Comic Books and Mental Health

***All images are under copyright to Marvel Characters, Inc***

On October 1^st, 1985, Marvel Comics released issue 269 of The Amazing Spider-Man. Fourteen days later, I was born. You might be asking yourself, “what do those things have to do with one another?” I’m here to tell you that they have absolutely nothing to do with each other. An interesting thing to me is that while I was a big Superman fan growing up, I always seemed to identify with Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The reason why this specific issue of The Amazing Spider-Man being released just two weeks before my birth is interesting to me is because it has more to do with who I am today and the struggles I face with my mental health.

Before we get into this specific issue of The Amazing Spider-Man, I want to challenge you to find a comic book that you feel shares a connection with your struggles. For me, it was very cathartic and eye opening to make the connections that I made between Peter and myself. Remember, even in comics, most of the heroes are flawed just like you and me and they will deal with these issues in similar ways to us.

Issue 269, Burn Spider Burn, takes place shortly after the events of the Beyonder and Secret Wars 2, It starts with the character Firelord, a former herald of Galactus, flying through space trying to outrun his own demise. After escaping death, Firelord decides to visit the closest planet to him while he contemplates his next move. The planet he chooses to visit is a planet that he has been to before, and that planet is Earth.

Firelord is feeling famished after his journey through space, so he starts looking for a bite to eat. All of the sudden he spots a big sign for Tony’s Pizza and he decides that Tony’s Pizza is where he is going to eat. The comic then cuts to Peter having a family dinner with his Aunt May and some other relatives. As they prepare to eat, a fearmongering news report about the “rise of mutants” airs. Peter excuses himself to the kitchen to help Aunt May.  While helping May, Peter’s Spidey Sense (Peter Tingle) goes off with such an intensity that he believes the Beyonder is back. Meanwhile, a misunderstanding takes place between Firelord and the owner of the pizza shop. The earthlings have seen the report about mutants and they believe Firelord is a “mutie”, so they hatch a plan to attack Firelord, who fights back.

Eventually, Peter shows up in his black Spidey suit to save the humans and to do battle with Firelord. After a tough battle, Peter decides that he is no match for Firelord, so he makes the decision to enlist the help of the Avengers or the Fantastic Four. Peter starts making his way toward the HQ of the Fantastic Four before he remembers that their HQ was destroyed a few weeks prior. Peter starts thinking about how to get to Avengers Tower without Firelord spotting him. After much considerations Peter comes to the conclusion that the only way he can get back up is if he were to travel to Avengers Tower as Peter, not Spidey. While changing, Peter notices that his wallet was on the ground. As he picks up the wallet, it opens to a picture of Peter, May, and Uncle Ben. He thinks of the possibility of Firelord going “berserk” when he is not able to find Spider-Man and how that could lead to harm or the death of innocent people. Peter then decides that the best course of action is to take the fight to Firelord because he doesn’t want to “duck out on his responsibilities,” and because he didn’t want anyone to die because he failed, because he was afraid.

After reading all of that, you might be wondering, “what does this have to do with mental health?” Well, when I was reading this comic and when I got to the part about Peter wanting to take off the suit and run from Firelord incognito, it reminded me of how I’ve always dealt with my anxiety. To me, Firelord represents my anxiety. No matter how hard I fight, I never feel strong enough to win. I take off my suit and run from my anxiety on a regular basis and I watch as my anxiety hurts those who are closest to me. I ducked out and failed because I was scared. After reading this comic, I realized that I want to put the suit back on. I want to take the fight to my anxiety, even if I feel like I’m not in the same weight class as the Avengers or the Fantastic Four.

Storytime with J

J’s class has been learning a lot about fairytales and fractured fairytales. During their Writers Workshop time, the kids would write about the heroes and villains they would like to have in their own fairytales. The kids then had the assignment to write a fairytale. Below is The fairytale that J wrote (with a little editing by me). We hope you enjoy it.

The Lost Apprentices

Written and Illustrated by J

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, there lived two apprentices. The first one was named J. The second one was named Antony. They loved to do really, really cool things like fighting bad guys. One day they found a portal leading to the Marvel dimension. They got pulled in by a giant scrap robot. The giant scrap robot was controlled by a bad guy called Ultron. They found some super heroes called The Avengers. They only found three Avengers. One was named Iron Man. The second one was named Hulk. The third one was named Captain America. They all were struggling. Then, right there in the sky, they found an Imperial Space Station called the Death Star. The Death Star was trying to invade and destroy the Earth.

They found a squadron of X-Wings. The X-Wings were called there by the apprentices. Then, out of nowhere, they found some U-Wings. On Earth, they were calling out a lot of the ships. They found another bad guy that was named Loki. Loki was helping the Death Star. They saw another portal, and Loki pulled them out of the portal. Then they saw a guy named Firestorm coming out of the portal. Out of nowhere, a guy on a motorcycle named Ghost Rider with a flaming skull and chain came to help Firestorm defeat Loki.

J warns, “we must destroy the Death Star by shooting an Ion torpedo into it! And we have to distract the troopers so they can’t get into their cannons and destroy the X-Wings.”

Out of nowhere, a U-Wing picked them up so they could fly to the Death Star. The U-Wing dropped them off at the tractor beam so they could be sucked into the Death Star. Then, out of nowhere, Darth Vader came. He was a Sith Master. His lightsaber’s color was red. The apprentices charged at him. Then Vader cut Antony’s arm off.

A hero name Doctor Strange came and reversed Antony’s arm injury with a weapon called the Eye of Agamotto. The Eye of Agamotto had a weird item called an Infinity Stone. There are six Infinity Stones. The one that is in the Eye of Agamotto is called the Time Stone. A second one, which is in a hero named Vision’s head, is called the Mind Stone. Doctor Strange used one of his awesome powers and shot Vader in the face.

Then, a bad guy named Thanos destroyed the Eye of Agamotto by smashing it. He flew down to Earth, shooting everyone with time lasers, turning everyone into babies. They ran into a bad guy named Joker. Joker had a weird flower on the side of his chest and it shot pollen. He had a purple jacket, a white striped shirt that was green, and grey boots. His pants were purple. Joker was immediately beaten. And they lived very happy lives.

Full disclosure, I didn’t edit much. I added a few words that he missed here and there. The biggest edit was wherever you see “out of nowhere”, J had originally written “out of the open”. As I said before, we hope you enjoyed J’s little story. Maybe I can convince him to write a new one of these once a month.

The News With J: March 3, 2018

***Disclaimer – Our videos are sponsored by Watchtower Cafe in Salt Lake City.***

In this week’s episode of The News with J, J talks about Dr. Seuss, what comic books are coming out next week, Star Wars Rebels, Marvel Studio news, and Wreck-It-Ralph 2. Let us know what you think of our new show in the comments!!

The News with J: February 23 (transcript)

A couple weeks ago we started this news show for our YouTube channel called, “The News With J”. We have two episodes up on our YouTube channel and we were working on our third episode before our weekend got busy and J came down with a cough. So, instead of having a video, we thought it would be good to still get the news out in the form of a post! So here is the transcript of what would have been The News with J for the weekend of February 23rd, 2018.

“Hello, this is the news with J and I am your host J. I’d like to thank our sponsors at Watchtower Cafe for all their support. Get your geek on while you get your drink on at 1588 South State Street in Salt Lake City. Now, let’s get to the news.

In TV news, last week was the amazingly emotional mid-season premiere of Star Wars Rebels. There are only four more episodes until the end and I can’t wait!! If you have a cable subscription you can catch up by signing into the DisneyNOW app. The next episodes will air Monday at 7:00 and 7:30 pm on Disney XD.

Also in TV news, Andi Mack was renewed for a third season! I’ve been watching Andi Mack with my mommy and daddy and it has become one of our favorite shows to watch together. Andi Mack is another show that you can catch up on using the DisneyNOW app!!

In movie news, Black Panther has been wowing critics and audiences alike brining in close to $400 million since it opened on February 16th! If you haven’t seen it yet, I only have one question. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Click here to get your tickets today!

In other movie news, Disney/Pixar’s Coco will be a available on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday. We will be heading to our local Target to grab our copy first thing in the morning!

Here is our weekly list of books for young readers that will be hitting comic book store shelves on Wednesday!!

Scooby-Doo Team Up #35

Ducktales #6

Donald Duck: Nest of the Demon Birds

My Little Pony: Legends of Magic #11

Darth Vader #12

Star Wars: Mace Windu Jedi of the Republic trade

Lockjaw #1

Lumberjanes #47

Steven Universe #13

And Legends of Zelda: Twilight Princess vol. 3

In toy news, last week was the American International Toy Fair in New York City and I wanted to share some of my favorite toys that my daddy showed me on Twitter. I want to thank Star Wars Junk, “Agent M” Ryan Penagos, LEGO, Hasbro, KidsToyPicks, Jakks Pacific, and Entertainment Weekly for sharing the pictures of these amazing toys.

Hasbro

Spider-Ham Legends figure:

Legends Infinity Gauntlet:

Marvel The First 10 years Legends line:

My copilot Chewie you from Fur Real:

Star Wars Black Series line:

Uncle Milton

Star Wars Science Fossil sets:

LEGO

Solo:

Harry Potter:

Jakks Pacific

Incredibles 2 toys

Mattel

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom toy line:

Thank you for watching this week’s episode of The News with J. I hope you have a great week. Don’t forget to like/comment/subscribe and May the Force be with You!”

So there you have it. This is what this last week’s episode of “The News with J” was supposed to be. I know it’s not the same as watching a six year old deliver the news, but he should be back in action this Saturday morning! We hope you will tune into our YouTube channel to see all the fun J has with his news show!

Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes Recap

***This is post is sponsored by Feld Entertainment and The Summit Group. We were provided tickets for the show in exchange for our thoughts about the show. All thoughts in this post are our own.***

Doctor Strange floating mid meditation

Doctor Strange must assemble a team

Two of the biggest teams in the Marvel Universe join forces to take down Loki and his band of villains as they are on the hunt for the mystical Wand of Watoomb. The hunt starts aboard Yondu’s ship, the Eclector, as he and his team of Ravagers have recently recovered the wand for The Collector. Nebula is sent by Loki to retrieve the wand from Yondu with an army of Chitauri soldiers by her side.  A fight ensues and just as Nebula is about to retrieve the wand, Star-Lord drops in along with the other Guardians of the Galaxy to retrieve the wand and take it back to the Nova Corp. After a lengthy battle, Nebula grabs the wand and vanishes from the battle. The Guardians must now travel to Knowhere to use another mystical artifact to find Nebula and the wand.

Yondu and Nebula

Enter the Guardians

The Guardians travel to Knowhere

Loki takes Banner

Cut to New York, the Green Goblin has conducted one of his biggest heists along side Black Cat, Rhino, Electro, and Lizard. It’s up to Spider-Man to battle this team of villains with his Spidey wit and skills. While in the midst of battle, Green Goblin shoots some explosive pumpkins toward Spider-Man but they are not normal explosive pumpkins. These pumpkins contain a poisonous nerve gas that overpowers the web slinger. Just before Green Goblin takes down his arch-nemesis, Captain America, Black Widow, Wasp, Black Panther, Iron Man and Thor come to Spidey’s aid. The villains are no match for the likes of the Avengers and the battle is easily won by our heroes. After the battle, Doctor Strange appears and asks for the help of the Avengers in recovering the Wand of Watoomb. With the help of Bruce Banner, they calculate where Nebula will appear next. The Avengers split into two teams and head off to K’un-Lun and to the Savage Land. Will the heroes be able to track down Nebula and stop Loki from achieving his master plan of Universal domination? You have to see the show to find out.

Spidey takes on Black Cat

Rhino and Electro try to take down the web slinger

Have the villains won?

Avengers Assemble

Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes is a spectacle not to be missed. If you are a fan of the comics, movies, and cartoons, you will enjoy this all-new original story that brings together some of our favorite Marvel heroes and villains. While the show is action packed with explosions, fighting, and motor cycle stunts, it is also beautiful in that it integrates aerial silk dancing, fire spinning, and more. Be on the lookout while the Guardians are in The Collector’s museum. You might see some familiar faces in the collection. The performs play to a soundtrack and the voices of the characters are voices of the actors from the Disney XD Marvel cartoons. J (6) absolutely loved the show and wishes we could see every performance that is happening in SLC. My wife and I (both in our 30s) also loved the show. There was cheering from all age groups in the audience. Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes truly has something that everyone will enjoy.

Magic Portal opens in NYC

Out comes Doctor Strange

Aerial Silk Dancers of K’un-Lun

Fire spinners of The Savage Land

We had the opportunity to talk to some of the people behind the scenes of Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes and those interviews will be up on the Geek Parenting Podcast very soon. Tickets for Marvel Universe Live! Age of Heroes start at $20 and go up to $75, the SLC leg of the show goes from now until October 1, so click here to get your tickets today, and join the world of wonder and magic that only the Marvel Universe can bring.

Avengers Assemble, Guardians Come Together!

X-Men: Apocalypse Review

This latest X-Men movie wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was another 20th Century Fox film where the actors were great, but the story just fell flat. I felt like they were pandering to the audience with their some of their choices. There were scenes that didn’t need to be the movie and I wanted way more Quicksilver than I got.

Definitely not a movie for the younger kids. If they’ve seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, they may be able to handle some of the more gruesome death scenes in the movie. I would follow the PG-13 guideline with this one.

I will say that fans of this 20th Century Fox franchise will like this movie, but it’s defientely one that not everyone will enjoy. If you like the previous X-Men movies go see this, if not wait for Redbox. Also feel free to skip the 3D, I don’t think it added anything to the feel of the movie.

Captain America: Civil War Review

Captain America: Civil War is probably going to go down as my favorite movie of the Summer. It was everything that I have been dreaming about since I first read the Civil War comic books. Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and the Russo brothers did an amazing job working around the characters that they were not able to use (thanks to 20th Century Fox) and still come out with an amazing story.

With the cast list was large enough to rival the previous Avengers films, the Russo brothers did a great job pushing Cap’s storyline to the forefront of the movie. The Russo brothers also excelled in their challenge of introducing two huge characters into the MCU. Spider-Man and Black Panther were fantastic additions to cast and Tom Holland and Chadwick Boseman were great casting choices. It seems like a lot of people were skeptical about going with a younger Spidey, but in my opinion, Tom Holland is the best Peter Parker/Spider-Man to date.

I took J to see Captain America: Civil War, we were going to do a video review, but there were some technical difficulties. So, here is a transcript of J’s thoughts on Civil War:

Me: What did you think about Captain America: Civil War?

J: IT WAS AMAZING!!!

Me: What do you think made it AMAZING?

J: The story was really good, I also really liked the fighting scenes.

Me: Which character were you most excited to see in the movie?

J: Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Ant Man!!

Me: What about Cap and Iron Man.

J: They were great too, daddy. But Black Panther was so cool, and Spider-Man and Ant Man made me laugh a lot. They were just really funny.

Me: Ok, what do you want other young kids to know about Civil War?

J: It’s just a really good movie, there are some parts that might be scary and some parts that might be too sad. The other kids should just snuggle with their mommies and daddies if they get scared or sad.

Captain America: Civil War is rated PG-13 for language, violence and some adult humor. The language isn’t too bad, there is probably just as much swearing in all the other Disney/Marvel movies. The violence is a little heavier than that of Winter Solider. If your kids were able to sit through Winter Soldier, then they should be fine with Civil War. The adult humor is basically a few jokes that are going to go straight over your kids heads, so I wouldn’t be too worried about it.

Are you Team Cap or Team Iron Man? Choose your side and go see the movie! And after you see the movie, click here to join in a discussion group about Captain America: Civil War. The group has spoilers, so please join after you see the movie.

The Future of Comic Book Movies

With the success of Deadpool and with the announcement of an R-rated cut of Batman V Superman, there are many parents out there who are worried that all movies based on comic books will bear the R rating. I personally don’t think that this is something that will happen. Comic book movies make so much of their money from parents taking their younger kids, that it would likely be financially irresponsible for studios to only make R-rated movies.

Something else to think about is that Batman V Superman is not the first Comic Book movie to get an alternate rated dvd/blu-ray release. If you go back three years to The Wolverine (I know it was terrible, but it was the last comic book movie to get an unrated cut after it’s PG-13 theatrical release), you will see that it really doesn’t take much to get an R rating. The theatrical release of the Wolverine had one “F-Bomb”, quite a bit of action, a little blood here and there, while the Unrated release had three “F-Bombs” (more than one is an automatic R), more action, and blood EVERYWHERE!

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, “An R-rated motion picture may include adult themes, adult activity, hard language, intense or persistent violence, sexually oriented nudity, drug abuse…” Before we continue, I want to break down a few of these guidelines just a little more:

Language: Movies are getting pretty lax these days, and it seems like they can pretty much get away with saying pretty much whatever they want. But as I mentioned before, more than one “F-bomb” can get you an R rating, unless there is a two-thirds majority of the board who believe the language is justified by context or use.

Violence: Movies based on comic books will usually have some kind of violence, but when it is intense or persistent, you are tiptoeing the line between PG-13 and R.

Nudity: Along with the guidelines about sexually oriented nudity, in 2010 the MPAA added that “male nudity” will likely get you an R rating.

Back to the issue at hand. Everyone behind Deadpool was doing everything in their power to push the R boundary as close as possible to the NC-17 line. With 84 “F-bombs”, violence and blood out the wazoo, a multiple minute sex montage, and a view of Deadpool’s penis, Deadpool was lucky to premiere with their R rating.

The news that Batman V Superman is getting an R-rated cut shouldn’t scare anyone, it should excite people. Where Deadpool can be seen as a model for future characters who don’t have established storylines in a cinematic universe, Batman V Superman can be seen as the new model for the PG-13 theatrical/dual rated dvd/blu-ray release. I’m not saying every comic book movie should follow either model just for the sake of following the model, but that the studios should just be focusing on who the character is via the source material.

The future of comic book movies is not going to be based on the success of Deadpool, Marvel will keep doing what they are doing with the MCU with their PG-13 films, their ABC crime style dramas, and their mature Netflix content, and DC will continue to play catch up with their cinematic universe while dominating in the animation department. The only change that we will most likely see from Deadpool’s success will hopefully be more movies/online series starring more of the anti-heroes of the comic book world.   

The bottom line is that no matter what a movie is rated, it is our job as parents to view questionable content before letting our kids watch it. If I am wrong and all comic book movies go the way of Deadpool, then you can always wait for the FX release.

So Your Kids Want to See Deadpool

I get it, I really do. Your kids probably fell in love with the Deadpool that guest starred on his very own episode of Ultimate Spider-Man. My kid and I loved the Ultimate Deadpool episode too. Here is where I am going to stop you and say that the Deadpool that is in theaters right now is not the Deadpool we see in Ultimate Deadpool.

©Disney

The Deadpool movie that is in theaters right now makes Ultimate Deadpool look like an episode of Teletubies. Deadpool is not intended for kids, this movie was made for adults. There is violence galore, with shots of brains being blown out of heads, language like you’ve yet to see in a movie, I’ve heard someone has counted 80+ “F Bombs”, and there is about a 3-5 minute sex montage, with glimpses of frontal and rear nudity.

Do not, I repeat “DO NOT”, take your kids to see Deadpool. If they really want to see Deadpool, log in to Netflix and watch Ultimate Deadpool a few times. Now that I’ve got that off my chest, let me tell you what I thought about the movie.

Photo by Joe Lederer – © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Deadpool fans rejoice, 20th Century Fox did not screw this one up, like the other movies about certain mutated characters. Deadpool is everything that you’ve been waiting for. Ryan Reynolds shows why he was the only choice for Wade Wilson/Deadpool. Reynolds brings out what we loved about the “Merc with the Mouth” from the comic books. I thought the movie was funny and as a Deadpool fan it made sense. I do think that there is a small lull during the origin story portion, but I understand why they had to tell the story, so it didn’t bother me too much.

Colossus and Nega-Sonic Teenage Warhead were fun additions to tie into the X-Men Franchise, and while I am not a big fan of that franchise, it will be fun to see where Deadpool fits in with the X-Men in future Deadpool films. The entire cast was on point and brought their “A game” to the movie. The special effects crew really brought it and made Deadpool look spectacular.

If you are not offended by gratuitous swearing, violence, the sight of breasts or a penis, then head on down to the theater and watch Deadpool. If you are offended by things I have mentioned, then do not watch Deadpool. If you are offended by the things mentioned and still go see the movie, I think you forfeit your right to complain about the violence, nudity, and/or swearing. You have been warned, this movie is not for the faint of heart or children.

I personally loved the movie and hope that 20th Century Fox doesn’t screw up Deadpool 2.

DON’T TAKE YOUR KIDS TO DEADPOOL!!!!!

Marvel Universe Live!

To keep the tesseract out of Loki’s reach, Thor decides to smash the cube into three fractals causing them to scatter across the Earth. Loki decides to kidnap 3 X-Men to help him create a “cloned” cosmic cube so he can conquer the Universe. With the help of A.I.M, Hydra and the Sinister 6, Loki plans on keeping our heroes busy while his plan unfolds. Will the Marvel heroes overcome their devious villains? Will they stop Loki and save the Universe? Buy your tickets today and see what happens!!

Loki addresses the crowd

The storyline of Marvel Universe Live! seems to mix a few different Marvel mediums together to create a fun and original story that fans young and old will love. Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been wanting to see a live action adventure with both the Avengers and X-Men, and here is our chance. That being said, Marvel Universe Live! is in no way connected with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but this is the closest we will get to a live action Avengers and X-Men team up.

Avengers Assemble

Marvel Universe Live! is an edge of your seat, action packed adventure filled with motorcycles, explosions, fire, and more. If you are taking small children be aware that the arena gets loud, so you may want to bring some ear protection. There are lots of fight scenes, and Wolverine does impale a Chitauri solider with his claws, but there is no blood, so in my opinion it is not too intense.

Black Widow laying the smack down on Madame Hydra

If you are a Marvel fan, you will love Marvel Universe Live!. You will want to see it again and again. Make sure you walk the corridor before the show, during intermission, and after the show to see everything else that Marvel Universe Live! has to offer. There are Selfie Booths, Green Screen photo ops, plenty of vendor booths (to cut down on long lines), and some interactive games. Marvel Universe Live! is entertainment that the whole family (even non Marvel fans) will enjoy.

Marvel Universe Live! will be playing 6 more shows in Salt Lake City at the Vivint Smart Home Arena, click here to see show times and to purchase tickets. Ticket prices range from $25 – $75 with children’s tickets starting at $15. Children 2 and above are required to have tickets to this event. Make sure you follow Marvel Universe Live on Twitter, Instagram, and on Facebook to see some amazing pictures from the show and to follow the show’s amazing journey.

J absolutely loved Marvel Universe Live!, but I think I should let him tell you in his own way. Thank you to The Summit Group in Salt Lake City for giving us a fantastic night that we will remember for the rest of our lives.