I'm going Mushroom Soup on you today because I have much to do. Mushroom Soup days here are when I blog longer than most bloggers do to tell you I won't be blogging much today. I'll be back when I get it done or if there's a late-breaking news flash.
Yes, I saw the special last night, Marvel: Pulp to Pop, which in the grand Disney tradition was a promotion for upcoming product disguised as entertainment. That's almost not a criticism since a lot of those are more entertaining than material with no embedded sales message. It was nice to see as much mention of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko as there was. Folks today are complaining that as history, there were a lot of omissions — John Romita and Roy Thomas, for example. True. I don't think you could cover Marvel history in under two hours without a lot of omissions, especially when that was not your primary purpose.
I think fans of my generation have to get used to the concept that Marvel is no longer about Stan and Jack and Steve (and Gene and John and Artie Simek and Irving Forbush…) and is not even that much about comic books. That is also not a criticism; it's just what is. Given how much more money the Avengers movie made over what the Avengers comics could ever possibly make, I can't fault the evolution one bit.
In other news: Jay Leno returns to The Tonight Show this Friday night. I think history will show that even though he didn't pick when to leave, Jay got out at the right time. I'm wondering if one of the reasons he's doing the show this week is that he wants to appear with Dave before Mr. Letterman leaves the timeslot. It would be a way to put a lot of nonsense and hurt feelings in their proper, mostly-forgotten place. But since that appearance stands to be a huge, Fallon-crushing ratings draw, Jay kind of has to give NBC and his successor the first shot at him reappearing on talk shows. Also, of course, there could be payback for the nice things Jimmy Fallon has said about him in the press and at the Mark Twain Award ceremony.
Bye now. Back soon.