Road Trip!

Im on my yearly trip to montana. This year i decided to drive, since plane tickets were pretty high and dog sitters cost more than intensive care nurses. So, Bodi and i hopped in the truck and took off. This is the first big trip for Bodi, she did ok but i think she was worried i was taking her to the desert........for a long time.

Batman, with a twist!

Sometimes I am dense. I've never been good at mysteries, or riddles, or chess really. I don't see ahead well enough. Today was just more evidence of that. 

I finally got around to reading Batman #10. I had heard Scott Snyder talking about a big "reveal" in this issue, and I was excited, but I didn't really give it much thought. I don't like trying to "figure things out" ahead of time. I'd rather enjoy the surprise. 

Well, Batman definitely surprised me. I should have known it. It seems so easy. A few weeks ago I wrote about another issue of Batman, one in which the Court of Owls assassins succeeded in killing the mayoral candidate, Lincoln March. I was shocked and a little depressed by this. I really thought there was something more to Lincoln. Why was he being introduced? Why did he look so similar to Bruce Wayne? Why did he die so easily? Well, all questions are now answered. 

Snyder has been pulling out some pretty dark secrets in his run on Batman. The Wayne family isn't as squeaky clean as we've always been led to believe. In this issue, Batman goes after the one person responsible for all of the chaos caused by Owl Talons running amok in Gotham. What he finds is a surprise even to him. Lincoln March isn't dead. He's been brought back to "life" by ingesting Mr. Freeze's living dead serum. March is breaking away from the Owls. He's figured out that the Owl's were trying to turn on him so he struck first. What Batman doesn't understand is that Lincoln March also has a BIG beef with him. A classic case of sibling rivalry, especially when we all realize that Lincoln Marc, aka Thomas Wayne Jr., was given up and forgotten as a newborn. So while Bruce was brought up in a loving environment, given everything he could ever want or need, Thomas was tucked away in what essentially became an mental institution, full of abuse and neglect. Thomas has a bone or two to pick with Master Bruce. 

What makes me feel even slower, is that DC announced a series of #0 issues recently. As I looked through the previews I noticed that there is going to be a new book starting, taking a character from the Court of Owls storyline. Immediately I thought, "Jeeeez, how silly is that?". DC was already trying to cash in on the success of the first big "event" of one of their books. I didn't plan on buying the new book, Talon. 

Well, that might change. My guess is that Lincoln March, Thomas Wayne Jr., will be starring in his own book soon. Hopefully this will add some tension to the bat-books, as there will be a new playa in town. March is neither bad, nor good, he's outside of everything. The Court of Owls will be after him, as well as Batman and the Gotham authorities. This adds a great balance to the Gotham world. All this, and Batman hasn't really introduced any of the classic villains yet. More good to come. 

Prometheus!!

Yesterday I finally got the chance to see Prometheus. Right before the movie started I think I realized that although my interests are varied; comics, superheroes, fantasy, D&D, my true love is science fiction. Good science fiction. Maybe thats because I was born the day the first man landed on the moon, maybe not. Regardless, I like science fiction because its limitless. You can imagine anything being possible. So with that thought in mind, I was ready for an amazing science fiction movie.

The movie itself was good. Visually it was amazing. The scene where the ship Prometheus was descending onto the planet's surface was beautiful. An almost identical scene, except reversed, showed up at the end of the movie as Dr. Shaw takes off in an alien vessel and leaves the planet. Nice touch. This movie was a subdued prequel to Alien, or at least it used some of the key points in as a framework. One difference in this film was the heavy reliance on H.R. Giger's work. Giger is one of my favorite artists and his designs were some of the basis for the original movie, although they sort of remained in the background. In Prometheus, Giger is everywhere, they celebrate his work. I thought that was a good choice, as his work is sometimes overlooked because of it's gruesomeness. They even went so far as to "steal" from his other movie work, most notably "Dune". The tombs on the alien planet were actually designs for Spice Carriers on Arrakis.

The story is taking a while to sink in. Maybe thats by design, maybe I'm just dense or overthinking it. I really liked the opening scenes, where you flyover a desolate, volcanic landscape, only to focus on a strangely human figure performing some sort of suicidal ritual. Lot's of symbolism. My thought was that he sacrificed himself in order to create mankind. A "God", killing himself, so that a lesser race may evolve. Very fitting. From there we jump from a quick archaeological find to outer space, in a ship full of hibernating crew members save for the creepiest android every created.

I hated David, the android. I immediately had the sense that I wanted him destroyed. He was different, quirky, creepy, arrogant (which is strange because of an android's lack of emotion), and carried a tinge of English mannerisms that bordered on being dandy. His calm, cool, demeanor in any situation gave him a sense of being dangerous, which he ultimately ended up being, or was he? One BIG question, was how he seemed to have pre-knowledge of the alien WMD virus. It seemed like he knew what the alien vases contained, and used it specifically to poison one of the crew. Strategically knowing that he would then sleep with Dr. Shaw, and thus impregnate her, spawning the first facehugger. I don't know, plenty of questions.

I did some research on Prometheus, just to get some perspective. Yes, he gave fire to humans, but did you know that he was responsible for CREATING humans, out of clay? Not Zeus, Prometheus. He was a champion of humankind. He stole and manipulated the Gods in order to help humans. For this he was punished. He was chained to a mountain (the chains were made of adamantium, yes, Wolverine adamantium) only to have an eagle perch on him everyday and eat his liver. Each day was torment and pain as his liver grew back, only to be eaten again the next day, and the next. Why was Zeus so angry? Without humans, Zeus would never have had any fun. In the story, Prometheus is doubly used. It is the name of the ship the humans use to find the planet. It is also inferred that the "Aliens" are our creators, thus, Prometheus. So many more questions.

For example, the Aliens are destroyed by a virus that they had engineered to destroy mankind. Why? That question is left unanswered, apparently opening the door to another movie. But this doesn't fit with the Greek mythology. Why would our creators turn on their creations. Even more strange is that the Creators left clues as to where to find them and their WMDs. Only when humans were advanced enough to travel to the stars would their destruction be necessary. Why? Why would the Creators set their creations up for ultimate failure? The virus is also interesting. It destroys but also creates. It is a recycling mechanism, it kills but it brings life. The original Alien that sacrificed himself, broke down into DNA, that supposedly mixed with whatever else was in the environment to create humans. In the scene, it happens in a waterfall, then you see the DNA swirling around in the mud. CLAY? A reference to the original story? Possibly. In the end, the sole surviving Creator alien turns out to be a dick and kills anything human in arms reach. He's angry. Not nice. It was like he met his illegitimate stepchild for the first time and wanted to get rid of the evidence. He gets his in the end as a strange, Cthulhu-esque creature gets its tentacles on him and implants it's alien seed. As it lays there, dead on the floor, we see a version of the "Alien" alien burst through it's chest. This was sort of a problem though, as it didn't appear as a chest-burster a la the "Alien" series, but came out fully formed, although slightly stylized. Was this meant to explain the original "Space Jockey" from the first "Alien" movie? If so, the setting is completely wrong. He should of been sitting in his navigator chair, not on the floor of some lifepod. Misinformation that doesn't jive with the first movie.

Overall, a good movie, some great visuals, and some huge questions. Not a "10", but a really good scifi movie that didn't rely on cliche storylines. Maybe the bonus is that we get another set of movies that tells the rest of the story. I hope so.

Oh, one more thing. Charlize Theron ended up having a minor role in the movie. She started out power-beeeyotch, but ended up being a crybaby and running away. So be it. Who cares? Charlize Theron looks good in ANY movie you put her in. Period.

Surprise Event

It's funny how fast your mind notices things that are out of place. Last night I slept on the trampoline outside. For me it's sort of like a mini camping trip, a closet adventure. It's still cool outside at night and I want to take advantage of that before REAL summer hits and its still 95 at night. As it is, I can lay on the trampoline, stare at the stars, and need a sleeping bag to feel comfortable.

Last night, I got comfy, read a little, then decided to hit the sack. Right before I closed my eyes I looked at the moon and thought "supermoon" as it was just about a month ago and last night the moon was full.

Well, around 330-4 am, I woke up. I needed to go to the bathroom. I sat up, a little blurry eyed, and got my bearings. There didn't seem to be as many stars in the sky, I looked real close to see if it was cloudy, it was not. Then I saw the moon, or at least, I saw part of the moon. Again I kept trying to see if there were random clouds hovering in front of it, but didn't see any. I kept staring because it didn't seem right. When I went to bed it was full, round, and bright. Now it there was a bite taken out of the bottom quarter of it. The bite was round and made a perfect arc. Then the gears in my head started turning and I thought to myself, "the sun will be coming up from directly behind me...."

LUNAR ECLIPSE! Very cool. Even more because I didn't know it was going to happen. Total surprise.

Death of a Friend

Last night I lost a friend. I've only known him for about a year, and lately, I haven't spent a lot of time with him, but he was dear to my heart. What makes his death even harder to stomach is the manner in which he died, a horribly violent death. It pains me to even speak about it.

Knand al-Shalabi was a wanderer. He came from the barren deserts of the East, but had managed to find his way to "civilization" in hopes of finding a better life. Not the most graceful of people, Knand used what talents he had in order to get by. What he lacked in social graces, he made up for in loyalty. That loyalty is most likely the reason for his demise.

Knand wasn't my first character, in fact, he wasn't even a character that I created. Knand was a third rate henchman, found naked and sweaty, rotting in a cage high above a dark cavern. He was rescued by Hanuman, after making a greedy pick from the Deck of Many Things; DONJON: Imprisoned. To show his thanks to Hanuman, Knand swore loyalty to the monk and promised to follow and protect him at any turn. In reality, Knand most likely had no choice anyway and figured he could earn a free meal ticket by hooking up with Hanuman. But let's not split hairs, Knand's decision will be remembered as noble.

After many adventures, Knand sort of became my most beloved red headed step child. He was a henchman, a hired hand, but of my three characters, I felt Knand had the most personality. He was gruff, greasy, and unmannered. He made selfish decisions and blundered through any adventure he was in. He progressed slowly compared to the other characters, but that didn't stop him from jumping into any fray (or running away at the first sign of danger). Probably his most memorable moment was blowing the surprise attack that Hanuman had devised in order to escape an evil cult. Knand slipped and fell out of a boat, just as Hanuman was sneaking up on a pair of guards, blowing his cover, and ultimately getting them both captured and imprisoned, again. Last night topped that, in spades.

The above picture illustrates the epic sequence of events that led to Knand's horrible death. Knand, brave Knand, had entered the fight against some vicious gargoyles. Putting himself in harm's way, be went toe to toe, taking a lot of damage from the beast. So much, that he went negative, on the verge of death, stunned by an attack from the stony creature. Thats when Hanuman stepped in to help. With all of his martial arts training, you would think that a 6th level monk would be quite accurate with his blows. Thats not true when I'm rolling the dice. As you can see, the two black 20 sides above came up snake eyes, TWICE. This isn't the first time I've done this, in fact I had already done it earlier in the night. So, fumbling, Hanuman rolled on the critical miss chart, a 7. Seven ended up being a broken bone. Basically, Hanuman pulled a spinning backfist, completely missing the gargoyle, hitting Knand, who was standing there, stunned, with -2 hit points, basically standing dead anyway. I rolled the big "body part" die, before I did, I asked Jim jokingly, "Hey, is there a 'head' on this die", not knowing how horribly prophetic that would end up being. Of course, I rolled 'head', another perfectly bad roll. This meant I had broken Knand's skull. How broken you ask? MAXIMUM DAMAGE! Hanuman rolled the d12 for damage, rolled a 12, and added 2 for strength. Crushing blow, destroying Knand's face in a spray of blood and gray matter. Absolutely not coming back from that.

Slumping over in a mound of grease and gore, Knand fell lifelessly to the ground. Hanuman completed the move with a powerful KI-AIIIII!!! before realizing what he had done. The party was silent. There was nothing to be said. Knand lived his life proudly, selfishly, for himself. He enjoyed cheap ale and loose women, although the latter didn't enjoy him. He had no aspirations beyond today, he lived life moment to moment. We can only hope that he now rests with a harem of 999 virgins in the cloudy heavens of paradise above. Knand, we will miss you.

Breaking Lent

For Lent this year I gave up beer. Seemed like a good thing to do. I pretty much made it, except for the week my friend Jeff came down from Colorado and we ended up drinking like fish. But, after he left, back on the wagon I went. You know, I never realized how long the Easter season really was. I figured a month was a general length, but then it went on for a couple more weeks. Anyway, once I was on the wagon, there wasn't much reason to jump back off. Things have been pretty slow, my friend Todd had a nasty night out at a bachelor party and his wife basically banned him from drinking. So, I haven't really drank since Lent.

Today I found this little gem. I love Shiner Bock ever since I took a trip to San Antonio. Its good stuff, but really, all I've ever had is the "regular" flavor. This goldmine has all of the different types that Shiner brews and apparently the only way you can get the "Kosmos". Reason enough for me.

Nerdvana! Phoenix Comicon

Memorial Day is usually spent camping or having friends over for a bar-b-q. For some odd reason, the organizers of the Phoenix Comicon decided that it would also be a great weekend for a convention. Seems like that was a good idea.

I had thought about going for a while, but I didn't really have anyone to go with, plus it started on Thursday night, graduation, so there were some conflicting schedules. Instead I had planned on hiking Rogers Canyon since the weather was supposed to be unnaturally cool, 80s. At the last minute, some family friends called, wanting to know if Molly and I would want to go to the comic book convention. Hmmm, of course we would.

I haven't been to a convention for a long time. The last one I went to was a Star Trek convention and Leonard Nimoy was the star guest. This weekend THE ultimate guest, William Shatner was appearing, but, I didn't feel like spending 500$ just to sit and chat with the captain. Plenty of other stars were there too, since it is the 15th anniversary of the Next Generation, but really, we were more interested in the artists.

This was Molly's first time and she was a little hesitant. BUT, the minute we walked in, a sea of people, most in costume, changed her mind pretty quickly. Everywhere you looked; super heroes, star wars characters, Doctor Who, and just some weird people in general, all geeked up to be there.

Once we plotted our course though, we had a blast. We met a few artists, went to a debate about whether zombies were fast or slow, gawked at people wearing "inappropriate" costumes (molly shaded my eyes a few times), and picked up a few freebies.

Two high points: Molly "commissioned" her first sketch from an artist, Tom Hodges. He works on Star Wars animated series and webcomics. He does some awesome stuff. Molly liked his style and he drew a wide variety of characters. She asked for Thor, her favorite character, and got it. On the second say we went to listen to Steve Rude "The Dude". Steve's an interesting character. He lives in Phoenix, is mildly famous in comic circles, and has been in trouble with the law, namely Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Anyway, he was doing a talk on drawing dynamic figures. Molly grabbed front row seats and we got comfy. First he drew a generic "Kirby" figure to illustrate basic dynamics. Next he took a simple line drawing of Snow White and added "embellishments". He made a simple figure into a wonderfully shaded portrait. At the end, he said, "Well, I'll have to give this away, but there are two little girls in the audience. What should I do? Who likes Snow White?" Molly started giggling. So he handed her the Snow White and gave the Kirby copy to the other girl. COOL!

In all, it was a great time. Molly had a blast and wants to go again. It was a great way to spend the weekend. I picked up a cool Batman print from Scott Godlewski, Molly got a couple of other small sketches. Next time their in town, we'll check it out.