February 18, 2018 is going to be the day in which me and a a lot of African American moviegoers head to our local multiplexes to watch a movie featuring an African descended superhero in Black Panther.
Ever since the X-Men movies started hitting the screens, Black moviegoers have been wondering when the one featuring T'Challa, the king of Wakanda would be made, how it would be done and who would play the title role.
Chadwick Boseman eventually got the role, and the Black Panther movie has been eagerly awaited and anticipated ever since it waa announced it had been greenlighted for production.
With every released trailer, the buzz already developing in Black America concerning this film continues to build..
And we are now eight weeks from its debut.
Going to be interesting to see if people do cosplay in honor of its debut, but I'm already hearing about people planning viewing parties or people planning to go in groups with friends on that February 18 day.
I already have February 16 circled on my calendar.
So what's transpiring on that day? In addition to it being in the middle of Black History month, it's the day the long awaited and highly anticipated Black Panther movie hit your local multiplex.
The new trailer has just been released with a nod to Gil Scott Heron's classic song'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' playing in the background.
But don't take my word on how awesome this movie trailer and the movie is going to be, see for yourselves.
On one of my self care nights I decided to turn off MSNBC and find something to watch on Netflix.
I'm a huge Archie comics fan as many of you longtime TransGriot readers are aware of, and since Season 1 of Riverdale the show had just been uploaded, decided to check it out.
Kind of grabs your attention when you see Archie making out with a way younger Miss Geraldine Grundy and it starts off with a murder mystery.
Needless to say I wasn't disappointed. It was better than I imagined it would be, and I stayed up until 4 AM to binge watch the entire thirteen episode first season..
What got my attention was seeing some of the character changes that have been made from the traditional Archie Comics canon. Veronica and her wealthy Lodge family are now Latinx, with Veronica being played by Camila Mendes and her mom Hermione by Marisol Nichols.
The Coopers are in the Riverdale house, with mom Alice played by Madchen Amick, Betty by Lill Rinehart, big sis Polly and her dad
The Josie and the Pussycats band are all African American, with Veronica joining them later/ Their lead singer Josie McCoy is being played by Ashleigh Murray. Her mother Serina McCoy is Riverdale's first African American mayor, played by Robin Givens.
Archie's dad Fred is now played by Luke Perry, and his mother by Molly Ringwald. Cole Sprouse is all grown up and playing the burger loving reclusive Forsythe P. Jones III, AKA Jughead.
This Riverdale is sexy, dark, well written and the Who Killed Jason Blossom murder mystery and its twists and turns kept me planted on the couch until I'd watched and rewatched it to catch what I'd missed.
I'll probably be tuned into Netflix one more time to watch Season 1 again before the new episodes kick off.
Season 2 of Riverdale starts October 11 on the CW and it picks up where it left off with Fred Andrews fighting or his life after being shot during a robbery at Pop's. Mark Consuelos joins the cast in Season 2 as Veronica's father Hiram Lodge, who spent the entire first season in jail but was still big balling, shot calling and making things happen while in prison.
We'll find out just what Hiram jumped off from prison and how much he adjusts to free world life in season 2. There are also rumors that Sabrina Spellman will make some appearances in Season 2, but we'll see.
We'll also find out what's going on with our fave ginger mean girl Cheryl Blossom and how much the events of season one affected her.
What events you ask? Oh, her dad murdering her twin brother, losing the captaincy of the River Vixens to Veronica, torching Thorn Hill and nearly drowning in a suicide attempt.
If I were Polly, I would want Aunt Cheryl anywhere near my soon to be born child.
Will Jughead and Betty's relationship survive the upcoming drama between to north and south sides of Riverdale? What' will transpire in Archie and Veronica's in season two? .
And even better, when Season 2 kicks off, we'll get 22 episodes to watch instead of just the mere 13 we got to see during Season 1
After the episodes are broadcast on the CW on Wednesday nights, you'll be able to watch what you missed on Netflix that Friday
This was a created cover that hasn't been published (yet), but borrow on the Archie storylines in which he visualized what his life be like if he got married to Veronica or Betty. There was a subsequent storyline in which Valerie took the walk down Memory Lane not long after she and her family moves to Riverdale and imagines her life as Archie's spouse.
There is already a gay male character in the Archie comics universe in Kevin Keller, so it stands to reason that we could play the 'what if' scenario with these iconic characters in Betty and Veronica.
Betty and Veronica, despite being rivals for Archie's indecisive romantic attention and wandering eye, have been best friends ever since Veronica and her family moved to Riverdale.
So it's not inconceivable to envision a scenario in which both of them get together one night and have the epiphany that their friendship has a deep romantic component to it that eventually leads to them kicking Archie to the curb and exclusively dating and marrying each other.
It would be interesting to see how both Betty and Veronica's families handle their relationship and eventual marriage, It would also be cool to see how they handle being a married couple in Riverdale and the ripple effects from it.
And yes, while Betty is and can be as glamorous as Veronica, Betty does know what tools are for and has a demonstrated ability to work on cars.
The initial one is that Archie now has to choose between Valerie and Cheryl Blossom as future romantic partners, or someone else currently not in the picture since Veronica and Betty would no longer be romantically available to him, and they could only be just friends..
There would also be other ripple effect that would be revealed as their interesting 'what if' relationship progressed and developed.
And as a longtime Archie Comics fan I'd love to see someone tackle it.
There's this interesting creatively altered segment of a Wonder Woman comic book in which the dialogue seems to suggest that Diana and half of the women on Themyscira are trans.
The actual issue of Wonder Woman in which this panel was taken from and the dialogue changed doesn't say this, but it did jump start some hard solid thinking about the 'what if' Wonder Woman was trans feminine?
We know from Greek mythology about hermaphrodites, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that in Wonder Woman's home society that didn't have men as part of it, if you free your minds to ponder that possibility, you would probably have girls like that as part of it.
So what is Wonder Woman was a girl like us? What would change about her character? What parts wouldn't?
But it's definitely something interesting to ponder.
Back when I was traveling to Tucson for their TDOR last year, my flight there went to San Diego and flew over Tucson along the way. I got to spend two hours in the San Diego airport on a gorgeous fall day checking out the view of the airport area and saying that I'd love to come back and visit,
Well, guess I spoke that trip to San Diego into existence, and it couldn't have come at a better time for me.
After a trying few days that found me at Defcon 1 levels of stress bumping up against a July 15 deadline to move from my current place, find a storage spot, a new place to live with the date for the Texas Special Oppression Session also approaching along with my 9:18 PM departure from my old IAH airport stomping grounds, let's just say that I needed a trip out of Houston even if it is booked on (yuck) Spirit Airlines.
I'm not happy about that because you have to pay for everything on Spirit including carry on bags, drinks and snacks, the seats don't recline, and you don't have WiFi.
The only redeeming features of this upcoming flight on Spirit is that they have new Airbus planes, I got TSA Pre on the San Diego bound leg and both legs are nonstop to and from IAH's Terminal A.
The other cool thing I get to do is that I finally get to meet another of my trans elders in Tracie Jada O'Brien, and on top of that I get to San Diego in time for her birthday on the 22nd.
So happy early birthday Mama Tracie! Looking forward to finally meeting and spending a little quality time with you .
I'm also looking forward to not thinking about Texas politics for a few days either and enjoying my first trip to San Diego.
I was just talking to Cecilia Chung last week about how I haven't gotten the opportunity to do events on the West Coast as much as I do the East Coast, in Washington DC and the Midwest.
Every now and then I get those phone calls that brings unexpected blessings and opportunities in my life and I received one of those yesterday.
Comic-Con has been one of those bucket list things that I've wanted to someday do, but didn't expect to happen for awhile. That changed at approximately 3 PM yesterday .
I've been asked to participate on a panel discussion that is happening during the event, and as we get closer to Comic-Con's dates and the details get hashed out, I'll be able to talk more about the panel and what its about.
This qualifies a s BFD. Comic-Con is not only the oldest continuously run comics and popular arts show in the US, it draws over 130,000 attendees to a sold out San Diego Convention Center along with Hollywood celebrities, movie and television directors and writers.
The best part about this upcoming trip to San Diego is that it is not only the first time I get a chance to explore the city (was in the San Diego airport for two hours a few months ago enroute to Tucson), I get to see Comic-Con in all its glory.
I'm also hopeful I'll get to spend some quality time with one of my trans elders in Tracie Jada O'Brien while I'm in her southern Cali neck of the woods.
The July 20-23 dates of this event also gives me a mental health break before I have to deal with the Texas GOP conservafools and their Special Oppression Session in Austin
I'll find out when the panel happens when they post the full schedule of events , and I'll let you TransGriot readers who are attending the evnt know where to find me.
I've loved the online webcomic Assigned Male ever since I stumbled across it during one of my web searching forays for interesting things to write about.
I wrote about its importance to our community, and even had the pleasure of meeting its lovely artist Sophie Labelle in the vendors area during last year's Philadelphia Trans Health Conference.
But what I'm not happy to hear is that haters have been sending Labelle death threats, doxxed her and hackers in a coordinated attack were successful in temporarily taking down her Facebook website with over three years of Assigned Male strips on it.
And this is happening during a week in which the Canadian Senate was debating Bill C-16, the Trans Rights Act in a Senate committee
Fortunately she'd backed up her work and the Facebook site is now back up online, but it forced her to cancel a book tour appearance in Halifax.
Labelle's book is entitled Dating Tips For Trans and Queer Weirdos, and is a 28 page one that explores the relationship between Ciel and Eirikur, two of the Assigned Male comic characters.
The book tour has two more stops in Quebec City on May 25 and Vancouver on June 1.
Labelle says in a Toronto Star interview that she is more determined than ever to not let the haters win and give it the best she's got.
That's wonderful to hear because the comic stip is important to our trans kids. They need to see positive representations of themselves in the comic world, and I agree with Sophie, that's one of the reasons why the haters came after your strip.
But it's nice to know that your book tour will not only continue, but we'll see more of the Assigned Male adventures of Stephanie and her friends. .
Been talking about 'The Great Switcheroo' story in various posts for the last few years, and now you'll get to eyeball the Archie #636 issue in which after hearing an age old argument in Pop's Choklit Shoppe about whether women or men have it easier in life, Sabrina's mischievous cat Salem casts a spell that flips the gender script in Riverdale.
Everyone in town except Sabrina wakes up to a flipped gender roles as Salem watches everything play out through his crystal ball. Even Hot Dog gets gender swapped to become a female poodle named Haute Dog.
Archie, Reggie, Moose, Dilton and Jughead become Archina, Regina, Mouse, Dilly and JJ. Moose makes the most radical transition from being a hulking athlete to a petite blonde with the desire to start a women's football team. . JJ still has her appetite, Regina is a diva pranksters
The gender swap extends to Josie and the Pussycats, who become Joey and the Junkyard Dogs.
Veronica and Betty become Billy and Ronnie, and the love triangle now has them chasing Archina for her affections. Billy becomes Riverdale's star athlete in the process, and Ronnie is still the rich kid in town trying to use his fiscal advantage to blunt Billy's athletic prowess which as caught Archina's attention
Even Mr. Weathersbee, Pops, Ms. Beazly and Ms Grundy and the parents are part of the swap..
You TransGriot readers are aware of how much i love comics, and while surfing the Net one afternoon I stumbled across he delightful webcomic entitled Assigned Male, created by French-Canadian comic artist Sophie Labelle.
Assigned Male follows the adventures of Stephanie, a young 11 year trans girl who is making her way through early transition, school and her interesting life that includes cis and trans friends, activism, and her amazing parents.
Assigned Male is quickly becoming a favorite for kids who are in early transition and even trans adults like myself who identify with many of the situations that Steph deals with such as anti-trans bullying, insensitive comments, invalidation of who she is as a trans girl, and balancing activism with having as normal a life for a kid as she can.
And as you probably guessed, transphobic haters are coming for this comic as it gets increasing well deserved attention and popularity..
Assigned Male creator Labelle has made it clear that this comic is a transcentric FUBU production, but if cis people get joy out of it and learn something about what our trans community and trans kids deal with, that's cool, too. .
The online Hateraid that our trans sibling Labelle is getting in some quarters of the Net for her trans positive comic that has now reached 220 issues and counting is why I'm writing this post about Assigned Male.
It not only deserves to be celebrated in our community, we also need to recognize how important it is for trans kids to see themselves and their lives reflected in popular culture in a world that tries on an almost daily basis to viciously erase their existence.
. Assigned Male updates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and you can find it at www.assignedmale.com or on Facebook to check out the latest issue of it..
Knowing Archie's history of not committing to either Betty or Veronica, the one with Valerie probably won't last either. -TransGriot, April 23, 2010 'Archie Dates A Sistah'
Still tripping about how I missed this Archie related news four years ago, but then again, it WAS a presidential election year and I like everyone else in Black America was worried about the reelection of President Obama.
One of the things my close friends and longtime readers know about me is that I am a huge Archie comics fan. I have followed the exploits of Archie, his Riverdale High friends and pondered the Betty and Veronica love triangle since my preteens.
I was pleased to see as a longtime Archie comics fanbesides the gender swap one that happened in issue 636 that puts a new gender swapped spin on the Archie, Betty and Veronica love triangle, the interracial relationship curveball they introduced into this longtime iconic comic that is now 75 years old.
;It started with the release of Issues 608-609 featuring the budding relationship of Archie and Josie and the Pussycats bassist Valerie Smith, and received rave reviews from Archie fans.
The storyline picks up from where it left off in issues 631-634 that were published by Archie Comics starting in June 2012.
In issue 631 Valerie returns to Riverdale for a Josie and the Pussycats concert with news for Archie that she and her family are moving there, which as you guessed is not received well by Betty and Veronica.
But Betty gets the bonus with the move to Riverdale of her latest romantic rival for Archie's affections an interracial relationship of her own. Valerie's little brother Trevor quickly takes Betty's mind off of Archie's rekindled romance with his big sister, and Trev turns out to be a talented vocalist on top of it..
Valerie after moving to Riverdale with her family, takes a walk after settling into her Riverdale life down Memory Lane and starts imagining what her life would be like married to Archie.
Valerie ends up seeing it five years into the future with her and Archie getting engaged and married. They leave their respective bands to make music together as the duo Him and Her, and Trevor Smith ends up as the new lead singer of Sugar Sugar, the renamed Archie's, and Veronica joins the Pussycats to fill the vacancy left by Valerie's departure.
The happy couple ends up teaching at a music school, on a reality TV show, and eventually have a child together in their daughter Star. She turns out to have inherited her parents musical talents and ends up being a serious attention getting child musical prodigy.
The four part 'Archie Marries Valerie' story arc concludes in Issue 634 with Valerie still wandering Memory Lane pondering their futures together. She realizes that Archie has shown the ability to attract many of the girls in the Riverdale area prior to her arrival there, and ponders how that affects her by contemplating all the possible wedding scenarios in the pages of that issue that involve Cheryl Blossom, her bandmate Josie McCoy, Sabrina Spellman, Betty and Veronica of course, Ginger Lopez, Midge Potts and even Big Ethel.
That TMI overload sends Valerie scurrying away from Memory Lane and leads to Valerie and Archie setting up a meeting to discuss their relationship. .
How that conversation between Valerie and Archie ended up, I'll have to get the graphic novel to tell you definitively what went down.
The series of comics covering the Archie and Valerie relationship story arc was published in the graphic novel entitled Archie- A Rock 'n' Roll Romance.
Looks like I'll have to see if I can find it either at my fave comic stores or try to find it online to see how the story ended.
Many of you comic book fans are aware that the rebooted DC Comics Batgirl series has a reality based trans character in the person of Alysia Yeoh, the bi community activist and onetime roommate of Barbara Gordon.
She revealed to Barbara in issue #19 she was a girl like us at the same moment Barbara told her much of her personal background including the fact she was Batgirl to her roommate from Singapore.
She has been a recurring character since then
The marriage story arc for Alysia started with issue #42 in the rebooted series in which she announced to Barbara that she was engaged to Jo, who she started dating last year and Barbara would be her maid of honor.
We're now up to issue #45 in this story arc which is available at your fave comic book retailer, and another milestone as Alysia finally walks down the aisle with Jo as Barbara efficiently executes her duties as maid of honor.
This is just another example of our media being ahead of and driving the social acceptance curve. It's also important because popular culture can drive acceptance of marginalized groups.
It will be interesting to see what happens going forward not only for the happy couple, but for their maid of honor Barbara Gordon, AKA Batgirl,
One of my childhood pleasures which probably surprised some of my readers, was announcing my love for Archie comics.
My dormant interest in the Archie comics and the Riverdale gang was reawakened after the six series arc of comics (that I own) in the Life With Archie series launched in 2010 was published which depicted him being married to Veronica and another marriage scenario to Betty.
It was interesting to note in those six issues how his life evolved along different trajectories in both instances based on whether Betty or Veronica was his spouse.
I was also intrigued by issues #608 and 609 in which he and Valerie Smith of Josie and the Pussycats briefly dated and issue #636, the gender swap one in 2012 in which the eternal love triangle between Archie, Betty and Veronica gets gender flipped and it's a female Archina being pursued by Billy and Ronnie.
But hitting the stands today is Life With Archie issue #36 in which our hero is shot while trying to stop an assassination attempt on openly gay US Senator Kevin Keller.
Keller is one of the newer characters in the Archie universe. He's a married military vet (issue #16) who is pushing for more gun control after his partner Clay Walker is shot in a robbery attempt
Archie unfortunately doesn't survive the shooting and dies. In Issue #37 the story continues and skips ahead a year as all his friends honor his legacy as the series of comics that feature adult versions of Archie and his pals concludes.
As to who shot Archie? That will be revealed as well.
The Life With Archie series touched on the post Riverdale High School lives of our fave characters. It also tackled more socially relevant storylines and topics that seems at times ripped from the headlines such as Keller's same gender marriage to Clay, the death of beloved teacher Ms. Grundy and sometimes Archie love interest Cheryl Blossom tackling breast cancer and affordable health care.
Now the Archie writers are taking one the issue of gun control and the senseless violence that plagues our society.
Countdown to Fox Noise and the conservafools slamming the issues in 5...4...3...2...1...
If they haven't sold them out at my fave comics stands, I'll definitely be getting those two issues.
Rumors have been hot and heavy over the last year amongst Marvel comics fans about whether the film about their first African descended superhero, T'Challa, the Black Panther will finally be greenlighted and shown at a multiplex near you.
He's the Oxford PhD holding king of the mythical and technologically superior African nation of Wakanda, the only source of the world's vibranium. He's also the husband of Storm, who is also of continental African heritage.
Black Panther does the superhero thang as a hobby because he's got enough haters trying to separate him from the Wakandan throne in addition to Western powers plotting to destabilize his never conquered nation to grab its vibranium supply, disease cures, and superior technology.
So if the Black Panther movie does happen in the next two years, there will have to be a movie or a scene in it which Halle Berry, who plays Storm, hooks up with her hubby T'Challa or does a cameo.
Damned skippy I'll be in line for it if it happens and especially if the rumor that Morris Chestnut is playing him turns out to be true. I've always liked Morris Chestnut as an actor, and this tweet from him is being interpreted by peeps to indicate he got the part.
Chestnut does have the action movie chops to pull this off, and there were some folks suggesting that a continental African actor such as Djimon Hounsou, Brits Idris Elba or Chiwetel Ejiofor also be considered for the part.
Bottom line is it's past time for an African descended Marvel superhero to hit the silver screen, and hope that the increasing chatter about a Black Panther movie is more than just jibber-jabber.
I hope to be seeing trailers for it and get a date I can cirle on the calendar to see it.
