1. The Long Hard Vigil That All Lovers Fear, Begins.

Also known as “Well Played, Mr. Starlin. Well Played.” I have got major catch-up to do regarding the happenings in my life and the books that I've read. The one I've quoted above, Jim Starlin's 1982 offering The Death of Captain Marvel (ISBN 0939766116), Marvel Comics' first graphic novel … I must admit I'd always wondered what the big deal was. This particular Captain Marvel, a renegade Kree warrior who gained superhuman – I guess superkree – powers as Earth's “cosmic protector”. Anyway, in one fight he had to use his power to seal a canister of nerve gas which turned out to be carcinogenic. Due to the “nega-bands” Marvel wore on his wrists, the disease wouldn't progress for years, but when it did, it did so with a vengeance. Apparently even after thirty years the story still has power, not so much because a hero died but because so many people – other superheroes and villains alike – could pay him respect as quite possibly the greatest warrior they had ever known.

Of course there are those folks who claim that a dead enemy is the best kind of enemy to have. But then, I've found that people who practice that philosophy usually have a hard time sleeping at night.

“Canada Day (French: Fête du Canada) is the national day of Canada, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the British North America Act, 1867 (today called the Constitution Act, 1867), which united three colonies [New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada then which became Ontario and Quebec] into a single country called Canada within the British Empire. Originally called Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Confédération), the holiday was renamed in 1982, the year the Canada Act was passed. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as among Canadians internationally.” Quoth the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia article; where I live in Minot, North Dakota, I haven't heard anyone wished that – but as we're two hours from Canada and I've got friends there – today, I wanted to extend some warm regards. Now I just need to not fall asleep after the early morning paper route …

No. War has always been the Kree Empire's chief occupation.
They've never had the spare time or resources to find a cure for the blackend.
They're a lot like Earth in that respect.

Truthfully, though the Minot Daily News paper route is in my name I only have to be the one who makes sure they're delivered – and my wife Martha and my children Sarah and Jeffrey have been such INCREDIBLE helpers since we started Friday (Martha drove the first time to map out the route better than the paper itself does which helped a lot – we're delivering fifty-six papers in the northwest part of town by a soccer field – and Saturday and Sunday the kids rode with us, making sure all the inserts were in and where possible delivering the papers themselves. I joke that we must be breaking child labor laws with that …), and Martha and I divvied up the labor with me delivering papers Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and her delivering Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and the four of us delivering on Sundays – for you know how big Sunday papers can be. And if I let the wife and children – and me if I think about it – crash after the hour or so it takes us to deliver them, it's all good.

No description I've heard [of death] comes even close. It's indescribable and it's really not all that bad.

Saith Drax the Destroyer, a friend of Captain Marvel's at his bedside who's already been dead and was restored in a new body to fight his killer, this Eternal named Thanos. Let's see … oh yes, Jeffrey turns seven tomorrow and yesterday I got him his present and gave it to him after dinner last night, a VeggieTales DVD, “Dave and the Giant Pickle”. After dinner from Pizza Hut (where we got an awesome deal because we ordered just the pizza and we couldn't sit in the dining room and had to carry it home – actually, all the three Pizza Huts here in Minot have had issues with keeping help, it seems) we watched the movie and we all got ready for bed so we could start early in the morning. Martha and Sarah, anyway – tomorrow is my turn. But it's all marked and I know where NOT to turn (in at least one case you can only go in one direction due to road construction – seems this is the season for it all over the land)!

Yes, death should never be easy. It must be earned.

Friday night after work I met Martha, Sarah, Jeffrey, Mary, and Josceline at the city auditorium for the Tops in Blue concert, an Air Force band of performers that appears worldwide and then we grabbed a spot of dinner afterward. Had a great time with it, went to bed, delivered Saturday's papers, and I left for my shift at Marketplace Foods' dairy. I've shopped in the store for years but it's quite different when you're stocking the items or have to answer a customer who asks where something is and you have a brain freeze. But it's working out great … not getting as many hours as I'd like (partly because I can only work there weekends, a major factor in getting transferred from deli where I started) but at least I kept out of the rain. Until five o'clock anyway, and I wondered whether with the rain falling all day whether I should drive or row home! I drove. And then I got to pick up The Death of Captain Marvel at Grand Slam – it was five bucks and originally priced at $5.95 in 1982. Funky.
Is that all there is to it?
A kiss and I'm beyond the veil?
I expected more.

Oh, you'll have it. David