Other comics I'm reading

I realized I've been writing a lot recently about the DC New 52, but I've been reading a lot of other stuff as well.  I thought I might highlight some of the noteworthy independent or non-superhero stuff I've read recently.  These are just a few.  I'll mention some others periodically.

The first writer I want to highlight is Jonathan Hickman, who is probably my favorite writer right now.  Mostly you would know him from his amazing run on Fantastic Four (now FF), and for his work on the SHIELD mini-series.  That is a totally mind-blowing series, which pulls in heady concepts and all sorts of historical figures.  But, as many comics fans know, Hickman got his start doing his own work at Image Comics, with The Nightly News.  This is a totally kooky series about people wronged by the media who take some pretty decisive action against it.  Hickman did his own art here, and he's got this gonzo, stylistic art style that totally works for the subject matter.  Some thought-provoking and unsettling stuff.  Another one of his books I really loved was Pax Romana, which hooked me in immediately because it's a time travel story involving the Roman Empire.  Brilliant stuff, really thoughtfully written.  I'm also reading his current mini-series The Red Wing about a war being fought across both space and time.  I don't totally get the time stuff sometimes, but I don't mind that at all.  I like having a writer address heady concepts.

Also want to give a shout out to American Vampire by Scott Snyder.  He's just a fantastic writer, and he's pulled off the incredible task of actually getting me to really like a vampire story.  Anyone who knows my taste in comics and sci-fi will know that I'm not a horror person at all, I'm specifically not a vampire person.  I thought that the movie Interview with the Vampire was tedious, and what little I've seen or read of the "Twilight" stories makes me want to run in the opposite direction.  Plus, it always seemed like ridiculous goth people were into vampires.  So, creating a story involving vampires that I actually enjoy is no mean feat.  How does he do it?  First off, by making them actually scary, as opposed to pouty and glum.  His main character is a really bad guy who's not afraid to do bad things.  At the same time, he creates a number of other more sympathetic characters and manages to do interesting things with them.  So, if you're like me and are wary of vampire stories, try these out as they're scary and really well-written.

Something I read last year but still sticks with me is I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly.  This was very powerful book, and a fantastic usage of the visual medium to convey emotion.  I won't give too much away, but will say that this is an incredibly compelling illustration of how a young person would deal with a life full of challenges.  Really worth your time.

DC's new 52, week 3

Some thoughts on reading some of DC's new 52, week 3, or, as some people might call it, gratuitous sex and boobies/disgusting "Saw" level violence week at DC comics!  In all seriousness, I have two young girls at home (6 and 3) who are starting to get into Comics.  Thank goodness for Tiny Titans and Archie Comics, because there has not been a single comic DC has put out in this new 52 initiative that I would be at all comfortable giving to my girls.  Definitely not any of the stuff that came out this week.  I don't understand.  Don't they want kids reading comics?  If they do, give me more comics that I can comfortably share with my children!

As an aside, I do read comics other than DC Comics, and I look forward to reviewing both some Marvel books and some independent books I've enjoyed recently.  Let me know what you're reading and what you liked (or what you hated)!

Batman - Very good comic.  Solid introduction to the new universe/status quo, even though it really is a continuation of the previous stories.  The story is pretty engaging, and they show a Bruce Wayne who is feeling pretty good about life and not quite as psychotically obsessing about his parents' murder.  Art is fine, but I'm not a huge fan.  It's a little too cartoony for me.  I also share the minor complaint that they made Dick Grayson so much shorter than Bruce Wayne.  If he really filled in as Batman for a year, he should appear to be a grown-up, and not a head shorter than Bruce Wayne though.  These are relatively small quibbles though, as I really trust Scott Snyder as a writer.  He seems to have a good handle on the characters, and I'd like to see where he takes this story.

Captain Atom - This was a nice surprise.  I was completely unfamiliar with the Captain Atom character pre-relaunch.  All I knew was that it was the character that Dr. Manhattan was based on.  Also, I remember him a little from the old Justice League International, where he never seemed particularly interesting to me.  However, this was something interesting and different.  Seems like, while he is portrayed as a superhero, this will be also something of a sci-fi comic.  I like the artwork, it's different from your standard Superhero art (a little more pencil-sketchy).  I'm not sure I'll keep reading this, not because I don't like it but because I have to make some hard choices. Also, Captain Atom's powers are pretty similar (as far as I can tell) to those of Firestorm, and I'm really curious about that comic, coming out next week and written by Gail Simone (who I really enjoy).  That being said, this is an interesting story and one worth watching.

Catwoman - Oy.  Here we go.  This is the first of two comics I read this week that make me want to wash my hands afterwards.  I don't want to just parrot a lot of the sentiment that has been expressed elsewhere on the Internet; I'll get to the problematic stuff later.  First, the stuff that was good in this issue.  Judd Winick is pretty good at characterization, and I actually thought that Catwoman was a pretty likable character.  However, if she is a master thief, how is it that people are frequently able to figure out where she lives and blow up her apartment?  I thought she was really good at what she did.  The art is good, clearly the artist wants us to know tat Catwoman/Selina is a "sexy" character.  Really hard to miss that point.

Which leads me into the problems in the issue.  I have no problem with the idea of a "sexy" comic which gets at the idea that these characters are adults and have, you know, feelings and urges.  However, there's a difference between sexy (which some of the best characterizations of Catwoman have been) and this book, which is best summarized as boobies boobies boobies, Catwoman and Batman have sexy time.  Seriously, you don't even see her face for a little while, just gratuitous T&A shots.  This is really just not what I'm looking for in a comic.  If I read a comic book involving Catwoman, I want to see her pull off some really clever heist, not her clothes.  If I read a comic involving Batman, I want to read about him solving crimes or defeating bad guys, not making the "oh" face.  So, thanks but no thanks.

Deathstroke - Deathstroke is a badass.  A major @#$%ing badass.  I know because they tell you, repeatedly in this issue.  I know there's been some strong dislike for this issue on the web, and I understand where it's coming from.  This issue does have kind of a dated, 90's feel to it, and for the world's greatest badass, his costume just looks stupid, like some Image comic from 1994.  All that being said, I actually didn't think this was a bad issue.  It definitely had appeal like a B-level action movie, and some fun moments.  However, I won't be picking this up regularly.  The end makes clear that Deathstroke is out to prove to everyone that he is the biggest badass on the planet.  If each issue is just him proving that, then that's not really much of a story for me to follow.  However, I'll check in on this one periodically.

Green Lantern Corps - So, to cut to the chase, I like Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps, but I'm only going to follow one of these books and I prefer the Hal Jordan character to Guy Gardner and John Stewart, even though they're both fun, good characters.  This was a pretty good issue, and I thought that Peter Tomasi did a good job of catching new readers up and continuing things from the last story.  This was a well-written issue, and if there weren't so many other comics I was excited about I would consider it.  However, further to a point I made above, this is a really violent comic.  Some of it is just gratuitous - I know there is violence in a world of super heroes, but I don't really want to see entrails and beings getting sliced in half.  I also think that with Blackest Night and Brightest Day and the War of the Green Lanterns and all of the color corps, I may just have Green Lantern fatigue.  So, thanks but no thanks.

Nightwing - Very solid issue.  Good story, really enjoyed the art.  Another one of these stories where past knowledge of the current continuity might be helpful, but the writer (Kyle Higgins) does a solid job of letting you know the current status quo (used to be Robin, then Nightwing, then Batman, now back to Nightwing). His Dick Grayson is a very likable character; sympathetically drawn.  We spend a lot of time in his head, but he's a well-drawn character.  The violence here is present, but not grotesque, and it sets up an interesting situation which seems to tie in to the storyline in Scott Snyder's Batman.  Not sure I'll subscribe long-term, but only there are already so many solid Bat-books out there, but this one is worth watching.

Red Hood and the Outlaws - Yikes.  Another comic that made me feel a little gross reading it.  The characters and story are not strong enough to overcome the fact that Starfire is depicted as an amnesiac sexbot, and the T&A is just ridiculous.  I get that she is a hot alien that comes from a clothing-optional planet, but I would be embarrassed to be reading this comic around other adults.  If I was a 12 year old boy I would really enjoy this comic though, what with all the T&A, objectification of women, and shooting.  However, neither Red Hood nor Arsenal are particularly interesting characters to me.  This was disappointing, as last week's Superboy (also by Scott Lobdell) was a pleasant surprise.  This, however, is something I can definitely skip.

Supergirl - The surprise of the week.  I haven't read much Supergirl and wasn't really expecting much of anything here.  Prior to the relaunch, the Superan franchise was in real need of a reboot, and this issue works extremely well.  Unlike pretty much everything else I've read (even Action Comics starts 6 months in to Superman's super-career) in the relaunch, this comic begins at the very beginning of Supergirl's arrival on Earth, and the writer (Michael Green) nicely portrays Supergirl's arrival on Earth and her confusion about everything.  Yes, it is an entire issue spent in a fight sequence, but I think it really works.  I want to know how she interacts with her famous cousin and see how this develops.

Wonder Woman - Fantastic.  One I'll definitely keep reading.  This is a really strong entry into reading about Wonder Woman.  She's actually more like a supporting character in this story, but Brian Azzarello really pulls you right in to a world of gods with amazing powers and mysterious motives.  This feels like a supernatural mystery, which is not normally my thing but it is strongly written.  You get that the stakes are high here.  Wonder Woman is a little bit of a mystery here, you don't really get any of her internal thoughts or motivation, but you do get a sense of her larger than life (both figuratively and literally, someone finally realized that if the is an Amazonian, she should be really tall) presence, and that she is heroic and more than human.  This was one that I was most curious about, and I was not disappointed.

DC's New 52, Part 2

Another week, another batch of mostly very good comics.  Again, I'm not reading all of DC's new 52 because of (i) money and (ii) no desire to read certain comics (looking at you, Rob Liefeld).

Anyway, before I get to the new reviews, I want to say another few words about Stormwatch.  I reread the first issue, and I want to like this book.  I mean, I really want to like it.  So why don't I like it more?  I'm not sure - it's got a lot of the characters I love (Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor), it's got big, high-concept stuff (the moon turning into a claw, existential threats), but there's something about it that's just off.  The relationships between the parties isn't clear, the art is slightly off, it feels a little jumbled.  I think I will read it a little longer, but it's definitely on my bubble list.  There's too many excellent comics out there to read something I'm not sure about.  With that, here are the reviews of what I read this week:

Batman & Robin - Very good effort.  I like how they establish the new status quo, and the fact that Bruce and Damian are clearly going to have to learn how to work together and are going to establish their own dynamic.  Damian is a real prick to his father in this issue - another reviewer (maybe at IGN?) pointed out why it made sense that Damian was being so obnoxious to Bruce, because Damian is having a hard time adjusting to his actual father, as opposed to the idealized version of his dead father.  The story was fine, but it was the characterization of the relationships that's the real hook here.  Very strong issue.

As an aside, I'm struggling a little bit with my decisions about what books I will subscribe to, as there are a number of strong contenders.  I liked last week's Detective Comics, but the truth is I'm probably only going to subscribe to one Batman book (not including Batwoman or Batgirl), so I'm not sure why I wouldn't just get this instead of Detective Comics.  I'm also expecting that Scott Snyder's Batman book will be very strong (I just read one of his American Vampire volumes and it was extremely good stuff).  So, we'll see.

Batwoman - No surprises here, I thought this was fantastic.  My pick of the week.  The art is, just to state the obvious, quite stunning.  J.H. Williams seems to have picked right up from his and Greg Rucka's run on Detective Comics.  There was a lot jam-packed in this issue, plenty of threads to unfold over the next year or so.  A very promising series.  I also have to ask myself whether I want to subscribe to both this and Batgirl.  I agree with those who have said that Batgirl #1, while good, was not Gail Simone's best work.  We'll see.  Barbara Gordon is an extremely likable character, and I've definitely enjoyed Simone's work in the past.  Given the number of titles out there, I'm not sure how many Bat-family titles I can subscribe to.

Demon Knights - This falls into the category (like OMAC) of "really fun read, not sure I'd subscribe".  I was entertained by the story, and I like the idea of doing a book with a medieval setting where the events and characters will have repercussions that will be felt today.  I'm very unfamiliar with the more fantasy-oriented aspects of the DC universe, but I thought that the idea that this guy Jason Blood has the demon Etrigan trapped inside him was a pretty interesting one.  I'm not sure about this one.  I'll read another issue at least.  I'd hate to see Paul Cornell go 0-for-2 in my reading list.

Frankenstein - Really fun stuff.  Another strong issue from Jeff Lemite, with a very different feel than Animal Man, but still dealing with the supernatural.  This one had some real humor, and it definitely felt like a Hellboy-ish comic.  Some of the stuff was random (like his boss looking like a little Japanese girl) but it was overall very entertaining and I think the character of Frankenstein (shouldn't it be Frankenstein's monster?) is a strong one.  A monster with a very old fashioned sensibility and a real moral sense.  I like it, definitely enough to pick up the next issue or two, at least.

Green Lantern - I have to admit that over the past year or so, I was pretty close to dropping Green Lantern from my monthly pull list.  I really loved the Sinestro Corps war, and I also really enjoyed Blackest Night, but I thought that the endless bickering among the different colored corps and the ongoing stuff with the Guardians was just kinda boring.  So, the new status quo (which I know is a plot progression from the prior stories) really does feel like a breath of fresh air to me.  I think having Sinestro back as a Green Lantern is a terrific story idea.  I love his character and I hope they keep him as part of the GL corps for a while.  I also love the stuff in here about Hal dealing with the consequences of flying around the galaxy for months at a time. So, they've got my attention again, and I feel like this issue was a necessary jump start for the series.

Superboy - My biggest surprise this week.  I really enjoyed this issue a lot.  Even though not that much "happened", plenty actually happened, and we got a lot of interesting setup.  This new Superboy, we still don't know a lot about his motivations, but we do know that he knows more than his captors think he does, and that he has a pretty impressive power set.  I'm very curious to see where they go with this - partly I assume where it is going is right into Teen Titans.  That was not a title I was planning on picking up, but I just might based on my interest in the character.

My thoughts on some of DC's New 52

When I first heard about the DC relaunch I was pretty excited.  I was always a Marvel person growing up. Honestly, in 1984 or so when I first started reading comics, Marvel was so much cooler than DC.  Marvel had Spider-Man and the X-Men, they had Secret Wars, and most importantly they had comics adaptations of G.I. Joe and the Transformers, which were the most important things in my life at that time.  DC had a Superman that worked at a TV station, and was all kinda boring.  I knew the DC characters because they were so iconic, but NOBODY I knew was reading DC comics.

I got away from comics for many years, and only around 2007 or so did I start reading comics again.  In that time, I've done a ton of catching up on both Marvel and DC (along with a lot of independent books), and while I haven't enjoyed everything I've read, I have approached this relaunch with at least some knowledge of the Dc universe.  That being said, even though I have read many DC stories over the past 4 or so years, DC has still felt fairly impenetrable to me.  There's just so much continuity, and continuity seems to matter more in DC than it does in Marvel, or maybe they've just handled it better.  I'm not sure.  So, like I said, when I heard about the relaunch I was pretty excited.  They were going to keep stuff that worked (most of Johns' GL run, the current status of the Bat-books) and revamp things that didn't (like in the Superman books).

Just as an aside, I agree it was time to blow up the Superman stories a little.  I enjoyed Johns' run on the book when it involved Brainiac and New Krypton, and was pretty excited about the concept of a whole new world of Kryptonians, but that whole concept really didn't end up working like I'd hoped (and I read the whole New Krypton series).  Maybe it's just hard to come up with good Superman stories.

So I wanted to get my thoughts down with respect to each of the new DC #1 issues that I am reading.  I am not going to be reading all of them, and I don't think I really have the time to do detailed reviews, but wanted to share my thoughts on what I've been reading.  So, here we go!

Action Comics - Loved it.  Thought this was a genuinely new take on Superman (even though I realize that it harkens to his earliest days).  It makes sense, too -  a character created by two Jewish kids in the 1930's would of course have some socialist/fight the oppressors and on behalf of the common man type ideas.

Animal Man - Wow.  Very impressed with this first issue.  I'm not really familiar with Jeff Lemire's other work, though I knew he was a respected indie creator.  I certainly want to check it out now. I loved the intro with his interview in "The Believer" (which I actually subscribed to for a time) and thought the story and art here were both terrific.  It's definitely not traditional super hero art, but that seems right to me, as it is more of a supernatural/horror comic than it is "man in tights".  Really enjoyed this, and look forward to seeing where it's going.

Batgirl - This was a lot of fun.  Gail Simone is good at both dialogue and characterization, so I immediately felt like I was in Barbara Gordon's head.  The very last panels didn't exactly make sense to me (no spoilers here), but I found her characterization of Barbara who is not yet comfortable being a "super hero" again to be very believable.

Detective Comics - Good story, very intense/dramatic ending.  Tony Daniel is a great artist but is not yet a great writer (and suffers a little in comparison to Grant Morrison, Paul Dini or Scott Snyder) but he is improving.  This felt like a pretty regular Batman story, not necessarily like a whole new world.  I liked it though, and would be interested in seeing where it's going.

Justice League - I liked this, but wouldn't say I loved it.  I enjoyed the banter between Batman and Green Lantern, I like who their setting up as the big first villain, and enjoyed the end.  I also loved the Jim Lee art.  What's my issue then?  Mostly, it felt like not very much happened in this issue; I think they could have compressed it a little more and provided nods to a few of the other JLA members.  Still, I definitely enjoyed it and will check out further issues.

Men of War - Thought it was fine, but don't think I'll be subscribing.  The idea of telling a story about soldiers (or other "regular" people) in a world where superheroes exist is a good one, and one that has been well explored by Kurt Busiek in Marvels and Astro City.  Additionally, "Gotham Central" is a great telling of law enforcement trying to do their jobs in a crazy world.  Like Gotham Central, I get that the soldiers here seem to view the superheroes as a distraction to their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the author here is a fan of Garth Ennis' "The Boys".  All that being said, I thought the story and art were fine, but felt a bit generic.  Maybe I'm just not a fan of war comics.

OMAC - My biggest surprise so far.  I loved this!  I don't necessarily think I'll subscribe to it, but this was probably the most fun read I've had in a while.  If Kirby-esque can be used as an adjective, then that's what I'd say this was.  Clearly written in a style meant to evoke Kirby's fourth world and other concepts, this issue read like an old-school adventure comic out of the 1970's.  It didn't much seem to relate to the larger DC universe, but was a real joy to read, as I thought it was full of good, ridiculous fun.

Stormwatch - This is the one that disappointed me the most.  That is not to say that I disliked it, because I thought it set up a lot of interesting stuff, and I absolutely LOVED Ellis' and Millar's runs on the Authority, so I am predisposed to like any book that has Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor, etc.  However, I wasn't crazy about the art (I thought the engineer just looked sort of odd), and the story just didn't grip me like I thought it would (which surprised me, given that Paul Cornell is writing), but I will give this another shot next month because I like generally where they're going (making this group into an analogue of Hickman's SHIELD).

Swamp Thing - Another awesome comic.  As with Animal Man, I have only read the most classic runs of these comics and am not overly familiar with them, but this issue made me want to know more about the Swamp Thing character, and to try to understand the complex relationship between Alec Holland and Swamp Thing.  There's some pretty compelling story, a general air of dread and unease, and some pretty horrifically compelling images near the end.  Scott Snyder FTW!

Godwin's Law and Sinister's Corollary

Godwin's Law - "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1".

Sinister's Corollary to Godwin's Law - "if someone invokes Hitler or the Nazis as an analogy or comparison to anything other than (i) actual Nazis, or (ii) people committing genocide or ethnic cleansing, then I will cease to take seriously anything they say, even if I might otherwise believe it." This Corollary applies across the political spectrum, to the left, right, center, and anyone else. No one group has a monopoly on making ridiculous and stupid Nazi analogies. Here are a few examples of application of the Corollary:

Example A: This clown compares Republicans to Nazis. Even though I agree that Health Care reform should not be repealed, I can no longer take anything he says seriously.

Example B: Glenn Beck has compared so many people with whom he disagrees to the Nazis that Lewis Black cleverly said he has "Nazi Tourette's". So, with regard to Glenn Beck, I will paraphrase Chuck Lane talking about Stephen Glass, and say that if it was sunny outside and Glenn Beck and I were both standing outside in the sun and he came to me and said, ‘It’s a sunny day,’ I would immediately go check with two other people to make sure it was a sunny day, and then I'd go get an umbrella.

Cars, Part 2 - Toyota RAV4 and the Canyonero

Last night we took a test drive of the Toyota RAV4 and we really liked it. It felt very car-like, and although it's a somewhat compact-looking car, felt plenty spacious on the inside. The model we drove didn't have the third seat installed, but one can assume that it's best left for children. So, RAV4 is looking like the top choice at this point since we are now pretty committed to getting a car with AWD. I'd like to take another drive of the Kia Sorento, as I think they're very similar, and also so that E has a chance to drive that one.

We also, just for fun, sat in a Toyota Sequoia in the showroom, which is the real-life embodiment of the Canyonero. You could probably fit the RAV4 in the back of a Sequoia (like if you have a huge frame backpack that has a little detachable day-pack, that's the RAV4). Needless to say, we're not getting the Sequoia, even if it does seat 35.

all the joyful people

Today I was walking on Newbury and there was a woman screaming at a guy in a car that she was going to find out his address and kill his wife. Pretty sure they were arguing about a parking spot. Boy that holiday spirit doesn't last long anymore.

My Somewhat Comprehensive Guide to Pretty Much Everything that's Wrong with the Star Wars Prequels

So, I've previously discussed my disillusionment with the Star Wars movies, but because of the grassroots groundswell of lobbying and activism, I've decided to create my list of everything I hate about the Star Wars prequels. Not exactly listed out by movie, but generally so. If you think of others, let me know.

1. Idiotic political "intrigue". Taxation of trade routes? Eh? I'm not sure what little kids thought in 1999 when The Phantom Menace ("TPM") came out. I already had the goodwill from the original trilogy saved up by the time the new ones came out, but even I was starting to get wary when they were re-released in 1997 and Lucas made all those stupid changes. One can only imagine that kids, for whom this was their first exposure to Star Wars, were bored silly by all of the political talk. Lucas had 16 years to write a story in between movies, and TPM is what he came up with? I really wish he had taken Spielberg up on his offer to direct the first one, b/c at least Spielberg might have done some interesting things with the material (on the other hand, based on what I heard about "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", those two together are not quite as magic as they used to be).
2. Offensive ethnic characterizations. I deal more with Jar Jar (Jamaican Sambo stereotype) later, but he fits into this category as well as the Trade Federation (cowardly Asian stereotype), Watto (grimy, haggling middle eastern shop owner), and the Banking Clan (um, they control the money and have big noses, why not show them eating space-bagels too). Apart from finding these incredibly insulting, they seem just so lazy and generally inexplicable. Seriously, couldn't you have just given them all voices that weren't stereotypes? Was George Lucas channeling Archie Bunker?
3. Jar Jar. Apart from the racist, offensive shtick, Jar Jar is possibly one of the most annoying characters ever created. His only function is to be essentially useless and to get himself into "funny" trouble. Wow, way to come up with compelling characters to fill screen time.
4. The Pod Race. I'm sure the race is meant to be exciting, but whenever I have seen the movie I have fast-forwarded through the pod race. Even at fast forward, I find it tedious. I know it's supposed to be there to show what a talented pilot Anakin is even when he's just a kid, but I'm thrown off by the fact that there's a "funny" two-headed announcer, and the scene just goes on too $%^&ing long.
5. Jesus Skywalker. Anakin was the product of a virgin birth. Of all the ham-handed analogies, they just had to go there. Couldn't they have just made Palpatine the father? Apparently he was the result of a high concentration of midi-chlorians (which maybe the mom caught somewhere). Which leads us to.....
6. Insertion of Pseudo-Science. I expect fake science in my Star Trek (dillithium crystals, etc.), but there was something magical about "the force". They didn't need to explain it, it was meant to be understood as an Eastern-religion style concept and worked fine as mysticism. But no. They had to go ahead and insert blood tests, and we learn that being strong with the force is actually something in your hemoglobin or whatever.
7. Anakin. The kid who plays Anakin in TPM is sort of whiny and you don't really get much of a sense for him, and is not much of an actor. But he's 8, so you let it go. Hayden Christiensen, however, gets no excuses (well, he gets one excuse, but we'll get to that later). So, here's what we know about Anakin Skywalker from the original trilogy: (a) Obi Wan considered him a good friend, (b) he was a great pilot, (c) he was corrupted by the dark side. Fine. But then you meet Anakin as a teenager, and he is whiny, petulant, sullen and not particularly likable. Seriously, he sulks like a pathetic emo-boy, not the future Dark Sith Lord that he will become. We're supposed to understand that he was really good before, so we should like him and care about him, and his fall from grace should be a big deal. Problem is, we don't like him that much. We also don't see why Obi Wan likes him at all.
8. "Dialogue". This is the part that's not Hayden Christiansen's fault. The dialogue is just terrible. Seriously, put aside any love you have for the series (I know I've had to work hard at this), and just listen. There's some real clunkers in these movies (the "I hate sand" speech, any time they try to talk politics, any time they talk to the Gungans, etc.). They make even really good actors seem wooden, which of course is not just the dialogue but the direction as well. I don't know what happened to Lucas between the first trilogy and these movies, but he should really go back and look at the original ones. There are some real moments of tension and humor in those movies, and some memorable dialogue.
9. "Special" Effects. I won't say a lot here, as there's a lot of cool effects in these movies. I will note, however, that TPM came out in the Summer of 1999, the same time that the Matrix came out. While I enjoy CGI futuristic cityscapes as much as the next guy, the Matrix was a game-changer, and it's hard to look at not just things like bullet-time, but the whole ethos of TPM and wonder why George Lucas wasn't pushing cinema forward with special effects. Some of the CGI looks fake, as well, and you wonder why Lucas didn't use more models since almost all of the scenes from the original series still hold up, and those used models.
10. Random Stupidity #1. In AOTC, Obi Wan goes to what appears to be a 50's-style diner and an alien they might as well call "Big Al" (who appears to be the owner) talks with him. There's a robot waitress who they might as well name "Flo" . The whole sequence is just terrible, and you're wondering why somebody thought to create a "diner" in the middle of the @#$%ing Star Wars Universe? The alien is sitting there with Obi Wan talking and scratching his ass, which is supposed to be "funny", but the whole sequence takes you out of the movie.
11. Random Stupidity #2. General Grievous has a cough. Seriously. The CGI character has a cough throughout the whole movie. You're just waiting for him to ask one of his droids to bring him a cup of tea . He's supposed to this scary bad-ass, and they give him bronchitis . Why? Who knows. Seriously, did it advance the plot at all? Should he have stopped off somewhere for some Robitussin ?
12. Random Stupidity #3. In ROTS Padme dies because the "lost the will to live". Padme just gave birth to twins, so she could have sustained trauma during child birth. Additionally she sustained a "force" attack by Anakin, so that could have done irreversible damage. But no, even though she was medically perfectly healthy, she died because she lost the will to live? She just had 2 kids! Wouldn't she have had the will to live to raise the kids?
13. Lucas and His Audience. These movies are pitched to 6 year olds. This is particularly true of TPM, less so AOTC and ROTS (that one in particular has some pretty dark stuff). Jar Jar, the scatological humor, the goofy "humor" of the announcers at the pod race. This is stuff which is pitched to little kids, but in the most cloying and heavy-handed way (weirdly though, TPM is the worst about this AND about the boring political intrigue).
14. The Waste of Padme. In Episodes I and II, Natalie Portman does a fine job as Padme, bad dialogue notwithstanding. She's active, she's involved in the fighting, she's resourceful, she bares her midriff - she's what you would expect Luke and Leia's mom to be. But in ROTS, her jobs are basically to get emotional, have babies, and die. That's pretty much it. Serious waste of a character.

Ok, that's it for now. There are probably others, but this is what I've got for the moment. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like in these movies as well (and I will make a list of things I like at some point as well, to be fair), but some of these just can't be forgiven.

March to HDTV/First look at Cars

As an update to the previous post, we've gotten the toddler bed situation going (I mentioned that today), and safely grounded the outlet in the living room. Only 52 more steps to getting a big-ass TV.

On another note, we're starting to look at new cars in case the current one is on the way out (sadly we think it is). Our main criteria (other than wanting a car that is safe, reliable, doesn't get terrible gas mileage and is not gigantic) is that we want three rows of seating. Not that either of us really want to be carpooling kids around (because seriously, who wants extra children around, your own are plenty), but it just make sense to get the extra flexibility. Yesterday I test drove the Hyundai Veracruz and the Kia Sorento. I liked both of them, but I think we're probably going to eliminate the Veracruz b/c it is a little bigger (and we'd like something not too big) and it is also about 5K more expensive. It's a very nice car though, but we want to keep costs down and the Sorento felt slightly more car-like to me, and we don't want something that feels too much like a truck. Those third row seats are not exactly something I'd want to sit in for a 200-mile drive, but them seem serviceable for giving rides to kids, or just for extra flexibility. Next up, the RAV4 (which is absolutely ubiquitous) and the Mazda5 (which is kind of a mini-mini-van), both of which we are expecting to like.

My 2010 Favorites - Movies

Everyone does year-end "best of" lists so I would be remiss not to get into the act. Honestly, I didn't see that many movies in 2010 but I saw some good ones. I think it's hard to say "best" because I don't know what it means when it comes to art, but I'll say my five favorite movies this year were:

1. Inception

2. The Social Network

3. Toy Story 3

4. The Town

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

The real decision for me as between Social Network and Inception at #1 - the rest of them, I could switch around the order and not have it be a huge deal. I had to go with Inception because for several days afterwards I kept having disturbing thoughts and dreams because of it, and felt like it #$%^ed my mind up, in a good way.

I'm sure there are a ton of good movies I haven't seen, so I know this list is anything but exhaustive.

Needed an electrician for this one

Yesterday morning the day started out pretty badly. We just moved Kid2 into Kid1's room, and it was her first night in a toddler bed (this of course means we did one of the previous things on the list, buy toddler bed). It went ok except that they were so excited about this arrangement that they got up extremely early (4:45 or so) and we're only resting periodically after that.

I had the bright idea (around 6:30) to change the kitchen light bulb which had burnt out. Not our main lamp, but the secondary lamp. Apparently I had never changed this b/c I didn't know how to change it. In the process of trying to open up the lamp to change the light bulb, I pulled the whole lamp out of the ceiling so that it was just dangling by electrical wire. I don't know much about these sorts of thing, but it seemed unsafe to me. So, I scrambled around frantically, woke up the LW (lovely wife), and eventually called 4 electricians. Thankfully one was available. He was not at all impressed with what the previous person had done when installing this lamp, and he secured it to the ceiling in a much better way. Next time, I will know how to take the relevant glass part out w/o pulling the entire fixture out of the ceiling. Even better, next time I will not try to be ambitious before 8 am.

Coming soon, I reveal my list of favorite movies, music and books this year. Also, I discuss my first trip to test drive cars.

Buying a TV

We've decided to finally take the plunge and buy a HDTV. Now all we need to do is:

1. Buy a toddler bed for kid #2 and move it in to kid #1's room (now they will share, we'll see how that goes).

2. Disassemble crib in kid #2's room and either give it away or throw it out.

3. Move desks, computer and table from play room/office/guest room up to what will be the new office

4. Have cable company come and assess whether we can get cable connection in new office upstairs.

5. Assemble train table which was Hanukkah present for the girls and put it into the play room.

6. Get rid of the old entertainment center and TV or theoretically move it to the downstairs play room. If move it to the downstairs play room, find out from cable company how much it costs to add a second cable TV connection.

7. Have electrician come and figure out whether we can safely connect an HDTV to living room non-grounded outlet.

8. Buy new entertainment center for TV.

9. Finally, buy TV.

Seriously, it'll be April before I actually see this TV.

Vote Cuckoo McNutty for Congress!

Hi, I'm Cuckoo McNutty, and I'm running for congress. Let me tell you what I believe.

I think that America needs to cut taxes severely in order to make our country stronger and more fiscally sound, because a government with no revenue, and which can support any government programs, is way stronger. Also, we need to look at cutting waste fraud and abuse. Now, my opponent has said things like "you haven't come up with a single concrete example of an actual program you would cut" - well, that kind of "evidence-based" thinking is just elitist and un-American. Also, I am in favor of fiscal responsiblity - sure I didn't say anything about it when George W. Bush was president, but, completely coincidentially, it became an issue for me on January 20, 2009.

Also, I am strongly in favor of liberty for everyone - well, except for the gays. Also, except where reproductive rights are concerned. I'm also in favor of religious liberty, and want people to be able to exercise their religious liberty in schools and on public property all over the place. Well, I mean, not all people, obviously. People who are the same religion as me. I mean, it's not like the constitution prohibits the government favoring one religion over another, particularly when that religion is the one true religion, right?

Also, no science in the schools. Because the constitution guarantees freedom of religion, not freedom of science. I don't want my children learning that we humans are descended from monkeys. Do you see any half-human, half-monkey people walking around? It's a dangerous road, allowing your children to be exposed to things like "facts" and "evidence".

Also, think of me like a mama grizzly bear. Even though I'm a dude and totally manly. Nobody better get in between me and my grizzly cubs! Now, maybe you're wondering what the practical implications of all this grizzly bear talk is. You might think, "oh, you support programs that have been shown to be a huge benefit to kids like Head Start, and sCHIP, and public safety regulations that protect kids". Nope! I don't support any of that socialist nonsense. I support being able to protect my kids from all kinds of socialism and liberalism. Liberalism and progressive thinking are the biggest threat to liberty since, well, since ever!

Also, I hate the elites. Like doctors and scientists, who think they understand medicine or science better than you and I do just because they spent years studying in those fields and have earned advanced degrees. Well, I study too, at the feet of Professors Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Palin. They tell me everything I need to know. I take my advice from them, not from some group of wealthy, unelected commentators.

Also, I support free speech. But I hate the liberal media because they're always picking on me and askuing me questions I don't know the answer to.

Also, I hate tyranny, in all it's forms. Like that ObamaCare - wow, is that tyrannical! Seriously, there's no difference between ObamaCare and the gas chambers. After all, both are government programs, right? And all government programs are inherently tyrannical. Therefore, the president and all liberals are actually Nazis. Now some people say, where was your concern about "tyranny" when George W. Bush was president, with things like warrantless wiretapping, and extraordinary rendition, and detention of US citizens without habeas corpus". Now, I don't know what any of that means, but it sure sounds like more liberal lies to me.

My 25 all-time favorite science fiction movies (at the moment)

I was listening to an episode of "On Point" yesterday, and the topic was "greatest science fiction movies of all time." After listening to the podcast, which was a lot of fun, I said - "I accept your challenge!" I thought the world would benefit from knowing my all-time favorite science fiction movies.

I am very deliberately not calling this list "greatest movies" because these lists are inherently subjective and I'm just listing my own personal favorites. A few notes:

• I am keeping out movies based on comic books. While most of these would qualify as science fiction, I see them as their own category (and a list for me to work on for another day).
• I am singling out individual movies, not just series (which makes it more challenging in a good way) - so I will not just say "The Star Wars movies"
• These are my own personal favorites. There are many movies out there that are regarded as "great" that I haven't seen, or was not so impressed by; this list is only meant to cover my personal preferences.
• I can't just do top 10 because it ignores too many movies.
• If a movie falls into another genre but is also clearly science fiction, I am including it.
• It has been so long since I last saw Blade Runner, I suspect that once I re-watch it, my list will change
• If given another day, or two days or a week, I could probably monkey around with the order of the movies on the list (other than the top 5), so other than those, the order only reflects what I felt at the moment I hit "Publish Post".
• I have not included animated films. If I did, Wall-E would probably make the list somewhere.
• I have a suspicion I'm really going to enjoy District 9, but haven't seen it yet
• About Star Wars Episodes I and II, each of those movies has a lot that I enjoy, (for example, the light saber duel at the end of Episode I is my favorite in the entire series of movies) and it is hard to separate out all of the affection I have for them as Star Wars movies, but I felt that overall, they were not good enough to make the list.
• Avatar - one of the most visually stunning things I ever seen. Doesn't make the list. At least not today. I'm not sure how much I actually liked the movie, apart from the 3-D visual spectacle of it.

With that in mind, my list is as follows:

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
3. The Matrix
4. Back to the Future
5. Terminator 2
6. Return of the Jedi
7. Dune
8. Star Trek: First Contact
9. Minority Report
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
11. Children of Men
12. Star Trek (2009)
13. Galaxy Quest
14. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
15. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
16. Twelve Monkeys
17. Gattaca
18. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
19. E.T.
20. Donnie Darko
21. Starship Troopers
22. THX 1138
23. Inception
24. Brazil
25. Robocop

Miscellaneous Sports Thoughts

1. I was reading about Ben Roethlisberger recently (NYT had a good piece on him) earlier this week, and just disgusted with the guy. I know he wasn't charged with what he allegedly did to a woman in Georgia, but the evidence seems pretty clear that he at least tried to rape her. This is also not his first time doing something like that. I just want to say I have a hard time relating to the mindset of the entitled athlete. Who goes around thinking they can treat other people like property? All because they can play a children's game, and do a good job throwing or catching a ball? Ridiculous.

2. Bud Selig seems reasonably intelligent, at least some of the time. If that's the case, then why the opposition to instant replay in baseball? I don't understand it at all. Isn't it kind of a no-brainer that getting the right outcome should be the most important thing? I'm not sure why that isn't important for everybody.

3. I totally agree with the Sports Guy in his most recent column about not caring as much about the Sox as I used to. For me though, 2 reasons are paramount (2 of the ones that he also reflects on):

a. They won in 2004 and 2007. I was no fan of the "curse" bullshit (and I would love to banish the phrase "Red Sox Nation" forever), but it does feel like the urgency and drama are gone. I just assume that they will be competitive and probably win again at some point.

b. I'm a parent now. This has reordered a bunch of my priorities. There are plenty of things I cared about pre-parenthood that I still care about, but sports in not as much one of them.

I still follow the teams, still care about how they're doing, but it's just not as important anymore. I'm not sure if that is sad, or inevitable, or if it doesn't really matter.

4. I wish I could go to a world where I don't hear about LeBron for a while.

Toy Story 3

Saw Toy Story 3 Saturday. So great. I'm not sure what it is in the water that they drink at Pixar that makes all of their films so fantastic, but I surely hope they keep drinking it and would love to have some myself. They make such wonderful movies. Pretty sure my favorite Pixar movie is still (not surprisingly) "The Incredibles", but "Wall-E" is up there as well, as is the original "Toy Story". This one was terrific as well. I still haven't seen "Up" but understand that is great as well. Oh, right, I know what it is - actual storytelling. Right. When the people responsible for writing a story actually, you know, write a story, as opposed to layering one pop-cultural reference on top of another. Don't get me wrong, I love pop-cultural references as much as anyone, it is a currency I trade in heavily, but I believe they must be earned and well timed. Just making references to the Godfather does not make your movie funny. If I want Godfather references I'll just watch the Godfather (which I have done approximately 250 times, give or take a few).

Now you may have also heard that the end of the movie was making some grown men weepy. I wouldn't know anything about that, I just happened to get something in my eye at the end of the movie. Complete coincidence.

Can you have schadenfreude towards your own kids?

Just to go ahead and state the completely obvious, dealing with kids can be challenging. One little interaction - Kid #2 has a habit of throwing/putting food on the floor. It would be one thing if she were 8 months old, but she's almost 2 1/2, and so throwing/dropping of food is not nearly as funny/cute. We had been frustrated recently, but have deleloped a new system for dealing with this. The first time she does it, we pull her away from the table for a minute or so as a warning. The second time she does it, she's done eating that meal and doesn't get anything else. It's a little harsh, but we're trying to get her to understand "consequences".

Anyway, this morning she put some cheerios on the floor so I pulled her away from the table. After a minute I brought her back, and a few minutes after that she proceeded to take her entire cup of water and quite deliberately dump it out on the floor. She seemed quite please with herself, but I was pissed. I took her out of her chair, handed her a towel and told her to clean it up (just a side note, I didn't actually expect her to clean it all up, my point was to teach her that we clean up our own messes). She started to clean it up, and quickly lost interest, and then decided it would be more fun to jump up and down and splash in the puddles on the floor. In the non-suprise of the year, she slipped and fell and landed on her ass.

Now, there is something of a balancing act that you need to do when this sort of things happens, and I'm not totally sure how well I balanced it. I comforted her because she was crying and in pain, but some part of me was thinking that this was an excellent "teachable moment" for her - you pour the water on the floor, you jumped in it instead of cleaning it up, and then you get hurt - all in all, that's a lesson I can live with her learning, particularly where she was not seruiously hurt.

Of course, there was another part of me that wanted to point at her and go "ha ha" like Nelson from the Simpsons, but I kept that to myself.

Comic Book Review - Batman: The Long Halloween, and Marvels (also some Marvel vs. DC discussion)

After I got finished reading Batman: The Long Halloween I proclaimed that it was one of the best superhero books I had read all year - it's suspenseful, entertaining, the art is wonderful, and it gives you a real sense into how Batman goes about his work as the "world's greatest detective" (even though he doesn't necessarily live up to that title in this story). Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale are a terrific writer/artist team, and they've done some other wonderful work which I haven't reviewed but really loved (I HIGHLY recommend Superman for All Seasons, which covers the early years of Superman and was apparently some of the basis for the Smallville TV show which is one of my favorites - it's engaging, good-hearted and totally easy for the casual fan to follow). Anyway, back to Batman.

Let me digress for a minute. I was never a DC guy growing up. I mean, I loved the Christopher Reeve Superman movies (the first 2 at least), I loved the terribly wonderfully cheesy Super Friends cartoon with the DC characters, but actually reading DC comics on an ongoing basis was never interesting to me. I was always (and this really applied to almost everyone I knew who read comics growing up) a Marvel guy. Superman and Batman may have been some of the most amazing, iconic characters ever created, but I think they didn't feel cool to us - not nearly as cool as Spider-Man and certainly not as cool as the X-Men. If you wanted to read something that was cool and totally awesome in the early to mid 80's, it was definitely all about the X-Men. They were misfits, they were outlaws, and they battled frickin' giant sentinel robots! Spider-Man was also a character that a young kid could relate to. First off, while he does have super powers, he's not godlike like Superman or Thor (probably why Thor never held any interest for em - he was just too powerful and in his case he was an ACTUAL Norse God!). If a character has the ability to destroy a planet or something, there's not so much you can do with them. Spider-Man, by contrast, was an incredibly human character. He fought bad guys on a relatively modest scale, he was really funny, and seemed to live a much more real life than other characters. Plus Mary Jane was hot. Anyway, all of this is a long-winded way of saying that in recent years, as I have gotten into reading more DC Comics, I have had to play a lot of catch-up. I'm getting a sense of who the players are and what the dynamics are between the various characters. DC has been a around a lot longer, and they seem to have a lot more characters just sort of hanging around. Frankly, a lot of their characters are not that interesting to me. Elongated Man? The Question? Eh, not so much (except perhaps as Question is one of the bases for Rorschach. Still, there's a whole huge universe and it's been a major undertaking trying to catch up.

Back to my review. This is a great story, and I appreciate that Batman really is a detective and is trying to solve crimes. The takeaways on this story are that the art is wonderful - hyper-realistic and occasionally excessive, but portraying the true essence of each character. The writing is terrific, and as a huge Godfather fan I appreciate that the story is chock full of references to that movie. Very clever stuff. I highly recommend.

If my takeaway from The Long Halloween is that it's a great story, then Marvels is an absolute masterpiece. Here's what makes it so special. It takes events that have occurred through the history of the Marvel universe and retells those events from the eyes of a newspaper photographer, so you see and experience what he (and other regular people) were experiencing when these events happened - like, the first appearance of Captain America (who battles the Nazis), or the notoriety of the Fantastic Four, or the appearance (and societal backlash) against mutants like the X-Men. By itself, the story is brilliant. It was exhaustively researched and coordinated by Kurt Busiek to fit perfectly within the Marvel timeline. If that was enough, it would be fantastic. But it is taken to even higher levels of greatness by the artwork of Alex Ross.

Ahh, Alex Ross. Of all the comic artists I have seen, he is far and away my favorite, because his style is so unique and different in the comic books world. He is a painter, and his artwork has the appearance of being painted. See for yourself what I mean. His work is absolutely beautiful and iconic, particularly his work on Superman (and in Kingdom Come which I should talk about some time). Anyway, I definitely have an art-crush on him. I also wish he was illustrating actual books these days. I know he is busy doing covers for different books, but I'd love to see him do a whole book again.

The artwork is amazing and so incredibly life-like, you feel almost like you're reading about real events. The whole thing is an absolute wonder, full of hidden treasures. I've spoken in previous posts about my love for Astro City, and it's clear that the team of Busiek and Ross first developed the idea of telling stories about a universe full of superheroes from doing Marvels. It's a wonderful idea, and here in Marvels they give you a sense of the wonder and danger and conflicting attitudes you might have, living in a world where people exist who can do such extraordinary things.

This one gets my super-duper extra special good highest recommendation. A real treasure.

Gee, Joe, I feel really bad for you

The quote in this link from Conservative talk show host (and former Republican congressman) Joe Scarborough is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Um, should we feel bad for them?

On the other hand, the hateful, scary stuff people are yelling at McCain/Palin rallies reminds me a little too much of a lynch mob, or some third world country with coups, dictators and "militias" roaming the streets.

Update

Good news on the technology front - I got an A/B splitter and it solved the problem with the new DVD player. $16.99 well spent at Radio Shack.

In other news, I'm probably not going to be posting as frequently because I'm taking a writing class and with 2 little kids at home and work as well, there's only so much time in the day for writing. I'll try to post stuff when I can.