Nerd Survey: How do you watch TV

Howdy, Nerds and Geekgirls,

There will be no new Nerdy Top Ten today.  I started writing this as a This Nerd's Life, but decided at the last second to make it a new feature instead.  Thus, we here at Nerd is the New Cool, proudly welcome you to our first ever blog length Nerd Survey. 

I have from time to time posted quick Nerd Survey entries on my twitter feed (@nerdisnewcool) with minimal response, but this is my first long entry.

Background first.  My wife and I are contemplating booting the cable company out of the apartment, but aren't sure what to do from there.  There are a number we like but only a couple of must sees, Doctor Who being the biggest current show and Agents of SHIELD being the most important upcoming one.

So my question to you is: How do you watch TV shows?

1. The old fashioned way, on live TV
2. The new old fashioned way, on TiVo or some such
3. Buy seasons on DVD
4. Hulu or HuluPlus
5. Amazon
6. Netflix
7. Some other way

Anyway, I'd love to here from you, feel free to comment below or message me on twitter.

Until next time, Nerd is the New Cool, signing off.  

P.S. be sure to follow me on twitter @nerdisnewcool for the latest Nerd Surveys, This Nerd's Life Dailies, Quickies, and more Nerdy content.  

Twisted Tales 1 (Reader Copies #2)

Greetings Nerds and Nerdettes and welcome to this week’s exciting edition of Reader Copies.  Today we will be looking at the first issue of Bruce Jones’s classic Tales from the Crypt-esque anthology series Twisted Tales from Pacific Comics (aka PC).

This series is one of my all-time favorite 80s titles, probably is my favorite 80s horror title.  Writer-Creator Jones is one of the modern comic/horror icons.  He first made his bones at Warren writing for Creepy and Eerie.  He also spent time at Marvel writing for Ka-Zar and Conan.  But it is here with Twisted Tales and its sister title Alien Worlds that Jones truly shines. 

This issue, while not the greatest in the anthology’s run, is wonderfully, gorily fun.  This issue, like most of the ones that follow, features four short horror tales all written by Jones. 

The cover, signed JOCO – often attributed to opening story artist Richard Corben – features a big busted blonde bimbo holding a door closed against a horde of ravenous – or possibly horny – undead.  It kinda reminds me of that Evil Dead would have looked like if it had starred Loni Anderson.  This is the artistic high point of this initial issue. 

The four tales inside range in quality from a bland opener to a comical tale about fairy tales come to life.  The bland opener, “Infected” – told in second person which comes off very annoying (second person can be good when done right, but here at least Jones doesn’t pull it off) – concerns a loan collector hooking up with one of the women he came to collect from.  The story features a twist ending – as do many of Jones’s tales – but part of the twist is achieved by not telling the reader something early on that the main character is told.  Already something of a no-no in good viewpoint fiction, made worse by the constant narrative “you.” 

The art in this story is the worst of the lot, almost unforgivingly so.  It features stereotypical depictions of some ethnic characters, odd angles (which it uses to good effect in one scene, but abuses elsewhere), horribly drawn silhouettes, and ridiculous looking monsters.  

The second story, “Out of His Depth,” features a better, yet hackneyed, story of deception, murder, and revenge.  Drawn by Alfredo Alcala, this story features slightly better art than the first, which harkens back to the art of Tales from the Crypt, which works well with this tales that could easily have been lifted from that title. 

The next story is by far the best of this issue, “A Walk in the Woods.”  This tale features a married couple, lost in the German backwoods, travelling through a land of dark fairly tales.  The art, by Bret Blevins, is on par with Alcala’s from the previous story, and works well with the dark yet light hearted tone of the piece. 

The final tale, “All Hallows,” is similar in theme to “Out of His Depth” as it is a undead-return-for-revenge story, but is much darker and more removed from the ironic and moralistic tales of EC’s horror titles, being more disturbing and less forgiving.  True, like the tales of EC, the guilty are here punished, in full and in kind, but perhaps unlike those tales, and unlike in “Out of His Depth” the guilty here was more deserving of forgiveness and life, possibly even more deserving than some of the survivors of this story and of “Infected.”   The art, here by Tim Conrad, may be the best of the four stories, but is somehow lifeless and absent the moodiness of Blevins or the nostalgia of Alcala. 

 The four stories depicted here already show the gore and violence of Jones’s later issues, but it is much less dominate than it will be in future issues.  Also, missing in large part is Jones’s characteristic nudity and sexuality – though both do appear briefly.  In later issues – partly thanks to better art, partly to a more refined since of self – Jones et al, will reach their stride and create one of the best horror anthologies in the history of comics.  The promise of that greatness is here, but still just out of grasp. 

3/5 Stars (Individual stories range from 2 to 4 stars, with the 4s outnumbering the 2s)

Excellent Jumping on Point (Non-sequential anthology)

Not rated but Mature (Sex, Nudity, Violence, Gore, and some Language)

Until next time,

This is Nerd is the New Cool, signing off.  

New Comic Day (Late): Captain Midnight 1

Captain Midnight 1 was recommended to me by the clerk at a local comic shop.  It’s a beautiful piece and it did manage to get me involved with the story.  But that was as far as it went.  I remember there being parts of it that I liked and parts that I didn’t but they are gone now.  In a moment I’ll start flipping through it to find some points to reference, but for now, I can’t remember much that redeems or condemns it, and that alone is after something to condemn it.

The title suffers from all the things that make a modern comic good and all the things that make one bad.  I’m sure that if I’d read the other issues (don’t let the big #1 on the cover fool you, this is far from the beginning of the story.  A recently released issue 0 reprints Captain Midnight’s previous appearances, but I haven’t read it), the complex and largely unexplained back story would make more sense, but as I haven’t there are several gaps in my understanding of things.  Now don’t over read that last bit, I was able to follow the story for what it was, but this isn’t what I’d call a great jumping on point.  Not a big seller for a first issue (again, had a known about issue 0 before things might have been different, so we’ll give that one a slide). 

The hero suffers from Post-Watchmen syndrome.  He is human.  Something I expect my superheroes to be more than.  For example, in the opening WWII-era sequence, Captain Midnight’s actions put a villain in danger.  And Midnight, stands back and lets him die, saying “this isn’t what I wanted…but I wasn’t going to risk my life for a criminal like him.” Can you imagine Spider-Man or Superman saying that? 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll give Watchmen its due.  It’s a great comic.  So are The Dark Knight Returns and a dozen others of their ilk.  And the modern Hero can be dark and violent.  Wolverine is a wonderful example.  Dark Horse, in fact, has done it very well with several of their characters.  X and Ghost stand out as fine examples to me.  But looking at this comic, I wasn’t expecting gruff and violent.  And maybe that is Joshua Williamson and Fernando Dagnino’s point: a juxtaposed look at the “bright shinny hero” behaving like the dark and mysterious.  A real world guy.  But I ask you do we need another real world guy in comics?  Watchmen, Frank Miller’s Batverse and Sin City, Comics Greatest World, Ultimate Marvel, Astro City (which I openly admit to loving)… What does Captain Midnight add to the genre that these books don’t already fulfill? 

Too many comics nowadays are either staring “heroes” no better than the villains (many worse than the villains of the sixties and seventies.  A good example of this, as pointed out recently to me by my good friend RA Jones, is Henry Pym, a hero, who – among other things – stuck his wife while suffering a mental breakdown; something the character has yet to live down over thirty years later).  I ask again, do we need another violent hero? 

But enough of the bad, what about the good? 

As I said before, the book is beautiful.  The cover art is just that, Art.  The interiors are standard quality, on par with most everything coming out of Marvel and DC, maybe even better than most, though far from the best I’ve seen in the last few years. 

The supporting characters (and villains) stand out more to me than the titular hero (perhaps because he was only on 8 of the 22 pages and on two of those only barely).  The first up is 1940s villain Ivan Shark, he is a very standard Nazi villain, reminiscent of the Red Skull, Vandal Savage, and their kind, but while he is something of a standard baddie, he is well executed and his disappearance from the story is felt.  But the emergence of true big bad Fury Shark shows much promise; she had less screen time than Midnight (four pages) but is far more interesting and memorable.  Finally, Montoya…I mean, Maj. Charlotte Ryan is the standard tough as nails cop soldier.  Charlotte was by far the star of the issue (with 14 pages) and is shaping up to be the reader’s loyal (the character their allegiance is firmly placed with). 

Rounding out the cast are Joyce Ryan (Charlotte’s grandmother) who was one of Midnight’s sidekicks in the 40s, Agent Jones and Officer Rick Marshall (Marshall is Charlotte’s ex-husband) the two main government agents on Midnights trail, and several of Fury Shark’s lackies who could rise to more prominence or simply disappear. 

Overall, the art – especially at its grandest moments such as Charlotte’s rock climbing scene and the establishing shots of Secret Squadron HQ and the Nazi base at the North Pole – coupled with a somewhat gripping story and a few standout characters, isn’t enough to save the book for me.  Much like a lot of creator owned comics from the 90s, this book is a mediocre story in beautiful packaging. 

2.5/5 stars.                   Average Jumping on Point                  Unrated but Violent

Until next time, Nerd is the New Cool, signing off

Nerdy Top Tens: #FF [Hashtag Follow Friday]

Hello, everyone and welcome to a special crossover edition with my twitter.  For those of you who are on twitter, you know that today – as this time every week – is Follow Friday.

Those of you who are not on twitter are likely asking, “What the hell is that?”  Good question.  Follow Friday is the tradition of tweeting one or more twitter feeds that you recommend for your follower to follow. 

Now, I usually try to post one or two #FFs a week… Ok, stop we should back up and establish some nomenclature. 

            Basic Twitter Glossary

Tweet – a short 140 character or less “microblog” entry.  Similar to a “status update” on Facebook.  For contextual aid, this definition is 160 characters long.

# Hashtag – the subject or subjects of a tweet.  It is a word(s) that are “tagged” to make it easier for someone interested in them to search for them or cross-reference them with other tweets.  Ex: if this had been a tweet, I might have ended it with #TwitterGlossary

There are lots more terms you need to know but for the sake of brevity you can check out this article for some of the more important ones: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/2011/03/twitter-term-definitions/

            And now back to what we were actually talking about!

As I was saying, I usually try to post one or two #FFs every Friday – though I have missed a lot of Fridays.  But this week instead of posting a traditional #FF tweet, I’m preempting our regular programming here on Nerd Is the New Cool and posting a longer Nerdy Top Ten length #FF

Rather than a Countdown or Countup, I am doing them in no particular order. 

Nerdy Top Tens and @NerdIsNewCool Present

The Top Ten Twitter @s to Follow

Vsauce (@tweetsauce) This is your typical Stuff Is Neat/Science Show twitter feed.  Michael, the main man of the Vsauce empire, is also the host of the Vsauce channel over on youtube, where he gives quirky little science/philosophy lessons to views every week.  The @tweetsauce feed is more of the same, but in under 140 characters.  Plus, he does corny math/science jokes.  So there’s that, too.  Also, if you’ve read my blog “Top Ten Nerd Crushes” (warning banned in over 200 countries), then you know I’ve got something of a guy crush on Vsauce/Michael.  It’s the voice, it’s just so soothing.

Typical @tweetsauce tweets: “mammals come in almost every color…EXCEPT GREEN” and “If I help an astrologer divide the area of large salt-water bodies by r-squared does that make me a Pi-seas?”

Danica McKellar (@danicamckellar) Sorta kinda similar to Vsauce – but more math than science and with slightly better credentials…what’s your Erdos-Bacon Number, Michael? – but with a lot of ex-child star turned well rounded adult (#MythicalCreature?) type “my life” stuff.  Danica describes her tweeter as “Acting, Math, Yoga & Mommyhood! … and occasional random thoughts from deep inside my brain” plus on Thursdays she plays the #Palindrome game.  And oh look, I managed to make it all the way through without accidentally calling her “Winnie” once.

Typical @danicamckellar tweet: “Clue: Possible headline if Marilyn Monroe encountered some rodents. (3 wds) #NameThatPalindrome”

Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion) Big fancy TV star really just a nerdy fanboy type.  Be he in your mind as Castle or Captain Mal or Captain Hammer or Green Lantern (suck it, Reynolds), Nathan Fillion is a fanboy’s fanboy.  Hilariously funny in his self-deprecatingly cocky “I’m-all-that” way, his feed is full of humorous quips and one-liners, usually in response to something someone tweeted @ him.

Typical @NathanFillion tweets: “Nerd HQ Haiku  So very geeked out. / How do I sleep after that? / A Game of Doctor Thrones Who.  Nailed it.” and “Must…focus on…tweeting. Too…excited… for …Comic Con.”   

Wil Wheaton (@wilw) Some odd collection of famous person/beer/nerd/crazy person tweets with a significant amount of “That’s What My Dog Said” to round it out.  You might recognize Wil from Eureka or Big Bang Theory or any one of his many things…but let’s face it, you either think he’s Wesley Crusher or Gordie Lachance. 

Typical @wilw tweets: “Me: You’re too big for the cat bed. Marlowe: IF I FITS I SITS. Me: But you don’t fits. Marlowe: IMAPUPPEH!” and “According to my email, I won a lot of foreign lotteries while I was at comicon.”

Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) Wil Wheaton’s wife.  Because she’s better than him in every way.  Suck it, Wheaton.  Also, and more importantly #vandaleyes. 

Typical @AnneWheaton tweet:

 

I may have enhanced the beauty of the wall light decor in the convention center w/some #VandalEyes pic.twitter.com/t7UVYytqSq
— Anne Wheaton (@AnneWheaton) July 20, 2013

Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) Some guy, you’ve probably never heard of.  I think he describes himself best “Ladies man, man’s man, man about town… Java man, Isle of Man, Mandroid, Man Who Would Be King Ralph, girly man.” His twitter is mostly random WTF!? type stuff.  Wait…you do know who Joss Whedon is right? 

Typical @josswhedon tweets: “A fun thing to do on twitter is stop” and “ALWAYS QUSTION AUTHORITY! ‘Authority, may I use the restroom? No? Okay. Sorry.’”

Katrina Hill (@ActionChick) One of my all-time favorite tweeps.  Probably the most important reason she’s on this list is because of her infrequent #twittertip tweets. 

Typical @ActionChick tweets: “#twittertip #1: INTERACT! Also #1 Don’t be a tool unto others” and “*checks ammo, eyes the shadows*)

Drea (@ArkhamAsylumDoc) A real world psychologist, she made her bones studying the psychology of cosplay and fandom.  Also, she’s Batgirl’s shrink…no really. 

Typical @ArkhamAsylumDoc tweets: “I asked my dad if he saw Man of Steel.  He said yes we talked about it.  Halfway into the convo I realize he’s talking about Iron Man 3” and “I’d like to keep procrastinating by watching Beastmaster 2.  Apparently he travels to a future world called Los Angeles.”

Adrianne Curry (@AdrianneCurry) Ok, we all have that one person on twitter we usually don’t like to admit we follow.  I am very proud that Adrianne Curry is mine.  I’ll admit I follow her for the hot – yet often nerdy – twitpics and weird retweets as much as anything.  Warning: feed is sometimes risqué if not NSFW.

Typical @AdrianneCurry tweets:

Me and @AliciaMarieBODY with the hottest guy in the world pic.twitter.com/hP71lDe23F
— Adrianne Curry (@AdrianneCurry) July 20, 2013

And

Let us dance! #sdcc pic.twitter.com/33yBtHgNHu
— Adrianne Curry (@AdrianneCurry) July 20, 2013

Allison Scagliotti (@allisonscag) because #allisonscag4cassie that’s why!  That’s not the only reason why (love ya, Scags) but really, that’s enough. 

That’s my Ten, but now I wanna know your #FF pics.  Leave a comment below or @ me on twitter: @nerdisnewcool.

Also, some housekeeping.  There will be no new Five Dollar Bin today – you got this, don’t be greedy – nor will there be a new Nerdy Top Tens on Sunday.  I will be back on my regular posting schedule of Wednesday, Friday, Sunday – but really just whenever I feel like it – next week, so see you then.  I may even get around to a This Nerds Life on Monday but no promises there. 

Until next time,

Nerd Is the New Cool, signing off.  

New Comic Day (Late): Rocketeer/Spirit

Howdy folks and welcome to the second edition of New Comic Day! That’s right, number 2.  And we are already a day late on the delivery schedule!  Go, Team NitNC!  Actually, if you swung by last week, then you know we are actually 8 days late, since we didn’t even have an edition last week.  That’s right, your old buddy Nerd Is the New Cool is on top of his game this month (year? Decade? Century? Oh, bother!).

Anyway, here in Nerdland, we had a killer storm – well a storm anyway – Tuesday night that kept me up, as well as the wife and our pride and joy the Nerd-Hound.  Mostly it was Nerd-Hound being up that cause the issues, we was scared and clingy and insisted on attention.  Regardless, I overslept on Wednesday and was playing catchup all day.  So, no trip to my Friendly Neighborhood Comic Shop for me.  But I made it today and here we go!!!

This Week’s Star Comic:

The Rocketeer & The Spirit: Pulp Friction 1

That’s right.  You read it correctly.  The Rocketeer!  The Spirit! Together in one blockbuster issue.  This is so awesome...

Such a letdown. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good.  Bordering on decent even.  But it has all the elements of better than good – not the least of which is two of the greatest comic book characters of all time.  Beyond that, it’s written by Mark Waid, one of my favorite writers. 

So what went wrong?  Everything.  Paul Smith’s art is passable but it lacks both the crisp style of Dave Stevens and the pulp grit of Will Eisner.  It is very good art, very standard, very average.  I’ve seen worse.  But is “I’ve seen worse” enough? 

Even Waid’s writing is lackluster.  Again, I’ve read worse – in fact, I’ve read worse by Waid (I’m looking at you, Superman: Birthright) – but as a whole, Waid should be a shoe in for better than this, expecially considering this isn’t his first foray into the world of Rocketeer. 

Again I ask, is “I’ve seen worse” enough? Eisner is the legend.  Both in writing and in art.  They named an award after the man.  And Stevens is right behind him as an artist.  Literally.  When I comes to comic art it goes down like this:  Kirby, Ross, Ditko (shut up, Dad!), Steranko, Wrightson, Eisner, Stevens, Sale, Kane (shut up, Dad! – look at that same joke twice in the same sentence, I’m losing my edge already). 

As for the story itself, it is standard summer crossover fair.  Two heroes meet for the first time, naturally have a misunderstanding and fight.  The fight itself is awesome, but I won’t spoil it for you by describing it.  Needless to say, had Eisner or Stevens been sitting at the easel for this one, the fight alone would have been enough to win the book over for me, but Smith’s work left something to be desired and the fight had a less profound impact on me that someone else’s might have.   But please Hollywood, make an adaptation of this comic so I can see that scene in live action 3D! 

Aside from the issues discussed above, the comic was fun and enjoyable.  The classic characters are all here, Bettie Page…er, I mean the Rocketeer’s girlfriend Betty, The Octopus (or rather his hand), Commissioner Dolan and Ellen, Peevy…even Ebony draws and behind the scenes mention.  As I said, the fight between the heroes is classic (a bit cliché but this is a “summer blockbuster crossover” after all).  Ellen and Betty are both at their stereotypically ‘40s dame best. 

Had I had no prior knowledge of the characters, the book would have rated higher, had I bought it which would have been less likely.  As it stands:

3.5/5 stars.  Excellent jumping on point. 

Unrated but nothing too inappropriate so probably around T for Teen. 

            Other Noteworthy Titles This Week

Hunger 1 (Marvel)

Superman Unchained: The Director’s Cut 1 (DC)

Popeye Classics 12 (IDW)

Army of Darkness Hack/Slash 1 (Dynamite/Image)

Warlord of Mars 27 (Dynamite)

Until next time, Nerd Is the New Cool, signing off…

My Gaming Nerd Bucket List

OK, for starters bucket list was so an exaggeration, I probably just said that to get your attention.  I don’t plan on dying any time soon and I want this list checked off in the near future.  But what is this list you ask?

Simple, it’s a collection of the Tabletop Games that I want to spend some time playing – either playing games I’ve never played or doing something more with games I have, I’ll go into more detail about that in the individual entrees. 

So what are the games?  Well, I’m glad you asked. 

1.      Dungeons and Dragons – The premium Fantasy role-playing game (RPG).  It’s the RPG that other RPG’s dream about one day being.  I’ve played a little, both running through 1 player choose-your-own-adventure type games and DMing (that’s Dungeon Master-ing, for the unfamiliar – *waves* “hi mom”) a few short games with friends.  Now what I want to do is run a long campaign in the Points of Light/Nentir Vale setting or play in a campaign in a different setting – probably Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk – or do both.

2.      GURPS – Short for Generic Universe Role-Playing System is an RPG with no setting, it can be used to play medieval fantasy, science fiction, horror, adventure, crime, western, or whatever setting/genre the players choose, including time travel settings to bring the various options together.  I have never played GURPS but I’d kinda like to give it a try, either as player or as Game Master (GM). 

3.      Call of Cthulhu – There is a lot of ground covered by GURPS, including the ability to create player characters (PCs) and nonplayer characters (NPCs) that are compatible with the Cthulhu Mythos.  Thus eliminating the need for this Gaming System, yet it is still on here.  Why?  Because I still want to play it.  I am sure, after I play it a few times – and play GURPS a few times – unless I decide I really like this system much better than GURPS, I will start playing Weird Horror Campaigns using the GURPS system with this as a resource.  But I still want to try this first. 

4.      Cthulhu Live – A Live Action RPG or LARP, Cthulhu Live is sorta kinda not really but maybe like Call of Cthulhu.  It is set in the Lovecraft/Cthulhu mythos, often but not always in the Lovecraft 20s/30s era.  But rather than the pen and paper or miniature RPGs like CoC, DnD, and GURPS, Cthulhu Live is acted out.  Players dress the part go to locations and act out their characters rather than talking them out.  Using one of my local colleges or universities as a backdrop for Miskatonic University would be one interesting way to act out a scenario, but others could be found as well. 

5.      Fiasco – Ok, one last RPG.  Fiasco is sort of a pen and paper RPG.  No campaigns, just a quick story that takes about the same amount of time to play as a movie takes to watch.  In terms of content, they compare this game to Coen Brothers’ movies.  A game all about “powerful ambition and poor impulse control,” Fiasco is a GM-less RPG set at the “intersection of greed, fear, and lust.”  Basically, it’s bad things happen to bad people, everybody loses, and most everybody dies.  Not only do I want to play this, I want to write my own Playsets for it.  

6.      Munchkin – A card game that is similar to and making fun of RPGs – especially D&D –  made by the same folks who also make GURPS – D&D’s most important rival system.  In Munchkin, you play cards that give you races and classes, items, special abilities, etc. and fight monsters looking for treasure, in Munchkin it’s all about winning.  There are a number of spinoffs to Munchkin – I have the original game and spinoff Star Munchkin, which spends a lot of time mocking sci-fi franchises such as Star Wars and Star Trek (among others) and the RPGs based on them.  My wife and I both love Munchkin, and I would like to play a massive Epic Munchkin blender game with lots of sets and expansions mixed together.  (Note: Epic Munchkin is played to level 20 instead of level 10, and blender is when two or more versions are mixed together).  

7.      Catan – I love Catan.  My wife is “meh” about it and my parents aren’t big fans either – though they have only got to play it once and we weren’t able to play to a conclusion due to time constraints, so I may be able to recover them. I have the basic Settlers of Catan, the 5-6 Player expansion to Settlers, and Traders and Barbarians.  I want to get Seafarers, Cities and Knights, and the corresponding 5-6 Player expansions I need. Once I have everything I wanna play a couple of big games with several of the variants and scenarios mixed together, playing to 20 victory points instead of 10.  It would take potentially a long time to finish, but I like games that take a long time – unlike my wife, who will cringe when she reads this part.  

8.      Invasion from Outer Space – The Martian Game – I love Last Night on Earth – my wife doesn’t love it as much as me, but she likes it so we’re cool there.  But what does this have to do with Invasion from Outer Space?  I’m glad you asked.  The Three-Sided Game: Earth Overrun!  That’s right, if you own both Last Night on Earth – The Zombie Game and Invasion from Outer Space – The Martian Game, you can combine them and play a Humans vs. Martians vs. Zombies game.  The official instructions say you should play with either the IFOS Circus/Carnival pieces or the LNOE Small Town pieces but I say boo.  Place them together, forming a larger playing area, with two Human players (one playing the IFOS heroes, the other playing the LNOE heroes), one Martian player and one Zombie player.  Additional players could take up sides as is deemed most fair.  

9.      Power Grid – ok, this one isn’t so much for me as it is for my father.  He doesn’t know much about it, but he found it on Amazon and thought it looked interesting.  So I want to get a copy and play with him, mostly to get him to shut up about it.  

10.  Tabletop – yeah I know pipe dream.  But I want to be on Tabletop.   If anyone from Geek and Sundry is reading this, I would love to be on to play any of the above games or any other game you need players for. 

So there you have it, the ten games I’d most like to spend some time with in the near future.  What games do you like to play?  Leave a comment below or hit me up on twitter @nerdisnewcool. 

Also, a good resource for games is www.boardgamegeek.com.  Also, be sure to check out Tabletop starring Wil Wheaton Thursdays on youtube for game play videos. 

Until next time,

Nerd is the New Cool, signing off

Reader Copies: Welcome and Justice League 1

Welcome, Nerds and Nerdettes, to the first installment of Reader Copies.  In this series, we will be looking back at old comics that can be picked up in back issue usually for someplace between 50 cents and 10 dollars – and it better be a damn good comic if I drop 10 dollars for it!  I will, of course, lean toward Super-Hero comics but other genre may crop up from time to time. 

A “reader copy” by the way is a copy of a comic that is in less than perfect (Mint) shape, driving down its price, but is still in a readable shape – no missing pages/panels, cover usually still attached. 

Justice League 1 (1987)

4/5 Stars          Excellent Jumping On Point              

Justice League was the first renumbering of the long running DC Comics series Justice League of America.  Way back in the Silver Age of Comics, the JLA was comprised of the top DC characters – Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, etc.  – but over the years the ranks began to fill with less and less important heroes – Firestorm, Vibe, and Gypsy to name a few.  Then came the Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot that shut down the history of the DC Universe and let other younger heroes step up – if by younger heroes you mean guys like Captain Marvel and Blue Beetle who had been around almost as long as Superman and Batman. 

Anyway, a couple months after Crisis ended, DC published Legends, which set the tone for the comics of the 80s and 90s.  Heroes were no longer trusted by the masses, they were gruffer and more violent as a hole.  The fun was officially out of comics… for the most part.  There were titles that resisted the darkening of the comic world, and among them was Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis’s run on the Justice League (sometimes called Max’s League or more often Justice League International).

Though this issue isn’t the JL at its greatest, all the key elements are there. Humorous, wisecracking heroes, as flawed and incompetent as they are heroic.  One or two A-listers playing second string to a group of B- and C-listers who steal the spotlight when it isn’t outright given to them.  Several of the classic members are already present: Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Guy Gardner, Oberon.  But most are still issues away. 

Maxwell Lord is at his manipulative devilish here as the backer of the issues villains – a role that will be played well throughout the Giffen and DeMatteis run, but completely miss used later by other authors in the 21^st Century. 

Green Lantern Guy Gardner is the show stopper here – as he often will be in future issues – as the arrogant would be leader of the team.  His interactions with Batman are especially amusing (though they don’t reach their true greatness until issue 5 and the infamous “One Punch” scene). 

The terrorist villains are boring and forgettable – appearing on only about 8 of the issues 25 pages.  They are functional, serving the purpose of establishing Maxwell Lord’s ruthlessness, but the Justice League – even *this* Justice League – deserves better from a premier antagonist, especially in the wake of Legends Darkseid centric storyline. 

Overall, Justice League 1 is a good read, though it can be disappointing, especially if you have already read later issues of the run.  Disappointment aside, I remain very fond of this title and this issue, while not its best, is still leagues above many later Justice League series.