Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Superman in the New 52

I finished up reading the initial arcs for the revamped Superman (and, everyone else in the DC Universe - see "New 52") in Action Comics and Superman.

Superman meets the new Brainiac, Action Comics #8.
I wasn't all that taken with the Superman opening story.  It was tied to the Action Comics tale, but I didn't feel a strong connection.  There was just something about the tone and timbre of Action Comics that I preferred.  It probably didn't hurt that they had Grant Morrison writing the opening story of the Action Comics revamp.

The Action Comics story involves Superman as a newly emerging superhero, trying to find his footing. He is very much a crusader for the little people, his cause augmented by liberal, investigative reporter Clark Kent.  Superman begins on the wrong side of the law, but with the arrival of a dangerous alien entity, Brainiac, people learn to value Superman's presence.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The immortality of fathers

"Well, I just bundled your father off to the hospital in an ambulance."

 On this past Saturday morning, that was not what I was expecting to hear my mother say on the phone.

The good news is he is home again, and what he experienced, though frightening, was mild by any yardstick.

He had a very, very small stroke.  It affected his left big toe, and the sole of his left foot.  He is expected to have a full recovery.  He still has some atrial fibrillation and I don't know if that will mean anything drastic later (pacemaker?) but for now the doctors think that will calm down.  The a-fib causes blood clots, so he is transitioning onto a blood thinner.  He sounds tired, says the drugs are giving him "weird" in his head.  Probably a combination of the long weekend and the drug acclimation.  I hope his body adjusts and the fatigue isn't a permanent side-effect.  I know I had some weird dreams for a week when I went on high blood pressure medicine (and the drug label did warn of such.)