I read X-Factor #49 and I'm just like 'what?! what?' I have no idea what the hell happened there.

I have read a lot of comics in the last week, notably several Superman floppies. (Clark has left Earth and is going by Kal now?!? Oh, DC, you make my head spin with how quick things change.)

I've been reading some Birds of Prey circa Greg Rucka, because I'd only read the Gail Simone issues back in the day, and, wow, now I really understand why people find Oracle so entertaining. She was so much more likable then. I also like that Dinah gets in all sorts of romantic misadventures but Rucka's writing doesn't seem judgemental of it, or of how she obviously enjoys men and sex, which is nice and kind of unexpected given media in general. I also finally read the Nightwing/Huntress mini which is much cheesier than I expected and I'm not entirely sure the particular way Huntress has of coming onto him makes a bunch of sense, but again with the writing not judging her for having a one night stand (and I must say I still find the way Devin Grayson wrote Dick kind of charming). It's a strangely mature thing with two hot people who just need something at that moment in time. It's interesting to me, because by the time of Simone's run of BoP it had become 'Huntress sometimes has casual sex and therefore there is a problem with her as a woman'.

Also, the Batfamily and their assorted associates and hangers-on were so much lighter in tone and character in the 90s. In this decade the batbooks have increasingly become grim and/or gritty to the point of unintentional parody (see also, the completely hilarious first two issues of Red Robin) and Bruce has increasingly had less of an actual personality, to the point where I have lost almost all interest in the books.

Anyway, thoughts on actual comics, some of which are probably months old, (and I have not managed to get the latest 'Tec or this month's previews yet): ( X-Force #18, Wonder Woman #35, Gotham City Sirens #3, The Initiative #27, Dark Avengers #8, Dark X-Men #3, Treehouse of Horror #9, Fantastic Four #569, Superman Man of Krypton #1, Supergirl #43, Power Girl #3 and Detective Comics #856 )

I think that's everything I've read in the last week, comicwise. I swear I do read comics that aren't superhero comics (okay, mostly horror comics) but I just wait for the trade for those. I wonder if the SC of Magneto Testament is out yet and when Groom Lake will be finished.

Completely unrelated, but Q&A last night was really interesting, even if it made me feel bad for having pretty much completely missed the Writer's Festival.

I've been reading the first few issues of the original X-Factor series from the 80's and it's actually pretty good. The stuff that isn't super powered fighting is really charming and funny, Jean's feelings about returning to her life make sense (omg characterisation making sense in an X-book!) and HAHAHA Scott is such a passive-aggressive dick. The Emma stuff makes so much more sense when I look at how he treated Maddy towards the end of their marriage.

Unrelatedly, I don't understand why most women who claim to be feminists in media and comics fandom have such conservative sexual mores, always so much slut shaming whenever a female character is anything other than pure and chaste. I always forget how much it annoys me. (I totally judge people who think there's anything wrong with casual sex and one night stands, I admit. I mean, I don't do either, but that doesn't make me think there's anything wrong with casual sex.)

( X-Factor things ) It's really hard to stop myself from squeeing about how awesome and shiny X-Factor is and how much I love it, especially when I know a lot of people really don't like the writer and there has been a lot of different artists on the book.

I should do proper blogging about all the comics I've been reading lately but there's a lot of them, and also nobody actually cares.

I will say this, though - I read Red Robin #1 because everyone was gushing about how super duper awesome it was and, uh, I'm still wondering if it's a joke. It's like this parody of grim, gritty heroes. I find it really hard to take the dialogue and text box narration seriously, even with how far I can suspend my disbelief for superhero comics ('I felt myself crossing the line. But is there a line to cross anymore? Does it even matter?' Emphasis theirs. Seriously? It's so pedestrian.) I wonder if Yost wrote this shit in his sleep and I'm not fond of the art, either. It's a shame as I used to rather like Tim, back in the day, but this is just so over the top it's hilarious.

Not that it matters as I've got 'Tec to keep me entertained and be my one regular DC title, with hot hot Batwoman and apparently Huntress is going to show up at some point in the next year which I look forward to, if true.

I'm also not hating the Utopia Dark Avengers/UXM crossover. I mean, it's silly and all, but the panel of Charles and diamond Emma was awesome and I think interesting stuff could happen there, even if I'm confused as to why Julian Keller is now wearing dorky sweater vests.

* For all that it's trashy throw-away entertainment, X-Force had some damn good artists in the mid to late 90s - Terry Dodson, Jim Cheung, Tommy Lee Edwards.

* Cannot wait for the next issue of X-Factor as the preview indicates the plot will actually be moving forward. Yay.

* Am I the only person whose coming out as queer was not traumatic or dramatic or any kind of event at all? Because nobody, as I recall, was surprised or bothered and I've encountered very little actual biphobia in my time.

* Right now I am reading one book which talks about the fun of Ren and Stimpy and another that stated that people collect comics because they are, and I quote, 'awesome'. Media analysis is the funnest kind of non fiction.

I told myself I wouldn't download enough to go over my limit this month and yet here I am, having tripped over the limit torrenting something last night, facing the prospect of being shaped to 64k for 11 days. Sigh.

♥ My hair has faded to a lighter reddish brown already but I think it suits me. Not too harsh for my ridiculously pale skin tone.

♦ Went out into the cold on Friday night to hang out with zanbam and reburta. As soon as we got into the first bar of the night we were hit on by a nigh incomprehensible drunk Irishman. There weren't many people out on the town, though. Must be because of the weather.

I met up with telcontar and geekinstinct today. We were going to go to the museum but, uh, stuff happened, so we went into the city to have lunch and look in nerd shops instead. Minotaur didn't have the volume of X-Factor I want in soft-cover, even though they have later volumes in TPB and the guy didn't even offer to order it for me (I mean, I could have asked but the people that work at that store generally act like they're not going to put effort into getting you to part with your money, so why should I bother when I can just go to a decent comics store in Chapel St instead?).

♠ I am sunburnt. Serves me right for thinking I could go without sunscreen for once.

♣ I was feeling nostalgic about bad 90's comics (because I grew up on those and I love them) so I downloaded a bunch. I had never read the X-Force '99 Annual before and it was going well enough until it got to them riding on logs and then I was just like 'what? what? how does that--? just what?' I was actually so confounded by the random cracktasticness of that that I actually voiced my confusion out loud.

Also, looking at early X-Force issues (why am I reading this? why can't I look away?) Liefeld was pretty fond of randomly giving the female characters O-face. Oh god, the pain, that on top of the anatomical wtf-ery.

• Minotaur didn't have Uncanny #511 so I had to download it and omg Land's art in his part of the book is ugly. Even beyond the annoyance of the extreme photo-referencing, a lot of the panels are flat out ugly. I do like the writing, though, especially the intro captions. I remember CBR forums hated this issue but I like the way Fraction is writing the team and just hate Land's art on UXM. The Dodson pages were nice, though, and I really love Beast in that last scene of the issue.

#512, though? Flat out awesome all round. Gorgeous art, awesome story, and omg steampunk sentinel! Best ever. I may have to dl it so I can make a desktop wallpaper out of the pretty.

• Panicking about flat inspection on Saturday. I suck at cleaning so it'll be a hard slog on Thursday & Friday nights getting it up to scratch. Understandably, they are pissed because the carpet in the hall had to be steam cleaned after the plumber came through on the weekend and that is expensive.

I finally found X-Factor #45. It pleases me greatly. You know, except for the boring and mildly confusing parts in the future mostly featuring characters I don't really care about, heh. ( I'd say this issue contains medium-level violence and gay themes... )

Oh, also I watched the unicorn episode of Merlin. That was so pretty. Oh, Arthur ♥

Notes to self:

- Dl chaps 103 to 162 of Bleach. Reread. Take notes. Make icons.

- Hunt down Noir box set. If JB HiFi doesn't still have it order it from somewhere. Quality Comics is last resort.

- Rent Wedding Peach already.

- Find red plaid pleated skirt in my size. If fail, buy material & pattern, find the slkdfjfghlks sewing machine and make my own damn skirt.

- Buy more comics!!!