Comics this week

Heroes for Hire #3- The main difference between Heroes for Hire and Birds of Prey was that Misty Knight was being secretly controlled by the villain The Puppet Master. All these heroes working for Knight didn’t know that ultimately they were working for a villain. I guess it was too good to last. In this issue, we see the beginning of the end for that storyline. Too bad because it was the only thing that gave Heroes for Hire an edge over Birds of Prey. The main saving grace this issue was the art by Brad Walker. He was again excellent.

Too Fast

I never watched last week’s Superbowl. Personally I think American Football is one of the most boring to watch sports on the planet, I mean they stop for 30seconds after EVERY play! At least! How do Americans managed to sit through 3-4 hours of a game?

So I don’t bother to watch the game but even then I read about singer Christina Aguilera screwing up of the American national anthem. Embarrassing but things like that happen right? You messed up a few words but it’s not really a big deal.

What is a big deal was how fast information traveled! I read that the incident was updated on Christina Aguilera’s Wikipedia page…by the third quarter of the game! I mean the page was updated before the game was anywhere near over. Since a game of American Football can last a few hours, I can understand this but Wikipedia depend on volunteers!

So this means a non-paying member of the public went through the trouble and updated the incident on Wikipedia on his own while the game was on and this happen like an hour after the incident. I know information travel fast nowadays but isn’t this almost too fast!

I just hope the guy who updated the incident on Wikipedia just found the game too boring (totally understandable) and wanted something to do something else. If not, instead of “too much information,” in the future we will have “too fast information”!

Scary Image

The picture above shows the top half of the world covered by snow and ice. It is almost unrecognizable right? Well, get use to it because this picture is not a fake.

This is not a picture of a coming ice age or an artist’s painting of the world; this is an actual image of the Earth on February 3, 2011. Released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), the astonishing picture shows the Northern Hemisphere almost totally covered with snow and ice. That was the day when a severe winter storm hit almost half of North America.

As scary as the picture is, it still only tell half the story. What the picture does not say is that bad weather also hit people in the Southern Hemisphere. There’s Cyclone Yasi that hit Australia, the volcano eruption in Indonesia, the drought in the Amazon Rainforest…scary isn’t it?

Preah Vihear

Here we go again! Cambodia and Thailand are once again clashing over the 11th-century Hindu temple, Preah Vihear. The fresh fighting is so serious that the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has appealed to the United Nations Security Council to hold an urgent meeting "to stop Thailand's aggression."

Naturally Thailand has defended itself in the latest clashes rejecting Cambodian claims that they were the aggressor in the latest clashes. Unfortunately for Thailand, they face a huge problem; to the rest of the world (including Southeast Asia), there is no dispute.

The World Court ruled in 1962 that Preah Vihear belonged to Cambodia. That was 49 years ago and most of the world has long since considered the temple as Cambodian. Furthermore, the World Court also ruled that the main entrance to the temple as Thai territory. This was an act of compromise that was accepted by both sides till Preah Vihear was granted UN World Heritage status in July 2008.

Since then, Thai nationalists like the powerful yellow-shirts movement have been using the temple as a rally point for their cause. So powerful are they that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has rejected any mediation efforts from ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

Thailand does not seem to understand that on Preah Vihear, they are almost alone on the international stage. Almost every country in the world considered the temple as Cambodian and it has been that way for almost 50 years! Or maybe they do know that and that’s why they are rejecting international mediation. Either way, Thai diplomats are going to be working overtime for the foreseeable future.

Comics this week

Brightest Day #19- At the end of last issue, the White Ring destroyed Hawkman and Hawkwoman. As the bearer of the ring, Deadman demanded the reason from the White Ring. Amazingly, the White Ring exactly started to tell him why! Yes, after 18 issues writers Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi have finally decided to (slowly) let the cat out of the bag. There’s still a lot of questions but with the end of the series coming, better late than never. The bulk of this issue however is on Aquaman, Jackson, Black Manta and Siren. A straightforward battle between the two sides, this issue is in keeping with a trend in recent issues; more battles involving one of the main characters for the entire issue. As long as they keep that up, Brightest Day will end with a bang!

DC Universe Online: Legends #1- Based on the recently released action-MMO, DC Universe Online, I thought DC Universe Online: Legends was going to be a series that’s designed to cash in on the video game. I was pleasantly surprised however by this first issue. Set in one of the 52 worlds (I think), DCU Online: Legends come across as an entertaining fast-paced comic book with a lot of potential. If you look at it as a “What If” or “Elseworlds” series, it exactly has a very interesting premise. What if Lex Luthor and Brainiac team-up and managed to kill Superman? Brainiac comes up with the plan while Luthor provide the resources to build Brainiac's enforcer robots. Together they managed to kill Superman and defeat the heroes of the DCU. After that, Brainiac betrayed Luthor and want Earth for himself. Luthor then find himself in the unlikely position of hero as he attempt to rally the remaining heroes and villains of the DC Universe against Brainiac. The last page of this issue show the motley crew he managed to recruit and writers Marv Wolfman and Tony Bedard made some good choices there. The characters they choose give the issue an international feel and remains the reader that this is an international incident; that Brainiac is going after the whole world. Like I said; very interesting.

Secret Six #30 – After last issue’s crossover with Action Comics, this issue comes with another crossover with the Doom Patrol. As much as I dislike crossovers, writer Gail Simone had great fun with this issue. Scandal arranged a blind date for Bane which turned out hilariously, better yet Bane even got the girl! Simone threw jokes left, right and centre, not all of them worked but enough that this was one of the better issues of Secret Six in some time. Now they just have to change the artist. Jim Calafiore’s style just isn’t working for this series.

For the $$$

I guess its back to the drawing board for Michel Platini. The current president of UEFA has tried to reign in wages and transfer spending of clubs ever since he took over the running of UEFA. Unfortunately for him, the football clubs of Europe do not share his noble goal.

Anyone who believes otherwise can just look at England. By the end of the mid-season transfer window, English clubs spent a total of 225 million pounds…in a month! A record fee was paid by Chelsea who paid Liverpool $79.5 million for Spanish striker Fernando Torres. Liverpool then used the money on young English striker Andy Carroll who joined Liverpool from Newcastle for $56.5 million. What this about the United Kingdom being in a recession?

Now before anyone scream about football going money mad, there’s exactly a method to the madness. Chelsea and Liverpool are both in bad form and in real danger of not finishing in the top 4 in the English Premier League. Being out of the top 4 means no Champions League place next season, and that means no big payday next year.

So in their mind, it’s better to spend the cash now to ensure a top 4 spot at the end of the season. Even if it looks like a panic buy! Some will argue that Andy Carroll is a promising young striker who is only be 22, so he’s for the future but he also only has 1 England cap, has played only 41 EPL games, and is currently injured! $56.6 million for an injured striker who is only in his first full season?

That has panic written all over it. But Liverpool managed to finish in the top 4 by the end of the season, it will still be money well-spent.

Wrong Line of Defense

Recently Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew published a new book, Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going. In the book, he commented on various issues affecting Singapore including his view that the Muslim community don’t do enough to integrate with the rest of society.

His comments have caused outrage within the region as many Muslims were offended by his views. Quite naturally, the Singapore government has gone into damage control mode. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also Lee Kuan Yew’s son, stepped forward to say his views are different from those of his father. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim Singapore’s Minister-in-Charge of Muslim Affairs has also stepped out to defend Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s comments. He said that the MM’s views on the Muslim community are a “worst-case scenario”.

I agree that the government must defend the MM’s views in his books. For better or worse, the MM and Singapore are one and the same. Whether you agree or not with this view, this is something a lot of people feel so the Singapore government has to defend him from critics. It is also important to control the damage created as the Muslim community in the region seemed truly offended by his views. I mean when even the docile Muslim community in Singapore express unhappiness at the comments in the books, you know it is serious.

However I believe the Singapore government is taking the wrong tack. Anyone who read the book could tell you this; the MM’s views on the Muslim community are NOT a “worst-case scenario”. At no time in the book was it stated by the MM that his view was a “worst-case scenario.” If the main man did not call his views a “worst-case scenario,” the Singapore government can’t. No one who read the book will agree with them.

If they wish to continue this line of defense, then they need to prove that the MM said it (or something like it) but it was left on the editing floor and never published. Better yet, have the MM come out and say it himself. Let him say that he meant no offence to the Muslims and his views should be considered as a “worst-case scenario.”

If the Singapore government can do that, the problem will be solved and the whole thing will blow over. And considering the outrage within the region, the sooner this whole mess blows over, the better for Singapore.