This is not going to be much of a post. I just wantted to point out that Marvels direction of late has thrown me off of comics completely, and I am thinking about quitting. Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, Civil War, the Initiative, Brand New Day, and Secret Invasion have completely destroyed any good feelings I had for Marvel Comics. I am seriously considering cancelling all my titles at my local comic store.

Is anyone else out there having these feelings?

This is not going to be much of a post. I just wantted to point out that Marvels direction of late has thrown me off of comics completely, and I am thinking about quitting. Planet Hulk, World War Hulk, Civil War, the Initiative, Brand New Day, and Secret Invasion have completely destroyed any good feelings I had for Marvel Comics. I am seriously considering cancelling all my titles at my local comic store.

Is anyone else out there having these feelings?

I just want to make a super fast post here.   After the Eskies got destroyed by Saskatchewan on the weekend, I hear a lot of fans talking about the Edmonton defense.  What the hell?  How many games do you win in the CFL where you only score 9 points?  None!  What motivation is there for the defense to keep battling when the offense is performing so poorly.  How can you expect the defense to perform when they can never get off the field for more than 3 downs?  Don’t blame the defense.  Blame the coach.  Danny has been living on borrowed time for three years now.  His classic strategy of calling for a three yard hitch pass on second and 10 has got this team where it is.  Could this be the last season for Maciocha mayhem?  Tune in next week at the same Bat-time.  The same Bat-channel.

Well, after roaring out of the gate to a 4-0 start, the Oil have dropped their last four games.  Fans throughout the city of Edmonton are crying out, wondering what the hell happened to change the Oilers winning ways.  What happened?  Reality happened!

The Oilers have not played well through the first 8 games of the season.  They have not played with urgency, desire, or emotion.  They have not played physical.  They have not used their much vaunted speed.  Let’s not sugar coat it.  The way the team has played, the could just as easily be sitting on an 0-8 record at this point!  Let’s look at the season game by game. 

Game 1: Colorado.  The Avalanche outplayed the Oilers badly, but the Oilers got some good bounces and managed to come up with the win 3-2.  Win ugly!  That’s fine, a win is a win.  But you have to follow up an ugly win with a solid effort.

Game 2: Anaheim.  The Ducks outplayed the Oilers badly up until midway through the second period.  I believe the shots to that point were in something like Ducks 17, Oilers 6.  Then a Ducks defenseman comes around his net and makes a pass to the wing.  He admires the pass for a little too long and Ethan Moreau nails him with a HUGE open ice hit.  Since the Oilers are on the road, there is no response from the crowd, and the announcers did not even acknowledge the hit, but I felt it was the turning point of the game.  Suddenly the Oil came to life, got on the body, peppered the goaltender with another 22 shots, and won the game.  A good result, but the Oilers have to play a full 60 minutes. 

Game 3: Calgary.  I did not see this game.  It looks like the Oil relied on their power play to get it done and won the game 4-3. 

Game 4: Calgary.  The Flames are all over the Oilers.  It looks like Calgary has the upper hand in this years battle of Alberta after beating Edmonton twice in preseason.  Suddenly Smackentyre throws a huge hit in the corner on Dustin Boyd and gets into a dust up with the Flame that came to defend his teammate.  Suddenly the tables turn.  Edmonton dominates the rest of the game and comes away with the win 3-2.

Game 5: Chicago.  The first game of the slide.  I did not see this game as I was away from home on business, but I have to assume that the 3-0 score tells the tale. 

Game 6: Colorado.  The Oilers played a decent game up until midway through the second.  Then the wheels seemed to all fall off at once.  The final score was 4-1, but with the number of giveaways and odd man rushes the score could have been much worse.  The bulk of the Oilers shots come from the outside where they can do little harm.

Game 7: Canucks.  The Oilers look like they are in this game.  They come from behind at one point before completely checking out.  Giveaway after giveaway.  Bad decision after bad decision.  Final score, 6-3.  Grebishkov is how you say giveaway in Russian.

Game 8: Boston.  Here is where I have to take a shot at the Oilers front office.   Every year the ticket prices are raised.  Every year the charge for parking is increased.  Every year that shit you call food gets more expensive.  Am I right that a glass of beer is $8 this year?!?!?  And every year you do more pay per view.  I can tell you this much.  I never go to a game unless I am given tickets for free.  I used to park down at the Silver Slipper and walk up to the coliseum until you jerks started charging us to park there even.  I NEVER buy a beer at the game because I don’t like walking around with a sore ass all the next day. I stop at McDonald’s on the way to the game because I can pay less and feel like I have eaten something edible!  And I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER watch an Oilers game on pay per view.  It’s enough already!  You are rich and I am not.  I am not going out of my way to make you richer!  That said, I did not see the game.  But the Oilers lost 1-0.  There are two universal truths that I wish to point out at this time.  1) If you only score 1 goal you do not deserve to win the hockey game.  2) If you can’t even score 1 goal, you make the team that can look pretty good!  I am so happy I did not waste my money renting this movie.

So for the year the Oilers have been outscored 23-17.  In the last four they have been outscored 14-4.  I would say the Oil should be happy to be at .500 on the season. 

Random thoughts:

I am not a MacT fan.  I never have been.  I think he stifles his talented players and favors guys with defensive skills and no offensive upside.  He seems to destroy young players confidence.  His run to the Cup final was nasty to watch.  I have said I will not call for MacT to be fired until he is out of the playoff race yet again, but I do wish we could have signed Ron Wilson in the off season and woke up from our MacT nightmare.

My applogies to Pouliott, who has been playing better.   I am still not sold on him as a third liner, but I will lay off.

People are criticizing Ethan Moreau and I really can’t figure out why.  He is such a great leader.  When the team needs to get going he always comes up with a good shift.  A big hit.  A good shot on goal.  The only flaw I see in his game is the one that has always been there.  He takes bad penalties.  Too many hooking calls against the captain who just never quite seems to get it.

So obviously the only way the Oilers are going to get out of their stupid three goalie system is if they can trade Roloson.  Obviously they are trying to get him some good games to showcase him for other teams.  Best of luck Rollie.

The official voice of the Oilers is 630 CHED.  This season the station has hired Bob Stauffer to provide color commentary alongside the legendary Rod Phillips.  In case you are not aware of this, Bob has been the longtime play by play man for the UofA Golden Bears.  This is pure speculation, but does the hiring of Stauffer mean that Phillips is considering retirement?  Are the Oilers looking at a possible replacment for the Hall of Famer?  I think speak for many fans when I say it will be a very sad day when Rod Phillips stops covering the Oil.

I saw another scrap with Riley Cote from the Flyers the other night.  This guy can REALLY chuck em, and he does not seem to like to grapple.  He stands back and really trades shots.  Check this guy out on hockey fights.com if you have a minute.

So I have been holding off writing about the Oil so far.   I have heard a few things discussed all around me, and it is driving me crazy, so here I go on my rant.

First of all, Rob Schremp is not the answer.  Rob has consistently given the Oiler’s coaching staff absolutely no reason to take a chance on him.  In training camp, and on his rare call ups, Schremp has shown nothing.  No jump.  No work ethic.  No desire.  No emotion.  No chance of making the team.

The Oilers played their home opener against the Avalanche and produced a giant stink bomb.  They did come away with the two points, but winning ugly is an understatement.  Horcoff, Hemsky and Cole were very ordinary and never seemed to generate any kind of pressure aside from a couple of Hemsky shots on the rush.  If you look at the stats page it looks like they had a pretty good night, but in reality they need to be a LOT BETTER! 

The Young Guns are being highly criticized this week, but I thought they had an ok night.  My expectations for this line are justifyably low, so I liked the fact that they were trying to make things happen, and just failed to click.  A couple of lucky breaks like Penner got and we would be talking about how great this line looked.

The Moreau, Penner, Pisani line comes up with two goals and everyone says they had a good night, but I sure didn’t see much I liked, other than the two goals.  I just can’t find anything I like about this trio.  Individually they are all players I have a great deal of respect for, but as a line they do not seem to have the same mission statement.  Moreau plays a great defensive game and is a great search and destroy checker.  Pisani has a great two way game, but plays soft in my opinion.  And I have not decided if Penner is a soft player, of if he just lacks the speed to get into position to make a good hit.  Regardless, this line DID come on as the game went on, so I am going to have to reserve my final judgement till a later date. 

The fourth line has me a bit mystified.  Can somebody please explain Marc Pouliott to me?  Sure he plays a responsible defensive game, a trait that MacT values above all others, but what else does he contribute?  Speed?  No.  Scoring?  No.  Physical play?  No.  How the hell did this guy manage to bump Brule off the roster?  As for Stortini, he is just Stortini.  He does what he does and does it well.  I do not know how much longer MacT is going to be able to banish Brodziak to the fourth line.  Kyle is too good for a checking line.  At this point he needs to be skating with some more talented linemates.

And Garon was unbelieveable.  ‘Nuff said.

Just a few more random thoughts: 

The fuss everyone is making about the Oilers riding bikes in Jasper without helmets is just dumb.  People should mind their own business more.  And if the Oilers decide to go to Jasper to do some bonding as a team, maybe they should ask the media to stay home. 

Steve Staios got pounded pretty good in Sunday’s game.  I liked the fact that Souray went and had a talk with the Avalanche player the next time they met on the ice, but really Staios deserved what he got.  I doubt that Steve would have any problems with it either.  I hope the Oilers will watch and make sure they react accordingly the next time Hemsky gets run from behind!  When that happens Steve Staios is usually the first guy to come to the defense of his team mate, but we need someone a little tougher to make the satement.  It doesn’t make much of a statement if you drop the flippers and lose.  You need somebody to go to war and win the battle like the Avalanche player did (sorry folks, I have no idea what this guys name is.  Just some nobody in my mind.  A nobody who can give Steve Staios a beating, but still a nobody.).

For the record, Curtis Glencross is a dick!  He has been spouting off about how the Oilers were not showing interest in signing him.  I KNOW that Oilers management had been talking to Glencross and were already wondering where HIS head was at.  They were concerned that he was not interested in signing with Edmonton.  And if he thinks the priority of any team is to sign a fourth liner before Marion Hossa, he needs to give his head a shake anyway.

That’s about it for today as I have lost my train of thought.  There was an AMAZING scrap in last nights game between Philly and Pittsburg.  I believe it was Riley Cote and Eric Goddard, but I could be wrong.  I strongly encourage you to look this one up on hockeyfights.com!

As always, it is really difficult to predict line combinations for the Edmonton Oilers.  Going into the preseason it seems pretty safe to bet that the first line will be Horcoff with Hemsky and Cole.  But from there it gets trickier. 

The second line could see Nilsson centering Penner and Pisani.  Of course you could see Gagner in place of Nilsson, and maybe Penner dropping down to a third line.  Rumor has it that Penner is slightly lighter than last season and in much better condition, so this could be the true breakout year everyone has been expecting from the big guy!

My third line would be something like Brodziak with Gagner and Moreau.  I am not sure how these three players would perform together and I might not be inclined to show a great deal of patience when it comes to waiting for them to gel.

The checking line would be Cogliano, Brule, and Stortini.  Cogliano probably deserves a better fate than fourth line this season, but unless you put him on the third line and move Moreau to the fourth line, I am not sure how you can justify having Cogs any higher in the pecking order.  Brule may be much better than fourth line talent, but I think he has to prove himself before he gets that shot with the Oil, because he has not done much in the NHL to date.  And Stortini is barely effective in any role, but he gets the nod just because of his willingness to play any role coach MacT asks him to!

The blue lines are pretty well set in stone.  Any rookie trying to break in with the Oilers has a tough road ahead.  The top pairing is really NOT set in stone.  I think Visnovsky and Smid could be the top pairing, and I think they would likely work well together.  Visnovsky is a guy I have not seem play very much.  Let’s face it, if you play for any length of time in LA, people will not know very much about you beyond what the stats page can show. What the stats page tells us is that this guy puts up serious numbers every year.  There are still a lot of people in Edmonton that do not think that Smid is a legitimate top six defenseman.  I really can’t figure out what they are seeing because this guy has been top four for the last two years for sure.  A boat load of talent and a healthy dose of physical play make Smid among my favorite Oilers.

The second pairing should be Souray and Gilbert.  We did not see much of Souray last season, and what I saw left me completely underwhelmed.  I hope we will see better from the big man this year.  Gilbert looks like he has the tools to become either an allstar puck moving defenseman, or a shut down guy.  He could go either way.  Look for a big career from Gilbert.

The third pairing is Staios and Grebishkov.  Stevie Staios seemed to lose a step last season.  He is still a leader and a warrior, but the speed and skill that make him such a great player for the Oilers seemed to fail him to some extend.  The other big thing I noticed about Staios is that he seemed to be getting pushed around a lot more last season.  Not that he would back down from anybody, but he seems to have lost an edge when it comes to intimidating anybody.  As for Grebishkov, I kind of determined in about January that Grebishkov must mean “give away” in Russian.  Grebby is hard to watch at times, but he made drastic improvements through the season last year and deserves to stay on as a top six D-man.

In goal there really isn’t even a choice.  Garon gets the number one spot because he is that good.  Roloson gets the back up spot because the Oilers are paying him too much money to ship him off to another team that might give him more ice time.

The big question mark is Robbie Schremp.  Could this finally be Rob’s year?  I really don’t know.  All I can say is that if he wants to stick, he had better show something drastically better than what we saw in his limited opportunities last season.

So those are my preseason predictions.  Keep an eye on this blog in the next few weeks as I offer my thoughts on some of the Oilers talent.  Cheers!

This is going to be a short one today, but it needs to be done. 

Ironically, in my last comic review I mention that as long as Gail Simone keeps writing the All New Atom, I will keep reading it.  Well you know what happens when you make a statement like that!  The very next issue I read was written by somebody else!

Now before I continue I want to make sure I mention that I have read the next four or five issues written by Rick Reminder and they are good.  Not great, but really interesting.  I would not drop this title due to the writing change.  The problem I am having is finding the issues now.  I cannot seem to locate the issues I need, and I am about 99% certain that the series has been cancelled.  It seems pretty tough to nail down any decent info on DC comics in general.

Now, getting back to Gail Simone, it looks to me like she is now writing Wonder Woman.  This makes sense in light of Wonder Woman’s guest appearance in Gail’s last Atom storyline.  I have to say that I do consider myself to be a Simone fan at this point, and I do intend to check out her work on Wonder Woman.  There should be many reviews to follow!

Well, as I mentioned in a recent post, I have not been reading much these days, but I do have two stories to review. 

The first is The All New Atom #17&18.  Written by Gail Simone, Pencilled by Mike Norton, and a Cover by Landronn.  Simone seems to lack consistency, but she hits far more often than she misses.  This one is definately a hit.  Ryan Choi gets a second date with Dr. Zuel, aka Giganta.  Soon Wonder Woman arrives on the scene asking Ryan to wear a wire to help them figure out a mystery of some sort.  Things go sideways when a strange guy with the power of making suggestions gets Giganta and everyone else around trying to kill the Atom and Wonder Woman.  I am not going to offer a lot of spoilers here, but I will say that the story is really good.  The interaction between the characters is really clever and funny, especially the scenes where Ryan starts telling Wonder Woman about all the fantasies he has had involving her.  He somehow finds it impossible to lie to her, and also impossible to shut up.  Wonder Woman should be insulted, but she realizes that he cannot help himself, and is actually flattered.  So I am rating the story 5/5.  The covers were not so good.  They were… let’s see, how should I put this… they were ugly!  2/5.  Inside the art was very good.  I could see what was going on, and the women in this story looked very sexy.  The action scenes needed no explanation and the colors were really good.  4/5 for art.  As far as historical significance goes, I always struggle in this area when reviewing DC comics.  I will give it 4/5 because we have a guest appearance by Wonder Woman, who has battled Giganta on several occasions.  We also have the Atom joining the Justice League.  I could be wrong, but it seems like those should be pretty significant events.  Total score is 15/20.  If you are not reading the All New Atom, I suggest you start.  As long as Gail Simone is writing, I think you can’t really go wrong.

The second story I will review is the Amazing Spider-man #565-567, Kraven’s First Hunt.  This one is written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning.  Basically this story has Kraven’s daughter making the scene and stalking Spider-man.  Of course she gets it wrong and kidnaps Peter’s roommate.  She dresses Vin up in the Spider-suit and injects him with something to give him super strength.  Meanwhile, Pete has no costume, so he goes and borrows one from Daredevil.  SO… Marvel put Daredevil on the cover, and advertised Daredevil to bring in the readers.  But Daredevil is really not so much involved in this one.   I have to admit that the way Marvel is marketing Amazing right now is pissing me off.  So in a nutshell, Kravena or whatever, takes “Spider-man” into the sewers where she runs into Vermin.  She kicks the heck out of Vermin without even getting out of breath, causing him to run away.  When Spider-man (Daredevil?) tracks her to the sewers, he runs into a beat up Vermin, who just naturally knocks the snot out of Spider-man (Daredevil?).  But Spidey comes back.  He goes down and finds Kraven-chick and he and Vin Gonzales (Spider-man?) battle Kraven-the-Crackhead, but they are fighting a losing battle.  But they are saved when Vermin comes back to the sewers and attacks Kranky-PMSing-Kraven.  Spidey (Daredevil) and Gonzales (Spider-man) run away like frightened women and Spider-man (Daredevil) tells Gonzales (Web-head) that he keeps costumes with certain people like Peter Parker to throw his enemies off the scent.  It is later revealed that Kraven-Some-Attention defeated Vermin yet again and is plotting revenge on Spider-man.  Everybody, repeat after me.  Kraven is dead.  Let him rest in peace.  We do not need a Kraven knock off, particularly a female version.  This story is so bad it borders on stupid.  Let me get this over quickly.  Story 1/5.  Covers 4/5 (They are quite good!).  Art 4/5.  And because this is part of the Brand New Day storyline, I give this one 1/5 for significance.  Total score is 10/20.  Where Amazing Spider-man is concerned, my advice is to save your money.  I am only collecting this series now in the hopes that these issues will be hard to find in the future and I can turn a buck on them. 

So, that’s it for today.  I am not sure where my reviews will go from here.  I am planning to try and review some of this Secret Invasion stuff, but I have lost interest so badly that I am not sure if I will actually buy the rest of it. 

The last word goes to Xuthl’s Wilderness Comics and Collectibles which has just made the move from EBay to Comic Collector Live.  Go to http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Seller.aspx?id=cc0608d3-03c2-4b73-81dd-40662b76b9c9 and check out the titles I am offering for sale.  Please remember to consider the cost of shipping as part of the total price.  You will find my prices are often the lowest available.  I have also come across some really nice 1970’s Mego Star Trek Action figures which I am listing on EBay.  If you go to EBay, and enter the community section, you can search for me under the user id xuthl69 and see the items I have for sale.

Also, if you collect current comics, I encourage you to consider ordering your books from me.  I charge cover price plus $3 shipping and handling for the first book and an additional $1 for each book after that anywhere within Canada.  This may sound expensive, but with the cost of gasoline continually rising you really can’t lose.  This is also ideal for readers living in cities and towns without a local comic shop. 

Lastly, if there is a book you are looking for but can’t find, drop me a line and I will see what I can find for you.  I have a good network of sellers and have had great success in the past.  Feel free to contact me at xuthl@yahoo.ca.

Well I went to Commonwealth Stadium last night to watch the Eskimos play host to the CFL best Saskatchewan Roughriders.  There were about 50,000 people in attendance, and if you judged the crowd solely on the basis of our section, you had to believe that about 35,000 of them were ‘Riders fans.  I’m sure you could hear a rat fart on the Saskatchewan prairie from ten miles away last night, because half of the damn province was at the football game in Edmonton!

‘Rider pride is always a fun phenomenon to witness.  I swear, every Roughrider fan alive must own a ‘Riders jersey.  They showed up in their jerseys, with faces painted, and wearing all sorts of corny gear.  Quite a few fans were wearing helmets made from watermelons (or great imitations!).  One guy was wearing a Darth Vader mask with a football helmet and, of course, a ‘Riders jersey.  Another had a shirt that said something like, ‘Go Riders’ on the front and ‘Edmonton chicks think I’m hot!’ on the back.  We got a good laugh out of that one.

The beer was flowing and, having attended the labor day rematch against Calgary in the past, I was expecting things to get a little out of hand by the end of the game.  Usually the Calgary game features more than a few battles in the stands as well as on the field.

Maybe it was just the fact that Saskatchewan lost, or maybe the Rat-landers just have way more class than our neighbors to the south, but the trouble I was expecting just never happened.  There was a good sized brawl near us, but it could not have involved any ‘Riders fans since there were no jerseys involved in the fight and, as I established in the second paragraph, Saskatchewanians seem to be issued their ‘Rider wear at birth!  Other than that one incident I did not see anything to suggest that the visiting fans were there to do anything except support their team.

Nice job Roughrider fans.  You are a real classy group!  I can only hope the hicks from Cow-town can behave as well in September.

I have been playing strategy and role playing games for 20+ years now.  A more recent variant on these activities is online games and play by posts (where you post your actions by email).  I have actually been doing this for 7 or 8 years now.

One of the really strange things I have noticed is that guys who play these types of games online have a real tendency to want to play female characters.  What the hell is up with that?  I have one player who has played dungeons and dragons with us for about six years, and he will play a chick about 85% of the time.  I am also currently in an Age of Appocolypse play by post game where several of the players are playing female characters.  Another D&D player who has been part of our group for about 7 ½ years also will play female about 50% of the time, and one guy who has been with my D&D group from the beginning has recently started playing female characters as well. 

Are these guys are fruits?  Are they “gay and don’t know it”?  What is the reason behind this?  I just find it curious that this occurs in this particular genre of gaming with such frequency.  Can anybody explain it?