For all you Stephen King fans, a double shot: "Carrie" is on tonight at 7PM on TNT. Then at 10, The Learning Channel re-runs its documentary special "Stephen King: Master of the Macabre". [Cryptkeeperish laugh]

And now the reviews. May contain spoilers and small parts unsuitable for children.

JCA #5: "Project A, for Astral". In the opening, Chan fights off the Dark Hand, gets the sheep talisman, does the 100-yard dash on a seeding train that's plummeting off a bridge, and is nearly julianned by a helicoptor's rotor.
Little wonder he's worn out. Jade takes the opportunity to discover the secret of the sheep talisman and ends up discorporalizing herself. To make matters worse, while Jade's out having fun as a Casperette, and Jackie is snoozing, Valmond's goons sneak into the shop and nick the talisman from her sleeping body. WIth it, the evil spirit who leads the Dark Hand is able to astral plane and possess Jade. Jade learns that she can dreamwalk and does so with Jackie, while Evil Jade attempts to learn the location of Section 13...and winds up shanghaied to an amusement part by Agent Black. Jackie's uncle conjures up a spell to keep trhe evil spirit at bay, so, although he has the sheep talisman, it's no good to him.
The idea isn't too new--a similar plot appeared in an ep of "Aladdin" with Iago and Abu who end up as spirits after they fool around with one of Jafar's old magic doodads, and learn to dreamwalk in order to warn him about this evil ghost dude Al banished to hell a while back who palns to use Jafar's doohickey to return to our world.
Still, a couple of amusing moments--Jade chewing on the talisman like a fractitious whelp to get it to work, and Jackie doing a half-gainer off the shop roof while sleepwalking come to mind.
BTW, anyone else think that amusement park looked like the one in "National Lampoon's Vacation", complete with obnoxious moose mascot? ("Okay--everybody smile!" "I will eat your soul!")

MXSTL #201: "The Return." Are the Steel writers *trying* to get the WB sued for copyright infringement?
*the opening scene lifted right out of "Speed"
*Berto has a Poo-Chi robot dog
Anyway, with Mairot gone, Rachel has been promoted, and is called away to Europe to fight Psycho (who I thought died after being eaten alive by Dread's virus). Laura is off for a year on some cruise (a very convenient way of not resolving the whole situation between them or explaining just *what* Max said to her when he dropped by her place). Josh's friend is nearly crushed by a falling object pushed off a dorm roof, then kidnapped as part of a blackmail plot by Dread. Thought dead in the explosion, he was only hideously disfigured, and demands that Max turn over N-Tek's secrets in exchange for his friends's life.
Max is forced to go rogue, unable to tell anybody what he's doing, and comply to the demands, also revealing his secret to his friend in the process. A nice moral dilemma--betray your father and country for the sake of your best friend, and tell no one of your actions--though I still think it would have worked just as well for "Batman Beyond" as it did for this camp wannabe.

POK JJ #314: "A Sappy Ending". Ash, Brock, and Misty find themselves hiking through a forest occupied by bug Pokemon--Misty's greatest fear. A cetain species of bug Pokey (Hera-something-or-other) favors the sweet sap of certain trees, but are being invaded by Pincer who are denuding and killing them. Seems the Pincer are invading the peaceful bugs because their land is being taken from them. Turns out it's Team Rocket, looking to milk the sweet sap from the trees for a syrup franchise--actually not a bad plan, but they should have taken time to sign some contracts and cut a deal with the owners of the timberlands, rather than just grab, grab, grab.
Woodruff, Team Twerp's lumberjack friend, has a cool beard, IMO
Watch for the bit where the Rocketeers spoof the old Life cereal commercials with Mikey. Real cute.
Curry powder on pancakes? Jessy must have an iron stomach. Then again, she did grow up on snow food. Maybe her guts are frozen.
Watch also for the scene with Hera-whatsitsface sucking sap out of Bulbasaur's bulb. (Insert Monica Lewinsky joke here.) It got a laugh out of me. I don't think this buggie was properly weaned.
The new bug Pokemon decides to follow Ash, and hops obediaently into a Pokeball. Misty aways tells Ash he's not a good trainer because most of his Pokemon follow him willingly rather than having to be battled and captured...but the way I see it, that tells you something about Ash's character. He's not exactly brilliant, but he's kind--and Pokemon, like dogs, seem to instinctively gravitate towards one person that they feel the closest to. So in a way, I favor Ash's style of pokemon training to other trainers like Gary, who believe bulk is better and put less emphasis on the human/Pokemon dynamic.
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