Random Tuesday Thoughts.

Hey X-Maniacs, it's your humble servant, comic book malefactor and Shaman to Mutantkind, X here with what can only be described as a time-wasting post... You see, I'm kind of in that weird spot where I don't have any new books to review(well, except for one, but I'll get to that soon), I don't feel like doing another Jason Todd review, nor do I feel like doing a trade review... So what's left? How's about a post that talks about a whole MESS of things then? I haven't done one of those in a while, so I'll go with that. There are a few comic related topics I could talk about here(as well as the obligatory video game remark), and that should, at the very least, kill some time and bridge the gap between today and Wednesday, where I'll have my normal New Comic Day post. In order to make things easier for you, the reader, I'll highlight the main topic for each paragraph in blue. Okay, with that out of the way, let's get to it!

-First things first, that lone new comic I haven't done a review for... I figure this is as good a place as any to tackle that, so here it is! The comic is Annihilators #4(of 4), and is written by the usually sterling team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. I hadn't really enjoyed this mini-series the way I expected to, but I'd be willing to give this issue a 7 out of 10. It had it's good points(a lot of action), but it also had it's bad points(the Spaceknights and Dire Wraiths kissing and making up). Now, I'm no expert on the Spaceknights or Dire Wraiths, but I always figured they were like the Krees and Skrulls. In other words, perpetually at war. I could never imagine the Krees and Skrulls shaking hands, so it seemed odd that sworn enemies for years/decades/centuries(?), would be so willing to overlook their longstanding hatred of each other. But what do I know? Oh, and I didn't read that horrid Rocket Raccoon story, because I knew I was gonna hate it anyway.

-Next order of business is the DCU reboot. And no, I'm NOT going to call it the “DCNU”, because it's NOT new. From the few interviews I've read, it seems like the Bat-books aren't being changed at all... Think about that for a second. In the so-called DCNU, there's nothing new in the Bat-books! They're simply continuing the old storylines! In every interview with one of the Bat-book writers, the writers have gone out of their way to state that every change that happens to the Bat-books would be explained. Then on the other hand, you have a character like Superboy... Yes Superboy, who's been around for about 15 years now(give or take a year), and is being COMPLETELY blown up and started from scratch. In the rebooted DCU, SB is a failed experiment simply known as “The Clone”, created by Project NOWHERE. And the solicitation for the new SB book literally says, “Can a clone develop a conscience?” Seriously! I'm not creative enough to come up with shit like THAT! “The Clone”? “Project NOWHERE”? “develop a conscience”?!? Really?! Now, even after reading that, I'm still going to be picking up that Superboy series, but damn, it sounds BRUTALLY bad! All I can hope is that Grant Morrison winds up writing a story for Superboy. That way he'll simply blend the new, “failed clone” Superboy with the current Superboy, because that's what he does. Don't believe me? Two words: Jason Todd.

-Speaking of brutally bad, and terrible ideas, Marvel announced that they were canceling Uncanny X-Men. Now, I'll admit that Kieron Gillen's work on that series has been awful, but that's no reason to cancel one of Marvel's longest running series! Seriously though, it looks like after the Schism mini-series(which I have surprisingly high hopes for), Marvel is going to debut two new X-Men books, most likely one where Lord Summers and the crazier muties will still be living like insane hermits on an island somewhere, and the other where Wolverine will take the more sane muties and set them up elsewhere, like maybe X-Mansion(hopefully!). Of course this is still all speculation, but since we pretty much know Lord Summers and Wolvie will be the one's having the ideological differences, it makes sense. Knowing the way Marvel operates, I'm sure they'll simply restart Uncanny at #1 and then renumber it once it reaches a milestone number...

-I started reading the first “Supreme Power” hardcover the other night, and I have to say, it's been AMAZING so far! Now granted, I'm only 4 issues in, but damn, when J. Michael Straczynski wants to, he can write an awesome story! You know, unlike his unfortunate Superman and Wonder Woman runs... Then again, I mainly enjoyed his Amazing Spidey run too, so maybe the moral of this story is that writers shouldn't go to DC, because they seemingly deteriorate or something...

-I've been happily playing InFamous 2 this past week, and have been enjoying the hell out of it. So far I've beaten the game as a hero, and I have to say, the ending shocked(pun intended!) me. I definitely didn't see it coming. That's all I'm going to say about the ending though, since I don't want to spoil anything for anybody who may not have picked it up yet. I'm currently playing through a second time as a villain, which is, as expected, a blast... What's more fun then just walking down the street and pummeling anything and anyone that gets in your way?

-Speaking of video games, it seems that Robin will be playable in the upcoming Batman: Arkham City... In a way... It looks like you'll be able to play as Robin the same way you could play as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum. That is to say not during the game itself, but in those mini-game/challenges. That's pretty cool, and I'm fine with that(although I'd rather play as a Robin as opposed to Catwoman in the main game...), I just wonder which Robin we're getting... I doubt it's Damian, and you KNOW it's not Jason or Steph, which leaves Tim or Dick. My money's on Dick, probably wearing an outfit akin to Tim's original Robin design. In a perfect world though, they'd give you different skins for all the Robins, allowing you to basically play as any of them, even if the moves remain the same. Regardless, I'll be getting that game the day it drops.

-Moving back to the blog, I'm once again stymied as to what to do with the picture blog... I can't help but feel kind of guilty that I'm not doing more there... I mean hell, I post to this blog EVERY day! I post to the other blog sporadically at best... I was toying with the idea of just going through my comics in alphabetical order and posting a random page from a random book, but then you might wind up with something totally bland, like a random page from an issue of Hawkman or something... But then on the other hand, trying to post to both blogs nightly might be asking for trouble... An overworked X is a cranky X! I'm open to suggestions, but don't be surprised if I just keep that blog the exact same as it is now.

I think that's enough rambling for now. I'll give you guys a treat for sticking with me until the end of this mess and bust out a bonus random scan. Until next time(which I guess will be tomorrow...), X out.

The BONUS Random Scan of the Week!"Hey Bart, how about we radically change up your character like we did to your friend Superboy! Bart? Hey, come back!"