Pride Respect: the Lion of Olympus

The recently-deposed Submariner’s in the middle of being sued for billions of dollars when he answers a call to face the warlord Attuma, the new crowned replacement monarch of Atlantis. The Wasp is furious with Prince Namor’s reckless decision as AVENGERS #271 opens. With casual disdain, Hercules disagrees: it’s a matter of honor, “not that I expect a woman to understand.” She firmly disagrees and insults Hercules for not using his brain, and the Black Knight agrees the demi-god, their strongest, longest-lived member on the roster, is out of line. A willing guy for a challenge of power or courage, and a faithful guy to come to your rescue if word reaches him, Herc has yet not acquired that viewpoint regarding female leadership, most especially if he, regardless of what he has said, is then rebuked, for he is one to let feelings get involved before logic, and quite accustomed to being accorded his way among gods and mortals alike. Pride wounded, the Lion of Olympus storms out.

I think I've just found one of the inherent problems: dealing with any other human personality when you are forever secure in the sheer awesomeness of yourself, as part of your overall invincibility. Adoration and respect, or an unabashed willingness to take it to the floor. It goes well with alcohol. Or it really, really doesn't. When you are that great, why shouldn't everything be about you? It's the unforeseen danger for one who openly, bombastically declares himself Lion of Olympus. It's the love of his father, who he considers the All-Father, that has given him this character. But what about a challenge where Hercules himself must flee?

His challengers: his two friends. Pointedly, it's between and his boss. You know how we refer to authority as "superiors"? The woman with the power to shrink, fly, and sting, has not made the sale to Hercules. Her nerve in doing so, with so much, as always, on the line, befits her role. She is leading here. She is holding everyone together. But you cannot make Hercules do anything he does not want under almost any circumstance. That is a challenge of colossal proportions, and the skill to do so under contemplative circumstances might be found within. The fact that they don't really have a second to lose underlies this scene of verbal punches. I think that sense of urgency underlies people's lives in everyday life; the financial siege of the household is an unease that makes the experience of these imaginary super humans relatable.









Fairness: that’s all he wants for himself. But what about the Wasp, and what about the Avengers? The two physically strongest Avengers, through no plan whatsoever on Zemo’s behalf, for pride’s sake tear themselves free from the team’s bosom. It’s practically an invitation to thrust a dagger in their heart.



This is the way the Siege of Avengers Mansion begins; already enemies align on a scale unprecedented in its coordination of brutish and diabolically imaginative powers. People are inclined to sometimes disagree. The dark side of teamwork is on display here. The very character values that can win the day for the Avengers are at test. Only divided, they fall. By their nature as villains, Baron Zemo and the rest discover those self same values that make a group of people effective are not present, and their simulation of those values, their simulation of a team, unsustainable. It is a question of what you stand for, whether or not you endure. If that seems like optimism to you, I hope you will consider the realism of that outlook.



I guess STAR BLAZERS will start up sometime next week. I didn't think I wanted to keep updating this every day, but it sure looks like it. I just wanted to make time for my own original creation...but that involves such delicate consideration. I think I can get drawing and guitar in every day, plus exercise, and some time being thoughtful of others, and enjoying the process of learning.


I'm sorry I can't get away from writing about my passions with an off-handed blurb, and so, I wonder how many hours I could pass obsessing over Stern's well-crafted tale, which I've re-read one time in September in at least twenty-five years. Upon opening #271, I found that my familiarity with the characters through the stories Stern has written up to this point inspires me to comment, for though I've only read most of his AVENGERS stories this one time, their cumulative narrative I've written about so cursorily here now has hidden messages for me, much like a professor re-discovering the curriculum each year, or a priest meditating on verses. I'm counting on this material, and my response to it, to prime me to participate in abundance, trust myself to assert my creativity through a process to which I must ever remain receptive.

I can only imagine what would happen if I took part in the books of my college years again. There is a certain spirit I've chosen to explore, while acquiring all the fundamental skills to make universal things with some timeless endurance, or at least, for whoever they reach to still matter enough for me to sustain my part with a limitless sense.

AS an individual, I want some sense of constructive activity, even while I follow my heart. It's been as strange as I'd hoped. It's just really important to you as an individual to establish how you feel, because it will be accompanied by thoughts. Be kind to yourself.

Myebook - D'n'A Comics #1 As promised: the
online version of DNA #1!!!Fifty cents for a complete, nuanced, spine-tingling sixteen page story, written and drawn by us.

I actually found the DVD my friend Joe Braband gave me with these comics, and realized I was simply advertising how good I thought this run of comics was from memory, and was feeling guilty about the time I put into this project, rather than feeling comfortable with it, as it is time-consuming, and I must stay so busy to stay any good at my abilities, for which I'm thankful and dedicated to the joy I can bring people with them. I do want to finish looking at this so I can put it in another friend's hands. It might be healthiest for me to pick up my discussion of these last sixteen issues at a later date. I've been wanting to put my script, comics pages, and a comic strip page or two in DJE3's hands, not to mention a music demo, so I'm going to have to settle for whatever I can finish, as we have a couple of awesome conversations already put on hold since we last got over to see him. (Of course, I can always ask him for it again later, and maybe write some more about this at a later date!)

My challenge is to not hide from everyone because I am not done, but I really need to focus and stay energetic, because it's a lot of high-octane, youthful vigor that we've built together naturally, but I'm appreciating how even a life so humble as my own can be as difficult to domesticate, if you will, as any mighty oxen. (If you will look at my ceaseill.blogspot.com, you will find another task I've taken on, and if you want to help two stranded Americans overseas, maybe you can help pass on their story!)

In fact, whatever I finish in the next few days is also heading Joe Braband's way, as he is also going to share his own complete project, from his RECON series for Pentagon TV, his Emmy-nominated work.

I thought I might be using writing about the work of others as a crutch, but I need not exhaust my time and energy at this when it can play a part I would call my hobby, at worst, involved as I am in several things I want to put into a finished form---if only it didn't feel like I was abandoning what I complete!

But then, you can only pick up what your hands can hold, only walk with what your arms can secure, and if you just stand there long enough to be thankful, I can see that, but at some point, it's time to progress. And there you go. I did not have all I was looking for, but in the meanwhile just this morning I've changed the names, or added to them, really, of two major characters in the presentation of DANGER BOT.
They're inspired by the names of the brothers Wildstar in STAR BLAZERS, actually---their original, Japanese names, which mean "to progress or advance" and "to protect." You'll see.


So long as I am resolved, at least, even at a standstill, my work is ever deliberative, while the way feels haphazard enough to ensure I'll never be bored.


You might say my approach is like this: be mindful, and apply yourself one hundred percent in whatever you do.