The updates, they do nothing!

Sorry about the lack of posts - my schedule means that I've been picking comics up three or four weeks after they hit the shops, so my posts wouldn't exactly have been relevant. To make up for it, I will be endeavouring to hit at least two posts per week - I know, shocking isn't it?

What a surprise!

Well, Mighty Avengers #5 was duly read, and imagine my surprise that Lindy had, in fact, been killed by Ultron. I guess I wasn't too surprised, as I reflected that she'd been conspicuously absent in the World War Hulk issues (set after this MA arc) that have featured Sentry to date. Bob appears to have retreated to the house they moved to when he forgot about being Sentry, which would be a source of happier memories than the site of his wife's death.

I'm irked that the writers seem to have conveniently ignored CLOC for the sake of 'drama', and assuming Lindy won't miraculously be raised or we discover a fake-out in the next issue, we can chalk it down to another background character being killed off to 'advance' a storyline. In this respect, Ultron vaguely resembles an editor in choosing to kill Lindy for the sake of getting a reaction from Sentry, though I suspect any meta-commentary in this is accidental at best.

Sigh. That also, of course, leaves Watchdog as Sentry's only surviving original supporting character. Talk about hammering the square Sentry peg into the round mainstream MU hole.

Lindy in Refrigerators

Oh joy. It seems, from the previews of Mighty Avengers #5 floating about, that Lindy is in fact deceased, killed by Extremis-Ultron to unleash the Void aspect of Rob Reynolds. What a wonderful meta-commentary on the current rows over creators using female members of the supporting cast as expendable pawns!

Or, alternatively, what a hopeless and hackneyed plot device. I guess we'll see when we pick up the issue itself.

Where does Lindy live?

I figure this one's been on sale long enough to avoid spoilerization, and to be honest I just picked up a huge backlog from my LCS on Sunday.

Two small things bothered me slightly about Mighty Avengers #4, when Extremis-Ultron broke into Avengers Tower to (apparently) assassinate Lindy Reynolds - firstly, wouldn't she be in the Watchtower above the actual Avengers suite? Secondly, if that was the case, should CLOC not at least have put in a token appearance trying to stop Ultron? I find it hard to believe that Sentry's own computer system wouldn't be hardened against EMP or outward attacks - given that CLOC's security system was originally designed to be impregnable even to the Golden Guardian himself!

Confessions of a Comic Book Virgin

I've a confession to make - I've been reading comics for less than a year.

Don't get me wrong, when I was younger you couldn't pry me away from the staples of British comicdom - starting with Dandy and Beano, then moving on to Marvel UK titles and 2000AD. For the 20-ish years in between, though? Basically nothing bar an odd Age of Apocalypse single and a frankly baffling read through a friend's copy of Zero Hour, which left me with the firmly entrenched opinion that 'they don't make 'em like when we were kids'.

Then, several months ago, the only comic shop I can think of in Northern Ireland moved to a bigger, better location and took on Forbidden Planet branding. I decided to browse through the store in case anything caught my eye from my childhood. It did, but not in a form I expected.

I came across Ultimate Spider-Man.

Wow, were all comics as good as this one now? I had to find out. I extended my Spider-buying to Amazing Spider-Man hardbacks, bought a few softback trades, began to read comics blogs and decided that I would bite the bullet and set up a pull list in time for the big summer event. After all, who would want to miss Civil War?

Er ... never mind. From there, I jumped the once-unthinkable gap and -gasp- picked up some DC comics. Why had I never heard of this Green Lantern Corps before? Was Superman still dead?

So there you go; the Ultimate line ended up getting me interested in both the Mighty Marvel and the Distinguished Competition in abundance. I try to visit my LCS at least twice a month (at weekends sadly, so I have to foreswear myself from spoilers) and spend more money than I'm really comfortable with each time (is it bad that all the staff seem to know me by sight now?). Who'd have thought that a young Spider could net an old fan simply by, I dunno, being good?

Welcome to the Blog

Hi, and welcome to One Million Exploding Suns. Nothing much here to see as yet, though in time this will no doubt be full of geeky comics stuff, amongst general musings.

As if you couldn't tell by the Sentry reference in the title.