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X-Men Vs Agents Of Atlas #2: I hereby name it the Atlas Effect — the sudden spike of common sense associated with the intervention of Master Woo & the gang. Ok, so they fought at first (have to pay the bills and everything), but everybody talked afterwards, apologized, and were remarkably grown up. That's what happens when Jimmy Woo is in charge. Funny asides: the image of Logan and a self-reparing robot fighting each other, Namor's command voice, "Give it two years and the fish woman will be teaching at the school," and Aphrodite's comment about her statues.
Batman Confidential #37: Still a classic in many senses. I'm not very interested in the Blackhawk mythos, but this Bruce is human, flawed, and awesome, and all the other characters work just right.
Deadpool Merc With A Mouth #5: Er... Dare I say it? It's getting kind of boring and forced. Wade works best in a serious context. If the idea makes you feel weird, don't think about him as Hamlet, but Animal Man. Deadpool is neither stupid, nor shallow, nor arbitrary. He's funny because he knows he's tragic, and he's always trying to force to make sense a world that, well, let's face it, it's the Marvel U. Sense isn't its strong point. He's a romantic (and a very vulnerable one), not a horndog. He's chaotic, but in a tactical way (he deploys chickens tactically!). His mind works... weirdly, yes, but that doesn't mean he's random. He's sociable. He likes people. He puts his friends above most things. He hurts when he's lonely. He's very much aware, soberly aware, about being a murderer for hire. He's a professional. He's ultimately a deeply humane person. It bores me when he's written as some sort of schyzophrenic murdering clown.
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Fro io9: One New York Times Bestseller Per Year Will Barely Keep You Above The Poverty Line:
Paranormal romance author Lynn Viehl bared all last week — she posted her complete royalty statement from her publisher, for her New York Times bestselling book Twilight Fall. [...] In any case, the bottom line is that Viehl got a $50,000 advance for Twilight Fall, and she's unlikely to earn it out for up to a year — which means no royalty payments. After taxes, expenses, and her agent's cut, she gets to keep about half that advance.
For a book a year, that's a bit over the US poverty line. Not that I didn't already know that writing isn't something you do out of financial ambition (unless and until you become one of The Few Who Sell A Ton), but it's still headshake inducing. My icon: too often appropriate to my feelings.
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Deadpool #17: Wade is the best there is at what he does. It's just that nobody wants him to do what he does. I wonder if Dom's soft spot for Wade comes from her talks with Nathan.
And speaking of the Devil...
Cable #20: Awww. Cable is a big softie, sometimes. Relatively speaking. I think there's much that hasn't been said about Cable's motivations here. There's the whole family angle, of course, but let's also not forget that Cable was once a Messiah, too, fated to fight a war against Apocalypse in a terrible future — a fight he fought and lost. The fact that he's raising Hope as a potential Mutant Messiah, under a constant threat, and in the future... It's a very interesting reflection of his own early life. I wonder what, if anything, he has told Hope about that.
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Not the prettiest icon ever, and it's not as if I use icons a lot, but I wanted to have a Doc/pulp one.
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Batman Doc Savage Special #1: Batman wasn't our Batman. Boo! (The backmatter says he's earlier in his career, but I think the differences go much deeper. This is a pulp, un-dramatic Batman. A punk in a Bat suit.) But Doc was Doc. Yay!
ETA: "I need to get a bigger Alfred." *g* I said it: Punk.
JSA vs Kobra #6: I like the potential in the Kobra concept, and I like the potential in Mr. Terrific. But for all the setup, the payoffs here were ridiculous.
X-Force #21: It's as if Marvel were doing their own "Blackest Night," except that... Er. No, it's exactly that. If Marvel and DC were stereotypical socialites, they'd constantly try to stake their reputations on being thoroughly original, and then show up to every bash in the same freaking dress. Every freaking time.
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In Daredevil #502, Matt is approaching a problem with the appropriate amount of resources and leverage, so of course it'll all go to hell.
In Red Robin #6 Tim goes through the same. And Ra's, of course, has his own agenda.
In Batman #693 Dick is old-style Batman, which is both fun and disappointing (but then, Dick was always old school).
In Batman and Robin #6 Jason waxes melodramatic, things become WAY too meta, and Dick hints at being a bit more unhinged in a Bruce way that we had been led to expect.
In Gravel #15 Warren Ellis keeps verbosely, unsubtly, and violently wanking off about British society, but in Supergod #1 he wanks off about superheroes and religion even more verbosely, unsubtly, and violently. Mind you, it's fun to watch, and he writes the hypertech cryptopresent like few other people in the comics business. But it's hard not to feel disappointed at some level.
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30 days. 50,000 words. No outline, characters, or setting.
Logic is canceled until further notice.
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If you see strange-looking people behaving riotously on the streets tonight, please understand. You'd be like that, too, if in all the year you could only play one night.
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Arkham Reborn #1: The Arkham mythos they are building might be a bit overkill, but it's nonetheless interesting (sometimes I feel DC would be better as a true multiverse). Also, Hush was having just too much fun — you'll know which scene I mean. Nice continuity touches regarding the Arkham staff, though.
Batman #692: Poor Dick. He didn't do *too* bad for it being his first Batman & Catwoman interaction (no, I didn't use an slash, sorry). Also, yes, more insanity. If I were Bruce, I'd stay in the darn Neolithic.
Gotham City Sirens #5: Now this is just getting embarrassing for all involved.
World's Finest #1: Repeating a very early insight of, who else?, Te: Tim's motivations were never Bruce or Dick's, and Red Robin is the cowl-wearing living proof of that. Ultimately and for the time being, I think Dick was the best choice for Batman. Dick loves Bruce, and believes in Batman. Tim loves Bruce, but only believes in physics. It's been a long while since Tim was emotional enough to honor anything the way Dick honors the mantle, and in no small measure because Bruce dedicated some time and energy to deliberately scar him in that way. Bruce must have known that this would, in a way, make Tim less likely to be a good soldier / close-to-the-early-model replacement Batman... and he must have seen this as a good tradeoff. Tim Drake: Bruce 2.0 - this time less of a softy! And it's not as if that's a future we haven't seen...
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(Gods, I've written and rewritten this same story so many times now...)
Train like you fight, says the Army. I thought I understood what that meant, right until the Sargent blew my brains out.
I know I'll get back — my unit is the best, and the gates of Hell aren't far — but to what body? And in what war?
I don't know. But I trust the Sarge.
.finis.
(Link)
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(Why, yes, I *am* a romantic. WB movie development department, I'll be waiting for your cash call.)
He haunts me from the other side of death. His otherworldly obsession pays no heed to the sacred barrier between the dead and the alive, between the beating heart and the restless soul. I can feel his need for me every night as his eyes seek me through the shadows, desperately loathing and desperately attracted to the idea of bringing me to his side.
And might God forgive me, every time he holds a seance and tries to will me back to the living I fall a little more in love with him.
.finis.
(Link)
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Fantastic Four #551-553: Wherein, yes, Reed Richards will change the world when he gets around to it.
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Titanium Rain: So far, it's Top Gun meets an early Ghost in the Shell, as told by Tom Clancy. Aside from the Tom Clancy and Top Gun factors, pretty cool.
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Time collapsed, and Excalibur fell from my suddenly old hands. The field was covered with the dying cries of unborn soldiers, as huge monsters tore apart my knights.
Dinosaurs, I recalled from Merlin's seemingly unending lessons. They had been extinct for eons, and hadn't been discovered yet, but Le Fey's spell, the ultimate weapon she had been so reluctant to use, had made that distinction irrelevant.
Le Fey's laughter rose over the carnage. "I win, Arthur! I win!"
I could hear under her voice an approaching rumble, and I smiled, still kneeling on the ground. I had been a good knight and bad husband, but excellent bait. I wondered what history would tell about me, if they would remember this at all.
Up in the sky, I could see now the Enola Gay.
.finis.
(Link)
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Batman Confidential #35: Not a classic, but definitely classic. Less about Batman than about something else.
Batman Streets Of Gotham #5: I like the description of Gotham as Leviathan. And Helena is far from obviously wrong (and she's also very funny).
Deadpool Merc With A Mouth #4: For good and for evil, this is, also, classic. A zombified T-Rex, an orbital death ray, etc, an indestructible Merc with a Mouth, etc, etc. As I said, classic.
Dark Avengers #10: The Dark Avengers can be kind of fun in their interactions, specially the whole Sentry issue. When both your mastermind boss and your Omega-level metahuman are certifiably crazy, even being at the top of the Marvel food chain can get too interesting. BTW, just for a sweet, sweet moment, I thought Tony 2.0 was "in da house" and punking Norman. It would had been EPIC.
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