Vance Astro’s Armpits

This is a story about how old the climate change issues are, how for ages we’ve put off much needed effective changes socially to put out the current fire without concern for the upcoming fires.  Why put it off tomorrow when you can put it off today.  Out of sight out of mind.  It’s also a true story of the impact of what’s deemed as non serious literature on this teenager and how there are nuggets of wisdom in the oddest places.  At least food for thought.  Certainly more thought provoking than insisting meaningless two and three digit numbers mean something  of earth shaking significance. Within this true story are the seeds of how this person as a teen got a firmer grip on misinformation’s effect on people.

As a bit of background, Stan Lee’s letters to the Marvel Comics staff had a frivolous and fun reward for the sharp eyed clients.  If you were able to dredge up an old secure reference and be the first to point it out, you won a No Prize prize.  Bragging rights.  If you by any chance know of Vance Astro and the speech I’m about to relate, consider yourself seriously No Prized.

Teams of heroes were a popular source of storylines, adding flavor to the good guys versus the villains.  Different groups facing off, civil wars in the membership ranks, proud announcements of new members, the heartbreak of an old comrade moving on (with or without death that is never really a true death, because hey, it’s a comic book).  There’s no burden of the star in the film growing old and spending money on digital de-aging CGI.

There’s precious little new innovation in books and film.  All the good ideas are mostly taken from old material and rebranded.  Like how The Last of Us is just The Walking Dead with a twist.  What makes it worthwhile is if it’s well done.  And you never know when a story worth retelling is going to hit home for the first time as youth matures into adulthood.

The Avengers, sure we all know those guys by now.  The movies have been plastered all over cinemas and TVs for over a decade.  And oh boy those are retelling of old stories.  Anyway, there was a second group that was fairly popular called The Defenders.  The lineup featured Dr. Strange, the Hulk and Valkyrie and rotating lesser know members as needed.  Those first three, all of those are in the Avengers movies.  And there was also a Guardians of the Galaxy back then.  Their leader was Vance Astro.  So here’s a link to a preachy little bit the writers worked into the story.  Defenders #26

https://everything2.com/title/The+Defenders+%252326

Here’s the key paragraph

Holy shit, Marvel.  I’m supposed to be reading about superheroes beating up supervillains.  Why you do did to me?  Now I’m in high school absorbing different peoples attitudes towards pollution, overpopulation and the conflict between those who understand the scientific method and those who don’t.  And those that don’t care because grifting is more important than truth.

Back in 1975 when this was produced the fossil fuel industry was already ass deep in lying about the science to make money.  Almost 50 years ago, and it’s blatantly obvious to people today that even if they don’t trust the scientific consensus SOMETHING IS WRONG.  Gone are the days when I could grab a comic book and sit outside on a plastic lounge chair and read.  I have to be careful about taking my senior dog for a walk, because it’s just too fucking hot.  A 10 minute drive from work back home isn’t enough for the car AC to cool off the blistering heat on the steering wheel completely.  Air conditioning is a necessity, not a luxury.

Add to this (and let me assure you, it sucks to have great long term memory), Vance’s speech was presented to a young boy who breaks down crying about the awful future that awaits us.  “But that couldn’t really happen here, could it?”  It’s a time travel story, and Doctor Strange assured the boy it’s just a POSSIBLE future.

I found that comic book recap by Google searching for VANCE ASTRO ARMPIT.  If I were a conspiracy grifter I’d call that predictive programming where 50 year old material shows the future with somewhat frightening accuracy.  I’d also throw in a whine about how you don’t hear the ozone layer stuff anymore.  We did put out that fire, but the dry tinder is still there in the whole population/pollution/economic impact problems.

The grifters do not want you to understand that a comic book boy is now an avatar for scientific expertise.  How a fluffy superhero story has more relevance to the world than their free speech of stupid ideas.  The more chaos there is, the more background noise that exists to ignore the science side in the battle of good science versus making money, the better.

It’s hard to imagine what these conspiracy theory Avengers have for an Endgame.  A world where those who steal the best are the winners is a loss.  If that story were to get rebranded today it would replace dry armpits and ozone with disinformation, climate change and vaccinations.  The little boy in the comic will be crying about not knowing who to believe.  And Dr. Strange will step in and point out that at least you’ll get gematria sports picks, so it’s not all bad, eh?