Overall, I liked the debut of the new “Titans” series. Basically it’s aimed at 7 to 10 year olds, so older viewers tuning in expecting to see JLA are going to be disappointed…or, at the very least, will have to reorient their thinking.

The basic thrust of the series is surprisingly consistent to the mandates I was given when I did preliminary development work on the series many moons ago before it was handed off to others. The notion was that the kids bicker, have difficulties operating individually, but as a team they pull it all together and are unstoppable. That’s the pilot in a nutshell. Nor did they want to launch with an exposition-heavy origin episode.

Very, VERY heavy anime influence, right down to switching to super-deformed versions of the characters when they’re particularly petulant.

Overall a strong launch for the target audience.

PAD

Ain’t it Cool News ran a review of “Fallen Angel,” and it was an unqualified rave. So that was nice.

I have to say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t entirely sure readers would “let” me write something different from what I’m known for. That there would be resistence to it. But that doesn’t seem to be the case thus far.

PAD

My cat, Pandora, slunk in this evening and I found that something had bit her on the haunches. She’d already torn away a chunk of her fur trying to scratch at it. I immediately got the number of a 24 hour animal hospital and brought her over there. Ahead of us was a cat who had used up at least three of his nine lives when he decided that chewing on a power cord would be a spiffy idea and essentially killed himself (the only thing bringing him back being his owner’s massaging his chest).

Pandora got her backside shaved and there’s a nasty single puncture wound. I’m left wondering what would have left a sole puncture, since most animals you’ll run into–with the exception of Bucky from “Get Fuzzy”–have more than one fighting tooth. The doctor pumped her up with antibiotics and a pain killer, and put a collar around her that she initially had off in about ten seconds. We put it back on her and since then the pain killer kicked in and now she’s just lying there. She hasn’t even emerged from the cat carrier even though the door’s been sitting open for half an hour.

I’ll bring her to her regular vet Monday.

PAD

Word is already circulating that Marvel’s presence at the San Diego con is non-existent. I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. Understand, this is purely speculation on my part; I’ve no inside information. But if you’ve ever been to SD, you know the DC booth is a thing of beauty. About three times bigger than my first apartment, with monitors and a logo you can see from Pasadena. If Marvel shows up with about what they can afford–a 3 x 6 table–immediately the reaction is gonna be, “Keee-rist, did you see the pathetic display Marvel has compared to DC’s?” Especially considering the repeated contempt with which Marvel has referred to its crosstown rival. It may well be the reasoning was that if they couldn’t afford to do it right, better not to do it at all. My understanding is that Marvel has some small presence as part of the Wizard display.

If I’m right, Marvel may well have the right idea. Better to do nothing than do something half-assed. Still…it’s kind of sad.

PAD

When I referred to the current Iraq situation as “the new Vietnam,” that seemed to spur a discussion as to how it couldn’t possibly be, because the casualty numbers don’t match up. This is, of course, ridiculous. Vietnam didn’t have 50,000 dead in the first few months. These things take time. But the point is, comparing it to Vietnam has nothing to do with the total number dead. It has to do with the fact that the military is sent into a situation for an indefinite period of time with only the vaguest of ideas of what they’re supposed to be doing there or how they’re supposed to go about it.

From the get-go, the Administration has been hazy on what was to happen after Saddam was deposed. The idea of the natives shooting at us for an extended period of time was never addressed. When one military advisor stated that several hundred thousands troops would be required indefinitely to maintain order, the upper echelon shouted the notion down. Except that’s exactly where we are.

And when I said Saddam is fine, thanks, I thought the meaning was clear: He’s alive. And he’s planning. And he’s waiting. And bin Laden still isn’t caught (remember “dead or alive?” Remember that promise?) And soldiers are being picked off. And there’s no end in sight.

We should never have gone in without, at the very least, a clear idea of a long term plan. We didn’t. And now we’re stuck.

And all the responses that are essentially name calling aren’t doing diddly to change that.

PAD

The first sign should have been Ari Fleisher’s resignation. If things were coming that were so bad that he couldn’t find positive ways to spin them, that was a tip-off right there.

American soldiers are continuing to die and, at this rate, within a month or two more will have died since Bush declared fighting was over than before that point. The Iraqis who were supposed to have loved us are shooting at us while we pour billions into the new Vietnam. Saddam is just fine, thanks (as is bin Laden.) Deficits and unemployment are spiralling out of control. And it appears that the administration lied to the American people about matters of greater consequence than oral sex with an intern.

Am I happy about this? No. The wheels are coming off the wagon, the worldwide sympathy we had as a result of 9/11 is long-squandered, but hey…let’s get right to work on trying to pass a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriages. Thank heavens our priorities are in order.

PAD

Just for chuckles, I looked in on the current John Byrne Fan Site since, a few months ago, they couldn’t wait to dismiss “Fallen Angel” as a Buffy rip-off. Now that they could actually read it and comment upon it, I was wondering if anyone would do so.

One guy started a thread and was immediately jumped on for launching an “off topic” thread (despite the plethora of “off topic threads” already extant) with such an “obvious agenda” (because apparently bringing up my work constitutes an agenda). I could just feel the warmth radiating from my monitor.

The best, though, was the genius who (not having read the book, of course) declared he thought that “Bludhaven” was “a lousy name for a town,” but he never thought he “would see another even worse. Who would call a town “Bete Noir”?? Or “Bludhaven” for that matter??”

Well, gee. I could have gone for something even more obvious, like Hëll, but that’s a real city in Michigan. Or perhaps Panic or Fearnot, but those are both in Pennsylvania. Some believe that Bete Noire is where the dead reside, so I could have called it River Styx, but that’s in Ohio. Peculiar would’ve been good, but the folks in Peculiar, Missouri, might have objected. Maybe the sound makes when one is scared: Eek. But no, that’s in Alaska, the state that also gave us a town called Chicken. The population of Bete Noire is eclectic, but we’d probably hear from the mayor of Eclectic, Alabama, who might have been tipped off to it by the mayor of another Alabama locale, Muck City.

I could have gone for something ironic and called it Plain City, but that’s in Utah, or Boring, but that’s in Maryland. Or just plain No Name, but that’s in Colorado. My search for a city name built to a Climax…Climax, North Carolina, not to be confused with Climax, Pennsylvania, which is also not to be confused with Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

And shall we discuss Monkeys Elbow, Kentucky or the name of another city in Louisiana…Uncle Sam, LA? Nah.

Man, whenever my name comes up anywhere on a Byrne related board, it’s always good for some laughs. The current fan board says “All New, All Different.” Seems pretty same old/same old to me.

PAD