Comic Review: Wyrd, Wonder Girl, and Superman

Back to the comic book store.  I love the abuse.  These were the comics I bought after going to Aggie Volleyball last week.  Actually, this trip wasn’t too bad, except for the first book to be reviewed.

Tales of the Outerverse: Imogen of the Wyrding Way

I was fooled by the cover.  I’ve been on a fantasy comic kick for a while for some reason and the cover looked evocatively interesting.  It’s not a wrap-around cover, but it’s definitely part of a larger image.  The only thing that worried me about buying it was the black woman on the cover.  Just to be blunt, that’s usually a visual dog whistle for SWJ content therein, especially in a fantasy comic. 

That’s a pretty accurate telltale in this case.  If you want a fantasy comic with a black lesbian witch with a white girlfriend (even gay couples have to be mixed race in today’s media), who’s so hopelessly competent that nothing in the story challenges her, this is your comic.  Giant trolls are no match against the intersectional feminist win button.  She goes Gandalf on them, petrifying them with light.  (Wahmen can’t do anything original.)

 

My beef here isn’t against race or sexual orientation, but rather the incessant promotion of certain themes in every form of modern storytelling down to even TV commercials (especially the TV commercials).  Who is behind this and why are they doing it?  Writer Mike Mignola can be chalked up and dismissed as just another tool of the Agenda.  (I was also disappointed by Mignola’s Conan in another review.)

 

The story is historically set in 1938 with people fleeing the Nazi regime.  (Yet another SWJ trope.  They’re always fighting Nazis.)  It’s also set in the Cthulhu mythos, but with the serial numbers filed off.  There are trolls, but apparently few people are put off by their presence.  The story is a one-shot, but there are other comics by Mignola in the same setting, probably with other characters.  The artwork is okay in a somewhat European style.  The visual storytelling is good and, thankfully, not decompressed.        

 

This did not deserve me wasting a page on reviewing, much less my money.  Am I done with fantasy comics?  I’ll blame this if I am.          

 

Wonder Girl #3

I’m going to blow your mind here, certainly after that last review.  I liked this comic.  Yes, it’s a brand new superhero comic from DC and I liked it.  It’s even a decompressed story (the bane of modern comics) and I still liked it.  I don’t know most of the characters in the story.  I don’t know what’s going on in the story, but I may be looking for the next issue and past ones.

I reviewed a Joelle Jones’ Batman comic before (7-27-21) and her work on Supergirl (9-30-18).  I didn’t like the story in either, but was extremely impressed with the artwork on both of them.  Starting with the incredibly alluring cover, the internal art of this comic is even better.  There is a startling level of expressive detail and animation in the characters.  They look real at times.  (I’m sure the black guy is probably modeled after somebody famous, but I don’t know who.)  I need Joelle as an animation character designer.  The above sequence is beautiful, but really isn’t very economical in storytelling given a limited number of pages in the comic. 

 

Check out these Disney-like animal characters.   

     

The Wonder Girl in this issue is Cassie Sandsmark.  (Donna Troy?  A shudder of continuity shock runs through me.)  She’s a bit of an airhead in this.  In all of the Teen Titans comics I’ve read with her, that would be the furthest description from her previous appearances, but at least it’s an interesting change of pace for a modern female superhero.  Artemis is also very glamorously in this.  I dig Artemis, though I question the color scheme of her outfit here.  (It looks like one of my bad color choice sketches.)  The two play off each other well. 

 

As you can see there’s some scanned photographic backgrounds behind the characters.  Frankly, when your figure-work is this good, I give you a pass on being lazy.  I do notice that Cassie and Artemis do look stylistically different than Yara and Joao above.  I don’t know if it’s an artistic choice or something else, like a different inker.

 

It’s so seldom that I buy a new comic that delights me, I’m almost speechless.  I finally looked up who Joelle Jones is and she’s pretty attractive, but I suspect we wouldn’t get along, except on the very narrow topic of art.  Doesn’t matter; I’m a fan.  Okay, the comic book industry isn’t dead yet.           

 

100-Page Superman Giant #1

DC has stopped producing these 100-pagers and that’s too bad.  I bought a few of them (Batman and Villains 10-17-19, Titans 7-1-20, From Beyond 7-30-20).  There were others that I ignored at the time and am now looking for in the back issues.  This Superman one happened to be sitting out on a shelf, along with a few copies of Betty and Veronica meet Red Sonja and Vampirella.  I picked up the later first.  Cough.  $30!  I think the issues were sporting a variant cover.  Okay, good luck selling those.  Superman was still $5 (maybe they missed re-pricing it), so I grabbed it.

 

The new Superman & Lois CW show has definitely rekindled my interest in the Man of Steel.  I’m not saying it was perfect, but it was a great show.  It did a good job of balancing the super action along with regular life of the normal characters.  Almost impossibly, it managed to stay true to the classic themes of Superman without promoting the Agenda.  Bravo!

I think this comic does the same.  It’s meant to give you the heroic ideal for Superman.  The first story is the only new one and features Superman fighting Parasite.  There’s no space wasted here in telling the story, so there’s no set up.  Apart from some amusing repartee between Clark and Lois, I thought this scene of Superman being inspirational was the best part.  Superman at his best is when he inspires others to be super.

Then there’s Superman figuring out how to defeat Parasite.  One, how are they talking on the moon?  Two, does Parasite not need to breathe?  Other than that, it’s good.  Lex Luthor does come in at the end and his segment does imply that the story is continued.

 

The other three stories are reprints.  Next up, Supergirl fights Bizzarogirl.  I have no idea what version of Supergirl this is or when she was canonical.  Jimmy Olsen manages to look cool briefly at the beginning of this story.  Lana Lang, who’s working for the Daily Planet here, has to talk a depressed Supergirl into fighting the creature.  And she gets turned into a statue by Bizzaro’s powers.  That’s a heck of a cliffhanger. 

Next, Brainiac adds the Krytonian city of Kandor to his collection in the past.  Meanwhile, Clark and Lois attend a staff meeting.  I have that much in common with Superman, but we don’t get donuts at our meetings.  This ends with Brainiac setting his sights on earth.   

 

Lastly, Superman and his Superboy and Krypto the superdog have an adventure on an island of dinosaurs.  Jonathan Kent is older in current continuity and totally gay.  We’re just waiting for him and the Tim Drake Robin to hook up so a bunch of fat, ugly, pathetic teenage girls can squeal in delight.  Knowing this sort of ruins this wholesome father/son/dog outing fighting dinosaurs.  It’s another reason I liked the new Superman TV show.  His twin boys are both firmly hetro (until that gets retconned away next season).  This story ends with them finding the last stand of The Losers that WWII commando group.  It’s a mystery to solved, but not here.

 

I liked this comic.  The art and stories were all well done.  But, all of the stories were continued, some frustratingly, which left me feeling slightly cheated.  Was there a second issue?  I’m going to have to look.

Labor Day Sports Report 2021 Part 4

Continued from Part 3.

 

8-12-21

This was the baseball event of the regular season: the Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and the Yankees.  They built it and people came.  Who didn’t show up was me.  I was busy with work and concerned incoming weather might turn off the electricity.  I was hustling to get done quickly.  The storm came and went without incident.  Basically, the only prolonged viewing I got to see was the top of the ninth and the postgame. 

 

I saw Liam Hendricks chatting amiably with the broadcasters before he came in for the ninth.  He was hoping they could wear the old time Sox uniforms more often.   However, Hendricks was way too jacked up when he got into the game.  The White Sox were up three runs, but Aaron Judge homered, which was followed by Giancarlo Stanton hitting a two-run homer to give the Yankees an 8-7 lead.  In the bottom, I might have walked out of the room just before Tim Anderson came to bat.  I heard the cheering of the mostly White Sox crowd down the hall.  The Yankee reliever, Zack Britton, choked too, as Anderson hit a game-winning two-run homer into the cornfield.  White Sox win 9-8.    

 

I watched the other highlights later.  There was Kevin Costner walking out of the cornstalks and leading the players on to the field.  I thought I saw a reciprocal shot at the end where the players went back into the field, but I’m not sure.  Certainly, they should have.  It’s slightly ironic that I did see the Fox Sports Field of Dreams special over the weekend.  They talked about the movie and the making the field.  I did get choked up over a couple of clips from the movie. 

 

I questioned the overuse of music samples by the PA during the game.  It was like a Mexican League game where the music doesn’t stop until the pitcher starts his delivery.  However, the music was pretty good and the players were into it.  They caught one player on mic cheering on music.  The players were pretty happy in general during the game. 

 

There were 8000 excited fans in attendance.  There was a lottery to get in even at $3000 seat.  There were a pretty good contingent of Yankee fans there cheering.  They even did a roll call during the game.  There was a hand-operated scoreboard in center, but also a video board next to it.  The operators and the broadcast crew, including the camera men, were in period costume (20’s).  In the postgame, I saw that Frank Thomas with the commentators apparently didn’t get the memo and showed up in a suit.  I’m sure he was razzed in the pregame. 

 

Unfortunately, the postgame was the only lowlight of the broadcast.  Alex Rodriguez spouted off a comment of pure racism as he crowed that black players had hit all the home runs in the game.  Alex hopes that more blacks will play the game because of this event.  Sure.  All that’s happened is my opinion of A-Rod has dropped right back to his steroid disclosure era.  He basically ruined the Fox broadcast, but thankfully not the game.  Nice job.

 

8-14-21

Patrick Kivlehan returned to the Chihuahuas tonight from his Olympics duty.  He was introduced by the PA as a silver medalist and the Olympics theme was his walk up music.  The crowd gave him a big ovation.  He seemed touched and acknowledged the fans.  Japan won the gold, by the way.  There was no way they were going to be beaten in their home country in baseball, so there was no shame for the Americans.

 

Later during the game, the Chihuahuas’ opponent, the Reno Aces, had a reaction in their dugout.  They had just heard about their former teammate, Tyler Gilbert, no-hitting the Padres in his first major league start with the Diamondbacks.  He even had a three-pitch inning.  The worst team in the league no-hits the Padres with a rookie?  Boy, are they slumping.

 

The White Sox and the Yankees were back at it in Chicago.  I was watching in the evening on a Mexican station.  Once again, the closers blew it.  Jose Abreu homered in the ninth to tie it at 4-4.  Liam Hendricks gave up the lead in the tenth.  Joey Gallo homered as part of a three-run inning.  In the bottom, Zach Britton gave up a run and loaded the bases before being chased from the game.  There was Tim Anderson again with a chance to win it with two outs, but unfortunately grounded out.  7-5 Yankees final.  The best play I saw in the game was a ball girl backhanding a foul hard liner in flight.

9-5-21

Apart from my Aggie Volleyball coverage, I guess this Labor Day Sports report should contain at least one Labor Day weekend entry.  The only sporting event that I really watched was the NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington.  This particular Darlington race didn’t just punish the drivers, it was really rough on the Chase drivers.  Several of them, including my favorite, Chase Elliot, are now basically in a position of having to win one of the next two races to continue in the “playoffs.” 

 

Denny Hamlin finally won a race this season to assure he’ll move on.  Kyle Larson came in second, but tried his best to either win or wreck.  He used what he called, “a video game,” maneuver on the final turn of the race.  From about a half-second behind, Kyle basically floored it and used the wall to complete the turn.  With a shower of sparks flying from the side of his car, he nearly caught Denny on the final straightaway.  Kyle was going so fast, it actually looked like Denny had slowed down.  It was a memorable finish to a grueling race. 

Labor Day Sports Report 2021 Part 3

Continued from Part 2.

 

7-20-21

This week’s MLB Youtube game failed the Bechdel test.  The broadcast coverage featured an all-female crew calling the game, but all they did was talk about men (playing baseball).  I’m completely triggered.  Why weren’t they talking about Wamyn’s issues and ignoring the men?  This was a tremendous opportunity for a group of birthing persons to lecture a mostly male audience about what racists they are, and it was wasted calling a silly male-dominated sport.

 

Okay, I got that off my chest.  I came into the game after it started and the women called the game straight and did a good job.  We got to hear more of Sarah Langs as the analyst.  She was kind of overwhelmed by the three guys she was paired with last time (6-30-21).  (Any fourth person would have been overwhelmed by that group.)  They had the good fortune of calling a fairly close game.  The Rays beat the O’s, 9-3, but the Rays didn’t pull away until the eighth.

 

Unfortunately afterward, I came across some of the fem-hype for this broadcast.  The ladies think that this will make all-female broadcast teams “the norm.”  They’re forgetting that while analysts are nice, listening to former players and their game experiences is going to be more interesting, not to mention their stories about their playing days, on and off the field. 

 

Moreover, I’ve mostly found listening to women doing play-by-play to be grating.  They’re not necessarily doing anything wrong in their calls, but a good male voice will probably sound better for sports (except for Joe Buck, of course).  Just to say it, in this day and age, anytime you’re listening to a woman in the media, you’re always wondering if you’re about to get an off topic lecture on something you don’t agree with.  It’s hard to trust and relax.  (When guys do it, it feels like a betrayal, so it’s not any better.)

        

7-22-21

Another former Aggie marches towards the big leagues.  LJ Hatch came in as a pinch hitter for the Isotopes against the Chihuahuas tonight.  He singled and he scored on a wild pitch.  He also did well the rest of the weekend.  This was great to hear (except when the Chihuahuas were getting beaten).    

 

7-23-21

The Guardians?  Really?  I have to call out the sheer f*cking lameness of this name change for the Indians.  The team is being renamed after a bridge monument in Cleveland.  I’m still calling bullsh*t.  I also heard that the monument was designed by a big racist.  I have not independently confirmed this, but I can only hope it’s true. 

 

This is worse than the New Orleans Baby Cakes Triple-A team.  One, what they were named after are actually called King Cakes.  Two, this terrible name replaced the Zephyrs, a name which was nowhere near as cool as the Indians. Three, a year later New Orleans lost their team altogether to Wichita and were renamed the Wind Surge.  (Is that the best they could do in Kansas?  You guys really are flyover country.)    

 

I wrote about this controversy earlier (1-31-18) concerning Chief Wahoo, so I’m not going to bother recounting the tale of Louis Sockalexis.  The only good news perhaps is that the MLB already shot their wad on Atlanta by ripping the All-Star Game away from them over the state of Georgia wanting do honest elections for a change.  The team is officially mad about that and stated they will not change the Braves’ name.   

 

After I heard this name change news, I tuned to ESPN Radio for their top of the hour newsbreak.  This story wasn’t even mentioned.  What was mentioned that caught my attention was that Texas and Oklahoma are about to jump to the SEC.  I think this is a great idea.  When all of the great university sports programs consolidate into two conferences, they’ll declare independence from the NCAA and tell them to go f*ck themselves.  The new image and likeness rules for income for student-athletes may destroy the NCAA anyway. 

 

7-26-21

I knew what was going to happen . . . up to a point.  I came into the Mariners/Astros MLB.TV free game late with the M’s down 7-0.  (The video was under local blackout.)  They just started a comeback, and I could guess that the Mariners were going to complete it.  I knew this because I’d come into work early, and so I’d have to leave early thus missing the end of the game.  The live video of their win would have been impressive as they went ahead on a grand slam home run in the eighth.  Their ace closer, Kendall Graveman, locked it down in the ninth.

 

What nobody saw coming was the next day, when Graveman was traded . . . to the Astros.  If I were a Mariners fan, right now my nuts would be hurting from that blow.  Tone deaf marketing stupidity from GM Jerry Dipoto.  The team is actually doing well this year.  Helping a division rival is not a winning great strategy.  

 

Meanwhile during a Chihuahuas game, Tim Hagerty got some trade news from unintentionally eavesdropping on some nearby fans.  I think he was in Sugar Land at the time.  (I’m not even sure this was the correct date.  It’s probably not.)  The top row of fans there must be pretty close to the pressbox.  He quickly looked up the news and reported on it.  Gossip is still the fastest means of communication known to man even in this electronic age.   

Continued in Part 4

Labor Day Sports Report 2021 Part 2

Continued from Part 1 

7-12-21

I was looking forward to the Home Run Derby tonight.  They had a great lineup and were a mile high in Denver at Coors Field.  Then I remembered how this event got moved from Atlanta to here earlier in the year and I was less enthusiastic.  Regardless, I was at work and busy.  It didn’t matter whether I really wanted to watch or not. 

 

MLB did put batting practice up on Youtube.  I saw Shohei Ohtani blast one to the fourth deck restaurant level at the stadium.  That got a huge rise out of the crowd.  Hunter Pence, who I’d noticed was calling games for FS1, was doing the commentary.  He thought Shohei wasn’t even swinging as hard as he could. 

 

Shohei and Juan Soto had the best battle in the contest.  However, Pete Alonso, didn’t just win, he stole the show.  He hammered 35 in the opening round and toyed with his opponents after that.  It was clear he could hit homers at will at Coors.  What I saw of the event was reasonably lively and well-paced.  I had to supply my own, “Back, back, back’s,” though.

  

7-13-21

I was even busier the next night and basically missed the whole All-Star Game.  All I saw was the eighth with the American League up 5-2.  The National League loaded the bases, but Kris Bryant made the final out on a great catch by (someone I didn’t note at the time and would be too much trouble to look up now).  I caught the end of the game and, of course, the National League lost.  That’s eight in a row.  These guys need to get their act together before this event stops being competitive.

 

I also missed the purple carpet ceremony where the players came in.  Fernando Tatis Jr. stole that show with his pink silk suit.  I had to watch the video with that entrance.  This is the closest thing to a dude fashion show that you’re going to get.

 

7-16-21

It’s a free weekend for MLB.TV.  Unfortunately, all the blackouts still applied.  I tuned into the Rangers game first, but there was no video and no Eric Nadel.  (No offense to Matt Hicks, who I like very much.)  I flipped over to the Padres versus the Nationals.  Still no picture.  It seemed pretty competitive.  The Padres took a three-run lead in the first, but the Nationals tied it in the bottom.

 

Okay, then the floodgates opened.  Press the fast forward button.  Hold it down for a while.  Padres win 24-8.  Oh, my goodness, this took a while to the tune of four hours and 15 minutes.  When is this game going to end?  (You’d think some of the Chihuahuas games this season would have conditioned me to accept these long-ass running times.) 

 

Here come the incredible stats.  It was the longest 9-inning Padres game.  It had the highest run total for the team.  Jake Croneworth hit for the cycle.  Tommy Pham nearly did the same, but settled for scoring five runs, which tied another team record.  ‘Nando himself scored four runs.  

 

The Rangers game turned out to be 10-0 loss to the Blue Jays, so I chose wisely.  The other games didn’t really interest me much.  The Chihuahuas lost to Las Vegas again and I didn’t end up listening to any of it.  I probably would have bailed on the Padres and found something else, but I was terribly busy at work with a balky printer.  I hadn’t had printer problems for a long while.  I’d almost forgotten how irritating they are.  I think I nearly blacked out twice from stress.

 

7-17-21

I’d probably rather forget what happened in baseball today (see below).  However, the racing was a bit more memorable.  The SRX series had their final race tonight at the Nashville Fairgrounds.  Bill Elliot was joined by his son, Chase, for the race.  They started up front, which somewhat calls into question the legitimacy of the event, but that’s okay for tonight.  On the short track there, passing was difficult, so Bill, who had not done well in the previous five races, managed to stay up front.  Chase did finally pass for the lead and the win.  He was incredibly gracious afterward to the fans, who had completely filled the large grandstand.  That’s the People’s Champion there.

         

7-18-21

It was another Sunday with Ron at his father’s house.  The MLB.TV free weekend was still going on.  Ron had said that he was bringing two laptops, so in addition to whatever game was on TV, we could watch two Internet games at the same time.  I thought he was kidding, but that’s pretty much what we ended up doing. 

 

After an afternoon of watching multiple games at the same time, I really can’t report on any of the games, because they all blurred together.  Even my typical sports ADHD couldn’t keep up with the barrage of images.  It was a Sandlot moment, as it was all just one long game that never seemed to end.  There was also a NASCAR race at New Hampshire going on, which only added to the confusion.  Not to mention bringing up Twitch and watching a couple of attractive streamers. 

I’d never seen a New Hampshire race.  I think they always put it on cable.  It started raining there just after they put out the green flag.  Three cars all spun out at the same spot, one after the other.  This lead to a lengthy red flag delay.  When racing resumed, then they ran into encroaching darkness.  The track didn’t have lighting.  Finally, NASCAR ended the race a few laps early.  The commentators said that the TV picture was showing way more light than there actually was, so it was dangerous for them to drive at speed.  Congrats to Aric Almirola, who was so happy and grateful for the win.

 

The MLB, since the All-Star Game, has been playing the stooge for the government/media complex.  Thursday’s single game between the Yankees and Red Sox was canceled for some positive cold tests.  This didn’t at seem like an artificially created story at someone’s request at all.  Of course, several of the positively-tested players had gotten the shot.  This happened at the College World Series, too.  It’s almost like a shot for a cold was never going to work.  Duh. 

 

Then on Saturday, the Padres/Nationals game was disrupted by gunfire outside the stadium there in Washington.  The game was stopped and the stadium was evacuated.  This made big national news, which suddenly disappeared within 24 hours.  In other words, the wrong type of the person did the shooting and now it had to be covered up.  Darn.  Maybe next time, it’ll be some –ist person and the case can be made for taking guns away from law-abiding citizens (but never criminals).

 

I’d say the only good thing that came out of the incident was the Padres’ behavior.  Right after the shots fired, they went to the stands to bring their family members into the dugout.  Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado took it even further and brought fans in with them.  That’s some leadership there.  ‘Nando tweeted later, “We’re not players.  We’re not fans.  We’re just people.”

The biggest news I can report from my scatological baseball-viewing on Sunday (and this all-over-the-place little report) was an Aggie sighting.  Watching the Indians play, suddenly, former Crimson and White star centerfielder, Daniel Johnson, came to bat.  I immediately called Ron’s attention to it.  Looking at his stats, apparently, he’d just been called up.  DJ got a hit that time.  Later in the game, he hit the go-ahead home run, which proved to be the winner.  The TV coverage showed a section of 25 to 30 Indians fans there in Oakland, California, going crazy.  They were his friends and family, as Oakland was his home town.  DJ also made a great catch early in the game.  He was interviewed after the game even.  This was great to see.

Not sports related, but important to the afternoon, was lunch.  Ron had talked me out of Jason’s Deli last weekend, but he agreed to it this time when I confirmed that they had a muffletta on their menu.  Ron was a big fan of the muffaletta at McAlisters.  The thing was the size of a full-sized plate.  I’ve seen him eat one of these things in one sitting on multiple occasions. 

 

After ordering, we stood around for ten minutes waiting.  Ron complained that people behind us had already gotten their orders.  I looked down the line and saw his sandwich from the other end of the restaurant.  OMG!  It was huge.  It had literally taken them extra time to fix it.  They may have had to call in extra staff.  Probably not a coincidence that it was the most expense single item on the menu at $15.

 

When we sat down to eat, the reveal did not disappoint.  It may not have had the circumference of the McAlister’s version, but may have been an inch taller.  It was cut into quarters, because whole or half-sized would have been un-holdable for eating.  My own sandwich (the California Club) was decent sized, but looked like an hors d’oeuvre.  It wasn’t even as big as a quarter as his.  (Mine was also not served on a fresh croissant.  So I was unhappy.)  

 

As soon as Ron saw his, he did a double take.  He was really hungry and it was a cheat day for his diet, but even he was staggered by meat-ziila.  Apprehensively, Ron hoisted a slice only to be momentarily defeated trying to get it into his mouth.  Credit to his prodigious appetite, he finished half of it.  He pushed the rest aside.  “Finally found a meal you couldn’t finish?” I asked.  “No.  I could finish it if I wanted to.  I just want to save the rest until later.”  Sure.  He took it home.  If he finished it for dinner, I’m even more impressed.     

Continued in Part 3.