Loki… SECRETS!

I got yer Norn Stones right here.

secret…

My proudest moment to date would have to be winning a local day-time Emmy for hard hitting investigative reporting into corrupt Asgardians.

Secret…

Asgardian hair is made of what you mortals call “cotton candy.” It’s delicious.

SECRET…

Sure I tricked Thor to turn into a woman and a frog, and I convinced Odin to banish him to Earth, but I’m most proud of the time I tricked Thor into getting a job at Burger King. “Verily thou hast had it thine way!”

SECRET…

Embarrassing trends and goofy turns of phrase have always been my specialty.

SECRETS!

Game Tape

And now it’s time for another Game Tape… the continuing story of a comic buyer gone to the dogs. Or something like that.

This time around we’re going in alphabetical order…no good reason. No bad reason for that matter.

Action Comics #891 would have been much more enjoyable if I hadn’t seen “Inception” last week. Mr. Mind’s “son” plays a frantic DiCaprio here. Lex Luthor being who he is, the story ends as it has to, but there’s still the mysterious hand behind this manipulation. That’s not to say that the book is dull. Going through it was quite a bit of fun. The down side is that it feels like more should have happened than actually did.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love time travel stories. Time travel is the one scientific conceit that is guaranteed to get my engines going. Fantastic Four #581 fired on all four cylinders. A minor mystery is resolved and Reed goes to college. Thanks to his dad, he gets a heady education. Mr. Hickman, continue the good work.

Secret Avengers #3 was a little muddled. It’s a middle part issue that isn’t too bad, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly good either. The crown business is sort of making more sense, and they’ve thrown in alternate dimensional travel to boot. Anyway, I’m still enjoying this most of the new Avengers books. As a side note, alternate dimensional travel is not nearly as interesting as time travel for me…although theoretically they’re the same thing.

Speaking of the theoretical, I should theoretically be enjoying Thor: The Mighty Avenger. It’s written by Roger Langridge. In practice, it feels like a Year One story without much meat to it. It’s curious because there is no Donald Blake, but there’s a Thor and there’s a Jane Foster. On reflection, this is really more of a Jane Foster story. It’s just sort of boring; I certainly didn’t expect that from Langridge. The first issue was decent, but heartless. This week’s second issue drags down.

In the Also Ran category are Buzzard #2, Muppet Show #8, Batman, Return of Bruce Wayne #5, and Bill Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM!

Random Links For Your Weekend

• The Cub Scouts now have a video gaming award.  What now?
  
• Super Mario Brothers Crossover.  I can’t believe something this cool is real.
• Chris Sims has a really excellent (and serious) piece on race and nostalgia in comics.  I wouldn’t have thought to tie them together, but this is quite thought-provoking.
• Comic-Con International is thinking about moving from San Diego.  I can’t speak to his comments about L.A. or “Hollywood producers,” but otherwise I think Steven Grant’s analysis is dead-on.  I’m with him: San Diego is the brand, not CCI.  The other pertinent question is “How many people can attend before the con becomes a chaotic mess?  And my answer to that is “What was the attendance 5 years ago?”
  
• At this point you must have seen it already, but we’ll leave you with this photo from the new Thor movie.  Wow!

Superhero Secrets

In my profession we have a morally dubious rule, but it is taught to us early in our training: steal often and steal from the best. With that in mind I’m stealing one of my favorite sketches from Conan O’Brien. Just scroll over the images to begin the larceny!

JARVIS: SECRETS!

SECRETS

SECRETS

SECRETS

SECRETS!