Comic and Switch 2

Vani and I went to WonderCon on Sunday. I look forward to it every year as a nice way to spend the day with her browsing comics. I picked up the five-issue run of Shadow of the Batman which reprints Steve Englehart stories from the late seventies. Some of these were later turned into popular Batman: The Animated Series episodes. I’m enjoying them so far! We also saw our friends Tom and Krys, picked out some stickers, and got a couple of prints. It was great!

We went to Paradise Dynasty afterward, a xiao long bao restaurant similar to Din Tai Fung, but generally cheaper and without a long wait for a table. Vani’s brother joined us and we plowed through a bunch of soup dumplings, noodles, and cucumber salad. Highly recommended!

We’re also starting to plan out what baseball games we might want to go to this summer. We had a blast going to games last year. I think the pitch clock improved the pace of the game and it doesn’t feel quite so drawn out. With this being our last summer in San Diego we want to take advantage of Petco Park. I feel like it’s unmatched by any other stadium.

The Nintendo Direct announcing the Switch 2 left me feeling underwhelmed. Beyond the pricing being a step too far for most, they also didn’t do a good job of making the console seem exciting. I thought the Switch’s boring presentation and OS was a weird blip on the Nintendo timeline, but now it seems to be their new style. Many small things could have made the Switch 2 feel like a Nintendo console. Themes, StreetPass games, something creative we haven’t seen? The Switch 2 feels like an attempt to present a console like Sony or Microsoft do, which I think is a very bold and, frankly, dumb move. Nintendo has succeeded for as long as they have by being an alternative and playing up what makes them unique. Couple this with tariffs and I think the Switch 2 will see a very slow adoption. I have more thoughts, but I’ll save them for when Pat and I record next week.

RIP Val Kilmer. Go watch Heat.

-Ian