Previously in this article I reviewed the DC New 52 and made it through the A titles and Batman. Moving along…

Birds of Prey
What I think is going on: Black Canary and a couple other girls form a chick super hero team.
Will I keep reading it: Probably not, it wasn’t bad, but not really great.

Blackhawks
What I think is going on: A bunch of boring generic fighters go on a boring generic adventure.
Will I keep reading it: Nope.

Blue Beetle
What I think is going on: It’s not easy being a latino teenager going to a latino high school and you have to deal with all your latino problems in an overly latino way. Did I mention that the hero in this comic is latino? Because they beat you over the head with it.
Will I keep reading it: No. I enjoyed this comic less than the Smallville episode that had Blue Beetle.

Captain Atom
What I think is going on: If you give Dr. Manhattan his own comic book it is really boring.
Will I keep reading it: Nah I’ll just use this first issue if I ever have trouble sleeping.

Catwoman
What I think is going on: Batman/Catwoman fan fiction is being published now.
Will I keep reading it: No. I was never a fan of Catwoman before and this didn’t change my mind.

DC Universe Presents
What I think is going on: Deadman is like a depressing version of Quantum Leap.
Will I keep reading it: No, they spend the whole episode talking about how Deadman has to possess people to help them without actually showing him do it.

Deathstroke
What I think is going on: Deathstroke is like the unfunny, unenjoyable version of Deadpool.
Will I keep reading it: Nope.

Demon Knights
What I think is going on: It’s like D&D without having to be in a dimly lit basement.
Will I keep reading it: This is a maybe, it was a pretty good book.

Detective Comics
What I think is going on: The Joker stars in a remake of the 1997 movie Face Off.
Will I keep reading it: I kinda want to see how this first story plays out. but after that probably not.

Flash
What I think is going on: The Flash is a guy who can run really fast.
Will I keep reading it: I think so. There were a couple of action scenes where I don’t know what exactly is happening. But I like the character.

Stay tuned for more reviews!

Ever since I was about 10 I have been into Marvel Comics. I loved Ghost Rider in the 90s and just about every X-Men spinoff title that was released. One thing I’ve never done is read DC Comics. However, when I heard DC was starting over all their titles with #1 to lure in new readers I figured now would be as good of time as any to try it out. I mean I like Batman. So I read every #1 issue of the new 52 and here are my thoughts.

Action Comics
What I think is going on: This is Superman in his early days I guess. I don’t really understand the jeans and cape look.
Will I keep reading it: Maybe, I liked this one better than the other Superman book.

All Star Western
What I think is going on: Jonah Hex and Arkham solve murders in old timey Gotham.
Will I keep reading it: Maybe, I do like Westerns and this one ties in to Batman in a way.

Animal Man
What I think is going on: There’s a guy like Mickey Rourke that has animal powers. Some weird stuff happened at the end.
Will I keep reading it: Probably not. It didn’t really hook me.

Aquaman
What I think is going on: Aquaman is finally aware of how much he gets made fun of on Family Guy.
Will I keep reading it: Maybe, it was better than I thought an Aquaman book would be.

Batgirl
What I think is going on: Even though I haven’t read any DC comics I did know that Barbara Gordon was shot and paralyzed. In this comic she can walk again and they don’t explain why. Also someone at the end freaks out for a reason that makes no sense.
Will I keep reading it: Probably not.

Batman
What I think is going on: Batman and the 3 former Robins kick lots of ass.
Will I keep reading it: Probably. This was one of the best comics out of the new 52.

Batman and Robin
What I think is going on: This one focuses on Batman and his son. What I liked was that Batman said he was finally going to move on and stop crying over his dead parents.
Will I keep reading it: Maybe not if I am already reading the regular Batman book.

Batman the Dark Knight
What I think is going on: It’s like they took the same story from the regular Batman #1 and made it crappier.
Will I keep reading it: Nope, this one blew.

Batwing
What I think is going on: This is Batman in Africa. He has a whole bunch of different problems.
Will I keep reading it: Not sure on this one, it was kinda interesting but didn’t blow me away.

Batwoman
What I think is going on: I have absolutely no idea. I don’t know anything about this character and this issue did a terrible job of introducing her.
Will I keep reading it: Definitely not.

Stay tuned next time when I review the next 10 comics.

Last week was Goz’s birthday and one of the ideas he threw out was “hey Steve Wiebe is going to try and beat the Donkey Kong record in Chicago.” We figure out it was only going to be a 6 hour drive so hey why not. Friday night we stayed out late partying and then was on the road at about 7am Saturday. We got there in the early afternoon. The event was at this place called Logan’s Hardware which it turned out was not a hardware store, nor owned by Wolverine. The front area was a record store just like in High Fidelity. It was the most hipsteriest place I’ve ever been. I’ve never seen more guys with shaggy hair, beards and large 70s glasses in all my life. In the first back room there were classic arcade games set up on free play. These machines were in very good shape, not like the beat up crap you find at most arcades. They had games like Track and Field (my favorite), Tempest, Missile Command, Food Fight, Empire Strikes Back, Gauntlet II, Marvel vs. Capcom, Tron, and several more.

There was a second back room that had more games and Steve was teaching classes on Donkey Kong. Even through the classes were sold out some people didn’t show up and Goz and I got the last 2 seats. Steve went through each one of the Donkey Kong screens and gave basic strategies for completing the screens as well as tricks to rack up extra points. He did some Q&A as well which was pretty interesting.

Then it was time for the record attempts to start. Earlier in the week Steve’s previous world record was beaten by someone else so there was more on the line in attempting to reclaim his crown. When the first attempt started the place was packed. It was standing room only and they had video projected on the walls for everyone to watch. Lots of people came through not really knowing what was going on. After about an hour people started to leave. I guess watching someone jump over barrels that long isn’t exciting to most people. A couple of hours in Steve was on level 19 out of 21 and got game over. By that time it was after 6pm and Goz and I were ready to go home. I found out later Steve’s other attempts didn’t get as far as that first one. Goz and I arrived home around 1:30 am. It was a long day.

Overall it was a pretty good time. I am glad we got into the Q&A or else the trip might not have been worth it. Also, there was a crew there filming a new documentary (King of Kong 2?). So when that comes out you might see us in the background.

Hipsters!!!

As long as there have been video games there have been exercise video games. The NES has a fitness game nobody played on the bottom side of the World Class Track Meet pad, and now 20 years later the Wii has Wii Fit, which no one plays. Has exercise gaming not gotten better in that amount of time or what? The technology has improved but I think the game makers are overlooking one crucial fact: people don’t like to exercise.

Ok, so let’s look at popular forms of exercise. You’ve got sit-ups, push-ups, running, biking, etc. Most people don’t like doing these things and that is part of the reason the U.S. is so obese. But then, wait a minute, the Wii is released and now games like Wii Fit, Biggest Loser and EA Active are supposed to solve all our weight loss problems. However if you start up any of these “games” all they do are push-ups, sit-ups and yoga poses, the very same activities we already hate doing! The only difference between doing a push-up by yourself and doing a push-up in Wii Fit is having someone to count for you. It’s like these games are trying to make exercise fun… by making it exactly like the exercise you already hate to do.

The thing is, I believe a very successful weight loss game could be made, as long as they focus more on the game aspect. Dance Dance Revolution is probably the best weight loss game made so far. It is a fun game, but also you have to be in pretty good shape to be able to do the hard songs. The new Dance Central on the Kinect might also be a contender but I would have to play it some more. They wouldn’t even have to be music based games, why not make a game like Warioware where you have to quickly do different moves. Make a game where I have to do some physical activity and then give me a score. That way I have something to beat the next time I play. I think there is a huge potential out there in fitness based games as soon as someone figures out how to really make fitness fun.

Charlie and Eko want to blow open the room with dynamite so they can push the button. It’s like the season 1 finale all over again.

In the present: Michael trades the gang for Walt and the button doesn’t get pressed. Flashback: We find out the hatch prevents an electro magnetism build up and there is a fail safe.

The big reveal in this episode is that Desmond was responsible for crashing Oceanic 815. The hatch blows up, but it blows up in a “not actually harmful to anyone” sort of way. Then at the end there is a cool scene with a base in Antarctica that detects the island and tells Penny about it. Now on to Season 3!