Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year

Hayden and Milo are dating. Not to be too judgmental but it seems kind of gross.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Two months ago...

It's been two months since I've posted here. That's probably the longest time between posts since this blog started some 3+ years ago. The reason? Lots of travel. I still have a few MLB updates from the summer to put up, as well as a recent basketball game I went to.

This weekend, I've got the Jets / Chiefs game to attend. Many thanks to NBC for saving me the freezing cold and moving this game out of Sunday Night Football. The two teams have seven wins total and at least I can watch them without shivering too much.

A few things on my mind:

Baseball steroids - In my mind, I have just moved on from this. We'll never know who actually did steroids, and who didn't, and so for me, I just have stopped worrying about it. Yes, it is frustrating to think that there are cheaters out there, but I have been rooting for uniforms not people for a while, and I'm still entertained by the sport. Not to mention that in all the sports people are trying to find ways around the rules. What makes it bad for baseball is two things. First, the establishment of owners didn't do anything about the steroids problem, and second, that baseball is all about discussing the past and tradition, so having cheaters in the past is a bit of a problem for the game - moreso than in other sports. Speaking of steroids, has anyone seen a commercial for American Gladiators recently?

NFL - I still don't know exactly what went wrong with the Jets this year. I'd like to blame it all on poor O-line play, but that can't be the only thing. I guess some bad luck also played a role. I just hope that Chad Pennington (drafted by Bill Parcells) and Jonathan Vilma (University of Miami) don't end up on the Dolphins. By the way, I think if any team will beat New England, it would be the Jags, in a really snowy game. Unfortunately, the Jags need to get past the Steelers first.

President - Well isn't this a turnaround? Now Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama are the sudden frontrunners in Iowa. The more I hear about this Iowa caucus process, the more I am stunned at the way it has become such a historic event. It's totally different than a usual primary. If you have watched Meet the Press over the last few weeks, you would have seen that Ron Paul is crazy and that Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani will say anything to get elected. On the Republican side, I think the only reasonable candidate at this point is John McCain (surging in NH), and even he has had some flip flops recently (Bob Jones University). On the Democratic side, I like the idea of a Obama / Biden ticket, although it might be too Northern. John Edwards is playing the role of "angry liberal" and it's really annoying. He said something to the effect of, the only way to get change in Washington is to demand it. This guy is just trying too hard to anger the other side. I still get amused at the way that Hillary Clinton is painted as "too liberal" by conservatives and "too conservative" by liberals. It's a shame she's such a polarizing figure. I guess people just don't like "bossy women."

Finally - some brief thoughts on the comics I'm reading:

Marvel

Captain America - This is one of the best books out there. Captain America isn't even in the comic anymore, yet it still entertains! Bucky is alive and it's not too strange. Nice art, good espionage-style stories.

X-Men - I'll lump in all the X-Men books together and just say that the Messiah Complex is one of the best stories told in a while. It has a direction, lots of characters and action, and is self-contained. House of M really screwed up the X-Men, and the titles seem to finally be recovering. Here's hoping that the titles that come out after this crossover remain at high quality.

Astonishing X-Men - This is Joss Whedon's book, and it's been late a lot. It's pretty good but it would be better if it came out more routinely. Warren Ellis takes this over next spring and I have no idea what to X-pect (heh).

Runaways - Joss Whedon took over this book from Brian K Vaughan and it just has not been the same. Whedon's run ends in about two issues, and then I'll probably stop getting it.

Wolverine - Jeph Loeb wrote one of the worst stories I have ever read in comics earlier this year in Wolverine. At that point, I stopped getting Wolverine: Origins because I could not handle getting two crummy Wolverine books. Now Mark Guggenheim is writing a sort of strange story about how (via a sort of magical mechanism) Wolverine's healing factor works. It's kind of strange and directed at questions I never really had about the technicalities of the healing factor.

Spider-Man - I am NOT reading this title. I find the editorial crusade against the wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson fascinating and depressing. Is it that hard to write good Spider-Man stories because he's married? I can't believe it is. On Friday we'll find out if Peter Parker's marriage is ending in the last part of One More Day. If it ends, I probably will never buy another Spider-Man comic.

X-Force - Coming soon after the Messiah Complex ends is this new title, X-Force. I will probably try it out, but let's first see how the Messiah Complex ends.

Fantastic Four - Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch are going to be working on Fantastic Four starting in February. Sounds great. On the other hand, remember when the "Ultimate" universe was supposed to get "special" treatment? I guess when the creators of "The Ultimates" start working on mainstream Marvel U, that's no longer true.

DC

Countdown to Final Crisis - This book is so strange. It is hard to follow, yet comes out every week. There have been a few good issues here and there, but the quality is poor overall and the stories just aren't that inspiring.

Batman and the Outsiders - Another enigma. It's only 3 issues in, but they changed the creative team last minute, and now it feels like they are trying to rearrange the pieces a bit. I will stick with it for a few issues and see what happens.

All Star Batman - Yet another strange book. I guess I chose to review all the DC oddities at the beginning. I love Jim Lee's art, and it's enough to get me to buy just about anything. Frank Miller's story started out as weird but has changed into strangely funny. Each issue, you can't help but think, how will he defile yet another DC super-hero?

Batman / Detective Comics - Grant Morrison and Paul Dini are writing the two flagship Batman books, which was supposed to make them great. Unfortunately, the quality overall has been somewhat lacking. The recent crossover, Resurrection of Ras al Ghul was a bust as it was boring, forced and too long. With Detective, even if you take the fill-in issues out of consideration, the story quality has also declined.

Action Comics - Richard Donner hasn't really been the co-writer of this title lately. The Bizarro storyline was not that good, in my opinion, and the book has had a ton of fill-in issues over the year. But the Legion of Super-Heroes story that just started seems to be really good. Writer Geoff Johns said that 2008 for Superman would be like 2007 for Green Lantern. If that's true, then this will be a great year for Superman comics.

All Star Superman - Grant Morrison's re-vamp of the Superman concept. This is quite good. I'm not sure if this ends at issue 12 or if it will keep going. Despite the quality of this title, on the whole, the All-Star line has to be considered a failure. After being announced in 2005, roughly 18 comics in the line have been released. That seems very limited. I wonder if any of the All-Star earths are in the multiverse.

Green Lantern - I had never purchased a Green Lantern comic on a regular basis until now. This title is amazing. The Sinestro Corps war was a great comic story, not to mention great crossover. They have me hooked for the next year and beyond. I really like how Geoff Johns has incorporated in nearly all of his books the "things to come" type panels. They really make for great teasers.

Wonder Woman - Until Allan Heinberg's brief stint, I had never purchased Wonder Woman on a regular basis. With Gail Simone, a popular writer, coming on board, I thought I would give it a shot. We're two issues in, and I still have this on a trial basis.

Booster Gold - Very entertaining, sort of "Quantum Leap" through the history of DC Comics. I'm not sure where it will go eventually, but right now the humor and single issue stories are making this spin-off of 52 one of my favorites.

Justice Society of America - Another great book. The introduction of Kingdom Come Superman to the JSA seems a bit strange, but I think the details will all play out in the Final Crisis.

Justice League of America - Brad Meltzer had a very character-driven approach to this book. New writer Dwayne McDuffie seems to have more of an action-oriented approach. Frankly, I haven't been too impressed. The most recent issue brought back the concept of Tangent DC for reasons known only to DC editorial (Final Crisis?) and was horrible. I hope this gets better.

Ex-Machina - A solid offering from Brian K Vaughan.

Planetary, WildCATs - Where are these books? Grant Morrison's Authority has been discontinued after 2 issues. The Authority are totally irrelevant now. At least there's still the old stuff. I hope WildCATs will eventually be back with Jim Lee at the helm. Planetary only has one more issue left!!

In sum:
I'm reading 19 titles that come out on a regular basis. I REALLY like ten of them right now (Captain America, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Action Comics, All Star Superman, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, Justice Society, Ex-Machina). I get All Star Batman just for the art. There is significant room for improvement in Batman, Detective Comics, Justice League of America and Wolverine. I'm just running out the string with Runaways and Countdown to Final Crisis. The jury's out on two of them: Batman and the Outsiders and Wonder Woman. Finally, I'm looking forward to Fantastic Four.