Superman is not a US Citizen anymore

Fox News seems to be getting a lot of mileage out of this backup story from Action Comics #900, where Superman renounces his US Citizenship. I want to know why they aren't asking the real questions, like, "When can we see Superman's long form birth certificate?" and "Isn't Superman an illegal alien?"

The Death of Spider-Man

Marvel teased a storyline called "The Death of Spider-Man" for their upcoming books. Turns out the story is in their alternate universe, the Ultimate Universe. Hard to get too excited about this - after all, "anything can happen" in the Ultimate Universe and nearly anything does - even Wolverine is dead in that universe! But since anything can happen, it feels irrelevant and I don't think anyone is really going to care.

Comic Update - April 2010

Along with an update of TV / movies / video games I've been playing, here's a brief comic update.

I've been re-reading Final Crisis, a controversial DC mini-series. Besides the fact that it's somewhat impenetrable because it's complicated, one of the other big problems with the book is it's almost impossible to know what order to read the issues in. Yes, there's a series Final Crisis 1-7 but there's also 2 critical issues, "Superman Beyond 1-2." Batman issues 682-683 detail the events for Batman between Final Crisis #2, and his reappearance in Final Crisis #7. Other crossovers seem to fit but not quite exactly. There are about 12 main issues to this series and DC would have done themselves a favor to just call them Final Crisis 1-12 and leave it that way. It's a jumble.

Blackest Night, the current DC mega-crossover finished this past week and I'm waiting for my DCBS order to come in this week. I'm eagerly awaiting the end of this series. Overall, this has been a great story, although in some ways the scope is more limited than I had originally expected. Ivan Reis is an amazing artist. The only disappointment here is that there are critical issues to the story that run in Green Lantern, and again, it's not intuitive when they occur in relation to the Blackest Night issues. Sometimes the Green Lantern issue occurs before the Blackest Night issue of the same month. Other times, it's afterwards.

Grant Morrison's Batman and Robin is great fun. This is "good" Grant Morrison (vs "bad" that wrote Final Crisis). I didn't think I'd like Dick Grayson as Batman. Now I'm disappointed Bruce Wayne is coming back.

Geoff Johns usually does no wrong in my mind, but The Flash: Rebirth was a little bit of a misfire for me. Ethan Van Sciver is also usually a great artist but I felt some of his issues towards the end left me a little disappointed. I re-read the issues all together, and the whole piece just didn't flow well for me.

I also re-read Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday recently. This is a superb comic. It's too bad there were so many delays along its publication. In re-reading it, I felt that there was not only a great sci-fi element and genre parody, but there is also a really sentimental story buried in there as well. Excellent.

The X-Men universe is supposed to have a "major shakeup" with its storyline coming up called Second Coming. Not sure if this will "change everything," but it probably won't. The Messiah War crossover between X-Force and Cable was fairly entertaining but ultimately didn't do anything. Hopefully this next crossover will be a little better. Fraction is finding his pacing on Uncanny X-Men and Greg Land's photo-realistic style hasn't been bothering me as much as usual.

Over my last vacation, I re-read Y: The Last Man. This was an excellent 60 issue run, start to finish. There's really no complaints here. This book would make for a great introductory story for anyone new to comics. It also shows comics are more than super-heroes. Originally I read the final volume so far after reading some of the original elements, but after reading everything together, it's just amazing. An all-time great story.

At a sale a while ago, I picked up the first two trade paperbacks of Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Jansen. Classic stuff with DD, Bullseye, Elektra and the Kingpin. You see Miller's style evolve and the stories still hold up well today. I'm excited to pick up volume 3.

If you like standalone stories, Wolverine: Old Man Logan is an excellent one. Mark Millar's style gets old sometimes, but Steve McNiven's artwork is beautiful. It's a great Wolverine tragedy in a dystopian future. My only complaint would be that the last issue is a little gory. McNiven's work is terrific.

Finally, Captain America has been Reborn and the monthly series has resumed. Overall, I'm expecting a little more from this book. It's steady but not as exciting as it used to be. Maybe we've just been spoiled.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Batman: The Brave and the Bold is a great new series on Cartoon Network. It's a bit of the complete opposite of the Batman: The Original Series, creating some really light moments that work well without seeming too silly. The most recent episode, "The Super-Batman of Planet X" was full of inside jokes. Not only does it parallel Superman in obvious ways (Batman of Zur En Arrh works at a newspaper, Batman of earth gains superpowers similar to Superman, he has a weakness to a rock), there are lots of inside jokes as well. Batman's arch nemesis on this planet is "Rohtul" or "Luthor" spelled backwards. His newspaper girlfriend has a name that's an anagram of "Vicky Vale." The voices are Kevin Conroy (Batman of Batman: TAS), Dana Delaney (Lois Lane in the Superman series) and Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor of that series). It's really a clever set-up. Earlier this year was another great episode, the "Mayhem of the Music Meister" an all musical episode. Not quite as good as Dr. Horrible or the Buffy musical episode but pretty good, and with Neil Patrick Harris as the villain, Music Meister. This show is worth catching, even for adults.

Wolverine: Weapon X #11

I haven't read this issue yet but the colorist did a horrible job on the American flag on Deathlok's chest.

Comic Talk

It's been a little while since I discussed comics in this space, so here's some brief thoughts on what I've been reading...

Now that I'm in Miami, I get my books through the Discount Comic Book Service, which is awesome. I can't recommend it enough. I've also been listening to a bunch of comic podcasts: Comic Geek Speak, The Uncanny X-Cast, House to Astonish, Wordballoon, Pipeline and iFanboy.

DC Comics
Blackest Night
DC's centerpiece event right now. I'm reading the main book, Green Lantern, GL Corps, and a few of the mini series (Batman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman). The main book is excellent. It's got great art and very good story. Unfortunately I don't like the way Green Lantern weaves into the main story - the Green Lantern comic book series issues are a little disjointed and probably won't read well after the fact. Doug Mahnke in the Green Lantern book is doing good work. GL Corps is not essential reading, like I thought it would be. It's still not bad. The tie-ins are generally optional. Mildly enjoyable but completely optional. I'm excited to see how the mini-series ends.

Batman and Robin
This is a pleasant surprise. I think by now, most people know the identities of the Batman and Robin in the book, and I'm enjoying it. It's better when Quietly is drawing. The story seems to be written by "Good" Grant Morrison as opposed to "Confusing" Grant Morrison.

Flash: Rebirth
Very underwhelming. It looks like issue 6 is due in Feb, but the ending has been spoiled in Blackest Night and other books. Same thing happened with Legion of 3 Worlds last year. Even the art is just not what I expected from Van Sciver.

Adventure Comics
I'm glad to be exposed to Francis Manapaul. This book looks great. Johns is doing some nice writing here. Unfortunately, when that team leaves the book, I will too.

Ex-Machina
This title, by Brian K Vaughan and Tony Harris is hitting its final stride. It's very good. Not as good as Y: The Last Man, but stil very good.

Starman Omnibus
Another Tony Harris book - this was a huge title in the 90's. I missed it. I can see why people like it but I'm only on volume 2 and I don't think it's awesome yet.

Marvel Comics

Uncanny X-Men
Very good. Some people think Matt Fraction has a little bit of disjointed storytelling but it doesn't bother me. Alternating between the Dodsons and Greg Land seems to work. I like the Dodsons much more on the art but I saw some previews of the upcoming Land issue and the pencils actually look pretty good - not as stiff as usual. There is a little lightheartedness to this story that makes it my favorite X-title right now.

X-Men Legacy
I'm not sure where this is going. There was a time when I thought Mike Carey was the best of the X-writers. Now, I'm not so sure. I think this book needs to focus a little more on the X-Men in general.

Wolverine: Weapon X
This is Jason Aaron's title for Wolverine, so far it's just a fun Wolverine book. We haven't had that for a while. Old Man Logan was a good story but it is an alternate future story without much more to do. This title is good ol' Wolverine fun.

Captain America / Reborn
Captain America has been great. Unfortunately I think the Reborn story would have done a little better within the main Captain America book, but no matter, it's still pretty good. They suffered a scheduling hiccup when the issue after Reborn #6 came out before it. Hitch's artwork looks great, but the story doesn't seem as epic as expected from a big "event." I think Captain America and Green Lantern are the two best super hero books I read right now from the big 2.

Astonishing X-Men
Phil Jimenez takes over for Simone Bianchi on art which is welcome but Warren Ellis' story is completely out of context from the other books and because it is detached, it's hard to get into for me.

Dark Wolverine
I don't really like this book. The only reason I'm getting it is to have a continuous run on Wolverine. I'm not sure what will happen after Siege to this title.

X-Force / Cable Messiah War tpb
Because it was a great deal on DCBS, I got this paperback. The art is good, especially Mike Choi, but the story seems to meander a little bit. There are some nice character moments, and the X-Force book in general is pretty good, but in the end, the characters end up in the same place they started in this story.

Image Comics
Image United
Kind of a fascinating book where each of the original Image founders draws their own characters, so each panel looks like a jam piece. It makes for some cool art. It definitely makes me remember the 90's in comics, but with all the pros and cons. Good art (pro) and bad story (con). Also, this book was recently delayed. Ah, just like the old days!

Thoughts on upcoming events:
X-Men Second Coming
An X-Men crossover that promises to resolve the issue of the baby, Hope. I'm curious to see where this goes. I thought the last full X-Men Crossover, Messiah Complex was quite good.

Siege
The original Avengers are back, which should be great. Not sure why Marvel cancelled all their Avengers books this April but I'm sure there will be several titles to replace them. I hope that in the post-Dark Reign Marvel U that there will be room for Cap and Bucky, at least for a little while. Bucky has developed into a great character and is an example of how to do the unexpected resurrection correctly (as opposed to Jason Todd over at DC).

Brightest Day
A biweekly 26 issue series following Blackest Night. I just hope this is more like 52 than Countdown to Final Crisis. The good news is Geoff Johns is involved.

War of the Supermen
You know, I read New Krypton in the Superman books, and it was entertaining. But then Superman left the main titles, Geoff Johns left too, and there were just too many books to read. I hope that this is a little different and a good Superman story.

Bruce Wayne Returns
Just as I had not expected Bucky to make a good protagonist in Captain America, I also had not expected to like Dick Grayson as Batman. But I do now, so the question is maybe Bruce Wayne is back too soon? Also will this be written by "JLA / New X-Men" Grant Morrison or "Seven Soldiers / Final Crisis" Grant Morrison?

Disney Buys Marvel

I just hope they keep making comics...

Sexism in Comics

Check out this discussion about a sexist remark made in a recent comic - was it really necessary to say that Green Lantern was involved in a three-some?

From Comics Should Be Good at CBR

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Leaked

As has been widely reported, a preliminary version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been leaked to the Internet. Fox is understandably concerned that this will cut into their box office; there is precedence for this as Ang Lee's Hulk suffered after a copy was leaked and bad buzz surrounded it.

But from what I can tell, Fox has a feeling that this movie is not going to be very good. Besides the fact that the advertisements and trailers don't look so hot, here are some other predictors I've seen. First, they're advertising this film a lot. I think the only commercial I've seen recently is for Wolverine, and they sponsored the entire Yankees game last night. It sponsored the entire episode of something else I was watching the other day as well (Heroes? Family Guy?). So either they're targeting really well (young men) or advertising a ton.

Besides heavy marketing as a predictor that the studio knows it's not going to be very good, from what I've seen, there are a ton of comic book related characters appearing in this film. This seems to be another poor prognostic indicator - that is, the quality of the film is inversely proportional to the number of costumed characters in it. I guess marketing pressures force filmmakers to put more and more costumed characters into each subsequent release of a movie like this? It nearly always affects the story for the worse.

I'm curious to see where Fox / Marvel is going with the whole X-Men Origins concept. Will there be future "X-Men Origins" films? A quick google search reveals a possible "X-Men Origins: Magneto." In my opinion, origin stories are generally the most boring of films in the comic book genre, so I find it curious that they would want to launch a film franchise focusing specifically on origins. Another question is of source material. Are there even any other X-Men related characters that are interesting enough to make a film about?

Addendum: If this film is successful (and I'm sure it will win it's opening weekend box office), will there be a sequel? X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2? That's an unwieldy title!

Iron Man: Iron Popper

It's like Snood only with Iron Man. Wow, did I ever kill tons of hours at work with Snood! Very fun.

Iron Popper

Via The Beat

Another Season of Smallville?

Smallville has been extended for its ninth season. I think it's time to let this one rest, CW Network!

Watchmen: The Movie

I just re-read the comic series, Watchmen, and am becoming increasingly excited about the movie. The trailers look pretty darn good and there's are some fairly interesting marketing and other media surrounding the movie. First, there's the New Frontiersman website (based on a conservative magazine in the movie). A nice little piece of viral marketing there. Second, there's the "Tales of the Black Freighter" animated DVD that is supposed to accompany the movie and be the story of the pirate comics featured in the books. That DVD is also supposed to include some excerpts or reenactments of "Under the Hood" (a book featured within Watchmen). Finally there's the Watchmen motion comics, which will also be released on DVD. I've watched the first installment of this series and am pretty impressed with how close to the book it is.

My main concerns with the film - 1) It's a hard book to turn into a film, 2) Zak Snyder doesn't have my complete faith. I thought "300" was okay, and there were some parts that seemed a little strange. As it turned out, the "strange" parts were not in Frank Miller's original book, they were added in by Snyder. That goes to concern #3 - the rumors that the ending has been modified. Hopefully not too much. I realize that many books to movies have parts changed, excised and modified, but I'm hoping that Watchmen is more "Sin City" and "Harry Potter" than most other book adaptations.

Obama-Mania

Or is it Obamania?

Whichever it is, I got my Inauguration ticket today. I'm pretty excited to be there but I'm in "Silver Area" which looks REALLY far away from the ceremony. Maybe it's closer than it seems. (It is not for sale)


Today at the comic store there was a mob because the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man featured a brief story with Barack Obama. Now, this is the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man I've purchased since the "One More Day" disaster and I'm a bit ashamed I did. I only bought it out of pure speculation. But I never thought this kind of appearance would generate such excitement. It was pretty surprising how many people wanted this issue. I don't think the same thing would have happened had George W Bush appeared in a comic. I guess this just goes to show how excited folks are for Obama. Strangely enough, Barack Obama has already appeared in Savage Dragon, and also his own comic book, but neither one generated the same excitement as Spider-Man has.

A Joss Whedon Day...

A rare day off today, and the pile of comics I planned on reading includes Astonishing X-Men and the most recent story from Runaways. From Netflix, I've got Buffy, season 3 disc 4. All my entertainment plans revolve around ideas of Joss Whedon?

Question of the Day

Topic: Message board flame wars

Which message board fanboy war is most entertaining? PS3 vs XBOX 360 or Marvel vs DC?

Two quick movie reviews

Justice League: The New Frontier
"This isn't Ultimate Avengers"
It's worth checking out this direct-to-video animated feature based on the graphic novel, "DC The New Frontier." The voice acting is pretty decent, and the animation style departs from the house style that Warner Bros had been using for a while. This story tops the previously released "Death of Superman" feature and makes me think that they could do some fun adaptations of stories like Dark Knight Returns or Batman: Year One if they so desired. It's not as deep as the book, but the feature is quite good. One thing that confuses me - why are animated features constantly 70 minutes long? This movie is definitely targeted towards older audiences, so it's not lack of attention span. Is it budget? Does it really cost that much more to put in 10-20 more minutes of story and animation?


Ghost Rider
"As bad as expected"

Supernatural and horror movies generally aren't up my alley. Since Ghost Rider is based on a comic book, I figured I would give it a try. Mark Steven Johnson, of Daredevil fame, wrote and directed this one. I remember the Ghost Rider comic, and thinking he looked cool, but didn't have much interest beyond that. In the case of this movie, the effects look great, but that's about all there is to the movie. The concept is not well executed. There's strange logic: why does the devil have a Ghost Rider who has the power to make evil-doers suffer? Why can't Ghost Rider go out in the sunlight? You can see attempts to make this a sort of Jekyll and Hyde or vampire type movie, but it just doesn't work. Add to it a weak script full of cliche shots and humor, and bad performances from Eva Mendes and Nicholas Cage, and it's a mediocre film at best. As a side note, I have begun to find Nicholas Cage really annoying. Not sure why.

Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer Mini Review

I don't know why having Netflix draws me to rent movies that I know are crap, but it does. My morbid curiosity drew me to renting Fantastic Four 2, despite the fact that I thought Fantastic Four was pretty horrible. The movie did not disappoint. It's similar to the first movie - bad story, poor acting, but great production value. In general, these films have great effects, but not much else. There are many ridiculous things I could point out about this film, but I will limit it to just one: the Fantasti-car is a Dodge!

That one made laugh out loud. Seriously, the Fantasti-car is a Dodge!

Geek Break: Comics Coming Up in May '08

Let me take a moment to geek out and briefly mention some comics coming up in May '08. You can find the complete solicitations for Marvel in May '08 here, and for DC here.

Solicitations are the little previews each company gives to retailers so they can figure out what to order in the upcoming months. Based on the little snippets of text that these provide, I will make some broad judgments about the books that have yet to even come out. It may not be fair, but it's fun.

Marvel Comics

First, it looks like Marvel is really going all-out in May. They have been doing very well sales-wise against their Distinguished Competition, and May looks like they really are going to try and stick it to DC yet again. Just look at some of these major #1 releases:

Avengers / Invaders #1 (New mini-series with Alex Ross and Jim Krueger of the highly popular Earth X, Justice)
King Size Hulk #1 (Jeph Loeb, Art Adams, Frank Cho)
Marvel 1985 #1 (Mark Millar)

I once read somewhere that the editors can basically predict how well a book will sell if they know the creators and characters in the book. These three books above will almost certainly perform well - probably in the 100K+ mark, which is pretty rare these days. Add that to Marvel's already near 100K+ books:

Secret Invasion #2 (Brian Bendis, Lenil Yu - not yet 100K but probably will be)
The Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #3 of 5 (Stephen King inspired book)
Fantastic Four #557 (Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch)
Thor
New Avengers
Amazing Spider-Man

Marvel will probably have 8-10 of the top 10 books for the month at this rate.

Now for some brief book by book comments:

Ultimate line - Ultimate FF #54, Ultimate Iron Man 2 #5, Ultimate Spider-Man #122, Ultimate X-Men #94. Ultimate X-Men has a new writer, Aron Coleite from Heroes. Fans of Ultimate X-Men are hoping that he got a lot of this work done during the WGA strike and there won't be any delays. I used to buy all the Ultimate line titles, but now I buy none of them. There's just no reason to. The continuity is just as confusing, and the books are no longer fresh or inspiring. The creators are not particularly big names and it just seems stale. Word is, there is a re-boot on the way, but it's hard for me to care.

Amazing Spider-Man #558-#560 - Out of protest from One More Day, I don't buy this book. The more I think about that, it's silly, but I'll stick to my guns for now. Anyway, from what I've heard even though the creative teams sound great, it hasn't been groundbreaking and so it's just as well, considering it comes out three times each month now.

Avengers/Invaders #1 - While I am sure this Alex Ross / Jim Krueger miniseries will be great, I am going to pass on it, and if word is that it is good, I will catch it later. Frankly, golden age characters don't really interest me.

Alan Davis Covers - Black Panther #37, Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, New Exiles #6, Clandestine #4. Alan Davis wrote and drew interiors for Clandestine, but he's randomly doing covers for the other books. That's great news, but kind of strange that they're all popping up this month?

Captain America #38 - I'm getting it, who cares what the solicitation says. It's been really interesting.

Fantastic Four #557 - Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch continue their 16 issue story arc on Fantastic Four. I read the first issue of this, and it was nice, but it wasn't as awe-inspiring as their work on Ultimates. Maybe I have Millar fatigue? Or maybe I've been here before, as Millar wrote Ultimate Fantastic Four. Something about this doesn't feel fresh and new, which is how I usually feel when reading a Millar title. In my opinion, having "Ultimate" creators working in mainstream Marvel U really takes away from the Ultimate Marvel U. Especially in Fantastic Four, where from what I can tell, the only difference between the two is that in mainstream Marvel, Reed and Sue are married with children. Otherwise, they're essentially the same characters.

Invincible Iron Man #1 - Iron Man, a character with a movie coming out, gets a second series for the first time. I don't read the current book, which in December was #62 on the charts at about 38K. That doesn't strike me as a particularly good sales figure, and is the character really that popular? On the other hand, Thor is a top 5 selling book these days, so I guess anything can happen.

Marvel 1985 #1 - A Mark Millar project that he has been hyping up a lot. I think I'll wait for the trade. Same goes for Kick-Ass #4, his creator owned, Icon series with John Romita Jr.

Secret Invasion #2 - The BIG EVENT of Marvel's 2008 summer. Apparently there are Skrulls impersonating all sorts of heroes throughout the Marvel U. It's been teased at for a while, and building up for a long time. For some reason, I just can't get interested. Leinil Yu is doing the art, and I like his work. I like plots that are intricate and have been building up for a while as well. Surprise twists are good too, but I just can't get excited about this at all. I'll read summaries about this one on the Inter-Web. There are the requisite tie-ins and spin-offs for this as well (Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four, New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Captain Britain and MI: 13).

Thor #9 - I'll say it again - Since it came out, Thor has been selling over 100K a month, more than any of the X-Men titles in that period. I can't believe it.

X-Men Titles - I'll only put the ones I'm interested in. There are a lot of X-books these days.

Uncanny X-Men #498 - still the flagship. It's been decent but I can't help thinking they're waiting for #500 to come up.

X-Men Legacy #211, #212 - I don't know what to make of this title, formerly known as X-Men. I'd have to think that changing the name of the book to X-Men Legacy marginalizes it and will actually be bad for sales.

Cable #3 - I'm curious about this since it directly relates to the big recent crossover, Messiah CompleX. But not interested enough to start picking this up.

X-Force #4, Wolverine #65: Both these books have stories where Wolverine goes after the villains who got away in Messiah CompleX. While I don't really care too much about Wolverine appearing in too many books, something funny happened here. After the crossover, Cyclops and Wolverine had two conversations. In one, he said, "Go after Mystique" (a story in Wolverine). In the other, he said, "Go after the Purifiers" (a story in X-Force). Finally, Wolverine can be seen traveling around Europe with Nightcrawler and Colossus, lamenting the end of the Messiah CompleX story. I'm really not that nit-picky about this kind of continuity but it seems a little too much.

Wolverine: Origins #25 - Supposedly this should be the halfway point of this title. I stopped buying it a while back because I didn't enjoy it. But I like the character of Wolverine so much I can't help but wonder what happens in this book anyway.

Logan #3 - Brian K Vaughan of Y: The Last Man concludes his tale of Logan. I'll wait for the trade.

X-Men Divided We Stand #2 - an anthology of stories about random X-Men scattered about. I'll probably get it but I'm not too enthusiastic.

Punisher #57 - Garth Ennis wraps up his MAX run on the Punisher. I haven't gotten this recently but I'm sure it's still good fun.

DC Comics
I was really enjoying DC Comics until the recent mess that has been Countdown. Suddenly, there's too much confusing stuff going on. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the multiverse. I get a ton of stuff by Geoff Johns, but I'm starting to fear fatigue of his material (like I did of Brian Bendis). I don't think it will happen, but I'm still afraid.

DC Universe #0 - The issue following Countdown to Final Crisis #1, by Johns and Morrison with a bunch of good artists. It's 50 cents! Of course I'm getting it!

Final Crisis #1 - The big event for DC Comics this summer by Grant Morrison. I'm really looking forward to this, and really hoping it makes DC a bit more streamlined and orderly. Like most Grant Morrison stories, I'm guessing it will start off as amazing and interesting, yet somehow at the end, I'll be 50% really confused and 50% amazed.

Tangent: Superman's Reign #3 - Tangent comics was a throwaway concept in the '90s that got revived with the recent multi-verse. I can't imagine people being excited about this enough to buy a twelve issue series!

DC / Wildstorm: Dreamwar #2 - Ten years ago, this book would have really interested me. Now, I am ambivalent. The Wildstorm Universe has really taken a beating in those ten years, and once again, I can't get myself excited about this.

Batman and the Outsiders #7 - I've gotten a few issues of this series, but I don't find it that entertaining. I am going to give it a little longer rope because of all the editorial changes that went on before it started.

Booster Gold #9 - A great book for fanboys that was sort of like the DCU version of Quantum Leap. Then this past week an issue came out and it made my head hurt. I like the idea of reviving Blue Beetle to join Booster as "the greatest heroes nobody ever knows" as they secretly fix time behind the scenes, but I don't know if Beetle will be around forever. Geoff Johns says he's leaving with issue #11. I hope that whoever writes the series beyond this will not take it to hokey territory, because time travel can become a monster if you don't try to control it.

Batman #677 - Grant Morrison is writing Batman and people say they love it. I hardly understand it. I have a theory that when people in the arts see a movie or read a book they don't understand, they immediately say how amazing it is. I think that theory applies to recent issues of this book. Really nice Alex Ross covers for this book and...

Superman #676 - I thought James Robinson was taking this book over, but I guess that will wait until later in the year.

Detective Comics #844 - Paul Dini has been writing this series with stories that are self-contained. It's been above average for the most part, but nothing to get too excited about. I'm on the verge of dropping it...

All-Star Superman #11 - A great book by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly. This is the penultimate issue. While it's been entertaining, this All-Star line has certainly been disappointing for DC. I believe they are going to put this title away once these creators are done.

Action Comics #865 - Action Comics has really been a fun run when Geoff Johns is writing it. Yes, Adam Kubert delayed the title with Richard Donner but the book looked nice. I did not enjoy Johns and Eric Powell on the Bizarro story, but this Legion story with Gary Frank has been great. Johns has been hinting that 2008, Superman's 70th anniversary, will be a huge year. Let's hope so!

Superman / Batman #48 - Once a flagship title for DC, this has fallen into obscurity. I've heard good things about this recent arc, but not good enough for me to sample it. This title used to be a good way to get a Superman and Batman fix all in one, but since I buy Superman's solo book, Batman's solo book and Justice League, this seems irrelevant.

Green Lantern #31 - I had never bought Green Lantern regularly until the end of last year. Geoff Johns is doing a great job with this, and Ivan Reis is a very impressive artist. I even went out and got the hardcovers for the issues I didn't have. It's on the upswing as well, with a huge event planned for 2009.

Green Lantern Corps #24 - While I don't get this, it seems like this title is intimately connected with the main Green Lantern book and laying the groundwork for the "big event" in 2009. I must confess; I either skim it at the stores or read the summaries online.

Justice League of America #21 - I really liked Justice League Unlimited, the animated show that Dwayne McDuffie worked on, but I don't enjoy his Justice League. He has stated publicly that editorial is affecting his ability to write, and I wonder if that is why I have not enjoyed this lately.

Justice Society of America #16 - The hints have been dropping that Kingdom Come and this storyline will be integrated. It's been a little slow to start, but I think the criticism online is a bit much. I am still on board and wondering where all this is headed. It's the 5th book this month by Geoff Johns that I'll be picking up (DCU #0, Booster Gold, Action Comics and Green Lantern).

Wonder Woman #20 - Gail Simone, a fan favorite just finished her first arc on this book. It was nice, but I didn't find it amazing. I think it comes down to the fact that I just don't find Wonder Woman that interesting.

Y: The Last Man Vol 10 - The final trade paperback for Y: The Last Man is coming out in JUNE! UGH! I thought these were May solicits? I am so afraid of the ending of this story being spoiled for me. In fact, the finale came out a few weeks ago and I am amazed that it hasn't been spoiled yet. June 18 cannot arrive soon enough. This is my most anticipated book for 2008 so far.

Ok, I think my fingers are bleeding from all the typing.

NFL, NBA, Comics

Well, looks like the Patriots will be the champs again. Yes, it looks like a done deal. Many thanks to both the Colts and the Chargers.

Frankly, the most exciting football game left in the year is the NFC Championship Game next week. There's just no way that the Patriots will lose in the next two weeks. Based on storylines, I prefer a Chargers / Giants (Philip Rivers vs Eli Manning) Super Bowl because of the QB draft histories. Obviously if Favre reaches the Super Bowl, it's a big story as well. Two weeks of whether or not how much the Patriots are the best team ever is going to make me want to vomit.

Briefly - the Jags vs Pats - I thought the Jags had a chance at the half. They had played a decent game in the first half but were by no means perfect. On the other side, the Pats were statistically perfect and missed a FG, and the game was tied. Usually when teams have the Pats close / tied at the half, the Patriots have had a sloppy half while the other team has played perfectly. In this game, I thought it was a bit of the opposite, and the Jags were tied, so it gave me hope. But the moment they faltered and had to kick a FG, it was clear the game was over. Amusing graphic of the night? Putting "10-3 as a starter" under David Gerrard's name. Second most amusing? "QB rating: 3rd overall in NFL." They never put "16-0" as a starter, "1st overall" or "MVP" under Brady's name.

I missed the Seattle vs Green Bay game but wished I had watched some. I love NFL in the snow. I also slept through Indianapolis and San Diego. I'm glad I did.

I'm happy for the Giants, who have now won 9 road games in a row. There is still no way that they can beat the Patriots. I've always liked Tom Coughlin as a coach, so it's particularly nice to see him get to another championship game.

In a day of upsets, the biggest upset wasn't even in the NFL! I had to read the score about five times - New York Knicks 89, Detroit 65! I thought for sure the teams were mixed up in the scores on that one. No, not true.

Good recap on Spider-Man's recent goings on by this column. So the marriage never happened but Peter and MJ dated for a while and were close friends. None of the previous stories that have happened since the wedding ever happened with them married but they still happened. Harry Osborn is alive somehow. On the one hand, comics makes changes like this all the time (see the DC Universe for re-writing origin stories over and over) but on the other, it's completely maddening. So what happened? What didn't? So confusing. Count me out.

Extended Edition DVD's

I've been noticing that a number of the comic book movies that have come out lately have had "new" releases on DVD that act as "extended" versions. I think the trend started with "X-Men 1.5" which incorporated deleted scenes into the original cut. Most recently there was also a "Spider-Man 2.1" cut released as well. I can understand that these films are popular and that the movie studios are trying to maximize their money from the DVD's, but films like Daredevil, Ghost Rider and even Fantastic Four are also having extended cuts produced. This is pretty frustrating, as these movies were not even that good, and it seems like the movie studios are specifically targeting the comic fans for "double dipping" with DVD's. I wish that the movie studios could just produce a high quality, DVD that contained a ton of features definitively, but I think considering how many times the Star Wars saga has been re-released, I will just have to dream.