I Am Beat!

Back from the Fife and Drum Muster in beautiful Kinderhook, New York.  A weekend of parading, playing, partying and enjoying the wonders of the outdoors.  I'm exhausted! All this fresh air and healthy activity is killing me!

Seriously, vacations take a whole lot of work.  Had to load up the Winnebago, and now we have to unload it, put away the groceries, do laundry, hook everything back up, take in more stuff, and it is just as muggy as hell.

Man, I am such a whiner. 

But I do hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  I can't believe it is almost June!  Does that mean that Convergence is almost over?  Also, I found out that Guy is going to be in the new Green Lantern book with John, Arisia and Kilowog, where he belongs, which only brings me joy.  AND in the new Justice League United book, wherein they seem to be bringing in everyone, and I do mean everyone! 

So there is something actually to look forward to. 

Actual Reviews!

Not a lot of books this week.  Convergence still appears to be chugging along.  I don't really know what is happening...nor do I really care all that much, but I am sure that the end result will be a whole lot less exciting than it could have been.  DC seems fixated on...well...FIXING things.  Things that weren't necessarily broken.  So, I guess we get one last glimpse of beloved characters and times, before they sweep the whole thing under the Crisis Rug.  Until the NEXT time that they get a hankering to meddle.  That will probably be in a year or two.  It's getting out of hand, really.

Anyway.

Blue Beetle/Convergence

For some reason Ted and Captain Shinypants and the Question, fight with the Legion.  Man, I do hate those snotty teenagers from the Future!  And amazingly, they are holding their own.  In fact, one of my favorite moments is when the Question asks Brainiac a question, and sends him into a fugue state because it has no answer or something.  Adorable! 

It's nice that Ted is being presented, not as the complete idiot that Giffen and DeMatteis were a little too fond of showing, but as an actual intelligent and resourceful hero.  I miss Ted so much.  He tricks the Legion, and wins, and they end up uniting against Telos...maybe.  Who can tell anymore?  As far as I can see the individual books and their battles don't really mean all that much anyway.  But nice art, and always nice to see Ted being smart.

Booster Gold/Convergence

Booster...our Booster is dying from Time Travel Poisoning or some such thing.  Rip is frantic, Michelle is worried, and there is another younger Booster wandering around.  Our Booster travels back to visit Ted, and tells him not to trust Max, which is good advice actually.  Then Rip and company show up and haul old Booster off to Vanishing Point, where they make brash young Booster use his force field to put old Booster inside...something and it turns him into...Waverider? 

Seriously? 

That seems odd.

JSA/Convergence

All my favorite old Farts are back in the pink of health and full of their powers and fighting a big robot thingie, and quite frankly, having the time of their lives.  Yes, it's serious, and yes, it is the fate of the world, but they are having a ball...and who can blame them? 

They win, and turn old and powerless again, and shuffle off to have some coffee and ben-gay.

But oh...how I love these guys.

Shazam/Convergence

Why isn't this a book?  It's fabulous!  Great art, fun story, somehow Billy ends up in Gotham by Gaslight, and after a misunderstanding with Victorian Batman, they team up to fight villains and a big robot thingie, which seems to be something of a trend.  It's fun, it is a whole lot of fun, especially when Mary and Jr. show up with Talky Tawny flying a an airplane!

Woohoo!

Of course Mister Mind is behind the whole thing, and escapes, and I don't even know what happens to old Gotham,. and I don't care, because this was fabulous!

Sandman: Overture #5

This is lovely, and beautiful and deep and poetic and all that jazz.  To be perfectly honest, it has been so long between issues, that I have forgotten most of the plot.  Morpheus is imprisoned in a Black Hole, and ends up talking to his Mom...which doesn't go particularly well.  He wants her and Dad to get back together, and boy howdy, THAT ain't happening!

Also a dreamship shows up in Destiny's garden, and it wasn't in his book, and he is highly pissed, so he hauls Morpheus out of the Black Hole and then some other stuff happens. 

Gorgeous of course...but I guess I will have to go back and re-read the whole thing, because it is a bit on the confusing side.

Hawkeye #3

This is the new Hawkeye book, which confuses me, because I'm pretty sure that the old Hawkeye book still has an issue to go.  Maybe?  Who knows?

Anyhoo, this has Clint and Kate, and that's always fun. The trio of odd little kids that they rescued from the Hydra base, have been taken to SHIELD, to be...studied. You know what that means.  Maria Hill can't officially help them, but off the record, she would be quite relieved if they rescued the kids again.  And so they do. 

With a trick arrow which is always fun.  The kids are nice, but confused, but they do like Pizza Dog, and who wouldn't?  Of course Clint and Kate are probably in a lot of trouble, and there are continuing flashbacks to Clint and Barney's escapades at the Circus, but it is fun and a hoot and nicely drawn, and what's not to like?

Oh Tuesday

Back from camping at beautiful Lime Rock Park, in equally beautiful northwestern Connecticut, for the Trans Am races. Man I am pooped. And now we are gearing up for this coming weekend for the Muster at equally beautiful Kinderhook, New York. And we don't have to driver over the George Washington Bridge!

Woohoo!

I do hope that everyone had a lovely Memorial Day.

Convergence is apparently still going on. I guess stuff is happening, although I haven't been getting the main book.  Guy Gardner simply rocked in the Green Lantern Corps book, making Hal look like a jerk. Hal wouldn't let him charge his ring for some stupid reason, so Guy went out with a motorcycle and a baseball bat, a merely Saved The Day!

Daredevil was good as usual, and we got to see nekkid Odin butt in Loki, for which I am very grateful.  Sensational Wonder Woman was good too.

Post Secret War Marvel has me slightly confused so far... it sounds... peculiar, and I am worried about my favorite books. Actually I feel the same about the post Convergence books at DC.

Guess we will just have to wait and see.

What the Heck?

For some reason, that now escapes me, I downloaded this particular picture.  I don't know why, unless it was in utter disbelief. 

I know that Art is subjective.  There are Artists that I adore, that aren't everyone's cup of tea.  There are popular Artists that other people adore, that give me the cauld grue.  It's just...it's just that there are So Many Things Wrong with this.



Oh...God.

For one thing, I really don't have the faintest idea who any of these people are.  That woman in the front has breasts bigger than her head.  That guy in the front has muscles where muscles are not supposed to be.  His MUSCLES have muscles!  Spines don't work that way. 

I don't mind cartoony art.  I LOVE the art in Squirrel Girl for example.  I don't mind stylized art.  But a vague knowledge of simple anatomy would be appreciated.  And feet.  Why the hell is it so hard to draw feet? 

I'll stop now.

Slightly Delayed Reviews

I'm a couple of days late in getting out my weekly reviews, which really isn't much of a biggie, because quite frankly, it's only my biased opinion anyway.  If it has a Green Lantern in it, AAA!  If not...wellll...!

But we had to leave lovely New England on Thursday, and drive all the way down to Virginia to pick up our brand-spanking new reproduction 1961 Shasta Flyte Ham-Can little camper.  You remember those, back in the 60's with the little aluminum wings, that looked like...well, like a canned ham.  The owner of Shasta just found an original and spent an ungodly amount of money to restore it, and it occured to him, that they had all the original plans and specs and stuff, so the engineers and such, all got together, and they figured out a way to build new ones.  They are only going to make 1941 of them, which is the year that Shasta was founded, and we have number 358.  Made them in Matador Red, Sea Foam Green (turquoise) and Buttercream Yellow.  The Sea Foam seems to be the most popular, but we got a red one, and by Odin's Raven, it's...Adorable! 

Only 16 feet long, with red and white tuck and roll upholstery and a black and white checkerboard floor and a manual red and white striped awning, it looks exactly like an original, down to the wings, and the plywood paneling on the interior.  Except...they've managed to tuck in a microwave, a shower and bathroom, bluetooth, stereo and airconditioning. 

We hit New York traffic right at rush hour, and it took us an hour and a half to cross the George Washington Bridge.  New Jersey wasn't so bad, they do have very nice rest areas.  The southern part of New Jersey is a lot prettier than the northern, at least along I-95.  Were in Delaware for about fifteen minutes, or so it seemed, and then into Maryland, crossed some really scary bridges, and went UNDER the Chesapeake, got caught in all the night construction and an accident, hit Washington, hit more night construction, and finally ended up in Stafford/Frederick about Eleven P.M.  Found a cheap motel, and slept for six hours and then went to pick up our ruby red little darling. 

Drove back for another nine hours.  Traffic much better this time, no construction or accidents, except that we once again hit New York at rush hour, and it was even worse, because I-95 between New York and New Haven is UNGODLY!  Finally hit home at eight-Thirty, wolfed down some dinner, and went to bed. 

I'm...really tired. 

I did look for the Hulk and the Avengers Tower/Stark Tower as we were gazing at the New York Skyline...and yes, it really is rather cool.  But there is always so much construction anyway, who could tell? 

Anyhoo...the books were okay.

Convergence, The Atom

I think this actually may have come out last week, but I only found it this week, and I loved it, frankly.  It brought back Ryan Choi in a realistic way (well, for a comic book anyway) and I loved Ryan.  Also Deathstrike gets his comeuppance in a particularly magnificent way. 

Oh...so magnificent.

Fables: A Wolf Among Us #5

I've been enjoying this series too, because I always love Snow and Bigby and it's been a bit grim over in the regular Fables book.  Snow isn't dead afterall, which is nice, baby toads are adorable, and Ichabod Crane is an absolute sleezebag. 

Pretty good!

Convergence, Green Lantern/Parallax

Well, Hal is running amok as Parallax, Kyle is being the voice of reason as a new Green Lantern, and they are fighting Electropolis which seems to be manned by a bunch of lunatics.  Kyle tries to make peace and save their butts, because that is why Kyle does, but naturally, they double cross him, and that comes back to bite them in their evil butts, because as Parallax, Hal may be out of his mind...but he is quite efficient! 

Not the greatest story, but hey, it has Kyle in his original uniform, and I love that uniform.  And it is actually a bit of  treat to see Hal NOT being an idiot.

Convergence JLI

Okay, this is where it gets a bit weird.  Ted Kord is running the JLI, which has J'onn, Fire and Ice, Reddy and Captain Shiny Pants.  No Guy, which is peculiar to say the least.  And they have to fight the Kingdom Come Justice League.

Naturally, Ted tries to find a way to smooth things over, and see if they can unite to go fight Telos or whomever is running the show at this point. It's a bit confusing.  Wonder Woman is in full jerk mode, so the Justice League basically wipes the floor with the JLI.  Except that Ted runs into a Kingdom Come version of...himself, and that Ted is also smart enough to try and work things out,so they team up for a bit. Also...it's their birthday, and Booster sends him a card...or something. 

It honestly didn't make a whole lot of sense, but even though they got beaten, they area still alive, for some reason, and I don't care, I just love seeing all of these people again!

Saga #28

Well, Gwendolyn and Sophie and The Brand are still trying to find some Dragon parts to save The Will.  It's a little confusing, but they're trying.  They run into Halvor, another spider person, who was the brother of The Will's dead girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Alanna and Karla and Hazel and that dumb kidnapper have been kidnapped themselves, and things aren't going too well.

Meanwhile...King Robot's goons have found Prince Robot and Marko, and now they're in trouble, and their ship  takes a hit and  Ghus is going to be the hero, but Yuma does it instead. 

It sounds very dry and clinical when you write it that way, which is NOT how this book is, it is gorgeously drawn, and beautifully written and if you aren't reading it, you really should!

Angela: Asgard's Assassin #6

I wasn't too sure about this at first, since I had absolutely no interest in Angela whatsoever.  But then they made her Odin's long lost daughter, and oh heck, Gillen is writing it and I love Gillen.  And it's turned out to be pretty darned good! 

They brought their long lost daughter home and the first thing she did was kidnap the new baby daughter of Odin and Freya, which pisses off all the Asgardians...mightily.  But she's not being evil, it turns out that the baby was conceived in Surtur's realm, so for some reason IT is evil, and she does her best to burn the evil out of the kid, along with the Guardians of the Galaxy,

And the baby's back, and everything is hunky dory!  Except that her friend Sera...really ISN"T Sera at all, which explains how she came back from the dead so easily.  Sera is actually...Malekith! 

Man, he does get around!  He's become the new Loki, in a way, since the real new Loki is more of an anti-hero now.  But anyway, back when Heven stole their daughter (who became Angela) the Asgardians didn't know that, and thought she was dead, so Odin struck their kingdom off from the World Tree. And Freya did something even more drastic.  She made a deal with Hela, that all dead Angels would suffer eternal damnation.  The Angels don't even know this, until it happens, which quite frankly, is one heck of a Revenge! 

Seriously, never piss off an angry Mother. 

So, Angela's friend Sera is in Hel, and Angela is going to go and rescue her, which should be interesting.  She'll probably come up against the Disir, which is always nice, because I like the Disir.

It's...convoluted.  But darned interesting.

Howard the Duck #3

Howard is back on earth with the necklace he went to find, and he gets robbed of it by...Aunt May?  So he goes undercover at the park by taking off his clothes and hanging out with the other ducks, begging for bread.  But he does find her, and accuses her of the mugging, which she doesn't seem to remember.  So, off they go to investigate, because other Senior Citizens have been seen doing nefarious deeds as well. 

And Spider-Man swings by, just too late and angsts.

Now clothed, and armed with a cane, Howard does his investigative thing, and it turns out that it's the...Ringmaster!  He got tired of always failing, and turned to a more petty form of crime...but hey, it pays the bills. Then the guy who hired Howard to get back his necklace shows up and naturally, he's not all he seemed, and is actually...Talos the Untamed!

God, I do love this book.

There is also a second story about Replicapes, or people who are Superhero impersonators. When one dies, it really messes up their careers.  It is...hilarious. 

Ms Marvel #15

Hey, I actually got this the week it came out! 

Kamala's dream date has turned out not so...dreamy. Kamran is actually a creep, and the evil Inhumans are trying to recruit her, and not willing to take no for an answer. Meanwhile,  Bruno goes off to rescue her, and is quite inventive about it.  She is awesome of course, and escapes along with Bruno through the garbage chute, and realizes that Bruno really is... pretty awesome. 

Also, she may not be the only person in her family with...powers.

I love this book too!

Thor #8

Well, all of Thor's allies, including Odinson, and a crapload of goddesses, and superheros show up to fight the Destroyer which is being powered by Cul, at the request of Odin, who wants the Hammer back, and he wants it NOW!

There is a fair amount of witty banter going on between all the women, which is fun.  Shirtless Odinson is always nice.  He also thinks that it is Roz Soloman in the Thor suit, and is rather awesome in the way that he's appealing to her, to tell him.  He even offers to say what it was that Nick Fury told him, that made  him unworthy.  It seems that Odinson is getting one healthy dose of Humility this time around.

Except that Roz shows up, which makes him very confused, since he had run out of people who could be the female Thor.  Or so he thought.

So Freya goes home to yell at Odin a bit.  Malekith brings back Laufey for the Frost Giants, which seems to make them happy.  Oh, and Thor turns out to be...Jane Foster.

Seriously?

Not a bad week actually.  The Convergence books that I got were pretty decent. I haven't been getting the main series, or whatever it is, so I don't really know what is going on there either, but I do enjoy seeing some of my favorite people.  Hey DC, lets bring back those favorite people!

Oh...Hal

As much as I like to complain and make fun of Hal Jordan...and I DO...my life would be so much emptier without his antics.  You have to admit that there isn't another superhero quite like him, and I don't think that I can even come up with an analogy for him over at Marvel.  Tony Stark has the ego, but is MUCH smarter.  Hawkeye has the cockiness...but doesn't have that endearing cluelessness, nor his success with the ladies. 

He's one of a kind.

And he does this sort of thing.





You can count on comic book women doing the whole boob and butt pose, but Hal does it more than any other male hero that I can think of. 


And he does it with style.

More Thoughts On Gal Gardner

I just can't leave this alone.  For some reason, strange things always seem to happen to my favorite red-headed lunatic.  You don't see this sort of thing happening to Hal!



Waaaay back when, when Beau Smith was writing Guy Gardner's very own book, it was a special time.  Guy was Vuldarian, had lost his ring, and had strange alien powers...all of which was quite ridiculous of course.  Heck, he could turn his arms into guns!  But he at least had his brains back,and wasn't just a buffoon anymore.  True...he still had his dickish side, but I think that was just a personality trait...but he wasn't an idiot ALL the time.  Guy has always been a whole lot smarter than he looked.

Anyhoo...for shits and grins, Beau Smith decided to do the old Gender Bender for one issue, and it was one of my favorites, because of the complete improbability for one thing.  Guy as always prided himself on his complete and total masculinity...to the point of being absurd...and to see him having to deal with being female was...and is...simply hilarious.  And secondly...because he really DID handle it pretty darned well!  He didn't appreciate it much, and he whined about it, but he didn't let it stop him...er...her, and still went about his/her business and got the job done. 

So I am wondering what Giffen and DeMatteis are going to come up with that could possibly top this story?  And why does she have that goddamned haircut again?

Thursday's Reviews

I don't want to keep flogging a dead horse...but this whole Convergence thing at DC has been pretty underwhelming.  Oh...who am I kidding?  I LOVE flogging dead horses!  It's about the only exercise that I get!  I have only been picking up a few of these issues, mainly ones with characters that I love and miss terribly, so I'm not completely sure about what is going on, other than Telos dropped the domes and now everybody gets to fight!  Woo!

Batman and Robin

Well, for some reason, we have Jason and Damian along with Batman, and for the most part, the two boys snip at each other.  A lot.  They appear to be fighting the Extremists, which to be frank, is not a group that I am particularly aware of. Toyman seems to be there.  A large spiky person tries to pull a Bane on Batman, but it doesn't take. 

Batman wins.  Because he's Batman.  That's it.

Woo.

Justice League

Evil Aquaman has kidnapped Mera, even though it is a different Mera from his, because...well he wants to get laid, obviously.  This is the evil Aquaman who jilted evil Wonder Woman.  Mera sits around and moans, while waiting to be rescued by her gal pals, mainly Jade, Super Girl, Vixen and Zatanna.  He beats them all because he's...EVIL!  And finally Mera just melts in his arms and says he's her big hunk o' Tuna...and then stabs him.  She couldn't have done this a little earlier?

Woo.

Speed Force

This is Wally and the Twins, and that Turtle guy teamed up against evil Wonder Woman.  She's evil because she was jilted by evil Aquaman.  These people have issues. 

This was actually...not bad.  Wally does a lot of hand wringing about endangering his children, but hey, at least he's in there trying.  Evil Wonder Woman and her Evil Amazons are busy slaughtering everyone they can find...because...EVIL!  Then Wally does the equivalent of kicking her in the balls, although in her case, it's in the head, the Twins show up, and the Turtle guy doesn't die!  They Win! 

Huzzah!

Wonder Woman '77 Special

This was delightful.  The REAL Wonder Woman, in all of her cheesy '70's glory, as personified by the incredible Linda Carter.  I loved this show as a kid.  I also drooled over Lyle Waggoner.

In this lovely little book, we have Diana and Steve going up against evil Russians, in order to save a nuclear scientist, who is busy whooping it up at Studio 54!  OF course he is. Also Silver Swan shows up to hypnotize everyone, and Diana does her thing, and a good time is had by all. 

The second story has Diana waking up in the street, highly confused and unable to turn into Wonder Woman.  Another Wonder Woman shows up, the blonde one played by Cathy Lee Crosby.  It turns out to be an evil ploy by Doctor Psycho naturally, and Diana eventually figures things out and triumphs.  It's a lot of silly fun, and the art is just gorgeous. 

Definitely worth while.

Ant-Man

Well, Darren Cross is back, and he's got Cassie's heart, and his idiot son is all happy because Daddykins is back!  Scott is having a heck of a time, and his two flunkies aren't helping because it's after five, and they are off the clock.  He also has to save Cassie, because she's got a new heart, but it's being rejected, so he has to go inside and take out the white blood cells or something.  Then nice Doctor Sondheim lies when Cassie's mom shows up and says that Scott saved Cassie's life, and there is a lot of crying and hugging. 

And now Scott is torn because all he wants is for his daughter to be happy, and he's afraid that being around her just endangers her more, so naturally, being an idiot, he steals away in the night. 

I do love this book, it's light-hearted and fun, but there is a lot of action, the art is great, the writing is excellent, and it's...dammnit, it's a good book.

And speaking of good books...

Tails of the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5

This just may be the best book on the stands at the moment. 

So there is a battle going on at the Statue of Liberty, with Avengers and a giant dinosaur robot, and the Fantastic Four, and Squirrel Girl...of course.  The people who were visting the Statue of Liberty are hostages, inside, and they are wondering when they are going to be rescued and speculating on which hero is going to do it.  Naturally, Doreen's roomie Nancy is there, because...of course she is.  And she's not particularly happy about being held hostage twice in a matter of weeks.  But anyway, amidst the speculation, she brings up Squirrel Girl, and is bummed to find out that nobody really knows anything about her.

Not that that stops her, as the various people tell tales of her derring-do...except they are obviously making stuff up, like the old lady teaming her up with Captain America and Bass Lass, who turns out to be Red Skull.  Then there is the clone Squirrel Girl who fights with the Avengers and ends up with a sentient costume.  And future Squirrel Girl, with telepathy and LMD's and it just gets sillier and siller.

Naturally the real Squirrel Girl shows up and rescues them. She would have been there sooner, but there aren't a lot of squirrels on Liberty Island apparently. 

Sweet.  And hilarious.  And Unbeatable!


Secret Wars #1

I had this put in my pull box, and decided what the heck.  What a mess.  So...all these other worlds are crashing into each other or something?  I dunno.  And realities are colliding, and WHAT THE FUCK?  This is the same thing that is going on at DC! 

Also, they seem to have taken the plot directly from Zero Hour, because they even have the blank pages, when the Universe is destroyed.  Way back when, I thought that was mildly clever.  Here, it just seems absurd.  And possibly a little hackneyed. 

So, the Universe has ended, and I don't really care, because all the heroes that I had actually cared about had been turned into evil pricks, so I am glad that they are dead.  Bwhahahahaha!

I won't be reading any more of this. 

But hey, Squirrel Girl was fabulous!

I Barely Can Believe This

I've been a bit worried about the distinct lack of Guy Gardner in the new DC following whatever the hell it is that DC is going to be doing after Convergence.  Hal has his own book of course.  Hal always manages to land on his feet.  John, Kilowog and Arisia are in the Corps book, although they will apparently be stranded or something. But no Kyle and no Guy.

My heart is starting to palpitate.  I had heard...rumors of something that Giffen and DeMatteis were up to in their Justice League 3000 book, which I had been checking out in a desultory fashion, and only actually started reading after Ice and Fire showed up.  Oh, and Ted and Booster.  Because frankly, I don't give a crap about the clones of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, or whomever they are supposed to be.  I want my Justice Buddies, dammit!

And there...in the Previews, in a picture of the cover...is Guy.

Kinda.

I...I hardly even know how to type this.  Guy is Gal again, and dressed in his/her old Green Lantern uniform, and WITH that goddamned haircut...but female now.  I don't know how, I don't know why, and I sure as hell wonder what the heck Ice is going to make of all of this. Is it really Guy?  Another clone that went awry?  A really bad joke?

Having Guy as a woman actually HAS been done before, in the now classic Beau Smith issue waaaay back when, when Guy was running around as Warrior, wearing tattoos and a smile.  Dementor turned him into a She-Warrior, and hilarity ensued!  It really is a very funny issue, and if you haven't read it, you really ought to try and find a copy lurking in the dollar bins, because it is a hoot.  Plus Guy is actually wearing MORE clothes as a woman.

Since this all takes place in the far future, I could actually SEE Guy as Warrior again!  That might even make a bit of sense, if they brought back all of the Vuldarian business, which was bizarre, but oddly entertaining.  However, I dont' think, that is their intent, so I will have to just wait and see what is actually going on. Knowing those two, I am sure it is going to be...different.

I can't wait.

So...?

I haven't made it to the new Avengers movie yet, but I am dying to know how everyone liked it.  It apparently has a shirtless Thor in it, which is always a boost in my opinion.  And Chris Evans as Captain America from behind is a truly stunning sight to behold. 

Gosh, I'm so terrible.  Rating people by their physical attributes!

So...how was it?