A Tear For Terra Man

Today, May 24th, 2006, we say goodbye to an American Legend, a man who's origin, modus operandum, and unparrerelled hatred of the Man of Steel is as colorful as it is difficult to explain.

Tobius Manning, born a on a hot Arizona day in 1880, never had any notion of the amazing adventures his sorted life would lead him too... but his father, his real father (not some lazer necklace wearing, gold stealing, mohawked, empathetic space lizard) knew that Tobius would achieve a greatness that he himself never could. At the tender age of 8, Toby was already following in his father's footsteps, but merely moments after his first succesfull stage coach robbery, his life was to be drastically altered. The Collecter, the said Space Lizard, came down to Earth and after a slight altercation with Jess Manning, accidently killed Toby's father, he then proceded to mind wipe the child and vow to raise him as the greatest space cowboy the universe has ever seen. Before they could escapr into outer space, the two were assualted by a time-displaced Superboy and hurled into cosmos, begining a grudge that would span a century.

Years Passed. 100 Earth years actually, but only 20 Lightspace years.

Over this time, Tobius was outfitted with the latest and most advanced technoligical doo-dads that a caring space lizard father could offer, all with a western flavor. These wonderous devices include, space lassos, space pistoleros, space cigars, space mustache and various other space cowboy themed acceceries... not to mention the ability to summon tornadoes somehow, if I'm not mistaken. He even was modified to survive comfortably in the vacuum of space. Oh, he had a winged space horse, too. His adopted father then gives him the name Terra Man, of course meaning Earth -his native planet, and he rapays 'dad' with a slug to the chest and then travels back to his big blue planet, to settle an old score. All happened in Superman #249.

Yep, that's his back story. It gets better tho, his post-Crisis revamp is not so much a cowboy, but an extreme environmentalist/eco-terrorist who targets big business. Get it, Terra Man? Get it? Fan-tastic.

But if any of you out there took my advice from last week and picked up 53.3 you would see that last chapter in the life of this space faring cowboy has finally been writen. Betrayed by dastardly diplomatic Black Adam, Terra Man was torn asunder during a photo junket, bowls laiden on the associated press.

He Died as he lived... a futuristic, environmentalist, space cowboy from the past. Shine On, you crazy diamond.

Even with this tragedy, Secret Six was able to cheer me up with this delightful gem:

52.2 is Boosterrific!

So what's not to love about this weeks issue of 52?

Secret inverted grave messages!
Question ominously hovering over lounging lesbians!
New Superboy based religion!
Sleuthing Dinby!
Dr. Magnus, complete with pipe!
T.O. Morrow. T.O. MORROW!
Madman kidnapping other madmen!?
Booster saves the day! (er... uh... kinda... maybe? not too sure about that one)

First thing first, everyone talks about how Frank Quitely can draw a smug looking Supes, but ain't nobody smugger in the DCU than that Dr. Magnus. You'd be smug too if you made the Metal Men. The man's a P-I-M-P pimp.


So anyway, 52.2... if you havn't read it yet, do so. Even if your not reading any of the One Year Later stuff, go out, get it, and have a good time. It's fun, it's interesting, it's multilateral, and it has some of the greatest underappreciated DC characters headlining it. This weeks cover was just plain fun too. Originally I thought a comic explaining how the DCU get's to the point we've already been reading about for a few months now was gonna be a bad idea. But in two weeks this comic has already made it to my Must Read at All Costs list.
The scene with the Question inside of Renee Montoya's apartment was a little awkward (i'm sure he could have come at a better time), but then again, he's kind of an awkward fellow. And that's why we love him, that and his severe paranoia.
My favorite scene in the book tho (barring any scene with Boosty, especially any heroic scenes) had to have been the conversation between Magnus and Morrow. Intense.


Also out today... All Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder # 4. This issue definantly picks back up from what was lacking in issue 3... completely insane Batman. And that is what he is; a grown man who dresses up like a flying rodent, has a submarine car, kidnaps prepubescent boys, and lives in a cave, there is no other way to describe such a man, and Frank Miller does so fantastically. Also, I have never been the biggest Jim Lee fan, his Hush batman was fine, i suppose... but he draws damn fine crazy batman, and I'm begining to appreciate his artwork more and more with each issue. And talk about splash pages! The Lee cover, by the way, was pretty good, nice batcave and all that... but I very much enjoyed the Miller Superman cover, very powerful, yet didn't feel like shelling out the 10 bucks, i can admire something without having it.
For any of you fanboys who say this is an awful series... your just dumb.

Also noticed some discrepencies in Shadowpact #1 with 52 #1, Shadowpact appears at the grand conference that Superman failed to attend, but then later the Pact is helped by Superman to pierce the blood barrier. Whatever, DC will make it work.

Too Busy Today To Care

Maybe you have seen this, maybe not. But he does want the best super power ever... it's near the end, but everything till that point is great.

Really just sad, but in all fairness it will probably be me in 22 years.

This Counts as a post

Just Barely though.

And yes, that is the Ruin in the background.

Don't fuck the Prime Derective

Today I woke up with strongest of urges to watch nothing but Star Trek, more specifically the original series. Unfortunately, I don't have the kind of bling-bling dollar bills to buy the complete three seasons of the orginal show. But, I am a college student with a high speed internet connection... meaning earlier this week I was able to contact one of many fellow sci fi enthusisiasts here at UCLA, via the interweb, to borrow his legally obtained Star Trek TNG seasons 1, 2, and 3 DVDs. Because as a college student I am well informed about the dangers of internet piracy, and respect the companies right to charge exorbent prices for something that was designed to be free.
Now that that little discalaimer is out of the way, I was able to watch everything from Encounter at Farpoint (an absolute classic, has a good novelization too) to 11001001 (a new personal favorite by the way) today, rather than working on a term paper that's due incredibly soon. I had seriously forgotten how great these early episodes were, when the cast was just getting the feel of realizing that the rest of their lives would be spent signing autographs with names like 'La Forge' and 'Mr. Worf'. Plus it had Riker before he got well... um, bigger and hairier. Not to be confused with this man tho.
But the again their are those who enjoy a brave, thick, hirsuit man. (But you are right about that scene in from the finale of The Office)

So I spent most of this Saturday watching Star Trek: The Next Generation alone in my room, went to the gym where I watched The Princess Bride on an excercise bike, and am now going down to a buddies place to watch Rath of Kahn and Search For Spock... and yet I still ask myself why I don't have a girlfriend...

IT'S AMOK TIME!
(with generous portions of Shatner chest!, also granted he is a Doctor, but McCoy's sheer lack of emotions at watching his two best friends battle to the death is just well, unsettling)

Now if that's how we humans got women... i'd still probably still be a lonely loser, but we can all learn from this advanced race of space elves.

I'd probably squander the powers anyway

16 hours and counting since an unidentified chemical was dumped on UCLA premises only a block from where I was at the time, thankfully they wern't household chemicals, apparently. For the duration of the incident me, Scott, Hank and many other residents of the 1000 block of Strathmore Drive were unable to leave, with police barricades at the Gayley intersection and a combonation of security cars and news vans blocking the Landfair route. All the cops would tell us was that a mystery chemical was spilled and that it would be best if we stay inside our houses. So there we stayed for 3 hours until the police and news vans scattered.

Unfortunately, still no signs of zombosis or superhuman powers.

But these things can take their time. This of course opened up the debate at my friends apartment, what powers, more specifically super powers, would you want? Everybody has probably had this conservation at least once in their life, and it probably takes on a new dynamic everytime. As much as I like the idea of pulling future versions of myself from hypertime or whatever to combat present-time threats, or a vigilante who uses a rocket skateboard... I don't think my final reponce has ever been the same twice, because their are so many powers to choose from its hard to pick a favorite.

All I do know is that if I did have Superpowers, i would probably only use them to impress women. Im really not down with the whole heroism or villainy thing, kinda hazardous... and I don't like being punched. But, I wouldn't mind demonstrating my proportional strength of a spider, my fear-doubt-hate machine, or my emotion-changing-theatre-mask in a petty attempt to get my alter ego laid. That's how it should work.

Hmmm... who would win in a fight, Psycho Man or Psycho Pirate?
Pyscho Pirate is kind of a bitch. Except after Underworld Unleasehed when he was a leather clad, jacket wearing manipulator with an eyepatch instead of the Medusa Mask, he was pretty cool then.
Ha, the guy had to "claim" people in other forums commented on it but didn't have time to go to this particular thread., that's how uninteresting these characters are.

Teenage Sellout

Started here I guess, I was just bored.

52 More reasons to love DC

VS

The Rivals:
Chris VS Dafna

The Winner? The Fans

This morning the big DC vs Marvel (or Marvel vs DC) debate took place on UCLA radio from 9-10AM with nearly dozens (if that) of people listening, with even a few familiar faces calling in to add their own insight and opinions to the matter. I argued in favor of Detective Comics while the lovely Dafna Pleban attempted to make a case for Marvel; though she too favors DC, she played the Devil's advocate on this one. The only person who really favored Marvel was one of the hosts, Jeremy, who I *believe* I mentioned a few days earlier. He actually is a really nice guy, and pretty funny to boot. But anyway, the debate went swimmingly, tho not really a debate based on the different merits of the two rival companies, it eventually boiled us to talking about our favorite comics and comic movies. It's actually hard to choose between the 2, both have their good and their bad, i only have one or two less Marvel pulls than DC on my list at the Stash. it's not quite a Sofie's Choice decision... but if one had to be carried away by Nazis, it would be Marvel
My good friend and fellow Associated Comics And Pop Culture Webloggers Of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs, or ACAPCWOVCCAOE, member Ian Brill of Brill Building phoned it in all the way from San Francisco to add his 2 cents. Surprisingly he planned to call in before he knew I was going to be on the show. Coincidence? Sure. It was good hearing from the old boy, and I'm glad he didn't school me with his superior comic knowledge. And also renowned grumpy old man, and my former boss, Mike Sterling tuned his radio dial to pretencious college radio to hear me unintentionally slam Swamp Thing. Sorry Mike, I didn't mean to.

Hopefully, they'll send me an mp3 of the taping so if anyone out there has an hour to kill... they'll have that waiting for them.

Anyway, for even more reasons why DC rocks the socks off of Marvel... there are 52, count 'em, 52, new reasons that premiered today. And that would of course be the aptly titled DC comic, the 52, which describes how the characters in the DC Universe go from being in one giant cluster fuck to Aquaman having a sword. Should be a year of laughs, tears and noggin scratchin. The first ish was great, any series with Booster Gold as a main character is gonna be great... 'cept of course maybe his own series. But that can be overlooked and forgotten.

How can you hate that smile?:

As Promised

http://www.jewishspermdonor.net/

David Perkins: Man About town.

Hey he went to UCLA too.

Falafel day

I spent a sizable portion of the day today at the 58th birthday of a little country most people know as Israel, at the Israeli Fest in Burbank. There were jewish vendors, and jewish food, and jewish carney rides, and jewish petting zoos, and jewish oscar meyer weiner mobiles... anyway, fun was had by all. Well, I'm assuming i would have had fun if not for the fact I had to work, selling tickets and such. It was pretty interesting, cept for all the people who came up to me and tried to speak Hebrew, mainly because I didn't know what to say back. My vocab goes to saying 1 through 10 and the alphabet. Besides that fact, everything was on the up and up.

There were some really good vendors there, Jews for Judaism and Women On Top and such... but they were all trumped by my new jew hero. I can't seem to find his card on me, but I promise to post a link to his site tommorow, but I assure you this is a man who is genius/madman. So I was walking up the corridor of vendors when a sign that says Jewish Sperm Donor cathces my fancy, so logically I assume it's for jewish men to donate jewish sperm... there must be a market out there for that somewhere. WRONG. It was all a big promotion for one man trying to pedal his man milk on the shiksa population, by and which, he had a booth and website (check tommorow) devoted to sowing his seed across the world. On the business card he gave me it lists all the positive attributes of this man... Expert Musician, Religious Giant (really?), and occasionally humble, occasionally humble? nice fuckin touch man. you get my thumbs up. way up.
Oh! and for the kids... he had a ballon artist making balloon... uh, er, sperms... one long, white balloon tied to one, oval white balloon. This man is my new champion, so get lost Fred Gwynne.

Because Free is Better

So once again free comic book day has come and gone. My original plans were to go home for free comic book day, and celebrate the festivites with the droogs at Ralph's Comic Corner, my former occupation. Unfortunately, something came up and i was unable to make the Trek home. Fortunately I was able to do a small comic book store tour of LA with fellow comics weblogger Dafna Pleban. We crammed into a her badass Volvo along with fellow comic enthusiast Ivan as we drove around our shady little town of Los Angeles.

The first stop was Earth 2 comics were we hoped to catch a glimpse of Mark Waid, but he had left only moments before we arrived, sucks... so we then went to Meltdown on Sunset, where we did happen to cathch Brian K Vaugn. I gave him repect knuckles and bought a Jeffry Brown book I had been meaning to pick up, along with some "emo ass" merchandise as Dafna so eloquently put it.

Unfortunately for Ivan, he had to sit through nearly 4 hours of me and Dafna discussing such important issues as favorite Hellblazer storylines, why Bendis is a hack/genius, our fantasy casting for a Preacher movie (Clint Howard as TC, Jeff Bridges as God, Adam Baldwin as Jodie, and Katee Sackoff as Tulip just to name a few), and why working at a comic book store is both a blessing and a curse.

For those of you who want more of me and Dafna's diluded opinions, we're gonna be on the UCLA radio show Undeclared Wednesday morning to discuss which is better, Marvel or DC. I say DC... Dafna says DC as well (but will be arguing for Marvel.) Funny story, we were in Secret Stash today when a host for Undeclared (not the one who invited us to the show) comes in asking to put down fliers, saying that two people will be on the show to discuss Marvel Vs. DC, and we both turn around and say "Hey, that's us!"

So the f%#@* has the nerve to say "which one is DC?"
I reply "I am"
He says "are you serious, Marvel is so much better, your crazy"
I courteiously respond "do you even read comics?"
He explains that he has never read comic books only a few graphic novels (arg!), conveying he knows Marvel is superior because the X-men show was good so long ago.
*I say "how can you seriously make a judgement call as such, and belittle my beliefs, without even familiarizing yourself with the core material. You've prolly read maybe 2 dozen comics in your life, at most, excluding V for Vendetta and Sin City... which you can prolly tell me everything about (sarcasm, btw), compared to myself who has read thousands of comics. Your gonna tell me that The House of Ideas (also sarcasm) is better because a show that hasn't aged well was good when you were 7? That show is not good anymore, campy at best... and the only reason you like it is because it reminds you of your innocent youth, you look at it now and laugh, it's a joke with hipsters wearing Uncanny X-Men T-shirts as ironic. You should have watched Batman Adventures when you were a kid, now that was good then and is good now. The Bruce Timm style, the plot, and the animation blows Uncanny X-men out of the water. But we're not talking about children shows, the books are just plain better... you have better writing, better stories, and just plain better characters."
"What about Aquaman?"
"What about Aquaman?"

I think I'll do a good job on Wednesday.

I would have done some reviews on some FCBD books, but unfortunately I left them in Dafna's car... and no I didn't do that intentionally so I would have to call her back. What do you take me for?

*maybe I'm embellishing a bit, but the idea is there.