Comics Review: She’s Josie

 

I was ordering something online and decided to check out the Archie website to see if there was anything interesting.  I tempted by their “Mystery Box” bundle offer, which was 10 classic trades for $20.  It’s a great deal, but I was concerned I was going to get a couple books I already had.  There was only one trade I was really interested in, She’s Josie, I which I settled on getting.  If this title had been in the bundle, I would have gotten that instead, but there was no way of knowing.  (I wish their offer would show what’s in the bundle or would allow you to pick the titles.)

 

A major selling point of this book is definitely the cover.  It is an all-time Archie Comics classic.  I’d buy and frame a poster of it, if there were one available.  Unfortunately, it’s a smaller, trimmed version of the comic book cover on the cover of the book.  Also, the issue it comes from, isn’t in the book.  (It’s issue #34.  The trade only goes up to issue #9.)          

 

This brings up another omission—none of the covers for the issues are reproduced.  There are a couple of pinup pages, but no covers.  The back cover blurb calls this “the first of a chronological collection,” which didn’t happen.  If it’s “for the record,” you’d think they’d include the covers. 

 

The introduction to the volume seems a little ambivalent about the material, as well.  These are the Josie stories before she became famous with the Pussycats and with her previous friends that she subsequently got rid of.  That kind of sounds bad, doesn’t it?  There was also a disclaimer about culturally inappropriate material in the stories.  I think this is referring to a story where some guys are dressed as island cannibals at a beach party. 

 

The disclaimer also says that the stories reprinted “without alteration for historical reference.”  This is probably incorrect.  There are several background characters colored “black,” who don’t otherwise seem to be black.  There is a classic Archie style for drawing black characters, who appear more regularly going into the 70’s.  I’ve noticed this “re-coloring” in other current reprints of older material.        

   

I was aware that there had been Josie stories before the Pussycats, but I’d only ever read a couple of them.  They’re pretty rare reprints.  In this volume, I found out why.  Of the nine issues reprinted here, eight are full issue stories, which don’t get reprinted a lot in the digests.  The other issue was a more standard Archie comic with several short stories. 

 

Admittedly, for the most part, classic Archie stories usually work best in short form.  The story premises often don’t have enough depth to carry a full issue.  This volume bears that out.  The best issue reprinted here was the one with the shorts, which was issue #4.  It feels like this title was an editorial experiment in longer stories, as well as introducing a new set of characters.

 

Annoyingly, this volume doesn’t include Josie’s first appearance in an Archie Pals ‘n’ Pals issue, which came out a year before the first issue, as per the introduction.  In a later issue in the series, the Archie gang does a guest appearance to firmly seat Josie in their universe, but that story isn’t here either.  The intro also doesn’t mention that Josie was modeled after Dan DeCarlo’s wife, he being the artist.  There’s also confusion over Josie’s last name.  Here at the beginning, it’s Jones.  Currently, it’s McCoy, which was more-or-less canonized in the Pussycats movie (which I liked).             

I wrote a couple of Archie fan fictions with the Pussycats.  Melody was the beautiful, ditzy one, but I wasn’t sure how to write Josie and Valerie.  Their personalities hadn’t seemed established to me.  In the origin here, Josie’s other friend is the brainy, uptight Pepper.  Josie is still a bit undefined.  She’s kind of sweet and kind of emotional.  I guess she’s your “every-girl” character.

Alexander and Alexandra Cabot make their first appearance early in the series.  You’re looking at the above picture and saying, “Where are they?”  They’re there, you just don’t recognize them in their original form.  They are still rich.

 

The Cabots arrival does bring in some romantic tension.  Alexander is after Josie and Alexandra is after Albert, Josie’s maybe boyfriend.  I don’t know why Albert is wearing cowboy boots at the beach in the above picture.  This has never been the fashion to my knowledge.  Pepper has an admirer in Sock, a big, brawny guy.  Melody . . . Melody is mine!  All mine!  Stay away from her!  Actually in the comics, she seems to be completely unobtainable. 

 

So am I about to give this a bad review?  No!  I got this for the DeCarlo artwork.  I don’t know if this is him at his best, but it’s likely close to it.  This is tremendously appealing to just look at.  I’m loving the mid-60’s fashions as well.  I hope to use this for some drawing practice.  The figure work is excellent.

 

While I see plenty of potential in the characters, the stories could have been better.  It seems more a format problem of the full-issue stories, since the shorter stories worked better.  Longer stories could still work here, but I think you’d want to define the characters more and lean more on drama and romance and some continuity, rather than comedy.  It’d be a real departure from the usual Archie comic.

 

I was going to link this review to my review of the Best of Josie and the Pussycats trade.  Except I never wrote one.  I thought I had, but I keep being surprised by the comics that I have that I didn’t review.  I bought a few more comics the other day (after I’d sworn off buying anymore comics for the hundredth time) that I plan on reviewing first, but I’ll get back to Josie later.  The Best of is over 400 pages, so it’ll require some work.                         

 

Comics Review: Wonder Woman, X-Men, and Conan Part 2

Part 1

Conan the Barbarian Epic Collection Vol. 3, The Curse of the Golden Skull

I saw this at Zia Comics the last time I was there and balked at the $40 price tag.  After my last disappointing trip for comics, I decided I wouldn’t screw around next time and I’d just buy what I really wanted.  So, I basically went into the store for this.

 

I have some relationship with Conan.  I had a couple of random issues that I liked as a kid, before getting a subscription in the 80’s, which I enjoyed.  I later got a couple of large black and white reprint volumes of the Savage Sword of Conan magazine.  Thrillingly, two issues featured spectacular bare-breasted women.  (Apparently, somebody caught on after that and told them to stop.  Curses!)  I’ve also read some of the REH stories (which are in public domain) and seen the movies (even the most recent one).   

This volume features 16 issues in full color, mostly written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John Buscema.  There is continuity between the stories.  Conan is nominally working for a Turanian king, though mostly really for himself.  Late in the book, Conan wearies of the courtly intrigues and leaves.  (Would that we could all do that at our jobs.)  Some of the stories are REH adaptions, there’s a couple of fantasy stories repurposed as Conan stories, and the rest are originals.  

 

 

The steely-eyed New Mexican keyboard warrior took up his favored instrument of literary criticism.  The writer and the words were one as he swung into battle.  He knew that one misstep on the Internet could be his last, but he only heard the song of trolling in his heart.

 

I hope you like breathless descriptive captions in your comics, because you’re GD gonna get them in this volume.  Unlike a modern comic, which takes five minutes to read, you will have to chew through each page of these text-heavy comics—the way God intended.  The stories all kind of ring familiar, though.  You can freely mix the elements of women, treasure, wizards, lost cities, monsters, rivals, random warriors, sidekicks, and bandits and come up with a plot.        

  

Sometimes the women are victims and Conan’s protecting them.  Other times, they’re bad, or goddesses in disguise, or man-eating aliens.  Doesn’t matter, he doesn’t get any of them in the end, even the ones he rides off with at the end of some of the stories.  I must complain here.  Most of the covers feature a fainting damsel.  #35 does, but there were no women in that issue.  That was false advertising.   

He also doesn’t get rich here, even when confronted with a multitude of treasures.  This is a more experienced Conan.  He’s learned better than to try and make off with cursed jewels.  So, he doesn’t get rich or the girl in these stories, but things turn around for him later in life.

 

The centerpiece story was a four-part trip to Khitai.  It was a fantasy story adapted for Conan.  In this, he’s tasked to scout a city for future invasion.  It goes poorly and he’s even badly cheated in the end.  However, my favorite story was by guest artist, Neal Adams (pictured above), issue #37.  It’s a lively mad wizard/monster/rescue the princess tale.   

 

Overall, it was a bit too much of the same thing for each issue.  It might have been the desert setting for most of the stories that made it feel a bit less exotic.  There wasn’t quite enough variety in the types of stories.  I’d like to think Conan is a bit more than a one-dimensional character, though he is mostly shirtless and wearing kind of a loincloth wherever he is, no matter how out-of-place or inappropriate the wardrobe.  I recommend the character of Conan, but not so much this volume.          

 

I don’t understand where I went wrong on this trip to buy comics.  The other times, I knew I was taking a risk with some new weird comic or even a new mainstream comic (and I’ve done this over-and-over again and keep getting disappointed), but I thought surely the older comics I was getting this time would work out.  At least the Conan would have to be entertaining, right? 

 

I’d swear off buying more comics at this point, except I actually have an Archie trade coming in the mail.  (It should look good with some classic material.)  I keep considering getting those $100 Kull and Conan hardbacks at Zia Comics, but this trade really makes me rethink that.  (Kull is a somewhat more interesting character than Conan, frankly.)  It’s almost not the money spent on the comics; it’s being disappointed by them that’s hurts more.  I will have to be more circumspect about what I buy in the future.  I’m tired of writing bad reviews.

Comics Review: Wonder Woman, X-Men, and Conan Part 1

I took a trip with dad to the Downtown Mall on Saturday morning.  I’m not sure how I talked him into it, since he just wanted to get lunch at KFC, which is not nearby.  The weekly Farmer’s Market was going on.  The street was packed with vendor stalls and throngs of people browsing.  Apart from Aggie Football and Men’s Basketball, this is likely the main community event in Las Cruces.

 

Mostly, dad was going to look for a couple of books at Coas used bookstore.  I was looking to see what they had and took too long.  I ended up grabbing three comics from their pile in a rush to meet him at the register.  The comics seemed promising.  I sort of dragged him into Zia Comics.  I took a quick look around before getting what I meant to get.

 

I was actually in a pretty jovial mood.  I picked up a jar of honey, some cinnamon roasted almonds, and tossed a couple of bucks to a couple of street musicians.  I kept seeing people carrying bags of popcorn.  I finally gave in and went looking for the vendor.  There was a line for the kettle corn.  I ended up behind a guy buying ten bags and had to wait a little while.  When I got mine home and tasted it, OMG!  It was the best popcorn I’d ever had!  I need to figure out an excuse to get back there for more.        

     

Wonder Woman Day Special Edition #1

I think this comic was originally a Free Comic Book Day giveaway.  This only reminds me that I missed out on FCBD last weekend.  I hadn’t been keeping track of it, but I suddenly remembered it last Sunday and wondered when it was.  That’s probably okay.  Mostly, it’s a complete waste of time.  A couple of times, Zia Comics outright stiffed me on the free comics.

 

This comic was basically a promo for the first Wonder Woman movie, though the comic has basically nothing to do with the movie other than the name of the main character.  (That’s always been an issue between the comics and the movies.)  There’s lots of Wonder Woman ads in the comic, especially for statues.  This one pictured was the best of the bunch.

I got this for the artwork, which is good.  As for the story, there is none.  Zero.  It’s a bunch of pretty pictures.  It’s some kind of prologue to a story.  Wonder Woman is searching for Cheetah in jungle to talk to her to some reason.  Also, Steve Trevor now appears to be a Navy SEAL, instead of an Air Force pilot.  This sort of irritates me for some reason, however practical this change might be for the story.  It’d be okay for free, but nothing you’d want to pay for. 

  

Uncanny X-Men #396

This is from 2001, long after I stopped reading the comic.  I think it was ironically right after Chris Claremont left at the end of the 80’s.   In the 90’s, the X-Men achieved their peak popularity.  I did read the restarted New Mutants for a while during that time and enjoyed it.  In other words, I have no idea what the context of this comic is.  I didn’t recognize Iceman.  He wasn’t using his iced-over form in this.  They seemed to be trying to make him look cool (before destroying his character later in the current day).            

 

This issue features a team of X-Men team, Iceman, Angel, and Nightcrawler, chasing down former student, Chamber, who must be one of the worst designed mutant characters ever.  He’s got some kind of bio-chemical reaction going on in his mouth and chest all of the time.  There have been plenty of weird mutants, but for ones that are main characters, they have to not be absurd. 

 

Chamber’s in a relationship with a pop star and this is somehow embarrassing all mutants.  The guys are trying to convince him that he’s part of their world, not the normal world, and he should be out and proud as a mutant, but not on display as a mutant.  You got all of that?  It didn’t make sense to me either.  Their analogy was lost on me, so that’s why they had to make it blatant, by flipping Iceman later.        

  

They boys are also searching for a mutant mass murderer.  They find him and then get their butts kicked by some normal-ish guy, Mr. Clean, wielding a flamethrower.  It’s kind of embarrassing.  These guys have been X-Men for a long time and are superpowered.  (And they should be acting as a team, not fighting one at a time.)  One guy just using regular weapons should not be a threat.  Admittedly, this guy did wipe out a bunch of mutants living in the sewers of London at the beginning of the story.  He must be more exceptional than he looks. 

 

Wolverine shows up at the end.  Presumably, he’ll straighten all this out in the next issue.  And if he doesn’t, the attorneys for the actual Mr. Clean will scrub this imposter from existence.  Again, the artwork is really good, which sort of makes the comic even worse.  It’s such pretty wasted effort.   

Uncanny X-Men #22 (vol. 2?)

This is the newer comic (2019).  I guess they restarted the numbering.  I’ve seen variations on this cover with the guns and laser spotting on a couple of other X-Men covers.  What is Cyclops doing with Wolverine here?  I more I look at this picture, the more I’m questioning it.

 

Well, here we have a comic from 2019.  Here’s Doctor Nemesis wearing a facemask (which will not protect him against a cold) and he’s talking to Emma Frost about a vaccine.  Would this be that “predictive programming” thing?  Were the makers of this comic told to include this? 

 

I got this mostly based on the artwork and from seeing Danielle Moonstar up front, who is one of my favorite characters.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t have much to do with this.  This was the end of a storyline that I have no clue about.  Sentinels show up.  A couple of X-Men maybe died, but probably not really.  A bunch of X-Men, who were thought dead, come back to help.    

Cyclops looks pretty pathetic and mopey in this, but redeems himself by the end and gets the girl.  Meanwhile, Emma’s head keeps going from shaved to glamorous.  I kept thinking there were two different characters in this when I first flipped through it.  Kitty Pride is also in this, another one of my favorite characters, she looks terrible.  Much like Iceman, it was a bad change.  Like the other two comics, at least I can use this for art practice. 

Part 2       

Memorial Day Weekend 2024 Part 2

Part 1

Sunday

I started watching a Blondie marathon Saturday night.  The Catchy Comedy network was showing the old movies and they are funny stuff.  They did a bunch of these in the 40’s.  There were running gags going through them, like Dagwood running over the mailman.  It was like a sitcom series, but for the movies.  Penny Singleton is extremely charismatic as the titular character (and also the voice of Jane Jetson).  Watching the kid actors grow up over the series was a trip.  I’d forgotten that there was also a string very classy hotties guest-starring in these movies as well.

 

I’m only mentioning this because there was a four-hour rain delay before the Indy 500 started.  I had plenty of time to watch Blondie.  This year, this would also be my only Memorial Day race.  Monaco’s F1 race was moved to ESPN, while ABC instead showed the NHL playoffs.  (The NY Rangers beat the Florida Panthers in OT.  They’re still early in the Western Conference final.) 

 

Also, dad was sick, so I was watching at home.  He said he didn’t need anything other than rest, so I just called a couple of times to check in on him.  He sounded better in the evening and did get up to watch the end of the race.  This left me in some suspense, as I wasn’t sure about dad or the race, so I just sat around waiting.  I wanted to rest my sore back, anyway. 

 

The Rangers were playing the Twins at noon on the radio to keep me company.  Corey Seager hit a couple of home runs in the game to help give the Rangers a 6-2 win and break their losing streak.  After Seager’s second homer in the fifth, the Indy coverage said they were an hour away from starting the race and dad said he was going to keep sleeping. 

 

I hadn’t eaten yet, so I took off next door to 5 Guys.  They’d sort of fallen out of favor with me.  (Legend Burger in the mall is better for the same inflated price.)  I got my usual plain hot dog and they gave me a bunch of fries.  It was really good.  The last two dogs I’d had there had had stale buns, but this one was fresh and perfect.  Still, dad had mentioned getting pizza today on Friday.  This was a bit of a comedown.    

 

I was a little shocked by the sunny skies over Indy when the race started.  It was overcast and raining hard earlier.  The Thunderbirds themselves were there for the Anthem flyover.  They made a surprise return for Back Home in Indiana and finished with a crowd-pleasing bomb burst over the track.  (Wait.  Not actually bombing the track.  They were flying in formation and then flew apart at the same time.)

 

The main storyline going into the race was NASCAR driver, Kyle Larson, was planning on doing the “Double” today.  The rain was messing up his tight schedule, but I was shocked he said, “Indy is the priority today.”  He would stick it out, as long as there was a chance of running the race today.  Jimmie Johnson was there doing some pre-race commentary with Danica Patrick.  He did bump out before the start of the race to go race in Charlotte today.

 

The first wreck happened even before the first lap finished.  Four cars were out almost immediately in the race for different reasons.  Katherine Legge’s engine blew up 23 laps in.  They were still running her sponsor commercial after she was out.  There was another blow up and a couple more solo crashes before we got inside 50 to go.  Larson did lead late, but that was due to a pit stop error earlier and he ended up on a different strategy. 

 

Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi started trading the lead as the laps wound down.   Pato O’Ward forced his way into second and passed for the lead with five to go to the cheers of the crowd.  (He’s got a lot of fans.)  Newgarden retook the lead with four to go, but Pato was in front to start the final lap.  Newgarden made the final pass for the lead coming out of the backstretch and took the checkers. 

 

Josef had won last year and had memorably rushed into the crowd at the finish line.  (Wait.  He got out of his car first and then went into the crowd.)  He did so again this time and went around further.  Josef had to sit down for a minute before his interview.  The exercise had winded him.  He and his crew had been penalized after the first race of the season and stripped of the win.  With much of his regular crew still suspended, this win was some vindication.           

 

I’d mentioned Newgarden to a co-worker on Friday and said he had “matinee idol” looks.  She looked at some of his pictures online and didn’t think he was that handsome.  Good grief, this guy makes my heart flutter a little.  She either has impossibly high standards or a really specific taste in men.

 

Poor Pato.  He sat in his car with his head down after the race.  To know how much this race means to the drivers, just look the reaction of the winner and the guy who came in second.  Kyle Larson took off in a helicopter after the race to catch a private jet.  He finished 18-th.  That’s pretty awesome for a rookie.  He was on his way to the NASCAR race, though it had probably been going on for two hours.  (And he didn’t to race.  It was rained out halfway through.) 

 

The Chihuahuas started their game with the Rivercats right after the race ended.  Sacramento went up 3-0 early.  It also got chippie.  After the third hit batter (hit in the back), the benches cleared (no fighting), and both teams were warned.

 

In the bottom of the fourth, a Rivercat player going after a flyball, hit the wall hard enough to open the gate.  He lost his hat and mitt, but still managed to throw the ball back in and hold the batter to a triple, instead of an inside-the-park home run.  The fielder had to come out after the play.  The pups get two runs in the inning to make it, 3-2.    

 

In the sixth, the Rivercats exploded for six runs to make it, 9-2.  Broadcaster Tim Haggerty started focusing on doing out-of-town scores after that.  In the eighth, Mason McCoy stole home on a loose ball at the plate.  The crowd loved it.  The Chihuahuas scored a couple more, but left the bases loaded.  McCoy also made a great diving play in the ninth, but pups didn’t have another rally in them and lost, 9-4.

 

Monday

Well, this recap is going to be quick and anticlimactic.  The Chihuahuas and Rangers had the day off and the Rockies were playing a day game I couldn’t get on the radio.  I was lucky that on Friday, KROD announced that they’d be carrying the Dodgers and the Mets in the afternoon, so wouldn’t be shutout.  

 

Unless there was a rain out.  I was lucky I tuned in on time and got the message.  I did try to watch tennis, after going out to get a slice of somewhat questionable pizza at the mall.  I lasted my usual 30 seconds.  Even watching my hero, Novak Djokovic, I couldn’t put up with the grunting.  I ended up watching some old sitcoms, reading a Conan trade paperback (which I’ll be reviewing in the near future), and taking an impromptu nap.  Well, not the worst way to spend the day off.   

Memorial Day Weekend 2024 Part 1

The tradition continues (“like no other”) though it’s going to be missing the usual.  There’s no NASCAR or F1 on this greatest weekend in motorsports.  I haven’t seen any NASCAR this season.  Surprisingly, I really haven’t missed it.  I probably will next month when I don’t have much else to do, but NBC will pick it up in July and I can watch again.      

Aggie Baseball and Softball Postseasons

I agonized about going to the Softball Tournament.  I have been to two tournaments (2017 and 2018), which both resulted in the Aggie Softball winning championships.  I wasn’t quite as confident about this time.  Given my workload, I didn’t know about taking three days off.  With a $60 tournament pass (up from $25 the last time), I would be committed to going to all four days regardless of the results. 

 

After looking at the schedule, I noticed that there would be a noon game every day, which meant I could have gone to see a game before going to work.  But I just couldn’t do it.  Between sitting out in the sun and my aching back, I didn’t think I could be there and enjoy it.  (The previous tournaments were a labor to sit through.)

 

Boy did I regret that decision after the first game at noon, which featured the Aggies winning in extra innings.  Desirae Spearman stole home early in the game.  Des and Dezianna Patmon both solo homered in the seventh to send it to extras.  Jillian Taylor hit a walk off homer to win it.  The next day, also a noon game, the Aggies run ruled #1 seed Liberty. 

 

They played a third noon game the next day and lost and were eliminated later in the evening by Liberty, who would win the tournament on Saturday.  Jill did give the crowd one last highlight in the Aggies’ final game, as she went over the wall to bring back a home run.  (That’s my girl!)  So, I could have seen the Aggies three times just going at noon without taking any days off, but I couldn’t have known that beforehand.  Sorry. 

 

There was a news report on Sunday about Desirae.  She was the C-USA Player of the Year.  Des was promoting a softball camp in El Paso at her alma mater, Hanks High School (mine, too).  She’s ambitious.  I kind hope this means that Desirae will stick around at NMSU, at least as long as Coach Rodolph is there.

  

After their two wins over #1 in conference, La Tech, Aggie Baseball went on to split a pair with TCU.  That was their second win this season over a Power Five conference team.  However, they then lost two of three to WKU going into the C-USA tournament.  Their run only lasted for two games, where they lost to DBU (who’d been nationally ranked) and were eliminated the next day by WKU.  I think the good news is that this team is a definite improvement over last year.  If this Aggie team was still in the WAC, they might be contending, but the bad news is that they are in a much better baseball conference.  

 

MLB

I’m looking pretty good to this point on my World Series prediction.  The Phillies have the best record in baseball.  Everything else was self-evident or I’ve been surprised by.  I’ve been listening to Rangers and Chihuahuas games on the radio.  (The pups are having a down season again.)  I’ve been pleasantly surprised that MLB.TV hasn’t been blacking out a bunch of games like they were.  I’ve been able to watch the Rangers, Rockies, and Astros.  So far, there’s been an odd preponderance of the A’s and Tigers on their free games.  I’m okay with it.   

 

The Yankees and Orioles are at the top of the AL East.  Aggie Kyle Bradish is thankfully back pitching for the O’s.  Cleveland is leading the Central and the Royals are looking pretty good.  The AL West is a toss-up.  So far, it’s the Mariners and everyone else is sub-500, but even the A’s are competitive.  The Astros early season swoon appears to be over, but they’re still not looking great.  The Rangers’ injuries are hobbling them badly, but they’re in second. 

 

The Phillies own the NL East.  The Braves have had their injury issues and are looking mediocre.  The Central is up for grabs.  The Brewers are the surprising leader for now (Aggie Joey Ortiz is a regular player with them) and the Reds are at the bottom, which is also surprising.  The Pirates’ new pitching prospect, Paul Skenes, looks like Stephen Strassberg when he first came into the league before his injuries set in.  Aggie Nick Gonzales is back up with them and hitting well.  He had a walk off hit the other day.  I’m excited.  The Dodgers are already pulling away in the West.  The Padres, Giants, and D-Backs aren’t bad and will be fighting for Wild Card berths.

 

Saturday

After a long week (they all seem long now), I made it to the weekend with little in the way of plans.  I executed on that lack of planning by doing nothing.  At least I had baseball to keep me company. 

 

I got lucky turning on the radio in the morning and running into the start of ESPN Radio’s coverage of the Blue Jays at the Tigers.  They were also the free game last night on MLB.TV and the Jays won on a late rally.  I was surprised by the cheering I was hearing for the Jays, but then I remembered Detroit was next to Canada.  (Games in Seattle also get plenty of Canadian fans for the Jays.) 

 

It was a good thing I came in on time for this game.  It ran just a little over two hours.  Blink and you’d have missed it.  The Tigers came out on top in this 2-1 pitchers’ duel.  Tiger pitcher, Reese Olson, who’d gone into the game with a hard luck 0-5 record and a low ERA in the 2’s, came out of it with his first win and a sub-2 ERA. 

 

I really enjoyed the commentary from Dave Jageler and color from Greg Olson.  Even with short game and quickened pace, they managed to keep it fun and lively and informative.  I mention this mostly because I noticed a puff piece interview with Joe Buck on Youtube.  I didn’t watch it, but it was titled that Buck “Didn’t care what the fans thought of him.”  Yeah, right back at you, pal.  FOX actually replaced his hysterical woman-like call of the game with some guy that sounds like the game is interrupting his nap time.  There are so many good announcers out there, like Jason Benetti and Jon Sciambi.  Why were tortured with Buck for so long?

 

I did have a dilemma during the game.  Coverage of the Rangers’ game with the Twins started a half hour after the Tigers’ game started.  Well, I couldn’t possibly listen to two radios at the same time, could I?  Of course, I could!  I was mostly listening to the Tigers and walking over to hear the Rangers on another radio during the breaks.  The Tigers’ game was through six innings before the Rangers’ game started the second, so that strategy seemed like a good one.

 

The Rangers had lost a close one last night for their fifth-straight loss.  Just as the Tigers’ game finished, I could hear them shouting on the other radio.  Ezequiel Duan had hit his first home run of the year and his second deck blast put the Rangers up 2-1 in the fourth.

 

Things started going downhill later.  In the seventh, manager Bruce Bochy was ejected after questioning a foul tip strikeout for his pitcher.  Umpire Laz Diaz, had made the correct call initially (on video replay) that it had been caught by catcher, but the third base ump changed the call in conference afterward.  This resulted in a walk, which loaded the bases, and then a sac fly made it 3-2 Rangers.  Duran threw out a runner at home from the outfield that ended the inning, which would have tied the score.  Finally, a three-run Twins’ home run in the eighth would decide it.  5-3 Twins, for the Rangers’ sixth-straight loss. 

 

I watched a couple of short PBS WWII documentaries in the afternoon, so don’t say I didn’t do anything for Memorial Day.  In the evening, I listened to the Chihuahuas play the Rivercats on the radio.  On TV, I sort of watched a couple of women’s professional soccer games on ION.  The network, which normally shows cop shows, has been running double headers on Saturday nights.  Alex Morgan has been injured, so I’m not getting much out of this.  Occasionally, the play is lively and interesting.  This just makes me miss the Aggie Soccer girls. 

 

The Chihuahuas won their second in a row, 9-5.  It was 9-0 after four innings, so there wasn’t much drama.  The Rivercats got four of their runs off of a pair of two-run homers.  The offending players were booed as they rounded the bases. 

 

At the conclusion of the game, I was finally able to tune in KOA to listen to the Rockies and the Phillies.  The Rockies were leading 3-2 in the bottom of sixth.  The signal kept fading in and out.  Regrettably, I did get to listen to the ninth, where the Phillies scored six runs and ended up winning, 8-4.  At least my World Series pick is still on track.  In the out-of-town scoreboard segment, Joey Ortiz was mentioned in Brewers’ win over Red Sox.  Also, the Astros and Mariners lost today to keep up the race to the bottom in the AL West with the Rangers. 

Part 2

Comics Review: Secret Origins #1

I went with dad to the Coas Used Bookstore satellite location a few weeks ago.  The store had been damaged in a storm last year and reopened after a lengthy remodel.  I wanted to see what the store looked like.  Basically, it was about the same, except the Kid’s Section had been moved to the front of the store.  There was one comic book in the Graphic Novel section and I picked that up.  

Secret Origins #1

I was a little leery of the faux anime-style artwork on the cover, but I liked the characters (before they were mangled beyond recognition in the current DC continuity).  For the most part, the art inside wasn’t a selling point even with a couple of stories drawn by Amanda Conner and Ethan Van Sciver.  The stories themselves are just vignettes recounting the origin stories of the members of Young Justice, as well as introducing a new character, which forms the framing device for the stories. 

 

The new character is Secret.  I’d never seen her before or since.  The story briefly gives her origin, as Red Tornado tells her the origins of the Young Justice team. 

 

Impulse, yet another young version of the Flash, has a convoluted, to say the least, origin.  The story where he recounts it has him fighting some school bullies.  The Flash fighting school bullies and even losing.  Still, Impulse has a likable, well-defined perky personality.  (The artwork and scenes aren’t worth posting a sample of.)  

This was Superboy back in his original 90’s “radical” look, before his makeover (thank goodness).  For the remodel, he got a haircut and just wore jeans and a black t-shirt with a Superman logo on it.  Minimalist, but cool.  This story was set as an X-Men Danger Room-style training lesson.  He’s being mentored by Guardian, a DC version of Captain America. 

     

This story features two Robins, Tim Drake and Dick Grayson, chatting about Tim’s background.  This was probably my favorite of the stories, since I like the characters.  Tim basically became Robin because he figured out Dick was Robin and that Bruce Wayne was Batman.  At least, it’s a straight forward origin.  

 

Okay, I am an unabashed Grayson fan.  I’ve said before, he’s more interesting than Batman.  I’m not saying he’s cooler or a better superhero; he’s just more interesting.  This goes back to Burt Ward and the ’66 Batman show.  Ward was a martial artist and was neighbors with Bruce Lee and sparred with him.  (And they fought on the show as Robin and Kato when Batman met the Green Hornet.)   

Stephanie Brown had a bad upbringing by a Batman villain.  She changed sides and became the Spoiler to “spoil” his plans.  By this, she met Batman and Robin and had a relationship with Tim.  This I knew.

Imagine how shocked I was by this panel.  This delicate condition was not explained in the story and sent me scurrying to Wikipedia.  Tim didn’t have anything to do with Stephanie’s pregnancy, which would have been scandalous, but very interesting.  Steph was also later killed off.  What an overly tragic story. 

 

I didn’t know the origin of the Cassie Sandsmark/Wonder Girl.  After reading the story, I still don’t think I know.  It was told from her own highly biased and embellished perspective.  This was again before her later Teen Titans makeover (a tremendous improvement).  Here, she’s portrayed as a ditzy kid.  In Titians, she’s more mature.  Later, in the Yara Flor/Wonder Girl series, Cassie was kind of a ditz, but had some brains.    

   

The Arrowette origin was again uncomfortable with another bad upbringing story.  Basically, Cissie’s mom was forced into becoming a champion archer by her mom and returned the favor by forcing her own daughter to become an archer and a superhero to boot.  This character has the most attitude of the bunch.       

 

A consistent problem of all of these characters is the lack of a really good origin story, which sort undercuts them finding greater popularity.  (That and being not just derivative, but in fact, a copy of a copy.)  That you needed to make this 80-page giant to explain their origins sort of bears this out.  The Tim Drake/Robin has the best origin of the bunch and is definitely the most popular, though I think that popularity is more due to his updated Robin costume.

 

I wasn’t a fan of the artwork and there wasn’t much in the way of story here, but I kind of liked it anyway.  In spite of their weird origins and lack of originality, these characters are pretty likeable.  The book would have the selling point of making you want to read more about them.