Tuesday TV Touchbase: Outlander: Blood Of My Blood

Andrea and I are feeling a bit bereft. 

This weekend we caught up watching all the episodes of Hudson & Rex with John Reardon as Charlie Hudson.

We're not watching season 8 with Luke Roberts as Mark Hudson because (to quote Project Hail Mary), "Rocky hate Mark."

You Tube keeps misleading me with videos that offer to scoop what's going on with Charlie's return in season 9 but those are just old clips with some inane babbling by someone guessing on what they think is going to happen.

Meanwhile, Andrea and I do have our emergency back up "cop with dog partner" show in Blue Skies to pick up some slack. 

On with this week's Touchbase.  

Alas, Outlander is dead!

Long live Outlander! 

While our journey with Claire and Jamie came to an end earlier this year, the saga of their parents continues as season 2 of Outlander: Blood Of My Blood began this weekend.

Or O-BOMB for short. 

We spent all of season 1 keeping everybody apart but the season ended with star crossed lovers Brian Fraser and Ellen McKenzie, future parents of Jamie Fraser, finally together.

And our time tossed couple of Henry and Julia Beachamp were  reunited at long last and with their infant son William in hand, they gathered at the stone circle of Craigh na Dun to escape the year 1715 and return to the 20th century and their daughter Claire.

But life and television writers have other plans.

The stones don't work for the Beauchamps (as they are unaware gemstones are needed to activate the stones) and they are cornered by Simon Fraser's men who are determined to recover Julia and William. 

The sinister, spiteful Simon, the erstwhile Lord Lovat, thinks William is HIS son and is part of a prophesy to rule all as king. 

Fighting the men, Henry is stabbed by a knife with a gemstone in the handle and as the wounded Henry falls against one of the stones, he vanishes.  

Left alone, Julia with her son has no choice but to return to Lord Lovat's castle.

Meanwhile, Henry is in 1924. In his own corner of hell.

He is being held in the Inverness Lunatic Asylum.

Now, that is not a proper way to refer to a mental health facility, is it? I should be ashamed of using such language.

But that is the name of the place, there's a sign out front and everything: Inverness Lunatic Asylum.

Between the unresolved stress of Henry's PTSD from his time in the trenches of the Western Front in World War I and his time travel to and from 1715 and all the shit he had to deal with in the 18th century, Henry's eggs are all scrambled.

Dr. Perryman of the Inverness Lunatic Asylum thinks he can resolve Henry's memory problems with the latest advances in mental health treatment: electric shock therapy.

Leaving Henry's eggs scrambled AND fried.

As for our other couple, Brian and Ellen, their idyllic retreat to finally be together and fulfill the promise of their love (or something) is interrupted by the Jacobite Rebellion.

🙋  What is the Jacobite Rebellion?

The Jacobite Rebellion (or Rising) of 1715 was an attempt by the exiled James Francis Edward Stuart, son of the deposed James II of England, to regain the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland for the House of Stuart.

It won't work and the Jacobites will have to try again in 1745 but that's matter for Jamie, Claire and the first 2 seasons of Outlander.

Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. 

BUT back to O-BOMB.

Brian is compelled by honor, duty and some other 3rd thing to join his fellow Scots in the uprising. (He is on the snack committee or something.) 

Ellen didn't go through all the trouble of running away from the McKenzie clan and the arranged marriage to Malcolm Grant to just have Brian run off and get killed in some damn rebellion.

But...

His honor, duty and some other 3rd thing is why she loves him so.  Also the McKenzies are looking to recover their errant sister and would likely kill Brian if he were found with her.

So she willingly agrees to return to the McKenzie's castle.

But not before she and Brian engage in some unprotected sexy times because, dammit, future Jamie Fraser with those piercing eyes and that rugged square chin needs to be procreated. 

No, I am not gay. Why do you ask?

Anyway,  other than Henry strapped to a table in the Inverness Lunatic Asylum in 1924, the status of quo of season 1 is frustratingly restored.

Julia is back in the clutches of Lord Lovat.

Brian is back under the cruel control of his father, Lord Lovat, conscripted to do shit for a man that hates him, doing things Brian does not want to do.

Ellen is back under the domineering control of her brother Collum, the undeserving laird of the McKenzie clan. 

God, I hate this show! Whose dumb idea was it to watch this thing?

Oh yeah, it was mine.

Fine! I guess I will have to stick around to find out how all this plays out through season 2 of O-BOMB!

You know, if I have to.  

That is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase!

Next week: the season finale of Stuart Fails To Save the Universe.

And the season finale of the Official Stuart Fails To Save the Universe Podcast. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.   

 

Reality: What A Concept

Last week we had a special visitor come to North Carolina.

Who was this visitor?

Why it was none other than America's own lying, petulant, bullying, unintelligent, sociopathic, dishonorable, treasonous, gutless, moronic, heartless, soulless, slimy, loathsome, vile, incompetent, psychotic, crooked, disgusting, reprehensible, revolting, horrible, malicious, obnoxious, hateful, narcissistic, small-minded, despicable god damn, motherfucking piece of shit!

Or to save time: Donald Trump.

Standing in North Carolina, speaking to people from North Carolina, Li'l Donnie felt compelled to say that North Carolina sucks! 

Der Führer pronounced North Carolina as one of the absolute worst states in the nation.  

Apparently Trump thinks North Carolina is some kind of stinking cesspool of crime and violence and it's all Roy Cooper's fault.

So he's seen the Michael Whatley ads then, I guess?

We're in the middle of a campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat  with Democrat Roy Cooper going up against Republican Michael Whatley.   

Roy Cooper was born in North Carolina, has lived here all his life and has a solid tract record of service to the state as a legislator, district attorney and governor.

Michael Whatley is... none of those things.  

Whatley has been running ads that paint Cooper as soft on crime, releasing thousands of criminals and chances are because of Roy Cooper, if you're in North Carolina, you're being murdered right now.

Those ads have included grieving fathers who attribute the murder of their children to Roy Cooper.

Except...

One father said he was told his testimonial was for a project on fighting gun violence.  He intends to vote for Roy Cooper and says there is nothing about his son's murder that has any connection to Cooper. 

The other father is in SOUTH Carolina and his daughter was murdered in SOUTH Carolina and her murder has no connection to Cooper or any of his policies in NORTH Carolina. Unlike the other dad, this guy does not disavow his participation in the ad and is proud of whatever he can do to stop Roy Cooper and support Donald Tr--whoops, Michael Whatley.   

Cooper has a counter ad that calls out these Whatley spots as lies.  

All Whatley has going for him is his absolute and total fealty to der Führer.  His devotion is so complete, Whatley insisted in an interview that grocery prices are DOWN and gas prices are DOWN. Just because Li'l Donie thinks he can get away with saying this crap doesn't mean anybody else can say this shit. 

Cooper has another ad that runs this interview, followed by Roy looking at the camera with utter incredulousness. "Can you believe this guy? I KNOW prices are going up!"    

Roy Cooper's selling point: he understands reality.  

****************************************

"Reality: what a concept!"  

---Robin Williams

****************************************

Donald Trump has his own concept of reality.

• Prices are DOWN!
• The war with IRAN is going GREAT!
• People LOVE Donald Trump!

Woe and lamentations unto thee to say otherwise:

• Prices are UP!
• The war with IRAN is an intractable MESS!
• And no we fucking DON'T!

Li'l Donnie rejects these points as FAKE NEWS and declares he will ban news agencies that don't report his concept of reality.

Saturday morning, reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico showed up at the White House to find their press passes revoked and confiscated for the temerity of reporting anything that does not align with his vainglorious delusions that everything is awesome and we owe all that awesome to Trump! 

With Natalie Harp printing up a constant stream of pro-Trump, pro-MAGA propaganda, Li'l Donnie's propensity for ignoring the reality we live in in favor of his own is reinforced. The only voice he hears other than his own is a selected cadre of syncophants who are mere echoes of his self aggrandizement.

Nowhere is this more blatantly on display than with the fuckery going on with the Kennedy Center.

Immediately after being sworn in for his 2nd term, Trump quickly sacked the Kennedy Center's board of trustees and replaced them with people loyal to him. And der Führer made himself chairman of the board. 

And that's when the troubles began.

Various artists scheduled to perform at the Kennedy Center began cancelling their shows.  

Sales of tickets and memberships declined precipitously.

To honor their Lord and savior for this good work at saving the Kennedy Center from ruin, the board voted to put Trump's name on the building.  

And that's when the troubles got worse! 

Any artists holding their noses to still perform at the Kennedy Center dropped out.  Revenue bottomed out.

The courts ordered Trump's name be removed from the building.

Presumably this was done but a tarp hangs over the front of the building to spare widdle Donnie's feelings from being hurt.

Faced with a financial crisis, the Kennedy Center board says the only way to save it is to put Trump's name back on the building.

You know, the very act that precipated the center's financial crisis.

Trump's concept of reality is that the Kennedy Center was bleeding money and heading for financial ruin until he took charge.

After a downturn brought on by the COVID pandemic of 2020, the Kennedy Center was running a deficit. But in 2023 and 2024, the center was back in black, taking in more than it spent.

From the moment Trump installed his own stooges to run the joint and himself as chairman, the Kennedy Center has been in the red, losing money.  

BUT the board asserts that ONLY Donald Trump can lead the effort to improve fund raising to get the Kennedy Center back on track but he's NOT going to do that unless he gets credit for it.

An assertion that Trump himself repeats: why should he lift a finger to help the Kennedy Center if he's not going to get credit for it?

Meanwhile, facing bankruptcy, the board voted to shut down the Kennedy Center and there's a very real fear that if der Führer does not get his way, he may tear the damn thing down. 

Think it's a bit outrageous that he would do such a thing? If you think that, I have a lovely White House East Wing to show you and ---Whoops! No, I can't. There is only a hole in the ground where Trump is building a ballroom that only he wanted.

And that's where we are, navigating two realities.

There's the reality you and I are stuck in where every goddam thing is on fire and Donald Trump is holding the match and the gasoline.

And there's the reality where Li'l Donnie lives, where everything is golden and NOT on fire and he wants credit for all the wonders his dementia addled brain beholds.

And if CNN won't confirm his concept of reality, to hell with them.

Natalie Harp has a print out that will confirm that...

Star Trekking: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds - Season 4 -"“Once La’an a Time”

 

We've reached the penultimate episode of season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and let the wailing and the lamentations of the Trekker faithful be heard.

It's a damn gimmick episode. 

And it's a sequel to an earlier gimmick episode from Season 1.

Back in season 1, Dr. M'Benga's daughter, Rukiya, was dying of some incurable Trekkian disease. While looking for a cure, the doctor's plan to forestall Rukiya's death was to store her in the transporter pattern buffer.  

Some nebula aliens connected up with Rukiya decided to give her a gift: a chance to live out her favorite book, The Kingdom of Elysian. With bonus content: Rukiya had worked out some fanfic in her head and that was folded in. 

Long story made short: the crew of the Enterprise were compelled to adopt the personas and dress of characters from this fantasy novel.  

The episode was called  "The Elysian Kingdom" that aired on June 23, 2022 and if you wanna know more about it click here for what Keith R.A. DeCandido thought about it back then.

That was then.

This is now.

And now for reasons passing very strange and damn near undecipherable, the advanced science that seems like magic is back to recreate the Kingdom of Elysian once more.

Apparently for the benefit of La'An.

Which brings us to “Once La’an a Time” and if you wanna know more about what Keith R.A. DeCandido thinks about this, click here. 

Or cut to the chase and read this statement from Keith: "On this week’s episode, we revisit the Elysian Kingdom, and like far too many sequels, it’s a disappointment."

Do I concur with that? 

I have to say I do. 

But...

There is a lot that's kind of cool about this episode.,

Let's give it up for our girl Christina Chong.

La'An is struggling with her inner darkness and worries that as a Khan, she might give in to impulses for world conquering or something.  

La'An has to pretend to be Princess Thalia and wear an ornate, frilly dress. I could almost hear La'An channelling Worf in my head: "Captain, I must protest! I am NOT a damsel in distress.

Chong has to play La'An, La'An pretending (badly) to be Princess Thalia and finally the princess herself.  

La'An (dressed as the princess) and the princess have a sword fight. That must have been quite a busy shooting day for Christina Chong.  

Great line from La'An.  She meets a stranger in the woods and says "I mean you know harm." The stranger draws his sword and La'An replies, "Harm it is then!" 

I saw Paul Wesley in the opening credits and I'm like, really, Jim Kirk is going to show up again? Look, I think Wesley is doing a fantastic job as the future Capt. Kirk but since Kirk is not assigned to the Enterprise yet, the machinations to make him fit in an episode of SNW can border on the absurd.

But this time, Paul Wesley has shown up to play a role in this Elysian fantasy, as Thalia's love interest Prince Dashing. I guess whatever is creating this fantasy world is picking up on La'An's latent feelings for Kirk she developed in her alternative time line adventure from Season 2, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”.

Prince Dashing is the heroic and romantic archetype in fantasy fiction, fighting evil and saving the princess.  Except...

He's not really good at it.  

And he's also a werewolf.

What wolf?

Werewolf!

Where wolf?

There wolf! 

Oh, THAT wolf! 

Heads up! Erica Ortegas snogs Una Chin-Riley! 

Hold on! Their Elysian counterparts, Sir Adya and Z’ymira the Huntress, are the ones who kiss.  OK, technically "Sir Adya" is a dude but...

No matter how you slice it:  Melissa Navia shares a big damn kiss with Rebecca Romijn.

Deep dive Easter egg: Benny Russell is identified as the author of "The Kingdom of Elysian". 

Benny Russell was the name of the 1950's science fiction writer that Benjamin Sisko became in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode,  “Far Beyond the Stars."  

I gathered from that episode that Benny was a far better writer than to have written something like "The Kingdom of Elysian".  Well, he did sustain a severe head injury in that episode.

Meanwhile on the Enterprise....

The cowardly Sir Rauth and the wizard Pollux from the Elysian Kingdom board the Enterprise and have to pretend to be Pike and Spock.  

They practice their roles by rehearsing ways to say "Hit it" and "Fascinating" so they can be prepared....

For nothing really.  

Especially when the dragon shows up.

🔥Big damn space dragon time! 🔥

You wanna see the Enterprise fight a giant red fire breathing dragon... in SPACE!  

Oh, you think that can't happen, eh? 

Bring it on, bitch! 

“Once La’an a Time” has a lot of individual bits that are genuinely amusing and there is some serious character growth for La'An.  But do those bits really come together to make a worthwhile whole?  

Sadly I don't think so. Or maybe that's on me for not getting it.

I have to admit to a lot of confusion as to what was happening and why. It was as if the marching orders were "What if La'An could work through her personal shit through that "Elysian Kingdom" fantasy woo-woo we did back in season 1?"  

There is a lot of twisting for the pretzel o' logic to get us into that scenario and I'm not sure it all made sense.

Online there was the expected gnashing teeth and tearing at garments over Star Trek: Strange New Worlds doing yet another gimmick episode.  

While researching "The Elysian Kingdom" episode from Season 1, I noticed this observation from Keith R.A. DeCandido:   

"SNW is sometimes embracing the goofier style of plotlines from Trek history, and I’m down with this. I don’t need all the new Trek shows to dip into this well—for example, this sort of story wouldn’t really work on Discovery or Picard, whereas it’s pretty much all Lower Decks does—but I like that SNW goes for it sometimes."

Keith wrote that 4 years ago.  As for "SNW goes for it sometimes", I think that the gimmicks have become part of the SNW brand now.  I think the gimmicks are not the exception to the rule but are inherent in the rule of what makes Star Trek: Strange New Worlds unique in the pantheon of the Trek universe.  

Next week, season 4 comes in for a landing with an episode entitled "Tomorrow's Enterprise".  A title that calls to mind the TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise": I am be very interested to see if this episode goes where I think it will.

We'll look at that next week. Live long and prosper, y'all! 

Movie Time: Coyote vs. Acme

 "The TRUTH? You can't handle the TRUTH!"

A Few Good Men

Inherit the Wind

Absence of Malice

To Kill a Mockingbird

These are some of the films that represent outstanding legal dramas, films where the conflict is carried out in the courtroom.

Films I have regrettably not seen. 

I really should fix that someday.

(I think in the bits and pieces I have seen over the years, I may have seen all of A Few Good Men by now, just not in sequence or in order.) 

But today I can attest there is an outstanding legal drama I have seen, one that will stand the test of time. 

It's Movie Time!

Over the Labor Day weekend, Andrea and I were engaged in our favorite activity, NOT going anywhere.

Seriously, when given a choice of doing a thing or NOT doing a thing, we will opt for the latter.

But we were in the middle of a 3 day weekend and we were determined to resist our worst impulses towards inactivity and actually do at least ONE thing. 

We finally talked ourselves into indulging in going out to see a movie.

And that movie? 

Coyote vs. Acme

Consider the coyote.

A creature of infinite ingenuity and boundless determination. 

A creature with one singular and simple desire.

All he wants is a bird.

A single bird.

One special delectable bird.

This bird.

But woe unto the coyote for the bird is fleet of foot and most difficult to catch.

Consider the schemes of Wile E. Coyote to circumvent nature with science and technology.

Such as his latest plans involving Acme Rocket Skates and Acme Magnet Gloves.

Which despite the advantages of his ingenuity and determination and the supposed technological edge of advanced products from Acme, Wile E. is left injured, humiliated and once more bereft of Road Runner.   

What is a poor, hungry, desperate coyote to do?

Well, this is America, is it not? Of course he is left with one recourse:  he's gonna sue! 

The law firm of Avery, Jones & Maltese in Albuquerque is here to help.

Kevin Avery agrees to take Wile E.'s case, thinking he can get a settlement for as much as $300! 

No, I did not forget any zeroes. Kevin is seriously afraid of failure and confrontation. So he goes for the cheap and quick settlement. 

Acme is cool with it as just the cost of doing business. (Acme is up to some sketchy shit!)  

Wile E. Coyote is NOT interested in a penny ante settlement and forces Kevin to go up against Acme lawyer Buddy Crane in an actual trial.  

Acme CEO Foghorn Leghorn wants Crane to shut this thing down HARD to keep any of Acme's secrets being revealed in court.   (Let me remind you Acme is up to some sketchy shit!) 

One idea is to actually call Road Runner as a witness to Wile E.Coyote's pain and suffering from Acme's malfunctioning products. Turns out catching the Road Runner is no easier for humans than it is for a cartoon coyote.   

While investigating other ways to support Wile E.'s case in court, Kevin and his team uncover some disturbing information about Acme ( Acme is up to...WE KNOW! WE KNOW! Their up to some sketchy shit!)   

Bugs Bunny shows up as a sort of "Deep Throat" character from All The President's Men with cryptic clues to lead Kevin Avery to the truth about what Acme is really up to.  (Because as we 've noted before, Acme is up---ARRRGGHHH!! WE GET IT! Acme is up to sketchy shit! I SWEAR if you do this ONE MORE TIME, I will stop this blog post! )  

So the trial begins and thing go badly as Kevin Avery is so profoundly bad at being a lawyer due to his staggering lack of confidence.  

Buddy Crane is a swaggering ball of confidence and shuts down Crane's case to keep Acme's activities secret. (Because as you know, Acme is up.....

HEY! HEY! HEY! I said if you interrupted ONE MORE TIME with that Acme is up to some sketchy shit, I would stop this blog post! 

That's it for this week's Movie Time! 

We're back tomorrow with another edition of Star Trekking.

...

...

...

...

OK, FINE!  

Even though he lost the case, Kevin Avery has finally found his backbone and makes a statement to the media after the case that he and his client aren't done yet because (and everybody say it with me) ACME IS UP TO SOME SKETCHY SHIT!

...

...

Are you happy now?

...

Anyway, the matter of Coyote Vs. Acme makes it's way to the federal government and a Congressional hearing.

One last chance at getting justice for Wile E. Coyote.

One last chance to defend the little guy against a heartless corporation.

One last chance for victory for individual dignity over corporate greed.  

One last chance for right to prevail over wrong thanks to the testimony of one surprise witness.

BEEP! BEEP! 

Coyote vs. Acme is a hodge podge of cartoon craziness and live action lunacy with a lot of laughs and a surprisingly heartfelt conclusion.  

Matching the movie's take on people versus corporations is the real life tale of getting Coyote vs. Acme into theaters in the first place.  

Development for Coyote vs. Acme began back in 2018 and by 2022, production was ready to roll.  Will Forte and John Cena were cast as Kevin and Buddy and filming took place in New Mexico.  

By 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery had a complete film ready to go to release to a cartoon loving public ready to see this movie! 

Instead Warner Bros. Discovery elected to shelf Coyote vs. Acme as a tax write-off.  

Which pissed off a lot of people.  

All the artists who worked really hard to complete this movie.

All the fans of classic Warner Bros. cartoons who really wanted to see this movie.  

A work of art was denied the chance to be appreciated as art but instead was relegated to obscurity to satisfy a line item on a corporation's budget.  

The will of the people subsumed to corporate greed.

Until Ketchup Entertainment acquired the rights for $50 million.

Coyote vs. Acme has received positive reviews from critics and fans and has performed very well at the box office.

A big old "fuck you" to Warner Bros. Discovery.

Andrea and I really enjoyed Coyote vs. Acme a lot and I'm glad we got a chance to see it with other people in a theater. 

So what are our plans for this weekend? Not going anywhere, of course! 

That's is that for this week's Movie Time! 

We're back tomorrow with another edition of Star Trekking.

Your Friday Video Link: Kathleen Madigan

 

One my of favorite female stand up comics is Kathleen Madigan. Today's edition of Your Friday Video Link has some short clips of Kathleen at work.  

First up is a clip of Katheleen pondering "Mom's Mystery Pills".    

Kathleen contemplates the difference between Drunk Friend and Pothead Friends.  

Here's a crucial question for rural Missouri:  "Should people who can't read be allowed to hunt?"

Kathleen has an answer for that. 

That is that for this week's Your Friday Video Link.

Tomorrow's Movie Time is about a legal drama for the ages, an epic battle of the little guy going up against corporate greed and corruption. 

And we have more Star Trekking the day after that.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

And be careful of the pills you take, even if they come from your mother.  

Green Lantern Alias John Stewart

While the Lanterns TV series is introducing us to their version of how John Stewart becomes Green Lantern, I thought I would do a post on John's comic book journey to wearing the power ring.

Here is the Neal Adams cover to Green Lantern#87 (on sale October 1971) where we meet John Stewart for the first time.

John Stewart is a college graduate, a trained architect who is unemployed because life sucks for black men in 1970's America.

In a story written by Denny O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano, Hal Jordan is tasked with recruiting and training John Stewart as his back up. The Guardians of the Universe have selected John to be that person.

And Hal has problems with that.

Stewart is headstrong, anti-authority, and race-conscious, which Jordan's perspective sees Stewart has having a bad attitude,  disrespectful and angry.

The Guardian tells Hal, "He has all due qualifications! And we are not interested in your petty bigotries!"

There may be some inherent racism in Hal Jordan's assessment of Stewart but since Hal has spent the last year on the road with Green Arrow, I figure Hal knows about "attitude".

Hal Jordan and John Stewart go into action to stop an act of political assassination against a Presidential candidate who is racist as fuck.  

Jordan is unhappy that Stewart appears to have shirked his responsibility to protect the candidate due to his dislike for the person. Until Stewart reveals that the assassination they stopped was staged by the candidate and there was a real killer in the crowd ready to strike.  

Hal Jordan concedes that John Stewart will make an excellent Green Lantern.

So no, the story of Hal and John from GL#87 does NOT play out with the same crackling animosity Hal has for John in the Lanterns TV show.  

It's in the pages of Justice League of America#110 (on sale December 1973) by Len Wein, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano that John gets his next go 'round as Green Lantern.  

Hal Jordan slips on a bar of soap in the shower and conks his noggin.

Sasha over on Casually Comics chats a bit about Hal Jordan being a klutz.  

The rings summons back up John Stewart to answer a summons by the JLA.  

When Stewart shows up at the JLA satellite HQ, there is some consternation of who the hell this guy is but Green Arrow says Hal told him about this new GL and we're all copacetic.

Long time JLA enemy the Key is up to some shit and John Stewart is more than capable of keeping pace with the League as they take on their nefarious for.

Stewart finds a loophole in the Green Lantern manual that allows him to rebuild housing for some poor people who lost their homes.  

Unless I'm missing an appearance elsewhere,  John Stewart next rings up as Green Lantern in Green Lantern#94 (on sale Janiuary 1977) by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell, Terry Austin and Dick Giordano. 

Six years after his debut, John Stewart is making only his 3rd appearance.  

Hal Jordan has come down with some kind of space sickness so John Stewart takes him into space to see if the Guardians on Oa can fix him up.  

I assume that somewhere off panel, John's been practicing if he can just zip off into interstellar space and navigate his way to Oa.  I noticed he also has the updated power ring introduced in Green Lantern#90.  Did John go to Oa to get the upgrade or did the Guardians mail it to him? 

After a few more random appearances in the early 1980's, John Stewart would finally get his first real continuing shot at being Green Lantern in 1984. 

Len Wein who wrote John's 2nd appearance in 1973 in JLA#110 would take over as the regular writer of Green Lantern and cooked up a storyline where Hal Jordan gets pissy with the Guardians and decides to quit being Green Lantern.

The Guardians were all "Fine! Go do dat!" 

Hal Jordan was all "Nah! I was just mad for a moment..."

The Guardians are all "You Earth creatures are way too much trouble. Someone get John Stewart in the phone!"

A special promotional image by artist Dave Gibbons gave notice of some big changes coming to Green Lantern.

Apparently forgetting John "is a black man who let's it all hang out"?  He's wearing the mask.  

And those changes kicked in with Green Lantern#183 (on sale September 1984) by Len Wein and Dave Gibbons.   

After 13 years since his first appearance, this begins a long run with John Stewart as the Green Lantern of Earth and Sector 2814.  

Until as always the case in comics, some writer or editor decided on a "Let's get back to basics" approach and Hal got his ring back.  

But John Stewart as Green Lantern remains a fairly consistent presence in the DC universe.

In the Justice League animated series, the producers opted to use the John Stewart version of Green Lantern to add some diversity to the line up. It is arguable that because of the television exposure, more people know John Stewart as Green Lantern than they do Hal Jordan.  

SIDE NOTE:  Swapping out the white guy with the black guy has already been done a year or so before over at Marvel.   

Denny O'Neil (who co-created John Stewart) was writing Iron-Man and had Tony Stark relapse into alcoholism and turn over the Iron Man armor to Jim Rhodes (Rhodey).

Rhodey stayed on as Iron Man for a long time until some writer or editor decided on a "Let's get back to basics" approach so Tony got sober and got his amor back.  

____________________________________

NEXT WEEK: What comic books did a young Dave-El buy in September 1976? Comic Book Retro 50 will address that burning question next week.   

The Darkest Timeline

I wanna talk about the darkest timeline.

Twice! 

To set the stage, let's cover some ground about the darkest timeline that originated on the TV series Community.

In the 3rd season episode "Remedial Chaos Theory", Troy and Abed have invited the study group gang to their new apartment for a housewarming party.  

The group gathers to play Yahtzee when the pizza delivery arrives.  

Jeff suggests rolling a 6 sided die to determine who will go to the door to get the pizza.

Abed cautions that each roll of the die creates an alternate timeline.  

The episode unfolds as each roll of the die arrives at a different number and a different person goes to the door and each time, different stuff happens in the few moments that person is away. Various things go askew depending on who is still in the room.

Of these scenarios, "the darkest timeline" arrives when Jeff roles a "1" and Troy has to go to the door.

In the brief moment Troy is gone, the gun in Annie's purse has gone off and shot Pierce in the leg and Britta dropped the joint she was "secretly" smoking, setting the apartment on fire.

The episode ends with a tag scene set in what Abed calls "the darkest timeline"

• Pierce died from his gun shot wound.  
• Shirley is alcoholic.
• Annie is confined to a psychiatric hospital
• Jeff lost an arm in the fire
• Troy has no larynx after trying to eat the troll doll Pierce gave him.  
• Britta puts a blue streak in her hair

Abed made the group goatees out of felt as indicators of their evil nature (like Spock in the Star Trek episode "Mirror Mirror").  

So that's one "darkest timeline", the fictional one from a TV show.

Then there's the other "darkest timeline", the real one.  The one we're living in.   

Every time I see a story posted on Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, etc about some damn thing done by Donald Trump or one of his simpering snivelling syncophants that gives more power to the powerful, more wealth to the wealthy or take away something that actually helps people, I will inevitably see this comment:

"This is definitely the darkest timeline."

Every single day I hear something that seems to me the worst possible outcome.  

• A.I. is coming to take all our water and electricity and then kill us all.
• This weekend, my news feeds were blowing up with stories about A.I. run amuck, doing shit we didn't tell it to do.
• Reps from Google and Anthropic are all "My God! What have we done?" If the people who created A.I. are worried, I'm thinking there may be something to worry about. 
• Nah, there's nothing to worry about! Speaker of the House Mike Johnson doesn't think Congress needs to do anything about A.I. and that the tech companies know best about how to handle things.
• Communities are super stressed out by the demands for water and electricity caused by A.I. data centers.  The tech bros building these centers are carving out sweetheart deals to avoid paying taxes, contributing nothing to the local infrastructure. They only take and take and give nothing back.
• Donald Trump of course thinks A.I. data centers are the wave of the future and any community that doesn't want a data center wants to be poor and stupid.
• Women's rights are being curtailed. 
• In some states, draconian anti-abortion laws are so broadly written, women are being charged with murder if they have a miscarriage.
• There are states where if a woman gets pregant due to being raped and she decides to get an abortion, she can go to prison longer than the man who raped her.
• There's a petition on change.org to repeal the 19th amendment (that gave women the right to vote).
• The Department of Labor recently ruled that a female sailor being raped on a ship was not a "crime" but a "workplace injury".   
• Good news: the murder rate is down. Except for women being murdered in domestic violence events.   
• A war widow was denied benefits for her dead husband because whatever he died in, Congress never declared it a war.  
• I could go on but let's just sum up: it sucks to be a woman in Trump's America! 
• ICE is scooping up people for looking like they MIGHT be illegal.
• Remember the premise that ICE was focusing only on the worst of the worst, the illegal immigrants commiting crimes?  Yeah, I never believed that either.
• And the net has widened with actual citizens being scooped up for the temerity of looking like they might be illegal.  In other words, brown skin.
• That includes arresting a woman who was a Native American. OK, I'll bite: where the fuck are they going to deport a Native American?
• ICE wants electric shock gloves. (They looked cool in the Land's End catalog?) 
• ICE is buying robot dogs. (Because real dogs will not put up with these fuckers.) 
• There are threats to send ICE to the polls this November.
• The war Trump started with Iran continues to be a mess.
• People who know better tried to tell him that the idea that Iran was on the verge on having a nuclear weapon any minute now was bullshit. They had facts, figures, graphs!
• Trump said his gut told him different and here we are 6+ months later in a quagmire of chaos that shows no signs of ending.  
• It is no surprise that the war with no definable plan for ending had no definable reason for even fucking starting other than Trump felt like it.
• These fuckers cannot even agree if it's a war. When Li'l Donnie and Prickly Pete want to get all macho and tough, it's WAR! When they want to downplay that what's happening is not that big of a deal, it's a conflict or some other bullshit. (See above for how widows are being fucked over by this gamesmanship over wording.)  
• The price of food, gas and damn it, EVERYTHING keeps going up.
• Trump will tell anyone who will listen than prices are DOWN.
• He also insists his poll numbers are UP and any polls that say otherwise are fake.
• How can his poll numbers possibly be down when Natalie Harp keeps showing him print outs from the internet on what a fantastic job he's doing?

Last week, the Republican Party staged a Mid-Term Convention, what they described as a "Trumpapalooza" to celebrate their lord and savior and praise him for all the good things he's done for our country.

And if the party didn't praise him enough, Li'l Donnie spent two nights taking up the slack, extolling just how GREAT everything is, how prices are DOWN, not up, that America is strong and respected and blah blah blah.

Funny, my grocery bill is certainly not the fuck going down.

I look at the clown car antics of those in charge of our government and I do NOT feel strong or respected.

Do I need to go on? 

It feels like the darkest timeline to me.  

Let me use TV to offer some context.  

In last week's season finale of The Librarians: The Next Chapter (see yesterday's Tuesday TV Touchbase), Merlin seeks to go back in time and through the use of raw, unchecked power make Camelot great again and prevent it's fall. 

By the time Merlin is done, a lot of people are dead and Camelot is shattered into ruins.  He causes the very downfall he professed to want to stop.  

I feel like that's where Trump and those in the MAGA movement are heading, employing raw, unchecked power to force America back to whatever they perceive as greatness and to force the rest of the world to acquiesce to that vision.

Every step these miscreants take is one step closer to a deeper and lasting misery and closer to the American dream being shattered into ruins.  

Honest to God, every day in this reality brings me to the conclusion that yes, "This is definitely the darkest timeline."

But here is a scary thought: as dark as things feel now, what if they can become even darker still?

"This is definitely the darkest timeline?" 

Fuck me but I don't think Trump and the minions in his government and his compliant corporate stooges have actually reached the bottom yet.

OK, this is a bummer of a note to end on.

I need a puppy! 

Fine, that helps a little bit. 

########################################

Tomorrow on the blog: comic books!