A quiet week, this was

Featuring spoilers for Superman World of New Krypton #9, Buffy #30 and my new ring.
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Superman World of New Krypton #9
Following directly on from last month’s action packed issue, we cut to Jemm, the Son of Saturn, who is rather pissed off that New Krypton stole his moon.  I can empathise.  An agreement is reached between the Saturnians and the Kryptonians.  As Jemm leaves he bows to the voice of Rao.  I’m hopeful that this means that the Flamebird will show up on New Krypton before the close of this maxi series.

Next we see arguments in the council chambers and Red Shard speculating on whether Ursa is falling for Kal.  This I highly doubt.  We then move to see a scene or two from military guild training and then some scenes from the Labour Guild wherein they discuss a new disease and the makeup of the council.

The last few pages are of Kal visiting Zod, who is getting stronger.  They discuss Non and the strength of the Kryptonian army.  Finally Ursa bursts in to announce a disturbance in the high sector.  This turns out to be none other than Adam Strange!  This tickled me, it feels like we are getting a who’s who of space faring races.

This was an issue that served to remind us of key players on the planet as well as the stratifications and layes in their society.  I thought it was good to go back and revisit some people and problems we haven’t seen in a while.  I figure this is being used to bring together some ideas that will converge in the final 3 issues.

Buffy #30
Ah! My Goddess! sess!  I’d forgotten about the delights of last issue so this was a welcome read.  The colours were fantastic as the Goddesses went on the rampage.
Buffy et al realise that the Goddesses aren’t on their side, they just plan to destroy everything.  In addition to this the slayers gave away too much power and can’t get it back.  The dialogue between Warren, Amy and the masked man was great – it felt like I was watching the show again.  It turns out Riley was undercover in the army so Buffy went to rescue him (shame).

Buffy realises they will lose this battle and despite this she still rallies her troops and commands them to bring all the injured, both slayers, wolves and army guys to the temple so that they can defend it and try to save as many people as possible.   Now that’s a hero.

5 hours after the battle the army has captured all the slayers and Buffy is alone in a snowdrift.  Then she somehow rises into the air and is flying.  This is much better than when Willow was flying.  It executed in a more pleasing manner, it makes more sense (even without an explanation as to how she does it) and Buffy’s surprise at this development works.  When Willow flew it felt too easy and contrived.  Like it was put in because they could, because there was no special effects budget to be concerned about.

Lastly, I got another Corps ring.  A yellow one, to be specific.  As you can see they haven’t been made for delicate girl fingers, (or even stubby girl fingers).  Nonetheless I intend to collect them all and photograph them along the way.

(Can you point and say NEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRDDDD!!)


Listening to: [spunge] - pedigree chump

Telly update, spendings and Taken

I watched the last 2 episodes of Smallville season 8, and holy macaroni!  if you don't like spoilers look way now..
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They killed Jimmy?  Jimmy Olsen?  Central figure to the Superman mythos?   He didn't even have a signal watch!  Did they take the Countdown ad campaign seriously?  I liked this Jimmy.  Sure, him and Chloe has fuck all chemistry, but Mr Olsen himself was quite charming.  I guess it made sense with the storyline, and it certainly was very tragic.  I was convinced Chloe was gonna bring him back with her magic tears.

Apart from that, the rest of the final 2 episodes were good.  I can cope with Ollie being all dark and vengeful.  It doesn't suit him, but it doesn't suit him in the comics either.  I am not convinced about Smallville's Bart being in agreement, it seems somewhat out of character.  Or maybe I just want him to be the regular DCU's Bart.  I don't know enough about this universe's Dinah to comment on her.

While we're talking about Bart , head on over to Crimson Lightning and check out this adorable kid dressed up as Bart.  He's perfect!

Back on Smallville, the Doomsday defeat was quite good, even if we didn't see much of it.

It looks like Lois has been transported to the Legion in the 31st century.  This should make for all sorts of interesting shenanigans.  Even with the use of magic time travelling Legion rings.  Which is ridiculous.  

I am very excited about season 9.   I haven't had a chance to watch any yet and probably won't for the foreseeable future.  Meanwhile, I will just go giddy over the inclusion of the JSA (with a winged, maced and hairy chested [i hope] Hawkman!) .

I also saw another episode of BSG, from season 2.  Starbuck is shot on Caprica, taken to the hospital, tended by Cylons and discovers the farms.  A well done episode.

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So, way back when, I decided to try and make an effort and seriously cut down on the amoount of stuff I bought.  If you click on the consumerism tag you'll see my other posts on this matter.

Well, I think I lasted til August and then somehow it all went to pot.  The net result is, I haven't stuck to my resolution, but I'm not buying random crap either.  I have bought new clothes - dresses (some new, some second hand), socks, pants, etc, I have bought quite a few books, I have continued buying gifts for people and I have bought some utterly useless crap.  Well, it's useless only if you consider memorabilia from the first Christoper Reeve Superman movie to be crap.  I say if it makes your heart sing then it's not crap.  But more on that later, because there's a post in there somewhere.  I still consider my main spendings to be on lunches, dinners out, and beer.

What have I learnt from all this?
1) If you want to monitor your spending and keep track of it, you have to write down absolutely everything you buy.  Including newspapers and 10pence fortune cookies.
2) I have a pretty low attention span and not much resolve.

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Consider the movie 'Taken'.  It's got Liam Neeson in it, fucking shit up.  By action movie standards it's a pretty good watch, and like most action movies, the actual plot is somewhat incidental.  But nonetheless go and read a synopsis here.  Unless you've already seen it.

Ready? OK.

First of all, the one line plot summary on the IMDB says Neeson's daughter has been sold into the slave trade.  Actually, she's been kidnapped and sold to a prostitution ring.  She is shipped around various places while Neeson is trying to catch up with her.  She doesn't get raped but that's because she's a virgin.  Her sexually active friend dies of a drug overdose - the drugs are forcibly given to her in order to break her in.

The movie makes a fairly good attempt at not glamourising or sexualising Neeson's daughter's plight, but it's not so good at race stuff.
As she's getting shipped around we see lots of asian women being pimped out.  The movie does nothing for these women, Neeson completley ignores them and we see nothing put in place to save them.  The end message seems to be that if you're a young, pretty and white virgin you deserve to be saved.  If you're anyone else you can rot in your hell.  The movie does portray the other victims situation as vile and desperate.  It demonstrates how horrific it is.

Towards the end of the movie Neeson's daughter is finally sold to her new owner. Guess who he is?  A rich. fat, oil dealing Arab man.  Not that they're trading in stereotypes at all here.  No siree.

The point at which this surprised me was that they'd tried to deal with the women's issues, the horribleness of the forced sex trade etc, which is impressive for Hollywood, but they'd failed so hard at the race stuff.  Especially as it wouldn't have needed much to rectify this.

Clouds Moving In also has a review of the film.  She focuses on the sexism but doesn't touch the race issues,

Help requested - what colourists/pencillers/inkers/letterers do

In 1994 DC ran a series of features at the back of it's books about the creative process in comics.  One was called 'what exactly does an inker do?' (I've posted a scan of it here. Look at the bottom of the entry.  It was featured in an Extreem Justice comic).

There's another one in the back of Guy Gardener Warrior # 25 called Comics Colouring demystifed, which I have scanned here:

Basically I'm looking for the ones that deal with the pencils and letters (I'm assuming these were done).

Does anyone have a scan they can send me, or can anyone put a scan on their site that I can steal, or can anyone let me know the names of some comics these how to's have appeared in?

Thanks for the help all!

And cos you're all so nice, have a lovely picture of some daffs:

I'm being overrun by tie in and minis

After 5 days of being ill and then having a visit from a friend all weekend I'm finally ready to get back to blogging.  Before I go any further however, I'd like to say a massive congratulations to my friends Admiral and Mrs Drax on the birth of their little Draxette!  Congratulations guys!  And so you're warned well in advance, I *will* be stockpiling suitable comics for her for when she can read. ;)

Back on topic, this post will be a comcis review post, for books released 2 weeks ago.  Review also written about a week ago, in prepartion for posting, but then the dreaded germs attacked.
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This is the last time I buy into an event, I swear.  I’m running out of shelf space, it’s not good.  Spoilers ahead for Worlds Finest #1, Teen Titans #76, Gotham City Sirens #5, Green Lantern Blackest Night #47, Blackest Night: Titans #3 (my absolute favourite this week) and Blackest Night #4 and a picture of the nifty promotional giveaway I got.  And a few thoughts on Flash: the fastest Man Alive - Full Throttle.
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Worlds Finest #1
I got a choice of covers when I went in and selected the Nightwing version.  The colours are so lovely and I figure I was in more of a blue peaceful mood than a red mood when I was in the shop.  This was not a setting up issue, it dived right into the story and action. An excellent, character driven story.

Teen Titans #76
Much better than issue 50.  A good battle, some mysterious villainous creatures and fully fleshed believable conflict between team members.  I felt that M’Gann M’orzz was the star of this show, despite the fact she was captured and had to be rescued by the rest of the Titans.  Something about her just resonated with me.

The Ravager back up saw Rose moving in to destroy a human-slave ring.  She has lost some of her precog abilities which is causing problems when in the midst of a fight and the issue ends with her enemy intending to use her as a super soldier.  After reading this I realised that the Ravager story in the Halloween special last week has greatly impacted on my reading of Rose and has served to make all her other stories that much richer.  Now, that’s impressive for a one page story!

Gotham City Sirens #5
Another favourite and one that spares no opportunity for gratuitous bum and breast shots - make of that that you will.  I love these three as a team and Paul Dini is writing their relationship with each other really well.  The art remains great and the I enjoyed the twist at the end.

Green Lantern Blackest Night #47
I think that the GL and GL Corps Blackest Night stories are the weakest of the bunch so far. L  Please don’t shoot me anyone..  They aren’t bad stories but I think my disinterest may be because they are both focusing on big fights and involving characters that on the whole I know little about, and only marginally care about.  So, as a new reader to the GL canon Blackest Night may not have been the best time to come in.  However, they are pretty vital to the whole event so I’m not about to drop them, but I don’t think I’ll be converted to a regular GL reader when BN is finished.
Having said that, I did very much enjoy the last couple of pages of Agent Orange running away. :)

Blackest Night: Titans #3
Now this features characters I know and love!  I especially love Dove’s role in this event.  Avatar’s of peace, love compassion and hope please me, and I have liked every incarnation of Hawk & Dove that I have come across.  After all, the idea behind them is a pretty enduring (and timeless?) one.

I have this horrible feeling that some fans will whinge about Donna snapping her (revenant) baby’s neck, a la Diana with Maxwell Lord, and that her story and life history is likely to become more complicated – she was bitten by her dead baby in issue #2 and now the poison is spreading and she is seeing people with a Black Lantern’s eyes. I persoanlly like the Donna/Diana comparison – can this suggest that Maxwell Lord was, in a sense, already dead when Diana killed him?  Or am I being just a bit wanky thinking that?

Blackest Night #4
Oh my, oh my!  First, look at the cover:

Chilling!

Inside, Mera is tough and nails, the Atom is actually heroic and not torture happy, Scarecrow’s cameo just makes me like him more.  I wonder if his comments are foreshadowing for Bruce’s role in BN?  The WW/Supes/Flash comment was a great moment, Dinah and Ollie got a cameo (and instructions not to get hotheaded) and the rings get fully charged!  The Black Lantern power battery is transported to Coast City and the whole of Coast City is commanded to rise!  Holy fuck, this won’t be good.

The art on the final splash page is fabulous, as is the scythe (which I would like, please), but I can’t help feeling I’d be getting more out of this if I knew who Nekron was.


Before I head off and read Flash: Lightning in a Bottle: Full Throttle* (contender for longest trade name ever) I shall supply you with this picture of the promo bag I got with my books today:

 

 

 Cool huh?


*Now read and of course loved.  Poor Bart.  Poor Tim, and Jesse.  The two pages with them are really affecting.  This was a series which made me love the Rigues even more. they really aren't your average comic book villains.  They really are 3 dimensional and you can sympathise with them.  They have a code of honour and ethics and aren't through and through bad.  When Libra comes to them to persuade them to join Darkseid because evil will win, I get the sense that that is a stupid thing to fofer the Rogues, because they aren't evil.  They aren't interested in causing evil, they just want to get on with their lives.  They may do this be being petty criminals but it's done in the same way that used car salesman break the law, you know?  Their primary objective isn't to cause pain, or to hurt people or maim them for the fun of it.

I then re-read Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge which just made me love them even more, and hate Inertia.

Both the Flash book and Rogues Revenge should be essential reading for any Flash fan.

Sick as a dog

I've had flu since Monday.  Bleurgh.  So for the last two days I've been re watching Smallville Season 6 - inbetween naps, shivering, aching and being unable to eat, that is.  God I hate being ill.

Anyway.  Now I'm able to sort of function and type things again, here's a few thoughts for you:
Anyone else think it's bizzare that Lex and Lana don't share a bed the whole time she's living in his mansion, even when they are engaged?  Maybe it's meant to highlight the cold and sad relationship they have.  As opposed to each time she gets powers and her and Clark are seen sharing a bed.

OK no more thoughts, brain has ceased to function now.

I didn't even make it to the comic shop today.  I forgot it was new comic day until looking at my blogroll feed, and haven't even checked the solicits for this week.

God I hate being ill. 

Bad girls go breil

Is this advert for real?

I cut this out of a magazine a year or so ago.   The fridge poetry obviously didn't come with the advert, but i feel it fits in rather well.

Anyway, just look at that there advert.  It's a heavily made up woman, in bra, gloves and jewellery, seductively eating spaghetti.  Or doing her best to eat it it seductively anyway.

Ummm...is this turning anyone on?  Does spaghetti make you want to go buy expensive jewellery?  Does the sucking of spaghetti give you the horn?  Is spaghetti linked with being a bad girl, or is it just the lip action that makes her bad?

HOW IS THIS LINKED TO JEWELLERY???

Up until half an hour ago I half suspected it was a joke, a mocked up advert poking at fun at other adverts.  then I googled it and found out that it is a real brand.

This advert truly makes my head spin.  It is sublimely ridiculous, which is why it is stuck on my fridge.

If anyone can explain how they think this advert will succeed in making you buy the jewellerry, please let me know.

Maybe it was created as a joke, a spoof for red nose day, or eat more 'ghetti day or somrthing.

gaaaah.

Happy Samhain everyone!

I'm not dressing up, or drinking - if i'm honest, too much of that was done last night - I am however going to prepare a proper feast to mark the day, with recipes culled from my book of Pagan feasts.  I will also take stock of the beautiful leaves out at this time of year, the trees in our garden look gorgeous!  I don't have a pumpkin though :(

Enjoy your holiday everyone!