Justin Beiber has a new movie coming out, "Never Say Never." I let my mind wander over this strange title today in my Criminal Law class. (I wasn't spacing out in class. There was a very off-topic discussion going on about gun laws.) Anyway, the title of the movie, if you say it out loud, is "Say." Think about it: you are being told to never say "never." So, you shouldn't say it. The crappy thing is that the movie has "never" on both sides of "say," but you aren't allowed to say "never." So you simply say "Say."

The fun part is that you are not supposed to say the one word. You can't say "never." But the title uses the word twice to inform you. "Never Say Never." In essence, two words are used to tell you that you shouldn't say one word, so in the end you are saying no words where words exists. Sure, in print the movie's name is "Never Say Never," but in telling your friends about the new movie, it's just "Say." And this is what an English degree got me: daydreams about Justin Beiber movie titles. I'm living the life. 

I've got some beef with Cyclops.  In the Kings of Pain story arc, Proteus is brought back to life and wreaks havoc.  All the boy wants is some order in life.  Marvel Girl (or Phoenix, or Jean Grey, or whatever name you know her by) glimpsed into the being's mind and saw that true happiness came while Proteus was dead.  Cyclops is immediately for talking Proteus into killing himself.  Does this seem counter to anyone?  The Boy Scout of mutants wants take the easy way out.  Others in the group want to explore other options.  Nothing comes close to changing Cyke's mind.
 
Align this story with what happens to Ship in Endgame.  Ship gets infected with some type of virus and starts attacking anything and anyone.  As a matter of fact, Ship is going to explode if something isn't resolved soon.  The amazing thing: Cyclops is torn out of shape at the fact that he's got to lose this sentient space ship.  Sure, they've been "friends," but we are talking about saving the world.  Why the discrepancy of being willing to sacrifice the life of a boy but not the "life" of a ship?  
 
One thing I do know, the Proteus stigma doesn't last for long.  Cyclops is at least able to make the sacrifice when it is his own son, so I guess my beef isn't as big as I'd thought.  Yet the differences still intrigue me.  Of course, I've looked at this with a more objective eye.  What are the subjective thoughts?

Marvel Comics Presents #43 has been a bit of a frustration for me in the past because I've tried to file in my collection in accord with Siryn's backstory.  The problem I constantly found was that certain checklists would rank her story in this issue as occurring after she joined X-Force.  I can accept this knowing that we don't get too much on Siryn in those early books and it's feasible that she went back to Ireland a time or two that we just weren't told about.  Yet, I could never get the issue placed in that continuity without disrupting the flow the X-Force books had.  A story about Ireland in between Cannonball's death and then Siryn's abduction by Gideon just didn't jive.  
 
This problem was simply exacerbated by the fact that the MCP issue was printed a year before this supposed time.  My concern with simply putting this issue where time would have put it was that Siryn was supposed to be on Muir Island and we as readers didn't have too much knowledge into what was happening there at the time ( Moira had been noted as acting strange for months before).  So simply putting Siryn in Cassidy Keep while she was supposed to be on Muir acting odd also didn't jive because it felt a little pretentious to state what could have been happening.  
 
Then I read the " Kings of Pain" cross-over.  I never used to read the old annuals but this opened my eyes some.  Not only does the X-Men Annual ( #15) tell that Banshee was missing (a point in the MCP issue) but it could also explain why Siryn would need a bit of a break.  Proteus was quite the obstacle, a little downtime could have been very practical.  
 
So, based on continuity and intuition, I say that, at least for Siryn fans going after backstory, this issue of MCP should go right after the "Kings of Pain" crossover.  I don't know how well that will go with the other three stories but I don't read this issue for them anyway.

I'm really tired of griping about Louise Simonson in my reviews but she was clearly a downer in late-eighties/early-nineties comics.  My beef with her is her constant and overuse of the thought bubble.  For instance, take Cable joining the New Mutants.  Rictor is obviously displeased; the artist draws him that way.  Yet, for all the visual cues we get, Louise goes and gives this too lengthy, cheesy statement about how Rictor is thinking "Okay Cable.  You win this round."  Plus more.  This isn't necessary.  There should be a synergistic approach to penning a comic book.  You don't need to spell everything out.  We don't need Sunspot thinking to himself how he would take a bullet for his new mentor ( New Mutants #93).  This is filler content.  Just have him mention to the others how he trusts Cable and won't let the team down.  Boom! Instead of a lame frame of fifteen thought bubbles we've got the same info in one statement.  Then the artist can validate the statement by showing Sunspot giving his all for Cable's cause.  
 
Sadly, I just don't care for this woman's work.  It's too blatantly in-your-face with the message.  Then again, some people need this.  As for me: I don't.

Sometimes I like to listen to the radio and bemoan the state of music.  No song is more annoying than the Britney Spears song "Three," yet people love it.  Why?  The hook?  Okay, I'll give you that: the tune is easily remembered.  But what about the music and lyrics?  That song does absolutely nothing to showcase the talents of the guys playing the instruments, make a person think differently about song composition, or desire to apply any of the lyrics to one's philosophies of life.  The song merely follows a sure-fire formula for radio success.
 
Please allow me this shameless plug: bands like Saves the Day, Eisley, and Brand New change the way music should be experienced, yet they get very little attention.  Their songs are actually thought out, both lyrically and, especially, musically.  And this is where the epiphany comes in.  Bands like Brand New have a high amount of "awe" in what they do.  The ability to convey emotions amongst their mad-hat approach to music is a thing of pure awe.  But we don't view awe in this light with the media.  If something is full of awe then it is awful.  So, while Brand New may be amazing in almost every aspect of their craft, purely full of awe, they get discounted by the masses.  Whereas if something has some awe to it, you guessed it, it's awesome.  So mediocrity (a mere possessing of some awe) is considered cool.  What then, I ask, is something completely devoid of awe?  Well, to the mass media, it can only be the greatest form of entertainment ever.  Yet, we don't have a word for this.  This logic seems backwards but it makes complete sense.  Bands like Brand New are awful (brilliant but ignored), bands like the Used are awesome (just enough mainstream in them to appeal widely), and bands like Fall Out Boy are so devoid of awe that a word doesn't exist to explain why everyone can like them yet they still make millions on a remake of a Michael Jackson song, even when the remake pales so far in comparison.  This spans all forms of the media.  I don't quite get it.
 
Of course, there are exceptions.  The Killers are full of awe but still have found a place in pop culture.  The same can be said of Jimmy Eat World (though their earlier catalog is almost completely ignored).  As it is, oh well.

I already know what I'm going to use this site for: beefing up my 90s X-Force knowledge.  It's pretty lame that I haven't progressed past that era of comics, but I'm stuck.  Basically, I'm just here to make sure that people who come after me are better informed than I.  I bought some lame comics just because one of my characters was in it.  By updating the issues on here from the issues that I've read, maybe, just maybe, I can help prevent someone from buying an unnecessary comic.  Or urge them to buy something.  I don't know.  I'm a guy.  We don't really plan things.