Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine So what are you WATCHING?

Actually, Thoth, I always thought of Ralph and Sue as DC's thin man couple. And that's why I hated that shitty crisis crap with them.

I hadn't read much of him outside the JLA, so it had never really clicked with me until I saw that in an article. Possibly around the time of Identity Crisis.

Tony would be the film's guest star, and it was remiss of me not mention Sue in my post as Ralph's obvious partner. I shall have to drink to forget my typing blunder. Fortunately, I now have a Thin Man drinking game, where you have to keep up with... oh, my liver has packed in.

"To alcohol-- the cause of-- and solution to--
all of man's problems."
--Homer Simpson

I spent a couple hours this morning watching "comfort food" 80s cartoons: Centurions, Thundarr, and the Darkseid seasons of Super Friends.

I really wish Warner Bros would release the remaining 60 episodes of Centurions.

I watched Creature From the Black Lagoon last night. It still stands up as one of my favorite Universal monster movies. Great creature design and cinematography.

Only got through about 15 minutes of Gotham and realised it wasn`t worth my time. The script was under-cooked, Jada Pinkett was over-wrought and Bullock was flat. The only good parts were Carol Kane, Lilly Taylor and Frank Whaley (two of which were guest stars).

I just watched the premiere of the new Flash TV show.

I went in with an open mind, but I didn't like it. I found it boring, cheesy, creepy, and mean-spirited. I shouldn't really have been surprised, given that Geoff Johns' name is on it.

It just reaffirms my belief that modern TV shows and I just don't mix.

I thought it was okay. It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either. I still hate the retcon of Professor Zoom killing Nora Allen, but I've gotten over it at this point. The teaser at the end has me intrigued though.

I hate that retcon, too, but I still haven't gotten over it. Blasted Johns!

The only reason I got over it is that too many other things about the Nu52 piss me off to focus on that retcon.

Point well taken.

That's my least favorite aspect of it. I thought it started out pretty underwhelming, but got better as it went along. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a particle-accelerater powered rogue of the week thing, however.

That's something I'm worried about too. Hell, they didn't even bother to give Weather Wizard his classic costume and wand:



From the previews I've seen, Captain Cold won't be getting his classic parka either.

I liked it. Is that Professor Zoom killing his mom bit from current DC continuity? I just figured it was something they threw in for the show.

Seeing Jesse L. Martin playing a cop is comforting like an old blanket; Law & Order: Central City. Too bad Jerry Orbach isn't with us any longer, I'd have watched him in a superhero show all day.

I've been watching a lot of the 2nd season of "The Office" (U.S.) "Our" version found it's own voice pretty quick that year. The secondary characters started taking shape and they found the right tone for Michael Scott. I wanted to see him win despite himself, I wanted to see David Brent get what was coming to him.

Early Jim and Pam resonated for me personally; when I was a bored young office worker I hung around with the cute receptionist a lot too even though we never quite dated. It still felt very authentic: stopping by to chat with no real reason, commiserating about our useless bosses.

Missed Flash but am disappointed in the reviews. Was hoping it would come out gangbusters.

I really liked the actor and relationships already set up in Arrow. I don't really care for much of the acting in Arrow but I know Jesse L Martin can nail a role, has great chemistry in anything of his I've seen and figured Flash would be better in that regard.

I actually thought Flash was a good start, I just hope Johns stays hands off after this. The death of Barry's mom was one of the dumber additions he made to the mythos, so I was disappointed to see it front and centre. But other than that, I liked the direction it's going, and it looks like something I can watch with my tweens (unlike Arrow, which was a little too violent). There's promise here, even with a villain of the week hook to start with, as long as they don't go too GrimDark, there's promise.

I think part of my hesitancy about it as that it felt like there was a lot of Johns-influence on it. It's hard to put a finger on what it was, exactly, but I got a bit of the vibe (no pun intended) of being overly calculated that I tend to get from Johns's work.

One thing that I really missed and that I wish they would've used is the idea that the Flash identity was inspired by a comic book. How awesome would a "Flash of Two Worlds" ep. be down the line?

It's funny because early on I liked a lot of what Johns did on his Flash run. He gave the Rogues a much-needed refresh, had Wally move through a number of good developmental arcs, really delved into the supporting cast and the twin cities, and introduced some interesting new villains. Then around issue 200 it started falling apart with the new Zoom followed by the memory wiping stuff. It all got too dark and fell into lock-step with the Identity Crisis fiasco and never really recovered. If we could get that creative, passionate guy from before working on a Flash TV show, that would be great.

I agree, Dave. After the Blitz arc, the book went south for me, especially when it forced to tie in to Identity Crisis.

Fortunately, Flash is on replay today after Arrow. Also fortunately, CW is one of those alternate digital stations so I don't need cable.

Paper said it was CW's highest opening ever. Hope it holds an audience, meaning, good scripts.

It's from pre-Nu52 continuity. I forget whether it was established in Flash: Rebirth or in Flashpoint, because all of Johns' work from the past few years tends to blur together for me.



Agreed 100%, EDE.

Re: Johns' Flash run, I returned to comics around the time of his last arc, Rogue War, which I thought was a bit of mess but not bad. Then I read a couple of the earlier arcs, and I hated them. Johns's icky paternalism was in full display, and I found the character of Blacksmith to be portrayed in a misogynous way.



That creative, passionate guy disappeared into a mountain-sized pile of cocaine, and I think he's well past the point of no return.

Yeah, it's from Flash: Rebirth. I wasn't too crazy about it, either. Barry was never a hero because of tragedy.

It makes me wonder, though: were Barry's parents ever in the picture from the Silver Age thru the end in Crisis? I know I haven't read as many Barry stories as I would have liked, but I don't remember ever seeing them. If they were, was it a cameo here and there or significantly more as semi-regular supporting cast? If it was the latter, I can understand the outrage better.

I can see how the television producers would want to use that aspect, though. It explains his drive to discover the truth as a police scientist (if that's what he is in the show--haven't seen it yet and don't remember it being made explicit in his Arrow appearances) and gives an over-arching mystery for him to pursue. In fact it would work a lot better for a TV show than it did as a senseless ret-con-via-time-travel in the comics.

Thanks for clearing that up, Lardy.

I'm not that familiar with Barry's original comics run (no pun intended), so I don't know whether or not his parents got much panel time. Maybe Cobie knows?

Personally, I don't hate the retcon because of any strong feelings for Barry's mother, I hate it because it's all too typical of the mean-spirited, kill-happy Johns of recent years.

The only other good thing--and this isn't an endorsement, mind you--I can say about Johns' idea is that it was a story in mainstream comics in which time travel actually causes permanent damages. There have been many stories where it's threatened and prevented but very few where it actually messes up a hero's life permanently. But I certainly hate Johns' tendency for snuff porn, to the point that there's nothing of his, short of his Legion stuff for the sake of completion and most of his JSA run, that I'm unwilling to part with as I slowly whittle down my collection to a manageable size.