Perusing Previews - May 2012

It's a sleeping bag shaped like a shark and yet there's not a single "sleeping with the fishes" gag in the copy! Come on, people, if you're selling a shark-shaped sleeping bag you cannot be too proud to go for the obvious line. Jeez, I swear, you're gonna need a better writer . . .

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #136

Something tells me the Challengers of the Unknown aren't taking things seriously any more

Perusing Previews - May 2011

If I wear a T-shirt with a design on it these days, it's mostly either a DC related image or something from the excellent Last Exit to Nowhere site. However, I'm kinda tempted by the Boba Fett T-shirt here:

Though I have to admit to being slightly baffled by the Vader Gonna' Knock You Out! shirt . . .

Game On?

Even in this new world, Batman and Catwoman
still can't admit their feelings for each other

I'll happily admit I'm not a huge gamer; I have an XBox and own maybe three or four games. Those I do own, I'll play over and over - I'm still playing Red Dead Redemption even after gaining 100% in it months ago!

The thing that keeps pulling me back to it (along with several of the GTA games) is the freedom to pretty much do what I want in the world. I still find myself taking on side missions every now and then, but I'm happy riding around the place, doing my own thing. It's prevarication at it's worst in some ways (as there are many other things I could be doing) but it's a way of relaxing for me.

Green Lantern and Power Girl against some Na'vi.
Actually, I'd pay to see that.

With that in mind, I've been reading the numerous reports about the impending arrival of DCU Online with only slight interest. Yes, it'd be nice to have the opportunity to play as some of my favourite characters, head off and complete missions, using fancy powers and flying round cities but pretty much everything I've seen (including the photos here) seem to show it as little more than a fighting game.

Am I missing something here? Is there more to this game than teaming up with another hero on one side of the screen to beat the snot out of a bunch of villains on the other side? If so, it doesn't appear to be coming through to me.

Killer Frost and Heat Wave prove opposites
don't attract

Those sort of games bore the crap out of me, they really do, and I'm painfully aware that it's partly because of the ridiculous combinations of button pushes needed to perform the double backflip-elbow smash-face plant-gonad pull on your opponent that you're hoping to do to win some extra power up or something. I just never got the hang of those things, even years ago when I first tried them in my 20's, so you can't blame it on age. Give me a straight forward aim and shoot combination and I'm happy.

So, it seems unlikely that I'll be plunging into the digital world of DCU Online even to find the answer to the question: Why does Circe look like Tarot, Witch of the Black Rose?

Jim Balent Has Limits, You Know

I picked up volume 8 of the Tarot: Witch of The Black Rose trade paperbacks on the weekend; I know, I know, it's something that I should kick like the large bag of chocolate I have when going to the cinema, but it has a cheesy, camp appeal.

Anyone who's read an issue or looked it up on the internet will know that writer / artist / creator Jim Balent is certainly a fan of a large bosom and bare chested buxom wenches abound in the book. Reading through this latest collection, though, something struck me regarding what Balent will and won't portray.

He's got no problem with full frontal female nudity:

and while I don't either, this blog doesn't carry a mature readers label so I blacked those bits out, okay?

Balent's also not averse to showing violence and it's gory aftermath:

and, again, that's not a problem for me. Blood splattered scenes such as this are commonplace in the most mainstream of comics these days, let alone independently published books like Tarot.

But the oddest thing I read in this book (and trust me, with witches, dragons and glimpses into the future, there were odd things all over the place!) was the panel that follows that last one:

Again, silhouetted gore is nothing new or different, but that last caption:

Yep, nudity, violence and gore are fine, but there's now way on Earth you can make Jim Balent say a dirty word!

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #43

• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #2 - not as good as the first issue, but still well worth a read;
• Green Lantern #42 - Blackest Night comes one step closer!
• Justice League of America #34 - well that explains how the Milestone characters ended up in the DCU;
• Justice Society of America #28 - as my wife said, when will Green Lantern, Flash and Wildcat stop interfering in Stargirl's love life?
• The Last Days of Animal Man #2 - Mirror Mistress isn't good enough but she settles for Prismatik?  With a 'K'?
• The Question: The Five Books of Blood trade paperback - looking forward to reading this!
• Tarot Witch of The Black Rose Vol 7 trade paperback - my secret's out: I read Tarot tradepaperbacks!
• Teen Titans #72 - is it just me or was Joe Bennett's art this month just a bit weak? Miss Martian's arm in panel 3, page 6 look a bit weird to anyone else?

And what made me smile this week:

The Green Lantern of Earth in the future is a blue whale!  Genius in the pages of The Last Days of Animal Man #2.