Mood: spacey
Now Playing: SECRET AGENT
Believe it or not, I have a set of friends who are obsessed with oddball Abraham Lincoln references. I've never quite understood it myself, but this post is in their honor.
The Unexpected #217, cover pencilled by Ernie Colon and inked by Dick Giordano. I believe the story is "Dear Senator", a 10-pager written and drawn by Sheldon Mayer. I've not had the pleasure of reading it, but I'm dying to know what this ridiculous cover is all about.
Tonight I watched this week's episodes of LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (good), THE WEST WING (okay by this season's standards; can't wait for Jimmy Smits to become a regular) and LAW & ORDER (I like Farina, but it was good to see Orbach again in this repeat). I don't watch very much television at all these days, just a handful of network dramas. I haven't watched anything on cable in over a month; maybe it's time I stopped thinking about getting a dish and just did it.
I also dug into A&E's SECRET AGENT box set, watching the first episode. It seems like an odd one to start a series with, since the main character, agent John Drake (Patrick McGoohan), is undercover throughout the episode and acts, er, out of character, so to speak. A bit talky, but the cat-and-mouse games played among the spies were fun, and the British guest cast, including Niall McGinniss and the charming Dawn Addams, were good.
Off to climb into a bed a bit early. I certainly could use it after this week, especially after staying up late so many nights. I'll of course read a bit first. I'm currently spinning the pages of Marvel's ESSENTIAL IRON FIST, VOL. 1, which reprints the first several appearances of the green-and-gold superhero created to take advantage of the martial arts craze of the mid-1970s. I highly recommend the Marvel ESSENTIAL series, which are thick trade paperbacks (500-600 pages) reprinting classic Marvel comics. Early editions focused on A-list heroes like Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk and the Fantastic Four, but more recently Marvel has moved into the '70s and more obscure titles like MARVEL TEAM-UP, TOMB OF DRACULA, SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP and THE MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN. The downside is that they're reprinted in black-and-white, but with 500+ pages and 25-30 different issues presented for less than $15, I think they're marvelous bargains. As much as I love the Silver Age Marvel stories by Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby et al., I have a soft spot for the comics I grew up with during the '70s...and the sillier the better. And they don't get a whole lot sillier than Iron Fist, whose gaudy outfit, kung fu skills and iron-fist gimmick (by concentrating, he can draw all the power of his chi into his fist, giving it temporarily immense power) fit right into the freewheeling well-let's-see-if-this-idea-sticks Marvel spirit of the pre-Shooter '70s. So face front, fans!
Posted by Marty
at 11:26 PM CST
Updated: Friday, December 17, 2004 11:31 PM CST