Fishy Friday

 

Andromeda

Strength: 6
Toughness: 7
Special Powers: 3
Status: 2

Andromeda Attumasen is the daughter of Attuma, a nemesis of Namor. Inspired by Namor, she joined the (New) Defenders and fought against her father. Together with Tamara Rahn, Stingray, Triton, Tiger Shark and Namor himself, she was one of the Deep Six - a team of underwater characters.

Game Of Thrones

Still jetting off the Glasgow each week but, due to a generous work colleague who also shares these trips, I've now watched the first series of Game of Thrones. And it was excellent!

Sure, things sort of meandered a little in the middle, but episode 7 turned things around and from then on it was a wonderful sprint to the finish. In fact, I was somewhat surprised I'd reached the last episode (I hadn't realised there were only 10 episodes) and so felt a bit 'robbed' when the end came. I want more!

Like the books, I think the first half of this season suffered a little from having lots and lots of different characters split across a variety of locations. It took a while to get a hang of who was who and where events were happening. But, as mentioned, by about two-thirds of the way through things started to click into place.

And, like the books, no character is safe from the chop!

All the actors are great in their roles and none let the side down (although, perhaps, Lena Headey's Cersei does not come across as well as the others). The locations look wonderfully lavish and there's a real sense of suspense and intrigue.

Let's hope the second season arrives sooner rather than later.

Winsome Wasp's Wardrobe #27

art by George Perez and Dan Green (from Avengers #200 1980)

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Rendition

This second episode wasn't quite as explosively entertaining as the first episode but was reasonable enough, I guess. Most of the action took place on board a plane with Gwen and Jack taken prisoner by the CIA. I guess it served as a way to show the viewers and Rex that there are some shady people in his organisation who are out to kill, rather than question, Torchwood. Otherwise though, it felt a little like padding. At times I couldn't tell whether the artificially-frantic treatment of Jack's poisoning was supposed to be amusing or serious or both. It just seemed a little silly.

Again, I felt that the acting from a number of the actors was, well, okay I suppose. I like Rex and Jack is always fun to watch. But even Gwen seemed a little off this time. Esther still doesn't convince though.

I guess this episode was setting a few things into motion - Rex's and Esther's split from the corrupt CIA, Oswald's rise to fame (and eventual cult status), Jack's mortality, the introduction of PhiCorp - whilst continuing to ask how the world would cope.

And who is Jilly Kitzinger? She appears to be touting herself differently to different people - first as a PR guru to Oswald then as an employee of PhiCorp. Red seems to be her colour - she's not supposed to be some sort of devil figure, is she?

So, not a bad episode and I'll continue to watch Torchwood until the end, but nothing incredibly exciting either. And although the mini-series format seems to suit Torchwood, I do sometimes mourn the loss of standalone episodes.

Monster Monday

Fishy Friday

 

Tamara Rahn

Strength: 6
Toughness: 5
Special Powers: 2
Status: 2

Marvel's funky red-skinned Tamara Rahn is an alien of the water-breathing extraterrestrial Banari race from the planet Laab. As with many comic book meetings, she originally fought Namor the Sub-Mariner but then turned to the side of good (although she was involved with Tiger Shark for a while). She has the usual run-of-the-mill aquatic powers.

Winsome Wasp's Wardrobe #26

art by George Perez and Josef Rubinstein (from Avengers #194 1980)

Torchwood: Miracle Day - Episode #1

Well, you can tell it's now American.

The first half of this new episode of Torchwood seemed a bit like a tacky, CSI-like thriller. The pace and cutting was faster than before and there were a fair number of explosions. And, again, annoying zoom shoots of the mouths of multiple newsreaders were used near the beginning to highlight the shock of 'Miracle Day'. So thank goodness for the earmuff-wearing baby as Gwen shot at a helicopter outside her window after being reintroduced to Captain Jack!

It was at the point about half way through when Rex, the injured CIA agent, travelled across to Wales when things picked up for me. In fact, if it wasn't for Rex's tough, gruff, get-stuck-in attitude together with his dry wit then all of the American newcomers would've been somewhat bland and forgettable.

By the end of the episode though, I found I was quite enjoying the show. I have no idea how they'll run with the same mystery for another 9 episodes (mind you, other US shows have extended single mysteries over longer seasons in the past) but I reckon it'll be pretty entertaining. And I'll be interested in discovering why Jack is now vulnerable whilst everyone else is unkillable, why he came back to Earth after leaving at the end of the last series, who sent the Torchwood email that seemed to start this thing off and why some group is sending helicopters and suicide bombers to kill Jack and Gwen. Plus, it looks like we'll get to see more of Bill Pullman's creepy character Oswald the child killer.

Let's hope they stop using the "456" designation for almost everything though.