"Rain drops keep falling on my head...."

Today's going to be a quick one folks, or at least a quick one for me.
It's hot as hell today, and for most of the week as well! I shouldn't have to tell you that to those who are feeling the heat right along with me, especially those that live on the East Coast.

Here's some quick tidbits I learned while surfing the 'net:

• Sherwood Schwartz, famous creator of hit shows like Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch, died yesterday at the age of 94.
• One of my increasingly favorite comic websites to go to, Bleedingcool.com, posted some comments John Byrne made concerning racism @ Marvel Comics during the 70's. Here's some of what he described concerning the black characters there:

"I have commented before, on more than one occasion, that some of the current “generation”, so eager to take offense at everything and anything, would suffer a severe case of exploding headitis, if they could time travel back to Marvel in the Seventies. Then the thinking was informed almost entirely by the eternally non-PC NATIONAL LAMPOON, and it seemed that no one could ever really be offended by things that were so totally off the wall — so utterly and deliberately extreme. Some example (and watch these get ME in trouble now!):
� It was the habit in the Office to refer to CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE FALCON as “Captain America and the Fowl Coon”.
� Black Goliath was frequently referred to as “The Big Nig”.
� One writer expressed his desire to do a Black Goliath story titled “The Jig is Up”.
� Another wanted to put the credit names on furniture on the opening splash of an issue he scripted, so the name of a Jewish member of the team could be lettered on a lampshade.
� And, of course, the various examples of “fuck”, “shit”, and other such words worked into backgrounds are infamous.
And if there was anyone who didn’t think these were “funny”, they sure didn’t say anything about it at the time!"

Crazy stuff huh? I guess I can see that sort of thing happening, especially in given the time period and social climate back then. Bear in mind, that I'm not excusing such behavior, rather trying to put something like this in the proper context.
Also, I don't know if this is 100% true, since this is based solely off of Byrne's personal recollection. I've posted a copy of this on Jim Shooter's blog in the hope that he'd respond if he himself has heard stuff like this why he was at Marvel.
I don't know why Byrne felt the need to bring this up, but if it is indeed true, why didn't he speak out about it before? The link to his message board where this topic all started can be seen here:
http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=37691&PN=1&totPosts=24

• Spoiler Alert! If you didn't already know by now, it appears that Sinestro is once again a full-fledged GL after the events of Green Lantern#67. This issue finally finished the "War of the Light" story-arc, and wow were there some changes to be had after this one was over. Apparently Hal gets stripped of his ring because he kills Krona, which scares the shit out of the remaining Guardians. Oh and yes it's finally true. After months of speculation on various message boards, Sinestro is once again a GL. Fans are having a field day/bitch fest with this issue, and I have to agree with them to a point. Yes we get that Geoff Johns obviously loves Sinestro, so much that he devoted an entire comic event to him(SCW) and featured him heavily when bringing back Hal in GL:Rebirth and Secret Origin. And in that context he was right to feature Sinestro so much. But making him a GL again after all the deaths and suffering he's caused Hal and the rest of the GLC doesn't make much sense. Not to mention, he did kill Kyle Rayner's mom for no apparent reason during the SC one-shot. All of that surely hasn't been forgotten right?  Also, it's been retconned that Sinestro directly caused Hal to be possessed by Parallex, leading to his own downfall, much like Sinestro's. 

I will say this, yes it seems that Johns has been planning Sinestro's redemption for quite some time now, but then why the whole SCW event?  Also, the part where Sinestro says that he "can't do this without Hal" is another example of poor characterization. Come on, Sinestro is an evil genius. When and why would he ever say something like that(and mean it) to Hal, a guy he presumably still hates?
As a counterpoint to this though, I will make the excuse concerning Sinestro being a GL again, that Mogo was the voice of reason and heavily influenced who became GLs when he was alive. Now that he/it's dead, the ring will still choice those who are worthy, but it seems they don't always have to be "good guys." Nice thought huh? I think even if Johns' has written it to seem that way, he hasn't necessarily made that point as clear as it should be.

Also bear in mind people, just because the DCU reboots in September, it doesn't mean the GL universe gets rebooted too. According to the info DC provided on the matter, only the Batman and GL titles's community stays the same. Of course there will be little changes here and there, but nothing anywhere as big as what the rest of the line faces. So does that mean Sinestro will be on the GL in the new number one-issued Green Lantern series? Could be. I guess will just have to wait and see.





I've also been really enjoying the 3rd season of Tru Blood. This shows keeps getting better with every episode and every season. It's going to be hard to wait until the 4th season wraps up and the DVD collection comes out. I don't have cable, so I've been reading the synopsis of the three episodes from the 4th season, and they all look really good so far.

"Would you just hurry up already?"

So how was your 4th of July weekend? Mine was pretty damn good; can't complain!

Heather and I went to Columbia, which meant I got to go to the comic book store, Heroes and Dragons.
As always, I wind up facing many a dilemma of what to buy, especially concerning action figures. I was stuck between a Marvel Select Juggernaut, who is fucking huge! A Marvel Select Hulk, also freakin' huge and both were around $21, so no go there even though they were both awesome-looking. Did I mention how big they were? Seriously, now I know where all of those steroids that baseball and football players took went to.

Here, you be the judge:

Yeah, so then I saw the same Aquaman/Black Manta Wal-Mart 2-pack that's been there for awhile now. It was $29.99, so over my budget, but damn do I want an original costumed Aquaman! Sure, the camo one is nice, but it's the orange and green number I really want! Oh well maybe next time....

 So then it was between a Fantastic Four 3-pack that included the disguised Thing, Human Torch w/Johnny head, and Mr.Fantastic for $24.95, and buying a DCUC Jemm son of saturn in just the back package for $7.95, ML Cycle Rider Series 1st App. Thing loose w/Cycle for $9.95, and a loose Spider-Man Classics Kraven the Hunter loose w/stand and knives. Decisions, decisions.
After long time going back and forth on the matter, I finally decided to go with the above option of Jemm/Kraven/Thing. I actually paid $24.95 for these 3 figures over paying $26 and some change for the FF pack. Not bad if I say so myself.

Kraven looks bad-ass w/his knives, and seems ready to take his place w/ my other Sinister Six members; Mysterio, Doc Ock, Sandman, Hobgoblin, and/or Demogoblin, Venom(eddie)or Venom(mac gargan).

Thing is cool-looking too, and Jemm, hey, he's cool too! I could do without his freaky E.T. fingers though, but what are you gonna' so right?

 I also noticed Monkey-God has a strange habit of wanting to commit suicide....alot. I don't know what it is, but for strange reason, just when I think I have him positioned in such a way that he won't fall, but he somehow manages to still jump off the shelf!

I don't know what his deal is, but he sure doesn't like being put on display. Must be a bad acid flashback to his zoo-days.

So who's going to be the 15th member of the new relaunched/rebooted JLA?

You have the big 6 w/Cyborg(He at least was in Super Powers people), then Hawkman, Deadman, Element Girl(hey she's cool), Firestorm, Atom, Green Arrow, and I think that's Mera. So who's the blonde? That's the million-dollar question, but we wouldn't find out until at least the end of August. Some say Zealot, others say Black canary, and some say Miranda Shrieve. Idk, but I hope they work, and not "work" as in forced to make sense.

Hey here's a weird pic I found while searching for Kraven action figure pics.......creepy!

Take it easy.......