First Name Justice League; Spider-Girl Swings On; Tough Guys and Black Ops

Hello faithful readers,

We here at FanBoyWonder hope you are enjoying the holiday season just as much as we are—if that's the case then chances are you are in need of a happy distraction so let us do our part to help by recommending some books for the second week of December.

Justice League of America #4

The Upshot from DC Comics: Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes continue their best-selling saga of the "Tornado's Path" as the true mastermind behind the latest threat to the League is finally revealed! And an old friend reappears.

At last, we’re five issues into this series (including preview issue 0) and story is finally starting to advance. The new League doesn’t have a complete and official roster, to say nothing of a new headquarters, but at least the Big Three—Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman—have been forced to cease and desist their endless viewing of member candidate photos thanks to the timely entrance of Black Lighting and Hawkgirl, with an unconscious Trident in tow.

Note: We realize we’re not the only one to complain (at length in some cases) about writer Brad Meltzer’s prolonged-in-the-extreme use of photos to decide new JLA membership, but we do note that a week earlier in Justice Society of America #1, the original Flash, Green Lantern and Wildcat whipped through the same photo-identification process and came up with a roll call in no less than 3 pages.

Thanks to Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Black Canary and Arsenal/“Red Arrow” (more on that later) we get a fair amount of action but these “Hard Traveling Heroes” alone does not a Justice League make. Vixen’s only contribution to the issue was to full-bodied flying beauty shot that will no doubt become a poster sometime down the line.

Yet we do note that she is flying like a bird, tapping into the “morphogenetic field” that allows her to mimic animal powers without her mystic totem, which as you may recall was stolen from her during a fight.

Ed Benes art was pretty good. It’s been our opinion that Benes’ style does not flow naturally with the inks of Sandra Hope but we’re seeing improvement as they gain experience working together.

As an aside, the art in this particular issue strangely reminded us as a hybrid of the artistic styles of one-time JLA artists George Perez and the late Dick Dillin.

Meltzer does manage to craft a solid by the numbers issue and there is definite momentum building now but it’s taken him far too long to get to this point. This should be the second issue, not the fourth.

As a novelist, it’s only natural that Meltzer has played to his strength, the off panel narration, but use of this devise has very quickly become overuse to the detriment of story flow and the reader’s patience.

All and all we were pleased with issue 4 but we feel compelled to note a couple things that really bugged us:

--“Kendra & Clark”—When Hawkgirl and Superman greeted each other in the Batcave by evoking their respective first names, this immediately drove us to distraction. It’s one thing for the Big Three to be on first name basis—they’ve all been to hell and back. However, in DC Universe time, this version of Hawkgirl has been “a cape” for something like six months—just when (title and issue number anyone please?) did they become so tight?

Back in the days following John Byrne’s re-boot of the Man of Steel, only a select few even knew that Superman had a secret identity but much less his real name. Is there a Cape in the post-infinite crisis DCU that DOESN’T know “Clark”?

--“Red Arrow”—the homage to Kingdom Come aside, where did this come from? We don’t like it. Like his peers, the original Teen Titans, Roy Harper, the one-time Speedy, evolved beyond being Green Arrow’s side kick to grow up and take on his own code name and identity as Arsenal—an all purpose weapons master who evolved beyond being just a bow and arrow guy.

On the one hand, we really admire what Metzler has done—elevated a onetime sidekick to his own seat at the hero table. Even Wally West the former Kid Flash, had ended up filling Barry Allen’s Flash seat but Roy Harper has managed to pull up a chair all of his own. Yet with one step forward, “Red Arrow” takes Roy Harper two steps back.

Trials of Shazam #4

The Upshot from DC Comics: Magic hits the Middle East as the trials continue for young Freddy Freeman. Freddie's still striving to earn back the full power of Shazam, while the Counsel of Merlin's own candidate for the power, Sabina, sabotages Freddy at every turn!
We put this issue down feeling it was incomplete but in a mini-series, it’s to be expected that not every issue can stand alone. But with his encounter with Achilles, it does beg the question what happens if Freddie Freeman loses a trial…does he forfeit a power (in this case courage) or is this a “sudden death” trial where one loss and it’s game over?

Again, high complements to artist Howard Porter. So far his artistic experiment seems to be a success—quality art on a monthly schedule—fancy that.

We would be lying if we didn’t admit some leeriness as to where we see the story going or to the radical changes writer Judd Winick has put forth, but as an outspoken critic of just about everything Judd Winick has ever done, we feel it’s of vital importance to reserve judgment and keep an open mind to where he is going with the “Shazam” concept.

It was no secret that this was to be an out of the box take on the Shazam concept. But at the same time, the change is so jarring that we hope Winick leaves room for both new readers and traditional Captain Marvel fans.

Green Lantern Corps #7

The Upshot from DC Comics: Part 1 of the 3-part "Dark Side of the Green," written by Keith Champagne with art by Patrick Gleason and Prentis Rollins! What begins as a routine mission quickly spirals out of control for Guy Gardner and new recruit R'amey Holl, leading the duo to discover a secret that could shake the Corps to the core. Meanwhile, a lone Dominator has found the key to great power and plans to unleash it against the Earth!

So Green Lantern Gardner thought HE was the baddest GUY in the GLC?—the one dispatched to handle the dirty jobs, yet low and behold we learn that the Guardians of the Universe have their very own Black Ops unit, bad enough to flip Gardner like a cheese omelet.

Writer Keith Champagne puts together a decent story here, although a story with Guy Gardner in it practically writes itself—but the dominator secondary plot failed to hold our attention.

The returning art team of Patrick Gleason and Prentis Rollins performed at their usual quality level and quite well suited for the mood of the story. But we hope this is just a fill-in story arc. We’ve been liking what Dave Gibbons has been doing and we want to see him back writing this book.

52 WEEK 32

The Upshot from DC Comics: "You wished to be with her again. Come closer, I will show you how."

With a weekly comic book, it’s not to hard to fall into the rut of repeating oneself when giving a review but it’s worth saying again that, with just a couple of exceptions, this weekly experiment has failed play up what is supposed to be the purpose of the series—to enlighten readers as to what happened during the missing year between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later.

While some (but definitely NOT all) of these story threads are interesting—Black Adam, Ralph Dibny, and the Question/Renee Montoya stories in particular—what has been missing as a “temporal anchor” or something to give the reader the sense that events in this series are happening during a specific period in (recent) history.

Instead of a story told in “real time” we are getting multiple stories presented in weekly bites—there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that but that’s not the series as advertised.

Mind you we’re not trying to crap on DC or Team 52—it’s a praiseworthy feat that they have managed to get a book out every week as promised and there was bound to be some trial and error but the with so many bland story lines in play, its' just as hard for the writing team as it is for the reader to keep their eye on the ball.

To salvage this experiment, Team 52 should consider tying up some storylines—Starfire, Lobo and friends in space and the Doc Magnus/captive mad scientists stories come to mind—and concentrate on the stories. Forget “real time” and just tell a good story—the rest will work itself out.

The Amazing Spider-Girl #3

The Upshot from Marvel Comics: As the Hobgoblin tries to claim the lethal legacy of Wilson Fisk, the former Kingpin of crime, Spider-Girl is chilled to the bone by the new menace called Bitter Frost.

This was a typical “transition issue” as it brings the reader back down to Earth from the high of our hero’s debut to introduce some normalcy in the life of May Parker while starting the build up to the confrontation between Spider-Girl and one of her father’s greatest enemies the Hobgoblin.

Even as May Parker moves closer toward resuming her web-slinging ways, writer Tom DeFalco wisely draws the process out, allowing the reader to see the “normal life” that May is destined to give up—even knowing it is inevitable, it’s hard not to feel for May.

Unlike “Puny Parker” who had no real school life and for which being Spider-Man was a release, "Mayday" has a circle of friends and social obligations and things that are important to her.

This book isn’t just Spidey with boobs—it shows that May is like her father but also very different. She isn’t driven by the guilt of failure like her father who failed to act and save Uncle Ben. Rather, she is driven by the guilt of knowing if she does act, she can save lives but action on her part requires sacrifice.

One thing we did note is as a police forensics lab tech, it would be hard to figure that Peter Parker would NOT catch some kind of word about a Spider-Girl sighting—which leads us to believe he is being willfully blind. We look forward to the father-daughter confrontation that is sure to come.

R.I.P. Green Lantern Creator Martin Nodell 1915-2006

Hello fair readers. On Sunday it was reported that veteran Golden Age Comic Book artist and creator of the original Green Lantern Martin Nodell has passed away at the age of 91.

FanBoyWonder was only vaguely familiar with who Mr. Nodell was, but we shared a deep and long-running affection with his creation, The Green Lantern, since we were a wee-lad.

Green Lantern Alan Scott is one of the greatest heroes of the Golden Age and Nodell’s creation will not only live on far beyond him, but his character is the source of a solid one-quarter all the characters in the DC Comics pantheon of heroes.

From Hal Jordan to the Green Lantern Corps to Jade and Obsidian and Sinestro, there are few corners of the DC universe that are untouched by Nodell’s brainstorm in 1940.

Green Lantern, like his Golden Age brethren in the Justice Society of America, has never received the proper amount of respect. When comic books received their second act during the late 1950s and early ‘60s, in what came to be known as the Silver Age, writer John Broome and Artist Gil Kane successfully revived the Green Lantern character via a Battlestar Galactica-like “re-imagining” in which the name and the basic powers were the same but everything else was different.

Mind you we say the Silver Age GL was a successful revision, but not a superior one. Unfortunately, as Baby Boomers often inclined to do, anything that preceded their generation was automatically deemed no good and thus Alan Scott, the (most) original Green Lantern has forever since been relegated to understudy or supporting player.

Yet the fact that GL Alan Scott is still an active and viable character today—despite numerous attempts to kill, banish or otherwise remove him from the field—is a testament to the strength of a cartoonist’s idea—inspired while waiting for the train.

As FanBoyWonder offers our humble condolences to Mr. Nodell’s family, we submit that even as he rests in peace, the Green Lantern’s light will continue to burn brightly for fanboys and girls for many more generations to come.

Posted below are two obit pieces about Mr. Nodell—one from Comic Book Resources and the other, a local story by the Palm Beach Post.


GREEN LANTERN CREATOR MARTIN NODELL DEAD AT 91

by Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer
Posted: December 10, 2006

Comics writer and historian Mark Evanier posted some sad news to his web site yesterday, noting that comics creator Martin Nodell has died. He was 91.

Born 11/15/15 in Philadelphia, Nodell got his start in comics as a freelance artist around 1938, but it was when he began working for editor Sheldon Mayer at All-American Comics that his career took off.

According to Evanier, when Nodell asked Mayer what he needed to do to get regular assignments from the company, Mayer suggested he pitch a new character for their flag ship title, "All-American Comics." That character was the Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott. All-American Comics was later absorbed by DC Comics.

Nodell left DC Comics in 1947 to work for Timely (later Marvel Comics) where he drew Captain America, the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner. Nodell left comics in the 1950s to work in advertising. He's likely best known to the public at large as part of the team that developed the design of the Pillsbury Doughboy.

At the time of his death, Nodell resided in West Palm Beach, Florida.
CBR offers its condolences to the family and friends of Nodell.

Find this article at:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=9119



'Green Lantern' creator Nodell dies at 91

By Kevin Deutsch
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 11, 2006

In 1940, comic-book artist Martin Nodell was awaiting the subway home to Brooklyn when he saw a trainman waving a lantern. It was a common sight, but to an artist desperate for fresh ideas, it was inspiration.

"It was green, which meant things were safe," said Nodell, then 25. "I wrote down `Green Lantern.' I added elements of everything I liked - Chinese folklore, Greek mythology, Wagner's opera (The Ring of the Nibelungen).'' Nodell, who soon created the legendary superhero Green Lantern and later helped create the Pillsbury Doughboy, died in Wisconsin Saturday. The West Palm Beach resident was 91.

Hours before he saw the lantern in the subway, Nodell had been challenged to create a new comic book hero - with hope of employment with a fledgling comics publisher. Days later, he brought some art and story lines to National Periodicals, which later became DC Comics.

"I thought the publisher would let me down easy," Nodell said. "He said, `We like it. Get to work.' '' In his Aladdin's Lamp fable, Nodell describes a young engineer who is the sole survivor of a train crash. Staggering from the wreckage, Alan Scott discovers the eerie light of an ancient lantern forged from a green meteor. The lantern is a conscious entity that tells Scott to construct a ring from the lamp itself.

The ring makes Scott nearly omnipotent, bestowing the power to fly, materialize through walls, and make him impervious to bullets. Donning a vivid costume of green, red, purple, brown, black and gold, the hero recharges his superpowers by touching the ring to the lantern every 24 hours and reciting a special oath.

Nodell drew the superhero until 1947. At first, he didn't sign his real name to the product because comic books were then "a forbidden literature, culturally unacceptable," he said. Instead, he signed it Mart Dellon, transposing the letters of his last name.

In 1950, after seven years with DC Comics and four with rival Marvel Comics(where he did penciling work on Captain America, Human Torch and Sub-Mariner), Nodell left the industry and turned to advertising.

Using his Chicago art-school training as an art director at Leo Burnett Agency in 1965, he was a member of the design team that created the Pillsbury Doughboy. Nodell later moved to newspaper advertising, working in Chicago from 1970-78, and for The Palm Beach Post from 1979-83.

Nodell is survived by sons Spencer and Mitchell; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Caroline, died in 2004.

Staff researcher Sammy Alzofon contributed to this story.

The Justice Society Returns Again, Manhunter Fights On, Nightwing Digs Out

The first week of December was a good week for comics for FanBoyWonder—we saw the return to greatness, a second chance previously canceled book and a once-great hero starts to dig himself out of the dark back to the light. So without further ado:

Justice Society of America #1

The Upshot from DC Comics: Get in on the ground floor as the world's first and greatest super-team returns to usher in the DC Universe's next age of heroes and villains! Writer Geoff Johns (52, Infinite Crisis), artists Dale Eaglesham (Villains United, Green Lantern) and Art Thibert (Outsiders, Superman) and cover artist Alex Ross (Kingdom Come, Justice) band together for the debut of the greatest incarnation of the super-team that inspired all the others.

Determined to rebuild the Justice Society, founding members Green Lantern, Flash and Wildcat initiate an unprecedented recruitment program, tracking the bloodlines of heroes across the world and bringing in the new Starman, Damage, Liberty Belle and more! But just as the Society welcomes the rookies into their ranks, an evil force sets out to destroy them. Meet new legacies, solve a mystery stretching into the far future, witness the return of the world's greatest hero, and watch another one fall.

Words simply cannot describe how happy we are to have this series back in the DC line up. Earlier this year when we heard that the previous title, JSA, was slated for cancellation after issue 87, we were afraid—with good reason based on precedent—that DC Comics was again going to attempt to force the best group of heroes off the stage.

We have been critical of writer Geoff Johns of late in his other titles (not undeserved) but Justice Society of America #1 reminded us just how good Johns can be when he keeps his eye on the ball.

For those who think the Justice Society is just an inferior copy of the Justice League—the JSA was the first super team, which paved the way for all future teams—including the JLA, who for the record is the copycat.

Johns has made the JSA’s mission statement about legacy and it’s a role that befits the Society’s remaining founding members—Flash, Green Lantern and Wildcat. In issue 1, Wildcat is the narrator—a savvy choice as Wildcat is as well known as GL and Flash but not as understood.

What we liked most about this first issue is that Johns plants a lot of plot seeds but doesn’t rush to cultivate them all at once. We’ll get to see the married couple of Hourman and Liberty Belle in the future and we’ve gotten to see just enough of a damaged Damage to want to see more.

We would be remiss if we failed to mention the artwork by Dale Eaglesham and Art Thibert. Dale plays to his strength here with his vivid use of facial expressions (although we would like him to get The Flash’s chest symbol right, but it’s a small item).

Also, we are heartened by the addition to the team of Alex Ross. A JSA fan, he had been doing covers for the last series and he is not only doing covers for this series but he is working with Johns as a “creative consultant,” which sounds like a co-plotter to us.

We’re glad for a couple of reasons. The first is political—with an artistic heavyweight like Ross putting his name and clout behind the title, it’s an incentive to DC to give the JSA its full support—something as we’ve noted DC has not always been inclined to do.

But on a more practical level, Ross can help feed Johns’ idea machine. With Johns writing so many books, quality has been an issue (i.e. Teen Titans, Green Lantern)—with a collaborator, there’s something of a creative safety net.

Manhunter #26

The Upshot from DC: Jump aboard for a new era of MANHUNTER with the start of the 5-part story "Unleashed," guest-starring Wonder Woman! Manhunter Kate Spencer takes on her biggest case yet with Wonder Woman as the client, but the stakes are higher than anyone knows! Is the Amazon princess guilty of murdering Max Lord? That's just the first in a series of "Warriors" mysteries that readers old and new will take an active role in answering — including what Kate Spencer's next blockbuster case will be!

We decided to follow our Kemosabe’s advice and pick up this book. We are so glad we did. Manhunter is a smartly written book with top shelf art to match. A small but devoted Manhunter fan base (like Kemosabe) managed to get DC to give this book a five-issue reprieve from cancellation.

We’re doing what we can to help but in all honesty, given the many self-inflicted wounds by DC following Infinite Crisis (itself an editorial train wreck), such as the fired creative team of Nightwing, of the Flash and of the perpetually late Wonder Woman, DC couldn’t afford NOT to have a quality book such as Manhunter on the shelves.

It’s ironic that Wonder Woman’s most compelling plot thread—her “murder”/justifiable homicide of Maxwell Lord—is continued not in her own book (when it manages to make it on the shelves every other month) but in the pages of Manhunter.

Diana has retained attorney Kate Spenser to defend her in court as the U.S. government presses its case against the Amazon Princess. Of course we get a “sparing session” between the two heroes but the “girl fight” is inter cut with scenes of Spencer and Diana in Kate’s law office discussing the relative morality of taking a life to save lives.

It’s the dialogue where the true action is and we are starting to see why this book has such a loyal following. If you are not reading this book, you should be. Go on take a chance.

Nightwing #127

The Upshot from DC: A new, vicious villain enters the picture! Raptor has been murdered, but Nightwing has been buried in his grave. Is this the Infinite Crisis claiming one of its lost victims, or can Dick Grayson find his way to freedom?

Despite our effusive praise during the last couple issues about new writer Marv Wolfman and the return to competence to this book, we were prepared NOT to like this issue.

While it’s true that Marv, like many old school pros, can and does adroitly craft a story, we haven’t always liked Wolfman’s take on Nightwing—despite or perhaps because of his long history with Dick Grayson dating back to the New Teen Titans. Wolfman is responsible for some of the very best Dick Grayson stories (first as Robin, later as Nightwing) ever told—but he has also written Grayson at his worst—particularly during the last years of his Titans run.

At his worst, Wolfman’s Dick Grayson was portrayed as a co-dependent cry-baby who was helpless without the then love of his life Starfire. Worse, Wolfman always found a way for Dick to lapse back into his Robin the boy hostage mode—by having him do blundering, dumb things or just plain getting his ass kicked by a Z-list villain.

Which brings us to issue 127, which opens with Nightwing having been soundly trashed and being buried alive in casket by an as yet unrevealed but unmistakably lame bad guy. Seeing Dick get his ass handed to him yet again was not what we had in mind when we heard Wolfman had been recruited to “save” the Nightwing title.

Yet this issue worked for us. As Nightwing struggles to keep his cool while thinking his way out of the trap—not just the bad guy burial that requires escape, but he realizes the traps he has been setting for himself in his personal life. As Dick digs his way out, it’s also a metaphor for clawing his way out of the mistakes he’s made with his life.

As he finally makes his way out of the hole, the reader can sense Dick Grayson has realized a sea change—we’ll see if Marv can capitalize on this breakthrough next issue.

52 WEEK 31

The Upshot from DC: "Superman being out of the picture was the key. One of two keys, if you want to be cute about it."

This issue brought Captain Comet into the story for the first time as a planet far, far away is being over run by a contagion that turns innocents into slave zombies. We see two alien Green Lanterns we’ve never met before who are also helpless to stop this threat—prompting the Guardians of the Universe to cut off power to their rings and deny them back up—not seeking to risk the contagion’s spread. We’re really not sure what’s going on here but yet we find ourselves interested in learning more.

Meanwhile on Earth, Ralph Dibny reconnects with Wonder Girl months after the wheels came off of her “Cult of Connor” and her attempt to bring her love Superboy and Ralph’s lost wife Sue back from the dead. Knowing the cult was a fraud, Cassie confides in Ralph but she “knows” that the new hero Supernova is Superboy back from the dead and in disguise.

He apparently has used his detective skills to figure out SuperNova’s identity and it is NOT Kon-El…yet Ralph doesn’t have the heart to break it to her. As Ralph confronts SuperNova, we are passed along tantalizing clues to his idenity—the most important being “Superman being out of the picture was the key. One of two keys, if you want to be cute about it."

We still haven’t figured it out but now they have our attention.

Battlestar Galactica—The Passage

The Upshot from Sci-Fi Channel: An accidental contamination of the fleet's food-processing systems leaves it without anything to eat. As tens of thousands of people quickly succumb to starvation, the Galactica's overtaxed pilots must fly multiple back-to-back missions to lead the fleet through a hazardous region of space to a new food source. Meanwhile, Capt. Louanne "Kat" Katraine’s (Luciano Carro) past catches up to her, and the Cylon D'Anna (Lucy Lawless) edges closer to uncovering a dangerous secret of the Cylons.

Standard SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t yet seen this episode and plan to catch the encore broadcast on Monday at 11 a.m. E.S.T., stop reading now.

This was a solid character episode through and through but unlike last week’s episode, Unfinished Business, there was a decent enough of space action—the best of both worlds.

The episode opens with the fleet already in crisis as the entire food supply has somehow become contaminated, leaving everyone—all 41,420 survivors—in danger of starving to death. Talk about a crash diet.

Sharon/Athena (Grace Park) has discovered a planet filled with a plethora of edible algae (yummy!). The rub is that the world located on the wrong side of a massive star cluster. Flying around the cluster will take too long, and flying through it will expose the unshielded civilian ships to intense, deadly radiation.

Athena—thanks to her Cylon physiology—barely makes it back alive, maxing out her radiation exposure in the process. The fleet can’t jump over it, they can’t fly around it, they’ll have to leap frog through it—jumping once into the cluster long enough to get a jump fix then jump again to the planet.

But besides the deadly radiation is a blinding, disorienting light and violent storm guaranteed to throw the ships off course and into certain death. A plan is devised to divide fleet into five groups and match each civilian ship with a raptor to serve as its eyes in the storm.

As dire as this set up sounds, this was actually the “B” plot. The main story actually centered around Kat—a one time extra character who has grown into a foil for Starbuck (Katie Sackhoff) and who really gets a chance to shine here.

We find out that “Louanne Katraine” actually died just before the Cylon attack—the officer we’ve known as “Kat” is actually “Sasha”—a former drug smuggler who took Louanne’s identity to start a new life after the holocaust. But her past has caught up with her as her old partner in crime recognizes her.

When Starbuck confronts her, “Kat” confesses everything and begs for the opportunity to tell Admiral Adama (Edward James Olmos) herself. Burdened by the disgust of her rival, Starbuck, and having hit her tolerable limit deadly radiation, Kat embarks on a mission of redemption, knowing it will likely be a lethal escort passage through the cluster. In the end she manages to save a lost ship but at a terrible cost for her.

Meanwhile aboard the Cylon basestar, Gaius Baltar (James Callis) and D’Anna team up. Baltar is attempting to discover if he is a Cylon, while D’Anna continues to kill herself and resurrect in order to see the face of the Cylon God. For their efforts, they find clues to the “Eye of Jupiter,” another road-marker to earth, which plants the seeds for another confrontation with the fleet next week.

By the way, did we fail to mention that Gaius now shares his bed with both Caprica Six (Tricia Helfer) AND D’Anna?? Talk about sleeping your way to the top. But we digress.

Back to Kat, it’s nothing less than a crying shame that Luciano Carro’s best episode would be her last. She quite ably carried this episode and more than held her own with Edward James Olmos. Their death-bed scene together was poignant in the extreme.

When Adama tells her he’s promoting her back to C.A.G./the fleet’s senior pilot as a death-bed gesture--the position she previously held during the skeleton crew phase--the look of mingled joy and sadness she gives was more powerful than any words in the script.

Something else worth noting, Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan) has finally gotten back in uniform and made his way back to the C.I.C (Combat Information Center) to “help” Adama. A scene in Adama’s quarters as Tigh reports fleet status and how some have resorted to eating paper, they share a belly laugh together.

The rift between the two estranged friends is indeed healing and the writers have been wise to let it play out as along as it has, but we hope that by next week we don’t see them back to “themselves”…at least not right away.

With the episode’s conclusion, despite Kat’s ultimate sacrifice, many more lives among the fleet have been lost—we counted at least two ships—it would surprise us not at all to see the survivor count during next week’s credits to have whittle down to the mid-30,000s.

Next week is the mid-season finale and the last BSG of 2006 before Galactica returns to a new night and time on Sunday at 10 a.m. We hope this move will attract more viewers—even as we are already staining at the thought of staying up to watch it on a school nite.