"Avengers: Armageddon," #1 Will Come With Promotional, "Magic the Gathering," Card

Here is some interesting marketing synergy. Marvel has partnered with Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast for assorted, "Magic the Gathering," promotions and is now bringing it in directly to the comics. You see, the first printing of the first issue of, "Avengers: Armageddon," kicks off an event series (written by Chip Zdarsky with art by  Frank Alpizar and Delio Diaz) and will have a special card that you can--I assume--use in your Magic games. I know almost nothing about, "Magic: The Gathering," as friends have tried to get me into it, but I always told them I spend enough hours and funds on my current hobbies not to need a new timesink and money pit. That said, I did play the virtual card game,"Hearthstone," some years ago, and when I was a wee lad, and only 151 Pokémon existed, I played that trading card game. Hence, I have some familiarity with trading card games and know Magic is a big one.

This promotion makes me wonder if the goal is more to get comic fans into Magic (nah) or to encourage Magic fans to try some Marvel comics (likely). I'm leaning more towards the latter as it is clever to have the card accompany the debut of a big new event. I could imagine someone who is really into, "Magic: The Gathering," buying the issue mainly for the card, but reading the comic and wanting to follow along with at least this latest big happening in the Marvel continuity (it helps Zdarsky is among the few writers at Marvel putting out stuff in the, "Main," Universe that I like and don't find drab along with Jed MacKay's work on Moon Knight). I could see the result being short-term success for the debut, but I wonder if there will be interest in the follow-up issues, depending on whether gamers read the actual issue. We shall see!

It's April First. Continue to Believe Nothing You See/Read/Hear Online (or Anywhere)

When I was a young child, April Fool's Day held a certain whimsy for me. With the rise of the internet and pranks as we know them being less lighthearted and more terrible, however, the day holds less appeal. I know many of us already don't believe anything we see/read/hear in this age of misinformation, so continue doing so on this day, where falsehoods are purposely posted as jokes. I previously made a post about pranks to be sure you do not do under any circumstances (fake pregnancies, fake deaths, and so forth) and would encourage you to only do a, "Prank," that is harmless and possibly even--dare I say--nice. Tell someone you forgot to bring them a coffee, only to reveal you got them a coffee and a pastry, for example. My point is, carefully gauge the truth of any information you take in tomorrow, and don't be a jerk either. Basically, good advice for any day of the year.

Television Tuesday: "Love Overboard," is Silly, Sloppy, and Great Fun

Last week, Hulu dropped all nine episodes of its newest reality show "Love Overboard." Hosted by Gabby Windey (of former, "Bachelor/Bachelorette," and, "The Traitors," fame), the show is a bit like if, "Love Island," got mashed-up with a Netflix show from some years ago, "Surviving Paradise." A bunch of young and horny singles pair up on a mega yacht with the twist that official couples can be, "Topside," living in luxury, but anyone single or who fails to win challenges to earn a place topside (even if they have somebody they are vibing with) is stuck in the downside. The downside is essentially like another show known as, "Below Deck," with cramped quarters, chores such as cleaning, and a lot less luxury. It is a weird mish-mash of concepts, but it works! 

There is twisted fun to watching contestants such as Bella absolutely lose their mind at the idea of having to clean a toilet or witnessing as couples that seem as solid as granite crumble remarkably fast when new contestants known as, "Shipwreckers," join in on the fun. Oh, and did I mention that when someone is kicked off the show, they fall down off a plank into the ocean water below (don't worry, producers pull them out onto a smaller boat), because it is absurd and hilarious.

As with many of these dating-focused reality shows, a lot of viewer enjoyment comes from just how messy everyone can be. People become strangely clingy to each other in a matter of hours, as if they were a long-time item, arguments break out over who is more in love, and you already know there is grainy night-vision footage of folks getting up to smooches (and more) after dark. Plus, the added desire of being in the comfy topside does indeed motivate certain people to feign interest in one member of topside couples in the hopes of getting into a spacious room with delicious grub provided, too.

It helps with, "Love Overboard," that nobody is too obnoxious (Andrew is just annoying enough to be hilarious in how detached from reality he is, such as when he has a full-blown hissy fit over a bad haircut), and some contestants are downright endearing and sweet. It's a zany concept with a great cast, and I adored the resulting nine episodes. Will the couples last long? You already know the answer with this genre, but since when has that mattered with these dating shows? We're here to have some raunchy fun and giggle as people make rash decisions in the name of romance...plus getting a room with a window. Turn on Hulu, turn off your brain, and get prepared to have a good time.

5 out of 5 Stars.

Music Mondays: When the Remix is Bigger Than the Original Tune

Generally, a remix isn't bigger than the original song. It can become a huge hit as well, but bigger? That said, it can happen. This thought occurred to me when I heard the really catchy song, "Stateside + Zara Larsson," by the artist PinkPantheress. The original song was, "Stateside," and it has had a number of remixes made with different artists. That said, I heard the remix with Larsson joining on the tune first, and having listened to all versions--including the OG--I like the remix the most! It appears many agree with me as while, "Stateside," was good, this remix just sounds better!

This seems to happen a lot with songs that were maybe slower or quieter and with a remix getting louder/busier/wilder. You've got, "I Took a Pill in Ibiza," and its dance remix that blew up. The recent, "Yukon," song by Justin Bieber got a good degree more airplay when its minimalist singing and guitar had some trippy electronic beats added. Hell, the "Macarena," is best known by those in the United States for its version with English lyrics and a faster tempo.

PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson in the remix music video.

Changing a beat isn't the only aspect to make a remix gain even more traction than the original tune, of course. You often see in rap a remix bringing in another music artist, and that can play a major role. From the, "Touch It Remix," with Busta Rhymes and friends to Fabulous and the, "Throw it in the Bag Remix," which incorporated The Dream and Drake to immense success, those are just two examples that popped in my head right away of many. In the late 90's and early 2000's it felt like every rap song had a remix--sometimes to its benefit and other times to little note, but helped give everyone options for which version of a song had the rappers they liked listening to the most!

From the version of, "Summertime Sadness," most recognize to the, "Ignition (Remix)," there are occasions where the remix overshadows the first iteration of a song. That isn't a bad thing, by any means, as sometimes the second/third/whatever time is a charm! I just find it interesting when such a thing happens, and I thank PinkPanteress and Zara Larsson for their tune making me think about all this.

Clarkson Saw the Easter Bunny at the Saint Louis Carousel!

Last year, we went to an awesome event held by Gallia Wealth Management Group. It was at one of Clarkson's favorite places, the Saint Louis Carousel in Faust Park. It happened again this year, and we attended and had fun! Gibson was tired and stayed home to rest with Samii, but Clarkson loved riding the Carousel and seeing the Easter Bunny.  As with last year, the event was geared towards families with members who have assorted disabilities or special needs, with lots of great accommodations for any disability.  There were snacks, goodie bags, activities, and a number of folks were having a ball with the unlimited Carousel rides.

I also chatted with the head of GWMG, John Gallia, and plan to follow up about one of their services focused on assisting with Chartered Special Needs Consultants ( to plan out future financial aspects for loved ones with disabilities). I really appreciate his agency throwing this awesome event and encourage my fellow STL residents to check Gallia Wealth Management Group out!

An Assortment of Comic-Book Biz News

A smattering of interesting news has occurred in comics. I'm not sure any of these are wild enough for me to make a full post about them, but a little overview of some comic-book news sounds like a nice way to catch up on some happenings!

BOOM! is integrating itself more within its distributor, Penguin Random House. Despite this restructuring, they are still their own publisher and, "Independent," to a degree, but PRH definitely has a lot more involvement in, ..."direct-to-consumer and business development efforts." Speaking of PRH, the publisher known as Drawn and Quarterly has partnered with them for distribution. We are seeing more and more consolidation with PRH and Lunar serving as the new home for a chunk of publishers (along with some other options emerging on the scene for smaller indies) who were impacted by the slow and painful death of Diamond.

In other news, I have been a longtime fan of (unfortunately) beleaguered publisher Silver Sprocket. They've had a store in San Fransciso for some time, but a sudden closure has now occurred of the shop, and I do worry about the publisher itself.

DC and Marvel are working on getting stores to order more of their comics lately through various methods. DC is offering packs of comics at discounts of up to 80% if a retailer orders extra copies of a series, and Marvel has added an extra 10% discount if orders on later issues of a comic match earlier orders.

Sony is Raising the Price of a PlayStation 5, Nintendo is Charging More for Physical Games, and Further Mayhem...

Sit down, Gen-Z and younger, to listen to the old Millennial. You see, it used to be that our console games were only available on physical cartridges and discs, which wasn't always optimal, but it was nice to be able to boot up a game and simply play it. No patches or fixes, zero random updates, it just worked. With the rise of digital, physical game sales have steadily decreased (stores like GameStop expanded into a variety of markets to compensate). You can download a game to your console, and that can be great! If you can afford the console.

The PlayStation 5 was released in November of 2020. It has a digital-only version and a fancy Pro version, but is arguably a half-decade or so old in tech (with the Pro a bit fancier). As us Millenials who played consoles back in the day can attest (and GenX who played the even older consoles will agree), usually when a console is around for a while, the price starts to come down. It is older tech, a newer generation will eventually be on the way, and so forth. However, with computing power being gobbled up more and more for AI, those microchips and GPUs, and such, are being bought in large quantities and costing more. Plus, our moronic President's tariffs don't help, either. That is why Sony just announced a price increase on the PS5. Yep, a PS5 that cost $500 in 2020 is going to cost you $650 in 2026, a whole one hundred and fifty smackers more. All the various PS5 models are shooting up in price, with the PS5 Pro set to cost $900. Dropping nearly a grand on an already-outdated, "Pro," model of a gaming console sounds insane, but welcome to 2026! People are not reacting well to this news, obviously.

You might be saying, "Forget that noise! I want to play new games, but I'm mad at Sony for this increase and don't want to pay the higher price for Xbox Game Pass, either. I'm going to stick with my Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 and enjoy physical games on them, none of that digital mumbo-jumbo!" Well, Nintendo is going to start charging more money for the physical copies of their games as opposed to digital, starting with, "Yoshi and the Mysterious Book," running $60 for a download (that you do technically own at least) , but $70 for a copy you can actually, "Own," in the sense of holding it in your hands. Nintendo is saying this is a misunderstanding and, "The cost of physical games is not going up," but, uh, yeah, they are! Don't tell me your game is going to be sixty dollars, then put out information saying the physical copy costs more, followed by you acting like the $60 you already disclosed is some kind of, "Digital discount." That's the equivalent of peeing on my leg and telling me it's raining--then, trying to sell me an umbrella!

Back to you shouting out loud to anyone who will listen, "Alright then, screw gaming, I'm just going to stream Netflix and save some money!" Oh, you sweet Summer child, Netflix is raising its prices, yet again, and you can expect to pay $20 for the, "Standard," ad-free plan, which you may recall won't let you share your password with friends anymore. Again, welcome to 2026--everything is more expensive and less user-friendly! If things are getting to the point you want to dust-off your old Bluray or DVD player and just check-out movies from the library, I don't blame you. Hell, some libraries let you get games too. Maybe try that, at least until the government outlaws libraries because nothing awful our current administration could do would surprise me at this point. Now, if you excuse me, I have an idea to bring back the renting of game consoles like in the old days, but with an added twist, kind of like a timeshare. That idea may sound absolutely terrible, and that's why I say for a third and final time, "Welcome to 2026!" Let's all try to make it out alive.

The, "Bachelorette," Season That Wasn't

I used to watch, "The Bachelor," and, "The Bachelorette," as well as their spin-offs, religiously. Eventually, I grew tired of the franchise's predictability. Besides occasionally dipping my toe in the metaphorical franchise pool once in a while when something looked interesting ("Golden Bachelor,") I simply drifted away from the franchise to other shows. A lot of people seem to share the same story, with it not being any particular scandal the franchise weathered that made them quit (and there were some big fiascos, just ask former host Chris Harrison if that NDA he signed for a big paycheck ever expires), they simply were bored. Perhaps that is why the latest season of, "The Bachelorette," was designed from the start to tweak the formula and outright break some rules. Someone who had never been on the show (that has happened with later seasons of the Bachelor version) and was, in fact, known for different reality series (that has not happened) would be the Bachelorette. A woman named Taylor Frankie Paul. Popular on, "The Secret Wives of Mormon Housewives," she was the first Bachelorette lead to have a wrap sheet due to a, "2023 arrest, in which she ended up pleading guilty to one count of aggravated assault, per the local Salt Lake City Fox affiliate. She took a plea agreement, which dismissed two counts of domestic violence in the presence of a child, a class-A misdemeanor charge of child abuse, and a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief...That 2023 incident kick-started her Mormon Wives career, as it was chronicled on the very first episode of Hulu’s reality hit. But then it resurfaced in the news cycle last week via a leaked video." Oh no.

TMZ released a video from 2023 that showed, "Paul engaging in violent behavior toward her ex-boyfriend, Dakota Mortensen. The video captures Paul putting Mortensen into a headlock and kicking him. She is then shown throwing three stools at Mortensen while a child cries in the background. Mortensen tries to comfort the child, but Paul refuses to let him." The fallout from this resulted in ABC canceling this 22nd season of, 'The Bachelorette," a mere three days before its scheduled premiere. The whole show had been filmed, edited, the post-production was done, and a lot of money had been spent only for a metaphorical collapse inches from the finish line of making it to air. There were ads running with clips from the show being broadcast already. Hell, they still have magazines at Target on the shelves promoting the show as I snapped a picture of today:

"She's Not That Innocent," turns out to be weirdly prophetic.

This is a PR mess for ABC and a monetary fiasco. Oh, and the fifth season of Paul's original Mormon Wives show has paused development for now due to an apparently recent incident of her engaging in domestic abuse towards Mortensen, yet again, after, "The Bachelorette," finished filming. Is ABC really going to flush the whole season down the drain and take a big loss, or possibly try to present it with disclaimers? Is this simply the end of the, "Bachelor/Bachelorette," franchise as we know it due to a last-ditch effort to inject some life, turning out to be a deadly concoction, instead?

I, personally, don't think ABC will give up completely on Bachelor Nation, as even with this latest shitshow, there is still way too much money to be made. ABC played with fire, picking someone who already came with controversy, and got burned/had this blow up in their faces. The network can try and lean into this, making the show less about fairytale romance and instead focus on flawed individuals looking for love (they aren't role models), or try and run in the opposite direction towards the veneer of wholesome, "I'm only here for the right reasons!" kinds of love that even diehard fans ain't buying after this many years of broadcast. Hell, maybe in the end this scandal could somehow help. Lord knows I'm suddenly more interested in watching Taylor Fankie Paul hand out roses (and possibly uppercuts) than I was a couple of weeks ago due to all the hubbub.

Open AI Kills Sora

Whether you have used Sora or not, you are probably inadvertently familiar with it. Used to make short AI-generated videos that can vary in quality, most of those new, "Viral," Ring videos you see lately are AI digital fakery (the faux-grainy look makes it easier to overlook legit glitches in the images). Sora is basically a form of TikTok where all the videos are AI...so Hell, it is one of the circles of Hell. In all seriousness, I've fiddled with the app, and it can at times, be creepy with how it essentially generates occasionally realistic yet still totally fake clips. Disney even had a 1 billion dollar deal to partner with Sora (perhaps to avoid having their IPs outright stolen and get some money) and use a bunch of their characters in AI videos. However, OpenAI (the parent company who are also behind ChatGPT) announced Tuesday that they were going to shut down Sora very soon. Disney then pulled out of any possible deal (they possibly could have killed the deal in secret first, and that is why Sora fell apart--it isn't yet clear), and now you'll have to imagine the weird stuff you could've prompted the app to make. 

Yes, you could have theoretically enjoyed trying to find a way around filters for questionable content and generated your own, "Simba brutally mauls Prince Eric" animation. That will have to remain a pipe dream, however, along with Oalf fathering a child with any Disney Princesses. This is probably for the best, as while AI tech can potentially be handy for adding up random numbers or looking up the name of, "That one high-school movie, with the funny guy in it too," the AI-generated videos made in Sora were eerie and already being used to fool people or engage in questionable, "Pranks." I don't know about you, but fake security camera footage showing me stealing a pound of liverwurst could be an issue if folks fail to notice how rubbery I appear. This isn't to say there is a lack of other AI video programs that will rush to fill the space, but Sora was the one getting lots of headlines during these months it was in operation. Soon it will be gone, however, and we won't be able to say, "Make me a video of a giant-sized baby being interviewed by a helicopter with a microphone about his favorite snack." Society may never recover. In all seriousness, what is next with OpenAI? Are they going to try and do some other video generation tech all within one big, "ChatGPT Video," program? Could we be ending one vaguely troubling dream only to be about to dive into the real nightmare? We don't know, and that's honestly a bit scary.

Oh, the movie was, "Clueless," and that funny guy was Paul Rudd. Good stuff.

Comics Grading Company CBCS is Shutting Down

Comic grading company CBCS is shutting down and will no longer be accepting comics for grading as of April 17th. Apparently, this news is, "Hot off the presses," as people are getting emails, but I have not seen an official release to comic news outlets. Many are not surprised (and predicted this) as the parent company of CBCS is Beckett, and Beckett was bought out by the company known as Collectors...who also own PSA. If you haven't connected the dots yet, PSA moved into comic book grading somewhat recently. Hence, I guess Collectors looked at CBCS versus PSA, and the conclusion was made to shutter CBCS and avoid redundancy, considering how PSA may be newer at comic grading, but is the big name in card grading. 

All of this makes me think that Beckett's card grading service probably has its days numbered as well and results in CGC and PSA being the two big names in comic grading, as of today (PGX still exists, but isn't especially popular). CBCS was often considered the second-place underdog to CGC, but it had some hardcore fans, and it is always good to have a degree of competition in the marketplace. With all these mergers and acquisitions, however, more and more power gets consolidated in fewer hands (this applies to lots of industries, honestly). There will undoubtedly be more discussion and thoughts on this as the news spreads.