This Week In Comics & Whimventure® Plans
Lots to read and plans to make for the next big Whimventure®
Have I mentioned (recently) that I get a tad bit anxious when it comes to travel? I’m pretty much a home body and due to anxiety and introvertedness I’m fine with staying home. Heck, going out for an evening with friends can push me to the limit. So traveling anywhere can be trouble for me, no matter how much I want to see something. Most of bucket list deals with getting out of my comfort zone which includes a lot of travel. I’m also one of those people who tries very hard to not let my emotions (and fears) control me. I’ve built up a lot of regrets due to over thinking and getting anxious about things- I really don’t want to do that anymore.
So Sue and I are planning a massive Whimventure to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. It’s going to awesome, but it is also going to be nerve-racking. A few weeks ago we go our flights arranged to Heathrow and from Milan. The next step was to get our hotels taken care of. The internet does make it easier, but still it can be a chore
For London, the question was how long did we plan to be there, and where did we want to have as our base of operations? I considered some of the places we had stayed in the past and after talking with some friends looked in other areas. Finally (on a whim) I chose a hotel near the British Museum - familiar area from our first visit to London decades ago. The thing is I didn’t choose some quaint quirky little hole in the wall, instead I chose a hotel that is underground. Why? Because it just sounded different and cool. Like I said, on a whim. We already had a bunch planned so having a view out of our hotel room isn’t a priority since we won’t be there except to sleep.
The final stop is Lake Como, Italy. As I was looking around, it seemed that a number of the hotels close to where we wanted to be were already sold out… or were prohibitively expensive. So I started looking at other options. I found a nice little house that we could rent and now I just get to be anxious about how it all works. Hotels, are pretty easy, renting a house isn’t always as cut and dried even with apps and websites created to make it “easy.” Until we actually arrive and can get in I’ll be worried.
London is a caching trip, Lake Como is an art trip. In-between? We are still working it out. Paris? Normandy? Bayeaux? Neuschwanstein? Are there Trolls to find? We have time, but this is our big trip for the year. The one thing we don’t want to do is rush. So while we will be a bunch of places, the idea is a to spend at least a couple of days in each location.
Then cost comes into play… and my anxiety builds. Funny thing is I’ve looked at our finances and we seem to be fine (at the present time) and this is well within what we can afford (at the present time), but I don’t want to start tapping into my retirement funds unless I have to… More details to come and I will be posting about the trip as I can hopefully while on the road.
My Comics
This week a boatload came in, making me think I really need to start considering what I’m buying, then again it could be because I’m trying to make sure I have funds for my upcoming trip.
Detective Comics # 1094 - Batman is still trying to save troubled kids from being murdered and figure out what the connection is to this miracle drug to help billionaires stay young. Damian goes undercover to see if the juvenile detention facility (fancy word for prison) has anything to do with it. duh.
Star Trek Defiant #24 - Alexander face Kahless in the final part of the Quv rite. Will he be successful? Will he regain his lost honor? and then there’s the actual crew of the Defiant going up against the Cardassians and Section 31.
Absolute Wonder Woman #5 - It is getting more and more interesting to see how the iconic characters hav e been changed in the “Absolute Universe.” Diana has a slew of new powers that make the character a bit more interesting and(of course) darker. This time we learn about what her lasso does in this universe and it isn’t something that makes you tell the truth.
Ripperland #2 - What is the connection between the murder in London and the terrorist organization wanting England to rejoin Europe? What about the victim’s history? What about something called clues? Who is leaking information to the press?
John Carpenter’s Tales of Science Fiction: Pause #1 of 6 - I’ve always been a fan of Science Fiction. Long before I read Fantasy I was reading Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, & Heinlein. This series is telling a Twilight Zone tale in which the world is on pause except for one guy. he doesn’t know why, but he discovers he can awaken people, should he? What happens next?
The Magic Order 5 #5 - Cordelia learns how she might escape her death, by dying?!? in this penultimate issue we learn what might work, and then we’re left with nothing too bad- just the end of the world.
Superman #23 - I’m still trying to figure out what Absolute Power did to Superman except give Lois superpowers. It seems that Good Old Superman has an anger management problem now. Going up against the folks that want to destroy Doomsday and Lois having to deal with the Time Trapper.. can Lex & Mercy help? What about Jimmy? Then again Time Trapper and some folks from the Absolute Universe meet? This may not bode well for the future or is that the past? Timey wimey.
Radiant Black #31 - I was done with this series after they finished everything and now we have to deal with the aftermath. Marshall (Radiant Black) is trying to help, but doesn’t seem to understand why no one likes him… Could it be that he saved the world, but also kinda sorta caused the problems? The joys of multiple universes.
Section 31: Emperor Born One Shot - I don’t think I’ve commented at all on the Section 31 film that was released on streaming. It was… sadly meh. I understand Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future had no place for a dark underbelly, but human nature tends to think that it will exist even in the most utopian places. Section 31 would not exist for Gene, there is no reason for it. Yet, in our world it does. This one shot is actually the backstory to how Philippa Georgiou became the emperor of the Terran Empire. Basically how their version of “The Hunger Games” worked. If you’ve seen the movie (that was supposed to be a series and probably would have worked better in that format) the comic ends where the movie started. I just want to feel good about the future… which is getting harder and harder to do.
Ultimate Spider-Man #14 - Wow. This is a comic I look forward to reading each month. First because it happens in “real time” so there is a comic book month between each issue. Peter and Harry were trapped in the Mole Man’s underground realm hunted by Kraven the Hunter. Kraven knows who they are, and will kill their loved ones if they don’t partake in his hunt. Who will live? Who will die? What happens in March?
Night Club 2 #6 - Basically, its not do the good guys win, but more along the lines of how. You’ve got three nerdy teenagers who got turned into vampires and became heroes going after a gang of vampires who were the bullies at school. How do you stop them? Can you stop them? Better study up on your vampire trivia.
Black Hammer Spiral City #4 - This fairy tale is just getting started. The first three issues setting the stage and now with the cast assembled things are starting to fall into place.
Amazing Spider-Man #68.Deaths- Which is another way Marvel just extends a comic series by adding extra issues on top of their normal ones- it also makes keeping track and organizing a bit of a pain. Basically it’s the X-Men vs. Juggernaut. The X-men are being controlled by “The Blight.” Frankly, i’m over this series and just want spider to go back to being friendly and in my neighborhood. Spiderman actually appears in this comic on the last page.
Justice League Unlimited #4 - The problem with reading multiple comics in the same universe is that the Team books tend to have major problems happening that do not have any impact in the other heroes books. Every hero in the world is fighting this group of bad guys called “The Inferno” and it isn’t even mentioned in any other book. Which is fine since you don’t have to read everything, but it can be confusing. In this issue there has been an assault on “The Green” DC’s version of “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together” to steal from another fandom. So we have the bad guys and their mole trying to bring down the Justice League which is now a clearinghouse for all heroes in the DC Universe.
The Flash #18 - So Wally has split himself and one is being influenced by Eclipso and the other is having issues with everyone else while Jai is on the Moon with his faithful dog (who isn’t exactly a dog). Lots of backstory on how things got the way they are and monologuing.
The Department of Truth #28 - This might not be the comic to read in the current political climate. It all seems too real. For hose who don’t know about the basics of this title- its basically set in our current world, in which if you can convince enough people about something it become real… like if you reach the tipping point of people who actually believe the world is flat- then the world can actually become flat. With all the conspiracy theories being presented as facts maybe there is a real Department of Truth- lord save us if DOGE decides to start messing around with it.
Ultimate X-Men #12 - I’m not going to say I understand it all, but… it’s finally starting to make sense as long as I stop looking for the connections to the original comics. Especially since I really don’t have the background in the more recent incarnations of the characters. So we have bad guy who is obsessed with one of our mutant high schoolers. All the other players are trying to put the pieces together and understand what is going on… like me.
Essentials - Never judge a book by its cover… then again as a kid that’s how I usually picked out books. We’d end up at the bookstore across from the restaurant we’d go once a week. My parents would buy us a book. Most of them I picked out from the Science Fiction section because of the covers. I rarely read them… they were pretty much hard SciFi so way too technical and dry for a kid like me. This has a rather dark cover that would make you think evil toys are starring in a horror comic.
Let’s just say this is a beautiful book with amazing artwork. As for the story… wow. As Barbie would say- ‘Math class is hard.” Our world (dimension) is falling apart and combining with another dimension. As part of this humans cease to exist. The pan-dimensional beings from the other dimension are fine with that. Thee are some humans who have survived… and their world is unique to them as their “Guides” try to usher them into the light. So our hero is trying to save the folks still alive and keep our dimension from disappearing. This is the first in a series and while a bit pricey, it is an amazing story and something I definitely will follow when new tomes appear.
My anxiety towards travel just make the whole concept of me traveling “on a whim” so ludicrous. And why when my brother said that it just showed how much he didn’t really know me- or I’m a better actor than he is.