Carmen's Journal

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Oh, hey, movies.
I've just noticed that the Crystal City area is in the middle of running an outdoor superhero film festival, every Monday night until the end of September. X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Batman upcoming. (Yes, all the Batman movies. Yes, even that one.) Definitely want to go see the first two X-Men movies, at least. (The third, um...maybe? I mean, the effects are pretty?) Anyone else interested?

So this weekend I went out with

smittywing to see Wolverine, which I thought was very enjoyable in a popcorn & eyecandy sort of way (and most of the actors were very good), and also now I really, really want Cyclops fic, because he was kind of awesome. (Okay, I always want Cyclops fic, but right now I really want to know what happened after the end of the movie.) Then, after dinner, I dragged her back to my apartment to watch episodes of the '90s X-Men cartoon (I have shiny new DVDs, because I watched it as a kid and really couldn't resist now that they've finally come out). Some of our reactions:

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Beating plowshares into swords
So I've been rewatching the TMNT cartoon all week, and it's a lot of fun, really, but I think I need to ratchet my suspension of disbelief up a little higher. I'm sitting here watching these emotional scenes where Leo's all depressed because he got beat up and lost his swords, and Raphael's going, well, hey, I bet you'd feel better if we made new ones, bro, and they do and it is all very triumphant and brotherly. Or it would be if I could turn off the part of my brain going, yeah, you're going to make a really good sword--two really good swords--out of scrap metal that has been rusting in a barn for who knows how long. With the extensive sword-smithing skills that you presumably learned living in a sewer. Where I am totally sure you had a forge to practice with! It's not the most improbable thing in TMNT by a long way, even discounting the bipedal ninja turtle thing, but for some reason I really notice this one. I mean, the damn things even shine when he's done with them. Maybe it's an extra ninja power.

(Also I am kind of amused at the idea of the exchanges this would probably lead to later on.
RANDOM WARRIOR: My family has carried this sword for generations on generations, since it was first forged by the hand of the most famous of swordmakers, and in all that time it has never known dishonor or defeat. Face my steel, turtle!
LEONARDO: Well, I made my sword myself a couple of months ago. Out of farming equipment. So you might be a little embarrassed when I beat you with it. Fair warning.)

And of course this just raises the question of where the weapons came from in the first place. Which might have been handled somewhere in canon, but I can't think of it offhand, and okay, bo staffs and nunchuks are presumably homemakable if you can lay hands on the raw materials and some tools, but sai? Katanas? (Okay, I hear they're not actually katanas, but that's what Leo always calls them and whatever they actually are is probably not any easier to make.) Do they actually have a forge down there? Does Splinter have some sort of discreet understanding with a weapons shop? Or just an Ebay account? "My son, I present you with these swords. Bear them proudly and care for them well--I had to win a most vicious bidding war to get them."

...okay, yeah, that's probably not it. Probably.

Dear Chuck...
( Will you marry me? )

In other news, I actually turned Heroes off in the middle of a scene that had Ando in it. I think this probably means we are finally broken up for good.

Current Music: Judy Collins--Born to the Breed

Last night's Bones was not bad, particularly by the standards of season four--I didn't find the setup real plausible, but a lot of the character interaction was good--I even liked Sweets--and this week's intern was very sweet. (I assume he is Annoying Girl's replacement in the rotation. Good call.) And hey, a musical montage! I'd forgotten how sniffly those things can make me.

But the main thing I'm thinking is that Angela and Bones really ought to get together. I haven't shipped them since first season, but after their conversation this ep I'm feeling the urge again.

"Doctor, it is not logical to dislike pizza."
Okay, so I've been moderately into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles since the CGI movie came out a couple of years ago and I discovered the second cartoon and got sucked in. (Yes, there's another cartoon, and it's excellent, at least for the first four seasons.) So recently I was poking around Ebay in that area, looking at the action figures, and, well. You know how action figure lines go; you can't expect the customers to keep buying the same figures over and over again, and if you don't have a huge cast or they don't change costumes often enough, you're liable to come up with some pretty weird variations just to keep selling the things. And the original TMNT cartoon ran for ten years and most of the main cast didn't even wear clothes, plus it was already pretty silly, so the action figure line? Is totally insane. Apparently "ninja" was not a satisfying enough career choice, because the turtles are out there getting themselves all kinds of jobs. Cavalry soldier , rapper, stage magician, Green Beret, hockey player, caveturtle, dwarf, triceratops, Dracula, anything. I admit to boggling a little at Beachcomber Michaelangelo, who apparently spits for justice. If you say so, Mikey. Or Jim Lee's Raphael, which is the '90s in purest distilled form. And at the other end of the spectrum, the turtles as troll dolls. That's really kind of adorable.

The best, though, is definitely this: Mutant turtle Star Trek! They're all hysterical (there's something particularly bizarro about Leo with Kirk's hair), but the one I really love is Science Officer Donatello. He has pointy Vulcan ears! And a Pon Farr Battle Bo! No, I swear, that's what it says. Were the people doing the writeup not totally clear what that meant? Or am I supposed to be envisioning torrid turtle mating rituals? With Don and Leo fighting to the death over Venus de Milo? I am just not sure!

More fandoms should have this kind of canon crossover crack.

Also, while there's a lot to enjoy about the Bronze Tiger episode of Brave and the Bold (GIANT BAT!!) I think I get the most actual glee from the teaser. Why is Batman teaming up with Jonah Hex in the old West? Because, that's why! Explanations are for the weak! Also, "Bat-Hombre" gives me so much joy I can't tell you; somebody definitely got into the Haney issues that day.

(Yes, I am parked on the couch spending my Sunday with Cartoon Network.)

"When have you ever known me to do anything rash or irresponsible?"
"I keep a list. It's alphabetized."

"Hey, anytime you want to see my terminal velocity, just ask."
"What? That doesn't make any--even your threats have bad science!"

"So we're holding a stethoscope up to a volcano to see if it has indigestion. Is it always this exciting?"

"Your fancy technology is a hose?"
"No...two hoses!"

"If it helps, I think you won the pointless macho contest."

"See, that would be from my half of the DNA. Your dad's chromosomes are the ones that just sit there and yell 'we're not gonna reach it!'"

"I am also sorry."
"For what?"
"I don't know, I just thought that's what you wanted me to say."

Yeah, I could definitely get attached to the Secret Saturdays. I mean, a functional family of Adventure Zoologists chasing monsters around the globe, with banter! And flaming swords! What's not to love? Plus Will Friedle voicing a cocky redhead with a jetpack; Doyle is really total fangirl-bait...

( This week's Batman: Brave and the Bold was all kinds of awesome. )

Also, the season (series?) finale of TMNT made me happy. It wasn't a stellar episode, but I'm a sap and I love big fluffy wedding stories that bring back everyone ever (Usagi! With lines, even!)--and hey, after twenty years Casey and April more than deserved their Big Day. There were some cute character moments ("I'm the maid of honor!" is vintage Mikey) and now I really want backstory on how Casey gave the Ninja Turtle Talk to his mom...

Current Music: The Bangles--Mixed Messages

Don't cross the streams
So, this evening I'm heading into a shopping center with the aim of purchasing a Watchmen T-shirt, because it's getting to be about that time and I can always do with another comics T-shirt. (Although it's kind of hard to top the one the fabulous

caia_comica just sent me, declaring "Mark Waid Is Evil." Truth in advertising! Well, okay, promotional thing, but still.)

Anyway, so I'm going towards the entrance when I see a kid dressed up as a giant smiley-face.

Me: *blink* ...I know the marketing is getting a little weird, but surely that isn't actually--
Kid: Girl Scout cookies! Girl Scout cookies!
Me: ...that did not help! Images, bad images!

I think this may not have been quite the ideal time for that particular sales tactic. Now all I can think about is Rorschach choking drug dealers with Samoas.

( Leverage is AWESOME. )

Also, this week's NCIS cracked me up no end (peacocks! campfires! wrong phone!) except for the parts where it was really intensely sweet and...surprisingly dark. Oh, Tony.

So I haven't posted in...yeah, it's been a while. So, a random entry of shiny things in my life:

* My shiny shiny new laptop, which this entry would certainly not be an excuse to play with. No. I've never owned a laptop before, and I am enthusiastically charmed (and also happy to have, you know, a decently working computer again....) *cuddles laptop*

* Discovering that Emma Bull's old bands Cats Laughing and the Flash Girls have all of their music either available for free download or for sale. And I finally get to hear "Signal to Noise" after fifteen years! (Or whenever it was I read War for the Oaks. Which possibly I need to go reread right now. Or maybe the Bordertown books instead. Decisions, decisions...)

* Minimates. My comic book shop has started selling them (Cloak and Dagger! So many of Marvel's sins are forgiven for getting those into my fangirl hands) and thus encouraged I may have gone slightly overboard on their tiny cuteness. I amuse myself by swapping all their accessories around; movie-Mary Jane as a member of the Nova Corps is surreal but satisfying.

* Leverage. I came in a little late, but now that I've caught up I can say definitively that this is so cool. A team of ultra-competent con artists! Stealing and cheating to defend the needy (and enjoying themselves thoroughly in the process). Schemes and counter-schemes! Super-special comlinks to facilitate the schemes! Teamwork! Emotional issues! And a really excellent geek; I love everyone on the show, but I love Hardison just that much more, especially when he's talking about downloading Doctor Who or being intensely sweet in Parker's general direction. Also, next week looks awesome. *bounces*

Pretty pictures!
Came dragging home from a distinctly long day, and found a package from

odditycollector sitting on my doorstep, which turned out to be a belated birthday gift. I was smiling before I'd even got to the gift, accompanied as it was by redialogued comic pages in which Supergirl and Brainiac 5 argued over whether it would be appropriate to use time travel to get the package to me on time. ("Then it's agreed? We're not going to alter the time-stream on your whims?" "No, just your whims, apparently." "I'm a twelfth-level intellect. I don't have whims." HEE!)

And then the present itself turned out to be a drawing of the pre-Crisis Brainy and Supergirl together! The icon is slightly misleading--I couldn't honestly say I have one true pairing with Brainy--but this, this is the pairing I've loved nearly since I started in Legion fandom, and here they are, just for me! *hearts* I was sufficiently inspired to go over to my mother's place and get her scanner working, so I could share:
( Brainy and Kara )

Oh, they're so cute! Thanks so much, Karen!

Also, while I'm at it, a scan of the Brainy sketch I got from Jeff Moy at Comicon:
( Brainy at work )

( Highlights of the Baltimore Comicon )

So: lots of fun, spent time with other fans, and bought entirely too much stuff. Cool.

Tomorrow: Eastern Media Con! In related news, I'm never going to get any sleep ever again...

Latest Shiny
I have acquired my copy of Teenagers From The Future, a book of essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes. I haven't gotten very far into it, but three quotes from the introduction and the first essay:

"You need to be seriously warped in the brain to be a Legion freak. It is a labyrinthine tangle of narratives, timelines, creators, and characters, all immediately at odds with each other, sometimes aggressively so. It is the Gordian knot of comic books--the simplest way through it is to slice the thing in two and be done."

"To me, the Legion represents the most perfect Silver Age comic book. It is sweet and surreal and brimming, absolutely brimming, with hope. A wonderful club of super-powered teenagers, do-gooding around a cheesy and weird future, their powers swooping from the ridiculous to the sublime and back again."

"If it troubles you to wonder why the Legion devotes valuable space in its clubhouse to a giant vending machine topped by a camera that looks like a giant eye, a device which turns bars of valuable metal into pendants bearing the operator's likeness--something of no possible use apart from this story and never seen or mentioned before or since...this is the Silver Age of comics, that's why."

It is all so true.

Also, the superhero presidential elections continue apace.
Batman and Iron Man having won the primaries (and no, I didn't vote for either of them; ah well), apparently it's time for a public debate between the two of them this Saturday. *giggles helplessly* This I have to see. There's already a group movie outing on the schedule, but this should fit in fine, it's not even that far away... (Then again, I kind of worry about spending an hour in a group of Batman fans before I've seen the movie. Decisions, decisions...)

Today's shiny thing...
So around the time that I was starting to get worried it would never actually come out, the complete black-and-white collection of Scott McCloud's Zot! landed on my doorstep. With a thump, presumably, because 575 pages! 575 pages of the best ridiculously idealistic hero ever and his terrifically 3D girlfriend and de-evolutionary cults and crazy techno-artist supervillains and the line between hope and cynicism and...oh, man I have glee. Zot! just rocks, and the book has a whole bunch of issue commentary from McCloud, to boot. *coos at book* Now if they'd reprint the color issues I would be an even happier woman...but 575 pages will probably keep me busy for a bit!

(And yes, the ending to Terry's story has been maintained. You know what I'm talking about if you've read it. :)

Vote super!
I love my comics shop. They're on the subway line, they have shelves and shelves of graphic novels, and every so often they do something like this: Marvel and DC presidential primaries on Free Comic Books Day. Totally my kind of political event. *g* Sadly you have to come to the store to vote, but if you live in the DC area I encourage you to come by--free comics and the chance to be heard about which superhero ought to be president!

My random thoughts on the nominees:

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