Thoughts: 05-September-2009

Today, Penn State opens up its 2009 season at home vs Akron. An easy opponent on paper, this is the kind of game that Penn State has more to lose than to win. Unless they blow out Akron and beat the point spread by a big margin, everyone will will be pointing out how the Nittany Lions are not that good. And if Akron should win, it will be proclaimed as a big upset. When Bowling Green beat Penn State a few years back, that lead to one of Penn State's worst seasons.

And because this game will not be that exciting, lots of folks will over indulge and ending up doing serious harm to themselves. Penn State is my pick to win this game nevertheless.

In today's My Cage comic strip, Norm gives the engagement ring back to Bridget who seems happy to reunite with Norm. But in the last panel, Ashley, Norm's work spouse, is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend which could mean a love triangle for Norm. I guess it is feast or famine for the poor guy.

Disney purchased Marvel Comics for 4 billion this past week and has inspired a lot of Internet chatter about the future of Marvel. Quite honestly, Marvel appears to be in a big time creative rut. Too much dependence on big events like the current Dark Reign storyline which forces readers who want to keep up with everything to buy a bunch of comics that they normally would not buy. (I go to Wikipedia to keep up and save some bucks)

And then the duplication of comics, four Avengers books, three Wolverine books, and 5-7 X-Men books. How about some new characters getting a try out with fresh creative input? Iron Fist and Ghost Rider were going in that direction, only to get cancelled are replaced with mini-series. Moon Knight gets cancelled and replaced now with a new ongoing Vengeance of Moon Knight.

And then you have the Hulk books. Incredible Hulk is back focusing on Bruce Banner, the Hulk focusing on the Red Hulk, Son of Hulk focusing on his offspring (twin brother to Skaar who is in the Incredible Hulk now) and a new She Hulk book focusing on some daughter of Banner and some other character that I cannot even bother to go to Wikipedia to look up. I mean, why not invest on one or two books and have good story lines instead of just average ones.

This brings me back to Disney, starting with The Little Mermaid, their animated films are much improved, Pixar has hit a home run with every one of their films (maybe not A Bug's Life, but this film has become better appreciated as of late), and didn't Disney publish the classic Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics? Remember DuckTales one of the best animated series on TV?

Given the current state of Marvel Comics, I really don't see Disney doing any worst than the current output, and quite frankly I see lots of potential for improvement.

One last thought, I saw the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar film. Looks like a big animated film like Final Fantasy (which bored me to tears) or the Polar Express (which I liked but have to agree that the animation did not look that good to me). What did he spend so much frakking money on? I thought Pixar's Up looked a lot better than that trailer. Sorry, but I say much ado about nothing.

Oh well.