A Veritable Boon of Questions!

From Overworm, this time:

1) Who is your favorite superhero and why? Is it the same as when you were 10 or 15 years old?
Captain America. I've always been a sucker for his straight-ahead moral certainty, the whole
"mere mortal leading Gods" thing, the unbreakable shield, the sometimes over-the-top
patriotism combined with a harder edge, the "best hand-to-hand- combatant in the world"
angle - all of it. A good Cap story can still give the 31-year-old-me serious goosebumps.
When I was 15 Cap had already taken over as my favorite, but as a kid I was a huge Spider-Man fan, primarily instigated by those Electric Company shorts and then the still-fondly remembered Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. It wasn't until I got into comics, ironically, that the good Captain overtook Spider-Man in my estimation.

2) What comic book based movie do you think absolutely missed its mark?
It's an easy one, but the Captain America film was, of course, just a travesty. I still
remember seeing the teaser poster (a great image of the just the shield and a date) at a
local movie theater months before its non-release, and the feeling of burgeoning excitement
I felt. What a let down the film was when I (finally) saw it. More recently, the Fantastic
Four film was something of a let down, even if it did have its moments. Still, I wouldn't
say it "completely" missed the mark.

3) What comic book based movie do you think perfectly encapsulated on screen what the comic captured on paper, and in fact might be a better example of the character than anything done in print? If no CBBM has achieved that particular nirvana, which has come closest?
I wouldn't call anything "better" than what's been done in print, but that's largely a
function of the mediums, not a lack of ability on the filmmakers' parts. The fact is that over thousands of pages and many, many years, a character or world can be much better established, understood, and explored than they can in one two-hour movie. That said, I think the best, most complete, most accurate and deeply layered portrayal of a comic book character
so far has been Ian McKellan's Magneto. I'd love to see a Magneto film, but don't really see
the need for a "young Magneto" treatment. With the right script, McKellan would deliver one
heck of a film.

4) What song or musical artist do you like that doesn't quite fit in with the music you typically listen to? Or do you never really stray musically?
I listen pretty freely to pop/rock, Broadway stuff, film scores, classical, jazz, so I tend not to be locked in to any one style. Still, within the rock/pop world the stuff I like tends toward the not-as-really-hard side, so the kind-of-hard Living Colour might stick out a little bit.

5) If you were to write the great American novel, what would the title be? The cover blurb? The plot and main character?
I already have. Well, it's not "great," never mind "the great." And it's more of a novella.
But it's American! It's called Seeing the Ball, and I wrote it as my thesis for my MA in
English. 120 pages or so. It's about a teenaged boy whose family takes in a younger relative when tragedy strikes his mother, and about the bond the two boys form through baseball. Cover blurb? Probably something awfully trite like "Life threw Kevin a curveball."

6) Doughnuts or bagels; Gatorade or juice; dogs or cats; sunrises or sunsets; scorching summers or frigid snowpacked winters?
Doughnuts. (Sweet and fried? Count me in). Juice, although I like Gatorade very much. Dogs - you can't play with a cat. Sunsets (sunrises are nice, but you have to get up pretty early to catch one). Scorched summers. Get yourself to a pool or beach or a lake and you can still enjoy the outdoors. A frigid winter is all about being cooped up inside for days on end- blech.

I'm more than happy to answer more, so if anyone has any further questions, ask away.

And on a bookeeping note, Tosy and Cosh will be taking their traditional end-of-semmer break from all things computer-related imminently. We may post today or tomorrow, but will be gone for a good two weeks after that - so enjoy what's left of your summer, everyone!

Until Whenever