1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 20

President Carter's official Presidential Portrait,
National Gallery.

         40 years ago today, America got a new leader as Jimmy Carter became the 39th President of the United States. In one of his first acts as Supreme Leader, Carter will dive headfirst into a very tricky subject- the pardoning of Vietnam-Era draft dodgers. Due to his Christian values, Carter was personally compelled to showing others some mercy and as a result, pardoned thousands of draft dodgers who fled to Canada. Though many veterans protested this move, the act played a large part in helping the nation heal from the Vietnam War.

     Had he ran for President four years earlier, Carter probably wouldn't had won. But changes to the primary system for selecting the candidates made it more of a personable experience allowing for a little known governor from Georgia to beat out a Kennedy. Doesn't matter if the Kennedy was Teddy, Carter still beat him in a David and Goliath political battle of the ages.

      The Democrat Carter was a very controversial President. Not because he had some major scandal or was a total dirt-bag; he was pretty decent choir-boy of a fella. Not the debate over whether Carter was a good or bad President is because he was cursed with some rather bad luck. I'm not even talking about the Iranian hostage crisis or the flap with the Summer Olympics, or even the fuel crisis and huge rise in unemployment as a result of both international issues. 

     The bad luck I'm mentioning are things like how Carter fainted once during a jog from heat exhaustion on live TV. Plus, there's Carter's 'I lusted in my heart' Playboy interview that made him the subject of much ridicule over his morals and mockery as to his manliness. Let's also not forget the time that Carter was whisked away by Secret Service agents who protected the POTUS from a rabid bunny! (Seriously!) All three of which episodes were listed as reasons by one of my college professors as to factors that lead to the President being soundly defeated 4 years later by Republican Ronald Reagan. (BTW- she was a staunch Democrat and a biographer of Carter's presidency.)

The President and Mrs. Carter walking in the Inaugural Parade.

       It wasn't all bad for Carter. His ability as a master negotiator helped him foster a peace between Egypt and Israel. Plus Carter's  tenure in the Navy's nuclear program put him in the right position to deal with Three Mile Island, the closest we've ever come to a complete nuclear meltdown.

Carter's improbable run to the White House lead to him being named
Time's Man of the Year, January 3, 1977.
The same thing happened just recently with Donald Trump.
Both are sworn in on the same day, too!
Cue Twilight Zone theme...

       Jimmy Carter's career actually got better after his only term as President. He helped make Habitat for Humanity become a household name and even personally built some of the houses himself. He's written several best sellers including a children's book. His personal dedication to his fellow man has lead to him supporting dozens of humanitarian causes to which he won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. Plus, if there's an international crisis that a President needs personal help with, Carter is the man current Commander's-In Chief will call on to lead a diplomatic envoy.

      Being a liberal and Christian has resulted in Jimmy Carter being a very complicated man. For example, he's personally against abortion but has lead many campaigns to defend it's constitutionality and legality. Carter's never been afraid to criticize any of his predecessors, Republican or Democrat. Oddly enough, he's also the only former President to RSVP to be at Trump's inauguration today. (Obama doesn't count as until Trump is sworn it, he's still the current POTUS. And Bill Clinton is coming not as a former POTUS but as Hillary's Plus-One!)

Picture from January 11th, speaking on the eradication of
Guinea Worm Disease, another cause championed by the former President.

      40 years and 2 Dark Horses come out of nowhere and become Presidents. Coincidence? With election being every 4 years, maybe not. Or is it that after 8 years of one political parties way of thinking, people desire a change? In 1976, Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford because the people spoke that they were tired of the same-old same-old of the GOP with their vote. (Like with Trump, it was a very close election. Carter got more popular votes at 50.1% but carried less states than Ford.)

     I don't know why it is that Carter and Trump's road to the White House seem to have taken similar paths. I only hope that Trump's presidency doesn't go as bad or worse as Carter's did. Because if it does, God help us all!!!
   

A current and future President meet.
Photo from circa 1979.

Captain America: Man Out of Time

Back around 1963, when Kirby and Lee revived Captain America, he was clearly a man out of his own time, but he seemed okay with being stuck in the modern day world. Yes, the death of his partner Bucky haunted him, but Steve Rogers seemed content to keep the American Dream he fought for during World War II alive. It helped having both Baron Zemo and the Red Skull survive the fall of the Third Reich to keep Capt.motivated to protect the 1960s from fascism.

  Well what if Steve Rogers wanted to get back to the 1940s?

   In Man Out of Time, after the Avengers free Steve Rogers from being frozen, Captain America thinks that everything he's witnesses is a Nazi trap. Over time, the hero learns that he is in fact 70 years into the future and makes it his duty to get back home. To prevent Capt from altering the timeline, the President orders the Avengers to make Rogers a member. Captain America seems to be fitting into his new role quite well. But when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes face the time travelling villain Kang the Conqueror, the baddie grants Steve Rogers his ultimate wish.

  Awaking in 1945 Brooklyn, Steve learns that the war in Europe is over, the campaign in the Pacific rages on, and American mourns the loss of it's hero, Captain America. This puts the good Captain in a awkward position: should he make his presence known and enlist in the conflict with Japan, stroll off into the sunset and live the rest of his days in hiding, or get back to the future?!

This unique look at Captain America's earliest days back from the frozen brink was very clever and well thought out. I liked that the editor's decided to include a reprinting of Capt's first modern era tale from Avengers #4. It really rounded out the story as a whole.

Mark Waid, whose recent run on Daredevil has made the Man Without Fear one of my new favors characters, was behind this story and he did another fantastic job. The art by Jorge Molina was pretty good but the covers by Bryan Hitch were superb. Just look at the amazing job on Man Out of Time's cover; the renderings of every President since FDR were quite good! Hitch should be asked to do the portrait of whomever is elected POTUS in November for the National Gallery!

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Election Day

   The days of the New York mayoral election are coming to a close and the polls show the race neck and neck. The only thing that could swing it in either sides favor is a massive takedown of a super villain or maybe your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

  A serial killer is on the loose and the murderer been planting patented Spider-Tracers on the corpses. With the cops on his trail, Spider-Man is seriously wounded. A quick escape is just what the web-slinger needs. But a run-in with a new Goblin-like menace (aptly named Menace) arrives on the scene and gives Spidey the fits, resulting in the wall-crawler's arrest. Thankfully, Spider-Man has lawyer Matt Murdock on retainer...

    Then in a history making team-up, Spider-Man comes to the aide of a guy named Barry on the streets of Washington D.C. The Spidey villain Chameleon seems to think that if he can take President-Elect Barack Obama's place during the inauguration, he'll become the 44th POTUS. But with the Spider-Man's Spider-Sense and the Knight Rider-like driving skills of Joe Biden, Democracy should still be save- for now.

  Lastly, Captain America and Spider-Man join forces to fight a group of robots that look like Abe Lincoln and members of his historic cabinet. Offended by the poor imitation, Capt. regales Spidey with a tale of the time the Sentinel of Freedom met Honest Abe thanks to the always trusty cosmic cube.

   All three stories were very good. I had read the Obama Election special somewhere before. Though, I don't remember Joe Biden being such a goof. I guess the VP's antics being constant fodder for the likes of Jimmy Fallon made me more aware of it.

   The main election story reminds me of how little I know of this era of Spider-Man. Yes, I am more of a DC person but I try to be very well round. Yet for some reason, the 90s and 00s were just a period of Marvel history that I have considerable gaps of knowledge.

   Published in 2008, Election Day to me marks the beginning of John Romita Jr's 'Big' period. I dunno if it's arthritis, or age, or just a change in styles, but this is the earliest accounts of all of the characters in his works becoming more barrel-chested and broad-faced. The art isn't lacking in quality and there are still glimpses of his iconic touch that made him a comic collector's household name in the 80s. But his artwork has definitely changed over the years.

   A very good volume that 5-6 years ago would've been priced in the $30-50 dollar range due to the hotness of Obama collectibles. But controversies, approval ratings, and the fickle nature of comic collectors have resulted in this book's value to drop considerably. I found my hardcover copy for $2.99 at Ollie's Discount!

    Take a gander for it, folks. You might get lucky like I did. And who knows... maybe after the election, this book might rise in price again...

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Deadpool, Volume 1 (Marvel NOW!, Deluxe Edition)

The character of Wade Wilson, Deadpool has grown on me in recent years. I feel in love with his short lived Deadpool Team-Up. It was wacky and I loved how the character broke the fourth wall, knowing he was really just a character in a comic book. That premise is supposed to make him out as an insane individual with a bloodlust and wonky healing factor. But, I think that knowledge makes Deadpool out to be perhaps the most sane comic book character of them all.

Later on, I read some of the Marvel.1 books. They were designed to help readers, both old and new, to catch up on the many characters and storylines in the Marvel Universe circa 2010. In the collection I read, Deadpool appeared no less than 3 times and each appearance he was zanier and more hysterical than the next. But the end of it, I was a fan.

So, last week, I came across this Deluxe Edition at my local library. Instead of reprinted six issues, I got to read double that amount and for free! It was the highlight of my week. (FYI- breaking my right foot was the lowlight.)

Anyway, in this volume a rogue SHIELD agent, unhappy with the downfall of American patriotism, resurrects all of the deceased former presidents of the United States. When back from the beyond, these founding fathers are so disgusted with what this nation has become, they decide to destroy it and start over. Desperate to keep this under wrap and for CNN not to air footage of SHIELD agents killing our nation’s leaders on live TV, SHIELD decides to hire Wade Wilson to do the dirty work for them.

With a list of 39 POTUSes to kill (along with Carter, who despite being alive still got dragged into this mess), the Canadian Deadpool is about to undergo a bloody crash course in American politics. Some of the highlights are a wrasslin’ match with Abe Lincoln, an outer space star wars battle with President Reagan, some Russian simian astronauts and lots and lots of jelly beans, and a romantic interlude in Marilyn Monroe drag and JFK. (Best line of that scene, when Deadpool’s (whose going commando) dress flies up and Kennedy says “Agh- that wasn’t there last time!”)

The second half of the book involves Deadpool gaining a new voice in his head and trying to save a friend’s life from spending eternity in hades. That set isn’t as funny as the dead presidents storyline but it’s still very good. The best chapter is when we see Deadpool’s 1980s adventures in sunny California during Tony Stark’s Demon in a Bottle days. The artwork was a fun retro look at how comics were when I was growing up and the parody of the Hostess Fruit Pies ads was the cleverest thing I’ve read lately.

I’m completely hooked on Deadpool now! I hope to find more of his stuff very soon. I want it all- back issues, tees, action figures, the Deadpool Animated Series DVD, the home cutlery set, the make you own Deadpool pool inflatable. If it’s got the Merc with a Mouth on it, I want it!

Worth Consuming

Rating: first half 10 out of 10 stars, second half 8 out of 10 stars. Overall rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush

This book has more cheesy songs than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and any episode of Solid Gold combined! And focusing on stupid things like that and what Mort Sauer had to say about campaign finance reform is what made this book tedious at best.

That’s not entirely true. When the author stuck to the facts and not the factoids, the book was pretty good. And I had read one of the author’s later works (about the hobbies and down times of Presidents, which was actually pretty good). I think having waited to read this book during the election was a poor choice. I thought it would be novel. But, I have come to realized that in 50 plus elections, nothings really changed between Obama and McCain.

Shocked? Well, you shouldn’t. It’s not the first time a black male as run for the office. It’s actually the 5th! And McCain is not the first one to nominate a woman for VP. In fact, before Hillary, a woman ran for president with a black for VP in the 1880s! So much for “first time history in this year’s election!”

Now what really shocked me was that this is not the first time an administration has tried a bank bail-out plan. In fact, it’s happen at least twice. And guess what, neither worked and we ended up in a Depression. One around 1886 and then the big one in ’29. Frightening stuff.

And if it were up to me, I’d put a large sign on all our borders with the following sign:

“Abandon all hope, Ye all who enter”. Because, if it hasn’t been fixed in 230+ years, what makes you think either party is going do much to change that.