The Hugo Awards (Science Fiction and Fantasy award given out at WorldCon; anyone who bought a ticket can nominate and vote) were given out this past weekend. Here is a link to all the awards and winners. I just wanted to share a few of my thoughts, organized by category.

Best Novel - I’d read and enjoyed Becky Chambers’ The Galaxy and the Ground Within, so it was a bummer it didn’t win. I’ve heard a lot of good things about P. Djèlí Clark’s A Master of Djinn. I hope to get to it some time in the next few years.

This week Our Opinions Are Correct aired an episode about the Illusion of Change. They do an excellent job explaining what it is - when long-running fiction (comics, Soap Operas, etc) has to eventually return to the status quo. They cover infamous examples like that time that Satan dissolved the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane. Finally, the hosts cover the biggest reason the corporations that own Marvel and DC always resort to the status quo: so that folks jumping onto the series don’t have to deal with 50-100 years of backstory in order to understand what’s going on with the characters now.

I discovered The Bugle from an AV Club post about podcasts. It was a very British approach to satirizing the news. At the time it was hosted by Jon Oliver and Andy Zaltzman. Then Oliver hit it big with Last Week Tonight and didn’t have time to participate in The Bugle anymore. While Andy Zaltzman was trying to figure out how he was going to relaunch the show, he played clips from his standup show Satirize This. People email him things they want satirized and he does it. I grew to really, really enjoy it and so when I heard he was actually coming to America, I knew I had to jump on the opportunity to see him live.

In September I once again covered Baltimore Comic-Con for Comic POW! Not only did I get to meet Greg Pak, awesome creator of Code Monkey Save World and The Princess Who Saved Herself (in collaboration with Jonathan Coultan and the artists), but I got to see that I made the blurb on the back of the second volume of Altar Girl!  (see my Comic POW! coverage of Altar Girl)

Hey, when you like bands like The Protomen, Anamanaguchi, and Weird Al, it’s hard to find someone to go to a concert with you. I’d be missing out on lots of fun if I had to go with someone else.

From the article:

Everyone has different internal guidelines for solo outings, and these guidelines are often marked by a fair degree of irrationality. I’ve never been able to work up the nerve to see a movie alone, for example, and yet I’ve eaten plenty of meals in restaurants without a dining partner — despite the fact that it’s a much more visible activity than sitting in a dark theater.

Pink Flamingos are corny and kitschy as hell, but this is freakin’ amazing!

A couple days ago I heard the latest episode of the You Are Not So Smart podcast. In it we learn about how where you grow up has a profound affect on the way you think and act. On of the coolest conclusions they mention is that the reason that the American Deep South is known for being so ridiculously polite is that honor is so important there that people fight over it. Meaning, it’s an act of survival to ensure you do nothing possible to piss off those around you for fear of besmirching their honor and having them kill you.

I’ve blogged in a similar vein before, but it’s really neat to come across AV Club’s Memory Wipe. Someone (or a group of writers) who seems to be about the same age as me, give or take a few years, is taking a look back at the pop culture of our youth to see if it holds up as an adult. Check it out - you’ll get lost in the writing and nostalgia.

Start here before FF Fantastic Four By Jonathan Hickman # 1 - Volume 1 I’ve always been a Fantastic Four fan, but it’d been a long time since I last read F4 when I picked up FF. Being as this was a #1 of a new title, I was very confused about what in the world was going on with the Future Foundation. I knew what’d happened to ellicit the name change, but that’s about it. Well, if you read this book, it will all make sense. Right from the beginning you meet one of the future members of the FF. And later on you meet almost all of the rest of them. This TP also introduces the Reed Council which is the whole reason for the the first FF story arc. Hickman is like Marvel’s Grant Morrison. If you really want to understand FF, you are really going to need to AT LEAST read his run on F4. By the end of this TP, almost EVERYTHING from FF had been setup. I’d say, about 15-20% has yet to occur.

Not Feelin’ It Astonishing X-Men # 36 - Monstrous, Part 1 The only story arc in Astonishing I haven’t read yet is Exogenic. I am really not liking this one. I know this is the first issue, but I’ve also read the third one due to when I got into Astonishing. I really, really hate this art style. It just looks weird and almost like a super deformed (in the manga sense) version of the X-Men and I don’t think it fits with the previous art style or tone of the book.

It was OK Uncanny X-Men # 539 - Losing Hope I was hoping this was linked to what happened in Generation Hope #8, but sadly it does not appear to be. We do get to see how M-Day has affected some former mutants, and that’s neat. We also get to see why Wolverine acts so strange around her. (Although an astute reader probably already guessed why) This issue felt like a very fast read and I wasn’t left as satisfied as I’ve been with recent Gillen works. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Injecting some fresh blood into the X-Men Generation Hope: The Future is a Four-Letter Word # 1 - TPB We live in a world where the big comic companies are in financial trouble. We’ve got so many things to occupy our attention and many of them are free. So we’re drowning in reboots and revamps and retellings. Ghost Rider is a woman now. Captain America is back for the umpteenth time. So it’s quite refreshing to see Marvel going in a different direction with the X-Men. Rather than doing a reboot so we can see the X-Men when they first became X-Men, they are introducing new, young mutants.

Good Focus on the New Guy Batman, Incorporated # 7 - Medicine Soldiers I like this Batman, Inc issue because it mostly focused on the new guy with Batman playing a very small part. The dynamic between Man-of-Bats and Raven is played very well. There’s a lot of history here and you can feel it. The only bad thing with this issue is the same as all the other issues, it feels like these books need to be a bit longer. I feel like too much story is getting compressed into too few pages and the story’s suffering a bit for it. I think it’d be best if these were all two-parters like the series-opening Japanese story.

Glad I Waited Uncanny X-Men # 535 - Breaking Point, Part One I just got back into comics in May after a 10-12 year hiatus. boy have I missed a lot! So I’ve been working my way through the trade paperbacks and hard covers to get caught up on just what happened to one of my favorite Marvel teams. I was going to read this issue when I saw in issue 534.1 that it involves the Breakworld which was mentioned as returning for the first time since Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. So I put this issue aside and finished reading my Morrison New X-Men so I could read Astonishing X-Men. All of this is a very roundabout way of saying - it’s perfect for me! It’s as though things are picking up where that story left off. We have Kitty still intangible and even Danger (the embodiment of The Danger Room) still around. The only thing different is that Beast is gone because he is now with the Secret Avengers. (And Armor was left behind on purpose) And so this storyline is awesome for me, but what about the regulars?

A Fitting Followup to Morrison’s Run Astonishing X-Men Omnibus # 1 - Astonishing X-Men Omnibus I came into this right on the heels of Morrison’s run in the Ultimate 3 Volume collection. I know there’s an Uncanny Volume that takes place between the two, but it doesn’t look like it contained anything that kept me from understanding what was going on in this story. (Plus this Omnibus version has an intro to the X-Men that explains where Professor X is)

Things Really get Real New X-Men Ultimate Collection # 2 - Book 2 At first the book continues directly from the previous one. We learn that Prof X can walk because Xorn healed his spine (although I thought it was that his legs were crushed? Perhaps that was retconned at some point). Prof X is working on a Cerebra upgrade to telepathically remote-control mutants to help them get out of dangerous situations? No possible way that could go wrong! Sometimes Xavier really does carry the idiot ball. (Although it ends up not being a plot point so far)

Morrison at his BEST! New X-Men Ultimate Collection # 1 - Book 1 Holy cow! That’s not strong enough, that volume requires some high level “Whoa!” and “DID YOUO SEE THAT?” and all kinds of profanity (if you happen to condone such tings) to describe what a ride it was to read Morrison’s take on the X-Men. When you read the description on the back of the book which happens to, at the time of this review, match the description here on Comic Vine, it sounds like marketing BS. Every new writer is claimed to “have turned the (franchise name) on its (body part)” and “You’ve never seen (franchise name) like this!” This time it’s real. Like Frank Miller and Alan Moore, Morrison has brought grit to the X-Men universe. And it appears to have stuck, as I read today’s issues in the multitude of X-Books Marvel has seen fit to produce. Because this is a collection of issues and because it was originally released 10 years ago, I’m going to have some light spoilers here and there. I know there’s a spoiler button here on CV and I’ve used it on previous reviews. But that’s like using the spoiler button for Citizen Kane. If you don’t wish to see any of them, you can stop reading after the next sentence. If you like the X-Men and if you want to know where to jump on to get caught up with the current continuity, I can’t think of a better place to start.

And it’s over…. X-Men: Complete Onslaught Epic # 4 - Volume 4 So, here we are. The end of of a huge Marvel crossover that led directly into Heroes Reborn. (And maybe even was created solely for that purpose?) This thing went back a few years if you count all the hints they were dropping - even if they hadn’t figured out the entire plot yet back then.

Fantastic Four #416 - Franklin’s attempts to get help manifest as bad guys because Onslaught mucks about with them. This issue has no progress on fighting Onslaught… Awesome personal growth for Ben Grimm. Dr Doom is so awesomely bad ass! I love the way he talks and the way he speaks. It’s so awesome whenever he’s there. And this plus FF signals at least twice that they’ve had to join forces. Slightly pointless other than to gather all the heroes at FF Tower as more and more super heroes keep dropping in.

Pause the Action. Survey the World X-Men: Complete Onslaught Epic # 2 - Volume 2 For the most part Volume 2 of Onslaught: the Complete Epic is just filler. The first issue or two deal with the X-Men on their mission to deal with Onslaught. Reveals that Xavier is like Batman: crazy prepared! He has files on how to kill each of the X-Men. That was neat to see. The issue where Wovlerine talks to this Aboriginal mutant was pretty awesome. Esp the fact that such a guy exists. But the rest of the book just seemed like filler that could have been safely ignored.

Back to the Action Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight: Time of Your Life # 1 - Time of your Life After the last trade paperback, which was mostly laughs, we jump right back into the fray. (No pun intended) Buffy ends up sucked into the Future of Whedon’s Fray comic. Like the licensed and fan fiction that was written between the release of the Star Wars IV and Star Wars V, it can often be a mess to figure out continuity when you don’t know where you’re going to go creatively. Buffy ended in 2003 and Fray was mostly written in 2001. So when they started this future world, they didn’t know how the end of Buffy (the TV show) was going to end up with tons of girls activated as Slayers. So I think this book was Whedon rectifying the future and present of Buffy. Although you’re left wondering whether that future is still canon.

Is X-Men: Legacy always this confusing? X-Men: Legacy # 250 - Lost Legions, Part 1; Flashback; Into the Abyss This is only my second issue of X-Men: Legacy, but it seems to jump around more than the other Marvel books I’m reading. When #249 ended, we saw Rogue and Magneto maybe about to get it on. This issue - no mention of it at all. Really, after how big a deal it was in the previous issue you’d think there’d at least be some more movement on whether rogue was going to stay with Magneto. Instead, all of a sudden we’re looking for Legion’s personalities. Where the heck did that come from? In 249 he was just cycling through his personalities while connected to some machine. Still, it was a fun fight and the personality they have to catch in this issue has a neat power. Makes it really hard to fight him legitimately.

Holy Freakin’ Wow! Detective Comics # 875 - Lost Boys I loved this issue from cover to cover! First time I can say that in 2011! Wow! I loved Bullock’s section even though it didn’t really have anything to do with the story. I loved how it was drawn and coloured and how his narration squares were drawn. And Gordon’s story was insane. I loved how slow and methodical it was - perfect for a book called Detective Comics! I also loved the backstory into his life. And the shock ending! Man! I can’t wait to get to the next one. Snyder really hit the ball out of the park on this one!

Like a fun Sci-Fi Movie Astonishing X-Men # 38 - “Meanwhile” Part One This issue reads like a fun sci-fi movie. It’s great - it’s almost like a cross-over comic I read a decade ago where Superman ends up on the planet with the Aliens from Alien. In fact, the X-Men go to investigate a space station and the plot more or less becoems the plot to Alien. However, it’s quite compressed and ends up with a crazy ending. The character designs are a lot of fun - love the new Beast look. (New for me, at least) I don’t care that this book doesn’t fit into the timeline with the rest of the X-Men books, it’s a ton of fun to read. Another book for my ever-increasing pull list.

Falls off so quickly The Batman Chronicles # 7 - The first story is pretty neat - you get to see differences in how Batman and Superman interpret the law and due process as they fight to save a woman who may have been falsely put to the death penalty. And Batman and Supes even disagree on what circumstances would mean she was there falsely. I liked it a lot.

Another Good Arc Intro Batman and Robin # 23 - The Streets Run Red, Part 1 of 3: Ins and Outs And, I should mention, another cover that lies. (Been seeing a lot of those on the 2011 FF book) Anyway, I’m not sure how much of this sticks with the DCU Reboot/Refresh, but it looks like most of the current continuity does. (With changes like Barb being out of a wheelchair) But this arc definitely has time to end before September. It is low on action at first, but I think it sets up the characters’ motivations and actions quite well. As someone who knows the story of The Red Hood, but never read any of those books, it’s a great quick intro in why he is the way he is. I didn’t feel too bored and there were scenes where I was quite glad that there are now comics that are rated Teen so they could get into the rougher stuff. The news about the new DCU is that he’s going to have his own book and if he retains most of the characterization he has in this book, I’ll DEFINITELY have it on my pull list. In a way, he’s like the Batman of the Flashpoint universe - able to kill the bad guys rather than wait for the justice system. And so this sets him up for an interesting dynamic vs the bad guys, Nightwing, Batman, the other Robins, and Batgirl. I can’t wait.

I wanted to share my comic book reviews with my blog-reading audience without forcing them to go to Comic Vine to find them.

Leaves you Wanting More Gotham City Sirens # 23 - Friends, Part 1 I am just returning to reading comics after a 12 year hiatus. Additionally, I was never that big into DC Comics. Most of my Batman exposure comes from Batman: The Animated Series. (And the Arkham video game) But I jumped into Gotham City Sirens because I’ve always loved the villianesses of Batman’s Rogue Gallery.