Halloween Treat

Over the last couple of months I’ve tried my hand a few pieces of “micro-fiction”. Super short, usually less than 250 words. The challenge is obviously telling a cohesive story in such a minimal amount of words. Below is one I submitted to a Halloween themed contest. The story wasn’t picked, but since I’ve lapsed in blogging lately I thought I would share this one as  a special Halloween treat from me to you! Thanks for reading.

Trick or Treat

The old, crumbling, rotted house appeared to have been carved out of coal. Windows often represent eyes, and these were asleep, if not dead. Only the red light from the setting sun spattering through dying trees kept the house from disappearing into the darkness.

Charles nudged Fred forward. “Go on.”

Fred hesitated.

“Fine. We’ll go together. But Damian did it alone last year.”

“Well, Damian was dumb enough to shoot his eye out with a firecracker,” said Fred, unconvinced of Damian’s moxie.

The two traipsed up to the porch and the large, orange, plastic candy bowl. Inside lay two fake eyeballs. One brown, one blue.

“One for each of you, my dears.” The crone materialized in front of them and cackled.

 

Rebirth or Legacy

Marvel’s X-Men (the 90’s cartoon) is the reason I love superheroes, but my dad is the reason I read comics. During junior high we started regularly visiting a local comic book shop. And at the time I was under the impression that you were either DC or Marvel. It was as cut and dry as Cubs/Cardinals. With my dad being into DC and my affinity for X-Men I sided with Marvel without hesitation.

A few years ago I was drawn back into comics because of The Walking Dead on AMC. Once I find out a movie or show is based on a book/story/comic I’m a sucker for the original content. I want to know the fun little tidbits that don’t translate from one medium to another. I want to be able to pick out the Easter eggs (the homages to the source material). After 3 seasons of TWD I dove headfirst into TWD Compendiums Vol 1 and 2. I burned through them in less than 2 weeks. I wanted more.

Needless to say I quickly found myself at the local comic book store itching for each new issue. While I waited the weeks between TWD I worked my way back into other comics starting, of course, with Marvel. Now, the way the local comic book store presents the new issues Marvel and DC sit on the top shelves. It was easy to wander from what I knew into uncharted territory with DC titles literally right next to each other, besides, who doesn’t love Batman.

Apparently I picked the right time to begin discovering DC comics. Not long after I started reading Batman and went back and read the last few years worth of Justice League, DC began their Rebirth. I jumped on the boat along with a lot of other people. I picked up the one-shot Rebirth and read it that night. It is very much centered on Wally West as The Flash, a superhero and character I knew very little about, but his struggle to return to the world he knew and my desire to know where he went and who sent him away hooked me immediately. The icing on the Rebirth cake was (SPOILER) the last page that tied Alan Moore’s Watchmen in with the rest of the DC comic book universe. (Like I said, I’m a sucker for the source material.) As it currently stands I am waiting on the edge of my seat for the upcoming event that will answer questions and expose the threads tying everything together.

As Rebirth was slowly pulling in more of my interest Marvel announced their own back to basics reboot, Legacy. Instantly I feared this was a matter of seeing DC’s success and trying to hop on board, a feeling of which I quickly discovered I was not alone. Last week, Legacy hit shelves. I tempered my expectations as I read the issue that night. While even a week after release, I am not as excited about the upcoming revelations and reveals as I was with Rebirth, I am very interested to see how Marvel plays their cards. (I’ll withhold spoilers since the comic only released a week ago.)

While DC used their event to bring back a lone key character, Legacy has reintroduced (or teased) multiple. All of which, will have to find their place in the comic book universe amongst some drastic changes from their last incarnation. And similar to Rebirth, Legacy indicated that there are forces at play, twisting and toying with the lives of certain characters, that are bigger than any or all of them could have imagined.

My hope is that Legacy will find a strong footing to drive their universe forward as Rebirth seems to have done for DC. While I may be currently straying towards the DC side of the argument, I can’t help but desire for Marvel to do something to wow me and yank me back.