ohtani's jacket

Crazy day of tennis. Sinner hasn't been right since his cramping incident, Djokovic should have been ousted in the quarters, and Alcaraz needed pickle juice to make it through his semi.

Loved Sal's work and that run on Spectacular Spider-Man where he inked himself.

According to the Duffer brothers, the film Max and Lucas are watching is Ghost.

Loved the graduation ceremony. That was straight out of an 80s film. Also loved the callback to Eddie saying when he graduated he was going to look Higgins dead in the eye and flip him the bird.

Well, I enjoyed it. Spoilers:

I'm not a fan of Waid's run on The Flash. I think you can make a solid argument that it peaks with the first storyline, though I do like the arc where Barry returns. Hated all of the Speed Force stuff. His characterization of Wally was far less interesting than either Baron or Bill Loebs, and the art was terrible after Greg LaRocque left. I like other stuff that Waid has done, but I think he was better in the 2010s than the 90s.

The Louise Simonson/June Brigman Power Pack issues are very good. Alpha Flight is OK, but Byrne quickly loses interest in it (a reoccurring theme in his work, along with editorial conflict.) I haven't read pre-Peter David Hulk, but David's run has many highs. A lot of people swear by Herb Trimpe Hulk.

What a bizarre chapter in NBA history.

Shocking news about D'Angelo.

I finished the first volume of The Alien Legion. I actually began reading it a few years ago, but grew restless and began reading other things. Overall, I thought it was a solid series. Perhaps not as interesting as Strikeforce: Morituri, but in the same ballpark as far as books on the fringe go. I actually thought if it had been published outside of the Epic brand it may have done better. It was basically a straight forward superhero book with slightly more mature themes. They could have easily printed it on cheaper newsprint as the crappy 80s coloring didn't justify the higher cost. Of course, if it had been published outside of Epic, it probably would have been shoehorned into the Marvel Universe somehow and that may have diminished its impact. I prefer multi-part stories to standalone stories, so I enjoyed Chris Warner's arc the most, but there were some very good single issue stories. The art was consistently good throughout the series, and the characters were fairly engaging. I may not have cared about the characters as much as I do with my favorite teams, but I had a decent grasp of what they were all about. It never really felt like they were building to anything, and there wasn't a big bad guy like most Marvel comics, but I enjoyed following the fates of the individual Legionnaires, even the ones that were stand-ins for other popular superheroes. I liked it enough to keep following it into its next incarnation, so that's something.

I read Denny O'Neil's run on Daredevil from issue #194-226 (including some memorable fill-ins from the likes of Harlan Ellison and Frank Miller.) It's an odd little run that's sandwiched between the end of Miller's first run on the book and Born Again. It doesn't get a ton of love because it's not Miller, it's not as good as other work by O'Neil, and a large chunk of the run revolves around a character called Micah Synn, a type of villainous Tarzan who many people despise. However, if you take the time to read it, there are plenty of interesting ideas at play. Many of them feel ahead of their time. One of the most interesting things that O'Neil does is deal with the in world consequences of when a writer would come on board a book, create a new love interest for the leading character, then either discard her or let her be written out of the book by the next writer. O'Neil makes it clear that these characters' lives continue after the hero/writer is done with them, and they don't always end up living in a house with a white picket fence. Miller would explore this idea further in Born Again, and indeed, O'Neil doesn't get enough credit for laying the seeds for Miller's storyline. Miller didn't show up and reboot the status quo. He escalated the steady decline that Matt had been on throughout O'Neil's run, which, as O'Neil makes clear, began with Elektra's death. O'Neil introduces a love interest for Matt, the lovely Irish girl, Glori O'Breen, but he never fully commits to her despite saving her life on multiple occasions. She grows tired of Matt's erratic behavior, and flirts with the idea of returning to Ireland, but winds up staying in New York and becoming Foggy's girlfriend. I believe a later writer killed her off, but not Denny. He uses her to write about the IRA, a topic that wasn't all that common in mainstream American comics at the time, but something that writers like Garth Ennis would return to time and time again. Then there's Micah Synn. It's not entirely clear what Denny was trying to achieve with Synn. Perhaps Denny felt like messing with the Tarzan premise, or perhaps he was an attempt to create a villain for Daredevil who wasn't the Kingpin. Synn ends up ruining Foggy's live personally and professionally. Foggy is in a toxic marriage with a woman named Debbie, one of the most singularly annoying characters in comic book history, who nonetheless is treated in horrid fashion by Synn. Some people find the treatment of Debbie disturbing, and I must admit it runs contrary to O'Neil's commentary on superhero love interests, but Debbie is awful and breaks Foggy's heart numerous times. Not every story, or villain that Denny creates, is a winner, but there are plenty of memorable issues. Even when it doesn't work, Denny still tries to take Matt out of his comfort zone whether it's fighting in Venice or traveling to Japan and Arizona. There's a fantastic issue towards the end where Matt battles with a depressed Vulture. Finally, regardless of how you feel about the writing, the artwork is top-notch, from the brief run by William Johnson, to Mazzucchelli's issue-by-issue rise as one of the most outstanding superhero pencilers of the 80s, and even fill-in issues from John Buscema and Dan Jurgens & Geoff Isherwood. If nothing else, the artwork continues the momentum that the book had under Miller and Jansen The worst crime you commit as a comic book creator is being boring. O'Neil's run as odd, but filled with interesting ideas, strange turns, and fantastic art, and it paved the way for Miller to come in and blow the whole thing up. I'd say that makes for an underrated run.

Lillard filed for divorce a few days after being traded to the Bucks. The pair had been separated for several months prior to that. His wife's response to the divorce filing was to claim custody of the children. In her response, she mentioned that being traded to the Bucks was further proof that he couldn't support his children as a parent, but she had already claimed to be their sole caregiver. The reason that Dame is happy about the situation is that he gets paid in full while rehabbing and can sign for a lower amount for a contender.

Despite being a polarizing figure, I had a ton of respect for him.

Noooo, Loon-dawg signed with the Pelicans. Your favorite player's favorite.

All those pundits who doubted the severity of Haliburton's calf injury ought to take a long, hard look in the mirror. But probably won't.