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Post by The Captain on Dec 1, 2021 10:14:29 GMT -5
Batman: The Detective #6Written by Tom Taylor Art by Andy Kubert Summary: Equilibrium has her sights on punishing London and to stop her Batman has to learn to let go and let others in. Plot: I'm still not a fan of the premise of Batman pushing everyone out of his life so the message that in order to win he has to let others in... This is LITERALLY the entire message of The Lego Batman Movie.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 29, 2021 16:48:40 GMT -5
And it is exactly things like the popularity of innuendo covers that make me both a little ashamed to be a comics collector as well as to wonder about people as a whole.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 29, 2021 15:04:45 GMT -5
With my family, Christmas begins on Black Friday. We take down all of the fall decor from the house and put up all of the Christmas stuff, including the tree. My olde4 daughter is finally allowed to play Christmas music in the house without ear buds in (as well as sing them), and the younger one sets up the little chalkboard with "X Days Until Christmas" on it, which she is responsible for maintaining. Lights go up outside weather permitting, although since it is not an elaborate display, we sometimes do it later in the weekend or even into the next week.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 27, 2021 12:12:37 GMT -5
brutalis, you hit on so many of my thoughts on it. Absolutely should have been a Disney+ series where they could have delved deeper into both the time periods and development of the characters instead of doing the old standby "identify the threat, gather the team, fight the threat in a big stupid loud CGI-fest". Yeah, they might not have been able to get Salma Hayek or Angelina Jolie for long-term gigs on TV (possibly the former, less likely the latter), but those roles could have been filled by just about anybody if needed. Would love to have seen the characters grow over "time" rather than have the exposition tell me what happened. Show me why Makkari and Druig were so close, how Ikaris and Sersi's relationship evolved over time, how Phastos' inventions affected the world throughout time, and how Sprite's journey led her to where she took the actions she did in the movie. Such a giant wasted opportunity to really do something grand. For me, the Disney+ shows are, for the most part, doing it right. WandaVision was quirky and unique, but it revolved around real human emotion. Loki was centered on his relationships with Mobius and Sylvie. Falcon and Winter Soldier was a buddy cop show. Hawkeye is about human relationships, both familial and not. This is how you engage people long-term, not with bigger explosions and quippier quips but by giving them something that resonates with them longer than the time it takes them to walk from the theater to their car. Black Widow, while ultimately filler and a bone thrown to ScarJo, did a nice job with relationships, and Shang-Chi was fairly close to being a big-screen version of the D+ shows until it fell into the MCU formula at the end.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 27, 2021 11:52:53 GMT -5
I recall a study from a few years ago. They found that customers like the current tipping system because it gives them the power to punish poor service. The problem here is that waiters are often punished for a problem caused by the kitchen or management. The other problem it causes is the need to turn over tables to get more customers, and therefore more pay. In Europe, no wait person would ever ask if you were done and take your plate away.
And we have also found here, as so many restaurants can't find wait staff, that is wasn't the extra $600 that the government was providing so people would not starve, but that people realized that did not want to be overworked at crappy jobs for crappy pay with no benefits.
This is so spot-on. We went out Wednesday night for dinner, and my younger daughter's food was a little later coming to the table than the rest of ours. The waitress was so apologetic, but it wasn't her fault; my daughter had ordered wings, and the fryers in the back were in use for other orders. Other than that little hiccup, the food was great and our server was engaging (asked us about what we were doing for Thanksgiving, asked my older daughter what her letterwoman's jacket was for, etc.) and super attentive (refilling drinks without asking, bringing extra napkins, getting my older daughter more salad dressing without being asked) even though the restaurant was packed, so I tipped my usual % plus a little extra since we're in the holiday season. I will never punish the server for something out of his/her control, and if there is an issue with the server or kitchen, I will speak with the manager after the meal (and in private and quietly) but only to give feedback for improvement. I've never once yelled at a server or the manager or asked to have something comped; in fact, I've had managers try to comp things on my bill for minor things (service being slow, something coming out wrong or even cold) but I always refuse, and in instances where they still go ahead with doing it, I just tip that amount to the server. I used to be a restaurant manager, and I know that it is like trying to spin plates while riding a unicycle blindfolded, so I just chalk it up to a bad night for the staff and let it go.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 27, 2021 11:38:29 GMT -5
As part of my Black Friday travels, I stopped by one of my occasional haunts for comics and cards. They were having a deal where you got 20% off your purchase if you spent $50 or more, and as I had been neglecting my collection for a while, as well as needing to pick up some things for friends, I got the following for my Jonah Hex run:
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Post by The Captain on Nov 27, 2021 9:56:34 GMT -5
Related to the discussion on tipping is a disturbing trend I'm seeing in stores and restaurants of "toxic apologizing" from the staff. I was running around yesterday with my younger daughter to hit some Black Friday sales at a few of our LCS, and while visiting one in a shopping mall, we stopped into the Hot Topic, as my girls and I are Funko Pop collectors. Saw one of their new exclusives that I absolutely could not pass up, so I grabbed it and went to the counter. The girl ringing me up asked for my phone number for their rewards program, but after she typed it in, she said she couldn't find me in the system; she asked for me to give her my number again, and it worked on the second time. She apologized repeatedly for a) mistyping my number and b) wasting my time. I told her that I'd worked retail years ago, completely understood, and said that I wasn't going to yell at her, after which she relaxed and then engaged me in a normal conversation. This morning, I went to pick up doughnuts for my older daughter to take to HS swim practice. I'd called in my order last night so it would be ready when I got there. Walked up to the counter and the girl behind it (probably only 16, no older than 17) was filling an order for the drive-thru, so I stood there. When she finished, she apologized profusely for making me wait, even though I had been there probably about 45 seconds, 1 minute tops. My order was ready to go, she handed it to me and told me to have a nice day, at which point I told her that it wasn't paid for. She had assumed that I used their app, which requires payment, but I had actually used the telephone (yeah, I'm old). Again, she started apologizing for a) making a minor, completely legitimate mistake and b) for wasting my time. I literally asked her to stop because she was making me uncomfortable and reassured her that she had done absolutely nothing wrong, but she still seemed rattled. This is the environment these people work in, where they feel compelled to apologize for every little thing because they know that if the customer gets mad, the manager will back the customer and not them. I can't even imagine being waitstaff in a restaurant, where they need to be on point the entire meal to ensure that they get that tip to make their hour's work profitable, and even then, if the customer doesn't feel like being generous, tough luck to the server. It's a garbage system that is just so American that it hurts, because to Rob Allen's point, many Americans love the idea of getting to "punish" those who have "wronged" them, so being able to affect someone else's wallet because they didn't get treated like royalty is probably very satisfying to them.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 27, 2021 9:34:35 GMT -5
I think that I shall never see....an Ollie's ever near me. Texas just not close enough for making any good deals on prices for me. Such is life waiting for the next Phoenix Fan Fusion so I can hunt for deals. Dang Phoenix sucks when it comes to great low priced outlets. When I travelled to Phoenix for work a couple times, I remember alot of used book stores around.. not sure that's still the case, but I remember being really excited. There are four Half-Price Books in the Pittsburgh area, one about 15 minutes from home, the others all at least 40 minutes, so I pick the nearby one clean of anything I’m interested in on a regular basis (it is literally right across the street from my usual LCS, so it isn’t even a special trip).
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Post by The Captain on Nov 26, 2021 19:21:10 GMT -5
At my local Ollie's (and I live within a 25 minute drive of three of them), I've only ever seen Epics there once, but none recently. In the past, I've picked up a number of Marvel Complete Collections, some DC Showcase Presents, and one Marvel Omnibus (the Guardians of the Galaxy Solo Classics, for $20). Every so often I will pop in and find a new TPB or two that I don't own the issues for, but the closest one to me hasn't restocked their comics section in months, so I always leave disappointed.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 24, 2021 22:23:06 GMT -5
Just finished watching the first two episodes with the wife and daughters. Fraction’s fingerprints are all over this, which is a very good thing, as his run with these characters was some of the best stuff I’ve read from Marvel in the past decade. We all really enjoyed it.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 24, 2021 10:04:54 GMT -5
I didn't want to necromance a thread that hasn't had a post in three years on it, so I'm posting this here. After putting it off forever due to some of the things I'd heard (gratuitous hyper-violence, gratuitous language, gratuitous rude humor, gratuitous nudity), I finally watched Deadpool on Sunday night.
Yeah, all of those elements were present and in some instances a little off-putting, but I didn't hate it. Ryan Reynolds was born to play the character, Morena Baccarin is stunningly beautiful and gives depth and vulnerability to a character that could have been left a cypher, and the story actually held up pretty well.
Not something I would probably ever choose to watch again, but it wasn't a waste of an evening.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 23, 2021 8:00:57 GMT -5
In regard to the bolded word above, those aren't the people who are gambling like this. Collectors want ONE copy of a book typically, because they want to read it, fill a hole in a run, or have a theme they collect (like @mrp with his Red Dresses, which is awesome).
This guy makes money off of this, no different than a sports bettor or poker player. He doesn't care if it's WCA #45, Incredible Hulk #282, or Moon Knight #25. He'll buy every copy of any "hot" book to try to flip it without any knowledge of what's between the covers, because that doesn't matter to him.
Personally, I'm glad this guy got stuck with these books, and his lament means nothing to me. If he didn't know that CGC was month behind in processing but sent these off anyway, thinking a minor moment from a Disney+ TV show was going to sustain $1000 or higher prices for years on end, that's poor planning on his part.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 22, 2021 20:15:59 GMT -5
One that I was thrilled and shocked to read a while ago was Prez #5. I love Prez! It was canceled after #4 in 1974 I believe. But there was a #5 completed that was never published... until DC snuck it into a Prez TPB in 2016! So great. This is like what Marvel did with Ms. Marvel #24 and #25, which they published years after her series got canceled at issue #23. I knew the stories existed, but it took me a while to hunt those books down so I could see where they planned to take the series. Issue #24, printed in Marvel Super-Heroes Summer 1992 edition, featured Carol working with Iron Man on some things before facing off against Sabretooth. Issue #25, printed in Marvel Super-Heroes Fall 1992 edition, is a double-sized issue that begins with Carol investigating the Hellfire Club and running into Harry Leland and Donald Pierce, then morphs into a story with Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. What's interesting is that the first 2/3 of the story have the original Mike Vosburg artwork, but I guess he never finished it, because the last 8-10 pages are done by Mike Gustovich, and it is ridiculously noticeable that he doesn't even try to ape Vosburg's style. He completely redesigns both Carol's and Pyro's costumes from Vosburg's last panel to his first. The main reason, I suspect, to print the second story is because it shows where Rogue steals Carol's memories and powers, which happen on the last page of actual story. The final page of the issue is sort of a "here's what happened next" epilogue, detailing how Rogue eventually sought out the X-Men to help her with her problem, how Spider-Woman apparently rescued Carol from San Francisco Bay (where Rogue had thrown her after being overwhelmed), and how Carol's "Binary" powers were unlocked later by the High Evolutionary. Were they necessary? No, but as a completionist, I was glad that they finished the story and let us see what direction the book would have taken (unless they actually planned to end it on the Rogue mind steal, which would have been odd to complete a book on a planned cliffhanger).
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Post by The Captain on Nov 22, 2021 12:08:47 GMT -5
I'm 48 years old and have never had anything but turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. I wouldn't know what to do otherwise.
Funny "traditional" holiday meal story: Years ago, my wife and I attended the same church as my parents. One Easter Sunday morning, as we were leaving worship, my mom just casually tossed out that she was skipping the ham and sweet potatoes for dinner that evening because she had a Sunday roaster chicken in the freezer she wanted to clear out. I literally stopped in the middle of the hallway, shooting daggers at her, and said "well, enjoy your dinner", then walked away.
My wife relayed to me later that my mother thought I was joking, only to realize I was deadly serious when I didn't show up at her house. That was the first and last time we did not have ham for Easter. You just don't mess with the classics.
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Post by The Captain on Nov 21, 2021 19:47:27 GMT -5
Wish List:
1. Sandman TPBs "Endless Nights" and "The Dream Hunters" (prefer new and 30th Anniversary trade dress, as it matches all others in my collection.) 2. Hellblazer TPBs "The Devil You Know", "The Fear Machine", "The Family Man", "Bloodlines", "Tainted Love", Damnation's Flame" or "Rake at the Gates of Hell". (used or new here is fine) 3. Wonder Woman TPB "Gods and Mortals" or Woman Woman by George Perez, vol 1 (used or new is fine) 4. Diana Prince, Wonder Woman TPBs, volumes 1, 2 or 4 (used or new is fine) 5. Man-Thing Complete Collection, volume 2 (used or new is fine)
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