Marvel Reread Club Episode 26: November 1963, Part II

Steve and Matt Bird · 26 Marvel Reread Club November 1963

Marvel Reread Club finishes our look at November 1963 with Tales of Suspense #47 with Iron Man, Tales to Astonish 49 with Giant-Man and the Wasp, X-Men #2 and Avengers #2! Miss Glitter! Pill-popping! Tommy guns at the White House! Three-toed Hulk!

Best of 2021: The Complete List

Okay, guys, I usually spend two weeks going through my list, but this year I’ve been super-busy with my new job, so instead I’m just going to dump this list on you today. I will try to glean some tips along the way (and I may break those out into pieces later.)

(One thing I usually do is list the movies I haven’t seen, but this year it’s most of them. I used to get through this time of year using screeners that I borrowed from a friend, but the studios have stopped sending out screeners, which makes it a lot harder for me to get caught up on what I missed.)

Runner-Up: Belfast. Betsy skewered this movie effectively when she said, “This scene reminds me of a scene from A Christmas Story, but in that movie the parents looked like real people and here they look like fashion models.” I agree that the attractiveness of the parents was a distraction. Also, as someone of an Irish Catholic background, it was annoying that the movie was basically saying “It really sucked to be protestant in Belfast in 1968, because everybody wanted you to join the anti-Catholic militias even when you didn’t want to.” Yeah, you know what would suck worse? Actually being the target of those militias. So my sympathy for their situation was limited. But this was a fun movie to watch. It was beautifully shot and I felt for the boy.

5: The Mitchells vs. the Machines: I liked Encanto a lot, Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon were fun, but this was the best kids’ movie of the year. The story was a lot of fun but it was the 2D scribbles on top of the 3D animation that made it such a delight. I absolutely fell in love with the abundant amount of life that erupted from this heroine.

4: Licorice Pizza: What a strange movie! Anderson has just gotten weirder and weirder and doesn’t really seem to care if we’re on board, which is risky, but in this case it really pays off. It was fun being in his very strange head. All notions of structure are blown out of the water, but the scenes are indelible and that’s ultimately more important. There’s a lot of Bertolucci in this movie and that’s all for the good!

3: Summer of Soul: Certainly the best time I had at the theater this year! Questlove could have just cut this amazing footage together into a world-class concert movie, but he does a lot of great structure work (You don’t realize until you do your research later that nothing is in order) and it’s so wonderful that some many people were still alive (and looking great) 50 years later and got a chance to react to themselves. It becomes a celebration of survival. It’s just a shame he couldn’t convince Sly to appear!

2: The French Dispatch: I was horrified that this movie didn’t get a best picture nomination! It’s my favorite Wes Anderson movie since Rushmore, and that’s saying a lot, because I’ve loved a lot of his movies. Recreating the feeling of reading an entire (especially good) issue of “The New Yorker” was so unlike anything I’ve seen onscreen before, but worked beautifully. All of the performances were amazing. Anderson has a reputation for allowing his tone to overwhelm the artistic choices of his performers, but, of all his movies, this one seemed the most driven by the power of the acting.

1: Don’t Look Up: You really can’t be surprised at this, can you? The Big Short topped the list a few years ago. Vice made the list. So I’m obviously an Adam McKay fan. I do feel like some of the negative reaction to this movie has been because of what it was doing right. It was supposed to piss you off and disgust you with your own behavior, and I think that people have chosen to be pissed off at the movie instead of themselves. I thought it was funny that this was supposed to be a movie about our reaction to climate change but ended up being more about Covid. That’s a sign of great art: The story is meaningful enough to grow beyond the creator’s intent.

Best of 2021: Not on the list: Power of the Dog (and Dune)

(Hi guys, I’m back! Sorry to only have MRC posts for so long! The fact of the matter is, I got a job that’s taken up a lot of time. I am working, believe it or not, for Meta on a game. They were big fans of my book, and trying to incorporate its lessons, until they finally said, “Hey, let’s just hire Matt.” It’s been a dream job, but it’s also been a lot of time and something had to give. Another issue is that James and I had a bit of a falling out, but we’ve made up now and we’re recording a new episode of The Secrets of Story Podcast on Friday! I will also be doing some posts based on some of the things I’m learning and one reason I haven’t been posting is that those keep getting moved back. In the meantime, it’s a little late to do my Best of 2021 list, which I usually do in the weeks before the Academy Awards. Since the Awards are on Sunday, I’ll do my “Not on the List” post today and my whole list tomorrow.)

Jane Campion and Kirsten Dunst are two of my favorite artists, and I was very glad to see them both working again, and getting some Academy love, but unfortunately I didn’t like Power of the Dog very much.

One big problem I had with this movie is that I just couldn’t follow what was going on, certainly not at the ending, but not even at the beginning. I paused the movie half an hour in and appealed to Betsy for help. She explained that, though his character calls hers by her first name, Dunst was playing Kodi Smit-McPhee’s mom.

I was baffled. Aren’t they the same age?

Well, it turns out that she’s just 14 year older than him. 

 This was the same problem with Dune, where Rebecca Ferguson played Timothee Chalamet’s mother despite the fact that she’s only 12 years older than him. Hollywood simply doesn’t know what to do with 40 year old women. They look at actresses like Dunst and Ferguson, and say, “Gee, I dunno, I guess you can play the 20-something leading man’s mom.” No, they should be playing the hero’s love interest! They aren’t old enough to be moms to grown men! Campion was lucky to get the cast she got, but she should have then said, “Well, obviously it makes no sense for you to be playing his mom, so we’ll rewrite the role so you’re his older sister that’s raising him.” Problem solved.

But my biggest problem with Power of the Dog was just that it felt dated. The whole “repressed gay villain” trope feels played out. And between this and Imitation Game, one gets the feeling that Benedict Cumberbatch has never considered the possibility that people may actually enjoy being gay sometimes.

Storyteller’s Rulebook: Always have your characters call their mom and dad “Mom and Dad”

Or mother or father, or ma and pa, etc. This was a problem I ran into all the time when I was giving notes on kids books. The writer wanted to show that the kid’s relationship to their parents was unusual, so they had them call their parents by their first names. But here’s the thing you have to understand: It’s always going to be much harder than you think for your readers/viewers to get straight on everybody’s relationship. You’re dumping all these characters on their head, and you understand the relationships intimately, but your audience is always struggling to catch up. And we’re hardwired to say, “If they’re calling this character by their first name, that’s not their mother or father.” Overriding that wiring is hard, especially when there are other reasons to get confused, such as in Power of the Dog. Don’t do it. Help your audience get everything straight by having them call them mom and dad. (It’s much lamer to have them call their siblings “bro” and “sis”, but sometimes you have to resort to that, too!)

Marvel Reread Club Episode 25: November 1963, Part I

Steve and Matt Bird · 025 Marvel Reread Club November 1963 (part 1)

Marvel Reread Club revisits the tragic month of November 1963, with Amazing Spider-Man 6, Fantastic Four 20, Journey Into Mystery 98 with Thor and Tales of Asgard, and Strange Tales 114 with Human Torch and Dr Strange. Discarded lizard limbs! Proof that some form of life MUST exist in outer space! Cobra gas! Kirby thrones! Chamber of Commerce sashes! Evil scented candles! More to come in Part 2!

Marvel Reread Club Episode 24: October 1963, Complete in One Episode!

Steve and Matt Bird · 24 Marvel Reread Club October 1963

MRC flashes back to October 1963, with Amazing Spider-Man #5, Fantastic Four #19, Journey Into Mystery #97 featuring Thor and Tales of Asgard, Strange Tales #113 with the Human Torch, Tales of Suspense #46 with Iron Man, and Tales to Astonish #48 with Ant-Man and the Wasp. Finger guns! Ill-advised speculation about why people are speaking English! Gigantic magic cows! Evil magic shears! Waddling Khrushchev! Flying gaseous porcupine powers!

Finger Pointing GIFfrom Finger GIFs

Marvel Reread Club Episode 23: September 1963, Part 2

Steve and Matt Bird · 23 Marvel Reread Club September 1963 (part 2)

Two big meteorites hit Marvel Comics in the second half of September 1963! First Steve and I cover Tales to Astonish #47 with Ant-Man and the Wasp, then we tackle X-Men #1 and The Avengers #1! Hypno-jazz! Magneto’s dainty signature! Horse juggling!

Marvel Reread Club Episode 22: September 1963, Part 1

Steve and Matt Bird · 022 Marvel Reread Club September 1963 (part 1)

Marvel Reread tackles the first half of September, 1963, with Amazing Spider-Man #4, Fantastic Four 18, Journey Into Mystery featuring Thor 96, Strange Tales featuring the Human Torch 112, and Tales of Suspense featuring Iron Man 45. Poor photojournalism ethics! The fifth quadrant of the Andromeda Galaxy! Multiple missile test mishaps! Aqua-attractor guns! Cauliflower ears! And just wait until we get to Part 2!

And here, as promised are some images of Betty Brant in her Rambo-esque phase many years later, which Brian Cronin recently wrote about:

Get My New Book

Hi guys, I can finally share some big news with you: My new book “The Secrets of Character: Writing Heroes Anyone Will Love” is up for preorder on Amazon! That means I can finally share the cover with you! Doesn’t that look awesome? 

The best news for you is that most of the book is new material, never before seen on this blog. I used all those Believe Care Invest pieces as raw data, but I spend most of the book analyzing that data for the first time!

But I know what you’re thinking: Is the book actually any good? Don’t take my word for it, listen to these folks:

“There are plenty of books on the craft of writing. But there’s only one Matt Bird, the ultimate writing coach: smart, funny, insightful, and armed with a toolbox of innovative tips for creating characters readers will love. Whether you’re new to writing or a seasoned pro, you need this classic-in-the-making.”
--Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award winning author of The One and Only Ivan

“Secrets of Story instantly became one of my favorite writing guides. This follow-up dives under the water to take an even more in-depth look at the iceberg of character development. Meticulously researched and brimming with examples, it offers advice that is both precise and actionable. It reveals the genre-spanning patterns of memorable and resonant characters in an easy-to-access reference format that makes for both fun reading and a great tool to keep on your desk for easy thumb-through inspiration.”
--K. M. Weiland, author of Creating Character Arcs and Structuring Your Novel

“Matt Bird has done it again! The Secrets of Character is a book you want next to you when you write. From revealing what gatekeepers look for in your first ten pages to sharing powerful writing tricks from 150 years ago through today, this is a book to read with your laptop nearby. You'll see what your writing needs and it's sure to inspire you to write!”
--Torrey Maldonado, author of What Lane? and Tight

“All the great ideas in the world don’t matter if you don’t hook your audience out of the gate. In Matt’s new book, he lays it out plain and simple, practical advice for making readers grab on to your protagonists and never let go. The Secrets of Character is the perfect companion to The Secrets of Story, another essential writing guide from Matt Bird.”
--Lou Anders, Hugo-winning editor and author of Once Upon a Unicorn, and Star Wars: Pirate’s Price

“Who says there are no shortcuts to success? Matt Bird’s marvelous Secrets of Character offers indispensable, easy-to-implement story hacks that guarantee your character will grab readers’ attention—and ensure you have a story worth writing.”
--Keir Graff, author of The Three Mrs. Wrights and The Swing of Things (writing with Linda Joffe Hull as Linda Keir)

Feel free to pre-order yourself a copy!  Our big release day is April 19th.   

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.