(no subject)
Sorry for falling off the map without giving any notice, folks. That was rude, I apologize. It's just that the new school semester has really been hitting me hard. Doing two majors at the same time is a pain in the ass, I tell you. I'm honestly starting to wonder if it's worth the bother. I've got fourteen classes! All ranging from thirty to sixty hours a semester. It's insane. And the fact that I suddenly have to deliver an outline of my future thesis by the middle of November is no help at all. I'm in no way ready to write a thesis yet. It's still two years away. All I have is a general subject so far. It's terryfying.
Anyway, the school has been basically draining the lifeforce out of me lately and I really didn't feel up to the challenge when it came to the Internet. Well, frankly, I still don't but sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on. So I'm updating. A bit, at least.
Naturally I didn't let college mess up my comics schedule, because, thesis or no thesis, there are priorities after all.
Real quick, though, because I really do have to read on cointegration and error correction models tonight. There's no running away from that.
'Uncanny X-Men 491' - the Morlock storyline ended with a whimper rather than a bang, but since the main villain was just Masque, suffering from delusions of grandeur and basically being insane, it was actually quite fitting that X-Men, after getting over the surprise factor, just shot down his wonky plans without much ceremony and barely any effort. The whole story definitely held together on the logic level but it dragged at least an issue too long. The conclusion: X-Men really don't seem to be Brubaker's cup of tea. He writes passable X-Men stories, but it's no 'Captain America' or 'Daredevil'. That makes me a bit wary since it's Brubaker who's helming the oneshot that kicks off 'Messiah Complex' in two weeks. I really need 'Messiah Complex' to work out. It just cannot go wrong. Please, Brubaker, just remember that you are, in fact, a great writer - there's hard evidence to support that - and give me a kick-ass story.
'X-Factor 24' - David might have overplayed his hand a bit by giving the Isolationist every mutant power in existence (because, with such resources at your disposal, if you still lose, that makes you look like twat, extenuating factors or not) but it's still a cool design. Also, the bit with Layla and Nicole the Randomizing Generator robo-girl was the work of pure genius. That and the part with the Terrigan shards pulling Rictor out of a tight spot without him even knowing so and then just falling off, presumably having used off their batteries or something. A nice move. The ending was a it too rushed, I think there should have been a least two panels more to sorta cool things down but, I suppose, you just can't have everything.
'Endangered Species' - this whole thing is more about setting the mood and showing the gravity of the situation than about telling an actual story and, let's give the credit where credit's due, it is going about these two things quite competently. It is also borderline boring, which is less thrilling. In chapters 14 and 15, Spiral shows up for no reason at all and disappears two pages later, Beast goes to visit the Sorcerer Supreme and gets shot down yet one more time, is given the glorious chance to see his failure in every possible alternate dimension, and then goes home feeling pretty miserable. Poor bugger.
As for the non-X-Men stuff: 'Miss Marvel 20' is definitely less that entertaining but gets plus points for Puppet Master having a contingency bomb set up, because he's a villain and the chances of some superhero team showing up to beat him up are, like, 97%; 'Heroes For Hire' is definitely entertaining enough if perhaps going a bit too far into the Gross territory with Humbug's storyline, and has Paladin being awesome, which is always a treat; 'New Avengers 35' actually doesn't feature any Avengers since they are all waiting for the 'Mighty Avengers' Ultron arc to finally get to the end, but it gives us quite an intriguing look at the Hood and his band of merry thugs, and also proves beyond any doubt that Tigra lost all the favor among the Marvel people (seriously, between 'Miss Marvel' and that? poor, poor Tigra); in 'New Warriors 5' almost half the team is still identity-free and, thusly, devoid of any personality (well, Tatoo gets named, but she died last issue so that doesn't really count) and we see some more Tony Stark doing his Hapless Moron impression, but the rest is quite alright; 'World War Hulk Frontline' is more or less ok, too, and features a hilarious Sally Floyd extra strip; 'Captain America 31' works hard to get Bucky under the mind-control yet again, which I'm not sure is such a good idea, but Brubaker will probably make it work; 'Marvel Comics Presents 2' shows quite clearly that resurrecting the title was a good move by being a thoroughly entertaining book; 'Mighty Avengers 5' plows on with the Ultron storyline and annoys me with the thought bubbles. 'New Excalibur 24' I haven't read on account of it being a Claremont book and featuring not even one character I could be even vaguely interested in, but it kills off Iceman (the alternate reality one, true, but it's still a crime) so I'm angry at it anyway.
Now, tv. I'm not offering any reviews, because, God, no time. I'm still watching, though. Perhaps not as avidly as I used to but still with considerable enthusiasm. The tv frenzy of yesteryear has definitely worn off and my tv-watching habits went into a slower gear but, at least with some shows, I'm keeping up quite smoothly. 'Stargate Atlantis' is as glee-inducing as ever, even if it is now tainted by the presence of Samantha Carter, who was surprisingly acceptable in the first two episodes but went right back to being irritating just an episode later (the episode had a nice Ronon story, lots of kung-fu and a guest appearance of Marc Dacascos so I, thankfully, had plenty of distractions). 'Supernatural' boys are as pretty as ever and the season is shaping up alright so far - not super-thrilling but just fine (ETA: ok, I just watched 'Bad Day at Black Rock' and that definitely was super-thrilling, which means that you really shouldn't be too hasty with your judgment). 'Grey's Anatomy' continues to exploit its lighter, less melodramatic side with pretty good results, and Izzie and Lexie being annoying is compensated by Mark, Chief Webber and Bailey being awesome. I still miss the Ducklings in 'House M.D.' but I'm willing to accept that the new ones aren't so bad either (with the exception of the Olivia Wilde one, who I simply find annoying) and, while the Chase scenes are fewer that I'd like, they are possibly the best ever. I'm a bit behind with 'Heroes', 'Friday Night Lights', 'Dexter' and 'Brothers & Sisters', having watched just one episode of each and I still haven't got to the new 'Numb3rs' season, but I'm planning to change that reasonably soon, preferably before the episodes really start piling up. I dropped 'Shark' (which lost by being boring) but I'm picking up 'Pushing Daisies' (which won by being cute), so the balance is intact.
There's really no telling when I'll be back again. With the school being the way it is, I simply have no energy for regular updates nowadays (or 'semi-regular' since I've never actually been a regular updater, let's not kid ourselves). I'm not announcing a hiatus here, I probably will show up here and there, with either actual posts or just comments. I just don't know when. Sorry. Just bear with me. Please.
ETA: Ok, I am actually announcing a hiatus. Sorry. You are all great people and believe me when I say this: it's not you, it's all me. The disorganized, lazy, undependable me. I'm really REALLY sorry.
.
Anyway, the school has been basically draining the lifeforce out of me lately and I really didn't feel up to the challenge when it came to the Internet. Well, frankly, I still don't but sometimes you just have to suck it up and move on. So I'm updating. A bit, at least.
Naturally I didn't let college mess up my comics schedule, because, thesis or no thesis, there are priorities after all.
Real quick, though, because I really do have to read on cointegration and error correction models tonight. There's no running away from that.
'Uncanny X-Men 491' - the Morlock storyline ended with a whimper rather than a bang, but since the main villain was just Masque, suffering from delusions of grandeur and basically being insane, it was actually quite fitting that X-Men, after getting over the surprise factor, just shot down his wonky plans without much ceremony and barely any effort. The whole story definitely held together on the logic level but it dragged at least an issue too long. The conclusion: X-Men really don't seem to be Brubaker's cup of tea. He writes passable X-Men stories, but it's no 'Captain America' or 'Daredevil'. That makes me a bit wary since it's Brubaker who's helming the oneshot that kicks off 'Messiah Complex' in two weeks. I really need 'Messiah Complex' to work out. It just cannot go wrong. Please, Brubaker, just remember that you are, in fact, a great writer - there's hard evidence to support that - and give me a kick-ass story.
'X-Factor 24' - David might have overplayed his hand a bit by giving the Isolationist every mutant power in existence (because, with such resources at your disposal, if you still lose, that makes you look like twat, extenuating factors or not) but it's still a cool design. Also, the bit with Layla and Nicole the Randomizing Generator robo-girl was the work of pure genius. That and the part with the Terrigan shards pulling Rictor out of a tight spot without him even knowing so and then just falling off, presumably having used off their batteries or something. A nice move. The ending was a it too rushed, I think there should have been a least two panels more to sorta cool things down but, I suppose, you just can't have everything.
'Endangered Species' - this whole thing is more about setting the mood and showing the gravity of the situation than about telling an actual story and, let's give the credit where credit's due, it is going about these two things quite competently. It is also borderline boring, which is less thrilling. In chapters 14 and 15, Spiral shows up for no reason at all and disappears two pages later, Beast goes to visit the Sorcerer Supreme and gets shot down yet one more time, is given the glorious chance to see his failure in every possible alternate dimension, and then goes home feeling pretty miserable. Poor bugger.
As for the non-X-Men stuff: 'Miss Marvel 20' is definitely less that entertaining but gets plus points for Puppet Master having a contingency bomb set up, because he's a villain and the chances of some superhero team showing up to beat him up are, like, 97%; 'Heroes For Hire' is definitely entertaining enough if perhaps going a bit too far into the Gross territory with Humbug's storyline, and has Paladin being awesome, which is always a treat; 'New Avengers 35' actually doesn't feature any Avengers since they are all waiting for the 'Mighty Avengers' Ultron arc to finally get to the end, but it gives us quite an intriguing look at the Hood and his band of merry thugs, and also proves beyond any doubt that Tigra lost all the favor among the Marvel people (seriously, between 'Miss Marvel' and that? poor, poor Tigra); in 'New Warriors 5' almost half the team is still identity-free and, thusly, devoid of any personality (well, Tatoo gets named, but she died last issue so that doesn't really count) and we see some more Tony Stark doing his Hapless Moron impression, but the rest is quite alright; 'World War Hulk Frontline' is more or less ok, too, and features a hilarious Sally Floyd extra strip; 'Captain America 31' works hard to get Bucky under the mind-control yet again, which I'm not sure is such a good idea, but Brubaker will probably make it work; 'Marvel Comics Presents 2' shows quite clearly that resurrecting the title was a good move by being a thoroughly entertaining book; 'Mighty Avengers 5' plows on with the Ultron storyline and annoys me with the thought bubbles. 'New Excalibur 24' I haven't read on account of it being a Claremont book and featuring not even one character I could be even vaguely interested in, but it kills off Iceman (the alternate reality one, true, but it's still a crime) so I'm angry at it anyway.
Now, tv. I'm not offering any reviews, because, God, no time. I'm still watching, though. Perhaps not as avidly as I used to but still with considerable enthusiasm. The tv frenzy of yesteryear has definitely worn off and my tv-watching habits went into a slower gear but, at least with some shows, I'm keeping up quite smoothly. 'Stargate Atlantis' is as glee-inducing as ever, even if it is now tainted by the presence of Samantha Carter, who was surprisingly acceptable in the first two episodes but went right back to being irritating just an episode later (the episode had a nice Ronon story, lots of kung-fu and a guest appearance of Marc Dacascos so I, thankfully, had plenty of distractions). 'Supernatural' boys are as pretty as ever and the season is shaping up alright so far - not super-thrilling but just fine (ETA: ok, I just watched 'Bad Day at Black Rock' and that definitely was super-thrilling, which means that you really shouldn't be too hasty with your judgment). 'Grey's Anatomy' continues to exploit its lighter, less melodramatic side with pretty good results, and Izzie and Lexie being annoying is compensated by Mark, Chief Webber and Bailey being awesome. I still miss the Ducklings in 'House M.D.' but I'm willing to accept that the new ones aren't so bad either (with the exception of the Olivia Wilde one, who I simply find annoying) and, while the Chase scenes are fewer that I'd like, they are possibly the best ever. I'm a bit behind with 'Heroes', 'Friday Night Lights', 'Dexter' and 'Brothers & Sisters', having watched just one episode of each and I still haven't got to the new 'Numb3rs' season, but I'm planning to change that reasonably soon, preferably before the episodes really start piling up. I dropped 'Shark' (which lost by being boring) but I'm picking up 'Pushing Daisies' (which won by being cute), so the balance is intact.
There's really no telling when I'll be back again. With the school being the way it is, I simply have no energy for regular updates nowadays (or 'semi-regular' since I've never actually been a regular updater, let's not kid ourselves). I'm not announcing a hiatus here, I probably will show up here and there, with either actual posts or just comments. I just don't know when. Sorry. Just bear with me. Please.
ETA: Ok, I am actually announcing a hiatus. Sorry. You are all great people and believe me when I say this: it's not you, it's all me. The disorganized, lazy, undependable me. I'm really REALLY sorry.
.