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GusGusDaMouse
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Name: Gus
Country: United States
State: North Dakota
Metro: Bismarck
Birthday: 7/14/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: Playing Guitar, Listening to Music, Blogging, Instant Messaging, Filmmaking, Reading & Collecting Comic Books
Expertise: TV Production, Screenwriting, Rhythm Guitar, Archaic Video Games, Comic Book Continuity, Obliviousness
Occupation: Student
Industry: Entertainment
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  GeekyPeterParker
Member Since:
5/11/2003
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| I'm two dozen years old today. Woo.
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| Right, so I was going to blog more.
Lots of good movies lately. Indy was good and despite the alien weirdness it was nice to watch Ford in action as Indy again. Hulk was really good too. Much better than the previous movie. I remember going to see that with Josh five years ago and the last third of the movie didn't make sense. Ed Norton made a great Banner and really sold the on-the-edge frustration of the character. It wasn't as grin inducing as Iron Man for sheer coolness, but it was very good.
Kristen is in California for a library conference. I've been trying to keep busy. A bunch of us from work went to Buck's for Ryan's birthday and managed to have a good time and leave without getting thrown out a window. The place's reputation must be exaggerated. I also went roller blading with Amber and managed to not die but still embarrassed myself. Next time I'm taking the bike.
Still trying to think of what I want for my birthday. Dad usually asks for a list of some music to get and I'm still thinking. I've got no idea what's new these days that I'd like. There's a new Coldplay that I haven't got. I already have the new Raconteurs album. I guess I could always ask for more Rolling Stones. It's a sure bet.
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| Mom and the grandparents were here to visit a week ago! I showed them around town and took them up to school. I got to show them what I do at the TV station. I think we had a good time.
Kristen and I watched this excellent show recently, Black Books. With all these shows from the BBC, Coupling, Red Dwarf, old Dr. Who (I've been watching Monty Python's Flying Circus as well on my own), we're getting to be quite the Anglophiles.
Also, May term ended. I finished my blog and did a sports feature article on the boys soccer team here at Mary. This is my first week without structured class for the summer. I still have an independent study for Video I.
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| I just spent the last four hours tearing my apartment apart, cleaning it and putting it back together. I'm pretty proud of how it's all nice and shiny. That is all. | | |
| Sometime over the weekend I finished a stack of Spider-Man back issues I'd been piling up for at least a year. The issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Web of Spider-Man, Sensational Spider-Man and plain old Spider-Man (phew!) were published between 1994 and 1996. The reason for putting them together? The dreaded and controversial Clone Saga.
This was a story I'd read about when I first got into comics (in the excellent and comprehensive Life of Reilly column that's getting a book version someday soon). I was one of the ones who got into comics because of the awesome Spider-Man movie in 2002. I really liked the current book, written by J. Michael Straczynski and started looking backwards to understand the continuity. What I found sounded like a compelling headache. A presumed-dead clone of Spider-Man comes back from 5 years of wandering and turns out to be a nice jovial guy, much like the current Spider-Man had been before he got grim'n'gritty. More importantly, the one they thought was a clone turns out to be the real one (and then not). Hilarity ensues, right? Not really, once it devolves into a big mess the creators can't get out of until they get rid of the clone and forget the whole thing.
And now that I've read, I say they were right. It was a mess. The whole thing got increasingly overcomplicated and drawn out. It wasn't a total waste though; there was some good art and some good storytelling (less near the end), especially good work from J.M. DeMatteis, Mark Bagley and John Romita Jr.
Some people on the web have been comparing the recent One More Day/Brand New Day storylines to this. I think it's really apples and oranges. It's true that, conceptually, both are attempts to bring Spider-Man back to basics (young, chipper and above-all single) that have been met with a lot of negativity. I think OMD, while being its own kind of headache, learned a few things from the Clone Saga. 1. Get the changes over with quickly. If they're going to be unpleasant or even brutal, they had to get it done relatively quickly. Four issues over about as many months compared to four issues a month for two years. No question which is better. 2. Have good stories to tell afterwards. Having lost disillusioned writers and artists (like DeMatteis, Dan Jurgens, and Mark Bagley) during the Clone Saga, the Spider-Man books were left with lackluster and generally unappealing stories up until JMS and Paul Jenkins took over early this decade. With BND, they're throwing the best and brightest at the book and it's really a fun read on its own merits. | | |
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