Bees Love Truth

I dunno if this is really John Constantine; looks more like David Bowie to me. It is probably a safe assumption that it is not David Bowie, though.
I just got finished reading a few of the Hellblazer TPBs that I never got around to looking at for whatever reason, and this one was pretty great. The nazi plot was a little eh, but the Bruce-Wayne-takeoff character was super fun (and he'd been introduced in an earlier plotline, too, so I got to feel all caught up). Good art, good writing, a bit of the old ultra-violence, some primo crazy eyes, and a small helping of Teh Gay. Although it is Teh Very Cynical and Manipulative Gay, but that is probably exactly what it should be. I will take it.

Semirelevantly, this is so true.

(I figured that Creeper was more appropriate for this entry than Nivlem, even though it's got a lot of Batman, because it's all about looking at stuff.)

So I figured I should mention that the latter (at least up through #4) seasons of Justice League (the animated series) _do_ eventually get good. The third season (really the first season of 'Justice League Unlimited'; loads of DC heroes are added to the Justice League instead of the seven usual ones focussed upon in the first series, 'Justice League') has some real clunkers (I am looking at YOU, 'Hawk and Dove'), but eventually finds its stride and does not try to cram a two-parter's worth of material into a twenty-two minute episode anymore. I was really, really discouraged, before we got to the stride-finding, to the point that I almost gave up on Unlimited. But the wise chmmr suggested we continue to give it a shot, and I am pleased that we did.

The first two seasons especially (and bear in mind that we have not yet watched the fifth and final) were just excellent, in part because each story was given two episodes in which to play out (at least after a little ramp-up time. Also needing some ramp-up is the writing of dialog for the Flash, but that really does pick up). Very well-handled. They essentially standardised the length of a story as two episodes long. Now suddenly all kinds of things can be fit in. There's fightin', there's character development, and there's some really clever letter-of-the-law evasions of the rules we're all used to from Batman the Animated Series: no blood, no dismemberment of organic beings, only trauma allowed is blunt-force (teeth can't be lost), explosive, or electrical (meaning: no disfigurement). No killing, period.

The series is especially good because it knows the rules and just - just bends them a little, every now and then. Implied blood. Frozen evil dictator. Moral ambiguity all over you screen. Sometimes, not all the time. There's a great ratio of Good Clean Punchin' to Whoa, Did That Just Happen? The context is impeccably constructed and maintained.

And for Unpleasant, Green Arrow _does_ get a part, albeit with a chunk of it in a weird episode where everyone is a complete dick and utterly unsympathetic. Wildcat's in there too. Just power through the Supergirl and stuff should improve.


(This avatar is Nivlem, scanned from an early MAD Batman parody. He's doing not just Explaining Hand, but Explaining Hand With Helpful Pointing. He's very smarmy. But it would be wrong to use my Marvelly other superhero avatars to make this post. I'm not a big DC person (outside of Batman's rogues' gallery (inside of Arkham they keep it too dark to read comics), Sandman, and Books of Magic), but Justice League does somewhat flatter me by allowing me to be all 'Isn't this guy [something something] because of his [backstory]? I THINK he might be...' and then it turns out that like any child of six, I am right. Yay.)

I'm posting this to record that I'm putting a new brassiere into rotation, so as to see how long it takes before the elastic in the straps starts getting all nonelastic. It's the grey one, future me.

The Whedony X-Men book was pleasant, Unpleasant. I do think he benefits from actual actors (meaning: live-action), though, as without them his characters start to all sound the same kind of quickly. But still fun, and for some reason the pinup with White Queen's hands over Scott's eyes pleased me.

I now own this. LOOK at all the good stuff that seller has.

Work has made me tired. Chmmr gets to be home this weekend, though, and that is Teh Bext.

...Why do I have a tag called 'density'?

(I use this avatar (Karma) usually when I'm talking about superhero comics (usually positively; goofier stuff gets Griffy) or when I'm saying something I should be embarrassed about, and especially when they overlap. If I hadn't mentioned the X-Men, I probably would have used the Delia avatar with the expectant and somewhat put off expression right before she launches into Day-O.)