True Mazinger Impact Z Epic - Episode 4

Someday perhaps I'll be consistent about the title between two posts.  Nah.

It's a little weird to say this, but I'm not entirely certain what the status is.  I know I finished a run through the whole script, and Mandoric has it.  I think he went through most of it.  I'm pretty sure Zorak has started timing it.  Really hard to do status when you spend most of your time away from the people doing the work I guess.  Workflow seems less busted this week anyway.  Updates as things happen that I actually know about!

Shin Mazinger Z Epic - Episode 3

Another week, another pile of Japanese ass to claw through and make palatable for English consumption.  We're doing a little something special this time, so look forward to it.

Status:

• 4/18 17:42 - Working on the first pass now, all of it since Mando is out and I'm faster than the other two anyway.  It's not like they can release my shit, but at least I can get rid of the easy stuff.
• 4/18 20:12 - more than half way in, Mando is checking what I have now and I'm continuing forth
• 4/18 23:06 - finished first pass, got the workraw finally due to the special magic going on.  Some lines still need total insertion due to not being in the CC script for various reasons.
• 4/19 02:18 - おぬし is not 大虫, and I am not competent. 
• 4/19 18:05 - Oh snap!  There are some errors in the genetic splicing, things are getting a little... nightmarish.  This is going to take hours to fix :(.
• 4/20 00:58 - No new workraw, but have the premux done and fixed for sync issues.  Got the timing for the ass done, but probably no more forward movement on TLC/missing line plugin as Mandoric's kind of fucked for various personal reasons.  Not that I'm not speaking to the void or anything here.
• 4/21 03:10 - Finally working on editing, but probably not going to get much of it done tonight.  Release tomorrow?  Ughh.
• 4/22 02:54 - Finished editing like 30 minutes ago.  Could QC now if not for an uploading snafu... please wait while I insert a small piece of lead into my gray matter at high velocity.
• 4/22 14:29 - Released a while ago, while I was asleep.  Can be grabbed here.

Shin Mazinger Z Epic - Episode 2

Another week, another episode.  Anyone worried last week about the horrible headache inducing qualities of starting with the finale can rest at ease; this week is much more straightforward, taking us back from the ending to the beginning.  I can't say everything about this episode is explained, but at least it runs in a sane, linear path of scenes all in the same day, leading to the introduction of the titular mech.

Status:

• 19:15 - I've handed off the B-Part script to Zorak (translated in chronological order this time!!!1), who is supposedly timing.  Mando hasn't started the A-Part last I checked.  Workraw ready, and there shouldn't be any redo on the premux raw like last week.
• 01:05 - I finished off the bits of the A-Part Mandoric had left before dinner, he can worry about the messy shit we both skipped and then just do a good TL check before editing.  Zorak timed most of it, we can probably get it out earlier tomorrow than last week.
• 15:35 - It's all timed, but Mandoric is at work so probably not getting it finished anytime too soon.  Whoops.  Premux has the font attached though, so no issues there.
• 17:58 - Editing start!
• 01:05 - Christ this took too long... QC ending, muxing and distro shortly.
• 01:50 - Didn't even notice that there were exactly 24 hours between two of those statuses.  It's finally out, available here.  Public tracker this time because koda's not around.
  

Tales of Abject Failure - Coda

This post is a long time coming, but I couldn't really get the energy together to make it.  The tech called shortly in advance of arriving, inserted the card, and called the number.  It worked.  While this confirmed to me firsthand that there was no need for a professional, it was not a train wreck, so there wasn't so much to talk about.  I don't miss the Motorola DVR one bit though, Viva TiVo!

Shin Mazinger Shock! Chapter Z Episode 1

Today marks the beginning of the anticipated new Mazinger show in Japan.  About a year ago it first crept onto schedules under the moniker Z Mazinger, implying that it would be an adaptation of the alternate universe manga of the same name.  Well, clearly that's not the final name.  This name implies that it's a redo closer to the true spirit (meaning the original manga, not the drawn out kid friendly TV show).  Well it's not that either.

Skipping ahead a bit, let me spill the beans that I'm one of the translators with Gattai working on the project.  I worked on the second half of the script and I still don't know what the fuck it is.  Sorry, I do know one thing about it.

It's utterly awesome.

Yasuhiro Imagawa, of G Gundam and Giant Robo: The Day The Earth Stood Still fame, is the director of this show, which the staff has insisted is not a remake (I believe you now.)  Like his Giant Robo OVA, this series seems to be throwing together all sorts of characters and iterations from the various works of the original author (Go Nagai in this instance), and diving in in medias res with little to no regard for comprehension.  He is not a haphazard man though, so this will not remain incomprehensible for long, and even the events here will eventually tie in beautifully.  Imagawa is not Anno.  Fortunately, what this episode lacks in sense, it makes up in giant robot action, and giant robots being utterly awesome.  If you watched GaoGaiGar, Gurren Lagann, Gunbuster, or either of the other Imagawa works (this blog post brought to you by the letter: G), do yourself a favor and download this when we release.  Do not worry that you do not understand what is going on; nobody understands what is going on.

Episode 1 Status:

• As of about 21:40 today, the parts of the script I translated and the parts translated by another member of the team have been assembled and we're waiting for the main TL to go over it, and likely call me an idiot a lot.
• 00:25 - Whoops, seems like the encode is taking long enough that it won't be ready until the encoder is asleep and can't hand it off.  Script is corrected but not properly GARed up, working on that in #gattai now.
• And, without further ado: [Gattai]​_Shin​_Mazinger​_Shougeki!​_Z-Hen​_01​_[23941873].mkv

My part in this was, well, a goddamn mess.  Fortunately, we had a better translator to fix my crap, and a heavy dose of editing to the whole thing.  The title of this episode is Finale, so please, don't freak out when it makes no sense.

One Final Update: 

Zorak pooched the release so it has no fonts, but because I love you so much, I made an xdelta patch with application batch file to fix that.  There's no changes to the script or anything, but it's a much narrower and less Arial font.

Cleaning Off Some Blood

My regular readers (why are you looking at me like that) will recall that about four months ago I tried out KDE4.  To sum that up very, very briefly: I hated it.  A couple weeks ago though, KDE4.2 entered the testing branch of Gentoo, and what I'd seen elsewhere in the internet suggested that people who were nothuge fans of previous iterations should try it again.  As this is in testing/unstable branch for Gentoo, I'm dealing with a final release version from upstream, so just in terms of stability I knew it was pretty likely to come out ahead, but how usable is it?  Well, let's compare and contrast with last time.

The only thing I was particularly happy with last time was the move to a 3D composited desktop like OSX's, Windows Aero, and Compiz.  Well, now more than just being 3D compositied, it has basically every useful effect from them too, and now has my favorite implementation of a few of them.  In OSX, you can trigger some of the effects like Exposé and showing the desktop by hitting the corners of the screen.  Compiz-Fusion had a similar effect, but it was slightly more finnicky.  KDE4 is more stable than both of them, by requiring you to push against the corner rather than just getting near it.  Sure it's slightly more effort, but it removes false positives in the process.  All the rest of the features are basically clones of Compiz ones, with a few trivial omissions; there isn't an alternate window switcher key command set for using multiple effects active at once, and the features that map desktops to polyhedrons are slow, but worthless anyway.  Additionally, I can't seem to drag windows across borders to other desktops, but it's still easy to get them over there via the context menu.

When I was complaining about keyboard shortcuts last time, I primarily was referring to mapping Meta+Space to launch KRunner, as it's much better than Katapult (though worse than Gnome-Do, which looks like ass in KDE4 sadly, though under KDE3.5 it's glorious) and that sort of functionality was welcomed.  Well, I'm happy to report that it works exactly as expected now.

My next complaints were directed at Phonon and Amarok2.  I can't really speak to Phonon this time since I don't have any audio notifications running for any apps, and I'm not running Amarok2.  Sadly, the majority of my complaints with Amarok2 were intended features of it, or else low priority omissions, so there isn't much reason to try it again.  It's probably never going to be the music player I want, though it may become a music player I can live with eventually, in case the 1.x series dies out too badly.

I had two specific complaints with KTorrent: lack of RSS plugin and the UPnP plugin blocking all other UPnP use.  Both of these are remedied with the current release, though the RSS plugin is not as good as I'd hope.  It fetches fine, but I can't override how often (the one stream I use a lot of often runs out of new spots faster than it defines the update, so letting it auto update at its own pace misses things), and the filters are still appallingly bad.  The regexp support is simply broken, as valid regexp completely fail to match things they really should.  This isn't exactly a regression though, as the KDE3 branch was no better about this.  I can live without automated downloading, I just wish I didn't have to.

Akregator is a bit of an interesting experience.  The issue I had last time was back again, but I'm no longer convinced it was a broken app so much as it was ridiculously buggy rendering.  You see, I did eventually find a handle that allowed the resizing of the Articles pane, it was just closed all the way.  Maybe it was there last time too and I just missed it.  I can't tell, and don't feel like installing an old version just to find out.  This is definitely a bug, but it's hard to tell exactly how big of one so I'll just leave it at the fact that it works now, and is slightly more readable due to using Qt4 widgets and color themes throughout, and after my last foray I actually switched my KDE3 apps over to it with mixed success.

I wouldn't suggest everything is perfect though.  K3b is still a non-starter, but it's not in testing in portage yet either, so I don't have to care.  Plasmoids are now called widgets, and most of the old issues apply, though there are sort of replacements.  OSX widgets still fail miserably with the Alpha channel for whatever reason (why even bother with the feature if it's this bad?) but there is a servicable if finnicky weather widget that's supplying me with outdoor data without going outdoors.  Also, I do definitely still need kdelibs-3.5.10 around for Amarok and a couple other old apps, as well as Qt 3.3.8b since Qt4-Qt3support still does not allow use of Qt3 itself, as that's not its goal.  Apps like Konversation still seem to not even be attempting to update and with K3b and Amarok still in KDE3 varieties there's not a whole lot of option but to keep around the old subsystems.

In order to keep the article in the same path as last time I wound up skipping over a rather obnoxious little bug that I hit immediately upon launching X for the first time after the update, and one that would probably be a bit of a game ender for people who aren't used to weirdness; upon finishing the load process, there was nothing but a wallpaper on the screen.  My first guess was that the desktop program didn't actually load, but it turns out that they just spawned it with no panels whatsoever, so adding a panel and adding a task manager, clock, and system tray to that quickly made the place livable.  It's just a little scary to see nothing after launching, even if there isn't really anything wrong.

So, the upgrade to KDE4 is not going perfectly for me, but it's good enough.  Not relying on compiz to make my system not ugly as sin is a blessing all on its own since its development has stagnated and my build was glitchy at best.  I prefer the look of Oxygen widgets to Plastik, but there was probably an easier way to get nicer widgets for my apps than this if that mattered too much.  The positives, all in all, outweigh the negatives for me, so I'll stick around as everything starts coming together completely.  If I'm perfectly honest, this should have been KDE4.0, as 4.0 was intentionally beta and 4.1 simply wasn't very good, but the real deal is finally here, and it's good... -ish.

Tales of Abject Failure - Part 2

My last post was optimistic.  We were assured that the people in charge for CableCARD scheduling would contact us within 24-48 hours of the last call, which was a couple hours before the post went out.  Around 18:30 yesterday, which is around the 49.5 hour mark, we called up again to see what was up.  To the credit of the girl from Wednesday (she doesn't deserve a lot after suggesting that CableCARDs are basically garbage, suggesting that we'd be better off sticking with the box I'd returned hours before), she did in fact email the relevant people and logged the whole thing in the notes for our account.  Tonight's gentleman saw very explicitly that we were supposed to be contacted within 48 hours and that it had already been more than that.

Don't get me wrong here, I knew this was Comcast.  I was not expecting installation within this window.  I wasn't even expecting an appointment within this window.  Returning a phone call within two business days to say anything does not seem to be too much to ask, especially since we didn't demand the window in some sort of huff.  This is just common courtesy to your paying customers.

Of course, the people involved with this whole business only work M-F 8-17, so there was no chance of anything happening tonight, meaning the weekend is lost too.  The CSR tonight sent yet another email to the people responsible for CableCARDs mentioning specifically that they missed the window they were supposed to  meet, but this time he claims to have sent it to their supervisors too.  No idea whether that will help or just irritate them, but we'll see.

Sadly, tonight was the season finale for Psych, which I had to watch in SD despite paying for HD service.  I know, it's not exactly world ending, but come on guys, this entire process is vastly more painful than it should be, so any inconvenience as a result of their stupid policies designed solely to nickel and dime is too much.  Nothing needs to be recorded over the weekend, and the box is set up like a VCR to record the Monday evening shows in HD.  There's obviously no chance of installation before then.  Odds are, the next post in the series will be after the first truck roll, which will end in still more abject failure, but at least it will be failure post-college try.  FiOS cannot get in this area of town fast enough.

Tales of Abject Failure - Part 1

HDTV is nice. HD DVRs are nice things to have. Cable company provided DVRs, however, are the unholy spawn of Satan himself, and that's when they're working. Some time ago, our 56" DLP was finally given the loving embrace of HD cable content via one of these things. Immediately, I hated the interface on the bugger, and the horrible workarounds required to get the box working as well as it should. Namely, in this case, I had to run the video over component directly to the TV, and set up overrides in the hidden service menu to make sure SD content was not upscaled in order to use my TV's regular aspect correction tools, instead of directly into my AVR which has a higher quality scaler than my TV or the DVR itself, because it can't do any aspect correction despite clearly having its own scaler.

This is crap, and I hate it.

That was all back when the damn thing was working. That box decided one night during House to reboot about 5 times during the first 40 minutes of the show. Obviously, this is sub-optimal, so we called for service. Initially, they gave no guarantees about when they would be able to fix their faulty equipment, suggesting that it might take over a week to get someone out here, but some mild complaining later yielded a service appointment by Wednesday (House airs Mondays this year, in case you are not aware). The technician, upon arriving, was carrying a new box, which suggested he had no interest in diagnosing problems and wanted to jump straight to replacing it. He noted a high current running through the cable itself, which is odd, and promised to look into it before leaving. If he did, he never reported his results, because shortly after walking out to do that, he got into his van and drove off. There were unwatched shows on the first box, but what the hell the internet can fix those problems (though with the bandwidth capping it gets a little hairy). At least we had a working DVR now, right?

The answer to that question depends on what you consider a working DVR. I could watch any digital and/or high def channels with the box, which is exactly what you expect. Pausing live broadcasts however, was problematic, as resuming typically inserted 10-15 second pauses at various times followed by jumping ahead. After a few such pauses, the screen would turn black and all transport controls (fast forward, pause, rewind, stop, play) would return an error on the screen that those only work while viewing a video. Well shit. Changing channels or forcing to LiveTV "fixed" that, so it was not a stream breakdown. Scheduled recordings followed the same pattern of recording fine, but not playing back at all. I'm pretty sure playing back recorded content is the major point of having a DVR in the first place, so I was not particularly amused by this.

It's around this point that I realized TiVo's service, if paid for yearly or 3-years in advance, is cheaper than Comcast's total charge for the DVR. The interface is less irritating, there are more features (though we lose access to Comcast's own anemic VOD service), and the hardware is much less likely to fail spectacularly. Of course, the catch is that you need a CableCARD to access everything, but how hard can that be to get?

For those not in the know, CableCARD is a standard device to let unofficial boxes decode cable signals, unscrambling like a cable box but without the box. If you've ever seen an expansion card for a laptop (PCMCIA form factor) you know exactly what they look like. The TiVo has slots up front behind a little door that you just slide one of these cards into, and you're more than half way there. The remaining part of the process is calling a phone number and giving them the serial number of the card, and occasionally a number that is displayed on your screen shortly after the device recognizes that a card is put in. That is it for the home-side installation process of CableCARDs. I am not in any way exaggerating the ease of installation here. Well let's check Comcast's FAQ on the subject. Confusingly, they have two different spots where they talk about the devices, one for just general use and one for TiVos on the series 3 platform. Let's look at what they say, starting with the general one:

Can I install a CableCARD myself or does a technician need to come to my home?

At this time, professional installation by a Comcast technician is required.

Well okay, though I'm not sure what about the process honestly requires some sort of professional. Now for the TiVo specific answer:

Can I install the CableCARD into my TiVo Series 3 HD by myself?

To ensure that your installation is performed accurately, a technician is required to install and activate the CableCARDs. Please call 1-800-COMCAST (2662278) to set up an installation appointment.

Oh. Okay. To ensure that it's performed accurately. I may only have implied it thus far, but I now own a TiVo, I didn't wait to cut through this stupid red tape or try and get a third box before purchasing the object. Before you even get to the installation instructions in the package, you come across a sheet that you are supposed to give to your CableCARD installer. Typically they will claim that they do not need such a thing, but the general experience of the internet is that their complaints are pure hubris and not indicative of their capability in the least. That I now understand how easy it is too is just a side effect of learning that even TiVo themselves do not trust these idiots to slide a card in properly and call a phone number without shitting their pants or licking nearby windows. They even have a hotline for installers to call in case they fail miserably.

Well, that's the official Comcast policy there, but it doesn't take a whole lot of searching the internet to find people who were able to pick up the cards in their local offices, so I attempted exactly this today, while dumping their pile of worthless slag on them to get it off our bill. They told me that they really did not have any there, that they were all with the technicians. Well, that's one way to ensure that you need a tech to install something this braindead simple to install, since you need the tech to even touch the hardware in the first place. Fine. Well, they also claimed to have a wait list for whatever reason, despite the entire lack of actual shortage for these things. A second phone call (the first one basically just gave us the company line and mentioned the wait list the first time) including complaints of the lunacy of how difficult it is to get these damn things, and a drop of the F-bomb got them scrambling about a bit to see about getting this shit done for real. We should be getting contacted within 48 hours about this.

Of course, this CSR drone let slip the standard complaint that CableCARDs don't really work. This is sort of true, but only due to massive statistics altering caused by further intentional stupidity. Comcast techs have a habit of installing a card, and if it doesn't work they don't throw it out or destroy it, they just return it to the pile. Typically, if your card is not new directly from the packaging, it will not work because it has already been proven not to work or they wouldn't even have it on hand. This is common sense stuff here, but Comcast does not work on such principles. Whenever they finally get out here I'll update as to whether they continued their failures.

On the plus side, I get all local HD on my TiVo without the card, though no guide data for those channels. Also, until the CableCARD comes and starts doing QAM mapping of digital channels, NBC is channel 4 and NBCHD is 4-1, which is much easier to remember than 160. All of the HD channels are on subchannel -1 of their SD equivalent, which is pretty sweet. The lack of guide data for these channels means I can't program recordings in a sane manner, but the TiVo software is too nice to let you flounder there; you can set up recordings like on a VCR giving it the time and channel. Sure if something happens to the broadcast time it will record anyway, but it's better than nothing. Hell, it's even better than the Comcast Motorola box that would record but not play. Also, the TiVo does aspect correction itself, so it is hooked up to my AVR via HDMI directly, no more splitting the inputs and just generally complicating my setup. I've read enough online to know that part 2 isn't likely to be a happy ending so look forward to that.

New Comics: 12/24/08

DC
Batman #683 Regular Alex Ross Cover $2.54
Reign In Hell #6 $2.98

Marvel
Daredevil Vol 2 #114 Regular Marko Djurdjevic Cover $2.54
Immortal Iron Fist #21 $2.54
New Avengers #48 (Dark Reign Tie-In) $2.54
Nova Vol 4 #20 Regular Mike Deodato Jr Cover $2.54
Runaways Vol 3 #5 $2.54
Skaar Son Of Hulk #6 Regular Ron Garney Cover $2.54
Thor Vol 3 #12 $2.54
Wolverine First Class #10 $2.54

Spider-Man Noir #1 wasn't in the shop yesterday that I noticed, probably grab it next week then.

Pull Review: 12/17/08

This was a hell of a week to get back into this habit due to sheer bulk.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #20 - Shockingly high quality book of the week right here, not because it was excellent but because it was acceptable.  This is only shocking of course if you realize it was written by Jeph Loeb, the master of payoff after payoff after payoff.  Well, the dialogue isn't quite up to par here, but the majority of the story is a semi-flashback dream in a very cute cartoon style.  The upshot of most of it being a dream is that nothing of note happens, so there's nothing to pay off really.  It's a reasonably enjoyable, fun little story that serves essentially no purpose other than Joss letting Jeph write an issue.  On the other hand, that means it's utterly disposable and skippable.  Not Recommended for non-completionists.  (If I'm honest, the biggest reason I bothered to buy it is that my mother reads the Buffyverse comics too)

Angel: After the Fall #15 - Not quite as disposable as the Buffy issue.  Not at all honestly, as most of the plot threads from the very beginning of the run get tied up.  I'm still not a fan of the art, as there were a number of spots where I had to make educated guesses as to the identity of the characters rather than actually being able to tell.  As a fan of the series, I was astonished by my reaction to the ending, though considering this is a Joss Whedon work I won't suggest that it surprised me.  Recommended for any of you who were keeping up.  Don't jump ship is what I'm saying I suppose.

Uncanny X-Men #505 - This seems an unpopular opinion for whatever reason, but I rather like the Dodsons' art.  It seems to draw some unfair comparisons to Frank Cho's bootylicious funtime art, which could explain it, but honestly the things that infuriate me about Cho don't typically apply here.  I don't think anybody wishes the other regular penciller for the series was on though, so there's that.  As much as I like Ed Brubaker, this issue just cements in my mind that he was not a good fit here, and I'm honestly glad to see him go.  It'll give him more time for things he's better with, and there's no lack of those works.  I can't say I'm that interested in Piotr's story here as it seems a bit unlikely as an outlet for his grief, but the rest is pretty spot on.  Emma's story here definitely helps out with the Dark Reign one shot from last week, as her inclusion with the Illuminaughty (it's a Fraction book, I'll coopt his word) feels better after this issue.  Recommended.

X-Men Legacy #219 - I dropped the book during Original Sin as I prefered a gap in collection to picking up bits of Daniel Way's Wolverine Origins, but fortunately it doesn't seem to matter yet.  Unfortunately, this issue wasn't particularly good.  A reunion with Juggernaut after the accident was inevitable at some point, but for a series that essentially set out to be making Charles into less of an asshole, this is making him into a bit of an asshole.  It also retconned Juggernaut back to his earlier status quo, which may or may not be a good thing.  I honestly never read any of the reformed Cain books, but don't expect any more of them anytime soon.  Briones' art was servicable but uninspiring.  Not Recommended.

X-Factor #38 - I dropped this book for a while too, thanks to Larry Stroman 's approximation of "art," and I'm sad to say he was back for four pages (including a two page spread) in this issue.  Worse still, the rest of the issue is by Nelson (one name only) and he's not exactly my new favorite, but he's definitely far, far better.  Of course, someone should probably tell him how many fingers Longshot has if both the penciller and character are going to stick around long term (hint: it's not five per hand), and while we're at it the cover had Madrox with an unmarred face.  In terms of the plot, frankly it could probably have been done with another five pages or so in the last issue, and as such winds up feeling a bit superfluous.  Early indications are that the next issue is one of Peter David's best works ever, so I'm not about to jump ship, but this issue itself is Not Recommended.

Robin #181 - Anarky has got to be one of the wordiest damn villains in history, and it's not amusing enough to make up for it.  I don't really buy that Steph was told by Batman to become Zoom either, so that story continuing onward does nothing for me.  Freddie Williams's pencils are serviceable enough.  The series ends next issue, but this didn't really feel like it advanced a whole hell of a lot of the arc's plot threads.  With only one issue left I'm not jumping ship now, but it's Not Recommended to jump in now.

Batman and the Outsiders #14 - Ugh.  The art is pretty striking in the first few pages as it's all done very well in a widescreen style with some stark shadows and the integration of the credits into the pages like on ASS, but really the shadows were just hiding the overly hatched mess that all the later faces would turn out to be.  Moreover, the major story itself is utterly idiotic and hinges on you having read the terrible Batgirl miniseries penned by the man that made Cass radioactive in the first place.  Dick is an utter idiot here, Cass snipes a bit too much, and frankly the only redeeming factor is Riddler being his own egotistical ass self.  Not Recommended.

Supergirl #36 - Kara flies off in half cocked rage once again, but unlike the beginning of the series she has a damn good reason.    The last issue of Supergirl in New Krypton was a bit irrelevant to the overall narrative, acting more like a tie-in than chapter of the story, but don't be fooled this time.  We pick up right where the last issue left off with Metallo and Reactron's rampage, and things reach their expected end, rather than a 'comic book' conclusion.  We get some more time with Nightwing and Flamebird, and separately some time with Superwoman, but not enough to confirm who anyone is.  I think we can safely rule Alura, the enormous bitch, out of the running as Superwoman, but stranger things have happened.  Jamal Igle's pencils are good as usual, though his  rendering of Kara's costume doesn't quite mesh with the last issue.  All in all, an enjoyable reading experience.  Recommended.

Mighty Avengers #20 - The book was split  among three pencillers and inkers, but only two significant sections, which didn't really serve the issue particularly well.  The flashback being in a different style from what came later I'll accept, but the rest of the story is a mixture for no good reason.  After the flashback, nobody is wearing a costume, and there are more than a couple of blonde women, which makes it very difficult to tell the characters apart, and neither of the present day artists were helping that any.  Bendis definitely went out on a very strong issue himself though, as everyone is well handled in an extremely troubling situation.  It's not hard to understand Hank's reaction throughout the book, given the world he returned to and what he missed.  This is a changing of the guard of sorts, more setting you up for Bendis' new book than the continuing adventures of the current one, but you can hardly blame him for that.  All in all, Highly Recommended.

Invincible Iron Man #8 - The first arc of this book largely made me hate Marvel for being close enough to canning The Order that Fraction felt he should do so himself on his own terms, as it was an extension of that arc without any of the new characters, but since last issue it's taken a turn for the better.  A ludicrously stupid and common myth about the brain aside, this book delivers some good writing and promises a hell of an upcoming story.  Too bad Salvadore Larroca is such an irritating artist to match up with it.  Individual panels are pretty decent, but hair styles and facial features change too much from panel to panel, including Pepper's hair getting pulled back and then let down with her glasses disappearing and reappearing on the same page while lying down.  At least the characters don't all look blatantly like real actors this time.  Either way, it's not bad art per se, just somewhat distracting from an otherwise excellent book.  Highly Recommended.

Amazing Spider-Man #581 - I never read Death of a Goblin, so I'm not personally bothered by the Brand New Day retcon of it, and in this issue we finally get an answer as to how it happened.  The answer, as it happens, is stunningly plausible for a Dan Slott book, and it deals with the consequences rather realistically.  Peter was out of costume the whole time too, as a nice change of pace.  I'm still in a bit of shock about this since I reacted (not on this blog) with such bile to OMN/BND, but this book is Recommended.

Thor God-Size - The issue opens with a condensed retelling of Walter Simonson's Thor #362 (reprinted in back), and then continues into a modern day extension of it.  The writing is pretty much what we've come to expect from Fraction's modern myth style of Thor writing, which is to say pretty good.  The art is fantastic throughout, mostly in a painted style but with a section by the Allreds that is not unwelcome.  It doesn't really fit in with the current JMS run in any particular way, but since when was mythology required to fit together in tight continuity.  Highly Recommended.

Dark Reign: New Nation - Did you read Secret Invasion #8 through to the back cover?  Congratulations, you've read most of the first three stories here!  There are a couple more pages each, though odds are they'll all be in the respective #1s for their ongoings anyway.  Even worse, Marvel deigned to charge $4 for this book.  This is actually more offensive than the 16pp story/16pp script abominations Ellis was shitting out and they were charging $4 for, since it's basically an advertisement for their new books on top of at least nine pages of it being in a book that nobody who cared enough to pick this up didn't already read.  Stay The Fuck Away, And Screw You Marvel.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #1 - I forgot almost everything about how Emperor Vulcan ended, but this reminded me pretty darn quickly without beating me over the head with a thinly veiled recap dialogue.  I'm not entirely sure why Earth based heroes that aren't already there are going to be involved with the overall War of Kings story, but the issues Vulcan is causing the rest of the universe are pretty well defined.  I look forward to Gabe getting his comeuppance, which is probably the most anyone can ask for from the beginning of a story.  Mildly Recommended.