Notre Dame versus Lex Luthor...or somethin'

Miss March Madness? Love comic book villains? Then you'll want to check out Entertainment Weekly's new Who's the Best Villain brackets contest. Vote for your favorites and see how it stacks up when the final votes are tallied on June 6. See if you can con your office mates into putting a few dollars on Mr. Freeze....

A new vice

Last night, I did something I've never done before. No, not that. And not that either. What I did was, I read a comic book. Before last night, the closest I ever got was reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and laughing at Spy vs. Spy in Mad magazine. The siren call, however, of a season 8 Buffy the Vampire Slayer penned by Joss Whedon was too much to resist.

I'd missed out on the first issue and am now too poor to shell out the $50 they want for it on Amazon, but I was lucky enough to find issue #2 yesterday. And while I admit to having had some difficulty with narrative transitions and also figuring out which panels to read first -- I'm such a newbie -- I enjoyed the visuals and the dialogue, which was very Whedonesque. The jokes were flying, the action and tension were palpable and the character likenessess were very good. My maiden comic book voyage was a good one, and I'm glad Joss was at the helm. And now I'm thinking that's a weird metaphor....

Anyway, now I'm curious as to what other comic book goodies are out there, especially after reading about two intriguing titles in Entertainment Weekly. One, called Alias the Cat, "features a smack-talking cat, superheroes and midgets commingling," which sounds promising indeed although I might have to try The Salon by Nick Bertozzi, which centers on "a crime-fighting gang composed of art-world all-stars like Gertrude Stein, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso." I will give my money to any individual who envisions Gertrude Stein as a crime fighter. And I think right there is the reason why I could easily be converted to a comic book fan: the ability to put the unimaginable front and center before our eyes. That's a pretty beautiful thing.

Also, if you'd like to read about comics from someone who knows what they're talking about and is very entertaining at the same time, try Chris' Invincible Super-Blog, which I discovered a couple days ago. Very good reviews with a satisfying dose of humor. And now if you'll excuse me, I have to go find out who this "super man" is that everyone talks abouts...