Day of Vengeance (comics)

Writers: Bill Willingham, Judd Winick
Artists: Justiniano, Ian Churchill, Ron Wagner
Collects: Action Comics #826, Adventures of Superman #639, Superman #216, Day of Vengeance #1-6

Like most of the lead-ins to Infinite Crisis, the stakes are very high. All of them seem to encompass a different facet, or genre, of the DC Universe. Villains United, for example, focused largely on the villains. With Day of Vengeance, we focus on the magic sect of DC, witnessing the trials and tribulations they face as crisis looms large. Also like the other lead-ins, this mini is just as much a stage setter for a future ongoing; in this case, Day of Vengeance aptly sets up the future Shadowpact series.

Right from jump street, things are already very bad. The Spectre - Spirit of Vengeance - is without a human host, which means that he is without the tether of humanity that helps inform his judgment. As he slowly slips into madness and loses reason, Eclipso, the original Spirit of Vengeance, looses his silver tongue upon the Spectre. Convincing the confused entity that magic is the root of all evil, Eclipso manipulates the Spectre into a crusade to destroy magic.

Being as The Spectre is one of the single most powerful magic beings going, his crusade quickly turns into a slaughterhouse. The heavy hitters of the magic superheroes - Phantom Stranger, Madame Xanadu, Doctor Fate and so on - are caught by surprise and disabled. The rest of the magic based hero community, understandably panicked, holes up in the inter-dimensional Oblivion Bar. As things get ever bleaker, six of them team together to go on a suicide mission against the Spectre. Their only hope of succeeding lies in Captain Marvel and a young teenage girl named Black Alice.

Now, speaking based on personal preference, I've never found the magic based books terribly interesting. This goes for DC or Marvel. Too often, only the most powerful have a shot at an ongoing or story in general and some of them are little more than Deus Ex Machinas masquerading as a character, largely from a lack of definition to what they can and cannot do. This is one of those rare times I ended up buying a comic trade solely on the branding; I was at a comic convention, it was in a five dollar box of trades, had that "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" banner and I'd already gotten a couple of the other lead in mini's in trade. So I figured "what the hell" and nabbed it when I otherwise might not have.

I'm glad I did.

In magic based comics, it isn't always easy to get across suitable threats for the heroes. But Bill Willingham wisely set this mini up properly. The team that is central to the book are mostly mid list magic heroes that did not have a home anyway and the Spectre's misguided rampage provides a suitable threat, seeing as he's one of the most powerful characters in the DCU. The threat feels very real when he surprise attacks the heavy hitters of DC's magic scene and takes them down quickly. On top of which, Eclipso is in the mix. The Shadowpact - the name of their team - certainly have their hands full.

The writing is generally good. Bill Willingham is probably best known for his creator owned work - see Fables - and a lot of his superhero work leaves much to be desired. But here it's almost as if he's more at home. The "voices" of each character feels relatively distinct and spot on. There's also some strategy written in on the Shadowpact's part; they aren't always in the thick of the fight and they're horribly outmatched anyway, so they tend to support guys like Captain Marvel or lay traps. After all, taking the Spectre head on with their mid list power is, as they would put it, a suicide mission.

Also included is an arc from the Superman books by Judd Winick. This also feels like one of his better days in comic writing. It's mostly a Captain Marvel and Superman team-up against Eclipso that sets the stage for Day of Vengeance. It does a pretty decent job of it, as well, and reminds me that Judd can write a pretty decent Superman and Captain Marvel. It's enough to make a guy think that Judd should stick to writing the A listers, because it sometimes feels like that's where he does his best work.

Another point in this stories favor is that it feels more self contained. Whereas Villains United required a little prior knowledge, everything you need to know is included in here. Right down to the Superman prologue story. There are much fewer "wha" moments for anyone who might not be reading a lot of other Infinite Crisis era books as a result and this isn't something that should be understated. Obviously it's still an Infinite Crisis lead-in, but you don't feel like you actually need to read any other books to understand what's going on at a particular moment.

As you can probably tell by now, the trade contains a generous amount of comics, especially for a suggested retail price of thirteen dollars (yeah, I paid five for it, but roll with me here). There's a full three issue Superman story that acts as a prologue plus the six issue "Day of Vengeance" mini proper. That's nine comics for thirteen bucks; pretty meaty for the price, honestly. A good thing too, as I imagine it inspires some folks to pick up things they normally might not.

The art's not bad either. Ian Churchill does the Superman arc and I don't know if it's this general story inspiring better work or what, but he does pretty decent as well. He generally resists the urge to tart every female in the story up - though one character does not escape this - and his figure composition is better than usual. Granted, it still needs work - I do not know what is up with the chicken legs the doctor has in one panel late in that story - but I've seen worse from him.

Justiniano, on the other hand, is just damn good. I'm mostly familiar with him from his work with Geoff Johns on the Beast Boy mini - collected in the "Beast Boys and Girls" Teen Titans trade - so I already knew he does some great work. Not much has changed since then. If there's a mis-step in this department, it's with the lettering; there's occasionally a goof or two that sticks out. I think the one that was most noticeable was a word balloon with the backwards speak of Zatanna pointing at Black Alice with Doctor Fates powers instead of Black Alice with Zatannas. Doesn't happen often, but when it does it's a smidge distracting.

The Score: 8 out of 10

I'm not usually big on comics with magic central to it, but I suppose this makes the case that I jut haven't read the right ones. It's a good story that flows well and feels high stakes on it's own, even if it didn't have a crisis looming on the horizon. I'd recommend it, even if you're not big on magic or mystical based comics. You might find you enjoy it too.

Villains United (comics)

Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: Dale Eaglesham, Val Semeiks
Collects: Villains United #1-6

Villain teams are interesting. Sometimes more-so than the heroes. While the white hats tend to work together, villain teams are rife with problems, betrayals and splits that always threaten to tear them apart. So it's not hard to see how they could make for some entertaining fiction. Unfortunately, it isn't too often that the villains get a comic or the spotlight.

Enter Gail Simone and her revamp of the Secret Six, which started here in the Infinite Crisis tie-in mini "Villains United".

As the drums of a crisis begin pounding, unflattering secrets of DC's heroes come to light in the universe at large. The main bone of contention is the Justice Leagues past of mind-wiping villains. Frightened, indignant and outraged, the villains of the DC Universe begin uniting under the Secret Society of Super Villains. But some do not. Under the orders of the mysterious Mockingbird, six villains take the fight to the Society. Not everyone will walk away from this fight.

While they're technically considered "villains", the Secret Six - the protagonists of this mini - tend to fall more under the gray than villainy. Several of them are deeply flawed, but also possess positive character traits. They're more akin to anti-heroes than anything else. They exist in the divide between the villain and the hero; disgusted by the Justice Leagues mind-wiping yet not interested in towing the line with the Society. Most of the characters end up being easy to connect to through the course of the mini and Gail Simone pulls the whole thing off well. There's also a touch of the Suicide Squad to the Secret Six as well, which I doubt is coincidence.

Unfortunately, there are issues. Chief among this being that - as the banner top the cover of the trade suggests - this mini is a tie-in to the buildup to Infinite Crisis, at the time DC's upcoming major event. As such, the mini is tied way too much to events that happened prior to it's release, such as Identity Crisis and the OMAC Project. Thankfully DC did a solid with the trade, collecting a rather generous amount of panels from comics across the line that showed the gathering of the Society. But still, it's something that bears note; the story can be enjoyed regardless, but there's a lot of Crisis-y things going on that might go over your head. The biggest offender is the revelation regarding Lex Luthor late in the book; if you're not even remotely acquainted with COIE, this one will fall a bit flat aside from a good "what the hell" reaction or two.

Also, this volume is pretty much a precursor to the Secret Six ongoing. It sets up a lot of the main dynamics and introduces many of the characters. So you could technically consider it "volume one", if you will.

The art is fantastic... when Dale Eaglesham is doing it, that is. For whatever reason, the art in the third issue is not his, but Val Semeiks. The art in that issue is capable work, but not up to the levels Eaglesham reaches, as you might get. A bit of a blemish on an otherwise excellent looking comic.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

It relies a bit too much on it's place in the buildup to an event, but for the most part it's a good opening salvo by Gail Simone that sets the stage for further adventures with the Secret Six. Witty, well written and engaging, it's worth the read. Recommended with the caveat that a few things might not make sense to those that come into it cold.

Batman: Under the Hood Volume 2 (comics)

Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Doug Mahnke, Shane Davis, Eric Battle
Collects: Batman #645-650, Batman Annual #25

What would you do if you had a son that died? What if he returned? What if, upon his return, he denounced everything you held sacred, believed you had failed him and went down a dark path, turning his back on the beliefs you tried to instill in him? If he then became a murderer, inhabiting areas of gray and going to the places you wouldn't? Do you stop him? Try to save him? Does your guilt overpower you?

This is the dilemma faced by Batman; not a physical battle, but a battle of emotions and reopened wounds from what he considers his greatest failure.

The whole Under the Hood storyline does many different things, but if there's one theme that stands out, it's the theme of fathers and sons. Alfred and Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne and the young men he takes in and considers to be his sons. The very conflict at the root is a father versus a son; Jason Todd has returned to life* and taken on his fathers mission. Only he no longer believes - and maybe never truly believed - in his fathers most sacred rule. No killing.

It's a theme that would be used pretty consistently in the Batman comic for the next couple of years, but in this case it was used to put Batman through the ringer emotionally. Jason Todd is a physical manifestation of his failures; a son who honestly cannot understand why his father would not kill the man who murdered him. It's not an unrealistic question either; only in fiction could a father see his murdered son alive again and in front of him, giving his thoughts on the fathers actions. In real life you can only speculate; and in most cases the father would likely rather believe that his son would believe he'd made the right choice.

This is the dynamic that's "under the hood", if you will, and Judd uses it to great effect. He wrings what feels like genuine emotion out of a story that could only happen in fiction. The climax of the long story feels heartfelt; the three people at the heart of where the road all began in a showdown where Batman must choose between his son or his conviction. There really isn't much I'd change** and while I'm sure others may disagree, I think of this story as a great entry into the never ending saga of Batman.

The Annual that closes the volume, however, is somewhat unfortunate. We don't get the answers to how Jason Todd was brought back within the main storyline proper - honestly, it doesn't matter, because while Batman does wonder how, the circumstances are not what the story is about - so the answers end up coming here, almost as an afterthought. I wish they wouldn't have bothered; the details would best have been saved for another day when a better idea had come along.

Truthfully the annual really flubs it. The reason Jason returns is too heavily tied into the big event at the time. Said circumstances worked for continuity glitches, but it being used to resurrect a character honestly felt hackneyed. It doesn't exactly ruin the storyline or anything - I find the insistence by some that it does rather dumb and I suspect they missed the point entirely - but it's a bad decision that detracts from what is otherwise an okay tale of how the newly resurrected Jason got from point A to point B.

While the writing is, for the most part, very good, the art can be unfortunate at times. I'm not sure what was going on here - perhaps deadlines got a bit tight - but the work sometimes comes off sloppier than it should while other times being solid stuff. There's nothing that kills the story, but it would have been nice to have a hundred percent from the artists all the way through.

Speaking of art, the cover artist isn't the same for these issues as was the issues in the first volume. Instead of Matt Wagner, we have Jock as the cover artist. He does some nice covers, but I quite liked the style Wagner had with his covers. It's not even remotely a big deal - it's just covers, after all - but I suppose it bore mentioning considering I quite liked the ones last time.

The Score: 8 out of 10

In all, I think Under the Hood turned out a lot better than most people expected. Bringing back Jason Todd was risky - and I admit I had my doubts years ago - but Judd Winick managed to pull it off not by focusing on the why's but on the impact it has on the Dark Knight. It's good reading and I feel it's worth the loss of one of the "sacred deaths".

* Yeah, I know, that's technically a spoiler. But come on now. It's been five years since this story was serialized in the Batman comic proper. If you didn't know Jason Todd had come back to life by now, you've been living under a rock.

** While I said there wasn't much, there is one thing I would have added to the climax. I thought it was unfortunate that Batman did not bring up that he wanted to kill the Joker after Jasons murder and in his grief had every intention of doing so. He never got the opportunity (not to say he would or would not have if he had, I'm just musing).

Batman: Under the Hood Volume 1 (comics)

Writer: Judd Winick
Artists: Doug Mahnke, Paul Lee, Matt Wagner (covers)
Collects: Batman #635-641

This is a big one. There's no debating this story is controversial because of what it proceeded to do. Some are absolutely unable to look past the consequences of this story and for that they hate it. That's not entirely fair, but it can be understood; this storyline treads on some ground that was sacred for about twenty years previous. But if it leads to a great story, there should be no sacred ground in comics; Ed Brubaker proved it with Captain America and Judd Winick proved it with this, Under the Hood.

The story is about many things, but the past is probably front and center here. Many things from the past of the Dark Knight come back to haunt him here. It starts with the new player in Gotham, the Red Hood; it's a moniker that carries no small weight in Batman lore and it's not where the familiarity ends. What commences is the start of all out war between the Red Hood and Gothams current Crime Boss, the Black Mask, with Batman in the middle. By the end of the volume, the fight becomes so much more than that; the stakes for Batman become very personal as the landscape for Gotham begins to shift.

On the surface, that doesn't sound like a noteworthy synopsis, but as I mentioned, the story is about a lot of things. It's about death, life, the loss of family, the never-ending war, the ethics of Batman's moral code, a man struggling to make sense of what he suspects is occuring and most of all it's about a father-figure who has never been able to stop grieving for the loss of his own. The Batman we know at the start of this volume is one even more hardened than usual; he's yet again lost another to the war on crime, he's pushed away many of his allies, he's lost his hold on the Gotham mob and he's walled himself off. It's Batman at one of his grimmest, lowest points without making him overly Bat-jerkish. There's quite a bit going on here and most of it's interesting.

Another thing I like about this volume is how relatively self contained this story is. There are occasions where events from another book are alluded to - why Batman's standoffish with Zatanna, for example - but in most instances all of the information necessary is provided for you. Right down to the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the heroes Batman begins visiting halfway through. This is somewhat significant when you realize that this is a pretty major story and that most major stories since Knightfall have been huge, sprawling crossovers (a good half of which worked and half didn't, but we won't get into that). From here on, the Batman universe started to become a bit more self contained and ended up all the better for it.

Finally - and this is more a personal opinion - part of me looks to this story as something akin to the start of a new "Golden Age", if you will, for Batman. While this story - and many that follow - aren't everyones cup of tea, most of them are good to great and some to follow are destined to be classics. To me, it doesn't seem like Batman always found himself with runs like this in the past, so to me it's significant; it's great to be excited about what's coming for the Dark Knight seemingly at all times. It's all the more awesome when you realize Batman had only just recently been at one of his lower points; I'm speaking of War Games, of course, which was absolutely terrible.

To say I'm a Judd Winick fan would be a bit misleading. I've enjoyed some of his work and despised others. But since the first time I read this story, I've felt he had a particularly good hold on the Batman mythos and the denizens of Gotham. Everyone feels right from Batman - thankfully near the end of his uber grim and gritty Batjerk stage - on down. Black Mask in particular is a treat; we get some dark humor through this character and I found many of the Black Masks lines to be standouts, enough so that I found it quite a shame when the events in Catwoman occured. The only character I'm not sure about is Mr. Freeze - in this storyline far more willing to slaughter and easier to irritate than I'm used to - but it's something that isn't hard to get past.

The art is quite good when Doug Mahnke is doing it. I'm not entirely sure on when and where the switches occur, but the credits list another artist and there are points where the artwork feels sloppier. So it's not overly difficult to put two and two together to hazard a guess on when the switch-offs happen. It's distracting but not enough so that it ruins things. For the most part, the arts strong from linework to colors. It serves the story well.

As a final note on the art, I'd like to point out the cool covers by Matt Wagner. Some of them even carry an "animated" look to them. Very good work that deserves mention.

The Score: 8.5 out of 10

There's a lot to love here. Just a well done Batman story that convinced me Judd Winick could do great work when on the right property. Treading sacred ground doesn't always feel this good. I recommend this for sure.

A Change or Two

In case anyone was wondering what was up with the score in my last review, well, I decided to change a thing or two, namely my scoring system. I've been regretting the one I went with for a while now. It's way too in-jokey and ultimately kind of dumb; seriously, only people coming from one site would get the joke. I have no clue what I was thinking when I decided to go with it. Guess you live and learn.

I plan on slowly working my way back through my posts, implementing the new scoring system. I've got quite a few, so unfortunately it's not going to be an easily completed task. I'm just glad I decided to do this before I had way too many to be worth even bothering. Should take a while, but eventually I hope to have the old scoring system dropped.

I've been doing this for about a year and a half, but I've still got the basic layout of the site. So I'm thinking about looking into a custom template or something. We'll see what happens.

Batman: The Black Casebook (comics)

Writers: Bill Finger, Edmond Hamilton and France Herron
Artists: Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang and Lew Sayre Schwartz
Collects: Batman #65, #86, #112-113, #134, #156, #162; Detective Comics #215, #235, #247, #267; Worlds Finest #89
Introduction by: Grant Morrison

This is another theme collection - the other of which I reviewed here - released in wake of events in Grant Morrisons run on Batman. The difference is, unlike Strange Deaths of Batman, The Black Casebook actually has a bit more purpose behind its existence. Whereas Strange Deaths was a collection with a loose theme of death, The Black Casebook is actually a collection of the Silver Age stories that Grant Morrison refers to and draws from in his long running Batman epic. Grant even penned an introduction for this collection, where he explains each choice, why he drew from them and what they meant to him.

This collection actually has a good bit going for it aside from the obvious. For one thing, roughly three quarters of the collection happens to be stories penned by Bill Finger, whom is basically the "forgotten" Batman creator (long story, not necessary for this review). The collection also features the work of Dick Sprang on a couple issues, who - while not as much so as Curt Swan was for Superman - is probably the closest thing Batman's Silver Age has to a defining artist. So it's a nice little bundle of work from some of the earlier creators in Batmans stories history.

The subject matter can vary wildly from issue to issue, but as a collection this actually holds together better than Strange Deaths did. All of the material is combed from a thirteen year period in Batmans history - 1951 to 1964 - so there's a lot of consistency to be found here. The stories aren't as different in tone, structure or look as the contents of other collections might be (the kind that will pull one story from the fifties, another from the nineties, one from the seventies and so on).

Make no mistake, some of these stories are strange stuff. Quite honestly it's not surprising - this is the Silver Age were talking about here, not to mention stories hand picked by Grant Morrison - and in it's own way it's endearing. Many early collected stories deal with heroes inspired by Batman who join the Club of Heroes while later ones start delving into the strange and surreal. We get the issue Bat-Mite first appeared in, for instance, another where Batman is turned into an ape creature, a fight against a Rainbow monster in South America and another where Batman is brought to another planet to basically play Superman. It's some damn odd stuff, but that's part of the fun.

As a result of the stories all being taken from a specific time period, the quality of the collection is much more consistent than most. Almost all of them are good in their own way. But whether the collection will appeal to a given person or not depends largely on their likes or dislikes. These stories are very old fashioned in structure; many of them have a case of clip-show-itis* and the downright oddity of the stories might not be for everyone. Also, in the days these stories were written continuity wasn't a huge deal; aside from the numerous appearances of the Club of Heroes there isn't much connectivity between them or references made. All this aside the stories within are gems, for the most part, with perhaps the only loser of the bunch being the opening "Wingman" story; both Superman of Planet X and Robin Dies at Dawn, however, are standouts.

As for the overall presentation of the collection, it leaves a bit to be desired. I can understand why lower grade paper would be used - this isn't exactly something that's guaranteed to set the sales charts on fire - but the complete lack of the covers of every issue collected is just ridiculous. Having the covers of the issues collected somewhere in the collection should be trade composition 101 by now. This was also an issue with Strange Deaths of Batman, so I honestly don't get what's going on here. It's a dumb omission.

Also of note is that I was hoping for a little extra oomph from the presentation. The front and back covers are just great, carry a worn look to it that makes the collection look sort of like a casebook that's seen a lot of use. A little more of this kind of detail would have put it over the top. As I was reading, I couldn't help but think perhaps they should have commissioned Grant Morrison to write some actual Black Casebook excerpts to place between each story, giving modern day Batmans thoughts on each of his strange adventures from this era. Something like that would really have set the collection apart and given some extra incentive to pick it up. Not to mention cement it's status a bit more as a worthy companion piece to Grants run. I can see why they wouldn't go this extra mile, but I can't help feeling it's a lost opportunity here.

The Score: 7.5 out of 10

Personally, I found a lot to like here. Many of the contained stories are gems and probably the better stories of Batman's Silver Age. But there's no getting around the reality that it's not for everyone. Some people just cannot stand Silver Age Batman and if you're one of those, steer clear because that's what the entire collection consists of. For the rest of us, however, there's some old school fun to be had here that makes it worth the change and the read. A part of me just wishes the presentation had been taken that extra step.

* Clip-show-itis is how I refer to the way these old stories were written. Most of the old school stories wrap within an issue or even half of one, but the trade-off is that a lot of the time you're basically just looking at static panels with no real flow. Like, say, one panel Batman's on the roof and the next he's at ground level punching thugs with a lot of exposition in each panel explaining how we got from point to point. Or basically a lot of telling, not showing. Some people who decry decompression long for the days things wrapped in an issue or two, but to be honest this way of doing things sucked. You're pretty much just drug through the story - which might be otherwise interesting - and nothing is given the attention it might need. Screw clip-show-itis.

Random Trains of Thought 7/29/2010

- Grant Morrisons "Batman Inc." was announced at SDCC this past weekend. I'm so friggin stoked you wouldn't even believe it. Man's a genius and screw anyone who says otherwise. The only problem is that he's talked about a two year plan and wrapping it up, which leaves me worried. I don't want his run to end.

I know, I know, the bullet's been dodged before - about three times, in fact, considering that's the number of times he was thinking of ending his run and got new ideas - and even if he did, he's already put out a definitive run that's likely to sit up there with O'Neil/Adams. But seriously, that's all the more reason I'm not ready to even consider the ride may end. There were great Batman stories before him and there will be after him, but part of me wants him to have a very long run before he moves on.

- So, yeah. Looks like FrankenCastle is ending at #21. Back to regular Punisher in the Marvel Universe!

I'm thoroughly disgusted. Comic fans really are narrow in their character views, aren't they? Thanks for browbeating Marvel on this concept until they threw it out as soon as possible, everyone. Now when I go to get the first FrankenCastle story in trade, I'll know I have two more to look forward to, tops.

Friggin ridiculous; especially considering there's a goddamn MAX book for regular Punisher, which meant fans of the regular one weren't left out in the cold.

- I must be the only one who thinks the "Two Batmen" concept the Dick Grayson fans are parading about is the most retarded thing I ever heard. This opinion dropped further when one of them talked about it "helping make Batman an Urban Legend again". I think I've made my thoughts on THAT ONE pretty clear.

Sigh. Hopefully if that's what is in mind, Grant fleshes it out and makes it work. He's the only guy I can think of who could, honestly.

- Oh my god Grant Morrison is writing an indy flick called Sintaro I AM SO IN. Seriously, this movie has cults, cowboys, armies of hobos, an amnesiac protagonist and the desert. How can that NOT sound cool? Unless, of course, your ability to detect awesome has been broken.

An army of hobo's; I'm hoping someone is gored by a broken beer bottle in the course of this movie and another is choked out with rags. Then the hobo's steal all the protagonists money to buy booze. Hell yeah!

All fanboying aside though, I'm really interested in this project for other reasons as well. Grant's known for experimenting and playing with how these things work. It's all over his comic work. Hollywood, on the other hand... doesn't do much of that these days. So from that perspective, it will be interesting to see what Grant can bring to a film. Plus I think this is the first time he's ever written a film script. Should be something to keep an eye on.

- Can we have a rule where any new Transformers media is barred from killing off Optimus Prime from here on in? Yes, I realize the '86 movie made a lot of kids cry and imprinted upon their memories. That does not mean it needs to happen almost every goddamn time there's something related to Transformers. He always comes back, as he should, so what's the point anymore? It feels like I've seen Optimus die eight times since. It was dumb the first time; same goes for what they did to Cobra Commander in the other Sunbow produced series. They had some real brain surgeons at Sunbow in the 80's. Though I suppose it wasn't entirely thierr fault; when your series is based off a toy line that constantly looks to add new figures for the kiddies to buy every series, stuff like that occasionally happens.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure the "dead Optimus" idea has been stripped of potential by now; I say this primarily because I'm half afraid the upcoming Transformers Prime series is going to pull it and I'd really prefer they didn't drag us down this particular road again.

- I notice I'm playing fewer games lately. Half the time a game I want to buy has DLC and I'm waiting for a compiled disc edition of the whole thing. Others just make me want to snore. Not good; hope some good stuff releases relatively soon, because I don't have much I'm itching to play whether I buy or rent. When I can't even get myself up to playing a game through a rental, somethings up.

- What the hell's with the trend of linearity in games lately? Or even less to do? Grand Theft Auto IV dropped too much from the previous games. Both Resident Evil 5 and Final Fantasy XIII are painfully linear. What's going on here? Are the dev teams tired of their franchises or something? All three have standards of excellence and none of them even came close to meeting them, much less surpassing.

- So it sounds like Jonah Hex was both bad and dead on arrival. This is very disappointing for me. I thought the trailer looked cool, so I was hoping it boded well for the rest of the film. Too much to hope for, I guess. But either way I knew it would bomb even if it was good. America and westerns just don't seem to mix anymore. Even the great remake of 3:10 to Yuma barely made a profit, and the friggin thing had Christian Bale and Russel Crowe.

- Sometimes I really think DC should put a moratorium on drawing from Alan Moore stories so the dude can straight shut the hell up.

- At SDCC, JMS said of Wonder Womans new costume: "When she's fighting somebody, when that jacket comes off, you know you're gonna get your ass whipped."

I immediately thought "holy crap he's shooting for Bruce Lee with breasts" for some reason. Not because of martial arts prowess or anything, because Wonder Womans got nothing on Lee. That's just how I've always described Bruce Lee. Fully clothed, he just looks like a somewhat normal asian guy, but when he takes the shirt off, your thought process comes down to "oh shit I'm gonna die".

Either way, it's kind of amusing to me that the Wonder Woman books new direction is the one that got all the negative press right off - not that Grounded didn't, but I'm talking volume of fanboy screeches - but it might end up being the one of his two ongoings (Superman and Wonder Woman) that genuinely works.

Go figure.

- I just realized I haven't watched wrestling in weeks. I haven't been good about remembering to tune into a TV show in years. I think the last time I was actually good about tuning into a show I liked was back when DBZ was still on every afternoon, for shits sake.

I guess it isn't much wonder why I buy season sets of my favorite shows nowadays; I can't remember to tune in to them on cable for the life of me. Can't really do that with wrestling though. You either watch it or you don't; if there's a highlight, that's the part of the show that will see repeat on DVD sets and whatnot.

- Man, Double Fine can't sell a game to save their life, can they? Even Brutal Legend didn't make it. Which is why a sequel's been scrapped. Times like this I hate my fellow gamers.

- Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who could give a shit about the Legend of Zelda. Back in the day that game series was revolutionary, but hell, Final Fantasy couldn't sell for shit back then either. Now it just always feels dated to me. Like the same RPG-lite the franchise has always been.

I've played most of them at least once and the only ones I've genuinely liked were Links Adventure and Twilight Princess. A Link to the Past is the only other one to hold my attention, but halfway through I lost interest. Once I got to the Dark Realm I just got bored and never went back.

- I'm a little tired of Mario too, for that matter. I still love the Mario games. But even a formula that classic is starting to feel a little stale. Part of me wishes Nintendo would put it away for a bit.

- It was announced at San Diego Comic Con that the three to four times a month "Brand New Day" direction of Spider-Man was ending. Why they referred to it as the "Brand New Day" direction, I haven't the foggiest. That title hasn't appeared on a Spider-Man issue since four months after the thrice monthly direction started. But I digress.

Twice a month by Dan Slott sounds good to me - especially considering One Moment in Time, which I will be skipping in trade, will put to rest all the questions raised since OMD leaving Slott to stop making those cutesy allusions to One More Day - so I'm all for it. Honestly, I don't know how in the hell Marvel managed it for the two and a half plus years they did it. It sounds like it was a herculean task.

Mostly, however, I'm happy it's going to a slower schedule primarily because I am just SO friggin' behind. Seriously, the trades have been coming out at such a quick clip, I can't really even pretend to keep up. When I buy trades, I often buy a varied mix of stuff I've wanted with the only guarantee being that there's probably going to be a Batman trade in there somewhere. So I don't often buy more than one Spidey trade at a time, if I even get one at a given order. You can see how I got to the point I am.

So, yeah, it would give me a little more rope to catch up, which would be nice.