Hello Loves,

I like sci-fi, comic books, and superheroes, enough so that I’ve referenced some of my favorite TV shows and characters in my books. I’m not hard core, but I grew up on reruns of Wonder Woman and The Incredible Hulk (which is why you won’t get me to choose between DC or Marvel--I enjoy them both). It wasn’t until the mid-nineties, as an adult, I started reading comic books because Downtown Comics was near the bus stop. The only Marvel/DC comic I read was when they joined forces under the imprint Amalgam and combined Storm from X-men with Wonder Woman to create a character. The comic I read regularly was Ghost by Dark Horse, which had just debuted at the time.

I’m totally hooked on the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the Arrowverse (the DC tv shows). I watch and listen to way more videos and podcasts about comic book movies than I’m willing to admit to. Comic book fandom is like no other. There are breakdowns of trailers, even scene by scene breakdowns of trailer teasers. This has changed not only how I watch these movies, but all movies, including my much beloved, made for TV romcoms (Hallmark, PIXL, UP, and Lifetime but only at Christmas).

While romcoms don’t have a rabid fanbase comic book movies do after Hallmark movie premiere my mom (let’s call her Momma Lena so I don’t get in trouble for talking about her in my blog by name) and I set aside time to discuss these movies. We start off with an overall review of if we did or didn’t like it. Being the massive fans of the genre that we are, we like them 9 out of 10 times. This doesn’t mean we find all the movies to be perfect. We aren’t unaware of predictability of these movies. In fact, it’s the thing we like about these movies. We know for certain there will be a happily ever after and they’ll often be so syrupy sweet we may go into a diabetic coma which is a perfect break from the real world.

The real fun comes when we start to play a little game we’ve made up. We count how many other of these movies the actors have been in. We don’t do this just for the leads but also the supporting characters. This is a test of our memories because we only resort to IMBD when we disagree. Sometimes Momma Lena will comment on the attractiveness of the male lead. There are some movies she likes primarily because the male lead is nice looking. If the plot is similar to another movie we discuss point for point how it’s the same and how movies almost exactly alike get made.

The thing we discuss the most is whether or not there is a minority best friend. There often is. This is an attempt at diversity. I say attempt because while the cast is diverse, the lead characters aren’t. I can only think of two movies where the lead was played by a non-white actor. Both movies starred the new Duchess of Sussex. In both, it wasn’t apparent the character was also biracial like Meghan Markle is. Passion Flix, a new streaming service, has exclusive original content based on best selling romance novels. They’ll be making movies based on Brenda Jackson. It will be nice to see black female leads.

Until then, June wedding movies are starting on Hallmark soon and I can’t wait.

Love,

Lena