Before Watchmen and other DC stuff

Before Watchmen – I got copies of the Nite Owl / Dr. Manhattan volume (by Strazynski) and the Comedian / Rorschach volume (by Azzarello), not actually expecting much from either. The former is much better than it has any right to be (as it’s all official Watchmen fanfic), and puts a cute twist on some of the throwaway bits of Nite Owl’s history, and a more in-depth explanation of why Manhattan is a slave to fate. It oddly references the movie ending to Watchmen in a couple of places, though, which is strange. The latter is tolerable at best; with the Comedian story trying to mesh with history and not really working, and the Rorschach story just being a assortment of Rorschach getting beaten bloody and beating other people bloody. With a subplot about a serial killer that’s completely pointless to the main story.

I also got a big stack of the November cover dated DC books (generally issues 35-36, and the Future’s End tie-ins), most of which didn’t really win me in any particular way. Teen Titans has a new and terrible artist. Green Arrow is trying to introduce all of the Arrow TV show supporting cast. The New Gods of New Genesis are being introduced as antagonists in the Green Lantern books. Superman appears to have been cured of the Doomsday virus, only to be immediately exposed to the Amazo Virus in the Justice League books. Lex Luthor is apparently doing a spin pretending to be a good guy. Aquaman has a new team that spends an entire issue standing around talking and doing nothing (seriously, it was one of the most pointless filler-exposition issues I’ve ever read). And Future’s End takes place “five years from now”, but most of the tie-ins are sneak previews of how the currently-running arcs will supposedly end (except they won’t, because five years of in-comic time is 30+ of real-time, and the current arcs will be long forgotten); and the main plot is basically “Terminator with more superheroes”.

One standout: The Harley Quinn Comic-Con special (by Conner and Palmiotti) was hilarious; a delightful cameo-filled, fourth-wall-breaking commentary on the industry and cons in general. That one is worth your four bucks.

Lost Lake

This is the second thing I’ve recently gone into blind, just on the strength of the creative team, and I wasn’t disappointed. The play is written by the author of Proof and it stars Traci Thoms (of RENT and Wonderfalls, among many other things; she’s got the greatest “Are you kidding me?” bitchface the stage has ever seen). Now, if you don’t like the “two people on stage slowly revealing their secrets amongst wit, angst and snark” genre of theater, you’ll hate this, but it’s a very good example of that genre if you like it. Also, the set and lighting design are beautiful (and there’s one REALLY good set change that you’ll know when you see).

I don't want to say anything else--unlike the Times review, which I read after seeing it, and felt gave too much away--but if you're in NYC and a fan of the genre, see this.