Comics of August 8, and swimming update

So, this past weekend was a 3-day weekend here in Canada. Not sure if it was for anyone else, but I decided to take advantage of it. I went for my most ambitious swimming attempt yet, and one I won’t try to top for a while. In one 2 hour and 15 minute session, I successfully swam all 17 races that Michael Phelps swam in Bejing. That’s 2 400m individual medleys, 4 200m freestyles, 1 100m freestyle, 3 200m butterflies, 3 200m individual medleys, and 4 100m butterflies, swam in the same order he did. All of this in an outdoor 50m pool.

No, I didn’t swim them anywhere close to Phelps’s times. But I did swim the second 400m individual medley under 8 minutes for the first time (one of my major goals for the summer). I managed to half-sprint the entirety of the last 200m individual medley. While I didn’t time them, it felt like I swam my personal best time the 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley on my last swim for each. I barely had enough energy left to finish the last couple of 100m butterflies, but I did it. And I also tossed in a very easy 200m breaststroke to warm down. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason I didn’t hurt on Tuesday. In total, that’s 3.5 km swum, 1,350m of that being butterfly.

It feels awesome to be in this kind of shape and I intend to keep improving. Especially since one year ago, I couldn’t even finish one length of butterfly in a 50m pool. The improvement is quite noticeable at this point. I’m 31. If you’re less than 40, what’s your excuse for not improving at least one aspect of your fitness level? Trust me, you’ll feel better both physically and emotionally.

Anyway, it’s time to talk about comics. This week, I picked up Fantastic Four 1, The Amazing Spider-Man 3, Hunt For Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda 4 and Supergirl 21. Here are my first impressions. I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to write a full review tonight as we have guests over, but I’ll link to it below if I find the time.

Fantastic Four 1 is good. It mostly focuses on Jonny Storm and Benjamin Grimm. While Jonny is still very hopeful that Reed and Sue will come back, Benjamin seems to be convinced that it’s just the two of them. It makes for a very dramatic issue that shows how each character has chosen to move on. And then of course there’s a somewhat glorious ending. This is a promising start, but I’d need to see how writer Dan Slott handles the family’s return before I decide whether I’ll stick with it or not.

Amazing Spider-Man 3 is fun. This issue mostly explains what happened in the previous issue, with how there’s both Spider-Man and Peter Parker at the same time. It also ends with showing a huge potential problem with the situation. Like with the first couple of issues, I’m not convinced to start picking up Spider-Man comics regularly again, but this is enjoyable so far.

Hunt For Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda 4 is good. I didn’t pick up the first three issues right away because I initially planned on skipping this altogether. But after learning that Laura’s involved in this mini, I decided to check it out. This whole Hunt For Wolverine thing still feels like a cash-in to a degree, but writer Tom Taylor does what he can with it. There’s a short but intense fight with Mr. Sinister, a well-written moment where the original Wolverine challenges Iron Man’s morals in a flashback, and a big reveal regarding X-23 that’s not hugely surprising, but it’s turning heads. It’s got my attention. There are also a couple other reveals, one is pretty much pointless, and the other suggests a potential problem for the X-Men as a whole. I’m not saying anything else to avoid spoiling anything.

Supergirl 21 is good. It starts Kara on a quest of answers regarding Krypton’s fate. I’m not a fan of the direction the main Superman story is going, nor do I like the whole “Krypton got murdered” reveal at the end of Bendis’s The Man Of Steel miniseries. That said, this issue does a good job at exploring Supergirl’s emotional reaction to it all. The heavy drama is balanced out with a couple heartwarming scenes and a welcome appearance by Krypto. Again, I’m not likely to be reading Bendis’s Superman run any time soon, but this issue is good enough to give Supergirl’s new direction a chance.