MARVEL AT THE HEROES
Today is National Superhero Day. It’s nice how there is a day for superheroes, fictional and real! But I’m going to be that obnoxious person who says, “any day should be for our superheroes” because it’s true.
For me, in reality, superheroes are those who are going out there every day performing selfless acts, being kind, spreading joy–those in the medical field like doctors and nurses, those who protect and rescue like our soldiers and firemen, and those who create art like musicians and film makers. Of course, I could go on listing the hundreds of professions but that would make for a convoluted post. But in one way or another, they are helping others physically and emotionally. It takes an innately strong human being to do these kinds of acts. Therefore I applaud them, I thank them, and I say BRAVO and BRAVA!!
Now, onto fictional superheroes. Let me say, I LOVE COMIC BOOKS. I love the stories. I love the characters. I love the art. Everything about it gets me excited. That being said, one of my favorite comic book characters is Wolverine. The first comic book I read was my brother's #500 of Amazing Spider-Man. And then I read the 90′s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel issues, and everything in between. I also grew up watching the animated X-Men series and instantly loved Wolverine (along with Rogue and Gambit). However, I couldn’t read every single issue in a particular storyline because I didn’t grow up with allowance so there wasn’t really anything to save up. But, the first real story arc I read was ORIGIN which is about--you got it--Wolverine’s origin story.
(image courtesy of Marvel Entertainment, Michael Turner, and company)
Basically everyone knows Wolverine and most know him through the X-Men movies and the stunning Hugh Jackman. And from those movies, it is known that Wolverine aka Logan doesn’t remember his past, doesn’t know quite how old he really is, and doesn’t fully realize why or how he was discovered to become part of the be-injected-with-adamantium experiment, also known as the Weapon X Project (or more specifically, Experiment X--maybe we’ll get to that in a future post). So, that being known, ORIGIN was and is a big deal since we get to see Logan’s past! I remember being 10 years old when it came out. I had just started reading comic books when I was about 8, and it was here-and-there reading of whatever my older brother allowed me to read, let alone touch. When he finally bought the trade paperback--THAT I was allowed to touch--my whole understanding of what IS a comic book was answered just by this arc.
Andy Kubert was the artist. Bill Jemas, Paul Jenkins, and Joe Quesada (who, at the time, was editor-in-chief when ORIGIN came out, and now is the CCO of Marvel Entertainment) were the writers. Richard Isanove did the beautiful digital painting. Basically, all around genius was happening when it came to ORIGIN. Oh, and Quesada and Isanove did the issue covers which are gorgeous.
Anywho, that’s when i fell in love with Wolverine. Like truly fell in love with his crazy dramatic past and present, anger, humor (he really is hilarious), sarcasm, and dirtiness? I just love how he’s so friggin’ cool and pretends he doesn’t give a shite but really does. Guh, so awesome.
Toss-up favorite comic book character is Ms. Marvel aka Carol Danvers. So, I knew about Ms. Marvel because she would pop up in different series especially since she is an Avenger and in the Civil War storyline, in which she subtly plays a part in being the conduit between Captain America and Iron Man. But I won’t continue further than that because that’d be spoiling everything. Moving along, I read an arc in her 2006 Ms. Marvel series during the summer of ‘08. Then I really went full throttle during my freshman year of college.
(image courtesy of Marvel Entertainment, Michael Turner, and company)
It was the perfect time to get obsessed with Ms. Marvel because it’s during the college years where you want to be everything and yet sometimes you are doing nothing except academics. But further than that, Carol Danvers was sort of becoming this role model to me. I mean, even before she became this superhero, she already was one strong woman She was in the Air Force Academy which led to being recruited to the CIA where she met Nick Fury. Through him, that’s where she met Logan (aka Wolverine remember?). She and Logan went on assignments together to kick lots of ass and eventually became super good friends. Then she worked for NASA as security director. See? Already, I admire her even if she’s a fictional character, because her career path is one that many non-fictional strong women have happily achieved or are in pursuit to achieve. But then after that, she gets all this Kree-ness happening to her and now she’s superhero who can fly and is part of the Avengers, and has these great relationships with her colored-costume buds….But in the end, it’s comic books that can also inspire real-life people to do great things.
I continue to strive to learn from these real (and fictional) people and be stronger from what I learn.
To sum that up—Wolverine and Ms. Marvel are awesome.
To sum ALL of it up—superheroes are amazing.
And again, it’s a great day for National Superhero Day!
kthxbye.
