Detritus of the Mind

I wanted to put the old Toonami "Watch This Space" screen here, but Google has both failed me and insulted me with a bunch of Adult Swim crap. To say I do not like Adult Swim is an understatement. Anyway... You may have noticed that I haven't done squat here. I had plans, but here's what happened to them: - There are better nostalgia comic reviewers out there, the books I had planned either have gaps I can't fill or low interest rates, and frankly, lately the whole field of nostalgia comic reviewers attract people from a campaign that think having a character come out as gay is "character assassination". So between respect for people doing it better over more interesting titles and not wanting to have my comments filled with Comics Dudes, those aren't getting done. - The Legion essay and some of the points therein was permanently dropped, thanks to DC Comics devoting itself to wasting all of its best ideas, doubling down on its worst ones, and ...

So once again, real life has been kicking me repeatedly in the butt.  But I still want to keep this going.  I plan to finish the Bierbaum Legionnaires this year (friggin' finally! ), but after that, I have a list of possible subjects to address.  The only thing I wanted to review that I've put on the back-burner is X-Men 2099 , and that is entirely because the Great 2099 Creator Walk-Off still can't be verified/refuted/what-have-you.  If it's true, it's important to address; if not, I don't want to keep repeating it as fact.  When it's a comic rumor and Brian Cronin can't help you verify or deny it, you're in trouble. So here's a list of potential projects to review: - Several comic series are on the proverbial docket.  I have a couple that are either notoriously bad or have hidden potential buried in layers of badness - namely, Marvel's Mutant X  for the former and DC's Son of Vulcan  mini for the latter.  I wanted to do a review tha...

So I'm home sick, and I've been catching up on a great new podcast:  Rachel and Miles X-Plain the X-Men .  Their last episode talked about "Deadly Genesis", and it reminded me of one of three things that, no matter what the actual books say, will always be considered 100% true in my nerd-heart.  I'm going in order from when the stories/characters affected were first introduced. Wolverine is a father who outlived his young daughter:   One of the things I always liked was that Wolverine always has a surrogate daughter figure, no matter what era.  This led me to believe that, somewhere in his then-unexplained past, he had a like-aged daughter who died young.  Maybe illness, maybe not, but either way, he outlived a daughter he loved & now he doted on surrogates to make up for that loss.  Now that so much of his past has been revealed I don't think it's likely that will ever apply, but it doesn't change the fact that I find Wolverine's fatherly be...

Legionnaires #9: Skin Deep Creative Team:  Tom & Mary Bierbaum (writers); Chris Sprouse (penciller); Karl Story (inker); Adam Hughes (guest artist pp.16-20); Brian Stelfreeze (guest artist pp.21-22); Pat Brosseau (letterer); Tom McCraw (colorist); December 1993 Legion Roll Call:  Andromeda; Catspaw; Cosmic Boy; Dragonmage; Inferno; Invisible Kid; Live Wire; Matter-Eater Lad; Lifetime Lass; and Shrinking Violet. Miscellaneous Notes:  From here on out, we'll be seeing a mix of artists for several issues.  Chris Sprouse does a little in each, however, and it's not until #12 that you get a lousy artist.  Until then, at least they all feel "of a piece" and blend well. Summary:  How boy, this is more a bunch of subplots than a single story.  First, we've got Andromeda, Catspaw, Dragonmage, Tenzil, & Vi tracking some Khunds to an isolated planet; after a crash landing, they encounter mysterious natives that resemble people beloved to the Legionnaires ...

Hello. My name is Mela, and I write. I'm not a writer , per se - I've given up on that pipe dream of ever being published. But I write an essay or review or a (in all honesty) fanfic there, and it's a hobby I enjoy. One thing I most definitely am not , however, is an artist. That is simething that makes me sad. Art legitimately amazes  me, and since so much of the media I enjoy is visually oriented, I wish it was something I could create. Painted, digital, pixel, line work... I love it all. And even if I think it's bad, I still respect the time & effort that went into making it. It is because of this that I am really bothered by this trend in comics press & fandom to ignore and downplay the artists. As much as I love & respect & enjoy many comic writers, it bothers me when they're exclusively mentioned in reviews. For example, let's take Saga; there's a legitimately great series with amazing talent behind it. But mark my words, if you read th...

Okay, Part 1 was Gripe-a-palooza.  Part 2 is the stuff I liked, and I’ll try really hard to make it more than just fannish gushing.  Also, as part of my Shift to Positive, I’ll be offering a Mea Culpa for some initial knee-jerk reactions in the past, since my revisits have changed my impressions. As I said before, SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS for stuff that’s mentioned. BEST TV SHOW: Steven Universe:  “If every pork chop was perfect, we wouldn’t have hot dogs!”  Promoted largely because it’s from the first female original-show creator in Cartoon Network’s history (which surprised me, since they usually want to avoid acknowledging females in any way), it is a damn fine show.  Steven himself is a refreshingly sweet & dorky change of pace from the usual sassy & wiseass kid hero (which you do get a break from on Gumball & Adventure Time), the Gems all have great personalities & work well as his surrogate family, his supporting cast is growin...

Ah, 2013.  It was another year of pointless stress but what do you expect for adulthood?  It was the year I got back into anime, the year I finally figured out how the hell Tumblr works, the year I belatedly got hooked on Pokemon.  Everything outside of pop culture was trying extra, extra hard to make this a bad year, but the balance was otherwise such that I managed to stay sane. Like last year, I have decided to break this down into two parts, and since this is the year I made the choice to try & be more positive, I’m going to get any negativity out of the way in this first entry.  So here’s my disappointments & one bafflement for 2013. (Please note that video games are not on this list.  There weren’t a lot of new games that came out that interested me – so that will be the Disappointment for 2013 for gaming – and the ones that did interest me were on the 3DS, which I just got for Christmas (whoo-hoo!).  So games are benched for this year, a...

Legionnaires #8: In Heart and Conscience Free Creative Team:  Tom & Mary Bierbaum (writers); Colleen Doran (penciller); John Nyberg (inker); Pat Brosseau (letterer); Tom McCraw (colorist); November 1993 Legion Roll Call:  Alchemist; Andromeda; Brainiac 5; Cosmic Boy; Saturn Girl; Chameleon; Computo; Dragonmage; Invisible Kid. Miscellaneous Notes:  I'd say about half of those listed in the roll call are just in the first two pages, which are a fan-servicey pool party.  Since there's beefcake along with the cheesecake, I don't mind (even with that last panel - Ayla should really wear more than one leaf on her lower regions if she's gonna belly-flop like that.) Summary:  Brainy & a few friends travel to Colu to watch him receive a special honor, only for him to disappear.  It turns out the Coluan chancellor had him spirited to the mountains and has asked him to choose between staying with the Legion or serving his homeworld.  When he choose...

REVIEW: New Mutants Forever: The Fall of Nova Roma” Chris Claremont (writer); Al Rio (penciller); Bob McLeod (inker); Guru EFX (colorist); Tom Orzechowski (letterer); collected in trade 2011, originally published between 2010 & 2011 (months not given in the trade indicia). Issue 1, “Shadows in the Night”:  The New Mutants are staying the night at the Hellfire Club’s NYC headquarters after the big dance/race with the Hellions in #54 (see below).  While Doug helps Amara determine whether Selene’s claim that they’re related, the others go to Central Park (right outside the club).  While in the park, they are attacked by armed men, and they discover that Amara’s father is one of their targets.  The armed men rush the club, resulting in Rahne & Emma being hurt, and only stop fighting when they are killed en masse.  In the fight, Doug & Amara are kidnapped.  Amara’s father reveals he was trying to warn the Club (Selene in particular) about so...

Most people would list the worst run in any of the X-books to be Chuck Austen’s Uncanny X-Men run, and they’d be right.  But for personal reasons (because I have enough sense to avoid stuff written by a dude who rolled up from Penthouse of all places), I find that Louise Simonson’s run on New Mutants to be far more infuriating and upsetting.  Her run took a book that proved teen books didn’t have to be just soap opera and could literally do anything, and turned it into a generic mishmash.  Worse, it undid a lot of the good that the early days of the book had created. Granted, some of the stuff isn’t on her head.  I really do believe her now that the decision to kill off Doug Ramsey was her trying to call fans’ bluffs.  The dropped ideas at the end of her run thanks to the coming of Liefeld, when there were actual interesting new concepts & plots introduced without explanation, are not her fault in the slightest – in fact, if they worked at all, it’s pr...

In my mind, the Hellions are an integral part of the New Mutants’ history as a team.   They were positioned as their evil counterparts, but thanks to smart development, it was made clear that only a handful were truly “evil” – and one of those, I have my doubts.   They were friends & allies as much as dark mirrors to the heroes, and it was a shame that such an interesting & different relationship wasn’t explored as much (after Claremont left, they basically vanished from comics until it was time to kill them off).   In fact, I would say the biggest strength of the DeFilippis/Weir title is that they really showed how their team of Hellions related with their team of New Mutants and made them even more fleshed-out & interesting than most of the heroes.   Seriously, the Hellions mini was the best thing in their run, since it focused on the characters that were actually compelling (and also Wither). ORIGINAL HELLIONS: If I had to give an honest answer ...

You know how every action has an equal and opposite reaction?   Well, every list of favorite team members has an equal and opposite list of characters I don’t like.   I apologize if it’s a bit heavy with DeFilippis/Weir characters, but remember what I said about it being hit or miss; my absolute favorite characters they handled will be largely addressed next week, when I talk about everyone’s favorite frenemy team, the Hellions. 5. Wither: He has the rare distinction of being one of two Hellions I dislike as well.   He’s one of those characters whose whole schtick is the reason the X-Men franchise has a reputation for wangst; yes, his powers sucked, but that was literally all there was to him – he had destructive powers & he hated them.   He was so absorbed into hating them that he failed to notice when something not crappy (i.e. Mercury was inexplicably smitten with him) was approaching him, and he only went along with Selene because all she cared abou...

Looking back on my history with the X-books, I realized that pretty much both of the seminal gateways to the world of the X-Men were bound to the New Mutants.   The very first comic I picked up was Uncanny #281, that atrocious issue where the Hellions (among many other established characters) were killed off by the failed villain team the Upstarts.   Later, when I discovered the franchise’s golden age in the 80s, it was through the storyline where Kulan Gath turned New York into a fantasy land thanks to Classic X-Men; in that story, most of the New Mutants were his minions, while Warlock was among the handful of heroes fighting to free the city.   Probably not the best place for a newbie to come into the X-books in either case, but these two initial intros were what led to my fascination with the New Mutants. But being fond of something for its place as an early introduction is one thing; my love of New Mutants is more than nostalgia.   During Chris Claremont’...