What I Bought 7/6/06

That's right, I'm back. The week off had its ups and downs, which I will now bore you with. Comics reviews will be the fourth paragraph below this one, spoiler warnings.

The Bad (Because I want to get it out of the way): My clothes reek of smoke, fortunately it's cigarettes and not weed. My sleep patterns are badly out of whack, which helps them fit in with my joints, which didn't take well to unfamiliar beds. I think I probably gained 8 pounds (I'm afraid to check the scale and find out). My father is keeping four English bull terriers in his house (only 3 of which are his), and one seems to have bladder control problems, which means that I typically woke up to rather pungent aromas. My friend Alex thinks his girlfriend is cheating on him. This is sadly not a new thing, as he often seems to choose girls with the Green Arrow-approach (sure I'm seeing someone, but that doesn't mean I can't jump in the sack with this other guy!). Which probably contributes to his Hawkeye demeanor (only one girl at a time, but frequently switching to someone new). And for the first time ever, I put my hand out my car window and told a fellow driver I was displeased with their technique by extending the ol' middle finger. This left me feeling like a complete idiot because a) it was out of proportion to their level of poor driving, cutting sharply in front of me and b) it only made the situation worse as he came came to a complete stop on a ramp to get onto I-70, so that he could berate me. Plus, my buddy is pretty sure it was an off-duty cop, which made me feel like a complete idiot who figured he was going to catch a nightstick in the throat soon.

The Good: The driving incident made me decide to try and keep a tighter rein on myself when driving. That's the most extreme reaction I can remember having, and I'd like it to remain that way, and self-improvement is of the good. My friend stayed off the weed during my visit, which is good, since he wants a job from the city. The tux-fitting on Saturday went well. There weren't too many disappointments among the fireworks. The food that caused me to gain weight was all very good. I got birthday gifts for my dad, and received some as well. He also loaned me some actual books. I got to do some targetshooting with a couple of .22 pistols. I had a number of meaningful conversations, and probably felt more relaxed as a whole, for a longer period of time, than I have in a couple of years. And I saw six movies I hadn't seen before, which brings us to:

Calvin's Quick Movie Reviews: Cars - The only one I saw in theaters, and only because the summer blockbuster season is such a dud right now and left my father and I with no better alternatives (no, I'm not going to see Superman Returns). Decent movie, but difficult to enjoy because it's a kid movie, which of course means lots of noisy, irritating children, whose parents don't keep them in line, so they kick the back of your chair for thirty minutes, and wander up and down the aisles, and try to steal your cap. The Ice Harvest - Funny, sad, kind of weird. I'm very happy they didn't use the alternate endings they showed on the DVD. Waiting - Meh. it had it's moments, but the "show your balls" game was annoying the minute we learned about it, and Van Wilder's fetish for underaged girls? Not funny, just creepy. King Kong - I think Alex put it best: I'd be more entertained watching old people have sex. We watched this movie, and tore it five new ones. Lord of War - Like The Ice Harvest, only less funny, more sad. But more explosions, so that was nice. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Not a funny movie, but I laughed harder at this than all the others put together. Says something about me I suppose. Kind of a weird flick, uses abrupt flashbacks a lot for the first hour, then stops after that. OK, enough of that, on with the books with pictures!

New Excalibur #9 - Wow, this books seems to be coming out an awful lot lately. Not that I'm complaining, I like it. It's an X-book that can nod towards the other X-books, without completely drowning in the X-shite they've been for awhile now. Well, I wondered how Chamber was going to make an appearance in this book, given his state in Generation M, and now I know.

Pete Wisdom offered to take Chamber in, but the therapist objects, Wisdom tells him that he should go, then leaves the room himself, I guess trying to politely let the therapist finish up. Which lets the therapist neatly escape with Chamber in tow. Whoops. We find out who the therapist is working for, and what the ultimate goal is: to repower Chamber and have him join the family. Chamber - now back in good health, even if he no longer looks the same) basically blows them off, stating he's got no interest in any of it, and he leaves. Excalibur shows up, making all sorts of bold pronouncements about how they'll get them for what they did to him, and he needs to come with them, and Chamber tells them to go to hell. Of course, as Wisdom notes, Chamber can't simply say that, he has to give a great soliloquy, which shows Tieri is capable of carrying on Claremont's works.

I liked this book. It tied into things established by a recent mini-series (which I won't name, so as not to spoil things), and the Chamber I remember from Casey's Uncanny - the guy who was only an X-Man because he had nowhere else to go. That may affect your enjoyment, 4.3 out of 5.

The Punisher #35 - I predicted the violence would ramp back up after last month, but it actually ramped down, and got more talkative. Everyone was yakking. Dermot and the lady are making a deal with the Barracuda to spare their lives. Barracuda's finding things out about his current employer. The little twerp that started all this off when he got saved by Frank Castle dies, and Barradcuda helps clean it up. C.E.O. guy looks like he's been set up for a public fall, probably by Barracuda, who seems to be manipulating Dermot and the lady against each other. I can't quite see what his game is right now, unless he's figured a way to get some cash from this. Maybe he's just doing it for kicks and giggles.

And all the while, Frank Castle is coughing up bloody chunks of something, and making his preparations. But not before a sea bird (not a seagull, there's no such bird) relieved itself on his face. This better lead up to a horrific maelstrom of violence next month. All this setting up dictates nothing less. 3.5 out of 5.

Teen Titans #37 - Let the superheroics begin! Villains fighting heroes! Alright! That is, if Beast Boy and Robin can quit sniping at each other. So we get fight, fight, fight. Teamwork from the heroes, except the two mentioned above, and even they're still doing the job, they just aren't getting along.

We find out that Caulder is probably even a bigger asshole than I thought he was after the last issue. Or I think I thought that, what with #36 coming out six weeks ago. Is it just me, or are a whole bunch of DC books late these days? I'd figured that'd end when Infinite Crisis stopped hogging all the writers and artists. At any rate, The Brain insists that Caulder is responsible for a lot of people's current conditions, including Plasmus. Yeah, I'd believe that. Caulder's like Baron Zemo, loves to wreck people's lives in the name of science, or the greater good, or whatever crap reason they're using that day.

And speaking of the wheelchair-confined jerkoff, he's trying to trick Kid Devil into staying with the Doom Patrol, but it sure looks like all his little manipulations have blown up in his face. Can I get a "Thank Goodness"? And I hope that the last page was just a mistake by two confused kids, because that is not somewhere either character needs to go. So from, my intial hatred of this group One Year Later, we now find it as the sole DC book I purchase, and one that I'm actually glad to be buying. 3.9 out of 5, because that last page really bothered me, if it does foreshadow future events.