Bob's Your Uncle!

Hey "W"!

Thanks for the "thumbs up", but it is my pleasure...at least so far; you never know when I'll start some ruckus!

To your question about the Carol Corps, in my half century of involvement with comics, I've seen many characters generate rabid fan bases--Superman (via George Reeves) when I was a lad in the late Fifties/early Sixties, Batman in the mid-Sixties due to the TV show, and again recently due to the Burton/Nolan films, Spider-Man, FF and the other heroes during the "Marvel Age" (not to mention the MMMS, the Merry Marvel Marching Society fan club!), Spawn in the Nineties--but nothing in my experience has been as deep or personal as fan's attachment to Captain Marvel!

At one level, we have a character that has risen from the ashes of "fridge-dom" (as Carol was put through the wringer!) through the skills of Ms. Kelly Sue DeConnick, a come-back which certainly resonated with many people who had history with the previous Ms. Marvel persona who now relish in her second chance at the brass ring; at another, the good Captain is a very different construct than most super-heroines in her background as a military officer/leader, which informs the stories in a unique way, and those things, melded to the deft story-telling and characterizations provided by Ms. DeConnick, have all combined to bring to life a super-human character that will show us her human frailities, but who in her quest to overcome them, never fails to demonstrate what true heroism is about. 

These qualities, evident in the first issue, touched both veteran comics fans and readers for whom Captain Marvel was their first book. Seemingly overnight, word spread throughout a group of fans who felt dis-enfranchised or left behind by super-heroines (or heroes!) who didn't act for the good of all, or who seemed un-relatable as human beings. The struggles of Carol Danvers as a woman and a super-hero struck a responsive chord with readers who had troubles of their own, who now had a hero who seemed like them. As these readers began to connect with each other, a community of friends..no...a family began to coalesce around the central themes of courage, friendship, determination, and responsibilty within Ms. DeConnick's stories, and these good people took it on themselves to honor those positive attributes through the Carol Corps. 

As I wrote in my NYCC re-cap, I have been going to conventions for more than 30 years, and I have never witnessed a connection between an audience, a creator and a character that rivals this! I was fortunate enough to see and hear a tremendous out-pouring of emotion as people told their stories to Ms. DeConnick, and to speak to some of these amazing people myself, and I am thrilled to be in any small way a part of the fan-base for this remarkable character and her talented chronicler.
 

Grim,

FIRST OFF----SPOILER ALERT ON TOP OF YOUR SPOILER ALERT!!!

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That should fix that!

Anyway, my "X" history is a bit incomplete, as I basically left the books when Chris Claremont did, but I don't recall any sort of "thing" between those two characters in the old days, although I must say that the arboretum business sounds familiar somehow!

Sorry I can't be more help,
Bob

From my knowledge of the characters Nightcrawler has kind of always had a crush on Storm. Wolverine and Nightcrawler actually talk about their feelings for Storm in passing conversations. One example can be found in the Black Panther series by Hudlin, when Storm invites them to her wedding. 

Hello again Bob! If my memory serves me correctly, I think you mentioned on the podcast that you're a big baseball fan. I'm a baseball fanatic and I'm wondering what you rate as your favorite baseball-related memories and moments?

For me, other than going Field of Dreams on you and remembering playing catch with my dad, my favorite memory is my Dad surprising me with tickets to see Game 3 of the 1993 World Series at old Veterans Stadium. Even though the Phillies lost that game and series, it's what made me a diehard fan. 

Hey "W",

The "playing catch with your Dad" thing is always the winner as far as I'm concerned! My dad was 43 when I was born, and worked at a very physically demanding job, but none of that ever prevented him from coming out and joining our streetball games, or organizing trips to the park for proper games, where both he and my Mom (who was a starter on the basketball team in high school despite being all of 5'1"!) would choose up the sides and play along!

As to big league stuff, my Dad grew up a fan of the New York Giants, and was even present at the "Shot Heard 'round the World" by Bobby Thomson in 1951! Needless to say, I became a fan of the San Francisco Giants, and although I remember very little of the experience (except calling Orlando Cepeda "Potato" for weeks!), I was at the Polo Grounds in 1962 to see Willie Mays and the Giants make their return to New York against the Mets. That would start a tradition where we would see the Giants play the Mets at least once every year well into the Seventies. My "Jints" were quite a team in that period (best won-loss record in baseball in the 25 years since baseball had gone to the West Coast!), so I had the chance to see Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Bobby Bonds, Jim Ray Hart and all the rest in their primes. I am a baseball fan because of my Dad wanting to share something he thought special, so when the Giants won their first World Series since leaving New York, the tears were there!