February 25, 2006

WUST!

before i go crazy and start posting my new battle cry everywhere (WUST!), i should probably explain it. The Dutch women are freaking amazing on long track speed skating. they rock so hard, that one of them, 19-year-old Ireen Wust (pronounced "voost"), has become my new battle cry, replacing my old battle cry of LEEEEEEEE-ROOOOOY JENKINS! this is only because the other female Dutch skater has a longer name (Marianne Timmer). Timmer was actually better in this Olympics, but Wust is more attractive.

WUST!

thecomicman spoke @ 02:44 PM |

February 13, 2006

because i just can't help myself

let's do this:

Johari Square Deal

Nohari Square Deal

so yes. okay, go.

thecomicman spoke @ 09:34 PM |

February 07, 2006

Sammie is back! yay!

besides bringing herself (which is the greatest of all possible things to come from Singapore), she also brought me tons of swag! whee! i shall detail here...

1. pants! two pairs! i love pants!
2. Kickapoo! the greatest soda of all time, Sam brought me twelve cans of it. i must now ration it so that it lasts until i myself go back to Singapore in December.
3. ramen! super good ramen (called Char Mee 100 or something) that Sam's mom introduced me to the first time i went to Singapore. Sam brought like forty packets which makes for only half as many servings. these too must also be rationed.
4. Pinkys! she brought me seven singles (that i'm pretty sure ET doesn't have, heh heh heh) and the King of Fighters two-pack. when i find my camera, i shall take a picture of all of them.
5. Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa! the subs are serviceable with only a few grammatical errors.
6. Fullmetal Alchemist Complete Best CD! it's the soundtrack with all the opening and ending themes to the FMA series.

also, Sam bought a bunch of stuff for herself that i can totally use too. she brought back a bunch of Asian DVDs and VCDs of movies i've not seen (some i've never heard of) e.g. the Japanese Initial D and the Korean Marathon. she also bought a cd of a bunch of 1930s Shanghai lounge divas that is awesome. i'd been looking for oldish Chinese music that wasn't Cantopop and was failing miserably. Sam's awesome internet search skills also work in real life.

so yes, that is all.

Sammie's back! whoo!

thecomicman spoke @ 09:05 AM |

February 03, 2006

okay, wait, i have to calm down

so, during last night's Daily Show, there was a commercial for the U.S. Border Patrol. there's this voiceover and he's all "The U.S. Border Patrol, highly trained with the latest technology, blah, blah, blah, we keep this country safe," so on and so forth. and on the screen i got these guys in humvees, on ATVs, on horseback, in helicopters and boats, hell, even on foot, and all these fuckers are running towards something, and the entire time, i'm thinking, "this has to be a fucking joke." this is an ad for the new season of Mind of Mencia and this is going to end with a bunch of Mexicans sneaking across the border, right under the patrol's noses, but no!!!

they were serious!!! i laughed so goddamn hard i may have ruptured a blood vessel in my head!!! it's the only possible explanation for all these exclamation points!!!! someone has to find this online and then we can make fun of it ad nauseum! whee!

the fucking border patrol... and they were being serious!

oh my sides hurt so much...

thecomicman spoke @ 10:20 PM |

here's something i don't recommend

staying up 'till four in the morning watching Naruto with light subtitles, and then going to work the next day. that, my friends, is a horrible idea.

but anyway, i just watched the episode in which Sakura finally does something. the sum total of her battle with the those sound ninja guys? she throws some knives and stars, gets captured, lops her own hair off, does some replacement jutsu, TAKES THREE KNIVES TO HER APPENDAGES, and then bites down real hard on the sound guy while she gets punched in the head a lot. i didn't have a lot of respect for Sakura, but to have the willpower to take three knives just to get one into the other guy? that's gutsy. it's stupid and potentially fatal, but it's gutsy. and we all know i'm all about the stupid and potentially fatal, but gutsy actions.

i can only hope this trend of Sakura actually doing something continues.

p.s. Rock Lee? fuck yeah!

thecomicman spoke @ 06:06 PM |

February 02, 2006

Infinte Crisis thus far

it's been awhile since i've done this, so it's time for another. this post will contain spoilers to the Day of Vengeance Special, Infinite Crisis #4, and the Rann/Thanagar War Special and everything that came before and during.

SPOILERS AHOY!

so, first Day of Vengeance. Nabu gets a bunch of magic kids together to clean up Gotham. cleaning Gotham entails capturing the Seven Deadly Sins and rebuilding the Rock of Eternity. this is done simply enough, with the Shadowpact doing all the capturing of Sins. the important things about this book are threefold:

1) Nabu forces the Spectre to kill him so that the higher authority (read: God) finally notices that his Spirit of Vengeance has gone bonkers. there are three immediate repercussions to this: the Ninth Age of Magic ends, the Spectre gets bonded to a new host, and there will be a new Dr. Fate once the Tenth Age of Magic begins, which should be soon.

2) Alex Luthor's goon Felix Faust captures Nightshade, originally from Earth-4, to put in Alex's machine.

3) once the Rock of Eternity is rebuilt, Zatanna tells Captain Marvel that he has to be the new permament resident, since the Spectre killed the wizard Shazam, otherwise the Rock will lose cohesion and fall apart again.

next, Infinite Crisis #4 in which the important things are sixfold:

1) Deathstroke and his Society pals drop Chemo, a living nuclear bomb, on Bludhaven, Nightwing's town of choice, because Nightwing had been cramping Deathstroke's style.

2) Alex explained exactly how he had engineered the events in each mini that preceeded Infinte Crisis: he got all the villains together in Villains United (duh) so that he could get all the people he needed for his machine; he used the Psycho Pirate to fuck with Jean Loring's head when he gave her Eclipso's gem, who then fucked with the Spectre's soulless head so that he would go apeshit on magic in Day of Vengeance, thereby ensuring a power source for his machine; he evolved the Brother I satellite so that it could remap the cosmos, and so that the OMACs would respond to his commands in The OMAC Project; and finally, he used Superboy to move planets around in deep space so that the center of the universe would not be Oa, so that there would be intergalactic war in Rann/Thanagar War. all so that he could bring back Earth-2.

3) Superboy-Prime takes on Superboy-1 and all his Titans friends and ends up killing Pantha, Wildebeest, Red Star, Risk, and Bushido, C-list Titans all.

4) the Spectre was bonded to the dead Crispus Allen (yeah! what!)

5) while stuffing Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, every speedster, except for Jay Garrick, and Linda West and the twins disappear along with Superboy-Prime and the Speed Force itself.

6) Alex succeeded in re-making Earth-2 by using his captives Breach, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Black Adam, Nightshade, the Ray, Lady Quark, and himself.

finally, Rann/Thanagar War in which the important things are twofold:

1) by finding proof of Superboy-Prime's shenanigans, Kilowog, Adam Strange, Tigorr, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl convince Thanagar's Grand Mor and Rann's Sardath to stop fighting and concentrate on the big hole in the middle of the universe (you'd think that'd be easier to do).

2) Jade is killed and her power reverts back to Kyle Rayner (who gave the cheating cunt her powers in the first place). this returned power makes Kyle into a powerful guy called Ion that the Guardians are going to use for their grand plans.

and now, let's revisit my predictions, shall we?

1. Crispus Allen, not Jim Corrigan, becomes the new host for the Spectre, possibly after being killed by Corrigan.
A: yeah! what! so totally right it hurts to be in my own presence! it's not often i'm right on every single aspect of my predicition, but i nailed this one! fuck yeah!

2. Superman-1 and Superman-2 fight for their respective Planes.
A: still nothing, but there is once again an Earth-2, and Kal-L has been led to believe that this Earth's existence is the only way to save his Lois from dying.

3. Power Girl dies in issue #5, and in fact, the cover will resemble CoIE #7's in that Superman-2 will hold Power Girl's lifeless body.
A: one issue to go. Power Girl was in the machine when Alex powered it up.

4. Booster Gold does not become the new Blue Beetle.
A: the scarab that Booster was hunting for was tracked into Jaime Reyes' room and then into his body, where it grafted itself onto his spine. this occurred in IC #4. it's a pretty safe bet that this thing is staying in there.

5. Half of Donna Troy's space team dies fighting whatever she's out there fighting, most likely Airwave, Shift, Bumblebee, Red Tornado, and either Firestorm or Supergirl; maybe even Donna... again.
A: thus far, the death count is up to three with Airwave (IC #4), Firestorm (IC #4 and Firestorm #21; although he's coming back to life almost immediately), and Jade (Rann/Thanagar War Special), which came out of left field, honestly. the members still alive are Donna Troy, Cyborg, Animal Man, Supergirl, Shift, Bumblebee, Red Tornado, Herald, and Starfire. i need three more to die in order to be half.

6. Bruce Wayne will go totally schizo.
A: fuck! it looks like Nightwing brought him back down a little in IC #4. goddamn stabilizing force.

7. Many of the Amazons will die, including Artemis and Fury.
A: again, the entire island of Themscyria disappeared to parts unknown leaving Wonder Woman as the only Amazon left. this doesn't count as 'death,' but they are gone.

8. Hector Hall (the current Dr. Fate) will die and be replaced.
A: as previously reported, Hector Hall did die, and i thought he would not be replaced because Nabu was all 'no new host in the Ninth Age of Magic.' but the Ninth Age just ended, and the Tenth Age will begin soon, and you better believe it will require a Dr. Fate.

9. Wonder Woman will spend some time in prison.
A: still up in the air as of press time, although it seems she will stand trial.

10. Supergirl will become a pawn of Luthor-1's.
A: again, the Supergirl series refuses to come out. i still have no idea, although the character is currently in space.

11. The Flash will retire, at least for a little while, to help raise the twins.
A: retire, become one with the Speed Force and then disappearing, same difference.

12. A Luthor will die.
A: neither one has yet, but wait for it...

13. The remainder of Giffen's League will band together since the big guns are busy fighting amongst themselves and save the Goddamn day, before being totally wiped out by DC editorial.
A: except for mentioning it in IC #2, Booster's done nothing about it yet. everyone is basically still in the same place i said they were last time: Guy and Animal Man are in space, and not even remotely in the same sector; Fire's in the hospital; Captain Atom is still in the WildStorm universe; Power Girl is in Alex's custody in Antarctica; Captain Marvel's stuck in the Rock of Eternity; Black Canary got severely beat by the Key under Gotham; and who knows where Elongated Man, Metamorpho, and Mister Miracle are.

thecomicman spoke @ 03:15 AM |

Samurai Champloo

i finally finished this thing (i know, i'm slow). it was super awesome good, except for the ending.

SPOILERS AHOY! not only of Samurai Champloo, but also of Cowboy Bebop (Nina, you have been warned!)

don't get me wrong, i totally dig that all the characters survived unlike in Watanabe-san's earlier anime Bebop, in which Spike bit the big one.

however, somebody should have died. Mugen and Jin had promised to kill each other, and the only, only reason they shouldn't have fought to the death at the end was if one (or both) of them died fighting someone else.

"Every time I've met somebody stronger than me, I just wanted to kill them. But I don't want to kill you anymore."

i'm paraphrasing Mugen to Jin here, but come on! that's not how that should have happened. as soon as they were healthy again, Mugen and Jin should have cut each other to ribbons. instead, i get some sappy 'let's all be friends' ending.

and what's worst of all is that i was secretly hoping for this ending. and ending in which Mugen and Jin would reconcile and not fight at the end, so that they could both live.

i kinda hate myself for this.

thecomicman spoke @ 02:59 AM |