The Unholy Dragon

I kind of appreciate the ambition of DKSA but it doesn't all work. Miller's vision of superheroes-as-sexed-up-pop-culture without any teeth worked for me and I loved the gaudy colours that went with it. I think I liked the ideas more than anything in the actual script, and yeah...the Dick Grayson stuff was just weird. Still, up until Chris Sims recontextualized DKR with one of his columns, I probably preferred Strikes Again.

I know its only another month and half to two months away, but damn is the wait hard, especially now that I've seen a trailer. Wow, this looks incredibly non-intelligence insulting for something on Nick. I may have to go out of my way for this. Also, I've gone back and started going through Justice League again on Netflix. The "Maid of Honor" episodes from Season 2 is shockingly grown up in tone. More so than any other episode I can think of in the series. If you're not already aware, it's the sequel to the (excellent) Avatar: The Last Airbender.I say sequel. It's a series about the next Avatar set after something like an eighty year time jump.The first season was amazing.

MacFarlane had an agreement with Sim not to reprint it, yeah. Which is a shame because it's totally awesome. I think some of the newer editions have it after he worked it out with Sim.The series picks up a lot around issue thirty once Capullo takes over on art and Brian Holguin handles scripting more. Todd moving into toys was the best thing for that comic as the more hands off he got, the better the book.Whatever happened to Brian Holguin anyway? Between making Spawn pretty good and the seriously underrated/forgotten Aria, he was kind of a big deal for indie comics in the 90s, but I can't think of the last time I saw his name on anything.

My book's done. Just gotta collect my thoughts and do the writeup.

It boggles me that Tara Strong has now done four versions of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl over what? 20 years? Crazy. And awesome, given that TAS is different from Beyond is different from Beware is VERY different from Super BFFs. Also, the notion of Manchester Black's accent being awful is kinda funny given that Robin Atkin Downes is, y'know...English.

Having watched the whole run over like, two months, then rewatched most of it again...yeah, I can say you're a bit off base here. There's a TON of building plotlines and character arcs each season. That's not to say the next season won't often cause them to backslide some, but that kind of development's always been there and is very much a part of the show's framework.

I liked DMZ a lot. I thought the characters were the highlight, but I also dug the use of perspective and the push that things mean different things depending on who you ask, as well as the corruptive nature of an environment that's consistently violent. It sort of wavered near the end, but it did a good job creating parallels to actual issues within the fictional framework. It also created a pretty rich mythology for itself, and had Jennie 2.5 going unnamed but basically connecting it with the Channel Zero/Couriers universe. Despite REALLY wanting to like it, I couldn't get into Chew. And I read the first two or three trades. It's not BAD but it just doesn't excite me.

...right. That.Whoops.

Good couple months for horror movies. The Conjuring was pretty fucking awesome, falling just behind Sinister for my favourite James Wan movie and basically cementing him as my favourite mainstream horror director. It did a good job building characters so that you actually feel invested in them when shit comes unglued. And oh boy do things get DERANGED. The trailers were wonderfully spoiler free and offered pretty much nothing of the INCREDIBLY fucked up horror stuff in here. A lot of the jump scare quality of Insidious but with more build and emphasis on character and a better ending. With this and Sinister, Wan has pretty much delivered back to back great horror movies (with Sinister bordering on perfect for me) and I'm super pumped for Insidious 2. V/H/S/2 was really fucking good too. Learned from the mistakes of the original with little to no sexist bullshit and four shorts instead of five, giving them more room to breathe and delivering some amazingly innovative horror. The third short in particular is absolutely must see for horror fans, being pretty much the most fucked up thing ever. Crazy apocalyptic death cults, man. If they can keep delivering quality like this, I'd be happy to see a new V/H/S flick each year.

Let's be real. Every season of Community is the Final Season until it isn't. Who seriously saw it getting a fifth season? And with Harmon back to boot?

I'm just hoping Son of Batman leads to a 7-8 movie adaptation of Grant Morrison's entire Batman run plus Final Crisis. ...look, I can dream.Also, Cyclops was sort of meh until the Apocalypse possession a few years back. Since then he's had an amazing array of writers turn him into one of the best characters in the Marvel universe. I know. I was surprised too.

Awesome. Glad you dug this.I remember reading it and in the last hundred or so pages just feeling sick, because I felt like I was slipping with the protagonist just a bit far over the bend into Frank's headspace and it was a very scary thing. One of the things I find really compelling about it is the fact that it's so subversive...it really makes you feel a connection to Frank even if it's not a positive one, and that makes the ultimate revelations about him slip under the skin that much more than any given horror loon. The ending is pretty much perfect and I love that when shit ratchets up, it doesn't waste any time about it.Very pleased you dug it.(and hey. Anonymous? I've been around. )

Still working on my book, Page 436 out of 574 so I'm getting there.

That and King City are like, $35 together with free shipping on Amazon. They're among the best indie graphic novels I've read, ever. Doooooooo it.

If you're looking for JLU tone, hit up back issues because it's long gone. If you liked the look/story of Injustice, dive right on in to the New 52 Justice League.

Top Shelf has a Comixology sale on right now, and if you don't have $4 for 434 pages of awesomeness in the form of Infinite Kung Fu, I might not want to know you.

So with the brackets out, I'm guessing Elgin goes through Paul London, Karl Anderson, and Roderick Strong in succession to make him look like a god before losing to new heel champ Adam Cole. Because if there's one thing RoH knows how to do, it's keep their groomed ace from the title until nobody cares anymore.

Well, seeing as their version of that arc probably won't be terrible, it's safe to call it an original story.

Man, after the end of Johns' run on GL, I have no desire to read about Sinestro again. Him as Parallax is cool for what it is, but Johns basically gave his character the perfect ending.Actually, the Gutters comic about the end of Johns' run was pretty spot on.

Read Young Avengers.The guys who do Phonogram writing teen heroes (who enjoy being heroes) with two strong female protagonists and as close to a Scott Pilgrim tone as Marvel could hit. It's super awesome.

Been reading it in digital. It's shaping up interestingly, though two issues in I'm still wondering how they're going to wrap the thing in six overall. Definitely feels like it could support an ongoing. More than anything, I'm really digging the development of Korse (something only hinted at in the music videos) and the idea of the Killjoys being rebel icons in the future and influencing the continued resistance. Despite the titular characters being dead throughout, their presence is very much felt in the series. I'm digging it a lot.Wouldn't mind an adaptation of the music videos, honestly, though I doubt they'd actually do it.

I like Sandow fine. It's just very much a "Crowd goes mild" result.

Also true. More good, new takes on characters there than we've seen in years.

*ahem* As I said in another thread before finding this one... First episode of Beware the Batman: Kinda halfway between pulp style and Morrison lunacy. Struggles a bit with its tone. Turning Professor Pyg into a Poison Ivy-esque motivation is questionable. But it's *different*, both from the comics and from any animated series while still being very much a Batman show. Badass Alfred, Katana set as a genuine equal partner, Pyg charging Batman with a hacksaw...it's a lot of fun to watch and I'm excited to see what else they come up with. All said, it's not as good as Young Justice was, but it was probably a hotter start than Young Justice had. We'll see how it goes.

Incidentally, DC's digital first offerings are mostly pretty good. Legends of the Dark Knight offers great variety, Batman 66 is a ton of fun, and Smallville is legitimately the best Superman book in years (and I hated the show).