tiny roads leading somewhere

comics for the week of 1/25/12.

2012-01-30T08:02:00.000-07:00

Marvel is taking over.

Angel and Faith 6 - "Daddy Issues" part one and it's a doozy. The appearances at the end might not have been surprises, but they felt surprising nonetheless. I'm loving the character of Alasdair Coames more and more. I hope he's going to get a more prominent place in the book as it's becoming more and more clear that Giles is dead and gone. This opens up the possibility of seeing more flashbacks, like we get to in this issue, and moving on at the same time. Keeping a foot planted in the past while looking to the future: a proud Buffy tradition.

FF 14 - I'm loving how these stories are interacting, but it makes me worry that FF is, essentially, a limited series. After this epic storyline is done, will Hickman still have two books' worth of story to tell? My hope is yes, because it's great to get this much. Here we get to see some of the backstory with Val and Nathaniel Richards preparing for the war that's coming up. We also, of course, see some modern day. I can't really keep all the kids in the FF straight, because I'm not convinced they all matter, but it's not that important to me. The revelation that all they needed was 27 minutes was great, and super believable. The lines from Doom, though, top anything that came in any of the other books this week: "I am Doom. Destroyer of worlds. What Gods dare stand against me?" and "I am Doom. The damned... Do you worst. I will remain unmoved!" Man. What a character.

Fantastic Four 602 - The other side of the story. Galactus is summoned, he declares it to be the wrong time, but the right time creeps up on him (and the heroes) pretty damn quickly. Johnny is still great in his new, powerful role. The intersection of Kree, Inhuman, Annihilation Wave and Galactus is still confusing to me, because I'm not exactly a fan of the cosmic stuff, but the Celestials are nothing to mess around with, clearly, so it's a good thing they're all there.

The Flash 5 - I never thought I would say this, but...I'm going to drop a book with art by Francis Manapul. It's just not good enough of a story. Here we have (kind of) the conclusion of the Mob Rule story, with the turning of Manuel into a bad guy. But I don't care. The return of Captain Cold next month might be enough to interest me to read it in the store, and if it's great, sure, I'll buy it, but... There's very little in this book to compel me to read. If all I'm doing is looking at pictures, well, I can Google some Manapul pencils anytime.

Justice League 5 - Another book that's on the chopping block. I will not be following up on this storyline, although I will finish this one. Really, reading through this issue, I found nothing to like. The pencils, which I still have to defend to my friends, felt flat. The reveal from Bats to Hal that he was Bruce Wayne felt ridiculous, especially with Hal's reaction. The capture of Superman felt anticlimactic and the way GL got punked by Darkseid felt appropriate. There wasn't much here for anyone, I feel, as none of the other characters got any play, other than Flash, who's apparently learned nothing in five years, as he's still trying to figure out "thinking fast" and vibrating through things in his own book. This is a poor reflection on the DCnU.

The Ultimates 6 - On the other hand, this is how you build a bold, new universe. Brian Braddock in a coma, Jamie going off on his father, Sam Wilson being given permission by the villain Reed Richards to explore the City. Man, there was so much in here and I haven't even gotten to the Cap section yet! The only beef I had with this issue is Reed's extended head, which was obviously supposed to be a big reveal, was then drawn like a normal one on the next page. Poor communication. But the possibility of Nick Fury and Clint Barton assembling a new team (that involves Jean Grey!) is more than enough of a hook to keep me on the line.

The Unwritten 33.5 - As happy as I am to see some of the origin of the Marionette Lady, I was a bit disappointed not to get to see more of Pullman. As I mentioned last time, he's such a strong character that I didn't mind at all that the two half issues focused on him. That being said, this was a seriously disturbed issue where we see that this lady (Mme. Rausch!) is more than justified in her cruelty - at least at this stage of her life. The soldier who adopts her is a good soul, sure, but he also should have recognized some of the terrible, terrible things that were happening, not just to her, but around her/because of her. Yes, what happened to her was awful, but you've gotta be able to see the forest for the trees.

Book of the week is FF. While it may not be long-lasting, it feels epic in scope now, and really lets Hickman do work on something (this War storyline) that deserves that long view. Here's to hoping when they do the inevitable hardcover that they combine both this book and the mainline Fantastic Four, alternating issues.

rematch city.

2012-01-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

After sliding through their respective conference championship weekends, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots are set up for a rematch that almost everyone can relish.

In the AFC, things looked all set to go to overtime. Joe Flacco had put together another one of his good games, rallying his team down the field, putting them in position to score, maybe even for the win. When wide receiver Lee Evans was stripped of a just-barely-missed touchdown, things still appeared okay. The Ravens would be kicking a 32 yard field goal in order to tie the game and head to the new bizarro-rules overtime. Practically a chip shot, right? Kicker Billy Cundiff agrees, in principle, but veered wide on the actual kick. The Patriots celebrated on the sidelines, while the Ravens looked on in disbelief.

The Giants, on the other hand, actually had to take the NFC Championship game to overtime against the San Francisco 49ers. After trading equal shots, the 49ers got the ball back for their second try to match the Ravens. It felt right. It felt equal. But it wasn't meant to be. 49ers wide receiver Kyle Williams was on the return team, and grazed the punt with his knee. The Giants may or may not have seen that, but Devin Thomas grabbed the ball and ran like he was certain of himself. After reviewing the play, it was ruled a fumble, the Giants gained possession and it was all but over. Lawrence Tynes kicked the game-winning field goal.

So, with the match-up set, and the break of the Pro Bowl in between, we have approximately two weeks of media to look forward to, where we'll all recap the same familiar facts: the last time these two teams met in the Super Bowl was four years ago. Those were the most infamous of the famous Patriots teams, the ones that went undefeated all the way through the season and the post-season. Until the big game. They lost to the Giants in one of the greatest upsets in sports history. The Patriots appear to have lost some of their mojo since that game, not making the post-season at all in the immediate aftermath and getting bumped in the wild card game the year following that.

The Giants had a respectable follow-up to their Super Bowl win, at least in comparison, by making the playoffs in 2008, but spent the last two years on the outside looking in. The Manning haters crowed over Eli's failures and were only emboldened by this year's shocking (and devastating, at least for Colts fans) news about big brother Peyton. Now, little brother Manning will play in his big brother's town, Indianapolis, for all the marbles.

The rematch angle is, of course, the most entertaining. Certainly, Brady, Belichick and the rest of the Patriots have to be fuming for revenge. But Eli Manning and his Giants have progressed since shocking the oddsmakers, along with the majority of the nation. There's plenty to prove on their side as well. The big brother/little brother angle deserves its moment in the sun, if only for the baffling semi-reveal that Peyton has only a single Super Bowl win. The Manning brothers, tied in ultimate victories, could find themselves a new pecking order after February 5. Tom Brady, of course, in his usual superhuman way, merely looks to solidify his reputation as one of the greatest to play the game. Certainly, none of that is too much pressure for either of these guys, or their teams.

comics for the week of 01/18/12.

2012-01-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

The DCnU still continues to frustrate, but this week illustrates some of the best points of it: a new logo from DC has been unveiled, giving haters something else to focus on, and Batman comes out, which is always a net positive.

Batman 5 - I feel like Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are taking huge direction from JH Williams (and to a lesser degree Yanick Paquette, Jeff Lemire & Travel Foreman). If the rest of the DCnU could reach the heights of Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batwoman (above all) and now, with this arc, Batman, comics would be in better shape. Suffice to say, Snyder is killing here. The backstory of the Court of the Owls is taken to the next level in this issue, where it appears that the Joker himself might even be overtaken, in terms of pure insanity. The art, obviously, is what everyone is going to be talking about, and justifiably so, but I can't help but wonder how much of that was at Snyder's behest and direction, as opposed to Capullo's initiative. (Not trying to hate, it's just that I've followed Capullo for some years now, and he's never struck me as that nervy of a guy. A talented artist, sure, but not border-pushing.) At the end of the day, though, after all the buzz has died down on this issue, I was disappointed that it didn't finish the arc (guess I was wrong about them all being 5 issues) and it felt more like a thought experiment (a great one, I'm not saying it was bad!) than a true advancing of the story. I'll look back when the story's done and feel differently, but for now, I wanted some resolution.

Fables 113 - Interesting. A filler issue that might turn out not to be one, in that most Fables of ways. I feel like this has the same potential as we now obviously see in the tales of the Boxers, when they were first introduced. Also, I loved how self-referential it was, as well as the nods to different theologies. All that being said, though, it can't help but feel like a simple filler issue. The experiment with different artists was a good (and successful) one, I'd love to see more in this style. It'd be great if the regulars didn't need fillers, but hell, they do a pretty damn good job all the time; they deserve a break.

Ultimate Spider-Man 6 - Samnee's art was not good, the story was lackluster. This was, easily, my least favorite issue of the entire Ultimate Universe, since its reinception. I'm not partial to the bad uncle character enough to follow his misadventures in Mexico, and I was disappointed with the lack of forward movement in Miles' storyline. His best friend is still one of the best parts of the book, and I love the interaction with his mother, but this, overall, felt like a swing and a miss.

Book of the week goes to Batman for innovation. I can't believe that I'm about to say this, but the first arc of Batman, when it finally finishes (please next month!), might rank up there with the first arc of Batwoman. Incredible stuff.

football conference championship games set.

2012-01-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

So, it'll be San Francisco versus New York and New England versus Baltimore. All for the right to go to the biggest game of the year. No more upstart Broncos, no more defending Packers. No more surprise Texans, and no more record-breaking Saints.

Obviously, the majority of the public wants to see a rematch of Super Bowl XLII with the Patriots facing the Giants. It's not that simple, though.

In order to get past the 49ers, the Giants will, simply put, have to overcome the underdog story of the year. With Alex Smith (he of the number one pick that has disappointed almost every one of his six previous seasons in the NFL) gunning, the 49ers have impressed upon nearly everyone by now the fact that they are a serious team. By beating the New Orleans Saints in dramatic, if not overwhelming, fashion, the 49ers have proved that their sometimes-anemic offense (especially in regards to the passing game) is not a problem and their defense is a facet upon which they may hang their collective hat.

The Giants, on the other hand, rolled over the defending Green Bay Packers in such demonstrative fashion that their offense, well-heralded previously, may become secondary to a defensive unit that sacked opposing quarterback Aaron Rodgers four times. The Giants also had their way on offense, with Eli Manning picking apart the Packers' defense in embarrassing fashion.

On the other side of the conference, the New England Patriots put an end to the miracle story of Tim Tebow's Broncos. The team that could just ran into a buzzsaw and was clearly outmatched. Tebow outlived expectations and should be proud of the wins he (and the Broncos defense) managed this season, as well as making it to the playoffs, but the Patriots offense hung 45 points on the vaunted Broncos defense.

New England looks to continue its performance next weekend against the Baltimore Ravens, whose defense is miles ahead of the Broncos. The only hitch in the Ravens' game plan could be found in their regular season record: Of the four games they lost, all were away from home. Next week they'll play at Gillette Stadium, where New England is a tidy 7-1. That sole loss, by the way? It came to the New York Giants.

Both games will be televised on Sunday, with Baltimore tipping at New England at 1 PM MST on CBS, and New York playing in San Francisco at 4:30 MST on Fox.

comics for the week of 1/11/12.

2012-01-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

Huge stack this week and Albuquerque Comic Con this weekend. What a nice time to be alive.

Batwoman 5 - All of the New52 offerings seem to be running 5 issue arcs to start their shit show and you know what? I don't mind at all. You know why? Because of this book. To have this book, by JH Williams, as a monthly, in the face of all the BS, is worth it. In this issue, Kate solves the mystery of La Llorona, encounters the DEO, has a hard conversation with Bruce Wayne, and does it all in a style that no one else is doing in comic books. No one. Big Two, Big Three, Indy Print, I don't care who it is. This comic is what someone should be given if they say they don't like comics. If they're an art fan, or a storytelling fan, and they tell you after they read it that they were unimpressed, you should no longer be their friend. It's that good.

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer 5 - Buffy gets a semi-filler issue, but it's great in the way that Buffy episodes involving dreams used to be. Any time there was a dream, you could tell it was going to be important. This is no different. The first slayer shows up with an important message, as does a Tinkerbell-like figure, and Willow absconds with the scythe, but it seems to be for good purposes. The final page cliffhanger should be a big deal and I'm freaking out over it a little bit, but I can't help but think it's a ruse, and it'll all work out without any longterm ramifications. Which is a shame. Everyone else has moved forward with their lives. Buffy, on the other hand, has only moved on from schools. She hasn't realy done any moving forward. Let's fix that. Maybe not like this. But somehow.

Green Lantern 5 - Hal's apprenticeship under Sinestro (part XXVII) ends with him not having a ring (surprise, surprise) but he does seem to have changed. I can't tell what's happening with him (or with Carol) but I doubt that it's going to be like she thinks it is. Sinestro, however, gets to be his usual super-interesting self. I can't help but think that he will be the most interesting character in this book for a long, long time, seeing as the rest of the Corps have their own spotlight nowadays and the reality that Hal Jordan, as a character, just isn't that compelling in the last five years. That being said, this was a solid read.

Invincible 87 - The encounter between Allen & Oliver and Mark went approximately like I thought it would, with the nice last-page wrinkle being thrown in. However, the meat of this issue came from Mark's conversation with Eve. Cecil showing up was a nice move by him (and great anticipation by Mark) but I think it actually was a step backwards. If Mark had more time along with Eve, I think she could convince him of the error of his ways. She's pretty much the only one he'd ever listen to. But with the constant distractions, she missed her opportunity, and I believe that we're going to continue to see Mark slide off the deep end of crazy. It'll be a fun ride.

Resurrection Man 5 - This is the only book I read that made me believe it's not going to be solidly 5-issue arcs out of DC Comics from now on. This seems to have sort of that serial feel where every issue bleeds into the next but there remains the possibility of self-contained stories. Here we see that Mitch has kind of died, although he's being transported to Arkyham, as an analogue of Hell, while his body is being fought over topside. There was a lot of backstory, which seems to contradict much of what happened in the earlier series, but I'm not super upset over that. The biggest takeaway is that Mitch might be a now-integral part of the formation of the New52. I wonder if they had plans to tie everyone into the mythos in a really important way. That would impress me with the degree of planning, which must mean they don't. Just a happy coincidence that I happen to be reading the D-Level book that gets the A-Level treatment.

Scarlet Spider 1 - I was intrigued enough by the idea to pick this up at the shop. And I liked the story. I liked the art. I liked the acknowledgement of an era that wasn't really as bad as it got painted. But I'm not sure I liked the execution well enough to stick with it past this issue. Here, we get the story of a reborn Kaine, who apparently, has already been back (thanks to Spider Island, which I didn't read, thanks to Joe Q and Brand New Day) but now is rebron and well. (He died? Again? Um...OK.) Kaine's fighting against being a hero (which is a pretty Ben Reilly thing to do, so I'm OK with the naming of this series) but we all know he's going to lose that fight. I mainly just want to see if he's going to make it to New York, talk to Peter, and divide the city, like he and Ben used to do. If there could be some coordination, that'd be great. If not? Well, that essentially makes it a mini that no one references, which puts it almost in the Elseworlds (I know, different companies) category: intriguing, but not worth much in the grand scheme of things. I'll stick with it until they convince me not to.

The Unwritten 33 - Tom Taylor walks into a trap and gets bitch slapped pretty fiercely. It's only going to get worse. With the whole world rooting for him, it turns out the Cabal have some pretty strong voices, too, so that doesn't work out so perfectly for the man who thinks he's in charge. The gang is going to have to take care of this, methinks, but I'm not quite sure if they're up to the task. Lizzie certainly seems devoted to the cause, but she doesn't have Savoy's powers. Savoy's got the power, but he might be a bit too bright to go charging in the way Lizzie will want to. This sets up quite the predicament, and Pullman still is pulling quite a few strings behind the scenes.

Wolverine and the X-Men 4 - New artist I was worried about? No problems whatsoever. This book continues to be great in every way. The story, its intersection with X-Force and the old school feel of the plot? Pitch perfect. The cartoony art, significantly different than Bachelo's? Still amazing. Here we see the introduction of Genesis and Angel to the school and each present their own set of problems. We get one of those glimpses into the future that the X books are so famous for, and we see another timeline which is going to cause all kinds of problems. We also get to continue to explore Deathlok as a solid character. Bravo for a job well done.

Ultimate X-Men 6 - Last but not least, Kitty Pryde kicks some ass. Rogue turns out (maybe) not to be such a betraying wench, but Stryker is (maybe) dead and his last command is going to present quite a few problems for these X babies. My thinking is that Pietro is going to turn up, save the day, and (maybe) not be (quite such) a bad guy. Jimmy is still playing a bit role that I'd love him to get out of, but there are plenty of paths left for him. With significant character development, lots of laugh worthy lines, and solid plot movement, this is a great addition to the new Ultimate Universe.

Book of the week goes to Batwoman. This book is to the rest of super hero comics what Locke & Key is to comics in general.

comics for the week of 01/04/12.

2012-01-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm having trouble keeping up. I make no excuses, simply report the facts.

Animal Man 5 - Buddy gets to experience all kinds of nightmares in this issue as we continue down the path of pure terror. Whereas the connection between this book and Swamp Thing was implied at first, it seems like next issue is going to be our first explicit touch. I love that. I love that this is a shared universe. It exemplifies the best things about the New 52 and gives me hope that more writers can get up to the level of Snyder and Lemire. Going back to the main story, it seems as though, perhaps, both Animal Man and his daughter should have listened a bit more to the cat. (Does she have a name? Am I forgetting? Ah yes, Socks! Funny.) The ending promises some heavy duty action next month.

Rachel Rising 4 - Terry Moore has seriously stepped up his game. In all reality, I can't say that, because I only read the first issue of Echo. Since its completion, people have told me that I need to try it out again, and with Rachel Rising at the level it is, I feel pretty compelled to. This book (and all the books I got last week!) is seriously a straight-up horror comic. There is some seriously dark stuff happening, and not all of it is totally comprehendible. That's great with me, too, as I love the mystery aspect (and the dark humor of Aunt Johnny) of Rachel and her death.

Swamp Thing 5 - This seems like the focal point. The ties between Animal Man and this book are great, but the central nature of a character like Swamp Thing, with the mythology and history of the character, the Parliament, the Green, the Black (and now the Red)...it's bordering on an A-List title. This issue sees that even in the world of comic books, our most base instincts should never be trusted. Swampy goes in for a little love and...lo and behold, gets screwed over for it. The interaction between he and Animal Man should be really, really good. Here's to hoping that the story can bounce back and forth in a truly collaborative way, as opposed to just being two sides of the same story. The backstory in this issue was awesome, too, and the art of Paquette is really reaching another level.

Book of the week goes to Rachel Rising. I'm so happy to be truly enjoying another Terry Moore creation, after dismissing myself from Echo, and the sour taste left by the ending of SiP that it really deserves the honor.

comics for the weeks of 12/21/11 & 12/28/11.

2012-01-09T09:21:00.000-07:00

I missed last week because of the holidays, but, of course, still got the books themselves. What this means, though, is that this could easily be the longest recap entry I've ever written. Enjoy, nerds.

Angel & Faith 5 - A focus on Harmony is always a bad thing and this issue continues the trend. It's not like it was terrible, or hard to read, it's just...well, there's not a lot going on. It's neat to see how they continue to play with the notion of that world being significantly different than ours and they push that angle consistently. But that's pretty much all there is to truly like about it.

Batman 4 - The Court of the Owls storyline continues with some crappy retcon of a child Bruce Wayne investigating his parents' murder. I'll trust Scott Synder, because he's earned that much, but it doesn't feel right. The story that's taking place in the here and now, on the other hand, is superb. Capullo's pencils continue to hit just the right mix of old school Spawn and Bruce Timm B:TAS style. The relationship between Dick and Bruce is near perfect, with Dick giving up and Bruce reeling him back in. This book is almost everything that a superhero comic can and should be.

FF 13 - My buddy Dave Jordan called out that the last page of this book was perfect and he was so right. In this Hickman half of the story, we see the continuing story of Alternate Reed (or, as Val calls him, "Evil Dad," to my eternal amusement) and his voyage home. This seems like it's his story on the surface, but it's got plenty of Doom, the kids, the Future Foundation, the War of the Four Cities and all the other little arcs that have been simmering in FF (both kinds!) over the last year or two. At the bottom, though, it's truly another story about Nathaniel Richards. I feel like he's finally being used to the height of his potential and I have a feeling that he's going to pay a price for that use. Great work, as always, by Hickman. The pencils were a little sketchy, but nothing to truly distract.

Fables 112 - A Christmas tale to distract us from all the seriously messed up stuff that's been happening. It's a takeoff of "A Christmas Carol" and it's well done, but there's no denying it's a filler issue. The best thing about Fables, though? Even when they throw out a filler issue, there's still important elements that are going to come back. Here we see Rose Red journeying to find her station as a paladin of Hope, some developments with Winter, the new North Wind, and, of course, the Fat Lady.

Fantastic Four 601 - Not gonna lie: Totally happy that Johnny's back and not even mad that it lasted exactly as short as we all pessimistically predicted it would. He looks like a badass, he's two years older, Ben's happy, Sue was crying and Spidey and he are already back to joking. Plus, he's got this whole new persona. It's going to be great to work with. The battle that's happening, I'll be real: I don't honestly understand it. I'm not a big cosmic person, which makes me think that, even though this book is GREAT, it's going to be dropped at some point by me. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the ride.

The Flash 4 - This book is close to the chopping block. I never thought I'd say that about a book pencilled by Francis Manapul, but we've got to face facts: the story is boring! I don't care about Mob Rule, I don't care about Barry's shoddily retconned story, nor do I care about the wannabe drama between he and Iris. They're supposed to be together. Am I supposed to be in angst over the fact that they're not? They will be. Everything else is cannon fodder. I'm unhappy with everything about this book other than the art, which is still amazing, as always.

Invincible 86 - Allen (and Oliver!) versus Nolan. This did not go down how I imagined it would. And the ending? Nolan's gonna have some tough calls to make very, very soon. I'm super interested to see the angle Mark takes on this. Kirkman, once again, proving that he knows how to write an ongoing book, keeps the longterm plot threads up in the air while satisfying that urge month to month. This is one of those books that get lumped into the banal-great category: it's hard to expound on what makes it so great, when it's so consistently great from month to month to month.

Justice League 4 - Here's another boring book. Some of the banter is slightly amusing, it's nice to see Aquaman as a badass, but it feels so, so, so weird. I don't like it. I'll definitely finish the first arc, but I can't see myself sticking around longer than that.

Ultimate Spider-Man 5 - Miles gets smacked around by Spider Woman and then gets a talking-to from Nick Fury. But he comes out a winner. The case that he gets from Jessica (via Nick) is a one of a kind present, and the presence of his best friend makes this feel like an authentic Spider-Man book. Sure, maybe it's not Peter, but I won't hold that against this. It's great to have this fresh feeling. They've got a lifelong fan, as long as they stay away from the shit that stripped Amazing of all its fun for me.

The Ultimates 5 - Spider Woman is on the cover, but only gets two pages, but it's still so good. It's the cream of the Ultimate Universe and I love, love, love how different they're going this time. Thor gets smack-talked by his dead relatives and friends. Fury and Barton play some serious politics. And the Falcon signs up for what should, realistically, be a suicide mission. There's no way his shitty science is going to beat Reed, the Maker. This is Hickman is full-on science mode, at his unbridled best, refusing to be constrained by continuity or defined characters. Want to make someone radically different? By my guest! It's fun, entertaining, and it's a compelling read month after month. What more can we ask for?

The Unwritten 32.5 - So, we were all supposed to get that this was Pullman, too, right? I thought each of these issues was going to focus on a different villain, but at this point, I'm so impressed by the concept of Pullman that I don't mind this at all! Make all the issues on him. He's a massively entertaining character already and with all this history, he's only getting more and more enthralling. This issue, in fact, felt even stronger than the main storyline, which dragged a bit just two weeks ago in issue 32. The mere idea of his longevity and the hint that he knows way, way more about the power of stories and words than does the Cabal seems like it's going to give the main storyline a great twist in the upcoming months, forcing me to eat my words, predicting that the series was headed for a quicker-than-anticipated ending. When you switch Big Bads, of course you get to double the life of the series! What a great idea.

Wolverine and the X-Men 3 - OK, I still don't get what those little Nightcrawlers are or where they came from. But Chris Bachelo makes this book. And when he leaves, don't get me wrong, I have faith in Jason Aaron, but I'm not sure the book is going to maintain the same feel. Is he going away for good? Just needs a break? These are important questions in my comic book mind. As for the story itself, we have the old bad guy turns good (ish) idea played out to the Nth degree in this issue. It's a great turn for Beast, as he gets to display some of those vaunted smarts, and I love the interaction that we're starting to see between the various faculty members mirroring the interaction between the students. This is going to be a great read for a long time.

Ultimate X-Men 5 - Although this book is still the weakest of the Ultimate Universe bunch, it's still pretty to look at, and the story seems to be progressing well enough. I love the idea of Rogue as a traitor, and I love that Kitty shows up at the end in that badass new costume, ready to kick some butt. I hate that we had to spend a whole issue getting backstory on Stryker, when I really don't care about him, but I realize that it had to happen. I'm curious to see when and how Jimmy is going to take a larger role, given his prominence on covers and the contrasting reality of his role as, essentially, a guest star in the book thus far. Here's to hoping next issue.

Issue of the (2) week(s) is Ultimates. I had four nominees but when it comes down to it, this is the book that feels the freshest. That counts for a lot with this jaded old fan.

nfl playoffs promise fireworks.

2012-01-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

As the regular season finished up last week, New York Giants fans got another win to gloat about in their rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys. This one stung in a pretty spectacular manner, too, since the G-Men's win meant that the Cowboys would be nowhere to be found in this year's playoff schedule.

Things get started in this wild card weekend with a quartet of games that offer plenty of excitement, plus the promise of water cooler talk to last the entire week. Cincinnati plays at Houston to open things up and then Detroit gets to play in New Orleans. If you can find two better examples in the last ten years of cities with everything hanging out on the line playing each other in the playoffs, your memory is better than mine. The Saints' first season after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their city was kicked off with a bang and finished almost as near as one can ask for, without winning the big prize.

Detroit, on the other hand, has had their troubles well-documented as a result of the auto industry's troubles. A win for either side will represent just another level by which the respective cities have overcome the tumultuous previous decade.

The Atlanta Falcons get things kicked off on Sunday with a game against the aforementioned Giants. That great game, though, serves merely as a precursor to the ongoing drama of Tim Tebow. The Pittsburgh Steelers (they of the most championships of all time in the NFL) will face off in Denver against the Broncos, hoping to end the miraculous season of a team that virtually no one picked to even make the playoffs.

Let's be clear: This is merely the wild card weekend of the playoffs. Details haven't even been given on the top dogs in each conference, which consist of the Green Bay Packers, the San Francisco 49ers, the Baltimore Ravens, and the New England Patriots. The Packers and the Patriots are obviously the toast of their respective towns, but their paths to Super Bowl XLVI are by no means guaranteed.

The best time of the year for a football fan is upon us. It's only going to get better.

my faves of 2011.

2011-12-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the thing: those who know me know that I'm not terribly current on all the things that I love. With the sole exception of comics books, which I always will stay current on, I don't make it to the movies as often as I used to (or should, depending on your interpretation). I also don't read all the hot new books of the year. I try to listen to as much current music as I can, but sometimes, that shit just doesn't compare to The College Dropout. So I put that album on for the 5,000th time. So this is a list of the best movies, books, and music that I listened to this year. I'll have a section for each, and a note on whether it was new or old. But if that bothers you...well, no one's forcing you to read. I've also renamed this from the Best of 2011 to My Favorites of 2011 to acknowledge that my list is supremely biased and the reality that I just don't see and hear and read everything that I should.

Books

I read a lot more books this year than last, I think. I'm going to say it's because of my Nook, but I don't know if that's the truth. I do know that it was a conscious decision and that I plan to keep it up. These aren't in any order, except for 1 and 2, and they're a mix of fiction, non-fiction and, of course, comic books.

7. Freedom - I'm putting this in the last spot because I have two terrible confessions regarding it. Number one, I think I like Franzen more than DFW. You'll find no mention of The Pale King on this list, and that's because I started reading it and I had to stop. I couldn't keep going. It wasn't that good. Maybe that means I'm not as smart as I'd like to imagine I am, but I prefer to think it means that novel wasn't ready to be released. Franzen's Freedom, on the other hand, is a perfectly crafted picture of people who are fucked up. Confession two, I'm not even done with this novel yet. I've been desperately trying to finish it for this write up, but between the end of the semester and the holiday season, I just haven't gotten to it. However, even without finishing it, I'm confident enough in what I've read so far to put it on this list. It's a fantastic look at who we are and how we get to be that way. We're not perfect, we're fucked up most of the time, and only some people really get that.

6. The Family Fang - Another novel that truly realizes that last point. Man, having kids will fuck everyone up. The parents, the kids. Everyone. It's even worse if they think of themselves as artists in some ways. Seriously. A great novel that looks at the family dynamic though that lens.

5. The Magician King - Lev Grossman is the new boss. He's writing the best fantasy. That's all there is to it. I didn't get to read The Magicians until this year, but as soon as I did, I knew that I would love the sequel. It was, perhaps, even better than the first, and there's word that there's going to be a third. Everyone knows that the best media comes in trilogies (ever wonder why we have so many names for threesomes: troika, triumvirate, trio, etc.?) and Grossman seems primed to take his place among those classic stories. The saga of Quentin continues in the tradition of "Return of the Jedi" insofar as it takes the darkest imaginable turn and yet, still manages to tell a story you're interested in continuing.

4. Born to Run - This book changed my life in a pretty literal way. I've now embarked on a journey of refusing to run in shoes for more than a year, which I'm hoping will keep me in the habit for the rest of my life. If you think of yourself as a runner and you haven't read it, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

3. You Can't Win - The other huge non-fiction book I read this year was a gift from my former roomie/best friend Derick, of tattoo fame. It was a sobering account of how some of the other people in this world used to live, and how some people still live. It was so good that I was encouraged by it to read more non-fiction; this is something I haven't followed through with yet, but something that will definitely follow me the rest of my reading life.

2. Daytripper - At this point, the books switch drastically. Daytripper was a comic that was published in 2010, but the TPB came out in 2011, so I feel OK with including it here, even though I should have been getting it monthly. This book is so damn good that I get mad at people who haven't read it. Which, you know, is most people. I don't wanna spoil some of the premise, but suffice it to say the book takes you through the life of a semi-ordinary guy in that new post-modern way that is so effective. Namely, there's a big twist and it's thoroughly entertaining.

1. Locke & Key - I've been repping this comic on my weekly reviews ever since Dave Jordan recommended it to me. I won't stop until it's done, and even then it'll have a permanent place with me. This is, by far, the best discovery of my comic life, maybe since I started comics. Definitely since Kingdom Come. It's an ongoing that's telling a whole story. It's got something different for so many different kings of people. It's horror. It's a love story. It's revenge. It's mythology. It's beautiful. It's an homage to Bill Waterson. It's everything a comic book can and should be in this post-modern age, and it's amazing and it's happening right in front of us and most people aren't enjoying it. It's a tragedy is what it truly is. Buy it. You won't regret it.

Other than those top 7, I read the His Dark Materials trilogy which were all good, but not as good as I wanted them to be, The Destructors which I thought was bad, The Historian, which wasn't great, but made me want to travel Europe and Asia extensively (oh yeah, and live forever), Hatchet, The Island of the Blue Dolphins, and We All Fall Down for school, the last of which was great, if highly disturbing, the former two of which I'd read before but were solid reads again. I've also gotta stick up in a major way for everything that Scott Snyder wrote on Batman, whether it was Grayson or Wayne in the costume. The J.H. Williams Batwoman is head and shoulders above all other comic books in the superhero vein. Lastly, Jason Aaron's Scalped is damn near an epic saga. Great, great comics.

Movies

Same deal. The ones that came out this year make the list, and a few comments about the other great movies I saw.

1. Crazy, Stupid, Love. - The best movie I saw this year? Yep, I'm gonna say it was. Sorry, critic's favorites which I haven't seen yet. This movie had it all. Some laughs, some tears, some drama and some loving. It was great. Everyone seemed pitch perfect, playing their role and not chewing into others territory.

2. 50/50 - The second best movie I saw this year was a bit more depressing. The story of a guy my age who's a little bit anal retentive and cautious and gets cancer nonetheless is super sad in places and yet still manages to come off as a great story, without much moralizing. How? By dealing with a crappy topic head on, instead of giving us parables or inspirational montages. It says, hey, this is what it is, it sucks, but there's a chance that it'll get better. Really, really solid film.

3. Harry Potter 7.2 - You would think that the end of a story that everyone knows would kind of have nowhere to go but down, but you'd be so wrong. This might be the best Potter film since the middle of them. The ending was satisfying, I'm glad they kept the epilogue, I wish there had been even more of it. The Weasley Mom's line was satisfactory, but I wanted more. The Harry/Voldemort battle was great. The death tolls were emotionally wracking. It was great. I bought the 8 disc set on Bluray and I can't wait to relive all of them.

4. Moneyball - A good enough film, but more here for the great acting job. I knew the story, I was expecting it to be good enough. But what I wasn't ready for was how well Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill would inhabit their characters and how hard I would root for them. That, to me, was the triumph of the movie.

5. Captain America - The best of the comic books movies this year. The way it set everything up was masterful.

Hanna was fun, but not deserving of a spot on the list. Super 8 was cool, but not deserving of the worship that I was more than ready to pour on it. Thor was good, but I feel like all the ladies loved it more than the gentlemen.

I raced to see some movies at the beginning of the year that had come out previously, most of which were award winners last year. Some of these were older, such as The Darjeeling Limited, but count me as a late believer in Easy A, True Grit, The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone, Love & Other Drugs, and Blue Valentine.

Green Lantern and Scream 4 were the notable exceptions this year, movies that I was expecting to like for a variety of reasons, and which turned out to be less than watchable.

I haven't seen Take Shelter, Young Adult, The Muppets, Tree of Life, The Descendants or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy yet and I think (hope) they would make my list. I'm probably not going to see Drive and I'm not sure I see the appeal.

Music

8. The Weeknd's Mixtapes - Get them all here. They're worth your time, although if you're only now discovering them through my blog, you need some other kind of musical input in your life. I laughed when I heard the new wave of R&B called PBR&B, but now that's all I can classify The Weeknd as. Music to fuck or make love to. Either will work. For what it's worth, my order of greatness for these mixtapes goes 1, 3, 2. House of Balloons is definitely where you want to start if you haven't gotten anything yet. That start...Jesus...

7. Childish Gambino - I'm not gonna give it to Camp although it's the only one (I think?) to actually come out this year, but rather, him as a concept. I just found him this year and I know that lots of people rail against him as kind of indicative of the new rap that's semi-lazy, but I find him entertaining. Plus, anyone who's a true double threat as opposed to just dabbling in another genre because they're famous deserves respect. You can tell that he truly cares about both rapping and acting, and I think that's laudable.

6. Radiohead - King of Limbs - While at first I didn't care for this album, as the year has passed, I've really come to see that there are some great elements to it. It's extremely short, that's true, but I'm not sure that's the knock that I once saw it as. The mere fact that they're able to do what they want when they want, and that people will still buy their albums is a testament to the fact that they continue to put out great music. It may not be what any of us expect from them, at any given time, but hell, that's been true since OK Computer. I, for one, have come to see this as, perhaps the third or fourth best Radiohead record.

5. Wild Flag - Wild Flag - I got to Sleater/Kinney late, so when they broke up, I took it hard, with the passion of the convert. When I read that the Wild Flag record was coming, I tried to tamp down my expectations, because we all know what those flights of fancy can do to a product. But then, when the record actually dropped, I thought, "This might be the album of the year!" (It's not, obviously, according to my list. But...) The fervent energy of grrl power that infected so many of those stellar records of the 90s (not just S/K!) is present here, but some of the maturity that living the years since then (not to mention playing in a band with your ex-lover and going through the ups and downs of fame) plays a tempering role, as well. If you didn't listen to this record, and you don't consider yourself a hip-hop head, I honestly don't know what you were wasting your time with.

4. Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra - Easily the best mixtape of the year, and the one that makes the most sense as an album, too. This write up on his show presents the case that maybe Def Jam had a legitimately confusing case when they were trying to figure out what to do with this album, but the bottom line is, if you can't figure out how to make a star of this kid, you shouldn't have that job. His voice is powerful and his production is top-notch. (Remind you of anyone?) Between this, The-Dream and the Weeknd, 2011 really kind of snuck up as the year of revamped R&B, huh? Well, between all of it, Frank Ocean stands as king.

3. Wilco - The Whole Love - Wilco remains the steady companion, the one who consistently puts out great music that people seem to make less and less a big deal of since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I will never understand the undying devotion that album gets while they've done better and better things and gotten less and less press. The last three albums from Wilco's studio sessions hold up to anything they did before, while being pretty radically different. The Whole Love continues that trend, pushing the boundaries of what can truly be called pop music (they're not alt.country any more, if they ever truly were, if such a label ever truly existed) and still challenge our expectations; no signs of banality here. The way that the record starts, with "Art of Almost" and devolves even in the middle of that very song shows that Wilco is a band content to push against what people expect of them, in the best way.

2. TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light - Quietly, surely, TV on the Radio are taking over the world. When their next record drops, don't be surprised to come back here and hear me call them out as the next biggest band in the world. Their power has been there since the first album, and I'm not trying to showcase some awesome premonition skills, I think it's just a matter of common sense. They've been grinding year after year, turning out some of the most spectacular product that we as music fans have seen and yet...somehow, improbably, they haven't blown up. That's due to change. With Nine Types of Light they continue on the course, pushing the boundaries of what people will listen to, while also proving that you can thoroughly enjoy something that you wouldn't ever have had the balls to come up with yourself. Remember you read it here first when everyone, including your mother and the neighbors are wondering why they hadn't heard of TV on the Radio before.

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West - Watch the Throne - I'm not gonna waste a lot of time here. Kanye's my favorite rapper alive. I honestly think Jay is pushing the point where he's gotta be the best rapper of all time ("I'm leading the league in at least six statistical categories right now!"). When they get together for an album, even if it's got some duds in it, I'm going to put it on top of my list. The hits are hits anyway you slice it (although I can't understand all the love that "Welcome to the Jungle" is getting!) and the duds are still a lot better than most of the crap on the radio. Amazingly, some people I know still haven't heard this record. Do yourself a favor.

Lupe's Lasers disappointed in a pretty significant way, but other than that, I didn't have any albums that I was really looking forward to that threw me off track. I didn't listen to the new Foo Fighters, so I'm not bummed by it, and the Strokes' album probably deserves a note about how much better it was than I expected. Cut Copy's Zonoscope also has earned its playcount in my library. I came late to the bandwagon for Fiction but I'm more than pleased to ride it.

Songs

Tyler's "Yonkers" has no place on my list, nor does any of Adele's material. While I appreciate their brilliance, in totally different ways, I just didn't like them that much. Wayne's single ("6'7"") has no place on here because it came out so much earlier than the album and the album sucked. I've never listened to Gaga.

7. Chris Brown featuring Busta Rhymes and Lil' Wayne - "Look At Me Now" - The production and the Busta guest verse make it. I hate Chris Brown with a deep passion, so I'm not going to talk about anything else.

6. The Weeknd - "House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls" - Even with "D.D." out on the new mix, I think this stands as the highlight of a year ruled by dirty, dirty, dirty R&B. It's damn near impossible to truly separate these songs and if you haven't heard any of them, I guess I'd suggest you start with "D.D." but if you're looking around all three albums, I'm not sure I'd believe you if you said one was better than "HOB/GTG".

5. Mr. Muthafuckin' Esquire featuring Despot, Das Racist, Danny Brown & El-P - "Huzzah" (Remix) - In a year where underground hip-hop seemed to make a comeback, this stood out as the best. I can't believe this didn't make it to the radio, except for a few totally believable reasons: the main artist's name, Danny Brown's voice, and the total sonic dissonance with everything else that's popular right now.

4. Lana Del Rey - "Videogames" - I don't care at all about the controversy regarding her creation. All I care about is the fact that this song got stuck in my head and it was good as hell. I can't wait for her record. If this is what we get due to market-testing and A&Rs creating what they think the people want, I'm all for it. I dare you to listen to this song, sans knowledge of who she is and where she comes from, and tell me it's not solid.

3. M83 - "Midnight City" - I had this track as my number one for a long time, but it just felt dishonest. As crazy as "N****s in Paris" makes me "Midnight City" does so even more. This is the song that single-handedly slapped me and made me ashamed that I hadn't listened to M83 before. Great as "N****s in Paris" is, I'm not sure it'd be anyone's choice for introducing Kayne or Jay. The atmosphere of this song, on the other hand, the way it didn't care about anything that was on the radio, the way it was refuge from the too-sweet-ness of Adele (which was everywhere and I liked, but shit, enough is enough) made it just overwhelming in a manner that was necessary and is always welcome. Easily one of my favorite songs of the year...but not the best.

2. Pusha T featuring Tyler, the Creator - "Trouble on my Mind" - When it comes to sound, the Neptunes ruled this world, once upon a time. (And speaking of sound, this has gotta be the incestuous cousin of "Huzzah" - both so spare, both so dark, and yet...so different.) Between this and Buddy's "Awesome, Awesome," things really picked up for them. But that's not the sole reason for this track making it. (You'll notice no Buddy here.) The way that Pusha T raps, I really feel, he has potential to go up against the greatest to ever do it. I'm not sure he's got the potential to be the best, but he's so menacing. This song, more than any other, conveys that menace. It's the sonic equivalent of bullying and it's so damn satisfying to put it on, close your eyes and picture some serious shit-wrecking.

1. Jay-Z & Kanye West - "N****s in Paris" - The biggest song of the year and easily (through their own doing) the most over-played. When people started flipping for this song (on the very night the album dropped, we could tell it was going to be the biggest), nobody had any idea they would eventually play this song 11 times in a row. (Not. Exaggerating.) However, even overplaying their own song that many times hasn't managed to dull its impact. It can be critical studies or it can be pure pop enthusiasm but either way it's a hell of a jam.

That's it for me, for 2011. See y'all next year.

football begins its (long) wind down.

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

After Thanksgiving, football of all kinds starts to wrap up.

College football is finished in most places – especially Albuquerque, especially these days – long before Christmas. The bowl season extends further than it has in the past, sure, but that's mainly due to the proliferation of the so-called bowl games. We start with the New Mexico Bowl, which Temple took, over Wyoming on December 17, and continue all the way to the BCS.

The title game occurs on Monday the 9th, when number 2 Alabama will face first-ranked LSU. Between now and then, plenty of pretenders to the bowl-throne have arisen in the last decade-plus, but few of them are worth the time it'll take to play, much less to watch. Of course, no disrespect is intended, as I'm sure Michigan State and Georgia, at numbers 17 and 16, respectively, are great football teams and their fans care very much who wins the game, but outside that constituency, its hard to muster feelings for the Outback Bowl, amongst others.

(The day before the title game, in fact, is somehow, improbably, perhaps even unbelievably, occupied by Arkansas State versus Northern Illinois, on January 8, in the GoDaddy.com Bowl. Just for fun, although I'm sure it's been done before, let's look at some of these corporate sponsorships: Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, Little Caesar's Bowl, TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl! All of these games have been or will be televised nationally. Advertising really has changed the world.)

The end of the college football season dovetails nicely into the end of the National Football League, where things are already getting fired up by this point. The titanic Green Bay Packers are obviously still a favorite, but the Philadelphia Eagles (preseason favorites who have already been covered) have now been officially dismissed from the playoffs. Perhaps another year to gel will help them live up to the lofty expectations, but with the height of competition amongst elite teams in the NFL right now, it's hard to see another competitor rising to that level.

While Green Bay has wrecked the regular season (save a blip two weeks ago), the New England Patriots have gone under the radar to resume their traditional position atop the AFC. Plenty of spoilers await a slip from either side, including the surprising stories of the San Francisco 49ers and the Houston Texans.

With only one more week in the regular season, plenty of teams are still itching to play spoiler. The biggest match-up, however, seems guaranteed to be the Dallas Cowboys playing in New York against the Giants. The teams will play for the NFC East Championship in the last game of the regular season, on New Year's Day.

Football's finale is always the best, save the drama regarding the need for a true playoff system in college football. This year should be no different, whether you'll be watching the boys play in the BCS title game, or following the pros as they make the final cuts for the playoffs.

comics for the week of 12/14/11.

2011-12-15T21:25:00.001-07:00

Balls. What a week. This was probably the best week in comics all year, and I didn't even buy everything that was great. I haven't jumped into Atomic Robo yet, despite my friends' urging, and I'm not buying Uncanny X-Force, but the Dark Archangel Saga wrapped and damn, it was emotional. And that's just the stuff that you're not gonna get to read reviews of below!

Batwoman 4 - Yeah...Flamebird. She messed up. Things are going to get worse for Kate Kane and the world she's inhabiting. I don't think that Bruce is going to be happy about all this, as they're trying to maintain a kind of cohesive universe and we've seen him turn up already. But the biggest thing is: THIS BOOK IS AMAZING! I'm not gonna waste any more of my time trying to convince y'all.

Buffy: The Vampire Slayer 4 - The Siphon gets smacked up, as we knew he would, but his mysterious benefactor stands revealed! This is what people were talking about when they wanted the quote-unquote old Buffy back. More relationships. More people. More believability. (Yes, people want their fiction to be grounded in truth. How odd we are.) I'm not of that mind, as I didn't really rage against Season 8 the way others did, but I will say this: It's nice to have the old Buffy back. The inclusion of Spike in this book, as noted before, is a solid touch. He brings something to the group that no one else could, even when they tried, in the TV days, to force the role on Andrew. The commentary from Dawn and Xander seemed on point, and the development of a maybe-friendship with the police offers an interesting angle for the future.

Green Lantern 4 - The Manapul variant was awesome and this was the best single issue of the run since the relaunch. Sinestro is finding that his home is not quite as pleasant as he thought he made it. Jordan pays the price for not listening to instructions, and Sinestro gets tortured. Of course, he's not gonna break, which you think the characters that he trained would realize a whole lot faster than us readers, but, alas (for them) it's not the case. The issue does move slow, though, and we don't have a lot of change from last issue. However, I'm glad to see that something is finally going to happen next month. Let's go.

Locke & Key 3 - God! This book is ridiculously good! I'm not even going to get into the buying advice. You're dumb if you're not getting it yet. In this issue, we get to travel back in time with Kinsey and Tyler, while Bode (as Dodge) doesn't move much, due to the aforementioned time travel. We see some of the origins of Keyhouse that we've already been privy to, but Ty and Kinsey get to see so much more that isn't detailed for us. The only problem with this issue is that it leaves you wanting so much more, so soon, and it's going to be so long until we get another issue. The cover to the next issue, by the way, is a fantastic change on this one.

Resurrection Man 4 - Seriously fun. You're missing out if you're not getting this. The old man supervillain turns out to be a kid who invented his suit, which artificially ages him. (Of course he does.) The Body Doubles actually have a conversation with Mitch. (Of course they do.) And, at the end, it looks as though Mitch has died. (Of course it does.) It's pencilled in a style that looks like some of those shitty comics from the 90s and it feels like the plotline is going to go that way, too. But there's nothing wrong with that; not everything has to be a classic album. Sometimes, it's just fun to go for a ride.

The Unwritten 32 - Tom's magic is not working out quite as well as he'd like it to, and it seems as though Frankenstein is the one who's going to have to pay a price for that. Poor bastard. The relationship between Tom and Lizzie and Savoy is going to take a turn during this story line, I think. They just all are approaching this from such disparate angles that it's hard to believe that it's going to turn out OK for everyone. The Cabal gets to planning their counterattack, thanks to Pullman's advice. It looks like Tom's in for a world of hurt.

Ultimate X-Men 4 - A bit of the backstory on Stryker, but good God, the thing that stands out about this book is the art. It's almost perfect comic book art. Paco Medina just kills it. Also, Kitty and Johnny get into quite the tiff. This book is good, but not as good as I originally was excited about. It's definitely the weakest of the new Ultimate Universe, but when you're dealing with something that's at a high level to begin with, that's not a bad thing. The threads are there, but the execution just isn't coming together. Yet. I'm willing to give it some more time, but this book might be on the chopping block if it doesn't step up to the rest of the Universe pretty quickly.

Book of the week is Locke & Key. I'm almost unwilling to give it to anything else, no matter what came out that week. Spidey could get remarried to Mary Jane and I think I would love Locke & Key too much. They printed another comic from the Kate or Die! lady, which was awesome. They've crafted an impeccable story. And, lastly, it's gorgeous. You're a fool if you haven't jumped in yet.

the tebow dilemma.

2011-12-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone in the world has weighed in on Tim Tebow. From his General Manager – former Denver Bronco great John Elway – saying a few weeks ago that he wasn't quite sold on the young gun as a franchise quarterback to former greats in entirely different sports, like Charles Barkley publicly pleading the Chicago Bears to beat the Broncos. (By the way, they didn't.) The discourse even turns up in seemingly tangential corners, such as Young Adult author John Green's Tumblr and the pages of Rolling Stone. So what has Tebow done to deserve, in either sense of the word, all the chatter? Let's review.

Tebow, as we see him now, is a two-time national champion, from the University of Florida. He is a Heisman Trophy winner, and one of the rare college athletes who succeeded so spectacularly, yet played all four years, instead of making the jump to the pros early. He is enthusiastic in his love for the game and most of his former associates, whether those be coaches or teammates, are nothing but effusive in their praise for him.

He also just so happens to be over-the-top religious. This, for a lot of people, is a deal breaker. Tebow's parents were missionaries, and he was raised with those beliefs. He has given numerous interviews stating that his ultimate goal in the NFL is to make enough money so that he can live the same kind of lifestyle as his parents did. The religious viewpoint is not unique to the NFL, nor to the Denver Broncos, but Tebow seems to raise a fervent attitude to people on both sides of the issue.

The real crux of The Tebow Dilemma, though, comes when examining the Broncos' record since Tebow was moved into the starting position as the quarterback. In the words of DJ Khaled, all the Broncos have been doing since is winning. Often in ridiculously convoluted, dramatic fashion.

The Broncos were an anemic 1-4 before Tebow was slotted in to start, and have gone 6-1 since. The schedule, derided by critics at the beginning of the win streak, has gotten more difficult. The wins, counted as lucky by those same critics, have only gotten more and more tension-filled and climactic.

By most measures, Tebow is not, and should not be counted as, a good quarterback in the NFL. Objectively, most scouts looked at him two years ago, before the draft, and said that he would not amount to much. (There were, of course, notable exceptions, such as Jon Gruden.) Subjectively, though, those critics, along with those who doubted his starting position or his worth to the Broncos at all, have had quite a few words to chew on in the last seven weeks. The wins keep piling up and, as of now, Denver sits alone in the top spot of the AFC West.

Steering away from the personal reasons people may or may not like Tebow, it seems now is a good time to remind everyone that we truly do live in the Moneyball age. Will Tebow continue to defy the numbers, or do statistical averages rule all? Will he break the numbers or eventually conform to them? A third path exists: perhaps Tim Tebow is making his own numbers, improving as he goes along. For now, the best advice that any football fan can hear on any given Sunday is made up of the following words: "It's the fourth quarter. The Broncos are down. But Tebow's got the ball." Tune in. Something amazing is going to happen.

comics for the week of 12/8/11.

2011-12-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

It's funny to me how the people who were defending the whole New 52 are now silent. It's clear that the idea was a bad one and that the implementation, while it may have move a whole lot of copies in the first few months, is now falling off. The books are, for the most part, by and large, not very good. By my count, there are only four truly great books; only four that count as gotta-get-em-all Pokemon level. There are at least 8 more that could be good, depending on your taste, but that's way less than a quarter of the books. That's a failure no matter how you cut it. However, here's where the exception comes in: This week? Both of the books I picked up are in that Pokemon category.

Animal Man 4 - The weirdest book of the relaunch and still one of the best. The one I was looking forward to the least out of all the books I was excited for, and, perhaps, in the top three overall. This week, we got to see the continuing development of Wing, the daughter, as well as some explanation from the totems (the guardians, if you will?) of the red. Plus, mom and little Buddy are in trouble from the dead cop, but we knew that from last issue. This one took place more in the red, which is OK with me. The backstory that we're getting fits in perfectly with how truly odd Jeff Lemire is and how his comics get, and yet it's coming from the mainstream DC Universe. This, alone is worth the price of admission.

Swamp Thing 4 - Issue three seemed like it might be bordering on moving toward the disappointing, but this issue solidified the truth: This comic will kill until Scott Snyder decides he's done with it. He might be the best consistent writer in the biz now? The relationship that's brewing between Alec and Abby is not only interesting because of her character's past with Swamp Thing, but her relationship with the little boy, William, who is turning into quite a formidable villain right before our eyes. This comic is solidly one of the best being put out right now and I love how it walks the line between straight horror comic and telling an overarching story at the same time. A lot of the times, all the straight horror lines want to do is shock, shock, shock, with no concern for what has to come after, nor for what came before. That clearly is not the case here.

Book of the week is Swamp Thing. The way that Snyder crafts a comic is unique in this world, and he's nearing the height of his powers. Get in while you can.

why are the eagles so bad?

2011-12-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

As sports fans, we're accustomed to a few of the more major tropes that often dominate our storytelling: the underdog winning it all, the come-from-behind victory, the epic collapse and so many more. However, it has to be said that one of the more rare tales to be told is the complete and total eradication of preseason predictions. Sometimes a team will delight in confounding expectations, exceeding them at a far greater than normal pace. This has, in fact, become its own story, with the NCAA Tournament for college basketball now looking to designate certain teams as the Cinderella year after year. It's harder, though, to think of a team that was so talented that they were supposed to win it all that has underperformed on the level of the Philadelphia Eagles this year.

Anointed before the season began as a behemoth that would crush the regular season, the Eagles were loaded up with talent, and had the makings of an all-time great. The storybook year that Michael Vick had last season was the most obvious sign, but there were plenty more: the signings of Cullen Jenkins, Dominique Rogers-Cromartie and, most of all, Nnamdi Asomugha seemed to signal that this was a team that learned from their buzzsaw encounter last year with the Green Bay Packers.

So, with the players there, all performing at a level that could at least reasonably be expected, with the possible exception of Vick, the attention has got to turn to the coaching staff. Previously hailed by some as one of the best coaches in the game, Andy Reid has had his turn in the spotlight this year. That light has changed from glowing to harsh, and some say it's justified. There are almost perpetual calls for his firing. His use of a zone, even with the acquisition of the aforementioned Asomugha is one of the most glaring examples detractors will cite.

Even the players on the team realize they're not living up to expectations. Brent Calek says it's "embarrassing," to play on the team that was supposed to win the Super Bowl and now is in serious danger of not making the playoffs. Of the teams predicted to win big this season, the Eagles are joined only by the Indianapolis Colts in disappointment this season, but the Colts have the excuse of their lifetimes: the absence of Peyton Manning. The Eagles, on the other hand, have nothing.

So what does it take, to go from most favored to least talked about? How does it happen? The conjecture above centers around the players, the coaches, anything to try to help us, as sports fans understand how we could be so wildly off the mark? But how about another theory? Maybe the problem isn't with the players or the coaches or any combination thereof. Maybe the problem is the whole equation. Maybe the overrating of Vick, based on exceptional play last season, combined with a huge payday for the man, led to wildly unrealistic expectations. Maybe the Eagles, at the end of the day, were just never supposed to be that good. Spending a boatload of money on individual talents, after all, might not be the best way to build a true team.

comics for the week of 11/30/11.

2011-11-30T19:25:00.001-07:00

The world of comics is shifting drastically, with the advent of digital publishing and the new 52 and the integration of Image as one of the Big Three and the emergence of viable options for printing short runs on books and still making money. And yet...Marvel and DC still seem to rule nearly everything. Is parity really achieved if nothing changes?

Angel and Faith 4 - The end of the first arc and it's a good one. Faith confronts Angel about his plan, but he dodges it in a way that makes Faith pull back on a bit of her criticism, which might have been his intent. The ex-Slayers still want to kill him, his ex-servants got what they wanted after all, and Angel just might be...well...becoming Giles. The last two pages were magnificent.

FF 12 - After the brilliance of Fantastic Four 600, I wasn't sure if I was going to jump back into bed with the Future Foundation, but I'm so glad I did. Despite some subpar art, I think the saga of Franklin Richards is really one that needs telling. If it requires Doom, his son, Nathaniel Richards and (maybe he's gone, but I doubt it) an alternate universe Reed to do so, let's get it on!

Fables 111 - I really don't know how to review this issue. The sad fate of Bufkin hangs over everything else that happened, but I'm not really convinced that it happened. Winter is the new King, as she's been fated to be, and Bufkin appears to have been killed. But are either of those things truly firmed up? I, for one, am not a believer. Not yet. Not totally. All that being said, the book continues to be one of the best on the market, numbing in its brilliance. This must be what it feels like to be Federer or Djokovich - so good, so often that it's just unfair to the rest of your competition and, when you're off, it feels like a much bigger deal than it really is.

The Ultimates 4 - This, though, is the book that I get most excited about, week in and week out. (A note here to say that, if Locke and Key came out on anything resembling a regular schedule, it would fill that spot. But it's not even close.) The revelation that took place in this issue is one that any comic fan worth their salt already knew was coming - it was so obvious! Yet, it's a sign of Hickman's superb writing that it still felt fresh and shocking when we actually got to see the Maker's face. Thor got his ass handed to him, Nick Fury's gonna have to compromise and Tony got put in check. Still no sign of Steve. I wonder if he's really out. And now, does this mean that the World (how funny that this term is being thrown around in two totally dissimilar books) will be here, with us, for the foreseeable future in the Ultimate Universe? Great potential there.

Book of the week is Fables. I've written it before, and I did above, but it's kind of awesome how consistent this book is. It kills so predictably month after month after month after month that it's easy to look at it and say, "Yeah, it was just great. Again." But we shouldn't overlook that.

the nba is back.

2011-11-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Over the Thanksgiving break, there was no happier news than the revelation, entirely unexpected, that the NBA would in fact, have a season this year. With game's slated to begin on Christmas Day (although the schedule appears to still be in doubt), this is the best present a basketball fan could ask for.

Of course, almost immediately the attitude of reporters and bloggers went from grateful for having a season to their default setting of cynicism and calling out trade rumors as legitimate news. This is shocking, given the national media's earlier restraint.

The rumormongering might not be so prevalent, however, if there were more concrete facts available. Billy Hunter claims that the players will be getting 51.2% of the aforementioned Basketball Revenue Income (BRI) and there's not much reason to doubt him. However, we've yet to see an official schedule of games from the NBA. While there's no conspiracy theorizing (yet) going on, there certainly is a dearth of information in a culture that is starving for sustenance.

Current Las Vegas odds favor the Miami Heat to win the season, with the Toronto Raptors clocking in with the lowest chance. The Los Angeles Lakers, of course, figure into that equation, as do the Chicago Bulls, the San Antonio Spurs, the defending champion Dallas Mavericks, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and, of course, the Boston Celtics, who introduced their own trade rumors just recently.

Regardless of the odds, though, of a season that wasn't even in existence a mere week ago, the simple truth is that NBA fans have a lot to be thankful for. The usual doldrums of the season might be lost in this proposed-66 game schedule, and the traditional masterpiece of Christmas day games appears to be standing strong.

As a dyed-in-the-wool basketball fan, I know this might sound a little bit like sacrilege (even though every serious basketball fan has had this discussion at several points in their fandom, it seems like the stink eye is alway the response) but it might be time to think about shortening the season and making this a regular season. Football as America's religion is not just a trope as this point; it's a fact. So, if the NBA can make a splash by starting the season on Christmas and then playing out their "It's early in the season, no one cares about these games," period in January and early February, while the NFL is building to the Super Bowl, maybe that's not a bad thing.

The time for longterm plans, now, thankfully, seems far off. The time for celebration? Just about to begin. Welcome back, NBA.

comics for the week of 11/23/11.

2011-11-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

The shock of the DCnU is fading a bit. There's things about it that kill me still, but, overall, I just don't care enough to continue raging against it. The couple good books are great, but overall...I'm just tired of it.

Fantastic Four 600 - 100 pages of amazing. This book was frustratingly priced when I bought it, but I don't understand how anyone could regret paying for it after reading it. What a great read. Every single story was good, the different illustrators all brought their strengths and we've got several stories that are still intriguingly going. There were some resolutions, but not many; more like halfway points. Hickman's got a gift for the long view and I'm really enjoying the way he's weaving together disparate elements. Johnny Storm's story is the one everyone's going to be talking about, but I think it's clear that Franklin Richards has been the simmering star of this book since Hickman's taken over. This is just another aspect where Marvel, tragically/unbelievably not DC, has been pushing their legacies in a true, meaningful way.

The Flash 3 - Perhaps my least favorite issue of this run so far. Manapul's art is as beautiful as ever, but it's just not enough. The story is cool enough, I guess, but I'm having a hard time caring about Barry and his relationship with this woman, when we all know that Iris is waiting in the background. Plus, his buddy, whose name I can't even remember, doesn't feel like a character I care about, nor should. He's been introduced, I've been fed their retconned history, but I don't believe that he's going to stick around, so why get attached? The biggest compliment I can muster for this iteration of the Flash is that I would love to own any page of the original artwork.

Invincible 85 - I'm not going to insist on my viewpoint having to be right, but damn, how great would it be, after Oliver's monologue in this issue, if he ended up having to protect Earth from his brother? Robert Kirkman has such a wide lense available to him insofar as storytelling and it's magnificent to see that he's able to continue in such diverse ways. The only bad note on this book was Cory Walker's art, which is a sad thing to say, given that he's the OG, but let's all just be honest: Ryan Ottley is a far superior talent. The art looked flat compared to Ottley's brilliance and it took away from the story, even if just slightly. The battle between Nolan and Allen has been brewing for a while now, and I'm looking forward to seeing the two of them truly go at it.

Locke & Key One-Shot - I had told myself that I was going to stop buying the individual issues of Locke & Key. The wait between issues is just too frustrating, and the hardcover trades are just too appealing, so it made little sense to spend double on this title. But I just couldn't resist its appeal on the shelves and I was right not to. At first blush, this book seems like a short, unnecessary read. But upon reading the guide to the keys in the back and going back through the story to see who the characters actually are, and their relation to the characters we know, it seems like some of this info might come back in a useful way. Bode's hand-drawn additions to that appendix, also, are a totally great touch, indicative of the level of thought that's going into this title, making it the best comic book on the market.

The Unwritten 31.5 - The backstory of Pullman - and he's old as hell! I mean, we knew that, but damn. This got the point fives off to a great start and now I'm looking forward to these supplements even more than I was when I first heard of the idea. I loved the mini-stories, each with its own art team, and I loved the fact that the character they were profiling didn't even appear in each. This is how a story can truly be broken down (or decompressed, if you prefer that Bendis-ian term) in a way that is enlightening for the reader, not just padding for the company.

Wolverine and the X-Men 2 - This is what I've been waiting for! The X-Men are not only good again, they're great. Bachelo's art is hitting the spot and Jason Aaron (remarkably) is writing this book in the perfect manner: it's got nods to the past (check the big bad) and a deft handling of a group cast. I can see myself reading and loving this book for a long, long time. The only bad note is the acknowledgement that, yes, the kiddie Hellfire Club is ridiculous. I can't take them seriously. If they get replaced or aged, this book will be perfect.

Book of the week would have been Wolvie, but Fantastic Four was just too epic. If this isn't your book of the week, that's because you didn't pick it up and if that's the case, you made a huge mistake.

lobos beat duke.

2011-11-23T10:40:00.001-07:00

If the headlines referred to basketball, this would be a big deal. However, seeing as it was the second round of the NCAA Tournament for soccer, it's hard to see why this isn't a bigger deal. Granted, it's not one of the magically large college sports that dominate not only the media but the social atmosphere. Regardless, a sell-out crowd of 6,200 (and then some!) at the UNM Soccer Stadium acted like it was a big deal to them.

Due to the intricacies of the selection process, the Lobos, ranked number one in the country in almost every poll – and certainly by every poll that matters to the NCAA selection committee – and the only undefeated team in the country, got a 10 seed. This afforded UNM the luxury of a bye in the first round of the tournament but also presented a tough match up in the second round: Duke.

UNM seemed to control the first half, running ahead on corner kicks 4-1, forcing the Duke goalkeeper to make 2 saves to UNM's one, and staying ahead in the foul count 7-4. The only area where UNM was behind, in fact, was shots, where Duke led 8-6. All the breakdown of stats, though, could not prepare the Lobos or the crowd for Duke's Nick Palodichuk breaking free of the defense a mere six minutes into the second half and putting one in the back of the net. Playing a goal down, UNM had to increase their pressure, whereas Duke settled into a deep freeze, content to push when the opportunity seemed ample, but happy to let their lead win the game for them otherwise. The change that allowed UNM back in the game was a red card received by Chris Tweed-Kent, forcing Duke to play the last 15 minutes of the second half a man down. The equalizer came in the 82nd minute on a solo blast from Blake Smith. The crowd, teetering on the edge on nervous insanity mere moments before, burst into cheers. The undefeated season still had a chance!

The overtime goal to win the game was a thing of beauty: Matthew Gibbons sent in the perfect cross, Devon Sandoval headed it back across the net, and Carson Baldinger sent it straight to the back of the net. The crowd erupted, the UNM players held up their arms in triumph and Duke sank down to the field, justified in feeling they'd missed their opportunity.

The next game that UNM plays will be in South Florida, against the number 7 seed. Thanks to the aforementioned 10 seed that the number one Lobos received, they are unlikely to play any more home games. However, the game will be played at 4 PM (MST) and will be broadcast online, through golobos.com. It might not have the air of the more-prestigious football or basketball programs, but it is the number one team in the country, fighting for every inch – and it's a beautiful game.

comics for the week of 11/16/11.

2011-11-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

The quirkiest thing about the DCnU is how it plays havoc with all the other numbering systems. Rachel Rising, the new Ultimate books, etc. just so happen to be closely aligned with the relaunch which means that some weeks, all of the books I pick up are the same number. This might have never happened before.

Batman 3 - The Court of Owls is here! People are freaking out over this issue (in a good way) and it was good, don't get me wrong, but where were these people's cheers for the last two months? Batman by Scott Snyder has always been this good, maybe even more so when Batman was Dick Grayson. (Although that might be the bitterness speaking.) The rich backstory that's being weaved here feels much less like a retcon and much more like something that would actually happen in Gotham. I'm still really interested in the reason for the Grayson DNA, but I'm sure that's not the type of detail that Snyder hasn't got planned all the way out. If you like your Batman to be the best, you should accept no substitute for Snyder. Just because people were pleasantly surprised by how not bad Tony Daniels was on Detective is no reason to act like there's not a clear king. This is it, folks.

Justice League 3 - Wonder Woman is a weirdass who acts more like an alien than Superman and Aquaman is gonna try on his badass act for a little while. Overall, it's kind of a drag. We have the re-introduction of Darkseid happening and I guess it's cool for people who have been out of comics for 20 years, but for the rest of us, there have been so many spins on him in the last 5-10 that it's just more of the same. He's bounced from Superman/Batman to Infinite Crisis and everywhere in between and I don't care how much faith I previously had in Geoff Johns, there's no way that I think he's actually gonna get a fresh take on the New God. Especially not when so much of that supposedly fresh take depends on Jim Lee pencils making the paratroopers look 'different', hinting that Darkseid might be infinitely powerful, and alienating voices coming out of characters that I've known for a long, long time. I'm off this book at the end of the first arc and if I wasn't such a junkie, I would just drop it now.

Ultimate X-Men 3 - Wolverine's kid returns with a friend and Bobby, Johnny and Kitty don't actually go anywhere or do anything. This was a disappointment after the excitement of issue two, and I feel like this book will probably get dropped soon, as I don't actually care about most of these characters. Jimmy is interesting, Pietro looks like he might go somewhere, and I want to see Johnny meet up with the new Spidey, but I feel like that's more likely to happen over in Ultimate Spider-Man. As for the rest...how compelling are the X-Men? It always depends on Magneto. And if they're just struggling against the specter of his ghost (yes, I did that on purpose)....well, I don't think the draw can last very long at the level that it did previously. I reserve the right to be pleasantly surprised, though.

Book of the week is Batman. Between this and Batwoman, it's clear that there are some great things happening at DC. Too bad it took such a piss-poor drastic measure to get some great titles, which, for what it's worth, were already being produced. The sweet with the sour, I guess.

comics for the week of 11/9/11.

2011-11-12T13:12:00.001-07:00

Apparently I forgot to put this up. My bad.

Batwoman 3 - The fight with La Llorona gets real and Batwoman comes out a victor in at least one sense. However, her relationship with Maggie takes a bad turn, and she kicks her cousin out of the fight, setting up some bad circumstances. The DEO takes on the Colonel and he shuts them down. The art, as always, is the most beautiful thing I've seen outside of Locke & Key. The premise, the setup, the follow-through...everything is good here. This book delivers on a level that no other books even aspire to.

Buffy 3 - The reveal of the Siphon was well done, and Spike gets to fulfill his promise of becoming a more major character again. However, I do have to say, this book is falling a bit behind for me insofar as its booming start. The lack of the Scooby gang, and the casual way they were dismissed in this issue, is starting to bother me. While it's funny to see Andrew spacing on Lady Gaga and I know that Willow will come back and star, it was sad to see Xander and Dawn kind of turn their backs on Buffy. Spike alone cannot take those places. And the last-page reveal sets me up for next issue, but I'm curious how long this can last. I want the band to get back together.

Green Lantern 3 - Sinestro's battle with his Yellow Corps begins - and Hal messes up as only he can. The biggest part of this issue, though, seems like the long-term plans with Ganthet. I'm intrigued by this development with the third army. This book is maintaining its pace as one of the best in the DCnU, but is the most obviously non-rebooted book.

Rachel Rising 3 - This book continues to baffle in the best way. We have a clear bad guy, we have some bad shit going on, but I'm not quite sure who the good guy is or what exactly is happening, either. All that being said, I love this book. It's so odd, it's so different than the rest of the books that I'm reading, it makes me want to go back and pick up Echo. Terry Moore is a great storyteller.

Resurrection Man 3 - The Body Doubles really get this issue to themselves, other than Mitch's conversation in Limbo with...a demon? It's a fun issue, but it's also indicative of how this book is probably going to be canceled. There's just not a lot of room for books where we just have fun...which is a shame. The ending, with the obvious not-a-surprise, was worthy of a chuckle, but not much more.

The Unwritten 31 - The War of Words begins here (as it says on the cover) and it's going to be awesome! Tom's mastering his magic and Lizzie is worried it's not gonna last. Spolier: she's right. Tom's gonna be in a world full of hurt at the end of this war, would be my guess. But he'll score at least one important victory. The end of this series might be a lot closer than some people realize.

Ultimate Spider-Man 4 - I wish this book came out more frequently. It's so good. The only bad part is the compressed storytelling, where we get to (have to?) see the death of Peter Parker and his funeral over again. The scenes with Gwen were nice, though, I didn't mind seeing a new angle on that. Also, the ending was killer.

Book of the week goes to Batwoman. This is, by far, the best superhero book being made now.

lobo soccer continues to impress.

2011-11-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Both the men's soccer program as well as the women's team continue to dominate their respective fields, with each capturing important wins over the weekend.

The women cliched the Mountain West Conference championship in the finals with a pair of goals that mirrored each other in time. Scoring nineteen seconds into the game, Natalie Jenks put away the quickest game-winner in MWC tournament history. The game ended with the Lobos on top 2-0 and they secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They will begin play at UCLA on Saturday, November 12. The Lady Lobos are playing in only their second NCAA Tournament and hope to surpass last year's first-round exit.

On the other hand, with their number one ranking secure, and an unbeaten streak that is the talk of the town, the men's team has a bit higher expectations foisted upon them. The men's team also performed admirably over the weekend, shutting out UNLV in an ugly game that saw two ejections from the opposing side in the second half. No doubt frustrated by the score, the Lobos' ability and the fact that they'd already been eliminated from the post-season, UNLV turned what had been a pretty even affair in the first half into a slogged-down, foul-filled game in the last half.

Both teams, obviously, will be cheered for, but there's no denying that, between the rankings, the press and the past history, the men's team will be waiting with bated breath on Monday, November 14, when the men's NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed. Because of the afore-mentioned circumstances, the clear hope – and expectation – is for a healthy slate of home field advantage for the early rounds of the tournament. But no matter where they play, the Lobos are sure to have a target on their backs.

comics for the week of 11/2/11.

2011-11-07T08:44:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it, but...I might be delving back into the X books. More than one of my friends has been pushing X-Force on me (and he's right! Read those TPBs, they're so incredibly good) and now I bought Wolverine and the X-Men. Next week, a week late again, yeah, but still, I'll probably pick up Uncanny. Never thought this day would come, but, if you read below, you'll see that I don't regret it, either.

Animal Man 3 - I made the crack on Twitter that between the Red and Black here and the Green (and alluded-to Black) in Swamp Thing the DCnU is starting to look like Magic: The Gathering. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, if it's revealing a deeper focus on in-line continuity. Lord knows they could use some, and if Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder are the men to do it, then DC is all the better for it. As for the actual story here, there's a pretty strange revelation, which I think could be incredibly great: the Red tells Animal Man that he actually doesn't matter, except for the fact that he brought his daughter into the world. This has great potential for future storytelling and I'm psyched to see if they'll (DC editorial) allow it to bear fruit. That's the problem with new directions: they're so tempting, but rarely are shown the patience they need. I'm firmly on record as not liking the DCnU, but I'm more than willing to give it time and chance. We'll see if the people pushing it are as willing. Last notes: Travel Foreman's art is nearly as ground-breaking as JH Williams III's, but it's nowhere near as pretty, so it won't get (nor does it deserve) as many accolades. The ending, with the cop? Pure terror. Great book. Buy it.

Invincible 84 - This month: Invincible hints at Darth Vader. Seriously. I'm very concerned. The all-black (except for Mark) cover is the perfect tonal preview for this issue, as we see Mark taking his realization that perhaps he's been approaching things wrong to the penultimate degree. Cecil brings an army and next issue it looks like we're getting the classic dodge; Nolan and Oliver are on the cover next month. Dinosaurus is turning into quite the important character, which is a Kirkman classic: bring someone in for a bit part, revisit them months and months later and look at how there's a whole world around them. This is where Kirkman excels in a very 21st century, post-modern way - he's a storyteller, not just focused on his one baby that he thinks is so important. Lastly, we only got one page of Rex and Monster Girl (who, yes, seriously, is now amazingly hot), but their mystery continues to be dangled in a totally satisfactory manner. This is a comic where at least three stories are being told, and all three of them are fantastic.

Swamp Thing 3 - The other half to the new mystical team of the DCnU and the one I was more excited about originally finally pays off for me. This issue has a little bit of everything: some backstory, some revised history and some new developments, all while being gorgeously illustrated by Yanick Paquette. The story with the kid, William, was disturbing in the best kind of way. I called this the mystical book (with Animal Man) but that's obviously the wrong term. These are clearly horror books, harkening back to the best aspects of the old EC line, but with some nouveau elements that make it impossible to think they're actually relics. The shots of how William kills his victims, and the grim look on his face is deftly handled. And the coolest page in the book is the non sequitur of the little girl in the dress that, I think, is supposed to indicate Alec accessing his powers? It was so out there I had to look at it four or five times to verify that it wasn't just a misprinted page. But it's part of an overall message that this book (and Animal Man) are pushing. Purposeful chaos. It's wicked.

Wolverine and the X-Men 1 - I'm breaking my own rules for this, I know, because this book did not come out this week, but I'd heard such good things about it that I had to get it. And boy am I glad that I did. This could easily be the best book of the week with all the throwback references (Kitty talking smack to the Prof, Logan jokingly asking if Scott had gotten rid of their rooms, Logan vetoing baseball in his chat with Xavier, etc.) and the amazing throwback art. Bachelo has always been a favorite, but when he's getting to play in the X-Universe, it's clear that he's having the most fun. The way the group is going to interact is going to be the best part of this book and I am excited to join the ride. I'm curious if Jason Aaron will be able to keep up his impressive run with a cast that I think is insanely different than I've seen him succeeding in (solo focus or groups that can't stand each other versus this X-Book where they're supposed to be more of a family) but I have enough confidence in his writing ability to trust that he'll get it done. Whether you're an X newbie or an old hand, this book is worth getting, just for an injection of the fun the X books used to be. Plus, come on now: they killed Jean and have kept her dead for how long now? Give them applause for following through!

Book of the week goes to Invincible. This book is incredible and, just when I thought I had an idea of where it may be going, it takes a sharp, drastic turn - maybe. This is the way to stay engaged with a readership, even when you've been at it for more than half a decade.

no nba.

2011-11-02T08:37:00.000-06:00

Tuesday night was supposed to be Opening Day for the National Basketball Association. Instead, we have headlines like "The Opening Day That Wasn't" and New Mexico residents got to see UNM beat up on NAIA Davenport. The defending NBA Finals MVP is saying things indicating that the NBA might lose some of their star power. And, of course, the long shadow of the dominant face of American sports (the NFL, of course) only grows longer.

Basketball should have learned its lesson from the National Hockey League. Even if NBA commissioner David Stern had somehow succeeded in making basketball the most popular sport in America, he should have taken one long, hard look at what happened to the NHL after their lockout and done everything in his power to avoid this. Of course, there are those who claim that he still is. There are those who claim that this lockout is simply about greedy players wanting more money. The refuting of this point having already been done, let's go ahead and assume that people on both sides are working – just not hard enough.

An intermediary could not get the two sides close enough. The cancelation of at least one month of the season is not going to do it either. So what's it going to take?

The economics of the lockout have been broken down so many times that it feels a little frustrating to go over them again. Instead, a little speculation.

There had been talk that the owners were simply waiting for the season to start, for the players to miss their paychecks. This theory held that the owners felt that once money started not appearing, the players would break. With the dawn of new media and the way players are directly connected to both their fans and their sponsors, this seems like a shoddy theory to base your entire game theory around.

On the other hand, how many of the NBA players have super-popular Twitter accounts – or websites, failing that? How many of them have such airtight endorsements that they won't feel the pinch once money is supposed to be rolling in?

The players can present a united front all they'd like (and they really, really, really want to) but there will surely be some cracks in the armor soon. It all depends on how large those cracks appear, and how violently they assert themselves. If guys stop getting together and planning flag football games, you'll know something else is wrong.

For now, the only thing that's wrong is that baseball's over, football's at its midway point and yet, for some reason, there is no NBA on television. It's a sad day for a basketball junkie.

comics for the week of 10/26/11.

2011-10-31T09:20:00.000-06:00

A short stack this week, as it seems is the new norm for me. Representing something from (almost) everything, though. That seems good.

Angel & Faith 3 - The search for the demon's blood to bring Giles back from the dead continues, but we get some good characterization of both Angel and Faith in the meantime. We also see some neat demons, some of the world after magic (this isn't new, in fact, it feels like the only thing that's already tired from both books – I can see how this trope is going to wear thin very, very quickly) and some more of the ex-Slayers. The way Faith talks to them, and the way they talk to her, is really the biggest sign of the progression of her character. She's definitely not the young, pissed off girl who's been passed over one too many times anymore. In fact, she doesn't even think of herself that way, even if she's shocked at her own journey into old age. But the biggest part of this issue is the introduction of a new secondary character I hope they keep around: an ex-mage who knew Giles (at least in a second-hand manner) and who guesses at Angel's motivation pretty quickly. As I said, Faith has progressed as a character, but there's still something to be said for having that old voice of reason around.

FF 11 - Building into 600, it seems like nothing more is happening in this issue. We've got the continued domestication of Reed, his censure at the hands of Sue becoming more and more clear. We've got Ben returning home. We've got the kids working on a secret project, which Reed surmises rather quickly (which will change in that good Hickman way to be something completely different, I'd guess) and we've got some guest spots from Marvel's best and brightest. The real meat of the issue comes in the way the Inhumans (or just the Kree, I really can't tell if they're truly working together) deal with the Alterna-Reeds. (And how sad was it that we didn't see Victor, Other Other Reed and Nathaniel at all in this issue?) But it's clear that the battle that's coming up is going to be huge. It's going to involve diverse and multitudinous sides and, honestly, I'm not sure what each side is going to have to sacrifice if they want to win. Here's to looking ahead.

The Flash 2 - There are a couple pages in this issue, like the title page and the pages where Barry is learning at super speed, that seem truly revolutionary. Francis Manapul's art is truly the best thing in the comic industry right now, and the fact that he's been given free reign on a flagship DC title is promising. However, it's not all wonderful news here, as the story seems...well...kind of dull. Maybe it's the reboot retreading over ground I've already run (pun intended) but it felt very static. As though we were supposed to be amazed at what was going on with the plotting, but, as I started this recap with, the only thing groundbreaking about it is (was) the art. That art, like I've already said, is indeed fresh. But it's not quite enough to be the product it could be.

The Ultimates 3 - This was a bit of a disappointment after the greatness of 2, but, again, it seems like a set up issue and, given the goodness that's happened before, I'm willing to accept that. Hickman paces himself on a scale that a lot of other people can't see most of the time, so I'm more than willing to go along for the ride. It's just like FF; I acknowledge that the end game might be invisible to me, but I know it's worth sticking around. This issue reverts back to the first issue formula: BATTLES! That's pretty much all there is for it, and after the cerebral way that we get our reveal last issue, it kind of felt like a let down, but I know that Thor getting over to the Tomorrow City is going to play out in a way that I can't foresee. And I love that. Meantime, in this issue, we have some Fury, some Hawkeye, a whole lot of Iron Man, and still no Cap. My guess is that's going to have to change next issue. Looking forward to it.

Book of the week goes to the Flash. In a world without Manapul's art, people would still, somehow, realize they were suffering. They would feel that absence. Thank God we don't have to be those poor fools.

lobos men's soccer reaches number one in the country!

2011-10-26T08:34:00.000-06:00

By some counts we are number one. (Of course, by one other we are number two.) It's a good time to be a fan of Lobos soccer.

The men's soccer team, as previously mentioned, has been here before. Ranked first in the country. A team full of athletes dedicated to a common cause. The same coach. The atmosphere drowning the city. It didn't end as well as it could have. Ironically, the team that is ahead of UNM in the NSCAA poll is Maryland, the same team that beat the Lobos in 2005 for the national championship.

The Lobos soccer team is the only unbeaten team in the nation at this point, and is looking to finish up their schedule on a strong note. Two of the last three regular season games take place this weekend at the UNM Sportsplex, and tickets are still more than available.

The truth at this point, though, is that UNM has got to start thinking about the NCAA tournament and, perhaps, let some of the thoughts regarding their now-record-breaking win streak go by the wayside. The MPSF tournament comes first and a respectable finish there is more than hoped for by now – it's expected. The expectations are high for this team. The team will refuse to look past opponents, giving everyone their due respect, but we have the luxury of looking ahead.

When the Lobos were making their earlier runs, they had the benefit of some serious home-field advantage. We can hope for the same here, but it's only useful if the stadium is packed. With the lofty goals of a sport-starved city foisted upon them, the Lobos certainly have more-than-ample excuse to crumble. These men, though, seem up to the challenge. The season is almost over and the time for marking true accomplishments is practically here. Make sure to get out to the Lobos soccer field to see what happens.

comics for the week of 10/19/11.

2011-10-25T08:31:00.000-06:00

Short stack. All DC (including Vertigo). I'm sticking with them despite my beefs with the DCnU. Guess they're not foolish to think they can punch me in the mouth and that I'll be back, because here I am.

Batman 2 - The Court of Owls makes its debut and Nightwing and Bruce have a chat. The storylines that are running concurrently in Nightwing, Batman and even (maybe) Batman and Robin really make me feel hope for this New 52 Universe. However, that's kind of beside the point. Here, we have some solid art from Capullo as well as more great storytelling from Snyder (although I have to say - it reminded me of the David Finch run on Dark Knight before the DCnU and that's not a good thing at all. Here's to hoping it'll get off that style) combining to introduce this retcon of the Court of Owls. It'll be cool, but everytime they introduce some supposedly always important architecture in Gotham, it always makes me think of some fanatic who's got a model of the city in his basement and curses their compulsions. (Theirs?) Capullo's Gordon still looks a bit odd, but I love the way that he's trying to ape some of the greater B:TAS elements, in the big heads and the pointy cowl ears. Good stuff here. You're a fool if you're not reading.

Fables 110 - Some great characterizations of the various Winds! The tests of the baby Wolves continues and the last page of baby girl Wolf finding that box...wow. Good things are ahead. Fables is a book, like the Walking Dead, that I hope continues (almost literally) forever. There are so, so, so many things they can do with it and, honestly, if you've been reading since the first issue, it's progressed so much. It's an incredible read in a great time for alternacomics. In this issue, we saw the other Winds and we got to see some of the backstory between the family. The OZ adventures continue, but that's the weakest part of the recent run. And, of course, the baby Winds are going through their tests, which we know mean nothing, but they don't. The last-page discovery has some serious ramifications.

Justice League 2 - Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and Flash fight, of course, but it's actually pretty good. The issue felt thick, which was good, cuz it was still 3.99. Now that we've had a whole month of other books and we see where the characters are on their own, I'm liking the 5 Years Ago setting of JL. It works better for me because I have a contrast for it, while the first issue was our big get to know you, this one felt fresh, even though we just had fresh. Not a bad thing. The Jim Lee pencils are so sweet, I don't understand people who claim not to like them. I'll include that Johns' scripting felt better, but I can't shake the feeling that he's lost it. Especially in the moments with Vic Stone (the soon-to-be Cyborg) it just felt awkward. I don't care about this character and it doesn't feel like the writer does either. You lose a lot of momentum/impetus when it comes across lazy. Here's to hoping it'll come around.

Book of the week goes to Fables. This book is everything I thought it could be when it first debuted and I am shocked that I can continue to say that, month in and month out. Bravo.

texas vs. st. louis.

2011-10-19T08:37:00.000-06:00

Every year, every major sport comes down to two teams. Usually, there's some sort of narrative framing that championship match-up. This year, MLB does not disappoint, and gives the people a trope they've come to expect: team on a roll, usually through some sort of improbable circumstance, versus a team that is defying some odds.

The St. Louis Cardinals get to play the role of the former, shocking most casual fans with their astonishing run through the post-season and winding up only four wins away from the ultimate validation. The Texas Rangers, on the other hand, are a firm lock in the latter category, having raced to the World Series last year, after a long, long drought, and battling all year to get back.

When these two teams meet on Wednesday night, they'll start things off in St. Louis, which has home-field advantage thanks to the All-Star Game. The best of seven series follows a 2-3-2 format, ensuring that Texas' fans will be packing the stands in the middle of the series, regardless of the result.

There's the mini-drama over Lance Berkman, a free agent last year who was pursued by the Rangers, but ultimately spurned them for the Cardinals. There's the amazing rate of the Ranger's bullpen, which is producing at a rate that is almost embarrassing for the starters. And, of course, there's the danger of St. Louis' powerful offense, combining Albert Pujols – perhaps the best hitter in baseball – with David Freese and the aforementioned Berkman.

Predictions, however, are hard to come by. These teams, with their varied styles and the differing ways they got to this point, play a somewhat even game. When forced to come with a prediction, though, I've got to go with the Rangers in seven games. These teams are so close, it's going to be a full series. We're going to see some beautiful baseball. But ultimately, only one of the familiar stories will get to be told. This is the year for the Rangers.

comics for the week of 10/12/11.

2011-10-18T08:56:00.000-06:00

Somehow, I missed FF 10 this week. I read it at a friend's house, but I didn't buy it, so I'm not including it here. You should hear me, though, when I say that it was good (not Book of the Week good) and you should buy it. This book keeps getting better and better, except for that very, very odd misstep with the art on the two-part arc devoted to Black Bolt. Other than that, not much to note..

Batwoman 2 - As good as it gets. This book is what comics should be and it's what comics could be Unfortunately, not too many people are going to pick it up. It'll sell enough copies to keep going, because what JH Williams III is doing is so revolutionary, but it's not going to be up near the top like it should be. This comic should be getting written about the way the Unwritten was when it first dropped and yet (maybe because of the reboot?) it's just another new hot piece. In this issue, we got great development between Kate and her sidekick (and how brutal was the line from Bruce about Jason?) as well as Kate and her (maybe) girlfriend. We've got great movement on the La Llorona case and we've got an interesting new angle on the DEO. (Is that right?) Really, really, really great stuff. There's no doubt that this is the second-best book on the market, after Locke & Key.

Buffy Season 9 2 - Buffy continues to run away from the Season 8 debacle (that I didn't really feel was as bad as others made it out to be) in a stunning fashion. After the ending to issue one, it was clear that this was going to be a tonally different book and that's not a bad thing, even though I didn't dislike Season 8, as others did, like I've said. However, there can be no doubt that this is going to be a different look. The relationships are back at center-stage, notably focusing on Willow and Buffy. The role that Spike is going to get to play in this drama, really though, is going to be the biggest change in this book. He was a bit-player in Season 8 and it's looking like he's going to get center stage in Season 9. Other notables include a detective and his partner working on Buffy's case, Buffy being arrested and the reveal at the end of the issue that there might be some alternative slayage happening. This is interesting, but it's a slow build, as opposed to Angel & Faith's right out the door excitement. I'm not against it, but...it's not fantastically compelling either.

Green Lantern 2 - Repeat my comments from last month on GL. I'm happy with this book, but neither happier nor more upset than I was before the reboot. It's the exact same book. The wrinkle with Sinestro is going to start playing out, though, either next issue or the one after, when we get to see him taking on the Yellow Corps with a green ring. I'm also intrigued by this idea of his creating a green ring. If this is a common thing, that's going to represent a lot of trouble. If this is uncommon, it's going to mean a lot of trouble from Sinestro, as he's evidentially extremely powerful. The Guardians are idiots, Hal is not compelling if he's not a GL, and Sinestro is evil. This doesn't feel like a change and that's not bad. But...I'm confused.

Resurrection Man 2 - This book, on the other hand, is such retro fun. The Body Doubles are back (and they're got a DCnU upgrade! or, at least, in my faint memory of the 90s, it seems like they do) and Heaven and Hell continue to fight over Mitch. The deal with his Dad is sad and the friend of his Dad's is odd (usually, I expect this to go to the typical reverse shock route, but I'm left wondering with this book, given the overall tone) but overall, things are great here. If you want some nostalgic fun, pick this book up.

Shield 3 - This issue is what finally convinced me that if I'm going to continue loving Shield the way I say I do, I've got to stop reading it monthly. (Or bi-monthly. Or whenever the delays allow it to come out.) I've known for a long time that this book is best enjoyed as a TPB, but this (near-) wordless issue is the one that convinced me. If I can breeze through an issue that should be this dense in less than two minutes, I think it's clear that there's something wrong. And since I genuinely believe that the problem isn't with the book, per se, the problem must be with me, how I'm taking this title on. The fight between the warring sides of the Eternal City goes down here and it's epic, but not so epic that we had to be without any words. This, to me, was a mistake. They're losing my monthly dollars, but I'll still be there when the trades come out, because it really is that good. I just can't handle the wait between issues and the ambiguity I always feel when I've lost track of the somewhat tenuous plot.

Ultimate Spider-Man 3 - This is what Spider-Man should feel like! Oh man, it's so good. This is how I imagine people who didn't hate One More Day felt after Brnd New Day, when things were fresh and picking up steam. My problem with that? I've already felt that way towards Peter Parker. I'm not here to tell you that I won't or can't feel that way for Pete again, but damn, Miles will do the trick for now. He's discovering his powers, confiding in his best friend, getting to be a kid, and, at the end of the issue, finding out that Pete has died.

The Unwritten 30 - The finale of On To Genesis really, really hit a homerun. After starting out a bit sluggishly, the last two books really killed. This issue in particular, though, with the epic conclusion that sets up the war, was magnificent. The similarities between the Tinker(er?) and Tommy were striking and the way that the former aged so rapidly was both amazingly disappointing as well as extremely appropriate. The way Frankenstein keeps popping up is both of the same. The reunion of Tommy & Lizzie with Savoy was also appropriate, leading me to totally believe the ending. I can't wait for the war. It's been well set-up, it's been well-done, and now, we're going to seriously get somewhere.

Book of the week should go to Spidey, but it's hard to not give it to Batwoman. I'm going to pull a bit of a cheat and, for the first time (and hopefully, the only time) give it to the both of them. I've compared Batwoman to Locke and Key, and Ultimate Spider-Man is clearly not on that level, but it's so fresh and exciting that I would hate to skip it over. Batwoman will continue at this level...who's to say about the Ultimate line?

nba lockout becomes official.

2011-10-12T08:04:00.000-06:00

The NBA has been officially locked out since July 1. But on Monday night, as the two sides failed to reach a compromise on a new collective bargaining agreement, the lockout reached a new level: the first two weeks of the 2011-2012 NBA season have been canceled. This is not virgin territory for the NBA. With a lockout-shortened 1998-1999 season still fresh on fans' minds, and the success of the 2010-2011 season, it seems poor timing for the perennial middle child (if that) of America's sports love to lose any part of a season.

With the NBA locked out and a shortened season the best thing fans can hope for, it's helpful to break down a few misconceptions about the circumstances that got us to this point, as well as the reality of the situation we're in.

First of all, this has been coming for quite a while. Everyone knew it was going to happen. And, despite the fact that everyone knew it was going to happen (perhaps even as far back as the last lockout), the two sides – represented by David Stern and Billy Hunter – didn't meet until August. Now that the first two weeks of the season have been canceled, at least one ESPN reporter claims that the real work will finally begin. That's a pathetic effort from a sport that isn't entitled to anywhere near the rate of audience-retention that big brother NFL is.

Secondly, despite the above griping, those who say this is just millionaires and billionaires fighting over money are dead wrong. The fight is over money, certainly, but only one side is demanding more. While the owners were previously receiving a paltry – in their eyes – 43% of the BRI (the Basketball Related Income), the players came to the initial meetings willing to move down, from 57% to 53%. While some speculated this might be an acceptable compromise, initial reports claimed the owners wanted the players to bump all the way down to 39%. Then it looked as though the owners were only willing to meet if that figure was at 50-50. Finally, it's been reported that the owners want to take as much as 54%. All these figures have been thrown around as a precondition on the part of the owners to the resumption of meetings. It's hard to call those kind of tactics good faith negotiation.

An underreported angle to the story – at least in the mainstream media – is how the second-tier people will be affected by this. While SLAM Online reported NBA players' reactions to the announcement, there have been no in-depth stories on the hundreds, if not thousands, of employees at the arenas, ticket offices, concession stands and security. Surely these people, for whom this is presumably their job, the main source of their income, need a their paychecks more than any of the players do, not to mention the owners, for many of whom owning an NBA team is a literal luxury. Make sure to include the third-tier layer of ramifications, such as lowered airline revenue from fewer people traveling to games and lowered restaurant revenue from fewer people going out for the night to watch the game and it's easy to see how this lockout spawns beyond the simple degree that many want to classify it as.

It's easy to look at the NBA lockout, in the era of the Occupy Wall Street movement as just another sign of corporate greed. However, like all economic situations, the truth resists simplicity. The players union and the owners have a complicated battle ahead of them, culminating not in the moment that the season is saved – or doomed – but rather in the rehabilitation of their image after that fact. To say that greed got them to this point is ignorant. But if you're looking for a simple tagline, some of that elusive truth, it's relatively easy: the players want to play (and get paid) and the owners want to make money. They'll come to an agreement sooner or later. It's only a question of how many people will still be watching.

comics for the week of 10/5/11.

2011-10-10T08:21:00.000-06:00

The second week of the DCnU. I'm still crazy upset about this, but I don't think that I'm going to do a long post here about it, seeing as I've already kind of summed up my feelings over here. Suffice it to say, there are some great books (see below!) that have come out of this shitstorm, but for the most part, it feels like they're making it up as they're going along, and that's the ultimate disrespect.

Animal Man 2 - I read this after Swamp Thing, so the connection between the Red and the Green seemed super obvious to me. I'm not sure that'll stand out so much to people who aren't reading them (essentially) back to back, but it's great to see writers taking advantage of this newly blank slate. Insofar as the story, it was a bummer to see Buddy up and leave his family on such a whimsical note, but I do think his daughter's manifesting powers would scare the crap out of her mom. The dialogue between Animal Man and his wife rang pretty true, too; it's a fact that she didn't sign up for this kind of life. It's a hell of an adjustment to make. I only hope this isn't foreshadowing of a divorce-style conflict coming up - it makes for a way better story to see the two sticking it out together, even if it is hard. The book is building on a pretty slow pace, especially compared to Swamp Thing, but that's all right with me. I want to learn more about this tree and, of course, about the daughter's powers.

Invincible 83 - You know, just Kirkman doing what Kirkman does best: using superhero stories to actually tell super-detailed character stories where we care so much about so many different people. The main focus (and the twist ending) here go to ~~Robot~~ Rex and his lady friend, Monster Girl, in the most roundabout way. There's a party welcoming them back, couples are all around and everyone seems kind of happy. And then...no one really is. Of course, along the way, we get to see more developments of Mark's evolving personality, Cecil's confusion and Eve's smartness (and also a laughingly kinky side to her). This book does so well not because it's got huge space battles, but rather because Robert Kirkman succeeds in making each of his characters so human. Form Eve's weight gain (and the way it hasn't been in an issue in the actual comic, as opposed to the letters column, where you'd think that's the only thing that's been happening in the book!) to Rex's plead to help, all of these people are actually people. Great work, as always.

Swamp Thing 2 - This book is where things really got going. There's a menace on the loose and his name is The Seethe. He's coming for Dr. Holland, as Swamp Thing (the elder?) explains to him, so Alec had better accept those powers tout suite. The whole issue is essentially dialogue/exposition, explaining what's happening with the Swamp Thing entity, how Dr. Holland is wrapped up and what's going to happen if he doesn't accept his role in the drama. We've got a nice jiving of the past (Brightest Day & The Search for Swamp Thing) with some nods to old continuity and we've got forward momentum in the current story; what more can you ask for? The beginning of the book is consumed with the origin of Swamp Thing the elder and meanders its way to Alec in a pleasing way. The enemy is moving quick toward Alec and we have a great action sequence to end the issue. Fantastic.

Book of the week goes to Swamp Thing. When I first started writing this, I thought it was going to be Animal Man, but I guess my need for a bit more action took over. However, let me be honest and say that if you picked up all three of these books this week, whether you're an old vet or a newbie just dipping toes in, you'd be neither disappointed nor confused. This is a refreshing thing to be able to say.

los lynx make me a believer!

2011-10-06T08:47:00.000-06:00

Women's basketball isn't a new topic for me when it comes to sports, but let's be real: the WNBA has never gotten a real shake at attention from me personally, nor from the media I consume. I try to be good about watching the Women's NCAA, especially for the epic UConn teams and the legendary Tennessee possibilities. But the WNBA has never been my cup of tea. I've watched games here and there, but never been drawn in.

Finally, there's a team (and a series!) that can do so. With Maya Moore moving on from college and playing in Minnesota and Angel McCoughtry popping up from nowhere (at least for me) on behalf of the Atlanta Dream, I've got stars to root for, as well as teams I can be interested in. While their NBA counterparts (the Timberwolves and the Hawks, respectively) might be hot and cold commodities in their league, these two teams seem to play basketball that is equal parts purist's perfection and flashy, up-and-down excitement.

While the Dream lost last season's Finals to the Seattle Storm, the Lynx have suffered through a drought. Minnesota hasn't made the playoffs in the WNBA since 2004. Despite the Dream's experience in the playoffs, the Lynx came away from the regular season with the better record, and thus got home-court advantage.

In Game 1, on Sunday night, McCoughtry had 33 points but couldn't bring her team with her on her own. She was a personal revelation, as I'd never even heard her name. Her toughness rivaled any that I've seen on the court, whether from a man or a woman. But the Lynx came away with the victory, at least partially because of their home-court advantage; the Target Center was packed with more than 15,000 people.

On Wednesday night, Game 2 was a similar story. McCoughtry astonished with xx points. She also chipped in 2 assists and 3 rebounds. Maya Moore, on the other hand, was in foul trouble all night, and managed only 8 points in 15 minutes. She was never a true factor on offense but contributed some integral defense as the game trickled away from the Dream. The Lynx refused to quit, fighting all night, and chipped away at the lead bit by bit, finally winding up with the win 101-95 over the Dream.

The real difference going forward might be some of the lesser-sung elements: the Lynx had a little trouble getting a bucket in the half-court set. The Dream will get to go back to their home-court, which, without the passionate fan base the Lynx have, could go either way. And, finally, the Lynx's X-Factor Seimone Augustus, who brings absolutely anything that a team needs in order to win, will have to continue doing something that is exceedingly difficult – namely, anything that's asked of her.

The best-of-five series shifts to Phillips Arena in Atlanta on Friday for game 3. The game tips at 6 PM MST and it'll be worth your time to watch.

comics for the week of 09/28/11.

2011-10-04T21:53:00.000-06:00

Wherein I attempt to stay away from bashing the DCnU.

Angel & Faith 2 - We get more of the Giles issue and we see Faith starting to wonder if this is a healthy angle for Angle to take. (No spoonerism intended.) Also, Angel is still a secret from the rest of the girls, which seems like a bad idea. Good book, pick it up.

FF 9 - Starting to get better again, but I read Ultimate Comics Ultimates, and honestly, this book pales in comparison to that one. So much cool stuff happening there. This one is cool, too, with the Reeds being totally defeated, except for one who captures Doom and bitch slaps the hell out of him, verbally, at least. Man, there's some stuff going on in this book. Next issue, it looks like we'll be approaching from the other side, getting to see Ben, Spidey and Sue.

The Flash 1 - This is the book I was waiting for. Manapul delivers the goods and I like to see that he's doing some of the writing, too. However, all that being said, it wasn't the best book I've read. It was a solid start, but there were some jerks. For instance, reintroducing Iris. I know this is a reboot, and I'm not going to complain about that here, cuz I've done enough of that already, but it just feels weird to see Barry with someone else and having to meet Iris, etc. Also, I know this is petty, but honestly, the new ring/suit foldout really did bug me. It was just so cool before. Maybe I'll come around on this one, too. The big storyline that's happening in here doesn't seem to be super impressive, but I do like the reveal at the end. We'll see where it goes.

Green Lantern: New Guardians 1 - On the other hand, I don't think that I'm going to be seeing where this one goes. After defending Kyle Rayner to my friends for so long, this book felt like a slow, painful letdown. First, we had the retelling of Kyle's induction into the ranks of the GLC, wherein we see that some version of Emerald Twilight still happened, with all the Guardians apparently getting taken out and Kyle being some sort of Torchbearer. Then, we see that the rings of the other Corps are racing to him, even though he's not calling them. Lastly, we get the New Guardians hunting their rings down with a promise of a fight next issue. I'm good to explore the other Corps and I do still love Kyle, but I'm not sure that I can stick around for this story. Wake me when it's back to having ramifications.

Rachel Rising 2 - Terry Moore continues to impress and at a better rate than issue one. The introduction of the Uncle (Aunt?) character was a great decision, because we get to see some of the action from another point of view without having to actually switch viewpoints. It was refreshing to see her thinking to herself that she was just going crazy, that Rachel wasn't actually there, and then the slow burn of seeing the grave, realizing what was going on. The part with the kid was genuinely terrifying and stayed with me the last few days. This one I'll be staying with the whole way, presumably.

Teen Titans 1 - This is where it was all lost for me. I want to love Teen Titans so badly. I've been a Titans kid for a long ass time. And despite the love for Red Robin's new costume, the shitty plotting and the sub-par art (for this decade!) combined to give me a heartache. The crossover with Superboy shows how hard they're trying to make this a coherent universe, but it just isn't working. The NOWHERE division looks like a cool idea, and I wish there were more places we'd seen them, but ultimately, I wasn't concerned for either Tim or Wonder Girl (or not) at any time. Nor was I really interested in them. Which, unfortunately, means another book is crossed off my list.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 2 - I think this book is going bi-weekly? Awesome! This book was great and I'm really looking forward to getting back into the Ultimate Universe. The clarification of his powers, the confiding in his best friend, the way his dad was talking to him...all these things reminded me of the Peter Parker Spider-Man so hard that it was almost tear-jerking. And yet, it was so original and felt so new and fresh that it was compelling to keep turning the pages. If you've jumped away from the Ultimate Universe, or from Spider-Man in general, this is the time to jump back on.

Book of the week goes to the Flash, even though it could have been Spidey's. The Manapul art puts it over the top. Get it while you can, cuz we all know, after these three that he had to have in the can before the book relaunched, there'll probably be a delay.

lobo soccer vaults into top ten nationally.

2011-09-28T08:46:00.000-06:00

When news broke that coach Mike Locksley had been asked to vacate his head coaching position, the Albuquerque populace tried to react. But after more than two years, exactly two wins, and countless affairs off the field that led people to this conflicted moment, there's not much to say about the beleaguered (now-) ex-coach of the men's football team.

The better place to focus is on the sport that the rest of the world calls futbol. On Monday, almost simultaneously, news broke that the men's soccer team had broke into the Top 10 of the nation. As previously noted, the men's soccer team has not yet lost this season. They played the reigning national champions to a standstill in double overtime.

The men's soccer team is a proud follow-up to a recent dynasty at UNM. Although our previous teams never won it all, they gave fans plenty to cheer about, and they packed the stands. In 2005, the Lobos lost to Maryland in the national championship game. It was a one-point game, and fans went bonkers for the matches on the road to that loss.

Now people are getting to the point where they're counting on more thrills to come. The men's team, meanwhile, isn't backing down from those expectations. As a proud follow-up to a great (albeit recent) tradition, the men's team neither shies away from the spotlight, nor embarrasses those of us who root for the team with any antics.

The next opportunity to support the men's soccer team at home is on Friday, October 14, when they host Denver. The game will start at 7 PM.

lobos football is awful.

2011-09-21T09:15:00.000-06:00

As I've mentioned a few times in the past, sometimes I write something that I feel is just too much beyond the pale. Our football team is atrocious and lots of people (especially in our town) know it. But when I write something like this, I feel bad that I'm picking on kids who are younger (albeit much stronger) than me, and I think, well, shit, if I was on that team, I'd already know it was a shitty team and I don't need some knucklehead writer taking me to task. So I'm hiding this writing behind a cut, hoping that it won't get indexed as easily, as well as to show some of the edits that I went through. At first, I just thought I was going to excise this from here, so what's called the first draft below is actually more like the third or fourth. I don't know if this is interesting or worthwhile for anyone else, but I figure this is a good place for me to keep track of things.

First draft can be found here

I try to be one of the staunchest defenders of all things Lobo. New Mexico is my home and I'm partial to UNM as I've seen many people I know and respect graduate from its halls. Usually, this isn't a problem. Even when we're down, it's not like we're expected to be crashing the gates of any Top 25 lists. So when we do, it's almost always a pleasant surprise. And when we don't, well, it's not so bad.

At this point, though, it is that bad. I watched the Texas Tech/UNM football game on Saturday (admittedly, mostly for the Ronnie Daniels homecoming show) and I was, for the first time, embarrassed. Ours is a football program that has won a grand total of two games over the course of more than two full seasons. Ours is a program that I've defended, despite the numerous complaints that many others have lodged. But what I watched on Saturday was intolerable and inexcusable.

Coming off a demoralizing loss to Arkansas – granted, a team ranked in the Top 25 – where the Lobos managed merely a field goal, the hope was that against a not-so-stacked opponent, maybe our offense would be able to step up to the plate. However, after suffering a 59-13 beating that proved that our offense could still score more than three points, the biggest takeaway, for me, was not that our offense needs help, but rather that our defense is atrocious.

Look, I try not to pile on. I know it's a hard thing to be on a losing team, especially one that's losing in such a significant way. And I'm certainly not saying that I could do any better. But the only thing left when we've been thrown around as casually and dismissively as our team has been this season is honesty. And the honest thing to say is that this game demonstrated that our current Lobo football team is lacking in all areas.

Our sophomore quarterback Tarean Austin was rushed, sacked, disoriented and otherwise maligned all game long. Some of this can be blamed on a poor offensive line, of course, but sometimes, he knew the hit was coming and still managed to lose the ball. He overthrew long bombs and he underthrew a few hard cuts. He completed a paltry 8 of 24 passes and was intercepted once. The offense, as mentioned though, was not the outstanding issue.

The defense, in this game, did nothing. It's nigh-impossible to find positives to accentuate. The only time they stopped a Texas Tech drive in the first half, on the Red Raiders' decision to go for the first down on 4th and 1, they were punished by an offense that almost immediately turned the ball over, forcing a tired group to go out and do what they'd only managed to do for the first time in almost half an hour. To say this is demoralizing is like to say the Entertainers is merely a joke.

On top of all of these issues our own team was having, of course, there were the numerous weather delays, which cumulatively totaled more than 90 minutes. The flow of the game was never there for the Lobos and I'm sure the constant back and forth with rain, lightning and delays didn't help.

Lastly, the Lobos played against a team that just plain outclassed us in every way. Seth Doege had a near-perfect game and recorded a national record in the process. His season stats, only three games so far, look almost as impressive.

However many excuses and reasons one trots forward, though, there is an underlying truth here: The Lobo football team does not look like it belongs. The start to the season, against Colorado State, with a drive that could have won in the game in the waning seconds, seems forgotten. The only hope at this point is that this week's game, against Sam Houston State can be a turning point in the season. I would delight in nothing more than being proven wrong.

And the second draft:

I try to be one of the staunchest defenders of all things Lobo. New Mexico is my home and I'm partial to UNM as I've seen many people I know and respect graduate from its halls. Usually, this isn't a problem. Even when we're down, it's not like we're expected to be crashing the gates of any Top 25 lists. So when we do, it's almost always a pleasant surprise. And when we don't, well, it's not so bad.

At this point, though, it is that bad. I watched the Texas Tech/UNM football game on Saturday (admittedly, mostly for the Ronnie Daniels homecoming show) and I was, for the first time, embarrassed. Ours is a football program that has won a grand total of two games over the course of more than two full seasons. Ours is a program that I've defended, despite the numerous complaints that many others have lodged. But what I watched on Saturday was intolerable and inexcusable.

Coming off a demoralizing loss to Arkansas – granted, a team ranked in the Top 25 – where the Lobos managed merely a field goal, the hope was that against a not-so-stacked opponent, maybe our offense would be able to step up to the plate. However, after suffering a 59-13 beating that proved that our offense could still score more than three points, the biggest takeaway, for me, was not that our offense needs help, but rather that our defense is atrocious.

It's a hard thing to be on a losing team, especially one that's losing in such a significant way. But the only thing left when we've been thrown around as casually and dismissively as our team has been this season is honesty. And the honest thing to say is that this game demonstrated that our current Lobo football team is lacking in all areas.

Our sophomore quarterback Tarean Austin was rushed, sacked, disoriented and otherwise maligned all game long. Some of this can be blamed on a poor offensive line, of course, but sometimes, he knew the hit was coming and still managed to lose the ball. He overthrew long bombs and he underthrew a few hard cuts. He completed a paltry 8 of 24 passes and was intercepted once. The offense, as mentioned though, was not the outstanding issue.

The defense, in this game, did nothing. It's nigh-impossible to find positives to accentuate. The only time they stopped a Texas Tech drive in the first half, on the Red Raiders' decision to go for the first down on 4th and 1, they were punished by an offense that almost immediately turned the ball over, forcing a tired group to go out and do what they'd only managed to do for the first time in almost half an hour. To say this is demoralizing is like to say the Entertainers is merely a joke.

On top of all of these issues our own team was having, of course, there were the numerous weather delays, which cumulatively totaled more than 90 minutes. The flow of the game was never there for the Lobos and I'm sure the constant back and forth with rain, lightning and delays didn't help.

Lastly, the Lobos played against a team that just plain outclassed us in every way. Seth Doege had a near-perfect game and recorded a national record in the process. His season stats, only three games so far, look almost as impressive.

However many excuses and reasons one trots forward, though, there is an underlying truth here: The Lobo football team does not look like it belongs. The start to the season, against Colorado State, with a drive that could have won in the game in the waning seconds, seems forgotten. The only hope at this point is that this week's game, against Sam Houston State can be a turning point in the season. I would delight in nothing more than being proven wrong.

While the published Alibi version can be found here.

comics for the week of 09/14/11.

2011-09-19T08:20:00.000-06:00

All right. Something really wonderful is happening with the New 52. Unfortunately, it's confined to pretty much one book. Meanwhile, something awful is happening, too. Read on to see if you agree.

Batwoman 1 - The best thing to come out of the New 52, by far. Head and shoulders above the rest of the competition which, aptly, are pretty much sinking. This book is so good, it should be called Locke and Key. Is that effusive enough for y'all? All right, let's break it down just a little bit. Issue 1 picks up pretty much right where the Batwoman run in Detective Comics left off, which was as solid and innovative comic-writing (and illustrating!) as I've seen in a long, long time. Kate Kane is still Batwoman, her father is still on the outs for the lies he told, and Flamebird comes back in a nice way. The writing is that great mix of real-world crime with some supernatural elements and we can see drops for long-term storytelling while still getting a superb one-issue arc under the belt as well. Let's not kid ourselves, though, the art is the major draw here and there's nothing wrong with that. This book is the best looking book that's been put out since Alex Ross first made a splash with painting instead of penciling - I know that might sound too heavy, but I truly believe it. This is the best book that will come out of the New 52 - I don't even have to see the other books to feel confident in saying that.

Buffy Season 9 1 - She's back! This issue had that mix of humor and real life that people claimed was missing from Season 8. The party was great, the way the flashbacks were set up was ideal and the involvement of Spike was a great addition. It's my hope that he gets to stay in the book longterm and isn't banished back into the dirigible with the insects. He brings a je ne sais quoi that's important to the overall tone that was missing for a lot of the last season. I'm not even a huge Spike fan, but I think he's important to the theme. On the other hand, the last page was kind of a let down. That being said, I remember that, in the TV series, sometimes we didn't get to the big bad until the last quarter of the season, so I know this can be a slow build.

Green Lantern 1 - My buddy Greg was right: Geoff Johns is basically just skipping the whole New 52 nonsense. There is absolutely nothing in this book to make us think that it's not Green Lantern 68. And that's not a bad thing! But it is a solid sign that the New 52 is not something that everyone is planning on sticking around forever, much less for a long time. And to this the ambiguity of Gardener in JLI saying that Hal is a part of the regular Justice League and it's easy to see that all the ducks are not in a row. A bad sign from the supposedly coherent universe. All that being said, this was a good issue, continuing upon the course that Johns has set up for Hal (& Sinestro!) since the Sinestro Corps War. The biggest thing that bummed me out about the issue was that Doug Mahnke's art didn't look as good as I'm used to it looking. In fact, in some panels, I found myself wishing for a different artist. I hope this was a hiccup and not an indication that his art, like Johns' writing, is falling off.

Resurrection Man 1 - A blast from the past and it feels so good. I used to read Resurrection Man back in the '90s and I always thought it was a pretty clever concept. In a DC Universe where at least three characters (Beast Boy, Animal Man and Vixen) all have the same powers, this guy Mitch gets to experience a wild variety of cool stuff. Plus, there were all the nods to Soder Cola and Hitman and the subtle aspects of the DC Universe that made the book a fun ride. This debut issue does a good job of maintaining that tone and also of giving a few long-term drops. This will be a book that I'll stick with through the first arc at bare minimum. A fun ride.

Superboy 1 - I've loved the character of Superboy since before his last number one, all the way to the creation of the character. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where the New 52 truly starts to collapse. There is no way that this can mesh with everything else that we're seeing. It frustrates me so much, too, because Connor Kent had become such a great character and I was proud of the way that he'd mature and taken his place in the DCU. So, in this issue, we get Cadmus and Dubbilex and it's acceptable and I even thought maybe we'd see the Guardian and it's fun but then...it all just goes straight to hell. Superboy is being invented as we speak. He's barely getting started. And yet, Barbara Gordon was merely shot three years ago. Blackest Night still happened. Superman has only been around five years. Sinestro is Earth's GL (along with Guy Gardener, apparently - so what happened to John Stewart? and Mogo?) but he's not in Justice League. I know all these things don't necessarily have to do with Superboy, but this is the problem with their quote-unquote soft reboot. It's not a reboot at all. It's neither soft nor hard. It's just a shoddily put together plan with some gaping holes in it. It was cute to see Rose Wilson in a radically different role (and to hear her calling her VR self out as a Mary Sue was an instant classic!) but it just doesn't work. I know not every comic book fan has to (or does) think like this, but there's just no getting around the fact that DC is claiming to be presenting something that they're not. And for me, Superboy was the title that made that clear to me. Unlike Batgirl, I won't be returning this book, because I want to hold on to it for sentimental reasons, but you can be damn sure that I won't be buying anymore of this title.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man 1 - A Marvel title that's at number one, too? And Spidey back in my life? I do declare this a hilarious day. Miles makes a great debut here, and we can see plenty of strife for upcoming issues in his home life. The origin, sure, is a pretty blatant ripoff from Peter's Spider-Man, but I don't have a problem with that. If they're going to make him a legacy character, make it a real legacy. I like to see that there's some kind of connection, as opposed to pure chance and then putting on Pete's costume. Make it apparent, because it already is! And so, the issue of shame doesn't come up for me. All that comes up is that this is a well-written, nicely-pencilled issue. And I, for one, will be sticking around to see if they run with this, or if it's just a gimmick. It's my hope that they go whole hog - this could be the chance the the Ultimate Universe needed to really, truly differentiate itself in a bold way.

The Unwritten 29 - The only comic that I bought that wasn't a number 1 and it was a solid book, as always. However, after spilling my guts about hating the New 52 and having my emotional reconnection with Spidey, I'm just not convinced that I have that many things to say about this book. It's great, as usual, but this story hasn't really pulled me in, like previous ones have. That being said, the last page is a doozy and I'm anxiously awaiting next issue. I feel like that's gonna be the one that I love. Insofar as what happens in this issue, Wilson Taylor tries to pull one over on Pullman and the rest of the Cabal, Milton Jardine pays the price of letting his lady friend use his name, and Tom and Lizzie do some more exploring. Tom's gaining a lot more control over his magic powers, although it's clear that he's not quite in command yet. Great book.

(To be fair, I'm also now reading Scalped, which I highly recommend, but I'm not about to start throwing my two cents into the reviewing ring on issue 52 of a 60-issue book. Suffice it to say that I was damn late to this party and I should not have been. If you have the chance, pick up all the trades, blaze your way through the first one, which might not draw you in all the way, and stick around for the ride. By the time you finish the second, you'll be hooked.)

Book of the week is easily Batwoman. This book is the epitome of what all comics companies should be doing. Find someone who knows what the hell they're doing, sit back, and let them do their thing. If you're not buying Batwoman, there is no chance we will relate as comic book people. Go find someone else to talk to.

pity rafa nadal.

2011-09-14T09:24:00.000-06:00

The greatest rivalry in modern tennis just got a new twist. No, not Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Rather, Nadal and Roger Federer. For years, Nadal and Federer have battled back and forth. Their styles have been contrasted, and their stories have been written. It was Federer on top, with his precision and beautiful game. Nadal was the brash young kid with the passion and the angst, especially at the fact that he could never get over the top against the king. He was ranked second to Federer's first for a record 160 consecutive weeks.Then, all of a sudden, in 2008, Nadal went on a spree against Federer. Rafa beat Fed three times in a year and took the number one spot. It was as though his time had come. At only 27 years old, it's not like Federer was knocking on the door of retirement by any means. But those who followed the game got a sense that Nadal had paid his dues. He'd been rooted against long enough. He'd been the wild child. It was his time to ascend the throne.To categorize the last three years as poor for Nadal would be a mistake of the grossest severity. After winning what some called the greatest tennis match ever, Rafa went on a rampage. He won his first Olympic gold medal in Beijing, ran through several of the majors (but never completing a true Grand Slam) and compiled a magnificent record. He was a monster by anyone's account. As the U.S. Open progressed this year, however, Rafa and Fed were, once again, on opposite sides of the bracket. The match-up was there to be had. But Djokovic insisted upon playing spoiler as a set piece conclusion to his season for the ages. When historians look back to the 2011 tennis season, the big font at the top will be about Djokovic's season record: 64-2 at this point with not a sign in sight that his rate will decrease. Djokovic has received plenty of press for his change in diet and the possibility of this being the move that puts him truly (and, seemingly at this point, inevitably) over the top. Members of the press have never been shy to describe Roger Federer as, perhaps, the greatest tennis player of all time. Lost in the fray between these two singular talents, somehow, is Rafael Nadal. If ever there has been an overlooked number two talent in the game, this is that moment. If all of these circumstances can somehow be believed, there is a distinct possibility that those same people who have dismissed Rafa as a boyish rager may now start to root for him. Ironically, they might be too late.

comics for the week of 09/07/11.

2011-09-12T09:46:00.000-06:00

All DC. All DCnU. Some things change and some things don't. It's a weird time in my comic book-collecting life.Animal Man 1 - I never read Animal Man before and, to be honest, I didn't really give him much thought as a character. But with Jeff Lemire writing the book (and promising to work so closely with Scott Snyder on Swamp Thing) I knew that I needed to check it out. I'm glad that I did, because I think it's been the best of the New 52 thus far. The one page intro was pitch perfect and the art (although it wasn't my favorite) was hitting all the right notes with the tone. The last page was a great mix of creepy and enticing and the whole story just seemed really well plotted. The only bad part, for me, was the full page splash of Animal Man in his new costume that looks exactly like the early X-Factor Angel. After the newspaper interview had mentioned his iconic costume (and especially the goggles!) it seemed really weird to have that drastic a change. Batgirl 1 - This book was the opposite of the Animal Man experience for me: a character that I'd read extensively where nothing seemed to work out quite right. Sure, there were plenty of parts that were good, but the bad just so heavily outweighed it and the whole reading experience came across as awkward. We have our answer as to how they're going to deal with Killing Joke (and Oracle!) and the answer is...they're side-stepping it. She got shot, she couldn't walk, but now she can. That's it. (Are we to believe that some DC exec didn't say, "It's magic!"?) The art was good, it was a hoot to see Babs in the costume again, but those were about the only good things for me in this issue. The way that things can be waved aside in such a blatantly disregarding manner is disturbing to me and the inconsistency of this reboot is only going to get worse. Swamp Thing 1 - This is where the inconsistency is really starting to get to me. Swamp Thing was a good book, but not as good as I was hoping. But before I get into anything about the book itself, we have to talk about the meeting with Superman. There are clear references to the Search for Swamp Thing as well as Brightest Day, which would be awesome in the normal DCU, but just doesn't seem to make sense in the DCnU. I'm fine if these things all happened, like the Killing Joke and Brightest Day and I know that's what they're going for, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Superman and Batman just hit the scene five years ago, we're told in JLA. Batgirl was shot 3 years ago. Hal was GL 5 years ago, but now he's not, as Sinestro is filling that role in Green Lantern. The events are all connected! You can't just say, OK, this happened, but not that. It's a whole universe. It's not so simple. Ah, rant over. Swamp Thing as a book was good, the art by Paquette was divine and the way the story was told made it interesting, I'm going to enjoy this back and forth. However, I don't know if it made a difference, but I read this comic digitally, as my LCS was sold out (!) and it just felt...not as good. I was more excited for this book than any other new title I'm trying out, and I liked it, sure, but it didn't feel like a golden child. I'll still give it time to find its legs, as I'm definitely on for the first arc (as opposed to Batgirl, where I won't be buying any more copies) but I wasn't head over heels for this one.Book of the week goes to Animal Man. I'm excited to get into this new character. I like how insular this book felt in the first issue, because now I don't have to worry about the space-time continuum or the severity of the reboot or the rest of the issues that the New 52 is causing inside of me. Solid book, definitely worth your time.

other lobo sports offer relief.

2011-09-07T07:58:00.000-06:00

Perhaps you saw or were at the University of New Mexico's inaugural football game of the 2011 season last Saturday. Perhaps, like myself, you were disappointed in what looked like it could have been a reversal of the losing trend. Perhaps the last-second penalties and resulting turnover were just a little too much. Perhaps you're thinking that there is nothing good happening in the Lobos Nation until the arrival of our basketball season - if even that will offer respite.However, I'm here to tell you that, despite our tumultuous start to a young football season (which can still be saved, by the way, no matter losing the first game and no matter that it was one of the games I'd circled as one we could and should win) there are still many reasons to be excited about UNM's teams. Our local university may not rank up there with the Oregons or LSUs – and maybe not even the Cals or Texas Techs – when it comes to football. Fortunately, there are many other sports where we are doing just fine, if not outright excelling. Recently, our women's cross country team was ranked, before the start of the season, as the number two team in the nation. Despite losing to Northern Arizona University last weekend, our volleyball team had three members make the all-tournament team. Our women's soccer team continued the winning ways of New Mexico with a 1-0 triumph over the Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara.Perhaps most impressively, the Lobos men's soccer team is thus-far undefeated, with a big tournament coming up here in town. The soccer team, as previously noted, has some big shoes to fill and is looking forward a good season after a middling disappointment last year. With the sole exception of the cross country meets, all of these sporting events can be seen via a new ticketing experiment UNM is trying out, the Olympic Sport Pass. For an adult, 50 dollars will get admission to all women's and men's soccer games as well as the volleyball games. Next semester, as the madness of basketball is fading away, the same pass can be used for admission to the baseball and softball home games. So as the football season progresses, I'd urge everyone to expand their horizons. Continue to support our cherry and silver football team, sure, but think about branching out and seeing some of the other kids at the University do what they do best – and oftentimes, win the game while doing so.

comics for the week of 08/31/11.

2011-09-05T14:46:00.000-06:00

So this is it. The New 52 is upon us.

Angel & Faith 1 - Love the fact that so much of this book is concerned with Giles. That seems right, somehow. The book starts off in an arresting manner, and this seems right for what they're going to do with this book - or, at least, what I think they're going to do with this book. I hope it doesn't turn into Angel the show, because, to be honest, I really couldn't stand that show after a certain point. But I will say that I liked this book and I loved how I anticipate it's going to have a different tone than Buffy Season 9. If it's going to be a saga of Faith trying to stop other ex-Slayers from killing Angel, though, I think that'll get tired really quickly. Here's to hoping they get that thread out of the way sooner rather than later. There's tons of room for great drama between Faith, Angel, Buffy and the whole United Kingdom. Let's leave it at that for now.

Flashpoint 5 (of 5) - If the New 52 wasn't here, there were actually a lot of cool things that ran through my head that they could have done with this if they'd chosen something different. As it is, this is (perhaps by far?) Geoff Johns' most poorly-written mini-series ever. The Kubert pencils didn't help. The drama between Barry Allen and Zoom was the best part of the issue and the worst was the double page spread with Barry getting his mystical instructions that make the New 52 seem even more likely that it's just a gimmick. It's just a short-term publicity stunt. If they're still rocking the New 52 three years from now, I'm more than willing to eat my words. But this story doesn't really set it up that way. That being said, the real best part of the issue was the last three pages where any lover of comics got a little teary-eyed.

Invincible 82 - This issue honestly made me feel like I had missed an issue. Or, like, an entire arc. I had to look up where Robot had been and when he'd left. (No solving that mystery? It's just left hanging out there?) However, that was the only complaint in an otherwise solid issue. Kirkman is back to what he does best, which is writing believable characters and putting them in tough situations. The maturity of Mark as he continues to grow is obviously something they're looking to showcase here and they do a good job of it. The continuing manipulation by Cecil is worrisome, but I think that's always just going to be sitting on the back burner. And, of course, Eve's dinner out was a bummer to read. It's a drag to think that girls really do have friends like that.

JLA 1 - This is the big one. What everyone has been waiting for. It's gotten its share of positive reviews but you won't find more of that here. I found the dialogue to be cliched at best and stilted at times, to the point of laughing at it. Setting things up so obviously for new readers with lines like, "Batman, you don't have any powers? Really? Really? Really?" is just a little too over the top for me. The pandering of making Hal his arrogant movie self was also a little brusque for those of us who have been really comics for more than two decades. And, of course, the ending was so trite that it warranted nothing more than a scoff. That being said, I know that I'm not who the issue was written for. They want to bring in new readers and I hope they succeed in doing so, for the good of the comic business. My friend Dave Jordan is fond of saying they sold more than 200,000 copies of this book, and I'm glad about that, but I'm doubtful that it'll stay that high. I showed this issue to a couple comic virgins and the best they could say about it was, "It was pretty." That's not gonna do it.

Locke & Key: Clockworks 2 (of 6) - Put simply: This is the best comic book that is coming out right now. If you are not buying this book and you call yourself a comic book fan, you have got to do something about that ASAP. Seriously, this book is insanely well-done. It's pencilled beautifully and the writing is tight. The stories have all been phenomenal and now we're truly reaching the conclusion. Some gnarly stuff is about to go down. With Dodge in Bode's body, we knew things were going to go from bad to worse, but this has now occurred way more quickly than I anticipated. Kinsey puts back her fear and sorrow, which is a good thing that I figured had to happen, but it comes with a terrible price. It certainly seems, at this point, that Dodge has the Omega Key! The worst thing about buying this book month to month is now the wait for next issue. Great news, though, when these hardcovers come up on Thwipster, they have a guaranteed purchase.

Book of the week goes to Locke & Key which I've gushed over enough already. If you're not buying it and you claim to like comic books, we can't be (and probably aren't) friends. Simple as that.

let's talk about michael vick.

2011-08-31T08:27:00.000-06:00

When word broke that the Philadelphia Eagles were going to make Michael Vick a one hundred million dollar man (again, for what it's worth), commenters on the Internet immediately dug into their trenches and started lobbing grenades at the other side. After all, this is Vick we're talking about. If the hype on either side is to be believed, he's either a vicious, unrepentant dog killer who deserves nothing, or he's the greatest quarterback of our modern era - possibly of all-time.

All this controversy came on top of an earlier explosion, this one being totally out of Vick's control. On Thursday of last week, ESPN ran a piece that will appear in the September 5th issue of ESPN the Magazine titled "What if Michael Vick were white?". The author of that piece, Touré says that he asked ESPN not to title it as such but, obviously, that request went unfulfilled.

Touré's article was actually a nuanced piece on how asking such a question is, in the world we live in, impossible. However, the title was what a vast majority of people saw. Those who did not see the title nor read the piece, though, had plenty to take away. Accompanying the piece, ESPN commissioned a photo illustration, literally depicting the titular question. All subtlety and nuance from a gifted writer went out the window.

Instead what we were left with was very reminiscent of the political landscape of today. The aforementioned trenches were dug, opinions were honed to an even finer point, and pithy, five- to ten-second commentary abounded. No one's mind was changed by Touré's article, nor by the comments that followed it on site after site the reposted it. Those who thought we live in a post-racism world before reading the article still do. They hold up the article as an example of minorities harping on a problem that no longer exists. Those who were sympathetic to possibilities of racism in the world finished the piece by shaking their heads, finding yet another text book case of proving their view point right.

It's difficult (nigh impossible) to honestly discuss these sorts of issues nowadays. If you want to talk sports, you've got to be able to get on TV and give a thirty-second opinion. If you're not screaming, you've got to be issuing some sort of fierce rebuttal to the person who screamed before you. If you want to discuss things at length, you're an academic: out of touch with the world and only interested in perpetuating ideas, refusing to deal in reality.

There are serious questions that are raised by the Touré piece, including but not limited to: race and racism, black style and black lifestyle, the ever-changing morals of bringing up children in America, regardless of race, but keeping in mind how that race (something no person has a choice on) affects that upbringing. There are questions on the American judicial system and the penalties that any person should have to pay for any crime, whether it's against human, animal or another form of life. There are questions on how worthy any thought experiment really is.

But, at the end of the day, instead of those questions being discussed, most people saw the picture, read the headline, and started screaming.

comic for the week of 08/24/11.

2011-08-29T08:34:00.001-06:00

Next week. Everything's been building up to next week.

FF 8 - Even though I said I was gonna abandon it after the god awful art of the Black Bolt arc the last two issues, I can't just walk away from Jonathan Hickman's writing. And, honestly, it's paid off. I like where this story is going and we're finally back at the interesting part of a thread that's been drawn out for a long, long time. Doom is, of course, always the wild card, but the multiple Reeds have a lot of draw. Nathaniel Reed has always been one of the best characters in Marvel's First Family and I like that he's back now, using what he knows to help out in whatever ways he can. I'm curious how much longer this is going to stretch out but I like what's happening thus far.

No book of the week this week. Next week is what we've been looking forward to forever.

pat summit needs to be remembered now.

2011-08-24T08:21:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, CBS broke the news that Pat Summitt, current head coach of the Tennessee Volunteer's Women's basketball team, is suffering from early onset dementia. Summit plans to coach this season and beyond, but this revelation casts quite the pall against her tremendous record.

Now is not the perfect time to recount Summitt's record. The perfect time would have been upon her entry into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Or upon her 1,000th win. Or at almost any other point in her storied career.

No doubt, though, today's headlines will be full of memorials and tributes and toasts to the sublime Summitt, including this one. Despite how well as Summitt's been treated, with the landmarks and accompanying stories above serving as reference, let the record show that she has not been regaled nearly enough. With a lifetime record of 1071-199 (for a ridiculous win percentage of 84.3) and having served as the head coach of the Lady Vols since the mid-1970s, she is, arguably, the most successful coach of all time, in any sport. Add in 8 NCAA championships and her team's championship in the SEC 16 times and it's hard to match up with her no matter where you're coming from. Phil Jackson is feted as a king for his 11 championships in the NBA, but he also earned 10 million dollars last season. For comparison's sake, Summitt pulled down a mere 350,000 as her base salary last year.

But it's not about just the wins and it's certainly not about the money. People have been paid more and there have been record-breaking win-streaks around Summitt. Rather, it's about the gravity that Pat Summitt brings to the game. She's a fierce competitor and she refuses to let things idly pass. She started at Tennessee in 1974 before women's basketball was even an official NCAA sport. She's coached some of the all-time greats in the women's game (including Candace Parker and Chamique Holdsclaw). Her battles with the University of Connecticut and coach Geno Auriemma are the very thing that attracted many people to women's basketball in the first place.

To say that Summitt's diagnosis is a blow to the sport would be an understatement. However, the tributes that will undoubtedly (to be frank, are, right here, before your very eyes) be unfolding in the coming days are premature. Summitt is a fine coach and will do everything in her power to continue with those responsibilities. Most appropriately, Summitt herself laid out a very Pat-Summitt-statement: "There will be no pity party." This woman is a warrior. Regardless of your feelings on basketball in general or women's basketball in particular, take a moment today to appreciate what she's done for the game. For almost four decades, Summitt has patrolled the sidelines in Tennessee in that famous orange and, as she herself has said, as long as the "good Lord is willing," she will continue to do so.

comic for the week of 08/17/11.

2011-08-22T08:27:00.000-06:00

Just one this week. I did flip through Batman xxx in the store, though. So glad that I'm not picking it up anymore. It was a neat enough little tale, with Damian narrating the history of Batman and Robin, but it was almost the antithesis of the last issue of Tec. The only truly intriguing part was when he described the Robin-hood of Tim Drake as a mistake. (Perhaps not the exact phrasing.) I wonder if they'll pursue this in the new universe. Regardless, I didn't pick it up and only got the one Vertigo book. I'd love to move away from Marvel and DC overall and more toward Dark Horse, Image and Vertigo, even though I know the last is only an imprint. But if I'm going with an imprint, I'll take Vertigo over Icon any day. On to the book!

Fables 108 - Inherit the Wind was exactly what any level-headed person would have expected it to be and that's definitely a good thing. The story continues back in Haven, with the Fables sending Rose Red back to the Farm to explore how bad things are (not that bad...just wait till y'all try to go back to NYC!) and Bigby and Snow White are off in the realm of the North Wind. Rather, the former realm, as the North Wind is dead and his minions are in the midst of trying to locate an heir. Their speech was surprising, not what they were saying as much as how they were saying it. I didn't remember them being such filthy-mouthed little buggers. But it was a funny little aside and this was a great intro chapter. We can see where conflict is going to come in, and there's plenty of angles for great surprises, so I'm definitely looking forward to this storyline. I'm less enthused about the next issue box, where we see that we'll be joining Bufkin in the Land of Oz (or Ev, or whatever district number they want me to pretend it is now) but I'm willing to go that journey with the 'Hams - they've earned more than a little trust with 100+ solid issues under their collective belts.

No book of the week this week as I think it's insulting to call the only book I get the best, since it's got no competition. However, let me repeat how I looked through the Bat book and it was disappointing. Add Daredevil to that list, too. Boo on the Big Two.

jim thome hits for the good guys.

2011-08-17T08:48:00.000-06:00

A round of applause is quietly - very quietly- going around those who love sports in America. Those who love baseball in particular had reason to celebrate on Monday night as veteran Jim Thome smacked the 600th home run of his career. As a bonus, lest we forget what we've been told should be the focus of sports in our era, Thome's Minnesota Twins even picked up a team victory against the Detroit Tigers - no powerhouses themselves, the Tigers certainly have the Twins in their rearview mirror. All in all, a great night for the Twins, Thome and the sport of baseball in general.

Thome has long been one of the game's graceful elders, beginning with a bang in his time with the Cleveland Indians before moving to the Philadelphia Phillies for a brief stint. From there Thome did time as a member of the Chicago White Sox. He moved to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a the shortest of quick trips, finally ending up with the Twins. Along the way, he garnered a reputation as not only a true baseballer, a lover of the game, but as one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet, as one of the teammates you'd dream about having.

In the post-steroid era of baseball, where every single accomplishment has to be super-critically analyzed, Thome's purity stands as its own testament. (Although, it should and must be noted, its not a flawless purity.) There can be virtually no doubt that this feat will be run through the ringer, whether it's now or twenty years from now, when future sportswriters are debating whether to elect Thome to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Hand in hand with those assurances of debate, however, is the knowledge that Thome will most assuredly get into hallowed company. The 600 home runs all but guarantees it, but if there's more proof needed, there are ample examples abounding.

In the era of doubt and self-incrimination, Thome stands head and shoulders above his peers in a classy way. You won't catch him in a poker scandal and it's already been established how far away from the Bondsian steroid suspicion he is. (Could all this backfire and he be proven guilty? Absolutely. Which is the ultimate shame of our time with the national pastime.) Thome is so universally liked that even those who overshadow him love to heap praise upon him.

So, at the end of the day, why isn't this a bigger deal? Thome just joined one of the most exclusive sports clubs: only seven players before him have hit 600 home runs. Is it a pure reaction to the steroid era? Is this a validation of those who claim that Major League Baseball only celebrates those who play in major markets, those who are marketable in a major way? Regardless of what people may think, Thome deserves respect as one of the greatest to play the game. Ever.

comics for the week of 08/10/11.

2011-08-15T08:36:00.000-06:00

This week was the beginning of the end for my renewed love affair with DC Comics. When Geoff Johns essentially took over the company, I was a diehard Marvel kid. I had read Spider-Man forever, and nothing would ever change that. (Just goes to show...all it took was a deal with the devil.) DC was the old people's version of comics, with Superman unappealing and Batman a mythological beast who was best dealt with by Grant Morrison in the pages of Tower of Babel and no one else came close. The second tier characters of Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Flash held no sway with me, except for my occasional flirtation with the Scarlet Speedster. And don't get me started on C Level and below... Worthless, because I knew that DC would never give them the time of day to take them to the heights they were capable of. Characters like Batgirl, Green Arrow, the Martian Manhunter, Deadman, etc. were the building blocks of DC's generations, but they didn't have the balls to use them the right way. Then, Johns came along and made me flip my thinking. Now, with the end of several of the titles that have been as good as they've ever been, I'm worried that my allegiance is about to switch back. I'll give DC time to impress with the reboot, but I'm wary.

Batgirl 24 - The end of a run and what a spectacular way to do it. The single page imaginations of what she could have been in other worlds, under the spell of Black Mercy were gorgeous. The cover was frameworthy. And the story? Well, it was as nice and neat as one could ask for, with all being revealed as the biggest of big bads was logically revealed last issue. The chat with Barbara at the end of the issue was bittersweet, given what we know is going to happen next month, but I'm trying to stay away from that.

Batman and Robin 26 - Not quite as good as Batgirl, but then, it hasn't been for its entire run. Batman and Robin was a hot and cold book, and this issue demonstrated that perfectly: what an insane idea, and what a great ending. The whole book was divided into mini-chapters (one to two pages long) that were intriguingly titled. The cover gave the whole thing away, in retrospect, and was great to draw people in. This issue felt like what the whole run of the book could have been like, if they'd caved to the weirdness that Morrison had embedded in it from the get go. But...as it is, again, I'm going to have to end this recap with a note bemoaning the fact that a month from now it won't be Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne's unique relationship we're exploring, but rather just a stale old remake of the Bruce Wayne and Robin dynamic that we've seen for forty years. What a shame.

Detective Comics 881 - And this is where the shame gets to the biggest point. This book is what Batman could be. Dick Grayson operating with the Gordon family in the big closing climax. Barbara was pitch perfect, Jim was sad with just the right note of knowledge, and Dick accepted it all in a way that Bruce will never be able to. The art, by both Francavilla and Jock was at the top of its game and the cover was a sweet nod to the Long Halloween, even if it wasn't intentional. The creepiness of James proved that he would have been a worthy adversary for Dick, if circumstances were different and the reboot wasn't happening. The lack of Robin was perfect for this story, as it was more about the past than the future, but that's what's so good about the books right now; there's room for everything. The only quibble I had with this book is the price increase, but I was (and am) more than willing to pay for the extra pages. This book was the celebration of 900 that we'll miss thanks to the mucking machinations of the higher ups in a company that, perhaps, isn't thinking about their characters in the way some of us would prefer.

Flashpoint 4 (of 5) - Now that I've had the longest intro I've ever read and three reviews where I don't really get into the books at all, while simultaneously dogging the company that put out those books while claiming that I was trying not to, let me say this: Flashpoint is not good. I don't feel any draw to these characters (although I was intrigued when Arthur said he had loved Wonder Woman) and I don't care about how they're going to go from DC Universe I love (above) to this one (which I don't care about) to the DCnU (which I'm ambivalent about). The war between the two seems interesting, but I know it's not going to be the focus of this book. In fact, when we got our final page visitor, I was delighted, because I know that maybe his exposition in the next issue will actually lead to something. The book and the story in general has done a poor job of drawing me into the conflict, most especially because I feel like we all know that it's doomed to failure. One more issue to go and then we can all start actually talking about what we've been talking about for months now anyway.

The Unwritten 28 - I'm not sure that I'm actually liking this storyline as much as I thought I would. First of all, Tom seems annoyingly blockheaded, as Lizzie has to remind him to use the power of the journals to see the past. Secondly, the story in the past, while I can see its importance and the way that it's going to tie into Tommy, is limited by a love aspect with a character that we've never really had a chance to fall for. Why do I care if Wilson loved this woman? He's never done anything to make me care about his affections. The most interesting part of the issue is the Cabal ruthlessly moving around the world and killing all the people who ever knew anything about Wilson. And the worst part of the issue is Richie Savoy complaining about running a website - even though he's right to be worried and seems to be the only one with his head on straight at this point. Hopefully next issue will bring a bit more urgency to what is still one of the best books on the market.

Book of the week goes to Batgirl and Detective Comics. That's right, I'm giving it to both. Beautiful bookends to beautiful stories, these books were so, so, so different and yet, so similar. I noted in the 'Tec review how Robin wasn't there, but the two panels he was in Batgirl were so perfect. The covers were total opposites (gigantic group shot versus one-character action shot) and yet spoke volumes about where these books have been. Really, if these two hadn't come out on the same week, I would have been pissed. As it is, these will stay two of my favorite single-issues (even though they're almost impossible to read as single issues) for a long, long time.

lobo football is moving forward.

2011-08-10T08:06:00.000-06:00

The University of New Mexico's football team is getting ready to begin their season in just over three weeks. The team is currently playing its way through training camp in Ruidoso – a matter of some controversy – getting ready for the season.

While the specter of the near-fruitless previous season is sure to rest on many of the Lobos' minds, the simple truth is that it would be difficult to do as poorly as the team did last year. Opening the season against Colorado State gives the Lobos and their fans something to cheer for. That being said, the next two gams will be shocking if they're not blowouts, with the Lobos on the losing end. However, for the fourth game of the season, if the Lobos don't defeat Sam Houston State, we can all expect to read many, many appeals for the firing of head coach Mike Locksley.

Besides the first four games of the season, the Lobos appear to be getting ready in the only way a team can: by putting the past behind them and refusing to look back. The painful one-win season is but a memory and any lingering distractions that continue to pop up are being summarily dismissed by the team at large.

Of course, the biggest game of the season, for native New Mexicans at least, is always the New Mexico State game, which will be played this year in Albuquerque on October 1. Given the way last year went, the restrictions on the program from former head coach Rocky Long's tenure, and the promise that the Lobos showed in a handful of moments (if not full games), the mood seems cautiously optimistic around town. Certainly, no one is singing the praises of the team non-stop, but the Lobos have always been a proud football team, if not a winning one, and the return to better days appears near.

comics for the week of 08/03/11.

2011-08-08T08:50:00.001-06:00

Once upon a time, I was obsessed with Strangers in Paradise. I went to APE in San Fran just to meet Terry Moore. I spent an inordinate amount of time on the unofficial SiP message board. (This is, amazingly, still how and where I know the majority of my Internet-friends.) I bought prints, trades, single issues, coffee mugs, etc. Then, SiP ended and I was disappointed in its end, and Terry Moore went on to do Echo, which I didn't care for, so he ~~kind of~~ totally dropped off my radar. Which meant, on Wednesday, that I was delightfully surprised to see a new Terry Moore book. Moral of the story? I may be an obsessive comic book fan, but I'm a casual one, at that.

Rachel Rising 1 - Solid intro. Zombie book? I don't honestly know yet, but it's cool. I like the way that we're drawn into the main character so intensely. I like the mystery that's already presented itself in multiple ways. I like the cliffhanger ending. I like the dramatic irony. On the other hand, I didn't like so many panels with no words whatsoever. I love that two weeks in a row, I got a Terry Moore-pencilled book. This may be the only time that's ever happened? Pick it up, give it a try.

Shield 2 - Another issue that is convincing me that the only way to read this book is via TPB. It's sooooo good. And yet...so confusing. So little. So unsatisfying. Not dissatisfying. Just un. There's so much more to this story, so when I only get these tiny little chunks, I'm just not sure it's enough. In this issue, we see Stark and Howard reunite Tesla with his son. Leonid gets to serve as a judge between the methods of Leonardo and Newton. We know how he'll probably choose, but, of course, there's a monkey wrench that gets thrown into the process. Seriously, if you're not reading this book, I don't know how to market any comics to you at all.

Book of the week goes to Rachel Rising for doing something that's kind of formulaic in a different sort of way. It's always weird to see Moore drawing characters who are supposed to be other people, because they always (and will always) look like Katchoo, Francine and David to me, but it's great to see him doing other things. This book may or may not stay in my must-read pile, but I'm happy that he's getting to do what he loves, and I'm more than willing to support him for now.

nba lockout continues. no progress.

2011-08-03T09:19:00.001-06:00

While last week saw the recociliation of the NFL against its lockout, to the joy of football fans across America, the NBA lockout seems to be getting worse.

Every other day, it seems, a new NBA star is rumored to be looking into signing overseas to play in some other league, and David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, seems to be taunting those who have done so already as well as those who are thinking about it. The fight in the NBA is almost purely over money, as opposed to the NFL, where there were (and still are, for many) concerns over the length of the schedule and rules for the schedule and intensity of practices, among others.

The owners in the NBA want more share of revenue and seem to be more than willing to give up this season to get it. The players, on the other hand, are reluctant to give up more than they already have. The owners claim that the NBA as a whole is losing money and that the league cannot continue on the course it's on. The players counter that, more than any other league, the NBA is star-centric. People don't come to NBA arenas to watch the big hits, like they do for football, nor do they come for the history of the park or the team, like they do in baseball. Some of them come out of fervent support for the team, like we see often in hockey and soccer, but mostly, the players contend, the audiences flock to the arenas of the NBA for the players.

The last season in the NBA was one for the ages. We had a young, rising star in Chicago win the MVP award, reminding the world that Michael Jordan doesn't play basketball anymore, but the game is in good hands. We had the near-unanimous consent of the sporting nation in rooting against the Heat. We had the lowly Mavs overcome those same Heat in a surprisingly great NBA Finals. We had Blake Griffin as Rookie of the Year, robbed of his real rookie season and then proving that he was the real thing.

Now, we have football back and a populace that was already barely borderline with basketball seems poised to lose any of the respect that the last few post-Jordan years had seemingly cemented. We have that same Rookie of the Year lamenting that in his first three season, he might get to play a mere 82 games. We have players taking to their Twitter accounts in a style far less aggressive than when James Harrison called out NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in the pages of Men's Journal Magazine, while the NFL was still locked out. The degree of severity doesn't matter, though, for a sport that plays second-fiddle in America's eyes, at best.

The worst news for basketball fans is that most owners didn't get rich by owning NBA teams. The teams are a side business at most, a fun distraction at least. If they have to lose this season in order to get the profit sharing margin down to the levels where they think it needs to be in order to continue having their fun, they seem more than willing to do so. The silver lining is that there is plenty of basketball still being played. But that's about it.

netflix > comcast

2011-07-28T16:06:00.000-06:00

The thing is, I don't understand people complaining about Netflix, especially when I think about Comcast and the way they've always behaved. At least Netflix was upfront about their bullshit. Comcast just sent me a letter saying that I’d been getting more than I’d been paying for. Effective August 4, that would no longer be the case; I’d be losing channels.

When I called the number on the letter to find out which channels I’d be losing, the lady answered, asking if I was calling about the letter. So clearly, they know they’re in trouble. People have been calling. I replied that I was, and that all I wanted to know was which channels I’d be losing. I explained that I didn’t watch a lot of TV as it was, and I just wanted to know if I’d be losing one of the four channels I actually do watch. She ignored the question, referring me to the brochure sent with the letter, and tried to upsell me on a new package, plus a free premium channel for a year. I told her again that I don’t watch that much TV, I’m not interested in premium channels and asked a different question. “What about HD? I’m paying for an HD package and it looks like I’m not getting any HD channels in this new package that you’re telling me is all I’m paying for.” She rushed, “Oh no, many of those channels broadcast in HD.” “OK,” I replied, “but what about this Digital HDTV Package? Isn’t that what I’m paying for? And they have channels that are all-HD, all-the-time, including my local channels! But those aren’t on this package that you’re saying is all I’m going to get. So, am I going to get some of those channels?” She brushed it off again: “I’m going to try this one more time. You’re paying for the Digital Starter package. You can pay to upgrade and receive a free premium channel. Or you can stick with your package.” I told her I was sticking with it.

More like getting stuck. This shit blows. Instead of being brash and arrogant like Netflix (aggravating in its own right), Comcast has decided to change our packages and act like its our own fault?

the nfl lockout is over.

2011-07-27T08:52:00.000-06:00

On Monday morning, the good news started pouring in for fans of football in America. The lockout which had threatened America's (true, modern) pastime was finally finished. The focus now turns to the actual start of the season, currently slated for September 8-12.

When the new football season begins, there will be a couple important differences, but most of them will be invisible. When it comes to the changes that either side wanted that were going to be physical manifestations, there was compromise instead of hard-line posturing - at least at this point. The schedule will remain a 16-game affair - for now. Owners will be getting more money than they were previously. Practices will change, and there is already grumbling from those who are attached to the old schedule.

These differences, however, are inevitable when two sides are fighting for every inch. All told, in the process of negotiation, the NFL was officially locked out for more than 4 months, the longest lockout in NFL history. However, the good news is that no official games were lost to the labor dispute, save an exhibition game which had been scheduled for August 7.

A great summary of the winners and losers of the draft has been written up at ESPN. In contrast to one of those last points, though, I'd defy anyone to go out and talk to a football fan. There is a reason that this was the top story on ESPN for the last three days, and why it continues to get mention on CNN. In times like these, when people are looking toward August 2 as a potential for the United States government defaulting on its debt, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, took the time to point out that if football can get a deal done, certainly the bureaucrats in Washington should be able to follow suit; especially when the matter is of such increased gravity. For those who prefer their sports without politics, there's a handy comparison, too: the NFL lockout being resolved in a timely fashion gives hope to the fans of the NBA, which is similarly engaged in a lockout currently.

At the end of the day, though, despite lists of winners and losers and total amount of time lost to this lockout, the easiest proof is in the pudding. Next time you're out and about, ask someone, whether it's at a bar, at work, or even just at a stoplight. Ask a stranger, "Hey, how do you feel that the NFL lockout is over?" Chances are, they'll gripe a bit. They'll mention how it was millionaires fighting with billionaires. And they'll say how ridiculous it was to have to slog through the news. But, at the end of that conversation, most people, as Americans who love football above all others, will smile and say, "Hey, I'm just glad it's back."

netflix is confusing.

2011-07-21T10:43:00.000-06:00

So, sometimes, I disappear for summers. Sorry, yeah, that happened. The good news (for those who care) is that usually, when I come back, there's been a spate of activity for me to comment on and it's as though this is an actual blog for a while. (For those of you outside of your comfort zone, don't worry: we'll get back to comic recaps and lazy sports blogging soon enough.)

The basic gist of this post is that, while I was hanging out in Seattle, apparently, Netflix went a little cuckoo. Raising your rates by that much, at one time, is probably not a sound business strategy. And we could sit here and debate the history of such moves, or the political nature of the Internet and the ISPs that led Netflix to think that it could or had to make this move. But that wouldn't be nearly as much fun as what actually happened.

People, essentially, split in half.

On the one hand, you had some people who thought this move was solid confirmation of Lucifer's reincarnation.

On the other hand, you had some people who thought that we'd been getting too sweet a deal for too long.

As usual when sides disagree this vociferously, the real truth is somewhere in the middle. Obviously, I tend to side a bit more with Mindy C, not just because she's my friend, but because, well, hey, look, I still have a Netflix subscription, and I don't forsee that changing any time soon.

(Sidenote here to say that I did find it extremely odd that I missed literally all of this news. I wasn't listening to the news or reading tech blogs and my subscription was on hold - even though it rolled past where it was supposed to:

so when I returned home and reintegrated with the world, I was more than a bit flabbergasted. To this day, I've still received no email or documentation from Netflix themselves. Odd, to say the least.)

But here's thing thing: the haters have a point. (They always do.) It's been said that no press is bad press. But that's not true and we've all known it for far longer than we've known what the word infamous means. Netflix might survive - I hope they do, I enjoy the services they provide - but it can't be sitting around in its boardrooms, having meetings saying, "Hey, at least they're talking about us."

Plus, when you get down to the bottom line, I'm of the belief that price hikes are ultimately bad for consumers. Netflix suffers a bit, but lives through it, therefore Apple and Amazon and Wal=Mart, et. al. see that they can do so, too. Our bills go up even more. Bummer.

But, bouncing back to the other side, we've been streaming movies. We don't have to go somewhere to pick up the disc. It's convenient! And, even more so, it's putting a burden on the resources upon which we rely to get us that very medium. Can't even barely browse the Internet when every fool's streaming movies, eh?

So...what to do? Netflix made their choice. And I promise, no matter which side of the debate you fall onto, it'll be OK. Different? Yeah. But still OK.

comics for the week of 07/13/11.

2011-07-19T10:51:00.000-06:00

Comics are starting to become something that I'm not sure if I'm going to keep up with. Which is a weird feeling to have now that I'm past the point where most people give them up, if they're going to.

Batgirl 23 - Annnnd the conclusion that the fans have been asking for. This is nice because this book will feel like it told a complete story and like it was something that, perhaps, they were meaning to do, as opposed to DC screwing them over and eradicating a new character that was surviving and thriving on her own. The story itself continues the Reapers gang, and there's a riot in prison and a big fight and a cool team-up, but none of those are actually central to the point of this book. The main point is the discussion that Stephanie gets to have with the Detective (dropping a hint for the relaunched Batgirl?) and the ending with the mastermind behind the whole Reapers plot. If you didn't see that reveal coming, you haven't been reading comics long enough and if you weren't delighted by it, you're reading comics for the wrong reason. I'm really looking forward to next issue, where they'll be given a chance to wrap things up. And I'm still pissed at DC for robbing us of this character.

Detective Comics 879 - Another look at how good things are right now. Scott Snyder continues to write the best Bat book that's existed in a long time (seriously, when was any Batman title better than Detective is right now? Hush?) and Francavilla pencils the hell out of the issue, giving a nice break from Jock. This is the way the artists should be handled, sequencing logically around the story, and putting the book in capable hands, regardless of who's there. (There's gonna be a counterpoint later on.) The story has no Batman in it, but that doesn't hurt it at all - in fact, the Gordon-centric approach on this book has been one of the highlights. We have great family ties with the looks at Jim and Barbara and a throwback look to Dr. Leslie and her clinic (hello, another tie to Stephanie Brown!) that show how well-rounded the Bat-universe is. The plot, of course, is looking at James Jr. and questioning whether he's recovered or not. Thanks to the last page of the last issue, we definitely know for sure that he is not. But the dramatic irony of the issue is that Jim wants to believe in his son, even while he knows, in the back of his mind, that he's wrong. The art has already been compared to Mazzucchelli and that comparison is dead-on, so let's not make any bones about it: a great team, doing great work, on a great book. Detective is the must-read mainline DC superhero book right now.

FF 6 - This, on the other hand, is how you lose readers. I have faith in Jonathan Hickman, and I like the idea of the alternate Reeds, but this was the worst comic I've read all year. Taking us completely out of the momentum of the great story they'd been building, switching artists (and this was a bad switch! I'm sorry, I know I'm not an artist and I shouldn't talk smack on things I can't do, but Greg Tocchini & Paul Mounts gave me shivers at the poor quality of their work) and offering no ties whatsoever to anything that I care about means that I can comfortably drop FF without wondering what's going on. If the story pans out again, I'll check it out, but here's how much I don't care: the story was about the formation of the Inhumans. There was something about celestials and Black Bolt's five wives and...that's it. I'm done.

Flashpoint 3 (of 5) - This story feels emptier than all of the DC titles combined. Instead of the neat twists of the Age of Apocalypse or the wonder of the Amalgam Universe, we have here a holdover. AOA was neat because we knew that, four months later, it'd be gone; get it while you can! AU was amazing because we'd been waiting our whole lives for something like this! Flashpoint, on the other hand, feels like it's just something they're tiding us over with. The Old DC doesn't matter, but neither does the world of Flashpoint. 2 months from now, everything is going to be different. It gives the current books a sad tinge, but it makes me wonder why anyone cares about the Flashpoint books at all. This Superman, while interesting, isn't going to be the new Superman. And he has nothing to do with the current Superman. There are exceptions, of course. Obviously, this Cyborg will have a lot to do with the one they're going to be pushing hard in the JLA. There are hints here, echoes that are going to live on in the DCnU. But I'm so angry with the idea, with the execution, with the blatant disregard for longtime fans, that it's hard to care about any of those. Maybe this story will read better after the New 52 has existed for a while. Regardless, in this story, Barry Allen gets struck by lightning again, at his insistence, because he's not a scientist and he doesn't know about the Speed Force and he can't think of any better way to get his powers back than by almost killing himself in back to back attempts. Surprise! It works. He saves Batman from near death, makes a new costume and goes to save the world. They find the Superman of this world, but he's crazy different (we see Krypto's skeleton, it's kind of sad) and Superman abandons them. Also, there's a bit with Lois Lane and the resistance - we see Grifter. I wish I was more enthused about that.

Green Lantern 67 - Another book where the overall story, which I should be psyched about, felt derailed by the plans for the future. The conclusion to the War of the Green Lanterns is sweeeet (although, even as a fan of Kyle Rayner, I literally laughed out loud at Hal's grand plan for freeing the other Guardians from the Book of the Black - really?!) and I'll say that I honestly did not see this twist coming. I'd talked to my friends about my doubts regarding the new GL book and who was going to be in it, but I did not see this coming. The quick summary: Krona certainly appears to be dead, and how did Ganthet apparently survive? The looks at the New Guardians before they get their rings back is amazing, Sinestro is still a badass and the (old) Guardians are dumber than I've ever seen them act. The conclusion while semi-shocking and very cool story-wise, makes no sense. They would never act that way. No matter what. Hal's will is too strong, they're scared, it just doesn't make sense. Also, where did Sinestro's ring go? Great, great story, leaves us with tons of questions, but it seems like none of them will matter now. I know there are people who say they will, that the stories are still here, but they're irrevocably changed. I'm a fan of change, but this feels far from natural.

The Unwritten 27 - The worst book of the run so far proves how much better this book is than everything else. Tom Taylor is fully in charge now and he's using his father's journals to try to figure out something about the Cabal. The journals, he discovers, can bring old memories back to life (or at least let him [and Lizzie] see what happened) and so he begins his quest. The idea of Savoy being in charge of the network is a good use of his character, and I like the reality of his complaining of substandard tools, but, even in a comic book, I can't stretch my suspension if disbelief that far; no way would he be able to run that server with those enemies trailing him. The main story, though, concerns Wilson Taylor in New York sometime between World Wars and the creation of a pre-Superman superhero called the Tinker. There's definitely echoes of things we've seen from the Cabal and from Tom (and Tommy) so it's obviously important. I love that Carey is expanding the universe from just fictional books to comic books as well. It's clear that he has a love for the genre and I love when people wear that on their sleeve. All that being said, it felt like a long intro to get to the meat of next issue, where we'll meet the author of the Tinker and try to get some information on how this is all relevant. Still a great issue

Book of the week, however, does not go to the Unwritten. I'll repeat what I've said times before: Detective Comics is the best superhero book being put out by the Big Two and in 2 months, it's going to be changed in a way that will be impossibly difficult to remedy. Pick it up now while you still can and enjoy some of the best Bat storytelling in a long, long time. And then, yes, give the New 52 Batman #1 a try, because Snyder will still be writing it. Hold out hope. But beware the change in artist.

team usa loses women's world cup final.

2011-07-17T17:52:00.001-06:00

Team USA prided itself on getting out of the shadow of its former incarnations. They wanted the pressure. In the final match of the 2011 Women's World Cup, that pressure might have proven to be too much. The US played a better game at every single point of the game that mattered, until the part that mattered the most. Up by 1 in regulation and then again up by 1 in overtime, the Women's team twice let its lead evaporate and headed to penalty kicks. The only other Women's World Cup that had gone to penalty kicks was the famous 1999 Brandi Chastain-imprinted win. When it came time to shoot down those echoes of the past, however, this team simply could not do it.

When the game started, it looked as though it was going to be a US-dominated affair. Lauren Cheney got things off on the right foot with a quick run up the left side within the first minute. Megan Rapinoe continued the US pressure with a killer cross to Cheney in the 8th minute and Carli Lloyd almost had a neat clean up at the 11th minute. Cheney passed to Rapinoe for a fantastic straight-on shot only 20 seconds later.

After an advantage call in the 28th minute, Abby Wambach had a shot bounce off the top of the crossbar, in a dramatic instance that would be repeated time and time again. Despite numerous chances, the United States did not seem as though they'd be able to capitalize.

Things started to pick up for Japan when Shinobu Ohno got a good shot in the 30th minute, but US goalkeeper Hope Solo cut off that effort easily. In the 2011 Women's World Cup, 3 of Japan's 10 goals had previously come on set pieces. And at the 37th minute, despite being outplayed for virtually the entire first half, they got a corner kick where they might have had another one of those set piece goals. One minute later, Japan got a great service for Kozue Ando, but Solo came off her line quickly and successfully.

As the first half ended, the momentum appeared to have shifted, albeit slightly. The United States had more chances – all missed – but they couldn't capitalize at any point. They played so well for almost the entire half, but they could not come out ahead. It was at this point that the question of pressure had to be rising in many people's minds.

To counter that doubt, coach Pia Sundhage started the second half by removing Cheney and putting in Alex Morgan, who almost put in a cross to the short corner a mere four minutes into the second half. After the referee incorrectly called an offside offense against Japan, Heather O'Reilly hit Wambach with a lift in the 64th minute that Wambach nearly headed just above the Japan keeper.

In the 68th minute, super-sub Morgan got an excellent feed from Rapinoe. Morgan was on the right side of the field for avoiding an offside call as well as taking advantage of her speed. Morgan took one touch on the ball and blasted a left-footed shot into the lower right hand corner to take the lid off the goal for the Americans.

In the 80th minute, though, Japan got an equalizer from Aya Miyama and put on non-stop pressure. With two more chances in the next minute for Japan, it seemed as though the US was on its heels. Making it through the last ten minutes of the regulation game was its own blessing, though, and the World Cup Final went to overtime.

Team USA got overtime started in a similar fashion, with an on-target header from Wambach that was halted by Ayumi Kaihori. However, as the first half of the overtime period moved toward its conclusion, in the 103rd minute, Morgan sent a small cross sailing past the Japanese goal which Wambach redirected masterfully into the back of the net off a header.

In the 111th minute, Team USA survived a scare, as Solo came off her line, missed the ball and then two defenders collided while attempting to clear the ball. Luckily, Japan could not convert. Shortly after, Rapinoe got subbed out in favor of Tobin Heath finishing the game with fresh legs. The threats were not over, however, for the United States, as Yukari Kinga broke toward the goal off a feed from Homare Sawa. Solo was hurt and remained on the ground, but captain Christine Rampone was there to clear the goal. Unfortunately, on the resulting corner kick in the 116th minute, Sawa put in the cross to knot things up 2-2.

There would be no more points scored in the overtime period, and there was only one goal for Team USA afterwards period. While Japan converted three of their first four penalty kicks, Team USA was only able to put in one of five, total.

As the pressure finally cracked, nothing good came of it. There was no tremendous release, no dismissal of the specters of the past. There was a better finish for Team USA than in the previous World Cup. That's the silver lining. But for the game they played, the way they executed, the near-perfect, minus goal-scoring, team effort, it's hard to focus on that silver lining. For a team that was aiming for a championship or bust, second place cannot be anything other than first loser.

rooting a nexus one running android 2.3.4 w/ build GRJ22

2011-07-16T08:19:00.001-06:00

I've poked around so many forums and so many threads that it's about to make my head explode. Honestly, I consider myself kind of a technophilic person, but some of the jargon that's tossed around in these communities makes me truly doubt myself. Bootloading, rooting, OEM, flashing, custom ROMs, etc. And this is from a guy that's rooted his Nook Color. It's running the CM7 custom ROM. It's not like I don't get it at all. It's not like I don't understand anything that's being said. It's just...too much.

So, here's my hope. The last time I put up a semi-techie topic on this blog, I got tons of random hits from people who had stumbled across. Therefore, I figured, instead of wasting anyone's times on the forums and threads where that seems to be pretty much all they get regardless, I'd just throw up my flag here.

I'm looking to root my NexusOne. I don't really care, though, about the common reasons why. I run CM7 on my Nook and I like it well enough, but I'm not desperate for it on the N1. I don't really need (because I don't know of) any of the apps that need superuser permissions. What I really want to root for is to be able to remove some of the tied-in applications (like the stock browser or the default Twitter client) that are (seemingly) part of the hardware. I also want the ability to move any of the applications that I then (or have already) download(ed) to the SD card. This is honestly the single biggest reason why I want to root.

Why? Because the N1, despite being almost the phone of my dreams, comes with a scant 190 MB of internal storage for applications. And I'm at the limit now of applications that I can put on my phone, even with as many on the SD card as is currently allowed. I'm so low that my phone sometimes refuses application updates. I'm so low that I often have the dreaded low storage space icon in the upper left-hand corner. I'm so low that I had to take Google+ off my phone, even though I'm really psyched on it.

If this is a possible result of rooting my phone (and if that can even be done) and anyone stumbles across this post, I'd love any help you could toss my way. If it's not a possible result of rooting my phone, then I guess I'm gonna have to come to grips with the fact that I'll be looking at newer phones sooner rather than later.

comics for the week of 06/29/11.

2011-07-01T08:02:00.000-06:00

The DC Reboot makes me more and more angry every day.

Detective Comics 878 - Dick Grayson is a great Batman! It's so easy to love this book. Snyder's writing and Jock's art is a perfect mix and the fact that Dick Grayson is finally in the cape and the cowl allows for soooooo much rich storytelling, exactly like we've got in this book (and in "The Hungry City" overall). Here we get a conclusion worthy of this three part arc, with Dick telling more circus stories (opportunity!) and the Zucco family getting its due. The villain is a great addition to the oeuvre (Tiger Shark - what a great throwback name) and I hope he gets to stick around...but he won't. As I've mentioned previously, it's really hard to enjoy any of these books when I know that the slate is going to be wiped in a few months. For now, I will say that this is my favorite Bat book in a long, long time. And I'm hopeful that, with Snyder still writing the main Bat title post-relaunch, it'll still be great.

FF 5 - I really didn't think that I would stick around even this long for this book. Hickman's track record with me is good, though, and I'm willing to take a chance on alternate Reed stories, especially when they involve Spidey, whom I don't get enough (any) of nowadays, and even more especially when they involve Doom getting invited into the Baxter Building (is it still called that?). I wish we would have gotten to see more of the other Reed and his manipulations of the Mole Man, but I know that's being a little greedy. That being said, this issue felt like it bounced around just a little too much. There was something for everyone but, because of that, there wasn't enough focus on any one of the storylines. I did love the interaction between Sue and Fake Reed as well as Sue and Real Reed. I love that she could tell a difference right away, and I love that she was watching her husband so closely and knows him so well that she could almost instantly tell that something else was happening. A good enough story is keeping me in the fold of buying the book. Keep it up fellas.

Walking Dead 86 - This is such a hard book for me to include. For the last three years or so, I've been reading the Walking Dead via TPB, and I've loved it that way. However, my friends have convinced me to hop on monthly, and it's just a completely different experience. It's good, and I love the book, so let me start there. But damn. It's kind of unfulfilling. I mean, when you're used to more than 75 pages, 22's hard to deal with. The story continues here with Rick trying to come to grips with the new way he's feeling, since Carl got shot. It's understandable and it's positive character development, so I'm going to hold in any criticism for now, but let me just say that it feels super abrupt. (I guess there's a pun to make here about how quick guns work.) The Walking Dead is a completely different book than Invincible, which makes me feel confident in saying that Robert Kirkman is one of the best writers in the biz nowadays.

Book of the Week goes to Detective Comics - get it while you can! 'Nuff said.

step one: check.

2011-06-29T07:59:00.000-06:00

Team USA took their first step in the march back to World Cup supremacy on Tuesday, beating Korea 2-0.

The US Women, as previously noted have had a comparatively rough time of it lately in the World Cup; after winning the inaugural competition in 1991, taking third place in 1995 and winning it all again in 1999, with the memorable finish from Brandi Chastain, we've been stuck in third place since. (This, of course, discounts the success the women's national team has had in the Olympics: winning gold in 2004 and 2008 makes it hard for anyone to feel like we've not been performing.)

But before thinking about winning it all once again, the team had its hands full with the first round of pool play. Korea proved a capable opponent, despite being ranked only 8th in the FIFA World Rankings to Team USA's first. The first half of action was a sloppy affair, as neither side was able to connect for a goal.

In the second half, the big story got its traction. Lauren Cheney put the ball in the back of the net with a header from an Abby Wambach cross. Cheney was not a normal starter for Team USA, but got the nod for this game from coach Pia Sundhage over Megan Rapinoe. As the Women's World Cup was still being built up to, there were whispers among many soccer fans about the inconsistencies of this squad. Coach Sundhage knew that something had to change and took a bold risk in inserting the more-recently experienced Cheney over Rapinoe. She also demonstrated the kind of leadership that recognizes Rapinoe as the type of player to overcome what some might see as an insult. The gambit obviously paid off, and Team USA now has something positive to focus on, instead of subliminally addressing those whispers.

Team USA has plenty more ground to cover in order to be mentioned with some of the classic teams that came before them, but what we saw on Tuesday (in the second half, at least) is a positive sign of things to come. The women get their next chance to prove their mettle on Saturday. The game will be televised on ESPN 2 at 10 AM local time, and will be simulcast on ESPN3.com.

comic for the week of 06/22/11.

2011-06-24T07:49:00.000-06:00

Just one again this week. There is certainly a feeling in my brain that comics are becoming something that's more of a rarity for me. At this point, I feel like I buy more Vertigo, Image, Icon, IDW, Dark Horse (etc.) than Marvel and DC combined. Which is weird, but also nice. And yeah, I know that several of those are sub-imprints. Regardless...

Fables 106 - I don't know how to talk about this book without spoilers and without blatantly bragging about how right I was. So, I guess that's your warning. There's gonna be spoilers. Mister Dark is gone! It seems like it was way, way, way too easy, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the waiting and the anticipating is actually better than the gift. So the North Wind goes all kung-fu on Dark and our shock revelation is that Bellflower and her husband (both of whom we knew long, long ago - just another example of the great plotting by Willingham) have been called to trap them both. No need for Ozma here. Of course, that kind of bums her out (& Pinocchio, too) but there's no doubting that the gang is all happy and relieved - except Bigby, of course. Dad went and sacrificed himself nobly, so now we'll have the new relationship between the Big Bad Wolf and his absent father to deal with - not a bad thing. Flycatcher finally gives us some honesty (they weren't going to make it!), the cult of the Blue gets even deeper (he did come back! He was just too quick for any of us to see), a nod to Rose Red's future (ohhhh, possibilities!) and the ending gives us a new direction for the Wolf clan. All this and we didn't even get to see the Dark City or the previously-Fat Lady. What a book.

Again, when there's only one, I'm not going to get into double duty. But Fables just crossed 100 issues about six months ago, and now it's finished with this arc. If you're waiting for a jump-on point, this is it!

(the) winter (of) sports.

2011-06-22T12:41:00.000-06:00

This is the worst time to be a sports fan.

Late June to early August has always been a tough time. There are years when we have the Summer Olympics to get us by. There's a brief respite for the Tour de France, although it's lost some of its luster recently. And yes, I am excited about both the upcoming Women's World Cup as well as the 15th WNBA Season. But there's no denying these are dark times.

The NBA, NFL and NHL are all done with their seasons. MLB, for those who care, hasn't really picked up any steam yet, by this point in the season. But most importantly, for now, the two behemoths of American sports, basketball and football, seem to be on a collision course with no righting in sight.

The NFL is already locked out and the NBA appears to be heading that way. As though sports fans weren't already mired in the traditionally worst time of the year, that slog is now compounded by the fact that it might stretch on even longer.

We've already covered extensively why this is happening in both of these leagues, so for now, let's focus on the positive: there are reports that the NFL sides might be close to reconciliation. The NBA can learn from this NFL experience and perhaps avoid actually locking out.

But even more importantly, we can shift our focus from those leagues to the alternatives. The aforementioned Women's World Cup features not just a strong US team, but a hungry one. The Tour de France, free from those Americans that some claim the French love to hate, might have a chance to stand on its own, as opposed to being hounded by the WADA for violations; focusing on the actual sport and its real winner could prove to be a successful formula. And the WNBA is becoming a refined product on its own, not merely the litter sister league of the NBA.

The WNBA is trying to make summer - this ironic winter of sports - its time to shine: by celebrating 15 years of existence, the league gets to simultaneously advertise its product as well as remind viewers that this league is no longer an experiment. Love it or hate it, the WNBA appears to be here to stay. The human aspect of sports is really what captivates people, and the inclusion of fan voting on the top 30 WNBA players of all time seems a great place to start.

Bicycling Magazine says that of the 200+ riders who will take place in this year's Tour de France, Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer, two Americans, are some of the most worthy riders to watch. Perhaps America will once again have riders come from seemingly out of nowhere to challenge for the yellow jersey, enabling us to focus on the sport and the will of those who participate.

The Women's World Cup, taking place in Germany, presents a similar opportunity for the American women to take on the shadow that's been hanging over their program - in this case, for the last twelve years. In 1999, Brandi Chastain sealed a victory for America with her iconic penalty kick and celebration, but Team USA has been mired in mediocrity since then. Team USA is ranked first in the world, currently, and needs to perform in order to maintain the enthusiasm that is beginning to dwindle.

So while the millionaires of the NBA and NFL fight with their billionaire owners, take some time in this traditionally dark period to try to get back to the great storylines that make us truly care about sports.

comics for the week of 06/15/11.

2011-06-17T07:32:00.000-06:00

I'm going to write a long-form entry about why I think the DC Reboot is a terrible idea, and why it's insulting to me as a long-time fan. Batgirl will be Exhibit A.

Batgirl 22 - This book is so good! And they're going to throw it all away. So, so, so, so dumb. Stephanie Brown is a character that the fans have fought on behalf of for a long time. Now, she's going to be swept under the rug. (I mean, maybe not? I have no idea! None of us know what's coming. But it just seems this way.) Regardless, this issue gives another compelling case that the single-issue story is NOT dead. Steph goes to London to team up with Squire, but she's really supposed to be there for a Batman Inc. meeting. (Providing the hook to next issue...brilliant writing!) The way the two girls play off each other (repeating lines, juxtaposing experiences as sidekicks versus being their own people) is reminiscent of those issues with Damian and Supergirl, but this one is better. There's a great plot involving Greenwich Mean Time and a baddie who's got a grudge against Knight, and all kinds of great British slang! What's not to love? The art's great, even if it's not Nguyen (what happened?) and the characters are worth our time and investment...except for the fact that they're not because they'll be gone in five months. Major bummer.

Invincible 80 - First of all, check out the cover! That's awesome! I wonder if Ottley ever thinks to himself, "If I knew I was gonna be drawing this (and getting paid to do so!) when I was a kid, I would have pooped my pants!" Cuz I would. Jesus, this book has just got something for everyone. I called out Page 9 on Twitter as being specifically written for a couple friends - how can Kirkman be so good?? Seriously, he takes the time to knock himself in the best way possible and then goes HARD after DC for this madness. It's not passive-aggressive, it's straight aggression and it comes off as delightful and deserved. At the same time, it's only one page in the book, and it's not beating us over the head with a semi-political point. What a writer! Regardless, tons of stuff happens in this issue, including Nolan and Debbie leaving the planet, Mark totally realizing William is gay (I'm glad this was followed up on, because, like I said, I didn't think it was totally obvious), Invincible showing compassion for a bank robber (is this going to come back to haunt him, or will this be the introduction to a new ally?), Eve and Mark dodging the baby issue and, of course, the climactic fight between Mark and Dinosaurus. Man. I did not think, last issue, when I saw that he was coming back, that it was going to go this far. I'm not going to spoil the ending except to say that this has major possibilities to change everything. The dino was not messing around.

Book of the week goes to Invincible. As great as Batgirl is and as hard as I'm trying to convince people that the DC Reboot is a bad idea, using Batgirl as the prime example, Invincible wins for page 9 and the shocking ending. When Robert Kirkman is on his game, I'm really not sure if there's anyone better right now in the comic book medium that can outwrite him. He's got long-term plans, he's got great artists, and he knows how to alternate between that soft and hard push that readers emotionally react to. Great stuff.

and so it ends.

2011-06-13T08:33:00.000-06:00

The NBA season is over. The worst thing about that is the break might be longer than people anticipate.

The best thing about it, in some people's minds, is that the Miami Heat lost the title. The better way to put that, though, is that the Dallas Mavericks won the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.

There's a lot to be said about the Heat and the way they joined forces and the incredible team that they've become and the team they'll inevitably continue to be. But as Rick Carlisle, head coach of the Mavericks, said, "Their time is later. Our time is now."

After Gregg Doyel of CBS asked LeBron James if he was 'shrinking from the moment' there were columns galore (including mine!) about how ridiculous that notion was. James was and is the best basketball player of his generation. He's (almost) undoubtedly the best basketball player on any court at any time. But as the disappearing act continued to hit new highs (or lows, as it was) almost everyone wanted to get in on the act.

As much as this criticism is (now-) warranted - James scored 107 points over the six games in the series, but only 18 of those in the six collective fourth quarters - James and the Heat are not and should not be the story here.

Dirk Nowitzki is finally an NBA champion, and Mark Cuban is so happy that he cursed on live television. More importantly, the magical post-season run that the Mavs and Nowitzki have gone on is now complete. No more having to live with the nightmare collapse of the 2006 Finals against the Heat. Although Jason Terry and Nowitzki are the only players from that team still with the Mavs, there's been a subconscious sort of collective scar hanging over the Dallas team for the last five years. No one will have to deal with that ever again.

And the Mavs won not only Game 6, but the series as a whole. James' disappearing act notwithstanding, Dallas played phenomenal defense. Head coach Carlisle showed a willingness to go to a zone to throw off the Heat, as well as to alter his starting lineup when he sensed things weren't working. Nowitzki played his tail off the whole series, even when feeling under the weather. When the Mavs lost Game 2 and Nowitzki complained in the post-game press conference that he needed help, Terry, Jason Kidd, Deshawn Stevenson and Tyson Chandler all took turns standing up in the next few games.

Now, the narrative shifts once again. First, the fear of the lockout. The two sides are far apart right now, but should get a deal done to have a season. Secondly, though, we'll get to continue our obsessive tracing of the journey of the Miami Heat. Will Dallas be able to retool and get enough rest to fit a returning Caron Butler back into a system that wants to defend a title? Will Chicago or Atlanta or Boston give the Heat a more serious challenge for supremacy in the East? Regardless of what happens, it's a long wait until next season. Sunday ended a long, beautiful season in a way that everyone, regardless of which team they were cheering for, could cheer about.

you make breaking hearts look so easy.

2011-06-11T16:47:00.002-06:00

comics for the week of 06/08/11.

2011-06-10T17:15:00.000-06:00

Trying to continue with comics is about to get a lot harder for me. Every day that goes on, I get less and less enthused about this DC reboot. It's looking like I might be dropping close to everything. Prove me wrong DC! If the books are good, I'll still want to buy them. But it's hard to keep buying product from someone who's punching you in the face.

Batman and Robin 24 - Jason Todd's story continues. It's getting less compelling. I love Winick writing Jason Todd, but it feels like something is missing from this story. The call to care about Scarlet is foreign, because I've never really cared about her in the first place. The weird animal mercenaries were off because they felt more like a Morrison creation. And most of all, the art is just awful. It's this pseudo-looking paint job, I don't really know what it is, but it's really bad. I like the relationship between Dick and Damian but all I can think is that in four months it's not going to exist. This DC reboot isn't just threatening my future with comics, it's affecting my current enjoyment.

The New Avengers 13 - Mockingbird is going to die! Oh wait, no she's not. We were never really worried, but at least now we have a reason for that crappy 1950s Avengers story (with terrible Chaykin art!) - it gives us the Nazis version of the Super Soldier Serum. Sure, that seems like a good idea to put into Bobbi's bloodstream. I know Clint is desperate and all, but really? Would he just whole hog like that? (Oh yeah, it's Hawkeye. He definitely would.) Anyway, this story, FINALLY, seems like it's wrapping up, so maybe we can get some forward momentum going now. I can see what people were complaining about with Bendis in regards to the compressed storytelling on Daredevil now. Let's go!

The Unwritten 26 - Citizen Taylor concludes and we get ready for the real second arc of this book. It's about to get seriously good. And it was already so good before. Tom Taylor comes out of the auction like the triumphant hero we know he is and when he, Savoy and Lizzie get back home, they're ready to move on to the next step. Whatever that is, it'll be great. They get the treat of meeting with Freaky Puppet Lady Nun, who doesn't seem all that eager to help the auctioneers, despite the guarantee that she's a bad guy. There's an allusion to an agreement she had with Wilson, and there's more proof of the power of the Cabal, albeit on a delayed time table. This really is the best book coming out right now.

TPB: Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft - Let me start this by saying that this is EASILY the best new comic that I've read in a long, long time. Better than Scalped, for sure, maybe even up there with the excitement that I felt when I first read The Unwritten. Locke and Key is a series that I've been trying to get into for a while but now that I've read the first trade, I feel like it's going to happen. It's reached a critical mass. The story concerns the Locke family, who relocates to Keyhouse, because the father is killed by one of his ex-students (he was a guidance counselor). There are three kids (boy, girl, boy) and a mom leftover and the deceased dad's brother is the kind uncle figure. The house has doors that can be changed by certain keys. The one that figures prominently in this book is the Death Door, wherein if you unlock it with the right key, when you step through, your body dies and your ghost is free to go where you please. When your ghost decides to come back to your body, you live again.

The concept is fascinating, the art is amazing and the story is one of a kind. It's a medley, sure, and there are familiar tropes, but good Lord! What an incredible book this is. If you haven't been reading Locke & Key, like me, the trades are available all the way through the fourth series (there's going to be six?) and the fifth is currently coming out. I highly, highly recommend you hop on board, get caught up and get into this series. It's mind-blowingly good.

Book of the week goes to Locke & Key purely out of shame that it's taken me this long to get on the train. A series this good has been coming out for almost three years and I'm just now getting into it? The Unwritten will have to be bumped this week, just to excuse my ignorance. Go get it!

the finals: where amazing basketball is ignored.

2011-06-06T11:44:00.001-06:00

If you follow basketball at all, or perhaps in more than a half-hearted manner, you know that the NBA Finals are happening. You know that LeBron James teamed up with Dwyane Wade in South Beach and brought Chris Bosh with him to play for the Miami Heat. You know they're playing against the Dallas Mavericks, with loyal soldier Dirk Nowitzki raising his game to the highest level it's ever been just in time for the most important games of his career. You probably also know that the Heat beat the Mavs in the 2006 Finals, in a series that some remember with more than a glint in their eyes for the way the refs called the game and the amount of times Wade went to the line.

If you don't follow basketball, you're probably much like the gentleman behind me at the bar last night, explaining the game to his wife: "Remember when we were at Brad's for Easter? And we were watching the NBA Playoffs? Yeah, this is still them. Can you believe it?" And I mean no insult when I say this, but you're probably the type of person who is interested in stories with headlines like this: "Mavs Motivated by Miami's Premature Celebration?" and "Is LeBron James 'Shrinking' From the Moment?".

As I said, I mean no insult, but it has to be said: these headlines, these stories, are inane. They're pointless, beyond striving for clicks in the Internet era, and they ignore the fundamental truth to what's been an amazing post-season for the NBA: the Finals are happening and they are demonstrating some great basketball!

For those who complain that the NBA is a one-man offense, isolation play after isolation play, we've seen what happens when two superstars and a legitimate third option come together. We've seen what happens when they don't have anyone to back them up (the troubles of the Miami Heat in December and January weren't because James or Wade were struggling) and we've seen what happens when role players step into their roles willingly and successfully: Udonis Haslem is averaging 5 points and 2.6 rebounds in the Finals, while Mario Chalmers joins in with 11 points and 2 assists - does anyone think it's a coincidence that the Heat are playing at the level they are?

On the other hand, the Mavs swing the ball with precision. In last night's game, they had 18 assists on 28 field goals, hardly a sign of a team that's dominated by one presence, even though everyone on the court knows Dirk is a born shooter. Jason Terry shot a poor 38%, while still kicking in 15 points and Dallas still had a chance to win the game.

Lastly, these games have been defensive stands, where a lot of analysts assumed that Miami would be smacking around the Mavs with their star-studded offense. No team has scored more than 95 points in the three Finals games so far. With the exception of Game 1, where the Mavs just came out flat, both games have come down to final possessions.

Instead of enjoying the game or analyzing what actually happened on the court, a lot of the media are simply crafting their narratives. Who cares that Dwyane Wade played a monster game last night, with 29 points and 11 rebounds, let's ask about LeBron not being the alpha dog. By pigeon-holing the games and the Finals as a whole into the story-structure that they want, a lot of the media, and the people who read those stories, are missing out on the high level of basketball that's being played.

comics for the week of 06/01/11.

2011-06-03T08:07:00.001-06:00

I missed the last two weeks, but I'm not going to play catch up. Instead, let's talk about DC's new approach relaunch everything! I'm not a fan. I don't like being pandered to, and I feel like this is pandering in the largest sense possible. But, perhaps, I'll get into this in more detail soonish. For now, some notes on some books.

Abin Sur: Green Lantern 1 (of 3) - An interesting look at what might have been. Abin Sur is a great template for any GL story and he's used to perfection here. The contrast between him and Sinestro is striking, and even more so, the ways in which he and Hal approach the Guardians; some similarities, sure, but... I loved the last page with Sinestro and Atrocitus and am willing to buy this side mini-series, even though I usually veto things of this nature. The only way it would be better is if Johns was writing it, although Adam Schlagman does a fine enough job, but especially if someone else was on the art duties. This book calls for something other than the super cartoony tone, which is all I got out of it thus far. Not bad art, by any means, but not really fleshing out the tone of the book, in my opinion, either.

Flashpoint 2 (of 5) - The source of all the controversy! The book that I was barely even willing to buy! Well...it turns out that it's pretty good. The art by Andy Kubert is solid and the writing from Johns even feels like there are little subtle nods to everyone about what's going on and what's happened in the past. ("What kind of name is Eobard?" I love it!) The real pull to things like this is the trivia (that's why they're good in small doses, like the five-issue miniseries we have here, not the company-wide relaunching they're aiming for) so, naturally, I'm curious as to who the Gimp/Sonar is in the beginning of the book. But it's great to see Aquaman and Wonder Woman freed as the primal forces they always could have been. The intrigue with Thomas Wayne is a great thing, too, but it plays out a little too much like Bruce here. I suppose that's the point, but it's over the top by the end. Speaking of the end, I like the twist and wish they'd go forward with something along these lines, but we all know that won't be the case. Regardless, Flashpoint has turned into a solid read and I'm sure that, with what we know of the ramifications looming at the end of August, it'll shove plenty onto our plates in the next few issues.

Shield 1 - Great issue, super confusing, tons of fun, and felt like only a part of the story. This could be the one-line description for every single issue of Shield we've gotten so far. As I said above with the DC renumbering idea, I'm not a fan of arbitrarily going back to number one. I get that they're different stories, but it's still the same book; why not keep the numbering? Aside from that small complaint, I think this was a nice re-intro to the series. Someone who hadn't read the first ... chapter (?) could conceivably pick this up and not be too lost. (At least, not more lost than me, and I read the whole thing.) The battle lines are drawn between Newton and da Vinci, but I get the feeling that we'll be learning more backstory and filling in the gaps with Tesla and Leonid in this arc than actually seeing the battle, or the outcome. I'm fine with that, of course, because Hickman is just doing a great job with this idea. I did wonder as I was reading through the character bios at the back, if there were any living relatives of Newton's to whom Hickman's going to owe an apology (or more) to. Great stuff, as always.

Book of the week goes to Flashpoint for making me eat my words. I love it when a comic turns out better than I thought it was going to be, and that's the case when Geoff Johns plots an event. It's almost always better than I anticipate, and that's always a good thing. I love the alternate-world idea, always have, and am intrigued by what's going to happen here in this world to affect our own so drastically. (I know, I know! They're not different worlds. This is our world. Deal with it.) If you weren't picking up Flashpoint before the August 31 news, I'm sure you are now.

the changing of the guard has already happened.

2011-05-31T08:45:00.000-06:00

There are a lot of times where something only looks clear in hindsight. And when we look back, people, mainly historians and those who want to appear smart, remark, "Oh, we should have seen this coming. Look at all these signs..." And they'll point out Exhibits A, B, C, etc. as though, had they been living through the times, they would have seen with crystal-clear precision what exactly was happening and where it was leading.

This is one of those times.

The NBA Finals haven't even started yet, but the guard has already been changed. The NBA landscape seems as though it'll be forever altered after this season, but especially after this post-season. All year long, the Miami Heat have been carefully watched and dissected, their every move either a cause for rejoicing or anguish. This was inevitable, of course, after LeBron James decided to hold "The Decision" - depending on your viewpoint, either a success of the modern athlete asserting their own destiny, or a callous young man stabbing his hometown in the back, on national television - and join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in South Beach. They held an infamous preseason celebration for the titles they swore they would win and battle lines were drawn. There were people who couldn't wait for the spectacle of two of the best basketball players in the world (plus Chris Bosh) on one team and there were those who were so turned off by the megalomania they rooted against the Heat in a passionate manner. There weren't many people halfway in between.

When the Heat stumbled, all of the Heat's Big Three seemed to get punished - but none moreso than James. He was seen as the face of the unit (rightly so) and he would take the most criticism. However, when the post-season arrived, he was also the one who turned it on. The man some accuse of quitting last year against the Boston Celtics suddenly had every answer. He made shots he'd missed previously and, when it was over, he celebrated - perhaps accordingly, perhaps in an over-the-top manner.

But while the Heat were winning, the Atlanta Hawks and the Chicago Bulls were serving notice that, despite the Celtics' sudden over-the-hill appearance, the Eastern Conference would be a dogfight for the next few years.

Meanwhile, when the season began with all the attention on the Heat, it apparently escaped the notice of the mainstream media that Jason Terry, one of the Dallas Mavericks had gotten a tattoo of the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy! The fact that this story is only now coming to light shows the extent to which the media wore horse blinders in regard to the Heat. The only other team that garnered near as much attention as the Super Friends in South Beach were the two-time defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. When the Mavs dispatched of the Lakers in an unceremonious sweep, it was suddenly time for a new narrative for the season.

So here, today, it's upon us. The Dallas versus Miami rematch. The teams met last in the 2006 Finals, and that's all that anyone can talk about now. The narrative has been building all season, but it hasn't been clear until now. Either Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry will have their revenge on the team that psychologically damaged them, or James, Wade and Bosh will be proved right - they did the right thing, made the right decisions, and the trophies are theirs for the foreseeable future.

There may be people, in the future, who will tell you they saw this coming, that it was inevitable, that it was destiny. Those people are liars. But, that doesn't mean that this isn't going to be a great series and that we'll have plenty to talk about, not just during the matchup, but in the weeks and months (and yes, maybe even years) to follow.

dirk nowitzki with an all-time effort.

2011-05-18T07:53:00.001-06:00

Last night, the Dirkus Circus put forth an offensive effort that should be talked about forever. Dirk Nowitzki has been one of the top guys in the NBA for a long time, and he's obviously been the top gun in Dallas for the Mavericks since getting there. But last night, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, he did something special.

After Nowitzki and his Mavs swept the two-time defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, things were looking rosy for them. But against a young and enthusiastic Oklahoma City Thunder and the youngest scoring champ in NBA history, Kevin Durant, things were supposed to be tough.

Game 1 might have gotten as close as 5 points in the last 4 minutes, but it never felt that close. With Nowitzki nearly impossible to guard, the Thunder did the even worse thing - sending him to the free throw line, where he was 24-24.

Nowitzki, of course, has been long-regarded as one of the premier talents in the game, but the soft label chased him around the league like a persistent bloodhound. After going up 2-0 on the Miami Heat in 2006, the Mavs suffered a psyche-crushing loss in Game 3 and promptly lost the series.

The next year, in 2007, as the overall 1 seed, the Mavs were the first team to lose to an 8 seed in a 7 game series. The Golden State Warriors capitalized on several advantages and continued the Mavs' woes.

In 2008, the New Orleans Hornets got to play the spoiler to the Mavs, brushing them aside in the first round 1-4.. In 2009, they lost in the Conference Semifinals to the Denver Nuggets, again 1-4. In 2010, it was the San Antonio Spurs who got the best of the Mavs, again in the second round, 2-4.

When this season began, the Mavs had made a couple trades to beef up their team, but no matter how impressive they looked, they were dismissed. They were the cowards and the chokers who couldn't get it done in the post-season. Nowitzki was an all-time talent, but he'd never live up to the disappointment of his '06 Finals collapse against the Heat. It was smart money to bet against the Mavs.

Unitl, all of a sudden, last night, when Nowitzki decided to make all the pundits look like fools. He shot 12-15 from the line along with the aforementioned perfection from the free throw line, for 48 points. He also managed 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. He posted a ridiculous 93.89% on true shooting percentage and put on a clinic on how to shoot that should e part of any teaching highlights film.

The only question now is whether the fans of the Dallas Mavericks feel comfortable enough to start rooting for the Miami Heat to beat the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals so that they can exact their true revenge.

comics for the week of 05/11/11.

2011-05-17T07:08:00.000-06:00

Some nice variety. For a change.

Batgirl 21 - The Reapers continue their assault, this time with a music student who can transform sound into energy. Batgirl has a few problems with her, but, spoiler alert, manages to defeat her. The real point to this issue was the development with the Grey Ghost, as he's getting primed to become her nemesis. He's a lame one at this point, but she's still getting her feet wet and it'll be cool to have them develop and come up together.

FF 3 - Nice twist to this issue, even though I should have seen it coming. Basically anytime that Dr. Doom is involved with the FF or with the Marvel Universe at large, I think, is a good time. So, has all this stuff with the other Reeds been happening in the background this whole time? Is that the takeaway that we're supposed to grasp? Because I want this action to build to a head sooner rather than later. I want a major war and I want to see some hardcore Doom action. And I think I will. It's gonna be awesome.

Flashpoint 1 - Way better than I expected it to be. I was discussing with Dave Jordan that I don't really care for either Kubert's art, but it didn't bother me too badly in this issue. I was intrigued by the different world stuff, as I almost always am, but it also felt like it would, inevitably, not matter. The twist at the end with Batman was cool, and I didn't see it coming, which was refreshing, but I also have this feeling of ennui when it comes to this book that nothing is going to matter and it's all a big waste of time. I'll stick with it, though, because that's what addicts do.

The Flash 12 - This one had mixed art from Kolins & Manapul, which is an improvement over just Kolins, but still isn't the book as advertised or promised. Zoom getting to kill alternaBarry (or Hot Pursuit, who proves with his immediate death what a worthless character he was) was the best thing about the issue, which is good for the villain sympathizers, but bad if you're pulling for the hero of a book. Barry Allen just feels so flat. It was a mistake to bring him back and it's a waste of Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul's talents to have them half-assing this book.

Moon Knight 1 - Well, even though I saw the preview of the art, I still thought it would be all right. And the last page was a cool reveal. But I just don't know if I can justify buying this book for Maleev's art when it's soooo different. I don't mind change, but this is clearly change for the worse. His art does not look as good as it normally does (and I know someone told me the real reason why and, more importantly, I know that's a totally subjective thing, but...) and I don't care that much about Moon Knight, so I don't see myself continuing with this book.

The New Avengers 12 - Surprise, that Cap at the end of last issue turned out to not really be Cap. And...Mockingbird is still on the operating table. Meanwhile, some stuff happened back in the 1950s but none of it mattered or matters because we haven't heard about it until now. Oh, but Victor Creed, Sabertooth, in case you forgot about him, was still a badass. Like you always knew he was. The good news? That waste of a story is done and it looks like we'll actually have some plot development with Victoria Hand and the HAMMER issue. That'll be good. Or just get Bendis back to writing pure dialogue issues between Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Spider-Man and Wolverine. Those are gold.

The Unwritten 25 - The second arc of the story begins with a bang as Tom spits out of a jar of water and immediately gets to work with Lizzie and Savoy on perpetuating his myth as well as getting back some old belongings of his father. Savoy seems to have taken to being a vampire exceptionally well, and Lizzie hops right back in the sack with Tom, so things are going well. That is, until they fall into a trap. Which, you know, is a drag. I don't know how many other ways I can put it: if you're not reading this book, and you claim to like comics, you're doing yourself a disservice.

Book of the week goes to the Unwritten in a runaway. There were some otherwise good books, but this one is head and shoulders above the rest.

comic for the week of 05/04/11.

2011-05-10T09:28:00.001-06:00

As predicted, a short stack. The shortest stack possible.

Superboy 6 - The artist changed on this book and I didn't mind it. The direction of the story, though, felt too much like same old, same old. We've seen the terrible future in every comic book story by now, but it feels especially played out with the Teen Titans and their current (former?) members. The only good thing was the presence of Valentine as a possible evil ally. This is going to trouble for Conner because he's going to think about this vision often. Meanwhile, he actually needs all the help he can get from Valentine to fend off the coming attack from Psyonic Lad. (Did anyone else think, practically all issue, that this was a plot of the Lad's? That it still might even be?) Lemire's writing is still going to draw me into this book and I'm good to give it more than its fair share of the leash, but it's got to have something other than a story I've already read four times (bare minimum) with this character. And quick.

I refuse to name a book of the week when I only pick up one book as that seems like more of a diss than a compliment. However, it should be said that, as I'm buying less than 20 books a month and Superboy is one of them, I'd recommend it to most people.

things done changed.

2011-05-09T08:21:00.000-06:00

Every time there's a seismic shift, things feel more important. And this year, in the NBA, things feel important. It feels like something is happening. It feels like a changing of the guard.

When the San Antonio Spurs were taken out by the upstart Memphis Grizzlies, it was clear that the times, they were a'changing. The Boston Celtics are still clinging to life, thanks to a one-armed Rajon Rondo, but their title window has always been supposed to be "only this year" - regardless of what year it is, and despite the fact that the pundits said the same thing last year. Finally, with the sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers by the Dallas Mavericks, the icing is on the cake and the writing is on the wall.

There can be no doubt about a Playoffs where the Atlanta Hawks refuse to bow to the best-record-in-the-league Chicago Bulls. And when those Grizzlies, who never seemed to doubt that they'd triumph over the Spurs, are challenging the Oklahoma City Thunder in ways that no one predicted, it's time to realize that a movement has already overtaken the league. It's not creeping up. It's not approaching. It's here, it's now, and it's too late for anyone to say they saw it coming.

The coronation of Derrick Rose as MVP was a nice nod to the coming youth movement, but Rose has already been acknowledged, as a high school prospect, as an elite college player, who took his team to the promised land, even if they fell short, and even if that run has since been negated. When he said that he wanted MVP his rookie year, people looked at him like he was crazy. No one's doing so now. But Rose has never been the ringleader of this movement - that honor falls to Kevin Durant. As the youngest scoring champion in the history of the league, and the fresh, smiling face of the Thunder, he was supposed to be the one. And he still might be.

But he'll have to get past Tony Allen and Marc Gasol and - most of all - Zach Randolph, if he wants to continue his assault on the league. With the Grizz taking the fight right to the jaws of the Thunder and the Hawks battling the Bulls like no one expected, it's clear that the league is shifting right from under the feet of those who were privileged to come before, and even more quickly from those who just assumed they got next.

Who got next is a persistent question in basketball. If you keep winning, you get to keep playing. You see the faces across from you shift, and you don't really care, you don't take time to honestly evaluate the opposition, because it doesn't matter. All that matters is the fact that you're winning, your time is now. But sooner, rather than later - because time bows to no man, woman or team - you will slip. The Spurs, Lakers, and maybe the Celtics are learning that lesson now. And when you do slip, as they have (or will) it can be disorienting to look at the face of the team that beat you. You might find yourself wondering, "Who is this? How did they get here? How did they get me?"

But by that point, it's too late.

comics for the week of 04/26/11.

2011-05-05T07:53:00.001-06:00

A thick week for the stack. Which probably means that next week I won't get any books. It's a weird time for me as a comic fan. Add in some of the news that I'm legally not allowed to talk about, and it's been a fun time.

Action Comics 900 - Lex. With the power....of a GOD! And it's handled damn well. Seriously. It might be hard to believe, but it shouldn't be for anyone who's read any of Paul Cornell's run on Action Comics. It's sad to lose the Lex Luthor on the front cover, but this is a fitting end. And the real end, the one that's been in the news, with Superman...wow. It's impressive. If they stick with this, and they really roll with it the way they can and should, it can entertain for years. I'm confident in DC right now, and a big reason why is because of the fact that they've made me care about Superman. From "For Tomorrow" on there have been great arcs pretty consistently on Superman. It's all because of a guy named Geoff Johns. You might have heard of him and he's left a legacy here. 900 issues is a hell of an accomplishment, and Superman keeps on prevailing, even in a world that's gone through the likes of Batman, Wolverine, Image, and back all the way around.

Detective Comics 876 - This is the best Bat book. Period. Scott Snyder is writing the hell out of this book and Jock's pencils are pitch perfect. I love the idea that this book is actually embracing its title and looking at some of the darker mysteries of Gotham City. I love that Dick Grayson is the guy who's solving those mysteries. I hope this book never changes. This issue starts a new three-issue arc called Hungry City which starts with one of the more impressive two page spreads that I've seen in a long, long time. The interaction between Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon is also super impressive, and I LOVE the fact that we don't see as much of Batman with the Comish, in contrast to this relationship. The way that the past has come back, here with Zucco, and in the last arc with Jim's son, James, seems to be a speciality of Snyder's and I'm quite a fan of it.

FF 2 - I didn't think I was going to buy this book. I thought it would be a one and done for me, just out of curiosity of what Hickman did at the end of Fantastic Four. I liked all that, but I'm not an FF Fan. But when I saw Doom on the cover and I flipped through the book in the store, I couldn't help myself. And I was right! This book was so, so, so, so good. The way that Hickman nails the family interactions of Reed, Sue and Ben is everything I've ever wanted from a FF book and the interloper nature of Spider-Man proves that he's in the right place. This book is going to be amazing for as long as it lasts.

The Flash 11 - This one, on the other hand, is going downhill ridiculously fast. I don't care how much other people love the art of Scott Kolins, the simple fact is he is not as good an artist as Francis Manapul. And when Manapul is (at least!) half the draw to the book, the book suffers when he's not there. I don't care about the reasons. I just care that the art doesn't look as good. Plus, I don't care about Flashpoint, I don't care about alternate Barry Allen, and I don't care about the so-called intervention for our Barry Allen. This book is slagging in a major way and I can't see myself sticking with it much longer if we can't get a major recommitment from Manapul.

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors 9 - The War of the Green Lanterns continues and it's great. Here we see Mogo coming after our four Lanterns and the rings are obviously starting to affect them. (Kyle is the most obvious, but he's also the best one to watch.) Whatever this character is that's introduced as a police officer ("To Protect and Serve"?) of the Green is someone to watch out for, because you know that Geoff Johns doesn't introduce these sorts of concepts without a great reason that's going to pay off much further down the road. The way this story isgoing makes me feel that it certainly won't be as epic as the Sinestro Corps, but it might be just as important in its long-lasting ramifications.

Jimmy Olsen 1 - This one shot collected the backups from last year, which were fun at that time, and read great as a complete story here. The art is cartoonish in the best way possible and it really fits the tone of Jimmy Olsen and the story that's told here. There's not a lot more to say here, other than I didn't remember the end of these stories (were they published?) and I enjoyed the book. IF you didn't pick it up, you missed out.

The New York Five 4 (of 4) - This was a great experiment for me. I enjoyed it and this issue was a hell of a conclusion, but I won't be repeating it. When the next arc comes out, which I'm sure it will, I won't be buying it. I loved the art, I loved the concept, but I didn't really care about the story. Maybe this is because I've already done my Strangers in Paradise thing, but I just wasn't compelled by it. Not in any bad way, because, like I said, it was good, I enjoyed it. BUt it's not my cup of tea. I'm glad I read it, because I'll recommend it to a lot of different people, but I won't be continuing.

Book of the week goes to Action 900. Even if it wasn't the monumental anniversary issue that it is, it's a truly satisfying conclusion to a great, slow burn of a story arc. That's got to be rewarded and I hope the sales back that point up.

tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of raymond k. hessel's life.

2011-05-03T08:07:00.001-06:00

I already presented my own thoughts on bin Laden's death. Here, I try to tie them into sports. If it gets put up on the Alibi as it should, I'll edit to include that link.

*

Yesterday, the news was delivered that Osama bin Laden is dead. And while this might not be the most logical link with sports, it defies expectation to remember 9/11 and not have a memory of a sporting event.

When that day passed, a lot of people questioned whether irony was dead, whether we would live in a state of permanent seriousness, whether the little things would ever matter again. But, of course, they did matter again, and they mattered again very quickly. One of the things that we consistently do as humans is underestimate our ability to adapt to changes.

When then-President Bush threw out the first pitch for the New York Yankees, that was a cathartic moment for many people. It mattered that we were able to get back to something that, mere days before, commentators and newscasters had been discarding as trivial. The little things, as it turns out, are the ones that matter the most.

This was, of course, most famously said by Jon Stewart. "They said to get back to work." And today, we will, perhaps finally, perhaps ultimately, be able to do so.

In a nice parallel with the Yankee game, there will be sports on tomorrow. It will be, just like yesterday and the day before, just another ordinary day. But there will be something special in these sports, the ones that don't matter to so many people. These things especially seem to not matter to arty types of people, the people who read alternative newspapers, because sports is seen as a somewhat mainstream interest. Those things are both usually true.

But today, starting at 1:35 PM local time in Oakland, the Texas Rangers will play the Athletics. The National Anthem will be sung, and it's my guess that that rendition of the song will sound sweeter than it did yesterday, or the day before. It's my guess that'll be the case at most of the baseball games scheduled. And the basketball games. And any other games that are scheduled that escaped the national scope.

Because, in the end, it is these little things that matter. They remind us that, despite tragedy or triumph, life goes on the way it has before: slowly, sometimes good, sometimes bad, one day at a time.

*

It didn't go up yesterday (and yeah, I'm keeping the time frame in the piece, even thought it doesn't make sense reading it on Tuesday as thought it was supposed to be read on Monday, but that's the way it is) and I don't care.

But what I do care about is the fact that, 24 hours later, things seem a lot more clear. Mindy C left a great comment on my last entry, as she is wont to do. And, really, the sports things weren't as big as I thought they were going to be. And I think that's a good thing, because, unlike 10 years ago, we didn't need the catharsis. It was still a big deal, and it was a nice thing. But more than needing that, we processed things in a calm and rational way. There were great articles saying much the same things I said yesterday and one of those was from an athlete on Twitter!

Things are getting better.

osama bin laden is dead.

2011-05-02T07:08:00.000-06:00

Last night, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden has been killed. There were tons of reactions, and I'm sure I'm not delivering this news to you for the first time. But I did think it interesting when one of my Facebook friends put up the famous Gandhi quotation, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." In the midst of an almost universal (at least, as far as the media I was consuming) celebration, I was slapped back to reality by an old idea that I definitely believe in. And that's when I realized that I was processing this on many different levels. And I think that it's important that I get these levels down, mostly for myself, if not for other people, maybe to think about the fact that we probably all are doing this as well. These reactions might not be the same as yours, or some of them might, but I think it's mainly just an exercise for myself.

The first thing that I felt was pride. I think I felt this mostly as an American. We undertook this task almost ten years ago, to kill the man who was responsible for this great, national pain. And we did it! Team America: World Police threw a party in my head!

Then, I felt pride as a liberal, or more specifically, as a Democrat: Barack Obama will be reelected! He did in 2 years what George W. Bush couldn't do in 8! God, I'm so happy!

Then it went back to unified American and I was reminded of the pain we suffered on 9/11 and I thought of people like this and I realized that this day was so much bigger than one side of the political equation. It was a proud moment and I was happy to bask in that joy of a man being killed.

Then I saw my friend's Facebook post and I realized that I was overjoyed about the death of another person. I asked if we could remember a time when so many people were so happy over the death of a person? I heard Hitler, but I said we couldn't remember that - this is fresh. This is here and now. And we're all celebrating. It felt weird for a semi-pacifist, for a liberal who's not a huge fan of the Army or death or war or any of those things to be reveling in the fact that someone had died.

And then, finally, I tried to process this is a philosophical way: I am happy he's dead. Some of the families who need it have closure now. I believe in Gandhi's words. I really do. I think war is ~~never~~ rarely the answer, and I think that when you take revenge, all you're doing is extending a vicious cycle. But I'm older now than I was yesterday, and thankfully that will always be the case. And I think the single thing that growing older has taught me is that things are not black and white. (A black and white statement if there ever was one, eh?) There are shades of grey. And Osama bin Laden, despite being a human being, deserved to die. I know that's a heavy label to throw around, but I'm pretty sure I'm comfortable with it.

I don't think we should make exceptions to the rules every time we feel we've been slighted. I think rules are good things, and I don't believe in anarchy. I love my government and I love my country. If I was drafted, even though I'm not a fan of the Army, I would go and fight, even if I thought the war was idealistically wrong. I think there are such things as good and bad. I think that, for the most part, we've been on the side of good. And I think, for the most part, killing someone is bad. But I think that this was a good thing. I think that this was something that was deserved.

Most of all, at the end of the night, I felt optimistic for the future. I'm a pretty optimistic guy for the most part, but last night, I felt hope in a way that I hadn't for a long, long time. There was a sliver of my brain that said it was wrong to feel that way over a man's death. But the larger part of me said, it's not about his death. It's about the feeling that people like this embodied. If that's wrong, if that leads me down the path to the dark side, then I have to think that the sides are closer than anyone could ever imagine.

nuggets > knicks?

2011-04-27T08:59:00.000-06:00

When the New York Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony, there were whispers and rumors of a return to significance, if not a return to excellence. Yew York City has always been thirsty for great basketball, and has not often been rewarded with it. Amar'e Stoudemire had already been delivered to the Knicks via free agency in the summer and things had been looking up for New York's team. The chemistry that Amar'e had built, however, with Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton and Danilo Gallinari vanished when they did, in the trade that brought Anthony in from the Denver Nuggets.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, had been better than the middling team many predicted them to be during the 2010-2011 season. The drama surrounding the trade that Anthony was intent on forcing hurt the team, but they still managed to win at a greater clip than the Knicks. New York's record before the trade was 28-26, good for a 51.8%. Denver, on the other hand, clearly had a better team, and better chemistry, as they ran out to a 32-25 record, good for 56.1%.

Looking at the raw percentages and records, it's clear that, even though Anthony was holding the Denver Nuggets mentally hostage, the team was set up to succeed. The Western Conference is a tough place to win, with the championship pedigree of the Los Angeles Lakers and the size and wisdom of the San Antonio Spurs and the youthful upstarts of Portland and Oklahoma City hungry to take the crown. But the Nuggets were holding their own.

After the trade, New York was, essentially, the exact same team. The Knicks went 14-14 after February 21, finishing with a final regular season record of 42-40, winning 51.2% of their games. The aforementioned loss of chemistry between Stoudemire and the teammates that were sent to Denver for Anthony might have been to blame, but it's honestly hard to say. What can be said when a team trades three guys (four, in reality) for one guy, but their winning percentage remains almost identical?

On the other hand, the Denver Nuggets - who, remember, had already been winning at a greater clip than the Knicks - improved dramatically. After moving Anthony, the Nuggets went on a tear of 18-7, finishing with a regular season record of 50-32, improving their percentage by more than 4 points. It was impressive mostly because it was unexpected, Anthony is widely respected as one of the best closers in the game of basketball, and Denver was thought to have lost the trade, if the discussion was going to center purely on wins and losses.

That logic, clearly, was flawed.

And now, the Playoffs have revealed another wrinkle to this issue: The Boston Celtics just swept the New York Knicks. No matter how Denver finishes this season, they will have won more Playoff games than the Knicks.

So what does this mean? Does it all come down to chemistry? Is this something that'll have to wait to be truly judged until next season's Playoffs? Or is that over-complicating things? Is it a simpler matter of looking at the teams and saying, Bravo for team play, for coming together in the aftermath of one player thinking that he was bigger than the team.

comics for the week of 04/20/11.

2011-04-25T08:34:00.000-06:00

In keeping with my new sports column, I'm going to be a bit looser in these reviews.

Fables 104 - The cover kicks ass, the concept kicks ass, the execution kicks ass. You can't ask for much more from a comic book. I love how Pinocchio is one of the leaders of this team of Super Fables despite not really bringing anything to the table. Then we switch back to Castle Dark and we see Mister Dark interacting with the formerly fat lady. Their duo is going to be trouble, as if it's not already. The loss of Flycatcher from the team didn't come as a complete shock to me, but I will be shocked in a great way if Boy Blue does make a return during these next three or four issues. That seems like it could be an interesting thread to pursue. Obviously, though, we'll be distracted from the main fight with Dark during next issue's tussle between Bigby and his father - this is going to be a big, bad one. (No pun intended.) And, repeating what I've said earlier, from the way the North Wind spoke to him, I honestly think that Wolf Sr. is hoping to die here, as opposed to having to kill his grandson. Wow. God stuff.

Green Lantern 65 - The issue starts with Kilowog being a badass. It gets better from there. For Krona being such a smart, old dude, it sure took him a lot longer than Guy, John, Kyle and Hal to figure out the Parallax thing. And there's a curious line on page 2 when Krona says, "No. It can't simply be emotional. It has to be scientific." For a guy whose whole beef seems to stem from the Guardians refusing to acknowledge the importance of emotion, this is interesting. The Green House concept is a good one, if an obvious (necessary) retcon and the relationship between Guy and Hal while Hal's flying is something that I can't believe hasn't been explored yet. The four remaining GLs meeting up and the page (from Mahnke!) of Hal holding out the other rings is pure gold. I love the fact that they all choose rings that seem to make sense to us, and yet, when they meet up with Ganthet (in the next issue) he speaks (in that wise manner that Johns uses to convey that he knows something we don't) of how they all chose poorly. Loved the last page. Not everything has to be a cliffhanger. Some things can survive on just being awesome.

Green Lantern Corps 59 - The art of Kirkham is significantly worse than Mahnke's, which makes for a bummer of a start to this issue, but the writing made up for it, and I like that the once-separate groups are now much closer, so the story feels like it's actually flowing as one entity, as opposed to three different threads. The inability of all four 2814 GLs to control their new rings is also something that moves this issue along in a great way. It would have been way too easy for the guys just to slip on the rings and charge to the rescue. I love the fact that they're not actually in control. When they finally get to Ganthet, as I mentioned, I think his words are clues as to how this is going to end up: Kyle will definitely end up a Blue Lantern, which is what most of us had been predicting, but John will not be an Indigo Tribe member. This, to me, is a shock. I think we'd all felt pretty confident that John was headed that way. Johns loves to throw out these little future hints and I think these are pretty clear. John's "ill-suited" but Kyle's simply "not prepared" - those are key differences. As for Guy's "red ring" being "likely a death sentence" well, that's got to be a red herring. Johns is a hell of a writer and if you don't think he's slipping some hints to Bedard, you're out of your mind. And, of course, for the ending here, we pull in Mogo for another one of those semi-cliffhangers.

Invincible 79 - Dropping the bomb on us, Kirkman gets subtle with the timespan and then, promptly afterwards, makes himself an enemy list of most of the Religious Right. Invincible switches his costume back to an older design, falls back into some nice habits on Earth and is getting along well in his relationship with Eve. On the other hand, most other people in the book are struggling. Eve and Debbie are friends, which is weird for Mark, and every single person that Nolan crosses paths with at the Pentagon trembles in fear of him. Cecil admits that perhaps it's not a great idea to have him around. Dinosaurus makes a brief return, which promises to turn into a larger event. But the real meat of the issue arises when Mark and Eve go to dinner with Kate and the Immortal, who appear to be the very picture of wedded bliss. They've got kids, and everyone's happy, except Eve. She breaks down and gives Mark the news that I refuse to spoil here. But let me voice my genuine shock. I mean, no one else knew this was coming, did they? We were all supposed to think the opposite? Cuz, man, that caught me off guard. Great issue, great handling of real emotions. The page of both of them crying almost got me to join in. And, of course, in Kirkman style, we can't have all that genuine emotion, so we got one panel of Kate playing comic relief, which felt perfect.

Book of the week goes to Invincible for being willing to push boundaries even while it remains the same book. It doesn't need to change to be great, but it constantly finds a way to move forward without compromising its core values. Fantastic stuff.

unleash the slovenian farm team analysis.

2011-04-20T08:48:00.000-06:00

With the news last week that Free Darko was ending I decided to say fuck it and stop writing my Alibi posts as though I was still constrained by the newspaper, as though I have something to shill. It's never worked for me anyway.

The NBA Playoffs have gotten off to a bang and it's time to unleash your liberated fandom. The games started off with what some are calling the best NBA weekend ever - although The Basketball Jones wonder how you can qualify that - and have continued to spill over in complete madness.

Over the weekend, in the Western Conference, both the 1 seed and the 2 seed lost their first games. There were indications that it would be this crazy when the boring game that everyone was talking smack about turned into an almost-instant classic.

On Tuesday night, Carmelo Anthony decided to take things to a whole new level by scoring 42 points in a noble effort to keep the New York Knicks afloat. It didn't work. But it made for one of the most entertaining games thus far, in a postseason that's been filled with them.

The time has come to declare that, if you're not watching this season of basketball and especially now, if you're not watching this postseason of NBA, you're clearly not a fan of basketball. There are always arguments made about whether the NCAA game or the NBA is a better product, but putting aside the notion that this is a subjective argument and cannot be won by one side or the other - the quality of play thus far has been far beyond what fans even had a right to expect.

The righteous anger of Denver, with the drama surrounding Anthony all season, has been galvanized since the trade. They're playing out of their heads against an Oklahoma City Thunder team that some claim is ready to take that next step - all the way to the Finals.

On the other side of the bracket, no one expected the Chicago Bulls to be this good when the season started. But now that it's finished, and the Bulls had the best record in the league, the weight of expectations has been foisted upon them. The struggles that presumptive-MVP Derrick Rose and his team are having with the Indiana Pacers do not bode well for the other young gun team.

(It'd be more than bizarre, but a little apropos, at least, if the Bulls were to meet the Thunder in the 2011 NBA Finals. I don't think it'll happen.)

Dirk Nowitzki was mentioned early in the season as a possible MVP candidate, but then his team merely did what it's done for the last 12 years straight: win more than 50 games in pretty convincing fashion, despite a host of injuries. He's roared back to life (along with the old man swag of Jason Kidd) for the Playoffs and the Dallas Mavericks look to be a tough out for anyone, much less the (seemingly, at this point) over-matched Portland Trailblazers.

The thing about this postseason is that it's reaffirming the notion that this season was (and is) one for the ages. With the worry of a lockout looming over everyone's heads (the players, the owners, and, most of all, the fans) this feels a little bit like insurance: if the building burns down, at least we'll have memories of that one last rager of a party.

comics for the week of 04/13/11.

2011-04-16T12:30:00.000-06:00

I honestly bought no comics last week. I know Fear Itself 1 came out, but I have no interest in it. At this point, I feel like my comic fandom is winding down but I'm not happy about it. I am, however, happy about saving some money. Of course, I made up for that by getting a large stack (for me) this week.

Batgirl 20 - Part 2 of the Slipstream story and it was gooooood. Batgirl has gotten better and better since I expressed doubt about it, just after the first year of books ended. The art fits the book, the storytelling is concise and fun, and the characters are developing nicely. I don't know what else someone could honestly want from a comic book. In this issue, Batgirl gets a rematch with the speedster from last issue, and shows some ingenuity in coming up with the solution. She's also getting along nicely with Proxy, which is good, because (apparently?) Barbara is out. (To know what's happening there would require me reading Birds of Prey, but I'm sure I can fill in some of the gaps.) The continuing relationship with Nick the cop is also nice. This book is fun.

Batman and Robin 22 - Every time I feel like I might be getting to the drop point with this book, something switches up. It's totally uneven and frustrating at times, but the good, to me, outweighs the bad. I love the trend in many of the Bat books right now to come up with fresh new villains instead of having year-long arcs using the oldies but goodies. The new writing and art team have done a good job, but it doesn't feel compelling. I love the relationship between Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne and I'm happy that's a focus of this book. But...other than those good elements, I'm not sure this is a must-read.

The Flash 10 - Flashpoint continues to disappoint. The alternate world Barry Allen was disappointing enough as the big reveal on the last page of the last issue but it got worse this issue. The relationship between Bart Allen and Barry is good, and the art of Francis Manapul continues to be one of the best things going in comics right now but I don't find much else in this book, or in Barry's story since return, to care about. The only compelling thing would be if Barry's squeaky clean image as shed, he left Iris for newly-returned Patty and we had some drama going in this book. That'd be compelling, but it would also be something that no one (including myself, who's writing about it) would want to see. I'm not sure what's going to save this book.

New Avengers 11 - I wonder if Bendis plotted this cover as a joke. Seriously, look at it. Maybe this is his middle finger to the older fans, by saying, 'Hahaha. These are the Avengers now!" I like the book, normally, but he does seem mean-spirited (and stubborn) enough to do something like that. The current story, though, is really testing my patience: while I care a little bit about saving Mockingbird, and a little more so about Victoria Hand's battle to be accepted by the New Avengers, I'm really loathe to accept the retcon of Nick Fury putting together a team of Avengers in the 50s including Sabretooth, Namora, Kraven, Bloodstone, Fortune and some other Silver Sable (her father? Really?). It's overly campy, I'm never a fan of Chaykin's art, I don't care how much of a legend he is, and I don't see the point. It doesn't always have to have a point, but if it's just a fun story, well, it's not much fun. They're badass, they don't like Nazis, I get it. And Cap appears at the end, and this is supposed to be some kind of cliffhanger? No.

Shield Infinity - Nice touch with the numbering, nice story. The Colossus of Rhodes going up against the Kree? Geek heaven. Newton's evil genius? Understandable. The hidden message? Not really clear to me. The book is good, and it shows tremendous promise, and the best news is that they seem to have a solid plan moving forward. I'd be interested in learning if this is planned as a finite series, or if they're just gonna roll with it as long as they can. I see a lot of LOST parallels here and they'd benefit from some overall-plotting type of thinking. Regardless, it's definitely one of the most exciting books on the market.

Superboy 6- I like it when huge crossovers, like the Reign of Doomsday, invade books I read and I don't have to worry about the overall plot. I don't care about the Reign of Doomsday and I don't want to have to care. Its run through this book didn't negatively impact me because I didn't need to know what was going on with that story to understand this story. And I like that it'll run into Action 900 so I'll get a little continuity. It was refreshing to see Connor get his ass kicked by Doomsday, because I hate it when a previously killer villain gets turned into a pale version of him (or her) self. I'd like to see Valentine be mentored by Ray Palmer as they're hinting at. The thing about Superboy's book is that it could use more supporting characters that can stand on their own, and all the Superman knockoffs are kind of worrying in that aspect. If they can't create someone(s) for Connor, I'm OK with using an established character in a (kind of) new way.

The Unwritten 24 - This issue was as good as I was hoping, which is a rare thing in any medium. The return of Pauly, some more of the best behind the scenes looks at what's really happening in this book, no mention of Tom, a lying, hypocritical leader, and it kicked the ass of everything else this week. The art was different, but it fit, and the way that Pauly relentlessly manipulated everyone and, eventually, abandoned them was heartbreaking and perfect at the same time. In a way, this issue alone could serve as a microcosm for so many other stories (and religions) - including the Unwritten itself. This issue will stay engraved on my brain for a long, long time. The journey up the stairs, the appearance of Pauly, the takeover, the betrayal of the free people, and the battle and climax were all pitch perfect.

Book of the week should be obvious, but it's definitely the Unwritten. I don't know how a book could be much better than this book has been for two years straight. I know I sound like a broken record by now regarding this one, but if you're not picking it up, you are denying yourself in a wicked way.

playoffs seeded. battles still to be fought.

2011-04-13T23:20:00.001-06:00

On the last day of the NBA regular season, all 30 teams in the league were in action, something that hasn't happened since 1957. It was an action-packed night.

With the Eastern Conference all taken care of insofar as seeding, the Bulls were still fighting for the overall first seed, should they make it to the Finals. The only team they were battling, the San Antonio Spurs, lost while Chicago won, avoiding the potential for a tie-breaking random draw. The Boston Celtics beat the New York Knicks in a game that was at least partially a preview of the series they'll start this weekend. It could (and probably should) be argued their neither team brought their A Team (the starting line up for the Celtics consisted of Jeff Green, Glen Davis, Nenad Krstic, Carlos Arroyo and Von Wafer. I promise this is the only time you will ever see those names together as a starting line up. For anyone. Ever.) but that also didn't matter; both teams had been locked into their spots for more than 24 hours. New York is a trendy pick to upset Boston, who appear to be struggling right now, but that's far from a sure bet, especially given the way Boston's left-for-dead corpse roared back to life like Frankenstein propelled by the lightning during last year's post-season. The aforementioned Bulls will face the Pacers in the first round and the Miami Heat will go up against the Philadelphia 76ers. The only asterisk is left for the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks series, with Atlanta leading the regular season campaign at 3-1. That stat conveys to some that the Magic are ripe for downfall.

Meanwhile, over in the Western Conference, the Memphis Grizzlies tanked so hard people were disgusted in their last regular-season game against the Clippers. The Clips had no chance at the playoffs and were more than happy to play the role of spoiler. The Spurs had been clinched as the top seed for almost a week and it appears as though the Grizzlies, in control of their own destiny, chose to play against that top seed. With the loss from Memphis, the New Orleans Hornets were cemented as the 7 seed, but their opponent took some work to be determined: after taking an 18-point lead into the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Lakers needed a 3 point shot by Kobe Bryant just to make it to overtime. A commanding 17-9 performance in the extra period gave Los Angeles the win, giving the Lakers a date with the Hornets. The Dallas Mavericks cliched the 4th seed for the Oklahoma City Thunder with their win, ensuring that the Thunder will be playing the Nuggets, who rest in the 5 spot. That left only the Portland Trailblazers, locked at the sixth seed, to play the third-seeded Dallas Mavericks, thanks to the magic of their win, combined with the Laker win and the Thunder loss.

It was a rare night from the get go, but most of the teams did their best to spice up the drama. The playoffs start on Saturday, with first rounds that promise to be exciting in the East, where it seems as though all the top seeds should win out (but nothing is guaranteed) and especially scintillating in the West where anything could happen. Tune in.

comics for the week of 03/30/11.

2011-03-31T08:33:00.001-06:00

These have never been called reviews, because they're really not. If there was ever any interest in that, I suppose I could switch it up, but for now, let's call them what they are: recaps for people who read. They're not for people who don't read, and they're not for someone trying to find out if they should read.

Action Comics 899 - Lex's quest is complete. A twist from Brainiac here and a turn from RobotLois there, and we have a revelation that...is kind of complicated? I mean, I know I read comics and am thus expected to be kind of a geek, and I get the Negative Zone, and... but... well... it was good. It's not that it wasn't good. It was just...flat? Kind of? I was psyched to see Brainiac versus Luthor and it lived up to the billing, but the big bad...he was weird. I'm excited to see how Superman is going to deal with this next issue, though. The whole revelation about the black energy, and its tying into Blackest Night, though, at this point, feels like something that's going to retconned more than actually genuinely connected. That's all right sometimes, but also, sometimes, they should just let it go.

Detective Comics 875 - Scott Snyder continues to write the best Bat book on the market and Francisco Francavilla did the art to death on this issue! Remember last month when I said it was good, and it fit the tone of the story, and it was perfect? Well this issue confirmed that. Damn, this was a spooky story, and perfectly spooky art to match. The old school feel of the story was reinforced by the flashbacks to the original case, and the role of Bullock (both in this book and in the current Bat mythos) cannot be overstated. He's old hat by this point. In fact (and this just occurred to me) he might be getting groomed to be Commissioner someday? Regardless, the story of James turns out to be equally as creepy as we were all imagining, not least of all because it's not truly wrapped up when this story ends. Some stories end on a cliffhanger; this one was more like we ran over the cliff and ended right on impact with the ground. Who knows if we survived or not, but we can damn sure feel that sting.

Green Lantern Corps 58 - War of the Green Lanterns Part 2 was just as good as Part 1, with Kyle taking center stage (I guess he's sharing it with John Stewart, to be fair) but still managing to continue the main storyline. I love the tension between the two of them as polar opposites, but how they continue to work and even thrive together. The art-effect of turning the GL symbols yellow in the background was a nice little touch, and Ganthet's role in this book and in this arc is going to be impossible to overlook. I have a sad feeling that he's going to die? If his death means that other Guardians will follow in his footsteps, both literally by becoming GLs and figuratively, by embracing emotion, I've got to be OK with that, though.

Green Lantern Emerald Warriors 8 - The showdown we've all been waiting for in the War of the Green Lanterns part 3: Guy Gardner versus Hal Jordan. I love the joke of the Green House, and I love that they're shown as having made some major contingency plans after the Corps last decimating event. However. The fight felt more than a little off, and it was odd how Gardner (but not so much Jordan) was able to fight the Parallax effects for so long when we'd already seen Kyle and John succumb so quickly. Ganthet's hand exploded from the will power it took to rip their rings off - Guy's just that tough?? Hard to believe. But I like what's happening with the overall feel of the War of the GLs: we've got a good story, a huge big bad, and some separate threads that are being rapidly pulled together. Here's to hoping this won't be a five month event that stretches into six or seven or eight, even, and here's to being blissfully ignorant of those details by avoiding Previews.

Scarlet 5 - The end of book one, eh? That'll work. I think this story has pretty much been told as far as it can go, so I was glad to have those last few pages of Scarlet's narration saying that she was going to have to give in and become the person they wanted her to become. Things have got to be picked up a notch (or five) if Bendis wants this to continue to be a semi-believable tale, because there's not much more to say in this vein. I loved the beginning with Detective Going and her narration, the way she smelled the BS setup that was coming and I loved her interaction with Federal Agent James. There were several times where I laughed out loud and this, I think, more than anything is what Bendis does well. Before he burst onto the scene, there weren't many comic book writers who could really, really nail a dialogue scene, whether it was supposed to be straight or comedic and throw in the zingers the way he does. Of course, it's played out now, and everyone and their mother apes the style, but when it's done well, like it is here, it still holds up. He does people well, and the people in Scarlet's universe are about to get bumped up a notch, or five, like I said. This is good stuff and here's to hoping it gets better.

Book of the week goes to 'Tec. The shift in storytelling was stark and could have come across as shifty and even pandering. Instead, we got one of the best two-issue (if you really want to call it that) stories that I can remember. Great work.

goliaths.

2011-03-30T08:23:00.001-06:00

Unlike the men's tournament, where we have, perhaps, the most unlikely Final Four of all time, the women's tournament has all the regal airs of a coronation. Will the University of Connecticut continue their otherworldly dominance? Will they meet up with Stanford, a team that many have claimed is actually the best team in the country, throughout the regular season, even as UConn was winning a record amount of games? Or, will the (semi-) underdogs have a chance? Notre Dame's Fighting Irish took out the Tennessee Volunteers on Monday night, ending Pat Summitt's revenge-quest on Geno and his UConn Huskies. The Fighting Irish are ranked as a 2 seed, so it's not like people were taking them for granted. But, usually, when the path goes through Tennessee, that's where the path ends. And, finally, on Tuesday night, the second-seeded Texas A&M Aggies dismantled the Baylor Bears. Brittney Griner is one of the most exciting players in women's basketball - if only for pure spectacle, but she and her team were completely destroyed by A&M.

With all the fuss on Stanford and UConn's potential rematch - you might recall that they've played once this season already - there's a lot missing from the conversation about the contenders that will vie to keep them from that game.

On the one hand, Notre Dame enters their matchup with UConn with some nice momentum on their side. UConn cruised past Duke, where as the Fighting Irish had to scrap at times to get past the specter of Tennessee. (Notre Dame entered the game against the Vols with a lifetime record of 0-20 against Tennessee.) Also, there's a pesky knee injury that might be troubling Maya Moore.

On the other hand, Texas A&M seems ready and willing to take the fight to anyone. As they demonstrated against 6'8" Brittney Griner, they're not in the NCAA Tournament bowing to any team - and that will include Stanford. Stanford, though, roughed up the highest-scoring team in the nation in their Elite Eight matchup with Gonzaga - holding them to only 60 points in a game where the Lady Zags scored 38 in the first half.

The Final Four games begin on Sunday. Texas A&M will try to play the spoiler for Stanford at 5 PM MST on ESPN and then Notre Dame will attempt to deny Geno Auriemma's ladies their chance at the title game. Two teams will be vanquished, and it's a good bet that the titans will play each other on Tuesday night for all the marbles. That game promises to be one of the best seen in a long, long time - as long as neither of those pesky 2 seeds decide they have something to say about it.