Red Rocks

Color It Red’s newest, self-titled album takes a little getting used to, but after some spins, it grows on you. I like that it sounds like a mix of songs from their second and third albums, so there are light alternative and jazz-inspired tracks, and more Tagalog songs. There's an absence of angsty and pointed lyrical content that characterized their debut album, so it can be assumed that the lyricists are at a different, more mature stage already. The music’s mostly breezy but still edgy, and Cooky Chua still damn rocks.

This House Divided

Marvel’s big Civil War event is entertaining, so far. Three issues into the 7-parter, the series has intriguingly and intensely divided its characters into the pro-Superhero Registration camp, led by Iron Man, and the anti-registration side, led by Captain America. This is shaping up to be so much better than Infinite Crisis in terms of long-term, in-continuity repercussions (restarting “history” and changing continuity can be tiring, DC). If you were disappointed with last year’s mega-event House of M (which showed yet another “dream” reality, by the way), Civil War seems to be implementing many important changes, relationship-wise, and it's showing more hard-hitting developments that other crossover stories seem to keep tiptoe-ing around.

I’ve always been a fan of Iron Man as a kid, and admired the different armors that he’s sported ‘til the early ‘90s. He’s always been portrayed as stubborn when he believes he’s right, so it’s not unexpected that he’s at odds with Cap again (they had a falling out back in the first "Armor Wars" event). But Tony Stark, in recent months, has been portrayed as a well-intentioned but manipulative “futurist” prick. Good thing Cap and his “Secret Avengers”, and Emma Frost, are there to keep him in line.

Stark’s side is actually logical and sensible; masked heroes should be answerable to a higher authority. But Cap champions civil liberties, and it’s understandable that he’s wary of the US government and SHIELD’s intentions. Stark should expose SHIELD’s illegal activities NOW and demand a restructuring, and look for the Washington-based guy who put Nitro in Stamford. If he did these things soon, at least we’d be assured that he isn’t just a puppet, and in effect, a mindless puppet master to others. He’s gotten really bull-headed; I loathe and admire him at once (my brother, who read the first three issues, is quite annoyed at him, and can’t wait to see what happens next). The character’s finally become interesting for me again after all these years.

One out-of-character moment, however: Wasp doesn’t talk like that. In Dr. Strange’s house, she said, “Damn watch always seems to stop when I’m in this stupid house.” She even said that in front of the housekeeper, Wong! Janet Van Dyne has always been written as courteous and jovial, even in the company of strangers, but that line just isn’t her. She’s probably the most polite superheroine at Marvel, even when she’s under pressure.

The related stories are tightly written. Loved the She-Hulk tie-in. Am getting CW: Frontline and CW: Runaways-Young Avengers too. Exciting comics week, yep.