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Monday, April 17, 2006
Monday Night Observations
I was a horrible person and downloaded the latest episode of Doctor Who instead of waiting for the Sci-Fi channel to butcher it with far too many commercials.
It was a definite: Eh. The Christmas special really did work much better as an introduction to David Tennant's Doctor. And the plot was a bit muddied as well. Just about any one of the disparate elements in the episode would have worked fine on their own, but mashing them all together smacked of running out of episodes in which to play this season. And, even by the rather loose standards of this show, the Doctor's solution was a bit too deus ex-machina.
There is also apparently a plan to introduce more fake web-sites and web-games this season to expand the show. The first game is already up. It's a fairly simple maze game, but it does contain a few teases about upcoming episodes.
I thought nothing could hurt me more or deeply than the Showcase Presents: Superman Family book, with it's nearly 500 pages of Jimmy Olsen stories.
I was wrong. I bought the Showcase Presents: Teen Titans book as well. Jimmy's stories make perfect sense in comparison.
It's not just the incredibly condescending tone the stories are written in, in which the reader is talked down to like an idiot. It isn't just the treacly "after-school special" moral that seems to be the point of each story. No, it's the combination of those factors with the dialogue which comes off as a forty-year old trying to sound "down" and "hip" with all the "groovy lingo" that "the kids" use these days.
Plus, Wonder Girl is pretty much primarily to blame for all the convoluted attempts at "fixing" their continuity that DC has undergone over the years. You could almost say that Bob Haney and his refusal to do some basic research is directly responsible for Infinite Crisis.
Absolute Dark Knight contains both Dark Knight Returns and Dark Knight Strikes Again, in an over-sized format suitable for beating people senseless. Specifically people who are still complaining about the coloring in Strikes Again.
Grant Morrison starts his run on Batman with Andy Kubert. Morrison has talked about returning Batman to the "hairy-chested love-god" version of the seventies. I'm...remarkably okay with that, as I find I greatly prefer the more "super-hero-ey" Batman. And Paul Dini takes on Detective, with J.H. Williams III leading off a stable of rotating artists. That scream of rage you hear is Warren Ellis fans preparing to go off on a tirade about how Ellis is getting screwed by DC.
Gail Simone writes a new on-going Atom series. Be prepared for lots of people who just realized they're Atom fans to complain "but he's different!". In the exact same way they complained about the new Firestorm being "different."
I will probably enjoy the new Justice League of America series, but the cover makes the baby Jesus cry. On a similar note, I'm sure that I'll enjoy the new Wonder Woman series, but I'm frankly already annoyed with the vagueness of the solicitations for that and the new Flash book. Teasing us with "new directions" or new characters in the roles when you don't actually provide any hints as to what that direction is doesn't do much to encourage readers.
JSA's final issue is solicited. I'm sure we'll be getting a relaunch any time now. But that's okay because JSA Classified is all about Wildcat.
And to further feed my sick Wildcat fixation there's Justice Society, collecting the 70s-era All-Star run of the series.
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters pushes Grant Morrison's role in "conceiving" the series. I'm not sure if that's a pre-emptive strike against criticism of the book or not.
Omukae Desu by Meca Tanaka has a cute bunny in it, and a story involving escorting souls to the after-life via motorcycle. I'm strangely curious.
Garth Ennis writes another Kev sequel and Battler Briton, a war comic. Both will almost certainly be read and enjoyed.
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