Hey, Fletch Adams and I talk about Agents of Atlas, Marvel Adventures books, and X-Men over at BROKEN FRONTIER today. This one's pretty good, go read it please.

I wanted to talk about SUPERMAN RETURNS but haven't had time yet. Brian Hibbs of Comix Experience in San Francisco really echoed closely my feelings on the movie at his Savage Critic site. I loved all of the effects and action scenes, Superman fighting crime. But I'm just mystified (hence this blog's name) at some of the story choices, mainly Lois' kid and new boyfriend. I'm glad they didn't make Cyclops a jerk (I can't remember his name, but he's Cyclops) because that's too easy and never makes sense, but his presence automatically makes him the underdog because he's compared to freaking SUPERMAN. So when he does something nice or heroic, it counts way more than Superman does it. Also Routh isn't given many lines, so a lot of what he does do is fly around staring creepily at people. I don't think the new relationship offered any interesting opportunities, instead saddling the characters with continuity baggage they won't want later. It feels like the kind of mistake that would be made in comics after the 300th book and everyone's out of ideas, honestly. The movie is still very entertaining, but it did remind me of all the humanity that Christopher Reeve brought to the role. Routh probably can too if they'll simply give him something to say.

I've recently read some books I want to talk about as well, maybe later this week. Okay, you're free to go.