Murd's Time Bubble: The Thirty-Second Time Talkback
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
There's a TIME to laugh and a TIME to mourn in this voyage of the Time Bubble, as we pause to reflect on a real-world national tragedy that sent shockwaves all the way to the Marvel Universe. Also: the striking debut of Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt; a one-mutant crusade for the X-Men's Nightcrawler; and a Peter David project you might have missed in 2001. (2:27:41)
Listen here.
Listen here.
Comments
I remember sitting there, stunned. Shocked that something like this could happen. I had no concept of it. Why would we be attacked? What did we do to warrant such an act of aggression towards our way of life?
I'll never forget that day. Ever. For as long as I live it will stick with me. It will stick with all of us.
It was a gorgeous September day outside, warm and refreshing sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. Then we found out it was more than just a small plane.
I remember sitting in a History class about an hour or so later, and being one of the few people with a AM/FM Walkman, I was tuned to 1010 WINS for further updates, as our teacher sat there, trying to just have a conversation with us all and to keep us calm. I also remember social norms still applying that day, as although I wasn't exactly a social butterfly, people wanted to hear my updates over another girl in the class with a radio who was less well liked. Go figure.
I remember informing the class when I heard the news the first tower had fallen, and then the second. We were silent.
I remember one of the few moments of levity of the day being when Joe Pesci was called to the office, because we had a kid in the school who shared the actor's name, and that always made us laugh. The other was hearing W flub a line in a speech, because I needed to find a laugh somewhere.
I remember the smell of the smoke as I exited Edward R. Murrow High School that day, as although we were far into Brooklyn, the smell from Manhattan was unmistakable. We left school early and headed back to my mother's apartment, because being in school the rest of the day after the day's events just felt off.
I remember rumors running rampant about other attacks, the most prevalent for some reason being that a bomb had gone off at Lincoln High School in Coney Island, which was clearly not true. There was also a rumor of the Empire State Building getting hit as well.
I remember my dad and I driving my HS girlfriend home to Coney Island, and that was the first time I could really see the smoke, as it was visible from the other side of the beach. Even at night, you could see it.
I remember earlier that day, frantically calling my grandparents, asking if they were okay. I later found out that my Uncle Lloyd had a meeting that day at Canter Fitzgerald he decided not to attend because he had another meeting earlier in the day, and that a bunch of his coworkers were not so lucky. Every 9/11 I am so very grateful that my five cousins did not grow up without a father, because fate demanded it to turn out this way.
I remember the smoke shadows visible on buildings in Downtown Brooklyn by my grandparent's apartment on Livingston Street, and papers strewn about that had floated all the way there from Manhattan.
And I remember picking up the 9/11 Amazing Spider-Man comic, and the eventual Captain America issue, and being taken with emotion; even the Doctor Doom tear didn't seem so out of place, although I admit today it was a little bit cheesy. But I understood the sentiment. Same with the 9/11 tribute books that soon came out from multiple publishers.
Thank you Murd, as always, for the stroll down memory lane. Excelsior, all.
I was living in NYC on 9/11 (though I had sort of stepped away from comics at the time) but I wasn't actually there that day. I was in Miami on business. The flight stoppage didn't really affect me as I was scheduled to be there for basically the entire month of September.
As someone who wasn't home when it happened, I always felt like it wasn't really my place to talk about it in the same way. Does it matter where I was? I was safely on the ground 1000+ miles a way. The feeling in the coming weeks of wanting to help but basically being stuck in FL was pretty strong. I went out drinking with a friend towards the end of that trip, got pretty drunk, and just unloaded on some poor girl at a bar about not being able to do anything.
Anyway, thanks for the episode Murd. Great as always.
Regarding the Solomon Grundy/Swamp Thing/Superman issue… When you were speculating that Grundy’s sudden resurgence here was in reaction to the success of “The Incredible Hulk” TV series, you also briefly referenced Grundy's accent from “Challenge of the Superfriends.” It made me wonder: might DC simply have been playing off his new recognition from that, in writing him back into comic books? Maybe his presence here was to promote “Challenge” action figures?
Really admired your look back into the Marvel 9/11 issue, plus discussion of that tragic time in our history. I remember reading what a Marvel editor had to say about it at the time, something to the effect of "the New York skyline is part of Marvel's origins. Spidey swung from these very skyscrapers, the Fantastic Four was based in one… how can we tell any future stories set here without stories acknowledging what has just happened here?”
The better question may be, why Swamp Thing? It may very well have simply been Englehart and/or Julie Schwartz (the editor of Presents) just looking for characters they could use without having to worry about what anyone else may have been doing with them. Or it could be because DC, flying high on the success of the Superman film, was trying to sell the film rights to Swamp Thing—which they did in 1979, after many months of negotiations, to Michael Uslan when he also bought the film rights to Batman.
When I was buying floppy comics when I was younger, I remember some really bizarre Marvel and DC teamups (more bizarre than Swamp Thing and Superman, I assure you), but I cannot remember them right now.
BJ
Well, I’m sure somebody says it anyway.
Murd- one note: I found your use of the word slut to describe the character in the PAD series a bit jarring. I understand the term is often used as a high school story character descriptor and it seems from your description that PAD was writing her in a way that he may also have used this descriptor but I think we would all enjoy putting the term behind us and living in a more sex positive world. Same goes for "angry young black woman".