The Gold Standard #14

Columns, Top Story

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Hello faithful readers! It’s time for week number fourteen of the Standard! Can you believe it? Fourteen weeks! It feels like only yesterday I was biting my nails hoping that I’d be able to get the job writing her, and panicing that Manolis hated my writing (when the reality is that he was just busy :P ), and now here I am, almost four months later with no end in sight! Freaking awesome!

Now I’m going to start off by saying that this is going to be among my shorter columns, as it’s been a hell of a week for me. I went to Boston for the weekend for my cousin’s wedding, so I was without net for about three days, than came back sick so I’ve been incapacitated for the last two. So here I sit, my clock telling me that it’s already Tuesday, and I refuse to go to bed until I give you guys what you want! This is what I love to do, and despite feeling absolutely horrible, this is what I want to do right now. I want to write.

Did a lot of reading this week, though three days locked in a hotel room is enough to get me through just about any book. Read the complete Nextwave, JLA Deluxe Edition v.1, Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes, the first four volumes of Manhunter, and capped it off with Formerly Known as the Justice League. It was worth it. It was so completely worth it. I also watched Pineapple Express on hotel PPV for $12.99, which was me and my cousin saying “Screw you!” to our grandma and his mom for not letting us take the keys to the rental car when we were in Boston, on a Friday night, at ten freaking pm! Not cool! I’m going to be twenty-four in February, and I have insomnia, ten pm lock in is TORTURE!

Know what else is crazy? A sixteen dollar cheeseburger. I still can’t wrap my mind around that.

Oh well, at least I know how to get weed through airport security.

Wait, what, did I just say that? No, no I didn’t. I’m not that kind of a guy.

Alright, so I am, so what? Wanna fight about it?

No? You’d rather hear me talk about my love of ragging on Spider-Man? I can do that.

Extra extra! Read all about it! Jackpot is the most worthless swerve ever! A Mary Jane look alike hopped up on MGH and using someone else’s registered identity! Who wants their money back? Not me! I never bought the crap!

Just like how I didn’t need to buy Ultimatum to marvel at how Jeph Loeb is at his best when he’s randomly killing thousands in an instant, because then the only characterization he needs is how the bodies float around under the water.

On that note, how about his removal from Heroes? Maybe the show will get better? Then again, I absolutely loved this week’s episode and how they managed to piece things together. It’s fun that with a show that uses as much time travel and flashbacks as Heroes does is able to do so without tons of needless retcons. The writers are actually making a point to have the stories maintain coherence, and that the trips to the past build on what’s been established rather than carving out new things that completely contradict what’s come before.

I wish I could have the same complaint with The Simpsons, but if they don’t want the characters to age, then stories are going to keep contradicting each other left and right for as long as they try and use the way back machine to tell flashback stories. They’ve explored every avenue back there, and now they’re just over writing classic episodes in favor of new ones that lack the quality of old. And that’s not just pure nostalgia, as if they managed a good flashback episode that didn’t completely ruin something else, I would enjoy it.

I also saw Bender’s Game this week, the new Futurama movie, and it’s the best one yet! I miss this show like nothing else, so I sit on the edge of my seat awaiting these movies to come out, and I wait intently for final confirmation that I will be receiving new episodes of this amazing show. It’s wonderful to see that after all the time off after cancellation, and before the movies, that the writing has only gotten better. Bender’s Big Score might have felt a bit rusty, but they’re back in the swing of things now. Such an amazing show, and such an amazing thing that it’s back!

Pineapple Express was also a lot of fun, and I’m still a fan of Seth Rogen despite him being in everything since Knocked Up came out. He’s a funny guy, and he’s got good delivery to go with the fact that he looks like your average joe. I find him to be a believable character in most everything just because of that, he doesn’t look like a famous movie star that just happens to be playing a role, he looks like some average schmuck you’ll have a drink with at a bar, and that works perfect for him. It’s a unique look and persona in a land of crazy assholes like Tom Cruise.

Final Crisis: Resist was a real treat this week, as I’d been complaining about how much I missed the Greg Rucka Checkmate, and then bam, here we go, Rucka and Trautman writing Checkmate during Final Crisis, and with gorgeous Ryan Sook art to make it even better! An amazing story that reminded me of why Rucka should have never left Checkmate, as well as why I would love to see him pen a Mr. Terrific solo series.

Hey DC! Read that! Take note! Mr. Terrific by Greg Rucka! It will sell because fans appreciate a well written book!

Also nice to see the real Guardian back in action, not to knock on Morrison’s Manhattan version, but any version of Jim Harper is what I expect to see when I see the name “Guardian” gracing a comic character. Maybe that’s just because I grew up in the nineties though, where Guardian and CADMUS were everywhere. I like that, it was fun and happy and made sense. Yay for the triangle numbers!

But right now I’m starting to feel my NyQuil kicking in, so I’m about to send this off for edits and hit the sack, but not before I go into one last thing.

Last Tuesday the American people went to vote, and they spoke in favor of change. Forty years ago a man had a dream about equality, and how the color of someone’s skin should have no influence on the way they are treated. He spoke about how everyone is equal, just as our forefathers did. Last week the glass ceiling was shattered, and America truly once again became the land of opportunity. An Illinois senator named Barack Hussein Obama won a landslide election over Republican candidate John McCain, and on January 20th, 2009 he will be sworn into office as the 44th President of the United States. I am proud of my country for making the right decision, and happy that not only do I get to see this happen in my lifetime, but that I get to see it so early.

The sky is the limit, and the future is wide open with possibilities, and it’s an exciting time to be alive. Things are changing, and I can only see the good in front of us as I think of how things are going.

President Barack Obama. Change we need.

The Gold Standard

What I read this week:

  • Adventure Comics Special: The Guardian
  • Authority
  • Final Crisis: Resist
  • JSA
  • Secret Six
  • Avengers Initiative Special
  • Cable
  • Invincible Iron Man
  • X-Men: Pixies and Demons
  • X-Men/Spider-Man

Best of the Week:

  1. Final Crisis: Resist
  2. Secret Six
  3. Avengers: The Initiative Special

What I watched:

  • Sarah Connor
  • Entourage
  • Dexter
  • Heroes
  • South Park
  • Saturday Night Live
  • Family Guy
  • American Dad

States I’ve been to comic shops in:

  • Missouri
  • Illinois
  • California
  • Florida
  • New York
  • Massachusetts
A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.