Jumping in Headfirst

It's a cover, but it's a good cover. I've liked SCANDAL for a year now, but I still haven't taken the plunge and immersed myself in their entire discography yet. But this is giving me reason...

It took me well over a month to get back to this, and for that I apologize. The site has not gone wanting for updates, but school has kept me from updating as frequently as I would like. I said when I came back I would do Staple Traps, but at the moment I feel more like doing a post on Staple Synchro Monsters. (First thing's first, I'm going to explain some things to absolute newbies to this game. If you know what you're doing, just press Ctrl-F and then type "the list" and hit enter twice to jump you down to it.) Now, what *is* a Synchro Monster? Well, that's an excellent question! In Yu-Gi-Oh, when you have a Tuner and a non-Tuner monster on your side of the field at the same time, you can summon a synchro monster who's level is equal to (not less than or greater than) the combined levels of said Tuner and non-Tuner monster. For instance, let's say you summon the Tuner Monster Junk Synchron onto the field: Cute little fellow, isn't he? Now...

The opening of the first episode of Green Lantern: The Animated Series. I have my complaints, but it doesn't look TOO badly right now. I'll be giving it a shot. The premiere is November 11th, but much like Young Justice, the actual series won't come on until the following year in March. Anyways.

Finally, it's done. Near as I can tell, X-Men: Regenesis was a one-shot--one that finally capped off this whole "Mutant Civil War" story, once and for all. ...You ever feel like, you have so much to say, you really don't know where to begin? That's my current standpoint on this whole thing. But this is about my writing, so let me try: To start, the reasoning for this Wolverine/Cyclops split was pretty hollow. Wolverine has a problem because the X-Men are becoming soldiers? They already WERE soldiers! From the moment The Fab Five put on their 60's yellow and blue outfits, they became soldiers. Ones who studied Algebra and Chemistry when they weren't training to fight--but still soldiers. That Cyclops increased the amount of training they get so that every person on the mutant sanctuary Utopia would be completely battle-ready is less a problem, and more an acknowledging of just how serious it is to become a mutant. The sad thing is, Kieron Gillen (...

Well....THIS was nice to wake up to... That "If we can't protect the Earth" line feels like it's on the serious side of an incoming joke, but other than that? I like.

Holy crap. Phonte and Elzhi BODIED this track. I know Jumping in Headfirst usually doesn't mention "hip hop" without the words "Childish Gambino" following in the sentence, but this site is about dopeness, and this track personifies it. Enjoy.

Her majesty Masami Okui has released another album, Self Satisfaction II*. Unsurprisingly, I fucking love it. But I'll spare you my gushing over the thing and just let you hear one of the tracks off it. It's got a nice, energetic feel to it, and even though it's not my favorite song thus far (Cosmic Dance probably stole that), it's still pretty good. Song below: * Even though I hate sequels. Edit: A bit of research has shown this is apparently a cover album. Interesting. That explains the sequel thing.

Chart. Some tool posted on one of these a while back and asked why I cut stuff out of it. I didn't on that one, I didn't on this one. And, if it's not OBVIOUS, this isn't my chart. While I can read some Japanese (I'm in J3 now), I can't read much kanji. And if I could, this isn't something I would devote my time to create. That out of the way... Guilty Crown Summary: The story takes place in Tokyo in 2039. After the outbreak of the unidentified virus "Lost Christmas" in 2029, Japan has been under the control of a multinational organization called GHQ. Ouma Shu is a 17-year-old boy who has a psychic power in his right hand. He can use the power "Ability of King" to extract tools or weapons from his friends. He has been avoiding making trouble for others but his life changes when he meets a girl named Yuzuriha Inori, a member of a resistance guerrilla group called "Undertaker", whose members pilot mecha weapons to figh...

Writers: Michael Green and Mike Johnson Artist: Mahmud Asrar Supergirl is one of those characters I can take or leave, but whenever she's written by someone with talent I'm glad to pick up her book. Because I take that stance, when they announced her title and it was written by someone that I didn't really know, I gave it a shot. I was thoroughly impressed. In sharp contrast to Superman, Supergirl has always been the Kryptonian who actually remembered her homeworld, which was meant to give her a different perspective on Earth than her younger cousin Superman. (She was supposed to land before Clark and protect him while he grew up, but her ship was knocked off course.) The issue portrays this fact excellently, as despite the issue being about Supergirl beating up a bunch of humans, I still found myself rooting for her. Written as a fish out of water, on a world and with powers she doesn't understand, Green and Johnson manage to make someone with Superman's pow...

Writer: Brian Azzarello Artist: Cliff Chiang * Author's Note: I think she looked cooler with pants. Anyway. First thing's first: Cliff Chiang's art is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I thought it was slightly cartoony when I was reading Green Arrow/Black Canary, but that was clearly done on purpose as hear it manages to do a number of tones--including very creepy--with no problems. Everything's pretty much pitch-perfect from start to finish. Next. I've been seeing a few people claim this book is too difficult to follow. Uhm. For serious? The ONLY thing that was kind of difficult to understand was the identity of the guy with the helmet. Everything else...I'm not a mythology guy, unless you count superheroes. And I've read Wonder Woman from the last relaunch of this book until Gail left the book. That's it. I'm not terribly familiar with Greek Mythology, but Azzarello basically telegraphs the identities of these characters. Lastly, before I fina...

Writer: Paul Levitz Artist: Francis Portela Okay, I'll say it. This is just the next issue of Legion of Super-Heroes from the last volume. I say this as a fan of Paul Levitz who was enjoying the series but dropped it a month or so before the reboot due to being a little too busy. This was a comic by a guy who may have got the memo that DC was doing a line-wide reboot to attract new readers, but really didn't care. Unlike Green Lantern (which was actually a follow-up to a crossover arc), this book is dripping with leftover references from the last arc Levitz wrote, and feels like the aftermath issue for that crossover. The trouble here is, rather than simply write it like your normal epilogue issue and allow readers to at least piece together some idea of what happened before and perhaps give us a clue of where the book is headed, Levitz leaves things vague, perhaps with the intention of making new readers feel like they aren't reading issue 16 instead of issue 1. The ...

Writer: Peter Tomasi Artist: Fernando Pasarin I'm a bit late finishing this up, and I apologize. By my count, I've got 12 books (including this one) left to post on, and I'll be trying to get them all done by Friday. Now, on to the preview! To start, can I just make the point that it needs to be harder to kill a Green Lantern? I know it's important to set up a villain, but the Green Lantern Ring...it's The Most Powerful Weapon In The Universe. I'd love for that to mean something again in this new DCU. Other than that though, this is a great #1. It provides a new story for old fans like me, but it also introduces the concept of the Green Lantern Corps through exposition that doesn't quite feel blatant or obvious in a way that ruins the story. (Even JLA's wasn't as natural as this...and it came off pretty well.) The stars of the book, John Stewart and Guy Gardner, start the book off showing us the problem with trying to find a job when everyo...