Brain Dead and Loving it!

Comic book creators love captains. More than any other ranks, this is the one that has adorned an amazing amount of characters, from Captain America to Captain Atom , not forgetting Captain Britain , Captain Canuck , Captain Planet or Captain Caveman , and too many others to mention. But the case of CAPTAIN MARVEL , who is featured in the new MCU movie that I will review in a few paragraphs, is an interesting one. The name has been shared by at least 6 comic book characters, 4 of them already in the rather crowded Marvel Universe. An exhaustive dissertation of their history and significance would require a tome in itself, and I will instead try to compact this history in a few words. The first superhero to be branded with the name goes back all the way to 1939, as writer Bill Parker and artist C. C. Beck, working for Fawcett Comics, came up with a cape-wearing, super-strong flying superhero attired in primary colors that garnered record sales for its company. If it so...

For the boys...  As long as I can remember, hearing the ''Dance of the Cuckoos'' music sends through me waves of joy at the expectation of more antics by ''The Boys''. Who can possibly resist the undeniable charm of these two grown men acting like children. Two well-meaning, accident-prone, clumsy idiots who would try to disguise their immaturity under the ill-fitting suits and bowler hats, in a futile attempt to look respectable. And no matter what ordeals they would go through, and the pain they would inflict to each other, sometimes on purpose, often by accident, they would always remain the best of friends. Their sense of comedic timing was undeniable, and the chaos that would result from their pairing was a constant source of hilarity. Yet they also elicited a sympathy that emerged from their complicity with the audience. Stan's signature desperate wailing while looking straight at the viewer, Oliver's exasperated stare...

''See the sea, my friend!'' When you consider that our planet is covered by over 70% of water, legends regarding the mysteries of the depths and its mysterious inhabitants were inevitable. Sailors traveling across the oceans may have witnessed the vaguely human shape of a manatee or a seal slicing through the waves, and dream up in their drunken stupor fantasies of humans who have adapted to an underwater existence. The first account of the mermaid legend itself seems to date back to over 3000 years, with the Assyrian myth of the Goddess Atargatis who jumped into a lake after accidentally killing her lover, and became part fish. Followed a number of tales and legends, including 1836's famous Hans Christian Andersen's THE LITTLE MERMAID. In all of those tales, those people of the sea would be half human and half fish. The mother of all mermaids, the Assyrian goddess Atargatis. In the early 1700s, a specific tale in the ARABIAN NIGHTS (A...

Before I start on the review, I first have to address the elephant in the room; the death of Stan Lee, and the controversy surrounding his exact implication in the creation of the characters that populate the Marvel Universe, including of course our favorite wall-crawler. There will always be a certain amount of discord between comic book fans and historians regarding just how much Stan Lee (Born Stanley Lieber 95 years ago) was involved in the creation of characters like Spider-Man, the Hulk, or the Fantastic Four, just to name a few. Most sources will agree that it was a collaborative effort between Lee and the artists. For instance, it has been noticed that early on, the comics only sported the signatures of Stan Lee & Jack Kirby for the first issue of Fantastic Four, or Stan Lee & Steve Ditko for Amazing Fantasy #15, which featured, of course, the first appearance of Spidey. In a certain way, this was almost a way of sharing authorship on th...