A Crisis Is Brewing

Just some brief thoughts today on the comics I’ve read over the last few days moving into the year 1985.

For one thing, several of the comics, regardless of publisher, have been running an advertisement listing the results from Amazing Heroes Best 10 Books of 1984 poll, per R.A. Jones in Amazing Heroes #63. The list is first, Swamp Thing; second, Jon Sable; third, American Flagg; fourth, Teen Titans; fifth, Fantastic Four; sixth, X-Men; seventh, Blue Devil; eighth, Atari Force; ninth, Dr. Strange; and tenth, Power Pack. Two out of those top ten are complete runs in my collection.

I’ve also been paying more attention to the letters columns, editorial features and First Notes and such as I read over some of these comics than I used to when I was younger. I still don’t read every letter or comment, but I notice writer’s names and editorial opinions and such a tad more than I used to. I am seeing a lot of letters by “T.M. Maple,” a pseudonym not unfamiliar to a large number of comics collectors. T.M. was a very prolific and insightful writer to many letter cols. I don’t know the entire story of this individual, but I’ve read some things. It is interesting to see the number of books in which his missives appear.

For specific storylines, the Thing has finished up his adventures on the Beyonder’s planet and returned to Earth. I knew there was a point when his long-time girlfriend, the blind Alicia Masters, started dating the Human Torch instead. Now I know more about how and when that event came about in the life of Ben Grimm. One of the reasons Thing stayed behind on the Beyonder’s world was to sort out his feelings for Alicia. He was thinking he should break up with her because he was too dangerous for her to have a relationship with. Ben resolved to go through with the break-up and returned to Earth to find that Alicia had suspected what was coming, and when he didn’t return right away from space, she took the hint and moved on with her life. Johnny Storm was there to help out, and their relationship grew while Ben was away.

In the New Teen Titans, the team recovered from their emotional and psychological battles with Trigon. Then they discover something of the true origin of Lilith, a longtime, on-again-off-again member from the old days. It seems that Lilith is the daughter of Thia, one of the Titans of Myth, parents to the gods of Olympus. The goddess Thia kidnapped Lilith claiming to have been searching for her since she was stolen away as a baby and commenced to usurp control of Mount Olympus with designs on Earth next. Before defeating this menace with some mythical help, the Titans meet Kole, a young crystal-powered teenager whose parents the Titans attempt to track down in their next story arc.

Jon Sable’s title included a three-part story taking him to the Middle East titled, The Contract. A special back-up feature in those three issues was a real-life prose account of Sable creator Mike Grell’s first safari in Africa, complete with photos and sketches to illustrate the tale. Next begins a two-part story about Jon Sable’s mother before her death.

In addition to these regular books, I also have Sword of the Atom Special #2. In late 1983 or early 1984, artist Gil Kane and writer Jan Strnad turned the shrinking hero's world upside-down. In a four-issue miniseries, they took physicist Ray Palmer from his Ivy Town university job, ended his marriage to Jean Loring-Palmer, and plopped him down in the middle of the Amazon rainforest among a hidden civilization of six-inch tall yellow aliens stranded and living in the jungles. It sounds hard to believe, and the Atom probably wouldn’t have been most people’s first choice as the next big sword and sorcery hero, but the story and art in the series were incredible and the characters likable. The series was popular enough to generate two sequels, a 1984 Special and the second one in early 1985, but never an ongoing series of its own.

And then there’s the Warlord. For quite some time in that title, Travis Morgan and his Skartaran mate, Queen Tara of Shamballah, have been in hiding, building their forces and preparing to re-take their kingdom from the New Atlantean usurpers who have been little more than a subplot since they took over the land. But what is most interesting to me about the recent Warlord stories is how often the Monitor has been depicted watching the exploits of the characters. The Monitor is a mysterious figure, always shown in shadow at this point, who appeared in several DC books over the course of 1983 and 1984, usually as just an observer watching events transpire, but sometimes acting as a type of referral agent, connecting bosses with super-powered muscle for a fee. Readers wouldn’t learn who the Monitor was or what his motivations and goals were until the maxiseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. This is my first time reading Warlord stories from this period, so I am curious just how much of a role the Crisis plays in the life of the Warlord and vice-versa. I know Travis Morgan is pictured in the Crisis series in several group shots of heroes, but the number of appearances of the Monitor in the the pages of the Warlord, makes me wonder if the Crisis will play a large role in Skartaris.

Moving forward from here, in addition to Titans, Warlord, Sable and Thing, I also have a four-issue Red Tornado series and a four-issue Nightcrawler series from early 1985 and a three-issue Legend of the Hawkman prestige series from 2000 which I have placed here chronologically because it obviously deals with the pre-Crisis Hawkman from Thanagar. Then, of course, Crisis on Infinite Earths, after which the dates in my collection get really muddy. But more on that when the time comes.

Comics So Vivid They're Scary

It's been a light reading week so far this week, and we've already covered the overviews for all of the series I have in complete runs through 1984. Still at least a week — most likely two — before my next shipment of new comics come in. But I have ventured far enough into 1985 that I have just re-read the first story arc of the 1984 Baxter New Teen Titans series.

The first five issues of the series detail the re-match between the current Titans line-up and the demonic Trigon the Terrible, other-dimensional father of Titan Raven. Issue #6 is also part of that story arc, at least in my opinion, because it deals with the aftermath of the battle and the repercussions for the Titans themselves.

These books also mark the last before the departure of New Teen Titans co-creator and collaborator George Perez. Marv Wolfman would stay with the book for another six or so years, and Perez continued to provide the cover art and story contributions, but Jose Luis Garcia Lopez took over the regular art chores with #6.

For anybody not familiar with the Baxter term, no, it doesn't mean that the comic was printed in the headquarters for the Fantastic Four. Baxter refers to the higher paper quality and the greater range of color inks used in the printing of the comic. In 1984, DC opted to experiment with the process on a re-vamped Legion of Super-Heroes title and their new Infinity Inc. offering. The New Teen Titans re-launch was the third title to get the upgrade. The brief mention of the different printing process is because I believe that very process is at least part of why this story arc is remembered by so many as so dramatic.

Of course, it was a pretty compelling story beyond the visuals, too. In the earliest adventures of the New Teen Titans, Raven is depicted as gathering this group of teenage heroes together so they could help combat her other-dimensional demon-father. That initial confrontation took place in New Teen Titans (first series) #s 6 and 7. At the end of that tale, the Titans had managed to "trap" Trigon in his own dimension, and Raven's human mother, Arella, stood "guard" over the portal between the dimensions.

In the 1985 story, it is revealed that over time Raven's appearance has been changing, growing to resemble that of her demonic father, mirroring the changes within her soul. Apparently, each time Raven has used her empathic powers over the course of the group's adventures, Trigon has captured a little piece of her, until she can no longer resist his influence. With the corrupted Raven's help, Trigon escapes his imprisonment, travels to Earth, and very quickly subjugates the entire planet. Superman, the Justice League and other heroes are shown to never have had a chance to even register the attack, let alone managed to organize counter-measures. The Titans are left whole only because they were elsewhere when the initial attack began, and because Trigon has special plans for them.

Over the course of the story, Trigon and the corrupted Raven use the darkest fears and insecurities of each Titan against that specific hero. Wonder Girl has recently married, so her "dark self" mocks the relationship of an Amazon to a mortal by killing Donna's husband. Changeling has lost his natural parents and his adoptive family the Doom Patrol. He naturally feels responsible for the tragedies which took his loved ones, so "Dark Changeling" accuses him of killing them. Nightwing has recently given up being Robin, so "Dark Nightwing" shows him that the new ineffective Robin has failed to watch Batman's back, resulting in the death of the Dark Knight Detective. Cyborg, Kid Flash and Starfire suffer similar nightmares, being taunted by their darkest fears to the breaking point.

These are dark fears and deal with some pretty dark concepts: slavery, failure, loss of humanity, death and murder. On top of that, the "dark" Titans are illustrated as "negative" figures, mostly black (as opposed to white) with blood-red outlines. The concepts and the visual depictions make for some very disturbing nightmare sequences, but they allow the reader to "feel" the Titans' torment all the more for their richness. I remember feeling a chill reading these stories for the first time, and even though the story and outcome are familiar now, a portion of that same chill returns each time I re-read these comics. Now that's not only good story-telling, but that's damn good graphic story-telling — and isn't that what comic books are all about?

Thing Has Changed

Hello, again. We’ve been talking about the ongoing series I am currently reading or re-reading as I work my way through the back issues of my own comic book collection. So, far, we’ve discussed The New Teen Titans, The Warlord and Jon Sable, Freelance. The fourth book that fits into that time frame is the first Marvel Comics title devoted to the solo adventures of the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing.

Now, Ben Grimm has always been my favorite member of the Fantastic Four. I tend to gravitate toward some of the more monstrous-in-appearance heroes from the Marvel Universe. I like Thing, I like Hulk, I like Beast, I like Nightcrawler and I like werewolves, so, since we’re talking about Marvel, I like Werewolf By Night.

Currently, Ben has his own solo title again. It’s already been canceled, but Dan Slott’s take on the character was spot-on. And during the Silver Age of comics, Thing starred as the recurring character in Marvel team-up title Two-In-One. But, today we are discussing the early ’80s series The Thing by John Byrne (writer) and Ron Wilson (drawing). A few of the issues in early 1984 were written by Mike Carlin, too.

This series started out pretty good. Ben battled a collection of strange villains and had some unusual adventures in his first several issues. It was the Thing we all know and love - a grounded everyman who just happens to be incredibly strong, has a big heart and muddles his way through whatever life throws at him.

And that’s why this series is only so-so for me. Those first issues were great. But then the Marvel Powers-That-Were came along and screwed things up. 1984 was when Marvel Comics produced its first Secret Wars miniseries (certainly not the last to bear that name) in which a god-like being called the Beyonder whisked several heroes and villains off to an artificial planetoid and pitted them against each other. At the conclusion of the 12-issue extravaganza, Ben decided to stay on the artificial world, a place where he could inexplicably transform back and forth from human to the Thing, and sort out some of the relationships in his life.

So, naturally, in his own title, Ben ceases to be Ben. It doesn’t so much bother me that for the next 10 to 12 issues, he can transform; that doesn’t change the core character. But many of the storylines during this “Rocky Grimm (where the hell did that name come from), Space Ranger” arc were just too fantastical for my tastes. Sure Thing has been put into some fantastic situations as a member of the FF, but again, what makes the character great is his everyman groundedness. Take that away from him, as in these stories, and I just don’t care much for this “new guy.”

OK, so I’m bashing several of these issues. You guessed it; you will find a number of them that I didn’t care for on my Web site for sale. See, that’s one of the beautiful things about comics. These stories weren’t my personal cup o’ tea. That doesn’t mean noone will want them. Somebody out there might think I’m crazy for my “narrow” opinion, love these issues, and snatch them right up. The stories aren’t bad, they just aren’t Ben Grimm to me.

Next time, we’ll move on to something else. In the week it’s taken me to post about these titles from 1984, I’ve almost worked my way on in to 1985.

Enter The Hunter

Mike Grell has done a lot of comic books work over the years. I haven’t researched him enough to provide a detailed listing of all his credits, but several people’s first exposure to him as an artist seems to be his early work illustrating the adventures of DC Comics’ Legion of Super-Heroes, the teenage titans from the far-flung future.

I never much got into the Legion back then, so its no surprise that my first exposure to Grell’s talents came much later during his work on the ground-breaking miniseries The Longbow Hunters, which updated Green Arrow for DC and served as the launch point for the emerald archer’s first self-titled ongoing series. Before that time, however, “Iron Mike” gained a following not only for illustrating, but also creating and writing the adventures of The Warlord, a series we discussed last time. In that earlier discussion, I also mentioned Grell leaving Warlord after a time.

At that time, he also left DC to join editor Mike Gold in creating First Comics. American Flagg and E-Man are some of the more popular titles released monthly by First Comics when they started. The character and title Grell created, wrote and illustrated was Jon Sable, Freelance, an adventurer-for-hire grounded in the real world, without any superpowers of any kind, who relied on his wits and skills to survive political intrigue “ripped from the headlines.” The main character was a combination of James Bond and Indiana Jones, a real-life “Batman” operating without a Halloween costume. And he was a hit in 1984.

My first exposure to this character was in a later relaunch of the title simply called Sable and written by Marv Wolfman. I enjoyed that incarnation for several months, occasionally picking up back issues of the re-launched series. I learned that Mike Grell had created the character when I happened across a trade paperback collecting the first six issues of the original series.

For a long time, that was all my collection included of Jon Sable. This is one of the titles for which I have recently filled in the holes, having purchased a copy of all issues of the original series, as well as the missing issues of the relaunch, initially title Sable, Return of the Hunter, and finally dropping to just Sable.

Through 1984, readers have been treated to an epic-length “origin” tale telling of Jon’s life and family in Africa, how he came to be a writer of children’s books in his alter ego of B.B. Flemm, how he came to know each of the small circle of people who know him, and followed him from the jungles of Vietnam in search of MIA/POWs to the Olympic games, opposing petty criminals, beautiful jewel thieves and corrupt officials in foreign countries.

Jon Sable, Freelance also gets a “thumbs up” recommendation as a series worth checking out.

And as a side note, through the house ads in the early First Comics, I learned about yet another Grell creator-owned series, Starslayer, a sci-fi tale originally launched for another company, but picked up by First Comics. I haven’t read any of this series yet, but I like The Warlord and Sable enough to purchase all of the issues from a mail-order back issue company a few months ago. That’s the “drawback” of this hobby -- each new discovery often leads to finding and wanting other new titles.

Happy collecting.

1984 Was More Than Just Big Brother

Ain’t technology wonderful? I’m not going to lie and blame the length of my most recent absence entirely on the computer not being available, but that is a valid excuse for a least a portion of the time. But I believe we are back in business now. Keep your fingers crossed.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about how I file my comic books as opposed to the more typical alpha-numeric system. I’ve also mentioned my Web site previously, which lists a number of comic books I’ve cut from my personal collection because of taste and/or duplication. Both of those topics came up in a recent discussion with a friend about what I do with my spare time.

A large portion of my spare time is devoted to my comic book collection. Currently I purchase the bulk of my new comics from a mail-order company which ships me my stash once a month. But, because of money and interest limitations, the new comics I get each month only take me a couple weeks to read and file away. Once that’s done each month, I move back to the beginnings of my collection.

I am currently using that time to go back through my collection from the beginning for a number of reasons. It’s a good way to doublecheck that there are no errors in the way I have the books ordered. I’m also pulling some additional books out for placement on the Web site. And over the last several months, I have purchased a number of back issues which complete runs of some titles or give me a chance to sample series I missed the first time around. So far, I’ve made it to fall 1984. At this point, not counting miscellaneous issues of titles I collected sporadically, there are four main titles I own complete runs of from that time. We’ve already covered my enjoyment of Marv Wolfman’s and George Perez’s revival of the New Teen Titans. Another of those titles is DC’s The Warlord.

The Warlord was created, written and illustrated by Mike Grell beginning with First Issue Special #8 in November 1975. The story centers on Air Force pilot Travis Morgan and the hidden world of Skartaris he accidentally finds inside Earth. The one-shot was popular enough that The Warlord was given his own book almost immediately -- February 1976. Grell stayed with the book until the early 1980s. Cary Burkett took over the writing and the art chores were handled by Dan Jurgens and Rich Buckler.

The title is basically a sword and sorcery tale with elements from science fiction and fantasy thrown in. I first heard of Mike Grell during his work in the 1990s on DC’s revival of Green Arrow. From there, I also followed his work in the late 90s for Image Comics with his creator-owned titles Shaman’s Tears and Bar Sinister, both short-lived but popular series, from my understanding.

The gritty-realism in these later titles -- stories that could almost happen in the real-world, not just ultra-violent as that term has come to mean today -- impressed me enough to seek out other Grell titles. While The Warlord is conciderably more fantastical than realistic, I still enjoyed the story presented in a trade paperback I picked up which collected the first year’s worth of Warlord tales. Other commentators I have read online dismiss Grell as doing work, especially on The Warlord, that others did first and better, most notably Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Martian tales. I will agree that the title isn’t exactly ground-breaking in its use of a man taken out of his usual environment and forced to excell in alien surroundings, but Grell does weave a riveting tale as Morgan explores the hidden world, battles wizrds and monsters, uncovers lost secrets and more.

When Grell left the title and new creators came onboard, the tone of the series changed, emphasizing the science fiction aspects more than others, but the stories were still quite good. The Warlord is a series I highly recommend, at least through 1984. Next time, we’ll look at another title I am discovering from that timeframe.

Hello, hello, hello

Wow, I really haven't been here much of late. Been busy, busy, busy. Trying to keep up with projects around the house and some overtime at work -- nice on the checkbook, not so nice on the life. Fighting being sleepy right now. Got woke up early this morning with some family business and wasn't feeling too great yesterday when I went to bed, so I'm a little wiped right now. But I logged in to check e-mail and figured I'd take just a quick minute to check in here and pledge to try and do better in the coming days.

Ciao for now, though.

Everything You Know Is Wrong

They have tried to yank the rug right out from under me, but so far, so good -- with just a little help from my friends. So far, I have survived two days under this new software at work. I even did a little bit more a little bit faster on the second night, so maybe, just maybe, I will get the hang of this program. Most of us agree, there are a number of things which keep this from being the vast improvement we were promised: several of the wonderful "new" features could have been done using our old software, and are only occasional things anyway. Several of the standard, everyday operations actually involve more complex commands than the old software. And, of course, most of the actions that stayed the same really didn't because we all have to learn new keystrokes to make the same old magic happen.


But, as I said, with a little help from those around me, I'm figuring it out.


Wish me luck.

Checking In

Hey, everybody! I'm baaaaack!

No, I wasn't abducted by aliens for the better part of the month. Been going through some changes at work which have translated into many extra hours. And work has been taking enough extra time of late that I haven't been feeling especially creative, or even motivated, for that matter.

But, now that I'm here, I see it has actually been closer to a month than I thought it had been, so it's about time I checked in, even if just for a brief visit.

I hope to be back in a few days with more. Take care of yourselves.

Meanwhile, back in the Comics Den ...

I said I wasn't going to talk about comic books all of the time, but it's been a while now, so here we go returning to geek-heaven:

The vast majority of collectors I have talked to store their collections (books bagged and boarded, of course) in boxes or on shelves alpha-numerically, i.e. Batman comes before Superman and Spider-Man and even Batman: Gotham Knights and Batman #100 comes about 100 issues before Batman #200 (if you're lucky enough to have comics from that far back). My system, while not unique, is a little bit different.

I look at the comic book characters I love and their adventures as if they were real people living real lives. No, I don't mean I have trouble distinguishing reality from make believe, but previous writers and philosophers have posited that if someone can imagine something, then somewhere in all of reality, that imagined thing can be real. Following this logic, I try to store my comics in "chronological order."

In a simple equation of a collector following one title only, this would not be very different from storing the books numerically. The continuity of most modern comics is that issue "B" takes place after issue "A." Even if issue "C" includes a flashback to something that happened before issue "B," the bulk of the book would still occur after issue "B." But then, let's say, issue "D" comes out and tells the origin of the title character. Issue "D" includes no flashbacks, there is no "current" framing sequence with a character thinking back. Well then, chronologically, issue "D" would come first in my collection, making the order of the books D, A, B, C.

Of course, most collectors don't follow just one book or one character. And sometimes characters interact in each other's stories. Batman may appear in a stand-alone issue of Superman during the same month that his own title is on part 3 of a 4-part storyline. Does that appearance of Batman in the Superman title really "happen" between scenes in that month's issue of Batman or did it "occur" either before or after the storyline in the Batman magazine? Answering questions like that and placing the comics in order accordingly is part of the enjoyment for me. Sometimes there will be clues within the story to indicate which event came first. Sometimes it's a completely arbitrary decision.

Yet, even the above example isn't really complex enough to show the myriad plotlines and stories one has to keep straight to achieve this goal. To see just how convoluted it could get, let's look at one of my favorite characters: Nightwing. For those not in the know, Nightwing is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, the Boy Wonder, all grown up. Nightwing currently has his own self-titled comic book published monthly. Nightwing is also a member of a current group called the Outsiders and often appears in that book. He is also a founding member of the Teen Titans. There is a new group of Titans right now, and Nightwing is not a current member, but he guest-stars in the book quite often as he was a founding member of the original group and the current group includes the current Robin, Nightwing's "little brother" in the Batman family. Let's add Batman into the mix; that includes titles such as Batman, Detective, Robin, Batgirl, Batman: Gotham Nights and Batman: Legends of the Bat, all of which could feature a guest appearance by Nightwing. The character is also friends with the Flash, another founding Teen Titans member. He has been in titles like JLA and Birds of Prey before. That's a dozen books this one character could be in during any given month. Odds are he wouldn't be all of them in one month, but let's say he was in only three; there are still the other characters in those three books who could each be in multiple books each month. It can be a challenge sometimes.

Life As Usual ... Obstacles and Some Good People

Problems are so much easier to deal with when you have a little help along the way. As I alluded to in a previous post, the transmission went out in my pickup -- more specifically, the clutch burned up because of a transmission leak I failed to notice. Had to get around for almost two weeks with just my wife's car for the both of us. Wasn't fun, but it could've been worse, and the transmission shop we took the truck to did a great job for us. I admit it, I'm not the most car-minded of guys, but the staff at this shop didn't make me feel like an idiot, they got us fixed up and running again, and they stood behind the work when we discovered one seal that wasn't quite tightened all the way and took the pickup back for that. Yeah, they didn't get one seal right, but everyone makes mistakes. These guys admitted to the error, fixed it without charging us and were still very gracious about it.

Next problem: I think I've mentioned before that I currently get the bulk of my comics, trade paperbacks and action figures through a mail order company. They are so great, it is unbelievable. Apparently, the shipper has lost my most recent month's worth of stuff. I get e-mails from the company and the shipper when an order has been sent. The e-mail from the shipper has an estimated delivery date. I know its just an ESTIMATED delivery date, but they are usually right on the money, and sometimes even a day early. Not this time.

So I tried to track the package online -- isn't technology great -- well, yeah, when the system works, it is. The shipper's tracking software recorded the box leaving the company and going to its first stopover. Leaving that place and arriving at another destination along the way here. And finally, leaving that location. Then nothing. The trail stopped two days before the delivery date, four days before I finally logged on to check things out.

So I called the shipper. After talking in circles with a computer for several minutes, I got to a person who promised to look into the problem. I talked to reps from the shipper three more times, each time having to supply additional information about what was in my package and getting no answers as to what had become of any of it. Finally, the last exchange with them resulted in the shipper needing a specific packing list of the contents of the package. I order stuff all of the time and the company sends me whatever is available on the date the package is sent. I never know exactly what is in the package until I open it. So I called the company to have them get in touch with the shipper and provide a packing list.

Here's why the company I order from is so great. They said they would handle things from that point. If they and the shipper together could not locate my package within about a week, thecompany would re-ship all the items they could. (Remember, they didn't lose the package, so I didn't know if I would just be out everything or not.) They also told me that should this happen again (we all hope not, but things occasionally go "not according to plan"), to call them, the company, first and let them deal with the shipper.

So, it's too soon for this whole thing to be resolved yet. And no matter what, I'm going to be getting my comics late. But I'm more certain now that I will eventually get them. That's a good feeling. Thanks guys.

Staying connected

Nothing much to say today, but it's the last day of my weekend (yes, my weekend from work is now Sunday and Monday), I'm online, and figured I'd drop by, post some quick thoughts before continuing on and logging off.

One thing I'll be doing after leaving here is updating the comic book Web site. If anyone has found their way here and might be looking for some cheap comics to buy, pop on over to my site at http://www.angelfire.com/comics/tsgnightwing It's full of hundreds of comics which are extras for me and which I hope to sell to someone cheaply, but making enough to continue buying new comics for myself. Check it out. You know you want to.

Another place I am thinking about going posting today is classmates.com. My wife recently reunited with an old high school friend that way and the two have gotten reacquainted quite nicely through the site. It got me wondering about some kids I went to school with -- or, I guess they probably aren't kids anymore, but you know what I mean. But anyway, I'm thinking about checking out a trial membership and seeing how many fellow students from Grand Valley Community School I might find there to catch up with.

Until next time, let's all be careful out there.

The Cream of the Crop Sinks to the Lowest Depths

Finally made it back to fill you in on those seven movies I mentioned Wednesday. But first, a tad bit of set-up: We had planned a movie weekend get-away and rented seven flicks for the occasion. Some picked by my wife, some by me and some were joint agreement. In all honesty, everything we saw had at least some good qualities, none of the films truly sucked. But only one stood out as a really good show, and it was just awful. More on that one at the end.


The Constant Gardener
This one had a strong storyline that promised a great deal of intrique, but delivered a rather boring, overly drawn out plot. Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes do a good job. And I enjoy how the story unfolds through a combination of current time and flashbacks, especially how the viewer is given certain glimpses to support one point of view, then learns more as the main character comes to understand things differently. That helps engage the viewer in the film somewhat, but overall the plot advances very slowly.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Obviously, this one is a documentary. It included some interesting first-person accounts of how Wal-Mart moving into a community forces local, family-owned businesses out, and has some particularly funny faux commercials, but I really didn't find too much new information that isn't already available about the retail giant and how it conducts commerce.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose
This film surprised and disappointed. Rather than taking the typical horror route, director Scott Derrickson opted to combine elements of courtroom drama into the mix. The result is a very engaging story of a priest on trial for conducting an exorcism that ends badly which includes all of the best elements of the courtroom drama genre, but loses much of its horror sensibility. Demon possession is some pretty scary stuff, and this is supposed to be based on actual events from Italy, but the interplay between the lawyers and the legalities of the case take much of the scariness out of the flashbacks.

Bewitched
This was a fun trip down memory lane; tributes to the 1964-72 television show abound. The modern story in the movie is a has-been actor (Will Ferrell) is tapped to play Darrin in a re-make of the show and the producers unknowingly cast a real witch (Nicole Kidman) to play Samantha. While the movie is fun and doesn't overtax your brain very much, the plot is very simple, and some of the gags just aren't funny. Inexplicably, the real-life witch playing Samantha on the re-make has a lot of kooky relatives with the same names and personalities as the character did on the TV show. But then, toward the end of the film, Steve Carell shows up as Uncle Arthur and plays the role as if he really is actor Paul Lynde playing the character of Uncle Arthur as if he was a real person. And doing it rather badly.

Madagascar
This computer-animated movie didn't live up to expectations at all. The trailer for Over the Hedge looked funnier than the movie itself. Much of the humor seemed forced and just not all that funny. And while it is typical in an animated movie like this one to have the characters emulate personalities of the voice-actors giving them life, my wife pointed out how distracting it was everytime the giraffe, Melman, spoke to be visualizing Ross Gellar from Friends simply because the character was voiced by David Schwimmer.

Sky High
I did expect quite a bit from this movie; while not based on any specific comic book, let's face it, it's still a comic book movie. And it was a fun movie. But it also took some liberties that didn't make much sense to me. Why does everyone (OK, almost everyone, but I won't say more and ruin anything for anyone) with a super power have only one super power? Who made up that rule?

And finally, we come to the last one ...
Crash

Officer Ryan: [talking on the phone] I wanna speak to your supervisor...
Shaniqua: I am my supervisor!
Officer Ryan: All right well, what's your name?
Shaniqua: Shaniqua Johnson.
Officer Ryan: Shaniqua. Big fucking surprise that is!
Shaniqua: Oh!
[Shaniqua hangs up]

In the credit where credit is due department, this was my wife's pick. I don't remember even hearing of it before. The tag line for the film was: "You think you know who you are. You have no idea." Between the quotes above and that tag line, you can probably guess that the movie deals with prejudice and discrimination and bigotry and the uglier side of life. Racism is a big part of it, but there is also sexism, elitism, ageism, anything that can separate two people and make them feel different from each other.

The characters are not one-dimensional either. They all have their faults, but most also have some redeeming qualities. Take Officer Ryan, played by Matt Dillon. Obviously he's a racist bigot. You get that much from the quote above. But the phone call that quote comes from is Ryan trying to cut through the bureaucracy and get his ailing father some medical treatment. Ryan, a character who commits a truly heinous act against another person in the film, is taking care of his father with genuine compassion and patience. Ryan even performs one of the most self-sacrificing acts depicted in the movie, making him the most despicable and the most heroic figure in the drama.

This was by far the best film we rented in terms of acting, portraying life, prompting one to think. But for those very same reasons, it is not a very happy movie which makes a person look at himself a little more critically than most of us usually care to look. I recommend it very highly.

T is for transmission

No time to say much today, just checking in really. This is proving to be a bad, busy week due to vehicle woes. If I have more time tomorrow, I'll try to pop in and we'll do some DVD reviews. My wife and I rented seven movies this past weekend, and most of them were found lacking. How sad is that?

Checking In

Nothing really much to say today, but wanted to check in before too much time had passed. Just got done updating the comics Web site a few minutes ago. Nothing added this week, but managed to sell a couple comics and removed them. Dunno how much I'll post this week. Thursday is my wife's and my anniversary. Going out of town for a few days. Likely will be Internet free most of the time. So, if I don't talk to you again, have a good weekend.

The Invasion Surfaces at the Threshold

I said this wouldn't always be about comics. Today I keep my word as we shift gears to television. Specifically, the almost completed 2005-06 sci-fi offerings by the three big networks. At the beginning of the fall 2005, each of the three had its own sci-fi "aliens are among us" series for public consumption. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I imagine most anyone reading this has already watched at least some of these programs.

CBS gave us Threshold -- my early favorite of the bunch. The premise was an alien object appeared in the sky over the ocean and "infected" those within sight and hearing range. Most people, being "incompatible" with the alien signal quickly died rather gruesome deaths, but a few were changed into alien agents whose main objective now became to infect others. The title refers to one of many government-sanctioned contingency plans. The government taps the author of the Threshold protocols -- Molly Caffrey, if memory serves -- and she assembles a small team of experts to covertly track down the "infectees" and stop the before they can spread the alien virus.

Threshold had a number of things going for it. Not least of which was a premise that lends itself well to continuing episodic television. We don't know the exact agenda, or even the true nature, of the aliens involved; that's the longer running mystery that keeps audiences coming back week after week as secrets are slowly revealed over two or three seasons. Meanwhile, each week, our heroes on the Threshold team track the infectees, stop massive plots to spread the alien virus through videos, the Internet or television, bicker and squabble among themselves, etc. The show had some very intelligent writing, some thought-provoking ideas, a good cast of actors, and a sustainable, TV-friendly premise. naturally, it died very quickly, first suffering from a floating schedule, then being absent for almost a month, and then finally, just never coming back.

NBC's take doesn't actually deal with aliens at all, although viewers couldn't be sure of that when Surface premiered. I wasn't sure about this series initially, but it has grown on me quite rapidly. This one involves the "discovery" of a new amphibious, vertebrate animal, living mostly under the sea. But these creatures can be very deadly. And very quickly after stumbling upon them, Laura Daughtrey, a young marine biologist and single mother has her life turned upside down by mysterious men trying to keep her quiet. Daughtrey is joined by Ridge, a good-ol' boy from down south, who has lost his brother to the creatures in a diving accident. And there's also Miles, a teenager who finds one of the creatures and takes it as a pet.

The animation on the creatures is very good. Again, a very good cast and good, consistent writing are present on this series. Especially the scenes between Miles and his creature, Nimrod, can be very engaging. My biggest fear for this show is whether or not it can be sustained for multiple seasons. Throughout the course of the show, we have learned quite a bit about the creatures and their origins. There are still mysteries unsolved, but it almost seems as if a future season would have to explore other aspects of the company or group of scientists who have genetically engineered these creatures. To be sure, we have seen hints that other creations of this conglomerate exist. But the show might lose some cohesion by switching to a new creature, and possibly even new investigators, in a new season. The attachments viewers have for Miles, Ridge and Daughtrey would be lost that way. But I'm not sure there will be anywhere left to go with these amphibians' story once this season is over. Things right now seem aimed at coming to a very large impasse. And, in fact, the future of this show beyond this season is still up in the air according to NBC.

The last of these shows is ABC's Invasion. Twinkling lights from the sky descend on a Florida community during a hurricane, and quite a few of the townsfolk just aren't quite the same afterwards in this series written, directed, produced, etc. by Shaun Cassidy.

I admit I watch this show every week. Apparently a lot of people do as this one has the strongest ratings of the three, and is the only one, so far, to definitely make it to a season two. I am afraid, however, that Invasion's status is due more to the fact that it follows ABC's blockbuster Lost each week and enjoys a large carry-over audience than anything else.

When I first heard that Shaun Cassidy had such a large hand in creating this show, I wanted it to be good. I'm old enough to have grown up with Shaun Cassidy singing on the radio and playing Joe Hardy on the Hardy Boys Mysteries. Good for him. I hope his show does well. But the writing isn't good or consistent. I want to like the characters in this show, and the premise is sound, but every week the writing seems to flounder, giving the actors nothing to hold onto. One of the primaries is Larkin, a journalist and pregnant mother-to-be, who has been shown as a dedicated person who will do what is necessary to get a story out to the public. And when she starts to suspect something strange going on, and finds signs of a military cover-up, she is willing to risk her own life to snoop around. A few weeks later, she seems to have forgotten all about investigating, even going so far as to get upset with her husband when he is trying to dig around and find out what is going on. hey, anybody can change his or her mind, right? I can roll with that once, maybe. Until a couple weeks later, when she is willing to risk her marriage to dig some more and expose secrets she only half understands herself. That's just one example. The dialogue often seems unnatural. People who seem to know all about what is going on may suddenly be in the dark themselves.

Lost is a good example of a show that keeps a viewer guessing with twists and turns, but still maintains that sense that the writers know exactly where they are ultimately going with everything. Invasion is the opposite, meandering at times as if the creator is trying to figure it all out as much as we are. That's not good.

It may not look like it, but I welcome comments from anyone who cares to offer them. Just click on the "#" after each post to leave comments until I (or most likely my wife) can figure out why the word "comment" isn't showing.

What the hell are 'kiddie cops'?

OK, while it's not officially a comment, my wife did ask that question (or one along those lines) after reading my most recent post. So, you get the answer, too.

"Kiddie cops" is one of those terms or phrases I use occasionally in my speech which comes from something I read, in this case a comic book. Specifically, The New Teen Titans annual 2 (1983), the comic which is directly responsible for my adult interest in comics.

Both my brother and I had read comics when we were much younger, but we didn't "collect" them. We'd get random issues of Spider-Man or Justice League of America or World's Finest Comics when Mom let us buy them from the grocery store, but they'd never last long enough to be collected. But in 1983, while on a youth group trip with friends, I spotted this comic book in the spinner rack convenience stores all used to have. To be honest, I didn't recognize most of the characters on the cover, but I was pretty sure the "floating head" on the lower right was Robin, the Boy Wonder. I picked up the issue and fell in love with the storytelling and intrigue, not to mention those stunning George Perez illustrations.

The story in the comic picks up in the middle of an investigation by the New Teen Titans (Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Changeling, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Terra) and Manhattan district attorney Adrian Chase. The Titans believe that Chase and his family have just been killed by the organized crime family they are pursuing. In an audiotape left by Chase for the Titans, he refers to them as "kiddie cops." I thought it was clever at the time, and the phrase became part of my vocabulary.

This issue has much more to offer those interested in comics. Chase is, in fact, not dead and goes on to become the costuned vigilante ... Vigilante. Many others would use this moniker afterwards, but Adrian Chase was the first. This issue also features an appearance by a mysterious power broker for heroes and villains named the Monitor, a shadowy figure seen in various DC titles throughout the year. He would soon be revealed as an extra-terrestrial "monitoring" and testing various meta-humans for the upcoming blockbuster Crisis on Infinite Earths series. And at one point in the story, the Monitor is called upon to provide several assassins-for-hire to slay the Titans on behalf of that nasty organized crime family. Most of the villains make their one and only appearance in this issue, but one in particular, the Asian-American assassin Cheshire, would go on to be a major presence in the DC Universe.

Probably, I won't talk about comics every time I post, but this time I did, so it makes a nice transition into another quick topic. In a previous post, I had mentioned comics to sell which I had listed on a site called iOffer. That worked pretty well for a while, but I have so many comics to sell, I ended up creating my own site listing all of them. If you happened to find your way here and are interested, check out the site at http://www.angelfire.com/comics/tsgnightwing

And so long for now, kiddie cops.

Hello, one and all (you know who you are). Recently, several other people I know have started blogs and have kept them going quite well, including my lovely wife. Especially her recent posts got me to wondering if my blog even still existed anywhere in the cyber-realm. Well, apparently it does, so I thought I'd drop a quick post today and try to drop by occasionally to post tidbits and drek. I'm sure posts will still be very sporadic, but maybe with a little effort I can achieve a bit more frequency than what I have had in the past. Wish me luck, Kiddie-Cops.

Yes, boys and girls, it is I, your humble host, taking a few minutes to check in here once again. I was online checking out what may be a wonderful new find. I read about it in Comics Buyers Guide. It is the Discount Comic Book Service website (www.dcbservice.com). I have a pretty good company for my mail order comic needs - Westfield Comics, but this site is even cheaper for trade paperbacks, graphic novels and action figures than Westfield's discounts. Yay!!!

Hey, kiddie-cops, I'm finally back.
I found a site called iOffer back in February where I'm trying to sell off some of my extra comic books. Not doing too poorly, but I absolutely hate it when someone makes an offer on something, you accept it, and then never hear from them again - they never pay, respond to inquiry e-mails, nothing, no further contact. If you don't want it, don't make an offer. If you change your mind, simply say so. I don't know you. I'm not gonna come hunt you down.
Same thing with an old water bed I'm trying to sell off. My wife and I work at a newspaper, so we ran a Classified ad, got several calls from people desperate to find a waterbed (so they said) and very interested after all their questions were answered over the phone (so they seemed) and some even asked us to stay home so they could come by and look (damn liars), but did anybody show up to buy the thing? NO.

OK, my little sister got me this blog for my birthday, so I'm checking it out for the first time. Guess I could tell you a little bit about myself: I'm 37, married, no kids as of yet, a cat named Pasha, a mortgage, a collection of several thousand comic books (almost a couple thousand to sell if anyone's interested -- Marvel, DC, independents), quite a few books (I like to read), music, movies and waaaay too much debt. That's my life. If you're reading this, welcome to it.