Quick hits....

I am behind in both getting and reading the books, and that will be rectified this weekend.

But I did get some of the event books so here are some thoughts;

-OK I did not see that Turpin was actually going to become Darkseid in FINAL CRISIS. A nice surprise using a pretty good supporting character.
-I feel a little like Jim and I just want SECRET INVASION to end. I also sort of understand Rusty's long help belief that issue long fight issues can really suck. It wasn't all that bad, but should have ended somewhat earlier.
-The Lady Bulleseye run in DAREDEVIL has been.....OK. I am really not getting why there are rehashing the secret ID again with Matt. He is also becoming a little too angsty about his wife. I mean, he should feel bad about the situation, but he has to move on.
-I gotta tell you, I did not like the NIGHTWING part of R.I.P. It never even felt like it was a part of the overall story. The OUTSIDERS did a better part of conveying what the DCU was seeing of this. Now to hear DiDio tell it, the next big arc ("the battle for the cowl") is becoming not who inherits it, but who will actually wear it. Hell, I'll throw my hat in the ring for it if that's the case.
-On a related Batman note, November will see the premiere of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD on Cartoon Network. From what I've seen and heard, I am excited for it. It is steering away from the dark and brooding Bats we've had and is looks to have more of a silver age feel, but using modern characters such as Blue Beetle. Keep your eyes and ears open and give it a chance. After all, it seems that cartoons involving superheroes are going the way of the dinosaur.

That's it for now. I promise that as soon as I immerse myself in the books, I'll come up for air and barf up an opinion.

Oh, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Everyone be safe and watch out for the kiddies!

Tumbleweeds on the internet!?!?!

Yep, that's what I see blowing across my screen as I look at my page here.

I know that this is primarily my fault. I haven't been keeping up with things as much as I should have. Things have been in a big flux around here and I am simply spinning too many plates to keep track of everything. If it's any consolation (probably not) other things have been sort of pushed off to the side as well. Nothing major like the wife or hygiene, but a bunch of the small stuff that adds up to your life. I don't expect you to either understand or maybe even care, just know that I am thinking about you guys and gals while I'm out slaying the dragon. I've been doing that more than anything the last couple of weeks or so, and hopefully things will have calmed down that I can get back into a flow. It better, or else things may go sideways.

A long time ago, I promised my wife that work would never again take over my life so completely that I neglect her. That happened once or twice before and it almost cost me the most important thing in my life. After all, she is the reason I do all this crap. The last couple of weeks have been brutal on both of us. I'm not home much, and when I am, I have been pretty much a cypher. The feeling I had yesterday when I walked out of work knowing that I wasn't going to be seeing it for at least a few days was one of being sprung from jail. Finally I could devote some time and effort to things and people I love.

So, now that I've purged myself, I hope you understand why I haven't been here lately. I also hope that you will continue to come back from time to time and check in on me. I will be back more often and with hopefully better and happier posts to throw at you. I know that comics are on the horizon and will make it's way here very soon.

Thanks for bearing with me.

Some Thoughts on the Recent Comics

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but I have had a few moments to read some comics and I thought I would throw my 2 cents out there and see what you guys think.

-The craze over ALL STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN should have been how bad the book was. Its was all over the place and at this point I am having trouble deciphering what the hell the story is. They should have placed black boxes over the entire book.

-Conversely, I liked the ending of ALL STAR SUPERMAN. Sure it took forever to get all of it out, and not alot of people are getting what the last page means (leave me a reply if you want my opinion), but it told a story from beginning to end and will look decent when they wrap it all in trades.

-Back on a sort of negative rant, I have been massively disappointed by the latest arc in BUFFY. I was never a big Fray fan (sorry, Shawn) and this whole thing feels like.....I don't know, a stunt? A reason to bring Fray back? But there has been no chemistry, no feeling like "I want to go back and find trades to enjoy her", nothing. I have been as big a supporter and defender of master Joss since the book came out, but sorry, he's on his own here. I'll still get it, I await the next arc with much anticipation. They need to get back to the overall arc.

-I have trouble believing that the whole FINAL CRISIS blame can be laid at the feet of J.G. Jones. Not sure if they are even doing that, but that seemed to be the point of bringing in Carlos Pacheco. He was supposed to be helping, but man they are taking forever to get back to the main story.

-This might be a minority feeling, but my feeling on the last issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA was good, but could have been better. At least we had some resolutions. For the time being, it looks like Steve will replace Bucky in the Marvel axiom "dead means dead". Brubaker has done a terrific job for the most part with this book and I look forward to seeing if he can sustain Bucky's role in the MCU, or will he succumb to Kyle Rayner's disease and fall into the background.

-Is anyone else getting burned out on this "Embrace change" campaign from Marvel? Just end this and get on with the repercussions. Of which, I have a feeling that there will be only a few and probably neither any big or long lasting ones.

-Had a blast at the Baltimore Comic Con last weekend. Some highlights? Getting to see the old crew from the conversations show. I miss them and it was great to talk face to face and catch up.
A big highlight for me was meeting Scott Kurtz from PvP. Yes, I've met him before. Several times in fact. But this year he recognized me and greeted me like and old friend. It was terrific to talk about non-comics stuff with him and he is an awesome guy. Also, spending a few minutes with Herb Trimpe while he was working with Matthew on his HULK sketch was very nice. He is a nice guy and had great things to say about the show, which made me feel great that some people have a good opinion of our little show. I say that like I run the damn thing, but Marc Nathan and crew have done a fabulous job and I look forward to next year.

That's about it for now. Thanks for stopping by while your porn or bootleg movie downloads. Come back soon!