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!"

New Comic Day! March 2nd edition.

Another Wednesday, another New Comic Day post... I'm going to have to make this post kind of brief as I have a paper due for my Literature class and I should probably be working on that instead of this here post... But much like a junkie, I can't completely ditch my weekly NCD fix, so here we are. Let's get right into last week's books so I can quickly get into what I picked up earlier today... Last week's Pick of the Litter, Fantastic Four #588, was actually a bit of a disappointment to me, only garnering a 7 1/2 for a score. I mean it had its good parts, but I was expecting SO much more... Last week's Runt on the other hand more than surpassed my expectations for it. I wasn't expecting much from Detective Comics #874, but it impressed, getting a score of 8 1/2. In my defense though, I really didn't have my heart in picking Detective as the Runt, but I had to pick SOMETHING, and Detective wound up being it.

Okay, moving speedily along, here's the subscription books I'm expecting to receive eventually... Batman: Streets of Gotham #20, Green Lantern #63(My GOD, didn't I just suffer through this?!), Daken: Dark Wolverine #6 and X-Factor #216. With that out of the way, here's what I snagged at the comic shop earlier today. Brightest Day #21(once again, my GOD, didn't I just suffer through this!?), Freedom Fighters #7(sadly not long for this world), Secret Six #31, Avengers Academy #10, Wolverine/Hercules #1(I'm not sure why...), Deadpool #33.1, Thunderbolts #154, Wolverine: The Best There Is #4(are we really already up to issue #4?), Captain America and Falcon #1, Daken: Dark Wolverine #6 and Annihilators #1. Yeah, that's right, I have Daken #6 coming in the mail AND I picked it up today as well! I couldn't resist! I also snagged the Batman Beyond trade collecting that recent mini-series. Not a HUGE week for me, with only 11 comic shop books and 4 subscription titles, but a decent enough pull for yours truly. I'm going to grace Daken: Dark Wolverine #6 with the title of Pick of this Week's Litter, as it is one of my favorite ongoing books. As for this week's Runt, need you even ask?! It's Brightest Day #21 hands down! Just THINKING about reading that comic is getting me angry! So yeah, that's going to have to do it for me, as I REALLY need to get back to work! Thanks for stopping by, and until next time, X out.

The Random Scan of the Week!I miss the good old Flash days...

The Random Scan of the Week!

From Flash: 80-Page Giant #1(Aug. 1998).

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 7.

Yeah, I made it! This is the 7th and final post for my Impulse spotlight. Now that I've finished up with Impulse, I've got to decide who/what to dedicate the next 7 days on... Hmmm...

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 6.

It's Day 6 and I'm officially heading down the homestretch with my spotlight on Impulse. After tonight, I'll do one more Impulse post before I move on to spotlight someone/thing else.

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 5.

Two more days and I officially wrap up my Impulse posts. I'm still not sure what I plan on spotlighting next... I've got a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet.

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 4.

I've only got a few days left before my Impulse spotlight is over, so I'm already thinking about what series/character I should tackle next... Well, for now, here are some more Impulse-centric pictures.

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 3.

And here are a few more Impulse pictures as the spotlight rolls on.

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 2.

Here are some more pics of Impulse thinking, as I continue my nightly spotlight.

Spotlight on Impulse, Day 1.

As I stated yesterday, I'm going to spend the next few days spotlighting my favorite DCU speedster, Bart Allen. I've liked Bart through all of his various name changes, but Bart as Impulse was definitely my favorite. There are probably hundreds of great Impulse scans I could post, but I'm going to stick with just posting Bart's thoughts. Why post Bart's thoughts you ask? Because unlike any other character I can think of, Bart would always think in picture, not words. Well, without further ado, here's the first 5 Impulse images.

Bart Allen, My Favorite Flash.

Yep, that's right, Bart Allen is my favorite Flash. No, I didn't mistype, or get smacked in the head by anything, I've been a fan of Bart from his Impulse days, through his time as Kid Flash, to his all to short run as the Fastest Man Alive. Over the course of the next few nights I'll be posting pics from Bart's days as Impulse. Enjoy!

Nothing cheers me up like Young Justice!

As I type these words I have to admit that I am one sad blogger tonight... Why? My beloved New York Rangers were eliminated from the NHL playoffs earlier tonight. What do I do to cheer myself up? Why I go through some of my old comic books, that's what! Here are a couple of scans from "Young Justice", my favorite teen-oriented comic book ever.

Shooting the breeze on current DC comic events.

It's been kind of quiet around the old blog lately, so I figured instead of posting another comic review or some scans, I'd just talk about some of the recent events going on over at DC comics lately. Hopefully, this will spur some interest up around here.

First and foremost, the return of Bart Allen is some of the most welcome comic related news I've heard in quite some time. I've followed Bart from his Impulse days, and couldn't be happier to read his return in "FC:Legion of 3 Worlds" #3. I even went so far to search for some Bart related spoilers, something I NEVER usually do(I hate spoilers!), and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Geoff Johns seems like he intends to bring Bart back to the present and put him in the upcoming Flash: Rebirth mini-series. Honestly, when Barry Allen came back, there was that childish part of me that was pissed that Barry was getting a second chance, but that Bart wasn't. Now, those feelings are a distant memory. Now the question is, where exactly do Barry/Bart Allen go from here? Where do they fit in? Bart's identity was revealed at his funeral, and I'm pretty sure that Barry's identity was revealed to the public soon after his death. I wonder how exactly DC/Geoff plans to tackle those issues. I've got some thoughts, but I wonder what everyone else thinks.

Next up is the possible return of Superboy. During the "Origins and Omens" part of Adventure Comics #0, it was pretty strongly hinted that Superboy might be making his return soon, probably during the "Blackest Night" event. Personally, I've always liked Superboy, but I really didn't approve of Geoff Johns relating Superboy to Lex Luthor. That seemed so unnecessary to me, since Lex Luthor would always be involved in Superboy's life based on the fact that SB wore the big red S on his chest. I will admit that I like practically anything Geoff writes, but that revelation really bothered me. I'm not sure about anybody else, but I wouldn't mind seeing SB return from the dead and the whole Lex Luthor/Superboy relationship retconned.

Another favorite topic of mine is the upcoming "Battle for the Cowl" storyline that is set to shake up the Batman family of books. Personally, I'm guessing that DC is going to make Dick Grayson(Nightwing)the new Batman, like they should have done back in the 1990's. I actually have VERY mixed feelings about this move, because I feel that anyone who becomes the next Batman is only going to be a temporary fix, since we all know eventually Bruce Wayne will return from where ever Darkseid sent him(the past?)to reclaim the Batman identity. Obviously, we're not going to have two Batmen running around, so when Bruce comes back, what becomes of his replacement? I don't know about anyone else, but I have a feeling that whoever becomes the next Batman won't be surviving the experience...

Then we have poor Tim Drake. I don't think it's a secret that Grant Morrison doesn't like Tim and that Grant has been grooming Damien Wayne to become the new Robin. With Damien taking the Robin mantle, where exactly does that leave Tim? I can't imagine DC would make him the new Batman, so he seems headed for comic book limbo. My best hope for Tim is that DC repackages the character with a brand new identity and he gets his own solo book with his own cast of characters. I mean Tim as Robin managed to last 183 issues, why not set him up in a new book with a new identity if Grant is hellbent on handing the Robin outfit over to Damien. I think Tim could survive under a new name in a new comic, the question is does anybody else?

Besides that, I'm currently reading through the current Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps comics. I'm roughly 13 issues into Hal's comic and I'm just starting the Corps comic. I can't say I was overwhelmed by the earlier issues of Hal's series, but the last few issues have really picked up steam. As for the Corps, I'm still way to early in the series to have a definite opinion of that comic yet.

Off the top of my head, that's all the stuff I can come up with right now. If you'd like to comment on anything I've written about here, feel free to post away. If there's something else in the DCU(or even Marvel)going on you want to shoot about here, be my guest. Like I always say, the more I can get people talking about comics, the better!

Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #3(of 5)

Overall- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH............ :-)

It's hard to put into words what I just read in this comic book, so I'm going to be quite brief with the beginning of this comic book, because, quite frankly, to me, NOTHING that happened in this comic book meant a thing until the last few pages. The story itself was the original Legion along with Superman battling an group of villains led by(in his mind)Superboy Prime. When things looked the bleakest for Superman and the Legionnaire's, the Legion of Super-Heroes from the reboot and threeboot era's arrived to even out the odds. With the villains now occupied, the three Brainiac 5's along with all 3 Lightning Lad's and all 3 Light Lass' meet up with Xs and a Cosmic Treadmill at the headquarters of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Superboy Prime begins to realize that the Legion is up to something that he really doesn't want to deal with, so he abandons the battle against the Legionnaire's and attacks the Legion headquarters. Xs gets on the Cosmic Treadmill and begins to run, while the Lightning Lads/Lass' hold up lightning rods, and things start to get crazy in Brainiac's lab, as lightning begins to shoot everywhere. Finally, Xs seems to find what the Brainiac 5's wanted her to find, and she stops running. An energy form stands there stating that it(the energy)feels much better now. Superboy Prime breeches the layer of the Brainiac 5's and rushes into the room just in time to see the energy take it's true form, that of Kid Flash!

Wooooooo-boy... Where to start? I'll start at the obvious. IF, and let me emphasise that, IF, that Kid Flash is Bart Allen, then I'll be doing frigging backflips, because, believe it or not, Bart Allen IS my favorite DC character. I proudly own Bart's first appearance in the Flash comic book, as well as his other early appearances in Flash, every single issue of Impulse(including the annuals and specials)the whole Young Justice series, all of Bart's run on the Teen Titans, and the Flash: Fastest Man Alive series that starred the adult Bart as the Flash. So, if this Kid Flash is who I hope it is, then this mini-series will go down as one of my favorites of all-time, solely due to the fact that it brought Bart back to life.

Now, there is a tiny little piece of me that is worried that this isn't the Bart Allen I've spent so much time reading about. The only reason I have any doubt that this isn't Bart, is the fact that the Kid Flash at the end of this comic book had blue eyes, and Bart had yellow eyes... Most likely this was just a coloring snafu, because EVERYTHING in this comic pointed to this Kid Flash being Bart Allen returned to life. The fact that Superboy Prime feared Kid Flash as much as he did leads me to believe that this Kid Flash HAS to be Bart, since it was Bart who posed such problems for Superboy Prime during Infinite Crisis.

Besides Bart's apparent rebirth, I have to say that I also enjoyed the antics of Superboy Prime. Yes, SuperBOY Prime. I loathe calling him SuperMAN Prime, due to his childish behavior/antics. I was also kind of pissed that out of all of the Legionnaire's present, Superboy Prime manages to kill the Sun Boy from my threeboot Legion. What the hell?!? As I've already stated previously, the threeboot Legion is the one I am most familiar with, so I was disheartened to see one of the Legionnaire's I cared about killed in such an offhanded manner.

Honestly though, that was the ONLY complaint I had about this comic. To me, a huge fan of Bart Allen, this comic book was practically perfect. Although Sun Boy's unnecessary death really bothered me, the return of Bart Allen trumps that by leaps and bounds. As such, for a score, I'm going to give this issue the score every comic book desires, a perfect 10 out of 10! This comic righted a wrong that has bothered me since I read the end of the Flash: The Fastest Man Alive series, which chronicled Bart's death. If this truly is Bart Allen returned from the dead and de-aged back to his Kid Flash days, then this comic will forever hold a special place in my heart. I CAN NOT wait for the next issue of this series!!!

The March to Valentine's Day: Acting on Impulse

How could I post a bunch of pictures and neglect to post anything involving one of my favorite characters(and yes, my favorite Flash), Bart Allen. Impy, you may be gone, but you're definitely not forgotten.

Damn, I don't remember Bart being such a stud as Impulse... I remember him having very little interest in women, at least not until his Kid Flash/Flash years. I guess I was pretty wrong! I don't know if it was the big hair, or huge feet, but girls were really into Impy. Damn, I sure wish it was Bart returning from the dead instead of Barry Allen... Sigh...

Just a random picture.

Since it's late, and I just spent most of my time commenting here, I figured I'd just pick a random picture from my computer and post it. Anyway, this is my 100th post for December(Yay!), and I can't think of two better characters for December's centennial post than Impulse and Superboy. Ahh, how I miss both of these characters...