23 skidoo...

Hobbyist or Terrorist?

On Nov 22, 2007 5:28 PM, xxx wrote:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040524-638410,00.html

Interesting article. Paranoia strikes deep into the heartland. I know they want to make sure nobody's doing anything nefarious, but a lot of these folks seem to have forgotten (or just don't seem to care) that going for a wander, with or without cameras, is a legal activity. I swear, sometimes it seems just like what we used to be told about the evils of the Soviet Union. *sigh* Personal freedoms sure seem unimportant to the decision-makers; of course, their personal freedoms aren't the ones being taken away. And remember never to go hunting with Dick Cheney.

I'm pretty sure you guys don't celebrate anything like our Thanksgiving holiday (after all, it was to commemorate the early settlers freedom from youse guys!), but ours went pretty well. Piper and I basically stayed in, cooked, watched movies, and played with our various computers. Piper left for work a little while ago (which is why I'm doing email at 4:00 AM); but then again today is Black Friday here, the biggest shopping day of the year. Her store is opening at 5:00. Ick!

Hey, that whole "warrantless surveillance" thing is supposed to be snatching and reading all contacts between US citizens and dem furriners. You suppose someone (or at least some server somewhere) is wasting time with this email? Welcome to the magic world of Carnivore or Magic Lantern or whatever they call the durn thing nowadays. That last sentence alone is probably going to make someone waste their time looking at it. *shrugs* Oh well, hourly work. If they weren't snooping into my mail they'd prolly be reading someone else's Viagra ad. *LOL*

Gee, do you think I'm a bit ticked at the whole attitude that 'we can't afford any longer for people to do what they want or have privacy nowadays -- it's too dangerous a world out there'? Have they forgotten what it is they're supposed to be protecting? If it weren't for the fact that it's the Republicans behind all of this -- and God, how they've changed from the days when they decried the 'nanny state' -- I'd have sworn these folks were the remnants of the '60s "Better Red Than Dead" faction. *sighs*

So much for my ranting. I guess it comes with being retired -- I get to sit on the sidelines and bitch and moan about how the country is going to hell in a handcart.

Anyway, before I head back to bed, Piper mentioned that you've got a compilation of Gaby, Book Four? Would you be willing to send a copy? That's the one thing that's stopping me from reading Four; I don't want to go through the effort of grabbing all the separate chapters.

Thanks. I'm going back to bed, as the whining puppy is trying to encourage me. Unless, of course, she wants to go outside. *groans*

Love,

- Kim ;)

Counting away...

I'm sure you've noticed a distinct lack of postings over the past month. Sorry 'bout that.

I haven't lost interest in Countdown or anything, it's been an issue with my health. As you can guess, my health hasn't been particularly good of late, and, sadly, things aren't really looking up just now.

I'm going to continue reading Countdown and its related crossovers, and thinking about what I'm seeing, but I'm going to be taking some time off from posting until I'm in somewhat better shape.

'be seeing you!

29 and counting...

One page? ONE LOUSY PAGE? You can see the cover to this issue, over there to the right. Notice it features Karate Kid? Attacking Brother Eye? So, HOW MUCH space does it get in the book? One grifing page!

And yeah, my earlier HAL-9000 comment was pretty much dead on.

The Challengers are now on Earth-8. They're captured, the 'evil' monitor meddles, resulting in their escape, and the Jokester is killed. Monarch shows up to recruit someone or other.

The Jokester's death is a shame. He'd been developed as an interesting character, and I'd have liked to see him hanging around for a while, to further explore him and the differences from the Joker.

Jimmy Olsen meets the Newsboy Legion in the sewers. He's happy because he's finally among friends.

Maybe. They say they're in the sewers looking for Jimmy, thinking he's gonna need help. The main flaw in this is that he's only been in the sewers for five minutes. Truly amazing they could find out about his 'escape' from Cadmus and get there so fast.

I'm reminded again of a major theme of the title: Not everyone who opposes you is your enemy; not everyone who helps you is your friend.

Holly Robinson is still fighting sea serpents. Um, last issue wasn't she fighting sharks? Was there a timeslip between issues? Remember, "Time is broken."

Piper and Trickster are having lunch at a truck stop with their new friend. It turns out the threat to slit Piper's throat was just, um, a misunderstanding. Yeah, I can't explain it, either.

Mary Marvel, well, she's getting good at abusing her power. That's about all need be said about her this issue.

Recent issues have been pretty good, and this week was quite a disappointment. There seemed to be lots of continuity glitches this week. I'll be back next week when I'll hopefully find something worth writing about.

30 and counting...

The numbers are getting smaller, and the stories are getting bigger. In another month we'll reach the halfway point, and at that mark the title changes to "Countdown To Final Crisis". The storyline is getting more cohesive, less a random series of events and more a story that's going somewhere. If only the book had started this way.

Jimmy Olsen is still being tested by Cadmus, and things are still out of control. He seemingly splits in two -- Stretchable Olsen and Giant Ghostly Olsen. They're both sharing the same mind, but the stretchable one feels he has to escape, and leaves via the sewers. Big Immaterial Olsen confirms that it's as gross as it sounds.

The big Ghostly Olsen just jogged my memory. DC once had a feature called "Cave Carson - Inside Earth". One of the stories dealt with people being split, the ghostly half looking much as Jimmy does here. I'm wondering if the writers might have delved back that far and connected this to that? If so, kudos.

I'm wondering how he could so easily escape through the sewers. First of all, you'd think they'd have precautions against just such a thing, and second they'd want to avoid infiltration through the same means. It's been obvious for decades that Cadmus has crappy security, but I had no idea they were this sloppy. Three million dollar robot guards and yet they leave the drains uncovered. Sheesh!

Karate Kid and Una are taken to Brother Eye by Buddy Blank. Brother Eye (who comes across in this incarnation as somewhat like HAL-9000) immediately diagnoses the problem. Val (Karate Kid) has been infected with the OMAC virus. It's in an incomplete form, but still enough to prove fatal. However, there's a second virus there, which seems to be interacting. Brother Eye closes with an enigmatic "It seems the great disaster has come to me."

It's probably worth noting that I'm somewhat irked as I write this. Due to my computer doing a choke-n-puke, I lost everything I'd originally written beyond this point. Ah well, such is life.

Holly Robinson reaches Themyscria at last, or at least almost reaches it. The warrior candidates end up having to swim for land while fighting a school of extremely large, vicious, eyeless sharks. I know Holly has been suspecting that something is off-kilter, but this, if naught else, should be a flare-lit tip off that something is seriously wrong.

Piper and Trickster are hanging around the battle between the Justice League and the villains, mainly to make sure the league took their warnings seriously. Foolhardy at best, they manage to do some good when they destroy the Joker's plan for ruining the wedding while they get their revenge on Poison Ivy.

In making their getaway, they are taken by the Ace Of Spades from the Royal Flush Gang. He's apparently a fan of Dexter, since he copies a scene from the very first episode of the series. Good taste in television, not that it's likely to please Piper.

Which brings us to the last storyline seen this week. The Challengers have now reached Earth-15, where they meet other versions of themselves. This world appears to be what we once all envisioned for the future of the DC Universe, back in the days when everything seemed simple.

Donna Troy has become Wonder Woman, and Jason Todd has grown up to be the Batman. (By the way, this version of Jason is a prick, too, though it works better with the Batman costume.) Ray Palmer's daughter (?) has become the Atom, and Kyle Rayner is, um, Green Lantern. This is pretty much back in the seventies how we thought the future would unfold .

Seeing this, there's a bit of nostalgia for what never was, and I'm glad that somewhere there's an earth where the dreams from a more innocent time came true.

31 and counting...

Countdown 31... and I am feeling better, thank you very much.

We begin this week, with the Challengers. Now on Earth-3 and looking for the long-missing Ray Palmer, they immediately run into the Crime Society.

The Crime Society is an intriguing new version of Grant Morrison's Crime Syndicate, itself an update of the old Earth-3 Crime Syndicate. All these, of course, are alternate versions of the Justice League.

They fight the Society, and spend about as much time bickering amongst themselves, finally leaving when "Bob" determines that Ray Palmer isn't there. When they leave, they have an addition, the Jokester.

This is one time when I wish there wasn't so much advance promotion. Between the internet news sites and DC's own site, we have a fairly good idea what's coming up -- heck, I've already read next week's Challengers segment, where they visit Earth-15. The problem with all the promos and advance peeks is that there's very few surprises left. We know the broad outlines of what's coming, and just wait for it to play out.

The Jokester could have been quite a delightful surprise dropped into the mix, but we already know he's a 'good' version of the Joker, going to join the team, and the father of the late, lamented, Duela Dent (aka The Joker's Daughter also aka Harlequin). Kinda takes the edge off those revelations, doesn't it?

I'm not suggesting going back to the old model of telling us nothing until the book is released, but there has to be a happy medium. Doesn't there?

Monarch, by the way, stops by Earth-3 to recruit the Crime Society to join his forces. Countdown: Arena tie-in?

Oh, by the way, Captain Carrot (pictured somewhere to the right if all works correctl;y) is part of the Countdown mix. I'm not sure which earth is his, but the coming Captain Carrot And The Final Ark miniseries is a Countdown tie-in.

Holly Robinson is leaving for Paradise Island. She knows something is wrong here, but can't quite put fer finger on it yet. She sends a letter containing her suspicions to Selina Kyle (Catwoman), but makes the tactical error of mailing it from the shelter's front desk, where it's promptly destroyed.

One suspects she should be a little less trusting of those whom she's suspicious. One ongoing theme buried in the subtext of Countdown is the question of "Who can you trust?". Who are your friends and who are your enemies? As we've seen amply demonstrated, everyone who helps you is not your friend, and everyone who thwarts you is not your enemy.

Mary Marvel would do well to realize this, but I'm thinking it's a bit too late for that at this point. She kills three security guards by turning them to stone. It's pretty much done without remorse and without reflection. Yeah, in theory she (or some other magic-user?) could reverse it, but that's a false argument. Eclipso makes sure one is really dead by breaking off his head with the flick of a finger.

One thing -- in comics, how can things like this be reversed? Once they're dead, well, turning their bodies back to flesh would just leave you with fleshy corpses, wouldn't it? Think of how many times the Spectre has killed using just this kind of transformation. (I'm especially reminded of the Michael Fliescher/Jim Aparo days in Adventure Comics -- what I consider pretty much the definitive Spectre run.)

Jimmy Olson is being tested at Cadmus. Ever noticed these things always go wrong?

We've got a first look-in at Mxyzptlk walking his, um, fish and chatting with his girlfriend. For those who came in late, Mxy is a resident of the 5th dimension, and has this thing for amusing himself at Superman's expense. He gets, well, sucked through the 'walls' of his dimension and vanishes.

One thing I'm trying to figure out, there once were two of him. You had Mxyzptlk and Mxyztplk, one from the fifth dimension of Earth-1 and one from the fifth dimension of Earth-2. So, nowdays are there still two fifth dimension and two Mxy's? Or is it just the one?

Karate Kid and Una find the home of Buddy Blank, and ask for information about Omac and Brother Eye. They also meet (and scare) his grandson. The grandson looks suspiciously familiar. Suppose he might be the once-and-future Kamandi?

Finally, the Monitors meet (or, conceivably, are still meeting. Don't these folks ever go to the bathroom?) and discuss the Jokester's joining the Challengers. I dunno, though. I've been wondering about the Monitor who has this monomania for stopping the Challengers and the "aberrations".

I think he's one of two things: either a proxy for Darkseid, or a new (alternate?) incarnation of the Anti-Monitor.