Some quick hits for now, just to offload all that stuff that's buzzing around in my head these past few weeks. There comes a time when due to my diverse interests, I supersaturate my brain, and I wanna write about everything.Of course, there's no way I can do that, so I instead end up writing about nothing.I suppose I'll be writing entries like these more often in the future.---Secret Invasion - I'm holding off on writing a review of Secret Invasion 7. It's a brawl. The tiny bit involving Spider-Man is the only truly amusing bit in the whole comic, with the rest being a mindless, stupid, senseless fight with no sense of tension whatsoever. People, this is how NOT to invade another planet. Take notes. Given this, I'll wait till the final issue before rendering judgment, on the slight chance that this pointless charade is actually leading to something profound. I'm not hopeful though.Gundam 00 (season 2) - Macross Frontier's wondrous mecha design and CG sequences have spoiled my brain, to the point where watching Gundam 00 is an arduous experience. The mecha design in Gundam 00 isn't bad, taken in a void. Problem is, I end up comparing it to both Macross Frontier and Gundam Seed/Seed Destiny, and by comparison, 00's mecha SUCKS. The only truly aesthetically pleasing mecha in both seasons for me was the Gundam Kyrios, and they stuck a knife in me by wrecking it at the end of season 1. The remaining mecha range from decent (Gundam 00-Exia Fusion), to hideous (Gundam Seravee and its giant Gundam head... don't get me started). Add the fact that Gundam 00 hosts a set of jaded main characters who are even more boring than Hiro Yui and Judo Ashita and we have ourselves a problem.Star Wars, the Clone Wars - No, this is the CG series, not that disgusting second Lucas movie. It is shockingly entertaining. Likely because Lucas isn't writing the dialogue. Watch a few eps and see for yourself what a wonderful world Star Wars could be when its creator takes a few steps back.Batman RIP - Is this bit of Morrison confusion over yet? Because I'm waiting for Neil Gaiman to take over. Seriously.US Presidential Election - Congratulations, President Obama. You deserved it. You're inheriting a nation that's sliding downhill. I hope you realize you won because you're the only one capable of saving that country. Godspeed.Super Robot Wars - Look! Bandai made something with CG mecha! Lots of CG mecha! Why is Gundam 00 so crappy then? Ugh. Here I am ranting about 00 again.
CSI - Both Grissom and Warrick are leaving now? Can Lawrence Fishburne really take over, or is this show finally jumping the shark? We'll have to see.
Next Generation Console - Yes, I still want a Wii, but I'm so caught up in retro-gaming at the moment, I probably won't bother yet. Besides, no one can find a Wii. All of them have been presold till next year. Someone said that right now, Nintendo could put its name on a bag of dirt and it will sell. I kinda agree. Ah, poor Sony, how far you've fallen.
Avatar - Have they cast Aang yet? PLEASE don't let it be some white kid.
On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One - The name says it all. I never thought a game co-developed by Penny Arcade would be so good. It's fun. Seriously. Play it. You can spare the 750php.
World of Goo - See what I mentioned about the game above? This is different. But still addictive. Horribly addictive. And sticky.
Hand-Made Greeting Cards - Wow. Our little home business is picking up. Orders are starting to come in. Must be the Christmas season. Anyone else want some handcrafted greetings?
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That's it. Back to watching Clone Wars.
After 25 episodes, Macross Frontier has finally ended. Let me get one thing across right now, because it's important: it was much, much better than Macross 7, the last full Macross series (which was a horrible piece of work barely lifted past mediocrity by the presence of Max and Milia).That said, it must also be mentioned that it was not better than the original Macross. Even comparing it to the OAV series, Frontier still ranks below Plus and Zero. But that still makes it good, overall.Was I entertained? Yes. Especially during the first two-thirds of the series. After that, the story quality dropped, and I can tell you why. The pace felt too fast, character development stalled with some characters while it was rushed in others, and some technical aspects of the story lacked exposition or justification. The reason behind this is the 25 episode limitation the makers of the anime placed upon themselves. In an effort to exagerrate the whole "Macross 25th Anniversary" theme, they placed numerous 25s in the series, both within and without. This included the 25 episode limit, which, quite frankly, SUCKS.The original series was great, and though it had flaws of its own, had a fully developed plot and character development. Despite the relatively simple plot, it spanned a glorious 36 episodes. Frontier was hamstringed by limiting it to 25 episodes, depriving viewers of desired subplot coverage, closure on multiple elements, and action scene length. I wasn't expecting another 36 episodes, but they could have surely increased the number of eps to 30+ if they hadn't gone with the stupid 25 theme.The combined traditional + CG animation elements, especially for mecha battles, was a wonderful touch, but the times when I wanted to see long protracted dogfights felt like paying for a bucket of popcorn and getting a bare cupfull instead. Ozma versus Alto? One single kharmic pass. Brera vs Alto? Let's blow the guy up please, ASAP. NUNS and SMS vs. Ghost v9.0's? No. A few scenes, but nothing definite.Ugh.Lost potential. It could have been so good.On other things, the ending was actually good, ignoring the fact that it was rushed. I liked the maintenance of the Archie-Betty-Veronica triangle between the three lead characters, and the fact that Alto was no longer a TOTAL wuss. Leon's dying horribly was denied to me, but at least Grace got annihilated. Damn. Do I HATE clones. I hate borg clones even more. A lot of things were left hanging, but the closure on the Vajra-Birdman-Protoculture metaplot was nice.If I were to rate this I'd still give it a 7 of 10. That's a pretty good rating considering I'm so critical. Time to look forward to the movie. If they make it a pseudo-continuity retelling of the series, like they did with Do You Remember Love?, I'd be overjoyed. That would mean it gets chance to correct some of its errors.
After suffering from a "Fantastic" overdose in issue 5, Secret Invasion 6 promises something much better from the cover alone. Tony Stark bashing aside, that's the original Avengers trinity seen on the cover, composed of Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man.Okay, technically, it's NOT the original trinity per se. Iron Man is now pumped up by the Extremis virus. Thor now has the Odinpower and brought himself back from oblivion post-Ragnarok, and with Steve Rogers still dead, that's the Bucky Barnes incarnation of Cap we're seeing (hence the uncharacteristic gun). Personally, I don't care. The issue is worth it just seeing these three in the same place at the same time, and without being at each others' throats.Most of the issue focuses on bringing everyone together for a grand confrontation in Central Park, an action largely evoked by Thor without prior consultation. This means that come issue 7, we are going to get a battle worthy of the record books. Earth's superheroes versus the Skrull invasion force. That's something to look forward to. The fanboy in me rejoices.Of course, the tactical strategist in me is screaming bloody murder.Imagine you're the Skrulls. You got all these metahumans gathering in a single location, metahumans bent on stopping your invasion plans, most likely by killing every single one of you. Does it make sense that you meet them on the ground, in a classic standoff, your warskrulls facing the heroes at speaking distance? Especially when you have these hovering around the city?
This doesn't even include the ships in orbit.WTF?!Whatever happened to the concept of orbital bombardment?"Oh look, the heroes are all in Central Park.""Is that so?""Yes, what do we do?""Tell all ships in range to bombard their coordinates. Heavy energy weapons only.""Yes, my Queen."I know that would kill everyone, yes. But you wanna invade a planet, you gotta do it properly. However, it seems to me that we're in slam bang surreal mode here. If Nick Fury, Bucky, Reed, and Tony can be stupid enough to expose themselves en masse in one place like that, I suppose the Skrulls can be that stupid too.Universal stupidity is catchy.Here's what's coming next month:
After recovering from my disgust over Secret Invasion 5, along comes another shocker. Hasbro has decided to "update" the boardgame Clue for a more "modern audience." Here's the graphic evidence:
The sad part is that they don't even plan to continue manufacturing what is now the "classic Clue." They take away the lead pipe because they don't like references to lead, adding more weapons like a trophy, a metal baseball bat, and of all things, an axe. They change the rooms because people nowadays won't know what a conservatory is. They added more cards for more variety of play. This feels to me like the classic Western philosophy of completely throwing out the old in favor of the new. I'm not saying the game won't be fun, but goodness, what's next?Chess 2.0? Behold, a more modern version of chess! There are no more pawns. The word "pawn" suggests slavery or taking advantage of someone. Wouldn't want the kids to be exposed to that. Instead, the new version calls them "minimum-waged militia." No bishops either. Too biased toward the Christian demographic. Let's call it the "spiritual advisor" instead.We've revised the rules too! You can now choose to have a queen piece wearing a crown to represent the king. Gender equality. And gay marriages are now acceptable in many places. Two queens or two kings should be permissible. And not to forget interracial relations, you can now have both black and white pieces on the same side. Joy!
So Secret Invasion 5 is out, and I have to say it's the most disappointing of the 5 issues that are out so far. Which means that it's the ONLY disappointing issue that has come out, as the previous 4 were amazing.There were some nice highlights in this issue, like how Agent Brand performs very nicely after her spotlight in Astonishing X-Men, and how the Skrull propaganda machine makes its planetary announcements by revealing themselves as famous personalities who were disguised all this time (including Oprah, Tom Cruise, Bin Laden, and our very own President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo). But all of that was overshadowed by one of my pet peeves.Reed Richards.Brand manages to free him, and you can anticipate that the series is going to go downhill from here. Mr. Fantastic is Marvel's equivalent of Deus Ex in a stretchable bag. The guy can work miracles using nothing more than a toothbrush, a pocket calculator, and a few rubber bands. You put Reed Richards into any scenario, and instantly, it transforms into "what MAGICAL device will Mr. Fantastic create to FIX ANYTHING." Seriously. Put him in any situation, and that's what he does. He's so smart he can beat GALACTUS. He makes me PUKE.His presence takes out the effort other characters have put up to that point and throws it in the dust like so much garbage. "Don't worry. Everything you worked for will easily be fixed with no effort using the mystical properties of my Fantastic Dream Beam!"In the case of SI#5, from the time that it takes to go from high orbit to the Savage Land, he manages to whip up a Skrull Revalation Ray using Skrull equipment. Yes. A Skrull Revalation Ray. You fire it, and every disguised Skrull in the area suddenly reveals his Skrull form. Wow. All that hype about "Who Can You Trust?" and now it's undone by Mr. Fantastic. I am so disgusted I can't write anymore. Forget it.---PS. GMA is a Skrull. That explains SO MUCH.
Zuko Snubs Toph
More minor gripes on something that was a very satisfying experience. This scene made me groan. You know the scene. Aang's gone to lion turtle island, and Team Avatar doesn't know where he went. They go looking for him, and Toph goes off with Zuko in what she hopes will be a life-changing field trip like the others had. While they're searching, she starts talking about her insecurities about acceptance from her family, and Zuko practically tells her to shut up and keep looking for Aang.
I appreciate the gravity of the situation they were in, and how important it was to find Aang. I also understand how driven Zuko can get. I also understand that the metastory was strained for time, even with 4 episodes to go. But dude, that was inexcusable. Especially after Toph was so nice to him when he was once again in emo mode about his uncle in Ember Island Players. He could have at least spared a few words of encouragement.Spurning the cute earthbender when she's pouring out what might be her deepest hurt? Bad form, sir. Very bad form.
