Lantern7

For anybody who's into comics . . . Mr. Poopybutthole is getting his own miniseries from Oni Press.

I'm waiting on creative teams before making any decision. With Secret Six dead (again), I'm curious if Gail Simone will be writing any of the books.

Comic-Con tickets go online tomorrow. Anybody else wanting to take a shot? I might, even though I don't know if I have the money to make the trip to San Diego. I should probably focus my energy on getting to New York Comic Con. ETA: Got shut out again. Oh, well.

Anybody keeping up with the filler? We have two more weeks of the current story, followed by a goofy one-shot tale. Not that Capt. Puzzle and the "Scorching Don" aren't compelling, but I want to get to Thriller Bark more quickly because it is insane.

I hit the TAR28 Wikipedia page. It says that Dana & Matt got $2,000 each for winning the first leg. The source was this Twitter post from Matt.

One overmatched parent/child team gone, two to go. And it's fitting that the pair with the one video between them wound up bowing out first. No real villains thus far, though I can see where some Racers can be annoying. Darius & Cameron lack drive, and that could harm them down the road. On the flip side, Tyler continues to be adorable, as does Korey. Loved the post-Pit Stop conversation between Phil and Blair. She brought a curling iron and a hair dryer, but didn't pack a decent swimsuit? Oy. Haziness must run in the family. Sorry, Scott.

Banged out another Challenge essay. I may have gotten carried away with the final entry.

I sound off on the upcoming season. Casting spoilers only.

Curious . . . are there any online people you feel got left out? I follow Epic Rap Battles, and I'd be interested in seeing NicePeter and EpicLloyd running. Of course, I'd expect them to race as other people . . . like George Washington & William Wallace. Or Bill & Ted. Or Abraham Lincoln & Chuck Norris.

For anybody who's interested, Wikipedia set up a page for the next Challenge. I plan on writing about this on my blog, but I will say this: one person disappoints me greatly by returning to the neverending carnage.

Good episode, even with the thoroughly underwhelming Vandal Savage. Here's hoping he doesn't rear his ugly head in 2046. Ray is still a schmuck. Not as bad as Todd Ingram, but he's too determined to be a hero. At least Mick was a little impressed. "Have you ever merged with a woman?" Oh, man. That was funny. And yay on Jax and Martin healing their partnership. And Kendra was useful this week. Good for her. I kinda hate when stuff comes out of nowhere. First, it was Kendra housing a demigoddess instead of a priestess, now it's the link between Jax and "Grey." I mean, I know it's canon, but I imagine non-fans to be driven nuts by developments like that.

Got around to seeing the half-hour special today. Usual good/bad/icky stuff that gets dropped from the main storylines of the show. Vince got dubbed "Creepy Uncle," but Mitch had at least two segments about up, over his passing out in clubs and ability to get suckered in pranks.

Not totally jumping on the Tai bandwagon . . . but didn't he say that he was tearing up dead trees while looking for the idol? Looking up Wikipedia to confirm . . . the Brawn tribe is officially "To Tang." That looks a little like "Toetag" if you squint a little. ETA: Looks like Cyndey and Jason flipped on Darnell. Also forgot about Pete's resemblance to the President. I guess he could make that grade, but I'm spoiled on Jay Pharaoh and Jordan Peele's portrayals.

Man . . . any episode where Charlie is the sanest person is brutal to watch, and he wound up trying to communicate with a bird. Dennis kept trying to get out of paying alimony, Dee perjured herself, Mac got tricked into screwing a McPoyle, and Frank was too hopped up on coke to interfere. Seriously, which group was the biggest carwreck? The Gang? The Ponderosas? The McPoyles? I did feel a little cheated that we didn't see Liam and his brother show up. Are their actors in demand?

Any thoughts on the reunion special? I miss the old days, where it would be a half-hour long and mostly drama-free. Bringing back Abram was a mistake, especially since he has a checkered past of flipping the hell out. Listening to Cara Maria talk about using the prize money to start a gym with obstacles . . . is she planning on raising ninjas? I wouldn't mind her in the stands of American Ninja Warrior, cheering on protégés. Bringing in Vince solely for the "#VinceFail" montage was worth it. Johnny and "BananaCam"? Fuck off. ETA: Let me guess . . . the trailer for the next season didn't run until "The Shit They Should Have Shown," right? How funny would it have been if Nessa concluded the show with, "Well, not enough people tweeted, so we're keeping the sneak preview under wraps."

Congratulations, Cara Maria! Now do yourself a favor and never come back, because this season steamrolled your soul, and I don't want to see you go through that again. I hated the finale format. It feels like it would be so easy to fudge the results to get the desired outcome. Like how Johnny won his fifth Challenge in Free Agents. .. part of me won't give him credit for that. Is any other reality show as sadistic with games as this one? Stand in place for hours on end, eat stuff the locals would turn away, complex numbers puzzle . . .and in fitted suits. And does anybody else feel weirded out about seeing the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, especially when there are commercials running for a movie about Jesse Owens? ETA: I watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia after the finale and reunion. You know who was there? Reginald VelJohnson. Carl Winslow! Awesome how that synched up with the finale title.

Starting next week, I'm going to watch "live" and record Arrow. I'm thinking the episode would've been cut to sixty minutes (mild chuckle) had Brawn not needed the revote. And I knew they would tie because there was too much time left. What did the seasoned viewer expect to happen? "Well, good news is that you guys get flint. The better news . .. [reaching into a trunk] . . . you're about to see Lil Jeffery." And then the ventriloquist act would begin. As somebody who identifies more with intelligence than strength and looks, I'm glad the Brains tribe isn't a total clusterfuck. Or they could have been cast better this time. J'Tia probably would have sent Koror to TC before the merge. And it looks like Jason and Scot-With-One-T have a monopoly on ugly tattoos. Maybe that's the real reason Darnell got voted off over Alecia/"Blondie." Meanwhile, I'm somewhat happy that I don't have to look up names right now. Most of the 20 and 30-something white people are usually a blur for me. So .. .how bad is Caleb? I know Big Brother doesn't cast for intelligence, so my expectations are low. Maggot in the ear? Ew. Might have been fun if it steered its host (damn . . . lost with names) throughout this season. Great . . . now I'm wondering how Shinichi and Migi would fare on Survivor. </animegeek> I'm glad Tai is still in the game. Not a bright move digging up an idol at the dead trees, but he does have the potential to be the cuddliest older Asian male this side of Yau Man. ETA: Might have made more sense if this was a "collar" season, because Tai is totally "No Collar." Maybe Burnett isn't going back to that well again.

I did the same thing, but I never found the time to watch the episodes. I wound up deleting 'em. I wrote another essay, this time on The Challenge.

"Pin The Junk On The Hunk"?? Ewwwww. No, Donna. Just . . . no. Awesome that Thea managed to put two and two together about William. But then she tells Oliver what he wants to hear. Between that and all of the trust anvils falling from the heavens, the next few episodes should be downright unbearable. We're talking Buffy/Smallville anvils. Can't blame Quentin for not confiding in Donna. How can he tell her that their daughters are full-time crime-fighters. The part he did tell her was pretty brutal, about working for the guys who crippled her daughter. Meh on Demolition Team. I think the Wrecking Crew from Marvel is more recognizable with their Loki-powered tools. Curtis Holt: Best employee ever? Sure, he gave Felicity a plot device, but it was from the heart. And, once again, Damien sucks. So does his wife. What kind of name is "Ruve," anyway? And the flashbacks still aren't compelling.

*sigh* At least Ninja Brittens scored one point, which puts them above Wild Bunch. Kinda sucks because we won't get to see Geoff until the summer, and Dustin is going to be deployed for two years. Be honest . . . does anybody remember the Wilczewski brothers? I can only remember so many (male) ninjas. Michelle manages to beat the Warped Wall twice, albeit once when her opponent was already knocked out. I think the MVP of the episode was Daniel, who ran back-to-back races to win in the first round, and he kept things even in the second part of the relay finale. But then the purple-haired Wilczewski brother skipped three rungs -- backwards -- on the Salmon Ladder, and he was beat to beat Sam "Ageless Wonder" Sann to advance Lab Rats.

In case you missed it, here's the Leonberger looking for treats. I'm okay with CJ winning. Basically, I'm a fan of dogs whose breed standard allows them to resemble dogs. I'm sure Panda is a nice Shih Tzu, but he'd probably look better with a puppy cut.

Heads up . . . MTV will follow the finale with a reunion special after 11, followed by a half-hour "Shit They Should've Shown" special. I'll probably skip watching that last one until tomorrow because I have so much to watch tonight.

My pleasure. I looked up an old post where I got that clip from MTV.com, and I reused the HTML. Thankfully, the site still has the clip, and I didn't have to use something sketchy from elsewhere.

Here's the Toonami promo for Dimension W. Nice to have Zoriccolo voicing the main guy.