Reilly2040's Blog

There’s been some new Blackest Night #0 tidbits courtesy of Andrew NDB at the Green Lantern Corps Message Board, as he’s posted up the checklist for the first few months of Blackest Night.

There seems to be a heavy Secret Invasion influence in the way they’re carrying out this event. In that the tie-ins are taking the form of mini-series separate from the characters’ regular books (for example Blackest Night: Superman). I’m a big fan of this idea, as it prevents big events from messing with ongoing storylines for other characters (which especially in the case of Superman and Batman could be very disruptive indeed). We also now know thanks to a Newsarama interview with Doug Mahnke that the mini-series will be 8 issues rather than 7.

I like the look of some of the tie-ins as well.  Specifically the three Tales of the Corps issues in July.  Presumably these will focus on all the Corps (probably partly as a primer to those who haven’t been buying GL and GLC) and it’ll be nice to see stories focusing on them.

I find it interesting that one of the three non-GL tie-ins is Titans. Superman and Batman getting their own is a no-brainer, but you’d have expected Wonder Woman to complete the trinity. I presume she’ll get her own Blackest Night mini in the following months, and I suppose there are a lot of dead Titans around to tell a story with

The Superman tie-in should be interesting. I’m guessing Clark will still be on New Krypton at this point, so does this mean it will feature ex-Kryptonians returning to plague the new planet of survivors? Or will it deal more with the supporting cast of Mon-El, Nightwing, Flamebird etc?

And of course, everyone’s waiting to see if Zombie-Bruce will turn up in the Batman tie-in. Although I’m hoping not to be honest.

From this checklist I can see me picking up all of those.  At about 6 issues a month, it’ll dent the wallet, but its still reasonably contained compared to some events.  My only worry is that the scope of this results in some delays.  DC took a lot of flack for delays to Final Crisis, so hopefully they’ll have it well in hand, but the sight of two issues of GL in July worries me slightly, as this series doesn’t have the greatest track-record.  Although with Phillip Tan doing the Agent Orange storyline, I guess Doug will have a fair headstart on the Blackest Night issues.  And in complete fairness, Doug did get Final Crisis wrapped up in January so he’s obviously a fast worker.  

The extra tie-ins should also help this event keep its momentum as well.  Final Crisis’ delays probably wouldn’t have been perceived so badly if there’d been a few direct tie-ins being released in the gaps.  The main series might’ve stuttered, but the event as a whole would’ve kept going (although I still applaud DC’s attempt to make a more affordable, scaled down event, its just that in retrospect, the tie-ins do help a lot to give things that “event” feeling).

So Primeval is back, with the first episode of season 3 shown on Saturday. I’ve been a fan of this show since it started, so I’ve been very much looking forward to more dinosaur antics

So far, its been a really good start to the series. I loved how we found out more about the anomalies, with the confirmation that they’ve appeared in the past, the metal which can contain them, and the way to temporarily seal them. The idea of dinosaurs appearing as mythological creatures is interesting (and worked well this week), and the new team member seems fairly good.

We’ve also had a third party introduced into events, in the form of Lester’s new boss, who is running her own operation for her own ends. Granted, it does seem to be a slight rehash of last year’s arc plot, however this time its an agency in the Government that’s hiding information from the arc team, and we can maybe assume they have a similar level of control as Helen, since they seemed to be deliberately in that future time-frame to retrieve that cylinder. I do like the idea of a new faction being introduced to spice things up, rather than it just being the Arc team vs Helen again.

Looking forward to next week’s introduction of Jason Flemyng’s character, although with all the changes, I’m guessing one or some of the original cast members is going to be leaving.  And with Jason Flemyng joining, my money’s on Cutter.  In which case I hope we get some resolution of the Claudia/Jenny thing.  Although it was nice to see it mentioned in this week’s episode, showing they’re not sweeping it under the carpet.

So, after 6 years, Galactica has finally come to an end. Spoilers ahead for the finale

I’ll start by saying that this is probably my favourite finale of any show since Deep Space 9. They did an amazing job of tying most things up and struck the perfect balance between the final battle with Cavil’s forces and the events afterwards. I’d really expecting it to be rushed, and to end up feeling like they’d dropped the ball, but it never happened.

Yeah, there were a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me. Chief of these is Hera. Yes, she was pivotal to getting everyone on to C&C at the same time so events could play out, but I didn’t quite buy her as the saviour of us all that they’d been building towards since her birth. Also, in season 1 it seemed clear the Cylons had some secret plan beyond wiping out humanity. However, from revelations in season 4, it seems clear that wiping out humanity was exactly what Cavil intended to do. I’m not quite sure “they have a plan” quite worked out. Unless, I could probably say Cavil was toying with the fleet as an extension of wanting to mess with the final five. The survivors of humanity just happened to get in the way of his sick game.

However I think pretty much everything else worked for me.  The non-reveal of “its all God’s plan” and Head-Six, Head-Baltar and Starbuck being angels I really liked, especially since they’ve been pretty upfront about it since season 1.   It was a nice fake-out I thought, that I was expecting a big twist there, and actually, there wasn’t one.

And talking of fake-outs.  I can’t have been alone in expecting a really bleak ending.  Yet it was a happy ending.  There was something really joyous in the way they found (our) Earth and built a new home for themselves.    I also really loved the Earth fakeout.  Ron Moore has now admitted, that the Earth we saw at the end of season was our Earth, and what they did was make the continents easily recognisable.  Whereas, when the fleet found the original Earth, they were careful not to show the continents clearly, so people wouldn’t twig it wasn’t the same planet.

The scenes with Galactica herself were also very moving.  From the pummelling she was taking when attacking the colony, to seeing her back break after her final jump, and then finally, sailing off into the sun to the sound of the original theme the scenes with the ship herself really hit the right note.   She was as much of a character in this show as Adama, Six, Roslin or Kara.

There’s no doubt in my mind that ending the show with the fourth season was the right move.  Galactica’s place as one of those classic shows that people will refer to and discuss for years to come is pretty much assured.

Bit of a low-key comics week for me this week, although I noticed how I picked up more Marvel than DC titles for the first time in a while (3 Marvel vs 2 DC). Sadly Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks #1 which I was really looking forward to, didn’t seem to make it to my local comic shop.

The biggest issue this week for me was probably Ms Marvel #37. It represents a huge gamble by Marvel, and I must admit, I’m quite surprised and unsure of this direction. The final issue of the End of Ms Marvel arc sees Carol, who’s powers have been increasingly unreliable, forced to push herself to her limit against her opponent. Doing so however pushes her powers over the edge, and unable to control the energy, she explodes and dies.

While I’m not a regular reader of the Ms Marvel title (just picking up the odd issues that look interesting), I’m finding this move a big gamble by Marvel. With Carol dead, Moonstone will become the title character of this book. Carol had only really recently been brought back to the fore-front of the Marvel Universe as Ms Marvel, so to replace her at a point where she’s just regained popularity seems a strange move. Granted we don’t know quite where they’re going with this plot (other than Moonstone taking over the book), but I can’t help but think this has the potential to backfire badly. The next issue stands to lose the Carol fans unless there’s a big twist ahead (while Carol exploded, we’ve seen energy-based heroes come back after dissipating before).

Of course, its also likely that that this is exactly the kind of thing they’re planning, and by using Moonstone and Dark Reign as a focus point in this way, they’ll attract a lot of attention to the title before Carol comes back.   Heck, I’m blogging about it, and I won’t be the only one

On the DC side of things, I picked up Oracle: The Cure #1, and Wonder Woman #30. Again, I’m unsure where DC are going with Barbara Gordon and Oracle at the moment, so that means I’m approaching this series with a degree of trepidation, however its a solid first issue. With only three issues in this mini, I would have perhaps expected a faster pace in the first issue and a bit more happening, but nonetheless its always fun to see the Oracle/Calculator rivalry. I’ve mentioned before how much I love just the concept of Oracle, and so the Calculator as the villain’s equivalent has always been something I’ve really enjoyed. Here we see them both attempting to track down the remains of the Anti-Life Equation from the internet. While Barbara’s motives aren’t clear (possibly she’s after it to make sure no one else gets it), the Calculator’s seem to be tied in with his daughter being in hospital. I’ll definitely be picking up the remaining two issues of this series to see where it goes (indeed, this is probably the only Battle for the Cowl tie-in I’m picking up).

Wonder Woman #30 continues the Rise of the Olympian storyline. While I freely admit I’ve just been buying Wonder Woman for this story, which sounded interesting, I’m very much enjoying it. Unsurprisingly Gail Simone brings her usual excellent grasp of the characters as she turns Wonder Woman’s world upside down. In this issue, the focus is very much on Wonder Woman’s rage at what the society have done by unleashing Genocide, and her fury is brilliantly captured as she tears through the Society’s headquarters (the highlight of the issue for me was probably the image of Faust putting on his coat the minute he saw Diana approaching on the security cameras ). While not appearing in this issue, I’ve been enjoying Gail’s handling of Diana, Donna and Cassie in this story. Its nice to see the three of them together.

My Marvel purchases are rounded off with War Machine #4 and Captain America #48. War Machine’s a series I’ve been enjoying a lot, although it has to be said, some of its been a bit daft so far, with Jim’s new ability to rebuild himself from nearby machinary (the half-tank War Machine was so over-the-top it worked, but I think I’d like to see this ability used in moderation throughout the run).  There’s heavy Dark Reign influence here as well, with Ares forcing Jim to examine his motivations for his recent actions in probably the most effective scenes of this series so far.  While it would’ve been easy to just through in Ares as an obligatory Dark Reign tie-in, Greg Pak really makes great use of him, as we see him break through to Jim in a way none of his friends have been able to since Jim became a cyborg.  Jim’s conversation with Bethany where he says he’s ready to become human again works well, as it contrasts nicely with his denial of his humanity throughout the opening issues.

Captain America continues to be one of the best comics on the market.  The finale of the recent storyline sees Bucky, Black Widow and Namor teaming up to rescue the body of the original Human Torch, who’s been turned into a bioweapon by an insane scientist, determined to reduce Earth’s population.  Again, like War Machine, its the character moments that probably best define this issue, with Bucky determined to try and face some of the actions he committed while the Winter Soldier.   Saying that, I’ll be glad to see him back and continuing to establish himself as Cap in future issues.  I’m really loving the pairing of Bucky and Black Widow in this title as well.  These two characters work well together, and I similarly love the way Ed Brubaker has weaved in events from World War II throughout his run.  Its really given the title a sense of its history and helped give it a unique voice.

With season 1 of the show now finished, I thought it’d be interesting to do an overall review, mentioning what I thought did and didn’t work.

There’s no denying it was a bit of an uneven season. Probably more than a little due to the conflict between Gary Scott Thompson’s idea for the show versus what the studio wanted. It was obvious on-screen how Thompson’s original plot ark with KARR and Mike’s past had been gutted in favour of the standalone episodes. However I don’t necessarily think its fair to say that the Knight Research phase of a show (as opposed to the reformed FLAG towards the end of the season) was entirely a misstep.

Yes, there was the feeling of “terrorist of the week”, however some episodes were very strong such as Knight of the Living Dead (nice character piece for KITT and KARR hints) and Hard Day’s Knight (wherein Mike is poisoned and must figure out what the villains are after before he dies).

There were definitely still problems though, and I’d say the chief of them was a bloated cast. While I liked Yancey Arias as Alex Torres, his character automatically pushed Carrie Rivai into the background as he was the main Government contact.  He also took over Charles Graiman’s main role of running the operation, resulting in many episodes where Bruce Davison had little to do.

This for me was one of the key things that improved once the show rebooted and the FLAG era of the show started. With fewer cast members to juggle, the screentime seemed more balanced. And with only Mike and KITT in the field it really allowed writers to focus on their relationship, and we saw the banter between the two grow, and its here the show really showed its strengths.

The show also excelled at its action scenes, and these were something we saw grow in confidence as the show went on. Be it either Mike and KITT being chased with a bomb in KITT’s boot, KITT vs KARR or the bank robbery at the beginning of Exit Light, Enter Knight, they really did pull off these set pieces well.  

Special mention must also go to the fight choreography. Whenever Mike was needed to get into a physical confrontation with someone it was always well put together. There was a real sense that this Michael Knight was not someone you’d want to end up in a fight against.

At this stage season 2 is still very much in doubt, with most fearing the worst.  I really feel the show deserves a second chance though.  While the ratings didn’t set the world alight, they did maintain a solid viewership while up against big names like American Idol and repeats of Lost.  And more than that, there was a real feeling, that after the to-ing and fro-ing early in the season, that this was a show that had found its feet.  Owing a lot to the original Knight Rider towards the end, the relationship between Mike and KITT was there, the cast had really settled into their roles, and the confidence of the production team in terms of the kinds of scripts they were after and the big action scenes they could do was there.  From the episode Don’t Stop the Knight onwards I really enjoyed every episode.  Only really Fight Knight fell a bit flat, and even then it was enjoyable enough, just not on a par with the rest of the episodes around it.

I’d really like the show to get a shot at seeing what they could do with a second season.  Even if its only a short 13-episode order, as long as NBC gave it some backing in terms of advertising (something noticably absent as the show went on).  It’d be fun to see what kind of audience they could build up now they’ve found their feet.

Something that’s quickly become a series I’m really looking forward to is the 4-part Timestorm 2009-2099 miniseries Marvel will be releasing.

Revisiting the world of 2099, the solicit has events in 2009 causing the worlds of 2009 and 2099 to collide. Its something we’ve seen previously in the Spider-Man meets Spider-Man 2099 one-shot, but of course, that was a few years ago now, and Spider-Man specific. This time the whole 2099 universe is getting involved.

And Newsarama have a preview of the first issue here.

As I mentioned previously, I was a huge fan of Spider-Man 2099, so revisiting that character and world is something I’m really looking forward to.   Just seeing Jake Gallows (the mad-as-they-come, Punisher 2099) again really brought a smile to my face.

DC are obviously keen to build up the hype for Blackest Night.  Aside from the big in-house ads pushing the Agent Orange and Emerald Eclipse arcs in GL and GLC, they’ve also now released four pages from Blackest Night #0, which will be this year’s free comic book day offering from DC, and thus not due out till May.

Pages 1 & 2 are on IGN and pages 3 & 4 can be seen over at Newsarama.

Its nice to start it with Hal visiting Bruce’s grave, especially in light of what’s about to happen, and its really nicely juxtaposed with Barry turning up, what with him being recently resurrected.

And I must admit, while I’m still fairly ambivalent on Barry’s resurrection (although don’t get me wrong, I’m very excited about Flash: Rebirth as I think it’ll be a cracking comic), I got goosebumps from that splash page with him arriving.  There’s something about seeing him standing beside Hal again (correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first time we’ve seen them back together isn’t it?).

Yesterday Newsarama carried the announcement that Doug Mahnke would be replacing Ivan Reis as Green Lantern’s main artist.

He’d been widely tipped for the role online, ever since he filled in for the final issues of Final Crisis and Ivan announced he was leaving.

I’m pretty happy about this.   His art in the final issues of Final Crisis was really nice, and the group shot of GLs DC issued along with the announcement is a great piece (we really need a poster of it).  I’m going to miss Ivan Reis, however I think its a testiment to how big Green Lantern has come since Rebirth that its constantly being assigned some of DC’s best artists.

In a case of real-life imitating art, Newsarama reports on an event held at the UN wherein David Eick, Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos appeared on a panel chaired by Whoopi Goldberg to discuss issues affecting our world such as terrorism and human rights, and how Galactica has challenged its viewers to think about them.

The stand out moment is undoubtedly Edward James Olmos’ passionate speech about the use of the word “race”:

Hmmm, ranty blog post time.

So Apple have finally got around to sorting out the features (copy-and-paste/MMS) that other phones have had for years.   Looking forward to adverts and fanboys proclaiming this as the 3rd coming of the iPhone and acting like they invented these features.

Yes I’m bitter.  Why?  Because the iPod Touch users are getting charged for this update, while the iPhone users aren’t.  Granted, most of the update doesn’t interest me in the slightest, but there’s a couple of provisos:

1. Calendaring updates.   I’d quite like the ability to sync my iPod Touch’s calendar with my Google calendar.   As I’ve said here before, part of the reason I went with a Blackberry was because I didn’t like the iPhone’s reliance on Outlook to do anything in Windows.
2. Updated App Store APIs.   Wonder how long it’ll take before I can’t really buy much from the app store without having the 3.x software?
3. Security fixes.  Nothing confirmed on this one, but something I thought was really dodgy about the 2.x update was the way it included security fixes.   Now, as far as I know, once 2.x hit iTunes, there weren’t any 1.x updates anymore.    So does this mean that if I want the latest Safari etc security patches I’ll need to pay Apple $10?   Or do I risk having an out-of-date OS and browser on my network?

As it stands, I can see me skipping this update and probably having iTunes moan at me forever more.   There’s just not enough in it to justify the money for me at the moment.

If I had an iPhone though I’d be grabbing it in a heartbeat as Copy-and-Paste really is incredibly handy (as I’ve appreciated ever since getting my BB), and MMS is a necessity for me (not having it was a huge mark against the iPhone for me, and it still boggles my mind how it wasn’t there from day 1).  Top marks to Apple for finally getting these implemented, but you still have to wonder why they weren’t in the iPhone 3G.

Not that that seems to have stopped it selling mind, so what do I know?