Happy #PiDay! This is the day math enthusiast can geek out on the Greek symbol used to measure the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which in numerical form is 3.14159. This was the best day in my school math days when I learned about Pi (that and learning the word parallelogram.) This is also the day when you can eat PIE!! One of the best things you can do on this day is Google search “local Pi Day deals”, thank me later.
Ok, I want to have fun with this post, because we can all geek out on this day on various levels. I chose comics, as you can ascertain from my blog.
If you are a fan of comics, or may on occasion have flipped through a few, you may have notice that at one point Hostess had almost the corner market on adverts in Marvel and DC comics. It usually had a rando bad guy or villain trying to steal the Hostess pies and the hero saving the day, all on one page. Now, they use Snickers….
When most people think of PIE they think of apple, cherry, banana cream - which is all well and good and yummy. Another PIE that comes to my mine is pizza; deep dish, New York style, Chicago style, cheese, mushroom, pepperoni, ham and pineapple (don’t hate.) What goes good with pizza, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
What began in 1984 from the thoughts of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, it was only attended to be a one shot comic, but grew from popularity. Oddly enough, the concept of TMNT was directly influenced by Marvel titles (blind man crosses a road, cause a toxic spill accident, teenage mutants from the 1980’s New Mutant series, Daredevil’s mentor’s name was “Stick”, hence Splinter’s name.) Instead of ninja names, it was their idea just to use popular Renaissance artist names. To me, the Turtles represented discipline, action, mystery and fun. I remember watching the cartoon in the late 1980s/early 1990s, making my mother stand in a line for almost two hours to see the 1989 film. I didn't realize it was a comic until later on, with much more grittier plots. In the last few years, I have seen the popularity grow again with more story lines and a plethora of crossovers, including Batman (which, in my opinion are excellent!)
You can’t have awesome, fighting heroes without a shadowy villain, can you? Enter Shredder and his Foot Clan. Learn about the history of the Foot Clan and it’s founder in the Secret History of the Foot Clan.
Pi is part of a mathematical equation, so I would be remiss if I did not include a intelligent comic book character. I want to highlight one of my favorites, Henry McCoy aka, Beast.
Henry “Hank” McCoy is one of the first mutants created for the X-Men in 1963. Hank’s mutation gave him strength and agility, also unusually big feet and hands, making is mutation more noticeable than that of Scott Summers, Jean Grey, or the Professor himself. Performing an experiment, he ingested a liquid that changed his appearance, but not in the way he though. The liquid exacerbated his mutation, now he has blue fur and his features are that more of an animal, hence his nickname “Beast,” what did not change was his intelligence. He has been a staple throughout the X-Men titles, he was on several Marvel teams; including X-Force, X-Treme X-Men and The Avengers. He found the cure for the Legacy virus and has help the mutant/government relationship throughout the years.
I have a favorite comic that I eventually bought in trade - Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis. The X-Men team investigate strange births in Africa. This comet takes place during the time when the mutant population was dwindling, these births all taken place in a small village raises concerns and hopes for the X-Men, you can find the comic here.
I hope you get to enjoy your pie in whatever form you take it!