Comics: What I’m Reading

~ Steve ~ 4 Comments

Since my reading habits have somewhat changed I figure it’s time to share what I’ve been following. Here is what has been consistant in my pull lists…

Bloodshot

He’s confused. He is full of nanites which talk to him in the form of a child. He was a brainwashed weapon. Now he wants to get to the bottom of things and has little to lose and his life to gain. If it wasn’t for a long plane ride and a sale I’d have likely overlooked Bloodshot. If you are a fan of military based action movies and enjoy science fiction then Bloodshot’s your comic.

Green Lantern/GL Corps/New Guardians

I’m lumping all Green Lantern titled books here since there is a number of them. I’ve been a GL fan for a long time. I love the idea of being a space cop and being forced into a larger universe that isn’t impressed with humanity. Even when the books go weird and, well, bad I’m probably going to still be reading them.

The Flash

I feel like this series could be a lot better though I’m new to sure how. I grew up more sense to with Wally as Flash so having Barry around without the whole Speed family around is weird. It’s not bad by any means but I think it has unmet potential. Of the monthly books I pick up this is one of those I forget about on a regular basis.

The Manhattan Projects

If I had to rank comics in the last year this series could easily be in the top five.  It’s easier to just take the teaser:

What if the research and development department created to produce the first atomic bomb was a front for a series of other, more unusual, programs? What if the union of a generation’s brightest minds was not a signal for optimism, but foreboding? What if everything… went wrong?

Read it. Now.

Batman

When Grayson was Batman I pulled Batman and Robin. Now I read Batman. I still pick up Batman and Robin from time to time but it seems like the main title gets the harder hitting plot points right now. With Joker making his way back it’s an interesting arc for sure!

Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist

This is a comic which you have to really like the characters before reading to enjoy. Even though Flash Gordon has been a comic for a very long time there is something a bit refreshing in the setting and art. In this series Ming’s ability to backstab and control is masterfully expressed.

Secret Avengers

Originally I picked this up because Nova was part of the team. Now I continue simply due to the story line. The second and third arcs were slower than I would have liked and really gave little clue as to where things were really headed. There were little hints here and there but it wasn’t until recently that it feels like things finally are critical. If you want to jump in on this then pick up a fee back issues first.

Justice League

How can I not get this? Not due to the story (I’m iffy on it still) but due to the art. Hey, it’s probably get more interesting but until then it’s still fun to look at.

Sweet Tooth

I have the very last issue next to me. I’ve had it for about a week or so. I have not been able to bring myself to read it since that means the series is over. It’s that good. I want to know what happens but, I just cant…

X-O: Manowar

A visigoth future king gets ahold of one of a kind alien war armor and comes to present times. Needless to say this is a guilty pleasure comic. It’s not poorly written but it is pretty action packed and follows on thread (at least so far). It’s also the comic that got into Valiant’s universe and I’ve really been enjoying it.

Archer & Armstrong

By name and description I figured that this would be one of the Valiant books I’d not be reading but I was wrong. A friend and coworker of mine recommended it to me and after taking my time I finally picked up the first issue on Comixology. The same day I purchased all of the available issues of the current series. It has that great combination of humor, action, sci-fi and possibility for deepening story that really pulled me in.

Cable and X-Force

This one is another guilty pleasure but not one I (or others) would generally recommend. Cable is a long time favorite of mine and X-Force is a team I grew up on. This iteration is a bit different but having Cable back in X-Force makes a ton of sense. It’s only few issues in and I’m enjoying the story even if it is the normal ‘Cable has a vision and he will probably die to keep that vision of the future from happening’ thing. Huh. When I write it down I’m not sure why I enjoy it so much… Ah, that’s right’ nostalgia.

Blue Beetle

Ever since Blue Beetle went into space I’ve been digging this series. I’ve never been totally clear on the scarab other than it originated from space and the creating race did would at times fight against the Green Lantern Corps. It’s nice to start seeing more about the scarabs origin and the species who created it. I’m hoping the writers will continue Blue Beetle in the galactic setting for a while as I think it’s really working.

I’m Excited About Guardians of the Galaxy, But Not Why You Think

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In the 1990’s comic book movies were for comic book fans to not enjoy. In fairness, this is not much different than traditional book fans and most of the movies made from them, but comic book fans are just rabid about sticking to stories. If the story is too much then at the very least, it’s expected they stay true to who characters are or were. I know this because I am a comic book fan and cringe when I see characters molded into Hollywood super-types instead of highlighting the deep multidimensional traits common in our heroes.

In any case, the Guardians of the Galaxy (GotG), one of my favorite Marvel teams, is in process of making it to the big screen. Part of me wants to jump up and down in excitement. In my opinion GotG is much more fun and interesting than The Avengers. I know, that’s crazy talk for many people but that’s what I think. Another part of me is worried. Worried Hollywood will do to GotG what they did to Daredevil, or Parallax, Deadpool, etc.. But really the movie isn’t what is getting me excited about GotG. It’s something else.

A few years back I started to read Nova mainly because I had read most of the Green Lantern books that were available. I like cosmic level and/or SciFi stuff and this, like GL, fit the bill. It even is sometimes jokingly referred to as Marvels lanterns as there is some similarities. As I read more and more I started to realize how interesting of a character Rider (Nova) was. And from there I went to read Annihilation followed by GotG. It was good stuff but the creative team decided to focus on other characters in the cosmic realm. I ended up following the writers through their other cosmic teams but never felt the same pull to them as I did GotG.

But there is hope again. Bendis and McNiven are writing a new series! In general it sounds great (except the Iron Man part…). We are getting Star-Lord back. Star-Lord! One of my favorites! That also brings hope for Rider at some point down line as well. We also get Rocket Racoon, Groot, Drax and Gamora (it looks like).

I’m hoping Bendis and McNiven can take the team in a direction that finally solidifies them as THE cosmic team in the Marvel Universes. And also drop Iron Man. Seriously. Well, unless we can see Nova wipe the floor with Iron Man’s weak tech.

So that’s why I’m excited. There is hope for a great cosmic team to be in the forefront again. The movie is nice but the books will be where the action and creativity will shine.

 

Guardians Of The Galaxy #1. Read more at IGN.

Making Beer: Update On First Brew

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Yesterday I was able the to take the first reading and find where my hefeweizen’s gravity stands. It’s original gravity a week ago was 1.050. Yesterday’s reading shows it to be at 1.010. I’m thinking it’s at, or at least near, final gravity but am not totally sure just yet. I should know soon. What I can say is that the primary smelled amazing! I was tempted to try it as is but the yeast I saw while taking a sample for measurement convinced me otherwise. The ABV is currently coming to 4% which I’m happy with, especially if the beer tastes as good as it smells!

Making Beer: My First Homebrew

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About six months back I got the itch to try my hand at home brewing. After realizing a bit over a year ago that beer can taste good and the trying some homebrew done by some friends and coworkers I wanted in. I headed up to the local brewing store and bought a brewing kit along with malt extract based hefeweizen to ingredient box as a starting point.

I should point out I was given some excellent advice from a fellow beer lover: Don’t make you’re own, just enjoy what other people make. As you guessed I didn’t listen.

With all my ingredients cleaned I started the process of making the wert in my brew pot. The problem came when I started to feel hunger kick in hard. The instead of watching the boiling wert like a hawk I ate food and watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia waiting for the 45 minute low boil to do its magic. Right at the end when I happened to be watching out of the corner of my eye it boiled over. So frustrating! I pulled the lid off and was able to save the wert but lost some amount in the boil over.

When it came time to ice the brew pot the sink refused to hold water wasting a lot of water and ice. Are you kidding me? Argh!

Then the instructions noted the need for sanitizer in the airlock. Sanitizer that we were finished with in step one of the process and dumped due to, well, being done with it.

After all this I felt like I’d not want to do this again due to all the mishaps making me want to give up and dump the wert. Even if this batch is drained I’ll likely try a few more times. The thought of having my own IPA or Belgian style ale adjusted to my taste is just too strong. In any case it’s all in the fermenter now and it’s time to wait. If your curious the starting gravity is at 1.050.

So far here is what I gather: The science and steps of making beer is really important. The foundation. And you can end it right at that and come out with a nice, but simple beer. The fun (and amazing differences) comes from the art that lives after the science.

Needless to say I’m not a good brewer. In fact I’m a pretty lousy one. Good news is I can only get better.

Cigar City Brewing

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Hidden behind a Total Wine in Tampa, Florida lives a brewery and brewpub who is serious about about IPA and sports some other good styles. It’s called Cigar City Brewing and it’s not in Ybor.

Cigar City Brewing
Cigar City Brewing

Jai Alai

I tried this in November for the first time with a good friend in the Tampa area who was exploring craft and import beer styles. We both thought it was just ok. He isn’t much of a hop head and I thought it was too mild of an IPA. In fairness I may have gotten an older package or possibly a different version of the IPA. Upon second tasting over Christmas I changed my mind and put it in the upper tiers of IPA’s. Why? It’s plenty hoppy (seriously) with a semi sweet finish and it does this without having the massive citrus notes that are so common in West coast IPA’s (I’m looking at you Pliny). It’s no wonder this is one of their biggest year round brews!

Florida Cracker

My first beer love was Belgian and Belgian’s continue to be high on my favorites list. Wit’s are seriously hit or miss for my taste but Florida Cracker, a Belgian White style beer, is very well done. It’s a little sweeter than other versions but it works out well. It’s nose carries some fruity notes but the taste is what I like in my witbier: mild, well balanced and full of Belgian spices. If nothing else you have to love the name.

Maduro

Yeah, a brown ale. I don’t go for them. Stouts, yes. Black IPA’s, sure. Pale ales or wheats, of course. Brown ale, pass. Well, except this one. This ale reminded me of a more relaxed milk stout in flavor. Chocolate and toffee was present and had a mild nutty finish (which I believe is more common in brown ales). I bought a six pack just to get something different and I am glad I did. Those who are fans of brown ales should give this a run.

Where is it?

Sadly it doesn’t seem like Cigar City Brewing has good distribution. With the exception of Florida I’ve not seen it on a shelf for purchase. That’s unfortunate as I’m positive the IPA (if not more) would surely get good sales. Heck, even Beer Advocate rates it at a 100!

Valiant: Who would have thought?

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If you asked me a year ago about Valiant comics I’d likely give a puzzled look. Yeah,there are many publishers but Valiant isn’t one I knew. Now I find Valiant in my pull list a few times a month. What initially got me interested was X-O Manowar. The idea behind the character intrigued me. Though the first issue almost lost me. It was good but oddly paced. After a few issues introducing some history and more figures of interest I became hooked.

But then they had to do a crossover. Those silly gimmicks where it’s more marketing than content. But this was different. Yes, there was marketing involved but the story made sense and introduced a figure who, under other circumstances, I would pass up reading.

This got me thinking. Is Valiant actually challenging what I normally think about when I see a comic? Are they actually trying to be different than the rest of the industry? Are they making superhero comics for people who like comics?

Right now I’d say yes (assuming they run with the original universe). There is a feel for real continuity (not the “It’s fun, isolated stories.” junk.. I’m looking at you Marvel.) which is something I go crazy for. I think it’s clear they love the characters that existed in the Valiant universe and are taking care in reintroducing them. And I hope it continues.

Now l, excuse me while I read the Shadowman preview followed by some Bloodshot.

Nintendo Wii U

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It should come as no surprise I like video games. I’ve owned (at one time or another) each of the current generation systems. In fact that the believe I’ve owned at least two 360s and exactly two PS3’s. Why? Hardware failure. After my second or third 360 death I moved to PS3 which lasted years before needing a replacement. For the Wii I stood in line for hours launch day and was barely at the cut off point when they did the counting. I got sick from standing so long in the cold but it was worth it.

This week the Nintendo Wii U has been on my mind a lot. It’s the first of the next generation consoles. It’s marketing to people like me has been incredibly poor. I’m not a classic cable watcher or OTA network guy so all ads I’ve seen have been online. Many times I have to seek out information rather than be enticed by advertising. For me this means there is still things about the Wii U that I’m sure I don’t know about.

One feature I just picked up on was TVii. It actually matches half of what I’ve really been wanting in a media center device by finding the prices and availability across services I have seen subscribe to.

The primary usage of a Wii U is videos games. No brainer. It’s a Nintendo device. Recently I walked up to one of the demo stations at a store. The tablet style controller was comfortable and lighter than you’d expect but all of the games on the station were video only. I was pretty disappointed with the graphics quality shown.

I wasn’t expecting realistic graphics or anything like that but watching the videos on the station I felt like it was not much of a step up. Yes, better but an evolutionary step for the console series, not a revolutionary one. I saw artifacts on Mario. I shouldn’t be seeing that.

Granted, this could be the demo stations fault. It’s possible cheap televisions are in use. Maybe it will look better connected to a normal consumer TV. But then again this is a station that is there to entice me into buying. The only thing I could say for sure was that the station had the opposite effect. I went in with a secondary objective to find out about launch day plans or pre ordering but left pretty sure I would not be buying a Wii U.

But after further thoughts I think TVii is what will tip the scales for me. Not at first, mind you. I want to make sure it’s not a gimmick that falls into the shadows after launch. As long as TVii gets added sources and good post launch reviews  I think I’ll have a place for the the Wii U.

Indie Games and Mew-Genics!!

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Over the last few months I’ve been getting more and more into indie games. I’ve even toyed around with the idea of trying my hand at a super simple indie-indie game (just to see what the whole cycle is like). I’ve not stopped playing games from big studios but I do find many if the indie games to be much more satisfying either due to the unique mechanics and new ideas or from the retro feel sending me back to why I started playing games in the first place. Who would have thought I could have so much fun watching a fleet of ships run away from my managerial skills?

And fun indie gaming brings me to Team Meat, the creators of Super Meat Boy. Team Meat announced development on a new game called Mew-Genics. Right now there is very little information other than the blog post and the teaser image. Though even with missing specifics I’m not any less excited about this great indie duo pumping out another fun to play game with a strong dose if uniqueness!

If you are unfamiliar with Team Meat or have not watched Indie Game: The Movie, watch it now!

What I Want From a Home Theater PC/Digital Media Receiver

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A few years ago I sat down to figure out how much I was paying in cable versus the amount of time I was using it. I found that I really only watched a handful of shows and could probably save money by buying the seasons. In other words I was a normal casual TV watcher. The next course of action was easy because for me it was a no brainer. I cut cable. I haven’t wanted to go back.

Today I use a PS3 to watch Netflix and Amazon while relaxing at home. On the go its Android devices to watch Google Play and Netflix. These are great services and, overall, I’m happy with the content they provide (though Netflix seems to go up and down in terms of stability..).

I just read about the newer BoxeeTV after hearing about it in some podcasts. I like it’s idea but, for me, it still isn’t what I really want out of an entertainment device. I like the idea it uses cloud storage because it should make it easier to stream the content to other devices as well (at least in theory). It’s nice on general functionality now, but I can’t see it as a long term solution. I still have two issue with the designs of Boxee and the like that keep me waiting to put down money on a dedicated HTPC/DMR.

When I want to watch something that I will be paying for I want to feel like the customer. I want to feel like I’m getting the best price for the item I’m purchasing. Simple concept. So far I’ve yet to see a device which makes me feel this way. Instead, I feel like I get access to one or more video services where I can pay their price if I choose to buy/rent/subscribe. Most of the time I know what I want to watch and what I really want the device to do is search across all the services I have accounts on for the best price. Am I a Netflix member and it’s there? Great! Take me there! Is it, $0.50 cheaper on Google Play than Amazon VOD? Let’s buy it from Google then. In the end I don’t much care who is providing the content so much that it’s legal, I am getting it at the best price and am able to access it when I want to watch it. As a bonus it would be nice to tell the difference between watching it because it’s in a subscription and owning a watch it forever license.

The other item is not something a HTPC/DMR company can really influence directly in my opnion. I believe that when I purchase a video online I’m actually purchasing a license to stream the content. Not all services are available on all devices (as I eluded to before with Amazon not being on my tablet). Why can’t I import my licenses from provider A to provider B? At the very least why can’t I do it if provider A changes its business to something else (or goes out of business)? The quick argument against license import/export would probably be about how a customer could move away to another service but, honestly, that wouldn’t be a major problem. In fact, it could be a benefit  Someone who moves  is likely moving over to make the other service the sole provider of their content due to price/convenience/access for their specific situation. This would mean future revenue from the person. The original seller wouldn’t lose the money already made by selling the license and would gain back bandwidth by not needing to stream the content to the user. The also consumer wins here as well as they can gain the best access and use the service(s) they wish to use at any time. It’s not remotely like this today and I’ve been burnt in the past by companies deciding to change direction and cut access to purchased content. For this reason I can’t see any of the devices (or services) today as a long term buy nor a replacement for buying a blue ray or dvd.

The closest option seems to be XMBC but it also seems to be more channel focused instead of content focused and the issues around future access still exist from the big players. Things do seem to be moving in the right directions but, for now buying content in a physical media format is the safest bet for watching later.

Simplicity Over Beauty. Functionality Over Features.

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I’m a fan of many of the services that allow the legal purchase of music online. One service that I’ve come to enjoy over the years is emusic which, for quite some time, didn’t provide a way to download music other than through their website and desktop downloader.

As seems common, a developer decided to scratch his own itch and release a mobile downloader application. If it wasn’t for his application I could have easily moved over to Amazon MP3 or Google Music just based on the ease of purchase and growing selections. Fast forward a year and emusic figured out people wanted a mobile downloader. A beta was released.

And it was buggy and had features that, as a user, I really don’t care about while having oddly implemented features that seemed core to the downloader experience. Let me explain: I wanted to search, purchase and download music. I think that those three actions are nearly universal for a music purchase and download app. Here is the list of features for the official emusic application:

  • Listen to any MP3 files stored on your phone through the music player
  • Get song recommendations based on your listening habits
  • Create playlists tailored to your every mood
  • Browse an artist’s dossier (discographies, biographies, photos, features, and related artists) while you listen to music
  • Access eMusic’s unique charts
  • Search eMusic’s catalog and listen to track samples
  • Download music
  • Listen to eMusic Radio (available to U.S. members only)
  • Save for Later
  • Access account details

(Source)

This is how I ended up feeling about the emusic application: it searched, purchased (or crashed), downloaded in a weird filename format (or crashed), wanted to search my existing library to give recommendations (sort of weird) and listen to samples (or crash). When the application crashed there was a possibility that emusic would think I downloaded the song when I didn’t receive it meaning I would need to contact to support and ask for a redownload.

The ‘weird format’ may sound, well, weird but it’s true. I’m someone who likes to listen to music in many settings. The two most common ways I listen to music are from a laptop or via my phone. Obviously this means I’m at least using two different music players (right now it’s Nightingale and Player Pro) and the need to organize music is important. When I download via the emusic website or via the indie developers app I get a nice directory structure with artist and songs named in a way that makes sense to me. When I download from the emusic mobile application, well, see for yourself:

In fairness many of the crashing bugs have been fixed and it’s a better client than it was but I still buy and download using the third party app developers application. It’s simpler, stable and let’s me do the three tasks I need out of a downloader.

So why didn’t emusic decide to license/buy the downloader that the developer released? I’m not totally sure but I have a an inkling that they wanted to show they could outdo the simple app. Pretty interface, more features, samples, etc. As a user I care less about how it looks and much more about how functional the application is.

Today I still use the indie developers emusic downloader instead of the official app and I recommend it’s use over emusics official app. I want an application that let’s me get the music I want and delivers a consistent user experience (read: simple flow and doesn’t crash). If it’s not pretty or doesn’t have every single cool feature under the sun, well, I’m ok with that.