Evidence of Nerd-dom

Its elementary. Its Friday, July 29, 2011, the game is afoot, and this is The Side. This was one of those days in which it all sort of came together. I didn't really have a theme for today, but when a particular movie trailer popped up and the comics I got this week contained a particular issue. Sometimes, these things just happen.

MOVIES!!

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return this December as Holmes and Watson.



The trailer does look exciting, but I'm not completely sold. I love Sherlock Holmes. I absolutely adore the SHERLOCK series from the BBC. I'm just not a huge fan of Downey's take on the character. I spent too much time in the first movie trying to figure out what on earth he was saying. Still, I'll likely check it out. I'll need something to hold me over until THE AVENGERS next May.

COMIX!!

Scott Snyder and Jock are bringing things to a boil in DETECTIVE COMICS #880 James Gordon is on the prowl and it seems no one is safe. To make matters worse, the Joker is on the loose. Jim Gordon races to save his ex-wife, and she's not the only one in peril. This book has struck a perfect balance with Jim Gordon and Dick Grayson as the leads. There's so much going on here that I don't want give too much away. The twist here was pretty easy to spot coming for those of us who have following the Snyder run on the book. Regardless of that, Dick's confrontation with the Joker alone is worth the price of admission. Combine that with an ending that twists the knife and makes having to wait a month nearly painful and you've got a real winner of an issue.

There's so much going on in KIRBY GENESIS #2 that its really hard to keep up. Its totally Jack Kirby Bombardment. There's at least twenty characters running around this thing. Yes, its an unwieldy bitch, but somehow Kurt Busiek holds this bad boy together. I'd have something snap loose in my brain if I tried to do this. With all this craziness going on Busiek inserts these brilliant forth wall breaks that really give us an insight into our main characters. It caught me off-guard in a really great way in issue #1, and I was glad to see it back in this issue. Right now, there looks like a ton of chaos going on. I wish Dynamite would release a collection of some of the comics this books borrows from. For now, I'm along for the mad ride. There's big bad stuffs going, and I'm hooked to see this come together.

ACTIONS COMICS #903 continues the battle with a group of Doomsday clones. The Superman family takes point, leading other heroes to battle clones as Superman goes after the Doomslayer. Its not a bad issue, but I'm having a really hard time getting excited about anything DC is doing, since with the impending reboot its all getting flushed away. This storyline is a swansong of ACTION COMICS. There's a lot going on with Superman and his allies which all made their debut in this current continuity. Doomsday is the most well-known baddie to come along since CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS so its fitting that he's the baddie here. The whole thing feels like a send off that shouldn't be happening.

MUSIC!!

Because somebody needs to keep an eye on them.



That's all for me today. I'm going to be doing my bast to stay cool and yet still get stuff done. Weatherman says its supposed to be cooler next week, but that's what they said about this week. Insert eyeroll here. See y'all Sunday.

Vulcan Doomsday!!

Hey there, sports fans. Its Sunday, May 29, 2011, I'm needing more coffee, and this is The Side. Typically, this is when I'd start talking UFC as there was card last night. Unfortunately, I didn't get my kitchen pass, so I wasn't able to go watch it. More unfortunate was how the card shaped up in light of the number of injuries going around.

The scheduled main event was Frankie Edgar in his rematch title defense against Gray Maynard. Their last fight was a war that went to a draw. Unfortunately, Edgar has a couple of bulging disks in his back and can't fight right now. He's probably going to need surgery and I wish him well. This put the Jackson-Hammill fight in the main event, and Jackson had a broken hand going into it, so he wasn't able to throw his big bomb punches. Didn't make for an exciting card.

Injuries happen. It seems sometimes that I'm always injured, either with something new, or an old injury flaring up. When you're not training competitively, you can train around it. However, if you try to do that when you're looking to keep your championship you're either going to lose that championship, get hurt worse, or most likely both. I respect the heart of a fighter who wants to step in the ring even though they aren't 100%, but I'd rather these guys take care of themselves and be healthy. That's how sports like MMA keep going strong.

COMIX!!

My books didn't get in until Friday, which would make posting my reviews Friday morning rather difficult. So, here we go.


A massive object is heading for Earth at near lightspeed that'll wipe out all life on the planet upon impact. Inside it are a bunch of homicidal Doomsday clones. This looks like a job for Superman. ACTION COMICS #901 gave me what I've been waiting for: Superman and his allies up against incredible odds with world at stake. Its a cat-and-mouse game as the heroes race to figure out how they can possibly stop a bunch of Doomsdays, and it gets worse when they learn that giant space station thingamahoozits they're on is heading straight for Earth and not in a good way. Forget the whole Superman walking around and being a douche. Paul Cornell serves up tight action with Superman in what feels like a space horror story. Kenneth Rocafort and Jesus Merino are definitely up to the task of bringing the tension and action to the page. It was weird to see an Obama analog for the President in the issue. I do like that DC had a history of having a fictitious government type folk. That was one of my gripes about the JMS stuff. I don't read comics for diatribes about "real world" stuff. I want escapism and a good story. That's what I got here. Kind of funny that there was that flap over the idiotic Superman story in the last issue about Superman renouncing his United States citizenship and in this issue we get "Superman, your country needs you now!" Love it!

Also this week DETECTIVE COMICS #877 continues "Hungry City". Scott Snyder and Jock continue to deliver with this book. Dick Grayson is trying to help a business owner who is being pressured by criminals to launder money. That businesswoman also happens to be the daughter of the thug who murdered his parents. Oh, and there was that whole whale inside of a building thingie to figure out. Snyder really has Dick Grayson-Batman figured out. He plays the Dark Knight role very well when battling thugs and tracking down leads, but he's still the Grayson we know and love when Tim is giving him grief. The story itself is revealing slowly. We're fully on-board with Dick as he tracks down leads and presses for information. We don't see what's coming, and this is so important for detective fiction. We're having to put the pieces together right along with Batman, and it keeps us engaged. This isn't so much a "Sherlock Holmes" Batman in which he's five steps ahead of everyone in the story as well as the audience, with the reveal of how he figured everything out later. This is the audience righting shotgun on a mystery, and I'm loving the ride.

One last thing. There's a lot of rumors going around about a big announcement that's going to be coming out from DC. A lot of it seems to be that they're going to re-set all their comics back to #1 to try to get more readers. That's just rumors at this point, but let's remember that we just had three big centennial issues, with the fans voting to have WONDER WOMAN renumbered so that she could get the centennial issue she deserved. DETECTIVE COMICS is about a year out from hitting #900. Not saying that's ruling out a re-set stunt, but doing so would be aggressively stupid.

MUSIC!!

Because when you're Mister Spock everyone else and sod off.



That's it for me today. If you see someone who served our country, tell 'em "thanks". We'll see y'all Wednesday.

Batman's Long Form Birth Certificate is FAKE!!

Yeah, that's right. Its Friday, April 29, 2011, its all about the little blue pill, and this is The Side. My Yahoo account got hacked, and my e-mail sent out a bunch of advertisements for Viagra. I got a bunch of e-mails like this as well so it seems like it was a pretty decent sized hack. Oh well, considering what it could have been sending out I probably got off light.

It the news, people are getting married. So now the drones that just drool over royal stuffs will have a new girl to get weird over. I remember when Princess Diana died and people were saying she was the greatest humanitarian in the world. Meanwhile, and without much fanfare Mother Theresa passed away a couple of days earlier.

In other news, Obama finally released his long form birth certificate, which he should have done when the Clintons asked for it back during the campaign. Some people are irked that this is the an invasion of the Pop-Star-in-Chief's privacy, but the document that he had released was one that would say he's from Hawaii if he had been adopted into the country. I know this because my short form birth certificate lists my adoptive parents as my parents with no mention of my biological parents. The document released is an obvious forgery, as while ol Barry was indeed born in Hawaii, his real middle name is actually "Jeb".

COMIX!!

Kicking things off with BATMAN INCORPORATED #5. This book is getting better and better with every issue. The spy game is in full effect with a distinctive super twist. Batwoman's case leads her to team up with British Superspy The Hood and that leads them directly into Batman and Gaucho's path. Big team up, big action, and a ton of utter coolness. Morrison does a great job with Batwoman, and the interaction between her and Bruce is a joy. The old Bruce would have been a prick about her wearing a Bat, but the new and improved Bruce accepts completely in the field and works great with her. Her reaction to learning he's the original Batman was such a nice touch. Kate Kane is such a fun character when handled by talented writers. As for this Hood fella, I ain't so sure about him. Sure, he's all smooth and British, but he fell for the old "I've got an orbiting death ray aimed at you" bit. Tsk. The Leviathan case grows deeper, and we also get to see the Batman of Africa! This book is packed!

Big milestone this week as ACTION COMICS #900 hit the stands. Superman returns to actually doing something in the conclusion of "The Black Ring" epic. Cornell really brought it home balancing out big action with all the really great character moments that have made his run a real treat. This issue also ties into the whole Doomsday crossover that's been going on. I haven't been following it, but I wasn't lost either, so its all good. The issue is 96 pages with a bunch of back ups, but the Cornell story is the best among them. Paul Dini has an interesting little story in there as well. Geoff Johns gave Gary Frank an excuse to draw the Legion of Super-Heroes hanging out in Clark and Lois's place. There was a depressing story about the spaceship the brought Superman to Earth being constructed. Then there's David Goyer's story about Superman going to iran for the protests, and letting us all know that he's officially renouncing his American citizenship. First off, Superman is not an American citizen, Clark Kent is. Second, the bit about the American Way not being enough anymore: real classy, Goyer. So sad to see the douchebag Superman from the JMS SUPERMAN run being carried over. So the book is worth getting if you've been following the awesome Lex Luthor epic, but the back-up stories (aside from Dini's) are skippable.

RED ROBIN #22 dropped me into the middle of a crossover I didn't know was going on. Seems the religious fanatics behind Azrael are planning on destroying Gotham led by a very powerful Meta-human, The Crusader. Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, and Selina kyle are all being tested on personal levels to see if Gotham is worthy of being spared. I didn't care much for this issue. Freddie Williams II has never been an artist that I've cared for, but to his credit this issue is some of his better work. Its seems that even though Tim Drake is a great guy and does nothing but good by the people around him, the nutbag Crusader sees him as unworthy because he's not religious. I hate characters like this because there's some people out there that think most Christians think this way, so I'm hoping he gets a serious comeuppance. Wasn't a terrible issue, but I wasn't into it.

Finishing on a strong note DETECTIVE COMICS #876 in the start of a new case, and artist, Jock, returns to the title. There's a murder with Tony Zucco's daughter in the middle of it. I'd normally feel that this is a bit weak in having Dick Grayson have to help the daughter of the man who killed his parents, but (and this is a big but) it plays out incredibly well in a scene of Dick and Jim Gordon in which Jim talks about his son returning. So much has been going on with this and its the huge elephant in the room. So the question is front and center: how far can an apple fall from a tree? Well paced and well written stuff here. Scott Snyder sinks a great hook in this new mystery that reaffirms my view that this is one of the best written comics going today. Loved it.

MUSIC!!!

What's sad is that after listening to this beautiful song on YouTube I was informed that Lady Gaga was next. Never before had I clicked away from YouTube so quickly.



That's it for today. Lots of Karate stuff on tap for me tomorrow, and I'll see y'all Sunday. Just remember: if you are watching the royal wedding, somewhere out there, I'm pointing and laughing at you.

Fitch Beats up a Cheesehead for Comics!!

Shame! Or possibly sham. Its Sunday, February 27, 2011, I've returned to you, and this is The Side. "Where was Friday's post?" you may ask. More computer trouble, but its been resolved. I thought about posting up some stuff on Saturday, but it would have been more rushed and half-assed than usual, so I figured I'd wait.

Alright, time for a shameless plug. I like video games, but I'm not super up on all the news and details. Lately, I'm playing more older games since they're cheaper to get a hold of and i don't have the latest systems. So if you're looking for some video game news and articles, go check out my buddy Joe. You'll be glad you did.

BEATIN'S!!

The UFC last night proved three things to me: you don't ever want to get punched my Mark Hunt, Michael Bisping is an asshole, and Jon Fitch can't catch a break.

The main event last night was disappointing and not because of the fight. After seeing Michael Bisping blatantly throw a completely illegal technique and then go on to win I was a bit soured. However, then out comes Jon Fitch to some sweet Johnny Cash music. Much has been made of him coming into this fight, mainly due to him adopting a new diet which is pretty much a vegetarian one. He's been a dominant fighter in the welterweight division. And now standing between him and title shot is the former champion BJ Penn.

Fitch might look like he should be in a van with a Great Dane and some other kids out solving mysteries, but he's the real deal. He battled a very tough Penn in a grappling war the first two rounds, and then beat the crap out of him in the third taking the fight to the a decision. The Judges chose poorly and the fight was declared a "majority draw" meaning two of the judge called the fight even on points while the third said Fitch won. Even Penn said that him getting a draw in that fight was an act of the gods and he thought he lost. Fitch was very disappointed but his attitude about it was outstanding.

His stance is that its not his job to decide who gets a title shot. He's there to do his job and that job is to fight. He's said that if he hasn't convinced Dana White, the UFC and fans that he should be the number one contender to the title then he hasn't been doing his job right.

No excuses. No whining. Hard work and dedication. That's what I like to see. Does Fitch deserve a title shot? Absolutely. Will he get one? Probably, since he's not going anywhere, looks better than ever in the ring, and is patient enough to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal.

DIRTY LOW-DOWN SHAME!!

With me being knocked offline for a couple days I spent my mornings before work watching the morning news shows. I got to see some true stupidity. The big news was that blogger who got an interview with the Wisconsin Governor by posing as someone else. Pretty lame stuff considering the Governor said the exact same stuff in a press release a couple hours later. But this was apparently some kind of brilliant ploy against the Governor. What was the monumentally dumb part was they played a portion of the phone interview and the Governor said that since certain state senators are literally in hiding to avoid doing their jobs then he was going to stop the direct deposit of their pay and take the checks and lock them into the desks of the senators, so if those clowns want to get paid they better show up for work.

At this point the dim anchor woman said how horrible it was to even suggest that those state senators be locked to their desks. Not surprised she got confused as she does tend to get confused easily. Fortunately there a guy on the same show who is actually quite brilliant and pointed out her mistake. Unfortunately as he attempted to explain why the Governor is correct and the protesting unions are not the show conveniently ran out of time for that segment. Nice.

But yes, the bill is working its way through limiting the collective bargaining abilities of public unions in Wisconsin. Democrats were chanting "Shame" as it passed. Of course they're pissed. This directly affects them. See, this is about public unions. These unions are made up of people whose wages are paid by money from taxes. The heads of these unions donate money to politicians from union dues. Doesn't really matter what the rank and file union workers want, they don't have much say in the matter. Unions is Wisconsin donate a disproportional amount to Democrats over Republicans. The Democrats are pretty much in the Union's pocket as they know which side their bread is buttered on. So yeah, the Democrats are pissed because they couldn't stop this bill which would decrease the power of public unions. The whole reason this is going through is in an attempt to balance the state's budget. It doesn't cut anyone's pay or take away their pensions. All it does is put a check on the power of unions. The unions don't want it. The Democrats they gave money too couldn't stop it. So they're worried they won't be getting their hefty union donations come election season.

Yeah. That's a damn shame.

Its been such a crazy week with everything in politics. Protests are going on in a bunch of countries against their governments. Libya is completely nuts right now. I have to wonder if our Pop-Star-in-Chief isn't trying to get himself impeached with his declaring law "unconstitutional" and refusing to defend them. He was supposed to be the one with all this understanding of the world, and the world is going apeshit on his watch. Not his fault, mind you. There's nothing he can really do about it. But between that and his old lady giving him grief about her crusade as First Lady to fight obesity, I wouldn't be surprised if he's considering saying "Fuck this! I'm out of here, and going to go get myself a cheeseburger." So, he's doing a bunch of dumb stuff that Presidents can't do and hoping to get tossed.

Its just nuts. Fortunately, good old Virginia is trudging on fairly steadily. The only political uproar here is if our Governor will be on the Republican ticket as Vice President if he gets asked. Amazing how our budget is manageable and this being a right to work state. One hell of a coincidence.

Politics. It really is like a contact sport.

THE LATE MANNY FRESH

Manny Fresh is dead. That's the reports coming in via The Mike and Bob Show. Manny went out doing what he loved but also proved that masturbation and gun play are never a good combination.

But is there more to this story? Manny Fresh had his share of foes. They struck at him through Twitter, but Manny masterfully shut that down. Then came "Cupcake" who also approached Manny via the internet and attempted to lure him to his doom with the promise of weird sex while simultaneously trying to drive a wedge between Manny and the Dudes. Yet, still Manny persevered! But now it seems he has fallen, and while it appears to be accidental, I wouldn't rule out foul play. This could have been staged and Manny's body could have been left in the state that it was to try to shame his memory. However, it was Manny, so there's not much that could be done to shame that memory.

Could this secret cabal that was attempting to destroy Manny Fresh have finally succeeded? Is Peter Criss Mask somewhere out there oddly laughing at Manny's demise? Has Manny really been sent back through time and is being hunted by a metaphorical curse machine? Will be one day return to form Manny Fresh Inc and train Manny Freshes around the world?

Only time will tell.

COMIX!!!

I'm going to start this off on a serious note. This week we lost a really great talent. Dwayne McDuffie passed away due to complications from a surgery. You're probably familiar with is work. He's been a writer in comics for many years. He's done a lot of work with the DC animated properties. I even scripted the Justice League Heroes video game for PS2. McDuffie was a writer that you could trust to deliver. He didn't get the recognition that some of the writing "superstars" get, but when he's mentioned you're not going to hear much of anything bad about his work. And this is good. This is a fellow who will live on through the amazing body of work that he produced in his life. The day that he passed the animated feature ALL-STAR SUPERMAN that he wrote was released. I wasn't planning of purchasing it, but I am now. Not so much as a tribute, but as a fan who now has a greater appreciation to a talent that was taken from us to soon.

On to some actual reviews, and this week's book were really great. Starting the ball rolling with DETECTIVE COMICS #874. Earlier in the Snyder run the book was split with half of it following Dick Grayson and the other half following Jim Gordon. That format got dropped to complete the Grayson story, and now that its wrapped we pick up right where we left off with Jim Gordon and his son. When I was picking up my comic the guys were discussing Luke Cage and how that fella eats a lot. It seems that there's a lot of appearances with Luke Cage eating. So its funny that the first issue I read this week opens with a diner scene. Its brilliant. Its so tense that it palatable. Brilliantly written and the artwork by Francesco Francavilla is incredible. Grayson is indeed here and dealing with the after effects of his battle with The Dealer. Fortunately he has Red Robin to back him up. I always liked reading these two teamed up. It does seem weird that in the field Tim is referred to as "Red Robin". It just doesn't sound right, but that's just how it is now. Great issue front to back.

Moving on to another Red Robin appearance over in TEEN TITANS #92. Georges Jeanty pencils this issue, and i like his work, but I was really amped to get my Nicola Scott fix. After a few deep cleansing breaths I dove in. With everything going on with Calculator the story was mainly about the team preferring to have Tim with them than Damien. I understand it since a lot of the team has a long history with Tim. These are his best friends. It makes sense that he's with them now that his quest to find Bruce has been completed. However, I prefer the team with Damien on it. J.T. Krul really made that dynamic work and I was eager to see how this was going to play out in the long term. Looks like we'll never know. Something that was bugging me was the deal with Kid Eternity. He got snatched like a year ago and it seemed like nobody noticed. Well, they certainly noticed now.

Over in ACTION COMICS #898 Hairless Lex Luthor takes on his old Orange Lantern ally Larfleeze. Paul Cornell and Pete Woods are nearing the end of this story which has just been completely stellar. Just when you start to really pull for Lex Cornell reminds us of what a complete bastard that he is. The end of this issue has a huge reveal about Robo-Lois which had me smacking my forehead and wondering how I couldn't have seen that one coming. We knew she had an agenda separate from Lex's and that she was working for someone else. Now we know who and this has me itching to see the next issue.

ATOMICA #5 turned things from a light-hearted romp to a nasty chain of events. After talking with a counselor about her Amnesia, Rose discovers that Professor Colluns is missing! The hunt for the good Professor leads out plucky heroine straight to one Dr. Astray. Ted Astray is still a nasty opponent and fairly creepy, but the creepiness gets upped with his parting warning "Beware the Metavore!" I don't know what a Metavore is, but I'm damn sure bewaring it. I have to wonder if this has a connection with Atomica's past and if this is the "big bad" that Astray is working for. Hopefully we'll get more answers next issue.

MUSIC!!

I'm a general fan of there domestic policies concerning boggy marshes.



That's the whole nine yards for today. I'm ready to go back to bed or start a coffee IV. Money's on the latter. See y'all Wednesday.

Batman versus the Cyber Cowboys in... "The Deep Freeze!"

Its Friday, December 31, 2010, another one bites the dust, and this is The Side. So why wasn't there a post last Wednesday absolutely none of you asked? Did I take time off for the holidays? Did I have to rush back up to West Virginia to aid my ailing father? Was I the victim of organized crime?

Possibly the last one.

It started Sunday night when I got a pop up on my comp telling me that my computer was under attack. Whatever it was had gotten past my security programs, but no security program is 100%. This was nasty little piece of work as it asked me if I wanted to block the attack. If I clicked no, it would bring up Internet Explorer and send me straight to a post site. If I clicked yes it would bring up Internet Explorer sending me to a site that offered a variety of items that take care of viruses and spyware. All I needed was my credit card.

I'm not the most computer savvy person around, but I know a con when I see one.

The virus quickly overtook the whole computer to the point where I couldn't do anything with it. I couldn't even bring up Minesweeper. The only thing it would let me do is go to that site and "purchase" those items.

Screw that. I shut it down and called Alpha Geek. It took a while for him to get out here as the attack coincided with that incredibly nasty snowstorm, which I really doubt was a coincidence. However, once Mike the Alpha Geek got here he was able to get the nasty bit of code out of the comp. It took a bit of doing. That thing protected itself like a wounded beast.

It was really cool to watch too. He does stuff with computers that is so above my level of computer knowledge that it looks like magic. He also tipped me off that a lot of these viruses are going around and there's quite a lot of it coming from the Russian Mob. Philip Defranco stated that many view the internet as "the Wild West", and it really is. Its dangerous, and there's plenty of nasty code-slingers out there looking to get ahead. The internet is a hostile environment and you've got to be careful on here. Which is why I never go to 4chan.

It could be worse. At least I'm not an Iranian Nuclear Power Plant.

COMIX!!

OK, I only just made it to Comic Kings yesterday and could only grab three books. Therefore, I'll have a second review with the rest of my weekly reads on Sunday.

Let;s light this candle with ACTION COMICS #896. This issue succeeded in doing many things. First it made me want to punch Sebastien Mallory right in the mouth. Form being an obnoxious jerk in the Jimmy Olson back-up to a complete brown noser in the main story I'm really hoping for something horrible to happen to him. Second, it made me excited about a crossover. Typically these things make me have to buy a book I would want to in order to get the rest of the story or one side of the creative team kinda mishandles the others' toys. Cornell absolutely nailed the Secret Six and then I get to see how Gail Simone wraps up the story. Complete win for me. Third it confirmed that for next Christmas I want a girl robot. Robo-Lois has been such a scene stealer in this book and this issue is no exception. She's so much more fun than the real Lois Lane, but its not really a fair comparison since the real Lois doesn't have a smash mode, at least one that we know of. Great book with tons of action, loved every bit of it.

Moving on over to BATMAN INCORPORATED #2, we have grant Morrison and company knocking this thing completely out of the park. You know its going to be good when the first panel of the first page has Jiro Osamu kicking one of the henchmen of Lord Death Man right in the nuts. This book has everything I could want from this title. All the characters are spot on awesome. The cameo from Shiny happy Aquazon was fun. Bruce and Selina's interaction was spotless. He knows he can't fully trust her because she's still a thief. She knows he's going to try to stop whatever heist she's trying to pull. And they're still crazy about each other. I had to restrain myself from cheering a bit at Jiro stating "Guns are for cowards, not for Mr. Unknown!" thus increasing his own awesomeness. Loved the bit where Jiro takes the oath in the same fashion Dick Grayson once did. The only bit that's bugging me is the jewels liquefying at surface pressure. I know I've seen that bit before and for the life of me I can't place where. Ah well. If you're going to only read one Bat-title this is the one to read.

And if you're going to avoid one Bat-title like the plague BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #1 gives us a good one to run for the hills screaming from. Its like I went back in time to before Bruce Wayne was completely awesome. Its totally the Bat-Douche Returns. References to Bruce Wayne's life being shattered. The title of the story "In Golden Dawn" with batman searching for a missing childhood friend Dawn Golden is pretty laughable. Bruce is a prick to Alfred. Killer Croc being on Venom seemed weird and forced, like he wasn't enough of the threat to begin with Finch has to make him even tougher so Batman could be seen as even more awesome when he took him down. I don't know what he was thinking with his redesign of The Penguin. I have to think he wanted to make a strong visual statement, much like Jim lee did with the Joker back in the overrated "Hush" storyline, but it just made the character unrecognizable. The bit with young Bruce and Dawn with the kite was really heavy handed and creepy, not in a good way creepy. It really looks like David Finch has not been paying attention at all with what the character of Bruce Wayne has been going through and his development over the last five years. So for those of you that don't like Batman being cool and awesome and want him back to being "The Goddamn Batman", this is the book for you. I'll be elsewhere. Don't bother telling me how it turns out.

ICE STATION: DEEP CREEK!!!

Like most of the east coast I did indeed get hit by the massive snow storm last weekend. Got thirteen inches of snow which is a helluva lot for this area. It hasn't snowed like that here in thirty years.





Yes indeedy, that is a lot of snow. So of course I had to congratulate Al Gore in his defeating Global Warming, which I did on Google Buzz, and sure enough someone attacked me to support Gore. It was just precious. Serious, no body takes Gore seriously anymore. Even the environmentalist hippies are kinda hoping he'd just go away. I was asked if I knew the difference between "climate" and "weather". Of course I do!

Climate: is what the hippies freak out about nowadays for changing ever so slightly, even though its been doing that pretty much always, and makes them buy hybrid cars to feel better about themselves and superior to others.

Weather: is what is outside and best avoided as it is really frakkin' cold at the moment.

The current state of both, like everything, is temporary. There's nothing like an nasty cold winter to make me miss warmer weather.



Epic farmer's tan is EPIC!

MUSIC!!

So what song will i end the year with? What song rocked me harder than the others? I'd like to end the year with Lady Gaga.

Oh wait, I meant I'd like to end Lady Gaga this year. Pesky typos.



That's it for the year, gang. Y'all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve. I'll be back Sunday barring horrible incident.

Cornell makes the world better

I'M BACK! It's Wednesday, December 1, 2010, gravy runs thick through my veins, and this is The Side!

As yes, Thanksgiving. It was a time of much traveling, spending time with family, and eating until I thought I would explode. The traveling was long, but the scenery was pretty, and also laughable as a big billboard in West Virginia read "What Would Jesus Do? Start over. Single Payer Healthcare. Everyone in. Nobody out." This sign was brought to us by www.bunch-of-morons-who-want-the-government-to-take-care-of-them-instead-of-being-responsible-for-their-own-lives.org and I'm also pretty sure Jesus wouldn't be advocating socialist solutions to healthcare problems. He'd probably be doing the laying of the hands bit.

Once there I got to relax and attempt to enjoy the Macy's Parade with the kids, which I finally did get to see all the neat floats and balloons after NBC shilled all their shows I don't care about, and a performance from every show that is even considering performing on Broadway. That's except for the Spider-man show which would have performed, but the actors got stuck up on the wires and couldn't get down. When did the Macy's Parade start sucking?

GETTING BETTER?

There's a social project going on to support teens of various sexualities against bullying called the It Gets Better Project. This features messages from adults aimed at teens of various sexualities to let them know that even though things suck for them at that moment, if they just hang in there that things will improve. They want bullying to end. Unfortunately, bullying will never end because there's always going to be some kid who is pissed off at the world and has enough weight behind him to push it around. Also I'm not seeing a big improvement in parenting across the boards so kids who think its OK to beat the crap out of other kids for whatever reason will occasionally spring up. Still, as far as activism goes its a damn sight better than it idiocy that is Feminist Hulk.

The thing is that things don't just get better for most of us. Gay kids aren't the only ones getting bullied. In fact if you go to most teenagers and get an honest view of life from their eyes, most of them are going have a pretty sucky one. Even that kid at school who's the most popular one there and everyone loves them has their own crap that they have to deal with on an everyday basis. You may not see it, but its there. I had a pretty easy go of things when I was teenagers, and I thought that things sucked for me. Have things improved, or gotten better, now that I'm an adult? Of course not. There's now different things that suck. I don't worry about bullying, partly due to being able to throw a hell of a punch, but because there's bigger things to worry about like paying bills and making sure that my family is alright.

Your current situation is temporary, unless you are dead, and in that case, disregard this message.

The choices you makes are what are going to decide whether or not things will get better. Bullying can indeed be the very least of your problems. And it is a problem. I'm not saying that it isn't, or that whatever is making any teenager's view of life a sucky one isn't a completely valid reason. But its something you can deal with. Bullying can be dealt with. The site also says that there are LGBT youths who can't imagine a future for themselves. Seriously, that's most youths, not just the gay ones. Sometimes that's not even them being depressed about something. That's just being a teenagers and the concept of being a 'grown up' is like a make believe thingie.

Jay Medicine Hat told a story about being stuck in traffic in some city in Colorado. It was snowing and cold as hell and he and his buddy are bitching about the whole thing. Then they find out why traffic is backed up. A guy in wheelchair was trying to get across the street and got stuck in the snow. People are yelling and honking their horns at him. So Jay and his buddy get out of the car, and pick up the guy in the wheelchair and get him over to a sidewalk in front of a hotel where there was no snow. The guy looks up and says "Thanks, fellas, I thought I was going to be late for work."

Life sucks. Complaining doesn't help, but it can make you feel a little better. So after you vent, go out and do what you can to deal with your problems and make your life a bit better. It may take a while and there's no guarantee that things will be great, but it sure as hell beats the alternative.

MAKING IT BETTER?

The area I live in is often referred to by people who think they are cool as the "7 Cities". Well some of those cities are not quite a desirable to live in as others. Sure there are nice places to live in every city, but when the "murder report" comes on the news every night certain places tend to get more mentions. I've worked in all these cities, and one of them has an area that's quite a bit worse than the others. Typically, when the sun starts to go down, you better be in your truck and heading in the general direction of the fuck outta there.

I come to find out that a building I've worked on for years doing things like fixing leaks because when you fire a gun into the air the bullet has to come down somewhere, is going to be demolished. I am here to say that demolishing this building will be an improvement. The interesting part is that this area will be the start of a new "town center" which will feature upscale restaurants and stores. So they're hoping to take one of the crappiest areas around, put a bunch of really nice stuff there, and hope that its such a good influence that it spreads making the whole area nicer. They're going to need a lot more cops out there.

They did do this in another city which was one we left quickly when the sun set. This was a bit smarted in there cunning plan as instead of starting as an oasis amid a desert of just horrible crap they started on one end to town and worked south. It was like a slow moving wave, but it worked and now about half of the downtown area is pretty decent. It does seem weird when you get to the invisible line where the restoration ends. They built a nice little Kelly's Tavern, and two blocks away is where a guy threatened to shoot me for being white in the wrong part of town.

So will it work? Damned if I know. I'm just waiting for the city to start knocking down the crap out there and seeing the residents on TV complaining how they're tearing down historical stuff.

COMIX!!

It has come to my attention that Paul Cornell is slowly but surely taking over the DCU. I fully support this. He jumped on BATMAN AND ROBIN #17 with Scott McDaniel and gave us the opening to a fun little three parter. I'm not terribly sure about Damien smiling so much, but this book was so much fun that I could easily look past it. This book has Dick and Damien working on a mystery and having a grand time of it. Its obvious that the book has moved on from the Morrison epic as there's no hint of the previous storyline here, although it could be argued that the "hole in things" has changed zip codes.

Moving over to more Cornelliness in ACTION COMICS #895 Vandal Savage has a bone to pick with Lex Luthor. It involves a nasty old prophesy and stuff. I'm not a big Vandal Savage fan. The whole thing with him being Cain was kinda weird, but this version works pretty well for me. It wasn't a huge funfest like the last view issues, but it was still good stuff. Robo-Lois is always a treat. The Jimmy Olson back-up was really great as well. It hadn't really been clicking for me up 'til now, but this installment was hoot. I want to go shop at Yarn barn because of it.

Moving away from the Cornelliness we have DETECTIVE COMICS #871 with Scott Snyder and Jock taking the helm. I haven't been the biggest fan of Jock, but his style works really well with this story. Snyder spins an interesting mystery putting Dick Grayson chasing after a foe who is using equipment from Gotham's rogues. He handles Dick very well and the interaction between him and Jim Gordon was a definite high point for me. I'm not reading all the Bat-titles despite how it may appear, but this one is still got my attention. Its a vast improvement from that terrible Hine story that just wrapped up.

ATOMICA #3 rounds out my reads this week. This issue was pleasantly weird with Atomica fighting the Omega Neutron Identity, which is an oddball super robot that has an adaptive personality. It was supposed to be a learning program, unfortunately it got stuck in a room with a radio on a bad pop station. It then ran amuck, destroying things and chanting “raw raw raw” while wearing stupid costumes and dancing strangely. Never had I wanted anything in a comic to be destroyed so horribly. I was hoping for the big “Atomic Power Punch”, but instead I got a curve ball as Atomica pacified the thing with a combination of classical music and kids songs. It felt a bit like a bait and switch, but I rolled with it as Atomica is easily a pluckiest hero to come along in years.

MUSIC!!

That's it for today. More comic stuff on Friday. See you then. Or else.