Month: August 2022

Frankenstein’s Monster Meets Spider-Man

Today is Mary Shelley’s birthday.  Here’s her most famous creation, meeting Spider-Man.  It’s one icon meeting another.

Spider-Man and Frankenstein’s Monster were brought together by a villain named Baron Ludwig von Shtupf, a.ka. the Monster Maker.

Baron Ludwig von Shutpf made his first (and, to date, only) appearances in two issues of Marvel Team-Up.  In Marvel Team-Up #36, he kidnapped Spider-Man from New York and Frankenstein’s Monster from the antarctic.  In Marvel Team-Up #37, he summoned Man-Wolf to join them all in his castle.  Baron von Shtupf was the latest in a long line of mad scientists and he had come up with the perfect plan for world domination.  Why not take three great monsters and combine them into one big monster?  It seemed like a good plan but Spider-Man, Man-Wolf, Frankenstein’s Monster, and an Agent of SHIELD named Judith Klemmer stopped him and left him tied up in his study.

The Baron would never appear again in the pages of Marvel Comics, which is amazing when you consider that even a character like the Living Eraser made a handful of appearances over the years before being permanently erased.  Was it because Baron von Shtupf’s name sounded suspiciously like a certain Yiddish vulgarity?  Perhaps.  Not bringing back Baron von Shtupf is a waste of a perfect good character so how about, Disney?  How about a little love for the Monster Maker?  Just imagine what Christoph Waltz could do with the role.

The main reason that I remember Spider-Man meeting the Monster Maker is because, when I was seven years old, I found a copy of Marvel Team-Up #36 at a garage sale and I got excited because The Frankenstein Monster was on the cover. My mom bought it for me. When I got home, I read the comic and I was stunned to discover that it ended with a “to be continued” right after Spider-Man and the Monster discovered the Man-Wolf waiting for them in the Baron’s laboratory. (This was when I was still too young to understand that all comic books ended with a “to be continued” because that was the easiest way to get kids like me to spend my allowance on them.)

I spent years searching for a copy of Marvel Team-Up #37 so I could find out how the story ended. It was not until twelve years later, when I came across it on Ebay, that I was finally able to get a copy of the second part of the Monster Maker saga! For that reason, I have never forgotten Baron von Shtupf and the time that Spider-Man met  Frankenstein’s Monster.  I guess I never will.

 

Is Liz Cheney Going Forward?

I can’t say I’m surprised to see Liz Cheney losing big in the Wyoming primary.  Actually, I don’t think anyone’s surprised.  If anything, Liz has been setting herself up to be a martyr ever since 2021.

Liz Cheney is obviously angling for a presidential run but I don’t know who she thinks is going to nominate her.  The Republicans aren’t going to go for her.  The Democrats may say they respect her right now but that’ll change as soon as the January 6th commission goes the way of the Mueller investigation.  (Add to that, to be a viable Democratic candidate, Liz Cheney would have to change every position that she’s ever held.  Joe Walsh and Charlie Crist were both willing to do it but neither one of them is any closer to the White House as a result.)  The Libertarian grassroots don’t even trust Justin Amash so I doubt they’ll welcome Dick Cheney’s daughter.  The most plausible theory that I’ve heard is that Liz Cheney is going to end up going third party, perhaps with Andrew Yang’s Forward Party.

Forward with Liz Cheney?  Best of luck with that.

One Year

It’s been one year since the start of withdrawal from Afghanistan showed America just how incompetent the Biden administration truly is.  We still don’t know how many Americans were left behind.  The 13 soldiers who were killed are rarely acknowledged by this White House.  Desperate for a public relations victory, our government ended up droning a relief worker and his family and then accused them of being terrorists.  It was not America’s finest hour but it was emblematic of the type of leader that Joe Biden has always been.

Biden’s first (and hopefully only) term in office with always consist of Before Afghanistan and After Afghanistan.  Before Afghanistan, Biden could get away with pretending to be the empathetic grandpa who loved ice cream.  After Afghanistan, Biden was exposed as still being the incompetent but pompous old windbag that he was known being before he temporarily rehabilitated by serving as Obama’s vice president.  As much as Biden’s allies in the media insist that he’s turned a corner and he’ll soon prove himself to be the strong leader that America was promised during the 2020 election, the defining image of Joe Biden will always be him turning his back on the people who elected him.

 

Oh, Hawaii Had A Primary

Hawaii is such a reliably blue state and it’s so far away from the mainland that its primary never seems to get much attention.  In fact, I didn’t even realize that Saturday was primary day in Hawaii until I saw the results this afternoon.

Hawaii is a one-party state so only the Democratic Primary matters.  Brian Schatz may be one of the dumber members of the Senate but, barring an upset in the primary, he’s got his seat for as long as he wants it.  The lack of Republican Party strength in Hawaii can be seen in the fact that, after losing two gubernatorial elections in a row, Duke Aiona won the opportunity to lose a third one.

I was hoping that BJ Penn would pull an upset and win the Republican primary for governor.  It’s not that Penn would have had any chance of beating Josh Green in the general.  It’s just that Penn, as a former UFC fighter, would have been an interesting and offbeat challenger.

The biggest news, I guess, is that Kai Kahele did not do very well in the Democratic primary for governor.  Kahele was the Congressman who made headlines when it was discovered that he was not only refusing to go to Washington D.C. to do his job but he was also still working as a commercial airline pilot, even after winning his seat.  Kahele may be out of office now but I have a feeling he’ll be running again in the future.  He seems to like campaigning than serving.

Salman Rushdie Is Talking

Like everyone outside of a few fanatics, I was shocked and angered by the attack on Salman Rushdie on Friday.

I didn’t want to say anything about it until it was clear whether or not he would survive the attack.  The initial reports were grim, with Rushide being on ventilator, not able to speak, losing an eye, and suffering damage to his liver.  On Saturday night, though, news came that Rushdie is now off the ventilator and he is now able to speak.  Hopefully, this is a sign that Rushdie will recover from the attack.

The Worst Idea

Apparently, New York City’s mayor, Eric Adams, is threatening to bus New Yorkers down to Texas so that they can knock on people’s doors for Beto.

Speaking as someone who moved to this state from up north, this is absolutely the worst idea that I have ever heard.  If you want to harm Beto’s chances more than Beto O’Rourke already has, sending a bunch of yankees down here to harangue people is definitely the way to go.  A part of me almost hopes it happens just to see the result.

(People in New York need to consider how they would have reacted to someone wearing a ten gallon hat and cowboy boots knocking on their door and telling them to vote for Curtis Sliwa.)

It reminds me of when someone in New Jersey was trying to get a caravan to drive down to Alabama and campaign for Doug Jones.  Howard Dean specifically went on Twitter to beg them not to.  I don’t have much use for Howard Dean but, in this one case, he knew what he was talking about.  People forget that Roy Moore came dangerously close to winning that election.  All it would have taken to push him over the finish line would have been a bunch of well-intentioned northerners invading the state.

Suarez … for real?

Scoop: Miami mayor eyes White House

Last year, I laughed off the rumors of Francis Suarez running for President but it sounds like he’s really serious.  The idea of someone jumping for mayor to president used to be preposterous but I get the feeling that it’s going to happen someday.  There really is a feeling now that just about anyone can become a serious presidential contender.

Know Your District

Though there’s no way the mainstream media is going to make a big deal out of it, it was interesting to watch Ilhan Omar nearly lose her primary last night.  Did I say interesting?  I meant to say extremely satisfying.

Omar was nearly defeated in the Democratic primary by Don Samuels, who ran as an opponent of defunding the police.  That Omar, a national star, nearly lost a primary that she was expected to win easily should be bigger news than it is.  Along with the sudden unpopularity of “defund the police,” Samuels was helped by the fact that he actually spend the days leading up to the primary campaigning in the district.  Considering that the Squad’s leader came to power by defeating a veteran congressman who took his district for granted, it’s odd that many members of the Squad keep making the same mistake that old Joe Crowley did.  Constituents like to feel that their representative is actually looking out for them.  Omar and Rashida Tlaib often seem to be more interested in attacking Israel than looking after their districts.

It’s hard not to feel that, if the primary were held just a week later, Don Samuels would be the one getting ready to campaign in the general election and Ilhan Omar would be the one preparing for life after Congress.