Kasoh

Back in July I realized I could have not bought any books in August and I wouldn't have missed a thing. Most of the last issues were lousy one offs written by people who weren't the book regular.

Batgirl was great, like the book generally was, and Secret Six was interesting but both of those were written by their regular authors. Red Robin was getting long in the tooth, but it made it across the finish line well enough.

The last issues of Power Girl were okay for one offs, and I'm still sad to see the book end.

The Green Lantern stuff has been terrible.

At least September is almost here so I can look forward to actually buying my comics again.

Some people don't like Bendis's (Bendis'?) work, for whatever reason, but I've generally found him to be a good writer, especially on Ultimate Spiderman.

According to the synopsis on the link, Wondergirl is a thief. Or something...

If I didn't want to support my local comic shop, I would be greatly interested in the Same day digital release of new comics. That's huge for me, but because I have a brick and mortar store I've been going to for fifteen odd years, who gets by because they sell Warhammer minis, Magic and Pokemon cards more so than any number of comics, I can't abandon them for convenience of reading comics on my E-device.

If they can get people to latch onto comics in the digital medium, it could be the beginning of a new swell in comic readership and I wouldn't mind that. Because I love reading comics, I want the companies that publish them to remain in business which means that occasionally I have to accept the obvious money grab.

On the other hand, if they can pick up substantial new readership through the same day digital distribution, it might be worth it. I don't think its likely to happen, but the digital medium will probably accrue new readers faster at #1 issues than just switching over the current numbering.

Though, this seems too kitchsy to be a serious attempt. In my mind, its more like the fallout of Flashpoint will require this and then it will get cleaned up and we can move on with our lives. I'm hoping at least.

That said, they retcon Tim Drake, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, or Power Girl out of existence, its on DC. Its on.

So, the moral of the story is 'Don't write badge text about literature based off of memory?'

Damnit, I enjoyed The Chicago Code....

I do not like watching movies with sad endings.

Objectively, I can appreciate the neccessity to the story and the emotional power such endings have. A sad ending doesn't make it bad. Sometimes, it can even enhance a work. King Lear is best not just when Cordelia dies, but when you think for a moment she might live and still dies.

I'm not sure Sucker Punch's ending enhanced the film. The audience is invested in Baby Doll's story. Her injustice, her call to action, her plan. That she sacrifices everything for Sweet Pea is noble, practical, and sad--considering the audience's connection to her character. What the audience gains instead of Baby Doll escaping is the satisfaction of seeing Blue taken down, and while he is a disgusting individual I personally was never invested enough in the system to see Blue getting removed as a greater victory than her just escaping. I put her escaping and Blue getting what he deserved just about equal in terms of emotional impact.

Admittedly, I could be overlooking something that gives the sacrifice a more signifigant impact.

Its how it ended though, and complaining about that is rather pointless. Earlier I said that I understood it to be about the only way the film could really end. It is what it is.

But understanding the dramatic power of a tragic ending and liking them are seperate things. I can appreciate, find meaning, note the poigency of tragic endings, but I doubt I will ever like them.

I saw it, was liking it, following along with what I assumed the story to be as well as I could, not being particularily bothered. The action sequences were well put together, I had a grasp of the plot. I didn't go in expecting Casablanca, after all.

Where Sucker Punch lost me was the ending. As pleased as I was to see Sweet Pea escape, I truely dispised the injustice of the ending. Baby Doll ends up sacrificing her very self to make the escape successful and by way of sheer chance, happens to get Blue arrested. It was practically the only way it could have ended I suppose, given the way the narrative was framed, but damned if it didn't depress me.

I'd see it again, and I'd like to hear a Director's commentary track on it, but...the ending kind of puts it into the 'I'm in a mood to watch a downer.' category which translates into every three years or so.

Scott Glenn is awesome though.

Bi-weekly. It ends at issue 25 or so, which is soon.

You do a thing, and you unlock them.

You do some stuff, and you fill them.

When they're all full, you are awesome.

It shouldn't amuse me so much to see Bruce Wayne as one of the better models of parenting in the DCU, but there it is.

Recently I sorted all the comics I'd bought since august, and there were only 2 issues of Powers in the entire pile. A good book, but it comes out so infrequently anymore that I find it hard to be excited about.

That said, A TV version might be entertaining.

I enjoyed it for what it was. I was entertained and didn't want my money back afterwards.

The 3D was good in some spots and 'C'mon, really?' in a few others. Bullets flying towards the audience is something that irritates me for some reason, like the glasses on my face didn't make me realize that I'm watching something in the 3D.

Out of the 3D movies I've seen so far, Avatar was the one that did it best, because it wasn't waved in front of my face everytime something happened.

Not to mention Casey had a seriously awesome moment of killing, what seven guys, and not getting hit once?

A pair of heroes stood at the end of a long corridor, staring down the cement passage. One of them was wondering what brought them to this particular junction, while the other was more concerned with the complete lack of tactical cover.

It was hard to tell which one was thinking which, as they looked exactly alike.

Alice Springs, known to most as the Omega Source, frowned at the poor lighting and crouched low, her faint energy shield shimmering as she moved. Her heavily armored red and blue uniform creaked as she settled into position. Annoyed, she glanced at her partner, who was looking almost everywhich way but forward.

"Eyes front, would you?"

Alice Springs, known more widely as the Alpha Source, looked down the dark hallway, three nimbuses of energy slowly swirling about her body. Glancing at her partner, the blonde tilted her head, "Ever since you told me about those ceiling zombies, I just have to check."

Omega Source sighed and pulled her Primal Earth counterpart behind her. "There aren't any ghouls here. Just generic goons if we're lucky. Now stay behind me."

People go missing everyday all over the world. In Paragon City however, the citizen to hero ratio is so high, that almost every single one gets a hero on the case within the hour. Such was the case here.

Omega Source moved forward slowly, always keeping an eye out for signs of guards. So far, they'd been steps behind the kidnappers and two hours ago, Omega Source had written the hapless citizen off. And yet...here she was, searching for a corpse because a certain hero who seemed more like a conscious than a partner refused to give up.

Omega Source held up her hand in a closed fist, and thankfully Alpha Source stopped before running into her. Omega pointed at the doorway. An honest to goodness dungeon. How quaint. Reminded her of home.

She peered her head around the doorway, hoping to catch a glimpse of the room's layout, and if any guards even remained.

It is a nice belt buckle.

Inception should take art direction and both sound oscars. I wouldn't mind a best picture, but that would be shortchanging the other best picture nods.

I will do many things I do not enjoy to have things I do enjoy. Certain actions in video games are one of those things.

If after a hour of farming the game asked me with a dialogue box "Since you obviously intend to do this for quite some time, how about we just give you X reward?", I'd click yes and move on to what I really wanted to do in the first place.

The enjoyment may be in the journey, but some of the sights on that journey suck.

[Christmas Eve]

Snow slowly fell in fat flakes, leaving a thick coating of wet powder on the streets of Lakeview, It was good for skiing or other winter activities, not for crimefighting.

Perched on the rooftop of a pawnshop, Tonbogiri frowned at the lack of traffic on the street. Not because that was suspicious, but because it was gods awful boring.

Her dark blue and purple costume kept her mostly hidden in the dark night, though her shadow cloak was less useful in falling elements like rain, and snow was just another type of rain.

Standing up, her cape snapped as the wind caught it, and a few passers by looked up, seeing the purple haired teenage girl leap off the roof before disappearing in a small circle of gravetic energy.

The more populated shopping district gave Tonbogiri plenty to watch over. Swells of people moved in and out of shops with an alacrity she found amusing. So much to do, and they left it all for the last minute. She tried to muster some disdain for the procrastinators of the world, but found she largely didn’t care what they were doing or why.

“Its Christmas Eve, and here you are, skulking on rooftops.”

Tonbogiri went tense and her eyes flared with Kheldian energy as she found three good spots to teleport to before she turned looked over her shoulder to see Pearlescent, local shopkeeper, Peacebringer, arch-nemesis, and (much to her dismay) newly established legal guardian floating off the rooftop, her own eyes glowing with the sparkling shine all peacebringers had.

Pearlescent was not dressed like a superhero. Just jeans and a thick winter jacket, which her hands were stuffed into. Tonbogiri didn’t like not seeing her hands, but figured that she wasn’t the type to blast a hole in an expensive piece of clothing for a surprise attack.

“I’m patrolling. Those creepy avenger of the night types skulk.”

“Hm.” Setting her feet down on the rooftop, the Kheldian glow faded from Pearlescent’s eyes and she walked up next to Tonbogiri, putting one foot on the rooftop’s ledge to look over it, seemingly ignoring the younger woman’s tense position.

“Been busy?” Pearlescent asked as she scanned the crowd, “Tonight, I mean.”

Truth was, it had been agonizingly slow: some tresspassers, four parking tickets, a lost dog, and a fight over the last ‘must have’ gadget at Cooke’s Electronics, “Busy enough.”

“You might want to consider turning in soon. Crime always drops considerably on Christmas.”

Tonbogiri scoffed and sneered, “Next thing I know you’ll tell me that Santa Claus won’t visit if I’m still awake.”

The pale haired peacebringer barely lifted the corners of her lips in the smile, “Well its true.”

Tonbogiri turned her sneer on full bore before she cast a withering glare at the other woman. It was too cliché to tell Pearlescent that she didn’t believe in Santa Claus—what teenager did? Or to slip up and say that ever since she was ten and asked for a mom and dad who loved her only to be disappointed that she’d given up on the holiday. No matter how well the cliché fit.

Tonbogiri was entirely to savvy to fall into the middle of a heartwarming ‘X-mas Speshul’.

So she settled for the aforementioned nasty glare before teleporting to an adjacent rooftop, hoping the Peacebringer would get the hint.

She watched Pearlescent from a new perch on a higher building across the street. The Peacebringer hugged herself tightly with her eyes closed, some strange expression haunting her face. Pity, maybe? Great. Pity from the city assigned watchdog. A few minutes of that, and Pearlescent flew off the rooftop, heading south, probably towards her shop.

Alone again, Tonbogiri gave the shopping district another once over before moving on into the residential areas. She stuck to the apartment complexes, a better chance of crime where more people congregated. That’s when she saw them. A small group of Warriors were standing close together in an alleyway. Focusing her attention on them, the teen noticed a shabbily dressed man in the middle of the group. A deal or a shakedown? It was hard to figure out from the building she was standing on.

Teleporting closer, Tonbogiri watched the Warriors point angrily at the man in the center of their circle and the man just shrugged. All the Warriors had their weapons out already and a few were caressing them lovingly, which was more creepy than threatening to her, but either way, the Warshade marked this incident down as a shakedown and leapt into action.

She opened with crowd control; a wide cone of gravity than knocked larger men down and disoriented them. She noted the one who had braced himself and didn’t fall, and it concerned her, but only briefly. Tonbogiri was the one with phenomenal cosmic powers after all.

A small focus of gravity would hold him in place while she cleaned up his buddies. She dashed forward to form the gravity well on him when she remembered the wet snow. Her feet slid over the pavement, still towards her target, but the lack of control increased the danger. Still not a big deal. As soon as she trapped the guy with her powers, she would teleport over to the others to lose the momentum she was gaining.

The warrior had other plans though. Seeing his opponent rushing him, he readied his mace and plowed the heavy metal ball into Tonbogiri’s stomach as she got within range. Her costume’s kinetic gel hardened and absorbed some of the impact, but the Warshade went flying off of her feet, her own attack fizzling.

Though still in once piece, the world was spinning as she landed on the ground. She flopped once, getting her face full of snow and landing on her stomach. The mace wielding warrior tried to lurch forward, but the remainders of her gravity cone slowed him down.

Forcing herself to her knees, Tonbogiri was pretty sure this would be a great time to shift forms, if she could concentrate.

The scruffy looking bum the Warriors had been shaking down lurched forward, grabbing the standing Warrior by his collar and threw him into the wall, breaking the brick with the thug’s skull. Dropping his hold on the Warrior, the bum stumbled down the ally, weaving slightly as Tonbogiri finished standing up. As the world settled around her, she noticed that he couldn’t be sober, which explained why he was doing something so stupid like going near the other gang members after that lucky shot.

She quickly reevaluated when he punched one of the dazed Warriors and blood gushed out of the wounded man’s nose and he collapsed. The bum quickly subdued the Warriors with usually a single punch to each. Who was this guy?

Tonbogiri put up her fists crouched into a combat stance when the bum turned back to her. She finally got a good look at him. Long unkempt hair pushed under a knit cap to go with his scraggly beard. An eyepatch covered his left eye, and his jacket used to be pretty swank. He looked at Tonbogiri and tilted his head, “You okay?”

“That’s supposed to be my line.”

He shrugged, reaching into his jacket to pull out a bottle of liquor. Taking a long, messy pull from the bottle, Tonbogiri watched in a combination of fascination and disgust as the booze dribbled into his beard.

“Normally I’d just let’em take a couple of bucks and sock me a few times, but you seemed like a nice girl, just wouldn’t be right. Not right at all.”

“Right well…yeah. You…uh…have fun with that. Good night.”

She turned to look for a place to teleport too when her stomach suggested that was a terrible idea. As wonderful a piece of technology as her costume was, she still probably bruised some ribs, and a pulled some muscle or another. Wincing, Tonbogiri gritted her teeth. Looking at the unconscious Warriors, she rolled her eyes. Stepping into the mass, she pulled pieces of their life force out of them and used them to heal herself. The bum watched curiously, a whimsical look in his single blue eye.

“Energy augmented regeneration. Warshade trait.” The bum muttered as he began to poke around in the Warrior’s pockets. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from one of their pockets, and pulled out a bent cigarette, lighting it before he offered the pack to Tonbogiri.

Looking at the falling snow still floating down from the sky, Tonbogiri shrugged and took the offered pack, fishing out a mostly straight cigarette. The bum tossed her the lighter and he sat down on some empty milk crates.

They smoked in silence for several minutes. When a gust of wind caught her cape again, Tonbogiri finally asked, “This is lousy weather, what are you doing out here?”

He shrugged, “Weather don’t bother me. I got plenty of juice to stay warm with.”

It really wasn’t any business of hers if he wanted to drink himself to oblivion and freeze to death. Still, he saved her a serious, if temporary, beating. Maybe she could just offer him the ten spot in her wallet and they’d be even.

Still tilting his head, the bum asked, “What about you? Big holiday, lousy weather. What are you doing out here?”

“I’m Jewish.”

“Really?”

“No. I’m a superhero, crime doesn’t rest because it’s a holiday.”

The bum snickered, which devolved into a coughing fit. When it passed, he said, “Young lady, you are way to young to talk like that. Like one of them angsty avenger types. You ain’t an angsty avenger type, are ya?”

“Didn’t think so, but here I am.”

The bum nodded, “Maybe you’re just trying it out. I hear that’s what kids do. Try stuff. Anyway, I think you need a hug—not from me, I’m filthy. Takes care of angst right quick. I should know, I’m a Doctor.”

“Uh-huh.”

The bum opened his jacket and pointed to a patch. It was a label that said, “Custom Tailored for Dr. K. Onnoroc.”

“That you?”

“I guess. I woke up in the jacket, earliest thing I remember. Must be me.”

Tonbogiri crushed the butt of the cigarette on the heel of her boot, “A hug, huh?”

“What? Ain’t you got nobody to give you a hug?”

“Angsty avenger type, remember?”

“I guess so. What a bummer of a cycle. Well if you’ve got people to avenge, you’ve got people to avenge. Merry Festivus or whatever.” The bum doctor gave a wave as he shuffled off down the ally.

After the bum left, Tonbogiri put some arrest tags on the Warriors, teleporting them to the local police infirmary. She lingered in the ally for a few more minutes, debating with herself before teleporting away.

Stackpole's Rogue Squadron and Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron books (All under the unifying title of X-Wing series) are probably the best Star Wars Novels written if you're looking for plain old fun to read stuff.

Zahn really has the feel of the setting down, and he is good with the characters, though sometimes his plots veer a little too far into the intracacies of intergalactic politics for my tastes. But anything by Tim Zahn is a solid bet.

I really enjoyed the republic commando novels, and Traviss' writing style but I already had a vitrolic hate for the Prequel era Jedi anyway.

I really stopped reading Star Wars novels when the Yuuzan Vong thing started, but I still like to check the new releases for good Clone Wars stuff.