Carmen's Journal

cewill8@yahoo.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:49:12 GMT

So, V.

I actually came to V completely backwards; I was too young to watch the miniseries when it came out, so I was introduced to it via a copy of the A. C. Crispin novelization I picked up somewhere. It was the book I loved and reread (it's sitting next to me now); I didn't get to see the actual series until years later, and I never did see the ongoing. (I still have a handful of comics around here somewhere, though; maybe now's the time to dig them out.) Nonetheless, my memories are fond, even if they have a slightly different source, so I checked out the remake.

I think the big problem is the one giandujakiss lays out here; there's no buildup. Where the original series had a slow, paranoid progression of what the Visitors were doing and how people reacted--in the book, it's a hundred pages before the resistance even gets started--here it's just a short-cut through "people love the Visitors for no apparent reason! But some people are worried about them, also for no apparent reason! Oh noes, they are evil lizards!" Admittedly as a remake some of the mystery has already been lost--we already know the Visitors are evil lizards--but the protagonists didn't need to be clued in that fast. I mean, it's an ongoing series; they should have more time to be setting this up. Hell, they had a big new thing--that the Visitors are already on earth--and they've spilled that in the first episode too.

Other than that, it was okay, but just okay; I didn't feel any strong spark. I'll give it a few more episodes to impress me, although being up against NCIS isn't helping its case.

Minor comments:

* I'm not claiming the original series as any paragon of subtlety, but we were three minutes in when the Visitors' spaceships made a crucifix fall down. I'm thinking that may possibly be some kind of record for symbolism overload.

* I hadn't been paying enough attention to know that Alan Tudyk was going to be in this, and I was happy to see him--and the reveal completely blindsided me. I'm kind of hoping he'll show up again soon, because he does really good psycho.

* Evil aliens promoting universal health care. Yeah, I kind of wasn't laughing.

* Okay, wait, the FBI agent is told that the aliens are evil and here to take over the world, and she rolls her eyes and is about to walk out because she isn't seeing any proof. But wait! Someone shows up with...some pictures of people they claim are aliens! Well, that's obviously different, then. Really, did I miss something there?

Completely random post

cewill8@yahoo.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:33:13 GMT

Heather Dale's The Trial of Lancelot is a beautiful song and I love it, but after listening to it too many times it starts to sound like this:

NARRATOR: So Lancelot and Guinevere are in a whole lot of trouble. And here to help with the sticky question of what to do with them, Arthur's knights.
LANCELOT: *proudly* My crime was love!
ME: Honey, that isn't helping.
KAY: Look, the king's laws are the king's laws. Doesn't matter who you are: you break 'em, you bought it.
LANCELOT: I wish to establish that I love Guinevere!
GAWAIN: Okay, not that sleeping with the king's wife is a good thing, but considering the sixty-zillion times he's done good for us, we could maybe cut him a break? Like, not cutting his head off?
LANCELOT: I did it all for Guinevere! Because I love her!
TRISTAN: Love is awesome, but it makes no damn sense and can drive you a little crazy. So I kind of sympathize here, is all I'm saying.
LANCELOT: Did I mention? Love! Guinevere!
GALAHAD: Oh my god, my dad had sex! Icky, sinful sex! I am so embarrassed.
ME: Kid, you have issues.
LANCELOT: Yeah, I totally had sex with her. Because I love her!
ARTHUR: *deeply upset* I hate the entire world. But mostly I hate you and Guinevere. And I really am going to have to kill you both, aren't I?
LANCELOT: I die for love!
ME: ...at this point I'm tempted to say you have it coming.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:17:08 GMT

This is ridiculously belated. In my defense I've been suffering from both con plague and computer problems, and also trying to get a paper finished. But I should post something about the Baltimore Comicon, so here it is:

* I showed up at the first day of the con wearing my "Mark Waid Is Evil" t-shirt. This garnered several responses, among them: "Oh, I love that shirt!", "Well, I wouldn't say evil...", "Oh, hey, the Evil One was just over there!", and "Is he an ex-boyfriend of yours?" Yeah. Guess which one of these was at the train station before I got to the con? :)

* Original Ninja Turtles comics! In really surprising quantity, too, for an '80s indy B&W comic (a really popular one, granted, but still). By the end of the con I had nearly all the ones I was interested in (well, I'm still missing a fair chunk of the City At War storyline but you can't have everything). I even picked up an issue I'd already found in trade, just to have the color wraparound cover. Because, admit it, that's a cover worth owning. I really ought to do some posts about TMNT, especially what with the franchise having changed hands between the time of the con and now.

*I didn't spend much time with other Internet people, though I showed up at dinner briefly and I did wander around for a bit with likeadeuce making fun of action figures. (Well, if they're going to make an "Amok Time" Spock and Kirk set, they really must expect it.) Sorry, people I didn't talk to; I hope to do better some other time.

* I only went to two panels. One was "Comics in the '70s," which, well, there was a general problem with the panels, which was that they were being held in screened-off areas of the main convention area. So there wasn't any soundproofing to speak of (including from the other panel area, which meant that every so often you got these random bursts of applause from the other side), the sound system was pretty useless, and there wasn't as much space as there might have been. Given all that, it was okay; half-a-dozen prominent writers and artists from the period talked about their experiences getting into comics and what it was like working back then. But it was all very difficult to hear, and they didn't talk about the actual comics as much as I would have liked. I had a much better time at the second panel, featuring...

* Stan Sakai. For those of you unfamiliar with the name, he's the writer and illustrator of Usagi Yojimbo, a long-running comic about a masterless warrior named Miyamoto Usagi in 17th century Japan...in which all of the characters are anthropomorphic animals. It's a great comic, with a very likable protagonist, a huge cast, and stories ranging from the ridiculous to the epic to the heartbreaking. I'd gotten Sakai to sign one of my UY trades the day before, and he was really nice and actually did me a little partial sketch of Usagi in the book. So I was really looking forward to the panel, and it went well, partly because there were sufficiently few people there that we could all sit close enough to hear. It was mostly Q&A, and he talked about things like what it was like to work in comics, why a rabbit samurai (actually no one asked that but he explained reflexively anyway), and why the story's Big Bad is human, which apparently stemmed from a discarded idea that UY would be part of a bigger story stretching into the Middle Ages involving both humans and animals and explaining their coexistence. He mentioned that there'd been various discussions of movie options, none of which had gone through for various reasons, such as the one that essentially went "We love your rabbit samurai in ancient Japan! We want to make a movie about him as a human private investigator in Los Angeles!" On the other end of the spectrum he said he was still sorry that the offer from the Jim Henson Company hadn't worked out; I think pretty much the entire panel uttered a sigh of regret along with him. The other entertaining thing about the panel was that Sakai kept sketching quick illustrations as he talked, and the first time he did this a hand went up enquiring if he was keeping that... He wasn't, so for the rest of the panel people kept darting up to the front to snatch up the sketches as they were discarded. I didn't take one, but I did take a quick picture of the sketch representing his favorite story, in which our intrepid hero is carried off by a kite. (It's actually a very well-researched story...which is not to say that it's serious necessarily.)

* I also had a good time chatting with Carla Speed McNeill of Finder, who is very nice, even when by her own admission she's starting to turn into a zombie. (In an, um, purely metaphorical fashion.) I showed up on day one and I bought one of her trades and we chatted about authors who vanish off the face of the earth and the books you wish they'd written (which turned out to be pretty appropriate to the trade), and then I went home, read the book, and came back the next day to buy another one. Did I mention I really like Finder? Because I do.

* Best costuming moment: seeing a little boy about eight years old in a terrific Impulse costume, complete with big shoes and a shock of messy brown hair. Apparently he knew who he was supposed to be, because when people asked for pictures he would get into a dramatic running pose. (For the sake of his parents, I hope he wasn't too much into character; having to corral Impulse at a comics convention sounds a little alarming.)

* I found a trade (which I'd had no idea even existed) collecting some of Gail Simone's You'll All Be Sorry columns. It's missing some of my favorites (like the Daredevil/Bullseye romance piece or the downright vicious "tribute" to Silver Age Clark/Lois, but there's still plenty of funny, plus a lengthy introduction, a couple of new pieces by Simone, and a whole bunch of new "Condensed Comic Classics" by the original authors. My personal favorite bit is from "New Titans by Marv Wolfman":

RAVEN: I sense pain. I always sense pain. There are four billion people in the world so of course someone is going to be in pain. Why could not my powers be sensing, I do not know, chocolate?

* Easily the best action figure find was the Marvel Select Marvel Girl, who is not only awfully pretty but comes with half of the gate to Xavier's School, complete with little brass plate. (The other half is with a Rachel figure I am not especially interested in, but honestly even half the gate still makes my inner mutant fangirl pretty happy.) I also bought a movie Cyclops, because the two that I already had were just not enough! In my defense, though, this one was in civvies, which I think may make it unique among Scott figures; I really couldn't resist. I should take a picture of my Summers-Grey collection at some point; by now it would be kind of impressive.

* My heartfelt appreciation to the nice lady from GE Collectibles who not only let me look through her boxes after the con was technically over--and score some of those Messner-Loebs WW issues I'd been chasing after the whole weekend--but actually went to get a price guide so I could see which issues of Warlord had Mike Grell art. (I love Grell art. Earlier I even bought an issue I knew perfectly well he'd neither drawn nor written because I liked his cover for it so much. Okay, yeah, I'm a sucker for pretty pictures.)

* The most harrowing part of the whole thing turned out to be getting home, when "mechanical difficulties" stranded me in the Baltimore train station for a couple of hours. Fortunately I had lots of reading material...

cewill8@yahoo.com — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:58:36 GMT

Dear Bones:

I sincerely apologize for my dark suspicions that this was going to be a painfully embarrassing comedy episode about a) those funny Amish people or b) wacky misunderstandings as our heroes attempt to interact with those funny Amish people. Admittedly it's not like you haven't given me cause for suspicion, and the trailer didn't help, but instead you delivered a mostly serious and genuinely moving episode that treated everyone involved sympathetically. I don't know if you got it right, because what I know about the Amish you could write on a postcard, but you at least seemed to be making an effort. And you kept focus on the victim and his loved ones through the whole episode, all the way to that heartbreaking close. I was honestly worried last season that you'd forgotten how to write your murder victims as real people who we should care about (and you used to be really good at that) and I am so happy to be wrong. (Also I'm sniffling, but that just means you did it right.) Even the subplot with Cam and her adopted daughter, while overly sitcom-y, kept everyone in character and had some genuine laugh-out-loud moments, like Bones' reaction to Cam's book. And you didn't spend any of the episode hammering us with tortured UST. (I don't object to the UST existing, mind you; this show runs on the stuff. But it's generally been a lower-key version than explicit "will-they-or-won't-they??" teasing, and the first episode had me worried they were going to spend the whole season doing that. Now it looks more like they're just going to ease back to the level of "it is pretty obvious that we are in love, but we don't really seem to have noticed." At least until sweeps.)

In short: oh, show, keep it up. I am liking you a whole lot better this season.

That time

cewill8@yahoo.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:32:38 GMT

I just realized the Baltimore Comic-Con is only two weeks away. I'm looking forward to it; they have an impressive list of guest creators (including some guy named Claremont, which makes my inner thirteen-year-old bounce in her seat), and I'm pretty sure I'll come home with all manner of useless plastic figures. (They are taking over my apartment. Someday I will come home and find that they've staged a revolt.) So, anybody else going to be there?

cewill8@yahoo.com — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 20:27:38 GMT

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a pretty nice time. I took off work (ruthlessly leaving my coworkers to the mercy of the new timecard system) and had a successful bowling outing with my mother and stepfather, by which I mean I beat them (in the first game, but we don't have to discuss the second). I also got a couple of calls and some nice presents, including an Arthurian murder mystery I've been wanting to read for a while now.

Plus, quite unexpectedly, I found myself a pirate sword. For being plastic and (very) cheap, it's surprisingly pretty (engravings all down the blade! real fabric strips on the hilt!) and I've been hugely enjoying brandishing it at imaginary enemies. I'd only vaguely started to think about Halloween costumes, but this may be a sign that I should go find myself a three-corner hat and a gold earring. I can always work out the details of being Jay Garrick next year...

cewill8@yahoo.com — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:54:39 GMT

So the very first thing that happens in Green Lantern: First Flight is Hal Jordan being inappropriate with Carol Ferris in a workplace setting. Some things will never change, apparently.

The story's...okay. The plot's coherent, the animation's quite nice and filled with all kinds of aliens and spacescapes and expansive scenery, and there's plenty of action, including a huge, chaotic chase scene through the middle of a spaceport. But it's pretty shallow, characterization-wise, and I found Hal in particular something of a cipher, which is problematic since he's our lead. He doesn't do anything terribly un-Hal-like, except for a couple of odd clownish moments, but I never felt very clear on what he was thinking when he did it. It doesn't help that the whole thing is set in his first few days with the Corps, during which time he gets to know maybe three people to speak to, so there's not a lot of emotional connection there to work with.

The person who does get characterization and emotional focus is Sinestro, who really kind of steals the show. Victor Garber does great voice work for the character, who comes off as convincingly charismatic, ruthless, and pretty damn scary in his determination to bring order to the universe if he has to drown it in blood. Several reviews have pointed out that GL:FF is a cop show at its heart, and Sinestro is the cop gone bad because the goddamn rules won't let him do his job and clean up the scum for good; they're not wrong. Of course, this setting allows him rather more in the way of options than just roaming the city at night with a gun...

Then again, if he was a cop you'd like to think he'd at least get a psychological evaluation. Maybe Hal doesn't tell anybody about the informant Sinestro almost tortures to death, but then he actually does kill a criminal in interrogation, and the Guardians' response is basically "we strongly disapprove. Don't do it again. But we're not actually going to do anything about it." And then after that he shouts at a large crowd of Green Lanterns for doing rescue work because everybody, including crowds of innocent civilians, is expendable rather than let the criminal they're pursuing get away. And admittedly said criminal is a huge threat, but...really, Guardians? (And other GLs, for that matter.) That didn't tip you off at all that there was a problem there? The Guardians are played as well-intentioned--foolish, fairly helpless, and in some cases prejudiced, but well-intentioned--but to be honest Hal might want to think twice about joining the Corps if this is the kind of behavior they let slide.

Other stuff:

Hal gets a full-on anime transformation sequence when he puts on the ring for the first time. Glowy lights and spinning in the air and a giant GL insignia in the background. It's actually not a bad sequence, even if it starts some part of my brain wanting to call him "Pretty Sailor Green Lantern."

I know the Guardians are prejudiced against humans, and we're meant to find them condescending and a bit obnoxious when they start lecturing Hal on the importance of the Green Lantern Corps in a tone that suggests they can't be expected to admit him into it. That said, I cannot think that Hal interrupting them to cheerily reminisce about his policeman uncle letting Hal ride in his squad car when he was a kid helped the situation any. WTH, Hal? Of all the characterizations of Hal Jordan I've seen, "ditz" is a new one. (If I thought he'd picked up on the condescension and was doing it deliberately to annoy them, I could possibly see it, but there's no indication of that.)

Okay, I don't know whether the coy, Cajun-accented lady of the night, straight out of central casting, breaks my brain because she's an orange-skinned vaguely-reptilian alien, or because she's flirting with Sinestro (and Sinestro in full-on "I will have order if it kills you" mode, too). Seriously, she's a half-step from calling him "cher"; I don't think I would have dared, myself. (And given what he does to her at that point, she probably shouldn't have, either.)

I am not a stickler about changes to the source material in adaptations, but I'm going to have to take exception to this one: movie, the word "poozer," as spoken by Kilowog, refers to a person, not a part of anatomy. And if for some reason you feel the need to change that, please don't do it after several instances of his using it to refer to a person; it feels very awkward, even if it's technically possible.

I also think Boodikka is probably one of those "this character bears so little resemblance to the original we should have just renamed her" cases, but I'm not really familiar enough with her to say for sure. On her own merits, though, I liked the character quite a bit. Could have used a little elaboration on her motives, though.

SINESTRO: I offer you power, more power than you can imagine. All I ask for is your loyalty.
HAL: (smirking) Now, you see, you had me...right up until that last part.
Okay, no. First, it's more of a Wally line. Second, while I guess a very young, cocky Hal could say it, he's alone, unarmed, surrounded, and has just been confronted with the knowledge that he, the Corps, and the universe are very likely screwed. He cannot possibly have ever been in a situation like this before, and we really need to see an emotion out of him here. Not anything dramatic or hysterical, mind you, just some sign that he gets that this is really bad and that he's worried about it. Emotional connection is your friend, movie!

So when a GL dies the ring automatically returns to the Guardians, who presumably then choose a replacement. So why does Hal still get his in the desert from a dying Abin Sur? Okay, maybe a GL can bypass the automatic return process if he passes it on to a qualified candidate before he dies (and I can see this being very useful if the GL was, say, protecting civilians in a firefight). I'm just wondering why Abin Sur went to the trouble--does he not trust the Guardians' judgment (and one could hardly blame him), is he seizing the opportunity to give one of the unpopular Earth-humans a chance in the Corps, does he just want to accomplish one last thing before he dies on a failed mission? Or, I can't help but wonder, is he specifically here for Hal? He only tells the ring "find him." There's nothing in the movie to suggest this (which is probably as well; there's enough "Hal Jordan Is The Ultimate Hero!" in the universe, and indeed in the rest of this movie); I just wonder. (It's also possible that the automatic return is just a failsafe for those times when no suitable candidates are in range, but if this kind of deathbed transfer was usual you wouldn't think the other GLs would be quite so pissed at Hal when they show up and find him wearing the ring.)

And speaking of the return function, it actually makes for a really good piece of atmosphere--an awful lot of GLs die in this movie, and while it may be a little cheap to keep it all off-stage, watching those rings just rain down on the deck is quietly horrifying; Arisia's stricken expression as she picks one up just underscores the point.

They show up for about two minutes, but the Weaponers of Qward were one of my favorite bits of the movie. Creepy, alien, totally unimpressed by Sinestro, and their chilly warning that the imperfection in every weapon is its user was a very good line.

It is very, very in character for Hal to try to shift boulders with his bare hands to get to a functional ring so he can fight Sinestro (and this after Sinestro has wiped out dozens of far more experienced GLs) and then when that doesn't work to bang on the ultimate source of the Green Energy so hard it breaks open. Points for that, absolutely.

That said, part of me was going, wait, if it's that easy to access more power why didn't the Guardians think of it? Surely they know the setup better than he does? Oh, right, because then we couldn't have a super-charged Hal in a one-on-one fight with Sinestro. Not that a Green Lantern feature film was ultimately going to come down to Sinestro vs. Ch'p, or anything, and it was a perfectly good climactic fight; the Guardians just come off as pretty useless. (Yeah, yeah, what else is new?)

I kind of choked up hearing the assembled Corps recite the oath, I confess. Total fan-moment.

Never underestimate the stupidity of an '80s cartoon character.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:28:35 GMT

From a random episode of G.I. Joe:

GI Joe double agent infiltrating Cobra: What frequency are you using to transmit [this week's weapon]?
Cobra guy: There, that's it, but what's it to you?
GI Joe: No reason. I just love to see the flashing numbers on the screen.
Cobra guy: *is not even a little suspicious*
Me: ...you know, I think I can see why Cobra never got to rule the world.

!

cewill8@yahoo.com — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:05:02 GMT

An entire trade of Mary-Jane Watson? Prior to the Retcon Of Which We Do Not Speak? Complete with ''Parallel Lives'', the awesome MJ backstory GN? Sign me up for that, no question.

(I do find the opening of the solicit amusing, sort of. I thought we were meant to have forgotten all that...?)

Oh, hey, movies.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:18:48 GMT

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?

cewill8@yahoo.com — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 04:16:18 GMT

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:

* Wolverine starts the credits sequence in his underwear. I have nothing to say about this; it just makes me snicker.

* I am sure there is a perfectly good non-slashy reason for Magneto to open his attempt to kill Xavier with "The years have been kind to you, Charles." I just don't know what it is, exactly. (And this is after a smirky speculation about whether he'll have gotten a toupee. Bitchy Mags is hilarious.)

* For someone who can never ever touch anyone, etc etc, Rogue is really really all-around flirty (except with Wolverine, for some reason). And has a surprising amount of subtext with Storm. (E.g. on finding her unconscious: "Come on, baby, don't do this to me!") She's pretty cool, even with the over-the-top Southern accent.

* Cyclops and Wolverine are constantly bitching at each other, even when the other guy is out of the room (or in Wolverine's case has taken off to Do His Own Thing, Dammit). Oh boys. I would tell you to learn to get along, except I find the snark vastly entertaining, especially coming out of this show's particularly straitlaced Cyclops. (When your girlfriend is calling you by your codename when you're on a date, it is probably a sign of something. Never mind the time Professor Xavier tells him he ought to lighten up.)

* Gambit does not own any civilian clothes. On missions, out shopping, undercover as a tourist at a resort: a trenchcoat and pink body armor is apparently all he's got, no matter how ridiculously inappropriate. I guess he has special thief training that allows him to blend in anyway! He also has a weird tendency to disappear from the middle of scenes (more thief skills?), which may contribute to the trust issues people have with him.

* Jean has a tendency to fall dramatically into people's arms. However this is usually because she's exhausted from taking out the bad guy, so I feel it evens out a bit. (She even manages to kick ass in a pink dress, and this in a scene where she's trying to rescue her unconscious boyfriend from the black leather chick who kidnapped him for a sex slave.)

* Speaking of which, apparently Saturday morning cartoons are totally okay with the whole sex slave thing as long as you don't actually use those words. (And Callisto is pretty blunt about it, too.) Also, are we surprised that this genderswapped version of the usual trope is lifted directly from Chris Claremont? We are not. Even if Storm had to fight Callisto with lightsabers instead of knives. (No, seriously, lightsabers. No, I don't know where the Morlocks got lightsabers. Maybe George Lucas was having a sale.)

*Saturday morning cartoons are also okay with you killing off one of your characters in the first episode, provided you only discuss it in euphemisms and never show a body. (And invent a character just to be the canon fodder, natch.) It's still kind of impressive.

* The writers would like you to know that Storm is claustrophobic. Like, really, really, mentioned-in-three-out-of-four-consecutive-episodes claustrophobic. It is a big deal, okay?

* Also, any time she can deliver a line in an over-the-top fashion, she will. Even Rogue suggests she tone it down a little. Smitty thinks this is what Halle Berry watched for reference for the first movie.

* Best moment ever: the Master Mold Sentinel stands up dramatically, begins to stride out into the world, presumably to lay waste to mutantkind (and eventually to humankind as well because that is what Sentinels always do, but this is very early so one cannot strictly speaking blame the bad guys for not having worked that out yet) and then realizes that he is still plugged in. Oops.

* The mansion gets utterly trashed less than eight episodes in. I think this may be some sort of record, even for the X-Men. (Fortunately Colossus is a (adorable) construction worker in this 'verse.)

* Okay, so even allowing for it being the '90s, the Assassins' Guild of New Orleans has the worst fashion sense ever. Swishy purple capes! Fetish-gear masks! Uniformly green hair! Also one of them appears to be wielding a shovel. I think possibly it is some sort of assassination strategy wherein they show up and their targets start laughing too hard to defend themselves.

Beating plowshares into swords

cewill8@yahoo.com — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:08:56 GMT

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...

cewill8@yahoo.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:06:48 GMT

Or, man, I love this show and everyone in it. (Well, okay, I don't always love all the Buy-More guys, but holy hell even they were seriously on form tonight.) And tonight was awesome--advancing plot-arc! Sketchy authority figures! Divided loyalties! Chuck being proactive! Giant explosions! Casey shooting things! Spies and counterspies and...wait, what's the trope? *checks* The Omniscient Council of Vagueness, right. Those guys.

And hey, sharp left turn to the formula, too. It's not that the show really got more serious tonight--Fulcrum's been around for a while now--or even that the military proved themselves any less interested in Chuck's well-being than they have before; "teach him to be a spy for the indefinite future" is still less ruthless than "shoot him in the head when this is all over." But nobody told Chuck about that, and the General standing up and saying "No, you don't get to stop being the Intersect, sorry" makes it both official and public; Chuck and his handlers are now actively working at cross-purposes, and boy is that not going to go anywhere good. (I actually feel kind of sorry for Sarah; she wants to be on Chuck's side, she really does, but unless she actively switches her loyalties from her job to him, it's not going to happen. He didn't tell you what he was doing for Very Good Reason, honey.)

I liked the way it was done, too, acknowledging that, okay, no, you're not a spy and we wouldn't have picked you, but whatever you're doing it's clearly working, so who cares? You're not trained? Fine, we'll train you, that should just improve your performance. From the general's perspective, it makes a fair amount of sense. (I bet Chuck is wishing he'd blown a few more missions, though. Especially since "training" is probably going to involve Casey.)

Also I really *heart* proactive, secret-agenda Chuck. I loved the Chart of Doom last episode; in one quick image it conveyed smarts, effectiveness, and totally justifiable paranoia. (Plus using the Tron poster to hide it, which is both sensible, thematically apt, and fills me with geeky glee. I mean, not that I have ever even seen Tron, but he's using his beloved SF-movie poster to conceal a Spy Chart of Doom, how cool is that?) I'm curious to see if Chuck is going to start pushing for some bargaining power--he already knew he was invaluable as the Intersect, and now the general has basically admitted that he's irreplaceable in the fight against Fulcrum; that should give him some leverage. Not a lot, but some.

Also, the BuyMore half of the story was really, really funny. The guys from the other store were perfectly snooty and ridiculous antagonists (toilet paper? Seriously?), the computer was actually a halfway reasonable way to get both halves of the story intertwined (I was pleased to see that Chuck knew exactly what was going on as soon as the other store was targeted) and once again we see that you do not mess with Big Mike's Buy More. That was some epic, if slightly unintentional, destruction, and his "Buy More way" recitation was priceless. Hell, I actually kind of bought our Buy More guys as menacing at that moment, and I know them. Excellent retail caper action. Plus maybe Morgan is going to wind up the heir to the Buy More? I'd kind of like that; Chuck is so busy with spy business that he doesn't have a lot of attention to spare for his other job anymore, and it's not like he ever wanted it in the first place.

Next week: spy catfight!

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.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:10:17 GMT

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."

cewill8@yahoo.com — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 01:53:35 GMT

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.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:29:32 GMT

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.)

cewill8@yahoo.com — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:17:54 GMT

"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...

cewill8@yahoo.com — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:39:13 GMT

I love evil twins and mirror universes and undercover switching, so clearly this was just the thing for me. And the Injustice League was fantastic (I was particularly fond of Psycho Jaime), but I really fell kind of hard for Red Hood, with his tragic backstory and his slightly broken psyche and how he just kept going when the sensible thing would have been to fall down already. It would never have occurred to me that Earth-3 Joker would break my heart, but it genuinely makes all kinds of sense. I desperately want fic about this character now. (Is anyone writing B&B fic?)

Other comments:

* The opening scene is pretty effectively creepy; I would not want to see those guys advancing on me.

* Oh, look, the giant Joker card is the first thing we see in the Batcave. Subtle.

* "Suit yourself." *groan!* Took a second viewing before I got the joke.

* "Enough with the suspense, when do we pencil in the invasion?" Oh, Scarlet Scarab made me laugh a whole lot. Some days Chaotic Evil is all you really need in a villain (although it's a pain in the neck if you're their boss).

*Y'know, Bats really throws himself into the Owlman role; snarls and punches left and right. One wonders if he might have been enjoying himself just a little? He gets to deck Ollie for arguing with him and it's totally for the fate of the world! (The interesting thing is that this totally fails to allay Ollie's suspicions. Evil Ollie is smart!)

*Aw, Red Hood. Not just for the origin story (nice effect on the eye), but because he unhesitatingly listens to somebody who knocked him out and turned him over to his enemies to be tortured. (...um, actually, what was Batman's motivation there? It gets Hood into the Hall of Injustice, I guess...) And is then coherent enough to give directions in ways that actually sound like genuine responses to Cyclone's questions.

*...except it still doesn't work. This is why you get the robot to do the interrogation, I guess! (Seriously, I liked that, that the bad guys were keeping good pace with Batman's tactics instead of just hanging around being suckered.)

* "I have the heart of a hero." Yeah, torn between a giggle and a profound ick. And they say this show is fluffy... (Okay, compared to the DCAU it is, but still.)

*Batman almost punching Good Grodd; heh. These things should happen fairly often in mirror crossovers, reflexes and all... But it was the disgusted look Grodd gave him that really made it. (What is Good Grodd like, anyway? The sole peaceful and honorable member of a society of evil warlike gorillas bent on subjugation of the outer world? ...hm. So a gorilla Drizzt Do'Urden, then.)

* The ending made me laugh and laugh. ~~Possibly~~ definitely you should have gotten someone to watch over your evil twin while you were away, Bats, instead of assuming that he would be stopped by, y'know, locks and stuff. (Particularly it is unwise to leave your evil twin to be guarded by your own security system, which there's a better than even chance he'll know all the ways around.)

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...

Don't cross the streams

cewill8@yahoo.com — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 04:46:54 GMT

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.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:05:46 GMT

The first half of the show went like normal, except for higher emotional stakes and Deep Awkwardness on pretty much all sides. (The look on Eliot's face when Nate's ex introduced herself was...memorable. Wow, moments you never ever want to have.) Lots of good con bits, Parker and Hardison maintained their utter adorability, and if Nate was having more trouble keeping his mind on the job than usual, well it's only to be expected. But so I was sort of thinking maybe the previews had overdramatized the episode, as is their wont, and then we hit the halfway mark and ohmygod, bang bang bang eek Hardison eek Parker is Eliot losing a fight? Er. Yeah. It was a little distressing.

And then things got worse, because oh Sophie, Nate wasn't being oversensitive, you really were conning him; you conned your TEAM. I mean...*flail* And I totally believed that she did it, and that she did it...partially for the right reasons, and she thought the wrong reasons didn't matter. But still *flail*, and the way Nate looked when Sterling broke it to him, and Sophie's voice as she admitted it...can we have emotional repercussions, can we can we huh? (For the record, while I really liked the "we're all addicts" moment, Sophie doesn't get moral equivalency here because Nate's issues have always been completely out in the open; everyone knows he's a drunk, everyone knows what his motivations for this job were. Nobody knew about Sophie's.)

And then Nate broke out the plan, and oh man, this is why he does the scheming. Parker! Hardison! Drawing on each other's strengths has always been what made this whole thing work, and this was an extra-cool way to implement that. Not to mention the dead-calm expression on Nate's face, and the way Sophie was laughing all the way down...oh, that whole sequence was a thing of beauty. Go all of you! Even if you lost the money and screwed the con and blew up your headquarters, it still counts as a moral win! I think!

Other comments:

* They had...index cards for the intervention? And Parker was very clearly reading off hers. Oh Parker.

* It is so very, very Leverage that Parker and Hardison's first kiss is for purposes of conning security guards. And that he's going "uh, can we talk about this?" while she's going "whee, shiny theft challenge!" (I think it is possible that she's just tormenting him, but Parker being Parker there are at least even odds that she really has no idea what's going on.)

* The revelation that Nate's ex-wife doesn't know why her kid died had me shrieking at the screen; yeah, yeah, you didn't tell her, Nate, I get that, now WHY? And you have picked the wrong moment to expect me to feel sorry that she pities you, because--seriously, Nate, what the hell? Do you not think you deserves to know this? That maybe she would like the option to refuse to work with the people who killed her kid? We had better be getting back to this.

*Also, if the con had gone as planned (well, as on-the-fly replanned), wouldn't she kind of been screwed as well? What with having attested to the veracity of a fake? I am not sure that Nate thought his cunning plan through.

* I really love the constant use of the team's comlinks--I think it feeds into the teamwork and competence thing, they're always in communication so they're always working together--so Sterling casually appropriating one was downright creepy. Hands off, dammit, not yours!

* Nate taking that drink on the roof was a *flinch* moment.

* For a non-action guy, Hardison does...not bad in a fight. Nate too, actually; have we ever seen him in a fight scene before?

* The guys doing their "You!" "No, you!" "Both of you!" moment was...very cute, actually. Also hysterical. *g*

* Hardison doggedly rescuing the painting. I can tell right now, he's going to find some justification for putting it up in any headquarters they ever set up in, while Nate reminds himself that it is a small price to pay for Hardison's skills. Probably. And Parker refuses to steal it (she says it'd be too easy, but Nate thinks she may have other motivations), and Eliot says that if Hardison insisted on carrying the thing out of a building that was going to explode, Eliot is not going to get between them (he likes having functioning cable TV), and Sophie just laughs. A lot.

*Of course Hardison has a self-destruct in their offices. I'm only surprised he doesn't have, like, lasers that target anyone who comes in who isn't them. (Well, okay, not lasers, and they have clients up there sometimes, but still, I would expect Hardison's security systems to be amazing).

* Okay, obviously everyone walking away from each other at the end is a fake--we can hardly have the Leverage finale without the Leverage characters, even if they hadn't obligingly shown us the promo--but it's still kind of heartbreaking to see. Or possibly I am being oversensitive.

*Next week: everyone is in really big trouble.

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.

cewill8@yahoo.com — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:19:44 GMT

"Okay, so I'm technically a serial killer." *snerk* I wanted Sylar dead a season and a half ago, and I really, really do not care about his parentage, but I admit watching him try to cope with an obnoxious teenager he can't kill is kind of fun.

Go Claire! Yeah, you're trusting mysterious internet people and you have no larger strategy, but all your known allies are MIA and you're doing your best to help even though you could just sit tight and be safe. I approve. (And your rescuee put in a pretty decent showing, too.)

Ando is destiny! *laughs SO HARD* Every once in a while Ando gets to shine, and I love it so much. (And it's really notable here that he stops the wedding because he paid attention to a person while Hiro was looking at a paper. I should probably feel bad for Hiro, but...I don't.)

Oh, hey, it's Mandy! And she is responding to this situation like a sane person! ...okay, a sane person who doesn't actually believe in superpowers, but all the same it's nice to have someone walk in and go "you're doing WHAT??"

"Our powers are not for amusement." Sylar...probably actually believes that, doesn't he? Sylar as mentor figure is really kind of instantly hilarious. (I'm going to choose to believe that that's intentional.)

Aww, even sulky don't-wanna-be-a-sidekick Hiro instantly races to Ando's defense the minute he thinks Ando's in trouble. "Give me back my friend!" And I've been kind of losing patience with Hiro lately, but it's hard to resist him when he's that happy. Let's hope his epiphany gets him to refocus on the job and not himself.

Mandy, I am very disappointed in you. Yeah, Tracy killed someone in front of you. Specifically, she killed one of the people involved in abducting and illegally detaining her for no legitimate reason. Minimum, you should have insisted that she get a fair trial, but no, no, she scares you so it's okay if she's chained to a chair for the rest of her life. (All parallels completely unintentional, I'm sure.)

"I just can't lie to you anymore." Oh, go Claire and go Joyce! I have my doubts that this is going to work out (for one thing, doesn't this immediately put Claire on the abductee list?) but on an emotional level I really, really love Joyce trying to break the cycle. (And extra points for her immediately shooting down his argument that he was trying to defend Claire. That's always been his excuse, even as Claire has made it clearer and and clearer that she doesn't want to be defended in this way.)

Nathan, when your project requires you to abduct perfectly innocent people and work with guys who sacrifice their own men without blinking, it's a pretty good indication that you're on the wrong side. What the hell is with Nathan, anyway, and how did he get from "manufacture an army of superhumans" to "superhumans are all so dangerous that even ones I know to be totally well-intentioned must be kidnapped and imprisoned"? This is the weakest part of this storyline.

...oh, hey, Noah's been kidnapped by Matt and company, deja vu! And man, he has it coming even more this time. *kind of looking forward to next week*

cewill8@yahoo.com — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:46:18 GMT

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!

cewill8@yahoo.com — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:47:32 GMT

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:

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:

cewill8@yahoo.com — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:46:51 GMT

* kerithwyn's birthday present of a SUPERMAN AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES hardcover, which I read on the train to Baltimore. Not bad at all. (Geoff Johns was at the con, but I didn't attempt to get it signed; not worth braving the lines.)

* As one of the main reasons I was there, Mark Waid gets his own dot point. Waid's FLASH got me into DC, back when, and I was incredibly thrilled to get to tell him how much I love his work and have him sign my books. Also he wandered by while I was reading the Silver Age Flash I'd just bought and tried to identify the issue numbers; I say tried because he didn't actually get them, somewhat to his distress. Sorry, Mark, I still love you! (Also, seriously, just that it happened is cool.)

* Speaking of those Flash issues, FLASH #193 deserves some kind of award (and not just 'cause it's got that cover). Captain Cold uses his cold gun to deage people (apparently on the highly scientific grounds that it "can do anything"), breaks Barry into pieces and then frames the pieces on the wall, deages and proposes to a movie star from the '20s he had a childhood crush on, and then tries to call the justice of the peace so they can get married (what he was planning to say to the justice remains undisclosed, given that he's a wanted criminal and all) but somehow dials Heat Wave's number instead. No, really. Barry claims that he made Cold do it telepathically (...no, I don't know how that works either), but Iris seems to have other theories. Oh, Rogues, I love you and your bizarre interpersonal relationships.

* Don Rosa's booth. I'm not particularly into the Disney ducks myself (well, except Darkwing), but the wall of comics covers redrawn with the ducks in the starring roles? Fabulous. My favorite was either Duckdevil or Daisy as Wonder Woman, I don't know which.

* The people selling tables covered with comic book pages. Very neat.

* The guy at the Marvel panel who asked if all of Scott Summers' girlfriends had had their DNA stolen. Take heed, Lee Forester! (Actually, a Lee clone would be cool...)

* Reading caia_comica's copy of GREEN LANTERN: MOSAIC #1 while the artist drew her a sketch of John Stewart and my eyes got wider and wider... He agreed it was a pretty weird book.

* The panel for Boom! Comics, which Caia and I attended on the grounds that Mark Waid is apparently the editor in chief. (My sum total knowledge of Boom! before the panel: they printed Giffen & DeMatteis's HERO SQUARED and PLANETARY BRIGADE. Apparently they have other stuff!) Mostly they talked about upcoming projects, some of which sounded interesting--I admit, I want to hear more about the teddy bear secret agent, and hey, FARSCAPE! But my personal favorite bit was the upcoming Pixar line, including a Waid-written INCREDIBLES comic; how cool is that?

* Getting to indulge my thirteen-year-old fangirl self by telling Bob McLeod how much I liked his New Mutants art. Ironically, I actually bought a New Mutants t-shirt at the con, but I wasn't wearing it at that point. Missed opportunities. But still!

* Finding a cloth hanging of Barry Windsor-Smith's cover for Daredevil #217. This is one of my favorite DD covers of all time--hell, it's one of my favorite covers of all time--so this gives me inexpressible glee.

* Getting to talk with Caia, likeadeuce, and harmonyangel about important matters: how we got into comics, the intricacies of the Summers family, which characters should be involved in threesomes... (Incidentally, guys, here's the scene from the HAWKEYE mini I was talking about: p1 p2)

* Attending about half of the Harvey Awards. Bendis's opening speech, in summary: "For god's sake, guys, get lawyers."

* A lot of great costumes that made me very sorry I forgot to bring a camera, but my personal favorite was the officer from V--I didn't recognize the uniform, and then he turned around and I saw the patch of scales on his face...

* Getting Jeff Moy to draw Brainiac 5 for me! *does the happy dance of Brainy-ownership*

* Looking over Brad Meltzer's LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT with Caia, trying to determine exactly how much crack was involved. Rocky Davis is a priest? Sure, Brad, whatever you say.

* Acquiring a bunch of action figures, including a three-set of Flash/Mirror Master/Weather Wizard, a Phoenix with light-up hair (shut up, it's cool), and SGA Sheppard and Teyla, complete with sections of Stargate. Man, I didn't even know those existed! But they're pretty neat, and I love Amazon's comment on Sheppard's sculpted smirk: "Lt. Colonel John Sheppard laughs in the face of danger, usually only making matters worse!"

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

cewill8@yahoo.com — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 11:56:19 GMT

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.