Category: Michonne

Christmas List, Darth Maul, Glasses, Lord of the Rings, Michonne, Nook, Star Wars, The Walking Dead

Christmas List 2012

 
Its that time of year again where I’m being asked what I want for Christmas. While this may seem early (because it is), I think that with the number of sales happening and my mind wandering to small things that I may want for myself. I do this for purely selfish reasons because I know there are people out there that are hurting in a bad way. This has always been a list that I never expect anyone to get me, but rather things I would like to acquire as I enjoy my own success.

This is not exactly the same list I gave to my girlfriend since some of these seem kinda extreme to me. But hey, sometimes you have to live in a fantasy world. I am not one for too many material things because I do beleive that in the end it is all just stuff. If I am lucky enough, I will get a few things that are truly sentimental over my lifetime.

Alright let’s get to it:

I love to read!

Is it me of have books made a huge come back over the last few years? There is always something coming out that has to do with reading books digitally. I mean, I read comic books online as it is, so it would make sense that everything else would just be that way in this day and age. I already have the first gen Nook from Barnes & Noble and sadly (it is not broken) its time to replace it. I very much want the Nook HD. Perhaps this is just a thing of vain, but I will say that having an E-Reader has made me read a lot more than I did before. With this upgrade, I will be able to read in the dark (it is back lit).

This next item is a no-brainer for me. My contract with AT&T is up and I want to upgrade to an iPhone 5. Unlike most people, I do not care about all the bells and whistles. I just like what it does for me. What I have come to realize after owning this phone is that one will never uses all the features. It gets tiring to try to use EVERYTHING after day 3 of owning it, however, I like the features that I do use. With a better camera, the ability to read Comics, watch movies, do my fantasy sports, and face-time with family (all just a few examples), I am happy with what an upgrade will do for me.

He has a eye-wear line??

At the moment, I write this blog wearing some serious antiquated glasses. The problem is I lost my glasses off the coast of Fire Island a few months back. This means, I am in dire need of some glasses. I wore out my only pair of contacts (which is another thing I need) in the process of waiting to get paid. But never fret or fear, I will get new glasses this year (always the poet). I will have 2 goals in mind for a brand new pair: a) Glare Resistant and b) something that does not slide off my face easy.

One Ring…bitches

There are many things that I lost in the divorce. Many of these things were just divided amongst the both of us and there were things that I fought to try to keep and other things I just let go. Of the many things that I did let go, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (extended edition) was a definite treasure for me. Rarely do movies such as these come out, I knew that I would have to repurchase them. My thought was that if I left go of the DVDs, I will just require them as Blu-Ray discs.

Hotness

My last 2 items are a bit far fetched and to be honest, I wanted to put something on this list that was border line absurd. First, It has been a LONG time since I have gone after anything remotely related to Darth Maul or Star Wars. In fact, I purposely took the Star Wars Saga Blu-Ray off this list because of this lovely statue right here. I haven’t really decided if i am going to go back to collect on a grand scale only because all this stuff accumulates quickly and if I move more than once in my life time… it will be too often.

Ready for walkers!

On the other hand, there is this thought about how much I love the Walking Dead. When I did this list in 2010, I told myself I would venture down this road with the books and since then I have never looked back. But the other day I asked myself how much would a Katana run me? Needless to say that if I wanted something to kill Zombies with (besides my wit) I could easily spend less than $100 on this beauty.

I hope that everyone has a great time holiday shopping.

African Americans, Black Superheroes, comic books, Michonne, The Walking Dead, women

Michonne: The Ultimate Black Heroine?

Let me tell you what I am grateful for. The woman called Michonne. Even if you do not watch The Walking Dead, you should recognize what is going on here. We are seeing the birth of the most unorthodox and most unlikely of heroines on Cable Television. A sword wielding Black Woman that kicks ass and takes names.

We live in a time where we see plenty of White women play a that hero role which breaks all kinds of barriers and gender roles. I can name countless movies like Aliens, Prometheus, The Hunger Games, and the Underworld movies just to name a few, yet can you name a real movie when that same person was a Black Woman? While my thoughts go to Pam Greer in Foxy Brown back in the seventies…  most roles for African American women, in particular, are usually neatly carved out as maids, hoes, and single parent mothers trying to make it (and that is just in Tyler Perry films).

But, seemingly, out of now where comes this dark skinned woman in a world where you “fight the dead, and fear the living.” Most people seemed to taken by surprise how good this all looks. Can you imagine if a Black Woman was allowed to take out her “post racial” frustration on the living dead? What would that look like? I can tell you that reading the comic book, she is a survivor that takes no chances and trusts few people and that translation has worked well on screen down to her long dreads.

Which brings me to my next point. She is in a comic book! Can anyone tell me the last time a black woman was a major character in a comic book (that is not Storm from X-Men)? I immediately think about Captain Marvel from the Avengers books in the 1980s. But perhaps Milestone Comics had the most recent Black woman character with “Rocket” from the Icon series which came out in the nineties. I will just just answer my own question and just say that Amanda Waller in DC comics Suicide Squad is the only other MAJOR character in a comic book that I know of currently.

This raises a lot of questions for me. Is there some sort of thought that perhaps Black Woman are not seen as the hero types? I know plenty of strong Black Women that do not need a sword or the power of the Gods to fight crime. This is why seeing Michonne on The Walking Dead is refreshing. I knew about her for a long time by just reading the book (in which she is still alive). Her recent fame is only the tip of the ice berg when it come to her character and over all development in the psyche of the United States when it come to Black Women. She is a well developed character that is no laughing matter unlike Hally Berry’s Catwoman that might have set back African American woman back a few decades.

I challenge anyone who can find me an African American comic/movie/television hero that may have a stronger impact than Michonne. I think anyone will have trouble finding this fictitious person. Please do not include Storm in your searches because she is African. I wish you good luck and read The Walking Dead.