Nobody's complaining about comic books having a negative influence because, quite frankly, comic books don't have any influence at all.
It's a good thing that a lot of the really juicy stuff is too low on the radar screens at this crucial moment. Can you imagine the Moral Minority wailing about the "yellow peril" of Japanese animation? Or even the REALLy evil games (Like Warhammer 40K: Humanity is ruled by an immortal, psychic emperor who consumes hundreds of living souls to survive. And this is the leader of the GOOD guys). Urotsukidoji would probably cause Pat Robertson to spontaneously combust (which would not necessarily be a bad thing). There's a certain comfort level that comes from being irrelevant. At least, there is until all the more high-profile targets are ground under the heels of Right-Thinking Humanity.
I grow daily more unimpressed by the American system of government. It wasn't so bad when the two parties at least were at opposite ends of the spectrum. Democrats were Big Government. Republicans were Little Government. This is still essentially true... Essentially. But both parties would dearly love to engage in a good bit of thought control. They both have lists of things they won't allow you to think; but let's face it, at least the Republicans are honest about this.
I used to be a Democrat, since I came from a nice Democrat family. But lately I'm not so sure. When did the Democrats move from protecting us from each other into protecting us from ourselves? I don't want to be protected from myself. It's my Insert Diety Of Choice Here-Given right to do incredibly stupid things, and if nobody else is hurt by it then quite frankly it's none of their damn business. But the Democrats don't agree with this, and never have. By god, everyone should behave like right-thinking citizens, and if this means 24/7 observation then that's what we'll have to start implementing.
At least the Republicans have a higher percentage of non-idiots. They also have a higher percentage of assholes, but I guess it comes down to -- would you rather have an up-front asshole or a hypocritical idiot in any given governmental position? At least you know where the asshole stands. It's starting to look like the only way we're going to get any non-idiot, non-assholes in office is if Jesse "The Mind" Ventura is able to finally pry open the government-backed two-party monopoly on legislative functions.
This would be cynicism if it wasn't also correct.
Bitch, bitch, bitch. I suppose I shouldn't. I've got a good job and I'm in good health and gosh-darn it, people like me. And I should trust the government to not whittle away at my rights while I'm not looking.
Bwa-HA-hahahahaha!! Trust the government?! Does anyone actually do that any more?
Ahem. Anyway, on a lighter note, here are some comic reviews. I'll post more tomorrow, assuming I don't get off on another rant again.
...
Uh, anyway, big ol' TPB chronicling Kurgh's rebellion against the Emperor Gustav, while Karula and Rosalia, princesses of the conquered land of Ledomian, try and find a way to whack the Emperor (and Kurgh and everyone else in the Evil Empire(tm)) to free their land and all the other conquered kingdoms. Karula acquires a Plot Device Sword! Lots of stuff blows up! Rip-offs of the Jawas from Star Wars haul Dard, Chen and Masahiko off to the slave mines (no, they don't mine FOR slaves, they... oh never mind). Rosalia seduces Rua so that she'll have a chance to escape... and scores a critical success (apparently she's playing under the Teenagers From Outer Space rule where it's possible to be TOO successful), as Rua promptly deserts Kurgh's forces to follow Rosalia. Whups.
It's Yet Another Alternate World Story from Johji "Caravan Kidd" Manabi, featuring the requisite mixture of sorcery, surliness and scantily clad women. And anti-gravity floating ships. Lots of anti-gravity floating ships. Now, look, granted, these things are rather cool, but I don't care what he says, that's not a damn ground-effect engine holding up that battleship. Oh well. I guess he gets the first oddity free.
The score: Twenty people cruelly bisected by superior swordsplay. Three gratuitous frontal nudity shots. One exploding giant squid. One dud kamikaze missile. Three cameos. And one instance of gratuitous fondling.
Okay, it could have been worse, but damn, what a waste of my time and money.
It's... um. Well, there's... um. It's sort of...
There's this girl, see. And she's got a belt, see. And a patriotic costume. And a pleasant yet irritating attitude. And an uncle who runs around in a badly designed suit of power armor trying to keep her out of trouble.
Somehow, Starman figures into this, as does a lot of golden age history. I think. It would certainly explain why they kept cutting back and forth between history and the present.
At least she doesn't have voluminous knockers. Oh well.
Wisely, this story ignores all that. They died, they got better, all else is irrelevant.
I hate grim and gritty art, and this is full of grim and gritty art. I think being a manga fan has spoiled me to stuff that doesn't have clean lines and detail that doesn't look scribbled in. I hate, hate, hate that "dirty" look to a piece of comic book art. It looks like complete crap, and makes me wonder if the comic company couldn't afford any real artist.
The story itself is kind of good (the Avengers getting whacked made everyone rather testy; Black Widow tried to form a new team, but nobody would play ball; one of the Avengers technical contacts made Sentinel-like critters to repress all paranormals in the city), but really it's just filling in the blanks that should have been filled in during that vast morass of suckage that was Onslaught. Still, for what it is, this was pretty good.
Except for that damn art!
Unfortunately, none of them take this little mission as seriously as Bulma (who shows up dressed in a space-suit and everything), and treat it like an outing, ammassing tons of luggage and dressing in a very un action-heroish way. They look like they're going to a baseball game for crying out loud... I finally get the name of Spots Boy, and wish I hadn't. Kulilan? What the hell kind of name is that? Anyway, Bulma, Kulilan and Gohan board the Namek space-ship and head off to Namek. Nobody's taking things as seriously as she is, so Bulma becomes increasingly surly, especially after the luggage bursts open during launch and she's almost impaled by a flying hairbrush.
The 'clue light' flashes on at this point, as Kulilan realizes that Vegita (the villain they spent 12 episodes fighting) probably took off in this direction and is no doubt waiting to dish out a massive amount of whup-ass as soon as his bones knit. That'll teach Our Heroes to show mercy.
No monkey dancing at this point in the show.
Bulma's surling is interrupted by an attack of alien space-fighters and their mother-ship, and we get to see them try to corner at zillions of light years per second. Somehow, they hit the alien mother-ship, but regrettably none of our heroes are crushed to a fine, even paste.
Finding their ship wedged in the alien ship's cargo bay, they abandon it and set off to explore. After falling for the oldest trick in the book ("Gosh, a nice table covered with food, covered by a nice shade thingy that looks like a giant pan supported by a pole with a rope tied to it! This couldn't possibly be a trap!") our heroes are set upon by... Crazed Alien Pygmies... From SPACE!
Tune in next time as we discover wether a Smith & Wesson Space Blaster really
DOES beat Two Ninjas.