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!

The Sci-Fi Boys: A mini review

I caught this documentary on Netflix today. It features interviews with many of the guys that are big names in sci-fi like Ray Bradbury and Roger Corman.

The first thing that struck me about this movie is just the passion these guys have for their craft. A lot of them were making movies when they were 10 years old and in the days when video equipment wasn't a cheap or easy thing to come across. Some of them even developed some sophisticated special effects for amateur's. The passion of the men interviewed was really infectious. You could really feel their love for the art of movie-making. You get the feeling that making money was just a happy side effect to their passion.

I think this is a must watch movie if you have Netflix. It was a really fun look at several creative people and getting a little insight to what makes them tick.