Well, Messiah Complex and the first arc of Brand New Day have ended now, so I think it's time for another comics post.

Messiah Complex started slowly, but the weekly shipping schedule, combined with its use of four books' regular casts, meant it didn't drag too badly. By about halfway through, stuffs had really started to happen. The ending shakes up the status quo a lot ( spoiler ). But we've seen that sort of thing before, so as to whether the new status quo will stick, or whether they'll get the band back together again in the next few months, we'll see. Uncanny 500 is out soon, which they'll want to do something important for. Overall, it gets my thumbs up. I don't think it would work as a standalone thing though, as it heavily ties into recent X-Men and New X-Men arcs and probably needs them to make sense. One can easily read it without following X-Factor or Uncanny X-Men, though.

Astonishing #24 was also out. This doesn't resolve the current arc, damn him, which will instead be resolved in Giant-Sized Astonishing #1. It looks, given CENSORED, that the second half of Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men fits between "Blinded By The Light" and "Messiah Complex", and the curious CENSORED of CENSORED in "Messiah Complex" makes it look much more likely that Joss is going to CENSORED or at least CENSORED CENSORED. The bastard.

Now One More Day has reset the clock on Spider-Man's character growth, Brand New Day has picked up the reins. I can't really put it better than this does (read the wording carefully especially at the bottom).

went to b-movie this evening, for the first time for ages (last time i went was the first time in the new venue... when was that?). ignoring the result of my poll, i went as Nocturne, which involved being blue, wearing pointy ears, and an x-men costume (lots of blue and yellow). much fun. i was accompanied by landvaettir, who was dressed as Midnighter, from The Authority, in a really awesome mask and appropiate logo. more people recognised Midnighter (several) than Nocturne (none), but I suppose that's what you get for dressing up as a character from Exiles or New Excalibur not too many other people in capes, but we spotted a Batgirl, a couple of Vs, and someone who, to be fair, it was unclear whether was actually dressed up as the Punisher or was merely wearing a Punisher t-shirt, but anyway.

some people actually took photos of me this time, unlike last year when i was green. huzzah.

work is good. the area around leicester square appears curiously unmapped so have been doing stuffs there. holborn was better for sandwich shops (or possibly i've just not explored deep enough into the twisty backstreets of soho... we'll see)

i got buffy season 8 #1 today! ( spoiler ) also i have finished volume 1 of Top Ten finally, and am started on volume 2. this is being quite entertaining, but not especially brilliant.

started reading comic adaption of Anita Blake (another regular series, eep, this is now up to 7 or something now. oh dear). very pretty. i want one!

also reading Transmetropolitan. like. feel no desire to have a spider jerusalem, though.

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There is a currently a vast debate raging in Star Trek fandom, about whether to change Kirk's middle initial. In the pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", a gravestone clearly shows his middle initial as "R". But as any fool knows, it is "Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise". The folks who are doing remastered SFX can fix this, no problem, but they're not sure they want to. My solution: change it to "X". "James X. Kirk" sounds so much more spacey, does it not? Also, on a gravestone it is a pun!

The real question is, will they be able to make a more realistic looking CGI toupee for the movies?

A Quantum Murder by Peter F. Hamilton. Didn't like this as much as Mindstar Rising. It had narrative exposition which was pretty clumsy having read the other book immediately beforehand : and it doesn't really offer anything new in terms of speculation. The core mystery/whodunnit was well-executed. I shall read the third book in the trilogy, The Nano Flower at some point. probably leaving a bit longer in between this time.

Spike graphic novel thingy: Three one-shots. First one was good, second one had one particularly jarring section that didn't really work for me. Third one was rather entertaining.

The Difference Engine by Sterling and Gibson. I am reading this at the moment, not very far in. Is good. Amused by pun in title (it's really talking about the analytical engine, but of course it made a difference... or it could just be a mistake). Liked cameo of Disraeli.

Must read more steampunk : it is after all a thematic influence on the mud (the idea being that the mud has what would usually in SF be considered anachronistically early space travel, whilst keeping computers and AI crap, along with colonial empires/Scramble for the Stars et al - 2300 AD does the same setup but in a different way by having a devastating nuclear war in between, and tends towards more cyber stuff which i was trying to avoid. 2300 AD (or its predessor, Traveller, I forget which) was apparently also a major influence on Elite/Frontier, so i am in good company), but I was never well read in it.

In my queue are: Lullaby, Neverwhere, Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained. Suggestions welcome.

oh, and i decided what my novel is going to be. i just need to write it now. when is nanowrimo?

fun evening in pub with lots of goffics. hello fuzzygoth person

seem to be in comic book movie mode for the moment. watched Return to the Batcave this afternoon, which is a tv movie made in 2003 which features Adam West and Burt Ward playing themselves but in a kind of distorted reality. they pursue the thieves of the Batmobile. Very very weird indeed. Possibly one to avoid when on drugs.

saw x-men 3 with darkstream and cyniborg, very entertaining. reading about it now, very annoyed didn't stay past credits, since there is a way cool sequence there. drunk. etc.