Begin Geek Out

Waaaaay back on May 7, comics theoretician Scott McCloud posted a blog entitled ‘I Love My Wife’ that detailed how excited his wife was to see Iron Man 2, and how pleased he was that she was so excited.

I’m sure their relationship runs deeper than Robert Downey-helmed super-hero flicks, and my wife and I would have seen the flick too if we could afford the cash and time away from the kiddos. As it is, work takes up all the time from the kiddos that I can stand.

End of Geek Out

My wife and I talked a lot yesterday. Between playing with the kids, the day job, and my hopeless addiction to the internet, this doesn’t occur all that often.

I have to admit I missed her.

We talked about what was missing in Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland (a post of it’s own), we talked about Einstein’s missing brain, and what was the true source of his genius. We talked about future plans and dreams and what kind of puppy we’ll get the kids. (Hopefully we’ll decide quicker than the Obamas did.)

Bottom line: we just… talked.

Last night, we even spent time surfing the web together. Mainly looking up dog breeds, but also looking at art. Our favorite site of the night was ‘The Art of the Brick’, which is a showcase for the art of Nathan Sawaya, a professional Lego artist.

Moments of sanity like these are becoming fewer these days, what with the crazy kids and all. But moments like these will be treasured, she has my word.

Probably since the first appearance of Dick Grayson as Robin: the Boy Wonder, the publishers of the Batman comics tried hard to give kids a ‘window’ in to the Batman mythos. After Robin, there have been two other Robins, two Batgirls, Alfred, Huntress, Damian (his son), many lovers, and even Ace the Bathound to make up the ‘Bat-Family’. With the exception of his son Damian, all of these characters have been essentially adopted by Bruce Wayne, but then one gets the feeling that he wants these people near him, but he doesn’t want them too close. As for his biological son? Well, it shames me to admit that my favorite super hero of all time is essentially a deadbeat dad. So Batman as family man is a dead end.

It seems that the creators of Batman: The Brave and the Bold understand this about Batman, so given the format of the show: Batman teaming up with other heroes, the creators have turned to other characters to give us the family feel. Plastic Man has  adventures with Baby Plas, all while trying to convince his wife that they are on a regular family outing.

Batman, Plastic Man, Woozy Winks (Plastic Man's sidekick), and Baby Plas are ready for action!

Mera asks, 'Are you even listening to me?' as Aquaman daydreams of super heroing on his family vacation.

Aquaman takes his wife and Arthur Jr. on a family vacation, complete with RV.

It all begs the question: are super hero fans just getting old? As a family man myself, of course I identify with these characters’ desires to have a family, but hang on to what they love to do. While promising his wife that he will not participate in any super heroics, Aquaman lets slip, ‘But we’re super heroes! It’s what we do!’ I think that ‘Brave and the Bold’ is acknowledging the fact that, yes, the super hero fans are growing up and having families of their own. But it also is allowing kids to watch not just good guys beating on bad guys, but super heroes that have lives and families too.

I love this show for being amazingly fun and for giving us a Batman that’s not afraid to smile and crack jokes and hang out with dopey dads like Plastic Man and Aquaman. I hope this show has a very long run, and continues to poke fun at super heroing and family life.

For as long as it lasts, you can watch Aquaman’s family vacation here: ‘Aquaman’s Outrageous Adventure‘.

Batman makes a pretty good tiger, don't ya think?

We had a great time last night, and thank goodness for the extra hour’s sleep! (Not that I got to bed at a decent hour, mind you, Calli was too wound up for that…)

Before I regale you with our tales of Ghoulish adventure, however, I need to give you a little background…

For a few weeks now, the Justice League have been living in our house. Calli has decided that she is the Flash, Mommy is Hawkgirl, Kat is Wonder Woman, Tristin is Batman, and I am Superman. She addresses us accordingly, making for some great lines when taken out of context:

‘Whatcha cookin, Superman?’

‘Why ya cryin, Batman?’

‘Aw, Batman, you’re sooooo cute!’

‘Batman can’t talk. He’s a baby!’

More recently, she switched herself out and became Strawberry Shortcake. The logic of a three year old…

This is a tender caress, and not a slap... Honest!

...See? They love each other!

As I was preparing for the first Halloween party of the day, I asked Calli what I should wear. I didn’t put together a costume, so I was just thinking of throwing on the Beetlejuice or Jack Skellington T-Shirt and calling it good.

But when I asked Calli for her opinion, she screwed up her face in that ‘Are you crazy?’ way and said, ‘You’re Superman.’

So Superman T-Shirt donned, we went out to the car. She kind of wandered around in her Wonder Woman costume, and I said ‘Calli, come on, climb up in to your car seat!’

‘I’m Strawberry Shortcake!’ came the reply, since I had not addressed her correctly.

‘What?’ I asked. ‘I thought you were Wonder Woman?’

The crazy look again. ‘I’m Strawberry Shortcake DRESSED like Wonder Woman!’

‘Well, OK, Strawberry Shortcake-Wonder Woman-Diana, get in the car!’

This seemed to appease her…

Some Halloween highlights:

Wonder Woman takes a respite in a spooky graveyard...

The first party was at the rec center near our house. Calli nailed the bean bag toss, but didn’t want to put her hand in the dark boxes with gooey stuff inside. Also, she wouldn’t eat anything. The hot dogs they were grilling smelled really good to me. I kept dropping hints, but Daddy wound up going hungry…

We went back home to pick up Mommy and Tristin and drove a half hour to the second party… which had been canceled. That was a repeating theme this year: all the events that we’d gotten used to going to were scaled back or canceled altogether. Maybe that’s a topic for another post on the economy…

The kids had fallen asleep, so Mommy and I stopped for a Larkburger. (Which makes up for the lost hot dogs, because these things are crazy delicious.) We were also in the mood for Frosties, so we swung through Wendy’s. Calli woke up by this time, and wanted a ‘toy and burger’. Wendy’s has this nasty habit of putting CDs of children’s audiobooks in their kid’s meals. What’s a three year old do with that? I asked for a toddler toy, and they didn’t have any. Cripes! What a Halloween this was turning out to be!

So we booked it back home, listening to a God-awful story about a kid afraid of Halloween costumes. (Doubly irritating because it booted my Halloween Mix out of the player, but nevermind…)

We got home as Batman started getting fussy. So Mommy decided she’d stay in with the little one, and Calli and I would Chick or Cheek.

The Adventures of a cold Super Hero!

By this time, it had gotten dark and COLD! I put on my Spider-Man coat, and Calli put on her coat over her costume, leaving only the tiara and a bit of starred blue skirt to identify her. She then decided the tiara was better served as a necklace.

The first house we went to, the man that came to the door said, ‘Oh, my! You’re cute just as you are!’

‘She has a costume!’ I blurted, ‘It’s just all covered up because it’s cold!’

‘Well, you’re supposed to put the costume over that stuff!’

‘Yeah, I guess!’ I said, irritated at him for critiquing our Halloween habits, and irritated at myself for sounding like a petulant child.

I told Calli that no one was going to know she was Wonder Woman unless she wore her ‘crown’ on her head, and she let me adjust it. Everyone else knew she was Wonder Woman, except the guy dressed like Wayne from Wayne’s World that kept calling her Supergirl. ‘No! I not Supergirl! I Wonner Woman!’ I don’t think he heard her…

One house was really scary! It was all dark and had spooky sounds and screams coming from it. There was some kind of black curtain hung around the porch that blew in the wind.

‘Wanna go in the scary house?’ I asked.

‘No, it’s tooo scary!’ Calli said, clutching my hand.

‘Then let’s run past the scary house! Ready! Say, You’re too scary, scary house!’

And we did…

We lasted about a half hour. It was just too darn cold. But Calli had a great time.

Wonder Woman ... and Friends!

For all the screw ups of the day, the big payoff was when, after showing off the loot to Mommy, I was downstairs making hot chocolate and hot apple cider, when Calli came down and said, ‘You were awesome, Superman!’

‘Me? What did I do?’

‘You took me to Halloween.’ *Big hug*

Let's go, Squaddies!

Before my wife and I started having kids, I imagined some day in the distant future, bouncing my son or daughter (or both!) on my knee and trying to figure out how to introduce them to the wonderful comic book characters I knew as a child. The movies are too adult and the cartoons I watched as a kid are just plain old.

I started buying toys. Then, there was a line from Marvel called ‘Spiderman and Friends‘. These featured little kid versions of my favorite Marvel heroes. I snatched up everything from teethers to board books to action figures and vehicles, anticipating the demise of the current Super Hero trend.

The beginning...

When I was a kid, I would literally sit down with the TV Guide and plan my Saturday morning. I remember the excitement of revisiting old animated friends and finding new ones. I remember the slow let down as noon fast approached, and I knew that the animated adventures would soon give way to golf and Star Trek reruns (I just didn’t get Star Trek at the time. Now I get excited when I happen to find one, but I digress)…

I’ve mourned the loss of cartoons to get excited about for quite some time. I just can’t get into Phineas and Ferb, Chowder, or the like. They’re just… boring. I’ve watched my three year old watch these shows, and she looks kinda bored too.

But I am delighted to report that the folks at The House of Ideas, the wonderful people at Mighty Marvel have once again unleashed good old fashioned action and adventure to the Saturday morning lineup in the form of Super Hero Squad!

Now I’ve seen other blogs/reviews that are miffed that this show is for kids and not for ‘Marvel fans’. I’d like to offer an alternative stand point. I happen to think this is the perfect show for Marvelites.

Even if I didn’t have a young child in my home, I would love this show. It has everything you could want: Dr. Doom, M.O.D.O.K., Fin Fang Foom, and relics scattered across the world that offer infinite power. And that’s just the first episode! Make mine Marvel!

I’m continually confused by so-called ‘true fans’ that poo-poo every new version of their favorite heroes. What did you find appealing about super heroes in the first place? I’d bet it wasn’t for hard-hitting deep dark storylines. If you’re anything like me, it was the appealing way that good and evil were in an epic struggle and there were no blurring of the lines. Sure, that’s not real life, but since when did stories about mutants and monsters have to be ‘realistic’?

Back when I blogged about ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold‘, I applauded Warner Bros. for bringing camp back to Batman and reminding us what Saturday morning was all about. I now applaud Marvel for bringing us more fun than you can shake an Infinity Sword fractal at.

With Super Hero Squad, Marvel has come up with a way to keep children and their parents happy. Children may delight in the action, but adults can appreciate the humor. And it’s not the ‘let’s talk over the kids’ heads and giggle at the innuendo’ kind of humor that’s found in most cartoons. Lines like ‘Hulk not do math. Hulk SMASH!’ and a bumbling Silver Surfer are all in good fun. The title cards are send offs of classic Marvel covers. I could go on and on.

My point is, you’re only as old as you feel. If you’re a Marvel fan and don’t like this cartoon, then you must be feeling pretty old. Lighten up, or better yet…

I dare you not to hum the theme song to yourself after watching this…

If you want to know more about Super Hero Squad or want to stream full episodes, make sure you visit the official home of Super Hero Squad online!

Okay, so I just can’t go completely wordless this week. These pictures were taken yesterday by my lovely and talented wife as we hung out in Glenwood Springs, CO. We spent a lazy Tuesday going to the last farmers market of the season and basically just hanging out. We wound up buying Calli a $2 ring that happened to be green in a gem shop. That was the best $2 I ever spent. Calli immediately donned the ring and walked down the street calling out ‘Green Lantern‘s light!’ and striking the most amazing hero poses! So a touch of editing with Gimp 2 (Photoshop‘s free cousin), and voila! Instant tiny mighty super hero!

Tristin seemed to enjoy his ride in his papoose thing… and he slept well last night!

This post comes with apologies to SuperMegaDad and CKLunchbox for any horning in on your territory that the title of this blog may have done.  ;)

The sisters relate to each other...

As a Daddy Blogger, I find myself in a unique situation: I have a 15 year old step-daughter and a two year old daughter. I feel that this gives me a different perspective. I came into Kat’s life when she was four years old, so I missed the diapers and the slow development of her language skills. I’ve watched her grow up and marveled at her dreams and the decisions that she’s made. Even though I’ve had those eleven years of being a Daddy, with Calli it feels like I’m a brand new Daddy. Now I get the diapers and laugh at the way she reasons out words. Bunnies are ‘hoppies’ for instance. Doggies are ‘goggies’. With a new baby boy on the way in August, that’ll be a whole new world, as now I’m so used to girls, what do I do?

Which brings me back to the big bad teenager. As she grows older, our tastes and opinions are starting to spread further and further apart. When kids are young, they generally like what you like, so it’s easy to relate. As they get older, they gain more opportunities to explore the world without you there. I think Kat read all the Twilight books before I knew it was such a big deal. I just watched the movie and still don’t get it.

When Kat was young, she was in to super hero comics. Powerpuff Girls ran supreme, but she also enjoyed Batman and Superman. Our tastes were similar. I discovered Ranma 1/2 and brought home the anime (Japanese animation). It was all over. Kat is still a veracious comic reader, but now it’s pretty much strictly manga (Japanese comics). I enjoy manga too, but a different ‘flavor’ than her.

Kat's taste in Manga generally looks like this...

We both still love Science Fiction (we can totally agree on ‘Firefly‘ forever!), I’m toying with the idea of driving down the mountain for Starfest this weekend, snowstorm from heck permitting, and I decided to ask Kat if she wants to go.

“That depends. Is it that science fiction that you like?”

I laughed. “The science fiction that I like? What do you mean by that?”

“Well, like, I don’t want to say Ray Bradbury, but I don’t like Ray Bradbury that much…”

You could probably hear the audible cracking of my heart…

“…but, you know, those books you like.”

I laughed again. “Well, let’s see. The guests you’ll probably care about are Brent Spiner, you know, Data on Next Gen? And…”

My taste in Manga. See what I mean?

She stopped me right there, as I predicted. “If Data’s there, I’m going!”

So I guess I can still relate a little, after all! Now if the weather can go easy on us, hopefully we’ll see Data together tomorrow!

*On a personal note, as if this post hasn’t revealed how much of a geek I am already, I have volunteered to teach a class on creating comics at my local public library. My credentials basically consist of the librarians noticed I was in there every other day checking out graphic novels with a different character on my t-shirt every time. The kids are very interested in Manga, so I’ve enlisted Kat’s help. She promised to just kick back and laugh at me. I hope she’s kidding!  I know that somehow I’ve attracted a couple of comics professionals to this blog, so any friendly advice would be greatly appreciated!