• Boffo's Realm of World of Warcraft
• Dave's Barebones Pokemon Pearl Roster
• MiSTing Heaven
• EHCCGPP's ST:CCG Page
• Dave's Point Weekly Archive
• Dave's Wrestling Match Database
• Dave's Works
• boffo.flactem.com Classic
• Disclaimer

• DarkHelm.org: Best Bud
• Our Oasis - The Blog!: It's a Family Thang
• The Matt Sutton Experience: Please Keep Your Hands And Arms Inside Until the Experience Comes to a Complete Stop
• Boffo's MySpace: I Give In To Fads
• Boffo's DVDs: What Boffo COULD be watching instead.

• 2006
• 2007, Janurary-June
• 2007, July-December

Wow. What can you say about a time like this? There really isn't anything.

My next entry in this blog was going to be a defense of the McMahon presumed dead storyline, pointing out various things about how wrestling is, at heart, entertainment, and we trust the fans' intelligence to know what's real or not (especially with the over the top storyline aspects of McMahon's death). But none of that even matters now. And frankly, if anyone wants to use the current circumstance as a springboard to say "See, I was right about this McMahon angle", I hope somebody beats them up badly.

When DarkHelm got home from work, we ended up rewinding RAW, in progress, on the DVR, and he watched the entire episode with me. DarkHelm is decidedly *not* a wrestling fan, and in fact finds all sports to be boring, and I'm not sure if he's ever watched a whole episode of RAW ever. He mainly remembers Chris Benoit from wrestling video games.

The show opener with Vince McMahon coming out and explaining outright that the program that night was scheduled to be about the Mr. McMahon character (and observant viewers may have noticed that his chyron read Vince McMahon, not Mr. McMahon there) and his supposed death, but that was just a storyline, but in reality, Chris Benoit had been found dead. I have been a WWE fan for just a bit over 20 years now and a wrestling fan in general for a couple years before that (GLOW for a couple years before it got really stupid) and I can tell you, that doesn't happen. We all KNOW it's just characters and storylines. They don't come out and tell you this. That's HUGE.

A lot of the choices they made seemed to be erring on the side of doing everything they could to make sure they couldn't be accused of insincerity in their tribute given the McMahon death angle. Refunding everyone's money for RAW, and knowing Vince, throwing in a free ticket to a show down the line, that's a few million right there. WWE Shopzone was coming out with a T-Shirt where the front read "I DID IT." and the back read "The Death of Mr. McMahon". That shirt is now unavailable. That's another few million if they didn't get the print run stopped in time.

That said, they put on a wonderful tribute show, especially with how little notice they had. And with that little notice, it's not surprising that nobody wanted to wrestle. Edge was on the verge of a breakdown. JBL kept trying to remember something happy and then went back to looking like somebody punched him in the gut. The unsung credit here goes to WWE Production, for scrapping their previous show idea and putting together a new show with so little notice.

And the whole thing was sad enough if Benoit was just lost... now the news has come out that police suspect HIM of being the one who killed his wife and 7 year old son before killing himself. At this point, this is just a theory. But the damage here will be enormous on two fronts if this is true:

1. The guy everyone in that locker room loved committed just about the most heinous act imaginable. Imagine the nicest person you know doing something like that. What would that make you feel? What would it do to your faith in humanity?

2. Let's face it. The media already hates Vince McMahon. This is a nightmare scenario for the WWE, because there will be people trying to do everything they can to link this tragedy to the WWE itself.

I'm still hoping against hope there has to be some way this can't be right. Not Chris Benoit. He's one of the good guys. I became a fan of his when the NWO angle pulled me into watching WCW in 1996. His version of the Four Horsemen may not have been one of the classic ones but he made me a fan.

Then, this is the guy who had the WCW World Title, and quit the promotion the next day. His departure to WWE with Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn was essentially the death knell of WCW.

Of course, you have his 2004 run where he finally accomplishes his dream.... and his hug with Eddie at the end of Wrestlemania 20... that's just eerie as all get out now.... can you believe that wasn't even 3 1/2 years ago and both are gone now? As well as my mother, who was *really* behind Benoit during this run. She marked huge for the crossface. Appreciate people while they're here, I guess.

And how do you feel if you're Johnny Nitro? Only put into Sunday Night's match because of Benoit's absence as the crowd is rabidly chanting "We Want Benoit!" How much do you want to bet he's been throwing up and trying to give the title back?

I had been wanting to pick up the WWE DVD "Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story"... but can one really appreciate Benoit's work anymore if it turns out that he is a double murderer? Or do we simply pity him as someone who suffered a sudden and ultimately fatal mental illness, and still appreciate the entertainment he gave us when he was well? There's no right answer to this question. IF this whole thing turns out for the worst, it's a question we each have to ask ourselves. As for me... I honestly don't know my answer yet.

My Chris Benoit matches:

• June 1st, 1998: WCW Monday Nitro: Chris Benoit vs. Booker T - The Monday Night Wars
• January 21st, 2001: WWE Royal Rumble 2001: Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho in a Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Title
• September 26th, 2002: WWE SmackDown!: Chris Benoit vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle - Rey Mysterio: 619
• November 17th, 2002: WWE Survivor Series 2002: Chris Benoit & Kurt Angle vs. Los Guerreros vs. Rey Mysterio & Edge in a Triple Threat Elimination Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles - Eddie Guerrero: Cheating Death, Stealing Life
• January 19th, 2003: WWE Royal Rumble 2003: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Title - History of the WWE Championship
• July 27th, 2003: WWE Vengeance 2003: Chris Benoit vs. Eddie Guerrero in a tournament final for the WWE United States Championship - Eddie Guerrero: Cheating Death, Stealing Life
• January 25th, 2004: WWE Royal Rumble 2004: The Royal Rumble Match
• March 14th, 2004: WWE Wrestlemania XX: Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H for the WWE World Title
• April 18th, 2004: WWE Backlash 2004: Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H for the WWE World Title
• April 2nd, 2006: WWE Wrestlemania 22: Chris Benoit vs. JBL for the WWE United States Title

Lately, the cool kids in Our hangout have been talking about the Fantastic Four movies, and whether or not they really pass muster. I've got a few words to say on the subject myself.

To really look at the subject, you have to look at the evolution of the superhero movie. I want to bring up three examples to do so.

Batman (1966) was straight out of the comics at the time (despite John Byrne's idiotic snipes at it in a rant trashing The Incredibles unseen by repeated comparisons to it). There was absolutely no explanation of who any of these characters were. It wasn't necessary. It was made for comics fans. Non comics fans would be relatively confused by the movie, but hopefully comics fans could explain the concept easily enough.

Batman as a whole at the time had no story arc. Batman was a man who saw his parents gunned down by a mugger and pledged his life to fighting crime. So he took up the mantle of a bat, and with fighting skill and amazing gadgetry battles evil. That's it. You could put the stories in any order at that time too. There were never any changes to the the status quo. At this time, a lot of comics were like that, since comic companies couldn't count on readers getting every issue.

Superman (1978), you saw a little more progress in the genre as a whole. In the comics, there was the beginning of an overarching story arc. Clark Kent progressed from being a reporter for the Daily Planet to a TV News anchorman (improbably with his childhood girl next door Lana Lang as his co-anchor). As well, all Kryptonite on Earth was transmuted into iron. Even though more Kryptonite would fall to Earth, this was DC's way of dealing with the ridiculously large amount of the stuff that was in the hands of even the most common of criminals.

In the movie itself, you see some allowance for those who don't know who Superman is. You see Jor-El fail to convince the eternally stupid Kryptonian council that their planet is going to explode. You see Clark Kent growing up and developing super powers. On the other side though, Lex Luthor just pops up with little introduction other than being a really bad criminal.

Now let's look at the Fantastic Four movies.

Now, in the modern movies, you're starting from scratch. You're *inspired* by the comic book, but you're creating a whole new universe. Because the producers are hoping that lots of people who might not necessarily be comics fans are going to come see your movie. So you have to build everything from scratch. Your Fantastic Four thus can have some history, but if you have them be a *family* right away, you lose some satisfaction out of when the time comes that they finally DO gel as a family later. The Ben-Johnny interaction was something I felt they absolutely nailed in the first movie.

Now comes the subject of the villains... Dr. Doom as portrayed in the comics is an exceedingly complex character. You have the Eastern European royalty component. You have a monasticism component. He dabbles in mysticism fairly often. And then on top of that is his envy of Reed for being smarter. You could literally do a whole movie based on setting up Dr. Doom's origin and still end up with something that could make non comics fans giggle at the end. Or you could just get on with the movie. And I'm not too big on criticizing the actor simply because he was on Nip/Tuck. There were people who said Christopher Lloyd shouldn't be the villain in Star Trek III because people would just see his zany character from Taxi. For *some* reason, director Leonard Nimoy was really resistant to the idea of typecasting in that fashion and Lloyd did a really good job in a movie that doesn't get its just due at times. I thought they did a decent job focusing on the most important element... a brilliant brilliant man, who just is not as brilliant as Reed and despises him for that, and is utterly amoral as well.

Now... Galactus, who pretty much HAD to be the 2nd movie villain. If he ended up being a huge giant dude with a purple spiky helmet, people would have laughed. I for one didn't think the cloud WAS Galactus so much as that it was OBSCURING Galactus. At one point a shadow is cast that looks VERY much like his comic appearance.

Me, I thoroughly enjoyed both movies. It just isn't 1966 anymore. You can't go into a comic book based movie expecting it to be JUST like the comic book. There's too much money in the hands of the non comic book fans. And reimaginings can sometimes lead you in some very good directions... 

As long as no one proclaims they're the GD (insert name here).

Fret not, true believers. I haven't forgotten you. And I will have comic reviews for 6/6 and probably 6/13 for you in the very near future. I promise. In other management news, it turns out that even under the best of circumstances, a Boffo Blog review of Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches wouldn't be enjoyed, so that one's off the coming attractions list for the conceivable future, but I haven't forgotten about disc 3 and the bonus disc for Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology.

And now that tickets have been procured, I'd like to officially announce myself and DarkHelm as the first celebrities confirmed for BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment's official convention. As long time Boffo fans may remember, DarkHelm and I hit the first BlizzCon in October 2005, and that's how he got me into World of Warcraft. This year's version (the convention didn't take place in 2006) will be on August 3rd and 4th, and unless something goes really wrong, we'll be hitting Disneyland on at least one of those days too. This will be nice because the 3rd was my late mother's birthday, and even though she's not with us anymore, one thing I like to do in her memory is try to fill up a rack of collectible spoons that she never quite filled up during her lifetime. The rack can hold up to 18 spoons and is currently holding 8 after DarkHelm's mom was nice enough to aid my little quest by picking up a spoon while she was visiting one of his brothers in Okinawa. Getting a Disneyland 2007 spoon on her birthday will be nice.

And how about me and my mad drafting? Have the format totally wrong and I still hit on 3 picks, one of which was a total shot in the dark (with net rumor having Benoit going to RAW). Go me.

Anyway, what I want to do today is since I have taken over the role of the net's foremost comics blogger in a bloodless coup, I want to put out my version of what a dream Justice League lineup would be if I had total control. First off, I'll give myself three restrictions.

1. Total roster quantity must be between 10-15 people.
2. Variety counts, because an all tank team (Superman, Supergirl, Orion, Barda, Wonder Woman, etc) would wipe out a lot of threats but be helpless against a lot of others, but so does versatility.
3. Many heroes are related to other heroes in "family" groups. Since I want a League of all equals under one chairperson, only one person per family. Batman would always be trying to command Nightwing or Robin for example and I don't want that.

Anyway, you might disagree, but it's my group, I say when you're building a Justice League, you have to start with the Trinity.

1. Superman
Disqualifies: Supergirl, Superboy (if resurrected), Steel, Steel's niece

2. Batman
Disqualifies: Robin, Nightwing, Huntress, Batgirl
Note: Oracle will be an information source, but not an official member.

3. Wonder Woman
Disqualifies: Donna Troy, Wonder Girl

OK, and now some near Trilogy-ers:

4. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan): Most people, discounting newer comic fans who only know Kyle, think of Hal when you bring up "Green Lantern". Alan Scott is a better fit with the JSA.
Disqualifies: Alan Scott, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Ion (Kyle Rayner), possibly Jade, literally hundreds of minor choices

5. The Flash (Bart Allen): Right now, your choices for Flash are Jay or Bart, and again, Jay works a lot better in the JSA. Bart's a kid, but he isn't Impulse anymore.
Disqualifies: Jay Garrick, Barry Allen (if resurrected), Wally West (if returned), Max Mercury (if returned), Jessie Quick (if she regains her powers and forsakes her Liberty Belle ID)

Before I go into additional classical era representation, here's a bit of controversy. Aquaman's getting the snub. Outside of water, he just isn't that useful, and writers had to really strain to try to prove otherwise. As well, they often made him pretty arrogant too given his powers. Plus he was the one who dissolved the old League so that it'd be replaced with the abominable Justice League Detroit team. Exile's too good for him.

Additional Classic Era representation:

6. The Martian Manhunter: J'Onn has been a League staple for forever. He'll never be a viable solo book seller, but he's got a very versatile powerset.

7. Hawkgirl: Technically, Hawkgirl was never a member of the League until recently, but she's kinda sorta the reincarnation of Hawkwoman, who was, despite their both being alive at the same time and quite aware of each other. I don't get it either. I'll admit it. Without the Justice League cartoon, the Hawks would have no place here. They fly and that's about it. So do 4 of the 6 picks I've made so far, and I'm willing to bet most of the rest of the board. Justice League really showed Hawkgirl's potential. That said, we don't need two of them and Hawkman's doing just fine in JSA.
Disqualifies: Hawkman

8. Zatanna: You're going to fight magic threats and Zatanna is THE classic Justice League magician. Bruce can't trust her after the Identity Crisis retcon, Bruce needs to shut up and enjoy the fishnets.

9. Firestorm (Jason Rusch/Martin Stein): At least half of the old member. The controlling half is another young hero who can do nothing but get better under League tutelage.
Disqualifies: Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond, if resurrected, though it is uncertain if the two could exist at the same time anyway), Firehawk, Gehenna

10. Red Tornado: You can do a lot worse than to have an air elemental on your team. I have a soft spot for Reddy.

JLI Era representation:

11. Booster Gold: I know, you're all crying bias right now. But with powers of flight, super strength, energy blasts and a force field, Booster actually eclipses the powers of Starfire if you think about it, and Starfire's been an anchor for the Titans. Plus, the JLI period deserves representation, and there just isn't anyone left. Guy is DQed because of Hal. Blue Beetle is dead. Fire is a murderer and in Checkmate, Ice is seemingly about to join Birds of Prey. Now in current continuity, this won't happen, because of the storyline of Booster's book, but it could have happened and been cool.

"JLA" series representation:

12. Plastic Man: J'Onn has some stretching powers, but is nowhere near as versatile with them as Plas is. And while it may have been the choice between Plastic Man and Elongated Man while Ralph was still alive, an interesting bit of trivia is that Ralph was only created because his creator didn't know that DC picked up Plastic Man's rights.

Modern series representation:

13. Red Arrow: I actually like the choice to give Roy his chance to shine in the sun with the new title and am sticking by it. However, with my rule, this DQ's Dinah from the team. Much as I like Dinah, it means he essentially is on the Justice League with his mother in many respects. Plus, I never liked the idea of Dinah quitting the Birds of Prey to take care of a child, and then immediately joining the Justice League.
Disqualifies: Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), Green Arrow (Connor Hawke), Speedy, Black Canary

New Members:

14. Cyborg: The way this was brought up in early issues of the new series, I have a feeling it was planned and then vetoed, but it's a good movie. The guy's paid his dues and definitely deserves to stride with the real titans of superheroics in the DC universe.

So, there's my League. I ended up with 14 members. 11 males, 3 females. 10 human, 4 non-human.Of the 10 humans, 7 are caucasian, 2 are of African descent (though one contains an additional mind of a man who is caucasian and of Jewish descent), 1 is of Native American descent but appears causcasian.Of the 4 non humans, 1 is Kryptonian, 1 is Amazonian magically animated clay, 1 is a Martian and 1 is an Android. 2 of these appear caucasian, 1 is green (though this varies at will), and 1 is red.

You know, I'm possibly the only one left around still watching wrestling, but we have a draft coming up this next Monday, and those always interest me. Now I know WWE's interests really seem to be that RAW is the clear "A" show, SmackDown the clear "B" show and ECW the developmental league, but I really think that's a mistake. I think there's a lot more potential in the model of RAW being the character/story driven model show, SmackDown being the more wrestling oriented model, and ECW being the more action, brawling, hardcore mix.

That said, here's how I'd do the draft. It's adapted from one of my previous draft ideas, just changed to reflect the current status quo in the WWE, and that the draft will be in one night. Superstars coasting on their current brand who could really benefit from a change in location tried to be my first priority for targetting. The specific rule here is that each brand gains 3 superstars from each of the other two brands and loses three back.

I am trying to avoid things like the infamous "Triple H Tradeback" or cases where people are traded to shows then released before they ever appear on their new shows, when then plan was to release them all along, but just use their names as weight to make a trade look even.

Let's get right down to it.

RAW:

From SmackDown: Mr. Kennedy. This change seemed to be in the works anyway. Being without UPN or the CW network, I don't have much exposure to Kennedy, but everyone from JR to the smarks seems to be saying he's the future. Since he certainly can work the mic skills, he'll fit in well here.

From SmackDown: Finlay. Did anyone see the career renaissance Finlay would be enjoying now coming? The guy was a fairly non descript lower midcarder in WCW, and now he's awesome in WWE. Of course the reason for this jump is that Hornswoggle would be coming along with him. And who knows, we might see more of this:

(thanks to Larry Csonka of 411 for the cap)

From SmackDown: Jillian. Jillian's touted as an awesome female wrestler, so doesn't it just make sense to put her on the show with a Women's Championship?

From ECW: Snitsky. This one will expose the business a little as Snitsky was touted to be "coming soon" to RAW, and then those announcements suddenly stopped in recent weeks, but here's the way to do it. The existent ECW roster is so small, it needs help like that.

From ECW: Kevin Thorn. With Ariel's inexplicable firing, he's in a bit of a holding pattern over in ECW. A move might freshen him up.

From ECW: Balls Mahoney. An ECW Original (though I really wish they'd stop using that term on the shows now. It basically tells the fans not to respect the new guys as ECW) swapping over really enforces the idea that anything can happen in this draft. Balls is fun. And WWE fans have really taken to his distinctive chants.

SmackDown:

From RAW: Triple H. I know, I've just completely left any semblance of reality here. Backstage and in marriage bed politics aside, it makes all tons of sense. SmackDown needs more main eventers, he's a main eventer. Would he rather go to ECW?

From RAW: Eugene. The Eugene character is dead on RAW, but Nick Dinsmore is not that bad a wrestler at all. SmackDown could possibly find a niche for him.

From RAW: Randy Orton. Another plug into the main event picture, and getting Randy the hell off my TV. Actually, the best thing WWE could do is have Randy drafted by TNA, but that seems less likely.

From ECW: CM Punk. He isn't going to be ECW World Champ any time soon, especially with his run in with management at the end of last year. And they won't send him to RAW because Maria's there.So SmackDown.

From ECW: Brett & Brian Majors. Again, ECW's small roster limits who they can really spare for something like this, but the Majors could benefit from such a move, and SmackDown's tag division could benefit from having them. Within the next few years, someone's going to screw Brett Majors, I bet you.

ECW:

From RAW: Jeff Hardy. The Hardys have to be considered ECW in spirit already. They would have fit right in had Paul found them first. And whether as single or as a tag team, Jeff could excel here.

From RAW: Ric Flair. Strange choice I know, but go back to Flair's match vs. The Big Show for the ECW Title last year. It went from suck to awesome when Flair gave this whole hardcore business a try. Everyone's talked about how Flair should get one more World Title run before he calls it a career... why not make that the ECW Title? You make his angle that he's trying to become the first and only person to be NWA, WCW, WWE and ECW Champ, that helps the title mean something. The only way it could be matched is if The Big Show won that glorified indy title.

From RAW: Santino Marella. Now I do think Marella could be interesting down here, and it does stop him from fighting Masters over and over again. And putting at least one champion in the draft leads to that unpredictability thing again. But my main reason here is to do a little bit of fantasy booking, as long as I left reality by daring to move the great Triple H to the blue show earlier. I would have Coach tell Marella that the IC title is RAW property and cannot leave the show with him. But then, I would have somebody, preferably some kind of ECW GM, but it could be anybody, say that it isn't right that Santino lost a title without losing it in the ring, and present him with the ECW Television Title.

From SmackDown: Chris Benoit. An ECW Original, and instant main eventer over there, this is a match made in heaven. I'd heel turn him and just have him do brutal brutal things with absolutely no expression on his face. And that first time when your ECW Title event is Benoit vs. Flair, you don't even *need* hardcore for that. That sells itself. And you just tell them "You two go do what you do."

From SmackDown: Matt Hardy. Much as I would like Matt to eventually rise up and take Edge's title, he's got better career hopes here, either teaming up with Jeff or solo.

From SmackDown: Rey Mysterio. An ECW Original... technically. Rey's another instant main eventer when he returns from injury. Plus this removes him from any further Guerrero storylines.

So, after Monday we'll see how I did.

There's a hole in my toe, and it's been killing me forever. It's a place where the garden never grows. But I'm kind of better off that way.

The more they shove commercials for The Messengers down my throat, the more I become convinced that if I ever become trapped in a horror movie, I'd be best advised to let any toddlers die. They lead to nothing but trouble.

On the Boomerang network, in between airings of Justice League, Super Friends and the occasional airings of Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS, they air these old DC hero cartoons from the 1960s or so. Between them and Super Friends, they can be fun to watch just to poke fun at all the blatant plot inconsistencies. This is stuff that would never stand in today's cartoons, but I guess back then, they simply concluded kids were morons who just accepted anything put in front of them, as long as it had bright colors.

Blame for the atrocities of science and common sense spreads all around, like here Superman might decide to destroy a device by punching it while an ordinary human is still wearing it as a backpack. There, he might decide to bring Lois and Jimmy back from an alien planet by simply gathering each of them under an arm and flying back, without worrying about pesky things like air or re-entry. And everywhere, you will notice an over reliance on spinning in some form or another to solve a problem.

But the king is Aquaman. First off, one of the essential things to Aquaman is that, by his nature, most of his adventures are going to take place underwater, and the writers have no problem with this on the surface. But this is very funny water. Several of the cartoons feature Aquaman having, essentially, his own version of the Batcave, full of computers. Most computers I know of are very unhappy underwater. The writers also copped out by giving Aquaman the ability to form and throw thick balls of water (while underwater), a somewhat useless sounding ability when analyzed logically that his ex wife Mera had, not him. One particularly painful cartoon started off with the bad guy residing in an "underwater torchlit cave." Even if you grant them some benefit of the doubt to say the cave was in an air pocket, torches would be a bad thing to have there if you had any designs on the oxygen there, then they'd burn out anyway.

Another recent bad one struck when an ice dragon, a perfectly valid fantasy creature, had the ability with its ice breath to form ice sculpture exactly where it wanted as if it were a Green Lantern or something *underwater*. Thinking about what normal ice *is* should illustrate the problem here. Then, when Aquaman, Aqualad, and later the obnoxious walrus Tusky got trapped in ice, the solution to freeing them was to smash the ice open. Guess the writers needed some time travel to see Terminator 2 as to why this was a bad idea.

In the meantime though, DarkHelm and I have determined the answer as to just why this water simply refuses to behave like normal water. It isn't water. It's retarded. And I don't mean that as an adjective, I mean it as a noun. Aquaman is swimming around constantly in, and 3/4 of Earth-Super Friends is covered by, pure concentrated retarded.

Explains a lot, doesn't it?

Anyway, comics review time.

5/23:

DC:

Birds of Prey #106: CHECK IT. Pretty much all of the issue is dedicated to the fight scene between The Birds of Prey and The Secret Six over the unconcious Ice. It's a pretty good fight scene, and there are a couple of important developments, but issue long fight scenes have to be very good to rate all that highly with me.

Countdown #49: CHECK IT. As Jimmy reports back that interviewing Joker was a bust to Lois (and revealing that Lois knows who Jason Todd is), Killer Croc gets loose and attacks, making Jimmy go elastic. Both chalk it up as an illusion. The Monitors argue about whether killing Duela was necessary. Red Arrow makes the obligatory joke at Karate Kid (crossing over to JLA/JSA crossover). The Rogues make a guy transfer away all his money and jump off his yacht, but there's a triple cross. And Madame Xanadu told Mary Batson not to go to Gotham last issue, so where's the first place she goes? Backup feature: History of the Multiverse, part 1. 

Robin #162: PASS IT. The forgettable arc about an evil pharmaceutical company giving drugs to a group of kids who weren't even a street gang per se, but just together for mutual protection, but the company's hands are legally clean isn't the main agenda here. The main agenda is that writer Adam Beechen decides to portray someome who looks for all the world like the former Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, coldbloodedly murdering just after her recent Teen Titans appearance gave a plausible explanation for her recent evilness and seemed to be her face turn. Worse yet, this isn't going to be followed up on next issue by all appearances, so you have to wonder if this is just "re-ruining" Cass just because Beechen declared it must be so. Back in grade school, such a child would be told he needs to *share* the toys.

Shadowpact #13: PASS IT. This issue is the opposite of an issue long fight scene. A guy named Kid Karnevil is seeming to go along with his labor at the Nightshade Dimension prison until a supply shipment from Earth arrives. He kills everyone (who don't bother with concepts like "fight back" or "close the portal" then goes through). That Dr. Gotham guy gives his minion Strega 15 minute terminal cancer so her death will power a new ally named "The Sun King". And Zauriel is sent to kill Blue Devil, since technically he did sell his soul to Neron, but since he's heroic, he's being emulated. Time for more pseudo religious fun. And that's about all that happened.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes #30: MUST READ. We start with an "in memoriam" statue to Mon-El. We flash back to seven days ago to determine how this came about. See, the Dominators are defeated, but they've got a multitude of shock troops they could possibly send against the galaxy in the future. How can we solve this problem? Well, Dream Boy says Dream Girl (see, Brainy didn't *completely* fail when he tried to bring her back from the dead, and hasn't been delusional either) has an idea about a bomb. And Mon-El has his lead poisoning recurring. Can Cosmic Boy really condemn him to death to save the galaxy?

Superman-Batman #35: CHECK IT. Part two of the B.I. story arc. It turns out the Metal Men's invasion of the WayneTech facility was a job interview. That aside, a little investigation into Metallo's thievery reveals he was remotely controlled by Brainiac... who, of course, takes over the Metal Men for a real invasion. And it turns out the target is quite the unpleasant surprise.

Wonder Woman #9: CHECK IT. Hippolyta's still flipping out even though Diana is free. Diana and Nemesis form up with some of the other heroes and he flirts with Black Canary. Nemesis ends up arrested by Sarge Steel, but realizes... it's a faaaaaaake! So Nemesis pulls a quick change to disguise himself *as* Steel, getting them both arrested. Stabbing the fake in his "steel" hand reveals that it's Everyman, who's going to be a Plot Device for years to come. He gets free and enacts Circe's villanous plot, step whatever this is. But perhaps gloating about this is the wrong idea for her.

MARVEL:

Captain America #26: CHECK IT. Steve's corpse is turning old, which doesn't seem to be happening in any other Mar... oh why do I even bother anymore? Sharon Carter quits SHIELD and heads to a bar, meeting several other people who knew Cap in passing. Red Skull and his daughter Sin are bummed that Crossbones isn't getting proper credit, but stop to check out a time related device of Dr. Doom's that MODOK is reverse engineering. I don't know what it is, but I bet I know someone who does. The Anti-Reg heroes have a Secret Wake. The Beyonder sees that I typed the last two letters wrong, and sulks away disappointed until New Avengers Illuminati #3. Morons call Cap a traitor in front of The Winter Bucky, leading to beat up morons and a momentous decision.

Fantastic Four #546: CHECK IT. The cover attraction is Black Panther vs. The Silver Surfer, which would ordinarily cause one to lay a heavy bet down on the latter. On page 1, you see that T'Challa has seriously ripped off the Thundercats' logo. Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four's mission is going kinda weird when the corpse they're trying to recover is alive, well and protector of the universe. Also, how do frogs fit into the Galactus Contingency Plan? Also, Reed explains to Sue why he went along with Tony.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Annual #1: MUST HAVE. Sandman: Year One. Yeah, it's very obviously movie influenced. It's practically dripping here. But when it's this good, who cares? Sandman is really delved into as someone who really isn't evil, but has gotten a huge amount of bad breaks in his life... but at the same time, he doesn't completely blame fate for everything either. Very compelling reading. If you're a fan of the Sandman character at all, pick this up.

5/31: (comics shipped one day late due to Memorial Day Holiday)

Action Comics #850: MUST READ. In the timeframe of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac 5 has invented a Chronexus. This literal plot device can scan Supergirl's temporal signature and scan for matching chronal particles, meaning she's screwed if Dr. Sam Beckett picks just then to Leap into her. This gives an excuse to get several flashbacks into the new continuity of Superman, even though we just got a new one not too long ago. It is mostly derived from Birthright, but there are a few differences. But when a crisis situation occurs, can Supergirl save Superman from a thousand years in the future, and maybe learn something about their relationship in the process?

And next issue, we are *finally* getting the follow up to the Phantom Zone story. I bet those criminals have already destroyed the world by now.

Amazons Attack #2: CHECK IT. The Amazons have won me over to their side of this war by destroying Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, which is not too far from where I live. Go Amazons! DC Universe me hasn't been killed since Cyborg Superman destroyed Coast City (thought to correspond to Ventura, California). The destruction was so widespread then that Vandenberg wasn't responding. I bet I was brought back to life via Superboy-Prime reality punch and am more grim and gritty until killed. Oh well, I have versions on other Earths thanks to Mr. Mind vomit. I really hope there isn't a GD Boffo out there. Anyway, Batman doubts Diana... again. Donna Troy shows up to talk to Hippolyta. Hippolyta says to bring Diana and they can talk about ways to end the conflict, but Donna is interrupted by Countdown #46. Some of the other Amazons don't like attacking Vandenberg. They're known as wusses. Hippolyta agrees with me. No mercy for Vandenberg. Diana totally calls Bruce on questioning her loyalty AGAIN. And the Amazons discover just about the biggest way to piss off Superman that does not involve Lois Lane there is.

Blue Beetle #15: CHECK IT. Filler vibe from this issue as Jaime's official Blue Beetle video IM program (the hell?) lets his friends suggest he meet up with someone big to tell them about these aliens, and suggest the first step is STAR Labs. Security there mistakes him for an intruder, and unfortunately, Livewire's been there since the Auctioneer storyline in Action Comics getting a handle on her powers and she can sense and react badly to the suit's broadcasts. Then Superman defuses the whole thing. Some good moments, but was close to a PASS IT.

Countdown #48: CHECK IT. Looking for help in getting her powers back and going where she was told not to, Mary has found Black Adam, who laughs when she tells him that their powers make him strong. Back at the Daily Planet, Perry White also knows Jason Todd is the Red Hood. These are people who Superman fooled with glasses for years while working right next to them. They should not know info one step away from Batman's ID. But then destructive beams rain down from the sky. Donna Troy gives a speech at Duela's funeral and Jason Todd has a word with her after about how maybe neither of them are supposed to be there either. Karate Kid is still behind bars on the JLA satellite and is visited by Starman. Back in Metropolis, Jimmy Olsen does Super Speed tricks to save some people. Good thing he does, because Superman shows up in the nick of *late*. And a God dies. Also, part II of History of the Multiverse. No Hitler on Ice unfortunately.

Green Lantern #20: MUST READ. One of the more consistent books out there as Hal now has to deal with the Star Sapphire possessing whomever Hal cares for AND the Zamorons.Cowgirl calling Carol "Veronica" and being forced to wear a shirt reading "I AM EASY" got some chuckles. Hal comes up with one of the most innovative ways to defeat the villains ever here, but it causes the Zamorons to make a decision. Hal also learns something interesting. In the backup Sinestro Corps feature, we learn why the Sinestro Corps love pods.

JSA Classified #26: CHECK IT. As a fighter, Wildcat sometimes had to let his opponent know in the ring when it was time to give it up without hurting him too badly. As a hero, this comes up as well, and it occurs to Ted that it's Sportsmaster's time to hang it up before he gets killed. But Sportsmaster is in deep with a place that takes bets on hero-villain fights (not to be confused with Roulette's establishment that hosts fights). Ted wants to shut it down, but could there be consquences?

Justice Society of America #6: MUST READ. Superman identifies the lightning rod from last time as the rod used to kill a random person to bring back Lightning Lad from the classic story where Proty I gave his life to do so. When Dawnstar says she can see the "mark of the multiverse" on Starman, he replies "Earth 22? Meh. No one liked each other there very much!" (since Earth 22 is the Kingdom Come Earth, that confirms who that character is). In an "old Secret Society hide out" (that looks suspiciously like the Legion of Doom HQ), the last Legionnaire is found... and found... and found. Or so we think. Because when an attack by a famous Legion villain turns out to be an illusion, that points to a different seventh Legionnaire. But now, they're all together and know where to go. Quote of the book: Starman (to a snake): "Hi, Swamp Thing!"

By the way, an intriguing remark from the last issue I left out of that review: Karate Kid mentions that they appeared so soon after the *middle* Crisis.

Teen Titans #47: MUST READ. A lot is packed into this issue. The Titans attend Duela's funeral, confirming (as does Countdown above) that it is the same Duela who joined the team in the last few issues who died, despite her "neighboring Earth" remarks. Some of the Titans look for clues into that. When an investigation eventually leads to Jason Todd being kicked in the little Red Hoods, that's an awesome investigation. The other half of the team help keep Jericho (stuck in Match's body until they can figure out something to do with Match) calm. Plus, a lot of subplots get some attention.

MARVEL:

New Avengers - Illuminati #3: CHECK IT. Close to a PASS IT. This is set during Secret Wars II according to research. The Illuminati meet, minus Tony, because of the backlash to seeing him naked last time when he is neither hot, female nor Ultron, or at least that's my reason, to discuss that the Beyonder is a mutant Inhuman. Then they proceed to find him in an artificial New York to tell him he's bad and needs to go away for the rest of the book. That's about it.... yeah.

Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1: CHECK IT. This one's an odd duck. Essentially, it's Little Red Riding Hood rewritten with Mary Jane as the lead character, and Peter Parker as a wood cutter. Spider-Man saves MJ from candy thieves, but J. Jonah Jameson back at town hall doesn't believe her and thinks he was responsible for what happend to Gwen Stacy. Then the story really begins when MJ's mother suggests MJ take a basket of goodies to Peter's Aunt May. Oddly, the moral of the story seems to be morphed into about how women don't have to be helpless property. Is this still a concern in 2007?

Well, I'm all caught up, at least until the new downloads come in and I....

*sirens blare*

Uh oh, that's the special request alarm, kids!

SPECIAL REQUEST:

The Ultimates v2 #12: MUST HAVE. Remember when they executed The Hulk, kids? Well, they need to do a better job. But good thing they didn't, as he starts smashing robots. Superspeed lady takes on Hawkeye until she says the word "fast" and wakes up Quicksilver. Whiny guy wants Captain America, who is pissed. Guy who's supposed to be like a smart Hulk thinks that means he wins over Hulk, except Hulk is not impressed, nor merciful when the guy asks. Insect Queen attempts to head off the rescue of the president, but Janet has giant serum Hank gave her and squashes the Lana wannabe (and only one person is gonna get that. It's truly and profoundly sad.). Rocket Red (see, I could go back and look up these names, but nah) starts wasting everything in sight, but Tony shows up wasted and wastes him. Hulk approves.

Hank Pym chooses this moment to switch sid... I mean reveal his infiltration! Once whiny guy is losing to Cap, all his footsoldiers join in. This is exactly why in high school, I never believed the morons who said they wanted one on one fights but had a passel of their buddies along. It would have gone *exactly* like this. Who can save Cap as whiny guy is about to behead him with a lightsaber? As a clue, Hulk throws sharp shields *hard*. It looks like the good guys have won... but Loki is about to attack... Scarlet Witch has a little surprise though.

The Ultimates v2 #13: MUST HAVE. This one is all about the Loki and Thor throwdown. I know I said above about how an all issue fight scene has to be *good* to get my attention. This and the last issue are the ways to do it. The rest of the Ultimates back off some of the things Loki summons up quickly make them realize that Thor's no delusional nurse and that this is not their fight. But when Thor summons the host of Asgard, the Ultimates join in the fray as well. Wanda continues her determined hitting on the Vision android here, causing everyone to think she's insane. Russian Thor Guy: "Uh, is there anyone I can surrender to? All my friends appear to be dead." Hank: "Do we all have to spend a little time in these cells?"

And totally, for the record, after this whole series, Ultimate Hawkeye, is *firmly* on my "Do not piss off EVER" list.

And whew, all caught up. At least until *this* week's comics come in.

I did make a minor error the other time in describing the Wii haul. DarkHelm had not downloaded the SNES Title Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. Notice that I say "had not", not "did not". He has since done so. He *really* likes Zelda games. Also from the console's store, he's gotten Bonk's Adventure for the TurboGrafx-16, Golden Axe for the Sega Genesis and Galaga for the NES.

But our new gaming experiences haven't been limited to solely the Virtual Console. The Wii is backwards compatible with the Nintendo Gamecube. A panel in the front of the top of the console opens to reveal four ports for Gamecube controllers (which can also control certain Virtual Console titles and even a few Wii titles), and a smaller panel in the back of the top of the console reveals to open two ports for Gamecube memory cards (which are the only option for Cube game saving). DarkHelm has picked up used copies of Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. So far, I've only played a bit into the Mario game, but it seems pretty fun, and different. This of course means that Sutton now only has to send us all his Gamecube games, controllers and memory cards (along with any new ones he gets.) He can keep the actual Cube itself.

On the Wii front, we were a bit torn because we knew we wanted to get a Madden game, but getting one now meant losing out on the new rosters and features, and getting next year's meant waiting until August. And it didn't seem worth it to plunk down $50 for both. EA Sports made the decision easy by picking *now* to lower the price on Madden 07 to $30, so DarkHelm picked that up. It's a very different experience playing on the Wii, with all the motion controls. Highly recommended.

Well, we've have another month end, so let's say what Google Analytics says for the month of May:

250 visits by 67 unique visitors for a total of 277 pageviews. 59 visits by my county, leaving a total of 191 by elsewhere, a trifle over 6 per day. Down a bit, but I was far from posting every day.

Visitors represented the United States, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, South Korea, Egypt and Aruba, and thus all 6 continents that people live on visited me. What's the matter, Antarctica, think you're too good for this blog? Well, I DON'T NEED YOU! Yeah, I went there.

I wish Google Analytics included states, but it's either cities (which I don't want to list for various reasons, but I had in 37 in total on the month),or countries.

Not bad for a blog no one reads, huh?

This might be a good time to fit in some long overdue comic reviews.

5/16:

DC:

Action Comics #849: PASS IT. There are good elements to this story, like the truth behind Redemption's power source and such, but the way religion is characterized here is somewhat appalling. Clark here comes off as spokesman for atheism (so much so that I'd bet some money on the writer being atheist or agnostic himself), deriding missionary work as an intrusion against native culture and law. The person he's speaking to never even attempts to point out that eternal spiritual salvation trumps either issue. To a Christian, failing to spread the gospel is akin to refusal to save someone from a fire. Outside of Star Trek, the Prime Directive is no excuse. And the most good and religious person in the story (the person who thought Superman was an angel she could call down a few months back) turns out to be a universalist (someone who believes all religions are equally valid). Now, again, the church in question is called the "Church of Redemption" and Christ's name is never mentioned, but crosses are frequently seen.

The question is asked: How much of this is a Superman story, and how much of this is anti-Church commentary? And yes, pro-Church commentary in the guise of a Superman comic would be equally inappropriate.

Plus, what ever happened with that whole Superman captured and put into the Phantom Zone by the released Phantom Zone criminals story?

All-Star Batman & Robin #5: BURN IT. We waited nearly a year for *this*? Wonder Woman detesting men so thoroughly that she refers to them as "sperm bank"? But still, she has the hots for Superman? Batman running around laughing maniacally at how much he enjoys being the GD Batman, in between utterly brutalizing criminals needlessly? Yeah, the All-Star concept is so the creative teams can reboot and have fun with it, but this is so over the top it verges on parody. It couldn't even be used for Punisher.

Batman #665: CHECK IT. Batman's been beaten so badly by this Venom-enhanced cop wearing a Batman costume that a prostitute has to drive him to the Wayne Foundation. As he recovers, Tim goes out after it... and then Bruce. We find out what the Black Casebook is. But which side is the GCPD on?

Catwoman #67: CHECK IT. Selina has gotten Calculator the snow globe he wanted, but it may be for nothing as Holly has not only been unmasked in front of the GCPD and on TV, but attacked by Hammer and Sickle, a pair of criminals Selina betrayed a while back. And they've been upgraded. Can Selina get Holly out past the villain Holly was fighting, past Hammer and Sickle and past the GCPD? And even then, will there be another danger?

Checkmate #14: CHECK IT. After clearing what looks to be a giant Lagoon Boy off the ship, our heroes land on Oolong. To the chagrin of Count Vertigo, Boomerang spills the beans about "doing work like this for Waller last year". For some reason then, the Black Queen wants to make very sure Boomerang is with her. Both Faraday and Waller worry they're looking at a major problem now. Nightwing and Sasha continue to reminisce about Bruce. And someone turns out to be gay, with it dropped out of nowhere. Was just a matter of time with Winick writing. All this sneaking... but we might need to cue Admiral Ackbar, because it might be...a TRAP!!!!

Countdown #50: CHECK IT. Superman burns a door open to help Jimmy get a story on the Red Hood, whom Jimmy knows to be Jason Todd (along with knowing that Jason was Robin, and that Dick was the first Robin and is Nightwing... which really implies that Jimmy somehow knows Bruce is Batman). Jimmy talks about Jason being willing to kill as I wonder why isn't Superman arresting Jason instead of helping Jimmy do stories on him. Jimmy wonders about the Joker's daughter thing, Jason says there's a guy in Arkham who wrote the book on crazy. Mary Batson visits Madame Xanadu. Xanadu can't help with the powers, but tells her to stay out of Gotham, which is always good advice. We revisit the Batman-Karate Kid fight from JLA. A Flash Rogues party degrades into a fight when Trickster and Pied Piper are suspected of still being "Flash Buddies". And Jimmy talks to the Joker.

The Flash: Fastest Man Alive #12: CHECK IT. Impulse's plan continues, but it seems he may have been less than forthcoming with the Rogues. A cool moment comes with Abra-Kadabra, from the 64th century, revealing that Impulse's 30th century tech was stuff Abra learned about in third grade. In the meantime, Iris has recruited Valerie to stop something terrible from happening to Flash, but is she too late?

Justice League of America #9: MUST READ. The odd but compelling team up between the Justice League, Justice Society and apparently pre-Crisis Legion continues as Hal Jordan, Jay Garrick, Vixen and Wildcat Jr. visit Gorilla City looking for the next Legionnaire. Another one gets found on Thanagar (which might give you a clue as to which one it is). There's implications that one of them may be of alternate sexuality, and yet it *isn't* Winick writing (see, it isn't so much that I mind the plot element, it's that Winick goes back to that well or a few other similar ones on every book he writes, no matter how contrived it is for him to get there.)

Supergirl #17: PASS IT. I'm just not sure what's going on in this book. Are these supposed phantom leaking through Superman really doing so and causing everyone to talk smack to Kara, or is this whole issue her delusion. And having it so unclear what's going on really hurts the book. And then the ending is just a WTF cherry on a WTF sundae. Plus Alé Garza's art didn't really work for me this issue. I hope he grows on me for the book, because he is the new regular penciller.

MARVEL:

Fallen Son: Death of Captain America #3: PASS IT. Clint Barton meets with Iron Man, who immediately attempts to convince him to take up the mantle of Captain America... a Captain America on Iron Man's side. I don't know, on one hand, it's an interesting story, but on the other hand, it's such a repugnant concept that I just can't recommend it at all. Anyone remember when Iron Man was a hero?

Mighty Avengers #3: CHECK IT. Hot Naked Female Ultron, whom last issue Wasp said killed Iron Man (note to Marvel: Good news is not a cliff hanger.), continues being hot and naked. Ms. Marvel's brilliant plan is to run away, but Sentry doesn't listen. Given that HNF Ultron totally looks like Wasp, Wasp suspects Hank Pym, who apparently just totally nailed Tigra before the SHIELD troops come busting in the door to tell him he really needs to answer his phone. Mind you, this whole "Iron Man is dead" supposed cliff hanger, which continues here, is being *completely and utterly ignored* by the rest of the Marvel universe despite going on in this book from issue #1. I'm starting to wonder if we should just consider that Marvel stories take place just whenever, regardless of when they're published, and it's up to us to puzzle piece it all together in as continuity.

5/23 later, hopefully tomorrow.

I had planned to finish up comic reviews for the last couple of weeks for today, but I wanted to go ahead and do something else for today.

And maybe this might get seen as being controversial. Maybe some will read it as "inane" on the obvious sole basis that I say bad things about people who are cool to them (so long as they're getting everything they want, mind you.) All I know is I've got people coming by here regularly, and if you're not interested in what I have to say, you're pretty much wasting your time by doing so.

I knew a pretty cool person. She was smart and funny, nearly murderous with a witty turn of phrase. We got off to a rocky start, but at the time of her greatest need, I was nearly her only defender (as many of those now supposedly "cool to her" numbered amongst her attackers).

Unfortunately, a budding friendship got short the way too many of these friendships online have. One of the real stains of the net managed to weasel his way in close to her and convince her he was a great guy. I admit I was taken in too. Eventually, without reason, he turned on me. He ended up being the main reason I left a place I used to enjoy.

Soon, this cool person opened her own place. But she wanted the stain in charge. Meaning that since I wasn't about to let the stain have power over me again, I was locked out, even though I wasn't the one who did anything wrong. This eventually ended out friendship. A bit later, the stain eventually turned on her and we re-kindled our friendship. I got to be a part of her place, and she got to be a part of the one I started. Our friendship grew.

Unfortunately, before we could put everything right, another stain fooled both of us. And eventually would cause us to blow apart again. But this time, I believed her when she said it was a mistake for us to blow apart. I tried to fix the mistakes I had made (because admittedly I had made some) and hoped she would fix hers. But there was fun in there too. There always was fun. If there wasn't, we wouldn't have made it that long.

And I did learn about her. I learned that there were some real jerks in her past, and that control was something that really worried her. And that despite what she may say, or even believe now (depending on how much she has since demonized me), she cared about me. Just that idea of caring about me opened up the idea that I might be able to control her. I had no intentions of doing so. I still don't. I did and do want for what I consider to be valid grievances to be addressed. If it could be rationally shown to me that a grievance or grievances were invalid, I would drop it. Several minor grievances have already been dropped in the hopes of peaceful resolution. Unfortunately, I can see that it read like an attempt to control to her, and it was countered by an attempt to control me, which often resulted in another grievance.

This pattern prevented us from complete happiness. In the meantime, the second stain has managed to re-wriggle his way back into her life, telling her pre-planned lies to cover his previous betrayal and cause her to attack me yet again, as well as go back on her word, causing another valid grievance on my part. Some have said I should have just dropped these grievances, but there's only so many and so major of grievances that can be dropped without a relationship (in any form) becoming hopelessly and permanently uneven to the point where one participant can do whatever they want knowing the other person will never make an issue of it, essentially meaning that other person is controlled.

Now, I don't get to talk to my friend at all. I miss her. I wonder how she's doing. Maybe she'll be angry if she happens to read this, but I hope she'll see it as respectful outreach. It's just about the only potential venue I have left to get through. If she does see this and wants to talk, it doesn't have to be a fight. It doesn't have to be anything.

For the rest of you, it's my blog, and it feels good to get some of this out. Even if you don't know what I'm talking about (and I'm being intentionally vague out of respect for the situation), you can probably sympathize with the emotions.

In the meantime, true Dave fans, more later. I'll be less maudlin next time.

All my life, I've been over the top.
I don't know what I'm doing,
all I know is I don't wanna stop.
All fired up, I'm gonna go till I drop.
You're either in or in the way, don't make me,
I don't wanna stop.

Well, I did leave some big news off of last time. I've officially joined the cellular crowd. I guess this means I've become... a cell out (b'dum ching). In any event, there ended up being a cell phone contract taken out by someone who trusted me and the original planned user ended up being unable to use it, so I got the phone instead, since it's on a year long contract (through late March) anyway and goes to waste if I don't use it.

The phone is a Samsung SGH-D807. Features include a 1.3 MegaPixel camera that can take pictures of up to 1280x1024 resolution, video recording, MP3 playing, Bluetooth and support for up to a 2GB memory card. Right now, it's just a phone, but when I get some cash, I'd like to accessorize it a bit:

• Bluetooth Headset: More an earpiece than a headset, but the hands free operation is always convenient.
• 2GB Memory: I've seen this for as low as $25.
• Headphones Adapter: With the memory, this phone could easily replace my old 64MB MP3 player, I'd just need a way to privately listen to it.
• Computer Connection Hardware: In case there are cool things to do with the phone that I can't manage to do by connecting the memory card to my computer, there's hardware and software packages out there to connect the phone itself to my computer. This one's not as high on the priority list as the other three and may not happen at all.

In other cool news, after literally months of searching, DarkHelm finally managed to find a Wii, perhaps proving that where there's a will, there's a W... never mind, too punny even for me. Anyway, he's been busy with pickups for the system.

Wii Sports was the free "gimme" game with the system. Anticipation for it ranged from some calling it a tech demo rather than a game, and others calling it Wii's first killer app. Honestly, I think it's going to go down as a great pack-in game just like Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 (now, my N64 came with Star Wars Episode I Racer and I never played Super Mario 64 until last year) were for Nintendo, and yes, even as good as Atari 2600 Combat. My favorite of the 5 games is Tennis, which I learned the hard way to take it easy with, as my arm is still a little sore right now. But that's the price you pay to become tennis master.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a fun game in the same kind of gameplay vein as X-Men Legends 1 & 2, which we both liked. There is some question as to whether the game is in the standard or Ultimate Marvel universe though. The name and lack of wings on Captain America's head suggest Ultimate, but Nick Fury is white, and I'm not sure some of the villains, like the Winter Soldier and Fing Fang Foom were ever introduced in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Our first time playing the game was amusing because my nunchuk controller's joystick was misaligned, causing both Captain America and Thor to wander into a fire and play around in it until they died. The Wii motion controls for the game are interesting and fun, and Captain America's shield bouncing around is pretty insane looking. My only complaints are that it can get pretty difficult to tell characters apart on the screen, making it easy to lose track of which character you're controlling. Also, sometimes it's easy to get your character attacking the wrong way and hard to get them turned around and stop non heroically attacking the air.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess seems to be a prequel to all the other Zelda games. Lots of puzzles in the game play, and you actually play for about half an hour before you actually get a sword. Lots of Wii use.

I haven't played Super Paper Mario yet, but from watching DarkHelm play, it's also pretty interesting... platforming style old school gameplay, with an RPG type levelling system, and a gimmick where you can occassionally take the environment into 3D. The plot and dialogue almost come off as spoofing the Mario milieu (intentionally thankfully) in a lot of ways.

And DarkHelm's been pretty busy on the Virtual Console marketplace as well. He picked up Starfox 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64 from the N64; The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past and Super Mario World for the SNES and The Legend of Zelda for NES.

I might chime in later. I still have 5/16's comics to review.

This file is getting long. After the end of June, I'll create another archive file for the first half of 2007 in this blog. I've been busy as a whole, even if I have dropped off my once a day goal that I had going there for a little while.

I have been busy on yet another side project. As you might notice in the Subsections list, we have yet another subpage here. Dave's Barebones Pokemon Pearl Roster is a handy dandy resource for anyone who cares to check out just which Pokemon I've captured in the game.

Such a project has become necessary in order to keep track because, as pointed out last time, traded Pokemon level faster than untraded Pokemon. Unfortunately, our first idea of simply trading all of our Pokemon back and forth with each other turned out to be pointless as the way the game tracks that a Pokemon is traded is by remembering the original owner, both by name and a 5 digit ID number. When we traded our original Pokemon back, it was back in the hands of its original owner, and therefore, not traded.

This caused me to put more thorough investigation into the new Diamond and Pearl innovation called the "Global Trade System", which I had ignored at first for being too clogged with morons trying to trade worthless Pokemon for either Starter or Legendary Pokemon... and there still is quite a bit of that, but I quickly made quite a few interesting discoveries:

• Most probably due to the cartoon, Pichu and Pikachu can be traded for the starter Pokemon quite easily, even though they're quite common and easy to catch if you know where to look (the Trophy Garden in the backyard of the Pokemon Mansion south of Hearthome City).
• Abra and its evolved forms also trade for the starter Pokemon quite easily.
• The starter Pokemon (the small grass, fire and water types you choose between as your first Pokemon, but you typically have a very hard time getting the other two) trade for nearly everything else, except Legendary or other rare Pokemon. They can almost become a form of currency, even if they're bred Pokemon.
• Very occassionally you'll see someone put up a trade that seems very silly in retrospect. As example, I've taken trades of a level 39 Clefairy for any Barboach (a fish Pokemon, I caught a level 18 one and immediately traded it). Or a level 53 Bibarel for any Bibarel (I gave up my level 35 Bibarel, that I had gotten in a trade for "any Bibarel" that I had given up my original level 23 Bibarel for)

Anyway, in the worst case, my new page will be a nice little list for me, and possibly a shopping list for DarkHelm, but any of you guys are welcome to check it out.

Now what's causing all this? Did somebody say comic reviews? Whoo!

Yes, I know it's probably already been said. Oh well.

Now I do want to say this. I know I give a lot of CHECK ITs with this system. That's by design. Every comic starts with that. If my review so moves you, you should check that comic out, and make your own decision. If a comic moves me enough in either direction, it gets a MUST READ or a PASS IT. This means I feel strongly enough about it that I feel confident in making that recommendation to everyone. And it takes something special either way to get a MUST HAVE or BURN IT.

Now that I've explained that, let's move on.

Week of 5/9:

DC:

Countdown #51: CHECK IT. Teetering on the edge of a MUST READ. I really like the cover design for the Countdown series. It's basically the 52 logo, but instead of 52, the number is the number of the issue. It really conveys the sense that the number is important. This week, Darkseid plays Heroclix (not my joke, but I so wish it was). Then Duela Dent is evil again (she was just joining the Titans over in their book, turning on Slade's Titans East). When a suddenly heroic Jason Todd who hates costing innocent lives and isn't tolerant of gun-wielding crazies, and is fully cooperative with the law (alarm bells should be ringing here on a few levels) tries to stop her, things get weird. Elsewhere, Flash's Rogues are getting together for a party but Trickster's and Pied Piper's presences are barely tolerated. And Mary Batson is out of her coma. Her hospital bill has been paid by Freddy Freeman, who has left a note saying not to try to find him. And saying "Shazam" does nothing for her anymore. And how does Ray Palmer figure into this?

Green Arrow #74: CHECK IT. This one is close to PASS IT unless you love you some Green Arrow/Black Canary shipper action. Ollie, Dinah, Connor and Mia try to break up a meeting of Brick, Merlyn and their goons. The fish get away. Ollie and Dinah argue. This makes them hot. So they go home and (insert your favorite euphemism here) for 40 hours with no signs of fatigue whatsoever. Finally, they get a tip and back out, but there's a surprise waiting for them. That's the book. Quote of the book: Dinah has just found out that Ollie has been celibate for a year. Ollie: "Hal's got a big damn mouth."

Green Lantern Corps #12: CHECK IT. The weirdness continues as Vath and Isamot come upon the murder scene just in time to hear one of the dying Lanterns accuse Guy of the murder. Guy escapes to Mogo to clear his name and Mogo presents him with an illusion of his alcoholic abusive father. Kilowog talks about wanting to kill Guy, despite that being a clear breach of protocol. Also, Natu's new partner's father has died and she looks to be made the new queen of her planet.

JLA Classified #38: PASS IT. With how often this Kid Amazo story was solicited and cancelled, I wanted to like it, but nothing happens in this part. The Justice League talks about pre-emptively killing him, but they can't do that, they're the Justice League. Amazo talks the kid into setting off a quake with him, but the kid helps stop it instead, and then goes out to the desert to practice. The League talks about how his girlfriend might help bring him onto the side of good, but that he's on the edge of sanity. Is the reason the JLA classified this adventure to hide the fact that they did *nothing*?

Nightwing #132: BURN IT. Augh! Please let the next arc be good! I hated this Bride & Groom arc! If I was a paranoid, I'd say Didio was giving us crappy Nightwing just to teach us all a lesson for not letting him kill Dick back in Infinite Crisis. Of course, the excellent Annual gets in the way of that theory, but oh well. Have I babbled on long enough so that I don't have to talk about this stupid story? Good, chalk this up as a service to my readers.

Outsiders #47: CHECK IT. Nightwing is a tad unhappy that all his teammates were abducted, so he confronts the Black Queen, takes her ID card, frees Grace (who is clad in just a hospital gown and panties and butt jokes aplenty fly), and just as they're about to reach the rest of the team... they're fine! Checkmate just wanted to *talk*. Apparently, Oolong Island (which is placed off the west coast of North Korea, which just furthers my geography concerns with World War III. China was RIGHT THERE, Adam. Why did you go to the Middle East, then GREECE, then China?) is still active, and the Outsiders are kinda sorta drafted into going along with Checkmate.

MARVEL:

Amazing Spider-Girl #8: CHECK IT. Close to a MUST READ though. MJ is having very mixed feelings about May agreeing to stop being Spider-Girl last issue. Meanwhile, at school, a girl named Sara Hingle's mutant powers manifest in the middle of class, sometype of repulsion force dealie. So Sara (who isn't even lucky enough to get 2 mules) gets locked in a dissection lab. Did I say dissection lab? I meant happy fun hospital, where she gets help... and candy. When MJ visits the Hingles, Mr. Hingle yells at her "What if your daughter was the freak?" Can May and MJ help Sara and the Hingles?

Amazing Spider-Man #540: CHECK IT. Probably what cost this a MUST READ is Marvel's gaping continuity issues right now. This issue is about Peter, mad as heck and not going to take it anymore, gradually peeling back the layers until he finds out just who gave the orders that resulted in his aunt being killed. As we found out several months ago, it's the Kingpin. Of course, one major problem is that months ago, Daredevil actually got the Kingpin out of jail on the condition he leave the country. The Spidey comics at the time even had to point out that "This story happened before the story in Daredevil #such and such". What this logically means is that Daredevil has Kingpin sprung after Kingpin got Aunt May shot. Does this make sense? Will Peter be happy? If you look at this story alone, it's excellent, exactly what it says it is, this black costume means the rules have changed, and for Peter they really have, he isn't joking anymore and he isn't playing nice. But this is 2007, and Marvel really needs to sit down and have meetings to iron out these continuity issues. Sometimes they happen within the Spidey lines themselves (something some blame on Amazing being THE Spidey comic and the others being treated like red headed step children)

New Avengers #30: CHECK IT. And as I speak, another blatant continuity error raises its head. In his solo books, the black costume means all the rules have changed and the jokes are over, but here, Spider-Man is still yukking it up like he's bucking for honorary membership in Justice League International. Tony's magician doesn't find any trace of the New Avengers but admits that they could be there because Dr. Strange is better. Iron Man tries giving a speech that "We won. What are you guys doing?" that I can't believe Peter fell for for a second, considering he was ON the other side and came over. Then they flash back to Japan and fight enough ninjas to annoy the Tick.

Punisher War Journal #7: CHECK IT. Someday I will pass a law demanding I get compensation for every comic that starts with the ending and flashes back. Here, Hate-Monger (stupid name for this villain. First off, it breaks Mick Foley's rule that the heel must always see himself as right. Second off, the correct form would be Hate-Mongerer) has tied Frank to a post and is threatening to shoot him. As we go back, we see the reporter who survived Hate-Monger's attack last issue find the 911 operator who took the call has been killed (hopefully that ends up having a reason) and Frank attempting to go undercover with the bigots. Quote of the book: Frank (tied up and surrounded by gunmen): "You think that's all it'll take to kill me? You think that's all it'll take to kill Captain America?"

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2: MUST READ. Spider-Man attempts to bow out gracefully from the situation now that the FF are handling it, but MJ and Aunt May have been converted into aliens, as have most of the civilians in Central Park. As Spider-Man rejoins the Four, Reed decides to retreat back to the Baxter building temporarily. (Spidey: "'Retreat' is the new 'win'. Got it.") The merged aliens make an announcement on TV saying all the human race is going to be merged, except those "not useful due to physical or mental capacity", meaning their powers make Spidey, the Four and certain others immune. However, a merged Dr. Strange wants to demonstrate card tricks to show his improved mystic mastery. Reed has a Negative Zone hopping spacecraft to visit previous host planets of the aliens. Johnny wants to fly it. Spidey: "'Johnny Storm' and 'fact finding mission' just don't get near each other in my head somehow." But knowing the Four need a science based hero in his absence, he takes the "4" logo off his chest and places it on Spider-Man's chest before departing. Then... of course... things gets worse.

I'll try to hit 5/16's comics tomorrow.

It's the blog that you might say isn't good for you, but you just can't stop coming back for more, BoffoBlog!

Pokemon Pearl proceeds apace. I'm coming up on nearly 40 Pokemon captured and have 4 Gym Badges. What helps is a discovery that DarkHelm and I made last night that traded Pokemon gain much more experience than untraded Pokemon. The drawback is that traded Pokemon stop listening to you at a certain level related to how many Gym Badges you have. With my 4th Badge, that level is 50 for me, so it's not a big deal. DarkHelm is still back at 2 Badges, preferring to level up his entire pool of Pokemon before proceeding past gyms, and his level is 30, which his top Pokemon is past, so he needs to catch up.

Just for giggles, I've taken a break from the main game to level up a "B Team" as it were. No, Scott Norton is nowhere in sight. I've got:

• Chatot, a Flying Pokemon (bird) with an attack called Chatter that actually learns a word from the player through the DS microphone and damages the other Pokemon through it.
• Ponyta, Fire Pokemon
• Gyrados, Water/Flying Pokemon
• Roselia, Grass/Poison Pokemon
• Kadabra, Psychic Pokemon (who can evolve to the form Alakazam as soon as I have an opportunity to trade him temporarily to DarkHelm)
• and some Pokemon called Pikachu. You may have heard of him.

But on to the meat of why you came, even if you didn't know it, comic review.

Week of 5/2/07:

DC:

52 #52: MUST READ. And I bet you thought I'd let the Booster bias push this into MUST HAVE, didn't you? It's not quite in that category, but it is a great wrapup to the series. One wonders if the creators of a tiny cartoony caterpillar with a radio around his neck ever envisioned he'd be changed into... that. You know, if you thought Superboy-Prime punching the walls of reality to make retcons was silly, Mr. Mind flapping and eating history has it beat. 

One clever touch I liked. Way back over 20 years ago now in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the 5 Earths that ended up merging to form post-Crisis DC Earth were Earth-1 (Silver Age DC), Earth-2 (Golden Age DC), Earth-4 (Charlton Comics), Earth-S (Fawcett Comics, primarily the Captain Marvel characters) and Earth-X (Quality Comics). Earth-2 and 4 were just seen to take their proper place in the new numbering. S looks like a 5, so Earth-5 is the Captain Marvel Earth. And X is the Roman Numeral for X, so Earth-10 is the Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters Earth.

On a side note, I did groan a bit when some newer comic readers tried to call DC giving the Crime Syndicate Earth the designation "Earth-3" as a mistake due to Grant Morrison's JLA Story "Earth 2".

In a big way, this book was the launching pad for Booster's upcoming monthly as well, which some readers who don't like Booster may not appreciate as much. Those readers are called "philistines". I keed, I keed. Anyway, I really like the premise that Booster is going to be becoming more noble and an ideal hero (with his ancestor Daniel along to remind him of what he used to be), but that he has to pretend to be an idiot because his heroism is going to be in defense of the timeline and if it's known, a time traveling villain could kill Booster in his cradle (it came out in the last JSA series that Rip Hunter's real name is unknown for just that reason).

And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that, in a fashion, Ralph Dibny finally gets the happy ending his fans have been wanting for him since Identity Crisis #1.

All New Atom #11: CHECK IT. This issue is pretty close to a pass it. It's very exposition heavy. And then that ending... without spoiling, the ending is awful, and really does a lot to ruin the story. Particularly, a lot of sense of sympathy in the whole situation.

Checkmate #13: CHECK IT. The Outsiders did naughty things. So Checkmate gets it into their heads to capture them. It is pretty interesting how they have individualized plans for each member of the team, though the code names that were dog breeds that happened to begin with the same letter were just silly. Waller's snide comments about Captain Boomerang, Jr. brought a smile to my face.

Detective Comics #832: CHECK IT. I'm always a sucker for these one shot stories in Detective Comics that are actually detective stories, like the name would indicate. A body is identified as Sherman "The Shark" Shackley, one of "The Terrible Trio", a crime trio who dress up like animals. It seems someone is bumping them off. But who? And can Batman stop them?

Green Lantern #19: CHECK IT. Despite getting married while Hal was "dead", and, oh yeah, Hal and her running for their lives from Jillian "Cowgirl" Pearlman, the apparent new Star Sapphire, Carol Ferris gripes at Hal for seeing other women, then dumps a whole load of retcon on us. There's a whole corps of Star Sapphires out there, just like Green Lanterns and the Sinestro Corps. What Star Sapphires want to do is mate with Green Lanterns, which is apparently why all the Star Sapphires have been chosen, Hal was at one point intimate with them (you go, Hal). If a Star Sapphire mates with a Green Lantern, somehow, that kills the Green Lantern and encases the entire world in crystal, which the Zamorons believe is superiour protection from evil to what the Guardians offer. Why the mating part is needed, I don't know. The back up Sinestro corps story is about a girl from Sector 2815 who was raised by wild animals and is now a savage people eater... who has been given a yellow ring.

Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil #3: CHECK IT. Some fans have opined that this series takes place on the newly minted Earth-5. It's certainly a possibility, as there are issues with mainstream DC continuity (such as when did Sivana hold political office?) I do like Mary's powers being established as different than Billy's, as she can tell that the two monsters they are investigating aren't really alive when he has no idea about that. Some have criticized the writer here for jamming his political views in the story, but I think that's a stretch. I'm just still glad Mary's not in a coma.

Superman #662: CHECK IT. This could come close to a MUST READ just for special observance of continuity. First, we get an update on what Subjekt 17 is up to. Next, Power Girl is examined to see if she is the third Kryptonian detected by the Auctioneer's robots, which she isn't. He ruminates that it might be Krypto, but that he hasn't seen him for over a year. Then we flash back to Arion's warnings, and we even explained how we could cut away like that. Arion gave him two weeks to decide. I am so calling dibs on Zatanna in that outfit. He visits Sirocco and actually gives him the name. We even check in with Chris, which is *Action Comics'* dropped plotline, and I thought *he* was the "third Kryptonian" found by the Auctioneer, but Clark's narration says he arrived after. Of course, Chris just reminds us that a bunch of Kryptonians broke out of the Phantom Zone, then put Clark in it, and we just all forgot about it and assumed it'd be okay.

Teen Titans #46: CHECK IT. Raven, Cyborg, Miss Martian and Joker's Daughter have gotten some reinforcements to help kick Slade and his Titans off their old island: Flash (Bart), Nightwing, Beast Boy and Donna Troy. And the fight is back on. A lot of people have criticized this arc for being mainly just one long fight scene, and there's some truth to it. But it's a pretty cool scene. Particularly noteworthy is when Wonder Girl and Robin have to deal with Superboy's clone Match. The ending gives a real "What a tweest!" vibe. Interesting quote: Robin: "I guess you're right, Cassie... the old days are gone forever... I just hope Bart isn't."

MARVEL:

Avengers - The Initiative #2: CHECK IT. Justice, aka Vance Astrovik, fka Marvel Boy, is now at the Stamford training base, at is a little upset at the New Warriors name constantly being used as an insult, given that he was a New Warrior, but is more upset that no one can tell him what happened to MVP, who was killed last issue. When a crisis situation comes up in Texas, the cadets are called in to help (using a dangerous method of travel through the Negative Zone). The cadet with the power to fly gets assigned the rifle. The rest get jetpacks they've never used before. Can the day be saved?

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #20: CHECK IT. Remember Arrow, the school nurse who seemed kind of sweet on Flash Thompson? Well, it turns out she's made of spiders and wants to seduce him, kill him and eat him. And then possibly cover the Earth in crystal. Or was that something else? Anyway, yum. But I digress. Can Spider-Man stop her? Does Spider-Man have a connection to her?

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #3: MUST READ. Oops, Ashley J. Williams, strange visitor to the Marvel Zombie universe, has just gotten his brains eaten by Zombie Howard The Duck. Time to end the series, and much earlier than usual. But hey, it wasn't Ashley J.'s brains eaten, it was Marvel Zombie universe native Ashley G. Williams who had just happened to show up at that moment. Our Ash is fine. Dazzler and Ash get joined by the Scarlet Witch as it becomes increasingly apparent Ash is telling the truth. The three begin interrogating the books (that is not a metaphor) and wait till you find out where the Necronomicon is! This of course goes to MUST HAVE if you are Sutton. If you find you are indeed Sutton, the most important thing to do is to remain calm, and not panic.

Sensational Spider-Man Annual #1: MUST READ. We start with essentially the ending. Peter has brought MJ to the top of the Empire State Building (a place I've gone to and dived from many times in the Spider-Man 2 video game). When we flash back, it turns out that on one hand, SHIELD has caught up with MJ and is threatening her with jail time unless she turns in Peter. On the other, Peter is thinking about turning himself in. This leads to several nifty POV flashbacks from both, which is the real meat of the annual. Quote of the book: "I wasn't rambling, Brady, I was stalling. I don't believe you've met my husband... Spider-Man, Brady. Brady, the Amazing Spider-Man."

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #18: MUST READ. Harry seems to be falling apart about his dad, and it really distresses Mary Jane who talks about it with Liz. Meanwhile, Firestar blindfolds Spidey and takes him back to her house. When she tries to unmask and tell him her real name, he freaks, saying he isn't ready to take things to that level. MJ gets so desperate to get Harry to talk, she actually takes Flash's suggestion and hits him until he does (which is one of those things which is cute for girls to do to boys, but vice versa is a felony). Gwen sits with Peter at the Bean and says while she was mad at Peter, she doesn't want to see him tortured, so she wants to be his friend. And then, there's a twist ending.

I'll conclude for now and try to get last week's in soon.

Still kind of caught up with the bad situation over here, but thought I could spare time to blog a bit. I still want to wait until details are blogged on elsewhere, but I will say this much. This situation has nothing to do with anything Internet related. It is not anything that has directly happened to me, but as said before in here, a real friend considers any form of attack on his friends to be an attack on him. I stated those words in relation to attacks on me, and I will stand by them in relation to attacks on others. My friend deserved much better, and I will do everything in my power to help him see justice done for him.

On a brighter note, all you DirecTV customers out there, just in case you didn't know, this weekend is apparently a free preview weekend of the HBO/Cinemax, Showtime *and* Starz channels as a DirecTV thing. Not sure if anything good is on yet, but the odds are in our favor.

Segueing from DirecTV to the network they won't let me watch, CW, it seems that Edge is YOUR new World Champion. This brings up an interesting little fun fact I read on the web. If you count the WCW US Title and the WWE US Title as the same title, and include the WCW US Title as it appeared on WWE TV during the invasion as part of that lineage, which I do*, then Edge has made a unique accomplishment. He's the only WWE Superstar to get the RAW and SmackDown Triple Crowns. 

Edge has 2 WWE Title reigns between January and September of 2006. He has 5 IC title reigns between 1999 and 2004. He has won the the World Tag Team Titles 7 times with Christian, once with Hulk Hogan, twice with Chris Benoit and once with Randy Orton. He is the current World Champion in his first reign. He was the last WCW US Champ in the WWE in his first and only reign. Finally, he had a 12 day reign as WWE Tag Team Champ with Rey Mysterio.

*There is a slight hitch to the validity of the WWE US Title being the same title as the WCW US Title, besides the company name, if you bear with me for a bit. Now, on November 18, 2001, WCW US Champion Edge won the WWE IC Title from Test in a unification match. With WWE unsurprisingly winning the main event later, Edge was simply referred to as the IC Champ and only carried around that belt, even though that title also contained the WCW US Title. As the IC Title swapped hands, the US Title went with it.

On October 20th, 2002, IC Champion Kane lost to WWE World Champion Triple H in a unification match, unifying those two titles. Now, Triple H could be said to be the WWE World Champ, and de facto the IC Champ and the WCW US Champ. In mid 2003, RAW co-GM Steve Austin reinstated the IC Title. This action essentially stripped Triple H of his unstated IC Championship. As co-GM of RAW, this was within his power. On May 18, 2003, Christian won a Battle Royale for the title, with Booker T soon beating him for it on July 7th. Soon after, SmackDown GM Stephanie McMahon reinstated the US Title, with Eddie Guerrero winning a tournament in a classic match on July 27, 2003.

The problem here, as you might see, is that the US Title at this point wasn't truly vacant. It was, depending on the timeline and your point of view, held by either Triple H, Christian or Booker T. At the time, these were all RAW stars whom Stephanie had no storyline power to strip of titles. I know it's just a show and I should really just relax, but it's just a fun quibble is all.

By the way, if any of you out there are still playing EWR, this site actually has up to date data for it, done right after Wrestlemania. There'll still be some changes you have to make, the most major one being finding Santino Marella's OVW name (I'm thinking it was Boris Alexiev, but Wikipedia him to be sure) and changing it. I'm still trying to find a fitting gimmick for him. Closest so far I've found is Fiery Italian, but that was more Bruno Sammartino and doesn't quite work here.

I'll try to have comic reviews up later today.

I know, I've been fantastically lax here. But this time, I've had a really good reason. I can't get into it here yet, but details will be forthcoming elsewhere, so I've been told. Let's just say things have been very hopping on the homefront lately.

Other than that, I really don't have much for today. I should have last week's comic reviews for next time. That's all for now.

The following announcement has been paid for by Drunken Sumo Robots.

Did I really have the day listing on the previous entry as "Thurdsday" all week? I'm usually more on top of things like that.

Well, for the calendar month of April, I have full Google Analytics stats. Subtracting out the stats of my locale here, which kind of cheats myself because it also takes out DarkHelm's hits and anyone else's in the local area, I ended up with 206 visits during the month (averaging a little under 7 per day, which doesn't sound too impressive, but that's 7 a day, every day not counting me or anyone else in this county), with 349 views of the page (no way to separate how many are mine compared to other people's), with hits coming in from the US, Canada, France, Finland and Australia. I might have done states, but certain states are so small that the dots indicating a hit are almost bigger than the state, even on the big map, so it's hard to tell where everything is, but for a blog with no readers things were pretty spread out.

Also, looking at my dailies from time to time, familiar town names pop up.... but also some unfamiliar town names pop up as well. So to my unknown regulars, um... hi? *does an awkward little dance* I hope you're all entertained by the shenanigans and goings on.

Mind you, all this activity was JUST the main page.

How about a Pokemon Pearl update? If nothing else, it will get me hits by people searching for Pokemon info, and some might stay for the party. We have punch and pie.

Evolutions:

• "Duheeheeha" has evolved into a Bibarel, Normal/Water Beaver Pokemon.
• "NotPikachu" has evolved into a Luxio, Electric Spark Pokemon.
• "Letmeout" has evolved into a Dustox, Bug/Poison Moth Pokemon. It got out.

• Level 22 Machop, Fighting Superpower Pokemon, named "Savage" as a pun off "Macho"
• Level 21 Meditite, Fighting/Psychic Meditate Pokemon, named "Danielsan". Attempts to have him learn the "Show Me Wax On/Wax Off" Attack have thus far been fruitless.
• Level 19 Kricketune, Bug Cricket Pokemon, named "Cucaracha" for looking like the translation of that word.
• Level 19 Ponyta, Fire Horse Pokemon, named "Felsteed" since in World of Warcraft, that's the name of the Warlock's summoned horse, which is also on fire.
• Level 18 Bonsly, Rock Bonsai Pokemon, named "Shrubbery" because I'm sure certain Knights would be happy with it.
• Level 18 Chansey, Normal Egg Pokemon, named "Scrambled" because of what I wanted to do with its egg after how hard it was to capture. Chansey is my first and only "Uncommon" Pokemon in the game captured to date.
• Level 18 Magikarp, Water Fish Pokemon, named "Fishstick", simply because I'm a mean person.
• Level 16 Psyduck, Water Duck Pokemon, named "Howard" after the conniseur of Ash's brains. Braaaaaains.
• Level 15 Chingling, Psychic Bell Pokemon, named "Stubborn" because it didn't want to be captured.
• Level 14 Cleffa, Normal Star Shape Pokemon, named "Pinky" because of color, not because of assisting a megalomaniacal lab rat.

It seems like I'm doing this every time I manage to get to making an entry in here but it's comics review time!

Remember the system, cribbed from comics.ign.com, best to worst, MUST HAVE, MUST READ, CHECK IT, PASS IT, BURN IT.

DC:

52 #51: CHECK IT. But close to a MUST READ. This close to the end, everything is starting to wrap up. We see the wrap up of the "Starfire, Adam Strange and Animal Man are lost in space" storyline. We see the wrap up of Lobo's kinda sorta storyline. We find out just what is up with Skeets. Also, all the heroes gather to mourn the anniversary of Conner's (Superboy's) passing, which seems to parallel the memorial back in 52 #1. Next week is the big wrap up and the start to Countdown, folks!

Action Comics #848: CHECK IT. There's a new metahuman named Jarod. Does he fight for truth, justice and delicious Subway (tm) sandwiches? No, this is Jarod Dale, and he's a member of the conveniently un-Jesus naming "First Church of Redemption". When the military in a made up African country keeps killing its missionaries, Jarod kills them back... and innocent bystands and such. This angers Clark, but is Clark responsible for all superpowered people?

Amazons Attack! #1: CHECK IT. This issue will make very little sense unless you read at least Wonder Woman #8 first. Possibly #7 as well. Circe has resurrected Hippolyta, and Hippolyta is very unhappy about Diana being put inside the ridiculous little plastic box of doom. So am I, but for different reasons. What if she has to go to the bathroom? So they decide to bring back Themyscira to this world, which Infinite Crisis said they could never ever do, and decimate Washington DC. But you know Circe can't be really on the Amazons' side anyway.

Batman Confidential #5: CHECK IT. Lex Luthor is threatening to take over with honking big army robots. Batman gets inside their base. That's this whole issue. It's one big fight scene. It's a really cool fight scene, but that's it. And the question is left begged just where is Superman and everyone else once Lex made a threat that big.

Blue Beetle #14: CHECK IT. Oh yeah, finally someone remembered that *someone* was Blue Beetle between Dan Garrett and Jaime Reyes in *this* book. Guy Gardner comes and guest stars again, at first stumbling across Jaime and another fight scene almost breaking out, but when Jaime retreats to home, the power of a mother's voice diffuses the situation. "Is. That. A. Giant. Green. Fist." Easy line of the book. Guy has some more details on these aliens Jaime's been fighting and on Ted Kord.

Catwoman #66: CHECK IT. Well, Selina's been on all these snowglobe stealing shenanigans to get Holly's name out of GCPD's computers and thus out of any suspicion as far as Black Mask's murder goes. The only problem is that this has left Holly to take care of things in the East End, and she's managed to get herself unmasked on TV trying to rescue a hostage. Plus, she's attracted some of Selina's unfinished business.

Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #35: CHECK IT. As Orion deals with Kalibak, Firestorm handles the Parademons, which are now these shadow things. He deals with that, but Orion didn't hold up his end of the deal. Line of the book: Kalibak: "I had planned to show you mercy..." Firestorm: "You did not." This is the last issue of the series, but we don't get a happy stable ending.

JSA Classified #25: MUST READ. Alan Scott is recruited by SHADE to bring in Johnny Mimic, a retired thief with the ability to precisely mimic any crime, even details that there was no way he could have known, to help solve a theft they had at their HQ. Only problem is that Johnny is retired, taking care of his blind wife, and keeping a deal he made with Alan to keep out of the business. It's like an addiction. He can't just do this and go back to normal. But Alan's hand is forced. The theme here, and it's an interesting one, is that Alan was Superman before there was a Superman, so he has a higher moral standard.

Justice #11: CHECK IT. The heroes' counter offensive continues and there's some serious buttkicking going on in this issue, including a nice knock-down drag-out between Hal Jordan and Sinestro. The solution to all the villains knowing all the heroes' secret identities does feel quite a bit deus ex machina to me though.

Justice Society of America #5: MUST READ. The Justice League/Justice Society team up continues as we get some more details as to just what's going on with these Legionnaires in the present. Dream Girl is being held in Arkham Asylum by Dr. Destiny. There's also another reading within Superman's Fortress as he provides some exposition. Apparently, these are the pre-Crisis Legionnaires, whom he suddenly remembers. They just "stopped visiting" after the Crisis. One wonders then if the whole "Pocket Universe" idea is thus no longer necessary, and thus the reason the "Matrix" Supergirl hasn't been seen lately is that she has disappeared in a puff of continuity. This is interesting stuff, and for long term fans, it's nice seeing *this* Legion again.

Outsiders Annual #1: CHECK IT. Was close to a PASS IT. People criticized the World War III books for feeling like a checklist of plot elements that had to happen to conform to how things were OYL, this presented an even stronger feeling of that. The reason why Shift reabsorbed himself back into Metamorpho comes off as particularly lame.

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #29: CHECK IT. The Legion is taking the war with the Dominators back to the Dominator homeworld, as we get some interesting story on the Dominator perspective, including their idea of what started the war after a few centuries of a peace treaty with Earth... a certain blue and gold clad awesome time travelling hero. In the meantime, Sun Boy, and the friends he made, manage to hook back up with the Legion.

Wonder Woman #8: CHECK IT. In this issue, which, again, occurs before Amazons Attack, Hippolyta is brought back to life. Wonder Woman's been moved from the Tiny Plastic Cube of Doom, to the Big Suspended Ball of Doom. It looks like something WCW might put Jim Cornette in to stop him from interfering in a match if they wanted to blow a budget on it. There is still no bathroom. Nemesis gets an assignment to essentially be a good boy and go away. Instead he busts her out, and there's lots of sexual tension moments as they run. I prefer the far awesomer (is that a word?) Batman-Diana hookup from Justice League Unlimited.

MARVEL:

Fallen Son - The Death of Captain America: MUST READ. In what seems to be the short aftermath of Cap's death, Wolverine investigates the whole situation, with the help of The Winter Soldier (Bucky, who definitely needs a new name), Daredevil and Dr. Strange. It's a really good story, but it definitely raises questions of where it fits in continuity wise with the recent New Avengers plotline where the NAs were lured into a trap with the lie that Cap was still alive.

Fantastic Four #545: CHECK IT. As Reed and Sue arrive at their destination, a fantastic getaway at Saturn's moon of Titan (which can be *yours* if The Price Is Right), the Four are dealing with the arrival of the Silver Surfer, who is apparently back in the service of Galactus (which I have a sinking feeling is due to the movie coming out) and Galactus wants to feed on Epoch who is doing *something* with the corpse of the hero Gravity. We get a fight, which leads me to a quandary. It's like Silver Surfer is omnipotent, except when he's not. Shouldn't he be able to reduce The Thing to subatomic particles with The Power Cosmic? How does that work? Some intriguing stuff happens here.

New Avengers Illuminati - Secret History: CHECK IT. Just after the Kree-Skrull war, our group of Iron Man, Black Bolt, Namor, Dr. Strange, Professor X and Reed Richards show up on the Skrull world to tell them to leave Earth alone. When the other five aren't persuasive enough, Black Bolt speaks his piece and that ends the conversation quickly. However, the leaving part doesn't really go well and they're captured. Can our intrepid heroes escape. Can your soul escape scarring when you see naked Tony Stark, when he is neither hot, nor female, nor Ultron?

Hopefully I can bump these up to more than just once a week, because I would also like to bump in the review of Blood Sport sometime soon. I've owed that for a while, and would like to get it done. Though I've not forgotten the last disc and a half of the Hogan review either.

Wow, have I been a neglectful blogger.

Got some games to talk about here today, and then some comics. And for a change, the games aren't WoW, aside from a brief mention.

DarkHelm picked up the new DS Pokemon games for us Tuesday. He has Pokemon Diamond and I have Pokemon Pearl. Laugh if you must, but even though these games are marketed to kids, there is some solid gaming content here. It is very intriguing to go out into the wilderness, take these things that are attacking you and make them yours. In a way, it's similar to the feeling of seeing a random car go by in Grand Theft Auto and with a simple push of the triangle button, changing it from just *a* car in the game to *your* car. Or in World of Warcraft, the Hunter class is the most popular in terms of number of characters or close to it (both DarkHelm and I have two each) and the Hunter can change a lot of the beasts in the game from just a random mob attacking them into *their* companion. You start feeling ownership and maybe a slight emotional investment in these Pokemon you captured and team with, though not so much that if they died (impossible in the game anyway to my knowledge), you'd break down and cry or something. And it's got a solid RPG framework beneath it too.

The reasoning of why there's two separate games is that it's a marketing ploy. Diamond and Pearl are the same game, it's just that certain Pokemon are available in one game, but are very rare or not available in the other. It's a trick that goes back all the way to Pokemon Red and Blue on the original Game Boy.

I've progressed decently through the game so far. For those interested, here's my current roster. Pokemon tend to be describable in the form (element) (animal). If you're interested in more information on any of these, every Pokemon breed has its own Wikipedia entry, since a vocal movement of Pokemon fans wrote very cogent articles and work to keep them there (since Wikipedia seems more based on who pushes harder to get their way than truth and quality), which can bring up the ire raising question when other entries come up for deletion on relevance issues: "Is this really less relevant than (insert obscure Pokemon here)"

Anyway, roster:

• Level 22 Staravia, Normal/Flying Starling Pokemon, named "Annoying", since its unevolved form's Pokedex entry talked about it having a strident cry.
• Level 18 Prinplup, Water Penguin Pokemon, named "Frigid", since, well, penguins are cold typically.
• Level 14 Bidoof, Normal Plump Mouse Pokemon, named "Duheeheeha", since it has a goofy looking face.
• Level 14 Buizel, Water Sea Weasel Pokemon, named "Heenan", because that's a perfect name for a Weasel
• Level 14 Onix, Rock/Ground Rock Snake Pokemon, named "Tequila", after the infamous worm in tequila
• Level 14 Shinx, Electric Flash Pokemon, named "NotPikachu", because I'm bitter about not having the yellow guy and this guy gets to feel inferior because of it.

• Level 11 Zubat, Poison/Flying Bat Pokemon, named "AdamWest", guess why.
• Level 10 Buneary, Normal Rabbit Pokemon, named "Overstuffd" for looking like an overstuffed teddy bear.
• Level 10 Wurmple, Bug Worm Pokemon, named "Joe Wilson", after the wormy assistant in "This Island Earth", as dubbed in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie"
• Level 10 Cascoon, Bug Cocoon Pokemon, named "Letmeout". It wants out.
• Level 9 Pachirisu, Electric Squirrel Pokemon, named "Zappy", since that's what it does.
• Level 9 Shellos, Water Sea Slug Pokemon, named "Escargot", and yes, I know escargot is snails, not slugs.
• Level 7 Kricketot, Bug Cricket Pokemon, named "Radio". DarkHelm captured his Kricketot first and stole the good name of "Jiminy", so I focused on the antenna
• Level 5 Geodude, Rock/Ground Rock Pokemon, named "Selfhitter", because when I needed to capture him, I hit a dilemma. Frigid's water would hurt him, but it would totally defeat him. No one else would hurt him. So AdamWest used a confusion power to confuse him into hurting himself enough to be captured. Shortly after, he was obsoleted by Tequila.
• Level 4 Budew, Grass/Poison Bud Pokemon, named "Wacky Weed" after last Friday.

I've also procured, a bit less cleanly, a lot of the Sims 2 expansions I've been lacking and installed them. It does look like I'll have to restart the house I was playing though, as it seems some things messed up. The minor thing is that my bed looks like someone is sleeping there, but no one's there.

An invisible man?

Sleeping in my bad?

Oh, who'm I gonna call?

Gho... sorry.

Slightly less livable is another foulup. Before the installations, I was living in the house as one man and a cat, named Dave Hines, and the cat was named Gibber after the cat I grew up with, and thus Gibber Hines. After the expansion, Gibber was now Sake Hines, and I had somehow become Gretchen Andersen, even though I neither look, nor feel like a Gretchen, nor do I have any desire to be one. Worse, when I informed DarkHelm of this yesterday morning, he stole the Hugo Weaving joke I was going to put in here.

Anyhoo, comics... you know the drill, best to worst, MUST HAVE, MUST READ, CHECK IT, PASS IT, BURN IT.

52 #50: MUST READ. And no, it didn't get that rating just because Booster is finally back, though that *never hurts*. Despite some of the continuity complications with World War III, which I'll get into when reviewing that, this is a good read, lots of superhero violence. And it makes you wonder just if Black Adam's destruction could have been curtailed if Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman were still around. Excellent Wisdom of Solomon on Captain Marvel's part. One odd continuity note. Booster appears here with damage to his uniform consistent with the damage it took in issue #15 when he "died". He did NOT have that damage in issue #37.

Birds of Prey #105: MUST READ. Yeah, there's some JLI bias here... but I have the microphone... and you don't, so *you will listen to every word that I have to say!* Just in case last issue's shock ending didn't complicate things enough, the Russian Colonel's a mystic and the Secret Six aren't giving up that easily. Plus, they've done a headcount, and recruited a new member to live up to their name. As a hint, Deadshot is her new "puddin'". On top of all this, the team still really hates taking orders from Spy Smasher.

Brave & The Bold #3: CHECK IT. Batman & The Blue Beetle this month... it really didn't have that umph for me. It almost felt like I was reading an issue of Blue Beetle that happened to be guest starring Batman. But on the plus side, they end up fighting a certain 5 villains in a very well done fight. Next month, Supergirl & Lobo as Supergirl needs to get to Rann to catch up with Hal.

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11: CHECK IT. Slowly but surely, this series is starting to get better. For some reason, Iris Allen (Barry Allen's widow and Bart's grandmother) is trying to take away Bart's powers for a week, due to her foreknowledge of the future, even enlisting Zoom's help to do it. And then Bart faces even worse problems.

Justice League of America #8: MUST READ. Now that the teams are all picked, we're starting/re-starting a big tradition of annual Justice League/Justice Society get-togethers. Here, just seeing the two teams in various places hanging out is pretty cool, but why have two teams when one can have THREE? We've already seen that the Starman on the JSA is actually Thom Kallor, the Legion of Super Heroes' Star Boy from a reboot or two ago (the current Legion's Star Boy is black and can't lighten things like Starman can). Now, Trident, one of the villains the JLA captured in the last arc with a fake mechanical Starro on his neck turns out to be Val Armorr, the Karate Kid. Just what IS going on?

Manhunter #30: CHECK IT. In what was intended as the farewell issue of the series, all the plot threads wrap up, including the major one of Wonder Woman's grand jury trial, and we find out who sent Everyman to impersonate Ted Kord. It's a good series, and everyone should at least check this arc out.

Nightwing Annual #2: MUST HAVE. Chris Jericho, on the Monday Night War DVD, described going from WCW to WWE as the part in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy leaves the black & white Kansas and boom, everything is in color. That's what I liken this to. After how disappointing this title has been lately, this story of just what happened during the missing year from Dick proposing to Barbara to that becoming ancient history and him being a complete man-slut delivers. Not only that, it's a complete retrospective on their entire relationship. I once had the comic referenced where Dick tried to tell Barbara that he cared and she was apparently asleep. Another reviewer said this goes so deep into past events, it's almost "continuity porn", and I agree with the term, but this is awesome stuff. Read this comic. Now. Well, finish this entry first. Then read it.

Robin #161: CHECK IT. If issues have themes, this one is "What it takes to be Robin". Robin has to fight alone in more than one fight in which he's outclassed, and has to use his girlfriend (who quickly becomes his ex) in pursuit of a case. Poor Tim.

Shadowpact #12: CHECK IT. Since Nightmaster has had his own sword stabbed through him for a few months now, someone should probably do something about that. We explore Nightmaster's origins here, and also see the origins of the Oblivion Bar as a bonus. But when Nightmaster, quite literally, gives up the ghost, he gets a surprise. Is this the end of Nightmaster? Also, this issue features one of the more unintentionally humorous covers I've seen.

Superman-Batman #34: CHECK IT. Is it just me or did I just do an issue of Superman-Batman like a couple weeks ago. Anyway, it seems like we're rebooting the Metal Men again. There's a couple of differences. The Metal Men look a lot more robotic. Gold is now just a head for some reason. There's a new Metal Man: Copper. Platinum is now named Platina (referring to her old nickname of Tina). The Metal Men's appearance is generally more robotic too. Here, Will Magnus is a brilliant scientist, as always, but so absent minded and dedicated to fields that don't pay well that he has trouble with the utility payments, among other things. A woman named Helen Garen is in love with him, so she helps him financially. In other news, Metallo is attacking WayneTech over and over trying to get a replacement for his skin. Magnus thinks the Metal Men can help.

World War III Parts I-IV: CHECK IT. This could have been a very good story and I could have rated it higher, but there were some definite concerns. First off, it seemed like the main impetus of the story was that certain plot points from the beginning of OYL just weren't turning up in 52, so it seemed like the checklist needed to be run there. 

These include Firestorm and Cyborg being separated, Jason Rusch merging with Firehawk to form Firestorm, potentially an appearance change for Father Time (his face was ripped off), Jason Todd debuting as Nightwing, Slade tempting Batgirl to evil, J'Onn being changed in temperment and appearance, Supergirl returning from the 31st century, Donna Troy assuming the mantle of Wonder Woman, Sub Diego and its citizens being restored to land and air breathers, Aquaman being transformed, Zatara resenting the Titans, Raven and Beast Boy at the apex of their relationship, Amanda Waller telling Bronze Tiger Rick Flagg was still alive, the original Terra dying (again) along with Young Frankenstein, and Manhunter switching jobs from a federal attorney to a defense attorney. Whew. I may have missed some too.

Geography was also a puzzling note. Oolong Island seemed to be a South Pacific island. It seemed that Black Adam learned there that Egg Fu was part of China's Great Ten. So after being freed, instead of going directly to China, Black Adam returns to Bialya, which is definitely a Middle East country by its JLI appearances, and then goes to Italy and Greece before China? Maybe with Isis not around, there's no one to get through Adam's stubborn pride to get him to stop and ask for directions.

I did dig the random Booster appearance where he flashes in, says it's the wrong time, then flashes out (no battle damage btw). I bet we see that followed up on in his series. BTW, I reviewed all 4 parts together here, because I reasoned it was silly to buy 1 part but not all of them, considering the all four in one week nature of this.

MARVEL:

Mighty Avengers #2: CHECK IT. Oh noes! Iron Man has been turned into a hot naked Ultron that looks a lot like Wasp. Wait... what? Who substituted crack for Bendis & Cho's Folger's Crystals? In the midst of dealing with this at least somewhat unlikely development, we have all the thought balloons that Spider-Ham was looking for a few months back (I think evil thoughts about Ms. Marvel when she thinks "What would Captain America do?" I nominate "Put you in prison as a traitor against the ideals of America.") and we also jump back and forth in time to see how a lot of the Mighty Avengers were recruited. I do get a chuckle out of Naked Ultron telling Ares that she "liked Thor better." We end with a cliffhanger that actually makes me happy.

Sensational Spider-Man #37: CHECK IT. Apparently dude I didn't know nor care about from last issue is Mr. Hyde. He's been the one trying to make his own Spider-Men. WHY is a question really never answered to satisfaction. One experiment still on hand is Jordan Harrison, who was the star of an issue just after Peter revealed his identity. Jordan was one of his students, and when Doc Ock came calling to get revenge (especially since he had once unmasked Spidey and thought it was Parker pretending) Jordan distracted him... and ended up getting his cute lab partner for a girlfriend. That was a great issue. Can Peter and Jordan stop Mr. Hyde? And is family tragedy necessary to be Spider-Man?

Whew. Long entry. Thanks to everyone who has made it this far. Now... go out and steal things if you need to to get that Nightwing Annual.

I've had some WoW progress, reflected on the Realm page. Iridiscia, Libbi and Humansbane all leveled and got new gear. Humansbane got a fun new pet. Libbi has a new weapon, because it amuses me that a Paladin, symbol of good and light is going around hitting things with a skull with spikes in its eyes on a stick.

Well, I know it's not the weekend anymore, but the nice thing about nonexistent readers is that they have nonexistent lawyers, and thus I can't be sued.

Remember my 5 point system. Best to worst: MUST HAVE, MUST READ, CHECK IT, PASS IT, BURN IT.

2 weeks ago:

DC:

52 #48: CHECK IT. We're back to two typical ideas about 52. 1st, real time dictates that we stick with the story of Renee Montoya and Nightwing searching for Batwoman, and second, we get a page on a minor story as we see what the mad scientists' plans for Black Adam are. Renee accepting her destiny is interesting, but I do wonder if two new heroes who are lesbians will weaken each other's long terms sale potential by weakening the novelty of the idea. Batwoman was going to have a tough row to hoe in any extent establishing herself as an interesting hero who happened to be a lesbian rather than the lesbian hero. Pervy fanboys hoping to see two girls together will only sell so many issues if that's made the focus. Now we have a 2nd very similar lesbian heroine (both non powered) and they're actually old flames. I'm just saying it could go down with some of the other less successful minority experiments in comics when there wasn't good storytelling to go besides the "Look, I'm a minority!" factor... or even when there was.

All New Atom #10: CHECK IT. One wonders how many issues have to go by before they stop calling this book "All New Atom". I also wonder what'll happen to it if Countdown's reputed Search For Ray Palmer turns up good. We continue with the Jia storyline here as a cute girl from Ryan's past makes him fight the bullies from his past, only now they're zombies. Luckily, this did not happen to me, but Ryan stands a slightly better chance of a hook-up. At the end, the zombies offer Ryan a very sinister choice.

Detective Comics #831: MUST HAVE. This grade drops to a "mere" MUST READ if you didn't watch the old Batman: The Animated Series. Harley Quinn is up for release from Arkham Asylum. Bruce Wayne is a member of the board, and opposes it for SOME reason. However, the new Ventriloquist arranges for her escape in order to have her assistance with a crime. The way this one plays out is CLASSIC, folks. It's no surprise it's written by B:TAS writer Paul Dini.

Justice League of America #7: CHECK IT. There's some cool moments in this, led of course by Roy taking up the mantle of Red Arrow. However, the story seems to spend so much time jumping around promising future coolness that we really don't have much time for actual coolness now. To make things worse, the membership of the League ends up comprised of whoever showed up vs. Amazo, making the whole selection process of the first 3 issues pointless. The cover rules though...