Is the fifth cylon? Clues here.

Craziest theory I’ve heard yet: The Galactica herself. So crazy it just might be true!

I have no idea who it is, but my suspicion is that the key to understanding the final five is figuring out what the cylon’s plan was. I’ve always believed that the most important phrase in the BSG universe if “And they have a plan.”

So why did the cylons return after 40 years? Was it to merge the species, sweep away the old pagan rituals, and establish the kingdom of the one God? Was it to simply exterminate humanity. (I’ve never thought this was plausible.) Was it to fulfill the prophesies and return to Earth?

Understanding the cylons’ plan should help bring the final five into better focus.

Sitting on my desk is the Nov. 24-30 edition of Variety with a giant, wrap-around ad for Milk. The ad pictures Sean Penn’s smiling, slightly addled mug and a long, laudatory quote from Peter Travers, who calls Milk “a total triumph, brimming with humor and heart.” “An American classic.” And, “If there’s a better movie around this year, with more bristling purpose, I sure haven’t seen it.”

Which has to be the most unsurprising review ever. Maybe Milk really is the best movie of 2008. I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know. What I do know is that Milk will be the best-reviewed movie of 2008, no matter what. It’s from indie darling Gus Van Sant. It’s a true story. It’s about a gay-rights pioneer. A gay-rights pioneer who was assassianted! It deals prominently and happily with homosexuality. And it stars Sean Penn. The only way this picture could be more critic-friendly is if Harvey Milk had been an alcoholic and/or physically disabled.

Seriously, who in the world would have the stones to pan this movie? I was sort of amazed to see that it had only a 94 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

Who are the 7 critics who dared to say Milk didn’t do a body good?

Courtesy of Valerie D’Orazio:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EYyVB9F5-w&hl=en&fs=1]

Just sign me up already.

The dream, of course, is to own a comic shop. The problem, or rather the main problem, is that there isn’t a ton of money in owning a comic shop.

But Newsarama has a piece by the owner of A Comic Shop in Orlando explaining some of the things he’s done right in making his business a success. He does some gonzo marketing and whatnot. But his stroke of genius is so obvious I can’t believe no one else ever thought of it:

That’s right: Pretty girls. In costumes. In the comic book shop.

It’s like printing money.

Today is the day Batman dies. Go buy a bunch of copies and then burn them while cursing Dan DiDio.

Update: Well, that was ridiculous. I picked up a copy (or two) of the final “Batman R.I.P.” chapter and I have no idea what happens. It’s unintelligible, like watching a movie with a couple reels missing.

There’s an impulse to blame DiDio for this–rumors were that he had Morrison re-write the end. But I find nearly all of Morrison’s writing disconnected and lazy to the point of meaninglessness. Final Crisis, his old New X-Men–even All-Star Superman gets jumpy and discombobulated towards the end, like Morrison couldn’t be bothered to fill in the plot-points needed to get from Point A to Point D.

So is Batman dead? Who knows. The entire episode is so ambiguous–and not in the artly way–that DC can go any way they want with it. Which ultimately makes it meaningless. It’s bad enough when a publisher lurches from event to event without ever pausing to simply tell good stores. It’s worse when the events no longer hold any meaning.

For the Giants hater in all of us.

Oh, and read the comments.

I’ve always been of two minds on Michael Lewis. On the one hand, he’s a great writer. A really great writer. And to make it even better, he’s a great writer who’s also a good reporter. You can’t ask for more than that, really.

On the other hand, there’s something a little infuriating about someone who willingly takes advantage of a situation which he knows full well is crazy. Liar’s Poker was a great book, but there’s a weird smugness about someone trying to tell people how stupid and corrupt the financial brokerage system is after he takes several hundred thousand dollars from that system.

But ultimately, this seems a small quibble. Lewis is the real deal. And here he is revisiting Wall Street at the end times. It’s pretty great.