Thursday, May 29, 2008

Things That Made Me Happy...

in my comics this week.

  • Dr. Hector Hammond, as he originally was.
  • Knowledge?! I wanted a leather jacket with my name on the sleeves!
  • And they were on sale, too? I suspect Blockade Boy, frankly... .
  • Fire stick = cigarette = Libra's staff. Nice.
  • That Alfred, in the midst of a raging fire, is still an unforgiving film critic.
  • Yeah, I'd probably just wear whatever my closet told me to wear, too.
  • "Condition Amber" made me laugh out loud.
  • Hal getting hit in the head with a yellow frisbee.
  • Oh my god. That's John. In an office. Like... like an architect. Seeing it feels like ... sacrilege.
  • Is that the Man-of-Bats shield?
  • The perfect cocktail.
  • The cover of "Recipes for Revenge".
  • Oh, Lex, sweetie; will you kill me if I tell you those pants make you look fat?
  • Well, of course he's naked; duh.
  • Even at the end, Clark has to scoop Lois.
  • Jaime's understated inability to let go what happened. Or what didn't.
  • Actually, Mr. Norg, I myself am quite disappointed about his serious interest.
  • Rolex Chronoberg?
  • Blindingly obvious. Heh. Heh heh.
  • Geoff Johns, who is clearly some sort of superhuman, fixing everything about the Toyman in, essentially, one panel. Sheer genius.
  • Orion = God of War = Mars = Manhunter = D.O.A.
  • "Hit 'em like Napoleon" is the new "Bend it like Beckham".
  • It's really hard to overuse the word "orrery".
  • I... I love you, Solaris.
  • "I'm twenty-two!"
  • Okay, who set up those two for a date?! Not E-harmony!
  • Hey, Batman's doing "Someone's taking my life apart piece by piece" and "Everything I know about myself is lie" at the same time. Grant Morrison is SO innovative!
  • H is the eighth letter of the alphabet.
  • That Ocean Master is at the table.
  • How is it possible that 1011 doesn't mean anything significant in binary. Morrison so loves speaking binary.
  • I dunno--don't children always look like that? They do to me.
  • I'm sure J'onn would agree with you, Dan.
  • It took me a while to figure it out, but that's the toy train Clayface knocked Batman out with 60 years ago. Nice memory, Grant.
  • Wait... she kissed JO?! Good lord, it's like Degrassi in the 31st Century!
  • Beagle.
  • Nasty.
  • Air hammers.
  • Welcome mat. Heh. Of course.
  • Now that's heartburn.
  • Dark Side's limp.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved "Recipes for Revenge" too -- if you lived through the seventies, that font should fill you with nostalgia and horror.

I didn't start reading "Blue Beetle" until issue 25 so I'm not in a good position to judge: how does the new issue stack up to its predecessors? Is it the same feel and level of quality? Because I like.

Ragtime said...

I think "1011" refers to the fact that it is mentioned and page 10 and 11.

Sea-of-Green said...

"Man of Bats" shield?!? *Sea chokes on her coffee.* That would be AWESOME!

SallyP said...

All excellent points, to be sure. The joy I felt in seeing Hal get clocked was indescribable.

I also enjoyed the fact that apparently Final Crises completely ignored all of Countdown.

Anonymous said...

"Dr." Hector Hammond?

As I recall the story, Hec wasn't a doctor or any kind of scientist before he used the Evolution Meteor on himself. Or am I being unnecessarily nitpicky?

Jacob T. Levy said...

Is it my imagination, or did Toyman dress up the bad robot as The Phantom Stranger?

Scipio said...

Not picky, Dale, just wrong. The man invented an anti-gravity house, for pity's sake.

Well, Jacob, it is an opera cape he's wearing. But the story in which that Toyman appeared was one where the Toyman was heartbroken that he was omitted from a toyline of Superman foes because he wasn't scary enough, so he reinvented himself as a scary, psychotic threat to children, which is how Adam Grant died.

It was a very cool story, and the revelation that that was a robot doesn't really diminish it's impact.

Anonymous said...

I'd tend to think 'I ching' before 'binary'

And, given just how many New Gods, Old Gods, Greek Gods, Norse Gods, Space Gods, Elder Gods, and Ancient Aztec Blood Gods have been offed in the floating ten-year continuity window, how in the world can the Lanterns think that 1011's are particularly rare at all?

Anonymous said...

Well, it's been years and years since I read that first Hec Hammond story; I just remember him as a wealthy guy who exposed four scientists to the evolution meteor and kept them in the basement inventing weapons for him, kind of like Electra Woman and Dyna Girl did with Prof. Heflin.

Anonymous said...

Of course they wear what their closets tell them. They're the Legion for petes sake!

"Hmm... Some one has bought all of us new costumes and snuck into our rooms to stick them in our closets!"

"Oh, well, that was nice of them."

--Mallet

Unknown said...

Man of Bats? Do you mean the American Indian version of Batman?

Anonymous said...

If it helps, is the other kind of Indian Batman, who says things to himself like "It's time for night-patrol of Bruce Wayne alias Batman. Now I will see why this Bat Signal is given?"

Jacob T. Levy said...

I think Lyle is still sending mixed signals.

AJ said...

Concerning Batman R.I.P. so far... is it me, or are they having batman reveal his identity to more and more women lately? Catwoman in Hush was okay, but got retconned pretty quickly if I remember right. but now this person he apparently just met? I need to get the rest of them and find out what this ridiculousness is.

that and I'm a sucker for anything about Thomas Wayne, for some reason.

argh.sims said...

Ch'p was in Hal Jordan's GL training class? That's hilarious! Especially when the cute little chipmunk gets to tell him "Everyone in the universe knows a Green Lantern's power ring is INEFFECTUAL against YELLOW."

I loved

Anonymous said...

Fire stick = cigarette = Libra's staff

= Torch of liberty (and some interpreted Orion's message -- and burning -- to Turpin as a passing a torch in some ways) = Anthro with hands on the setting sun.

Two Green Lanters ("clouds") = Turpin + Montoya ("alleys") = mas y menos = Khamandi + Anthro = chess patterns on Darkside club = Libra + Barry? = Turpin + Orion? = two and twos etc etc

There's still the manner in which women's role are portrayed in comics overall (the iteration of prehistoric times in dr Light's scene). It's like Morrison pastiching Infinite Crisis (gloomy doomed futures, shitty use of 'relevant' in-the-news bits like toys from China and Katrina, crappy irrelevant deaths, Edens of garbage, Question jumping into garbage ferry, muk-muk as muck, "I'm in deep shit" as the overall goldXshit Morrison plays with).

It's a mess of poor storytelling (and even worse storytelling from JG Jones).

Anonymous said...

And Libra paralleling The Hood somewhat brings some weird resemblance in Manhunter's death to Tigra's beating (a supervillain filming, the character basically with no reaction, Libra being the joiner of villains making promises in exchange of him being on top etc).

Anonymous said...

Here's a thought of the day:

Jimmy Olsen is the Jim Halpert of the DC Universe.

Discuss.

Anonymous said...

No, he's Dwight. Michael Scott is Superman.

Gus Casals said...

I finally got Legion, and understood about half your items. And loved them.

I suspect Blockade Boy too, not only for the redesign and purchase, but infiltration too.

And I have to agree with Lyle's mixed signals too, although there is no denying his has a major crush in the alien girl.

Anonymous said...

No, Jimmy Olsen is the Johnny Thunder of Earth-1.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous First Absorascommenter,

Blue Beetle was *even better* in the issues leading up to and culminating in issue #25. You will do yourself a huge favor if you find the collected issues (surely in TPB by now) of the entire run on your next visit to the comic book shop.

--hza