Tuesday, May 29, 2012

MIB: Development and Perception



Loren Coleman has a very good new post on the MIB, titled MIBs: Silencers vs Killers, which shows the fascinating way in which the imagery of the MIB has developed and evolved over the years.

Indeed, a solid argument can be made that the MIB of old - the pale, scrawny and menacing types that seem far more like Nosferatu than James Bond - have been eclipsed by the "secret agent" angle.

Of course, much of that results from the phenomenal success of the Men in Black movies. But, it's worth noting that - as Loren's article makes very clear via providing us with good imagery of the MIB - there has been a definite change in perception regarding the Men in Black.

I also think a good argument can be made that - as I note in my The Real Men in Black and On the Trail of the Saucer Spies books - there are at least two category of MIB: government and "something else."

And, I think officialdom has some degree of knowledge of this "other" group, even if they don't have all the answers regarding who or "what" they are. And just to confuse things even further, there seems to be evidence that the Intel/military world is not beyond occasionally exploiting and using the weirder MIB motif to hide and camouflage its own actions.

More on all this in a later post...

3 comments:

  1. Do you think the Black Eye Kids are the newest 'upgrade' in the MIB mythos, or is this an entirely different phenomenon?

    I mean, the BEK haven't appeared to UFO witnesses scaring the crap out of them after thinking about going public with their sighting, have they?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey RPJ:

    I think there could be a connection. Have you read David Weatherly's recently published book on the BEK? That's a very good one and includes a whole chapter on the possible MIB link.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's in the wish list --if only Amazon would realize Mexico is as close to the US as Canada... :-/

      Delete