Just forget the words and sing along

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Just finished watching Smallville. I've often read the question asking why DC Comics doesn't take advantage of Smallville's success to do an Ultimate-style relaunch of Superman. Strange thing is, because the fans are starting to clamour for it, the writers of the show are starting to do it. Case in point: tonight we were introduced to Ultimate Mr. Mxyzpytlk. Quick comparison:

Comics - Mr. Mxyzpytlk is an omnipotent being from the fifth dimension who occasionally comes to our dimension to just torment Superman. No real motives other than being a Godlike pain in the ass. The only way to get rid of him is to trick him into saying his name backwards.

Smallville - Mikail Mxyzpytlk is the strange foriegn exchange student from Eastern Europe. He has a power very much like Jessie Custer's "Word of God" in the Preacher comics. It's a power that's been passed down in his family from generation to generation. Naturally, he's using this power to trip up sports stars and rig sporting events. The only way to counter his power is a specific radio frequency.

See, right there, the Smallville version just seems a little more plausible than the comic version. Little more sinister, too.

Oh, and I have another silly story. This happened on Friday. As you know, I'm having a little trouble with Revenue Canada as to what I need to do with the money I made in Japan. So, I called up Edmonton's Japanese Consulate to find out how to go about getting the evidence that I was a Japanese resident for tax purposes. Firstly, this was problem the Japanese consulate had never heard of before. ("But...you have your work visa and your passport stamped. That should be enough for Revenue Canada...shouldn't it?") So, after I talked to Tomiko of the Japanese consulate for a while, ultimaty she told me that all they could do was translate all the tax forms and stuff I got from AEON and slap that on official letterhead. I'll take what I can get. And then, in the middle of this conversation, Tomiko of the consulate just blurts out....

"Spell my name."

Without thinking, I just rattled off "T-O-M-I-K-O," and she just said, "Yup."

One of those things where, afterwards, I realized how strange it really was. I mean, I've never blurted out "spell my name" in the middle of any other conversations. My paranoid bit tells me that this was an informal test to see if I really was in Japan or not.

Next Issue...Client Campaign

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