marvel

Healthy.Nappy.Nerdy.Mommy. Update.

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Out for a 2 mile jog.

So its been a LONG time since my last post. Over NINE MONTHS to be exact. I think the same thing happened last year. I started strong, but once the school year got going, (I’m a teacher), I fizzled off, then got going again during the summer. I am going to try really, really, hard to stay active with my blogging. I enjoy it, and I’ve been told a time or two that I’m good at it. My page started to get some traction and I want to keep it going. Here’s a little bit of what’s been happening with the Healthy Nappy Nerdy Mommy, and what’s to come.

Healthy

I’ve been doing some rollercoastering in this department. Pretty much for the same reason I stopped blogging….life. I’ve gained 30 pounds since my lowest after having my son, 4 YEARS AGO. Its not baby weight anymore, its just plain weight. If I gain 30 pounds again, I’ll be back to the weight I was after I left the hospital with him. I’ve got to get back in gear. Exercise is not my problem. Since rejoining the YMCA, I usually workout 90 minutes to over 2 hours at least 4 times a week. I know it is nutrition. I have been trying to follow mostly a Whole Food Plant Based lifestyle. That’s a step further than vegan. It means no meat, no dairy, no eggs, no refined sugar, no white flour, and no oil. At first glance you see all the things I can’t have, but there are so many better things I CAN have. I love fruits and vegetables. I also love cooking, so I am definantly capable of doing this. I’ve seen videos on Facebook of these women that look so young and vibrant into old age. I want that for myself and my family. My ultimate goal is to have an organic garden and cook most of our food from our own backyard.  As Physical and Health Education teacher I have to be able to talk the talk and walk the walk. My body, animals, and enviornment will be better off as well.

Nappy

I started locs. I’ve thought about for a while. Last summer when I cut my hair it was a step towards this. I could’ve done it without cutting my hair, and part of me wishes I had, but I think I am going to enjoy the process of growing my locs from baby twist. Last summer I cut my hair to a fade, in December I cut it down low, and in April I started locs with finger coils from that growth. I started them on my own first. I did like the results and tried again with my husband’s help. I helped me part the hair horizontally, to make sure there was some uniformity. I don’t want perfect locs, but I also want some neatness to them. We shall see what this journey brings.

Nerdy

Most recently, and I mean VERY recently. I’ve gotten back into Pokemon Go. I started playing it when it came out 2 years ago, and fell off. Two days ago my husband and I started playing again. I did my first raid and my first micro transation within a game. I’m excited because I’ve never been a gamer before, aside from pressing buttons repetitively on some fighter games. I have been of course continuing to watch Anime. We’ve been watching My Hero Academia, Borotu, and Black Clover. We also started One Piece. It is an old anime that neither my husband nor I had ever watched. We also, started watching Sword Art online again. I was not blogging when all the Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War mania was fresh. I’m not going to backtrack and do seperate post, I am just going to say that I though both were AMAZING. As a Blerd or Black Nerd, I was more than ecstatic about what Black Panther brought to the table. As a marvel fan period Infinity War was pure gold. Every summer, save the one right after having our son, we’ve gone to Otakon. I am not sure if we will go to Otakon this year. But I know we will be going the Raleigh Supercon.   Moving foward you can look to hearing about more Pokemon Go, Anime, and movies.

Mommy

Our son is 4 now; we have moved out of the Troublesome Three’s. Night time potty training is much better, although not perfect. I am told things don’t really taper off until 6, and that 6-10 are the best years. God, I can’t wait for that. This boys is really driving me crazy. I love him though, as coo coo for coco puffs as he is. This year I hope to get him into a Pre-K program. Either way I will be making sure he is ready for Kindergarten. As he’s gotten older he has shown many gifts and interest. He likes singing and dancing. He also seems very inquistive and into nature. Any anybody who know myself or him, knows he is a ball of endless energy. I may have a musician, athlete, or scientist in the making. I can’t wait to see what he is interested in. I have no intentions of making him conform to anything. Whatever his niche is, I will nuture it to the fullest.

Of course there’s been more happening in the past 9 months, but I didn’t want to ramble on and on, plus some of it deserves it’s own post. Here’s hoping I can keep things going. What are some changes or updates that’ve happened with you?

2 Super Late Movie Reviews: Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 were two awesome super hero movies that came out this Spring. Unfortunately, my husband and I did not get the chance to see them on the big screen. We can usually get around to the movies we really want to see eventually, although almost never on opening night or even the first week of its release. We went on a date night earlier this summer and intended on seeing either Guardians of the Galaxy or Wonder Woman, but the timing wasn’t right for the showings so we ended up seeing Spider Man Homecoming. Its was good, but not what we wanted to see that night. We finally got to see Wonder Woman, which everyone had been raving about, at my parents house, and we bought Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 when it came out on blu ray.  Here’s what I thought of both films.

Wonder Woman

wonder woman cosplay
Wonder Woman Cosplay @ Otakon 2017

Overall I really enjoyed Wonder Woman. It kind of felt like the same movie as Captain America: The First Avenger, but different. I usually prefer Marvel over DC and not just because Marvel movies tend to be better. To me Marvel characters are more real somehow, I connect to them better. Wonder Woman did a good job at getting that connection. Maybe its because this was a leading role superhero that was a woman. DC seems pretty heavy on the white males, as far as their big movies go. Although DC actually seems to have more diverse comic, Marvel movies showcase diversity more to me. My favorite of the Marvel Universe are the X-men, not the movies particularly, they are hit or miss. But the whole, X-men ideal has undertones of the Civil Rights Movement and the Holocaust. But Wonder Woman seemed to have what many of the DC movies of late have been missing. Any movie that brings in historical fiction is going to be a win for me. So maybe that fact that it felt like Captain America was a good sign. The villain of the movie caught me totally off guard, which was weird. I can usually catch a twist. I get the feeling of, this all seems so easy, who’s the real bad guy. But for some reason that didn’t happen this time, I was with Wonder Woman thinking General Ludendorff was Aries. Maybe it was because David Thewlis, who played Sir Patric Morgan the real Aries, was also Lupin from Harry Potter. Professor Lupin could never be a bad guy? I guess I was wrong. All in all it was a win in my book. I hope the next DC movies can continue in its footsteps, make for an epic Justice League, and win on the DC Universe movies.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

That’s a lot to type, I’m just going to abbreviate it as GGV2. GGV2, was action packed, funny, and sentimental all in one movie. Once again, Marvel strikes gold for me. Not platinum or diamond like the first Avengers or Captain America: Civil War, but a solid gold. I would pick a best part of the movie but I can’t. Baby Groot added the cute factor, and Drax the Destroyer is always good for a laugh. The big tugs at the heartstrings for me were of the relationship between Star Lord and Yondu and Gamora and Nebula. Any

Gamora and Nebula
Gamora and Nebula cosplay @ Otakon 2017

movie with a parental relationship issue is going to be a tear jerker. It probably should have been expected since Marvel is Disney now and Disney is always taking parents from their children. Unlike my character analysis in Wonder Woman, I knew right away that Ego was no good. I mean, his name is Ego, so of course it would come down to him wanting everything for himself and not even caring about his “son”. The Gamora and Nebula relationship was personal for me. I have 2 sisters and technically I’m the middle child, but we never grew up with our oldest sister (although I love her the same). So in our household it was like I was the eldest. I kind of felt like Gamora in the movie. Sometimes win you’re growing up with your sibling, especially being less than 2 years apart, everything turns into a competition of who’s the best, or who did this first, rather than just being their for each other. I found myself thinking, “was that me?” “Did I just win, while my sister got body part, after body part torn off?” I’m talking emotionally of course, neither of us received any physical abuse. In every Marvel movie I look for the connection to the next BIG Avengers film which will be “Avengers: Infinity War“, there was only the mention of Star Lord being able to hold an infinity stone without dying. We always wait for all the credits to be over, and these didn’t really give a glimpse into what’s to come next. I was a little bummed that Quill lost all his godly powers, but hopefully there’s some twist where he’ll get them back. Although it would make more sense if they didn’t because Ego was never his father in the comics. Once again another good Marvel movie, I can’t wait for more.

Both Marvel and DC have some impressive movies coming up leading to their big team movies Justice League and Avengers. I can only count down the days until the next big film, hopefully I’ll get to see them sooner than months after their release.

Luke Cage series Review, finally.

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I know its been ages since the rest of the world saw and talked about Luke Cage. But its hard to see all the shows and movies I’d like to see. Between watching our current anime and Nick Jr for my son, there’s so much I miss. I actually started it a while ago, but stopped right at the last episode of the season, finally I finished it. I will do it in the form of a layered compliment sandwich; starting and ending with positive aspects, with some negatives in between. So here are my 2 cents, even if it is ridiculously late.

1. African American Representation

As an African American, thirsting for fantasy and sci-fi characters to identify with, it was a breath of fresh air. I know there was outrage over the “lack of diversity”, meaning lack of white people, but this is the same way people of color feel watching TV and other media outlets most of the time. This was not something that was created out of the blue “just for black people”. The comic was created like this. It was created to reflect the blaxploitation films that were popular during the 70s, like Foxy Brown and Shaft. This version is a modern day interpretation of that. There some variations from the original comic, like characters and settings, but that is pretty much to be expected. It especially liked the idea of the bulletproof black man wearing a black hoodie. It was a direct homage to Travon Martina and the other countless, murders at the hands of police. There were major white people in the show, most of them just happened to be the bad guys. This show and the comic is set in Harlem, where there are mostly Blacks and Latinos, so once again it all makes sense.

2. Bad Acting

Some of the acting is just bad. Particularly from the leading man, Mike Colter. Its just too corny and unauthentic sometimes. Maybe the corniness stemmed from his use of the phrase “Sweet Christmas”. I know his character had a lot of integrity and didn’t like cursing or use of “the n-word”, but I think it could have been accomplished without being as corny as it was.  The scenes that were particularly painful to watch were to romantic moments between Cage and Claire.

3. The Love Triangle

It was however spicy, to see the somewhat of a love triangle between Misty Knight, and Claire as the former and Cage’s relationship started to bloom. The scenes with Misty and Clair together in the restaurant basement gave some comedic relief to the drama that was going on around them. Their continuous use of the analogy of coffee was a bit overdone throughout the series though.

4. Mariah

She starts as kind of a victim; a politician who can’t let go and stop helping her crooked cousin. We later see that it is much more than that. She is the real manipulator, blinded by her lust for power. It saddened me so, to learn that Mariah was referenced to being in my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. The “oo-whoop” (spelled this way on Netflix’s subtitles) which is actually typically spelled “oo-oop” (maybe they changed it on purpose), is a greeting for fellow sorors. Misty kept referring to a “skee-wee™” which is the call of our rival sorority, I was hoping she was “one of them”, but she was corrected by her superior Priscilla. You’re probably confused if you are unfamiliar with Pan Hellenic council Fraternities and Sororities, but that’s neither here, nor there.  I can’t decide who’s running who in the Mariah-Shades relationship. What made me really cringe was seeing Mariah kiss Shades at the end of the last episode. Dear God, I hope that doesn’t become a thing.

5. Character Backstories

I’m a sucker for back story, so seeing the story of his relationship with Diamondback was good, but it still seems unrealistic that everybody knew he was he brother but him. I almost can’t stand it when villains just get obsessed with something like this. Ok, you were an illegitimate child, it happens. But it wasn’t Cages fault. At least be mad at the right person. But I guess if that happened there would be no villains. I also enjoyed the story of Luke Cages time at Seagate, it gave some real insight to his character and the thing he has gone through to make him who he is. This dang Super-Soldier serum keeps messing peoples lives up in Marvel. The flashbacks to Mariah and Cottonmouth’s youth were also good. Seeing how Mother Mabel influenced and molded them into who they turned out to be was interesting.  Cottonmouth was the classic villian, that could’ve been a hero, or at least a law abiding citizen, had he been given a chance. The real villain in this is Mariah, who ended up getting away, for now.

6. Lackluster Action Scenes

I understand that he doesn’t have Incredible Hulk strength, and that this wasn’t one of the blockbuster Avengers movies, but I think the audience deserved a little bit more than what we got. In one of the first action scenes, we see Cage punch and completely crush one of Cottonmouth’s men’s fist. They set it up so good, but almost nothing else lived up to this action. The story of each episode also, dragged a bit. I’m used to dealing with things being dragged on and on with anime, but not with a regular action television series.

8. Misty Knight

My favorite character of the series, was of course the smart, beautiful, and natural haired, Misty Knight. She had more of an emotional roller coaster in this series than anybody else.  She went from being the super confident cop, with all the right answers, to a confused woman trying to figure out who or what to trust. The ending of the series brought it all together for me seeing her in the quintessential big afto, hoops, and strapped red garb. I hope she’s found herself, and becomes the Misty Knight of the comics.

Even with the downfalls, Luke Cage was a win for me overall. I have to catch up on January Jones and Daredevil now, so I can prepare for the upcoming Defenders in the future. I hope any future seasons are able to rectify some of the issues, so it can be as great a show as it has the potential to be. What did you all thinkabout Luke Cage? Was it a hit for you? Or did it fall flat?

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Now I’m off to get some coffee….(I had throw it in there somehow)

My Kind of Nerd

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Many people hate8795626821_9c50fb2de2_o the kind of nerd I am. I did not grow up reading comics and don’t know all the details,and the issue, of every comic, that every character has appeared. I developed my love of superheros, anime, and other nerdy interest late in life. I guess you could say that I am a late bloomer. I’d love to go back a re-read all the major comics and manga, but my time is limited. I can honestly say that although I’d like to take up reading comic books and manga it’s just not realistic for my daily schedule. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like these things any less. I just have to accept the fact that I’ll never be as knowledgeable as some one who has grown up around these things. I know what I know based on the movies and anime that I watch now and constant research online. Some would argue that I’m not a real fan and that I am cheating. It is what it is. I still like what I like.

That’s not to say that there aren’t certain things that I am not a “expert” on. I’d say I’m VERY well versed in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings because I read and saw the movies for these series many times. These are titles that I read as a child. Since Harry Potter was created during my childhood I read them as they were published. My mother stood in lines to get the books as birthday and Christmas presents. I ordered movie tickets online to ensure that they weren’t sold out. I read each book currently out in the series upon the release of a new title. Even as an adult I’ll read and watch the entire book and movie series within a week, just to find something I may have missed in the past decade and a half. As far as LOTRs, I of course did not read the books when they came out, my parents weren’t even born when they were originally published. I also did not watch the movies originally. Aside from Harry Potter I didn’t really enjoy the fantasy genre until I was an adult. I’m not sure what attracted me to Harry Potter as a child but it was not only “nerdy” interest I had growing up. Even still the original works for these series aren’t on going. Harry Potter has 7 books and 8 movies. Lord of The Rings has 4 books, and 6 movies if you included the Hobbit series. These are numbers I can work with and revisit. Although I am fully aware that there are other movies and books written about these series. Its more manageable than the literally millions of comics and manga I would have to read to be as well versed as I’d like to be. Even with Star Wars there are so many comics, books, and cartoons outside of the movie trilogies that I can’t even being to touch the surface of the details within this franchise.

My sort comings are one of the reasons I started the blog. Help me know all that I need to know. Comment, critique, and advice me of your ways. The more knowledge I have the stronger I can be. I love to engage in arguments and discussions, but find myself unable to because of my lack of knowledge in many areas. Sometimes I get off on the fact that I am black and female to people are amazed that I know the little I do know so I can get by mostly on that. Plus, within the general public I do know more than the average bear. But within the “nerdy community” I am a newbie and many hate the kind of nerd that I am.

(Marvel)ous Mother’s Day

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Captain America: Civil War

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The first event listed in 6 Anticipated Events for a Nerdy Mom was seeing “Captain America: Civil War”, and now I can scratch that off my list. For Mother’s Day some ask for flowers, others jewelry or clothes, but I’ve known for quite some time that all I wanted for Mother’s Day was to see “Captain America: Civil War”. Our grandparents watched our son and we got to enjoy one of our favorite dates; going out to see a superhero movie. I was very excited about this movie. To me it is the Marvel version of Batman vs Superman, so naturally in my opinion it was bound to be ten times better. As far as I’m concerned it was. I probably shouldn’t call this a review. Reviews are supposed to be unbiased, this is very biased. I’ll call it my opinion and views on the movie rather, than a review. SPOILER WARNING: after this point significant details about the movie may be revealed.

Synopsis

The movie takes place a year after the events of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and people want the Avengers to take responsibility for the destruction they caused and make better decisions. There are those that feel guilty enough about the innocent lives lost that they are willing to sign a document called the “Sokovia Accords”, created by the United Nations, to govern over the Avengers. In the wake of the signing of the Sokovia Accords it seems the Winter Soldier attacked the United Nations summit, killing the King of Wakanda. His attack caused people to believe even stronger that people with super abilities need to be put “in check”, but Captain America doesn’t buy it. He remains true to his decision, that the Avengers should make their own decisions and tries to help clear his friends name. It turns out the whole attack and scheme was of Zemo, a soldier from Sokovia, who wanted to get revenge on the Avengers for killing is family, by tearing them apart from the inside.

My Initial thoughts

On one side you have Iron Man and those that believe the Sokovia Accords are the best option for The Avengers. On the other side Captain America and the others that believe the Avengers should use their own judgement in deciding their actions. This is a major argument in any superhero series. It is pretty much what Batman vs Superman stemmed from except on a smaller, less awesome level. See Movie Review: Batman vs Superman. At first I didn’t know which team I would side with, but very shortly into the movie I began rooting for team Captain America. It is as the Cap said “What if they send us somewhere we shouldn’t be or don’t sent us somewhere we need to go.” Governments can’t be trusted with these types of things. The Sokovia Accords would turn the Avengers into some kind of team of henchmen. I had also been wondering about the absence of the Hulk and Thor. A little into the movie I understood why they couldn’t be in the movie. If the Hulk and Thor were to participate they would probably have been on team Captain America and with both of them on that team there would’ve been no fight. The God Thor would not have submitted to being ruled by mere mortals. And the Hulk would not allow the government to make him turn his beast “on and off” at their will. He didn’t even want to use it in the first place in the past “Avengers: Age of Ultron”. At first I wondered how it is a Captain America movie and not another Avengers movie. But it was not the Avengers being the Avengers. There was not world ending catastrophic event for the Avengers to assemble. This was Captain America trying to save his friend and the conflicts that arose from it.

Character Spotlights

There were several brilliant aspects of the movie in my opinion. The first thing that caught my eye was the budding romantic relationship between the Scarlet Witch and Vision. He is keeping her on “lock down” by Iron Man’s orders, but he is also trying to plant some seeds. He starts be attempting to cook for her then it does turn into a deeper conversation about their thoughts on the Sokovia Accords. And its like most of the Avenger’s members, they have different view points but still respect one another and want to avoid this major conflict that is about the occur.

The friendship between Iron Man and Captain America is obviously on the rocks, its the entire basis of the movie, but another interesting relationship dynamic comes from the Caps loyalty to Buckey, and that’s the relationship with Falcon. Its like Buckey is the friend from back home who never quite got it together, but they grew up and are like brothers and Falcon is the frat brother he met and college they are close now because they’ve experienced and helped each other so much to get where they are now. Falcon is completely loyal to Captain America, even though he knows he will go down with him. I’m not entirely sure if Falcon would’ve opposed the new laws if Captain America wasn’t. Now with Buckey all Captain America thinks about, its getting in the way of he and Falcon’s “bromance”. He even tells Buckey that he hates him, but they both come together in congratulatory looks when he kisses, Sharon Carter, Peggy Carter’s niece.

The best characters in the movie seemed to be the newer additions, including Black Panther, Spiderman, and Ant Man. It seemed like each team needed a bug. Spiderman and Ant Man provided some much needed comic relief and fun. Although, some would say that Spider-man’s role was unnecessary, his action scenes were some of the best and his youthful humor was much welcomed and has been the best Spider-Man I’ve seen on screen yet. Black Panther was EVERYTHING! In the movie he was seeking revenge for the death of his father, the king of Wakanda. He was strong and feline at the same time. I got chills every time he stuck a landing. As my husband said “he’s a cat, but not feminine like Catwoman.” They nailed the Black Panther. I am so glad to see another superhero of color represented. This may be a way to get more X-men integrated in the Avengers as they are in the comics. They have Scarlet Witch and had quicksilver, this could be a way to bring in Storm and then Wolverine. Fox and Disney need to get over themselves and let these movies intertwine as they did in the comics a lot. The whole Sovokia Accords tie right in the sides involved in mutant registration. But back to my man point Black Panther is OP. He has it all; wisdom, money, strength, power, I mean he’s a freaking King with super powers. He was the “REAL” hero of the movie and ended the cycle of revenge, by not killing Zemo once he found out he was responsible for his father’s death, not Buckey.

Possible Criticisms

There were probably all kinds of inaccuracies within the movie that some fanboys/girls hate. After watching Batman vs Superman I researched different things ( because I have not read a lot of comics) and began critiquing and comparing the inaccuracies. This movie itself was so good in my opinion that I don’t even want to know what they got wrong. I don’t want to ruin this good feeling I have about it. There are also those that are probably on the completely opposite side of me, thinking that Iron Man is right and the Avengers need a governing body. At the end of the movie, though, you see that Iron Man is questioning this and War Machine tries the reassure him that it was the wrong decision. If there was one flaw in the movie, I’d say that I expected more from Vision. His powers seemed like they should have completely overwhelmed anybody on the other side. The only person they had with that kind of power was Scarlet Witch and at this point she’s still a little untrained, but you could tell he already had a soft spot for her. Nobody was fight to their full potential, because this was a fight among friends, not trying to kill each other, but trying to get to a point when they can come together again. Some might say the movie was too long, but I wasn’t at any point waiting for it to be over. Another thing that really bothered me, was that I wanted Blank Panther to step into the Iron Man/Captain America fight and shed the same wisdom he had gained with them and ended the war. But it is a Civil War, so no way it could be ended this soon. They will probably continue it into other MCU movies, resolving it to protect the world from what ever catastrophic, world ending adversary they will meet up with in the 3rd Avengers installment.

I am completely biased. I love everything Marvel. It was a great movie, better than “Avengers: Age of Ultron” in my opinion and better than the rival “Batman vs Superman. Thank you, hubby, for my Marvelous Mother’s Day gift. Now the countdown to “X-Men: Apocalypse”