At a rally in Billings, Montana, Trump–as always–attempted to shift blame for his problems away from himself and to someone else. In an unusual move, his target was his own supporters. He claimed that if they did not get out and vote for Republicans in November, he would be impeached.
“I’ll be the only President in history they’ll say: ‘What a job he’s done! By the way, we’re impeaching him,'”
Well, not exactly. What will be said is, “What a job he’s done. That’s why we’re impeaching him.”
So I was planning the story for HULK #417 and 418, and I wanted to have the Hulk battle one of the Skrulls who showed up for Rick and Marlo’s wedding. But I wanted it to be a fight atypical of such dust-ups.
Then I hit upon the idea of having it be a Skrull who could not shapeshift because of a genetic disorder. I figured a guy like that would be seen as a weakling, endlessly tormented. And what I reasoned was that it would give him incentive to be the most badass Skrull in the empire, a gladiator of unequaled skill. His name would be Talos and he would pick up the nickname “Talos the Untamed.” But when he was captured by the Kree during the Kree/Skrull war, he would refuse to commit suicide as honor demanded. Consequently he was disgraced and referred to as Talos the Tamed.
In #418 he wound up battling the Hulk, figuring the big guy would kill him so that he could die nobly in combat. But when the Hulk realized what he wanted, he dropped to his knees and begged him to stop the fight. Talos was so disgusted by the Hulk’s pleading that he decided the Hulk wasn’t worth the combat. But when he transported back to his ship, all the other Skrulls were extremely impressed over his handling of the formidable Hulk and so he took a huge step back in regaining his honor.
It was easily the most unpopular issue of Hulk I ever wrote. Fans were revolted by the idea of the Hulk surrendering under any circumstance, even though the Hulk had no stake in the fight and didn’t care who won or lost. As far as the fans were concerned, only the Hulk beating Talos into a pile of mulch was an acceptable ending. I shrugged. Can’t win ’em all.
But apparently Talos remained popular, and now it turns out he’s going to be one of the main villains in the upcoming “Captain Marvel” movie. Which means action figures, and maybe t-shirts. And you know I’ll be watching the end credits to see if my name is in there, ’cause if it’s not I will be VERY disappointed.
Oh God, don’t let the movie tank. Otherwise I’ll feel it’s my fault; the first Marvel movie not to do well. Because it featured a Peter David creation as the villain.
PAD
Well, well, well. Been quite the week for Trump. His continued howls of “witch hunt” were crushed on Tuesday, because the definition of a witch hunt is that innocent people suffer as mob hysteria sets in and seeks justice for imagined offenses. But four days ago the verdict came back in the Paul Manafort trial convicting him on eight of the eighteen offenses for which he was being tried (a single juror was the holdout on the remaining ten; possibly a Trump supporter, we don’t know.). Meanwhile, within minutes of that, Michael D. Cohen admitted under oath in open court that Trump instructed him to make payments hushing up his affair with Stormy Daniels in order to influence the election.
Once again we are hearing the oldest refrain in the world: the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.
I’m making a rare non-Friday commentary on Trump.
Trump is comparing Robert Mueller to Joe McCarthy. That reminded me that a major program was started in March of 1954 by a Wisconsin newspaper editor called “Joe Must Go.” The drive of the program was to recall the Communism hating Senator. Although it didn’t quite succeed on its own, it was one of the factors that led to McCarthy being censured and losing all his influence. It’s worth noting that the news was also responsible when Edward R. Murrow did several pieces on him that shredded his support. Why else do you think Trump has been obsessed with convincing the public the news can’t be trusted? Historically the free press helps deter destructive influences in the government. Trump figured that if he could find a way to invalidate belief in the press, he would remove a major enemy in his path. He doesn’t really believe the press is fake. He just wants his followers to believe it.
So this is what we need to begin: Don Be Gone. A national movement to get rid of him. I’m not entirely sure how we go about it, but we have to start something with that sort of very specific focus.
Don Be Gone.
Get it out there.
PAD
It’s really true: with the death of Aretha Franklin, there is now an opening for the role of Queen of Soul and there is absolutely no one to fill it. Her passing prompted marvelous words of mourning and sympathy from everyone from private citizens to top leaders.
What did Trump say?
“She worked for me on numerous occasions.”
Because every thing in the world has to be about him. EVERY gøddámņ thing. He couldn’t just talk about the loss. He couldn’t say a matchless talent has been extinguished. He couldn’t say that her voice reflected “our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect,” which is what Obama said. Nope. Had to claim she worked for him, because in all matters great and small, all that matters to Trump is “How does this reflect on me.” Who worked for him, who treated him well, who complimented him, who betrayed him.
Jesus Christ.
UPDATE: Now we understand why Trump is pushing a Space Force. It was announced that they were going to produce Space Force souvenirs and merchandise to benefit Trump’s reelection. How did I NOT see that coming?
Screw him. If you want real space souvenirs, go to here to pick up a 60th anniversary t-shirt or other souvenirs that will provide money to NASA. That’s where the real attention to space should be spent.
For the past couple of weeks I have either been on vacation or at conventions with minimal access to computers. I would like to think I missed something, but the fact is that Trump has been up to his usual schtick: Supporting Putin while simultaneously endeavoring to distract attention away from the increasing vise grip of the Mueller investigation.
If you are trying to write for a television series, the one thing you don’t do is send them a script for their actual program because you can’t possibly match their voice.
Nevertheless, I came up with an idea for the television program “Supernatural” and couldn’t get it out of my head. It was a sequel to the wonderfully hilarious episode “The French Mistake” in which Sam and Dean Winchester find themselves in an alternate universe where they are believed to be Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, the stars of a TV series entitled “Supernatural.” All I could think of was, “What happened to the ‘real’ Jared and Jensen when the Supernatural brothers took their place?”
The good news is that my agent is friends with series creator Eric Kripke, so he sent it to Kripke and asked him to send it along to the producers. Kripke happily agreed to do so and did just that.
Over a year later the producers have still not bothered to read it, at least to the best of my knowledge. So I figured that I wanted someone to have a chance to read it. I’ve posted it on my Patreon page, so everyone currently following that can check it out.
For those unsure, I am reproducing the Teaser here so you can judge for yourself. If you like what you read, then go here.
And here’s the teaser. Pardon the slightly improper script style; the site won’t allow me to print it in the standard format.
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