Best Cosplay Ever

Comics Stuff

:: Marvel stuff: Okay, I like the idea of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, but this book has been seriously oversold. I know it makes liberals and hipsters feel awesome that a new Spider-Man could be black (not in the real Marvel Universe, I guess, but whatever), but it's not like the book has anything to say about the black experience. It can't, it's written by Brian Michael Bendis, the whitest writer in comics. As it is, it's an okay book with semi-decent art and interesting characters that, typical of Bendis, goes absolutely nowhere. The characters talk and talk and talk and talk and talk, but in Bendis' usual meandering-to-the-point style. Just once I would like to see a comic book come out that actually manages to tell one story. Bendis does in one issue what Jack Kirby used to do in two pages.

Elsewhere in Marvel, which I read very little of anymore, I dug the first issue of Incredible Hulk. I don't know what's going on in Hulk continuity anymore and I don't much care--I'm sure it's overly-complicated gimmickry, like the Marvel Universe always is--but I liked what we get in this issue, with a heroic barbarian Hulk (very much like the character in Planet Hulk, which I loved) and a separated, semi-insane, Dr. Moreau-style Bruce Banner. This is a book I'll keep reading until it gets, you know, stupid.

I've also been enjoying old issues of My Girl Pearl by Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo. Silly as all hell, but funny and self-contained. It's like reading comic strip collections.

I can't read Wolverine and the X-Men. I don't know what the hell's going on in X-Men continuity anymore, and I don't want to spend the time to unravel it. Looked at the issue, got lost, didn't bother. Won't pick up another one, or any X-book for that matter.

:: In nu-52 stuff: still liking most of the Green Lantern stuff, especially the main book, but mostly because I find Sinestro a much more interesting character than Hal Jordan. New Guardians is leaving me a little cold at the moment; I don't care about Kyle Rayner or the Skittles Corps. Still loving Demon Knights, The Flash (great art; Francis Manipul knows how to compress his pages, unlike everyone else, and I like seeing Barry use how to learn his powers), and Aquaman (even if Geoff Johns is laying it on a bit too hard that everyone thinks Aquaman sucks, but he doesn't).

I've given up on Teen Titans and Superboy. I lost my interest in reading Superboy after reading the godawful second issue of Teen Titans. Oh, and Wonder Woman is just shitty and hostile. Yet again, we're getting all of this stuff about what Wonder Woman represents and how apparently hard it is for DC to justify a woman superhero. You can lay it on with all of the terrible writing and Greek mythology you want, it's still awful. It's like reading Neil Gaiman's Sandman adapted for what Spike TV viewers think women are like.

Feminism! Now back to chicks in their underwear beating the crap out of each other.

Batwoman continues to baffle me. Seriously, if they government really wants to figure out who Batwoman is, just look for the only woman in Gotham with icy pale blue skin. Not my favorite art choice, although the art is lovely, and frankly the only reason I read this in the first place.

I tried to read the first issue of James Robinson's The Shade miniseries, hoping it would bring back that spark from Robinson's Starman, one of my favorite comic book series ever. It really didn't. Also, now I have to ask all kinds of questions about where it fits in nu-52 continuity at all, thanks do Dan DiDiot.

Oh, and Justice League. Honestly, I liked the second issue much more than the first. Now that the characters are being set up a little more clearly, I'm starting to get where the dynamic is. Also, the friendship between Flash and Green Lantern does a lot to offset Batman being such a dick and Superman being so holier-than-thou. I'm not a fan of arrogant Superman, really, but now that the Flash is on the scene, I'm happy. I'm interested to see how they work Wonder Woman and Aquaman into it. God, I hope Johns' take on Wonder Woman isn't as awful as Brian Azzarello's...

:: I tried to get into Roger Langridge's Snarked, but I just couldn't. I've had my fill of seeing Wonderland re-imagined, even by someone as talented as Langridge. I wish Marvel and Disney would figure out where the licensing is and just get Langridge to do more Muppet Show comics. Or at least finally release his final story arc. I need my damn Muppet comics back!

:: I found the Game of Thrones adaptation from Dynamite Entertainment very disappointing. I don't care much for the way comics look anymore. I feel bad kicking someone's art style just because I don't like it, but the story needs someone less cartoonish and with a larger style. It was just sort of functional and easy to dismiss.

:: IDW's ongoing new Star Trek comic is kind of bizarre. It takes place in continuity with JJ Abrams' remade Trek universe, but the first two issues were just a rehash of "Where No Man Has Gone Before." So is the whole point of this just doing the old stories and fitting them in with new continuity, or something? Because that's not only kind of a waste, it's not very interesting storytelling. I already know what happens to Gary Mitchell. I get how it affected Kirk. I liked some of the stuff at the very end of the second issue, where we see how what happened makes Kirk and Spock closer and sets them on the path of eventual friendship. But, is this all we're doing?

:: The best comic I've read lately, though, is Superman vs. Spider-Man. It's from 1976, sure, but it's just so perfectly made. Written by Gerry Conway, art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

The art is gorgeous; it's thoughtfully laid out and doesn't sacrifice clarity or story momentum for poses. Its grasp of anatomy is believable, which you don't see often enough today, either. It's just a perfect comic.

Frankly, comic books from the 1970s make today's comics look like the afterthoughts they too often are.

Katurday

So, Kat: ready to be the new goddess of Electronic Cerebrectomy?



(She's overwhelmed. That's it: overwhelmed.)

Sasha Grey Reads to Kids

Some parents somewhere are all in a tizzy because Sasha Grey read a book to their kids at a school and Sasha Grey used to be a porn star so that makes her all icky and they don't want her giving their kids her porn cooties, or something.

Jesus, parents, worry about something that makes sense for a change, will ya? Because unless she was having anal sex in front of your children, it doesn't matter one fucking bit.

Fuck You, Jay-Z

Seriously? Jay-Z's clothing label is seriously putting out an Occupy Wall Street shirt?

Could we please not turn this thing into a fashion statement? Or an opportunity to make money off of people? Congratulations, Jay-Z, you are officially the kind of exploiter that the OWS movement is protesting against. Neither you nor Russell Simmons nor Kanye West seem to have any concept that you don't belong in this movement. If Kanye understood what it was about, he wouldn't have had himself chauffeured down to Wall Street laden with gold chains.

Oh, and according to Business Insider, Rocawear has no plans to support OWS with any of the money they plan to make off of it.

You are truly clueless and classless, Jay-Z. Fuck you.

Flashbeagle

Does anyone else remember It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown? I don't know whose idea it was to do a Flashdance-inspired disco special, but I remember that I had the soundtrack on a record. I'm surprised I still don't have it floating around somewhere... I'll have to check. Anyway, weird.

More Fall, Just a Little More Fall

Snow again today. It was over in five minutes, and it all melted immediately, but for a little while there, the snow was so thick that we couldn't see to the end of the parking lot.

Maybe one year the sense of terror I get from the snow will dissipate. But it's apparently not going to be this year.

Gotten over most of my agoraphobia feelings, but not this one... This is the strongest one.

Western Black Rhino Poached Out of Existence

Africa's Western Black Rhinoceros was declared officially extinct today.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature surveyed the animal's natural habitat and was unable to find a living specimen. They also added that the Northern White Rhino is "possibly extinct" in the wild, and that the Java Rhino is "probably extinct" in Vietnam, where poachers killed the last one in 2010. There is a small, declining population of Java Rhinos on Java itself.

There is a large scale effort to try and save the remaining Black Rhino species from extinction; only about 4,240 remain in the wild.

Sad news today for a pachyderm lover.

About a quarter of all mammal species remain endangered.

Dakota/Elle

The First Glimpse of Snow

ME: [looking outside, seeing my nemesis, snow, has returned] Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BECCA: Yeah... I saw that and didn't want to say anything. I was hoping you wouldn't see it. It's not like it's going to stick, anyway.

ME: Okay, well... I'll be staying indoors until April, then.

BECCA: Aaron!

ME: Yes, O love of my life? [bats eyebrows]

BECCA:

I'm Just Saying

If one woman accuses you of sexual harassment, it could be a misunderstanding.

If two women accuse you of sexual harassment, it could be an anomaly.

If three women accuse you of sexual harassment, it's a pattern of behavior.

If four women accuse you of sexual harassment, you have a real problem.

See, it sounds less and less made up the higher the numbers of women who accuse you.

Also, consider this: no innocent man in the world makes an out of court $45,000 settlement. If you're innocent, you defend yourself because you know you're innocent. If you're guilty and don't want to be dragged through court, you pay hush money.

Just putting that out there.

Dear 53%ers

[Sidenote: Why are the former soldiers who comment on this site never as smart as this guy? They're always right wing mouthpieces...]

Claire Sinclair

With every picture of her I see, the more certain I am that I made a mistake calling her my second favorite Playmate of 2010. If I was to do my ranking now, she'd certainly be at the top. I've never changed my opinion on the PMOY before, but I like her more and more every time I see her.

Kristen Bell Mondays

So, I'll be watching House of Lies, then...

Song of the Week: "I'll Fall with Your Knife"

I haven't had Peter Murphy here since 2007. I love this song; Becca put it on a mix tape for me a long, long time ago, and it always reminds me of her. I'm very much in love with her today, and she cooked me one hell of a lovely breakfast, so this song is for her.

Sunday Hottie 353

ALEXIS BLEDEL