Halloween Dining 2020.

So it’s Halloween, and I think I should address something.  I’ve been meaning to say this for months, but… Squirrel!  I haven’t done any of the Marvel Zombie’s bit this year, but I’m not only distracted as a frontline worker, I’m loathe to go into discussing apocalyptic plagues before there’s a working …”Covidium” vaccine.  I know some creators call it the Coof, but this is my name for it.  Next is my Halloween bit this year.  I tried 2 recipes from the Pagan Book of Halloween by Gerina Dunwich.  So let’s dig in!

Beginning with the Boar’s Head Pumpkin Pie Hummus.   It feels and tastes like I’m dipping into an store bought pumpkin pie.  But there’s still the mild taste and distinctive of the chickpeas, primary ingredient of any good hummus.  Followed by water, then pumpkin.  Tastes like it came from a can.  Not bad, but I know the taste of home grown squash pies.  We used to grow and bake them at home.
Next up, R. W. Knudson Pumpkin Juice Cider.  Tastes like sparkling cider, but with pumpkin pie spice. No that’s not quite right, it’s more like someone put canned pumpkin in this. When looking at the ingredients, I see sparkling filtered water, apple and pumpkin juice some traits, and natural flavors. I have no idea what those natural flavors are. Maybe it is pumpkin pie spice. It says pumpkin spice on the label. But this is supposed to be a Pumpkin and Apple juice blend. Before this, the closest I’d come to Pumpkin juice was how often it appeared in Harry Potter.
The flavor was rich, but barely static, neither dynamic nor possessing an aftertaste. How it was when it entered was how it was when it it already gone down. I like it, it’s simple and to the point.
The pumpkin spice scone is from Starbucks, so it’s what you’re expecting. Softer baked substance topped in a firm coding show with a solid drizzle.  
And now for what you’re really here for, 2 recipes from the Pagan Book of Halloween.  No games or customs this year.  But if you like this, let’s see if we can’t do that next year.

Let’s begin with colcannon. You start with 10 large potatoes or 5 lb, one head of cabbage or an equal volume of kale which is what I went with. One onion. 4/3 cup milk. One stick butter or margarine amounting to 1/2 cup. Two teaspoons salt. 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Wash and peel the potatoes. Remove the eyes, sprouts or any green areas, and then cut into quarters. Put the potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water. Wash & chop up the head of cabbage and onion. Put them into the pot with the potatoes. Cover and cook for 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain in a strainer or colander, and return to the pot mash or use an electric mixer that I didn’t have, until blended and stir in the milk butter margarine salt and pepper this serves six. That’s right you add salt after you drain the salted water. And if we’re using kale instead of cabbage, I’d have preferred to add it raw after all the cooking and other mixing was done. That leached out a lot of the green goodness. But I don’t have any qualms about boiling cabbage, though.

The overall flavor was very rich and buttery attic out of milk and butter, there’s also a pretty salty. So spoiler alert, I didn’t catch the instructions to salt the water first, because I was also supposed to add it last. I would have preferred garlic salt but sea salt stays closer to the recipe. But what about just rinsing the kale and stirring it in before you start mashing the potatoes but after all boilings been done. Maybe I’ll try that next time.
Before we move on to the hazelnut cookies, I’d like to address something you might have spotted. For those of you familiar with Celtic lore, the name colcannon sounds like Cú Chulainn, the Irish folk hero who was supposed to have that nice gargoyle spin-off. Fun trivia. Now let’s get on to the more fun stuff, cookies.

Before you do all this preheat oven to 400°. This lets you put the cookies in right after you’ve finished. Start with 7 quarters cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, with 1/2 teaspoon salt, a whole teaspoon nutmeg, a whole teaspoon cinnamon, one quarter pound softened/melted butter, with a teaspoon of vanilla, a cup of sugar, two eggs, 3/2 cups chopped hazelnuts and one cup raisins.  
Mix the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon, then set aside in a separate smaller bowl. In the large bowl throw in the butter, vanilla, sugar, and beat well. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is smooth gradually and the sift in the dry ingredients, beating until mixed thoroughly. Finish by adding the hazelnuts and raisins. place well-rounded teaspoonfuls of the Dell about 2 inches apart on a foil cover cookie sheets bake for 12 to 15 minutes yields about two dozen cookies. I… did not have teaspoons like that. I did have hazelnuts I had picked myself in prior years.
Well now that that’s over, pumpkin season is here for another couple of months. Heck, I saw pumpkin eggnog priced to move for our new bats before September was over. What pumpkin products would you like to see get more exposure? Let us know in the comments, like, dislike, share wherever you can or want to do to help the algorithm actually notice us.

For more on Cu Cullen, here’s a brief overview of his legend, courtesy of “Overly Sarcastic Productions.”

For his role in Disney’s aborted Celtic Animated Universe, look here:

And for some Cu Cullen Celtic Metal, check out MiracleofSound.

“Saving the Best for Last,” my final Black Widow trade collection proposal.

As opposed to the first article’s attempt to catalogue changes in order of the Black Widow’s mythology, or her extensive time with Daredevil, this article’s objective is to jump all over publication history. So let’s focus on stories about Black Widow herself, and various other characters, and focus on canon history, not publication order (so much as I had before). Readers have seen a lot of Hawkeye and DD here before, who else was key in her life? Her time in the 70’s was highlighted by a bodyguard named Ivan Petrovitch, she led the Champions, both of which occurred in San Francisco.

As for format, I’m thinking we need a more direct focus on the Widow. Instead of saving a Widow-Headlining mini-series at the end of each volume, let’s have her first solo mini-series at the beginning, and her second at the end. If you bookend the book with her own titles, you keep the focus squarely on her. The theme of this series is Natalia Romanov’s various connections and relationships, as opposed to focusing squarely on one person like Daredevil. A lot of this touches on things featured in the first of this trilogy, but the only shared theme is intended to be those she has a recurring history with.

This seems perfect for an opening page, next to a table of contents. The way the schematics are laid out, seems valuable, if not fascinating to cosplay enthusiasts.

Natasha’s first time headlining a miniseries, part of the now defunct Marvel Knights imprint. There are scenes in here that encompass why I like the sequential art format so much. Look at how many places locations, items show up here in photos. No one needs to spend pages detailing them, their all condensed in visuals meant to prompt memories, while showing insights into the lead. (Or whoever else arranged them).
Introduced in Inhumans #5 (that same year), the second Black Widow very quickly comes into conflict with the heroine of this trade. It’s Cold War infiltrator and assassin vs. Post-Soviet operative and attack dog. Located in the fictional nation of Rhapastan, the name of the game is “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” Quite literally, it’s in the title of each chapter. And the goal of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” is to intercept a new bio-weapon. At least for the first Widow. The second has a bonus agenda… “There Can Be Only One!”

Escaping her ambitious “Little Sister,” Nat breaks from her orders to assassinate the doctor responsible for creating the Deathless Frenzy Serum. Instead she capture him to force him to make an anti-serum.

The first and second Black Widow each run their own operation to stop the Deathless Frenzy Serum. But it’s Natalia who beats her junior rival to the blow by swapping the serum with a vaccine against its effects.

And now the Champions: In the previous article we showed her at the formation of, taking leadership of, and disbanding the Champions. Now let’s examine how this team of hers introduced a recurring heroine, and operated outside their own book.

This is the first appearance of Dark Star. You might remember her from X-Men the Animated Series in the 90’s. Between this storyline and the next, the Champions appear in a series of other books.

The Widow’s Bodyguard Ivan Petrovitch concludes the battle from the prior issue with news of his son. More Cold War state betrayal and intrigue, while Dark Star flips to the Champions for Ivan’s sake.

It all starts with her teaming with Iron Man (Did they ever address her history as his seductive adversary?) as leader of a Super Team.

Something I miss about the old style of covers is depicting the climatic fights. Guest stars, asking how this matchup happened, and so many more details than just closeups of the lead (see above). Notice the “Do not litter” sign on the trash can in the lower right? It’s knocking over, spilling litter everywhere. Kind of ironic. You would almost never see that these (century).

Looking at the bottom right corner is pretty ironic. Right before they first got separated from Pheonix, the X-Men were all liberated from mind control by Beast. And would ya look who it is…

So once again, she’s been reprogrammed by a man. It is to be pawns in a fight between Magneto and Dr. Doom that brings the Short-Lived Champions to be someone else’s guest star. No wonder this book was so short-lived.

But at least before they folded (no pun intended), the Champions got to fight Godzilla.

I’ve mentioned this issue before, but it ends the Champions recap better if I do this for the details on the breakup…

…and following up the impact of this story. It more effectively closed the door on the Widow’s first official team during that time in continuity. I say at that time because…

After their cancellation, they started periodically showing up in other books starting in the 90’s. Most notably, the role they played in World War Hulk.

Here’s a one shot just focusing on her, but it’s significant because it is Night Raven’s first mainline Marvel appearance. Previously, he’d been exclusive to the Marvel UK line. Ivan’s back without anyone in a bright costume to hog the spotlight, and Nick Fury to boot. Also features the death of Yuri Petrovitch, Ivan’ son.

Spider-Man section. Her most iconic and enduring look was debuted against Spider-Man, and a majority of her Marvel Team-Up appearances were threaded into a single Spider-Man Story. While there’s not a lot of prominence with the Webhead, he’s a major face of the company. And seeing how she shares a spider motif, let’s see how they interact.

We’ll open the Spider-Man section with a story of Black Widow back in her Champions days. She even uses their ride in this story. But alas, while this has ties to some lingering Champions plot threads, only for all of it to be dropped as the Champions were cancelled prematurely. Keniuchio Harada, pictured above, made his debut in another story focused on the Black Widow.

I like the premise of this one. Not only does it address psychological harm and defense mechanisms, which is frequently rare in this genre, but it raises the Spider-Ship that never was. Not only are Peter and Natasha reunited with one another, but also a mutual foe who raises the ultimate question…

…how does….

…the Silver Samurai…

…keep showing up? He was in the Saturday Night Live issue! (Yes, that was a thing).

In this we see that the NYPD‘s resident Monster Hunter Simon Stroud (sstroud@hatemail.com) is former CIA. And back in his spy days, he became a buddie with Natasha Romanov, back in HER spy days. Simon’s first appearance led into another Widow story anyway.

To briefly recap her whirlwind romance with Hawkeye, she initially used him as a pawn in her Cold War game against Iron Man. Following her failure with an experimental suit, she was called away and Hawkeye was given a chance to vindicate himself in the Avengers, next to Magneto’s own children. See my first of these 3 articles for more information. (I’m using this issue because I couldn’t fit it in there. Plus it helps us segway from the Spider-Man section into…

Following the Yoyo of events covered back in the first, Black Widow returns from her Nick Fury mission as a captive of 3 villains. His bow freshly destroyed following the latest mission, Clint takes the last of Henry Pym’s Pym Particles to launch a one man rescue mission. This stint as the second Goliath lasts 37 consecutive issues in the main Avengers series alone.

And in an issue that wraps up another failure at coupling, Natasha tells Goliath Hawkeye that she can never see him again.

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Widow_Vol_2_1?file=Black_Widow_Vol_2_1.jpg But guess who she can see again? Little sister Yelena. This is the first of a 3-parter in the Face-Off tradition. Something of note, between the Black Widow trailer and the outfit she wore in Infinity War, I think someone took notes from this. Black Widow takes place between Civil War and Infinity War. And in Infinity War, Nat is wearing Yelena’s jacket and blonde hair.

Nothing on this issue’s page.
According to Natalya and Yelena’s personal pages, this ordeal is severely taxing for Yelena’s sanity. While she’s lost in New York. Looking like one of the Kingpin’s most prominent enemies. To quote Nat’s old frenemy, “Not a great plan.”

Nothing on this issue’s page.
According to Natalya and Yelena’s personal pages, this whole stunt was to teach Yelena that spies were not heroes. But Boy, did that backfire. You don’t say? I’d feel a hell of a blow myself if I saw a former target every time I looked into the mirror.

And of course, at the end it would be good to recommend other required reading about Black Widow. Such as Black Widow Deadly Origin. Or the Marvel Graphic Novel series. Her search for Ivan, perhaps? The backup stories in those issues all prominently featured the Jungle Book. Probably wouldn’t include those stories, though. I personally think this is the best contained and formatted of the three models I’ve offered. 7 issues squarely about her, and another 20 where she has varying degrees of prominence and relevance, but always moves forward something ongoing. But please tell me what you think in comments section below.

Saying goodbye to Free Comic Book Summer.

This was supposed to be up weeks ago, on video platforming sites (I use up to 3 at a time). But very time I …acquire a computer, their built-in video editor is even worse than the last. So now that I’m finally done using the old laptop, I have to use the …lame stuff you’ve seen recently. Unforeseen complications have forced me to drop a video edit that’s been slowed down again and again already. So I thought I’d just drop you the written portion, with the photograph it was meant to highlight.
As we transition from summer to fall, I’d  like one last summer hurrah.  One advantage of the quarantine is not free comic book day stretched out into until the beginning of fall. Hence free comic book summer. Yes, yes, I can draw silver linings in the most dire of circumstances. Ask me about the black death. (editorial note, please do not level questions about the black death in the comments, we don’t need the traction that badly)

Yeah, I know the Power Rangers one wasn’t free, but I bought it on this trip.

Let’s start with ‘The Resistance,” the J. Michael Straczynski title.  He’s a veteran of everything from G. I. Joe the original animated series, to the Thor run that gave him his MCU armor, to his work on The Twelve (a dozen Golden Agers awaken in modern day).  We’re going to come out strong on this one. It’s called The Resistance. It’s about a contagion grew slowly killing men women and children as everyone squabbles meaninglessly about the how and the why call my little family culminates in a fascist takeover of the United States of America. Okay maybe I should not have opened with that, not one year old and this giveaway is aging like someone with plague.

Moving on, let’s go to something upbeat. Monster Showcase is a series of stories featuring monsters cannibalizing their own for thought crime. Good Lord, ever since the 80s this stuff is been getting dark when this is what’s so funny. (Editor’s note: it’s not intended to be cannibalism and he’s made out of rice crispy treat.) So the other story is a question of what scares monsters. The first I’ve seen of author Richard Fairgray’s work, but between this and the massive support group where monsters vent their problems to each other, I’d say he’s like Max Brooks meets Scott McCloud. Definitely one of the most thoughtful and insightful in his given genre and really knows how to work with the medium.

Power Rangers Rangerslayer.  So before we begin, I’d like to issue a warning that if you haven’t seen the  dark fan film Power/Rangers, they parodied the Hollywood grim and gritty style and applied it to the first 2 series.  That was intended as a parody, this series takes the same thing very literally.  Bulk and Skull don’t make any humor, the blasters are replaced with machine guns, big bad Tommy Oliver has brainwashed Kimberly into being his personal Ranger hunting assassin. So given this job hire doubling down on poor decision-making by the characters dubious alliances and turning the hypercampy 1st season into joyless nightmare fuel, none of the contents therein came as a surprise. Very confusing for an outsider like myself, but never a surprise.

Manhwa: Contemporary American Comics. Being a manga enthusiast

in college, I was only mildly surprised to learn that the Chinese and Korean sequential art (Manga isn’t comics!) markets were entering the U.S. I wasn’t curious at the time, but when I was shown samples they were in full color. Here though, everything’s in Black & White. Forward was something that I appreciated. If you’re going to introduce people to new markets like manhwa, it’s good to talk about perspectives and lay more insights about the samples therein. It certainly helped explain to the cover story. They cover was the real emphasis. A story of two women coming together, but the actual sample it looked more to me like the meeting of two enemies. This was what got the most description, yet the segment shown of it was so misleading. The other one was of a work camp in World War II, when the Koreans had been invaded by the Japanese. Very delicate subject matter. But I like how it was done here.  Normally in these situations, the narrative is about a daring escape rewarding hard work and grit.  But without spoilers, I appreciated that last dash of realism.  Onto brighter things…

Street Fighter Ryu vs Chun Li.  It’s exactly what it shows on the cover. I one shot story Ryu and Chun-Li in a brawl. I take exception from the inciting incident on the conclusion the explanation at the resolution. But I won’t ruin any surprises. they are just mean it picking with continuity. UDON has done it again. Over 20 years they’ve proven that they really really really really really really really really really like Street Fighter and other Capcom Fighters.  The art style has been redone and refined over and over again two more resemble Street Fighter official artwork. They keep coming back to Street Fighter and Darkstalkers over and over and over, and they have at the back creators notes and showcased are pieces to show their genuine love of the craft in the source material. At the end of this one there’s this shrunken down version of this very long vertical scrolling shot that shows every street fighter from every game in the series. All in one piece, I love the little touches from how their positions relative to their surroundings and each other, and I believe the artist when he said he had such a blast working on it. In an era where the media likes to demonize Consumers for having ongoing brand loyalty and affection for eye peas, IE fans, it’s good to see a company putting out one fan project after another. By fans for fans.
And now it’s time for tea.

The first flavor;  with the cranberry blood orange, which certainly sounds like Flavor notes that would complement each other. Black tea is so fit for pairing with orange that there’s a cut of tea called orange pekoe. A very nice cut. And oranges and cranberries get along almost as well as peanut butter and chocolate. So guess what I didn’t taste but I tried to find. I did not taste cranberries. Period. So Points off right after that. Meanwhile the bin says that blood orange means oranges flavored with raspberries. But the ingredients only says natural flavors, doesn’t mention raspberries. And yet the taste of this is so much more like raspberries than cranberries. Maybe I didn’t scoop in in a bit of dried cranberry but it said to use a teaspoon and that’s what I used. There should have been more cranberry in there. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen blood oranges in my life.  There’s red inside of the orange peel. If it was another color they would have called it something else making its own thing. But it just says Orange Peel on the list of ingredients. All of them the way that black tea and orange peel taste so similar, that would be pretty good on its own. But another points off there because the tasting notes I’m supposed to look for are supposedly “fruity and tart.” I found neither. Barely some tart, but that was when it was at its hottest. Let’s see if the blueberry hibiscus is any better. The Hibiscus Berry Green loose leaf tea with fruity cranberries and blueberries. It shows what the dried up green tea with the Hibiscus with the cranberry and with the blueberry looks like. And because it’s top black tea like the other stuff, the tea flavor isn’t as strong and it tastes more in balance with so many fruity flavors. I honestly think I like this more, it’s a more distinct and robust blend. This is definitely a stronger flavor.  More rich, more complex, more this than that. The blueberry is prominent but what really stands out as a hibiscus. My first taste of hibiscus was back in my traveling days, and unlike that first taste this does not need so much sweetener. All it needs is some other plants and berries to balance it out. Speaking of those other plants, after the dried blueberries the only other listed ingredients are safflower petals and cornflower petals in that order. This is the first I’ve ever heard of these. Or at least the first I’ve seen of them as ingredients. Though I know that corn is a flowering type of plant. Once again I’m not sure I can make out the cranberries. Was someone just being paid to move cranberry products. Why is that in here. So the caffeine level here is supposedly low. Whereas in the other one it was high. Maybe I can get away with this after dark somewhere in the evening without screwing up my sleep cycle too much. I definitely prefer this flavor to the black tea blood orange. Now let’s move on to our next issues.