Book review (and it's not a comic)

I'm in a very bad mood and it's not because Elizabeth May won the Green Party leadership ... well, not entirely for that reason. Nope, I'm in a bad mood because I finally started to read "Now You Know: The Book of Answers" by Doug Lennox. For those who don't know me well, I have a bit of an obsession with knowing useless information (as my family may have learned when I did some searching into the causes bellybutton lint or the origins of "let them eat cake"... which is mistakenly attributed to Marie Antoinette). So when I saw this book (and the second volume) on sale a while back I thought it would be perfect. It's been sitting on my shelf for a while now but I needed a break from the "Physics of Superheroes" by James Kakalios (quantum physics and string theory can be a lot to absorb for someone who barely made it through first year physics) so I decided to give it a go. At about half way through I felt worse off then when I started.

The first thing that caught my eye was the answer to who is the woman in the Mona Lisa. I've spent a bit of time looking into Leonardo da Vinci and the Mona Lisa even before I read the Da Vinci Code (which also sent me on a fact finding mission... see the afore mentioned obsession) so I knew that currently the only answer to this question could only be a theory as it's never been proven. But there he goes saying it's Lisa Gherardini. Yes, most evidence points to this and it's the most popular theory but it would be extremely misleading to declare this as a statement of fact. Plus, he claims the original title of the painting was "La Gioconda" which is pretty much false. The painting was never given an "original title" as Leonardo never gave it one. It was given descriptive names until someone published their theory that it was a painting of Lisa Gherardini and at that point it was given the titles "Mona Lisa" and "La Gioconda".

So as I went on I started to question his other entries and just how thorough his "thorough research" was. Now I didn't have the time to look into all his facts so I decided to stick with ones that caught my eye. Some have proven to be true (the degree of their truth or correctness sometimes varies) while others are just theories (some of which have no evidence supporting them while others have evidence against them) and then there are the ones that are just plain wrong. Some tidbits:

- Chicago was referred to as the "Windy City" before the events he lists as the reason for the nickname. Though the events he cites may have cemented the name.

- Although there are many stories about "the real McCoy" referring to the boxer he mentions, you must also consider that the slogan "the real MacKay" was in use before the boxer. So the real origin may be tied into that and that's something you should mention in a book like this.

- Golf is not an acronym for "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden". I don't even want to dignify this one but the word "golf" and the game pre-date the Scottish social clubs he mentions and it seems to have come from the Dutch word for "club".

- Giving the finger predates the English/French battle he gives as the source (where the archers waved their fingers at the French who had threatened to cut them off). And the myth is actually that the 2 finger victory sign started there (not the finger) and that is generally regarded as false as well.

Now perhaps I'm just catching the only mistakes made in this book but I kinda doubt it given his willingness to present theories as fact. What irks me the most about all this is this book is labeled a "National Best-Seller" and has been followed up with several volumes. I only hope that his other volumes correct the mistakes made here or at least don't present false facts. Although I highly doubt it so there are a lot of people walking around thinking they know all this stuff and are completely oblivious to the fact that they may be wrong. So if you've read this book, you might want to reconsider believing anything you've read in it until you've confirmed it elsewhere. Otherwise, you'll be the one with egg on your face when you're proven wrong. And now you know.

Weekly comics review

I probably should be including the date the comics came out in my title. Oh well, that might look confusing since I don't post until 2 days after they come out. Anyhow, 3 books this week and I'll keep the spoilers for Astonishing X-Men to a minimum (just for you Carl, now get reading!).

Astonishing X-Men: I continue to love this series. Joss Whedon is a genius... yes, I said genius. In this issue we actually get a big reveal (I don't count the unmasking of the secret Hellfire Club member as their "reveal"... well, you'd have to read the book to understand). So the reveal is which mutant will supposedly be responsible for the destruction of Breakworld and it had a nice twist to it. There's just so much going on in this book that I don't have a clue where it's going to go and it's just an amazing ride, where ever it might be going. And the art continues to be stellar. I can't say enough about this series. I really lost interest in the X-universe when everyone and their dog became mutants but this book really gets to the core of the X-Men. The only downside, it only comes out every 2 months (but it's worth it).

Ultimates Annual #2: Isn't it funny when the "annuals" for a series comes out more frequently than the series itself? This one takes place after the current storyline (so we see some spoilers as to how it ends, but nothing major) but doesn't really bring anything new to the story and focusses on the issue of racism in America (and around the world). The story is nothing new, rather corny at times, and not really flushed out very well. Some stuff was thrown out there that left me a little lost (characters that I guess I was supposed to know more about before reading this book). I'm not a huge fan of Deodato's artwork and it didn't impress me here either. I generally find he's not a great storyteller. I don't find his panels flow very well and some of his panels end up being hard to figure out what's happening. When I have to stop in the middle of the action to try and figure out what's going on in one small panel it kills the momentum. One example is the part where a guy was looking down at a grenade that was thrown into his lap but the layouts don't really flow. The shot where he is looking down is a straight on shot of him from the waist up. From that distance and Deodato's "sloppy" style you can't really see his eyes well and he kinda looks like he just doesn't have any eyeballs. A close up shot of his face from below would have been better to show his emotion and what he's doing. Plus, the next panel (of the grenade) should be tied to this one (by being in close approximation) but it's back on the other side of the page. That's just one example of where Deodato loses me in the book. So it's an annual so you're probably wondering why I'm focussing on one story, well this annual only has the one story. So it's really just a Captain America/Falcon one shot. In the end, it was a highly disappointing book. But I can't wait to see the next issue of the Ultimates.

Elephantmen #2: I hate to say it but this issue kinda disappointed me. The overall story behind the series is interesting but this issue I felt was lacking. The one story with the crockman (it's kinda sad that I don't remember his name) being on a Howard Stern like show was an alright short story but it really doesn't fit in as one half of a regular issue. But then the second "story" doesn't really seem to work for me either. Maybe I've missed something but it's all just a fight between Hip Flask (the hippo) and the crock guy over a totem but you're just thrown into the fight. For someone new to the world of Elephantmen I found it a little lacking in story. So I just can't recommend this issue as much as the first Elephantmen book for the Hip Flask stuff I have read.

And to give an update on Divine Leap (for my one non-drunkduck reader... or the two drunkduck readers who may have found my blog), I'm still progressing on it. I have about 12 more pages to draw (so 20 are drawn), only about 10 of those are lettered, but I'm still posting them on drunkduck (Tuesdays and Thursdays). But I'm looking forward to finishing up the chapter (and finishing it with a bang). I'll admit it, the idea of doing chapter 2 is somewhat enticing (and I'm leaving the option out there with my ending to chapter 1) but it's just so much work for a book that continues to fail. Oh well.

A few things

I have a few things to rant/talk about so I'll try to make each of them short. First up, my weekly comics review and this week it was only one book (as I wasn't able to track down Hip Flask: Mystery City yet).

The Great and Secret Show #5: The art continues to be great. The writing is great. The cover (which I have failed to bring up for the previous issues) is great. I'm really enjoying this series and feel it's doing a great job of bringing the novel to a new medium. My only gripe, with the length of time between issues and the story containing several characters all intertwining it can be hard to remember where things left off in the last issue. You usually remember the big cliffhanger ending but not where all the little subplots left off. So maybe this is one area where converting a novel to a monthly comic might falter slightly. But it could be easily fixed by me digging out the last issue or just waiting until I have the series (or at least a few issues) before I read them all at once. Anyways, still enjoying this book a lot.

Second up, another mention of girl-wonder.org. As Carl and Dave R have learned, I've been kinda hooked on lurking around in their forums for the last little bit. It really has been an eye opening experience and has really made a difference in how I read and look at comics. And it's made me re-think a few things in my own webcomic (mostly around the character Syarah). Unfortunately some of it I can't change at the moment (as I made the decision right from the start to just keep moving forward and not look back or else I'd never be satisfied with issue 1) but as I'm filling in some of the dialogue to issue 7 (which I just started posting on Drunk Duck) I've made a few changes here and there.

And in a rather weird twist, I move now to the rock band Kiss. I heard a short time ago that a somewhat large group of Kiss fans marched to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame to protest the fact that they've been elligible since 1999 but have never been inducted. Some say that they weren't talented and were just a "circus act" or what have you but as a Kiss fan I say look at their 30 year track record. Look at their album sales. Look at their sold out concerts over those 30 years. Look at their merchandise sales. Look at people they've influenced from Tommy Lee and Motley Crue to Tone Loc to Garth Brooks. Sure, they focussed on putting on a "show" for their fans with the make up, the fireworks, the blood, but that's part of Rock 'n' Roll (in large part to Kiss).

And my final thought, this is the first time that fans of a rock 'n' roll band have marched on the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame to protest. To me, that says something right there. That a band can be around for 30 years and carry enough fans that are passionate about them to protest is a pretty big indication of the impact they've had on rock 'n' roll.

I think there was something else I wanted to rant about but it's not coming to me at the moment. Oh well, couldn't have been important (like any of the above is).

An extra comic review

I was able to pick up a copy of Hip Flask #2: Elephantmen (originally published in 2003) but I'll make this review short. This is a very beautiful comic with great all around art. The story is beginning to progress and it's an intriguing one. The use of the "Elephantmen" as a reflection of many of the problems we face today (and problems we will always face) maybe hits you in the face a little too hard at times but it's still an important story. And the little tidbits that they come up with (the little frog that wants to rub the hippo's feet and such) really are enjoyable to see. The only complaint (and as you'll see, it's a minor one) is that they insist on making the speech bubbles semi-transparent. I guess one possible reason is that they want to try to avoid taking over the artwork but if that's the case, I would tell them that the artwork should not be the focus of the reader's attention. If the words the characters speak aren't as important as the background then you aren't saying much about the story/writing. The times that the speech bubbles were most noticeable (when there was heavy drawn detailed stuff behind them) I was kinda left wondering if they were whispering (so the writer was forcing the reader to look more carefully just as someone who was listening would have to listen more carefully). But since it was the same throughout the book (only more noticeable on certain panels) I can only guess they weren't all whispering all the time. Either way, I didn't think it was a good idea.

Anyhow, with the series kicking in I'd recommend picking these up to anyone looking for something "new" to read (maybe someone wanting to spread out from the big 2 comic companies).

Renaissance trailer

I've seen this trailer popping up and I'm a little bit curious about it. I've heard the story isn't as together as it could be but that the animation is rather interesting. And from the trailer, I do have to say I'm interested in seeing how it looks on the big screen for an hour and a half (or however long it is). I guess with the market being saturated with computer animation it's nice to see movies still trying other stuff.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/renaissance/

Weekly Comic Reviews

Yep, read through them already. And I'm even going to include a review of the Wizard How To Draw: Character Creation that I finally picked up last week. This week we have Hulk, She-Hulk, and Civil War: Frontline.

Hulk: Another solid issue. Things are starting to come to a head. How do I know this? Well, the Hulk said he wanted to be left alone and tried to walk away. That's always a sign that things are about to get nasty. And this book has everyone's powers shown. We have the Hulk showing feats of strength, some smarts, and not even flinching when Miek put a spear in his chest (although it didn't go in too far). The Emperor toasts a few people and his Lieutenant starts to show her stuff (powers that is). And getting back to Miek, he seems to be having a tough time getting past the whole slaughter of his people. And seeing the end of this book and the preview for the next issue (which talks about the Hulk and the Lieutenant finally battling it out) I think we might be in for a slobberknocker of an issue. This issue even seemed to be better written (better flow) than some of Pak's other issues. And the art remains quite cool.

She-Hulk: Shulkie seems rather passive about the whole registration thing. But I guess that's not too far off character for her. We have the Pugsly, Jameson, She-Hulk love triangle bubbling over and the identity of her new boss figured out (with the reveal ending in a comedic although slightly predictable fashion which still leaves She-Hulk out of the loop). Although the reveal makes sense given the previews to upcoming issues (I gotta stop reading the previews). The writing was well done, the art was well done. The book continues to impress me. And we're finally getting more to the story concerning Starfox.

Civil War: Frontline -- Osborne is out and threatening Jameson while Stark's people claim he's still in prison (moving Stark more and more into the badguy role). Jameson believes Stark's people and fires Eurich. Eurich's friend (the female reporter, I can't remember her name) is arrested for associating with unregistered combatants (they're starting to use anti-terror laws to do this). Wonder Man is blackmailed into service (it seems he's starting to realize that registering might not be a good thing) to look into a possible sleeper agent (who we know works for Namor). But the big one is Speedball who is taken to the secret prison Reed Richards has been working on (She-Hulk even knew about this but was supposedly reluctant to tell Speedball about). I won't say too much about it except 1) I'm surprised that this reveal was done in Frontline and not the regular series, 2) Reed Richards and anyone else involved in the making of this prison aren't looking too good right now (it's not a nice place to send "heroes", it makes sense I guess, but it's not nice). I was thinking about not spoiling it for Carl but I guess that doesn't make sense, it won't be a shocker put in Civil War as readers will already know about it thanks to this series. So here it is, Reed Richards built the prison in the Negative Zone. So another issue, if he believed Annihilus was still in the Negative Zone then it might be somewhat dangerous to leave the heroes imprisonned there. There are also the issues of what effects the Negative Zone has on people (which is brought up slightly in this issue) and how time is different. Unless the prison is near the center of the zone the time will be off. For every hour on earth, 2 weeks pass in the Negative Zone. So if the heroes are left there for one day (our time) it will seem like 48 weeks for the prisoners. Hopefully that has been accounted for or else these heroes are in deep poopoo (and Reed Richards would be a total @$$). All in all this book was good. And I'm totally used to the various stories now. The one downer was the mirror story (the one where they have something written about a war from history and show mirror images of the old war with this Civil War). I haven't been a big fan of these and this one talks about two brothers fighting each other in the US Civil War but they show pictures of Spidey and Iron Man fighting some two bit heroes. It doesn't seem to really mirror the two. A better mirror would be Cap and Iron Man fighting one another, they would be closer to brothers. Anywho, the story continues to keep me intrigued.

I could now rant about how some people on various forums are dismissive of this storyline in Marvel and just scoff at the idea that a person's civil rights would be a concern to heroes such as Captain America but I'll keep that for another time.

Lastly we have the Wizard How to Draw that I picked up last week (it was actually a few months old but Silver Snail sold out of them and then I just forgot). I've reviewed a couple of the Wizard How to's on here and this one is the same. A few new tidbits and a lot of rehashes of stuff from the first book. And this one is really noticeable as it's a stretch to see why "Movement and Motion" and "Making Characters Move" are in a book about "Character Creation". But there do seem to be a few somewhat decent ones (like Chapter 3 which has a bunch of sections on creating your stereotypical super male, super female, sidekick, etc. But all in all, it just doesn't seem worth the money. You'd probably be better off looking through the books at your local library or checking out chapters for more comprehensive books on the subject.

Women of/in comics

I wish I had more time to read some of the discussion going on in the forums here:
http://www.girl-wonder.org/

I did read a bit of one thread discussing Joss Whedon (although I'm thinking the original discussion about him turning Emma Frost evil might be premature). In some ways he may have become a bit of a target by being labelled a feminist. Now his work might be scrutinized a bit more and held to a different standard than your average comic book writer. Frank Miller on the other hand... well, it's Frank Miller. I didn't see it but hopefully they discuss Rob Leifeld as well.

Another discussion about fighting raises a few issues as well. How to deal with violence towards female characters. Take for example the JLA/Avengers crossover where Superman eventually beats Thor by knockout (sorry to say it Carl) and then gets jumped by Hercules, Iron Man, Wonderman, She-Hulk, Vision and maybe a few others who beat him into unconciousness. What if it was changed up so Superman beats Ms Marvel into unconciousness? Would Superman look as heroic then? And what if it wasn't Superman that the heroes ganged up on, what if it was Wonder Woman? Or, possibly even worse, Supergirl? Would this be still a heroic battle? Would this now fall into promoting violence towards women? You could say that this kind of thing is why it's just easier to match up female heroes with female antagonists, there are fewer issues with a female character being hit by another female character.

And isn't it ironic that I post this on the day that I plan to pick up the latest issue of not only the Hulk but also of She-Hulk. :)

The Ferguson Family Reunion Recap

With the end of the long weekend also comes the end of the Ferguson family reunion. I've been told we had over 50 of us in Ottawa at one point. Fortunately (for me at least) my cousin Danielle took the brunt of it. In fact, I only had two cousins stay at my place for one night so I had it pretty good. Although I'm left pondering how nobody wanted to stay at my place.

Anyhow, the weekend went well. We had a lot of fun, too much sun (especially for those of us with a little less hair), and I think everyone had a good time. It was nice to see everyone even if, with all the people, you didn't really have too much time to spend with any one relative in particular. And some relatives had never actually met one another until now. One major highlight was the DVD and calendar my cousin Erick made up. The DVD has a photo tribute to Mary Ferguson (my grandmother) which was put to music as well as a much lighter montage of pictures of the various family members. And the calendars also are made up of pictures. They were both extremely well done and I'd be eager to show them off to anyone who'd sit through them. I'd even include some stories of my childhood and how I could just imagine how happy my grandmother and my uncle Johnny would have been at this reunion if they were still with us today.

But enough of that, it's starting to get me down (and I probably should try to get some work done). So this week I have to get back to work on my online comic, Divine Leap. I have 19 pages of issue 7 scanned in and ready to be lettered and it currently sits at 15 more pages to go before I'm finished. I'm planning to start posting them on drunkduck this Thursday with an update schedule of two pages per week.

Weekly comics review

Sorry, no comics this week. But hopefully my previous rants keep you entertained for the time being. :)

Oh yeah,bunnies

With all the negativity of that last entry I totally forgot about this link. It's movies re-enacted by cartoon bunnies in 30 seconds:
http://www.angryalien.com/

Be warned though that some clips have foul language or scenes of bunny violence and/or sexuality.

I'd love to see a Lord of the Rings or Spider-Man one.

Spinning the truth, lying, whatever you want to call it, it's just depressing

So I've really been getting into the Daily Show with John Stewart (as well as the Colbert Report) but last night's episode rubbed me the wrong way. The director of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" was on to discuss/promote the movie. Now I don't necessarily fault John Stewart for my unhappyness as his show is an entertainment show and shown on Comedy Central so it's not really to be expected to go as deep into a story as say a news show should (a point that he got across very well on his Crossfire appearance I might add) but I still feel the need to vent. And what good is a blog if it doesn't have some venting? It should be noted that I haven't seen the documentary myself and I still want to so I'm just going off what I've heard so far but I think that my concerns are still justified.

So here goes. When I first saw the trailer for this movie I was hooked. I really wanted to know more about the EV1 and what the backstory is on this documentary. So off to google I went. After reading a few reviews and such for this movie that all touted how great it was and described some of the "facts" of the case I was starting to get right into the whole conspiracy. Then Wikipedia came along with a few twists. It had a couple tidbits from the other side... well from the GM side of things at least. So I was intrigued. I started to focus more on the GM response to the conspiracy theories and sure enough, I've been able to find a few little tidbits including a blog entry from a GM representative. And it was interesting to see some facts presented by the other side like just how much money GM put into the EV1 (a number that might actually be lower than it should because it doesn't seem to cover some stuff like how much of a hit GM took for leasing a $150K car for $500/month... something that might have been covered up a bit so shareholders wouldn't be as upset). It was also interesting to see that out of the 5000 person waiting list that was reported only 50 of these people were willing to follow through on the lease after they learned more about the cars and some of their drawbacks (such as the optimum number of kilometers that the car would get on one charge was never met and might leave people stranded and the recharging was a pain and took a long time). Or how selling the cars after the lease period could result in very negative feedback if anyone was to be hurt (part suppliers were no longer willing to supply parts for the cars so GM would have a really difficult time in making sure the vehicles stayed supported and safe, supposedly some people who leased the cars were willing to sign a waiver but we all know that the existence of such a waiver wouldn't matter if someone was killed, we'd just be seeing a documentary about how GM sold dangerous vehicles). And despite some reviews (but possibly not the documentary, I can't say for sure without seeing it) saying the vehicle had 0 impact on the environment it did (the power had to be generated somewhere, now a powerplant could do so with far fewer emmissions than your standard vehicles but it's not 0 impact). Now I could go on and on but the question is, was any of this covered in the "documentary"? The answer seems to be nope, at least from what I've seen and read, and from the director's interview last night when he said that GM refused to tell him why they couldn't let him have the car.

But enough of the nitpicky stuff, that's not what this is about (at least not in the global scheme of things). What irks me is the spin. In political terms I lean to the "left" but I keep the option of dipping my toes onto the "right" side if I feel it necessary. In terms of the environment I do believe our pollution is having a negative effect on the planet and we need to do something about it but I'm not eager to give up my air-conditioning just yet (although I'll turn it up a degree or two). So when I first heard about this documentary I had high hopes for it but as I look into it more it comes across as this guy with a gripe pushing his own agenda rather than truly trying to inform the general public of a great advancement in automobiles. What does this do for me? Well it makes me want to stop listening to him. When I discover people aren't being entirely truthful with me then it makes me wonder what else they are spinning. So despite his supposedly good intentions, I start to doubt everything he says.

The same thing happened to me with Michael Moore's movies. After watching Bowling for Columbine and Farenheit 9/11 I decided to look for responses to these two movies. Sure enough, the backlash was plenty. And after sifting through all those responses (much of which also had spin, lies, untruths, personal insults, and a bunch of other garbage) I was able to find a few nuggets that show Moore was guilty of a bit of viewer manipulation. Fortunately he has tried responding to some things but there are a few arguments there really is no response to. And at this point, I've heard Moore hide behind the "it's a movie/entertainment" defense. So it's a researched documentary when he wants it to be and a movie or "entertainment" when it suits him.

All of this makes me understand a bit better why some of the "right wing" people (or people with differing views) get slightly hostile towards these documentary filmers. Now some might say that the opponents of these films (or the politicians/businesses they support) are guilty of the same tactics. They might even say that they are more guilty or started it first but doesn't that start to sound like a 6 year-old's defense? "Sure I kicked my brother in the head but he started it!" Somehow the good intentions of the message get clouded by the muck that surrounds it and it loses its luster.

Then I turn to the Green Party campaigns. From what I understand, David Chernushenko has asked that Elizabeth May's finances be looked into after she did two press tours but didn't count them as part of her campaign costs (there's a limit as to how much she can spend) despite one tour being promoted briefly on her campaign site (said to have been a mistake that was corrected quickly) and her people selling Green Pary memberships at one speach. Now both sides are putting their spin on things with the Chernushenko camp pointing out that she has had to concede that one of her speaches would have to be paid for through the campaign while May is labelling the request as dirty politics, pointing out that David is losing in polls (nice of her to point that out) and that he's doing this just before the votes are to be mailed in (so he's supposed to hold off on looking into these claims until when?). To be honest, I don't find either side handling themselves particularly well but I have no problem with Chernushenko raising the question of her finances if it's warranted (and in this case, it might have been).

I have been having some trouble recently finding my happy place. There are a few reasons for this but all of the above doesn't help that's for sure. It gets harder and harder to really believe or trust anyone. You start to wonder who you can trust. Maybe you think of your parents but then there's the whole Easter Bunny and Santa Claus fiascos. I guess the bottom line for me is that if you want me to listen to what you have to say then you're going to have to convince me that I should. And it sucks that I feel that I have to take such a pessimistic view of the world.

Wow! What a rant huh?

Weekly comic reviews, The Colbert Report, and a sketch

Another small week of comics for me. We had Civil War: Frontline and Wizard Magazine so only one review to do.

Civil War: Frontline #4 (SPOILERS) -- Well I'm getting more used to the format of this book and it's a little less of a shock when you're thrown from one story to the next now. The art was solid and the raid on the "unregistered combatants" came across very well (you really got a sense of just how much firepower Iron Man and SHIELD were coming in with and using the old "Shock and Awe" approach to disorient these wannabe heroes). Storywise you're still left jumping around. Each story is interesting on its own but don't really seem to flow together sometimes (again, I blame the format of the book for this). Iron Man continues to come across as a ... not so nice guy, and now it's hinted that he (and/or SHIELD) is monitoring reporters (so much for freedom of the press). And the hint that they purposely got the hero from the last issue killed (by moving the tanker into place) is a bad thought. The "sleeper agent" of Namor puts a little twist on things. My only gripe with the book is the Green Goblin's appearance. Last we saw him he was being released by SHIELD to do some work for them. In this issue he goes after Ben Eurich for the stories he wrote about him. Well either this is part of SHIELD's plan (to go after Eurich for some reason) or Osborn was pretty quick in evading whatever monitoring SHIELD must have put on him before releasing him. Otherwise I can't see how SHIELD would release him only to have him take off to settle some personal issues instead of doing what they had wanted him to do (which would reveal to the world that he somehow "escaped" from SHIELD custody... kinda hurts them when they're trying to muster public support).

And as for the Colbert Report, I love this show but I try to refrain from getting political here (I'll leave that to those who know more about it than I do). I only bring it up because Joe Quesada made an appearance last night. Well, in between kissing Colbert's butt he actually did a decent job of selling Civil War. And Colbert actually seemed to show comics some respect. I was actually impressed when he made a joke Quesada being upset about him talking to that woman from "DC" (she was from Washington DC, not DC comics). I just wonder how many non-comic fans either tuned out or rolled their eyes at a comic book guy trying to discuss the significance of comic books (something a lot of people relate to the Archie and Jugghead format of kiddy humour). As for Eleanor Holmes Norton (the delegate from Washington that he interviewed) she really didn't come across too well. Her attack on Colbert for not pronouncing the 't' in his name made me wonder. But enough of the politics.

Last but not least, the sketch. I had been thinking about posting a few sketches from time to time so here goes. This one probably isn't a good one to start with as the pencil lines are still noticeable and make it messy looking and the big guy's proportions are really wrong (holy long legs Batman!) but oh well, c'est la vie. The sketch is part of my brainstorming for chapter 2 of my online comic, Divine Leap (link to the right). A chapter which I've decided not to do (the book will be ending when I finally get around to finishing issue 7 of chapter 1).



Quick update: Joe Quesada discusses his Colbert Report experience and shows off his "Rampaging Colbert" art here:
Newsarama -- New Joe Fridays: Week 7

Weekly comic reviews -- SPOILERS

So this week I picked up 4 books, She-Hulk #9, Civil War #3, Elephantmen #1, and the Planet Hulk: Gladiator Guide (or whatever it's called). Plus, I'll touch on season 2 of 24 which I finished last night (yeah, still a ways to go before I'm caught up).

Civil War #3 MAJOR SPOILERS -- Ok, look what I did, I clearly showed that I'd be spoiling parts of the story. So why can't Marvel do the same? Now I'm not talking about saying it in a Newsarama article because that would be my own fault for reading that article. Or releasing the covers to the next issue in that same article (as again, that was my own fault) but to put the big reveal of Thor right on the cover was just plain stupid (although giving him the "secret" codename of thunderstrike or whatever it was didn't really help either). But I guess we all knew he was coming back eventually. Oh, and as for Newsarama, some people haven't got to read this issue yet so them putting the pictures of Thor on their frontpage is also stupid. I'd like to be able to read the other comic news without having that sort of stuff ruined for me. Having said that, we finally have Thor back but what exactly is going on (why he doesn't have the Odin-force, why he's working for SHIELD, etc) still isn't known. Oh yeah, I guess I should have said he's on the pro-registration side. :) I'm still into the story but it's hard to see heroes that I liked coming up on the pro-registration side. And it's really hard to see some of the heroes acting like they are (such as Reed Richards seemingly being a little less than caring when it comes to his brother-in-law the Human Torch being in a coma). And with other writers doing the regular books for those characters it's hard to keep them consistent (after all, Reed has to remain the likeable hero in his own book but has to come off as being the "bad guy" in Civil War). But wait a minute, does he really need to? I kinda wonder that. But anyways, despite how much this storyline rubs me the wrong way I still can't wait to see what happens next. And the art continues to be great. Oh, one more downside, Matt Murdoch is in jail yet someone going by the code name Daredevil is having lunch with civilian looking Herc, Cap, and Goliath. It's interesting how he's in a civilian disguise so you still don't know who it is (unless you read the Director's Cut of Civil War #1) but on a quick glance, with the brown hair you might actually think it is Matt. And now that I know who it is I can understand why he's been integrated into the heroes without question. Anywho, that "review" (or was it just a rant) was too long so let's move along. In the end, still interested in this story ... and the art continues to be great.

She-Hulk #9: She-Hulk is now married to John Jameson (they eloped to Vegas and got "Elvis" to do the ceremony) and of course J. Jonah Jameson ain't happy that his son married not only a superhero but one that is also a lawyer in the firm that sued him (on behalf of Spidey). And Pug finds "evidence" that this love affair is courtesy of Starfox's influence. This book started off well but about half way through they shift artists to Sal Buscema (and I preferred his art over the first half's artist... that one had She-Hulk looking just plain fat). So the second half had a nice classic feel to it but yet again, it takes the reader out of the story to have this shift in art. The second part then becomes a silly story about She-Hulk having a dinner with her new in-laws. JJJ snaps and gets one of his left over spider-slayers out to attack She-Hulk. A quick tussle and everyone is happy in the end. This seemed like such a waste. There's more She-Hulk story to go to yet we have half this issue being wasted on this "filler" (yet again it felt like that stuff they through in Annuals to bulk them up). So I wasn't really overwhelmed by this issue.

Elephantmen #1: So as you may recall (or most likely not), I've only been able to pick up one issue of the original Hip Flask stories so far so I was a little worried that I'd be lost. But I guess I was fortunate as this issue serves to re-introduce you to some of the back story. You don't get the full thing but you get a sense of most of it and having read the first issue I could fill in a few of the gaps already. Actually, having the two stories in this issue actually helped. You have Ebony flashing back to life before he was "rescued" from the company that made him as well as having the human response to these "Unhumans" being integrated into society from the perspective of the little girl in the Ebony story and "Joe" in the other story (and since you have to flip the book over to read the other story you aren't abruptly thrown from story to story, it actually helps the reader refocus to know that he/she has to flip the book over and basically read it as another comic). The downside to all this? Well, if you've read the original stuff then this doesn't really seem to be anything new. But given how much time occurs between issues of the original stuff readers are probably happy to see anything. And the art was enjoyable. I'm looking forward to picking up more of this book.

As for the Hulk Guidebook I mentioned, I haven't read it. I started to but it's not presented in comic form. It's written as though inhabitants of the planet are writing a guide so you have some pictures but it's mostly just writing. Full pages on the star system they are in and each planet in the system. I had complained a while back that you were thrown into this world without the background and here we get the full details. I wonder if it's too much detail now but they have to be commended for doing their homework on this. They have stuff that just couldn't be presented in comic form (like going through the powers of the various gladiators) and having it written from a different perspective makes it a little bit more interesting than just reading one of the Marvel handbooks. But it's still going to be tougher read than your standard comic. So it's not for everyone, just the Hulk fanatics who want a bit more of a backstory.

Last but not least, season 2 of 24. I now see a bit more why people started to hate Jack's daughter. Season 1 I felt for her but in this one my patience was stretched a little thin with her. It's interesting how you know that Jack will save the day somehow but other than that, all bets are off. I keep thinking about how Joss Whedon talked about the death in Serenity and how it was necessary to give the viewers that sense that anything could happen (including killing off the main characters) and that's what this show has. You get a sense of urgency because you just don't know who's going to go bye bye whether it be by death, going to the bad side, or a combination of the two. Although it makes it tough to see a character you care about go down it makes you care more about them. Now I just have to find season 3 for cheap. :)

Weekly comic reviews for July 12, 2006

Yeah, I'm putting Wednesday's date in the title because that's the day that the comics come out. I still know what day it is. :) Only one book for me this week, Civil War: Frontline #3. I've decided that I'm going to shorten the reviews and the easiest way to do this is not have so much recap. So here goes:

Civil War: Frontline #3 -- Recap: Female reporter interviews some not even C-level costumed heroes who expect to be teaming up with Cap any day now. Two "heroes" fight it out over registration and pro-registration guy gets killed accidentally. She-Hulk tries to talk Speedball into taking the deal and registering. And Reed Richards shows his math which supports the pro-registration side. Writing wise, the book was pretty good. Speedball gets some respect from me for sticking to his beliefs. Although I can accept She-Hulk wanting him to register, I think she should have been a little more forceful about protecting him. And with the anti-registration guy killing the pro-registration guy, this book actually seemed to lean more towards boosting the pro-side and I was worried at the start of this series that it would focus more on the anti-registration side. So it was good. The art actually seemed better in this issue than the last. It actually came out pretty good. The downside, different writers for each storyline in the book which I find distracting when I'm reading a comic. And overall, I still don't like how there are multiple stories presented in a disjoint fashion ongoing in each issue. For me, the Speedball stuff should be somewhere else and this book should keep its focus on the reporters' stories. Then it could flow better. And that last few pages of artsy stuff (mirroring a world war story with the death of the pro-registration hero from the beginning), not my cup of tea. So in the end, it's gotten better since the last issue but I'm still not enjoying it as much as I could be.

On a side note, my own comic work (*cough* Divine Leap *cough* link is on the right *cough*) has been hampered with my growing interest in 24. I started watching a couple episodes this season when I saw Sean Astin appearing (I always seem to like his work) and even though it seemed like a great show I had a hard time following what was going on. So I finally decided I needed to get caught up. I got the first two seasons on DVD and have watched only the first but wow, I really should have watched this show from the start (although it's also good to be able to watch the shows on my schedule and not have 2 or 3 week gaps in between episodes). It's so intense and you really never know what's going to happen. You really get a sense that nobody (other than Jack Bauer of course) is safe on the show and it makes it all the more interesting that way.

Manflab is in!!!

After seeing a recent news article on CNN.com which talks to the author of "The Average American", manflab is in. Guys with a little extra weight are actually being seen as sexy now (they list Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Jack Black as examples). They say this may actually be the "century of the Average American". I'm glad I learned this before I went through with my registration at the local recreation complex. I can forget about trying to get in better shape and focus on my other issues.

The World Cup

I tried to get in to watching the World Cup, I really did. Everyone seemed so excited and so many people I talk to were so into it that I just had to give it another try. But in the end, I just can't stand it. The theatrics, the diving, the crying, the grabbing of jerseys, the headbutting, FIFA's lack of balls, and the politics of it all made me wish that no team won because I just couldn't find a team that I actually thought deserved it. One of the commentators for yesterday's match said "Can you blame *** for taking a dive and playing up the dramatics in such and important game?" to which I replied "YES!" (But I'd like to point out that during post-game analysis of earlier games a few of the commentators did discuss the need to add video replay and post game rulings by FIFA to deal with some of the above issues) If the Canadian team had been in there and performing in such a manner I'd be embarrassed.

So for the next World Cup I think I'll stick to watching the WWE, at least they're more upfront about it and they're probably better actors.

Weekly comics review

A somewhat big week for me with the Hulk, the Great and Secret Show, the Thing, and Ares. Spoilers to a minimum on all counts (especially Ares because I know Carl hasn't read that yet).

Hulk: On the one hand, I'm loving the Hulk right now. Great storyline, great artwork, and a bit of a push by Marvel to make him mean something again rather than be the punching bag of every character in the Marvel universe. This issue was slightly different. Even though it moves the main Planet Hulk storyline along a bit and provides some differentiation between some of the new characters that have been introduced in this storyline, this issue seems more like the older days of one issue stories that show just who the monster really is. And it focusses more on Miek, one of the Hulk's followers and for once, Miek shows some real strength and determination (but I won't spoil it just in case). It was a good story over all but yet again, I don't feel that Pak has the flow down right. Some parts seem rushed, like he's trying to cram too much into the single issue, and things get lost along the way. I usually end up flipping back a page or two to see if I missed something that explains how we jumped to this point. And the setting will jump from one place to another with no real mention of it or any of the usual artistic indicators (like providing a distant shot of the new setting the reader is being moved to). I'm still loving it but I think it could use a touch on the editting side to improve the overall flow of it.

The Thing: The final issue and I'll have more spoilers in this review so you were warned. I've been real hard on this book in the last few issues but Slott won me back with this issue. And he uses the Thing's infamous poker game to provide closure. The Thing and Alicia seem to be back together (maybe too quickly, I think he needed a few more issues to break down her current boyfriend before sending her back to ol' blue-eyes), the Thing finally gets to say that he beat the Hulk (in poker), and the final hand has the Thing facing off against "stretcho" but this time it's Flatman from the GL* (the * is there because none of the heroes like the Avengers or the Defenders want these losers to use their name). Ben was looking good with four fours (a "fantastic four of a kind" as he put it) but Flatman counters with a straight flush. All in all, an enjoyable book and a good end to a series that seemed to be going downhill. I only wish that that Andrea DiVito was able to do the interior art.

The Great and Secret Show: For once it felt like something happened after I finished reading this book yet looking back at it now, I can't think of too much (other than the Jaffe started to build his army) yet the story seems to just keep growing. I'm really enjoying this series and think it's a great translation of the original novel. The art is consistently good and fits. The face that hovers over the Jaffe is really well down (angling perfectly with Jaffe, when his head is turned 15 degrees, so is the face above him). Yep, I'm really enjoying this book.

Ares: Storywise this issue was ok but a little too happy. I can't give too much away but I was only mildly pleased with how this series came to an end. There was one issue that seems to be left dangling but we'll see when that's addressed. But overall, Oeming shows once again that he can handle the mythological superheroes. Artwise, the characters are done well but again, the backgrounds are left out (or just simple colour patterns). Perhaps this is intentional, we (as humans) can't really see where the gods are fighting or there really is no background to this place but it still bugs me a bit. I can really see why people complained about lack of backgrounds in my own webcomic. But overall it was a good mini-series although I'd much rather read more about Ares as he was at the start of the series and less so on how he ends up. The former being a different character than what I'm used to seeing from Marvel.

So that's it for this week.

Superman Returns review (MAJOR SPOILERS!!!)

I've been mulling over it for the last few days so I guess it's about time to post my review. So here goes...

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW...

I had mixed feelings going into this movie. The characters of Superman and Lois Lane have always gotten a mixed reaction from me. When Superman was less powerful and facing off against foes who were stronger than him (Doomsday for example) it made him more appealing as a hero to me. When fans demand he be stronger, smarter, faster, better looking, etc, etc. than any other hero DC usually responds by having him do something so monumental (like moving a planet or some such feat of strength) that I start to lose interest. And when I think of Lois Lane I think to Margot Kidder or Teri Hatcher and I absolutely hate her. Her treatment of Clark Kent and those around her that aren't Superman is horrible. She seems shallow and to be honest, I start to care less if Superman will save her. But she has been portrayed much stronger and more likeable in the comics. But with Bryan Singer at the helm I couldn't wait to see what he could do with a superhero movie without Fox screwing him over or Halle Berry's demands. And then I saw the trailers for it and I started to wonder if perhaps they had come up with an emotional story for the man of steel. Plus, it seemed cool to see the blue tights on the big screen once again. The fanboy in me was starting to show. My reservations about casting Routh or the costume was put on hold for possibly a great story.

Then I saw the movie. The acting: Kevin Spacey really has his moments as Luthor. He's fun at times and is hamming it up but you always seem to see a darkness in his eyes. Even the campy stuff didn't seem to detract from the character for me (his sidekicks were not up to snuff though). Bosworth was ok. Maybe it was partly due to my dislike of this portrayal of the character or maybe her part just wasn't written strongly enough but I found I couldn't care less for the character. I was more interested in seeing more of her boyfriend's story and how he's handling his wife's love returning (and the fact that it's Superman he's up against). And Marsden's performance makes me wish they had kept Cyclops as a bigger part of the Dark Phoenix saga in X-Men 3. And as for the man of steel himself, everyone says Routh was hired for his resemblence (both physically and in mannerisms) to Christopher Reeve. And since they wanted this movie to follow Superman 2 you were bound to see him and think back to Reeve's performance. I think the problem for me is that he just doesn't have Reeve's pressence down right and they probably should have focussed more on having Routh make his own way with the character. Routh doesn't quite have the physical pressence that Reeve had. When I look at Reeve in the suit he has the broad shoulders and I think of the strength Superman has. I look Routh and he's got the body of a swimmer (long and lean). Now he put on a lot of muscle and kudos for that but the body type just ain't there. And the narrow Superman emblem placed low on his chest just highlights that for me. Now I'm sounding critical and that's probably because Christopher Reeve's Superman holds such a critical place in my childhood. The casting wasn't as bad as I make it seem but these are the things that popped out at me.

And as for the story, it really follows Superman I in many respects (Luthor's desire for land... although in Superman I his plan would put California under water and in this one California is all that would be left of the US, and even his female sidekick having second thoughts). And it's a fairly decent story and doesn't seem to be one of the simple "let's use kryptonite against Superman" stories that got very repetitive. But then they did it, they gave Superman a son (yep, there's the big spoiler). Giving the main character a child is generally the death of a story (look at how many TV shows had the baby born in the last season). It's usually a sign that the writers are running out of ideas and figure they can do something around a baby (and it usually backfires badly). So I'm having trouble seeing where the story goes from here. If you ignore the child in the next movie then what was the point (and viewers will wonder what the heck happened to the kid)? If you keep going with the child as he was in this movie (not using his powers) then you're dragging the story on too long and focussing too much on the kid than on Superman. And if you integrate the kid into it then it's Superman and Superboy and that just seems so campy (Batman and Robin campy). There are many more issues I have with it (which I've shared with Jason and my brother) but this "review" is going on too long. Let's just say, I don't like that part.

So overall, I loved seeing Superman back on the big screen, I thought for the most part the acting and story were quite good, I got a kick out of just how many nods there were to the old TV shows, movies, and comics (like the photo of Superman holding the car above his head... Action Comics #1) but I just have too many reservations about the other stuff (the costume, the kid, ...). But I hope that we'll actually get to see someone for Superman to fight in the sequel. It would have been cool to actually see him throw a punch. But in the end, Superman made his return to the bigscreen and I'm a happy comic fanboy.

The Ikea saga continued and concluded

First up was my trip back to Ikea. There was a sale going on (they had a big tent set up outside and everything) so even though we got there about 10 minutes before the doors open there was still a line up (the line going into the tent being the longest). But I was still the first one to the customer service desk. As I was telling the customer service person about my delivery ordeal she just started walking away. She clearly didn't care how bad the delivery was or that I paid $60 for this "service" that ended up being the start of the whole ordeal. After some searching in the back she discovers that she needs to call for someone to bring up a new set of the shelves so she can get the pieces from that. So I tell her I'm going to go pick up the 2 doors I didn't get last time and I'd be back. When I get back from getting the doors my stuff still isn't ready so she's helping other people. My stuff comes up but she doesn't notice it at first so she keeps helping others and not saying anything to me. Finally I step in after she was done with customer and before she can help anyone else, getting a few dirty looks (I know, it might have been rude but technically I was there first). After taking the shelves to the back and spending quite a few minutes back there she comes out to tell me that those shelves were scratched up so she had to order a second set. So she goes on to help other people again. I see another set show up and again, she doesn't see it. As I'm trying to get her attention to tell her another set is up she seems to keep turning her back to me. Then she actually calls for the shelving again. The stock comes from the back and is rather annoyed by this point as well and he points out the shelving. So off she goes to the back room with it and a few minutes later I'm finally given 3 new shelves. I take a quick look and of course there are minor scratches but after 45 minutes of waiting I'm fed up. So it's off to home (and at this point I'm still hoping to catch the matinee of Superman Returns... review will be forthcoming). I get home and sure enough, the shelving doesn't match. It's the same colour and it's the right size but the holes are smaller and drilled 1cm off from where they should be.

At this point I'm fed up. I call the store and give the whole scenario again. I'm patched through to another person and give the whole scenario one more time. The people on the phone are much more sympathetic and contrary to the first time I called (where they basically made it sound like my fault for even attempting to get the shelving delivered) they seemed to want to help. So a file was created for me, the shelves were put on order and I was told they would arrive in a day or so. So it was off to relax and see Superman Returns. When I got home there was a message from Ikea to call them. Turns out, they changed suppliers for these shelves very recently so they needed more details about what shelves I needed (dimensions of the original box, distance of pre-drilled holes from the shelf's end, etc). So I measured what I could (I threw out the boxes considering they were wet and stinky from the delivery ordeal) and hoped for the best (I was told that they would be sent via courier sometime before 3pm today).

Today, at about 1:30pm my shelves arrived. I got right to work putting them together and wouldn't you know, they actually fit. So I'm now the proud owner of two 80cm x 202cm book shelves complete with glass doors and of course I've put them to use by placing a few action figures like Conan, the Crow, Ash, Evil Ash, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy, etc, etc amongst the DVDs and PS2 games. I've kept most of the Hulk stuff in the den but one did end up between the Buffy and Angel DVD collections.

Weekly comics review -- Spoilers for Civil War #2 (old ones) and Civil War Frontline #2

Only one book this week (plus a Wizard magazine). So let's get right to it:

Civil War: Frontline #2 -- Disappointment. Major disappointment. This book felt more like a "let's throw a few useless stories together into one book" rather than a second issue of a limitted series. It started off ok as they continued the story of the two reporters and how they (mostly Urich and Jameson) are reacting to Spider-Man's unmasking. The art was a little weak (there was one panel of Jameson that was especially bad, where his arm looked like rubber) but it was moving along ok. Then all of a sudden I read "to be continued". What? I wasn't even half way through the book. Then a different artist comes in to tell another story. After that, we have another artist with another story. What the heck? And none of them really went anywhere. We have Speedball refusing to sign off on registering despite being incarcerated without legal representation or anything and beaten (gee, sound familiar) and we have a bunch of pages recapping what happened after Peter Parker said "any questions?" just so we can see SHIELD approach Norman Osborn. Then Ben Urich writing an article relating the fight we saw in the first story (a drunk Prodigy versus Iron Man) to an old story from Rome. Meh! So it all just seemed like a waste. It reminded me of those old useless annuals Marvel used to put out. I really hope this series gets back on track with the next issue.

IKEA -- Why am I jinxed?

So it was off to everyone's favourite store, Ikea, for some shelving units. This is going to be a long rant so you might want to get your snacks now and go to the bathroom first.

I had picked out stuff I saw online and just in case, I picked out stuff I found in the catalogue. After going back and forth from one end of the store to the other (looking at the shelving they had in the displays at the front and the other shelving they had in other sections) I soon discovered none of what I was looking at in the catalogue or the website was there. So after a few more trips back and forth I decided to settle on another unit because I wanted it ASAP. So after writing down the aisle and bin number of the shelving and a coffee table I had my eye on I head to the back area. It's at this point that I discover the coffee table is only available in black so that's now out of the picture for now. And after some discussion with my brother and sister-in-law we come to the conclusion that there is no way the shelving units and doors will fit in the car so I'm going to have to pay the $60 in delivery. Having never done that before we ask a guy where we go for delivery and he directs us to the front cash. Ok, so I start loading up the shelves with the help of another employee. I tell him I'm making up two shelving units and ask if this is all I need (two boxes for the shelves, two for the doors) and he says yes. So it's off to the front cash where I'm told no, it's back to the delivery counter to pay for it there. Fine, it's off to the delivery counter. I pay for the items and leave but I'm wondering why it seemed quite a bit cheaper than what I was expecting. It dawns on me when I get home, there was probably only one door per box and I needed 4 for my two sets of shelving. This I will concede is partly my fault but I wish the stock guy hadn't made the same mistake I made.

So last night was the delivery (which I will remind you I paid $60 for). The two guys show up well within the 5-10pm window and all seems good. Each decides to take one shelving unit and when the first one gets to the front door he immediately starts banging the shelves into every wall and almost dropping them. So I end up having to help lug it up the stairs. He warns me that the boxes got wet (which I wasn't too thrilled about but it was raining pretty hard). Wet cardboard means weak cardboard so I have to be careful the shelving doesn't fall out. The second guy finally shows with his shelving and they lug that one up. Next comes the two doors which seemingly have no issue. So I sign it away, give them some bottled water and walk them to the door. As I'm coming back up my stairs I see that the huge mess they made of my walls. It looks like they scraped that second box (or maybe it was the doors) all the way up. It's filthy and scratched in places (luckily I haven't painted yet). And of course they didn't take the time to take off their boots/shoes so my carpet needs a good cleaning.

Then I open the second shelving unit they brought in and discover that the reason they warned me about it is obviously because this box did break open. The three main shelves have all been dropped. All three have their front corners mashed in, splintered, and full of mud and dirt (which on light coloured shelving is rather hard to hide). And most of the other pieces are wet and dirty as well. After wiping them off and taking inventory (one of the little knobs for one of the doors was missing) I decided to call Ikea. Their response, they're reluctant to send anyone out for shelving so I (not having a car and living in Orleans) have to take back the pieces that are damaged and return them. Needless to say they will be getting a piece of my mind when I do go out there. I would have been much better saving my $60 and tracking down someone with a truck and doing it all myself.

Oh well, maybe I'll go watch the new Spider-Man 3 teaser a few more times to try to cheer myself up.

One year already?

I had my visit from the housing company to go over my one year items (they send a rep out to check the items I list and then send out someone to fix them). It was going ok for the most part and he even fixed on of my issues himself (it had to do with the toilet but you don't need to know the details). Overall I was happy with it except when it came to the noise issue. The issue: I can not only hear the TV and the piano of the people below me (even up two levels in my master bedroom) but I can hear their phone ring. He says everything's to code and there's nothing they can do about it.

Then lunch time comes around and when I go to get my soy sauce that I leave in the communal kitchen area at work I find out it's gone (as is all the stuff people have left in the cabinet area). At some point somebody had moved them out of the cabinets onto the counter top. Then the cleaning staff figured they were left out as garbage so they tossed them. Two-thirds of a jar of soy sauce gone and I'm left with some pretty bland white rice. But from now on, no leaving stuff in the communal area. I'll be keeping my sauces to myself!

Weekly Comic Reviews - SPOILERS

Well, this week seemed to be all about pumping up the comic geeks worldwide (at least in two of the books I read). We have Astonishing X-Men #15, Ultimates 2 #11, and a Giant Size Hulk. And would you believe it, the Hulk book got shuffled to the bottom of my pile (for non-comic fans out there many readers put their comics in a pile as to the order they're looking forward to reading their books for the week... top of the pile is the book you most want to read). But I'll talk more about the Hulk book in the reviews. It was a toss up between X-Men and Ultimates but as a Whedon fan, I had to put Astonishing X-Men to the top. So here goes...

Astonishing X-Men #15: So this is the X-Men disassembled. In pure Hellfire fashion they simply destroy each of the core members. I won't go into the details but it is actually quite the little game they seem to be playing. Of course from Whedon's love affair with Shadowcat (and me reading that one X-Men would be left standing) I knew a little bit of what was going to happen (plus their elimination of Shadowcat was a little weak... and was Emma really counting on that?). But I got a good chuckle from that last page, an homage to the classic Wolverine in the sewer picture from the Dark Phoenix Saga (the one after the X-Men get pummelled by the Hellfire club back then). That scene is where the pumping up of comic geeks happens here. Still no idea on who the mystery member of the Hellfire Club is or which mutant Ord will want dead. With all that and the Danger Room (in that robot body), Ord, the Hellfire club all in the picture, and Wolverine thinking he's a little girl I just gotta read more. I really should buy one of those "Joss Whedon is my master now" shirts 'cause I just can't seem to get enough of his writing. Oh, and the art was good too. :)

Ultimates 2 #11: You know it had to happen. Everything seemed to point to this issue ending with Thor making is triumphant return, after all he did disappear from his cell (appearantly with a little help from Odin) or maybe Iron Man (shooting off into space to get his new armour). But nope. Of course, the presence of the Abomination was a big clue. Plus, he just had to come back. So when a man in a ball cap appears on the streets of Washington telling a giant armoured suit that he didn't travel 5000 miles to come home and be pushed around you know that blood of Hulk fans worldwide starting pumping that much quicker. And just as the rampage starts (with an intelligent Hulk so it must be after the Ultiamte Wolverine versus Hulk series) we end with the Hulk's line of "Bring it on!" Oh, and a bunch of cool stuff happened with Captain America, Henry Pym is still siding with the bad guys but he's also worried about the innocents, and Air Force One (including President Bush) was captured. Sometimes darker heroes or real world stuff doesn't work in comics and sometimes you just love seeing superheroes kick some serious arse. And right off the bat I wanted to hate this series. My whole life I've been reading stories about these comic characters and to twist them into these versions just seemed wrong on so many levels. Yet for some reason, I just can't get enough. I can't wait until the next issue. I gotta be honest, this book may have deserved top of the pile status. Oh, and the art work was good too.

Giant Sized Hulk: As I told Carl, I was upset by this book. Reasons I had to buy this book: It's the Hulk. It's got a Hulk story written by Peter David (albeit one that takes place a long time ago). It's got a Hulk story written by Greg Pak (current Hulk writer) that takes place in the current "Planet Hulk" setting. The major downside: Half the book was taken up with a reprint of the Hulk: The End special. Now I absolutely loved the End special. It had Peter David writing it (although the short story that he wrote originally seemed better somehow) and Dale Keown drawing it (big Dale Keown fan here) but I don't want to pay for it again. I know, stores under-ordered it and sold out. Fans couldn't get copies of it. Ok, do a second printing on its own, don't force it upon fans who got it already and now want these other two stories. But enough of that, the reviews. The Peter David story was pretty much your classic "Annual" story. No real advancements to the character and a moral that slaps you across the face (the Champions learn that if they had just taken a minute to talk to the Hulk they would have known he was trying to get his cousin, pre-She-Hulk Jennifer Walters, to the hospital). And the second story we see what Banner's up to inside the Hulk's brain while he's off world. We see Banner trying to convince the Hulk to leave and dealing with the Hulk's dreams which have quite a few humourous moments like when all the heroes are laughing we have BlackBolt thinking "Hee hee" (funny if you know BlackBolt's powers), Doc Strange's laughter, Wolverine's reaction to Iron Man being ripped in half ("better him than me..." which is funny considering the somewhat well known picture of the Ultimate Hulk doing the same thing to the Ultimate Wolverine), and all the heroes reacting differently to getting their butts kicked. And Banner does get his momentary appearance on Planet Hulk but in the end, the Hulk is the strongest one there is. So overall, if you don't own Hulk: The End then this is a good buy and much better than I was expecting given past Hulk annuals and specials. If you do own it, then you'll either be spending more than you should for two stories or you'll miss out on two good stories. And the art was good which is surprising considering how many Hulk annuals they've done where they seem to drag some guy off the street to draw them.

So there we have it. It was very good week for me in terms of comics but a somewhat bad day other than that. But that is another story.

Oh, and no pain in my tooth yet so my fingers are still crossed. :D

Anagram of the day

Darrell Ferguson ==> Regular fondlers

PS. Don't expect an anagram every day, I just needed a catchy title.

Trans fats

I'm no expert on the subject but after reading this I'm glad I don't eat at KFC anymore:
CTV article on trans fats in fast food

PS. And I just noticed that "fats" and "fast" are anagrams. That's kinda funny here.

Dental update and comic reviews (SPOILERS FOR CIVIL WAR #2)

I've been holding off on this post until Carl picked up his copy of Civil War #2. I didn't want to spoil it for him (even though the Washington Post and other news organizations were running the story before the book came out). Now that he has the book it will be his own fault if he keeps reading this post.

To update you on my dental condition (yes, I realize that that sounded a lot like mental condition) first. I got two fillings on Thursday, one was replacing an old one and one was on a new very large cavity. Afterwards the dentist told me that he wasn't sure if the cavity was deep enough that the filling he just put in would press on my nerve or not. If it did I would be in a lot of pain and would need a root canal. He said it should show in the following couple of days. Well, it's been two days and I'm still waiting to see. No pain yet but I have a feeling it'll kick in at some point. But fingers crossed. I think the worst part is the waiting to see if it's going to start hurting.

Anyhow, onto this week's books. We had Civil War #2 and I picked up Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection (an old book but I'm considering picking up the new Elephantmen series). So here goes (spoilers abound).

Civil War #2: The big event that Marvel leaked to news outlets including the Washington Post and Howard Stern, Spidey unmasks himself at a press conference saying "My name is Peter Parker and I have been Spider-Man since I was 15 years old. Any questions?" Wow! Now I've read some responses ranging from "Oh my god they killed the character." to "Oh it'll be retconned (ie. go back to nobody knowing his secret identity) in a month or two" and even to "Oh, big deal". That last reponse baffles me, this is Spider-Man. This is the character that took the notion of having a secret identity to the next level and put that identity to the forefront of the story. Other characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and even Daredevil don't have as much riding on their secret identities (two of which are no longer secret and the third is hanging by a wire). For Spidey to unmask is huge. So how do I feel about it? I really couldn't tell you. One minute I worry that they've taken too much away from the character that they'll eventually have to retcon it and the other minute I think of the possible immediate story ideas you could do with this. But no matter what, it's huge.

As for the book itself, more solid artwork, an interesting storyline, and the Marvel universe dividing. I can't wait to see what's next.

Hip Flask: Unnatural Selection. I wasn't as blown away by the art as some people seem to be. I didn't have any problems with it, it was cool and all but not mind blowing. The story, kinda interesting so far but there wasn't enough in this one issue for me to form a complete opinion of it. There was enough to make me want to read the next book but now the problem becomes finding that next issue in the back issues. I suppose I could look into ordering a copy from their website. :)

Oh well, until next week true believers.

Dental news and comic reviews (Spoilers for Wonder Woman only)

I'll start with the fun stuff (no, that's not the dental news). Comic reviews. This week we have Civil War: Frontline #1 (checking it out), Wonder Woman #1 (checking it out) and the latest Wizard Basic Training TPB on Storytelling.

Civil War: Frontline #1 (minimal spoilers just in case): The art was adequate. Not overly great but better than I've come to expect for offshoots of a central big event series. Despite it being a lot of talky talky it wasn't overly boring to look at. The writing was good too. It was very left wing though and I know that will turn off many. But then again, it's a story about two left wing journalists so you're bound to get that slant. My complaint about this series, stuff happens in it. Stuff that I was expecting to happen in the regular Civil War series happens here instead (or maybe it will be duplicated in Civil War). I was expecting this series to be the outside looking in (reporters discussing it from an outsider's perspective) and for the most part it was (and even some of that covered events that I didn't expect to see here) but there was a scene or two that went on the inside. So why am I complaining about stuff happening? Because I would have thought that these Civil War events would be covered in Civil War and not in the offshoot that I was thinking wouldn't be worth reading. And Spider-Man's talk with the reporter was what I was expecting from Spidey. I recommend it for the lefties who are eager to read more about Marvel's Civil War.

Wonder Woman #1: I keep wanting to give DC a try and I thought a #1 issue would be a good jumping on point. Perhaps it was but I was very disappointed. We have Donna Troy using the title of Wonder Woman while Diana is still away. We get a quick recap of Donna's origins which is good for people like me but I've been told it's been changed (I would guess this has to do with Alex Luthor's mucking around in Infinite Crisis). That would stink if I were a fan. Donna is lured into a hostage situation by some villains who hope to lure Diana out of hiding. I was surprised to see a cheetah's claws and teeth cutting into Donna so easily, I had thought she would be more immune but I guess I don't know the character too well or maybe Cheetah's cheetahs are more powerful or magical. Then for some reason she stops fighting and lets Cheetah take her lasso (Cheetah even raps it around Donna's neck for one panel and then just walks away with it in the next???). This all confused me. In the end, Donna is defeated by Dr Psycho's little illusions, some guy named Nemesis reveals himself to the reader (I guess he was supposed to be dead), and a woman named Diana Prince (an alias Wonder Woman used to use) and who looks an awful lot like Wonder Woman (even having a costume similar to one "Diana Prince" used to wear) is assigned as his partner to watch over human/superhuman relations. All in all, too many winks and nods to old hardcore fans for newbies and not even substance to get me hooked.

Wizard Basic Training: Storytelling. Huge disappointment once again. Over half the book is once again reprinting stuff from their previous books (mainly the first one). They even throw in drawing sound effects as part of storytelling. I'd still like to see more of the original Bart Sears stuff (rather than this new guy). There's a lot of good stuff in there but it's another slap in the face for people who bought the earlier books. If you're going to put out multiple volumes at least have them contain different stuff.

And for the dental enthusiasts out there. After avoiding the dentist for 18 months (so yeah, what I'm about to say is for the most part my own fault) after going throught he usual routine and being complimented on just how good everything seems to be considering it's been 18 months I get hit with a whopper. When looking at the X-rays they see a doozy of a cavity in one of my molars. We're talking a root canal most likely. The two that were looking were surprised by just how fast it progressed, from nothing 18 months ago to this (and yet everything else seemed ok other than one minor cavity). Needless to say I'm not too happy with this turn of events.

Weekly comics review - Spoilers

Sometimes an accident can lead to the discovery of something wonderful. Last night when the girl working at Subway accidentally put dijon mustard on my italian BMT instead of regular mustard was NOT one of those times. YUCK!!!

This week's reviews: The Incredible Hulk, The Thing, and The Great and Secret Show.

Hulk: Recap of the issue... Silver Surfer captured and depowered, Surfer fight Hulk and Hulk's friends, Hulk smash thing being used to depower Surfer and keep him under their control, Hulk declared winner of 3rd battle so deserves freedom but doesn't get it, Surfer destroys all the devices used to enslave the people, Hulk and team go on rampage, Hulk declines Surfer's offer to take him away. Other than the fill in pages that recount the Surfer's past and how he got here the art looked nice. And it was nice to see both sides of the fight being given credit (despite being depowered the Surfer was kickin' some butt and the Hulk did give him a bit of an impressive pounding). All in all I'm still liking the Hulk book but this issue just seemed so choppy in parts. I'm thinking it's more to do with the writing because on one page you have the slaves causing a riot and you flip the page and they're all standing outside talking. I kept flipping back to see if I missed something. Perhaps this was partly the artist's fault (maybe they weren't supposed to be standing around all calm and chatty but actually talking in the midst of the riot) but I'm not sure and for now, I just see it as a problem. Also, the Hulk's dialog seems to have him less intelligent than the Hulk that Peter David left off with. But it's still better than the mute Hulk that Daniel Way seemed to be writing. It's still a series I'd recommend.

The Thing: This series just keeps going downhill for me and it's a shame because I've loved so much of Slott's work up until this point. The art is a little week again in this issue but the biggest complaint is that this series is becoming more and more a Marvel Age/kiddy book. Now I encourage books to be available to children but this one just crosses the line for me from a book that everyone can enjoy to one that only 12 and under could get anything out of. Not recommending this series any more though the last issue (yes, it's ending) is supposed to be the big poker game.

The Great and Secret Show: So we've finally moved into the present and the story is progressing. The problem, from all the flashbacks and such we're being hammered with all these characters in a short amount of time and it can be difficult to track, "so he's the daughter of who now?" The art remains really enjoyable. It's cartoony but in a good way. But again, after finishing the book I had to flip through to make sure I didn't miss anything because it just seems that I'm not getting a full issue for some reason. Although when I look back at it, quite a bit happens so it's a little weird in that way. Still, I'd recommend this book especially for Clive Barker fans.

So that's it for this week.

So why'd you call?

I get these annoying phone calls from Bell which start off with them saying "Hi, I am so-and-so calling on behalf of Bell and we were just wondering if you're happy with your current Bell services." Usually I just say no, they go quiet for a while not expecting that answer and then I say good-bye and hang up. The reason for my loathing is a rant for another day but some of the highlights are: 11 appointments they told me to be home for (some time between 8 and 5) none of which anyone showed up for, 3 unscheduled appointments where they sent someone who ended up asking me to explain how the phone wiring worked, countless hours arguing with them on the phone, a couple threats by them to send a collection agency after me to force me to pay for a phone that wasn't working, one woman threatening that if I went to Sprint/Rogers for my set up that it would take longer the reason being that even they have to go through Bell at some point (almost seems like a threat that they would make sure it took longer if I went to the competition, that seems somewhat illegal), laughter (directed towards me) when I told them their automated phone service hangs up on me whenever I try to register a complaint (they said it's a known problem with their phone system... you're Bell!! If anyone should have a working phone system shouldn't it be you???), etc, etc. But I did get $5 of gift certificates at Tim Horton's from them. Yippee!!!

Anywho, the guy last night decides to ask me what's wrong and I say to just look at my file. Turns out, he doesn't have access to my file. So I give him a few of the highlights and he says he can patch me through so I can complain to someone who does have access to my file. I tell him I've spent enough time arguing and complaining and I'm not going to waste any more of my time with it. They should have a record of it, the Better Business Bureau does. So we say our good-bye's but here's the thing, if you start by saying you want to know if I'm happy with Bell's service then at least have access to my file so you can register complaints or see my history of complaints. Otherwise be honest, you're calling to try and sell me on other services. You don't care if I'm happy, you just want to sign me up for more crap!

I had to

Which superhero are you? You know I had to try it. I'm not sure how Supergirl, Wonder Woman and Catwoman got on the list, must have been the question about wearing a thong. :)

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 85% Superman 70% The Flash 60% Supergirl 55% Robin 54% Hulk 45% Green Lantern 45% Catwoman 40% Batman 35% Iron Man 35% Wonder Woman 30%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Weekly comics review - spoilers

Yet again, only one book to review and it's She-Hulk. So here goes...

She-Hulk: Unfortunately this issue kinda let me down. To get the art critique out of the way, it was good for the most part but there were a few panels that seemed off (like one of John Jameson and some engineers and he looked absolutely tiny in comparison to them). As for the story, we have Doc Samson getting help from Dr Strange to lift the spell that Scarlett Witch cast on She-Hulk (the one that says that anybody who wants to harm She-Hulk can't see her in her Jennifer Walters form)... follow all that? Anyhow, it seems that this was part of the reason for She-Hulk's recent issues (unable to transform, weaker than usual, etc, etc). Of course we know that this doesn't solve all her problems (too easy to dismiss an important storyline element in the first two pages of the issue and Doc Samson confirms that there's more to it) but that'll have to wait for another issue for rest of that story. Then Jennifer Walters is visitted by two New Warriors who are upset about a website that's giving away the secret identities of the group (set up after the Marvel: Civil War incident) and promoting violence against them. They bring up one of the obvious cons for the registration in that the last time someone had a list of the New Warrior's identities a few of them lost family members when they became targets of the supervillains. Despite She-Hulk coming out pro-registration it seems Jen argues against it (taking a few shots at Iron Man in the process) or at least part of it. Captain America shows up to talk to John (who's also busy testing out a new aircraft the military is building to hunt down low flying small vehicles... aka superheroes) and see if he can get a feel for what side She-Hulk will side on. In the end, the website was set up by a New Warrior who, after the events of Civil War, wanted the New Warriors to just end and go away because he didn't want to be associated with that event. And we end with John Jameson proposing to She-Hulk (ring and all).

What I felt was off in this book, the humour was taken out. This meant some of the fun supporting characters (Pug and Awesome Andy) had to be non-existant while the adults talked. And the twist that it was a New Warrior running the website felt more like a Great Lakes Avengers (a comedy book) element rather than something in a serious book. As well, it almost felt to me that Slott was trying to recover from what other writers have done. He had Iron Man refer to the Hulk's destruction of Las Vegas but no mention of deaths. This almost felt like Slott was trying to go against Bendis' take on the Hulk as a killer because obviously Iron Man would have focussed more on the deaths the Hulk caused (if he had caused deaths) rather than the destruction of property. Then She-Hulk seems to have to back pedal concerning things Millar had her say in Civil War. It almost seemed like Millar had decided on his own that She-Hulk would just go pro-registration and then when word got to Slott (who had been planning to have her more conflicted) he had to tweak things to try and make them fit. I have no evidence of that happening but it's how it felt to me.

So it wasn't a terrible issue, just not one of the better ones in this series.

Comic reviews

It was another really slow week for me comic-wise but don't worry, I'm looking at picking up the Elephantmen series that's starting up as well as the Mouse Guard TPB when it's out. And maybe Hip Flask too so I might have more to share in the upcoming months. But as for this week, none of my usual books came out so I decided to give Wolverine: Origins one more try with issue #2. So here goes...

Wolverine: Origins #2 -- Meh. This book just ain't living up to the original Origin series. Nowhere close. It's nothing special, it could probably be thrown into his regular ongoing series and people would be just as bored (but we wouldn't have two ongoing Wolverine titles at least). The writing, Daniel Way does not deserve the hype he's been getting. Every book I've read of his has disappointed me. His Nighthawk series was just a bunch of ripoffs of Batman stories (a lot from the most recent movie) and was extremely dull. And the more they integrate Wolverine into the US military the more I want to slap someone at Marvel. At least Jenkins had the guts to keep him Canadian in Origin but I guess that's too much to ask. In the end, it's badly done. The art, rather bland. I know I've taken some slack for criticizing Dillion's work but I just find it meh. He's not a bad artist, he's got a lot more talent than I have but he just seems to be going through the motions. No real dynamic angles to give emotion to his art. In comic books, if you want the reader to be drawn into a scene like Nuke being electrocuted you play with the angles, you contort his body in ways it shouldn't be contorting, you make it look like Zeus himself is sending lightning bolts through his body. Instead, we have a guy who looks like he's in some mild discomfort but has a nice blue glow about him. *yawn* Definitely won't be picking up issue 3 even if that means going home empty handed.

Comic Reviews -- Spoilers

Two books this week (not counting the Wizard magazine). She-Hulk and Ares. So let's get right to it.

She-Hulk: Civil War tie in. Starfox is on trial for sexually assaulting a woman. She claims he used his powers (he's able to manipulate people's brains in the area of their pleasure centre and uses this to persuade them to do stuff and to lose their inhibitions) to get her to sleep with him. So of course, Jennifer Walters (aka She-Hulk) is defending him. Like in the last few issues we see evidence that Starfox's powers may be having an effect on those around him and making them act strange (women who were going to testify against him switch their stories once they're in the same room as him). We also learn that She-Hulk even at one point came onto Starfox and had a little "fun". After a series of events She-Hulk starts to reason that this fling was also the result of Starfox using his powers on her. She goes berzerk and despite recently having her powers diminishing for some reason she gets a temporary power boost and pummels Starfox (finishing with a very mighty kick to the nads). But Starfox's father teleports him out before any more justice can be done.

Art wise it wasn't the strongest issue. It was mildly ok for the most part but a few panels just looked awful. I saw some complaints on forums that the art didn't match the comedic aspects of the book... really? This issue was comedic to people? Sure there was a few mild light hearted scenes (like the kick to the nads or Awesome Andy's comment that he doesn't have lips to kiss and the male Hydra guard who fell in love with Starfox and wanted his wife to wear a Starfox costume) but this issue is basically portraying an Avenger as a rapist who even seemed to have used his powers on his own teammates. If any issue of this series required more serious artwork it was this one.

Story wise I'm kinda hung up on this issue. In terms of Civil War it really pushes the need for superhero registration. Over all it's well written. It's tough to combine the comedy of the book with the very serious storyline they are going with and Slott does a reasonable job but I'm not sure he should have gone this serious with it. The plus side is that supposedly Slott has said there's more to the Starfox story than what we've seen so far and I really hope this is true. Because although Starfox has had a very sordid history the idea of him crossing this line kills him as a character. He can no longer be a hero nor can he become a supervillain (not that sexually assaulting characters doesn't make him a villain but because that wouldn't make him a good comic book villain). So I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Ares: I'll make this one shorter and with milder spoilers for Carl's sake (so no recap of the issue). I found the art was a little more lacking in places in this issue than previous ones but it wasn't bad. The lack of backgrounds kinda makes it look a little amateurish. Part of the grandeur of reading books about gods like Thor is the settings and having them always be in a blank background kinda takes away from that. The writing wasn't bad although this issue seemed to be more of a tension builder to the final issue without really doing too much (which is to be expected, calm things down a bit before the final storm). My only gripe was the "5 years later". What the??? I definitely didn't see that coming. I know they wanted to portray a long battle (and have Ares' son get older) but now I've lost track of when this happened (or will happen) as I don't know any time where Hercules was gone for 5 years. It mentions the recent destruction of Asgaard throughout so I thought it was recent so are we jumping 5 years from now? And Asgaard hasn't returned (even though it definitely appears as though Thor will be)? It just threw me a bit and raised some questions that I know they won't cover.

As for Ares, we start seeing a slightly softer side. I'm slightly disappointed in this but it's only slightly softer and it's mostly directed towards his son. I kinda like this Ares. Yeah, you could kinda say he's the stereotypical badboy hero but he's Ares, God of War. If anyone is supposed to be a badboy it's him. And the fact that they made him so over the top bad is kinda funny (like his opinion of women and such). So overall I'm still enjoying this series despite it's shortcomings.

That's all for this week. So go enjoy the 7 minute preview of X-Men 3 or the new Superman trailer or TV clip. I'm not sure which way I'm leaning. Pictures from Superman haven't impressed me but the clips have. X-Men 3 pictures look pretty standard but I don't like what I'm hearing story-wise or seeing of the dialog and directing in those clips. And I'm more of an X-Men fan anyways. And don't get me started on Halle Berry. :) Oh well, I'll see both and buy the DVDs no matter what.

Weekly comic reviews

Three books this week but boy were they doozies (at least two of them). We have the start of Marvel's Civil War, the end of DC's Infinite Crisis, and Exiles. Spoilers will be kept to a minimum (you're welcome Carl) and more complete details and spoilers will be sent to only those who I think want them (you're welcome Jason). And now, in the order I read them (based on what I was most keen on reading):

Civil War: Despite some fans claims that this storyline just wouldn't have the emotional impact of a major comic event I think the intensity in this issue was built up well. Heroes are picking sides on the registration act and already people are not happy and emotions are running high nation wide. And in the midst of all the babble Captain America gets to kick some butt. The art was great for the most part. But of course I found myself not liking how some characters ended up being depicted. Maybe it's just me though as I haven't followed some of these characters as religiously as I have the Hulk (who of course is off planet during all this). Which leads me to the issues I have with the Hulk comments, Goliath brings up Hulk destroying Vegas with She-Hulk right there but she doesn't stand up for her cousin. Nobody does. Nobody points out "Hey, it was SHIELD sending the Hulk to neutralize a gamma bomb that started that whole mess." Even the Thing, who was beaten almost to death during that fight and let the Hulk go after a nice chat with him, said nothing. But that's the comic fanboy part of me talking. Put that part of me into a jar and this issue really kicked up the series with a bang (literally).

Exiles (extra spoilers in here since I know Carl and Jason don't read this anyways): We conclude their adventures in the land of the Maestro. Maestro pummels the Exiles, Blink accidentally teleports Sabretooth into space (but for some reason he doesn't go pop, just freezes), and Proteus recovers and, possibly thanks to his reality warping powers and the 2099 Hulk's great strength, he breaks Maestro's neck. Kinda funny, his dialog is similar to the Maestro's when he broke the Hulk's neck in Future Imperfect. I guess that's where he got the idea. In the end, Proteus punches the metal shard out of Morph's head and takes over his body. Then he jumps to the next universe (the Heroes Reborn universe). But I guess that wasn't much of a surprise as this issue has Morph narrating and giving his bio to the reader which in the Exiles is an indication that that character is about to go bye bye. It was still good to see the Maestro (even if he does get his butt kicked). And as for Blink's comment about teleporting his baton (can't remember the word she used but baton seems to work with Maestro), sure it would be painful but with the Hulk it would all grow back in no time anyways. :) A good book but as the Exiles leave this universe I think I'll be done with the book.

Infinite Crisis: Reminder, I'm not a DC fan. Well, this series ends with a bang. Actually, a few big bangs. It's hard to talk about the art as the issue had a variety of artists work on it but for the most part they did a decent job with a few issues. Right off the bat, the splash page opening the book has a few characters in the front properly coloured but most of the page is just red. Why? It looks like the colourist looked at the page, started colouring and said the heck with this and starting slathering red over everything. There's no real reason I can see but perhaps I'm missing something. Maybe it was just supposed to symbolize the battle that was going on but it just looked bad. In the end, a few more people die, Doomsday is stopped in a two page spread (gee, I thought the mighty Doomsday was going to do something impressive), and the Universe is saved (how isn't exactly clear as I didn't think Superboy was vulnerable to the red sun or kryptonite). And the main three characters go their separate ways but are ok with one another. The problems (other than continuity or inconsistencies), many of the death scenes were done in small panels. I guess that minimizes the impact considering how gory they were but it also diminishes it as a death scene. I had to go back and confirm that Superboy was cutting someone in half with his heat vision. They were almost treated like an aside. And some of the things that happen were a little lost on me but again, not a DC fan here. Overall it was definitely the best issue of the series and had some emotion to it. But I still think it could have been presented better. And now I'm done with DC for a while. On to waiting for the Mouse Guard TPB.

And oh yeah, have to mention Lucasfilm's announcement of the original Star Wars Trilogy (un-altered) on DVD! WOOHOO!

FREE COMICS DAY!!!

Ok, it's not like it's all comics will be free that day. It's only certain ones (and generally ones I'm not terribly interested in) but they're FREE! To find out more check out http://www.freecomicbookday.com/ and to see a list of comics from the "gold sponsors" we have http://www.freecomicbookday.com/sponsors_gold.asp

Personally, if Silver Snail is restricting it to one per customer then I might forego my usual Marvel choice and go with the Conan/Star Wars book.

(teehee, the spell checker wanted to change "Conan" to "Cowman")

PS. The day in question is May 6th, in case you were wondering.

I hurt

Well, my hockey team's chase for the Bubba Cup is over. The best we can do now is 7th (I originally put 6th but I've corrected it now) place by winning the B-Pool in the playoffs which would give us the Mini-Bubba... but that ain't gonna happen. At least we made it respectable by scoring with 16 seconds left to make it 5 to 4 against the team that finished first in the regular season.

But the real pain is that I hurt my wrist early in the game. I guess it's a little bit of a sprain as it hurts when I twist it or put weight on it and there's a tiny bit of swelling. So I'm now nursing a sore ankle and a sore wrist. The wrist is a bit more of a pain as it makes typing a little tougher and I had been hoping to get moving on my online comic but drawing is going to be a lot tougher.