Some Nice Words About Superior Spider-Man

I have made no secret of the fact that I think Doc Ock stealing Peter's body is a stupid idea.  I still think it's a stupid idea.  But with Peter set to come back soon, I decided I had to finally read Superior Spider-man.  Dan Slott took a stupid idea and wrote some really good Spider-Man stories.  Nice words.

Pull List and Pick of the Week - 1/29/14

Another week, another batch of books

Aquaman #27 

When it was announced that Geoff Johns was leaving Aquaman, I had good cause to be concerned.  Aquaman isn't exactly a character DC has handled well over the years.  But now we're two issues into Jeff Parker's run, and I must say I am still enjoying it.  This issue sees Aquaman continue his fight with Atlantis's ancient defender, while the Triton organization conducts shady business in the background.  Paul Pelletier's art continues to be gorgeous.

Bendis's Alias

Brian Michael Bendis's Alias is a critically acclaimed series, and I entirely understand why that is.  I just don't particularly care for it.  I've read about half of it.  It's very well written.  And the idea of exploring a superhero's life post superheroing is an interesting one.  Jessica Jones's was a piss poor superhero and now she's trying to make it in New York as private investigator.  Unfortunately her cases just aren't that interesting.  Bendis isn't a mystery writer.  Jessica's struggles to leave her past behind is interesting, just not enough to hold my interest.

Of course Jessica Jones will be one of four characters to get a Netflix series.  I'm not sure how she got in on that, having read this much of Alias.  I'm sure the Netflix series will be inspired by Alias as Jessica has no other significant stories to her name.  If they went with more interesting cases, the Netflix series could be quite an interesting mystery show.  A straight adaptation would bore me to tears.

Geothermal Escapism: Best Community Episode In Way Too Long

Geothermal Escapism marked Donald Glover's final episode on Community, and what an episode it was.  It's a familiar concept, but one that Community still does so well: the school is completely caught up in a silly game, hilarity ensues.  The result is the best episode since the end of season 3.  Dan Harmon's return was supposed to bring the show back to its former glory, but I don't think that was truly accomplished until this episode.

From start to finish, this episode is classic Community.  From the way in which it absolutely embraced its absurdity to Troy's farewell to the study group, everything was right with this episode.  Abed deals with Troy leaving in typical fashion, but what does that mean for the future?  Time will tell.  A pleasant surprise was Levar Burton's cameo at the end.  Burton's last appearance on the show made for one of Troy's most memorable scenes.  What I would have given though for one last "Troy and Abed In the Morning" segment though.

Comic Pull List - 1/22/14

Alright so here are the books I grabbed this week, and my thoughts on them.

All-New X-Men #22 

 This book gets a lot of the flack that Bendis books get, but honestly this is in my opinion the best book in the X-Men line right now.  Bendis is just knocking it out of the park, issue after issue.  Stuart Immomen's art is gorgeous as usual.

Rendezvous With Rama: Why Is This a Classic?

Arthur C. Clarke is one of science fiction's most influential authors, and Rendezvous with Rama is often considered one of his best novels.  Having just finished it, I'm left wondering why?

The United Planets' Spaceguard organization discovers this object of clearly not natural origins coming through the solar system and sends a team to study it.  Most of the novel follows the research of the team on the object, which has been dubbed Rama.  Rama eventually comes close to the sun and saps some energy and matter from the sun before moving on to its final location.  Nothing else happens.

The team's research, while interesting, is completely inconsequential. Even scientists in early parts of the novel consider Rama a complete waste of time.  The characters are bland and see no development over the course of the novel.

The concept is an interesting one.  A world constructed by alien life forms moving through space, its creators seemingly long gone.  There is a lot of potential here.  For a while it appeared as if the novel was building up to a big reveal of the Ramans. No such reveal comes.  Rendezvous with Rama is a prime example of a brilliant concept that suffered from excruciatingly poor execution.  Clarke's Childhood's End was a considerably more engaging read, and much more deserving of the praise this novel gets. 

The Wolverine: The Best X-Men Film In Years

             I make no secret of how I feel about Fox’s handling of their X-Men franchise.  While the first two films are entirely enjoyable superhero fare, if not entirely true to the source material, the franchise has been a disappointment since then.  X3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are best not even spoken of.  And while there is nothing in particular wrong as a movie with X-Men: First Class it completely ignores the source material and even the continuity of the film franchise.  That being said, the sequel to 2009’s lackluster solo Wolverine flick, The Wolverine, was quite a bit of fun, and as best as I can expect from this failing franchise now.