Watching and Reading
I've been keeping busy lately, both in checking out DVDs and reading books.
I finally got around to watching Heroes Season 2. I've had it for a while, but the rumors were it was pretty bad, so I wasn't inspired to check it out until I got Heroes Season 3 for Christmas. The good news is that I don't think Season 2 was all that bad, and there were actually parts of it that I thought were fairly inspired. The bad news was that I thought the first half of Season 3 ("Villains") was pretty awful. Still, it picked up very nicely during the second half of the season ("Fugitives"). There are definitely times when I feel that Heroes writers just throw stuff in with no real purpose in mind (like the Eclipse and the B&W scenes from '61).
For reading material, I've been collecting more of the Alex Rider teen series. They read super fast and the writer is pretty good at action pacing. I have also been working through Pirates by Ted Bell, another novel which is supposed to have a James Bond-y feel to it. It's decent enough, although the author has some kind of grudge against the French (the big villain is France, seriously?) and gets little details wrong (China has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, since when?). He also has a character that is so much of a caricature (of a big, scary black man) that it's almost uncomfortably racist (although the attempt is meant to be actually heroic and positive).
For comic books, I just picked up the Cable and the New Mutants collection, which should hopefully get me properly in the Rob Liefeld mindset just in time for my "Jawgrinder" event at GenCon in August.
There's also stuff I've been reading for school, but that's pretty dry and boring and best left undetailed.
I finally got around to watching Heroes Season 2. I've had it for a while, but the rumors were it was pretty bad, so I wasn't inspired to check it out until I got Heroes Season 3 for Christmas. The good news is that I don't think Season 2 was all that bad, and there were actually parts of it that I thought were fairly inspired. The bad news was that I thought the first half of Season 3 ("Villains") was pretty awful. Still, it picked up very nicely during the second half of the season ("Fugitives"). There are definitely times when I feel that Heroes writers just throw stuff in with no real purpose in mind (like the Eclipse and the B&W scenes from '61).
For reading material, I've been collecting more of the Alex Rider teen series. They read super fast and the writer is pretty good at action pacing. I have also been working through Pirates by Ted Bell, another novel which is supposed to have a James Bond-y feel to it. It's decent enough, although the author has some kind of grudge against the French (the big villain is France, seriously?) and gets little details wrong (China has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons, since when?). He also has a character that is so much of a caricature (of a big, scary black man) that it's almost uncomfortably racist (although the attempt is meant to be actually heroic and positive).
For comic books, I just picked up the Cable and the New Mutants collection, which should hopefully get me properly in the Rob Liefeld mindset just in time for my "Jawgrinder" event at GenCon in August.
There's also stuff I've been reading for school, but that's pretty dry and boring and best left undetailed.