Saturday, April 28, 2007

BACKLOG NITPICKING: The Nitpicker #22.

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN... ah, who am I kidding, everything here is from books published months ago.]]

As it says above, this column is all old stuff, it's all the nits I gathered from the books I read back in January. Only one nit, the first one, is from February, because I only noticed it (or was told to notice it) last week. I was going to include it in my column with the April nits, but since this is getting posted before, here it goes.

As you can see, I called the previous post "RETRO NITPICKING", because it's a "reprint" of one of my old columns. This time, however, since it's all new material, but from books released months ago, gets labeled "BACKLOG NITPICKING". Oh, yes, I'm totally swiping this from KODT's "RETRO KODT" strips...

I haven't finish reading all the books from last Wednesday, so I haven't finished writing the April column. I have, however, written up every nit from the first three weeks of the month, so I guess I should have the next post up by Monday or Tuesday next week.
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TITLE: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Andy Kuhn (layouts), Ron Adrian (finishes), Joan Hilty (editor) and Rachel Gluckstern (associate editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: This one is actually from February, but I couldn't just let it pass. First I'd like to mention that since Marc Guggenheim took over, this book as gotten a lot better. Not great, but at least passable. However, and this column is called The Nitpicker; there was a little problem.

This story, as most DC stories of the past year, is set OYL, right? Right. So Flash, Bart Allen, who used to be Kid Flash II, gets a phone call from his friend Robin, from the Titans, who asks him to rejoin the Titans. But when they show Robin (pages 13 and 21)on the other side of the line, he's wearing his pre-OYL costume, the one he's wore since he became Robin... and he’s had his new costume for about a year now.

Thanks to my friend Red Roy for pointing this out, albeit with the wrong issue number.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, this is really sloppy.
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TITLE: All-New Atom.

ISSUE: 07.

CULPRIT: Gail Simone (writer) and/or Pat Brosseau (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 19, panel 4, the Linear Man Ryak the Ravager says "I will wipe you from this plain".

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Battlestar Galactica: Zarek.

ISSUE: 01 of 04.

CULPRIT: Unknown (whoever writes legal print).

NIT-TO-PICK: Yes, you've guessed it. They did put "Gallactica" in the legal print of the credits page.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: I.L.L. (colorist)

NIT-TO-PICK: Not mentioning the stupid names for countries like "Santa Bertriza" and "Del Canto", or cities, like "Dolores Negro", I do have to say that on page 22, the UN Peacekeeping soldiers how in both countries are not wearing that force's blue helmets.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, won't hurt to watch the news now and then.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: Howard Chaykin (writer) and/or Killian Plunkett (penciller), and/or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 23, the hospital plaque reads "El Hospital Memorial De Quita Hernandez Y Tadeo Ruiz" (attempting to mean "Quita Hernandez And Tadeo Ruiz Memorial Hospital"); and while that is grammatically correct, it's not appropriate for a plaque.

In Spanish, hospitals are simply called "Somebody Suchenson Hospital", as "Hospital Fulano De Tal"; and it's already clear that the hospital is called like that in memory of the person. But if you wanted to actually name it that way, you'd use "Hospital En Memoria De Fulano De Tal".

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, I was surprised that not many other Spanish-related errors found their way into the book.
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TITLE: All-New Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe A-Z.

ISSUE:

CULPRIT: Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator); and any of the several writers in the book (entries' text is not individually credited).

NIT-TO-PICK: On his profile (page 32), specifically in the Abilities/Accessories section, Warpath is said to be "skilled in wielding a bow staff." Uh... hint, sometimes, foreign words are not written like they're pronounced in your language.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Battlestar Galactica

ISSUE: 05.

CULPRIT: Whoever writes credit pages; there's not even an editor listed in the credits.

NIT-TO-PICK: On the credits page (no, it's not "Gallactica"), specifically in the recap, it says "COLLECTEDIN" instead of "COLLECTED IN". Of course, I noticed this when I was going to write up the nit after this one.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Battlestar Galactica

ISSUE: 05.

CULPRIT: Greg Pak (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 23, the number 8 who calls herself Captain Valerii orders that her new crew install a docking bay where people can hang on to the ship (outside of the actual artificial atmosphere of it) during FTL jumps. Now call me crazy, but I've never seen any sci-fi faster-than-light method that allows a human being to travel outside the ship and survive...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 90.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Sabretooth, on page 7, and then Heather Hudson, on page 11, refer to the Timebreakers (who are all insectoid) as the "lizards". In fact, Heather refers as a lizard to one of the chief Timebreakers, who looks just like a praying mantis, and then to the lower caste Timebreakers as "the bugs".

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, I think they previously called them all bugs.
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TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 90.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, Heather Hudson comments that she is thankful for a "mutant metabolism", since she's eating pizza by the boxes. Thing is, Heather was never a mutant... she was just possessed by the mystical beast Tanaraq, and now she doesn't even have any powers.

And in any case, unless you're Wolverine, or Sabretooth, or somebody with powers like that, why would your metabolism burn calories faster? It's bad enough that Chuck Austen (I think it was him) decided that mutants are immune to AIDS...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, you should read up on characters you're going to write.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 32.

CULPRIT: Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11, panel 3, the person who'll become the Red King, Darrin Profitt, is referred to as "Profit" in a word balloon, when in the same panel, you can see the name on his door, "Profitt", and only three panels later, somebody says "Profitt".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Star Trek TNG: The Space Between.

ISSUE: 01 of 06

CULPRIT: David Tischman (writer) and/or Robbie Robbins (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11, first panel, Data says "compters" instead of "computers".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Star Trek TNG: The Space Between.

ISSUE: 01 of 06

CULPRIT: David Tischman (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Picard decides to use the slingshot maneuver to travel back in time, and when Worf comments that figuring out the exact "time dilation" would require a one in a million calculation. So Picard then tells Worf to "start brushing up on your math".

WTF? What does Worf, the Tactical officer, have to do with a slingshot maneuver calculation? That's something for the helm, maybe with help from Science.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer) and/or Todd Klein (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: The first dialogue, on page 2, mentions a peak in the Andes called "Guagua Pinchichua", it's actually "Guagua Pichincha"; while "Nelvado del Ruiz" is actually "Nevado del Ruiz".

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars. These are not typos, they are sloppiness.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Superman, on page 18, says "Great... Rao..."... what? What is this, pre-Crisis? And there he goes again, on page 35. WTF?

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer) and/or Todd Klein (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 19, one of the guides that leads Lois through the Andes yells "¡Aye Dios mío!", meaning "Oh my God!", problem is, it's "Ay", not "Aye".

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 34, Superman says he's "without his peak power", because he's underground, away from the sun. But he's been away from the sun for barely a few hours, at most, and he hasn't really expended his energies... what is he, Birdman?

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Y: The Last Man.

ISSUE: 53.

CULPRIT: Brian K. Vaughan.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, Waverly, the former-supermodel-turned-garbage-collector-turned-corpse-collector who was the first woman who Yorick ran into after the plague hit, says "Andelay, hombre", which is Mexican slang for "Let's go man", however, it's actually "Andale."

My good friend Kal Lor-Van just came up behind me while I was writing the column (we work in the same place), and argued that it's written that way so non-Spanish speaking people understand what it means, since "Andale" wouldn't be pronounced the same by an English speaker.

But I disagree, I am more inclined to believe that this is an error on the writer's part, as it is much too common for English-speaking writers to not bother to find out how something is spelled in other languages. There are plenty of examples in my column, starting with this very same one (see a couple of nits back).

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Checkmate V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Greg Rucka (writer) and/or Ken Lopez (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: In the roll-call on page 3, Fire's last name is given as "DACOSTA", when it should be "DA COSTA", or "da Costa", if not spelled in capitals.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Hellblazer.

ISSUE: 228.

CULPRIT: Denise Mina (writer) and/.or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 6, one of the characters says "If England lose (...)"; it should say "If England loses" or "If England were to lose".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.

ISSUE: 214.

CULPRIT: Phil Winslade (artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 15, Batman lets Deadshot know that he has discovered the identity under which his "family" (his daughter and her mother) live under now; saying that if he could find them, others could, and that Deadshot has many enemies. He offers to provide them with security (the same the JLA uses for their member's families) if Deadshot drops the contract he's working on.

However, on page 16, the dossier that Batman shows Deadshot has pictures of a blonde woman (presumably Susan, his ex-wife) and a blond boy Edward (his dead son). Zoe (his daughter) has dark hair, and so does her mother, whose name I can't remember now. If it was a full dossier on Deadshot, then it would have pictures of both his ex-wife and son, and Zoe and her mother... but there's only photos of Susan and Edward.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. I'm not blaming Christos N. Gage, the book's writer, because he wrote the miniseries where Zoe and her mother first appeared, so I doubt he gave these descriptions to Winslade.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 33.

CULPRIT: Dan Slott (plot) and Dan Jurgens (script).

NIT-TO-PICK: Superman, on page 3, is covered with a polymer, that, according to the Red King (who says so on page 4) "is preventing his body from absorbing the solar radiation that fuels his powers." Come on people, Superman is not a 1987 solar powered calculator!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars for the repeat offense, even if it wasn't him the first time, I expected more of Dan Jurgens.
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And that makes for an average 5.1 Bazzars, lower than the last new column, and the lowest we've had since column #16. Hope next week we get a higher score. Until then, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!
PS: The signature has returned!

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