This week in DC Comics

From Suicide Squad #2

At this point, these are the books of last week since the new books come out every Tuesday, but better late than never! Book of the week:

Demon Knights #2

This week in DC Comics...

from Animal Man #2

I'm going to do a weekly round quick-hit of reviews now that I'm reading comics regularly again. Let's start with book of the week:

Action Comics #2

DC Comics: The New 52 - week 5

Wrapping up the rest of the #1s! Here's my favorite clip of the week:

From Aquaman #1

Reviews of the internet were much more favorable to this weeks books than I was. A large number I didn't like, and even more are just barely hanging on. But let's get to the good stuff: the book of the week is...

All-Star Western #1

For the past six weeks, most of the traffic to this blog has been because I posted a pic of Ben Henderson's tattoo.

So in case you're wondering, I can be bought.

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

I've played most of the Final Fantasy games up until this one, so in spite of the bad reviews, I wanted to give this one a try. I really liked it.

A la carte a reality?

A few weeks back, I posted some thoughts on the state of cable television, wherein I stated that the only way a la carte could ever happen would be through an act of Congress. Because any single cable company who attempted this would be fighting a losing battle against the channel providers.

Then I read this tidbit comes in:

Cable operators want to go "a la carte"
U.S. cable operators are privately working on a plan to force programmers to unbundle their networks and allow customers to subscribe to channels on an individual basis.

Wow. The cable companies are working together to force this on the channel providers. I did not see this coming. And I am very impressed.

DC Comics: The New 52 - week 4

There was no real standout this week, but out of the new batch, only one book outright sucked, so I call that a win. Since normally I start this off with a pic of the issue of the week, instead I'll give my single favorite panel:

From Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

The sensitive side of me should be disgusted about what they've done to Starfire, but the lecherous side of me laughed my ass off.

Netflix lets in the competition

I'm sure you've heard that Netflix is splitting their DVD service off into Qwikster. I'm assuming from the fact that they're not calling it 'mailflix' or something like that that they plan to sell off the DVD service at the earliest opportunity.

I barely even watched DVDs anymore, my rentals would literally sit around for months. But there were two reasons I never went to streaming-only:
1) Netflix was convenient and affordable; it was so easy to just not change anything.
2) The number of streams I could watch at once was tied to the number of dvds on my account. With four people in my home who like to occasionally use the service, having two streams available was pretty safe.

As a result of this change, there was no longer any benefit to keeping my DVD service, so it's gone. But will I keep the streaming?

Green Lantern: The New 52

Batman and Green Lantern have been such solid sellers in recent years, that with the reboot their continuities have been allowed to continue more or less where they left off. A quick look at all the Green Lantern-related books:

Hal Jordan will likely feature regularly in both Justice League and the flagship Green Lantern title, although he didn't make the cover of that latter! We'll come back to that.

DC Comics: The New 52 - week 3

Back for week 3, which was nowhere near as impressive as week 2. Since I live for Green Lantern, I'll address the #1 separately. As for the rest of the week, there was one that stood head-and-shoulder above the rest:

Demon Knights #1

mmmmmmm.... nuggets

From 1984 to 1996, KFC sold a product called Kentucky Nuggets. Let's hop into the wayback machine to 1984...

DC Comics: The New 52

Recently, DC rebooted their entire line of comics, and here in the month of September are rolling out 52 new number one comics. I decided to try them all! Here, at the half-way point, is what I think so far...

Week One:
This week consisted of two comics: Flashpoint #5, which marked the end of the old DC, and Justice League #1, which marked the beginning of the new. And I have to say, I'm disappointed with how it ended. I mean, Flashpoint was fine. But the beginning of Flashpoint was really the end (while the current books finished out their runs without acknowledging what was happening). It just feels like an awkward way to say goodbye. Especially since the story was all about Flash/Barry Allen, who's spent the better part of the twenty-five years since the Crisis reboot being... dead.

But onto the new...

Justice League #1

Wing Tattoos

Tattoos of wings on peoples backs always bother me. The picture above is one of the smaller tattoos I could find, to make my point... and that is, whenever I look at them, I just can't shake the thought that there's no way those things could support the person's body in flight.

Am I missing the point? Maybe, but in my head, it's like someone taped forks to their hands and tried to say they were Wolverine.

"When they come out, does it hurt?"

Then, while watching Sunday's UFC show, I saw Ben Henderson.

Now those are wings I approve of... realistically, they may still be too small, but not so ridiculously out of proportion that it hurts my brain. Ben Henderson, you're doing it right.

Why cable prices go up

"Ambition is the willingness to kill the things you love and eat them in order to stay alive."

I worked for Dish Network for four years before the bastiches fired me, and learned a lot about the television industry during that time. This week, Gizmodo is running a #fixcable series, and discussed the rising price of cable. In it, the writer made this statement:

"But wait! What about satellite? Doesn't satellite fix everything? No... According to the Government Accountability Office, satellite services have little-to-no effect on cable prices."

I had my own viewpoint on this, which I attempted to share last night. It appears the moderators rejected my response, which is disappointing. So I will share it here:

Actually, satellite competition has had a big effect on prices.... it's driven them up. Because before satellite came in, the negotiation between the cable companies and the programmers was a take-it-or-leave-it deal from the cable company. Oh, the customers will complain if we don't carry the channel, but what else can they do? 

Now, the programmers are in the drivers seat because they can hike their prices up and play the competitors against each other. Say you're a cable company that doesn't want to take the programmer's price increase. And they're so ballsy these days in that some come in wanting to double their price*... they say it's only a few pennies per customer, but when every channel in your hundred channel package wants a few more pennies, that can add up pretty fast. 

So if you decide to stand up to them, they'll pull their signal and your competitor will fight their battle for them by launching a blanket campaign that they have the channel you don't carry anymore... which is somewhat short-sighted since the competitor is empowering that same hardball game when their own contract is up. 

The programmers will just keep driving the prices up and up, until the whole system collapses in on itself. The only way I see wide-spread cord-cutting being stalled is perhaps if the government legislates a la carte, and lets the customers decide if each channel is worth what the programmers think they're worth.

Mel Brooks vs Woody Allen

"Excuse me while I whip this out."

Did you know "At the Movies" is still around? It's back on PBS as "Ebert presents: At the Movies"... although Ebert doesn't actually appear on it. And when the chips are down (pledge time), it appears they're going back to the classics. In this case, they went all the way back to the seventies/early eightes when Siskel and Ebert hosted Sneak Previews, and it's a pretty interesting episode, wherein they debate which of the two alleged funniest filmmakers at the time was funnier.

But here's how I see it: At one time, Woody Allen was new and different. Once the newness wore off, then the debate began about whether Woody Allen was actually funny at all.

Mel Brooks is funny, and anyone who would question that is dead inside. So Brooks wins by default.

I'm not usually one to fish for comments, but this time out... post a Mel Brooks quote. Or Woody Allen, if you're one of... those people.

Hobbits indulge in Tea

Filthy hobbitses.

Going a different direction here, giving my thoughts on some of the political goings-on lately. If you have easily offended political sensibilities, please skip this post so that we can continue to be friends.

PSN Reviews - Classic Remakes Edition

I recently picked up the pac-man remake, and decided to share my thoughts about a couple of other 80's remakes along with it, running the gamut from amazing to unplayable.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

More of this is true than you would believe.

I used to listen to Loveline years and years ago when Adam Corolla was one of the hosts, and when a wise-ass would get through the screeners with an obviously fake story, he would respond with the deflating phrase: "Is that true? Because it's not funny."

When the phrase "More of this is true than you would believe" flashed on the screen at the beginning of this movie, I knew I was in trouble.

Voltron Force

Alright, so when they remake the classics, I feel obligated to at least give it a shot.

Torchwood: A Primer

Torchwood. Outside the government, beyond the police. Tracking down alien life on Earth, and arming the human race against the future. The Twenty-First Century is when it all changes, and you've got to be ready.

Torchwood: Miracle Day will be premiering on the Starz Network on Friday! This series is a continuation of the BBC series, and while I'm sure great care will be given to make the show accessible for those joining us for the first time, I wrote this for any newbies who would like to know what's come before, and any old fans who might want to refresh their memories.

Seriously, though... if you have Netflix, the whole series is available to stream there. So why not just stop reading now and go watch it? I won't be hurt.

As a disclaimer, the above picture is a promotional shot from the new series. As I've avoided spoilers (River would want it that way), I'm not actually sure who the two people on the left are. :)

spoilers below the cut