I'm trying to suppress my "But you're just copying DC!" instinct to look at it objectively. Only an occasional Marvel reader, but what I liked at Marvel had more to do with well-told, complex stories than anything else. AvX just pushed me away. I hate being compelled to buy a ridiculous amount of books just to get one story.

In any case, I'm curious how they're bringing the universes together. As Matthew mentioned, the movies were based off of the Ultimate universe, and now the mainstream universe has been changing to be more like the movies. Shake it all up, I say!

As long as they don't touch the Matt Fraction Hawkeye series, I'm fine.

You know, there are a good deal of readers coming up who don't know anything about humor in comics the way some of us do. Just had a conversation the other day with a guy at the comics shop. He said, "I'm curious what they're going to do with the Justice League without all the big guns in it."

When I mentioned the Giffen league, he was completely confused. He had no idea what I was talking about. I mentioned Maxwell Lord, and he said, "Yeah. He was a bad ass."

So, there could be a whole block of readers who aren't used to the kind of shenanigans that used to be de rigeur. That could be why Firestorm is no longer a quipping teenager with his "drag" of a father-figure in his head. Or why we still haven't even seen Elongated Man or Wally West.

The hook for this (manga-inspired women heroes--including some gender-switching) didn't really sell me. I'm not a huge manga fan and cheesecake art never tripped my ticket (Porn, with REAL ACTUAL WOMEN, is FREE on the Internet now! Have you heard?), but I have to say that I got kind of hooked.

The price point helped, but the series put forth some really interesting twists in established DC continuity--Joe Chill being a small time hood who winds up inspiring the REAL Joker of the series--Duela Dent; giving both Power Girl AND Supergirl a place in continuity together in a way that makes sense; Barbara Gordon being inspired to be Batgirl by her father being confined to a wheelchair...). The story was mostly the bunch of the characters fumbling along until they happen upon a way of beating the big bad, and the format of each week continuing the story in what would traditionally....be considered a different TITLE was confusing, but the characters were well imagined.

And, while the concept is unabashedly gimmicky, I have to say, the more I thought of it, the more I though, "Well, how odd is it that fate and random chance formed all of the MALE superheroes that form the top tier of the mainstream? I mean, it's a 50/50 chance, right? Why couldn't they have all been women?"

Anyway, I was curious if I was completely alone in this, particularly now that I see they're selling the books in print format.

Honestly wasn't able to get into Earth 2 in general, so didn't pick up the zero issue. Liked the Shazam origin piece in JL zero. Can't remember what I thought of the other ones, but they were mostly just meh. I'm guessing the editorial mandate for these things must have gotten in the way of a few storylines.

I do feel better, actually.

As far as the archers always falling victim to the same thing, it's an easy short hand--like the wheelchair-bound track star, or the pianist with arthritis. It's lazy story-telling, basically. Easy irony.

Anyone digging into the Siege sale that's going on this weekend?

Unfortunately, it's not still being published, but the Nova series (Vol. 4) was really good. It's available on Comixology for cheap.

I picked it up with no knowledge of the Nova Corps and only a little background from New Warriors (which barely got into his history) and read through the whole series.

Hey all. Haven't been on for quite some time due to a preponderance of work/kids/life.

But, about a year ago, I got an Android tablet and have been buying more comics than ever before. One of the things that has drawn me in is the occasional sale that publishers throw out. This past weekend was Wolverine.

I've never been much of a Wolverine fan--not because he's overexposed and not because the character is inherently bad, but because he can very easily be written very badly. He tends to be the locus of many badly plotted stories with one-dimensional character development. And those bad plots seem to mostly involve adding some new element of badassery to him. He doesn't just heal, he can heal from being incinerated! He's not just an adult, he's more than a CENTURY old! He's not just a government experiment, he's a government AGENT!

Having said that, good writers have done great things with him. Chris Claremont, Frank Miller, Joss Whedon...they've made him profoundly interesting--most frequently as part of a team book.

So I thought, why not? It's only a buck a book. And scrolling down I saw the issues to Old Man Logan--a book that's been much talked about on this site.There was only 8 of them, so I thought, "Why not?"

I bought all the issues.

I READ all the issues.

My expectations were very low for this (particularly following listening to the review on the podcast), and even they were not met. The casual gore, the cliched plot devices, the astonishing lack of surprise at every plot "twist"...I just couldn't do it. It was everything I abhor about "gritty" stories that eschew plot or character for more casual depictions of what foolish minds insist is "more realistic."

There are some instances where the post-apocalyptic road trip, as a sub-genre, is done well. Canticle for Liebowitz, Damnation Alley, Road Warrior...they were fun. And this may have possibly been more fun if it was divorced from the Marvel universe, but it wasn't.

For instance, [SPOILER]Mysterio, for the first time EVER, showed the ability to change the SCENT of the X-Men...not just to mask EACH PERSON'S smell, but to REPLACE that scent with that of the villains he was representing as attacking[/spoiler] it stretched credulity, but every scene that touched on the Hulk [SPOILER]...every aspect--his rape (?!?!?) of his cousin, how he was suddenly super-strong as Bruce Banner, the idea that his progeny had become demonically twisted cannibals in 2 generations...[/spoiler] stretched disbelief far past its ability to hold up the house of cards Millar & co. built. The fact that Millar wrote this seemed odd to me. It was as if he took all of the bad parts of his writing, amped them up, and removed any trace of merit.

I am truly not trying to be insulting to those who enjoyed this book. I'm trying to expunge the bad taste this thing left in my mouth. Am I completely alone here?

I get the alienation, and I could buy the compulsive aspect of the decision, but the rationalization of "Why wouldn't a pacifist understand that meat is murder" sounds too much like the insertion of a very particular agenda. Those who eat meat do not equate the slaughter of an animal with the slaughter of a human, and not all of those who do not eat meat do so for ethical reasons.

But Superman 2000 looked to do something very similar in moving through his historical roots. Yes, we started with the Byrne Superman, but once the reset button was hit in that deal with Mr. Mxyzptlk, the idea would be to go back to the Schuster/Siegel version of the character in a way that reads as very similar to New 52.

The S2K version would not be Clark Kent until he traveled to Metropolis: he would go through stages of metamorphosis in his powers as he soaked up more of the sun's rays. Just as the Supes in New 52 Action Comics can't yet fly and isn't quite as fast or strong as the Supes in New 52 JL (set 5 years later), S2K goes from being a weaker, slower teenaged superhero to being the Supes we all know and love as an adult.

Well, part of the Superman 2000 treatment stated that Superman should be vegetarian. In fact, they stated "his diet would be beans, pulses and windfall, if anything, and his body would be capable of extracting maximum energy from these simple foods if not solely from the sun’s rays."

To be fair, they also said that an issue shouldn't be made of it, and that it need not even be mentioned "on-stage" (whatever that means).

I don't know if you guys remember this, but Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Mark Millar and Tom Peyer made a proposal to DC more than a decade ago, talking about a "refresh" of Superman.

This involved a whole bunch of things, like dissolving his marriage with Lois a la One More Day, killing off Pa Kent, and (temporarily, at least) upping his power levels.

The treatment is here, and here's what's interesting. Reading it, you can see some definite parallels between this and the Superman we're seeing in the New 52. Makes sense, with Morrison's involvement.

You guys see this? This mean Supes will be a radical vegan?

So, I've been behind on my Incorruptible and had given up on Irredeemable, because the stories had seemed sort of stale.

But I decided, what with the crossover and the announcement that both titles would end, that I'd give this whole thing a try. And, after reading it, I find I'm very happy that Mark Waid is ending it.

I didn't despise it or anything. It was just that Waid took lots of shortcuts/retcons that he generally tended to avoid earlier in the series.

SPOILERS


They telegraphed Max and Tony's childhood meeting pretty hard early in the crossover, and it seems like Max remembered the meeting fully AFTER he got his powers but BEFORE he turned good, which puts a weird spin on his "conversion" story. After all, originally the story was that he changed when he saw the awesome guy that was the Plutonian become the horrible guy. Now, MD knows Tony can be horrible. He saw him be the "Wolf Boy." So how was it some kind of surprise?

Since when can Qubit travel through time? It seems like this skill would have been pretty helpful in many earlier cases.

Qubit says, when he appears to Tony at the end of the crossover, that he deserves "a second chance." Hasn't Tony had MANY chances at this point? He could have changed when they brought Alana in. He could have changed one of the times Qubit tried to talk to him. He could have changed when he talked to him at the prison planet. Max and Qubit coming in at the end just seems like out-and-out idiocy. After all, the title of the book is "Irredeemable" right?

But it seems like Waid just sort of slammed the door in the face of the crossover. I mean, the climax was just a lot of exposition followed by the silliness of his visitation at the end.
Waid may have known the Plutonian's origin from the beginning, but the crossover read like it was being made up as it was going along.

Was I the only one who thought this?

Ah! Used to get the Stash catalog before the Internet was a thing.

Good tea.

So I have kids that don't like to sleep nights and an intestinal condition that resists the acidity of coffee but is not inflamed by the caffeine. This has meant much research into caffeine delivery mechinisms outside of coffee.

Tea can have high caffeine content, but most of the commercially available ones are still only a portion of coffee. Black tea (like Earl Grey, Darjeeling, English Breakfast, Assam, etc.) tends to have a good deal, but I've found that unroasted Mate (pronounced "mah-tay"--a kind of Argentinian green tea) has even more. There is some controversy over why, but Mate's caffeine content also tends to be absorbed more slowly by the digestive system, allowing for longer, less pronounced wakefullness.

As far as other alternatives, as others have said, water is always best (particularly when drinking caffeinated beverages), but there are other alternatives if you occasionally need something with flavor. The two primary things about soda that make it unhealthy are a high sodium content (which actually tends to DEhydrate) and excessive sweetening (usually through high fructose corn syrup).

Those times you really want something with flavor, you can just mix some 100% fruit juice with some low sodium carbonated water. Also, simple syrup is REALLY easy to make. Throw a one-to-one sugar to water combination in a pot to boil. If you want flavoring, toss in whatever kind of berry you want, vanilla, or whatever makes sense. Then keep it on-hand to mix with whatever.

If you're on the go and want to just pick something up, just be sure to check the nutritional content. Pay particular attention to the serving sizes. Only recently did the companies change it so that a 12 ounce can was listed as one serving. Before that, they tried to convince everyone that one unclosable can was 2 servings.

Sorry. Looked for some reference to it on the site, and couldn't find it. Don't remember you guys talking about it, except general talk about digital-only releases.

In any case, it looks like someone at DC is finally doing what you've been talking about for a long time, Stephen. They're following IDW's Transformers digital series and Devil's Due's reprints.

I just saw this today as I was fishing through Comixology for cheap back issues. There's a series being put out by DC as digital only called Justice League Beyond.

Read issue #1 and it comes across very much as Batman Beyond, the cartoon, did. Seemed REALLY short, though. Anyone else look at or heard of this?