Luke Cage - The First Black Hero To Have His Own Series

LUKE CAGE 

First Appearance Hero for Hire #1 (1972)





 Art by Declan Shalvey


After years of being miscast as a street thug, Luke Cage has finally come into his own. Thanks in large part to writer Brian Michael Bendis' work on the character over the last 5 years or so. He single-handedly resurrected Luke Cage and made him relevant. I would say relevant again but I'm not so sure he ever has been. Personally, I always thought of him as a joke. Who wears an afro with a head band, a yellow shirt with a butterfly collar, green pants and a chain for a belt? Um, no F-ing one that's who. The only thing worse that that would be if they gave him a gold tooth, made him speak Ebonics, disrespect women, and abuse his power.....oh wait, they did that too. Sorry, got upset there for a moment but I digress. Bendis has taken Cage from the side show freak pimp suit hero for hire to the legitimate leader of New Avengers and a loving husband and father. Recently Steve Rogers (Formerly Captain America) asked Luke run the Thunderbolts program. As the leader of the Thunderbolts Cage is in charge of a team of powerful villains, that includes The Juggernaut, Crossbones, and Moonstone, all who agreed to work with the Thunderbolts program in exchange for leniency, early release, or just to get out of their cell at the Raft (Marvel's super villain prison). They constantly test him yet he remains cool and in control. Cage is finally a well rounded character who readers can enjoy whether he is busting heads with his teammates or having a casual conversation with his wife. 



Black Panther - The First Mainstream Black Hero

  

Art by Juan Doe



      I thought it would be fun to post a little something about black superheroes in comics. It's true that we have been seriously underrepresented over the years. What's worse though is the misrepresentation. With proportionally so few characters of African origin in comics it is appalling that so many have of them have gone through periods where they were terribly written. Artist have clearly had trouble representing brothas and sistas as well. They don't know what to do with black hair. It's funny, while I was researching some characters for this blog entry I ran across a forum entry from a Caucasian man stating that it is impossible to create a black superhero without being stereotypical. He referenced Luke Cage as an example. I thought his statement was both funny and sad. Funny, because so many black characters have gone through periods in which talentless or uninformed writers have totally mis-written them. Sad, because so many black characters have gone through periods in which talentless or uninformed writers have totally mis-written them. So, I will be posting a series of short profiles of some of my favorite black charcters for the rest of the month. First up, the king of Wakanda himself, The Black Panther!





Art by Simon Bianchi



     Created by writer Stan Lee and penciller Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 in July 1966, T'Challa aka The Black Panther, holds the distinction of being the first mainstream black superhero.  Aside from Storm he is probably the most recognizable black character in comics today. As the chieftain of the fictional African nation of Wakanda the Black Panther is one of the most powerful men in the world. Thanks to the nation’s vast stores of the rare metal Vibranium, Wakanda is one of the richest most tech savvy countries in the Marvel universe. The Panthers suit is made of a vibranium mesh that absorbs impact and allows him to move in silence. Through the consumption of a heart shaped herb that grows only in Wakanda the Black Panther is granted enhanced strength, speed, agility, and senses.



Art by Frank Cho





     Although, Reggie Hudlin’s run as writer of the Black Panther Series has gotten the most media attention, largely due to his marrige of the Black Panther and Storm (Still shaking my head at that one), it was Christopher Priests time on the title that truly gave the character new life. Priest took the Panther from simply being the token black Avenger and gave him depth. His T’Challa was a brilliant strategist, scholar, and business man. He has matched political wits with Dr. Doom and battled Tony Starks’ (aka Iron Man) in the boardroom where he succeeded in a hostile corporate takeover of Stark Enterprises. His version of the Black Panther was always a step ahead of the competition. Right were he should be.

      Currently, the Black Panther can be found protecting Daredevil's former haunt, Hells Kitchen. I can't say that I like the idea much but I will give it a chance, just one. The current issues backwards ass portrayal of Luke Cage as a street tough homeboy did not sit well with me. Yeah, we know where Luke came from but we have also watched him grow into a major league superhero as the leader of both the New Avengers and The Thunderbolts. But I digress, the art in the current Panther series is also a little weak. It looks like a cheap immitation of Tim Sales work. My hopes are that it will improve as the artist becomes more comfortable with the characters. As an artist myself I certainly understand the difficulties that lie in portraying a character as iconic as the Black Panther but I think Marvel should have chosen someone else.

It's Black History Month!!!!

I hear so many people complain during Black history month that it's not fair that we get the shortest month of the year to recognize our contributions and that we should celebrate our heritage all year long not just during one month. To the first statement I say so what, lets make it the best month for our people that we can. I don't believe that complaining helps anything. I much rather use the time to learn and empower myself. As for the second statement, I say let's do it.  No one is stopping you from picking up that book and learning. No one is stopping you from sharing your knowledge of black history with the less informed folk in your circle. Don't think for a second that someone else is going to do it for you because their not.

The schools teach the same rehashed messages about black history to our kids every year. Yeah, I know we invented the cotton gin, the traffic light, MLK was assassinated, white people abused us, we get it. There is so much more though that never gets touched on. Why was I never told about the Tuskegee Airmen, the Tuskegee experiments, the Buffalo Soldiers? What about the Black Panthers? I would have loved to hear about the skill and bravery of black pilots in spite of their abuse and mistreatment. How they endured so much to simply prove that we are equal.

We need to hear these stories. We need to know that we are capable of more than simply catching a ball or reciting catchy phases over a banging beat. We are a people capable of changing the world.

Each one teach one,

Serious Black

Elliptical

I was sitting here wandering what to do with the little bit of extra cash that I will have availble soon and it hit me, Elliptical! It's perfect. I already have a good weight lifting routine but I don't have a solid cardio plan. Investing in me is the perfect solution.

I wonder if I will be this excited after my first go on this beast? Probably not.

5 Down and a long way to go.

With the exception of a few very svelt years in my late teens (Yeah, I was nice for a minute) I have been battling the bulge since I was about 12. Over the last few years it has really gotten bad. Buying clothes is so depressing. So it's time. No more procrastinating. No more half ass attempts. In the immortal words of Master Yoda, " No try, do!" 

Herschel Walker is 47 years old, weights 214 with 2% body fat. That's crazy! I realize that he has been an athlete for years and genetics play a large part in his conditioning but he still works extremely hard to maintain his body. LL is 43 and has only become more defined and cut with age. If these old guys can do it at their age I do it at mine. I want to look like them in my 40's not the King of Queens.

I'm done talking about. It's time to be about it. Time to get in the gym like my boy KB.

R.I.P. Clement Sauve

Clement Suave, one of my favorite artist has past away. I particular loved his character designs. Rest in Peace brother.

Clement Sauve's Deviantart page
Clement Sauve's Website

This taste like New Coke.

I just peeped the new design for Wonder Woman's costume and it sucks. Not completely but mostly. No disrespect to Jim Lee, who designed the costume, but he is not the guy you should go to for redesigns. A jacket with rolled up sleeves, really Jim? Kinda late 80's early 90's don't you think. Why not just give her big guns and shoulder pads?

I understand DC's desire to clothe the company's premiere female character, I do. They have a movie in the works and finding an actress who can pull off the classic Wonder Woman costume and still be taken seriously will be very difficult. This is clearly an attempt to tone the characters sex appeal down to make her more acceptable to the general public. Again, understandable. But is it wise? I don't think so. Bet you didn't know they tried this before. Yep, way back in the day they took away Wonder Woman's powers her classic costume and revamped her as a boutique owning, kungu fighting, spy chick. You guessed it, it bombed worse than Jonah Hex.

My issue with most costume redesigns are that they largely forget who the characters are at their core. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian warrior first and a superhero second. This costume does not make her look like a warrior or a hero. In fact she looks kinda slutty with the choker and the gloves. Wanna bet she has a tramp stamp and a pierced tongue too. The bottom line is that it looks trendy and completely loses the iconic appeal of the classic costume. Try again DC.

Below - Classic costume by the great Adam Hughes!

Below - Two great redesigns of Wonder Woman that cover her up a bit more while maintaining her essence. The first one is by the wonderful Ming Doyle. She's awesome right! The second is by the incredible Joe Quinones. He's a bad boy!

SERIOUS REVIEW - HTC HD2

Ah, welcome to the first SERIOUS REVIEW. High fives all around. Yeah, anyway, I wanted to share my opinion of my new toy. My hot little, ok massive, smart phone. Here's the skinny, the HTC HD2 runs the windows mobile operating system and it uses HTC Sense as the primary user interface. It has 16gb of memory, a 4.3 in hd touch screen, Transformers 1 and 2 preloaded, FM radio, a 5 mp camera w/ flash, and custom apps for Barnes and Nobles, Mobi TV, Facebook, and You Tube.

Lets start by talking about the screen. Yes ladies, it is that big. It's also crystal clear. It is by far the phones best feature. It makes the iphone look dated. Watching video on this phone is a pleasure plain and simple. The preloaded Transformers flicks are just as mouth beautiful on the HD2 as it would be on any HD TV. Unfortunately the audio just can't compare to the video qaulity. The icons, clock, and animated weather images look stunning. Based on the fact that the HTC Evo and several other new phone have similar screens I suspect it will be the new standard for size and clarity. Try to keep up Apple.

How does the phone work you ask, lets see, it's smooth. The touch screen is very responsive but is still not quite as good as the iphone to me. HTC Sense works seemlessly. It's easy to use and looks very nice. It puts most of the phones features right at the tip of your finger. Things go a little south when you start uses the Winmo features. Things are not quite so easy to navigate and can easily become confusing. The staggered layout of the Winmo start button features is lame. They are trying so hard not to be Apple that they fail to realize that Apple is a master at simplifing and organizing. Nothing wrong with copying some of the good things that work great. Another issue with Winmo is that programs don't seem to close when you close them, they stay open in the task manager. Maybe they figure if you opened it once you may go back soon and having it in the background will make it easier to reopen. Don't know but I have heard complaints that it will slow your phone to a crawl if too many programs are running in the background. Sounds plausible to me. Haven't experienced it though. Here's hoping I don't ever. While it is not as user friendly as an iphone is is perfectly functional once you get use to the program. The only major issue I have with the choice of Winmo over Android and Apple, and it's a big one, is the lack of quality apps. Winmo's apps suck ass. While your pals are telling you they have an app for that or this, fucking pricks, you and your Winmo device will not. I don't get it, why load a phone with so much memory and such a powerful processor to have it run on Winmo? It's like having a Lamborghini will stage coach wheels instead of high performance tires, it's going no where fast. It's really a waste and a missed opportunity by Winmo not to provide qaulity apps. The big apps that come preloaded such as Barnes and Nobles, Mobi TV, Facebook, and You Tube are all awesome. They work great and look good doing it.

The phone's camera is solid at 5mp. The camera quality is good but I would have liked a few editing options like cropping, rotating, etc. I also think it sucks that so many other new phones have upgraded to 8mp cameras and the HD2 is still rocking last years best at 5mp. Whoever made this choice should try to be a little more forward thinking next time. At 8mp I wouldn't even need a real camera.

With 16 gb of memory and a powerful processor this phone should be a media powerhouse. A heavy weight, but it's not. It's more of a middleweight. It needs a better media playback program. Windows Media Player is outdated and can't really handle videos from your torrent library. I loaded 10 vids, all similar in size to the two preloaded Transformer movies, and only one was playable.

At the end of the day this is a beautiful looking solid operating fun phone that packs some serious hardware but fizzles out in the software department. What is does do it does very well. It just needs some good apps and a better media playback program to let it cut loose. T-Mobile please see the Sprint HTC Evo for how to do this correctly. 

Fathers day after

So, I made out pretty damn good this fathers day. No card and tie for me this year. No sir. The wife and kids treated me like the King that I am and hooked me up with a couple of goodies and a good meal at one of my favorite restaurants, Lucille's BBQ. Tri-tip, biscuits w/apple butter and cheese grits, gotta love it. My wife really went out of her way to take care of me this year and I won't soon forget it. I could tell that her heart was in the right place.

A few days before fathers day my lovely wife bought me a new BBQ grill, a BBQ recipe book and all of the accessories! Yeah, she killed two birds with one stone; she got me a gift that I loved and guaranteed that she won't have to cook at least a few days this summer. She must really trust me cause I'm even a little scared of what might rise from the fires of my new grill.

My second gift has kept me busy since I opened it, my beautiful HTC HD2 and it's giant SCREEN! I can finally dump my outdated not so smart Black Berry Curve. This new phone is awesome! It does so much. HTC really did good here. Stay tuned for a SERIOUS REVIEW of the phone later. I am truly blessed to have a wife who cares enough to go out of her way to get me the things I want.

And I got the Big Peice of chicken!!

Momma said knock you out!!

My 12 year old son got into his first fight at school the other day and I am a little conflicted about how I should feel about it. That's not true, honestly, I'm thrilled that he finally stood up for himself . The only people who would tell you that fighting is always bad and that you should never resort to violence are those blessed enough not to have been bullied or picked on. Sometimes you just gotta put a #*#*@&$!! on his ass. Sometimes fighting is a good thing. In my son's case it certainly is.

We moved last year and lets just say that  his new school is much less tame than his previous. Ok, it's a damn zoo, full of little evil monkeys. He's had his share of run-ins this year with a few asshole kids but has avoided confrontation. His first month there a girl went in his pocket to steal his money. Now, when I was a kid I would have made sure she never tried that again, if you know what I mean. My son is an easy going nice guy who has never seen or experienced anything like that before. He had no idea how to respond. I suspect that his new environment overwhelmed him and stressed him out. So for him to finally stand up for himself is significant. It means he's facing his fears and starting to understand his value. He's becoming a man.

Mmmm Brains...

Finally, visual evidence that AMC is indeed turning one of my favorite comics, THE WALKING DEAD by Robert Kirkman, into a TV series. Feast your eyes on the zombie goodness! It is scheduled to debut as a six part mini-series in Oct 2010 with more to come if it's well received.

Can you Dig it?

In case you didn't know little Simmons got skills! It's kinda old now but still hot.

Diggy - Made you look Freestyle (Flow Stoopid) from Diggy Simmons on Vimeo.

BACK 2 BACK

The evil Boston Celtics have been defeated. The Lakers stand victorious yet again. Kobe Bryant completed yet another Laker rite of passage by leading his Lakers to victory over the hated ones. But.....he almost let it slip right threw his fingers.

Yeah his shot was off, he looked tired, and just a little scared but those three things were not the real problem. The true issue was that he forgot it was a team game. He reverted to his old selfish do it all self. In most cases no ones cares when he takes over becuase, lets face it, he's brilliant. You know he will do something amazing on the court. Tonight was not one of those nights. The Mamba was backed into a corner and chose to strike and strike again, never landing a leathal blow. That was until he realized that he can be dangerous in other ways. It's amazing how someone so gifted and determinned to win can actually fail becuase he is trying to hard. Thank God he got it before it was to late.

Pau and Ron kept us in the game but it was Kobe accepting the role of facilatator that truly got us the win. If he had done it earlier the game would have been a joke.

Props to Ron for keeping his composure all season. I didn't know what to expect when we signed him. I thought Trevor Ariza was a better fit for our system. But you did your thing Ron and played with heart now you are a true Champion. Congrats!!!

I Thank God for being God

It's a good thing that God is real because I don't know what I'm doing. My life feels like it's in shambles. Every time I follow my evil monkey and I say or do what I want to do I reap serious failure.

Last night I verbally lashed out at my wife in an effort to intentionally cause her pain. Unfortunately I was successful. I pulled out every evil thought I had and lobbed them at her like grenades. All because of my own hurt feelings. I was angry and hurt and completely out of control. I wanted her to feel like I feel. I hate myself for giving voice to my pain. It was not fair to her or our kids and it will not help me heal at all.

The crazy thing is I don't really recall what I said. At least not most of it. Some of it is starting to come back to me but most of it is a blur. I felt like I was possessed and just spewing venom. Almost like I was watching myself in a movie scene. I guess it doesn't really matter what state I was in, all that matters is that evil poured out of my mouth and seriously hurt my wife. For that I am terribly sorry.

One of the things I have been studying this week is how the devil will use your own guilt to keep you stagnant and you will miss out on your blessings. I'm struggling with this right now. I feel so guilty for having hurt her after she has worked so hard to make amends and be a good wife and partner. She has no idea how much the pain I caused her hurts me. The thought of losing her makes me feel sick to my stomach. We have gone through to much not to make it to the top together as husband and wife. I know the devils goal is to break us up and stop of from reaching Gods promise. Every time we get a prayer answered one of us, mostly me, acts like an ass. When I should be giving God all of the glory I am instead whining about what I lost and how much it hurts to be me.

That being said I truly thank God for simply being God. He has more than proven himself to me. Every time I create a situation of failure he corrects it. Every time I pray for help he provides it. So many things in my life that were dead or dying have been made new and whole. I can't tell you how amazing that is for me to witness.

BREAKING NEWS: GOD IS REAL!!!

Recently, I spoke to a good friend of mine who was facing a personal crisis and of course being the renewed Christian man that I am I suggested that he pray to God for help. My friend is also a God fearing Christian man and he let me know that he had already beseeched his heavenly father for guidance. Knowing that he had prayed I quickly asked why he still looked so worried. He replied that he was worried because his problem was real. My first thought was that God is real.

God is real. I said it. I believe it. Don't get me wrong, at times I have also been guilty of thinking that my personal storm was more real than God. I, like my friend, was wrong. I'm learning that although our circumstances are real, as Christians we have the power through faith and trust in God to alter what is real for us. It's not easy letting go of what we comprehend with our natural senses but it is the only way we can truly trust in God.

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

If you believe in God, believe his word.

G-OBAMA

By J. Scott Campbell

This song always makes me smile

From the ashes of my life

If you've read my previous post you can see that ya boy Serious has been in a bit of trouble as of late. I've been spending far to much time fighting the demons of the past and not enough time dealing with my current reality or reaching for my future. It's amazing how old shit can so easily make you forget what you are doing and where you are headed, if you let it.

I say if you let it because I am learning, the hard way, that being upset or hurt about the past really is a choice. You don't have to let past hurts, mistakes, choices, events, or whatever affect you if you don't want them to. Unfortunately, I have too often chosen to let the painful memories of my recent past send me into vodka induced pity parties. I find it interesting how quickly and deeply one can fall into negative behaviors like alcoholism, drug abuse, or similar vices. It just proves to me how dangerous such behaviors truly are. They require so little effort, have such small rewards and are capable of producing such negative results.

That said, I'm choosing to refocus my efforts and move past the past into the now and on toward the future. Soon you all will be looking at my firm perfectly shaped black ass* passing you by on my way to victory!

* Special note - The writer of this blog does not in reality have a firm perfectly shaped ass nor does he care that he does not. Furthermore it is not all that black. In fact it is really high yellow. I know T.M.I.

Wish I had done this first!

Now I have to steal it. Just kidding. But I do still plan on making my own version of this. I just pray it comes out as awesome as what Mhannecke has done.

Thanks Jay!!

My good buddy Mr. Jaycee over at A Choice of Weapons has been harrassing me about blogging more frequently. He wrote a bunch of hilarious satirical pieces in an effort to rile me up. Check them out, they were all great. Jay has a great, yet disturbingly strange, sense of humor. Thanks for taking the time to poke fun at me Jay.

I was going to post a few picks of various man boobs as a thank you to Jay, he loves man boobs, but I just did a search and really hurt myself. Oh God the horror! Trust me, never do a search for man boobs, not if you cherish your vision. Aaaaaahh!! My eyes are still burning.

PS - Jay, that stuff that was on your sleeve the other day was Monkey Poop!!! Gotcha!!!

I will blog again soon!!!