Captain Marvel Incoming

Marvel's latest offering is heading out way, and unfortunately there's controversy around it.  I've been busy and unfortunately by the time said controversy came onto my radar, both camps had dug in and gone full retard making up all sorts of weird stuff.  It boils down to the lead actress, Brie Larson, having some concerns about things possibly not being inclusive enough.  Some study was brought up.  A few things probably could have been worded clearer, but unfortunately that's more than enough for battle lines to be drawn.  Larson has clarified things, and I was going to see it anyhow, but it did kinda damper my excitement for the film.  Early trailers were kinda lackluster.  Too much time was spent by the press focusing on the feminism aspects.  Not enough was spent trying to get everyone excited.  Marvel has recently put out a lot of great behind the scenes stuff that has really caught my eye in a good way.

It is way too easy to get caught up in the pointless bickering, and I was guilty to buying into the articles and headlines that has a vested interest in keeping the fight going for the sake of views.  The main concern I have is that any legitimate criticisms that may arise from the film will result in the person voicing said criticism as "sexist".  I've had a few people online claim my dislike for BLACK PANTHER is the result of some sort of weird latent racism on my part.  This is ridiculous, of course, and a symptom of the current culture of "everyone who doesn't agree with me must have some sort of terrible character flaw".  With the movie still yet to be released however, we'll have to wait to see how it turns out.

There are a couple of issues that I have seen brought up online that I do want to address: "Carol Danvers is a c-list character" and "Captain marvel is a white guy".

Captain Marvel is indeed a white guy... if you're talking about the DC Universe.  Actually, I'm pretty sure that they are just referring to him as "Shazam" now to avoid confusion.  In the Marvel Universe, Captain Marvel hasn't been a white guy for decades.  The character was killed off about 40 years ago.  When I was a kid reading comics, Captain Marvel was Monica Rambeau, a black woman and really cool.  She was an Avenger, part of the SECRET WARS event back in the 80s.  The character is still very active and now known as "Spectrum", and still very cool.  Carol Danvers took up the title a few years ago and currently uses it.  So, it makes sense that the current version of the character is what will be featured on screen. We're still hoping beyond hope that people may watch a superhero movie and then actually buy a comic book.  One day, it may happen!

Now let's address the "c-list" bit.  This seems to be stemming from people trying to shoehorn Captain Marvel in being Marvel's answer to Wonder Woman.  Wonder Woman is a trinity character.  She is the direct representation of one of the three key aspects of the superhero genre in the DCU.  In the Marvel Universe, that particular aspect (science fiction) is represented by Ironman, and I don't think anyone is going to be replacing him any time soon.

So, Carol isn't a trinity character, but "c-list"?  No.  This is a character that has been around for decades.  My first exposure to her was in the pages of THE AVENGERS.  It was right around #200, but fortunately not that particular issue because holy crap how did that weird story make it past editorial?  Seriously, I'm old and jaded, but I even I read that thing and said "This thing is problematic".  She was still Ms. Marvel at the time, but not for long because a few years after I discovered her character, the battle with Rogue happened, and Rogue stole her powers.  This was a huge deal, because Carol spent years without her powers.  We've seen those stories where a character loses their powers only to get them back a few issues later.  This went on for years.

She was still active though.  Years later, Carol received a new power set and became Binary, and went off to have awesome adventures in space.  She has since regained her old power set, as well as the Binary power set.  She was known as "Warbird" for a while and recently took the title of Captain Marvel.  She's currently a member of the Avengers and head of Earth's defenses against alien threats.  So, she's a big deal.

This brings us to the problem: this character is at her best in a group dynamic.  Her solo titles have struggled a bit.  Meanwhile, her tenures in THE AVENGERS, THE ULTIMATES, and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY have always been really cool.  This isn't a bad thing.  Some characters just work better under those conditions.  In this regard, she's top notch and definitely an asset for writers to use to play off of other characters, and great for beating the crap out of baddies and blowing stuff up in dramatic fashion. 

So why feature her in a solo film?   

With the Thanos saga winding down in the films, the MCU is going to need a new direction to explore.  This film may give a few clues as to what's to come with more of the Kree explored and the introduction of the Skrulls.  Also consider, Ant-Man is also in the group of best on a team, and the movies of that character were both really great.  Carol's also a character that's fully realized and while she started in relation to Marvel's original Captain Marvel, she's moved up to make the title her own.  There is a market wanting woman led superhero films.  Many fans have really wanted a Black Widow film (I'm definitely among them), but with the character's popularity, Marvel seems to be taking their time wanting to really get it right.

Ultimately, we hoping that its a good movie.  I've been keeping my expectations low in hopes of being really pleasantly surprised.  We'll see soon when it hits the theaters.

Its all over for Marvel.

There's a big battle brewing for Marvel, and its not just a Super Bowl wager.  Marvel is counting down to a new Secret Wars event which will in turn lead to Marvel rebooting its continuity.  This, of course, has lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from fans who are quite reboot weary.  The weariness comes from DC Comics being on their, I think, fourth reboot at this point.  This has a lot of fan looking sideways at this and there's still a bit of a bitter air about DC's last reboot which has gotten mixed reviews.

Let's break this on down.

For those new to this concept, a "reboot" is a resetting of the continuity in a fictional world.  This sounds crazy on the surface as one would wonder why you want to ignore stories and risk alienating long time fans.  People spent time and money reading these stories.  They're invested.  But now that investment doesn't matter?

It does matter, but there's a case to be made for reboots and they are necessary on occasion.

WHY SHOULD THERE BE A REBOOT?

* If there is confusion as to continuity.  I'm not just talking about a subject in the continuity that someone can read up on.  If the question is "What happened to Mister Awesome?" and the answer is "Well, this happened to him.  It was in (insert title of storyline here).  You can check it out in (name the trade or the issue numbers here)." then you don't have a problem.  However, if the question is "What happened to Mister Awesome?" and the reply is "Do you mean the main Mister Awesome, the Extreme World Mister Awesome, or the one from the other dimension that's currently being Mister Awesome while Mister Awesome is presumed dead but is really lost in the multiverse with a genetically altered chinchilla?" there may be cause for concern.

* You're planning on incorporating something you've acquired into your main continuity.  Companies merge.  Each have characters that would work great together.  Parallel Earth team-ups are starting to get played out, and it time to properly get everyone in the same sandbox.

*Time has marched on.  If characters have a specific tie to a specific ear they can get dated, and that gets awkward.  Superheroes tend to have fountain of youth going for them, but even that fountain can't explain away a disco inspired wardrobe for a character that couldn't have been born in the 70s.

DC'S REBOOTS

DC rebooted everything in the mid-80s with their CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.  At the time DC had a lot going on.  Their main characters existed on "Earth 1".  Their Golden Age characters existed on "Earth 2".  Captain Marvel and his buddies had their own Earth as did Blue Beetle and the characters he shared a world with.  That's a lot for keep straight.

So, they had one big event to bring everything together.  George Perez drew just about every character DC every had at some point.  Its a classic story, and well worth reading.  

But the relaunch had a couple of flaws here and there at to the new continuity.  Its a huge undertaking with multiple creative teams that really need to be coordinated with each other.  So, years later DC released ZERO HOUR to try to smooth over some of these issues.  The whole point was to try to streamline things, and it worked for the most part.

Characters moved on and the Silver Age heroes passed torches to a newer generation.  Unfortunately, some people didn't like that and they somehow ended up being in charge.  There ended up being more changes which culminated in FLASHPOINT and THE NEW 52.  This went down because the powers that be at DC wanted their Silver Age heroes back in the saddle and Jim Lee could now bring in his Wildstorm properties over.  It hasn't gone very well. There was an initial sales bump, but  things are waning.  

The reboot just seemed too forced, and the execution on the follow up was kind of haphazard.  Also, some real fan favorite characters got written out.  Fans of Stephanie Brown or Wally West were left shrugging their shoulders.

WHAT'S UP WITH MARVEL?

There's been a lot brewing with Marvel as to build up to SECRET WARS.  Jonathan Hickman's runs on AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS have been leading up to this directly.  The storyline has been really great.  I haven't felt this gripped by a storyline since Morrison's Batman epic.  The real question is: why is Marvel rebooting everything now?

Marvel released an alternative "Ultimate" line of comics years ago, and they've been a success.  The continuity for the main Marvel Universe and the Ultimate universe are different, and both have their merits.  In fact the Marvel movies have drawn from both as source material.  There's also been other alternate realty stories that have gone on and there's some fondness for some of the characters that have appeared there, but not in the main continuities.

Remember what I said above about why you should consider a reboot?  Marvel is there.  If you ask about Captain America, you're needing to be more specific.  Also, let's look at the Punisher and Ironman.  Those are two characters who have their origins linked to America's adventures in southeast Asia.  Punisher is a Vietnam War veteran.  So, that would make him around 60 now.  Nick Fury is in his nineties easily.

Time has moved on, and some things are needing a polishing.  So, this reboot I'm all for.  

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE

Yeah, everyone else has sounded off, and I'm following the herd.  Moo.

* Ironman being more hero and less villain.  Seriously, he's been shady as hell since that awful CIVIL WAR comic.  It would be nice to put all that behind us and have him back as a proper hero.

* Miles Morales and Nick Fury from the Ultimate universe being in proper Marvel.  These characters are well liked and interesting.  There's plenty of room for them.

* Cyclops not being creepy and Jean Grey not dying over and over and over again.

* New Universe stuff!  Hickman worked the White Event into his line and its was an interesting take on things.  That and I have all the old PSI-FORCE comics and I still think Wayne Tucker was cool.

*That One More Day business being gone forever and ever.  Seriously.  That was just dumb.  I'd even be cool with resetting Spidey back to his high school days.  

* Deadpool not existing.  Yeah, I know that's not going to happen.  I just don't like Deadpool.

That's pretty much it.  I think we've got some really great writers over at Marvel right now, and they'll do a great job with the relaunch.  Just as long as they don't make it a habit.

Lead Up to Avengers Shake Up.

If you've been paying attention to internet "news" about comics you may have seen everyone browning their trousers over a woman being Thor and a black guy being Captain America.  There's been calls of torches and pitchforks and all the typical internet stupidity that one would see from those outraged about comics that they don't read.

For those who saw these stories and are curious about what is going on and haven't been keeping up with the books, the whole thing is revolving around a storyline that Jonathan Hickman has been doing.  There's going to be a time jump, and what's the point of the time jump if everyone is exactly as they are now.  So, we get to see some fun change ups.

The problem is that this is getting some interest from people who haven't been reading the Avengers books and its honestly a lot to catch up on.  So, here's a really horrible recount of everything.

Illuminati: "We be the smart dudes that make big heavy choices, and don't tell no one."

Black Panther: "A parallel Earth almost crashed into us!  What's up with that?"

Illuminati: "We don't know.  Join our club?"

Black Panther: "OK."

Reed Richards:"The multiverse is dying.  We're all screwed."

Ironman: "We got this."

Reed Richards: "Another parallel Earth!"

Illuminati: "Get the Infinity Gauntlet!  Who's gonna use it?"

Ironman: "Get Steve to do it!"

Infinity Gauntlet goes blooey.

Namor: "You dumb-ass!  You wrecked our Gauntlet!"

Ironman: "We may have to blow up the parallel Earths to save ours."

Cap: "Not cool!"

Ironman: "Gotta do it."

Cap: "Don't be a dick."

Ironman: "You're out of the club.  Enjoy your mindwipe."

Later.

Ironman: "Hey Steve, help me build a really awesome Avengers team."

Cap: "OK."

Weird stuff happens on Mars.

Weird stuff happens of Earth.

Spider-man gets turned into a douche.

White Event.  Cause New Universe is cool.

Thanos: "Child support sucks!  Killin' all my bastards!"

Ironman: "Something is kicking everyone's ass in space and is heading this way."

Cap: "We'll go help!"

Thanos: "The Avengers have split!  Let's wreck their shit!  Is my Gauntlet here?"

"Its busted, but the Time Gem may be around."

Thanos: "Cool.  Go find it while we're here."

Gladiator: "The Builders are dicks.  We're gonna kick their asses."

Cap: "We'll help."

Gladiator: "Whatever."

...

Gladiator: "Oh shit!  The Builders are dicks and are kicking our asses!"

Cap: "OK, I've got this."

Namor: "Black Panther is a dick and has your Time Gem.  Go kick his ass."

Thanos: "Hey, BP, all your base belong to me.  Now, where's my kid?"

Black Bolt: "You're a dick!"

Thanos: "Screw you!  Gimme my kid!"

Black Bolt: "Terrigen bomb!  Suck it, you purple-faced douche!"

Thanos: "Dick."

Gladiator: "Thanks for kicking the Builder's asses.  Thanos done took your planet."

Cap: "Well, guess we gotta kick his ass too."

Gladiator: "Got your back, homie!"

Thanos: "Gonna kill my kid."

Thane (Thanos's kid): "Nope."

Ironman: "More parallel Earth keep wrecking each other and some of them have people on them."

Reed Richards: "We got a bomb."

Hulk: "I know what you've been up to."

Ironman: "Join our club."

Hulk: "OK."

Reed Richards: "Here comes another Earth."

Ironman: "We gotta destroy it."

Dudes from parallel Earth: "Not cool!  Y'all are dicks!"

Doctor Strange loses his shit.

Illuminati: "We really don't want to kill a bunch of people to save everyone."

Namor: "Y'all are pussies.  Imperius Rex, bitches!"

Parallel Earth go boom.

Illuminati: "Not cool, Namor!  You're a dick."

Namor: "Whatever."

...

Namor: "Got me me a new crew.  Gonna wreck some stuff."

Cap: "I remember now!  Tony is a dick!"

Ironman: "Chill!"

Cap: "You're a dick, and I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Time Gem.

Time travel things.  

Cap gets back.

Cap: "Ironman is a dick and so are the rest of the Illuminati.  We're gonna kick their asses."

Illuminati: "Oh shit!"

And that's pretty much where we're at going into the next issues.  Its going to jump ahead about eight months and the separate titles will be catching up over the next eight months.  If you want you can go ahead and hunt down the trades to get a better idea of everything that's going on.  Its good reading.

Have fun.

To Infinity and... something...

This past week Disney released it new DISNEY INFINITY game on multiple gaming platforms.  Game Informer is saying this is going to be one of the top 5 games this year.  Lots of hype, but the game itself is pretty remarkable.  Characters from Disney and Pixar movies that everyone loves coming together for us to play with and giving us the ability if create worlds to run these characters around in.

Its not surprising that Marvel, being owned by Disney, would put out a tie-in comic to really get as many people as they could on board.  The first issue of INFINITY came out last week, and Jonathan Hickman has guided his AVENGERS series to this event, much like the nice folks over at Gamestop have been collecting thos pre-orders.  The cross marketing has been subtle, and fortunately Hickman has been very careful not to overplay things.

Both the comic and the game deal with multiversal concepts.  The game does branch out a bit more as it allows players to explore multiple Earths wereas the comic just sticks to the Marvel U that we know.  There has been a lot in NEW AVENGERS dealing with "incursions" which stem from a chain reaction caused by on universe in the multiverse being destroyed and the other universes reacting to that void.  Has of yet I have found no such destruction of a Universe in the video game, although to be fair I haven't played through the MONSTERS UNIVERSITY segment of the game, nor purchased the CARS and  THE LONE RANGER expansions.

The big feature in the video game is "The Toy Box" which lets you create, customize and populate your own world with various things you earn in the adventure protions of the game.  You have ability to alter and erase elements as well.  Hickman cleverly inserts this element into the comic with the Builder characters.  These are essentually gamers on a cosmic level whom really enjoy Sim City and Civilization type games in which they guild and nudge species towards goals.  They also seem to like a bit of Pokémon as they'll work to evolve species as well.

These builders have gone a bit nutters and are wiping out worlds.  They go after the Space Knights and the Kree in the comics.  This is a clear cut message to old school ROM fans, there's a new age upon us and they have not qualms about breaking out the magic wand from the game tools and deleting whatever they don't like.  However, it must be noted that these Builders are not the good guys.  In fact Captain America is leading the Avengers into space to help confront them.  This echos something unwritten in the game but the message is clear throughout much of the gameplay: "Its better to create and nurture an idea than to just wipe it away."

So my compliments to Disney and Marvel for such a great game launch and tie-in event comic.  Many people were worried that Disney would lean on marvel a bit after the acquisition to put out book that push the Disney brand, but I'm happy to report that even though Marvel is paying its due to its parent company, its doing so in a very entertaining fashion.

Nozz = Comic Book Hipster?

Where's the coffee?  Its Friday, April 20, 2012, I'm freaking beat, and this is The Side.  The Missus is still with her family, and I'm still on the single dad patrol.  Very exhausting.  This has also prevented me from getting by the comic shop, so yet again, the reviews will be on Sunday, that is if there's anything waiting for me.


Hey, speaking of ye olde comic shoppe.

LABELS!!!

I was at Kings last Saturday picking up my comics, and the owner's son was chilling out behind the counter on some downtime between rounds of the Saturday Yu-Gi-Oh Tournament.  He expressed his surprised that I wasn't picking up the latest AVENGERS VERSUS X-MEN issue.  I told him I wasn't a Marvel reader.


"How can you be a Comic Book Hipster and not be reading Marvel?"


I thought you couldn't be a comic book hipster if you did read Marvel.  I figured that a comic book hipster was pretty much one and the same as the "indier than thou" crowd.  I was actually worried about being lumped into that group with my reading stuffs lately.  No, I haven't been reading Marvel for years.  I did give them a shot again with FF on the advice of some valued friends, but it just wasn't for me.  I stopped reading DC, and that wasn't so much me leaving DC Comics as DC Comics leaving me.  My reading currently consists mostly of books from Dark Horse and Image.  And for anyone reading this and thinking "well those are indy companies" you haven't been paying attention.  Dark Horse has major franchises like STAR WARS and BUFFY, as well as HELLBOY.  If you've had multiple books from your company be made into movies, you're no longer indy.  Image has THE WALKING DEAD.  That's just about the hottest show on TV.  There's no more "Big Two", its the "Big Four" now.  Has been for a long time.

So, I'm not in the "indier than thou" crowd, but am I a comic book hipster?  I have enough of a knowledge base of comics that I feel confident that I could teach an undergraduate course on the subject.  Still, the term "comic book hipster" conjures a certain image in mind.  Skinny jeans, and knit hats.  T-shirts of comics that either people haven't heard of or ones that people had and that were made into movies,but the person wearing it will be quick to point out that he was into that book before everyone else.  Glasses that are big and black that make sure to let people know that this individual reads a lot.  They must read a lot.  Look at the size of their glasses, for cryin' out loud.  They look down their noses at anyone who dares to read a comic they find unworthy of their interest.  Its kinda like fanboys who leveled up.


Stopping to consider my current self in relevance to my notion of a comic book hipster, I don't think I fit.  My glasses aren't thick enough.  I sure as hell don't wear skinny jeans.  Actually, I'm usually wearing my work clothes, and those have been through hell and back on my construction job.


I do have a habit of being snarky towards some of the things I don't like.  I got a little heat because after getting a description of the X-Men storyline "The Messiah Complex" I said it sounded really stupid and I wouldn't bother reading it.  Sure, that sounds like me being a prick, but I can't really get excited about a book, no matter how glowingly someone describes it, if the entire premise sounds dumb to me.  My friends convinced me to give FF a try due to their knowledge that an issue of THE FANTASTIC FOUR was one of the first ones I every got, and that there were going to be interesting directions explored in the comic in that it was super-heroes through a nearly pure sci-fi prism, which is how I like my Fantastic Four.  Sure, I didn't like the issue I bought, but at least my friends made a proper sale of it.  The bit about "Messiah Complex" tying into all these other "event" stories isn't a selling point either.

"It ties directly into HOUSE OF M."


"What?  So, I have to read that too?"


That's not being a snotty comic book hipster so much as being a guy who really doesn't want to track down comics that don't sound interesting and read them.  There's too much other interesting stuff that I want to read but haven't had the chance.


Is there a bit too much of "we're the cool comic book reading guys" going on here?  Is it like when the guys on THE BIG BANG THEORY call someone else a "dork"?  You do see it sometimes, but really a nerd calling a nerd "nerd" is just stupid.  I do revel in my fantasy of seeing the guys from Comic Kings throwing down with the crew from Local Heroes like a geek version of the Sharks and Jets, with Mike Federali writing the entire score to this nerd gang musical.


So, I'm not a comic book hipster, and definitely not a fan boy.  I'm not "indier than thou" either.  Fine by me.  I've had enough stupid labels stuck to me over the years.


I'm just bummed that "Lord Nozz, Prince of Pain" never stuck.

MUSIC!!!

What?  You sayin' that just because a guy is a level 30 alchemist that he can't serve some shit?





That's it for me guys.  See y'all Sunday.

Comics and Perspective

Its Friday, March 23, 2012, and this is the Side.  Y'know, many of us go through our days thinking we're the stars of our own little shows and that somehow things are just revolving around us.  I spent yesterday tired, and kinda irked at the lady at the convenience store around the corner that for whatever reason refuses to listen to me and simply goes along her overly pleasant business.


Then I find out that my mother-in-law was in a car accident, and when they gave her a CAT scan in the ER they found something.  This led to an MRI and without going into too much detail she'll be seeing an oncologist today.  Perspective.

COMIX!!!

THE GOON #38 tells us the story of Kizzie The Iron Maiden, a woman with strong ties to The Goon.  This is an excellent read telling the story of a plain, but strong, woman with big dreams but stuck in a small town.  Its a very thoughtful piece and while you get to see Kizzie achieve her dreams on some level you really get smacked in the face with how tough a life this woman has.  Its a really good character study.  Typically this is one of those comics that is a hoot and half, but this issue is one that shows that Eric Powell can do a lot more than deliver laughs and creepiness.  He really knows how to hand good human drama as well.


HEART #4 wraps up the series from Blair Butler and Kevin Mellon.  In the previous three issues we watched Rooster rising up through the ranks and it looked like he was poised to make a run at the welterweight belt.  This issue shows how he deals with getting stopped cold and sees that his dream of MMA glory isn't going to happen.  In short be see a cocky young fighter grow up.  I've been a fan of MMA for a long time and this is a story I've seen play out repeatedly.  You see some young up-and-comer and he's the next big thing.  Everyone figures he's going to be huge one day.  Then he suffers a tough loss and he's just not the same.  Its not a matter of injury, its a matter of psychology.  They're getting in deeper waters and its tougher, and while they've still got the guts to get in the cage they start playing things a little more cautiously.  They go from contender to gatekeeper.  This is a really gutsy story for Butler to tell.  It would have been so easy for her to go the easy route and have Rooster overcome his tough loss come back and win the belt.  She definitely didn't go the easy route and as a result, she made an excellent story that really rings true.


RAGEMOOR #1 is a narrative that I would have expected straight out of Doctor Bob Geary's Gothic Literature course from my time at JMU.  This book is creepy and that eerie feeling of the numinous is felt in every page.  This is a serious horror book.  The black and white is perfect for helping to set the tone of dreariness and desperation.  We get the classic notes of the solemn man warning his visitors of the place's evil and how they really should not stay, and of course they don't listen.  Herbert is the caretaker/owner of the castle Ragemoor and gives the twisted history of the place.  He seems like a very noble fellow placed in a horrible situation he can't escape.  I'm greatly looking forward to see how this story continues.


Throwing things in reverse we have THIEF OF THIEVES #1.  Yes, I know I reviewed the second issue last week, and no, this isn't some bizarre Hickman-esque time travel thingy.  I couldn't get my hands on issue one previously but now have a hold of a second printing.  Issue two showed us a lot of the reasons why Redmond left the life of a thief.  The first issue we get the lead up to him announcing his retirement.  We also get to see how he met his assistant, Celia, and a good look at his last job.  This is a really great book.  Very clever writing, and top-notch artwork.  Both the issues at are out are solidly character driven and not heavy on the action, but reward patient readers with a great story about a very interesting character.


ROCKETEER ADVENTURES vol 2 #1 features a trio of really fun stories.  Marc Guggenheim and Sandy Plunkett start of with a great story of how folks deal with a vigilante who falls out of the sky and into their lives.  Peter David and Bill Sienkiewicz follow up with a great parody story in which The Rocketeer gets more than a little "Daffy".  The brilliant Stan Sakai rounds things out with a fun little story that gives a smiling homage to another hero we know well for flying around.  All this and a great pin-up from Arthur Adams.  Great comic and lots of fun not just for fans of The Rocketter, but anyone who wants to sit down for a read.

MUSIC!!!

Can't say as I'm feeling overly "RAWR" today, so I'm going to keep things mellow.





That;s going to be it for today.  Any prayers and well wishes for my mother-in-law, the Missus and the whole family are greatly appreciated.  Thank you, and see y'all Sunday.

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.

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.

Baltazar and Franco overtake my pullbox

Surf's up! Its Friday, February 18, 2011, I'm heading to the beach, and this is The Side. I'm not going for my own enjoyment though. There's work to be done, and fortunately the ocean air is just what the doctor ordered for my cantankerous sinuses. I'm not a huge fan of the beach, but it is pretty and the dolphins have been out lately, so if I'm going to go do some labor at least I'm somewhere pleasant doing it.

COMIX!!

SUPERGIRL #61 is up first on the list. I didn't see Nick Spencer credited on the writing this time around, and am wondering what's up with that. The story is progressing along well enough. We get a team-up with Robin, and Damien is his usual charming self. The Cadmus sub-plot is taking its time playing out. The Alex character continues to use his social media app to target young superheroes and send opponents his way. The story is taking is time revealing things about this guy, but he's shaping up to be a good opponent for the Girl of Steel. This storyline is getting a lot of attention from me because its the first since Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle rehabbed the character. When Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner first brought her into play she was pretty much a jailbait character would just a bit sleazy. Gates made a decent character out of her while Igle refined her look to make her look a bit less trampy. Bernard Chang isn't an exploitative artist and keeps his approach to Kara tasteful enough. Peaty his doing well with the sotry, and decent enough with Kara, but she is coming across a little flat. But this is their first story with the character so I'm sure they'll have more fun with her once they settle in.

The Shazam Family drops in on TINY TITANS #37. It looks like they're getting set to be regulars on the cast which is fine by me. Hoppy the marvel Bunny has been around with the bunny and Pet Club running gags for a while. Talky Tawny is the newest teacher at Sidekick City Elementary. All and all its pleasant enough. The cast has gotten pretty unwieldy though. There were already a lot of characters for readers to keep track of wen the series debuted. It has been amusing to see so many characters get the Tiny Titans treatment, but I do worry that the series is getting more of a "Look who pops in this month" treatment than having fun stories and gags with the established characters. Still, its a fun book, and for someone who knows all the characters from the DCU proper its a hoot.

Art Baltazar and Franco join up with Mike Norton on YOUNG JUSTICE #1 spinning off from the Cartoon Network show. Having not seen the cartoon I was going into this unprepared. I was a huge fan of the old Peter David/Todd Nauck YOUNG JUSTICE comic. I've followed those characters for years. So this series featuring Superboy and Miss Martian alongside a teenage Dick Greyson and Wally West smacked my continuty button upside the head. It took quite a bit of doing on my part o get around that. Superboy in this series is quite different from Superboy in the DCU proper and even in Baltazar and Franco's TINY TITANS. He's much more contemplative and quiet. Unfortunately that doesn't do much to warm us up to this version of the character and he gets nearly all the face time in the book. Miss martian is around for a bit, and she's a peach, but once she leaves the book goes downhill fast. There's weird stuff going on in their headquarters at Mount Justice, which would be interested if we weren't stuck with a complete stick in the mud for a protagonist. I want to keep supporting this title, but I think a lot of it comes from my love of the old series. There's not enough here to make me want to stick around.

MUSIC!!

That was a bit short this time around, but unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to get stuff typed up. We'll see how the weekend goes. See y'all Sunday.

From Gotham with Love

Its Sunday, February 13, 2011, love is in the air, and this is The Side. I'm pretty sure love is in the air. Something's in the air around here. Might be Frebreeze. Maybe Lysol. Ah hell, as stopped up as my nose is it could possibly be Raid.

All I do know is that being out of commission the week before Valentine's Day puts a fella behind the eightball. Kinda hard to go and grab a nice little gift for the Missus. Its even trickery now that Comic Kings has moved because they used to next door to a nice flower shop. And really that's about all I need. Some pretty flowers and a nice card. I'm admittedly not the best dude in the romance department. Its definitely gone downhill over the years as I'm pretty sure I'm getting stupider by the year. Doggone kids done made my brain rot.

Well, I've got a little time, and I've just got to hustle. It won't be a terribly extravagant holiday, but these aren't the most extravagant times. At least the couch is comfy if this goes Tango Uniform on me.

COMIX!!!

Let's start this party with BATMAN AND ROBIN #20 which kicks off Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason's run on the title. There's been speculation as to whether or not Tomasi could match and tone Morrison previously had with the title. What I've noticed about Tomasi in relation to Morrison is that he understands what Morrison does and plays off of it beautifully while still making the story distinctly a Tomasi story. The story itself here is nicely weird but overly so. You can follow it very easily and its got nice little bits here and there like Jim Gordon not putting up with Damien's mouth or Alfred tying Dick's bowtie over his shoulder while driving. We do have nifty little mystery with glowing bats going on. I'm all in. I do want to touch on the opening scene, because its so very good. Back in Tomasi's NIGHTWING run there was a tie-in to Morrison's "R.I.P." Bat-story. Pretty much a bunch of books were to tie into it for sales reasons and it was mostly really stupid and awkward as Batman was supposed to be missing and possibly dead, but really he was gone for a couple hours. Editorial mandates just made it all so dumb. However, Tomasi's tie-in was brilliant in that the part that tied into his disappearance was down without an dialogue whatsoever and consisted of Dick, Tim, and Alfred making popcorn and milkshakes and settling in to watch a movie while they waited for Bruce to get home. Tomasi knew that the disappearance wasn't a big deal. Here he does a very similar scene with all the fellas settling in to "The Mark of Zorro" with Bruce right in the center surrounded by his family with his milkshake. Again, Tomasi absolutely nails where Morrison is at with the character of Bruce Wayne fully embracing the "Miracle of Crime Alley" concept in a perfectly unassuming, elegant manner. Its so good to have him back on a Bat-book.

RED ROBIN #20 starts off our crossover with TEEN TITANS and as expected is a lot of fun. Calculator has been getting a whole lot of mileage lately and this week he's up to no good sending Catman to take on Tim. Catman's definitely gotten to be a major leaguer over the last couple years and Nicieza definitely gives him his due. Things really get good when Tim calls in the Titans for help. Nicieza used to really shine back in the 90s on titles like X-FORCE and NEW WARRIORS. He obviously still has the touch for handling teams in comics and having Tim back with his old team was handled beautifully. J.T. Krul has been doing a great job with TEEN TITANS and I'm not eager to hurry him off the title, but when the time does come I'd love to see Nicieza have a run with it.

Calculator is definitely a busy guy since he's busy trying to kill Oracle over in BIRDS OF PREY #9. Gail Simone as always does a great job with this book, but the artwork really leaves something to be desired. This book is damn popular! Why, oh WHY can't they get a decent artist on board to really push this book. The art serviceable certainly, but needs some extra oomph. As it is it just lays on the page. The story itself is humming along proper. There's a certain symmetry to the helicopter blowing up that makes me smile.

Its team-up time once again for our gal Steph in BATGIRL #18 as this issue she meets Klarion the Witch Boy! Now, there is a distinct lack of "bum bum buuuum" here, but there is some "dun, dun... dun". It should be noted that "dun, dun... dun" is no substitute for "bum bum buuum", but really "bum bum buuum" is in such short supply nowadays that I'll take what I can get. There's this whole thing with were-cat copulation and magic snow globes. Steph and Klarion spend Valentine's Day together. Its all very weird, but in such a good way.

In KNIGHT AND SQUIRE #5 the British Joker is dying. Jarvis Poker is nearing the end. Unlike Batman's nemesis Jarvis is really a pretty harmless fellow and quite likable. Unfortunately the media start turning him into a laughing stock, and not the good kind, so Knight and Squire give him one last hurrah by warning everyone that he's up to something huge! A pleasant parting gift to their old friend, that takes a sudden nasty turn. Also, something horrible happens to Shrike in this issue, and of that I am oh so glad.

Wrapping things up this week is R.E.B.E.L.S. #25. Starro the Conqueror is back and he's building a new army. This time he's doing so with cloned Czarinas! And to make matters worse he captures Vril Dox! Adam Strange rallies the forces to save their bastard genius leader and Lobo's looking to put a hurtin' on something. Last go around with Starro went down before Dox had recruited Lobo. This should make for a damn good fight coming up.

MUSIC!!!

A mushy love song for Valentine's Day? Not so much...



That's a wrap for today. See y'all Wednesday. Have a happy Valentine's Day, and guys, good luck out there. Represent!

Mister Wayne signs my checks.

HACK! Its Friday, January 7, 2011, my sinuses are out to get me, and this is The Side. I've pretty much only managed to get through the week by alternately dosing myself with NyQuil and DayQuil. It works, but between six and seven in the morning when I'm usually online I'm a coughing, hacking mess. Ah well, welcome to winter.

There's no comic reviews today because there were no comics waiting for me at the shop. It was a pretty light week all the way around, but nothing I follow came out, so my pull bag was empty. This of course left me with the option of reading something new, but instead I opted to save my money for other things.

I did visit a different comic shop besides Comic Kings because I found myself in the area. I had missed last month's issue of TEEN TITANS and was hoping to find a copy. I did indeed find it, in a bag with a sticker pricing it $9.95. I asked the guy working there what was up with that.

"Well, those are my last few copies."

"Yeah, but this comic came out last month."

"But, that's the alternate cover."

"This isn't 1991. Anyone paying that for a single issue that's a month old is a moron." And then I left remembering why I don't shop there. So, no comics for me this week.

Also, Batman Incorporated has announced its new Employee of the Month. I didn't make the cut this time around, but was pleased to see that the title went to Richard this time around for his stellar work here.

NEW BAT ORDER!!

Its no secret that I love the direction Grant Morrison has taken Batman and the new title BATMAN INCORPORATED. I do think its awesome that he comes off of a story that deals with really well done character exploration and development that generated an amazing amount of discussion among fans, and is following it up with another story that is generating buzz and fan response. The response this time is interesting in that there has been a bit of debate as to what is Bruce Wayne mirroring with his new initiative: big government or big corporate. So let's look at the thoughts of how Batman Incorporated works.

This is not Bruce Wayne governing anything. This is all business. In this case, it is the business of fighting crime. Businesses offer services to consumers, and that is their service, crime fighting. Consumers don't pay with money, instead their show of support is enough. Bruce is using the tools of business to further this project.

Branding is chief among these. He is putting forth the idea of Batman as an intellectual property. He doesn't have billboards. Instead he has Bat-signals shining in the clouds. This puts the thought of Batman into the minds of the people. It works in growing support from people and hopefully making them feel safer. It also functions to put criminals on notice. Batman may not always being doing business, but he's always open.

He is also using franchising. Bruce is personally headhunting talented assets who already have a firm foothold in their local markets and offering them a satellite franchise of the larger Batman Inc. The local assets of course have the right to refuse, but Wayne is offering them funding, training, and equipment that can improve the business of crime fighting. You can't buy or bully your way into Batman Inc. You have to be selected. You have to follow the company's specific rules.


This brings us to the current controversy concerning the French asset for Batman Inc.: Nightrunner. I completely skipped the issues in which the character was introduced because they were written by David Hine, and the last thing by Hine that I read was that awful story with the impostor Jokers and Batmen. He's not a very bad writer, but given the choice between reading something of his or something else, I'll likely go elsewhere. Now with the controversy I'm looking to grab those issues.

The controversy in question stems from the character of Nightrunner being a French-Algerian Muslim. This is a minority in France that is responsible for a lot of the crime going on there now. I'm not saying all the French-Algerian Muslims are criminals, but there's some nasty shit going on over there now. The protests have been dismissed as conservative hate speech, which is stupid, because all conservative don't believe what the protesters believe. Having a character from this background being chosen to be the local representative of Batman Inc. is important. One of the criticisms Muslims face is they're reluctance to denounce the deplorable actions of other Muslims. The Muslims who aren't completely nuts do in fact denounce the crazy ones, but you never see this covered in the mainstream media. There's often cases of intimidation involved. If you're part of a community and members of that community are doing something that is wrong its hard to be that voice saying "Hey, I know these people are our family and friends, but they shouldn't be doing what they're doing". So here we have a character that is from this community and is standing up against what is going on. If done properly this character could be the source of inspiration to draw that line in the sand. I don't defend assholes like Fred Phelps just because I'm a Christian and he claims to be one. Decent Muslim folk do need to all denounce those who are doing horrible things in the name of their religion. Will this character inspire such a thing? Unfortunately, I doubt it.

Tactically speaking, its a good idea to have someone from that community who has been properly vetted working for Batman Inc. He'll know the people, the lay of the land, and have an idea as to how things tend to operate when stuff goes nasty. Protesters claim that Nightrunner is an "outsider", but really he's an insider working to stop the violence.

Bringing Nightrunner under the Batman brand is a definite risk. However, risks can bring rewards. So we will have to wait and see if this is good business.

MUSIC!!

Morrison is taking time off from writing comics to kill bands. Paramour is next.



That's the ball game for today. See y'all Sunday.

Super-Ladies press the Press

It's Friday, December 17, 2010, everything outside is frozen, and this is The Side. I'd type more on stuff that's going on, but it all comes down to one thing. Its freakin' cold and we've gotten a lot of snow for this area for December and there's more on the way. I hate snow. Still, it could be a lot worse. I could be up in Minnesota.

Stay warm, Linda!

COMIX!!

BIRDS OF PREY #7 should come with a warning on the cover: "CAUTION: contents contain male strippers". I'm cruising on through this issue which kicks off the "Death of Oracle" storyline, there's a really cool scene with Babs and Bruce, I turn the page and WHAMMO! Great big men wearing banana hammocks and little else! Startled the hell out of me. Thanks a bunch, Gail Simone. That aside (which wasn't really a problem, but it did catch me off guard) this issue was great. Raises a question as to whether or not there's a double agent in the Birds as The Calculator is looking to yet again take on Oracle. The gals are all out having a good time for Dove's birthday, who is utterly mortified by the entire thing. Oracle and Batman have a bunch of really good stuff going on as this storyline looks to be one where things really change for the characters in a really great way. Its one of those issues where I can say if you haven't been reading this comic here's a good place to jump on board. My favorite bit in there actually addresses something that bugged me previously. In James Robinson's really awful CRY OF JUSTICE series, it was alluded to that Hal Jordan had a threesome with Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. It was a macho high five moment that I would expect from some meathead teenagers. Some friends of mind online joked that Huntress and Lady Blackhawk probably drank him under the table and he doesn't remember a thing. This issue made me wonder it Simone saw that exchange. Loved it!

Moving it on over to SUPERGIRL #59 which wraps up Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle's definitive run on the book. Much like Greg Rucka's run on WONDER WOMAN, all other runs by creative teams on this book will be judged against Gates and Igle's work here. Its been that good, and their final issue is no exception. The story involving Cat Grant finally comes to a close and brings things full circle, in a really awesome way. We also get a nice Christmas scene at the end on the Kent farm with the rest of the family. I found this part to be interesting in that early runs on this title pretty much showed Kara off as jailbait. Seeing her in this issue, particularly at the end shows us a Kara who is a mature, respectful young lady. She's become the kind of character I would like my daughters to look up to. And of course there's plenty of cool action in the story as Kara spends much of it trying to track down who's been kidnapping children. Great book from top to bottom. The next creative team is very good and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do, but they've seriously got some big shoes to fill.

EXTRA EXTRA!!

I have trust issues with the media, particularly news media. There's bias there obviously, so we tend to tune into whichever news source shares our biases, unless we want to piss ourselves off them we tune into the other side. But my trust issues aren't really about bias. They mainly stem from my observation that most of the people who report news are trying to interpret life without much knowledge of how life actually is. And then there's a fact that many of the ratings-crazed doghumpers would report on their grandmothers being utterly destroyed by insane, genetically altered ferrets if they could just get the story out ahead of their competition.

When did I come to distrust the media? It was probably about ten years ago. My father was part of an Air Force reserve unit. They're an engineering unit, meaning when something needs built somewhere they deploy to do it. There was a mission in Florida in which part of the unit, not including my father, went to Florida. The mission went completely fine and they were on the way back when there was a problem and the plain crashed killing (if memory serves me) seventeen members of the unit. Terrible tragedy and a really tough time for everyone.

My father was placed in charge of building a memorial on the base which turned out incredible. Also, he was assigned a family of one of the fallen to help through this time. There was a lot of paperwork to get through which he helped with and he also served as a liaison to keep the family updated about everything going on including the investigation as to what caused the crash.

A month later the investigation about the crash concluded. In real life that's how long these things take. Its not like the movies when they rush in their team of experts and have results in a day or two. These things take time and a lot of it. So my father and the rest of the family liaisons were called to a meeting. The findings were gone over and all the questions were asked and answered. The following day, the liaisons were going to go to the families and go over everything and report the findings, hopefully to give a little closure to the grieving families.

That night, I'm at the bar, checking IDs and making sure all the drunks behaved themselves. There were about seven TV in the place and the one right in front of me had on the local 11 o'clock news.

Guess what the lead story was.

There had been a leak. The findings were not to be released to the media until all the families affected were briefed on everything. But there it was for everyone to see. A story about a plane crash over a month ago, in which the only people who really gave a damn about it were supposed to find out personally the following day. In the local news's defense it had been a slow day and they needed something concerning somebody dying to lead off with.

This lead to the next day when my father goes to the family, who are understandably upset to say the least. Why should they even talk to my father when the results were on the news? Why wouldn't they be the first to know what had really happened to their son?

I utterly seethed about that for a long time. There was once some stuff called integrity and ethics attached to news and journalism. They call that censorship now. An asshole with a website gets a hold of classified documents that he shouldn't? Well, he's got a right to publish them. That doesn't mean that he should, but it'll drive up his page views. Canadian news station shows an athlete suffering a fatal accident at the Olympics over and over again? No problem! It wasn't a close up, so that means it wasn't sensationalized enough for it so be exploiting a some poor guy getting killed.

Just because this is the "information age" does not mean that we should be able to get every last bit of information in front of us at our whim. There are things like discretion and ethics that should be drilled into anyone who wants to be a journalist or reporter. They need to know what needs to be made public and what really should be sat on. Julian Assange isn't a journalist. He's a douchebag with a website who gets his mitts on stuff he shouldn't and waves it in front of everybody because he has the law to hide behind. That Canadian station that ran that footage from the Olympics over and over and over again? That was a complete jag-off move and if they don't know it, they're complete morons. And that local news show that decided to lead with a story without considering the people it would affect or hurt? They're just assholes.

MUSIC!!

Since this week's comic reviews were all about the ladies (not including the male strippers) here's a song about more ladies.



Alright, time for me to probably go explore Ice Station Norfork. If I die horribly and freeze into a giant Nozzsicle, I'll let you know.