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• 2006
• 2007, Janurary-June
• 2007, July-December
• 2008

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... and not just because it includes Booster, which it does, at least on one of the two that form the "timeline" cover. 

Nightwing #131: PASS IT. Part 3 of this abysmal Bride and Groom story with these vampire things that I just can't get into at all. I thought bringing in Marv Wolfman was supposed to be what saved this book after storylines that turned Jason Todd into a super powered blob (that's not a joke. He got better.) DC, call me. I know a better writer than this. 

Supergirl #16: CHECK IT. OK, so Power Boy was an abusive jerk, but beating the crap out of him was a bad idea, because he had this Father Box dealie that went all sorts of bad when it got busted and Supergirl broke it. This managed to somehow trigger memories of her father who explained just why she had to kill Kal-El. And it isn't just because she's evil or her dad's evil or anything like this. 

Superman #661: CHECK IT. Funny story about this issue. I was all set to point out in this review that DC left another storyline unfinished, as they never wrapped up the whole "Arion shows up and tells Superman he has to stop saving everyone because a bad time is coming and the more he keeps it away with good, the worse it will be" thing. They had him tell him that, then last I saw, they had a fill in story, then this issue is about a team up with Wonder Woman. Then I notice, oops, I missed issue #660. A-ha, says I, that could be my conclusion, and it actually delayed this blog entry for a day while I procured #660. Nope, that's just an unrelated, but good, story about The Prankster. This story is very evocative of an issue of DC Comics Presents (which I loved back in the day), as a Zeus cursed (making it Diana's problem) woman with power absorbing abilities shows up in Metropolis (making it Clark's problem). The way she's stopped is rather inventive, but I'd like to see the precedent established here be a problem for Parasite or someone someday. I'd also like to see a finished story arc. And I'd like a pony. 

Superman-Batman #33: CHECK IT. The "The Enemies Among Us" storyline concludes as nearly everyone on Earth is under the control of the aliens, humans possessed by black rocks, aliens simply brainwashed, and it's up to Superman & Batman to save the day. But first, Superman has to get Batman back. But in the face of overwhelming force, what can Superman use to save Earth? 

Marvel: 

Avengers: The Initiative #1: PASS IT. Various young heroes are recruited, forcibly, into a Government training facility. It's built on the site of the Stamford incident because Tony Stark has *class*, ladies and gentlemen. The conscribed recruits are mocked by being called "New Warriors". And a lovely ending. At some point, Marvel, actively annoying your audience ceases to be a bad idea. I can understand sometimes bad things have to happen so you can set up good things, like no one wanted to see Sgt. Slaughter win the WWE Title, but in doing so, it set up two good matches at the following Wrestlemania, but there's just no light at the end of the tunnel here. 

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #19: CHECK IT. The conclusion to the Sandblasted arc. With the aid of the helmet from the deceased Spider-Man of 2211 (who showed up earlier in the series), Spider-Man and Sandman have proof that Sandman's father is not the murderer of the Ben Parker analog and a lead on the real murderer. In the meantime, Flash Thompson's date with Betty Brant seems to be ending up with the nurse at Flash's school making Betty look like a hallucinating druggie. Peter scores points for managing to compare Sandman with Scrappy Doo and it taking him a while to remember just which one Scrappy was. 

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #2: MUST READ. The pure unadulterated Sutton crack continues as Spidey makes a brilliant ploy to save Ash, but leaves to help his family, and Ash ends up with The Punisher. Frank has a horrible set of priorities as he thinks going after The Kingpin even matters anymore. But the biggest threat to Ash of all just might end up being... Howard the Duck? 

Last Week: 

DC: 

52 #49: CHECK IT. All kinds of things have gone wrong for the Oolong Island mad scientists. The JSA has shown up, objecting to a former member being auctioned up, and Will Magnus has started his revolution, complete with his Miniature Metal Men! They shouldn't have taken his pills. In a minor check in, we peek in at the new Infinity, Inc., who thinks they can still be heroes despite what Luthor did and just want a chance to prove it. Only 3 weeks to go, and next week, World War III! (even though I thought that was a JLA event. I even have the TPB for it and everything) 

All-Star Superman #7: CHECK IT. Earth is under attack by Bizarros, which are now white blob things which absorb personality when they touch you, and force you as well to act like a Bizarro, because "want all you am no become Bizarro!" And really, isn't that what we all want, deep inside? It's an interesting alternate idea as to what Bizarro COULD be if a reset button were pressed, which is what the All Star books are supposed to be all about, and a very interesting ending. You know though, with the publishment schedule of this book, I'm still not sure if Superman is still supposed to be dying of the sun over-exposure from issue #1. They didn't mention curing it, but it never comes up. 

Green Arrow #73: CHECK IT. Ollie's got good news and bad news. The good news is that Connor has come how. The bad news is that he's facing a recall election because it's come to light that he helped fund the Outsiders. It turns out Ollie is deliberately not fighting the election because if he did, he could still lose, and Mia could be the target of a smear campaign. So he's cut a deal to not fight in exchange for all his programs being locked in untouched..In the meantime, it seems like the understanding Green Arrow had with Brick is off as he's brought in Merlyn. And for the end, another old friend shows up. 

Green Lantern Corps #11: MUST READ. This rating of MUST READ could devolve to a CHECK IT for those who have not read "Tyger" from Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 from WAY back in 1986. But I'll get to that. The two recruits Guy Gardner was helping end up ignoring him... and then worse. Has The Green Man gone insane? Soranik works with her new partner. Mogo tells Kilowog the Guardians have betrayed him. And most awesome of all, the Guardians analyze and are concerned about the Empire of Tears' prophecy from this story from so long ago. A lot happens in this book, but it never feels rushed. 

JLA Classified #37: CHECK IT. The long rumored and often cancelled and resolicited Kid Amazo arc begins here. Frank Halloran is a Philosophy Major at Berkeley. He's got a girlfriend named Sara, and he's working on his thesis, even though he thinks his professors are fools. One day, he and Sara almost get hit by debris as a Justice League fight with Amazo comes whizzing past him, and Sara complains to Superman that it's his fault when he tries apologizing. A bit later, Amazo comes back, kidnaps Frank, and says that Frank is actually his "son", constructed with free will, but the same powers, proving it by throwing him off a building. He rejects the idea of conquering the Justice League as father and son, but now what? 

Teen Titans #45: MUST READ. Batgirl's finally in her clear head, being given the antidote to Slade's mind control drug and she's a little annoyed at him. But Jericho and Ravager are less than happy at Slade as well. And Wonder Girl is all kinds of unamused about Match's presence in all this. But Raven and a traitor to Slade's Titans have another card to play as well. 

Wonder Woman #7: PASS IT. This one really just seemed too jumpy for me. Circe has Nemesis kidnapped, so Wonder Woman fights her to rescue him. So then Diana takes Nemesis to a vet since a doctor would just get her arrested (selfless heroine, ladies and gentlemen). So Nemesis suggests someone at a supervillains groupie bar might have seen something and ouf course, Circe is there. But then Sarge Steel shows up and arrests Diana and puts her in the mightier than Wonder Woman plastic box of doom. It just seemed silly. Plus the cover had Circe dressed as Wonder Woman and that was from the aborted original story arc. 

IDW: 

Transformers Movie Prequel #3: MUST READ. Hey, it's my first independent comic review! Lots of cool elements here. The Witwicky family name seems heavily involved, which is something that probably carries over to the movie. In the cartoon, Spike and Sparkplug Witwicky were the humans who helped the Autobots. At a couple of points, we see vehicles that strongly resemble at least Optimus' and Bumblebee's cartoon vehicle modes. This one really picked up from the last two issues, which I would have only rated CHECK IT, but I don't want to spoil too much here. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Girl #7: CHECK IT. As life in the Parker household is strained due to it being revealed that May has been Spider-Girl again, she gets a beep. Ladyhawk, who was inspired by The Falcon wants her help. Actually, there were two Ladyhawks. One was crippled by Hobgoblin, and the other is obssessed with revenge even if it costs her her life. How can Spider-Girl stop her? How will she fix things at home? 

New Avengers #29: CHECK IT. Yep, it was a trap when Ms. Marvel said Cap was still alive. You know how I knew? Mal and Inara didn't argue. TRAP!!!!! ....I'm better now. Anyway, big SHIELD ambushes don't work well against Dr. Strange. Big SHIELD raids don't work well against his house. Detect a theme? SHIELD pesters Iron Fist at work, but he denies and records everything. Ms. Marvel begs them to stop, like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth. At the rate you're going lady, you are tempting people saying you deserved Avengers #200. Then more problems crop up, setting up the scene you see at the beginning of the book. 

Punisher War Journal #6: MUST READ. Using a false report of a bag full of fake IDs of terrorists thrown over the border fence to divert every single law enforcement personnel within miles, a bunch of racists decide to attack a shanty town full of Mexicans while their leader is wearing a costume derived from Captain America's. Punisher, after reading about this, (and after a mandatory go round with SHIELD) has a simple reaction. "We gotta steal a car. I'm going to Mexico, and I'm gonna shoot that guy in the face." Frank's new costume is... interesting to say the least. 

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1: CHECK IT. Spider-Man encounters The Impossible Man, going along through New York, trying to find the Fantastic Four. After what you might expect if you know the Impossible Man, Spider-Man eventually gets out that a huge danger to the planet is coming. And that danger manages to defeat both Spidey and the Impossible Man. Can the FF do better when Spidey calls in reinforcements? 

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #17: MUST HAVE. As Spider-Man and Firestar heat up (yeah, it's a pun. Have we met?), new student Felicia Hardy is causing quite the stir at school. Rumor fly that she's been kicked out of multiple schools, and that she's a thief and crazy and such. Much to the ire of Liz, she's flirting with Flash. Eventually, Felciia challenges Liz to a fight, which MJ tries to talk her out of, since she could lose or get kicked out of cheerleading. Peter finally gets a chance to talk to Gwen, but MJ is studiously ignoring him. In the meantime, MJ hasn't gotten a chance to talk to Gwen herself. Can Liz prevail and keep her man? 

Whew. That's it. Hopefully I won't fall behind again. 

You know... it's always the way... you manage to touch base with a cute girl after years... and she's married. Not the first time, won't be the last time. 

With the comics review, I'm starting to think it'll be better just to wait to read one last comic for this week and then sometime this weekend, combine last week and this week into one mega deluxe OMG super blockbuster comic review article. Okay, so it probably won't be *that* good. 

Where *have* all the Suttons gone? 

As mentioned in the last entry, I've had Google Analytics installed, and the results of exactly who makes up my non-existent audience is quite surprising, both in terms of number of hits outside my local area, and where certain hits are from. Out of respect for people's privacy, I won't go into more detail than that, but it is interesting. 

The numbers have me wondering if perhaps it might be worthwhile to make a format change on this page to WordPress, such as DarkHelm.org uses. With WordPress, we'd lose the distinct look of the page and end up with something a lot more cookie-cutter in appearance to other blogs out there, but I would be able to re-enable a comments feature and remain absolutely safe from both the trolls out there, as well as those who for miscellaneous reasons I would consider to have lost their right to participate in such a project as this. But I'm still hoping there are more quality individuals out there than otherwise. 

So, at least in this format, I'm going to leave some interactivity in your hands and ask you, the readers, to indicate whether or not you'd approve of a change to WordPress, and if you'd leave comments if we did change. Obviously, this can't be a binding poll, since the decision will have to be mine, and such a move might not even be possible anyway. But I'd like to see which direction the win is blowing and even if there is a wind, so here's a poll, courtesy of free-website-polls.com. 

We have our traditional TV signal back here, so my DVD viewing will slow down a little bit from its recent breakneck pace, but still, it might be fun to check it out on DVDSpot. 

And we might get a Wii over here soon. If we do, I shudder to think what that will do to the delays here. 

Well, more when I feel like it. 

Ever have so much going on you want to blog about that it all just starts to pile up because you just aren't opening the blog up to put it in there? Yeah, there I am. 

Really, Tuesday's "controversial" post can be summed up in just three rules one would need to follow for any friendship, not just with me, and I can say these because I can absolutely stand on my record of following them myself with my friends: 

1. You treat your friends with respect and as an equal. 

2. If your friends are attacked, you have their back, even if the person attacking them is also a friend. The only exception here is if both sides are giving out equally as well, which was clearly not the case here. 

3. If you've done wrong by a friend (or allowed your name or property to be used by others to do wrong by a friend), you make it right. 

If you can't abide by these rules, you don't deserve to be my friend. Frankly, I don't think you deserve any friends. 

Moving on, I've had Google Analytics installed, so I'm able to see just how non-existent my audience really is. Don't be surprised if I keep the joke up though. If you don't know I like running gags... hi, I'm Dave. Have we met? 

I've been doing some WoW things about the site. You'll notice the BoffoBlog pic, which formerly featured my Orc Warrior, Morsh, in a helmet that he ditched at least 10 levels ago when he switched from mail to plate, now features a more current (but by now slightly outdated) picture of Boffo instead. Ironically, my Night Elf Hunter Iridiscia ended up getting the same helmet Morsh used to wear on a murder spree of the Scarlet Monastery instance last night. One of our guild leaders and DarkHelm both brought their high level characters and we basically slaughtered the instance. My Human Paladin Libbi has a similar looking helmet, but she's wearing plate armor now, so it really is just similar looking. 

I am aware that the Realm of WoW page was unusable because the "selection buttons" weren't loading properly. Basically the signature site I was getting them from wasn't sending them along properly. I've come up with a temporary kludge that isn't worth going into here, but anyone really curious can ask me about. DarkHelm is reportedly working on a better solution because he does that sort of thing, so we should see something with the live updating back and MORE functionality in the near fututre. In the meantime though, feel free to browse through the pages again. 

Moving on from that, given that he's hardened his heart to Hulkamania, it was surprising to me how much DarkHelm is in the thrall of Transformers-mania. Given how little time he has for things, I thought maybe someday he might pop in the movie I got last week, but that night, he just wandered into my room and started popping the various DVD capable drives until he found the DVD. He didn't really ask. He never really does. 

The movie is interesting to watch again after all this time. I forgot just how many Transformers die in it. Plus after an unsuccessful attempt to stop Unicron, Spike Witwicky's panicked exclamation of "Oh, s__t! What are we going to do now?" is left intact in this version. It was left out in previous releases of the movie. The scene is immortalized by the chapter in question being given the title "Swear Word". 

There's some interesting featurettes on the DVD as well. We find out that that exclamation as well as Ultra Magnus at one point letting out a "Dammit" was meant to deliberately push the film to a PG rating. They were completely unprepared for the backlash to killing Optimus Prime because they thought they were just killing a toy, not an icon. They think it totally influenced the change for Duke not to be killed in the GI Joe movie. 

In any event, I'll leave off here. I know I still owe you folks comic reviews from this last week. I'll get to them soon, I promise. And I haven't forgotten my Spider Man Loves Mary Jane or Hulk Hogan Ultimate Anthology projects either. 

Either later today or tomorrow I'll catch up with this week's comics reviews (since this entry really counts more like a Monday entry instead). Actually, there's been something that's been weighing on my mind for a little while. 

I will warn you in advance that yes, it does deal a bit with the controversial stuff, but it isn't anything to get people too upset, other than the appallingly guilty, and who cares what they think? 

I'll occassionally use the phrase cold-blooded outside of its scientific usage, as an example in the phrase "cold blooded betrayal". I want to specify that when I use that phrase, I'm not using it simply because it sounds good, or because it provides an emphasis to my point. It has a specific meaning. A cold blooded murderer is one that has calmly planned out a murder, rather than wanting someone dead and firing a gun in the heat of the moment. Adapted a bit, when I use the phrase cold-blooded betrayal, it's to mean someone went out of their way to attack and hurt me with demonstrably no legitimate cause to do so. It differs from cases where someone may have wronged me, but at least to some degree, there is a legitimate argument that I have wronged them at least in some fashion. And I treat them as different. 

I've said before, there's pretty much only a couple of people this definition (people I've wronged) fits in the general community that know of the events of which I speak. They live pretty close to each other, and as a hint, have never lived in Texas to the best of my knowledge. 

Also, I don't claim that every situation is a case where the other side counted as a cold blooded betrayer, which perhaps I should abbreviate to CBB from here on in to save space. A sadly typical situation was where the CBB would get it into their head that a great way to hurt me was to somehow use some other person's name or property to do so. By using their name, it presented things into a sort of anti commercial where people were told that if they liked so and so, then they shouldn't like me, something which unfortunately people not in the know about the truth of the situation sometimes believed, especially when there was not an equally public rebuttal by the person whose name was used. By using their property, I was unable to enjoy my friends' blogs without being attacked, or ultimately their forums at all, simply because these other people, who wee NOT the forums' owners, didn't like me and had a free shot due to outside events (instead of simply making themselves only the means as much as possible and running the risk of a decision reversal). 

When some outside party has used you, your name or your property to get a shot in to hurt your friend, they have dragged you into the fight. The easy and cheap thing to do is to ignore it, and then blame the wronged party when he starts to point this out. The right thing to do is to address it and put blame where it rightfully belongs. If the problem was handled right from the get-go, this wouldn't have had to mean breaking ties with the person who caused the problem, unless that person were to dissolve the friendship simply because he wasn't allowed to use my friends to hurt me. Given the kind of people we are talking about in the CBBs, I admit this to be an extremely likely possibility and also not my problem as it merely confirms what I said about them anyway. In a previous entry before I had really gotten this blog, I had listed a couple of former friends who I had lost because of a situation like this, mentioning only that I was attacked through their blogs and they did nothing, which was the complete truth. If they both reacted with half the same fury to being dragged into this situation in the first place, we'd probably still be friends. 

Other people who I've lost during all this simply picked the wrong horse. To be honest though, those who have listened to me and discussed it with me are in full agreement that as many people as I've lost, it's not me, it's them. Those who've picked the wrong horse never discusssed the matter with me, or said an opinion and then never replied again, or simply otherwise never gave any sign of listening and considering what I had to say with any kind of possibility they might come to agree. 

Just to be complete, others have simply drifted away, which happens to everyone. I don't want anyone thinking I'm trying to shoehorn everyone into the other categories. 

I have said before about some of these CBBs that the world would be a better place if they were to die in a fire. This has been misconstrued into saying I wanted to go light people on fire, but given that I really don't think these people are worth spitting on, why would I think them worth serving jail time over? I'll admit it's not a very Christian attitude, but I never claimed to be a perfect Christian (of course anyone who cold bloodedly betrays friends criticizing me on that score needs to look up planks in the eye.) But even if I were able to forgive these people, I'd never be stupid enough to trust them again, and that's what they've thrown away: The best friend they'll ever have, one who'd always have their back, one who would step in front of them if someone pointed a gun at them, simply because they thought it'd be great to betray me despite not being wronged. 

Congratulations on your massive stupidity and showing me just how much better I can do. 

Hey ho non existent Boffoketeers! Put on your official hats because it's on with the show. 

First off, making you wish you were hot like me, I came into a little money today and managed to pick up the DVD of The 20th Anniversary Special Edition of Transformers: The Movie. If you're not totally envious of me now, you fall into one of three categories: 

1. You already have the movie. 
2. You have no taste in movies. 
3. You are DarkHelm and can now watch it all you want for free. 

It's a little late, but here are last week's comic picks before I end up having to combine them with THIS week's: 

Remember, I use a 5 step best to worst system stolen from comics.ign.com: MUST HAVE, MUST READ, CHECK IT, PASS IT, BURN IT. 

DC: 

52 #47: CHECK IT. We actually get away from the major story/minor story format as we actually check in on a number of stories. But the big news is that Intergang still has not given up on its quest to kill the "twice named daughter of Cain". For those wondering, the woman Tim talks to while waiting on Bruce is Diana (aka Wonder Woman) who is at Nanda Parbat battling her personal demons herself after Infinite Crisis. Still no Booster Gold though. Yes, that is the mark of comic quality. Only 5 issues left folks! 

Action Comics #847:  MUST READ. Normally, I'm not a big fan of fill in stories in the middle of story arcs. But this is a good one. Worried about all the Phantom Zone criminals being out of, and Clark being in the Phantom Zone, Jonathan and Martha (in their new since Birthright Smallville-esque appearance) can't sleep. So Jonathan tells Martha a story where they lied to her and said they were going fishing, and instead Clark fulfilled a wish of Jonathan's and took him into space. This not being those old 60's cartoons (not an underwater torchlit cave in sight!), he uses a ship. During this adventure, Clark gets a distress call. It's a Sun Eater and Jonathan gets an up close and personal look at that side of "his boy". Really good standalone story which would do better outside of an arc. 

Batman #664: CHECK IT. In the first part of the book, Bruce is romancing his latest lady, a woman named Jezebel. In the second, he's investigating a series of grisly deaths of prostitutes that seem to be committed by one of Gotham's finest. At least in this first issue of this storyline, these items have no connection. But what connection could this have to the man dressed as Batman who shot the Joker a while back, or "The Black Casebook", whatever that is? 

Blue Beetle #13: PASS IT. It turns out the scarab was built by aliens who meant it to create an emissary for themselves as they mean to save humanity and the planet from ourselves. At least that's what Jaime is told. But the power portion ended up in Jaime and the database portion in the guy who has been helping him, who is apparently formerly the anti-hero Peacemaker. This one really didn't draw me in. And that's even without the feeling of "They killed Ted for THIS?" 

Catwoman #65: CHECK IT. Much improved over last month's effort. The snowglobe Calculator wanted is amongst Luthor's possessions, but so is an arrogant Luthor android that's much stronger than Selina! There's a few interesting toys she's got in there to fight with, including a teleporter which sends someone a few minutes into the past and a few yards away for 12 seconds (?!). Highlight of the issue is Selina gloriously telling off a certain other famous Metropolis resident. 

Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #34: CHECK IT. The Female Furies have defeated Mr. Miracle (Shilo Norman) and Firestorm and Orion is trapped in a block of metal. Don't worry, the calvary's here as Gehenna and Firehawk arrive, and now it's on! Sometimes it's great to just have a nice knock-down drag-out fight. Two lines of the comic tie here: "Orion, seriously. She's out cold -- stop hitting her with cars." and "How much aspirin is there in the world? I want all of it." 

Green Lantern #18: MUST READ. As Carol Ferris is flying along, the woman possessed by Star Sapphire crashes through her cockpit window and grabs her throat. Suddenly, Star Sapphire proclaims that her "ultimate mate" has chosen Carol's body above all others and thus, Star Sapphire possesses Carol, and flies off, leaving the old body to fall to her naked death. How do you write the obituary for that? But I digress. When Star Sapphire/Carol sees Hal with Cowgirl, she realizes Hal might like Cowgirl more now... and possesses her! It's a whole new Star Sapphire! Line of the comic: "Who is that?" "An ex-girlfriend." "She always this [PG RATED BLOG]y?" "Only when she's possessed by a telepathic alien crystal. Well, and when she doesn't have coffee." The back up Tales of the Sinestro Corps story is interesting, with a WHAT A TWEEST at the end. 

JSA Classified #24: PASS IT. The conclusion to the Nightfall story arc with Dr. Mid-Nite. Mid-Nite finds out that Mircea isn't a vampire but just on the same steroid that cost Mid-Nite his day vision. But he has still has to stop him. This one really didn't keep my interest all that well. 

Wonder Woman #6: CHECK IT. Not only is this title avoiding the whole notion of finishing the last story arc, it's starting a new one. Nemesis and his partner, Agent Diana Prince, get the assignment to bring in Wonder Woman for questioning. As you might be able to tell, this would present a problem for Agent Prince. It might seem that I'm harping on this whole non finishing of the story arc but it's about to become even more problematic as Circe is involved with this one. When last seen in Wonder Woman #4, Circe was tied up and had given up her power, at least the power she had stolen from Wonder Woman. The conclusion would have been very helpful in describing how she got out of that. Plus, Nemesis is a pretty lousy secret agent if he never even suspects that his tall and muscular female partner who is hopelessly naive about the world might be Wonder Woman when she looks just like her. 

Marvel: 

Fantastic Four #544: CHECK IT. And really close to a MUST READ too. Maybe I should think about adding a plus and minus system. Anyway, turns out there's a reason that Black Panther and Storm are the temporary replacement members of the Fantastic Four. Apparently Storm wrecked the Wakandan Embassy in an argument with Clor (can't imagine what about) and several bombs were discovered in the wreckage. So they also need someplace safe to stay. In the meantime, someone has stolen the corpse of a young superhero named Gravity and done so with a black hole. So, after a consultation with Uatu, the team is off to find the culprit. Too many lines of the comic to mention, but I have to give it to Thing asking Uatu how's it hanging, then pointing out if his skirt was any shorter, they'd be able to see for themselves. 

Sensational Spider-Man #36: CHECK IT. The various Spider-Man impostors are mutating and dying, so Spidey's rounding them up and asking Curt Connors to help. Turns out some guy named Calvin Zabo is doing this.. for some reason and if I had a Marvel expert to turn to, they could tell me who that is and why I should care. Spidey's so desperate, he even turns to Reed Richards. Reed finds a tracer on one of them, and some dust which leads to the subway and Peter is on the case. 

The sneaky nature of Peter's meeting with Reed leads me to one question: Just why is Peter a fugitive? He is not in violation of the SHRA. Even though he wishes he weren't now, he *is* registered. Given that this is America, criticizing the Act isn't illegal. Is just acting outside the orders of SHIELD alone a crime now? 

Anyway, see you sooner than I would have liked for this week's reviews. 

Well, at least THAT turd of a month is behind us. 

Given the long gap, I have quite a few things to talk about, so strap in. 

Over on the new page, Sapsinger and Morsh have been upgraded to Phase II. Morsh was going to be one of the really hard upgrades, given that he had 300 Blacksmithing (which used to be the limit before the expansion), but he was made easier by copying over Libbi's information (since she's also specializing in Mining/Blacksmithing), and simply making sure he had all the recipes she did and adding the ones she didn't. As well, a little time spent on Morsh got him to level 50. DarkHelm is looking forward to me getting him to level 58 so I can take him through the Dark Portal as well and I can adventure with his level 60 Tauren Druid Xlorep. 

In other news, I have, um, procured Madden 07 for PC (in addition to procuring the Cross Face Chicken Wing). It's a nice graphical upgrade from 06 and looks gorgeous, but the main thrust of improvement has been the upgrade from 06's Superstar Mode to 07's Hall of Fame mode. When playing now, the camera focuses on your character exclusively and that's the only character you can play as. You can set the computer to automatically play all plays you're not involved in (which I do). You still get randomly assigned parental DNA and reroll until you get a set you like, but now get to select skin color (meaning you can make yourself you and don't have to throw away good DNA due to skin color mismatch. I'm no racist, but I just want me to look like me. I imagine people of other skin tones feel the same way). The drawback remains that you can't really choose your team. My son of a Hall of Fame DE ended up a sleeper third round pick for the Raiders and as a rookie is already a 90 rated overall (out of 100) starting DE. Of course, if it was the Niners, that'd be an instant trade demand. 

And some things just can't be measured in stats. A few times now, I've had the thrill of springing a key block to help an interception return go for a touchdown. In a preseason game vs. the Chargers, I hit a crucial third down sack to knock them out of field goal range, forcing a 4th down punt. And in the most heartbreaking moment of all, in our opener, a reception was fumbled, and I managed to sprint down the field, pick up the fumble, and race back up the field for a touchdown, and a replay challenge ended up ruling the receiver down. I still say the ball was sliding out before the knee came down, but some of Madden's replays are questionable. 2K Football is a much better title. 

Oh yeah, we had a Wrestlemania, I could look at that. 

Money In The Bank: Edge vs. Randy Orton vs. Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy vs. CM Punk vs. Finlay vs. King Booker vs. Mr. Kennedy in a Ladder Match for a World-Level Title Shot anytime in the next year
Rooted For: Matt Hardy, Thought Would Win: Mr. Kennedy, Winner: Mr. Kennedy 

A healthy Edge would have gotten my pick to win here. Orton is radioactive right now thanks to Sports Illustrated. Punk seems to have worn out his welcome a little according to the smarks. That leaves Kennedy out of the future talent in this match they wanted to build as the one sticking most out to win. I still hold out hope that they will eventually realize that Matt was and could be hugely popular if allowed to... though maybe this week's RAW results were some kind of indicator of that. 

The Great Khali vs. Kane
Rooted For: Kane, Thought Would Win: The Great Khali, Winner: The Great Khali 

Basically, the match came down, I think, to the idea that Kane is either retiring or at least leaving on an injury break really soon now. 

Slick rules in your face now and forever more. 

Chris Benoit vs. M.V.P. for the WWE United States Title
Rooted For: Chris Benoit, Thought Would Win: Chris Benoit, Winner: Chris Benoit 

Interesting trivia: Chris Benoit lost the US Title at Wrestlemania 22, and came back defending it again here. The idea of a champion losing a title and then winning it again and defending it at the next Wrestlemania has happened 5 times before: 

• The Ultimate Warrior lost the Intercontinental Title at Mania V and then retained it Mania VI in a title for title match before abandoning it. 
• Yokozuna won the WWE title from Bret Hart at Mania IX, then lost it to Hulk Hogan in 1 minute, then retained it vs. Lex Luger at Mania X, and then lost it to Bret Hart later on that card. 
• The Dudley Boyz lost the WWE World Tag Team Titles in a 3 way ladder match to Edge & Christian (with the Hardyz also involved) at Mania XVI, then lost them to Edge & Christian again (also with the Hardyz involved) in a TLC match at Mania X-Seven. 
• Victoria lost the WWE Women's Title to Trish Stratus in a Triangle Match with Jazz involved at Mania XIX, and then retained vs. Molly Holly in a title vs. hair match at Mania XX. 
• Triple H lost the WWE World Title to Chris Benoit in a Triangle Match with Shawn Michaels involved at Mania XX, and then lost it again to Batista at Mania XXI. 
• And number 6, Chris Benoit lost the US Title to JBL at Mania 22, and retained it vs MVP at Mania 23.

When this match was first booked, it almost seemed to be a slam dunk for Batista, but with his injury history and age, it really wasn't worth ending Taker's streak for. I honestly hope Taker gets to keep it into retirement. 

The ECW Originals (RVD, Tommy Dreamer, The Sandman & Sabu) vs. The New Breed (Marcus Cor Von, Kevin Thorn, Elijah Burke and Matt Striker)
Rooted For: The ECW Originals, Thought Would Win: The New Breed, Winner: The ECW Originals 

This one was surprising, especially with the recent sad news that the Originals (except RVD) would be let go (Dreamer would return to his front office job) after Mania because the front office didn't have any plans for them anymore, and apparently Sabu and Sandman weren't making themselves look too good. Maybe those plans have changed. 

Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga in a Donald Trump's Hair vs. Vince McMahon's Hair Match with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin as Special Guest Referee
Rooted For: Bobby Lashley, Thought Would Win: Bobby Lashley, Winner: Bobby Lashley 

This was the most obvious match on the card. There was simply no way Trump was getting his head shaved. That said, the objective here was to garner mainstream publicitiy for Mania and this match succeeded in that, big time, and it was fun. Vince too one for the team. Trump eating a Stunner was very surprising though. 

Melina vs. Ashley in a "Lumberjill" Match for the WWE Women's Title
Rooted For: Ashley, Thought Would Win: Ashley, Winner: Melina 

This was the other big shocker. Though I suppose the Playboy Model got beaten by the wrestler a couple years ago as well, Ashley was ahead of where Christy Hemme was. 

John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels
Rooted For: Shawn Michaels, Thought Would Win: John Cena, Winner: John Cena 

John, I got nothing against ya. Nearly any other opponent I'd have your back, but the top three are clearly 1. Hogan, 2. Taker, 3. Michaels. 

Let's me tell you a story. When I first went to Point Loma, for orientation activities, in a group setting, they asked everyone who their hero was. I thought and I thought, and I said Shawn Michaels. This was 1994. 1997, I finally win the position of ASB Activities Director, and one of the first activites we do is a lip sync/air band contest. I come out to "Sexy Boy". 1999, I graduate, and in accepting my diploma (a lot of guys did some little thing), I do the Shawn pose: 1 leg extended, 1 leg bent, double bicep. I had a few students come up to me afterwards recognizing the reference. 

So while I was with you when all the 'tards out there booed every little thing you did just because it was cool, I had to root for Shawn here. 

That said, this was the right call in this match. Shawn's a legend. He doesn't need the belt to be over. 

And in hindsight, WWE has to be glad they went ahead and pulled the trigger and let this be a one on one match so that the big explosion that came out regarding Randy Orton didn't turn into "Scheduled Wrestlemania Main Eventer Randy Orton has been shooting himself up with every steroid known to man." THAT would have been disaster. 

In any event, I have more to talk about, including my weekly comic reviews, but my nonexistent audience is probably getting bored by now. So I'll cut it here for right now. To a certain someone, if you're reading, I hope you're doing well. 

I've been working on a fun side project yesterday and today. 

You guys might have seen that I occassionally post pictures of my World of Warcraft characters on the OO Blog. Well, now they have a permanent home. 

Yes, Boffo, Libbi, Iridiscia, Sapsinger, Traitor, Morsh, Stormwindspy, Ilp, Humansbane, Muucau and even lonely Flamebeard have all come home to Boffo's Realm of World of Warcraft. 

Blizzard already provides one great public resource for information on characters, and that's The Armory. And indeed, each character's page has a link directly to their page in The Armory. But what The Armory doesn't provide is a list of what exactly each character can do with their tradeskills. In a guild, particularly once a character has gotten to a high level with a tradeskill, guildies become very interested in that person using that tradeskill for them if they can provide the raw materials (or mats, as they're called). 

When this project is finished, someone can ask, say, "Boffo, what enchants can you put on my weapon?", and I can simply refer them to this page, and everything will be there. 

Phase 1 is complete for all characters: Create a "selection button" for them (courtesy Thrissa's Signature Generator Customiser Builder Creator). Create a page for them. On that page, include a picture, their race, gender and class, a link to their Armory profile, the story behind their name, and their tradeskills. 

Phase 2 is complete for Boffo and Libbi: List out everything they can create with their tradeskills, sorted first by classification, then by area (for enchants, which pieces of armor is enchanted. For tailoring or blacksmithing, which part of the body is the armor for. For blacksmithing, what kind of weapon is it, etc.) 

Phase 3 is to link each item to its page on Wowhead.com, one of the few major sites out there not carrying ads for (or in some cases even run by) people who sell gold. 

To me, it's a neat little thing, and even those who don't play WoW might want to at least check it out. 

Edit 11:43 am: Just now, I've completed phase 2 on Iridiscia. It's easier on the lower levels. I also forgot to mention that you should check out what DarkHelm is doing on his site. Scroll down a bit to his sidebar on the right hand side showing his WoW characters. I don't want to spoil all his surprises because he's going to blog about it, but it's worked that so that it's getting all it's information and updating automatically from the Armory, and that he could plug any list of characters in (say like mine instead of his) and easy peasy, it provides my information instead, even sorted logically. 

You know, it occurs to me that if I'm going to make this a regular gig, I need to occassionally write entries that take me less than three hours to write. 

I've been rewatching my DVDs lately of Robotech Remastered. Back in 1985, all most families had for their viewing choices is the VHF channels 2 through 13. At least three of those channels were taken up by the major networks (we had 6 of them thus tied up, 3 local affiliates and 3 Los Angeles affiliates). For the rest, we had independent stations (including 1 Spanish channel). Two of the independent stations tended to run cartoons in the weekday morning 6am-9am block and the afternoon 3pm-5pm block. 

One day, a new cartoon arrived with about the same fanfate as any other, Robotech. I've spoken on it before. It was pieced together from 3 unrelated Japanese cartoons slightly altered to put them into one continuity. But rather than dumb it down and kiddify it so that every episode started and ended with the same status quo and you could air them in any order, they retained the story arc. As with current series, such as Heroes, if you aired Robotech out of order, it would make no sense. I actually knew an 80 year old grandmother who was a fan of the series because she was watching cartoons with her grandchildren, this came on and she realized it had a plot. 

My favorite part is the Macross Saga, which is the first series that was adapted. I have that completed on DVD, but I do hope to get the other parts someday. 

Basically, the story exists on two levels. On the larger level, an alien space fortress crashed on Earth on Macross Island in 1999 (our old future), which put an end to a Global Civil War when it was realized company might be coming. 10 years later, the space fortress (now known as the SDF-1) was rebuilt just as a race of alien giants called the Zentraedi showed up looking to capture it. In the attempt to escape from them, the SDF-1 tries to spacefold to behind Earth's moon and ends up in Pluto's orbit... with Macross island and the city on it caught up in their spacefold. So now, loaded with civilians, the SDF-1 has to make it back to Earth even with the Zentraedi constantly attacking them. But will making it back to Earth mean they're safe? 

On the smaller level, young hotshot pilot Rick Hunter was visiting his friend Roy Fokker at the SDF-1 launching ceremony, and ends up meeting a cute girl named Lynn Minmei (she's Chinese, so Lynn is the family name and Minmei the given name). When the aliens attack, he ends up accidentally pushed into the combat and then folded to Pluto with the rest of Macross Island. Once there, he realizes the only opportunity to keep flying is through joining the military and flying a Veritech, so he does so, rising through the ranks quickly. In the process, he crosses paths regularly with Lisa Hayes, the SDF-1's first officer, who had shut herself off to outside feeling and thrown herself into her work when her fiancee died, but when Rick repeatedly saves her life, starts feeling a growing attraction to him. 

And this was weekday cartoons from 20+ years ago, people. And I've barely scratched the surface. 

If you've never experienced Robotech, you owe it to yourself to try it. Since apparently, everyone in the known universe but me is on Netflix, put disc one of one of the collections on your list. 

Haven't spoken in a while, so we have a big double feature on tap for today. With the completion of the WWE Hall of Fame class for 2007, I can complete my comp DVD project, and I need to do my comics reviews for this week. 

I've been really catching up with my DVDs lately, as the satellite's been out, and I as I write this, I've got the Hall of Fame ceremony from Wrestlemania 22 running. I'm in a Wrestlemania mood, baby. Remember, if you want to keep up on what I'm watching on DVD, you can check out my profile on DVDSpot (linked on the sidebar there), and check on the Watched tab of my collection. If you see something marked as Watched, but not as Owned, it means it's from DarkHelm's collection. 

Now just to make this project fair, we're limiting each person to three matches, three promo pieces total. Some don't even have that many to show their worth. We'll go in order of induction announcement. 

Disc 1: 

Dusty Rhodes: 

• Feature: Dusty Rhodes - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Nov 22, 1984: Dusty vs. Ric Flair for the NWA Title in a $1,000,000 Challenge - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• May 7, 1985: Dusty promo from World Wide Wrestling - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Apr 1, 1990: Dusty & Sapphire vs. "Macho King" Randy Savage & Queen Sherri - Wrestlemania VI
• Extra: Jimmy Hart tells a story of Dusty complaining to Vince McMahon about Sapphire and the polka dots. - McMahon

• Apr 1, 1990: Mr. Perfect vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake - Wrestlemania VI (listen for the pendulum to swing 360 degrees in this one)
• Mar 24, 1991: Mr. Perfect vs. The Big Boss Man for the WWE Intercontinental Title - Wrestlemania VII
• Apr 4, 1993: Mr. Perfect vs. The Narcissist - Wrestlemania IX

• Feature: Jerry "The King" Lawler - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Date Unknown: Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. The Junkyard Dog - Superstars of Yesteryear
• May 15, 1988: Lawler interview after winning AWA World Heavyweight Title - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Dec 13, 1988: Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich to unify the AWA & WCCW Titles - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Sep 28, 1994: Lawler vs. The Undertaker in a Casket Match - The Undertaker: He Buries Them Alive
• Extra: Jerry Lawler's Worst Injury In Wrestling - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s

• Date Unknown: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig for the AWA World Title - Superstars of Yesteryear
• Apr 24, 1983: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Hulk Hogan for the AWA World Title - Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology

Mr. Fuji: 

• Apr 1st, 1990: The Orient Express (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. The Rockers - Wrestlemania VI
• Apr 4th, 1993: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Bret Hart for the WWE Title - Wrestlemania IX
• Apr 4th, 1993: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title - Wrestlemania IX
• Jan 22nd, 1994: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette) vs. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) in a Casket Match for the WWE Title - Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker

The Sheik: 

• Apr 20, 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu - Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• Jun 22, 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu - Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• Aug 3, 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu in a Stretcher Match - Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches

• Apr 4th, 1993: The Headshrinkers vs. The Steiner Brothers - Wrestlemania IX

And now the hard part... on one hand, I have nothing of Jim Ross' wrestling career, and even if I did, it wouldn't merit inclusion here. On the other hand, I have a huge number of matches called by good ol' JR. And two matches in particular stand out as Ross' commentary being just as huge a part of them as the competitors themselves. 

Jim Ross: 

• May 31st, 1998: Dude Love vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin - Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Missses
• Jun 28th, 1998: Mankind vs. The Undertaker in a Hell in the Cell Match - Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses / Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker

Let's look at some comics as Greg Gagne looks more like a former castmember of the Brady Bunch than a former wrestler: 

Remember, I'm using a best to worst 5 point scale of MUST HAVE, MUST READ, CHECK IT, PASS IT and BURN IT. 

DC: 

52 #42: CHECK IT. The real time format of 52 dictates that we stay with Black Adam for a little while longer as he's tracked the source of the Four Horsement back to the mad scientists on Oolong Island and goes after him. We know one mad scientist can't stop a superpowered guy, but how about a ton of them? Also, we follow up on the Steel story some, as something looks like a job for... Clark Kent? 

Batman Confidential #4: CHECK IT. Luthor attempts to kill Batman with a stealth robot bat, and thinking he succeeded, attempts to take over the world. Today, the role of Lex Luthor will be played by two small lab mice. But seriously, considering that this story takes place in the past, Lex should not be trying to make overt attempts to take over the world, complete with broadcast over media that is his attention. But maybe in the next 4 issues, they'll fix this plothole, along with the one of where Superman would be during such an event. 

Birds of Prey #104: MUST READ. Since the Secret Six mini ended, Gail Simone brings them in for a cameo here as the Birds begin their blackmailed service to the new Spy Smasher. The Birds are to inflitrate a party held by a former Soviet general who has hired the Six (now down to five) as his security. What it turns out to be could be a huge shocking surprise to fans of the old JLI. 

Brave & The Bold #2: MUST READ. Hal Jordan and Supergirl follow the lead of the Book of Destiny to the Casino Planet Ventura, where its thief is hoping to make a ton of money from its knowledge of the future. Supergirl is totally crushing on Hal, but he explaints that, among other things, she's wearing a symbol on her chest reminding people of who comes after them if her heart gets broken. Supergirl's idea of going undercover has to be seen to be believed. Next issue's combination is Batman and the new Blue Beetle, set up by this issue. 

Checkmate #12: CHECK IT. We get some serious retcon on Fire as we find out just what Amanda Waller has on her and why she murdered Colonel Computron last issue. Also Thomas Jagger has his confrontation with Bane, his father's murderer. Good issue, but I'm not a big fan of what they did to a character I liked. 

Detective Comics #830: CHECK IT. Conclusion to the "Siege" 2 parter. I really felt that the conclusion, while a worthwhile read, got away from the whole premise set up in the first part. Also, it's distracting that in the resolution to the cliffhanger, Tim is talking about needing to extricate himself from the C4 the bomber has sprayed him with. From Tim and Bruce's dialogue, both arms are covered in the goop, but in the art, only one side of Tim got sprayed, and he should have easily been able to reach the blasting cap on his shoulder. I'm a nitpicker now, but mistakes like that can really take you out of the story. 

Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #10: CHECK IT. In the first pages, we see an interesting plot thread about the New Gods weapon Bart hid in his locker last issue, but nothing comes of it here. Instead, our main plot is Bart's police academy class (hum that theme!) assigns a genuine cold case that Bart traces back to its source. But in the meantime, a surprising someone is behind the Flash Rogues attacking Bart. The cover seems silly and irrelevant. 

Ion: Guardian of the Universe #12: PASS IT. And I hate to give this to the end of this series because it had some good issues on the way, but it just seemed to be wrapping it up for the sake of being out of issues. And even at that, it ended with a "To be continued in..." message. Plus, one plot development... ugh. 

Justice Society of America #4: CHECK IT. One of those issues with almost too much going on as we see the results of Vandal Savage's various attempts to cut down the family trees of the Justice Society. See, his big mistake was using Nazis. Nazis never win. I'm still not sure what to make of the whole gradual attempt to push the Kingdom Come continuity into mainstream DC. 

Shadowpact #11: CHECK IT. With Nightmaster impaled on his own sword, Enchantress needing to constantly work to keep him alive, Detective Chimp hospitalized and the souls in Ragman's suit refusing to fight Etrigan, Shadowpact is desperately shorthanded. So Blue Devil and Nightshade lead a team of temporary volunteers against Etrigan to retrieve Blue Devi's trident. Readers of Robin will recognize one of them as one of Robin's former girlfriends before she died and was brought back to life by an evil warlock. This one has a great ending. 

Supergirl #15: MUST READ. Wouldn't Supergirl be the absolute last person you'd expect to be in a domestic abuse situation? It happens here. When Supergirl insists on stopping with the kissing and such with Power Boy to actually check on Captain Boomerang, he gets upset and hits her with a power bolt, blaming her for "making him mad". He tries taking her to his house with all the pictures of her, revealing that the only reason he's on Earth is because he followed her there after she was on Apokolips way back in her initial story arc in Superman-Batman. And Kara's just a little upset about this. The whole thing works too. Of course someone on Apokolips would be raised to think hitting someone you love to make them do what you want is okay. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Man #539: CHECK IT. This is a good issue. It could have been a MUST READ. May has just been shot. After throwing a Jeep at where the bullet came from, Peter rushes her to the hospital. Powerless to do anything else without being arrested, he stalks the gunman. The characterization here is amazing, and someone so jovial as Peter being so driven here just rings true, but recent editorial moves give me issue with the series. 

Marvel declared that simply, as of February, Spider-Man would start wearing his black costume. In real world reasoning, it's because they want to plug the movie, but I like kayfabe reasoning covering things. So Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #17 comes out first week of February and Spidey suddenly has a costume change and I wonder if I've missed an issue. Nope, they just changed it, as Spidey is still quite jovial there, and why not? Amazing Spider-Man #538 with May getting shot hasn't released yet. It releases same week as Civil War #7 (scroll down on this page for that). In the latter, it's implied Spidey made a costume change to the black costume for stealth and/or protest reasons. Now finally March 21st, we find out that it's because his aunt has been shot, and he's retrieved it from a hiding place and he's all intense and super violent now? So does Friendly's current arc take place AFTER Amazing's? 

And I'm not a Marvel expert but when did Spidey ever have a cloth black costume? I thought the only black costume he ever had was the symbiote that ended up being Venom. 

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #16: MUST READ. I almost missed there was a new issue of this series out because the new guy doing the "What's Shipping" info at the comics site I read moved this title to the children's section. Bah. Anyway, now that MJ is kinda sorta dating Harry again, the old group of MJ & Harry sitting across from Liz & Flash at The Bean is starting to reform, but there's still some issues from Homecoming (see right below) to work out. In the meantime, Peter (as Spidey) sees MJ with Harry and thinks he has no chance. MJ snuggles to Harry a bit closer when she sees Peter in the hall. Firestar shows up to Peter on patrol because she missed him. If this wasn't all complicated enough, next issue's cover shows a girl with white hair. If you'll allow me to be catty, I bet I know who that is. 

Where does time go? 

Been doing a lot more WoW, especially with DarkHelm having time to do it as well. The other night, I hit what used to be the milestone. Level 60 used to be the top level in World of Warcraft. Once you hit that level, your character could not gain any further experience. Well, I finally got my first level 60 character. The Outlands really allow for fast experience, especially being able to play as a dedicated pair with the ability to converse in real time and not need any type of program to do it. 

The way it happened was pretty epic too. DarkHelm's character died in an area pretty crowded with enemies. In the best Cool Hand Luke tradition, I simply dug in just a bit more and started digging myself out of this hole. I thought that maybe I would hit the next level during one of these fights, which would carry with it an automatic restoration of health and mana (which can come in handy in the middle of a well timed pitched battle), but no, I got the battle done, and I was confused. My experience mod said I was at 100% experience for the level... a quick check, I was 1 point short. Now, reportedly, from level 1 to level 60 in WoW is 4,000,000 experience points. Therefore, I had 3,999,999. 

After an "Oh, come on!" at THAT. I attacked the next enemy... and in the MIDDLE of that battle, I hit the next level. DarkHelm, in the process of working his way back over to me, had defeated an enemy that I actually didn't even help with, and my share of experience from that fight is what levelled me. Considering that he got me into the game in the first place, we considered it just perfectly appropriate. 

I tried to downplay the achievment, saying that maybe people would have cared about it 3 months ago, before the expansion came out, but my guild would have none of it, insisting on pointing out that it was still a great milestone. About 15 minutes or so behind me, DarkHelm "dinged" 60 as well, making it his first Alliance character to hit level 60, and his third level 60 overall. 

I'm really enjoying my guild, btw. Problems are addressed right away instead of being allowed to fester, making it very reminiscent of the way I run Our Oasis. I just still haven't quite figured out how I got promoted to Elite Officer in the guild. I had absolutely no visions or objectives of leadership at all. 

But enough boring my non-existent audience, since I know only a limited percentage of them plays WoW. It's about time I made a bit more progress on my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Project by reviewing the 2nd miniseries "Mary Jane: Homecoming" 

Mary Jane: Homecoming #1: MUST READ. MJ is trying on her new Homecoming dress when she's nearly killed by The Green Goblin, but saved by Spidey, who asks her to Homecoming. She tells him he's going with Harry, who immediately shows up with magically appearing flowers all around. Alas, before he can kiss her, it was all a daydream, and her teacher, Mrs. Feeser tells her to wake up. Mrs. Feeser says she'll need to be awake to pass next week's test and the course unless she wants to skate thinking her rich parents will bail her out "like your boyfriend here." At The Bean, Harry says his grades are down and that his dad says he can't date MJ anymore until he gets his act together, specifically saying no Homecoming. MJ says they'll make sure he aces the test. MJ tries to call Liz, who has been avoiding her. Her mom says she's asleep, even though it's only 9 PM. 

Peter tries to tutor Harry at physics. Harry suggests cheating. When he offers a hundred bucks, Peter bails, but can't bring himself to tell MJ, who is there to tutor him. MJ offers a kiss for every right answer. This soon turns into kisses for no right answers, which defies the whole point. The next day in class, Harry passes MJ a mash note, which gets both of them detention. Harry says the test is on her desk and if MJ can distract her, he can take a shot of it with his camera phone. Flash sees MJ and asks if she knows what's going on with Liz. She's acting weird to him too. 

MJ heads into a classroom and sees Liz, despite Liz's brilliant attempt to hide behind her notebook. Liz avoids any kind of discussion of anything wrong until MJ mentions that Harry wants to cheat, which causes Liz to explode on the word cheaters. Liz storms out. MJ goes to detention. Harry clumsily tries to distract Mrs. Feeser away from her desk when the intercom goes off. Her husband has left her roses. MJ chickens out of the cheating thing and volunteers to get the roses for her. After detention, Harry says he was only doing it to keep them together, and if she doesn't want them to be together that badly, maybe they shouldn't be together. 

Mary Jane: Homecoming #2: MUST READ. MJ is at The Bean, but noting the tension in the air, takes her coffee to go and leaves. Flash shows up at her house and asks her to go for a walk. He asks her to talk to Liz. She says she's tried. He asks what happened with Harry. She tells him. He says he'll have a chat with him, but assures her that he doesn't mean "like that". Flash comes up with an idea for the next night. MJ invites Liz and Flash invites Harry. 

MJ and Liz are doing the mall thing and even though Liz came, she's barely saying two words to MJ. Flash and Harry are doing the arcade thing. Liz finally ends up screaming at MJ that she can't help with Flash because she's the problem. Harry and Flash ask each other why Harry doesn't hang with the rich kids and why Flash doesn't hang with the jocks. The answer is the same. They're a bunch of self absorbed snobs and "I grew up with you guys". Flash then breaks the question of why Harry broke up with MJ for not helping him cheat. 

Liz explains that she saw MJ and Flash hug at the end of Mary Jane #4. MJ assures her that she was consoling him because Liz thought he was cheating when he wasn't, and at she wouldn't do that to her best friend. Liz feels stupid. MJ tells Liz to let Flash know how she feels about him. Flash tells Harry it was stupid to make the grade thing MJ's fault and break up with her instead of trying to fix it, and that she's special. Harry agrees and drops that MJ had a big crush on him back in 8th grade and that if she wound up with him, she wouldn't be unappreciated. 

Liz and Flash are back together, and Harry tells MJ that he got a tutor, but regardless, he's sorry, and he wants her to be his Homecoming date. Flash looks at them as we end. 

Mary Jane: Homecoming #3: MUST READ. MJ is at the dress store, working, when her boss gives her the dress and invites her to stay on. She has to check with her mom first. Tonight is homecoming though, and she's thinking about how awesome it's going to be when the Vulture zooms by with Spider-Man in hot pursuit. In passing, he says "Hey, Mary Jane. Nice dress." The fact that Spidey knows her name now has MJ talking about her and Spidey together again which Liz immediately quashes, especially since tonight is Homecoming, and Liz is going to be queen, and nothing's going to mess it up. Her and Harry are perfect together, Liz insists. 

At the Homecoming game, the home team is down 21-23 with 25 seconds to go in the 4th quarter on the 50 according to the scoreboard. Flash says they have to get 40 yards to get in field goal range and have no time outs, and to go for the win, not the glory. So their kicker can only kick 27 yard field goals? I can kick those. Geez. 

(Note to non football fans: To determine the length of a field goal, you take the yardline the ball is placed on, add 7 yards for how far back the kicker is from the line of scrimmage, and add 10 yards for the length of the end zone) 

Flash only makes it to the 30 with 2 seconds left, and thinks he succeeded, so either Flash is an idiot, or it's an art mistake. Possibly both. The kick is up... and there's a big spider web with Spider-Man and the Vulture in the uprights! The Rams won a playoff game in 2001 that same way. Spidey tosses the ball back rather than through the uprights or something helpful. It hits Flash like a truck, which I'm sure was not his intention at all. 

According to the dialogue of the girls getting ready, the kick did still count. When they come out to greet the boys all dolled up, MJ informs them they just hit the jackpot. Because she HAD to. Fun filled dinner and limo hijinks follow, as does dancing. When announcement of the king and queen comes, Liz has to go the euphemism. Harry goes and spikes... I mean gets punch. Flash starts to ask MJ about if she ever thought about her life turning out differently, leading up to discussing the crush, even though you can see the little Spidey hearts above MJ's head. But he's interrupted. 

Your homecoming king... Flash Thompson. And your homecoming queen... Mary Jane Watson. As Liz does her best Jaime Pressley-esque awkward "I'm not queen" pose. All the geeks voted for Claire anyway. 

Mary Jane: Homecoming #4: MUST HAVE. MJ's confused, as is Harry. The other students push MJ up to accept her crown. It turns out MJ was a write in candidate. MJ's really worried about Liz. In the girls' bathroom some girls are talking about how cool it is that MJ won, and badmouthing Liz. When one suggests that MJ and Flash would make the perfect couple, Liz gets pissed. 

Flash starts going on about how this is fate because he knows about the 8th grade crush. MJ says it was a billion years ago. As MJ is wanting some Flash-B-Gone, Liz shows up all jealous again. She accuses MJ of stealing her boyfriend and her special night. MJ tries to give the tiara to Liz, and Liz slaps it away to the ground. Harry shows up. Liz says he missed MJ and Flash making out. Flash says Harry doesn't deserve MJ. Flash and Harry start getting in each other's face. Liz says SHE wants to punch Flash, and MJ runs out. 

MJ rides the trains for a while and winds up at The Bean. And Peter is there. It turns out that instead of going to Homecoming, he was indulging in some light reading like "For the Love of Vultures" by A. Toomes, "Ultimate Physics" by Reed Richards, and "Loving Technology" by Stark. Seeing MJ reading an article on Spider-Man, he starts discussing him with her. For some reason, he has insight on Spider-Man. 

By the time he walks her home, he's advanced to astrophysics. Suddenly, he clams up and just leaves when an "Igottago." Liz is at MJ's house. She decked Flash. The principal called them a bunch of selfish brats for ruining that night that was for everyone. Liz needed to talk to someone, and MJ was the only one she could think of. She knows MJ wouldn't hurt her despite what she said. But she says Flash meant what he said. 

She goes on to say that MJ is nicer, prettier more popular and better than she is, and that the vote proved it. That while she can't imagine her life without MJ, she needed Homecoming so that she didn't feel like she hated MJ too. MJ breaks the tension by spotting the swingset they used as kids at the elementary school. Liz beat up anyone who sat in her favorite, even the boys, but always saved the swing next to it for MJ. The miniseries ends with them joyously swinging in feminine sisterhood that my testicles just will not allow me to understand. 

Next time, I should have my weekly comic reviews, and be sure to tune in soon for the reviews of the first arc of the regular series, with Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #1-5. 

Before I totally forget, there's some great news coming out of the comic convention called Wizard World: Los Angeles. 

At a DC Nation panel, Dan DiDio was quoted as asking "If we did a Booster Gold ongoing series, would anybody like that? I'm not saying he survives 52, but what if it were written by Geoff Johns, co-written by comics newcomer Jeff Katz, and drawn by (Booster's creator) Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund?" 

Aw yeah, my boy's back. And all you doubters can line up and plant one kiss apiece upon my behind right here. 

According to further details via Newsarama, Booster's nature as a time travelling superhero will be emphasized, and he'll become someone who's the most unsuspected hero in the DC universe, even though his "secret identity" per se will be as an idiot, and he can't stand it. 

Sounds like a great read to me. 

Anyway, in this entry, I wanted to revisit a little blast from the past, and make sure it's archived just in case anything were to happen to it. I reviewed disc 2 of "Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind" for a friend and it got posted onto their blog. So from February 21, 2005, here's me with the review... 

* ROB VAN DAM vs. JEFF HARDY, for the WWF Hardcore Title, WWF Invastion, July 22nd, 2001 

In a clever twist at this PPV, the ECW/WCW guys come out of one entrance and the WWE guys come out of another. However, after watching The Rise And Fall of ECW (from that same special source), it seems to me that ECW would have trouble allying themselves with WCW against Hitler. No mention is made that this is the 2nd match between these two, other than a sign in the crowd. Cole and JR are doing the commentary, and they're both switching back and forth between color and play by play. It was just on July 9th that RVD debuted on RAW for good, running in with Tommy Dreamer to found what would become the ECW branch of the alliance, and this may be his match debut, thus Jeff is the defending champion. Be on the lookout for not only one, but two soundbits from the old hoary "Don't Try This At Home" promo. 

This is fairly close to ECW style, including a lot of clever reversals to signature moves that you usually don't see because of injury risk to the people involved, such as Jeff trying his running on the barricade move and Rob jumping up to knock him off and into the crowd, triggering a sequence out there, or Jeff climbing to the top of a 15 foot ladder, exaggerated to 20 by the announcers (hint to one of the soundbits), and the ladder falling with Jeff on top down to carpet covered concrete. My favorite spot here though is Van Dam from a total kneeling position hitting the Van Daminator in what looks like one motion. The spot is used in Disc One matches vs Sabu and Lance Storm, but just looked like one smooth motion here. Also, check Van Dam's bounce off of selling a DDT. Only half of what he got against Tommy Dreamer's piledriver, but still nice. I won't spoil the finish, as Libby might think I've spoiled too much already, but it's NICE. 

Say what you will about the Invasion, but don't use it to take away from this match. After the match, JR rightfully bitches at smarks too obsessed with star ratings to have fun with the match. 

Between the matches, Rob talks about why he changed his finisher from the Split Legged Moonsault to the Five Star Frog Splash, which answers one question I had about him... but doesn't that bit belong way back on Disc 1 somewhere, given that in most of the Disc 1 ECW matches, if not all, he uses the splash? 

* ROB VAN DAM vs.CHRIS JERICHO, WWE King of the Ring, Semi-Final Match, June 23rd, 2002 

The winner here will move on to face the winner of Brock Lesnar vs. Test. I trust you all know how THAT went, but if were booked today, we can all agree that Test would get the greatness he deserved. Now Libby argued during the match preview for this DVD that there were more worthy matches of inclusion, even better RVD vs Jericho, and that may be the case, but this is the one PPV match I managed to see on this DVD before the DVD came out. This was the opening match, and it ended up being easily match of the night. The only other matches I saw before was the RAW debut way way back when against Jeff Hardy for the Mr. Monday Night gimmick and the next match. I was the one who asked Libby why he didn't stay on RAW then, as he was obviously ready, and me, as the WWE brat that I am wanted to see more.This is the first WWE match on the disc rather than WWF, so that annoying as all hell blurring is gone. Damn you, panda lovers! 

Now this isn't a hardcore match, so there's more rules to stay within here, but that's not to say that the match quality suffers. It is fun seeing Jericho working as a heel, which we haven't gotten to see for a bit over a year now. There aren't as many good spots here, but I think this is a good match to include, it's a great little back and forth fight between two *wrestlers* and it proves RVD doesn't need to rely on spots to have good matches, as some critics of ECW (and thus him) have argued. This match has an element I enjoyed in a lot of the ECW matches, basically spots that I would have totally bought as the finish being mere false finishes and the match continuing. 

The booking does suffer a bit from it being obvious who would win the other semi-final, but great match, and even if there were better, this match merits inclusion. So, nyah, Libby! 

Rob talks a bit about the differences between ECW and WWE. He might piss off the ECW purists by talking about how since the schedule is so much more grueling, he can't pull out the toughest spots night after night. 

* ROB VAN DAM vs CHRISTIAN, for the Intercontiental Title, WWE RAW, September 29th, 2003 

This was a great match to give us on free TV, and I remember being glad they went ahead and gave them both the main event slot and some time. It does seem like this match is here to back up RVD's point that he still has his ECW moves, and is just selective in when he pulls them out. Shortly into the match, JR's commentary reminds me that Christian is the defending champion here. In an early spot, a ladder is propped between the ring stairs and the crowd barricade, Christian is slammed stomach first onto it, and Rob does a flying spiral leg drop onto it. A bit later, Christian props a ladder in the corner on the second rope (resting on the two perpindicular ropes), grabs Rob's legs, and falls back, propelling Rob face first into it 

WWE has the "Wile E. Coyote" camera (camera hanging up with the suspended belt) that I think debuted at Royal Rumble 2001, giving us some cool replays. A bit later, Rob monkey flips Christian onto a ladder propped in the corner... then Rolling Thunders him on the propped up ladder! A 5 Star Frog Splash attempt while Christian lies on the ladder backfires when Christian moves. Christian tries to get the belt... and RVD missile dropkicks the ladder! How Christian didn't blow a knee there, I'll never know. JR: "This is sick! This is a sick match for the Intercontinental Championship!"Another awesome spot sequence follows, but that'd be spoiling the finish. Great match! 

Josh Matthews thanks us for watching and kicks us back out to the menu. Same to you, buddy! 

BONUS MATCHES: 

* ROB VAN DAM vs BALLS MAHONEY, ECW Anarchy Rulz, September 16th or 19th, 1999 (liner says 16th, DVD says 19th) 

Libby hates me for this, but where there's alternate commentary, I always eschew the original. Like the other match, this is RVD and Paul Heyman. I'm glad they didn't throw Michael Cole or someone on there because he'd just be in the way of two people who love wrestling, who love ECW having a ball reminiscing. 

From what they're telling us, this is about 16-18 months into RVD's 23 month TV Title reign. Now, as a WWF brat, my ONLY previous exposure to Balls Mahoney was Xanta Klaus. Yes, Ted DiBiase brought him in Santa Claus' evil brother, who lived at the South Pole and liked taking presents away from kids. Through no fault of Balls (did I type that?), this gimmick was DOA, and IIRC, DiBiase had to look for a new weapon to bedevil Savio Vega. He found some Ringmaster guy. I wonder what ever became of him? 

But suffice it to say, I really overlooked Balls Mahoney. But since I'm enough of a man to admit it when I'm wrong, I'll admit it here. Balls looks awesome in this match, and I don't think it's just a case of Rob carrying him. Sure, there's a lot of brawling from him, but brawling can be good if it's done WELL, and here it is. I enjoy his getting beers from the audience, and drinking them or pouring them on Rob. Guys, those beers must be $4 each. 

Rob: "Dude, I got chewing tobacco on my back!" 

In one nice spot, Bill Alfonso throws Balls a chair, but Rob slips while trying to hop on the crowd barricade for a Van Daminator. Instead of standing there like an idiot with the chair waiting for Rob to repeat the spot, Balls throws it at Rob's head. Rob, you f'ed up! You f'ed up! Hey, that's fun. 

The camera work does annoy me at one spot, as Balls hits a string of punches and the camera zooms in for each punch and pulls out in between. 

Paul surprises me by mentioning that Balls was a face here, as was RVD, but the crowd was really into this match. The usual gang of idiots insist that a crowd can't really get into face vs face or heel vs heel stuff. But for me, if they're going to kill themselves for my entertainment, I don't care what their alignment is. One of the top RAW matches ever was the heel Stone Cold Steve Austin vs the heel Mankind in a "tough man competition". They MADE the audience care. But the point Paul and Rob make here is that wrestling RVD for the TV title made that person look better even if they lose... which is really a lost art. Foley talked about that kind of thing feuding with Sting in Have A Nice Day. 

RVD busts out a repeat of his second jump vs Bam Bam back on disc 1, into a throng of people. Paul says the spot made it into ECW opening sequences for a while to come after that. 

In addition to all the nice putting over of Sabu they do on the other match, RVD and Heyman put Bill Alfonso over a lot too, which is nice to hear. In a rundown of what else happened on this card, Heyman mentions that Lita debuted on this card as Miss Congeniality. I saw a shot of her, I think, on the ECW DVD. Day glo red hair. 

Holy crap! Balls on the second rope... walks out a few inches, then hits a legdrop off of it! Good one, Balls! And a bit later, superplex of Balls by RVD. And here's another cool spot... Balls attempts to slam RVD off the top rope, and RVD holds on to reverse to a monkey flip on the much larger Balls. 

Paul and Rob put over just what good cardiovascular shape and stamina Balls has to have a long old match like this. Paul: "You wouldn't think he'd be in such great shape..." Rob: "No, you'd just think he's someone your mom didn't want you to hang around with." Paul: "And my mom WOULDN'T want me to hang around with him." 

Balls Mahoney has his own special customized chair. Someone's going to tell me why, I bet. 

Wow! Balls tries to chair Bill Alfonso... and then turns around to a top rope Van Daminator... and HE KICKS OUT! HOW?!?! 

Awesome, awesome match that anyone who doesn't go into the extras is really missing out on... and man, I typed a lot about this. If Libby does use this, her word frequency list is going to have Balls listed a lot. Balls, Balls, Balls, Balls, Balls. Hey, that's fun too. 

* ROB VAN DAM vs SABU, ECW Hostile City Showdown, April 20th, 1996 

This match is a couple of months before the Disc 1 match. RVD still looks like a relative kid, but not as much as in his WCW matches. 

I should point out here that in the ECW Arena matches, there's a guy out there always dressed in Rams jerseys. At Matt's suggestion, I have dubbed him Rams Fan Guy. 

A cool spot comes when Rob is bent over backwards from outside the ring to inside, and Sabu hits a guillotine legdrop. OW. 

Styles informs us "Van Dam wrestling with a broken wrist, Sabu wrestling with a bruised tailbone and who knows what else!" In the Disc 1 match, Sabu's right hand was duct taped because, as Paul revealed, he had broken fingers and still wanted to throw punches. No duct tape here, but a couple of fingers on each hand are taped together. 

Another of those ECW style reversals occurs when Van Dam goes for a moonsault off the crowd barricade and Sabu shoves him into the crowd. 

OH MY GAWD! (also fun) Sabu sets up a chair, jumps off that, to the top rope, and then out to the crowd where Rob is. The chair ends up DENTED from Sabu's usage of it there. A bit later, Rob jumps off the apron, hits Sabu with a chair, then completes his flip, running into Sabu. Styles: "I give up. I don't know what to call it." 

A bit later, Rob calls for a chair, sets it up... then runs to it... leaps over it and the ropes, not even touching either, and somersault planchas into Sabu. And after that, Rob is on the top rope, Sabu goes up looking for a superplex or somesuch, and Rob flings him into and through the table that has been propped between the ring and the crowd barricade. And then a bit later, Rob is set up on a table, Sabu does an over the top flipping legdrop onto him... table doesn't break... so Sabu does it AGAIN. This time it works. 

This match started tame and now they're killing themselves for our amusement! 

And now, Rob pulls Sabu over so his head hangs out of the ring and hits a guillotine legdrop. But Dave, you say, other people do that. Really? Do they start from the inside and jump over the rope, hitting the legdrop on the way down? 

Another great match, and it's obvious why they rematched a couple months later... though the Disc 1 match is better, this is still great. 

* ROBBIE V vs PAT ROSE, Underdog Challenge, WCW Saturday Night, January 23rd, 1993 

Yes, Van Dam's Big Two Television debut was over 12 years ago now. Digest that for a bit. Rose is hardly a fitting opponent, doing a lot of punchy kicky stuff, and eye-rakey stuff. Bah. Van Dam rightfully goes over with the split legged moonsault. 

Other features: 

* BEFORE THEY WERE SUPERSTARS: A WWE Confidential bit, Rob used to wear glasses and beat up people bigger than him... and pick on his female PE teacher oddly. 

* AIRBRUSH ARTIST: Another Confidential bit, focusing on the guy who does RVD's singlet designs. 

* FROG SPLASH: More Confidential. Eddie and RVD talk about their frog splashs, debating which is best. 

* RVD TOURS JAKKS PACIFIC: Still more Confidential. RVD walks us through the development process of an action figure. 

* FANTASY MATCHUP: RVD vs JIMMY "SUPERFLY" SNUKA: A bunch of Superstars are interviewed for their opinions as to who would win this fantasy match. This inspired an idea for me, though for this idea, I suggested RVD vs Owen for a better fantasy match. 

* RVD'S FAVORITE WRESTLEMANIA MOMENTS: RVD was apparently in attendance at Mania 3. This would have been a perfect place to mention Shane's borrowing of the Van Terminator at Mania 17 (?) and it goes unmentioned for the whole disc. Also covered is Rob's Mania debut at 18 vs William Regal. 

* OUTSIDE THE ROPES: Confidential's 10 question session, this one apparently just after the match vs Christian on here. Always funny. 

* RVD VIGNETTE 1 and 2: A couple of funny "coming soon" vignettes facetiously talking about what a tower of rage RVD is. 

* BEHIND THE SCENES: BREAKING POINT MUSIC VIDEO: This is all Confidential. Basically there's a whole video for his entrance music. 

* WWF INVASION PROMO (they call it WWE, but damn the pandas, it was WWF at this point): This doesn't seem to be Confidential as I think it predates the show. Both RVD and Jeff Hardy talk out of character about the upcoming match. 

Overall, a great DVD, and I'm glad someone cared about me enough to get it for me. The only things I would have liked to be added were his match vs Tommy Dreamer that united the IC and Hardcore Titles (his match vs Jeff unifying the IC and Euro titles was great too), and perhaps something with Raven, so that we have more of RVD vs Raven than just Robbie V vs Scotty Flamingo. My favorite match by far on here is vs Tommy Dreamer, but I love that sort of thing. 

JR's most recent blog entry seems to say that The Wild Samoans are confirmed as going into the WWE Hall of Fame, yet I can find no indication of this on WWE.com. I must have been really missing out during RAW this week. That's what I get for trying to run a dungeon in WoW during RAW. Can I help it if my guild called a run on a dungeon I had been really wanting to run just then? 

If it is true, my little project is out of luck for them. I had to strain credibility a bit for The (Original) Sheik, even though training a future WWE Champion is a very big deal. By a similar deal, if Gory Guerrero (whom I have no matches for) got inducted, I would proudly use the Eddie vs. Chavo matches I have (Eddie vs. Chavo at Royal Rumble 2004 is a great one) and Eddie vs. Brock at No Way Out 2004. But for The Wild Samoans, all I really have is Afa at ringside for at least one Headshrinkers match on my Wrestlemania VI-X set, and it was really more along the lines that he just happened to be standing there more than he was any sort of great manager (when I come to the final "cut" of the supposed DVD, Fuji's section is going to be way cut down from what was listed as well) 

The wrestling rumor mill has it that the 8 man tag at Wrestlemania between the "New Blood" of Elijah Burke, Marcus CorVon, Kevin Thorn and Matt Stryker (because people named Matt S. are EVIL) and the "ECW Originals" of RVD, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu and The Sandman will be the blowoff of the feud and the ECW Originals will disappear, with only RVD continuing on in ECW. Tommy Dreamer is expected to resume his office job with WWE and Sandman and Sabu are expected to be given their outright releases. ("Hey Sabu, we're honoring your uncle! Now get lost.") 

I feel this is a terrible idea, as I'm a fan of all four men, but last I checked, WWE wasn't a democracy. 

Also, apparently at some point in the recent past, Linda McMahon made a remark about ECW being viewed as a developmental brand. In theory, that's not a bad concept, but if it's what they wanted, they really should have put OVW on TV nationwide. Sutton's a big fan of that, and from his descriptions, it comes off as a pretty good show. You attach the ECW name to that, people have expectations. 

Now I'm not saying put the old ECW on just as it was. As people wiser and more experienced in the wrestling business than me have pointed out, the old ECW was a niche product, and really wouldn't survive on a national basis, both for not appealing to enough people, and for turning off sponsors and networks. You see where Wrestling Society X tried to turn the hardcore wackiness up TOO much and ended up with abysmal ratings and MTV can't get rid of them fast enough for their tastes. 

Plus, a lot of the people who wanted ECW just as it was wanted the exact same people. Well, I'm sorry, but at the start of the new ECW, it had been at least 5 years since you had seen those people in ECW, and most of them had been wrestling hardcore in the indies since. It takes a toll and it breaks a body down. Some were no longer worth signing. Some were retired. Some were in TNA and not available. Any publicly traded company would be insane to even consider having New Jack on its payroll. 

But I do have some ideas how things could get better. 

1. One simple one they could do right now: No more triple threat matches. ECW doesn't have triple threat matches, they have three way dance elimination matches. Both have their appeal. In a three way dance, it feels like you're getting double your money's worth as the match continues after the first fall. In a triple threat match, you have the third participant having to desperately lunge to break up pinfalls between the first two. But this little change would do a lot to make it feel like a different product. 

2. Increase ECW's starpower. ECW started with a solid base for a roster. Plan A was Kurt Angle, bonafide top level superstar. Oops, he went crazy and won't let himself heal and is generally trying to kill himself. Plan B is RVD, being brought up to the next level, he was going to fight Angle, now he can keep the belt for a while, whoops, the statue got him high and now while he's still upper midcard, Vince can't trust him with a title. Plan C is The Big Show, who WILL let himself heal and wants no part of the business right now... so Bobby Lashley is Plan D, with such a lack of viable contenders that at Wrestlemania he's fighting the Intercontinental Champion over which billionaire gets their head shaved, rather than defend the ECW title... because, oops, C.M. Punk got himself in the doghouse too. 

And what they found was just a statue standing where the statue got RVD high. 

Sorry. 

Luckily, after Mania, they do have a mechanism for fixing this if they want to. Even though they didn't do one last year, a draft. I'm thinking a formula where over three weeks, each show loses and gains three stars each from the other two shows. And if this was done right, it'd be weighted quite a bit in ECW's favor to give them some talent. 

To show you what I mean: 

Week 1: RAW gets 2 ECW stars, ECW gets 2 SmackDown stars, SmackDown gets 2 RAW stars. 
Week 2: RAW gets 2 SmackDown stars, ECW gets 2 RAW stars, SmackDown gets 2 ECW stars. 
Week 3: Each show gets 1 star each from the other two shows. 

Doing it under this formula would allow for whole tag teams to transfer if you wanted to do it that way (or manager and wrestler combos). 

Some names I'm thinking of moving... Benoit has a history with ECW and is being underused on SmackDown, Rey also has a brief history with ECW, and would be a great coming attraction when he comes back from injury. A move to ECW could give Carlito a chance to break through. And call me crazy, but I might even move Flair there. Maybe even give him a surprise win of the title just to have him be the only WWE, WCW, NWA, ECW title holder. 

3. This would work better with Heyman back, but I'd like to see them increase the animosity between the brands again. Maybe it could start with, say, Jeff Hardy coming in to wrestle Elijah Burke. Suddenly, there's a big beatdown on Jeff... and, wait, CM Punk and Tommy Dreamer are helping? Well, it's because even though Punk and Dreamer despise Burke, at least THEY'RE ECW, unlike this RAW trash. This would have to be after the draft, so as to not have the plothole of why someone's allegiance changes so readily simply because of a draft. Ultimately, I would love to see this kind of plot end up where Bischoff comes back, takes over SmackDown, and makes it WCW SmackDown... and boom, it's WWE vs. WCW vs. ECW again... the Invasion done RIGHT this time... but it will never happen. Much as I hate to sound like a smark, Vince has gone on record with saying how little he values the WCW name. 

4. If you're really going to throw away all that money by ending the Originals feud now, fine. Never mention the term ECW Original again. People need to be able to accept Kevin Thorn and CM Punk and, yes, even Hardcore Holly and Snitsky as just as legitimately ECW as RVD and Tommy Dreamer are. 

Those are my ideas. If you don't like them, think of your own. 

I apologize to my non existent reader base for letting the soil go fallow for so long. You know how it is. Miss one day, and that makes it easier to miss another one... and technically, this feels more like a Tuesday entry, so I might chime in one more time on the calendar day March 21st. 

One of the things taking up my time is that I've completed a long push and finally got one of my WoW characters, my eponymous Human Warlock, Boffo, up to level 58 so that he could go through what's called the "Dark Portal" and explore the main meat to the Burning Crusade expansion that came out in January, Outland. DarkHelm's been quite amused at hearing some of my reactions. 

One thing in particular that stuck out was that on my very first quest that involved more than just "Go to this place and talk to this guy.", I killed 20 of a certain type of orc, and was offered my choice of several rewards for this. The most appropriate reward to my class was a new wand. This new wand had the exact same attack speed as my old one, but did nearly 50% more damage per second, plus it had intellect and spirit bonuses and a bonus to spell damage. The costs, I lost one measly point of stamina compared to the old wand, and a near meaningless 5 points of Nature Resistance. The thing is, my OLD wand was a drop from a boss in an instance I really didn't do THAT long ago. It had a very satisfying "Fwumf!" sound I really liked. The idea that my boss drop could be SO outclassed by the FIRST quest reward I got... it was almost pathetic. I guess Outland really does reward you with brand new more powerful stuff. Technically, the expansion is optional, but one has to pity those who don't buy it at this kind of rate. 

I almost missed it and thought the WWE Hall of Fame Class for 2007 was over, but nope, we have the induction of The (Original) Sheik this year. 

Obviously, I have nothing of his, nor any idea where to start on any kind of wish list, but I think he would approve with this match lineup in his honor 

The Sheik (honoring his accomplishments as trainer): 

• Apr 20, 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu - Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• Jun 22, 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu - Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• Aug 3, 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu in a Stretcher Match - Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches

I might add more later today. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Faith and Begorrah and all that. I really don't have much with green in it, but thankfully, I'm safe from pinching. 

As mentioned, I'm starting kind of a retro comics review project today. One of the best comics in my opinion out there today is Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. This is an alternate continuity comic in which Mary Jane Watson is the main character. Peter Parker is her math and science tutor. Liz Allen is her best friend, and Flash Thompson is Liz's boyfriend. Harry Osborn is another of MJ's friends. There's also this new superhero named Spider-Man going around that MJ has a bit of a crush on. Now this is a series marketed to teen girls, I know, but I'm telling you guys, you should try it. It's oddly compelling. 

Now, I should warn you. When I review current comics, I try to avoid spoilers. The idea is to get you, my non-existent audience, to say "Wow, I want to read that comic." or "Boy, I'm glad he steered me clear of that." When covering older comics like this, it's pretty safe to assume that if you were going to read them, you already would have, so there will be spoilage. I can tell you this now so if you don't like it, you can navigate elsewhere. Also, I realize my summaries alone may make someone not necessarily see how great this series is or that it deserves the grades I'm giving it, but you have to try it. A lot of the quirky humor is lost in translation. 

Mary Jane #1: MUST READ. MJ is wondering who she should date for homecoming as Liz is trying to push her towards dating Harry. Liz is mad at Flash as he missed the deadline to register them for the King and Queen voting and she had to call the Superintendent to get a special exception. MJ says when she gets upset, she rides around on the trains for hours to think. Liz thinks she's kidding. At the Bean, the kids' favorite coffee shop, Peter says hello to MJ, Harry, Liz and Flash and is insulted by the latter. Liz warns him that Peter could beat him up someday and he laughs it off. 

MJ asks Harry out and says it's perfect to Liz. On their date, Harry and MJ take in a French restaurant, an art gallery opening and a carriage ride through Central Park, but MJ asks to be taken home. She then rides the trains around, only to have the train torn in half by a fight between Spider-Man and Electro. Spider-Man stops Electro and saves her, and webslings her home. "How'd you know where I live?" "Um... it... it's one of my special powers." MJ then tells Liz she wants to date Spider-Man at Homecoming. 

Mary Jane #2: MUST READ. MJ is still talking about taking Spider-Man to homecoming, much to Liz's doubts about her sanity. She says Harry is just a friend but continues going out with him. Seeing him pay for everything, and seeing how expensive homecoming dresses are, she decides she needs a job. She suffers through a week at a fast food restaurant and quits after the pay is too low for the aggravation. Her attempts at being a video store clerk, waitress, receptionist at a doctor's office and hotel maid fail similarly. 

In the meantime, the extra stress is causing her to fall asleep in class and on dates, and she's brought in to talk about it with her school counselor, Mr. Limke. She says today is going to be her last day anyway. She goes to the dress shop at the mall one last time to see the dress to "say goodbye" to it. The owner makes her an offer. One of her salespeople just went on maternity leave, and it's not the same without an extra body in there. If MJ can work a few hours every couple days after school, the owner will make sure she has enough to buy the dress for homecoming. MJ says she'd like to put the dress on layaway. The only bad thing about this book is that the picture on the cover is the singular ugliest picture of Mary Jane Watson I have ever seen. 

Mary Jane #3: MUST READ. MJ is being tormented by two boys at school constantly playing pranks on her, like plastic wrapping her desk or filling her locker with confetti. Flash wants to teach them a lesson but is held back by Liz. MJ is still agonizing over the idea of whether she should break up with Harry. Liz says she shouldn't have put herself in this spot in the first place. MJ reminds her that it was her idea. Liz reminds MJ that she's a bad influence. When the pranksters rig MJ's locker to spray her with shaving cream, Flash wants to beat them up. Liz stops him again, and back at the Bean berates him about it. Liz says he's a moron, and if he fights, he won't be quarterback, and if he's not quarterback, he won't be homecoming king. Flash yells back that she's the only one who cares about that. 

Later, while MJ and Harry are watching Shrek, Harry asks MJ what's on her mind. She says she doesn't like the way Liz calls Flash stupid. Harry's unimpressed with MJ bringing up Flash right then. When MJ tells Liz about the thing with Harry, Liz can only focus on defending herself on the MJ not liking her calling Flash stupid thing, saying she needs to do it or his ego will get too big. MJ decides to break up with Harry. Flash confronts the pranksters and demands to know why they harrass MJ. It turns out they think that when MJ looks at someone or talks to them, it's like they're the only person in the world that matters, and since the pranksters couldn't work up the courage to actually talk to MJ, they decided to prank her instead. 

On another date, MJ tries to break up with Harry, but he talks first and gives a speech about how being with her has been great and wonderful, and she ends up kissing him and now being all giggly. She opens up her backpack to do her homework only to find her backpack got switched with Flash's (apparently when they talked off panel about the pranksters) His notebook comes open, and there's a bunch of doodles in there indicating he has the hots for MJ. 

Mary Jane #4: MUST READ. Mary Jane wakes up late for school. When she arrives, she sees Spider-Man climbing out a window. He gives lame excuses for what he's doing. She asks him to the Homecoming Dance and he reacts with incredulity, and asks if she has a boyfriend. She demands to know who he is, and he points out he doesn't even really know her, and says he has to go stop the Shocker. Harry sees MJ by her locker and when he tries to kiss her, she backs off a bit at first. Liz comes up, and MJ tells her about Spider-Man. Liz tells her to knock it off because she thinks Flash is cheating, or at least crushing on someone else and she's jealous. She wants MJ's help to find out who it is and "kick her trashy butt to the moon." Because if it's just Flash crushing on the girl, it'd be totally HER fault. How dare she be hot? 

Flash comes up to MJ, causing her to hide his notebook and he asks her for study help in the library. Flash tells her he appreciates her standing up for him when she called him stupid and such. Flash asks if she's going to the Homecoming Dance with Harry and she says she's late for something and leaves. The next day, Liz confronts MJ over the "study date" and asks if she found out who the "tramp" was. Liz already went through his locker, and having told his mom that she left a book up there, his room.This chick is scary. "He's not a free citizen, MJ -- he's my boyfriend." MJ asks her to let her find out. 

Switch to a high school game as Flash's team is playing against a team in apparently pink uniforms. I used to create teams like that to play again for laughs. When Liz, a cheerleader, spies Flash talking to one of the opposing cheerleaders, she actually tries to attack said cheerleader... during the game. Yowza. Sutton will take Elvira any day of the week over this. MJ finally gets Flash to sit down, returns his notebook, and says he needs to stop, because Harry and Liz are their best friends and Liz really loves him. But he's a dear friend to MJ, and she wouldn't change that. "Now give me a hug, you big doofus." 

And just then, Liz walks up. 

This is taking longer than I thought so I'll hit you with Mary Jane: Homecoming tomorrow. 

Like I said on Monday, I'm going to try moving comics review day up. We'll see how this goes. 

As before, I am using IGN.com's best to worst MUST HAVE, MUST READ, CHECK IT, PASS IT, BURN IT system. 

DC: 

Last week: 

Detective Comics #829: MUST READ. During an anti terrorism conference at Wayne Tower, a terrorist threatens to blow the building up, and Bruce is too caught in the public view to change to Batman. So it's up to Robin to deal with the situation. I really like the partnership vibe here. As a piece of trivia, there are apparently multiple hiding places of Batman and Robin costumes in Wayne Tower. We end up with one excellent cliffhanger. 

This week: 

52 #45: CHECK IT. The real time nature of 52 demands we stick with the Black Adam story, but it presents a dilemma. The entirety of issue of 44 happened on Week 44, Day One. Isis' and Osiris' funerals happen on Week 45, Day Three, and Black Adam starts rampaging here on Week 45, Day Four. Did Black Adam wait 10-11 days to start pursuing his wife and brother-in-law's killer? "I'll give you a head start, just to make it fun!" It has a nice quote here: "The Four Horsemen did not come from Bialya! I beg of you! Mercy--!" "This is mercy. It will be quick." A couple of other interesting developments pop up, but more Booster Gold. He's been MIA since #37. Though the time travel excuse neatly explains that. 

Green Arrow #72: CHECK IT. Really close to a MUST READ. The Red Hood has captured Speedy and takes her to... her high school gym. It turns out he wants to convince her that A) Rich superhero mentors just use their proteges, and B) Non-killing shots are just a waste of time. But he's NOT bitter. Just like Ollie's NOT bitter at Bruce. We end with a SCANDAL rocking the Queen mayoral administration. 

Green Lantern Corps #10: CHECK IT. There's almost TOO much going on here. It's so jam packed with separate plot threads that you'd think Vince Russo wrote it, except it's good. Heyo! Guy Gardner gets his request for more shore leave denied after the events of previous issues and is assigned to help two Lanterns who really resent his presence. Soranik Natu is trying to rebuild the reputation of Green Lanterns on Korugar (where Sinestro made the symbol into something worse than the swastika) by using her medical skills and the ring to help people living on the streets. Vath wants Isamot to talk to Mogo who has gone from not socializing to being the Green Lantern psychotherapist. The shot of a rampaging Kilowog on the cover doesn't really happen though. And I am aware most of the names in this review will make my non existent readers go "Who?" 

JLA Classified #36: CHECK IT. We wrap up the "The 4th Parallel" storyline as the Red King decides that the Earth where he's a hero is the best Earth. But the Red King from the Earth where he was a villain isn't content to sit in limbo forever. And the JLA from the Earth where he was a blackmailer and accidentally destroyed the Earth, prompting a move to Mars, but they captured him, is on the case as well. No matter how well you plan it, or how powerful you think you are, you can't fool my guys. 

Martian Manhunter #8: PASS IT. I stuck with this series the whole way, but it really wasn't all that great. J'Onn is able to get proof that a government official was deliberately torturing the White Martians, and now realizes there is indeed another actual Green Martian on Earth. But is the Green Martian necessarily his friend? Are the White Martians necessarily his enemy? One annoying thing about this is that none of the Martians in question turn out to be M'Gann M'orzz, Miss Martian from the Teen Titans. One would think J'Onn would encounter her eventually. And I'd be interested in that meeting. 

Robin #160: CHECK IT. The first few pages are a great look at how confusing Robin's life can be. First, the wannabe hero Dodge (who was using a stolen teleportation belt and who had lapsed into a coma with some kind of odd forcefield around him when it was broken) has disappeared from the hospital, then his maybe-girlfriend Zoanne approaches him at school and wonders why he's been so distant (he's been thinking about this case). And then we head into the meat of the book, Robin's called in by the cops to help find the kidnapped reporter from last issue, who turns out to be on the run from hyper steroided gang members. Thus, the cover from last month would have been far more appropriate this month. In an easy to miss when you first read it moment, when Zoanne is approaching Tim, Tim is placing a textbook on "Advanced Egyptian Algebra" in his locker. I like the Zoanne story, I just hope DC writers have meetings where they discuss that if she becomes Tim's girlfriend, then SHE is Tim's girlfriend, and that Wonder Girl doesn't become his girlfriend in Teen Titans, or someone else in Batman or Detective Comics, etc. 

Teen Titans #44: MUST READ. The Titans vs. Titans East, and it's ON. Right in the first couple pages, Ravager and Jericho walk into a sinister looking T shaped tower... and encounter their father. Slade points out that his mask has protection so that Jericho can't possess him. I like what they've done with Jericho. Ditched the mutton-chops and perm and weird outfit, gave him some mail armor and some throwing stars. Wonder Girl throws down with Match, Superboy's clone, who seems to have downgraded to a Bizzaro. Kid Crusader vs. Kid Devil... let's move on. Riddler's Daughter tries to drive the emotions out of Raven. Risk is taking Cyborg apart to match the arm he lost fighting Superboy Prime. But he's NOT bitter. Sun Girl taunts Miss Martian with hints about the future. But the ending... oh is that a pleasant surprise for anyone with similar comic taste to mine... let's just say there's hope a grave injustice has been undone. And no, it has nothing to do with Booster Gold. 

Wonder Woman #5: PASS IT. Rather than actually give me part 5 of the 5 part story arc, we get a fill in story about the Department of Metahuman Affairs ordering Agent Diana Prince to investigate the connection between Wonder Woman and a chain of "Athenian Women's Shelters". Turns out, there isn't one, other than Wonder Woman inspiring these women. WHICH SHE WAS TRYING TO TELL THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. Oh, and she fights an abusive husband who was an unnamed retired minor league super villain. Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen of the DC United States. I really do like completed stories. The Wizard of Oz wouldn't have been as good if it ended with "And Dorothy threw the water on the Witch and... eh, I'm bored. Let's start a new story." 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Girl #6: CHECK IT. May Parker's friend Heather is kidnapped by the Hobgoblin because she's dressing up as Spider-Girl to promote a friend's comic. Spider-Girl has a disc listing all of Kingpin's business associates Hobgoblin and other people want, so she has to defy her parents again (well, one of them, MJ has given her some permission to be Spider-Girl again) to save her friend. And she's out of web-fluid, since she very well can't go ask her dad for more. 

Civil War: The Confession: MUST READ. When I saw the title of this comic, I thought it'd be featuring Cap, since it's typically people in jail who make confessions. But no, it's Tony. He's explaining just why he went about this, admitting he made decisions he didn't want to make, and got in bed with people (figuratively, you non-existent perverts!) he didn't want to get in bed with. Basically, he knew a war between heroes was inevitable, he said. So, he wanted to control it so that it wouldn't be something out of control and much worse. The backup story goes back in time a bit to after Cap's surrender. Tony goes and talks to him. Cap tears into him verbally, calling him mentally ill, and asking him "Do you think the fact that I'm in here means that you won?" and going on to say "We maintained the principles we swore to defend and protect. You sold your principles. You lost this before it started." And he ends up asking a question Tony ends up answering in the first story: "Was it worth it?" 

As to Tony's whole plan of trying to steer the war his way... it reminds me of back in the floppy disk era, a game called Legend of Kyrandia. It had a copy protection method common to that age. At a certain point of the game, it stopped you and demanded you look up something in the instruction manual and type what was there. It was easily circumventable and annoying to legitimate owners. DarkHelm managed to change the file so that all questions now instead asked "Please type a 1 now." Should this complex direction prove too difficult, he included the helpful advice "That is not a 1. Please try again." 

Tony, you are not a Reed Richards, a Lex Luthor or a Bruce Wayne. Please try again. 

New Avengers #28: CHECK IT. We pick up in the 2nd part of the "Revolution" storyline. The New Avengers get out of Japan with Echo. Then while Luke Cage is simply trying to pick up some milk, he thwarts a robbery, and the police and SHIELD are swarming to arrest HIM. The robber isn't important right now. He gets away. The NAs are hiding in Dr. Strange's place (now with a banner saying a Starbuck's is coming soon), but to get to where the NAs are, you have to say Shuma Gorath. Spider-Woman shows up to tell the NAs the news Ms. Marvel told her from the few original pages in Civil War: Initiative, that Cap wasn't dead. So they go for a rescue mission. Unfortunately, as Senator Vreenak of the Romulan Senate might be able to tell you if Garak hadn't killed him, "It's a FAAAAAKE!" Can the NAs escape this trap? 

Starting tomorrow is a little mini project... I'm going to review all of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, starting with the two miniseries that spawned it. Till then. 

While playing World of Warcraft the other night, I actually had my first experience with a ninja. No, not a stealthy assassin trained in the Japanese art, or a motorcycle, but a player who takes treasure in a group without giving other players in the group a fair chance at it. 

I was in the "dungeon" (even though this one's outdoors) of Zul'Farrak, and we had gotten to a boss in the dungeon named Witch Doctor Zum'rah. Before the fight began, we noted there was a chest nearby him and we "rolled on it" (used the command /roll to generate a random number from 1-100). I had the highest roll. So the fight began. During the fight, an uncommon item came up for looting. I put in the command to make a "greed" roll on it, as I had no need for it and kept going. We took out the Witch Doctor, but died because of all the additional monsters he summoned. I should say, most of us died. A level 50 rogue survived. 

When the rest of us got back to the area, the corpse of the boss was gone, and the chest I had won was gone. A couple of people were trying to hurry the group along, but I tried asking about these things. The Rogue had no answer on the chest, but tried to claim that the uncommon item that had dropped was the boss loot. I smelled a big rat, so I apologized, but "I don't stay in groups that rip me off", left the group, used my hearthstone to return me to the inn I was bound to and logged. 

I returned on one of my alternate characters and talked about the experience to my guild. They were possibly even madder than I was and confirmed I was absolutely in the right. Especially when a little research went and showed that the Witch Doctor only had two different types of Boss Loot, both rare: Either a set of cloth gloves I already had, or a staff, neither of which a rogue could actually use. The picture got even murkier (sorry, Murky) when I looked the guy up in WoW's new armory feature to discover his professions were enchanting and tailoring, which was a weird selection for a rogue who uses leather armor, and would thus tend towards skinning/leatherworking for armormaking, herbalism/alchemy for poison materials or mining/engineering if he was a gnome (this guy's character was human), adding to the picture that this guy ninjaed loot he couldn't use either way just to disenchant it into materials. 

Now the thing is, WoW isn't about the loot for me. All loot is is a number on a computer somewhere. There's a good chance I wouldn't have even rolled on the loot (like I already had the gloves for example). But when someone pulls crap like that, they're putting that number on a server ahead of me, and that's just blatant disrespect I refuse to tolerate. 

At this rate, it seems like the only way I'm going to get good runs on dungeons anymore is just to do them with my guild. 

I want to leave you today with a gem from Amazing Spider-Man #537, Captain America explaining why he fought the Civil War. It explains why I've fought some of the battles I have too: 

"This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the conseqeuences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world... 'No. You move.'"

Two nights ago, Mr. Fuji was inducted into the Hall of Fame. It's a very worthwhile induction in my opinion, but it does throw a wrinkle into my project here as I have nothing directly from Fuji, but a lot indirectly, to wit... 

Mr. Fuji: 

• Apr 1st, 1990: The Orient Express (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. The Rockers - Wrestlemania VI
• Mar 24th, 1991: Demolition (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Tenryu & Kitao - Wrestlemania VII
• Apr 4th, 1993: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Bret Hart for the WWE Title - Wrestlemania IX
• Apr 4th, 1993: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji) vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title - Wrestlemania IX
• Jan 22nd, 1994: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette) vs. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer) in a Casket Match for the WWE Title - Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• Mar 20th, 1994: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette) vs. Lex Luger w/ Mr. Perfect as special guest referee for the WWE Title - Wrestlemania X
• Mar 20th, 1994: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette) vs. Bret Hart w/ "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as special guest referee for the WWE Title - Wrestlemania X
• Nov 23rd, 1994: Yokozuna (w/ Mr. Fuji & Jim Cornette) vs. The Undertaker in a Casket Match (aka Chuck Norris kicks Jeff Jarrett in the face)

Mr. Fuji Wish List: FUJI VICE~~~~~~~!!! Besides that, one of his tag team title wins would be nice. Also, Demolition vs. Strike Force was arguably his apex as a manager (given that Yoko's first title win, he stupidly challenged Hogan right away). The 10 team Survivor match at SurSer 1988 with the Demolition/Powers of Pain double turn was a great Mr. Fuji moment. I'd also take the Wrestlemania V Powers of Pain & Mr. Fuji vs. Demolition match which I have on video. 

I'd like to talk some about SmackDown vs. RAW 2007. I'm a sucker for the SmackDown games, having gotten every single one except for SmackDown 2 back on the old PS1. I even have Power Move Pro Wrestling, which has an earlier version of that engine with some slightly altered NJPW stars. Obviously, until they come up with a system allowing downloads of new wrestlers as microtransactions, there's not going to be such an animal as a totally up to date wrestling game, but let's look at the differences between the game and the modern WWE product: 

RAW: 

Missing Superstars: Armando Estrada, Charlie Haas, Eugene, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Jeff Hardy, JTG, Kenny Dykstra, Maria, Robbie McAllister, Rory McAllister, Shad, Val Venis, Victoria 

Misc. Changes: Edge and Orton don't have their Rated RKO Music, Melina's current look is very different (in the game, it's a T-Shirt reading "It's Alright To Stare"), Shawn is using his old theme instead of the DX theme (though this can be easily changed), Super Crazy now has different entrance music and a different video 

SmackDown: 

Missing Superstars: Ashley, Brian Kendrick, Cherry, Dave Taylor, Deuce, Domino, Funaki, Jamie Noble, Jimmy Wang Yang, Kristal, Maryse, Michelle McCool, The Miz, MVP, Paul London, Queen Sharmell, Scotty 2 Hotty, Shannon Moore, Vickie Guerrero 

Misc. Changes: I believe Batista still has hair in the game, King Booker has his new video but old music and mannerisms and is referred to as Booker T by the announcers 

ECW: 

Missing Superstars: Everyone EXCEPT Bobby Lashley, Hardcore Holly, Rob Van Dam, Snitsky and Tazz (who both wrestles and announces with Michael Cole as part of the SmackDown team). 

Misc. Changes: Snitsky still has hair in the game 

So not too bad, but loads of room for improvement on that score. 

There are three main annoying things in the game. 

The first is that the announcing is slightly bugged. The announcers will semi frequently talk about wrestlers not even in the match. For the first few times, you can get some ironic humor out of this at Tony Schiavone's expense, but it gets annoying after a while. It seems to mostly happen in matches involving 6 or more people, but I've seen it happen in 1 on 1 matches. If I'm myself fighting John Cena, I don't want to hear about how awesome Joey Mercury is. It's just one of those things. 

Second, I like putting myself in Royal Rumbles. But the last two games have had a slight bug where created wrestlers who are supposed to be placed in a random position in the Royal Rumble are placed in last constantly. It seems to be based on stats because created wrestlers with no stats made for comedy purposes are constantly coming in in the middle. While I can solve the problem for myself by using a random number service online to give me my number, I still can't solve it for computer controlled CAWs. I mean, as fun as it is to get a late number sometimes, sometimes it's fun to get a Ric Flair 1992 shock of coming out way early and knowing you have a fight on your hands. 

Thirdly, it seems that with every iteration of the SmackDown line, it becomes more and more a boys only club. With the last couple of games, female wrestlers, both the ones in game and CAWs have been limited to a small variety of matches... one on one and tag team, and only certain varieties of handicap matches. Don't ask why a female can participate in standard 4 person tags but not 6 person. Things like Elimination Chambers and Royal Rumbles are right out for females. And the old way you used to be able to trick the computer into thinking a female wrestler was a male wrestler to put her into season mode is gone. Well, now the Fulfill Your Fantasy match has been taken out... not really a big loss, since like the Bra & Panties match before it, it was more like something you'd play through just a time or two for giggles, but with it came the only way to play with a female wrestler online. It seems THQ or Jakks or both is just bowing to public pressure to remove as much potential bad PR as possible from people who would equate the idea that you could fight women in the game to the game encouraging beating of women, and that's just sad. 

There's a lot of good in the game though. The new Ultimate Control Moves are a lot of fun. I love being able to move the analog stick up and down to have my character press a guy in a gorilla slam or to give a bad guy a good old fashioned 10 punch in the corner. Or my favorite is picking a guy up for a chokeslam or a Razor's Edge, walking to the ropes, slamming them to the outside, then hitting the "Christian's temper tantrum" taunt like I just broke my new toy. The new control scheme takes some getting used to, particularly since the right analog stick is now for holds, the directional pad is now taunts. Oftentimes, I'll start a match, hit the pad and make a taunt, allowing my opponent a free shot. 

If you're addicted to this series like me, you already have this game. Otherwise, if you need a new wrestling game, it's a worthwhile pickup if you can live with the problems I outlined. I recommend it. 

One year ago today, I experienced what was quite probably the worst day of my life. My mother passed away. It's a loss still keenly felt every day. But I didn't want to talk about loss today. I wanted to talk about happier times. 

My mother was perhaps the best person I ever knew. 

I remember when she visited me in my apartment in early 2001 and we visited Sea World, a first for her. She was utterly adamant that "When you go to Sea World, you go to see Shamu." so we went straight to the Shamu show, even though it didn't start right away and there were other things we could have done in the meantime. 

Also, that same visit, at one point, I was cleaning because in my logic, it was my apartment and she was a guest, so of course I cleaned and she just relaxed. I guess that idea really didn't fit inside her worldview though because she asked if there was something she could do, and I joked that she could do the dishes (as I despise doing dishes, especially with no dishwasher as was the case in this apartment) and she all but leapt up to do them, despite my repeated insistence that I was joking. 

As well, on that same visit, I tried to convince her that I had gotten two Rams jerseys for myself and that she got none. To which she immediately grabbed one and started pulling it away from me. It was her I got my Rams fandom from, she had been a fan since 1970. 

This is reminiscent of the time we were driving back from my college in summer 1997 and WWF just happened to be putting on a house show in Anaheim that day, right on the way. I tried convincing her that I got a D-Generation X cap for myself, and an Undertaker T-shirt for myself. The Undertaker T-Shirt was immediately appropriated. I got her into wrestling around the same time I got into it, around Mania III, and her definite favorites were Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker, with Kane just behind. Her favorite episode of RAW ever was the one were Undertaker or Kane disrupted every match. She was very unhappy when Undertaker went to SmackDown, and her solution to any annoying heel was for the Undertaker to come beat them up. At this house show though, she got into it, chanting "Rocky Sucks" as loud as anyone, taking offense at being called "trailer park trash" 

I remember how, on my birthdays, even if she didn't have much, she made sure we had a meal together and that she had some money to give me to get myself a present. My 2005 birthday was really special, because she had saved up a bit and we could get a few things. In fact, while looking through a rack of used Nintendo 64 games, she pulled out a game and said "I might like to try this, why don't you get this?" and it was Goldeneye. Gee, mom, possibly the best game EVER for the Nintendo 64? Well, if I *have* to. Totally twist my arm, huh? This year, I got a birthday dinner, which I did really appreciate, but nothing in the way of presents, which was really rough. 

When I was at college one time, all the members of one of the touring worship bands suddenly started telling me "Dave, call your mother." Yes, they had gone to my church, she had introduced herself, and obliquely mentioned that I could call more often. 

I remember how a lot of times if I was hungry, I could call her up and go on a run for "budget burgers" (burgers off the dollar menu at some restaurant). Often, these would satisfy hunger then and breakfast the next day. 

I remember that before I went to college, and before mom had her own car, we needed rides to a lot of places and because of her disability, mom needed the front seat so I got jammed into some pretty small back seats. As a consequence, it took through college for me to start worrying about it when I got into a small front seat when I got a ride at college, which got me some strange looks and reminders that I could adjust the seat. 

I remember how I could make her laugh by switching the subject midstream on a sentence with no change in tone. It's hard to describe, but if something came up in the middle of the sentence, I would just shift gears to it and that amused her. 

I remember one trip to Disneyland, on the way back, she missed the freeway turnoff we needed because traffic wouldn't let her get over. So, in a panic, she woke me up. I suggested getting off at the next exit and asking for directions. We did so, and found a big gas station and made a U-turn to go into there when I read something off a sign and she yelled "That's it!". We referred to that thereafter as the "Lord, send me a sign" incident. 

Another trip to Disneyland saw me getting no sympathy at all as people kept hitting me with canes. But because mom had her wheel-chair at that trip and the bonus trip to California Adventure soon after, we referred to her as our living Fastpass. And, man, was she delighted at that Aladdin show. 

I could go on with this all day. There's a lot I simply can't put into words. She was so special. She was my friend. She was my mom. I miss her every day. I just know I'll see her again. 

It's Monday and that means it's comic review day. Though I might go ahead and move this day up to Saturday or even Friday, because it's becoming obvious by how fast this week's big news was reacted to that spoilage is not SO big a concern that I have to wait THIS long, and I don't want the comics opinions becoming old news. 

Just as a quick reminder, I'm using a grading scale for comics borrowed from IGN that rates, from best to worst, as "MUST HAVE", "MUST READ", "CHECK IT", "PASS IT" and "BURN IT". Check IGN's comics section or previous entries for for details. 

DC 

LAST WEEK: 

Batman Confidential #3: CHECK IT. And it was really hard to decide between CHECK IT and MUST READ here. Not only is this a nice alternate take on Batman's early years, but it gives him an unusual opponent: Lex Luthor, as LexCorp and WayneTech compete for a government contract and Lex is up to his usual tricks. In this issue, the Senator who makes the decision is charged with murder, and of course Batman can't trust convenient coincidences on Lex's behalf. 

THIS WEEK:

52 #44: CHECK IT. We're doing the main focus/minor focus thing here again as detailed  In our main story, the Four Horsemen of Apokolips (including Sobek revealed as Famine) have killed Osiris, and it's time for a throwdown between the Horsemen and Adam & Isis, and not everyone is walking away from this one, folks. Also, in Nanda Parbat, Renee Montoya accepts her destiny. 

All New Atom #9: CHECK IT. Ryan is summoned back to Japan to answer the frantic summons of his lost love from his teenage years to save her from her abusive husband, a bully who tormented Ryan back then.... but it seems there's more to it than that. One of the better issues of this series so far. 

Detective Comics #829: Not in yet. This review will have to wait till next week. 

The Helmet of Fate: Zauriel: PASS IT. Basically I've been reading all these Helmet of Fate one shots to try to keep up with the whole story. Zauriel was created with the last JLA reboot because Hawkman could not be used at the time because his continuity was completely screwed up at the time. Zauriel's an angel, and thus a servant of God, but in order to not be offensive to non-Christians, Jesus has to go completely unmentioned. In an opening scene, Zauriel is speaking at a church's children's Sunday School and can't answer any of the questions, which an angel should be able to do without sounding like a politician. When he's assigned to go to another planet, God or God's messenger provides him a spaceship (Excuse me, what does God need with a spaceship?) and references are made to this other planet's evolution. It just all comes off as pretty goofy theology. 

Justice League of America #6: CHECK IT. This is the end of the first story arc to this latest JLA reboot as Solomon Grundy, reborn as highly intelligent in this incarnation, wants Red Tornado's android body, complete with Amazo's circuitry for himself, but it's gone wild. As the rest of the League stops Amazo, Reddy alone is left against Grundy. I've seen a review pointing out that the narration style has issues, as well as certain events such as Batman being faster with a laser cutting torch than legs that supposedly have Flash's speed, but it is a very nice superhero brawl and any fan of Reddy will appreciate his story. I still feel this League would benefit from Booster Gold though. Powerwise, he's like Starfire, plus a forcefield. 

Manhunter #29: CHECK IT. I admit it, I only looked at this title as a result of the whole "Is Ted Kord alive?" tease which is actually wrapped up with a satisfactory explanation here. I also dig how Ted's memory is treated with the utmost of respect. The whole main story of a grand jury indictment hearing for Wonder Woman is handled very well as well with the appropriate parties being involved (Sasha Bordeaux and Superman). I was less interested in the side stories, not being a regular fan of the series. 

Nightwing #130: PASS IT. I really couldn't get into the whole vampire twins as villains for Nightwing. They just seem outside his jurisdiction as a non powered hero and slightly ridiculous... plus it seems too evocative of when Jason Todd was turned into a blob monster. 

Outsiders #46: CHECK IT. This is the second part of the story arc covering the missing year for the Outsiders, and as such, it has three main objectives it has to accomplish: 1. Explain why Thunder and Grace are lovers now. 2. Explain why the new Captain Boomerang is on the team. 3. Explain why the team is underground to the point where everyone thinks they're dead, at least until Sivana recently broke their cover. The story is that Black Lightning's niece was killed by a crime boss. Lightning hit the man later with a small bolt of lightning and he fell down dead. Ultimately, through special arrangement with Checkmate, Lightning (Thunder's father) assumed a secret identity to go to prison for the crime. The Red Hood contacted Nightwing and told him that he had heard from Terminator during their mutual time in the Society that Terminator happened to shoot this crime boss at the same time Lightning zapped him. Thunder wants the team to break him out. Only Grace agrees, until new information comes in. The push of Grace and Thunder together is a little heavy handed for my tastes, but apparently that's a typical criticism of writer Judd Winick, that he eventually jams in either homosexual characters (such as in his work on the last series of Green Lantern) or an HIV positive characer (such as Mia "Speedy" Dearden in Green Arrow) into everything he writes. 

Shazam: Monster Society of Evil #2:: MUST READ. A light hearted re-telling of the early days of Captain Marvel (as opposed to the heavy handed current day Trials of Shazam mini), this issue focuses on Shazam determining that Billy has a baby sister. In the meantime, his attempt to climb the Rock of Eternity last issue opened the gateway for probably the 3rd most familiar Captain Marvel villain. Mary Marvel indeed debuts here, and what I said in the Hogan Anthology Disc 2 review about it being disturbing seeing hot chicks as little girls still applies. 

Superman-Batman #32: CHECK IT. Part 5 of the "The Enemies Among Us" storyline as something is getting into the heads of all the alien heroes on Earth and convincing them that all love and happiness they've ever known here is a lie. And now, it has Superman. Batman has to try a desperate gamble to survive. Not win, but survive. But there's one person Superman has to at least see before he gives up on us all... and she possesses a power greater than any alien force. Yes, Lois' love gets through to him. The only other alien free of control is Lobo, who suggests that the aliens "didn't like what they found" in his brain, but he leaves rather than help. Still though, Superman has to stop Batman before he can stop anything else. 

Uncle Sam & The Freedom Fighters #8: CHECK IT. This mini wraps up with the Freedom Fighters in final battle against the Presidential impostor android Gonzo and his minions, and it's a pretty satisfying superhero team brawl. The one really different thing about this series has been Daniel Acuña's art. It isn't worse or better, but it's different than most comic books. One does wonder where are the rest of the heroes in America if the President has been replaced by an android... or even if heroes are attacking Washington D.C. alleging this. 

MARVEL: 

Captain America #25: CHECK IT. Ugh. Based on historical developments, I could go as high as MUST HAVE on this issue. Based on my personal disgust, I could go as low as BURN IT. It is interesting to note that a number of protestors have signs calling for the abolishment of the SHRA. I thought the whole point of the Civil War ending the way it did was that all the norms wanted registration. Bad storytelling there, Marvel. Most of the first part of the story is Sharon Carter reminscing about Cap while waiting for an apparent plan from Nick Fury to rescue him from incarceration. Then there's the gunfire, then chasing the sniper and a shock ending. This is a dumb, dumb decision on Marvel's part that will just drive away readers. First they give us this Civil War in which they say we can choose either side, then they make it clear there's one right side, then the wrong side wins, then they pee all over the right side and the readers. I totally agree with Sutton when he says that Steve Rogers is back at least in time for the movie. 

Civil War Initiative: PASS IT. This was bad. It seemed to be maybe a quarter new stuff and then reprints from other current stuff Marvel is doing. Then to top it off, they give us reportedly false hope that Cap is alive in the new stuff. Just as a compariosn, this book of ads was $4.99. When DC wanted to advertise a bunch of new books they were doing, they put out DC Universe - Brave New World for $1 and none of it was reprinted material, nor would it be reprinted later, and Brave New World was at least 30 pages longer. 

Fantastic Four #543: MUST HAVE. This is the 45th Anniversary book for the team. The main story involves Johnny and Ben babysitting the kids as they watch a Fantastic Four documentary (a convenient way to recap the team's history). The interview with Dr. Doom is worth the price of admission alone: 

"Richards is a dolt. His reckless adventuring and constant interference in my and many other countries' internal affairs has destabilized the political balance of the entire world. We see the effects of his actions currently. He has built and maintained secret prisons, contributed to the dissolution of your country's habeas corpus, and seeks now to export his evil to the rest of the world. The day will come when that world will beg me to contain Richards' evil for them. Perhaps I will answer that call. Until that day, ask yourself why Richards has failed to cure the pathetic condition of his 'best friend' Ben Grimm. This interview is over. Doom has spoken."

Fantastic Four - The End #6: CHECK IT. This mini wraps up as the team finally reunites in time for all hell to break loose all over the solar system. And what does the Fantastic Four do best? Rescue the kids and fight Dr. Doom. You won't believe who saves the day. 

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #18: CHECK IT. Spidey continues to help Sandman clear Sandy's father's name by proving he didn't kill the Ben Parker of another universe accidentally brought to this universe by the Spider-Man of 2211 and his daughter. And if Spider-Man doesn't do it soon, Sandman's father dies. Pretty interesting stuff, but it suffers from the same syndrome I talked about with the Superman comics. Shouldn't this be important enough to be mentioned in other comics? Plus, did he take a break from this, go back to the hotel to have May get shot, then come back? The intro mentions May getting shot. 

Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #1: MUST HAVE. This is Sutton's new favorite comic. Ash just happens to show up on Marvel Zombie Earth just before everything goes to hell. An attempt to warn the Avengers goes nowhere when they dislike him shooting their intercom (how unreasonable) and The Scarlet Witch teleports him into a pond in Central Park. He meets up with them again later, but then things just get worse. 

Mighty Avengers #1: CHECK IT. Iron Man appoints Ms. Marvel the head of the Avengers and together they pick a new team. Iron Man steps a few points lower on the respect scale by referring to Captain America as "Rogers", which even Ms. Marvel criticizes underneath her breath. In a way, it's the ultimate fanboy dream, getting to put together a team when you have your pick of nearly anybody. One member is forcibly recruited to the team under threat of being deported for violating the SHRA otherwise. So now the SHRA forces you to work for the government too? Bravo, Herr Stark. At the end, something happens to Tony which might explain a lot... but probably won't be a permanent explanation. 

So this week, a lot of goods, but not many greats. 

Be sure to join us tomorrow for a very special tribute. People who know me will probably already know what it is. 

A lot has been made out of WWE's Survivor Series 1997, also known as Bret Hart's "screwing". For the non wrestling fans, or the wrestling fans living in a cave, here's a brief recap: Bret Hart was the WWE Champion heading into the Survivor Series, slated to face his hated (both in real life and storyline) rival Shawn Michaels. Hart was slated to leave WWE and join WCW soon and thus had to lose his belt in some manner. What had to be in the back of people's minds was what happened when standing WWE Women's Champion Alundra Blayze's contract lapsed and she went back to work in WCW as Madusa, and threw her title in a garbage can on WCW Nitro. 

Hart had a clause in his contract for "reasonable creative control" over his character which he interpreted as an ability to veto to either losing to Shawn Michaels in Canada or losing under either condition depending on who you listen to. He wanted the match to end in a mass run-in between D-Generation X and The Hart Foundation, then to lose the belt on the next night's RAW to anybody but Michaels. Vince McMahon reportedly agreed. 

All went as planned in the match until referee Earl Hebner was bumped and Michaels locked Hart's own submission move, the Sharpshooter, on him. All of a sudden, Hebner instantly recovered from being bumped, declared Hart submitted and that Michaels won and to ring the bell. Hart fought out of the hold as both wrestlers look confused. Hebner fled the arena. Michaels was handed the belt and escorted quickly out of the ring area. Hart destroyed monitors in the ring area, spat at Vince McMahon and made WCW motions in the air with his fingers. In the back, he punched McMahon. Ths was the "screwing" of Bret Hart. 

Or was it? 

I'd like to hop to another sport here in a hypothetical example if I may, my other love, football. 

Imagine if you will, the St. Louis Rams are down to the San Francisco 49ers by 4 points. Torry Holt catches a long pass and is tackled at the San Francisco 1 yard line. Rams call their last time out with 1 second left. On the next play, the ball is handed off to Steven Jackson who clearly surges into the end zone before being knocked back into the field of play. The Rams start celebrating. The announcers call it a touchdown. One official calls it a touchdown. Several of the 49ers begin dejectedly walking off. 

And then the referee waves it off, saying he only got to the 1 inch line, game over, San Francisco wins. 

There, the Rams just got screwed. It goes down as a loss, and until you get into some of the more esoteric playoff tie-breakers, it's just the same as if they had lost 100-0. 

Wrestling doesn't keep won-loss records. Often, who actually gets the win or loss isn't important. Imagine these four scenarios for the John Cena-Shawn Michaels match at Wrestlemania: 

Scenario 1: Michaels beats Cena like a red headed stepchild, defeating Cena within two minutes with a pin that consists of a foot on Cena's chest. Cena gets no offense. 

Scenario 2: Cena beats Michaels like the red headed stepchild, causing Michaels to get no offense. Within two minutes, Cena clocks Michaels with his title belt, drawing a DQ. 

Scenario 3: After a hard fought, back and forth match, Triple H comes out and tosses Shawn a sledgehammer, which he uses to clock Cena to get a cheap pin. 

Scenario 4: After a hard fought, back and forth match, Shawn gets a surprise roll up and wins cleanly. 

In all four of these scenarios, Shawn Michaels beat John Cena. But the circumstances surrounding it and the resultant heat are all vastly different. Therefore, win and loss alone cannot be the only factor in who goes over in a wrestling match. 

Therefore, Bret was not screwed in the fact that he lost the match. 

Furthermore, if Bret thought he wasn't going to lose the belt eventually anyway, he was on some serious drugs. There was no way it could be risked that the main title would go to WCW Nitro and be thrown into the trash. Bret gave his word not to, but people have been known to break their word, and Bischoff was throwing around some serious money. 

More to the point, Bret wasn't being reasonable. His contract specified "reasonable creative control". Refusing to job the title to a certain person or in a whole country is not reasonable. Can I refuse to job in America? The thought would be absurd. 

Therefore, Bret was not screwed in the fact that he lost the belt. 

Therefore, let's look at the WAY he lost... and there, not only was he not screwed, he was done a great favor. Shawn won the match, but everyone who watched it KNEW that Bret never submitted. WWE themselves has never pretended otherwise. Therefore, they let Bret go to WCW with a valid case that he never lost the WWE Title. This is freaking huge. Hulk Hogan, for all that everyone says he plays all these political games never got that or asked for that. There was interference, but he was very clearly pinned by Yokozuna. Ric Flair was very clearly defeated by Hart himself at the end of his last run. 

If WCW was thinking clealy, they could have had a belt made and have him going around as a World Champion for a while before ultimately uniting his title with the WCW Title. 

So, no. Bret wasn't screwed. He was done a huge favor. I wish I could be screwed like that. 

Finally, here's disc two of Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology! 

Remember that I'm using a special star ratings system here based off of total entertainment value rather than just work rate as the be-all end-all. Let me C&P the Boffo of the recent past to tell you all about it: 

***** = A match which will go down as one of the all time classics that we'll talk about for years. 
**** = A match on par with a very good PPV main event. 
*** = A match on par with a very good 2 hour free TV show main event 
** = A match on par with a very good 1 hour free TV show main event 
* = a decent and non offensive free TV undercard match 
DUD = A waste of my time 
Negative stars = Actively offensive, it will take the opposite value of stars to make it up to me for this match (note this can include horribly wrestled matches, ala Bradshaw/Trish vs. Gayda/Nowinski, or horribly booked matches such as Trip/Booker from Wrestlemania) 

And just to differentiate from standard workrate star ratings, I've decided in my humility that under this system, the star rating should always be preceded by "BSR:", short for Boffo Star Rating. See, I figure if you just rate Foley-Taker Hell in the Cell *****, the workrate freaks might think you're using THEIR system and take you to task. If you rate it BSR: *****, then it's obvious something different is meant. 

We start off with Hogan's rip off WCW music, American Made, which is jarring in relation to WWE footage of him or footage from his NWO era. In fact, we only have one match on this disc from the period in which he uses it. He also uses it in one match on Disc 3 that I'll point out when we get there due to rights issues. 

vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage for the WWE Title, Wrestlemania V, 4/18/89 

STORY: On an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Hogan fought Andre again. When Andre went for a cover, Hogan clearly kicked out at a 1 count, but apparently referee Dave Hebner went on to count to 3 and declare Andre the new champion. Dave ended up being Dave's twin brother EARL Hebner (because Daves are never evil). Earl went on to a nice quiet, non controversial career with WWE. Andre tried to immediately give the belt to Ted DiBiase. Due to all this silliness, Jack "Troublemaker" Tunney declared the title vacated and ordered a tournament to be held at Wrestlemania IV. In the finals, Savage defeated Ted DiBiase despite DiBiase receiving a Bye in the semi-finals.

Hogan and Savage would go on to team as the Megapowers at the first ever Summerslam, defeating the Megabucks team of DiBiase and Andre when Savage's manager Elizabeth showed her panties (which was practically hardcore porn for 1988). Savage would become more and more jealous of Hogan, thinking he was trying to steal Elizabeth from him. Finally, on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Savage turned on Hogan, setting up this match. Man, Hogan just needs to stop going to Saturday Night's Main Event.

WWE editing is in full force again in a pre-match interview as Hogan says WWE in 1989. I guess it's nice that his voice sounds exactly the same nearly twenty years later. 

This might be my most watched main event ever. In early 1989, I actually went and bought the VHS tape of Wrestlemania V for $40. It's still quite watchable if I pop it in too. And it's been watched and rewatched many times since then. 

As we start off, Elizabeth has her own entrance and she goes into a neutral corner. She still uses Savage's music though. If this match was done today, she'd have some kind of Pomp and Circumstance/Real American remix. And that'd be awesome. Your commentators are Monsoon and Ventura. Sutton, keep an eye on Elvira. Ventura calls Hogan "The Luster". Pot, kettle, black, Ventura! 

The size difference here is quite noticeable. Hogan almost makes Savage look like a cruiserweight. Savage heel stalls to start. When they lock up, Hogan easily shoves Savage away with his power. Monsoon says Savage slapped Elizabeth around. Ventura doesn't deny it, but defends it by saying he took her to the top. I award this point to Monsoon as Savage hides behind Elizabeth. 

"With what Elizabeth has pulled, a punch in the nose might not be so bad for her." - Ventura. Come on, Elvira. Sutton has to be better than THIS. Ventura is in form already, demanding the ref stop Hogan's closed fists, but cheering Savage's thumb to the eye. 

One side of the ring gets a nice view down the front of Savage's trunks as Hogan pulls them to throw Savage to the outside. I am very glad the camera is on the OTHER side of the ring. Donald Trump IS on that side of the ring, never thinking that he might get his head shaved in 18 years. I keep that in mind constantly... 2025, man, 2025. 

Monsoon: "You're not going to stop a championship match for a cut over the eye." I wonder if that was a shot at either or both of the 80s matches I have on DVD where EXACTLY that happens, now that I've seen them. 

Hogan Hulks Up to a slap, which is less than impressive. Next, he'll Hulk Up to an Indian Burn. Hogan slams Savage over the top rope. Ventura says Savage should stay down and take the countout. Monsoon says he has more integrity than that. Savage then nearly slaps Elizabeth. Monsoon is silly. After more Savage attempts to slap Elizabeth, Hebner (which one? Who knows?) ejects her. 

I always love when refs start counting for an illegal move, then try to break it up, then restart counting, rather than keep counting. 

Savage hits the famous move of this match, the big elbow off the top, covers, and Hogan kicks out big and Hulks Up. We get punch blocks, big boot, leg drop and it's over! Ventura is sick! BSR: **** 1/4. Hogan celebrates in the ring as he's won the title and the first piece of Savage's real life sanity. More were to come. Ventura AGAIN hits the "I'm going to challenge Hogan myself" riff. Even with how mysogynistic as he was in this match, he's still trying to steal Elvira from Sutton. For shame, Jesse. For shame. 

From 2000, Edge & Christian talk about being Hogan fans at Mania VI. We see Edge as a dorky kid actually at the show wearing a Hogan shirt. 

vs. The Ultimate Warrior for the WWE and WWE Intecontinental Titles, Wrestlemania VI, 4/1/90 

STORY: Hulk Ho-GAN! You have interfered in the destiny of the Ultimate Warrior! When you eliminated me from behind at the Royal Rumble, you doomed each and every one of the Hulkamaniacs to the wrath of the Warrior gods and now you face The Ultimate Challenge! But there is one small path to safety for you and the Hulkamaniacs, Hulk Ho-GAN. For what flows through the veins of the Ultimate Warrior is your salvation! Drink deeply of it and when you wake, you shall be in Parts Unknown! *snort*

...ok, that was weird. 

We're continuing with the Monsoon-Ventura team again. One famous sign here would actually reappear at Hogan-Rock later. I believe this just might be historic in that it technically might be Hogan's only match for the Intercontinental Title ever. Hebner is the ref, and Jesse still insists on not giving us the first name. Warrior is still relatively sane here if I might damn with faint praise. Hogan is again noticeably bigger, though it's not quite as pronounced as it was against Savage. Rumor has it that this match was heavily worked out and practiced ahead of time. 

We start out really slow, with lockups and tests of strength and the like. You know, people make it out that the fans were 50-50, and there were certainly a number of Warrior fans there, but everyone I've ever heard interviewed about it has said they were a Hogan fan, and by ear, Hogan seems to be getting the stronger reaction. Hogan and Warrior do the criss cross running thing... I miss that in modern wrestling. Hogan is knocked out of the ring, and is limping on his left knee but returns to the ring. 

STORY: As you accept my ULTIMATE CHALLENGE, Hulk Ho-GAN, you and all the Hulkamaniacs must accept you have the frailty of all mortal men. But the Ultimate Warrior has the blood of all the Warriors past flowing through his veins! And as I journeyed from Parts Unknown to Wrestlemania VI to defeat you, Hulk Ho-GAN, I have made sacrifices and promises to my Warrior Gods that I would leave Trump Plaza with the WWE Championship around MY WAIST, for you cannot survive against... the Ultimate... Warrior.... *snort*

GAH! OK, that's starting to get really scary. 

After some eyepoking (which Jesse likes) Hogan's leg is BETTER. Monsoon theorizes it was a temporary dislocation that slipped back in. Hogan grabs a front facelock and Ventura namedrops Richard Belzer to reinforce that it's a serious hold. 

"Hogan telling the referee to get out of the way and let us get it on here." - Monsoon. Ew. 

Long heat sequence by Hogan on Warrior... lots of restholds. Warrior powers out, then the two clothesline each other. Warrior has gotten to the ropes and started shaking them, which is like letting Popeye get to the spinach. Lots of clotheslines and punches on Hogan. You know, one of these days, you'd think Hogan would have an opponent smart enough not to vainly pause when Hogan grabs their ankle. Warrior with a bearhug. Hogan's arm goes down twice, but not thrice. Also, the sun came up in the East today. 

Ref bump! Both Monsoon and Ventura insist on calling the ref "Referee Hebner" which doesn't nail down which one it is. I assume Dave, but I don't know. In the meantime, Warrior runs back and forth until Hogan flings him to the floor. Hogan counts his own 3, but there's no ref. Warrior gets his own pin after a belly to back suplex, but still no ref. Jesse says it's a 2 out of 3 falls match now. Hogan gets another should have been pin, but Whichever Hebner is way out of position. 3 out of 5? Damn straight! 

Warrior with a Gorilla Press and slam onto Hogan's back! Kickout! Hulk up! Punch, ignore, point! Big boot! Leg drop! Miss! Warrior with a splash! Hogan kicks out at 3.1! Warrior wins! So now Ventura can't challenge Hogan in an attempt to steal Elvira anymore! 

Warrior, being silly, celebrates with his Intercontinental Title. Hogan leaves the ring, grabs the WWE Title, climbs back in, and gives it to the Warrior, raising his hand. Warrior hugs him. Monsoon declares him immortal. Hogan: "Hey, you dropped the Intercontinental belt, loon." Hogan rides away on the ring cart. He would say on the Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD that everyone watched him leave rather than watch Warrior celebrate. BSR: ***. Even though it was a very hot crowd, it was just way too resthold filled. Both men have had much better matches... in fact, in one year's time, Warrior would face Randy Savage at Mania VII in a truly excellent match. I did feel a little ripped off by this match as the Warrior would go on to forfeit the Intercontinental Title shortly afterwards... would Hogan have simply forfeited it if he won? 

STORY: Destiny has been fulfilled! Now that I have triumphed at the Ultimate Challenge, Hulk Ho-GAN, now there is room for you and all of the Hulkamaniacs to grab hold of these biceps, and hang on for DEAR LIFE as we journey back to PARTS UNKNOWN!!

OK, that's starting to get really scary and annoying. Hey, Sutton. You watch all those horror movies.You got anything over there for an exorcism? 

Look up? Okay... but there's really nothing there. Now you want me to look down... great, it's a very pretty floor, but... 

Look at Mr. Frying Pan? Oh, shi- 

*BLANG* 

... 

OW. I'm going to be trying to pop my jaw back in for the next week. Thanks, Sutton. Rassem frassem Kentucky rassem.... 

Anyway, Sgt. Slaughter is on now to tell us how they wanted him to burn an American flag and he refused, but had the idea to burn a Hulk Rules shirt instead. He thinks it got even better heat (literally and figuratively. That thing went UP!) 

vs. Sgt. Slaughter for the WWE Title, Wrestlemania VII, 3/24/91 

STORY: Testing, testing? Whew, the Warrior's gone.

Anyway, during the first Gulf War, Sgt. Slaughter turned heel with a gimmick that he was a sympathizer to Iraq and drew cheap heat by talking about how they were better than us and all this. This gimmick apparently worked so well that Slaughter defeated The Ultimate Warrior for the title at the Royal Rumble with Randy Savage's intereference, and this was Hogan's first shot at him.

In a funny aside, according to Wikipedia, Sgt. Slaughter is the only "dishonorably discharged" G.I. Joe due to this gimmick.

Alex Trebek is YOUR guest ring announcer, but not Sean Connery's. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are MY announce team because they're THE BEST EVER. Regis Philbin is guest announcing and I'd let Sutton have him if he wasn't so busy with Elvira. Hogan rocks a flag bandana and brings a flag with him. Marla Maples is the guest timekeeper. Somewhere, Bret wonders... nah, too easy. 

I bet the bald guy wins. 

A couple times early on, the ref tries to break up lockups on the ropes, and Hogan shoves him away... it would have been funny if he got DQed for that. 

I think Slaughter crossed his fingers behind his back once while begging Hogan for mercy. If so, brilliant. 

Heenan says he hates Hogan because Hogan never gave Heenan's guys title shots. Monsoon calls him a liar. Later, Regis says if Hulk wins, Bobby will never get another title shot. Bobby agrees. 

Slaughter with a chair outside the ring, and you just have to take it for granted here there's no way a Wrestlemania main is ever ending in countout or disqualification. 

"In Iraq, you only have to count to 2!" - Heenan 

Boston Crab by Slaughter. Boston, Iraq that is. Hogan tries to power out despite the rope being RIGHT THERE, but ultimately smartens up. Slaughter with a stomp off the top rope... but General Adnan decides to distract the pin away from HIS OWN GUY. Brilliant! That's the kind of help I usually expect from DarkHelm in SmackDown games! 

Camel clutch by Slaughter as Hogan's face is all Muta'ed up. Slaughter lets it go to stomp on Hogan's back some, and then locks it back in. Hogan tries to get it off by getting up and running into a corner, but Slaughter jumps off and shoves Hogan into the corner. Slaughter gets the Iraqi flag, covers Hogan in it and gets two. 

That's it! Hogan Hulks Up! No sell punches! Punches! Big boot! Leg drop! 3! Hogan's third WWE Title reign begins! And on this DVD, the sound cuts out here and when it comes back in, the sound is from the last seconds of the match... luckily, this match is okay on my DVD of Wrestlemania VII. BSR: *** because it was mainly unmemorable brawling meant to set up the beginning of the end to the Slaughter angle. 

vs. The Undertaker for the WWE Title, Tuesday in Texas, 12/3/91 

STORY: The Undertaker went from debuting at Survivor Series 1990 to challenging Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title at Survivor Series 1991. The Undertaker won due to intereference by Ric Flair. This is Hulk Hogan's rematch at an experimental Tuesday PPV just a few days later. The experiment hasn't been repeated (at least as far as airing a PPV just a few days after one has just aired)

As the match starts, The Undertaker and Paul Bearer stomp away at Hogan, and he fights them both off. Shortly after, Hogan throws Taker into the corner and tries to shove his bandana down Taker's throat. Jack "Troublemaker" Tunney is sitting at ringside. Taker is rocking the grey gloves he would use until he would switch to the purple to distinguish himself from Fake Undertaker. 

Your commentators, btw, are again the kick-awesome Monsoon and Heenan. Joey Marella is your ref. 

Taker with lots and lots of choking. A bit later, there's an Old School. Here, it's just School. An Iron Claw type move to the mouth area follows. Heenan delightfully chortles at Hogan's impending death. I'm not making that up. 

Hogan breaks free and the two go off the rope and Taker botches that somehow. I wouldn't mock him for that to his face. Hogan even briefly seems to check if he's okay. Taker recovers and goes up for another Not So Old School and Hogan pulls him off. That draws out Ric Flair. Monsoon is apoplectic! Tunney tries to stop him. 

Hogan spots Flair, goes out of the ring, and chairs Flair, who takes down Tunney. We have our first ever PRESIDENT BUMP~~~! Flair recovers and holds a chair up on the apron. Hogan pushes Taker into it, then clotheslines Flair. Marella distracts himself with Flair and Tunney and possibly a shiny. Taker holds Hogan and Paul Bearer tries to hit him with the urn. Hogan ducks and Taker just isn't doing well with so called help in this match. Hogan knocks Bearer down and gets the urn. He opens it up and gets coffee from it as Marella is still not paying attention. Flair is picking Troublemaker up. Coffee to Taker's face and a roll up and a three count! Hogan's 4th title reign begins! BSR: *** 1/2 here. Too much chokey stuff, but some definite entertainment to be found 

Tunney would eventually strip Hogan because of the waste of perfectly good coffee. Perhaps he's an ancestor of Kathryn Janeway. Sutton and I once worked out an impromptu IM skit to cover the question of why Tunney didn't always vacate titles when shenanigans were involved (such as Taker's victory that set up this match in the first place). The answer we came up with is that Tunney believe that videotape was a creation of witchcraft and refused to believe in it. 

Jim Ross talks about the events of Wrestlemania IX and Hogan's 5th title reign, and then the following King of the Ring, segueing to Hogan defecting to WCW and feuding with Flair, which was the match everyone wanted to see. 

Flair says the contribution Hogan has made to the business is that not everyone in the world knows who Ric Flair is, but that almost everyone knows who Hulk Hogan is. With a smile, he says Hogan isn't in his workrate, but that Hogan was the biggest star in the history of the business. 

vs. Ric Flair for the WCW World Title, Bash at the Beach 1994, 7/17/94 

STORY: Hogan just signed on with WCW, and this is his first match, since WCW wanted to pull the trigger on the dream match that WWE never got around to having outside of house shows. Shaquille O'Neal is at ringside for some reason.

Tony Schiavone & Bobby Heenan are your commentators, and Heenan unfortunately just stopped caring in WCW. Sensational Sherri is managing Flair, and Jimmy Hart is managing Hogan with his "Hulk-A-Phone". Heenan claims he'll call this straight down the middle, much as he dislikes Hogan, just so it'll make him really feel great when Flair wins. This is one of the only two matches on this DVD where Hogan is using "American Made" as his theme song. Randy Anderson is your referee. This is apparently one month after the merger of the World Title and the International World Title. 

After a bunch of armbar stuff, Flair ends up bailing and hiding behind Sherri, who minds it much less than Elizabeth did. Basically the story of this match is that Flair has an advantage if he can keep it in a wrestling mode, but that Hogan is on top if he can draw Flair into power stuff. And Flair hides behind Sherri again! 

Jimmy Hart leads a chant for Hogan. Bobby Heenan orders it to shut up. A bit later, Schiavone declares this the biggest Pay-Per-View event ever. Take a drink! Heenan tells Schiavone that he doesn't have to yell at him, he's not blind. Analyze that for a while. 

A sleeper makes Hogan's arm drop twice but not thrice. Shoulderblocks and punches send Flair out. When Flair comes back in, body slam, leg drop, no! Miss! Figure four, reversed into a roll up for a 2 count! Figure four, kicked away! And again! Flair with a nifty delayed suplex! Heenan: "Yes yes yes!" Hogan right up! Heenan: "No no no!" Nice calling it down the middle. Flair to the ropes. Big boot! 1... 2... Sherri pulls the ref out! Jimmy runs over, and gets nailed with Sherri's shoe, the WMD of mid 90s WCW. Sherri in and top rope big splash. 

Naitch locks in the Figure Four as Nick Patrick with short hair is YOUR new ref. Hogan struggles mightily and makes the ropes. Sherri sneaks over and chokes him out with her stocking. Flair chops and forearms Hogan in the corner and he gets sick of that so he tells Flair no and Hulks up a bit. Flair elbows him to calm him down. Sherri missses a top rope splash. 

Flair to the top! No, Ric! That never works! Sure enough he's slammed off. Hogan is tired of Sherri's nonsense, so he pushes her to Mr. T who carries her away to do Mr. T stuff to her. But she tosses Ric brass knucks and he smacks Hulk with them. 2 and another Hulk Up. No sells,. punches, big boot, leg drop, 3! Hogan's first WCW Title reign begins!  He's American Made, but that song sucks. Shaq and T celebrate with him. BSR: **** 1/4 here. Fun, if a little overbooked. 

During the celebration, we get a shot of Linda, and a little proto Nick Hogan, but thankfully not a clear shot of Brooke, because it's disturbing seeing hot chicks as little girls. 

The Formation of the NWO, joined in Progress, Bash at the Beach, 7/7/96 

STORY: Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had recently joined WCW and were running an angle that they were "Outsiders". Their constant disruptions to WCW programming had prompted a match of them and a third mystery partner vs. Randy Savage, Sting and Lex Luger. Luger went out early with an eye injury, rendering the affair essentially a standard tag match, we come in near the end of the match.

All four men are down, and Hulk Hogan enters, resplendent in his red and yellow. Hall and Nash bail as Hogan tears off the shirt.... and legdrops Randy Savage! Schiavone and Dusty Rhodes are disgusted, but Heenan totally called it. 

We cut to Okerlund itnerviewing the three. Hogan tells Gene to tell the people to shut up. Garbage is flying into the ring at a prodigious rate. Hogan namedrops that you can call this the New World Order of wrestling. Hogan says he's the third man because "who made that organization up north richer than me?" connecting the whole angle to WWE... and they wonder why they got sued. Hogan namedrops "The WCW", which makes no sense. Okerlund references the garbage in the ring, which just encourages more. Hogan says it represents the fans. A lot of Hogan's ire is directed at Bischoff, which makes little sense in retrospect. Hogan finishes up by calling the NWO the "New World Organization" twice. 

Schiavone calls it the end of Hulkamania, and tells Hogan to go to Hell. I can't rate incomplete matches. 

Hogan says his favorite piece of business in WCW was wiping out their talent pool with his WWE training... I'm not sure just what he means by that. 

vs. The Giant for the WCW World Title, Hog Wild, 8/10/96 

STORY: The NWO has just formed, and The Giant (later known as The Big Show) is the current champion, managed by Jimmy Hart). This is Hogan's first title shot as head of the NWO.

Your commentators are Tony Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Heenan.We're outside in Sturgis, South Dakota. Seeing Paul Wight with his mullet again is sort of odd after all these years. It's also odd seeing Hogan not have the power and size advantage. Hogan is doing a lot of heel stalling and rolling out of the ring. Heenan later professes admiration for Hogan's style here. Giant with a lot of power stuff, of course. And lots of restholds. Randy Anderson is your ref. 

After a bunch of non-descript brawling, the Giant hulks up, complete with no selling, shaking, pointing and a big boot. When he gestures for a chokeslam, Hall comes in to the top rope. Giant slams him off and chokeslams him. Nash comes in and steals Hart's megaphone, Nash gets a chokeslam. Hogan is in with the title, and whacks Giant in the head with it for three to start his 2nd WCW Title reign. BSR: ** 3/4 here. Nothing really happened. I know I said I wasn't going to let workrate be be-all/end-all, but this wasn't just bad workrate, it was just non descript until the end. 

Eric Bischoff talks about the buildup for Hogan-Sting, and how Sting was never in the ring with Hogan for 9 months or so. 

vs. Sting for the WCW World Title, Starrcade, 12/28/97 

STORY: As Bischoff described above, as Hogan ran roughshod over WCW with the championship and as head of the NWO, Sting kept appearing in the rafters, pointing baseball bats at him and doing freaky stuff to rattle him. Finally, a match was to happen between the two. This is that match.

Rumor has it that the reason for this kind of build is that Sting's contract specified that he was only to compete in X number of matches over a certain time frame and WCW burned through his contracted matches too quickly. So he went for months without matches to save his one last match under his contract for here. 

Nick Patrick is your referee and more on that later. Your commentators are Schiavone, Dusty Rhodes and Mike Tenay. Hogan complains a lot whenever Sting outpowers him, but is relentless when he has the advantage. Schiavone sells the idea that Hogan is jealous that Sting is a hero and Hogan no longer is. 

In between the restholds and brawling, Sting is hitting some impressive dropkicks, but if all it took was impressive dropkicks, Hardcore Holly would be Ric Flair. 

Hogan hits a vertical suplex and poses, but Sting immediately gets up, no selling the move. Hogan would NEVER do that. Hogan htis Sting with his own bat a bit later, and a bit after that, shoves a t-shirt into Sting's face to make a point, but the camera totally misses what it says. WWE would never make that mistake. 

Now comes the controversial part. Hogan hits a legdrop and gets a 3 that for a supposed fast count is the slowest I've seen, though I'd call it slightly fast for a regular count. Bret Hart is right there and prevents the timekeeper from ringing the bell saying "It's not going to happen again." (given that this is right after Montreal, which is going to be a future blog entry someday). Bret punches out Nick Patrick and throws Hogan back into the ring and restarts the match with himself as the ref (because he was the special guest referee for the Larry Z vs. Bischoff match earlier, though that's pretty nonsensical. Special guest refs are refs for that match only. I don't expect Austin to have any role in Cena-Michaels at Wrestlemania, for example). NWO members Scott Norton and Buff Bagwell storm the ring but Sting clears them out. Sting locks on the Scorpion Deathlock and Hogan submits. Sting wins! The ring fills up with WCW guys in celebration. 

Of course, the story going around is that Hogan paid off Nick Patrick for this. If you think about this though, it doesn't make sense. If Patrick did count slowly deliberately, he would have been endangering his career by being the man who screwed up the biggest angle in his company's history. It isn't like Hogan paying him $50 would have covered it. Plus, Hogan had extensive creative control clauses in his contract. If he really had that much of a problem with the angle, he could have vetoed it instead of having to resort to this. 

Plus, the angle was pretty dumb anyway. Why was Bret already out there in time to stop the timekeeper from ringing the bell? How did he have the authority to restart the match? If it was a screwjob, why didn't Sting kick out? He could hear the cadence of the count as well as we could. BSR: ** 1/2 for all nonsense. 

Big Show talks about how he owes his career to Hogan for finding him, introducing him to the right people, etc., and always being there, and we fade to a message to insert disc 3 

And WHEW is this a long process... I will be back with Disc 3 and THIS decade as soon as I am able to. 

I'm plugging away on the Hogan Disc 2 review. Hopefully it will be done tomorrow. 

I just managed to watch Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. I was a big fan of the 1980s cartoon series. It was a blending of three otherwise unrelated anime series from Japan into one story arc. The big appeal of it is that they didn't kiddify it down into an episodic series that always began and ended with the same status quo so they could be shown in any order. There was a definite story arc to the whole thing and episodes could be shown ONLY in the correct order. 

In fact, before the series was 20 episodes old (less than a month at 1 episode per weekday), a major character dies. And then a few episodes later, another one does. 

The Shadow Chronicles takes place somewhat concurrently and immediately after the last episode of the "Invid Invasion" portion of the series. 

Characters: 

Macross Era: 

• Rick Hunter - Now a general and in command of the SDF-3
• General Reinhardt - Background/Novel created character in Macross, now in charge of the forces to retake Earth in the absence of the SDF-3

• Louie Nichols - Former Colonel with the Fifteenth Hovertanks Division, now Engineer on Vince Grant's ship

• Scott Bernard - Leader of the resistance we saw in the series, in love with Ariel, the Invid Princess who looks like his former love, Marlene Rush
• Ariel - See above, has teleportational powers
• Invid Regis - Insofar as her role in the last episode is reprised

• Vince Grant - Captain of the ship we spend a lot of time on. Brother to the Macross Era's Claudia Grant. Father to Southern Cross Era's Bowie Grant and husband to Jean Grant.
• Jean Grant - See above. Doctor.
• Janice Em - Android and former singing partner to Minmei

• Marcus Rush - Pilot with the forces to retake Earth, brother of Marlene Rush
• Maia Sterling - Head of Skull Squadron in the forces to retake Earth. Daughter of Max and Miriya Sterling, sister of Dana Sterling. Dana had a vision of her as a child in the final episode of the Southern Cross era.

Basically, the plot as we know from the last episode of Robotech is that the attack to retake Earth begins. If the attack forces cannot repel the Invid from Earth, they are ordered to use Neutron-S missiles, which will destroy half the planet. The Invid Regis declares that the "Children of the Shadow"'s influence is too strong here and leaves Earth to undo a "terrible mistake" the humans made. 

We thought the Children of the Shadow were the Robotech Masters. 

We thought the terrible mistake was the devastation of half the Earth. 

We thought wrong. 

The Neutron-S missiles will actually create a huge singularity and if fired at Earth will utterly destroy it. 

How could this kind of mistake be made? Was it a mistake? What does that mean? The answers will shock you. 

If you're a Robotech fan, you'll really like this. I especially the love the interplay Vince Grant has with various people, such as Louie Nichols ("Follow Dr. Nichols' plan to the letter!" "There are no letters, sir. It's actually all numbers." "Hrrr.") and Scott Bernard ("If we live through this, my wife's going to kill me." "Looking forward to that, sir.") 

The Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology Disc 2 review. Hopefully my nonexistent audience isn't too nonexistently disappointed with me. They might come after me with nonexistent weaponry. 

I do have some wrestling to talk today. With the imminent failure of Wrestling Society X, we're back to a two horse race in the wrestling business. We have the three brands of WWE and a FAR distant TNA. But I think TNA is making mistakes that are significantly limiting it. Dixie Carter, if you're part of my nonexistent audience, here are some suggestions I have to improve things. 

1. Jeff Jarrett, you're F-I-single R-E-ha ha-D.

As long as Jarrett is around, TNA is going to be Jeff Jarrett's Novelty Promotion. TNA has had 18 distinct title reigns to date. Jeff Jarrett has been the champion for 6 of those (and his last one was the 15th reign, making him have an inexcusable 40% of the title reigns at the time). At the time when he last lost the title, TNA was approximately 4 years and 4 months old. Jarrett's title reigns have lasted approximately 7 months, 6 months, 11 months, 1 month, 4 months and 4 months for a total of approximately 33 months of TNA's 52 month existence (approximately 63%). And this is a guy who simply is not main event material. I will grant that he is a good heel holder of a secondary level belt, but he only got his WCW reigns by default (no one else was left worth putting the belt on) and his insistence on ramming himself down our throats just makes TNA look bad. Jarrett, simply put, is a slightly less charismatic, but slightly better wrestling version of The Honky Tonk Man. 

Now, TNA defenders, you might be wanting to throw the case of Triple H in my face, and I'll admit that Triple H used to really overpush himself as well. It was patently ridiculous during the McMahon-Helmsley Era period, and I will still point to Triple H-Booker T as the most horrible booking Wrestlemania has ever seen. But at this point, it's been a year since Trip has even had a title match, and two since he held the title. And you'd have to think that even if he wasn't injured, he'd be doing something with Shawn this year as DX rather than going for a title. Plus, more to the point, he's a believable main eventer. Jeff Jarrett simply isn't and never will be. Not everyone is. 

2. Vince Russo, see the note Jarrett got.

Russo has had success before, I'll admit that. But that success has come when he's had Vince McMahon to veto his stupid ideas. Once he's gotten away from McMahon, he's had some rather spectacular failures. And while it is good to get characters for some of the wrestlers, it shouldn't come at the expense of having them wrestle. 

Plus, he himself recently admitted that he had no clue what just happened in an episode of Impact he watched. That's bad. 

3. Stop automatically pushing WWE rejects and try to focus on homegrown talent.

As I've said before, there have been 18 championship reigns. Only 5 reigns are represented by people who haven't been in WWE: 3 reigns by A.J. Styles, 1 by Abyss and 1 by Sting. Sting you almost can't count because he was such a huge part of WCW and was only not in WWE by personal conviction. Styles was in Nitro for a cup of coffee near its end (I know this thanks to some rather good reviews of the last episodes I once read), but you can't in good conscience really count him as WCW talent for purposes of this point here. 

Going to TNAWrestling.com's roster page, 48 wrestlers are listed. 20 are former WWE employees. 3 more were major contributors to WCW or ECW. What's left is largely the lower tier with some exceptions. 

I would focus on your homegrown talent... A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels make a good axis. Around them, you have Abyss (with whom you have the advantage that he's relatively worthless to WWE because TNA owns the name). Losing Monty Brown was a pretty big blow, but you shouldn't be trying to drive away Ron Killings as well (technically a former WWE employee, but only a jobber there, and he has grown). 

The Kurt Angle signing hasn't resulted in better ratings and could be massive headaches down the road with the allegations coming out from Sports Illustrated. Christian isn't really main event material either and having the title on him makes your company look second rate. Certain talent, such as Rhino, the James Gang and Team 3D (among others) could probably be fired without much notice. 

These are just a few ideas I have. I'm sure other people out there have more. 

Today is going to be one of those days of swinging from topic to topic here on Tiny Toons... got a basic hodgepodge of stuff today. 

First off, WWE threw quite the monkey wrench into my mini-project of a dream Hall of Fame comp DVD with the announcement of Nick Bockwinkel's induction last night. As I don't have the History of the AWA DVD, I only have a couple of Bockwinkel matches, to wit: 

Nick Bockwinkel: 

• Date Unknown: Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig for the AWA World Title - Superstars of Yesteryear
• Apr 24, 1983: Bockwinkel vs. Hulk Hogan for the AWA World Title - Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology

I don't even really know enough about Bockwinkel to have a concrete idea what to wish for here, beyond some sort of representation of his feud with Verne Gagne. Pretty much everything else I've ever heard of him in has him way past his prime. 

As you can see here, I reuse the Bockwinkel-Hennig match I previously used under Mr. Perfect's induction. Moving it to Bockwinkel's section helps him more than it hurts Hennig, who still has four matches to his credit. 

As a side note, I am glad that the Iron Sheik is already in. Otherwise, I'd have to include his "match" vs. "The Mighty Maccabee" on here and no one wants that. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it might be worth the investigation into my Match Database, and the dollar next time you're at Wal-Mart just to see it once. 

I'm hoping that I'll have Disc 2 of the Hogan review up and ready to go tomorrow. That will leave disc 3, and since I was smart enough to buy my Anthology at Wal-Mart, the bonus disc of matches. Other versions included no bonus disc or a bonus disc of Hogan Knows Best episodes. After I finish that project, my next project will be a review of ECW Blood Sport: The Most Violent Matches. It's something I said I'd do for an old friend and circumstances didn't quite work out. At least this blog gives me an outlet to where I can put the food on the table, and whether or not it's eaten really isn't up to me. 

The main problem with that project though is that on the Hogan DVD, I know enough about the history behind each match to give a detailed description, and that will come out even more once we're no longer within matches that took place twenty or more years ago. I really wasn't an ECW fan until the original folded, so I simply don't know the history behind the matches. I even tried checking with Sutton, who said he didn't think he could provide that sort of thing either. On my own, about all I could do would be 

STORY: Terry Funk has the title. Sabu wants the title. Barbed wire hurts. Ow.

...and although that's somewhat witty, it really tells my nonexistent readers nothing they couldn't find obvious. Oh well, certain of the audience might already know the story way better than I could tell it anyway. 

Over on my DVDSpot.com profile, there's a few things I'm doing you might find interesting. As I watch videos, I'm listing them as watched on the site's "Watched" section. Ultimately, I hope the practice might help me maintain more life in my DVD collection. I have over 100 different DVDs, nearly 120 if you count multiple titles in the same pack. It makes little sense to watch one 10 times while ignoring another. It might fascinate some people out there to see what I've been watching out of my collection. 

Also, while I'm quite aware no one's buying me anything, there's quite a few DVDs in my "Wishlist" on the site as well. That's where my collection would go if money was no object to it. And believe me, while I would really enjoy the 20 volume Royal Rumble set, I think I'd enjoy the Nintendo Wii that lists for $30 less more. 

I think that's a pretty good chunk for today. Hopefully I'll see you guys tomorrow with Disc 2 of Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology. 

It's Monday and you know what that means... comics review day! Just to refresh you all on the comics review system I used, let me C&P from last Monday. 

I'm stealing IGN's Comics Section's ratings system for this project: 

    * Must Have - An incredible story that can't be missed. 
    * Must Read - A great tale that most will enjoy. 
    * Check It - Good to average, but not a necessity. 
    * Pass It - Significant problems; Save your cash for better books. 
    * Burn It - A dubious honor, reserved for the very worst books. 

All set? Here we go. 

DC: 

52 #43: MUST READ. Lately, 52 seems to be settling into a pattern. Rather than revolving around to all the different storylines, we're spending the bulk of the book on one, then only a couple of pages on another. This month, the major focus is on the Black Marvel Family, and the minor focus is on Animal Man (who gets the cover for the relatively few pages he's on). We get some precious little follow-up on the shock ending following Animal Man's "death" (including finding out a certain something is an animal I'd never have guessed.) and over with the Black Marvels, Osiris contemplates leaving his "family" due to his guilt over his role in killing the Persuader during a Suicide Squad attack on the Black Marvels. Those of you thinking "Wait? The Legion villain?" need to Wiki him, as it's a bit of a long story. Big shock ending here. 

Action Comics #846: MUST READ. For those of you who lost track of the storyline here due to the delays, it's the one about how Superman has found an apparently Kryptonian boy and has boynapped him to keep him out of government laboratories. We have General Zod, Ursa and Non show up (whom many of you would remember as the Superman II Villains, and if you missed the excellent Action Comics Annual #10, that one gets a MUST HAVE almost based on the story of these three alone), and show there actually is something WORSE than them just showing up... when they have a specific reason to be unhappy. And then things get WORSE. 

My only complaint is that Superman's down to these two monthly titles, and in Action, we have this storyline, and in Superman, we have the story arc where Arion has told Supes he'll doom humanity by helping him. You would think there would be some kind of interaction in those stories. Are we trying to jam one in front of the other timewise? Batman and Detective Comics seem to be doing the same thing, but since Detective Comics seems to be running mainly one shot stories these days, it's not too big a deal. 

Batman Confidential #3: At the time of my writing this, I haven't managed to get this title, but I want to. I may edit in a review later, or I may hold it for next week. 

I am interested in that we have a 2nd series that is essentially "alternate take on Batman" while we already had one series that was active, though in a nightmare of delay. All Star Batman & Robin #1 was published in July of 2005. Only one issue (#4) managed to come out during the calendar year 2006. 

Blue Beetle #12: PASS IT. In this issue, Jaime meets the makers of the Scarab. If I wasnt' cautious about spoilers, I could say more, but it would still fit in one sentence and that remains a bad sign. 

This week, I've got two first time reviews of titles where characters I like were killed off so that another character could be given the name. What seems to stick out in both of these (and other incidents) is that the killed character was white, and the replacement character was a minority. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ethnic diversity in comic book heroes, but this kind of practice smacks of the reason Ted Kord and Ronnie Raymond were killed is because their characters were white, which is racism itself if that's true. Now the Firestorm title I honestly like, and am sorry it's being cancelled soon. This one, while it has its good moments, just misses for me a lot of the time. Ted Kord isn't even mentioned (for that you have to go to Birds of Prey or Manhunter), and it seems almost like Jaime might as well just be following in Dan Garrett's footsteps (who died in 1967 in a book not even published by this company), and even THAT is being taken to weird levels. Give me more original minority heroes who are good enough characters to survive on their own merits. 

Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #33: CHECK IT. The New Gods want Professor Stein. Can Firestorm stop them? There's a pretty funny "Firestorm vs. Racists" bit at the beginning that is definitely worth a check. Jason Rusch's Firestorm is actually pretty witty throughout the whole book, much to the bemusement of Martin Stein. 

Now, although I was also saddened to see Ronnie Raymond go, Jason is a far better successor. The book has maintained elements of his supporting cast such as Firehawk and Professor Stein. Ronnie is held up as the ideal and shown proper respect for blazing the trail. It's interesting that this book features yet another minority replacement, the new Mr. Miracle, Shilo Norman, but at least Scott Free merely seems to be retired rather than killed off and replaced before the body was cold. 

The Flash: Fastest Man Alive #9: MUST READ. I enjoyed this issue, but then again I've read the runs of Young Justice, and more recently the Impulse solo series, and people who weren't big fans of those might not like it as much. Robin calls Bart to ask him to return to the Titans. It leads Bart to consider his current place in the world with suddenly being a 20 year old and The Flash, and in an adult relationship. Bart's reaction to the name of a new supervillain is quite comical. Easily the best issue so far of a series that many have considered disappointing. 

Green Lantern #17: MUST READ. The conclusion to the "Wanted: Hal Jordan!" story arc comes as Amon Sur, son of Hal's predecessor Abin Sur, comes to Earth looking to reclaim what he feels is his birthright. But our hero is way too smart to let this kid have all the cards. Also, the book is almost nudged to MUST HAVE by a Sinestro Corps ring coming to sector 2814 to find a candidate who can INSTILL great fear, and finding simultaneous the most and least appropriate choice. 

JLA Classified #35: CHECK IT. Part 2C of "The 4th Parallel". Loser Darrin Proffitt has gotten ahold of Dr. Destiny's Materioptikon and is attempting to find the perfece universe for himself, one in which he rules the world. In #33, he tried being a hero. In #34, he tried blackmail. Here, he tries conquest. Can the Justice League defeat a vastly superior power? I would like to see more focus other JLA eras with this title. We've had one arc with the Giffen League ("I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League" which has to be considered out of continuity given its conflicts with other comics, and one with the Detroit League, and everything else has been the League's last era. 

JSA Classified #20: CHECK IT. We start a two issue Dr. Mid-Nite arc as he takes on what appears to be a vampire. Can Dr. Mid-Nite stop him from killing again? We see a very interesting take on just how effective of a hero Mid-Nite can be, rather than just treating him as a doctor who can happen to see in the dark. I see in the dark pretty well myself, and if I wouldn't get sued for it, I bet I could beat up my doctor. That doesn't make me super. Mid-Nite really comes off as super here. 

Justice #10: MUST READ. Protected from Brainiac's worms by the Metal Men, the Justice League mounts a counter offensive. I really like how even though this is nominally a Justice League story, but just about the whole DC Universe represents, such as the classic Doom Patrol acting as a second attack force. Ross works in some visual shoutouts too, such as the splash panel on pages 4-5 looking like a meeting of the Legion of Doom on Superfriends, and Batman's armor being very reminiscent of the Batman Beyond look. This is the part of the series that really feels like "Alright! Our boys are starting to come back!" 

Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #27: MUST READ. As we find out just what the Dominators have done, what hope does Earth have to survive? Can Cosmic Boy and Mekt Ranzz work together desptie their differences? Characterization is simply excellent in this issue. Mekt is re-imagined as someone who actually cares rather the villainous Lightning Lord, but he does have a death wish. Cosmic Boy is such the leader under stress, it's hard to imagine anyone else leading the Legion. Lightning Lad is simultaneously overjoyed he found his brother and extraordinarily pissed at him. And Brainiac is his egomaniacal self, even with a fellow Coluan. I love unabashedly arrogant jerk Brainiac 5. 

Marvel: 

Civil War: Frontline #11: CHECK IT. I went into a lot of detail on this one on Saturday. As a summary, the two reporters we've been following interview both Captain America and Tony Stark after the Civil War, and it smacks of damage control on Marvel's part. The female reporter's attempts to claim Captain America doesn't represent America because he doesn't know about YouTube, MySpace or The Simpsons just make fans hate her (and as one fan on the Newsarama board pointed out, will make this story age as horribly as an 80s version would if Cap were vilified for not knowing about Jazzercise, Betamax VCRs and Fraggle Rock.) And then on top of that we get yet ANOTHER way Tony was evil. There's only so much evil you can excuse under the idea that the ends justify the means. 

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #15: MUST READ. Let me lay this out for you, EVERY issue of this title is at least MUST READ, and quite a few go into MUST HAVE territory. The story revolves around Mary Jane Watson, high school student, who slowly finds herself developing feelings for her nerdy tutor, Peter Parker. Unfortunately, any attempts to get these two crazy kids together end up invariably foiled. She also finds herself pretty attracted to that Spider-Man guy. Other high school students include MJ's best friend Liz Allen, "Flash" Thompson, Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy. Last issue, Gwen let MJ know that Peter had told her some big secret that explains why he keeps disappearing all the time. Well, MJ told Liz and now the whole school knows there's some secret and Peter isn't happy. Will Peter forgive MJ? Or Gwen? Let me tell you, this stuff is marketed for younger girls, but it is VERY compelling and an extremely interesting new take on the Spider-Man mythos free of Civil Wars and all that. 

Now for the bad news. This was the last issue for artist Takeshi Miyazawa, who's art, while different from traditional comic book art, was just perfect for this. And after #20, writer Sean McKeever is gone because he signed an exclusive deal with DC (and is in fact scheduled to be a big part of Countdown) back in January. It's unknown whether Marvel plans to continue the series after that, and if they did, would it be the same? 

In any event, track down the back issues or trade collections of this one if you haven't already seen it. You won't be sorry. 

Tomorrow, I plan to at least have the "dream comp DVD" listing for the newest Hall of Fame inductee (unless it's like Ross or something, for whom I have no matches). I might have something else too. I still need to get started on Disc 2 of the Hogan review since that seemed to go well. 

You know, it seems to me that I've been on quite a little tear lately in here. Not to give myself TOO much of a Barry Horowitz-esque pat on the back (because we all know what Gorilla Monsoon said about THOSE), but I've been pumping out content like mad, and for a change it isn't just the controversial stuff. Think it might be too early to declare to the rest of the Blogoverse that there's a new sherriff in town and challenge The Matt Sutton Experience for the Intercontinental Title? Because if I can win THAT coveted title... we all know who's been holding the big belt for a while now. 

But I digress.It actually has been a lot of fun (even if my eyes were seriously bleeding at how long the Hogan review turned out), and I'm starting to remember the fun I had back with opinion articles for my school paper in college. And I owe all my success to you, my increasingly hypothetical readership. Give yourselves a big, non-existent hand! 

I wanted to talk a bit about Wikipedia today. Don't get me wrong, it has a lot of upside. It can be fascinating Wiki-ing random things and reading what's there to be had, and no bound paper encyclopedia will ever be as thorough. However, once Wikipedia seems really cool to you, you might tempted to contribute, and that's when you see the dark side. 

Wikipedia's philosophy, at the core, is actually pretty similar to that of communism's. I don't say that just to tie Wikipedia to a very unpopular concept, but have a comparison point. Both ideas rely on the idea that if everyone is given equal power and resources, then everyone will succeed individually and the system as a whole will succeed. It sounds awfully good on paper, but it relies on the idea that people, for the most part, are basically good. If common sense doesn't tell you otherwise, then trust Agent K from Men In Black, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it." Without going too much into it here, even the Bible speaks against the idea that humanity is inherently good. 

I'll take as my example the somewhat recent episode of South Park, "Make Love Not Warcraft". That's the one where the boys get into playing the World of Warcraft MMORPG (which both DarkHelm and I also play) and end up fighting against a guy in the game who enjoys killing other people's characters. 

A lot of people contributed a lot of work to the article, including such sections as pointing out which Warcraft character each South Park character was playing and interesting things about them, and a comparison and contrast between the game as depicted on the show as opposed to the real game. 

The problem arose when a user came by the article who in retrospect clearly viewed Wikipedia as their own personal power trip. This user blanked the sections in question, and vowed to keep blanking them as long as they were restored. The convenient excuse for this was that this person THOUGHT (or said they did) that the sections in question were "Original Research", and apparently just their judgment alone was enough in their minds to force the issue. 

I got somewhat involved by this point because I had done a slight amount of work on the sections in question, and I just hated the bullying tactics here, especially when the user who came in and did the blanking had the hypocrisy to plead with people to go to the Talk Page for the article and discuss it before making "major changes", which in this case was simply undoing the damage. In normal circumstances, blanking sections of a Wikipedia article is considered vandalism, but Wikipedia also has a policy urging editors to Assume Good Faith on each other's parts, so as long as they said they were trying to improve the article, on Wikipedia itself, we had to pretend to believe them. 

Let me clarify a bit about "Original Research". It's a good policy for what it's intended for. Wikipedia clearly does not need itself to be used as a tool for someone to go in and say that the Muppets were behind 9/11 or that their saliva cures AIDS. It's a lot less clear that it was meant to be about television shows that had just aired, for which there simply won't be third party sources on anything, and if the policy was applied universally in that article, everything but the plot summary would need to be deleted, which would then get the article on the episode itself deleted under another Wikipedia policy. 

The article on the episode got some linkage, bringing two more power tripping editors who thought blanket deleting was a proper way to get their way on articles. Eventually because of the edit war that resulted, fully caused by these people deleting content because they were on a power trip, the article was semi protected, locking out anonymous editors... who were ironically the people trying to fix the problem rather than the cause. Everyone who tried to fix the problem has since moved on and what's left of the article is profoundly neutered compared to how good it used to be. 

Besides the dubious Original Research claim, the only aired grievances with the article as it was was that it was too long (which might be an issue in paper bound encyclopedias, but Wikipedia has essentially unlimited room for text), or that the people involved just plain didn't like it. Well, that's great. There's stuff I don't like on Wikipedia too, but I don't go trying to destroy it. I have better things to do. 

Ironically, the episode of South Park in question featured a guy who continually inflicted his will on others, and got to be able to do so by spending literally every second of his life in the game. A character in the episode asked "How do you kill that which has no life?" A similar dilemma exists with Wikipedia. It isn't necesssarily the BEST changes that survive, it's the changes shepherded by whoever has the least life, or whoever is most dedicated to Wikipedia being their personal power trip. 

And that's just one example. And it's not even counting other problems, like the horrible bias one can encounter on topics where one's opinion might vary from the opinions of the writers of that article (the Intelligent Design article, upon last check, all but calls anyone who believes in it a fool). 

The sad part is... I don't really think there's any way to solve the problem. It's simply basic human nature. 

Edit, March 4, 9:19 PM: After discussing this entry with DarkHelm, apparently certain articles dealing with controversy between religion and science (such as Intelligent Design and Evolution) have been rewritten to address the issue of bias against religion. Apparently I wasn't alone in my perception of the article. One wonders just how much effort people had to put into getting the bias removed, as per my point. 

Before getting into the festivities at hand here, I'd like to call for a moment of silence in respect. Unfortunately, I don't have the only loss in this month. Today is the 3rd anniversary of the death of DarkHelm's father. DarkHelm's father always struck me as an honest, decent and sincerely Christian man and in my dealings with him, he always treated me with nothing but respect. Our world is poorer for his absence, but we will see him again. It is said that children are our legacy and immortality and it is a tribute to the man that at least one of those children is one of the finest human beings I've had the privilege of knowing on this Earth. Anyone who could be half the quality person that DarkHelm's father was has really accomplished something in this too brief span. 

... 

As we continue, even though it's not Monday yet, I wanted to touch base on some more Civil War stuff. The latter part of this entry will deal with spoilers for Civl War: Frontline #11, so if you don't want spoilage of that, you might want to come back and read this entry later. But let me back up a bit first. 

Those who have known me and my comics fandom have known that I've never been TOO much into Marvel. I've always been a DC brat and know that lore a LOT better. Even though I have been expanding my horizons a bit more lately, I'm not following every single line, so after my infamous Civil War #7 rant of a while back, I wondered just what happened to Nitro as that seemed a logical loose end. I considered that he might have re-teamed with Mercury and dominated the tag team ranks, but considered that unlikely. So I consulted Wikipedia (and a future entry, probably tomorrow's, is going to have some things to say about THAT) and its entry on Nitro. 

According to it, (and I'm summarizing here, you should go there to find out more info), Wolverine found Nitro, who said that there was someone bigger behind the events of Stamford, but before he could name names, Atlantean Royal Guards wanted to take him, given that Namor wasn't too happy about Namorita being one of the casualties of the Stamford incident. Wolverine went after Nitro, and when he found Nitro, Nitro had killed his interrogators, causing Wolverine to cut Nitro's arm off at the elbow and decide to leave Nitro with Namor. Nitro's benefactor turns out to be Walter DeClun of Damage Control, a construction company specializing in cleanup after superhero-supervillain battles. DeClun ends up fired and killed in the ensuing melee. It strikes me as a bit too pat, especially since when Wolverine came after DeClun, Stark and SHIELD tech were among his defenses. 

Also in consulting Nitro's article, I managed to find this. You know, we could have avoided all this Civil War nonsense if the New Warriors simply thought ahead and brought Twinkies along with them. Or maybe that's what Iron Man thinks they'll be taught with Registration. 

Moving on to this week's events with Civil War: Frontline #11, this issue really felt like damage control itself after Civil War #7. Our main plot is that the journalists we've been following decide to interview both Cap and Tony. 

For Cap, rather than actually interview him or act professionally, the female reporter decides to BERATE him. Basically, they're trying to sell the idea that Cap was wrong because he fought and went underground rather than try to go to the table and negotiate with all this. You know, because he had all that TIME to do this with the Act being pushed through immediately and any non-signers being violently arrested and permanently jailed in the Negative Zone without trial. It isn't like he could sign the Registration and unsign it later. 

Then she starts going on about how just because Cap doesn't use MySpace or watch American Idol how he's just a symbol of America but knows nothing about it. This turns the corner from making me think she had any semblance of a point to just making me think "Hey, screw you. This is Captain F'n America. Show some respect." 

Then they interview Tony and drop a bombshell. They have proof that Tony was behind letting Norman Osborne run out and attack an Atlantean diplomatic party, just so war fears would encourage more heroes to register. They're not going to print it because they've come to believe Registration is a good thing and that would ruin it. He tells them to leave without further denials. When they do, he slaps his Iron Man helmet off his desk, and sinks to his knees, holding his head in one hand, like we're supposed to believe he now has guilt for all this pure unmitigated evil. 

The kicker of it is that now we know that Registration wouldn't have done a thing to stop the Stamford incident, and there's no proof whatsoever it'll stop any further incidents. There was some vague noise about training the heroes, but there's only so much training that can be done, especially for heroes with unique powers. And for that, all superheroes now live with what the mutants feared and fought for so long. 

DarkHelm put it to me beautifully. They promised us a story where we could support either side. Then they made it quite clear there was a good side and an evil side instead. Then they had the evil side win. It just isn't satisfying. 

On top of that, for those of you not reading the Our Oasis blog amongst my increasingly hypothetical readership (and if you're not, shame on you), you might recall me dropping the newsbit on there that one of the writers of this, Mark Millar, had decided to drop a lovely little bit into one of his interviews on Newsarama that "games are for pedos". DarkHelm found some follow up info on this. 

On his own forums, Millar decided to call it an "obvious joke", because accusations of pedophilia are apparently a laugh riot. 

But in a "studio tour" article done by comicbookresources.com on the 21st, Millar comments on his own game room: 

This room is also where the family watch our movies and where all the computer game stuff can be found. But please don't assume I'm a gamester or whatever these freaks like to be called. I loathe computer games and this PS2, which my dear wife bought me two years ago, has been played maybe once. I don't trust adults who play computer games. It smells too much like Internet Grooming ("Hey, 12-year old! I'm into all the stuff you're into!!"). That said, I do like retro gaming and am often found playing Tetris or Pitfall or any of the old Atari stuff. But I'm not a pervert like the rest of them. Please believe me!

Well, here it is. Just to appease my zero readers, I finally did it. Here's my review of Disc One of Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology.

I did this because it occurs to me that the only review I've seen of it has been one by someone who was very obviously a "Look how smarkier I am than you" Hogan hater. Something better needed to be done. 

I have long described myself as the guy who would be the last Hulkamaniac to turn off the lights when it's all over. And that was before last year, when the man was nice enough to provide my best friend's mom an autograph as a gift for me since both me and my mother were such big fans, and it really helped. It's something I hope I get a chance to personally thank him for someday. 

So I'm going to put out a review on this set that will do it justice (and yes, I have the bonus Wal-Mart DVD). Now I've been toying with a new ratings system because I don't believe workrate should be considered the be-all/end-all of how a match is rated. A lot goes into its entertainment value and even a high workrate match between two workers with the charisma of bricks can go for nothing. 

So I rate on Entertainment Value: 

***** = A match which will go down as one of the all time classics that we'll talk about for years. 
**** = A match on par with a very good PPV main event. 
*** = A match on par with a very good 2 hour free TV show main event 
** = A match on par with a very good 1 hour free TV show main event 
* = a decent and non offensive free TV undercard match 
DUD = A waste of my time 
Negative stars = Actively offensive, it will take the opposite value of stars to make it up to me for this match (note this can include horribly wrestled matches, ala Bradshaw/Trish vs. Gayda/Nowinski, or horribly booked matches such as Trip/Booker from Wrestlemania) 

Now that that's out of the way... 

Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology: Disc 1: 

We're hosted by Mean Gene Okerlund and Jimmy Hart, and we get a lot of clips and personal reminiscing from wrestlers between the matches. 

vs. Andre the Giant, 9/13/80 

STORY: Andre is a legend. Hogan is a young punk wanting to knock him off his perch. I'm sure THAT will never come back to haunt him.

So much for the fiction that Mania III was their first meeting. Hogan is pointedly called "The Incredible Hulk Hogan" repeatedly, making it clear why Marvel sued. They trade power stuff for a while. Hogan slams Andre. Andre's pissed and slams him right back. Blassie slips the cocky heel Hogan something and Hogan cuts him. Hogan and Blassie laugh and bail as Andre is pissed. The show looks like it's in a gym. BSR: *** with some bonus for historical value. 

Hogan tells the story of how Vince Sr. wouldn't let him got make Rocky III, so he goes to the AWA. Hulkamania starts growing. Greg Gagne tells the story of the first time Hogan tore his shirt off. 

vs. Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA Title, 4/24/83 

STORY: No idea, other than Bockwinkel ducking Hogan like mad.

Bockwinkel is managed by Heenan here. Hogan looks odd in day-glo orange. Bockwinkel stalls a lot. The storyline: Bockwinkel has demanded a huge sum for his title defense here. One wonders why the AWA can't simply demand he defend the title or forfeit it. This is very slowpaced lockup, go from the lockup, stall, lockup stuff. Hogan is wearing orange, Heenan is wearing orange, the middle rope is orange, there is too much orange in AWA. 

This match, I'm sure, was very hot back in its day, but has not aged well. For all the complaints about moden wrestling, there's a lot less stalling these days, and even the free stuff tends to be higher quality than the paid stuff of days of yore in a lot of cases. Plus, if I remember correctly, Bockwinkel was far from a spring chicken at this point (according to his birthdate on Wikipedia, he was 48). 

Hogan does go for the legdrop here, so he was already doing that by this point. Your ending comes when Bockwinkel attempting to repeatedly put a sleeper on Hogan results in the ref being bumped, and then Hogan flipping Bockwinkel off of him and over the rope. Bockwinkel climbs back into the ring, Hogan suplexes him, legdrop, 3 count. 

Mean Gene gets informed by the ref that the President is "of the opinion" that Hulk threw Bock over the top rope, so Hogan's DQed and Bock keeps the belt. The audience is unhappy and throws things into the ring 13 years before the NWO came along. Heenan and Bockwinkel try to leave, but Hogan beats them up and takes the belt. He throws Bockwinkel over the belt to show him the difference. Non orange refs come in to take the belt from Hogan, Hogan leaves with the belt. The announcer says Bockwinkel has said that he would make the money demands for another match with Hogan so high no one would ever pay it. BSR: ** because of the pace. 

Hogan says he got a call from Vince Sr. asking him to come back. He says he told his wife (and yes, Linda is Hogan's one and only wife he's ever had) if they could just have one more good year in wrestling, he could retire. This was in early 1984. According to rumor, Hogan left AWA over dissatisfaction over not being given the title, but the current users of the AWA name have retconned their history and recognize Hogan as a two time AWA Champ due to this last and one other match. 

vs. The Iron Sheik for the WWE Title, 1/23/84 

STORY: Were you raised in a cave? Sigh, okay. Approximately one month prior, the Sheik beat Bob Backlund for the title when Sheik locked Backlund in his Camel Clutch. Backlund's manager Arnold Skaaland threw the towel in for him. Hogan is getting his first shot at the title.

Hogan attacks Sheik before he gets his robe off and chokes him out with it. If the ref DQed him here, very different industry today. For the most part, Hogan is all over Sheik with the power stuff, and the MSG crowd is absolutely on fire for this. Hogan is clearly more active here than he would be in later years (and as Bockwinkel wouldn't let him be in the last match). Sheik has finally gotten on offense... after a while, he kicks the front of the boot. I'd be interested to know just how that loads it up in any way it wasn't before. 

Your commentary here, by the way, is Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Patterson. Camel Clutch! Sheik is nodding like he has this one. Iran number one, after all. Hogan shakes, powers up, and slams Sheik back into the corner. Leg drop! Three count! Hulkamania is born! I am a Real American, even though it's too early in his career for that music yet! Sutton, you will tell your grandchildren just where you were when you read this sentence! BSR: **** 1/2. Sure it's not technical excellence, but it's fast paced and it's exciting stuff. Historic too. 

In a tribute to editing, the chyron on Hogan's promo afterward reads that Hogan is the WWE Champion, even though it's 80s style, and Hogan even says WWE with very little difference in the voice. Andre is the first to congratulate him. I'm sure that will never turn into anything bad for him. Ivan Putski is the 2nd. I know that won't. 

Cena talks about how awesome this match is and how it made him decide to be a wrestler, and let him bond with his family. I have great family memories watching Hulk Hogan with my mom too, and it made me so happy when he recognized her with an autograph for DarkHelm's mom shortly after her death. 

vs. Big John Studd for the WWE Title, 9/22/84 

STORY: Hogan has the title. Bobby Heenan has a big monster dude he brings in to get the title FROM Hogan. I'm sure this will never happen again.

Monsoon and Mean Gene are your commentators. Monsoon puts over that Heenan is in WWF because it's the best fed, which seems kind of odd to have to say now. Studd's offense is a little slow, but the MSG crowd is just as rabid as they were 8 months ago. Okerlund is dismayed at Heenan's cheating in LEAVING STUDD'S CORNER. I'm sure later years would drive Gene to absolute tears. 

The announcers also put over how Heenan's quite a wrestler in his own right. Wow. The action is as good as the commentary is as weird. The $10,000 Bodyslam Challenge IS apparently an active angle during this match and totally open for Hogan to claim if he can do it. Studd off the 2nd rope is pretty impressive. Next he'll hit the Russian Studdsweep and the Studdshooter. 

The periods of Studd on offense are a bit slower than the times when Hogan are on offense. A Studd bearhug gets Hogan two dropped arms before a third drop attempt doesn't go down and Hogan briefly Hulks. I never understood why Hogan got three dropped arms before he was considered to give up, and Chris Masters' victims only got their hands raised once. Hogan impresses by powering out of a 2nd bearhug, reversing it and running Studd into the corner. Gene calls a BOOT TO THE HEAD. The Frantics sue. 

Hogan's busted open! Mah gawd! Hogan gets tired of being stomped in the head and decides to HULK UP. Because that's what I would do in his shoes too. Hogan gestures he will slam Studd, but he's too close to the ropes, Studd slips out of the ring. Hogan stops the ref from administering the countout and goes out after Studd and the MSG crowd goes crazy as they brawl on the outside. Heenan pushes Studd back inside just in time for a countout win and tries to have Studd leave with the belt. Monsoon and Okerlund make it very clear he is not the champ. Finkel gets the Kennedy mic to announce the winner. BSR: *** for the fun. 

Piper talks about "The War To Settle The Score" 

vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper for the WWE Title, 2/18/85 

STORY: At Wrestlemania, in a month in a half, Hogan teams up with Mr. T to face Piper and Paul Orndorff. Tonight, he defends his title against Piper one on one. The Rock & Wrestling Connection is involved heavily here as Cyndi Lauper is involved on Hogan's side.

Monsoon and Okerlund are commenting again. Bob Costas is SUTTON'S guest ring announcer, but not mine. Piper smashes a nice guitar just because he doesn't like Rock & Roll. Piper's weight should have been announced in stone. And he needs to stop hugging Orton. REAL AMERICAN~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most awesome theme song in the awesome history of awesome, though I believe from my history he was still using "Eye of the Tiger" and "Real American" is just edited in here. It's still awesome. 

Hogan puts his forehead on Mr. T's and barks at him to hype himself up. He doesn't take control for very long, you know. ...what? They start clubberin' before the music fades, possibly because Piper hates Rock & Roll. Hogan with some STIFF rights. Gloria Steinem is there for some reason. Danny DeVito! Why not? Piper mocks Snuka with the "I Love You" signs but it slips past the announcers (Snuka will be managing the faces at Mania). 

A sleeper hold gets Hogan to drop his arm twice but not thrice. I wonder if he would drop his arm thrice for a dying kid. Orton pulls Hogan's hair from outside, so Hogan pulls HIS hair up and rams his sling into the metal brace of the corner. It's NEVER going to heal if you do that, Hulk. This brings out Orndorff, who claims he's taking Orton's place. Ref bump! Who knew they had invented those yet? Orndorff to the top and onto Hogan as Piper holds him. Cyndi Lauper on the apron. She's so unusual! And here, stupid! 

Here comes Mr. T for the save! Piper and Orndorff invite T into the ring. They fool him. Does he engage in self pity? But Hogan's up! T's up! Piper and Orndorff start to bail in the face of a fair fight, but Orton is up so they want to get back in. Security mobs the ring. BSR: *** 3/4.

Lauper cuts a promo after and looks about to cry. Hogan cuts one too and is not about to. 

Orndorff comments on Wrestlemania. Ever notice he looks NOTHING like he used to? Mark Hamill was in a freaking car accident where he needed his face put back together and he looks more like what he did in his youth than Orndorff. 

and Mr. T vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff 

STORY: The feud from the last match continues at WWE's grand experiment.

The heels are managed by Bob Orton here, and the faces by Jimmy Snuka. Friends and I have wondered if 6 man tags just weren't invented yet. Mr. T is a pretty logical candidate for the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame as he was an integral part of this angle, and got big heat for a boxing match with Piper at a later Mania. Muhammad Ali is your outside ref. Pat Patterson is your inside ref. Liberace is Sutton's time keeper. And I believe Yankees manager Billy Martin was the ring announcer. 

Piper has to be the most huggy heel of all time... perhaps second to Goldust. Heels screw around by having Piper tag in because Hulk wants Orndorff. So Hogan tags T. Monsoon and Jesse Ventura have the commentary duties here by the way. T's been living on tuna fish and water for weeks for this, according to Monsoon. That doesn't sound healthy at all. At one point, things break down, and all four men end up in the ring with the managers climbing in, and Ali climbs in and starts throwing some leather to maintain order. Piper says screw it and takes off... and that's how Wrestlemania ended.... 

...okay. Sorry. 

The heels come back... for some reason. And all four men are in the ring again, and this time Ali doesn't care as much. As things settle down, Hogan rams Piper's head into the canvas repeatedly for fun. For some reason, Jesse wants the ref to do something about it. Jesse's weird. 

Big boot sends Piper out of the ring. Orndorff clothsline sends Hogan out. Piper uses chairs, which is dastardly stuff for 1985. So far, Ali seems only to care when the heels are in illegally, which a Jesse in later years would have been all over like he was personally betrayed by it. An extended heat sequence on Hogan ends when Orndorff misses a top rope elbow. T isn't bad for a non wrestler. I've seen a LOT worse. A heat sequence on him ends with a Hogan tag. A big schmozz leads to our end. Snuka heads off some Orton-ference, but Orton heads to the top anyway, as he dives at Hogan (held onto by Orndorff), Hogan ducks and Orndorff is hit. Jesse swears they were lucky. Orndorff's friends bail. The good guys check on him. When Orndorff comes to, he fights his way away until he's calmed down and things are explained.  BSR: ****

Hogan puts over Bundy and how huge he was. He says Bundy was easy to work with in terms of crowd reaction, but very stiff and that when you came out of the ring with him, you came out in a different physical condition than when you came in. Hogan wraps up by saying "Great guy, but strong as hell." 

vs. King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage for the WWE Title, Wrestlemania II, 4/7/86 

STORY: Hogan has the title. Bobby Heenan has a big monster dude he brings in to get the title FROM Hogan. I'm sure this will never happen again.

Tommy Lasorda is YOUR guest ring announcer, the Dodgers' manager and somewhere along the line, SlimFast or Dexatrim's spokesman. I forget which. Ricky "Don't call me Rick yet" Schroeder is also in the ring for some reason. We have the classic blue grid bars, which I miss. 

Hogan's rocking the Diamond Dallas Page "taped ribs" around his waist where there are no ribs. A helpful graphic tells us our commentators are Jesse Ventura, Lord Alfred Hayes and Sutton won't forgive me if I don't give him Elvira as HIS commentator. Hogan seems to be starting off on the stiff side as well, I guess figuring "Sauce for the goose..." 

Hogan's a little slower paced than in previous matches here, perhaps to sell the injured ribs though I'm sure smarks would burn me at the stake for that suggestion. I like Heenan playing the Brain gimmick to the hilt by actually giving Bundy good suggestions like "Try to get out and end the match quick." Bundy takes off Hogan's bandages and chokes him with them. Now that's heat. Plus it protects DDP's trademark 10 years ahead of time. 

A bit later, Hogan sends Bundy to the ropes, then lets him pass, and pushes him from behind into the cage, which busts Bundy open. Elvira wants to stop the match. Comfort her, Sutton! Hogan drapes Bundy over the top rope, climbs up and stands on Bundy's head to choke him. Hogan goes for a slam but collapses due to his injuries, but no pinfall rules in this match so Bundy goes for the door. Now Hogan grabs the bandage and chokes Bundy. 

Hayes steals my goose reference 20 years before I use it. Elvira accuses Jesse of being jealous for not having his own cartoon. Jesse threatens her with not dating her later. Heenan amuses me by trying to grab Bundy's shoulder strap and pull him out through the door. Elvira says the blood is making her hungry. 

Bundy hits an avalanche, but Hogan's bored now, so he Hulks up, slams Bundy off a whip and leg drops him. Hogan to the top, Bundy tries to stop him, Hogan kicks him down. Bundy crawls for the door, but no! Hogan is down! Heenan climbs in the cage for protection. That's not too smart. Hogan follows him in and flings Heenan into the steel bars to send the fans home happy. An Atomic Drop sends Heenan sprawling out of the cage as Jesse protests. Jesse threatens a showdown with Hogan. Elvira promises to go out with him if he wins. Why you gotta go around on Sutton like that, Elvira? BSR: **** 1/4

Orndorff talks about how he and Hogan went at it. He says Hogan was the best guy he ever worked with, that he couldn't do a lot, but had a lot of charisma. And it was two Tampa boys going at it. He goes a bit far in inferring Hulkamania wouldn't be what it was without him. 

Hogan talks about some of the background of the feud storyline wise and that he was amazed that 70,000 people came to watch this match. 

vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff for the WWE Title, The Big Event, 8/28/86 

STORY: After Wrestlemania, Orndorff face turned briefly and actually tagged with Hogan. Eventually, though, Orndorff turned on Hogan again and tried to break his neck. For some reason, Hogan is annoyed by this.

Helpful graphics inform us our commentators are Monsoon, Johnny Valiant and Ernie Ladd. I would have NEVER gotten those last two. For some reason, Hogan has a bandaged left ear. This actually looks like it's an outdoor stadium (it's the Canadian National Exhibition stadium), a rarity for wrestling. 

For some reason, when Hogan has Orndorff down and is punching him, the ref grabs his hair and pulls him off, which even causes Monsoon to be all WTF about it... though not quite in those words. It's not like it's Danny Davis or anything, who I'd recognize. Lots of heat for this, and Hogan knows how to play a crowd. 

When Orndorff hits an out of the ring suplex, Monsoon calls "They're nothing there but steel!" even though Hogan clearly lands on a bright blue mat. Heenan would have totally called him on that. You have to wonder if this ref is less than trained. I've never seen him before, and he really seems to be involving himself overmuch. 

Hogan reverses a piledriver, which back then was a big thing. Hogan avoids a pin by having his foot outside the ropes... and THEN Hulks Up... good thing the up to them dumb ref noticed this... it might have been better to Hulk Up first... then Hulk raises Orndorff's hand and clotheslines him, which is apparently what Orndorff did while turning on him. Hulk goes for the piledriver but Heenan runs in and knocks Hogan out with a wooden stool. Wow, that makes Hogan look kinda wimpy. 

InferiorRef crawls slowly over and taps Orndorff's shoulder rather than count. Heenan grabs the belt and gives it to Orndorff. Heenan has put the belt on Orndorff as Finkel crawls into the ring to announce... Hogan the winner by DQ. Orndorff attacks Hogan. Hogan has a Minor Hulk Up and comes back, knocking Orndorff out of the ring, and the belt off of him in the process. 

Orndorff tries a shot from behind, Hogan no sells so Orndorff bails. Hogan gets on his knees as if to beg Orndorff to come back in the ring. Real American plays with the old intro, so I believe Hogan is legitimately using it now. Monsoon mentions the song, confirming it. BSR: ** 1/2. It could have been higher, but the overactive ref really interfered with them getting any flow going beyond punches for the most part, and that ending sucked, especially in front of a massive live crowd. 

Hogan talks about how Andre didn't like him for his first 8 years in his business, but that Hulk won him over in Japan. He sees Mania 3 as him proving himself to Andre. 

Vince talks about talking Andre into participating in Wrestlemania III. Andre wanted to be done. When Andre heard him out, he liked the idea. Vince says it was less passing the torch and more Hogan getting Andre's stamp of approval. 

vs. Andre the Giant for the WWE Title, Wrestlemania III, 3/29/87 

STORY: Hogan has the title. Bobby Heenan has a big monster dude he brings in to get the title FROM Hogan. I'm sure this will never happen again.

OK, there was more to it than that this time. Hogan and Andre were buddies. One day, Jack Tunney gave Hogan a trophy for being such a great champ. Andre, as the legend he is, wondered (and perhaps quite justifiably so) where HIS trophy was. He would get one in a following week, but it was noticeably smaller. So feeling disrespected by that, he said "Screw this noise" and decided he would get respect by getting the title... and he would do so by joining the dark side... Bobby Heenan. To cement this horrible betrayal, Andre even went as far as to rip the crucifix necklace Hogan wore right off his chest. Maybe if Jack Tunney didn't start trouble in the first place, there wouldn't BE trouble? Lousy Tunney.

Bob Uecker is EVERYONE'S guest ring announcer, simply because there is no containing the awesomeness of Uecker. Both Andre (with Heenan) and Hogan ride down in ring carts. A plausible enough sounding rumor I've heard is that the ring carts were used at Wrestlemania III and VI solely for Andre's benefit, because with his declining health, he would become visibly tired simply from walking to the ring. Wrestlemania IV and V did not need them as they both occurred on Trump Palace, which had a much shorter walk from the locker room to the arena than other venues. By Wrestlemania VII, Andre was no longer on the cards and the ring carts were absent. 

Your commentators are Ventura and Monsoon. I wonder if by this point, the McMahon-Ventura and Monsoon-Heenan teams were set on the weekend shows and this was considered to be an announcer superteam like why we had JR and Tazz do recent Royal Rumbles (though don't ask me why we had both SmackDown guys, 1 RAW guy and neither ECW guy do this year's Rumble). Your ref is Joey Marella. Monsoon loves him like a son. This is the first time these two have fought. The beginning of this review was your imagination. 

Hogan gripes at Andre. Andre shoves him down. Hogan goes for a slam and collapses. Andre gets two and Heenan would maintain till at least the next Survivor Series that Andre got 3. With Hogan now "hurt", a big heat sequence on Hogan can begin. I like using Andre's "walk across the back" move for my eponymous created wrestlers in SmackDown vs. RAW games. Andre already seems pretty blown up, lending credence to my theory above. It's amazing how small Andre could make other people look... even Hogan, who is not a small guy. Hogan ducks and Andre is dazed from headbutting the turnbuckle, which should be much softer than Hogan's head. Andre hits the Whatta Chop, usually called by Vince McMahon. 

Monsoon proclaims Hogan's submission "highly unlikely." Take a drink! 

Andre has Hogan in a bearhug, the ref drops his arm twice, but not thrice, and Hogan Hulks Up. Hogan tries running into him off the ropes a few times, but Andre stops that with a chop. Shortly after the two roll out of the ring, Hogan ducks out of the way and lets Andre headbutt a post. Hogan moves a mat to expose what Monsoon calls concrete, but it suspiciously has wood grain. They roll back in the ring, Hogan clotheslines him, Hulks Up, Slam, Leg Drop, and the crowd is happy. 

As Monsoon and Ventura pointed out somewhere along the way, this was Hogan's last time to wear the flag design of the title, as they would switch to the eagle design after this. 

Andre's quite understandable physical limitations were a very limiting factor here, but the heat was off the scale... and in good conscience, I can't go below BSR: **** 1/4. Heenan rides away with head in one hand as Hogan poses. Ventura threatens to come out of retirement AGAIN and fight Hogan AGAIN. He's just trying to steal Elvira away from Sutton again! Never mind the fact that Sutton was a toddler at most when this match happened! That's not important now! I'd help Sutton beat Ventura up, but I'm sure that'd get me in trouble with the Secret Service given Ventura's previous governorship. 

Rob Van Dam says he was in the 24th row when this match happened, given that Battle Creek isn't THAT far from Pontiac. 

In the extras, first Hogan talks about his early days in wrestling. He made more money with his band Ruckus than his dad made. Then the local wrestlers started showing up a lot, and they got him into the business. Hiro Matsuda broke his leg the first day to see if he'd come back. He did. He quit three or four times because he wasn't making money. He went back to work as a longshoreman. The Briscos convinced him to talk to some guy named Vince McMahon Sr. instead. 

Then the Iron Sheik talks about how Verne Gagne offered him $100,000 to break Hogan's leg and come to Minnesota with the title rather than drop it to Hogan. It seems to be the exact same piece as on The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the 80s, just without the subtitles. 

Well, there you have it. (A letter opener.) If this goes over well, I'll do disc two sometime. Wow, this is draining though. 

This month. Bleah. 

I'd suggest just getting rid of it, but skipping it would eventually throw the known year into disarray, and the only known substitute month is Homer Simpson's "Smarch" (known for its lousy weather) and it's just too similar. 

Some more minor housecleaning, this time over in the Match Database. I added in the Title "Grandmasters of Wrestling, Volume 2" that I received for Christmas, normalized my usage of the term Title rather than Championship in the list (just so I have one universal term rather than flip flopping), made sure I was universally using the correct spelling of the name of The Iron Sheik, and fixed a minor error where Jericho's Undisputed Title win was grouped with the matches from Unforgiven 2001 (even though it had the correct date). If anyone sees any other errors, let me know. 

Played a bit through Elite Beat Agents last night, beating the songs "Material Girl" and "La La" (by Ashlee Simpson). All the songs in the game are by unknown cover artists, but they've been pretty good. So far the game has exposed me to one new song I really like, "I Was Born To Love You" by Queen. It is a very interesting game, and a testament to the greatness of the Nintendo DS, as such a game simply wouldn't be possible on another system. One major problem I'm having is that it's easy for beats on the right hand side of the screen to be obscured by my own hand. I imagine left handers would have the opposite problem. 

I wanted to talk some today about DC Countdown. It's the next big event after the wrap up of 52. 

52 #52 will release on 5/2. The following week, Countdown #51 comes out. It will also be a weekly comic, with issues (appropriately) counting down to the last issue of Coutndown #0. 

Countdown will also take place over the time of a year, just like 52 did, but it will co-exist with other DC titles (whereas for 52, the entire DC Universe jumped ahead). Perhaps sensitive to some of the complaints with Civil War, DC has already said that while there will be interaction with other books, you will not need to read any book to understand Countdown, and you will not need to read Countdown to understand other books. One example cited is that if the Justice League fights Starro in their comic on a given week, you may see a newspaper on a table in Countdown mentioning it. 

Also, 52 was meant to be completely real time. Each issue takes one week. Therefore, as they point out, that rules out the idea of, say, in issue #47, Renee Montoya opening her door at the end of the book, seeing a wounded Batwoman there, having the issue end, then having Renee just helping Batwoman to the couch at the beginning of issue #48. In this instance here, the door would ring at (at the latest), Week 47, Day 7, and Batwoman would be helped to the couch on Week 48, Day 1. Obviously, Batwoman didn't need a day to reach the couch. Now you could do something silly like have Renee say "Hey, it's almost midnight. I wonder who's at the door." But it's silliness like that that's going to make them take her face away. 

But perhaps I've said too much. 

Instead they're going for the next best thing in Countdown. The 4 issues during a month (or 5 issues I would presume for months with 5 Wednesdays in them such as this next August) will constitute a month of real time. 1 issue could take a week, it could take a few moments, or it could take nearly the entire month. 

Now, as to what exactly Countdown will be about, DC has released this confusing picture: http://www.dccomics.com/media/desktop_patterns/DC_2007_So_Begins_the_End_800x600.jpg

I'm not sure what all that could mean, but indication seem to be that it's not meant to be a literal image and could represent several storylines. Also, some spoileriffic things have come to my atteion that I'll put in SPOILER VISION. Highlight to read. 

• DC revealed through hidden message that the secret of 52 is that the multiverse still exists.
• It has been revealed that "Red Robin" there is actually Jason Todd.
• The Flash to the right of the image is Barry Allen.

* The Search For Ray Palmer 

This character has been MIA since Identity Crisis and with good reason. He's been so MIA he's actually been replaced by a new Atom. But now we're going to go ahead and search for him, huh? 

It would seem we wouldn't do that unless there was some compelling NEED to find him. 

* Jimmy Olsen Must Die! 

I've been saying that! 

But seriously, while it's a fun concept, one has to think there's no way Jimmy WILL die. He's too ingrained in Americana. It's the same reason Nightwing didn't die in my opinion. 

One fun teaser image DC has released is The Joker holding Jimmy's press pass. 

* Seduction of the Innocent 

Find where Frederic Wertham is buried and attach cables to his coffin because he has to be spinning in his grave so quickly as to solve all our energy needs forever! 

Seriously, using the name of his misguided work as a slogan to SELL comics now would be as offensive to him as it would be to Jack Thompson if someone used "Murder Simulator" for the slogan or name of a video game. 

The art seems to depict Mary Marvel in flight with her chin being grabbed by Eclipso, who still seems to be at least female. This might tie into why finding Ray Palmer is so important. 

I'm glad Mary's getting a push. She fit so well with the Super Buddies and that group just got destroyed by other concerns with DC Editorial. Rumor has it that Mary will get "new mentors" out of this. 

* Unto Man Shall Come... A Great Disaster 

And the upper half of Darkseid's face is pictured. 

Not a great Darkness? 

Apparently, the New Gods are set to come back in a big way. Darkseid in particular has been gone for a while. His only mention during Infinite Crisis was a brief one during Infinite Crisis Secret Files that was actually a retelling of a moment from Crisis On Infinite Earths #12. 

* Villains Defiant 

We see the lower arms of what looks to be two Caucasian males handcuffed together. One has a blue glove, the other has a green glove with a shorter, folded cuff. The latter has a ratty green cape behind him. 

Apparently these are two people we'd never expect to be bound together, but by following them around as they are, we'll explore the seedy underbelly of the DC supervillains. 

It looks to be a pretty fun series. 

Before I wrap up, there are some things I've been wanting to clear up about my last spate of controversial posts. There is one thing I'd like to go on the record and make absolutely clear. In the community likely to be reading this, there's only one person whom I've asked my friends to not be friends with. That person has not only publically attacked me, but done so in other people's blogs, and then spread around that I was trying to control that other person's blog, when I just wanted the attacks to stop. Basically, this person has done everything they could do to hurt me and made it impossible to be both our friends. 

Any assertion that I have asked my friends to stop being friends with anyone else in this community is mistaken. Period. 

I should not have commented further than that, but was reacting to the notion conveyed to me that the things I addressed were being freely discussed. Does that make what I did right? No. But we're only human. 

So I've tried to make it right. 

No projects today, but I did do some housecleaning. 

First off, 2006's blog entries are indeed their own subpage now. 

As a result, the BoffoBlog graphic is now a link back to the main page (which will become more helpful when there's more archive pagery), which it occurs to me is an idea I had once with another blog too. Clicking it should also force any new entries to show up on the page, but I haven't tested this theory. 

Next, inspired by Matt's link to it, I have input my own DVD collection at DVDspot.com, since, as Matt put it, it looks like Guzzlefish is gone. I agree with him that it is indeed too bad that DVDSpot only does DVDs and not games and CDs like Guzzlefish did. 

The link is on the sidebar, but for those who like the links in the entry itself: 

http://www.dvdspot.com/member=Boffo97

I am done inputting my collection as far as I can tell so feel free to add me to your friends list on the site. 

As we wrap up the month of February and get ready to head into March, which some of you might remember will be the one year anniversary of the passing of my mother, I actually experienced something a little poignant tonight. 

A number of the movies you'll see in my collection here are inherited from her, which might answer questions like, to loosely paraphrase William Shatner in Airplane! II, "What the hell is a man doing with Pride and Prejudice?" One of the movies my mother bought shortly before her death was 2005's The Legend of Zorro, sequel to 1998's The Mask of Zorro. I've never been able to bring myself to watch it. When I catalogued it for the site, it still had security tape on the bottom, inferring she may never have gotten a chance to watch it either, though the top tape was gone, so I don't know. 

It's going to be a rough month, but I'll get through it... one day at a time. 

I got a smile out of being reminded of all the... recommendations I own. And I'd be remiss if I went without saying there was a perfect record there. 

Got the idea for a small side project that works well with my Wrestling Match Database. 

As the Hall of Fame entrants are announced, I can talk about what I have of them in my DVD collection and thus what kind of Hall of Fame Class of '07 Comp DVD I could put together if such things were possible. 

Sound like a premise? No? Too bad. I only see my name on this blog. I'll also add in a wish list of matches I'd like to round off my Comp DVD in a perfect world. 

Dusty Rhodes: 

• Feature: Dusty Rhodes - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Nov 22, 1984: Dusty vs. Ric Flair for the NWA Title in a $1,000,000 Challenge - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• May 7, 1985: Dusty promo from World Wide Wrestling - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Apr 1, 1990: Dusty & Sapphire vs. "Macho King" Randy Savage & Queen Sherri - Wrestlemania VI
• Extra: Jimmy Hart tells a story of Dusty complaining to Vince McMahon about Sapphire and the polka dots. - McMahon

Unfortunately, I'm just not familiar enough with Dusty's wrestling career outside WWF to contribute much, but Dusty & Dustin vs. Ted DiBiase & Virgil would be a nice addition. I'm sure fans of Dusty could provide MANY solid suggestions of great matches to add onto here. 

Mr. Perfect: 

• Date Unknown: Curt Hennig vs. Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Title - Superstars of Yesteryear
• Apr 1, 1990: Mr. Perfect vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake - Wrestlemania VI (listen for the pendulum to swing 360 degrees in this one)
• Mar 24, 1991: Mr. Perfect vs. The Big Boss Man for the WWE Intercontinental Title - Wrestlemania VII
• Apr 4, 1993: Mr. Perfect vs. The Narcissist - Wrestlemania IX
• Nov 14, 2001: Curt Hennig vs. Hulk Hogan - Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology

First off, his full vignettes here go without saying. I'd like his match vs. The Blue Blazer here as well (which I do have on video). His matches against Bret were pretty good, even though he was in immense pain for one. Other than those, no really good Perfect matches are coming to mind besides ones he lost. Edit: I meant to include mention of his WCW stuff, particularly with Flair, but forgot when originally writing this section. 

Jerry "The King" Lawler: 

• Feature: Jerry "The King" Lawler - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Date Unknown: Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. The Junkyard Dog - Superstars of Yesteryear
• May 15, 1988: Lawler interview after winning AWA World Heavyweight Title - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Dec 13, 1988: Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich to unify the AWA & WCCW Titles - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s
• Sep 28, 1994: Lawler vs. The Undertaker in a Casket Match - The Undertaker: He Buries Them Alive
• Jun 11, 2006: Lawler vs. Tazz - ECW One Night Stand 2006
• Extra: Jerry Lawler's Worst Injury In Wrestling - The Greatest Wrestling Stars of the '80s

Certainly anything and everything relating to his feud with Andy Kaufman is right up there. Other than that, I'd love the infamous "Head and Shoulders" match vs. Al Snow. Just for giggles, you could throw on the Doink & Midgets vs. Lawler & Midgets Survivor Series Match. Anything from the Bret-Lawler feud would be good (before it got silly with the Kiss My Feet stuff and the debut of Isaac Yankem). I loved when Lawler was hopping around on one foot outside a battle royale to avoid elimination and Bret stomped on the foot. 

Random trivia: So far, the entirety of the 2007 Hall of Fame Class are all Playable Legends from SmackDown vs. RAW 2007. To continue this trend, next week's confirmation would have to be Bam Bam Bigelow (unlikely), Mick Foley (given his semi active status, too soon), Jim Neidhart (unlikely), The Rock (too soon), Shane McMahon (no, but probably someday), Steve Austin (I could see it, but probably too soon), or Tazz (unlikely). The other Legends (Bret Hart, Eddie Guerrero, Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper) are already members of the Hall. 

Trivia question for today: Mr. Perfect will be the 9th member of the Hall to be inducted posthumously. Who are the first 8? Matt got 5 of these. I bet I know someone who could do better, but who knows for sure? 

I'll be getting to the Hogan review for the precisely zero of you who are clamoring it for you soon, but I'd like to start a new feature here on Tiny Toons every week. 

Now, new comics release every Wednesday. Therefore, by the following Monday, I have good reason to assume that my zero readers have already seen them or aren't going to, so I'll do reviews on what I've read then. 

I'm stealing IGN's Comics Section's ratings system for this project: 

    * Must Have - An incredible story that can't be missed. 
    * Must Read - A great tale that most will enjoy. 
    * Check It - Good to average, but not a necessity. 
    * Pass It - Significant problems; Save your cash for better books. 
    * Burn It - A dubious honor, reserved for the very worst books. 

All set? Here we go. 

DC: 

52 #42: CHECK IT. While the Ralph Dibny story arc hasn't been my favorite one in 42, it reaches a very satisfying (in certain ways) conclusion here, as we learn just what the supposed "Helmet of Fate" guiding him around is. (Remember that the real one was thrown into space by Captain Marvel in the Day of Vengeance: Infinite Crisis Special and didn't come back until The Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp). This, we are told, is the end of Ralph's story... for now by DC muckamucks. We also check in on Renee Montoya. 

The way the Helmet of Fate thing is handled also lets us think that a seeming continuity error involving Shadowpact (who "appear" in 52, despite their own title making it clear they were not around during the missing year) works out after all. That what we saw wasn't really Shadowpact. 

Birds of Prey #103: CHECK IT. Spy Smasher vs. Oracle, with Manhunter gone rogue. It's pretty solid action as we're still getting used to the new BoP team. Though I do hate the idea of Canary quitting the Birds to retire and then joining the JLA. It just rings false to Barbara. There are a lot of growing pains for the new team in this book. 

Brave & The Bold #1: MUST READ. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) & Batman team up as 64 identical corpses are found all over the globe, and Hal even finds his in space. Highlights include the dinosaur and giant penny in the Batcave finally being usable for something, Bruce ordering the Batmobile "Batteries to power, turbines to speed" (a la the 1960s show), and a badly underdressed Hal winning big at the Blackjack tables at a fancy casino for playing without fear. Next month's team up: Green Lantern and Supergirl. It'd be cool if they had it be a tag off format. Say Issue #3 was Supergirl & Booster Gold, and Issue #4 was Booster Gold & Nightwing, etc. 

Catwoman #64: PASS IT. Catwoman wants her friend and substitute while she was pregnant Catwoman, Holly Robinson's name removed from GCPD's computers so that Holly will never be implicated in Catwoman's murder of Black Mask. For obvious reasons, she can't go to Bruce. She goes to the Calculator instead, whose price for this is a snowglobe once owned by Lex Luthor. All this was established LAST issue. This issue is just about her managing to get to Lexcorp and inside the vault. If I can sum up all that happens in the issue in one sentence, that's not a good sign. 

Checkmate #11: MUST READ. There's a situation in Bane's country of Santa Prisca. They are holding elections, and Bane is backing one of the candidates. Bane's man should have won by 36%, and instead he lost and there's evidence of election fraud. Bane's forces are occupying the capital and the situation is a powderkeg. The supervillain Colonel Computron has contacted Checkmate saying he has proof that the elections were fixed, because he did it. And he'll turn over the proof if someone can get him out of Santa Prisca before Bane gets him. And you know, where you find supervillains immersed in international espionage, you find the Suicide Squad. Plus, White King's Knight Tommy Jagger is the son of "Rip" Jagger, the original Judomaster, whom Bane killed during Infinite Crisis, so there's a grudge to be settled there. And on top of that, they're going to start telling just exactly what Amanda Waller has on Fire. 

The Helmet of Fate: Black Alice: PASS IT: Duncan Rouleau's art really doesn't cut it for me at all and actually distracts me from the book, and the core of what makes the Black Alice character fun is her ability to borrow the powers of magical beings in the DC Universe (who may or may not need to be present), causing her to be clothed in a goth version of their costume (even rocking a half Dr. Fate, half Zatanna look once). Alice doesn't do that even once here. She simply uses rituals to try to take over the Helmet. She might as well be a Teenage Madame Xanadu. 

Ion: Guardian of the Universe #11: CHECK IT: I've seen reviewers note that Ion is coming off more like a regular series than a mini, and I see it too... we have one issue left and it really seems to be meandering about rather than having a real point that it's trying to get to. You could claim the issue with the Monitors is the point, but there's been so much in this mini that just isn't relevant to that. I loved Kyle's reaction to Donna, and Guy being the one to call in the troops to try to help Kyle's mom, even though dying mothers aren't really what I need to be reminded of right now. There's a fight with Darkseid's son Grayven that leaves you wondering just how powerful Ion is supposed to be, given the level of difficulty he has with Grayven, even with Donna's help. 

Robin #159: MUST READ. What pushes this one into Must Read is not only the fun story of Tim's first date with Zoanne (who I hope if they decide to say she's Tim's love interest that he doesn't get another one in Titans, and another one in this book and another one...) but Batman demonstrating that he has changed since Infinite Crisis in letting Tim have the date (even though the fight ends up in the restaurant anyway). Note that while Bruce denies that he did it on purpose, he's not shocked that Tim asked. This is a healthier relationship overall now too. I do wonder abot the cover though. Who is Robin standing in front of? It's obviously not the dark-skinned Zoanne. Is it the reporter seen on page 5 and 6 and never mentioned again in the book? That's kind of silly because Robin never meets her in the book. I've followed this book for a while now and am not sure Robin's met her at all. 

Shadowpact #10: MUST READ: The team has just had a battle with Etrigan, and lost, badly. Nightmaster has been impaled by his own sword and is on the brink of death with only Enchantress' spells keeping him alive. The spirits in Ragman's suit flat out refuse to help him against Etrigan. So the team recruits temporary replacement members. Plus Detective Chimp's "Three Laws of Superheroics" get mixed reviews. 

Superman #659: CHECK IT: Reeling from Arion's prediction that if he keeps on saving Mankind, it will lead to their doom, Superman thinks back to a woman who believed him to be an angel, and thought she summoned him with her prayers. Definitely has the feel of a fill in story, and apparently was a replacement to an originally solicited Krypto-centric story. 

Wonder Woman #4: CHECK IT: Circe has the power of Diana, Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark, and as the new Wonder Woman, has no problem with meting out deadly violence. Wonder Woman and Hercules seek out a way to stop her, but can she trust her new ally? Unfortunately, as a way to get this title back on to something resembling a regular schedule (Issue #1 was dated August '06), the 5th part of this 5 part storyline has been postponed as they start a new storyline, and thus this story will not be finished until at least Wonder Woman #11. 

Marvel: 

Amazing Spider-Man #538: CHECK IT. As the sniper waits outside MJ and Aunt May's hotel room, Peter calls one last time before the events of Civil War #7 (or perhaps #6 as he was already in the Negative Zone at the beginning of #7). There is some viewpoint from Spidey's and other people's perspective on #7, but spoilers are avoided, including Jameson choosing a headline off of a board containing just about every possible outcome of the Civil War. There's a big shock ending. This got the CHECK IT rating because the ending is important and everything else is just there. 

Civil War #7: BURN IT. You might be thinking this issue didn't deserve a Burn It. I agree, but there's nothing lower! Thank you, I'll be here all week. Newsarama provided some additional detail here about the issue. The way it was SUPPOSED to go is that everyone goes down one by one till it's just Cap and Tony. Cap puts Tony down. He looks around at all the people gathered around and sees fear. And they start yelling about how they want a registration, and need to be protected from "lunatics in masks doing whatever they want" and all this. And Cap realizes he was wrong because he was fighting for masks and not for America. So Cap says he concedes people want superheroes to go legit, but his big problem is liberties being taken away by people he doesn't know or trust. So he wants the guy in charge of the secrets to be someone he trusts... Tony. 

If it had gone down like that, it'd be BETTER, but still bad. This whole thing was about personal liberties and how if you don't fight for them, you will lose them. You don't give up on that fight just because there's collateral damage. Plus, as I pointed out in my article below, I would rather trust Dr. Doom than Tony right now. 

New Avengers Illuminati #2: MUST HAVE. You know, when this first came out, I could have sworn it was a one shot, but I'm glad it wasn't because it's a neat concept. Iron Man gathers himself (representing the Avengers), Dr. Strange (representing the magical forces of the Marvel universe), Professor X (representing the X-Men), Reed Richard (representing the Fantastic Four), Black Bolt (representing the Inhumans) and Namor (representing Atlantis) together, first hoping to conglomerate into a super-group, but when that concept fails, agreeing simply to meet up in order to help keep a unified front against any attacks against Earth. In this issue, the Illuminati pursue the Infinity Gems. 

I've got a rant in me. 

And it's not the usual stuff. 

Marvel's Civil War. I'm talking to you. 

I wasn't happy with the resolution here. And if you haven't read it yet, SPOILER. WARNING. Turn back now. 

And with all due respect to the comic knowledge of the Sutton of Mattness and the Helm Obscuro, I miss being able to discuss this with my favorite comics discussion person, as I fondly remember a day where no matter how obscure the question I had to ask about Marvel was, she answered, in near essay format. So much so that I felt compelled to publically proclaim that she ruled. Perhaps she is looking on at least. But I digress... 

See, at least in DC's Infinite Crisis (used here for comparison purposes because it was the other company's 7 issue mega event that at least STARTED around the same time), evil loses, very convincingly so. Good takes some losses, but it definitely wins. 

We start in Civil War #1, at least for me. The New Warriors come across a foursome of villains hiding out in Stamford, Connecticut and attempts to capture them. In the ensuing melee, a villain named Nitro (perhaps proclaimed by Tony Schiavone as the Best Nitro Ever) blows up a school bus and the explosion wipes out eight to nine hundred people. All blame goes onto the Warriors simply because they were trying to film a reality show and thought it might get ratings, and thus didn't call the big guns. No one blames the bad guys (such as Nitro who survived, perhaps aided and abetted by YOUR new Women's Champion). No one thinks the same result might have happened if it was the Avengers fighting the villains. No one thinks that if the villains were left to their own devices, a similar or worse tragedy might have happened. EVERYONE blames the New Warriors and NO ONE questions it. This is exceedingly unrealistic. Look at the modern world. We have a society who doubts the causes for EVERYTHING. Plus, in the real world, innocents get caught in the crossfire from police from time to time. To quote Matt Sutton in a family friendly way, crap happens. 

Then because of this, the registration act is established. Marvel themselves draws the parallels between this and certain unpleasant aspects of World War II, as well as Joseph McCarthy's HUAC. 

Then in Spider-Man titles around the same time as the war, we see Iron Man paying villains to attack near Washington DC shortly before the Stamford incident to deliberately destroy his own seeming testimony AGAINST the Registration Act. In Civil War: Frontline, we discover that Stark Industries positioned itself in the stock market as if they knew the Civil War was coming... almost as if they set the whole thing up. 

This isn't even mentioning his role in the creation of the clone Thor that killed Goliath (Bill Foster). And no, paying for his funeral does not even begin to make up for that. 

Then in Civil War #7, Vision has shorted out Iron Man's armor, and Captain America completely has him on the ropes. Just then, New York cops, firemen and paramedics grab him. Cap tells him he doesn't want to have to hurt them. They say "Too late for that" and point out the collateral damage. Cap sees this... and decides to surrender, taking off his mask so they arrest Steve Rogers and not Captain America. 

W. 

T. 

F? 

As we wrap up, some anti-Registration forces go underground, particularly the New Avengers (as opposed to the pro-Registration Mighty Avengers) and Tony is named head of SHIELD, telling the mother of one of the children who died in Stamford that the prison was called #42 because it was #42 on a list of a hundred ideas he, Reed Richards and Hank Pym came up with that night to improve the world. #43 is to clean up SHIELD. He promises this woman the best is yet to come as Civil War ends, and we are treated to ads for the next big project: Civil War: Initiative. 

I can only think of two explanations here. 

1. Even with the incredible delays this project suffered, they really wrote themselves into a corner and couldn't really write a good ending. 

2. With the Iron Man movie coming out soon, they wanted to keep Iron Man as a viable property. 

The problem is that, and rightfully so, you had multiple comic websites voting Tony Stark as villain of the year for 2006 for his actions. You don't end the series with him winning just because there was some collateral damage. You have Punisher shoot him in the face, you have Captain America give an impassioned speech, you have the Registration Act torn up, you have some of the Pro-Reg heroes facing jail time for their actions. 

And if anything good came out of the incredible tragedy that was 9/11 it was that I'm glad to know that REAL New York civil service workers are heroes, because Marvel Universe New York civil service workers are MORONS. 

Maybe Civil War: Initiative gives us the real ending we deserve. But if so, that's incredibly cynical on Marvel's part. 

On advice, in the interest of peace, I have taken down recent blog entries. These entries were meant only in self defense to false allegations that I was told were going around about me, but I'll be the bigger man (no comments from the peanut gallery over THAT one.) 

One entry had me concerned before I had received said advice though. One of the things that has most concerned me is the idea of public attack. While I certainly did not intend my piece on my former friend Sean McIver to be a public attack, I had worried that it may have crossed that line, instead of being the defense piece it was meant to be. The last thing I want to be is a hypocrite, and the suspicion that I might be being one weighed on me. So I will also take this opportunity to apologize to Sean, and to note that whatever other wrongs I feel were committed against me by him, public attack was not one of them. And that's all I intend at this point to say on that matter in public. 

As I said in one deleted entry, there are other things I want to use this blog for. So be on the lookout for things like a review of the Hulk Hogan Anthology, as the only other review I've read of it was by a guy who obviously was of the "Look how smarky I am! I can hate Hogan more than anyone!" school and the collection deserves better. Be on the lookout for the debut of my new rating system, as I don't believe workrate to be the be-all/end-all of the quality of a match. 

If you hurt my friends,
then you hurt my pride.
I gotta be a man.
I can't let it slide.
I am a real American.

-- "Real American" - Rick Derringer, made famous as Hulk Hogan's WWE entrance music 

With a new year upon us, it's not unheard of to reflect back on the past. Let me tell you, 2006 can go to Hell. Possibly the crappiest year ever, with my mom's death being a big part of that. Let's hope for a better 2007, huh? 

Looking back on 2006 and beyond, one subject really occurs to me to talk about: friendship. 

Maybe I have an old fashioned definition of the word, but it's one of the most important things to me. If you're my friend, that means if someone is pointing a gun at you, I step between you and the gun. Furthermore, while DarkHelm is my best friend, there's no such thing to me as a friend who deserves less than that. And to me, friendship makes no difference as to whether the friend is in real life, or online. I've been online in some capacity or other since Halloween of 1989, so I've long since learned that there's a person on the other end typing who is just as real and important as a person I can see in the flesh even if my only evidence is words on a screen. 

A big part of having such a strong definition of friendship is the protectiveness I hold my friends in. If you do something wrong by one of my friends, you've done something wrong by me, even if the person wronging one of my friends is another friend. I mean, first off, unless they fix it ASAP, why would someone want a jerk who did something wrong by one of my cool friends as a friend anyway? Second off, letting the wronging party know that their actions are not tolerated by more than just the victim of those actions can often speed correction of the actions. On the other side, friends who do nothing about a friend being wrong essentially tolerate the action. Even worse, friends who let the wrongdoing party off with only a token verbal rebuke and then, for all intents and purposes act otherwise completely cool to them actually ENCOURAGE the wrongdoing party. They send the message "I know about the situation and this is all I intend to do about it." 

Now, in a situation where both parties have done wrong, I'll admit that it's kind of silly to be angry at both sides, so it's only sensible to stay out of it, but if one bothered to examine the situation over the past while, there's only two people I did ANY wrong to. Neither of them are the guy who posted a chat excerpt without consent and could never be told that he was never really an e-boyfriend in order to spare HIS precious feelings while mine went unconsidered. And neither of them are anybody who allowed him to take shots at me using their blogs and did nothing about it. 

What's disappointing about having such a strong definition of friendship is when it becomes apparent that certain people don't share it (or more sadly, are incapable of sharing it). It seems the alternative then is that friendship becomes a temporary alliance based more around "What have you done for me lately" than anything else, and that's sad. 

And I'll admit that when I tried to hold people who were supposed to be my friends to that friendship, it could be unpleasant, especially when my arguments about what the right thing to do as a friend was got twisted into arguments that I just trying to control people (which was a handy argument for those who wanted to avoid the truth in that it completely bypassed the merits of what I was proposing). And that by contrast, these individuals who got everything they wanted might have seemed like the better friend if only the end result were considered. But I have a record of giving friends who aren't acting like it a chance to turn things around, and still trying to be as much of a friend as I could in the meantime. These people who are being valued over me based on end product alone have a history of bailing the second things aren't their way, despite their previous far more favorable status. Anyone can pretend to be a cool person when things are going good. It's when things are going bad that quality will out. 

Are there times I still wish we could still be hanging out in OO, or even IOP, with everyone and still think they were the people I used to think they were? Sure. But knowing people for who they are, there's quite a few I know that simply would not get a second chance. There's a few others that would have to make some changes. There's at least one it used to be really wonderful with, and I think it got lost with mistakes leading to other mistakes rather than being fixed, and buried with anger. 

But I know I'm the same person I was when things were great, and I don't think the wonderful person I saw then was the lie. 

In any event, where my thanks really go to are to the ones who have proven themselves worthwhile friends with a compatible definition of the word to mine. To the ones who have proven themselves loyal and trustworthy, my deepest and humblest gratitude.