Wednesday Rant

When I volunteered to help with this blog I said to myself, “Lee,” Please note, you must always use third person when talking to yourself. It eliminates any questions about sanity! So I says “Lee, I won’t do the political schitck”. And I decided against it because Jim is so much better at it than I am. I know my limits. I can do comics. I can do slice-o-life. I can’t do angry, political activitist. Well I can but I usually sound like whiney liberal boy. But today I saw something that made me want to try…

Here’s a headline I saw on CNN today, “ADHD drug use for youth obesity raises ethical questions.” All I have to say is “ethical questions?” Ya think? What rocket scientist came to that conclusion?

The basics are, the kid is 11 years old, 30 lbs overweight, and on the fast track for diabetes. Well, that’s what happens when you eat nothing but McDonalds and potato chips. But here’s where it gets interesting, “His parents say Alex was already physically active and eating a healthy diet.” Uuummm, last I heard exercise and good eating cured most overweight problems. Now here’s the kicker, “^The parents^ didn't know what to do.”

WHAT???? Let me help because I have some suggestions. How about this novel idea. MORE EXERCISE! I’m not saying he wasn’t exercising enough but first rule of weight loss is burn more calories than you take in. OR WAIT. How about cut the soda out of his diet... and here's a novel concept cut it out of YOUR DIET TOO! Amazingly enough if you go on a proper eating kick like him the chances are that you can support each other and all lost weight together.

Oh but wait, it gets worse “Their pediatrician didn't know either”. HELLO? What quack are you going to? Work with me here but that diploma on the wall… yeah the one from Guatemala U. Yeah, that one… it’s no good. Even in Central America they call it CRAPPO STATE. So Useless Dr #1 sends the family to Quack Dr#2 who gives the kid an amphetamine. HOLY POOP BATMAN! And who thinks this is a good idea?

For perspective, my kid has a mild case of asthma or a really bad case of allergies depending on who you ask. We balk at all the stuff the Dr’s want to put in him. We finally relented to a mild, mild steroid and it still scares the stuffing out of us. I’m talking low dose, been used medically for and years and I still panic and worry. These parents are going straight to amphetamines to solve the problem???? Anyone see a problem with this picture?

So the problems as I see them... #1, instead of hard work we turn to drugs and medication as the solution and #2 it appears that parents are unwilling or unable to make the necessary changes in their life. Either way, it's sad. Bottom line, I am not sure what this is a bigger indictment of, the sad state of parenting or the sad state of the medical profession.

As a caveat, so I don't appear completely heartless, the kid could have a medical condition or thyroid something-or-another. BUT, the article said nothing about that. Which could also be an indictment of the media.

Oh yeah... how to survive marriage, lesson #451: When acknowledging your wife's fart, the proper statement is "Your FART stinks". Not to be confused with "You Stink". Apparently they have completely different connotations. Who knew?

Waiting For Wednesday

Tuesday is always my toughest blogging day. Still with the Dark Horse, DC and Marvel solicitations out Lee and I will have a few columns worth of material.

So for Tuesday lets look back at last week's releases.

Fables #58 - This was a real highlight for me as it was part 2 of the Bigby and the North Wind (his dad) get together. It is amazing to me that Bill Willingham has kept Snow White and Bigby as vital and interesting as they are, even being married. The beauty of this book is that we are know these characters from childhood so we need no real introduction, so the entry cost is low and the stories are adult(not in that way) fairy tales. Not a new concept, but Willingham executes it very well.

Civil War Confession - This was a real low light. Decent artwork wasted on more moping and pointless arguments. I mean talking heads, especially going over and over the same material is not what Marvel comics does best.

Thunderbolts #112 - This book just amazes me. The premise is so stupid and the "stars" are almost all really bad people. Somehow Warren Ellis recognizes all the flaws and almost laughs at them and tells a compelling story. Ellis has been on a roll for well over a year now, almost nothing he writes is bad right now. That tells me that over the many years he has been writing he is constantly trying to improve his craft.

Wormwood Gentlemen Corpse #6 - This book is one of my favorites. Leprechauns, a little girl corpse animated by a worm, great squid monsters and it is all so mad and yet it works. This could be Ben Templesmith's finest work as a writer and an artist.

That's it, many other decent books, a few disasters, but this were the ones I wanted to mention, call it the best books and the worse book of last week.

Wow - I think I have discovered a good Tuesday theme.

What I'm Getting Wednesday

In an effort to get more independent books into my listing I have started to try and cut more books from the big two. Marvel is easiest for me, so after threatening for awhile I cut Moon Knight off my list. This week I’m trying After the Cape and Hero by Night.

52 Week #46 – This book is racing to its end. Last week Black Adam declared war against a neighboring nation that had harbored his enemies. The total devastation that he wrought will force the world to respond.

Aquaman #50 – The new creative team begins. Tad Williams as writer and Shawn McManus as artist. Looking forward to seeing if these guys can keep up Kurt Busiek’s fine job of making Aquaman a compelling series.

Army @ Love #1 – Rick Veitch as writer and pencils with Gary Erskine on inks. Rick is one of the last true counter culture type guys out there. This book is his vision of what the army will have to do to continue to recruit new people into unending Middle East wars.

Batman Confidential #4 – Continuing the younger Bruce Wayne versus Lex Luthor storyline that also serves as platform to introduce how Batman picked up some of his gadgets. This book found its niche last week and hopefully will continue to get better this week.

Birds of Prey #104 – Spy Smasher is taking over the Birds and the Secret Six shows up. Looks to be a great issue in a wonderful series. Gail Simone really made her mark as a writer with this book and continues to make it an entertaining read.

Brave and Bold #2 – Green Lantern continues the investigation of the mystery from last issue and picks up Supergirl as his partner. Loved the first issue, but with Mark Waid and George Perez it is hard to go wrong.

Checkmate #12 – Picking up from last issue where the personal issues of the mission squad are overwhelming the objectives of the mission. Should be another really good issue as Judo Master’s son (a Checkmate Knight) squares off against Bane (who killed Judo Master).

Deadman #8 – This series is really an interesting read, but trying to explain a particular issue is difficult as it is not an easy book to get into. I recommend trying the first trade that is out this week to see if you like this book.

Deathblow #4 – The mystery surrounding Michael Cray’s family heats up this issue. Are these his kids or spies for the government?

Detective #830 – Part 2 (of 2) of Stuart Moore and Andy Clark spin on Detective comics. Essentially a fill in story as Paul Dini is the main writer, but part 1 was really good and I’m looking forward to part 2.

Exterminators #15 – More bug catching madness as Henry’s prison past is catching up to him and not in a good way.

Flash #10 – New writer Marc Guggenheim continues his turn on Bart Allen and he is bringing in Zoom. Zoom has become the main Flash villain of all time, so looking forward to Bart squaring off with him.

Hellblazer #230 – The start of Andy Diggle’s run on John Constantine. This is a 2 parter entitled "The Deep End” and continues to have Leonard Manco provide his great art on this series. Looking forward to Diggle’s take on Hellblazer.

Ion #12 (of 12) – The finale that hopefully will shed some light on who is behind the attacks on Kyle, what are the Monitors doing and who is out to kill the Guardians. Should be a good issue.

Justice Society of America #4 – “The Next Age” storyline continues as the legacy killer is still on the loose. Absolutely love this book and as good as Johns was on this book before he is even better since the re-launch.

Omega Men #6 (of 6) – The conclusion of this wild adventure that promises to end with Lady Styx, who is a major interstellar villain in the DCU.

Shadowpact #11 – Blue Devil has gathered a new Shadowpact to invade hell and to conclude his trials with the Demon Etrigan.

Spirit #4 – Darwyn Cooke continues his excellent run on the Spirit. Every issue has been a gem and with the introduction of Silk Satin I’m expecting another great issue.

Supergirl #15 – Supergirl and Power Boy story continues with promised revelations on who is Power Boy. This book suffers issue to issue and I love and hate this book.

Testament #16 – The “Babel” storyline concludes. This book has been a tough read as a monthly as it has an intricate plot that cuts back and forth from biblical to a present (that is set in the near future). I may switch over to trades on this book.

Amazing Spider-Man - #539 – Spider-Man is back in black. I have to assume that Aunt May getting shot has driven Spider-Man to go to a stealthier costume as he is now a fugitive from the law.

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: Guilty Pleasures #5 (of 12 ) – The murder mystery continues as I try to remember all of the characters that have been introduced.

Ultimate Power #4 (of 9) – JMS takes over as writer of thsi series. The Squadron Supreme versus the heroes of the Ultimate Universe. The story has been okay, but so far nothing really special. The actual Squadron Supreme comic has fallen totally off the radar. Is this thing cancelled or just MIA?

Wisdom #4 (of 6) – A decent little series. Peter Wisdom is up against all the various versions of the Jack the Ripper this issue.

X-Factor #17 – The best x-book on the market. This issue we see a group of mutants who believe the government is behind “M-day” and the vast destruction of almost all mutants.

X-Men #197 – Wow we are getting close to issue #200 and this is part 1 of a 3 part story, so I guess #200 is going to be a blow out story of some type. Rogue is dying and the X-Men(?) are trying to save her.

X-Men First Class #7 (of 8) – Good news I hear that this series is being started up in June as an ongoing. As long as Jeff Parker is writing I will sign up for this book. The modernized tales of Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel and the Beast have been pure and unadulterated fun.

After The Cape #1 (of 3) – The tale of a hero who has fallen from grace and now is considering becoming a criminal due to an addiction. Will a hero remain a hero? Sounds like a good premise.

Blood Nation #2 (of 4) – This is a story of a vampire nation that is trying to take over the world and the extremes that other governments are taking to try and stop them. The first issue was entertaining, looking forward to issue #2.

Hero by Night #1 (of 4) – The official hype “When Jack King finds the lair of a vanished superhero in his apartment building, he decides to auction off some of the hero's memorabilia. But Jack's efforts to cash in attract the attention of the hero's archenemy--a villain even the Hero By Night couldn't destroy.”. Certainly worth a look at issue #1.

Conan #38 – Continuing Truman’s run as writer and getting into the Rogues in the House story line.

30 Days of Night: Spreading the Disease #4 (of 5) – I love the 30 Days of Night world, but last issue of the series lost me a little, I’m hoping we are back on track for issue #4.

Dog Pool Parties

I believe that this maybe one of the signs of the oncoming Apocalypse.

A girl who I worked with was having a birthday party for her dog. Worse yet it was a swimming party for dogs. She asked if I wanted to come and I said I know my wife would, but I would pass.

Unfortunately my dog weighs in at 150 plus pounds and I really needed to go to make sure Kiki could be lifted into the pickup and to help control her if she got to rambunctious.

Much to my shock and surprise it was actually a very fun time and I learned a fair amount about dogs and swimming. First that not all dogs are natural swimmers and in fact most will sink to the bottom of a pool rather rapidly. Second that for a big dog this is the best exercise around as they get to move all of their muscles and hips with the weight being off of them. Kiki at three is already experiencing some minor hip problems and was much better after today's experience.

So I went from you have got to be frelling kidding me, to now thinking we have to get Kiki out swimming once a month or so.

The way it works is they put life jackets on the dogs and attach a belt to them and drag them around the pool until they are sure they have figured out how to swim for themselves. I think this could work on children too.

Still the question I had for the girl throwing the party is what type of shindig will you have for your son when he turn one if you do this for your dog.

As the picture shows this was just too funny.

Why I hate Marvel Comics

This is a post that has been an idea that has been in the back of my mind for awhile. In order to give this thought a proper setting I need to give a little history on why.

First and foremost let me say that Marvel comics are the books that caused me to fall in love with comics for the last 40 plus years. I started reading comics around Amazing Spider-Man #6 and was in love with the Fantastic Four, Thor, Spider-Man, Avengers, Tales of Suspense (Iron Man and Captain America), Strange Tales (SHIELD and Doctor Strange) and all the rest. The Marvel heroes felt more real then the heroes of DC. The characters had personalities and had to deal with the daily problems of life just like we did, but when something bad was going down they were heroes who came to save the day. In the span of 28 issues Spider-Man went from a junior in high school to graduation day. Reed and Sue got married and had a child. Thor had to go off on an Asgardian quest and left the Avengers. Giant-Man retired and Iron Man had to leave so Captain America was left to reform the Avengers with heroes of less renown. What happened in comic (A) impacted comic (B). It was a shared universe, characters were growing and changing and events had meaning. The fact was that Marvel being more real world meant that the characters had human qualities and were not cardboard cut outs. This whole idea that Marvel has been more like the real world has gotten way out of hand, saying it was real was just a short hand way of saying Marvel characters acted more like us. You could relate more to a Marvel comic.

DC on the other hand had wonderful characters, but for the most part they were all boy scouts. Barry Allen's worse problem was being late for a date. Hal Jordan had similar girl friend problems as did Ray Palmer, Clark Kent and the rest. Batman was a caricature of what his character really is, as the Dark Knight was out in daylight all the time. Also the characters really had no real impact on their shared universe. Dc had hardly any multiple part story lines. DC had the best line up of characters, but were still stuck in the mode of each hero just having his own adventures, little sub-plots if any, just one or two new adventures per book.

During the silver age, Marvel brought me into comics and they forced DC comics to become more modern. Marvel had the older readership and DC the younger, but eventually Marvel became number 1 and it is rumoured that Stan Lee then said no more changes, only the illusion of change.

Over time I gravitated towards DC and have been a bigger DC fan then Marvel. Lately I find that I'm becoming more of an independent comic fan then DC or Marvel, but I try to read a lot of all types of material as my "What I'm getting Wednesday" post can attest.

Now with Civil War and the new status quo I actually find that I starting to have an active dislike for the Marvel Universe. This is very hard for me because the characters that made me love a medium that I have stayed with (okay I strayed for a year when I discovered girls and thought comics were for kids) for over 40 years.

As I stated I need to give some background on the reasons I hate (which is too strong of a word) Marvel. First off Marvel wants to be more real world. When you suspend your disbelief to sit down and read a comic, you still expect a certain logic and consistency. Having the super-heroes now all be essentially police officers of the government just breaks down too fast. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Spider-Man no longer really work. In reading the first couple of issues since the Civil War it feels like that these characters will operate outside the law. Well again my disbelief only goes so far and the other registered heroes know who these people are and now they just let them be vigilantes? What happens when the Thunderbolts go after Daredevil, gosh do you think Bullseye with super powered help can take him down? Iron Fist runs around in New Avengers now for no good reason and is dealing with a fiscal and personal crisis in his own book. Doctor Strange is now an Avenger? Captain America is dragged into court and assassinated? There is no strong internal logic. Tony Stark is omnipresent in almost every book, characters don't act like they have been portrayed for years. It is like the scripts are written and the heroes are then cast into roles. It used to be the stories wrote themselves. Finally the closer you bring the heroes into the real world the less sense a super-hero makes. If Iron Man had such an armour, the government would have forced him to come in and mass produce it for our troops and then we would be an imperialistic super power. Radioactivity kills people, chemical waste dumps kill people and if you really have super heroes it can't be the real world.

Next up is what the frell happened to the X-Men. This used to be a great group, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and more. Now we have this crap ONE organization riding herd over them and have one lame group in space, one less lame group on a floating aircraft carrier and the core group on the most boring quest in space of all time. To avoid the Civil War, the X-verse has been squandered into their own little corner of the world. Marvel has finally beaten down the most successful franchise in history to books few fans really care about. Nice job.

Thunderbolts, we have a group of some of the most reprehensible villains now being touted as heroes. We are supposed to believe in the more real world or Marvel that the public accepts this crap. Now the Thunderbolt concept is the worse concept going on in Marvel, but Warren Ellis is making it work and I actually enjoy reading this book. I think the internal logic of the concept is inane, but the actual execution of the concept is being done in a very good manner. Ellis has been genius for the last couple of years.

Punisher War Journal is another book that is upsetting to me. I know Frank Castle is a killer, but he has lines that he won't cross and he only kills people who are shown as deserving to die. His recent taking out of multiple C and D list villains who usually only stole money pushes Frank over a line he doesn't cross. Wolverine has been shown to be a mass murderer. It is different to have a character who kills because it was the only way out or the person they killed was a really bad person, but the more indiscriminate the killing becomes the character becomes less of a hero.

To give it a little summary the reason I hate Marvel is that their status quo is unbelievable in a world of super heroes, their characters are cast in stories (the respect for the characters has been lost), the internal logic of the books has unforgivable lapses, the heroes are no longer heroic and no real change every happens. Tony Stark is Iron Man forever, Peter Parker is 26 forever, Johnny Storm is 24 forever, Cyclops is 27 forever and on and on.

Now I still have hope. If Captain America is really dead and they bring in a new guy as Cap and we get to follow his story then that would be cool. If as a company you want to have some morally ambiguous characters then use new characters and don't change existing ones to fit your needs. Yes I know characters change over the years, but you have to remain true to a certain core essence and that has been lost for almost every major Marvel character.

And that is why I hate Marvel right now. You have killed my heroes and I read on in hopes that it will change (I followed what I called asshole Batman for years until I got the "real" Batman back during Infinite Crisis). As I read on, though the easiest books to drop are Marvel Universe books.

The Surrogates - Movie

Just read that Disney has picked up the movie rights for this book. They have a screenwriter and director attached to the project, which sounds hopeful that a movie may actually get made. This book was a favorite of mine, based on Lee's recommendation. Very cool to see this book make into development.

2008 Presidential Elections

Lee asked if I could post for him this evening, well he didn't ask it was more like ....never mind, I won't do the same riff back on Lee.

I find that the 2008 Elections are coming a lot sooner then ever. It appears that many states are going to have earlier primaries and the right candidate can have the nomination sewn up by February.

It is a wide open field as their is no heir apparent to George Bush. An heir would be DOA anyway as this President has driven any popularity he had into the ground and has in my opinion damaged the republican party heavily. Whether this leads to an all democratic Congress and White House remains to be seen.

Also as I will most likely vote Libertarian again as neither party holds any candidate willing to reduce government. The elections are almost like watching Survivor. In fact that might be a great way to elect a president, where they all live on an island and are given tasks to do and then we call in for who we want off the island.

The democrats are trotting out the media dream candidates of Obama, Clinton and Edwards. I know there are more out there, but it appears that these are the only 3 who can raise enough money to have a shot at it.

The republicans have McCain and Giuliani and almost no one else with any name recognition, but the promise of Gingrich and Fred Thompson entering the race could make it fun. Still I feel sorry for any republican running this year as I think George W. has slammed that party to the ground and it will be hard to erase the stigma of being a republican. Fred Thompson would be interesting and I would certainly like to hear what he has to say, but he would have to run for me to even pay attention.

I personally see John Edwards as the dark horse candidate who could go all the way. Clinton and Obama could cancel each other out and Edwards could squeak in. He has a good rags to riches story, strong family story, with enough tragedy to keep the public sympathetic. Also he is a good looking white guy and we have yet to break that trend in the US.

Still almost every candidate talks about how the government can do this for us or that for us and I'm tired of them being in my life and would dearly love to see a candidate who promises us less government.