WWE Monday Night Raw returns to my hometown of Philadelphia tonight and in a surprise move brings the King of the Ring Tournament with it. Well, it was a surprise to me at least as I didn’t find out about it until watching last week’s show (to be fair, I’m also slightly surprised every time that I see that the Wachovia Center is now the Wells Fargo Center). This will be another 3-hour broadcast and the second this month in Pennsylvania after “WWE Old School Night” two weeks ago in Hershey.

While it was once an annual event, there hasn’t been a King of the Ring tournament since William Regal won in 2008. I seriously considered going tonight, but as you’ll see the bad outweighed the good.

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Brightest Day #13 is in stores this week, and this is going to be a tough one to discuss. The book wasn’t what either of us were expecting and continued in very much the same vein as issue 12. This time around the focus is on Hawkman and Hawkgirl and their Hawkadventures on Hawkworld. Something significant to their history may have gone down, but as you’ll see it may not be that simple given the context.

Spoilers ahead.

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We don’t normally talk politics here on MLD, and this is no exception. Over the past few days it’s been impossible not to be exposed to campaign ads for tomorrow’s midterm election, and it’s pretty clear that attack ads are the only ads out there at this point. I usually try to stay informed, but this year I can’t make sense of any of it. From what I can tell, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is running for some office in Pennsylvania. I don’t like his chances. I don’t think Gordon Gekko has a shot either, despite his recent performance at the box office.

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I just joined a new book club. My brother’s girlfriend’s book club actually. My old book club involved much discussion of bird watching while sharing a bottle of wine. That’s one bottle. Six women. Do the math. Not nearly enough wine to be regaled with tales of rare birds hiding in tall grass. My brother’s girlfriend, Deidre, promised me that her book club would be much more exciting. More of a wine & gossip club with an occasional book and no bird watching. The book for my first meeting? Whip Smart: A Memoir. A memoir, to be precise, of a college student turned professional dominatrix. Wow, Deidre wasn’t kidding, her book club was exciting!

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While the most recent Ms. Marvel series was cancelled months ago, I found myself thinking back on it recently as Marvel celebrates the Women of Marvel this year (and in particular this month). I paid this book a fair bit of attention over the four years of its publication (much to Angie’s dismay) and I felt compelled to record my feelings on it before they were lost to me.

This should be Marvel’s marquee female character. The title is one of the longest running Marvel series with a female lead.

I can sum up the fifty issue run in one word: disappointing.

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