Comics Update #4

My wife Kelly and I somehow caught colds on the exact same day. Laying down tended to result in the sensation of drowning so I decided that was out of the question for a bit. I got up and resumed my Blue Beetle reading with Blue Beetle #6. We pick up where the last issue left off. Another good issue here as Muse gathers the gangs up in a theater and Blue Beetle and Question crash the party. This issue really established an interesting relationship with BB and the Question. I really enjoyed the back and forth between the characters and it made me want to see them interact more. The book's side stories seem to have settled into a groove and the book seems more focused overall. There's a third and final part to this storyline. I was also curious about Muse and if he was important and this is essentially the only DC storyline he's ever appeared in. I am unsure if he ever made appearances when Blue Beetle was a Charlton property. If he did, he was a fairly insignificant character. I also found out I had the Secret Origin issue for BB so I'll probably read it after this gang storyline is over.

I took about a week and a half off after reading that issue and picked back up with Blue Beetle #7 on a Sunday night. This issue finished off the Muse storyline. It was an okay issue. It kind of went off in a direction I didn't expect and had a lot of downtime for the conclusion to a three part storyline. It turned around and finished on kind of a hack note. They make the identity of the Muse pretty obvious about halfway through the issue. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a big reveal or not. The pop culture references in this one kind of date the issue but you kind of get that when writers try to be topical. I don't know if I have said this in a previous post but I really miss this style of comic. In the New 52 some of those issues are on #26 and haven't had as much content or character development as this book has had in 7 issues. It makes me wish people would stop writing for the trade and start creating a deeper universe for their characters to live in.

I moved on to Suicide Squad #2 as the next book for the weekend. I really enjoyed this issue as they threw some good stuff in there. The book is very cinematic with down to earth action and it just feels like the Expendables movies. Mindboggler bites it in this issue and that establishes that no one is safe in this book. People rave about this series and this issue really shows why. I can't wait to pick up another issue and get further into this series. It's rare to find a series that actually feels different. It's also nice to have a book that's got a darker tone but isn't rolling in grim and gritty darkness at the same time. I honestly wish that I had dived into this series years ago.

Flash #1 was my final read of the night. I read this series for the first time back in 2005 and I really fell in love with the Flash character. Barry Allen is unfortunately a bore but Wally West is a great character with a lot of depth. He starts out as a sort of immature douche and he grows and matures as the series progresses. This issue really establishes the fact that Wally isn't a super likable person and that he has limitations. He can only go 705 MPH at top speed and any use of his speed kicks his metabolism in. So you'll see Wally eating tons of food to keep up his strength. Wally delivers a heart across the country and wins the lottery in this issue. At the end of the issue he's confronted by Vandal Savage. I'm really glad that I decided to reread this series. It's really a nice romp down memory lane and it scratches the itch that the current series hasn't been getting. If I made a top 5 list of my favorite characters in comic books, I think I would feel comfortable having Wally West at the 3 spot. He's just a great character that you really get to know and rereading this is like visiting an old friend. I may have to write a bigger article at some point about why I like Wally West so much.

2014 Comic Counter: 14

What I'm Playing: January 27th

I bought a Wii U back in November as a gift to myself for my promotion at work. If you're into video games, you know it doesn't have a huge install base. I've always owned the Nintendo system and this time was no different. I really love the system. There's a great community attached with the Miiverse. You can post and see comments from other players as you go through the games. It's a fun and easy way to interact with other people that are playing the same game as you are.

I used my birthday and Christmas money to pick up Super Mario 3D World last weekend. I beat the main part of the game yesterday and have the post-game levels to dig into now. I really loved this game. It has a lot of elements of Mario 2 and 3. You can play as Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad like in 2 and they play in a similar fashion. Peach floats and Luigi has his crazy legs jump. This is also the first post-Miyamoto Mario game and you can feel the influx of new ideas in the game.

I've absolutely loved this game. It's really reminded me of how much I love video games. The power ups in this game are awesome. The cat suit never got old and makes you want to run back to old levels to see if you can find some secrets with the wall climbing. The cherry is also interesting as it creates a clone of your character and if you can successfully navigate a level with enough clones you can unlock some things. This game is also a little more cerebral than previous entries. You need to take it a little slower to make sure you aren't missing stars or stamps.

I'm also getting back to Ducktales Remastered. I'm halfway through this game. I have the Moon and Himalayas left before the final stage. This game seems divisive online but I've really enjoyed it. I was a fan of the original and it's been really fun to revisit the game. It's also really cool to see the entire cast of voice actors to reprise their roles from the show. That makes the game really special and it's probably going to be the last role some of the older actors ever play. If you're a big fan of the cartoon I think you should check it out.

I also had some money sitting on my eshop account so I grabbed Steam World Dig for the 3DS. Now, this is a really fun game. You play a robot and dig and mine ore under a town. You make money so that you can upgrade your gear and robot so that you can dig deeper. It's a really good game to play in smaller chunks before bed or when you don't have anything else to do. The sense of exploration and accomplishment provided in this game are really good. I'm not sure how long the game is but I don't think I'm very far into this one. I would say this is one of the best 3DS games out there and it's only $8.99 to boot.

The Coffee Chronicles

I'm just going to slap a disclaimer on this article. I'm not a coffee drinker. I've tried and I just think it's gross. And I'll add that I don't understand coffee drinkers and their obsession with it.

With that said, one of my least favorite parts of working in an office is the constant drama that surrounds the communal coffee pot on a daily basis. In my old department my co-workers decided to bring in a coffee pot for themselves and the drama started probably within 2 days of it arriving. This drama of course carried over to my new department. My assumption is that these issues are the same in every office you could end up in. These issues seem to always be:

1. Not making new coffee and just leaving a little in the bottom.

2. Not cleaning up messes.

3. Not contributing to the coffee fund.

Now, theses issues don't seem like a big deal on paper. But think about hearing this on a daily... let me say that again DAILY basis. From multiple people, in email and hearing the arguing in the cubicle two spots down for hours at a time. It's just a bizarre world to examine as a non-partisan viewer.

I don't know what it is about coffee that brings out the worst in human beings. It's one of those small things in life that make you realize people will turn on each other in a second in the case of a zombie apocalypse or those episodes of the Twilight Zone where the buddy buddy neighbors turn on each other when weird stuff happens. It's just freaking coffee and why does it have to be so complicated?

And just a side note to this whole conversation. I find people really hypocritical when they bitch about the price of something when they're holding their daily Starbucks coffee in their hand. "What do you mean you want to get pizza, I don't have $5 to contribute, count me out!" Argh...

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. This one had been kicking around my brain for awhile.

Doc Savage #1

This is a book that I had been long anticipating. Dynamite has taken on the pulp heroes and they've really created something special with their pulp line of comics. I really enjoyed Masks last year and I have really high hopes for this series.

Chris Roberson takes on the writing duties for this book and Bilquis Evely is your artist. The cover is by none other than Alex Ross. I haven't heard of the artist but Roberson did Masks last year and DC books that I've enjoyed.

People are randomly becoming extremely violent in New York. The event happens over and over again and Doc Savage and Co. are trying to find out who. It ends up being a mad scientist of sorts and a larger plot is hinted at as the issue closes.

I have to say, I was really a little disappointed by this issue. The execution was fine and the tone was good. But this is a pulp story and a Doc Savage one at that. Doc Savage should be over the top adventure that never ends. Not a fairly pedestrian mad scientist story. I've only read a couple of the original novels but those are just oozing with action. Exotic locations, fancy cars, science and whatever you could ask for in adventure. I guess I was just expecting more from this series.

I will give this book credit though. It is an excellent jumping on point for new readers. It introduces you to all the characters in the Doc Savage team and gives you an idea of who they are and their relationships with each other. It also would give a new reader a good idea of what Doc Savage himself is all about.

I'm really torn on this. I really wanted to like this book from the get go because it's Doc Savage but this unfortunately left me feeling a little flat about it. I'll probably give this 3 or 4 issues to draw me in and then move on if it doesn't. I'm thinking this was a smaller story to lead into a bigger one. If that's the case then this issue might be redeemed down the road.

Overall this was a well written book but it was a disappointment versus my expectations. I think I'd grade it as a C+ until I see where the next issues go.

Hockey...

Monday was my birthday and my wife scored us tickets to the Blue Jackets. This was our third game of the season. It was a really good game as they were down 2-1 going into the 3rd period and scored the go ahead goal with about 3 minutes left and came away with the 3-2 victory. It was a really great game. This is going to be the last season before I invest in quarter season passes for the team. My wife Kelly and I have really enjoyed the games we've gone to this year and we honestly need something to get us out of the house in the winter months.

Anyways, this season has seen me renew one of my long term goals. Seeing every NHL team live at Nationwide Arena. When the team showed up in 2000 that was my big goal. I haven't gotten there yet because I didn't go to any games for a long time. But with my renewed interest I figured out who I've seen them play. Here's the list:

Detroit Red Wings
Chicago Blackhawks
St. Louis Blues
Nashville Predators
Vancouver Canucks
Minnesota Wild
Atlanta Thrashers - now the Winnepeg Jets
Anaheim Ducks - Mighty Ducks at the time.
Phoenix Coyotes
Boston Bruins
New Jersey Devils
New York Rangers
New York Islanders
Carolina Hurricanes
Florida Panthers
Tampa Bay Lightning - checked this one off on Monday!

That leaves 13 NHL teams for me to see live. I'll be catching the Ottawa Senators later this month which will knock my list down to 12 teams. That's not a bad run of teams. The hard team to see in Columbus would be the Pittsburgh Penguins. They seemed to have a large fanbase here before the Jackets came to town and that game is always really hard to get tickets for. So that will be a must have if I do go for season tickets next season.

I wanted to end this post with showing my TTM successes from the Blue Jackets thus far this season. Ii'm hoping that a few more come back as the season progresses.

Cam Atkinson

Brandon Dubinsky

Matt Calvert

Sergei Bobrovsky

Sean Collins

Artem Anisimov

RJ Umberger

Mark Letestu

Comic Reading Update #3

I've decided that I really hate January. It's cold and there's a lot of snow. I don't really care for either and I think if my family wasn't so entrenched in Ohio that I would move to North Carolina for the beaches and better weather. The one nice advantage to awful winter weather is it gives you plenty of time to catch up on your reading.

I read Justice League #2 Sunday morning. Some aliens come to Earth and want to get rid of all the nukes. They eliminate the stockpile of a small country and the leader of that country starts to manipulate them for his less than honest goals. Not a bad issue as it was mostly set up. It appears that they're trying to make this book very Avengers like with the team bickering and being dysfunctional. It also has a pretty oddball collection of characters and that always wins me over with a book. My biggest complaint with this book is that it doesn't feel like a reboot at all. That's one of the really annoying things about the Post-Crisis era. Properties like Superman and Wonder Woman got a hard reboot while other titles like Batman really didn't have much done to it. It can be a confusing mess at times due to factors like that. Black Canary's costume is also beyond awful in this series. I don't know, I was only 6 when this came out but 1987 seems to be a little late to still be rocking the Pat Benatar head band. I think I can safely add this to my list of worst costumes of all time. Just bad on every level imaginable.


I read Blue Beetle #4 before I went to bed on Sunday night. I felt a little embarrassed that I didn't know who Dr. Alchemy was from the last issue. As a Flash reader, I've actually seen him pop up a couple of times. Dr. Alchemy gets away and merges with his Philosopher's Stone. This goes badly for him and he slowly gets consumed by his powers before turning into a statue by the end of the issue. This issue was really good. All of those plot points seemed to merge really well into this issue and it felt much more focused. I'm really enjoying Ted Kord. It's nice seeing a hero with a bright outlook on life in a comic book. I also love his Beetle ship. It might be the coolest form of transportation ever in comics. I think this series has started to hit it's stride and I'm excited to see where it goes. Vic Sage, aka the Question, appears towards the end and he'll be taking on the Blue Beetle in the next issue. That should be a good one.

Monday was a bad day where I live. With the wind chill it got as cold as -30 degrees outside. I thought I lived in Ohio, not Minnesota. With that said, I didn't feel like moving outside of my pile of blankets so I read Blue Beetle #5. All the youth gangs of Chicago are teaming up with the backing of a Mister M. This draws the attention of the Blue Beetle and the Question. They bust up the gangs but Mister M bails them out and the escape. Mister M reveals himself as the Muse as the issue ends. Again, this issue was much more focused like the previous one. The gangs were very 70s down to the lingo. But it is comics so it's not like they are usually on the cutting edge of what "the kids" likes these days. I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. This series has been a really fun romp. I say it over and over again, but Ted Kord is a really great character. I wish I would have had a larger amount of exposure to him in my earlier comic reading days. This series only lasted 24 issues and that's a real bummer to me. Unfortunately, this is the kind of series that never catches on for whatever reason. The Blue Beetle has just never had any real pull as a solo act.

I didn't get as much read this week as I wanted but I'm hoping to get a few issues in tomorrow.

2014 Comic Counter: 10

Comic Reading Update #2

I snuck in Blue Beetle #2 after writing my post on New Years Day. Blue Beetle escapes the burning building he was trapped in last issue. We get some backstory to Firefist, it's your cliched super villain stuff, and a little more development of Kord and his supporting cast. There are a ton of side plots going on right now. I counted two mystery men in the shadows, alongside another villain up to stuff and a supporting cast member with a terrible secret! That's a lot of stuff swirling around a book that's just two issues old. We also get the final showdown with BB and Firefist. It doesn't end so well for Firefist. Len Wein is a really consistent writer for me and this book proves that. There are a lot of side plots going on right now but I've enjoyed the first two issues a fair amount. They aren't earth shattering but I do want to pick up the next issue and see what happens next.

Friday night, I decided to stay on the same track and read Blue Beetle #3. A group called the Mad Men attack Kord Industries and the mysterious redheaded man reveals himself as Dr. Alchemy. I'm really at a loss for my thoughts on this series. I have read 3 issues but this book is just all over the place. Two of the supporting cast have hidden secret sort of storylines and an officer is investigating Ted Kord. I like the character of Ted Kord and I really dig him as a hero. I just want a more focused comic book from issue to issue. I don't need to half of the cast to be in deep shit 3 issues into the story. I do plan to keep reading this series though. I want to get to know the character of Ted Kord a little more as I continue to get deeper into the Justice League books.

Saturday mornings are a great time to sneak in an issue or two before my wife gets out of bed so I read Action Comics #589. I decided I wanted to really explore the history of Superman and the Post-Crisis era seemed like the best place to pick that up. So my goal is to read from the Man of Steel mini-series in 1986 to Infinite Crisis. That's a metric crap ton of comics as there were 4 a month for most of this time frame. I also added in the Justice League from this era, Suicide Squad and the Flash to provide some variety to the Supes fest. I'm not as big a DC fan as Marvel and I've really only read the DCU hardcore since One Year Later happened in 2005 or 2006. I'm trying to stay immersed in DC right now so I don't think you'll see much Marvel appear here for the next little while. This issue was okay. The Green Lantern Corp show up and help Supes battle a living planetoid. This wasn't a classic issue or anything but it was nice to read a much more focused comic after 3 issues of Blue Beetle.

2014 Comic Counter: 7

Comic Reading Update #1

  






Like most Americans, I had the day off for New Years and it seemed like a good time to get a jump start on one of my goals for the year. I want to read at least 200 back issues over the course of the year.

I started off with Suicide Squad #1. This has been on my to read list for at least a decade and I just never seem to get around to it. It seemed like a great idea to sneak this in with my Superman reading since it started just a few months after the Post-Crisis Supes stuff really kicked off. The basic premise of this book is that super villains are recruited onto a top secret government team. They then run suicide missions and if they are successful they get part of their sentences commuted for each mission they come back alive from. Being that these are suicide missions, a lot of people die over time. The team in this book is Rick Flag, Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Enchantress, Mindboggler and Plastique with Amanda Waller calling the shots behind the scene. This issue was mostly set up for the concept of the team. Their first mission will be taking down a group called Jihad in the terrorist nation of Qurac. Like I said, really enjoyed this one.

I hit Superman #6 a little later in the morning. This was part 2 of a story that started in Superman #5. This issue wasn't as good as part 1 of the story. Part 1 was a fun battle with Supes and a giant mummy. This issue brings in a race of aliens and things have to come to a halt so the aliens' backstory can be explored and explained. Superman did use his brains to beat the aliens in this issue which was a nice change though. The aliens never appear in a comic again as far as I can tell so it makes their backstory an even bigger waste of time. The mummy from issue 5 was actually a robot carrying the minds of 500 of these aliens. Superman played dead while battling the robot and the aliens all tried to possess his body at once and it destroyed the robot. Pretty clever solution on his part there. I would say this was a pretty so-so issue. Not bad or anything, just not very interesting or fun.

Adventures of Superman #429 provided me with some afternoon reading. This issue was a tale of two stories for me. The character development with Cat Grant was really good and I enjoyed that stuff. The Circle storyline was bad. Concussion is a villain that's very typical of this era. Stupid name, paper thin character, etc. I have to say that Marv Wolfman has been a real disappointment when it's come to his Superman work thus far. The Circle storyline just isn't that good or interesting. I kind of wish he would just get it over with and do something more interesting.

I also added Blue Beetle #1 to the mix today. It's not June 1987 cover dated like the other books I'm reading but it is Post-Crisis. This issue mainly introduced Ted Kord into the DCU proper. You get his origin, a quick introduction to his supporting cast. Kord takes on a villain named Firefist. Pretty generic if you ask me but this issue was about creating a world for Ted Kord to exist in. Decent enough issue and I think a fairly good intro to this series. Looking forward to reading more.

That's it for what I read on New Year's Day. I think I'm off to a great start for my comic reading in 2014.

2014 Comic Counter: 4

New Years Resolutions

I don't really make New Years Resolutions as a rule. I tend to think that if you want to change your life, you should just get off your ass and do it. But I do also think the start of a new year is a good time to reflect a little and to set some goals or focus back in on goals. So here's my list, these aren't really Earth shattering or anything:

Read more old comics than in 2013.

This was a goal I made for myself in 2013. I did okayish. My guess is that I read somewhere between 100-200 issues of old comics in 2013. That's better than 2012 by a lot so that's a success. So if I'm sitting here at the end of the year and I've read more than 200 issues, I think I can safely call my reading a success. I'm currently focusing heavily on Post-Crisis Era DC, late 80s, and the books I've been reading are the Superman titles, Justice League, Suicide Squad and the Flash. I'm going to progress with that for quite awhile I think.

Read more books.

I was absolutely pathetic in 2013 when it came to the books I polished off. If I got through 5, it would be a miracle. My wife is aiming for 2 a month this year but she's also a faster reader than I am. I've been taking my Kindle to work and reading during my lunch breaks. I've really enjoyed that as I think it's better for my brain than staring at my phone for the entire 45 minutes. I'm winding down Witches Aboard by Terry Pratchett and I don't have an official to read list for the year. Thanks to the Kindle deals and cheap books, I have more than I could ever hope to read.

Work out more.

I slacked off a lot in 2013. I kept the weight off, put some on during the holidays, but I also didn't lose any. I want to get back into a solid workout routine and try to slid into the 240s weight wise.

Get into Yoga.

I listen to a medical podcast called Weird Medicine. One of the regulars on the show is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine. Yoga comes up from time to time and they've said numerous times that even a few times a week will make a great difference in your back. It's been on my list for awhile now but I think my wife's goal to stretch every morning will sync up well with this.

Well, those are my main ones as of this moment. Hope you all had a good New Years!