Comics

Thoughts on ‘Superman’ (2025)

/ Scott Waldyn / Leave a comment

A few days ago, my wife and I had the chance to see the new Superman (2025) film. For those of you who know me well, comic books are in my blood. To say I’m deeply enmeshed in the genre, from penning reviews and recording podcasts for The Batman Universe to my current stint as reviewer of the Defenders of the Earth over at Chronicle Chamber, is appropriate.

Comics have been with me for as long as I could read. They saw me through good times, and they carried me through the rough moments. Characters like Batman, Spider-Man, The Phantom, and Superman inspired me to keep going. When I needed someone in my corner, they were there for me, helping me find my way through turbulent teen years into adulthood.

This is all to say that, as a fan, I have an emotional connection to many of these characters, and in moments when I’m down and out, I still look to them as fables and signals to step up and be my best.

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Looking Forward to 2025

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2024 was a big year for change.

It was the year I was promoted from a specialist to an account manager with the digital marketing agency I work for, meaning more responsibility as well as more freedom to assess clients’ needs and come up with a plan of action.

2024 was also the year where, creatively, I had to reassess where I put my time and efforts. I had to learn to say no and walk away from certain tasks if I wanted to say yes or carve out more writing time for myself, as well as time to spend with family, friends, and, most importantly, my wife.

It was also the year where I finally released MACHINE: A Cybernetic Fairytale, a book I had been writing and talking about off and on for several years now. After much trial and error querying publishers and agents, I decided to release it independently. MACHINE: A Cybernetic Fairytale is digitally available for purchase on Amazon Kindle or Gumroad. It’s also part of Kindle Unlimited, so you can read it for free (and leave a rating/review).

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The Quick February Update

/ Scott Waldyn / 1 Comment

It’s an abnormally warm Sunday in February. The sun’s out, the neighborhood is quiet, and I have a few moments for self-reflection. I wanted to write this “update” last month, but life keeps flying by, each minute faster than the last. 

In 2023, I wrote 58,446 words. That was personal time writing, not day-job writing. It’s about the length of a novel, though it includes short stories, work on one of my book projects, and reviews for TheBatmanUniverse.net. I mentioned in a previous post that I started keeping track of how many words I wrote at the end of 2022 as a form of self-motivation and encouragement. It’s easy to get down about how little you create when you feel like you have nothing to show for it (for example, I have a comic book miniseries, robot novella, and a couple of short stories in need of a good home). However, cataloging the words has helped combat that pessimistic outlook and keep plugging along. 

This year, my goal is to double that number. Currently, I’m tracking at 7,069 words. But that’s not what this update is about.

Since last I posted, my schedule has been busy with family holiday events, new podcast interviews, reviews, and deep thoughts about the future. 

The Quick Updates

  • I interviewed three people for The Batman Universe Podcast in the last month and a half.
    • Robert E. Eliot, author of Nolanverse: Exploring the Greatest Illusion in Movie History.
    • Lou Tambone, editor of The Man Who Laughs: Exploring the Clown Prince of Crime.
    • Ian Miller, creator of the much-beloved fan comic series Batman Enigma.
  • My comic reviews might be expanding outside the realm of Gotham City. I pitched reviewing the upcoming Moonstone The Phantom series to the fine folks at ChronicleChamber.com. For those who don’t know, The Phantom is another one of those comic characters I’ve been a fan of for many years now. 
  • My monthly motivational newsletter Because We Can had its first issue release of 2024. 
  • I’ve been looking into self-publishing my robot novella, and it’s this last update I wanted to speak to. 
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Sweet Rejections & So… What’s Next?

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I woke up to a short story rejection today. Even after my ongoing 40+ rejection streak, it doesn’t get much easier to open those emails. I’ve learned that in the preview copy in my inbox, rejections often start with “Thank you for your submission…” The bad news is buried somewhere after the preview, which gives writers just enough hope to think that the future is not set, Fate isn’t real, and Destiny isn’t predetermined. That maybe this click to open will be different…

Today’s rejection came with a bit of a surprise though. Usually I’ll get the typical “Thank you for submitting. Unfortunately…” Today, however, the editor was kind enough to include a line indicating that they actually liked the piece! That’s always nice to hear, and it’s encouraging. That means there is hope yet!

This most recent piece that I’ve been shopping around is one I’ve been mulling over since last fall, but I didn’t want to devote time to it until I finished my novel manuscript. I’m trying to get better at ordering ideas into a to-do list these days, so I sat on it up until a month or two ago.

Speaking of the novel, the manuscript is out for consideration but no bites yet.

I’m not a fan of the waiting game, and I’ve often found that shortly after finishing any piece, when that sense of satisfaction and “new car smell” begins to fade, the need for the next hit starts gnawing at the back of the brain.

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The Nature of Adaptation: Form v. Content

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Hulu added the second season of Fargo to instant streaming recently, and my wife and I devoured it this past weekend. One episode in, and we were hooked. Fargo is an even blend of style, mystery, action, and dark Midwestern humor. It’s a show that uses style, editing, and composition to fully submerge its audience into the emotions of the sequence, rather than hanging its hat on a melodramatic narrative structure.

When we finished, I felt the need to immediately blurt out, “This is one of the best comic book adaptations I’ve ever seen.” This sounded silly and confusing in that Fargo isn’t adapted from a comic book. It carries the name of a popular Coen Brothers movie and crafts crime stories in the style and tone of the film. There were no comic books to be found on the set of the film, and none of the iconic characters from the world of comics even graced the background.

But that’s what makes this adaptation interesting. While Marvel and DC continue to make films using their popular licensed characters, the second season of Fargo is more of a comic book adaptation than either of the “cinematic universes” that the aforementioned companies are dumping into movie theaters.

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