Professor

Who likes sprinkled donuts anyways? They are always the last ones left in the box. Everyone opens the box wanting a donut, see sprinkles, lets out a crushing sigh and then gets something from the vending machine.

I took a quick look and Snuka is still listed as a HOFer on the website. I see them quietly removing him from there in the next week. The Hogan thing was a quicker reaction due to him being featured on TV each week when the news broke. I cannot remember the last time we saw Snuka.

John Wick - Now that was a fine film right there.

Brandi Bare - To quote Des, not very good. Sister Armageddon (Vol. 2) - Only two issues long and clearly only a Vol 2 due to publisher change. Think this would have been better had I had these when I read Vol 1. Moon Girl - Interesting idea, no so good story and bad art. I can tell it is good art, but everything is so damn dark that it makes no difference. Shame. Phantom Lady and Doll Man - An uninteresting origin story that I've read so many times. And an ending that doesn't make any sense for a very causal DC reader. Catching up on Batman '66 - Still a fun little book. Comics: 376 Digital First Comics: 65 Graphic Novels: 23 Trades: 130 (696)(4)(144)

True Lies - I know that I have watched this before, and I remembered surprisingly a lot. What struck me on this viewing is the length. The middle 40 minutes (which focus on Curtis) are rather disjointed from the plot. Kinda felt like I started the movie, flipped to the tv and watched an episode of something while making dinner and then finished the movie. Still, it was entertaining. And man, I'm in love with Tia Carrere.

Today ends my 370 days without caffeine. I went with a Mexican Coke. Now I wait to see if my body decides this was a bad idea.

Get Jiro - Kinda dull. Going by nothing other than the cover and the blurb on the back, I expected a lot more action. So, yeah, too much talking. And I did notice until now that this was written by Anthony Bourdain. Random. Slow News Day - A run of the mill, completely average RomCom, but in a comic book. Incognegro - This was okay. Story went pretty much how a expected, with a couple of nice surprise twists added in for good measure. Yet this thing completely falls apart with the art. With a story about race, skin color and the main character's ability to pass for white, being in color would have been helpful. I just don't get the point of being B&W. It is halfway thru the book and I have no idea if the 2nd main character is black or white. The Kite Runner - Feels like it is missing chapters 4-8. Also feels autobiographical, which I seem to not be a fan of. Hit List - Not very good. Comics: 361 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 23 Trades: 130 (696)(4)(144)

Hearing your summary of A Single Samurai, it sounds like a really interesting idea. Sad that it seems like it wasn't idealized to its fullest potential.

Welp, SummerSlam just ended. And I learned a lesson. Never watch live. That was 4ish hours of okay. One of the matches ends with a completely random John Stewart heel turn. The main event was just bad. It didn't help that I watched nXt: Brooklyn this morning. Blew the main show out of the water. nXt had what may be my favorite match of this year in Bailey vs. Sasha Banks (Two Lucha Underground matched are at the top of the list as well). It had a crowd that was loud and never stopped. Might be the best show of the year (Ultimate Lucha could be the 1A or 1B, depending on the day). Oh, and I watched TNA in the afternoon. Hahahaha. It has gotten to the point of comedy again. I can appreciate that.

Mary Jane / Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane - I wanted something light and fluffy after all that Buffy stuff. This was certainly that. Not the target demo, but that is okay. These were okay. A little more The OC than I would have thought. And I can see a lot of similarities with The Spectacular Spider-Man. (Now that damn theme song is in my head. Wonderful.) Comics: 374 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 20 Trades: 132 (705)(4)(144)

I'd say Season 8 was better than both Season 9s, so take of that what you want. I'd say give the IDW Angel/Spike/Illyria stuff a chance. Out of all the comics, it feels the most like the show.

Never talk about your fantasy team. No one cares. True, but I am annoyed. Fantasy Football is coming up. Working out all the details of all the leagues and whatnot. In multiple leagues with the same core people so scheduling can be a bitch. We normally work it out. Our main (and longest lasting) league has been trying to get together a live, in person, no computer, big board on the wall draft together since the first year. It has never happened. The main sticking point has been one founding member being in the military and being elsewhere. Well he is back now. Last week, as group message went out and 8/10 of us all agreed to FINALLY get this done. Military guy is in and committed to showing up. Only thing that needed finalized was the time. Stupidly thinking the other two were locks. Now, a founding member is throwing what amounts to a hissyfit because we are changing rules and unfair this and unfair that. Excuse after excuse. If any of the excuses were valid, then I'd sympathize. But no, bullshit reasons. My favorite was 'if it was for money I'd be there, but since it is not, cannot happen.' So basically it boils down to "I don't want to. Wha!". Now the ultimatums are coming. Serious, fuck off now.

Buffy: Season 9 - I'll ignore the elephant in the room. What the hell? This is all over the place. No one feels right. I have no idea what they did to Xander. Characters are added and never really given a chance to become characters. Illyria shows up (awesome) but all the momentum from IDW is gone (not awesome). And the ending is a reset button to undo Season 8. Spike: A Dark Place - Best of the bunch. Given all the things they chose to ignore about the IDW run, Spike on a spaceship with alien bugs is kept. That amazes me. For whatever reason, Spike seems like the only character to feel right. Angel & Faith: Season 9 - So, this was 25 issues trying to undo Season 8. Sounds familiar. A Season 8, mind you, that this book constantly points out was stupid. Better than Buffy, but only slightly. Angel's characterization has just been a mess since the jump to Dark Horse. Willow: Wonderland - Read this last so I knew how this played out. I was alright. Still, instead of making new characters we go back to a guy who showed up in that one episode that one time. Buffy: Tales of the Vampires - Anthology book filled with short stories about random vampires. I liked this a lot more than expected. Two were standouts and the framing story was nice. The Sean Phillips art was the best of the lot. Buffy: Tales - Collects a bunch of things, including the above trades. The Tales of the Slayer portion was much of the same. Some hit, some miss. Enjoyable overall. Get Gene Colan on art for two stories (Yes, thank-you. More please). Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush - Hey something unrelated to vampires! And it sucked. Over my head or under my feet. Either way, I didn't get it. Comics: 361 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 20 Trades: 128 (685)(4)(144)

Booooooooo. Yeah, I know that was his character early on. But that doesn't mean you have to do that version of the character. Sam is my favorite X-Character, I just don't want him to be a joke when he shows up in a movie.

Boooooooooo.

Did a quick watch of Buffy/Angel. So I figured I give the post show comics a go. There sure are a lot. Spike: Into The Light - A rather nothing GN that is set before Buffy S7. It was the first thing I read and I barely remember it. Buffy: Season 8 - Yesh. Don't think I liked most of where the story goes. The bad kinda outweighs the good by a pretty good margin. Not entirely sure I understand what happened at the end either. And the art is a problem at times, at times I cannot tell who is who. Main issue is that this never felt like 'Season 8'. I never felt connected to the show. Angel: (Smile Time/A Hole In The World/Not Fade Away) - Pointless. More of less shot for shot recreations of the episodes. I can understand Not Fade Away being a sort of 0 issue for the main series, but even then, I doubt many non fans would be picking up an Angel series. Angel: After The Fall - I liked this run the most of the main series. For whatever reason, I am able to buy 'LA in Hell' as an actual continuation of the show in a way that I couldn't with Buffy. A bit of a 'convenient' ending, but whatever. Angel: Aftermath - New status quo established. Kinda like it. New characters. Let some others rest for a while. Freshens things up. Angel (The Rest of it) - Blah. No consistency. That new status quo I liked, never happened. Plus too much random side stories, backups, and well, shit. And the art goes downhill. That last trade is embarrassing. Angel: Last Angel in Hell - The entirety of After the Fall told as a Nic Cage movie. Which was funny as a two page joke in one of these issues, but wears out its welcome as an annual. Angel (The IDW Minis) - I liked these much more than the series proper. More focused. Felt like these could have been episodes. Filler episodes, but still fill in place. Spike (Main Series & Minis) - Best of the IDW run. Yeah, I like the character. But these have something that the others missed. They created characters that don't suck and didn't forget about them. Got both season nines sitting here. Think a break is needed before I hit those. Comics: 361 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 19 Trades: 114 (611)(4)(144)

Drive Angry.

TMZ is reporting that Roddy Piper has passed away.

I had the Spider-Man parts of the Evolutionary War and Atlantis Attacks crossovers. I remember going thru so many quarter boxes looking for the other parts. Easy enough to find, but do I really want Silver Surfer Annual #1 or Marvel Team-Up #139 where Spider-Man and Nick Fury are fighting a robot. And why is Alf Annual #1 part of Evolutionary War? How were there 50 issues of Alf? Why is there an issue of Alf that was pulled from stands? Why am I looking up Alf comics?

I re-watched Boy Meets World beforehand and the heavy handed lessons are pretty much in line with the original, specially the middle school years. And I gotta say, I don't like the trend of this season bringing back people. Yeah, it is cool to see Mr. Turner show up and all, but it's started to feel like a reunion show rather than a sequel. Half this season has been guest star episodes. Seems a bit much.

Jushin Liger is set to work the nXt special in Brooklyn over Summerslam weekend. That is completely unexpected, completely random and completely awesome.

Scarlet Spider - Felt a lot like the Ben Riley era of the Spider books. I think it was the supporting cast that drives that feeling. This is at its best when it wasn't tied down with crossovers (Minimum Carnage was a bore.) Disappointed in the ending, as it was rushed and incomplete. New Warriors (Vol. 5) - Last page of Scarlet Spider said he'd be in this, so what not give it a shot. Quick and fun. Would have been better served as a planned 12 issue series, rather than an ongoing that ended at 12 issues. And it felt like it was trying to be Superior Foes of Spider-Man at times. Comics: 272 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 18 Trades: 97 (527)(4)(144)

Ms. Marvel (the 3rd trade) - I know I said I doubt I would continue with this. Apparently I requested this from the library ages ago, so I read this. Seemed rather uneventful. This felt like filler between actual storylines. Teen Titans: Earth One - This was a quicker read than I anticipated. Not bad, but I did not feel like I got an entire story. And for how much these things are, that is not a good thing at all. B.A.R. Maid - My power went out. This is what was left on my tablet. It was better than sitting in a dark room. High praise. Comics: 238 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 18 Trades: 96 (520)(4)(144)

Ant-Man / She Hulk is Vol. 2. Vol. 1 is Sue, Reed, Ben, and a completely useless and non-existent Spider-Man.

FF Vol. 1 - Been about two weeks since I read this. I remember relatively nothing about it beyond how much I hated it. May have been the worst thing I have read this year. FF Vol. 2 - Just finished this so I actually remember this one. Better, but still not good. There are just too many characters in this book for it to work. And I don't feel that the story really went anywhere. Two volumes and I think the best FF story I read was in Amazing Spider-Man. Comics: 233 Digital First Comics: 59 Graphic Novels: 17 Trades: 95 (515)(4)(144)