures
doting on him on either shoulder.
By the time we get to the 1970s,
it's much more everybody's standing together.
They're not necessarily sitting together.
There's a difference there.
There's less intimacy, there's less affection there.
And then you get to the 1990s and it's like hey remember these teen characters
We're gonna bring them back
They came back after the lights came on whatever you know so
Yeah
so
the others
Were like I said very very ignored as well and somebody was like you know what let's put them all together
like I said, very, very ignored as well. And somebody was like, you know what?
Let's put them all together.
Let's see what we can do.
So Nisasa grabs these six characters to start with.
And that's what we're trying.
In many ways, this is what happened to Billy Gunn
and Jesse James in the WWF.
He was Rockabilly.
And prior to him being Rockabilly, he was Billy Gunn, one half of the Smoking Guns,
which were cowboy tag team, which had done pretty okay,
but sucked in interviews and stuff like that,
and it was at a time where the tag team division
was pretty low.
Meanwhile, you had Road Dog Jesse James,
who actually was the son of Bullet Bob Armstrong,
and the brother of
Brad Armstrong, both fantastic wrestlers who didn't adapt well to the 1980s model.
But road dog Jesse James, he started off as the roadie, who his literal job was to be
like a roadie manager for double J Jeff
Jarrett and the whole thing was double J was gonna sing a song and put out an
album and and then it turns out that the roadie was the one who'd really done it
because this is right after Milly Pennelli and the fact is they actually
recorded the track and it is actually road dog jesse james singing the song
and they released it and all this stuff, but he was the roadie and then
After they had their kind of kind of blow off fight
And then there's the thing that happened with double j where he left and that kind of left brody without anything
so now you got the roadie and billy gun and they're just kind of like
Low carters who used to be tied to something bigger,
and people were like,
we don't know what the fuck to do with them.
Let's put them together as a tag team, I guess?
You know?
And that took off.
They became the New Age Outlaws.
They became one of the most influential tag teams
in the 1990s.
And they became part of Degeneration X.
You probably know the entrance to them
more than anything else,
because it starts with like this,
do, do, do, and then you hear,
oh, you didn't know?
And then you'll ask, better call somebody.
And you know.
And he walks down and does the intro.
Those two guys on their own, every time they got split up every time they they weren't together
Yeah, they fell to the bottom of the card
Every time they were together they rose to the top of the card
The new the new warriors kind of did the same thing
You had you had these six characters um
All created something greater than the sum of their parts.
Oh, 100%.
Like, the only one who was, I think, created by Niseza, and I might have it down here later,
but the only one who was created by Niseza was Night Thrasher, which was the leader.
Oh no, he also created Silhouette, who becomes kind of a adjunct member and she's one of my favorite characters?
but
I'm pretty sure to say is a created Night Thrasher, but I know he created silhouette, but the other ones
Namorita she had already been created
You had Nova obviously you had Firestar
You had Nova, obviously. You had Firestar.
Okay. From Spider-Man and his amazing friends.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right? Who she had been created for that cartoon.
You had Speedball, which go back and listen to the three episodes.
Another Peter Parker clone.
Uh-huh. Well, I...
So at one point there will be an episode where I say the new warriors are
six aspects of Peter Parker's personality
Ooh, oh, it's fine. They are absolutely there Okay, it's that episode of Star Trek where you know he he meets his his mentor Galen who you know gives him like the
The terracotta thing and it's like you know they believe that all of your personalities were individual people within you and it looks like a Russian doll
But like they are absolutely that Marvel Boy was already created interestingly enough
because he was part of the Guardians of the Galaxy 11 centuries later as
Vance Astro
Okay, so this is kind of like a retconning of him as as a teenager in the 2000s
Or in the 1990s
You had him see Marvel why?
Think I think I'm missing one so Marvel Boy Speedball Nova
Namorita
Firestar nope and and yeah night thrasher and silhouette later
So again, he doesn't create most of them, but he throws them all together, takes them over,
and there he goes.
Like I said, he was the creator of Silhouette,
who is a biracial, Vietnamese and black superhero
who is also paraplegic,
and she uses her crutches with tasers on the end of them,
and with a gas disperser
and stuff like that and she's able to melt in and out of shadow she has like dark force
manipulation capabilities fucking rad she is really cool that does sound awfully cool
yeah and again she's yeah go on i'm still getting over the name of a superhero being Night Thrasher. So he is, if Tony Stark was younger,
was just about as rich,
because Night Thrasher's hella rich,
but if Tony Stark was younger,
focused more on terrestrial fighting than flying,
and black, and really, really angry.
Okay.
You know, he is like just, he also has a skateboard a lot of people
give him shit for that um and I get it okay he also has my favorite weapons
which are battle staves in other words like short truncheons right um you know
but but yeah so there's night thrasher so thrasher you know yeah so um but yeah
silhouette um like I said,
she's a biracial Vietnamese character,
Vietnamese black superhero, which is hyper rare.
And it allows them to bring in all kinds of things
from the Vietnam War and stuff like that.
Okay.
Yeah.
And like I said, she's paraplegic.
So you have a handicapped superhero.
You have a superhero with disabilities
who turns them into strengths.
And somebody even says, like at one point,
they say something like,
Oh, Silhouette doesn't fight, she dances.
And like, you're just seeing her being poetry in motion.
And the artist had a really good job
playing with the physics of what she did.
Like she's turning on one crutch
Pure wedding and like using her legs as a club
To swing them into people because she you know she's got them braced up and stuff
So anyway, she's fucking rad
So this is where Richard Ryder grows up the second most okay?
the most is gonna be after I stop,
but in the original run, he goes from being a teenager
with a class one inferiority complex,
which he says himself, to being a confident teen superhero,
which there's some growth there, but that's like third most.
He's still loved by his family,
still largely had his friend group intact,
he still operated within those basic parameters
through the original run
He never outgrew his early Peter Parker shadow effect
Okay in the new warriors he's cast as a more seasoned veteran as superhero because he's been at it longer
Okay, but he's still brash. He very very bantery, and he's super horny
Brash he very very banter II and he's super horny
Okay, but he knew how to be a superhero and this was especially highlighted due to his contrasting nature with speedballs
Immaturity with Marvel boys name Tay with Night Thrasher's rage and with Firestar's weepiness
He didn't do any of those things
He was he was kind of almost like a professional
But with lots and lots of flaws
The only one who was more cool than him was namorita in terms of attitude and that definitely sets them on a lover's path
Which is what I'll probably wind up my analysis with okay
Now the first introduction that we have to Nova in the new warriors own comic book
Issue one day of of the new warriors the first page of issue one is
Him being dangled by his throat over a building by Night Thrasher
Asking him are you Nova so like just got you by the throat guy in armor?
Okay, lack and red armor got you by the throat and holding a
What looks like a very loser II guy?
Over you know basically over over the ledge of a building
Okay, literally the first page and eventually he answers. Yes, and nightrasher says good, and he drops him.
Now remember, Rich Ryder doesn't have his powers.
Yeah. But.
So this is a problem.
Yes.
But this actually, the fall gives Rich Ryder's
adrenal gland such a jolt that his powers,
which were merely dormant, suddenly kick in.
And so after that, yeah, go on. Okay, so it gets retconned that, Jolt that his powers which were merely dormant suddenly kick in and
So after that yeah, go on. Okay, so it gets retconned that no, it's not that we like took your powers away It's just that we put a limiter on them or somehow locked them up or we took them away
But they had enough of a trace that you know, they were fungible
Okay, you know like they grew back in you. Um
interesting, right fungible. Okay. You know, like they grew back in you. Um, interesting. Right. Um, so it's almost like, uh, you know, we,
we took your powers away. We, you know, you,
you took your antibiotics until the symptoms abated and then just slowly stayed
with you. Right. And so he asks straight up flies back up and he's like,
Oh my God, wow. You know, he's really happy. And he says, you know, I,
you knew I used to be Nova. And he says, here's what's fun.
I'm saying it exactly as it's written.
So there's apostrophes and abbreviations.
You knew I used to be Nova?
T apostrophe B-E.
That's spelled in there.
But how'd you know, how'd, right, with the apostrophe?
And then apostrophe J-O-U.
How'd you know I still had my powers in me
Night thrashers answer I didn't
So
We find out right away. The night thrashers kind of a prick. Oh super prick. Yes
Wow, yeah, his arc will just be like not being as much of a prick
Wow, yeah, his arc will just be like not being as much of a prick
And at that rich rider goes flying straight at Nova arm cocked for the knockout blow. Oh, you mean that night thrasher?
Yeah, which writer goes flying at night thrasher, yeah, you said at Nova oh, I'm sorry, yeah yeah, he goes flying at night thrasher arm cocked for the knockout blow, and Night Thrasher parries it and flips him out.
Like just, so now we know that Night Thrasher
has really good reflexes and has planned things out.
And then he says, I want you to join my team.
Which, hell of a way, you know, and it's kind of the,
you know.
It's a weird recruitment strategy there, pal.
Boy, howdy.
It's almost like he took Logan as being the goal.
So, you know, I'm the best there is at what I do, but I'm not very nice.
Yeah, only Logan would somehow manage to do that without being quite as much of an asshole.
Like, you know, yeah.
He's surly, but he's not gonna fuck someone up like that.
Yeah.
Yeah, Night Thrasher's thing is like causing
emotional damage to people for some reason.
Because he thinks, well honestly, he's hyper traumatized,
so he's bringing that out in everyone else.
So. Okay.
But, so he parries, says I want you to join my team,
and he's like, well, I'll think about it,
but I'm gonna keep my eye on you, you know,
because you grabbed a guy and threw him off the fucking building
They then recruit Marvel Boy
And since this is not a Marvel Boy episode, I won't go too much into it. But essentially
Marvel Boy
Flies up to the Avengers mansion and is like I've got telekinesis
I'll show them that and I will absolutely, they'll be begging to let me in
and like all of the automated defenses
just wrap his ass up and it does not matter.
And then he's basically given a talking to by Cap
and he's a huge Cap stan too.
But he's given a talking to by Cap who then says,
come back to us in a few years,
get some seasoning.
And so Marvel Boy's of course very upset,
and Night Thrasher, they approach him.
Night Thrasher and Nova approach him.
So now Night Thrasher's trading on Nova's legitimacy.
Right, right.
And they approach him and they're like,
hey, how'd you like to join a real team?
And Marvel Boy's like, how did you did you like hack their files?
What he's like no no you see that that hot dog vendor across the street
I pay him 500 bucks a week to report any weird shit to me
Nice right Tony Stark jr. Yeah, yeah exactly he's Tony Stark with rage like
You know without the alcoholism to soften him. Yeah Wow
Which that's saying something and and without the libido
He does not seem to be sex lit or he seems to be fairly sexless for a little while
Okay, and then it's like oh no. No you do have a libido, but you're just so
You've sub your own ass. Yeah, sublimated it into all your rage. Well, not even that
He just he also just can't make any kind of relationship work because he can't he's at war with himself. Okay
Something else something else occurs to me
sorry, but
where
Where the where the two of them are introduced and rich writer, you know comes back and and you you specifically talked about the
the way
The the language is written on yes. Yes
Do you think that's there as an indication of?
Like a dialect to give us the idea that that he has
of like a dialect to give us the idea that he has
some kind of an accent. Like, like, okay.
He's from Queens and that is pointed out a number of times.
Okay.
And that accent has to be that, you know?
Like, or that dialect has to be that.
Okay.
Yeah.
So then,
they, Thrasher is showing Nova around in the Taylor Foundation, which is Dwayne Taylor's family legacy.
And we're getting to know about Dwayne Taylor and his guardians, a guy named Cord, a housekeeper named Ty.
And Nova is asking all sorts of questions, and he's super flippant to Ty who's an elderly Asian woman.
So again, he's from Queens.
And during this time it is revealed that Night Thrasher has sifted through tons of old shield files
including a report by Reed Richards that he made to, because remember the Fantastic Four worked with Nova.
to because remember the fantastic war worked with Nova
so he made a report to shield about rich riders Nova powers and
About how he'd lost them when he got back to earth
And it said in in that file and you know he did some digging you know because shield collapsed for the 15th time or whatever
he did some digging and
He found that there was a 35% chance of the Nova powers coming back with enough of an adrenal shock
So, okay, I want to know how the hell Reed Richards figured that
Like like what? Obviously Reed Richards smartest guy in the world. Yeah, he matched that man on okay. Yeah, that's right
That's the that's the easy part, you know, okay. Yeah
So then night thresher
The way he tries to recruit firestar is he calls her Angelica Jones. Yeah, we know who you are and we know what you can do
meet us here or else and click and so and
meet us here or else and click and so and
And and so they're waiting on top of a building. So now it's Marvel Boy Night Thrasher and Nova and
Marvel Boy and Nova start talking about Night Thrasher while he's right there. Um
Talking about his tactics
Because it's like what the fuck is wrong with this guy, you know and so I
Love that yeah, I have to say like, okay. Yeah, so
Marvel boy says quote you sure this firestar is going to appreciate your tactics Thrasher and Nova don't care, Marvel Boy. You ain't noticed yet, Night Thrasher has a real
interesting way of making new friends.
Now just real quick, notice his language.
Yeah.
Right?
It is, I didn't graduate high school.
It is, I grew up in Queens.
It is, you know.
So I just, I think it's interesting
that that's pulling through.
I find it interesting. that that's pulling through I
Never talked this way. Oh
Well, yeah what I what I find interesting about it is he's the one who had the
middle class
Suburban upbringing right, but he's talking like they're trying to make him the
like they're trying to make him the blue collar hero everlovin thing yeah very much actually in thing get along really well when the Fantastic Four show up in
issue 17 I can somehow see this yeah like this is clearly direction the
writers are trying to go yeah you know and you know you got six different
personalities how is he gonna stand out okay there so he don't't care, Marvel Boy, if you ain't noticed yet,
Night Thrasher is a real interesting way
of making friends.
Night Thrasher, I'm not trying to make new friends, Nova.
I'm trying to, Nova interrupts him.
I know, I know, Wager War and crime, blah, blah, blah.
I'm not so sure I wanna be on your team,
and wanna, W-A-N-N-A, be on your team,
but I'm gonna watch you like a hawk till I figure figure you out, buddy
And then shortly after that
She shows up
They're talking and then suddenly
The news hits that Terax who used to be a herald of Galactus, right?
He he controls earth in a lot of ways. He kind of is like one quarter of what
One of the children of Thanos was able to do, you know, yeah
Yeah, but anyway, uh Tarex shows up and that's that's actually the first villain they ever fight as a team
and so the battle with Tarex commences and
The newly gathered proto new warriors are then also joined by namorita who was on a field trip for her college
and speedball who was shopping for TVs in New York with his mom and
He sees the news happening and he says hey mom and she's talking about whatever he's like hey mom
Can I go help a bunch of superpowered teenagers fight a galactic threat? Yeah, yeah, sure honey, whatever.
Okay.
And he takes off and as he's bouncing away he's like, technically I can't get in trouble.
She said yes.
So...
So, okay, wait.
Okay, hold on.
I...
So we have the millionaire the the millionaire high-tech
Batman XP uh-huh the blue-collar
stand-in and his whose
Nova and then and then we have
speedball
Eventually you have firestar and and Marvel Boy. Well. Yeah, but I'm just, I'm focusing right now on the fact that Speedball is the middle-class,
golden-haired, literally golden-haired boy who asks his mumsy mm-hmm for permission to go
fight a galactic as you said a galactic level threat right like I
I feel like there's there's some class commentary going on here a bit
Yeah, he's from Connecticut his dad's the DA of that town you know his mom's a acting theater person yeah
So you're absolutely right and then okay, so you have a millionaire
Dwayne Taylor yeah whose parents are dead
So speaking of Batman XB. Yeah, and you have you have
Namorita who is also wealthy beyond belief.
Well, because she's a princess of Atlantis.
Something like that, yeah.
And then on top of that, you also have Marvel Boy
and Firestar and Nova, all three of whom are much more
middle to working class.
Firestar only has a dad and he works all the time.
So working class probably.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then, and I think he might even be in construction.
Marvel Boy's dad also is kind of a hard scrabble life.
I think his mom stays home, she's a homemaker.
But he comes from a very abusive household.
Yeah, and it's very tragic what happens.
And then, yeah, Nova's parents,
one of them's a principal of a school,
and the other one, I forget where she works again,
but yeah, she was going out to work quite often, right?
Okay.
And then, yes, so Speedball's parents both work.
Dwayne doesn't have parents.
Namorita lives, Namorita's actually an orphan too
at this point.
Okay.
In fact, she like blew through parents like, like.
Like tissue?
Yeah, like she, her dad died when she was,
I think still in utero.
Her mom died when she was like two or like five.
The woman that she was adopted out to
also died by the time she got to college.
Wow.
Yeah.
So, but anyway, so that's your six.
And during the battle, we see steps and we see missteps,
but we also see the beginnings of teamwork.
We hear Speedball making puns, which I love,
and we see Nova hitting on Namorita during the battle,
while at the same time telling Night Thrasher not to tell him what to do.
And I'm going to probably bring up this quote later as well, but
Nova, we know what we have to do. Last thing I want to do is hear you ordering me.
Namorita, he's a good friend, I take it. And they just met, right? And they're
flying together. And the fact that they're flying together all the time kind of brings
them together. Right? Nova, actually, we just met last night. You though, I could become
good friends with. Namorita, you live in Queens? Nova, yeah, how did how do you know again with the apostates? Nama Rita never mind
How'd you know right yeah, so by the way
He's from Queens
Parker fans um
So he also lets out a blue blazes
As he and Nama Rita
continue their flirtations and which is
something he'd been saying in the original when the team finally puts their
hands together all for one-on-one for all kind of thing and becomes the new
warriors Marvel Boy asks what they should call themselves and speedball
actually names them he takes over the Wasp line he says something like you
know on TV they call this New Warriors, how about that?
And then Nova pipes in with, how about the imbeciles?
Cause COS, COS apostrophe.
I must be one to be doing this.
All right.
So the team grows through the next year or so's
worth of issues, next 12 issues or so, 10 issues.
Nova continues to chafe, often loudly and nearly violently
against Night Thrasher's leadership style,
which is fair, it's not really a leadership style.
While they all, when they all reveal their secret identities
to each other, Rich is obnoxious about Marvel Boy's identity
because he wanted to keep it guarded more. And Firestar kind of convinces him and she's identity, because he wanted to keep it guarded more.
And Firestar kind of convinces him,
and she's like, you know, come on, I already know.
It's okay that other people know.
And Rich basically says, oh well,
you know a lot more about him than we do.
Like he's super obnoxious.
He's also very obnoxious about Speedball's size,
because when Speedball stops being Speedball, he goes back down to being Robbie Baldwin who is a
pipsqueak of a 15 year old. And he's the youngest of them. So he
calls him toothpick most of the time. Whereas Nova is like yoked, right?
Yeah. Yeah. He got it through the superpowers but whatever.
Yeah, you know. And there's a great little mini issue within the first new warriors
annual and I love the annuals I absolutely loved I was always happy to
lay down 250 for those and it's basically a way of catching up new
warriors fans to who the different characters are so they literally give us
the origins of most of the characters and it's the origins of kid Nova and he's being called kid Nova now, which okay
And what's interesting is in this one?
He is in his old outfit his old blue and yellow outfit
Which he doesn't have access to at this point in the comics
And he's at the top of a roof talking to his brother Robbie
at this point in the comics.
And he's at the top of a roof talking to his brother Robbie.
Rich muses that he really sucked at school before and now that he's back from space he's even worse.
And then he recalls a quick origin story all the way up to the end of him getting his power or getting back to Earth without his powers and he says quote,
After a year in space I finally got to go home minus my powers which were used to rebuild Xandar.
Remember what I was like when I got back
depressed
Aimless all my friends had moved on the one thing I had I was good at was gone
So this is the character right? We're getting a peek under the hood
Or under the helmet um And this is a decided
capitalization of exactly what made him different
from Peter Parker. Not only did he stop having
his own comic, but he was also sad and his
story ended with it being awful and down.
There's no optimism to him. He then
continues, quote, Then I met Night Thrasher. He had a
unique way of motivating me. Thankfully, my powers kicked back in.
Don't ask me how because I don't know myself.
I'm just grateful that they did.
I've never felt more alive than when I went up
against Teraks with Thrasher and the rest of the new warriors.
Okay.
And recall the very first panels of the new warriors were Nova being given the Suge Knight
treatment.
And it-
Nice.
Nice.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And it finishes with him and his brother Robbie having this bit of dialogue which shows the
1990s spin on the 70s version, the 70s version of Peter Parker, which is sadder and
dumber and more difficult living. Quote, I just wish I could make mom and dad understand how I feel.
Don't worry, they understand. They just want what's best for you.
I know maybe someday I will go back and finish school, but for now being Nova is all I want
Okay, so Peter Parker finished school and graduated college
He didn't have parents, but he had Aunt May who definitely didn't understand him, but totally got him
He struggled to make a living, he struggled in romance, he didn't have an easy life by any stretch,
but Peter Parker and Peter Parker was also trapped by the responsibility of being Spider-Man.
By contrast, Richard Ryder's parents love him, but they don't get him.
He's alienated in ways that Peter Parker wasn't. He didn't finish high school.
He can't get out of his dead-end jobs. He constantly refers to flipping burgers. Being Nova isn't a
responsibility for him. It's an escape for him. Spider-Man is a liberated
expression of Peter Parker's persona, but it's also directly tied to his sense of
responsibility. It's a source of angst for him. If he could just be Peter Parker,
normal guy, he would have been much
happier. But now he's Peter Parker with these powers. So therein lies the angst. I have
to guard people, etc. He has to protect people from his identity. Nova is Rich Reiter's escape
from how unfulfilling and frustrating his own life is. If he didn't have that, his life would just be sad.
His family knows all about his power
and it actually serves to alienate him
in a way that brings the angst into his normal life.
But that angst is something that he can shed
anytime he puts on the bucket.
Okay, and I find that interpretation of it interesting in, in relationship to what was
going on in, in culture as a whole at the time.
Early 1992, 91. This is grunge. This is, you know, Gen somewhat later Gen Xers running into this is reality bite.
You know,
I mean, that's that's 94 if I recall.
But yeah, well, but points to dance.
Yeah, this is this is oh, hey, you know, the world is your oyster. You know, look at what all is out here, you know, oh, hey, the world is your oyster.
Look at what all is out here.
And the line that we got sold and the expectations that got placed on our shoulders by Boomer
and later silent parents, we get out into the world, whether that's having gotten out
of high school or gotten out of college and
Like the world is starting to change in ways that make
The advice our boomer parents were giving us not work anymore, right?
you know
Like we weren't at the place where
Hounding the pavement to find a job was completely useless, but it was starting to not
Be was yeah, it was your valedictorian. You're gonna be pumping gas
Yeah, it was I mean we also started seeing the real world right around 91 92
Yeah, it's true, and you see a bunch of youngsters. I mean they're they're
Older than me by about 10 years, but they're still Gen X, right? They're like 25 and below in the very first real world.
And we're watching it, and it's kind of some
of the first reality TV since Candid Camera.
But we're watching it, and we're seeing these people
struggling to get along.
We're seeing disparate personalities, trying to work
together to get dishes done, people coming at it with different expectations, and people looking
for jobs afterwards, or trying to find jobs during it. And you're seeing those struggles.
You're absolutely right. Those things are absolutely true. Yeah. And just all of the
Yeah, and just all of the beginnings of the dis It's a weird combination of
cynicism and intense earnestness.
Well, the intensity is absolutely there too. Like, even without the earnestness, there's a tremendous amount of intensity.
The feelings are felt intensely. The angst is felt intensely.
And the music reflected that, right? And that right and that's true in hip hop by the way
You have much more activist hip hop going on
But you have like there are some serious fucking problems here. 911 is a joke
Yeah, you know you have you have the fracturing of neighborhoods. You had the movie do the right thing, right?
Um, right, you know in 1989 you have absolutely all these things
I mean fuck you you are gonna have the Rodney King riots in in a couple
months from
Was night was that 91 or 92? I want to say it was 92 Rodney King gets beaten in 91, right?
Yeah, the right. Yeah, okay. The riots were 92. I was my junior year of high school, right?
Also, if anybody wants to figure it out
then Also, if anybody wants to figure it out then
Go ahead and go back and listen to the Hulk Hogan episodes as well as the deep space nine episodes
the bell riots, so
We really need to think about what to do for a September episode because that will be the Gabriel Bell riots
September 24.
Good point.
Sorry to age this.
Yeah, well, you know, yeah, you just,
you just put a pin in a day there.
This is pre-September 19, or pre-September 2024.
2024, yeah.
Anyway.
But, you know, his, his,
his real life, real quote unquote, his mundane life, uh, sucks rocks.
And being a superhero, like you said, is the escape valve. And that's, that's as you, as you said, it's an inversion of Peter Parker in a lot of ways.
Um, and you know, cause being, being Spider-Man is a huge complication for him.
Mm hmm. And yeah, from the point of view of anybody going out into the real world in 1991-92,
anybody looking forward to going out into the real world, you know, the 15, 16 year
olds who are reading the comic, the landscape they're looking at is one that is, you know,
post Reagan and in another couple
of years, it's going to be post Bush.
And we're looking at economic recession starting, you know, the boom years of Reaganomics are
the gilding is coming off the lily and the temporary and the temporary supercharge that, that, you know, went into the economy
is wearing down. And, you know, I remember it being somewhere around that time was the
first time I heard that our generation was going to be the first one To do to do worse. Yeah, then their parents since the Great Depression, right? I
Remember
Yeah, that was there was some time around
9091
192
And so yeah the the it's it's funny that it's in it's on this it's on this 20-year kind of arc
Mm-hmm, you know
70s is you know great malaise era and
Everything sucks because the 70s was just there was there was so much going on
Around the world that it was just kind of a shitty decade. Like it was just a bad period of time
in a whole lot of ways,
especially if you're a hegemonic power. And then, you know, history doesn't repeat itself,
but it rhymes. And in this case, it's kind of on a 20 year cycle where we're again, you
know, downward, we're in a downward dip. We're in a more pessimistic era.
Nobody wants to hear about, uh, you know, compassionate conservatism anymore.
That's not a selling point.
Uh, George, you know, and yeah.
So now, now the same character is have, is now having some success.
Right.
But he's only having success when he's around
other characters that are of similar age,
that are of similar, I'm not gonna say origins,
because Firestar and Silhouette and Marvel Boy
are all mutants, all three of them are mutants
Namorita is by definition an alien
um and
Uh night thrash was a high tech guy
Nova got his power. He's an altered human
Um and speedball's an altered human, you know, they both had you know
They they were normal guys that were altered.
So he's similar to them in all ways that aren't super hero-y.
Yeah.
And it's really, that's the thing is that those personalities, I think I genuinely,
I come back to they are a, Spider-Man was the most successful thing.
They are the shattered mirror of Spider-Man.
Okay. I can see that theory.
Which makes sense because the people who had children
who were reading this comic,
those people grew up reading Spider-Man if they read comics.
Yeah.
And so their children are reading The New Warriors.
So like you said, there's this 20-year... Yeah. Actually, it's almost a the new warriors. So like you said it's there's this 20 year
Yeah, well actually it's almost a 30 year because close to start spider-man 63
I think yeah, um or 65 no spider-man starts at 65. Yeah, um and then
Yeah, and the new warriors start in 90
so
anyway, yeah, and the new warriors start in 90 so anyway, yeah, well and and
You know, I think I think the the shattered mirror of spider-man is a really that's a really good metaphor. I
Also think part of it is by himself
It's it's
Hard for him not to become mopey and kind of pathetic and like why
the hell do I why it was he doesn't have anybody to banter with or yeah you're
absolutely yeah when when you when you give that character somebody to play off
of and raise to show off the other sides of his personality right where he's not
just wallowing in oh man I'm such a grade one loser like right, where he's not just wallowing in, oh man, I'm such a grade one loser. Like, right. You know, he becomes,
you know, you, you can see the other,
it's easier to show the other facets of him. Yeah. Well, and again,
make him that make him more fun. Yeah. Yeah. And again,
Spider-Man exhibited even, even when he was down in the dumps,
even when he was riding his motorcycle and being sad boy Spider-Man,
he still exhibited an inherent optimism.
And we're not seeing that with Rich Ryder at all.
No.
So then I believe this brings me to,
I think it's issue 11 or 12, the Sphinx storyline.
And the new warriors to this point were teenagers who were finding out about themselves.
They were fighting largely small-time villains who made their lives personally hellish,
but didn't do much to threaten the world.
Terrax was kind of the the debutante
ball coming out.
So they're like, wow, look, you guys could,
you were able to beat a former Galactic Herald,
Galactus Herald, but by and large,
the rest of their enemies were super small time
or had been created for them.
You had Cyan X, which was basically like,
what if we went more edgy with the new warriors?
So you had a character named Pretty Persuasionz
who was a sex worker who also released pheromones
to make boys fall in love, you know, and be effectless.
Okay, yeah.
You had a dark force creator who like would suck you in
and give you your worst memories.
You had a guy who was, you know, hyper reflexes
and very ragey and you had a guy who was, you know, hyper reflexes and very ragey,
and you had a guy who was a mathematician who would make you, like, your mass would
expand or your density would shrink or you would do all kinds of things in your mind,
like, create these illusions. It was kind of a character.
Right.
Yeah. And so you had those kinds of characters, right? And then you had, like, they would
run into old, old villains from other folks folks like the Mad Thinker keeps showing up for them
But he's never actually an antagonist
He's really kind of interesting actually and then you have the bangle
Which is a
South Vietnamese
And again that Vietnamese tie-in right South Vietnamese
assassin who basically is killing former soldiers from Vietnam okay and targets a
priest and the Punisher gets involved and it's just all kind of so like you
have guests coming in you have these very small time characters right okay
um you have something a character named Smiling Tiger,
which if you watched the Falcon and Winter Soldier
mini-series, at one point that is Falcon's cover,
is as the character Smiling Tiger.
I had the Snap Snap Whistle Whistle.
Leo DiCaprio.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
You know, and I'm the only one.
So the Sphinx, so like I said,
the people they fight up through about issue 12
are kind of similar to the Rogues Gallery
that Nova originally faced.
Just thoroughly forgettable characters,
very interesting in their interpersonal effect that they have on
The characters but certainly not like if we don't stop them, then all of New York is blown up, you know
The the scale is very small, but the stakes are still powerful because they're personal
Yeah, the snakes are deep but not high would be a good. Okay. All right. I like that
Yeah
at one point actually they end up in a rocket
that goes to the moon, and it's supposed to try
to pollute the whole world, because it's a character
who's, because it's the 90s, so there's a lot of eco-terrorism
that they actually run into, in the first 25 issues.
And actually, they end up on the moon,
like the team gets split, and Namorita, Marvel Boy,
and Firestar end up on the moon and they end up actually in atalan. Oh
Wow, and they need a lot to
Look yeah, it's great. It's great. Um, yeah, but so so then the Sphinx
Comes in and actually Sphinx is actually a throwback to his rogues gallery as well in part
So this is a three issue arc. I
Think it's issues like 11 12 13
And it's called forever yesterday, and it was so good
It was a similar approach that the X-Men took with Days of Future Past
It was a similar approach that the X-Men took with Days of Future Past. So I'm gonna dig deep into this.
So the male version of the Sphinx, because this actually centers all around Rich Ryder.
So the male version of the Sphinx was a Wolfman and Buscema creation from Nova issue 6.
So it was a villain created for Nova all right, but this time
They're going up against the female Sphinx
So essentially the and there were like these little sprinklings of the female Sphinx's character like there'd be a little
Interlude till you see this woman who's doing this thing and then gaining power and then and now it starts to pay off right so
Essentially the the original Sphinx was a man named Anath Namut who was the head wizard in Ramses the Second's court
When Moses shows up throws his rod on the ground then the wizard throws his rod on the ground. They turn into snake snakes
the wizard loses Moses wins and
This wizard is the guy I'm talking about the Anath Namut
He gets exiled and while he's exiled he finds something called the Ka stone
Which makes him immortal and strong and durable and it starts to give him other powers, too
He gets bored of immortality after a while and he starts seeking for a way to die.
Okay, that's all right.
And when he meets Nova in 1976, he's hoping that Xandar's technology will help him find a way to die
So of course he's gonna steal that from Nova and so now you can't have that and so yeah
So after that he fights Galactus who forces him into like this time loop where he has to relive his life in
An eternal loop because Galactus is a dick and this fucking sucks
And at one
point in this time loop, Anath-Nammut meets his younger self and the two of
them team up to recreate the Kha Stone because Galactus had crushed it. And they
don't quite finish it because the Thing shows up and stops them. So now he's
stuck in this time loop and now he has a new purpose, revenge against the Thing
for besting him in battle and for fucking up his cost stone.
And then he gets used by the Puppet Master who is always trying to kill the Fantastic Four
and as a larger plot and then the Sphinx is then forced by the Puppet Master at the end of
all of this to crush his finally completed costone
which
He then ages 5,000 years and turns to dust immediately
Oh
So he gets what he wants. Yeah, but a villain does it etc. Right, okay
however
While he was wandering in the desert during his exile early on, shortly after he'd found the Kastone,
but he's still weak,
a peasant desert nomad woman named Mariette Karim found him and nursed him back to health.
And in so doing, she got a modicum of his Kastone's power.
She fell in love with him, and he saw her as a peasant and just abandoned her
She's a mortal peasant who gives a shit, right? Yeah
The thing was what neither of them realized was that she had not quite gained immortality
But instead she was reincarnating and keeping her memories every time so shocked the first time and then you know
So Kareem Marriott Kareem in an effort to find him and and to make a bid for his love,
amassed tremendous wealth, power, influence, followers,
which she then used to hunt down the remnants of the broken Kha Stone, and she turned them into something called the Kha Scepter.
This gives Marriott Kareem the powers of the Sphinxx and since he had just lost his fight with Galactus and died
She would have to pull a share and turn back time
Luckily, okay the Sphinx's powers included reality manipulation as well as the ability to change the timeline
So she went all the way back to the battle with Moses and she said no now the wizard wins
the battle with Moses and she said no now the wizard wins.
So she goes back in time and then she fucks with reality there and this is gonna change
the timeline of the whole earth completely
because it centers everything not in an
Occidental European thing which is itself kind of weird
considering Moses wasn't from France.
But because Judeo-Christian culture didn't win
or Judeo culture didn't win, or Judaic culture didn't win, and Egyptian culture won,
the center of the world stayed in Egypt,
not eventually America.
And so the world's power and the place where super beings
were was now in Egypt.
And because it's a reset of history,
tons of things have changed.
First of all, he didn't spurn her love,
and they defeated Moses together yeah there's a variant Captain America I'm
gonna show you that picture okay um now second Egypt colonized America the
United States of Assyria okay there you go third the Avengers are actually
comprised of Horus Egyptian Thor Thor, Scepter, Egyptian
Captain Marvel, the Monica Rambeau version, Captain Assyria, Nova, clearly an international
diversity hire, Storm.
Okay.
And it really is though, like he's the only white one.
Oh wow. Like, which, it's one of those like,'s the only white one. Oh wow like which
It's one of those like hey
How'd you guys get it that far on the nose and still not like are you just answering to what you think is the market?
Like what's going on?
But storm and Iron Man, which I think they missed an opportunity call him to call him Iran man, but whatever
Just no.
So all of them have very Egyptian like clothing.
Like Iron Man has a bit of a like everything, everybody's wearing something.
It looks kind of like a tunic skirt.
The four of them are paired up by the way.
Tony is still Tony, but he is Arab Tony.
And he is paired up with Monica,
which is interesting because when,
what's his face,
who was it, oh, Rhodey.
When Rhodey was with the Avengers,
and nobody knew, because they were in
secret wars Rhodey kept hitting on Monica and calling her babe and stuff
like that she's like what the fuck's with Iron Man lately so it's just kind of
interesting that that happens but so you've got Tony and Monica paired up,
but you also have Horace and Oro Oro paired up.
Okay.
Yeah, so, and then they even have their Egyptian Jarvis,
his name is Jamal.
Okay.
And they're all based out of a place called
Makamon Island, M-A-Q-A-M-A-N.
So Manhattan. So go ahead and open up the chat and take a look at that picture that I showed you yeah
So you have the standard
Formula for the Avengers, you know, what what is it six characters?
Four of them are horny for each other and then two of them. One
of them is Nova and the other one is Captain Assyria. Is it opening for you?
Yeah it is. And what do you see? Wow right? Yeah. Iron Man looks like a goal and a gold But you fought the the the colors thing he's got shoulders. Yeah
And then immediately reminds me of stargated issue one, which is funny because this is long before that but
Going from a similar. Yeah. Well, yeah
But do you see how he's got like it looks almost like a cape or a cowl almost?
Yeah, and you see what I meant about like the tunics with the the slanted lines on them
Yeah, the the kind of diagonal
themed kind of thing going on yeah, and
Horace
Having it's like it's okay, so we're gonna
Yeah, and we're gonna we're gonna take Thor and we're gonna skew the view of it by like 30 degrees to one side
Yeah
Yeah, make him Egyptian. I mean, yeah, this is all Egyptians, you know, yeah
I mean storm is the only one who doesn't change cuz she's from Cairo
Yeah because she's from Cairo. Like... Yeah.
And I mean, Nova's
outfit is basically Nova's outfit
because it came from Aliens.
And he's a diversity hire.
Yeah, well, yes.
And also take a look at Captain Marvel there.
Her hair is short.
It comes to a widow's peak.
It doesn't have the afro that she had in the 80s.
But look at her clothing like yeah
No, it's it's very clearly. Yeah, very clearly a very very
Egyptian coded I guess Egyptian. Yeah, Egyptian Egyptian coded. I'm trying to think of
very new kingdom
Kind of kind of a aesthetic going on. Yeah, and
Yeah captain of Syria other than the than the tunic going on
And below below the waist the biggest changes. It's a one two three four five. It's like an eight pointed star
Rather than a five pointed star right which you don't see on on cap Marvel as well
Yeah, and we don't see we don't in this frame anyway, we don't see the front of his shield
True, but it's that same. It's the exact same thing. Um, okay next time you're over at my house and you have to go pee
You can look at yeah. Yeah. Well, that's that's what it's actually that poster in your downstairs bathroom
Is what I was thinking of when you know you you mentioned. Yeah
So, yeah, so the sphinx the male one is still tired of his immortality.
And even in this reality, people get tired of living forever. And so now he actually
like has to put down uprisings in the world and shit like that. And he's just tired of
it. And so finally, at the end of it all, he's done with the responsibility of running
the world and he leaves. He's like, i'm done. I'm gonna let myself die
I'm and he basically gives his costone to
Uh the female sphinx to mariette
um, and he but as a token of his love
Again, this is the world that she's creating right? Right, right. So she's bending reality. She gets the guy she gets to this
as a token of his love
Um, he infuses their cat with his essence
So she always kind of like have him near and in this world the mutants are being hunted down presumably to extinction
Because it something's never changed you yeah, yeah
The very cover of the issue is actually a throwback to the days of future past where Wolverine is on the bottom right cover
He's got his you know his claws ready, and he's getting he's turning toward the battle you know and then the the bad guys are front and center
and
He's ready to battle the Avengers and and the opening battle has Wolverine get killed off
To protect the escape of cannonball Marvel Marvel Boy, and Firestar, all
three of whom are mutants.
Actually Cannonball is a friend of Firestar's in the normal timeline.
And two of whom are part of the new warriors in the normal timeline too.
This is very similar to Days of Future Past because Wolverine I believe gets killed to to save kitty
Early early on yes disintegrate and very very quickly. Yeah, it's kind of like he becomes wharf, you know, like here's how
Yeah, fuck the future is Wolverine dies
um
so
The after the battle Nova is having a crisis of conscience and he's struggling with that,
thinking to himself and not sharing with his fellow Avengers.
He says, quote, this is all thought bubbles.
How could I risk everything I've been able to attain for myself, my family, for a bunch
of mutie rebels?
I could lose the apartment we have on Machman Island.
Dad's great job.
My Avengers membership for a bunch of mutants I don't even know.
Like he's wrestling with this, right?
So I've got all these trappings.
And it's very clear that he knows
how marginalized his people are in this world,
and he's managed to achieve best, the material successes.
He feels like there's something very wrong,
and he shares this with a very supportive family. They validate his feelings but he can't shake
the sense that something is still very very wrong. And that's when Sage, S-A-Y-G-E,
is the embodiment of the living truth. That's when Sage shows up. Sage is like a conceptual entity like death or eternity and Sage shows him how
things have been perverted, how the timeline had been changed, why it has
been changed, how it's been changed, most of which I just mentioned. And so the
whole next three issues center on Nova's journey. So we are not having a Nova comic, but Nova gets to be featured heavily.
And later on, he'll step back and other characters will be featured very heavily. But this is
his. He learns everything as we do, right? Or we learn right along with him. So he becomes
our Winston Zedmore.
Right. our Winston Zedmore. Meanwhile, we find out that the mutant resistance front,
mutant liberation front, sorry,
I mean, resistance group.
Okay, MLF.
Uh-huh, is comprised of all sorts of good and bad guys
from the comics, all brought together for a common cause,
survival in a world that wants them dead,
and a world that has a mutant detection field.
Ooh.
So that becomes a MacGuffin.
We need to tear that down so that we can then,
and then we can then, and then we can then.
Yeah, and then we can then, yeah.
So, wait a minute.
Where is Apocalypse?
Not Apocalypse, who am I thinking of?
No, you're thinking of Apocalypse, you're right.
Oh yeah, where is? He's not in this.
Oh. Yeah.
Okay, is, ma. Because because apocalypse came about in a world or was put to sleep in a world that Moses wondering
Well, he has no need to show up in a world where Moses lost
Okay, right. All right. So and since mutants came to their power by the accident of birth
They represent a constant threat to the
To the stability of the world that Sphinx has maintained for everyone because they're mutating right so if you get rid of them
There you go
Now interestingly in this world for once
There's a character who's on the morally right side of things
Reed Richards.
That's how backward this world is.
So in the in in in one of the episodes in which Gabriel was on here, Dr. Gabriel Cruz
was on here. Dr. Gabriel Cruz was on here
It's been been quoted in the front bumper for the episode, you know as a moral compass You know figure out which side beast is on right then, you know, that's where you don't want to be right
Reed Richards could stand in for that
So so the fact that like Reed Richards is on the right side of anything. It's a sure sign that oh, yeah
No, this timeline is fucked. Well and guess who his contact in the MLF largely is. Oh, of course be well
I mean, yeah, yeah
But well, you know cyclops is all other issue but but yeah read read is a mole for the liberation front
But yeah, Reed is a mole for the Mutant Liberation Front. Wow.
All right.
Yeah.
And he's been working for a man named Dare Taylor, D-E-I-R, Taylor, who is the father
of Dwayne Taylor.
And he has worked his way into a position where he is completely trusted by Dare Taylor
and he's able to lower the shields for the MLF to come in and kill the Sphinx and free the mutants from this apartheid system
Yeah, and what's interesting here like we've never met Dwayne Taylor's parents like they've right
They've been mentioned. I think Dwayne is like having a nightmare and he can't see their faces and he talks about that
again Dwayne's
guardian slash mentor is a guy named Cord who was friends with his dad. Right.
And his mom, right? But we never meet his parents. So here we meet Dwayne Taylor's
parents. Dare is the only one who gets the name. The wife is irrelevant apparently.
But he actually helps Reed when he catches Reed doing shit.
He's like, what are you doing?
And Reed lays it out for him.
And he's like, all right, what can I do to help?
Now, Reed and his son Franklin are over at the Taylor apartment talking about and Reed
and and Dare are talking about how they're doing it for the future for young Franklin and young Dwayne
You know
And and then the police attack
bursting in and just mow everybody down
Including killing Franklin right in front of Dwayne and then they turn and kill Dwayne's parents and read
And Dwayne is the only one who manages to escape
and do you remember when spider-man tried wrestling and
Yeah, there's a guy who robbed the Booker and he ran right right now. Do you remember how that guy escaped? What did he get to?
Oh, no, I don't remember an escape an express
elevator all right right right Dwayne runs to an elevator to escape oh wow I
just I found that fun um and so he flees in a service elevator and he's swearing
revenge I will make them pay for killing my parents so in no fucking universe
does Dwayne Taylor not become a vengeance seeking vigilante? Just how it goes. It's a canon event. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and in the in the ensuing battle a
unsure Nova ends up fighting against Marvel Boy and and
Accidentally calls him Vance and Marvel Boy is like how the fuck did you know my name and and he says I don't know
it just popped into my head and
then
Vance says all right
can you help me and
Rich Rider turns on the Avengers and
When he does it we see the racialized caste system even amongst the superpowered
Which we can already see in the MLF and the Richards and Rider families,
right? So the MLF, almost all of them are the white mutants or the blue furry ones.
I don't see any mutants of color in any of the things, which is, I mean, most mutants are white
because it's Marvel in the 80s and the 70s. Yeah, but I do I do remember I saw Sunfire in the background
Of one piece. Um, but that was about it. And by the way, they're led by Magneto
Yeah, so
but anyway, um Vance asks him for help he turns on them and
the the Cast system is laid bare. He's the only white member
White folks are in a position of tenuous power usually by proximity to their brown and black friends and employers
and this is very clear in the Avengers and
That means any Avenger that he fires on is going to be a white guy shooting at a black person
Right. Mm-hmm. So he shoots at, who I guess is one of the good guy mutants
in this world. Like, kind of interesting.
It was never really clear, but he does it to help the MLF.
She's about to fuck someone up.
He shoots at her and then he says to himself, great.
Not only am I betraying my teammates, I'm starting off with Horace's wife.
I have no choice, I have no choice,
I have to do what's right.
He then fights a holding action against the Avengers
when they realize what he's done
and they turn on him like a fucking dime.
I mean, Horace, I get, because you just hit my wife,
he even says, you have struck my wife from behind you,
traitorous coward
um, but then
Then it gets like it's like it's one of those things like they ripped off their masks like
You know metaphorically because iron man immediately falls up with I mean and again immediately right not like what are you doing?
Not like did she get in the way like no just straight-up goes
How could you betray us you punk we took you in we made you somebody?
Well this also goes back to
rich writers
Complex it does it absolutely does you know yes, so and it also goes to Tony Stark being an entitled wreck,
no matter what color he is.
Yeah, well, yeah.
But also is that also there is the fact
that Nova is the diversity hire.
Nova goes off and hits them with a giant fucking Novaverse.
He's like, you know, don't, don't, basically,
don't tell me what to do.
Don't tell me I'm not worth it, da, da, da,
and just blasts everyone everyone knocks out all the Avengers
And it's one of those I didn't know I had it in me kind of moments
The final issue culminates with a giant sphinx fighting the MLF like she grows to huge size
And this the the MLF also seems to include altered beings as well Hulk wonder man vision Sandman
abomination human torch
They were all in there
Which cool like hey you got you got people who are allies. That's cool, and they're not just allies their accomplices. I'm down
Question sure in this universe mm--hmm. Was Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic? No.
But the human torch is the human torch. So the human torch could have been the Android.
Okay, good point. But I don't know. It's just you see him in the background flying, you know.
Okay. But it is interesting that every one of these is either a
Android of some sort or an alter human.
And they're all the white ones.
Well, yeah, because the resistance is more than just about mutant kind.
Right.
It's about the gas system.
It seems to be.
So in the middle of this battle, Nova rescues a trapped Marvel boy and
Firestar, and he he says he quips quote
Maybe joining up with your rebellion wasn't the brightest idea I've had so again
He seems destined to be the not bright but self-aware
semi-self disparaging hero that he always has been
At the same time Dwayne Taylor is sneaking up to the communication suite of the Sphinx
Complete with a very familiar set of armor and a weapon a
basically a baseball bat
To exact his revenge and he sees on the screen of the communications week
Suite quote the real world is falling apart the same way my personal one has
Okay, and then he finds the cat which
And then he finds the cat, which for some reason he figured, oh, that's her cat. I will hurt her the same way she hurt me.
And she immediately dips out of the battle as like my fucking cat, you know, and she
comes to just kill the shit out of him.
And what I loved about all of this is that there's all these little Easter eggs that are left for us. The Atlanteans have joined the MLF, which
means that Namorita is now fighting alongside our heroes. At one point
Sage says that most of the heroes are the problem, but that it is quote that
quote, it is you young heroes, you new warriors who must summon the courage to save the world
so roll credits um and
Then my favorite
When the Hulk gets socked by the Sphinx so he's coming in to just Molly whopper and she's enormous
You know like you saw moon night, right? Yeah, okay. You remember when like
It's what's the the thing that powers him?
Yeah
I know I know you mean the moon guy right the moon birdie guy
You remember how huge he was like standing over just a way taller than yeah, what's that?
Looming. Yes. So like she's that size. Okay, so hulk comes charging in, you know
He he jumped and she just belts him one and she literally
knocks him like we just see him disappear into orbit.
Yeah.
Well, as it turns out, he didn't go into orbit.
It was just a really high arc and he lands on the streets of Springdale, Connecticut
in the United States of Assyria where a couple of boys were out playing football, among them a young man named Robbie Baldwin, who sees
the Hulk land and bounce toward them and finally land like at their feet.
And his quote is, wish I could bounce like that.
But um, yeah, you know, so and then go back to the Sphinx's place
Dwayne tries to hurt her cat and then she comes back and she's ready to kill him and
You know, she's soliloquies right before she blasts him. You know, what did you think you were gonna do?
Oh, I guess you're gonna die just like your parents and you unfulfilled
And right before she blasts him Nova comes in and yanks Taylor out of the way
So again, we start to see this dynamic of Nova and Night Thrasher where he's they're working together
Even though there's tremendous animosity between them in our world they do there is this like kind of frenemies
They're tied together no matter what right what variant universe they're in. Yeah, right
So he's quickly followed in by Firestar and Marvel Boy and now you have Firestar Marvel Boy
Night Thrasher and Nova
Which was the original plan that Night Thrasher had when he started the new warriors. Remember Namorita and Speedball
jumped in
uninvited
so
They're fighting the Sphinx in her own home
And at that point Nova seizes the cat and threatens to break its neck unless the Sphinx
changes the world back to the way it's supposed to be and
at that point she relents and she does so enough that Sage can step in and show her the truth and she
Basically, she's broken and she begs for the cat from Nova in exchange for setting things right. And he actually exceeds to this wish. But the truth is a cruel, cruel thing.
And even though she sets things right, the problem is by setting things right,
the Sphinx never fell in love with her, never gave her his token of love,
which means the cat is actually a part of the other reality,
and it crumbles to dust in her grief stricken hands.
Now that of course causes her to swear revenge upon upon the new warriors for her lost love and
she even points out at some point I'll fucking get it because I can control time and I will relive
shit until I get this right. And she disappears.
And then Nova looks down and he's back in his maroon and gold outfit.
Which actually until the next
issue where Night Thrasher and he and Silhouette meet for like sodas and Night Thrasher hands him a box and
it's his old costume.
And Night Thrasher isers basically like hey man look
I'm real sorry about the way things started. Here's a peace offering
You know can we be nice right um and
It's also loaded with all kinds of really cool tech to like mimic
The other things that the Zandarian
Right right right nice um so it's it's it's not Xandarian tech team. Right, right, right, yeah, nice. So it's not Zandar tech, but it's the Earth equivalent, right?
So he's got shortwave radio, he's got infrared goggles,
he's got all kinds of shit.
And the next issue after that, Nova starts the comic
by talking about how much he loves being Nova again
and how much he loves his life,
which Spider-Man kinda does the same, but often he's swinging and he's kvetching
about what's going on.
Nova is cavelling about what's going on.
And the difference is a bit stark there,
but Nova is immediately sobered
by some of the crime fighting that he has to do. Like he hears, you know, something going on, he goes and
he stops the police from storming into a house. There's crack dealers, because this
is the early 90s, and that is very tropey, and he takes them out and then he sees a
family that's been held hostage by the crack dealers, and they're not strung out
or anything, but they're obviously the worst for wear and it's all black family and all black criminals and he turns them
over to the police and he tells them like hey there's some people in there that are
not doing well they're gonna need extra help and the police are like oh yeah we'll do that
because it's a comic book and fans.
Right, yeah, but So he he's sobered up by all of us and and at this point
He
His parents actually are unaware that he's gone back to being Nova
They think that he's just doing shit jobs
But he gets found out right as he's musing that he has to move on
From being mopey and shit. He says, about time, bout time,
I started wising up and stopped whinin' about everything.
And right when he's thinking that,
then the lights come on and his parents find him.
You've been Nova.
And for the next couple issues,
there's actually a lot of attempts
to understand and support him,
but Rich Ryder is disappearing into the Nova persona. You know Nova and for the next couple issues, there's actually a lot of attempts to understand and support him but
Rich Ryder is disappearing into the Nova
Persona he's becoming more and more Nova and less and less rich Ryder at this point and the gulf between them is actually between
Him and his parents is actually growing despite there being no real conflict between anybody his parents have figured it out, right?
and at anybody. His parents have figured it out, right? And at Peter Parker, again, just to
compare, he never had this fucking problem. Yeah. But so, and that's, you know, Peter's
aunt always wanted him at home, always wanted to take care of him, you know, and also she
was not aware of his secret. Rich's parents know exactly who he is and they're trying to be supportive and they can't just,
they just can't seem to connect with him. So I'm just gonna take a look at where, okay, yeah.
After a second battle with Terax, he shows back up. This time the Fantastic Four get involved
because Teraks is way more powerful
seeking his revenge, et cetera, et cetera.
Beats the shit out of them, tables them,
I believe is the term you like to use.
Yeah.
Rich runs off to get the Fantastic Four.
Yeah, well, yeah.
They show up with like really cool guns.
And then the Silver Surfer shows up, grabs Terox.
He's like, fucking A, man, we're not doing this shit.
Because by this point,
Silver Surfer can fly wherever he wants.
And then he goes back home
and he has this talk with his parents and his dad says,
what you do is very important, Rich.
And Nova says, you really think so?
And his mom chimes in.
Absolutely. Being Nova, trying to help others.
It brings out the best in you, son.
We were always scared when we first found out about your powers, honey.
But beneath that, we were also very proud as well as dad.
Which brings us to something we feel we should discuss now.
Nova. Sure, Pop. What's up?
so
Just gonna break in here real quick between the dialogue
This is as ideal as it can get right this is something that Peter Parker never had
Yeah, never it's yeah, there's that. And then understanding parents.
And then parents who know his identity
and can support him in this way.
Yeah.
He never had any of that.
Now everything that Richard Ryder has been struggling with,
his sense of inferiority, is being assuaged in this scene.
He is getting the love that he needs.
His dad, we're worried about you being Nova again
and living here, flying in and out all the time.
What if someone were to discover your identity?
Nova, geez, I hadn't really thought about it.
Thought if I moved fast enough,
hmm, you guys got a point.
What do you think we should do?
His mom, actually we think it might be best
if you moved out.
And there's the dropping of the other shoe, right?
And he knows his parents are right.
Like, this is why I stopped after three probably issues,
or three episodes of this thing,
because we are seeing him grow in very important ways,
away from being the sad boy
teenager. And this is it. This is part of it. Right. So he
moves out and into what they affectionately called the the
new Warriors crash pad. It's a former aim warehouse in the
warehouse district. In fact, the Taylor Foundation then bought House district in fact
The Taylor Foundation then bought and then yeah, you know all the secret shit down below and stuff Yeah, because you know, yeah, but which by the way, they make a Donald Trump joke when they first move in
in
1992 yeah, he's a joke even back then
Well, because two New Yorkers he's been a joke since 1980, God knows what.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
He is a trope.
So but yeah, and I'm gonna stop it here because just before this thing happened, and during
this time with fighting Terrax, where he gets his new outfit and shit like that The new warriors did a guest spot in the amazing spider-man 353 to 358
This would go from September 91 through January of 92
This was right around the time that I started collecting comic books
Right around the time that I found the new warriors
So I will affectionately go through that
because we see him literally interacting with Spider-Man.
So it's very stark contrast here.
Now it's in Spidey's comic, so Spidey's the hero, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But Nova becomes a bit of a MacGuffin.
So anyway, that's it for now.
What have you gleaned so far?
I find it
Interesting again that we're seeing this
25 year cycle
Happen mm-hmm where a rich writer shows up and he is a
sad sack mm Mm-hmm.
And then, you know, he doesn't succeed in taking off as a character,
and, you know, his art gets finished.
As you've pointed out, his art gets finished in somebody else's book.
And then he disappears.
And then he comes back in a time when,
Oh, hey, being a sad sack and kind of a doomer
is back in vogue. And you know,
the, the, you know, what,
what we always talk about here about, you know, um, history, not, not, uh, not repeating
itself but definitely rhyming.
Uh, and the, and, and just thinking about the similarities in, in Zitgeist and mood,
uh, between the seventies and the early nineties is, is just a fascinating point for me that you know that this is when he comes into his own
mm-hmm on multiple levels is
Is is interesting to me so yeah
Okay, cool. Well in the next one. I think I will get us all the way through because
It will be kind of the the continuing of his arc largely through the
new warriors which is his comics as much as it is any of theirs and then I will actually
touch down on his romantic life because that's going to show a lot of growth too and again
that's a wonderful parallel to be able to draw because, you know, Peter Parker, that was a major source of angst.
Again, thanks partly to Steve Ditko, if I recall correctly.
Yeah.
So anyway, what are you reading lately?
No, let me ask you this.
What are you recommending for people to read?
Well, I'm not gonna recommend anything
for anybody to read. Okay, but I am going to recommend
For people to watch if they haven't done it already
The new
Shogun miniseries the third person to tell me that yeah on
Hulu and it's also available on Disney Plus
and it is a
Tell it with me
probably not
There are there are graphic beheadings. That's
So watch Deadpool together. Okay. Well, yeah, but the tone in Deadpool is
Special thing you're right
There's in in in the first it's either the first episode of the second episode Deadpool is a special thing. You're right. Okay.
In the first, it's either the first episode or the second
episode,
you hear
a man being boiled
to death slowly.
Oh good lord. Okay.
I'll preview it.
But anyway, it's a retelling of what?
It is a re-imagining
of the mini series
from the early 1980s
1979 1980 no Shogun itself was a novel by James Clavell and
We've talked about the the surge of of
Nippono philia
of of Nippono philia in at the beginning of the 1980s that you know tied in with our fear of you know Japanese research economic resurgence and the Shogun
miniseries was was a big part of that in the national consciousness here in the
United States mm-hmm and so the there was there was a mini series made based on the novel Shogun and
this is a
remake of
The mini series it is a it is a short run. It's either 10 or 12 episodes. Okay
and
what is remarkable about it is
It is the same story but the writers this time around have done an awful lot to de center the white
protagonist and re center the Japanese characters.
Oh cool. Okay.
It is still a story that focuses very much on John Blackthorne,
but it focuses just as much on the Japanese characters in the
story. They're much more important drivers of the plot and
their conflict and their roles are much more prominent. Does he kind of become our Virgil?
In a way, yes. Because that seems to be the formula for like oh hey
y'all we told this story with a white person at the center of the whole thing
and we're gonna redo it so yeah you actually we stay true to the culture
that yeah last time we were exploiting yeah very often they'll virtualize the
that's that's that certainly yeah that's that's a big part of it. He becomes
Maybe not our Virgil, but he's he's our reason for being there watching the story
Okay, yeah, if that makes sense yeah
and yeah, it goes very
hard on the Colon colonialism, imperialism aspects of the story.
So yeah, I am a big fan.
The performances are all amazing.
It's very, very well acted.
The costuming is awesome.
And as an armor and weapons nut, it's spot
on. So yeah, I'm very, very strongly recommending the 2024 Shogun mini series. How about you?
I'm actually going to recommend a very mediocre book, but because it contrasts what I'm focusing on so much, it is worth
a read. It also has some good scenes in it. It's called Rogue Planet. It is a Star Wars
book by Greg Bear, and it's about Anakin when he's like 12 or 13. And he is very aware and conscious of
How exceptional he is of the the weight of being the chosen one?
What it means and things like that and it's not a source of angst for him
like he
Chafes against it in a way that continues to prove it
It's this weird because he's not a spoiled little fuck either
but like he's he is very much like I mean I think it opens with him getting involved in a
deadly race
and not not a pod race, but like a deadly race and
And Obi-Wan's like dude, what the hell are you doing? You're fucking Jedi Padawan. What you don't get to do that anymore
He's like, I just wanted to test my abilities.
He's like, no, bullshit.
You wanted to prove to yourself how exceptional you are,
and you already know that, so would you cut the shit?
And there's this planet, like, creates living ships.
It's actually, it's really cool,
because in the Yu-Jung Vong series it comes back.
But it creates living ships and there's these seed spores that bond to the person.
So the ship imprints on the person that it's built for.
And most people get one or two seeds.
He got like a fucking dozen because he's Anakin Skywalker.
And it's about his exceptionalism.
So I recommend you give it a read. It's a good contrast.
It is a middling book.
It's certainly by no means as bad as The Crystal Star
or Planet of Twilight, but neither is it
as good as the Republic Commando series.
It's solidly middle.
But anyway, yeah, I recommend that.
Very cool.
Cool. So do you want to be found at all? It's solid. Okay, but but anyway, yeah, I recommend that very cool cool, so
Do you want to be found at all? I?
Do not at this time what I found what about us?
But we collectively can be found at our website at wubba wubba wubba geek history time calm
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And where can you be found sir?
Well, you could find me on the first Friday of every month with capital punishment at the Sacramento
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Strongly recommend you go to the Sacramento Comedy Spot's website and buy your tickets
in advance because we keep selling out and you don't want to be left in the cold.
If for some reason you are one of our international listeners in fucking Austria, for instance, you can stream it.
And if you're listening to this, you know enough English,
you should stream it.
For half the cost of a ticket,
you can actually stream it at home.
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So get in there, get in the chat,
and talk about how hilarious I am
and how much funnier Justine is than me and and how we robbed
the contestants and whatnot, but
first Friday of every month
So as of this recording I would imagine
We're talking September
Yeah, I'm trying to figure out yeah
So on the off chance that this is gonna air before August 2nd
Go to the August 2nd show or the September 6th show or the October 4th show
The all three of those we've just finished booking. They're gonna be bangers nice cool. Very cool
All right. Well for a geek history of time
I am Damian Harmony, and I'm Ed Blaylock and until next time keep rolling 20s