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.

Hawaii is the location for today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #76 is:

I had to go to Hawaii a few times for work. It didn’t make sense financially for my wife to accompany me each of those times and waste her vacation time. So I would walk around taking photos to keep myself from getting too bored. I used it as an opportunity to get some non-NYC candid street photography.

Another water splash photo for today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #78 is:

Here’s another photo where I used the flash to freeze the splashing of the water. I’d like to try this again in the future with dyed water and a colourful background.

Today’s Top 200 Photo entry is for the birds

photo #80 is:

I love how impossibly large these beaks are. I also love how ridiculously colorful these birds are. The beak itself is about 3 different colors. Then the bird itself is another 3 different colors. I really like the depth of field effect in this shot.

Well, we’ve made it to photo #80 and the images are starting to spread out more. Basically, as a general trend, the photos that people like tend to get more views more often. So the images start getting further and further apart in views. As an example, at the time that I’m writing this, this photo has 590 views and #61 has 683 views.