Support Shawn's writng with a donation

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

John Haynes: A Conversation With Death Sample Chapter

-->
Here’s a sample chapter of the upcoming John Haynes series teaser book A Conversation with Death. Enjoy! 




Chapter 6




On being met with the scowl from Vance, John points daggers back at him. “I didn’t think Vampires came out in the sunshine.” John says getting up out of his seat.
“We don’t put the bite on people anymore.” Carlotta says as blue flames erupt from her fist. “We put the burn on them.”
Looks like they’ve been promoted to full demons. “So do you wanna be original boss man?” Vance asks making blue flames erupt from his hands. “Or extra crispy?”
John gets into a fighting stance as I slide out of the booth. “Want to watch me rebuke some demons?”
I think I can do more than that. With a thought I gesture and my scythe appears in my black manicured hands. “I can do better than that.”
John gives me a quizzed look on seeing my weapon of choice. “I thought you were a nonviolent entity.”
“I only use this when I have to deal with the more unruly souls.”
“Let’s send some demons into the light.”

John Haynes: A Conversation With Death will be available in paperback and e-Readers on June 19th! You can pre-order your copy today on Kindle!

Sunday, May 27, 2018

A Conversation With Death Cover Concept

Roughing out The John Haynes: A Conversation With Death cover concept. Since this is a short teaser story for the upcoming John Haynes series, I'm going to keep it simple. A basic image of John to let everyone know who he is.

My ideal image for a cover is to have John sitting in a coffee house front of a chessboard with a cup of coffee with a chalk white manicured hand of an off-camera woman with black nails sitting across from him. Maybe this'll be final, maybe not. I'm still working things out. 

A Conversation With Death will be out later this June. It'll be 99 Cents on e-readers! Until then you can pick up the previous John Haynes stories The Temptation of John Haynes and The Man Who Rules The World!  And don't forget to pick up John's latest appearance in Isis: Escape From Transylvania!

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Supergirl Goes Full SJW in Season 4



Yeah, this show is FUBAR.
Next Season Supergirl will feature a transgender character as part of the cast.


…Yeah, time for Shawn to stop watching Supergirl.


It’s official Supergirl has now gone full SJW. But it’s not like we saw this coming. Over the course of three years Supergirl has gone from a fun superhero show into Greg Berlanti’s propaganda platform for pushing his feminist agenda. Now he’s using it to promote his identity politics.


The new character is supposed be Nia Nal, a 20 something transgender character who is supposed to be like a young Cat Grant. And from the name Nia Nal, and her being described as soulful, it’s sounding like she could possibly be a Black character. And it’s sounding it’s like she’ll have some interaction with James Olsen. Because when it comes to Greg Berlanti he loves to find new and exciting ways to emasculate Black men. And putting a Black transgender character around James Olsen would further push the agenda I’ve been seeing where Black men are associated with homosexuals or are portraying homosexual characters.


Damn. Just Damn.


As a comics fan I’ve tried to hang in there. And I’ve tried to stomach all the feminist propaganda sandwiched between every episode from season 2 on. The announcement of Kara’s sister being a lesbian. Then the complete emasculation of James Olsen as he changed from Kara’s love interest into the Guardian of the Friendzone. Followed by the complete emasculation of Superman in the season 2 finale where Supergirl was presented as being more powerful than Superman and capable of beating Superman.


That’s the first time I started to say this show is COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT.


Men have 8 times more upper body strength than a woman. That same ratio would factor in for Kryptonian biology. So Superman would have beat the living shit out of Kara without trying.


Feminists are all about everything being equal. Even when it’s physically impossible from the standpoint of observable reality.


And they’re all about diversity. Like that shit show of Supergirl a comic featuring the nonbinary Black character. The SJWs saw this as an effort towards diversity, but all I saw was another effort by racists to emasculate Black men.


Because racists can’t have a heterosexual Black man around White women. So they put a Eunuch in his place.


But now that Supergirl has gone full SJW this is where I change the channel. I used to watch Supergirl because it was a fun superhero show that was for viewers of all ages. It was a family show that was all about Kara taking on the bad guys of the DC Universe. Most of the episodes of the first season like the one where she teamed up with the Flash were just like a DC comic book come to life onscreen.


But from the middle of the second season the show has gone from being about superheroes taking on the bad guys into a platform for lesbianism, feminism and feminist propaganda. All the comic book action and adventure has taken a backseat while the social justice agenda has been pushed to the forefront.


And now Berlanti is icing that shit cake with identity politics.


Damn. Just Damn. I guess we’re gonna get a Rape Culture episode next season.


I don’t watch Supergirl for Social Justice. Nor do I watch it for Identity politics. I used to watch Supergirl because I wanted to see a DC Comic book come to life onscreen. And over the last two and a half seasons of Supergirl I haven’t seen anything resembling a DC Comic book onscreen, just Greg Berlanti using Kara Zor-El as his mouthpiece to push 3rd Wave Feminism. Since there’s no hope of this show changing, I’m just gonna change the channel and find something else to watch.

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Lando Calrissian is Pansexual- WTF?

-->
According to those in charge of the new Solo: A Star Wars movie, Lando Calrissian is Pansexual.


FUCK OUTTA HERE WITH THAT BULLSHIT.


In Empire Strikes Back in 1980, Lando was flirting with Princess Leia. And he was so manly most straight guys thought he was the coolest dude in the galaxy.


The Lando Calrissian everyone knew for over 40 years in the Star Wars Universe was a heterosexual man. A player and a smooth operator. A ladies man. 


But to promote Soylo: A Star Wars Movie Disney decides they need to bring in the Identity politics. Because Diversity.


FUCK YOU KATHLEEN KENNEDY. FUCK YOU.


I find it funny every time these SJWs, feminists, and liberals want to push their agenda regarding diversity, they try have to take passive aggressive swipes at heterosexual Black men. Passive in that they include a Black man in the story, but aggressive in that they do some bullshit to fuck with his sexuality.


Showing me how RACIST they truly are. Why can’t young Han Soylo be the Pansexual? Oh wait, it wouldn’t go down well with all the White female Star Wars fans who see Han as their sexual fantasy to learn that their favorite scoundrel is also a sexual deviant. So Kathleen Kennedy will use the Black man to push her racist identity politics the same way she pushed them by making Rose Tico the ugliest Asian Woman to ever grace a sci-fi movie.


Because no Asian Woman could be shown as prettier than Kathleen Kennedy’s Mary Sue stand in for herself, Rey. That’s why Paige Tico had to die.


AGAIN FUCK YOU KATHLEEN KENNEDY. FUCK YOU.


This whole announcement that Lando Calrissian is pansexual in Soylo: A Star Wars Movie is all part of an agenda these racist liberals like Kathleen Kennedy have where they try to push a sexually deviant agenda in the Black community. By making Lando Calrissian a pansexual they can make kids believe that it’s normal to be sexually deviant.


Because a Pansexual will fuck anything. Men, women, animals, plants, robots, dolls, pillows, a can of creamed corn, an apple pie or a box of grits. Whatever. If they’re sexually attracted to it, they’ll have sex with it.


So that means Lando Calrissian is a not only a heterosexual and a homosexual but he’s also a pedophile and into beastiality.


Again, FUCK YOU KATHLEEN KENNEDY. FUCK YOU.


By making Lando a Pansexual SJWs and liberals can push an old racist stereotype about Black men under the guise of political correctness. What most people don’t know is that during Jim Crow, Racists used to say that Black men were so insatiable they couldn’t control their sexual urges. That they’d have sex with anything or anyone they were attracted to. That they were so out of control they had to keep their White women away from them. And making Lando a pansexual breathes brand new life into that old racist stereotype.


Don’t you just love how SJWs and liberals try to hide their racism behind all those intellectual terms?


And don’t you just love how SJWs and liberals try to social engineer sexual deviancy as a social norm? By taking a beloved children’s character like Lando Calrissian and making him a pansexual, Disney can socially engineer the next generation of kids to believe that being a sexual deviant is perfectly fine.


I’m really getting sick and tired of seeing these White Supremacists in Hollywood use Black men to promote their homosexual and sexually deviant agendas. First it was Black men in dresses like Big Momma and Madea. Then we get heterosexual Mr. Terrific from DC Comics turned into a gay, bumbling stumbling idiot on Arrow. Then nice guy from the Archie comics Chuck Clayton is turned into a lustful Black Brute who gives White girls “Sticky Maples” On Riverdale. Now we have Lando Calrissian from Star Wars retconned into a sexual deviant.


Seriously, there are some SICK MOTHERFUCKERS working at Disney. And these people need to be FIRED. Then someone needs to go OLD TESTAMENT on their asses for PROMOTING FILTH TO CHILDREN.


This kind of revelation has NO PLACE in the Star Wars Franchise. Star Wars is supposed to be family friendly action and adventure. Something people of all ages can watch. An escape. Fun. It’s not a place for racial agendas or identity politics. If Kathleen Kennedy and the SJWs at Disney would leave that bullshit out of their Star Wars movies, then maybe they’d be able to get this generation of kids to be fans of the new movies the same way they were fans of George Lucas’.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

The Temptation of John Haynes Fantasy Casting






When I wrote my novel The Temptation of John Haynes back in 2005, I always saw it like a movie in my mind. And as I was imagining that movie in my head I saw certain actors playing the roles.

If I ever got the chance to make a Temptation of John Haynes movie, here’s who I’d like to see in the lead roles:

Michael Ealy as John Haynes I mulled over the Casting of John Haynes for years. Will Smith was too goofy and Cuba Gooding Jr…just wasn’t John. But  when I saw Michael Ealy playing Tea Cake in Their Eyes Were Watching God I looked up at the screen and said That’s John Haynes!

I believe Michael Ealy has the dark presence John Haynes has in the novel and I believe he has the range to play the complex role of a cerebral character like John Haynes. Based on what I’ve seen on Barbershop, Secrets & Lies and his portrayal of Dorian the android in Almost Human I believe Ealy could command the screen in a Temptation of John Haynes movie and could transition between the dark drama, surreal fantasy and nuanced comedy in the story.

Ealy has a great range and I believe he could give a very powerful performance as John Haynes. Could it be his breakthrough role? I believe it could be.   

Salli Richardson-Whitfield as E’steem When I created E’steem in 1995, I was inspired by Salli Richardson. And after watching her acting in films like How U Like Me Now, Posse, A Low Down Dirty Shame, I Will Follow and Pastor Brown, cartoons like Gargoyles, TV shows like Family Law, NYPD Blue, and Eureka and I know she could play the role and give the performance of her career.  

From what I’ve seen in her work Salli has an incredible acting range and I know she could give a powerful performance as E’steem. From the way she conveys emotion in her performances I know she could put layers and depth on the character and bring out the humanity in E’steem the she-demon struggling with reconciling with her troubled past as a demon while pondering her future as a human being. As it stands right now, Richardson is the only actress I believe could convey all the emotions of E’steem’s confrontation with Lucifer in Chapter 82 and the climax in chapter 102. I think E’steem could be Salli’s signature role and the one people would always remember her for.   

Keith David as Lucifer Whenever I wrote Lucifer’s narration in The Temptation of John Haynes I always heard Keith David’s voice as Lucifer. That deep baritone voice of his sounds so smooth and charming it was just like what The Devil would sound like.

Keith David is a burly and has an imposing presence that would be perfect for the Lord of Hell. Dressed in a tailored Italian red suit, black shirt and Stacy Adams shoes he’d look like a badass onscreen. And the Julliard trained actor has an amazing acting range that I believe would be perfect for playing a magnificent bastard like Lucifer. I believe Keith David would be fun to watch playing mind games with Salli Richardson’s E’steem and matching wits with Michael Ealy’s John Haynes. Like E’steem I believe Lucifer could be Keith David’s signature role if he got the chance to play it.

I believe Ealy, Richardson and David would have fantastic chemistry onscreen and elevate the source material I wrote back in 2005 with their performances. And I believe their performances would make The Temptation of John Haynes a movie that people would be talking about for years.

I’d love to make a Temptation of John Haynes movie. With dark gothic visuals similar to Tim Burton films like 1989’s Batman I believe it’d be a Black fantasy CLASSIC just like the book!

You can pick up The Temptation of John Haynes in paperback and eBook on Amazon.com

Monday, May 14, 2018

What’s WRONG With Avengers: Infinity War

-->



Many people were excited over Avengers Infinity War. However as a screenwriter, I noticed there were numerous problems with the Avengers: Infinity War screenplay as I watched the movie at the Magic Johnson Theatre last week. From a screenwriter’s perspective I haven’t seen a script this bad since Tyler Perry started writing Madea films.


Want to know what mistakes are in this horrible script? Here they are:


The opening scene didn’t establish the characters or the story. The opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War fades in on the damaged Asgardian ship in distress in a wide shot. This doesn’t do a good job of allowing a new viewer to see why the ship wound up in this condition or allow a good way to introduce the characters.


Contrast the opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The opening shot on the FADE IN on of Star Wars Episode IV shows Princes Leia’s small ship being chased by The Imperial battleship. Then it shows the ship being taken down. As the camera takes us inside the ship, the crew in cloth uniforms prepares to fight, they get taken down by a series of armored Stormtroopers who appear intimidating and Darth Vader in all black makes his entrance. All of this establishes Vader’s character as important and why we need to take him seriously.


The opening scene of Avengers Infinity War is a Wide shot of Thanos holding a defeated Thor. That scene is good for a longtime MCU fan, but a new viewer walking in wouldn’t understand what’s going on. That wide shot doesn’t show us who the main character is, what they want and why we should CARE about them.


We needed to see the ship taken down in some establishing shots, and the fight between Thanos and The Black Order and Thor and the Asgardians to establish Thanos as the threat that was supposed to be built up over 20 or so movies. As it stands now the opening scene is incomplete and that lays the foundation for a very uneven movie.


Telling instead of showing. Avengers: Infinity War’s screenplay Tells instead of Shows. In the Asgardian battleship scene, we get told about the Power gem and the space Gem. We needed to see those gems in action to know what they are.

Avengers: Infinity War’s script does a LOT of telling. A good screenplay SHOWS us what happens with pictures and puts powerful visuals in front of us. With Avengers: Infinity War we get told about The Black Guard, we get told about the crafting of the gauntlet. We get told about the injured dwarf. All the telling in this movie is designed to cram a story into 2.5 hours, not allow it to flow organically from sequence to sequence.


Telegraphing the action. In that same scene where we’re told by Ebony Maw that the Power Gem makes Thanos the strongest being in the universe we have the Hulk fight him. Now if he hadn’t said this, the scene might have had some weight. Had Thanos mocked him and said I thought you were the strongest one there is that would have added some impact to The Hulk’s psychological issues later in the movie and foreshadowed the scene where Thanos said he knew about Tony Stark Unfortunately as it’s written and presented onscreen it takes away from the emotional impact the scene could have had.  


No Emotional Resonance. No scene in Avengers:  Infinity War makes the viewer feel anything. Part of that is due to the sheer number of characters onscreen. With so many characters onscreen we don’t get any one scene where a character can be developed in a multidimensional way.


The other part is due to the two dimensional way most of the characters are written. No one becomes a person we connect with in this story. With this supposed to be a movie filled with so much death and so much at stake the viewer needed to feel something.


Instead I was indifferent. All that violence and not one scene made me care about anything I saw.


With Terminator 2: Judgment Day we FELT emotion. From John Connor’s connection with the T-800 to Sarah’s love for her son, to the tension in every chase scene the audience felt something. And because we felt something from those sequences the audience was able to connect with those characters and CARE about what happened onscreen. 


Poorly written dialogue. In some scenes of Avengers: Infinity War the dialogue runs too long. And in others it’s practically interchangeable between the characters. And when Black Panther points at Captain America and says Get that man a shield I just facepalmed.


Good dialogue does two things. One it tells us about the characters. Good dialogue gives a character a “voice”. The other is moving the story forward. Good dialogue allows a story to move along at a brisk pace.


The dialogue in MCU movies these days is a lot of banter and a lot of jokes. And a lot of it doesn’t allow the characters to develop into multidimensional people anymore. It’s clear to me that the writers of Marvel Studios films are too comfortable with the characters and have become emotionally attached to them. In order to write great characters a writer has to remain objective and take themselves out of the story. That way they can give us a panoramic picture of the action transpiring around us.


No Depth/layers. The Avengers: Infinity War screenplay is a shallow one. Part of it is due to Jim Starlin’s source material, part of it is due to the screenwriters being forced to cram so much story in 150 pages.  Over 2.5 hours, Thanos steamrolls heroes, stuff happens and then Thanos gets the Infinity gems. Roll credits. Wait a year to see the next movie. There’s no symbolism, no irony, no foreshadowing or any of the elements of great storytelling. That’s why I called it a big budget Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Finale Part 1.


Worse there’s no subtext or social commentary. Great fantasy like the Twilight Zone, Star Wars Trilogy, Oldschool Star Trek and Terminator 2; Judgment Day tells a story between the lines and makes a commentary about the world around us. We got none of that due to the surface adaptation of the Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet storylines. It’s depth and layers that give a story substance and allow it to resonate with readers. And when a story resonates with the reader they share that story for years to come.


Not making the villain into a credible threat. Yeah, Marvel tried to build Thanos into a badass villain over ten years, but we don’t get a payoff due to that opening scene with that wide shot that obscures Thanos. That’s part of the Russos’ numerous directing mistakes, but the writing lays the foundation for that FADE IN for those shots.


Over the course of the movie we don’t get any scenes to make Thanos appear to be a legit badass on his own. Instead of him legit kicking ass he has the Black guard doing his dirty work for him. Those henchmen water down his threat. They do all the fighting for him and allow him an out from avoiding actual conflict that would have added to the emotional resonance of the story and showed why he was legit threat to the universe.


The Black Guard aren’t characters. They’re basically a plot device used to bring The Avengers into the movie and get Tony Stark to Titan. But after over 20 movies we needed to see Thanos’ threat in this movie. Instead of him being the star, he’s just another background character. 


In Terminator 2: Judgment Day we see the T-1000 as a legit threat because he’s a relentless killing machine. Dressed as a cop he blends in and gains people’s trust. And because he has everyone’s trust he runs roughshod throughout L.A. wrecking shit and destroying lives everywhere he goes in his quest to kill John Connor. If Thanos is so obsessed with his quest why isn’t he pursuing it with that kind of tenacity?


No serious tone. There are just too many jokes in this movie. For a movie about a cosmic level threat to the universe the tone needed to be a LOT more serious. There was NO place for all the ridiculous banter scenes and the jokes in this movie.


Sure, a little humor can break up tension like the Let the wookie win scene in Star Wars Episode IV. But Marvel Studios movies have WAY too many jokes in them. Instead of the humor adding to the experience, all it does is suck the energy out of many scenes.


In Terminator 2: Judgment Day we see the gravity of the situation due to the serious tone of the film. Each scene builds the tension and suspense.


With Avengers: Infinity War we don’t see any sort of tension or suspense built throughout the film. It’s just humor sequences followed by intense action. The inconsistent tone keeps the story from having any serious impact on the viewer.


When I wrote The Man Who Rules The World I wanted a serious tone to the story. With God Katious being a world ending threat I wanted the reader to understand how much impact this godlike man would have on the entire world of the SJS DIRECT Universe. If I could put a serious tone on a world ending event, why couldn’t the screenwriters of Avengers: Infinity War?


Convenient/Coincidental occurrences. As Thanos gets the gems, it’s not done in an organic fashion. Instead we get sequences where he gets the gems through him bullying heroes.


That’s some Tyler Perry level bad writing.


When I watched Thanos gets one stone by bullying Loki for Thor’s life in the opening scene I cringed.


And when Star Lord got emotional over Gamora just as they’re taking the gauntlet from Thanos I just said WTF?


This was followed up with Tony Stark getting stabbed.  When I watched Thanos get The time gem another by bullying Dr. Strange I just facepalmed.


 In both these sequences Thanos had been reduced to Mean Max. If the gems are so dangerous I’d like to think people would be willing to sacrifice their lives to keep Thanos from getting them. But this movie goes on in spite of these plotholes.


Worse, in most of these sequences, there’s no tension, no buildup, no suspense. Nothing to make us believe that Thanos is DANGEROUS. Like the Gary Stu he is, Thanos doesn’t get the gems through actual skill or treachery, just through convenient plot devices created by the writers to move the story forward because they like him.


Then there’s how Thor gets his new eye. Rocket Raccoon conveniently has an eye on him to replace the one Thor lost in Ragnorok. And that Mechanical eye doesn’t malfunction or get destroyed when he’s trying to ignite that forge with the heat of a neutron star.


Good Gravy.


Then there’s the sequence with Thor’s new hammer. After the pieces come out of the forge, we have Groot there to continently give it a brand new handle. It’s an extremely telegraphed sequence that smacks of bad screenwriting.


Poor Transitions. The Entire Reality Gem sequence featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the WORST ones in the film. We don’t get to SEE Thanos beating the Collector to get the reality gem, instead we get to see Thanos manipulating reality.


That one sequence cheats viewers out of a major part of the story. If the story is supposed to be about Thanos getting the Infinity Gems as some MCU fans would love to argue, then why wasn’t this sequence added to the movie?


Ridiculous plot points. In an attempt to give us a plot Twist we have Thanos calling Iron Man Tony after he stabs him. And revealing that he knows who he is.


That’s RIDICULOUS.


Thanos has NEVER met Tony Stark. He doesn’t know who he is. While this was designed to shock the fanboys it  made no logical sense. With no buildup It’s Tyler Perry level bad screenwriting.


And the whole Tony Stark putting the arc reactor back in his chest for his nano armor at the start of the movie’s earth sequences CONTRADICTS ALL of Iron Man 3. The whole point of Iron Man 3 was to show that what made Tony Iron Man wasn’t the armor, it was HIM. And he threw the second arc reactor in the sea to show he didn’t need it as a crutch to carry him through life. This sequence completely DESTROYS all the character development of Iron Man 3.


Then there’s the whole Vision having Ultron in him. This revelation makes no sense. Didn’t the Vision destroy Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron?


The entire Wakanda climax. One of the WORST sequences in Avengers: Infinity War was the entire Wakanda Climax. Clumsy awkward and uneven it continues the trend of Marvel Studios NOT being able to write a third act.


The Aliens going through the barrier: Ridiculous. Conveniently added so Black Panther could let down the barrier.


The war wheels were DUMB. Stolen straight from Justice League’s Savage Time they were just there to kill Proxima Midnight, not add to the story.


Then there’s Captain America and Black Panther taking punches From Thanos. Here’s a guy established as being capable of beating down the Hulk, but Cap and Black Panther who are LESS powerful get punched by him and just get knocked down. No broken bones, no internal injuries. Nothing.


Yeah, I know it’s a comic book movie. But come on. When I wrote the first Isis and E’steem Ascension people who fought people with super strength had broken bones and internal injuries from being hit by someone with that kind of power.


Avengers: Infinity War had great special effects. But they were made to overcompensate for a terrible screenplay. From what I saw onscreen the script for this movie it was clearly a second draft that was in desperate need of a rewrite. With another polish they might have made a movie that would have paid off from 10 years and 20 movies worth of buildup. As it stands now, it’s an overrated movie that’s the equal of its overrated source material.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Shawn Reviews Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War


I just saw Avengers: Infinity War on yesterday.

And I was deeply disappointed. If anything I see the beginning of the end of Marvel Studios happening right in front of me with this film.


Many comic and MCU fans will say that Avengers: Infinity War was the best film Marvel Studios ever produced. But what I saw was at the Magic Johnson was jumbled disjointed movie that was basically a half-assed version of Part One of a Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Finale. 


Avengers: Infinity War is supposed to be an epic movie. And it feels grand in many of its visuals. Many feel like the comic panels of an Avengers Comic or Jim Starlin’s epic Infinity Gauntlet saga like the Hulk crashing through the Sacntum Santorum and Nebula being torn apart.  Unfortunately, for all its big visuals and special effects, there’s nothing of substance that gives the film any emotional resonance. And that’s partially due to Jim Stalin and partially due to the by-the-numbers screenplay that feels like a second draft.


Why do I blame Jim Starlin? Well, The Infinity Story has always been a shallow one. So the screenwriters didn’t have much to work with in terms of source material for this adaptation. The whole Thanos Quest/Infinity Gauntlet comics featured heroes being jobbed out so he can look like such a badass. Unfortunately, when that’s presented onscreen it just doesn’t have much depth. From the opening scene we see Thanos killing Asgardians to make it look like he’s a badass, then the writers start TELLING us how Thanos is a superbad instead of SHOWING US. That sucks all the emotional resonance out of the story.


The other thing that sucks the emotional resonance out of the story is the sheer number of characters. Because there are so many heroes onscreen it’s hard for any deaths or injuries to have any emotional impact on the viewer. It’s hard to care about one person in this story because you barely get to know anyone in the few minutes they’re onscreen. If you walked into this movie cold with no knowledge of the MCU or Marvel comics, you’d think it was a very shallow film just like the overrated comics it’s based on.


 The screenwriters try to rewrite Thanos to make him a superbad by saying he’s going to kill half the universe to stop people all over the universe from suffering due to a lack of resources, but I still see the same old SIMP I read in the comics over 25 years ago. Only Instead of chasing under Death’s purple robes, he’s chasing a grand delusion like the Supreme Gentleman Eliot Rodger.


Seriously there’s a HUGE flaw in Thanos’ grand plan to get all these Infinity Stones and kill off half the universe. It would NEVER balance the universe. Why? Because all the survivors will do is reproduce and in a few eons we’re back at square one as related to resources. So killing people doesn’t change anything.


To me Thanos isn’t a mad god, but a STUPID one. If Thanos picked up a Bible and Read Psalms 24:1 he’d have saved himself a LOT of grief. And if he read the book of Ecclesiastics he’d realize what an idiot he actually is.  


But the film goes on piling up plotholes as Thanos continues on his quest to get the Infinity Stones. Heroes get jobbed out and beat up and killed until everything builds up to the disjointed climax. After numerous overdone special effects sequences ripped from Paul Dini and Bruce Timm’s Justice League and more jobbed out heroes, Thanos gets the last Infinity Stone in Vision’s head. Then we get one of those endings that literally feels like it was ripped straight from a Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Finale.


And a couple of scenes I think were ripped off from me. There’s a couple of scenes in this movie that look like they came STRAIGHT from my John Haynes sequel The Man Who Rules The World. When I look at the Scene with Star Lord shooting at Thanos and him turning his laser shots into bubbles I have to wonder if these screenwriters stole that from the Climax of The Man Who Rules The World where John Haynes and E’steem are taking on God Katious after he destroys 4 Times Square.


And when I look at the scenes of half the universe turning to dust I also have to wonder if Marvel Studios stole that from The Man WhoRules The World. Because when Katious kicks the bucket after his final confrontation with John Haynes that’s pretty close to how I imagined God Katious going out.


Unfortunately the screenwriters just couldn’t execute on concept. Because none of those scenes has any of the depth or emotional resonance that The Man Who Rules The World had as a story. With TMRTW, readers FELT the threat from God Katious. And they had a reason to CARE about the threat due to the fact that I used fewer characters and I had a much tighter story.


With Avengers: Infinity War there’s an effort to make this cosmic threat appear to be epic from a universal perspective, but sadly the story only scratches the surface. While there’s a lot of flash from the special effects, there’s no substance onscreen. In between the silly jokes and the uneven storytelling I saw was a film from a studio that has grown arrogant and complacent in the last decade. A studio that has taken the craft of filmmaking for granted. A studio that’s taken its audience for granted. A studio that has clearly lost its way.


Marvel Studios is headed down the same dark road that took down Joel Schumacher and The Salkinds. And I have a feeling they’re going to make a Batman & Robin, Superman IV or Last Jedi sooner rather than later. 


If you like popcorn movies filled with superheroes, carnage, and explosions, then go ahead and waste 2.5 hours of your life on Avengers: Infinity War. But don’t expect much in terms of story, substance or anything that’ll resonate with you for years like the original Star Wars Trilogy or even some of those Star Trek: The Next Generation season finales. Like Part 1 of a Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Finale featuring time travel, this movie just sets up the second part where everything in this movie will all be CTRL+Z in the next movie.


If you want to see this story done right skip this movie and pick up The Man Who Rules The World in paperback.

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Skrong Ejukated Professional Black Women & Their Unemployed Sons





Many Black women claim to be such big wheels with their college educations and their corporate jobs. However, Black male unemployment still remains high. So why aren’t those Black mothers trying to help get their sons jobs?


That’s a question many haven’t been able to answer for close to 40 years. Black women are supposed to be the most educated and have all these high profile jobs. Many work in Human Resources and know all about the job listings and can easily put in a word with managers for their boys at the companies they work at. However, they never seem to use their education or influence to try to help their sons get that first job that will help them take the first steps towards fiscal independence and fiscal responsibility.


I find it funny how Black mothers, especially Black single mothers will go out of their ways to coddle their sons. They’ll buy them everything from $300 Air Jordan tennis shoes, $400 XBOX 360 and PS4 video game systems, and $200 pairs of designer jeans $800 iPhones and $1000 leather jackets. But they won’t help those same sons find a job to pay their own way in life.


In today’s job market 97% of all jobs are gained through contacts. However most so-called educated professional Black women never use any of their power to get their sons full-time employment. Instead, they let their sons sit in their homes playing video games and having arguments with other grown men on social media.


In the past when Black fathers were in the home, they often made efforts to get their sons their first jobs. As the first contact on a job they’d put in a word with a boss to get a son a job at their company. While it oftentimes wasn’t the job that a boy would want, it usually taught a young man discipline and a work ethic. From that job a boy would learn why it was important to come into work on time and to come to work ready to work every day. 


Moreover, that job taught a boy fiscal responsibility. As a boy worked in those menial positions at those companies, he learned the value of a dollar. To take care of their everyday expenses, like gas, auto insurance, bus fare and lunch, boys would learn how to create a budget. If he really wanted something, like a video game or a video game system, he soon learned he needed the discipline to save his money to pay for it. 


And over the course of a few months or a year, he soon learned the value of time as it related to money. With each day he worked he learned how many hours he had to work in order to have the money to pay for the everyday things he wanted like those video games and designer clothes. All those lessons taught a boy not to take his money or his time for granted.


In addition to learning about the value of a dollar, getting that job helped a boy develop self-confidence. As a boy learned that he could work to meet his own needs he developed the confidence to go out and take the risks that would help him grow up to become a responsible man.  


So why aren’t all the Skrong, ejumukated professional Black women helping their sons get their first jobs? I believe it’s because they’re afraid of their sons having power over their own lives. A boy with economic power has access to economic resources. And those financial resources give that boy a say over his life and what he can do with it.


As long as that boy remains on her sofa in her house playing video games she has power over him. And as long as he stays in that state of arrested development she can delude herself into believing she’s the most powerful person in the room.


However, if that boy starts making his own money he starts taking steps to becoming his own man. And that scares many Black mothers. So she makes efforts to keep her son stranded in a co-dependent state of perpetual adolescence.


Black women claim to be the most educated in the world. Many say they can be both the mother and the father. However, when it’s time to help their sons find their first jobs many don’t make any efforts to help their sons. While they brag about being strong enough to do the work of a man on their high profile professional jobs, it seems like they lack the strength of character to do what’s right for their sons by helping them find that first job that will help them take the first steps to going out to becoming a man.  

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Isis: Escape From Transylvania Now Available in Paperback and Kindle Unlimited

-->
Isis: Escape From Transylvania
ISBN: 978-1973739340

Kindle Price$2.99(Kindle owners with a KindleUnlimited Subscription can read this Isis series book for FREE!)

Hunted! After Isis and John Haynes’ fight with Dracula was the most watched live stream on the web, Dracula’s daughter Lucretia, hostess of Vampire Hunters is looking to break the Internet again. And for an encore she kidnaps Isis and John and forces them to participate in a reality game show where they have to fight hordes of vampires out to get a million dollar prize. If John and Isis win they get their lives. However, if the vampires win they die!

You definitely want to pick up Isis: Escape From Transylvania! In this third story in the Vampire arc, I put a fresh take on vampire lore, reality shows and social media. You’ll be surprised with the action and twists and turns in this action packed Isis series story!