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WONDER WOMAN #110
"Level 2"

Writer/Artist: John Byrne
Colorist: Patricia Mulvihill
Asst. Ed.: Jason Hernandez-Rosenblatt
Head Honcho: Paul Kupperberg

Here's what I thought...

As I said last issue, Byrne has found a neat way to play with dead characters without having to actually revive them. The catch is that Dr. Lazarus' program is generating these characters. Well, that's about half the catch, but we find out the rest of it this issue.

Check out the detail on that huge panel spreading across pages 2 and 3. Byrne not only does this terrifically (I do tend to like his structures better than his people - his backgrounds and buildings blow me away), but gives you a real sense of danger, of crumbling infrastructure, of devastation that has long-term consequences for the city's inhabitants.

We also get a terrific expository exchange on page 6. John doesn't actually fill in any blanks about this "Champion" character briefly introduced last issue - we just see from the day's paper that he's in town, as Diana and her friends try to puzzle things out. And a very cogent question is raised: do metahumans indeed bring problems (such as villains and other super-folk) with them? Mike Schorr thinks it's just something that went unnoticed before WW showed up; Cassie's been keeping track of things (this is a really nice bit, she's exactly at the age where she'd be following the DCU equivalent of fan magazines) and says it's a whole lot more than coincidence. I get a real kick out of arguments like this - I can imagine many ordinary DCU citizens bandying this stuff about all the time. Nice touch.

Almost totally ruined by page 9, wherein we see - Wally West, on the phone with the Sandsmarks. Okay, I'm not asking for total continuity, but it wouldn't have killed future FLASH editor Kupps to put in a footnote mentioning ... aw hell, you can't really give away when Wally will be returning from his time travels. And while I like the way John draws him, there had to be another way of advancing this plot (i.e., acknowledging that last issue's level was indeed supposed to be a Barry Allen simulation) without using Wally. Like using Linda or something. It jarred the hell out of me. I don't think it's too much to expect better editorial coordination.

The Sinestro program is as baffling as the Barry Allen one, but with more serious consequences. Once again the villain is wordless (I can't tell you what a nice change that is from the usual loudmouthed banter) but the damage is accomplished. I like Diana calling on the god(desse)s to help give her strength, but when she's holding the bridge together (very impressive panel visually - and again, look at all the detail Byrne puts into his structures) I found it strained credulity to believe anyone in the cars below heard her shout instructions to them. Guess this is another example of why I need to turn my brain off sometimes before I read this book for pure enjoyment.

The page wherein Sinestro is finally dispatched by Champion ("...address me only as Mr. Campion," he tells his minions... wow, good thing my boss, another Mr. Campion, never says that to me!) is priceless. I laughed very loudly at the sound effects. The amber box was nice and creepy too.

I thought the scene with Dr. Lazarus and his associate was very badly done, in large measure because her name isn't mentioned once in that scene. I'm sorry, John took Comics Writing 101 a long time ago: Every issue is someone's first, so it behooves you to give all your players (but I mean, especially ones that have at least 3-4 pages of dialogue) at least a first name. I also found the writing very labored and somewhat padded. Even Trish slipped up here and there with Lazarus' now-you-see-it, now-you-don't beard and hair on the sides of his face. And Doomsday - oh, yawn. Is there a comics fan alive who still cares about this villain? Not the best five pages I've ever seen from Byrne.

Some nice bits here and there, but overall a relatively disappointing issue. Page 6 was nice, if you want to read that in the store. :)

So, what did y'all think?

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #81
L #11 for 1996
"Sundown"

Story/Colors: Tom "makes my heart beat faster" McCraw
Story/Script: Tom "no slouch himself" Peyer
Penciller: Lee "don't really know the guy" Moder
Inker: Ron "OOH BABY BABY!" Boyd
Letterer: Pat "don't know him either" Brosseau
Assoc. Ed.: Mike "I Am Not Michael Moore!" McAvennie
Head Honcho: KC "real fun at dinners" Carlson

Here's what I thought (besides the above)...

Long-time Legion fans should be aware of who the real star of this issue is. Not Dirk Morgna, although his story was mildly interesting. Not the Secret Admirer, although the way it went I can see the creative team having a lot of fun with it. Not even Brainy, although this is the part that fascinated me the most.

No, the real monumental occurrence this issue, we should all admit, happens on page 10, when Zoe wave her hands and utters the immortal line:

"When there's no one there, it's Norg!"

TM and copyright and all that other good stuff by rac*'s own Mike Chary.

Congratulations, Mike - this is one of the most rewarding "Tuckerizations" I've ever read. I was literally bouncing up and down on the bed with glee when I saw this line. It's ultra, ultra keen. Thanks, Toms!!!

Okay, onward now, and I have to say Moder's art, while still odd in places (I do prefer Moy for pinups, but I applaud the fact that they've got the new Kinetix outfit in the roll call), has the capacity to make me instantly chuckle at certain facial expressions. I mean, look at page 11, panel 4. Winema has all but trapped Brande into taking her on staff, and she knows it. Brande has his hand clapped against his mouth and surprise lines emanating from him - a classic "d'oh!" And Marla... just sort of looks up in an "oh, dear, now he's gone and done it" pose. Great, great stuff.

Ron does a really nifty job on the Dirk scenes, too - I'd be curious as to how the pencils on Dirk were actually inked prior to Tom coloring. In blue, with Tom adding the red lines later, or just straight in red with Tom doing the yellow and white effects around it? Nice results, especially in those panels (like panel 2 on page 16) where we see the contrast between Dirk's brightness and the shadows created when people (like his father) turn away from him.

Speaking of brightness, let's move to Brainy, more frustrated and ornery than usual (due to Andy's departure? perhaps). Granted, as Kinetix (whom he's just finished examining - the tail's part of the magic, no scientific explanation warranted) observes on that wonderful page 10, his social skills leave a lot to be desired. But other Legionnaires have been through rough times, and have pulled for each other. Brainiac 5's isolation may start out self-imposed, but it needn't stay that way. Someone besides Andromeda has got to be able to get through to him...

Well, too late. You see, Brainiac's not the one who's high-maintenance here. He does what's asked of him, much as he might prefer not to, and he's taken a lot of shit so far - heck, even incarceration - without really fighting back. But who besides Brande has given him a break? It's all been take, take, take - and he's fed up, and makes a very cogent observation at issue's end. He's damn tired of being their crutch. "You people have come to rely on my intellect so completely that you don't even try to use your own. I'm sick to death of having to do everything around here that's even remotely associated with thinking." Bravo. As much as I'd hate to see Brainiac go, this is a very logical position for him to take, and I applaud it.

Wonderful banter, as usual (from Kinetix tired gag at the beginning - where's a rim-shot when you really need one? - to Jo and Thom sniping about Jo's health to Chuck's resignation at having to keep building Legion HQ until its residents stop busting it (interesting panel on page 6 – I don't remember much prior use of zipatone for shadow in these books) to the whole Secret Admirer thing. I'm glad they made it Cham; I was misdirected that it might be Lyle as well, but Cham's face on the bottom of page 10 - have I mentioned how cool page 10 is? - says it all. I like the decision to go with Cham on this running subplot; it serves to strengthen his character now that we know he can speak just fine, it will continue to showcase his relationship with Lyle... and heck, the farcical mistaken identity angle will keep this one going indefinitely...

The only page that didn't sit that well with me was 19 - I didn't buy any of Mr. Morgna's sob story - but I loved Dirk's fiery tears. And XS was used to very good effect. I just hope inertron doesn't become as much of a crutch for the creative teams as Brainy has become for the Legion.

Overall a decent issue - didn't wow me a lot, except for the cover (great cover) and page 10 :) - but it's always a fun read.

So, what did y'all think?

SPIDER-MAN: LEGACY OF EVIL

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artist: Mark Texeira
Lettering and design by Starkings/Comicraft
Back cover photo art: John Gaushell
Asst. Ed.: Glenn Greenberg
Head Honcho: Tom Brevoort

Here's what I thought...

The trick to doing a really fine comic is getting your readers to care about the characters. I must confess this book never quite clicked with me. I'm not sure why, but I felt even more detached from this story than the reporter, Ben Urich, who serves as its focus.

Urich is on a leave of absence from the Bugle to work on a book he's writing about the Green Goblin(s). He's about to interview the second Goblin's widow, Liz, but happens upon a battle in progress between Spider-Man and three superstrong female Goblin-like characters. They're after Liz (and Harry) Osborn's young son, Norman. One of the females stares at Liz and sends a telepathic message to her - they're "taking Normie to receive his birthright - the legacy of the Green Goblin!"

Now, let me get my usual disclaimer out of the way - I am not a regular Marvel reader, and I don't really know that much about the Green Goblin, so this could quite possibly be why I don't care a great deal. But Urich - he's working on a book about the guy(s). And this "legacy" bit stumps him? The first thing I thought was, "well, they mean they're going to try to make him into the next Goblin by doing whatever it was that made his grandfather then father into the Goblin. In other words, give him Stromm's formula." Was this supposed to be subtle, or is Urich especially thick?

There was a nice bit of misdirection throughout the book, though, as Spidey and Urich (and Liz's step-brother Mark, aka Molten Man - a character about whom I wouldn't mind finding out a little more, he's rather intriguing) search for clues as to young Normie's whereabouts and who could have been directing the Goblinettes :), since all other Osborne accounted for are deceased. It's interesting to see our heroes' despair and helplessness as they run out of leads.

But I still can't figure out why the Goblinettes suddenly attack the men at this point. Urich thinks "Something we did-- somewhere we went, something we said-- made the Goblin's agent... think we were getting too close." But I'm missing something here - even knowing how this story ends, what did they do to trigger this attack?

Because Urich, at that moment, is busy trying to figure out why Spidey has certain reactions to certain places they've been. And those suspicions are dealt with towards the end of the book - from what I can figure out, apparently he and the original Goblin learned each other's real identity, and Norman was secretly in love with Gwen Stacey, so killed her out of jealousy or something. Am I close? Then Urich makes a reference to something similar going on with Daredevil, but since I haven't read much of that book I'm also rather clueless here..

In any case, this all strikes me as no more than a sideline to what's going on in this book - the legacy of the Goblins is that they (father and son) have programmed this computer with their memories, and implanted a controlling device in Liz. (So the communication between her and the Goblinette turns out to have been a transmission - since the Goblinettes are machines as well - rather than telepathy; another nice misdirection.) Since the machine is rather old and in disrepair at this point, it all but self-destructs as Spidey starts pulling plugs and cables.

And there's lots of talk of ghosts, and of Green Goblin never returning, but you figure if Harry's traumatized youth led him to become the second Goblin, young Normie's been pretty traumatized himself by what's gone on here, so it's entirely possible... and this is comics, after all...

Some of the pages are visually breathtaking, especially when Norman talks about the ghosts of the past and you see them in sort of shady silhouette. The 2-page spread a few pages before the staples (god forbid Marvel should ever stoop to numbering its pages) was incredible. And I like Texeira's feel for anatomy, although I thought some of the poses he drew looked a little strange. But story-wise, for whatever reason, I wasn't all that thrilled.

Recommended only if you're into the characters, and if you like to look at Texeira's art.

So, what did y'all think?

FLEX MENTALLO #1
"After the Fact" Part One:
"Flowery Atomic Heart"

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frank Quitely
Colorist: Tom McCraw
Letterer: Dellie DeVille
Asst. Ed.: Keri Kowalski
Editors: Art Young and Stuart Moore

Here's what I thought...

I liked it a lot - it kept me alternately laughing and scratching my head. It was absurd without being overpowering on the weirdness, and it dealt very well with breaking fourth walls and infinite digression and all that lovely rot where you're not sure what level of reality you're on from page to page.

And it showed a tremendous love for the comic book medium on Morrison's part. I read something like this and know he can indeed play it straight if he wants to (as with his upcoming run on JLA).

Flex is a character introduced to us during Morrison's run on DOOM PATROL. He was created by Wally Sage, an artist with the power to literally bring his creations to life by thinking them off the page. Flex believes Wally's dead (well, Wally died in his arms, after all), but we see Flex's scenes interspersed with scenes featuring a bloke who can only be Wally - trying to commit suicide via overdose.

"But 'ow can you tell it's a Vertigo comic?" Page 6: One "Jesus," one "Jesus Christ," two "shits," one "fucking" and a "bastard" for good measure - all in four panels. Ah, you gotta love predictability. :)

Some group calling itself "Faculty X" has been planting fake bombs all over town, and Flex and some police lieutenant (poor fellow, apparently too minor to merit a name) try to puzzle out what's up. One of the clues left behind is a Fact card. The Fact is another old superhero Sage created as a kid, along with some other neat characters we see (one of my favorites is Origami, the Folding Man!). And how do you find the Fact? Ask Mr. Policeman for directions! The first fact that pops into a local cop's head is the thought of a nearby abandoned school...

Coincidentally, the school Wally Sage attended, where he got his inspiration for Flex when he looked up one day and saw... a future image of Flex today looking into an abandoned classroom? Neat stuff. We glimpse a little of Sage's past (this is where that great love of comics comes in - terrific pages 17-18) and his on-the-skids present before returning to the school.

Flex bumps into The Mightiest Man in the Universe, now an elderly janitor, who tells him of the "roaming tribes of boy sidekicks" with no adult supervision since the school closed. Who else immediately thought of Rick Vietch's BRAT PACK here? Anyway, looks like Flex has volunteered to make things right again - if he can catch up with the Fact...

I'm absolutely intrigued. The cover's great, Flex's use of his powers is hilarious (especially since it's always accompanied by someone gasping and stating the obvious in the background, very Silver Agey), and I'm probably more curious about what's up with Sage than anything else. Next issue: The Menace of the Mentallium Man! Woo hoo! I'm there.

Recommended for a good change of pace and fun nostalgia all in one.

So, what did y'all think?

HELLBLAZER #102
"Difficult Beginnings" storyline
Part 1: "The Single-Sided Coin"

Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artist: Sean Phillips
Colorist: Matt "Fuck" Hollingsworth
Letterer: Clem Robins
Asst. Ed.: Axel Alonso
Head Honcho: Lou Stathis

Here's what I thought...

The opening and closing Chinese tale captivated me. Ed Douglas pointed out that the simple lines are very reminiscent of Phillips' work on KID ETERNITY - they make a nice fantasy contrast to the reality of John's life. Nice coloring and lettering choices by Hollingsworth and Robins as well. It's unusual to see a creative team tackle two such different styles in the same book - I quite like it.

The tale is about yin and yang, and John's been missing his yang lately something awful. I mean, the yang itself is something awful, but it's like that old Star Trek episode where the transporter splits Kirk into Good Kirk and Evil Kirk, remember? Where the good guy pretty much wants to forget about the evil guy, but finds he can't make decisions and his strength is sapped and he must embrace his bad side in order to survive as a complete person? Gives you an idea of what John's going through.

And Constantine realizes it's about the stupidest thing he could have done even without throwing in the technobabble, but masochist that he is he goes to his old friend Wong for advice - see, he keeps throwing the same I Ching, only the last bit is kind of murky. That's the part involving the coin toss - and wouldn't you know it, the coin appears to land on its end when Wong asks John to throw it; did I read this right, Paul? And Wong (very well done character, I'd like to see more of him) freaks, tells him he's a schmuck and to get the hell out of his restaurant, and then calms down enough to interpret John's path.

The first trigram is K'un, the Earth - John's done that already with the Shepherd in the forest. The second is Chen, the place of Thunder, and that's what we'll see this issue, as John follows Wong's advice to "rediscover what you were trying to forget." Next issue he will go to the Water to "relearn what you one-time knew about evil." Uh-oh. The last one, however, is a bit tricker: John will either wind up in balance at a Mountain (Ken) destination, or will be ruined by Fire (Li) and succumb to the "darkening of the light." Uh-oh times two.

"You be the coin, John," advises Wong. "Throw yourself in the air and see where you land." Terrific. I'm in love with Jenkins' turns of phrase in this book. Very simple on the surface, yet very resonant. Reading HELLBLAZER now is like throwing stones into a still pool to watch the byplay of the ripples.

John's place of Thunder is the Ravenscar asylum where he was once horribly mistreated (and too weakened by the Incident at Newcastle to much care). He's blanked out much of the pain - until it suddenly comes rushing back to him. He's started to find his yang (which held that particular memory), realize how much more of it he still needs to reabsorb, and mourn at the prospect. A difficult beginning, indeed.

Very striking cover, as well. At this point I know I'm rooting for John to make it to the Mountain, but you never know - after all, the coin could go either way.

So, what did y'all think?

Neil Gaiman's ONE LIFE--FURNISHED IN EARLY MOORCOCK

Adapted for Comics by: P. Craig Russell
Letterer: Galen Showman
Colorist: Lovern Kindzierski (Digital Chameleon)
Head Honcho: Jim Salicrup

Here's what I thought...

What a delightful read. Even though I've never read a single thing by Michael Moorcock, nor do I have any especial interest in doing so after this book - although I will admit the STORMBRINGER preview looks gorgeous, and it's quite obvious this issue was put out mainly to advertise it.

Which is a shame, as this is a fascinating little tale of the connection between reader and writer, and I highly recommend it to anyone else touched by that special magic... perhaps, in a way, all of us.

Richard Grey is twelve. He has only one close friend, JBC MacBride, but he has his books. Especially his Moorcock books. And that's enough. He attends a boys' school during the week and gets bar mitzvah lessons on the weekend, and this book is rife with examinations of sexuality (mostly homosexuality) and religion - coincidentally, two of rac*'s largest current ongoing threads.

Richard's sexuality - well, that's still in question, as makes sense for someone his age. He's disturbed by some of the happenings around him - the group masturbations, the school's chaplain and biology teacher Mr. Aliquid (who leads a "private religious discussion group" the nature of which we can pretty well guess) - but at the same time is obsessed with sex, as we learn on page... um, 18 (damn it, Topps doesn't number its comics' pages either; what's with these companies?) when Richard dreams "what it must be like to have an orgasm... it was an intense and magical feeling of love, centered on your heart..." Which is a fairly accurate description of how many women view orgasm (not biologically, but emotionally), but I've never really heard a man describe it like that.

Of course, Richard's hardly a man. And the other thing he's trying to decide is his religion. I knew it right off. He's a Moorcockian. Richard accords the author a near-divine status (there's even a bit about the false rumor of Moorcock's death in the early '70s, so there's your resurrection imagery), and treats his character Elric as a kind of celestial messenger, a bringer of truths about how life should be lived. He reads other work, trading books with MacBridge and all. But at one point - on page 20, my absolute favorite - he puts away the Chronicles of Narnia in disgust once he susses out its preachy nature. "Richard was innocent in his fashion, and believed that authors should be trusted... and that there should be nothing hidden beneath the surface of a story. At least the Elric stories were honest. There was nothing going on beneath the surface there. No sir!" And naturally, Russell does this great panel with a fairly well-hung Elric thrusting his sword down, his face practically orgasmic as we see this pinkish fire shoot up from the sword's bulbous tip. I just about fell down laughing.

This book is in large measure about what's going on beneath surfaces, and how text and subtext exact their influences on a reader. I've never been a prepubescent lad, I've never had the intense and beautifully-written near death experience Richard lives through (so, how did you interpret Chapter 5? Was the temple, were Richard's other existences, real?), but I've certainly been in love with writers through the years, even up to the present, and have felt the resonance of their work in my own life, so this story certainly spoke to me. In fact, that almost indescribable (although Gaiman and Russell do a very neat job here) magic has served as impetus for me to try writing, to see if I can, as I like to phrase it, Share the Muse, pass it along to others, maybe someday touch someone as I've been touched.

Best book of the week, no question. I adored this.

So, what did y'all think?

BERLIN #1

by Jason Lutes
(Black Eye Productions)

This is a quiet tale of the titular city during a time of great change - the late '20s, when certain political factions were beginning to rear their ugly heads as Germany struggled to regain its national confidence after the devastating losses of WWI. It concerns Fraulein Marthe Muller, newly-come to the Big City from Koln, for reasons that are never really made clear but which we can infer are similar to the reasons why many young people are drawn to large cities. She meets relatively worldly-wise journalist Herr Kurt Severing on the train into Berlin, and we see a little of his life (and, by extension, the politics of the day) throughout this first issue as well. Severing is less than enamoured of the new National Socialist movement, and there are indications his opinions are liable to get him into a great deal of trouble down the line as the movement rises to greater prominence. Lutes (the fellow behind JAR OF FOOLS) renders the city and environs just beautifully, the little touches in the art (like Severing's boss chain-smoking) are terrific, and I'm interested in both main characters at this point. Quite recommended.

EMMA DAVENPORT #7
"The Static of AM Radio"

by Richie (art/letters) and Gina (words) Prosch
(Lohman Hills Press)

If this book did nothing else, it gave me the biggest laugh of the week when, on page 17, Lyle shows Emma and Sam how to tip a cow. Of course, this book always does a lot for me - once you get used to Prosch's very stylized art (it's sometimes hard to tell characters apart), you realize there's quite a lot of story here. No superheroes this issue – the Proschs are saving all that up for #8 - but lots of kids-having-fun stuff. (A great title to recommend to the younger set, by the way.) In this issue, Emma's "townie" friend (or relative? this isn't made clear) Sam comes for a visit to help her and her Aunt Bertha out on the Davenport farm for awhile. Bertha scares Sam with lots of cool Rural Legends, and Emma ups the ante with her theories about the Phantom Helicopters. When speculation, legend and fact meet, the results are adorable. Oh, and imaginary friend (well, Sam and Emma can see him, and so can we) Lyle is now into T'ai-Chi. Heh. A neat book, and the storytelling's improving.

REPLACEMENT GOD #4
"The Chase"

by Zander Cannon
(Amaze Ink - division of Slave Labor)

Excellent synopsis of the story thus far from Cannon, for all the newcomers to this title. Still, as clean as the art is I had a bit of a hard time following the action as Knute and Anne struggle to evade being chased by the Goths, who all talk - hilariously - in Beat-speak, Daddy-O. Anne's strength and capability are admirable, and her thought captions are intriguing: "I do not know any of this... Yet every act of violence, of battleground healing, of war, comes with practiced ease, as if I had done it a thousand times." Is she remembering a past existence, or recalling bits and pieces of something long-forgotten from her present life? This is sort of BONE meets CEREBUS in a lot of ways, and it comes out entirely too seldom. Recommended with reservations - you might be able to follow the goings-on a little better than me.

STEELE DESTINIES #5
Last chapter of "A New Beginning" storyline

Writers: Andrew Vaughan and Mike Weed
Artist: Janine Hoffman
(Nightscapes)

I feel somewhat put on the spot, as part of this issue's "Destiny's Plan" editorial reads, "I can't say thanks enough to Elayne Wechsler-Chaput for all her comments and insights. Her suggestios have gone a long way towards improving issues 4 and 5. I can't wait to see what she thinks of this issue!" Gah, Andrew - not too much pressure, eh? :) Well, 4 and 5 are a definite progression from the first few issues of this tale of three siblings caught up in time- and space-travel, but the concepts are still somewhat confusing, as is to be expected. Vaughan and Weed do furnish a scorecard by which to tell the players - all characters are given at least an identity - but Hoffman still tends to draw a few of them too much like each other. On the other hand, she differentiates them in other ways, and there are fewer characters to contend with in this issue, so it's pretty easy to keep things straight. The Steele siblings are once again reunited, Alex has a second key to the time-space platform (sister Cynthia has the other) and an impressive amount of knowledge gained in his seven years away (even though in objective time he's only been gone for - oh, skip it, you know how these things work), each sibling has gained an ally although Cynthia lost hers (but picked up a clue or two), and... suddenly the world has changed as a result of their mucking about through time. Yes, they're trapped in a world they have made. Good, strong characters, nice alternate-worlds feel, and I'm looking forward to more! I'd recommend, though, that you get the entire 5 issues to be clear on what's going on; I don't think they quite work as stand-alones.

STARSHIP ONLINE #1

By a bunch of clueless newbies

There are no editors listed. The editorial voice is nebulous. And this thin little rag (put out, apparently, by the people at Vantage) consistently puts forth the contention that "The Internet" consists solely of the World Wide Web and America Online (although they briefly mention CompuServe, Prodigy and MSN in their "Ultimate Internet Cheat Sheet!"). They ain't kiddin' - this stuff is strictly for beginners. Not a single friggin' word about Usenet. Nothing about ISPs. The only decent article was by Len Strazewski talking about the benefits of online community to pros. And God bless him, in addition to mentioning GEnie and Delphi, Len actually plugs rec.arts.comics.misc as having "wide-ranging comics discussion from a broad case of users" - he's the only one even close to being on the ball here. But most of this is Kewl Website Picks and Kewl Stuff on AOL, and it's a bunch of garbage. Most people reading this review are so far beyond this pathetic rag it's not funny. Even Ed Douglas, who said, "Hey, all I do are AOL, CompuServe and Web sites!" took one look at it and tossed it back at me. And $2.95 for this crap? Save your money.

So, what did y'all think?