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Show Notes For This Episode

• Official Iron Man 2 Trailer
• Perdue – Tender Chicken Commercial
• Does winning the lottery make you happy?

New Around Here?

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Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into this week’s topic: In product management, do the ends justify the means?

< SPOILER WARNING >
Ghost Rider #35 was created by Jim Starlin (story & layout) and Steve
Leialoha (finished art), and published by Marvel Comics in 1979. Key plot points are pictured herein. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

Johnny Blaze — the motorcycle stuntman & human host for the demonic Ghost Rider, not the alias for the rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Method Man — is zipping through the desert when Johnny unexpectedly transforms into Ghost Rider and dark skies suddenly appear.

A mysterious rider materializes in the road…

… introduces himself as Death, and promptly challenges Ghost Rider to three races for three prizes. The prizes are human lives–and only Ghost Rider can save them. Unfortunately, Death cheats, reaches stranded cyclist Richie Petrillo first, and kills him.

Next up? A little lost girl named Anna Devere. Death cheats again and again, but this time Ghost Rider canes it, and reaches her first, narrowly saving her life.

When Death announces that the next race is for the life of Johnny Blaze, Ghost Rider rejects the idea with a blast of hellfire.

Unfortunately, hellfire’s useless against Death. So the race is on: If Ghost Rider can reach the distant mountain peak without being tagged by Death, he lives. Otherwise, GR’s eating asphalt one final time.

Death is cheating again, and just inches away from claiming Ghost Rider’s life. That’s when Ghost Rider decides that turnabout is fair play.

Death falls off a cliff…

… while Ghost Rider hightails it out of town.

THE END

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into this week’s topic: In product management, do the ends justify the means?

New Around Here?

Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates; follow me on Twitter to keep the discussion going!

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into a discussion of the importance of pursuing disruptive technologies.

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints of this 26-year-old Marvel comic book by Mary Jo Duffy (plot/script) and Bret Blevins (pencils) are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

Welcome to the kingdom of Galax! A land co-ruled by the brothers Crystar and Moltar! A land full of secrets!

Lady Lavour pretends to love Crystar but secretly craves only the power of the throne. Captain Warbow has a secret crush on Lavour’s servant girl, Ambara–but Ambara has her own secret crush… on Crystar.

Moltar has a temper. And Crystar doesn’t know how to deal with it, so he ignores it. The old wizard Ogeode visits the twin princes and warns of looming chaos.

The next night, the clearly evil wizard Zardeth makes the princes an offer: Join me, or Galax will suffer. Captain Warbow pursues Zardeth, and is apparently killed by the wizard.

Bickering between the two princes leads to a fight that leaves both Crystar and Feldspar seemingly dead–at Moltar’s hands. Lady Lavour steps right over Crystar’s body and tries to rally the kingdom around the surviving prince.

While Moltar and Lavour address the kingdom, Ambara drags Crystar and Feldspar to a hidden chamber where Ogeode works to revive them. As a bonus, the old wizard rains shards of magic crystal down on the kingdom. The shards pass harmlessly through good people, but slash Moltar and his followers.

Moltar & co. retreat to Zardeth’s volcanic lair… where the evil wizard decides to turn Moltar and the others into monstrous magma people.

Moltar and his forces attack Galax. The city is saved when Crystar and his newly crystalized men make their dramatic debut.

Crystar and Moltar meet in battle.

Lavour and Moltar double team Crystar–and all looks lost–until the newly crystalized Captain Crossbow intervenes. The men of Galax rally around Crystar, and drive Moltar’s forces out of the city.

Crystar thanks Ambara for all her help. She then reveals her true feelings to him.

Sorry, Captain Crossbow.

THE END

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story recap as a springboard into a discussion about the importance of pursuing disruptive technologies.

New Around Here?

Subscribe to the feed to receive future updates; follow me on Twitter to keep the discussion going!

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story summary as a springboard into a discussion on when being right isn’t enough.

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

Watchmen is a 12-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore with pencils by Dave Gibbons. Originally published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, the series has been collected (several times!) as a single graphic novel. Perhaps you’ve heard, Hollywood has made a movie out of it–and not everyone is happy about it. C’est la vie.

Against a backdrop of growing global instability, New York City police investigate the murder of a man named Edward Blake.

The costumed vigilante Rorschach discovers Blake was actually the costumed hero, The Comedian, and was employed by the government.

Convinced he has uncovered a plot to kill costumed adventurers, Rorschach warns his retired teammates: the omnipotent and emotionally-distant Doctor Manhattan and his government-sponsored girlfriend Laurie Juspeczyk (Silk Spectre II); the hero-turned-businessman Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias); and the sad, flabby Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl II). No one wants to believe him.

After Blake’s funeral, Doctor Manhattan is accused of causing cancer in the people closest to him. The government validates the accusations–and Manhattan exiles himself to Mars. Without this symbol of American might to keep the world in check, the spirals toward World War III.

Rorschach is framed for murder, and captured by the police.

While Doctor Manhattan’s away, Juspeczyk and Dreiberg grow closer. Together–as Silk Spectre and Nite Owl–they bust Rorschach out of prison. Doctor Manhattan teleports Juspeczyk to Mars–they argue, Juspeczyk comes to accept Blake was her biological father, and Doctor Manhattan returns with her to earth.

Nite Owl and Rorschach discover evidence that Ozymandias may be behind the death of the Comedian and the accusations against Manhattan. They confront Ozymandias at his arctic hideout, where he explains that he murdered The Comedian, and arranged for Manhattan’s friends to contract cancer. Why?

To save humanity from impending nuclear war by faking an alien attack on New York City which, he believes, will unite the nations of the world against a new, common enemy. Nite Owl and Rorschach try to stop Ozymandias’ plan–only to find out the attack has already taken place.

Doctor Manhattan and Juspeczyk are horrified by the destruction of New York City. Doctor Manhattan traces the attack to Ozymandias’ headquarters, and confronts him.

Ozymandias rejoices as news broadcasts from around the world confirm that his plan has worked: global hostilities have come to an end. Reluctantly, almost everyone agrees to conceal the truth of the “alien” attack for the sake of world peace.

Rorschach refuses to compromise and insists on revealing the truth. Doctor Manhattan atomizes him. Ozymandias wonders (a little too late) if the ends justify the means. Manhattan journeys to a new galaxy. Dreiberg and Juspeczyk assume new identities and run away together.

THE END

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story summary as a springboard into a discussion on how being right sometimes just isn’t enough.

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed to receive future updates. You can also follow me on Twitter. Thanks!

Bonus Content

Alan Moore reads a section of Watchmen as Rorschach…

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story summary as a springboard into a discussion on how to say “no” to a customer. Allons-y!

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

The Incredible Hulk #464 is a comic book written by Peter David with pencils by Adam Kubert. Published by Marvel Comics in 1998, this concluding part to a three-party storyline is titled “Battleground Earth!

Previously, the Hulk killed the alien warmonger, Trauma, in a mutual endeavor to destroy one another. Trauma’s father, Armageddon, has come to earth to smelt the Hulk and use his remains to reanimate Trauma. Hulk does a good job summarizing the plan for Silver Surfer.

Meanwhile, the Hulk’s partner, the newly-paralyzed Rick Jones, is visited by his wife, Marlo, and their mutual friend Betty Banner. Rick is feeling sorry for himself again, and his wife has had it.

Meanwhile, much to everyone’s surprise, the crafty Hulk assents to Armageddon’s mad scheme without a fight.

Armageddon straps the Hulk into the machine–and the Hulk completely overloads it, incinerating Trauma’s body and destroying any chance of ever reanimating him.

And the Hulk? He just cracks himself up. (Back in these days, he’s kind of a jerk. Justified. But still.)

THE END

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story summary as a springboard into a discussion on how to say “no” to a customer.

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed to receive future updates. You can also follow me on Twitter. Thanks!

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

While the mutant superheroes known as the X-Men hone their combat skills, the X-Man Longshot explores the team’s new base–recently liberated from a group of cybernetic pirates known as the Reavers.

Whispering voices keep calling out to Longshot–voices that sound lonely and scared. Fearing that, somehow, they’d missed a group of prisoners during their initial search of the Reaver compound, Longshot follows the voices to a locked door.

Longshot busts the door down and discovers a huge vault, filled with stolen treasures. Not just stolen–haunted. Longshot picks up a bracelet and the psychic aura of the bracelet explains how it was forged, how it was given as a gift, and how it was stolen.

Longshot’s psychometry acts as a beacon for the haunted items–hundreds, thousands of them–and soon he’s overwhelmed by the power of their grief.

The X-Men recover their friend, and their proper telepath Psylocke enables everyone to see and hear what Longshot is experiencing.

Longshot wants to return all the stolen loot to the rightful owners. Wolverine disagrees, suggesting that they have more important things to do than play Santa. (At this point in their history, the X-Men have faked their own deaths so they can more effectively combat their enemies.)

Colossus–the man of metal with the heart of a poet–makes the argument that, “If we cast aside our basic human decency, our conscience, do we not lose so much more?” That is an argument that no one in a Claremont story can ever overcome.

Longshot “reads” each piece of treasure while Psylocke shields him from psychic overload and simultaneously relays that data to another X-Man who does her best to pinpoint the original owners.

The X-Men then divide up the loot and teleport all over the world, bringing the stolen goods back to where they belong.

Longshot cries. The X-Men win. And even the curmudgeonly Wolverine concedes that this exercise wasn’t a complete waste of time.

THE END

Tomorrow, we see what this X-Men adventure can teach us about product management and keeping your eye on the prize this holiday season.

Bonus!
Check out several decades worth of X-men cover art at Marvel Database Project!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed to receive future updates automatically. You can also follow me on Twitter.

< SPOILER WARNING >
Key plotpoints are pictured below. You have been warned!
< / SPOILER WARNING >

While construction continues on their new headquarters, the Joes code-named Scarlett, Hawk, and Stalker recount how they tracked down Snake-Eyes in the High Sierras years ago to recruit him to the G.I. Joe team.

In a flashback sequence, Hawk and Stalker find Snake-Eyes living with a wolf and hunting rabbits without a gun. They convince Snake-Eyes to return to civilization.

Scarlet picks up the story next, recounting how she grew to love Snake-Eyes, and how a tragic accident during a desert operation nearly killed the two of them.

“He spent six months in the hospital and all the best plastic surgeons tried every trick in the book,” Scarlett says, “but there was nothing in the world that could ever make Snake-Eyes look human again.” The explosion also damaged his vocal cords, making him mute.

In the present day, Snake-Eyes is in New York City hunting his estranged friend Storm Shadow, believed to have killed their ninja sensei years before. Storm Shadow breaks into a mutual friend’s deli and steals evidence preserved from the murder scene. Snake-Eyes gives chase.

The Joes intercept a police report about a fight between a masked man with an uzi and a ninja in white, and spring into action.

The chase leads to the top of a subway train–heading straight for a tunnel.

To save the life of the man he once considered a brother, Snake-Eyes throws his own weapon aside, entreating Storm Shadow to mount the attack. Storm Shadow leaps at Snake-Eyes, and the two fall to safety just as the train enters the tunnel.

Storm Shadow explains that he did not kill their sensei; an agent of the terrorist organization Cobra committed the murder. While the Joes draw closer, Storm Shadow reveals that he has spent years working his way up through the Cobra ranks in an attempt to ascertain the identity of the true killer and exact vengeance.

By the time Scarlet arrives, Storm Shadow is gone. And Snake-Eyes, as always, is not talking.

The End

(Actually, for those keeping score, the story continued in G.I. Joe #28,
part three of the origin of Snake-Eyes)

Tomorrow, we see what Snake-Eyes can teach us about product management and communicating with different personality types.

Personal Note: I am a comic book geek, and G.I. Joe #27 was the first comic book I ever got my grubby little hands on. For that reason, this particular issue holds much sentimental value to me–for the story, for the interior ads for the Olympic Sales Club, and even for the rather disturbing and unflattering Star Wars video game ad on the back cover…