Paul's journal

Turns out I could have waited for a softcover version of "1000 Nights of Snowfall" instead of buying the hardcover. Oh well.

Not all that impressed that the Joss Whedon "Astonishing X-Men" series is ending with a special #1 issue just to make Marvel some more money. That story has been stretched out so long - I am not convinced that any major character is really going to die no matter what they tease. The rest of the Marvel Universe has long since moved on.

There was a big gap between trades and now one last month and one this month which has been great. This was the final Bagley issue which is a shame. This book has had the most consistent creative team of any in a long time. I hope it still feels the same with the new artist. The preview pages in the final flashback were okay but I'd like to see a full issue. The Kingpin story was pretty good and much better than the last 'Knights' story. Bringing Kitty to the school was a great plot development. The final epilogue was rather nice. I think the 616 version of Aunt May and Peter's talk was better, but this one worked well too.

Cable & Deadpool is axed and replaced with Cable? Boo. Replace it with Deadpool!

Spent most of the day working on adapting the new designs to our template. It's working well, but it was time consuming, but also fun.

I went down to Minotaur at lunchtime to get the new Ultimate Spider-Man trade. It's been ages, but the Clone Saga was worth the wait. A great story, some nice twists on 616 characters and some of Bagley's best art in ages. Shame he's leaving so soon, but rumour has it the whole Ultimate Universe might be on it's way out. It would be good if this comic can wrap up nicely.

It was a day for finishing. I also completed The Full Cupboard of Life (which was rather short and wrapped up too quickly).

Then I played the final battle of Kingdom Hearts II. I had to go a few times on the ultimate battle but it wasn't too bad. I had held off wanting to get all the Journal complete but it looks far too hard as you've got to do all the Colosseum tasks (50 round battles?) and really level up to face Sephiroth and I can't be bothered really.

I went down to Minotaur at lunch time and got the Essential Dazzler, and the second issues of the TF/Avengers crossover and Megatron Origin. I also met up with Daniel who passed on the Op Prime communicator he picked up for me while he was overseas.

After a meeting today I'm a bit concerned about the new website and out avility to deliver. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

I went out at lunch and got the new X-Factor book. It fell off my list when I did a rushed order update from Los Angeles. I'm glad I got it though, it had some good stories although the mixed art was a bit annoying.

Tonight I watched Firewall, taped the other week. Not a great film, and a little silly in parts, but I enjoyed it. I ended up setting a tape for 24 tonight as it was the episode where Chloe gets to let loose with a machine gun. The whole chase is one of the highlights of the show.

My third ebay purchase came today, the complete set of the Jim Lee X-Men cards from the early 90s. It took a bit over a week for it to come and it was my third trip to the PO Box to check. Very happy with the collection. I could probably write the text myself now, but back in the day the cards I got were my introduction to the trivia of the greater X-Universe. They were just too expensive to try to collect them all back then.

As with Decimation I've bought the latest X-Men one shot so I have an idea of the new storylines. The issue looks nice but it's pretty uneventful. The X-Men attend a funeral of a mutant and various characters angst about the death of any mutants when there are so few. It's a bit late coming, New X-Men has been full of mutant deaths over the last year and a half. The plot summary for the coming crossover sounds a lot like the storylines that were suggested for around X-Men #80 before the writers got dumped. Hopefully it goes well. The Decimation storyline has been a disaster but hopefully they can tie it up in a satisfying way.

The last book "Wolves" included the script for #50 which told us that the door closing was symbolic of Snow and Bigby leaving the series for now. I was upset at this but it did make me laugh. I would never have predicted that my I would ever say that the main characters in my favourite series were Snow White and the Big Bad Wolf! I was very glad to find them back in this new book playing a minor role in the first story but promiment roles in the Christmas story and a two parter where the family visited Bigby's father The North Wind.

The lead story has first real point to a finite end to the series. The Adversary gathers his warlords to discuss their response to Fabletown's actions in "Wolves". A lengthy plan to use magic to wipe out the Earth is detailed as is the way the mundy's would strike back if attacked. The plan is put on hold... but only for reworking. A three year timeline is still in place which makes me think that the book's might now be starting towards a finish. (Even if the finish is still three years away.)

The second volume of this story wasn't as good as the first. Taking Daredevil into a new location was interesting though but it lacked the drama and suspense of the first part. This part of the story was all about setting up a new status quo and it did so in an interesting way, much quicker than in the Bendis era!

I read Knightfall in novel format so these stories aren't new, but they are an ok read. Some of the dated artwork is very off putting though. Robin looks like he is about 17 which is the most annoying thing. Somethings are kind of funny like the supercomputer with a handset connected by a curly phonecord. Colouring is just weird, the bright orange Batcave, Bullock in bright yellow and purple? The first trade was superior with the story moving fast but it picked up a bit too far along, with Bruce already tired and Jean-Paul already moving in. The second had a bit of filler, with a two part flashback from another series, and a three parter versus the Scarecrow from the Shadow of the Bat series. The development of the new Batman suit happened way too fast for my liking.

I spent a lot of this morning clearing out some old emails. It's the kind of work you do when you're not motivated to do other work. I went to Borders at lunchtime and found that's not the best idea given how long the queue gets! I picked up a California guidebook with my last 40% off coupon (leaving The Complete Far Side on the shelf for now).

Then I went to Minotaur and picked up the first two issues of the movie prequel, the Soundwave one shot and the latest New Excalibur and New Avengers books. I had a flick through the new Buffy comic. I had considered buying the first issue in pamphlet form but I was put off by the ads. Shame Dark Horse couldn't follow IDW method and put all the ads at the back of the book. It does look good though.

I had a couple of meetings outside the office and one of them involves getting someone else to help with the work. Usually that annoys me but in this case she seems to have a bit of a clue so I'm not so annoyed.

I was surprised to see Village dropped another dollar of their tickets for this week. So I will be seeing TMNT and Becoming Jane for $7.50. I might also reconsider seeing Hollywoodland and try to work out how to get to a good session of The Host.

Got home to find out K-Mart had called to tell me that my rainchecked DVD finally came in. Well thanks for telling me a month after I bought it from your store when you did get it in. I gave you back my raincheck slip and explained the problem but obviously your system needs some work.

I also received my passport! Only a few more to do items left now before my holiday.

I jumped over the gang war storyline preluded by War Drums right to the epilogue. I've not read about this Black Mask character before and while his plan to frame Batman was interesting the character seemed far less interesting when the Joker arrived. I liked the art style of one of the artists but the book doesn't identify which chapters come from which issues come from or who works on each. I think it's the Batman chapters, but whoever the artist is he drew a sexy Bruce. I don't like the final epilogue but I read it's been retconed since.

A good retelling of Doom's origin. It's been updated to a more recent time than the 60s origin but the core aspects seem the same. For a book with no real hero, it does make Victor sympathetic. There is a little doubt cast at the end but the book stays away from the obvious "It's all Reed's fault" ranting that is almost a cliche. Instead Reed's involvement is a passing and almost goes unmetioned, but that makes sense too if Victor doesn't want Reed any credit. Some nice touches included using video interviews to intercut Doom's narration and Doom's walking around the scenes he remembers.

Two story arcs in this trade. The first was better because it stuck to superheroics as the Birds dealt with some rogue female vigilantes. The second arc had an organised crime / ninja theme that wasn't so interesting. It's subplot of Babs facing the parasite kept it readable and it did get better towards the end as other heroes teamed up to help out against both enemies. Ed Benes draws a really nice clean and crisp book.

Another storyline where I jumped over the middle. The first set of issues ties up the storyline of Sasah Bordeaux but I just don't care about her. I didn't in Murderer? and I don't here. I must have missed something because I didn't feel that Bruce really loved her as much as they want us to believe. The second set of stories was about closure for the real culprit and was a better arc. The Batgirl solo story was pretty lousy but I suppose there's a market for girl in black leather beats people up but it's not me. The best chapter was the story from Gotham Knights, a day in the life story of Bruce during the day and Batman at night.

Marvel is at it again, spoiling a major event in one of their comics before any of the fans had a chance to buy or read the issue. They are doing it to raise their profile and get more people to buy their books but if they'd held off the media release for one day there would sure be a lot less spoiled (spoilt?) readers.

After all the talk of no last minute rewrites for Civil War seem less valid now, or maybe it was always the intention to do it this way, because we saw the ending from miles away.

Previously I was annoyed that the next Ultimate Spider-Man collection was being released in hardcover first. This morning I got an email from Amazon telling me it was coming out in softcover a fortnight before the hardcover. I wonder if that was an old listing? I haven't got the trade on order as it wasn't in Previews. It doesn't strike me as believable that Marvel would put out the cheaper softcover so soon before the pricey hardcover.

It's Where's Wally? time over in Scans_Daily.

Nate Gray, Warpath and Thunderbird III are missing and the wrong Mimic is shown.

But it's one great image - a double gatefold for X-Men #200 to mirror X-Men #1!

Wow 200 issues since I started buying X-Men. How the time has flown but I can still remember going to the newsagent and buying X-Men #1 so many years ago.

A good start to the first Fables spin off book. The idea of a mystical censor imprisoning fables and sanitising their tales to steal their magic away is an interesting one. There were new sources for fables including nursery rhymes (Mother Goose, Mary Mary Quite contrary, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Humpty Dumpty) American Fables (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and Munchkins; Paul Bunyan and Blue) and Aesop's fables (Tortoise and the Hare). The return of Goldilocks meant a familiar face but I think they'd got enough milage out of her the first time around. This time she was just rather annoying. Jack is also somewhat annoying. I like that he's a fable that takes the self-awareness of being a character in stories to a new degree by narrating the book, but he's so cocky! The book plays things for laughs more than the regular book and the references and easter eggs are just as fun to try to decipher. I'll be quite keen to get the next book and hopefully it will come out halfway between the (often too long) gaps between the Fables trades.

The Wolverine story was good. There hasn't been an overload of Wolverine in this series so it was fun for it to go into Logan overload (although the numerous jokes about James' nightgown were overdone). The Silver Surfer story was good, a nice reversal of assumptions story. The Thunderbird story seemed very much like filler and makes me wonder if they are setting up a new story for him? I'm not sure about Power Princess' role on the team. Her powers are basically the same as Namora but at least she had her rebellious personality. Power Princess is rather underdeveloped, but perhaps Psylocke will take her place.