Fast Thoughts - The Week of 3/28/07

BATMAN #664 - I am deeply ammused by the thought of a hooker offering Batman a freebie and deeply touched to see that someone remembers that Batman does just as much to fight crime in ways that don't involve punching thugs, as witnessed by Bruce offering a woman with no education a job in a call-center. Of course now I know that any good Bruce does as Batman is negated by the fact that he willingly employs telemarketers...

CONNOR HAWKE: DRAGON'S BLOOD #5 - Sometimes, it's nice to read a book that doesn't have any point to it besides a lot of fires and wanton destruction.

DAREDEVIL #95 - Good to see someone doing something with Gladiator. He always was one of my favorite Daredevil villains, especially after he reformed and opened a costume shop. Something always struck me as funny about how one of the men with the worst costumes in history got a job making them for other people. I mean, look at this...





This is not a man who needs to be giving anyone fashion advice! Then again, it works in the same way as the urban legend that Shel Silverstein started doing children's books when he couldn't sell his cartoons to Playboy because they were too filthy. Untrue, as far as I can tell, but a good story. And this is a good story too!

FABLES #59 - For those of you who remember Bill Willingham's classic Sandman Presents one-shot Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Dreams But Were Afraid to Ask, this was a real nostalgic treat. And for those who don't it was a regular treat. Answering several questions that some readers asked about minor characters (such as what happened to a now unemployed bodyguard from the 'Arabian Nights" story) or unimportant bits of trivia (such as how Buffkin the Flying Monkey keeps getting liquor) this is a wonderful little break in the action of the war-preparations storyline.

GREEN LANTERN #18 - Okay. Carol Ferris back as Star Sapphire. That's good. Having her fighting and then possessing Hal's new girlfriend, Jillian? That's better. Hal Jordan actually getting to use the phrase "There's plenty of me to go around"? Priceless. The art has taken a turn for the worse though and I'm inclined to agree with a thousand feminist comic bloggers that the new Star Sapphire costume is bad. Not because it is sexist and scanty and skimpy - it just plan looks terrible. Of course I've never been a fan of the "wrap around, leave as much skin in the middle of the body as exposed as possible" look...

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #107 - Nice to see that the whole world ISN'T revolving around Peter, no matter how much me may think it at times and that Kitty Pryde suddenly showing up after his school after his suddenly deciding he didn't want to date her anymore is just conincidental. Also, Wilson Fisk - from this day forth - will be "Fatty McEvilstein" to me.

WONDER WOMAN #6 - Diana Prince realizes that she is kinda out of touch with the modern "real" world. Good point. Needed to be addressed a while ago. But can we please retire the cliche that a person is clueless and out of touch simply because they do not know how to order coffee at a Starbucks? And why is it we laugh at the people who just want black coffee in a small cup and insist that they are the idiots? Why do we not laugh at the Starbucks people who insist that we must order a Venti coffee instead of a large coffee? They know what the small, medium and large cups are! Is it really that important to the Starbucks branding scheme that they cannot just get people the appropriate size cup without making a big to-do about it? "Oh, we do not serve small coffee here... we serve Tall, Grande and Venti". Oh yeah. Well you can serve it to somebody else pal cause I'm going to get my coffee from someplace where they don't push customers over tiny details!