Well, maybe cancellation isn’t the right word. Marvel’s Siege miniseries ended this month and has ushered in the new Heroic Age for the company. As a result, the current line of Avengers books: New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, Dark Avengers, Avengers Initiative, are all ending. All four are being replaced with: Avengers, Secret Avengers, a relaunched New Avengers, and Avengers Academy. While the sum total of Avengers books is remaining the same, it’s strange to see all of these high selling books stop publication. I suppose after all the events they’ve spawned or been spawned by, they’ve run their course.

In the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe, the ends of Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy weren’t even announced.  These books lead directly into the upcoming Thanos Imperative mini-series and there’s no word on whether they’ll return in some form or another once that series wraps up. In a way, I’m kind of glad they ended, as I was thinking of not continuing with each of them anyway.

It’s odd for so many books to end in the same month, but the endings are not limited to comics. The last few weeks saw the cancellation of a number of television shows including Scrubs, Better Off Ted, Flash Forward, Law and Order, and Heroes. Combined with the ends of 24 and Lost, the line ups this Fall look to be changing quite a bit. While I understand that they couldn’t last forever, it is both disappointing and somehow comforting that 24 and Law and Order were having their strongest seasons yet. It’s not all cancellations though as Chuck, Human Target, and Lie to Me (all shows I enjoy) have all been picked up for another season.

The last few years have produced a lot of TV and comics that I’ve really enjoyed. I can’t help but think that what takes its place just won’t hold my attention at all. It was kind of an aberration that there was so much going on that I followed to begin with.

With the Lost finale beginning in a few short hours, this is the last chance for any of this speculation to mean anything. Like most fans, I’m wondering about a lot of things, but here are 5 big points of interest for me. Please feel free to share your thoughts here as well.

“Desmond is the failsafe”

All along it’s been clear that Desmond is the key to everything. When I originally sat down to write this, he had just run over Locke in the parallel universe and it became very clear that he was trying to push everyone together. Locke encountered Jack again in the following episode, and now we see a similar dynamic to the one they had on the island. Desmond’s jail break is clearly another step to getting everyone together. This could be that if the people on the island are with him, he could maybe bounce their consciousnesses to the parallel universe and “save” them, or it could have something to do with….

Parallel universe smoke monster

If the island is at the bottom of the ocean, where does this leave the monster? It makes sense that maybe he escaped and is out there in that world and this is what Desmond is trying to get everyone together for.

The smoke monster is not Jacob’s brother

The fact that Jacob finds his brother’s body has me thinking there’s a chance the smoke monster may not actually be the brother. The monster was released when the brother entered the well and took his form.

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do”

It’s also be indicated the the smoke monster taking someone’s form may not be simply cosmetic. The monster takes on some aspects of the “form’s” personality as seen in the last episode about Locke. The monster was reacting and saying things Locke would say, but he has no connection to Locke other than it being a dead guy he could imitate.

Those damned kids

Everyone seems to have one and early on children seemed really important to the story. It’s also interesting that a lot of the candidates even have a child out there that bears their name (David Shepherd, Aaron Austen, Clementine Ford, Ji Yeon Kwan). I can’t help but think we may be seeing them in the finale, and with the way time works on the show they may even be shown as adults returning to the island.

It’s over tonight, so we’ll see what’s important and what isn’t soon enough. Enjoy all six hours that ABC is bringing your way starting at 7PM.

I knew from the opening of the episode that I just wasn’t going to like this one. It’s a perfectly fine episode, but after the excitement of the last two weeks I couldn’t help but be disappointed. Spoilers ahead.

Crashing Rory’s bachelor party was intentionally awkward, but it really only led to a few sight gags like a custom made “Amy + Rory” t-shirt showing up in the 16th century Venice. The whole concept of the trip as a date for the young couple just didn’t really thrill me.

The Sisters of the Water from planet Saturnyne were not very compelling enemies. I know there’s a vampire craze going on, but I was a little disappointed to see it reach Doctor Who. At least the show had it’s own take on the creatures, so I suppose it’s better than introducing actual vampires. Either way, it still felt like there was a creepiness that was absent from the episode.

Some interesting parallels were drawn between The Doctor and the Sisters’ leader, Rosanna, as the last hope of their kind. The connection extends to her people and the Timelords, and it seems like lasting damage may have been done from The Doctor witnessing the extinction of another species.

The highlight of the episode comes when we hear the silence that’s threatening the universe for the first time. It’s interesting that it happened just after Amy stepped into the TARDIS away from her “boys.” The mystery surrounding her deepens here, but this episode sets the low point for the season this far.

More on Doctor Who 2010:
Flesh and Stone / Amy’s Choice

I don’t know why I find this so amusing, but when I saw astrophysicist Sandra M. Faber receive an Honorary Degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Commencement for her critical work in refocusing the Hubble Space Telescope I knew for sure…

Hubble Gotchu!

Milky J pictured with hatching EGGs from the Eagle nebula (M16) courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

The way we watch television has changed so much.  Technology is crazy.  Now we DVR it, watch it on Demand, download it through iTunes, or rent the DVDs.  There are so many ways to avoid watching tv in the traditional way.

There is something that makes me so happy about being able to watch an entire season of a television series from start to finish in one day.  Such a sense of completion.  Half season shows make this even better (easier). Since HBO and Showtime follow different season schedules than most network shows, these have been the easiest shows to do this with.  DVD releases have helped to build premium channels to a whole new level.  HBO released the first season of True Blood on DVD before the second season had started.  The people who had heard about the show from their friends were hooked in time to order HBO before the next season began.

My latest favorite way is Netflix Instant.  Better than DVD’s since usually I can’t get the entire season in one Netflix shipment.  Better than onDemand because I don’t have to listen to loud obnoxious stuff in between episodes as I re-navigate through all the ridiculous of the menus.  Netflix Instant lets me have multiple shows lined up and rate them, maybe to discover a new show that I would think is amazing.  So far, unfortunately, I haven’t thought any of their suggestions are awesome.  To be fair though, I watch A LOT of TV to begin with, so there isn’t much left to suggest.

So!  With my new found free time, I will be making my way through some television.  I am starting with Weeds.  A show I tried to watch once, but clearly couldn’t jump into the middle of.  Expect season by season reviews coming soon.  Also on the schedule is Mad Men.  Any other suggestions are more than welcome.  Especially if they are available through Netflix Instant.