Of Jack Kirby's creations for DC, the one that has longest held my interest is Mister Miracle. And I mean Scott Free, the husband of Big Barda, Mister Miracle, and not one of the others who have used that name.
The basic premise of that idea is that he is a guy that can escape from anything. It doesn't matter how dangerous the trap, you just aren't going to be able to capture this guy and keep him for long. He is the ultimate escape artist.
And I can't help but think about him every time I watch the show No Way Out. I watched it the first time on a lark, drawn in by the ad that had the star of the show--Jonathan Goodwin--walking through a series of bizarre traps and finishing it with getting a scorpion put in his mouth which is then sealed with duct tape. (That last bit does happen on the show, btw...and yes, he got stung.)
Last night's episode was a great example of why I am being sucked in to watch this every week. Jonathan was buried alive and had to escape. I think that I've seen that gimmick done in comics and movies several times, but you always know that it is special effects/a comic book, so you just accept what happens. Last night, I got to see what would happen. It wasn't pretty. While he did put forth a valiant effort, he did have to be rescued from this escape--after ninety minutes. How someone could survive, and remain sane, from being buried alive for ninety minutes is far beyond me, but he did. He panicked his crew--who is always there to save him if something goes very wrong--but he survived. He didn't escape, though, and admitted that it was the toughest thing he's ever tried to do.
And he ended that with "I can't wait to try it again." So, in short, he's nuts. But it's a good kind of nuts.
If you are a fan of true escape artists, I recommend that you give No Way Out a try. It's only a half-hour show, but it packs entertainment into each of those thirty minutes. It's on The Discovery Channel, Monday nights at 9:00 pm. And hey, it ain't like Heroes has been any good this season.
Like I said, I've always liked Mister Miracle, and Jonathan Goodwin is the closest thing that I've seen since the comic. Sure, he's not as good as Scott, but hey, Scott was a god after all...
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday, February 01, 2009
So...The Super Bowl
In about three hours we will have the kickoff for SuperBowl IXIII, pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals.
As anyone who knows me well knows, I am a football geek. Every Sunday during football season, I am religiously sitting in front of my television, enjoying watching my hometeam Atlanta Falcons play. And even if they aren't the team I'm watching, I gravitate towards professional football when given the choice, and college football when that isn't available. And it seems that I am not the only one. Of the seventeen most watched television programs of the last thirty years, seventeen of them are SuperBowls. It is the most watched single-day sporting event in the world, and by a considerable margin at that. In fact, professional football is the most watched television show in the United States, outdistancing such phenomenon as American Idol and Survivor with room to spare. Yet, for the first time in history, this year the SuperBowl did NOT sell out their infamous commercial time weeks before the game was to air. In fact, last week NBC--the network showing the game this year--had to lower their SuperBowl ad rates (also a first in SuperBowl history).
What does this tell me? Well, it could be one of a couple of things. Maybe the matchup for this game is scaring off some advertisers, who see the Cardinals as being a detriment. After all, it has been sixty years since the team played for an NFL Championship. And due to that, they have long been considered a bit of a joke to most NFL fans. Or maybe this is another reflection of just how bad our economy is right now. Unemployment is at a 30-year high, and consumer confidence is at a new low for that same time period. Maybe advertisers are afraid to shell out the money that would be needed for this big-time stage. In all likelihood, it is probably a combination of those two factors.
But, personally, I don't care. I'm in it for the game. And, as a football fan, I'm excited to see the Cardinals playing for the title. They have played the best football of any team in the playoffs, and they deserve to be where they are today. I believe in them.
My pick: Cardinals 24, Pittsburgh 14
As anyone who knows me well knows, I am a football geek. Every Sunday during football season, I am religiously sitting in front of my television, enjoying watching my hometeam Atlanta Falcons play. And even if they aren't the team I'm watching, I gravitate towards professional football when given the choice, and college football when that isn't available. And it seems that I am not the only one. Of the seventeen most watched television programs of the last thirty years, seventeen of them are SuperBowls. It is the most watched single-day sporting event in the world, and by a considerable margin at that. In fact, professional football is the most watched television show in the United States, outdistancing such phenomenon as American Idol and Survivor with room to spare. Yet, for the first time in history, this year the SuperBowl did NOT sell out their infamous commercial time weeks before the game was to air. In fact, last week NBC--the network showing the game this year--had to lower their SuperBowl ad rates (also a first in SuperBowl history).
What does this tell me? Well, it could be one of a couple of things. Maybe the matchup for this game is scaring off some advertisers, who see the Cardinals as being a detriment. After all, it has been sixty years since the team played for an NFL Championship. And due to that, they have long been considered a bit of a joke to most NFL fans. Or maybe this is another reflection of just how bad our economy is right now. Unemployment is at a 30-year high, and consumer confidence is at a new low for that same time period. Maybe advertisers are afraid to shell out the money that would be needed for this big-time stage. In all likelihood, it is probably a combination of those two factors.
But, personally, I don't care. I'm in it for the game. And, as a football fan, I'm excited to see the Cardinals playing for the title. They have played the best football of any team in the playoffs, and they deserve to be where they are today. I believe in them.
My pick: Cardinals 24, Pittsburgh 14
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