Category: superheroes

Duckman: The Origins

I’m going to let you into a secret. I’m a superhero.

I know, it’s difficult to take in. Let me just remove my glasses. It will seem much more plausible then.

It all started when I was on “tour” with my band. We were staying at The Billing Aquadrome. The place is as wonderful as it sounds. I think the magic of the place might have been what caused me to turn into a superhero. It might be my radioactive spider.

Every superhero needs an origin story, and this is mine. It is not as heartbreaking as seeing my parents murdered. It’s not as scientific as a spider bite. I’m not a multimillionaire. I haven’t been able to make my own technology. I’m not a mutant (as far as I can tell).

Not an actual picture of me as Duckman. I like to keep my identity secret.

All I have is my wits and a power to control the actions of ducks. Allow me to set the scene.

We were playing Olympic Frisbee. I say playing, we were training really. We never made it to Olympic standard. The reasons for this will become obvious shortly.

It was early in the morning. We’d just had a bit of breakfast and were in the process of waking up before we worked out our plan for the day. One of us – I can’t remember who but it wasn’t me as I’m awesome – failed to catch the Frisbee and it went into a nearby lake.

Everyone was distraught. They thought our game was over and the disc lost forever. Whilst they were busy crying and lamenting, I was not to be stopped.

“LEWIS! GET ME THE BREAD!” I commanded.

Lewis, being inferior to me in every way (although he never says it, I know he thinks of me as his hero), followed my every command. He hurried over to where our food supply was and brought me back a loaf of bread.

Using this as my conduit, I summoned the ducks nearby towards the Frisbee. Throwing bits of bread just in front of them where I wanted them to go I controlled them using nothing but the power of my mind to nudge the Frisbee back to us.

Everyone around bowed down at my feet, for they had never seen such a feat before. Women wanted to be with me. Men wanted to be me. The game of Olympic Frisbee continued.

This is how I became Duckman – controller of ducks using only the power of his mind! (And occasionally bread).

Duckman is looking for partners for a kick ass superhero team. Apply within.

Everything Is Awesome

When I was in primary school, my parents came home one day with a big orange box. The box had about a million pieces of Lego in it. I think they had bought it from parents of a child who had grown out of it and it contained a wide variety of random pieces. This was back in the days when if you bought Lego, you just bought a selection of bricks rather than the packages you get these days of Hogwarts or a pirate ship.

I can’t remember if I was very excited, but in retrospect I really should have been. That one box of Lego provided me with many hours of fun throughout my childhood, attempting to create many different things out of what was available.

I was slightly OCD, however, and everything had to be the same colour. I couldn’t have a house with mostly red bricks and a few random other colours to make up the numbers. That annoyed me and if I was playing with other children, I would secretly rip apart anything they’d made which didn’t conform to my monocolour brick rules and rebuild it appropriately.

The orange box disappeared one day. I am assuming that when my parents thought I had grown out of Lego, they sold it onto the parents of another family who I hope enjoyed it as much as I did. I’m not sure you can ever actually grow out of Lego.

Recently, my life has converged around a few Lego-based things and I started thinking about all the things I used to make.

My cousin sold me his copy of Lego Marvel Superheroes on the Playstation 4. I’m fairly sure it is the first and currently only game that I have fully completed. 100%. Platinum medal. All of that jazz. I’d previously played some of Lego Star Wars, although I didn’t get into as much. Possibly because superheroes are much cooler than lightsabers, no matter what anyone says.

The humour of the game, and of the TV shows (I have only watched one, so I am assuming it runs throughout the other ones) is simple, childish… but still brilliant. It draws you into it’s universe and reminds you of a simpler time when all that mattered was making sure that all your buildings were made of the same colour bricks. Well, that’s what it reminds me of anyway.

Shortly after completing the game, Lovefilm sent me the Lego Movie which I got around to watching the best part of a year after everyone else. I was worried that I would be disappointed after everyone had told me how amazing it is. I was not disappointed. The main part of the film is brilliant and then the metaphysical ending where it turns out Will Ferrell is actually a real life human being rather than a Lego overlord was unexpected but perfect.

I started working in London a couple of months ago and have been using my holiday to take half days and do touristy things. There is currently an exhibition of Lego art called the Art of Brick  which, aptly enough, it is in Brick Lane. When I heard about this, I decided to treat myself to a visit as a birthday present to myself.

The exhibition is all work from an American man named Nathan Sawaya who quit his job as a lawyer to make Lego art. As a job. That is so incredibly cool and inspiring. I kind of want to be him. Especially after you watch some of the videos at the exhibition and realise he is actually a very lovely chap.

I highly recommend this exhibition – it is on until April 2015 and costs about £15 but is worth every penny. I’ve included a couple of photos to give you an idea of the artwork on display. The first couple of rooms feature replicas of other artworks which are cool, but it is not until you get into the rooms where he has created original pieces that you start to see how amazing his work is.

After all of this recent Lego based excitement, I have obviously bought my niece some Duplo for Christmas. Well, I say it’s for my niece….