I am so touched...also, I like shows about killing people.
Guys, Anj at Supergirl Comic Box Commentary just nominated me for the Kreative Blogger award! I am so super touched, I almost teared up. Anj's blog has always been one of my favorites. In fact, if it weren't for the in depth analysis and reviews he does, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the nonsense that goes on in the Superman Universe half the time, which would make reading Supergirl really difficult! He is THE Supergirl expert and his passion for the character is infectious. There's no blog that covers such complex legacy of characters in a more thorough fashion. I especially like it when he goes into the back issue box and pulls out old Supergirl stories- it's always a treat!
So I was totally shocked and honored to see him nominate me. It's nice to see he enjoys my silly analysis and rantings on Steph as I've enjoyed his blog! Thanks Anj!
I'll do my own awards (as stipulated by the rules) later. For now I just wanted to say thanks.
I thought I'd actually do some reviews or something now for this week.
Wonder Woman #44:
This was Gail's last Wondy comic. *tears* And I absolutely adored it. It had everything that made Gail's run great (for me- obbbviously a lot of people's mileage varies). It had Diana being an awesome diplomat and showing empathy and reaching out to her enemies and actually CONVINCING THEM TO SEE IT HER WAY AND REFORMING THEM. I think this is an important thing Gail showed in her run- Diana reformed the Gorilla Knights, reformed Achilles, got Dr. Tomorrow to help her, had girl talk with Giganta (it's too bad we didn't get around to a full scale major villain reformation there, but oh well), stuck the Crows on reformation island, and now she got her "cousin" to see it her way- if only briefly. Gail really showcased that aspect of Diana and how it makes her unique from other heroes. I heart Diana the Awesome Diplomat.
Also, we got to see Achilles do his thing, Steve even got a moment of awesome but I absolutely LOVED when Hippolyta and the rest of the Amazons came to save the day with Polly yelling "Amazons- DEFEND"! Perfect subtle jab at Amazons Attack, and it showed the gals being noble and awesome to boot.
The whole thing with "is she or isn't she my mother's sister" was confusing, but I guess the end result is Astarte is an Amazon who got abducted and went completely crazy from the brainwashing and fabricated the whole thing. At any rate, I love that Diana uses to lasso to coerce the assistant into following orders, becomes the new captain of the evil org through sheer awesomeness, orders them never to kill again and KNOWS they'll stick to it for fear of her and drags Astarte to Reformation Island. EPIC. For once, Diana pulled off a major victory defending the people of the entire planet- not just her island -and effectively toppled an evil empire on her own.
The comic ends with the Gorillas being accepted back to the fold of their people and Diana being proud her Mom and big happy smiles and hugs for everyone as WW ruminates on how she is who she is and she loves the people around her. SO AWESOME.
I'm so sad Gail's leaving- JMS better not mess Diana up again. Gail's run may have been patchy in some places, and I may not have always agreed, but I think she did a pretty good job fixing Diana from the terrible mess her character was in when the run began- even if it took a lot longer than I would have liked. I don't want to see Diana get back into that state again.
5/5
Power Girl #12
My last issue of the series- the big draw with this for me was Amanda Conner's art, so there's not point continuing after that. I've always had mixed feelings about the series- on one hand, it's awesome and adorable, on the other hand...well, some things seems kinda squicky and weird at times. And I know my mixed feeling would only increase with Judd Winick involved.
There's a page with Karen's cat that is absolutely the best thing ever and makes the whole issue worth it. I love Power Girl's cat so much. There was also a blatantly fanservicey sequence with Terra that pretty much exemplifies my "mixed feelings" issues, but hey, I also love that this series has Karen have a close female friend.
Actually, no, the fanservice was fine, it just totally had no effect on me besides a vague sense of discomfort because I'm straight and all- the squickifying part was the bit with Satanna and Sivana where she has had sex (apparently rough) with him to get a weapon. He betrays her and throws her out on her ass. It stank of "She has SEX for COMPENSATION and is therefore EVIL! Stupid sexy villianesses always get their comeuppance. Watch her be humiliated...SEXILY!" Yeah.
And there was a bit where this lady randomly quit- I don't know what that was about. I'm seriously trying not to read too much into it, but since the the bit seemed to serve no other purpose the only message I could take from it was her line about "having commitments at home" and that..women should stay in the kitchen? IDK. It was weird, maybe my feminist senses are just tingling arbitrarily.
Anyway, I love the loving relationship between Terra and Karen, I loved the bits showing all the people Karen had helped, and I especially loved the return of VARTOX the HYPERMAN- showing what a great supporting cast there was and all the things Karen had accomplished in this series made for a very good finale. Of course, my favorite part was still the kitty! Anyway, like WW, this comic ended on a warm and fuzzy note as well.
4/5
JLI #2
So, um, yeah. I don't even know with this comic. It's like, a really interesting premise, the sheer amount of Xanatos Gambit Max is pulling- and the part where he made it seem like TED KORD COMMITTED SUICIDE seriously made me gasp (and Booster's D: reaction was totally sad and adorable) but it requires SO MANY people to be out of character- most egregiously Max of course, but that's nothing new- but also DIANA, who has the freakin' Lasso of Truth and somehow can't break through the mind control? They called total attention to this by having her appear in the comic. Max couldn't control her before, why now? Also, Guy's OOC for not trusting Tora no matter what Max made him think she did, but I expect since he's a core JLI-er this will be explained and rectified. Tora being all sulky and peacing out on the other hand- she's not mind controlled, what's her excuse. Booster appears to be the only one in character here.
But, as the last page of this issue showed Jaime is going to be in this comic. And I can't not buy anything that has Jaime in it (excepting Teen Titans, as it is it's own special level of suck and all). He is my comic book boyfriend and everything. So yeah, I'm going to keep getting this.
2/5
So! In other news, I have finished watching (and reading, though I mostly skimmed the first eight volumes and my bookstore doesn't have volume 3, so I'll have to go back and reread) Death Note which is AWESOME and TERRIBLE. Terrible in that is a constant tearjerker that mostly involves people acting completely horrible to each other and people are always, well, dying... (it's right in the name). But it is also AMAZING. I love L so much, you guys, he's like Batman if Batman were an awesome adorable geeky sugar addict. Who only fought with his feet. And the protagonist, Light, is a crazy supergenius sociopath serial killer so THAT'S great. And really weird, because I feel bad whenever I sympathize him because then he does something completely horrible to counteract it.
Anyway, the whole series is just a giant game of cat and mouse where all these people are playing mind games with each other (L and Light are hilarious whenever they're together because it's always "I know you know I know you know this so if I do this that will mean you think this but if I don't do this then you'll do this" (sometimes you want to yell GUYS JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY, as twisted as it is).
So, right where was I? Horrible, dark manga/anime about the nature of life and death is awesome. I might do a giant post on it sometime. Anyway, I got the Death Note encyclopedia and it is the most hilarious thing ever because it does things like list everyone's likes and dislikes which are either hilariously obvious or completely random. For instance, L's is "Like: Sweets Dislikes: Socks". If you watch the show, there's really nothing more obvious than that. My personal favorite was Naomi Misora's though (she only appears in three or so episodes, but I still love her for some reason. Also, according to TV tropes, she's the one who taught L foot-kung-fu so that's great) "Likes: Leather jackets. Dislikes: Skirts" Hellz yeah. Anyway, the encyclopedia is full or weird shit like that, so it's amazing
Also, it's hilarious how on TV Tropes almost every character has a dozen tropes spectulating about their sexuality because SO much Foe Yay and Ho Yay and everything else-YAY.
.
I am so going to get the entire series either on Amazon or Heroes. And maybe even the little side novel that has Naomi and the foot kung fu thing, because I can't find that at my bookstore, even though it was there TWO WEEKS AGO... so yeah, I'll stop rambling now. I love Death Note. Man, I hope I don't become addicted to anime, I don't need another obsession dragging me down...
the end for now!!!
So I was totally shocked and honored to see him nominate me. It's nice to see he enjoys my silly analysis and rantings on Steph as I've enjoyed his blog! Thanks Anj!
I'll do my own awards (as stipulated by the rules) later. For now I just wanted to say thanks.
I thought I'd actually do some reviews or something now for this week.
Wonder Woman #44:
This was Gail's last Wondy comic. *tears* And I absolutely adored it. It had everything that made Gail's run great (for me- obbbviously a lot of people's mileage varies). It had Diana being an awesome diplomat and showing empathy and reaching out to her enemies and actually CONVINCING THEM TO SEE IT HER WAY AND REFORMING THEM. I think this is an important thing Gail showed in her run- Diana reformed the Gorilla Knights, reformed Achilles, got Dr. Tomorrow to help her, had girl talk with Giganta (it's too bad we didn't get around to a full scale major villain reformation there, but oh well), stuck the Crows on reformation island, and now she got her "cousin" to see it her way- if only briefly. Gail really showcased that aspect of Diana and how it makes her unique from other heroes. I heart Diana the Awesome Diplomat.
Also, we got to see Achilles do his thing, Steve even got a moment of awesome but I absolutely LOVED when Hippolyta and the rest of the Amazons came to save the day with Polly yelling "Amazons- DEFEND"! Perfect subtle jab at Amazons Attack, and it showed the gals being noble and awesome to boot.
The whole thing with "is she or isn't she my mother's sister" was confusing, but I guess the end result is Astarte is an Amazon who got abducted and went completely crazy from the brainwashing and fabricated the whole thing. At any rate, I love that Diana uses to lasso to coerce the assistant into following orders, becomes the new captain of the evil org through sheer awesomeness, orders them never to kill again and KNOWS they'll stick to it for fear of her and drags Astarte to Reformation Island. EPIC. For once, Diana pulled off a major victory defending the people of the entire planet- not just her island -and effectively toppled an evil empire on her own.
The comic ends with the Gorillas being accepted back to the fold of their people and Diana being proud her Mom and big happy smiles and hugs for everyone as WW ruminates on how she is who she is and she loves the people around her. SO AWESOME.
I'm so sad Gail's leaving- JMS better not mess Diana up again. Gail's run may have been patchy in some places, and I may not have always agreed, but I think she did a pretty good job fixing Diana from the terrible mess her character was in when the run began- even if it took a lot longer than I would have liked. I don't want to see Diana get back into that state again.
5/5
Power Girl #12
My last issue of the series- the big draw with this for me was Amanda Conner's art, so there's not point continuing after that. I've always had mixed feelings about the series- on one hand, it's awesome and adorable, on the other hand...well, some things seems kinda squicky and weird at times. And I know my mixed feeling would only increase with Judd Winick involved.
There's a page with Karen's cat that is absolutely the best thing ever and makes the whole issue worth it. I love Power Girl's cat so much. There was also a blatantly fanservicey sequence with Terra that pretty much exemplifies my "mixed feelings" issues, but hey, I also love that this series has Karen have a close female friend.
Actually, no, the fanservice was fine, it just totally had no effect on me besides a vague sense of discomfort because I'm straight and all- the squickifying part was the bit with Satanna and Sivana where she has had sex (apparently rough) with him to get a weapon. He betrays her and throws her out on her ass. It stank of "She has SEX for COMPENSATION and is therefore EVIL! Stupid sexy villianesses always get their comeuppance. Watch her be humiliated...SEXILY!" Yeah.
And there was a bit where this lady randomly quit- I don't know what that was about. I'm seriously trying not to read too much into it, but since the the bit seemed to serve no other purpose the only message I could take from it was her line about "having commitments at home" and that..women should stay in the kitchen? IDK. It was weird, maybe my feminist senses are just tingling arbitrarily.
Anyway, I love the loving relationship between Terra and Karen, I loved the bits showing all the people Karen had helped, and I especially loved the return of VARTOX the HYPERMAN- showing what a great supporting cast there was and all the things Karen had accomplished in this series made for a very good finale. Of course, my favorite part was still the kitty! Anyway, like WW, this comic ended on a warm and fuzzy note as well.
4/5
JLI #2
So, um, yeah. I don't even know with this comic. It's like, a really interesting premise, the sheer amount of Xanatos Gambit Max is pulling- and the part where he made it seem like TED KORD COMMITTED SUICIDE seriously made me gasp (and Booster's D: reaction was totally sad and adorable) but it requires SO MANY people to be out of character- most egregiously Max of course, but that's nothing new- but also DIANA, who has the freakin' Lasso of Truth and somehow can't break through the mind control? They called total attention to this by having her appear in the comic. Max couldn't control her before, why now? Also, Guy's OOC for not trusting Tora no matter what Max made him think she did, but I expect since he's a core JLI-er this will be explained and rectified. Tora being all sulky and peacing out on the other hand- she's not mind controlled, what's her excuse. Booster appears to be the only one in character here.
But, as the last page of this issue showed Jaime is going to be in this comic. And I can't not buy anything that has Jaime in it (excepting Teen Titans, as it is it's own special level of suck and all). He is my comic book boyfriend and everything. So yeah, I'm going to keep getting this.
2/5
So! In other news, I have finished watching (and reading, though I mostly skimmed the first eight volumes and my bookstore doesn't have volume 3, so I'll have to go back and reread) Death Note which is AWESOME and TERRIBLE. Terrible in that is a constant tearjerker that mostly involves people acting completely horrible to each other and people are always, well, dying... (it's right in the name). But it is also AMAZING. I love L so much, you guys, he's like Batman if Batman were an awesome adorable geeky sugar addict. Who only fought with his feet. And the protagonist, Light, is a crazy supergenius sociopath serial killer so THAT'S great. And really weird, because I feel bad whenever I sympathize him because then he does something completely horrible to counteract it.
Anyway, the whole series is just a giant game of cat and mouse where all these people are playing mind games with each other (L and Light are hilarious whenever they're together because it's always "I know you know I know you know this so if I do this that will mean you think this but if I don't do this then you'll do this" (sometimes you want to yell GUYS JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY, as twisted as it is).
So, right where was I? Horrible, dark manga/anime about the nature of life and death is awesome. I might do a giant post on it sometime. Anyway, I got the Death Note encyclopedia and it is the most hilarious thing ever because it does things like list everyone's likes and dislikes which are either hilariously obvious or completely random. For instance, L's is "Like: Sweets Dislikes: Socks". If you watch the show, there's really nothing more obvious than that. My personal favorite was Naomi Misora's though (she only appears in three or so episodes, but I still love her for some reason. Also, according to TV tropes, she's the one who taught L foot-kung-fu so that's great) "Likes: Leather jackets. Dislikes: Skirts" Hellz yeah. Anyway, the encyclopedia is full or weird shit like that, so it's amazing
Also, it's hilarious how on TV Tropes almost every character has a dozen tropes spectulating about their sexuality because SO much Foe Yay and Ho Yay and everything else-YAY.
.
I am so going to get the entire series either on Amazon or Heroes. And maybe even the little side novel that has Naomi and the foot kung fu thing, because I can't find that at my bookstore, even though it was there TWO WEEKS AGO... so yeah, I'll stop rambling now. I love Death Note. Man, I hope I don't become addicted to anime, I don't need another obsession dragging me down...
the end for now!!!