RIP Val Kilmer, Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer

So ... I was taking a little blog hiatus, but it has stormed for 40 days and 40 nights here (not really, but for 4 days straight), and since we can't really do much, I thought I'd scribble a little today about current entertainment events.

First of all, how sad is everyone about Val Kilmer?

So many roles, so underappreciated, so unfairly castigated in Hollywood - but my favorite is still his portrayal of Doc Holliday in Tombstone, such that I still quote his lines today.

When Frank McLaury threatens to shoot him: "You're a daisy if ya do."

When drunk and double-visioned: "I've got two guns, one for each of ya."

(About Johnny Ringo): "What do you think, dahlin, should I hate him?  I don't know, he reminds me of someone ... me.  No, I'm sure of it, I hate him.  (Speaks in Latin, Johnny speaks back in Latin). An educated man.  Now I really hate him." 

(In reality, though there were rumors of Johnny Ringo also being highly educated due to his often quoting Shakespeare, he was actually self-educated.)

Right before the shootout at the OK corral, stepping up to the Clanton gang's showdown challenge/threats, offering his showdown services, he says:   "I'm your huckleberry."

Doc Holliday was an interesting cat already - an educated former dentist from a wealthy Georgia family, who one day just said "Screw it, I'm going out West to become a gambler and gunslinger/"outlaw" - but Val Kilmer brought him to life in an unforgettable way.

Doc became a (possibly-cheating) successful gambler and a sure-shot gunslinger "outlaw," who killed several men during saloon altercations, and was the common-law husband of Big-Nose Kate, the local brothel madam and gambler.  He was also a notorious drunk and died of tuberculosis.

As a quick interesting aside regarding his life partner, Big Nose Kate, barely seen in the movie, Doc described Kate as his intellectual equal -  she was essentially a female Doc Holliday, minus the gunslinging (though I'm sure she carried because everyone did, in the West then.)

Like Doc, Kate was highly educated, initially attending a convent college education to become a nun, until she, too, apparently said "F it all" and went West to become a successful gambler, as well as a prostitute and later madam.  In fact, Kate was one of the rare women in the West who chose to be a prostitute and later madam because of the independence it provided her, especially as a madam, rather than out of desperate need for survival or forced trafficking.  

However, also like Doc, she was also an alcoholic (who later got sober and went legit), so their relationship was as tumultuous as the way they chose to live their lives.

Back to Doc, though an "outlaw," he was close friends with Sheriff Wyatt Earp, who himself was also formerly a gunslinging outlaw who had killed dozens of men, as one of the 4 Earp brothers, until he was given a badge in Dodge City and then Tombstone.  

In fact, Earp previously owned the same saloon and brothel that housed Big Nose Kate and his common-law wife was the madam of that brothel, Mattie Blaylock, who later became an opium addict and died from drug overdose.

So Doc and Wyatt were longtime friends, before and after the Earps were badged, such that Doc often stepped in to help Earp on occasion, such as when his life was threated by the Clanton family and gang, who were especially lawless and reckless; in other words, they were even worse outlaws, who were public menaces and town bullies, whereas the Earps and Doc were smart enough and just sane enough not wreak havoc in every situation, everywhere.

Thus, why I put "outlaw" in quotes - because in the wild, wild west, it was a fine line between the law and outlaws -  because the "law" was actually often a group of former outlaws/hired gunslingers  themselves, hired by local or national cattle, mining, and railroad companies.

The best "justice" money could buy, biased in the favor of certain companies, sometimes used to quash competition or personal enemies on behalf of the companies.  

(Come to think of it, it's not that different than Trump America's idea of justice today!)

As for the movie, it's fairly cheesy, but I love it, I can't help myself!

Plus, how sexy-cool did Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Kurt Russell, and Bill Paxton look, walking down main street in their dusters? 😍

And at least it's so-so-accurate attempt to tell the real story,  in that  despite early Westerns, there were actually no real lily-white-hatted heroes versus black-hatted evil villains in the west - it  was more like rival gangs over territory and cattle and mining and railroad business and women who for whatever reason had to resort to being prostitutes to survive.

And yes, Val as a person was a little crazy.  Yes, he liked to give too much input to the directors about what he thought his characters would really do (which you don't ever do to the director unless they ask what you think) -  but he was also an extremely versatile, committed actor, funny, spiritual/soulful, and the directors that black-balled him are now known a-holes.  

(If you haven't seen the documentary "Val" yet on Amazon, you should.)

Rest in Peace, Val ... we're all your huckleberries 😢

Speaking of entertainment news, I was looking around at entertainment news, this morning, and I saw that Ozark's Julia Garner is playing Shalla Bal/The Silver Surfer.

I was trying to find what she would look like, and someone created this "possible looks" post - and people - or I should say men -  are going nuts under it - and not because of how she looks!

They are refusing to see it because a girl is playing it, saying they've changed the original comic, etc., hating on Julia Garner over it?

Even when I told my husband, he said "I never liked the Fantastic Four, but The Silver Surfer is a guy!"

*Sigh*

He wasn't mad, just confused - until I cleared it up, the actual comic history of Shalla-Bal - who DID exist in the original comic-book series (below).

Okay, I DID like the Fantastic Four, because it was one of the only comic series that had a female superhero with superpowers on their team  (Susan Storm), who wasn't either a villain or an afterthought female counterpart to an already-existing male superhero - Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four, and The X-Men - that was it for the girls.

As for those afterthought female counterparts to the already-existing male superheroes, they were also almost always named "girl" instead of "woman" (Batgirl, Supergirl, etc.).

But there were a plethora of villain females with superpowers from the very beginning of comics - Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Cheetah, Morgan La Fay, the Enchantress, Songbird

So you men who think misogyny and women-blaming isn't real?

Look no further than earlier 1950s and early 1960s comics, because the only female characters with superpowers were villains!

(And overly competitive women? You're not exactly helping us out,  helping men out to gain their favor, and in some cases, are worse misogynists than men!)

I was never that into comics, but a few - in general, besides Wonder Woman being a favorite, I also always liked Batman, because he was just a regular dude without superpowers, just really cool gadgets.  

Yes, he was a generational inherited billionaire, which would ordinarily make him unrelatable - but he used his wealth to fight crime.

Plus his internal battle between acting out of his personal grief/pain/general effed-upedness versus doing the right thing for everyone -  but always choosing the right thing over his need for personal justice - made him more human and relatable?

But like I said, I didn't really get into comics THAT much, but I did have a few Fantastic Four comics, enough to know this: 

Julia Garner is actually playing Shalla Bal, and if you were ever really a Fantastic Four comic-book fan, even briefly, then you would know that Shalla Bal is the female counterpart to Norrin Rad, the male Silver Surfer - and Stan Lee DID include her in the comics.

The only thing that isn't consistent is Shalla Bal had black hair in the comics, but since they're both silver coated later, it doesn't matter!

Y'all trynna act like Disney always changing Stan Lee's original sh*t, but they're not, proving that you don't know what you're talking about.

(Well, Snow White is questionable, in so many conflicting ways. In some ways, it's progressive/more realistic, but in others, it's so not - just a poor decision to redo this film/story line.)

But in this case, throwing fits that the only Silver Surfer you know  about is male apparently seems to be cause to boycott the movie, like a bunch of Karens/Kens over it.  😂

"OMG, there's a girl as the Silver Surfer, the sky is falling."

Chillll ... now let's all just settle the eff down.

Because in this case, it'd be like if Supergirl showed up instead of Superman, because Superman was busy, okay? 

 Better now?  😂

I swear, if y'all have nothing better to get upset and feel threatened by than the gender of fantasy superheroes, not knowing the actual history of the Stan Lee comic, then you all are the very walking definitions of overprivileged white males!