Category: Musings

Random Thoughts On… Loot Crates

Waste of money.

For those who don’t know what a loot crate, it is a service that you subscribe to and every month, you get a box of trinkets and collectables, whether it’d be a T-shirt, plastic bits and bobs, or things of that nature. Loot Crates or subscription boxes usually have this sort of crap inside and that’s what you get every month.

For collectors, this is a treasure trove of crap. For Youtubers with no original ideas for video content, they’ll hawk these things to the ends of the Earth. But for me, it’s a complete waste of money because it’s not the sort of thing I’d care for. Not to mention, every box is essentially a McMystery meal; you don’t know what you’re getting until you get it. That’s not something that interests me.

For those who enjoy these things, enjoy them all you want. I don’t want to rain on your parade. But leave me out of it. If I want trinkets and shirts, I’ll buy them at a store where they’re in plain sight.

Random Thoughts On… “Truth”

Thoughts on the current Superman: Truth storyline where Superman is exposed and depowered and etc. etc. etc?

I haven’t been following it all that much, to be honest. But I do give it about a year or two before they reset the status quo to whatever stupid thing they had before.

Comics these days, especially from the big two, have become so much of a clusterfuck that they make it very easy to drive interest away from their product except for those loyal to the brand and for those interested in that speculator market. Nowadays, most of my comic readings is from IDW with the Star Trek stuff and sometimes a Turtles book or two. That stuff’s actually well done, but for the rest of it, I’m like… no thanks. Marvel’s constant need for a mega-event every other month as well as DC’s dreadfully depressing New 52 reboot or whatever pretty much killed it for me. And if it wasn’t for the Marvel Cinematic stuff and the DC Animated movies, I probably wouldn’t have cared about either company.

And you know what? That whole premise with getting rid of the secret ID and turning him into generic jabroni man or whatever? Stupid, lame, lazy… I get that it’s hard to make Superman interesting given the wide range of stories told, but pretty much scrapping everything that made Superman Superman… no, complete clusterfuck that will be gone in all of a year or two. Just… no.

Here’s the thing; I get the idea they’re trying to go for here; break Superman down to his most basic levels and build him up again from the ground up. And I get that. I can applaud that idea… when it’s done right. The problem is that we already saw this idea in play when Grant Morrison did Action Comics back in 2011 and I thought that first storyline was fantastic in setting the backstory for this new Superman and basically crafting a modern take on the original 1938 incarnation of the character, which was probably the closest thing to a “fresh take” on the character as there could’ve been without outright killing the essence of the character. And I was really looking forward to seeing him evolve into the Superman we all know.

Except that never happened. I think that whole idea lasted about a year or so before the series jumped ahead to the continuity of the other Superman book… the one I didn’t care for. The one which featured a totally generic Image Comics-esque brute in Kryptonian clothing. The one which feels like it was written by people who have no flipping clue on how to write a Superman story… let alone a good one.

Finally Made The Jump To Windows 10

So I left the computer on overnight so that it can make the long awaited jump from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10… free of charge, which is so unlike Microsoft to make people NOT pay money for a significant boost. Though I’ve obviously not used it much thus far – I only woke up roughly 30 minutes ago – it already feels faster than the previous version. Also, all of my apps (that I’ve tested thus far and seem relevant to my causes) seem to be in proper working order, which means the checker on the pre-install thing wasn’t lying when it didn’t find any incompatibilities.

Of course, there’s always the possibility of something potentially fucking up as things progress – it is an early and free release, after all – but so far, Windows 10 has left a favorable first impression.

BOOK REVIEW – Journey Into Darkness: The Unauthorized History Of Kane (2005)

“I think you’d have to be on cocaine to enjoy it.”
Blade Braxton, Wrestlecrap Radio

So, 2005 saw WWE release a fictional book detailing the story of Kane, the Undertaker’s half-brother who debuted in 1997 and caused a big scene… and then bit by bit, that aura dwindled with stupid stories like Katie Vick, unmaskings, and corporate Kane. Fortunately, Journey Into Darkness was published long before that last bit took place and in fairness, I want to give the author credit in trying to reconcile all these different plotholes in WWE narrative into one cohesive story.

I mean, the poor bastard tried.

The book is poorly written… sometimes it reads fine, sometimes it reads bad, and then there are moments when it is unbearable (but those times are few and between). Here’s the thing, though; I enjoyed the book because I like the wrestling product. There’s a certain level regarding suspension of disbelief that you’d have to attain in order to follow wrestling. If you’re NOT a wrestling fan, though, then this book will do NOTHING for you. You’ll be reading this thing wondering, “What the hell is going on here?” And while the story is certainly readable for the most part and isn’t remotely terrible, it doesn’t make any attempt to make sense to the people who are picking this up without prior knowledge of the wrestling product.

If you’re a fan of the Big Red Monster and are remotely interested in his backstory, then Journey Into Darkness is probably worth a look. The story does its best to explain the various inconsistencies with the Kane backstory, but is marred down by generally poor writing and the fact that this is trying to make sense out of a narrative concocted by a company who didn’t give a rat’s ass about cohesive narratives unless it was convenient to them. There’s a “clever” attempt to try and make this grounded in reality by using real names here and there while maintaining their hokey fake story and for what it’s worth, you can’t help but admire the attempt.

I don’t know. If you’re into trainwrecks in literary form or want to know how WWE makes sense of its nonsense (and fail), then this is worth checking out. Otherwise, there are plenty of more worthwhile books to check out – either within the wrestling or fictional realms.

Random Thoughts On… The Original TMNT Comics

How much of the original Mirage TMNT comics have you read?

In all honesty, not a whole lot… but I wouldn’t say I’m completely oblivious to them and I am catching up in some form or another. I’ve read a fair share of Volume 1 stuff (mostly oddball issues and the first and final few of that) and I thought there was some good stuff there when it stuck with continuity and didn’t stray too far from that path. I don’t believe I ever sampled the short-lived color series Volume 2 beyond maybe one or two chance issues. Dwelled a bit into the Image-published Volume 3 and the less said about that, the better. The only Mirage TMNT I followed with any regularity was TMNT Volume 4 and the second series of Tales of the TMNT. And I can honestly tell you that I enjoyed Tales a hell of a lot more than Volume 4. Too each his own, I suppose.

Back during my younger years, I probably only had a handful of Volume 1 comics (including some from the concluding City At War storyline) and only got around to read the earliest comics thanks to some of the recent IDW published collections. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy them, but it was just a matter of money being something of a premium and now it’s the comics themselves that are something of a premium.

Random Thoughts On… Classic TMNT 1987

Here’s a strange and terrifying thought for you folks; in all my adult years, I have not revisited the classic TMNT series from the 80s.

I remember my fondness for the old show back when I was a little youngster and I’d be lying if I said that show didn’t plant the seeds for my appreciation and fondness for the franchise as a whole and in its multiple formats. TMNT is a thing that is evergreen in my interests; I’ve got a few of the video games, I’ve got the old movies, some DVDs from the 2003 revival… I might even have some of the comics laying around somewhere. Hell, I even saw that newest Turtles film and actually got some level of enjoyment out of it.

And yet, for some reason or another, I’ve yet to track down a DVD set of the old cartoon and give it a gander.

I suppose there is a kernel of reasoning behind this; every time I revisit an old cartoon or property that I had a fondness for, it usually turns out to be utter crap and I often question how I could enjoy something that was poorly conceived. I used to dig all those Nintendo cartoons like the various Super Mario cartoons or those Captain N cartoons, but rewatching them these days made me question how I could’ve enjoyed something so bad.

Is there an underlying fear that if I revisit THAT series, I’d find something to hate about it?

Maybe… someday… maybe…