DVDs came in

Sheeeeeeit that was fast!

Put the order in early Thursday morning, it shipped Friday and got them in Tuesday evening.  How's that for fast?  Never  feel the need to put in for overnight when Rightstuf is so speedy.  Course, I didn't get my delivery confirmation until tonight but that's probably a tick with their charge process.  It was a large order, I wonder if that means that they take longer to process it.  Eh, no matter, the order page is updated every night so that's what really matters.

Damn, big box too.  Twelve freakin DVDs.  Samurai Champloo volumes 2 - 7 and Gankutsuou volumes 1 - 6.  Sweet.  Gonna start with Samurai Champloo in the morning.  Bought a bottle of Rex Goliath pinot noir at the store this morning while out buying milk.  I really shouldn't have done that but I, uh...liked the label.  I'm wondering if I should crack it open and drink it with the show or be more sensible and have it with dinner.  Course if I was sensible I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.  Hhhhmmmm...dinner is gonna be light.  I'm trying to eat more sensibly too.  I've been gaining weight lately.  Oy!  Bad!  Very bad!  Must not gain!  Must practice self control!  Had a salad tonight.  Last night I ate only a little bit of that casserole Mom made (though defeated by eating the rest of those chicken livers).  Wednesday I was thinking something stew-y.  Course getting off my ass is the biggest thing.  The lawn does need doing come to think of it.

Also, just donated $20 bucks to dear sister's March of Dimes march deal.  Guess I should donate a little more after the next check so that way I can say I donated more then my brother (he gave $25).  HA!  Take that!

Not to be petty or nothing.

Lucky Star

Hey, not bad, I liked it.

Can't keep track of the characters for the life of me but the blue haired girl, Konota, is easily my favorite so far.  All she does is play video games and watch anime.  Truly a character I can relate too.  She has this weird obsession with "moe" though.

I can't help but try to draw parallels between this and Azumanga Daioh.  They're both about a group of young, dumb girls and their young, dumb girl hobbies, interests and relationships.  Lucky Star, however, reminds me of that scene in the beginning of Reservoir Dogs.  You know the one, where they're all sitting around talking about tipping.  Well, Lucky Star starts off almost exactly like that except they're discussing how to eat cornets.  And it just goes on like that for several minutes.  I don't know if, later in the series, anyone is gonna have their ears cut off and be doused in gasoline though.

But it is a series for those who are pretty hardcore anime fans.  Sure, I like it well enough, but it's overly referential.  It's all well and good that they should have fun with other shows but man I've never seen like 90% of the shit they reference.

Character designs are very good.  If you want kawaii, this show will fucking give you kawaii.  Only thing that confuses the hell out of me is that up until now I thought all the characters were in junior high.  Turns out they're all 16 and 17!  Wow, okay, that actually makes me feel better.  Everything I had heard about this series made it seem like it was a series absolutely worth getting (and so far this is true) but it also seemed a bit...pervy.  In fact, if all these characters are 16 and 17, why did the creators go out of their way to make them all look five years younger?  (Suppose the exception being Miyuki but only just.)  Guess I should have known better considering the uniforms which I believe only high school kids wear.

I greatly enjoyed this first disc.  I usually watch a show in English language audio first, but I think I wanna go back this morning and start watching it again subbed.  Puttering around with the subtitles while viewing, it seems there is enough of the difference between the scripts that I bet the characters come across differently.

My only two complaints are the opening and the Lucky Channel segments.  The opening animation itself is very good but the song is murderous!  Christ!  Appropriate enough for the show, I suppose, but that doesn't mean I don't wanna bash my own skull in with a giant rock every time.  And that's a shame, cause I like the opening animation itself.  As for Lucky Channel, um...it's pretty pointless, isn't it?  It's like three or four minutes that could be dedicated to more delicious flat che...um, I mean Konota.  It's fairly formulaic as it's just the female host, Akira, being a bitch towards her male co-host.  Funny at times, but it hasn't strayed too far from this.

Now for the second volume (whenever the hell that one might come out).

I think I'm gonna die

Took Mom to IHOP this morning. Figured shit, why not? All I had Friday night for dinner was a salad with peppercorn ranch dressing (best...dressing...EVAR!) and though, yeah, breakfast is in order. Plus I've been wanting to go to IHOP forever and the damn thing has been open for, what, four or five years? So we get there, get a table, and our waiter is so flaming that he can fry my pancakes just by looking at them. Anyway, got myself some orange juice and this giant stack of pancakes covered in strawberries and filled with banana in the middle. Sweet Jesus! The pancakes were okay. They weren't the thickest pancakes and kinda singed around the edges but my God...bananas, strawberries and whipped cream. Conceptually, at least, I was floored. And certainly they were the most colorful pancakes I've ever had. Criminy!

Whole thing came out to $20 bucks. Didn't cost much more then going to Koffee Klatch, which would have cost about.....$14? Something like that.

Then woke up, horribly late, and had a few slices of store bought pizza. Yeah, that was a mistake. Should have had a salad. Oh Christ.....God, I think I'll have my first heart attack between the ages of 30 and 35. Wow, I feel olike the fat guy from The Meaning Of Life. One wafer thin point and I'll fucking explode.

Christ, I wanna lie down.

Lucky Star

Came in today. Sweet.

Damn but Rightstuf sure moves fast. Not only was this scheduled for release May 6th, but it shipped like Tuesday. Got it for like $16 bucks and change too.

Haven't watched it yet. I'll get around to it sometime later, probably. Gotta hit the store in the morning and tonight I was watching Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica. I really have no idea what this show is gonna be like. Seems to be one of those otaku shows where it spends most of its time referencing other series (most of which I'll have not seen). Lots of notes detailing these facts in the insert. At a glance it looks like Azumanga Daioh in a way. Mostly about the antics of a group of school girls. It would be cool to have another series with characters as memorable as Chiyo-chan and Osaka, but since the characters are younger I doubt the two series will be comparable much. This is good, cause as much as I enjoyed Azumanga there can definitely be too much of a good thing.

Speaking of anime, Samurai Champloo and Gankutsuou also shipped today. I figure they'll be in about Tuesday or Wednesday. Can't wait!

Lost

Exciting!  Yes, this episode was chock full of bad ass.  Watching Ben as more of a man of action than a master manipulator was cool shit.  Beating the hell out of a couple of arabs.  Threatening Widmore in his hotel room.  Being a right motherfucker.  FUCKWIN!

Watching his daughter take a bullet through the brainpan was fucked up too.  Oh shit!  That's like the third crazy character death since the last episode!  Bunch of soldiers working for Whidmore invade the island and try to take Ben.  They kill most of Locke's rebel faction in the process.  Good by, 'Nothers!  So all that's left is Hugo, Claire and child, Sawyer, Locke and Ben.  Hugo goes with Locke and Ben to find Jacob while Sawyer and Claire head back to the beach.  Before that, it's revealed that Ben might have some sort of control over the nanocloud monster cause he uses it to kill Whidmore's men.  Fucking sweet!  Man, it's like this episode was written on gilded parchment and dipped in sweet honey before being annointed with oil and win.  Actually it was written by Brian K. Vaughn and Drew Goddard, so that might explain.

In Jack's camp, he has a freak out cause they find the dead body of the Whidmore's boat's doctor.  They contact the boat and they radio back saying nothing is wrong and everything is fine.  Who can tell, cause the island seems out of sync with spacetime.  Oppum (or Daniel or whatever his anme is) reveals they have no intention of taking them off the island.  Jack starts tripping balls.  He's also coming down with appendicitis.  Kate still looks boinkable.

This episode was the shit.  This season has been nothing but the shit.  Fuck yes.

It was all kinda spoiled by the fact that Mom tripped over the dog while rushing out of the house to help her old boss with his printer so she fell and cut up her arm.  Bled all over the floor and her cell phone.  Yeah, I wasn't too happy about that.  She's lucky she didn't break anything.  She's gonna be sore in the morning though.  Probably all week too.  This wouldn't have happened if they hadn't called badgering her about helping them but I did get after her for not having enough sense to turn on a freakin light.  Man, the Cantus are good people, but I don't know why they think my mother is there to be at their beck and call.  They should have gotten one of their kids to help, they probably would have known just as much (after all that Mom had no idea what to do either). 

Them reviews

Batman #675 - Bruce Wayne is Batman!  So discovers Bruce's little chickadee (I forget her name).  So she and Bruce are talking over dinner and she's on his ass about how he cancels dates and disappears all the time for no reason.  Cue some random villain breaking into the restaurant and taking everyone hostage.  It starts off a bit slow, the girl's speech to Bruce seems standard fair ("I'm not some vapid slut, you prick!") and the hostage taking so Batman can't do his thing.  But random villain guy takes them in back, the lights go out and then Bruce starts whaling on the guy.  Chickadee sees this and puts two and two together.  It was an okay issue with a good ending leading into the next story, Batman RIP.  There was some other shit involving Talia and Damien and another subplot involving Robin and Nightwing chasing after some douchebag Rocketeer wannabe.  It's all basically lead in.  Now it's a good issue, but it's ultimately forgettable save for the ending.  A very quick read.

Countdown to Final Crisis #1 - Garbage.  What an utter fucking disappointment this series has been.  And I don't think DC Universe #0 is actually gonna do anything worthwhile besides catch people up on major events of the DCU.  Ugh.  So here's what happens.  Jimmy Olsen and Forager are basically on the outs as a couple.  Those two, plus Donna Troy, Ray Palmer and Kyle Rayner decide to form a group to keep a watch on the Monitors.  Black Mary Marvel is still a pain in the ass.  Harley and Holly Robinson do...squat.  Jason Todd is as much of an asshole now as at the beginning of the series.  Really, this entire thing was a fucking waste of money.  The plots coul have been handled in a couple of four issue miniseries.  Countdown: Arena was cool, but that was about it.  And speaking of which, just where the fuck has Monarch been?  I don't think that story was wrapped up at all.  I don't think they're saving it for Final Crisis cause I'm not convinced this series was going to have anything at all to do with Final Crisis.  How this was counting down to Final Crisis is beyond me.  This was a blatant case of false advertising.  Hell, reading between the lines at the DC Nation page at the very end, they practically admit that the entire series was an abject failure in its goals.  Thanks for nothing, DC.

Death of the New Gods #8 - Wrapping up the best miniseries of the past year, I can't help but feel it was pretty anti-climactic.  It seems the real climax was last issue with the deaths of Mr. Miracle and Metron.  The rest is just clean up.  Darkseid and the Source fight for a while.  Darkseid has the Source bound up fairly well.  Throw in some lengthy exposition and cue the spirit of Orion come back to kick Darkseid's ass.  The problem is this takes place just before Countdown #2 so the ending is a foregone conclusion.  Not one fucking hint in the previous issue of Countdown to warn readers that they should put that issue aside until this one came out.  So yeah, this makes Countdown #2 make a bit more sense, but at the same time it's still contradictory.  Orion in Countdown #2 is very much alive but in this issue he's only a ghost.  Whatever.  There'll probably be an explanation who does anyone care at this point?  Death of teh New Gods was, overall, a really good series.  The ending was a bit dodgy, only cause the final fight between Darkseid and the Source never properly materializes.  However, we do see the collision of Apokolips and New Genesis forming a new hybrid world with one half New Genesis-y and the other Apokolip-y (and looking like a giant Yin & Yang symbol).  So really, this should be treated as an epilogue wrapping up the tensions between the Source and the New Gods.  With Darkseid's apparent death in Countdown #2 and Orion being the last New God (I guess) it should be interesting to see how the creation of the Fifth World plays out (presumably in Final Crisis).  Actually, I might have to re-read the last couple of issues cause I could have sworn Infinity Man was still on the loose and the Source Wall was destroyed (which was still in once piece in COuntdown #1...GAH!  Fuck you, DC!)

Justice League of America #20 - This was a one off issue featuring the Flash and Wonder Woman.  Yeah, this is the Flash's first appearance since he came back last year in The Lightning Saga.  Diana gets on Wally's ass because he's been ditching his JLA duties.  Apparently raising a family isn't a good enough excuse.  Honestly, DC has really dropped the ball in how they've handled the Flash since his return.  Here you had one of the better characters of the DCU, if not the best character, and they've pretty much treated him like a rookie asshole.  Wally West is a silver age mainstay of the DCU and suddenly he doesn't know how to use his super speed to his advantage?  Fuck this shit.  So after being lectured a bit, they go off and fight the Queen Bee at STAR Labs.  *Yawn*  Boring fight.  Actually, the issue starts with Wally putting out a forest fire and that was pretty cool shit.  Too bad Dwayne McDuffy (taking over the reigns again for the first time in a while) couldn't put as much thought into the fight with Queen Bee as he did with the firefighting action at the beginning.  After the fight with Queen Bee, more lecturing.  Yeah, this title is getting dropped in July.  There's really no reason to follow it.  I had been considering getting the first collection of the first six issues, but honestly I see no point.  The series is nicely drawn, but not so well written.

Thor #8 - Yeah!  This was a good issue.  I've liked the last two issues of Thor.  Thor entered the Odinsleep in the last issue due to the fact that he used up so much power to revive all teh Asgardians who died in Ragnarok.  So he finds Odin in...I don't know where, but Odin basically says it's practically Asgardian heaven...fighting Surtur.  Odin explains to Thor how he similarly betrayed his own father and was cursed to have a son who would do the same.  In this issue he continues to tell the story of him and his dad and how he was haunted continuely by his father until the point he was told to adopt Loki as his own after he kills Loki's frost giant father.  He did and his father stopped haunting him but Odin says that since Loki was such a piece of shit it was basically his father's revenge.  It's a cool story cause it goes into a bit of Marvel mythology, part of what's making The Incredible Hercules such a great read.  Thor and Odin make up when Odin explains that he's pleased that Thor has not forgotten about him and though he'd like to come back, to do so would allow Surtur to also come back and fuck shit up.  And, as he explains, he's basically in Asgardian heaven.  Fighting for glory for all eternity even though he dies every day.  Cool shit.  Then they both beat the shit out of Surtur and Thor revives from his Odinsleep.  There was a sidestory involving Don Blake and his ex which...sucked.  The dialogue was stiff and I really couldn't give a shit.  If Straczynski couldn't do more then write in vague generalities he shouldn't have bothered.  We do discover that Loki, now a woman, is keeping Lady Sif locked away in the body of a dying old woman.  Okay, that's interesting, but it wasn't worth the strained character work.  Regardless, this was mostly about Thor and it was enough for me to feel compelled to throw on some Amon Amarth at the end.  Viking metal, fuck yeah!

Uncanny X-Men #497 - Okay, so San Francisco is having a collective flashback to the 60s thanks to some weird telepath chick and Scott and Emma are running around wondering what the hell is going on.  The story involving Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Colossus is much more interesting.  They're in Russia, on a train and find themselves attacked by giant Russian robots.  The fight was okay, but Mike Choi doesn't like to spend too much time on details as everything is shown from a distance.  It looks alright, but it does nothing in regards to immersion.  But it's still by far the most interesting story of the issue.  The Russians want answers for why their mutant population is suddenly gone.  So, after they get their asses handed to them in the fight, they find themselves in captivity by this Russian dude.  Why this isn't the main story I have no idea, cause the hippie dippy shit is going nowhere.  We see this Goddess woman for the first time and strangely at one point it looks like she has four boobs.  And I can only take so much of Scott and Emma running around going, "What the fuck?  What the fuck?!?" for so long before it gets tiresome.  This looks like Brubaker's last story before #500 when it looks like Matt Fraction is taking over.  I don't see how he'll help this series either.  Fact is the X books are pretty overdone and bloated beyond recognition.  Warren Ellis is taking over Astonishing X-Men in July, so maybe that will help.  Or maybe not.  I do like the interplay between Scott and Emma, but it feels too generic. 

Scott: You need to be more naked! 

Emma: Oh stop!

Come on, character work is more then this.  And come to think of it, wasn't Angel involved in all this somehow?  He was nowhere to be seen this month.  If you ask me, the action story should be strictly about Wolverine and Nightcrawler and Colossus, three character you can't fuck up, and the Scott and Emma story should have been relegated to them doing nothing but fucking around in the Savage Land.  This story arc is supposed to be about the X-Men post Messiah Complex and disbanded.  They don't feel particularly disbanded when Scott and Emma are still running around in costume.  Hot monkey love in the Savage Land, that would have been a sure fire winner.  Fucking hippie shit in San Francisco, that's just lame.  The Russia story is enough to keep me reading through to #500 and then I'm done.

X-Force #3 - This is a strange series.  I don't know if the writers know where they're taking the team in this story, but they sure as hell got all their villains lined up like ducks in a row.  Bastion takes a piece of Magus, ho was found at the end of last issue, and uses it to infect a bunch of old villains, living and dead, with the techno-organic virus.  So now guys like Donald Pierce, William Stryker, Graydon Creed and some other old time X-Men villains are infected with this stuff and ready to kill some muties.  Alright, sounds cool.  In the mean while Wolverine and the rest find Wolfsbane, who's been given an overdose of heroin, and take her back to Angel's place.  What, so she can seize on the couch and stay for a couple of weeks gettin over the shakes?  This issue was about the villains.  The cover, featuring Wolfsbane ready to fuck some guy up, was pretty misleading.  She can't fuck anyone up if she's getting high!  Well, next issue maybe?  It's okay.  I'm willing to see where the story ends up and drop it with #6.  However, it seems to have a less then monthly schedule ass #5 is the July issue and the last issue came out around the beginning of March I believe.  So it's been almost two months.  I thought maybe Marvel wanted to push back the publishing schedule but maybe Clayton Crain is to blame instead.  It is some lavish art compared to most other books.  But I digress.  I'll follow it through #6 only cause I wanna see where this particular story goes.  It's not really that good, and it's another story being written for the TPB form, but I think I can hold out to the end.  I think.

And Blogger is eating my emails

I sent that last post through Gmail and it got eaten too.

Two in a row.

Blogger must be having troubles.

That sucks cause I like blogging through the e-mail.

And it's done!

Just ordered Samurai Champloo volumes 2 - 7 and Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo volumes 1 - 6. Yes, major overspending. So I shall hold off for the next month! Easy sleazy, done this before with no problems. So no spendy until may 23rd to keep the bullshit budget in line.

Thursday morning, so I'll probably get them early to middle of next week. That's why I like Rightstuf, they work fast.

The Big O

Pardon my rambling...

Finally watched the last of it this morning. What a cool show. It's been a few years since I last saw it so some of the details were fuzzy and on more then a few occasions I caught myself wondering if I had seen the particular episode I was watching. But it was still pretty good watching. I think I finally get the ending. Basically riffing on simulated or artificial reality. Roger Smith was an android or clone much like the rest of the populace who, the reason none of them have memories of the past prior to 40 years prior, was because none of them existed 40 years prior. The only real human was Gordon Rosewater and, maybe, Angel. Roger and Alex Rosewater were based on men who had lived up until forty years prior but were all killed in an alien or foreign invasion using the giant robots like the Big O piloted by Roger. Gordon Rosewater starts cloning or making simulations of people using leftover technology remaining from the war but screws up the first batch of his "tomatoes" as he calls them. I'm kind of confused on some points, if he starts off with advanced robotics and ends up with giant computer simulations and holograms as the final visuals imply or what. I assumed this would have been clarified in a third season had it happened. But if everything was strictly holographic, why even include the Bigs in the program? Ah, doesn't matter. Still a cool show. The character relations are nicely done, especially Roger and Dorothy's semi-romance. The action is pretty well done with some very cool looking mechas. Plus, ya know, it's all done to look like the 90s Batman animated series. Always cool shit. Overall, I'd say this series rates about 75 to 80%. There's some dumb shit, like the introduction of Instro (and then not so much the introduction but the fight afterwards), the fact that the ending is a bit too ambiguous (though it is basically tracking alongside The Matrix thematically)...the one episode that plays out as a parody of old 70s and 80s giant robot shows was funny as shit but out of place in the more serious second season.

But really, the appeal of the show is the characters and the relationship between Roger and Dorothy. Dorothy is Dorothy throughout the entire series. She's a relatively emotionless android but her affect on Roger is apparent. He's an arrogant prick at the start, an arrogant prick at the end, but an arrogant prick who's suddenly grounded. At the start of the series he's a guy who does jobs, doesn't seem particularly connected to anything. Dorothy comes along and basically screws up his rigid rituals and Roger is now suddenly.....what, committed? Dorothy hires him with no way of paying for his services and ends up working them off as Roger's maid. She never stops being Roger's maid. But it's clear that the relationship is deeper then that. On the verge of a romantic moment between Roger and Angel he hesitates. Hey, come on, Angel is a hot piece of ass, what the fuck? Tap that ass, you stupid bastard! Alas, the depths of the relationship between Roger and Dorothy are not plumbed further as the series concludes with episode 26 and plans for a third season are canceled due to low ratings and DVD sales. Suck!

And other characters kick some ass. Norman can do no fucking wrong. It's like he's the bad ass behind the man. Seriously, everyone should have a manservant is awesome as Norman. The villains are cool shit too. Motivations are a little scant, but at least Schwartzwald is a proper philosophical psycho bastard. A former reporter who goes looking for the truth and goes nuts, tears shit up and kills himself. Yeah, he was sorely missed. Alan Gabriel was the replacement psycho, but as visually kick ass as he was, the character lacked the depth. Jason Beck was a cool sleaze, kind of like Roger but without the genteel manners. Cool goatee too.

Like I said, about 80% rating on this one with good rewatchability value. Recommended.

New Comics Wednesday

I thought I sent this in already, but it looks like it got eaten. Or I emailed it to the wrong address. DOH!

Shall we?



Batman #675



Countdown to Final Crisis #1



Death of the New Gods #8



Justice League of America #20



Thor #8



Uncanny X-Men #497



X-Force #3

Reviews will be up tomorrow. I've read most of them already but I like keeping them all in one post. Needless to say, good comics are good and bad comics suck.

Images?

I should post more images.

Doctor Who/Battlestar Galactica

Tonight SciFi premiered the new season of Doctor Who.  Or, rather, the Christmas Invasion episode.

Not bad.  Tennant without proper support seems rather...different.  Lacking the energy of the previous seasons.  Well, it was the Christmas show.  The real premiere will be next week.  See, this is all kind of a surprise to me cause I thought Doctor Who was on hiatus until next year.  Buuuut, according to IMDB the Beeb has new episodes scheduled through the end of June.  S'cool, I'm glad.  However, it looks like Tennant's last hurrah judging from the last episode title.  Looks like we'll soon be getting a new Doctor.  Anyway, overall episode was so-so.  Set on a spaceship cruise liner dubbed Titanic, it plays out just like The Poseidan Adventure.  Well, except for the evil bad guy who's head is attached to a robotic contraption and robot angels going around killing people left and right.  I only kinda half paid any attention cause I was flipping through my new GNs.

Now for Battlestar, I was less entertained and more annoyed.  I know none of the character names, but it involved one of the recently revealed Cylons (the mechanic), his wife and her finding out he's a Cylon.  It wasn't a bad episode if not for the freakin crying baby.  Goddamn, every scene, crying baby.  Couldn't hear half the dialogue cause of that fucking kid.  Fuck that kid.  When the wife was ejected out an airlock by the President's evil Cylon assistant I was hoping the kid would go with her.  Though I was happy the bitch got killed, cause she couldn't act for shit.  Didn't think she was good looking either.  Whiny little good for nothing and then, bam!  Frozen in the vaccum of space.  Awesome.  Some other shit happened with the Cylons and there was some brief action involving Cylons turning on each other and I don't know cause I was making a cup of coffee.  I want to follow this show.  I'm trying to follow this show.  I can't see the appeal.  It does nothing for me.  Gone are the days of quality sci-fi.  This show comes around and offers up intelligent, well written sci-fi but it all just leaves me cold.  I'm gonna follow as long as possible until I determine it's better to spend the time getting ready for work, taking a dump or something.  Honestly, if they could just make the show all about the Cylons that would be great.  Not the Galactica Cylons, the Dean Stockwell/Ziggy Cylons.  Those guys are awesome.  Not quite sure what makes them so evil.  Seem alright to me.  Hell, I'd have a beer with them and betray the human race.  Why not?  All the humans on the show are pretty worthless anyway.  Fuck 'em!

Wine

I woke up late yesterday so this morning I wasn't rired.  Put on some Big O and sat there with a glass of merlot that I opened...Thursday?  Pretty good.  But I was thinking, considering how long I've been messing with wine now I've learned three things.

1. Reds are better than whites.

2. The longer wine is exposed to oxygen the more it alters the taste.

3. It pretty much all tastes the same.

3.1 At least it does if you're drinking the cheap stuff from the grocery store.

So my preferences definitely lean towards the reds.  Whites are okay, but I don't have the patience to sit there and figure just how chilly they're supposed to get.  Warm is just as good I suppose, but it's not the same.  Reds are just nicer I think.  And it really does seem that a bottle needs to be drunk fairly quickly after opening.  Yeah, it's still pretty good a day later, but two, three, four days down the line and it just doesn't taste the same to me.  Maybe it's too much anticipation on my part?  Mostly mental?  I don't know.  And finally, small differences aside, it pretty much all tastes the same to me in the end.  It's probably cause I'm drinking this cheap stuff that's $6, $10 dollars a bottle.  Not high quality shit.  I'm sure the better quality stuff made to be stored for 20 years and opened underneath a full moon in winter while chanting over a buxom virgin sacrifice would really teach me something about good wine, but that shit is waaaay out of my price range.  I think I've quickly hit my limit.  I might buy a bottle every now and then, but with inflation the way it is and my grocery bill getting so out of hand I should probably just pack it in for now.

This, however, did not stop me from drinking the rest of that merlot and sleeping very soundly.  Brother, enough of that shit will knock me out wonderfully.  Very nice.

Buy.com order came in

Got the first part of my Buy.com order, including ClanDestine and the two Grendel Volumes (Devil by the Deed and Archives).

Good looking shit. The Grendel volumes are basically hardback editions with no dustjackets. The ClanDestine book is, disappointingly, a Marvel Premiere Edition which means that it's actually smaller then my other Marvel hardcovers by about half an inch or the same size as the DC hardcovers. *Tear* It'll look a little weird in order with the rest on my shelf. Or I organize it by size, leaving the Marvel book slightly out of order which would just be weirder. Still, a pretty handsome looking volume. Contains the entire canonical ClanDestine series which is the premiere in Marvel Comics Presents, the first eight issues of the regular series (the final four issues not done by Alan Davis and since disregarded as continuity thus not included) and the two part double sized ClanDestine/X-Men miniseries. It feels pretty thick even though it doesn't contain as much material as some of my other collections like Avengers Assemble volume five. Probably cause it's shorter size it puts more stress on the spine when you open it. You think Marvel would know this. That's one of the problems with their omnibus editions versus DC's Absolute program. The Absolutes are big thick and tall books that, even if they are heavy as hell, are easy to crack open and read. With the Marvel omnibus editions being no taller then their other hardcovers it feels like the spine is extra stressed and starts looking pretty worn when opened too wide.

The Grendel volumes are very nicely done. Very thin, though. Devil by the Deed is only 48 pages and collects the short back-up stories that run in the original Mage: The Hero Discovered series published by Comico. The Archive book features the original Grendel stories featured in Comico's Primer #2 and Grendel #1 - 3. The project was apparently canceled and abandoned for a stylistically and narratively different approach featured in Devil by the Deed. The art is very amatuerish. Wagner's approach is basically all there, but the line work is unrefined and the dialogue is pretty standard comic booky. Always interesting to see a writer and artist and the beginning of his career.

Very pleased to have these volumes in my collection. Alas, I've hit the limit on my other Library Thing page so the two Grendel volumes appear on my page with the prose books (still deciding whether or not I should actually buy an account).

Speaking of mailorder, I should have gotten that damned Samurai Champloo volume one in the mail Thursday, but it seemed to get stuck in Dallas and was re-scanned Thursday night near midnight. Hopefully it'll come in Saturday afternoon.

And speaking of books, I finished 1776 a week ago and dammit if I have yet to bring myself to crack Hitchhiker's Guide open and start reading. Maybe all this reading has worn out my brain and I need to let it atrophy a tad by watching anime before getting back with the words.

WORDS!

$181.56

That's how much I would have saved if I had never picked up Countdown.

Yep.

That's the cover price ($2.99) plus cost of bags and boards ($0.30) plus taxes (8.25%) multiplied by 51.

Yep.

Reviews

Captain America #37 - Kinda of a slower paced issue.  Starts off and the Red Skull's oil company is credited with pulling a giant economic rabbit out of its magic ass.  Christ, I realize it's a comic book and reality takes  a back seat but it takes a massive stretch of the imagination that one crappy Russian oil company could single handedly drop the price of oil and avert a anking and housing crisis.  Dude, I got no problem with a guy with a bionic arm or a guy who can fucking juggle a planet, but this shit's a bit absurd.  However, there's a bit of a moment between Bucky and Hawkeye.  Hawkeye being trained by Cap, I guess he's a bit jealous.  So he breaks in and they do a litlte kung fu fighting.  Later on the Falcon pays a visit.  Alriiiight!  Cap and Falcon action!  They're gonna start searching for Sharon Carter who is still pregnant and still captive to the Red Skull, Arnim Zola and Faustus.  They have no clue that she's broken free of their mind control, though, and that she knows about their experiments with...Steve Rogers?  Or is that a clone?  Yet to be revealed, but he has no memory of Sharon.  Interesting.

Countdown #2 - FUCK!  Christ almighty!  Jesus puked on his throne!  Oh fuck!  Just...fuck.  What the fuck?  Come on, Darkseid is killed?  Darkseid is killed?  He's the fucking big bad of Final Crisis and he was killed?  By Orion?  Who was killed in Death of the New Gods #6?  The fuck?  Jesus fuck!  FFFUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!  Fuck.

The Flash #239 - Definitaly a step up from the last issue.  Flash gets a job...sorting?  Junk?  Well, the villain of this story is a dude who can manipulate fears through televised media.  He finally gets to Jay Garrick after he comes out on TV to defend the Flash after the vents of the last issue (Flash revealed to the public he was broke and then got pinned for stealing everyone's wallets).  Yeah, it's...lame.  But watching Jay take a swing at Wally while blaming him spouting some Bill O/Lou Dobbs memes was a pretty cool moment.  Also, Red Arrow appears to cool shit down.  Kind of a funny moment, that.  Issue ends with a cliffhanger featuring the return of Gorilla Grodd.  Finally!  Monkeys!

Grendel #6 - Oh hell yes!  Major bad ass happenings in this issue.  I knew it was gonna be good when the first issue is some Korean gangster thug getting a lapdance with some big titties flopping up in his grill.  Cool shit.  Korean dude has to hide out someplace cause they failed in their attempt in killing Grendel a couple of issues back.  So off to Manhattan they go.  Grendel just follows behind and proceeds to hand them their asses.  And hands.  And brains.  And stabs Korean lapdance guy through the eyes.  And the rest of his head.  Bloody shit, man.  At the end of the issue, Grendel unleashes the potion he got from that weird Haitian dude in the previous issue to uncover his mysterious stalker.  Turns out to be a weird, foul-mouthed troll.  Huh.  Two issues left, so how this plays out will be interesting.  The art in this issue was great.  Cool two page spread with Hunter Rose just kinda sitting at his desk.  Pondering.  No action, he's just pissed off with his fingers at his temple.  And the cover is probably the best cover of the series.  I would expect that to be the front cover of the inevitable hardcover.  I'm really enjoying this series.  I'll have to re-read the whole thing before the last issue comes out so I can get the whole thing in one go like originally intended.

Incredible Hercules #116 - Fantastic.  So it's Herc, Amadeus and Athena driving over to the site where some Celestial on Earth has awakened.  They're going over so Athena can have some sort of weird conference with a bunch of Earth deities regarding the recent Skrull invasion (yeah, beginning of a Secret Invasion tie-in).  On the way there, Athena schools Amadeus on certain facts of life.  Even though he might be one of the smartest people in the world and can find patterns in anything around him, the fact that he can't analyze himself means it's all for shit.  When they get there, they see the Celestial is surrounded by idiot hippies worshipping it as a god.  A golden god.  Sure, it's obvious, but at least Pak is having fun.  So Herc goes off to take a leak ("Drain the Hydra," as he says) and runs into a couple of Eternals who think he's one of them (this also ties in with Gaiman's Eternals miniseries, apparently).  Now, obviously not, but while Herc is fighting them and they're discussing his history (only in comics can one beat down and talk history and mythology all at once) they cause Herc to question his own past.  They tell him, "Dude, you're past you only know through books and stories!  How do you know you aren't one of us?"  Of course, this is all a mistake because there was a sort of miscommunication between the Celestial and a third Eternal chatting him up.  It was a good issue overall.  I love the way they use Herc's own mythology in the story as a way to advance the plot.  It doesn't bog things down, but really keeps the story moving along rather briskly.  Now the story does have one problem.  It's a Secret Invasion tie-in.  This is the last thing the series needs.  It needs to move along independently of the rest of the mainstream Marvel U.  Marvel might think it'll help sales, but considering everything that's been happening with the series and characters thus far it can only damage the flow of the series.  So at the end of the issue when Athena is addressing this pantheon she just pulls this severed Skrull head out of nowhere.  So instead of using the next issue to delve into this shit the Eternals were on about, Greg Pak is gonna have to run telling an editorial mandated story that has nothing to do with the tale he's trying to tell.  I don't know, maybe he can really pull something impressive out of his butt.  He's a talented enough guy.  Very much looking forward to the next issue to see what he does.

Warbound - The start of the issue started the same way the last several issues have ended, with some background on the personality of one of the characters.  Namely, Kate Waynesborough.  A SHIELD spy, she apparently had a thing for Bruce Banner before he Hulked out and she ditched him.  Oooookay.  The issue wraps up the story with the Warbound fighting the Leader who's trapped this town under a gamma ray shield, irradiating the residents and calling it "Gammaworld."  Lame, yeah.  It starts off with some unmanned weapons attacking our group of misanthropic heroes and it turns out they're somehow involved with Waynesborough.  Uh...yeah, I missed something in the last issue.  In fact, they were only revealed briefly as such on the last page of the last issue and now we're just expected to...accept this?  Yeah, the series ends pretty flat.  After a bunch of residents are killed by these robots, Hiroim dies fighting the Leader and Kate Waynesborough somehow becomes imbued with his oldstrong power.  Cue beatdown, cue mourning of Hiroim, cue more attacking by residents aaaannndddd.....end!  Well, I didn't think it was gonna be a great series, but I didn't think it would end so badly either.  It actually did have a pretty good story in the beginning, but at the very end the whole affair is sort of brushed off without considering all the hanging threads.  So what the fuck is gonna happen with Gammaworld?  Are they stuck in the middle of the desert now or...what?  And what about Miek?  I expect this to lead into another story sometime down the line, but this was just such a letdown.

X-Factor #30 - Picks up at the end of last issue with Mutant Town being taken over by Arcade who in turn was hired by an ex-Purifier to get rid of the last vestiges of ex-mutant kind.  Some fun stuff, Guido getting run over by a boulder, Madrox getting his ass handed to him.  The characters are searching for a new dynamic.  I know this cause Peter David keeps having Madrox say in his narrative how much the team needs a new dynamic.  Friggin book needs a new dynamic.  Sometimes this series puts out some great shit.  Other times I get frustrated how whiny all the characters come off.  No addressing of Theresa's pregnancy, no snappy banter worth enjoying...Arcade gets away while the ex-Purifier reveals the whole area is rigged to blow when his heart stops and mentions on the side that he just poisoned himself.  Oh, cliffhanger!  I bet the next issue starts by moving ast it and mentioning it in an aside.  "Oh, thank God they fucked up the wiring, right?"  Man, they really need to get Layla Miller back on the team.  This shit is suffering without her.  This book is a prime example of a series written for TPB form.  This isn't a very collectible series, it calls for being picked up in long form.

New Comics Wednesday

Captain America #37
Countdown To Final Crisis #2
The Flash #239
Grendel: Behold The Devil #6
Incredible Hercules #116
Warbound #5
X-Factor #30

An alright week.  I'll post reviews tomorrow.  Warbound is concluded.  Countdown is nearing its end.  That leaves Countdown #1 and DC Universe #0.  Grendel has two more to go.

Next week includes some cool shit.  Last issue of Death of the New Gods.  Also Justice League, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Thor (after a several week delay) and BATMAN!  Hulk is also on my Comixology pull list, but I wonder if I should even bother.  Too much for too little.  Ya know, there's also a Hulk Vs. Hercules one-shot.  Did I ask Andy to put me down for it?  I can't rightly remember.  Well, if I did he'll put it in for me.  I don't think I asked for it.  Well, whatever.

Did get a chance to flip through the first issue of the new Titans series.  Heh, another series readers never asked for.  So it's the original Titans (like they haven't tried this a thousand times over) and it's written by Judd Winick.  Naturally, everyone is bare assed naked.  Oh, look, Starfire's bare ass.  Sure fire way to sell a few extra thousand copies.  Man, Winick needs to drop out of comics.  This is what he contributes?  Naked chicks and faggotry.  Does he actually write anymore or make cheap excuses for one or the other?

Spent the morning watching the rest of The Big O season one.  Cool shit, man.  The first few episodes were wonkier then I remembered, but about episode eight things start falling into place with the characters and it really sucks latches onto you.  It's like a parasite.  I mean the show isn't really that good but it's too fun.  Roger Smith is too much of an asshole to be a likeable character.  He's sort of like James Bond, except he doesn't bag every babe he sees.  He's a detective, a diplomat, bit of an engineer, rich.....come on, this dude is a cliche!  Reminds me of that weeklong strip Bill Amend did in Fox Trot where Roger writes a James Bond like character and all he does is run around being awesome and bagging hot bitches.  Fucking horrible.  But what makes Roger Smith interesting is his relationship with the little android girl, Dorothy.  She's supposed to be emotionless, but comes across as more of a cynic and cool to everything that happens around her (though periodically showing a touch of naivete and ragging on Roger's shitty taste in clothes).  In fact, a bit coquettish at first but eventually a more sincere relationship starts to develop.  When there was still the vague possibility of a third season this is what you kinda hoped would be brought to the fore.  Oh, also Norman is the fucking man.  Makes Alfred look like a dribbling retard.

Speaking of anime, looks like Samurai Champloo volume one should be coming in Thursday.  Entered Dallas about noon.  Can't wait.

Did I mention wine?

Got a couple of bottles of Yellow Tail again.  A shiraz/cabernet mixed deal and a merlot.  Spent my morning sipping the shiraz/cabernet and watching The Big O.  Ya know, this is some seriously fruity shit.  It's probably the cheapest wine you can find before you're scrounging nickles and dimes before buying a bottle of Manischevitz but it's...so so.  Like I said, fruity as shit.  As I'm of the understanding, "fruit bombs" are big these days.  Great time for me to start drinking wine, ay?  Really, if this is the case I might as well just spend my time drinking Kool-Aid.  I'm trying to get cultured, dammit!

But yeah, it's okay.  Alas, cause of my allergies, the olefactory part of wine enjoyment eludes me.  Suck!  Well not all the time, but when I pour a glass when I get home only to have the use of one nostril or start sneezing my idiot head off it can really be a mood killer.

MOOD KILLER!

Eh.  Ah well.

But on to the Big O.  For whatever reason, with the Anime Legends release, they changed the opening theme.  It's a better theme, technically, but it doesn't fit the images scrolling across the screen.  It was all timed to fit with the other pompus, Flash Gordon, Queen style opening.  Works with the hippy trippy background colors though (I'd post the theme but YouTube is blocked at this job now).  They also appeared to excise the old music out of the in-show action.  Damn!  Changes the feel of the show when it comes up.  Don't think it ever really was used in the show much, though, was it?  I can't remember.  It's been some years since I last watched on Adult Swim and I only just recently got the DVDs.  Halfway through season one.  Love the animation.  LOVE the designs.  Roger really is Bruce Wayne without the childhood trauma.  Can you just see that writing session where they discuss the characters?  "Our lead character shall be Batman!  Except without the costume, the cool gadgets, and instead shall be a private investigator with half the money and run around in a giant fucking robot."  Cue everyone nodding heads in approval.  "Also, he shall have a robot sidekick."  Cue more nodding heads.  "In fact, at the end of the series, we shall reveal that in fact everyone was a robot and our main character was living life in a bizarre computer simulation run by alien invaders!"  Collective orgasm before everyone shakes hands and gets paid.

Speaking of anime, Samurai Champloo shipped.  In fact, all my orders have shipped.  Should get Champloo by the end of the week.  Should get the first part of the Buy order either end of this week or beginning of next.  The other part, definitely beginning of next if not middle.

More stuff.

God bless stuff.

It needed doing

Hand to God!

Bought a cheap copy of Samurai Champloo volume 1 through Righstuf. Geneon went out of business last fall and the series is homeless and without manufacturer and distributor. So, considering when I was looking there was only three copies left of volume one, I ordered. Think I was getting in a slap fight on the server or something cause I kept getting error messages. Really tight contest it would seem. But I was...victorious!

All told, with shipping, it was $17.99. Hopefully by the time I'm paid next they'll still have copies of volumes two through six in stock. They have very little left of those series and with the American rights to the series in legal limbo (I imagine) it will be who knows how long before someone else buys Geneon's masters.

As an aside, this will be the first anime in my collection actually produced by Geneon (unless you want to count the pre-Geneon Pioneer shit). Is it any wonder they went under? Never produced more then two series worth a shit. Pioneer nabbed all sorts of good series but it seems once they were sold to Dentsu it all went downhill. Go figure.

Scrapped Princess Final Thoughts *Rambling*

I don't think I've enjoyed a series this much since I started watching the Tenchi Muyo TV series eleven years ago.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I've had my ass kicked plenty of times since, but I've not devoured a series like that until now.

Yes, this series was that good. Not without its flaws, but it makes up for it by giving you plenty of characters that you genuinely care about and an ending that's final and not deliberately ambiguous like 90% of anime.

Now the story itself does lose focus a bit. It starts off as a swords and sorcery tale and ends up in sci-fi territory complete with giant fighting robots. Not that I'm complaining, the transition, while not entirely seamless, is done well enough. It's revealed over the course of the series that 5,000 years before the events of the series, mankind wages and loses a battle against an alien aggressor who then proceeds to trap them in a relatively primitive state (in this case, the Middle Ages) in perpetuity. As an out for the writers, a few characters from a rival country our introduced who have found an old battleship controlled by a half burned out "dragoon" (a weapon that requires a human controller) who reveals the nature of the world to our characters (some interesting moments in that as I've previously noted). So what might seem like God-modding to some I think helped drive the story forward in good fashion (and much needed since they decide to forgo most explanations in the beginning of the series).

But the story itself isn't what makes this series so great (though it is a very good one). It's the characters. This is probably one of the best character driven anime I have in my collection. The way the characters perceive their world and interact with it as time goes on is wonderful to behold. The way the writers allow the visuals to drive the emotional details without going apeshit on over-explanatory nonsense makes this series the breath of fresh air that I was so desperately looking for. In other words, it has the emotional depth that most anime lacks. Being animation, and being a TV series to boot, I don't wanna say that it has the nuance you could find in, say, Ghost in the Shell, but for a TV series they really take a comparatively more subtle approach that keeps the viewer interested. Most anime you can ignore until the fight scenes, but Studio Bones did a bang up job here. Way to go, guys!

Probably the most impressive thing is the ending. It actually brings closure. No shit! Seems 99% of anime always lacks closure but the ending of this series actually wraps everything up nicely (maybe a little too nicely for a couple of characters who I thought deserved otherwise). I was always so worried that the series would end on some horribly abstract note or be one of those "leave it up to the viewer" shitty nonendings (like the Sopranos) but it's a decidely complete ending that felt good.

Speaking of animation, it was smooth and looked great throughout. Character designs were excellent and didn't go apeshit crazy with needless fan service (though there was a tiny bit).

Music fit well with the series. Always helped the mood. The ending theme was really good! The opening theme was okay, but the ending was one you could listen to on a regular basis (though I'm not one to collect anime music on CD).

Overall, I'd say this series is...4.5/5? Nine out of ten stars? An A-? Whatever, it was great. Like I said, once I started watching it I couldn't stop. It really sucked me in. It also helped that each episode, except maybe the first couple, was essentially a two parter. The series is light enough to be taken as is but it can also be appreciated for its essentially humanist philosophy (fairly typical in anime really) and it's relatively conservative message of family above all else. Also ample use of Clark's third law.

Think sometime down the line I'm gonna have to re-watch this series with the subtitles on. High replay value with this one.

Highly recommended.

Another spendy day

Kohl's just opened up here a couple of weeks ago and mom got some $15 dollars in free coupons in her email or in the mail.  Said she needed new sheets so today we went to look around.  The really cheapy shit, 275 thread count shit, that she wanted to get wasn't there, alas.  I did, however, talk her into getting some 300 count set.  Even with the coupons it came to $40 bucks, but since she really needed new sheets I went half and half (ish) with her.  She paid $24 and I paid the rest.

While we were piddling around I also saw some nifty memory foam pillows.  You know the ones, the kind that are shaped real funny for neck support and are made of the smoldering reamins of the Discory and Columbia space shuttles?  Well, I was actually considering getting one for me cause my pillows have also had it but I can live.  I almost didn't, but I ended up getting her one for $20 bucks.  Her pillows fucking suck and at her age she should be able to have a decent night's sleep.  We got home and she laid on it and said it was really good.  Really comfortable.  Hooray!  That should make up for the fact that I've been oversleeping in the evenings and not getting up in time for dinner.

My job

They screwed up my overtime.

It's very little overtime but they screwed it up.

It's 7:41 and I'm still here.  I tell my boss I'll come in late to cut back the overtime I've already accumulated but with no one showing up it's impossible now.  They cut my hours and I still rack it up.  There has been only three weeks where I've worked less then 40 hours in a week since they cut my hours.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Idiots.

How's this?

ClanDestine
Grendel: Devil by the Deed
Grendel Archive Edition
New Avengers Volume 2

Might have to pay shipping on the New Avengers collection as Buy is saying that it won't be in stock until Wednesday.  No matter, still saving money on it over Amazon.  If I luck out and they have everything in stock then the whole order only comes to $53 bucks.  Otherwise $56.60.  Not bad.

Also pre-ordered The Absolute Sandman volume 3.  Again, cheaper then Amazon but I do have to pay shipping cause it's so big.  Maybe.  Didn't have to with the Absolute Dark Knight collection, so maybe I can write them towards the shipping date and dispute the charge or maybe they'll deduct it themselves.  Probably just forget the whole thing cause I still save a couple of bucks over Amazon either way.

Stuff!  I like it.

New Comics Wednesday

Shall we?

Booster Gold #8
Countdown #3
Green Lantern Corps #23
Justice Society of America #14
Nova #12

And now...reviews!

Booster Gold - Not bad.  Picking up from last issue, Booster and the Blue Bettle launch an attack against Maxwell Lord alongside Green Arrow, Hawkman and the few loser heroes they've rounded up that are left over.  Of course, they're all subsequently killed leaving Booster and Beetle.  It's kind of difficult to keep track of one issue to the next considering the series is essentially made to be read in collected formats.  It was a good issue, but it seems the series isn't really living up the promise of the first issue.

Countdown - Gah!  Well, after the last few issues this was a breath of fresh air but the series is in a completely different place then from where it all started by this point.  We do get a nice throwdown between Superman and Darkseid but it ends with Darkseid getting ready to take on...Jimmy Olsen.  Christ.  Who cares!!!!  And this issue seems to take place after the last issue of Death of the New Gods so it doesn't make as much sense as it should.  What the fuck was Darkseid doing on Earth anyway?

Green Lantern Corps - Finally!  Guy Gardner!  Guy Gardner and a group of Lanterns hunting down yellow Sinestro Corps rings.  And what the hell is Mongul doing anyway?  Seems that guy has like six yellow rings and I suppose will be the next leader of the Sinestro Corps.  This was a pretty good issue I felt.  Starts off a bit slow while this team of Lanterns is dragged back to Oa to start their mission.  The story proceeds a pace as the team split into groups of two entering the star system they're to search.  Gardner and Kyle Rayner start the beatings immediately while Arisia and Sodom Yat, the new Ion, get whomped and abducted by some psycho two headed Sinstro Corpsman and Mongul fairly quickly.  Sodom Yat is supposed to be not only the most powerful Lantern but also of a species similar to Kryptonians.  Seems to get his shit handed to him fairly quickly, no?  But that's basically where it ends off.  Looking forward to the next issue.

JSA - Okay, honestly?  Considering how often this series runs late?  I have no idea what's happening anymore.  It starts off with Power Girl showing up at some dudes place talking about a fight between Superman and Gog.  When was this?  Last issue?  Superman?  I don't read Superman, just Action Comics.  What the hell?  Then the entire JSA is in their little meeting space chatting amongst themselves when Gog shows up and starts a fight.  I'd say the action was good but Eaglesham's art doesn't flow that well.  I mean he's a good artist but this is where a flashier artist would come in real handy.  The action was pretty stiff.  At issue's end was some Green Lantern type character and...um...honestly, I didn't recognize them.  From the Kingdom Come universe?  I give up.  Totally dropping this title cause I am seriously confused.  If it came out quicker then once every six weeks I'd have an easier time following it but it doesn't so I don't.  It does clarify a parallel story that's been running with Death of the New Gods and Countdown what with New Gods dying and getting their hearts ripped out.  Apparently Gog found the weapon of a god from the Third World and has been using it to make way for this guy's return.  Not that it makes a difference cause the Fourth World is ending and making way for the Fifth World.  But hey, whatever, the whole story is basically just cashing in on 12 year old stories and concepts.

Nova #12 - Yeah!  Picking up from last issue we see Nova about to be consumed by the technoorganic virus in his body.  Unfortunately, Warlock's ward's daddy (giant technoorganic monster) comes back to kill him.  Warlock sends his boy to flee and then sacrifices his "life glow" to rid Nova of his virus.  Finally!  So Nova takes on the "Siredam" but without much luck.  Warlock's boy eventually comes screaming back cause he wants to prove he ain't some pussy (which is what Warlock was basically teaching the kid to become) gets his shit beat and then eaten.  Yep.  However, since the kid was apparently possessed of a mutant programming, he manages to overwrite his big bad dad's programming and take possession of the body.  Clever!  They then proceed to resurrect Warlock  and rid Gamora and Drax of their viruses as well.  It wraps up slightly too fast, however, as the whole story-line is going to come to a final conclusion in Annihilation: Conquest #6.  Fuck!  And I'm not even picking up the individual issues!  I'm waiting for the hardcover.  Comes out next week.  Do I?  Should I?  Ah shit.  Love the way Abnett and Lanning handle Warlock's dialogue.  Most sentences start off as some sort of command prompt, adds a little bit of character to the, uh...character.  Claremont never thought of that.  What do you think of that, Chris?  Yeah?  Yeah?!?  What do you think of that?!?!?!?!?!  Bitch.

Overall, it was an okay week.  Cheap as it's been in ages too.  Only five books.  Didn't pick up that new issue of Punisher.  What did I tell ya?  What did I tell ya?  Huh?  Huh?!?  Damn right, said I wasn't gonna bother after the last issue and I didn't.  Sheeiit!

Next week looks really good with Incredible Hercules, Warbound, X-Factor, Grendel (WOO!) and Captain Puerto Rico.  Can't wait.  Should I pick up that X-Men: Divided We Stand book?  Should I really bother?  Hmmmm.....

Just a few more months

A few more months and I'll be gone!

Gone!

And I won't have to deal with people sleeping through their alarms and showing up horribly, godawfully late!

AAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Gone crazy, back soon*

So if I can just...

...Babble on a little more about Scrapped Princess.

Oh my GOD!

Okay, there's this one moment in volume three, episode 12.  The mysteries have all been laid out for us.  We now know the exact reason why Pacifica is being hunted down to be killed.  It's totally at odds with the swords and sorcery angle.  It's kind of hinted at prior to this that the series takes place far in the future after an apocalyptic war destroys everything and sets mankind back several thousand years.  It's noticed in the way some characters talk.  It's noticeable when the magic wielding characters use their spells.  There was one great scene in episode 10 where two characters are talking magic stuff around what's clearly a nuclear bomb (lit up for effect).  But I digress...So Zephiris, this magical/technological entity is explaining why Pacifica is so important and why her "Guardians" are who they are.  They talk about implanting a gene in the human race that expresses itself in certain people who will then become compelled to protect the title character.  Shannon obviously gets pissed off but for all the wrong reasons and starts shouting something about destiny and fate and how they can't control his.  What I thought was so wonderful about this moment was that any other writer would just brush this off thinking that it doesn't matter if the character, a sort of Middle Ages primitive, can understand it or not.  In this show they try, fail or completely misunderstand and are forced to reinterpret it in a way that fits their understanding of the world.  I saw this, and I thought it was freakin fantastic!  Like I said, I've been getting burned quite a bit this past year with my collection.  Been getting too much bad shit.  And this little show comes around and reminds me exactly why I collect this stuff.  So many excellent moments and so many well written characters.

So with that I intend to go home, throw on disc four and...oh, shit!  I didn't buy any wine this past week.  Damn, this is exactly the kind of show that a glass or two of red wine would make even better.  Blast!

Also, I'm nearly done with that David McCullough book, 1776.  Very good!  Man, I knew George Washington wasn't that good of a general but I didn't realize he fucked up so badly in the beginning!  Wow, it seems if it weren't for Britain seeming lack of drive to really reclaim their colonies, we'd be like Canada or something.  We'd have never won.  Too bad this book only covers the year of 1776, because now I definitely gotta look in to getting something that covers the rest in decent detail.

Scrapped Princess

Ya know, it seems the past year I've been getting burned with the anime I've been watching.

Shingu sucked.

Blue Sub 6 sucks.

Aoi & Mutsuki sucked.

Mars Daybreak sucked.

It seems by and large I've been seeing nothing but crap.  Planetes was good, but the characters were grating on my nerves.  Daybreak had good animation but the story blew.  Shingu had great animation, excellent character designs but no story and lame characters.  Aoi and Mutsuki, sequel to the lighthearted and excellent Space Pirate Mito, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever.  Blue Sub...well, you already know my thoughts on that one.  All the rest that I've bought has been shit I've had for years on VHS and needed to add into my DVD collection or Detective Conan which I've already been a fan of for quite some time.  The last two collections I got in the mail were the Big O collections, a series I'm already well acquainted with.  There's nothing else really grabbing my interest.

Last year I bought the Scrapped Princess complete collection.  Got a really good deal, too.  I've had it for about a year and never got around to watching it cause I still got a ton of DVDs that I haven't watched.  I finally got around to it this morning.

I am in love!

The series is basically a swords and sorcery tale.  The main character is Pacifica Casull, a girl apparently destined to bring about the end of the world on her 16th birthday.  She was supposed to have been killed after she was born (thus the moniker the scrapped princess) but apparently she was saved.  Now she's running around with her adoptive brother, Shannon, and sister, Raquel, running away from the main sombitch who wants to kill her in the name of their god so prevent the end of the world.  Her sister is a bit of a ditz but wields powerful magic while her brother is a reluctant and cool yet highly skilled swordsman.  Pacifica herself is a bratty 15 year old kid.  I love it.

The animation is smooth and clean.  The character designs by Takahiro Komori are pretty straightforward for anime (according to Wikipedia he did the designs for Cowboy Bebop).  The characters are very expressive and this is what has impressed me the most.  So many series idea of expression is having the characters tell the audiance what they're feeling.  This series, thankfully, doesn't assume the viewer is a total moron.  The animators and writers let the visuals do the work.  So what we have is a very nice, very well put together show approaching actual emotional depth.  This is what I've always loved about shows like Tenchi Muyo.  I'm six episodes in and this series is just getting better.

Thank God, cause I was starting to think there was no good anime anymore.  And you can only watch Macross Plus or Fatal Fury so many times before you want something new.  I'm only six episodes in to a 24 episode series but I think this show is exactly what I needed.

Them re-views

Here we go!

Action Comics #863 - Loved it.  Very satisfying conclusion to the Legion story.  Nothing world shattering, nothing that'll alter the course of the title for years upon years until Final Infinite Crisis of Seriously Infinite Doom is forced to altar events so Superman was sans cape.  Superman goes to the future, gets fucked, runs around, gets awesome, beats down assholes and looks awesome.

Angel #5 - I'm done.  Ya know, I only jumped on this series cause I thought it was a five part story.  Not only is it not but the next three issues are going to depart from the currently unfinished story to detail events immediately following LA becomes another layer of Hell.  It's a good enough title, there's some nice moments, but I just felt jerked around.  Picked up #5 at the competition cause Andy still hadn't gotten it in.  In fact, the competition already had #6.  Didn't bother with it.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer #13 - Drew Goddard is my God!  Seriously, last issue was awesome enough but this issue keeps with the theme of serious awesomeness.  Xander visits Dracula, becomes his bitch.  Again.  This shit had me smiling from ear to ear.

ClanDestine #3 - And lo, the story is driven ever forward.  Excellent art, solid writing, a revisit with the original Excalibur team...Man, I love Alan Davis.  He has a lot going on, I hope he has enough time to wrap it up.  Only two more issues left!

Countdown #4 - Crap.  Oh, oh, a reconstituted Earth #51, which was blown to smithereens earlier in the series, was featured the last two issues!  Oh, yeah, that makes sense!  Pain.  Horrible pain.  Please God, let it end.  Oh, and for no apparent reason that I can surmise, Black Mary Marvel is back.

Detective Comics #843 - While Paul Dini is writing shit on Countdown, his writing in Detective is absolute fuckwin!  Zatanna comes back for another cameo after having her shit ruined by the Joked a few issues back.  Penguin makes an appearance and the...fucking...little dummy guy, whatshisname...well, the chick with the evil gangster dummy comes back.  They shoot up a new bar and take Bruce Wayne hostage.  Awesome.  Prior to that is a simple, intimate moment between Zatanna and Bruce at the bar.  Zatanna, when she had her throat slit by the Joker, was tended to by Bruce afterwards while she recovered so what we see is this sweet moment of Zatanna seeing if she can possibly crack open Bruce's shell a tiny bit.  It made the book for me.  Why Paul Dini can write that in Detective and then hand us a steaming pile of shit with Countdown is beyond me.

Secret Invasion #1 - Honestly, I never originally intended to pick this book up.  I decided to because...well, why not?  I didn't expect a whole lot out of it actually.  In fact, it starts off fairly uneventfully, just the characters probing into the Skrull infiltration mystery while a Skrull ship crash lands in the Savage Land.  After the New and Mighty Avengers race towards it, then shit kicks into high gear.  Fucking Skrulls start their plans and we some serious shit go down.  The desctruction of SWORD's orbital platform.  The Baxter Building sucked into the Negative Zone.  Another Helicarrier going down (that's been happening a lot lately).  Tony Stark trapped in his armor while a virus causes it to malfunction around him violently.   Finally the surprise ending when Luke Cage pries open the Skrull spaceship.  Now, don't mind me if I call bullshit on the surprise ending, but I still thought the issue was a winner.  Once events started kicking into high gear, it was a pretty good read.  I'm still torn on whether or not I want to continue reading it or wait until the hardcover comes out, but I approved heartily.

Overall, a better week then I had anticipated.  Countdown is still proving to be a massive pile of fail, sadly, but Detective and Secret Invasion being as good as they were pretty much made my week.

Also, finally got that Mage book in the mail.  Yes, it was indeed the right edition.  Mail order can be tricky business, but Amazon clearly has their shit straight.  But lemme tell you it looks beautiful!  Looks like I'm going to have to start from the very beginning with Mage: The Hero Discovered before I start reading The Hero Defined again.

New Comics Wednesday

Action Comics #863
Angel #5
Buffy The Vampire Slayer #13
ClanDestine #3
Countdown to Final Crisis #4
Detective Comics #843
Secret Invasion #1

Yep.

An okay week.
I've only read three, but I'll save my awe and ire until I've read them all.


I would like to note right now Hard Radio is playing Icarus Witch. Icarus Witch is an interesting band. The song being played is called Nature of the Beast and sounds exactly like a rejected song from Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast. The singer sounds just like a young Bruce Dickinson. It's a good song, I mean, even thrown away Maiden rejects are better then 99% of the shit that's out there. But...something about it just bothers me. Maybe cause they're so much like Maiden but...not. I don't know, I jut can't put my finger on it. Still, worth a listen.

Hitchhiker's Guide Movie

Wonderful!

Very cute.  Very funny.  Haven't read the book yet but it's very evident that the movie pales by comparison.  Still, I liked it a great deal.

Knocked back the rest of that bottle of Il Bastardo (of which there was a great deal left) while I was watching it too.  That helped I think.  And I'll tell you what, after drinking all that I slept like a baby.  A baby!  Note to self, drink more.

But here's how crappy my viewing habits are.  The movie itself is 107 minutes long.  After loading the DVD, it started playing about 7:40.  I was done with it by 9:45.  Very hard not to get up in the middle and piddle about in the kitchen for a couple of minutes, take my time in the bathroom.....you can imagine how long it takes me to watch the director's cut of Return of the King.

But I digress.  Aside from the fact that only the one guy had an English accent (Mos Def didn't even try, did he?) I thought it was a winner.  The girl was good looking, Marvin was cool, the effects were cool, the monster designs were GREAT!  Monsters are all CGI these days, but they went with the big puffy costumes.  Love it.  What was it called, the Improbability Drive?  Oh, fucking hysterical!

Yeah, I can't wait to read the book now.  I was gonna read John Adams next, but I think maybe I'll read at least the first book of Hitchhiker's instead.

Sideways

Yeah, it was as dumb as I expected it to be.  An unfunny comedy with the odd funny moment stuck in.

None of the characters were sympathetic.  The moping author, the horn dog college friend and two females that don't get much by way of characterization (though one more then the other).  It has a happy ending when Giamatti's character finally gets off his ass and goes for the girl.  Otherwise it just sorta revels in the character's total douchebaggery.

It does excel in the one aspect it was meant for which was selling the California wine industry.  Yep, for that alone it deserves five stars.

Overall, I'd say it's about three stars.  It's well acted, the story is...okay.  The characters aren't massively shit upon though Thomas Hayden Church is a total dickwad.  I do want to lick Sandra Oh's stomach so long as she keeps a bag over her head.  And we really needed to see Virginia Madsen's bare breasts.  Hell yes.  For seven bucks it could be a lot worse.

Oh, and Il Bastardo?  Absolutely most definitaly the closest I've bought to a bum wine.  It's not....bad...per se.  But it's not really good either.