Reading reactions online to Countdown, I see a negative mindset surrounding the series. People are jumping over this thing left and right. What should be remembered is that this is a year long story so the first issues are going to set you up with unanswered questions. Why does everyone seem to know Jason Todd? How did Jimmy get these superpowers, which seems to something Jimmy Olsen is wondering about himself? What the hell killed Lightray?
If you expect answers to these questions right away, you are not going to get them. People should really give this series room to breathe before you decide to drop it. This comic is an unfolding mystery, so time should be given to let it unfold.
Even in a much shorter mini-series then Countdown you never get the answers in the first issue. The thing is the people complaining have been reading comics for a long time and they all know you never get the answers when a mini-series first starts.
People are comparing this to 52 and how much they liked 52 over this. The proper comparison should be made when the entire run of Countdown is finished. Besides why compare this to 52 anyway. Just because both are weekly comics.
Personally I am going to get every issue of Countdown for the primary reason that I put trust in Paul Dini, who is the head writer of Countdown. I am also getting this every week because this comic tries into the entire DC universe.
All I am saying is give Countdown a chance before you drop it.

MY COMIC BOOK ORIGINS

Since I have decided to write about my passion for comics, I thought I would start by explaining how my passion started. My first exposure to comics were in the form of a stack of comics that my mother bought for me at a Flea Market. It is a fairly typical story. Even though I still have those old comics, it would be years later when I actually started buying comics.

My older sister in college(I was 13, at the time) had befriended a guy named Mike McAvennie, who was very big into comics . One day Mike gave me three comics. It was a West Coast Avengers, a Star Trek Comic and a third one I can't remember. Mike was a really cool guy who would later work for DC Comics as an Assistant Editor. I have lost touch with him, which is a shame.

That was it. That was the moment when I became a comics fan with those three comics Mike McAvennie gave me. My mother suggested we go to a comic book store if I was going to be serious about this. That week I entered my first comic book store named Mike's Comic Hunt. The comic that I remembered was the latest issue of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was up to number 7. I then went to the back issue section looking for numbers 1 through 6 and the good news is that this store had packed the first six issues together and that pack was cheaper then if I got each separate back issue. Of course if that happened today it would be very likely I wouldn't be able to find a first printing of that issue months later at a reasonable price.

Needless to say it was a really good time to get into comics. Okay I am going to call this Part 1 and later on I will contiue discussing the evolution of my comic collecting and the various comic book stores I have visited over the years.

Three Comic Books I Am Looking Forward To This Week


1. 52 Week#52
This is it, the end of a year long 52 issue maxiseries. It is amazing that DC was able to come out with this title week after week and of course the truely amazing thing is they are going to do it all over again with Countdown. It is awesome that this title is extra sized without a price increase.
Speaking of price this issue is also bittersweet in a sense. This will mark the last time a comic will be priced at $2.50. When I first starting buying comics the price for a standard comic was 75 cents. Those were the days.
2. Detective Comics #832
Being a Batman fan this comic obviously makes this list despite the fact that Paul Dini isn't writing this issue. Royal McGraw did a solid job with his previous fill-n issues of Detective, although it is an injustice just to call them fill-in issues becasuse of their quality.
3 All New Atom#11
This is a crazy zany fun comic all thanks to Gail Simone. I know people wish she would have dropped this book instead of leaving Birds of Prey to do Wonder Woman, but I think it would have been more tragic if she left All New Atom when the comic is just getting started.

I have had this blog for years and I have never used it extensively except for a couple of posts, but I think it is time for that to change. I believe this will be a comic book blog, although it could cover many other things. Ok let's do this damn it.

I finally tracked down the UMD version of Batman Begins after months and months of looking for it. How the Hell can it be so hard to track a hit movie from last summer? It is not even listed on the Best Buy website. Well that's not the point of this blog. Rather the point is something I found inside the Batman Begins UMD that I had to share.

Here it is:

UMDs need instructions...really? I love the top that states these are "Quick Start Instructions." Is watching a UMD that complicated? According to this insert indeed they are. The only useful information is that UMDs warp if they stay in the PSP too long. That I did not know.

I remember a time long ago when Sonic and Mario were on the opposite sides of the gaming world in an eternal battle for videogame supremacy. Ok it wasn't that long ago and I am probably overplaying that eternal battle for videogame supremacy bit, but hey a guy has to try and make his blog interesting. The fact is that Sonic and Mario were rivals back then. It was the time of "Genesis Does What Nintendon't" Since Sonic the Hedhog was created many years after Mario had made his debit, I believe that one of the characters in Sonic was directly influenced by the look of Mario. The character I am referring to is clearly Dr. Robonik. Today he is referred to as Eggman or even Dr. Eggman. I prefer Robotnik, but apparently Eggman is the way the Japanese refer to him. I will now present my evidence on my theory by looking at a picture of Dr. Robotnik..ummm Eggman to see what he has in common with Mario's look.

1. Mario is Plump.. Dr. Robotnik is quite plumb on the verge of busting.

2. Mario has a mustache...Dr. Robotnik has a ridiculously large mustache, an exaggerated Mario mustache.

3. Mario almost always wears a hat... Dr. Robotnik is bald perhaps suggesting that Mario is actually bald underneath that hat he wears. He isn't, but this is meant to be a dig on Mario. Ok that was a stretch, but If you put a Mario hat on top of Robotnik's chrome dome he does start to resemble an abstract version of Mario. You know I don't think the identity of Mario's father is known, at least I don't think so. Could it be that Dr. Robotnik is Darth Vader to Mario's Luke Skywalker? Hmmmmm makes you think doesn't it?

4. Mario has white gloves and so does Robotnik.

5.Mario wears a red shirt and so does Robitnik, Dr. Robotnik. On the subject of colors both Mario and Robotnik do have a similiar color palette6.Notice the similar placement of the buttons on Mario and Robotnik. Hmmm I am not so crazy am I? sn't it obvious? I just hope I am not pointing out something that has already been known and I was too slow to catch it until now.

There is another character that has an odd similiarity to Mario in another game. I will just show the box cover and you can draw your own conclusion Hey isn't that Donkey Kong in the background? Hmmm quite curious.