Crisis Time! - Final Crisis #1 and Final Crisis: Requiem

It seems like this is the year of Grant Morrison, isn’t it? I looked at most of his run on Batman, All-Star Superman, and some of his stuff from Action Comics. Well, it’s time to dip back in the weirdness as I jump into the event known as Final Crisis. I’d be correct in saying that this was a weird event. It didn’t tie into a lot of books like events of the time did. It had a prelude (Countdown to Final Crisis), but that 52-issue weekly series is rarely mentioned in the event itself. There’s also the fact that Countdown apparently sucked. Just look at Linkara’s review of the series. “52 done right?” I don’t think so.

I remember some of the tie-ins sort of tied into the event while others really didn’t. Why did Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds (something I’ll look at in the future) get included with that anyway? It really didn’t tie into that story. Anyway, I did get the first issue to Final Crisis when it was released, but that was it for me since I was on a college budget (food, clothes, and gas).  I kept up with the event via Internet. I actually ended up reading the whole event (main series and a couple of tie-ins) through a hardcover at the library in Pulaski. I acquired the paperback a while back on Amazon.

My plan is to go through each issue and some tie-ins this month. Today’s issues are Final Crisis #1 and Final Crisis: Requiem. Grant Morrison is the writer the first issue as well as the whole event. J.G. Jones does the art for #1 and for most of the event. He has mostly done covers and some interior work. He’s most known for Wanted, a Mark Millar penned series. For Requiem, Peter J. Tomasi writes the issue. Doug Mahnke pencils the issue and Christian Almany inks the issue. The covers for Final Crisis #1 were both done by Jones. While the one with Green Lantern is okay, the variant is actually the better of the two.

Trek Novels - Star Trek: The Kobayashi Maru

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at a Trek novel. This one gets the vote for today. I picked this book up some time ago. The title kind of called out to me and it looked interesting. For those who don’t know, the Kobayashi Maru is a scenario that Starfleet cadets go through at command school. In the scenario, a Starfleet ship gets a call from a downed freighter in the Neutral Zone. They go in and end up facing three Klingon cruisers. It’s a no-win situation that designed to see how cadets deal with loss. It was first introduced in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and again in the rebooted Star Trek from 2009.

Julia Ecklar is the author of the novel. I’ve actually never heard of her. She’s done other novels. She also teamed up with other authors to write other Trek novels under the name of L.A. Graf. The Kobayashi Maru actually takes place sometime after Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Now, I have to imagine Kirk and crew in those gray and tan suits… oh man. I should be able to persevere.

Star Trek: The Kobayashi Maru 
Author: Julia Ecklar

BRIEF BLURB: While Kirk and some of the crew are on the search for a missing team, their shuttlecraft is heavily damaged. While they deal with the situation, Kirk, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty talk about their experiences with the Kobayashi Maru.

Random Pics For The Month - October

Well, here's something I haven't done in a while. Here are some of the things I've got planned for later on. 

More Grant Morrison? Yep, yep, and yep.

It's another "old vs. new" project that similar to the one I did for Superman a long time ago. I can safely say that it won't take two months to do!

Yeah, I'll get to this franchise eventually.

Well, it took me a couple of months to do it, but I finally finished the Mass Effect Trilogy. I might talk about it.

Music Retrospective - Michael Jackson: Invincible

Well, it was bound to come to this. I’ve finally gotten to Michael’s last album… official last album, anyway. I’m not counting the post-death ones like Michael and Xscape. Invincible was released in 2001 and it was Jackson’s first studio album in a long time. He had help in writing a lot of the songs. The album sold well but not as well as most of his previous albums. I do remember that there was some talk going on about the album not being promoted enough. The album only released four singles. It was apparently supposed to release more, but that didn’t happen for some reason. One song did get nominated for a Grammy though.

This is another album I don’t own physically own though I probably should. My sister has it, so I downloaded it from her. It’s also one I really hadn’t listened to until I really started this project. The only songs I knew about were the two singles that were played on radio back in the day. I really didn’t know what to expect when I got to listening to it a few months ago. So, how does this album ultimately shape up?

Invincible

Favorites - Top 10 Sixth Power Rangers

Since I’m not doing much this month, I think it’s time to look at the Power Rangers once more. “Oh Yeah, boy,” or whatever those youngsters are saying today. The show has usually started out with three to five people getting summoned by someone good to keep the world safe from evil of all kinds. After some episodes, we get a new Ranger: The Sixth Ranger (or fifth considering the makeup of the team). They’re usually introduced and then turned “Evil” for a few episodes. They also tend to beat the everliving crap out of the team. Eventually, they're made good and join the team in the end. I know it was like that for some of them. They also ended up getting some cool Zords.

So, here are my top 10 Sixth Rangers. I stuck with 10 simply because those are the only seasons I’ve really watched and know of. Yeah, I’m a horrible fan, ain’t I? If you’re wondering why I’m not putting any from more recent seasons, I can answer that. I really haven’t watched any of them. I’ve only seen one or two episodes of those respective seasons.  I did watch RPM all the way through but the sixth (and seventh) Ranger on there were actually pretty annoying. I’ve thought about looking at Samurai and Megaforce on Netflix but I haven’t yet. So, let’s start this list off with a bit of a weird one.