Wishing Donald Glover a Speedy Recovery

Donald Glover is a talented actor/singer/comedian and basically an all-around skilled fellow. He had postponed a number of tour dates as his musical alter-ego Childish Gambino due to an unspecified health issue. Now, those dates have been outright canceled with it disclosed that Glover's unnamed health issue will require surgery. Glover is entitled to medical privacy just like any other human being, but I appreciate his feeling comfortable sharing that, "“My path to recovery is something I need to confront seriously. With that said, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the remainder of the North American tour and the UK and European dates. Tickets will be refunded at point of purchase.” Prioritizing one's health is important and I applaud Glover for doing as such. I wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to him in the, "Community," movie which should eventually come out after delays from script rewrites among other stuff.

The, "DC All-In Special," #1 is a Promising and Creative Start of a New Venture

DC is launching their, "All-In," Initiative which involves the standard DC Universe and an alternate one (the Absolute one) somewhat co-existing and (one assumes) eventually overlapping in some fashion. It's a bit like the original or new Ultimate Universe Marvel is doing, in other words. This new, "DC All-In Special," #1 is a one-shot that kicks everything off...and it actually does so in a clever way.

There is a lot of artistic creativity in this special that makes a big commercial endeavor actually feel almost a bit quirky--and I like that. You see, this is a flipbook that tells the same story from vastly different viewpoints and uses that format for all kinds of intriguing ways to tell a surreal story. We see things from the perspective of the heroes on the main DC Earth as they expand the Justice League--and Booster Gold is there as everything goes wrong with  Daniel Sampere providing some solid art. 

We also witness Darkseid getting up to a bunch of evil stuff and enacting a master plan...with Booster Gold yet again there from a slightly different metaphorical angle as everything goes wrong (the man can't catch a break in this comic). I liked seeing an alternate take of the same yarn and the Wes Craig artwork on the, "Evil," side is especially impressive--as others have observed. I give props to writers Joshua Williamson and Scott Snyder for their creative use of the comic-book format and using that to give us two stories that end up uniting beautifully as one twisted tale.

The, "DC All-in Special," #1 is much more experimental than I expected for a random one-shot that launches a new line of stories (and a whole new Universe of heroes). This gives me some optimism for the upcoming Absolute titles--I was thinking of at least trying their first issues and definitely plan to do so now--and makes me curious about what will be happening in some of the, "Main," DC books as well like the upcoming, "New Gods," series. Color me pleasantly shocked at how good this was. I tip my hat to DC for getting me excited about all the other things coming down the pipeline for, "All-In."

5 out of 5 Stars.

A Chicken Big Mac is Coming to America

McDonald's is bringing a chicken version of its Big Mac to America. This interests me. One big reason I am intrigued is that I have a beef allergy so I welcome any new chicken option at a restaurant. I discovered this allergy back in high school when I had allergy testing done and it explained a lot about my stomach issues. This allergy isn't related to a tick bite, randomly enough, as I can eat other meats that those who suffer from AGS cannot. Hence, if McDonald's is going to make a Big Mac available that has tempera chicken patties instead of beef, I'm intrigued. That said, I'm not sure I'll like the taste of Big Mac sauce, having never tried it (when I did eat beef I just got plain Quarter Pounders with cheese). Still, I'll give it a sampling once this new chicken Big Mac hits America on October 10th.

Frank Fritz of, "American Pickers," Fame Has Passed

Frank Fritz was a major part of, "American Pickers," for a number of seasons. He either left the show or was given the boot some years ago- it depends on who you ask. Still, he kept running his own business of selling antiques and treasures he would find or have people bring to him. Then, in 2022, Frank suffered a stroke due to a blood clot from an earlier motorcycle accident. Since then his health has suffered and as of September 30th, Frank Fritz has passed. He and Mike Wolfe (the show's other OG) had feuded since Frtiz left the show, but by a number of accounts they had reconciled--which makes me happy to hear that at least they could repair their friendship before Fritz's death. I always love watching, "American Pickers," whether I'm viewing old classic episodes or new ones. Frank will be missed.

"Superman: Supercorp," Has Some Twisty Mysteries!

My friend, Brian, has been recommending various, "Superman," comics I should read over the months after taking offense (jokingly, he wasn't legit angry) at my saying that most Superman stories are boring. He was 100% right that the recent, "Warworld Saga," was a fantastic read when collected in a big paperback. Somewhat following after that is, "Superman: Supercorp," which collects the first five issues of the new, "Superman," series that launched out of the recent, "Dawn of DC," line. I read this collection written by Joshua Williamson with art by Jamal Campbell and really enjoyed it.

I missed on paperback between this and, "Warworld," Brian told me, which explains why at the start of this comic why Lex Luthor is now in jail and has assigned his whole corporation to, "Help," Superman. Luthor, obviously, has some ulterior motive, but for now appears interested in helping Superman continue to keep Metropolis safe while also hoping Supes helps fight off some of Luthor's old foes who have crawled out of the woodwork with him imprisoned.

Between an attack by the villain Parasite that takes an intriguing sci-fi and microscopic turn and a subplot about Luthor having once supposedly been a hero in Metropolis that another notable reporter took great pains to bury any news of, a lot of mysterious stuff is happening in, "Supercorp." There are some delightfully funny elements too, with Jimmy Olsen doing his thing where he always gets into various fiascos, in this case ending up dating one of Superman's villains (she's trying to be less evil though these days). I had a good time with, "Superman: Supercorp," and have already asked my friend Brian what collections I need to seek out in order to keep reading this fun story!

5 out of 5 Stars.

"Kelce Mix," Cereal: Worth Eating, but Not Amazing

I tried, "Kelce Mix," cereal and liked it even if I didn't love it. I saw it in stores and figured it was worth a shot because I like weird mixes of stuff and enjoy the Kelce brothers, Travis and Jason. Travis was a surprisingly solid host of SNL in the past (usually athletes--excluding Charles Barkley and Peyton Manning--suck as hosts) and Jason is quite fun too. The, "Kelce Mix," cereal is a blend of Reese's Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Lucky Charms. It works, interestingly! 

The Reese's chocolate and peanut butter pieces are complimented by the cinnamon wonderfully and the Lucky Charm's cereal pieces help, "Cut," everything so it isn't too much chocolate-peanut-cinnamon at once. Then the Lucky Charms are just kind of there and honestly uncalled for in cereal, which is already this sweet. I love marshmallows though, so I'm not mad at their presence or anything, however. What is funny is another review that quite liked the cereal too actually wished there were more marshmallows--so the opposite of me. I would say this is worth giving a taste, but don't expect anything wild, it is just a mix of a bunch of cereals and a bit of a missed opportunity for a special-shaped Lucky Charm or such, that would've been cool. As it stands, this was good overall!

4 out of 5 Stars.