PeterDavid.net

A suggestion from Dave Phelps:

“Might be fodder for that NotePAD thing on your website…

“Are you going to be doing anything special for the coming
cancellation/restart of Captain Marvel (like a major direction change ala
Supergirl)? Or is it pretty much going to be “business as usual” story wise
with maybe a little more “jumping on”ish material in the new #1?

“I’ll be buying either way, but I was a little curious.”

I don’t know if I’d say the series will undergo a “major change in direction,” because that implies that everything that’s gone before gets thrown out. I resist taking such measures, because to me that makes the “seams” show too much. If you jerk a character around too much, it becomes obvious that we’re dealing with–well–a jerked around character, and that destroys the willing suspension of disbelief. What I’m doing with the new #1 is embarking on a storyline that is a logical extension of what’s gone before, but also is ideally shocking and startling in its conception and execution.

I wanted the story to focus more on Captain Marvel without losing the influence of Rick Jones. So what I opted to do was have the story told largely through first person narration from Rick’s POV, but have it be almost entirely about Marv. And what it charts, quite simply, is Captain Marvel’s abrupt and horrifying descent into total madness.

To a certain degree, I was inspired by–of all things–a Jim Shooter Marvel/DC crossover story from many years ago, in which Superman came face to face with Doc Doom, and Doom says, “Nothing happens on this planet that you and I do not allow to happen.” And Superman doesn’t dispute the claim. And I thought, What if we jacked up that concept to a cosmic level. Have Captain Marvel come to the realization that he can’t be everywhere…and the cosmic awareness of that literally becomes too much for him. Peter Parker to the Nth degree, knowing with great power comes great responsibility, but in this case not unwilling to use the power but instead physically unable to do so, and incapable of dealing with his limitations. What happens then?

In Captain Marvel #1, on sale in September, you’ll see. In the meantime, the current storyline is laying groundwork for important developments later on. In the current issue, hitting the stands today, I literally went for the old style Marvel “shock follows shock” idea of storytelling. The issue starts off with a simple, goofy, fan-oriented gag and some light banter, just so people get to think that it’s business as usual…and then around page six or seven, I knock the wheels off the expectations wagon and just go from there.

At the base of all the hoopla and chest thumping which has gone on in recent weeks (be sure to check out the David 3:16 link elsewhere on this web page) is a comic book that the current issue of Comics International calls a “masterpiece still undiscovered by the masses.” So go discover already.

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In deference to our foreign fans visiting the website, I won’t go into any sort of spoiler detail about the season wrap-up of “Angel” (although I *will* mention, because it’s non-specific, that a cliffhanger of that type is somewhat unprecedented in the show’s history. Until now, the series had always abided by the “Buffy” formula of ending clean. This one ends nasty and ragged. But then, that’s more like life when you get down to it.

What I’ve found interesting is the initial very negative fan reactions I’ve been seeing. I thought it was a pretty good episode, actually, in that it was a logical progression from all that’s gone before. That’s been both the strength and weakness of this season. All that has occurred has gone in a very logical, reasonable manner. Unfortunately, because of that, it’s also been remarkably predictable. The only beat of the Conner storyline I missed was my belief that the time-hopping demon Sahjahn *was* Conner. Other than that, it was pretty much obvious.

TV series always tread a fine line between giving viewers what they want (which invariably then palls on them and they move off) and giving them what they don’t want (which can enrage them but also keep them). “Angel” has tried to embrace the latter while showing a derth of imagination and therefore stumbling into the former. Not its most successful season…and that comes from someone who actually *liked* the three episodes in the other dimension last year.

“Buffy” likewise has been beat-by-beat for anyone who ever read the “Dark Phoenix” stories. In fact, that was signaled from the very first episode. Remember when Willow stood there in the center of the graveyard and telepathically guided all the Scoobies in their slaying? It was remarked back then that they’d turned her into Jean Gray. If they follow Claremont’s original model for the storyline (as opposed to the Shooter-mandated “She must die” ending) then eventually we’ll have Dark Willow going completely nova only to be captured, restrained, and (perhaps voluntarily) undergoing a sort of psychic surgery that will remove her abilities completely forever. We’ll see.

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Been off line a few days while I attended Leprecon out in Phoenix, AZ. It’s the first straight-up SF convention I’ve attended in a reaaaal long time. One of the things I’m endeavoring to do is get people to realize that I do things other than comics and Star Trek novels, and I figured that getting out to a regional SF convention would be a way of spreading the word.

I don’t know that I succeeded all that much. The convention had about 500 people, and folks were very nice. In that respect, I had a good time. But a Jeopardy-style trivia competition on Friday had five questions about me, out of which the assembled group of thirty could only answer one. And my big GOH speech drew an audience of about a dozen, which put a sort of “Don’t know who he is and don’t really care” pall upon it. More frustrating for the committee folk was that fliers put out at comic stores prompted lots of comics fans to say, “Oooo! Peter David! I’ll be there!” and then exactly none of them showed up. So although the convention itself was a lot of fun and I’d recommend it to folks who want a nice, relaxed SF con, from a career profile POV it didn’t pan out.

One of the high points was a midnight demonstration of latex body painting upon a gorgeous, blonde and pretty much naked model. The hotel room in which the demo was being done was packed. Big surprise. There were large plastic sheets taped up on the walls, and fans inquired as to the reason for the walls being covered in that manner. I opined that they were allowing for the possibility that–for many of the fanboys in the room–it was the first time they’d actually seen a naked woman and there was concern their heads might explode and splatter the walls. You know, kind of like “Scanners.”

I’m not sure if my pictures of the event came out. I’ll let you know. But if they did, some of you may want to put some plastic covering over your computer. You know who you are.

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In Which The TARDIS comes to Pooh Corner and Doctor Pooh finds a job…

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In Which the TARDIS is explored and Piglet defeats The Terror of the Woozles…

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I decided to pass on the notion of a midnight show of “Attack of the Clones,” having fallen asleep the last time I tried that. So this time around I opted for a nice, safe 10 AM show. Ariel was in tow, gleefully playing hooky from school as were, indeed, most of the people in the audience.

I’ll be doing a more detailed review of the film in “But I Digress.” Highlights: Yoda; Samuel L. Jackson getting Jedieval on people’s asses; most of the visuals; minimal Jar-Jar; John Williams score; the nice shadow bit on Tatooine where Anakin’s profile bears a resemblance to Vader’s, bringing to life the poster from Episode 1. Lowlights: Just about everything else. Script, direction, most of the acting, and most painfully, Anakin. As Luke proved when bitching about wanting to go into town for power converters, a little Jedi whining goes a long way. Obi-Wan’s holding him back? Obi-Wan should be gagging him. He’s going to bring balance to the Force? He couldn’t bring balance to my car radio. Christ, is he annoying.

Most telling to me was Ariel’s incisive, albeit unintentional, deconstruction of the film into its component marketing parts. A menacing sequence on a robot-manufacturing conveyor belt prompted Ariel to remark, “This would make a good ride.” When Amidala was chained to a giant post awaiting death in an arena, Ariel chirpped in recognition, “I have the toy of this!” It says something about the Star Wars universe when a ten year old is able to recognize it as the license-generating bonanza it has become, rather than the combination of movie serials and myth that it once was.

Bottom line: It’s better than its predecessor, which makes it both watchable and a relief. But “Empire” was better than its predecessor, and that was no mean feat. In this case, “Phantom Menace” lowered the bar so significantly that it wasn’t all that much of a chore. Hell, reducing Jar Jar’s screen time from fifty minutes to five was more than enough to do it.

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Well, we can’t say we didn’t see the events of tonight’s “Buffy” coming as Willow goes totally nova.

What’s interesting is how much sense it all makes if one takes the long view, on two levels. First, Willow has a history of using magic for immediate gratification, as a quick fix so she doesn’t have to deal with long, drawn out processes…be it emotional coping or even, in the current case, judicial proceedings. Second, Willow’s very first major use of magic was when she restored Angel’s soul back at the end of the second season. Keep in mind, what she did at the time was, technically speaking, *not* a positive thing even though it served a higher purpose. It was repeatedly referred to as “cursing” Angel. And Giles said it himself: That if Willow embarked on that course, she might be opening a dark door that she would not be able to close. Well, that sure as hell turned out to be the case.

Excellent use also of what was essentially an in-joke for long time viewers: Willow’s singsong “Bored now” required knowledge of either “The Wish” or “Dopplegangland” from third season to appreciate. My work on “Captain Marvel” precipitated lengthy discussions about the use of in-references, and some people seem to feel that things which harken back to moments from years gone by are somehow a bad thing. This, I think, indisputably proves how such uses can be extremely powerful. To a newcomer, her blase “Bored now” was simply a throwaway comment. To the long-time fan, it was of course the chilling complaint that Vamp Willow would utter just before she committed some sort of fatal mayhem.

This has been an almost unremittingly depressing season. It seems odd to call this episode a bright spot. I suppose it is, mostly due to Alyson Hannigan’s frightening and tour-de-force turn to the dark side. It definitely did not leave me bored now.

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In Which Doctor Pooh helps a Stowaway and Learns Something about the Nature of the Universe…

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So I was interviewed for a documentary last night. I was approached by a fellow with the frankly unfortunate name of Constantine Valhouli, whom I can only assume is a comic fan now because he got the crap kicked out of him as a kid. Referred to me by Catherine Gruenwald (widow of the late, great Mark Gruenwald) and working in conjunction with comic historian Peter Sanderson, they’re putting together a documentary about the history of comics. It’s an endeavor to look at an artform that is all too often relegated to the status of juvenile pastime by the general public. They hauled some camera equipment to my office and we chatted for an hour and a half about comics in general, and my work on such titles as HULK in specific. Interviews have already been completed with Colleen Doran and Jim Valentino. They said Colleen said flattering things about me. Considering I thought she couldn’t stand me, that was nice to hear. Maybe she can stand me now. Not everyone can. Every so often I still worry about Kathleen coming to her senses and running screaming into the night. Thank God for that homing beacon I installed in her while she was sleeping…

Peter Sanderson also pointed out to me that Spider-Man, as depicted in the movie, is portrayed in terms of origin and powers almost exactly the way that I played “Spider-Man 2099.” Genetic manipulation rather than radioactive blood. Biological webspinners. Bristles on his fingertips (the talons on 2099’s were larger than the microscopic versions in the movie, but even so, 2099 had extensions on his fingers whereas the modern day one crawls walls through an enhanced version of static electricity, according to the Handbook). In 2099, his inner warning system consisted of what I called accelerated vision which enabled him to see all manner of attack and react to it before it got to him, which is the movie version…as opposed to the comics where his spider sense is sort of an all purpose ESP.

Coincidence? Well, let’s see if Peter Parker acquires fangs in the next film.

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In Which Doctor Pooh and Jeannie Robin Encounter a Friend, a Foe, and The Genesis of the Heffalumps…

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There are some major omissions in my movie-viewing history, and one of them is “Apocalypse Now.” Never saw it in its first release, never got around to renting the video. I mean, c’mon, who’s ever really in the mood to rent a 2 3/4 hour war movie? But the Redux version showed up on Saturday night on Showtime and so Kathleen and I plunked down to watch it.

Sure didn’t feel like 3 and a half hours. Only problem was, I was constantly distracted by considerations that original viewers didn’t have to deal with. There’s the “My God, he’s so young” upon seeing Martin Sheen, who looked a lot like Charlie Sheen back then but sounded the way he does now. Not to mention the incredibly youthful Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, etc. Then there’s the, “Oh, I remember this parody” phenomenon. “Hot Shots” sent up Sheen’s voice over and cruise down the river, “Xena” riffed on Sheen’s mud-covered face coming up out of the water, and there’s the immortal “Buffy” episode with Principal Snyder in the Brando role and Xander as Sheen. After Brando said the line about Sheen being an errand boy, I kept waiting for Sheen to grimace and say, “I’m getting a cramp.”

Great movie, but boy, do you bring a lot of baggage to it if you’ve never seen it before.

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In Which We meet Doctor Pooh and his Companion and they take the TARDIS for adventuring.

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Just finished the script for Supergirl #74. Didn’t have an easy time of it. See, we have a major new storyline that starts with #75, and it had been my intention to wrap up the current storyline in #75 and segue into the next one in the selfsame issue…kind of like what I did in #50. But I was told that the best way to launch the new storyline in #75 was to make it as clean a break as possible, and so I had to compress the story I’d planned for 73-75 into two issues, 73-74. I had a ton of elements to deal with, and it took me most of a week to wrestle the script to the ground.

That’s an inherent difficulty with the way I tell lengthy stories. Usually when the resolution arrives, no matter how meticulously and over however many months I set it up, the methodical nature of my plotting prompts people to say that so much happened in the concluding chapters that they think the story is rushed. Well, boy, I’ll be interested to see what they think of #74, considering how many story elements I pack in and resolve over the course of 22 pages.

Still, the decks are now cleared for #75, which will launch a major new, and highly demanded, storyline. Leonard Kirk’s last issue is #74, and hopefully he’ll be going out with a bang. And we do indeed have the new artist lined up starting with #75, but I can’t make that announcement yet. Soon, ideally. Hope to see you all there.

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First off, thanks to all of you who’ve had such nice things to say about the site.

Second, re: BID archives: we’ve found the vast majority of BIDs from 3/01/91 (CBG #902) in electronic format. Before we start digging for the earlier 26 columns, I figured I might as well ask here to see if anybody already took the time to place any of them into some sort of electronic format– if you did, please let me know via e-mail. (Yes, that includes if you got them out of the trade paperback, as we’re still looking for those files too.)

Third, thanks to the work of one such archiver, Allyn Gibson, we’ll soon be reprinting the lo-o-o-ong out of print The TARDIS at Pooh Corner here, probably in the next day or three. Watch the skies.

Attended the first readthrough of the first play I’ve gotten involved with in a while (in my occasional hobby of actor in the Long Island theater community.) I’ll be appearing in a play called “Checking Out” at the Broadhollw Center Stage at Malloy College in Nassau County the last two weeks of June. The play revolves around an elderly Jewish man who calmly decides that he’s done with his life and informs his grown children that he’s planning to take a bottle of sleeping pills. They show up en masse to talk him out of it. I was asked to play the part of his eldest son Ted, the middle-aged utterly neurotic Jewish psychiatrist. Because of course, when you’re in Long Island and you need an utterly neurotic middle-aged Jew, you think of me. Who wouldn’t?

It’s a challenge because it’s the most dramatic role I’ve ever undertaken, and at one point I have a monologue that goes on for an entire page in which my character completely melts down, much to the horror of his younger brother. And the guy who plays my father–an established LI actor with the unlikely name of Harvard Mann–is absolutely terrific. I’m also excited to be working with the director, Jack Howell, who directed me as Sancho in “Man of La Mancha.”

Oh, on another topic–in response to popular demand, I will be doing a BID column detailing which scenes I added into the novelization of “Spider-Man” that were purely my invention, as opposed to scenes that were in the script but cut. Also, for those who want to read the script, the Previews Exclusive edition of “Behind the Mask of Spider-Man: The Secrets of the Movie” has the entire shooting script printed in the back. And no, I don’t get a percentage; this is a self-interest-free plug.

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Well, Tara is toast. We followers of “Buffy” pretty much saw it coming the instant that Amber Benson was added to the opening credits. Obviously a stunt to lure the unwary into a false sense of security.

On a personal level, I’m rather upset because I’ve met Amber a couple times and she’s a really sweet girl whose character deserved better than to die a pointless death from a stray gunshot by one of the Lone Wankers. Still, let us consider the track record of interpersonal relationships in Sunnydale. Buffy & Angel: He dumped her. Buffy & Parker: He dumped her. Buffy & Riley: He dumped her. Buffy & Joyce: Joyce died. Buffy & Giles: Giles left. Buffy & Spike: She dumped him *and* he tried to rape her. Giles & Jenny Calendar: She was killed. Giles & Olivia: Left town after realizing Giles was telling the truth about all that black magic stuff. Xander & the Sexy Teacher: She tried to eat him. Xander & Inca Mummy Girl: She tried to suck the life out of him. Xander & Cordy: She dumped him. Xander & Faith: She humped and dumped him inside of ten minutes and later tried to kill him. Xander & Anya: He dumped her. Willow & the Demon in the Computer: He tried to kill her, as demons are wont to do. Willow & Oz: He dumped her and returned only to be dumped himself. Spike & Dru: She dumped him for a fungus demon, came back to him, and dumped him again. Spike & Harmony: Alternated between dumping each other and trying to stake each other. Amy & Larry: The classic Sunnydale romance–Before it could go anywhere, Amy got turned into a rat, Larry acknowledged he was gay, and then got killed by a serpent demon.

So you can say what you want about poor Tara’s fate, but you sure can’t say it’s inconsistent with what’s gone before. Dating someone on the Hellmouth is a lot like being an old friend of Jessica Fletcher’s: You’re going to die, or someone’s going to try and kill you, or you’ll be suspected of killing someone.

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Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” in one of his headline reports stated, “And the Israelis and Palestinians move ever closer in the peace process, which is expected to be concluded NEVER.” He said it a year and a half ago, back when Clinton was making his last ditch effort to bring Sharon and Arafat together. Back when Israel puts its best offer *ever* on the table, and Arafat instead simply walked out and supported terrorist attacks.

It is a sign of the world’s unfair expectations that Israel is expected to express regrets (and does so) over the unfortunate deaths of women and children caught in the crossfire, but no one seriously expects Palestinians to express regrets over guerilla assaults that kill Israeli women and children as a matter of design. The Palestinians continue to be painted as victims. It is incomprehensible. Meantime the major Arab countries don’t understand why Israel doesn’t take their generous offer of rolling back to the pre-Six Day War boundaries in exchange for which the Arab nations will finally recognize Israel. My. What a generous concession. The governments will acknowledge that which has been in existence for nearly three quarters of a century. And once they do so, then what? Continue to indoctrinate their citizens from an early age into Anti-Jew philosophies? Three out of four Arabs still refuse to believe that Arabs had anything to do with 9/11. You’d think they, of anyone, would know that “Denial” is not just a river in Egypt.

Israel’s neighbors want to kill them. How does one negotiate with people who want to kill you?

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Greetings and solicitations.

This will be the first of what will ideally be daily updates in this on-line journal. In the near future, we’ll have a regular Q&A set-up, plus we’re trying to figure out how to produce an on-line whack-a-mole.

Have just returned from Florida where I attended John Ordover’s 40th birthday party (while Kathleen was shangheid off to Indianapolis, in connection with her assistant editor job at Del Rey, to attend the Star Wars expo, attendance 60,000, jeez). We hit Universal on Saturday with laser-sighting as to the rides we wanted to go on: The Men in Black ride and the Spider-Man ride. The MIB ride involves riding through a shooting gallery of aliens coming out at you, and the biggest trick to the ride is knowing when precisely to hit the red button on your console which you’re told that you should not, under any circumstances, hit. Smacking it at just the right moment garners you a 100,000 point bonus. And the Spider-Man ride remains the best ride in any Florida theme park, although now I’m wondering whether they’re going to replace the cheesy animated intro with specially shot footage featuring Tobey Mcguire and J.K. Simmons who was so brilliant as Jonah Jameson. Picked up some nifty souvenirs, including an absolutely spectacular Spider-Man hockey shirt that I cannot recommend highly enough. Only thing that groused me was that my novelization of the movie was nowhere to be seen in the stores anywhere in the Park.

And yes, I’ve written a review of the film, which will be running in CBG in a couple of weeks.

PAD

Hi. I’m Glenn Hauman, the guy who’s helping Peter build this web site.

I’m the former publisher of the late lamented BiblioBytes, and have shown up as the CMO of the Enterprise in Imzadi, the leader of the planet in Restoration (along with my assistant Brandi and my minions Bibbyte and Lio) and in Genesis Wave as a researcher at the Daystrom Institute (much to the surprise of the original author, John Vornholt) and even wrote one of those Star Trek things myself– a lovely little work called Oaths which should be out any day now.

But I digress… which is a roundabout way of getting to the real topic of this post.

A lot of people have asked if we’ll be putting up the old But I Digress columns here, and yes, we will, but… well, we don’t quite have a complete archive. Actually, we’ve gone through all the old hard drives and we think it’s reasonably complete, but we have no idea what appeared when or quite in what order.

So we’re just going to post them here as we finish translating them, in what we hope is something vaguely resembling chronological order… and then we’re going to rely on the truly dedicated readers to tell us when and where they appeared. If you can tell us where it appeared, just post the issue number and date in the comment section for the page and we’ll update the entry to reflect it. Then, after we’re more or less complete, we’ll try and archive them with a bit more order.

In the meantime, hey, the search function works, so use that to find that BID that slammed [insert name here]…