Jings crivens, it's been a long time since I've posted anything!! There's been... things going on... but what's new? Anyway, I'm back, and with an unusual post this time.
So this was a weird and random trip into a world of fandom of which I know absolutely nothing. If you've read anything else on my blog, you know already that I'm a quirky old-fashioned sort of person that hates everything modern. I pretty much, as the blog title says, live in the past. As one person recently described me, I'm a nerd who reads weird English literature, plays old-fashioned instruments, knows everything no one else does about random historical facts, and sings the orchestra part in acapella choir ensembles. (This is true, btw, and I'll maybe post on that later.)
Anyway, what happens next must have been the result of me being near the point of extreme exhaustion or else I was otherwise completely out of my mind but the fact remains that I watched a superhero movie. And not just that, but a sci-fi superhero movie. And I have always most fervently despised sci-fi. In my defense, it was a sort of period drama. But still.
It all began when I was researching for my WWII book The Duty That Lies Before Us. And somehow, I'll never completely understand how, I came across a rather unusual person by the name of Steve Rogers. The first clip I came across was that of soldiers training for WWII. Looked like a good film. Despite the tiny, scrawny little guy that seemed to be the main character. And the woman who was as tough as any of the soldiers. Such characters usually drive me nuts. Anyway, I found another clip from the same film. The little scrawny guy was in some kind of a creepy futuristic science lab, inside a huge machine. They injected a bunch of blue stuff into him and then closed the machine up. It was smoking and shaking and the guy was screaming and I thought they were torturing him. And then they opened the machine and my eyes totally popped out of my head. The guy was like over six foot tall and totally ripped. Looked like some kind of super body builder. I think I was even more surprised than the aforementioned tough woman, whose name happens to be Peggy (as I'm sure all of you already know who are also probably laughing hysterically at my ignorance right now. Yeah, I know Captain America is a big deal. There was a life-size cardboard cutout of him in McDonald's when I was nine and he was like on all the Dr. Pepper cans. I thought he was a bad guy...) I was also maybe just a tiny bit jealous of Peggy, since I could tell she was she was going to be the love interest and this guy was suddenly and unexplainably incredibly handsome.
Well anyway, that's how I ended up watching Captain America. And I actually enjoyed it. That's the weirdest part. Well, I enjoyed it except for the guy with the red face who had no nose, and the alien weapons or whatever they were and all that junk. In fact the only scenes I really liked were the historic ones. And then Steve got shot into the future so he couldn't be with Peggy and I cried and promised myself never to watch the sequels.
But then I went out of my mind again and decided well, if I handled one superhero movie, I might as well try that really famous one with the really pretty theme song... Superman. Besides it has Chris Reeve in it from Somewhere In Time. Well, I watched Superman and it was one of the cheesiest movies I've ever seen in my life. Besides all the creepy alien stuff, Clark Kent was the geekiest nerd ever to don humongous glasses. Couldn't stop cringing every time he appeared on screen. And Chris Reeve just looks better with blond hair.
"That's Clark, nice."
And Lois drove me crazy, not recognizing Clark without his glasses. I mean seriously... who is that clueless???
(Ahem. Looking at you, Marguerite.)
As far as I was concerned, my brief sojourn into the realm of superheroes was over. There must be something wrong with me, I needed to watch a Jane Austen and cure myself of this temporary madness. But the next day at work, an idea came to me. A ridiculous, crazy, bizarre idea.
What about Spider-Man??
Well???
I vaguely remember saying about ten years ago that I hated Spider-Man. Probably because I am more terrified of spiders than of anything else in the entire universe. Other than that, I knew literally nothing about him. I didn't know if he was a bad guy or a good guy, I had never heard the name Peter Parker, and I hadn't the slightest clue what his powers were.
A couple minutes of research and I had found the original 2002 film, which seemed the most logical place to start. And just a few minutes into that movie I was totally in love with it. To start with, the narration at the beginning of the film sent shivers down my spine. I could just tell that this film has substance to it. That it had a story to tell that went beyond blowing up bad guys and showing off impressive trick photography. And the main character, Peter Parker, was somehow adorably endearing and relatable. I loved him immediately, more than the impressive Captain America.
"Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale, if somebody told you I was just an average ordinary guy, not a care in the world... somebody lied."
There is soooo much in Spider-Man that I'll probably have to write a couple more posts on it in the future. Suffice it to say that I am now a Spidey fan. And I can't believe it.
