The Week In Geek 7/29/15

So, this week was (depending on how you look at it) a big week in the world of hip hop....well, the closest Top 40 Radio can seem to get to the world of hip hop. The Drake/Meek Mill slap fight came to a fever pitch.

For those of you that don't know or care, Meek Mill threw a fit because Drake didn't tweet any promos for his album. In response, because Meek Mill is apparently a fifth grader, this led to him exposing Drake for having ghostwriters that wrote some of his songs (It's important that we acknowledge that "ghostwriters" are a long standing, behind the scenes part of hip hop and that the ONLY reason this particular case is news is because Drake is a top selling artist who is often lauded for his lyricism), kicking off a huge a much hyped rap battle for about a week. Long story short, Drake completely humiliated Meek and basically re-polarized the public perception of him and his relationship with Nicki Minaj. In the end, I highly doubt the majority of Drake's audience will give a shit who wrote what and the "ghostwriter" stigma will be left to the hip hop heads who are, sorry to say, in shorter supply by the day, but I digress.

SN: By the way, I'm not touching the whole rumored Drake/Nicki love triangle because I'm not in the mood to break down the stereotypes and problematic gender politics of the whole thing. 

But most of this is just context to my real point this week. Early in the week, (S)Hot 97's court jester, Funkmaster Flex threw himself into the beef in the same way Stephen A. Smith throws himself on the wrong side of EVERYTHING for attention, claiming Meek Mill had given him the reference tracks Quentin Miller had recorded that would prove to be a phony. True to form, when the appointed time presented itself for Flex to play the tracks, he just looped music from Rihanna and someone named Fetty Wap. In an attempt to save face, Ebro claimed Meek failed to deliver the tracks. Whether that's true, given their track record, is still in the "decided for yourself" pile. 

Let me break that down for you one more time. Rot 97 took sides in a beef when NOBODY asked them to. Then, when the beef turned out not to be as profitable as they blindly bet on it being, they then threw the person whose side they took when nobody asked them to....UNDER THE BUS. 

As you could imagine, Twitter lambasted Flex and deservedly so. Charlamagne Tha God from the Breakfast Club had the most accurate and poignant statement during his Donkey of the Day segment on why this marks the end of Funkmaster Flex and, ultimately, (T)Hot 97's credibility. 

More than that, it's a testament to why more and more people are walking away from terrestrial radio. It's been clear since the time Flex tried to go to war with Jay-Z over the histrionics of some Android app (if you haven't heard the Hannibal Burress parody, you should) that he and (S)Hot 97 are desperate to throw themselves into the bonfire because their marketing department says their listeners will watch the pretty lights their disreputable corpses make. But also because music just isn't the commodity for Terrestrial Radio it once was.

Comics are actually making some attempt to keep up with the digital age, but even then, we've established before that they have a pretty loyal niche following no matter how vocal the whiners and trolls are. And with newspapers, they're not as bankable as they used to be but even in the age of Google, you still have the attraction of good journalists and personalities that readers will stand by like Ezra Klein or Chris Hayes or....God help me....Charles Krauthammer. Top 40/Terrestrial Radio's attempt to follow that model (extreme personalities; shock radio) will always fail because the music is always going to be what's important (unless you just listen to NPR which is a different conversation because, let's face it, Funkmaster Flex and Ebro Darden are not and will never be NPR) and Terrestrial Radio is just NOT a preferable source to discover (I won't even say "good") new music anymore. Looking past the increasingly obvious fact that airplay is a bought and sold currency, you have wi-fi, bluetooth, smart phones, tablets.....commonplace gadgets that people use everyday before the thought of a radio even crosses their minds. Hell, at this point, cars have built in wi-fi hotspots and televisions have enough connectability to link your laptops and mp3 players (which are basically outmoded, too). I've been an Uber customer for a few months now and I have yet to see a driver that didn't have either Pandora/Spotify playing from their phone, linked to their car. We're at the juncture where if you don't want to hear the same 15 to 20 songs from the same 7 to 10 artists playing in the same two hour timespan (with 20 to 35 minutes worth of commercials peppered in for advertisting dollars), you just don't have to. Hell, we're three software updates away from having the song we want when we want it by literally snapping our fingers. But instead of changing with the times and trying to appeal to their audience, diversifying their playlists, allowing artists who deserve it the opportunity to crossover from Urban Contemporary, the Usual Suspects are breaking their tired backs trying to shuck and jive way too hard. And all it really amounts to is an insult to the consumers which are way smarter than they're given credit for....who you're already actively insulting by not giving them the diversity they're wanting.

Sure, the Meek Mill/Drake beef was funny and the desperation of Funkmaster Flex was, umm, sad....but the demise of Terrestrial Radio is a thing worth discussing.

My reviews for the week on Thors and Star Wars as well as my Top 5 Dead or Alive article on Superman are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to share, comment, like, Tweet at your discretion. You know the drill.

The Week In Geek 7/22/15

Okay, so this week, it was announced that Spider-Man is getting another series which means Marvel is one more Spider-Man title away from getting a free footlong at Subway. This time around, it seems like they're rebooting the web-head's past...again. Spidey, will follow a teenage Peter Parker in his early years of maintaining his secret identity while balancing high school and home life, remaining in continuity with the current Amazing Spider-Man series. On one hand, I get that Marvel has to have some representation of a young Peter in the comics with Civil War less than a year away. I also understand that Young Peter Parker appeals to a super bankable demographic and that it's coinciding with ASM without actually replacing it (which is the upside in this), but come on, guys....we've seen this A LOT.

I agree that, at his core, Spider-Man has always been a modern day fable about a man in manchild's clothing, one of the archetypes for a younger superhero trying to make the Clark Kent dual identity thing work. And at his core, he'll ALWAYS be that, but I gotta be honest here....the past few years since the big Brand New Day reset, even when it was somewhat problematic for the character, have turned out to be an interesting character study of a man who has always turned away What He Could Be for the greater good finally making manhood work. Doing yet ANOTHER look at Teenage Spidey feels like a bunt when Marvel could be swinging for the fences. I mean, the allure of Spider-Man is that you feel like you know him. I get the need for Marvel to shoot for young audiences, but another great thing about comics (when it's done successfully) is when you get to grow up with a character. I know plenty of guys who juggle dozens of hats in the pursuit of happiness and making it work. Peter Parker holding down a job, maintaining a start-up, dealing with additions to his family like his step-uncle (who is Spidey's great enemy's father) and being an Avenger? That's good reading. In fact, I could see a "Hard Day's Night" style mini-series focused on Peter trying to get some rest while balancing his dozen jobs but having to deal with his personal shit (friends trying to set him up on dates, visiting Gwen's grave, trying to get in touch with Harry who we haven't seen in years). It would be not too much unlike Matt Fraction's Hawkeye except Peter isn't even CLOSE to the train wreck Clint Barton is. But these are lofty goals that dare not stand in the way of Marvel aligning the comics with the Cinematic Universe. And as I mentioned before, the teenage series isn't overriding the one about grown up Spidey so it's not that big of a deal. But as far as characters go, looking back AND forward at him, Peter Parker has come a long way....and that's worth mentioning.

My comic reviews for the week on Cyborg and Uncanny X-Men are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to like, comment, share...you know the drill.

Because I Got Shit To Do.....

Sorry, folks, no Week In Geek today. I have to catch up on getting the first Neverland story arc done as well as some stuff for Black Nerd Problems. However, feel free to get a look at my review for Planet Hulk which is currently available on BNP. View, comment, share...you know the drill.

Not Another Magic Negro Story

So, everyone who isn't at San Diego Comic Con has two big highlights in comics for the week. One of them was good, one of them was bad....both of them were Mark Waid's doing. Unbreakable, the one digestible film M. Night Shyamalan ever made, featured Bruce Willis as an invulnerable shmuck and at the other end of the spectrum, Samuel L. Jackson as the entirely TOO vulnerable intellectual. That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Mark Waid's varying work this week: Archie #1 and Strange Fruit #1. Archie turns out to be genuine, endearing and heroic in a way you didn't expect like Bruce Willis' character while Strange Fruit is a brittle and ill-constructed constellation of good intentions like Samuel L. Jackson's character at the end of the movie screaming, "I am not a mistake!"

In other words, Strange Fruit is sort of terrible. Let's start with the fact that it's an "African-American myth" created by two white men. Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of Mark Waid and up until this week, had not read a single bad book from him. In fact, the fact that his name was on this book is the sole reason I even considered picking this up was because his name was on it. But even with that in mind, haven't we been down this road before? Wait...what am I saying? We go down this road all the time. We go down this road so often, we don't need GPS. We don't even street signs as markers. We can just say, "Turn at the mailbox next to the Sit n Sleep billboard." I would like to feel like we've entered a different era of intellectual property where the need for two white creators coming up with magic negro stories to make sure we're all on the same page about racism being wrong would be long past. Then again, I would also like to think the need for Jurassic Park movies would be long past as well....and yet here we are. Jurassic World is in theaters and Strange Fruit exists.

The basic premise thus far is that there's a big flood coming and the black people aren't working fast enough for the white folks' liking because racism. On the other hand, the black folks would probably work a lot faster if the white folks would actually help out but we know that won't happen because racism. Oh, and some black guy may or may not have stolen from his white employer, but he'll probably get hung somewhere throughout the series whether he did it or not because racism. The names are unimportant and the character development is even less important than that (I'm assuming this is the case because there is virtually no character development) because it is clear right away that the only character you're supposed to be focused on is Racism. In the midst of all this, a naked black man falls from the sky. He's super strong and takes no shit off of these white folks on horses. He then puts on a Confederate flag because dem white folk ain't gonna take kindly ta him walking around wit his swingin johnson all about. I want to be able to say that that this is Waid refurbishing the old Jewish "golem" myth for the Deep South, but we're not given any tangible indication that this story intends to go that heavy. So, essentially, what we're left with is a 1920's remake of The Brother From Another Planet or, as I like to call it, Not Another Magic Negro Story. 

But it's unfair to say that this is all Waid's fault. Artist J.G. Jones is every bit as complicit in this constellation of condescension as his colleague is. I wouldn't be able to accuse Issue #1's of trying too hard to be Eisner bait were it not for the final image of Naked Alien Black Guy's junk bulging through the Confederate flag, presumably symbolizing the white supremacist's implied fear of black phallus or some shit. I dunno. I don't really have any black dick jokes so, that's the best theory I can pry out of my guesses at Jones' logic. Worse yet, there's the rendering of the people of color in the book.

Note how the principal character (light skinned in this case and a couple others) in the panel is rendered in an attempt at photorealism while all the other people of color in the background are drawn in an exaggerated blackface style that makes the mural in the opening credits of Good Times look like the Sistine Chapel.

Now, let me stop here and say that I don't think this necessarily qualifies as intentionally "racist" anymore than white people who want to touch a black woman's hair without asking. However, the intent doesn't always absolve the result or make the action any less offensive. That said, intentions are basically the only thing this book has going for it, but even that has it's limits. We're past the point where a book simply pointing out that racism is wrong and giving us a splash page with a black alien in the nude ain't gonna cut it.

It's not enough for comics to point out that racism happened a long time ago anymore. Even if the endgame of Strange Fruit (fully realizing that it's only the first of four issues) is to craft a old school superhero myth along the lines of Truth: Red, White and Black, race relations and society's understanding of race relations have to evolve past handing out pats on the head for rehashing the basics. I could very well be speaking too soon since there's three more issues to go. For all I know, this book could engage us in twists and turns that question the way we look at the history of systematic racism in America. But I seriously doubt it.

My reviews for this week's issues of Batman and Archie are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. As always, feel free to like, share, comment at your leisure. You know the drill.

The Week In Geek 7/1/15

So, this week, we found out that Ava DuVernay walked away from the director's chair for Black Panther. Sucks, but I have to appreciate when black talent has come up in the world to a point where they can turn down million dollar franchises deals at their peak. Allegedly, they "had different ideas about what the story would be." It's not really my job to guess, but I'd say this is another case of the suits at Disney/Marvel stepping on their talent's neck. I mean, we all saw Whedon's frustration with certain mandates in Age of Ultron. At this point in DuVernay's career, I could understand wanting to maintain a certain level of creative autonomy.

Also, Marvel revealed the full roster for their All New All Different Marvel lineup after Secret Wars wraps up. Wolverine's a woman, Star Lord's a woman, Ms. Marvel joins the Avengers and, yep, Captain America is still black. The weirdest backlash is about Spider Woman turning up pregnant. It's gotten to a point where fans are upset just for the sake of being upset. Jubilee spent the better part of Brian Wood's all female X-Men book as Mutant Vampire Juno with an adoptive baby that wasn't hers. Marvel spent ten solid years developing Luke and Jessica Cage's baby from conception to a toddler to a future where she grows up to be Captain America. Fans pick bizarre moments to decide they're upset about a book that, statistically speaking, they weren't reading in the first place. Also, all we've seen so far is a cover. Fans are actually judging books by their cover now. On one hand, it's understandable since comics are a primarily visual medium. On the other hand, we STILL DON'T KNOW the actual context of what the book's about. Even if you want to go off of the cover and claim it's a judgment of art, we all know that the art on the cover doesn't always reflect of artwork of the actual book, so even that's a silly way of making determinations on a book you haven't read. So far, I'm reserving judgment until I lay eyes on some actual pages.

No Black Nerd Problems reviews from me this week. Had to put the finishing touches on my scripts for Issues 2 and 3 of my upcoming comic. The website's under construction at the moment but we'll be up and running within the next few weeks. Happy Independence Day.

The Week In Geek 6/24/15

So, this week, it was announced that Marvel (and Sony) chose Tom Holland to play Spider-Man in the upcoming reboot and the next Captain America movie. For those of us keeping track, that makes three Spider Man reboots in 15 years. Two more before 2020 and Sony gets a free Subway sandwich but I digress. Clearly, by the look of him, Marvel has been mandated to appeal to Big Brother Disney's potential viewers with a SUPER young fresh face. It's actually kind of amazing that the superhero movie genre has come to a point where fans (and probably Marvel) are excited about Marvel actually getting to lay real creative hands on their own flagship character after almost 20 years of just being the hired help like DC is to Warner Bros.

Also, Marvel confirmed the theme for Season 3 of Agents of SHIELD is "Secret Warriors" which makes complete sense now that we know Skye's whole storyline has been essentially setting her up as Daisy "Quake" Johnson from the comics. You know, "Agents" is a show that has evolved in style and quality over the past two seasons quite nicely....better than its early detractors want to admit. The show does a good job of taking storylines that the movies might take too much time to develop and making them their own. And then there are times when they give you a piecemeal version of a story the movies are almost definitely going to revisit (Civil War, Inhumans) as a way of testing the waters or at least watering fan appetites for later. It's going to be very interesting to see how they modify Brian Bendis' old Secret Warriors story.

As per usual, my weekly comic reviews (this week, it's Planet Hulk) are available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to like, comment and/or share at your discretion. You know the drill.

The Week In Geek 6/17/15

So...Game of Thrones. Since a lot of you are super spoiler sensitive, we'll be talking about the season finale after the jump.