Short bites

As you might have guessed, I've spent the last several weeks in a cave. A Batcave, specifically. I bought Batman: Arkham Asylum the day it was released, and playing it has taken up the vast majority of my free time...and a little of the time that I should have been spending working or sleeping. I started a review, but every time I sit down, I'm forced to choose between blogging and playing the absolute best superhero game I've ever played. But nonetheless, now that I've finally solved all the Riddles and whatnot, I plan on finishing up that review.

Working has assimilated much more of my time than I'd like, in large part because I'm not nearly as organized as I ought to be. The next several hours will see a marathon of organizing and working, as I try to get my head above water. In the meantime, here are some brief thoughts on the news that's happened since I last blogged:

• On the Disney/Marvel buyout: I thought this was shocking at the time, but it makes a great deal of sense, what with Warner/DC having been the status quo for as long as I can remember. Now Dreamworks just needs to buy Image, and Paramount can pick up IDW. I imagine that Lucasfilm and the Hellboy films' Columbia/TriStar can fight over Dark Horse. I really hope this means that Marvel's going to finally have some decent animated material--besides Spectacular Spider-Man, which is great. Also, I'm looking forward to "Kim Possible: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." You know you want it.
  
• On DC Entertainment: I'm bugged by Levitz's departure at the top, and I'm curious how this will effect the company. I dig Levitz a lot, and I hope that leaving the position will improve his ability to write, because the last couple of things I read from him weren't great. I also hope this means that Warner will be taking DC properties more seriously; I love the Batman films, and unlike most I loved Superman Returns, and I'm looking forward to Green Lantern, but DC's lagging quite a bit in the film department. I love Batman: Brave and the Bold and the straight-to-DVD movies, but I think the market can handle other DC characters on the small screen as well. I'm a bit dismayed by the lack of a new Superman film on the horizon, but I guess I'm lucky in that I still have a recent one to watch. Repeatedly. With enjoyment.
  
• The new Justice League line-up has me conflicted. If you'd told me a year ago that James Robinson would be writing a Justice League featuring Mon-El, I would have drooled all over my comic stack. Today, though, I'm terribly conflicted. JLofA limped along at the end to something vaguely resembling a conclusion, and I feel bad that Dwayne McDuffie got screwed over so royally on that title. The current miniseries doesn't appeal to me in the least bit, and from what I'm hearing, I'm better off not buying it. I haven't been really bothered by Robinson's work in the Superman titles, but his book has clearly been the weakest of the bunch--again, unfortunate, because I've loved Mon-El since I was a kid, and I dig Guardian as well. At least Steel got some time to shine recently, which is good, but then there was that Mon-El spotlight issue which felt like lots of great ideas that should be expanded upon. I like Mark Bagley, I like Mon-El, but I don't like the prospect of reading a Justice League book about heroes with stilted dialogue who have a gray sense of morality and spend most of their time agonizing over philosophical dilemmas. I read Brad Meltzer's JLA already, thanks.
  
• I'm looking forward to Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, and I hope it's as good as the first one. I would have bought it already, but I'm budgeting my game purchases, and Beatles: Rock Band was the more important purchase this month.
  
• I read 52 every week. It was one of the first books I picked up in a given stack. I read Countdown for a few issues, before dropping it unmercifully. I read Trinity for a couple of months, and bought the rest of the series out of habit and hope--but I haven't gotten to read past the single-digit issues yet. I've read most of Wednesday Comics #1. I think I might wait for the trade on the next weekly comic.
  
• I feel really bad about letting the SilverHawks Sundays lapse for so long, and even worse about letting Trek Tuesdays die on the vine. Especially since I recently watched Star Trek: Insurrection for the first time in a decade or so, and enjoyed it a lot more than when I was in high school.
  
• Speaking of Trek, why can't I find the Motion Picture 2-disc edition for a decent price? I've managed to pick up every other worthwhile Trek movie (2-9, which admittedly includes ones that aren't worthwhile, but doesn't include the worthless one) for between $5 and $14 each, but the cheapest copy of TMP on Amazon is $16 before shipping. Of all the Trek films, I thought only 5 would be cheaper than 1. I'm certainly not going to pay more for the first flick than I did for Wrath of Khan, so I guess I'll keep borrowing my brother's copy for awhile longer.
  
• The new Batgirl costume is hideous. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying Batwoman's adventures in Detective Comics. Alice is a delightfully crazy villainess, and a nice addition to the Bat-Family's litany of Carroll-inspired rogues.
  
• I'm curious to see some of the less memorable superhero movies of the past. While it shouldn't be hard to get hold of Punisher: War Zone, I'm not sure how I might find the various awful Captain America flicks or Generation X or the Corman Fantastic Four outside of convention bootlegs. And while I've seen everything from the Star Wars Christmas Special to the complete series of Blake's 7 in comic convention bootleg booths, I've never seen even a single copy of the old Power Pack TV movie, which, as a Power Pack fan, I'm very curious to see. To summarize, where might I find these movies, and am I right in suspecting that the answer rhymes with "gorrents"?
  
• That's it for now! Onward, into the valley of my inbox...