elnino14

Punisher Max vol. 4: Up is Down and Black is White; Punisher gets personal and returns to taking on the mafia, but you know as personal this storyline seemed to be for Frank, it didn't seem to give me any more than the usual. This volume serves as a semi-sequel to volume 1 and it's about on par with that volume, which also had the personal aspect of Micro being involved, and a bunch of other supporting characters. I never found his allies in this volume all that interesting, although that nude shower fight was great and reminds me of another nude shower fight from Eastern Promises. The best of the supporting characters is the villain of the piece, and we get his entire history painted out for us in one issue, showing us that although he was always an evil little shit, he also had some fucked up things happen to him, and it's easily the best issue of the bunch. I don't even remember if Frank appears in that issue. Next up is The Slavers. 7.5/10 I also went on a Thunderbolts binge, re-reading my old trades and then reading the new one that I received about 2 months back. Penance: Relentless; I still have the same complaints about it as I did last time. There's not a whole lot of depth, it doesn't tell me anything I didn't already know about Penance, and there's a shit load of random cameo appearances (cough* Wolverine *cough*) just for the sake of it. It's not a bad book, it's got a tight plot, and it falls in line with what we already know about Penance, it's also got some amazing interactions between Norman Osborn and Tony Stark that I haven't seen in any other book. But it's pretty middle of the road all in all. 6.5/10 Thunderbolts by Ellis vol. 1 and 2: This is easily my favorite run on a Post-Civil War book. It's so fun, it's so mischievous, and it plays very well with all of the characters balancing a team of 8 seamlessly. Some characters are actually sympathetic and good-hearted (such as Songbird and Radioactive man) while most of the others are devilishly evil but oh so much fun to watch (Venom, Bullseye, Norman Osborn, Moonstone). It's also makes you feel for a bunch of small supporting anti-registration heroes in a matter of a couple of pages. Just a fun book with the first one building all the tensions and setting the stage for the huge implosion in the second book. Thunderbolts Secret Invasion (volume 3) by Christos Gage: There are numerous one-shots before returning to the actual Thunderbolts series and really they all were below average, sometimes down right boring. Where Ellis was subtle, Gage is outright blatant. Also the problem essentially is that Gage pits the Bolts many times against actual super-villains, but tries to force sympathy with the Bolts, rather than letting them be their natural evil selves. I don't know, it just really wasn't a good sign for things to come. The secret-invasion tie-in issues weren't half bad, they were certainly better than I expected especially after reading all those one-shots. But it still wasn't good by any means, it felt like Gage was trying to imitate Ellis but kept coming up short. He sews some interesting ideas (Swordsman sister a Skrull?, Distrust already sewn into the team) but either doesn't follow up on them or makes them as anti-climactic as possible. The only reason to keep this TPB is so it brings me up to speed from Ellis run to Diggle's run. There's significant developments here and during SI that this brings to pass. I really really hope Andy Diggle can do a better job in the next TPB, because otherwise I'm going to have to drop this series. 5.0/10 Total: Comic books: 9 Trade paperbacks: 24 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3; The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power); Batman: Year One; Batman: The Long Halloween; Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories), vol. 2 (The Fourth Man), and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials); Planetary 19-26; Batman: The Man Who Laughs; Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear; RONIN; JOKER; Deadpool #1; Punisher Max vol. 1-4; Penance: Relentless; Thunderbolts by Warren Ellis vol 1-2; Thunderbolts: Secret Invasion.

Daredevil (Director's Cut only) X-men 3 Spider-man 3 Any animated movie really. Anytime I tell somebody not my age that I really enjoyed an animated movie, they're like "but it's a cartoon," "yeah but it was pretty good." Especially animated movies coming out now, the older ones I can get by saying nostalgia value. Once Lars and the Real Girl Walk to remember

You sir, owe it to yourself to go back and watch the Y2J/HBK feud from this past year, at times the most hyped angle on the brand and always the best. I really agree with that: HBK was awesome all year and had good matches all year long (outside of the JBL business) but Jericho was on-fire in terms of recreating himself and become the best heel not just on Raw but in the entire company. The WWE really gave him the ball over the past year.

Punisher MAX vol. 3: Mother Russia This is more like it, so far this is my favorite volume of the series. Maybe it's the fact that it takes more of a political espionage type theme, with a cameo appearance by the MAX universe's Nick Fury. While it might not have solved all the issues I've had with the Punisher character, it's certainly a step in the right direction. The supporting character of the Galina, and the partner, really helped adding to the depth of the story and the psyche of the Punisher without going overboard with supporting characters like the Kitchen Irish did. While the sequences in the war rooms were not nearly as enthralling, the politics was still worked into the story quite well, and again much better than how the Kitchen Irish was. Next up is Up is Down and Black is White. 8.0/10 Total: Comic books: 9 Trade paperbacks: 19 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3; The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power); Batman: Year One; Batman: The Long Halloween; Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories), vol. 2 (The Fourth Man), and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials); Planetary 19-26; Batman: The Man Who Laughs; Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear; RONIN; JOKER; Deadpool #1; Punisher Max vol. 1-3

Last time I clocked in here I was playing Scarface the World is Yours and was trying to beat it before I started a new game. I never beat it. I got stuck because I don't have enough money to buy properties in the last area and was tired of drug running, it's really the most monotonous thing ever especially since I've been doing it all game the same fucking way. So I stopped, decided I'll come back and finish that game later. I popped in the first game of the Sly Cooper trilogy maybe a week ago. I beat it last night. It was really fun, and it's a great platformer. The graphics are cel-shaded and beautiful. The cut-scenes work perfectly. The game doesn't really break any boundaries and tries to throw in some really stupid gimmicks or "super-secret thieving moves" and while I used most of the them at one time or another, I probably could have gotten by without a lot of them. The bosses are pretty fun and are pretty variable, the level design is absolutely great. It took me about 10 hours to beat, and yeah that's pretty short, but I don't expect action-platformers to go much longer than 15, maybe 20 hours. I enjoyed it, I'm glad I picked up the rest of the trilogy, the whole trilogy cost me around $20 (that's including shipping) from e-bay. This particular game cost me $5, I wouldn't have payed full $50 price tag for it, but I don't think I've payed that price tag since San Andreas came out. Also last night I popped in Spider-man 2. The game really shows its age, especially with a lot of the characters looking really really ugly. But when you're spider-man just swinging around the city, it's pretty beautiful. I spend about 2 hours last night just swing around saving people. It's a blast, I tried to do a couple of challenges (I hope they're not all racing) and I couldn't stand it. I realize if there's one thing I hate in games, it's time trials. After Spider-man 2, I'll probably try to finish up Scarface then head to Sly 2. Still looking online for following cheap games: The Warriors, Psi-Ops, Simpsons Hit and Run, ICO, and maybe Silent Hill 2 and the two Prince of Persia sequels on the PS2.

Punisher Max Vol. 2: Kitchen Irish. Read another volume of Punisher Max today, still bloody and violent, this time it's Punisher taking on the gangs of Hells Kitchen. Surprisingly, Frank himself doesn't get a whole lot of screen time here, with most of it being taken up by the many supporting characters who are all so evil that honestly the ending is such a relief. I didn't care about anybody in this volume, except for maybe the grandfather. Everybody in this volume is a piece of shit...and it's funny that that is the exact point the old dead Nesbitt gets across. I enjoyed this volume less than the previous volume, it was a lot more fun seeing the Punisher dealing with the law and his buddy Microchip. Still regardless, Ennis set up an excellent structure with plenty of gratuitous violence, action, and some interesting plotlines to put Punisher through the ringer and a solid book all around, I certainly don't love it, but it's enjoyable. I'm coming around and enjoying the book for what it is. Hopefully the next volume in Russia will be better. I'm going to try and keep reading this until I finish at least The Slavers which is the one that seems to get the most acclaim. 7.0/10 Total: Comic books: 9 Trade paperbacks: 18 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3; The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power); Batman: Year One; Batman: The Long Halloween; Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories), vol. 2 (The Fourth Man), and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials); Planetary 19-26; Batman: The Man Who Laughs; Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear; RONIN; JOKER; Deadpool #1; Punisher Max vol. 1, 2

The shows was nothing special, but everybody should get their hands on Taker vs. HBK.

Wrestlemania 25 Opening: This was another really good opening video, it really covered a ton of big major moments and felt true to the wrestlers, it felt unscripted and genuine, which is very hard to come by in wrestling sometimes. Although, the second half of the video, with everybody saying “TONIGHT!” and then talking about making moments felt like every other post-Mania XX, Wrestlemania video. MITB: You know I look forward to this match every year, it’s never the best match on the card, most of the time it’s not even a MOTYC, and it doesn’t even come close to the tag ladder matches of the heyday, but it’s always a solid match, it’s always entertaining, and they continuously amaze me more and more that they can find new things to do, or put new twists on old innovations. It’s pretty typical, you know how the MITB works, everybody gets their chance to shine, there’s lots of dives, tons of risky maneuvers, and even a screw-up or two. When I say everybody gets their chance to shine, I mean it, everybody had their chance to shine, probably the brightest and most eye-opening came from Kofi Kingston and, as usual, Shelton Benjamin. Also this one has an added bones of a pretty hot unpredictable ending. *** ½ Kid Rock Concert: The best part of this is the giant “BOO” sign that it appears right after the last diva comes in, fucking hilarious. It’s basically a ten minute concert for Kid Rock, if you like Kid Rock you might enjoy this. I personally found it mildly entertaining borderline boring. It would have been better if they maybe gave him five minutes here, and five minutes later like they did with Limp Bizkit at Mania 17, that was much less annoying. Women Battle Royale: Whatever…I thought it might be kind of nostalgic like the Mania 17 battle royale (they did have Sunny, Victoria, and Molly Holly in there, and I think Lita and Trish but I’m not sure), but instead it was short and boring. Santino wasn’t even funny. Blah. Jericho vs. Legends: The first half with Piper and Snuka, well it was what it was, nothing great, somewhat nostalgic. But I don’t care what anybody else says, when it got down to Jericho and Steamboat, they put on a damn good five-minute exhibition match. Honestly it was a hell of a send off for Ricky Steamboat to be able to go one more time and look almost as good as 89. The after-math with the Mickey Rourke confrontation, I didn’t care for that much, just seemed like it took too damn long and was too anti-climactic. But overall it was good fun, and the stuff with Steamboat was great. Exactly what it should have been, entertaining, nostalgic, with a dash of some good old-school wrestling. ** ½ Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy: This was so incredibly underwhelming, that’s not to say it was a bad match. It’s just that it should have been so much more, not once did the wrestlers make me believe in their characters, there wasn’t a single believable near-fall, it was all just underwhelming. There was some weapons thrown in to increase the spectacle, but it did very little for me. This should have been an easy story to tell, the two men are brothers, they know each other, they should have portrayed that more in the match (only Matt did by reversing some of Jeff’s big moves). It was badly structured and never really got out of first gear. Also it felt like they did moves for the sake of doing them, rather doing moves to tell a story. Maybe I expected too much, they did a hell of a lot of cool dangerous stuff, and had some nice spots that got reactions out of me, but it could have gotten a bigger reaction. ** ¼ JBL vs. Rey Rey: I really think this going to be a running gag, one match every Wrestlemania is going to be a filler, less than one minute DUD. Ha. This match gets the spot, pops the crowd, JBL then pops the crowd some more by quitting. I hope this means he re-enters the announce team because he really hasn’t done ANYTHING that great since he came back in December of 07. Undertaker vs. HBK: This is my main event right here. What a match! HBK does it again stealing the show with the Undertaker this time. The match is just straight up legend vs. legend, with HBK and Taker going for the big epic feel of a match. There are plenty of intervening stories, with HBK trying to take out Taker’s vertical base early on, later just keeping him grounded in order to stay away from the power game, HBK trying to use mind games on Taker, Taker using mind games on HBK, and then it’s basically a match of endurance, resilience, and “can you top this” reversals. There’s a couple of minor blemishes, one part involving a faked superkick looks funky and near the end it’s very stop-go, stop-go style of wrestling that HBK tends to do when he wants to make a match epic (see vs. Cena at Mania 23). It’s epic, it’s everything you expect it to be, and it’s another MOTYC out of HBK. **** ¾ Edge vs. Big Show vs. John Cena: Ok, there was a ton of one man in, one man out stuff, but once the match got going it wasn’t half bad. The match started picking up once the outside shenanigans ensued, it added a sense of urgency that was missing. The problem was that I didn’t care about anything that was going on. I don’t care about another chapter in the Vickie Guerrero saga, it’s annoying. John Cena is easily the best part about this match as he’s clearly and completely focused on the gold and is using the ability to pit the other two against each other to his advantage. Also have to give him props for that finish, damn. *** HHH vs. Randy Orton: I don’t know what to think, a lot of people thought this match sucked. To be honest, I don’t think the match sucked per-say, I think it got over the story much better than the Hardy’s match, it was just missing crowd involvement and the extra drama that could have came from outside shenanigans. The match made sense in that it was HHH methodically decimating Orton without letting his rage get out of control and Orton doing everything he can to take away the title from HHH, either by destroying him or provoking him…it just missed an extra spark. I don’t know what was wrong with the match, it’s just that there was something wrong. They tried to tell the story of HHH’s revenge, but I guess it looked better on paper than in execution. ** ½ Final Thoughts: What a depressing Mania, it’s not a bad one, but it didn’t feel like Mania. 4 hours seems too long for crowds (and for me), it showed here as they peaked at the 3 hour mark with HBK vs. Taker and never really recovered from that. You’ve got a MOTY, with a whole bunch of other watchable yet underwhelming matches and dull main events. Top WWE PPV Matches of 09: 1. HBK vs. Undertaker (Mania 25) - **** ¾ 2. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 09) - **** ¼ 3. Smackdown Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 09) - *** ½ 4. MITB (Mania 25) - *** ½ 5. Royal Rumble (Royal Rumble 09) - *** ¼ 6. Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (Royal Rumble 09) - *** 7. Edge vs. Big Show vs. John Cena (Mania 25) -*** 8. Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton (No Way Out 09) - ***

No Way Out 09 Smackdown Elimination Chamber (Edge vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H vs. Undertaker vs. Big Show vs. Vladmir Kozlov): This was an erratic match, at times it was very good and at other times it was dull and boring. Sure the match made everybody look strong but it also didn’t seemed like a collection of spots, both new and old. The story was just as erratic as the match, with Edge being eliminated early which kind of shows how much Edge relies on being the ultimate opportunist, to Jeff Hardy trying to overcome unbelievable odds surrounded by men much bigger than he is, to just a match for the title and for respect. Ultimately it wasn’t much more than just a match for the title, the little pieces individually (Jeff Hardy vs. Edge, Jeff Hardy overcoming odds, Big Show just being a monster, and Triple H vs. Taker’s EPIC battle of future hall of famers) were far more interesting, while the match taken as a whole isn’t cohesive at all. The match’s pacing didn’t really build like normal matches do, it was really quick and then really slow, and then really quick, then really slow, until it picked up again around Taker’s entry. I can’t iterate how good the last few minutes are, with Taker and HHH battling it out, it felt epic and it ended a pretty uneven match on a really high note. What the match lacks in story-telling and sensible booking, it builds unpredicatibiltiy ten-fold. I was never really sure who was going to win, even though I groaned at some of the booking decisions, the match really did make me feel like anything could happen. So there’s good and bad. *** ½ Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton: This was exactly what I expected it to be, and it was exactly what it should have been, a high intensity, emotional spotfest. While the match is quite slow, it’s never boring, because it constantly building tension in terms of the storyline. There was a ton of time spent just lying around and there weren’t enough outside shenanigans to cover it up (like at Mania 17 with McMahon vs. McMahon) but its still a pretty good match in it’s own right. It’s got drama in terms of McMahon wanting vengeance on Orton and Orton trying to break the McMahon spirit. The commentators did an excellent job of relaying the story of the match to the audience and made some excellent ties to the pre-match video. *** Jack Swagger vs. Fit Finlay: This is your ECW title match, man is it boring, and for some reason I think it was supposed to be. This is a filler match in every single way, WWE tends to think that audiences’ need breaks to split up matches, in order for them to catch their breath for even more emotional matches. It’s somewhat true, and typically they use the women’s titles to do that, but here they have a young star that they’re shitting all over by putting him in this spot, not to mention the fact that this is a title match. This sucked, hard. Honestly, I knew Swagger was still green but he was able to have a pretty good match with Hardy and here it looks like they also could have had a good match, if they weren’t doomed to fail. Also the crowd was hot for Christian, more than they were for either one of these men. * ½ HBK vs. JBL: I don’t like this storyline, it doesn’t make any logical sense. I explained my problems with this storyline in my recap of the Rumble. It’s rather predictable, it seemed like everybody knew what was going to happen, and that everybody was waiting for it to just happen. HBK did a very good job of expressing his emotion in terms of being able to attack JBL for everything that happens, how much he hates JBL, and how much this match means to him. HBK did a very good job in general, they were able to build some sympathy for him and really it built up quite well to the end. JBL held up his end of the bargain, being dastardly and I especially liked the most tame chair spot ever, with JBL attempting to bait HBK into using a chair. The match between these brief moments of HBK awesomeness, it was JBL plodding along. The problem is that we all knew where it was going, the story only had one reasonable place to go and everything before the end felt like slow and plodding posturing and nothing more. ** ¼ Raw Elimination Chamber (Cena vs. Jericho vs. Mysterio vs. Kingston vs. Kane vs. Mike Knox): What a main event! The risky booking of the first Chamber match pays off unbelievably well here. The risky booking done earlier in terms of eliminating Edge early and having Edge force himself into this match, it all comes to fruition here. It plays off incredibly well. The middle portion with Jericho and Mysterio fighting off the two big monsters in this match (Kane, Knox) worked much better than Hardy getting a beat-down. Mysterio puts on a career performance making himself relevant as a main event for the first time in years. Cena getting a very surprising quick monster elimination, keeping him strong but playing into the irony of the champ being eliminated so quickly. It all works here and it all makes for an entertaining match that’s never boring, never plodding, just as unpredictable, and cohesive. The early work build Jericho and Mysterio as possible winners as they work together to take out the monsters (doing more for the monsters here than the long beatdown earlier) and after Cena gets eliminated, its really a crap shoot of who could win. Another early MOTY contender from the Raw elimination chamber at No Way Out. **** ¼ Final Thoughts: The middle hour is quite plodding but it’s hard to give this a bad rating when its bookended by two exciting matches that mirror each other. It’s better than the Royal Rumble, it’s got an excellent story with Edge running throughout, and an early MoTYC in the Raw elimination chamber. 8.0/10 I’m not going to be reading anything in here until after I finish Mania which looks to be building terribly but also looks somewhat satisfying in terms of match quality. Top WWE PPV Matches of 09: 1. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 09) - **** ¼ 2. Smackdown Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 09) - *** ½ 3. Royal Rusmble (Royal Rumble 09) - *** ¼ 4. Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (Royal Rumble 09) - ***

I'm still on a detour from finishing up Miller's Daredevil with the Born Again TPB... I read Deadpool #1, the beginning of the new series by Daniel Way, it seemed like an odd way to begin a series, starting in the middle of the Secret Invasion, but in the end I rather liked it. It was rather enjoyable and I laughed pretty hard a couple of times. Sure the book seemed to lean towards being funny and it didn't quite seem to have the ability to balance the seriousness with the humor like Joe Kelly did, but I liked it enough to give the TPB a shot (which is up at DCBS this month). 8/10 Also read Punisher Max vol 1, In the Beginning... which is the start of Garth Ennis' run under the Max branch. I read his Marvel Knights 12 issue run and while I enjoyed it, I though it was also too goofy at times. I had heard this was more serious and darker in tone so i decided to give this a look. And I found that this was serious and darker and tone. I liked it, but then I also felt like something missing. There's not a whole lot of depth, and I think that's a problem with the Punisher character itself, and it's the limitations of the character are shown in the first arc. I think that may be the problem and I can't imagine myself reading this too long before getting tired of it. Again it was what it needed to be, and Ennis offsets that darkness with just the right amount of humor here, but I don't know at the same time, I think I have a problem with the character's limitations. 7.5/10 Total: Comic books: 9 Trade paperbacks: 17 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3; The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power); Batman: Year One; Batman: The Long Halloween; Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories), vol. 2 (The Fourth Man), and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials); Planetary 19-26; Batman: The Man Who Laughs; Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear; RONIN; JOKER; Deadpool #1; Punisher Max vol. 1;

I don't disagree, but I think it's one of those books that grows on you over time. I'd compare it to Blade Runner - the first couple of times through I really didn't care for it because it seemed so bleak, dry and emotionless. In subsequent viewings, though, I slowly started to fall in love with it. Now it's one of my favorite movies. I wouldn't quite say the same about Ronin, but I definitely think there's more to enjoy if you can get past that first reading. Miller's artwork really is revolutionary in that book, too. There was nothing even close to that in the mainstream market at the time it was published. Miller's artwork is the thing that I recognized and enjoyed the MOST in this book. With Blade Runner, it's been many many years (about 8), and while I thought it was dull the first (and only) time I watched it, I also understand that I may not have been mature enough (at 16 or so) to really have understood the movie. With Ronin, I felt just drained by the book, the pacing was way too slow, and while the story was fine,if a bit stereotypical in theme, it was just extended too long. I read JOKER today by Azzarello This was excellent, I really enjoyed it. It's another re imagining of the Joker, this time from a lackey's perspective. While a lack of action, the story stays afloat as you are not only learning about the Joker but also about the criminal world around him and also about the lackey himself. The art and the story in a wya really takes a page from the Dark Knight film, taking on that tone and style while still making it feel different. The ending message seems a little out of place, and out of thin air, but it makes sense in a way. The ground the book covers isn't entirely new, but different. I'm upset that I didn't pick this up myself as it's a great companion to Alan Moore's The Killing Joke, and Brubaker's The Man Who Laughs. 9.5/10

I think he should scale it back to one villain or maybe one major villain and a minor villain taken on early on. Wouldn't if the movie starts with a fight joined in progress. I'm putting in my vote to introduce Kraven and have Spidey fight Lizard in #4, and do Kraven's last stand, I love that book, in #5.

I still have mine as well, but I may pick up another one because I think mine is starting to have problems with the laser and it's giving me disc read error (but I'm running it upside down now and it works perfectly fine for some reason). Man I look back and this system easily has the best library of any video game system ever, I have so many games and there's still a ton that I'm not into (lots of sports games and RPGs) and a ton I have yet to play.

RONIN So I took a little detour from Frank Miller's Daredevil to check out this little baby, which my buddy had picked up on a whim. He said he never finished it and after finishing it, I really understand why, it's terribly DULL. While the book is revolutionary at times in its art, setting the stage for what Miller later did in Dark Knight Returns, and it exposes the Japanese anime/manga world to a whole new audience, the plot never really got off the ground. The plot was long and boring, and rather rudimentary in terms of its basic themes (sci-fi futuristic computers taking over, evil corporations, dystopian future, militaristic forces owned by the corporations), it also was a really long book. It just kept going, and I was just really bored by it all. I'm not saying there aren't some good elements here, Miller really is able to combine all the typical sci-fi elements with the Japanese culture without making it feel forced and awkward, also the art can be downright awesome sometimes (especially showing off the quick swordplay) and at other times it was downright ugly. Overall, I really didn't like this book, there are good things, but there's also a ton of bad, it's an interesting read in terms of seeing how Frank Miller's carreer progressed, but anything else, it's not that great. 6/10 Total: Comic books: 8 Trade paperbacks: 15 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3 The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials), Planetary 19-26, Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, RONIN,

Been playing Scarface: The World Is Yours on PS2 since the new year began. I'm about 2/3s of the way through, I think. It's basically a GTA clone but whatever it's fun and it's keeping me busy every once in a while until I can afford an X-box 360 or PS3 (and decide which one I want). Also been stocking on PS2 games that I never got trying to find good deals on e-bay, so far I've bought Sly Cooper 1, and Spider-man 2. Also interested in picking up the rest of the Sly Cooper series (I really enjoy platformers) as well as ICO (if I could find it), Psi-ops, and the Warriors.

Finished Season 2 of Spectacular Spider-man and honestly, it's probably the best Marvel show ever. It hits all the right notes almost all of the time (outside of the flub that was Venom in Season 1, episode 13, but even that is carefully fixed). Easily the best rendition of the Green Goblin, the best action sequence comparable to the film version, and the juggles a great supporting cast, tons of villains, romantic subplots, season long arcs, and story of the week with ease.

I finished Batman Beyond Season 1, my first time watching it. While it's enjoyable and it frankly got better as it went along, There are few times when I enjoy it as much I enjoyed the original Batman animated series (which I also watched again recently about a year and a half ago). There are some gems in Beyond though, the episode with Mr. Freeze was absolutely fantastic and really brought the story full circle if you ignore the ridiculous spider-head freeze episode. The episode about love vs. duty, Dead Man's Hand, was also really good and one of my favorites, and a loved the little crack at the end "Did I ever tell you about Selina Kyle." Some other good episodes were Heroes where they satired the Fantastic Four was also an interesting episode, along with Spellbound and a Touch of Curare. What I didn't like is the heavy emphasis on the corparate crime theme, I really can't stand that theme and it permeates throughout much of the first season, almost everything dealing with Powers was boring to me and I didn't really care about it much. I'm going to keep watching in the hopes that it gets better. If I'm still not feeling it half-way through season 2, I'm going to drop it and move on to Justice League (which I haven't watched either).

Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear Just after I finished reading Frank Miller's original run, I decided to jump into this trade that is basically a "Year One" version of Miller's original Daredevil run. Ultimately it was a lot of fun, it plays off of the mythos that Miller used in his original run, giving more depth to Matt Murdock's formative years, how he met his mentor Stick, his first encounters with Elektra, and the Fisk's original reign of the Kingpin of Crime. It works best as a character study of Matt Murdock, exploring how he developed psyche, and exploring his his trials and tribulations in dealing with first love, first loss, controlling emotion, balancing unrelenting ruthlessness with laws, and dealing with things that plagued him in his early years. The art for this book is amazing and John Romita Jr. has an great cinematic quality about him, and great attention to detail without cluttering the page. The bad, some of the story just didn't work, in terms of pacing, some of the Stick scenes didn't work for me because it seemed like Miller was trying to force the mystical ninja issues and the ninja war that didn't feel organic here, I also don't like the changes to Elektra and Murdock's relationship with Elektra with Elektra being kind-of a psycho from the beginning. I never saw Elektra as psychotic in his original run, sure she had a penchant for violence, but she was also torn in terms of Murdock and it seemed that Murdock was more of a calming presence in their adult life, while he was more of the risk-taker in the younger life. Here, Murdock is excited by Elektra because her style is so foreign, because she is so on the edge and it exacerbates his own desire to be on the edge, also Elektra is comparably as maniacal as Bullseye here. I didn't like her character here it didn't see to fit quite as well. I know that Miller's first DD writing issue was the Elektra one and that he later developed her into a more violent character as the series went along, so I guess this is him in a way retconning that first issue, in that it didn't come out nearly as well as he liked. Still an excellent book, maybe on a later re-read I'll get over the whole Elektra deal which is the biggest blemish, but for now it still botherd me a lot. 8.8/10 Total: Comic books: 8 Trade paperbacks: 14 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3 The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials), Planetary 19-26, Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Frank Miller's Daredevil: The Man Without Fear,

Royal Rumble 09 I’m back with the first PPV of 09. The video package was a fun little package, showcasing the history of the Rumble before moving onto this years participants, and then it takes a swerve and focuses on the Randy Orton kicking McMahon angle. I’m not exactly sure what the purpose of this angle was as at the last PPV I saw Orton was busy dealing with Batista and his stable. Also, highlighting only Orton in the package is a big mistake, especially if they’re planning to give Orton the W in the main event. It takes away a lot of the surprise, intrigue, and randomness of the winner. Matt Hardy vs. Jack Swagger: So apparently Hardy lost the title to this young gun, Jack Swagger, who is making his PPV debut. This was a decent opener. This is my first exposure to Swagger, so I can’t really make a judgment on him yet, but I can say that he’s pretty smooth in the ring for someone who’s only been around for five months. His repertoire isn’t nearly established yet, and it’s obvious against Matt who has like 6 signature moves. Swagger worked decent body-part psychology and Matt made well-timed comebacks. I hated the ending though, especially after working the arm all match, it was wasted work. Not bad. ** ½ The crowd is way into it tonight, so hopefully they stay that way. Beth Phoenix vs. Melina: Melina’s back from surgery, she looked rather terrible here and seemed to be way off the mark, moving at half speed, with tons of awkwardness. Beth did an excellent job, as expected, making most of this match a showcase of power versus speed. Although Beth did some impressive things, and Melina almost broke her neck (and back) it wasn’t bad, but overall it was really disjointed and not that good either. Really disappointed by who went over, as well. ** HBK/JBL talking backstage: More build for the title match coming up. The promos have all been good for this so far, it’s just really hard to believe in the angle. Especially when HBK makes more in a month than most of the audience makes in a whole year. John Cena vs. JBL (w/ HBK): HBK as JBL’s lackey due to financial reasons makes no sense when you take into account that HBK is making big money at WWE. But ignoring the numbers (which is very difficult to do) and taking the angle as is, it’s an interesting story and something fresh. Really the best way to look at it, is one of HBK’s tests from throughout the year, and solely as a character building storyline. Cena and JBL have faced each other many times before with varying results from mildly entertaining (I Quit) to disastrous (Mania 21) to downright goofy (Parking Lot Brawl) and with the emphasis of this match being the decision Shawn has to make, I expected it to be a dull affair until the finish. It seems like I was right, most of the match was unmemorable, everything memorable involved HBK. The announcers played up how distracting HBK is just standing there for Cena, well he’s distracting for the viewer as well. The match did a good job keeping intrigue surrounding HBK and keeping the focus off of the actual ringwork, which was fine but completely forgettable. From an angle perspective, the finish was great, and a ton of fun. The problem is that everything leading up to it was completely forgettable. I don’t really know how to grade this, because while it was a match that played out more like a segment. Jeff Hardy vs. Edge: I was expecting a good match, when Vickie came out added the no-dq stipulation, I was expecting a great match. What I got was a decent one. Sure the ladder spot was awesome, but outside of that I don’t think they really took advantage of the stipulation and I wish it was never announced. I liked that Hardy was more motivated to go after Edge due to the belief that Edge was responsible for causing all of Hardy’s recent misfortunes. Matt Hardy turning on his brother was out of nowhere, with absolutely no build or even an inkling of foreshadowing. Why would Matt Hardy be fighting off Koslov to honor his brother last month if he was planning all these other schemes in the meantime? What this needs is a really good promo, and I don’t believe Matt could deliver it. Although Matt Hardy really needed the fresh angle as he was getting stale, Jeff certainly didn’t need it. *** Royal Rumble: I was really liking this Rumble in the beginning (up to about #12). Then they started piling in the wrestlers. Without a lot of room to showcase any single wrestler or any feuds because it’s so full in the ring, it just got really dull. It was an interesting booking risk by filling up the ring, and only doing a few eliminations until after #30 entered. The match just kind of limped along, and I kind of spaced out until after #30 came in. It got a little bit better. They did some nice things along the way, I really liked the first 8 men, that was planned very well, with a lot of natural athletes being showcased. John Morrison did an excellent job in the early going. I’m surprised they didn’t make a big deal out of Rey’s elimination (which looked like a complete accident by the way), especially with him being there for so long. The final six was booked quite well, although I’m sad to see Taker and Big Show still going at it (I’m over them feuding by now). Other little things that I liked, with some comments about each: · Cody facing off with Goldust, it is a tease that they’re family, but it’s also showing how arrogant Cody Rhodes has gotten and the difference between the two brothers making their way in the WWE. Why was Cody so hesitant? Because Dustin is a second generation superstar, but Goldust smacks Cody ending that idea, which firmly separates Dustin from Goldust and Goldust from Cody. · CM Punk and Big Show was fun, put over Punk’s persistence big time and at the same time of putting over Big Show’s power right hand. · RVD as the big surprise entrant, just cool for a one time thing. · CM Punk tearing it up with HHH ending in a Go to Sleep, actually I was quite surprised how much HHH was giving so much offense up to a lot of people, EXCEPT Brian Kendrick who he eliminated quite swiftly. · RKO fest, I love how they constantly put over how fast, how quick, and how sudden this move is. · MizMo being eliminated together, just because I’ve never seen that happen before, also I’m glad they didn’t try and pull that one partner accidentally throws out the other shit, it’s too cliché. · Jericho’s huge shit eating grin after eliminating RVD and then facing off with Taker, Jericho is such a huge shit and has done some dastardly shit in 2008, so he’s going to hell, and who better to give him his comeuppance than Taker. · Santino breaking the record for shortest entry, I hope next year’s video shows this…because this may be shorter than Warlord. · Dolph Ziggler at #27? The number that has the most winners, goes to some no-name. Really, Who the fuck is this guy! · Regal (looking like he’s) stiffing the shit out of Punk. It makes me wonder whether there matches were any good. So were they? · I also liked the Legacy being showcased as they triple teamed many superstars and the final six was pretty superb. The match put over Orton like a superstar and in that case it succeeded. I’ve liked Orton for a while now and I thought his last title reign was excellent, it just seems that WWE is finally starting to see that the man is the real future of the business, one of the most bankable stars they have, and should not be treated like an afterthought. Excellent beginning, pretty dull middle, good finale after number 30 comes in. *** ¼ Final Thoughts: As expected from the Road to Wrestlemania this was a good show, but not a great show. This show succeeded in that it really put over new storylines (HBK, the Legacy, and the Hardy Boyz) but as far as actual ring work, I thought the show was rather lacking. We got a great moment for Orton, who really feels like he’s on his way to superstardom here. 7.0 EXTRAS: There’s an interview with RVD after the Royal Rumble, RVD is happy to be there and outright says it’s a one-time thing, blasting “other promotions” (TNA) saying he belongs with the best…something like that. He kind of bugs me to be honest. Also included is what looks like the ending segment with Orton, Steph, the Legacy, the ENTIRE Raw locker room, and Shane. It’s annoying that Shane has an easier time taking on all three members of Legacy compared to HHH at the Rumble. Other than that, I liked the promos war between Orton and Steph. Seems like an interesting angle and kind of the reverse of the old 98 Austin/McMahon war where the heel is the wrestler and the face is the boss. Top WWE PPV Matches of 09: Royal Rumble (Royal Rumble 09) - *** ¼ Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (Royal Rumble 09) - *** The card for No Way Out looks like shit by the way.

I read Batman: the Man Who Laughs this weekend. To my surprise I had no knowledge that The Man Who Laughs was only the first story of the book. I really enjoyed the Man Who Laughs, it was a great interpretation of the Joker, it included a lot of great traits, including the media hungry version. There's a lot of similarity to the recent film in terms of how Joker supplies the world with Chaos and anarchy and all that while Batman and Gordon represents order (two different types of order). The second story "Made of Wood" I didn't enjoy as much, it really brought out the detective side of Batman (which was all good) but the story just didn't resonate with me. The story was a team-up book with Batman and the original Green Latern after Gordon has retired, it was about how people perceive what a hero is, what makes a hero, and what happens when that perception is distorted. It had thematic elements that flowed close to the Man Who Laughs story but the story itself was a little bit more low key, a little bit slower. The reveal, climax didn't do much for me, the build was more entertaining. First story is 9, second is an 7.5, lets take it and say 8.25/10 Next up more of Frank Miller's Daredevil, I've got the Born Again and The Man Without Fear Hardcovers to burn through. After that, I don't know what I'm gonna decide, I've got Y the Last Man TPBs 1-7, Whedon's Astonishing X-men Hardcovers, and Walking Dead TPBs 1-8 just sitting around. Total: Comic books: 8 Trade paperbacks: 13 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3 The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials), Planetary 19-26, Batman: The Man Who Laughs

Disney: Lion King Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Aladdin Piixar: Incredibles Monster's INC. Toy Story

Over the past couple months, I've read Frank Miller's first Daredevil run from beginning to end. It's pretty damn spectacular. You can see how good Miller has gotten from his first issue (introduction to Elektra) to his last issue (Roulette). Not only does his run build the main character spectacularly well, but so many supporting characters get pulled to the forefront...Foggy, Ben Urich, Black Widow, Kingpin, Heather, the Gladiator, heck even Turk from Josie's bar, Elektra, The Hand, Stick, soo many different elements are pulled in here. Bullseye completely changes from a hired gun into a psychotic madman. This is an epic epic run that I'm so glad I got to read. 10/10 I'm going to read some of the extras, which is a What if..., a one shot, and Daredevil: Love and war. Total: Comic books: 8 Trade paperbacks: 12 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1, 2, and 3 The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials), Planetary 19-26

2008 Spectacular Final Review So as you all know, I’ve been posting my thoughts on the WWE PPVs of 2008 or, for some of you, spamming this particular thread. I recently finished watching 2008, and I think, 1 person asked me to do an entire wrap-up of 2008 as a whole. And because I entertain/annoy the masses I took him up on his offer. Now remember all I can go by is PPVs so when I talk about promos that they used to build up a match, most of the time I’m talking about the pieces I get in video packages. So onto the final thoughts: Other Stories: HHH vs. Kozlov – Obviously, this was terrible, they tried to take Kozlov and make him a main eventer in as short a period of time as possible. He wasn’t ready for it, none of the audience members bought it and were far more interested in seeing Jeff Hardy than Kozlov. He wasn’t ready to be in the matches he was in, none of the audience wanted to see him in those matches, and it ultimately led to some terrible matches with the audience sitting on their hands as the wrestlers tried to do something. Grade: F Matt Hardy’s US/ECW Champion/EVIL-DOER – Certainly this wasn’t bad, but it was just unfocused. Matt Hardy was solid all year and is perfect as a mid-card wrestler. He gets the crowd on their feet and puts on solid matches. He had good matches with Mark Henry and told a decent big man/little man story for the ECW title. In the end, its unfortunate that they went for the shock turn then one that makes sense. Grade: C- Mid-card: The mid-card got a lot of exposure this year, with MizMo, Priceless, Cryme Tyme, Shelton Benjamin, The Kendrick, Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston, MVP, CM Punk and others becoming more visible throughout the year whether it’s through title matches (like on Night of Champions) whether it’s through many multi-man matches (Unforgiven did wonders for many of these guys), or whether it’s through interaction with the main event players (Cryme Tyme got involved with Cena, Priceless obviously with Randy Orton), they all seemed to get a little bit more of that much needed exposure on PPV this year. I still think it’ll be more than a year before any of these guys break from the pack, although the closest seems to be Matt Hardy. But I also think most of these guys need at least another year before they’re ready to reach the upper echelons. Grade: B Major stories: JBL comes back and he still sucks – 2008 saw the in-ring return of JBL. JBL who had been doing a very good job at the announce table decided to lace the boots up one more time. He basically played the gate-keeper of the World Title for most of the year, being the man to beat before Cena can challenge for the title, being the man to beat before Batista can challenge for the title, being the man to beat to help legitimize CM Punk as champion. But he never really added anything exciting in-ring wise, he’s been able to play his role well in bigger pictures (the Elimination Chamber, the 4-way at Backlash) but he’s also decidedly average in regular matches. There’s no doubt he can brawl, and he had a couple borderline good matches with Cena, but ultimately I’d rather see him not be in matches so much and use his mouth more. He’s been a precise placeholder, giving John Cena something to do while HHH and CM Punk are in the title picture. I’m not exactly sure why they paired him up with Cena, they don’t have much chemistry and I often feel like they’re talking past each other. Their matches were abysmal (Parking Lot Brawl) to borderline decent. Certainly JBL is hardly the worst, but none of them take up nearly as much screen time as JBL has this year. If anything, JBL does provide good promos and garners nasty heel heat through them. Also his most recent storyline appearing in the last two PPVs with HBK is intriguing and also includes good promo work. GRADE: D+ Rey does a whole lot of nothing – Rey is just a shell of his former self now. His year started decent as he was paired up with Edge. He had a good, yet underwhelming match. He then got injured and spent most of the year recovering before returning to feud with Kane. They were saddled with a stupid storyline (what else do you expect with how Kane is booked), had very little chemistry, and provided more underwhelming matches. It’s not that the mask story was uninteresting (I mean Eddie told a whole story with Rey about that mask) it’s that they didn’t set it up, and didn’t sell it properly. It was stupid from the beginning and was aborted because of it. The two best things Rey did was first play up his tag team history with Batista and then make a pin attempt on his former partner at Unforgiven scramble match and the second was have a really good unexpected match with CM Punk, fighting tooth and nail to get the crowd on their feet. GRADE: C- Cena returns TWICE – In a way the year began and ended with John Cena, with two major returns, the first one surprised the shit out of everybody at the Royal Rumble, and the second one at Survivor Series in his hometown in a title match was probably a big draw. Probably the worst part of Cena’s year is that he got saddled with JBL in not one but 4 matches. The two men have very little chemistry and these matches really overexposed Cena. When he wasn’t fighting JBL, Cena did do a good job playing the baby face in chase, as he chased the title for part of the year. Frankly I enjoyed most of his performances on that end, partly because he was facing off against some of my favorites, and in part because he’s a solid very capable wrestler. I really enjoyed the match with HHH at Night of Champions, for me that was Cena’s best match of the year, it told a good story that played off of the previous encounter and both characters. GRADE: C CM Punk goes to Denny’s and gets a grand slam breakfast – CM Punk jumped from title to title, this year, winning the ECW title, MITB, World Title, Tag-team titles, and apparently on his way to win the Intercontinental title. I’m pretty sure CM Punk is the quickest grand-slam champion of all time. His direction has been lacking and his booking has been borderline abysmal. He was plugged in at the last minute to win the MITB when Hardy dropped out, he won the World Title just by shock value (although the way he won was pretty ingenious, very full circle for Edge to get screwed especially out of screwing two other people the same way), and I never saw the Tag-team title win but it seemed pretty hacked together, but the Intercontinental title win seemed like it got some build to it. But everything he’s done all year seemed like a fluke, he was booked like a fluke champion, he lost the title in a fluke, and he’s been pushed to the background (even when he was champion) for most of the year. He never really had a chance to show off his promo skills (except one that was taped and was so good that they had to show it on PPV), and he never really got the chance to tell a story with his feuds as they’ve all been cut short. His wrestling work has seriously improved as he has been having good matches with Mysterio, Batista, Jericho (on Raw) and playing his part well in some multi-man matches. The best thing Punk has been able to do is run with the fluke champion story and he really had a great match with Batista around that story, where he was able to prove within a single match that he deserved to be champion and taking Batista to the limit. It’s unfortunate that all that work building Punk’s credibility was degraded a few moments later by the ending and after-match shenanigans. GRADE: C Batista continuously gets screwed out of the title – Batista was pretty erratic this year, not really having a clear direction and being plugged at random points. Throughout 2008, he was in and out of the title picture, feuded with Shawn, feuded with Orton, had a one-off match with both Cena and Umaga. He got screwed on a lot of big first-time matches (with Cena and Orton) that really could have co-main-evented Wrestlemania with the right build but instead were used as one-off matches with nearly 0 build. As a result, both of those matches were incredibly underwhelming. As shown the booking was erratic and it was unclear what they were doing with Batista, and to this day, it is still unclear. It felt like they were turning Batista very slowly with him getting continuously screwed out of the title (vs. Edge at Night of Champions, vs. Punk at Great American Bash, the scramble at Unforgiven), him getting more aggressive in matches (Stretcher Match, Batista Bomb on Cena) but that all disappeared when he won the title for a week at Cyber Sunday. So like I said very erratic booking with Batista. Nonetheless he’s been solid in all his matches (except where he phoned it in against Umaga), having a good match with CM Punk that nobody expected, and he also got the benefit of being in a feud with Shawn, which produced another two good matches. GRADE: C+ Randy Orton – That’s all you need to know, Randy F’n Orton. He went from playing second fiddle to Cena/HHH to becoming an amazing heel (pretty much just through PROMO work), achieving new heights that we saw the potential of during his feud with Foley. He started off the year as a great heel in feuds with Jeff Hardy, Cena, and Triple H but the booking wasn’t entirely behind him. Nobody thought he would win, he wasn’t booked as a massive heel, more like a very lucky heel who only scrapes by. The moment a face HHH won the title from him, something lacked, he wasn’t quite as awesome and while the matches were okay…they were missing something. He got injured, but even before his in-ring return, he started making appearances for months. Through his promo work, his interaction with Priceless, with CM Punk, and several other superstars he was slowly becoming a threat. His kick to the face on Punk knocking him out of a title match was the first inkling of what was to come. The match with Batista was a mistake, but I have seen the Rumble 09, and I do know that he bounces back from that like crazy and this time the booking seems to be behind him. GRADE: B- Vickie’s and her minions (Edge/Big Show/La Familia) take over Smackdown – This was essentially at its core an evil authority figure and it’s minions taking on a long-loved wrestler (Undertaker). When it stuck to it’s core, it was honestly rather good. The problem was that it didn’t stick to its core, it decided to make the story about Edge vs. Vickie, two heels that gained monster heat. Everybody else played as a backdrop to that story for a while and when Edge finally returned, it was all ignored (as far as I can tell), never to be mentioned again. Why would Vickie reinstate the Undertaker to practically kill Edge if she was only going to hook back up with Edge again? Sure there was some down points but Undertaker vs. La Familia saga was tremendous, with Edge doing everything he can to be one step ahead of the Undertaker, to take out Undertaker and when he finally accomplishes that his friends (Vickie) decide they need to bring the Undertaker back just to get revenge on Edge. Then after Undertaker served his purpose and sends Edge to hell, Vickie realized Undertaker is a thorn in her side once again and hires Big Show. The matches were all pretty good to rather excellent (except for the blemish that is the Casket match) and it was a spin on the now classic, face vs. authority figure story. The matches between Undertaker and Edge, and Undertaker and Show certainly lacked something the more rematches they had, as they began to either lose some of the technical excellence and story-telling ability going for tiresome spotfests (One Night Stand TLC) or got too goofy and were straight boring (Aftermath of HITC and Casket Match). Overall, when the feud was good it was good, when this feud got a bit sidetracked and domestic drama took away from the in-ring drama, it was lacking. GRADE: B Jeff Hardy NEW World Heavyweight Champion – You can say that the year started and ended with Cena, but it also started and ended with this Jeff Hardy as Hardy has been completely full circle in one year’s time. Late 2007, he was fighting HHH for a title shot, in early 2008 he got that title shot, and after falling out of existence due to a Wellness failure problem, he came back in openers, worked his way back, and finally, in late 2008, he won the title. It’s been a year long chase for Jeff Hardy, and for the most part they’ve booked the chase very well. They’ve had a lot of full-circle, with Jeff having to face off against HHH to win the title, the same man he beat in order to get his first title shot. Jeff has done some great work this year, most of it against HHH, and has had some very entertaining matches. Even his promos have improved, and you can tell the difference from the Royal Rumble to Armageddon promos. Probably my biggest gripes is the match he had with MVP that was terrible, and the fact that he didn’t beat HHH to win the title and instead pinned Edge in a triple threat match, I felt might put a blemish on his reign. But ultimately Jeff’s chase has been really enjoyable, his work with Umaga, MVP (outside of one match), and Orton were good, and anytime he was in the ring with HHH, he was able to produce gold. GRADE: B+ The last temptation of HBK – HBK had a really good year this year. He’s been in 6 out of the top 10 PPV matches of 2008, he’s been in the best storylines of the year, and his character has been put to the test and pushed to the limit. If you were to go by the first couple of months, you would think that this would be an off year for HBK, he didn’t do much in the Rumble, he had an understated role in the Chamber, and he didn’t really have any direction. Then during his build-up to the match at Mania with Flair, and during the actual match itself, he began to tread the thin line between black and white. Sure the end quote situated himself as a torn man and *probably babyface. This then flowed into a feud with Batista, where HBK was confronted with the fact that he didn’t do the right thing. HBK teased being heel even more during this feud, and this wasn’t the torn man who didn’t know what to do, this was deliberate heel actions. The biggest problem is that the fans weren’t really sure how to react to HBK when he was tweener, teasing heel, and mostly sat in silence and frankly it felt like the booking was scared off by this reaction. So they continued the torn man storyline, making HBK firmly a face and Jericho firmly the heel, but allowing the gray area because the feud was so personal. They had a tremendous series of matches before HBK moved onto another temptation by JBL, and it flowed because HBK was on the brink of morality all year long. What was so great about HBK’s year is not only was he the best in-ring performer, but his stories flowed almost naturally from one to the other: each one pushing HBK to the brink, testing him more and more. GRADE: A Jericho: a real heel – As good as HBK was, Jericho was better and more consistent in character and just as good in the ring. Jericho has had a hell of year. It was a year that no one expected him to have. He dropped all the goofiness of his character and went off the deep end with the heel nature. Looking back at the Rumble and his match with JBL, you could see that Jericho was leaning his character towards a more serious nature. The shift started off slowly, just being a grinning instigator in the Batista/HBK issue before coming around and taking on the role full force. Jericho was really good at conveying that he was a heel that truly believed he was right. Not only was his character on fire all year, but his work in the ring has been considerably good. Whether working with HBK, JBL, Batista, Cena, he’s had pretty much enjoyable matches all year. His series with HBK, hit all the different types of matches, each one telling a different story from the one before. I think Jericho has been great and has easily been the top heel in the company this year, and probably the top superstar. His character has provided the best feud of the year and the best story in terms of his hatred for Shawn, his belief that the fans are hypocrites, his belief in himself as righteous, his title win and his belief that he is the only one righteous enough to carry the title, it’s all been pure gold and it’s all flowed in well from one story to the next. And hopefully he can stop talking about how he beat Rock and Austin in the same night, and start talking about how he was the superstar of the year in 2008 and has slammy award to prove it. GRADE: A Ric Flair gets retired – Just by watching it on the PPV’s it didn’t seem all that spectacular, the reasoning behind the stipulation seemed forgotten and the guy fought in nothing undercard matches at the Royal Rumble and at No Way Out. I kind of got the feeling nobody in the WWE knew how it was going to go. But suddenly something changed; they plugged Shawn into the story of Flair’s retirement. Everything just clicked from there. Flair was game both physically, mentally, charismatically, and emotionally for his last hurrah. Frankly, it was all gold, taking a timeless classic of Old Yeller and making it into a wrestling story. Not that I’ve ever seen Old Yeller mind you. But the story here was excellent nonetheless. The match they developed, fell perfectly in line with the story, providing my WWE MOTY. Grade: A PPV Ratings (by Chronological) Royal Rumble – 8/10 No Way Out – 8/10 Mania 24 – 9.5/10 Backlash – 8.5/10 Judgment Day – 6.5/10 One Night Stand – 5.5/10 Night of Champions – 6.0/10 Great American Bash – 5.5/10 Summerslam – 6.5/10 Unforgiven – 8.5/10 No Mercy – 9/10 Cyber Sunday – 7.5/10 Survivor Series – 3/10 Armageddon – 7/10 Top PPVs: The third best PPV is technically a tie between Backlash and Unforgiven but I think ties are cheap, so I’m giving this to Unforgiven. Backlash was basically a series of rematches from Mania, but on the other hand, Unforgiven had a strong emotional story of Jericho having one of the worst nights of his life (by being brutalized in an excellent match with Shawn) to one of the best (by winning the World Title). Everything else at Unforgiven is also rather enjoyable, the show gave plenty of younger wrestlers to shine in the scramble match, nothing is unbearable, and even the worst segment (the Big Show/Taker segment) is kind of cool. Unforgiven also has a sense of freshness and prepares the viewer for the rest of the year with Randy Orton’s PPV return in segments, to the villainous Jericho title reign, to Jeff Hardy’s newfound push. It kind of set the tone of how the WWE was going to be for the rest of 2008. No Mercy comes in as the second best PPV of the year. This easily gets the prize because it’s the culmination of the best feud of the year: Of course I’m talking about…Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry. I kid, I kid. This show contained an amazing double main event with the one two punch of Jeff Hardy’s second one on one world title shot and the Ladder match between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. It also has a pretty good undercard with the aforementioned ECW title feud, the first Big Show/Taker encounter, and a really good segment involving a whole bunch of other middle-card talent. Mania 24 is our PPV of the year and how can it not be with the match covering all types of wrestling styles and all types of sports entertainment. The show had a brawl, had a high-flying spotfest, had a technical showdown, a gimmicky sports-entertainment segment, surprises, a new title reign that set the pace for the first half of the year, the PPV Match of the Year, and the most emotional farewell of one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ½ 2. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unforgiven 08) - **** ¼ 3. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ¼ 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** ¼ 5. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (No Mercy 08) - **** 6. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 7. Triple H vs Jeff Hardy (No Mercy 08) - **** 8. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 9. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (Armageddon 08) - *** ¾ 10. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 11. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 12. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 13. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 14. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 15. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 16. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 17. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 18. Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 19. Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk (Armageddon 08) - *** ½ 20. John Cena vs. Chris Jericho (Armageddon 08) - *** ½ Honorable Mentions: 21. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 22. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 23. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ 24. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 25. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ MOTY Players: Shawn Michaels – 7 appearances Chris Jericho - 7 appearances HHH – 6 appearances Jeff Hardy – 5 appearances John Cena – 5 appearances Edge – 5 appearances Undertaker – 4 appearances Batista – 4 appearances Randy Orton – 3 CM Punk - 3 JBL – 2 Matt Hardy – 2 Rey Mysterio – 1 Evan Bourne –1 I’m not really going to go through all of the matches again. Instead I’m going to touch on a commonality, make short remark, if you will. I’m looking up and down this list and I see a huge variation of types of matches, some of the matches can be classified as spotfests, some of them were technically proficient and were just worked well, some of the matches told a good story and some of them told a great story. But the cream of the crop of them were matches that I believed in, that I bought into the story, I bought into the characters, and made me root for one wrestler over the other. Emotional investment, having the fan’s care, it’s the bread and butter of the WWE. It was a streamlined way of watching WWE and didn’t overwhelm me like when I was watching Raw and Smackdown every week (which slowed after Eddie’s death and came to a halt after Benoit’s death). I never felt lost that often, and the few times I did it came during the draft change or when a midcard match would appear. Overall I really enjoyed the PPVs of 2008, sure there were some bad ones, and sure there were some decidedly average ones but there was some awesome ones as well. Ultimately though it felt like a really good year all around with some very compelling stories being told. And although there weren’t excellent matches all year, the shows had more than their fair share of good matches and felt more solid than usual.

Can somebody tell me what's up with Hitman? I've seen it on a lot of people's lists and I want to know why?

Planetary 19-26: This series is insane. Ellis was able to make a comic book that pays homage to all genres of film, literature, and comic book lore. All that along with creating genuine new characters and an overall arc of the world. It feels so real that you actually start to think that the shit in this book exists, but at the same time the book never decreases the fun quotient. This particular group takes on some western legends, the concept of the alien, more James Bond/Nick Fury homages along with really fleshing out the history of the four and the Drummer character. 10/10 Total: Comic books: 8 Trade paperbacks: 11 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials), Planetary 19-26