Marvel Reread Club Episode 21: August 1963, Part 2

Steve and Matt Bird · 021-marvel-reread-club-August-1963-part-2

Hey folks, sorry there were no non-podcast posts last week, but I kept expecting that I would get to make an announcement I can’t make yet! In the meantime, Marvel Reread Club wraps up the rest of August 1963 (or thereabouts). We look at Tales of Suspense #44 with Iron Man, Tales to Astonish #46 with Ant-Man and the Wasp, and the massive Fantastic Four Annual #1 (which may or may not have come out this month.) Casters on sand! Flipped opinions on Don Heck! Knights on squids!

Marvel Reread Club Episode 20: August 1963, Part 1

Steve and Matt Bird · 020 Marvel Reread Club August 1963

Marvel Reread Club tackles half the comics from August 1963, which means Fantastic Four #17, Journey Into Mystery #95 with Thor, and Strange Tales #111 with Human Torch and Dr. Strange! Kennedy’s Hair! Duplicated alley cats! Asbestos Man! Black magic experiments! Fun for all!

The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does the hero hesitate until the stakes are raised?

This is what distinguishes a big life-changing problem from a small no-brainer problem. Hesitation proves the opportunity is intimidating, indicating it carries both high risk and high reward. 

While it’s tempting to skip hesitation to speed up the first quarter and make the hero seem more forceful, it’s equally important to cheer and fear for a hero. A healthy wariness reminds us to worry about the dangers and trust that the hero is not foolhardy.

Hesitation scenes often establish the role of the hero’s friends, who either counsel caution or recklessness. The good friends in Salvador and Juno are dubious, but the more reckless friends in Risky Business and Mean Girls say to go for it. Or, as they say in the dubbed-for-TV version of the Risky Business: “Sometimes you gotta say, ‘What the hey!’”

These scenes can also ease the audience into suspension of disbelief by giving the hero a moment to stop and say, “Hey, this is crazy! This can’t be happening, can it?” as seen in movies such as Back to the Future and The Terminator.

The 40 Year Old Virgin	YES. He runs out of the store.
Alien	YES, she hangs back and doesn’t assert much authority as the problem grows.
An Education	YES. She won’t get in the car, at first.
The Babadook	YES. She hesitates forever.
Blazing Saddles	NO. He’s amused by the scheme and happily dives right in.
Blue Velvet	NO. he plunges in willfully and heedlessly.
The Bourne Identity	YES. when he opens the bank box, he leaves the gun behind: He’s reluctant to use his skills.
Bridesmaids	YES. She vacillates as she accepts the job.
Casablanca	YES. he’s very reluctant to take the letters, and to let her into the bar.
Chinatown	NO. Well, the movie is 18 minutes in by the time he finds out what’s really going on, so it’s too late for any hesitation.
Donnie Brasco	YES.  he avoids getting sucked into Lefty’s world at first, until he realizes how valuable the connection is.
Do the Right Thing	YES. Nothing but, for most of the movie.
The Farewell	YES. Her parents try to convince her to not to come, sure that she can’t lie convincingly.
The Fighter	YES. He ditches out of their first date.
Frozen	NO. that’s her problem.
The Fugitive	YES. briefly, he’s the only one who hesitates to leave the bus, then he’s hesitant to take the other convict’s hand.
Get Out	YES. He doesn’t trust them or his own perceptions.
Groundhog Day	YES. He refuses to believe it until it repeats twice.
How to Train Your Dragon	YES. Goes to dragon training, tries to be like the others.
In a Lonely Place	YES. he hesitates about pursuing Laurel.
Iron Man	YES. He wants to just die, but Yinsen convinces him to do it.
Lady Bird	NO. she’s not a hestiater.
Raising Arizona	NO. Not that we see.  They go for it.
Rushmore	NO. he jumps right in.
Selma	Sort of.  He’s apologetic with Coretta and seems rather weary and unenthusiastic, calling Mahalia Jackson in the night to have her sing to him just to prop himself up.
The Shining	YES. Jack: Yes, he’s a little taken aback by the warnings. Danny: Yes, he tries to ignore his visions.
Sideways	YES. He refuses, insists that Maya is married.
The Silence of the Lambs	Sort of: has mini-breakdown in the parking lot after interviewing Lecter, but quickly recovers and charges ahead.
Star Wars	YES. Only commits to taking Obi Wan to Anchorhead
Sunset Boulevard	Not really.  He tells us that he’s dubious, but he makes little attempt to leave once the offer is made.

The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does the hero discover an intimidating opportunity to fix the problem?

Simply restoring the status quo is never a strong motivation. In real life, as a general rule, our crises are not just temporary accidents that must be undone but crucial opportunities to fix long-standing problems. It may be a myth that the Chinese use the same character for crisis and opportunity, but that myth persists because it rings true. 

To build sympathy, the opportunity should be obviously intimidating. This shouldn’t be a no-brainer decision, but to avoid losing empathy, the full size of the potential conflict should not be immediately apparent, as we’ll see in the next three steps.

• Many intimidating opportunities, such as the shark in Jaws and the runaway train in Unstoppable, are disasters for everyone except the heroes, each of whom needs a chance to prove his continued usefulness. A classic positive intimidating opportunity can be found in Superbad: While the characters get to go to a real party and become heroes to their crushes by providing the beer, it’s illegal and they’ve never tried it before. It’s clearly intimidating, but they don’t yet know how bad it’ll be because they don’t imagine they’ll get mugged. 
• Some intimidating opportunities exist only in the hero’s mixed-up mind. In both positive and tragic ways, the hero’s volatile chemistry gets unexpectedly set off by the sight of his daughter’s cheerleader friend in American Beauty. 
• Others are only intimidating because of the hero’s flaw, as with Andy’s terror in The 40-Year-Old Virgin when his co-workers offer to help him get laid.

The 40 Year Old Virgin	YES. They offer to help him get laid.
Alien	YES, when things start going wrong, her status improves.
An Education	YES. She gets hit on by a rich guy who can make Elgar jokes.
The Babadook	NO. she knows she must do something, but sees no opportunity to do anything.   In retrospect, the book is the (very roundabout) opportunity to fix her problem, but she can’t see it that way, understandably enough (not can we, until the very end.)
Blazing Saddles	YES. He’s appointed sheriff due to a land grab scheme.
Blue Velvet	YES. In his own twisted way: he finds an ear, which represents a chance to find the hidden truth about his town.
The Bourne Identity	YES. the Swiss bank account embedded in his hip.
Bridesmaids	YES. Gets offered the job of maid of honor, a chance to secure her friendship.
Casablanca	YES. he gets the letters of transit, but will he use them to escape alone, to help them escape, or to steal her and escape together?
Chinatown	YES. He decides to follow up.
Donnie Brasco	YES.  Lefty now feels bonded to him.
Do the Right Thing	NO. He thinks the only solution to his sister and Tina’s nagging (and Smiley’s for that matter) is just to keep at his job and get paid.   He does not realize until the end that this solution is untenable.  The closest thing he gets to an intimidating opportunity is when Da Mayor says “Always to the right thing.” But Mookie doesn’t know what that means, so he feels that he gets no opportunities to rise above his situation.
The Farewell	YES. She finds out that she can to visit China and her grandma, but only on the condition that her hide her grandma’s cancer.
The Fighter	YES. He meets Charlene.
Frozen	YES. She then hits it off with him and decides to marry him right away.  The intimidating part is that her sister refuses her blessing.
The Fugitive	YES. his bus wrecks and he has a chance to escape.
Get Out	YES. It seems so: Rose defends him from the cop, implying that his relationship with her will give him access to her privilege.
Groundhog Day	YES. He ends up stuck in a loop, though he doesn’t see it as an opportunity for a long time.
How to Train Your Dragon	YES. He finds that he’s downed a night dragon, but doesn’t know what to do with him. (This is where he has his spiritual crisis as well, very early!)
In a Lonely Place	YES. In a roundabout way: a girl’s death brings his old cop friend and a new girlfriend into his life, both of whom will offer him compassion while challenging him on his anger issues.
Iron Man	YES. He builds the armor.
Lady Bird	YES. Sort of.  She pusues the real solution (applying for an east coast school) slowly in the background for most of the movie, but in the foreground she pursues other ways to be sophisticated and happy: Theater and boys she perceives as smarter than her.
Raising Arizona	YES. They hear about the Arizona quintuplets.
Rushmore	YES. The opportunity is obvious: study, but he refuses to consider it until very late in the movie.  Instead he pursues an imaginary opporunity for romance.
Selma	YES. He realizes that the sheriff in Selma is the villain he needs.
The Shining	YES. Jack: Yes, offered a job that will allow him to dry out in a liquor-free hotel.  Danny: yes, meets Halloran.
Sideways	YES. His friend promises to get him laid.
The Silence of the Lambs	YES. Thinks Lecter knows more than he lets on.
Star Wars	YES. His new robot has a message for the rebellion, and leads him to a friend of his father who proposes a “damn fool crusade”
Sunset Boulevard	YES. he finds an aging actress who needs a screenwriter.

 

The Expanded Ultimate Story Checklist: Does this problem become undeniable due to a social humiliation at the beginning of the story?

In real life, we may be aware we have a problem and feel troubled about it, but we are unlikely to confront it until that problem has been exposed to the world in a humiliating way. The hero may have been only dimly aware of the problem beforehand, but the social humiliation makes the problem acute. Now that it has been made visible and exposed to the world, it can no longer be ignored. 

Humiliation scenes are tricky. They should illuminate a real personal problem, but to create more sympathy, the size of the humiliation should exceed the size of the problem. The best humiliation scenes are ones that are somewhat unjust but not entirely. Your heroes should deserve a comeuppance but get a much bigger humiliation than they deserve.

The first Iron Man movie shows how to do it right. We have a cocky and callous arms dealer who clearly deserves to be taken down a peg, but then he becomes a prisoner of sadistic Afghan warlords. Even though it’s something he’s brought upon himself, it’s even worse than he deserves, so we have no trouble sympathizing with his plight. Compare this to the lame sequel Iron Man 2, where a U.S. senator is upset that our cocky millionaire has his own personal weapon of mass destruction. We’re supposed to boo the senator, but why would we? The senator may be a jerk, but he’s totally correct. This is the tricky line you have to walk: The humiliation must be somewhat deserved but disproportionate.

• In The Awful Truth, the couple have been cheating on each other for some time, but it’s only when both parties are exposed while they have a house full of guests that they decide it’s time to divorce. 
• In The Apartment, Jack Lemmon’s private humiliation spills out onto the street, where he gets hassled by the cops for spending the night in the park. 
• In Witness, Harrison Ford hides a young Amish murder witness and his beautiful mother (Kelly McGillis) at his sister’s apartment. The next day, after McGillis gets annoyed at Ford’s boorishness, she cheerfully conveys to him what his sister really thinks of him, laying out a litany of his personal flaws. Coming from a witness, this embarrasses him both personally and professionally. 
• In Donnie Brasco, both the feds and the Mafia brusquely tell Donnie his mustache violates their regulations, drawing the first of many ironic parallels between the two institutions. After he dutifully shaves it off, his wife says the mustache was the only thing she liked about his new identity. Clearly, he’s being pulled in every possible direction.

The 40 Year Old Virgin	YES.  His coworkers find out that he’s a virgin.
Alien	YES, she tries to keep the ship quarantined, but no one else lets her.
An Education	YES. Nice boy Graham bores the heck out of her on their date, disappoints her father.
The Babadook	YES. Her son is sent home from school for bringing a weapon.
Blazing Saddles	YES. He’s sent to his death in quicksand, then sentenced to death for trying to kill the rail boss in retaliation.
Blue Velvet	YES. Both scenes above would apply, but they were both cut, so we only have a free-floating sense of his frustration, which is fine.
The Bourne Identity	YES. he literally becomes a non-entity.
Bridesmaids	YES. Finds out Annie is getting married, fears that she’ll lose her.
Casablanca	YES. he gets heckled for letting the Nazis pull Ugarte out of his arms, then he sees his ex-love is now with a war hero.
Chinatown	YES. The man next to him in the barbershop attacks his work, then he meets the real Mrs. Mulwray, who humiliates him.
Donnie Brasco	YES.  he misses Christmas with his family in order to keep his cover up with Lefty.
Do the Right Thing	YES. His sister heckles him on the way out the door, then he’s ordered to sweep up even though that’s not his job.  Not long later, Tina calls.
The Farewell	YES. She gets a letter denying her a fellowship, confirming her fear that she’s not making it on her own.
The Fighter	YES. Dicky doesn’t show up, he’s forced into a bad fight, loses brutally.
Frozen	YES. On her first day outside, she has an embarassing encounter with a cute guy.
The Fugitive	YES. the arrest, but it’s far more than a social humiliation.
Get Out	YES. The cops demands his ID, and he has to rely on Rose to defend him.  He is then constantly humiliated by Rose’s parents.
Groundhog Day	YES. He’s send to the town for a fourth year in a row.
How to Train Your Dragon	YES. He almost burns the village down.
In a Lonely Place	YES. he almost gets in a fight in the street, then his few friends chew him out for almost getting in another fight at his favorite restaurant.
Iron Man	YES. He gets blown up by one of his own bombs in the hands of terrorists, almost killed, finds out his bombs kill kids frequently in the same way, forced to make more weapons for evildoers. (Notably, this guy was so arrogant that they had to use a flashforward structure to previewthe humiliation before we get an in-depth look at his personality, pre-assuring us that, don’t worry, he’ll get his comeuppance)
Lady Bird	YES. Her mother tells her she lacks the ability to make it out of Sacramento.  “You should just go to City College, with your work ethic. City College and then to jail then back to City College. Maybe you’d learn how to pull yourself up and not expect everyone to do everything for you...”
Raising Arizona	YES. Keeps getting sent back, finds out they’re infertile.
Rushmore	YES. He’s told he’ll be kicked out.
Selma	YES. Johnson rejects his call to action.
The Shining	YES. Jack: It happened in the past, when he hurt his son and quit drinking.  Danny: Somewhat. He’s interrogated by doctor about Tony.
Sideways	YES. He has to move his sloppily parked car, oversleeps for friend’s party.
The Silence of the Lambs	YES. See above, also creepy Chilton hits on her and dismisses her, Lecter sees through her, another inmate throws something
Star Wars	YES. He’s told he has to stay on another season. “You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done.” And later, “It looks like I’m going nowhere.” R2D2 tricks him into removing the restraining bolt, then runs away.
Sunset Boulevard	YES. he gets humiliated by a script reader.