There’s Always a Rochester Connection!

There’s always a Rochester connection.

I learned this the hard way, as I involuntarily lost my summer to Marvel.

I suppose the story should begin in May, when the son returned from college after negotiating his first year.

Things only intensified the next month, when the daughter joined the ranks of the summer vacationers.

The lunches—that I could handle.

The rides—I could even deal with that.

What did me in, however, was the loss of cultural control.

There was an era, I’m assuming, when senior generations could force feed the junior ones, ensuring the persistence of misogyny, racism, and other societal ills that old people (and scary young ones) enjoy promoting.

But the tables have turned, and now I’m apparently the one being force fed.

It began with mentions of an arachnid, somehow crossed with homo sapiens.

Then came references to a patriotic military hero, another dude dressed in metal, and some green guy.

Even I had to Marvel—at the comics, that is.

Because one simple film adaptation—Spider-Man: Brand New Day—had opened the flood gates, and over the next two weeks, I found myself submerged in additional films, all courtesy the progeny.

With no choice but to manufacture inspiration, I harnessed my own superpower, the one that has birthed this blog, skimmed occasionally by influential people like the wife and mother.

That superpower, of course, is finding the Rochester connection, which in the age of AI involves a couple clicks and a couple milliseconds.

Let’s rewind to 1939, when Marvel Comics began under the name Timely Publications.

Two years later, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America. Simon, of course, was a Rochester (NY) native.

Fast forward to 1962, the year of Spider-Man’s first comic book appearance. A certain Iron Man showed up in the same year.

In 1983, Robert Downey Jr. made his professional stage acting debut at Geva Theatre Center—in Rochester. A quarter century later, he became Iron Man.

Five years after that, in 2013, scenes from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were filmed in Rochester. If you watch carefully, you’ll recognize Main Street masquerading as New York City.

Finally, we get to the Avengers, whose Compound is somewhere in Upstate New York (not Rochester, but who’s counting at this point?).

Satisfied, I realized that thanks to my fellow Rochesterians, the youngsters were still learning a thing or two from their predecessors.

But deep down, I still hoped the next Rochester connection would happen at school.