rank

This nice person named Chris wrote to me today asking for a reciprocal link between my blog and the Philippine Sites collection. Which is exceedingly flattering, since the 'About' portion of that site says that its objective is "to promote quality Philippine sites" and "only pages with a pagerank of at least 4 are accepted". Woohoo! Who even knew that anyone anywhere was ranking my blog, anyway?


Of course, the reason I'm telling you this is because you might be interested in Philippine Sites and the various intriguing links available there. Okay, really the primary reason I'm telling you this is because the whole thing just tickled me and made me feel all pleased with myself. What can I say? I'm easy that way...


bibliophilia: Trinity
Trinity is comic book legend Matt Wagner's rendition of the first-ever team-up among even more legendary comic book figures Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. And before I tell you any more about it, let me first state that I adore Matt Wagner. Loved Grendel, loved Mage, love the man. Hated Trinity, with a passion. I felt that the characterizations were off-base, the dialogue was anachronistic, the plot was muddled and overburdened, and worst, worst, worst of all, the misogynistic portrayal of poor Wonder Woman was simply revolting. You could have cast Lois Lane in the same role, and I still would have felt she'd been short-changed in light of her established capabilities. Even granting that this was supposed to be a young and inexperienced Amazon princess, it still didn't make sense that Batman fared far better in physical combat than she did.


It's my opinion that respect for the characters is becoming an overlooked responsibility in comic book writing. Everyone just wants to revise, revamp, and renew-- which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when dealing with little-known or underutilized properties. But when it comes to names with decades-long histories, such as the aforementioned Supes and Bats, then the writer owes it to himself, his readers, and the characters themselves to maintain a semblance of integrity with what has previously been established. I'm not saying that change is bad; I'm saying that it needs to be applied with logic and delicacy, in the manner of Mark Waid's Fantastic Four, not Grant Morrison's sound-and-fury New X-Men.

Grammar and Punctuation: irregardless
THERE IS NO SUCH WORD AS 'IRREGARDLESS'! And I'm warning you now, anyone who uses the non-word in presence will be punished, regardless of who he or she is. (If I shout it loud enough, do you think the politicians and newscasters of the Philippines might hear me?)