Random Thoughts....


- I watched the last Brave and the Bold episode "Journey to the Center of the Bat". Excellent episode. I love John DiMaggio's Aquaman. Maybe it was just me, but after hearing the voice of the Brain, I kept expecting him to tell Batman "I fart in your general direction!". But why was Elongated Man talking like Frasier Crane?


- I read Final Crisis#7, and I have the same opinion of that issue as I do of the series as a whole: A lot of clever ideas, interesting characters, beautiful art and cool "fuck yeah" moments all in search of a coherent narrative. The conclusion was a bit too dependent on people having read a few of the companion series, especially since some of those series (Legion of 3 Worlds) hadn't even concluded yet. If I hadn't read Superman Beyond, it would have looked like they pulled in Mandrakk as the big bad right out of nowhere. In fact, it still did. I don't get why people were complaining about the art on this series so much, though. Jones and Pacheco gelled almost perfectly, and even the transition to Mahnke in issues 6 and 7 went smoothly.

Still, other than Bruce Wayne's fate, this didn't come off like the game-changer everyone thought it would be. Earth's heroes overcoming a planet-devastatng alien invasion with the help of a deus ex machina device? In the DCU, that's not an earth-shattering event. It's Tuesday.


- I just finished watching the first new "Heroes" episode of the new year. I read that this episode was made during Jeph Loeb's tenure and Lord did it show. Characters were inconsistent. Motivations were inconsistent. Hell, even superpowers were inconsistent. Peter lost his mimicry powers to his dad this season and gained them back through Mohinder's super-serum, but now he has to touch people to get their powers? He used to absorb them just by being in close proximity to a superbeing and could call that being's powers by sheer memory thereafter. You could argue that the need to touch was a product of the serum, but in the last episode (right after taking the serum) he flew to Nathan without touching him first. I think it was typical Loeb: Get the characters from Point A to Point B and screw plot or character consistency. In this case, the writers had to get Peter in the plane with the rest of the group, and if his powers were consistent with every past episode, putting him in the plane with the others would have provided Peter with an all-you-can-eat superpower buffet, unconscious or not. but then we might not have had the dramatic plane crash. There were some cool moments, though, particularly when Sylar escaped the hunters and when Peter thought he was getting super-strength from Nikki but actually got freezing powers from lookalike Tracy instead. I can't wait until the Bryan Fuller episodes start. That will probably be the last chance I give the show.


- I've also been watching "Lost" since it premiered. Anyone else notice that this show improved dramatically right after Brian K. Vaughn climbed on board? The time displacement has been handled very well so far, especially how they've introduced new characters who may actually be the younger selves of older characters.


- I've been reading the Genocide storyline in Wonder Woman and I've got to say I've been impressed with the art of Aaron Lopresti so far. His stuff reminds me of Daryl Banks, JLA-era Adam Hughes, and even pre-lightbox Greg Land (the latter is actually a good thing, as those who read Land's Birds of Prey and Nightwing runs can attest). Stay away from those porno mags, Aaron, and you'll go far.


- My favorite Super Bowl commercial was the one with MacGruber, er, "Pepsuber".


- You know, former governor Rod Blagojavich had been comparing himself with such figures as Ghandi, Martin Luthor King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela, but since he's been kind of an awkward, arrogant oaf, he reminded me a bit of this guy:








Nahh, that's too mean, even to Hal.