Heroes - Chapter 11

So much happens in this episode that it's difficult to remember the slow pace of the first few.

It's difficult to say too much without giving major plot details away but many of the characters feature, one looks like they die (!) and major things happen to others. It's good to see most of the characters interacting now. Hiro is no longer my sole fav character with Matt and Peter now up there too.

It's great stuff.

Which path should I take brother?

Desmond takes centre stage again in the latest episode of LOST.

I've only just managed to watch this last night and the next episode is on tonight. It's been a funny week and with Champions League games on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings then things get put back a bit.

I'll comment on the footie after the second legs later this week.

Back to LOST. This wasn't quite as good an episode as the last couple but I find Desmond quite an interesting character and his flashbacks or predictions (call them what you will) are an enjoyable way to move the story along. Charlie probably doesn't think so.

Good things about this episode include Charlie and Hurley arguing about whose the fastest The Flash or Superman (that'll be Brian K. Vaughan's influence on the script), Desmond's dilemma and the latest romantic involvement between Kate and Sawyer. I also liked the end.

All They Want to do is Kill You, Spider-man..

Amazing Spider-man #214

by Denny O'Neil, John Romita Jr and Jim Mooney

Issues 213-215 of Amazing featured a three part story about the Frightful Four and their revenge against Spidey for their latest defeat back in Spectacular #42

Back in 1980, I quite enjoyed this story especially the mystery surrounding the new member of the FF. However on re-reading, while it was still alright on one level , there are a lot of bad things about the story.

Firstly, the good things. JR Jr's art is still good even though Jim Mooney's inking is a bit heavy for him. Even back in 1980 he still draws a mean Spidey.

I also still like the mystery member. The clues are there and Llyra (an old Sub-Marnier villain) I still think was a good idea. She wanted revenge on Subby and so wanted the rest of the FF to help her after she'd helped them against Spidey.

But it's with Llyra that the main problems start. It is too much of a co-incidence that she, in her beautiful human guise, moves into an apartment just down the hall from Pete. If she'd moved in after Spidey's encounter with the Wizards Robot Spider which could home in on his Spider-sense it would have made more sense. But no, she moved in before that which is too much of a co-incidence. Thus Pete falls for her beauty and it looks as if Deb Whitman may be forgotton.

This beautiful neighbour plot device is then used a few times in the story including, at one point, Subby crashing into her room (which Spidey happens to see of course). So Spidey and Subby start slugging it out for the second time in a day or three before the Wiz zaps them with his gun.

This is another bad point - this gun removes Spidey's spider-sense and transfers it to the Sub-Mariner! What rubbish! I never like it when this sort of thing happens and I always wonder why bad guys don't finish the job off properly when they've got the heroes reeling!

At the end Llyra's secret is revealed and she is defeated but even that is handled in a contrived fashion which jut doesn't feel right somehow.

Overall, then, not the greatest of stories in my opinion.

Rating 6/10

Crewe Alex 1 - 1 Tranmere

On a nice sunny afternoon, it looked as if it was going to be a disappointing last home game of the season as the Alex went into the final minutes trailing 1-0 against 10 man Tranmere.

Tranmere had defended well and our attacks were just not quite good enough. It was a relief then to see young Liam Miller pop up with a header at the death to earn a draw! It looked like it was going to be one of those days.

I hope that next season we will be pushing for promotion so games like this will have more importance.

Match report here.

Alone Against the Aliens

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man #50
by Roger Stern, John Romita Jr. and Jim Mooney

This is a very enjoyable, normal-sized 50th anniversary issue.

The story picks up right after issue 49 with Spidey in a dilemma about what to do with the Smuggler. After cleverly getting himself out of that one, Pete goes off to a posh lunch, accompanied by Deb Whitman, to celebrate Aunt May's engagement to Nathen Lubensky.

Things go badly when it's revealed that the waiters are the Aliens from Amazing Spider-man issue 2 who are after Aunt May!

In fact, the Aliens are actually working with Mysterio who is still after Aunt May's treasure (See Amazing 198 & 199).

Another good Frank Miller cover, but issue 51's cover by big Frank is better in my opinion.

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man #51

by Roger Stern, Marie Severin and Jim Mooney

All is revealed in this well thought out and plotted conclusion to the story.

The link between the Aliens and Mysterio is logical and clever at the same time. I love it when old plots are given a new twist without taking anything away from them. Although for the majority of the issue, Spidey is fighting Mysterio and the aliens, the characterisation shows through. Marie Severin's art isn't as good as JR Jr's but it's still fine.A good two-parter and as I've said before issues which feature Mysterio are going to score highly with me.

Rating 8/10

Enter:The Smuggler

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man #49

by Stern, Mooney and Patterson

This was again another fine read from Roger Stern with solid support from Jim Mooney. I think Bruce Patterson's inks suit him.

The Smuggler is a fairly mundane villain and even Stern reconises the fact that his name doesn't tell you much about him. It tells you what he does. Thus Spidey is constantly saying that he's surprised about how strong the Smugglar is.

Still it was a good issue with the highlight being Spideys predicament at the end of the issue. He's managed to web-up the Smuggler but now he's run out of web fluid and realises that he can't put him down because he'll get away. Not your usual cliffhanger.

Rating 7.5/10

More FOUND than LOST

It was a top notch episode of LOST last week (episode 19) - (I've still to watch this weeks offering) .

It was one of those stories which at least answered as many questions as it posed, if not more. Again, Juliette's backstory about how she arrive on the island was revealing, but it was the action on the island which took up most of the screen time and this was welcome.

I was getting slightly annoyed at certain co-incidences towards the end, but then all was made right again as some explanations for various character's behaviour were given.

For Jack, that is because he's a knob.

We are now heading towards the season finale. Let's hope the stories are as good as this one.

The Sub-Marnier and Hydro-Man - Things Get A Bit Wet

Amazing Spider-man #211 by Denny O'Neil and John Romita Jr.

Good points about this issue.

• JR Jr's art.
• Spidey's costume getting soaked in brine during a fight and later making him itch.
• Spidey's plan to defeat the Mariner.

Bad points

• The Sub-Mariner (I just don't like his pompous attitude)
• Pete needing Aunt May to remind him to do the right thing (yet again)
• The silly plot (and I know that this is relative).

Rating 6/10

Amazing Spider-man #212 by Denny O'Neil and John Romita Jr.

Good points:

• The Cover!
• John Romita's art
• The Hydro-man
• The Hydro-man's origin and subsequent search for Spidey
• JJJ being enchanted by Deb Whitman
• The way Spidey defeats Hydro-man

Bad Points

• Pete dumping Deb to go web-spinning yet again.

All in all, a far better issue than #211. The Hydro-man is a good creation of O'Neils and O'Neil obviously recognises this as he takes up a large proportion of this issue. Nice to see JJJ back too.

Rating 8/10

Still Old Spidey

Although I bought a bunch of new comics on Friday, I'm going to continue re-reading my Spider-man collection for a bit as it's been some time since I got stuck in to the issues. I also know there's some really good stuff coming up...

Thus...

Amazing Spider-man # 210 by Denny O'Neil, John Romita Jr. and Joe Sinnott.

Firstly, what a great cover! I've always been partial to covers which depict Spidey, with his back to the reader, swinging towards or facing his enemy. This is a fine example by Jr. Jr.

Speaking of JR. Jr. the credits describe him and Joe Sinnott as the "newest art team supreme" which implies that they were going to be the regular art team on the book. It is a cracking job and so it's a shame that this was actually Sinnott's only issue.

The story itself by O'Neil shows an improvement on previous issues an he seems to be getting into his stride. It ties up the whole Pete working for the Daily Globe storyline and also, more interestingly, introduces Madame Web. She was a good character and its a pity that she's not around today. Pete could have needed her advice before making some silly mistakes during the Civil War.

M Web is a clairvoyant and reveals at the end of the issue that she knows that Pete is Spider-man. A plot device that is used in future issues....

All-in-all, a good read. Rating 8/10

Amazing Spider-man Annual #14 (1980)

by Denny O'Neil, Frank Miller and Tom Palmer

That's right, Famous Frank draws a 40 page Spidey story.

This is an odd issue.

When I first read this back in 1980 I remember being really disappointed. It was my first ever American Marvel Annual and although it had forty page story, it didn't feature any of Spidey's main villains, the art was quirky and the story a bit boring.

Well as a 39 year comic reader I think I can appreciate different things to a 13 year old. I can now see that FMs art is great and the story interesting if not action packed. It's a story involving magic and features Dr Strange and Doctor Doom although Doom isn't in it enough for my tastes. I like the fact that Doom gets double crossed but still ends on top - a sign of a great villain.

Its nice to see that my comic reading tastes have grown-up a bit.

Rating now - 8/10.

Crewe Alex 2 - 1 Oldham

A great performance today by the boys in red. We totally outclassed a team much higher up the league than us and if he had had our shooting boots on and the officials had been up to scratch then the score would have been more realistic.

I also found time to pop to the club shop and pick up a few bits.

Match report here.

The team is turning on the style for Dario's last few games in charge.

Heroes Chapter 10

This episode was entitled 6 months ago and fills in a few gaps and shows the heroes first using their powers. However, the important part of the story was the origin of Sylar.

Hmmm.

This series is getting better overall and, although this particular episode wasn't as good as Chapter 9. It was still very good.

Trip to Forbidden Planet

Things went well today and so I was able to pick up my comics from Forbidden Planet

Here's what I got:
Wolverine (2003) 52
Fantastic Four 544
Hulk 105
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man 19
Fallen Son: Wolverine 1
New Avengers 29
She-Hulk 17
Wolverine:Origins 13
Mighty Avengers 2
Squadron Supreme (2006): Hyperion vs Nighthawk 4
Avengers: The Initiative 1
Ms. Marvel (2006) 14


What I didn't pick up was the latest Daredevil trade: The Devil Inside and Out Vol 2.

£9.99 in the store compared to £6.78 on Amazon. Not hard to work that one out!

A Night of Fashion

There's no doubt Amazing Spider-man #209 by Denny O'Neil and Alan Weiss was a filler issue. It was a silly story featuring Kraven and his misses Calypso. By various ways and means she finally gets Kraven to face Spidey. It was a poor and rushed story not helped by Weiss' art which, in my opinion, is not suited to traditional comic-book style.

Rating 3/10

Of much better quality was Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man #47 and #48 by Roger Stern and Marie Severin. The villains in this two part story were the New Prowler and Belladona last seen in issue 43.

The Prowler is working for Belladona but gets the jitters when he accidentally kills a security guard in the process. Again, just like in the previous issues, Stern takes the time to develop his villains to make them more interesting. The relationship between 'donna and the Prowler was very nicely done. The pacing of the story was also just right. We get to see a few of the regular supporting characters including a happy-go-lucky Aunt May and there's a good cliffhanger linking the issues.

It's also worth noting that yet again that the Fashion villain Roderick Kingsley also features and more details of his past are revealed. I like the fact that this seemingly minor character can develop into a major player - The Hobgoblin.

Finally, I've said before that I didn't enjoy Marie Severin's art. Well these issues were a big improvement on those - probably aided by a fine inking job by Bruce Patterson.

Rating 8/10 for both issues.

Deadly is the Cobra

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-man #46 by Roger Stern and Mike Zeck

This is a great issue by Stern and Zeck and re-reading it now I just wish that Mike Zeck could have stayed on the title a bit longer.

Anyway, besides the strong art, it is Stern's excellent story which really makes this issue. I love it when he spends time developing the character of the villains, probably because they can be more interesting than the heroes. (DOOM for example!). (Sorry but "DOOM" has to be in caps.)

The Cobra is really a second string villain but the little touches that Stern takes the trouble to convey, such as telling Hyde that he can't help him escape as well from Rykers, go a long way to make him a more believable sort of character.

The fight with Spidey was also great as the Cobra tries all sorts of clever ways to try and defeat the web-slinger. This made the fight scenes far more interesting than normal.

A nice touch at the end was that the Cobra escaped from the police after Spidey had handed him over just as the Police Officer was complaining that Spidey had been interfering. Ha!

Good Frank Miller cover too. Rating 8/10.

Budding Heroes

The latest two episodes of Heroes on the Sci-Fi channel (Chapters 8 and 9) are really starting to reward my patience during the first few episodes. The story lines are really starting to interweave and a number of the Heroes are now working together.

In the second episode "Homecoming" Peter gets the opportunity to "Save the cheerleader, save the world" and face Sylar. Its good stuff and it was good to see this event played out reasonably early in the series.

I'm still enjoying all the bit's with Hiro in them but I'm warming to many of the other characters now. It's also good to see that other supporting characters (ie. not the original heroes) also playing important roles.

In a shock TV viewing move I've also just watched (in one week) all 5 parts in the latest series of "Monarchy by David Starkey". It's a history programme and not cult or geek TV. Goodness what's come over me?!

This particular series covered the reigns of Charles II to Victoria. This was really interesting for me as it is a period of history that I've little knowledge of at all. Starkey delivers the story in a clear and entertaining manner which I thoroughly enjoy.

It's just a shame that, with my sieve like memory, I won't remember much in a few months time!

Spider-man 1980 vintage!

Time for a break from current comics and back to reading some of my older Spidey comics. It's been some time since I've made time for this and it's nice to be back.

Amazing Spider-man #207 (AUG 1980) by Denny O'Neil and Jim Mooney probably isn't the greatest issue to begin with. It sort of just happened. In fact, not much happened. Spidey gets an offer from Mesmero to join his act (for money) but realises that he's up to no good ( murdering his critics) and so puts him down (in 2 pages). Not very exciting.

Average issue 5.5/10

Amazing Spider-man #208 was much better. This is because it was by Denny O'Neil and John Romita Jr. and is JR Jr's first work on Spidey I think. Although the story wasn't much better than #207, it is still cool seeing JR Jr's early artwork. I also really like his cover. It's a shame that some of it is spoilt by that big banner at the top!

Rating 7.5/10.

Episode 15 of Battlestar and LOST

I think LOST just about pipped BSG again this week - like it did last week.

The reason for this was because there was plenty of action on the island and not too much time spent on Kate's backstory.

It's nice to know that The Others don't completely understand what's going on either and it was also nice to see get one over Sawyer again (after the table tennis).

On BSG the episode continued the recent trend to concentrate on one or two of the characters rather than move the main story on. A bit of treading water before the season climax I guess.

Still it was an enjoyable episode which featured Tyrol and Cally and also Adama who was reflecting on his wedding anniversary. It seems marriage and coping with its ups and downs has featured a few times this season.

European Success

I always want English teams to do well in Europe, whoever they are, and so, even though I'm not a supporter of any of the clubs involved, I'm very pleased to see three English sides in the Champions League semi-finals.

I watched Man Utd's superb performance against AC Roma and it was a fantastic victory 7-1.

Liverpool had done enough the week before to make the second leg at Anfield a non-event but Chelsea again did very well to overcome Valencia even if it wasn't with the same style as Utd.

I predict that both Utd and Chelsea will progress to the final and, if so, it will be a game with even more of an edge as one will have just beaten the other to the Premiership crown.

On another Sporting note, the England cricket team are really struggling in the World Cup. It's hard work watching them even scrape a win against Bangladesh.

At last. Captain America #25!!

Well I'm now up-to-date with Captain America having just completed "Red Menace" Vols 1 (by Ed Brubaker Mike Perkins) and 2 and issue #25 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. It's good stuff too.

Red Menace was a great fast moving adventure and reprints issues 15-21 of the current series.

In volume 1, Crossbones and Sin, the Red Skull's daughter, leave a high body count as they cross the US to try to find out who killed the Skull. At the same time, Cap and Agent 13 are on the hunt for Bucky. The two groups nearly meet up in a small town in Iowa but Sin and Crossbones manage to escape with the vital information that Lukin was responsible for the death of the skull. Little do they know that the Red Skull has a special relationship with Lukin!

Thus in Volume 2 everybody heads off to London where Lukin's corporation ( he's taken over Roxxon no less) is opening a new office with a spectacular opening ceremony. Crossbones and Sin are there to get to Lukin but Cap and Agent 13 are also after him. Lukin, on the other hand, has audacious plans for a huge act of terrorism.

As it was set in London it was nice to see Cap teaming-up again with Union Jack and Spitfire in a really exciting adventure.

Although I've missed out issues 22-24, I still had to read (the infamous) issue 25.

Despite all the hype etc it was a really good read and I was still genuinely shocked at the end. Having read the previous issues it was good to still how Lukin, Sin and Crossbones fitted into the story and you could see that Brubaker had been planning something like this for a bit.

I certainly haven't been disappointed in any of his Captain America stories and am looking forward to getting Cap regularly each month.

The next Daredevil trade is due later this month too. Yay!

A Comfortable Victory

Crewe Alex 3 - 1 Brentford

I saw the Alex claim an easy win yesterday and condemn Brentford to League 2 at the same time. For a change all three Alex goals were good and it was nice to relax a bit whilst watching the game knowing that victory was assured.

Match report here.

Only 2 more home games this season. Our opponents for those matches should give us a sterner test.

LOST and BSG

Battlestar Galactica was actually beaten by LOST this week. The episode was only an average one (relatively speaking as the series is of generally high quality) but it was only the sub-plots which were touched upon which moved the overall story forward.

The main story centred on Halo and an epidemic amongst the refugees that he's been assigned to oversee. However, the Sagittatons don't believe in medicine which makes treatment a bit difficult. I was reminded of a Babylon 5 episode which also had an element of religious medical ethics in the plot although in this instance the disease was more wide scale. Fortunately, the story moved in a different direction to that of the B5 episode. I'm also hoping that the resolution, and Halo's ultimate victory will be used in later episodes.

LOST though was more interesting and entertaining. Yet again no Jack, but lots of Sawyer and Hurley. Also the clever story was about two of the survivors we've not seen much off, Nicky and Paulo. I'm not keeping old episodes of LOST and this was the first time that I wish I could go back and watch a few because the backstory of Nicky and Paulo included many references to previous episodes including the very first. It was pretty cool.

On the whole it was a very good episode even if it didn't move the main story on much.

I also got X-Files season 9 box-set today. As the saying goes "That completes my order". Now I just have to find some time to watch them.

Captain America: Winter Soldier

I've just completed reading this Captain America story which ran from issue 1 to 14 of the recent series. It was written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Steve Epting. It was collected into 2 volumes which I obtained even before Cap's assassination in issue 25 mainly on the strength that it was written by Brubaker whose Daredevil stories I was very impressed with.

I was also aware that this story itself was very controversial with the return of Bucky as the Winter Soldier.

Bucky was Cap's partner from World War 2 who had died in action. Unlike most comic characters, Bucky had stayed dead and, in fact, most comic creators referred to characters who stayed dead as "Bucky dead" because it was accepted that he was, in fact, dead.

Not anymore, Brubaker has come up with a story that not only brings him back (doesn't bother me as I'm not a particular fan of Cap's WWII adventures) but does it in such a way so he gets away with it. There was no fan backlash and, in fact, fans loved it.

It is a great story with perhaps the biggest surprise for me was the death of the Red Skull at the end of issue 1. But he'll probably come back so don't shed any tears.

I enjoyed the pace of this story and, maybe, reading it in collected format helped towards this. The slow build-up to the inevitable confrontation was very well done. Recommended.

The Greatest Sci-Fi film ever?

Spotted this interesting item on BBC News yesterday.

Joss Whedon's "Serenity" beat "Star Wars" into second place in a poll of SFX magazine readers.

There is no doubt that it's a fantastic film but I don't know whether it's better than SW or Empire (which is a better all round film) for that matter. I can't see it having the same impact as the Star Wars films where people can quote or reference them at will and everybody knows what they're talking about.

For me I'll have to see how many times I put it on the DVD player before I make a judgement.

Talking of Sci-Fi movies, I managed to watch "The Island" on Saturday night. I really enjoyed it. There was some good action sequences, some good dialogue, a cliched but well presented concept and some good performances. Sorry I had to smile when Ewan McGregor did some Obi Wan moments but if you take this film as mindless blockbuster entertainment, it ticks all the boxes for a couple hours.

The film has apparently got a reputation as having one of the best car chases ever filmed and I must say it was rather good. However, it was difficult to believe that the heroes could fall off a skyscraper without a scratch!

This weeks TV

Baltar shines in the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica which for some reason takes its title from a line from "Cheers" themesong "Taking a break from all your worries" but I couldn't see the connection. The two story lines this week are Baltar being interrogated for Cylon secrets and Apollo and Starbuck's martial woes. The Baltar bit was by far the best.

Well we know he's not a Cylon but we also know he doesn't know who the final five are. Could Gaeta really be one? What was said between them?

Another good episode.

Heroes was also good. Most of the characters storylines moved on. Although Hiro made an all too brief appearance, in a way that's not a bad thing as I want to get interested in the other character's stories. Matt again gets to help the FBI on a potential Sylar case and the press interest in Nathan's family cause's friction as his escapades in Vegas threaten to be revealed.

It's actually a few days since I watched LOST but I still remember it being a good episode too. Locke's accident was revealed in the backstory and you got to feel a little sorry for him. However, on the island he proves to be bloody minded (a la Jack) and goes and makes a decision which everyone else will be really pissed off about.