Doc Savage and G.I. Joe

Last night I watched "G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA" on Netflix.  The idea of pulling a team together comprised of individuals who each contribute some unique skill to the team is certainly not new.  Look at the X-Men.  Or "The A-Team."  Look at the Justice League of America.  But go a little further back, to the days of the "pulps."  One of the popular adventure series was "Doc Savage".

I started reading the Bantam paperback editions of Doc Savage stories when I was in high school and saw some of my friends reading them.  Doc Savage was a crime-fighting hero who had no superpowers, no mask or cape.  Just (!) a genius intellect, a physique to put Arnold Schwarzenegger to shame, a code of honor and justice, and the ability to pull together the right team. 

• "Monk" (Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair, an industrial chemist.)
  
• "Ham" (Brigadier General Theodore Marley Brooks, an attorney.)
• "Renny" (Colonel John Renwick, a construction engineer.)
• "Long Tom" (Major Thomas J. Roberts, an electrical engineer.)
• "Johnny" (William Harper Littlejohn, an archaeologist and geologist.)

I have tried - periodically - to go back and read some of the old Doc Savage stories, but alas, they don't hold the same allure they did when I was a younger man.  But I learned early on there's nothing you can't do if you have the right people to work with.

LOST Knowledge

When I was a boy I was always excited when a new book from the Weekly Reader Book Club would come in the mail.  Now, far from boyhood, I still get excited when a book comes in the mail.  My wife will pick up the mail and tell me, "You've got a present!"  And that's what it feels like.  Nine times out of ten it will be something from Amazon or an Amazon reseller, but sometimes it will be something off of eBay.  The anticipation is such that I can't resist following the shipment using the tracking number Amazon gives me.

Now I have something else to look forward to: The LOST Encyclopedia, by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry.  I don't watch much TV, but once my friends got me interested in LOST, I was hooked.  The combination of mystery, personal stories, survival, philosophy, and even science fiction was irresistible.  My wife and I rented all the old episodes we missed and had marathon LOST-watching sessions each week, catching up as quickly as we could.  And then we stayed with it to the end.  (Although my wife started to lose interest in the last season or two.)  I knew that someone would come out with the definitive "canon" that would tie all the loose ends together for me, and show me things I missed or didn't recognize at the time.

I can hardly wait!  Better go track the package and see where it is now ...