(sorry for repost, it is due to WP/LJ crossposting dipshittery)
– get a picture frame
» put together gift basket box
– get envelopes
» put chance issues in envelopes :)
– box up Walker Papers for Mr. M
– DEMON HUNTS revisions^H^H^H^H change of plans, work on critique instead
– call bonk
– make bread
– do laundry (Ted’s doing this, bless him)
– send receipts (VERY IMPORTANT)
Nice swim this morning. I did my first 500 in 9 minutes, which is faster than I usually…bother to do, if we’re being honest. I don’t think I could do one faster than about 8 minutes right now anyway, but I was pretty pleased to have done a 9-minute one. Technically I’m supposed to have one more day of 1K swimming, but I did 1300 meters today (to, er, bring my ytd km swum up to a round number, because I’m a dork like that) and I may just go straight to 1500 meters tomorrow.
This morning I received Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge‘s BLACK AND WHITE, which is a superhero novel I’ve been dying to read ever since Jackie mentioned it. Now I must restrain myself and not read it until at least tonight, ’cause I have work to do! (Apparently that’s how reading is going: I either want to read something RIGHT NOW, or I can put it off indefinitely. No wonder I haven’t been buying a lot of books.)
Oh, speaking of reading, it turned out I had the HOUSE OF M graphic novel…
It would probably feel like a weightier story if I’d read all the bits surrounding it, too. As it was, it’s hard to remember this is 8 months worth of comic books bundled together, because it feels a little superficial for what it’s doing–which is, ultimately, decimating the mutant population. Except decimating isn’t the right word, because it’s not one in ten mutants getting wiped out, it’s more like one in ten keeping their powers. And really, as far as I can tell, the best *story* to come out of the HOUSE OF M is Spider-Man’s.
There are a bunch of reasons they did the HOUSE OF M storyline, I believe, among which is the explosion in mutant population that happened during Grant Morrison’s run. In that run he wiped out half the mutants on earth, but that still left some ten or fifteen million, which has now apparently been cut down to about a hundred thousand. I can sympathize with this decision, because I didn’t particularly care for the mutant explosion to begin with, even if thirty or forty million out of a world population of six and a half billion isn’t really that many.
What I don’t like is who they chose to de-power. Some of that is foot-stompy whininess because, for example, I adore Jubilee and want her to still be a mutant, and *stomp stomp whine* why couldn’t they leave the X-Men ALONE, like, and just de-power mutants we didn’t know about!
But some of it is that I don’t think they made the ballsy choices. Sure, it’d take all the fun away from Rogue if you took away her powers, because she’d really just like to be normal, but so would Hank McCoy, who has never really seemed to consider his staggering intellect part of his mutant power. It’d be a hell of a lot more interesting to see Hank deal with being of only average–or even high–intelligence instead of being a Super Genius than it is to see Bobby go O.O for the five minutes he doesn’t have his powers. So, eh. I’m sympathetic to the idea, if not entirely taken with the implementation, and if I’m ever rich I’d like to get the rest of the crossover graphic novels to see if it feels more impactful across the entire Marvel universe.
OTOH, at least I’m now sorted out to read the next major storylines. I’m also starting to wonder how much of this I’ve actually managed to read without quite realizing it.