Marvel Movies Timeline A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

While DC Entertainment and parent company Warner Brothers wait to see how well The Dark Knight Rises will do at the box office, and perhaps ponder their own superhero team movie, Daniel Morpheus over on deviant art designed his own Justice League movie tribute poster:

You can go to Daniel’s page or click to embiggen.

Not only do I like the poster, but as a fan of the short lived, hokey, but otherwise fun fantasy show Legend of the Seeker, I enjoyed Bridget Regan and would love to see her play Wonder Woman. Of course Bale is Batman as far as I’m concerned, although his tenure in the role might be at an end. The movie had issues but Ryan Reynolds was an excellent Green Lantern and I’d love to see him return to the role. None of us have seen Henry Cavil as Superman yet but considering he’ll be playing the part in the solo movies it makes sense to have him in the Justice League movies. And the rest of the actors are all very fine.

Now the film just needs to be written, green lit, cast, and produced. That’s all…

I would see this movie in a flash… A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

This isn’t a joke. Mr. Dan identifies himself as an engineer and his Build The Enterprise website includes detailed plans and outlines. By limiting himself to existing technology things like “warp engines” and “photon torpedoes” are still the stuff of science-fiction, but he does include numerous nuclear reactors to power a ship that would be the single largest construction ever built by humanity, including the ability generate enough speed to get to Mars in 90 days.

Even BTE Dan notes that political reality would stand in the way of the nations of the world combining their resources to make this happen (he estimates that the costs would be about 0.27% of the US GDP, and that kind of spending is pretty hard to sustain for decades on something with no visible benefit to the citizenry). But while this is impractical, it’s also very intelligently put together and frankly endearing to think that if we as a species could ever check our differences enough to cooperate on something of this scale, it just might work. Not to say that I believe that his outlines would all be easy to implement or work, but as soon as practical scientists were putting time and money into it, they’d be able to find solutions to issues that BTE Dan didn’t think of (even if it took them years—remember this is a multiple-decade project).

It sounds crazy, right? But remember, in the medieval days, laborers spent decades building the great Cathedrals. And regardless of one’s feelings about Christianity or religion as a whole, those buildings stand a monuments to human aspiration, faith, and ingenuity. Wouldn’t it be great to imagine that we could embark on another such adventure in our modern era, one that would take us where no one has gone before?

Beam me up—for real A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

Have you ever noticed how much collateral damage huge superhero battles cause? We focus on the personal war between the heroes and villains, but they’re not simply inflicting damage on each other—they’re tearing their environment apart. In The Avengers, one of the locales that finds itself the locus of such destruction is New York City.

Have you wondered how much damage was done to the Big Apple? Hollywood Reporter apparently had time and some math wizzes on hand, and estimated the damage at $160 billion. And that includes economic damage, etc. They did quite a job of estimating the fantasy devastation, it’s an interesting article.

And for those who haven’t seen the movie, this is peanuts in the grand scheme of massive sci-fi movie damage. The villains in The Avengers want to rule, not simply devastate. But in the grand scheme of urban disasters, this would still be massive!

Collateral Damage A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

And although the bigots and the haters and the far right nutters did rend their clothing and gnash their teeth, wailing to the heavens for they knew the Apocalypse was nigh:

• The seas did not boil
• The skies did not burn
• The earth did not open and demons rise
• And the Creator did not descend to give the heathen a right good spanking

Perhaps most importantly, nobody’s marriage was less secure or meaningful than it had been before. Schools did not scramble to offer courses on sodomy. And life continued as it always had.

This doesn’t make up for anti-gay marriage language in state constitutions. But it is a step. And hopefully, when the good people see that the world still turns as it always had, it will be seen as an important one.

And Lo, the Sky Did Not Burn A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

Surviving the Robopocalypse A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

There is an anti-gay marriage measure on the ballot in North Carolina called Amendment One. Gay marriage is already illegal in North Carolina. But this measure would codify that in the state constitution as well.

Let me state up front that to me, gay marriage is a complete non-issue. If two consenting adults wish to marry, as far as I’m concerned God bless and good fortune. Whatever they choose to do has absolutely no effect on the way I live my life, on my marriage, or on how my wife and I raise any future children of ours. I don’t consider this a “leftist” or “liberal” position, simply an educated one. People get married, divorced, cheat on their spouses, you name it, all the time, and none of it—none of it—has any affect on my marriage, or what I believe or would teach about marriage. There is no issue here, move along, nothing to see.

Obviously, others disagree with me, or there wouldn’t be a debate. As long as it’s an honest debate that doesn’t mislead, it’s a debate worth having. When people start lying and fear mongering, however, it’s not a debate anymore, it’s simply hateful spewing of propaganda. Enter Orson Scott Card.

Not one to shy from spewing forth his views, he wrote this opinion piece in the Rhino Times of Greensboro: http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/hc.e.211703.lasso

That any human being could be so devoted in 2012 to the oppression of a social minority makes my blood boil. But that he, an intelligent writer who at least theoretically knows that words can be fact checked would make so many out and out lies boggles the mind.

Example: “There are no laws left standing that discriminate against gay couples.” That is simply categorically false. My exhaustive total of ten seconds of Google research came up with 4.45 million hits of articles about gay couple discrimination, and most of the front page are about laws recently passed or on the books in 2012. Even if we assume that most of those articles are old or discuss the same laws, I’m sure there’s hundreds of such discriminatory laws on the books, right now. And remember, I’m not doing a dedicated research check, I just wanted to spend ten seconds to support my ramblings. Someone doing dedicated research could be far more specific than my generalities.

Another example: “Once they legalize gay marriage, it will be the bludgeon they use to make sure that it becomes illegal to teach traditional values in the schools….Our children will be barraged with the deceptions of the left…The left is at war with the family…”

I’ll admit that I’ve not attended any left-wing conspiracy meetings, but I do know that no law legalizing gay marriage has had anything at all to do with school education. I’ve never met a gay couple or read any legislation that is even in the slightest “anti-family.”

But moreover, see what he did there? He tries to make it sound like voting against this amendment will make gay marriage legal (“once they legalize gay marriage…”). Remember that I noted above that same sex marriage is already illegal in North Carolina. This amendment is not about legalizing gay marriage. If this amendment fails, gay marriage is still illegal. If it passes, it won’t be any more illegal, it’s just a brand new opportunity to show how much the good people of North Carolina despise equal rights. Moreover, right now civil partnerships have some rights, but some argue that the amendment is worded so badly that some of them might be at stake.

People who are so filled with hate that they distort the truth and write blatant lies to try and scaremonger others into hating make me sick. We’ve bought one of Mr. Card’s books but I certainly don’t plan on giving that hateful man any more of my money unless he has a change of heart at some point. One can believe in God and family and tradition without being hateful. But in this case, “one” is not Mr. Card. Thankfully, most other science-fiction authors and fans, even the conservative ones, are far more tolerant than he is.

Tolerance, Gay Marriage, and a Famous Sci-Fi author A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

Last night we saw Marvel’s latest superhero epic, The Avengers. We absolutely loved it. Joss Whedon didn’t simply make a good movie with characters that I already enjoyed. But he managed to achieve all the goals of a good superhero team movie, some of which seem in opposition.

For a superhero team movie to really shine, it has to have character moments for each individual hero while not slowing the movie down or stretching it to four hours. The stakes need to be high enough to justify assembling so much heroic firepower while not being so global or intergalactic that it takes us out of the story for being too scattered. And we all know that ultimately our heroes will triumph, but the danger and sacrifice must be real enough to keep us on the edge of our seat. Finally, the best superhero movies need to deliver more than simply the popcorn action set pieces, but to have a heart and a message under it all.

Joss Whedon (writer/director, for the three people who don’t already know) managed to do all of this with flying colors. The movie is 2:23 but seemed to fly by. Everyone gets their moment. Even the characters without superpowers have valuable skills and justify their presence on the team. The world is in jeopardy, but the stage of conflict is contained enough that we can follow the action. And in the midst of all the wild action set pieces, the movie has a lot of heart, and touches on many of the same familial themes of loyalty, morality, responsibility, and altruism of the best superhero movies.

The movie looks fantastic and is very exciting, but this is a cast of excellent actors and Whedon knows how to keep the moving moving while letting them act. Every actor has moments to shine here, and truly inhabits their roles. Hiddleston again proves that he can give a villain depth and real charisma, making the whole affair that much more real. Nobody plays a rock star superhero nursing his wounds and hiding a heart of gold like Downey Jr. Helmsworth, Evans, Renner, and Johansson bring their impressive talents into the mix, making a team of basically unbelievable characters (a god? a steroidal super soldier? etc) come to life. And Mark Ruffalo, who had a completely unenviable job of stepping into a role already played by Eric Bana and Ed Norton, in my opinion nailed Bruce Banner and The Hulk better than any of his predecessors. His Banner is not a whiny wallflower begging to be left alone, but a man who understands who he is and his capabilities as both scientist and monster.

As a fan of action movies, superhero movies, and fantasy, I walked into The Avengers expecting to have a good time. Even so, I was very pleasantly surprised by just how good the final movie was. If you’re looking for some pre-summer and summer fun at the cinema that will not simply entertain, but engage you, this movie will.

Whedon Assembles the Avengers Right A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

The Beastie Boys are irreplaceable. Adam is irreplaceable. And way, way to young to be felled by cancer. For all you and the Boys influenced me and gave to me—to all of us—thank you. We can’t, we won’t, and we don’t stop.

You can’t you won’t and you don’t stop A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog

Happy Star Wars Day! A Writer's Ramblings: Orren Merton's Blog