This Week in Geek (11-17/06/07)

Buys

Damn you, blogosphere, you made me buy stuff! Oh, I was gonna get Showcase Present the Atom and Essential Marvel Two-in-One vol.2 of course, but 2 Manhunter trades? A Checkmate trade? The reprinting of the 1977 Batman Encyclopedia by Michael Fleisher? Yeah, that was because of all the supportive comments on the many blogs to the right. But I'm not unhappy about it (see below)!

"Accomplishments"

Video games... Picked up an old Halo 2 game on a lunch hour this week, and it turned out I was real close to the end. So now I have it finished at Heroic. Something tells me Legendary is gonna be a bitch though. Over on World of Warcraft, I played three nights this week, and went up three levels. Lyndawithay goes from 48 to 51, which I'm rather proud of actually.

And since I'm all about multi-tasking, I listened to Big Finish Doctor Who audios while I played. A large sampling too! For the 8th Doctor:
-The Time of the Daleks: A weird juxtaposition of Daleks reciting Shakespeare, it was way better than tv's Shakespeare Code, but still relied - as these things seem obliged to - too much on dropping quotations. And shouty, very shouty.
-Neverland: The "season finale" that had quite an impressive reputation, and I agree it's an extremely strong episode for Charley, but the tempo-babble was hard slogging.
-Living Legend: A short bonus disc, it's just a fun bit of business with the Doctor conning an alien invader.
The 7th Doctor, for his part:
-The Fires of Vulcan: He and Mel visit Pompei on the wrong day. Mel may be a reviled Companion, but she's tops here, and the paradox story makes for an interesting puzzle. Well done.
-The Shadow of the Scourge: A Paul Cornell-written audio starring the Doctor, adult Ace and Bernice Summerfield as they were in the novels? It's got a lot of screaming and violence, but I love the manipulative New Adventures Doctor, and the story keeps your interest throughout.

Speaking of Doctor Who, I also flipped The Keeper of Traken DVD starring the 4th Doctor and Adric, and featuring the first appearances of Nyssa and the new Master (coinciding with the Master's return in the new series). Much better than I remembered it (including a palatable Adric), though Tom Baker looks positively haggard. The commentary features Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) compulsively reading the credits, but his enthusiasm is infectious and it's nice to hear from the writer, Anthony Ainley (Master) and Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) too.

And of course, new cards (15) for my WhoCCG, this time based on the last Christmas special, The Runaway Bride. Favorite pic:
And then there's Manhunter. Read both volumes already (covering the series through #14) and yes, it IS excellent. For one thing, it features real people. Kate Spencer is a real woman, with qualities and flaws, and she acts as an outsider to this superhero world, commenting consistently on its absurdities and living with the real problems that would come with that life. For another, it's never predictable. It doesn't turn into Punisher, or Daredevil, or Chase, even if you sometimes think it will. There is a death toll however (but not as high as the first issue would have you suspect), which isn't something I like too much from my comics (despite my enduring love for Suicide Squad), especially when Golden Agers go out like chumps. Anyway, I look forward to reading more of these.

Speaking of Suicide Squad, Checkmate is its worthy successor, though I'm not done yet, so I'll keep that for next week.