I'm still excited to hear Alex's take on Superman Returns, why oh why couldn't he have seen it on Tuesday with us? Jesse and I would have been so happy.

As for myself, I was dissapointed. Superman Returns is too mopey and too boring (especially in the third act). For the love of god, why can't he do anything except lift stuff? So in the interest of satisfying my lust for good, fun Superman stories (and for good ol' Supes/Lois dating/hating) I bought the first volume of the animated series. It's so awesome.

I don't entirely care for the Last Son Of Krypton arc that kicks off the series, although it does give the best origin of all time for Brainiac. After Superman gets to Metropolis, though, everything kicks into totally awesome high gear. Lex is great, and a perfect combo between scientist and business mogul. Tim Daly and Dana Delaney are pitch perfect, and the Clark-Lois relationship, getting to start from the beginning as it does, is just awesome. I love it when she calls him Smallville. There's even a scene where Clark jokingly says that he's Superman and Lois just laughs in his face.

One thing I hadn't noticed first time around, but can really see when watching all in a row, is the incredible continuity the show sets up. The second Metallo episode is a direct follow up to the events of the Last Son Of Krypton arc, and Brainiac comes back pretty soon to do to earth what he did to Krypton. You can also watch the Fortress of Solitude grow through the series, first by gaining a Kryptonian knowledge orb from Brainiac and then the addition of an alien zoo from the Lobo episodes. It's just really cool to see the world all grow and make sense in this way.

Tonight I'll probably skip Volume 2 and go straight to Amoeba to buy Volume 3 so I can see the totally awesome Apokolips War arc that Alex is so hot on. Bring it on, 4th of July Weekend!

For a mainstream political journal, Reason's got a pretty swell article up about the Superman Mythos.

Not all of those villains are evil in the proper sense of the word (what does "evil" even mean to Bizarro?), and most of them, you'll note, are kind of silly. That's the secret of the Superman stories at their best: They might exude an image of action and straight-arrow values, but the world they're set in can be as absurd as an Alfred Jarry play.

Sorry for the lost week. We got swamped at the Bunny and then I disappeared to Mexico for 3 days. Mexico was great though. I took pictures on film, so they'll be up once I can get it all developed.

And now, as promised, we're out of the cafeteria and things are starting to unfold a bit. Enjoy.

I wish I owned this pic as a poster.

Okay, so now that SR is upon us (I'll be seeing it on IMAX on Sunday), it's time to look back on the schizo goodness that is Superman: The Movie and Superman II.

To start off, I'll say that unlike Jeff and my good friend Tom, I love Superman: The Movie. I think the action set pieces are more cinematic than the ones in II, I like the majesty of the first act, I like Superman's first appearance, I like the dialog ("This is no fantasy!" -- What an awesome first line for a superhero movie!), and I think that Lex -- while buffoonish -- is also genuinely funny.

But, it's not like I is heads and shoulders better than II. In fact, there are many things I like and hate about both movies. So without further ado...

Things I Don't Like About Superman: The Movie

That Brando pronounces it "Crip-ten" as opposed to "Crip-tahn." (I was four and this infuriated me)
That Jeff East's Young Clark doesn't look that young. And that Reeve loops his lines.
That Lois looks AWFUL the first time the camera shows her up close.
That Lex has no discernible backstory or motivation other than he's "eeeeeevillll"
"Just fly. Don't look. Just...fly."
That Lex is a businessman, real-estate dude. Bore-ring.
That Hoover Dam blowing up sequence blows in retrospect.
That Superman has the power to turn back time.

Things I Don't Like About Superman II

The dual Russian-American lunar mission. The only thing lamer would be a "World Unity Festival," but no superhero movie is corny enough to put one of those in.

Oh, wait. Dammit. Sigh. Anyway...

That Superman and Zod have a "blow off." (I'm sure this idea was cooler on paper.)
That the U.S. Army uniforms and equipment look like they came from some shitty TV shoot.
That Superman walks to the Fortress. As Clark Kent.
That Superman can lose his powers without any sort of gold kryptonite. (Although frankly, I think the idea of Superman gaining and re-gaining his powers is always stupid.)
That "Jaws" dies by falling into cloudy void.
That Superman can create clones of himself and turn his shield in cellophane.
That Superman can give Super-Kisses.

So, Asa, last year Batman Begins -- in all its brown glory -- opened weakly before showing some legs and ultimately doing "very good."

Prediction for Superman Returns?

I say 100 million for the five-day. 65 million for the three day.

I think it tops out right at 300 million. If I had to predict, I'd say the biggest thing holding it back is the BLEH casting of Lois Lane.

(That last opinion may change though when I see it Friday night).

Why are hurricanes seemingly worse than ever? Man-made global warming? Natural global warming? Reporting bias (more media=more hurricane reports/sensationalizing)? Who knows; there's a huge amount of variables in a storm as complex as a hurricane.

Anyway, Gregg Easterbrook posits (and quite rightly, methinks) that a big reason why hurricanes destroy so much more these days is that rich idiots keep building more expensive crap in the way of hurricanes.

But maybe there's another reason losses keep rising--namely, that property keeps becoming worth more. With each passing year, hurricanes that strike the United States are striking a nation of ever-more-affluent people who build ever-more properties in coastal areas. No wonder the destruction keeps getting worse. Every year there's more to destroy!

In 1947, before tropical storms were named, a major hurricane struck Florida, the most hurricane-exposed state. The 1947 storm brought peak winds of 155 miles per hour and caused the Sunshine State an estimated $775 million in damage. At the time, Florida had about 600,000 detached single-family homes worth roughly $20 billion. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit Florida with peak gusts of 164 mph, causing an estimated $37 billion in damages. By the time Andrew arrived, Florida possessed about 3 million single-family detached homes worth roughly $500 billion. Housing-stock value was way up, and so losses were way up. And this is a simplified calculation taking into account only single-family detached homes—the value of office buildings, industry, apartments, infrastructure, and amusement parks was also much higher in Florida in 1992 than in 1947. Andrew did roughly 50 times the monetary damage to Florida as did the similar hurricane of 1947. And it's a fair guess that in 1992, Florida was 50 times more valuable than in 1947.

Hey, whaddya know.

(Independent audit: It's what seperates civilized man from the jihadists of the world.)

The official "mission poster" for the next space shuttle flight is not just a picture of a bunch of astronauts in front of the flag, but rather a 1980s-style comic cover. It's not bad.

Psychic Bunny just got a pretty big job. A rush job. A high prestige rush job that we would be idiots to not put everything we've got into.

Goodbye weekends, we hardly knew ye.

OK, that was a hell of a night. But Psychic Bunny just pitched a job against a bunch of people way cooler than us, so maybe it was worth it. We did good work, regardless. If you are Liz and Paul you are waiting for me to get to work, but I needed to toss this up first.

So here it is, page 3, and I guarantee we're about to get out of the cafeteria.

SCOTUS says coppers don't have to knock when executing a warrant.

I wish the decision went the other way, but honestly, I always thought the knocking was more courtesy than law. I mean, let's face it: If the judge grants a warrant, they're coming into your home whether you like it or not. Not to mention whether you're even home or not. At that point, who cares if they're knocking?

If anything, knocking may have been a good way to save COPS' lives. If they take the time to announce who they are, it might cut down on the number of people shooting at them. It's like, if some guys barge into your home, you're going to fight back. But if they say, "Open up, police! We have a warrant!" You probably are going to think twice about shooting because not only have you possibly done something very wrong to necessitate them coming after you in the first place, but if you shoot them, you'll then have "cop killer" charges to boot.

While Zarqawi's hardly even close to Hitler, I think it's kinda neat that Time magazine brings out the red X covers whenever we take down supervillains.

I was thinking about this all morning anyway, but the post below just sort of cemented it. By comparison, nothing is ever as good as it could be. I am a compulsive comparer. Maybe I should stop. Some things are what they are.

On the other hand, I'd really like it if we got Osama.

I'm incorrigible.

We totally killed al Zarqawi!

It's nice to see us actually nail a bad guy once in a while. Now bring me the head of Osama Bin Laden.

OK, so when I said love, I meant sex first, and then love. That's how it usually works, right? Maybe not quite like this.

Sweet lord, it's 3 am.

P.S.- The twins are one of those things I thought of at the last minute. Do you like this live commentary? Maybe it's a bad idea.

I'm voting No on 82. I don't really care about the GOPsters running in the primary, but I'll vote for McLintock to win the Lt. Gov nomination.

(If anyone who reads this blog is pro-82, worry not. I think my girlfriend is voting yes, so my vote has already been cancelled out. Democracy in action!)

New EPA standards will change the air quality across the nation quickly and noticably.

"I support the war, but I don't support the troops."

In light of the possible/maybe/probably U.S. massacres of Iraqi civilians, Al Franken's hilarious joke has never been more apt.

Arch-conservative blog Ace of Spades (which is frequently as mean as the stuff you might read on Atrios...) has written a persuasive (and loooong) post that seeks to understand why Leftists 1. Hate Israel and Conservative Blacks, and 2. How Leftism often leads to its own brand of insidious moralizing.

Leftism, and liberalism, and progressivism, and etc-ism. are not merely simple politics for most of these people. Their politics to them are a core part of their identity, and, more importantly, a central support propping up their egos. They are enlightened because they believe these things; someone who does not believe these things, and yet who, superficially at least, appears to be about as smart as they might be, represents a threat to their egos. The foundation upon which a crucial structure of their sense of self-worth is undermined if they discover that there may be people who can pass as normal and intelligent and yet do not believe as they do.

If one is smart, then one believes in progressivism.

If one believes in progressivism, then one is smart.

Those are the two assumptions that prop up their sense of self worth, and they are refuted by examples of smart people who don't believe in progressivism.

And because there is a great deal of personal psychological investment in progressivism, they react intemperately to rejections of it. It's not merely a tax cut that's being debated; it's they're very sense of importance that's being attacked. It's not merely gay marriage which is being argued against; it's their value as human beings that is being uncouthly denigrated.

As much as I dug the whole Infinite Crisis shindig (especially Villains United) I think it has had the opposite of its intended effect on me. As someone who wants trades for posterity but has certain books that I am compelled to keep up with, it was a bad move. Suddenly there's a good stopping point in every single book I read. I can just stop now and only buy trades from here on out.

Well, until Morrison and Dini start on the Batman books, those I will happily buy in singles and then someday pay a girl $1,000,000 to have sex with me on top of them.

A new project, how exciting! I had this whole thing written out, but as I was finishing the art I started coming up with some new ideas I really liked, so you can expect that I'll be making last minute changes all the way through, bit like a serial. I'm really excited for it. I was expecting to do 12 pages, but if the story warrants it I might up it a little. I suppose we'll see.

I'm also a little rusty with my html (ironically, given what I'm doing at work) and busy as hell at work, so the new Wrench page may be a bit off, and I haven't updated the sidebar or the comics page yet. This weekend I hope. Please alert me to any problems you find.