#tim absolutely knows there’s an invisible presence helping him

[methoughtsphantom]

Idea that Danny found himself in an alternate dimension and so when he goes to find his alternate self because this is around the area Amity Park should be and his house, he gets the wrong black haired blue eyed child.

Yep, he thinks he’s deceased Jason Todd, instead of neighbor kid Tim Drake.

Danny wonders wherever it’s his fate to die before he is old enough to drive.

[theflyindutchwoman]

| ANATOMY OF A SCENE - CHENFORD EDITION 5.01 - Double Down

This is another short scene that can easily get overlooked, especially since it follows that kiss, but I always found it interesting as it subtly deals with Lucy's trauma. During her recovery, the accent was mostly put on her tattoo, her dating life and trusting her instincts again, but not so much on claustrophobia, as one would have expected. We never really saw her have a full-blown panic attack when she found herself in an enclosed space for instance.

But since the moment she has been made aware of Rosalind's escape, it was clear that the walls were closing in on her : she needed Tim to ground her, her hands shaking when she kissed him - which was a direct callback to when she was found back then. To make things worse, she learned about this in an airplane of all places… Somewhere with no escape. But at least, it was bright inside.. And she had Tim with her. Unfortunately this was only a short respite… After all that brightness, all that reeling, she's plunged right back in the darkness, inside a limo with tinted windows, surrounded by people who she can't trust at all - besides Tim, of course. She has to pretend she's just as unbothered as before and play her role of Sava convincingly so she doesn't burn their covers. I really like the detail of her rolling down the window so she can feel the light breeze and see the colorful neons… It's like she needs a physical reminder that she's not in that barrel. She looks so worried, despite her calm outward appearance. She's putting all her energy and focus on playing Sava, but her turmoil is right there under the surface. She's so far from the confident and playful woman from the beginning in that instant. And I can't help but think about that time Nyla had her 'abducted' to test her before she went undercover… because as harsh as it was (and it absolutely was!), it also prepared her for this… The circumstances may be different, but the feeling of panic is the same. And now, she knows she can push through.

As for Tim… He can't help himself : he's watching over her, the concern written all over his face as well, but giving her some space so as not to draw attention on her. Trusting her implicitly. And as if there's this invisible string between them, she turns to make eye contact with him. Even if she can't touch him, his mere presence remains a source of comfort… and strength.

[incoherentbabblings]

I’m genuinely curious on your opinion about this in regards to the latest Nightwing issue: I know, for me at least for sure, it’s been exhausting to see Dick constantly ‘teaming up’ with other people/heroes and seeing no work by himself, but do you think in this instance in particular with Blockbuster the team up with the Titans and Batfam was warranted/in character? I’m just curious about what you thought in regards to that because it’s something I found myself unsure on how I felt! I always enjoy seeing your opinion on this kind of stuff :)

Thank you!!!! Are you ready for some moaning? 😵‍💫 Too much moaning mayhaps? You have unleashed...the beast...

Ha! Let's go. Here's my troubles with this recent run of Nightwing in one handy dandy post.

It's tricky I think to balance, because, on the one hand, I understand the mindset that Taylor has entered into the run with. A huge critique of the saga of Ric was the fact that Dick was completely isolated and left alone with no-one at any point thinking that a man who was sleeping out of a taxi was an acceptable state of being. Not just Bruce, but all his friends too. Barbara in particular I thought was absolutely awful (yeah yeah bad writer bad writer would be nice if she got a good one for once hm) and if there's ever a time for your friends to go above and beyond it's after you've been shot in the head. Just saying.

So, the course correction here is clearly 'Look! See how loved and well connected Dick is? See how many people he can call on for aid!'

Which in principle I agree with, but my qualms with the execution are thus:

It's not explicitly stated that the overattentive nature of friends and family stems from guilt over what went wrong during Ric, so it comes across as Dick's friends and family only being willing to help him when he's behaving in the 'right' kind of way. If Dick is not behaving like Dick, they can and will abandon him. This denies Dick autonomy.

Dick rarely calls for aid, instead Babs does it for him, at one point even going behind his back, or other characters catch wind and insist on helping or being his bodyguard. Again, this denies Dick autonomy. He doesn't know what's best for himself or the city, Babs/Tim/Bruce/Wally do.

If we do agree that Dick indeed doesn't always do what's best for himself, the supporting cast do not make any meaningful efforts to address this. They simply talk over and badger him until he does what they say.

We have just seen however, that Dick can and will co-ordinate team efforts to help stem conflict in his city. Why wasn't he trusted to do that earlier?

So, to me, this approach of - look at how well connected Nightwing is - has become - this man cannot take care of himself and needs to be guided towards any course of action even for things like sleeping.

So that's one frustration: Dick is not trusted. Which is antithetical to his character I would argue. Through his choices, actions, behaviours, and personality, Dick is trusted on a level that not many other heroes achieve. Why won't they trust him now?

Another frustration is Babs presence, but that's cause I'm petty and don't like Babs much.🤐 Especially magic chip in my spine let me wear a back brace which you conveniently will never see so you'll forget about my disability as I only mention it in passing once every six issues so I can tick of my 'diverse' checklist which is not the same thing as an invisible disability stop lying to yourself Tom Taylor!!! and also don't lie to yourselves about that Batgirl suit. Good God it is the ugliest thing she's been forced to wear in a long time. Don't lie! It's not good. Stop pretending it is.

Another frustration is the pacing and again how it negatively impacts Dick's character. We have the set up of: man stealing people's hearts and is obsessed with Dick Grayson; a man who, in many ways, is all heart (me likey this set up for a villain. It's a less down to earth version of Dick's relationship with James Gordon Junior, but has the potential to be less ableist about those with personality disorders). This is fun. Oh and then there's Blockbuster. Right of course. I am unsure of what is canon canon anymore - they clearly have a history and yet Dick does not behave towards him as I would expect of a man who went through 2003/4's runs of Nightwing. But having two villains is not an issue if well balanced.

Except it isn't. Dick has not done anything about the Heartless chap in a long while, apparently forgotten he exists. This is to make way for more cameo issues, which stops the pacing dead. Thankfully the past two months, things have started to happen. But it's taken so long to get there, Dick looks incompetent and directionless. He is not a proactive character; he keeps getting caught out by the bad guys doing bad things, and having to play catch up and call his friends in to clear up the mess. This has changed this past couple of months, and I would like it to continue to do so. Having said that, having Dick caught off guard so often makes him look incompetent.

But then there's the sister. Why is she Dick's sister? I don't care about the half Zucco bit, or that she's fighting for mayor. That's fine. It could have been done with Sonia but hey, every writer likes to leave their own character behind in the hopes that people like them enough to be picked up by other writers. I get that. But. In a solo series like this, I would argue that supporting characters should only serve to be parallels or comparisons against the protagonist. In other words, how do they serve the narrative and its relationship to the protagonist?

What does Melinda bring to the table? Dick is not conflicted over her. He barely thinks of her or her mother. It has not changed his opinion of his father, the dude just didn't wrap up one time before he started dating Mary. It hasn't changed his opinion of Zucco, the guy was a crap 'father' which is exactly what was expected. So why is Melinda Dick's sister? For the click bait????

I'm sure there are other things that disgruntle me. Dick only apparently realising money=power is ridiculous considering he grew up well below the poverty line. Dick putting up a statue of Alfred in Bludhaven (something that is explicitly acknowledged as something Alfred would have hated) is just Dick's pet ego project. 'Who the fuck is a butler to Bludhaven and why did some billionaire put him in our park' is what I would be thinking if I were a native Bludhave..ian...

The art's nice. That's nice. The writing is unfocused, bland, patronising and frequently ableist. Tom Taylor won't hear of any criticism, and is unable and unwilling to filter bad faith from good faith so simply blocks and mocks to make himself feel better.

In conclusion, in recent years Tim Seeley and Sam Humphries are the best writers for Dick plot and characterisation wise respectively in my opinion but I know the former is certainly not a popular choice. But fuck it. We're moaning today right?

[bigskydreaming]

Batman AU where a pissed off Dick Grayson, after being fired from Robin and kicked out by Bruce, doesn’t go back to the circus when he was off finding himself. Before he became Nightwing. He meant to, even made it all the way to Europe on his way to their latest stop, but in London he got....distracted, when he ran into one John Constantine.

Now, back at this point in canon, Constantine was probably in his mid-twenties at most. I’ve always pictured him mid to late thirties in current comic canon, he’s one of those guys who comes off as older than he is, b/c like, lbr, dude lives ROUGH, lol. But me being me, like, I’m not looking to hook nineteen year old Dick Grayson up with a mid-twenties staggering disaster in whiskey-soaked human form. However, that does not mean that Dick, recently feeling disillusioned about numerous things as well as lost and directionless, two things that define John in a lot of his decades, let alone twenties - 

Like, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t THINK about it, and perhaps romanticize the idea of him and John being kindred spirits. As well as maybe a little attracted to Constantine’s patented performative way of living, aka “watch how I windmill through life, giving no fucks whilst taking whatever latest misfortune befalls me in an unaffected and devilishly snarky stride, because of the thing about the no fucks, see, that’s the connection there.”

And okay, if we’re being totally honest here, its not like it just COMPLETELY didn’t occur to Dick that he was coming up with reasons to justify sticking around and hanging out and also crushing on one of the people MOST likely to tick his dad off. I mean, let’s face it, John is like, the combination of three things Bruce has zero patience for and avoids or outright disdains whenever possible: 

1) Magic, ugh, unreliable, illogical. (Bruce’s super-objective POV on the subject) - Look. It makes no sense. Follows no logical rules. Every usage of it is a breakdown of the normal universe and the ordered mechanism of The Way Things Are Supposed to Work, the things Batman relies on, needs in order to be him, the Great Detective, the guy who understands how everything works and that’s how he stays one step ahead of everyone else.

In a word, magic and all its works are RUDE and they like....annoy him just on principle.

2) Eternally late and relentlessly slovenly (not everyone has a live-in BUTLER Bruce, jeez) 

and 

3) ...John Constantine. (Let’s be real. This one just is what it is. There’s not a whole lot of getting around it. Its hard for Dick at age 19 to pretend buddying up with John isn’t guaranteed to make Bruce grind his teeth, given that its hard for anyone at any age to pretend that while Bruce almost certainly respects the things John has accomplished at various times....being in the same zip code as him is something he tries to avoid. Their personalities are not super compatible).

So, its a tiny bit possible the Great Divergence of this AU from canon.... comes down to one accidental team-up with one of Batman’s Top Ten Favorite People, No Seriously....and then Dick kinda leaning into being a bit of a petty shit here. Look, its not his finest hour, but Bruce started it, and also, like whatever. Alexa, play ‘Teenage Wasteland’ but y’know, all...SUPER LOUD and ANGSTILY. 

Ahem. Anyway.

So even though Constantine rather famously likes neither people nor drama, and Dick is both those things.....Dick is also always effortlessly charming and makes friends wherever he goes. In the end, it should come as no surprise to anyone but Constantine that he is no more Immune to Dick’s innate Likeability Quotient than most of the rest of humanity. 

And for a couple of weeks they kinda just hang out, get into random mishaps with magical gargoyles and ensorcelled ravens around the Tower of London and also one specific clash with a demonically possessed umbrella that turned anyone who held it into like, Mary Poppins, but also, y’know, EVIL - look it was this whole thing, don’t ask, Constantine still doesn’t like to talk about it. He even offered to show Dick how to do a minor cantrip if his mischief minded companion would agree to keep his mouth shut on the subject from now until the end of eternity.

Dick had to hem and haw over that one for a bit, but ultimately his innate curiosity won out over his fondness for telling a rousing but also hilarious tale. It was a very narrow margin, but that was all that was needed to have Dick’s foot take its very first step along a very different road in this universe. 

See, Constantine’s not really expecting much to happen even as he walks Dick through the steps of the simple spell. Magic’s as unpredictable about who it’ll roll over and play tricks for as it is in how it operates and functions and like...basically accomplishes all the many varied feats that make Bruce develop spontaneous frustration migraines, because that’s not how reality works, none of this has anything to do with how reality WORKS, what happened to the RULES, dammit!

And sure, there’s all sorts of different kinds of magic, and all kinds of different lines various magic practitioners sort into....some are born into it, like the Zataras, and Constantine himself actually, though in a very different way from the former....others end up developing a knack for it after significant encounters with arcane or occult beings, forces, artifacts or the like, as though their exposure to such a focused concentration of it resulted in a kind of charge rubbing off on them, just enough to make them able to attract and gather and channel magical forces from then on themselves. Others are chosen to it, and some just have no clue why spells will work for them but not ten random pedestrians they stop on the street and use as a rather strange sample group.

But bottom line is magic isn’t just about practice and skill, you tend to either have a knack for it or you don’t, and more people don’t than do, so John’s pretty much expecting to fulfill his end of their little gentleman’s agreement and then watch Dick duplicate everything he did exactly, with zero result.

Except turns out, Dick Grayson DOES have a knack for magic, same as he has a knack for well, everything. The guy was crime fighting and kicking bad guy ass in middle school. Forget James Bond and Captain Kirk, forget even Batman himself, ROBIN is the original and ultimate Gary Stu. Of fucking course Dick would be good at magic if he ever tried it. There’s a fairly large school of thought in this universe that posits that the force they call magic is an almost living entity in its own way, perhaps even sentient. Most of the magicians and wizards and sorcerers in that school of thinking kinda all quietly nurse the opinion that magic just, like....likes Dick Grayson, and he just charmed it with his first attempt at that simple spell and had it wrapped around his finger by the time he said Abra Kadabra.

(Because of fucking COURSE John picked a spell he could end with Abra Kadabra, have you met the man? He’s the most dramatic of them all, why do you think he hates both people and drama so much??? He’s the people and the drama!)

So there we have one lost and directionless Dick Grayson, feeling like he’s lost his footing and all his old plans and projected paths don’t really fit him anymore, or at least not well enough to help him feel like he’s headed somewhere, doing something.

Buuuuuut, then there’s that petty teenage side of him again, the one that goes fuck Batman, and also I’m right to say so.....and at least that IS a direction to focus on, even if not the most noble one....so the same brain cells that linked up and logic’d him around to the conclusion that ‘Bruce will never think to look for me with John Constantine of all people, and LOL how much would he hate that’....like, big fans of the positive reception their prior performance had received, those same brain cells leap back into action with zeal and zest and steer him to the not all that distant conclusion:

“LOL, how much would Bruce hate it if I ended up being this like, super talented magician, with expertise he knows nothing about? Could you imagine?”

Turns out Dick could, and did, and so much like that initial inch in this direction, is the true basis of him following up on that and becoming a renowned sorcerous superhero in this universe the fateful last words “Screw you dad, you’re not the boss of me and I’ll do what I want!”

I mean. Yeah. That’s pretty much exactly how it began. Yup. Oops.

But the thing is, that’s just how it starts. A random string of chance encounters and events that capture Dick’s attention and interest at a time and a place in his life where he was looking for literally anything to do just that....but once it HAD his attention and interest, everything changed. It was no longer about thinking ‘hey this will really tick Bruce off,’ because Dick’s capable of that train of thought and gut/impulsive decision making, sure, but he’s not about to commit his entire LIFE to that just to flip Bruce the proverbial middle finger. 

It only continues, he only keeps going and furthering his magical studies because he genuinely comes to love it for the sheer versatility, the unpredictability of it, the way holding reality in one hand and magical forces in the other is like walking a tight rope with no safety net, and sure its not the same thing as flying, but on that note, did you know there are spells that can literally make you fly? 

Dick does, now, and he knows like, seventeen different ones.

And so Dick throws himself into studying magic the same way he throws himself into everything. He’s never done anything half-assed in his life. He’s physically allergic to the very idea of it. When he does a thing, he fucking COMMITS, and becomes the best he possibly can at it....which ultimately almost always puts him in the one percentile of that thing. 

He learns everything he can from Constantine, or at least as much as Constantine’s willing to teach him. Eventually their paths diverge, not because of any bad blood, but just because Dick isn’t interested in the same specialties as Constantine. So then he moves on. Travels the world, similar to what Bruce did when he was his age, training to become Batman. But Dick trains with magicians, wizards, alchemists. Madame Xanadu. Sebastian Faust. Raven. Even charms freaking Circe into teaching him an enchantment or two, because lbr, a mystically inclined Dick Grayson would inevitably intrigue the more infamous mystics of the DC universe in the same way a combat-focused Dick Grayson intrigues Deathstroke and assorted others.

Everyone except for Zatanna and Jason Blood, the magicians Bruce actually respects and relies on, and who Dick is sure would report back to Bruce about him, and he’s still ticked. Plus, Zatanna’s type of magic is innate, not really something that can be taught, and Blood’s stems from his sharing his body with a demon and Dick’s not really looking for a roommate right now.

Eventually, Dick is satisfied enough with his skills and knowledge to return to the Titans. He adopts the name Nightwing, same as in canon and for the same reasons. He’s still the same man, same leader, same fighter with all the skills he already had....just now with the added repertoire of someone who’s branched off in an unlikely direction. 

Hey, Bruce did want him to go to college and learn something new. Not Dick’s fault his particular field of study isn’t Bruce-approved. (Okay, its entirely Dick’s fault, since that was after all the point, but eh. Oh well).

Nightwing’s still an acrobat and hand-to-hand fighter. He’s invested too much time, effort, himself into those skills to just give them up. He’s an adrenaline junkie, thrives on motion, activity, the rush of going head to head with someone who can really push him, challenge him. His magic is incorporated into his fighting. He constructs who he becomes as magician around the foundation already in place due to who he is as an acrobat, detective and hand to hand combatant. His magic is an added skill, not a replacement for his previous skillsets.

So he has alchemical potions on his utility belt, amid his ordinary smoke bombs and gas pellets. Tools and spells of divination and scrying for when a trail goes cold and can’t be tracked further by ordinary means. But now the Titans have another mystical expert to turn to for magical related missions, not just Raven. Their specialties are entirely different, but they’ve worked together since Raven first came to this plane, and they still complement each other well.

Of course, this changes things in other ways too. Dick’s new focus takes him further away from his time with Batman than even in canon. He’s still traveling and training for most of the time Jason is Robin and never even meets him before his death. Of course he kept tabs on Gotham no matter where he was. He absolutely knows about the adoption, about a second Robin. And about Jason’s eventual death. But he’s still somewhere places unknown in the aftermath, not easily tracked down by Tim, who sets out to help Bruce on his own, wearing down Bruce’s resistance to him being Robin between just his and Alfred’s efforts. Dick remains largely estranged from the Batfamily as Cass is adopted, Steph takes her turn as Robin, etc.

And then Jason comes back from the dead. 

But again, things play out differently here. This Jason is never found by Talia and the League, never dumped into a Lazarus Pit. Instead, Leslie Thompkins opens up her clinic one day to find a catatonic Jason in a bed inside, not long after he’s resurrected. He recovers as mysteriously as he returned, helped along by being in familiar environs, surrounded by loved ones as he’s of course immediately returned to the Manor and attended on by Bruce, Alfred, Babs, Tim and Cass. So he has less resentment for Tim, for being replaced. Its harder to deny Bruce’s love for him when he has Bruce by his bedside, day after day, watching and waiting throughout his recovery. He never suffers from Pit madness. Is never influenced by League ideology. Never trains with monsters and murderers awful enough he wants to kill them himself after he’s done training with them.

And its hard to resent Bruce for not avenging him and killing the Joker, when no one’s seen the Joker since almost right after Jason’s death. The clown never returns to Gotham from Ethiopia, not as far as anyone can tell. By the time Bruce set out to hunt him down, after Jason’s funeral, the trail had gone entirely cold. Bruce hunted for him, sure, but Jason can’t be too mad about Bruce giving up before finding him. The Joker’s never been one to lay low. When even just a few months had passed without even a hint of the villain or his future plans, it was hard to imagine he was still alive - he never lacked for enemies, after all. Not unreasonable that someone else had gotten to him first.

Plus, of course, its hard to compare yourself to the ‘golden boy’ and find yourself coming up short, viewing yourself as less loved than Dick Grayson, when said golden boy still remains estranged. He’s the prodigal son in this reality, with Bruce’s anger towards his eldest for never coming back to the Manor, not even after Jason’s death - its obvious to everyone, even Jason. Tim doesn’t have the close, brotherly bond with Dick that he does in canon, and with less resentment from Jason for replacing him, its easier for the two middle sons of Batman to bond after Jason’s return.

Jason returns to crime fighting, probably still takes up the name the Red Hood - his sense of humor and irony had nothing to do with his death or the specifics of his return. He and Bruce still clash. They have their ideological differences, Jason’s harsher than Bruce would prefer. But this Jason has reasons not to force an all-out divide between he and his father, sticks to the line (even if reluctantly), not because he believes differently - he still thinks he’s right about Bruce’s way being flawed and will always argue so - but because he has reasons to stay. Things he actually feels he’ll lose if he pushes things too much, actually leaves the family. Because he has a family, he has no doubts about that here. Tim and Cass and Alfred and even Bruce. He’d miss them, if he lost them. So he makes sure he doesn’t.

And then, a couple years after his return, Jason starts feeling hunted by something. Some presence, some force constantly shadowing him, stalking him. Something supernatural. Otherworldly. In time, there’s no denying it. He’s actually attacked by some unseen, invisible presence, like some kind of monstrous beast that’s hunting him and only him.

Its hard to come to any conclusion other than that it has something to do with his resurrection. Nobody knows how that happened after all. Not even Jason. But there was definitely nothing natural about it, so with something unnatural hunting him, almost as if he’s ‘the one that got away’ or some kind of affront to the natural order of things, the Batfamily adds 2 + 2 and gets ugh, fuck, we need to call a magician for help, don’t we?

Bruce calls in Zatanna and Jason Blood first, of course. But this is well outside Zatanna’s area of expertise, she has no insight to offer. Blood’s a little bit more help. He’s at least able to confirm that the force is otherworldly, not native to this plane, and might very well have something to do with Jason’s time....not on this plane. And he is able to affirm that there’s nothing demonic about the presence, no whiff of Hell surrounding either it or Jason.

Finally, reluctantly, Bruce calls in John Constantine, at Blood’s suggestion. His number isn’t so much the last one in Bruce’s old-fashioned rolodex so much as its buried somewhere on the Manor grounds, locked in a puzzle box that affords Bruce countless opportunities to turn back or try something else before he finally gets it open and pulls out the card with his contact info and the header: IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST USE IN CASE OF EMERGENCY WITH ALL OTHER CONCEIVABLE OPTIONS HAVING PREVIOUSLY BEEN EXHAUSTED PRIOR TO THIS - HERE I GUESS.

Okay, maaaaaaaaybe I’m embellishing a little bit on that one there. But whatever.

And its not like Constantine is the actual last of the last he contacts here. For instance, even more than he’d like to not have to bring in John, he’d really rather not call Raven either, though he knows of her as well of course. 

In this reality, the Titans remain more distant from the Justice League and other heroes. They took Dick’s side when Bruce kicked him out, closing ranks, not to mention Roy’s falling out with Ollie resulting in a similar sentiment from them. And Dick and Roy’s diverged paths here similarly result in them paralleling each other in not reconciling with their fathers - they reaffirm to each other that whatever ‘their part’ in their disputes were, they deserved better than how Bruce and Ollie handled those situations, and they’re not going to let each other settle for being afforded less than the respect and care they deserve. 

So to be clear, its not that even after a couple years, Dick is still actively avoiding Bruce - Bruce’s failure to extend the hand first, make the first attempt at reconciliation and conveying that he still wants and needs Dick in his life, his family...that’s still the underlying issue, and the real change in family dynamics comes from Dick not caving and returning to a similar status quo to what he left, without Bruce ever actually addressing his own behavior and mistakes in driving Dick away without making any real attempt to get him to stay, or to follow him, or to ask him to come home.

As for the rest of the Titans, Wally still became the Flash here when Barry died, but he felt no real need to ‘move up’ to the Justice League, and with all of the rest of the original Titans remaining a cohesive family unit here, he chose to stay with them when not patrolling Central City. And when Kyle Rayner became the last Green Lantern and joined the Titans as in canon, the team was closer, more family than the line-up he was briefly a part of in canon, and so he remained with them as well. 

So the end result is in this universe, for the end of their teens and the early years of their twenties, the Titans go their own way, and they and the JLA keep to their respective ‘corners’ as it were. Meanwhile Tim’s generation remains known as Young Justice.

So back to the Batfam’s problem and Jason’s unknown pursuer. Constantine’s not much more help than Jason Blood was. After all, demons are his specialty too, just in different ways than they are Jason Blood’s. and the other magic he knows isn’t of a sort they need here either. 

He is however, able to offer one bit of advice - what they need, John says, is a magician who specializes in the otherworldly, not just the netherworlds. There are more things in Heaven and Hell than well...just Heaven and Hell. Plenty of other worlds, plenty of other dimensions....the kinds of places something like this creature could have come from. What they need is a planewalker. And luckily for them, Constantine just so happens to know the name of a planewalker who could help them.

Dick Grayson.

And of course the estranged eldest still comes when he’s called, because its never that he didn’t care, its just that he wanted, needed to be called. Even when tragedy struck the family, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to return and be a comfort to them, its just that he wasn’t sure his presence would be a comfort. 

(Though it takes numerous arguments while working on the mystery of Jason’s hunter, like, before this gets even brought up, let alone clarified. All parties involved are of course world-class experts at the cold shoulder, not to mention avoidance tactics and evasive maneuvers of all types.)

And as Jason and his other siblings get to know their mysterious oldest brother, the much alluded to but rarely spoken of first son, the Zitka in the room, the shadow they’ve all always been aware of but never known much about - other than that he had a definite Talent with a capital T for getting under their father’s skin, and while they might be closer with Bruce in this reality, Bruce is still Bruce and that’s still a Talent they all can respect and appreciate - well.

It would be a mistake, Jason realizes, to assume that just because Dick left, that meant that he didn’t keep informed on what he left behind. He has many many means at his disposal now, for getting information when he wants it. 

And it would be a mistake to assume that just because they didn’t see him care, that actually meant that Dick didn’t care. He didn’t have to actually meet Jason to feel at least a connection to the second son to be raised by the same father, the second person to wear his colors, bear his mantle, fight at Bruce’s side. He didn’t even have to know him, to grieve that now he’d never get the chance, when Jason died. To be outraged at the Joker, on his behalf. 

And its not like Dick didn’t have plenty of other reasons to hate the Joker as well - he was the reason he was fired, the reason he and Bruce were estranged, the catalyst of so much of his family’s misfortune.

And no one did ever find a trace of the Joker after Ethiopia.

Almost like he’d dropped off the face of the Earth.

Vanished from it entirely.

Of course, while Dick Grayson might be estranged from his father, he still abides by the code Bruce instilled in him at an early age. He doesn’t kill.

But there are worse things than death, some might say.

Especially for a man like a Joker, because he does have one thing he truly cares about: landing a punchline. Its why everyone assumes he was killed by some other enemy after Ethiopia....the Joker can never go long without making a reappearance. He needs an audience too badly to ever stay hidden for long. 

After all, what is a joke, if there’s no one to hear it?

And then as well, the family never did figure out how Jason ended up in Leslie’s clinic, after he crawled out of his grave. 

How someone found him so quickly, and knew the best place to take him. However Jason ended up resurrected, it surely had to involve considerable power of some sort, supernatural energies that surely had to attract some attention....

at least from someone attuned to the supernatural, who knew how to see such things....

and had reason to occasionally visit the Wayne family cemetery.

Yes, even in this vastly different universe, there’s still a way, still time to reunite a family even this fractured. When you’re a planewalker like Dick Grayson, there’s no road beyond your reach, its just a matter of finding the right one. 

And just because it takes time to find the road that finally leads home....that doesn’t mean its not out there.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Double Review: Fantastic Four 2005/Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver  Surfer

Well, it’s finally time to look at these two films. I’ve looked at the cheesy yet awesome B-movie from the 90s, and I’ve looked at the utter blight on cinema that was F4ntastic, but what about the two Tim Story movies of the mid-to-late 2000s? How do they fare against an enjoyable yet trashy B-movie and one of the absolute worst films of all time? General consensus back in the day is that these movies were horrible failures that did a disservice to the characters, but ten years and an abysmal reboot later, people have started to look at these films with somewhat kinder eyes. But is it warranted? Do these movies have any redeeming value? Well, let’s look at the story of the two movies:

The first movie is simply the origin story: The future Fantastic Four (and this time, Victor Von Doom, a businessman financing their space science mission to observe a cosmic storm) go up to space, get blasted by cosmic rays, and gain superpowers, leading them to become one big, happy, constantly bickering, high-profile superhero family. Von Doom starts turning metal, and also turning evil (but with a name like “Von Doom” there are really few career paths one can take aside from villainy), and so they gotta stop him in the last fifteen minutes of the movie, which is when they remembered they were making a superhero film.

The sequel has the team, on the day of Reed and Sue’s wedding, forced to save the Earth again, this time from a mysterious being whose name is in the title of the movie so it really shouldn’t be a shock to anyone watching: The Silver Surfer. And we all know what HIS appearance means, right? Well if you don’t, it means Galactus is coming to eat the world. The Fantastic Four just consistently get no respect, and the people who asked for their help in the first place not only repeatedly disrespect and insult them, they hire Doom, seemingly just to rub it in. Can the combined forces save the day, or is the Earth just straight up fucked?

So the one thing I can say that is done really well across the two movies is that the team, well, feels like a team, and more importantly, feels like a kind of dysfunctional but loving family… you know, like the Fantastic Four is supposed to feel. Reed is the epitome of an absentminded professor; he clearly loves his friends, but he can let his scientific breakthroughs get in the way of that. Ioan Gruffudd does a good job at making Reed the nice balance of clueless insensitivity and charming kindheartedness that makes Reed interesting. Johnny is an egotistical showoff, and is constantly teasing Ben, and pre-Captain America Chris Evans seems like he’s having a ball… though apparently he didn’t have a great time making these movies. Johnny can be kind of obnoxious at times, but he never gets so bad that he feels like a disservice to the character. Sue is… there. Yeah, unfortunately, she is the weak link here, as she has very little presence (fitting for someone called the Invisible Woman, but kind of disappointing for one of Marvel’s most iconic leading ladies). Jessica Alba just does not seem like a good choice to play this character, and it doesn’t help that her experience working on the films was so bad she almost quit acting. Of course I saved the best for last: Ben Grimm, AKA The Thing. If these movies did anything right, it was cast Michael Chiklis, a huge fan of the comics, as Ben. Chiklis gives a very nuanced and human portrayal of Ben while still making him the big lug we all know and love; in short, he’s perfect, and easily one of the best comic-to-screen adaptations of a hero ever.

Now for the exact opposite: Doom. He fucking sucks. Across the two movies, there is not one single scene that is improved by his presence… okay, that’s not entirely true, but the vast majority of his screentime is spent sucking. The problem here is that Doom is not the sorcerous overlord of Latveria; he’s Norman Osborn, basically, a corrupt corporate executive whose arrogance and greed gets him evil powers. Basically the only thing he has in common with the comic book version is that he is named Victor Von Doom, and he hates Reed Richards. That’s about it. I get these films were made in the wake of Raimi’s Spider-Man films, which were huge, but they already jacked the action-packed comical tone for the story, did they need to jack the villain too? This Doom is only saved by a somewhat cool action sequence at the end of the second movie where he hijacks the Silver Surfer’s board and briefly becomes the herald of Galactus, and the fact that as much ass as he sucks, he’s still not as bad as the living gimp suit they called Doom in the 2015 movie. I think it says a lot about him, and also the quality of the reboot, that his biggest saving grace is that he sucks, but not as bad as the reboot one.

And now for the antagonists of the sequel: Silver Surfer and Galactus. Silver Surfer is easily the best part of the movie; he’s cool, he’s noble, he’s badass as hell, and he’s played by the inimitable Doug Jones. He’s such an enjoyably cool creation of special effects and acting that it may just make you sad that his hinted-at spinoff movie teased in the credits never happened. Galactus, on the other hand… ooh boy. I’m gonna need to start a new paragraph for him.

What needs to be understood about Galactus here is that this movie was made back in 2007, which was long before riskier comic book movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man. There was no chance back at the time that a character like Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Ant-Man, or Ego the Living Planet could ever be taken seriously, and silly-looking characters like Green Goblin were subject to a shitload of jokes. So, with that in mind, it is easy to see why the studio was probably reluctant to go with a true-to-the-text version of Galactus as a giant man clad in pink and purple. Instead, they opted to make him a big, evil cloud that drains the life from planets, and hey, this isn’t too bad a concept! This could totally work… but there are some stumbling blocks that they managed to trip over. First off: He doesn’t talk. I get changing him to a giant, living nebula that devours planets was necessary to avoid the sheer corniness of his usual attire, but you could AT LEAST still have him talk! Unicron bellowed out in the voice of Orson Welles when he was still just a giant planet-eating sphere, would it have been too much to have this killer cloud from outer space do the same? There’s plenty of actors capable of giving deep, menacing voices to even the most peculiar characters, so this is one of the more egregious missteps. Another big issue is the fact he… dies. Yeah, Galactus, the being in the comics who could at most be dissuaded for a bit, is killed via the magic power of pulling stuff out your ass and bullshit writing! The Silver Surfer just basically decides to turn on him and kill Galactus, with the power Galactus gave him… which begs the question of why Galactus would create someone strong enough to kill him. But hey, that could have been remedied with maybe some foreshadowing… which brings us to the biggest problem of all: Galactus only appears for, at most, five minutes. Galactus is barely in the movie at all, has very little buildup despite, you know, the Silver Surfer being there, and dies without making any sort of mark in the audience’s mind. And hey, remember how I said they likely did this to avoid the cheesiness of his costume, and that the cloud thing wasn’t a totally bad idea? There’s actually concept art for something that has it both ways: true to the text, yet still hidden in this massive cloud! But hey, why avoid these problems that will piss people off when you can just use them and piss people off? Just throw in a silouette that looks like his helmet and call it a day, they’ll be satisfied, riiiiiiiiiiiight?

Ok, but that’s enough about the characters… what about the stories, the actual content of the films? The first movie is much more… sitcomy, I guess? It’s an origin story and pretty light on the action, acting more as a piece where the characters interact and develop. For what it is, it’s decent, though as a superhero movie it really wouldn’t have killed them to have a bit more superheroics (you know, the thing that audience came for) and maybe have Doom built up better as an antagonist instead of thrust upon us in the final third after sitting most of the film out. For a movie that is clearly trying to emulate Spider-Man, it sure missed the part where Norman Osborn becomes the Green Goblin early on and flies about on his glider, cackling like a madman and killing people to establish him as a threat. Hell, Doom doesn’t even get to glide around on a silvery object until the second film! Overall though, the character interactions are pretty good, though again, Alba is clearly not bringing her best material here. My biggest issue though is some of the dialogue so hamfistedly foreshadowing the characters eventual identities early in the film it just feels awkward to a painful degree. Overall, the film feels more like an extended prologue for the second film than anything, and I guess that it’s not too bad for something like that, but it’s definitely not stellar as a superhero movie.

The second film is a lot more action packed, and I think this helps out a lot. The characters are established, so we get a lot of solid banter, they use their powers a lot more, and they’re up against the Silver Surfer, a character who just oozes coolness. Hell, even Sue is more interesting here! I also liked how the characters had realistic arguments and problems, and instead of stewing in them for the sake of drama… they actually talk their problems out and handle things in a mature manner instead of allowing annoying, contrived bullshit to hinder the plot! Of course, Doom’s presence bogs the film down, as does the issue with Galactus, but I think overall the film has a slight edge just for being a bit more compelling and for allowing the characters to be a bit more enjoyable due to the audience presumably being familiar with them from the first one. There’s still an air of corniness and campiness to the proceedings, but this one’s a bit more fun. Also, Stan Lee’s cameo, where he tries to get into Sue and Reed’s wedding only to be rejected, is probably one of his best cameos ever.

So, what do I think of them, overall? I think… they’re kinda enjoyable. I don’t think either movie is as true to the campy charm of the old comics as the unreleased film from the 90s, but I do think the heroes themselves were pretty well done, the Silver Surfer is one of the coolest characters in any superhero film and deserved his own spinoff, and it’s clear that there was some love, effort, and creativity put into these movies that makes them somewhat enjoyable. Are they great? No, I can’t honestly say either of these films are “great” movies to any degree, though they have their moments, but they’re enjoyable enough that it’s mostly painless to watch them (until you come across a scene Doom is in). Much like the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean films, I feel like these two movies could have maybe been trimmed down and cut together; the first act could have featured the origin of the Fantastic Four and maybe established Galactus and Silver Surfer, the second act could have them trying to use their powers to find out what the Surfer is up to, bickering, and growing closer as a team, and the third act could feature Galactus arriving, the team coming together to fight him off, and the Surfer realizing the value in them and helping them. Then it ends with a sequel hook involving Doom and maybe one for a Silver Surfer spinoff movie. Also, Galactus doesn’t die. BOOM! That would have worked a lot better I think, even if fighting off a planet-devouring galactic being is a bit much for a fledgling superhero team. Still, for what they are, I can’t really hate them. They do a lot wrong, but they do plenty right too. They’re definitely worth checking out if you can find them cheap (try the bargain bin at your local Wal-Mart or supermarket, and snicker if the price is about $4). Just don’t go in expecting Spider-Man or X-Men, the big contemporaries these films were compared to, and you’ll have a good time.

It’s a shame this franchise screeched to a halt and died when it had potential to get so much more interesting, especially with Silver Surfer’s hinted, yet sadly aborted, spinoff. Instead, what we got was something that represented the polar opposite of what the Fantastic Four should be. At least we got The Incredibles, which is to date the greatest Fantastic Four movie ever mad… but still, I’d like to imagine someday we’ll get an honest-to-god Fantastic Four movie that is actually fantastic. Maybe Fox will stop fucking up and make it, maybe they’ll give the rights back to Marvel, or maybe they’ll share joint custody like Sony is doing with Spider-Man. Only time will tell.

[encouragingcomfort]

PRAYING LIKE JESUS...

Mt 6:9-13 says:

After this manner therefore pray ye:

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done

in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen 

Jesus tells us to “pray like this” ((emphasis mine))  The Lord God, our Savior Jesus will teach us HOW to pray…  I hope this will bless you as much as I look forward to what the Lord has to say (through me) today!

Our Father, which art in heaven…  The very first thing that I noticed was that our Lord isn’t selfish, He shares His JOY with us.  The Joy of His Father, making God our Father too!  Sometimes, it is hard to share.  But this time, I am so glad that Jesus did!

Our Father-  He belongs to us!  He has a home (in heaven) and, IN us!  His heart is grand!  And, as the believer of Christ Jesus, we have HOME in His heart. There is lots and lots of room!  Hallelujah!!!

Hallowed be Thy name… What is your first thought when you read this tiny sentence?

Hallowed:  A song comes to my name…Holy is Your name….Wonderful is Your name…. I reverence Your name…  The powerful/sacred/worshiped name of God!

Abba, I reverence your name.  I am in awe of You.  Holy is your name.  Absolute are You, Abba.

All that I am IN YOU is because of Your name.  Because of Your Son, Jesus, who is You; Almighty God!  I can get so excited because You don’t have just one name, yet you are ONE, THE ONE and only true God, the invisible God! Mine!  Ours!  All because we believe. \o/

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven…

Your kingdom come ((YES)), & will be done ((YES)) on earth, in earth, here right here where we are and where YOU are….  Your YES in heaven meets our faith/yes on/in earth.  They meet/resound/rejoice in/on Your… Yes…

God’s will WILL be done! always!  He is God!  His will may not “match” what you may want, but what GOD WANTS is always right…ALWAYS!

I had a revelation of this part of scripture…  I seen a combination lock.  It had lots of numbers, and millions of combinations… but there is only ONE that can unlock this lock.  God’s yes has to match His will for heaven and earth to speak to each other and

agree on God’s will (His final say).  Our job is to have faith, and pray to believe to receive and have.  Mk 11:24    Wait for, hope for, and expect… our God….Ro 8:25   Believe & you shall Receive!!!! Mt 21:22    Do you see God’s will in these scriptures?  If God’s will weren’t in them we wouldn’t have hope to have faith!  God’s will is phenomenal!  There is nothing like it, or Him!  Heaven and earth meet together, in agreement, in one accord and your YES, your answer, your part in God’s will— does this….  thy will BE DONE…  Don’t you LOVE your Abba?

give us this day, our daily bread…

JESUS, give us this day…YOU…all of who you are!  All of who you are IN me!  All of YOU, Jesus, today.  Not only in my today, but my tomorrows, all the way to You, my Holy and Wonderful Lord.  All the way, to Our Father…  Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God… My bread is YOU.  My bread is Your Word. My faith feeds on this bread, and I grow IN You.  You did this!  So that I would be reconciled to You.  You made peace because of Your blood shed on the cross.Col 1:20  I am free because of Your Word.  I am cleansed. Your Word is near me!  even as close as my mouth!  Your Word endures forever! You are the Word, and we love You, Sweet Jesus.  Thank you!!

forgive us our trespasses… as we forgive those who trespass agains us…

Forgive-  sometimes forgiveness is hard…  but not so hard if you look at it this way…

Jesus forgave me, therefore, I must forgive others if I want to be forgiven.  How can I expect to be forgiven and be with God if I hold on to unbelief?  

Unbelief!  Did you say unbelief???  Yes!  God says to forgive.  If so, I will be healed, and thus, forgiven myself.  If I hold on to a grudge, all my life,  I am most miserable.  I feed that beast!  And, believe me, it is a hungry beast, demanding my time, my mind, my actions….  But Jesus has a better answer!  FORGIVE others!  Is it hard?  Sometimes!  (Honestly answering this question), but it is a MUST.  Remember what Mat 5:8 says?  Blessed are the PURE IN HEART… for they shall see God.  That was my wake up call.  MY LIFE GOAL IS TO SEE GOD!!!  Therefore, I must rely on my faith/belief in Christ’s blood which cleanses me, and washes away my sin of unforgiveness, so that I may forgive and become free!

Some people have it all wrong…. forgiveness is not for the other guy!  NO!!! no, no!!!  Forgiveness is so that I may become free.  That I may be released from the bondage.  So that this misery and chains that hold me to this LIE may be broken, in Jesus name, by faith and obedience and trust in you God.  Yes!  as a Christian, I must believe Him!

Sometimes, we need to swallow that ugly pill of unbelief…  our sins are forgiven as far as the east is from the west…never meeting again…forgotten.  So, why is it that you hold on to unforgiveness?  No! Stop! This isn’t God’s will!  Be done with it! Forgive.

lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one…

Does God lead us into temptation?  Is God a tempter of evil?  I hardly think so!  I believe this part of scripture says this: (I’ll pray it out)

Abba, help us to keep our eyes open.  Help us to know “who” our enemy is.  He is called the evil one.  Help me to recognize this tempter.  Help me to know and respond

to his lies with a resounding NO!, IN JESUS NAME…  He is a sweet talker of sin, making sin look so enticing… But… help me to remember that I want to SEE God!  I want this enemy to be far, far, far from me.  Deliver me, Jesus!

Thank you, for the scripture in James which tells me to SUBMIT myself to You, and RESIST that devil.  Thank you, that scripture tells me that this enemy will flee.  FLEE!

Because, when I come to You, Your presence fills the place…  He is extinguished!  His fire is put out.  It’s the blood of Jesus which speaks…and STOPS the enemy’s flow.  He is silenced.  He is tore down.  He is extinguished to nothingness.  He is noise.  His noise isn’t so enticing, no it is not, but a loud gong!  This roaring lion seeking whom he can devour need beware! Angels are encamped all around God’s Children.  The blood of Jesus speaks loud and clear, and the enemy shall be stopped.  His assignments -against me- broken.  Why? faith? Yes, faith, but also because: Jesus PRAYED for us in this prayer.  He prayed: DELIVER US from the evil one.  Hallelujah!

How do I keep this roaring lion from devouring me? Look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith! Submit to God, and resist this devil! God is faithful!  And faithful to the faithful.  Is this you???

for Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory forever…

You see, it is all about God!  Your life, and where you fit in…is all about God!  It’s all about His kingdom!  This is why we can say: HALLELUJAH!!! and raise our arms high…to Him…  unto Him who is able to do, exceedingly, abundantly, all we can think or ask, according to the Power (JESUS) that works in us.  Is Jesus IN you?

If so, we can recognize God’s divine in us!  His kingdom, power and glory IN us! forever!  Hallelujah!!!

and Jesus ends this prayer with:

AMEN!

AMEN: God’s yes!  He is a yea and amen God!! 2 Cor 1:20  

Amen, Praise the Lord forever!  Psa 89:52   Praise be to the Lord God of Israel!!!  Amen and Amen!.. Everlasting to everlasting….Ps 41:13…   And the whole earth is FILLED with His Glory!!!  Ps 72:19   The God of peace be with you all….Amen!!! Rom 15:33

ending: He is YES!  HIS PRAISES ARE YES! (Forever), THE WHOLE EARTH IS FILLED ((Full)) WITH HIS GLORY, YES!!!

NOW, UNTO YOU LORD, KING ETERNAL, IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, THE ONLY GOD, ((The only True God)) BE HONOR, GLORY FOREVER AND EVER….((and ever))  AMEN 1 Tim 1:17      AMEN, and let it be so.  

Jesus, be with us in this prayer!  Thank you, for teaching it to us.  

Bless your Word and honor it today, in Jesus name I pray, amen to the glory of God!

[davedimartino]

NEW THIS WEEK 08.25.09

It's a solid week for new album releases--as comparatively newer artists such as the Arctic Monkeys and Imogen Heap return triumphantly, old masters such as Smokey Robinson and George Benson re-emerge with solid new projects, and other people put out other stuff!

Thus, those who've been predicting bad fortune for the music industry, dismissing it as an old and tired business model that's had its day, have been proven completely wrong!

Next week: New releases by the Flying Pigs, That'll Be The Day, Don't Look Now, and We're Frickin' Doomed should bode equally as well!

  Imogen Heap: Ellipse (Megaphonic/RCA) There's been a big to-do about how Ms. Heap, onetime member of Frou Frou, has invested so much personal time in the marketing of this brand new project that its now contextualizing the future of artist's role the industry! Frankly, that's quite a bit of unnecessary hot air--as the real story is right there for all of us to see on her new album's cover: Imogen has befriended an otherworldy energy being that will force all of humanity to buy her album whether they want to or not! Which is fine by me! So yeah, this a really great album that sounds fresh and invigorating and--and I know I won't be the first to point this out--sort of the audio equivalent of a brand new roll of Mentos! Like her homonymic mentors Uriah Heep, Imogen is cultivating a legend that will only grow in the coming years! Buy it, file it, move on!

Arctic Monkeys: Humbug (Domino)  Actual artistic growth is a rarity these days--except in the case of adolescents--but one listen to the latest album by the UK's Arctic Monkeys, and you'll get a glimmer of just how great it is when it happens! Some of the credit might be given to the singer Alex Turner's fab side project the Last Shadow Puppets--who were quite good--but the better bet is the participation of Queens Of The Stone Age's main man Josh Homme, who produced the band's recording sessions in California and gave Humbug even more oomph than the Monkeys' usual! Word is the album is named after the famous German city where the Beatles played in their early days when they all had colds!

Colbie Caillat: Breakthrough (Universal Republic) There's something so gosh-darned pleasant about Colbie Caillat--just saying her name makes me think of a wine and cheese party or a soothing and pleasant lotion !--that, between you and me, anything she does I tend to like! Even sing!  The maker of "Bubbly"--what a great descriptor--is now 24, back with a strong second album boasting the presence of producer  John Shanks and Colbie's highly respected father, engineer and producer Ken Caillat, and sounding healthier, wealthier and wiser than ever before! Great tunes include "I Won't," "Fallin' For You," "Droplets,"and "This Charming Man," and Colbie recorded three of them!

  LeToya: Lady Love (Capitol) A founding member of Destiny's Child who left the group for surprising solo success--usually people who leave too early meet tragic failure, sit around bars and tell anyone who'll listen they could've been huge if only, etc.-- Ms. Luckett, who professionally goes by only her first name purely to cause Joseph Jackson grief, is back with her second album and it's not bad at all! Featuring tracks written by Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, and others, and guests such as Estelle, Mims and Ludacris, Lady Love is pretty solid stuff: rhythmic, soulful, contemporary, and filled with the letter "L"! While it remains to be seen if the otherworldly being on its cover will be as helpful as Imogen Heaps'--these things aren't always predictable--I'm rooting for LeToya and you should be too!

George Benson: Songs And Stories (Concord) Guitarist George Benson has of course been making records for years--and it's hard to believe that 33 full years have transpired since he released Breezin', the album that--via "This Masquerade" catapulted him from jazz journeyman to multi-Grammy-winning pop icon. He's never been less than interesting since then--with his only vice perhaps being that tendency toward slickness that comes from making music with musicians who are simply too good to ever play anything that isn't note-perfect and appropriate.  That said, this new album sounds better than usual at the moment; it features well-known songs ("Rainy Night In Georgia," "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," "Someday We'll All Be Free"), the usual great cast of LA-based players, and a pleasant, understated album cover. So, like, what's wrong with me?

Tim Buckley: Live At The Folklore Center, NYC - March 6, 1967 (Tompkins Square) Something of an unbelievable release for most Tim Buckley fans, who assumed anything the late, legendary singer/songwriter had ever put to tape had already been released--sort of--this wonderful live set, recorded before an audience of maybe 35 people in New York, is something of a godsend. It captures the singer playing material from his first two, comparatively "folkie" albums--a period generally not well-documented among the various Buckley bootlegs--features six original songs never previously released, and basically beats the pants off of nearly everything else released this week. Sounds like he listened to a lot of Radiohead!  

Smokey Robinson: Time Flies When You're Having Fun (ROBSO) Speaking of legendary-type dudes, here's one of the all-time greats--still living!--who, though he made his major mark in the '60s, seems to be echoing here one of his finest eras, circa the mid-'70s-'80s days of Quiet Storm and his 1981 hit "Being With You," and doing it remarkably well. Well-played, well-sung, surprisingly contemporary sounding, and featuring "sympathetic" modern day guests--like Joss Stone, India.Arie and even Carlos Santana--who fit in absolutely perfectly, Time Flies is top-notch!

Ingrid Michaelson: Everybody (Cabin 24)  One of the sensitive female singer/songwriter types that Grey's Anatomy made famous--yet another reason TV is better than steak!--yet who isn't entirely a fruitcake, 29-year-old Michaelson returns with a solid follow-up to her 2007 album Girls And Boys and boldly titles it with the answer to the question "How many people in the world need to buy this album to make you as much money as possible?" In the old days, actually going to business school--let alone allowing yourself to be photographed in class!--would be considered unseemly! These days, if you'll pardon my French, its de rigueur!

Queen Latifah: Persona (Verve)  A few months ago I was pulling into a parking structure just as Queen Latifah herself was pulling out! Nice car! Just yesterday I was reading the Sunday paper and a saw a full-page ad promoting  Parlux Fragrances' new Queen Latifah perfume! Today I'm looking at her brand new album, which features Mary J. Blige, Jadakiss, Pharell, Busta Rhymes, Shawn Stockman, Dre from Cool & Dre and a song on it actually called "Long Ass Week"! I’m pleased to report that this new album features only one "N" in its title, thus has no commercial ties to the razor blade manufacturer! How does it sound? "I'd say it's half rap and half singing," reports the Queen herself! Hey, who the heck is the King?  

Dolores O'Riordan: No Baggage (Zoe)  Though the massive royalties she accrued with the Cranberries allowed Dolores to buy nearly anything her heart desired, Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane did have its downside!