World Enough and Time

A good day, though not what I wanted or expected.

(1) When I walked to the gym, it was snowing - in bright sunshine. When I walked home from the gym, it was hailing. When I went for lunch with fairestcat, it was windy and cold. When we left the restaurant, it was snowing again.

(2) I wore my new coat, which I bought yesterday. My excuse is that my old winter coat, which I got years ago from Mountain Equipment Co-op, is wearing out. The truth is that I've been simply tired of the drab, boring old coat for a couple of years now, and simply wanted a new one. This new one probably isn't as warm as my old one, since it isn't down-filled - but then, then old coat isn't as warm as it used to be, either.

The new one looks like this:



except it has no fur around the hood. Bottom line? I fell in love with it for its colour.

(3) Today's comics were fabulous. Note to self: write letters to Marvel about them. I am accustomed to Hawkeye being superb, and it was, despite the art by Javier Pulido rather than David Aja. David Aja is a god in my pantheon, but Pulido is .. growing on me. Red She-Hulk, which I expected to be lacklustre, turned out to be interesting - and it made me like Machine Man as a characer, which I hadn't before. Kudos to Jeff Parker on that one. Avengers #1 had a story I found someone unclear, but I loved the characterization, and it had some of the slashiest scenes I've seen in comics in ages - Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. This is not a complaint. And Iron Man? Definitely fun, and I like the way they are writing Tony to be more like the Tony Stark of the Avengers movie. This isn't a bad thing, either.

And Nick Fury's son is now a part of the regular Avengers storyline... That's okay, too.

Only two disappointments. X-Men continued and finished a story teaming up Domino and Daredevil. Now, I happen to love both characters, but found them a somewhat awkward fit: their banter fell a little flat. More to the point, neither of them are X-Men. There's nothing about this title now that I recognize as an X-Man story. Yeah, Domino's a mutant, and she's worked with X-Force, but that's as close as it comes. Is this a random mutant book now?

The other disappointment was X-Factor. This comic used to be snappy and smart and funny, and I find lately that it isn't much of any of those things. Some of my favourite characters are in this book - Shatterstar, Longshot and Pip the Troll, for example - and they aren't doing much for me these days. Last week, there was a story by Peter David in A + X #2, with Kitty Pryde and Tony Stark playing off each other - and Lockheed playing his role - and it was as funny and smart as Peter David has ever been. So... is he getting stale and uninspired on X-Factor? I keep feeling that his stories now are digressions from the main theme, but that's been the case so long now I fear there is no main theme.

Why am I not seeing Wolverine these days? He used to be in all the X-titles, and Avengers too.

(4) Wrote. Did laundry. Vacuumed. Fell asleep so suddenly and soundly in the middle of the afternoon that I shocked myself. What is it about December? Woke up and read some Bond/Q slash. I had other things I should have been doing, but it was calling to me.

(5) Had supper with maaseru and Pim and we talked about Bond/Q slash, and looked at the beautiful DK book Pim had bought with pictures from Skyfall. It's beautiful, but has a little too much of the producers and cameramen, not quite enough of Naomie Harris or Ben Whishaw - though a fine sufficiency of Daniel Craig. We were looking at the fan art, and marvelling that while many fan artists draw a beautiful Q, only a few manage a recognizable James Bond.

I read a comic I loved. Best of the week. Best of the month. No, not even that. Best of the year. Can't think how long it's been since I read a comic I loved so much.

It's Hawkeye #2.

It's one of those comics where the writing is great, but the art makes it even better. I was never a big Hawkeye fan, for many reasons, and now I adore the man. And he's joined with my favourite of the Young Avengers, Kate Bishop - called Hawkeye herself - and Clint Barton loves and appreciates her just as much as I do.



I love the different sized panels. I love it that no two pages have the same layout. I love the way the story unfolds, reminding us of Clint's past as we read a story about the present. I love the way it uses action and character.

Matt Fraction is brilliant. Or at least, he's brilliant here.

Comic books at their finest, I tell you.