The International House of Comics

The much vaunted and hyped fourth weekly series ( Action, 52, Countdown) 'Trinity' by BUsiek and Bagley is a very odd thing. Initially I wrote it off as just crap, boring, unimpressive and a very pedestrian project for two such high-profile and quality creators to be involved with.

Now, after reading through the issues up to 12, it's still not terribly good but it's at least more intriguing as to why it's not blowing me away.

To my mind, Busiek is over-egging the pie. He seems to be trying to work about three or four different types of stories into the mix and it's simply not working. On the one hand, he wants to do a series that (re)defines the powers, the personalities and the relationships between the titular trinity of the DCU, Superman, Batman and Wonder-woman. On the other hand he also wants a galaxy spanning saga of sneaky behind the scenes doings and mysterious villains such as Enigma. ANd on top of all that he decides to use the multi-verse in exactly the way that it shouldn't be used: a big huge confusing mess of alternate realities thrown at us for no good reason except for cheap spectacle.

And all of these aspects do not mix well. The initial storyline about the relationships between the three and their personalities is just not very interesting and not very well done. Busiek doesn't have them defined well enough to then 'swap' their personalities and show the three of them being manipulated into 'growing closer' in terms of each becoming more like the other for us to properly notice. In other words, it's a badly thought out idea that leads to a lacklustre story.

It just doesn't work.

Then we have the villains manipulating things behind the scenes. And again it's a big resounding 'who cares?' as the villains are cliched, cardboard, crap and just not enough to hold anyone's interest.

So we have the usage of the Multiverse and I'm just not impressed with this either. Don't get me wrong, I love the Multiverse, I am delighted that DC finally had the sense to bring it back but I'm also keenly aware of why it went away first time and why DC need to follow what Grant Morrison and Dan Didio have been promising this time, that it will be treated as separate lines of books from DC and not just used for every half-baked crossover idea that comes along. And here we are, in a half-baked crossover idea that came along and there it is. Oh my.

DC probably needs to drop the weekly book idea for a while unless it has something really special and more importantly, appropriate for the format to offer. 'Trinity' is just not interesting enough or sustainable enough in the long run to fill a weekly book by itself (even with yawntastic back-up strip each week) and will inevitably just lead to driving readers away and souring them on the potential of the weekly which would be a terrible shame.

Some of this will go into the radio show I'm working on:

Legion of three worlds

Spiderman: New ways to Die

Angel : After the fall 11

Captain America 41


Final Crisis number three continues Grant's wacky and weird voyage through the more odd parts of the DCU, fiddling with Jack Kirby creations left, right and centre and giving us a classic Grant simmer-slow-burn to a hot sizzling complication and what's sure to be a great finish. Some of Grant's singularly high-concept and 'huge' ideas leap out such as the bullet being shot in the future and travelling back through time and now with Issue three, the visuals really come into their own with some mega-creepy moments such as the last few pages.

It's an interesting one as it's not old-school comics, not like the original Crisis or even the most recent 'Infinite Crisis' . It's not even like 52 or Countdown though it definitely uses and builds on the foundation stones that those series laid whilst throwing out two million other not entirely interesting plotlines and digging up so many ancient and second tier characters. I'm surprised that DC went with such a high-brow approach for their big deal cross-over but it is certainly nothing to sniff at, with a mini-series of this magnitude being allowed to ease into the big storylines and take it's time in telling it's rather complicated and multi-layered story.

Of course, being a crisis book, and being a Grant book means this will inevitably shift the goal-posts around a bit and allow us to more accurately get an over-view of the modern DCU and especially the modern Multiverse. Already in the last few months, the multiverse has been used extensively in JLA, JSA, Trinity and the Legion of three worlds mini and I'm hoping some kind of official structure will be put into place now with perhaps the first of many books being launched set in other worlds than the 'New Earth' that the consolidated 'Earth-1' realities have become, in the wake of 52.

Speaking of, 'FC: Legion of Three Worlds' is such a treat, it's hard not to gush. Geoff Johns knows and loves the Legion like very few do. He 'gets' the Legion as they once were and can be again- a very special family of super-heroes who've grown up together, fought alongside Superman since he was a boy and survived calamity after calamity without giving up or drifting apart.

Matching him up with George Perez is a LSH fan's dream come true. The crisp-clear art is a beauty to look at, taking much longer than usual to get through each page as it would be a crime to not fully look over every little corner and detail that Perez puts into the book.

Picking up from Johns two previous LSH story-lines, this book continues his ongoing plots with the post-crisis Levitz legion (without the original post-crisis changes) and throws a lot of changes at us fast in this first of five issues. This is exciting stuff and as good as Jim Shooter has been doing the monthly book, this definitely makes me want to see Johns on the Legion monthly, with whatever team we end up with once this massive mini finishes.

Adding to my previous post about the failing fortunes of Spider-Man right now. I have to ask when they changed the title to 'The Amazing Spider-VIN' ?

Am I the only one not particularly impressed with Pete's new roomate, Vin Gonzalez? I mean, he's okay as a supporting character and a potentially interesting read as a new guy in the MU but the last few issues it's as if he's been the star of the book, with Peter just being pushed to the side. Adding this to a seemingly endless stream of uber-shit supervillains ( a recent treat was the villain who could 'trick out' vehicles...ahem....wow, they really did run out of super-powers a few years ago, eh? ) and I'm really thinking Marvel better do something fast.

Joe, your little experiment in 'rewinding' Spider-man back some 20-30 years has gone on for long enough- can we have the real Spider-man back now, please?

If you haven't been reading Grant Morrison's Batman, then you need to dig them up and get into them. Over the last 22 issues or so, Grant has built up a typically intricate collection of plot points, back-story and now with the launch of the ominous sounding 'Batman R.I.P' storyline, we get to see all the threads tie together and some of the most exciting story-telling since 'No Man's Land'.

Grant, as much as he is excellent at any length story-telling, always excels at the longer game and given the chance to unfold a map of story over a generous number of issues, will show his skills and command of the genre and the art-form as few can.

Spider-man seems to be somewhat floundering following the sketchy Mephisto reboot of 'Brand new day'. Marvel has this great ability to build up huge Spider storylines and then kick them in the nuts with some crap revelation and walk away as if this huge flondering structure of abandoned storylines isn't casting a giant ominous shadow over the current comics coming out of the house of ideas.

The new Amazing stories just aren't doing a whole lot of anything and I really wouldn't be surprised if we have a Mephisto confrontation being planned already as a 'just in case' clause. Joe Quesada not liking Peter Parker being married is really irrelevant at this stage; if it comes down to their marriage versus sales in the toilet, then I don't see a choice for Marvel.

Of course, I'm one of those who loved the spider-clone story, up to a point. I loved the idea and the character of Ben Reilly and STILL want them to bring him back and give him his own city to spin webs in and allow us to see the whole spider-verse from another and somewhat more refreshing view-point. Yes, they over-did it and it went all a bit ridiculous with 'Maximum Clonage' but BR was a great character and someone who could easily hold down a monthly book, given a decent costume overhaul and a suitable name-change ('The Scarlet Spider' is just one step away from performing at a drag revue).

Hell, if May Parker can have her own book set in an alternate future, then Marvel has to know there's room for Ben Reilly in Boston, Dallas or even another counrtry. Just do what they were doing with him before they tried the old reverse-a-roonie and started claiming he was the original and Peter was the clone farrago. We know Ben's the clone, we know he's got all this back-story and now let's get on with it and get on with rebuilding his life and making himself someone independant of Peter and Spider-Man.

Star trek mirror images

fantastic four; death of the invisible woman

Secret Invasion


Parallel universe stories have a long and complex history with comic books. On the one hand you had the classic majesty of the pre-Crisis (and funnily enough, post- Infinite Crisis, as well) and on the other hand you had the confusion of the Marvel Universe's ongoing flirtation with it's own non-standardised (well, until the recent semi-formal effort to structure things in a consistent fashion based around Alan Moore's numbering system from Captain Britain stories and the introduction of the Ultimate line) multiverse.

But now we have a return to one of fandom's most beloved of 'cool' instances revisited, ie, that of the 'Mirror, Mirror' TOS episode which threw the ever-popular alternate universe into the already potent Trek mix and introduced such weird and wacky concepts to a salivating fanbase as Spock's 'evil' beard, a demented Captain Kirk with his alien death camera ray mirror thingy, cool 'evil' outfits, poor Mr.Pierce and the 'agoniser' and the knowledge that there was an 'evil' Enterprise out there who did not tolerate one iota of Mr.Rodenberry's optimistic humanistic pacifistic (well, pacifist AFTER young Bill Shatner has kicked you in the face to THAT music) and that was jolly exciting to all fans.

The orginal show never capitalised on this most beloved of concepts and episodes unfortunately (how fantastic would a movie have been with the return of the 'evil' crew? ), leaving it to a novel by Diane Duane ('Dark Mirror') to touch upon that territory for TNG, some reasonably interesting but not too exciting DS9 follow-ups and an excellent two-parter from 'Enterprise' .

Now, comics are going back where Desilu studios didn't dare, and the first issue is a bloody good read. It's everything that you want out of a licensed property comic- a story that takes you right to the heart of the essence of the property in question, characters you know being written as they would act and taking it a step further, adding something new to the experience.

David Messina making his concise lines expressive enough to make every familiar character instantly recognisable whilst also giving us his own flair to add something to each scene.

The story takes us right back into the heart of our fascination with this whole alternate universe idea and, somewhat like the two-part Enterprise episode, shows us so much more of the culture and behaviors of the Imperial universe counterparts. The comic promises a lot and if the next few issues live up to this impressive start, it will go down as a thoroughly enjoyable addition to the TOS canon.

My girlfriend and I are working on a project and Google's pretty much useless. I'm attempting to compile a decent list of comic characters with tattoos, piercings and/or other various body modifications.

I've got a few, but I know there's more and for the life of me, I cannot think of enough.

Thanks!

(Crossposted like mad, sorry if this shows up on your friends list a few times.)

Warren Ellis just sent out a mail asking if we could post this up on our blogs or special interweb places to remind people that his free web-comic Freakangels is still coming out every week so here it is, folks. Enjoy and support cool free shit or it'll go away.


If all of you with a blog could do me a favour today, if
if you feel so moved:

Post a link to http://www.freakangels.com ? Just to remind people
we're still here and still pumping out free comics episodes once a week.
Memories get short on the old intarwubs.

Hell, you could even use

http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/LACofd2ABL8Bmckn

the FREAKANGELS RSS Window, which auto-updates every Friday.

Thanks.

-- W

It's time for one of these listy things again. This time, inspired by some really excellent reading lately, I decided to open this one up to ten comic books series or indivudual works that would be good jumping on points for people who don't normally read comics but who are interested enough to give them a try after hearing various bits of hype over the years.

Ok, so to make it clear- this is a list of ten comics properties that I think would be of interest to people who don't normally read comics

Comments, as always, welcome.



1) The Walking Dead:

Utterly compelling series, now hitting it's 50th issue with the least amount of wear and tear ever in a conceptual ongoing series. TWD is Robert Kirkman writing with honesty, passion, integrity, humanity and big huge balls. Accompanied by the beautiful covers and the remarkable black and white illustrations, this is the closest thing to excellent tv you'll get in comics. These are characters one cares about, situations that could easily happen given the scenario of a plague followed up by zombies and scattered pockets of survivors. Just don't get too attached to any character because this is hardcore; anyone can and usually does die.

2) Ex Machina:

God, it's so rare that comics gets something as 'real-world' as politics right. Warren Ellis showed it could be done and done well with 'Transmetropolitan'. Brian Vaughan cleverly combines the superheroic (albeit realistic to a certain degree) shenanigans with the comic's main meat and potatoes of the central character being Mayor of New York City. It's a brave and bold conceit, exploring the murky waters of politics and throwing in some very intriguing ideas about 'The Great Machine' superheroic identity. What's most gripping initially is that in this world, the existence of one vaguely crappy superhero who managed to intervene in 9/11 left us with only one of the twin towers collapsing.

3) Y-The Last Man:

Like 'The Walking Dead' above, so Y takes another long hard look at an old story idea, that of one gender being wiped out mostly, and interrogates it thoroughly for every last plot device or character nuance possible. Displaying Vaughan's undeniable talent and Pia Guerrera's deceptively straightforward art which masks the incredible subtleties and level of accomplishment, Y takes us places few comics before have gone and asks questions about every level of society, exploding a few ripe chestnuts of conventional wisdom in the process of doing so.

4) Top Ten: The Forty Niners:

An odd choice for newbies to comics, perhaps, but one that I put in here because it captures the essential timeless charm and appeal of the old-school superheroic malarky that we all know of through culture surrounding us but under the masterful lens of Alan Moore's writing and Gene Ha's gorgeous lush visuals, this original graphic novel which acts as a prequel to the Top Ten series gives us both a wonderful self-contained tale and a springboard to go on to read the series itself with. Operating both as nostalgic with the historical 1940's setting and incisive with the romance between two of the male leads, TFN is something anyone can pick up and dive straight into, enjoying the character interaction, the drama and the fantastic action scenes.

5: Nova:

Throwing in a monthly comic from Marvel ended up being a difficult choice as so many of Marvel's books are either unappealing to newcomers or too convoluted in their own and in company continuity as to offer any non-regular reader a chance to follow. But Dan Abnet and Andy Lanning's 'Nova' is probably the best book Marvel puts out right now on a regular basis. Having let their cosmic and stellar characters languish in guest-starring roles and be written lazily and sloppily since the 1970's, Marvel finally dusted them off and handed them to capable people like Dan & Andy, Keith Giffen and a few other notables and the result is the last few years of galactic wars, invasions, battles, heroic deaths, bizarre alliance and the complete rejuvenation of a once lacklustre 1980's vanilla teen hero called Nova. Every issue of the current series has been suspense filled, funny, action-packed and full of marvellous drama.


That's the first five- the next lot I will do later on- hope you've enjoyed these brief summaries and hope that at least one of you reading will find this of some use.

From Hell

Zenith

The Adventures of Luther Arkwright

Bendis Daredevil

Seaguy

Is anyone attending I-Con 2008 in Des Moines?

Here is the hour long Christmas show- reviews, news, an 'Enchanted' piece, lots of music, top five graphic novel lists- fun for all the comic buying family!

http://www.mediafire.com/?74gbjlyvunj

Well, we just got a mention in a French Entertainment magazine- in conjunction with a Rob Curley interview- so SCR seems to be gaining momentum as it goes on, thankfully. I'm hoping that the Christmas edition will be a big step forward with other people participating and with some six people so far having given me their top five graphic novels for christmas shopper guides- it's all going ahead full steam.

Remember- anyone who wants to participate- just let me know- whether it's writing, interviews, reviews, or just making funny noises or jingles- all help is welcome.

After talking with Rob, Rich and Jane, everyone seems happy enough to meet up and bring five conversation or talking pieces with them and to draw topics at random out of a hat and to then have everyone talk about the topic over rounds of drinks (doesn't have to be alcoholic- could be coffee or coke). This will then all be recorded and split into segments over the Christmas special radio show for broadcast from early December to Christmas week.

This will be on top of including top five trade paperback or graphic novel lists from each person there, myself, customers or web-site visitors or anyone on here who wants to contribute. If you send me (either email or just add a comment here with them in it) your top five (with or without reasons, it doesn't really matter) trades or original graphic novels, I will include it in the show.

Not sure what to do about the music on the show- I will obviously have some kind of Christmas flavor to the songs but will try to give it some comics/sci-fi/related stuff feel - like the 1960's novelty song 'I'm gonna spend Christmas with a Dalek'. Again, if you have any reccommendations or favorites in that extremely limited field of music, let me know.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0d0eb3uqbvm

is the 9th show available in the Sub-City Radio series.

I'm having a lot of fun making these and presenting and producing these shows and hope you are all enjoying them.

This one, I'm proud to say features an interview with the gentlemanly Simon Furman, previews, a piece on Smallville and The Black Dossier.

Go download it and make me look good by enjoying it! :)

After talking with Premitive- he was asking for a list of titles I'd reccommend to someone getting more into the world of comics so I thought I'd make a list of about twenty titles. Even if some of these aren't available- you can cough cough look for the scans to at least have a chance to read some lost masterpieces.

So in no particular order of excellence or relevance:

1) 'Mystery Play' - Grant Morrison and Jon J De Muth.

This is a beautifully presented, fascinating tale of a passion play whodunnit where the actor playing God is found dead and the chief suspect is the actor playing the devil. Throw in a haunted police detective and a frustrated journalist and you have a recipe for one of the most memorable stories you'll read.

2) 'Dare' - Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes.

yes, another GM classic, this time accompanied by master craftsman/designer and creator of some of the most beautiful art this side of Frank Quitely/ Bryan Hitch. This stunning tale of the legendary Dan Dare being pulled out of retirement by political shenanigans only to face the ultimate nightmare of conspiracy plots and the pain of trying to mend fractured relationships with old colleagues.

3) 'The Ballad of Halo Jones' - Alan Moore and Ian Gibson

Told over three volumes (books) but now thankfully available as a single omnibus edition, HJ tells the story of a 'normal' girl whose life takes her to extraordinary places. Starting off low-key as Halo and her friends endure life on the 'hoop', a horribly overcrowded ghetto city of the future. Moore's humanity and gift for characterisation combined with Gibson's beautifully expressive cartoonish art makes this story a journey that we take with Halo utterly compelling and heartbreaking. Borrowing from classic noir movies, space opera sci-fi and especially (in book III) Joe Haldeman's wonderful 'The Forever War', Moore blends everything seamlessly together and leaves us with one of the most unforgettable heroines ever seen in comics or any other medium.


4) 'Swamp thing' - Mark Millar and various

One of the last 'hidden' gems of mainstream comics, this series is so screaming out to be reprinted. Much hullabaloo is cast over Alan Moore's legendary run on this series and justifiably so, but just like Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev eclipsed Frank Miller's historic time on 'Daredevil' so Mark Millar, flexing his sheer raw sneaky talent for writing a hell of a story, going for the jugular and pulling shocking twists out of nowhere, unleashed a torrent of creativity onto this previously past it's prime book, in the process threatening to outshadow even Moore himself.

Starting with Grant and himself co-writing the initial storyline, Millar rapidly proved his solo bona-fides on ST and by the last twenty issues or so of his run he wrote a masterpiece of suspense and building horror, dragging every ounce of tension and disbelief out of us and managing to breathe fresh life into the at the time stale stable of Vertigo mystics and misfits. If you can't get hold of the whole run- at least get the last ten or so issues wherein Millar raises ST to the level of a God and then desperately tries to stop him from destroying our world just because he can.

Following a great evening getting to know the guests at Sub-Con '07, I spent the day at the actual con itself but this time actually doing something useful as well as enjoying a few panels and getting a couple of bits and pieces.

I was particularly pleased with the interviews I managed to get with Steve Niles, Ian Boothby, Pia Guerra, Simon Furman, Bryan Talbot and Leah Moore and John Reppion. All went well and all were genuinely lovely people and friendly and very interesting to talk to. It was weird being on first name terms with some of them after the previous night and I was amazed at how down to earth they all were.

Leah and John were very funny, down to earth people and I have to give everyone involved a big thank you for the interviews themselves and just for being very professional, courteous , fun people.

Steve Niles was another really nice guy over with his beautiful and talented artist girlfriend Sarah (Wilkinson?) who does some remarkable work for trading cards and various projects. It was fun getting to talk to people who are successful in the business and who like Pia and Steve, get calls from the big studios wanting a treatment done in five days and then have to work flat out to get it in under the deadline.

Simon Furman was a true gent and obviously enjoying himself with the Dublin Guinness and thoroughly enjoying being up to his eyeballs in work what with the resurgence in Transformers properties. I did get him on the interview for Sub-City Radio talking about the movie(s) and would be delighted to see him get consulted about scripts for upcoming storylines.

Bryan Talbot was, as I talked about briefly last night, a tremendous character and very open and generous with his time.

I know I sound like a luvvie saying everyone was so lovely and so friendly, etc. but it was a really great experience, despite having this hella head cold for the last few days. I will be putting the interviews over the next few Sub-city radio shows and am hoping to have a chance to talk with David Lloyd when he is over in November.

Well, that was really really cool. A night to remember indeed. As a pre-convention visit to the hotel and what was billed as a few drinks with the guests and hopefully to set up some interview times for tomorrow, it went great.

Even more importantly was the fact that I just had a great evening out drinking with comics professionals and misc. others. It's really hard to get my head around the fact that I just spent hours chatting with and drinking with Leah Moore and husband John Reppion, Bryan Talbot, Steve Niles ahd his lovely and talented girlfriend Sarah Wilkinson, Simon Furman and his wife.

And they were all lovely, every one of them. Leah and John are great fun and a lively couple who bounce well off of each other; Simon is a classic English gent, jovial and interesting to talk to or listen to and Bryan Talbot is a pure legend, full of stories and funny.

Tomorrow is the actual con when I'll get to interview the guests for spots on the radio show and watch panels and have more drinking with them in the evening.

Steve Niles and Sara were similarly lovely people with both of them suffering from jet lag and so being a bit out of it but we all still had a great conversation about everything including trying to get around cali without a car.

More on this tomorrow- but for now, a really satisfying evening and looking forward to tomorrow's shenanigans.

And sub-city 5 is also ready and up for those of you who enjoy the radio shows or those of you interested in comics news, reviews and music- here it is

http://www.mediafire.com/?23yzt2oro3j

Arch-cock and everyday funny man, once legend John Byrne is up to his old shenanigans at his forum.

So, "acknowledged ownership" of the art, not the characters.

•••

Don't be obtuse. You know that's not what I meant. Ownership of the physical artwork is implicit with the return. No need for lawyers.

+++

Did Kirby ever approach DC Comics in the same manner?

•••

DC destroyed artwork, rather than warehousing it as Marvel did. That's why they didn't have any "problems" later. (And that's why the Powers That Were were such FUCKING HYPOCRITES for putting out an "open letter" demanding Marvel return Kirby's artwork.)

(double posting to thecolin1 and ihoc as it's hella funny and relevant to comics)


IT'S GOOD TO WORK AT MIDTOWN. PROBABLY.

[Green Light]You know how occasionally you read something in the comics internet and suddenly realise that it's going to be quoted and quoted and quoted? Latino hookers, broken vaginas, broken internets…

Well, here's another one. From the Missed Connections section of Craigs List. Verbatim. Bloody hell.

Midtown Comics boy, you're hot. - w4m - 23 (Midtown West)
Date: 2007-09-12, 1:03PM EDT

You- gorgeous comic shop cashier, maybe 20ish years old, black t-shirt, asked blonde/red-head boy in white polo to "hold down the fort," lip ring (but then, you all had lip rings, didn't you?)Me - 23, brunette, red tank top, black skirt-only girl in comic shop, Monday, sept. 10, afternoon

I waited in line to ask you about a special comic order. I am ashamed to admit that I stared heartily at your beautiful dark eyes while I stood there. I fantasized about nibbling that hot lip ring on the right side of your lip and grabbing your crotch. I didn't get a look at your crotch. Damn. On most guys, lip rings don't work but there is something about you that makes it the hottest thing in the world. Cute comic shop boy, I want to make out with you. I want to feel your lip ring all over my body. I came in with a guy, but I was not dating him. He is my trainee at work. I am not interested in him at all.

Cute comic shop boy, I fantasized about throwing you into a supply closet and tearing off your pants and raping you until you couldn't walk. I guess that's somewhat unlady-like and rather slutty. If you remember, though, I did not tear off your pants or even rape you while we exchanged sexually charged comic banter. I wanted to. I wanted to take off those loose fit jeans and go. To. Town. I am sorry I led you on when you showed me some comic recommendations. I'll probably buy another one next week so I can see you. But I don't think I'm that into comics. I want to be, for you. But my heart isn't into it. My heart is into your body. I hope you wanted it. I hope you wanted me to give it to you. But I can't. Because I have a boyfriend. We've been together for three years. I know it doesn't matter to most hot guys but it matters to me. So even though I wanted to rape you crooked, sideways and covered in chocolate sauce, it can't ever happen. I'm sorry. I am hoping this is a letdown for you. I am hoping you wanted me covered in chocolate sauce as well. I suppose there is always the chance that you didn't want to rape me, too. You told me your name and where you live, though, so I think the wanna-rape-ratio had to be pretty even. So I'm sorry. But look on the bright side. There's something you don't know. It's terrible. While I am, to the general population, pretty cute (and have a top notch rack), I harbor an insidious secret.

Cute comic shop boy, I'm a nerd. I play World of Warcraft and like to read gaming webcomics. I sit around in my pajamas and lead midlevel instances over Ventrilo. I'm dying for my epic flying mount. I like to go to Staples and purchase office supplies and organize my desk. There is a of picture me in a World of Warcraft shirt at jinx.com, with a fork in my hair. I love Age of Mythology, even though it's about a hundred in gaming years. I have a Playstation 2 and Xinaghua pwns my face. I say pwns, even in real life. I wish I could sew so that I could wear her sexy bellyshirt outfit and parade around town, hooking up with other nerds who like hot chicks in skimpy gaming outfits. I go to I-CON at Stonybrook every year so I can watch Voltaire sing about Star Trek, and so I can flirt with him because he's in my 'five.' I love Stargate SG-1 and Richard Dean Anderson. Claudia Black is a goddess.

Cute comic shop boy, I hope one day I hope I let my inhibitions and your pants down and our rape to rape ratio with each other becomes 1:1. Maybe another girl can even get in on it. In the meantime, I'm going to take you (and this hot girl) to bed with me every night for the rest of the week. I've already thought about you twice. You were great. So was she.

I love your lip ring.

P.S. I'm sorry about my terrible lesbian vampires joke.

<3
Girl who doesn't love comics that much but loves your eyes.

Anyway, a little detective work uncovers his photo...

So far I'm enjoying JMS' take on Thor, with the first issue setting the stage for the new approach and the aim behind the first story arc at least, to resore Thor and supporting characters to both the MU and to a level where they will command new respect. I'm predicting great things for this title as JMS seems to be doing a nice segue into grandeur through these first few issues.

Issue two was a fun little set-up piece, showing us the first steps on the recreation of Asgard and reintroducing us to Thor and cast.

Issue three however is a different beast, revealing some solid meat upon the bones of the book. His treatment of Thor is revealed as nicely balanced between the need to show his legendary status and also have him as an active participant in the MU. This Thor is a god, no two ways about it. He is also a former avenger and someone who had considered mortals like Tony Stark as his friend and thus we have the crux of his disgust with what Tony, Reed and co. did by cloing Thor and using the creature to kill Bill Foster in 'Civil War'.

Continuing on DC's trend of repercussions and slow burn revenge stories like Dr.Light tearing the JLA apart when he regained his memory and Hulk returning to Earth demanding revenge for what had been done to him, 'Thor' is getting his bearings, concentrating on getting his own people back first before tackling the vagaries of a post civil-war MU.

The clash with Iron Man is interesting and certainly indicative of how low Tony has fallen on the scale of good guy character as JMS treats him like a shallow pawn of Government and somebody without a spine of his own. One has to wonder how much further IM will be taken in this direction before he says no more and retakes his own destiny.

Thor's swift and deadly retribution upon Stark is telling in that this is shown as the mere tip of the iceberg and not even him exerting anywhere near his potential. Stark is merely a nuisance at this point and Thor is telling him to stay away from him, and that he will remain neutral for now in the Govt. Reg debacle. Stark doesn't seem to realize just how much the rules have changed until Thor fries his armor without much effort and warns him off.