I Don't Understand My Sense Of Humor

Comedy Central was showing some South Park episodes over the weekend, and "Free Willzyx" came on. The one where two employees of the sea park play a prank convincing the boys the killer whale is actually an alien from the Moon, who desperately needs to get back home. The boys do that, with the help of the Mexican Space Program.

The episode ends with the boys reflecting on how, whenever they look up at the Moon from now on, they'll think of Willzyx dancing in his castle with his family. Then the show cuts to an image of the whale on the moon's surface, where it is dead, naturally. They roll the credits over that silent image.

I crack up at that every time. I was actually wondering whether I would this time, since I haven't seen the episode in a few years. So many things I used to find funny, or cool for that matter, I see differently now. I don't generally find violence to animals funny, be they real animals or cartoons. I don't watch nature shows and laugh when the Komodo Dragon bites a deer, and the deer gradually dies because of the cesspool the dragon's mouth is. I recognize it's part of life, animals dying to sustain other animals, but recognizing biological necessity isn't the same as comedy. I don't even try to watch that Futurama episode about Fry's dog, because it depresses the hell out of me (yes, I know that fate was averted by time travel shenanigans). But the whale dead on the moon is hilarious to me.

I thought it could be the boys' belief that they'd done a good thing, and then the confirmation that no, they'd killed it. I mean, aliens exist in the South Park universe. It wouldn't have been totally out of left field to learn the whale was in fact an alien (other than the point there'd been no indication of that up until then). But the episode makes certain to dash any hope of that by demonstrating that it was a whale, and whales can not survive on an airless, waterless world. The sea park may have been a crappy existence for the whale, but it was still alive. But, to bring up the Futurama comparison, Fry believed Seymour had already lived a full life when he opted against having him cloned, and then we see the dog actually spent the rest of its life sitting patiently in front of the pizza place, waiting for Fry to return.

Plus there's the fact I don't start laughing until they show the whale, so maybe it's just the bizarre combination of images. A whale, on the moon, Earth in the background. It doesn't make any sense for a whale to be there, but it makes perfect sense that if a whale were there, it wouldn't be alive. Maybe I'm just a cynical ass that enjoyed them making fun of heart-warming children's movies.

The Invisible Man 2.16 - Sense of Community

Plot: Fawkes and Hobbes are in hot pursuit of some guys in a car, but like Buford T. Justice, their pursuit ain't so hot. Despite Hobbes having souped up Golda with surreptitiously diverted funds just two episodes ago, the van is back to being a broken-down piece of crap. As it turns out, the Agency is in dire need of funds (even with the money they're supposed to be getting from Alex' connections?), but Eberts has stumbled upon an Agency of Sequestered Seclusion, which is swimming in cash, though they can't determine what it's for, who it answers to, or anything like that. And the money seems to be getting paid out to a bunch of dead intelligence operatives. Except for Paul Grant, he's not dead. But when Fawkes and Hobbes pay a visit, he's ready to leave, and here come three more guys, including one dude who looks like Bald Bull from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, and they gut-shoot Paul, Fawkes, and Hobbes.

Fortunately, it's with tranquilizers, and now Fawkes and Hobbes are in the Community, a secret place for operatives who had their cover blown. They fake their deaths and move there to live out their days, safe from all their enemies. Except Fawkes and Hobbes didn't get their cover blown, but they're stuck there all the same, under the watchful eyes of camera-toting helicopters, fenced in with motion detectors and particle beam weapons. Of course, the unseens people in charge don't know about Darien's Quicksilver Madness issue, so there's a bit of a time limit on their escape. Especially since the Official has no idea what's happened to them, and has no money to pay for other agents to find them, and all of Claire's equipment is being repossessed, because it was all rented, so she can't even say when he got his last shot.

Hobbes and Darien aren't having much luck finding a way out, though Hobbes does find his old partner, Jack Carelli, and makes friends with a nice lady spy named Elaine, who apparently was a master of all those seduction and deception techniques Alex is supposed to be so well-versed in. Which means Bobby has a hard time trusting her motives as genuine when she shows up on his doorstep (the people in charge have already moved all of Bobby and Darien's stuff into bungalows) with champagne. He almost gets over his paranoia, but remembers Darien needs to get out of there, and rejects love for friendship.Then he nearly gets blown up because someone tampered with his gas line (though the explosion strangely doesn't damage Darien's place, which shares a wall with Hobbes'). As Paul points out, everyone here has a nice, safe life, which Darien and Bobby's attempts to escape endanger. So everyone could be out to kill them, including him. As it turns out, it's Carelli who's behind it, and not even because they're trying to escape. It's because it was Bobby's fault Carelli got burned. Hobbes blabbed to his shrink, who was a double-agent. Oops.

Anyway, Hobbes beats Korelli, Darien risks going invisible to bring down one of the helicopters, because he noticed they can pass safely through the particle beams, and they use it to reach a maintenance hatch and get out. Back at the Agency we learn the Official brokered a deal where the Agency of Sequestered Seclusion will give them enough hush money to keep the lights on, though he doesn't realize their office is now littered with monitoring devices, and Bald Bull is just waiting for them to let the secret slip and throw them in the hole.

Quote of the Episode: Elaine Lowe - 'You know how government contractors are: They're always cutting corners.'

The "oh crap" count: 1 (31 overall).

Who's getting quoted this week? Pretty dull week. Carelli used the "rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated" line, Darien used 'we're not in Kansas'. But there was Sophocles, who said there was nothing more demoralizing than money.

Times Fawkes Goes Into Quicksilver Madness: 0 (6 overall). Surprisingly, they made it out in time. I was a little disappointed. I wanted to see Crazy Invisible Fawkes wreaking havoc among the spies.

Other: The way they're playing up the money woes the last couple of weeks, this has to be a deliberate plot point. Chrysalis exerting lobbying pressure to weaken their only potential foe. Or maybe it'll turn out to be the side effect of Darien's father refusing to kill that Congressman. His legislation to reduce spending on security agencies is hitting the little ones - who have the narrowest budget margins to begin with - hardest. That'd be amusing, in a no good deed goes unpunished sense. Save a politician's life, he slashes your funding.

But it's getting a little ridiculous if we're to the point the Agency can not afford any agents other then Bobby and Darien (and Alex, who basically brings her paycheck with her). The Official had to send Eberts to try and track down Hobbes and Fawkes, fer pete's sake. He'd have been better off sending Claire. At least we know she knows how to shoot. Not that it mattered, Darien and Bobby made it out on their own.

Oh cripes, when Elaine paid Bobby a visit, they started up with the saxophone music again. Agh, noooo. I suppose it's too bad for Bobby he's spent so much time around Alex. She so seems to enjoy using the seduction and deception stuff on him strictly to amuse herself, that now he's paranoid when another practitioner of the arts approaches him with what appeared to be genuine interest. As she explained, all the other guys in the Community are either 100, or macho jerks. Though Bobby can be a bit of a macho jerk, but I guess it's more harmless bluster, and he doesn't bring it out unless he feels threatened.

It was nice to see him turn her down because he felt he needed to focus on escaping, for Darien's sake, even if it didn't feel entirely necessary. He'd clearly settled in for the night, was down to his undershirt and all, so he wasn't planning an escape right then. I think Fawkes might have understood. And while Bobby didn't outright say he had a special lady back on the outside, he didn't say he didn't. So he has given up hope on he and Claire. I really find that kind of sweet, even if I wish he would just take the plunge and be honest with her about his feelings. She clearly knows, but she's, I don't know, too locked down herself to make the first move. Either that or she's respecting his "No fishing off the company pier" rule, even though I'm pretty sure that's not ironclad.

Can't get over how much that guy from the Agency of Sequestered Seclusion looks like Bald Bull. Now we need Hobbes running in a pink sweatsuit while the Official bikes along next to him, telling him to get a subscription to Nintendo Power if he wants to know how to win (which is a pretty shitty thing for your trainer to tell you, really).

I'm not sure what I think of the reveal that Bobby's responsible for ruining Carelli's career. It makes a certain amount of sense, that countries would insert agents as therapists to get secrets. And it fits Bobby's tendency to sabotage himself with his various hang-ups. But he was so happy to see Jack still alive, and it seems clear he felt the loss of Jack keenly. Partners are important to Bobby, probably because he feels like if he sticks by them, then he has someone who will stick by him, in spite of his issues. The idea that Bobby ruined someone else's career, and not just his own, it feels like a low blow, a refutation of one of Hobbes' most important principles. But I guess it was needed as an excuse for Carelli to try and kill him, though they could always have chosen one of the other spies to do that, or had Carellia be mistaken about who was to blame.

To The Maginot Line - Judith M. Hughes

Ha, and you probably thought you'd make it to the end of the year without any more history books concerning the Europe in the first half of the 20th Century. Silly audience.

The Maginot Line is perhaps the most famous futile defensive military structure in history, as the French built this massive stretch of fortifications along their border with Germany, only to see them thwarted when the Germans unleashed the brilliant strategy of. . . going around it. Hughes' work is an attempt to explain why France went that route, and how a series of decisions and circumstances gradually boxed them in, until this was the only decision they seemed to have left.

A lot of it boils down to demographics, that France was at a severe numerical deficit after World War 1, and was painfully aware of it. They came out of the war with a smaller population than they went into it with, and Germany (which already had more people) did not. And the biggest hit was to the French citizens who would have produced the next generation of soldiers, so they problem was only going to increase. Combined with France's inferiority to Germany in industrial capacity (even if Germany was prohibited from utilizing this capacity for war), and France felt very threatened, but also didn't really want to fight again if it could be avoided. So they want to keep Germany weak militarily, but try to do so in ways that don't make them seem to be the aggressor, because they don't want to lose Britain's support. They try to form alliances with the new countries on Germany's eastern border, but not the sort of alliances that would force them to fight if Germany invades those countries. They start out trying to keep the Rhineland demilitarized, and establish outposts there, with the idea that in that way they can keep any fighting in Germany, and spare France a repeat of the past war.

It becomes a series of steps back and compromises that steadily weaken their position, which they are aware of, and that forces them into an ever more defensive posture, which makes them feel weaker, and so on. The number of troops they station near the Rhineland keeps reducing, as does the term of service, in part because they can't foot the bill to maintain a larger army. They pay officers so poorly that several of them won't accept appointments to their military colleges, because they can't afford to live in Paris and attend. Which hurts the readiness of the army, which causes France to feel that much less confident about their ability to resist Germany. They gradually stop thinking about responding to German aggression by advancing into Germany and fighting there, and more about building defenses to supplement their manpower. Even in the early going, the defenseworks were meant to support the army, to increase its maneuverability, but the weaker France's army got, the less that became an issue.

And so, if the military couldn't protect the country, maybe concrete would. You could say they ignored the fact Germany might well attack through Belgium, as they did last time, but Hughes points out the French knew this very well. But the Belgians were not eager to tightly ally with France, especially when the end result seemed to be France and Germany fighting a big war within Belgium's borders. At the same time, France didn't want to simply build a bunch of defenses on their border with Belgium, because that wouldn't really encourage an alliance, to wall the ally off outside with the enemy (also, the part of France apparently doesn't have the sort of topography that encourages defenses). So they were going to concentrate the military there, but still wanted to feel secure along their common border with Germany.

Hughes makes a lot of good points, thought she basically stops once you get to the 1930s. Strangely though, the way almost everything ties together so neatly felt off. It was almost too obvious and smooth a path to where things wound up. I would have expected more fits and starts, the French heading in one direction, then changing mid-stream and going a different way in some half-assed manner. But the way Hughes presents it, it's a steady but gradual thing where France keeps making these decisions and one decision - reducing service from 2 years, to 18 months, to eventually 1 year - undermines the size of the force they have ready at any given time, which makes them concerned about whether they can afford to let the standing army go on the offensive, because they have to buy time to mobilize everyone else, and so they start trying to counteract that with structures to slow the enemy, tacitly admitting they've abandoned the idea of taking the fight onto German soil. It feels very logical, but I guess I'm not used to governments proceeding logically over a period of several years. Especially one that was turning over the people in charge as frequently as the Third Republic (even if it was really just recycling the same guys over and over again).

'In coming to depend upon such works France would tacitly relinquish its option to reoccupy German soil and would simultaneously abandon its interests in eastern Europe. And in thus implicitly renouncing the one substantial provision of the Locarno agreements, the French would feel a still greater need to buy time, in this case, in order to avoid a war they could not win.'

Cathartic Video Game Levels #6

I probably ought to re-title these "Favorite Game Levels", because this one, at least, isn't really about catharsis. It's just fun.

I've been replaying Starfox 64 for the first time in a decade. Had to buy a new copy, seeing as Alex lost mine after I loaned it to him all those years ago (also Goldeneye, Mario Kart, and Resident Evil 2, which is why I don't loan things to Alex any longer). Not really back to my old level of skill yet, though I'm a heck of a lot better than whoever owned it before me. Already beat your high score by over 300 kills, WLT!

There are a lot of levels I like: The warp in Sector X, the two battles with Star Wolf, to Area 6, which is level to go for 300 kills on. But if we're talking favorite levels, it's Katina all the way.

Katina's one of the possible third levels, which you can get to through either Sector Y, or if you can manage the warp, Meteo. That warp gives me a lot of trouble, so I usually go through Sector Y. Katina is one of the arena (or all-range mode) levels, as opposed to the more rail-shooter levels (like Sector Y and Meteo). One of the Cornerian military's bases (a square-topped pyramid) is under attack, and it just so happens to be under the command of an old friend of Fox', Bill (who appears to be a mouse or some other rodent).

It's a big mess of Fox, his team, Bill and his guys, and all of Andross' fighter craft. There's no "no friendly fire" option, so you can accidentally shoot down any of your allies. Takes a little more work with Bill or your wingmen, but it's a long fight, so it is possible. Still, the numbers aren't overwhelming, so the early stage of the level is a good chance to get into the flow, learn to distinguish the different ship outlines. Other than the base - which sits in the center - the level is a flat, featureless plain. So there's no worries about hitting any obstructions (which is a bit of a concern in the two Star Wolf battles).

After a couple of minutes, a huge, disc-shaped mothership settles over the base, and unleashes waves of fighters from 4 hatches on its underside. You can shoot the hatches when they're down and destroy them, limiting the enemies you have to contend with. But once you shoot all 4, the needle-like core of the mothership extends from below, and you have one minute to shoot it until it explodes, or else it destroys the base.

So yeah, it's basically the end of Independence Day, minus Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith defeating the aliens with laptops and cigars. But it's the level that most purely captures what I love about the game. Starfox 64 is a flight combat game, and that's all this level is. No branching paths, no enemies that always attack at a specific point as I progress through the level, no mouthy boss enemy. All the enemies are the same basic fighter design, nothing clever to do to beat them, I just have to get them in the sights long enough to blast them a couple of times.

It's a wild scrum with a hundred other enemies out there, and things will never go entirely the same each time. The last time I was playing, I was cruising, shooting down tons of enemies but mostly avoiding hitting any allies, and then, as I was turning to chase a foe, someone else crashed into me. Couldn't tell if it was friend or foe, but it didn't matter. A minute later, it happened again, and I was missing a wing. Before I could react to that, someone crashed into me from the other side, and I was missing both wings. I went from the Hyper Laser back to the single laser, and now it was more of question whether I could destroy the core in time.

And I wanted to destroy that core. Not just to accomplish the mission of protecting the base, and not just because Bill will lend a hand in Sector X if I do. Bill is Fox' friend, and I like Fox. Trying to take on his father's mantle, protect this system from Andross with his dad's old friend, an idiot toad, and a falcon who constantly undercuts and disrespects him. I don't know what Fox and Bill got up to, but you can tell they're close, and that Bill has absolute confidence that Fox will come through. Even when I accidentally shoot him, he just jokingly says, 'Try shooting the bad guys, Fox.' There's no heat to it, he trusts me. It's a little thing, but it works, it makes me not want to let down this friend of Fox.

Larceny, Inc (1942)

One more movie from the time at my dad's, Larceny, Inc. Edward G. Robinson as "Pressure" Maxwell, a small-time crook who talks big. He's fresh out of prison, and looking to rob a bank before an associate of his, Leo Dexter (Anthony Quinn), gets out. Pressure decides the best bet is to buy a leather goods store next to the bank, and go in the through the basement floor.

As it turns out, this is more complicated than he thinks. His two henchmen are no great shakes. Jug Martin (Broderick Crawford) is adamant they should just use dynamite and blow the wall. Considering how incompetent he is with a pick and shovel, the idea of that guy handling explosives is terrifying. The other, Weepy actually finds being a salesman rather enjoyable. The other shopkeepers on the block are worried the roadwork is killing their businesses. Also, they keep trying to include him in their get-togethers and sense of community. His niece (played by Jane Wyman) is disappointed he's not actually going straight, and is hellbent on making his store a success, whether he wants it to be or not. To that end, she ropes in a salesman for a leather goods making company to keep business booming (a scheme he's only to eager to take part in, since he's trying to woo her).

It's not a laugh out loud movie, but it's good for some chuckles, and watching Pressure gradually start to realize the earning potential of legitimate business is kind of clever, especially since he almost immediately starts thinking big in that direction. His shift in attitude towards the other businesspeople in the neighborhood feels less earned, but even there, the film expends a not inconsiderable amount of time showing the other businesses trying to involve him and befriend him. So we do at least see these people show genuine appreciation for Pressure's assistance, even if he wasn't actually trying to help them. It may just be that Pressure has never really felt looked up to. His niece worries about him, but is as exasperated by him as anything. His goons listen to him, but there's a lot of backtalk, he doesn't really respect them, and well, they are basically morons. Leo doesn't like him, is definitely sick of Pressure's attempts to be a silver-tongued devil. So the very real admiration of these small business owners may have been a new, welcome experience for him. It amuses me to think Pressure will probably be a more successful crook as a businessman than he ever was robbing banks, but I doubt a film would have been permitted to go that route back then.

The Yard Dog - Sheldon Russell

Haven't done a book review in a couple of months, but you know how visits to my dad's lead to reading. So let's see if I can squeeze a few more books in before the end of the year.

The Yard Dog is Russell's first book starring railroad detective (or "yard dog", less favorably) Walter "Hook" Runyon. Hook lost an arm in a car wreck, then spent time wandering the country after his wife divorced him, and eventually became a yard dog. He's currently set up shop in Oklahoma, near the town of Alva, and a local fellow named Spark Duggan is found under the wheels of a reefer car. Everyone else is perfectly happy to write it off as Spark - who was a little simple-minded even before you factor in his love of the 'shine - falling asleep on the rails. But Hook isn't sure, and some people beat him up while he snooped around Spark's shack, and there is a German prisoner of war camp nearby.

Oh yeah, the books are set during World War 2. That's apparently a theme of the series, Hook moving from one rail yard to another, and coming into contact with different aspects of the war. The possible downside to this approach would seem to be it would cause a near total overhaul of Hook's supporting cast after every book.

Which is surprising, because Russell spends a lot of time building the cast in this book, from a love interest who is working on reeducating the prisoners, to his sidekick (who is also his 'shine hookup), to some of the railroad personnel. There seem to be a lot if disparate threads in the book, so much so that at times Spark's murder almost gets lost in the shuffle. I started to wonder if Russell was even going to explain it, or if was going to end up solving some other crime entirely, but finding no answer for Spark. Kind of doubted my dad would recommend a series that took that approach, but you can't rule it out.

They do all come together eventually, even if it doesn't feel entirely satisfactory.  Hook's relationship with Reina moved really fast, but beyond that, something about the solution to the mystery bugged me. Maybe it felt too big, like Russell felt he had to do something with the setting, but it didn't feel quite natural. Trying too hard, basically. Also, his dialogue is really stilted with most of the characters other than Hook. It tends to be too formal for certain characters.

Casanova Brown (1944)

I wouldn't have expected to see Gary Cooper in a romantic comedy. The few Westerns with him I've seen, he never seemed to have much chemistry with his female co-stars. He always seemed stiff too me. Which I don't think vanished when I watched Casanova Brown, but maybe it works it uses that to its advantage.

Cooper is a literature professor, all set to marry Madge Ferris in the small town of Rossmere, IL, despite his future father-in-law (Frank Morgan playing a loudmouth curmudgeon) advising him against marriage. The day of the rehearsal, Brown receives a letter from a maternity hospital in Chicago, requesting he come quickly, though the letter doesn't explain why. Brown reveals that a year or so earlier, when he traveled to New York to research a book he was writing on his ancestor, the famous Casanova. While there, he met Isabel (Teresa Wright), and they fell in love and got married.

Then he met her family, and her mother, in addition to hating smokers and liars (and especially people who lie about about smoking), believes in astrology. Going by when they were married, and when he was born, she proclaims the marriage catastrophic. Brown tries to remain polite, but finally loses his temper and unloads his feelings on astrological hokum. His point is somewhat undercut when the cigarette he tried to snuff out in his handkerchief lights it on fire. Then it lights his coat on fire, which lights the couch on fire. Meanwhile, the cigarette had been thrown in the trash can, and has started a fire there. Rather than letting it burn itself out, the idiots tell their butler to try and take the can outside, and he trips, starting a fire in their library. And the whole house burns down.

The marriage is annulled shortly thereafter.

Cass can't figure why he would need to go to Chicago, given all that took place in New York, but he goes, and learns Isabel had a girl, and she's planning to put the baby up for adoption. Cass, naturally, throws on some scrubs and steals the baby, setting up shop in a hotel room, where a maid and the doorman help him care for the baby. Meanwhile, Madge is trying to figure out what's going on, we learn Isabel never intended to give the baby up, but was only using the hospital as a way to get Cass there, Cass is convinced he has no parental rights and tries to convince the maid to marry him so he doesn't lose the child.

I recognize this is set in the 1940s, and that even today, courts tend to side with the mother when it comes to custody. But surely, if one parent wants to care for the child, while the other doesn't, that would be allowed, barring some definitive proof they were unfit? Admittedly, Cass is now guilty of kidnapping (his kid or not, I'm pretty sure you can't just yoink a kid from a hospital nursery). That aside, he seems a diligent, if somewhat overprotective, dutifully employed parent. It seems odd that the courts would actually say, "nope, go ahead and adopt the kid out". But the courts are a mess, and even if they wouldn't, I guess there's no reason Cass would know that.

The romantic aspects of the movie don't really work. We don't see Cass interact enough with Madge or Isabel to feel a real connection between either pairing. Cass/Isabel gets more time, but they spend a lot of it arguing, and given Cass' experiences at the maternity hospital (he gets the runaround from a bunch of nurses, then a bunch of procedures, and no one will explain what any of it is for until it's over), which he's put through because of her, it's hard for me to like her much. I don't think Cooper has great comic timing or anything, but I think he does alright playing a guy who's kind of befuddled by people. He takes the stiffness I see in him, and makes it into a sort of awkwardness, the well-meaning fool.

It's not a great movie, but it was worthwhile for me to see Cooper in a different role.

The Calendar Turns Over Again

Don't be confused, we're operating on the Blog Calendar here. In case you were curious, Blog Calendar declares the Apocalypse will occur on the date of the 1st of Calvin Buys An Event Comic Written By Bendis, so set your schedules accordingly. It's the end of Year 9 at Reporting on Marvels and Legends. Just one more year to a solid decade. Crazy.

Let's see, what went on here this year? I decided not to wait for UnCalvin to show up after April Fools' Day, so we crashed her offices, with moderately hilarious results. Deadpool didn't invite Clever Adolescent Panda to his wedding, and they weren't able to keep me from being tormented by birders. UnCalvin built a really lame giant robot. A bear gave me my hand rake in exchange for a handkerchief. We found a cookie making factory in a tree that fed off happiness, and Deadpool shot me in the foot. That hurt.

I read far too many books about World War 2. Read several detective stories, watched a few good movies, and plenty of bad ones. I played a half-dozen games this year, none of those were bad, though in several of them, I found myself frustrated by the parts of the game I didn't like that I had to do to reach the parts I did like. Tales of Vesperia was very good, though. I made roughly 5 times as many jokes or snide comments about Hawkeye's release schedule as issues of the book actually shipped, but was surprised to realize Dan Slott had become my least favorite/most frustrating writer at Marvel these days.

I wrapped up the Burn Notice reviews, and started in on The Invisible Man. I expect that to continue for another couple of months (there are about 8 episodes left), but I don't know what I'll watch next. I actually got off the stick and did the posts about my Favorite Characters. I enjoyed that, except for the part where it was exhausting. I still plan to touch on the characters I'd consider putting in instead, but I don't know when I'll muster the drive for it.

Looking ahead to Year 10, I don't have any overarching plan. The usual mostly, review this, rant that, hopefully some more stories. Besides the Addendum to the Favorite Characters, I have a couple of ideas. Scans Daily has been doing this "31 Days of Scans" thing, with a different category for each day. I might adopt that, not as something I'd do for a whole month, but just pull one out when I need something to post on for a given day. Also, I've been thinking about reviving that "Build Your Own League of Extraordinary Gentleman" idea from the summer of '06 I stumbled across at Bully's/ I've been meaning to do versions for all my different video game consoles, but I never get around to it. Perhaps this year I'll manage a couple.

I'm also thinking I need to go back and start adding creator name labels to more posts. I have a few, but not nearly as many as I probably ought to. I might also need to work on some of the character names. Like I have Carol Danvers' posts under "Captain Marvel", "Ms. Marvel", and "warbird". And now there's Kamala Khan to consider. Probably ought to simply that and just use "Carol Danvers". It's funny, I always used to wonder how much longer the blog would continue. I still know it'll happen someday, but at this point, it's difficult to picture. I can see the posting rate slowing, but I can't figure I'll ever completely run out of things to talk about here.

I sure hope not, anyway.

I'm going to include some links to posts from the last year that I like for one reason or the other at the bottom of the page. I haven't done this in a long time, but what the heck. These are posts that mostly wouldn't fall into some of the broader labels the stuff I mentioned above would (books, movies, diversions, video games). So before I get to that, let's wrap up any formal chat with me thanking you, the audience, for taking some time out of your day to read this blog and comment, if you do. I'd still post otherwise, but it's nice to know someone notices, so thank you.

I know it's just a few days old, but I like the idea: Ghostbusters meet the MiB
Carol's cat isn't a cat: I had some questions about it
It had been 7 years, so why not: The Soundtrack Of My Film Life!
Marvel won't do a Black Widow movie: Not sure why they hate money
Sometimes I talk about sports: I still contend a horse is a better manager than Mike Matheny
Dan Slott's done a lot things recently I don't enjoy: I'll limit myself to the Felicia post
I like Wolverine, generally speaking, but man: His place in the Marvel U. was a problem
This wound up being totally wrong, but heck: I still think it was a good theory
I hope to be there again this spring: The Annual Cape Con Recap!
With a year's worth of issues, I can conclude DC is making Harley like Deadpool: In January I talked a little about how I thought they were different kinds of crazy
50 Things I Love About Comics: 'Nuff Said
I did a couple of posts on Longshot after his mini-series ended: One on if luck powers tend to be assigned to women and one on the weight Longshot bears
The people in charge of the Baseball Hall of Fame are morons: That is all

The Invisible Man 2.15 - Three Phases of Claire

Plot: Claire has been working with Thomas/Augustin to recreate a drug Augustin had been making back in the day. At the moment of success, the Official immediately swoops in and takes it, so he can sell it to the CIA for some money to pay the Agency's skyrocketing electric bills. Claire only learns of this because Darien noticed she was down when he came for a shot, and went snooping.  As it turns out, Beta-C is supposed to make people want to talk when asked a question, and the CIA have a traitor they've been interrogating for a long time (years?), but haven't gotten anything out of him yet. Claire is understandably concerned there's been no human testing, but says if she is allowed to adminster the drug, she'll go along.

The ends up being a mistake, because Stanhope pretends to be muddled from a head injury sustained while trying to escape a few days ago, but quickly takes Claire hostage, with the needle jammed in her neck. Darien has a brief chance where he could have stopped them, but has to turn around and stop an agent from taking a shot. Stanhope injects Claire and drives off with her. And once he realizes the effect of the drug - because he asked her - he is, unfortunately, smart enough to ask her the most important question: 'What is the most classified secret you know?' Which means he knows about Quicksilver, and so does his handler, and bulbous-nosed Russian named Dmitri, who Hobbes says must have faked his own death 5 years ago.

While all that has been going on, Thomas has explained that excessive talking in response to questions is only the first phase of the drug. In the second, Claire will begin talking to an inner voice, and in the third, she'll lose all inhibition, become self-destructive and violent. There is no antidote as of yet, but Thomas might be able to make one with access to Claire's computers. Meanwhile, Alex - still sporting that cast, though at least they explained it was from punching a wall - is called on to use her contacts to locate Stanhope, which leads to her walking into a steam room of fat Russians while an accordion plays in the background music. She gets the info, they find Stanhope, just as Dmitri goes inside, so now our two plotlines are even.

Dmitri immediately betrays Stanhope. Fawkes gets the drop on Dmitri, but somehow it gets screwed up and the guy escapes. But heck, Fawkes and Hobbes have Claire, that's the important thing, right? Well, Claire's into Phase 2, even though she knows the voice isn't real. And the voice reveals that Claire is very aware of how Bobby feels about her, which gets Bobby riled up, which gives Darien a headache, and then Claire has to pee, so they stop, and Dmitri tranq darts Hobbes and Fawkes, captures Claire, and stuffs her and Darien in the van. By the time Alex finds Hobbes, they're 30 minutes behind. Oh, and Darien is starting to go Quicksilver Mad. Which is a bit of a surprise for Dmitri when they reach the docks and he opens the van, not that it slows him down much, but Claire escapes, and forces the old guy to chase her up onto a catwalk. Claire is fully into Phase 3 now, so she's pretty much fine with throwing herself off the thing which Dmitri doesn't want. No worries, here comes crazy Darien, so the only one falling to their death is Dmitri. Of course, that leaves a woman with no regard for her safety up there with a crazy murderer, so naturally they start making out and oh god, why are they playing saxophone music?! Naturally, Hobbes and Alex find our two looney birds under a tarp back on the ground, which is crushing for Hobbes. But Fawkes gets his counteragent, Claire is returned to the lab where they attempt Thomas' antidote, and it works. In the aftermath though, everything is very awkward between Fawkes and Hobbes, and between Fawkes and Claire, and Claire and Hobbes. And that's where the episode leaves it.

Quote of the Episode: Darien - 'You actually care what an invisible voice inside her head is saying?' Hobbes - 'I know about invisible voices, all right? I know all about them.'

The "oh crap" count: 2 (30 overall).

Who's getting quoted this week? Voltaire, who said the great consolation in life is to say what one thinks. Mark Twain, who said man is the only animal that blushes, or needs to. And I think it's Shelly Chisum, who noted when morality comes up against profit, it is rarely morality that wins.

Times Fawkes Goes Into Quicksilver Madness: 1 (6 overall).

Other: We never did learn why the Agency's energy bills have suddenly risen so dramatically. Perhaps Chrysalis bought their power company and jacked up the rates.

It was nice to see they didn't just forget about Thomas. I'll admit I thought at first he and Claire were working on something to restore his senses to him. Somehow, it's hard for me to picture Claire working on something like Beta-C, considering the latter two phases. It feels like she should look at the potential damage that would do to people and say, "No thank you." But I guess "Germ Theory" demonstrated that Claire is one of those scientists who gets excited about learning something new, without necessarily stopping to consider the implications of learning it.

Also, it was nice to see that Thomas wasn't unaware of the fact he's being kept in a cell, and I think he's starting to sense they're lying to him somehow using Augustin as a spectre to keep him scared. That's his own doing, he won't accept he is Augustin, but I like the sense it's a slow-building pressure. It made me nervous when he was granted use of Claire's computer banks, because of what he might find in there. I don't know if he did find anything - Eberts was supposed to be watching over him - but that's going to linger with me until they pick the thread up again.

I didn't quite understand the sequence with the antidote at the end. They inject Claire, Hobbes seems concerned it isn't working, though how can he tell? Claire isn't talking, nor is she flirting with him. Thomas says it's not neutralizing the drug or something, but then it works after all. So I don't know. It was a little sloppy, like the writers didn't want it to just work smoothly, but didn't have time to really do anything with that.

Hobbes ditched the suit jacket this week for denim. It's not a bad look on him.

I know Dmitri was a bad guy and all, planning to take Fawkes and Claire back to Russia to pry all the secrets out of their heads, but still, shouldn't Darien be a little more bothered he kill a guy? I thought going Quicksilver Mad and killing people was a troubling thing for him, but we don't see any indication of it. Maybe because they wanted to focus more on the awkwardness between he and Claire over their escapades, and Hobbes being so hurt by it, but then, they really didn't take time to do anything with that, other than have everyone stand around avoiding eye contact. That's perhaps not out of line for those three; Claire tends to play things close to the vest, Darien has repeatedly - as recently as last week - worked hard to avoid talking about his feelings, and Hobbes, well Bobby tends to hide everything behind bluster. None of them are good at discussing their feelings, but I wouldn't have minded a few small scenes. Claire and Darien try to apologize to each other, and then each reassure the other it wasn't their fault. We got a little bit of Darien apologizing to Hobbes, because he knows how Bobby feels about Claire, but maybe something where Claire considers talking to Hobbes about his feelings for her, but pulls back, because she isn't sure what to say, because she's not quite sure of her feelings for him (or else she's worried about putting those feelings out there).

I guess they could be saving a big Claire/Hobbes conversation for somewhere closer to the finale. Those two need to get honest with each other at some point, though. Watching Hobbes try to disguise it, especially now that it's clear Claire is completely aware of the torch he's carrying, is painfully maddening.

In general, not my favorite episode. Claire working on an interrogation drug still seems off, and I find I don't like stories where the characters escape confinement, only to almost immediately get captured again. It's tedious wheel-spinning.

Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)

Buchanan Rides Alone is a peculiar little Randolph Scott Western. He plays Buchanan, and rides into the border town of Agry on his way back to West Texas. He's made a healthy sum fighting in Mexico, and he's headed home to set up a ranch. But first he has to run the gauntlet of this incestuous little town, established and run by the Agry family. Simon is a judge running for Senator. Lou is the crooked sheriff, and Amos is the most inbred goofball of the bunch, who runs and inn, when he isn't running back and forth between his brothers, trying to play them against each other. Problem being, he's too much of an idiot to do it in a way that really nets him much of anything.

Buchanan just tries to get a steak and whiskey, but Simon's son takes his liquor, and vows to kill Buchanon when he finishes drinking it. Yeah, it's dumb, but the bartender was told not to give the loudmouth anything, and when Buchanan stepped in to order, the guy tried to pistol whip him, so Buchanan decked the twerp. Anyway, Buchanan ends up having his confrontation short-circuited by a young man named Juan, here because the loudmouth dishonored his sister. Said loudmouth is shot, Buchanan tries to keep Juan from being beaten by the constabulary, and they both wind up in jail, on trial for murder.

At which point the scheming between the Agrys comes to the forefront. Simon starts trying to delay Juan's hanging (he freely admits he killed the man, but won't explain why, so there's no doubt he's guilty), and extort his wealthy father (who may have been a big hero in the Revolution). Lou gets wind of it, and tries to move Juan someplace else, so Juan's father will give him the money. Lou also stole Buchanan's money, then had him escorted out of town and tried to have him killed (surprisingly, the jury listened to Buchanan's story and found him innocent. I hadn't expected that, but I guess it's only the Agrys who are crooked). When the murder fails, you have Buchanan running around, trying to get his money back, and also, eventually, to help Juan.

At that point, circumstances start changing so rapidly it gets silly. Every couple of minutes, somebody else has the upper hand, someone is in jail, or not in jail, someone is getting shot, or not. Hard for anything to have an impact, because nothing sticks long enough to set in. Plus, it makes everyone look kind of stupid, locked in a race to see who makes the fewest mistakes.

The more I think about it, my favorite character is Craig Stevens, who plays Carbo, Simon's right-hand man. He seems like the standard hotshot hired gun you expect Buchanan will have to kill eventually, but it never goes that way. They're on opposite sides of a large shootout once, but otherwise, they never face each other in the middle of a dusty street, in the classic manner. Which means Carbo is the smart one. He knows better than to fight Randolph Scott if he can avoid it. I really like that, the guy who sits back and watches these brothers and their stupid fights and struggles, and steps in when he has to for appearances' sake and to protect his position, but doesn't do anything out of anger. He might fight Buchanan, but only for the ransom money, not to build his rep or out of revenge. He might work with Buchanan, if Lou is the bigger problem at the moment. Carbo has a clear idea of his priorities, and acts with them in mind at all times.

Would The Ghostbusters Demand Tax-Exempt Status As Payment?

The series of late night took their toll. By Monday night, I was under the weather, and I spent most of Tuesday under a heated blanket, drifting in and out of consciousness. At least there was no puking. Operation: Fence Builder is officially on hiatus, until at least the next time I come to visit.

Two nights ago, I was watching Ghostbusters II, and it gets to that sequence where things are going crazy, and the Mayor looks out the window to see an eerie purple light in the sky, and asks what it is. My thoughts went to Men in Black, the "light from Venus reflecting off swamp gas" stock explanation for weird stuff.

Which made me wonder if they've done a MiB/Ghostbusters crossover in the comics. The Ghostbusters had (have?) a comic with IDW, and I know they did some universe-spanning zombie crossover with the Transformers, Ninja Turtles, and maybe G.I. Joe? I didn't read it, I'm going off vague memories here. I guess it's more likely that in a universe where there's already a distinct government agency to deal with extra-terrestrials, there'd be a different agency to contend with supernatural problems, so the equivalent of that - Mages In Black? - would probably be the ones to meet Egon, Ray, Winston, and Peter.

But setting that aside, and sticking to known quantities, in the event the two groups were brought together to deal with some immensely powerful alien ghost, I doubt it would be a friendly meeting. Peter Venkman's too much of a disrespectful smartass to avoid getting them in trouble, and while Ray's a well-meaning goober, and Winston is usually the voice of reason, Egon can't always avoid explaining things in a hostile fashion to people he thinks are idiots. Plus, they haven't exactly had great experiences with the government sticking its nose into their business previously.

I'm sure the MiB guys have plenty of experience with hostile civilians/ enthusiastic amateurs (I know the Ghostbusters are about as trained as you can be, but I feel like Agent K would probably still look at them as being rookies), but that experience leads to them using the Neuralizer, which isn't the sort of action that builds trust. I feel like Egon, at bare minimum would somehow recognize his memories had been tampered with. He just strikes me as the sort of guy who has such a particular set of thought processes that, whatever story the Agents came up with, it wouldn't mesh well with everything else in his brain.

There is a chance maturity would rule the day, and the two groups would just do the work and go their separate ways peacefully, minus a few loud arguments. Egon and Ray would probably be itching for the chance to see some alien science, and MiB might see something useful in studying the Ghostbusters equipment. If Star Trek's taught me anything, it's that there are a lot of alien species that have transcended their physical bodies and exist as pure energy. Which doesn't mean they've transcended crime or mischief, and Ghostbusters do have a lot of experience capturing immaterial beings.

Last of the Comanches (1953)

The Last of the Comanches is the Bogart movie Sahara, transported to the old West. Broderick Crawford plays a cavalry sergeant whose unit was almost entirely wiped out in a raid at the beginning of the film, led by Black Cloud. It's down to Crawford and 5 other men, with only two horses, trekking across the desert to try and reach a fort. Shortly into the trip, they come across a stagecoach headed to the now burned out town, and so the driver and passengers are drawn in as well. They also pick up a sort of untrustworthy guy who killed a cavalry officer in what he claims was self-defense. Lloyd Bridges plays one of Crawford's men, and he isn't buying that.

The ensemble is rounded out with a young Kiowa boy who escaped their pursuers just the other day. He's the equivalent of the French colonial army African soldier from Sahara, but also the Italian soldier that fellow had captured, and before the end, he winds up as the one who has to go to the fort and bring reinforcements. Both dad and I found that curious, considering how much hostility Crawford and his men had towards Little Knife, I'm not sure why they expected the commander of the fort to listen to the kid. Especially since time was of the essence, as they were under siege by a vastly numerically superior force.

We got some good laughs out of the movie. Their first attempt to replenish their water supplies goes downhill when the well is filled in and stocked with nice new rifles. So when they reach the old mission and find the well, we both joked that they would find more guns instead. One thing about the siege that was unusual was the tactics the Native Americans use. A lot of times in Westerns, they're relegated to that futile "riding around in circles and firing in the air" strategy. They do that in this film as well, but early on, they also dismount, and try a infantry charge. That was unexpected, though they eventually went back to riding around in circles. The odd thing was why they didn't try more stealth. One guy was able to sneak in and run off all the stage horses. They couldn't hit a dang thing with rifles - Crawford scrambles, well, "waddle" is more accurate, out at one point to trigger a series of explosions, and the tree limb he hides behind wouldn't cover a third of him - but were quite effective with arrows. Seems like they could have taken Crawford up on his "water for guns" offer, and it wouldn't have hurt their odds much.

The Late Nights Portion Of My Trip Is Concluded, Time For Manual Labor

Typing this Monday evening, having spent Wednesday thru Saturday with Alex. He had a gig every night, so lots of late nights, and a lot of drunk people dancing. I am impressed at the people who can make out in the middle of the dance floor, oblivious to everything around them. Wednesday a private party rented the club for 4 hours, but stayed for only two. So, short night. Gave me a chance to watch a few episodes of Psycho-Pass on his Netflix, which has been getting recommended to me for awhile. It's kind of interesting, but the premise for how things are set up in society seem so obviously stupid and bad to me, it's hard to buy in. It's not a "things look good on the surface, but are rotten underneath". It's like when people tried to argue Iron Man and the Pro-Reg heroes in Civil War were right. Yeah, until you take two seconds to consider the whole thing, and then the multiple flaws become apparent. Which isn't to say I'm not intrigued, just there are certain issues.

Thursday and Friday were largely uneventful. Saturday, he had to work during the SEC Championship Game. It was pretty easy, he just played music during the commercial breaks and halftime. Considering MU got curbstopmed (outside of a fairly competitive 3rd quarter), he had the crowd in pretty good spirits. He played YMCA at one point as a joke, expecting maybe 5 people to dance, and everyone started dancing. That was pretty cool. Apparently some customer talked smack about him on the restaurant's twitter account in the game, then got drowned in a barrage of tweets from people praising Alex' work. Supposedly some of the bartenders or waitresses were trying to find the guy and kick him out. Go, workplace solidarity!

The downside was he couldn't leave the booth for the entire game, which meant no bathroom breaks, and I had to run around town trying to find a place that sold microphone cables, because they were missing one. Lost my really convenient parking spot because of it. It was amusing, I wound up parking at the end of a line of parking meters a couple of blocks away, but only had enough change for the first hour and a half. By the time I came back to add more money, every other vehicle had a ticket (I still had 8 minutes to spare).

Anyway, after the game, Alex still had to work the club that night, but at least we got some wings and some pizza before that. That was slightly annoying because there were these two intoxicated girls that kept coming up to the booth demanding certain songs. Which is fine, Alex takes requests, wants the crowd to dance and all, but with these two he'd played their first song request - Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" - and within 10 minutes of his playing it, they came back wanting him to play it again.

I could go a thousand years without hearing that song, and spend that 1000 years traveling the cosmos seeing wondrous things, and if I returned to Earth for a party and heard that song, it would be too soon. I don't even hate the song, and it is nice to see how excited all these people get for it, but I just don't need to hear it again.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 14

Finally this round of reviews come to an end. Of course, November's books may have arrived by the time you read this - I'm typing this the week before - so we might jump right into the next round. Or not. Can never tell with my comic guy, you know?

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #16, by Nick Spencer (writer), Steve Lieber (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Nice going, Boomerang. You got your gang arrested, and the city is burning down. I hope you're happy (Note: He is happy).

Let's see, the Punisher is back in New York, Fred's lady friend is understandably pissed at him for trying to save his own hide by throwing her to the Bullseye robot, Mach-7 is trying to get some help from Tony Stark, and gets some bullshit pep talk before Tony hangs up on him. Hydro-Man saves the Shocker, who has had it with people betraying him and is out for blood. Go Hermann! And everybody's attempts to double-cross everyone else over Silvermane's cyborg head lead to a huge battle. Which Boomerang skips out on, only to run smack into the Owl and Chameleon, who beat the hell out of him.

But wait, that isn't Fred. Fred is actually about to impersonate the Mets' star pitcher, by using some serum Chameleon uses to change his appearance these days. That's what Fred stole from Chameleon's safe some issues ago. I have no idea who the Boomerang getting beat up is. His skin color is wrong to be Mach-7, and I don't know why Abe would be impersonating Fred if that's who he was trying to capture. Find out next issue, hopefully.

It's somehow fitting that a loser like Fred would consider pitching for the Mets, "winning". At least aim for a team that's good, like Tampa, or Detroit. Maybe the San Francisco Giants. But the Mets? I knew there was a reason I hated Fred. Though there's a halfway decent chance he's just trying to ruin Demang Pendak's career. He's breaking some of Fred's records, I could see Fred intentionally trying to injure several opposing players to wreck the guy's rep.

Actually, I might give Beetle the credit for most evil in this issue, not for the betrayal, just for using "Sorry, not sorry". That's such an irritating phrase. "Let me show you what a jerk I am by apologizing for the fact I'm not going to apologize for whatever I did." Just say you aren't sorry and get punched in the face.

Silly little note, but thanks to Steve Lieber for drawing Madame Masque's mask as a mask, rather than like a second skin. You can see a little skin around the eyes under, because it's a big metal thing, it shouldn't fit completely snugly. Tigh Walker was drawing it like that on Avengers Undercover and it bugged me.

I got to see part of the final issue online, and it helped with my perspective on the book. I've mentioned my irritation with the fact everyone seems to have become an idiot so Fred can pull this off. But as it turns out, Fred is actually retelling this story to someone in a bar, so he's just making shit up for the parts he wasn't around for. He admits he's making up half of it. Which should have been obvious to me, since I knew it was Fred telling the tale, but when he's the only narrator I've got, and the art isn't contradicting what he's saying, what option do I have? So there's a distinct possibility a whole lot of this is crap.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 13

Every time I make the mistake of watching an Everybody Loves Raymond rerun, I'm reminded how awful a character his mother is. All that belittling, the snide commentary she levies on Debra, playing people against each other, just horrible. I know, that's the joke, they're all horrible people, but the others don't seem like they're trying so hard to be horrible to everyone.

Harley Quinn #11, by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Chad Hardin (artist), Alex Sinclair (colors), John J. Hill (letters) - Aw, Harley looks so excited. On the other hand, Power Girl's uncertain expression mirrors my own.

Peej, having been punched very hard, and having flown across entire galaxies from the force of it, has amnesia. So Harley convinced her they are crimefighting partners who live together (though her attempt to get them in matching costumes proves ordinary fabrics are no match for Power Girl). Harley's lies are poorly thought out, but her earnest attitude - combined with Peej's head trauma - make her convincing enough. They try to go clothes shopping, since it isn't as though Harley actually has any of Power Girl's stuff, and end up encountering a heist of a sporting goods store conducted by the Sportsmaster and the Clock King.

Hardin is making sure to continue the tradition of Power Girl being a large person, which is good. Fits her personality. She towers over Harley, and basically everyone else in this issue. I also liked the two panels of Harley, I don't know what you'd call it, she gets so excited she waves her hands back and forth really fast on either side of her face? It's a good "giddy kid" action, and it seemed appropriate for her in this case. She really thinks she has a good idea here, and she can't wait to get started.

Speaking as someone who thought the Clock King on Batman: The Animated Series was pretty cool, I fear this is not going to be a good guest appearance for him. Still likely to be an improvement over that stretch a few years ago when he was running the "Terror Titans". I am surprised that Harley is trying to remind Power Girl she's a good guy, rather than trying to to convince her to commit crimes for Harley. Could just be a good decision on Harley's part, a Power Girl that decides she's a villain might also decide to kill the little pale squirt yapping, or it says something about this Harley's perspective on herself. The fact she thinks poorly of Batman (describing him as "Bat-Hole") is no surprise, but she specifically doesn't want PG to be angsty and destructive. Admittedly, Harley is rarely angsty, but she is frequently destructive, so that's an interesting choice on her part. I should possibly be concerned about the part where she says that Peej does favors for her, but doesn't get the chance to expand on what they are. That could be bad news.

I suppose the point of the story may be to show how warped Harley's worldview and approach to things is, by applying it to someone who normally behaves much differently, or simply to flesh out Harley's worldview by having her explain it to Peej. So Harley doesn't seem to think a secret identity would vary far from a heroes most obvious traits, so she tells Peej she plays a strong woman in a circus act. Or that she expects the people they help as heroes to pay them (though Power Girl was actually the one who brought up the question of them getting paid for it). This could be really good as a way of getting to understand this Harley Quinn a little better. We'll see how it goes.

The Invisible Man 2.14 - Father Figure

Plot: We open on a Thanksgiving dinner at Darien's apartment, with everyone from the Agency and his grandmother there. Then three guys in lab coats with machine pistols run in and kill everyone. Quite the nightmare, so Darien, as he typically does, bounces ideas off Claire. She's curious about the presence of his grandmother, and Darien explains it was his dad's mom, his father having left when Darien was 5, and that she was the only grandparent he saw much of. Also the only one still alive, I guess.

No time to reflect on that, a major alert has gone out to all security agencies about a killer named Forrester Perdue (no idea if I'm spelling that right), who has been killing other assassins for the U.S. for 30 years. Now he's gone rogue, and all the intelligence agencies are being called in to help keep a man no one has ever seen from killing the Prime Minister of Szerbijian. Look, I'm guessing on how you'd spell the made up country. The Official elects to send Fawkes and Hobbes as his reps, because thy work well as a team, while Alex does not. Oddly, no mention is made of the cast she has on her right arm as a reason to not send her after a master assassin (nor will there be any explanation given for what happened).

At the P.M.'s hotel, Hobbes and Fawkes run afoul of all the other agencies' handpicked guys, including someone who knows that FBI dipshit Jones (last seen in 1.17, "Perchance to Dream", I think). This guy makes fun of Hobbes, which immediately sets Bobby on edge, and makes him uninterested in working cooperatively, over Fawkes objections. So much for a well-oiled machine. Hobbes says that since Perdue has killed all his targets with a single shot from long range, they should look for the tallest building within a mile, and stake it out. And this works, Darien spots a guy, goes invisible, follows him into a basement . .  and winds up with a hand around his throat and a gun in his face. But the assassin (who isn't wearing thermals) lets him live, even though Darien saw his face. Darien is badly shook, and bails on Hobbes to visit Grandma. As it turns out, Grandma (or Madeline) had "Perdue" as her maiden name. Yes, Forrester Perdue, the deadbeat father Darien believed was nothing more than a small-time crook, is actually a killer of killers. Which leads Darien to demand to know who sent them out on this mission, which gets things a little heated between him and the Official, especially when the Fat Man makes a few one-liners. The Official has a point, though, Darien's been doing that nonstop at everyone else's expense since he joined the Agency. Damn it, did I just agree with the Official? Worst episode ever.

Anyway, a man named Malachi Royce, who was Perdue's handler, put out the alert, and so Darien breaks into that agencies files, with Hobbes and Alex navigating him through security. Except Darien sits in a chair in a hallway full of pressure plates and triggers an alarm, but doesn't go invisible in response. Not that it matters, the guards let him leave, on orders from Royce, who plans to have his men follow Fawkes to Perdue, then kill them both. Of course he does. In the lab, it's confirmed that Perdue's earliest kills correspond to time Mason Fawkes was supposed to be in jail on various charges. Claire advises Darien to clue in the Official, take himself off the case, or at least talk about what he's feeling.

Darien, being a righteous dude, does none of those things, and goes back to his grandma's to talk. Hobbes watches him, someone watches Hobbes through a scope, guys in suits with guns show up, there's a chase which goes better than you'd expect because Bobby used the Fat Man's charge account to requisition some funds to beef up the van. All it means is they drive into a trap sooner, but someone with a high-powered rifle takes out all the gunmen, and it's Mason/Perdue. They rush back to Grandma's, there are a shitload of guys with suits, guns, and thermal glasses, so Mason creates a diversion by appearing to surrender, then shooting her propane tank, allowing Darien to Quicksilver, sneak in, take out most of the guys, except one who gets ahold of Madeline, but still winds up shot by Mason. This doesn't solve the problem of Royce, so Darien approaches him, saying he'd be willing to take on Mason's work if it'll set his dad free. The job Mason objected to was killing an American senator proposing to cut funding from security agencies, and once Royce admits to plotting to kill him while a Quicksilvered Hobbes records, him, it's mostly over. Darien and Mason get a nice chat, then Mason pulls another fade, since he still has plenty of enemies from all that killing.

Quote of the Episode: Eberts - 'Darien, is there any way for you to act like a grown-up?' Darien - 'What? The gland brings out the kid in me.' I just really wanted to use an Eberts quote for one, plus the novelty value of him being directly critical of someone.

The "oh crap" count: 3 (28 overall).

Who's getting quoted this week? Tolstoy, who said all happy families are identical, but all unhappy ones are unhappy in their own way. George Gobel, who observed that he always felt as though everyone else was wearing tuxedos, while he was wearing brown shoes. And some French scholar, who said all heroism is due to lack of reflection.

Times Fawkes Goes Into Quicksilver Madness: 0 (5 overall).

Other: I do wonder about these odd jackets Darien wears. This week is what from some chemical company, and said "Jerry". Last week, I think he wore an orange one with a "Rich" name tag on it. Are these holdovers from his larcenous career? Darien didn't strike me as the type to steal by trying to impersonate an electrician or whatever.

One quick scene I didn't mention above is that, when Fawkes and Hobbes go off to chat with Madeline, the Official questions Claire and Alex as to their location. Both plead ignorance, respecting Darien's wish to keep the Fat Man in the dark. He asks (through Eberts) if they're willing to take a polygraph. Claire, mock offended, asks Eberts if she's ever given him cause to doubt her word. Eberts, legitimately chagrined, agrees she hasn't, but counters that she's sitting next to a trained liar. Which leads to Claire's line: 'You're suggesting I've become a prevaricator by osmosis?' If that scene had been more central to the story, I'd have totally used it up above. Then she and Alex get up and leave, saying they need to go apply lip gloss, which I find kind of hilarious for how obviously a load of crap it is, and they know it, and Eberts and the Official know it, but what you gonna do? Alex and Claire's closeness does seem more genuine here than it has in the past, perhaps because they're uniting in defiance of their boss. A common foe is a good uniting force.

I enjoy that even if Eberts wouldn't break regulations to inflate Bobby's paycheck, he did teach him how to get some extra funds under the table to soup up Golda. Also that they're sticking with that as Hobbes nickname for the van. It's those little added touches and developments to the established characters I like.

I still think it's strange they didn't even attempt to explain what happened to Alex' arm. I'm guessing Brandy Ledford suffered some injury and they just had to roll with it, but I'd expect them to address it, however briefly. Kind of an odd thing to just ignore.

OK, Mason/Perdue was ordered to kill an American senator, and refused. So Royce decided to have him killed, to close off any potential leak, and probably just on grounds of not liking insubordination. Fair enough. Why was Perdue around the hotel then? Was that where Royce was staying, and he figured he was a target, so come up with some other excuse for Perdue to be there? That whole scene feels like it was just something cobbled together as a way for Darien to see Perdue, so they could start that whole thing, but that it doesn't fit the rest of the episode. There's no apparent reason for Perdue to be there. They briefly introduce what looks like will be some pain in the ass guy from another agency, who never appears again. Fawkes and Hobbes briefly squabble over how to proceed, right after the Official got done explaining how they operate as a well-oiled machine, and they do mostly work well together after that. It just doesn't quite fit.

So Darien has a father who was a sniper who became a government assassin, and his brother and uncle both worked on secret government projects. I can't decide if that's ridiculous or not. I've probably been reading too many comics, since in those, everyone you're related to always has some cool job. Even Peter Parker's parents were spies who worked with Wolverine once and tried to infiltrate the Red Skull's operations. Kinds of warps one's perspective, you know?

I kind of feel like the reveal of Perdue as his father would have had more impact if he'd ever come up prior to this. Honestly, my first thought when they mentioned Darien's dad was they meant the scientist whose work Kevin expanded on, until I remembered that was their uncle. But he and their aunt helped raise Darien and Kevin, in the absence of their father (and death of their mother). It was kind of hard to buy it being such a big deal, when Darien hasn't expended any thought on the matter of his dad, or his grandma, up to this point. Maybe that's intentional; Darien doesn't think about his past because he doesn't like the person he was, or it reminds him of everyone he's lost. Still, the killer being his dad, and that he believed his dad was a small-time thief like Darien became, that felt a bridge too far, pushing for an emotional impact they hadn't earned.

The Shortest Month's Solicits Hold Few Surprises

I was wondering after the last set of solicits whether Roche Limit would come out in February, or if it would be on hiatus until the next 5-issue arc was ready to go. The answer apparently is "hiatus", though I don't know how long that will be.

There's not much new at DC for me. No new series, no cancellations. I'm really curious to see all the Convergance solicits in one place, whenever that happens. Another couple of months, I think? I expect they'll use that as a chance to cancel a lot of their lower selling books, though. They've used those special September events for that a couple of times. I'll have to live in suspense until then.

As for Marvel, well She-Hulk is gone now, which brings me down to just 7 titles from Marvel, and that's likely to drop soon. Yep, I believe February's Captain Marvel #12 is going to be the end for me. I know, I've said that before, but the book's about to be dragged into that Black Vortex Cosmic Marvel crossover, probably in March, so there's no better time to bail. Other than that, there's no movement. I'll be in my second month with Ant-Man and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, so hopefully those will be going well.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 12

The first trailer for the new Star Wars film has been out a week now. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of Star Wars, though I enjoyed the first Rogue Squadron game immensely, but I was pretty excited to see John Boyega is going to be in there. I loved him in Attack the Block, so hopefully his Stormtrooper (or was he undercover?) character gets some good development and screen time.

Deadpool #34 and 35, by Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan (writers), Scott Koblish (artist, #34), Mike Hawthorne (penciler, #35), Terry Pallot (inker, #35), Val Staples (colorist, #34), Jordie Bellaire (colorist, #35), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I didn't love either of the two covers. I picked this one mostly for the Looney Tunes-style signboard.

Issue 34 is a '90s style flashback explaining the circumstances that lead to Deadpool burning down his childhood home with his parents inside, as witnessed by Adsit. As it turns out, Butler did that to Wade just to see how effective the memory-wiping drugs he was giving Wade were. Pretty damn effective, apparently, since Wade torched the place with only small hints he felt anything familiar about it. At the end, as Adsit relates this to Preston, she watches Wade trying to connect with Eleanor in a way that is both endearing, and kind of terrifying. He plays "pull my finger" with her, but he'd already severed the finger, so it comes off when she pulls. Hey, at least he told her not to try that. We also got to see the moment when Carmelita confronted Wade with Eleanor, and Wade ran her off, because on some level, he knew she needed to stay far away from Butler. Too bad it was too late, and Butler had even swiped a blood sample from Baby Eleanor, and confirmed she has an X-Gene.

In the next issue, Wade lets Eleanor's grandma know she's still alive, and makes use of the Slurpee Machine he had sent to her apartment. It was the thought that counts, I suppose. Then he visits the Jean Grey School to say hello to Evan, but more importantly, so he's there to greet Kim and the other North Korean X-Men. I'm not sure I'm happy about Eleanor being a mutant, but at the very least, if she ends up attending the Jean Grey School, the X-Men won't be able to treat Wade so badly when he shows up. Parental visitation rights for the win! Eat it, Storm! Especially after Wade tried to be consoling about Logan's (at that point delayed) death.

Anyway, Wade wants as many big brains in on this effort to save his friends as possible, so he takes the Beast's results and tries to visit Reed Richards. But the FF aren't in their building, because it's foreclosed. On his way to visit Stark, he gets attacked by Dracula using the second version of the Spider-Slayer. Which Wade defeats in his underwear. Because he made a homeless guy wear his uniform as a distraction. Turns out Hank already shared his results with Stark which, geez, doctor/patient confidentiality! Also, Stark's a fucking engineer, what does he know about biology? Anyway, things are getting worse for Kim and the others, so it looks like Wade's going to be an organ donor for a while. Which is not only going to cut into his time with his daughter, but also with his wife. Shiklah's not too happy about how much time he's already spending away from her. Oh Wade, there's no way you'll be able to juggle this successfully.

These were a emotionally wrenching issues. The silent manner in which Wade killing his parents was presented. Watching him interact with Eleanor, trying to be a good dad, but all the things he can't or doesn't want to explain. The way he interacts with Evan at the school, the moment when he and Kim step into McCoy's lab, and they both feel uncomfortable in what it reminds him of. That slowly building tension between him and Shiklah, as Wade's other responsibilities keep pulling him away. That started when he left her and Dazzler to contend with the vampires so he could protect Ellie, and I don't see it getting better. It's awful, because Wade has really started to put a life together, and it's already wobbling dangerously.

Wade killing his parents was blunted somewhat by Koblish's art. He purposefully drew in a manner that spoofed Liefeld and other artists of that era, so he does not draw feet at all during the flashback. They're always off panel, or blocked by someone or something. Which is funny, but once I saw it, I couldn't stop seeing it. So during the silent pages of Wade walking up to his old house, roaming through it, picking up his old baseball mitt, while also unhooking all the fire alarms, I'm noticing how Koblish used the front gate to hide Wade's feet in a panel. Undercuts things a little. Also, I was seriously jarred by the fact Wade was working with Sabretooth, and Sabes even tried to talk Wade out of finishing the job. I know Sabretooth hadn't killed Vanessa yet, but Sabretooth feeling pity for someone apparently breaks my suspension of disbelief.

It's nice to have Mike Hawthorne back on art. The time since his last issue seemed to help. His pencils were stronger, I thought he did better with details on people's faces since the last time. He continues to be good at making Deadpool's face expressive, even through the mask, in a way that seems realistic. The smiles, the frowns, pouty faces, all well done.

Duggan and Posehn need to get their colorists on the same page with regard to Eleanor, though. Staples colored her as being black, but Bellaire went much, much lighter in the next issue. It'd be hard to tell it was even the same character. What's interesting is that the way Bellaire colored Ellie in #35 was much closer to her mother's skin color as presented in flashback in #34. And considering Wade is a Caucasian Canadian last time I checked, that seems more accurate. I'd just like some consistency, whichever direction they choose to go.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 11

By the time you read this, I'm going to be hanging out with Alex. I'm trying to get everything through Sunday lined up ahead of time, and hopefully by then, I'll have some more stuff ready.

Avengers Undercover #10, by Dennis Hopeless (writer), Tigh Walker (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - That's a pretty cool cover, although the bloody tear tracks on Cammi's face are a bit much.

The final issue, so all answers must be provided, and all plot lines at least partially resolved. As it turns out, after his big hit in Avengers Arena, Arcade tried to get in on Zemo's crew, and received only trash talk and a beating. The only things Zemo needed were Arcade's image (to frame the kiddies), and the technology which made Arcade so powerful, which they could - and did - get from Ms. Corriander. Back in the present, the Avengers, the kids, and Maria Hill and her agents are trapped down in Bargalia, while Zemo hijacks their helicarrier, and villains run rampant across the globe. Now c'mon, Pym didn't bring that many Avengers. Surely Pete Wisdom had somebody left capable of keeping Sabretooth and Mystique from looting the Royal Palace.

Anyway, Zemo' true goal is to. . . demonstrate to the entire world how SHIELD is spying on them all constantly, and to offer to destroy that capability, while Deathlocket hacks into SHIELD's systems. But wait, Cammi and Arcade escaped, and Arcade has managed to give Cammi the same powers he had. So she beats all the villain's asses, makes a little speech to the worldwide audience, and leaves Earth. Oh Cammi, Cosmic Marvel is not what it was when you last saw it. Bendis runs things out there now, so it's a cold, boring place, full of stupid conversation that lead to nothing. Also, Cyclops is out there now, which makes space at least 37% shittier. Back on Earth, Hill clears the kids of any wrongdoing and they go have summer fun somewhere, and Zemo still has himself a helicarrier, one undetectable by anyone, piloted in part by Deathlocket and the still-back-from-Hell Alex Wilder. And Zemo tied Arcade to the front of the thing, like an awful masthead.

I understand Zemo's general point, that he has no reason to allow Arcade into his circle, because Arcade had nothing he wanted, but he should have phrased it better than questioning what Arcade had accomplished. Because what has Zemo accomplished, or Masque, or Hellstrom, or especially flipping Constrictor? Zemo's look-see pigeon about SHIELD's invasion of everyone's privacy was a nice touch. Not that he really cares, since he'd be glad to use it to his own ends, but it's a good way to take everyone's eyes off what you're up to by getting them focused on something else. Doesn't even have to get people on Zemo's side, if it hamstrings SHIELD even by just forcing them into a lot of committee meetings with the various governments of the world.

Ultimately, the ending suffers from how rushed it is. There wasn't really enough time to show the kids struggling with what they'd have to do to maintain their plan, to show just how rushed and not well-thought out it was. How Zemo was manipulating them, how Arcade and Cammi gradually agreed to work together and formed their plan. Kind of needed that build-up to give the payoff the proper oomph. I'm not sure how many more issues the book needed, 2 would have been nice, get it up to an even dozen. Letting it go to 18 would have been better still.

So would keeping Kev Walker as primary artist, but he's drawing one of Hickman's Avengers books now, which is good for him. More high-profile title to show his skills. Tigh Walker and Tim Green were OK, but neither one was on Kev Walker's level. Even Beaulieu's colors seemed to work better with Kev's art, don't know how to explain that, except perhaps that it was just familiarity.

It's Rough For A Freebootin' Rabbit Out There

Looking back at Rocket Raccoon #4, I do have some questions about Blackjack O'Hare.

First, if he needed to kill Princess Amalya to fulfill his contract, why didn't he go for it when she was smooching with Rocket? Just lob an explosive down there while they aren't paying attention. Or kill her any time after Rocket ditched her and she was disowned, when there would presumably be no guards, and she would be too focused on plotting to kill Rocket.

Second, if his failure to fulfill the contract wrecked his reputation, where did he get a crate of apparently valuable hyperiam gems which he can use to buy off Macho and all those other crooks? Clearly he must be successfully pulling off jobs somewhere. Maybe he went into piracy, working for himself. Not a bad strategy, if no one will hire you.

Which leads us to Third, what is with these people who hire others for criminal enterprises in the Marvel Universe? Someone botches one job, and it destroys their rep. First the Black Cat, now Blackjack. It's nuts. Sure, there's always another prospective thief/assassin/whatever looking to make a name for themselves, but then you're hoping they're actually good, and not some schmuck. If it's an important job, you'd think these criminal masterminds would pay for the presumed quality that comes with proven past performance. Stealing some priceless heirloom, or killing an important business rival are not the sorts of things to trust to just anybody.

Besides, most of the best of these crooks-for-hire types have a professional code, so if they do screw up, they'll feel like they have to make it up to you, so you can send them out to finish the job, or to handle some other dangerous mission. Assuming they didn't fail because you tried double-crossing them, of course. That's the problem with the mastermind types, always trying to cut costs, always figuring people are easily replaceable cogs, then usually eating a bullet for their presumption. Which is why there's such a heavy turnover in criminal mastermind types, I suppose. At least as much as in the specialists they hire. If said specialists didn't spend so much time switching between hero and villain, and trying to kill each other, I'd suggest they unionize.

There'd be a lot of issues stemming from people joining the Avengers, and what do you do when some schmuck like Constrictor starts working full-time with Zemo, or Paladin busts Batroc trying to import dinosaurs from the Savage Land, both they're both in the union. That would get awkward. Also contentious. Possibly homicidal. Plus the people who wouldn't join. I saw Grosse Pointe Blank, I know how that ends.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 10

One thing about being around TV is how quickly I get sick of seeing ads for the same things over and over again. I forget about that when I go 8 months without watching much TV. I wasn't likely to ever watch Horrible Bosses 2, but having seen the commercial seemingly 5,000 times, I want that film to tank, and everyone involved to see their careers plummet into the toilet.

Atomic Robo and the Knights of the Golden Circle #4 and 5, by Brian Clevinger (words), Scott Wegener (art), Anthony Clark (colors), Jeff Powell (letters) - Slow badass walk towards gun-toting bad guys for the win!

Robo, Doc Holliday, and Marshal Reeves survive their initial encounter with Helsingard's primitive cyborg soldiers, and Helsingard's attempt to blow them up with his base. They board his zeppelin, but he has still more of the autosoldats. Robo recognized that Helsingard is using a liquid fuel derived from the Hollow Earth Crystals Dr. Dinosaur had been utilizing, which are highly explosive, and sends the Marshall and Holliday to blow up an engine room while he fights Helsingard's army. Except he's seriously running out of steam, and there are an awful lot of autosoldats. He's doing better than you might expect, until Butcher Caldwell shows up. I don't know if Helsingard built him a little better, if there was still enough of Caldwell in there to recognize and hate "Ironhide", or if Robo was just on fumes, but he was battering our hero pretty well. Until Robo tricked him into shooting the engines.

There are capsules that can be used as sort of a parachute/landing capsule, but Robo only has enough time to get Holliday and reeves safely stowed away, before he goes down with the ship fighting the still determined Caldwell. Reeves and Doc find Robo's remains, and travel to his home, where they find his instructions, which is to put his head in a box and ship it to a location in Colorado where Tesla will set up shop in 1899. Over the ensuing 116 years, the box travels from base to base, and apparently no one ever got curious and opened it, because now it's sitting in a Tesladyne storage facility that's been quarantined by those Majestic-12 a-holes.

I quite enjoyed this. The fact Helsingard had no idea who or what he was even up against, because it really didn't matter to him. He figured it was an insignificant threat, and that came back to bite him. If I recall, in the first volume, it was Jenkins who turned the tide, because Helsingard focused only on Robo. I will say I'm not sure if Clevinger and Wegener justified Reeves' and Holliday's involvement in the story. Especially the last couple of issues, they were largely extraneous, except as someone for Robo to need to protect from Caldwell-soldat, or to transport his head where he wanted. It could be the creative team just wanted to use them, and their interactions were very funny, but I'm not clear why else they were there. Maybe no other reason. It's not a big deal, I just kept expecting one of them was going to do something really critical to stopping Helsingard, and it didn't happen.

The fight scenes were good. Not that Wegener did anything wild with the page layouts - not really his style, which is fine - but just in terms of telling a good story. Robo is clearly several steps up from these guys, and so he mostly can beat them easily. But there are so many, and he's so worn down he can really only fight well in fits and spurts. So he gets tired, and they start to overwhelm him, and he pulls himself together and throws them off. It makes him look good because he's doing well, but clearly operating under a handicap, which is recurring more and more frequently. Then when he faces Caldwell, who seems to shrug off his strikes, and swats Robo around like a beach ball, there's some real tension. Does he have anything left in the tank? Can he pull it together and win?

I don't always love the sound effects, because sometimes I feel they clash with art. Especially when they're very precise and more computer-generated looking. Other times, they look pretty good. One I especially liked here was when Caldwell smashes his hands against both sides of Robo's head. The effect is a simple "WHAM", but it has much more of a hand-drawn look to it, and it's done in a way so that the bottom's of the letters are partially missing, like the force of the blow has damaged them, or else the effect is flying away from the impact so fast it's streaking. I also like that Clevinger gave Wegener two pages to just draw Robo and Caldwell fighting, with no talk. Just fighting, and Caldwell is almost always drawn as being too big for the panel. A lot of times, when he hits Robo, it's just his fist, and Robo flying into the distance. He's just too powerful to be contained.

I would have liked to see more of Robo living in the Old West, and I'm still not totally clear on whether Robo was the only Ironhide, or if there was another guy who actually got blown up, and it's a matter of mistaken identity. I think he's the only one, but see, now I want to know about the adventures that earned him the name. Especially considering his "Do nothing unless you're supposed to" manta. What drove him to get involved?

One nice touch is that after all that talk about bringing in Holliday for the reward, Reeves lets him go at the end, but they don't make a big deal about it. In one panel, Reeves says they go their separate ways and don't look back, and that's it. No "I guess you're all right", or moment where Reeves stops at the edge of town, thinks about it, then uncuffs Holliday and lets him go. That was well done.

Now I have to wait for the next mini-series, and hope it picks up where this one leaves off. I wouldn't be totally surprised if Clevinger and Wegener pull a fast one and do another series set in some part of Robo's past, just as a curveball.

What I Bought 11/15/2014 - Part 9

So the sales for October came out and Klarion did even worse than I feared. I mean, like it's near cancellation levels right off the bat. It may not still be going when we come out the other side of this Convergence thing.

She-Hulk #9, by Charles Soule (writer), Javier Pulido (artist), Muntsa Vicente (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - What the heck is Jen doing on that cover? Cap and Patsy look ready to fight and Jen is, cracking her knuckles? Also, that shield is way too small.

The trial has begun, and Matt seems to go from an opening statement, to witness testimony, and back to an opening statement, which I don't think is kosher, unless Jen was really asleep at the wheel. So the story is, the guy who died and kicked this all off was working with some unsavory types back in 1940, and his little brother came all the way to L.A. from Brooklyn to find him, accompanied by his buddy Steve Rogers. They got hauled in before the boss of this unsavory bunch, and the guy wanted them to keep quiet, but Steve argued with the boss, and so this guy's little brother got killed. And the guy blames Captain America.

There's not a lot else, other than Patsy is still on that secret mission, and Steve shoots down Jen's attempt to have Murdock thrown off the case for his past association with Steve. Matt decides to play with fire and tease Jen into chasing him across town, then tell her Steve told him to take the case. Oh, and when Steve gets on the stand the next day, he immediately states everything in the previous testimony was true. Steve, you're making it too easy for the wrong person.

Not a lot to say, really. This is very much a middle chapter, putting everything in place for the exciting finish. Sine it's a lot of talking, there's not for Pulido to do, either. It's mostly talking heads, and they're in court, so most of them are trying not to be animated, to remain professional or whatever. Pulido at least had some fun with the monkey and those duplicates of Matt Rocks drawing the banana. Man, those double dupes are creepy. They're so pale, and you never see their eyes, just lines above those big grins. I bet there's a string of serial killings in Marvel L.A. lining up with those dupes.