My Name Is Michael Midnight

Dear 2008,

You were by far a most interesting year, for me and for the world.  I started 2008 off with two main goals:  find a job and grow further creatively.  Although I started the job search slowly, I started the other goal off by attending the farewell launch party for “Y - the Last Man” at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, where I got to meet some of my favorite comic book creators:  Joss Whedon, Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, and, of course, the creators of “Y - The Last Man,” Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra.

After a start with many a weekend of longs hours devoted to Risk or Monopoly house parties, or movie hopping with friends, life kicked in.  Friends moved, working jobs turned into careers, and while most of my friends progressed on the game of life, I lingered and stalled.  I spent many months playing the waiting game for jobs, and as I waited I started to be more active in the online community.

After re-finding Leo Laporte on TWiT and my affection for technology and the Internet, I started to video blog after meeting a person who set me down that path.  With my trusty Flip Video Ultra camcorder, I started vlogging on Viddler.  But soon that was going to change.  After watching Happy Slip videos, I came across KevJumba.  And after that, it was a snowball effect that brought me to YouTube.  From KevJumba, I watched videos from Student.com, and then CadeGoesToCollege and BooShoe37.  And Twitter was moving away from being a fad to me and becoming a much widely used communication tool.  Surprisingly, people I followed started to reply back to me, and even followed me back.  And for some, our chats on Twitter moved onto instant messaging.

During the latter part of 2008, I found myself bombarded with events.  I found myself a fan of John Green, after hearing about him from YourAverageAdam and reading “An Abundance Of Katherines.”  As I followed more people on YouTube, I also started to watch some of their live shows on BlogTV and found another obsession.  But it was the weeks before Halloween that changed me the most in 2008:  I landed a job at a library and went to my first YouTube Gathering.

There’s nothing much to say about my library job than, thank you Jesus! I’ve been looking for a job, any job, for a long time and finally got one, albeit a part-time one, at a library.  Not only was it close to home (saving me gas money) but it was also new library.  It wasn’t a small and damp place but a large, two-story modern building that you would find me at regardless if I worked there or not.  But it was the first Hollywood Meet-Up at Hollywood and Highland that really set things off me.  From that single event, I met a whole mess of awesome YouTube people and began in earnest an awesome community.

Soon as my Twittering got more extensive and spending more time on YouTube and BlogTV, I also found myself getting more active on sites.  After a chance encounter from a post on Aint It Cool News, I happened onto a podcast that became the /Film Podcast, one of my favorite podcasts next to those from Leo Laporte and Kevin Smith.  From them I was shown an awesome film world community made available through many people and web sites online.  And when I can, Monday nights have become my favorite when I can sit down and watch Dave, Devindra, and Adam talk about the weeks new release and other film news.

After the YouTube gathering, I found myself going to meet John Green in person, getting my books personally signed,  and met another bunch of cool people.  Nerdfighters!  And it was so great.  Most of the people I met at the Hollywood Gathering were there and the many of the people I chatted late into the night were there too.  Soon there was another YouTube Gathering in Hollywood where I met another group of new friends and hanged out more with old ones.  Incrementally each gathering was getting better and better.  This time, not only did I hang out at Hollywood and Highland but I also got to hang out and cup my balls for dear life at a Scientology center,  spend some time at Citywalk, protest (and avoid a riot) on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, and finally visit my old stomping grounds in Irvine to stamp out the night.  That Saturday alone was a full day for me and I didn’t think anything would top that.  Not until I got YouTube Live tickets and decided to go.

YouTube Live.  Man, what haven’t I said about it?  It was an awesome event where I got to meet more YouTube stars and befriend more people.  I got to walk around the streets of San Francisco and see pools of YouTubers walking about.  And this is all before the actual event.  There were missed flights, stuffed-in van pools, standing up for hours on end, pictures, video - ah! I had a grand old time.

Oh 2008, you were such an interesting year.  Here’s to even greater 2009!

Personal Blog 2008, BlogTV, gatherings, Hollywood, John Green, twitter, Y - The Last Man, YouTube, YouTube Live

Rating - 4 out 5 Stars

I haven’t seen any of Clint Eastwood’s earlier film work, and if I had, I don’t honestly remember them.  What I do recall are only snippets of scenes and lines, especially his famous “do you think you’re lucky” line; and from what Marty McFly references from him in “Back to the Future Part III”.  And even with his directorial work I haven’t completely seen them; only bits and pieces.  So I’m coming into “Gran Torino” without much history of Eastwood’s acting and directing abilities.

Eastwood portrays Walk Kowalski, a widowed, angry, racist, Korean War veteran who happens to own a 1972 Gran Tornino that his Hmong neighbor, Thao, attempts to steal for a gang initiation.

The majority of the film centers on Walt becoming friendly with Thao and his sister Sue because of the incident with the Gran Torino, and forces Walt to come to terms with lingering effects from the Korean War.

What makes this movie is clearly Clint Eastwood’s acting.  From what I’ve seen of Eastwood in clips, he’s a nice, upstanding man so it was a shock to hear him curse like a pirate, spit freely and forcefully like a dirty cowboy, grimace and growl, and spew racist remarks that would make Archie Bunker look mild.  But beneath this rough exterior lies a man who’s bound to duty and justice, and an old fashioned sense of morality that he sees lacking in the world today.

Coming mostly from a comic book background, I quickly identified Eastwood’s Kowalski as similar to the Batman from “The Dark Knight Returns”.  Here’s a guy who’s been in the fight for a very long time and is nearing his end, but before he goes he gets to have another go with being a hero, and even gets another Robin (this case Thao).

Ever since I saw the trailer and sat astonished that I just saw Clint Eastwood draw a shotgun to a bunch of Asian gangbangers with the line, “get off my lawn” I was intrigued.  Here was Eastwood taking the grumpy, old man stereotype and the movie is called, “Gran Torino” - what does this all have to do.  One of the main points throughout the movie is the theme of “being a man” which is shouldered on Walt, Thao, and a young priest.  And it’s interesting to note how the movie weaves in the classic idea of the car, the Gran Torino, as the main marker of a man.  It’s what defines Walt, it’s what Thao stole to be in a gang (to show how man enough he is), and the events with Thao and Walt also play a part with the young priest’s coming into his own.

This movie was quite a delight and I’m happy I saw.  I saw it with my younger brother and my father who rarely goes to the movies since nothing really captures his attention.  But this movie gripped all of us.  I imagine my father identified with Walt’s character as he too nears the golden years of life while my brother and I exchanged glances from time to time wondering if we too needed some remembering in what it meant to a man.  This movie that is so closely tied to Walt, makes you laugh and smirk at an old man spewing racist remarks while also making you love the old Pollack bastard.

IMDB Credits

Trailer

Reviews Gran Torino, movie, review

I’m not actually sure why I made this account (I originally wrote this post after I had just created a blogger account at http://michaelmidnight.blogspot.com go check it out). Maybe it’s mostly so that I can use this account to comment on other Blogger blogs instead of using OpenID, but I’m not sure. Of course there’s my main web prescence on MichaelMidnight.com but for some reason - the only reason - I’ve been bothered by form over substance. I’m fretting over how it should than rather writing things down. Earlier this month I told myself that I wanted to do a daily blog and a daily vlog and started on the two earnestly, but with most things I start with I ended it far too soon. But why am I writing now again? I’m not sure. I’m not sure of many things.

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m tired, partly because of all the carbon monoxide coming from my vents because of the heater, but mostly I wish it wasn’t Winter. I wish it was Summer and that the climates are more palatable to my liking. So far only AJ and Byron are online and I’ve been chatting with them and reminiscing about older times. Even though most of us live in California, we’re all spread out and even those in Los Angeles County are still far from each other than we would like. What I miss is living in the same city or the same building. For all the comforts of your own room and even your own place, it’s not the same as having six or seven people in the same two room apartment overlooking the pool. Gosh, do I miss those days!

In about eight days 2008 will depart and 2009 will be crashing in and I think this week will be a good time to do plenty of restarts and reboots. I’m still going to do (I hope) a daily blog and a daily vlog and a whole list of new things to start the year off. So far my list includes:

1. eating healthy
2. working out
3. save up money for 3 potentially big events in 2009
4. actively pursue my writing
5. do more networking and being more social
6. be more frugal

I hope I can start these things off strong in 2009 and see them through at least until February, or March in the best of circumstances.

Personal Blog Blogger, Blogspot, Writing

These past few months have been very incredible.  I made so many new friends and visited so many places, that if someone over the summer told me that I’d have done all of these things and met these people I would have laughed and walked away.  I’ve been meaning to write about all these events individually but I’ve been too busy and haven’t been in the writing mode.  So instead I written down little vignettes of memories and thoughts I had during each of these events.  These aren’t complete, they’re just snap shots of a single moment in the course of a day yet these are moments I cherish nonetheless.

In the middle of October, I stood outside the famous Grauman’s Chinese theatre sweating a little bit.  I should have expected the large crowds because it was close to Halloween and because it was a Saturday; but I didn’t.  I was sick a few days ago, and on a whim I decided to come out to Hollywood and meet some people from YouTube.  I wasn’t sure what to expect since most of the people coming had already been making videos on a regular basis.  I, on the other hand, was just a spectator; a fan of their videos.  Looking away from my watch, I stood where the others should have been but I couldn’t find anyone recognizable.  More drops of sweat begin to form around my head and I decide to bolt and walk around.  As I make my way back to Hollywood and Highland I see a man decked out in gold flesh paint, red boots and wings, holding a scythe, and uttering a nasty howl from time to time.  As I try to depart from this golden fiend, a group of tourists crowd him and ask for some pictures.  “I’ve made a huge mistake,” I think to myself as I continue walking…

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

I have been harboring a secret for months now.  I have been looking for work for quite a while and have come up empty after coming so close to achieving a job offer.  And for months I worked hard towards two positions; one was for a library job and the other was for a city clerk job.  Sitting in my room, I reached for an envelope.  I had read it before, but I still couldn’t believe it.  It read:  “Dear Sir, Thank you for your time and interest with the position.  But unfortunately you did not merit an acceptance into the second round of interviews…”  I closed it and stuffed it back into the envelope.  Quirwip!  I threw the two pieces of the letter into the trash and went back to the Internet.  Surfing my pain away, I knew that winter was going to be long and cold one…

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

Finally free I left with a dash to my car and raced hurriedly to the freeway.  I had to get to Santa Monica from the San Gabriel Valley through traffic to meet John Green and get my books signed.  With rush hour traffic swelling I had a decision to make:  do I either continue on the 10 freeway and towards the library or do I head north and use the 210 and 405 freeways to arch my way down towards the library.  True the second way was longer but it potentially could save me time instead of sitting in traffic on the 10.  I was sweating it out.  What way is right?  There’s only about two hours left.  I had read that John was going to be out exactly at 7PM.  Do I just turn back and save my gas, my time, and my effort?  Making a snap decision I decide to stay on the 10.  Thirty or so minutes pass by pretty smoothly and I’m very happy with my choice when I change my smile to a frown.  A sea of red brake lights flood the freeway.  I hit the traffic.  Oh crap…

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

Sitting in the lobby I cupped my balls.  I love my balls and I feared that I may be parted with them if we stayed too long.  I sat there in the lobby with Q, John, Kyle, Reid, and Preston and we were all a bit uneasy.  We had come into the Church of Scientology on a whim to just check it out but as we entered we were the only souls around save for an older English woman manning the front desk.  Sitting there I pondered on why we decided to ask for a tour, and as I started to lose my nerve and bolt out of there the English woman was up behind us.  She showed us into the next room and as each of us lined up and went in, I found myself the last one of the bunch and before I entered she stood between my friends and I and declared, “stop, stay right there!”  “What the hell is going on” I thought to myself.  And as I looked at my friends’ faces they too wondered the same thing.  This was it, I was going to lose my boys all because we wanted to find out about L. Ron Hubbard and the mighty god Xenu…

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

Sitting in the van pool we were all stuff inside like sardines in a tinfoil can.  But there wasn’t any other choice.  The vans from the hotel going to YouTube Live were only taking the major players, and the only options left were sprinting across San Francisco to the pier or hail a taxi cab.  Luckily though Corey Vidal found a van pool making its way to the venue and there was some space available.  It was tight, there was no denying it, but we had all fit in.  How fitting that this was how I got to YouTube Live.  I had spent the early morning moping because I missed my flight and pondered on scraping the whole thing.  But in missing that flight, a whole new series of events opened up that would have been denied to me if I stayed the earlier course.  As the van pool raced up and down the hills of San Francisco and the seat belt making a permanent mark on my butt, I couldn’t believe how I had breakfast with famous YouTube personalities and walked the streets where nearly every corner had someone interesting on YouTube on them.  It reminded me of the Jets and the Sharks, how there were many small groups walking together out and about.  As the van slowed down, I caught a glimpse of the venue.  There is a ton of people around and even more snaking around in a line.  There’s two big YouTube stages and the music is getting louder.  After all the pain in getting to SFO from LAX, it was going to pay off.  I was in San Francisco and I’m about to go to YouTube Live.  Things can’t go badly now…

Personal Blog balls, fail, fear, Golden Fiend, job search, John Green, LA/Hollywood YouTube Gathering, Nerd Fighters, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Scientology, tight in the van, traffic, work, YouTube Live

Midnight Moment Vlog where I drive through Pasadena and saw the stands and bleachers for the Rose Parade, and where I also go through my backpack that hasn’t been touched since YouTube Live.

Uncategorized Old Town Pasadena, Rose Parade, Stands, YouTube Live

A long time ago in a forest deep in the lands of the

Blue haired monkey-kind.  A girl named

Cara stumbled upon a baby blue monkey and brought it home with her.

“Darabold,” she said, “I will call you Darabold.”

Early the next morning, Cara found Darabold crying and

Fed him a bowl of mashed bananas with blueberries.

Great was Darabold’s appetite that he finished the bowl with one

Hungry gulp.

Intrigued, Cara put forth another bowl and watch Darabold

Jet through it.  Again and again she did this until Darabold

Kissed her on the cheek and fell fast asleep.

Lovely were the intervening years that passed as both

Mother and child grew older and stronger, and

Never once did their love for each other ever falter.

“Oh, Clara,” said Darabold, for he learned to talk as menfolk do and

Pleaded, “why cannot I leave the house and join you on your travels?”

“Quickly would the world of menfolk capture and prod you, dear,” said Cara.

“Relegated to the house, you must be, if you are to be alive.”

Sadly Darabold agreed for he knew that Cara loved him so but the

Thrill of the outside world and the unknown was strong with him.

Unfortunately the need was to great for Darabold, for that

Very night he left the house and ventured past the front gates.

With tears streaming down his face, he vowed to return to Cara and the garden gnome

Xavier, who was his only friend when he was alone.

“Yes,” he said, “this is how it ought to be.”  And off he went to the city of

Zalton Port and new adventures.

Uncategorized ABC story, Cara, Darabold, short story

Collin Singleton is a child prodigy who wants to become a genius, and ultimately matter in the world.  Collin is great with anagrams but not so great with storytelling.  And unfortunately for Collin, he’s dated nineteen Katherines and has also been dumped nineteen times.  Hassan Harbish is Collin’s best bud who’s the life of the party and excels greatly with making friends.  He’s also has man-boobs, a “thunderstick”, and a great love for Judge Judy.  In an effort to break his heartache, Collin and Hassan embark on a road trip that leads them to one Lindsey Lee Wells and the final resting place of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Gutshot, Tennessee.  And that’s it!  That’s the plot in a nutshell.  No need to go out and buy the book!  WRONG!  Go back and reverse:  you need to go out this very minute and buy and read the book!

After falling in love with the Harry Potter series of books after shunning the series in the beginning, I’ve grown to open my ears and eyes to many new books and authors.  Although I have an affliction for the classics I have found many great books that have come out in the past two decades.  And John Green, the author of this book and Looking for Alaska and the recently released Paper Towns, was a name I was not familiar with.  He has a strong following online called The Nerdfighters (which I am a proud member of) and focuses primarily on young adult fiction.  More and more I heard his name thrown around and finally relented and picked up An Abundance of Katherines after finding it at a Barnes and Noble in Hollywood.

Sometimes I forget how formative the years of high school and college are, and John Green creates a world where one easily remembers those days of storm and stress, and really, really cool adventures.  In quick succession of effective and lucid sentences, Green gives us clear characters, their lives, and what makes them tick.  Along with footnotes that are interesting to read, the lives of Collin, Hassan, Lindsey Lee Wells, and the town of Gutshot become important to ours just as our other friendships are to us.  Intertwined among the characters and the plot are the themes of love and self-realization.  Reading this book and some of its themes, I’m also brought to mind Brad Meltzer’s The Book Of Lies that also shares in the same ideas.  One of Collin’s desires is to matter and after he discovers one of the ways to achieve this, it brought a tear to my eyes as someone who loves writing and stories.  Going forward and straight now:  please do read An Abundance Of Katherines and I assure you will be pleasantly entertained by this good work of literature.

Useful Links

John Green’s Website - Sparks Fly Up

Nerdfighters: Made of Awesome

Looking For Alaska - John Green’s First Novel

An Abundance Of Katherines

Paper Towns - Two Covers (Happy Margo & Sad Margo) But It’s The Same Story

Uncategorized An Abundance of Katherines, book, John Green, Nerdfighters, novel

On what should have been a pretty unremarkable day filled with time spent on the Internet and preparing for an interview, I found myself having a pretty awesome day (alongside the 100 degree sweltering weather).  During the morning hours after I checked my inbox, I read the news on the sites I read and heard a faint ‘pop’ notifying me that I had some email.  It was mostly spam and I continued on to news on Digg.com and the economic crisis as seen through the lens of CNN (and their mega-team of ‘TV’s top political minds’).  With some time passing I looked back on my inbox and found an email from The Jason Nation mailing list about a movie screening at the Landmark Theatre later this evening.  At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go but finally caved in when I read that the film involved a vampire and young love.  What did I have to lose?  I’d be able to chill in the AC-filled Barnes and Noble next door, watch a movie for free, three weeks before it opened, and finally get to meet Jason Calacanis who I’ve only heard on podcasts or seen on videos online.

Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) is a Swedish film by director, Tomas Alfredson, from the novel and screenplay by John Ajvide Lindqvist, that centers on Oskar and Eli, two twelve-year olds who find romance together.  The only stumbling block being that Eli is a blood-sucking vampire.

The film progresses at a slow pace building character moments and atmosphere in a two-hour feast.  Some may balk at the slow pace and long running time but for those who invest their time in the film, they will find a gem in the rough.  Oskar is a solitary boy who gets picked on constantly by school bullies and who plots his revenge with a knife.  During one night Oskar spies on a two people, an old man and a young girl, moving into the apartment complex and more specifically next door.  As Oskar continues his battles with the school bully, a terror is sweeping the area over unexplained deaths and murders.  Without going into exact details, these occurrences are related to Eli and escalate while Eli and Oskar’s relationship begins to grow.

***** Potential Spoilers And Plot Points Follow *****

As with most vampire or niche stories, the tale alludes to other themes and ideas and Let the Right One In is filled with many of them but chief among them is acceptance.  Eli wants to be accepted by Oskar when her true nature is revealed.  Oskar in turn wants to be accepted by other friends and not become the victim of a bully’s whim.  And together once Oskar shares in Eli’s true identity, the duo wants to be accepted (by way of non-detection and no pursuit) by the world and left alone together.  Another idea that interests me is the idea of emerging sexuality and friendship.  Normally it is the male lead that initiates the dance with the female but in the film Eli is more assertive by her vampiric nature.  Often it is the male that pierces the female and satisfies his sexual desire, but there is a scene where Oskar cuts his hand open, hoping to mix blood with Eli, and sets off Eli’s blood thirst that shocks him and causes him to runaway.  In this instance, Eli has pierced Oskar and tasted his blood and achieved a level of satisfaction while leaving Oskar shocked and confused.  But later on this is reversed when Eli locks a glass door in front of Oskar preventing him from entering.  After finally letting Oskar in, she truly lets him into her world and into her trust and more importantly she lets Oskar into herself.

While I have more to say about Let the Right One In I do not want to spoil the entire movie.  When this hopefully comes out in mid-October, I highly recommend this movie to everyone, not just fans of the vampire/horror genre.  This film is a coming-of-age-story filled with romance and friendship that moves on a slow pace, that when the movie finally concludes, more often than nought, you will have wished that it lingered on some more.

Tangential Observations:

-  found and purchased John Green’s fantastic book An Abundance of Katherines
-  before the movie started Jason Calacanis roused the crowds by throwing near endless amounts of candy, chocolates, popcorn, mints, and oh-so-sweet delectables
-  my goodness, I have forgotten how cruel school children can be
-  cats and vampires do not mix as evident in one awesome scene
-  12 year-olds on the backs of adults are not a laughing matter
-  I think I found someone who may have topped the Harvey Dent Two-Face facial make-up
-  now talk about a bloody kiss
-  Morse code rocks
-  when it’s 90 degrees on a basically October night at 10PM, something is far wrong with the weather
-  Jason Calacanis spent some time and talked with a few of us that lingered after the movie;  he’s a friendly, nice, and chill dude

Here below is the trailer to Let the Right One In:

Special thanks to Jason Calacanis, Marc Cuban, Mahalo.com, Landmark Theatres, Magnolia Pictures, and the creators of Let the Right One In.

Uncategorized Jason Calacanis, Landmark Theaters, Let the Right One In, Mahalo.com, movies, Swedish film, vampires, young love

This morning, as my parents slept into the mid-morning, I decided to eat out for breakfast.  What I had in mind was one of the cheap breakfast platters at Norms, since I’ve been craving for it for days and not just for breakfast time either.  Norms for the uninitiated is a chain of 15 or so restaurants in Southern California that’s similar to Denny’s but different in that they are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  And with light grey clouds hovering above through the skies, I drove towards Norms on this the first day of Autumn.

As I approached Norms I was startled by how it appeared that the lights were out.  “Maybe the lights are dimmed or the windows are tinted,” I thought to myself, but as I drove into the parking lot there was no mistake:  the lights are off and no one is inside.  Driving past the two big windows at the side, I spied the two posters that read, “Closed!  Thank You For 38 Great Years San Gabriel!”  Blinking in disbelief, my Norms was closing while a new one was going to open up in Azusa in the following months.

The Norms Restaurant in San Gabriel was the first Norms I have ever been at and the first place I can recall that was never closed.  Norms Restaurants are always open and how funny it may seem, I trusted in that wholeheartedly.  Even when I moved down to Irvine, I sought out the closest Norms for some late night grubbing, and even got my roommate and some friends to come along.  I was delighted when my roommate, Eric, enjoyed that Norms was always open even though I never found out if he liked their food.  I’ve spent many nights at various Norms around Los Angeles, sometimes with friends, sometimes with family, and sometimes just by myself when I wanted to eat or write during the late hours of the night.  The Norms in San Gabriel is the one that comes to mind whenever Norms comes up and has become the default mother-of-all-Norms.  Now with the San Gabriel restaurant closed, I can’t help but feel that an era is now passing forth.

I’m a late-night-owl and I do my best work late at night, and as such, I relish places that are open late, if not 24 hours like Norms.  Thankfully for me there’s an IHOP close by that has recently become open 24 hours, so I still have at least one place open late.  Although I haven’t really been at an IHOP late at night (unlike Norms or Denny’s, I only associate IHOP with breakfast time eating) or done any writing or studying on their counters, it’ll be interesting to see how it all works out and if I can transplant my habits onto IHOP.

The question of “why” now lingers in my head when I think of the closed Norms.  Is a new restaurant going to rise up now or is the area going to be built into a mini-mall or business park like other plots of land around the area?  And I’ve also seen Norms busy at all hours of the day and now wonder “were they actually losing money or did they sell out?”  Maybe it’s even a simple matter of the property lease ending and the property owners finding more money with the lot as something other than a Norms.  I have questions but I doubt I’ll ever get the answers I’m looking for, and all the while the hard fact remains:  Norms in San Gabriel is closed.

Thanks for all the memories and good times!

Pictures Courtesy:
Googiesque from Flickr.com
Mike L. from Yelp.com
Darren Y. from Yelp.com

Uncategorized breakfast, closing, Dennys, IHOP, Norms Restaurants, pancakes, San Gabriel

Review of All-Star Superman #13
September 17, 2008  |  $2.99  | DC Comics
Grant Morrison, Frank Quietly, Jamie Grant

The Story So Far

In another attempt at world domination and the destruction of Superman, Lex Luthor is arrested and jailed as Superman flies too close to the Sun and contracts solar radiation poisoning.  Due to the solar radiation Superman is stronger and possesses new abilities but he is also dying on a molecular level.  Newly escaped, Luthor now has the abilities of Superman, while Superman finds himself losing his powers.  Using all of his energy battling a living computer sun-star, Superman uses his remaining powers to fly back to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent and writes the story of the millennium:  Superman Is Dead!  And now with the article complete, Clark falls over dead as a floating Lex Luthor blasts an explosion into the Daily Planet.

Episode 12 - “Superman In Excelsis”

We open with Superman and his biological father, Jor-El, flying through the skies of what appears to be Krypton.  Jor-El explains that upon “bodily death” Kryptonians go through a mutation called solar radio consciousness.  Like matter, consciousness cannot be destroyed but transferred.  After death one may go to a hell or paradise of their own design or return back to the land of the living.

Back to the present moment, Lex Luthor hoovers above Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White and tells them who lives or dies is by their own choosing.  Instead of actually speaking to these three, Luthor is metaphorically speaking with the readers, it will be up to us who will live on:  Lex Luthor or Superman.  We all know that Superman will win out but how we get to that moment is where all the fun resides.  Confronting Luthor, Perry speaks plainly that “the truth” was the cause of his down fall while Lois speaks “use your brain” another truth that Luthor mistook as a pull of his vanities.  And true to form, Jimmy backs up Lois.

Meanwhile, Jor-El tells Superman that he has done his work on Earth and that human kind will aspire to the grandeur and justice that he upheld.  It is time to take his rest.  But Superman is Superman and cries out “not my life” wanting to help his friends against Luthor.

For all his intellect Lex Luthor is constantly brought down because of his vanities and learns that the sun-star living computer tricked him and contaminated the Sun.  Clark’s eyes open and he whispers “Lois.”  With everyone astonished Clark reveals a weapon and shoots Luthor.  Jimmy remarks to Superman, “you’ve been keeping the “real” Clark in [the Fortress of Solitude]” to which Superman replies, “Clark’s safe, Jimmy.”  Looking at this exchange deeper, Superman is saying that he kept humanity in his heart and returned to them all, most especially Lois.

Following Luthor after the blast, Superman hides behind a lead lined safe and behind a fallen armored security van.  I found this panel quite humorous at the depiction that the tables have been switched between Superman and Lex Luthor.  Now that Luthor has the brawn, Superman possesses the brain, and now hides behind shields with a weapon in hand where once he was the weapon and brawn.

It is Lex Luthor’s dream to look down upon Superman in triumph and now he has his very wish.  One of main reasons Luthor despises Superman is his belief that humanity has fallen dependent upon this Alien and his abilities instead of relying on the ingenuity and power of humanity.  Superman removes all possibility among mankind and believes with Superman gone, Luthor can use his intellect to save the world.  But Luthor does not realize that Superman does something also with his abilities.  He inspires people.  He inspires them to new thresholds of honor, duty, justice, and friendship.  Luthor only sees Superman as he is and not what he inspires others to be.

Continually Superman has been hitting Luthor with a weapon called the gravity gun and Luthor begins to act strange.  Superman says that it “warps time” and changes his metabolism whereby Luthor’s 24 hours of godly abilities is thwarted to mere moments.  Instead, I see the weapon as amplifying Luthor’s powers which are based on Superman’s and he actually sees the seriousness, hence gravity, of the situation and everything around him.  Immobilized due to the sharp influx of universal and self-realization, Luthor speaks, “this is how he sees all the time, every day.  Like it’s all just us, in here, together.  And we’re all we’ve got.”  Now who is this “he” that Luthor speaks of?  Is “he” Superman or is “he” possibly God?  It’s both.  All through the series Superman has been painted as a divine being through his abilities and his inspiration among humanity.  In this case, they are the same.

In the end, with both men losing their abilities, Superman strikes Luthor and chides him “you were right, Lex…brain beats brawn every time!”  Grasping for another vial to give him super-powers, Luthor cries that with it he can save the Sun and the world.  Superman grabs the vial and responds “you could have saved the world years ago if it mattered to you, Luthor.”  And here we have each person’s underlying mentalities.  Superman wants to save humanity while Luthor wants to destroy Superman, and then, possibly, save the world.  For both men, it is choice that distinguishes one from the other.  Just as evil, i.e., Luthor, chooses to perpetuate evil, good, i.e., Superman, chooses to do good and thwarts the advancement of evil.  Again Superman chooses to do the right thing.  He rushes to the contaminated Sun before speaking to Lois and proclaiming, “I love you Lois Lane.  Until the end of time” and flies away.

Watching Superman fly towards the Sun, Lois clutches at the red cape which brings to mind the Shroud of Turin, and again the parallels of Superman with divinity continue.  Much more direct in this idea is the Sun itself.  For the Ancient Greeks the Sun was a god and what better way of showing that both are divine than with Superman barreling towards the Sun like a bullet hitting the center mark.

One year later, we open with Lois sitting on a park bench looking at a commemorative statue of Superman when Jimmy flies down to greet her.  Jimmy believes that Superman is gone while Lois does not.  Lois justifies that the Daily Planet article that proclaimed “Superman Is Dead” was done in order to become a warning sent back in time.  Lois continues that Superman is building an artificial heart for the Sun and will return when he is done.  Similarly Jesus Christ ascended towards the heavens to one day return and had all his stories chronicled.  And just as followers of belief cling to the faith that their gods love them, Lois remarks, “and when he’s done…he knows where to find me.”  In a splash page of gold and yellow, we see Superman in the middle of the page stuck constructing a great device similar to Atlas holding up the Earth or the god in the middle of the world that makes sure things move smoothly.  And although Superman is not present, there are those on Earth who follow in his lead and strive for truth, justice, and the humane way.

Uncategorized All-Star Superman #12, comic books, Superman