The dreaded three day weekend strikes again!

I was planning to have a review for Battle for the Cowl #3 here tonight(along with reviews for some other really good comics), but due to this past Monday being Memorial Day the mail seems to be off by a day. So, basically I don't really have any new comic reviews to post. I'll probably try to catch up on a few books, I've still got a HUGE pile of Marvel books that have come in the mail these past few months that I just haven't gotten around to reading yet. I guess I'll spend the rest of the night getting caught up with "Wolverine: Origins" or "X-Men". Before I get to those books though, here are a few random thoughts on relatively unimportant stuff!

My favorite online comic shop is having a sale where all post-1981 comics are 10% off, which makes me want to start spending money frivolously. However, I'd much rather buy a new video game for the summer. I'm leaning towards finally getting DC vs. Mortal Kombat, although UFC Unleashed and Infamous look pretty good as well. X-Men Origins: Wolverine is also on my radar, but I'm not sure that game has enough replay value to plunk down the $60 for it.

I watched the most recent episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold tonight, and I have to say that I was not impressed... This episode saw Bats teaming up with Robin(Dick Grayson)to take on Crazy Quilt... Yes, Crazy Quilt. Come on, if you're going to pick a villain with a vendetta against Dick why not choose someone like Two Face? I mean Crazy Quilt??? Really?!? I'll admit I was a fan of this show early on, but the last several episodes have been pretty bad. The more I watch the Brave and the Bold, the more I wish I was watching Batman: The Animated Series.

Well, I really don't have all that much more to add tonight. I'll probably hop over to my other blog and post a few comic pics before signing off for the night. With any luck I'll have finally read Battle for the Cowl #3 by tomorrow night and I'm sure I'll have a lot to say about that.

Just some random complaints.

I just figured I'd post a few complaints tonight. Why am I complaining you might ask? The simple answer is, Daylight Savings. I'm sure there is a reason for Daylight Savings. I know I learned about it in school way back when. It has something to do with farmers right? Anyway, one of my favorite pastimes is sleeping. Yes, I know that's kind of pathetic, but I really enjoy sleeping. While at my last job, I had to get up at 4:30-5:00am to catch the bus at 5:15-5:30am. To cope with waking up at that ungodly hour, I'd be in bed by 8:30pm. I'll say this much about going to sleep at 8:30, it's a great way to save money! You might have no life, but you save money! This whole spring forward, and lose an hour of sleep crap really bothers me. I'm just saying.

Speaking about things that bothered me, this week's episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold also really bugged me. First of all, Cartoon Network put it on at 8:30 instead of 8:00 like they advertised. If you say the show is on at 8, put it on at 8, not 8:30! Anyway, besides that slight annoyance, this week's show featured Batman teaming up with the Joker... Yes, that's right, the frigging Joker. Now, I understand that the cartoon Joker hadn't beat Jason Todd to death with a crowbar, or crippled Barbara Gordon, but still, the cartoon establishes(through a series of flashbacks)that the Joker is a real bad guy. I'm sorry, but Batman and the Joker teaming up is a big no-no for me. On top of the idiotic idea of a Batman-Joker team-up, the voice acting for the Joker was just horrible! I could swear that Joker was speaking with a slight British accent. In my mind, the Joker will always sound like he did in the Batman: The Animated Series. THAT is how the Joker should sound. Not like a high-society snob. This episode just totally fell flat for me.

While I'm in full out complaint mode, allow me to express my shock at the price of this month's New Avengers comic. I kind of touched on it at the end of my review for New Avengers #50(which you can read here if you want), but the cover price for that comic was $4.99! Damn, when I first started collecting comics, I could buy 3 comics for that price and still have 50 cents left over to buy a candy bar! I understand that prices rise over time, etc, etc, but jeez, $5 for a 48 page comic book is kind of crazy Marvel. The price didn't effect me since I get New Avengers in the mail through Marvel's subscription service, but I can't imagine anyone except for the most ardent BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS fans shelling out $5 bucks for that comic.

OK, so what did we learn from this post? I hate Daylight Savings, this week's Batman:tBatB sucked, and the people running Marvel Comics are insane. You know, this was probably one of the strangest posts I've ever published... It really served no purpose. If you actually managed to read this entire post, then all I can say is good for you, I don't know how you did it, but I appreciate it! And now just to end this post in the most bizarre way possible, LONG LIVE THE LEGION!!!

Random thoughts on a Friday night.

Yes, it's Friday night again and you know what that means! Oh, you don't? Well, it means that I'm wasted from the week and instead of actually reviewing some comics or posting something specific, I'm just going to ramble on about some random stuff until get tired and feel like passing out! With that great explanation out of the way, let's start the inane prattle.

-No Batman: The Brave and the Bold tonight... That kind of sucked. That show has really grown on me. It'll NEVER be as great as Batman: The Animated Series, but it's just quirky enough for me to enjoy it. When I'm watching Brave and the Bold, I can just shut my brain off for that half an hour. That's not to say that the Brave and the Bold is some stupid, mindless kids show, it isn't, it's just good, easy to follow fun. With no Brave and the Bold, I was going to watch Wolverine and the X-Men, but I just couldn't bring myself to put it on... It's bad enough that Wolvie is on every team in the Marvel Universe, but now the X-Men are HIS team??? NO WAY! If the cartoon was just called X-Men, I'd watch it. But, I refuse to watch a show called "WOLVERINE and the X-Men". Hell, why not go all the way and just call it "Wolverine!!!"? Or better yet, "Wolverine and some other guys"? What can I say, seeing Wolvie EVERYWHERE is really starting to sour me on the character. I've always been a Wolvie fan, the guy just exudes cool, but come on, enough is enough Marvel, stop overexposing the little Canuck!

-I came close to finally giving in and buying DC vs. Mortal Kombat today... I managed to stay strong though and not give in. Once that price drops a little bit more though, wild horses couldn't keep me away from buying that game. The prospect of kicking ass as Deathstroke actually causes me to salivate!

-Hey, I haven't mentioned a single comic book yet. Let's rectify that right now. Since one of my professor's no showed a class today, I had two hours of sitting around campus with nothing to do. Luckily, I was prepared, and had packed the last 9 issues of the Runaways as well as Batman: The Killing Joke in my book bag. With nothing else to do, I breezed through every one of those books.

-First I'll start with the Runaways. I used to love this comic back when Brian K. Vaughan first created the series. Brian put in a good 24 issues or so, before Marvel handed the writing duties over to Joss Whedon. I really didn't enjoy Joss' take on the team, and lost almost all interest in this book(that's why I had 9 issues to catch up with!). Joss left the series at issue #30, and the series was restarted at #1(Marvel sure loves to do that...)and the writing chores were handed over to Terry Moore, who's work I'd never read before. So, I read issues #1-6 and kind of liked them... Which wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to hate these comics! My subscription is almost up, and now I'm on the fence as to whether I should renew or not. If Joss was still the writer, my decision would be easy, I'd abandon ship. But, I still need a few more issues before I can make up my mind about Terry's work. Most likely, I'll wind up renewing this book, and cutting something else.

-Next up is Batman: The Killing Joke. For those not in the know, this was the Alan Moore graphic novel in which Barbara Gordon(Batgirl/Oracle)is shot and paralyzed by the Joker. This was one of those books where I pretty much knew what happened in it, but felt I had to actually own it. I'm very possessive about comic books, what can I say? The basic story is that Joker decides he wants to prove that any man can be driven insane if pushed far enough, so he decides to drive good old commissioner Jim Gordon crazy. He shoots Barbara, kidnaps the Commish, and basically tortures him physically and emotionally to prove his point. Gordon never snaps like Joker had expected, and Batman eventually shows up to rescue the Commish and bust Joker. The story was really pretty good, and Joker's dance number, complete with sideshow freaks and lyrics nearly had me laughing out loud. However, I was pretty let down by the ending, which sees Batman try one final time to appeal to Joker, offering to do anything in his power to help him reform(this was before Joker's brutal "murder" of Jason Todd). After listening to Batman's offer of help, Joker tells Bats a joke about two guys in an asylum, and the two of them laugh at the punchline. The comic ends with Batman reaching out and grabbing the hysterical Joker... Huh? But didn't Joker just paralyze one of your closest allies and torture another close friend Bats? Why the hell were they standing around sharing a laugh? That really bothered me. This comic also detailed some of the Joker's past, giving some information I didn't know about, so that was a pleasant surprise. If I was to score this comic, I'd give it a 8 1/2 out of 10. It was good, but the ending really sucked for me.

-While I'm still on a Batman kick, I recently finished reading "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" tpb. This wasn't as great as I had heard it would be... That's not to say that I didn't enjoy reading it, because I did, but I was hoping for more. As far as I'm concerned, All-Star Batman and Robin was WAY superior to Dark Knight Returns. I really can't explain why Dark Knight Returns didn't click for me, maybe it was the fact that it was so heavily influenced by it's time, Cold War America, maybe it was because of the far-fetched occurrences that happened. Why the hell would anyone book the Joker to appear on the David Letterman show? I mean come on, that's crazy even for a comic book! I guess the thing that bothered me the most was the final battle between Batman and Joker. Joker had killed Jason Todd 10 years earlier(it was this that pushed Batman to retire), escaped custody, killed 200 people at the Letterman show, killed 20 boy scouts at a county fair with poisoned cotton candy, and went around shooting people indiscriminately until Batman arrived at the fair. Bats finally corners Joker and the two fight, with Batman gaining the upper hand after a nasty battle. Batman twists Joker's neck, snapping it, but not enough to kill him, just enough to paralyze him. Joker decides, "F### that, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life in a wheel chair", and manages to turn his head just enough to kill himself... What the f### is that!?!? I'm sorry, I know Batman doesn't kill, but come on! Joker kills your kid sidekick, murders hundreds(thousands?)of people and just killed a bunch of boy scouts! Snap his f###ing neck already! I can't believe Batman stopped just short of killing Joker here. That really hurt my enjoyment of the rest of this trade. It almost made it seem like Joker had won. Sure, he was dead, but he went out when he wanted to. The end battle between Bats and Superman was pretty cool though. Score-wise, I'd give this tpb a 9 out of 10. I wanted this to be more like All-Star Batman, and it just didn't live up to expectations.

-I also mentioned in an earlier post that I had finished up the Starman series written by James Robinson earlier this week. I'd implore anyone who hasn't read those comic books to hunt them down and give them a read. Starman was by far the best comic series I've read in a LONG time(maybe ever). Not only did I love the way the main character, Jack Knight developed, I just couldn't get enough of the Shade. That guy was just incredible! I'd probably rank the Shade right up there amongst my favorite comic book characters of all-time, which speaks volumes about just how awesome the Starman series was. One of the secondary characters has become one of my all-time favorites. Starman was an amazing series, and I hope the rumors I've heard about James revisiting the character down the road are true. Jack Knight in the role of Starman again, even in a flashback story would have me doing backflips through my house!

I think that's about all I can come up with tonight. If you've got any questions or comments, post em, and I'll be more than happy to respond. Until next time, LONG LIVE THE LEGION!

Random thoughts on a Friday night.

This is the first month since I've been keeping a blog that I haven't reached the 100 post plateau. I think I fell about 10 posts short of 100... Damn schoolwork! Interfering with my comic book reading/blogging!

-Speaking of comic book reading, I've been happily reading through the collection of Starman tpb's I've recently acquired. Yesterday, Starman tpb's #4-5, and #8-10 arrived. 6 and 7 should be here by Monday at the latest. I have this ever growing pile of Marvel comics that I just don't have the ambition to read. Between the simply superb Starman comics, to the massive amount of schoolwork I've been getting this semester(and trust me, it's been alot of work!), I really haven't had the time(or energy)to try to read through those Marvel comics. However, I will try to give Runaways a read since the subscription is almost up and before spending $20 on 12 issues I should probably see what the hell is going on in that book. It's insane how many "Ultimate" Marvel comics I have laying around, still in their original shrink-wrap. It's been literally months since I last read an "Ultimate" Marvel comic. Oh well, I guess one day I'll catch up on those books... Probably...

-I'm not sure how many people who read my blog are also into video games, but the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum game looks simply phenomenal! IGN.com has a new feature up about this game. The storyline sounds pretty good, along with the graphics looking simply gorgeous. Of course, graphics don't make a game, and I'll be waiting to see what the actual reviews for this game look like before I decide to plunk down the moolah for it. I'm still waiting for the price of DC vs. MK to drop so I can snatch that game up. Now that I've polished off Lego Batman(which I'd recommend to any Batfan, provided they can get it cheap), I'm currently game-less!

-The Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon wasn't anything great this week. It dealt with Bats, along with the new Atom(not Ray Palmer)and Aquaman(who was about as dumb as a sack of bricks)teaming up to take down Chemo and the Brain... Not exactly must see TV... I'm still waiting for an episode of this series where Bats teams up with Nightwing or Robin. What gives DC? A Batman/Nightwing team-up episode better be somewhere down the road for this cartoon... So far Bats has teamed with Aquaman(twice), Green Arrow(twice, but I really enjoyed both times), Deadman, Wildcat(the first one), Red Tornado, the new Blue Beetle(twice... And I hated both episodes!), Plastic Man, and a few others... But no Nightwing or Robin, who are actually Batman's partners in the comics... Weird...

-Hopefully tomorrow, I'll have some new comics to review, since I'm(still)waiting on an order I placed about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago to arrive. To be perfectly honest with you, I don't even remember what I ordered! I could check the order out online, but I figure I'll just wait and be surprised by whatever comes. It'll be like Christmas all over again! Although a surprise is kind of nice, it's kind of sad that I can't remember what I ordered just 2 1/2 short weeks ago... They say your memory is the first thing to go...

-Of course, the main comic I want to read is Final Crisis #7, and I'm not expecting that to arrive until at the earliest, next Friday... THAT is going to be one hellishly long wait. The tough part isn't just the wait, it's trying to avoid accidentally reading/hearing about any spoilers. I don't want to know ANYTHING about FC #7 until I've actually read it myself.

-Before ending this post, let me say thank you to anyone who actually took time out of their busy life to read my ramblings. And I mean that sincerely. I consider it an honor to know that someone out there is taking the time to check out my little corner of the Internet. Besides that though, I do have a quick question that hopefully someone will respond to. I was wondering what exactly you do with the comic books you purchase after reading them. Personally, after reading any new comic/tpb I receive, I put them away in a crate, box or bookshelf. I NEVER sell, give away or otherwise dispose of ANYTHING I collect. I'm just curious as to how some of my fellow collectors deal with the books they buy. Do you keep and store EVERYTHING like I do? Sell them on a site like eBay? Trade them to friends/relatives for other books? Donate them? Throw them out? What ever you do with your comics I'm curious to find out. I only ask this because after visiting my place a few weeks ago, my father was flabbergasted by the sheer number of comic books I've collected over the years. He couldn't fathom why I was actually collecting the comics. To him, after reading them, I should just discard them in some way(sell them, throw them out, etc.). His reaction seems to be quite common to non-comic book collectors. I can't imagine getting rid of ANY of the books I've collected over the years. Even the comics I hate I can't bring myself to part with. I'm a comic book collector. That's what I do, collect comic books. I was just wondering if other collectors were as adamant about not parting with ANY of their collection, or if it's just some weird genetic quirk affecting only me.

-That's it I guess. It's time for me to pick up my Starman tpb and drift into Opal City... The only thing left to say is, as always, LONG LIVE THE LEGION!

Some Random Rambling.

Hey, I figured I'd treat(or punish)everyone by just posting about whatever comes to mind for the next 15 minutes(I've got 15 minutes to kill).

-First things first, and I'll be honest with you, I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I've been playing(and thoroughly enjoying)Lego Batman on my PS3. As a Batman fan, I LOVE that damn game! First off, you get to play as something like 40 different characters, including(obviously)Batman and Robin, as well as most of the villains in the Batman Universe. For me though, the real fun comes in getting to play as my personal favorite, Nightwing. There's nothing more fun than having the Scarecrow throw fear gas at a bunch of cops and then have Nightwing knock the cops out with a batarang. On top of that, you can create your own character and use them in the game, which is pretty cool. Yep, Lego Batman has been monopolizing what little free time I have left.

-And to be honest, I sure don't have much free time left anymore since school has started back up again this week. In the three days I've been back, I've been loaded with tons of homework! Jeez, usually the professors wait about a week before they start to pile on the homework! Every single class I'm taking this semester has already assigned homework, including a paper due for English tomorrow! So, if my posting seems sporadic or worse than usual(it can get WORSE?!?)blame the barrage of homework I'm dealing with.

-I finally decided to stop collecting Thunderbolts, which was a tough decision... I've collected every single issue of that series, but the team has strayed so far from it's roots, it made my decision a little bit easier. Besides dropping the T-Bolts, I won't be renewing my subscription to the Punisher series, ANY of the Ultimate titles and POSSIBLY the Runaways. I have like 7 issues of the Runaways to catch up on, but that series just hasn't been the same since Brian K. Vaughan left it. Joss Whedon's run really bothered me because of the constant delays. Having to wait 5 months between issues really hurt the flow of this comic for me. Eventually, I'll try to catch up on this series so I can see if I should bother to renew it or not.

-I placed an order for comics this week and was kind of surprised to see the price for Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #2 to be $4.50... Isn't charging $3.99 enough? Jeez, I guess DC is trying to milk as many pennies from me as they possibly can...

-Speaking of DC, I've always wondered why they seem hesitant to put out as many trade paper backs as Marvel does. That's one good thing about Marvel, they put EVERYTHING in tpb. DC only puts a very select few book in trades, and it usually takes them months/years to put one out. Marvel on the other hand has already put out a trade collecting "Secret Invasion"! That's pretty damn impressive, considering the fact that Secret Invasion only ended 1 month ago. Although DC has definitely gotten alot better when it comes to releasing trades, they are still lagging behind Marvel on this front.

-8pm tomorrow(Friday)on Cartoon Network, Batman: The Brave and the Bold! I know I'll be watching.

-Alright! My 15 minutes are up, which means I can end this post. Before I do go though, I'd ask any readers who have read Final Crisis #6 to give this post and this post a read and tell me what you think about the events that played out in FC #6. Even if you're not planning to read FC #6, give those posts a look, and tell me what you think. Yes, that's right, I just shamelessly plugged my own blog! And with that pitiful act, I'm done!

Quick Hits 1/10/09

Yeah, so I've decided that I'll write a Quick Hits post on this blog about once a week, where I'll just babble incoherently for a while about comic books and occasionally other things that catch my fancy. But mainly comics. I mean, this is supposed to be a blog about comics, right? Why am I doing a post about a bunch of random things as opposed to posting reviews about the stuff I'm reading? Because I'm getting lazy, that's why! With that out of the way, onto this week's Quick Hits!

-Once again, I have to praise the "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" cartoon on the Cartoon Network. I really get a kick out of that cartoon! Usually, this show will get more than a few chuckles out of me during it's half-hour run. Just to let anyone who hasn't ever watched "B:tBatB" know, this show basically has Batman teaming up with another hero from the DC Universe and battling some villainous menace. This week it was Wildcat, last week it was Green Arrow, before that it was Blue Beetle, and Red Tornado was also in one episode. This series is nothing like the awesome "Batman: The Animated Series" from the 90's, and it's not trying to be, which is why it works for me. Where as B:tAS was a darker cartoon, from the episode content, to the animation itself, B:tBatB is a very lighthearted series that doesn't take itself too seriously. Think of B:tBatB as the offspring of the campy Batman live action series of the 1960's and the gritty Batman cartoon of the 1990's. This series isn't a complete comedy, but it has it's funny moments. Batman himself has a very dry wit, and will occasionally say/think things that will have me laughing out loud. Just in case you haven't watched this show yet, and are curious, it airs new episodes every Friday at 8:00 pm on Cartoon Network.

-Speaking of Batman, can you believe that I still haven't seen "The Dark Knight" yet? I must be the last Batman fan alive who hasn't watched this movie yet...

-Earlier today I was going through a few of my old West Coast Avengers comics and came across the old storyline, "Acts of Vengeance". This story was basically about Loki convincing a bunch of super-villains to form a secret group in order to strike at the Avengers and various other super-heroes... Hmm, that sure sounds kind of familiar... Whatever happened to the "House of Ideas"? Nowadays, it's more like the House of Bad Ideas... I better stop right there before I go off on another tear about Marvel and Brian Bendis again.

-The weather has sure been SUCKtacular here in my neck of the woods so far this winter... This week has really been pretty bad, with snow every night, and a full blown ice storm Wednesday night into Thursday. I REALLY hate ice. It's like a frigging ice skating rink outside my home! On top of all this crap, my county is under a winter storm warning for all day tomorrow into Sunday... Yay, just what I want, more snow... I can't wait until April!

-On the bright side, since my classes don't start until Tuesday January 20, I don't have to leave my place unless I want to. Maybe by then the weather will have changed for the better... HAHAHA! Yeah right!

-The last few nights I've been reading the DC comic series, "Hard Time". So far I've liked it. The premise is a 15 year old kid named Ethan Harrow and his friend get tired of being picked on by the popular kids at their school, so they decide to take guns to the school to scare their bullies. Well, Ethan's pal goes kind of crazy and starts to shoot at the other kids. Ethan winds up blasting a hole through his friend with some kind of powers he didn't know he had, which kills his friend. 5 kids wind up dying from the shooting, and Ethan winds up getting sentenced as an adult to 50 years, even though he hadn't shot anybody. The first 6 issues I've read have dealt with Ethan trying to survive in prison, while slowly beginning to realize that he has some kind of powers he never knew about. You have the various ethnic gangs, religious nutjobs, overworked prison guards, and shower room antics you would expect from a prison story here. The first 3 issues were better than issues 4-6, but overall, this series hasn't been that bad.

-I'm STILL waiting to get my hands on JSA #22! I really want to read that comic! I've been avoiding some of my favorite blogs, in an attempt to not spoil the end of this issue for myself. Hopefully, early next week, I'll finally receive this comic book.

-Speaking of next week, Final Crisis #6 comes out Wednesday. I've already placed my order in advance, and choose the rush delivery option, so by Thursday or Friday(hopefully), I'd have received/read that comic book. I can't remember the last time I've been looking so forward to a single comic book. FC #6 is supposed to reveal the final fate of Batman, and I for one am dying to see what Grant Morrison has in store for Bats. Just so everyone knows in advance, I WILL be avoiding all contact with the outside world starting Wednesday, and lasting until I read FC #6. I'm dead serious about this. I won't be reading any comic related blogs/websites, I won't be reading the newspaper, and I won't be watching the news. Hell, depending how paranoid I get, I might not go online at all. There is a reason for my slightly psychotic behavior here. 2 1/2 years ago, I was watching CNN(or Fox News, I don't remember which)and across the crawl on the bottom of the screen, it said that Captain America had been killed off in "Captain America"#25. The problem with that was that I hadn't READ Cap #25 yet! The f###ing news spoiled something that should have been a huge shock when I read it. I was so pissed off that I heard about Cap's death before I actually read the comic book. Well, this time that's NOT going to happen. NOTHING will spoil FC #6 for me!

Well, hopefully someone will enjoy reading this post as much as I've enjoyed putting it together. I can honestly say that I really and truly enjoy posting stuff to this blog, as well as reading a select few other blogs from like-minded folks(you know who you are!). As always, if you want to comment on anything I've posted, fire away, I'll be more than happy to respond. I really need a catchphrase to end this post if it's going to be a weekly thing...