Saturday – 10 November 2007
After work yesterday, I hit the road for Cedar City. It was overcast for part of the drive, so I didn’t get to look at the starscape. By the time I got to Cedar, SaraRules had already left for the musical; I hung out with her roommates until she got in.

Today, started with sleeping in. Much-needed sleeping in. Then came breakfast and cartoons. After breakfast – and the hygiene rituals – SaraRules I went to meet Claire, an artist from whom Sara had commissioned a picture for my birthday: It’s a train. And, it’s very cool. Claire brought two prints for me to choose from; I took the first one – I liked the color separations on it a little better. I’m going to have to reorganize some of the pictures in the dining room so that I can add it to the collection.

The rest of the day has been fairly lazy and relaxed. Tonight, I saw the musical (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) with Vince.  I saw Rachel and Steve at intermission.  After the play, SaraRules, Rachel, Steve and I went to Applebee’s for dinner and drinks – not a bad way to wind up the day.

Human of the Day
Today’s Human is Claire. She was fun to talk with and I’m quite taken with the piece that she did.

Four-Color Coverage
It’s been about three weeks since I’ve done one of these. In that time, I have decided to revamp the comic reviews a bit: Rather than review everything that I’ve read from a given haul, I’m going to stick to covering the stand-outs – the issues that I consider particularly noteworthy. That being said, let’s dive in:

  • Action Comics #858 – This is the book that made me late for gaming a couple of weeks ago. Why? It’s a Legion tie-in story. Not just “any” version of the Legion, either. The Legion that I grew up reading. Apparently, there’s trouble in the 31st Century that requires the help of the Man of Steel. But, things in the 31st Century aren’t quite the same as the last time Superman was there…
  • Astonishing X-Men #23 – Short and sweet summary here: Wow. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but after the bombshell from Issue #22, I wasn’t expecting much.  I was wrong.  I seriously underestimated Joss Whedon. Excellent issue and I can’t wait for Issue #24, the final chapter in the Whedon-Cassady run of the book.
  • Elephanmen #006 – I somehow missed picking up this issue when it was first released. In it, we get a little more background on the relationship between Elephantman Obidiah Horn and his fiancee, Sahara.
  • Fantastic Four #551 – The Black Panther, Namor and… Doctor Doom… come back in time to prevent Reed Richards – and the rest of the Fantastic Four – from making one of his greatest mistakes. But, will Reed listen to what they have to say?
  • Justice Society of America #10 – The “strange visitor” who appeared at the end of Issue #9 was none other than the Superman of Earth-22… the Kingdom Come Earth. He’s here to make sure that what happened on his Earth doesn’t happen on New Earth.
  • The New Avengers: Illuminati (5 of 5) – I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this series when it started…. and I wasn’t sure that I would collect the entire run. Yeah, I know… only five issues. But, given some of the bumps along the way, I wasn’t sure that I’d make it. But, I did. And it wasn’t as much of a train wreck as I had thought. In fact, the ending made up for a lot. And, it (the ending) tied in well to a continuing storyline in The New Avengers. On the minus side, it’s leading into what I assume will be a Marvel-wide crossover called “Secret Invasion,” for which I may wait for a trade paperback.
  • Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #35 – Atom Girl, Shadow Lass and Timber Wolf – with long-range assistance from Brainiac 5 – take on former Legionnaire E.R.G.-1 (Wildfire) as he attempts to assassinate the President of the planet Lallor.
  • Superman #670 – The final chapter of “The Third Kryptonian” storyline. Superman, Power Girl, Supergirl, Chris Kent, Krypto and… “the third Kryptonian” against Amalak, a being intent on making sure that there are no Kryptonians.
  • Uncanny X-Men #492 – Chapter two of the “Messiah Complex” crossover currently running through the X-titles. Since I’m not collecting the other books, I came into the game late, so to speak. But, what this issue did have was a fairly solid story, and it was interesting to see Scott and Professor X finally get to the heart of the matter of the wedge between them… if only briefly.

Stray Toasters
Nope.  Not tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.

Namaste.