SUPERMAN, No. 214 (Azzarello / Lee; DC, 2005)

in

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.

(Box17): While my (re-)entry here into the Azzarello/Lee "For Tomorrow" run was the penultimate "Superman gets his ass handed to him until he does something the bad guy (Zod, right?) never conceived of stay tuned for the conclusion" issue and my memory of the storyline – which I recall rather enjoying, contrary to (IIRC) the general reception of the time – was foggy at best, my revisit was nonetheless quite enjoyable.

I've long appreciated DC's – back then, at least; I don't know if it holds true today – anti-"Previously" page edict: I love the feeling of being hurled headfirst into the deep end of the minds of two masters of the medium working their magic on the archetype of the medium itself. Azzarello is a strange fit for Superman, but that strange fit is, I think, why it works: one of those instances of a writer being outside their normal wheelhouse and making it work rather well; that Lee and Williams were along for the ride no doubt made that dance into the unknown far more fluid.

Lee was born to draw Superman, full stop: this was the artistic follow-up / spiritual successor to "Hush," yes? I prefer his Superman to his Batman, by far. Though I've had the trade for awhile, his team-up with Scott Snyder (whose writing, with some exceptions – OWLS, BLACK MIRROR, and LAST KNIGHT ON EARTH – I’ve yet to fully embrace), SUPERMAN UNCHAINED, remains unread. Might have to dig into that one if only to see more Lee Superman.

Questions with no answer, yet: The OMAC here - harnessing cancer to create super-soldiers was an intriguing solution to the super-soldier quandry – was different than the one in INFINITE CRISIS, right? Did Orr ever show up again? Was FOR TOMORROW re-collected recently? Might need to pick it up – revisiting just this one issue, headfirst into the deep end, intrigued enough to re-read the whole thing.

yes it blends

in

Started drinking a protein smoothie for lunch instead of the same lunch I've eaten since my pancreas and immune system decided to engage in scorched-earth fisticuffs seven and a half years ago because I wanted to make an effort to not be so completely zombified in the afternoon.

So far, so very good (and delicious): basically keeping everything I ate before minus the half turkey sandwich on rye: spinach, greek yogurt (must stay since Kirby loves his midday yogurt container) have been joined by half an avocado, a cup of (frozen) fruit, a cup of almond milk and a scoop of vanilla ice cream whey protein powder. The results, so far, are not only quite delicious, but managed to balance out my blood sugar for the first afternoon in years (with the same amount of insulin as my former lunch) AND leave me nowhere near as zombified – tired, yes, but the hanger and general lack of societal tact isn't as pronounced and I can actually, you know, do stuff in the afternoon beyond wish I weren’t so tired and curse my existence and that of everyone within a 20 mile radius of me.

Nothing quite like rectifying an afternoon protein deficiency (mornings are fine as I baseline eggs, but I guess I was using up my stores on the morning's exertions, be it running, boxing, or strength training) to put one on, if not the right path, then at least a more tolerable and wakeful one.

Mem: need better blender as these first efforts have been more work than they feel like they should be. Little Ninja food processor is great, but it reminds me a bit too much of when I had to make a layer cake one layer at a time because I only had one cake pan.

action / reaction / solitude

in

Perhaps the return to mowing the in-lawn was more beneficial than I thought, especially since I seem to have abandoned podcasts for audiobooks and, in this second grand mowing, managed to listen to all of David Lynch's - not David Lunch, as I usually type it – CATCHING THE BIG FISH. Fascinating to read/hear how many of my work habits – or, rather, the ones to which I'm trying to return – are from this book I picked up in a Salem, MA used bookstore more 15 years ago:

And then you go to work. The idea just needs to be enough to get you started, because, for me, whatever follows is a process of action and reaction. It's always a process of building and destroying. And then, out of this destruction, discovering a thing and building on it... Then it's a matter of sitting back and studying it and studying it; and suddenly, you find that you're leaping up out of your chair and going in and doing the next thing. That's action and reaction.

I've got the chair(s) and now I need to relearn how to allow myself that time and space – and to not fill the space I do have with pointless trivialities; as Don DeLillo reminds us, "A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it."