Yesterday actually managed to be relaxing, if sort of mortifying. Mortifying! Oh biochemistry, the tool of treason. We watched Year One, if you can believe it, that Jack Black & Michael Cera caveman movie-- I'm pretty sure Jenny & I are the only ones who have ever seen it. I sort of enjoyed it as a History of the World, Part I pastiche. There were tiny, weird little jokes hidden in it-- like, Eden Riegel playing Lilith, & looking super attractive...& then being a lesbian? So that is an...All My Children based gag? Who is the audience for that besides...me, with my weird AMC obsession in high school? Also, I think Juno Temple, who plays the Cera's love interest who is in the background for the whole movie? She might turn into a little indie starlet, she has some weird sparkle. Oh, don't get me wrong, the movie is terrible! It isn't any good, but if you want something that is Instantly Available on Netflix to put on in the background while you web browse or something? It is fine for that. Jenny just rated it two stars, & I was like "I enjoyed it, even. It wasn't like, good, but it was fine." There are enough odd bits in it to have it sort of floating around while you do something else. Like when Abraham continually talks about cutting people's penises, that is pretty great in a low-brow way.
elladorian & fordmadoxfraud stopped by yesterday to give us our card table back-- we lent it to them for eight months! Now that we'll be getting the spare room back, we'll need it, since the plan is to convert that room into a game room; we've bought a couch & a projector already. David also dropped off some comics, & I read a few of them last night while drinking seltzer & bitters. Batman 702, "R.I.P. The Missing Chapter," is fine, in that it is Grant Morrison kind of ranting about Batman as an archetypal shaman out of his element, at war with the gods. Seriously though, it just reminds me how befuddled I am at what a disaster Final Crisis was. I like Morrison, I like the New Gods, I like Morrison writing the New Gods! I like Superman singing the universe into being! It was an unreadable mess though, & having Batman use a gun to shoot Darkseid is still an unforgivable offense. Taskmaster 1 (of 4) was actually pretty great. When I saw it, I said to David, "there is a comic about Taskmaster? What? Oh, Van Lente wrote it, that is why you bought it." & yes, Van Lente writes the hell out of it. Taskmaster, if you don't know, is a villain from Marvel who knows everyone's signature fighting style. He can copy Captain America, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Black Widow...anyhow, the premise of the comic is that in order to make room for all that technical knowledge in his mind, he lost all his memories, so it is a sort of crazy Memento-esque tale. Featuring, you know, Hydra & A.I.M. & cyberninjas & Sons of the Serpent & probably my all-time favorite recent comic creation (bumping "Terminator Ghost Rider from the future" down to number two) "The Black Choppers," which are a grey alien motorcycle gang. Which is the best thing ever, probably. The Avengers 4 is really great, I think-- I don't think David agrees, but I am really liking it. The time travel plot device lets them do plenty of fan service with the Maestro (old Hulk is a huge jerk) & the "Next Avengers" (the kids of the current Avengers). Also, Romita Jr. has a way with art that is really suited to this kind of story. Bendis probably should diversify his dialogue though-- the cliche about every character sounding the same is kind of true. Supergirl 55 was alright, but also, not alright. First off, Renato Guedes should still be doing this comic, & I'll always be sad he isn't. That being said, Igle et al do a fine job on the art. Bizarro Supergirl is a concept I can get behind. Strike that...Bizarro anything is a concept I can get behind. Where is my Bizarro Krypto?! Anyhow, the story doesn't really come together, but I like Supergirl's bracers, & I wasn't turned off by the comic, I just need a little more from it. Buffy: the Vampire Slayer 36, "Last Gleaming Part One," is utter rubbish. Yep, the "Season Eight" of the Buffy comic has tanked back to the level of quality present in the regular Buffy comics-- which is to say, nonexistant. I get that making them fly & have whacky dimensional adventures is playing with the medium, & the unlimited special effects budget of the pencil & pen, but it fails. & seriously, you gave the franchise to Meltzer for how many issues? I'll never forgive that. The art sucks, the story makes no sense, & it isn't even remotely a Buffy comic...or an Angel comic...or a Spike comic. Even seeing the Master coming back seems trite & stale. Uncanny X-Men 527 is also a wash, despite being written by Fraction & having Frost & Namor on the cover. I like Emma Frost, but I'm over her being a "bitch with secrets," or at least, over that being "shocking." Also, I'm over her not having friends-- I want to see her buddy up with Colossus, I want to see her turn to diamond, him turn to organic steel, & then wade into a hail of bullets, & bond over it (plus, that would play off her antagonism with Kitty in a cool way). Instead, this is a comic where she is a jerk, Namor is a sleaze, & nothing happens at all. Yawn. Then of course, besides I'm a masochist, I read Ultimate Avengers 3 1, by Mark Millar. What a steaming pile of gutpuke. Hey, remember when Luke Cage was in that other Mark Millar written Ultimates comic, & he was like a gross sort of caricature? Well, Blade is the exact same one! Hey, neato! He appears just long enough to be "blaxspoitation-y"-- if you are being charitable. If you aren't, you might say "racially insult-y." Then there is some garbage about a new Daredevil & a vampire Nerd Hulk (?) but lets not get into it. You'll never read it, I hope, so we can just leave it at: barf.
