I'm going to be a great (sitcom) husband

I totally missed the first year anniversary to this here blog. It was exactly one month (and a day because I didn't post this yesterday) ago on August 18th. To celebrate there's the next in a long list of mediocre comic reviews below and a bunch more will follow (comments remain nil).

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I will add some bonus content in the form of what's distracting Jon these days:

• Final plans for the wedding.
• Dreading spending Christmas at my parent's house.
• Video games have suddenly become boring to me. I'm trying to play Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay. It was a blast for a while but now I'm stuck and frustrated. I'm thinking about getting the new Nintendo Wii though, that looks like fun. Although I remember purchasing The Power Glove and it sucked ass. And my desktop computer has been pretty much a paperweight since I've been waiting for my copy of Window's XP to show up and haven't been able to get back into Civilization IV.
• Zombies. I finally watched Romero's Dawn of the Dead and have Shaun of the Dead at home (again). I read The Zombie Survival Guide and I'm looking at World War Z (both by Max Brooks) longingly and waiting for the price to drop or someone to buy it for me. I am working on a project concerning zombies and I think it's actually original (shut up, I know that ship has sailed but I'm working on it anyway and someday I may bore you with the details on this site, I just need a bit more time to "flesh it out" - so to speak).
• Board Games. I have absolutely no idea where this new obsession came from. I guess I just want something fun and not involving a screen. I picked up Carcassonne and while I like it A. can't see the point to it. She does want to pick up Fury of Dracula for Christmas though, so that may be fun. I'm contemplating Settler's of Catan or Ticket to Ride as Risk alternatives since we'll be stuck at my parent's house this year for the holidays. Any suggestions on two player games would be welcome. I'm thinking Hammer of the Scots (since she's part Scottish and likes kicking my ass at Risk) or Zombies!!! (naturally).
• Trying to come up with a post that's more than a review of old comics that people have probably read. This probably won't happen for a while.

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Oh, I have found java versions of both Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan online here. They go by different names though, but if you're interested in either game, give them a whirl before buying either. Yes, I know I'm sad now that I'm blogging about board games.

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Ultra: Seven Days by The Luna Brothers

This is another book I picked up on a whim. I’m glad I did. Sure it’s the depressingly violent story portrayed as a realistic superhero drama but I think the story manages to get above that simple criticism. There were a lot of moments when I was thinking to myself this is Sex in the City but acted out with superheroines. There are some definite weaknesses in the storytelling because all too often the characters just don’t sound right. They sound like men are writing what they wish women spoke and acted like instead of writing women speaking and acting. And if you’re not in the mood for a story about superhero relationships with normals then this probably isn’t for you.

That being said it is the perfect distraction for anyone looking for a new take on the same old superhero stories. I’m happy that there is at least some male creators attempting to write a superhero book where all the leads are strong female characters. The presentation is quite original and stunningly beautiful to look at. The covers are replications of different magazines through which we normally read about female celebrities. There is a fun little syncopation of medias in the presentation of the story of female celebrities dealing with their private and public lives in an era that is eroding that division. The magazine covers remind us of our own desire to see celebrity at its worse and to have unending bits of meaningless information presented to us non-stop.

We get to see the ups and downs of these characters through their private moments and their public personas. In the end the story is as much about whether or not there is a difference between the public and private person as it is about the development of the characters and the actual plot. It is good distraction from other “realistic” superhero books because it strives for something more than a simple good guys win but compromise their morals. Here, the heroes don’t compromise their morals in terms of how they do their job but in their private lives. It is a slightly tweaked formula but a nice change none the less, and the art is stunning.