Tag Archives: X-Men

Storm Vs. The Mighty El Niño

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Storm

I think about superpowers a lot.

I’m in the habit of asking people what they would want for a superpower.  Almost unsurprisingly, most people want abilities that would help themselves out in everyday life.  Teleportation, is very popular as well as the ability to read minds, and telekinesis. My girlfriend, who is not a comic fan, wants weather control, which would be cool, but maybe not super useful hear in L.A. since the weather is generally always nice. But, I suppose if she had the power to control the climate she could make it storm and end this terrible drought.

That’s when I realized that Storm kind of sucks.  Instead of squaring off with villains, she could use her talents to end droughts and inclement weather.  Now I understand that Storm’s powers don’t exactly work that way (or at least I understood after a few of my co-workers calmly explained why my theories are “harsh”).  Storm has to pull the weather pattern from another part in the world, meaning, if she wants it to rain in one part of the world she has to pull the rain clouds from other parts of the world.  I explained that she could probably spare to pull some clouds from Seattle or Vancouver, perhaps even clouds over the ocean.  Some thought it might not work that way, that she just pulls random rain clouds when she creates her storms.  Maybe, but wouldn’t that mean every time someone robs a bank Storm might be causing large parts of the Earth to dry up.  If so, Storm kind of sucks.

Perhaps I’m unfair.  Most superheroes could do better.  Superman could run around in a hamster wheel generator and power entire cities in a couple of hours, sounds a lot more useful than that newspaper job of his.

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Meeting The White Wizard

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Magnetosmall

First off, go see the new X-men movie, not just because I worked on it, but because it’s also a good movie.

Secondly, I thought this would be an appropriate time to tell you about the time I met Magneto himself, Sir Ian McKellen.

I met Sir Ian McKellen while he was attending a film festival put on by the school I was teaching at.  I was at one of the coveted after parties often held at the festival, perhaps it was extra desirable since the celebrity was expected to be there.  I don’t remember all the details of the party, but I remember this part rather distinctly.  When I entered the room I saw him swarmed by massive amounts of students, taking pictures and trying to speak with him (in fact, I seem to remember hearing how some of the students planned on trying to make out with him).  I, a professor, thought that it would be in my best interest to approach him and ask him if he needed anything, perhaps a drink.  I wriggled my way through the masses towards the idol and approached him.

“Hello sir,” I said, “Let me know if I can get you anything perhaps a drink.”

“I just sent someone to get me one,” he replied, “but thank you so much”.

I was a bit worried thought I was just some silly student trying to buy him a drink.  I tried to cover.  “Well let me know if there is anything you need me to do, maybe get rid of some these students,” I joked, “after all I am a professor here.”

He looked at me at and smiled, ” You’re a professor? You are very young.”

“I am.”

He put his arm on me and looked me in the eyes and said in a very soft voice, “You won’t always be.”

I felt like I had just received more than I ever thought possible.  I just received advice from The White Wizard himself.  Legendary actor, Ian McKellen, personally gave me wisdom.

…or he just said something obvious like “the sky is blue”.  I mean, “you’re going to get old” isn’t that profound.  But for some reason, when he said it, it felt that way.