Meagan Good

            On Wednesday morning I worked out the chords for half of the first verse of “La vie grise” (The Grey Life) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of “Aux enfants de la chance” (To the Children of Chance) by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. 

            I weighed 85.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            At 12:30 I headed up to Bacan, the Venezuelan restaurant at 369 Roncesvalles to meet my old friend Donna, who I haven’t sat down with in about 25 years. I was fifteen minutes early and she was ten minutes late. She used to perform at my writers open stage The Orgasmic Alphabet Orgy and did some very interesting little one person plays combining singing, speech and dance. I’ve uploaded a couple of videos of her work from that time to YouTube. I played a supporting role in a piece that she performed at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. On another occasion I helped her out by videotaping another one of her performances. At that time I met her mother and we hit it off. When Donna arrived at Bacan today she said her mother said to say “Hi” and Donna added that her mother never says that. She says her mother hates everybody but loves me. I used to have a real thing for Donna and now it’s blossomed into a siblingly affection. Donna lives with and takes care of her parents. Her father is 91 and doesn’t need a lot of care but her 84 year old mother is not very mobile. Her sister in law is a born again Christian who thinks that “Knock Three Times” by Tony Orlando and Dawn is a Satanic song. I said that’s ironic since the whole idea of knocking three times is an ancient Christian tradition, representing the Trinity. Lunch was on me. Donna had some kind of sandwich and I had the cachapa (folded corn pancake stuffed with cheese) with added chorizo sausage and a pint of Creemore. We talked about the current state of art, and of the inherent songs that exist inside of every poem. I sent her the videos I’ve recently created and she thinks my song Sleep in the Snow could be a hit. We were there for a little over two hours and then I walked Donna to Dundas West Station. 

           I rode east on Dundas to the African Drum shop but it was still closed. I went home and took a siesta at 16:05. I didn’t wake up until just before 19:00. 

            I weighed 86 kilos at 19:00, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the evening in two weeks.

            I had oven fish and chips with a beer while watching Shazam: Fury of the Gods. 

            It’s four years since Captain Marvel (They’re not allowed to call him that but he’s the original) used the Wizard’s magic staff to share his powers with the other kids in his foster home and then broke the staff. 

            The broken staff is in a museum. Two people in Greek armour enter the museum and reveal themselves to be Hespera and Kalypso, two of the daughters of Atlas. Hesperia and Calypso were nymphs and daughters of Atlas but probably by different mothers because Hesperia was an evening nymph and Calypso was an ocean island nymph. They take the staff and go to where they have the Wizard imprisoned and force him to repair the staff. 

            Captain Marvel goes to see his alter ego Billy’s pediatrician and treats him like a psychiatrist.

            Later there is a disaster situation as the Ben Franklin Bridge is falling apart. Billy and his five foster siblings turn into their superheroic counterparts and save the people but not the bridge. They still have the minds of children and teenagers and so they are shown to not have full control of their powers.

            Freddie meets a new girl at school named Anne. Then two bullies come up and pick on Freddie, even bending his crutch. We didn’t have anyone on crutches in my high school but I can’t imagine even the bullies we had picking on them. Maybe it happens in the States though. Anne tells Freddy he’s a hero. Later she mentions that she’s heard that he knows some superheroes and so to impress her he offers to introduce her to one of them. He goes behind a wall and comes back as Captain Marvel Junior. But then Hespera and Kalypso arrive and Hespera uses the staff to turn him back to Freddy. Then Freddy’s teacher Mr. G comes onto the roof and Kalypso takes control of his mind to cause him to walk off the roof and kill himself. Captain Marvel flies in to rescue Freddy but Anthea causes the buildings to move and two of them slam together around him. Hespera turns part of the roof into a flying platform and they escape with Freddy as a captive. Captain Marvel follows but Hespera puts a dome around the downtown core of Philadelphia and Captain Marvel is just inside and can’t break through. 

            Billy is having a fantasy about Wonder Woman when the Wizard takes her place in her skimpy uniform and warns Billy about the daughters of Atlas. Captain Marvel tells the others about it in their club house in the Rock of Eternity. 

            The caverns of their lair have not been fully mapped. Pedro shows them that he’s found a library where the books fly like birds and there’s a magic pen that he’s named Steve and which has access to all knowledge and writes things down. He even writes his essays for school. They learn that when Captain Marvel broke the staff he broke the barrier between worlds. They also learn there is a third daughter of Atlas named Anthea. But Anthea was not a daughter of Atlas but of Chronos because Anthea was another name for Hera the queen of the Greek gods and the wife of Zeus. What the daughters want is for the powers of Atlas that were given to Captain Marvel and his family to be returned to them. They already have Freddy’s. Captain Marvel proposes that they offer to give up their powers in exchange for Freddy but then take one of the daughters hostage and turn the tables. 

            Freddy and the Wizard are imprisoned but Anthea helps them escape. 

            Captain Marvel meets with Hespera. He has planned an ambush but she has seen that coming and so when his family shows up behind Hespera, her family shows up behind his and Pedro’s powers are taken away. The rest fight Hespera and almost lose but Captain Marvel knocks her out and they escape with her into a porta potty. It seems any doorway can lead to the Rock of Eternity. Then when Kalypso opens the door she only finds a construction worker sitting on the toilet. They lock Hespera up but she immediately escapes with the apple of life which was why she allowed herself to be caught in the first place. She traps them inside the rock by rearranging the doors so that it becomes a labyrinth. But Captain Marvel smells the one that was a porta potty and they escape. They find the sisters and rescue Freddy. He gets his powers back. 

            Now that the sisters have the apple they can restore their own world which was their goal but Kalypso decides to use it to destroy the human world. She takes control of the staff and summons the wooden dragon Ladon, who guards the golden apples. In this story it has the ability to induce fear beyond its other powers. 

            The Shazamily show up in their hero forms in their foster parents bedroom and reveal their identities. Pedro takes that opportunity to come out as gay but is surprised that his entire family already knows. Just then the dragon attacks and destroys their house. They escape and the dragon follows with Kalypso on its back. Freddy’s powers are taken again as well as Darla and Eugene’s. Mary flies away with the golden apple and Kalypso pursues her. Her powers are taken while in the sky and she falls while Kalypso retrieves the apple. Captain Marvel saves Mary. Captain Marvel is now the only one left with powers. 

            Kalypso plants the apple in the stadium and from the tree that grows there also emerge monsters of mythology like the Cyclops. Hespera and Anthea try to stop Kalypso but Hespera is mortally wounded and Anthea’s powers are taken away. The monsters are destroying the city and Darla asks Steve the pen what monsters are afraid of. He writes “the king of beasts” but the Wizard explains that is the unicorn. He says unicorns are not the sweet and gentle creatures that little girls love in their fantasies. They are fierce beings that hate humanity. She asks what unicorns like and Steve writes “dark caverns and ambrosia”. Meanwhile Captain Marvel fights the dragon that breaths magical fire that even burns his invulnerable costume. He realizes that Kalypso’s staff is absorbing his powers and flies away.

            Then Darla finds a unicorn in a parking garage transformed into a cavern by the tree. She beckons to it and offers it Skittles. It loves them and they become friends. It calls to the other unicorns and then next we see the Marvel family charging into battle on the backs of the unicorns as they impale the monsters with their horns and Darla shouts, “Taste the rainbow motherfuckers!”

            Captain Marvel revives Hespera with lightning even though she is still dying. Kalypso tries to kill Freddy and Anne with the dragon’s breath but Captain Marvel pulls the dragon back. Then he steals the staff and flies away. Then as part of his plan Hespera uses the last of her strength to begin shrinking the dome around the city so it’s closing in on Kalypso. He begins calling down lightning in order to overload the staff with electricity. The dome is reacting like one of those Tesla globes. He flies into the dragon with the staff and shouts “Shazam”, causing the magical lightning to strike. The tree, the dragon, Kalypso and Hespera turn to dust and the dome is destroyed. But in the moment he shouted “Shazam” Captain Marvel turned into Billy and died. 

            Later the family mourns at Billy’s grave in the dead realm of the gods. The Wizard says that only the spark of a god can restore it but there are no gods left. Then a voice says there is one and Wonder Woman steps forward. In the comics Wonder Woman is never referred to as a god. Maybe she’s half like Hercules since her father is Zeus. But Ares is also her grandfather who is the son of Zeus so that’s fucked up because that means her mother had a child with her own grandfather. So anyway Wonder Woman takes the staff and drives it into the ground. It crackles with power again and the land begins to come alive. Anthea gets her powers back. Captain Marvel emerges from Billy’s grave and hits on Wonder Woman. She brushes him off while at the same time praising him for his sacrifice. She leaves and Captain Marvel gives everyone their powers back. 

            This was an engaging film although a little silly sometimes but I think it was geared for younger audiences. Helen Mirren did a good job as Hespera because Helen Mirren can do no wrong but Lucy Lieu’s performance as Kalypso was the weakest part of the film. 

           The Marvel family are interesting because they are children who become physically adult superheroes. The youngest and most naïve is Darla and she is the most charming in her hero form. She is played by Meagan Good, who started acting at the age of 4 with her mother as her manager. She worked as an extra on TV shows for years and then appeared in her first film, Friday, at the age of 13. She received critical acclaim for her role in Eve’s Bayou. She co-starred in Biker Boyz, D.E.B.S., Venom, Stomp the Yard, The Love Guru, Think Like a Man, Think Like a Man Too, and Roll Bounce. Her first true lead role was in Waist Deep. She starred in the prime time soap opera Deception. She considers herself to be a sexy Christian. She is dating the currently controversial actor Johnathan Majors whose ex has accused him of abuse.