Author Archives: W. Blaine Dowler

As you may be able to tell, my formal training is not as a writer. My degrees are in physics and education. In my day job, I work in supplemental education, which is why my productivity is lowest when report card season hits.

Weekly Comics Discussion

This week is a good week for trade paperback
collections. I’ll be picking up the cheap reprint of
Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Vol. 1 from
DC. DC is also releasing the third printing of
Green Lantern: Rebirth #1 and the second
printing of Green Lantern: Rebirth #2, both
of which I highly recommend. (I’ll review all six
issues when they’re out.) A reprint of Identity
Crisis #2 is also out there, as well as the
trade paperback of JLA: Another Nail. The
Marvel comics materials I’m picking up include
Essential Iron Man Vol. 2 (to be reviewed by
theangrymob at some point), Exiles #55 (part
one of a three part arc that runs through December,
and finishes the content of the next TPB, so I may
switch back to trades after this story), Marvel
Age Spider-Girl Vol. 2, New Avengers
#1, and Ultimates 2 #1. I’ll be
passing on the Avengers Disassembled tie-ins to
Thor (which will be the last collection of
that title for some time) and Spectacular
Spider-Man (which includes the introduction of
organic web shooters and a super spider sense that
will be around for some time).

“Enterprise” ratings on the rise

joe__gee writes, Accourding to this site, which collates the Nielsen Ratings for “Star Trek: Enterprise”, season 4 got off to a slow start but is now showing improving ratings. This could just be a blip, but perhaps we’re seeing Trek faithful returning now that Manny Coto has taken the helm and seems to be steering Trek back towards its established history. Maybe we’ll get a season 5 after all? The final ratings and shares are statistical numbers that have some flexibility. The numbers that look promising to me are the total viewers; the total number of people actually tuning in has increased by over 15% this season. It’s a good sign.

“The Lone Gunmen,” maybe “Space: AAB” coming to DVD

TV Shows on DVD has struck gold again. There are unconfirmed rumours of Space: Above and Beyond in DVD development. The news that has me excited, though, is the news that The Lone Gunmen will be coming to DVD on March 2005. No word yet about whether or not the original pilot episode (a disturbingly prescient piece about a passenger plane attempting to crash into the World Trade Centre) will be intact, but the set will include the “Jump The Shark” episode from the ninth season of The X-Files that was used to wrap up the spin-off.