Spritenaut 32

Mark "Private" Pyle is indeed Jay Strongbow's son. Private Pyle was a terrible gimmick, though.

Makabe was probably my favorite guy in the world during the Great Bash Heel days, but I've never confused him with a great worker.

Any updates on how hurt Cena really is? I'm heard rumblings it's not serious, but not seen anything reliable. Not sure I care. Cena vs. the Wyatts doesn't appeal to me at all, if that's what they actually are planning to run. I liked Bray Wyatt's work in NXT, but it hasn't translated well to the bigger shows for me. If they go the directions people are expecting, WrestleMania isn't gtoing to interest me much. So far, the only tease/rumor that interests me at all is Triple H/Daniel Bryan and I'd much rather see the HBK/DBryan feud they teased a while back.

I've liked Forever Evil quite a bit, but I'm mostly only reading the main book + a few other titles I'd be reading anyway. I can't imagine trying to keep up with the tie-ins on company wide crossovers like Forever Evil or Civil War. Ugh. I'm also still a huge fan of Johns, so that probably influences my opinion somewhat.

I remember when Nakamura was a decent in-ring guy, but seemed to have very little charisma. Bland is the word I'd use to describe Naka during the 00's.

Edge looks better since he's gotten off the road. Looks at least a decade younger too. (Also, is that actually Austin? Doesn't look like Austin to me except for the facial hair. Although the last pic I saw of Austin is probably years out of date by now.)

The O'Neill/Adams "Hard Traveling Heroes" stories from the 1970's? I'm a big fan. It's not for everyone, though. I still love O'Neill's Batman & Green Lantern work from that period, but it's very much a product of the times. Comics as a medium to tell serious stories has come a long way since then. Young Denny O'Neill was very liberal back then. His perspective in writing the social justice parts is very much "outsider sympathetic to the counterculture movement". Like a lot of writers at the time, he had an idealized idea of what counterculture actually was and ended up swinging too far to the left. Nearly every "hippie" character in the book is a total innocent who has run afoul of the nefarious establishment. Additionally, he tended to write the book very heavy handed. There's not much sublety or attempt to reconcile the mainstream superhero aspects of the book with the social issues. A lot of the dialogue is ham-fisted by today's standards. Ollie was one of my favorite DC characters (before Nu52 made him sorta generic), but some of his dialogue... wow. It's a bit much to be coming out of the mouth of a privledged white super hero. All in all, it's the first stab into social issues and it's a little simplistic. It's still one of my favorite 70's runs (prob only behind O'Neill's Batman stories, the Starlin cosmic stuff, and DeMatteis on Defenders), but I wouldn't put it as Denny's best work, though it was undeniably powerful and signficant for it's time. Neal Adams' art is still spectacular. Definitely worth reading. but if you're not a fan of 70's/80's comics and just looking for a pleasant read, you're probably better off with the other collections you mentioned. If I was going to pick up something you mentioned just to kill off an afternoon, I'd probably stick to Longbow Hunters or Archer's Quest. I thought the Kevin Smith run on GA was alright, but not up to the standards he hit on Daredevil just before (and the book is really hurt by Hester's art, imo. i've never liked him much, unfortunately).

Is there really anyone in ROH these days that should go over Tanahashi or Okada (or Nakamura, for that matter)? The idea that Tanahashi is going to eat a pin for Kevin Steen or Bobby Fish is... just no. No. That said, if NJ sends some decently big names, I'll probably go to my first ROH show since early 2007.

That doll is at least 5 times better looking and less lumpy than Tenryu has ever looked in real life. At least.

The "build with younger guys" bit is intiguing. My kneejerk reaction is that it wouldn't work. But..... one of my favorite booking jobs ever is 2006-ish Ohio Valley Wrestling, which was booked by Heyman for a year. Heyman made a lot of guys look like future stars, and only one or two ever really got over after being called up to the main roster (Punk and Beth Phoenix). You can make a case for a few other guys, like Idol Stevens (who is currently on the main roster under the name "Damien Sandow"), but developmental was petty thin compared to Cornette's run a couple years earlier. Heyman pushed guys like Brent Albright. Johnny Jeter, and Matt Cappotelli heavily and made them look like big deals, only to see their careers flame out when they were later called up to the main roster. Here's a minor one: does Matt Cappotelli find any success iin the WWE if he doesn't get diagnosed with the brain tumor? He looked like a star under Heyman's booking, but so did Johnny Jeter and Paul Burchill.

Archer's Quest doesn't depend too heavily on having read Smith's run (which preceded it), so you won't really be lost if you haven't read Quiver or Sounds of Violence. Basically, all you really need to know is that and that's established very early on. I never thought Grell was an a great writer or anything, but I think Longbow Hunters is fantastic. Just reread it a few months ago, actually, and thought it held up rather well. The GA series that spun out of Longbow Hunters, and was written by Grell with art by Ed Hannigan is a different matter entirely. It was hit and miss and exposed Grell's shortcomings as a writer (imo, anyway).

What is the missing word/phrase? "Married"?

... will never, ever get old.

WAR? Is that you? If the best Mutoh can do to help his promotion draw is no-name TNA midcarders, they absolutely shouldn't be running Sumo Hall. I don't believe for a minute that wrestlers like Bully Ray or Sting would make a big difference to the attendance, but at least they could add some credibility to the matchups. Is anyone in Japan really excited to see the Bromans? (Worse yet, they are probably going to go over a much better team.)

Yeah, really looking forward to season 2. FYI: Comcast just made the entire first season available via On Demand. Going to start rewatching season 1 later tonight. Edit: Thought Hannibal was free. It's not. Also, how did I miss that the box set was released last September. Guess I'll be going shopping tomorrow. On an unrelated note, I'm not much for sci-fi, but I'm really digging Helix on the Syfy channel. Really surprised by some of the plot twists tonight

Personally, I don't think you'll go wrong with any of them. I'd go with Archer's Quest and Longbow Hunters over Quiver. Longbow Hunters is my favorite of the three, but Archer's Quest is a lot of fun if you want something lighter in tone.