November 26, 2011: Bath time! Tara needs your help! Snow Monkeys need a win! And more comic book thoughts!

The gang cleans pretty nice.  They're all presentable now and ready to put in an appearance at your special occasion, be it a birthday party, anniversary, or wedding.  Book now to avoid disappointment.

Speaking of disappointment – tomorrow will be a HUGE day for my Snow Monkeys who are clinging to the last playoff spot in our Stargate fantasy football league.  This weekend, the second to last week of play, sees my 6-5 Monkeys playing the 5-6 Autodrafts.  Plenty of permutations to consider but, suffice it to say a win this weekend secures that playoff spot.  A loss puts me on very unsteady ground.  In an all-out bid to get that win, I traded injured star RB Adrian Peterson for RB Rashad Mendenhall (who has a nice match-up against the hapless KC Chiefs) and QB Cam Newton who I'll be starting ahead of Tony Romo (and good thing too given Romo's performance on Thursday).

Hanging on to that final playoff spot!

Hey, head on over to Tara Yelland's blog and check out THIS entry (Headshots! Survivor!) where she talks Survivor and asks her readers to weigh in on the dozen or so headshots she took the other day.  Help a gal out.

Continuing my quest to get back into comic books by reading every title out there…

GREEN LANTERN #1-3

I've always found the Green Lantern a hard character to like.  I mean, he's a character I really want to like.  I love the idea of a hero's powers being contained in a ring, a portable device capable of being taken, lost, or exploited. In this case, the ring's power manifests itself as "hard light constructs" originating from the wearer's imagination – anything from the good (cool alien weaponry), the bad (a giant boxing glove), to the inane (a giant baseball mitt for catching plummeting allies).  Oh, and all said manifestations are green.  So you can see the potential for cartoon silliness.  As a result, I approached this latest incarnation of Green Lantern as I approached past incarnations – with muted expectations and a certain sense of trepidation.  But again, like the new Green Lantern Corps series, I came away pleasantly impressed.  It's surprisingly dark in comparison to past GL stories I've read, with longtime arch-villain Sinestro joining the corps and enlisting a recently deactivated Hal Jordan to help him rescue his homeworld – by taking on his former allies, the Sinestro Corps.  The story moves at a rapid pace with plenty of action, but also offers up some terrific little character moments for not only Hal but Sinestro as well.  P.S. What happened to Kyle Rayner?

Verdict: Finally, a Green Lantern series with dark potential.  So far, so hooked.

FF #9-11

I always enjoyed reading the Fantastic Four for its mix of superheroics and super scifi.  Their origin and their powers have SF roots (their doomed spaceflight), they've battled cosmic entities (Galactus, Blastaar, Annihulus), and their leader is a brilliant scientist and inventor.  Of course, the mix of the more complex SF and superhero elements has its drawbacks for the casual reader as well as I soon discovered when I checked out #9 to #11 of FF.  Despite the handy paragraph-long intros that provide the backstory to the individual issues, I had no idea what was going on.  I mean, I sort of got the gist, but I didn't recognize quite a few of the characters, couldn't figure out their motivations, nor could I track the mythology-heavy backstory. Bentley, Alex Powers, Nathaniel Richards, Leech, the Supremor – all, no doubt, would make for a most intricate and satisfying narrative provided I'd been following the series and not hopping on its ninth issue.

Verdict: Unfortunately, way too confusing for me.  Will give the longer running Fantastic Four title a shot instead.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1-3

When I first started reading comics, my titles of choice were the superteams: the Avengers, the X-Men and, occasionally, the Defenders and Champions.  I loved the team dynamics, the sometimes rocky but ever-supportive relations that typified these books.  Although I didn't grow up with the Justice League, it's a title I've checked out over the years.  And so, I was interested to see how this latest incarnation of the team would fare.  Alas, while I was expecting a new team and new team dynamics, I was not expecting a total reboot.  With Justice League #1, we are back at square #1 as we explore the very first meeting of the super-powered individuals who will subsequently form the JLA.  My reader response here was the exact opposite to my FF experience.  Whereas I found the latter too confusing, I found the former too straightforward, covering ground I was well familiar with. Not bad for those looking to get in on the ground floor, but a little slow for this reader.

Verdict: I fee like we're covering well-trodden ground.  I'll shift my focus to Justice League Dark.

CATWOMAN #1-3

Hmmm.  Mixed feelings on this one.  On the one hand, we've got a great character in Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman), a loner with a criminal bent, but possessed of a professionalism and allure that makes her altogether fascinating.  She's cool and collected under fire, yet there are moments in which we glimpse her vulnerabilities, the most interesting of which comes to fore in her surprisingly carnal relationship with Batman.  All great and there's even the bonus of a wonderful supporting player through whom we'll be able to gain a better understanding of our heroine.  On the other hand, there's a fairly straightforward story driving the narrative, the action feels at times gratuitously violent, and that supporting player with some much promise gets offed pretty early on in gruesome fashion.  This version of Selina Kyle is, for some reason, struggling to survive, a vagabond who must rely on the generosity of a friend to get by.  It's a far cry from past versions of Selina who've used the money they've made fleecing big targets to set themselves up quite nicely – living in penthouse suites, running in high society social circles, and demonstrating intelligence and resourcefulness in staying steps ahead of both her enemies and Batman.

Verdict: Alas, too far removed from the Catwoman I knew.  Not a title I'll continue with.

Hmmm.  Batting a little over 500 on the new comics – 6 yeas and 5 nays.  So what about all the other comic fans out there.  What are you reading and enjoying?