Rant Ramblings: Week of 8-2-13

Has it been three weeks already? Time flies when you're splitting your time between writing a novel and generally goofing off.

Grant Morrison's epic seven-year run on Batman ended Wednesday with the release of the final issue of Batman Inc. (The image is the variant cover Morrison himself drew.) Yeah, it was awesome. I'm not about to give anything away, but I will say that the finale was more low-key than most readers were expecting, yet the book paid off emotionally in the best possible ways. There are echoes of every phase of Morrison's run, and Batman's overall history, and several enticing threads for other creators to follow up on if they so choose. The final page, in particular, makes me wish Morrison was planning to return in a year or two to follow up on some of them himself. Chris Burnham's art is gorgeous, of course. Morrison's run is already regarded as one of the finest ever featuring the character, and I think that, as time goes by, it will be recognized as the greatest Batman run of all time.

Here's a look at the recently-completed New Century Global Center in China, now the largest building in the world.

The Magnavox Oddyssey, released in 1972, was the world's first video game console. You can check out a cool photo gallery of an Odyssey unboxing here. While we're on the subject of video games, here's a cool collection of photos and info on most video game consoles that have existed. Even if you're well-acquainted with the history of video games, you're bound to see a couple you didn't know about.

Believe it or not, Morgan Freeman was once young.

A group of scientists and engineers working on the Mars Curiosity Rover mission did a very interesting AMA a few days ago. Guess who else did one? The Most Interesting Man in the World, bitches!

On that note, I'm outta here! Hopefully I'll be back in less than three weeks this time.