Well, whaddaya know — I certainly didn’t see?this coming.
Oh, don’t get me wrong — I saw the first 21 pages of this 23-page comic coming from a mile away. As the last of the?Before Watchmen titles to debut, J. Michael Straczynski and Adam Hughes’?Dr. Manhattan four-parter probably had the?lowest?set of collective fan expectations surrounding it of any of these books. After all, Hughes is best known as, essentially, a “cheesecake,” pin-up style artist (his hyper-sexualized cover for issue one, as shown above, being entirely par for his course — alternate covers, by the way, as will be posted here in a minute, are by Paul Pope and Jim Lee, respectively), and Straczynski is busy making a mess of things over in the?Nite Owl series, so hey, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons probably weren’t losing too much sleep about the prospect of these two guys surpassing their?Watchmen work.
Which, of course, they don’t. Not even close. And like I said, the first 21 pages here are pretty much Straczynski doing what he does in?Nite Owl — the lead character is just standing around reminiscing about various chapters in his past, many of which we’ve already seen (including the first disastrous Crimebusters meeting that was already shown for the second time in?Nite Owl?#1 and gets replayed yet fucking again here), for pretty much no reason whatsoever. To his credit, “JMS,” as he’s apparently known in comics cirlces, at least gets the tone of Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan’s characterization right, which is more than you can say for what he’s doing with Rorschach in that other book, but nevertheless, this series essentially starts life as, ?more or less,?Watchmen #4 all over again — only not nearly as good.
As for the art, Hughes is a perfectly competent and capable draftsman, and he probably draws Dr. Manhattan in “blue form” better than anybody?this side of Dave Gibbons, but he’s still, crucially,?not?Dave Gibbons, quite obviously, and the heavy reliance of the script on images directly out of the original?Watchmen series makes such comparisons between the two artists more or less inevitable — comparisons that Hughes is going to come up on the short end of every single time.
The other annoying thing that Straczynski ports over into this work directly from?Nite Owl is his wretched use of foreshadowing to demystify aspects of Moore and Gibbons’ original work. Just as he’s given us the “origins’ we never cared about of Rorschach’s “The End Is Nigh” sign and Nite Owl’s fixation with chicks in costume, here we learn that the cool clockwork-ship Dr. Manhattan either creates from thin air (as some have theorized) or finds buried under the sand (as I’ve always maintained) on Mars is, in fact, unambiguously a work of the Big Blue Naked Guy’s own creation, based on a fancy clock his dad gave him as a birthday gift when he was a kid. So there’s that cool, unexplained, open-to-interpretation event from the original wrecked forever, then.
And hey, ?now that we’ve hit the point where it sounds like I’m more or less completely down on this work, let’s get back to that “hey, didn’t see this coming!” that I opened things with here, shall we? Because really, I didn’t?see this coming — the “this” in question being this issue’s amazing, awesome, mind-blowing, genuinely?surprising?”cliffhanger”-style ending.
An ending that, asshole that I am, I will now remain completely silent about. Because seriously — you’ve gotta read this book. I mentioned that Straczynski pretty much nails his characterization of Osterman/Dr. Manhattan here, and that includes his “quantum perception” (or whatever we want to call it) of time. Moore did it better, sure, but “JMS” does it well enough. And that’s key here because when, in the midst of his unforced, apparently entirely self-indulgent, idyllic reverie, “Big Blue” decides, on a wild hair, to go back to the moment of his own creation and watch himself be “born” again, it feels like a “natural” enough thing for him to do. You can do or see anything you want at any time since it’s all happening simultaneously anyway, right? Okay, fair enough, for reasons unknown he encounters a brief “blip” of resistance for what you or I would perceive to be a “moment,” but then, presto! He’s in! He’s back at the lab! He’s going into the intrinsic field generator to get his coat! And then —
Everything we know, or?thought we knew, about the birth/creation of Dr. Manhattan changes in an instant, right there, on ?the last two pages of this hitherto-wholly-unremarkable book. And I’m cheering and fist-pumping-the-air at the ending of a comic book in a way that I haven’t done since, hell, I don’t know when. And while I’m still apprehensive, based on his track record to date, that Straczynski could, and maybe inevitably?will,?find a way to fuck this whole thing up, the fact is that he’s given us an ending for the ages here, and the first genuine “shocker” moment in any of these?BW? titles. It could all end in disappointment, sure, but for now, well — I’m something I had recently resigned myself to feeling I?never would be when it came to anything?to do with any?of this?Before Watchmen stuff : genuinely, eagerly, can’t-wait-see-what-happens-next excited. Bring on the second issue now,?already!
Acer Announces New Liquid Metal Smartphone, Runs on Froyo
Acer Liquid Metal:Pure technology combing power and style
London, 29th October 2010 – The Acer Liquid Metal is the latest generation of Acer smartphones, featuring the best solutions currently available on the mobile market. Designed for all those who live a modern, dynamic, and fully integrated lifestyle, this is the perfect tool to meet the growing need to be connected anytime and anywhere. Thanks to extremely quick web surfing and an incomparable use of multimedia contents, these dreams become reality.
When we speak about technological evolution, Acer is always one step ahead thanks to its proven capacity to translate the most sophisticated technological innovations into products that are easy to use. Moulding the most advanced technologies and integrating them into the latest smartphone is the logical consequence.
Style and elegance characterise the soft, sinuous, and curvy design for the perfect grip. Liquid Metal is equipped with a rounded 3.6” display especially studied to grant a truly sensational visualization. The materials selected, like the stainless steel of the battery cover, are solid and resistant and the chrome trims give a sense of high quality for extreme tactile and visual pleasure. As in the entire Acer Liquid series, we find the LED signals on the upper part of the telephone notify the user of missed calls, the need to charge the battery, and new incoming messages clearly.
Liquid Metal steps on the gas, ensuring higher speed in all activities, especially in navigating the web, thanks to the combination of:
the Qualcomm 7230 800 MHz process for lightning fast navigationAndroid Froyo that responds at a speed 5 times faster than earlier versionsthe new browser that enables you to open Internet pages more quickly, thanks to Flash support and the optimization of the JavaScript engineConnectivity that is super fast both at home or while travelling, thanks to the WiFi n[1] and HSDPA 14.4Mbps[2]with the multitouch function, resizing web pages, photos, or maps is easier than ever.Liquid Metal also brings the best multimedia experience and entertainment.
Record video in HD at 720p (30fps) and watch more high-resolution videos in Xvid formatTake photos with the 5MP A/F camera enhanced with LED flash, image stabilizer, and facial and smile recognition Enjoy the thrilling audio brought by the Dolby Surround technology and customize the sound you hear with the EQ profiles and Dynamic Bass Boost.Liquid Metal shows its excellence not only in its style and power, but brings delightful user experience by the intuitive interface and software developed by Acer.
Breeze, the new Acer user interface was developed to manage applications even more easily. Information is visible even when the screen is locked; view the application history and quickly start up your most used appliations; customize your homescreen as you like it and re-arrange the way you access your favourite applications according to your own specific needsAcer SocialJogger Application aggregates your Facebook and Twitter feeds, allowing you to surf through the updates with the trackwheel, receive updates directly through the dedicated widget on the homescreen, and comment or share directly from the user-friendly interface.Liquid Metal is transformed into a true wireless server for all your home devices through DLNA/UPnP technology. All the multimedia content memorized on the smartphone can be shared with your PC, TV or game console. Moreover, it is capable of providing your computer an Internet connection via USB. This is truly useful for travelling by train or when on vacation. The Acer EasyLink PC software is free of charge and even enables a protected Internet connection (https).
Do you want even more? This smartphone of the latest generation can become a WiFi hotspot for all enabled devices, so as to connect them to the Internet via the Liquid Metal 3G connection.
The Liquid Metal will be offered in two colours: silver and brown for a SRRP of £299 inc Vat. The brown will be available first from mid November with the silver arriving in early December.
[Rumour] Celeron to be resurrected with Sandy Bridge
With no Celeron products released for the Nehalem generation, and the introduction of Atom, rumours spread citing the demise of the Celeron branding, which Intel was quick to deny.Fudzilla now reports that the Celeron branding will indeed be back fromthe dead with the Sandy Bridge generation. The first Sandy BridgeCeleron is expected to release in Q3 2010, with a price tag of $49.