Comic Round Up
My body at the moment is a plethora of minor complaints and niggles. It's sort of par-for-the-course for em, who wasn't aware as a teenager that some people have entire days sometimes in which they're in no pain at all. I don't have major health problems or anything and I'm not milking for sympathy, it's just weird.
Most annoying recently has been the near crippling physical exhaustion. It's more than just sleep dep and physical exertion, I'm sure: my brain is working funny, and my distractability is turned up to 11 - which is pissing off everyone around me and not helping the anxiety &s either. There's the eczema, for one: an entire finger of my mutant hand is warm to the touch, dry and crusty, and hurts like buggery. This may or may not be overexposure to cleaning fluids and flock lining of rubber gloves. There's the spot on my leg where I've nervous-scratched 'til I've bled, and lots of minor mobile pains in the lower back.
Ow.
OK, enough whinging. Who wants THIS MONTH'S COMIC ROUND UP?
Well, tough. You're getting one anyway.
Thanks to a problem with ordering, I got Angel #3 after Angel #4, so read them both side by side. It's yet to have an impact - the art is terrible, which is distracting enough, but the story also makes no little sense and it's too complicated and I don't understand and... eh.
A but like Angel: the series, really. I think I'll wait for some resolution or something and see what happens. So far, the biggest moment of squee has been the Spike-in-Haddyn panel. But you knew I'd say that, anyway.
Joss is disappointing me all round, right now. He may have learned to not kill the lesbian, but his early issues of Buffy season eight and current run on Runaways shows he has no problems with torturing the witch. Blegh. The rest of the arc is fine - I still love Klara, and am all for appropriate and realistic portrayal of any preconception, including period homophobia, and Molly and Karolina always make me happy. But I can't wait until Joss is gone.
Still, I have to say, the biggest actual squeal I made while reading Buffy #12 was the vampire Nico who popped out of nowhere to grab Willow. I mean. Vampire. Nico. That was as cool as the lesbian sex. Which - OK, all reservations aside, I LOVED IT. Seriously. I was laughing out loud on a wall in the middle of London. It was just so believable. Buffy's panic about doing it wrong, her fear that Satsu did it better; the worry she's not gay enough. It just made me identify with her all over again. Hi, Buff. Welcome to the first time I slept with a woman, too. Welcome to every time since, while we're at it. Congratulations, Goddard, you've been in my head.
On the other hand, there's Bill Willingham.
Now, I really enjoy Jack of Fables, comedy misogyny and all. I was amused as hell by Goldilocks, and the mildly offensive characterisation and artwork. I just dismissed it as Jack-the-narrator embellishing the story with his own personal lens. But #20 - I mean seriously, WTF?
I refuse to scan in the pages, so let me give you a plot run down - Jack and his current band of sidekicks and cronies are indulging in some heavy, occasionally topless lifting, when Hillary Page comes over all strange and drags Jack to the roof to boink his brains out. No, I'm not kidding, it really is that sudden. "We have to stop doing important work, because I need sex."
The fun about the three Page sisters aside, this really just does confirm that Bill has very possibly never met a woman in his life. Even his 'serious' Fables comic shows the same mistake - I've never liked Snow, or Beauty's shallow bitchery, but Rose Red's status as an archetype he stole off the telly has never been more obvious. If only I wasn't so hooked on the story...
Green Arrow and Black Canary hits no political buttons with me, which I guess is a good thing, but it's hitting no buttons at all. Maybe it's because I came to this title as a Black Canary fan, not a Green Arrow fan. I have nothing against Ollie, but I don't know who these people are suddenly surrounding Dinah, and the storyline which is following horrible things happening to Connor seems - a little flat, for some reason. I'm not hurting for Ollie as much as I should be, though I am enjoying finding out more about him like every time I get to know a new character.
I'm just a little distracted by the fact that Dinah's been KIDNAPPED AND REPLACED BY A SHAPESHIFTER. Seriously. A computer literate, technobabble spewing shapeshifter who doesn't even miss her daughter any more. Judd Winick is SO on the list.
Talking of characterisation, and the best female BFFs in all of comicdom, some people may have expressed doubts about Babs' characterisation in the current Birds of Prey (I can't be arsed digging out bloglinks right now.), but I'm still loving Birds of Prey. Well, OK, the current Zinda storyline is horrible (mind control and rape ARE NOT GOOD STORY FODDER, DC), but Misfit and Black Alice are awesome.
It's probably my newness, but I'm not so worried about Misfit being a replacement for Steph, and I'm actually kind of getting into Robin, which I only added to the list because of Steph hints. Like Angel and Green Arrow, Robin is on probation with me, until I find out what they're doing, but really, I'm just enjoying the references to her. It's nice to see some acknowledgement.
And that's all I've got.
Most annoying recently has been the near crippling physical exhaustion. It's more than just sleep dep and physical exertion, I'm sure: my brain is working funny, and my distractability is turned up to 11 - which is pissing off everyone around me and not helping the anxiety &s either. There's the eczema, for one: an entire finger of my mutant hand is warm to the touch, dry and crusty, and hurts like buggery. This may or may not be overexposure to cleaning fluids and flock lining of rubber gloves. There's the spot on my leg where I've nervous-scratched 'til I've bled, and lots of minor mobile pains in the lower back.
Ow.
OK, enough whinging. Who wants THIS MONTH'S COMIC ROUND UP?
Well, tough. You're getting one anyway.
Thanks to a problem with ordering, I got Angel #3 after Angel #4, so read them both side by side. It's yet to have an impact - the art is terrible, which is distracting enough, but the story also makes no little sense and it's too complicated and I don't understand and... eh.
A but like Angel: the series, really. I think I'll wait for some resolution or something and see what happens. So far, the biggest moment of squee has been the Spike-in-Haddyn panel. But you knew I'd say that, anyway.
Joss is disappointing me all round, right now. He may have learned to not kill the lesbian, but his early issues of Buffy season eight and current run on Runaways shows he has no problems with torturing the witch. Blegh. The rest of the arc is fine - I still love Klara, and am all for appropriate and realistic portrayal of any preconception, including period homophobia, and Molly and Karolina always make me happy. But I can't wait until Joss is gone.
Still, I have to say, the biggest actual squeal I made while reading Buffy #12 was the vampire Nico who popped out of nowhere to grab Willow. I mean. Vampire. Nico. That was as cool as the lesbian sex. Which - OK, all reservations aside, I LOVED IT. Seriously. I was laughing out loud on a wall in the middle of London. It was just so believable. Buffy's panic about doing it wrong, her fear that Satsu did it better; the worry she's not gay enough. It just made me identify with her all over again. Hi, Buff. Welcome to the first time I slept with a woman, too. Welcome to every time since, while we're at it. Congratulations, Goddard, you've been in my head.
On the other hand, there's Bill Willingham.
Now, I really enjoy Jack of Fables, comedy misogyny and all. I was amused as hell by Goldilocks, and the mildly offensive characterisation and artwork. I just dismissed it as Jack-the-narrator embellishing the story with his own personal lens. But #20 - I mean seriously, WTF?
I refuse to scan in the pages, so let me give you a plot run down - Jack and his current band of sidekicks and cronies are indulging in some heavy, occasionally topless lifting, when Hillary Page comes over all strange and drags Jack to the roof to boink his brains out. No, I'm not kidding, it really is that sudden. "We have to stop doing important work, because I need sex."
The fun about the three Page sisters aside, this really just does confirm that Bill has very possibly never met a woman in his life. Even his 'serious' Fables comic shows the same mistake - I've never liked Snow, or Beauty's shallow bitchery, but Rose Red's status as an archetype he stole off the telly has never been more obvious. If only I wasn't so hooked on the story...
Green Arrow and Black Canary hits no political buttons with me, which I guess is a good thing, but it's hitting no buttons at all. Maybe it's because I came to this title as a Black Canary fan, not a Green Arrow fan. I have nothing against Ollie, but I don't know who these people are suddenly surrounding Dinah, and the storyline which is following horrible things happening to Connor seems - a little flat, for some reason. I'm not hurting for Ollie as much as I should be, though I am enjoying finding out more about him like every time I get to know a new character.
I'm just a little distracted by the fact that Dinah's been KIDNAPPED AND REPLACED BY A SHAPESHIFTER. Seriously. A computer literate, technobabble spewing shapeshifter who doesn't even miss her daughter any more. Judd Winick is SO on the list.
Talking of characterisation, and the best female BFFs in all of comicdom, some people may have expressed doubts about Babs' characterisation in the current Birds of Prey (I can't be arsed digging out bloglinks right now.), but I'm still loving Birds of Prey. Well, OK, the current Zinda storyline is horrible (mind control and rape ARE NOT GOOD STORY FODDER, DC), but Misfit and Black Alice are awesome.
It's probably my newness, but I'm not so worried about Misfit being a replacement for Steph, and I'm actually kind of getting into Robin, which I only added to the list because of Steph hints. Like Angel and Green Arrow, Robin is on probation with me, until I find out what they're doing, but really, I'm just enjoying the references to her. It's nice to see some acknowledgement.
And that's all I've got.