This Week in Geek (21-27/01/08)

Buys

Two buys this week. The first is the second and final (boo!) trade paperback of Nextwave Agents of HATE, which I'll get to in a moment. The other is Torchwood Series 1, coming at just the right time. I haven't seen most of the episodes since they first aired last year, and since Series 2's just starting... Well, let's just say I'm on Disc 3 already.

"Accomplishments"

Made some 15 cards for the Doctor Who CCG, finishing up my stripping of Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, though including a few other Cyberman-related stuff. Check it out if you like that sort of stuff.

And I read Nextwave's second trade almost as soon as I got it. Took me an issue to get back into the irreverence I liked so well when I read the first trade last year, and now I'm just sorry the series had to end there. Warren Ellis has a lot of fun in the 6 collected issues: Mindless Ones on skateboards, the return of Forbush Man and the parody version of the Avengers from Not Brand Echh, flipping the bird at the Civil War event, Captain America's stolen urine sample, and fight scenes involving everything from sentient broccoli and Elvis impersonator MODOKs to monkey Wolverines and snakes quite literally planes.

Someone Else's Post of the Week
A new blog that might just become one of my favorites is Craig Fischer and Charles Hatfield's Thought Balloonists. Looking at comics critically, as an art form (as opposed to "I liked/I didn't like" reviews), is something I find very interesting, and if they're going to dip into both the superhero spectrum AND indy comics, I'm going to keep clicking their link. My Post of the Week fits in the latter category as Charles examines a page from Chester Brown's Yummy Fur, a series I also liked quite a bit. It's called "Hide with me."

Comments

Anonymous said…
So how does Torchwood shape up overall?

I saw the pilot and it was fine, but I never got around to watching more.

I've hurt some strong positive and negative buzz - but not enough to sway me.
Siskoid said…
Not unlike Doctor Who, it's hit and miss, but I like it overall.

If I have problems (and they're not as annoying second time around) it's on the level of gratuitous gore (especially in the severely misjudged "Cyberwoman") and sexual situations (such as a fascination with showing women kissing for no reason). I think it's a tonal problem. The show wanted to be cheeky, but turned out to be much darker than expected.

In any case, there are some great episodes in there ("Random Shoes", and "Ghost Machine" are highlights but not the only ones). Captain Jack is used as a stand-in Doctor more than as his old self, with the wonderful Gwen in the Companion role. I have to say I've come to like all the characters except Ianto, and the production values are excellent.

I'm actually more excited about seeing TW Series 2 than I am DrWho Series 4. We'll see if my excitement is misplaced or not.