When I was first introduced to Ms. Marvel, I have to confess I didn’t find her very interesting, and as a matter of fact, thought that the Red and Blue Captain Marvel costume looked absolutely ridiculous cut into a bad one-piece swimsuit. But I had a friend who absolutely loved her, (and I mean LOVED her!) and insisted on sharing, so I was exposed to her comic whether I liked it or not! This actually worked out to my benefit as I was able to filter through the stuff I didn’t like and appreciate the stuff I did, and eventually I came around and started picking up some of those issues myself!
The biggest part of what turned me around from a non-believer to a general fan of the comic was, of course, THE NEW COSTUME! Now THIS was what I liked! Rendered by a master of sexy super-heroine costumes was the mighty DAVE COCKRUM, and YES, the new outfit looked EXACTLY like a variation of Jean Grey’s revamped PHOENIX costume, but HEY, when you’ve got a winning formula, you don’t mess with it…
So, anyway, gone was the horrendous red and blue outfit, in was the sleek ‘n’ sexy blue outfit with the lightning bolt and golden sash , and just in time for a return slugfest against super baddie Deathbird (who would go on to give Hawkeye a run for his money in AVENGERS #189) then onward to my favorite arcs of the series, where Carol dukes it out with a civilization of super Lizard Men! Ah, trust me, it’s cooler than it sounds. And THEN…
Then the Comic got cancelled. Yep. GEEZ! All that coaxing and convincing me to get onboard the Ms. Marvel Fan Ship, and then the voyage was abruptly ended! But the best was yet to come with the aforementioned AVENGERS stint, all lovingly rendered by John Byrne, who was TOTALLY in his PRIME at this time!
At this time we started trying to buy all the back issues of old Avengers stories, and when we got our hands of the epic KREE-WARS stories, got to see exactly where Carol Danvers had come from in the first place! It was kind of nest to realize she actually had a bit of “history” within the pages of those old Silver Age Marvels!
So yeah, I was a fan there…but after that surrealistic ( and highly controversial) AVENGERS issue (196?) where she gets pregnant in some convoluted cosmic drama, I kind of lost interest and drifted away again. Next time I checked, for some reason the character named “Ms Marvel” was a big female version of the Thing! I didn’t know if this was supposed to be Carol Danvers or some OTHER character, and I DIDN’T WANT TO KNOW! (Okay, I found out later it was some OTHER gal, but still, the shock…!)
In fact, it was only with the arrival of Frank Cho’s cool and sexy MS MARVEL revival did I breathe a sigh of RELIEF, for here once again was that awesome dynamic costume, proving it could stand the test of time! The Ms Marvel of Old was back! ( and MAN, let’s hope she STAYS that way!)
A funny side-story that always makes me smile is remembering when my friend picked up a new issue of Ms Marvel and saw that Carol was dating some dude with a beard, he mock- angrily declared war against all bearded men, and set about cutting up every picture of a bearded man in the daily newspaper. I sat on the couch howling with laughter as he jokingly destroyed all the pictures, until he got into trouble when his father scolded him and said “What are you DOING to the Newspaper? I haven’t even READ it yet!”
Ahahahahahaha!!!
Ms. Marvel / Carol Danvers
First Appearance: Marevel Super-Heroes #13
By Roy Thomas and Gene Colan
Ah, another one in the category of “salacious one-shot characters” that seem to spring forth effortlessly from the pen of comic maestro John Byrne, Arathaza is at once both awe-inspiring and utterly disposable!
Issue# 585 of Superman’s ACTION COMICS begins with a bang not so unlike the explosive opening teasers of the great JAMES BOND movies of yesteryear where we come in not at the beginning but rather the end of the last mission, and so we see Superman already engaged in battle with a new (and after, never again seen) villainess who is slowly draining the life force out of Supes.
Through their dialog we learn that the majestic (and slightly Tina Louise a la Ginger Grant looking) Arathaza was once only a mild mannered secretary named Barb Kowaleski until she found the means of transferring Superman’s powers to herself. It is here that he turns the tables on her, rendering himself completely passive so that there is no power to draw from!
At that point, he grabs her staff, which he rightly figures is the source of her powers, and she’s turned back into the frumpy looking mortal that she was. Supes sweeps her up, saving the day and delivering the coupe de grace to the latest would-be world dominator!
And then and ONLY then did the actual story featuring the Phantom Stranger start!
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
I went to the zoo again today. But that's not really what this post is about. As I was leaving I saw that Nessie had arrived. I'll have to go back again sometime to get some photos of her. But this post isn't about that either.
I sat on a picnic table and watched as parts of Nessie were unloaded. They took a break and I heard someone say they wouldn't start back up for another hour so I left. But during the approximately hour that I was watching the action there were two squirrels trying to see if I had anything interesting. And to them interesting meant food.
Neither was scared of me. In fact they both came within inches of the camera.
And both squirrels were fat. Really fat. We have a lot of squirrels around our house but these "city squirrels" really needed to go on a diet.
The squirrels' diet wasn't helped by the mom and two kids who were feeding them fries. Both squirrels would get a fry and come back toward me to feast.
Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.
We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you for being so patient.
This morning was the annual running of Bailey's Doggie Dash. Andrew hasn't been running much at all this year due to a back injury so he decided to enter the costume contest. He has had this idea for a couple of years but finally got costumes this year. Andrew's race number this year was a cool one. His birthday month and year.
Since we call Haven Miss B when she's naughty (get it - Miss B Haven) the bee costume is fitting. Andrew had to be a sunflower to go along with her. They ended up placing fourth in the costume contest.
These two collies have creative costumes each year. One year they were "collie flowers" with head gear similar to Andrew's! The football player took first place and the cheerleader took second in the costume contest. A pirate was in third place even though we thought Haven should have been there if the collies were going to be first and second. Haven was doing her screaming while being *judged* so we told her she got points taken off her score for her behavior. You can see video of Haven screaming here.
Once the race started Haven settled in. But Andrew said that she was mad that they weren't running as fast as they usually do!
After the race we hung out while waiting for everyone to finish. Haven was all over getting treats and watching the people. She didn't mind all of the dogs but they weren't as interesting.
Back at home we took our yearly photo of Andrew and Haven in front of the burning bush with whatever they took home from the race that year.
After throwing a ball at the bumper it eventually came down. Now both dogs are happily sleeping - Beacon in a sunbeam and Haven on a double decker soft bed.
More photos that I took this morning can be seen in my Doggie Dash Flickr album.
Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.
This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!
Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.
Can't wait to read your posts!
~ daisy
My parents and Zeke came for a visit yesterday. When we went out for lunch we left Zeke uncrated. This is the first time that he has been uncrated here. He's used to being out of a crate at my parents' house so we decided to try it out here. Only one thing was disturbed when we got home.
Well, two. One was Haven though. She took the exercise ball off the love seat. Miss B. likes to get up there when we're gone and has discovered that if she knocks a ball off she can get up there. Stinker. The only thing that Zeke did was pull stuffing out of one of the dog beds. The beds are old so it wasn't a big deal. When we went out for dinner we moved the beds into a room where the door was closed. Nothing was disturbed the second time other than Haven once again removing one of the balls off the love seat.
Both times we set up to the Pets Eye View camera. Overall nothing interesting was caught. There are a couple shots of Beacon chewing on Haven's ears though!
It was finally not raining and some sun was shining in the afternoon after about a week of rainy weather. Beacon enjoyed some fetching. Haven sniffed around and tried to avoid Zeke nipping at her legs. Zeke was either chasing after Beacon or Haven trying to get them to play.
By the time we were done playing with the dogs in the backyard they were all tired.
This morning as I was catching up on my Google Reader stuff I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked out the window and saw a herd of about eight deer. Some of them were really close. As in standing in the garden right in front of the house.
There were two young bucks in the group. We see does all of the time, usually every day. It's rare that we see a buck let alone two at the same time. One of the bucks was playing with a younger deer. Either a doe or a buck without antlers. They would play bow and then head butt each other. The buck was clearly the alpha but it didn't appear that he was trying to chase the younger deer away. The two would move along looking for things to eat in the grass and take breaks to play. This continued as they moved across the front yard.
The does in the group seemed to care more about eating than playing. Four of them were in the garden eating. They were eating weeds so I didn't chase them off.
When I went to take a picture of the does (the bucks moved along too quickly so I didn't have time to get the camera out) Beacon wondered what I was doing. Usually if the dogs see deer in the yard but they're not too close to the house of the fence in the back they don't care about them. But if they get too close their turf must be defended, mostly by Beacon. Haven's curious about the deer and I think she'd like to play with them more than chase them away.
The above photo was taken about a second before Beacon started popping up and down on his front legs barking so that the deer would see him as a "big threat". The deer did run off so Beacon did his "job". He showed them.
It's now hunting season. If we take the dogs hiking they'll wear their orange vests. During firearm time we won't take the dogs in a hunting area.
The deer in our area (as well as many others around us and the US) are plentiful. There aren't cougars around here so there aren't any natural predators for the deer. In the past couple of years the deer population seems to have grown. A couple of years ago I wasn't able to harvest anything from my vegetable garden because of the deer. Last winter one of the evergreen bushes right outside our front door was eaten by the deer. There are more of them fighting for what food there is in the area. And depending on weather conditions food can be more scarce. While we've had some dry summers and cold winters the cold times haven't been harsh enough to weed out enough sick and weak deer.
A few months ago our City Council approved hunting deer within city limits. It's only in season and only for bow and arrow hunting. And it's limited to properties of 10 acres or more. You must adhere to state laws requiring a license and includes individually the number of deer you can take in a season. I agree that there is a deer population issue. I'm not sure that allowing hunting within city limits is the answer.
There are about 10 properties where this hunting would be allowed and only three of these properties are residential. So in essence allowing hunting only changes things for three properties as it's highly unlikely that a business would allow hunting in their land with all of the liabilities. I'm not sure that the land belonging to three people (and who knows if all three would actually hunt on their land), which are all on one side of the city, will help the overall population problem.
The ordinance allowing hunting within city limits will be reviewed in three years. There hasn't been anything mentioned about how the city will determine whether or not hunting has helped. There was mention of comparing deer-car accidents within the city as well as working with the DNR to get a feel on the population but I don't think anything has been cited as real follow up goals.
I wish the city would have brought up more education in how to help control the deer population in addition to allowing hunting. People go after the bucks. They're the *prize*. But it's really the does that should be targeted so that there are fewer to reproduce. There wasn't mention of encouraging more hunting in the areas surrounding the city where hunting is allowed by anyone.
From watching the deer on a daily basis I can tell that they're not "just an animal". They play. They have personalities. I wish that there were another way to control their population without hunting. But I also know that they have become an issue.
