Well after seeing "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" this past week, I am still unsure exactly what the deal is with the character. This movie did a slightly better job, I felt, than the first one in explaining why it was so bad to suddenly become possessed by a super-powered demon with a flaming motorcycle and a passion for detecting evil-doers and killing them. The main character expressed so much angst, for no apparent good reason, until at one point in this film he explains that the Rider has a certain inability to make subtle distinctions between mortal and venial sins (i.e. petty & capital offenses), much less the appropriate responses. So that's that. But what took up most of my attention, aside from general amusement at watching the actors give up about two seconds in and just start chewing scenery, was a similarity with another Marvel property a few years ago.

In both cases, with The Punisher & The Ghost Rider, you have a relatively obscure superhero, with a surprisingly high on-screen body-count and a skull motif.

In the first movie, he makes a fateful decision to go after bad guys based on a family tragedy, and there is a very silly movie, which even the very hot romantic interest cannot distract from. Then they redo the sequel, where they say "the heck with a romantic interest" and replace her with a single mother and start racking up a body count with a cartoony villain. And the sequel includes a significant actor from the HBO shows Rome & The Wire, which makes those of us who've seen every episode wince to see what has befallen these guys. And there is also a minor actor from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whom you are happy to see getting work. So look forward to Daredevil being rebooted, eventually with Kevin McKidd, Clarke Peters (they prefer British actors) & Nicholas Brandon, but no Jennifer Garner or replacement for her. I might actually like that, especially if it features a blind ninja dismembering people.

And that leads me to a creepy parallel I noticed this TV season. On Castle, they replaced the authority figure over the female lead character, and in a manner similar to what I predicted which with a reference to Bones. On both of those shows, you have an off-beat boyish male character, formerly a lead in one of Joss Whedon's prematurely canceled creations, who's divorced with a kid, and paired up with a serious professional female character. She has several colleagues who make the male lead the odd man out in their workplace, including a stern but fatherly black male boss, a pair of male subordinates who are best friends, and her own ethnic minority best friend who works with, but is not of the same profession as, the female lead. Despite it ostensibly being a crime-fighting procedural drama, the TV show is named after the best-selling author character, and not the law enforcement officer.

So as if the initial similarities were not enough, eventually the black male father figure boss left the show and was replaced by a black female boss who initially clashed with the heroine. What is more, each of the actresses had previously been best known as the evil, deceased ex of the lead black character & mother of his annoying, trouble-causing son on a cancelled popular TV show on the other show's network! Penny Johnson went from being the evil ex-wife of David Palmer or 24 on Fox, to the substitute boss on Castle on ABC. The chick on Bones, which is on Fox, had previously been Michael's ex-wife on Lost, which was on ABC.

I ask you now, how much of a coincidence is it that these extraordinary coincidences are taking place in the Mayan Calender year? I want a bunker.