Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for June 05, 2023

Via butterfly?

Hey, you never know when you’ll be struck by an bright idea. You do you, Wallace.

Seagull has the same expression as Spud. Check out his eyebrow!

Before you summon the power of the Gods of Thunder, you have to know how to spell Mjonlir… Mjoilner… Mjiloner… Oh, radishes!!

I never attempted to summon thunder and lightning as a child. But the power of flight? Oh, yes.

Though “Superman” had debuted on TV a couple of years before Mary Martin’s “Peter Pan” did, I’m pretty sure our local TV offerings didn’t include Supes. So I’m pretty sure that my early fantasies of flying came from Peter Pan when I was about six years old. So I never jumped off the roof with a bath-towel cape as those (apocryphal?) injury-prone kids did. My attempts at flight were leaps off our front porch with little danger involved.

“Peter Pan” as a children’s novel was a pretty scary book… what with Mrs. Darling half convinced by Wendy’s claims of nocturnal visitations by a flying boy coming in through a third floor window. As a protective mother, she decided one night to sit at the window to see for herself.

She was startled to sleepy wakefulness by a boy dressed entirely in leaves dropping down from… above. He grinned, showing his teeth.. which she noticed were baby teeth… and snarled ferally.

Yes, I think J. M. Barrie must have been channeling Stephen King when he wrote that. The whole book is brilliant and well worth a re-read as an adult. It’s a complex (and funny!) meditation on childhood and adulthood and all the anxieties and fears peculiar to both.

Sorta like “Wallace the Brave.”

Here endeth the Book Review.

I’m hearing “Geez, warn a fella” in an entirely Fargo accent..!

I was expecting a ZOT, like out of B.C.

Whatever happened to just “Shazam!”? Too retro?

Wallace needs to try that again holding a hammer in his hand.

See, that’s why they didn’t do it— they knew there were bystanders in the way. Clear the area first and try again, Wallace!

Was that a lightening bug? Need to put a little more juice into your summons but it’s a good start.

Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me!

Fortunately, it was a nice sunny day, with nary a storm insight or Wallace ( and friends! ) might have become a statistic!

" No Mjölnir for You !! " … :)

This calls into question Wallace’s worthiness.

Fourth Wing!

Mjolnir, where art thou?

Childhood can really let you down at times.

Mjölnir did not arrive. Apparently you are not yet worthy. Sorry, Wallace, apparently being brave is not good enough, but don’t give up hope, even Capt couldn’t wield it on the first try.