various things that make up my current existence

[usuallyhats]

- Doctor Who: I really loved "The Rings of Akhaten", but I am not posting about it because for some reason it affected me to the point where I can't read criticism of it without getting sad, even if the rational part of my brain is going "that's actually a good point", so. Instead I shall just go and poke ebay for Clara cosplay type stuff instead.

- Smallville #41 (Valkyrie #1): STEPH STEPH STEPH. Ahem. (I think the pages in that post are in the wrong order, btw, the last two should be the other way round.) OK, that cameo is why I bought the issue, but not the only thing I liked about it: Lois was awesome, and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed reading the first twelve issues of this, last summer. I shall definitely be buying the rest of this mini-arc. Lana has super powers now! Did this happen on the TV version too? I missed a lot. I think I like this development... (In other comics news: new issues of Saga, Hawkeye AND Fearless Defenders on Wednesday? COMICS BONANZA. \o/)

- Registrations for vidukon_cardiff (both attending and supporting) close this weekend! If you're on the fence about whether to go or not, I really recommend it, it's a fun con.

- I have reached the point in my somewhat delayed Babylon 5 rewatch where I'm not sure which episodes I've seen before and which episodes I just know a lot about (early season two). IT IS CONFUSING. Mostly my feelings on it are IVANOVA I LOVE YOU; it's nice to know I haven't changed that much since I was 15.

- Dissertation is SO CLOSE to being finished. I wrote a draft of the abstract at the weekend. By "wrote it at the weekend" I mean I procrastinated until 8.15 on Sunday evening and then knocked it up in about twenty minutes. OH SELF. My flat is fairly clean now though, I even did that thing where you attach a duster to the end of the broom and de-cobweb the ceilings. So that's something.

Comments

[usuallyhats]

Thank you!

Ivanova is so awesome, and she gets all the best lines. Babylon 5 is pretty great overall, though if you do decide to watch it, be warned that it is... not always that great, it's just that when it works it's AMAZING, and that happens enough to pull the average quality levels way up. Also, it was made just after it was feasible to put in lots of computer generated effects but before they started getting really good. But with those caveats, it's awesome!

I watched a couple of seasons of Smallville, fairly early on! I think it should be pretty accessible, as long as you know the basic premise of the show: there's only I think two major characters that originated with Smallville rather than with the Superman mythos. One is Chloe Sullivan, Lois's cousin and Clark's schoolfriend; she's a snarky journalist who's married to Oliver Queen. The other is a bit spoilery, but it's hard to judge how spoilery just mentioning her name is! Basically, to understand the ending to the second issue, look up Tess Mercer on wikipedia... (ETA: ack, I tried to put in spoiler bars there and they failed to work. D: Stupid lack of comment preview function. Sorry!) It's a great comic, I only stopped reading it because the Stephwing debacle killed my love for it a bit. :(

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the Babylon 5 info! :)

Haha, no worries about the spoilers! Thank you for explaining those things, it sounds like fun!

[usuallyhats]

You're welcome!

It's really fun! And it made me care about Superman, which I don't usually do: I like him in theory, but in practice I can't usually connect with him.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Oh, that sounds cool, then! I've been wondering what Superman things are good, since I haven't really read any. I've heard the New52 Superman is pretty terrible, and my library seems to have a lot of things like All-Star Superman and Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow that are supposed to be good but would probably make more sense to me if I had some baseline of knowledge first. I've been thinking I might try to get the Smallville TV show from Netflix.

[usuallyhats]

I think I'd recommend the comic over the TV show, based on what I've seen of both! I had to stop watching the TV show because it was making me dislike Clark. :(

I did like Superman For All Seasons, though that may be another that works better with more knowledge. Also the art is... I saw someone describe it as "potato faces", which is sadly accurate. Superman: Birthright is supposed to be good too, I think, but the library's copy was due back last November, so I'm not holding out much hope that I'll be able to get my hands on it! Greg Rucka and Gail Simone have both also written for Superman and I've read some of their stuff, which I liked ok: I think my inability to connect with Superman as a character may have been what stopped me from loving it, but I'm not sure enough to recommend it confidently!

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Oh, sad! Did you like the early seasons okay?

Thanks for the suggestions! Haha, potato faces sounds like really unfortunate art. I think my library might have Superman: Birthright, so maybe I will look for that. It seems like a lot of the popular Superman stories are either Elseworlds kind of things or the tribute/looking back sort of stuff that makes more sense if you've read more. It seems easier to find good Batman stories that are part of regular continuity. (Although Batman also has the sort of unreachable/difficult to connect with problem a lot of the time.)

[usuallyhats]

It was pretty entertaining, most of the time, and Chloe was great! Not sure I'd ever call it exactly GOOD, though. :) (My memories of it are slightly hazy, though - it's been nearly ten years since I watched it...)

(Although Batman also has the sort of unreachable/difficult to connect with problem a lot of the time.)
*nods* but at least he has the Batfamily - I always care about him when he's having feelings about them, and rarely at any other time!

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool, I will keep that in mind, thanks!

Yes, the Batfamily are the best. ♥