A Few Recommendations for Summer 2022

by
Scott D. Parker

Every now and then when it comes time for me to write a Saturday post, a large, overarching one about a single topic, I realize I don’t have one. So I’m going to provide a few recommendations of things I’m listening to, watching, or reading.

Top Gun: Maverick

Now THIS is how to do a legacy sequel. Age up the characters in real time, address the passage of time, and provide a wonderful piece of closure with a legacy co-star. Oh, and incredible action sequences. Holy cow was this a great movie. I took my wife who didn’t necessarily want to see it but she emerged very entertained. Not as entertained as I was: now I want to see this film in IMAX.

And please tell me I’m not the only one who saw the movie and kept having to slow down the car while driving home.

Def Leppard: Diamond Star Halos

Taking a page from the legacy artist idea I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, Def Leppard released their newest album last Friday. Fifteen tracks (17 if you buy from Target) of classic rock goodness. Much like the modern band, The Struts, the Joe Elliott-led five piece band wear their influences on their sleeves, and it starts with the album title.

There’s a whimsical vibe to these songs from the opening chord progression of “Take What You Want” to open the album to the last few notes of “From Here to Eternity.” Allison Krauss lends her vocals to a pair of tunes but make no mistake: this is a rock/pop/metal album just like the band used to make in their heyday.

Lyrically, the guys know their age and acknowledge it throughout the entire record. This was an album I looked forward to ever since it was announced and boy did they deliver.

And yes, we listened to Def Leppard on the way to and from seeing Top Gun: Maverick.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

The third thing released last Friday, this is a Star Wars series I’ve been eagerly anticipating since it was announced as well. In fact, I even held off reading the old Extended Universe novel.

We knew what we were going to get from the trailers: an older, wiser(?) Obi-Wan, living on Tatooine, watching over a ten-year-old Luke Skywalker. What I didn’t expect was his sister, Leia. In fact, it is her plight that propels the series.

I appreciate the slower roll, just like I did for the Mandalorian. I have zero issues with the actors on the show either (so a certain segment of the Star Wars fandom can just go home).

As big a Star Wars fan as I am, I didn’t watch the animated shows so everything in Obi-Wan Kenobi is new to me.

Oh, and so great to see Darth Vader back to being the feared force he is. But I’ll say something that might make a few of y’all look at me askance. I’m fine with James Earl Jones voicing Vader, but how about some more intense inflection, huh? I mean Vader/Anakin finally lays eyes on Kenobi after ten years and it’s like their talking over tea. The last thing Anakin yelled at Kenobi in Episode III was pure hatred. Where’s that emotion in Vader’s inflection?

No Time to Spy by Max Allan Collins and Matthew V. Clemens

If you like James Bond, might I point you in the direction of this trilogy of book by Collins and Clemens. The premise is pure fun: the main character is John Sand, a real spy who worked with Ian Fleming and the latter author based James Bond on John Sand. Sand, now outed as a spy, marries a rich Texas oil heiress. Despite his retirement, action and adventure follow Mr. and Mrs. Sand.

While I’ve not read all three books—Come Spy With Me; Live Fast, Spy Hard; To Live and Spy in Berlin—a compilation ebook is on sale *this weekend* for only $0.99. You read that correctly: for a dollar(!), you get three novels. Seriously, it’s an impulse buy at that point.

Here’s the Amazon link.

Roll With It by Jay Stringer

Yesterday, Jay broke the news that his latest novel is now available as an audiobook on Audible. As a person who primarily consumes books in that manner, this was great news.

But Jay went above and beyond and made available a few promo codes. These are US only—UK codes will be forthcoming—so if you haven’t had a chance to read his post from yesterday, head on over and see if any of those codes are still available.

Even if they’re not, the book is only 1 credit ($13.96 if you just want to buy it) so get on over to Audible and get a copy. Also, for you library folks out there, be sure to request your library to buy the book and help spread the word.

Year 5 of an Indie Writer: Week 22: Early Momentum Counts

By
Scott D. Parker

Hey! Back to words and not a video. Why? Dunno, really. Just felt like typing some thoughts rather than speaking them.

Keeping a Record

So, Summer 2020 started this week. In case you missed the video in which I talked about the summer writing season, we have a longer-than-normal summer this year which means there are more days and weeks to start and complete projects: 104 days and 15 weeks. Minus the one we just completed.

I woke early on Monday and got back to one of my current stories. One of the best things about earmarking a certain day to begin writing is the eagerness to start. I woke with hardly any effort so excited was I to pick up this Calvin Carter story again.

The enthusiasm continued throughout the work week. Each morning, I started a new habit: wake a 5:00 am and get the writing done before the day job kicks in. I’ll admit: the writing muscles were a tad rusty, but the week went by with new words added to the story and a new transition into Act III. Can’t go wrong there.

I have resurrected an old habit I used to do: keep a word count record per day. Incredibly motivating. Heck, yesterday, I reached a logical conclusion—and the alarm I set to tell me to stop writing and get ready for the day job was sounding—and I realized I had 599 words. Argh! I left it alone and got ready. But it’ll be nice to see those numbers climb.

Another thing that spurs me along is a schedule. If I frequently put myself on a Starting Date, I rarely resort to a schedule. That is, be finished with Project A by a certain date. But I have now. I want to see how it works. If it motivates me to ignore alarms and write even when an alarm’s blaring, I might be onto something.

So, the Summer Writing has kicked off well. How about your writing?

Murder by the Book and Zoom

Did you catch the Facebook Live session yesterday with McKenna Jordan, Gregg Hurwitz, and Michael Connelly? You didn’t? What’s up with that? For nearly an hour, Hurwitz acts as interviewer to Connelly, writer interviewing writer, but with Hurwitz acting as host as well as fan. Excellent interview, including the viewer questions. It’s on Murder by the Book’s Facebook page so go watch.

Grant – The Mini-Series

The big television event of the week was the History Channel’s three-part, six-hour mini-series on Ulysses S. Grant. Loved it. As a historian, I welcome popular histories that can reach a broad audience. I wrote a review about it yesterday in which I give more details. Highly recommended.

The Next Video

I kept up with The Road to The Empire Strikes Back video series this week with Episode VI: The Music. I’ve had a blast with this series and this was one I looked forward to the most (apart from the movie re-watch). Empire ranks in my Top 5 soundtracks of all time.

Year of an Indie Writer: Week 51

by
Scott D. Parker

I think we all know what event sucked the air out of everything this week: The premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

My family and I caught the 6pm showing on Thursday night. The theater wasn't packed, but there was a sizable audience. My one-sentence blurb is this:

"Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a rousing, joyful, exuberant, and emotional film that not only successfully brings to a close the story of one family, over nine movies, and 42 years, but does so in a manner that is both nostalgic and fresh."

I'll have more thoughts after I spend more time thinking about it and seeing it again.

The event also prompted me to write an open thank you letter to George Lucas, because without him, none of this exists.

---

This "Year of an Indie Writer" series has been a fun experiment. I have one more week, but this will be the last here at DoSomeDamage. The series has changed and morphed over the year, as I expected it would. I didn't do all that I wanted to this year, but that's what 2020 is all about. I also accomplished things I never would have expected. I'm looking at you, Kevin Smith films and the start of a new book series.

It's been a fun year here at DoSomeDamage. We celebrated our tenth anniversary. Hard to believe on some days, but a quick glance at the Blog Archive over there on the right says it all. Man, am I honored to be included among all the writers who have contributed here.

But without readers and the larger community, we're just talking among ourselves.  Thank you, readers, for your continued support, reading, commenting, and the overall community

I gave some thought to what I should do next year as a series--or to leave altogether--and decided I'll keep to the Indie Writer theme with something extra: Detailing how I'll be opening an online bookstore.

Have a safe holiday season, and, on behalf of everyone here at DoSomeDamage, see you next year!

Year of an Indie Writer: Week 9

by
Scott D. Parker

Sometimes, the little things are the most difficult.

Evolution of a Book Description

 

Writing a book description is difficult. I can write a 50,000-word novel with little effort yet to come up with a 300-word description *that doesn't tell the whole story*, well, that's an art. For better or worse, here are the three drafts (that made it onto the computer. There were more on paper.)

Draft 1

Outlaw Angus Morton and his gang have made a crucial mistake: they upped their antics from robbing stagecoaches out west near El Paso, Texas, to murdering a railroad agent and burning down a way station. Detectives Calvin Carter and Thomas Jackson are tasked with bringing justice to Morton, one way or another. 

Along the way, Carter meets beautiful Laurel Peel. She’s running from an arranged marriage, but when she’s kidnapped from a train right under Carter’s nose, he discovers the secret documents she hoped would earn her freedom. The papers reveal a machine that beggars belief: a machine armed not only with a Gatling gun but a means to shoot fire. 

But Carter must push aside his curiosity about the enigmatic Peel and locate Morton. The people of El Paso fear Morton and when he might strike next. Rumors float about a fire-breathing dragon capable of utter destruction.  

As a former actor, Carter knows a tall-tale when he hears one. He also understands the reality of death. Every person who witnessed the most recent attack is dead, except for the fetching reporter Aurora Ashe. 

------
Not bad, I thought to myself. One you're supposed to do with trailers is whet the reader's appetite and not give too much away. I included a few key phrases that would have drawn me in as a reader--"secret documents"; "kidnapped from a train"; "Gatling gun".

I changed a few words to tighten things up.

Or so I thought.
_____

Draft 2

Outlaw Angus Morton and his gang have made a crucial mistake: they upped their infractions from robbing stagecoaches near El Paso, Texas, to murdering a railroad agent and burning down a way station. Detectives Calvin Carter and Thomas Jackson are tasked with bringing justice to Morton...one way or another. 

En route Morton's last known location, Carter meets beautiful Laurel Peel. She’s running from an arranged marriage, but when she’s kidnapped from a train right under Carter’s nose, he discovers the secret documents she hoped would earn her freedom. The papers reveal a machine that beggars belief: a machine armed not only with a Gatling gun but a means to shoot fire. 

Pushing aside his curiosity about the enigmatic Peel and the strange contraption, Carter focuses on finding Morton. The outlaw has the citizens of El Paso terrified, wondering where next he'll strike. Rumors abound a fire-breathing dragon capable of utter destruction, a monster which could lay waste to the city. 

As a former actor, Carter knows a tall-tale when he hears one. But when witnesses to the most recent attack turn up murdered, Carter must confront his doubts. Maybe there is something to those rumors. A local newspaper reporter thinks so, and she's out to prove it. But when Aurora Ashe puts her life on the line, Carter comes to her rescue. But who will rescue him when he comes face to face with...the Hell Dragon.

------
A little better. Maybe a little tighter.

Then I got some outside feedback. My wife has the unique way of cutting through all the stuff and getting to the core of a problem. She quickly said there were too many names and too much story. Okay, I said, maybe I can just remove all names except Morton and Carter. And tell less story.

A co-worker of mine at the day job read Draft 2. She took home a printed version and returned with the sheet full of notes. And questions. Valued questions for which I mostly had answers. But the mere fact she posed so many questions also meant the description was not doing its job.

The sole job of a book description is to hook the reader and compel them to buy the book. Or in the case of ebooks, at least download the sample and read it. Clearly, this description was flawed.

Back to the drawing board.
--------

Draft 3

Outlaw Angus Morton and his gang have made a crucial mistake: they upped their crimes from robbing stagecoaches near El Paso to murdering a railroad agent and burning down a way station. Detective Calvin Carter and his partner are tasked with bringing Morton to justice. 

One way or another. 

When Carter arrives at Morton's last known location, he finds the town on edge. The bandit has the citizens terrified, wondering where next he'll strike. Even stranger are the rumors of a fire-breathing creature capable of utter destruction, a monster which could lay waste to the city. 

As a former actor, Carter knows a tall-tale when he hears one. But he also knows a few things are not make believe:  

Witnesses to the most recent attack turning up murdered.  

Carter himself attacked. 

And the deep, metallic churning sound of an infernal machine approaching...

-----
That's what I went with. It has way less story. Actually, it only has the part of the plot that gets Carter and his partner going and out to El Paso to investigate. All the other stuff is still in the book, but now, folks will be able to see how they all fit together while reading the novel.

Is it the best description? Probably not. But then again, the great part about being an indie writer is being able to adjust on the fly. If HELL DRAGON doesn't sell well, then perhaps there's a problem with the description.

Or the cover. But as soon as I found that upper image, I knew it was going on the cover.

Speaking of cover, here it is.

Lesson Learned

 

Speaking of doing things on the fly, I had forgotten how soon before 1 Jan 2019 I delivered the files for EMPTY COFFINS to Amazon. It was probably around 27 Dec. Here's the weird thing: December has 31 days in it. Not sure you knew that. Came as a shock to me, too. So when I uploaded the Amazon file of HELL DRAGON on 27 February, I was informed the book would go live not on 1 March but 3 March.

So, Amazon folks, you'll have to wait until Monday, 3 March, to snag your copy of HELL DRAGON. It's available for pre-order, so you'll have to make your Monday marvelous with the new book.

And, looking to the future, I've just learned April has only 30 days, so I'll be sure to have the file of AZTEC SWORD up and ready well before 1 May.

[shakes head]

Star Wars Trailer by Topher Grace

I have been a Star Wars fan since 1977. I've loved, to a greater or lesser degree, every live action movie since. Star Wars has been an integral part of my life. I'm a founding member of the Star Wars Generation.

Topher Grace--yes, that Topher Grace--has drawn content from all 10 live actions movies to present an overarching trailer of all of Star Wars to date. Have a look.

Not only does this trailer to justice to the greater story, it is incredibly emotional. Goosebumps rippled over my arms and neck when I hear Yoda's "There is another" comment and it's the fantastic scene from The Force Awakens when Luke's lightsaber vaults into Rey's hands.

So very, very good. A perfect way to ready ourselves for this year's Episode IX

Rogue One

 

Speaking of Star Wars, I had a hankering to watch Rogue One again. I went to Netflix, but the movie was gone. Enter Half Price Books. Armed with a new blu-ray DVD, I watched this show again, the first time since it's debut in 2016.

Boy does it hold up well. It's a true war film in the Star Wars universe. Like all real-life heroes who know the thing for which they fight is larger than themselves, the actions of Jyn Erso and company are commendable.

The movie even made me tear up over a robot.

And that Darth Vader scene? The one thing I really hoped for going into the movie back in 2016 was to have Vader be bad again. Really bad. And dang, if he didn't deliver.

If you haven't watched it in a while--or ever--treat yourself.

What I'm Reading

 

I’m a member of the Men’s Adventure Paperbacks of the 70s and 80s. So is James Reasoner. He posted on this group the cover of the new book he’s publishing: Faraday: The Iron Horse. Well, the cover alone grabbed me. The concept solidified it. And the reading, so far, is exactly what I’ve come to expect from James.

Here’s the link to his blog where he gives some background. I’ll have my review up next week (most likely).

Subverting Expectations AKA A Writer's Defense of The Last Jedi

By
Scott D. Parker

While Star Wars: The Last Jedi might not be a mystery or crime film, there is something we storytellers can learn from the kerfuffle that has arisen since the film’s release last week.

No matter the medium—books, TV, movies, comics—we consumers enjoy stories. And if the stories are serial in nature, many of us enjoy dissecting every detail to discern some greater meaning. One of my favorite things about watching the TV show “Lost” in real time was the water cooler chats the day after each episode aired. Me and my office pals discussed in great length every shred of evidence from the episode, crafting in our minds what a shot of a book might mean. Then, the following week or later in the series, we might get answers. Sometimes those answers matched our expectations; other times the answer were not what we had crafted in our minds.

But we were not the storytellers. We were the consumers. We read or watch what the creators create.
When it comes to genre, certain tropes come along for the ride. If you’re reading an Agatha Christie mystery, you know you’ll get interesting characters, all the clues, all the evidence, and a chance to solve the mystery before or alongside her detective, be it Poirot or Marple. If you are reading an Elmore Leonard novel, you know you’ll get snappy dialogue and criminals who are self-aware. If you’re reading a western, you’re going to get a gunslinger, a corrupt cattle baron, a beautiful woman, and a horse with some character. If you’re watching a rom-com, you know you’ll get the charming leads, their funny fiends, and a situation that’ll put them together.

Creators of these kinds of stories know this and plan accordingly. As a beginning writer, we are all instructed to know the genre in which we’re writing and put in the tropes readers expect. We call them obligatory scenes. Take romance. Here are the must-have scenes in any romance: the leads are introduced separately, the leads meet, the leads solve a problem together, a situation arises in which one lead questions the relationship, the break-up scene, the realization scene, and the getting-back-together scene. It’s a roadmap readers and viewers come to expect, but it’s a gifted creator who can play with those tropes and present them in a fresh way, maybe even subverting audience expectations along the way.

Star Wars is not only a science fiction series (with all of those tropes) but it brings in its own set of tropes unique to the franchise. All those tropes were in the first movie, now forty years old. You know them because you’ve absorbed them for four decades. Farm boy with dreams of adventure has adventure land in his lap. Evil galactic empire after a small band of rebels personified in a princess. Lovable rogues who help the farm boy. Wise mentor who sacrifices himself so farm boy can escape. The plucky band of rebels attacks the “small moon” of the Empire’s base and destroys it. And, taking a cue from the second film, a big revelation that the bad guy is actually the farm boy’s dad.

What?!

Back in the early 80s, we spent three years wondering if Vader spoke the truth. Some of my friends didn’t think it was possible; others thought it was the truth. Either way, when Return of the Jedi debuted, we got our answers directly from George Lucas’s movie. I suspect there was some grousing from a certain sector of fandom, but there it was, out in the open.

Up until 2017, we had seven numbered Star Wars movies and one off-shoot. All but one (Empire) arguably played from the exact playbook. Every movie showed a big thing to destroy, a lightsaber battle, lovable rogues, earnest heroes, bad villains, and robots that made us laugh. Like almost every Perry Mason TV show episode, the Star Wars movies all but lulled us into a routine. As good as Erle Stanley Gardner was as a writer, when you picked up a Perry Mason novel or tuned in to the TV show, you knew exactly what was going to happen. There is a certain comfort in that knowledge. I understand it, but every now and then, isn’t it more interesting to have a creator take a left turn when you were convinced, through repetition and constant reinforcement, the creator was going to take a right turn?

Now comes Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Viewers have had two years to ruminate over all the details of The Force Awakens. I think most of us did exactly the same thing when we saw that 2015 film: put the new characters into the positions of the legacy characters. Rey was the new Luke, Poe was the new Han, Finn was the new Leia (more or less), Snoke was the new Emperor, and Ren was the new Vader. After watching that movie, we were convinced we knew exactly how The Last Jedi was going to play out because we had seen it all before.

But writer/director Rian Johnson did something we writer/creators should have the guts to do every now and then: show us something different.

(Spoilers start here, by the way.)

If Johnson had simply remade The Empire Strikes Back with The Last Jedi, complete with a bunch of shots we fans had been conditioned to expect, most of us might have been happy, or at least comforted. Oh, there’s Luke’s X-Wing under water? Well, then, we expect to see Luke lift the craft out of the water just like he couldn’t do in Empire. Johnson likely considered it and then made a different choice and likely for a specific reason: Luke’s a Jedi Master. Of course he can lift an X-Wing. Why do we need to see it? Much speculation was made about Rey’s parentage. Based on the past movies and the internal Star Wars tropes, she just had to be Luke’s daughter or Kenobi’s granddaughter or something like that. Johnson likely thought long and hard and realized there was a better choice to be made. He made it.

And, lest we forget, Disney signed off on it. Disney: one of the biggest trope machines on the planet, but a company who is willing to change things up every now and then (Wall-E, Up, Inside Out, Ratatouille).

So Star Wars fans are up in arms that the latest movie didn’t go along with the established Star Wars pattern. What did they get instead?

Well, they got a story that did not conform to established patterns. Isn’t that a good thing? Wouldn’t you have liked to have seen Perry Mason lose, at least once? We got a movie from a gifted writer who made the conscious choice to go against expectations and not service every whim of the fans. We got a refreshing film from a director with a certain point of view. Arguably, we got the most unique Star Wars film since Empire.

In short, Rian Johnson subverted viewers’ expectations.

And I loved it.

I have always contended that the best time to be a Star Wars fan was from 1977-1980. You see, up until Vader revealed himself to be Luke’s father, the Star Wars galaxy was wide open with thousands of stories to tell. Afterwards, it’s merely a family saga. The galaxy got very, very small.

Luke Skywalker goes to great lengths to liken the Force as not belonging to just the Jedi but to everyone in the galaxy. I think the negative reactions to the film are largely from a cadre of fans who think Star Wars is theirs and theirs alone. Every movie since the original trilogy has been made for the die-hard Star Wars fan, complete with callbacks that only we’d know.

The Last Jedi, with writer/director Rian Johnson, has gone to great lengths to shed the franchise from many of the shackles it has carried through the decades. It was a brave choice he made to write a movie that went against almost all the audience expectations, but how neat is it to leave the theater not really knowing how Episode IX will play out.

It’s refreshing.

The galaxy is, once again, wide open.


As is our tradition here at Do Some Damage, we are taking some time off. New posts resume on 2 January 2018. Thank y’all for coming back day after day and reading what we have to say, and have a fantastic holiday season!

A Tale of Two Trailers

By
Scott D. Parker

Two movie trailers dropped this week, both for movies I’m really looking forward to paying money to see. One thrilled me with euphoria, the other, frankly, fell a little flat.

The first long trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke on Thursday. I saw it just after lunch. I was in my office/cube and had only access to my iPod and earbuds--which I blasted.  I’m not ashamed to say that I got goosebumps as soon as  the force theme played across that vast desert landscape. Then, when Luke Skywalker himself spoke, those bumps multiplied. The image of Vader’s burned mask was a surprise but, in retrospect, probably not. Then the images of all the new characters who I will meet in December. Then, after a fade to black, the voice millions of kids adored: Han Solo himself said, “Chewie, we’re home.” And Chewbacca warbled his response.

I was over the fourth moon of Yavin with happiness. And was that some sort of dust in my eyes? I won’t hide the fact that I got a little misty. Think about it: those were voices I hadn’t heard in 32 years. Thirty-two years since the last words spoken at the end of Return of the Jedi, when Leia told Han that Luke was her brother. (Odd when you think about all the remaining moments of the film and there were no words.) Thirty-two years since I had heard from some old friends who helped to shape my childhood and the childhoods of millions of kids over multiple generations.

Just take my money now. Some worry that the hype won’t live up to the expectation, that JJ Abrams can’t deliver on the dreams of millions. I think he will. Now, I’m fully aware that nostalgia plays a big role in this. Understood, but the look, the feel, the vibe of the trailer tells me that we are in good hands.


The other trailer was leaked footage on the internet. It was for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, still a mouthful of a title. I don’t care that court cases don’t use the ‘s’ in vs.,’ they should have used an ‘s’. Anyway, I watched the footage as shot by a hand-held camera. And it was dark. Very dark. Both in tone and in visuals. A day later (Yesterday), the official version was released. The visuals were not as dark as the hand-held footage but the tone remained the same.

Lots of night shots, the better to hide the full look at Ben Affleck’s Batman. No vocals from Superman, which is a shame. I like Henry Cavill in the role. He can convey a lot with his face and those nuances go a long way to making his a good Superman. And, from what I saw, Affleck’s Batman looks really good. He’s even got the white eyes that we’ve seen for decades in the comics. And the robotic, modulated version of his voice was a nice addition. The Flash, on TV, modulates his voice and it’s a good effect, the better to avoid the Christian Bale growl.

By the end of the trailer, Batman and Superman meet, Supes hovering in the sky, Bats in armor on the ground. And they’re gonna fight. And they’re gonna be friends in the end so that they can form the Justice League. The question that entered my head was this: Can’t we just skip ahead to the friend part?

I get that BvS is going to be a reaction to the wide-scale destruction from Man of Steel. This is a post-9/11 world after all. I get that. I get that Bats will stand in for humankind and confront Superman. I get that. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I just hope that the battles between the two will be somewhere in the middle so we can get some smiles and sunshine in this movie. As I wrote on Jay’s Facebook page: “I love Batman and I can find good things in just about every property out there re: Bats. Now, yesterday, we had the Star Wars trailer and that sent me over the moon. Euphoria. This morning, I saw the leaked BvS footage. I clicked with high expectations. I was...I'm not sure. I'm not sure why it is that trailer almost did nothing for me. Yes, I like the themes (i.e., voiceovers) presented, and I liked Bats's metallic voice. But... after the bright excitement of Star Wars, all I'm seeing is dark, dark, dark. Yes, I will see it, without a doubt. I don't hate MoS. But what does it say about that movie and/or franchise when someone like me is almost indifferent? What it just poor timing? Will future trailers reveal more? Why the heck do heroes ALWAYS have to fight?”

Still, there was that moment, the moment when Superman and Batman were on screen, live action, for the very first time. That was indeed tres cool.

Another Facebook friend started a new thread saying “This is my Superman.” It started with a picture of Christopher Reeve and a Harlan Ellison quote. Here it is.

After that, I got to thinking: if Snyder is re-imagining Superman for the 21st Century--and the 1938 Superman/1950s TV Superman/1978 Movie Superman say one thing about him and us as a society in those respective years--what does MoS and BvS say about us now? Is this who we've become?