Our Gods Wear Spandex hit the shelves fifteen years ago this month and prophesied the coming rise of the superheroes, back before the Spandex Age of Cinema took off with the releases of Iron Man and Dark Knight. The age which is now most definitely drawing to a close.
Things looked a lot different in 2005 when I began writing the manuscript that would ultimately evolve into Our Gods Wear Spandex. Nolan's Batman Begins was a hit that year, but certainly nothing like the phenomenon the 1989 Tim Burton film was. Marvel had sold off the rights to many of their top characters when Ron Perelman, financial genius he is, drove the company into the ground.
Sony was making Marvel pictures of varying degrees of success and quality but nothing was exactly setting the world alight. And a lot of attempts to launch some franchises - Daredevil, Constantine, Hulk, etc etc - were either failing or underperforming.
But that would all change a few short months after Spandex was released and eventually manifest in the MCU juggernaut, which has essentially kept the lights on in Hollywood ever since.
But first, a word from my sponsor...
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People write to me all the time to tell me how much they got from this book, feedback I never really received from Our Gods Wear Spandex. I think it will help keep a lot of things in perspective in the chaotic days to come.
The Endless American Midnight is available in either ePub or phone-friendly PDF format.And don't forget: The Endless American Midnight is still available in paperback and would make a great holiday gift for your favorite truth-seeker.
Also, don't forget the epic Donnie Darko livestream on the Secret Sun Institute of Advanced Synchromysticism. This one is jammed to the ears with high-potency syncs, from start to finish.
There's also a bounty of new Vril material coming up soon at the SSI, which you are going to need to see. Why? Because Vril is closely connected to the Watcher cults and their fake UFO disclosure efforts, which we're seeing being rolled out a near-daily basis now.
JUST HAD MY LAST HAMBURGER AND MILKSHAKE
Last year I wrote about how superheroes were in their death-throes and now they've gone code blue. There are still projects in the works - many of which were launched while the genre was still booming - but it's over. The spandex idols are now in their twilight and it's just a matter of time before most of the TV projects running are canceled and most superhero projects in development are killed and we only see a small handful of big budget comic book movies a year.
It'll be a long time before the heroes are reborn, if ever. The market was over-saturated to an unprecedented degree, which completely sucked the magic out of the genre. Younger readers shun superhero comics almost in their entirety, preferring manga. The culture that gave rise to comic books and their heroes has been gone for a while now and the movies persisted solely on the basis of spectacle.
That's why the TV projects - nearly all of which look cheap and tawdry - are either underperforming or getting axed.
Woke is more an opportunistic infection in this process, more than a causative factor. Clueless execs allowed the virulent vector to slither into their hallowed halls, believing somehow that the Woke - talentless and terminally toxic to a one - represented the vanguard of the future. And the Wokesters' cancerous brainstorm of alienating the actual paying audience as some half-assed marketing strategy failed like few things have failed before.
Still, Spandex was a hell of a ride, getting my mug on various TV programs and documentaries, not to mention an uncountable assortment of radio programs and podcasts. It was fun, but it didn't take very long for me to realize that that was a lifestyle I did not want to live.
None of those media appearances did much of anything to sell books, and I really didn't want to spend my life commenting - never for any pay, mind you - on comic books on NPR or something, and hanging out with boring academics who were clinging to comics as everything else around them failed.
Then there were times where I found folks with more clout than myself latching onto my spandex buggy. Some I didn't mind - like my pal Jeff Kripal's excellent Mutants and Mystics - but Grant Morrison rewriting his auto-hagiography to fold in an esoteric analysis of comics seemed like a shot straight across my bow.
Mind you, I had written an editorial in Comic Book Artist magazine (which everyone who mattered in the business read at the time) trash-talking Baldie's ridiculous comments on 9/11 and his cringey, narcissistic pretensions to wizardry, and then compounded the felony with some back-handed compliments in Spandex itself, which I'm sure he didn't appreciate. Hence...
All I can say is that it's not always easy or rewarding be able to see people for exactly what they are, but it saves you one hell of a lot of trouble down the road.
Warren Ellis got in the act with this riff on the Spandex cover, and I'm betting Morrison decided to lift the title to show up his rival. I used to hang out on the old Warren Ellis Forum on AOL a million years ago, which was THE place for funnybook edge-lords to be heard. I don't know if Ellis remembers me, but he sure seems to have remembered my book.
As did Zack Snyder, apparently. Which is OK with me because I love the Watchmen movie and especially love Carla Gugino. Who, inevitably, has the same birthday as Our Lady, Queen Dowager of Sibyls.
Also, the Comedian.
Another heavy-hitter got in the act: Supersize Me impresario Morgan Spurlock lifted the concept for this thing that I'd never heard of until today. I have a feeling most other folks haven't either.
Still, I find it very flattering. Cheers, Morgie.
I certainly don't love this take from a bunch of disgusting child molesters Furries, but then again, I can't say it much fits the concept. So don't blame me.
And then this endless recycling, mostly from DeviantArt deviants. Still, it's fun to see the now-iconic cover of Our Gods Wear Spandex resonating in so many quarters. Again, I'm not claiming ownership of Da Vinci's composition.
I mean, it's not like I'm Grant Morrison or something.
GOLGOTHA AWAITS
But I bring it all up because the superheroes are now having their own last supper.
And when they go down, they're never coming back. Worse still, most of Hollywood will go down with them. Mass layoffs have been quietly ordered for some months now and it's only going to get worse:
Theaters underperformed in September and October, and with November and December they have a shot at redemption — or at least, a chance to restore the summer’s momentum. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Disney), opening November 11, is the first of two potential massive hits; Disney’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” on December 16 is the second.We could say that these films may determine the future of the exhibition industry; it could even be more truth than hyperbole. But the larger truth is box office has been, and continues, hanging from tenterhooks: Declining revenue remains a serious issue.
OK, there's no way in hell Avatar 2 is going to be a "massive hit", unless it's approximately a trillion times better than the first one. Let's just get that out of the way. This is a sequel no one on Earth asked for. Does anyone even remember the original?
The misleadingly-titled Black Panther 2 will do moderately well, but mostly because ticket prices are anywhere from five to ten dollars higher than they were when the first film was released. And I'm hearing chatter that black men are not huge fans of the estrogen-drenched actioner:
Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is accused of harboring racist stereotypes.Jason Whitlock, known for being an American sports journalist, columnist, and podcaster, tweeted to his nearly 615k fans that the flick is “torture.”“Sitting through 2 hours, 40 minutes of Black Panther 2 was torture,” Whitlock said. “Let me save you the time. The movie hates black men, America, and the patriarchy. Racial idolatry is its selling point. Nothing else.”A fan questioned why he would waste his money, with Whitlock replying, “I want to stay informed on how we’re being programmed.”
And then there's the overall collapse of geek culture. How bad is it? Look at the absolute bloodbath at the preferred network for young geeks and geekettes:
The WB won’t look the same after this season, and not just because of the Stargirl cancellation. The network has also cancelled other DC series Batwoman and DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and The Flash had announced its ending after its ninth season, which begins in January.
Other WB shows that have been cancelled this year include Nancy Drew, The 4400, the Charmed reboot, Roswell, New Mexico, Dynasty, Legacies, and In the Dark, while Riverdale plans to end their series run next year.It is not clear what will become of the last DC series on the network not planning an end, Superman & Lois.
So all these shows that no one could figure out how they were still on-air are all canceled. Gone, dead, devoid, deceased, buried forever and evermore. Most of it was recycled old corn anyhow, insufferably infected with the Woke cancer. Only a tiny handful of severely mentally-ill gender victims will mourn. Maybe not even them.
When you die this hard, there's no coming back.
Woke Ebola recently bled out another very expensive victim:
“Westworld,” created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, had the potential to be the network’s next “Game of Thrones.” At least in the beginning.But, sadly, “Westworld” will never get the fifth season Nolan hoped for.It’s likely the network made the decision after watching viewership ratings for “Westworld” continue to drop and drop. For instance, the third season only drew in 1.8 million viewers across multiple platforms for the season 3 finale, down 18% from the final episode of season 2, according to The Wrap.
And even the reliably submissive shills in the corporate fan press are admitting what a failure Disney's recent spandexfests have been. Which was to be expected when you realize how many of these characters never had much of a following, even in the comics:
On November 11, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will cap Marvel's Phase 4. Wakanda Forever looks like a sure-fire hit that will win critical plaudits; however, even if the film proves successful, it may not be enough to paper over the lingering sense of disappointment fans had with Marvel's latest crop.Coming off the success of Endgame, it is hard not to notice how inconsistent Marvel's follow-up to Phase 3 has been. While Phase 4 has Disney+ successes like Werewolf By Night and Loki, and cinematic hits like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Shang-Chi, Marvel has dropped more duds than in any previous phase.Thanks to Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel has suffered its lowest CinemaScore ratings, lowest Tomatometer scores, and biggest box office drops ever. If Kevin Feige intended Phase 4 to keep audience interest high, then Phase 4 can be dubbed a failure
Well, like I've said before this is exactly what we saw with these characters when they were introduced in the 70s when the old-like Marvel heroes began to lose their appeal.
Even the Uber-Woke AV Club is calling shenanigans on Feige's Folly:
Phase Four of the MCU felt like Marvel's most disjointed yet—because it was.The Marvel fatigue: Phase 4 was filled with abysmal disappointments, will Black Panther Wakanda Forever reignite the fading interest in MCU?As Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's release date nears, here's looking back at the thoroughly disappointing Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.Phase 4 had the most promising characters and sequels, and destroyed most of them with a Hulk-like smash. There seemed to be desperation to cash in on old nostalgia, recycle storylines, bring in starry cameos, and reproduce the same humour in just different situations. There hasn’t been anything fresh about the MCU in the past two years, it’s the same dish that is just served on a new platter.
It's safe to say that Disney has stopped greasing the corrupt nerd media because this kind of article would have been unimaginable just a couple years ago. That's how you know it's all over but the weeping.
Same goes here...
Anyone with a lick of common sense knew that the overvalued yet profit-free titans of SiliCylon Valley were eventually going to meet the brick wall of economic reality. And it's looking to be a lot worse than we feared:
The last month has seen a bunch of big technology companies—including Meta, Twitter, Lyft, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Stripe—announce layoffs. Now the New York Times is reporting that Amazon is preparing to lay off around 10,000 workers in its corporate offices.These tech-industry job cuts have come in the face of new data showing that hiring in the broader economy remained strong in October. Companies added 261,000 workers, beating analysts’ expectations. So it looks like Silicon Valley is tightening its belt more than other industries.
Everything in modern America is an illusion, especially our economy, industry and politics. SiliCylon Valley's primary functions are to launder money, fund the DNC, and construct the Panopticon.
But the gravy train has run off the rails and now people are discovering the folly of giving all your money away to egomaniacs who are both morally corrupt and buried deep into the spectrum:
I suspect this reflects a significant change in the economics of the sector. For the last 20 years, Silicon Valley has had the wind at its back thanks to rapid adoption of new technologies like the internet and smartphones. As a result, the industry fared better than the broader economy during and after the 2008 recession.But the internet is maturing and as a result big tech companies don’t have the same growth potential today that they did in 2012 or 2002. Investors, recognizing that, are increasingly demanding that tech companies focus on profits rather than growth. And that means there could be even more pain ahead for Silicon Valley workers.
Oh, you have no idea. All these authoritarian college kids, who saw themselves as the summit of the human endeavor, are about to see how the other 90% lives. For many, it will be the first wake-up call they've ever experienced. And the carnage is already driving California into billions of dollars of debt.
It will be worth watching to see what new mythologies arise in the post-prosperity world.
And it's worth your time to watch this never-before seen interview I did back in the inglorious days of 2012. Back when I was puffy and bloated and thirsty from taking 120 mg of morphine sulfate a day. My life is so much better now, believe it.
I got pretty deep into the esoteric weeds in the full interview, which will be posted in the near future at the Secret Sun Institute of Advanced Synchromystism.
