[images & words is the comic book pick-of-the-week at OL. equal parts review and diatribe, the post highlights the most memorable/infuriating/entertaining book released that wednesday]

I thought I was just reading a comic. You know, sitting and checking out some paneled narrative. But then it happened. I got to the end of the issue and my heart was beating and sweat was dripping from my brow. I grasped my bosom and shrieked delight.

Casanova mindfucked me. And it was glorious.

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A mere 20 light years away lies Gliese 581g. Or is it rotates? Gliese 581g is apparently habitable. I hateto   get excited about this shit, but then the geek-porn potential overwhelms me and I begin writhing in ecstasy. Still though, it’s probably a load of god damn scientific voodoo! Like gravity! And the electric razor!

io9:

The planet, found by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is orbiting in the middle of the “habitable zone” of the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which means it could have water on its surface.

Liquid water and an atmosphere are necessary for a planet to possibly sustain life, even it it might not be a great place to live, the scientists said.

The scientists determined that the planet, which they have called Gliese 581g, has a mass three to four times that of Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days.

Its mass indicates that it is probably a rocky planet and has enough gravity to hold on to an atmosphere, according to Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and one of the leaders of the team that discovered the planet.

Jesus Christ! Science speak is as bad as politician banter! So, pretty much they may have found something that is potentially possessing the possibility of having water. Wellllll, I suppose that’s a start, right?

[Views From The Space-Ship, aka Desktop Tuesdays, aka Desktop Thursdays  is a (theoretically) weekly column where show you my worlds. Both real and virtual. Then, I invite you to share your own worlds in the comments!]

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[DEFEAT. is Rendar Frankenstein’s truest attempt at fiction.   Presented in weekly episodes, the novella tells the tale of Daryl Millar – a hero who dies at the intersection of pop culture, science-fiction, war epic, and fantasy]

A man is not a champion until he gazes into the eyes of his greatest adversary.

A champion is not a hero until he unflinchingly fights a battle that cannot be won.

A hero is not a legend until he is dead, buried, and more favorably misremembered.

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Welcome to the world of Variant Covers. A world filled with spandex, and word-bubbles, and juvenile-escape for overgrown children. (Namely, me.) Here are the things I’ll be checking out this week, including a couple of titles I’m looking to add to my list.

Casanova #3
To try and explain Matt Fraction’s Casanova is an effort in futility. The third issue of the series’ reprinting on the Marvel label Icon drops this week, and I’m pumped. I never got to read the first fourteen issues of the comic as they were released back in the day, so the whole universe is new to me. The comic is nothing short of mind-warping. The sort of comic that demands you read it with care, which is an effort for someone with a dwindling attention span like myself. But the pay-off is worth it. It’s James Bond meets Interdimensional Espionage Meets Really Awkward Erotic moments featuring your sister from another dimension?

In some of the more uncomfortable moments in recent comic books reading for me, Casanova gets macked on by his sister…from another dimension. What exactly is the protocol on this one? Like, she’s the sister of the you from a different dimension, so it’s not really you, is it? I have no idea. I wish I was still in school, I’d love to have been able to bring this up to my Social Ethics professor.

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Action Comics #893
I was one of the dudes who wrote off Action Comics back when Lex Luthor became character motivating the title. No Clark Kent? Why even fucking bother? It makes sense, right? Well apparently, the comic book is good. Really good. Naturally. Like in all aspects of my life, I should isolate my initial response, and do the exact opposite. Paul Cornell takes the Bald Headed Wunder into combat with a giant ape this month, apparently. And if that isn’t enough for me to jump aboard, what the fuck is?

Wait! I have the answer to that. It was rhetorical.

Action Comics features a back-up story featuring Jimmy Olsen. Now, I normally wouldn’t think much of that either. I’ve never had much love for the guy. Not that I despise him. Just a calm, persistent apathy that manifests itself in barely remembering he exists. But over at Comics Alliance, they reviewed the back-up, and they loved it. Now I’m beginning to pay attention.

But wait, there’s more!

You see, this back-up story features none other than Chloe Sullivan. Yeah, the chick Clark grew up with on the show Smallville. It’s some weird intermedia exchange going on. Jimmy Olsen was created on the Superman radio show. Now he’s starring in a comic book, with a character who was created in a Superman television show. Maybe that isn’t as impressive to you as it is to me. But I’m easily amused.

So I’m jumpin’ aboard the Action Comics train this week. We’ll see how it goes.

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Secret Warriors #20
The new storyline kicks off this week in Secret Warriors, and god dammit I’m grabbing on to the train this time. I don’t know how I have put off checking out this comic book for so long. It’s got the god damn Jonathan Hickman penning it, for Christ’s sake! More than likely? More than likely I didn’t know who the dude was, prior to finding his work on Fantastic Four to be skull-blasting. But between F4 and S.H.I.E.L.D, the dude is penning two of my favorite titles right now.

Why not roll the dice on Secret Warriors? I foresee only awesome in my future, should I chose to do so.

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What are you guys checking out this week?

Via.

There’s not much to say. Apparently Darren Aronofsky has been speaking to Christopher Nolan about directing the new Superman flick. Rumor? Probably. Not going to happen? Probably? If it did? My cockhead would engorge to the point where it would rocket off, spinning around the ceiling of my room before finally falling back to Earth.

It’s an odd fit, since every Aronofsky flick makes me want to kill myself after finishing it. Well, except for The Fountain, which just made me feel like I was back in Intro to Philosophy. But whatever. I love the son of a bitch, and Black Swan is my most sweated movie this fall, outside of the Social Network.   So even if it’s a departure from his usual dark and gloomy misery-fests, I want to see this shit come to fruition.

Let’s get it done! C’mon, Aronofsky. Do this flick and then you can go and make your next film about a heroin addicted homosexual Dad with AIDS and cancer who is trying to reconcile with his lost baby tiger who he raised from an infant or something. Something nice and depressing. Just do this first. Please.

Last week, the United Nations finally stepped and recognized the obvious: extraterrestrials were going to, at some point, arrive and obliterate us. In order to work against this formality, they did humankind the favor of appointing an official United Nations ambassador to aliens. Her name is Mazlan Othman, and she is a Malaysian astrophysicist. Othman recently spoke about the obvious and forthcoming contact with more-than-likely pissed off aliens, and had the following to say.

News.com.au via io9:

The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials […] When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.

My only concern is that she seems to underplay the fact that should we ever meet aliens, they’re going to want one thing only: to eradicate us from the planet and then harvest our bodies/souls/natural resources for their own profit. Hasn’t this lady indulged in any pop culture in the last twenty or so years?

The pertinent questions we should be asking are something like: Who is going to disrupt their force fields with a virus? Where are our underground bunkers going to be built? Can we have Bill Pullman prepped and ready to deliver an epic speech within moments of First contact?

Playin’ grab ass with these aliens ain’t going to happen, Ambassador Othman. At best, I predict these aliens will want to penetrate our orifices for their spiky speculums. At worst, they’re going to wear our faces as they bathe in our gamma-irradiated lakes. We gotta get real. Do some research.

Welcome back Dexter, you slimy piece of shit! I didn’t realize how stoked I was for the season premiere of this show until I was moments away, with a little bit of the sac tightening from anticipation. While last season’s finale would have been a perfect coda to the entire series, I’m equally intrigued to see where they go with the show after blowing up the entire status quo.

After Rita was axed (or was it knifed?) by the Trinity Killer at the end of last season, Dexter spends the entire premiere in an understandable post-widowing funk. His guilt is understandable, seeing that the whole reason she was iced was because he was busy satisfying his hard-on for blood. Dude laments quite a lot, and goes through the typical motions: I’m not a human, I lie to everyone, my hair is a fucking rat’s nest (comb that shit dude), and I can’t do this.

By the end of the episode, we’re right where we expected to be: with Dexter realizing that he needs to try and commit to the family life, even if he has to supplement that shit with some helpings of murder, and stabby-stab every once in a while.

The highlight on Dexter’s end of the episode had to be the flashbacks to his initial date with Rita. In case you missed their not-so subtle subtext, the date was their entire relationship in a microcosm. Flashback pontificating! It was nice though, and served as the goodbye that Dexter couldn’t provide. So Dexter returns from the good life on the high seas, having made his peace within the dark walls inside his skull-plate.

Ready to move on, and shit!

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Batwoman is a 1968 Mexican movie that I had no clue existed until last night. Today, I watched the entire movie and I’m still blown away by what I saw. How can I describe it? Hrm… imagine if you took the 1960’s Batman series and set it in Mexico. And then added kooky subtitles. And then replaced Adam West with a hot-ass Mexican babe whose uniform primarily consists of a bikini.

That hot-ass Mexican babe is Maura Monti. And she’s incredible.

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