The Strength of Silk – Cindy Moon May Be Marvel’s Most Inspiring Hero

When he was fifteen-years-old, Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider at a science demonstration, gaining the proportionate strength, speed, and agility of a spider.  It also granted him a precognitive sense that warns him of danger – his spider-sense.  The death of his uncle at the hands of a burglar he could’ve stopped taught Peter that with great power there must also come great responsibility.  Every day since he’s tried to live up to that creed, as the amazing Spider-Man.  BUT Peter wasn’t the only one bitten by the irradiated spider on that fateful day.  Before it died, it also bit Cindy Moon.  On a whim I decided to begin rereading her adventures as the superhero Silk last week.

Reading these comics just as, “New coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in record numbers swept through more U.S. states…as most push ahead with reopening,”[1] cast these stories in an entirely new light.  I marveled at Silk’s strength and realized she may well be the most important superhero we have in this pandemic age.

A Welcome Distraction – Breaking the Tedium of Quarantine Life

My latest post for Reads & Reels is up!  This time I write about what I’ve been doing to help make quarantine life interesting.  This is one of my favorite things I’ve written so I’m not even going to blather on about it anymore and I’ll just say YOU SHOULD CLICK HERE AND READ IT YOURSELF :).  Please and thank you.

The Time Lord Victorious – A Model and Warning of Isolation

As I roll past day forty in quarantine, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about the Doctor Who specials that marked the end of David Tennant’s run as the Doctor.  Not so much the finale two-parter which contained his showdown with the Master, but rather “The Next Doctor” (Dec 2008), “Planet of the Dead” (April 2009), and “The Waters of Mars” (Nov 2009).  The reason these specials have been on my mind is they explore the Doctor travelling alone, roaming the whole of time and space without any companion(s) by his side.  The pain of loneliness and isolation are universal – something we all experience, in various degrees and at various times in our lives.  In fact, I’d wager this constant struggle with loneliness is part of what makes the Doctor such an appealing character.  We all can relate.  While always relevant, this seems particularly poignant now.

Things I’m Thankful for in Quarantine

Those of you paying close attention may’ve noticed I’ve had a lot of wonderful content on the blog over the last month but all I’ve written was my loving ode to the Doctor.  That’s because I teamed up with a bunch of other marvelous bloggers to celebrate female characters through the month of March and I totally used that as the path to brilliant pieces I didn’t have to write.  It was awesome.  Those of you paying close attention may’ve also noticed the coronavirus has become a full-blown pandemic, a global crisis unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, leading to quarantines and self-isolating and social distancing the world over.  That’s, admittedly, far less awesome.  However, I thought it’d be nice to celebrate some things I’ve been thankful for while stuck in self-isolation.