Bart Allen meets Superman!

Oh man I miss Bart as Impulse.  Check out what happens when Bart and Clark collide:

Superdickery

Following on from yesterday, I am sad to say I have  more examples of Superdickery than I do Batdickery.  Not that many more, but def some more.
From Adventures of Superman 0:

Does Grant Morrison like Superman?

I suspect not.  This is from Animal Man #2.

 

Rarely have I seen Supes used in such a dickish manner.  So, does anyone know if Grant has confirmed how he feels about Superman?

Big Barda vs Superman

I was rereading Superman/Batman for New readers... and came across this little gem, showing Barda and Superman having a disagreement about who's going to rescue Kara from Apokolips.

What I really like about it is that Turner has drawn Barda as taller than everyone else in the room, and so, when Superman wants to exert his authority he flies vertically so he can be looking down at Barda.  Barda of course, is having none of it.

Dan Jurgens run on Justice League America

This run was pretty bad. Writing issues 61 to 77 Jurgens did some really odd things. It’s not the plots in particular that are bad, it’s the characterization and the art. When read immediately after the glorious Keith Giffen run (issues 26 to 60) the plots look staid, boring and very run of the mill. The humour went. Jurgens writes dark serious stories and takes all the jokes, lightness and a lot of the warmth out of the characters.

For instance, from issue 63 Fire is suddenly saying ‘like’ in every other sentence. What the fuck? She’s always spoken well in the past, did not use slang and isn’t a vapid American valley girl. Sure she’s vain, and conceited and wants to me a model, but she never ever acted dumb. She’s an ex spy from Brazil, she’s got a good command of English. Ugh, the near constant use of ‘like’ was horrible.

Secondly, Blue Beetle suddenly starts imitating an insect. Check these panels out:
(click to enlarge)
(Both from issue 63)

(Issue 66)

Since when does Beetle crawl on all fours? I don’t know much about his origin, I assume he has a link to the scarab, but i’ve never seen him having any affinity for insects before.

Lastly, I can only assume Ted is doing some sort of crazy jive thriller dance here (bottom left panel):

(Issue 76)

Superman turns up in this run and becomes the unofficial/official leader of the group. The effect is somewhat ruined by Supes being so angry, rude and just downright short tempered. I am very much aware that Superman gets angry, I know he’s not always polite, but he is usually written as having patience and grace, and not as if he thinks he’s morally superior. This Kal appears to find a lot of anger in everything – he’s lost a lot of the humanity.

Maybe I was just tainted by my bad feelings on the previous issues, maybe he’s not so inhuman after all. He does display a massive amount of deliberate superdickery though. For example, he apparently believes he can dictate how women on earth should dress:
In all credit to Maxima though she doesn’t take too kindly to this and chooses a suit more to her tastes and more in line with previous outfits:

Good for her! Check out the length of that skirt and the extra cleavage :D (Issue 66)

Guy Gardner is given unfair treatment as he suddenly develops murderous impulses, threatening Ted with a yellow (he’s been kicked out of the corps by this point) drill at one point (also issue 66). Guy may be angry, he may be violent, he may like fighting but up until this point I wouldn’t have said he was murderous. Has something happened in another comic to make him this way? If there was it would have been helpful to have a recap box somewhere. [EDIT – Now I’ve got to issue 85 I see that it was some sort of clone of Guy. Whew.]

To be fair, I should point out that there are good things about this run. Blue Beetle’s investigative and curious nature is brought to the forefront – he invents new gadgets to track all members of the JLA and is trying to work out who Bloodwynd is. He’s working in his lab a lot and being far more of a scientist. I also like the Martian Manhunter as Bloodwynd sub plot, and the Pawns of the Weaponsmaster story – the first time Beetle really starts to use his brains in this volume of the JLA. The Destiny’s Hand arc was also good and it was nice to see what the Atom can do. And some of the covers were absolutely gorgeous, but I shall include those in a later post consisting entirely of notably art from this volume.

Overall though, the negative parts outweigh the positives for me. While the overall themes and ideas worked, the inclusion of some odd (and quite obviously odd) character quirks did ruin it for me. I expected better things from the current writer of Booster Gold, but evidently 20 years ago he still had a lot to learn.

*SEE! I have no problem with cleavage and sexiness so long as it’s done in context with the story and in line with characters’ personalities.

It’s been a while but I’ve been busy

So here’s two weeks of comics reviews. Spoilers ahead for:
Buffy #19
Teen Titans #65
Superman & Batman vs Vampires and Werewolves (try typing that with a bad W key)
Superman # 682
Terror Titans #3
Terra #3
Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom #3
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer #19
Evil future Willow has set up Buffy and Faith to fight each other. Also features Fray’s cop sister.
This has lots of Fray future speak, which I like, and can’t quite see why Buffy had such a problem with when she first arrived. It’s perfectly understandable to me. Willow has been lying to Fray, Fray’s brother and Buffy about what will happen when Buffy both arrives in future land and when she leaves for our present day. This turns out to be a long winded ploy to get Buffy to kill Willow. And she does. She murders her best friend, and she does it easily and swiftly because she knows it is what is needed. It’s a clear cut decision. This doesn’t mean she isn’t sorry about it, she is, but she’s a warrior and she’s tough as nails and she does what needs to be done.
This reminds me of Wonder Woman killing Max Lord. Same reasons, carried out in a similar fashion.
Poor Buffy.

Teen Titans #65
Cassie kicks back and beats her crazy nephew (Lycus). I’m not quite sure how she did this. We saw crazy nephew choking her and then her eyes went starry, next thing we know, she’s got a new costume, she’s awake, she’s found her own power and she’s winning. I hope how this happened will be explored satisfactorily later. Her new costume looks pretty darn good, and mature, except….the gold W looks like it’s made of metal, so how’s she moving her arms? They should be clamped to her side..
Bombshell blows up the dog from inside him! Way to go. Violent, icky and messy but she keeps her cool and is hard as. Loving her. But I hope they are not gonna try and make her a Rose substitute, what with the snarking at Cassie. There’s room for two tough as hardcore morally wobbly super powered teenage women on the Teen Titans.
(And despite the previous sentence they aren't clones of each other, but they do have similarities)

Superman & Batman vs Vampires and Werewolves # 4
It’s got Ollie in it. J I like this issue. Far better than the last one. We see a kid turned vampire who hasn’t descended to drinking blood yet and we learn where the Vampires & Werewolves came from. Then Etrigan is summoned and starts rhyming, in a non annoying way. The art is lovely and murky too.
So far so good.

Superman #682
Ok so I do like this New Krypton cover.
Bizzarro mourns Pa Kent. Kryptonians are idiots, and as some other astute blogger observed, (who exactly I can’t remember, if anyone knows please tell me and I’ll credit them) if they are going to go to the trouble of locking up Supe’s enemies, they really should have put Lex out of action first.
I’m surprised Kara went along with her folks requests. I thought she had more mind than that. Renato Guedes draws an awesome Silver Banshee.
That page is just so colourful, so sunny and bright, (and Kara's wearing pants!)

Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom #3
God Superman is a dick. I am completely with Kara here. He is acting like her father, and a very short tempered dictatorial father at that. They’re cousins, she should be treated as an equal human being, not as someone of lower status who should be deferential to the mighty Kal.
Teaching her not to be reliant on her powers is a good thing, but taking them to a hostile planet with a red sun where they could be killed by all the aggressive attacking wildlife is not a good thing. It’s a stupid stupid thing. And arrogant. What if they were to die? What would their loved ones back home do? What would it do to Lois if they were to die off planet where (presumably) no one knows where they are?
And Kara's origin? Rocketed from Krypton as it exploded? I thought her last issue fixed it so she rocketed from a bubblised Argo City after a rampaging Brainiac was set on destroying it? And I got the impression this was Argo City after it had separated from Krypton and Krypton had exploded? Did I misunderstand?

The cover is beautiful though, especially Kara.

Terror Titans # 3
Well Rose won her match against Aquagirl, and I’m sure she’ll win against Static. Whoever the hell he is. I’m still appreciating the art (women with muscles!). Terry (a bad guy whose code name I’ve forgotten) fused his Dad into a wall. You can see the horror and the anger.

Terra #3
Still good fun. I’m loving the under earth civilisations. It seems that Terra, or Atlea, is not a simple clone of the previous Terra and I think it works. No Peej in this issue, sadly. The art is still looking gorgeous though, and Terra’s outfit is brilliant.

JSA: Ghost Stories
Trade paperback, incorporating ‘Ghost in the House’ and then the first 5 issues from 1 year later. I did enjoy this - the Gentleman Ghost flashback sequences are beautifully rendered. The rest of the art, pencilled by George Perez, Rags Morales and Jerry Ordway, I did not like. The story was fun, but I think may have bored me if I’d read it as a floppy monthly title.
Finding out Wildcat comes from English nobility tickled me. I was cringing through the fight sequences in London, at Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and possibly Westminster Cathedral, cringing because I was thinking you can’t fight there, you’ll destroy our national treasures!
That’ll be the first patriotic thought I’ve ever had.

Last but not least..

Yup, it's posts a plenty today :-)
And last of all, it's an all out Aquaman visual-a-thon.
First up, covers from vol 4:
(As always, click to enlarge)


*Gush*

This next one is why I've given up on vol1.


That's flying fish. Flying Aquaman through the air. Previously in this issue they flew rockets to the enemy in order to blow them up, then flew away.
FISH DON'T WORK THAT WAY! Gaaaahhhhhh. Maybe they're magnetic? My head hurts. It wouldn't be so bad but the issue also includes fish facts and tries to teach kids about the seas.

I was however loving the National Social Welfare Assembly adverts.


Wow, do you reckon Kal si gonna put those back?

Kids don't work that way.

Consumerism, or how I got on this month (followed by comics blathering)

Since my declaration a few weeks ago I haven’t done badly. Depending on your point of view. I have bought;
3 newspapers – 2 on the USA election and 1 because I needed reading material on my lunch break
A Zombina and the Skeletones CD – needed for my soul health. As I really liked them live and it wasn’t an impulsive purchase I think this is OK.
(EDIT - I also bought this direct from the band at the gig, and not at a high street store. is that more ethical? Or is not buying from high street chain stories leading to putting people out of work? Which is a very bad thing.)
A pair of fishnet holdups – bought for a work event and ended up not being worn due to unsightly bulges. I will see if they are usable in any way, if not, they will be donated to my sister. Bought from an independent local shop although I could have got them cheaper from Marks and Spencer.
Comics – I already mentioned how comics don’t count as purchases.
A second hand book – Esme Dodderidge – The new Gulliver. Second hand from a charity shop, a women’s press sci fi book. Fantastic! Managed to theorise and overtly criticise power relations and patriarchal culture, whilst not boring me and also delivering an interesting story.
Gloves for my Mum’s Christmas present – new but bought from an independent local department store.
Antihistamines, toothbrush, food, beer, etc. These don’t count.

Now in 4 weeks, that ain’t bad. I’ve even told rl people about my plans, so I have to stick to it. Eeep!

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Comics roundup, from last week, because I’ve been horribly busy.

Spoilers ahead for Terra 2, Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom 2, Supergirl 36 and of course Aquaman.
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Terra #2: Great cover. Not to sure about Peej’s expressions on the first two pages, she looks like a naughty girl about to be spanked. And not in a good way. The rest of the art is still great though.
Terra and Silver Banshee’s conversation is great and it’s nice to see a burial ritual. I am very much enjoying this.
Sadly, no overt fem slash this week.

Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom #2
So, THAT was Kal’s great idea to make Kara feel better? Take her to a planet with a red sun and lots of dangerous beasties? What a dick. That’s a dumb idea, and Kara knows it.
It’s good to see the snarky take no bullshit Kara again. Also, really great cover.

Supergirl #35
Don’t like this cover. Not keen on any of the New Krypton covers actually. It’s good to see Kara stand up to her parents as she tries to establish a life for itself. But, uhhh, the origin? Kryptonite poisoning was making her crazy? A rogue Braniac caused her folks to send her to Earth? Ummm…ok. So, about those phantoms then, were they all in her imagination?
I like the Argo City in a bubble origin and I like a mad Brainiac theory as much as anyone, but was all her angst and other origins completely in her head then? Was the Kryptonite poisoning the darkness that Power Girl felt, back when they first met?
Was the poison what caused her to split into dark Supergirl when Lex blasted her with black K rays?
And wouldn’t Batman have already found this back when he tested her to death when she turned up on Earth?
Bah. I hope someone answers my questions.

Aquaman
I’ve now finished v4 including the Sword of Atlantis issues. This lot would have been better if it had continues, unfortunately it sort of petered out. Tad Williams issues were good, although I can see Topo’s character being a stock in trade type character Mr Williams’ books.
Just Imagine Stan lee’s Aquaman was rubbish – a rip off Spiderman and bugger all thought.
Marvel vs Dc was also a pointless slugfest. Aquaman 1,000,000 was ok. The Tempest mini only really works if you already know who he is – check it out if you’re an Aquaman fan.

I’d mostly recommend picking up Peter David’s run and the American Tidal arc though.

Now to read volume 1, if I can cope with the style, and the Atlantis Chronicles.

Meanwhile, enjoy more pretty, this time from the Cerdian war saga:

Comics of the week of 5th November

Well you lucky, lucky people, as I was late buying and then gabbling about last weeks books, but on time this week you get two, yeah, that’s right, TWO, sets of up the minute comic thoughts from yours truly, this week.

Betcha can’t wait, huh?

Here follows some gushing thoughts (and spoilers) about Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle collection, Terror Titans #2, Terra #1, Superman/Supergirl/Maelstrom #1 and Aquaman v2 - issues 1 – 13.
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Terror Titans #2
Rose is at the forefront here. Independent, mouthy, tough and superior to everyone around her. Best moments:

• ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some face to rearrange’

• While fighting TNTeena in the ring, she slices the girl’s fingers off. Ouch.

• Terra is in it, she beats Zatarra (arrogant git).

• The art – check out the cover, Rose has muscles, she looks utterly, utterly solid. And I like her costume, have I mentioned how much I like her costume?

• The rivalry between Disruptor and Ravager. Please, Disruptor is a lame third rate villain, she’ll never come out on top.

Terra # 1
A new mini series. Pencilled and inked by Amanda Connor (with Jimmy Palmiotti also doing inks).
I’m SO pleased we’ve got a Terra mini. The first time this version turned up (so far as I know, and do correct me if I’m wrong), was in a Supergirl book, I forget the number. She was great – distant yet helpful, earnest and serene. Now that must have been at least 2-3 years ago, and I’ve been waiting ever since to hear more about her.
The story starts underground where she’s fighting these wormy teethy vampire slug things on behalf of other flying insectoidy denizens of the deep. This meanwhile is causing tremors and earthquakes above ground.

Terra defeats the wormy vampire slug things, heads above ground, saves the people and requests that they move their excavations to another site as they are disturbing the below earth civilisations.

Some random guy located beneath the New Mexico desert gets dragged into a weird pool, gets covered in shiny stuff and kills his fellow excavators. And dubs the pool ‘my newfound pool of magic goodness’ (!).

Meanwhile Terra is fighting more underground denizens who are exploding a volcano. She falls into lava and is rescued by Power Girl. There then follows 6 of the most (fem) slashy panels ever! Because of this, Amanda Connor is now my hero. Terra and Karen are totally having a relationship. If I can find some scans of the panels I'll post a link.

Amanda Connor’s art rocks. It can be quite static – as in I don’t get the feeling of movement from it that I get from say, the Terror Titans cover. Her panels look very much like a frozen snapshot and the art is sometimes less sequential than just plain jerky, and her Peej is drawn a little too round and immature for my liking. But, those points aren’t a big deal. Overall, I find her art fresh, the characters are adorable and seductive (without being porny), cute and Terra cam be naïve or powerful. She can even do different (and convincing!) facial expressions! Even when the panels look static she conveys a lot of meaning and in this book I find the art perfectly complements the nature of the story and brings something extra to it. It’s fun and playful. I’m hooked. More pleased!

Superman/Supergirl/Maelstrom #1
After reading this review of the book I’m not sure what my true feelings are or how much I’ve been influenced by other people’s negative views. Hence why I usually avoid spoilers.
One thing is for sure – Kara is lame in this issue. She gets beat almost immediately, barely lift’s a finger to help herself and is overall rather pathetic. Especially when compared to Kal’s ease at beating Maelstrom. He flies down, uses laser vision to get her attention, smashes a rock thrown at him, then grabs her arms and operates the boom tube.

Now why couldn’t Kara have done that?

On the plus side, Supergirl is thrown face down on the pavement and kind of goes splat. That, no matter, who it’s done too, is ALWAYS amusing.

Anyway, back to the moon. Kal displays another facet to his Superdickery and suggests that Kara and him go somewhere far away, presumably for him to train her. She says no. he says ‘I was only asking to be polite, Kara. You’re going whether you want to or not.
Fascist.
The art’s nice though.

Note: the issue is up on scans daily for anyone who wants to check it out.

Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle – a collection of his earliest stories.
This is mad. Overly dramatic, over enthusiastic, too many adjectives and narration boxes. Like everything else of it’s time. Fun and completely incredulous.

Plus points is there’s a lot of Barda about (Yay!), and not because she’s big. Boom boom (sorry). It’s good to see their origin stories and it’s good to see Barda not take any shit from anyone and defending her right to wander around in a skimpy bikini without being letched at. Which makes me approve of this statue more. Or it did, until i looked at it again and realised she's posed like a serving wench holding Scott's bleeding cloak. Grrr.

There was one stupidity plot – Mister Miracle, the world’s foremost escape artist, master of gadgets to get you out of ANYWHERE, is foiled when a bad guy grabs his cloak and won't let go. Really. How dumb.
But overall, it’s a recommended volume.

Aquaman v2 issues 1-13
All about how Aquaman is trying to cope with the death of his son and his wife leaving him. He’s very angry and is beating himself and everyone else up about it. I finally understand why Arthur has his abilities and that not every citizen of the Atlantis cities has the same ones.

The last issue was heartbreaking and brought a tear to my eye, because I’m a big softy. Told from the point of view of this kid who’d got an undisclosed awful illness. He decides to go to the lake to find Aquaman, because Arthur is his hero, he hitches with 2 people who tell him lies about how they saw Aquaman once, then meets a reformed con who turns out to be reformed because of Arthur’s interventions. Then the kid meets Aquaman who is stopping by the reformed con’s house for a pint (or maybe not a pint). See? I’m a big softy.

I quite liked the whole series and am now going back to read the two mini’s that preceded it, but not V1 from the 60s because I like my head not exploded, thank you very much.

100 issues later

I finished the Kon-El Superboy run. It was pretty hard work – 100 issues and apart from 3 story arcs it was pretty much all crap till issue 80. *sigh*

The following text covers the women in Superboy’s life, good plot lines, Superdickery, Batman bashing and reccomendations. Look for the text in bold if you want to skip to specific sections.

I figure this comic was written to be fun and an alternative to more serious titles out there at the time. It started in 1994, and like Superboy himself; for most of the run it was shallow, superficial, sexist, street talking and wise cracking. Except there was no depth and it just wasn’t very good. I had hoped the book would be more like Young Justice or Impulse – they were immature and full of fun but didn’t insult the readers’ intelligence. Instead the style seemed matched to Superboy’s personality, and while I can see how that makes sense from an editorial and thematic point of view, it just wasn’t for me. Judging from the letter columns, lots of people did appear to like it, so I guess it’s just a matter of taste.

Having said all that, there were a few gems before issues 80. Superboy’s discovery that he could no longer age (during the Meltdown arc, issues 38 to 41) gave him a bit of maturity, heartache and agonising nightmares. It was good to see more fleshed out, he’s a fun character, he needed fleshing out. Issue 44, Battle of the Ages, where Superboy discovered a never never land style island where the kids didn’t age was really good and allayed a lot of the fears that Superboy had about his new found permanent teenager status.

About the women in his life..

Knockout is awesome. Too much with the constant double entendres (I refer you back to the shallow superficial nature of the comic) and man chasing, but it was good to see her as a regular character. I like Knockout and I’ve got the feeling she’s currently in a lesbian relationship with someone, anyone know if I’m right?

Roxy and her dad were always good. Roxy was never two dimensional and along with Tana Moon were the only 2 female characters treated with any sort of respect (by Superboy and by the writers/artists) for a long time.

Tana and Superboy’s relationship was creepy. I appreciate that technically he was less than a year old when they first met and got together, but both physically and mentally he was at the 16yr old boy stage. As she was 22 or 23 at this time that’s just plain wrong, and looked wrong on paper too. I figure the creators were thinking about your typical 16 year old boys desires when writing in this relationship, and from the 16 yr old’s point of view, dating a 22 year old is pretty cool. But the rest of it’s just weird.

I guess they also wanted to mirror Superman’s relationship with Lois, as Tana is also a reporter, but they could have made her a teenage prodigy or something. Or just starting in her career - y’know, something less predatory and abusive.

The other decent ongoing female character was Doctor Serling Roquette. A 16 year old scientific genius working for Cadmus with an ‘are they aren’t they’ relationship with Kon. The last one worth mentioning is Trixie – started off bad, got good. She’s my type of woman – tough and blonde and won’t take any shit.

The other good story arc before issue 80 was The Wild Lands storyline, starting in issue 50 with the Last Boy on Earth. This arc pleased me. Kon ends up in an island populated by intelligent humanoid animals. It turns out this is a secret island in the pacific and the first animals were bred by geneticists about 50 yrs ago. Good stuff. My only complaint was the partially clothed lady animals. The in context explanation, so far as I can guess, is that the geneticists deliberately bred the female animals to resemble busty human women and also introduced the idea of different clothing standards for the male and female animals. So, not objectifying at all there then. I’m not even gonna bother going into the creator’s reasoning, I think we all know how sexism works in the mainstream comics industry. (Hey, DC, it’s wrong!).

Issue number 59 reveals the extent of Superman’s Superdickery – he finally gives Superboy a name, Kon-El.

Obviously giving him a name is a good thing, but it took 59 issues to do this???? Superboy is a clone, he was created to replace Superman, something he can no longer do as he is stuck at age 16 and all this time he’s only had a job description, a title?! Apart from anything else, look at Kon’s expression in this issue:

He’s so happy! He’s got an identity! This was way overdue. Also, the art in this issue was *really* appealing.

Issue 60 sees the start of the Hyper-Tension arc where Kon visits many different realities including the Elseworlds Superwoman/Batwoman one. I love alternative universe stories. :)

issue 80 saw the return of Roxy, bonded with a fiery alien named Pyra. This was the start of it being consistently good. Joe Kelly took over from issue 83 to 92 and brought in a lot more Young Justice and other DC character crossovers, which to be honest was what I had been hoping for from the start. And this run was goooood. Plus issue 82 saw Kon beating up Batman:

Ok it’s a cardboard Batman, but admit, you enjoyed that panel didn’t you?

Palmiotti and Didio took over writing issues 93 to 99 and these were also pleasing. Kon got himself a job as super in an apartment block and tried to live a normal life. Predictably, as he’s a superhero and therefore a villain magnet, this failed. Issue 100 was the last one saw Clark taking Kon to live with the Kents, in order to provide him with stability and to see how the normals live.

In summary, if you are thinking of picking up any Superboy issues may I recommend the following:

Superboy 44, Battle of the Ages

Superboy 50 to 53, The Last Boy on Earth, and 66 (Wild Hunt) and 67 (Tooth and Claw) – follow ups to The Last Boy on Earth

Superboy 59 – Superboy on Krypton

Superboy 60 to 65 – Hyper-Tension

Superboy issues 80 to 100

And of course all the Young Justice and Impulse issues, which are all brilliant!

No. No no no no no no

This is really not a good idea. Batman works a as a dark movie, yes. Batman is a dark character, that's fine that works for him. Superman isn't. Superman is about light and hope. That's partly why the Supes/Bats comics work so well - light vs dark. They bounce off each other.
Applying the same methodology and thinking to both of them will result in at least 1 fucked up movie. Plus, the darkness wasn't what made The Dark Knight movie so good. There were loads of other factors - plot, acting, characterisation, detail, thought.
Superman doesn't work when he's made dark. He's uplifting, he shows us there's a better way, and he shows us what the possibilities are. He's not Batman!

And also I thought Superman Returns was a damn good movie and Bardondon Routh made a good Clark and Supes. As a lifelong Christopher Reeve fan that's saying something! The only fault I can find with it is that more dialogue would have been good - it was very action orientated. That doesn't make it a bad movie, but it could have been better. And the apparent stalking doesn't bother me, at all.

Comics frenzy!

Yup. It's been a comics frenzy. God I've read so much recently.

Spoilers ahoy.

JLElite mini - re-read this after I finished Batgirl. Really really good. I got a lot more out of it now I know more backstory etc.

Trinity - still reading it, but am no longer offended. I don't really care either way to be honest so I can probably drop it soon.

Joker's asylum - Scarecrow and Two Face - Ooh yeah, I really really enjoyed both of these! I didn't know much about the character's before but now I'm really intrigued.

Two Face year 1 - issue 1. I also really enjoyed this. Bought it from a shop in Romford with a very chatty sales guy, who gave me a discount and also pointed out his sexy corner!*

Huntress number 6 - Wonderful. :) Although the last panel was corny. I shall enjoy the whole mini in sequence soon.

Manhunter 33 - I don't like the art on this. I can see why people like it, but I like my art glossy, and this isn't. The plot and everything else is good though, so I shall keep getting it.

Supergirl 32 - Oh Kara, you've matured! Love the older her costumer. And poise. She makes the right decision, she felt like her own person, finally. Not like a supporting cast member. And Empress is in the next issue! I like Empress, a lot, I still think her powers etc are a bit dubious, but she is great.

Buffy 17 - Not as exciting as I had hoped :/ And I'm quite frankly shocked to see Willow turn to the dark side again. I'd assumed it was Drusilla leading the way. Nice of them not to put a Buffy upskirt shot on the cover.
I'm on Buffy season 3 at the mo, and by god the main cast's attitude towards Faith is irritating. So she has sex, she dresses like a 'bad girl', get over it! I realise this is a fairly accurate portrayal of some teenagers attitudes, but it's so hypocritical. You just know that Willow is the same between the sheets (As evidence I submit to you Evil vampire Willow and her later more open relationship with Tara) and Buffy has a wild streak in her (Spike sex), yet they pretend to be so bloody puritan and innocent. Grrr. I've never understood people like that. It's ok to say you like sex! It's not a character failing! *Gnashes teeth*

Robin 176 - I only bought this cos it's Spoiler. I cannot start buying all the bat titles, I don't have the room or the money. Must. Not. Buy.

Superman/Batman 50 - Aww I love this title! So far I've been buying the trades but decided to sue this issue as a jumping on point. It's great! I love seeing the two of them interact, light and dark and all that. :) And the fathers meeting retcon pleases me too, I like the concept of fate in my books.

Final Crisis 1-3. I wasn't gonna buy in. I wasn't'. I'd bought Rogues Revenge but that's because I'd just finished the Flash and I'm narked that they killed Bart off. But then I saw that gorgeous Supergirl cover. And remembered it was written by Grant Morrison. So i caved. And it's pretty darn good! I'll need to re read it to get it all to sink in - I was a bit stressed on first reading - but yeah I'm impressed. Here's that Supergirl cover:

Isn't it beautiful?

And finally I'm reading JSA 16, annual and 17. For this I blame Heidi Meeley! And the Alex Ross cover. And the Power Girl theme. I didn't like the inside art that much - it felt very static, and some was just poorly done, but the story of a God coming to earth, healing everyones pains, that's the kind of thing I'm a sucker for. And as Heidi says, it is all going to go to hell in a handbasket. The other reason why I like these sorts of stories.

And I still haven't talked about Babs giving Cassandra that teeny weeny bikini in Batgirl yet. Really it's more a piece of string than a bikini. Babs would never do that to a vulnerable girl like Cass. Babs knows she isn't ready or used to male attention and she knows exactly what will happen. In short, Babs doesn't need Cass to look hawt. Babs also understands you can look hawt while wearing more than two very tiny circles and some string. The same plot point could have been demonstrated with Cass wearing a swimsuit.

*gnashes teeth*

*Where the Grimms Fairy Tales and Witchblade stuff was! get your mind out the gutter!

Buffy Kara and Huntress win, Superman dickishness, and Titans confusion

I'm rubbish at thinking up titles. Maybe something will come to me after I've written this.
Feels like it's been ages since i've put anything up here. And since I now have real life friends knowing where this is located I'm feeling kinda embaressed again at having a blog.. umm..I think I should just get on with it.
On with the comic news! Real life news makes me too angry to write about. I've had stuff going around my head but I just want to relax now and I can't do that if I think about real life stuff. So, to the comics!

Manhunter 31. Hurrah it's back! And I've got a sneaky suspicion I missed number 32, damn. Anyway. It's goood. The art, i'm not decided on. It's different to my normal fare, but I think that's good. It's definitley not tits and ass everywhere, which I shoudl be very thankful for. the story? Well the fuirst part is reintroducing Kate Spencer to us. Then she deals with a really lame Atomic Skull. Then it shifts to where the next story arc is really going, the US?Mexico border. Real life story. For about 10 years someone or a group of people have been killing women in the area. usually mexican women, presumably travelling across ther border to work. 400 have been killed and the authorities are doing fuck all about it. Look up Ciudad Juarez.
So yeah, the comic is covering this. Kudos to the writers, and double kudos points for calling it a femicide and being explicit about the fact that's it's women getting killed because they're women.

Teen Titans 60. You bastards. You've gone and taken Rose off the team and now I'm gonna be buying terror Titans which will undoubtedly be shit. Rose belongs in the Titans, please don't let this be a permanent removal. Also, Eddie and Rose need to be a couple. That panel with Eddie skipping? Made of win.

Superman 677. Really not remembering a lot from this. Renato Guedes art is always great - there's pants covering the whole bum for a start. Just flicked it open and of course, Krypto! Although, Superman saying 'man'? He says golly, he's not cool and trendy!

Huntress 3 and 4. Number 3 bored me. Number 4 didn't. This mini is so wonderful. And a cameo by Barbara Gordon! Helena is so focused. So dedicated. Next issue will be good. Face off between Bruce and Helena.

Supergirl 31. The art is rubbish. Bring back Guedes, or the Drew Johnson & Lee Ferguson tean. Their art was so simple, yet it worked so well. The story and plot was good though, although I am a sucker for Kara based introspection. I'm rather confused about how this all fits in with the plots of say 8 issues ago though. I think I need to re-read the later issues.
(Side note, what the fuck is up with the ambush bug/Dan DiDio thing though?)

Trinity is bloody rubbish. The covers are shockingly bad. The main plotline bores me, and I'm only vaguely interested in this Tarot lady. Plus, Superman is back to being a dick again. In issue 4 he appears to be telling Diana off, like she's a naughty 5 year old who's not obeying the rules. She's not respected or treated as an equal and this really gets my goat. In issue 5 he doesn't trust her fighting skills, ability or strength. Now, even if you want to ignore my fangirlish sense of entightelment I know I'm displaying, there's another problem with this. This series is meant to be showcasing the premier 3 superheroes in DC, how they work together, why they are important and what bond they share. And I'm not seeing that.
Also, I can't believe Diinah would cecede the fight so willingly to the 3 of them. She's not a rookie, she's hard as nails and can take on one hell of a lot.
Shame on you Kurt Busiek.

To end on a better note, Buffy 16. I am loving this season. Dawn's a centaur! A freakin' centaur! Kennedy's back and calling Buffy a homophobe, something I have always agreed with, and then there's FRAY! Am really trying hard not to jump up and down in excitement here, but I am so excited about this plotline! This issue in particular read just like the tv show.
Of which, I am up to season 3, episode 12, Helpless. I really really like this one. I have no incisive or cuttign edge commentray I'm afraid, I just liked it, a lot.
Oh and Allecto has another Joss post up. I haven't read it yet, but I probably will do. And maybe I'll respond again. If I get a spare minute.

I thought of a post title.

Smallville episode 8

Oooh I quite liked this one! After the disaster that was episode 6 I did think that only the odd numbered episodes were gonna be any good. I was wrong. Number 7 was awesome, number 8 was pretty cool. However, I did note some superdickery going on.

If Clarke had stopped to think for a minute he have realised that Lara can probably handle herself, under the yellow sun and all. Get over your hero complex mister. And secondly, leaving the very human (ex?) love of your life alone with Lara, who has a homicidal superpowered kryptonian after her? Lana's gonna be able to help how exactly?!

And Lana. Lana Lana Lana Lana! Clark whinges about his lost mum, and it's all about you is it? Oh I know how you feel Clarkie, I miss my mum too, moan moan moan. Huh? How is that relevant?!

But ooh, Richard is Julian Luthor! Ooooh! I thought they were going for homoerotic moment between Julian and Lex there. Until the brotherly connection was realised. Damn shame that. I'm up for a bit to man on man action in this show.

Overall, 4 out of 5 stars.
Back to how the shows been doing -
Bizzaro - tre Awesome. But the first episodes always are, finishing off the cliffhangers form the previous season and all. And this version of Bizzarro is sooo much better than the my-head-hurts-to-read-it comics version.*
Kara - Mmm. Good. I liked the snarky and the sizing up of each other.
Fierce- Absolute rot. I think I may have documented my thoughts before.
Cure - Hmm. As I recall, this was so so.
Action - ahh, knowing meta fiction narrative methinks! Yeah, this rocked. Nice WiR debate too. Made me chuckle.
Lara - was this the one where we learnt half of Krypton has visited earth? If yes, then this is the one that really sucked.**
Wrath - Oh yeah, evil Lana, plot and character development, oh yeah! good one.
Blue. Yep. Already done this one.

Which was the one with Lana keeping Lionel captive? Cos that was also the awesome.
I think I just

I had 6 mince pies and frozen mango for my dinner. Not at the same time. I'm not sure if I'm proud or not.

I think I've scuppered my even/odd number theory.

*except for Bizzarro Linda Danvers Supergirl. She's adorable and I think I want a pet one.
**I'm willing to concede that my views on this are down to the fact that I'm a it of a purist. Part of the pleasure of the Superman mythology is that he was sent to an unknown planet and there are very few others that share the knowledge. Allowing all his family to visit kind of ruins this. (Then again, I've very much enjoyed the recent comics third kryptonian storyline.)