#173. Weekly No. 92

PBR’s Weekly

No. 89iii

Now in our third week of self-imposed exile, I can’t help but notice that over at Paperback Reader itself, Bart’s not having the best of times, with or without my absence. A.C. Hall has more or less continued the exile he briefly returned from himself, starting around the time he decided to abandon Dead Letter Quarterly without actually informing myself or Derek Koch (presumably); Dan Head has taken yet another leave as well, and hasn’t this time bothered to corner a replacement columnist, as he normally does; meaning that at the moment, the columns there have been reduced to ones focusing on anime and Battlestar Galactica, with Derek’s bi-weekly Letters thrown in for good measure. To make matters worse, upstart reviewer Andrew McDonald, whom I’d actually tried to recruit as a collaborator, has since quit, apparently, or has even further reduced his output, after a brief introductory flurry (if Bart treated him the same as he did me, he probably told Andrew that “he didn’t have to review everything he read,” no doubt still as a joke, but still coming off the same way). I don’t mean to pick on either Bart or the site, but it’s hard to paint a rosy picture, as Bart always insists on, when things could look better. The latest redesign has effectively pushed reviews down the scroll, to where you won’t even know they’re there upon first encounter. Heck, for the longest time I didn’t bother checking in on whatever someone had written up because the list was literally out of sight, out of mind. Again, I don’t want to sound negative (I inevitably sound that way anyway, I guess; I swear, though, in person, it’s absolutely mixed with my acerbic wit), it’s just I’ve grown increasingly cynical about the site, and that’s what pushed me to remove myself from it, a process that began before the ill-fated Dead Letter Quarterly but certainly wasn’t helped by the experience. Bart is a terrific administrator in some respects, but in others, he’s maddeningly content to let progress mostly sit within only his awareness. I think transparency is a good thing, I really do. And again, this is not to be construed as a dominant explanation for the current predicament, but the fact that he has proven far less supportive of the fact that I have a book than he first claimed he’d be, only to continually make decisions that benefit the site in incremental ways, streamlining away any support he’s shown for his contributors (beginning with a very speedy removal thereof for Dead Letter, in fact, long before the project self-imploded) can’t possibly help, nor his continued blackwalling of information regarding these decisions, other than asking for our approval of the cosmetic changes. I adore Bart for the opportunity he enthusiastically gave me, even walking alongside my infant stages, but as a long-term figure, he’s proven lacking, and I know from inconceivable loyalty for an Internet site, having stuck by a message board called the Observation Lounge for the previous incarnation of Section 31.com that eventually became Lower Decks, growing into a contributor position that has since, along with everyone else, fallen by the wayside for the moment, a process that has covered most of the last decade. I respect Bart for running the site and perhaps for having more patience than I can possibly know, and that alone will be the reason if I return the column to its rightful place and thus have the opportunity to properly reach a hundredth column (the reason I’ve modified the numbering since the first week of exile).

Anyway, there were comics this past week, too, including the launch of the year‘s biggest DC event! And because last Monday was Memorial Day, they shipped a day late:

Week of May 29, 2008

QB ~Final Crisis #1 (of 7) (DC) Hopefully you’ve heard of this one. Aside from every other obvious thing about it, DC’s also been and will continue to support it with a number of side projects, some of which have already introduced readers to a number of important underpinning concepts, and the one the company has apparently felt most important to at least the early stages is the establishment of Libra as the villain of pivotal choice. Of course, this is being written by Grant Morrison (and being drawn by J.G. Jones, responsible for all those historic 52 covers), meaning it’s not even going to be ordinary by Crisis standards (I love Geoff Johns, but Infinite Crisis already feels comparatively ordinary, as epic as it was). This is Grant unleashed to tell his story exactly as he wants, which doesn’t mean he’s going to completely wig out, place it in the far future (DC One Million) or within an intricately woven team non-team tapestry (Seven Soldiers of Victory) or even break the fourth wall (Animal Man), but do something truly revolutionary (are you reading this, Secret Invasion’s Brian Bendis?), and once again, as he’s been doing in the pages of Batman, tell an in-continuity as if he doesn’t have to follow the usual continuity rules. Think Kingdom Come, if you will, Marvels or Dark Knight Returns, whatever, a story that is in complete command of itself. To make it brief, Grant’s not pulling any punches. You may be able to tell because he kills an honest-to-god major character during the issue, off-panel, even, Martian Manhunter (the uproar resulting from this event that I don’t even need to spoil is just a little hypocritical, because readers have almost never actually cared about him, even through his recent mini-series and transformation into literally one of the most fascinating heroes in comics), and otherwise spends the issue on a prelude that insists on still treating Libra as if the reader is only just becoming acquainted with him, even though he’s made two appearances (DC Universe Zero and Justice League of America #21) that have basically covered the same ground, which isn’t so much a signal of redundancy as it is to reiterate that, even with all the other material DC will be publishing around this event, Grant is determined to make this book a self-contained, must-read, instant-classic all its own. He’s succeeding. He’s setting a new standard. And yes, DC’s been readying the stage for a long time, it’s ready, and this time, nothing is ever going to be the same again, and you will be able to count on that. This ending is just a beginning.

QB ~All Star Superman #11 (DC) As if he really needs any help justifying the hype as the best writer in comics today, Grant also delivers this penultimate issue of his Superman saga, in which the Man of Steel faces mortality and his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor in a defining story that sets a new standard only one other writer is capable of reaching…

QB ~Action Comics #865 (DC) And that’s Geoff Johns, who here delivers one of his classic Rogues issues, first perfected during his Flash run, focusing on Toyman, a perfect segue from Geoff’s initial adventures with Superman effectively concluded with the publishing of his and Richard Donner’s final “Last Son” issue and now set for the next leg kicking off with Brainiac (the non-Legionnaire one). With James Robinson joining rank on Superman, this will truly be the best possible time to be reading the Man of Steel, arguably since he first appeared.

~G.I. Joe: America’s Elite! #35 (DDP) Part 11 of “World War III” comes as another confirmation of what this event has ultimately become: a fine story but one that refused to push any real buttons, a disappointment I didn‘t expect from this series, which I started reading shortly before the event began. When I first picked it up, I was amazed that writer Mark Powers was able to so vividly recreate the Joes, not only as I’d remembered them, but better, as a force that could be taken seriously in a real world scenario, which previous incarnations had always hinted at but never truly embraced. When he started this war, Powers seemed ready to push the Joes to their limit, but he preferred letting them continue running around pretty much as always, the drama around them dampened by the lack of any consequence to our heroes. Owing to the knowledge that the series is actually ending along with the event, I have to believe a relaunch will follow, and perhaps that will finally allow some growth to occur. Powers has displayed flashes of brilliance in past issues, but much as artist Mike Bear was apparently overwhelmed by the effort of putting this thing together for the past year, I think the weight of putting together such an epic story got to him. Or maybe the conclusion will truly be awesome. At least he’s still got me interested, and hopefully, there will be more chances to come for a long time to come…

~Booster Gold #9 (DC) Johns, Jeff Katz, and Dan Jurgens, having safely established Ted Kord’s return, now accomplish what might have been even more impossible, reuniting the Justice League International (Booster, Beetle, Guy Gardner, Mister Miracle, Fire, Ice, Doctor Light (non-evil, female version), Batman, and Martian Manhunter) to stop Max Lord as the alternate timeline Booster created in saving Ted is saved, only for the Time Stealers (the collection of villains the series has been employing) to make their appearance, setting up an even more epic confrontation. It’s great that Johns and Katz have found a rhythm out of the random elements they’ve chosen thus far to create the book out of, reaching at this point a momentum best akin to Mark Waid’s Book of Destiny arc in Brave & the Bold. If the series continues like this, I probably won’t have a reason to complain about it again.

QB ~Blue Beetle #27 (DC) Okay! I only missed like half a year’s worth of issues! But, finally, Heroes had it again! Woo! And here’s the funny thing: even though the issue actually features both a guest wrier (Will Pfeifer) and guest artist (David Baldeón), it felt completely natural slipping back in as a reader, and that owes a ton to what this series has been able to manage since the first issue, keeping Jaime Reyes’ adventures in the same unique and distinct style from writer to writer, artist to artist, no matter what. Now more than two years on, this is quite an achievement, one I can’t even begin to find a comparison for, because most series, if they can possibly keep the writing consistent, they never in a million years keep the art looking the same with a new artist coming aboard, and a lot of the time, the newbie is ten times less complimentary than the one they originally found. If there’s a possible criticism to this, it’s that the book may come off as being afraid to try something new, but that’s completely irrelevant. Jaime’s armor has shown up in other books; he’s even since joined the Teen Titans. The new Blue Beetle always looks good (which is yet another achievement of this incarnation). And darn it, a little consistency is a good thing, on art or in the writing, and Jaime is getting the chance to explore a whole new vein of the emerging hero archetype in the best way possible. I’m glad I get to read it again.

~Shadowpact #25 (DC) The final issue of this book, it’s one of the series to come out of the same wave of new launches the above series were a part of, both of whom will probably outlive their contemporizes for the simple fact that their creators are blazing new paths will old concepts. Shadowpact was probably doomed from the start (ha! that's the joke from the book, too!), and Infinity Inc. , too, because they’re too far from the mainstream and they knew it and embraced it too willingly. When Bill Willingham first introduced the Shadowpact, it was already clear to be another in-everything-but-name incarnation of Primal Force, a similar team from the Zero Hour era that gave us James Robinson’s Starman, which both Booster Gold and Blue Beetle, in their own ways, borrow from. Of course, under Willingham’s wing, more than just the concept was around; the individual members meant something, perhaps more, than the concept. He kicked off the series, though, focusing more on the concept, and only got back to the characters later, when readers were probably already lost, and once he found his footing, Bill turned the reins over to buddy Matt Sturges, who never had anything else in mind but the concept, which is fine, because over at Vertigo, concept is sometimes king, certainly in the kind of work the two do together there. Shadowpact was always meant to be something different, and when it wasn’t, it was an easy call for DC to cancel it. I long ago speculated about how I would care when it actually happened, when I finished the final issue. Well, now I can say for certain. It’s a kind of relief. It’s done, gone, and only the memories remain. I choose to stick with the good ones.

~Young Avengers Presents: Stature #5 (of 6) (Marvel) What sucks is that after this book, the Young Avengers will once again have to be saddled with the mediocre (but once inconceivably better-hyped) Runaways for a Marvel event mini-series, as they were during Civil War. While it’s inarguably better to read the team as a team, preferably with Allan Heinberg, these spotlight issues have been a perfectly serviceable way to reconnect with the team that made it okay for outsiders to read Marvel again and thoroughly enjoy it, especially to discover that there are a number of writers capable of capturing the dynamics between the members.

~Green Lantern #31 (DC) “Secret Origin” hits Part 3 as Hal begins learning what it means to be Green Lantern, including the seeds of stealing Carol Ferris from Hector Hammond of all people and meeting the rest of the Corps for the first time, with the conspicuous absence of Sinestro, who is instead teased as the big draw of next issue. Yeah, I’ve read this story before in Emerald Dawn, but Geoff Johns (him again!) is still the expert at pulling all the stops away from discovering how everything connects, not the least being his own recent additions to the mythology, not stopping at the deeper meaning behind the yellow immunity the ring always inexplicably had. Still, next issue is really going to make this arc and we all know it…

~Captain Britain and MI13 #1 (Marvel) I picked this one up on a lark, because it looked like it might be worth checking out, another recent Marvel book that has an obvious interest for DC tastes, and I was pretty much right, except the darn thing ends on a cliffhanger! It’s as if Paul Cornell just wants to trick me into reading the next issue. Anyway, the main hook, at least for the moment, is that it seems to be another series, like Incredible Hercules, that seems to know instinctively how to incorporate itself with an outside story arc (well, not so much outside with Herc, unless you still count Herc himself as sort of outside the Hulk saga, which he…sort of is). I’m really not familiar with any of the characters in this one, but that didn’t seem to bother me while reading it. Which is a good sign, right?

Also released last week was a new issue of Daredevil, which I passed on, partly because I had been intending to streamline my purchases, partly because I’d thought I would be buying the first volume of Countdown to Final Crisis trades. After discovering that all the volume had was the actual issues and no behind the scenes information, like the 52 collections did, I decided I could pass on it, and that’s why I bought Captain Britain. Daredevil was actually co-written by Greg Rucka this issue, the only thing that made me question my decision, but I guess I’ve just sort of had it with Ed Brubaker soft-shoeing his way through the series, even though he seems to do anything but. Still, I think the week pulled through nicely despite these things. In fact, I’m only now just realizing that I actually bought ten comics…

***

QB is an indication for a must-read.

***

THE EIDOLON NEVER HAD A GHOST OF A CHANCE ~ Read The Cloak of Shrouded Men, an original work of prose heroic fiction.

#172. WrestleMania XXIV

To warm up for WrestleMania XXIV last week, I watched IX and X, and came away thinking how much Shawn Michaels stole both shows, obviously the latter with Scott Hall and the ladder, but even the former working with Tatanka, the WWE star who got the worst break of the past two decades (pushed like mad, had all the tools he needed, and then he got pushed out of the picture for a few months, only to return, get a bad gimmick, and never recover, even when he made a comeback a few years back). That's how he became the Showstopper, not when he had his first main event (XI) or even when he got to steal the show officially (XII). Everything he did after that, HBK has those two to thank for it.

Anyway, he did an excellent job at XXIV, too. You might have heard about it. His match with Ric Flair was the only pure wrestling match of the evening, and he pulled it off. The Money in the Bank match, although packed with talented stars, came off worse than some of the previous editions, because the participants have become so convinced that there are only a few things you can do in a match like that. Chris Jericho was probably the worst of them, even though he's arguably one of the best wrestlers of our time. He'll never win one of these, because he'll be the first one to do everything you don't need to do to win. Shelton Benjamin has actually started taking after him, even though he was te star of the first two.

Randy Orton made his case for legend status in the Raw main event, dominating in his own way John Cena and Triple H, only to eventually steal the victory. Edge and Undertaker in the Smackdown main event sort of squandered most of their match, only to end on a classic note. And that was pretty much all there was to talk about concerning WrestleMania this year. I'm convinced that for the next one, they either have to ditch MitB or let the wrestlers actually wrestle in it again, because for now it's holding back the quality of the show. They packed the best, most innovative stars in this one, which is nice, because at least they were on the card, but they could've made better impacts getting to actually wrestle. Some of them should be in the main event, no question about it. Next year, they really should be. I don't care which brand. The MitB competitors this year are WWE's future. Please let them be.

#171. ECW/Smackdown Tapings Thoughts

For me, it's just great that the WWE tapings I attended on Tuesday have gotten a fair bit of press, at least at WrestleView, the site I get all my news and views from, and have for about three years now. The fan who jumped the barricade near the end of the show, from my perspective up in the stadium seating, looked when he first popped over to be dressed in black, like the security personnel themselves. I thought he was part of the act, because the Edgeheads, Chavo, and Bam Neely at first seemed to react to him like a wrestler, until security absolutely mauled him, manhandling him away. Even the incident with Vince where he came out so randomly near the end of the ECW taping I had been wondering about. But apparently even that was significant.

What was significant to me was discovering, after my first and only other to this point wrestling show back in October 2004 (you can look back in the archives to read about it), this was like a whole new perspective, even though it was a second experience, maybe because this time is was being taped. I started noticing more the wrestlers who looked like they were wrestling at least as much for the cameras as for the live audience, and believe me, that makes a difference. Matt Hardy was a surprise. I know the guy has a presence, but in person, his opponent, Elijah Burke, whom I've never really remarked on before (most notable for me was that he ended up being Chris Benoit's final opponent), came off so much better, moving around like moving around mattered, and not sort of posturing. Kofi Kingston had the same kind of vibe, even Mike Knox, who looks better now with his hair growing out than he has before. C.M. Punk looked better against Chavo Guerrero than he did with John Morrison, perhaps accounting for the length of the respective matches. Jamie Noble was great. MVP, not just because he was wrestling Jamie Noble, looked bigger than he does on TV. Batista translates beautifully. Big Show was probably, sorry Montel, the MVP of the night, coming out several times (the headbutts don't look so impressive live, though). The pyro is loud (LOUD!). Can't imagine how someone like Batista doesn't go deaf. He had to hear it twice! The flames Kane has and are set off periodically for other pyro are hot, too. Don't know why that didn't occur to me before. Don't know how the wrestlers deal with that, either.

Overall, fun, fun stuff. I'll be back with more later!

#170. ECW/Smackdown Tapings

I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with some thoughts about how awesome it was to attend the ECW/Smackdown tapings last night, as well as experiencing this year's WrestleMania, at long last...

#169. Weekly No. 91

PBR's Weekly

No. 89ii

This is the second week of the self-imposed exile from Paperback Reader for this column and this writer, now being hosted by my own long-running but seldom-updated blog. Last week’s edition was about as stripped-down as I could have made it, but I can’t do that again because this past week was too rich for such treatment. Of course, in expanding it I might as well post the column back at PBR, but I could expect the same kind of readership here as there, and that has been as much the issue as anything I’ve let under my skin, so no real difference except a slightly more professional layout there (unless you count the irritation of the programming updates there causing me formatting issues that don’t exist here), plus a slightly better chance at feedback here, despite a promise of that returning over there, now like other matters stretching on a bit. Still, I remain grateful to Bart for giving me the opportunity to write this column and the occasional review, and because he has been the only source of interest in my writing, if I choose to, I will probably end up back at PBR anyway, despite lingering issues.

Much to my glee, the two back-issues I placed on order at Heroes and Dragons arrived this week, along with an embarrassing glut of riches in regular releases, effectively putting a halt to my attempts at slowing down the pace of my reading. At work, the manga and graphic novels were relocated, adding the general sense of festivity in this area of my life, even though those who made the shift happen paid a fair bit less attention to the details than my friend Daniel did when he affected the comics shift a few months back on his own initiative (thanks to him, too, in inviting me to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with the boys on Thursday, capping off the visit to Heroes and buying the WrestleMania XXIV DVD, which as of this writing I‘ve now had the chance to finish watching; some of the MVP performances over the course of those two days are obvious, but JBL at the Hall of Fame ceremony only cements his status as a Wrestling God). Oh, and on the same day, I registered to vote in Colorado, remaining proudly Unaffiliated (apparently, Independent really has become Green Party).

Week of May 21, 2008

QB ~Action Comics #11 (DC) Having missed it at my usual Heroes location on original release, saw it at the other site a few days later, and passed up the seeming second chance, I was happy that my first instance of placing a book (along with the next comic) on re-order with the store turned out so well (and so promptly!). The long-awaited conclusion of the Geoff Johns/Richard Donner/Adam Kubert “Last Son” arc with General Zod, it’d been so long, I honestly couldn’t remember very much of how the story had ended off however many months ago, but the issue more than reminded of why I fell in love with the team of Johns and Donner, the latter clearly vicariously living through a sort of fulfillment of his aborted cinematic vision, since the former would continue on with several more stories on the title alone, even if the last of them to this point, Superman and the Legion, didn’t finish its vision as strongly as is presented here. The Zod/Christopher Kent drama ends up playing a backseat to a reaffirmation of what makes Superman so super, the kind of story you wish everyone who ever doubts why he’s still being featured in a monthly series after so many decades would read. Maybe the publishing schedule as it ended up being with this story didn’t help its chances of doing that job of convincing the skeptics, but now that it’s complete, “Last Son” stands as only the tip of an iceberg that remains ready to radically represent the continuing saga of the Man of Steel in the modern era, even as it takes back one element it gave us, if temporarily, even as James Robinson is poised to debut in the other ongoing title. We’re in for some great comics, Superman.

QB ~DC Universe 0 (DC) Now, now I’ve finally gotten a chance to see this (the clerk evidently hadn’t seen it either, and even Tim seemed surprised to have been able to get it for me when he called), and can reinterpret the criticism I’d found when looking for reactions a few weeks back. Those readers found it to be a terrible starting point for new readers, evidently the self-presumed audience. What I found was a preview book that took ominous glances at some things readers already knew and other looks at characters whose importance hasn’t properly been understood or introduced in some time. Batman and Joker shared a conversation readers of Salvation Run won’t get, but those of Grant Morrison’s Batman will, or even fans of Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Dark Knight (it hasn’t come out yet; they already exist). Wonder Woman, who a few years back had finally, truly earned her place in the Big Three but has since all but collapsed in a gradually decaying swap meet of creators, is repositioned. The Spectre (we’ll pretend Morrison and Johns aren’t aware of Countdown to Mystery) is poised for big things. Even the “Rainbow Corps” concept from Johns’ Green Lantern is teased. New readers shouldn’t and won’t get most of this. But if they find nothing intriguing, then they’re a dead audience already. The narrator’s identity and ultimate purpose aren’t promised to be one and the same, but his role may be the best of the book, as it should be. This is the starting point of a race. Let the best runner get the head start. The book best stands as the timer; it’s not a part of the competition but it damn sure is going to be a part of the history books, marking the exact moment everything changed, exactly as Countdown to Infinite Crisis did when Ted Kord was shot through the head. This time, Barry Allen becomes a significant player again, whatever that ultimately means. So sue me for liking it. I’m not a groupie. I just know what reads like a million dollars.

~Scud the Disposable Assassin #24 (Image) Apparently a long-awaited conclusion all its own, Rob Schrab’s cult favorite hits shelves a final time. While I was never what you could call an actual reader of the series, I was well aware of its novelty back in the day, the charm of a robotic hitman programmed to self-destruct on completion of its mission realizing there may be a reason to live. This issue is a primer in what Scud meant to his creator thanks to a concluding interview conducted with a friend, so I get what happened with the character. What I don’t understand is why the potential I saw in Scud all those years ago seems to have been wasted. Maybe this comes from someone who didn’t read the previous twenty-three issues, but it just feels like the concept was lost along the way in favor of quirks that popped up, other characters, even other concepts concerning what made Scud’s life worth living. In a way, I lament that, or at least regret missing out on what happened previous to this final issue. It’s just one of those things where I end up knowing why I should care, but don’t anyway, and that’s always frustrating.

QB ~Hercules #1 (of 5) (Radical) A new publisher picks a character currently undergoing a revolution on another company’s watch (and in the same week!), and the surprise is, this second modern take is also well worth reading! This one’s set to an era more contemporary to the traditional version of Hercules, but with the same kind of latter-day world-weary perspective as Marvel’s. I love pleasant surprises like this. The publisher itself seems dedicated to replicating the feel evident here with each of its other titles, which it will be rolling out soon, which makes the issue not just a promising debut for a series, but for an entire company.

QB ~Countdown to Mystery #8 (of 8) (DC) As Matt Sturges wraps up his tale of Eclipso and Spectre, the final installment of the late Steve Gerber’s Doctor Fate saga has a unique fate all its own. Last issue, Adam Beechen had the stage all to himself, but he shares the conclusion with three other writers, each giving their own interpretation to the notes Gerber no doubt left behind. Beechen’s version comes first and in its way and perhaps placement, feels most official (possibly because he alone retains original artist, Stephen Jorge Segovia, on whom I have not heaped enough praise). Mark Evanier and Mark Waid follow with their own versions, and finally Gail Simone concludes the festivities, offering as an endnote a poignant tribute to Gerber himself, who once made her feel better about being exactly the kind of outsider Gerber and his whole story had been about. The exercise, far from feeling gimmicky, is a worthy conclusion not only to the spirit of the story itself, but to Gerber as well. A few months back, I expressed a certain amount of guilt that it took Gerber’s death to make me read this mini-series again, but it’s a feeling DC should be feeling instead, since originally, the whole “Helmet of Fate” project that led to Gerber’s half of this book was meant to be a new ongoing series for Fate. In atonement, the company ought to finally make that series a reality. They’ve already booked four writers who share the right spirit for such a project. There are others. It’s possible. And we still owe Gerber so much.

~Captain America #38 (Marvel) Clearly, Ed Brubaker is a student of Cap’s past, because as it turns out, the “Steve Rogers” he’d been teasing for the past few months not only turns out to be someone else, but also a continuation of a seemingly random single issue adventure from way back in the first year of this run. I feel cheated, in a way, not because Brubaker once again proves how methodically he plans his stories and ahead of the reader he’s able to keep himself, but because of how deliberately he misled his readers. Maybe there were some, like during Countdown when Paul Dini and his co-writers were teasing certain members of the Jack Kirby pantheon, who suspected immediately what was really going on, based on certain physical attributes of the man we were seeing, but as I read this issue, I never once felt the same sensation I did when Brubaker was unraveling the mystery of Bucky’s return during that same first year of the book. I’m not saying I’ve returned to the skeptical nature of my sporadic reading that began soon after that year was completed. If anything, in every other way recent issues have better delivered on the initial promise of this run than even those issues themselves. But, c’mon Brubaker. In other titles you’ve proven a distinct lack of control over your own impulses, even though your brilliance is always on display. Please say you can still salvage this arc. Your penchant for realism can still be betrayed. Don’t give in, because when you do, you invariably end up failing. And you’re too good for that.

QB ~The Brave and the Bold #13 (DC) At some point, I’m pretty sure Mark Waid’s leaving the series, so any further issues past his original twelve-episode arc is a blessing. Here, he teams original Flash Jay Garrick with Batman to weave a standalone adventure that probes deeper into both characters than most other writers would, or could, dare in such a seemingly throwaway issue, and that’s both what I’ve loved about this series and about Mark’s obvious passion for DC’s characters, both famous and obscure.

~The Flash #240 (DC) Remember what I was saying last issue? That I was on the verge of quitting one of my favorite heroes? Well, Tom Peyer ups his game this month, pulling all the right strings (much as Bilson and DeMeo were doing when their run came to a close), even paying off on story elements Mark Waid left behind to ensure future issues have the essential character weight that has made Flash’s adventures worth coming back to for so long. Plus, elements of Grant Morrison’s Final Crisis are woven into the issue, familiar both from last week’s Sketchbook and Morrison’s Mister Miracle from his epic Seven Soldiers project (if readers need incentive to rediscover that, now they have it).

~Titans #2 (DC) Better than the first issue, but plagued with art that only solidifies the theory that DC put this book together because modern fans of this particular team of Titans are more influenced by the cartoon series than the Marv Wolfman era (which itself inspired the cartoon…), the best reason for me to support this particular installment ended up being the appearance of Argent from the Dan Jurgens Titans, who coincidentally was a member of the team Devin K. Grayson put together the last time the company put a book out under this specific title. Oh! And on the back of current DC books is an ad for Vampirates! Random knowledge and glorious combinations abound!

~Justice League of America #21 (DC) Reminiscent of the “Crisis of Conscience” arc from the previous JLA series that latched onto Identity Crisis a few years back, this issue is dedicated to Libra and DC’s theory that his appearance is significant enough to pretend it’s a better selling point that good writing and the fact that the reader is already reading the Justice League, which in itself should already be incentive enough. But in reality, in either incarnation, you can’t always expect the best, even though that’s the promise and sometimes the delivery, so the gimmick of a “Sightings” tag is necessary, even though, in this issue, all the perfectly obvious implications are met as they should be. Dwayne McDuffie has definitely settled in at this point, enough to pull the Big Three aside for the kind of conversation Brad Meltzer built his initial issues around, at least for a few pages. Otherwise, it’s Libra being Libra, plus Human Torch plotting bad things for Martian Manhunter. Carlos Pacheco, meanwhile, officially joins the ranks of artists fully worthy of doing the Justice League.

QB ~Justice Society of America #15 (DC) I’m pretty sure “Thy Kingdom Come” concludes this issue, at least to segue to another chapter of the same story, as Gog helps the Society and Geoff Johns continue perhaps the most important story DC is publishing not being written by Grant Morrison. Heck, let’s not make it an argument. What may be an argument is that Johns is doing work here that is, at least at this point, more important than Final Crisis, but in a regular, ongoing, shockingly self-contained book, employing a mythology begun more than ten years ago which is still unfolding. Magog may have been introduced in 1996, but he’s is destined to become the most important new addition to DC lore perhaps in decades. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

~Robin #174 (DC) Okay, this time, I haven’t jumped the gun. This time, it’s really a new issue, and it’s one of the most important issues of this series in a long, long time. The secret of the Spoiler is revealed. It’s Chuck Dixon getting his Ed Brubaker on. And yeah, it’s a great moment to be reading, for a creator to have come back to one of his most famous haunts. It could also have been more. It may not be Chuck’s fault. Unlike Brubaker’s shot at resurrection, DC’s been quietly hyping this for a while, putting up ads, letting the DC Nation column talk it up, all while keeping it mostly self-contained (Gotham Underground also featured Spoiler), as Brubaker had the luxury of doing. But Tim had gotten so impatient, he spoiled the moment, in effect. Maybe DC’s got the best moments of this story saved for a later issue, even the upcoming Robin/Spoiler Special. Maybe this just means the series is returning to the kind of issues Adam Beechen was pulling off in the immediate wake of One Year Later, when he had the run of Batgirl all to himself, or when Batman was trying to handle the death of Jason Todd twenty years ago. Maybe it’s safe to read this book as a serialized story again, like Dixon was doing when the series launched. That’s what I’m hoping. Hey, he even brought the Redbird back!

QB ~Tangent: Superman’s Reign #3 (of 12) (Tangent/DC) Dan Jurgens continues his superior event, the Tangent return engagement that revels in exploring a new alternate look at familiar names in unfamiliar roles, the modern age embracing the birth of the silver age all over again (just because it’s most popular to stick with golden age nostalgia these days, doesn’t mean you have to). Unlike other comics of this nature, which even when they start off strong they start to taper off by refusing to continue the actual story soon enough, the Tangent Superman appears this issue, upping the ante by continuing the unflinching look at what this other world has been up to and where it’s going. It’s very much like a Grant Morrison comic in that way, or even Young Avengers, significant stories being told just below the mainstream model, or rather, just above, daring to continue those stories not just because they can, but because it’s a built-in imperative.

QB ~The Incredible Hercules #117 (Marvel) Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, meanwhile, must have also siphoned some of the Morrison Moxie (if you’ve never had Moxie, you’ve never truly had a carbonated drink), because now they’re blasting off at reckless speeds with mythologies they only half expect readers to keep up with, creating a God Squad around Herc and his pal Amadeus Cho (they didn’t go with my suggestion for the dog’s name after all, but Coyote’s not bad) based on a necessary tie-in with Secret Invasion that only affirms my obsession with this series and faith that it can pull anything off. Even with characters coming in left and right, sporting names I’ll never be able to remember, this book remains addictively readable, one of the best ongoing series on the market.

~House of Mystery #1 (Vertigo) The dynamic duo of Matt Sturges and Bill Willingham resurrect the House of Mystery for a series they describe in Vertigo’s own “On the Edge” column as a destination for writerly pleasures and pursuits, letting loose in still more bold strokes than has been possible in books like Shadowpact and the Fables franchise, and that’s exactly what I love about them. In an era that is willing to embrace every eccentric id, they’re fast establishing themselves as leading contenders for the crown. I’m not giving this one a QB for the sole reason that I won’t pretend this one’s for everyone, but for those up to it, this is going to be another wild ride.

***

QB is an indication for a must-read.

***

THE EIDOLON NEVER HAD A GHOST OF A CHANCE ~ Read The Cloak of Shrouded Men, an original work of prose heroic fiction, now with its very own Borders binc!

#168. 2008 Movie Favorites, Wrestling, In Treatment

On Monday I finally completed the 2008 version of my favorite movies list. When I began this project in 2004, it consisted of a hundred films, and again in 2006, but last year, I expanded it to two hundred. This year, I felt confident enough to expand it further, to three hundred, and to shake things even further than I had with the previous version in terms of honesty in ranking. Each version to this point has been posted at Lower Decks' Observation Lounge, where I've been posting since 2000, when the parent site was still called Section 31 and we could be said to have an active membership. If you visit Lower Decks now, you'll note that there hasn't been an update in the news bullets since last October, and that's just the tip of the decline, which began when site contributors stopped coordinating and lost interest in what had at one point been the whole point of the enterprise, namely Star Trek. Yeah, it was one of those things. When the franchise lost its mass appeal a few years back (watch out, next year!), it was perfectly reflected within the community. Still, I've never stopped visiting, and I still write 'fan fiction' I post there, the same stuff you'll find in the current version of my Mouldwarp personal site on the links list. I'm writing another one at the moment, this despite several years ago claiming I'd written my last one.

Anyway, I've been debating whether I want to post the new favorites list at the board. They've generally gone over extremely well, better than anything else I've done there, so that's not the issue. I do worry, though, that such an extensive list may test their patience, even though at this point 300 movies is what it takes to be a representative idea of my taste in film. Regardless, if and when I do get the new Google Pages site up I talked about a few months back, the list will definitely be posted there.

Going to ECW/Smackdown tapings next Tuesday!

And I'll get to buy WrestleMania XXIV tomorrow, and hopefully get to watch it by Sunday! Woooooooo! It'll be joining a slowly growing compilation of wrestling DVDs, most of the recent ones featuring career retrospectives and the like, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, the Horsemen (and the last Ric Flair set when it's released in July, unless the previous one turns out to have been better). I've been watching those in anticipation of 'Mania, taking a break from the endless DVD marathon of movies I've been amassing. Deer Hunter derailed it, actually. I'm not a fan, I guess, and all it ended up convincing me to do is watch more wrestling. But I'm back on track, continuing last night with a promo for HBO's unsung gem In Treatment, which is like seeing a play in ongoing thirty minute installments. It's the first time I've seen the show, but I'm already in love. Viewers, get watching!

#167. Paperback Weekly Notice

Making some personal changes. One you might have noticed already happens to include my work at Paperback Reader. During an indefinite hiatus from my duties there, I'll be posting an abbreviated edition of my column here at Scouring Monk. Should be fun!

#166. Weekly No. 90

Paperback Reader's Weekly No. 89i

Week of May 14, 2008

QB ~Final Crisis Sketchbook #1 (DC) “Surveillance heroes” is an interesting way to describe the modern era, and the Japanese characters are off the charts. Welcome back to the big show, Grant.

QB ~Batman #676(DC) Still working the early stages, but Grant style, for Part 1 of “Batman R.I.P.”

QB ~Zorro #3 (Dynamite) Maybe it takes Matt Wagner and Zorro together for readers to realize they haven’t seen this story, this hero, in a long time.

~Project Superpowers #3 (Dynamite) Best issue so far.

~Gotham Underground #8 (of 9) (DC) Nice statement, Batman. So does the gang war have a meaningful conclusion in sight, Penguin?

~Green Arrow and Black Canary #8 (DC) Welcome to the family, Dodger?

~newuniversal: Shockfront #1 (Marvel) I know Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, and you are no Grant Morrison. And newuniversal has to do more to prove it’s not just another emerging-powers thing than this.

QB ~Simon Dark #8 (DC) Nice way to demonstrate how Simon fits into the rest of Gotham.

QB ~The Twelve #5 (of 12) (Marvel) Nice way to demonstrate how these heroes fit into the rest of the modern age.

QB ~Rann-Thanagar Holy War #1 (of 8) (DC) Terrible cover, Jim Starlin. Great art, Ron Lim. Great story, Jim Starlin.

~Wonder Woman #20 (DC) Seriously, Gail Simone, you’re not getting it if you think she works best on an “epic scale.”

~Superman #676 (DC) A better segue issue than most of the Kurt Busiek run. But does it actually portend to greater significance, or is the ending just misleading?

~DC Universe Special: Justice League of America #1 (DC) I’m not sure if the timing of this release was just right or too early. But the reprints were fun to look at, if not actually read.

Please note: QB preceding a title means it's a recommended read.

***

The Eidolon never had a ghost of a chance. Read The Cloak of Shrouded Men, an original work of prose heroic fiction.

#165. Who Watches

Here's some rather significant news:

I've decided against writing Who Watches, at least for the moment, after all. Who Watches was going to be my NaNo last fall, but after all the delays caused by moving screwed up my momentum and I couldn't even motivate myself to try again in January, which had been the plan, I figured something about it just wasn't meant to be. It's not that I consciously decided against writing it, or will admit even now that it was in the end a bad idea, but having self-published its predecessor, The Cloak of Shrouded Men, a product of the previous three NaNos, I recently realized...Maybe my next project shouldn't be another superhero story, no matter how different this one was going to be (in fact, hardly was going to be a superhero story at all). I have to accept, even if I've sold maybe three copies, that I've got a book under my belt. It changes things. If I've got some real ambition in me, and I know I do, I've got to make my next prose project another challenge. Fortunately, I've been working on short stories which have continuously done just that, a constant tune-up (well, as constant as my writing goes), keeping me on my toes.

It's still weird to think that I've all but abandoned Who Watches, at least as it was originally conceived.

#164. Ric Flair

Reading Ric Flair's To Be the Man has proven to be more enlightening thanI thought. Such as, I now know yet another reason why it would be incredibly easy to be happy with Bruno Sammartino exiling himself from wrestling. According to Flair, Sammartino just wasn't a great worker, and I believe the Nature Boy when he says something like that. And I feel less bad about how Bret Hart's career imploded once he jumped to WCW, and less so when the reason it ended was because of an incident with Bill Goldberg. Goldberg I respect. Hart, it becomes easier not to.

Anyhoo...

#163. WrestleMania XXIV, ECW/Smackdown Taping, Al Pacino

Obviously, WrestleMania XXIV has already come and gone and I haven't actually written about the results, which I will hold off on until the DVD release next month.

Days after the release I'll be going to my second ever live show, a taping of ECW and Smackdown on May 27th at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. I will be able to confirm my irrational suspicion that Bobby Lashley will make his triumphant return at the show! (The Dominator is a native of the city.)

In literary news, I was amused to watch Al Pacino's Chinese Coffee, a movie he directed in 2000 with Jerry Orbach about a writer attempting to win his friend over with Al's character's third book, which basically apes everything about their relationship, including Orbach's character's past, which he isn't so pleased about. The thrust, however, is really a reflection of my cheery future as a writer, all the uncertainties that I'm enjoying even now. Pacino, you are an unwelcome god. :p

#162. Map of Mouldwarp

Someone inadvertantly pointed me in the direction of Google Pages, so I may be developing a new homepage in the near future, to be called Map of Mouldwarp if I go through with it. The previous incarnation of the homepage, which became, exclusively, a homebase for my Star Trek fiction, will look on in shame, while the first one, Age of Mouldwarp, will only become more embarrassed.

Just sayin'!

#161. Dead Letter Quarterly, WrestleMania XXIV Preview

The big news lately 'round these parts is that Dead Letter Quarterly is in fact dead, murdered by the very process that birthed it, a collection of editors who didn't realize they were pushing ahead too far too quickly. The end result was that it collapsed upon the weight of itself. Yet another personal failure. Yay!

Anyway, let's move on to those WrestleMania XXIV thoughts:

WWE Heavyweight Championship Triple Threat Match: Randy Orton (champion) vs. Triple H vs. John Cena
What's inevitably going to be the main event at first seemed a bit pasted together, but as pasted-together triple threats go, this one's a bit more even-handed than the past two at WrestleMania (Triple H-HBK-Chris Benoit and Mysterio-Orton-Angle), both of which were pasted together so the company wouldn't feel bad about giving the win to the least expected but most fan-friendly competitor. This time, the champion is the guy who has everything to prove, and his challengers are two veterans who've already headlined and won at WrestleMania, and no one has a clear edge. This is the biggest wild card of the evening.

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Edge vs. Undertaker
More than any other match in Undertaker's storied WrestleMania career, this is going to be the biggest challenge to the streak yet, simply because Edge is that rare wild card (so much so he couldn't stay on Raw and is one of the few big names WWE has granted Smackdown to receive; the others are Undertaker and Batista, and it's no wonder each of them have been the focal point of the brand for the last year) who can create the spirit of the Raw main event all on his own. Clearly there's a theme this year for the company. Should be a highlight of the evening.

Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show
Chosing to ignore the Akebono sumo match (not because I didn't enjoy it, but because it's just not the same), also featuring Show, this is the first time WWE has dipped into the celebrity WrestleMania match since 1995's encounter between Bam Bam Bigelow and Lawrence Taylor, which ended up being the main event. So this is going to be interesting. No predictions, really, just a nice match to have on the card, a sort of rallying point for wrestling fans who find themselves in an environment that sort of implicitely questions whether their favorite sports entertainment is still relevant.

Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels
Everyone knew the whole "Career Threatening" matches thing was going to lead to this card, it was just a matter of who they were going to put against Flair as his ultimate opponent. HBK is about as appropriate as they come. Should be a classic.

Money in the Bank
The spot in the card that has become a showcase for a number of stars WWE otherwise can't figure out what to do with has this year become a well-rounded match, with some of the best competitors, in or out of the spotlight of late, the company has to offer: Chris Jericho, MVP, Mr. Kennedy, John Morrison, CM Punk, Carlito, and Shelton Benjamin. Not a one of them is going to be carried through this match. A lot has been said about why Carlito's here, a lot, in fact, about why he's even still with WWE, even after he himself requested his release. The dude just hasn't had a good break since he jumped from Smackdown to Raw. Last year, he should have had a match against Ric Flair at WrestleMania, but he was dumped in a tag match with Naitch just off the card instead. The year before that, he should have had a match against Chris Masters, but was instead dumped in another tag match, which actually got on the card (yay!). Three years ago, he made his debut, in a talking segment. I just don't understand how the fans have never gotten behind him, which has been the problem the whole time. Even when he started exhibiting some first-class skills in the ring, they yawned, and by that point, he wasn't even allowed to work the mic anymore, which effectively killed him all the way around. A good showing here could potentially turn things around. I doubt he'll win (Y2J, Punk, or Kennedy, possibly MVP will), but like Shelton Benjamin, who here could remind fans just of the awesome athleticism that he possesses but doesn't need to rely on (when he thinks he does, in ordinary matches, he inevitably screws up), just participating in this match elevates his status. Same with Morrison, who probably lost the most from last fall's illegal substance witch hunts. Anyway...

Umaga vs. Batista
If Batista couldn't main event Smackdown's evening, this was the next best possible thing, if they weren't going to give Ric Flair to him. Dave's at a crossroads. Give him a monster match with the only monster he hasn't already gone through, the only one capable of matching him pound for pound. Umaga wins, too, since this time he doesn't have to try and carry Bobby Lashly.

ECW Heavyweight Championship Match:(24 Man Battle Royal Winner) vs. Chavo Guerrero
It would've been great for WWE to keep the battle royal on the actual card, just to keep the momentum on ECW's first title defense at WrestleMania, just the uniqueness of picking the challenger. Mark Henry seems poised to get the nod; either way, Guerrero gets a nice spot on the card. This match could define the new era of ECW like no previous championship encounter has. Chavo may be required to win for that to happen, though.

Belfast Brawl: Finlay vs. JBL
What a great spot for Finlay, the great unheralded star of any WWE brand, with the wrestler best matched for him. Add in Hornswoggle, and this will be yet another highlight. If you haven't gotten my drift by now, I expect this, pound for pound, to be the best WrestleMania, possibly ever, at least from the best card.

BunnMania Lumberjack Match: Ashley & Maria vs. Beth Phoenix & Melina
Should be fun.

#160. Needless Tease for WrestleMania XXIV Thoughts

Coming soon:

Thoughts on WrestleMania XXIV...before it takes place!

#159. We'll See

Everything worked out to plan. "Generation Divide" went the distance, and yesterday I launched We'll See, the second volume of my ongoing series of poetry blogs. Terror of Knowing took a bit less time than I thought to transcribe from the blog to a compiled file, but it has now officially become my third unpublished collection.

#158. Terror of Knowing, We'll See

If nothing else, my poetry is sustaining things for me at the moment. Terror of Knowing has been a really great time for me. Because of the way my work week is going to be (and it's not always like this), I'm going to be completing be sequence of one hundred poems within it by Friday, to relaunch the series of "Weblog Idylls" the next workday (because of how I've arranged things, I've only got access, on my laptop, at work) in a new blog called We'll See, taken from an anecdote in the film Charlie Wilson's War, which was another of 2007's fine cinematic offerings, slightly unheralded, unfairly. So this week, I'll be writing a sequence of poems called "Generational Divide."

So you've been warned!

#157. Josh Brolin, Wrestling

I read Entertainment Weekly. I've read it for ten years, and maybe last year was the first time I was truly surprised by it. After two issues commemorating 2007, the oversight was complete, and not until I saw American Gangster again last night did I finally decide to voice my frustration. Josh Brolin had the best year of his career last year. I hope to god I'm not actually the only person to say this. He co-starred in four exceptional films throughout the year. Maybe some of the roles overlapped a bit (Gangster, for instance, and In te Valley of Ellah), but clearly casting directors finally discovered him. Robert Rodriguez had him in his half of Grindhouse, the first of the films to hit theaters, and his last was one of the most acclaimed movies of the year, No Country for Old Men. Take a bow, Josh, you've earned it. Here's to better years still.

***

Okay, so that was the part theoretical readers who don't like pro wrestling were safe to read. Here's the rest. Recently I bought a pair of DVDs from PPVs WWE and TNA put on in the fall, No Mercy and No Surrender respectively. Apart from the similarity in titles and staging dates, each event also put its biggest stars through incredible nights that should make the cards some of the most fabled in wrestling history. Randy Orton, having to replace an injurd John Cena at the top of the Raw brand, had to prove once and for all that he'd stepped out of the shadow of Evolution mentor Triple H, while Kurt Angle finally defined his role in TNA.

Orton had basically been sandbagged since 2004, when he was quickly put atop Raw in his first heavyweight championship reign. The backlash from it affected his career for years, and once Batista and Cena established themselves as the successors of Triple H, The Rock, Steve Austin, and Brock Lesnar, his opportunity for another try seemed like a far distant chance. So when the window opened, it was only natural that WWE quietly make it the biggest night of his career. Of course, the truth is, he still has a long way to go to reestablish the trust in his future that was so easily dashed four years ago. Just because John Cena ain't around now doesn't mean management won't want Cena right back in the title scene when he returns. This means for the first time in twenty years, Macho Man is going to have to make his stand against Hulk Hogan, a real challenge to an established authority as brand standard-bearer.

Angle, meanwhile, turned out to not be the savior of TNA as far as making it a truly viable competitor to WWE in terms of ratings. But the one thing he did and he was supposed to was finally give the company the legitimacy it had long strived for. As a competitor, Angle has what it takes to make the whole thing work, as he was made to demonstrate that night. He may even have what it takes to finally bring A.J. Styles to a level where he'll be a main event threat and true icon, rather than aspiring savant, as he has to this point.

There's always more to see in the ring.

#156. Cloak of Shrouded Men in a Bookstore

A quick update, The Cloak of Shrouded Men is now in an actual bookstore! The one I work at, Borders in Colorado Springs (Southgate Rd.), but hey, the bums at my previous Borders didn't do that!

#155. Colorado Springs, Poetry, Dead Letter Quarterly, Who Watches, Other Potential Stories

When last I wrote here, I was still in Burlington, MA.

Now, I'm not!

As it turns out, I moved to Colorado Springs at the start of last November, and after a little over two months, I may be starting to get a definite feel for the place. It's weird.

Terror of Knowing has been going strong in the meantime, with a good run of poems mostly under the banner of "Metaphysics", continuing a run from October that explores my concept of the world as it is and as I've been noting more and more. Dead Letter Quarterly, read hot at the time of my last post with submissions and other activity, has been viciously derailed by ailments to both my colleagues since November, during which NaNo was not completed by any of us. Yeah, first time in four years I can say that personally. The move completely wrecked my chances, but Who Watches, a Staged Man Chronicle (a character who appeared during Cotton's War), originally set to be a shot at publishing through my employer, Borders (deadline is January 1 for submissions), will go on. At some point. It's the Douglas Adams in me!!!

Once it's done, I'm thinking of Lulu.coming it, as DLQ is supposed to be, and Apropos: An Inquisition into the New World, a sort of anthology, will follow in like regard. I've also recently completely revolutionized an old story of mine, and once I write it, Harvest, or the Book of Eli will likely follow suit as well, unless people actually start buying my books, starting with The Cloak of Shrouded Men.

I will probably write back again soon, possibly with some fresh wrestling thoughts, and may even begin the Scouring Monk Recommends Reading feaure, which has been brewing for about half a year now.

You've been warned!

#154. Cloak of Shrouded Men Subtle Plug

I've been thinking lately, have I been talking enough about my book?

#153. Watchmen, Paperback Reader, Who Watches

I'm thinking somewhat sacriligiously: I'm reading Alan Moore's Watchmen for the first time, and have thus been thinking maybe this year's NaNo, and capper to the previous three years' will be called, or subtitled Who Watches(?).

In other news, Paperback Reader has, at least for the moment, decided it doesn't actually want me to continue writing for it. Maybe not Bart himself. But definitely the site. Weird...

#152. PWI 500 2007

So, having digested much (okay, all) of the new PWI 500, I wish the magazine could do more. I wish it came with a DVD, like music magazines and computer magazines do, with matches featuring the top ten finishers. I've never seen Mistico (#3) in action. He's the latest international sensation I know only by name and picture. Wrestling's such a funny thing, though. It's a deep enough culture that a bunch of people would be crazy enough to compile a list of the top 500 wrestlers, every year, but not lucrative enough, or whatever, to be truly represented like it should be. It's still all about the territories, with Mexico and Japan, say, losing out to most audiences, like baseball, I guess.

Anyway, Edge (#2) made it in the top ten, and Batista didn't. I'm okay with it. Edge had a wider pool of talent to contend with, having operated on both Smackdown and Raw, and was as such able to, because of his mobility, cover a lot of ground. It wasn't really that great of a year for him, at least not as compared with the same period in the last PWI 500. He just happened to surge through his last few months (during which I hated him vehemently, because he'd stolen a bunch of other wrestlers' thunder, not the least being Mr. Kennedy, who lost his Money in the Bank for no reason). Batista, meanwhile, spent the entire grading period either holding or pursuing the World championship. This sounds really good on paper, but it also means, as some have pointed out, he had a nearly unlimited number of title shots throughout that year. He was in every single Smackdown main event, from King Booker's reign to the Undertaker to Edge, even to the Great Khali. He was their only opponent. It's ironic, too, because this happened after seemingly everyone on the Smackdown roster got injured. Batista, of course, originally lost his title because of injury (as John Cena has just now done as well...if WWE is guilty of anything, it's not knowing when to take the pressure off of any one star when they could really use a break...it's how The Rock made a career, right?), and by the time he returned, Rey Misterio's reign had become Booker's, and everyone's pants had been caught around their ankles. They were in the awkward position of not actually knowing what to do with Batista. After he'd gone to rehabilitate, WWE got Kurt Angle one last championship reign, and they used it to push Misterio as well as Randy Orton, but Orton's interests were elsewhere, and so were Angle's. Smackdown ended up with Misterio as champion, with no real program, so it took the title off him and put it on another veteran who'd waited his turn so patiently, King Booker.

But Booker was never going to be champion that long. Then someone came up with the worst possible scenario for Batista as champion, and that was to pin him against a reinvigorated Undertaker (counting all the way back to his match with Angle at No Way Out just before WrestleMania 22, for WrestleMania 23. People had already seen Smackdown with champions of seemingly every orientation. Batista, when he returned, face a public that had moved on.

So between the fall of 2006 and summer of 2007, when so much had been squeezed from the brand, Batista faced the unlikely possibility of proving himself all over again, and his contenders just kept falling. Somehow he became an MVP no one quite appreciated. He took the brand on his considerable shoulders, and for that, because of his unwitting dominance of the title scene, whether as contender or champion, everything the fans had loved him for, when he'd captured, two years earlier, the top spot on the PWI 500 over Cena, they'd completely forgotten. Somehow, between the winter of 2006 and summer, everyone had started assuming, rather than becoming exactly what he would, Batista was actually nothing more than the new Goldberg, Brock Lesnar. The Goliath whose interest could be easily toppled. Goldberg, that dude spent two solid years tuned in, and then went the Warrior route when everyone started forgetting. Lesnar, he was another two year wonder. Well, Batista's on his third year, and he was the only one of the three to have an origin, a before. That's why he's better than people say, better than #13.

But that's exactly where he should be. Hey, the guy above him is Samoa Joe, whom PWI itself admits competed in last fall's most invigorating feud with Kurt Angle. For now, wrestling fans can be enamored of lightweights like Christian Cage (#7), and Bobby Lashley (#9). Those guys don't have the upside of Batista. He's older than both of them. And he's going to be making news long after them.

Angle was robbed at a mere #4. But his historic championship rush is but a precursor of the stuff he's going to continue doing for TNA. Shawn Michaels (#6), Undertaker (#5), they're worth their spots. Perro Aguayo (#8)? A somewhat familiar name, that's all. Takeshi Morishima (#10), please convince your Ring of Honor superiors to release more footage. ROH could be the new ECW, and we, the fans, really don't have the chance to say so.

Speaking of ECW, there's that new version running Tuesday nights, and everyone's saying that it has no business calling itself that. Tough cookies, folks. ECW, the original ECW, wasn't really just about the "extreme." It was about providing an outlet for stars no other promotion would use, even though they deserved it and could put together a show just as entertaining as could be found in WWF or WCW. "Extreme" was a fad, but ECW was meant for the long haul. "Extreme," as the New Jacks, the Sabus, the Tazes, the Tommy Dreamers, the Sandmans, the Justin Credibles defined it, it was about tenacity, a sheer force of will, not just the blood and the gore. It was about the blood, but it was also about the sweat, and the tears. Go back over the history and tell me I'm wrong. Go ahead and look over the talent that was discovered there, not just the names you still associate with ECW, but with those whose careers owe a huge debt to its philosophy. ECW made it safe for the next generation.

The new ECW, it's doing the same thing again. It's just that it's a WWE brand now. Smackdown may still be the place WWE grooms its upcoming talent, but probably, as always, the big stars that will inevitably make their way to Raw, the Carlitos (the flack he catches now, trust me, it's inconsequential), the Mr. Kennedys (ditto), even the John Cenas. Elija Burke is no John Cena, but he's a real talent. John Morrison is no John Cena, but he's a real talent. CM Punk? I think once the fans calm down and let ECW be what it's going to be, this brand is going to be able to exhale, be itself, and prove that it's worthy of existence. It's ECW. It's not the old ECW. But the old ECW wasn't, either.

If anything, TNA is the old ECW, a show with a not-incredible sense of creating TV shows, stars that have perhaps more heart than ring sense, and it's also the old WCW, which had such a great sense of stealing talent worth banking on.

Anyway...That's more wrestling thoughts. Sorry, nonwrestling-thoughts-interested readers.

#151. Poetry, PWI 500 Preview

What's a kind of goal for Terror of Knowing? How about making it to Silliman's Blog? Hey, Ron, we're both at blogspot!

Meanwhile, I've joined (for the poetry blog, not this one).

Oh! And the 2007 PWI 500 is now in my greedy hands. I'm going to read through some more before posting thoughts about it, but here's this much: Batista has sort of been put in a provocative ranking, and unlike the last time I would have said that (two years ago, if you want to do the research), I think I'm actually quite okay with it.

#150. Terror of Knowing, Cloak of Shrouded Men

For the past month now, I've been maintaining, on sixteen of those days, a separate blog entitled The Terror of Knowing. It's a new experiment of mine, the regular composing of poetry, spur of the moment pieces that I haven't given a lot of thought to, or written any real notes on (that's what I do for the majority of the poems I write, either as I've thought of them or as I plan them). Okay, so I just lied. Some of them I put a good deal of thought into before I sat down to write them. Others, less so. The blog, I guess, is really my attempt at having a regular forum. I've written at Scouring Monk over the past few years how I've compiled a few collections worth of poetry as I've written them. "Terror of Knowing" is an instant collection, with a few continuing themes (and partially inspired by Queen and/or David Bowie, at least in name), some political thought, but mostly my philosophy as it's grown and now featured in a certain book I've recently indy published (*cough* The Cloak of Shrouded Men).

I've purposely stayed away from the Monk since I started the poetry blog, but I'll be back again soon. PWI has a new 500 out next week, the #1 has already been revealed, and the fall TV season is upon us (missed Back to You last night!). If you have already, lose yourself in some of my nonsense...

#149.Crass Pitch for Submissions

If you're a writer, send some of your shitty work to the fine editors, Your Monk included, at Dead Letter Quarterly. I told you it was going to happen. You didn't believe me, Theoretical Reader. It happened! I'm now onboard a literary journal!

#148. No More Pen Name, Dead Letter Quarterly, Poetry

I guess I've decided to finally do away with the "pen name" (Sean McKenna) here, partly because I've actually published a book and didn't use it....

I almost turned this blog into a social advocacy forum recently, but then I remembered I'm not a Charles Buckley character, so I decided against it....

I'm starting a literary magazine with a few pals from Paperback Reader, and am crossing my fingers for the name "Dead Letter Quarterly" to convince them. I'll let you know when I do....

Did I mention I have a book? Fools! You've been able to read the story at my NaNo blogs for years! Bwahaha!....

Every time I think about poetry, I wonder why my life hasn't become completed engrossed in it. A friend whose last day at Borders is tomorrow (Borders is where I work, but you may have known that from my PBR column, The Quarter Bin) recently told me he has a poetry blog. A former college mate has a blog of his favorite poems. Sometimes I write some here, too. Mostly, I go the recluse way, because I've somehow mabaged to convince some really good poeyry buddies from another college that I'm not worth tracking....

(I remembered yesterday I actually have two collections ready to be published, if I can convince someone to. I swear no one would regret it.)

#147. Buying Cloak of Shrouded Men

Oh! So, maybe if you actually want to read, Theoretical Reader, the book I've just published and the story I've been talking about (not that you haven't been reading the blogs, yes?) for the past few years. Anyhoo, Amazon is one place you can find it, but iUniverse, the publisher, certainly has it, too!

#146. Author Copies

Houston, we have the author copies of Cloak of Shrouded Men. Repeat, the book is real. The journey only begins...

#145. Benoit Tragedy

With a bunch of time passed now, the Benoit tragedy is, if not more easily understood, easier to grasp, to contextualize. Wrestling has certainly been thrust into the public eye again, and for every news program looking for a spin from competitors, past and present, it's been interesting to see who would show up, and what they would say. Brian Lawler was an early interview I saw, and he came off as nutty, even though his defense of wrestling was mostly spot-on. The best representative yet has been Chris Jericho, who has been quick to point out what's been obvious to everyone but the media and probably most of the public, that for whatever else it was, the Benoit tragedy was not an indication of wrestling itself, its past or ongoing issues, but of Benoit himself, and, based on how it's been taken, on the public and its perspective, warped as it is, on wrestling, which is a sport that, while sometimes wildly popular, can only ever truly seem to be understood by its fans.

Another recent statement came from Kurt Angle, a wrestler many have remarked as being as obsessed or if not moreso as Chris Benoit with the appeal of the ring. Angle made headlines last year when, despite efforts by WWE to retain the star by giving him time rest (and apparently to put him right back on the same full-time schedule as before, despite notable exceptions for this grueling commitment to past stars such as Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar), he jumped ship and right back into the ring for TNA, which is a promotion that demands less on the body with a lighter load of work. Some interpreted it as Angle refusing to give up on the thing that seemed to be, as with seemingly so many stars, killing him. In the Benoit statement, Angle only confirmed what many have been arguing, that the lighter schedule is exactly what he needed all along, and maybe what other stars do, too. Even though this doesn't seem at this point to have any real bearing on the Benoit tragedy (the guy literally made the schedule work for him, excluding the wear to his body), it marks the first time Kurt has acknowledged publically what the decision to join TNA has meant for him. It's that kind of honesty that will get wrestling somewhere, in the midst of all of this. It's just another barrier being shattered. That, and the exposure the drug culture is getting, perhaps at exactly the right time. WWE has already made a considerable commitment to cleaning up its act in the wake of Eddie Guerrero's untimely death. Now it's bound for the next and perhaps final step in the process.

Professional wrestling deserves respect. As incredible as it may seem to say so, the Benoit tragedy may be the moment people come to realize that, and it'll be thanks to stars like Chris Jericho and Kurt Angle that this triumph is attained.

#144. Chris Benoit Tragedy

Funny, that I haven't yet converted the wrestling news site link to something I'm using myself. Left Power Wrestling probably sometime last year, but I've been a WrestleView regular for a while now. One of their columnists has summed up my continuing understanding of the Benoit tragedy quite well here.

(Incidently, I'd still patron PW if it weren't infested with pop-ups, which WV is free from, so I'll leave that link up in case some (theoretical) readers can sidestep that malady.)

#143. Chris Benoit

Can't believe the news today...

Yesterday I was finishing up my latest column for Paperback Reader, well aware that it was stretching past the half hour mark at 8, when Raw was broadcasting another three hour edition of its regular programming. So when I finally got out into the living room, I had my sister switch to the USA network, because she hadn't been aware of the event. We found ourselves watching Steve Austin speaking about Chris Benoit. I didn't understand what was happening. I knew that Chris had pulled out of Vengeance the previous evening so he could go home for personal reasons, so I thought we should call my other sister, who might know what was really going on. She hadn't been watching (had, in fact, also forgotten about the altered start time), but the only thing she knew was what she'd been reading on the Internet recently, that it was illness that caused Chris to exit so abruptly. That wasn't what I'd heard.

Then the television made it all but clear. Chris, his wife and his son, were all found dead earlier in the day. Just like Eddie Guerrero, a personal hero, a favorite wrestler, was gone.

I had to decide if I was going to go to work today. I could've called out last night, but I was so baffled by the sudden news, I still couldn't figure out what to do, even by the end of the program. This morning, I still didn't know what I would do. Finally, I made the decision to call out, because I had to know what the world knew, not just that he and most of his family were dead, but what was being reported as to the cause. I also wanted to know if his death would be reported in the paper. It was, and this was the first time, after hours of dreading what it could be, that the first suspicion was that he had killed his wife and son on the weekend, and then himself on Monday.

And I can't believe that. I've spent the last few hours scouring, as the name of the blog implies, and that's as much the conclusion as anyone's reached, based on what we've been told. And I still can't bring myself to believe it. As with anything else, death has become a prominent fixture in wrestling, be it Eddie Guerrero two years ago, Owen Hart, the Von Ehrichs, and on and on, but this is the most difficult one to understand. We watch these men compete week in and week out. They literally become a part of our lives. They may compete in a sport where most of what happens is predetermined, but what they go through is as real as it can be. Some have speculated that the stress of the ring, of the wrestling experience, finally got to him. And it probably wouldn't be too hard to understand how. Aside from Eddie, Chris can be likened, more than with any other current superstar, to Kurt Angle, who became famous not because of his prowess, but for his inability to walk away, even to his own personal harm, to the point where he went from one company to another, when he was supposed to be taking some time off, just so he could continue to compete.

I'm not condemning Angle. And I'm not condemning Chris, whose dedication was legendary. More than any other wrestler in the modern era, Chris Benoit was the epitomy of commitment. He truly loved this business of professional wrestling. And so I can't come to any easy conclusions to how his life could have ended like this. In many ways, someone elsewhere made the proper allusion when they referenced Phil Hartman, the great comic who was involved in another such incident a decade ago. It's just so hard to understand.

I cannot conclude any other way than to express my gratitude for having had the privilege of watching Chris over the years in the wrestling ring. No, he was never the top star. But he was always the best. Back in 2004, when he and Eddie captured heavyweight titles and Pro Wrestling Illustrated picked him over Eddie for the top position on their annual PWI 500 ranking, I couldn't help but be angry, because I felt Eddie deserved, despite not having that Royal Rumble win, or the WrestleMania main event, that honor. But that was something Eddie didn't need. More than anyone, Chris truly deserved the recognition, to be named, for one brief moment, the top man in the game. Eddie was the showman. But Chris was the spirit of the sport.

Today, wrestling mourns a giant.

#142. Cloak of Shrouded Men Proof, 2007 Draft

Oh shiiiit! I just got the proofs back on my book! First, there will be some textual corrections. Second: Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!

Sorry if that seems corny to you. But it's my book! My honest-to-god, I'm-going-to-be-published-even-if-I-had-to-do-it-myself book!

Okay! Now that that's behind us, the 2007 WWE draft. And there were some big moves, from last Monday to this past Sunday's lottery picks. Raw and Smackdown each got ten, while ECW drew five less. But really, I think everyone can celebrate:

Raw

• King Booker - I really thought he was making this move two years ago, but here he's finally going. He's been played out on Smackdown, even had a lengthy championship run, and one major character change (which I hope disappears in the brand switch). He's proven that he's a valuable member of the WWE roster, no matter where he is. On Raw, maybe he won't be a top contender, but he won't be overlooked. Raw is like the big family filled with big personalities right now, where the company's attention is clearly focused. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and you'll see why with Booker.
• Bobby Lashley - There was so much talk that Umaga was basically a part of ECW's roster that everyone overlooked the obvious: that Lashley was being groomed for the big stage. He's proven that the company's faith in him isn't wasted, that he can take big spots and run with them, even if he isn't a top performer in any category. He's game, that's what really makes him worth every penny, game for whatever's thrown at him, because he'll sell it, and still come out strong in the end. The dude lost his title to Vince McMahon. And nobody thought he lost anything, regardless of the circumstances. That's a power you can easily overlook. Well, no more.
• Snitsky - He's the kind of patented psycho monster the company loves so much, first and best embodied by Sid. He's better than when he was last on the brand. If he's used as is, he'll be another Umaga.
• Mr. Kennedy - WWE wants another big star; by placing him on Raw, the company is finally going to have him. Bottom line, end of discussion. Misssssssterrrr Kennedy!

Kennedy! John Cena? Meet your match! The champ is here!

• Paul London and Brian Kendrick - Despite the near-constant threats that if London does his flying off turnbuckles once more, his star only continues to rise. And here his team is, out of the reach of cruiserweights, which can only mean the company's confidence in them has grown. Brothers, they really are the future of the tag team.
• The Sandman - Certainly introduces a unique element to the brand, and perhaps, among all these other names, will be the one to watch, to see how he's going to be used. We know at this point that he can actually wrestle. But is that what he's going to do? One way or another, the face of ECW has changed once more, and another of its favorite sons is given the chance to break the mold. That's what this guy does, right?
• William Regal - He's besmirched! Oh, come on! You all know that's exactly what you've been waiting for!
• Jillian Hall - Even Smackdown's Divas graduate to Raw. There goes another! Sing, baby, sing!

Smackdown

• The Great Khali - Somebody for Mark Henry to feud with. And possibly Batista. There's still life left in this giant, and opportunities.
• Torrie Wilson - Never seemed at home on Raw, anyway. Welcome home!
• Chris Masters - And here, finally, we see Smackdown's achievement. Masters is clearly being shifted so he can have a chance to shine, outside the clutter. There was just no room for him on Raw, and it was only going to get worse. On Smackdown, with its more intimate setting, superstars are free to be as big as they can be, and be celebrated as much as for what they do as for who they are. Masters can do that here, but...
• Ric Flair - ...can do it better! Who better than Naitch? Wooo! And, really, hasn't this been natural all along?
• Kenny Dykstra - Same deal as Masters. Raw prepared him, but now he needs Smackdown to go the rest of the way. It's ironic, that Smackdown develops the next generation superstars in some respects, while nurturing others left suffering at the same time. It's the paradox of Friday nights.
• Hardcore Holly - Imagine this guy in a feud with Finlay. Wooo!
• The Major Brothers - Uh, new contenders for Deuce & Domino's tag titles!
• Victoria - Really intrigued by this one, to see where she's going to go on this brand, where the Divas don't wrestle as much as they give attitude. Hey, wait, in some respects, that's Victoria! So, save your knees!
• Eugene - A wrestling savant. He's like Smackdown personified!

ECW

• The Boogeyman - Kevin Thorne, meet the thorn in you side. Worms intended.
• Chris Benoit - Ever since Kurt Angle jumped ship (alas! only this title eluded you!), this brand's been looking for the kind of fully-functional star who can take the extreme in every degree, who will develop what's there and make every look good in the process. Now, just imagine the first Benoit-CM Punk match...
• Viscera - The 2007 ECW Show!
• The Miz - Be it Hardcore Holly or Rene Dupree, ECW's been quietly attempting to rehabilitate careers for superstars who've been unfairly kicked to the curb (carrying on a company tradition, in fact). Guess what, Mizfits? This guy's in that category, too.
• Johnny Nitro - This is perhaps the most interesting draft choice of all. Why Nitro? Why ECW? He may be the missing piece of the puzzle on this brand, that's why, that's what.

And just like that, you understand that WWE is one company that knows how to make a few smart moves. When they aren't exploding people.

#141. Cloak of Shrouded Men Editing, A.C. Hall, Paperback Reader, Books, Wrestling

Well...I suppose updating once a month is better than...nothing?

Anyhoo, Cloak of Shrouded Men has kicked and screamed through its final revisions (I hate that stuff! even when it produces necessary and beneficial changes!), meaning it's that much closer to being published via iUniverse, which I can't be more excited about. I keep entertaining myself with all the possibilities of how great people are gonna think it is. I'm so happy for myself! Still haven't heard back about The Jingle Jangle, but I can be patient sometimes, really! Though I really hope to hear positive word on it...

One way or another, I'm still writing. A.C. Hall, a fellow columnist at Paperback, has invited me to contribute a story for a fiction anthology his other haunt, Stumblebum Studios, will be putting out, and based on the theme, I've cobbled together something about a time-traveling Nicola Tesla, whom I last encountered in Christopher Nolan's superb The Prestige (to see my ideas of good movies, be sure to stop by the Observation Lounge at Lower Decks, which has now completely segued from a Star Trek site to a general genre lair, which I've become comfortable with; I'm working on a flashbacks feature for Lost, the first thing I'll have done in relation to that site since a 40th anniversary Star Trek story last fall, the first in a potential series, if I have the time). And I think I'm closer to writing a poem worthy of 9/11 (after all those anniversary pieces were lost in the Great Crash of '05) and the Iraq war, to be called "'Cause You Want to Believe She's Infallible." I can't wait to find the time...

Speaking of Paperback Reader, the recent return of a past contributor, along with a site redesign by operator Bart Gerardi, has me thinking again how much I appreciate my ongoing work there. It's made me that much more engaged in the landscape of comic books, and given me a regular platform to write about them, even if my reviews have slowed to a trickle, though the weekly column persists. I was set to write two reviews, and I've been on the computer long enough now, this evening, but the column only seems to command those thoughts more and more, now that my commitment to 52 is over (I reviewed every issue of that breakthrough weekly DC series). If you can't find me here, chances are you can always find me there!

Or at work. Sometimes, it seems that's what I do, besides eat and sleep. But I read, too! And at the bookstore, I keep finding more things I won't be getting around to reading very soon (I've been stuck reading William Least-Heat Moon's River-Horse for months now). But I'll get more into that later.

Another thing I'll be returning for is thoughts on the new WWE draft (begun the night Vince McMahon "died"). But I'll leave with this thought: at this year's WrestleMania, John Cena-Shawn Michaels was an instant classic. And this was definitely a year to have something like that. But, as I said, more thoughts in a few days...

#140. Santino Marella, Cloak of Shrouded Men

Tried making a post a few weeks ago. Didn't work out. Hoping Santino Marella, WWE's newest Intercontinental champion (and blatant attempt to woo back Bruno Sammartino, not that this is a bad thing) will appear tonight on Raw...

But the real sense of this note is the fact that The Cloak of Shrouded Men is now in pre-publication! I ended up going with iUniverse (please don't be mad, Bart! even though that Paperback Reader Quarterly seems to have...not published), and started the process last Tuesday. Can't wait for the whole process to have run through. My book! In print! And the day earlier, I sent a query for The Jingle Jangle. I can only hope good things for the poetry collection, too...

#139. WrestleMania 23 Preview

Well...haven't done this in a while: Let's talk wrestling!

And let's start by noting how different the scene is today than just nine months ago, at least as far as WWE is concerned. Nine months ago, ECW was still a big question mark. How was it going to return, exactly? Could it sustain its own show? Rob Van Dam had cashed in his Money in the Bank at One Night Stand II and was now WWE as well as ECW champion. Sabu was a major player. Kurt Angle had just jumped brands (brands, not promotions, at this point) for the second time that calender year. Rey Mysterio was World champion, worrying about JBL, the Great Khali, anything but King Booker (who wasn't even King Booker yet). Batista wasn't even back yet.
And then in the span of a month, everything started to change again. RVD and Sabu sabotaged their momentum on the side of the road, Edge won the WWE title, Big Show got the ECW belt, and King Booker bested Mysterio. Heck, even Batista was back, finally. Now, if you will, flash-forward to the present.

John Cena is champion again. Heck, people don't even seem to mind anymore. He's being embraced. Batista is champion again. You might call this a flashback to 2005, but the circumstances have wildly changed for both stars. Batista's past is long behind him now. Now, he's the beloved champion who was once forced to surrender his title, but made a heroic comeback to reclaim his thrown from pretenders. Bobby Lashley has the ECW title, and a third era for that brand has begun, one for the first time without Paul Heyman. This is the era set for WrestleMania 23, and it may make for the best WrestleMania in years.

• At the top of the card you have Batista defending his championship as he challenges the Undertaker's legendary undefeated streak. Naysayers have been suggesting he won't be able to snap it, because his bosses see him as too little dedicated to the sport, that Batista being the man to end the streak wouldn't be appropriate. They call him the new Ultimate Warrior, a fairweather wrestler, like Goldberg, or Brock Lesnar. Me, I don't see that. Batista is his own man, and I believe in his commitment. I believe that he may even see his career as a debt owed to Eddie Guerrero, the man who truly ushered him into the ring. When he gave up that title more than a year ago, I believe it really pained him. If he lacks commitment to any degree, it's because he knows his body can't withstand the rigors required of most other competitors. Two major injuries in his WWE career may already have made that point for him. The Undertaker has come a long way since I proclaimed his career over when he feuded with JBL some two years ago. I believe once again that he's as great an asset to the company as he has ever been. But sooner or later, his days in the ring will become so far in between that he won't truly be considered a contender, but a special attraction. Will he deliver a match for the memories? There's no doubt about it. But does he have another championship run in him? I think this year he loses. Whatever it ultimately means in Batista's career, however long that is, however much longer he's champion himself, this moment belongs to him.

• On the other end, there's Cena defending his own title against Shawn Michaels, another monumental figure in WWE lore, who has proven time and time again that you can never count him out. Win or lose the actual match, John Cena going to be the real winner here, just because he's been given a match against HBK at WrestleMania, where the Showstopper stops the show each and every year.

• In the Battle of the Billionaires, Umaga will defeat Lashley, likely because Chris Masters, irate over his Masterlock finally being broken, will interfere. However, if that's not how the match finishes, Lashley wins, simply because it's far more likely Vince McMahon will volunteer to have his head shaved than Donald Trump. Either way, there's Steve Austin here!

• MitB III will be the best yet, simply because the caliber of competitors is at an all-time high. Edge seems destined to win, simply because of his own undefeated streak at this event, but the climax will definitely involve Randy Orton, because these two are going to be feuding very soon.

• Kane beats Khali, more than likely.

• Ashley captures the Women's championship from Melina.

• Chris Benoit will likely retain the U.S. championship over MVP.

• The ECW match will be interesting. I peg the ECW Originals as winners, but the reverse could work, too, if someone steps up to provide an awesome finish for the group. Either way, it's nice that RVD and Sabu get to cap their work over the past year with something like this, even if they've been not exactly given the same opportunities throughout.

• I project Carlito to wrestle Ric Flair, probably announced next week on Raw, and emerge triumphant. I'm so glad they're doing this for Carlito, who completely deserves what is fast becoming Chris Jericho 2.0, an improved version that may shoot past Y2J's success into the realm of The Rock.

• I also see Paul London and Brian Kendrick defending their tag team titles against M-N-M, and probably retaining.

• And Chavo Guerrero defending his cruiserweight title against Gregory Helms, though the winner could be either one. Though these final two matches, if they happen at all, as much as I'd love for them to happen on the main card, may take place on Heat, or something to that effect.
  

I'll usher updates as they become available. Two weeks left!

#138. A.C Hall, Poetry, Comic Books, Cloak of Shrouded Men, Paperback Reader

Okay, okay...Am I at the right blog? Yes! Okay! Safe to continue!

Now that last entry's...unpleasantries are past us, let's move forward, shall we? There may be guests. Fellow Paperback Reader contributor A.C. Hall moonlights at another comics site, Stumbebum Studios (I don't get that, either), where he writes a column called Ring Psychology (still lost, Ace, which is something I've been callin' ya, bud, in my head; at least now it's out there). Several months ago, he came 'round with a few writing prompts for a few of his friends, to use for the column, and among them was one that asked those friends to reimagine the concluding arc of The Matrix. This week, Ace included my version, which was one of the few responses I still remain proud of. If you liked it, too, that's why I'm writing this post, because I probably owe ya, in case you followed that link and found your way here and wondered if there was anything actually worth reading.

Sometimes there is.

Sometimes! And I'm not even speaking of the regularity, or lack thereof, of the actual blogging on this blog. If you review the archives (and brave ye those waters, if you must), you'll discover that when I began, I pretty much stuck some slappy things every days at this old Monk.

I think now would be a good time to apologize for some of the things I'm saying, because I'm saying them funny. I don't do that. Much. You can find poetry at the Scouring Monk. I won't apologize for that, not on your life, my new and good friend. Anyway, speaking of poetry, while I was home, fretting over Midtown shipping matters you might discover in my own column, I sculpted a new poetry collection out of the material available on my parents' computer, where I wrote most of my formative work upon leaving the college workshop. This one ended up being called Card Games. But you aren't really interested in that at this time, are you? Ah, well, I'll get you another time.

I wrote up that Matrix plot basically around the existing material for Reloaded and Revolutions, and maybe that's sometimes clear and maybe sometimes it's not. I hope Ace uses my write-up for the RoboCop prompt, because I like that one even more. But I'm not always basing all of my ideas on other people's ideas. My spanking new ComicSpace page, which you can find here, boasts about three original comics projects I've been working at for a couple of years now, Bandit, The Astrals, and The Conformists. If you'd asked me three years ago which one I'd prefer and were most eager to pursue, it'd have been Bandit, no question, and it wouldn't have been just because, at that time, it was the only one of the three extant. That one's got the longest story. The Astrals mythology has been expanding since its original proposal to the aborted Cabal from my Digital Webbing days, but it's a story that's more easily contained and thus might be easier to introduce first. The Conformists is a concept of characters more than anything, and I love those characters, but the more I think about them, the more I wonder if they have a specific story to tell as well. I have other concepts, one that the boys behind the Death Lurker Saga have in their court, others sprung from other prompts. Many of my favorite ideas come from prompts, actually. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't come up with something good just because someone asked you before you thought of it yourself. That's the story behind Lost, after all. In my earlier years, I wasn't quite as good at it as I would become, but I've really come to value the method.

But I'm still just a hack who isn't actually being published. I'm editing my first novel at the moment, woven from three acts written during successive NaNoWrMos. It's called The Cloak of Shrouded Men and I'm going the indy route, self-publishing. It's called taking fate into my own hands. And I was sure I was done the story, too, but I'm come up with a coda, which I may include in the volume, a most appropriate conclusion to the affair, much as I discovered a new beginning a few years ago.

And did I mention writing for Paperback Reader? Y'know, that's something I'm constantly struggling with. You may have come here after having read something I wrote, but you've got to understand, my experience with my writing is that very few people actually end up reading it. A decade ago, it would have been because I didn't show it to anyone. Now, though, now I just don't know. I do know that I've been writing a weekly column for nine months now, and I've not once gotten a response, beyond my colleages, from it. I'm constantly thinking of pitching the whole thing in. Why bother, right? Well, maybe because if I'd never written for Paperback, not a single review, not a single column, Ace'd never have asked me about those prompts, and you would've never come here. Strange kind of way, how things happen.

Well, things'll keep on happening, one way or another, and I will continue blogging away at the Monk, and I will add more friends at ComicSpace, and someone will read what I write, and I will be published, one way or another. I will tell my stories, and everything will sort of work out.

But yeah, you came here for The Matrix?

#137. Blogger Complaints, College Friends, Swearing

Stupid stupid "improvements"! I don't like stupid change! Blogger has for months now been pestering me about switching to the new "and improved" version of its service, and now that it's forced that change on me, I have only found continued misery with the service in the one area it desperately needed improving. What the hell is wrong with these people?!? Why can't they figure out that "copy and paste" would be a useful addition?!? I just lost the start of this post because I discovered that I was blogging in the wrong blog, because the new "dashboard" (the starting page for bloggers with more than one blog, as I do since I've been blogging Nano for three years) is worse than the original version. Is that really progress???

Fuck! Now you've done it. I don't believe I've ever sworn in this thing before. The Monk has never sworn! Look at yourselves! A monster! A monster!

Anyway, (and yeah, seriously, fuck you), I'd been typing about my friend Rich from the Mercyhurst days, how he recently made an announcement to his friends that he deleted his myspace account, and how it was through this announcement that I first learned he wrote poetry. I remarked how I didn't know this, and how little I knew the guy, even at college, since I was the guy, as I always am, who didn't outsize himself, and thus was more or less lost in the pack. Trust me, it was more elegant the first time. Anyway, Rich has a blog with these Uncle Fuckers (just go with me on this, because this may be the only time you hear me talk like this, all two of you who have ever read this blog, each of you fans of the lamentably cancelled Help Me Help You), which he said was going to be his backup for myspace, which he left and deleted himself from (why oh why do people do that, etc.), where he doesn't put his original poetry so much as My Favorite Poems. I think it's a neat idea. There was more previously, and I'd intended to put more before I realized what had happened, but I'm too peeved now to continue.

Instead, I will continue to lament stupid, stupid "progress." Yeah, we all know how awesome Google is, and how awesome it is that Google continues to add awesome new things to its repertoire, such as Gmail (which I continue to adore). But, goddamnit, why the fuck does Google think that everything it gets into its tiny little, information-packed head, is so goddamn important? If these improvements were so fantastic, they should have been automatic. Instead, everything I've noticed so far only sucks! How is that even possible???

Fight the power!

And fuck "layouts"! That seems to be the only thing they really added! Fuck'em!

*Ahem*

That will be all.

#136. Cloak of Shrouded Men, Poetry, Wrestling

Is this really to be the first blog of the new year? Can I really say "new year" any more? Two months in! I'm so ashamed!

The biggest news is that I'm in the midst of editing my first novel, The Cloak of Shrouded Men, which is of course a collection of the three Colinaude tales written during successive Nanos. Funny thing is, late last year, probably last November (before I'd written the phrase in Cotton's War I would subsequently adopt for the whole saga), I asked a Magic 8-ball if the working title I had for the time would be what it was going to be known as, and the ball said no. I guess I soon found out why. Funny thing is, I'm still set on the self-publishing route, even though I now know that Bart Gerardi at Paperback has two of our regular contributors lined up for the site's upcoming publishing line. The reason is quite simple, and it's not to slight Bart. Hardly. He's gotten me writing weekly for a website, for the public. I haven't been able to say that, well, ever. In college, I wrote for the paper, but that took breaks every time the school did, and I invariably wrote about prompted material, not what was important to me. At Paperback, that's what I do every week. Granted, it hasn't gotten me an actual readership, but I have no idea of knowing how big Paperback's readership in general is. I see comparable sites, and see greater complexity, more writers, and a larger potential readership. Maybe Paperback isn't at that point yet, even if it's been around for a number of years (I know because the review archive says so, and I myself have been around for about a year now). Or maybe it is and I just don't know. I do know that of primary sources of communication were cut off because of spammers, and no solution has been made since, and that was months ago. In some ways, it seems the site has actually gone backward since I got there, after an initial, impressive boom.

Which is sad, but my perrenial struggles with whether or not I'll stay have nothing to do with that. Them's personal matters, personal demons.

I've also got an even stronger determination to see The Jingle Jangle (my collected edition of Ex Patriot and Waking the Sandman, two collections of poetry I've written about before) published than ever before. I want to believe that I'm as significant a poet as I've seemed in the past, and as I feel I should be. (Every poet should be significant. If they're not, they're not writing to an audience. That's poetry.)

This is potentially the last month I see the girl I've developed a working relationship with, a struggle that turned on the basis (to some degree) on a TV show. Circumstances have consistently betrayed my intentions to see where else it could go, but I hope we can end things on better terms. By the time she comes back to the States, I'll be moved on as well, and I still have no idea what I'm doing next. That accounts for the two ambitions I speak of above, the desire to make a stand about what I've been doing up to this point in my life. I'm entering a new chapter once again, and I want to say that what I've been doing has everything to do with that chapter. I want it to be about what I've done. Invariably, I've been building with every other chapter. I'm ready for Act II, so to speak.

In wrestling, I'm excited that WWE is getting people interested again, and I'm gratified that it's Smackdown leading the way, since I've been its champion for years, even during the lean time when everyone else was calling it, at best, the B show. Well, guess what, Vince was right. He can support two brands. Three, even. TNA couldn't do this, not when it can hardly support one. It's about creating a show, not just showing someone's personality, or skill sets. WWE has always done those. But they know how to tell a story, and that doesn't mean just the talking. In many ways, Monty Brown/Marcus Cor Von illustrates this best of all (or Kurt Angle, mind you, since he's basically brought WWE to TNA, which is something none of the other transplant, B level stars have been able to, including two time champ Christian Cage). Monty was a poser in TNA. He had his stock phrases (including one for the finisher WWE still refuses to name, even though it lives on at the back of his tights), and stock poses. And he was always supposed to be someone huge, even though he never quite got there. Marcus, in the first match I saw him competing for ECW, looked quite different. He wasn't Monty anymore. He looked completely different, not anything resembling a Goldberg or Lesnar. He looked a bit like an '80s wrestler. How odd! Strip a man of his pretensions, and you discover what you really have. Someone who hasn't quite learned the ring yet (which I say not the denegrate the '80s, but to suggest what I've gleaned from my own experience, that wrestling began to look more real around the time we learned it was fake, which in essense forced wrestlers to become more athletic).

I'll leave the Monk at that. And promise to write back sooner!