I watched the Avengers all the way through for only the second time, including its cinema debut the summer of 2012, where we went opening day in Horton Plaza, a reliable ways from our first shawarma experience later that afternoon over on Fourth Avenue. Me being my best friend and band mate, Anji Bug. I love how that one post-credit scene, of any of them, does no more previewing than simply showing they socialize. Now, I’m recalling the first of my Marvel Super Heroes. When I’m three, there’s already Spider-Man, and soon after, the Incredible Hulk, who I probably started watching in his first season. I already could read the TV Guide well enough. G-Force is already my favorite superhero team when I’m four, and I love Goldar from The Space Giants, and will meet the Superfriends just before Ultra Man and Spectre Man. Avengers is so great because at its core, it’s got the four of the first five Marvel heroes I found: Hulk, then Iron Man, Cap, and Thor. I’m less sure about Thor, b...

Superman and Bat Man- well, Tonto and the Lone Ranger- heck, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid- friendship's always been part of the appeal of our classic heroes. Even Wolverine benefits from someone on his Six, storywise. Now I want to focus on early Marvel- I was fascinated by the way they built a storyverse, with guest stars and shared villains and footnotes connecting your earlier Marvels to the one in your hands. The Hulk/ Thing rivalry kicked off the very same month (in Fantastic Four #12) that Spider-Man visited and antagonized the Fantastic Four for the first time in Amazing Spider-Man #1 (his second appearance, of course). With Spidey, they had an apparent hit on their hands, so why not mix him up with the teen member of their flagship title, the Fantastic Four? While trying to build their nascent - I'm going to use my own term, Heroverse- they repurposed their weird/mystery/UFO/monster titles as vehicles for the new characters. Torch got three years as the co...

I can almost here a Peter Parker voice-over on this one, plus that great Bernard Cowen narration about "born losers" As you will find on the channel, Struttin' Success, on YouTube: From the original master tapes from the KPM music library in Britain: 1) "Drive On" composed by Alan Hawkshaw; 2) "LSD" composed by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter; 3) "Quite Contrary" composed by Syd Dale. This middle track is really weird! So creative, though. That third number,"Quite Contrary," brings things back to Chill Mode. VEry nice. Another crazy way the cartoon's been reincarnated: a huge Reddit stream of memes, many composed and posted in real time during online viewing parties in recent years. I am really crazy for "Latin Gear," but I haven't found it listed alone. It's worth hearing "The Eyelash" again! Due to the similarity in their names, I've seen some confusion about "Beat Street...