This (Non) Sporting Life: The Best True Story of the Olympics

Welcome to another installment of This (Non) Sporting Life, a blog post about sports written by a guy who doesn't know a lot about sports. The sports topic today is the one that has dominated our thoughts and attention for the last 2 weeks, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. 

As I noted here, there were a lot of negatives that swirled around the choice of Rio as a venue for the Summer Olympics. But in the end, regardless of whatever shortcomings may have been present in the capitol of Brazil, these Olympics provided a lot of exemplary displays of athletic prowess with men and women doing things that makes me hurt just watching them. 

What's really cool for me is seeing real life people display abilities and talents that are almost super hero-like. We may not live in a world with The Flash or Aquaman but we do have Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps who set capstones to their respective Olympic careers with record setting and gold medal winning performances. 

And I was in awe of the extraordinary young people who represent the next wave of Olympian talent and skill. People like Simone Biles who made it seem like gravity is for other people. She was breathtakingly astonishing and deserved the honor of being the flag bearer for the American team during the closing ceremonies of the 2016 Summer Olympics. 

But if Simone Biles and other young men and women like her have demonstrated the best of what it means to be an Olympic athlete, sadly we also have an example of the worst sort of behavior.

Last week, the story broken that swimmer Ryan Lochte and 3 other members of the American swim team had been robbed at gun point. Within a matter of days, the story was falling apart and the whole thing was revealed to be a fabrication. It seems Ryan and his buddies had actually vandalized a Rio gas station including urinating on a wall.  

The blowback was intense, particularly for Ryan who was the most famous of the group, the one who went on TV to insist to NBC's Matt Lauer that he wouldn't make up a thing like this and the one who took off for America leaving the others to answer directly to Brazilian police. It was a reprehensible display that earned the ire of even NBC's most ardent Olympic cheerleading on air talent. 

Well, most of them. During a live broadcast, Billy Bush tried to soft-pedal Lochte's offenses with terms like "embellish" and "exaggerate". Al Roker, the normally affably pleasant weather guy from the Today show, was having none of that. "Ryan LIED!" Roker emphasized, a sentiment concurred with by Natalie Morales.  A follow up visit with Matt Lauer was supposed to present a more contrite Ryan Lochte but instead only admitted to having "over-exaggerated" the robbery story. That statement implies that yes there was a robbery but maybe it didn't go down as badly as he said. Except there was no robbery at all, just the misconduct of Ryan and his teammates. 

Ultimately I regard this whole debacle with Ryan Lochte as a carnival sideshow that provided an unwelcome distraction from the real, true wonders of men and women testing and exceeding their limits to accomplishing amazing things. These are the stories worth our time and attention. 

• Allyson Felix whose triumphs in Rio have now made her the woman runner with the most gold medals ever.  
• Matthew Centrowitz whose win in the 1500m race scored America's first gold medal in the event since 1908.
• Gwen Jorgenson who won gold in the Triathalon, the first gold medal win in this event for the United States since...well, ever! 
• Helen Maroulis who won the first gold for the USA in women's wrestling.  
• American Simone Manuel who made history becoming the first black woman to win Olympic gold in an individual swimming event. 
• Joseph Schooling of Singapore who won gold in the 100-meter butterfly by beating Michael Phelps (who had won gold in this event for the last three Olympics) and breaking Phelps' record in the event. At the end of the race, Phelps swam over to give Schooling a hug. (Awwww!) 

And the epitome of good sportsmanship was demonstrated by two women, neither of whom won their race but won our hearts the world over.  Runner Abbey D'Agostino (USA) and Nikki Hamblin (New Zealand) stumbled onto the track when D'Agostino clipped Hamblin from the back with about 2,000 meters to go of the 5,000 meter race. As Hamblin lay on the ground after falling on her shoulder, D'Agostino told her to "get up" to complete the race. Hamblin then hung back to encourage D'Agostino, who hobbled to the finish line with an injured ankle. The two women embraced at the finish line they had helped each other to cross.  

It's stories like these that not only stand testament to the best of what humans can do in physical competition but also the best of what humanity can be in our hearts. This is the best true story of the Olympics.

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And that's a wrap on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio here at I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. Thanks for popping by the ol' blog thing today and...

... it appears that super model Gisele Bundsen is still walking. You go, girl! 

There's a new post on something or another tomorrow. Until then, remember to be good to one another.  

Doctor Who: Goodbye Too Soon

For several weeks, the theme for these Sunday Doctor Who posts has been about transitions. So far I have posted on the subject of:  

• What if an actor returned to star as the Doctor once more; that is the idea that the Doctor could regenerate to a previous face.
• The next Doctor being a woman.
• The next Doctor not being something to be concerned about because Peter Capaldi isn’t going anywhere yet.
• What if a Doctor transitions from one actor to another at the start of a season instead of at the end. 

In last week’s post, I noted that having the Doctor regenerate at or near the start of a season is not without precedent and there are both positive and negative consequences for such an action. I noted, however, that the worst idea was having new Doctor come in early before the season is through.  

Today we’re going to talk about the time that did happen and how it began the downward spiral that killed Doctor Who for a decade and a half.  Today we’re going to look at classic Doctor Who and season 21. 

Going into his third year, Peter Davison felt it was time to bring his time as the Doctor to an end, acting on the advice and precedent of Patrick Troughton who played the 2^nd Doctor. Further nudging Davison into this direct, he was dissatisfied with the quality of the scripts and the limits imposed on developing his version of the Doctor. 

Following the previous actor to play the Doctor, there is an impetus to be different from that version of the Doctor. However, Tom Baker’s Doctor was a bohemian eccentric uncle; the different direction for Davison to go in was perfectly nice older brother. Which may have worked just fine if Davison didn’t have to compete with a crowded TARDIS (3 companions) and wobbly scripts. 

Perhaps producer John Nathan-Turner who had cast Peter Davison as the Doctor saw the shortcomings of a nice guy next door Doctor and was looking to for a new and brash personality to contrast with Davison’s Doctor. Nathan-Turner felt he hit pay dirt with that goal when Colin Baker was cast as the 6^th Doctor. 

In fact, John was so enraptured by this new, daring, larger than life Doctor that he couldn’t wait to unleash him on the public. In fact, he was so confident of his choice of Colin Baker as the new Doctor that John had the following idea: why not end the season with the new Doctor and people would be so freaking wowed by this new Doctor that they would be chomping at the bit for Season 22 to start? 

So Peter Davison’s grand exit for the role of the Doctor was the next to the last story of the season. It was also by almost any measurement the best story of the Peter Davison era. In fact, The Caves of Androzani frequently ranks at the all time top of classic Doctor Who episodes and remains competitive with the best of the New Who era that began in 2005.

The last story of Season 21 was Colin Baker’s first full adventure as the 6^th Doctor. That story was The Twin Dilemma, frequently cited as the absolute worst Doctor Who story of all time. Yes, worse even that The Gunfighters, Time and the Rani and Love and Monsters.  Yes, it’s really that bad. 

Final Doctor stories have traditionally been epic affairs. The War Games, Planet of the Spiders, Logopolis, The Parting of the Ways, The End of Time, Time of the Doctor. There’s a lot of pressure to go out with a bang. And there was no reason to think that Peter Davison’s last story would not be a momentous occasion. Having the best writer of classic Doctor Who, Robert Holmes, on board to write it just adds more fuel to that fire. The new Doctor’s first story may be a bit unsteady as the new guy figures out how to make his take on the Doctor work. By comparison, the last story for the outgoing Doctor is likely to be stronger than the first story for the incoming Doctor. (The Eleventh Hour being a notable exception to that rule.)  

In short, the odds of Colin Baker ending Season 21 with a bang with his debut as the new Doctor were against him.  

Also lost to Colin Baker and the production staff was the time needed to thoughtfully consider what kind of Doctor his Doctor would be. There was no downtime between seasons to really reflect on Colin’s approach to the role as an actor or for the writers to work around his character. That’s probably why the 6^th Doctor keeps giving in to insane episodes of post regenerative madness (including one time where he tries to strangle companion Peri on the floor of the TARDIS!). They weren’t sure what exactly to do with this new Doctor.  

And most egregiously of all, the 6^th Doctor’s costume was the result of a rushed and ill-conceived idea that the outfit should be tasteless as possible. Colin himself hated the outfit but he had no say in it and there was no time to argue. 

Think about this: if Matt Smith had come into the role of the 11^th Doctor under circumstances similar to Colin Baker’s, we would’ve had a Doctor dressed like a pirate. Honestly, one of the first costume designs for Matt’s Doctor outfit was pirate themed. Thankfully, everyone had to time to reconsider that idea. 

So a new Doctor was brought in early to round off one season instead of waiting to launch a new one. The upshot was a very powerful exit episode followed by a very weak entry episode, transitioning from 1 reasonably well liked Doctor to a not so sympathetic new Doctor. Instead of people anxiously waiting the days for another new episode of this daring new version of the Doctor, Season 22 of Doctor Who was awaited with a sense of dread. It is my opinion that having a new Doctor’s debut adventure at the end of a season was an unnecessarily risky move that harmed the Doctor Who franchise going forward. If Peter Davison could have ended Season 21 in triumph and a better prepared Colin Baker could have had a stronger start with Season 22, the history of Doctor Who would’ve been quite different. Perhaps Colin Baker would have had a longer and better regarded tenure as the Doctor. Perhaps Doctor Who wouldn’t have sputtered to a close in 1989. 

Transitioning from one Doctor to another is fraught with tension for both producers and viewers. But one element that can help alleviate that tension, ironically enough for a show about a time traveler who thinks his way out of trouble, is time to think. 

OK, there's a new post up tomorrow on something or another. And another Doctor Who post back here next Sunday. Thanks for dropping by and until next time, remember to be good to one another.

Dave-El

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You

Mysteries of the Blog & Other Things

"You know that TV channel at the hotel that's about the hotel?" --Bill Hader as Stefon from Saturday Night Live

This is a blog post... about the blog. 

To be honest, I don't really look at the stats for this blog that often. As I've noted before, I am afraid I will find out one of two things:

 

1) Nobody's reading this blog.

2) Somebody's reading this blog.

 

I really don't care too much about the former. I've always been prone to talk to myself and writing this blog is another way of doing that. Still, it would be kind of pathetic if I'm doing all this work and nobody at all is reading it.

 

But the latter point, well, that weirds me out a bit. The idea that there are people who may have actually read some damn post or another and, God forbid, formed an opinion about it. Opinions like "This sucks". 

Or "This sucks worse than I expected".

Or "This sucks less than I thought it would but it still sucks".

I may have self-esteem issues. 

Anyway...

Recently, I became aware of an odd thing happening with the Top 10 blog posts data. Coming in at #1 for several days in a row was this post from November 4th, 2013. I wrote this post after the death of legendary comics artist Nick Cardy. Here are a couple of his Teen Titans covers.

The man was pretty damn awesome.

Still, I have to wonder, why the all the attention to this particular post. It's nearly 3 years old but not only has it been consistently #1 for over the last week or so but the number of hits for it are over double what I see for other posts. 


What's up with that? 


I just Googled "Nick Cardy" to see if there's been some kind of discovery of lost Cardy artwork or something but no. 


OK, I lied. I didn't Google it. I Bing'd it.


I'm so ashamed. 


So the surge in traffic for the Nick Cardy post remains a mystery. Almost as big a mystery as why Ryan Lochte really thought he could get away with making up the story that he and three other US Olympic swimmers were robbed at gunpoint. Instead, Ryan and his homies vandalized a bathroom and urinated on a wall. I hope the United States and Brazil don't go to war over this. They'll attack us with Zika mosquitoes and we'll fire back with streams of pee. It seems, however, that Ryan Lochte has apologized so maybe that will defuse international tensions.

 

Speaking of apologizing, Donald Trump apologized... sort of. He said in Charlotte NC on Thursday that he "regrets" some stuff he's said that may have caused "personal pain". We're not exactly sure who he is apologizing too; it is admittedly a very long list. But you know he means well so there you go. Donald Trump's a nice guy and his one day of contrition makes up for... hold on, let me do some math here... carry the one and...425 days of saying mean stuff since he announced he was running for President.

 

Trump campaign entity and bowling team mascot Paul Mannaford stepped down from Donald's campaign. Donald's new team wasn't going to let Paul play any reindeer games. Plus Mannaford had problems with exposed connections to pro-Russian politicians in the Ukraine and Trump didn't need someone like that bringing down bad press on his campaign. That's Trump's job.

 

Speaking of Russia and bringing things back to my blog, traffic from Russia has died down. It got kind of high last week which makes me really, really, really nervous. I mean, we saw what the Russians did to the computers at the Democratic National Committee. I don't want to think about what would happen if the Russians decided to shut down I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. What would I do without my blog? I might have to, I don't know, communicate with my family. 


Note to self: confirm I still have a family.  


OK then, that's enough for one day, I think. Hey, Doctor Who stuff coming up on the blog tomorrow. So there's that to look forward to. 


So until next time, take time to appreciate the art of Nick Cardy and to my good, good friends in Russia, "Будьте добры друг к другу и не врезаться мой компьютер.*" 

 

*Be good to one another and do not crash my computer.

To Hannity In a Handbasket

After yesterday’s political post, I thought I might give the subject of politics a miss for a few days. But Sean Hannity is getting on my nerves more than usual lately.  

In case you don’t know who Sean Hannity is (and God bless you for your innocence which I am now about to ruin), he’s a pundit on Fox News. Now, I could stop there and you might think you have all the info you need. You would figure he’s big on “Obama’s bad, Obama’s evil, Obama’s destroying America” yada yada yada. We all know the drill when it comes to these talking heads on Fox News. And yes, Sean Hannity is another one of these guys. But what makes Hannity so particularly irksome is not just the sheer hypocrisy that he displays on a nightly basis which even by Fox News standards is quite considerable.  No, the big problem with Hannity is how far he has crawled up Donald Trump’s rectum. 

Assuming You Tube hasn’t removed this, click here for JonStewart (Oh God, how we have missed you, Jon!) and his awesome takedown on Sean Hannity (or as he calls him, “Lumpy”) during a guest spot on Stephen Colbert’s show the week of the Republican convention. Among the things that Stewart takes Lumpy to task for is making fun of President Obama using a teleprompter yet compliments Donald Trump… for using a teleprompter. What the hell, Hannity?


Seriously, go watch the clip. Jon Stewart is on fire and you'll get to see Hannity make fun of Obama's choice of mustard. Really!

Recently CNN media reporter Brian Stelter presented a piece denouncing Hannity's speculation about Hillary Clinton's health and criticized Hannity for trumpeting Trump's claim that the 2016 election would be "rigged." 

Sean Hannity returned fire with "That's the type of coverage that CNN offers in this presidential race, as they literally kiss Hillary Clinton's ass and Obama's ass every day."

Sean Hannity literally doesn't know what "literally" means.

In case you're wondering, "I say, what's all this then about Hillary's health?", first of all, drop the fake bad British accent, it's just weird. But to address your inquiry, there is a conspiracy theory on conservative websites that Hillary Clinton is in poor health and is hiding that fact from the public. Clinton did have issues with her health in 2012 but to date, there is no documented evidence of the former Secretary of State suffering from any continuing or new maladies of any significance. This lack of evidence is why such conspiracies have not made it far past the environs of right wing websites. But a lack of evidence has never deterred Sean Hannity before. Get a load of this exchange from Hannity's program last week. 

HANNITY: Is it possible she had a stroke, or do you really believe it was a head injury, traumatic brain injury?

DANIEL KASSICIEH, BOARD-CERTIFIED NEUROLOGIST: I believe that she had a concussion with a possible brain injury. Of course, I haven't seen medical records, but the blood clot once it cleared up was no longer an issue. It was the latent effects of the concussion that I would be concerned about.

FOX MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT MARC SIEGEL: I saw the same video you saw, and I'm wondering about a word called 'aphasia' where you're searching for words, you suddenly lose those words, and that can be the sign, again, of some kind of traumatic brain injury or the after effects of a concussion.

CNN's Brian Stelter said this went much too far, describing Hannity as "rumor-mongering", engaging in "reckless speculation". Stelter has gone after Hannity before when Hannity promoted Donald Trump's comments that the election is "rigged". Hannity took to Twitter to accuse Stelter of ignoring the evidence.  

In response to criticism from The Washington Post's Erik Wemple, Sean Hannity had this to say on Twitter: 

Frankly Erik I just don't give a sh;) what liberal hacks like u think, check the ratings for the night. Oops I won!! https://t.co/Oxn3WZAwV1
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) July 22, 2016

If Sean Hannity's demeanor and temperament seem a tad familiar, you know like a certain orange skinned, weasel haired blowhard Presidential candidate, well, no wonder Hannity has such a hard-on for Donald Trump.  



Click here for the Washington Post article for more on this story.
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I need to comment on the Donald Trump presidential campaign's latest attempt at re-invention or as the rest of the world sees it, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Among the changes made was naming Stephen Bannon as chief executive of the Trump campaign. Bannon's normal day job is executive chairman of conservative website Breitbart News. 

Have you've ever looked at Fox News and said, "Hey, you know what this network needs? Even MORE raging assholes!" Well, someone arrived at that conclusion and created Breitbart News. You know how Sen. Mitch McConnell is always obstructing President Obama's legislative shit in the Senate? Breitbart News thinks McConnell isn't going far enough and should go obstruct Obama's actual shit in his colon. So the guy in charge of that festival of fuckers is now in charge of Trump's campaign.

This has gone beyond rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic; this is bringing in more ice.

Paul Mannafort who was the alleged grown up in the room as the previous guy "in charge" apparently got under Trump's skin by trying to make Trump behave himself. So all the stupid shit that Trump has been doing over the last several weeks was with someone actually trying to control him. Apparently Stephen Bannon's marching orders are to just let Trump do whatever the hell he wants. Which is what we all thought he was doing anyway.

So the deck chairs have been rearranged and extra ice carted in. And there's Sean Hannity descending on the deck of the Titanic to suggest that this is all Hillary Clinton's fault when she blacked out back in 2012 and rigged the election.

Oh, and Roger Ailes, former Fox News chairman and gregarious gropey girl grabber, is now on Team Trump helping with the campaign. Because apparently the Titanic needs a fucking flamethrower. 

Man, we're all going to Hannity in a handbasket.

Donald Trump's ventriloquist act with Lumpy McLumpster III

_________________________________

Finally, naked statues of Donald Trump appeared in 5 different cities in the United States. They are all gone now but the New York Parks and Recreation Department has made it clear they will not stand for this sort of thing. 

"NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small."  

Damn! That is a serious burn. 

By the way, if you want to see the whole thing, go look for it yourself. But I recommend you don't. I have seen it and there are things a person can never unsee. Even if you have to squint. 

And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you. 

This Campaign, This Damn Pain: Friends In Low Places

Let’s be blunt: the idea of President Donald Trump scares the shit out of us. 

And when I mean us, I mean people who know better. Last week, I posted about how Donald’s support springs most from Non-College Educate Whites or, if I may be politically incorrect, Stupid People.  Yes, I know there’s the segment of society who thinks the world has passed them by for the last 8 years. If there’s been an economic recovery since the Great Recession of 2008, they haven’t seen fuck all from it. And nobody’s denying that. Yes, even President Obama who makes the case (and rightfully so) that things have improved considerably since those dark days 8 years ago, even he will acknowledge (and rightfully so) that it hasn’t improved for everybody and there is still way more that needs to be done. 

But if you’re part of that Non-College Educated White class that thinks Donald Trump is the man to save the day, well, sorry, but… Stupid People. That’s what you are. 

But for every damn body else who thinks (and rightfully so) that a Donald Trump presidency is just completely abhorrent, the good news is the polls say, fear not for the polls bring tidings of…. Well, not great joy but considerable relief. 

Right now, Hillary Clinton is leading Donald Trump in virtually every poll both nationally and individual states and not just leading but leading by a whole hell of a lot. Those are some damn fine poll numbers. 

And they have the Clinton campaign scared to death. 

We’re staring down 80+ days between now and the election on November 8^th. In a world of 24 hour news cycles and the unrelenting din of babble from social media, one never knows where the next problem will come about. 

Think about it. Did anyone anticipate that of all the stupid things Donald Trump has done, he would actually get into a feud with the parents of a slain American soldier? No, that was on nobody’s radar at all. 

While that is an example of something unforeseen that incredibly and finally hurt Donald Trump, you never know what silly, stupid gaffe Hillary Clinton could utter that would wind up dominating the news and starting peeling away at that big lead in the polls. It doesn’t matter who’s ahead today. What matter is who’s ahead on November 8^th when the last vote is tallied. Even if Hillary actually avoids any self-inflicted wounds (and no politician can’t do that forever), there are forces at work in the world beyond anyone’s control. A major terrorist attack or an unexpectedly dramatic economic downturn. 

And then there are the forces at work who would deliberately seek to undermine Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. 

The never ending “Tales of the Emails” continues to unwind with revelations last week of contact between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department with someone who was a donor to the foundation looking for a favor from the government. There is no direct connection to Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State but the implications are cause for concern. Many Clinton opponents on the right have made the Clinton Foundation a talking point, raising concerns about who gives money to the foundation and what connections it has with the government. Stuff like this doesn’t help. For now, it seems like the lid has been tamped down on this particular scandal. It helps that Donald Trump keeps sucking up all the air time with whatever stupid thing he said in the last 5 minutes. But if further emails are released with more stuff like we saw last week, that could poke a hole in Clinton’s support. 

And let me change that from “if” to “when” because Julian Assange of Wikileaks has made it known that we have yet to see but a portion of the information they have on Clinton and the Democratic Party.  (And on a side note, I find it disgusting—to quote Donald Trump’s favorite word—that the American electoral process could be at the mercy of an accused rapist who has avoided answering  for his reported crimes.) 

From the highs of incredibly strong poll numbers, Hillary Clinton, her campaign staff, the Democratic Party and every single sane intelligent soul who doesn’t want Donald Trump anywhere near the White House, we’re all looking down nervously. Are there friends of Hillary and Bill in low places who have looked for favors? And are their enemies in even lower places prepared to expose them? 

Everybody, be good to one another.

Dave-El

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You

Comic Book Journeys

Hi there! Today is Wednesday which is New Comic Book Day which is why I like to give Wednesday's post over to comic book stuff.




Last weekend, I make a way overdue visit to the best comic book shop in the world, Acme Comics, to see what books had accumulated from my pull list. What I found were a collection of books starting from day one, another set picking up the journey already begun and one book coming to an end. 

So let's start with journeys beginning.

Kill or Be Killed 

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are back with a new project. I got on board with Brubaker/Phillips with The Fade Out and was completely wowed by the world they created. I'm been catching up on Fatale through the trades after which I'm going to back through the Criminal catalog.

For their new series, Ed and Sean's Kill or Be Killed 
introduces us to Dylan who is, to be blunt, rather pathetic but sadly, I can empathize with him.  Dylan is a socially maladjusted individual who's watching life pass him by and it drives him deep into depression and an attempt to take his own life. He survives the attempt but learns there's a price. A demon appears to Dylan (or it could be some kind of psychotic episode) who says that Dylan has to kill one person, a bad person who deserves to die, each month if Dylan wants to keep enjoying his own 2nd chance at life. Dylan refuses, then he becomes deathly ill. It appears the demon is exacting his price. When Dylan is viciously assaulted in the street, however, Dylan changes his mind and decides to kill bad people.

While Brubaker's writing is rooted in crime noir as it is in The Fade Out and Criminal, he's not above incorporating fantastic supernatural elements as we see in Fatale. Whether or not the demon in Kill or Be Killed is such a supernatural thing or just a figment of Dylan's damaged mental state remains to be seen. But the story is off to a strong start with excellent character work as always from Brubaker. And Sean Phillips art work combined with Liz Breitweiser's gorgeous palate of colors is amazing to look at and communicates the darkness and the fear that encircle Dylan's world. 



Batman 66 Meets Steed & Mrs. Peel 

The latest project to crossover the universe of Batman '66 with a 1960's pop culture icon launches as Batman and Robin team up with the Avengers. No, not those Avengers over at Marvel. No, we're talking about the super cool British spy series.  The art of Matthew Dow Smith is technically proficient but really lacks the zip/bang/pow of either Batman '66 or the wilder pop art sensibilities of British spy dramas. Ian Edington provides the script which is serviceable and captures the Batman '66 vibe well enough but lacks that spark and energy that regular Batman '66 writer Jeff Parker gave to these proceedings. 

Superwoman 

There's a lot of back story to wade through to get this issue started. For all that back story, I found I was not very invested in Lois Lane (or I should say THIS Lois Lane; more on that in a bit). It's Lana Lang who really comes alive as an individual since the story is told from her point of view. Still, the idea of Lois who recently outed Superman's secret identity having to discover her way as a super powered hero and cope with the trials and tribulations of the sort Superman faced is a very captivating idea. I hope we can explore this further but Lois is not in the best shape at the end of the issue. Good to see Phil Jiminez (as writer & penciller) back on an ongoing project at DC again. 




Among the titles waiting for me were 3 issues each of the DC's Rebirth titles that I committed to following. This bi-weekly schedule thing really causes the comics to pile up. Where are they in their journeys so far? 


Superman

There's more meat on the bones of this story from Pete Tomasis and Patrick Gleason but I'm still having trouble with this concept of MY Superman in someone else's world. I'm on the fence if I will continue with this title after the initial story arc.

Batman

When super powered people take on Batman's mission in Gotham City, the results aren't pretty. Kudos to writer Tim King for broaching a fairly original (to me anyway) idea. But what are the stakes for Batman and the main cast? So far I'm not really getting a sense of King's concept for Bruce and his inner circle. 


For that matter, I'm not really on board with Gotham and Gotham Girl. They're ciphers for the most part and what we do know of their story is what Batman pieces together. Their ultimate downfall when confronted by Professor Strange and the Psycho Pirate doesn't have the impact it should since we are not invested in them enough to feel the enormity of what happens to them.


And I appreciate Tom King has done his homework to know who Matches Malone is but having Batman use his underworld alter ego to pretend to be a federal agent just doesn't work for me. 

For the art, penciller David Finch is always a good fit for Batman. Different inkers have been employed I presume to help along the bi-weekly schedule but its hard to complain when those inkers are talents like Matt Banning, Danny Miki and Sandra Hope who keep Finch's pencils looking good and consistent.

Wonder Woman

Despite great art from Liam Sharpe, the odd numbered issues with the present day storyline are not making an impression on me. Some disjointed mumbo-jumbo between Diana and Cheetah while Steve Trevor leads a team on a rescue mission that may cross paths with whatever Wonder Woman is up to. I'm emotionally detached for this muddled series of events.

However, the even numbered issues with the revisit of Wonder Woman's origin is a revelation, particularly for the gorgeous artwork of Nicola Scott. I've admired her work on books like Birds of Prey and Earth-2 but her designs, layouts and line work are at all whole new level. And Greg Rucka seems to be on more firm footing with this storyline than the modern day arc. The character development of Diana and her fellow Amazons really makes this story click.

In addition to the Rebirth stuff from DC, I was pleasantly surprised to this trade collection in my box

Saga 

Somehow I missed or forgotten that it was coming. This continues to be a title that lives up to its title, a sprawling and epic saga and yet a human and emotional one as well. Writer Brian K Vaughan is not afraid to have characters behave in a raw, unfiltered way and artist Fiona Staples isn't shy about showing any of it.

Warning: there are penises in this book including one where you will not expect.

And this brings us to the series that came to an end. Today's post began with a new series debut from Ed Brubaker so it seems fitting that this post ends with an Ed Brubaker farewell.


Velvet  

Velvet#15 marks the conclusion of this series although Ed Brubaker assures in the issue's ending text piece that there are more Velvet stories to be told even though he and artist Steve Epting will be working on another project next. 

I've enjoyed the series for the most part but it seemed near the end, I'm still not quite sure what rabbit hole the overall conspiracy plot ran down. It also seemed to me that Velvet Templeton herself lost her own investment in the story. The mystery needed to be solved because there was a mystery that needed to be solved. The personal stakes that rocked Velvet's world in the beginning seemed less personal near the end.

But maybe that was a deliberate thing. The retired secret agent flung back into the cold, Velvet finds her own needs sublimated to the mission, even if the mission began with a need to solve the murder of a friend and save herself from a frame up. 

The art by Steve Epting with colorist Bettie Brittweister (really, have her color everything!) never let up with an ever present mood of darkness and danger. What I really admired was the artistic approach to Velvet herself; yes, she is the epitome of the beautiful secret agent but she's had years of seeing and knowing terrible things and it shows.

Whatever Brubaker and Epting are up to next, I will be very interested to see what it is. But I really do hope that we get more adventures with Velvet Templeton in the future.

And that wraps up this post and....

Wait! There was one more book I bought this weekend but I'm going to hold off on that until next week's comic book post.

Meanwhile, we're back to politics for tomorrow's post. (Sorry.)  Until next time, remember to be good to one another.

Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You 

This (Non) Sporting Life: Olympics Highs and Lows

Hi there! Welcome to another installment of a recurring feature here on this blog that I call This (Non) Sporting Life. It's a blog post about sports written by a guy who knows very little about sports. 

That would be me. Hi, I'm Dave-El and I have a gold medal in inertia. I would get up to show it to you but you know.

Inertia.

Once more, the Summer Olympics in Rio have captured my attention. I really did not have a lot of expectations about this year's events. Mostly the drumbeat of bad news out of Rio kind of dampened my enthusiasm a bit. However, once the events themselves actually got underway, we've seen a demonstration of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. Any Olympics is about the best in the world doing their best on a world wide stage while setting and breaking records. But this years' crop of athletes really seem to shine. Yes, I'll indulge in a bit of patriotic pride in noting a lot of that is coming from right here in the good ol' United States of America! Woo-hoo!

There are three particular Americans who have epitomized for me the high points of Olympic achievement.

Simone Biles
I don't think gravity works on Simone. I don't think Simone works at throwing herself into the air, I think she has to concentrate on walking on the Earth like regular people. On the mat, that's when she can relax, give in to her natural state and fly. Watching this wonder doing gymnastics is astonishing. To be blunt, watching even a mediocre talent do gymnastics is astonishing to me; I'm a guy whose most athletic endeavor is reaching for the remote control. Then to see someone like Simone Biles just be better than everyone, that's just... wow. And from all reports I've heard, she's really a nice person. With her Olympic success, she has been described as the next Michael Phelps or some similar comparison. I saw someone on Twitter who put it better: Simone Biles... is the first Simone Biles!

Michael Phelps
And speaking of the man himself. At 31 years, Michael Phelps is OLD in Olympic years. Given his long career and his successes in the past, I don't think anyone would've cared if Michael just stayed in contention, gave a good effort, didn't embarrass himself or his legacy too bad. Well, no one would've cared except Michael Phelps. The man came into the 2016 Olympics to WIN and win he did, scoring phenomenal gold medal victories. Phelps has said this is it, his last Olympics. There is a still a human beneath that athletic frame and Michael has said every inch of it hurts. It's hard to know when to quit in athletics and harder still to go through with it. But if Michael Phelps is true to his word, then there can be no finer finish for his swimming career that these Olympics. But then, we thought the same about London 2012, didn't we? 

Katie Ledecky
OK, everything I said about Simone Biles, just repeat all that about Katie Ledecky. Except Ledecky doesn't hide her defiance of gravity under cover of gymnastics, she hides it in swimming events. Look at her! She's not swimming through the water. She's flying through it! How does she do that? Is she secretly Aquaman's daughter?

While the actual athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics have been of the highest caliber, there have been some low points. 


The host city of Rio de Janeiro had a number of problems which I document here. Among those problems was rampant crime. Unfortunately, crime targeted some of the athletes. American swimmer Ryan Lotche and some of his teammates were held up a gun point. Thankfully no one was hurt; the thieves took their wallets and ran. It must have been quite frightening because it made Ryan's hair turn white.

I'm being handed a bulletin that informs me that Ryan's hair was already that color.

Speaking of color, some of the Olympic swimming pools turned green which I assume was some kind of tribute to Brazilian rain forests and...

I'm being handed a bulletin that informs me that no, the pools are not supposed to be green. Apparently some kind of algae problem that is particularly resistant to chlorine, fluoride, bleach, scrubbing bubbles and voodoo. So, not good.

As we mentioned before, the waterways around Rio are filled with crap which is not an euphemism. It means actual crap or shit if you will. At least one person got sick with dysentery after a kayak event.

I'm being handed a bulletin that informs me that I will not be handled any more bulletins which is great because it's just me in here. I mean, what the hell?  Where have these things been coming from?

OK, that's that for this post. Until next time, remember to be good to one another.