I probably should’ve gone to San Diego instead of E3. E3 was pretty limp, and actually kind of pointless on my part, but SDCC sounds like it was the bomb. I mean, when playing a two year old fighting game with friends is the highlight of the show… something might not be right, you know?

Live and learn, eh? Please believe that I’ll be at basically every Bay Area con next year, though, and I’m planning on hitting SDCC and NYCC to boot.

NYCC07 was my first con and it was solid. Here’s hoping for many more.

Good God. I’ve reached the point where I use the term “musings” on the internet. Shoot me.

I’ve been taking a break lately, due to several things holding me up and taking my time, like a crappy work schedule, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80’s and a bunch of crap you don’t care about.

In the meantime, a couple quick thoughts.

– I made like 15 new 4th Letter headers and then hermanos had to go and redesign the site. Fuck him! Though I have to admit, the new look is growing on me. I like the little “4th ____” gags in some of those headers. Took me a second to get why Ares is labeled “4th Planet”.

– If you didn’t know by now, Greg Pak is going to be doing a What If issue with a trilogy of stories based on Planet Hulk. One has Hulk land on the peaceful planet as the Illuminati planned. One has Bruce Banner land on Sakaar instead. The last, and most interesting one, is about Hulk dying in the warp drive explosion and his queen surviving to seek vengeance on Earth. This comic sounds awesome.

– Norman Osborn is the glue holding Thunderbolts together and making it readable.

– I just bought a ton of trades last week. Ant Man: Low-Life, because even though hermanos dislikes it, I give Kirkman the benefit of the doubt. Hyperion vs. Nighthawk, as it’s the only Squadron Supreme story I haven’t read other than that nine issues of hurt called Ultimate Power. Cassanova, because hermanos loves it so much and I dig that Matt Fraction. The Hood, because it’s BKV and I could go for a nice Marvel MAX title that doesn’t star Frank Castle or his oversized, black nemesis. Seven Brothers, because I’m in the mood to read something by Ennis that isn’t “heheh superheroes is fags”. And I bought Goon: Noir and 52 Volume 2 because… uh… well, there wasn’t really any thought process in those decisions. One is the Goon and the other is 52. That’s reason enough.

– CHIKARA show this Sunday in Philly at the ECW Arena. Come and join the fun.

– The cover image to Ultimates Volume 3 fills me with a strong sense of dread. Not only is this going to be an awful comic, but it’s going to be like a shotgun blast to the Ultimate universe. If this comic is as bad as I fear it to be, then the Ultimate line of comics will be at death’s door in probably two or three years. That’s such a damn shame.

– On the other side of the coin, the Marvel Adventures line is pretty fantastic right now. While the first issue of MA: Hulk wasn’t special, I absolutely loved MA: Iron Man’s initial issue. That’s the best reimagining of his origin outside of canon I can recall. Pick up Giant Size Marvel Adventures: Avengers if you’ve ever wanted to see a gorilla suckerpunch Wolverine in the back of the head through a closing time portal.

– Not comic related at all, but in the last couple weeks, I’ve dropped 15 pounds. Hells yeah!

Next time I’ll have actual content. I promise.

Short on time, long on work, so this’ll just be a quote for you folks. I’m going to try to have content every day of the week, but we’ll see how it goes! I’ve got to bang out a few manuals and possibly start a new strat guide, so I’m going to have to learn to juggle pretty hardcore if I want to keep up a good pace!

Anyway, if you’ll pardon me getting a bit cerebral for a moment, this is a quote from one of my favorite comics. Kabuki is one of those series that sticks with you, and there’s some philosophy to be found inside its pages that just makes perfect sense. I’ve tried to put more than a little bit of this into action in my life. Enjoy!

Start by recalling what you liked to do as a child. Around the age of 9 to 11. At that age, your personality is sophisticated enough to know what you like to do and are internally motivated to do, but it is right before the age where you begin to submerge your natural identity to accommodate the expectations, preconceptions, and rigid categorizations of the adult world… that you become increasingly sensitive to as you enter adolescence.

Think back to what you enjoyed before they squeezed your dreams into a box of practicality. Before they were minimized or channeled into a cookie cutter.

Before you were labeled or groomed for your family’s, or your society’s, expectations of you.

Write down a list of what you enjoyed doing at that early time in your life. Chances are, you have the innate ability to enjoy that, because you were designed to do it. Hardwired for it. Making that list puts your dreams into the three-dimensional world. It shows you that your thoughts are already affecting physical reality.

You make the list and then the list becomes real. But not just the reality changes. You change as well. You grow as you create. Because you are essentially creating yourself.

The act of writing the list of your dreams is the first step in the momentum of enacting it into reality. But it works that way in the reverse as well.

You may take something troubling from your past, but in writing about it, turn it into something beautiful. Maybe even something helpful. By starting with that, you can take what may be considered your flaw, your madness, and turn it into your asset.

You can take a part of you that died or was damaged… and bring life to it. Take your problems, your baggage. And turn your garbage into gold.
–David Mack, Kabuki: The Alchemy #4

Got bored of the old site design, working on something new!

Pardon the dust. We should be ready maybe Saturday afternoon if I don’t break anything.

I’ve seen this in a couple places, so I activated my giant brain and put some thought to it. 72 hours later, I have a solution.

Short answer: they don’t.

Long answer:

In World War Hulk, Sentry is shown as unresponsive and noncommittal. He has yet to lift a finger to help the anti-Hulk side.

In a recent issue of Mighty Avengers, so recent it just came out yesterday, something happens. Lindy Reynolds, wife of the Sentry, is apparently killed by Ultron. I say apparently because there is at least one 100% fake death in the series already, not to mention the fact that Ultron can create appendages and probably change shape.

People are linking this and WWH to explain why Sentry is so out of it. Here’s a simpler idea–

The Hulk is a good friend of Sentry’s. He’s only calm around the Sentry, so the Sentry has kind of a paternal love for him. He wants to be able to help him as best he can. And then, one day, Hulk comes back and blames Reed Richards and Tony Stark for firing him into space. The Sentry’s own friends betrayed Hulk.

And then they come to him and ask him to help the Hulk… by taking him down.

When they ask him to help, Sentry asks Tony for a moment. He wants a word with him. My bet is that Sentry asked Tony, “Is it true? Did you send him into space?” and Tony said, “Yes.”

That’s why he’s sitting on the sidelines. His own friends are using him.

WWH is a good story and it stands on its own. It doesn’t need Mighty Avengers and it’d be foolish to tie that in.

WWH is about old Hulk vs new Hulk. His new friends vs his old friends. General Ross shows up in the last issue. He’s an old enemy, but his daughter was married to the Hulk. She’s dead now, I think. Hulk’s invading Earth because his wife died. There’s your drama right there.

The Rick Jones = Miek thing is pretty dumb, though.

WWH, when you boil it down, is about relationships. World War Hulk: X-Men is proof positive. (It’s also the only tie-in I’m enjoying.) The X-Men, even after all the crap Xavier has put them through, stand by their former headmaster. Xavier is willing to give in, but the X-Men are a family. All for one and one for all. It’s pretty good stuff.

I’m betting that the big fight in WWH isn’t Hulk vs Sentry. Not at all. I feel kind of like it’d be an depowered Hulk (read: Banner) versus Bob Reynolds. It’s just a hunch.

Oh, and Spider-Man: One More Day isn’t about Mary Jane dying at all. That’s a smokescreen. Joe Q is pulling the wool over your eyes again.

It’s about Aunt May getting one more day with Uncle Ben, or maybe her family, before she dies.

Shots are up from Mike Carey’s signing party at the Isotope. Check the Isotope blog here, or click here to check out the photos directly. Yours truly may be in a picture or three.

It was a great bash! Kirsten was working the bar, as usual, and James, Josh, and Ash were playing enforcer/host. Mike Carey was pretty cool, and stayed until after midnight. Mindy Owens, writer of the Runaways Saga and an upcoming issue Spider-Man Fairy Tales (how lucky do you have to be to have your first two comics drawn by Humberto Ramos and Mike Allred…) was there, Matt Silady popped in, and a gang of other people. Apparently Mike Choi was there, which kind of blows my mind. Met some cool new people. SF is full of great cats, Saturday night kind of proved that. I think I dipped at around 1, 130 or so.

Can’t wait for the next signing. Go see how much fun we had.

One Person’s Legitimizing:

If the slaves in these books were black, would they be republished? If they were Asian, Native American, Latino? But they’re women, and we’re not supposed to raise a stink about these piddling little books that others wiser that we have judged unimportant. We’re supposed to put up and shut up–because we still haven’t had that liberation, and apparently people still think they can tell us what issues are supposed to be important, and what aren’t, and what “unimportant” things we’re legitimizing by daring to point out they are vile.

This is a really, really good point, because black people are at the point where there are no offen-

-sive material being put out that denigrates the whole ra-

ce or anything like that. I mean, we aren’t really portrayed as stereotypical pi-

mps and hustlers and oversexed and whorish and only good for entertainment by the media at large or any-

more, you kn-

ow? Everything is gravy. Everything is positive. None of us grow up looking up to drug dealers or pimps or hustlers.

With a hat-tip to Cheryl Lynn, I just want to say that playing prole-ier than thou?

That’s a sucker’s game. It’s ugly and stupid and, if you’re serious about what you’re talking about, beneath you. It’s like trying to play upon, or even create, guilt and therefore curry favor.

Sorry. Pet peeves, right? We’ve all got issues. We even share some! Mine are important and yours are important, but that doesn’t mean that you get to use mine to bolster yours, because I don’t want to do that to you.

I’m trying not to make this post sound jerky, but I don’t think it’s working. I think it’s maybe the all-seeing starry eyes of Archbishop Don Magic Juan looking down on me.

Part, fellas.

Church.

You know how you can read something, enjoy it, and then read it again and enjoy it on an all new level?

Check this sequence from New X-Men #145.

Here’s Wolverine’s monologue at the end there:

Nah. see, I just found out WHO I am and WHAT I am… and… well, let’s just say some of us were BORN to kill and RAISED to kill and that’s the only damn thing we’re any GOOD for.

Everything else is just LIES we tell ourselves.

You’re asking me about the purpose of LIFE, you fucking genocide machine? It’s like this…”

He presses a button and basically attempts suicide.

At first, this was just a cool scene. Wolverine talks about his life and the pointlessness of it and then takes out the bad guy.

I was talking with some friends online after the (dope) Isotope party tonight and we somehow got onto the subject of New X-Men and how it tried to push the X-franchise in a new direction. Then we went from talking about all the off-panel fights and then onto metacommentary when it hit me. This scene is a direct commentary on the X-Franchise in specific.

You’re created for one thing. Bred for one thing. You will never, ever be anything more than that, and trying otherwise is just lying to yourself.

True? False?

Food for thought.

Wuxtry, wuxtry, read all aboot it–

Tonight, from 8pm to midnight, Mike Carey is going to be at Isotope Comics in SF doing a signing/meet’n’greet. Knowing the Isotope, there’ll be drinks and cool people to chill with, so come one come all.

I’ll be there, so that makes the cool people count at greater than or equal to “one.” I just gotta decide if I want him to sign a Hellblazer trade or Lucifer or Ultimate Fantastic Four.

I’d get X-Men 200 signed, but it isn’t in trades!

Who: Mike Carey
What: An Evening With
When: 8pm-Midnight
Where: Isotope Comics
Why: And sometimes, yes.

A couple weeks ago, Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness finished off. Marvel Zombies 2 has just been solicited for October. With that in mind, it’s about time I laid out my thoughts on the whole Zombieverse.

It all started back in 2005. Mark Millar was in the midst of his Ultimate Fantastic Four run and he started making some hints at a certain special story arc. From the looks of things, the Ultimate Marvel Universe was about to make a crossover with the mainstream universe Marvel 616. I wasn’t paying attention at the time, since I wasn’t reading Ultimate Fantastic Four, but I can only imagine people were annoyed as hell. Not only did this defeat the purpose of the Ultimate continuity, but Millar probably didn’t garner all that much faith going into what would be such an important story.

But the evidence was there. The story was titled “Crossover”. One of the variant covers for the first issue showed Ultimate Reed exchanging a shocked glance at an older Reed with snazzy white hair tufts. The second issue of the arc showed a more mainstream version of Magneto manhandling the Ultimate Fantastic Four. The first issue builds up to this meeting, including a scene where the two Reeds discuss the differences between their worlds. Older Reed — shown via hologram — mentions the Avengers and his children Franklin and Valeria.

Truly, this had to be the Ultimates/616 crossover we’d been dreading.

Or not.

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