Today Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. I was a generation too late for either to have the kind of impact they had on other folks, but it's still pretty shocking stuff. Besides being pretty big pop-cultural touchstones, they're both about the same ages as my parents, which freaks me out a little bit. I mean, neither was that old and they're gone. My brother Kerr, who's a bit of a Michael Jackson music enthusiast, seems pretty let down by the whole thing.
I'm not dumb. Even with the tomato and lettuce and all that nachos can't be that great for you. But I do enjoy a good plate of nachos. I suppose I could make them at home, but I'm a lazy eater; when I'm hungry I'm all business, no frills, from the fridge to my plate. Getting from hunger to food with the shortest distance and all that. Not that I short-change meals or anything, but I eat as I'm cooking, usually going from one bit of food to the next. That sounds pretty bad, but it works. I start with rice or vegetables and prepare the more complicated course while I'm having that. So I usually have nachos at restaurants. But even then, that's infrequent, because, like I said I'm all business when it comes to meals.
Which is kind of lame, especially since his "death" (and I say that with the possibility that it'll turn out he never died in the first place) gave the comic title a real shot in the arm and drew it a lot of outside attention. Heck, Stephen Colbert still has the shield he was given as per Cap's will hanging on the wall of his set.
I'm thrilled that Marvel Comics has finally gotten around to collecting this run, since it's pretty much the gold standard of comic book serialized storytelling for me. Not only did writer Joe Kelly and artists Ed McGuinness, Pete Woods, and Walter McDaniel define Deadpool so effectively that the character has remained a headlining title character since this series began back in late 1996, but they told a story that rivals the best of TV's long-form storytelling back before it was the norm for TV or comics. And the best thing is they did without the slightest hint that it was the plan all along, or without compromising Deadpool's character, a feat all the more impressive when you realize the story ended with Deadpool saving the world from an other-worldly "menace" (curious what I mean, then read the books). The upswing in Deadpool's popularity thanks to his well-received current series and appearance in the Wolverine film has given Marvel a perfect opportunity to get around to reprinting the entire run (preferably in their popular omnibus format), especially since the last collection ended just shy of the acclaimed and as-yet unprinted eleventh issue that "inserted" Deadpool into an old issue of Spider-Man. Either way, it's great that folks are checking out these old issues through the reprints or original issues, since it's worthy of the attention.
I've written about the Milligan-Allred X-Force before so sorry if I'm repeating myself, but these issues are so subversively brilliant that I can say enough good things about them. Sold as a media satire told through superheroes with Peter Milligan's razor-sharp wit and the old-school style of Mike Allred, the brilliance of this run for me was how strongly I felt toward the characters by the final issue. As their layers were peeled back during the highly enjoyable run, the fact that the characters that seemed shallow and self-involved were as fully realized as any character I've ever seen elevated the series to a special place, and made me kick myself for not following the run more regularly as it was first coming out (I stopped four issues in, only coming back to the series after seeing the cast profiled in Marvel's Handbook series). The run continued for an additional twenty-five issues as X-Statix, but these first fourteen are the cream of the crop for me (admittedly because of the death of one of the leads at the end of this series, a character whose absence was so keenly felt that the first year of X-Statix devoted two issues to the character, as though to admit the creative team was as aware of the void as the readership was).
So there's this Archie Comics character Cheryl Blossom. You might not have heard of her since she's a relatively recent addition to the cast (from the early 1980s which is a good chunk of time ago, but about 40 years after most of the other characters debuted), but she's headlined her own title and appeared frequently in new stories and through reprints when she hasn't shown up for a while.
Thing is, Cheryl's 'character' is that... how can I put this... she's the promiscuous one. As much as she can be in an Archie Comic, that is. So while they can't even really imply she's... how can I put this... 'winding the crank on Archie's jalopy', she still parades around in skimpy clothing with plenty of skin and cleavage on display. Which is all well and good. I mean, if you're a kid that kind of stuff drives you wild.
So reading it, I've noticed that it's not hard to see why it's been seldom (if ever) been reprinted, what with the underaged drinking and topless seventeen year-old. Kind of makes me wonder if Dan DeCarlo was responsible for those stories where Veronica lost her top while swimming, or the one where the Riverdale High heater was on the fritz and all of the kids stripped down to their underwear to deal with the heat. Not to necessarily say they were bad stories,
And by mixed feelings I don't mean to say that I find naked Archie characters titillating or anything, just that... well, you know, I mean... if you were on a beach and a girl took her top off... um, that... ah... I think I'm going to stop here.
