Jenny Sparks, Electric Blue

I finally read Warren Ellis’ and Bryan Hitch’s The Authority. I remember getting the first issue of that in 1999, the same day Gerry A. and Leinil Yu called me up to hang out at a nearby mall. The place still had a Comic Quest, and I was still doing and submitting weekly drawings to Whilce Portacio for evaluation.

I only bought that issue, and only recently read the rest of the title and some related issues of Stormwatch that a friend lent me over two years ago. I love Ellis’ big, clever action scenarios and the way Hitch illustrated them spectacularly and consistently. I’m just not too impressed with lines that accompany the Carrier bits, like “moving downwake through the Devachanic Realm at a speed of 25 dreams per second,” which sometimes come off as pretentiously abstract.

The Mark Millar-Frank Quitely issues were likewise entertaining. The situations were slightly more brutal and shocking. But the characters’ conscious and smugger declarations of badassery became off-putting from time to time. But like in Ellis and Hitch’s run, the antiheroes figured in epic-scale conflicts, and the title was a nice alternative to wholesome and traditional superteams’ exploits.

Speaking of traditional heroes, I went to the Annual Toy Con at Megamall last Sunday and got a loose Superman Blue (from the DC Universe set) at a low price. Awesome. It’s quite poseable, thanks to many points of articulation. I like how Grant Morrison played with Electric Blue Superman back in the day. Oh, hmm, wonder who’d win in a fight between him and Jenny Sparks.

I also got a loose Mysterio, a figure that I wanted to buy years back, but it disappeared fast when the Spider-Man sets went buy one-take one. It has a nice gimmick; it reminds me of the Man-E-Faces toys from the classic and revived He-Man lines because of its changing head. It’s a nice addition to my Marvel Legends villains.

The last time I bought action figures was about a year ago, also at the toy con, if I’m not mistaken. Yay, toys!