Shill Factory

So... I have 12 auctions on eBay that close on Sunday night... and only one of 'em has a bid. All of them (except the one that has a bid) has a "Buy It Now!" option.

I'm sure many of you are tired of reading here how money is tight and so forth... so I won't whine about that... I'll just ask that you consider bidding on one of these auctions:

Action Comics 13-issue lot starting at $4.99, with a buy it now price of $9.99.

JSA 56, 59-67 + JSA Strange Adventures Miniseries starting at $16.99, with a buy it now price of $33.99. Given the cover price of these books, that's a pretty good deal!

Superman 70s & 80s 18-Issue lot starting at $4.50, with a buy it now price of $9.99. There's a lot of good pre-Crisis reading here... including one-shots, some New Adventures of Superboy issues, DC Comics Presents...

Amazing Heroes 6 and 8 starting at $2.99.

7 Soldiers 21-Issue Lot has all of the Seven Soldiers of Victory issues that came out before I cut way back on my comics buying. With a starting bid of $19.99, that's less than a buck per issue!

This JLA lot is comprised of 100-105, 115-119, 121, 122, and Secret Files '04.

FF 527-531, Foes 1-6, Movie 1-Shot, MK4 lot, More - NR! starts at $27.99 -- it's my "Mega Fantastic Four" lot, and includes the first few issues of JMS' run on the book.

Warlord 10,12,19,25,36,38,47,50,59,63-64.66.70 starts at $3.99, and to be honest, with DC bringing back Warlord recently, I expected this to go by now!

This mini-Legion lot has the complete Secrets of the Legion miniseries plus two other issues.

Gold Key/Whitman 9-Book Lot features UFO and Outer Space 14, Walt DIsney's Comics & Stories Vol. 29, No. 6, Doctor Spektor 2, Tweety and Sylvester 72, Dagar 4, Addams Family 3, Twilight Zone 29, and Mighty Samson 17 and 32. Starting bid is only $3.49, and I figured someone would pay that just for the Addams Family issue! I'd probably throw in this Tweety & Sylvester kids' book in this lot for the heck of it as an undocumented bonus.

This Superman 28-Book Lot has one bid at the opening price of $9.99... and frankly, that's a steal for Superman 290, 333, 334, 337, 339, 340, 368, 383, 385, 406-413, 417-421, Superman Special 1-3 and Superman Annual 9 and 10.

So I'll make you a deal... bid on one of these lots, and if you win, mention with your PayPal payment you heard about the auction through my blog, and I'll throw in an extra comic or two in the deal, at least -- I have a few miscellaneous books around here I haven't figured out what to do with yet!

Shilling is now complete! Of course, if you're reading this blog on, say, the 13th of March 2006 or later, these aren't listed any more... and if I think of it, I might delete this message after these auctions end.

Thanks for checking them out!

Jon

Thursday Night Blog-Fest!

Weather: Since when the hell does it snow around here in March? Yeah, the weather's getting freaky around here... it started snowing late Wednesday night, and had some very minor accumulation by the time I got up this morning. As the day went on, it became sunny, then it rained, then it snowed again (there may have been another sunny spell between that) and so on and so on... truly bizarre. I don't think I would've thought it any stranger if the skies were red!

Infinite Crisis #5: Concluding my look at this series to date... my copy is Superman Vs. Superman, to accompany issue 4's Superboy Vs. Superboy cover (I'm guessing since Wally West just disappeared, we're not likely to see a Flash Vs. Flash cover, and given what happens in this issue, no Wonder Woman Vs. Wonder Woman cover, either).

The issue opens up with a church service held for the heroes remaining on the DCU's Earth... and Azrael's conducting services. Hal Jordan flies away in the middle of the service... and once again, I'm reminded of the lack of footnotes in this series. Come on... a "To see where Hal Jordan's taken off to, see Green Lantern #X" would've been nice!

Anyway... the scene shifts to the Keystone Diner on the revived Earth-Two, where Wildcat, Hourman, Sand, Jay Garrick, Flamebird (?!?!? She wasn't ever established as an Earth-Two character! In fact, she was shown -- in her old Bat-Girl identity -- as being a member of Titans West in the 70s, well before Crisis) and -- I'm guessing -- S.T.R.I.P.E. The scene shifts to E2 Metropolice, where E2 Superman and his Lois are in front of the Daily Star. Superman tells Lois they did it, they saved her.

Back on Earth-One (hey, the captions are using that designation, I can, too), Booster Gold is leading Jaime, the new Blue Beetle (even if he doesn't know it yet) into the Batcave to meet with Batman. Bats captures them, Jaime transforms, and we find out that the new BB can see the Brother Eye satellite, but nobody else can (Who knows why this is the case? I sure as heck don't... it makes no sense -- sure, the scarab's magical, but why can't Zatanna simply look into space and say, "Rehtorb Eye, Wohs Flesruoy" and let everyone see it?).

Meanwhile, Superboy is somehow in Lex Luthor's lab in what looks like the Bacta Tank from Empire Strikes Back (this is the clone Superboy and E1 Luthor, by the way). Lex is disgusted by his doppelganger, but he got a look at the tech being used.

Earth-Two: Nobody's in Metropolis but E2 Supe and Lois. We get a flashback of a few panels of Lois, Clark and Jimmy at the Daily Star (with, presumably, George Taylor), and Lois says, "Clark... I love you so much. But this isn't..."

And then she collapses. She has time to say a bunch of other stuff, but doesn't finish that sentence! Superman says, "Superman always saves Lois Lane," and then she says "You still never.... It's not going..." and then she's gone. Superman picks her up in his arms (in tribute to the Crisis issue with Superman holding Supergirl's body, no doubt) and screams...

...so freakin' loud that somehow E1's Superman hears him across the void of space between the two worlds and flies off to see what the hell happened.

In Boston, Wonder Woman deals with rioters who call her a hypocrite, and then the spectral image of the Earth-Two Wonder Woman appears.

Earth-Two: The Supermen meet up, and E2 Superman picks up a green car and smashes it into E1 Superman (in tribute to Action Comics #1 -- that's the second cover reference so far I've caught in this issue... are there others?). The two fight... E2 Supes blames E1 Supes for the death of Lois.

Meanwhile, Alex Luthor and the Psycho-Pirate watch, and Alex says E2 Lois was never going to survive, and that Superboy has served his purpose.

Earth-One: The Wonder Women talk in the Invisible Plane, and E2 WW tells the E1 WW about her own personal history, and that she needs to stand with her Superman, and to stop trying to be so perfect. Then the E2 WW fades away, and E1 WW appears above E2's Metropolis, which looks like hell, thanks to the Supermen fighting. Diana arrives at the battle, throws her lasso around E2 Supes and tells him to stop, and that she wants the truth. E2 Supes lays out all the crap he's been watching happen... and that Earth-Two needed to come back to be a perfect Earth. E1 Supes says a perfect Earth doesn't need a Superman.

Alex outlines who's powering his machine... Power Girl from Earth-2, Nightshade for Earth-4, Lady Quark for Earth-6, Breach from Earth-8...

E2 Superman flies off...

Batman calls a bunch of heroes together (Black Lightning, Mr. Terrific, Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Black Canary, Green Arrow... he's got the Beetle's Bug with him....

Alex needs the rest of the multiverse back, thousands and thousands of worlds, until he finds the Perfect Earth.

What the hell??????????

Anyway, Alex contacts Brother Eye, and says to be ready to recieve and redirect... and that E2 Supes is needed alive, because everything comes from Superman... energy goes from the Anti-Monitor's body/machine to Brother eye, and then Superman divides... as do the Earths!

Nightwing calls everyone to gather 'round at Titans Tower (didn't they do that during Crisis? Or was it Invasion?), and that they're making their last stand against those threatening their home. Nightwing looks out the window of Titans Tower and sees a whole mess'a Earths in the sky, and then Superboy arrives so they can catch up.

But only Nightwing and Superboy have met at the tower. Just them.

Meanwhile, Barry Allen appears in Tokyo to warn Dr. Light (the good one) that he's escaped... he's coming... Superboy Prime, who's gotten all armored up for some bizarre reason.

Okay... so... why this interest Alex has in finding a perfect Earth? Beats the hell out of me. Personally, I've never believed that perfection is something which could be achieved, but yet is to be eternally sought... but not sought as in "If I could only find the perfect Hamburger, I could die happy" -- more like, "If I could only *make* the perfect Hamburger, I could die happy."

Do you get the distinction? Of course, the Burger thing only works if that's what your personal focus is. If you're a writer, it's to write the perfect book/play/script/comic/whatever.

So, I think the biggest mistake E2 Superman is making (aside from not paying attention to what was happening with Alex Luthor and Superboy-Prime) is assuming that the Perfect Earth had to be created in place of the existing Earth... and Alex's finding the Perfect Earth is also a wasted effort...

Instead, making the existing Earth "perfect" would be a nobler goal...

Where do I think this is going in the final two issues? Well, I haven't a clue, specifically... but I can make some wild guesses, and throw out a few things I'd like to see happen...

First of all, I don't believe the multiverse is back to stay. All this is likely a tease on DC's part. If the multiverse is still around after issue #7, I suspect we'll see a new Crisis to recollapse the universe. Besides, the multiverse doesn't really exist at the end of issue 5 -- all those Earths are appearing in space near each other (and frankly, the previous E1/E2 story writers knew that there was a limit to how close two planets could get to each other before their own gravitational pulls worked on each other -- the Roche effect or something like that -- I think it was even mentioned in an Adam Strange story, but I could be mistaken).

Will Superboy-Prime still be around? I doubt it... I think he'll end up making a sacrifice when he realizes how wrong he's been in his actions, and due to his being from Earth-Prime, somehow his genetic key will serve to fix things.

Will the Golden Age Superman still be around? Again, I doubt it... I'd imagine he'll make the ultimate sacrifice himself, figuring he has nothing left to live for with his Lois dead. He almost did that before, during the original Crisis.

What would be cool, though, would be if he could somehow still be around... maybe not calling himself Superman anymore... maybe just going by "Kal" or something... and acting as a mentor to Earth's heroes... I'm not entirely sure how it could work.

I do find myself wondering if some of the Earth-Two heroes who died in the original Crisis will somehow make a reappearance... I don't expect they will, but have a suspicion it might happen.

I do expect that a lot of questions will remain unanswered after issue #7... and that many of these questions will be answered in 52, although not having too many of them answered until it gets towards the end of that series... which will be one year later than the beginning of the One Year Later titles.

It definitely seems to me that this will all lead up to a new major crossover after 52 #52... what it will be called I have no idea.

Anyway... that's about it for me tonight!

Jon

Wednesday Night Blogging!

The above image was composited together by me for the newspaper's weekly ApartmentFinder tabloid publication. Originally, we were going to do a riff on King Kong, but I couldn't come up with a decent gorilla photo to put in there... but I knew that our clip art server had that Godzilla-esque creature, so we went with that.

If I ever find a decent gorilla picture that I can use (not a "real" Kong, you understand, 'cause there's copyright problems there), we'll do that King Kong cover!

Infinite Crisis #3:

Continuing my review of the series to date... My copy has the GA Superman confronting Batman, with ghosts of E2's Robin, Catwoman, Bruce Wayne and baby Helena (Huntress) Wayne in the background.

The issue opens with a battle between Aquaman and his allies against various sea-villains in San Diego (I guess it's "Sub Diego" in the DCU these days). Tempest (the former Aqualad) is coming to some kind of realization in Atlantis when energy explodes from his eyes, there's a FWOOSH, and the Spectre appears, smashing Atlantis with his... hand, I guess.

Back to Paradise Island (I guess even the letterer didn't want to deal with Themiscyria or whatever it's called) as the Amazons face off against the Omac horde. Paula's completed the Purple Death Ray (I think it's Paula, she invented the Purple Healing Ray, after all, in the classic comics).

Meanwhile, at the Batcave, Brother Eye's telling Batman about the butt-whipping he's giving the Amazons, and not listening to the Dark Knight's instructions to stop. Bats has a breakdown, wishing to start over... then someone appears and calls him by his first name.

It's Superman... the E2 one.

Meanwhile, at the E2's Fortress, Power Girl talks with E2's Lois Lane about all the memories she's regaining of E2. Alex stops them so he can run more tests, and Superboy Prime asks PG if she's going to let Lois die. He's convinced the only way to save her is to bring back Earth-Two. Superboy Prime whines about Connor (Superboy) Kent, and then gives PG one of E2's LL's journals to read.

In El Paso, the Shadowpact are gathering, but they're not enough to deal with a building falling... fortunately, Superman shows up to catch it and fix it. A guy named Jaime finds the Blue Beetle's scarab.

In the Polaris Galaxy, Donna Troy's team arrives, and they try to figure out what's going on, and why there's a storm in the center of the universe. Thanagarians show up to make things complicated.

In Keystone/Central City, Flash leaves his wife and twins to help.

Back at the Batcave, E2 Superman tells Batman what happened to his counterpart on E2 (Batman's counterpart, that is), and that he will always stand by Bruce's side.

Back to Paradise Island, the Purple Death Ray is fired! But the Omacs continue to attack. Wonder Woman tells the Amazons they must retreat while they have a chance. So, the Amazons and their whole freakin' island disappear, leaving Diana behind.

Meanwhile... the Secret Society meet, and we find out that Luthor's been betraying them... and then the other Luthor, the one in the Battlesuit, arrives! The DCU's Lex can't think straight because of the other Luthor's theta brainwaves, which operate on an anti-frequency, and then he unleashes an energy bolt at Luthor.

Back at the Batcave, E2 Supes tries to get Batman to help him bring back E2, and that it would replace the existing earth, and it would be better. E2 Supes admits the E2 Robin wasn't better than the Robin he knows. Batman unleashes the Kryptonite Ring on E2 Supes, but since it's not from E2 Supes' Krypton, it has no effect. E2 Supes leaves in a huff (or maybe it's a minute and a huff... )

Meanwhile, the two Luthors battle, and we find out that the Luthor who's been operating the Secret Society is really Alexander Luthor! Someone -- presumably Superboy -- arrives to tear the Battlesuit off of Lex, and he's going to kill Lex, but Luthor teleports away first.

Meanwhile, Power Girl looks for Superboy and Alex to tell them she thinks they can figure out a way to save Lois and everyone else from both Earth-One and Earth-Two. Batman reviews what's been happening. Power Girl finds a massive machine, built from the remains of the Anti-Monitor, which already has some of the power sources Alex needs... the Martian Manhunter, Black Adam, The Ray, and others. We find that PG is another source of power for the machine, and Superboy Prime beats her up so they can connect her.

The final panel reveals that Superboy Prime was the one who attacked the Watchtower.

So... a lot of crap happens in this issue... but the most important thing to take from this issue is that Alexander Luthor and Superboy Prime have been leaving their "heaven" way before E2's Superman broke through the barrier. I'm guessing it has something to do with Alexander Luthor's being comprised of both positive and negative energy at the same time (this was revealed back in Crisis on Infinite Earths).

Another important thing to note is that while E2 Supes thinks they're doing something noble, he's being manipulated bigtime by Alexander. Of course, Superboy Prime is being manipulated bigtime, too... but I can understand that a bit more... Alex Luthor is closer to being a peer to him than E2 Supes is. And, I guess that the two of them had a lot of time together...

One wonders if Alex has been abusing Superboy prime... or is this a form of Stockholm Syndrome in effect?

Infinite Crisis #4:

My copy is Superboy vs. Superboy, with Krypto appearing -- yeah, like I'd buy the verson without Krypto on the cover!

The issue opens with members of the Brotherhood of Evil and other Secret Society members unleashing Chemo on Bludhaven. Alexander Luthor and Superboy Prime watch this. Power Girl asks what they're doing, and they tell her they're erasing everything bad. Superboy calls her a traitor. Alexander says he's gone through 78,000 scenarios to accomplish their goal, and this is the most efficient. Alex also reveals they've been coming to this universe for quite some time.... well, for the past several months. They retrieved the Anti-Monitor's corpse, Alex posed as Luthor to form the Secret Society... the SS was formed to gather individuals to power the machine, individuals who had vibrational frequencies in their genetic codes... one from each earth. The Ray inherited his father's code for Earth-X, for example. The fuel comes from this universe's magic, and Superboy's procurement of Eclipso's black diamond allowed them to use the Spectre to gather it up. The machine's programming came from Brother Eye -- Alex gave it sentient life. Superboy-Prime moved planets around to cause the Rann-Thanagar war, shifting the center of the universe away from Oa to where Earth Two's universe's center was.

PG thinks this is why Batman got paranoid, Wonder Woman killed Max Lord, etc... but Alex says they did that themselves. He needs E2's Superman alive, but doesn't think he can stop this. Alex says he's learned that no matter the universe, Supermen will always clash with Luthors.

Superboy flies off to talk to "him," as Alex promised him.

Meanwhile, Batman checks in with Nightwing, and says he needs Dick's help.

E2 Superman checks in on his Lois, and Alex tells him he should stay at her side.

In Smallville, Superboy Prime arrives to argue with Superboy over who deserves to be Superboy. So they start fighting.

Meanwhile, Booster Gold finds Jaime, the guy who found the Scarab last issue, and discovers the scarab has fused to Jaime's spine.

The battle of the Superboys continues. Krypto shows up to help against S-Prime.

Batman tells Nightwing what he's discovered about what's happened.

The Superboys continue to fight, and the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol and the Justice Society show up to help.

In Gotham, Victor, the cop killed by Jim Corrigan (remember that?) becomes the new host for the Spectre.

The battle continues against Superboy Prime, and he smashes Pathan's head, and then he kills Wildebeest (actually, it's Baby Wildebeest, according to one of the blogs I frequent... or maybe it's a news page). He tears the arm off someone else, and kills a few other people I don't recognize. The battle has raged from Smallville to Keystone/Central City, and Kid Flash, Wally West and Jay Garrick show up to speed Superboy Prime into th Speed Force. Jay has to drop out before they enter the Speed Force, but before Wally enters it, he visits his wife and kids... and tells them he thinks he's going someplace else. His family comes with him.

Kid Flash keeps pushing Superboy Prime into the Speed Force, however, and then another Flash shows up - and I gotta tell you, it has to be Barry! Heck, Bart/Kid Flash recognizes him as Barry! Max Mercury and Johnny Quick, who had joined with the Speed Force before, also appear to help, and they all pull Superboy Prime into the Speed Force.

Jay tells the JSA'ers that the Speed Force is gone.

At Alexander's fortress, Alex has Black Adam call on the Magic Lightning to fuel the machine.

Out in space, the storm gets worse, and Air Wave is pulled into a million different directions. Alex starts "fixing everything," and then people start disappearing all over the place! Out in space, a second Earth appears... Earth-Two. And E2's Superman and Lois appear on it in front of the Daily Star building.

So... Alex's plans are revealed, but the only people who know of it are captured and providing keys to the multiverse machine. Four issues into this seven-issue series, and the heroes haven't much of a clue as to what's happening.

The wrap-up... tomorrow night, with Infinite Crisis #5... and we'll be all caught up!

Jon

Tuesday Night Blogfest!

Let's start with some News:

The time period between March 21 and March 26, don't expect anything here... I'll be furiously typing away, doing another series of transcriptions for BCI/Eclipse, these for their upcoming She-Ra: Princess of Power and Flash Gordon DVD releases. I could concievably start getting these on March 11, so if things get spotty here, that's the reason for it.

Honestly, I don't know how many hours of these I'll have... I'm just hoping they'll start arriving as soon as possible!

In other news... did I mention before that I had designed a "Faithful Friends" pets advertising page for the newspaper about six months ago? Did I mention that they've taken that idea, and are doing a tabloid publication based on it instead, and that it'll publish on the 31st of this month? Or that Krypto and KO are prominently featured on the mailer that's gone out today to potential advertisers?

Well, then, I just did.

Final bit of news: I'm sure none of you are in the Olympia area, but if you are, and you grab the latest issue of our ApartmentFinder Weekly publication, you'll find gracing the cover of the issue a Photoshopped graphic created by me in which a Godzilla-like creature is attacking Olympia, with a tank and some jets trying to drive it off (with the blurb "Need to change neighborhoods? We can help" accompanying it). Since I keep forgetting to send myself a PDF or tiff or JPG of the image, I can't share it with you today.

Maybe tomorrow.

Infinite Crisis to Date

Let's see if I can review the entirety of Infinite Crisis to date, as promised this morning!

Issue #1

The cover I got was the one with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, with various characters in the background. The issue opens with unseen characters commenting "They've forgotten, haven't they?" as we see Superman flying over the destroyed Watchtower, then the Man of Steel meets up with Batman and Wonder Woman within a section that's still keeping an atmosphere. The three of them discuss what's been happening, specifically the broadcasts of Wonder Woman killing Max Lord (in the "Sacrifice" storyline -- footnotes don't appear in this series that often, which I think is an error). We even get to see a recap of this killing! We cut to Smallville, where the Kents are watching the Titans battling an army of creatures. Superboy is watching with them, and Martha's trying to convince Superboy to help, but Superboy's sporting a major 'tude, because Luthor didn't clone him to help.

Superboy starts to open his shirt, but when Luthor's mentioned on the news, he changes his mind. We cut to the three mystery people watching this and other events in some kind of crystal scren, as they talk more about whether or not they should get involved (as you'll see later, this is pointless -- they'd already gotten involved). We change scenes again to Bludhaven, where Supergirl and other heroes meet with Donna Troy, and Nightwing decides not to go with them to New Cronus.

Elsewhere, an Omac appears to attack Sand of the JSA, and Nightwing calls for help, but Donna, Starfire, Supergirl and the others have already left, and the sky is full of Omacs. Then we get a two-page spread of the Rann-Thanagar war... or rather, the aftermath, as a cosmic storm rages. Kyle Rayner and the L.E.G.I.O.N. discuss what to do, with the help of the Green Lantern Corps. Meanwhile, the Guardians whine about how the LEGION and the Corps and Rann and Thanagar just can't get along, but someone else has changed the nature of the cosmos, and they don't know why!

Over Gotham City, the Rock of Eternity overs, and the Riddler and other villains talk about a cop named Corrigan (Jim Corrigan, apparently no connection to the Spectre's original human host). The Rock explodes, and Captain Marvel falls from the sky. Cap barely has time to say that the Spectre killed Shazam, and then we see Spec lurking over Gotham, while the Batsignal is flashed on his chest. Oh, and the Seven Deadly Sins are running amok, but they're not identified as such.

The unseen watchers complain this world corrupts its heroes.

20 miles south of Metropolis, Uncle Sam and the Freedom Flighters invade an abandoned refinery, which is where the Secret Society of Super-Villains are hiding out. The SSOSV kick the FF'ers butts, killing off most of 'em. But I get ahead of myself.

At the Watchtower, Mongul appears and attacks (I thought the current Mongul was the son of the original, but this one acts like the original... well, the post-Crisis version of the original). Then we go back to the FF/SSOSV battle, where the FF'ers are getting clobbered bigtime. Back to the Watchtower, as Mongul attacks Supes, Batman and Wonder Woman. Back and forth between the battles. Wonder Woman attempts to impale Mongul with her sword, but Superman stops her and says, "I don't know who you are any more." Mongul escapes, and Superman and Wonder Woman argue about killing. Supes says Diana can't relate to people, and Batman says Supes relates to them too much. Supes and Batman argue about controlling everything. The three of them leave the Watchtower.

We're then back to the mystery watchers, who decide it's time for action, and one of them starts bashing at the crystal... the final page reveals it's the original Superman, and he's accompanied by Superboy of Earth-Prime, Alex Luthor of Earth-Three, and Lois Lane of Earth-Two.

OK. I was excited at the end of this issue, even though I had been spoiled by some of the reviews that were published before I could pick it up. I thought we were going to see the Original Superman put right what's gone wrong, and demonstrate by example how heroes are supposed to be.

Alas, it was not to be.

Final thought on this issue: The last we saw of Kal-L was the final pages of The Kingdom, where we saw that he was watching all that was going on here from the "heaven" those four went to during Crisis on Infinite Earths. We even saw he was watching us, for heaven's sakes, because he winked at us! He didn't appear to be unhappy with what was going on in the main DC Universe at that point.

However... someone once noted that the mere watching of something had an effect on it, or something like that.

Issue Two:

My copy has the cover with Power Girl looking at splintered reality.

The issue opens up with Animal Man looking for his space suit, and he tells his family his powers are acting all wonky. He takes off to New Cronus to meet up with the rest of Donna Troy's team, which includes Cyborg, Starfire, Red Tornado, Firestorm, Alan Scott, Jade, Supergirl, and many others. Supergirl claims there's no word for "Escape" in Kryptonian.

We cut to Power Girl battling Clayface and a bunch of other Secret Society members who are after her on Luthor's orders. She battles them for a few pages until the Original Superman shows up to help her.

Meanwhile, in Metropolis, Lois Lane and Perry White recap what's been happening briefly. Lois goes to Clark, who says that Bruce is right that the last time Superman inspired anyone was when he was dead (that happened last issue, I think). He knows the Society is on the move, and changes to Superman and flies off.

Meanwhile, at the Society's headquarter, Luthor gets status reports about the search for Power Girl, any of the Marvels, and so forth. Luthor decides to forget the Marvels, and use Black Adam for his plan.

In the arctic... Lex Luthor is in his battlesuit, wondering why he can't think and why he's in that suit.

Superman of Earth-Two flies with Power Girl, and he takes her to Superboy-Prime and Alex Luthor. Alex says Power Girl wasn't supposed to survive the Crisis, and Superman tells PG who she is, and recaps the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Lots of very cool stuff for this old school fanboy in the recap! At the end of the recap, Superman starts whining how things started off so well with this new Earth, but then it went to hell. He says he should've tried to find a way back sooner. Alex is studying this earth to see what the villains are up to. Superman tells PG that where they are is where Superman's fortress was on Earth-Two... and then reveals that his Lois is dying.

Meanwhile, Booster Gold and Skeets are find out they aren't back in time (did he go back to the future some time?) to save the Watchtower, so they go off looking for the Blue Beetle's scarab.

Then we see the Joker killing off the Royal Flush Gang.

Back to the Fortress, Power Girl remembers her real past.

At the Batcave, Batman acts snippy to Alfred. Batman then talks to Brother Eye, and tries to find out what's happening with it.

At Paradise Island (Sorry, I'm not typing Themyscirwhatever the hell it's called), the Omacs are attacking the Amazons.

Back at the Fortress, Superman tells Power Girl he's decided his true purpose in the universe is to bring Earth-Two back.

And that's it... now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind seeing the multiverse back... heck, I could keep track of it all just fine, even when I was a kid! But come on, this is the original Superman, and his way of fixing everything that's wrong is to re-create his Earth?

It would've been more appropriate, I think, for him to decide to, as I implied earlier, to come back and set an example... show the heroes of Earth what a super-hero is supposed to act like. But noooo...

Wrap-Up

Sheesh... well, I was going to get through all five issues tonight, but after going through these first two issues... my brain hurts. I don't remember Crisis on Infinite Earths popping back and forth between things as much as this does! It's almost tempting to scan the pages in and do a "remix" of the series... putting pages together so that sequences run complete, instead of the back and forth.

Anyway... I'll continue with this Wednesday night!

Jon

Short note...

Not much of interest went on Monday... I'll blog a bit more tonight, with some news, and maybe, just maybe, I'll review Infinite Crisis to date!

Jon

Sunday Night Blog-A-Rama!

So, let's see... what went on today?

Not a whole lot, actually... took the dogs for a walk as usual, to begin with. Today was our scheduled "boxer meet-up," but there was only one other boxer that showed up aside from our regular group of Krypto, KO, Jaeger and Claude. However, that boxer was Digby, who's another white boxer, and the first white boxer I "met" through the meet-up.

I used to think of Digby as a huge boxer... there's a photo somewhere on my hard drive of Digby, Claude and Krypto, when Krypto was a tiny puppy, and Digby looks huge by comparison. But no more! Digby isn't that much taller than Krypto, and once Krypto fills out, he'll be heavier than Digby, for certain.

After the walk, it was breakfast time, and then we did some housecleaning. I ended up feeling so exhausted after the cleaning that I ended up taking a nap on the couch -- and I rarely nap!

The rest of the day was spent watching stuff we'd Tivo'ed... including Saturday's Justice League Unlimited episode (which was fun... Flash and Luthor's minds got switched, but they didn't switch the voices... so we had Michael Rosembaum, who voices Flash on JLU and plays the young Lex on Smallville, portraying Lex Luthor in yet another show!). Unfortunately, there's not many new eps left of JLU... and I think the last of the new Teen Titans eps have already aired, although there is a Titans movie coming sometime in the near future.

I've read that the reason for Cartoon Network cancelling JLU and Teen Titans, despite their popularity, is due to different arms at Warners' not getting along with each other. Apparently, it comes down to a greater emphasis being placed on the current Batman animated series (which, by the way, I detest), so they don't like Batman, Bat-Villains, or Robin being used on other shows, like JLU and Teen Titans.

Is that stupid or what?

Anyway... I've been reading Showcase Presents Green Arrow, and I'm really enjoying it! I've read some of those stories before, in the Green Arrow by Jack Kirby TPB that I used to have (but sold a while back), but the majority of them are brand-new to me!

And to be completely honest... I'm enjoying this much more than the Metamorpho volume, which I have to admit felt like a bit of a grind as I got more into the book.

It probably helps that the stories are so short, it feels like I'm getting a lot more for my money!

Still looking forward to lots more volumes in the Showcase series... and I'm hoping that DC steps things up production-wise on these!

So, what are my "dream series" of Showcase Presents? More of the Superman and Justice League volumes, obviously. I'd also love to see Teen Titans, Batman, Adam Strange, Phantom Stranger, Metal Men, Doom Patrol, Challengers of the Unknown, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl... well, heck, there's all sorts of 'em I'd love to get!

I'd even like to see a "Showcase Presents Showcase" volume that would reprint all the Showcase issues!

That's all for tonight!

Jon