Talking about comic books, TV shows, movies, sports, and the numerous other pastimes that make us Gentlemen of Leisure.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

X-amining X-Men #136

"Child of Light and Darkness!"
August 1980

In a Nutshell
X-Men vs. Dark Phoenix: Round 2

Writer/Co-Plotter: Chris Claremont
Artist/Co-Plotter: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Plot
On Imperial Center, Lilandra and her Grand Council meet to determine what to do about the threat of Dark Phoenix. On Earth, Peter Corbeau tells the President that the energy matrix he detected leaving the solar system is returning, more powerful than ever. The President calls the Avengers but only reaches Jarvis, their butler, Beast having abandoned his post earlier in the night. At the X-Mansion, Beast is working on a mnemonic scrambler intended to help contain Dark Phoenix's power, while Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler work out in the Danger Room. Dark Phoenix returns to Earth and visits her parents and sister, but finds herself torn between her love for them and her rage at the fear of her she senses in their minds. Distracted by a fog rolling in, Dark Phoenix leaves the house. Suddenly, Nightcrawler teleports on top of her, dropping Beast's scrambler onto her head.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Last Week in TV...

...is moving to Fridays!

In an effort to try to stay more current, and to cut down on goofy weeks where we talk about an episode of Walking Dead the day after another episode airs*, "Last Week in TV" will now post on Fridays.

So look for the next, quasi-double-sized post this Friday!


*This Friday's post will still feature outdated Walking Dead reviews...

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

X-amining X-Men #135

"Dark Phoenix"
July 1980

In a Nutshell 
Dark Phoenix goes on a rampage. 

Writer/Co-Plotter: Chris Claremont
Artist/Co-Plotter: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Plot
In the wake of their skyship's destruction, the X-Men plummet to Earth, with Colossus and Nightcrawler using their powers to land safely while Storm grabs Wolverine and Cyclops. But Dark Phoenix attacks again, making quick work of the team. Nearby, Sebastian Shaw meets with Senator Kelly in the wake of the X-Men's "attack" on the Hellfire Club. As the NYPD insists on calling in the Avengers or the Fantastic Four to search Central Park for the X-Men, Shaw proposes to the senator a more long term solution for the mutant menace: Sentinels. Just then, they watch as an enormous fiery bird appears over Central Park as Dark Phoenix heads into space. Following her departure, Beast arrives and helps evacuate the X-Men from the park. In New Mexico, Professor X confers with Moira over Dark Phoenix's increasing, cosmic-level power. Considering himself party to blame, Professor X tells Angel he must get to New York as quickly as possible to try and rectify his mistakes.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Boots~ Review - OUR LOVE IS REAL


I broke down and bought it on comixolgy.

I blame the-gutters.com.

For an explanation of the story and the rave reviews, click here.

Was it pro-bestiality? Was it a metaphor for pushing along the "equality" agenda? Was it funny?

My answer for what it is - BORING.

I feel bad that I spent $2.99 to increase its sales.

Without igniting the fires of past blog entries, this is what the story boils down to from my perspective -

If you are able to have great sex with something, then that is LOVE.

As someone who is semi-pursuing his social experiment PROJEKT LOVE, I find this answer to the question "What is LOVE?" to be quite lacking and sad.

For those who would like to enjoy smart, witty, and socially relevant comics, I'd highly recommend avoiding OUR LOVE IS REAL and instead purchase CHEW.

boots~

Monday, November 21, 2011

Last Week in TV #9

Still catching up, though I didn't have a chance to watch last night's animated shows yet. 

The Walking Dead: Cherokee Rose


Another strong episode that still did very little to advance any kind of overarching narrative (other than setup a likely conflict between Rick & company and Herschel when the former want to stay on the farm), but it did have some nice character moments. The fact that pretty much everyone has more or less given up on finding Sophia (even her mom, to some extent) but, what the hey?, let's look for her anyway is a nice, subtle touch. Darryl is continuing his transformation into TV's new Sawyer, and the scene between him and Carol, from which the episode gets its title, was genuinely touching. Shane continues to be hella creepy (those overalls really help), and there was some truly disturbing subtext to his conversation with Andrea. And, we even got the start of a romantic subplot (Maggie can talk about "one time" all she wants, but we've all watched enough TV to see where that is going).

Friday, November 18, 2011

Ten Pop Culture-y Things For Which Teebore is Thankful

The Uncanny X-Cast
I'm not much of podcast listener (aside from the Fantasy Focus baseball podcast and the lie-filled Lost podcasts with the producers back in the day) but I stumbled across Rob and Brian's X-Men podcast this last year and have been slowly catching up on their old episodes while following along with the new ones. It features great discussions of X-Men issues old and new as well as hilarious comic and non-comic related bullshit. Download it on iTunes or check out their website.

Star Wars on Blu-ray


I've geeked out about the deleted scenes already, but two months out and I'm still having fun with this set. The movies look and sound great (Mrs. Teebore and I recently watched Jedi) and I just learned the animated sequence from the infamous holiday special which introduced Boba Fett is on one of the discs as an Easter egg. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

X-amining X-Men #134

"Too Late, The Heroes!"
June 1980

In a Nutshell 
The X-Men escape the Hellfire Club, but Jean transforms into Dark Phoenix

Writer/Co-Plotter: Chris Claremont
Artist/Co-Plotter: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Plot
The stunned X-Men watch as Cyclops struggles to his feet, his psychic death at the hands of Mastermind having almost killing his physical body as well. Just then, Wolverine bursts into the room, still fighting a handful of guards. Mastermind orders the Black Queen to attack him, and she telekinetically tosses Wolverine across the room while also secretly unlocking the ruby quartz helmet containing Cyclops' power. Cyclops quickly takes down Pierce and frees the other X-Men before blasting Leland out of the room and shooting the floor out from under Shaw. Colossus engages Pierce as Cyclops orders Storm and Nightcrawler after Shaw while Wolverine takes on Leland. Mastermind, seeing the day as lost, uses his power to hide in the background. Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Beast receives an alert that the X-Men are attacking the Hellfire Club. Rather than call in the other Avengers and risk fighting his old teammates, Beast erases the alert and heads out to help the X-Men.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Last Week in TV #8

This is already late, so let's take this quicker and more bullet point-y than usual. No pictures, either. No time. No time! 

The Simpsons: Replaceable You
This was a pretty awful episode, with pretty much all the events in the plot happening for no reason other than the script said so. Homer suddenly has a new assistant at work, because shut up, that's why, and she eventually takes advantage of his buffoonery to usurp his position, because we said so. And because she's voiced by Jane Lynch, she looks like Jane Lynch. Also, Bart and Martin build a robot seal that becomes murderous if its wires get crossed. Because sure, why not?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

X-amining X-Men #133

"Wolverine: Alone!
May 1980

In a Nutshell
Wolverine takes on the Hellfire Club

Writer/Co-Plotter: Chris Claremont
Artist/Co-Plotter: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Plot
A quartet of Hellfire Club mercenaries are searching the basement to confirm Wolverine's death when he suddenly emerges from the shadows and attacks them. Quickly dispatching three of the mercenaries, Wolverine intimidates the fourth into surrending before pressing him for information about the Hellfire Club. Upstairs, with the X-Men restrained by power dampening manacles, Shaw congratulates Wyngarde for his role in the Club's victory. Storm tries to reason with Phoenix, but thanks to Wyngarde's illusions, as Lady Jean Grey she only sees the X-Men in 18th century terms. She strikes Storm, whom she sees as a slave named Beauty. Cyclops, recalling the permanent psychic rapport Jean established with him back in New Mexico, wonders if he can use it to the X-Men's advantage, while Shaw explains that the Inner Circle intends to use the X-Men in experiments to create custom designed mutants.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

X-amining X-Men #133...

...will be delayed, unfortunately. I hope to have it up ASAP, but probably not until tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Last Week in TV #7

A Halloween-heavy batch this week thanks to the Monday holiday. Also, I'll be out of town most of this week for work, and thus unable to watch much TV, so next week's post will probably be rather short.

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXII


Even in weak seasons, the annual "Treehouse" episodes tend to be pretty good, but this one was just average. Not even bad, just very by-the-numbers and unremarkable. As has been the case of late, all three of the stories were more or less just parodies of movies or TV shows will no real connection to Halloween, other than the opening sequence (which contained a huge gaffe: Homer introduces the Switch Witch to the kids and tells them its Marge; the next morning, he doesn't know Marge was the Switch Witch) and a greater presence of cartoon gore. Of the three, the final Avatar spoof was probably the strongest. It generated the biggest laugh of the night (when Chalmers in his mech suit climbed into an even bigger mech suit, then proceeded to knock himself off the cliff) and by replacing the Avatar aliens with the Rigellians from past "Treehouse" episodes, it connected the story at least slightly to Halloween. But still, Avatar? You're not exactly hitting these phenomenon at the peaks of their relevance, Simpsons... 

Homer: Okay, I’m on the floor. I can’t move. So far, a normal Sunday morning.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

X-amining X-Men #132

"And HELLFIRE is their Name!"
April 1980

In a Nutshell
The X-Men infiltrate the Hellfire Club, and Jason Wyngarde's plans come to fruition.

Writer/Co-Plotter: Chris Claremont
Artist/Co-Plotter: John Byrne
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

Plot
The X-Men arrive at Angel's New Mexican home, and are greeted by their old teammate and his girlfriend, Candy Southern. Cyclops, desiring a private word with Angel, is flown to an isolated butte a few miles away, and Cyclops tells Angel about the recent attacks on the X-Men by the Hellfire Club and the fact that the club knew a lot about the X-Men's powers and plans. A surprised Angel tells Cyclops that he and Candy are members of the club, but assures him he hasn't leaked any info on the X-Men to them. Cyclops insists there must be a leak somewhere, which is why he brought the X-Men to Angel's home instead of back to the mansion. Just then, Jean arrives and shoos Angel away, laying out a picnic dinner for her and Cyclops. Determined to lighten Cyclops' mood, Jean removes his visor, telekinetically holding back his optic blast so she can see his eyes, and the pair embraces.