Archive
Archive for May, 2009
Yup, its another Blaster. I do have characters that are other archetypes, but I do love my blasters.
Colonel Lightning is a (you guessed it) electricity blaster, with the electricity secondary powerset. Her character’s defined as the thrillseeker of the group (exemplified by the manic grin I gave her). Freed of any convoluted multiverse gubbins, I picture her to be a lot like Impulse in that she has no real grasp of the concept of danger. She’ll blindly barrel into a situation, get in over her head and usually only survive thanks to the timely arrival of other heroes. Not that she really appreciates this is the case.
Most of the other heroes barely tolerate her prescence in Paragon as she tends to cause them as much work as she does criminal arrests, although some of the older heroes appreciate the enthusiasm she has, and her sheer joy in her powers. They tend to defend her and try to teach her to try and think before she acts.
They usually fail though.
I’ve ended up skipping most of the post-Final Crisis spin-offs, although Run sounded quite tempting. However, I’d enjoyed the Super Young Team in Final Crisis a lot, so given that it was a quiet comics week for me, I ended up picking up the first issue of Dance.
And what a great first issue it was. Joe Casey expertly captures the voice Grant Morrison gave the team during Final Crisis. The gimmick of having Most Excellent Superbat’s running thoughts as tweets was great, and I love the idea that these previously shallow superheroes have now found their calling after the events of Final Crisis, but are finding themselves trapped by their shallow, celebrity lifestyle. Especially in the case of Most Excellent Superbat (although Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash currently seems happy living it up).
The scenes where the team look on in dismay as they’re shown their new satellite headquarters, complete with JLA-style trophy room filled with faked trophies were great, while also carrying a sinister edge that was borne out by the end of the book where we discover a group is manipulating the Super Young Team to distract the populace from larger problems. It also provides an interesting take on the Authority, another team who were for a while living it up with lavish parties on the carrier and their celebrity status.
But whereas the Authority embraced that lifestyle, here we have it portrayed more as a source of conflict, with some team members reveling in it (Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash), others appalled and just wanting to be proper heroes (Most Excellent Superbat) and the others trapped in the middle, unsure what to do.
I’m very hopeful for the rest of this series, and its nice to see Casey touching on the love triangle Morrison introduced between Big Atomic Lantern Boy, Well-Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash and Shiny Happy Aquazon. So far the feel of this book is spot on, with lots of weird and over-the-top aspects, however hinting at something deeper going on under the surface.
And so, Battle for the Cowl comes to a close, finally revealing what everyone guessed months ago, that Dick Grayson is the new Batman.
Of course, since most people had Dick pegged as the new Bat from the beginning, really this series was more about the journey and seeing him get to that point. And from that point of view, the series kind of worked.
I say kind of, as Dick finally taking on the mantle of Batman at the end seemed a little rushed. To be honest, from the end of issue 2, I expected Dick to be in his new costume for this entire third issue. I guess they’re saving his proper debut for Grant Morrison’s new Batman and Robin title and really, this series was more about moving the characters into the places they needed to be for the start of that series.
On the whole, I’ve really enjoyed this series, and Tony Daniel’s done great work. His art has been excellent and while his writing is a bit more variable, he still did a great job in telling this story (really my only complaints were Damian in the first issue, and Tim’s very stilted conversation with himself in this third issue, explaining how he survived for the reader’s benefit).
There’s some very interesting setup, with the new Black Mask being revealed to be someone new wearing a mask. Of course, we don’t get it revealed who it is, but it provides some interesting ground for the new series to cover, with this new Black Mask shattering Two Face and Penguin’s empires providing an opening for him to move in as the new boss of Gotham.
Tim’s status is also left open at the end of this series. Its obvious that Damian will be moving in to the Robin role, and of course we’re assuming Tim becomes Red Robin, but none of this is actually covered here, and I think that’s a bit of a shame. It would’ve been nice for this all to have been put in place in this series and the new status quo established. Instead we’ll obviously have to pick up the new books in order to find out what happened. Given that this series was all about setting up the new status quo, this was one aspect that I felt could’ve been better covered (even if it had been more explicit about Tim handing over the role of Robin to Damian and left Tim becoming Red Robin until that series).
I liked the idea of the last messages Bruce had left for everyone in case he should die, and I really liked the idea that he had such faith in Dick and Tim that he felt they’d be able to carry on without him as Batman. Its nice that he felt that level of pride in their accomplishments, even if he was undervaluing the importance of Batman to Gotham City’s psyche. We also discover that Bruce’s message to Jason referenced some here-to unheard of childhood trauma that was what pushed Jason over the edge. And here Jason has truely gone off the deep end. This series does provide what could be an ending to the character, however from his “fall to his doom” and his parting words, its a safe assumption Jason will be back fairly soon. He’s worked well as a villain for Dick here and while it really didn’t work during Bruce Jones’ run on Nightwing, I think this is a rivalry that could be interesting if explored by the right writers.
Overall I’m very excited to see what the next few months of Bat-titles brings. Much like Bucky replacing Steve Rogers as Captain America, if done right, the pairing of Dick Grayson as Batman alongside Damian as Robin is one that could have some legs (even if you know eventually the original will be back). Of course, once Bruce does return, it’ll be interesting to see what that brings to the status quo. Bruce as Batman mentoring his son Damian as Robin could be interesting, with Dick reclaiming his Nightwing identity from the Superman family once again. However, for now, I’m very excited for Grant Morrison’s return in Batman and Robin.
Well, NBC has released their 2009/2010 schedule, and its grim reading.
It was pretty well known that with the economic situation taking a heavy toll on advertising, and NBC’s new deal with Jay Leno that the axe was going to be falling pretty heavily on other shows to free up money and space in the schedules, but still, a lot of favourite shows have fallen.
From this blog’s point of view, Knight Rider is chief among them. Although not entirely unexpected, its still disheartening to see the show cut down just as it had found its feet and was turning in some sterling, entertaining episodes. However, there’s currently a campaign on Twitter being started to try and build interest in the show and see if it can be brought back. So if you’re on Twitter, follow @savekitt and check out the #savekitt hashtag.
Its especially sad to see NBC wielding the axe just as Knight Rider has been launched in the UK and has been doing phenominally well. The feature length pilot netted a half a million viewers, Sci Fi UK’s highest ratings since its first run of Heroes in 2007. However this week, the combination of Knight Rider and Dollhouse proved to be a winner, and Knight Rider smashed that total, bringing in a whopping 700,000 viewers. With the show doing so well over here it’ll be a huge shame if there’s no season two.
So please check out http://www.twitter.com/savekitt and maybe if we get insanely lucky there’ll be enough international interest to resurrect the show.
And while I’m here, check out http://twitter.com/EarlTwitition as the excellent My Name is Earl has also been axed by NBC.
IGN have released solicits for the August round of Blackest Night titles, including the first issues of the various tie-in miniseries.
It all looks excellent. Green Lantern #45 will be dealing with the war of light, with Sinestro getting around to dealing with the Zamarons (who have been converting members of his Sinestro Corps to Star Saphires), only for all sides to find themselves under attack by the Black Lanterns.
The tie-ins look suitably disturbing. With Batman (now with Dick Grayson under the cowl) facing off against the Black Lantern Flying Graysons, while Earth-2 Superman is in Smallville digging up Jonathan Kent. Very pleased to see Peter Tomasi writing the Batman tie-in. After his great Nightwing run, it’ll be very interesting to see how he approaches Dick’s new status quo.
I’m still not keen on the whole Earth-2 Superman thing, although the solicit’s wording is interesting saying that he’s unearthed Jonathan Kent’s grave. So Jonathan has not yet risen as a Black Lantern. Does this mean that there’s a chance Jonathan will be spared turning up as a zombie somehow? Presumably Clark will still be tied up with New Krypton at this point, so I wonder how he’ll play into this event (and will New Krypton find itself under attack from the rest of Krypton, brought back as Black Lanterns?). As for the cover to Blackest Night: Titans #1…ewwwwwwwwww.
Meanwhile, Oa continues to take a kicking during Green Lantern Corps #39. Having only just suffered the Sciencell riot, the Black Lantern rings start arriving and raising all the dead Lanterns from the Crypts as Black Lanterns. I love this idea of Oa taking a real beating lately. From the initial assault from the Sinestro Corps, through to the Sciencell Riot and now the Black Lanterns, Oa has been a real target lately, and I like the idea of seeing how the Guardians and Corps will react to it. The last time this happened was back in Recharge, however the jump to one year later stole any real storytelling opportunities based around Oa’s vulnerability away (aside from the great scene of Guy viewing the new armour built around Oa).
The cover also gives front-and-centre to Katma Tui. The Green Lantern #45 solicit mentions John confronting her and here we see her rising along with many familiar faces as a Black Lantern. As I’ve mentioned before, I like these little pieces of interconnectedness between the two titles (such as Sinestro saying he has to find his daughter in GL, and then confronting Soranik in GLC), so the idea that we’ll see Black Lantern Katma Tui in GLC, only to setup her confrontation with John in GL appeals to me a lot. And, of course, it’ll be nice to see John hopefully getting some decent page-time again. While I know he’s the JLA’s Green Lantern, he’s been sorely over-looked in the main titles.
Out of all these, the only book I’m not really bothered about is the Titans tie-in as I’ve never been as attached to these characters and their history. Although we’ll see if completism sets in when I see it on the shelves 
When I first got my Blackberry, one of the first orders of business was to get a Twitter client installed.
The obvious choice was Twitterberry. It had a nice GUI interface, and was easy to download and use. However, since then a couple of new clients have arrived on the market. SocialScope is currently in a closed beta, so I’ve not been able to try it, but everyone’s raving about it.
However, ÜberTwitter burst onto the scene a short while ago with a public beta of their new client. I wasn’t able to use the initial betas, as I’m on BIS, and applying different TCP settings would take me outwith my unlimited data tarrif.
However last week saw the release of the latest beta, which now supports BIS, meaning I can have a proper play.
To say I’m impressed would be an understatement. I do feel some loyalty to Twitterberry, as it was the first client I used, and its completely free (once out of Beta, ÜberTwitter is planning free and paid-for editions), however there’s just no denying that ÜberTwitter’s feature set blows Twitterberry out of the water, even if you compare it to the latest Twitterberry Betas (which I’ve also got installed).
While I’m not big on the location updating services built into ÜberTwitter (its just not something I’m interested in), the rest of the features are great. The timeline view is nice, sending new tweets is snappy (something that’s slowed down noticably in the latest Twitterberry betas), it supports clickable hashtags, has inline thumbnails for Twitpic (and various others) and it supports searching twitter from within the app.
The last one especially, I really love. Previously I was doing all my Twitter searches from the website, but the ability to do them, or follow hashtags straight from my Twitter application I find incredibly useful.
Its not perfect. Its pretty well known that if you leave ÜberTwitter running, constantly polling for new tweets, it suffers from memory leaks, and will happily munch through your battery, but then, it is only in beta.
I can’t wait to see what else they add over the course of the beta, and I think its safe to say I’ll happily pay them for a pro version when they go for a final release. There’s no doubt that this is a great, feature-rich, professional-looking client.
While overshadowed slightly by this week’s cracking issue of Captain Britain, its none the less another cracking part of Emerald Eclipse in Green Lantern Corps this month.
Picking up with last month’s revelation, we get the backstory to Sinestro and Soranik’s relationship, as Sinestro reveals how Soranik’s mother had been forced to hide her away from him when he had started to dominate Korugar and they’d started receiving death threats (and you have to wonder how much of it was to protect Soranik from Sinestro himself). There’s something very creepy about watching Sinestro stalk Soranik throughout her life, from giving her her distinctive facial tattoo(revealed to contain a tracker so he’d always be able to find her), to taking the photograph of her and her adoptive parents on her graduation day. Despite the creepiness, there’s an obvious amount of love for Soranik from Sinestro. We see them flying together, and him allowing her to play with his GL ring when she was young, and he comments on how he hopes the upcoming Blackest Night will allow them to fight side by side, before taking off for Daxam to deal with Mongul.
We cut from there to the riot on Oa, which is in full swing. Patrick Gleason really captures the chaos going on, with the Green Lanterns struggling to keep everything contained. We get loads of cameos from the villains who were contained in the Sciencells as well, including Alex Nero. I wonder if he can still tap the Ion power or not…
The big events though are taking place on Daxam. Struggling to get the Daxamites motivated, Sodam has decided on a bold strategy. He’ll use his element of surprise to try and take down Mongul hoping that with their leader gone, the Sinestro Corps will be in disarray enough to give the Daxamites the edge and drive them from their world. While he’s lost his natural powers under Daxam’s red sun, Sodam is confident that with the Ion power, he can pull it off.
However, he’s not counted on Scar, who blocks his access to the Ion power. Its a really odd scene to be honest. Unlike Kyle, Sodam is deliberately restricted from accessing the power of Ion, and must request authorisation from his ring before he’s allowed to use it. Meaning that contrary to what we’ve thought, up until this issue, Sodam has actually just had normal GL powers (combined with his Kryptonian ones). It seems odd to me that his powers have been cut off in this way. Its perhaps not completely shocking, given how much the Guardians love being control freaks, but its strangely at odds with how Kyle was in the role. Of course, since Kyle was the torchbearer and responsible for resurrecting the Guardians, I guess they just trust him more than Sodam. I also wonder if its a safety mechanism to prevent someone else tapping the power like Nero did during the Ion series.
Fortunately Sodam’s ring suggests that a direct energy impact might be enough to override the block, and allow him temporary access to Ion. Chancing it, Sodam drops his shields, and allows Mongul to hit him with all he’s got. It works, and Ion is unleashed, and with the power dropping quickly, we get the surprising (and brilliant) move of Sodam flying straight into Daxam’s sun and re-energising it, turning it yellow.
I loved that ending. I never saw it coming, and its a stroke of genius. Its nice to see Sodam being smart and the promise of next issue having the Sinestro Corps facing a planet of people with Superman’s powers is brilliant. Its also nice to see the Ion power being used for a big feat. While we now know why Sodam hasn’t seemed particularly powerful, its always fun to see the Ion power do something impressive, be it re-energising Daxam’s sun, or Kyle’s containment of Nero back in Ion #6.
This story arc, more than anything else has really helped build Sodam’s place in the GLC. I’d said at the time that his introduction and ascension to the Ion power during the Sinestro Corps War felt too rushed, especially with the way Kyle was being booted from the role. However this arc has really allowed Peter Tomasi the chance to focus in on the character, and he’s all the much better for it. Still not convinced about the Sodam/Arisia relationship though, it’ll be interesting to see exactly where Tomasi plans on taking that.
Stan Bush has released this new version of The Touch, dubbed Sam’s theme. After his song Til All Are One didn’t make it onto the soundtrack for the Transformers movie 2 years ago, he’s opted to redo The Touch in a style more fitting with the first film’s soundtrack.
Obviously the original is still the best, but I kinda like this version. I could pretty easily see it playing over the end credits for Revenge of the Fallen 
You can view it here.
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