John Carter and his place in metahuman history

I saw John Carter of Mars last night with my two sons. First off, I have to say that is was a really, really great movie.
It got me thinking though about John Carter's place in Metahuman history. When I think of the first "superhero", I immediately think Superman, but I know many credit the book "Gladiator" as containing the first "superhero" even though the main character never fought crime, he was bulletproof and exceptionally fast and strong. He seems a close approximation of "Golden Boy" from the "Wild Cards" series (though the character in Gladiator has a different origin - all metahumans in the "Wild Cards" series have a shared origin through an alien virus).
In any event, I immediately went to the interwebs to solve this conundrum and came upon a relatively decent argument that Mandrake the Magician could be considered the first superhero with his ability to mesmerize people and the fact that he fought baddies.
Through the comments on the Mandrake argument, however, I found people confused by the argument. People asked, "What about Jesus? The Greek Gods? Robin Hood? Zorro?"
So for the sake of the argument, I would say Robin Hood, Zorro, Tarzan don't count. They don't have "powers". Some folks from these old stories do though (Merlin, Gawain). But I would lump Merlin in with the Greek Gods as mythology and/or religion. Jesus falls in one of those two categories (depending on your belief system). So we are left with the following definition - Metahuman powers, not of mythological or religious origins and probably created in America.
That being the case, I would say that superheroes are an invention of the 20th century, but rather than Superman, Mandrake or the dude from Gladiator, probably began with John Carter. Same origin as Superman (sent to an alien planet - Mars in this case - and give metahuman powers due to the planet's environment. He then uses those powers to fight oppression).

So, to summarize this very long and rambling post - Go see John Carter of Mars, a movie about the FIRST Superhero.

Superhuman effort

I am reading a very promising metahuman novel right now and I consider myself a bit picky when it comes to metahuman stories.
What makes this novel even more exciting is that it is self published.
I love when I come across self published work that is really good. There is a lot of self published stuff that is less than ideal so when one rises above the others, it makes me happy because it means that the self pub movement can survive because there are diamonds in the rough.

So...two things to take from this short and enigmatic post:

1. Stay tuned for a full review of this promising self published metahuman novel
2. If you are considering self publishing then GGE says "go for it!" but if you do, make sure you have an excellent website, cover design and your editing is top notch.

Chance Fortune

I was at ConNooga in beautiful Chattanooga, TN this past weekend and met a lot of great people. One that I wanted to chirp about today though is Shane Berryhill.
Shane is a Chattanooga-based author who wrote "Chance Fortune and the Outlaws"
It's a novel about a young teen in a world of superheroes. This boy desparately wants to be a superhero, but has no powers. He manages to fake having the power of "extreme luck" and becomes quite successful through training and preparation and wits.
It's a great book for adolescents or adults who love the metahuman genre. My own tween read it in one day! I am reading it now and it rocks. It is the first in a series of books about Chance Fortune.
I checked out Shane's website and I love the whole way he does things. The website has cool pictures, information, writing tips and all kinds of coolness about Chance, Shane and other properties coming from the mind of Mr. Berryhill.

Our meeting was avery "chance" event (pun intended)!

A list of cool metahuman movies with no spandex anywhere

I love superhero movies. I collect superhero movies. Some of my favorite movies about superheroes are not really about "superheroes". What the heck does that mean? Well, obvious superhero movies are Batman, Fantastic Four, X-men, Spiderman, Blade, Iron Man, Superman, Hancock, Watchmen...all of these are awesome, in my opinion, but there is another genre of superhero movie. I'll let the list be my example.
Here we go...
Jumper (Teleportation)
Push (Telekinesis)
The Matrix (The awakened people have all kinds of superpowers)
Next (PRecognition)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend (Kind of a standard superhero movie...cool nonetheless)
Star Wars (Jedi Knights are like Knights, Wizards and Superheroes all rolled into one)
The Transporter Movies (Martial arts and mad driving skills. Almost seems like hyper reflexes)
Fire Starters (Pyrokinesis)
The Shining (Telepathy)
Eragon (Dragon Riders are like super heroes in a fantasy setting)
Harry Potter (Magic and superpowers seem pretty similar sometimes)
Terminator (Terminators are like superheroes gone bad)
Dracula (Same comment as Terminator)
Frankenstein (The monster has mega superpowers)
Van Helsing (He's like an older version of Batman)
Underworld (All of them)
Resident Evil
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I could probably come up with more by going to my movie cabinet, but my point is this: For those of us who love the superhero/metahuman genre, we don't always have to wait for the next comic-inspired film to find superheroes. Sometimes they are right in front of us just disguised as something a bit different.

Peace!

Wild Cards

In my opinion, any fan of superheroes has to read The Wild Cards series. It is a set of books written, primarily, by a group of authors all editted by George R.R. Martin. This book series is a great example of everything GGE aspires to. It has the formulaic pieces of superhero fiction, but it is written for adults, no doubt about it. These stories are about "real" people. The characters are very deep and well characterized. The powers are not the focus of the story really. The powers are more the setting. It's a bit hard to explain, but it is so well done throughout the series. The first book came out in the 80's. I read it and was hooked immediately. The newest volume was released in December 2009. I have already devoured it and the series just continues to get better and better. A new book is coming out soon ("Busted Flush"). The books are basically written as "triads". Any one of the books is a good jumping on point. It makes it a richer universe if you start at the first and read all the way through, but all of them are just darn cool!
Now is a great time to get onboard.