September ended and nobody woke me up?

Hey superfriends! Elias here. So It's mid-October and the first issues of the "new 52" have come and gone. I know, I know, where was the Starfire controversy post!? Where was the Catwoman post? What happened to the post on "cheesecake" in comics? What happened was I had a lot planned to write about the first month of issues (trends, controversy, analysis) but wow does time move fast! I had mid-terms at my University so I was thrown into a state of "keeping my head above water" so to speak. But hey, all is not lost, those posts will be filed away for later, now instead of me weighing in on all the past controversy (there is a tide), I'll just cough up some nice breath-defying opinions on the first month of me as a weekly comic reader!

Favorite Book of the Month goes to...

Batgirl

Not only was this issue packed with throwbacks to “The Killing Joke” (a favorite) which for obvious reasons was a HUGE character point for Barbara Gordon, this issue does something that I have seen very few comics do. Move. The art literally jumps off the page. I can just feel Barbara leaping off a roof and vaulting through a window, I'm experiencing the inertia with her as she goes from static to dynamic. As I was reading my eyes moved constantly from the text to the art to the text to the art, I felt Barbara's movements mirroring my eyes. I witnessed her unadulterated joy just from the simple act of moving, and it made me feel that joy.

It's something I have absolutely no doubt that was intentional, because, although I am a new reader I had known of Barbara in her Oracle days, and juxtaposed with that it seems clear that we're supposed to feel her sense of liberation, communicated to us from her free range of motion. It puts on an aesthetic of movement; it's genuinely fun to watch Barbara move around. Now, as I write that it immediately sounds kind of skeezy and creepy, but honestly, in much of the same way a Greek statue communicates motion, it's a beautiful thing to see. 

Amount to the same thing.

These two things...

Least Favorite Book of the Month...

Green Arrow

Ugh. Now this one hurts. I've been told that Green Arrow for a long stretch was a joke, he was a left-wing wise cracking billionaire who made jokes about liberalism while shooting his boxing glove arrows. This isn't the Green Arrow I got to know however. When being introduced to the character I was given Green Arrow: Year One by Andy Diggle and Quiver, a ten issue run by Kevin Smith. What I found in these titles wasn't a left leaning Robin Hood, but more of a less stressed Batman. What I mean is, Ollie wants to be happy, and being Green Arrow and cleaning up crime makes him happy. Ollie wants to have some fun and kick it with Black Canary. Ollie wants to be on the Justice League and save the world.  

But mostly Ollie wants to flaunt his "Daddy's home" eyes

I don't know exactly what was wrong with this new version of Ollie, but it just didn't sit right with me. Maybe it was the bland action, the vanilla villains (a female Goro who "terrorized Milan during fashion week"?), the flat one liners ("Multi-tasking is my specialty"?), or the fact that his five o'clock shadow was a pale comparison of what used to be. It just didn't excite me. Issue one summarized it best,

I got no time for losers

Biggest Surprise of the Month...

Supergirl

Here is an example of doing it right. What is it? Hell if I know, but it's doing it. I've never read a Supergirl comic before this so from context clues of earlier Superman comics, facts my friends told me, and a movie called Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, I have a cursory knowledge of details related to Supergirl. I'm told she's Superman's cousin, has some daddy issues, and for a time had to grapple with her powers. -But- Knowing next to nothing about Supergirl prior to this, if I know one thing after reading, it's that She. Is. A. Badass. There is a scene in which Supergirl is overwhelmed by her super hearing and is bombarded by a variety of dialogue from other DC titles happening concurrently. It was a simple, flavorful, and elegant way to tie together this universe DC is selling. Perhaps my favorite scene of the month showed up in this book, it's a snowy realization of waking up on a different planet separated from your loved ones and anything you ever found familiar. It's simple, it's powerful, it's heart-wrenching, and I really felt the loneliness inherent in being alien. When Superman comes in with the compassionate "Stop", I felt like a blanket had been laid over me, like my Dad had just told me "everything's gonna be alright". It was an incredible feeling I was not looking for when I started this, but here we are.
Wow, and I'm catching myself rambling, so until next time...

Take Care,
-Elias

Thoughts on Online Gaming

Okay so in the last week or so it came to my attention that DCUO is going free to play.  Now for me this might be trouble, because I have a history of allowing myself to be eaten by online games.  Plus about a month ago I was on the brink of buying into DCUO, so now that I have the potential option to do it for free I know I'm getting in on it.  But when I heard this it made me think about my past of paying for online games and the whole idea of paying memberships for an online experience, and what better place to flesh out my thoughts then right here on the bloggle right? So here we go.


First up is my old friend World of Warcraft, because you can't have a conversation about paying for games without bringing this guy up.

When I played Warcraft in my high school years my membership was being payed for by my parents, so I was free to just sit and play whenever I wanted without feeling like I needed to get my money's worth.  After a year or so of playing and getting to about level 50, I know that's low for a years worth of playing but I said I didn't play a ton, I started to lose interest.  Most of my friends had already quit the game by then and my parents were not mad that they could cut off the 15 dollars a month that the membership had been costing them.  About 3 years later I got nostalgic for the game and decided that I would get back into it.  I had gotten over the anxiety of playing with people who I didn't know, a large factor in my lessened play time during high school, but soon learned that I was not willing to shell out the needed cash for the game.  As a college student who had class, work, and the shambles of a social life I started to feel pressured to play the game because I was paying for it.  This idea started to bug me, why should I feel pressured to play a game? It was supposed to be fun.  The idea that a game was becoming more of a hassle for me then something I did to blow off some steam or just enjoy myself really didn't sit well with me.  I know some people REALLY get behind this game, but in this guy's opinion: The money and amount of time it takes are too much for a single game.

Moving on to my other big online experience, X-Box Live.  Because what is more fun then swears and slurs from the mouth of a 13 year old.

Now I have been a member of live since the first Xbox came out way back in the early 2000's.  At the time I was younger and live was not my favorite thing to do on the Xbox.  I much preferred the fabled LAN party or even just local multiplayer.  In 2006 the first Gears of War came out and a pretty good sized group of my friends were playing it so I decided to give the game a shot.  I ended up regretting this discussion almost right away.  I was not super awesome at the start of the game and holy balls did the community suck.  When I wasn't playing with my friends I was playing with people who had never heard the term teamwork.  Gears did not do much for my interest in online gaming, and I would remain a casual online player until the release of Halo 3.  Halo 3 was the first time i was incredibly excited to play a game online, and it wasn't too long before CoD 4 was released.  These two games and their sequels  have made up the bulk of my online playing on Live.  The other big focus of online gameplay has been the ability to download add-ons for games, although this too has sparked small debates. I know some people have complained that if a game had extra content why wouldn't it be on the disc at launch.  And I do think some games do the whole add-on mechanic in the wrong way but there are some games that use the add-ons perfectly.  My main example would be Borderlands, which I got maybe an extra 4 months of gameplay out of because of their add-ons. So in closing my main thoughts on Live would be that the online community and competitiveness of some games rubs me the wrong way, but live is also a place for some group play and awesome extra content.

So in the end I think online play has opened some doors that years ago people never thought possible, but some of those rooms we let ourselves into are homes of 12 year old headshot machines with a habit of teabagging.  Online play is always going to be what you make of it, and the fact of the matter is that everyone can find something of an online experience that they can enjoy.  I love almost every element of online gaming I've touched and i can't wait to branch into more, like DCUO when it goes free to play and giving the PSN a shot with the release of Uncharted 3.  More to come on those game related topics when they pop up in my life but for now I hope you guys enjoyed reading my mind thoughts about games.

See you all next time,
Will

DINOSAURS. Also, melodrama.

 So I checked out 'Terra Nova' last night on Fox, a show that has the potential to be nerdtastic. So far, I pretty much loved it. It's obviously playing off of Lost's success, but it definitely has its own elements. The show centers itself around a family who has been recruited into the past. And by the past I mean like, with dinosaurs all over the dang place.

They are not, unfortunately, this cuddly

Humanity has effed up the world so bad pollution-wise that it's decided we need a do-over.  So some people are recruited, like the Shannon family, who's matriarch just happens to be some amazing medical doctor with like 12 Ph.Ds. Or something. And the rest have come from the lottery that's drawn to let people into this new "utopia".
 The premiere was super exciting, lots of melodrama, lots of action and lots of intrigue. Anyway, let's break it down.

oh hai.

Things I loved-
-Super cute booknerd daughter-yay for female characters to look up to!
-DINOSAURS! (pictured right)
-The mysterious group called the 'Sixers' who branched off from the Terra Nova settlement

Things I did not love-
-Mr. Angsty teen son sort of got on my nerves, but he had a cute moment with his new girlyfriend, so it balanced out
-Why does the dad look like Mr. Shoe from 'Glee', future cop version? His character was sort of annoying, hopefully he rounds out later in the season
-SORT OF SPOILER ALERT: Okay, you're telling me the security is so bad in the future that dudes can just run and escape into a time machine when they're just escaped from a maximum security prison anyway?
-They should not have brought guns into the past. Utopia needs the opposite of guns.

See? This second chance is peaceful & has no chance of getting too violent AT ALL.

So, the moral: watch this show! Please, please, please give it ratings so Fox doesn't rip our hearts out and stomp on them by cancelling it immediately.

-Kiki

Presenting: The Nerd Goggles Bloggers!

Hey-hey, Imaginary Readers!

Alex AKA Goggles here, & I thought I'd do something of a small breakdown of what's going on 'round these parts. I am but one lil nerdperson, & since I threw up the Nerd Goggles Bloggle a few months ago, I have been considering getting a few friends to post here along with me. Not only to take the content burden off of myself, but also to broaden the focus. As you've no doubt noticed (or haven't!) this blog has up til now been primarily about comic books. This is mostly because I have been deeply ingrained in comics after a year of not reading much. In recent months, however, between the DC New 52 thing, Marvel's Fear Itself event, & my own self-initiated decision to relapse back into reading X-Men books after six years clean, comics have overrun my day to day activities. So yeah, I've been posting a bunch about comics, when I posted at all. I also made the somewhat ill-advised decision to start up a blog thingie during an insanely busy & transitional phase of my non-internet life, which provided some conflict.

BUT NO MATTER. I'm more or less back on track, & think I'll be posting more regularly. Also, I hope to try to meet the goal of this blog a little more & post thoughts on non-comic items from time to time.

To this end, I have recruited some of my friends to hop online & occasionally post things here as well. My friend Will already posted a small intro earlier, & the others might as well. But I also figured it couldn't hurt to have a little bio post to give everyone a teeny chance to get acquainted via all the nerdy & non-nerdy things we love. SO! Without further ado:

The Nerd Goggle Bloggers & some stuff they love!

ALEX 
(Formerly known as simply 'Goggles')

Hobby/Passion: Writing, Reading, Stories in general.
Areas of Interest: Comics, Films, Novels: Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Drama/Crime/Adventure, Video Games, Tabletop Games, Webcomics, Da Internet, Music
Films: Jaws, Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings, Swingers, Pulp Fiction
Novels: Neverwhere, Boneshaker, Harry Potter, The Time Traveler's Wife, All Other Neil Gaiman
TV Shows: Buffy, Mad Men, The Venture Brothers, Freaks & Geeks, Arrested Development, MST3K
Games: Mario games, Uncharted series, Fallout 3 & New Vegas, Pokemon, Mega Man, God of War
Bands: Sunset Rubdown, Of Montreal, The Beatles, The New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, Neko Case, Fiest, The Decemberists
Comics: Identity Crisis, Y: The Last Man, Geoff Johns' The Flash run, Robinson's Starman, FABLES 
Characters:  Spider-Man, Buffy Summers,  Batman, Yorick Brown, Cyclops, Black Canary, Emma Frost, Wally West
Comic Strips: Calvin & Hobbes, Shortpacked!, Questionable Content, Girls With Slingshots, Chainsawsuit, Penny Arcade, Dumbing of Age

ELIAS

(Alright rangers, let's get rangin')

Hobbies/Passion: RPG's, Shakespeare, Morality/Ethics
Areas of Interest: Video Games, Books, Movies, TV, MtG, escapism in general
Films: Reservoir Dogs; Synecdoche, New York; Goodfellas; The Royal Tenenbaums  
Novels: Slaughterhouse Five; A Song of Ice and Fire series; 1984; Winesburg, Ohio  
TV: Breaking Bad, Rescue Me, Game of Thrones, Frasier, The Office (US), Curb Your Enthusiasm, Battlestar Gallactica, Neon Genesis Evangelion  
Games: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Metal Gear Solid series, Pokemon series, Final Fantasy X (laughing scene and all), Halo series   
Bands: The Flaming Lips, Neutral Milk Hotel, Cold War Kids, Kanye West, David Bowie, Bright Eyes, Eminem  
Comics: FABLES, Matt Wagner's Trinity, Batman: Year One 
Characters: Walter White, Theon Greyjoy, Peter Campbell, Superman, Shinji Ikari, Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Tony Tony Chopper   
Comic Strips: Baby Blues, Get Fuzzy, Calvin and Hobbes, XKCD, VGcats, Buttersafe


KIKI

Hobbies/Passion: People
Areas of Interest: Movies, Books, TV, Comics
Films: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Mean Girls, Submarine, Red Dragon, Gone Baby Gone
Novels: Room, The Stand, Harry Potter, To Kill a Mockingbird
TV: Buffy, Arrested Development, The Big Bang Theory, Freaks and Geeks, Gossip Girl
Games: Mario Kart Wii, Mario Party 8
Bands: Foster the People, The Beatles, Vampire Weekend, Taylor Swift, The Hush Sound
Comics: Batwoman, Batgirl, Animal Man, Spider-Man, Batman, Morning Glories, Fables
Characters: Spider-Man, Xander Harris, Ferris Bueller, Albus Dumbledore, Peggy Olsen
Comic Strips: Questionable Content, Girls With Slingshots


WILL

Hobbies/Passion: Reading and Gaming
Areas of Interest:Comic Books, Novels, Video Games (Both online and off), D&D,  MTG
Films: Rounders, Super 8, 30 Days of Night, 40 Year Old Virgin
Novels: Neverwhere, American Gods, Game of Thrones, His Majesty's Dragon
TV: Buffy, Angel, Scrubs, The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Firefly
Games: Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption, God of War, Gears of War, Uncharted, Elder Scrolls
Bands: Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Rise Against
Comics: Scott Snyder's Detective Comics run, Batman: No Man's Land, Ed Brubaker's stuff on Captain America
Characters: Wally West, Xander Harris, Bucky Barnes, Zatanna Zatara
Comic Strips: Penny Arcade, Questionable Content, Dumbing of Age
  

We're all so glad to meet you, internet, we hope this is the beginning of a beautiful something or other!
yayyyyyyy!

Greetings Sentients, Elias is here!

Hello all! My name is Elias and I'm here to join the Nerd Goggles team! What are my credentials you ask? Well, I'm a huge nerd so that should cover it right? Oh you want a resume? Okay well lemme just, find... okay I might have left that in my other pants. References? Hah! Oh internet, is that really what you want? It is... Oh. Well, look I could tell you all about how me and Bill Gates go golfing on Sundays, or how me and Steve Jobs (Stevie I call him) plan to go sailing across the undiscovered ocean looking for adventure, but I'd rather tell you how I'm going to dazzle your freaking mind off with incredible and insightful articles regarding nerd culture!

I'm into comics, games, movies, books, anime, music, art, theatre, farming, energy consumption, sociological experiments, philanthropy, stock market trading, anything that gets me closer to human mind control, etc (y'know, the usual). I'm crazy excited to get working with Kiki, Alex, and Will on some nerd culture stir-fry including but not limited to: commentaries, reviews, analysis, discussion, and maybe down the line our own movie directed by Martin Scorsese. I can't wait! So I hope you keep reading. Until then...

Take Care,

-Elias (setting the snarky bar high so as to casually duck underneath in the future.)    

Me llamo Kiki!

Hello! This is Kiki, another member of the Nerd Goggles team. I actually recently discovered the nerdy part of myself (thank you, Alex! =]). As far as comics go, because of the new 52, I've been able to start from the "beginning" with DC. So your ploy worked, Didio, I am a girl and a new reader! I also enjoy nerdy TV shows, especially Buffy, and movies (the new 'Star Trek' is super amazing). So I will post about such things. I'm not much of a videogames person, except for Mario Kart. I.love.Mario Kart.

I'll make this short and sweet, I just thought I'd write a little something to start off. My first few posts will probably be about comics and the DC relaunch, it's a new and exciting time as we all know and I can't wait to share my thoughts on it. I'm super excited to be a part of this whole new terrific nerdy world and a part of this blog with my fellow bloggers, Alex, Will and Elias.

Thanks for reading, thanks for caring,
Kiki

Hello World, I'm Will.

Hello everybody, my name is Will.  I am one of the new members who will be posting to the Nerd Goggles.  I wanted to try and have a small introduction of sorts to start all of this off, starting with what I would be trying to talk about in my posts.  I, like Alex, am a die hard comic book fan and have been reading for close to a decade, so most of my day is filled with reading and thinking about comics.  In turn that means I will probably talk about comics here...a lot.  But when I am not doing comic book related activities I fancy myself a gamer.  I have lots of opinions on games and I hope to share them with all of you people out there.

I have had a few different ideas on what I want to post, so in the coming days I hope to have a few of those things going up on here.  The past week or so for me has been filled with the relaunch, catching up on Fear Itself, and starting my second play through on Mass Effect 2.  All of which have given me cool ideas for posts on the bloggle.  I have high hopes for this little thing that Alex has brought me into, and I look forward to ranting and raving on all of the things we all love to talk about.  For now I have said all I came to say, which is pretty much summed up in a hello and I want to talk about stuff, so I will take my leave for now.  Look for my first actual post later today or tomorrow.  Until then though I bid you all good day.

Love,Will

Thoughts, Opinions, & Ruminations - Belated DC Relaunch Post

[Thoughts, Opinions, & Ruminations is what we here at the Nerd Goggles Bloggle use to denote a post of sort of often long-winded rambly thinking on a topic. I mean, yes, it sort of explains itself, doesn't it? There will always be a standing & moderate SPOILER WARNING for anyone unfamiliar or not up-to-date on said topic. But if you are, please, Read On!]

First, since I'm still finding my sea legs on the big ol' scooner that is bloggin', I am going to go ahead & quickly throw out my thoughts on the DC Relauch altogether & Justice League #1, which came out LAST Wednesday. This will help to balance my lack of book-having.

Let us commence!

ONE: FEAR & ACCEPTANCE
So this was it, right? A few months ago, I was moving into my new apartment & checked my email, & I found out that while I was busy packing & unpacking boxes that day, the DC Universe had decided to go away. I freaked out, like most of the internet did, out of what can now be called panic, or fear.
As details arose, my panic soothed & my excitement grew. Since about Day 3 I decided I was going to be as optimistic as I possibly could be. So things were changing. They'd changed before. Once I found out that I was going to (mostly) have all the same characters I've loved & enjoyed for so many years running around, & that they'd be getting makeovers & fresh talent & so on, I buoyed. I listened to every rationalization from the creators, every pitch & spiel,  & I thought: Why Not?

TWO: EXCITEMENT
The bog change for me--when I stopped Trying to be excited & actually Became excited--was San Diego Comic Con. No, I wasn't there in person, but I listened to the podcast recordings of the panels. & to be honest, aside from the hot-button & important issue of women in comics, which could have been handled better (note: after the fact, it was?) I was very happy. Listen, I've been to a lot of comic book conventions & sat in on a lot of panels. I've been sold to, I've been lied to, I've been misled & surprised, never in a malicious way, but these are PR gigs at the end of the day. & what I heard from some of the writers on the New 52 DC panels was something different. What I heard coming from the mouths of writers like Scott Snyder, Paul Cornell, Josh Filakov & others could be described as nothing other than passion. These were guys who weren't part of a marketing team, aren't partial to some of the usual hype machine bidness that tends to go down at cons. They were just damn excited to be talking about books that, frankly, they sounded damn excited to be writing. & that grabbed be hard. I mean, I don't think I would have given I, Vampire much of a glance, but after hearing Filakov discuss it? Man, I'm in. I started reading every drop of news I could about the relaunch, & could not wait.

THREE: MALAISE
& then, I was waiting. July & August for DC comics felt...eh, I don't know. I'm sure I had the wrong reaction. I mean, I wasn't like some, who sneered at all of the books that were coming out between then & the relaunch were useless & not worth reading, but for whatever reason, I was having a hard time being excited for them. I mean, in theory, it was an end of an era, & the perfect time to just go all-out "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" style grand & finish out the books. But DC said they didn't want to go that route, likely as to not confuse newer readers, who would be off put by a book having an "ending" & then restarting the next month. & yes, some of the stories did wrap up nicely, but I missed a lot of them. The truth is, I'd fallen behind on my DC reading a while before that. In some part because of my Real World shenanigans & responsibility, but also because I wasn't feelin' the proverbial heat. Aside from some choice titles, DC books weren't often at the top of my reading pile any more. Actually last January I was remarking to people that for the first time in many, MANY years, I was more excited for Marvel & various Indie books than I was DC. I was buying some of them out of habit, & cancelling others. Some titles, I'm sure I'll go back & read the last few months in one sitting, some, I might not. All in all, I was so excited by the New 52 & so bleh about many DC books that it just wasn't happening. (On the bright side, this did give me a chance to try out some other books I might not have, & also get caught up on Marvel's Fear Itself story. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Scott Snyder's run on Detective was, despite all of the things listed above, both an amazing DC title & one of the best Batman runs I've ever read. If not THE.)


FOUR: ACTUALIZATION
So it rolls around, & I'm somewhere between crazy excited & cautiously guarded. August 31st does, I mean. I walked to a midnight opening near my house, & while it wasn't the party I was hoping for (& that some people had, in spades) it was fun enough. It was basically like any busy Wednesday in a shop, except it was dark outside & everyone was tired. I got my books, walked home in the rain with a Vitamin Water (the lemonade flavor, for you detail groupies) & quietly sat down to read. Flashpoint #5, I mean, come on. I don't really have to say much. Was it a decent written & well-drawn story? Yes. Did it have exciting moments? Sure. Was it confusing & sparse? Yep. Did it feel a little forced & shoehorned? Of course. Look, it was a means to an end, & everybody knows it. & when it came down to it, I didn't care. It was interesting enough, & it got us where we were going. The last several pages, were Barry speaks to a new (& much more in touch with his Bat-feelings) Bruce, I was in. I was. When Barry handed him the note, & the tears ran, I held my breath. This was different. It was familiar, too, & that's what counted. There may have been extra lines on the suits & whatever, but this was the Bat Cave. This was Bruce addressing Barry by his first name. These were friends. & THAT is what I was looking for, that was my anchor. The emotion therein had me prepared to go forward into this new era, & so I did.

No one will ever, ever convince me that Hal's phallic...er...'minigun' was an accident.

FIVE: FUN
& so I read one of the most anticipated books in a WHILE. Here were my thoughts:
FAST: I was surprised by how quick it went by. I think Johns' bouncy pacing & Lee's big pages, for better or worse, had the story moving at a very zippy pace. Relatively speaking, of course. In the old days, wayyy before me, one issue of a comic told an entire adventure that would likely take between 3 & 6 nowadays. This story only covered about 10 minutes or so of time, but it never really paused to breathe, save for maybe the lil mini Cyborg interlude. Overall I think it worked.
BLACK & GREEN: But the hopping along didn't mean we didn't get characterization. We did. Well, for Hal & Bruce. We learned very fast that Batman enjoys employing fear & is a cynical, untrusting rooftop runner & that Green Lantern is an almost cartoonishly overconfident dude-lar who is really enjoying his newfound power & being a superhero. Some people have been saying that Hal's arrogance was much too heavy in this issue, but I think it works well. We're supposed to roll our eyes. He's a rookie who thinks he's too big for his britches. I have a feeling that once the story leaps forward 5 years, we'll see a different, more leveled Hal Jordan. From a business standpoint I understand why these two were front & center. It's no mystery. These are the big book movers & this was a try for grabbing new readers & keeping the recent additions. So the headliners are front & center. Okay. Not my favorite choice, but it went all right. We obviously get Supes next ish, & hopefully Diana & Arthur after that. I have a feeling that Vic/Cyborg is going to be the audience-avatar character who gets brought into the world along with us. ...once he gets blown to s**t of course. (Spoilers?)
FUN: Yes. This is the watchword. Geoff Johns stated at SDCC that he was going to try & make his books more fun, & more than that, Funny, & he succeeded. I laughed out loud at this comic, which I did not expect. It was a little silly, & Hal's jokes were a bit on the nose, but it worked. I could get used to this.

SIX: FUTURE
I tried my very best to read this as a newcomer first, not as a longtime reader. Early on Batman said something & I thought "Well I don't know that Bats would say that..." & I stopped myself. Yes, he would. I was learning what Bats would & wouldn't say Right Then, on the page. Things were different, & I think they were for the better. I have showed Justice League to a few "non-comic" readers, or really, non-superhero readers, & their reactions have been positive. The book as a fun, winking intro works very well. This, for me, makes up for the lack of "meat" inside. I am fully aware that this is a launch, & it needs to feel like one. I get that, & I'm happy to be excited & get to rediscover a shiny new-ish version of this world. More than anything, really, I want it to WORK. I mean, I know comics can't go on like this for tooooo much longer. Printed, I mean. I see the changes on the horizon. What's important to me is that the characters & the stories survive in some way. If this relaunch is the first step toward that, then I am all for it. If the new readers coming on now are going to be more willing to follow comics onto screens & beyond, then please, bring the buggers in. Let's do this.

Right?

Viva Fabulae!

- Goggles