Its event week this week, with Final Crisis #4 from DC and the penultimate part of Secret Invasion from Marvel.

Following on from last month’s issue, this part is effectively one giant fight scene between the humans and the Skrulls. There’s some great moments though, best of which is probably Hawkeye’s revenge for the fake Mockingbird (seriously, when are Marvel going be just get him back in his proper ID, this is the second time this mini that a big deal’s been made of him picking up a bow and arrow again).

Once again I can’t help but feel the issue’s cliffhanger is pretty weak. The improved growth formula Skrulljacket gave to the Wasp back in New Avengers (or was it Mighty?) comes into play, but to be honest its left incredibly unclear what’s actually happening to her.

Issue 7 was always going to be a big fight scene, so this manages it well. Overall, I still feel this series never quite managed to top issue 1, but this was fun. I’m increasingly concerned that issue 8 isn’t really going to resolve much however (with all the Dark Reign stuff being pushed). I hope I’m wrong as I can’t see myself picking up another event (as I’m trying to cut down my pull list), and I’ll be quite annoyed if I don’t get some kind of resolution.

This week also gave us the latest issue of New Avengers. Whereas last week’s Mighty Avengers was probably the worst tie-in yet (there wasn’t really anything that hadn’t happened in a few panels in SI itself and as a result the story was fantastically absent), I really enjoyed this week’s New Avengers tie-in. Switching from the usual view of what the heroes have been up to, Bendis switches events to the villain’s perspective as we find Madame Masque captured by SHIELD and The Hood coming to her rescue. Only one killing the SHIELD agents holding her, they’re revealed as Skrulls and they both realise they were going to substitute Masque with one of their own, and that something big is going on.

While some of these tie-ins haven’t really worked for me, there’s always fun to be had seeing the various parties figure out what’s going on, be it the Avengers discovering the Skrull Elektra, Fury finding the Skrulls infiltrating SHIELD, or in this case, the villains realising the Skrulls are trying to infiltrate their own. I’ve not really seen the Hood before this, but I was aware that Marvel were pushing him as the new Kingpin. He seems like an interesting character, barely able to hold his alliance of villains together in the face of the Skrull threat, but its interesting that, like the 3D-Man, his hood allows him to spot the Skrulls. I’m looking forward to the next part of things from the villain’s perspective.

Well, Final Crisis is back this week, with two issues in the tale. Final Crisis: Submit is solicited as a tie-in one-shot, but really you can read it alongside Final Crisis #4 as part of the main story. The fact that its also written by Morrison is probably key to this.

Its no secret that I’m really enjoying this story. In fact, while I may be enjoying Secret Invasion, I’m far preferring the story of Final Crisis. Secret Invasion is fun, but the mini itself has been a bit lacking compared to the scope of the event itself, and I’m just finding that Final Crisis is trying to do something a bit more epic (in terms of buildup though, Secret Invasion’s slow reveal of the Skrull invasion was tops. Of course, Final Crisis had Countdown for its buildup).

We rejoin the story with evil having won in the DCU. Earth is still cut off by the Green Lanterns, and has fallen to the New Gods and the anti-life equation. Those few anti-life survivors are hunted by Justifiers, humans and super humans who’ve been taken over by helmets such as we saw The Human Flame being forced into and now serve as Darkseid’s troops.

Meanwhile Inspector Turpin is desperately trying to resist Darkseid’s influence as Darkseid attempts to break his will and possess his body.

This is an awesome storyline. The feeling that the world has truely gone to pot, and that hope is thin on the ground seeps from every page. This is possibly best demonstrated by the hopeful headlines on the Daily Planet about trying to reclaim Bludhaven, only to cut to a double-page spread of the atomic knights all defeated, or by the sights of big name heroes being captured and turned into Justifiers.

We see the heroes rallying to the various Watchtowers they have setup around the world, but even then, with a lot of the heavy hitters MIA or offworld, there’s a feeling that they’re under seige and the odds are badly against them.

There’s only really one strand of hope offered in the tale, as Barry and Wally arrive in this post-anti-life world and Barry fills us in that he’s been brought back by an unknown force (be interesting to see who that turns out to be). Barry knows what’s going on (Darkseid’s fall is endangering the multiverse) and this alone fills you with the hope that whoever brought him back had a good reason for doing so. This then bears fruit when they find an anti-life infected Iris, and Barry’s kiss breaks its hold over her. Given Libra’s concerns over the Flashes in Rogue’s Revenge, its obvious that Barry, Wally and Jay are going to hold the key to resolving this crisis.

But until they figure it out, we’re left with things looking pretty bleak for Earth (and Oa, with the Granny-possessed Kraken after the central power battery - I hope we see that storyline). This is underlined by Turpin’s battle of wills with Darkseid. A battle he knows he’s slowly losing, and that last page sent shivers down my spine. I’ve never been a fan of the new gods or Darkseid, but this series is changing that.

Well, in news that seems to be shocking most of the industry, Knight Rider has received a full season order.

This is great news.  As I’ve said many times here, I’m enjoying the new series, so its good to see it getting a good chance to prove itself, especially with the fluctuating ratings, and general feeling in the industry that it would be up for the chop.   We do know that the studio had ordered four more scripts the other week, so presumably they liked what they saw.

KARR’s return (if true) should help give the show a boost as well.  Lots of trailers with clips from KITT vs KARR and Trust Doesn’t Rust to play up the return of the evil KITT should help with the general viewing public.

With the Rage of the Red Lanterns Special coming out this week, the hype is building.  There’s a great new interview with Shane Davis on Newsarama where he discusses some of the ideas behind a few of the new Red Lanterns we’re going to see.

It really does look like this arc is going to be brutal. I imagine the GLs are going to be longing for the good, old days of the Sinestro Corps by the sounds of things.

I think Davis hits the nail firmly on the head regarding his comments about Sinestro as well. He’s got that great smug look because he does know more than the others as to what’s going on. He’s been preparing for the war of light for some time.

The solicits for January are up as well, with the GL issue concluding the Red Lanterns arc (I wonder what happens to Atrocious, interesting to note that like the Sinestro Corps War, both are ending with the leader of that Corps incapacitated in some way) and teasing the Orange Lanterns. We also get to find out the next of the 10 new laws the Guardians created during the Sinestro Corps War. With these continual fights against other Corps, you can only presume the GL’s ranks are getting a bit depleted. GLC noted the amount of recruitment they were going to have to do following the Sinestro Corps War, and we’ve still got Mongul et al on the loose, killing GL’s families and trying to re-solidify the Sinestro Corps. Its a safe bet the Red Lanterns are going to cause a fair amount of carnage, and then they’ll have the Orange Lanterns to deal with as well.

By the time they get to the Blackest Night, the four musketeers may be the only GLs left :-S Here’s hoping the Guardians’ diplomatic visit to the Zamarons over in GLC goes well, they could use the help. But then, the Guardians never were that diplomatic.

Ah well, Ganthet to the rescue

Newsarama have a preview for the upcoming Rage of the Red Lanterns one shot up here.

I’m loving the Red Lanterns so far. Laira’s recruitment was pretty brutal, and we know from the Star Saphires that the rings on the far end of the spectrum will exert a lot more influence over their bearers, so the look at Atrocious creating their central battery is suitably horrific. I’m really looking forward to this arc.

As a side note though, I’m curious about the timeline. Hal mentions Orion’s death and the Alpha Lanterns sealing off Earth. Given that Hal was hauled away shortly afterwards, framed for the murder, I’m wondering how this will fit into the framework of Final Crisis.

Although there could easily have been a few days while the Alphas were investigating for the events of this book. It’ll probably be clear once we’ve got the full issue

Annoyingly, some bright spark put some of the alternate cover of Rogues Revenge on the Legion pile this week, so me being in a hurry never noticed I’d accidentaly picked up both covers of Rogues Revenge #3 rather than one issue, and a copy of Legion of Two Worlds. Ah well.

The Rogues Revenge mini came to an end this month, with the Rogues finally managing to track down Inertia to get their revenge for the way he manipulated them into killing Bart.

However, Inertia’s been under the training of Zoom so the Rogues may get more than they bargained for, especially once Libra enters the fray.

I’ve enjoyed this mini series. Again it largely stands apart from Final Crisis (aside from Libra’s involvement) however the Flash’s Rogues have always made for good reading under the pen of Geoff Johns.

To a large extent at the end of this issue feeling like I’d been reading a clearing of the board for Flash Rebirth. Inertia is killed by the Rogues in an attempt to square matters over Bart’s death (drawing a line under that plotline) and the Rogues are warned about Barry’s return by Libra, prompting them to shelve any plans for retirement, as they know Barry will be coming after them (indeed the difference in approach towards the Rogues by Barry and Wally could be something interesting to be followed up from the Flash’s perspectives. Does Wally play the game with the Rogues? If so how will Barry react to it?).

A big event in this book though, was Inertia (then calling himself Kid Zoom) de-powering Zoom. Zoom’s been one of the best new villains (from any DC franchise) for years (well, in my opinion anyway), and to see him removed from the board is disheartening.

I tend to agree with the thoughts online that he’s been de-powered to make way for Eobard Thawne’s return. Not sure how I feel about that as the new Zoom was really a more interesting character. However, return of Barry Allen was a cracking Reverse Flash storyline (sort of), and there’s no denying how good a character Sinestro’s been since his return.

And of course, Zoom is simply de-powered. As he himself says, all he needs is the cosmic treadmill and he can be back in business. He is Geoff Johns’ character, so if Geoff feels the time is right to rest this character, then that’s his call, and I have to admit, in some other titles, Zoom was being used as a more generic evil speedster, which was a bit inconsistent with his motivation and his powers, so at least we won’t have that to worry about. The character has gone out on a high, and there’ll be a fairly vocal fan movement to have him return down the line.

Ok, time to fess up. I quite enjoy the Marvel Zombies stuff.

The original Ultimate Fantastic 4 storyline is probably one of the best comic book fake-outs ever, and the first Marvel Zombies series really worked for me because it didn’t take itself too seriously and had a dark, twisted sense of humour.

It went a bit off the rails for me after that. Army of Darkness vs Marvel Zombies recaptured the fun of the original (Zombie Howard the Duck!), but Dead Days I really didn’t like. For me, the Zombies worked because of the dark humour. By playing it straight, I found things like Peter killing MJ and May uncomfortable. Marvel Zombies 2 also didn’t quite work for me. It wasn’t as dark as the Dead Days one-shot, but it didn’t catch my attention either. For the last while, Marvel Zombies has had that whiff of a joke that’s gone on a bit too long.

So it was with trepidation I decided to pick up the first issue of Marvel Zombies 3. And I was surprised to find that:

a) its been played straight again, and
b) I enjoyed it.

While its being played straight, it lacks the uncomfortable reading of the Dead Days one-shot for me, and I found it a really effective horror book. This time, its set in 616 (the Marvel Universe) as Zombie Deadpool has fallen through a dimensional tear into a backwater town and infected the population.

Being set in 616 you know that things are going to be kept contained, and there can’t be any lasting reprocussions, but it works for me. But using a c-list cast they can still be wiped out fairly freely, and the Zombies aren’t focusing on a major population centre, which helps keep the story more contained.

It’ll be interesting to see where this goes. The idea of sending Machine Man over to the Zombie universe is interesting, and as I say, this worked well as a straight horror comic.

Some interesting developments in the new series of Knight Rider this week. Despite ratings that have been slightly concerning, the studio’s ordered 4 more scripts. A good sign. And this week’s episode had a big spike in the ratings, which is also positive.  The show’s been performing well in its target demographic apparently, so that’s good news.

But most interestingly are the rumours that KARR will be involved in episode 12. His still-active CPU at the end of KITT vs KARR has been dangling plot thread for over 20 years. Is it about to be resolved? I certainly hope so. KARR’s always been a fan-favourite, and if he is being brought back, some heavy advertising should help give the show a boost mid-season.

Now if they can just sort out getting the Hoff and William Daniels back for a couple of episodes (heck, go for broke and tie them into the KARR storyline).

I really enjoyed this week’s episode as well. While the show still has its faults (largely for me, the Billy and Zoey “banter”, which comes across painfully forced) I’m enjoying it as a good, lightweight action show. This week’s ticking timebomb plot of Mike being poisoned rattled along well and while I can’t put my finger on anything specific, this week’s episode really felt like the best yet out of the 4 that aired. Here’s hoping the show settles in over the course of its run and goes from strength to strength. I’d love it to find its feet, and get a second season.

Another show I was watching and enjoying recently was By Any Means. The latest adventure from Charley Boorman, this time he was going from his home town in Ireland to Sydney by any means. The only stipulation they had was that comercial airlines were a last resort and for as much as possible, they’d travel by sea or land.

It was a great series, showcasing loads of beautiful countries, and highlighting a whole load of different types of transport. It was just a pity that most of their sea crossings seemed to end up cursed to one degree or other, with overlaiden ferries, boats that conk out leaving them stranded, or just straight up start sinking.

With the series now having aired on BBC 2 and the book released, Charley is now doing a tour around the UK, and we were fortunate enough to get tickets for his appearance in Glasgow. The first part took the form of a conversation, with the host asking him questions about the trip, and Charley getting the chance to recount various stories from not just By Any Means, but also the Long Way… series, and his attempt at the Dakar Rally. It has to be said, that this simply flew past. Charley made for an entertaining speaker with a wealth of tales from his travels both funny and poignant from discussing his near missed on the various boats, to talking about leaving Georgia just prior to the Russian tanks rolling in, or his experiences of Iran. He has a very relaxed, friendly attitude about it all that makes his stories captivating. Its very much a normal guy who’s just had the great opportunity to do these amazing things.

The second part of the evening was a traditional book signing.  Charley was really friendly with every one, and more than happy to continually get out of his seat to have pictures taken.  Sadly our camera phone can be a bit tricky, and caused a minor bit of confusion, and thus some slightly concerned expressions in the photos.  If the photo doesn’t take first time, you quickly become aware of the long queue of people waiting behind you.

Cracking night though, and Charley Boorman came across exactly as he does in the shows.  Really likable and easy to listen to.  Honestly, the conversation part could’ve easily been twice as long and I’d have loved it.  Can’t wait to see what his next trip will be (he mentioned a couple of times that he wants another shot at the Dakar Rally), and I hope he comes back to Glasgow afterwards, as I’d definitely be buying tickets again.

We’re now two full stories into this season of Sarah Jane Adventures, and so far I’m enjoying it as much as I did season 1.

The Last Sontaran was a nice follow-up to this year’s Sontaran Stratagem 2-parter in Doctor Who, with Sarah Jane and co stumbling upon the sole survivor of that fleet, determined to take revenge and restore their honour.

I really enjoyed the idea of having one of the spin-offs directly follow on from a Doctor Who story. It was nicely executed as well since you didn’t really need to have seen the Sontaran Stratagem to understand it, but similarly, the Sontaran 2-parter in Doctor Who didn’t require you to watch the Sarah Jane story in order to get the full telling of events. I’d love to see a bit (but not a huge amount) more of this kind of cross-referencing between the shows (similar to the reference to the Trickster in Turn Left). It builds on the feeling that this is a shared universe and as long as it doesn’t start to drag down any of the shows it can be fun for those of us who’re watching everything.

The Day of the Clown was another cracking story. I hadn’t really seen Bradley Walsh as anything other than a presenter (although obviously I was aware he’d been in Coronation Street) so it was really a nice surprise to me just how good he was in the role. Especially in a role that required several different aspects with Spellman, Oddbob and the Pied Piper. Walsh played all of these brilliantly, and I barely recognised him at all as Oddbob.

This story also brought in the new girl to the team. Rani (possibly the most amusing piece of fan-baiting ever, or is it just me?) is a breath of fresh air to me. I’ve never been a huge fan of the Maria character, and at times found the close relationship they gave her and Sarah actually felt like it undermined Sarah’s relationship with Luke. Rani seems a lot more fun, and I enjoyed her tenacity as Sarah Jane desperately tried to keep her from getting sucked into their world of aliens and monsters.

If I had one complaint its that this story brought back up the issue regarding the public’s awareness of aliens. Rani made it clear that if she started talking about them, no one would believe her. For the sake of argument, I’m going to assume that these episodes are taking place prior to The Stolen Earth (although the gap between the two which had Maria settle into her new life in the States may be at odds with this), but there’s at least the issue of the Sycorax spaceship a few Christmases ago, the Racnoss Christmas Star, 5 million Cybermen invading Earth, Daleks wiping out people on Canary Warf (although the Doctor nipped that in the bud quite quickly) and The Toclafane (although that particular Prime Minister was a nutter, so probably not hard to discredit them).

Its a problem with Torchwood as well. Whereas the parent show has moved on to a point where most people know that aliens are out there and have a tendancy to turn up at Christmas and trash London, both spin-offs still have the general public oblivious to aliens (heck, Torchwood also has the whole argument of exactly how secret the organisation is supposed to be - they clearly took a leaf out of the 70s/80s UNIT manual for running a secret organisation). Its something that’s quite jarring when moving between the shows, no more so than in light of the Stolen Earth. If no one in Sarah Jane Adventures will believe Rani about aliens, what exactly were they doing when Earth was moved to the Medusa Cascade and humanity was enslaved by Daleks before being towed back to our usual solar system by a Police Box? The shows may try to be consistent within themselves, but in the larger scheme of things it falls apart horribly.

However that’s a side issue. When I’m just looking at the Sarah Jane Adventures, the simple fact is that I love this show. Yes, its supposed to be for kids, but frankly I’ve always found it incredibly consistent and enjoyable. And season 2’s off to a cracking start. Now I just hope we get a full third season next year. With only the specials from Who, and 5 episodes of Torchwood, it’d be nice if one of the shows got a full run.