Beware the Dread Pirates

Kris has been sick this week, so missed out on the weekly trip to the comic shop. It’s always really weird when he doesn’t come in. So many times I find myself getting to an awesome splash page and turning to him to say “Dude!! Check it out!” and only to find that instead of Kris sitting on the other side of the couch, it’s one of the cats. Usually, they’re less enthusiastic about whatever it is I’m trying to show them than he would be.

It’s a well-known fact at Ret-Conned HQ that Fox Television hates Kris. This is why they cancelled Firefly, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Dollhouse. Well, they might have been justified in canceling Dollhouse, but that was primarily because Dollhouse should have been much more of an ensemble show than it really was. Instead of focusing almost exclusively on Eliza Dushku and why her character is special, they should have taken the great ensemble cast that they had and really let them shine. This pains me greatly to say this because I think Eliza Dushku is extremely hot and find it hard to complain about any screen time she’s given. She’s just a very one-dimensional actress and wasn’t a good fit to star in a role that would require her to be five different dimensions all in a single episode.

By far the most interesting episode of the first season of Dollhouse was the one episode that they didn’t air, Epitaph 1, that starred the extremely nerd-hot Felicia Day and showed the apocalyptic future that the personality-swapping technology of the Dollhouse contained. I didn’t finish watching the second season, but according to Kris who trudged through it like the dedicated soldier he is the series ended with a return to the same apocalyptic future.

Apparently, we’re not the only ones who thought that the Epitaph future was the coolest part of the show as Dark Horse has announced that they’re starting a Dollhouse comic based in that future universe. For those of you keeping score at home, this will be the second Dark Horse comic starring a character played by Felicia Day (the first being Codex from Day’s own The Guild web series). It will also be the fourth Joss Whedon property that Dark Horse has moved into comics (Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel being the other three). This will also mean that all three Whedon brothers are writers for Dark Horse as Joss is currently wrapping up Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, Zach Whedon is carving out his own legacy with the Terminator comics, and the Dollhouse comic will be co-wrote by Jed Whedon and his wife Maurissa Tanchareon (so I guess that really means DH employees four Whedons). It’ll be interesting to watch.

I’ve started an experiment this week and begun reading Y: The Last Man digitally through the Comixology iPad app. Vertigo is re-releasing the critically acclaimed series as single issues every couple of weeks. I read the first issue for FCBD and really enjoyed it, so decided to take this opportunity to read the series and see what a digital comic world would be like. I bought the first five issues to get me started, but from here on out I’ll be buying one digital issue a month just like it’s a regular part of my pull list. I’ll report back here on what it’s like.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

• House of Mystery #31 - I really enjoyed the House of Mystery Halloween Annual, so decided to try out the regular series. If the “story within a story” segments are a regular theme of the series, I think I’m going to like it.
• Secret Six #27 - Bane riding a T-Rex. Do I need to give you any other reason to buy this comic? I didn’t think so.
• Y: The Last Man #1-5 - These issues did a really good job of quickly showing you a new world order. Yorick is a bit of an ass, but I think that’s just because he’s immature and hasn’t quite realized the importance of the fact that he’s the only man left on earth.

Travis, what’s on Kris’s pull list?

• Adventure Comics #520 - The “tragedy” of the first Legionnaire to die is really weakened by the fact that he’s one of the main characters in the regular Legion book, which takes place after these stories.
• Batman & Robin #16 - Very weird end to Morrison’s very weird run. Sets up everything for Batman, Inc.
• Brightest Day #13 - This is the Hawkman/Hawkgirl issue. Hope you weren’t interested in any of the other eight story lines, because you’re not going to find it here.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer #38 - There’s only two issues left and with all the build up from this and the previous issues, I’m afraid it’s going to make the finale seemed rushed.
• Doom Patrol #16 - The only thing that Negative Man hates worse than pelicans is alternate realities. Uh-oh.
• Freedom Fighters #3 - Filled with American crypto-history and conspiracy theories. Really slows down the pace of what’s been a fairly action-packed series.
• JSA All-Stars #12 - Who cares about the rest of the All-Stars, we’re here to talk about Cyclone!
• Red Hood Lost Days #6 - This was an excellent ending to a great series that really ties itself together into the rest of the Batman continuity. I’m pretty sure I’m going to get this one in trade when it comes out.
• Life With Archie: Married Life #4
• Secret Six #27 - Bane on a T-Rex!!
• Superboy #1 - Take one part Superboy, one part Krypto, and throw in the villain of the month who took a wrong turn on the freeway and ended up in Smallville. This is going to be a very fun series.