Resolutions for 2012:The Year of the Geek

2011 seemed to be a slug year for me.  To start 2012 the right way and to feel like I'm accomplishing something I have some resolutions to make and embrace my geekitude.

#1  Get Caught Up

I'm a little behind on some titles.  Some like Wonder Woman, Justice League and Flash will never be behind.  But there are others, mostly Marvel titles, that have piled up a bit. There's some Mighty Thor in there.  Moon Knight which I find interesting is in there.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which is incredibly well written is in there.  Fables...

#2  Read This...

My dear husband handed this to me a  year and a half ago and I love it.  This is the full collection and it's might thick.  I'm not even a third into it.  Also, my husbands fault.  In the last year he kept handing me trades he wanted me to read because they were some of his faves.   Which was on top of my own personal book reading list.

#3 Make This Costume

I need to figure out how to make this costume for my daughters Barbie so she will stop asking to take this and the vintage one out of the box. 

Not Gonna Happen.

Sure she doesn't have the right hair color. Diana lost her mantle to a blond at one point. I need to dig that one  out and see what it looked like. I may need to prove that it's real.  See #5

#4 Embiggen and Improve

This is my Wonder Woman Shelf.  Good stuff that is reasonably priced is very hard to come by.  Although it's getting better. Thank you Lego and Fisher Price.  I think I want to expand a bit to include Black Canary.  She is also a smart, beautiful woman who can kick butt.  By the way Lego, why does Wonder Woman need to be saved from Lex by Superman in your set?  She is actually strong enough to rip the arms off that robot.  I'm just saying...

#5 Organize These

We have approximately 42 short boxes of comics. Nearly half are organized by date of reading. There are some arcs that I would like to go back and read.  We go through about 4 to 5 boxes a year (I think).  That's a lot of boxes to go through to find a six or 12 part arc. 

And For a Non-Comic Geek Thang

Take a math class.  I had some pretty traumatic experiences in high school when it came to math.  I don't like the idea that I never "got it."  Time to rectify that.

image found here

Geeklings

When I first became a parent I hoped that my daughter would ilk the think I did and liked to do when I was a little girl.  My mom had kept the dolls I played with having that same hope.  Wen she reached the age that she could actually play with them, I introduced the dolls and clothes to her.  I would sit and dress one doll while she undressed another. Did she show any real interest in the dolls? Nope, Not a bit.

At the same time my husband and I would read her stories out of the comics that we read for the week.  We would buy her superhero logo shirts and jambes because we wanted to do it while  she still had a say  in her clothing.  As a family  we would watch the animated movies coming out of DC and Marvel with her in our laps.  Whenever there was nothing particularly good on tv I would revert to the old standby of STTNG on Spike or BBC America.  She would actually pay attention. She even found one of my old Books"Star Trek: Worlds of the Federation" and pulled it out for story time one night.

So, what happened?

It turns out that my daughter is into the things that I like now.  Go figure.  The fun part is that she's embracing the geekdom.  Ever since the pink uniform issue Tiny Titans is fave.

 She is proving to be quite the fashion maven.

The Tshirt you are seeing is an Avengers shirt with Spiderman that was given to us as a gift.  My daughter is a wonderfully girly girl but she really likes her super heroes.

Soooo..... Em is now into dressing dolls and she's seen some Barbies...

I'm getting her a Barbie for Xmas.  I found an Art Teacher Barbie at Target.  I'm doing this mainly because it's the only one daddy would approve and  I'm just a little bit tired of her asking to play with these...

Now, I'm not a fan of keeping toys in box.  Toys are meant to be played with and for the most part I don't believe in this.  But the thing is that these are so rare, I just can't do it.  The second pic is a modern one and I took the last one in Toys R Us.  I looked at the two stores in town trying to find one to pull out of the box to play with when Em was old enough.  I never did find another.   Sooooo, Art Teacher Barbie it is.

I bought the doll. I decided to buy a case for the doll and I thought it would be cool to have that case filled with fashion.  I went to several stores in town looking for clothing kits for this barbie that wasn't too hookery looking.  Wow! was that hard.   Nearly all the clothing kits I could find in the stores was just a little too "Jersey Shore" for  this mom's acceptance.

My new found geekdom... Hand stitched (knitted) Barbie Fashion.

Summertime...

And the living is easy.. and sweaty.  You would think that a summer in the hundred teens I would be hunkered down inside  with the conditioned air in front of the computer clicking away.  Ummm... not so much.  I have a child who loves to play outside. At sundown for many many weeks it was still in the high 90's.  I just couldn't let her out there.  In no time she would be drenched in sweat and a late night bath is not as relaxing for my child.

In our effort to keep her entertained we've strived to more fully induct her into the geek lifestyle. First off, comic book day.  Both the dear hubby and I work to get her into the habit  of going to this little store front at 31st and Mingo to get our weekly fix of story time.  Believe it or not but she has her own pull list. Ok, it's the family list but she has her own subscriptions.  Sponge Bob and Tiny Titans come every month and then on those weeks they don't come we let her pick off the spinner rack that he puts the kids titles.  Scooby Doo, Batman Brave and Bold, and Scooby Doo are the popular picks here. We haven't added them to the list,yet.  While I would truly love it if they came out with some sort of all ages book centered around female characters, I know it will be a cold day in hell before that happened.

Can I help it if the major comic companies only see their markets as male 18 to 34?  Not really.  I send my letters stating that there is a major demographic of women in this country who watched Linda Carter's Wonder Woman and were inspired.  And maybe they want their daughter to be strong, smart and beautiful?

Before I get off my soap box I would like to say... Shame on the Big 2!!! You know who you are.  A parent watches Wonder Woman as a child and Xena in college and you don't think there is a female market?  Shame on you and your marketing department.

I will now descend my soap box and read... Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies. (Don't even get me started on the events.)  It was on top of the pile.

I Would Like to Thank The Gap

I would like to thank the Gap for understanding, if only for a brief moment, that little girls have/need heroes too.

With only a brief look at my flicker feed one can see that this is not a fluke.  Just this evening we were browsing Netflix looking for something to watch while I made dinner we came across the Astonishing Xmen motion comic. "Mommy, mommy I need to watch Xmen."  This did not come as a surprise as she has watched "Wolverine and the Xmen" non stop for a month and a half.  It is at the point where our family has been assigned characters in the Xmen.

Daddy=Wolverine

Mommy=Storm

Logan = Iceman

And of Course...

Emma = Emma Frost aka The White Queen

Re-invigorated Fanchick

For a while there my dear fanboy decided that we should do a site dedicated to the family comic fan.  Honestly, our family loves comic book characters in their many forms.  I started a site that we would both work on but for various reasons it was just me posting.  While I love the concept of Married With Comics, it ended up just being me.  And so, I'm back here reveling in my fanchickness.   The following post reflects my life as a Fanchick.

Every now and then I go to Ebay and type "Wonder Woman" into the search box.  I would find many things that are cool, and many things that are vintage but nothing that I just had to have.

One day I was on Amazon.com looking for a book for my little fanchicklet. I'd seen an "I Can Read" book with Superman on the cover. On the back of the book was an add for a Wonder Woman story.  I had to have it to read to my daughter.  They didn't have one in stock at the store. Big surprise.  As soon as I got home I went to Amazon looking for it.  I typed Wonder Woman into the search bar thinking that there would be a few listings: the Linda Carter series, the last animated movie, a few costumes and the book I was looking for.  Oh, boy...  I had no idea there was so much stuff available.  I never see anything in the stores.  I assumed it just didn't exist. I was so very, very wrong.

I was able to narrow down my choices to 3 things I really needed to have

Polly Pocket!

 We have a Batgirl and Robin just like it

It's just cool!

I made a purchase that day and it is one that I don't regret.  I took the high road and bought the Polly Pocket set for my daughter.  I am a firm believer that little girls need heroes too.  And this is my effort to help my daughter believe in  a woman who is smart, beautiful and can kick some major butt.  

Halloween Time

Today I got the Halloween issue of the party city catalog. I looked in there contemplating dressing up this year when I take Em out. Still on the fence about that one. Or maybe Em just needs another dress up costume. We have the standard...

How cute is that? This made mommy very happy. We also have...

I'm surprised the pic turned out for all the webs that were being shot at me.

I perused passed the pages for boys seeing all the standard super hero costumes: Batman, Robin, Spiderman, Captain America. But then I see this...

Interesting... I suppose this is one way to get the girls into the super heroes. Let's just create a character that doesn't exist... At least I think so... I thought the super soldier serum made Steve's little soldiers not such good swimmers. I must do some research. At the same time I need to look into why the costume company needs to invent super heroes for little girls when there are so many good ones out there. Even Target sells the Big Barda action figure. Where's her costume???

Wonder Woman's New Look

In all of the hubbub of the new style (not to forget the new back story), I had the feeling that I'd seen this before. And I had seen something like this before. Lets set the wayback machine to the end of 1992 and the beginning of 1993. For your consideration...

Wonder Woman had been captured and enslaved and imprisoned on a space ship. She brought all the prisoners together and they took over the ship and became pirates themselves with Wonder Woman as the Captain/Pirate Queen. Look familiar? They are from Wonder Woman #69, December 1992. Pencils are by Paris Cullins. Inks are by Robert Campanella and Color by Matt Hollingsworth.

Ok, I have one more.





This is a little more "piratey" to me. It's from Wonder Woman #71 February 1993. The pencils are done by Paris Cullins. The inks are done by Romeo Tanghal and the color is done by Matt Hollingsworth.

No, I don't care for the new look. I like it that she can be feminine and strong and smart and can kick ass. This new look is not so feminine. As I read the actual story by Straczynski after the lovely tributes to Wonder Woman, I realized that it's about an alternate time line. She walks through a portal and things are different. I'll wait and see where this goes just as long as they don't forget that she still a Greek Amazon warrior.

Serious Catch Up

This morning involved coffee, laying in bed and reading comics. My dear daughter decided to sleep in a bit and I had the uninterrupted opportunity to read some of my growing pile of comics. I don't know how they are still growing as I didn't really get anything this week. I actually had to go to the store to find something to read. So, here's a few quick reviews on the books I read this morning.

First Wave #1-- Cool! a real mystery! This is a re- read and I like it even better this time.

Farscape-- adventures abound- glad to know the rest of the story

Farscape: Dargo's Quest-- Was sad at the end of the series when my fave character died. I like the back story

Fables (Sure are a whole bunch of "F" titles..) Love me some frog prince

Detective Comics #862-- Schizophrenic. Looking forward to Batman coming back and Batwoman ongoing.

Titans: End of an Era-- Old Teen Titans don't know what to do with themselves as there are new Teen Titans to take their place. Isn't it time they became The Justice League? Torch passing to comence?

Justice League of America#41-- Huh??? Who's left?? And why is Green Arrow running amok? I'm so confused.

Teen Titans #81-- Superboy is alive?? I know I stopped reading this title for awhile as it was boring me to tears. When did this happen? Damn.

First Wave

I finally got to read all of "First Wave" and I'm not disappointed. I've always been a fan of a good detective story (Nancy Drew Fanchick here). This first issue has the makings of a couple of good detective/mystery stories. I look forward to see how they all come together.

Forever...

It seems like forever since I posted about a comic. And it might have been. I've been going through this phase where I don't really want to read anything with pictures. Ok, I read Wonder Woman. And I read Anita Blake. I have one hell of a pile stacking up next to my bedside table which includes a fave story teller (Fables) and a fave artist, Skottie Young ( Wizard of OZ). Ok that applies to fave story as well but ... I don't know. I'm just into text these days. I'm reading two books. Actually, there is three that I am currently reading. And it just so happens that They encompass my reading preferences for the last 30 some years.

#1 ( In no particular order)
A Bear Called Paddington

He's a sweet little bear that reminds me of the innocence of my youth.

#2 (No, really, there is no particular order. Ok maybe it's chronological)
Mara, Daughter of the Nile

Ok, so this one hit me as I was hitting puberty. It's about a scrappy guttersnipe who gets the prince after nearly being whipped to death. It's a good young reader type of book.

#3 ( All right, all right... It's chronological. And, yes, I read 3 books at once.)

For A Few Demons More By Kim Harrison

It's an alternate history where witches, werewolves and vampires came out of the collected broom/blood/furry closet. That is after a virus mutates inside a genetically modified tomato kills a good chunk of the "human" population.

Lots of good mildly innocent fun. Ok, 2 out of 3 has innocent fun.

Finally Have Some Books to Read

I had three last week and the stand out was Green Arrow/ Black Canary. It's an odd book but it need to be made. The chemistry between the two has been hinted at for years, decades really. Now we really get it full force. And man is it entertaining. Admittedly, laughing one minute, crying the next (poor Red Arrow) makes for a roller coaster ride. I like that it's never dull and well the family that kicks ass together, stays together.

So, far this week I've read Superman/Batman. There's a weird hit man out for Clark that looks a lot like Iron Man. It was very confusing. I still have a Fables and a Farscape yet to read. I have high hopes for Fables. :)

Night

Thor the Movie

Anthony Hopkins is the All-Father!!!! And he's directed by Kenneth Branagh!!!

Ok, I should care who Thor is. Chris Hemsworth who also played George Kirk ( William T. Kirk's dad) in Star Trek is worthy of a geek-girlgasm. But will this turn out like Batman?? Will Sir Anthony's performance outshine Chris'? Will Chris be able to handle the presence that is Thor?

Ok the theatre geek in me is coming out abit. I am very excited to see Thor in live action. That weird moment in "The Incredible Hulk" tv show doesn't count.

On a side note there is one actual Norseman in the movie. Stellan Skarsgard play professor Andrew Ford ( who is apparently not Norse).

No Comics?!?!

For the first time since I met my husband and started reading again, I have no comics this week!!! I almost don't know what to do. Except that I'm really behind. About 3 weeks worth of comics are awaiting me. I got sucked into The Twilight Saga and haven't been able to read anything but that. I do like my vampire fiction. But now I have finished and all is well I can get back into the comics. Hopefully, I'll have better luck next week.

A Crazy Second Half to the Year

It's just been crazy the end of this year. It all started with a break in. All the valuable stuff stolen. The exception being the comic collection. With 30 plus short boxes I don't think it was an option. So, it took about a month to be recovered from that. Then my mother decided to send me my childhood and then some. So, now my garage (which houses the comic collection) is over flowing with furniture and stuff. So, now I can't even sneak into the garage pick a random box and pick a random comic to read. I don't even think my hubby knows I do this. The final straw was discovering the Twilight Saga. While I wouldn't call myself a Twihard. I think the books are really good. And so, I have quite the backlog of comics to read. I'm thinking Xmas day will be good for that. Fortunately DD hasn't learned to get up early for the presents yet. :)

Wednesday Comics

From DC Comics comes Wednesday Comics. What is this? Well, they have decided to get together various seriously top name writers and artists to put together a "Sunday Comics" style newspaper. Yep, it's on news print. It's every kids dream on a Sunday morning.

There are 15 different stories. Some are serious some are not so much. We have the big guns: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Teen Titans. There are a couple that I'd not heard of: Kamandi, Strange Adventures. And a few lesser known: Metamorpho, Metal Men, Sgt. Rock, Hawkman, Dead Man. And a few others.

The majority of it is a good read. My faves are Batman, Metal Men, Flash, Green Lantern, Super Girl. Metal Men as penned by Dan Didio is just a fun story of the men made of metal dealing with being out in the world. But then they are in a bank as it's being robbed. They just have to help even though the Doc warns that it would be a bad thing. And so in the process of stopping the robbery the security guard forgets about the bad guys and points his gun at the men made of metal.

Super Girl is a a hoot. Krypto and Streaky the super pets are going on a rampage. Flying through the streets with Super Girl chasing after them. She just can't understand what's going on. One minute everything is normal. The next Krypto is going after the mailmen in the city and Streaky starts chasing after a plane that has "Mel Mouse" on the tail. It's fun stuff in short bursts. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Now the two I really don't like are worthy of note as well. As there are really the only two. Sadly, they are Teen Titans and Wonder Woman. It's the artwork. I just don't like the artwork. The interesting thing is that they are polar opposites when you look at it. The Teen Titans are blocks of colors on the page. There is so little detail in the character design that it looks unfinished. I can see the circles, squares and triangles that the artist used to rough out the shapes. Boring.

On the other end of the scale is Wonder Woman. There is so much detail that it's impossible to read. I could tell you very little about what's going on in the story. I saw the words Ameratsu and dream. Someone should have given Mr. Caldwell a primer on how to draw for news print. It seems to have been a long time since his art school 3 minute figure sketch on a news print pad. Or maybe not. The style is sketchy and there is very little outlining to define the shapes. So, when the ink is put to news print it looks blurry. The color tones are close as well which just adds to the blurriness. And then there is the layout. It doesn't flow very well. When I try to read the word balloons it takes a long time to figure out where to go next. There are reasons for doing things the comic strip way. I just wish more of them were done with my favorite character.

Detective Comics

Ok, so it's not a pick of this week. But it's a book that I really like. I will be glad when my daughter starts reading comics so that she'll let mommy have a chance to read some too. As it is she's too interested in taking the book from my hands

I was unsure what to think of a Detective Comics with out Batman, a Bruce Wayne Batman. He is the greatest detective in many worlds. With all due respect to Dick Grayson, he's not there yet.

This new issue focuses on Batwoman. The last time we saw her she was in the process of having her heart cut out. The mystery to be solved in Gotham at the moment seems to be why the Cult of Crime wanted to cut her out and what is going on. She's recovered now and out with a vengeance. There are 13 Covens and there is one leader on the way and she's out to find out this new leader is and take them out before they come after her again.

The thing that really attracts me to this book. Ok, there are two things. The first is that she is so very different from Batman. He is the shadow you fear. She makes you fear what's in the shadows. She doesn't necessarily try to hide. How can she with blood red hair and cape? You know she's coming and that's ok. She comes out of the shadow and uses her sensuality and strength together to get the info she wants. The artist takes this seriously and there are no cheesecake shots which could come very easily.

The other is the layout. When she's Batwoman it's a stark red and black style. Which just looks cool. When she's _____ it's more of a realistic and almost soft style. There are two distinct worlds for Batwoman. In Bruce's world it was sometimes hard to tell which was more real to him. Daytime Gotham? Batcave?

I look forward to the next issue to see where she's going

Pick of the Week-- Last Week

The last two weeks I've only had 3 books to choose from. It's pretty lean and not much to choose from. Last week there were two that I really liked but they didn't make me scream OMG!

Anita Blake: The Laughing Corpse #2

The book was really quite good and I like Ron Lim's art. It's just that I know these early stories of Laurell K. Hamilton's books like the back of my hand. I can almost say the dialog before I see the word balloon. It's just really nice to see what has been in my imagination all these years. There is a weird juxtaposition in my head though. I'm also currently reading the latest novel which will probably never make it to comic due to the adult parts that are pretty integral to the story in this and previous books. In the comics, she's new to this world of vampires and trying to avoid Jean-Claud. In the book, she loves him dearly and she's his human servant.


Batman and Robin #1

Dick Grayson takes on the mantle of Batman with Damien (the son of Bruce Wayne and R'as al Guhl's daughter) as Robin. Dick is still a little unsure of his choice but he knows it's the right one. Damien is arrogant and has a rather self-important image of himself. Dick has no problem putting him in his place. One time he even offers to give Tim Drake his old job back. ;) I honestly wish it could have been Tim Drake. He's a little shit and I don't like him. I haven't since his introduction. It seems to me that Jason Todd was a shit as well and they killed him off.

The next big change to the universe is the new Bat Mobile. It flies!! It's a Bat Mobile for the 21st Century! My dh is not so fond of the idea. I think it's cool. Even Dick says that he wished for one when he was Robin. The thing that's keeping it from being uber-cool is that it kinda looks like the Hall of Doom from the Superfriends cartoon when it's in flight mode.

Frank Quietly is the artist on this book and usually I'm a fan of his artwork. It's a clean lined style but doesn't look like an animation style. In this book his pencil work is not so clean. It's more of a sketchy style even in the ink. I'm not a great fan of that style.

And so those are my two choices for last week. I'm still in the middle of my 3 books this week.

More later

Comic Pick of the Week-Spoiler Alert!

This is something new I'd like to try. I've been wanting to do it for a couple of weeks now. I'm picking one of my comics this week and tell you why I like it. I may talk about a few others as to why they didn't make the cut. Speaking of which... The reason I haven't done it sooner is because there hasn't been a book that knocks my socks off. Wonder Woman who is my all time fave has been good, interesting but not "oh my god you have to read this!" This arc has been somewhat confusing and a bit convoluted. Bruce Wayne is dead. I'm really not sure how I feel about this.

On to the one that knocked my socks off.
Wolverine #72

Nearly all of the worlds heroes are dead. With the exception of the few who kept their heads down or made a deal with the devil. When the villains unite and take over the country Wolverine is in the former category. At the beginning of the story we find a broken man. Wolverine is no more and Logan is just getting by. Wolverine is no more. Bit by bit we find out what it takes to break a man who up until now seemed unbreakable. In this conclusion to the arc we find out what it takes to make a man.

In this final chapter of this arc Logan having been recruited by Hawkeye to take a package across country to the President's Quarter. He arrives to find the Red Skull as president. Nutsy as ever Logan finds him wearing the Captain America uniform that he took off of Bucky's body. That was possibly the creepiest thing I've ever seen. Swastika's hang from the White House balcony and the Red Skull wearing the bloody uniform.

The moment that really struck me is when Logan gets home to his family to find them all dead. A kindly neighbor is telling him that the best thing is to bury them, grieve and move on.

Logan is silent for a very long moment. The man looks at him and says"Logan?"

"The name isn't Logan, bub." There is a close up of his eyes going dark.

You turn the page and it's a large 2 page spread of a bloody red "Snikt!"

"It's Wolverine!"

He pops his claws. The skin around where they come out of his hands is bloody. It looks like he hasn't popped them in years. All through this story he hasn't popped his claws. He gave up being Wolverine years before when he was tricked into thinking his fellow Xmen were the enemy and killed them all.

The whole story arc has been a satisfying roller coaster ride of what it takes to make and unmake a hero. I don't often read Marvel stories that aren't by Brian Bendis. I just don't find those stories satisfying. This story made me want to go back for more. As long as Millar is writing it.
It'll be interesting to see where they go with the new special continuing in this world.

Wonder Woman the Animated Movie

To say I had high expectations for this is something of an understatement. I have been a fan of Wonder Woman since I was a little girl standing at the grocery store magazine rack waiting for my grandmother to finish shopping. It was the 70's and militant feminism was rampant. Betty Friedan and NOW didn't mean anything to a little girl. What did? Wonder Woman and the little fire truck my mom and her friend gave me to play with. (Which my daughter now plays with.) Now here was a hero for a little girl. She's smart. She's Beautiful and she can kick ass. What better role model for a little girl finally in a time when women were really asserting their strength in society.

I put the dvd into the player about ready to jump out of my skin. I haven't seen her in motion in 25+ years. The exception being in my imagination as I read the comics. I had my snacks ready and my husband was warned not to interrupt. My daughter? Well, that's a story for another day.

The opening sequence is a great battle. With all the violence and gore that I'd expect in a live action flick. It is a great battle between Hippolyta (WW's Mother) and Ares. This is not a film for children. I am more reminded of Xena, the Warrior Princess. Hippolyta wins her battle and is rewarded with a child. Formed from clay, Diana is born.

Despite being set in modern day the story stays true to the origin. Steve Trevor, pilot, lands on the island. The Amazons have a contest to determine who will represent Themiscyra to "Man's World." Diana wins and well, the rest is history.

The thing that truly interests me about this film is that she is not wholly perfect. I loved the live action show when a child. But as I watch it as an adult it's a little too sterile and perfect. In this film she shows at times her mild innocence of the interaction of men and women. My favorite is when Steve introduces her to Etta Candy. Etta is all about Steve flirting shamelessly. She asks Steve to move her desk to get her favorite pen. Diana just looks her and asks what's wrong with her. Etta is demurely surprised and sees a rival. Diana just lifts the entire desk off the floor picks up the pen for her annoyed that she would use her looks instead of her brains and muscle.

The truly fun thing about this film is the rockem sockem action. It is an adventure pic. It's about Wonder Woman trying to save the world from the God of War. It would keep any die hard Xena fan's attention. This film probably should have been made a decade ago. And now I'll change the subject before I get myself all worked up.

In all I enjoyed the film. I'm excited to see my hero out in the world for other girls to see. Maybe not little girls but teens could get into it as well. I just hope Warner/DC sees the audience out there and gives us a roll model for all woman.

Rest in Peace Bettie Page

To the woman who taught us that you could be smart, beautiful and carry a whip.

Thank You