Since, according to the sign at my supermarket, May is Asian/Pacific Islander heritage month (sigh, yes, that was the only place I’ve seen it mentioned, aside from noting a trend in my local PBS affiliate’s programming) I figured I should post this remembrance before the month is out…

I was lucky because my childhood in Hawaii coincided with a time when people there were trying to embrace cultural pride and awareness. To me, this meant that I grew up with Japanese fairy tales along with the stories that were read to most American kids; I learned to thrill to the adventures of both Momotaro and the Jack who climbed the beanstalk.

Island Heritage released a series of hardcover books with different tales from Japan, China and Hawaii featuring beautiful art. The Japanese tales had the most spectacular art (by George Suyeoka) with dynamic watercolors and great imagination.

Unfortunately, this trend turned out to be a short lived one and these books currently go in and out of print (with a number of them rarely being available). Last time I looked, the children’s sections of Hawaii bookstores were having a far easier times selling “local” takes on familiar fare or Hawaii-inspired icons. While I bear no grudge to likes of Aloha Bear, I find it sad that there’s so little interest in these tales that I enjoyed so much.

I loved Momotaro as a kid and in hindsight I realize I was pretty lucky to grow up with an Asian hero from such a young age. (Not that my parents took that into consideration at the time, it was just a story they thought I’d like.) Momotaro’s tale begins (as many of these tales do) with a virtuous but childless couple. One day the wife spots a giant peach floating down the steam as she’s washing clothes and decides to grab the delicious looking fruit for herself and her husband. When she tries to cut it, however, she’s surprised to hear a voice come from within the peach, begging for the wife to be cautious in making the cut. Inside the peach, the couple finds a baby boy who they adopt and name Momotaro (which translates into Peach Boy). Momotaro (naturally) grows up to be a fine, strong young man who eventually sets out to defeat the ogres that bother his family’s village. Along the way, he is kind to different animals who offer their aid against the ogres in return and they turn out to be key to Momotaro’s victory.

When I grew older and revisited these books, I was charmed by the tale of Kaguya Hime, the Moon Princess (tho it turns out that the name translates to bamboo princess). This one also starts with a virtuous, childless couple. This time, after many prayers for a child and virtuous living, the husband discovers the baby girl in a bamboo forest on a bed of gold coins. When she grows up, she has many suitors all of whom she refuses, claiming that she intends to return to her father the moon god and cannot marry any man because she will soon leave him for her father. She eventually gives her most persistent suitors impossible quests (which, as a moody and philosophic teen, struck me as quests that required the suitors to give up their worst conceits in order to succeed, a level of depth I later discovered to be my own creation) until it is time for her to return to the moon. One of her suitors attempts to stop her ascension, thinking he can defeat the moon god but is taught a hard lesson and is forced to watch the object of his desire depart into the night sky.

I’ve often wondered about some of the other Japanese fairy tales I grew up with. Both Issunboshi and Urishima Taro were very similar to western fairy tales I later discovered. I’ve tried to research who inspired who, but have found conflicting answers so far. Issunboshi is the story of a small man who uses smarts to turn his diminutive size to an advantage, eventually saving a Princess from ogres that have bested the royal guard and being turned into a full-sized man by an artifact left by those ogres. (This, naturally, frees him to marry the Princess he just saved.) Urishima Taro is the tale of a kind fisherman who is allowed to visit the palace of the sea princess and eventually returns to his village to learn that he spent hundreds of years away, even though his wondrous time in the palace felt like days.

I had other Island Heritage chidlren’s tomes. The Magic Brush was a Chinese story about a young painter who discovers a magic brush. Anything painted by the brush would become real, an ability the young man uses to delight his friends. Greedy men try to force him to paint them more riches, but quickly ends their interference.

Kamapua’a was a Hawaiian legend of a shapshifting trickster who sometimes adopted the form of a giant man-pig.

Pu’a Pu’a Lena Lena was a dog who could grow and shrink. When he is caught stealing the chief’s kava kava plants for his sick master, he is sent on a quest if he is to spare his master from the death sentence that applies for stealing from the chief. I remember enjoying that dog’s antics as he persued his quest.

Kahala was a tale that haunted me – Kahala was a beautiful woman who attracted a murderous stalker. She is killed several times in the story and the animal gods, who love Kahala for her kindness, bring her back to life every time. Finally, Kahala’s stalker is killed but returns to life as a shark that delivers Kahala’s final death when she is bathing in the ocean. The animal gods, unable to revive her into a whole body, fill her spirit into the valley that bears her name.

I had one Island Heritage hardcover that was nonfiction. It told the story of Princess Victoria Ka’iulani, the Hawaiian princess who was expected to take over the throne after Queen Liliuokalani. However, while she was receiving an education abroad, the monarchy was overthrown. She led an group that journeyed to Washington DC, seeking to convince the American government to restore the monarchy, but was thwarted in her attempt. She returned to Hawaii and died soon afterwards. I never read this book as a child, the story was too complex and the realistic art did not help. I didn’t read it until we studied Hawaiana in the fourth grade. My class spent that year compiling our own books on state history and I discovered the book about Ka’iulani by accident. I was so moved by the story that I wrote an extra paper for my project dedicated to the tragic Princess. Ka’iulani’s story has long stayed with me and when I took playwriting in college I dreamed of researching Ka’iulani’s story (a bigger task than I initially imagined) and writing a tragedy about the Hawaiian monarchy, centering around the Princess. Now I dream that someday I’ll be able to give that period of history the Age of Bronze treatment. It’s a compelling story that deserves to be better known.

Coming from Hawaii, where Japanese culture is fairly dominant, the way San Francisco’s Japantown enchants me is a little surprising. I suspect that’s because “pure” (for lack of a better word) Japanese culture is pretty foreign to me, even though I’ve been constantly exposed to it and I am sometimes expected to understand it better than I really do. Sure, I have an easier time letting go of my western baggage when I read manga that touches upon themes that are uncommon here (such as the body switch genre) but much of that comes from constant exposure – it’s still foreign to me, just foreign stuff I’m familiar with (similar to my familiarity with BBC programming, I’d say).

So, with work depressing me more than usual this week, I decided to unwind by taking my first trip to J-town in over a year.

The main draw for me was the Kinokuniya Book Store and its amazing manga selection. I’ve often wondered how the store has adapted to the growth of manga, considering how many more titles are available since the last time I was there. Kinokuniya’s selection of manga once was incredibly thorough, but I wondered if that quality could be maintained now that the form has grown so much. I’m happy to say, despite the challenge, Kinokuniya’s reputation holds. Its selection is no longer as thorough as it once was, but it’s still – easily – the best resource to purchase manga in the Bay Area. Some of titles had spotty selections (I couldn’t find the second volumes of Hikaru No Go or Whistle!) but overall the store had a full selection of a large number of titles.

I ended up numbing myself from a frustrating workplace with copies of Phoenix, the hard-to-find Cromartie High School, Tuxedo Gin and the final volume of Demon Diary. I also let my ego convince my id to put a copy of Pet Shop of Horrors back on the shelf, since that was the easiest-to-find title in the stack.

Some people drown their sorrows in drink; me, give me a stack of quality reading materials.

I was briefly tempted by some other books I found. Out sounds interesting and it had a shelf tag pointing it out as a Poe award nominee. Another tale of horror short stories also looked interesting, as well as the short story collection including Koji Suzuki’s Dark Water. As usual, I skimmed the cookbooks – which I mostly find interesting for inspiration – but knowing how much my purchases were going to cost, I couldn’t justify adding to my bill any further.

After plunking money on some soul-soothing manga, I visited one of my old haunts, Sophie’s Crepes. When I lived in a nearby neighborhood, I’d often stop by Sophie’s for a quick meal or for dessert. For some reason, my mind was fixating on Sophie’s “Japan Crepe” which includes green tea ice cream, sweet adzuki beans and a maccha sauce. I’m not usually a fan of desserts flavored with maccha tea (maccha tea is the bitter  powdered green tea frequently used to flavor ice cream, I usually prefer the flavor of brewed green tea) but this time it worked for me… so much that I stopped by the J-town grocery store to pick up some maccha tea powder. (Then I saw that a small packet was eight bucks and decided I wasn’t that interested.)

Speaking of grocery, I also have a strange fondness for Japanese packaging. Not so much the products as much as the packaging – I love looking at Pocky boxes but snacking on Pcoky… I could take or leave it. I suspect some of it is that there’s some great package design to be found in a Japanese grocery store, whether that be ramune bottles or the polka dot paper that wraps up calpico drinks. Perhaps a part of that is the “fan filter” factor, where only the most interesting products (some being the ones with the most memorable packages) make it over the pacific? Then again, I also have a fascination with the Japanese love of kawaii (cute) that doesn’t seem to be limited to underage girls –  just look at products like Koala Biscuits or Hello Panda Cookies. In some cases the products themselves have always fascinated me, like shelf-stable mochi, kanten in bar form or candies wrapped in rice paper.

There were other stops I wanted to make, but I was feeling ready to go home. I promised myself a return visit very soon.

Surfing Vertical’s website, I discovered that Parasite Eve is finally getting an english release. The video game, which did a solid job of creating a cinematic role playing game, left me curious to the game’s inspiration but I figured it would never be available to english readers. I’ll finally have a chance in September.

Y’know, considering how much the comics blogosphere laments the current state of internet comics journalism, I’m really appreciating the work Rich and Heidi have done recently. Add Tom Spurgeon into the mix and the state of comics journalism doesn’t sound as bad anymore.

Dorian reacts to recent news and most of my reactions are fairly similar… especially in regards to House of M.

I like it a lot when Mark Evanier blogs about politics. I usually find myself in agreement, but whether I do or not he usually gets me to think a little. Recently he noted a Bill Maher comment that he found insightful which was later criticized and called "treasonous". I quickly noticed that the condemning Representative made sure not to include the meatiest part of Maher’s joke, and Maher has noticed that as well. I used to snicker when I’d notice these sorts of deceptions by public figures, pleased that I was aware enough of the full story to catch it, but now I just shake my head, realizing that chances are good that most people who hear the comment won’t hear more than the congressman’s edited-for-controversy excerpt and take it as an accurate representation of the entire comment.

I have to admit that I’m impressed to learn that Evanier reads The Huffington Post. It’s an interesting idea and when I’ve visited there’s definitely some meaty content… but there’s just so bloody much of that meaty content. There’s just too much to follow… perhaps if the website had an interface that let you sort posts by author or by topic.

I don’t usually care for Annalee Newitz’s columns, but I find myself reading them every week. Too often I find her columns to the stereotype of the reactionary, poorly-informed liberal. This week’s column, was a lot of fun, however, as the feminist geek reflects on her trip to E3:

Every few feet I’d see a grinning, sweaty nerd posing for his buddies,
with each arm wrapped around a girl whose gladiator armor was not going
to protect her against breast or upper thigh wounds. So I started
fantasizing that all the men in suits were there for the same reason
the babes were. Every time I saw a clot of game executives in ties, I
would pretend they were eye candy, then hold up my camera phone and
take a picture of them. Later, I expanded my fantasy to include all
men. At one booth a war game was being advertised by a huge guy in a
military outfit; he stood stony-faced on top of a full-size jeep,
holding a fake gun.

"OK, now look sexy," I directed him as I took his picture. He glared at
me. "No, sexy and pouty," I said. He furrowed his brow even more,
shifted the gun in his hands, and refused to blow kisses.

I haven’t been able to find a link that will last, but I think Molly Ivins recent column, where she highlights Texas State Legislator Senfronia Thompson’s arguments against an anti-marriage amendment:

When I was a small
girl, white folks used to talk about ‘protecting the institution of
marriage’ as well. What they meant was if people of my color tried to
marry people of Mr. Chisum’s color. . . . Fifty years ago, white folks thought
interracial marriages were ‘a threat to the institution of marriage.

On a lighter note, Active Anime interviews Kizuna creator Kazuma Kodaka. I always find it so strange to find Kodaka appear so normal-looking. After seeing Kodaka’s bio accompanied with a drawing of Kizuna hero Kei looking tough, I tend to picture her as a Japanese Trinity, with the black trenchoat and shades but a less arrogant air.

Okay, the whole schedule is up and I’m kinda excited… much more excited than last year when the only thing that sounded exciting was Desperate Housewives. (I heard Lost was good but it didn’t sound so exciting on paper.) Okay, Athens and The Partners sounded interesting from Fox but both were midseason offerings that never showed up… which happens sometimes with Fox…. and I hoped that Boston Legal would recall the days when I enjoyed The Practice (which it happily has). This year has some intriguing additions.

Short version… I’m so glad my cable provider finally rolled out DVR. Now I can’t wait for the nifty TiVo interface to be integrated.

Monday nights are probably the most exciting one for me. I was disappointed to see that Arrested Development was listed only on Fox’s fall schedule, but that changed when I heard that the show is promised an uninterrupted run (and will air a full season before it gives it’s time slot over to Dr. House). (I wonder if a fourth season renewal hinges on second season DVD sales, making this run more of an ad for the eventual DVD releas.) The rest of Fox’s lineup for that night also registers high on my radar (Kitchen Confidential and Prison Break) so I’m hoping it all doesn’t fade away as fast as Skin did. When the schedules change over in January, I’m looking forward to Heather Graham’s comedy, Emily’s Reasons Why Not, and to watching Raoul Bouva do the handsomer-than-thou routine on What about Brian? There’s something about Graham that I’ve found really charming ever since her performances in The Guru and Scrubs.

CBS’ new Monday comedies, How I Met Your Mother and Out of Practice, actually sound interesting to me (I can’t remember the last time a CBS comedy grabbed my attention, Jean Smart and Mary McDonnel’s High Society, maybe?). Oh, this’ll be a night of choices — I’m so glad my cable provider now has DVR running in my area…

That reminds me… CBS has shown that they a clue on how to stay on top. They canceled their critically panned sitcoms that were doing okay. Remember what NBC did when they had critically panned sitcoms that got okay ratings due to the hugely popular they were scheduled after? Yeah,  that’s why NBC is doing so badly today… trying too hard to convince people that The Single Guy, Suddenly Susan and Good Morning, Miami were watchable. Oh, and look at how they keep Joey around, despite the sinking ratings.

Geena Davis as Commander-in-Chief sounds like it has potential, but it’s against The Office. No contest there. Office lead-in My Name is Earl is starting out the same way Lost started with me… it’s not sounding so great on paper but I’m starting to read good things. Eh, there’s no other half-hour shows airing against it, I’ll give it a sample.

I’ve always liked the idea of The Apprentice, but couldn’t stand the actual show because it was centered around someone who completely rubs me the wrong way. I don’t appreciate Martha Stewart’s work, but she doesn’t irritate me (and, actually, I do get the giggles watching her keep her calm with certain guests who are clearly irritating her) so The Apprentice: Martha Stewart is on my radar. I imagine Omnimedia-themed challenges will be more interesting to me than the Trump-themed ones.

Here are a bunch of words I never expected myself to combine… I am looking forward to UPN’s new sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris. Yeah, it could fall flat but a sitcom about Chris Rock looking back on his childhood? That I’ve got to see. Yes, indeed "I am looking forward to UPN’s new sitcom." Wow. The last time I liked a sitcom on UPN it was the critically drubbed Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeifer, which turned out to be an American ripoff of Black Adder and I loved for doing a decent job of ripping off a good thing.

To the TV gods I pray, please please make Hot Properties a show worthy of Nicole Sulivan’s comedic talent. While I’m making requests, I should point out that the show would be even better if they find a role for Debra Wilson.

Each of the big three networks has something that sounds like a Lost-clone, even the network that already has Lost. None of them really have me, yet but there’s time to change that. Yawn, alien conspiracies.

One new show that’s been growing on me is Reunion. At first the format of mixing present and past story seemed like a silly gimmick, but another of the show’s gimmicks — there’s a death at the beginning of the series, but we don’t find out who until the season’s end — vaguely recalls Memento. It’s ambitious and I’ll check the show out to see if it gets the dramatic success or the thundering failure that comes of ambitious efforts.

Of course, at some point I’ll check out The Gate, if only to see how they’ve filmed my favorite city.

Every other network seems to be charging at Thursday, which isn’t much of a surprise since nothing is dominating at the eight o’clock hour. Joey, The O.C. and Survivor are doing well, but none of do well enough to make a new competitor look doomed. Therefore, two shows with loyal followings (Alias and Smallville) will hope to carry over their audience and UPN is putting their new show with the most buzz on that night, Everybody Hates Chris. The nine o’clock hour, however, does have a show that dominates, the still-hot CSI and that will be almost as interesting a battle. Will The Apprentice lose more of its audience or continue to hold steady? Will Reunion fit with The O.C. in the way that North Shore and Point Pleasant couldn’t? Is there an audience that’ll check out a Night Stalker revival?

This one will probably be about who gets out of the gate first and become the new Thursday habit, I suspect. Everybody Hates Chris has the best odds and is perfectly set up to get buzz (perfectly memorable title and an immediately appealing high-concept), it’s probably the first show I’ve talked about, largely because it’s so easy to communicate. At the least, it’ll premiere well. Joey seems posed to be the biggest loser in this battle. It’s won little audience loyalty so far and there are enough reasons to tune it out this season. Survivor and The O.C. will probably hold their audiences.  Predicting the Alias vs Smallville battle is probably the toughest since there would be a decent audience crossover between the two and I have no good guess towards which has a more loyal following.

Whoops, I lost track of this post and never mentioned the news that Issue 5 will not include the new skills system as it has been speculated by the construction of university campuses. This time the feature is being put off due to implementation complexity — I hope this means that we will see a majority of missions redone to incorporate the skills. As much as I can’t wait to do some detective work, I won’t really have much to do if the function is there in name only.

Check out this comprehensive E3 report that includes the poster’s guesses at the CoV archetypes (Brute, Stalker, Destroyer, Dominator and Mastermind). The three archetypes he poster saw mostly turned out to be CoH archetypes with the primary and secondary powersets reversed, throwing off the focus of the archetype with some new powersets mixed in. The Stalker, interestingly, mixes the scrapper with powers resembling fantasy game "rogues" doing the most damage in stealthy circumstances. Of course, that all could be revamped during beta testing, but the ideas are compelling.

The poster also reveals the names of the powers for the upcoming Trick Arrow/Archery Defender:

Trick Arrow
1. Entangling Arrow
2. Ice Arrow
3. Glue Arrow
4. Flash Arrow
5. Poison Gas Arrow
6. Acid Arrow
7. Disruption Arrow
8. Oil Slick Arrow
9. EMP Arrow

Archery
1. Snap Shot
2. Aimed Shot
3. Fistful Of Arrows
4. Blazing Arrow
5. Aim
6. Explosive Arrow
7. Ranged Shot
8. Stunning Shot
9. Rain Of Arrows

The Ranged Shot was Archery’s sniper attack.

SG bases will have upkeep costs, presumably to stop those rich level 40+ characters from funding alts into Single-Origin Enhancements by level 22.

So, now it’s a matter of waiting for those magazines who got those promised exclusives to print some CoV news…

Information about City of Villains seems to be coming in bits and pieces from E3.

But, first, have some fun checking out the new City of Villains trailer. It features Statesman, Positron, Synapse, Manticore and new hero Foreshadow (I’m guessing Sister Psyche and Numina are waiting for the boys to get in trouble before they come in to save the day?) battling Lord Recluse, Black Scorpion, Ghost Widow, Captain Mako and (the new) Scirocco.

IGN, Gamespot and Game Spy have previews of CoV up (they all sound like they’re summarizing the same press briefing) and further clues are provided by an internet radio interview with CoV’s lead designer, as well as personal accounts from attendees.

The highlights:

• CoV will be set in the Rogue Isles (as previously mentioned) an independent nation where questionable activities happen and other nations find convenient to ignore. The Isles will have twelve zones, four of which will be zones that heroes can visit from Paragon City and undertake missions with PVP elements.
• Base raids will be a part of the game’s PVP content. Super Groups (and, their villainous counterparts) will be able to undertake a SG trial that grants an item of power. Having that item opens your SG’s base to raids (if you never take on such a trial your base won’t ever be raided) but PVP play will require the consent of individuals. SG leaders will be able to set times for when the base can be attacked.
• The base designer is discibed as offering a lot of flexibility, mostly consisting of making an arrangement of different rooms. Stationary objects can be a part of that arrangement and a number of different looks are available. An SG is not a requirement to bases, you can make yourself a Fortress of Solitude.
• Great Hall: General Meeting room
• Room: Just a room only decorations
• Corridors: Hallways, what do you think?
• Library: A place to do research for skills and inventions
• Transportation: For your SG jet… once you own one.
• Hospital:
  For medical equipment, I would assume for respawning during raids. Was
  marked as a room that could not be teleported into by attackers.
• Laboratory: A place to improve skills and make inventions
• Vault: A place to store the precious… err.. artifacts and relics acquired by your SG
• PVE content in will have missions replaced with "tips". An early mission would involve planning and performing a bank robbery and more complicated schemes become available as you advance. Your villainous exploits may be interrupted by one of Paragon City’s established heroes (Minx appears in an E3 demo).  Missions have more variables within them and objectives may change as the mission progresses. When you see a crime committed on the street, you may decide to start a gang war by attacking the criminals, though not saving the victim.
• The first view of the E3 demo included skills, though that disappeared the next day. It also included a trick arrow/archery defender as one of the heroes. Another attendee reported seeing a sonic scream power.
• CoV will include cinemas.
• So far, the only word on account pricing is that access to both games (Heroes and Villains) will cost more than paying for access to only one.

Rose makes a compelling commentary on Manga Life’s review of From Eroica, With Love (originally noted by Johanna) and the non-controversey about Hulkling and Asgardian in Young Avengers.

I think there’s an important distinction to note with Manga Life, it’s a professional site, one that claims its "aim is to guide you through the masses of manga appearing on the shelves of your book store, to pick out THE essential books to own." In my mind, that requires a different critera for judging the reviews than reviews found at a personal blog or a site where fans can post their reviews. A professional review site should give its readers a good idea of what to expect in a title and help them make a preliminary judgement and Michael Deeley’s review of Eroica does little to accomplish Manga Life’s stated goal. I think the review can be characterized by the following tidbit:

Let me make this clear: This is a very gay book. Not only is Dorian gay, not only is his accountant jealous of his love for Caesar, not only is the “Eroica gang” made up of men who adore Dorian, not only does the only prominent female character disappear after the first story, but every young man looks like a woman! I’m serious! If a man doesn’t have a mustache or is over 30 years old, he has long hair, long lashes, eyeliner, and a tall, thin body. They look like women in drag! It’s a bit disconcerting. It’s also unusual, when you consider how Japanese society strictly defines the male and female gender roles. I think this was made for a young female audience. Young girls would like pretty, non-threatening men. But do they like gay men?

The answer is "Yes, some Japanese girls do, or at least they like the sort of gay men in series like From Eroica, With Love (which is a special type)." and to even ask the question throroughly undermines the review. Clearly, the Deeley is unfamiliar with the shounen-ai genre and the audience that is expected to enjoy Eroica; the result is a review that seems to be more about the reviewer’s reaction to an unfamilar genre than about the title under review. It doesn’t seem much more helpful than if an indie snob who only purchases titles from Fantagraphics were to review "Avengers Disassembled".

I’m not saying the review shouldn’t exist, it’s fine for Deeley to express his opinion. However its inclusion does question if Manga Life can fulfill its goal of being a guide "to pick out THE essential books to own."  In the end all the reader finds out is that Deeley doesn’t like shounen-ai and a little about the plot of Eroica. It’s an inappropriate review for a site with Manga Life’s mission statement.

Johanna also notes Bryan Hibbs‘ contemplation of negative reviews. Hibbs reminds me why Comix Experience is one of the Bay Area’s great stores when he writes:

First, and foremost, I usually hear it from people who say some variant of “You’re a retailer, your job is to sell.” But, here’s the thing: I don’t see my job as being that specifically limited – my job is to sell, sure, but I see that over the long run, not the short run.

It is like with Variant Covers: some retailers adore the things because “It is like getting a free $100 bill!” Which, of course, it is. But I believe that in the long run taking that $100 can cost you THOUSANDS of dollars in sales as we drive people away from the entire hobby.

In exactly the same way, my job isn’t “just to sell” – it’s to sell QUALITY MATERIAL. If I can discourage someone from buying a shitty-ass comic, then it is at least marginally more likely they’ll buy something good; something that puts the burning need to buy MORE comics within their heart.

I’ve said it before, when I read Hibbs’ write it becomes clear to me that he’s a retailer who "gets it". I find the question of if one writes mostly positive or negative reviews an interesting personality indicator. I know people who are far more likely to talk about what they hate while there are those who are far more likely to talk about what they’ve really liked. (And I find both potentially insightful.) I find myself falling into the latter category. I’m far more inclined to want to praise a book and I think my negative reviews have more about figuring out why it didn’t work for me.  Generally, though, I get a much bigger thrill from singing a good title’s praises than dwelling on another title’s failures, but that’s just a reflection on my personality type. Also, there’s a major difference between me and a retailer who writes reviews like Hibbs — I don’t have as much access to comics I don’t enjoy — if I stop liking a title I stop buying it. Meanwhile, Hibbs will continue to buy comics he doesn’t like because it’s his job to sell those titles to customers that are enjoying it.

Ah, but it’s almost the weekend, so I’ll let Don Asmussen finish this post on a light note that expresses a sentiment I’ve felt many times.

Probably one of the biggest sins a superhero writer can commit with me is to introduce a villain with a scene where this new villain proves how dangerous and hardcore they are by killing some obscure character. I’ve seen it done too many times by lazy writers unable to come up with a way to legitimately make the new villain seem threatening that I have a reactionary repulsion to it. It’s not a poison pill, but it’s a significant hazard, one probably worth a three point penalty on a total score of 1 to 10.

Unfortunately, Gail Simone’s run on Action begins with such a scene. It’s a pity that the issue, one that I’ve been looking forward to sampling, begins by pushing one of my most sensitive buttons… especially since my first reaction while reading the comic was to note how charming it was for the obscure character to appear. Gail Simone is not a lazy writer, but using a tactic frequently used by lazy writers brings up the same emotional weariness. (And, no, "It turns out she’s okay!" doesn’t nullify that penalty.)

Which is too bad, because her take on Superman is a ton of fun. She sums him up her take on the character in the first half of the debut issue:

I was thinking about something the tribal elder said… she said I have many homes.
It’s true… compared to someone like Batman… look at what I’ve been given, the people I have around me.
I used to think they made me vulnerable.

Considering that Superman just saved the helpless from predators who see no value to other humans’ lives, that moment reminded me of the cosmic bird of Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, a powerful entity that witnesses the worst humanity has to offer and yet still holds faith in our better nature. That’s an interpretation of Superman I can really get into, one full of hope and spirit. In my past samplings of Superman comics, I haven’t seen this Kal-El being writing with this sense of hope and idealism; it fits the character beautifully.

Still, this is tempered by the use of a plot point that invokes an admittedly knee-jerk reaction out of me. What makes it more frustrating is that, outside of that moment, the villain’s menace is well established, so the annoyance is an unnecessary one. Instead of being impressed, I end up looking at that success as proof that my annoyance wasn’t needed in the story.

Still, despite that, I’m charmed and intrigued so this comic wins me over despite giving a forceful poke at one of my sorer spots.

This Penny Arcade strip made me laugh.

Meanwhile, DMP’s Yaoi haven has begun selling a line of body wash products. BL Body Wash features a drawing of an undressed Yaoi-style hero on the label. The website has short stories about each bottle’s hero, usually a vingette about the hero disrobing. (Thanks to  Pata)