Meroko's Journal

10:45am: Misc. Thoughts Even More Misc. Than Before!
1. Despite the presense of Batman on the Berlin Wall, the most popular American superhero in Germany seems to Spider-Man. Even though I am not a Spidey fan, I get a kick out of it everytime I see a child with a Spider-Man backpack, a Spider-Man sweater, Spider-Man shoes. I've even seen children's drawings of Spider-Man on display. Aww.. I find it amusing that the most New York!! of all superheroes is so popular in other country. (Speaking of heros in other countries, I saw lots of Iron Man toys in store windows in Italy and a fastfood joint in France with an Iron Man poster in the window.)

2. I had this idea for a Tony/Whitney fanfic that is not exactly working out of me--he's coming off as sketchier than I want and she is coming off as just too evil and I fail completely at coming up with reasons for fight scenes--but I wrote something reasonably all right via Write or Die a few minutes ago. I shall need to employ that site more in the future. It often takes me so LONG to write that once I get going, I forget where I was going. That thing will start erasing your words if you take too long!

12:47am: Misc. Thoughts
1. Here is an image from IIM #19 that I had not seen before today. From left to right is Maria, Pepper disguised as Madame Masque, and Natasha. This ability of Pepper's is something I shall henceforth refer to as her Canary Cry.



Between the Hera Headgear that grants her Oracle-level computer abilities, her off-panel bone-breaking ass-kickery and the Cry, I think its safe to say that Pepper Potts is a one woman Birds of Prey.

Thems is good character development.

2. I have for quite some time felt the Counting Crows song "Einstein On the Beach (For An Eggman)" suited Tony Stark really well. The title of IIM #19 is "Einstein On the Beach (Into the White)" so unless 'Einstein on the beach' is an actual saying or something, I suppose Matt Fraction agrees.

While I'm assigning songs to people, I decided I like "Mrs. Potter's Lullaby" for Tony/Pepper, also by the Counting Crows. I also think "I'm a Bitch, I'm a Lover," by Meredith Brookes is the PERFECT song for Whitney and Tony/Whitney and if I was the sort of person who makes those awful slideshows and pretends they are music videos, I'd totally do that for this one. It is scary perfect.

3. I heard for the first time today that Iron Man: Armored Adventures as always been conceived and produced as a one-season long show that will have a definative end. Endings are great and all, but I really like this show. I had such high hopes for more consistant animation in the second season. And I don't see how they can wrap up both Stane and the Mandarin in the what, four? episodes that are left.

6:33pm: A Brief History of Tekken
Game One:
Once upon a time, there was a father and son. The father was evil and had been cruel and the son was out for vengence. Son drops the father off a cliff.

Game Two:
It turns out that the son was the really evil one. The father returns and throws him into a volcano.

Game Three:
It turns out that at some point, the son had gotten lucky because now this teenaged kid comes along. The father, who was no bed of roses, uses his grandson to bait an ancient evil and then tries to kill the boy. Fails.

Game Four:
Everyone from Game Two and Game Three come together for senseless violence despite the fact that the timelines make that so very bizarre. We are talking parents the same age as their children are running rampent.

Game Five:
The son comes back to life after being thrown into a volcano and seriously, just go with it. Brawl across three generations.

Game Six:
Brawl across FOUR generations, because the father's father is still around!

Game Seven:
Brand new character and his robot girlfriend are the center of everything. WTF.

3:20pm: Designed Only For Chaos
This episode was sappy and lame. You'd think an episode with Advanced Idea Mechanics, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing Chaos Conquest, Ghost, the Controller, the Living Laser and SHIELD would be all about the ass-kickery and not lame sappy bull about how no one ever loved the Living Laser and Foster Mommy's Mommy Skills, but you'd be wrong. About the only think I liked in this episode was Maria Hill babysitting Tonykins.

11:36am: World on Fire
I really, really, really want the latest issue of Iron Man, but I can't have it yet, so here is some talk of cartoons.

The animated show has clearly gotten to the point where they released summaries of the episode long before the episode was actually written, or at least, the final version was written. This latest episode did not remotely resemble the summary given way back when.

Like the last episode, this one suffered from Too Much Plot Syndrome. It had two plots that never intersected with each other and were only barely relevent.

Mandy's Plot
Mandy spends the majority of his scenes in this episode flashbacking to when he was an adorable child. I was never really on board with his name being "Gene Khan" and this episode has his mom calling him Temugin. In the comics, Temugin is the name of the Mandarin's son, so I started wondering if this character was supposed to be an adaptation of the Mandarin or the son. I figured the name would be the easiest way to figure it out, so I tried to look up the Mandarin's real name. Couldn't find one, but he does use "Gene Khan" as an alias, so I'm even more confused.

Because everyone in this show's drama comes from their parents', Temu-Gene's primary motivation for doing anything is his mom. She instilled in him the idea that he was destined to become the Mandarin and get the rings. She married the step-dad to help her son along his path to destiny, but he killed her, took her ring and took the name Mandarin himself. In the first episode, Temu-Gene beat Step-Father up and became Mandy and has since been primarily concerned with getting the other 9 rings. The ring collection plot will probably run for a few seasons, since we're at like...episode 20 out of 24 for Season One and only 4 of 10 rings have been accounted for. Anyway, Team Iron Man comments that they don't really know what Mandy will do with the rings once he has them, and you kind of get the idea that Mandy doesn't know himself, either, because his whole reason for doing this is Mommy Said He Was Supposed To.

Team Iron Man's Plot
Tony locates the 4th ring and the trio go after it. Pepper wants to include Mandy in not only the search, but also tell him that Tony is Iron Man so that he may properly join the team. Tony and Rhodey are against this, but they don't give any particular reason for it.

Ring finding episodes follow a basic formula: the gang goes to the temple where the ring is held, encounter some sort of test of worthiness, pass after nearly getting killed about a thousand times and get the ring. The ring typically winds up in Mandy's possession, but this one, Tony has at the end of the episode.

This episode involved Rhodey and Pepper being turned into fire monsters that Iron Man had to quasi-fight. (He says stuff like, "But its [Blank!] I can't fight [Blank!]" two seconds after throwing [Blank] across the room.)

I felt like this episode seemed like a good candidate for a Tony/Pepper kiss. Tony makes it clear several times that he is jealous of the attention Pepper pays to Mandy ("Pepper never walks me out." "You live here, idiot.") And then she gets turned into a fire monster and they fight. I figured there would be one of those ~Romance Brings a Character Back to Their Senses!~ moment or something. There was not, which makes this show less of a cliche than it could be! Though I can see where kissing a fire monster would be a bad idea, so.

In the end, Pepper agrees that Mandy should not be brought fully into the fold because being part of Team Iron Man is dangerous and she doesn't want him to have to go through the things they go through. For some reason, she says this while Mandy is in the room and I cannot fathom how he didn't hear her.

Other Comments:
--I continue to enjoy the relationship between Mandy and Team Iron Man. He sincerely cares about them, or at least Pepper, which makes it interesting and I can't wait to see what will happen when he finds out Tony is Iron Man. I feel like there are a lot of ways it could potentially go.
--I hate the fact that when Mandy has a conversation with his mom or step-dad, they talk in stilted, heavily accented English. They'd be talking to each other in Chinese. Let them speak like they actually know the language they are speaking in. Mandy doesn't speak accented, broken, awkward English when he is speaking English, why should he talk that way when he is speaking his native language?
--I can seriously not think of an episode where Rhodey saved the day. Maybe there was one back in the beginning. They keep setting up Rhodey as being in a position to save the day and then he doesn't. Every other character has had ample Moments of Glory--and that includes Whitney and Mandy, characters who are villains and still save the day--but Rhodey only seems to get Moments of Stolen Thunder. Last ep, he takes the armor to confront the bad guy, but Tony still needs to come. This ep, he calls Mandy and asks him what to do, despite the solution being the most obvious thing in the world. He better start holding his own better when he becomes War Machine.
--The voice actors have gotten REALLY good at screaming. They sounded like very real screams, not someone in a booth going "Aaaaaaahh!"
--I really hope some sort of romantic overture between Tony and Pepper happens this season. The fact that they like each other has gotten way to obvious to not be addressed in some fashion. How many times can Rhodey sing the You're Jealous song before he just locks them in a closet or something?

8:12am: Dear Movie Fanbrats of the World,

I don't give a fuck if you ~don't want to read comics fanfiction.~ I am a comic fan. Ergo, I write comic fanfic. If you don't want to read a comic-based story, no one is keeping you from hitting the Back button. Your desire to avoid comic-based stories does not mean that I have no right to write or post them. Especially considering I have always done so in the "Comics" section of the website. I am not trying to fool you into reading anything. My stories are labeled as comics-based. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for you to inform me that you don't want to read it. It wreaks of entitlement and is just plain rude. If you don't comment, I will never know you even existed. It's not like I am waiting, wringing my hands, in anticipation of your review.

I welcome constructive criticism, or even just things that you think are constructive, such as the person who informed me that 100-word drabbles are too short to tell a story. But if you are going to write me off because you don't like comics? Then just leave. You don't need to tell me about it.

Signed,
A Comics Fan Who Is Tired of Getting One of You Every. Single. Time. She Posts a Story

5:55pm: IIM #19 Preview
Wow. I really, really hate this. Let's count the reasons why!
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=3604&disp=table

1) Well, Whitney is now bald, so that explains where Pepper's black hair came from. Which, you know, I figured a few issues ago that that would be the easiest explanation. Her scarring is extensive, so of course her hair isn't real. TOO BAD SHE WAS DRAWN WITH HAIR LAST ISSUE.
2) Maria points out that Pepper is Tony's secretary, as though she can not fathom where these brand new powers of ass-kicking came from. Rather than explain ANYTHING, Pepper tells her to STFU. Hey--maybe the readers want to know how the fuck you broke Madame Masque's bones, too, desk jockey!
3) How does Pepper know about the drive? When did ANYONE mention it to her? Retrevial of the drive was Maria's job. Pepper was never around when it was being discussed. And and and, it sounds like she knows what's on it! Which no one else does! There was like..half an issue devoted to Natasha trying to see what was on it! Can we add psychic to her list of powers now?
4) Where did the virus come from? That one is really bugging me. If Tony included the virus in the Rescue armor from the beginning, why didn't they upload it the first time Pepper was in HAMMER HQ? Its not like she knew she'd be coming back. Hell, she didn't even know she had to save Maria and Natasha until she was already there, dressed as Madame Masque and saw them. What was she waiting for? If it wasn't there from the beginning, who wrote it? Tony is too brain-fried to do it now and no one else would be able to pull something like that out of their ass. (Wait, I'll bet Pepper wrote it.)

1:48am: Technovore
Reasons to love this episode of Iron Man:
--MARIA HILL. GLEE. She was Russian for some reason? But still. She was being all Maria Hill-ish. Every single conversation she and Pepper had is the most quotable thing ever. I am wondering if that blond guy she was with is Jasper. He had no name and no lines, but until a named Jasper appears, I shall assume he is Jasper. Jasper and Maria have basically the same dynamic with Tony anyway.
--Tony and Pepper. This is my shippy episode! Even Rhodey was down with the shippiness. He went off to confront baddies on his own rather than ruin Tony's Pepper-likes-me-again high. And there was an epic hug scene.

Reasons not to love this episode of Iron Man:
--I really, really hate how so many of Tony's accomplishments and/or mistakes are given to his father in this show. His father designed SHIELD's weapons. His father designed the Helicarrier. How about...TONY designed the weapons and Tony and Reed Richards designed the Helicarrier? But no. Teen Tony is pure as the driven snow and things weapons are icky-poo bad.
--I felt like this episode had a hard time deciding what its plot was.
First, Tony is fixing the Helicarrier.
Then, Rhodey discovers bad guys and goes to fight them on his lonesome, while Tony chatters in his ear about Pepper.
Then, Tony finds the Living Laser is dying and no one cares.
Then, Tony finds out his dad designed SHIELD's weapons.
Then, Tony goes to fight the bad guys.

Over half of that was useless. Learn to trim your episodes, guys. All we really needed was "Rhodey tries to be Iron Man. But then Tony comes and is Iron Man."

Oh, well, at least I got Maria Hill out of this. Now give me Bethany Cabe.

12:33am: Also, I totally bought Iron Man comics in Italian. Yes, I am THAT cool.

11:05pm: Kristen's Epic Search for a Masque
So.

I went to Italy this past week.

So, I'm looking around this little stores trying to find presents for people back home and I keep seeing these masks.

You know how Madame Masque was born in Italy? Well, she was. And her mask? It's not some random dramatic thing. It's an Italian thing. It's a Venetian thing, to be specific.

I spent yesterday in Venice. Going to mask shops. Hunting for the perfect Whitney mask. Yes, there are stores that sell nothing but masks. And I went into tons of them. The people I was with thought this was creepy and started waiting outside after like..the third one.

I was really, really set on one that was the same shape as hers and gold, but the shape is like...the most uncommon of all the shapes and most of the stores with really nice masks didn't even make that one. The street vendors had it a lot, but there masks were always covered in glitter that was already falling off. Gold is hard to come by, too. The gold ones usually had cracks or music notes on them. There was one that was a pure, plain gold, but it was the wrong shape. I would have gotten that one when it became clear I wasn't going to find anything better, but the impatience of my friends sort of forced me past that store on the second pass through the city. (I'd been at this for hours, so they were understandably fed up by now.)

In the end I got one that is really, really nice...predominately white with gold around the eyes, mouth and edges, but is not really Whitney.

11:33pm: Pepper, Interupted
So, I just watched the latest episode of Iron Man: Armored Adventures. This is an episode I've been looking forward to ever since I read the list of synopses, months ago. The last episode had me looking forward to it even more, since after the supreme Tony/Whitney-ness of 'Chasing Ghosts,' I figured 'Pepper, Interupted' would be the same thing for Tony/Pepper.

While there were a lot of things I liked about the episode, there were also a lot of ways in which it was really disappointing. For example, I got a kick out of the 6-way fight that Tony, Pepper, Mandy, Whitney, Rhodey and Happy got into. I also enjoyed having a Mandy-heavy episode after quite a few episodes that didn't have him at all. Iron Man also had a few good quips that got a chuckle out of me.

But on the other hand, the episode was really not what I was expecting at all. The synopsis basically says that Pepper gets in the middle of a war between the Maggia and Mandy's army. Iron Man and Mandy enter an unlikely truce to save her. Yeeeaaah, no. Pepper DID wind up in the middle of a war between to the two organizations, but there was no truce. Mandy knew that he could not rescue Pepper without drawing suspicion onto himself, so he tried to manipulate Iron Man into doing it for him. He doesn't know that there's any connection between Iron Man and Pepper, but he figures since Iron Man is an enemy of both groups, it won't lead back to him.

Unfortunately, Iron Man never notices that Pepper is there and Mandy winds up having to save her himself anyway. The episode ends with Mandy's cronies realizing that they are not following the person they thought they were following.

In the end, there are four major disappoints with the episode:
1) There is no truce. They lied to me.
2) There was a lot, a lot, a lot of Maggia/Mandy's organization stuff that was frankly boring as hell and was really the majority of the episode.
3) Nothing is resolved. The episode begins with Pepper pissed off at Tony because he'd lied to her and Rhodey about Whitney and they don't make up, or even talk about it. Pepper admits that she's freaking out so much because when she sees him get close to other people, she fears losing Tony, but she doesn't say that to him. There is a subplot of the 6 kids getting detention and being given a social studies report due the next day as punishment which should have been returned to at the end to show that they all ~did a good job and learned a lot~ or whathaveyou, but it was never mentioned again. When the episode ends, you seriously just have to go, "Wait, that's it?"
4) In an episode that you would presume to be Pepper-centric, she gets no development. She actually feels a little derailed because she is just so useless and pathetic. She is usually the Exposition Person/Plan-Maker, so having her offer NOTHING was a character derailment moment, frankly.

And because I'm me
--I wish there was more Tony/Pepper moments in this episode. I assumed a Pepper episode would have a lot of shippiness and about the only thing there was was Mandy refering to her being pissed at him as a lover's spat (which resulted in her attacking him) and Tony looking like he'd been slapped when Pepper hugged Mandy and called him her hero.
--Happy and Rhodey are both crushing on Whitney and its weird as hell. Though I did love when Tony was like, "You're drooling. I'm glad to see you're cool with the supervillain thing. :D" But the idea of either of them being interested in her is bizarre. If you want to have a Beta Couple with Whitney, introduce a teen Jasper. (Or a teen Parker, I guess, considering that is who she is currently dating in the comics. But this show isn't that big on what is current and is more like, "Oh, X thing happened X number of decades ago? Let's do it in our show!" So, Jasper.)

5:44pm: Three Things
1) I think I found a comic shop in Germany. I haven't gone inside yet, but judging from its name and window decorations...

2) The release dates for IIM have been pushed a few weeks back, which means I am not going to be as far behind the new issues as I thought when I get back. :D

3) I read a few weeks ago that the Stane-era stuff was getting collected. Only issues 193-200, though. SO glad I didn't wait for that. That doesn't even have my favorite issues.

3:55pm: Chasing Ghosts
Man on man, did I love this episode.

Things That Make It The Best Episode Evar:
--Whitney's Mantlo-era behavior.
--Whitney's middle name being Guiletta--AKA her real real name from the comics.
--I now see that the blonde hair/blue eyeshadow combo which I kind of hate because she looks like a Libby on Drugs is obviously referencing Krissy Longfellow. I noted the blonde hair a while back, but only upon reading my new back issues did I notice her propensity for blue eyeshadow.
--Pepper normally talks a mile a minute and Tony wants her to shut up, but when she gets reeeeaaaal ticked at him, she gets reeeeaaaaal quiet and he's all "Please talk to me D: " When she does talk, for the rest of the episode, its with this totally eerie calm-infuriated voice. When the episode ends, she is still mad. The next episode is a Pepper-centric one, so hopefully it will continue with her being angry, instead of opening with all being forgiven. (And hopefully that episode will be just as Tony/Pepper shippy as this one is Tony/Whitney shippy so that I can OD on my two favorite pairings. *_*)

Things That Are Less Than Perfect But The Episode Still Completely Rocked Anyway:
--Madame Masque throws the robosuit around. WTF, don't you people realize that thing is HEAVY? Stop having people act like it weighs the same as a regular person!
--Midas would have been a better villain than The Ghost, considering the plot was ~Whitney sneaks around and protects Tonykins~
--There is someone masquerading as Tony Stark and playing shoot 'em up and when Tony professes a desire to stay home from school that day, Foster Mommy says no.
--Copious plotholes regarding the mask itself.

I still have not seen the end of Fun With Lasers, which is the episode before this one, and while I really liked the Living Laser's first episode (the fight scene was incrediable), there is no way it will stack up to this one.

This episode also casts some doubt on whether or not Stane killed Howard Stark and tried to kill Tony. In previous episodes, Stane has claimed to other villainous types that he is no murderer to which the viewers all go LOLZ YAH RIGHT but there was a last minute twist to this one that he was also involved in protecting Tony from the Ghost. If he doesn't want Tony to get killed now, he probably wasn't trying to kill Tony previously. And he claims to draw the line at murder. (Though he is still manufacturing weapons, so really, we still have to say LOLZ YAH RIGHT.)

10:28am: I Talk Now
I got an e-mail the other day from LCS saying that they were sorry that MMW: IM #6 wasn't in last Wednesday, but that they would get it in this coming Wednesday. But not in the morning because they need time to unpack the warehouse. And I'm getting on a plane and leaving the country that day, so yeah...

I wrote my last entry before actually reading the comics I bought, so here are my much delayed thoughts:

War Machine #9
I more or less liked this issue. I could still make a list of things about it that bugged me, but I wasn't unable to enjoy it because of them. I am hoping that when this series ends at #12, it will end with Rhodey in a fully human body because this cyborg thing does NOT do it for me.

The Mighty Avengers #29
I would PROBABLY like this book more if I was more familiar with the Inhumans. I cannot really get behind the Quicksilver/US Agent portion of the plot because I don't know what the Slave Engine is and I've never seen those unevolved minion guys before. Which is a shame, because Quicksilver is one of my favorite members of the team. I want to like his adventures.

Young Avengers and Ronin vs. Loki was a pretty good fight, but it stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit more than it generally likes to be stretched. Loki is a god(dess). He/she should be able to take on the children and the Badass Normal.

I freaking love Hank/Jocasta parts and while their pages were EPICALLY creepy, they were too short. Needs moar disturbing. And poor Jarvis, the man always has a front seat to this stuff. Fraction wants to get Jarvis for Invincible Iron Man, but his being a Mighty Avengers cast member is making that basically impossible. If Fraction did manage to steal him, I cannot imagine Jarvis would be sad to leave Hank and Jocasta behind.

Dark Avengers #9
This is the reason this book is still on my pull list. This is the issue I have been waiting for. It was not at all what I expected for when they FINALLY breeched this topic, but I loved every second of it.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men
I read like...one page of this and then quit. I can't even.

The List: Avengers
I ship Clint/Bobbi so hard. Clint's poor planning skills and general idiocy that make up nearly the entire issue are insignificant compared to the like..three pages of him and Bobbi being supercute. I want them to get their own ongoing: The Sexy Adventures of Ronin/Hawkeye/Whatev and Mockingbird. Their kickass mini from a few months back probably didn't sell well enough to justify an ongoing, though.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #4.
I find this mini to be rather delightful. The YA need to get back in the grove with a series that is allowed to develop the characters, though. Stop waiting for your original writer to return, guys! You aren't Runaways; other people CAN write you well!

I already wrote my thoughts on IIM #18 in my last entry, but in a move that boggles my mind, the issue is getting nearly unanimous good reviews. People are all ~something happened in this issue!~ and ~it was so interesting!~ No. Nothing happened in this issue. There was SET-UP for things to happen in the NEXT issue. Pepper's robosuit downloaded a virus into Normie's Iron Patriot collection (isn't than a upload?), but we didn't see what the virus will do or how it will effect the outcome. HAMMER located Tony, but we got the GOING there and not the CONFRONTATION. Pepper released Maria and Natasha from HAMMER custody, but they haven't raised any hell. Viruses and fights and escapes are all for the next issue. This issue was pure filler. I am convinced that if you didn't read it, you would miss NOTHING. In fact, the next issue is probably going to be a chaotic mess because every single plot thread will have to be resolved at the same time.

Because there is already so much to do in issue #19, I have abandoned all hopes of being told how Pepper defeated Whitney. But upon re-reading #16, I did notice that Pepper's shoes have the same circles on the soles in the panel where she walks towards her (but not on previous pages) so my current No Prize theory is that Pepper's shoes have replusors in them like Tony's and she kick-blasted her. And then stole her clothes. And had a black wig, from somewhere. It is not an airtight theory!

Speaking of Whitney and wigs and whatnot, I have acquired the answers to both of my questions about Krissy Longfellow:

1) Was Krissy always intended to be Madame Masque in disguise?
Looks basically impossible. Before the book was taken over by Bill Mantlo, Krissy was a supporting character under the pen of Gerry Conway. Conway's Krissy had an entirely different personality from Mantlo's, so while Mantlo could have always written her as really being Whitney--Midas' scheme is evident from the very beginning of Mantlo's run, and protecting Tony from Midas was her reason for being there, but it is not until issue 97 that she starts showing signs of being more than meets the eye--Conway wrote her as just The Chick. And its actually sort of annoying, because in Conway's issues she'll be captured, tied up and weeping and in Mantlo's issues, Tony really respects her because the general insanity of being around his ongoing nonsense doesn't faze her at all. And its like, dude, she was weeping last issue.

2) Were Tony and Krissy romantically involved prior to her revealing herself as Madame Masque?
No. Tony was somewhat into Krissy, but decided against pursuing her because he wanted to avoid getting her all tangled up in Iron Man's business, as his girlfriends tended to do. When she revealed that she was already involved and had been for quite some time, it was a definate game changer.

And that is the news from Wednesday. Yesterday, I bought "Marvels." I have seen this book around for a while and it is completely gorgeous, but I didn't know what it was, so I never bought it. Until yesterday.

Damn. Money well spent. It is a beautifully painted miniseries covering the history of the Marvel Universe from the point of view of the regular joes who have nothing to do with superheroes and just witness it all. It is the sort of book I want to give to people who don't read superhero comics all, "You don't like superheroes? Here, read this." And then...they would like superheroes.

12:16pm: A Pitiful Wave of Disappointment
Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man #6 has been on my calendar since last February. It was supposed to be in stores today. Guess whose comic shop did not get it. Guess who is going out of the country for two months next week and has a basically zero chance of getting the book before then. I could order it online, but by the time it got here with shipping and whatnot, I'd be practically out the door.

I realized last night that Batgirl #2 was due to hit stores today. LCS is soooooold out! Which is great for Steph--issue 1 sold around 51K, which is far better than I had ever dared to dream--so atta girl. But I can't read it. And that makes me sad.

My purchases include:
IIM #18. Which..um, yyyyyeeeaaaah is about all I can say about it. Tony got a few cool moments in "The eternal angel of death forgives you." buuuut for the most part its crap. It was indeed Pepper behind the mask, and no, they don't explain how she defeated Madame Masque. And JARVIS uploads a virus into Norman's Iron Patriot suits and its like, "Okay, where the fuck did THAT come from?"

I was so annoyed and disappointed in the store that I didn't even look at what they had pulled for me. I've got War Machine #9, The Mighty Avengers #29, Dark Avengers #9 and an Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover that I don't want or give even the tiniest shit about. I also pulled off the shelves for myself The List: Avengers and Young Avengers #4.

And then I went trolling for back issues, which I USUALLY do with some sort of plan, but not today because I was expecting to get this 50 dollar book of back issues and got 70's Iron Man, #93-97.

12:11am: IIM Preview
Yup. Green eyes. It's Pepper.

Yeah, that makes a fat lot of sense.

6:44pm: I am so in love with the new Batgirl costume that I want to marry it and take it to Greece for a romantic honeymoon.

7:02pm: Comic Book Day, Part 1
This month's haul is freaking huge. I got 17 issues. I have no idea if I'll actually comment on them all because I usually read and type out my thoughts on everything in one sitting and 17 comics is way too many for one sitting. And its not the only time I'll go in September anyway, because Marvel Masterworks Invincible Iron Man vol. 6 comes out the 16th, and I reserved that and with all luck, will get it that day. (Sometimes, like yesterday, I have to work on Wednesdays and don't have the time to sit in traffic.)

Setting aside back issues, I got IIM vol. 1, #137 and #138, so that should do me for the whole Return of Whitney story. A picspam on that one later seems likely.

Invincible Iron Man #17
While I was intially pleased that it appeared that Whitney won the fight, I am becoming increasingly convinced that Pepper defeated her and is masquerading as Madame Masque to get close to Osborn. That was a thought I had right from the start, but then I figured--where would Pepper get long black hair from? And why would she drag the Rescue suit around when there is no one around to see her wear it?

Given the extreme of Whitney's scarring, I could see her hair being a wig that Pepper could steal when she took the rest of her clothes. Dragging the suit around--well, she could just be really dedicated to her story. But what REALLY gets me is Whitney has blue eyes. Pepper has green eyes. And everytime Madame Masque interacts with someone in this issue, her eyes are closed. That is the one thing that would give her away. Obviously, I'd vastly prefer something more believable than "The Secretary defeats the highly trained, highly experienced super-villain and then reasonably impersonates her for a long stretch of time," but that seems the most likely course.

More acceptable outcomes would be:
1) Since the building they were fighting in is wrough with explosions and fires, Whitney assumes Pepper died after a blast, but doesn't confirm it because people in comics are stupid like that. She steals the suit.
2) Whitney kills Pepper, but her implants--which are proven to have amazingly healing abilities--revive her.
3) Pepper convinces Whitney to team up with her against Norman in the pro-Tony camp. This would actually be the best option because Tony and Whitney made up in 2000. For her to revert to trying to kill him is actually disregarding characterization from a few years ago. I don't really blame Bendis and Fraction for returning Whitney to type because no one had used her for anything since her reform, but I would prefer the fact that she forgave Tony and that she decided to leave her life of crime behind her to be addressed.

I love Tony's misery beard. I was so hoping he'd grown one in this arc and it is FINALLY in. Still don't like his DRAMADRAMADRAMA, though. Don't like Hill's, either. Has anyone EVER had this kind of insane reaction to the Controller before? Even Janice Cord, who might as well have been a cardboard cut out of a woman that Tony hauled around with him, took this guy better than the gifted SHIELD agent!

I'm really ticked that Norman got Dmitri to betray Tony. Theirs is a minor, but still sweet, friendship that just got screwed over for no reason.

I feel sorry for the agents that miss SHIELD. Dum Dum Dugan's Home for Wayward Fury Sons should come and get them. ;_; Osborn wanted to get rid of any agents that were loyal to Fury and Stark, but the problem with those guys is that pretty much everyone that ever worked under them will be loyal to them as all hell, even if they don't say it.

And then James abandons Natalia. Stand up boy you got there.

That is so not Whitney. Feh.

Though this dialouge is awesome:
HAMMER Grunt #1: (about Pep's suit) Stupid broad's heavy, yeah?
HAMMER Grunt #2: What makes ya thing it's a broad?
HAMMER Grunt #1: S'got bazooms, don't it?
(Yes. Yes it does.)
HAMMER Grunt #2: Yeah, but it got that creepy bug face too.
(Yeah. It's got that, too. I hate them both.)

Iron Man & The Armor Wars #2
The fact that they are involving Doom in this, but no time travel or King Arthur-esque stuff annoys me. That is their THING.

First fight: LAME.
Second fight: 3 vs. 1 and still lame.

You'd think epic robosuit battles would be easy to write, or at least, easy to not make really freaking boring and pathetic.

This series should not exist.

Batgirl #1
I FIIIIINALLLLYYYYYYY got it! I was really hoping that I would find it in a bookstore or magazine store and not have to wait until today, but alas, I did.

This book is pure fun. I love Steph. I love her narration. I love her quips. I love how even though she acknowledges that she is breaking promises by putting on a costume, they are promises she should not have made. I love how even though she keeps seeing her fights in only the view of the failures, in both of the fights she went into as Batgirl, she made her objective. I love how she just doodles Bat symbols in class and how proud she is of that symbol on her chest.

I hope this book continues for a long time. It would absolutely break my heart if Steph didn't get the series she deserves.

Runaways #13
Last issue before what just might be the final issue. At least, for a while.

Okay, so we start out with Nico being a ho. And then we cut to Nico doing a bunch of magic. Unfortunately, all of her spells are either stupid or incomprehensible. We are off to a good start.

Okay. So..you made a spell to dissovle Klara's prison of plants and it also dissovled the house and the dead dinosaur. And then...you decide to NOT TELL CHASE that you dissovled his dinosaur.

DO YOU SERIOUSLY FUCKING THING HE WON'T NOTICE THAT OLD LACE IS GONE??

I do continue to like how much emphasis the friendship between Chase and Victor is getting.

I also like how Hunter Stein is determined to present himself as a trustworthy adult.
I like the new Leap Frogs, all quite spiffy designs.
I like a good bit of the dialouge.
IIIII don't know why Chase Ghost Busted his uncle, but okay...

Til next time, I guess...

The Mighty Avengers #28
The adorable Tibetan child won me over on page one. "I'll be richer than--what's his name--Toby Stark! I'll have fast Italian cars and an American supermodel for a wife. You'll see." Poor adorable child. You are ACTUALLY going to get killed.

Over all, this issue was fantastic.

The Unspoken is sort of a strange villian in that he is both sympathetic and unsympathetic at the same time. He was a terrible king who was disposed and banished and wants nothing more than to admit that he was wrong and go home. But home up and left, so now he's dropping heroes left and right.

Cassie's portion of the story just feels so throwback oldschool fun. She knows that "the Scarlet Witch" is evil and trying to get US Agent and Quicksilver killed off, so Loki cursed her to be unable to say anything about what she saw. So, she's trying to get beyond this handicap to communicate it to the Young Avengers.

There was also lots of humor, so its everything you could ask for.

The New Avengers #56
The idea of a device that could nullify all powers is so stupid. Mutant? DOWN. Technology? DOWN. Radioactive? DOWN. Altered DNA? DOWN. Everyone else, regardless of origin? DOWN.

Mockingbird stands alone. Even though she shouldn't, because she is not the only non-powered member of this team, RONIN.

Damn, the thing even takes out the Sentry. When depowered, he looses his heroically flowing locks. LOL.

So. The Hood's former gang beat up the New Avengers as a trial run to beating up the Dark Avengers. I wish I could say that there is some suspense here, but there isn't. Because, frankly, I don't care about the New Avengers.

I buy this book primarily because Madame Masque, like Wolverine, can be in two places at once.

Dark Avengers #8
This is part of the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover. Being as I do not read Uncanny X-Men, this doesn't mean much of anything to me.

You know, I pretty much understood #7, but this one, I am not getting AT ALL.

I like a good fight. But I don't need to see X-23 stab someone in the gut while Archangel cuts his head in half.

I would be SO much more inclined to care about the X-Men if they didn't have a gigantic cast of people I don't care about or if they laid off the "Emma is evil! J/k, she's actually good!" plots for just half a second. Also, the ~cure for the mutant gene~ is freaking old, too.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1, 2 & 3
This is a mini-series that I have been interested in, but I figured I would just wait for the trades because it looked like LCS just didn't carry it. It was with other Avengers books. It wasn't with other books that started with Y. But then today, lo and behold, lined up with all the other Avengers books was the first three issues! Yaaay!

Anyway, the first issue introduces us to a new team of Young Avengers, but since his is Dark Reign, they are more like Young Masters of Evil. They kill bad guys, they cause gross property damage and then they use their powers to get beer for free.

I like Coat of Arms and Melter. Enchantress is cute, but stupid. I have no real opinion on the Executionor but Big Zero and Egghead need to not exist anymore.

And then they FIIIIGHT!

Oh, how I have missed the Young Avengers.

Patriot: Okay, so, this "Hey, attack them" order I didn't give--
Hawkeye: He pulled a gun. My fingers: tiny brains of their own. Like an archery dinosaur. It's a failed metaphor. Can we move on?

Btw, I totally ship Speed/Coat.

Coat squee'd. Okay, she squeed for Norman Osborn, but she is really just the cutest super-powered being of ambigious morality ever.

"He was trying to manipulate me. The Green Goblin was trying to manipulate me! What an honor! Okay, I should have left it there. My dream of what we'd do if we met was that we'd dance together to George Micheal's 'Shoot the Dog.' But that wasn't going to happen, obviously, so--"

Anyway, so the Young Avengers hear the story of how the New Young Avengers came together and gave them an ultimatum: they can prove themselves and join the original team, or they can get a new name. The Newbies think this is a load of crap, but Enchantress enchants them into agreeing. Meanwhile, Coat draws sketches of her team beating up Osborn. Melter, the one who REALLY wants to be a hero and REALLY wants to do it right is haunted by the fact that he has melted, you know, PEOPLE.

Issue three has the newbies take the test and the old guard grade them. Coat and Enchantress are in, the rest, for various reasons, are not. Oh, but is it really that easy?

I'm gonna go with "Hell, no! Do they even care what you think?"

Marvel Divas #2
Okay. Here is my major problem with this series: the writer acts like he expects that we will forget these characters are female or something, because we are repeatedly reminded of gender in ways that actually feel a little awkward.

My other problem is in the waiting room scene where Monica bitches about Brother Voodoo, Angelica is there. When just a page ago, she was in the examining room. Her "Lie or tell the truth?" panel is basically amazing, though.

And then Angelica walks in, announcing that it is official that she has cancer, as if we didn't know that from the last issue. And its breast cancer. Because she is a woman. And she wants to be an example for other women. And Patsy is going to write of her journey and if she doesn't do a good job, all the female superheroes will be pissed at her. Because they are women. WOMEN!

In addition to Monica's adventure's with Voodoo, Felicia is having money trouble, but doesn't want her rich boyfriend to bail her out. Though she might not be opposed to stealing what she needs. Patsy's ex, who's the son of Satan, has offered to cure Angelica in exchange for Patsy's soul. Patsy says no, but he seems confidant that she will change her mind once Angelica starts wasting away.

While I dislike the Clingy Man! plot with Monica and the I Won't Let No Man Take Care of Me! plot from Felicia, the Patsy complication to Angelica's cancer plot might be interesting. Hope returns.

New Mutants #4
"You believe yourselves immune to death? I bring you a gospel of oblivion. I bring you the Soulsword. Taste it and cease to be." You are so cool, 'Yana!

Okay, my thing with Legion is that I don't really understand his power. He has a legion of people inside of him, each with a different power. When fighting, he just switches people until he finds someone at the greatest advantage. I used to think that all of those seperate personalities came from within him, but in this story, he trapped several characters inside of himself. I'm not sure how they got in there and I am not sure how they got out. In the end, he was defeated because while he was fighting most of the team, Illyana went inside of him and killed personalities until she became the dominant one. Don't know how she went in, don't know how she got out, don't know how she got Shan and Marcie out. Or if they even did.

I really enjoy the book, I just wish I had a better handle on the villian of this arc.

Also, I was under the impression that the Soulsword only affected spells and magical creatures. Why is it even hurting the personalities?

Secret Warriors #7
The artist changed. There goes my heart.

Damn. I thought that Ares would FINALLY confront Alex in this issue. No such luck. But it was the first time I've seen Songbird since...way back in the beginning of Dark Reign. I don't know what book she regularly appears in, maybe Thunderbolts? But I figured that she would be a major player in taking down Osborn after the first time I saw her. And then nine months passed.

X-Men Forever #5 & 6
I just noticed---Where is Jubilee? She was part of the team in 1991. This book is so enjoyable because they are all X-Men that I like and its not flogged down with a million new characters that I don't care about. And I was thinking what would make it perfect is if Jubilee was there.

I guess she's not there because Kitty is filling the Teen Girl quota?

I don't know how long Sabretooth will be there, but I really like having him.

I need to get a new box. Right now, I've got a long box and a short box and they are both nearly full. Really not sure what the best way to reorganize is.

And this took me nearly 4 hours.

10:18pm: Storytime
So. The whole Disney buys Marvel thing. I have to admit, I don't feel very good about it, but we'll see. I've been reading articles and discussions about it and whatnot and in one of them, for some reason I cannot fathom, someone mentioned remembering where they were when they bought their first comic. I don't really know why that's at all related, unless its to say that hearing this news is as significant as buying your first comic.

And because this is something I've meant to write about for a while and because I'm not doing anything else, I am going to tell the story of how I got into comics.

( These are the days we fondly remember )

12:25am: I have issues.
Too many issues.

Someone asked me once how much my comic collection is worth. I was afraid to answer. Or count. Or even think about counting. But today my curiosity was piqued at least where Iron Man is concerned, so I counted. And...I have been collecting Iron Man comics for less than a year. I started around October or late September 2008.

The approximate worth of my Iron Man collection is $976.70.

Issues, my friends. FUCKING ISSUES.

1:42am: For the First Time in Some Time, Cartoons!
After quite some time, along came a new episode of Iron Man: Armored Adventures. I don't have a lot to say about this one, as it was mostly about characters I know nothing about: guest-starring the Black Panther and with villian Moses Magnum. I don't know enough about them to say if the adaptations were good or not, but apparently I have been pronouncing T'Challa correctly, which is good enough for me. (For those keeping count, cartoons have taught me that I pronounce Tigra and Madame Masque wrong. I said Tig-rah instead of Tie-grah and if "masque" is just pronounced like "mask," why be all French about the spelling?)

Anyway, it didn't set me off on any fangirl rage with a bad adaptation or fangirl squee with something I recognised from the comics, so its mostly a mediocre episode.

Things I Found Hard To Believe:
--That the Black Panther can tackle Iron Man. I don't know if he has super strenght, but I would hope so because that suit must weigh at least 300 pounds.
--That T'Challa knows who Tony is on sight. Really? The 16-year-old is so famous that a king from across the world from a country with a distrust/dislike of foreigners, no less, recognizes him instantly? Nope, don't buy it.

Things That Still Annoy Me:
--Rhodey acting like study hall is more important that stopping A.I.M.
--Happy Hogan being whatever it is they are trying to pass off as Happy Hogan.

Things That I Actually Liked:
--Not only did the A.I.M. guys wear the beekeeper suits, but Tony actually refered to them as beekeepers. It's been so long since I've seen the other episode with A.I.M. that I don't remember if they did that then.
--That Pepper fared better against T'Challa than Tony or Rhodey because she wasn't dumb enough to engage him in hand-to-hand combat. And Tony's pathetic attempt to save her.
--That when they didn't know Black Panther's name, they dubbed him "Bad Kitty." I love it when the trio tries to name other people.

In other cartoon news, I've watched like three episodes of Justice League Unlimited. While I remain utterly unimpressed with Mr. Miracle (Boring Generic Hero Guy) and Big Barda, I have fallen in love with Black Canary (like Barda, she kicked copious amounts of ass, but she did so with more humor and grace, and her relationships to other characters didn't seem completely forced) and Green Arrow (he didn't call anyone a nazi or a fascist, though... :( ). Fortunately, I know better than to even try to read their book.

In other non-cartoon news, the preview pages for IIM #17 have been posted. While I am glad it looks like Whitney won the fight (seriously, how could she not?), it sucks that it was entirely off panel and the scene loses any sort of credibility by trying to tell us that Pepper died off panel. Number one, no, she didn't. Her continued presence in the book has already been confirmed. And it looks likely that she shall be remaining a Distaff Counterpart. (Boo.) Hell, the answer to 'Will Rescue get her own title?' is, "If there's demand." Plenty of other characters out there get a flat-out 'no' (Poor Dazzler) or a 'no plans at this time.' Number two, she'd rate an on-panel death.

As for the rest of it, I know I'm supposed to be feeling sorry for Tony the Woobie Who Can't Freaking Spell or Remember That Steve is Dead, but I don't. At all. The extreme melodrama is extreme. For future reference, a kicked puppy face elicits more pity than a long, long e-mail about how he ~feels so baaaaad~.

5:46pm: Kristen Buys Things Without Thinking About It
Iron Man #63-65
So, once upon Kristen was knocking around Marvel.com and they had a series of articles about the history of her boy Iron Man, decade by decade. And she read a synopsis of a story she was interested and they were kind enough to give her the issue number, #64. So, she ordered it. And then she realised it was part 2 in a 4 part story. So she ordered parts 1 and 3, too, but not 4 because it was too damn expensive and she'll look into a cheaper site later.

So. I was supremely mislead on this. Marvel.com tells the story as though Tony is the instigator of a kiss between himself and Pepper Hogan and that he and Happy get into a fistfight over her. There is also a quote that I have often read from this story that T/P fans like to parade around where Tony tells Happy that he loves Pepper just the same as Happy does and in the same way.

ACTUAL story:
Happy left Pepper. Early on in their marriage, he worked nights and she went to school in the day and then would make dinner for them at midnight and everything was fab. But Pepper began to want more out of life than being a housewife for a husband who was never home and got herself a job. This bothered Happy, who thought that Pepper's place was in the home. (For those who are counting, this was published in the early or mid-70's. I didn't check the exact year.) Since Pepper refused, he left her. Pepper starts spending more time with Tony and they go on a business trip to Detroit. I'm not clear on if becoming Tony's personal secretary again was the job that caused the rift, or if she took that job after Happy left. Anywho, while in Detroit, Tony tries to comfort Pepper, who is of course very upset that her husband left her because she wanted more out of life. She kisses him. He kisses back. Happy has decided that he wants to reconcile and walks in at that very moment.

So, Happy decides that he is through with Pepper, but not really, because he also decides he is going to pound Tony. Happy demands that Tony admit he loves Pepper. And here is where the often misquoted line comes in. Tony replies that he does love Pepper, he loves her in the same way he loves Happy. Pepper finds them fighting and she and Happy go off to talk about their relationship like civilized people. Happy informs Pepper that Tony is Iron Man. And I don't have the last issue of the storyline, but I think its safe to say they work it out. Meanwhile, Tony realizes that he really IS over Pepper, because when the Villian of the Day starts spouting about killing the person Iron Man loves, he thinks of this other girl.

Said other girl is Roxie and while I never heard of her prior to my interest in this storyline, I like her quite a bit. She's sort of a hippie--eats organic food, dedicated to nonviolent solutions and of course is entirely uninterested in everyone's favorite former war profiteer. She is the sort of character I would normally find kind of annoying, but she doesn't ever come off as preachy. She must not have lasted very long, though, because I've never seen a mention of her anywhere but Marvel.com's Iron Man by the Decade thing.

Iron Man #139
This issue has the Beth vs. Whitney show down, which I really wanted, but because I buy things without thinking about it, I did not realize this is part 3 of a larger storyline.

Now to turn to more recent fare:
School started today and I was at the brand new just-opened Student Union buying a parking pass (obscenely expensive) and...our Student Union has a freaking Barnes & Noble in it. We have a Barnes & Noble on campus. How awesome is THAT? Answer: Way.

So, after class I peak in, hoping they have some comics because I would really like to get my hands on Batgirl #1 and its going to be about a week and a half before I hit the comic shop. Most bookstores I go to don't sell comics and the one that does only has stuff that is several months old. This one does have comics, but the selection is itty bitty. They had the first 4 issues of X-Men Forever, Iron Man & The Armor Wars and one other book that I never heard of. Because I had tossed around the idea of getting X-Men Forever and IM&AW, I decided to pick them both.

Iron Man & The Armor Wars #1
You know, I'm pretty passionate on the subject of how this mini-series should not exist, and yet, I paid $3.99 for it. The cover art is nice, though. Doesn't save the rest of it from being stupid, though. It's a vaguely movie-verse all ages version of Armor Wars that doesn't really remotely resemble the original story and I think that says it all.

X-Men Forever #1-4
Once upon a 1991, Chris Claremont, sole writer of X-Men for about 16 years left the franchise. He returned to Marvel in 2000, but it was just never the same. After a few lackluster runs on X-Men and a franchise killing run on Exiles and this totally awesome series called X-Men: The End in which everyone dies, he's got this new book where the premise is "Remember 1991? Let's pretend Claremont never left and pick up exactly where he left off, only since he used most of the plots he left hanging in X-Treme X-Men a few years ago, it's actually not what he would have done had he never left, but we're going to pretend that it is." And X-Men fans of the '90's rejoice, because FINALLY, here are some characters we care about. (Yeah, Pixie. I'm talking to you.)

--Ew, Logan/Jean.
--I'm not sure if I like having Shadowcat and Nightcrawler on the team. I like both of the characters, but this was their Excalibur era. I loved Excalibur and seeing them all, ~X-Men Rules, Excalibur Drools~ makes me sad.
--Yay, Rogue with her Ms. Marvel powers! Rogue with Ms. Marvel's powers is a far more interesting character than Ms. Marvel.
--Phoooooenix!
--Rogue and Gambit are so cute. I've forgotten what its like to have them sans baggage. They aren't a couple (yet?) in this series, back to pre-hook-up cuteness and fussing.
--And then everyone was unconscious and Wolverine was dead and I have a hard time minding.
--I love the puns in the editor's notes. Marvel doesn't do editor notes very much anymore. I miss them.
--Random Sabretooth attack! I LOVED that they brought back Sabretooth picking a fight with Wolverine on his birthday every year and the aborted plot that Sabs was actually Wolverine's father. And..the X-Men apparently knew that. Okay.
--So, Storm is evil and while fighting her, Kitty sprouts a Wolvie claw..the very claw that was missing from his body. And while you know when this happened, you don't know why. It is pretty freaking weird.
--I fail to see how possessing a single one of Wolverine's claws would make Kitty among the
most dangerous of the X-Men. Shouldn't her combo of Genius and Ninja be doing that?
--Jean gets a costume change. I love it. For when you are almost Phoenix, but not quite.
--Oh, I love how Sabretooth does homage to a really famous Wolvie panel.
--Is it wrong of me to want Sabretooth and Kitty to develop a father-daughter relationship to replace what she had with the dead Wolvie? Because I do. And I think he wants it, too.
--Lil' Storm! I am looking forward to more stories with Lil' Storm. As I have read none. Evil Adult Storm is a fake, Cute Child Storm is the real one. Fun times.

11:29pm: Tony/Whitney Picspam Part 3!
While scanning images, it occured to me that this is really more of a Whitney picspam because I scan every page Whitney is on and only scan the pages Tony is on if he is doing something that relates to Whitney. But, that's the 70's for you, because Whitney is always thinking about how ~in love they are~ and Tony is fighting space monsters. Can you guess which is shippier?

( Yeah, I thought you could. )

2:44pm: Batsteph!
So, Batgirl #1 dropped this week and its finally been confirmed (even though everyone pretty much figured anyway) that Stephanie Brown is the new Batgirl. I have every intention of buying this series, which marks it as the first DC series I intend to buy. From what I've seen of Steph online, I really like her but the more I think about this book, the more I see it as a really good example of why I don't like DC.

I have an awful lot of dislike for "legacy" heroes. As far as I can tell, the mask is a lot more important than the character wearing the mask. It doesn't really matter to DC that Cass Cain fans are Cass Cain fans, not Batgirl fans. Alan Scott, Hal Jordan, Jon Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner are all completely different characters, which different personalities, backgrounds, relationships, perspectives. But as far as DC editoral is concerned, a Green Lantern fan is a Green Lantern fan. There's an assumption that if you like Kyle, you'll read Hal.

Giving Steph the mantle of Batgirl and her own book means Cass is marginalized and dismissed. And that's just the way it goes with legacy heroes. I like Steph. I like her as the Spoiler, I like her as Robin, and now that she has her own title as Batgirl, I'm going to buy it. It's not about her costume or her name with me, its about her. She's only got one issue out and people are already speculating that Cass will come back, after months of speculating that Babs would take the cowl back. Legacy heroes can never escape people wanting "their" character to return.

Until DC realizes the person wearing the cowl is more important than the cowl itself, make mine Marvel. (Who, admittedly, also has legacy heroes, but with no where near the regularity that DC does.)

My other problem with DC is that their heroes are always expected to be perfect heroes. A DC-reading friend of mine refers to DC heroes as "gods." When was the last time a story centered on the idea that Batman or Superman screwed up? When DC heroes make a mistake, it is a hugely unacceptable thing to their readers. DC heroes aren't allowed to have a lapse in judgement, they aren't allowed to injure a bystander. They must be the living embodiment of heroic at all times. And while I do get annoyed at the guff Steph takes from other heroes for not being ~good enough~, part of the reason I like her so much is because she is a bit of a screw-up. She goes out there and she's not perfect, but she ultimately is gonna get the job done. She's got a snarky attitude and she balances her masked activities against her homelife and her school life. She's like the Spider-Man of the DCU (or maybe the Hank Pym, because she's gone through so many names). And that's why I'm going to buy her book. For all her sloppy fights, for all her lapses in judgement, for everyone who thinks she's not good enough to fight the good fight on the streets of Gotham, but dammit, she's going to do it all anyway, I'm buying Batgirl.

2:32pm: Talkin' Bout Tony and Pepper
I'm going to talk about (one of) my OTP(s) for a minute here. Stuff rolls around in my head and I like to write it down.

( I am some sort of insane conspiracy theorist. )