In Brightest Day; In Blackest Night, No Evil Shall Escape My Sight

“Superman or Green Lantern,
Ain’t Got nothing on me…”
--Donavan, 1969

Every once in a while, I allow myself to go into a completely comic book geek mode. This Friday evening, I did so at the Green Lantern movie. I have been looking forward to this one since I heard they were doing it. I was not disappointed.

The acting was good at times, even if Ryan Reynolds in the title role plays Hal Jordan/Green Lantern occasionally smarmy, but I can handle that. The supporting cast of Sinestro, Tomar Re, and Kilowog were great. I like Pieface and Carol Ferris was completely hot. All of that said, the comics came out a year ago and reformatted Hal’s origin and that origin was adopted in the film. The writers and overseers (namely comic writer Geoff Johns) also included elements and took liberties with the Parallax storyline. Still, I was impressed. Visually, this is a stunning movie. The action was consistent, and there was some tongue-in-cheek humor presented, which harkened back to the days when John Broone and Gil Kane revised the comic in the 1960s.

The critics and comic geeks who have railed on it have forgotten that this film is meant to attract a wider audience. I went with Jen who knew nothing about Green lantern other than my GL glass in the cupboard and my recitation of the Green Lantern oath en route to the film. I kept telling her “In brightest day; in blackest night; no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil’s might, beware my power—Green Lantern’s light.” Imagine hearing that for twenty minutes straight; and you can guess how much her tolerance was waning. Jen liked the movie and more importantly, she followed it well and understood it.

GL is a complicated character and for her to have a meaningful conversation with me afterwards in which I explained the various nuances of Sinestro, Guy Gardner, Jon Stewart, Star Safire, Oa, the impurities of the ring against yellow, Alan Scott (original Green Lantern of the 1940s) and so on (and for once she was actually interested), well then you can imagine my joy. In fact, Saturday when we picked groceries, we passed a guy wearing a Flash shirt and I told Jen that I wanted to yell out the window that this was the wrong weekend for Flash, and he needed to gain some fashion knowledge and sport some Green Lantern attire. She even laughed and agreed.

Is this movie as strong as Dark Knight Returns, Iron-Man, or Spider-Man 2? Nope.

Is it better than Fantastic Four, Hulk (either of them and the TV show), Daredevil, Spider-Man 3, iron-Man 2, any of the Supermans, any of the 1980s and 1990s Batmans, and Ghost Rider? Yep.

I liked it more than Thor, but I am more of a DC guy than a Marvel one. That is not putting Thor down as it was incredible, but I liked Green Lantern better. Jen liked them equally, even though she thought Thor’s story was easier to follow because of Norse mythology that most folks have been exposed to and most be are at least familiar with. As far as Green Lantern, she said it was good science fiction and that her husband “over-explained things” after the movie.

Just call me Sheldon.

The End Of The School Year

“Well the dawn was coming,heard him ringing on my bell.

He said, ``My name's the teacher,that is what I call myself.

And I have a lesson

that I must impart to you.

It's an old expression

but I must insist it's true.

Jump up, look around,

find yourself some fun,

no sense in sitting there hating everyone.

No man's an island and his castle isn't home,

the nest is for nothing when the bird has flown.''
--Ian Anderson of the band Jethro Tull, from the son “Teacher” from the album Living In The Past, 1972.

Well, this year offered a great graduation. This year’s seniors were impressive. One of my favorite foreign exchange students “Ang” was a delight to have in class. Ang is from Thailand. She told me that I was her favorite teacher, ever. This young lady has traveled to over fifteen countries in her life and been enrolled in numerous schools. She is highly intelligent and motivated. Her comments are a compliment to be sure.

Equally complimentary were the words of one of my former students. Pontiac’s Daily Leader (the local newspaper) features a former PTHS/Livingston County Illinois student every Saturday. Last week Neil Radke, former student, now teacher said this about me: ” He fondly remembers being in plays at PTHS with Tom Ramseyer and Eric Sweetwood. According to Radtke, Sweetwood lives on in the classroom of Klondike Middle School. “The reason why I became a teacher was I wanted to bring to my classes what he brought to his classes.”

How can I read that and not be moved.

I have long regarded myself as making a small impact in my own way. When such things are validated, it makes one wonder about the impact of how we all can make a difference in one another’s lives. I firmly believe that Neil would be a great teacher with or without the benefit of being a student of mine. He had a gifted sense of knowledge and an acceptance of others that rivals us all. He was articulate, positive, and very willing to help others—all a formula for a successful educator. Neil loves life and is more than willing to share that with others, which is something we share.

Each year I feel a kinship with the graduating class. Each year, I enjoy my job more and more.

Some folks often wonder whether they have chosen the proper career or not. I know I did and I will rest on those laurels for the next twelve years or so. I honesty believe I am doing exactly what I was meant to do.

The lesson is over for this year. This teacher says “class dismissed.”