Reilly2040's Blog

This week saw the release of Green Lantern #27 and the second part of the Alpha Lanterns trilogy.

So, now we finally see what the Alpha Lanterns are. Part Manhunter, part Green Lantern, they enforce the new rules being written into the book of Oa.

The surgery scene was really horrific. No doubt intentionally, I suspect we’re supposed to be seriously questioning the Guardians at this point. John was right to knock back the offer without more information, and with Boodikka’s story spilling into the next two issues of GLC, I suspect we’re going to see some of the real consequences to their decision to accept the position.

Its perfectly played out in the scene where Laira is asking Hal what he would’ve done as she’s being escorted to a Sciencell, and Hal looks up to see Sinestro smirking. There’s no doubt now that he won the Sinestro Corps war. Whereas a GL might still inspire people in the DCU, I have no doubt that an Alpha Lantern turning up is going to terrify people. The Guardians are playing right into Sinestro’s hands, inspiring fear in those around them.

The Blackest night is also touched on, with the scarred guardian getting Ash to hunt out the remains of the Anti-Monitor, and we see Black Hand’s symbol reflected in her eyes. Has she been infected by the Anti-Monitor?

The only real complaint I’ve got is with Raker. A fan favourite, previously introduced as a GL operating in secret on Apokolips, with his own power battery, so he was still in action after Parallax/Hal decimated the Corps. It was a cool story, and he became a fan-favourite, but this version of him is nothing like the version I remember from that story. Its a minor niggle, but it seems pointless to bring back the character only to change him so radically.

Next week’s Countdown should be a lot of fun. There’s definitely a sense its been building to this. Tricked by the Monitor Solomon into thinking that Earth-51 is “his” Earth, Superman Prime isn’t too happy to find Monarch laying waste to the place.

“I’m going to kill you to DEATH!” is just such a great silly line. Suits the character right down to the ground.

With Countdown heading towards the endgame now, its interesting to see which stories seem to have worked and which haven’t. For me, although the Trickster/Piper storyline was initially fun, it ultimately just seemed to drag and doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere.

The Karate Kid/Brother Eye storyline seems to be building towards Final Crisis, but I’ve also just found it really dull. The Jimmy storyline also seems to be a big piece of the Final Crisis story, but as someone who isn’t much of a fan of the Fourth World/New Gods stuff, I’ve not been that interested. However, the fact that it seems to be setting up such a big part of Final Crisis has me concerned. If it does turn out to be a big part of it, then does this mean that Final Crisis may not be for me? But if so, can I really afford to skip a title that’ll be setting up the DCU for the next few years? I’m sure it’ll be fine, and I’ll enjoy it, but still its a thought.

The Mary Marvel storyline’s been another misfire for me. The official stance in DC seems to be that she hasn’t killed anyone, but reading the issues, I really don’t get that. It seems to me that the character’s got a lot to make up for. Of course, you have to wonder why she was abandoned by Billy and Freddy in the first place. Not exactly brotherly…

For me, the main meat of Countdown has been the Search For Ray Palmer/Monarch/Multiverse stuff. With the “52″ multiverse only recently established, its been great fun seeing the different worlds. And noticably most reviews seem to agree that Countdown’s firing on all cylanders when this is the story its focusing on.

I still maintain I reckon this multiverse will be nuked by Final Crisis though. I think the fact that Earth-2 has been all but avoided will be key however to the fact that the Multiverse will not be collapsed again. Throughout Infinite Crisis, it was noted that Earth-2 was different to the other resurrected worlds, and we’ve still got the “Missing Kryptonians” mystery. I’m betting Final Crisis will end with a new multiverse.

First Mass Effect, now this. I’m going to end up cracking and getting a 360 at somepoint, I can feel it…

The way they’ve got the different simulation technologies interacting though really is incredible.

I should really think about adding a Knight Rider category at this rate…

Anyway, the latest teaser from the states. February 17th can’t come soon enough

So, over Christmas, I decided to re-jig the setup of my main PC.

I’d been getting back into Linux, and quite liked trying out different distros, however the current harddisc setup was quite restricting.

So, I went onto Dabs, and ordered myself a new 80Gb internal drive. Not huge, but Windows is always going to be my main OS (as a gamer), and its more than enough for my purposes (since all my main media files and the like will still be stored on the Windows drive.

So, I finally got it setup this weekend. I’ve now got an expanded 40Gb of space dedicated to Ubuntu (up from the previous 16 or so), and I’ve installed SuSE 10.3 (which I was quite impressed with) on a 20Gb partition. That still leaves around 16Gb for me to chuck on anything else that takes my fancy.

Of course, the only problem with starting from scratch was the inevitable setup issues. Ubuntu 7.x still hates my soundcard (a Realtek card using the hda-intel driver for Alsa), but fortunately I found this really good thread on UbuntuForums that sorted it easily.

SuSE was slightly more straight-forward, although with the 64bit version I couldn’t get the proper NVidia drivers running. So I fell back on the 32bit version and everything setup smoothly.

I must admit, I’ve tried going down the 64bit route a couple of times now, however I’m just not convinced its nearly stable or supported enough for me to switch at the moment. Hopefully in a couple of years it will be though, but for now I’m sticking with the 32bit OS, as third party applications seem to be a lot easier to get and run under it.

Long Way Round was something I’d always meant to see, and earlier last year, I was gifted the DVD, which I sat, watched and thoroughly enjoyed.

I then got the book for Christmas this year (along with the DVD and book of Long Way Down) which I’ve been working my way through.

Its truely fascinating stuff, following Ewan and Charley’s trip of a lifetime around the world. Even just watching it on TV, its amazing to get those glimpses into other cultures, so the affect it must have had on those involved in the trip must’ve been truely profound.

The book also provides a good counter-point to the TV series. While the TV series did a good job of balancing the trials and joys of the journey, the book provides a slightly starker look at how challenging the trip could be.

Certainly by halfway through the book, I was left wondering why these two would go through it all again for Long Way Down, as both actors are very upfront about having to confront their own demons, with Charley accepting that his constant worrying about things is leading to clashes, and both actors battling the poor moods that the constant travelling through poor conditions can cause. However, as the book goes on, and they start travelling through Mongolia, Ewan especially starts to find the trip that he dreamed of, camping out in the Wilderness and meeting warm-hearted strangers to whom he is just a passing traveller and not just “Obi Wan Kenobi on a bike”.

Its a heart-warming read how these encounters clearly touched both actors quite profoundly and you can’t help but revel in their triumph as they finally reach Manhatten.

Now I’ve just got to get cracking on the Long Way Down book

As regular readers will know, I spend many-a-night watching home-made music videos (usually Doctor Who) on Youtube. So I thought it was about time I mentioned some of the ones that I particularly liked

This one, uses clips from seasons 2 and 3 to the Rascall Flatt’s cover of Life is a Highway. There’s some nice stitching of scenes together with transitions here, and it works really well with the music.

And (in the spirit of self-promotion), its worth mentioning that my own effort is up on Youtube with 130-odd views so far. Don’t think I’ve linked to it from here yet.

Torchwood stormed back onto our screens last night with the first episode of season 2. And it was a corker.

Torchwood Season 1 was a bit of a mixed back for me, although overall, a mixed bag with promise. Its flaws were well documented (an almost adolescent approach to adult storytelling, Captain Jack not acting like Captain Jack etc, etc), but some of the episodes worked really well (the one with the fairies – Small Worlds?). However, the interviews building up to season 2 filled me with hope, that the creative team had taken a long, hard look at season 1, and worked to fix those problems with season 2.

And if last night’s episode is anything to go by, its paid off. Torchwood Season 1 always struck me as a show that was unsure what it was trying to be (as opposed to Sarah Jane Adventures which nailed it out the gate), however last night’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” showed a show full of confidence in itself, and possessing all the fun and heart that was missing from much of season 1.

Captain Jack, following his adventures in Doctor Who last year, is now much more his old self, and (one of my biggest complaints from Season 1), the team is now much more gelled and professional, having had to struggle without Jack for several months (and likely realising how much he’d been carrying them). The opening sequence with the Blowfish in the sports car got things off to a brilliant, tongue-in-cheek start, that only picked up pace once James Marsters came on screen.

Captain John is a brilliant addition to the show. Someone who forces Jack to look at what he was (albeit more homicidal) and who plays off Barrowman’s Jack brilliantly. From the trailer it looks like he’s back later in the series, and I couldn’t be happier.

Roll on next Wednesday. I’m looking forward to Torchwood again

Just saw this new poster for The Dark Knight. I really like this one.

As someone who isn’t a fan of the Joker, I’m really digging this freakier interpretation.

The great thing about a controversial comic is you can always be guaranteed a few good parodies

Twinkies!

Must check and see if I can find any full-issue parodies. There were some good ones floating around out there for Civil War.