NIGHTWING, Vol. 2, No. 120 (Jones / Diaz; DC, 2006)

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Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box18) Ohjesusfuck fate, what did I ever do to you?

As disappointed now as I was when this monstrosity of a (thankfully brief, IIRC – a "One Year Later" mercy kill?) run began: Jones's conspiracy-laden horror / X-Files – Mr. Green / Mr. Blue – take on INCREDIBLE HULK ('01-'05) had been so good that the unremitting thud of his NIGHTWING – including, in a textbook example of a great concept (villainous Jason Todd tries to replace Dick Grayson (occasional fashion model?) as Nightwing in a DCU where Batman has been gone for a year) gone sour in execution, the worst take on one of my favorite characters since he returned from the Superboy-Prime-punched / Lazarus-pitted dead, back in the days when no one – aside from Winnick, at that point – knew what to do with him – was a Joker-wielded crowbar to the head.

If writing is all about the exploration of choices, I can't fathom what Jones was thinking (or not) when he made the choices he made here. This was just awful and my shame at reading this back when I was young and stupid has only been magnified to the nth. Thanks, fate.

/20230411

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Back to trying a nightly thing to wrap up the day, another bit of the shutdown routine. Can't seem to let the notion go, so I'll keep trying until I make it into something that works.

Unlike last month at this time, remembered that the small dogchildren had an appointment at the day spa; they are well and truly shorn. The Jorkie's collar is, as always after a day spa day, upside down.

First night of grilling, at last - which means that it will probably snow in the next few days. Pork chops - salt, pepper, cajun, turmeric, garlic, six minutes either side at 350+/-.

I'm finding myself not exactly embracing but not exactly loathing the lack of forward motion in, well, anything. Life. Maybe this is where things need to be? Questions in narrative are being answered - though still have to find that rhythm, which usually comes in some explosion / moment of clarity. Break tomorrow for Wednesday Random then back to it for the rest of the week.

I’ve become fixated on seeing the Michael Caine JEKYLL AND HYDE 1990 mini-series again, for some reason or other.

CALL OF DUTY: MWII and THE NIGHT AGENT await. See you tomorrow.

MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (1940) stills & key book

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Part of a large batch of materials I acquired on the great Republic cliffhangers of the 30s and 40s. This first show & tell features my favorite of them all, THE MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN (which was originally going to be a SUPERMAN serial), starring Eduardo Cianelli as one of the great mad scientists. I’ll post more from this lot in the coming days and weeks.

questions questioned

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An otherwise middling effort at returning to full working schedule but nonetheless a reminder that the main challenge in writing lies not in figuring out in the next scene or sequence but in figuring out the right question to ask. This question can pertain to anything – anything at all – that helps you find your way to an exploration in which the blank scene, the what happens next is nothing more than a byproduct of an exploration, the quandary that solves itself but only through a focused, deliberate exploration of a question: the question is the key, the door the block, the room behind the next piece of the narrative puzzle.