Time for the Star Wars universe to come to an end for me?

So I’ve now seen all nine ... count em, nine ... Star Wars films, and also the two loose-end ones, Rogue One and Solo.

The new ones certainly can’t compare to the wonder of the original three, but the final chapter, The Rise of Skywalker, does justice to the franchise. It wraps up most of the loose ends and offers a good share of unexpected moments.

These kind of action flicks usually bore me to sleep, so why is Star Wars different? It must be the focus on character. People my age (in our forties) have known these people and creatures our whole lives.

I’m not that into superhero movies and part of that reason may be that I really haven’t known most of the characters my whole life. Many people have, which possibly explains their popularity, but not me. I was more into Archie comics than Batman and Superman ones when I was a kid. The core characters of Star Wars feel more like Archie characters to me than Superheroes.

Archie as Luke Skywalker. Reggie as Han Solo. Betty and Veronica as princesses Leia and Rey. Jughead as C-3Po?

The Star Wars universe will no doubt continue on somehow, quite possibly without me. But it was great while it lasted.

The Rise of Skywalker: 4 out of 5 stars

Taking Grand Rapids By Bike, Bus, and Beer

I flew in late Sunday night for a quick few days in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Center for Transportation Excellence conference on how to do better outreach for transit policy.

My presentation on "Telling Better Stories About Public Transportation" went well and I got lots of nice compliments and thanks for suggesting ways for the industry to improve in this area.

I didn't get much free time, but I was able to tour the city by bike for $15 for a couple hours, thanks to the Central District Cyclery.

I took a nice, easy ride is out of downtown and up Cherry Street to the popular neighborhoods of East Hills and Eastown. Then it was back to south of downtown to The Rapid bus station and across the river around the Gerald Ford Museum.

Ford is the most famous person from Grand Rapids (with boxer Floyd Mayweather, Red Hot Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis, and Al Green ranking not far behind). Signs of Ford are everywhere, from the name of the international airport to the Ford Museum, where he and Betty are buried.

My meal last night was at a place called HopCat (bathroom art pictured) that the respected Beer Advocate calls the third-best beer bar in the world. They had "Crack Fries" and draft Founders beer, which is one of my favorites and is brewed here in this metro area of 1 million people (the country's 52nd-biggest metro area)! In fact, it's the biggest city behind Detroit in Michigan.

Some other Grand Rapids' facts. The city loves its nicknames. It goes by Beer City USA, Furniture City, and River City, named after the rapid-flowing afore-mentioned Grand River that runs past my Amway Grand Plaza Hotel (dedicated to all the Amway employees of the world!).

The hotel (pictured behind me and my bike helmet) is a grand dame, having once been ranked one of the world's finest hotels. It's massive and confusing and my room is very Mad Men-era feeling.

A few other things to recommend about Grand Rapids:

• it has one of the best comic-book stores I've ever seen, called Vault of Midnight
• some of the murals around town are great, and 
• the swing-dancing club that filled the city square with college kids one evening.

Deciding What to See? Peabody or Lego Movie?

My six-year-old Jackson and I have started our regular movie adventures recently with The Lego Movie and Mr. Peabody and Sherman. So it only makes sense that he helps me write this double review.

I wasn’t sure if he liked Peabody and Sherman more than The Lego Movie simply because I liked it more, but he genuinely said he appreciated that “they went to all the places around the world” and he likes learning about history.

The general manic level is much lower with Peabody, which my adult brain appreciated. And the humor is wittier, with a deadpan Ty Burrell from Modern Family in the voice role of Mr. Peabody the dog.

About the only thing that’s changed since the skit’s origination on one of my favorite cartoons of all time, Rocky and Bullwinkle, can be summed up in the first thing Jackson looked up and said to me when the movie ended:

Jackson:  "How come Mr. Peabody didn't have that cigarette?"
Me: "You mean his pipe?"
Jackson: "Yeah."
Me: "Pipes used to be good back then, but they're bad now."

That led to a discussion that will hopefully keep him away from smoking for many if not all his years. Between the after-movie discussion and the actual content of the movie, Peabody is certainly far more educational than Lego.

The Lego story revolves around Emmet, an ordinary Lego construction worker who lives by the everyday credo of “Everything is Awesome,” the earwig soundtrack tune by Teganand Sara. Punk girl (and girlfriend of a jerky Batman) Wildstyle mistakes Emmet for someone who can help her save the world from Lord Business’ plan to freeze the world. The movie is enjoyable enough as an action flick with lots of appearances from Star Wars and Superhero characters.

But the treks to hilarious scenes involving the Trojan War, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting process with Mona Lisa, the cake-marauding Marie Antoinette, and King Tut’s unnecessarily violent wedding vows highlight the time-traveling detours towards understanding Peabody’s motivations for adopting a boy and Sherman’s coming-of-age exploits with the barely-likable Penny.

The Lego Movie: *** out of ***** stars

Mr. Peabody and Sherman: **** out of ***** stars

Thanks to Jackson for helping me with his first blog post.

Fantastic Four Get Re-imagined For Beginners

I used to read those Big Little Books when I was a kid and one of my favorites was a Fantastic Four story called "The House of Horrors."

The reason I liked it was probably pretty similar to the reason why The Avengers is doing so well during its opening weekend at the box office and why I loved the Superheroes Saturday morning cartoon that aired in the 1970s. You pack a lot of power into a comic by having loads of super-powered individuals on every page.

Marvel has was appears to be a phenomenal new series. It rethinks the origins of various heroes like Spiderman and X-Men. I haven't read those yet, but the Fantastic Four's "Season One" is tremendously enjoyable and beautifully and colorfully illustrated.

Reed Richards is redone for modern times, making references to Mad Men and other hot pop-culture trends. He takes his friends into a cosmic storm that gives them super powers. Reed becomes plastic-like and flexible, his love interest Sue Storm gains the power of invisibility, Johnny Storm can turn into fire, and Ben Grimm becomes the hulking Thing.

This is well worth a read if you're not a Fantastic Four expert, which I'm not. The origin story is redone in a fun and quick way that gives dabblers everything they need to know about this unlikely team of superheroes.

**** out of ***** stars

Batman: Year One is Essential Comic-Book Reading

As I lean more and more into the world of graphic novels (they're much quicker and more satisfying when you have a small child and not as much time to read anymore), I figured I absolutely had to dig into the best of the Dark Knight.

Batman: Year One is ranked highly on many best-of graphic novel lists, including #14 all-time by Forbidden Planet.

Created by the legendarily dark Frank Miller, with a resume that includes Sin City, Ronin, and 300, the truly mysterious origins of Batman are unraveled in this tale. It places the police investigator Gordon into the same corrupt city as Batman, who is in his first year of fighting crime in Gotham. Gordon has been transferred with his young wife from Chicago and Batman is returned from a long time away training in martial arts and science. The two men seem to be the only forces for good in the entire gangster, prostitute, and thug-filled place, and their paths cross several times. The final scene places them on a rooftop discussing someone called The Joker who may be planning to poison the city's reservoir.

This truly is a piece of art that "defines Batman for a new generation" and ensures that he will be a leading -- if not the flat-out best -- superhero for a long time to come.

***** out of ***** stars

Morning Glories Takes the Teen Mystery Graphic Novel Genre to a New Level

As I mentioned recently, I've discovered that graphic novels are the perfect answer for a person who doesn't have as much time to enjoy reading as many great stories as he used to (you know, parenthood).

Speaking of great stories, the last graphic novel I finished was Morning Glories Volume One: For a Better Future, from Image Comics. One of the first things I look for in a graphic novel is compelling cover art. This one, at first glance, looks like a simple prep-school story for adults, which in itself can often be a winning formula.

But what really got me more interested was that the characters looked slightly off, mysterious, and puzzling. The lack of description about what this story is all about added to the intrigue.

As one reviewer at Amazon notes, this is Lost meets The Breakfast Club. Six celebrated kids, who happen to all have the same birthday, arrive at a prestigious prep school. On the first day, the teachers and students set about trying to kill them and generally make their lives hell. There is also a monster that sweeps in with no rhyme or reason to stick his hands through the brains of random people at random times.

The interesting thing is that this doesn't appear to be yet-another teenage vampire tale. Through the first volume, I have no idea what it's about. But it's a page turner, and the characters are built so strongly and with just the right of scheming against each other that I'll definitely return to read subsequent volumes of this mysterious thrill ride.

**** out of ***** stars (with the right to give this more or fewer stars based on how the next chapters pan out)

Time to Take a "Stand" With Graphic Novels

Being a former English-lit undergrad and a voracious reader of novels, I never thought the day would come when it would take multiple months to get through a simple Oprah Book Club book (I may never get through Jonathan Franzen's Freedom!).

But such is fatherhood. In fact, I just canceled my New Yorker subscription after a strong 16-year run. I'll still read what I can of that magazine online. But I've really discovered the perfect format for great stories for the free-time challenged: graphic novels.

I bought a few recently. The first one I finished was one based on the first part of Stephen King's The Stand, which was probably the best novel I read before turning 16.

The Stand: Captain Trips, from the famed Marvel company, tells the tale of several Americans who mysteriously survive a killer virus, popularly referred to as "Captain Trips." While everyone else dies, they try to make sense of what is happening. The premise provides perfect drama, and I just ordered the next parts of this series.

Anyone half-way interested in a killer apocalypse tale should find this exquisitely drawn book. Better yet, read the 1,000-page-plus novel first, then read the comic (1,000 pages! That would take this proud papa half-a-year to get through).

***** out of ***** stars