Thursday, March 29, 2007

President Clinton

I saw President Clinton by the Time Warner Center one week ago. He was shaking people's hands, but I was trying to "play it cool" and not go up to him. Instead, I tried to quickly snap some photos. I should have just gawked because these photos are crappy. In case you couldn't tell, he's the gray haired blur.


Tempted


I was in the store the other day and saw a big tub of cheese balls. It took all my willpower not to buy it. I can't resist their bright orange glow!

Monday, March 19, 2007

More Knicks

The Knicks are on the verge of making it into the NBA playoffs, with a 30-36 record. Their "improvement" this year has already gotten Isiah Thomas a contract extension. I have to wonder, however, can a fan be excited for the team making the playoffs if their record isn't so hot? They're not exactly a great team. They are incredibly inconsistent, thus their under .500 record. I am impressed by the fact that they lost Jamal Crawford and David Lee and continue to play well, but I can't help but think the only reason they're even thinking about playoffs is that their division and the conference are just not very good this year.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Questions... Part 2

Why is the GI Joe theme song in my head?

He'll fight for freedom, wherever there's trouble
GI Joe is there

It's GI Joe against Cobra the enemy, fighting to save the day
He never gives up he's always there
Fighting for freedom over land and air!

GI Joe (A real American hero)
Fighting to save the day
GI Joe (A real American hero)
GI Joe is there

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Questions...

Feeling philosophical today.

1) If you put a brain into a new body, would that be a brain transplant or a body transplant?

2) When Ben Franklin helped organize the United States Postal Service, do you think he knew he was creating a place that would be the source of untold misery? Have you ever been to a post office? There is no other place where 100% of the people are angry and miserable. From the customers to the people working, the whole joint is full of negative energy. It isn't specific to any one post office either. What is it about that place?

Monday, March 05, 2007

Comics Wrap-up

Lately there have been a few big comic book conventions, and a bunch of comic book related news. There's a few things that have been bugging me and I figured this was as good a time as any to talk about them.

First, we'll start with Marvel Comics, who just wrapped up their huge Civil War event. I've grown up following Marvel, and for the most part have been very happy with things. But lately I've been falling off the Marvel bandwagon, and I don't know exactly why. The first signs were when J. Michael Straczynski did a story in Amazing Spider-Man where it turned out that Peter Parker's late girlfriend Gwen Stacy had sex with Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, because of a moment of weakness. Around that time I had also started to become disillusioned with Brian Michael Bendis's writing as well, and stopped reading titles Ultimate Spider-Man. I found Avengers Disassembled somewhat ridiculous and never got interested in New Avengers, the best selling Marvel comic. That should have been another sign that my relationship with Marvel was going downhill.

I still continued on with the books that got me into comics in the first place, the X-Men family and Wolverine, followed a few other heroes such as Daredevil and Captain America, and kept with most of the Ultimate line (Ultimates, Ultimate FF and Ultimate X-Men).

The next phase of disappointment came with the House of M and Decimation events that followed. These events were supposed to have all sorts of lasting effects and implications but I haven't really noticed it in the storytelling. The only difference seems to be that the X-Men are under "house arrest" by Sentinels, yet still manage to find their ways out of the mansion to do things.

Now there's this Civil War business. The art was great. I've always liked Mark Millar's writing, but there's just not much of a story to the main Civil War book. I didn't read the associated books such as Frontline or any additional crossover titles. There were too many gaps in the story that just didn't make sense. From reading the main title alone, nobody would know that Captain Marvel had come back to life, or why Spider-Man wears his black costume during the epilogue or why Johnny and Susan Storm needed to be arrested once they left Tony Stark's group (after all, they were registered!). I appreciate that the book has changed the way the Marvel U will operate - there will be 50 super teams, one for each state, and every super hero will need to be trained and monitored by the US Government. Fine. But I'm not interested. One reason is that I've realized I don't care about the non X-Men heroes in the Marvel Universe. I couldn't even recognize half the people involved in the fighting in Civil War. When I see the Marvel solicitations for future books, I just don't care about most of the books. I don't know why that is.

The Ultimate universe has also gone south for me. Ultimate X-Men has floundered under Robert Kirkman, with stories that I just haven't enjoyed and seem inconsequential. So I've stopped getting that book. I stopped reading Ultimate FF once Mark Millar left. The Ultimates will conclude later this year, but I don't expect to be on board for volumes 3 or 4. The Ultimate universe has lost its simplicity and excitement and become as convoluted as the Marvel U.

Meanwhile in the land of X, the X-Men title with the "best" X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, comes out on the least regular basis. The other two X-titles are pretty good, but not amazing. Wolverine has two titles, and in one he's fighting Sabretooth for about 5 issues, and in the other it turns out he has a son with claws. Doesn't he already have offspring with claws named X-23? I'm not interested.

By the way, all the mutants except for 198 of them got de-powered. Not a single of member of the X-Men lost his or her powers in that event. How can an event be significant and not have any of the X-Men lose their powers? Also, I understand the need to decrease the number of mutants, but turning them into just 198 makes them totally irrelevant. Who cares now? It does make sense that the Marvel U would then focus on general super-powered beings since they now outnumber mutants.

Coming soon, more crossovers, with "World War Hulk" and a "huge X-Men event." The X-Men event might be good, but I'll be steering clear of the Hulk stuff.

So the bottom line with Marvel Comics, here's what I'm reading and here's what I've dropped in the last year.

Still Reading:
Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Runaways, Ultimates vol 2, Captain America

Dropped:
Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF, Daredevil

On the other side of the fence, I've been really enjoying DC Comics, at least, when they come out. Infinite Crisis was a good series, although the ending seemed a bit rushed with some sloppy art. They have been moving from event to event to event, which is a bit daunting. The biggest disappointment at DC has been their horrible shipping schedule. I picked up a bunch of DC titles over the past year, but some of them hardly come out.

The Superman family, Action Comics and Superman have both been plagued by delays. Superman had some nice art by Carlos Pacheco, but I just haven't gotten into the "alternate future" storyline that they started, and now that the book has been delayed, I've decided to stop getting it. Meanwhile, I've really enjoyed Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, but they've only produced three issues in the last year. With both series there are fill-in stories coming out but I'm just not interested in them as they seem irrelevant to the main stories.

The Batman books have also been delayed, with Grant Morrison taking a few months off, and Paul Dini also getting a breather. Again, I'm not interested in the fill-ins. Paul Dini is taking up the next big DC event as well, so I'd imagine there will be more delays.

Wonder Woman was the worst case of delays. Writer Allan Heinberg fell behind with his schedule and this monthly title has been completely off track, with 4 issues in the last 9-10 months.

Then there's any book that Jim Lee touches. This includes Wildcats and All-Star Batman and Robin. All-Star Batman and Robin #1 came out in July 2005. The last issue was issue 4! This was supposed to be a sort of answer to Ultimate Spider-Man, and it's been a total failure. That's before even discussing the strange story within. Meanwhile, Wildcats, which was supposed to be the re-launch of the Wildstorm line has had 6 months off between issues.

There are some good things being done at DC. 52 has been pretty good for more weeks than not, and Justice Society might be the best book available at all. Their next weekly book, Countdown, sounds pretty promising, although I'm a bit intimidated price wise by picking up another weekly. Justice League with Brad Meltzer has been pretty good, although it took 3 months for Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman to get up from a table. I'm a bit ticked off that there's another mini-event, "World War III" but if the story's good then it will bother me less.

So the state of DC is pretty good, but with way too many delays, and I'd prefer fewer crossovers. But the universe is more cohesive and I'm enjoying the characters a bit more.

Reading:
52, Detective Comics, Batman, Action Comics (w/Johns/Donner), Justice League of America, Justice Society of America, Ex-Machina

When it comes out:
Planetary, Wildcats, All-Star Batman and Robin, Authority v4, Heinberg's Wonder Woman

Dropped:
Superman/Batman

Started then dropped:
Superman