ohtani's jacket

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.

I can't see this being any different than Durant's other stops post-Warriors.

Man, the French delivered this year with Coco beating the sore loser and Alcaraz and Sinner delivering arguably the best men's final ever.

The TNT send off stuff was more emotional than I expected.

That's a shame. I loved the last thing I read by him, which were the Atlantis Chronicles. He was able to write intelligent mainstream comics that were accessible to everyone. Love the ups and downs of his Hulk run and the trials and tribulations of writing for different artists, some better than others. It may be time to revisit his work. There's his lengthy second run on X-Factor that I know nothing about. But for today, RIP and commiserations to his family.

Indiana didn't have an answer for Mitchell, and they haven't had an answer for Brunson either, but it hasn't mattered. The overriding theme of these playoffs has been depth. I don't think it's a surprise that the teams with the deepest playoff rotations are leading these series. Both squads are wearing teams down. The Thunder do it with points off turnovers. The Pacers do it with pace.

I don't think it's a surprise that OKC is dominating the Timberwolves given that they went through a tough series with Denver and the T-Wolves have faced little resistance thus far. It's crazy how good OKC are at forcing turnovers and turning them into fast break points. A Pacers/OKC final might break points scoring records.

What were the odds of a Kncks/Pacers conference final?

Mitchell, Curry, Tatum, even LeBron... the lottery being rigged... not a good look for the NBA right now.

Yeah, it's the home opener for the Golden State Valkyries.

If I were the Dubs, I wouldn't bring Curry back. Minnesota will probably make the decision for them, but I wouldn't risk it. Let the hamstring heal and run it back next year. It's not like they're going to get out of the next round even if they do scrape past the T-Wolves. The NBA isn't doing its players any favors with this crazy scheduling.

Kuminga can score. He's just useless at playing within the Warriors system. Since the Warriors ran a bunch of iso crap he got his.

Ya think Haliburton is taking this overrated stuff personally? It's a good thing his dad wasn't at the game.

Buddy Hield... and to think lots of Warriors fans wanted Kerr to bench him in favor of Moses Moody. Great defensive effort today. The Rockets have a ton of talent but it feels like they're missing a playmaker.

The Warriors tanking a game and the Rockets celebrating like they'd won the chip was funny shit.

That shot of Spencer walking away from the Turkish dude is freaking iconic.

To be fair, Hield shot 6/13 (including 5 threes) and Gary Payton III shot 7/9, both off the bench. If not for those two, the Dubs wouldn't have won. it took Golden State until the third quarter to figure out how to score without Jimmy on the floor. It was reminiscent of the early part of the season where they were using a deep rotation and finding different ways to score. The starters who didn't score contributed a lot defensively. The only real disappointment was Kuminga, whom the team has all but given up on. The Rockets didn't seem very connected to me. The next game is going to be interesting if Jimmy returns given the jawing at the end after the final whistle.

Draymond didn't push him. It was a reckless play from Amen. The NBA really needs to clamp down on this shit before sometime gets seriously injured. The officiating is the number one reason why this series is so chippy.