Greetings Loyal Airmen, here we are, one week away from Halloween and the past week has been a mixed bag of good and bad events.  We'll kick off with what we consider the bad and then move into the good stuff.

As of six short months ago, the Cartoon Network, an outfit owned by Warner Brothers, was running two extremely well crafted superhero animated series, YOUNG JUSTICE and THE GREEN LANTERN.  We were a fan of both and did our best to catch them every single week.  Then, as if out of the blue, Cartoon Network announced they were canceling both series and would be replaced them with a new, edgy Batman series to be called BEWARE THE BATMAN and a silly, goofy, kid-aimed show called GO TEEN TITANS.  We were really upset, as were thousands of other comic fans by this news, but there was really nothing we could about it, the network wasn't about to listen to us, their audience.  So we bid farewell to two really great shows.

Eventually the new shows premiered and we made it a point of watching BEWARE THE BATMAN and came away enjoyed it tremendously.  They were employing the same kind of modern CGI animation that had been used in THE GREEN LANTERN series and were offering up a new, tougher version of both the Dark Knight and his faithful butler Alfred.  Never mind Katana, an Asian martial artist, joined the show as a young protege to Batman.  We instantly became fans.  What about GO TEEN TITANS?  We watched five minutes of an episode ….and wanted to cry. Again, its intended solely for the five and six year old crowd.

So after only a few months, guess what Cartoon Network went and canceled today?  Yup…BEWARE THE BATMAN is kaput, just like that.  Whereas they are keeping GO TEEN TITANS.  Really?  Well, that pretty much our days watching Cartoon Network.  Over the past few years the shows have declined horribly in quality, originality and are just silly affairs, again, directed at those viewers just out of diapers.  Truly a sad state of affairs.  We have to wonder why the folks at Warners Animation have stood by and let this all happened.  None of it makes any sense at all.

Now for the truly good stuff.  We'd been hearing tons of good things about the new sci-fi movie GRAVITY and this past week, Valerie and the Air Chief finally got to see it.  WOW.  It just blew us both away and now, days after viewing it, some of its images still haunt us.  Thanks to a brilliant script, directing and outstanding special effects, this is one of those movies you HAVE to see at least once on the big giant silver screen.  It is about as close to being in outer space as the Air Chief will ever get, though we would jump at the chance, even after seeing the film of the ultimate battle for survival.  Over the past thirty years it seems Hollywood has forgotten how to make “real” science fiction movies that revolve around the conquest of space and mankind's quest to explore the mysterious universe in which we abide.  Ever since ALIEN, all space themed movies have been monster-movies of one kind or another until we've become totally sick to death of all of them.  GRAVITY harkens back to the early 1950s movies that focused on that quest for the starts and inspired young movie goers.  GRAVITY does that beautifully, despite its honest depiction of the true hostile environment of space.  There is still beauty and wonder among the starts and we were meant to explore it.  Finally, Sandra Bulloch deserves another Oscar for her gutsy portrayal here.  It is magnificent.  If you haven't seen GRAVITY yet, don't wait.

And finally this past week Marvel Studios released the first official trailer for the second CAPTAIN AMERICA movie coming in 2014.  Sub-titled WINTER SOLDIER, it picks up on Steve Rogers' life after the events of THE AVENGERS movie and how he must adapt to this new modern world he finds himself in .  The first CAPTAIN AMERICA movie remains one of the Air Chief's all time favorites and Chris Evans perfectly captured the every-man essence of the character.  Now, via this trailer, it looks like the action gets amped up to the max, as Cap must deal with new threats to America while at the same time confronting an old ally turned enemy.  This looks to be another solid winner, comic fans.  We can't wait.

And finally, the World Series kicked off this week and our beloved Red Sox, playing in Fenway Park, took game one from the Saint Louis Cardinals.  This looks to be a grand, equally matched battle and a great way to end the 2013 baseball series.  Hope you are enjoying it as well.

Ron – Over & Out!