Holiday greetings from a truly dysfunctional bunch. Talk about secrets.

Getting everyone gathered for a photograph to smile at the same time and not be blinking or pulling a face is a total nightmare, am I right??

by eikochan on deviantart.

l to r: Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson, and Alfred Pennyworth. Dig Alfred bunny-earing Dick and Strawberry Shortstacked in the first take.

Taken Christmas Day near the cranberry bogs in Mattapoisett, Mass.:

Click on image to order prints or note cards on Redbubble.

Robins feasting

Today is Christmas! I havent written anything again for a week or two, I have been busy with all kinds of things. Where did I leave off last time…

I took some photos at Enigma about two weeks ago, and completely forgot about them:

L-R: Claire and Robin

L-R: Peter, Chelsi and Me

L-R: Rochester Highstreet during part of Dicken’s Festival, Ryan and Andy

On the 17th myself and Ryan attended his Christmas work party, and it was pretty funny. Ryan’s boss Robb is so funny, and great company, and Drew also sat with us and we all seemed to have fun. It started snowing rapidly that night so we left early, and headed to the pub in which I now work. On the walk home Ryan fell over three times on the snow, and myself, Drew and Ryan ended up running around a perfect snow covered carpark, with the boys making yellow snow circles. That night I took some photos as the snow was still falling:

In the morning I took some photos in the garden, and also some other shots and a panorama of the area outside our house:

Standing outside the front of our house!

[Click images to view bigger sizes]

I also took some photos during the day when we went to snowboard on the hill. It was a really fun day, and we got freezing!:

L-R: Myself and Ryan, Steve and Jess, Ryan and Alexa

Justin!!!

Steve throwing Jess down the hill…

On the 20th my parents, my sister and her boyfriend came over for Christmas, as they are now skiing in France for a week. We had a great time and lovely food Sarah and Cory went in the snow which was still covering our back garden, they made a snow cat and a snow turtle:

I started a new job working at The Man of Kent pub in Rochester, and it is possibly the best pub to drink ever; so warm and friendly, with some great ales etc. I had such a good time on my first shift, and it already seems so much better than my last bar work.

Rob from the Man of Kent, wearing my hat on snow day.

So, now it is today… ITS CHRISTMAS! I got the table and chairs that I wanted from my parents, the new Harry Potter dvd, some money, kitchen things, a crochet book and other things too Ryan got me two necklaces that I blogged about before; the mustache and the robot from my previous post!!! The robot says ‘Lil Juice Box’ I also got the apple notepad which I wrote about here, and a coaster set that stacks into an apple! AMAZING! He has also bought me the Metallica Guitar Hero set, but it isnt here yet… I am rather excited.

This post has taken me forever. I have Justin sitting next to me, mocking me at how many hours it has taken. That has only been because I had to edit and resize all the photos, and they took a while, especially the panorama to render. Ah well… watching Hook at the same time so its all good. Christmas has been good, just myself, Ryan, and Justin… I made a roast dinner and the boys devoured it in minutes, which can only be a compliment. Now to drink…

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Jenn xxx

P.S Justin is so American… go listen to Kid Rock!

P.P.S I havent even got round to writing about all the great things I have found recently. I will write about them tomorrow!!!

]]> http://allsortsofthings.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/wishing-you-all-a-magical-christmas/ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:12:53 +0000 All things nice.. http://allsortsofthings.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/wishing-you-all-a-magical-christmas/

May your Christmas be perfect

right from the start

Bringing lots of good things

to warm you to the heart.

Have a Wonderful Christmas!

* Photograph of a wee robin in my snow covered garden

It’s Christmas

Enjoy!

Written by Paul Dini
Directed by Dan Riba
Originally Aired: September 13, 1997
DVD: Batman: TAS, Volume 4

Summary: Harley and Ivy borrow Bruce Wayne for a shopping spree, Barbara Gordon encounters the world’s grumpiest Santa, and Batman and Robin have a rocking New Year’s. Oh, and Batman picks up a tab.

Debuting Characters: This is Tim Drake’s first production and airdate appearance, although not his first in continuity, as his origin story appeared after this. Can anyone explain why this aired for the first time in September???

Featured Villains: Clayface, Joker, and Harley and Ivy each have a segment to themselves.

Background:

This episode is an adaptation of the Batman Adventures Holiday Special, published by DC for the 1994 holiday season. Although by the time the line finally ended in 2007 there were over two hundred issues published in DC’s tie-in Adventures line, this issue holds a relatively unique position of being the product of the crew who worked on the TV Series, as opposed to comic creators like Ty Templeton, Mark Millar (we’ll get to his Adventures work in a Weekend Aside in the new year), Adam Beechen or Dan Slott working in the animated style. Bruce Timm recalls Paul Dini and his pitch for the original issue

… what happened was that Paul pitched to DC on the concept of doing the book – the short story format and all the little Christmas stories – and while we were talking about it, I said it would be really cool if we got our crew to do it. Instead of getting the usual suspects, the Klaus Jansons and whoever else, it would be a neat, little Batman: The Animated crew book. We knew all the guys were really good artists and were itching to do comics anyway, so DC signed off on it.

Bruce Timm, Modern Masters, p. 86

After the issue was put out to a good reception, it laid dormant for a couple of years while the team worked on Superman. However, when word came down that Batman was going to be revived in a new format, the team looked for stories to adapt into animated form, and the Holiday Special was an obvious choice.

When we got the call to do more Batman episodes – normally we don’t like to repeat ourselves, but we were so busy doing Batman and Superman at the same time and we had to get goign on it really quickly. I don’t remember who mentioned adapting the Holiday Special for the series, but we thought “Why not It’s cute,” and we had done anthology stories before, like “Almost Got ‘Im”, and it was one less story that we had to come up with.

Bruce Timm, Modern Masters, p. 87

The actual issue is slightly different than what made it to animated form. For one, the story occurs during an earlier era in the show’s history, so the character models are in the older style. Secondly, there are four full stories in the book plus the coda with Batman and Gordon, which got trimmed down to a three-act format for television. The ‘lost’ Holiday Special story – which was actually granted the cover shot – was entitled “White Christmas”, a Dini-penned story featuring art by Glen Murakami and starring Mr. Freeze.

“White Christmas” is a nice story, and opens with Batman called to Arkham Asylum late on Christmas Eve after Mr. Freeze escapes. As he tracks Freeze to his wife’s grave, Batman has to deal with the effects of a blizzard that has crippled Gotham without warning. Batman confronts and disables Freeze – after being tossed against his own parents’ tombstone in an oddly sweet moment – before finding out why Freeze was causing the blizzard. As it turns out, he was doing it in tribute to his late wife on their wedding anniversary, assuming that she would be sad that it had failed to snow on their special day. It’s a touching ending.

I assume that the reason the story was dropped is that Mr. Freeze’s character had changed significantly between 1994 and 1997, with his wife having been cured, rather than dying, in the direct-to-video movie Sub-Zero and Freeze’s motivation taking a more sinister turn in the new series [this change of direction is hinted at slightly here]. As nice as the piece is, it just wouldn’t make sense in animated form.

Thoughts on the Episode:

Wow, what a difference a new writer… and director… and animation style… and animators… and a three-act structure… and wholesale changes to the cast… makes. This episode is an example of a lot of the elements that make Batman a great character – he’s a great straight man, he fosters memorable supporting characters, and is easy to tell great action stories with. Happily, that’s also divided up into three neat acts.

Act one features Harley Quinn moping to her partner (… in crime…) Poison Ivy about her lack of Christmas cheer, which leads the two of them to find a sugar daddy. They find an unwilling accomplice in the form of Bruce Wayne, out at a party at socialite Veronica “Ronnie” Vreeland’s house (I like where Ronnie wound up as a character – she may well be Batman’s only entirely platonic female friend), and, as Bruce is fleeing from a mob of golddigging socialites, Ivy takes the opportunity to plant a kiss on his lips. Of course, she’s wearing her hypnotic lipstick, which means that now Bruce is in Harley and Ivy’s thrall… and he has his credit cards tucked into his suit.

Do I even need to say that Hilarity Ensues?

This story was good in the comic, but, with perfect voice work and an excellent use of a jazzy version of “The 12 Days of Christmas”, it’s raised to another level. Bruce’s various facial expressions are hilarious throughout, from the deadpan look in the limo to his horror at Harley’s exclamation of “LOOK… PIANOS!” The musical interlude in the middle plays out like part fashion show and part exercise in absurdist filmmaking, keeping the muted colour scheme from the comic and adding more comedic interplay between the girls plus Bruce’s tortured signing of the credit card bills. Of course, the fun has to end eventually, but it ends well, starting with Bruce’s clever escape, Batman’s chase of the limo, and Harley finally getting her tree, paying off Ivy’s rant from the start of the episode. While there’s very little actual “action” (aside from Harley and Ivy wailing on Batman with oversized mallets), it’s unnecessary.

The second act is a Batgirl feature, as she teams up with Bullock and Montoya to take down Clayface. This story shifts a bit more towards action, but there’s still a good amount of comedy.The sheer absurdity of Bullock as a surly, belching Santa is another highlight, especially the great exchange with the child of a criminal Bullcok sent upstate a couple months previously. Once Clayface makes his appearance it gets a bit more serious, with great animation effects when he shifts his face to match the detectives’.  Although the gag from the comic about Babs timing her quick-change routine is lost, there’s still room for a couple more good laughs, especially Bullock’s brief shocked expression as he thinks Batgirl wants Montoya to fill him full of lead. Another great segment, albeit a lot shorter and simpler than the two parts on either side of it.

After that much comedy, it seems a bit counter-intuitive to bring Joker into the episode for an entirely serious segment, but that’s the case in the final act, which is a straight out “Joker tries to murder lots of people” plot, albeit one with the tail end of the holiday season in mind. Joker actually bothering to take precautions against Batman’s inevitable appearance, frustrating Batman somewhat in the process, does a good job of making him seem a bit deadlier, and he even gets to shoot Batman, which is a rare treat for him. Mind you, he probably wasn’t just intending to wing him, but, hey, better than normal. This is probably the weakest of the segments, sharing the problem with “Christmas with the Joker” did that it’s played a bit too straight for a Christmas ep, along with the usual complaint of the horrid Joker revamp.

If it had ended there, this one would have been a very solid episode, but just without that extra intangible that’s needed to make it to the next level. Luckily, that’s not where the episode ends, instead cutting to a brief coda featuring Batman meeting up with Gordon for a cup of coffee in what’s described as a New Year’s tradition between the two – a way of celebrating their survival for another year. It may just be a couple of lines followed by Batman’s patented disappearing act (and picking up the tab, which you figure would be the least a billionaire could do when having a drink with a civil servant), but it does a great job of playing up the fact that the two of them are friends, complete with the goofy little traditions of the holiday season that develop between long-time friends. I’ve often said that the scene that sold me the most on Chris Nolan’s vision for Batman was nailing just this type of Batman / Gordon scene at the end of Batman Begins, and having something similar at the end of this episode is a great way to finish off, providing a great holiday feel-good ending. A great episode all around, and my favourite New Adventures episode to boot.

Grade: A. It’s very hard to do a bad anthology episode if you know what you’re doing, and it strikes a perfect balance between sentimentality and the usual dark action of Batman.

Random Thoughts:

• Harley makes a reference to being Jewish in the comic, but… c’mon, her last name’s QUINN QUINZIEL (… whoops…). Unless someone converted, it seems pretty unlikely.
• Yup, that’s Timm and Murikami carolling in the final segment, along with Shane Giles.
• The gold diggers at the party are pretty much the same group seen in Mask of the Phantasm, complete with the “Ingagement” girl.

Line of the Episode:”WHAT? And support the mad campaign of botanical genocide that grips this country every December?” Ivy must have been annoying in college.

Runner-up: “Waaaaaaaaaugh!” Great scream by Conroy as he’s falling down the elevator shaft, made that much funnier because the viewer knows Bruce is obviously faking terror.

Next Side Story: Back to the actual tie-ins, rest assured, this “Avatar” is most emphatically not “Captain Planet with Cats.”

Next Justice League: If you promise not to think about any spoilers, it’s “Comfort and Joy.”

Over Amalgam’s noon a call was heard
that was no robin, jay, or other bird.
The priests knelt down and prayed to God for luck;
the monks then shrugged and said it was a duck.

_
I wrote the Amalgam poems in the mid-1990s while nearly napping under a tree. They were seemingly nonsensical stanzas about a fictional town named Amalgam, its residents, and its larger world. I collected them one-by-one in a word processing file, which I printed and stashed away in a notebook.

In November 2009, I had a dream in which a hit man chased me and a group of “dream acquaintances” deep into the sub-cellar of an abandoned military building. In a room at the base of a rubble-filled shaft, he warned me to “dig up the Amalgam poems and post them.”

This constitutes my compliance with that instruction. I will post one each Thursday until they are exhausted.

Not wanting to waste the sunny conditions I headed out to Cossington Meadows. After my success with digiscoping the ‘Sibe’ Stonechat on Monday I thought I’d practise a bit more digiscoping. I was hoping for a nice male Bullfinch but didn’t find any, even females.

The Hawthorn hedge though was full of berry gobbling Thrushes so I grabbed plenty of images both digiscoped and with the DSLR. Can you spot which is which?

Fieldfare

Redwing

Redwing

As well as the Redwing and Fieldfare there was plenty of action out on the ice at Tern Pool. This Coot seemed pretty cocky, preening whilst standing on one leg.

Coot

Watching this Lapwing I wondered if the cold was making him want to pee?

'Ooh, I'm bursting'

Not too many other birds were seen but this confiding Pied Wagtail was making the best of things in the paddocks.

Pied Wagtail

Lastly no winter scene would be complete without a Yuletide Robin.

Robin

Robin

Putin shows off his judo skills

Black-belted Russian leader Vladimir Putin has demonstrated his athletic skills and good physical shape during a special judo masterclass shown on state television.

http://en.rian.ru/video/20091221/157311333.html

My turn! My turn! Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of shopping time before Christmas.

1. Species By The Thousands Thin B Ring
I need it. That’s all.

2. A.P.C. Madras Water Flower Skirt
It seems perfect for any season and the print is so pretty. I’m quite sure I would be a nicer person if I owned this skirt.

3. Sunshine and Shadow Basic Blouse in dark green/black diamonds print
I want to wear this with my Steven Alan Frida Skirt. Like, every day.

4. Built By Wendy Hunting Jacket
Totally impossible to go wrong with a classic winter coat. Wardrobe staple. Now, if someone would just buy me an estate to go with it….

5. Steven Alan Hayley Sweater
Merry Christmas to me – from me! Every time I wear this little cashmere number, I feel like I’ve just come from the ski hill. Apres ski  hot toddy, anyone?

This flash mob thing is turning into a huge marketing tool.

Teleplay by Dennis O’Neil and Len Wein
Story by Dennis O’Neil
Directed by Kevin Altieri
Original Airdates:
DVD: Batman TAS Volume 3

Summary: Batman must work with the mysterious Ra’s Al Ghul in order to find Robin and Ra’s’ daughter Talia. However, the kidnapping is merely a test by Ra’s to see if Batman is worthy of being brought into Ra’s apocalyptic schemes.

Debuting Characters: Ra’s Al Ghul (yes, I know he had a cameo at the end of “Off Balance”), Ubu

Background:

In the aftermath of the Batman TV series becoming a legitimate pop culture phenomon in 1966, the comics naturally tracked in that same campy direction for a while. However, once the series was cancelled after its third season, the comics floundered and a change of direction was needed. Enter the man who would come to be more associated with Batman than any creator other than Bob Kane, Dennis ‘Denny’ O’Neil. Teaming with another future legend in Neal Adams – with whom O’Neil had previously worked on as part of the famous “Hard Travelling Heroes” era of Green Lantern / Green Arrow – O’Neil worked on returning Batman to his status as a detective first and foremost, bringing back the urban crime and problem-solving focuses of the character. Coupled with Adams’ dynamic pencils, their brief teaming is looked upon as the birth of the so-called ‘Bronze’ Age at DC, a return to a more grounded style after the hippy-trippy 60s.

O’Neil also shares some responsibility for the second-most significant revamp of an ongoing character in modern comics, as he was editor on Daredevil during Frank Miller’s legendary first tenure on on the title (Denny also wrote the bridge between Miller’s first and second runs). He also was the editor on a personal favourite title, Larry Hama’s GI Joe, and is credited with coming up with Optimus Prime’s name when Marvel was working on localising the Transformers concept… let’s just say Denny’s had influence on a lot of big films during the past ten years. Following the Marvel stint, he returned to DC and took over as editor of the Batman group of titles, which he handled through the controversial decision to kill Jason Todd in response to a telephone poll – Denny has gone on record as saying he never thought the readers would actually vote to kill off Robin – through the massive sales spike following the 1989 movie, to the revitalisation of the group with the Knightfall arc.

However, while he’s become known for his skills in revitalising existing heroes, Denny has also added the most significant Batman villain to the Rogue’s gallery of the past 40 years in the form of the villain of this episode, Ra’s Al Ghul, the “Demon’s Head.” This story is specifically based off of two of Denny’s stories from his writing tenure, “Daughter of the Demon” (Batman #232, June 1971) and “The Demon Lives Again” (Batman #244, September 1972).

In fact, aside from his role in writing this two-parter, O’Neil was paid tribute by the BTAS staff by being used as the character model for ‘The Perfesser’, one of the Terrible Trio (who appeared in the episode of that same name). As an FYI, the other members of the Trio were based on longtime Superman group editor Mike Carlin and the late Archie Goodwin, who at the time was editor of the Batman anthology title Legends of the Dark Knight.

Thoughts on the Episode:

It’s often been said before, but it bears repeating – the beauty of Batman as a character is that he’s open to a much broader range of interpretation than any other comic book character. Spider-Man always feels out of place in cosmic storylines, while Superman loses much of his grandeur in a street-level tale (albeit with some notable exceptions). Batman’s versatility, on the other hand, is his greatest strength, as a Batman story can be either unflinchingly realistic or see him attempting to engage in combat with a nhilistic space-god, and the viewer / reader will go along with it because, well, it’s Batman (I’ve often said that only one thing can make Batman seem implausible – specifically, that he willingly commits murder).

In this story, we see Batman-as-James-Bond. He hops around the world, falls for a beautiful woman, gets into disguise in order to infiltrate an enemy base, gets into trouble in the snow, destroys a couple of strongholds, and stops the plans of a maniac whose goals are not merely murder and city-wide mayhem, but quite literally to remake the planet. If Lucius had told him to pay attention and supplied him with a pen that shot acid, Denny would have been sued by the Fleming estate.

This is also a type of rivet-gun episode  – hard not to be when based off two separate issues, even if the latter was intended as the direct sequel to the former – but this time it works better then in “Only a Dream” because there’s only one villain spread across the two chapters, even though it’s not necessarily obvious at first. Ra’s was actually an unusual choice of adversary at the time this episode aired, being a character respected amongst older readers but one that might not necessarily work in a show that was theoretically aimed at children. The production team neatly resolved that problem by not even bothering to pretend that this one was intended for kids, instead telling a tale with a legitimate romance and an uncompromising villain.

The first half is very well done, one of my favourite single episodes of BTAS, as it both does a great job of setting up Ra’s’ character in a short amount of time while also cramming in a lot of action to that same length. The scene with Ra’s casually explaining how he figured out that Batman is really Bruce Wayne is excellent, and makes him into a huge threat within seconds of his appearance. Ra’s is, in some ways, a twisted reflection of Bruce Wayne, although of course while Bruce spends money philanthropically, Ra’s uses his fortune to achieve a mass extinction.This is best seen during the series of still hand-drawn (… well, more obviously hand-drawn than the usual animation) images in the second part of the story, as Ra’s tells the story of the devastating effects his plan will have on the planet. This takes the confrontation with Ra’s into a slightly more philisophical realm than the usual Batman villain, but

Of course, as Batman points out in his parlour scene at the end of the first episode, Ra’s’ initial plan to test Batman’s worthiness isn’t exactly the height of deviousness. Which is good, as the story at that point becomes less about Ra’s’ attempts to test Batman as it does the Batman / Talia relationship and Talia being forced to choose between her father and the man she loves. This choice would define Talia’s character for the remainder of her appearances. Although she’s portrayed as somewhat less capable here than she would be in her other appearances (it’s hard to be an action grrl when she spends the entire second half of the story dressed up in an outfit that is very revealing even by her standards), since her bona fides were already established by her debut story what matters is that Batman gets on-board with the idea that he’s developed feelings for Talia., Their kiss at the end of the episode is appropriately passionate; it’s certainly a much better romance angle than one would normally get from an afternoon cartoon.

Structurally, the storyline tends to place more action in the first half, before the second half completely apes the Bond formula as Batman infiltrates Ra’s’ base, stops to listen to his plans, then squares off with him amidst an exploding headquarters. As Bond pastiches go, you’re not going to find much better, and frankly Ra’s would be near the top of the list of greatest Bond villains anyway. The combination of the practical plan and Ra’s quasi-mystical immortality gimmick make him more appealing than most bad guys of this type, and unlike his movie incarnation there’s no limitations on what the cartoon counterpart can do in the action scenes. He does get a bit cliche at the end with the horror movie-esque revival at the last moment, but that’s a very small complaint. The animation holds up its end of the bargain, even throwing in some well-populated (and hard to animate) crowd scenes in Ra’s’ hideout.

Basically, if anyone ever tries to tell you that Batman always has to be a grim urban avenger, tie them to a chair and force them to watch this one. If Chris Nolan ever decides to bring back Ra’s for a return engagement, ripping this story off wholesale would be a great place to start (as would following through on the obvious choice of Angelina Jolie as Talia).

Grade: A-. Easy episode to do well, given the quality of the source material and guest star, but the execution is almost flawless.

Random Thoughts:

• Talia should be a doctor – she could just go around slapping people and curing them of mental illness.
• Robin’s anguish at leaving the Nepalese hideaway after he sees Talia is the anguish only a college student who isn’t getting any can feel.
• Soooo… Batman just left Talia out in the desert?
• Ra’s has to be recruiting some very strong guards for them to be able to tear apart the kevlar-reinforced Batsuit so casually.
• I assume Talia slipped Batman the lockpick when she kissed him – I’ll refrain from the obvious implication out of trying to keep these reviews suitable for all ages – but it’s not quite made clear. Since he’s Batman, it is entirely possible that he keeps a lockpick in his mouth at all times just for such an occasion.
• Talia and Ra’s next canonical appearance would be in Avatar, which is essentially the BTAS tribute to the Indiana Jones movies.
• Before anyone e-mails me, I know that Lucius wasn’t playing the Q role in TAS.

Line of the episode: “Yes, I see it clearly now… you are completely out of your mind.”

Next Justice League: If you promise to only read it as a Christmas episode and nothing more from a long-term plot standpoint, I’ll skip ahead to “Comfort and Joy.”

Next Time: Well, might as well be entirely seasonal, starting off with “Christmas with the Joker.”

While Kiyoshi Yamashita — the wandering artist depicted in the famous television series “Hadaka no Taisho Horoki” (Travelogue of the Naked General) — is widely known as a gifted Japanese artist with a disability, he is far from being the only one.

Struck by the talent of disabled artists in Japan today, Martine Lusardy, director of Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris has organized an exhibit of paintings and sculptures by 64 disabled Japanese artists in Paris, running from March to September 2010.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20091219p2a00m0na026000c.html

Here is a video clip of ROBIN 6

Alright, I’ve been a bad little boy lately… well, to tell you the truth, due mostly to circumstances out of my immediate control, I did not go to the comic book shop for three weeks!  And yet, I’m one of those weekly people… Damn.  So, these are fairly recent comics.

They’re ordered from best to worse, once again.

Donatello: The Brain Thief #4 of 4

Wow, that’s all I can really say to sum up this miniseries.  Jim Lawson really fulfilled on his promise in the interview that I did with him (that you can read here: http://mechanisticmoth.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/an-interview-with-jim-lawson/ ) that this miniseries would show a much darker side to Donatello than ever seen before.  Frankly, I haven’t been this surprised with the character since he fell, broke his leg, and then used a gun to save Karai in City at War way back when.

The pacing on this issue is phenomenal with so many quiet, introspective moments that really emphasize the horrible lengths Donatello will go to for some sort of better good.  I read it so quick that I read it again… and then again… then I read all 4 issues again.  Expect to see this miniseries on a list at the end of the year!

I really have to refrain from going into too much detail about this book because it’s just one that you have to read on your own.  And, don’t fear readers, this miniseries is pretty easy to pick up without ever reading any TMNT stories before.

Batgirl #5:

You know what really makes me happy?  The best titles coming out of the Bat-Family right now are ones that feature Strong Female characters.  Batgirl and Detective Comics.  The characters are truly dynamic.  You get Barbara Gordon who is disabled and in a wheelchair but still empowered, sexy, intelligent, and playing the very important role of being Oracle.  Couple that with her working with Stephanie Brown who’s only been vigilante-ing it for a couple years (comic book time) who is sassy yet smart and fierce.  Not only that, out of any of the characters in the Bat-verse, Stephanie actually brings some much needed light to the dark of Gotham.

Plus, what’s this!? The women aren’t drawn with giant T & A in this book!  There’s even a stab by the writer at other books that do this (which was pretty darn good).

Any issue of Batgirl is great for first time readers because the stories are pretty issue inclusive, and they’re very attractive for first time readers because of the stories being fun, thrilling, and fresh.

Plus, there’s an Omen joke in here (connection between the boy in the movie and the son of Bruce Wayne-aka the new Robin) that I’ve been waiting for for quite awhile.

Read this, you won’t be disappointed… unless you get a copy like I did… which is when the colors bleed on a couple pages because the printer was off from the registration marks… which is really frustrating (especially when it happens multiple times a week) because it detracts from the art.

Invincible Iron Man #21:

This is the best comic coming out of Marvel.

Despite the somewhat contrived way of getting Tony’s knowledge back, this comic works really well.  Fraction does a great job of leaving some mystery as to what the hell is happening inside Tony’s subconscious as he tries to make it back too.

The art’s really neat.

There’s some pretty strong female characters in the book despite the occasional large boobs that they’re graced with.

There’s no reason not to read this book, really.

Red Robin #7:

You know, I have to say that I think it’s pretty darn funny that the only good books coming out of the Bat-verse post-(the atrocious)-Battle for the Cowl are pretty unrelated from Batman.

Here we have Tim Drake traveling around the world in search for the missing Bruce Wayne.  ‘Cept, he’s had to hit it up with the League of Assassins to go toe to toe with the Council of Spiders… sure, that sounds a bit confusing, but it makes sense when you read it.

I really love the new artist on the series Marcus To, he’s really showing his talent with this book.

I also enjoy how we experience the weirdness alongside Tam Fox since this is her Introduction to Super Hero-ing and Assassins/Ninjas… it gets pretty funny to read her reactions, but you still feel vested in the interests of the characters.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised by the climax of Ra’s Al Ghul being there the whole time to only be taken out by a touch by poison lady… Ra’s Al Ghul is the most dangerous man on earth, so… how could someone just walk up and put their hand on him?  Oh well.  It was  a good sport.

The Walking Dead #68:

Alright, it’s pretty easy for me to say that The Walking Dead is one of the best comics out on the market.  Hell, it’s really easy.  However, this issue is totally a transitional one, and it shows.  Nevertheless, Robert Kirkman pulls it off and makes it not entirely boring and hints at some other stuff in it.

After the (awesome!) Fear the Hunters storyline the gang has done some pretty terrible things and find out that Eugene who seemed like he had contacts with the government and was leading them to Washington D.C., was actually lying in order for him to survive.  Disgruntled and starving, a man just walks up to the group out of the woods and offers them a spot in the special community he lives in.

Very intriguing.  But, this issue is working in between the short run of Fear the Hunters and the story line once they end up in the community.  So, it’s meet and greet/ Rick’s kind of mean again.

I really enjoyed how in the couple of panels, Kirkman (heavily) suggested that the partners from the town doing the scoping for people to join the community Aaron and Eric are homosexuals.  They both seem very empowered characters and I hope to see more of them in the future of the series.

Green Lantern Corps #43:

You know, it would probably be helpful for me to go and read the reviews I did for the previous issue of a comic that I did before rating the newest one just to make sure there’s some consistency.  Oh well.

Kyle Rayner isn’t dead!  Big surprise since I already knew it with the Origins and Omens from last year.  However, it wasn’t a completely useless tool used by Tomasi because Kyle’s “death” basically gave the impetus for Guy Gardner to become a Red Lantern/aka complete badass.  Since he’s got two rings on his fingers, Guy can just go around “killing” the undead Black Lanterns in droves.  Other than that, though, the issue is kind of sad, in a way.  It had some cool ideas but there was this overall sadness to it that was strange.

Other than that, the issue was neat, but it didn’t completely flow.  This comic just seems to go by way too fast when not much is actually shown but you know there’s a lot going on.  I don’t know, maybe they could pull an Amazing Spider-Man on us and release three issues a month!

Tales of the TMNT #65:

Okay, I had a really hard time with this issue.  The overall premise of delivering a somewhat Holiday-time Tale along with everything else going on in this issue was really good.  I just don’t believe that it was carried out to the best possible degree.  This issue’s all Berger, and I believe that at times his writing can sway between okay and great which is the same for his art.  The Turtles sway between Archie style and Eric Talbot style which are pretty distinct differences.

The best part of this story, however, is the Rat King.  The Rat King is by far one of the best ever characters in the Mirage-Universe who is fairly underutilized (he died during or before City at War depending) because he’s the only person to have ever successfully messed with Splinter.  This issue gives us about 10 frames worth of Rat King, and all of them are classic.  I really wish more of the issue focused on the Rat King than the mystical guy and the snow oni.

I mean, how did the guy even find out about the Turtles?  It seems so arbitrary.

The thing that did it for me to bring this one down from a 3 to a 2.5 was because of the binding issues which have absolutely no connection to Mirage or the story.  It just really pissed me off when the pages of my comic were still perforated and attached together so I had to tear the tops of them apart which, in the process, bent all of my pages.  It was frustrating and a first.

How I view it, is that 3 stars is average, and 2.5 stars is squeeking just below the surface of that.

Robin Thicke + Luda Team Up For The Sex Therapy Remix…Bump after the jump

Robin Thicke feat. Ludacris – Sex Therapy Remix  …::LISTEN::…

We woke up to -6 this morning in my part of Cumbria and it took ages to defrost the car before heading out.

The Airedales love the frost and the snow, for some reason the extreme cold weather always gets them into a daft mood charging around the garden chasing one another. Thankfully they didn’t scare the birds away.

I used standard 75 -300mm Lens for all these shots.

Teddy Bear? No, Airedale!