It seems so little to ask, when you think about it.

That's absolutely the message that I want to send to the world on a sweatshirt, but sadly it's really not my colour.

- Sid

 

Broadway and Ontario, Vancouver.

"Our hands are no longer dark with soil, yet we reshape our environment like never before. Communities now live in realms inconceivable before through the power of the internet and modern technology. We are more connected then ever, yet it is often experienced through a digital surrogate. The future is uncertain, but we could all take a moment to reflect on what it is to live and to be." 

L. L. PHILLIPS, Digital Renaissance.

- Sid

Worldcon 2025: It's happening!

Round trip Amtrak ticket purchased for my trip to Worldcon and the Hugos in Seattle next month!  And there are finally some reviews for my little affordable VRBO booking near the Space Needle - it's always bit worrisome when a property hasn't received a single comment.

Just over a month to go!

- Sid

  

"I herald...Galactus."

"This equation not only confirms alternate dimensions, it suggests that parallel Earths exist on different dimensional planes..."

 Reed Richards, The Fantastic Four

We're three weeks out from the commercial release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and I'm wondering if it's going to be an epic catastrophe.

Let me be clear: in saying that, I don't mean to say that the film is going to bomb at the box office (although I have some misgivings about Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards*), or that the franchise is cursed (even if this is, coincidentally, the fourth attempt to boot the concept), but rather that I think that the Fantastic Four are going to fail in their duty to protect the planet.  Galactus, an entity of immeasurable power who consumes the life force of worlds in order to survive, is going to destroy their world, and they will be the only survivors, trans-dimensional refugees seeking a new home on a parallel Earth. 

In Galactus' original appearance in the Fantastic Four comic book**, he is defeated with the aid of Uatu the Watcher, a cosmic being who is charged with watching over our dimension.***  

Uatu violates his oath of passive observation to help the Fantastic Four save the Earth by sending the Human Torch to steal the Ultimate Nullifier, a weapon of infinite destructive power, from Galactus' spaceship.  Threatened with destruction, Galactus agrees to find another world to devour, and departs.

Why do I think that the movie's conclusion may be different?  None of the trailers show anything suggesting that the FF are getting an assist from the Watcher, although they may be helped by the Silver Surfer, herald of Galactus, who rebels in the comics version and attempts to thwart his**** master's will but only succeeds in delaying him.  (As punishment, Galactus imprisons the Silver Surfer on Earth.)  Left to their own resources, it may well be that Reed and the gang might not be able to stop an all-powerful cosmic being. 

Second, there's that tantalizing after-credits scene from The Thunderbolts, where the team's computer announces that it has detected an "extra dimensional ship entering atmosphere", and then displays a satellite image of a ship marked with the distinctive 4 symbol.

The same ship is shown in the First Steps trailers, and I can easily imagine Reed Richards frantically adjusting the ship's drive to create an interdimensional portal to allow the team to escape as Galactus consumes their Earth - yes, it could just be an exploratory flight, but drama dictates a more significant - and possibly disastrous - reason for the ship's appearance.

I could easily be wrong in my speculation.  In the comics, Reed spends most of his spare time building portals into alternate dimensions (which, come to think of it, causes most of the problems that the team has to deal with).  As such, it's not hard to imagine that they might end up visiting what we'll call the MCU dimension, for lack of a better term.

But, but, if I'm right, full points to the creative team - it would be a bold decision to introduce the Fantastic Four to the MCU as escapees from the destruction of a parallel Earth. 

Regardless of how and why the Fantastic Four make their way to the MCUniverse, this raises another question.  It's already been announced that Robert Downey Jr. will be returning to Marvel as Doctor Doom. Given that Victor von Doom is the most intimately connected foe of the Fantastic Four, who do not exist in the MCU until now, in what parallel universe does he originate?  It may well be that the Fantastic Four are fleeing Doctor Doom rather than Galactus - it would certainly be a better setup for Mr. Downey's return than the destruction of Earth-FF.  

But wait, there would have to be some reason that Doctor Doom was Tony Stark, or is it a huge coincidence that they look the same?  And what about von Doom's disfigured face, the result of a failed lab experiment that von Doom blames on Reed Richards?  Is Tony Stark somehow the hereditary ruler of the East European nation of Latveria as well? You know, I give up - it's only 21 days to First Steps, let's just wait and see what happens.

- Sid

* Pedro Pascal: fine actor, no question - but honestly, I agree with the people who think that John Krasinski would have been a better fit for Reed Richards, as already demonstrated in the second Doctor Strange movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

** Issues 48-50, aka The Galactus Trilogy. 

*** Fans of Marvel TV will recognize the Watcher from the What If? animated series on Disney+. 

**** In the trailers for the film, the Surfer is obviously female rather than male. In the comics, the Silver Surfer is Norrin Radd, an alien who strikes a bargain with Galactus to spare his home world in exchange for becoming his servant and seeking out other worlds for consumption.  In this version, the Surfer may well be Radd's companion, Shalla-Bal.

Neuromancer.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

“It’s not like I’m using,” Case heard someone say, as he shouldered his way through the crowd around the door of the Chat. “It’s like my body’s developed this massive drug deficiency.” It was a Sprawl voice and a Sprawl joke. The Chatsubo was a bar for professional expatriates; you could drink there for a week and never hear two words in Japanese.

William Gibson, Neuromancer 

If you know, you know.

For existing fans of Neuromancer, William Gibson's groundbreaking 1984 cyberpunk masterpiece, seeing the glowing neon title at the end of the Apple TV production announcement was redundant - all we needed to see was the word "Chatsubo" and we knew what was happening. 

In some ways, Neuromancer is the Holy Grail of science fiction adaptation, a quest which may well end badly for the participants.  Paradoxically, the great challenge in adapting Gibson is that he's such a good writer, which make it's almost impossible to capture his distinctively sparse, laconic style* in another medium.

There have been several attempts to adapt Gibson to the big (and little) screen. 1998's New Rose Hotel, based on Gibson's 1984 short story of the same title, stars the epic combination of Christopher Walken and Willen Dafoe as a pair of freelance corporate extraction experts hoping that they've found the big score that will set them up for life.

It's perhaps not a great film, but it far more effectively captures the moody neo-noir feeling of Gibson's writing than 1995's flawed Johnny Mnemonic.  Originally planned as a low-budget art film version of the original short story, the eventual studio release failed to match the quality of its source material on a number of different levels.

Amazon's episodic version of The Peripheral is a loose adaptation of the 2014 time travel-alternative reality novel, but does an acceptable job of visualizing the near and far future versions of the world that Gibson describes in the book.  The casting of Chloë Grace Moretz as Flynn Fisher was a particularly good choice, and it's unfortunate that the series didn't receive a second season that might have allowed it to further develop its characters and storyline. 

And now, Neuromancer prepares to take its place in the gauntlet. The casting looks good - I'm okay with Callum Turner as Case the hacker, and Dane DeHaan is an interesting choice for the psychopathic Peter Riviera - but ultimately, it's going to come down to look and feel.  If it doesn't have the right flavour, the right style, it's not going to work.

As per Apple's teaser, the series is in production now, and it's expected not to be released until sometime in 2026 at the earliest.  On behalf of the book's extensive fan base, good luck. And, to quote Ru Paul: "DON'T fuck it up." 

- Sid

* if you ever have the opportunity to hear Gibson read from his work, I strongly advise that you do so.  All other reasons aside, it means that going forward, you can quite clearly hear his voice when you read his work.

Canada Day 2025: Canuck Live.

Happy Canada Day, everyone - a sentiment which has added significance this year, given the degree to which our country has come under attack by President Trump over the last few months.  And it is at times like these that we turn to our national icons - icons like Captain Canuck, guardian of Canadian sovereignty for the last 50 years.

It speaks to the character's strength that, since his modest (and, to be honest, slightly amateurish) comic book debut in 1975, Richard Comely's all-Canadian superhero has experienced reincarnation after reincarnation in the world of print, and it's long past time that he made the transition to other media.  I realize that there's a well-trodden path for animated comic book adaptations, but let's set our sights a bit higher.

The CBC is long overdue to enter into the world of comic book franchising, and really, what better candidate could there be than Canada's best known superhero?  If a live action Captain Canuck series garnered the same kind of viewership that even the least popular Marvel adaptations seem to be able to pull in on Disney+, it would stave off the threat of budget cuts for decades. 

It's a shame that Alan Ritchson is American, his physical presence and earnest style would make him an ideal Captain Canuck, but I feel that the casting has to be Canadian, right across the board.  I know that Edmonton-born Nathan Fillion has been a long-time fan candidate to play the Captain, but as he edges up into his 50s, the role may call for a younger actor (not to mention his upcoming commitment as Green Lantern Guy Gardner in the new Superman movie.). And, no offense to Ryan Reynolds, but it might be for the best if he stayed in his lane as Deadpool, I think that this part calls for someone with a less sarcastic persona.  Hmmm...Shawn Roberts, perhaps?

People with only a casual awareness of the Captain's existence won't know that there's a full complement of supporting characters to flesh out the cast: Redcoat, Kébec, and the Steeltown Hammer, as well as opponents like the villainous Mr. Gold, master assassin Blue Fox, and the enigmatic alien Kyro-Na.

And let's be clear, there's no room for anything camp here: in this day and age, Captain Canuck should have the same gritty street-level gravitas that we saw in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but set in a myriad of appropriate Canadian locales.

I can see it all: acrobatic midnight combat on the container cranes at the Port of Vancouver, grueling manhunts through the unforgiving icy wilderness north of Nunavut, bullet-fast car chases across the flatlands of the Prairies, life and death confrontations on the outside deck of the CN Tower*, spy versus spy in the halls of Parliament Hill, parcour pursuit over the tiled rooftops of Québec City, and amphibious assaults on storm-wracked citadels standing guard over the rocky shores of Newfoundland.

I'd like to think that it would become a bit of a prestige thing for Canadian actors and celebrities to do guest spots on the show. It's not hard to imagine that Prime Minister Mark Carney might even do a cameo - after all, he showed well on The Daily Show, and who knows, it might even help him in the polls.  

So, we're ready to go - does anyone know who to call at CBC?  Or maybe that's too high level, all we need to do is just get onto the right elevator with the right person and make our pitch...

- Sid

* Did everyone know that there's a CN Tower experience called the Edgewalk that puts you on the outside of the tower, 116 stories up at the Summit level, in a full body fall protection harness so that you can lean out over the edge?   And I'm supposed to pay them to do this? 

P.S. If you'd like to get a feel for what a Captain Canuck series might be like, there's a six-episode series from 2014 available on YouTube™:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFinqPnt7So&t=72s

The animation is somewhat primitive, but the voice cast has some street cred, such as Kris Holden-Ried from The Umbrella Academy, Tatiana Maslany from Orphan Black and She-Hulk, and Laura Vandervoort from Smallville and V.