A Sunday Review

Eric and I finished watching the first seasons of Class and Timeless this past week. Both shows have an uncertain future, but both shows finished on a cliffhanger. Overall, I enjoyed them both and wouldn't mind seeing more.

Class, a Doctor Who spin-off, features a group of students at Coal Hill Academy who have to deal with alien threats and incursions due to rips in the timestream at the school. Yes, it's the same school that Susan went to and Barbara and Ian taught at in the first episode of the original Doctor Who. But the show itself is a bit over-the-top, like the deranged lovechild of Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures, leaning a little heavily on the Torchwood side. While I liked the characters and the actors, the show never really gelled. It wasn't bad - it just wasn't as good as it ought to have been. At the end of the show I realized I would miss the characters if the show isn't renewed, but the lack of the show itself won't bother me. Which is a really strange way to look at it. Regarding the season as a whole: You do not put a rifle on the wall in the first act unless you intend to use it in the last act. I expected that finale, I just wasn't sure what form it would take. Last I heard, the show isn't going to be renewed.

Timeless is another time travel show, featuring a historian who is recruited to help stop a madman who stole a time machine and is trying to alter the past. Each episode peels away assumptions and beliefs, and changes who is considered a "good" guy or a "bad" guy. There is a central mystery to the series in the form of a diary that the villain claims was written by the hero historian. We don't quite find out how it came about by the end of the first series, but we get very close with two major hints and a few minor ones. Each episode tackles a different historical event, with the team trying to stop the villain from altering history. However, every single time they go into the past they alter history themselves - as seen in the first episode when the first trip erases the historian's own sister. I have to wonder at the cumulative weight of the changes they make. How is the timeline even slightly intact? If we get a second season, perhaps that question will be addressed.

Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Jul 20th
• Aquaman #3 - It's a bit depressing that the relations between the US and Atlantis are so bad that Aquaman doesn't even know the proper channels to go through to contact US leadership for a discussion. Add in the repeated references to the Atlantean attacks on the surface... well, this doesn't make for a good connection. Then you have Black Manta and ... BLACK JACK!?!?? Oh yeah, somebody has looked into Aquaman's past and found a little treasure trove. This could be excellent if it's handled right. Nice cliffhanger as well. Some of the artwork seemed slightly off model to me, but it was still very nice and did the job. Looking forward to catching up on this book more than any other. Obviously.
• Justice League #1 - Massive world-destroying threat, taking out cities across the globe including Atlantis. *yawn* I don't mind "big" stories, but does the world have to end in nearly every story arc nowadays? Can't we have a few stories where people don't die because the heroes did their jobs before the threat became world-shattering? Please?
• Green Lanterns #3 - I can think of at least one other person cured from being a Red Lantern. That said, it still argues that Simon has some abilities that way outshine other Green Lanterns we've seen in the past. The argument could be made that Lanterns are changing after all the events in the last few years. I just wonder where that road is leading?
• Adventures of Supergirl #6 - Everything wraps up as Supergirl takes out the baddie - but not without help from her family and friends. The story of Rampage's sister was enough to make me sad, but it also echoed what happened with the Martian Manhunter in this DC universe. Overall, not a bad book for one based on a TV show.
• Astro City #37 - Wow. This is one to savor. I literally had to read it about three times before I was ready to write anything on it, and even now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of story in this book - despite there not being a proper story. It's in three parts, starting with a framing sequence setting up our storyteller. Then there's the tale of Silverstring and his connection to Astro City. The third portion is about the legacy of music in the early pre-Astro City days and what came from that legacy. The book covers aspects of racism and ethnicity that I've never seen addressed before, mostly because those aspects are pretty much forgotten. The result is something that is almost hard to understand - a careful balancing act done by Kurt on how racism works in a world with superheroes. I almost want to see what ancient Greece looked like in that universe. In any case, powerful stuff. Definitely one to re-read.
• Scooby Apocalypse #3 - I feel like I should hate this book, but every time I read and issue I like it more. It's certainly not the Scooby-Doo I remember, but it's a fun reimagining - an Elseworlds version if you like. There's room in my fangirl world for both the original and this. I am enjoying the way the relationships are developing, and it's fun to already have voices for all the characters. In short, this isn't going to be a book everyone likes, but I'm really finding it fun. Odd, but fun.
• Usagi Yojimbo #156 - Inspector Ishida and Usagi don't seem to be getting much closer to finding out who killed two of Lord Shima's men, but the action continues as Usagi has a really bad nightmare and stops an act of destruction. What is the secret behind the painting? And will Ishida and Usagi manage to stop the killer before he, or it, strikes again? As usual, great stuff. I'm going to have to reread this story from the top when I get through it.
• Back To The Future: Citizen Brown #3 - Wow, that took a really disturbing turn. Doc Brown is a 1984-type dictator in a utopia? I loved how he "woke up" when Marty showed him the time machine. But the story seems a little hard to escape... that's the best kind. Looking forward to the rest of the story.
• Xena Warrior Princess #4 - Ah, still very hard to understand with mixed quality artwork. I think I followed enough of the story to understand it... but I'm not sure I care.
• Jul 27th
• Titans #1 - Garth wants to name the big bad "Keekblu" so they can stop referring to it as a massive interdimensional threat? That's... darling. Ahem. Lots of character development in this one, with a re-establishment of the Titans as they once were. It's kind of odd to see them working to fit into their roles while still remaining their new selves. I like that Garth thinks through the problem and makes a decent suggestion, but found it odd that none of them knew who Psimon is. As for the final few pages... oooh, I wonder how *that's* going to play out?
• Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #1 - So, Sinestro used Soranik and will now be enforcing his own rule with fear. Who didn't see that one coming? As for the rest... meh, it's not that exciting for me. I like Soranik, so I'm not sure how much this book is going to appeal to me in the future, unless she suddenly learns a way to fight back.
• Future Quest #3 - Two shorter stories in this issue that introduce some of the characters. This was pretty useful for me, since I'm not as familiar with the characters as I'd like to be. I don't know if any of this was new or if it was all made clear on the original shows, but I still enjoyed them.
• Scooby-Doo Team-Up #17 - Hawkman and Hawkgirl with the gang! I found it incredibly funny that the museum employee called in Scooby and his friends simply because she didn't know how to reach the Hawks. The cute explanations given in the comic nicely filled in the details for any fans of Scooby unfamiliar with the heroes. I enjoyed this one a lot.
• Doctor Who 11th #2.11 - Alice witnesses the War Doctor in action, and provides a little bit of unexpected advice. The Volatix Cabal is frightening, especially when Alice is being examined by them. Very effective, as well. This is powerful issue.

A Sunday Review

There's really no point in apologizing on how long it's taken me to read and review these comics. My life has been... difficult... lately. Depression is a nasty, nasty thing. I have been having trouble enjoying things at all, and getting back into comics was/is both frustrating and delightful. Frustrating because at first I couldn't enjoy them at all, but slowly more and more delightful as some of the joy is coming back. With the joy will come reviews*, so here are my first reviews since October.

*Yes, I know these are short capsules and not proper reviews, more like little reactions. I perhaps will work my way up to proper reviews again someday.

These books came from DCBS, and are sorted by the original shipping date:

• Jun 22nd
• Aquaman #1 - I like Stubbs. Cool new character with a lot of promise. I'm hoping to see more of her in the book moving forward - maybe she can be part of the bridge between Atlantis and the rest of the world. That said, ouch. Manta is a real nasty.
• Justice League #52 - Luther takes on the Super-mantle, blah blah. Boring. He should have just stayed on Apokolips.
• Adventures of Supergirl #4 - Hubby-Eric located the first two issues of this series, so we were able to catch up and read it all. So far, it's a bit of a wild ride, focusing on stories that probably couldn't be easily told on the TV screen. I think the portrayal of the characters is spot on, and the art is decent. Not bad for a TV series spin-off.
• Doctor Strange #9 - Having recently seen the Doctor Strange movie (which I enjoyed) I have to say this book continues to be odd and a bit of a befuddlement. That said, the plot is slowly slowly moving forward. Probably about as slowly as possible for a plot to crawl along and still be compelling enough to read. I suppose I'm being a bit unfair, but this has Strange picking up some last magical items, telling off his butler, and a big ol' fight starting - with several pages of people just standing around.
• Back To The Future #9 - Marty and the amnesiac Doc find yet another way to achieve 88 MPH, and head back into the future, where Marty is immediately tagged as a terrorist. I really am enjoying this book.
• Usagi Yojimbo #155 - Oooh, another Inspector Ishida story! What a delight! I hardly need to say much about this book. It's good, you should buy it. Always. I don't think I've ever read an issue I didn't enjoy to some extent, usually a great deal. And this issue is a nice set-up of a murder mystery involving a painting that might just be a gateway to hell. Along with a more mundane land dispute. I look forward to the rest of the story.

A Sunday Review

Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Free Comic Book Day
• Doctor Who - Four short stories, featuring the ninth through twelfth Doctors. Each one is a solid little stand-alone, although for the tenth and eleventh stories some knowledge of the comic would help to understand, since they use companions introduced in the comic. Otherwise, a good little package.
• Dark Horse FCBD 2016 - The Serenity story is a bit on the sad side, with River telling a bedtime story. The Hellboy story was typically dark with a hint of silly. The Aliens tale was ok. Overall, a decent book for Free Comic Book Day.
• SpongeBob Freestyle Funnies 2016 - The usual - if you enjoy SpongeBob, you'll enjoy this. The Mermaid Man story was at the usual level of humor, but the Ramona Fradon artwork was spectacular and made it very readable.
• Bongo Comics Free-For-All 2016 - The usual Simpsons humor. I thought the dentist story was slightly better than the superhero one, but they weren't anything spectacular.
• DC Superhero Girls - A cute intro to a cute version of the DC Universe. And that's about all I really have to say about it.
• Jun 1st
• Green Lanterns Rebirth #1 - Two complete rookie Lanterns who immediately don't like each other being forced to work together by Hal Jordan. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, and here come the Red Lanterns. Lovely. This is a promising start, but I'm not really sure about it yet.
• DC Comics Bombshells #14 - Yeah, now THIS is more like it. The entire first half of the book is devoted to what happened to Mera after the battle. Fished out of the ocean by an Irish cutie... I almost envy her. The rest of the book is devoted to some of the magic users in this universe, and it's a bit grim and disturbing on several levels. I, obviously, love the Mera bits of this book more than any other, so this issue gets high marks from me.
• Batman Beyond #13 - Well now, Rewire isn't who I expected him to be and this isn't going to play out in a pleasant way, I'm sure. Of course, this has to have something to do with time travel, but what exactly happened to make this a reality is a big question I hope gets answered.
• Teen Titans Go #16 - A mixed-up body story followed by a jaunt in the Batmobile. Funny. I tend to think of this book as what the Titans are like with no inhibitions - basically if they were drunk all the time. It *almost* makes sense that way.
• Spider-Man 2099 #11 - So, the future's not what it used to be. And this book just gets more complicated at every turn. I'm not entirely sure I'm enjoying the twists. I want to like it, but I'm finding it hard to track all the differences, even with the helpful recaps at the beginning of each issue.
• Doctor Who 4th #3 - Oh, poor Sarah Jane. This is a story that probably couldn't have been done justice on the TV screen, but it is fantastic here in the comic. I'm really liking it, and the new characters.
• Legends of Oz Tik-Tok And Kalidah #2 - An exiled Kalidah? That explains a few things about this pair. But the trouble they are carrying is pretty intense. The cliffhanger leaves them in a very bad spot (between a door and a raging mob?).
• Rough Riders #3 - The team goes into action and... well, spoilers, but I think one of them is in pretty bad shape. The rest? Who knows. I like the idea of using historical figures this way, giving them tall tales to share. It reminds me of Young Indiana Jones. It's hard to see what might be coming up next, but I'm sure it's going to be trouble.
• Jun 8th
• Aquaman: Rebirth #1 - Well, here we go. New Aquaman? Hardly. It's Aquaman fighting terrorists off the coast of Boston. Pretty tame and normal stuff. Beautiful artwork, nice set up for a Manta story, but not much else. Good, not great.
• Green Lantern Corps: The Edge of Oblivion #6 - The corps goes through a crack in the universe and vanishes. Again. I'm just not sure what is happening here or why I should care.
• Earth 2 Society #13 - The Amazons reveal themselves and add a new layer of terror to the world, while a hidden threat prepares to attack. The new layer of terror is yet another ancient artifact that can change everything. I don't know where this book is going, but it raises some interesting philosophical questions about superpowers and how such things ought to be used in extreme cases.
• Adventures of Supergirl #3 - I never saw the first two issues of this book solicited, so we join the action in progress as Supergirl gets trapped in a series of dreams. It's ok, but I would have liked the first couple of issues so I didn't jump in late.
• Doctor Who 11th #2.10 - Pretty intense, with Alice taking the Doctor's bait and going back to the Time War (it's a little like the Seventh Doctor destroying Ace's faith in order to save the world in The Curse of Fenric). I wasn't expecting him to be upset at Daak not going with her, but there it was. And the Squire, one of the best new characters in ages - um, I'll gloss over that final splash page for a moment and just say this was one intense issue.
• Spongebob Comics #57 - A "Noir" issue, all in Black and White and Yellow. Some fun stuff, including a tale of Mermaid Man's lost cape. Amusing, as usual.
• Xena Warrior Princess #3 - And Ares shows up. I'm just not liking this book much anymore. The continuity is a little too convoluted for me, and I still can't quite figure out what's going on.
• Baker Street Peculiars #4 - The game is won! The children use cunning, intelligence and a little logic to finish the battle in the best way possible, saving the day and then, just for kicks, learning the truth behind Sherlock Holmes. A fun little series. I wonder if we'll get more?

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Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist

Yes, yet more links!

I'm feeling the need for some more links! Let's start with a bit of personal news...

I took the leap today and submitted an application to The DC Writers Workshop, even though I do not believe I quite fit the profile of what they are looking for. I have no published fiction, yet, so my writing samples were news articles. That alone may disqualify me. However, the experience of forcing myself to fill out that application, instead of a boring job application, felt good. And hey, there's a chance they might invite me to the video workshop, which could lead to new writing skills. That's nothing to sneeze at.

In some other happy news, Variety and DC Comics have confirmed the return of Supergirl for a second season. It will be moving networks and filming will likely move to Vancouver, which could mean cast changes. I hope not, since the cast is the strong point of the entire show.

I wish I could afford a catio for Inkwell. And for me. Inkwell really wants to go outside, but is terrified of it. And I don't want to lose him to a car or coyote. Via King5.

I'd like to hang out with these women, but I don't work in comics at the moment.

Enjoy a video at Boing Boing of skipping sodium into a river. Lovely explosions!

There's a very interesting discussion at MetaFilter about the cost to taxpayers of businesses like WalMart that fail to provide adequate security and end up calling the police four times as much as comparable retail stores. This is a form of hidden taxes and corporate welfare, like how many WalMart employees qualify for food stamps. If WalMart were a responsible corporation, it would take care of its employees and not rely so heavily on local police to handle its security. But read the comments... lots of good views and other examples there.

A bunch of white morons got upset when a group of 16 black female West Point cadets raised their fists in one of many photos during a photo shoot to celebrate making it through the academy. The photo pose was determined to be "inappropriate" by an official inquiry because the raised fist (commonly used to indicate "Army strong!" during football games) could also be taken as a political statement. Personally, I think it's a great photo and the lily-livered idiots who got upset are clearly trying to make up for their own deficiencies.

Speaking of deficiencies... definitely not safe for work: Why ancient statues had small penises.

The Zipper Merge is the only way to drive, but for some reason, it's considered rude by people who don't know how to drive. The Minnesota DOT is trying to teach people how to use it, even including a video of why it works and a video of how to do it. These links are from MetaFilter, which has quite a long and heated discussion on the issue. Personally, I'm for proper zipper merging, but since the majority of Washington state is not, it's too dangerous to do it. People will literally try to kill you if you follow the law and use the open lane until the merge.

Inkwell believes this website is the most annoying thing online.

I really hope this archive is being digitized and preserved for posterity, because it sounds like it might be invaluable when looking at history.

Thursday afternoon Linkdump

Well, crud. A frozen vegetable recall due to possible listeria contamination has expanded and now includes all the veggies we get from Costco, including one bag that's half eaten. Ug.

Syrian refugees in Canada have very little, but what little they have they are giving to help people affected by the massive wildfires. Via MeFi.

One thing I hated about importing some of my music into Amazon's music app is that, if it thought it knew what song it was, it would replace my music with a "higher quality" version. Because computer algorithms are imperfect, I would sometimes either get a different version of the song or, in one case, a completely different song. An example would be a live duet version of a song replaced by the more popular single singer version that I didn't like as much. Well, at least Amazon didn't delete my original songs. Apparently, Apple Music deletes original song files when you import them into it. Yikes. That's some serious damage to many people's music collections.

Supergirl is in danger of not being renewed, mostly due to the cost to make the show. I really enjoyed the first season, despite some clunky writing and plots. The cast is terrific and I want to see more of it.

How about some ghost stories? Here's a tale of ghosts on a plane. I'm not sure whether to believe the tales or not, but they are fascinating. I'm moderately sure I would freak out if I experienced something like this, seeing as I already have massive anxiety attacks on planes. The last time I flew, from San Diego to Seattle, I needed some serious help to stay calm. I'm not entirely sure I could force myself onto a plane again if there is any other option for getting to where I'm going.

Another interesting story I read today is about two women who just wanted to live without men in a time when women weren't really allowed to do that. But they managed their happily ever after despite the forces around them (and despite being a bit silly with finances).

Trying to trick drivers with an optical illusion might work for a bit, but it generally wears off once drivers figure out what they are.

A woman paints an octopus using 95 million-year-old octopus ink (Google Translate version). Original article in Norwegian. Via MeFi

This story doesn't comfort me regarding medical procedures in our high-tech world. I'm just wondering why the software was set up to do a scan at that point in time.

Every single authority figure failed this child who lost out on her lunch and was accused of a crime for trying to spend a legal $2 bill. The fact that the cop had to go to a bank to figure out it was real shows such ignorance I can hardly stand it. My former boss at Math 'n' Stuff used to get $2 bills on purpose from the bank to hand out as change. I swear I'm going to start getting them myself and spending them everywhere to raise awareness that they exist and are legal tender.

Augie reports that some Marx Brother Movies have been restored, including cut footage. I think I wouldn't mind seeing one of these all cleaned up... movie night!

If I had more money, I'd definitely be supporting a bunch of people on Patreon. One I'd support is Otis Frampton, creator of Oddly Normal. Unfortunately, I'm worse-than-poor at the moment (cash flow is good right now, but soon to be a right mess). So the best I can do is pass this along and hope someone else supports him until Eric and I get our feet back under us.

People who are thinking about trying to break into writing for comics could do worse than looking into this DC Writers Workshop. I am considering applying, although I suspect I a) do not qualify and b) wouldn't be able to afford the trip if I got accepted. Folks have until the end of the month to enter.

A Sunday Review

Recent television:

• Supergirl: "Myriad" - And we finally get to find out what Myriad actually is... and it's just as disappointing as I kind of expected. This episode in general had some really lame moments. Introduction of a "new" character, Kelly, just in time for her to be used as a pawn. The appearance of Superman for a brief moment, but oh so brief. Alex is extraordinarily stupid in this episode, making a choice that could only lead to heartache. And Cat's fashion choices have such a big impact? Despite all the many flaws, it was carried off by the cast, but it's still a bit pathetic.
• Supergirl: "Better Angels" - That is a totally unfair season cliffhanger. The rest was interesting enough. Ater the previous episode, it did an ok job of pulling the whole thing together and making something out of what was, at its heart, a pretty crappy storyline. The whole myriad thing was a total disappointment, as was the solution to the problem. I suspect it'll seem better in retrospect, but after just viewing the episode? Meh. I really wanted more from it. As usual, the cast is the only thing that saved the show, and the only reason I want to see more of it.


• Arrow: "Broken Hearts" - This is all about the relationship between Felicity and Oliver, moreso than any episode so far, and I seriously thought they were going to take the easy route and get them back together. The testimony of Captain Lance was impressive, but you can't help feeling there's going to be more trouble for him in the future thanks to it.
• Arrow: "Beacon of Hope" - You've got the ability to make these amazing mechanical bees and you somehow turn to crime instead of finding a way to cash in legally? And then, instead of saying, "let me join your team and go straight," you attack the one person who is most likely to be able to help you? I'm just feeling major "ug" over this one.
• Arrow: "Eleven-Fifty-Nine" - Depressing, especially that final shot. This show is often way too dark for me, this episode in particular left me cold.


• The Flash: "Versus Zoom" - A pretty good info-dump episode, filling in the back-story and making the whole Zoom thing make sense. Of course, the ending was a massive letdown, and we still don't know who the prisoner in the mask is. I'm a little curious how Zoom got back to his own world with Wally. Wouldn't he be stuck unless Cisco opened another portal? And speaking of Cisco, what a twist. He's got a whole lot of potential, but he's also remembering what happened to his other self. I would have expected him to embrace his abilities, but instead he was deliberately shying away. Nicely played by the writers.


• Legends of Tomorrow: "Left Behind" - The relationship between Ray and Kendra is deeply interesting, if only because of all the interference it is getting from both sides. Then there is Sara. She's really not thinking straight. But it was nice to see Ra's al Ghul again. And Talia? Wow. But the biggest shock was the identity of Chronos and how Snart freed himself. Yikes. This was an intense episode from start to finish, packed with stuff.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Progeny" - Per Degaton... yup. Heading into DC legends to find the biggest and baddest of the baddies for us to gasp about. This one also lets our heroes break loose again, with a nifty battle sequence. Overall, a pretty good episode, even if everything Rip does to the timeline seems to make things worse.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "The Magnificent Eight" - I really enjoyed this one, although it was a bit too much in places. I liked seeing Kendra meet with a former self, as well. Tragedy or heartbreak? We have to hope it's heartbreak. Rory's turnaround seems a bit abrupt, until his comment that he was only ever on his own side. I loved Snart's sharpshooting and Rip's reason for not getting involved. And I figured the kid was somebody famous, just didn't guess who.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Last Refuge" - So time is something that is malleable, but then it sets, like cement. It wants to happen, but there are points at which things can be massively altered. It seems to me that altering the timeline in the way the assassin proposed to do it would cause much more disruption than what Rip and his buddies were up to. So, we've got a show that really is riddled with plot holes, some of them even intentional. But there's a decent cast and some fun moments, so I'll forgive most of it.


• Gotham: "Into the Woods" - I fear this one might stay with me longer than I like. In short, this was intensely horrible on the Penguin side, and terrifying on the Nygma side.
• Gotham: "Pinewood" - And the whole mystery is solved, more or less. I wonder what will happen now that the truth is out there? I knew the new character was doomed as soon as we met her, but I didn't expect what happened. It was nice to see 'The Lady' again, even if she's not as nuts as Missy. Overall, a decent episode, with a properly disturbing end.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Mar 16th
• Sinestro #21 - Hey, Aquaman is on the cover! He's not inside, that I could see, but that's ok. For once I sort of liked the issue. Soranik is still my favorite of the new DCU characters. She's going to have some tough times ahead, but that's what makes her interesting. I almost see Sinestro putting her in charge simply because she is more interesting than him, just to make sure his book keeps going. Huh. Am I falling for a super-villain gambit?
• Titans Hunt #6 - This issue was just a lot more filler. All of this could have been told quicker without losing much at all. Combine this issue and the previous two, and you'd have a nice, tight story. But this? It's the same thing padded out into a cliffhanger that's not a cliffhanger. All we have that's new is an info-dump, which could have been done in a couple of pages. I'm sorry, I want to like this book, it has Garth in it, but stop stretching stories.
• Astro City #33 - Steeljack isn't stupid, but I'm not entirely sure that this move was the smartest he could have taken to get to the source of the problem. Then again, maybe it worked? But the question of motive, why people would be killed, has not been sorted out. I have a guess, which I'll hide with rot-13: Vs gur ivyynvaf ner va gur arjf naq ovt anzrf, gura gur erfgnhenag jvyy qb orggre, znlor?
• Huck #5 - He acts like he isn't smart, but he's just very very cautious. And when he gets to situations where he no longer needs caution, well... all bets are off. I do like the sheer goodness between Huck and his mother. The sheer badness of their captors makes it easier to root for Huck, as well. I have very much enjoyed this book and I'm looking forward to the next issue.
• Usagi Yojimbo #153 - Ah, cucumbers. This came directly after the previous story. I'm not sure how long this story takes, but I assume there was a period of recovery for Usagi after his injury, regardless of the healing. The kappa was interesting. I'm sure we've seen them before, but it was strange to learn of a truce between the villagers and the kappa based on the favorite food. And then to learn the flooding caused problems for more than just the humans.
• Doctor Who 8th #5 - And there's another story that comes to its conclusion. This was a pretty good little run, with an interesting companion introduced with a little mystery that was nicely solved. There's a bit of that "Gangers" vibe in this one, with the notion that scientifically created life can be as real as life that apparently springs up out of evolution/whatever. I don't know if we'll be getting any more of the adventures of Josie and the Doctor, but I'd like to see more of this pair. She's pretty good as a companion.

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Fortean Times #33 (Autumn 1980). Honestly, I'm not fond of the cover to this one. It doesn't mean anything to me, and it's vaguely anxiety-inducing. I'm guessing there's some massive symbolism I'm missing, but I just don't like it.

That said, the contents are another story, of course. It's somewhat humbling to read the editorial, which is about the cash-flow problems of the magazine. The subscriptions are hovering at the 1000 mark... not bad for a little mag like this. The editorial says they want to double that, to 2000, so they can reach an even keel. Again, humbling for a person reading this nearly 36 years later with a deep love of the modern version of the magazine!

This issue jumps right into the letter column, and starts with a term I've never heard of for Urban Legends: "Whale Tumour" stories. The second letter references Oshspe: The Kosmon Bible, which I seriously thought for a minute was a joke. Hoax maybe, but the letter writer took it seriously. There's several more letters, including a suggestion to sell the cover art for cash, which wasn't possible because the cover art was returned to the artist, along with the copyright. Another letter rips into the Manna Machine book amusingly, while another talks about Mt St Helens, sort of.

The first feature article is about the Enfield Poltergeist by one of the witnesses, Guy Lyon Playfair. He has some theories about polts and what might cause them, but it's pretty clear from his article that he firmly believes there's something going on there beyond mere hoaxing, and he makes a pretty good case for it. I'm sure this is one of those situations that I can't really "believe" in until I've experienced it, and from what he's written, I absolutely do not want to experience it. So I'll accept that he believed it to be real and move on to the next topic...

Which is an article about the similarities between reports by UFO abductees/witnesses. There's some interesting speculation about the true nature of such reports, but I'm slightly disappointed that more than 30 years later we're still discussing exactly the same things.

The final installment of "Gateways To Mystery" appears in this issue, with a co-writer on the article who, it seems to me, makes it a bit harder to read. Honestly, I think it kind of lost the thread of the first two parts and wandered off into unknown territory without enough of a link to make its case. There's certainly information there, but not really much sense. Deep thinking, but not very clear.

The final "feature" pieces is more stories from what was then an upcoming book, Man Bites Man that collects a lot of strange newsclippings from George Ives. Some are neat, some are just freaky.

We get another selection from Aristotle's Book of Problems from 1749, this one not quite as offensive at the ones in the previous issue. There are some clues to how people thought, such as the idea that a person who has been murdered will bleed if his murderer looks at him and that it's not a good idea to sleep on your back. Interesting for the insights.

Comix has Telly Kinex getting into trouble with his landlord for making so much noise thanks to his experiments in telekinesis, which result in him dropping things fairly often. Needless to say, Telly gets the better of the landlord. I'm becoming slightly fond of this comic. Phenomenomix is about fire in its various forms, particularly the more fortean types. Facts You Might Forget is about aliens coming to earth to educate humans, and manages to be slightly offensive while slightly amusing. I'm not warming up to this one at all.

There is a lot to look at in the Notes section, starting with coverage of Mass Hysteria cases from the era. It's easy to see the interest in the way Rickard writes about the subject: this is something he's really intrigued by. Strange Encounters had some fun reports out of Russia, while there were some cool images reproduced in the simulacra section. All kinds of different topics were covered in the Trends section, while the Unidentified section introduced readers to a new lake monster hunter.

Loren Coleman looks at giant snake sightings in the United States, and finds some fun ones. Steve Moore has a round-up of tales from China and the Philippines. Enigma Variations, about UFOs, looks at reports from school children.

Lots of good reviews in this issue, and a couple of incomprehensible ones. I'm impressed by the number of publications listed in the Classified Exchanges... these are other magazines that send copies to FT in order to get a copy of FT. There's 38 of them, if I'm counting right. Today, these are the people with websites that are kept up-to-date. It's another good issue from the past of my favorite magazine, and it only makes me more determined to get my hands on more back issues. It may be 36 years old, but the reading is still fun.

Fortean Times Wishlist: FT1-FT24, FT40-FT163, FT194-FT211, FT219-FT222, FT229-FT238

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Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Gotham: "Prisoners" - The title of this episode refers to both plotlines, one involving Oswald and the other involving Jim. The prison-break plot was more exciting, but the Penguin plot was much more terrifying in its implications. I liked it.
• The Flash: "Flash Back" - Wow. The time wraith was pretty scary, and reminds me of the image of Flash as he ran himself out of existence in the Crisis. Which I'm sure is intentional. The change in history is interesting... so how did Barry's interference lead Hartley to make up with his parents, I wonder?
• Supergirl: "World's Finest" - Hubby-Eric had us watch The Flash before watching this, because he'd heard there was something in The Flash that led into this story. Well, it wasn't immediately obvious from watching The Flash, but as soon as we got our first look at Barry in Supergirl's world, I realized it was a particular device. This was a fun episode thanks to amusing villains and a lovely team-up between superheroes of different worlds. The finale and the cliffhanger also worked nicely. Good stuff all around.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Feb 24th
• Aquaman #49 - Let me just get this out there right now: I absolutely despise the outfit Mera is wearing on the final page. I don't particularly care about the reasoning, but frankly, it's awful and the quicker it's dumped, the better. As for the remainder of the issue... a nice, relaxing tale of introducing Atlanteans to surfacer culture with a drumbeat of terror in the background. Not bad, but there's really very little plot.
• Justice League #48 - Isn't this stupid storyline done yet?
• Spider-Man 2099 #7 - Person gets superpowers, person decides she is God, person tries to get people to worship her... and all the while superheroes are trying to stop her. Meh. Not horrid, but could be better.
• Back to the Future #5 - Ah, the history of Clara and how she came into Emmett's life. It's a pretty good little story that gives some depth to Clara. This has been a really fun book, each issue a standalone story, and most of the stories have been solid. If you like the original movies, go grab any issue and take a read.
• Dirk Gently: A Spoon Too Short #1 - Well, it's slightly better than the first mini-series so far, which really isn't saying that much. Watch and wait, I guess.
• Grimm Fairy Tales: Oz: No Place Like Home #1 - Um. Right. I get that I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief, but this book. Nope. Sorry.
• Peanuts vol 2 #31 - As usual, the classic strips are better than the modern ones. I wasn't really all that interested in the first story, but the second one made me roll my eyes in amusement. Still good, just never as great.

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Fortean Times #336 (January 2016). I found the cover of this one to be gorgeous. The red background and the silhouettes are lovely. Problematic, however, is the font design, which made me try to decipher the title of the cover article as "Pacan Pastimes" repeatedly. It's pretty, but the "g" just didn't come across for me. That said, the story of the dance is another one of those cool but inexplicable things that make the world a bit better. Why are they doing it? What is the meaning? Nobody knows for sure anymore? In any case, it sounds like a fun and pretty much harmless thing that obviously can bring in tourists as well as keep folks occupied. I'd love to see it, but it's not something I would go out of my way for... and out of the way appears to be where it's at.

The second feature article is about the Kibbo Kift. I was alternately amused and horrified by the story. The organization seems ok, if a bit on the far side of wacky, but some of the connections it made seem a little less-than-helpful for the average person. Still, I've been sitting around a campfire and if anything pulls the mysticism out of you, it's roughing it for a week.

An article about Alan Garner prompted the response of "Who?" from me, which I gather is not the proper response at all, judging from the names dropped of people influenced by his books. As when the magazine covered M.R. James, it appears I have some reading to do to catch up.

The last feature is about the coco-de-mer Lodoicea maldivica which is a coconut with a rude physical appearance and fun history. The article is also about General Charles Gordon and his belief that the coco-de-mer was the forbidden fruit, and that Eden (at least what remained of it) was in the Seychelles.

Strangedays starts with a tomb time machine, odd new year traditions, micro-nations, people who hide from civilization, animal die-offs and miracles involving inanimate objects bleeding.

The Conspirasphere looks at ... wow, I'm not even sure how to describe it. A Romanian sphinx, Bilderberg and an alien stargate. One thing that the truly goofy conspiracies have in common is a complicated plotline. Ghostwatch is about spectrophiliacs, which is just what the root words imply. Murdie, the author, is practically rolling his eyes throughout the article, while still attempting to give the notion as much respect as any idea.

Archaeology goes back to where the stones in Stonehenge are from, and updates us on new theory and thought. There is also yet another ancient earthworks discovered that has a regular form from the air (concentric circles, in the Golan Heights). Classical Corner looks at Hannurabi's Law Code, which is enough to make Daesh look downright tame.

Alien Zoo looks at a mysterious monkey... maybe. And the beavers in Devon continue to thrive. Mythconceptions asks about London Bridge being sold and moved to Arizona. Fortean Follow-ups looks at a recent cattle mutilation case, fish being frozen while swimming, spontaneous human combustion and even more on yew trees.

Fairies, Folklore and Forteana examines cases of missing children being discovered far from where they vanished from, and how the paranormal is invoked in some such cases. The UFO Files starts a detailed look at the Rendlesham Forest Case. Building a Fortean Library is about the work of William James, with what is suddenly one of my favorite quotes in the world:

"A Beethoven string-quartet is truly, as some one has said, a scraping of horses' tails on cats' bowels, and may be exhaustively described in such terms; but the application of this description in no way precludes the simultaneous applicability of an entirely different description." - William James

Strange Statesmen looks at Papa Doc Duvalier, and even has a theory as to how he got to be so cruel and disgusting after having been a much-loved doctor for years: Namely a terrible heart attack after which his entire personality appeared to have changed. The piece is a great read, but disturbing.

Forum starts with an article by a teacher who uses an optional class he is allowed to hold every year to teach children about the paranormal and how to test paranormal ideas with science. A second piece is about the Ummites, an alien event/hoax in Spain in thr 1960s, and the question of whether or not the hoaxers were British.

Reviews were great as usual, with some a little more interesting than others. The opening review, of The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims: A Medieval Woman Between Demons and Saints by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, made me want to check it out. The story is about a woman whose nightmares are recorded by a priest, but there are overtones of abuse on an emotional level, if not worse. Truly fascinating, but wow it looks expensive. The reviews also look at the recent Star Wars movie and find the same problems as most reviewers.

The letters are fun, lots of following up from previous stories, and a good photo of a striped apple. Two letters tackle the EmDrive with theories on why it might actually work, one of which seems to me to make a lot of sense... but then, I'm not a scientist so I won't argue the point. It Happened to Me is properly frightening. Overall, another great issue of my favorite magazine.

Fortean Times Wishlist: FT1-FT24, FT40-FT163, FT194-FT211, FT219-FT222, FT229-FT238

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Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Supergirl: "Falling" - And after a flash of red, all that Supergirl has worked to build falls down around her. The best moments of the episode were when Supergirl threatens Cat (very effectively) and when she apologizes. Both intense moments that say a lot about the women involved.
• Supergirl: "Manhunter" - And finally we learn about the death of a major character that happened well before the series started. It's told nicely through flashbacks, which also explain why superheroes lie about themselves. It's a nice reminder of the major problem with alter-egos... they are lies.


• The Flash: "Trajectory" - This episode is a bit disjointed, like it's trying to link various pieces but isn't sure how to do it properly. The result is a bit of a mish-mash... not bad, but it really needed another edit or two before it was filmed.


• Gotham: "This Ball of Mud and Meanness" - Bruce confronts his parents' killer... this is definitely it's own universe. Nygma gets paranoid while Cobblepot goes sane. All very disturbing.
• Gotham: "Mad Grey Dawn" - That was not what I was expecting from this show at all. Yeah, Gordon is no longer the man he once was, but I wasn't expecting ... well, this! As for Cobblepot... I detect danger in the air for the Penguin. And why do I think Nygma is headed for a major fall? Then there's "sleeping beauty"... this show is crazy.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Feb 17th
• Sinestro #20 - The king is dead, long live the king? I'm really not sure what to think of this one, since I'm relatively sure we didn't see what really happened. Since Soranik is my favorite, I'll just try to enjoy it.
• Titans Hunt #5 - And the plot thickens even more, as a variety of characters are showing up and remembering that everyone has forgotten the Teen Titans... which actually explains a lot about this universe being so messed up. I loved the moment Dick calls Garth 'Aqualad'. Ha.
• Teen Titans Go #14 - Beast Boy's quote: "If this game doesn't get better in another twenty levels, I'm out." is so much the gamer philosophy I nearly laughed milk out of my nose when I read it. Both stories were cute in this issue. I particularly liked the various Starfires that appeared in the opening tale. Fun stuff without a lot of substance.
• Twilight Zone 1959 - A nice little anthology with three stories, the first one just odd, the second one almost successfully creepy, and the last one an ode to comic book fans of the 1950s. None of them rise to sheer excellence, but they are all very good and the book is a fun read.
• Astro City #32 - Into a trap he goes. Obviously, from the first pages, that's what's going to happen. But who and why is a good question. Totally intrigued, as usual. Great set-up.
• Huck #4 - And I wondered that Huck's brother didn't seem to have any abilities. Still a very good book, and I'm now extremely curious to see what happens next.
• Usagi Yojimbo #152 - Usagi is awesome... but I do wonder what happened to him and the other person who vanished during the flood. Perhaps that question will be answered in the next issue? I also see that Usagi has learned of an injustice from the bandits, so I wonder if that little problem will be dealt with as well. I enjoyed this issue a lot. Simple plot, but lots to think about.
• Doctor Who 8th #4 - A nice little done-in-one that's part of the ongoing plotline. I would think the Doctor might figure out a way to get solve the problem a bit better. Still, at least it's solved.
• Steam League #1 - A bit of a mess of a book, with characters from lots of different stories jumbled together into ... well, I'm still not sure what they are jumbled into. What I know is that Oz characters show up, so we got it. It's got some decent artwork and a strange plot, but it's promising enough.

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Fortean Times #31 (Spring 1980). Going back to the old issues, this one was released about the time I was finally becoming aware that history was still happening. That said, I was certainly not aware of this magazine, but I would have loved that cover. Right now, I'm still delighted by the cover. The giant ape has such a great expression, something between "should I smash them?" and "ooh, they stink!" The cover article is pretty good, written by two Chinese students about their own hunt for China's version of Bigfoot. The themes are familiar to anyone who has studied Bigfoot - lots of stories, lots of indirect evidence, but no proof. I loved one paragraph that lists all the data the group gathered then laments that all the evidence found of the wild man itself was hair, footprints, excrement samples and taped interviews with eye witnesses. Same song, different country. It's a nice reminder that people are the same all the world over, despite our differences.

This issue is a bit slimmer than the previous one, and the editorial explained that the magazine had cash-flow problems while it tried to appeal to a larger market with the previous two issues. As a result, this issue is slimmer and has less color on the cover, but it's still up to the same standards readers were used to. From the opening article, I'd say that is accurate.

The second feature is about "Gateways to Mystery," or window areas - places on earth where odd things happen repeatedly. Author David Fideler makes the case that these areas tend to be clustered around fault lines. While the article itself isn't too bad, it's got a bunch of supporting artwork, some of which isn't actually mentioned in the article and thus goes unexplained. At least there's a good set of footnotes.

The third and final feature is an absolutely hoot of a look at the Delayed Death Touch, referred to in the article as the DDT. This apparently mythical martial arts move kills a person with a touch, but the death occurs some days/weeks/years after the touch. The article itself digresses frequently, but is consistently entertaining and manages to cover a lot of ground on its subject. A fun little piece.

Enigma Variations, the column about UFOs, focuses on hostile alien encounters. On the Trail talks about maned big cats in North America, including a sighting in Tacoma I'd never heard of... although, since I was only four at the time of the sightings, I doubt I'd remember it from local news. The Steve Moore column has two follow-ups, including an update on the condition of the hairy boy from the previous issue. The other follow-up appears to be about the terracotta army, which was reported on in issue #29.

Comix include "Telly Kinex", who is harassed this time by a joker who glues a rock to his hand and bets Telly £25 he can't roll the rock across the joker's shoulders to his other hand. Bad things happen. The next comic, "Facts You Might Forget" is about a guy who sneezes icons. Phenomenomix is a two-pager that concerns a rash of oddness and its final result.

Moving into the "Notes" section, we start with some strange encounters... UFO-themed, of course. Interesting little stories, but not much beyond that. Heavens Above has cutting-edge space news, some of which I knew about and some I didn't. Antiquities looks at ancient footprints, Atlantis discovered again, and a variety of neat little bits and pieces. The cartoon in this section shows two guys in robes walking past Stonehenge saying, "It's a disgrace. It should have been let ages ago." Ha. Standing stones as nuisance properties.

Ghosts has some fairly standard haunted house tales, and synchronicities is about people with intensely suitable names. Ball lightning is the subject of the next section, and there's some decent little tales there. Finally, in Trends, there is a piece on small people both real and not, and another piece on fakery, doubles, and sadly similar events. There's also a photo with a couple standing on a beach at La Jolla, and a child in the background playing. There's an implication that something is unusual about the photo, as there's a close-up of the child. But it looks like a trick of perspective to me.

The reviews are pretty good. I'm terribly amused by a comment on computers in the first one, but it was early days yet for computers in regular life, so I'm not surprised. One of the reviews is written by a problematic writer who I looked up after seeing a review of his work in the previous issue... I'll just say everything I read by that person will get an extra bucket of salt, so I'm not really sure what to make of his review. One book gets two reviews, and is panned completely in one and dismissed lightly in the other. The sole review of a paperback book warns readers to not eat while reading it, as it's about incorruptible corpses of saints. Um. Good advice.

The letters were fun, with the opening one being a response to a review in the previous issue. There's also a story about mysterious ball lightning, a report of a book being a known hoax in response to something printed in issue #29, and some thoughts on the fish fall article in issue #30 with a kind response from the article's writer. All told, it's another excellent issue of my favorite magazine, and makes me wish I could get my hands on all the earlier issues even more. *sigh*

Fortean Times Wishlist: FT1-FT24, FT40-FT163, FT194-FT211, FT219-FT222, FT229-FT238

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Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Supergirl: "Bizarro" - So we finally find out what Maxwell Lord was up to, and it's no good, as expected. The results of the whole fiasco... and what Supergirl and the DEO do in response, are hard to watch.
• Supergirl: "For The Girl Who Has Everything" - Ouch. Serious ouches in this one, ranging from the fantasy world right up to what J'onn does to protect Alex. Ouch.
• Supergirl: "Truth, Justice and the American Way" - And a rival for Kara shows up in the CatCo offices, along with evidence that not just the bad guys escaped the Phantom Zone when Kara's ship passed through. Not too shabby, but Siobhan is annoying.
• Supergirl: "Solitude" - The Brainiac threat. Following up from the previous episode, yet more escapees are revealed. And the cost of J'onn's lie is also revealed to be nearly too much. I'm glad Alex told the truth, and I'm curious to see if the writers follow through on it in the future.


• The Flash: "The Reverse-Flash Returns" - Freaky time-travel wibbly-wobbly bits. This doesn't work, shouldn't work, can't work... and yet it's a surprisingly poignant episode that really works.
• The Flash: "Fast Lane" - Freak-of-the-week time again! This one is a tar creature, nasty. But the real story is what Wells is doing, and how Barry reacts once he learns.
• The Flash: "Welcome to Earth-2" - Um, squee! Ok, lots of squeeing for the easter eggs scattered throughout, which I just enjoyed. I suppose if I'd watched it multiple times, I'd have seen a lot more... but there was plenty on just one viewing. Anyway, lots of great revelations, including Vibe's comic book powers finally showing up. Squee!
• The Flash: "Escape from Earth-2" - I really want to know what that mystery prisoner was tapping out before the code was revealed. Did we hear enough to get clues from it? As for the rest... well... as soon as I saw where Jay was standing I started to tell the screen, "get away from the portal!" Oh well, they never listen to me anyway.
• The Flash: "King Shark" - King Shark. Ha. Just... King Shark. Seriously. King Shark. Isn't that awesome? As for the reveal... whoa. I'm not entirely sure how all this will be explained, but I'm looking forward to it.


• Legends of Tomorrow: "Pilot, Part 2" - Barely started and they are already futzing around with timelines, causing massive temporal disruption. I did not expect a member of the cast to die off so quickly, though. Kind of a shocker.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Blood Ties" - Honestly, the real killer of a plotline in this episode was Snart going into his own past to try to prevent his father from going to prison. It was heartbreaking. The rest isn't all that bad, either.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "White Knights" - Lots of interesting interplay between characters here, but Snart out-snarting Jay has to be the best moment of them all. Stein is pretty good in this one, right up until the disappointment at the end.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Fail-Safe" - It's good that Sara is resisting her programming as an assassin, I guess. I liked how Jefferson manages to get through to Stein, who doesn't have a lot of luck with his partners in general. The end of the episode, the lead in to the next, has a character I hoped would somehow show up in this universe.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Star City 2146" - Oh yes, the Green Arrow of the future... sort of. Different origin, but fun to see nonetheless. More interesting was Mick's reaction to being in what must have seemed to him to be heaven. Only, if he'd given it a little thought he probably would have come to the same conclusion as Snart.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Marooned" - I was sure the distress call was a trap - but I fully expected it to be Rip's people pulling it, not something else. Professor Stein is the best part of this episode, running around and having a jolly good time of it. More distressing is Snart's choice. I'm a little disturbed by what he apparently did. He's rapidly become the most interesting character on the show, with a filled-in backstory, an origin that he's already tried to mess with, and a partner who has some serious issues.
• Legends of Tomorrow: "Night of the Hawk" - Oregon in the 1950s with two members who are not lily-white, what could possibly go wrong? I love the Pacific Northwest, but I have no illusions about how far behind the rest of the nation some areas are, even now, in the values that both Jefferson and Sara comment on to Stein. And with that cliff-hanger, I just wonder what's going to happen to the gang now.


• Arrow: "A.W.O.L." - Felicity having those freaky hallucinations was pretty awesome and scary. But she's way better than that teenage hacker ever was. The death in the episode was a real shock. I don't know why, but I kind of considered that a "safe" character.
• Arrow: "Unchained" - More about Felicity! And an old friend returns under bad circumstances. Good episode with plenty of tension.
• Arrow: "Sins of the Father" - Oh Oliver, what you hath wrought. Killing Malcolm would have been much safer all around, despite what Thea might have thought of you. Instead, now you're going to have to deal with Malcolm helping your most dangerous enemy. *sigh*
• Arrow: "Code of Silence" - Nice attempt to take out Ollie and the gang. Darhk's wife is annoying, instead of menacing.
• Arrow: "Taken" - Nice appearance by Vixen. Felicity is a lovely part of this cast, but I wish she'd recognize where Ollie's honor gets him stuck. This is definitely one of those cases where he's trying to do the right thing when there is no right thing.


• Gotham: "Mr. Freeze" - And now we get a new villain with a new origin. I'm excited to see what this series will make of Victor and Nora. Penguin covering for Gordon is deeply disturbing... this is not going to end well.
• Gotham: "A Dead Man Feels No Cold"" - The word "Yikes" is what comes to mind at the end of the episode. Before then, the tragic nastiness all was amazing and works nicely. The subplot with Penguin is also very good, and having Hugo Strange help out so much... I have a feeling Strange is going to feature heavily in the upcoming insanity of the city.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Feb 10th
• Green Lantern Corps: The Edge of Oblivion #2 - I'm not much of a fan of the cosmic DC stories, but this is ok. Cosmic good guys fighting the end of the universe with bad guys trying to foil everything and ... ok, it's a little by-the-numbers, but not bad.
• Earth 2 Society #9 - Ah war, what's it good for? Apparently fighting over non-existent resources will keep these folks occupied while they die? This is rapidly becoming a bleak book.
• Harley's Little Black Book #2 - Harley teams up with Green Lantern, with some predictable and some unpredictable results. I'm not even sure what to think of this one. A little too much potty humor for my tastes, but mostly amusing.
• Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3 - Lots of things I might expect Shredder to do, I wasn't thinking of that one. Yikes. Even more yikes is who he meets at the end. Ha. His match, maybe?
• Batman '66 Meets the Man From UNCLE #3 - I still don't completely understand the UNCLE side of things, but there's enough explanation to make it work. I was going to say it's all pretty silly, but we are talking about this version of Batman, so I probably shouldn't comment.
• DC Comics Bombshells #9 - Yay, Mera! We learn a little more about her, but I'm disappointed in what happens to her. Lots of good stuff in this issue with Kortni, as well. But I want to see more Mera.
• Spider-Man 2099 #6 - I don't know much about Inhumans, Terrigen Mist or Attilan, so there was a lot going on in this issue I was just clueless about. The basic story is clear enough, at least, despite the oddness. And the cliffhanger was kind of fun.
• Spongebob Comics #53 - For the record, I didn't feel up to shaking my comic, so I didn't. A fun enough little issue. Nothing special.
• Doctor Who 12th #2.2 - The Twelfth Doctor as a sea captain doesn't really work. Naturally, I figured out who the bad guys had to be pretty quickly once the Doctor had his little run-in. What exactly they are doing, I'm still not sure about. A nicely compelling issue.
• Doctor Who 10th #2.6 - Ok, I wasn't really expecting Captain Jack to show up in the first pages. This was a fun issue, with a disturbing cliffhanger. I'm actually genuinely curious as to how this will get resolved.

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Fortean Times #335 (Christmas 2015). A neat cover for Christmas, with the Fortean chill to it while still being warm and friendly. The cover story itself is another great piece of debunking, taking apart ghost tales of a particular house and unearthing the way they grew and changed. A neat little piece, and makes me want to visit that bookstore in its new location.

Next up is an article on the Cock Lane Ghost, and it sure looks like a nasty business with people being obnoxious and hoaxing ghosts along with apparent murder. Not a pretty tale, and not one that is easy to figure out... kudos to Roger Clarke for making so much sense of it.

The final main article is also a debunking, this time of the mysterious disappearance of a boy sent out to fetch some water on Christmas Eve 1889. I won't spoil the solution, but there are layers upon layers to this one that makes it absolutely wonderful that the authors of the article worked out what was happening.

Strangedays starts with the news about the hidden doors in King Tut's tomb, which is exciting, and I hope to hear more about it as soon as archeologists decide what to do about it. There's bits on mass hysteria. The news clips on squirrels going nuts reminds me of the time Eric and I were eating lunch on a park bench and suddenly were surrounded by tons of squirrels.

Medical bag has some interesting and strange stuff. The church sign thing is utterly normal. My local Presbyterian church comes up with stuff WAY more interesting than those pictured. There's also a piece on crop circle makers getting into arguments. There's a lovely little piece on MC Escher, one of my personal favorite artists. Yup, Doctor Who is mentioned, which is amusing.

I adore the Fortean Follow-ups, as usual... The bit on bogus social workers brings to mind a recent warning from our local city government of people claiming to be city workers trying to get into houses. Hrm, I think I'll submit that to the magazine.

The Conspirasphere talks about false flag operations. Science is about how utterly amazing Pluto is, planet or not (I'm afraid it'll always be a planet to me). Archaeology has more Google Earth discoveries, which is cool. Classical Corner tackles the Spartacus thing. Ghostwatch looks at two recent ghost photos, neither of them particularly convincing to me.

Alien Zoo re-examines a sea serpent sighting, a search for a dinosaur in the Congo and a recent tortoise discovery in the Galapagos. The UFO Files has a fun piece on "The Little Blue Man" which is one of my favorite novelty songs "I wuv you, I wuv you," said the little blue man and scared me right out of my wits!". The Casebook is about the similarities between a variety of paranormal experiences, which makes me wonder if there's a explanation with how human minds react... it's nebulous, but I feel like there's an answer there somewhere.

The Forum has some good pieces. The one that hit me hardest was the story of blind painters... the examples of their works are stuff I would consider having on my wall. The shadow men story is one I should not have read before going to bed. It was complemented by a bunch of shadow men tales in It Happened to Me, and again, not something I should have read late at night.

There's a handful of different books I'd consider trying to get my hands on after reading the reviews, and one documentary movie I'd like to see. The letters were fun, but the simulacra... I just don't see it at all. Finishing up the magazine, Fortean Traveller was a non-tourist spot in Kyoto that I found a really good read, and Phenomenomix was just a rotten gag that had me groaning, giggling and just shaking my head that they actually wasted ink on it. A great issue of the magazine that I can't do without.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist

A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Supergirl: "Blood Bonds" - Deeply disappointed in this one, because it makes Cat look stupid. She isn't stupid, and this was a cheat on the viewers as well as the characters. Cat should know, and she should be willing to play along once she's thought about it. I did not enjoy this episode much at all.
• Supergirl: "Childish Things" - Oh, now this is an interesting development! Not only do we get n snfpvangvat yvax jvgu Jvaa, ohg Pnzreba Punfr! Naq gur ivrjref svaq bhg rknpgyl jul W'baa qbrfa'g jnag gb hfr uvf cbjref juvyr qrgrezvavat gung Ybeq vf whfg nf zhpu n wrex nf rirelbar rkcrpgf. V ubcr jr frr zber bs Punfr, rfcrpvnyyl vs ure cnegvphyne cbjre (sebz gur pbzvpf) pbzrf vagb cynl.
• Supergirl: "Strange Visitor from Another Planet" - And the backstory to Mars starts to come out. Pretty scary stuff. The bit with Xnen "genafyngvat" sbe Nqnz naq Png jnf whfg cher zntvp. The rest... eh, it works. This was definitely an episode worth watching, but it's not one that stands out for me.


• The Flash: "Potential Energy" - So everyone is trying to make Barry faster, except for Wally, who has his own issues while learning about his father for the first time. I kind of hate to admit it, but I love the Turtle. And they got the perfect guy to play him, too.


• Legends of Tomorrow: "Pilot, Part 1" - Rory as Rip Hunter. I like it. It's a promising start to what could turn out to be a good show. I hope it does. I loved the bar scene, especially when she finally said she could use help. Overall, fun start.


• Arrow: "Blood Debts" - More movement toward Felicity becoming Oracle? Or something else entirely? And we learn that Darhk's family isn't entirely what we thought it was, or what we might have been led to believe it was.

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This week's movie was Man of Steel, the Superman reboot from 2013. I'd been hearing for awhile how bad this movie was, and kind of figured it was just fans being fans... but this was a real stinker. From the opening scenes on Krypton to the final wink and nod, it was just pure crap. Oh, don't get me wrong. The actors were certainly good, but the parts they were given were not. The effects were lovely, but the plot was so thin it almost didn't exist. The movie seemed to be one excuse to have a massive battle scene followed by another, with snooze-fests in between. It was a very long and boring 143 minutes. I hope the upcoming movie is better than this, because if it's as bad, there's no way the DC franchise of movies will survive. That said, here's what I liked... most of the casting was good. Pretty solid characters all the way through. Pity they weren't given a chance to shine. Perhaps the best moment in the entire film is Creel Juvgr fgnlvat jvgu Wraal rira gubhtu vg zrnaf gurl jvyy nyy qvr. V nyfb yvxrq gur vqrn bs Ybvf genpxvat qbja gur zlfgrel zna jub fnirq ure... ohg V'z abg ernyyl nyy gung xrra ba ure univat fhpu fhpprff be rira gur snpg gung vg gheaf uvf bevtva nebhaq pbzcyrgryl. Vs fur pna qb vg, bgure crbcyr pna, fb Pynex Xrag nf na nygre rtb vfa'g jbegu fcvg va guvf havirefr. V ungrq gur vqrn gung Fhcrezna svefg orpbzrf xabja ivn na vagretnynpgvp guerng. Fb rirelbar ba gur cynarg nffbpvngrf uvz jvgu gung naq gur rafhvat qrfgehpgvba. Naq lbh unir gb oryvrir gung gubhfnaqf be rira uhaqerqf bs gubhfnaqf bs crbcyr qvrq va gung rcvp onggyr orgjrra Fhcrezna naq Mbq. Jurgure be abg lbh oryvrir Fhcrezna fnirq gur cynarg, lbh nyfb xabj, gunaxf gb gung guerng, gung ur nyfb oebhtug gur qrfgehpgvba gb gur cynarg. Gur cflpuvp qnzntr gb gur cbchyngvba jbhyq or havzntvanoyr... whfg guvax bs ubj jr'er fgvyy qrnyvat jvgu gur gjva gbjre nggnpxf. Guvf jbhyq unir orra pbafvqrenoyl jbefr naq zber greevslvat. Vg jbhyq unir punatrq gur ragver jbeyq naq tvira iveghnyyl nyy gur fheivibef n frevbhf pnfr bs cbfg-genhzngvp fgerff. Rira gelvat gb fhfcraq zl qvforyvrs, guvf chfurf vg n ovg gbb sne. Gurer unf gb or vagreany pbafvfgrapl, naq guvf zbivr qbrfa'g ernyyl unir vg. And what was with the washed-out color? It was a hard movie to watch visually. I kept feeling like I needed to adjust my television set. Whoever did that ought to not make any more movies. That was horrid. Overall, I'm really glad we got this from the library and didn't pay to go see it. It certainly makes me less enthusiastic about seeing "Batman v. Superman". I'll probably go only to see how poorly they treat Aquaman.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Dec 2nd
• Green Lantern #47 - I like the haircut. The rest... eh.
• Batman Beyond #7 - So the world is reeling and starting to recover, and what's Matt up to? I don't know that I like this universe.
• Doctor Strange #3 - So, he's clued in to the fact that he's being hunted. Will that save him? I don't know the magical rules of the Marvel universe, so I have no idea what's going to happen in this book.
• Mage Inc. #3 - Very good finale to what I thought was a pretty cool story, but it suffered from coming out so long after the last issue. I almost can't remember what happened before.
• This Damned Band #5 - Finally getting to the endgame, and the real badguy is revealed. Scary stuff, kiddies.
• Doctor Who 9th #5 - Who watches the watchmen? This is a classic case of something thinking they can take over for the Doctor without realizing just how much he actually does. At least the ending is somewhat happy?
• Doctor Who 10th #2.3 - I'm liking Cindy as a character, and I enjoyed Cleo almost from the start. With the fellow who shows up on the final page, this can't help but be some kind of fun.
• Doctor Who 12th #14 - I'm really not enjoying the corrupted suns story. It seems to be dragging.
• Dec 9th
• Earth 2 Society #7 - And... that's the end? Ok. Green Lantern is more like the Spectre here, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Overall, though, I've been disappointed in this book. Maybe it'll start telling interesting stories now?
• DC Comics Bombshells #6 - Lots of Mera in this one, and I like her actions. Nice to see her treat Stargirl and Supergirl with such compassion. Amanda Waller calling her silly is nice... and Waller isn't? Honestly, I'm loving this book.
• Star Trek/Green Lantern #6 - Well, I was expecting a return to the status quo, not... what we got. And it seems a little odd that Scotty's rings didn't feature at all in the solution. I suspect this has been left open for a sequel. Only time will tell.
• Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 - Perfect team-up. Can I really say any more without spoiling it? It's just perfect. This is a very good set-up tale, and I'm looking forward to the next issue.
• Spider-Man 2099 #4 - Yay, Captain America finally gets to show herself. But I hope Roberta isn't hurt by the process, although everything she is appears to be a lie.
• Back to the Future #3 - Ha, George and Lorraine both seeking out Marty's help when romance seems to go sour. I love it. As for Biff, well. I'm not sure what to expect from him next.
• Doctor Who 8th #2 - Ah, a smart companion. Of course she gets injured right off the bat... that's what companions are for, after all. This was a pretty good issue, but we still haven't figured out the central mystery of this companion from the first issue: how did she know about all those aliens?
• Doctor Who 11th #2.3 - This one seems like a lot of irrelevant stuff, showing us bits of history of each of our companions, including Daak. I think I'd be happier to just get on with the story, now.
• Rebels #9 - I think this is a done-in-one tale about friendship and the death of it. Nicely written. I liked that the Shawnee, who has seen much more than the British, has his head on straight. Pity he'll never get through the Brit's conditioning.
• Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #3 - I'm enjoying this, even if it is the second time around. I never expected a wild west version of Oz to be good, but it really does work. And I'm also liking the back-up story, which is giving us an idea of the witches of Oz and what may have caused their... problems.
• Spongebob Comics #51 - I saw the ending to the game creator signing story coming from a mile away, but it was awesome anyway. And seeing Squidward actually enjoy time with Patrick and SpongeBob was also pretty cool. Overall, not a bad issue despite the lack of Mermaid Man.
• Dec 16th
• Justice League #46 - Still no Aquaman. Still a boring story about new gods, which I never really liked anyway. Wake me up when this thing is over.
• Justice League United #16 - This appears to be a summary of what's happened so far, with a wrap-up. So I'm guessing this might be the final issue? The art is bizarre and somewhat unsuited for the story.
• Batman '66 #30 - Is this it for the Batman? Has he really had his final adventure? Will we never see him and his chum, Robin, again in the pages of his comic book? Have I been reading too much of this?
• Teen Titans Go #13 - Aqualad's life is about more than just swimming around, talking to fishes. Well, I would think. But the first story in this issue really does bring back some of those uncomfortable questions about how Atlanteans do... certain things. Second story was irritating. I like my teeth, so dentists are fine, thank you much.
• Tales of Honor: Bred to Kill #4 - And that wraps up quite nicely. This mini was far better from the first because it was allowed to be a comic book, straying from the original words of the original author. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more like this, exploring other bits of the Honorverse.
• Huck #2 - That was definitely NOT what I expected to happen. But then, Huck may not be obviously bright, but he's consistent. He just wants to help. Yes, I'm enjoying this series.

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Fortean Times #330 (August 2015). Nice shocking cover, pun intended. The layout is eye-catching, so that's good. The cover story itself is ok, all about people who've been struck by lightning. Apparently there are some positives... if you survive. Which is not to say I'm going to head out and get hit by lightning just to find out if the stories are true. The editorial shakily points out two deaths from lightning strikes that happened just before the issue went to print. Yikes.

Another main story is about Yew trees, and was, as usual, more fascinating then I expected it to be. The life-cycle of a yew is interesting, and it kind of makes me want to have one... which would require more land than I've got. Add in that they are poisonous, and maybe I'll just add them to my dream garden instead. But there's a lot of fun stuff in this one about a tree I knew very little about, including interesting sidebars to the main article.

Another article tells the sad story of Stephen Phillips, a promising poet in a time when you could actually make a living as a poet, who moved into a haunted house and pretty much lost everything.

The final main article is about preserving Fortean collections as people in the field age and pass away. Sometimes the families of those who collect Forteana aren't at all interested in the collections and simply toss them. But they clearly had value to the ones who collected them, and might be valuable to other researchers. It turns out a Swedish organization is working on the problem and has started to collect and preserve people's libraries. I heartily approve.

As an aside to that last article, a new feature called "Building a Fortean Library" premiers in this issue. It talks about what to look for as you build a private library, including a starting recommendation of an encyclopedia of Fortean topics. This could be a very fun feature, or it could turn out to be something that would have gone just as nicely on the always excellent reviews pages. Only time will tell.

Strangedays starts out with giant 'blood' falls in Antarctica and gates to hell (a sinkhole filled with flame). That's as good a start as any! There's pieces on clever dogs and a UFO sighting over Nigeria, horrible diets and hippos wandering city streets after a flood destroyed the zoo. There's another round-up of the world's oldest people and some follow-ups of previous stories. Science is about alchemical resurrection, and what the folks might have actually been seeing. Archaeology has a variety of stories that are awesome, because I've always loved the topic. Classical Corner covers everyday advice from the ancients while Ghostwatch visits Las Vegas.

There's a very cool piece on an exhibition of artwork from Richard Dadd, done while he was an inmate in Bedlam. Freaky beautiful works by a man who killed his own father in an apparent schizophrenic fit. Fairies, Folklore and Forteana tells of a collector of tales who saved stories of pixies from vanishing, and was an interesting person in her own right. Forum has a piece on the disappearance of a statue that became a religious fight in Ireland. There's also a piece on hobs and their origin and disappearance.

The UFO Files looks at the danger posed by fans of science fiction who develop cult-like behaviors. Fandom... fanatic? There's also a couple of stories of timeslips. Blasts from the Past continues a look at Phantom Anaesthetists... are they urban legend or something else entirely? Strange Statesmen looks an Idi Amin and what may have driven the insane stories surrounding his time as dictator. The conclusion is that there was far more to the tales than what Westerners may see on the surface. What if open talk is so dangerous that using metaphor and folklore is the only way to express discontent?

On to the reviews! Nothing jumps out as something I want to purchase, although both the dragon and the conspiracy books sound interesting enough that I'd read 'em if they came my way. There's a review by an eight year old, which I think is new. Not quite as excellently written as the standard, but not bad at all. Then there's a nearly incomprehensible review by Barry Baldwin (Classical Corner) that I'm still not certain about. But overall, another excellent review section. And I'm actually slightly more interested in seeing Ant-Man after reading the FT review of it. The letters were solid, although one of them might have been better published in the forum, as it took two entire pages. In the end, another good issue of the best magazine published.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- My Kindle Wishlist -- Hugo 2016 Posts page

A Sunday Review

Ok, let's start with something different. Some time ago I quit all Facebook games cold turkey. When I won my iPad mini, I started playing Doctor Who: Legacy, because I'd heard so much good stuff about it. Since then, DWL has been the only game I play. My gamer itch has been satisfied, when I needed it, by watching The Adipose on Twitch. For example, I'd never play Fallout, despite how much it resembles Wasteland... but Adi's played it and I've been along for the ride.

Another game Adi has been playing recently is The Room 3. I thought it was fascinating, and checked out the earlier versions. To my pleasant surprise, The Room, the first one, is available free on iOS. So I downloaded it and tried it.

The Room by Fireproof Games - It's basically a puzzle box game. You are greeted by a safe and invited to open it by solving puzzles. And there are a lot of puzzles. To add to the atmosphere, there's a Victorian/Lovecraftian sense of horror in the music and background noises. The puzzles aren't hard, but can be challenging in unexpected ways. You have to listen, watch and touch everything you can see to come up with the solution. Sometimes you have to think *ahem* outside the box. There are hints available. The first time through, I used them. Then I played it again without the hints. It was surprisingly replayable, because there are so many puzzles to go through you can't remember the solution to all of them. A very satisfying game... although you are definitely left wanting more by the end.

I noticed one of the reviews in the Apple store complained about the occult nature of the game... I can say that there's not much, if any, in this game. There are symbols, but I didn't see more than a passing reference to actual occult symbols anywhere. Those were only used to lend the Lovecraft feel to the story. There are tarot cards at the end of the game, but again, mostly for atmosphere. This is a horror tale, to be sure, and there is an ongoing sense of "things man was not meant to know" in the letters you uncover... but actual occult? Not in this game. Maybe the sequels have more, but what I saw in Adi's playthrough shows more along the lines of Cthulu than actual real-world stupidity. However, if you are leery of anything even appearing to be occult, then you might find this game uncomfortable.

The Room was published in 2012 and is available for a variety of platforms, including Apple, Android and Amazon. As of this writing it is free on iOS, but not on other platforms. Playthrough time is 2-4 hours, depending on how good you are at puzzles and if you use the hints.

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Eric and I have recently seen two movies that I haven't reviewed. Most recently, we saw this weekend's big movie:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Non-spoilers... I liked the new characters and loved the appearance of the original series characters. I have some trouble believing it's been this long, but oh, it felt so good. The plot itself was... how to put this delicately? Um, a little derivative. But also classic with enough twists to work. The balance between drama and humor was lovely, back at the right level. There were so many good little bits of humor mixed in that it worked overall. The big thing, the one that will have many hardcore fans upset, is that this story does not fit at all in the "extended universe" (although it wouldn't surprise me if someone no-prizes it into place). As I'm only mildly invested in the extended universe, it didn't bother me at all, but some fans I'm sure are upset and disappointed due to the canon being broken.

Ok, let's look at some spoilery moments. Gur qrngu... bu, gur qrngu jnf qenzngvp naq cnvashy. Bapr ur jnyxrq bhg bagb gung oevqtr gurer yvgrenyyl jnf ab bgure jnl sbe vg gb raq. V xarj, gunaxf gb nyy gur fcbvyref va gur genvyref, gung gur znfxrq gjvg jnfa'g tbvat gb fhqqrayl ghea tbbq. Naq V pbhyqa'g frr uvz yrggvat Una rfpncr. Fb gung jnf gung. V fnj vg pbzvat naq qvqa'g cerqvpg vg ng nyy. Arkg hc: gur svefg nccrnenapr bs gur Zvyyraavhz Snypba jnf bar bs gubfr terng zbzragf bs uhzbe. Erl naq Svaa unq gur orfg punggre qhevat gung pbairefngvba, ohg jura gurl ghea gb gur "tneontr" naq vg'f bhe byq sevraq, lrnu... purref naq ynhtugre. Nabgure gryyvat zbzrag jnf jura Erl gbhpurq gur yvtugfnore. V guvax gung zrnaf fur'f Yhxr'f qnhtugre... gung'f ubj V "ernq" gur synfuonpxf. Bgure sbyxf zvtug unir bgure bcvavbaf. Ohg sbe gur erfg bs gur svyz V xrcg guvaxvat bs ure nf Una'f avrpr, be znfxrq gjvg'f pbhfva. Gung znqr gur rcvp fnore svtug n onggyr orgjrra pbhfvaf. Fbzr guvatf gung jrer qhzo: jul vf gurer n znc gb jurer Yhxr jnf tbvat? V zrna, frevbhfyl. Naq ubj qvq by' jungfvfsnpr va gur bcravat fprar trg uvf unaqf ba vg? Sbe gung znggre, jul vf vg vzcbegnag sbe znfxrq gjvg naq rzcrebe Tbyyhz gb svaq Yhxr? Ur'f bar thl naq ur'f orra zvffvat n ybat gvzr. Jul abg whfg trg ba jvgu yvirf? Nyfb, gur yvtug fvqr qbrfa'g grzcg, fb znfxrq gjvg vfa'g orvat frqhprq ol gur yvtug... ur'f n crefba jub fgvyy unf n pbafpvrapr naq vf gelvat gb xvyy vg. Nf sbe orvat qrevingvir... jr'ir tbg gur oenir eroryf tbvat hc ntnvafg gur rivy rzcver naq gurve qrngu fgne. Fbeg bs. Gurer jrer n ybg bs zbzragf gung jrer qverpg pnyyonpxf gb gur bevtvany frevrf, vapyhqvat gur jnl Yrvn ernpgrq ng Una'f qrngu orvat gur fnzr nf Bov-Jna'f ernpgvat gb gur qrfgehpgvba bs Nyqrenna. Gung svany fprar, jvgu Erl snpvat Yhxr, jnf nznmvat. Gurer jrer n ybg bs zbzragf yvxr gung guebhtubhg gur zbivr.

In the end, I enjoyed the movie a lot, but still see it has a few flaws. But I'm dying to see the next one.

The other movie we saw thanks to the library happening to have a copy:

Inside Out - A really cute animated movie with a basic enough plot but a nicely unique way of looking at inner turmoil. I loved the voice acting and found it to be a solid little movie that says a lot about how people think and feel. It was a great movie all through, and I enjoyed it a lot... but the absolute funniest moment for me was the looks at other people in the end - particularly the look at the cat. I'm still giggling about the cat every time I think about it. A nice little solid movie for everyone to enjoy.

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TV this week:

• Supergirl: "Human For a Day" - So much good stuff in this one. Xnen trgf gb qrny jvgu orvat uhzna naq zber vzcbegnagyl, orvat uheg, sbe gur svefg gvzr. Jvaa trg wrnybhf. Png trgf n pbzcyvzrag. Znkjryy vf n wrex, ohg n tbbq-urnegrq wrex nccneragyl. Naq jr svanyyl yrnea jung Unax npghnyyl vf qhr gb n ybiryl fvrtr frdhrapr ng gur QRB. Guvf rcvfbqr vf nabgure erzvaqre gung guvf vf ABG gur znva QP Havirefr nf frra va gur pbzvpf. A fun little episode.
• Supergirl: "Hostile Takeover" - The season finale, juvpu fhecevfvatyl raqf ba n pyvssunatre. Xnen'f srryvatf sbe ure Nhag Nfgen ner gur ubbx guvf fgbel unatf ba, naq vg'f n cerggl tbbq ubbx. Ohg gur ovt fhecevfr sbe zr jnf Png svanyyl znxvat gur shyy pbaarpgvba naq pbasebagvat Xnen. Lrnu, Png vfa'g fghcvq naq vg jbhyq unir orra ernyyl onq gb pbagvahr npgvat yvxr fur jnf. Gur bayl dhrfgvba abj vf jung qverpgvba Png jvyy gnxr jvgu gung xabjyrqtr? This has been a fun show and I'm looking forward to the next season.


• Arrow: "Brotherhood" - Naq gur cnfg pngpurf hc. Ng yrnfg, bar cnfg. Naq vg'f abg n cyrnfnag rkcrevrapr sbe Qvttyr, bar bs gur orggre punenpgref ba gur fubj. Enl'f qrcerffvba vf fnq va fhpu na bcgvzvfgvp punenpgre, ohg vg'f avpr gb frr uvz jbexvat ba n ceboyrz. Naq Gurn unf n cbffvoyr fbyhgvba gb ure ceboyrz. Bayl, ubj vf fur tbvat gb trg Qneux gb pbbcrengr? Another good episode on lots of levels.
• Arrow: "Legends of Yesterday" - Gur snpg gung rirelbar qvrf va n tehrfbzr synfu bs sver naq qrngu va guvf rcvfbqr qvqa'g qrgenpg sebz ubj tbbq vg jnf va gur raq. Lrf, gvzr geniry, gung qnatrebhf gbl, vf hfrq... ohg jr xarj sebz gur ortvaavat gung vg jnf pbzvat. Naq gung zrnaf jr xarj nalguvat ng nyy pbhyq unccra va gur bcravat npg. Naq obl, nalguvat ng nyy fher unccrarq. Gur pybfvat unys jnf avpryl qbar, jvgu Oneel gnxvat gur guernqf bs gebhoyr sebz gur svefg gvzr guebhtu naq svkvat ybgf bs gurz. I enjoyed this one.
• Arrow: "Dark Waters" - Bu, sbe gung gb unir orra gur raq bs Qneux! Ohg lbh xabj gur ivyynva nyjnlf svaqf n jnl gb rfpncr, rira jvgu gjb neebjf va uvz naq n obzo tbvat bss arkg gb uvf urnq. Guvf rcvfbqr ernyyl uvg zr uneq, cnegvphyneyl gur thafuvc qebar ng gur ornpu. Gur fubpx bs frrvat xvqf, vapyhqvat n irel phgr "zvav-Sryvpvgl" nggnpxrq fb ivbyragyl npghnyyl znqr zr jnag gb fgbc jngpuvat sbe n ovg. Sbe fbzr ernfba, gung fprar jnf nyzbfg bire gur rqtr sbe zr. Gur cbvfba tnf jnf nyfb nyzbfg gbb zhpu. In fact, there were a lot of bits and pieces in this that really shocked me. A difficult episode to watch.


• The Flash: "Gorilla Warfare" - Cbbe Tebqq. Guvf irefvba qvqa'g qrfreir uvf sngr naq qrsvavgryl qvqa'g qrfreir gb or fghpx hc nybar va gur jngpugbjre jbaqrevat jung gb qb jvgu uvzfrys. V'z unccl gurl tbg uvz gb Rnegu-2 Tbevyyn Pvgl, ohg V'z n yvggyr jbeevrq ng jung ur jvyy qb gurer. Fgvyy, guvf vfa'g gur znva QPH... znlor vg'yy ghea bhg bx? Decent little episode with the potential to come back and bite the heroes in the future.
• The Flash: "Legends of Today" - Gur fcrrq sbezhyn... na nznmvat pnyyonpx gb gur Tbyqra Ntr, rira vs vg'f abg fbzrguvat fnvq (juvpu arire znqr n yvpx bs frafr) naq vafgrnq vf n frehz. Wnl vf fgvyy orvat n wrex. Gura jr'ir tbg Grnz Neebj naq Grnz Synfu gelvat gb cebgrpg Pvfpb'f tvey sebz Inaqny Fnintr. Awesome on just so many levels. A fun episode.
• The Flash: "Running to Stand Still" - Znex Unzvyy nf Fnagn Pynhf vf bar bs gur sernxvrfg guvatf V'ir frra guvf lrne. Naq vg'f orra n sernxl lrne. Guvf jnf n qrprag rcvfbqr jvgu onq thlf pbzovavat gb xvyy Gur Synfu. Gura gurer'f n pbhcyr bs tbbq fhocybgf nf jryy... Jnyyl Jrfg orvat gur bar gung xvaq bs pyvss-unatf. Ohg Uneel'f nterrzrag jvgu Mbbz vf gur fpnel bar. Vs guvf Uneevfba Jryyf vf n tbbq thl, ur'f tbg gb or senagvpnyyl guvaxvat bs jnlf gb znxr Oneel tbbq rabhtu gb erfphr uvf qnhtugre. Vg'f abg tbvat gb or rnfl. Lots to think about with this one.

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Here are reviews of the DCBS comic books that I've gotten around to reading and reviewing, sorted by the original shipping date:

• Oct 7th
• Batman Beyond #5 - Freaky story. Seems to me the fight against Brother Eye would be over quickly in Gotham, so I'm not sure how much time Batman has to put whatever plan he's got into action.
• Green Lantern #45 - Um, yay Hal? Really, there just isn't much to say about this.
• Doctor Strange #1 - It certainly lives up to the "strange" in the title. The one thing for sure I can say about this book is that it really doesn't make being a magic user appealing at all.
• This Damned Band #3 - Set in a French mansion/recording studio, this issue has the band confronting some of their demons. Sort of. Maybe? Well, probably not, because things just get worse. I love the comments from the camera crew.
• CBLDF Liberty Annual 2015 - If you are easily offended, this is not something you want to try to read. I'm no longer easily offended, but there were some pieces in here that I felt went over the line from "making a point" to "tasteless for the heck of it." Which I guess is also a point to make. I did like it overall: the key to proper censorship is for the reader to say, "Oh, I don't like this," and skip to the next item rather than attempt to shut up the original creator/publisher. And I'm capable of jumping to the next item when I'm offended.
• Legend of Oz: The Wicked West #1 - I don't know if this is the same as the original series' first issue, but it certainly is very familiar. I enjoyed this the first time around, I hope to enjoy it this time, too. I think there's an extra supplemental tale in here, as well.
• Grimm Fairy Tales: Oz: Reign of the Witch Queen #5 - There are moments I really like this book (although the clothing design for the women is often a major turn-off) and there are moments I just go, "huh?" I admit, the huh moments are more common than the enjoyable moments. But there's a good moment in this one for me, as Dorothy embraces the bad and something good happens.
• Oct 14th
• Justice League of America #4 - A single panel of Aquaman, four lines between him and Mera. Blah. The story itself isn't too bad, with the mystery of what Rao actually is coming to a head. But I need more Aquaman to be happy.
• Justice League United #14 - Caught in an eddy of time, they are stuck in a moment or two. Lots of great characters showing up, but the plot is a bit overwhelmed by it all! I think once it ends I'll try to sort out what happened.
• Earth 2 Society #5 - Jay is overwhelmed by being what he is, and quits? That's a choice for a superhero? Apparently not, as he gets dragged back into it. The identity of the villain was slightly unexpected, but I guess I buy it, considering the nature of the character in this universe.
• DC Comics Bombshells #3 - Yay! More Mera! Ahem. This one has three distinct chapters, starting with the Bat, moving to the terror in Germany, then going to Wonder Woman and Mera meeting the war on land. I love this version of Mera, teasing Wonder Woman and protecting her dolphin friends. Great stuff.
• Spider-Man 2099 #1 - A very strange first issue with a new status quo. It seems a little nasty that he's using his abilities to win a game show. I'm sure this won't turn out well.
• Star Trek/Green Lantern #4 - I was just sort of nodding along, slightly amused by this book, until the final page. I'm glad I'm familiar enough with the "new" Star Trek universe to know what that cliffhanger actually means.
• Spongebob Comics #49 - This had a few odd bits even for this comic. As the Halloween issue, it was focused on the scary... as scary as Spongebob gets, which isn't very. Still, fun enough. I am amused and unsurprised by the fate of the various delivery boys. Ha.
• Rebels #7 - A nice standalone issue featuring a woman who followed her husband into the Revolutionary War and what became of her later in life. The statement by the soldier as he left, that they couldn't make an exception, was definitely a comment on how women who fought were treated.
• Oct 21st
• Justice League #45 - I'm hoping this crossover ends soon, because I'm finding it completely boring. I'm glad Aquaman isn't involved in this snooze-fest.
• Green Lantern: The Lost Army #5 - More of Lanterns in space. Prison break, new weapons... ongoing war. What next?
• Titans Hunt #1 - So, are they remembering the original universe or something else? That's clearly Garth, so what's his deal in this universe?
• Teen Titans Go #12 - Starfire wants to date, and Robin is jealous. Then anti-Titans run into Titans and there are some issues. A silly book, but cute.
• Astro City #28 - The origin story of Wolfspider along with a more modern tale related to his past makes for excellent reading. As usual, one of the best of the super-hero books out there.
• Tales of Honor: Bred to Kill #3 - Pretty good! More twists in the story and more developments. And we catch up to the opening, as well, so by the end we are moving into unexplored territory. Great stuff. This series is so much better than the first attempt it's not even funny. This is what happens when you allow your writers to actually write comics instead of illustrated text.
• Usagi Yojimbo #149 - A very nice done-in-one story that had an utterly predictable ending. I found the premise all too believable... rich jerk spends too much on a worthless item. I thought Usagi's solution was perfect, if a tiny bit deceptive.
• Back to the Future #1 - How did Marty meet Doc in the first place? The first story in this issue tells the tale, which is just as backwards as you might expect. The second story goes back to Doc's youth as a professor, and is cringe-worthy.
• Doctor Who 9th #4 - Time agents? Much like Captain Jack is supposed to be? Interesting how they force the Doctor to do their work. What are they really up to? And what's up with Rose? What has she learned?
• Doctor Who 10th Year Two #2 - This is a story that really needs some sound to bring out the best. I would love to hear this one as an audio drama. The solution was simple, but cool.
• Doctor Who 11th Year Two #1 - Wow, this is a mess of a plot. Oh, it makes sense in context, but there's so much happening and so many strange bits... and that cliffhanger. Not a character I was expecting to see in this particular version, although I admit I'm kind of pleased to see him. There's a lot here to digest, and I'm guessing the next issue isn't going to be any easier.
• Doctor Who 12th #13 - Hyperions invading Earth, and doing an all-too-good job of it. We get a nice origin story for the creatures, including the fact that they were originally a force for good. The next question is what the Doctor is going to do about it... his initial attempt seems a little misguided.
• Oct 28th
• Aquaman #45 - I still haven't quite figured out what is going on, but now it apparently involves other worlds. I liked this one better than the last couple of issues, but the art still looks wrong to me.
• Batman '66 #28 - Scarecrow and Killer Croc. A fun issue with classic villains reimagined for the 1966 universe. Very nice.
• Sinestro #16 - Oooh, Sinestro goes on a quest and visits Evil Shazam. I find Soranik's "crush" on Black Adam to be quite cute. I guess she does like bad boys.
• Spider-Man 2099 #2 - Back in the saddle again after a terrorist attack. I'm not sure I like that he decided to quit in the first place, but I know I don't like how he's been brought back.

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