#also heres to me getting over myself and interracting with people despite this

[ssoupcup]

every month its a fun little game of 'has my mental health gotten substantially worse for no reason or am i about to start my period'

#hate it here actually #also heres to me getting over myself and interracting with people despite this #its a struggle #is this tmi? perhaps. I also kinda dont care there are FAR worse things I could say. I just want to complain about how #pms is kicking my ass #and that it could instead be pmdd. im too scared of phone calls to even try making a doctors appnt about that though ive been #avidly avoiding making one about potential anemia because of phone calls and an intense irrational fear of needles #i have actually gotten better with that recently but i still have passed out more than once in the presence of a needle. #bit embarrassing for me really xxx #good fucking lord would you look at the vast number of tags ive gone completely off track #anyways #ur gay

[hurlumerlu]

With all this you're making me think So Much about Gram's first appearance again and the way he gets all familiar with White and not angry at all, like. At the time we dont know Black is cold with everyone but! Gram! Not worried about grabbing him by the shoulders and getting their faces close and teasing him. Obsessed with how he knows Black would react to it or not. He too knows a softer side that appears when they're together. Truly Gram, Gene and the stray dog that only they can feed without getting bites. I'm normal

Okay first of all I want to say that I considered myself a pretty casual enjoyer of the whole Gram/Black/Gene business and that your wild dog comment actively made me worse so don't think you are inocent in all this.

Secondly : YES. I particularly like the teasing because it actually echoes the way we see Gene acting with Black in the little video but also like : the way he fusses over him ? who else would do that ? (Gene would. you know Gene would.) They had their little status quo and it was probably unsustainable but they were so comfortable with each other and then you cut to like a month later and Gram is stepping between Black and Gene because they just don't know that person anymore and who knows what he'll do next ? And it's so funny and sad that it's White milder, gentler persona that actually made them warry of him - something that Black can never understand because how could anyone mistrust his better half ?

Also like. Gram suddendly being presented with the batshit insane fact that the Black he's interracted with for a while now was actually his goddamn twin and that he not only failed to grasp how wrong things were despite seeing that twin everyday but also that while he and Gene were getting closer romantically Black's life was hanging by a thread ? how do you even act normal after that revelation ? (of course Black doesn't see it that way, because for Black, well people are just better off without him, aren't they ? but that doesn't mean he's not gonna have feelings about it) And meanwhile Gene is like "I had a very weird and confusing fucking couple of months and wouldn't it be nice if I had finally managed to sort it all out ?" but I am here to tell her not if I have anything to say about it, girl.

#frankly my first reaction to the gramblackgene storyline was 'it's fine but not particularly what i'm here for' #and then i went on the internets and I was like 'people hate it? but why? it was okay? it could have been better but it was pretty good?' #'in fact it really has a lot of potential?' #and that's how they get you u.u #not me the series

[peachymess]

I miss you. Tumblr nuked my account several months ago. Almost a year, I think. I started a new one and nobody cares. In a this time I've only got one single follower and idk why. An old mutual, but she obviously only followed me out of pity. She's much closer with her circle of friends, none of which care to interact with me. And I don't want to just force myself onto them. And I have to stay in anon with you because I don't want to come across begging, but I'm just so fucking alone

Hi, anon! 

I’m sorry to hear you feel so left out and alone. And I’m sorry tumblr nuked your account.  Obviously, I don’t know the context outside of what you’re telling me, so I might pose questions or say things that are irrelevant do this particular situation, but I wanna suggest this: perhaps people didn’t “not care”, but rather didn’t realize you got nuked? Even if you made a post about being nuked, on your new account, how would your old followers see that, you know? Imagine if I stopped posting and a week later I made a new account to say I got locked out, who would see it? Nobody follows that account so it wouldn’t show up on their dash. Sure, I could tag it peachymess, but who would search up my name, you know? Nobody would know that there was any information to look for to begin with. Because the sad truth is people leave. Throughout the years, I’ve seen so many people come and go. I miss so many people. But fandom is often just a train stop. People arrive, then another interest or life event pulls them out of the station and away they go. Even people you think are cemented stuck to the foundation of a fandom can up and leave - HAVE up and left. I think I’m not the only one who’s learned that radio silence means another person’s leave to accept. 

I don’t know what “nuked” means in the context of accounts, so I don’t know if you’re locked out or if it’s messed up in such a way that you decided to start fresh despite still having access to the old one. If you can’t get into the old one, the above explanation can be part of why people didn’t see your new post/didn’t go looking. But if you announced the move on your old account, then here’s something to consider: the fandom isn’t what it used to be. Especially if you’re from the eremin family. Obviously, there’s little likelyhood that the ship will be canon now - there seems to be no time for romance at all, tbh, with so few chapters left and so much WAR to deal with - and I think that deterred some of the activity. The SNK story has also become so bleak that many have taken a step back for the time being. The tumblr exodus took away a chunk too. Over all, in my experience, people aren’t as active anymore. And if they’re like me, who follow a good amount of people, it’s nearly impossible to catch every post by every blog - even though you follow them. Maybe they, like me, rarely scroll that much anymore, too. So, don’t be afraid to re-promote/boost the post you made so more people see it.

As for the pity follow. I don’t know. You know the situation better, but “out of pity” is probably an assumption, not a fact, unless it was explicitly confirmed to be. Remember that. Don’t always take your assumptions as facts - especially not if they’re made in a bad headspace. Depending on how much you interracted pre-nuking, it might be what feels natural to them, to follow but otherwise stay silente. Using myself as reference again, I follow a lot mutuals whom I never talk to, yet I care for them, just for being part of the family/community. If me and you were mutuasl but never talked - and I saw your post about being nuked - I’d quietly follow too, and not out of pity. 

I don’t know about this person’s circle of friends, I don’t know if they also used to be mutuals with you or what. I don’t know what that situation is about. I’m sorry it feels so excluding, either way. Whether they leave you out on purpose or you just don’t fit into the circle, though: perhaps either reason is the hint you need to go on to make a new circle of your own. I understand change is scary, and often unwanted. When you feel snug in a place/state, you want it to remain static forever, but... change is an inevitable part of life. Luckily, we have a big opportunity to grow from change. I was forced to give up on my own snugness and now I’ve started a new chapter in my life that’s made me happier, despite being downright terrified of letting go. Perhaps this will be hard for you too, but the reality seems to be that you can’t stay in this phase, whatever it is, because it’s hurting you. It isn’t what it used to be, and the only way to be ok again, is to find a new snug place because the old one isn’t there anymore. It changed. I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I’m genuinely sad that you sound to be in such a painful state right now, and I want you to find a spot to fit snuggly into again. That doesn’t have to mean in a different fandom, though. Perhaps the resolution will be to ask you friend if there’s room for you in her circle - perhaps it turns out they weren’t aware you’re feeling so outside of things. And maybe the spot is with another circle in the same fandom. But one thing’s for certain, a move has to be made, because you shouldn’t stay put in this limbo of feeling unwanted yet wanting to be wanted by that very same, painful enviornment. 

You say you miss me, so we obviously have some sort of connection. Feel free to DM me. I’m not active all that much outside of check-ins, and sometimes I take a long while to reply to things. But that’s just me, it’s got nothing to do with you, and you’re welcome to stay and chat.  Stay strong, Anon. And good luck, whatever you decide to do! 

[renaroo]

Wednesday Roundup 15/6/2017

So this is a day late but in my defense I had a ridiculous amount of comics to get through with no one to blame but myself here. And you know what? I genuinely enjoyed almost everything. But does that mean every comic was good this week? And even so what did I think was the best? 

Honestly I don’t know how to write these intros for people who wouldn’t be here to read my opinion anyway so let’s just jump into it. 

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC’s Detective Comics, DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester, DC’s Justice League of America, Image’s Motor Crush, DC’s Superwoman, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DC’s Titans, IDW’s Transformers: Salvation, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #21 Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk, Cory Hamscher, Terry Pallot, Michael Garland

Okay I need this issue to reread a million times over because there are just so many things I love all at once. Like, oh my gosh. I was almost in tears multiple times because relationships! Healing! Supporting each other!

Wade and Gabby alone could just about make this issue perfect, but then you have Laura and Daken hugging and worried about each other, and Old Man Logan being likable for the first time in any of my readings of him. There’s so much I enjoy, though I find the cover rather deceiving. This is much more of a Howlett family reunion than anything else, though I did enjoy Riri’s parts in it.

I just eriously adore these characters and it meant a lot to see them all come together like they have here and that cliffhanger HURT so much more for it. 

I will nitpick the art a bit because we’ve been doing so good about keeping Laura in the Wolverine costume which is much preferred to her X-23 wardrobes, for sure, but this issue it pretty much looked exactly like one of her old costumes without the midriffs and it was kinda weird. I know she took off a lot of her armor for skin contact but it’s... idk. It was weird. 

The main thing I’m happy about though is that as we go on, I realize that literally all of the Marvel books I’ve kept are going out of their way to not involve themselves in Secret Wars and it’s kind of beautiful. Laura and Gabby are stuck on an island that’s quarantined (and I can pretend Wade’s there with them instead of whatever’s going on since I dropped Deadpool for the summer crossovers, thanks Tom Taylor!), Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are literally off world, and the rest are non-616. So yay me!

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #8 Gerry Conway, Ryan Stegman, Jesus Aburtov

For those who don’t know, Mary Jane Watson is genuinely one of my favorite Marvel characters and is easily one of the reasons I ever stuck with the Spider-Man comics for as long as I did was because of my interest in her and wanting to see her and Peter.

I can also thank her for my genuine attraction to redheads probably.

But one of the main reasons that I’ve loved this book so much is because, as written by Gerry Conway, this is the Peter and MJ of my dreams. I love them so much, and the complications that comes from their relationship and from growing older, raising a daughter, and MJ’s desire to continuously be the glue to keep both Peter and Annie together logically causes her to seek out a way to continue being Spinerette without syphoning off Peter’s powers. 

It’s almost like growing old, having a stable relationship, trying to keep things fresh while raising a kid, are all dramatic and worthy of good storytelling in their own right or something HMM.

Anyway, yes it’s completely on the nose where this is going and it’s a little curious how MJ’s not immediately aware of the connection between what’s going on with her right now and the horrible, arguably traumatizing experience she and Peter had, but who knows what’s canon anymore lol

Basically, I sideye a bit from a story point of view, but this series continues to make up for it with the real thing that matters to me: these characters and their development.

DC’s Detective Comics (2016-present) #958 James Tynion IV, Aluaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson 

Honestly I really love the slower issues where Tynion takes more time to make moments for the relationships between the characters and give us interractions we didn’t know we wanted -- Kate going with Luke and Jean Paul to a basketball game, Cass and Clayface being adorable by reciting a play, Bruce at a poker game with a bunch of assholes in homage to Almost Got ‘im!? It was a lot of fun honestly. 

...

Okay I take issue with Cass’ dialogue. I know she was repeating lines from a tape and such but it’s weird to see her make so much progress when just two issues ago she was almost monosyllabic. Like... I want to see Cass gradually learning, I want to feel her frustration with hitting walls, I want to see her struggle and achieve despite the struggle because that gradual progression was honestly something we weren’t delivered in the former canon. We have a great opportunity for it here. 

But y’know. I’m particular with Cass and it’s hard to say where her baseline for reading and speech even is in this canon because her dyslexia may be in tact but her circumstances growing up are completely different. So I don’t know. 

Now. I’m a sucker for Bruce and Zatanna team-ups because I’m a schmuck but I’m really excited for next issue. Had a lot of fun with this one. This feels like a decent pace for Tynion -- at least in my opinion. 

DC’s Gotham Academy: Second Semester (2016-2017) #10 Brenden Fletcher, Becky Cloonan, Karl Kerschl, Adam Archer, Massyk, Sandra Hope

This comic is speeding toward an end and I’m not sure if I’m ready! 

From the beginning, for me at least, the selling point for Gotham Academy has been just how much these kids felt like real teenagers and real friends with all their various relationships and connections, platonic or romantic or something in between. And it’s powerful to see that coming to play as an advantage to completing Olive’s arc, but also as a disadvantage since the consequences of many of her actions hurt that much more.

I’ll save a lot of my thoughts for a complete wrap up of the series but overall, very happy and very grateful for the continuously good read that is GA

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Volume 1: Road to Rebirth Steve Orlando, Jody Houser, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald, Stephen Byrne, Jamal Campbell, Mirk Andolfo

WE GOTTA GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER. WE’RE ON A MISSION FROM GAD. 

In all seriousness, I’m a huge fan of Vixen and Ryan Choi as well as a big fan of Justice League International, as it was in its 80s glory. So my interests with this particular lineup were piqued from the beginning and I made myself wait for the first volume to dive in. 

For the most part, this is a team gathering exercise. Characters that have lacked the spotlight in the last few years -- Vixen, Ray, Killer Frost, and the Atom -- were given whole issues to reintroduce them to this continuity. And honestly those issues were great. I really, really love the updated origins for them and feel that they’re a good blend of honoring the past of the characters as well as adapting them for a new world. 

Lobo, Batman, and Black Canary took back seat, but considering that there were already tensions showing within the group, I think it’s safe to assume that giving the spotlight to the rest of the team won’t always last this long. Things are nothing if not explosive among these members.

I really did mean it when I said this is a team gathering exercise, because there’s no first case to unite everyone. There’s not any real antagonists or team-ups we see to speakof. It was just getting hte jLA together. 

And for me it’s enough to get me intrigued, though I’d completely understand if people told me it was far from enough for them. 

Now they just need to add Big Barda, Booster Gold, and Ted Kord and I’ll be satisfied. 

Image’s Motor Crush (2016-present) Vol. 1 Brenden Fletcher, Cameron Stewart, Babs Tarr

I was not the biggest fan of this team’s Batgirl team though I appreciated the aesthetics and what not. There just never seemed to be a storyline that really interested me and I couldn’t be sold on the characterization for Barbara. So I kept hearing about Motor Crush for the last year and was really itnerested in it so I wanted until this volume came out and. 

Well, quite simply, I’m in love.

Tell you what, those biker gangs that kept coming up really confusingly out of place in Batgirl make a hell of a lot more sense now that I can see this team’s actual passion project. 

So I love Motor Crush a lot, I’m really invested in Domino, the mystery that is her origins and the powers of Crush itself. I love her relationship with her ex, Lola, I love her father -- I love just about everything and the cliffhanger really surprised me. 

I will say that while I love having a world that speaks for itself rather than constant narration, it’s a little hard to follow this world entirely, I’d like a bit more explained than what has been, but at the end of the day I’m very excited to see more. 

DC’s Superwoman (2016-present) #11 K. Perkins, José Luís, Ray McCarthy, HI-FI

You know, I have made it clear that I’ve been worried about this title for a while now, really just hoping it was going to find its direction and wow us with the great potential that is the Super Family outside of the main Kent triad. And I feel like that’s for good reason -- the end of Jimenez’s run let a lot of people feeling justifiably scorned, there was a mishandling of a lot of heavy and important subjects that were raised, and at least the initial stuff with Perkins taking over kind of left one wondering if they had a fully formed direction to go toward next. 

But I am really glad that I stuck it out for this long because the family of John, Lana, Nat, and everyone else is so important and so fundamentally different from the dynamics found elsewhere in the new familial renaissance of the DCU that I needed it. And I hope it continues to emphasize these relationships and how important they are to each other.

I’m still unhappy with how anxiety and mental illness is being handled in the title and find it lacking since it was brought up to begin with and now being ignored. That subject alone is making me rethink my disinterest in Green Lantern books as a whole because I have loved and felt inspired so far by what I’ve seen of Jessica Cruz and their handling of anxiety, and it’s why I picked up Silk at the high recommendations of a close friend. 

So I’d like for mental illness to be treated better in this title -- the least it can do after bringing it up and treating it the way it did at the end of Jimenez’s run, but there’s so much value in the non-nuclear family dynamic of the Irons household and of the uniqueness of Lana’s powers and her approach to fighting crime that it’s worth it. For me anyway.

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011-present) #70 Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Mateus Santolouco, Ronda Pattison

I knew the end of this storyline was going to be, at the very least, explosive but wow, WOW I had no idea how many twists and turns it was going to take in that time. That was a phenomenal ending to the Mutanimals storyline for the time being, and I just feel so bad for Slash, down to my core. I’m so worried about him, and whenever he will be allowed to recover.

At least I hope he’ll recover.

This series is seventy issues strong and i’m just so blown away by the way they still manage to keep me on the edge of my feet while so many different storylines and character developments are happening at the same time.

I mean, I even feel for Old Hobb here!

I do suppose a complaint I could hold here is that the titular turtles themselves have ultimately not been very front and center throughout this storyline, and that really showed in the conclusion, where for the most part they were lost to the colorfulness of the huge, colorful supporting cast that has been developed over the years. 

For me, personally, I think that’s honestly okay. We can’t have the same story over and over again with only the main four characters driving the narrative, and it’s been a long standing tradition in TMNT for a good 30 years now to sort of embody the concept that our main guys don’t really look for situations to get involved with but sort of fall into them naturally. 

Not to mention it’s probably a strength that 70 issues in, we haven’t once repeated plots or stories or put any of the characters on a loop of development to end up right back where they started. I don’t think the achievement of that can be understated, especially as we near that landmark #75!

DC’s Titans (2016-present) #12 Dan Abnett, Kenneth Rocafort, Dan Brown

Bleh. BLEH. I was holding out judgment on the twist of Wally and Donna and Roy ending up in some kind of love triangle because I wanted the context but honestly the context is kinda... bleh. It would be awesome if we lived in some world and time where Donna’s origins were not constantly retconned and thus the source of her characterization in every run of every thing she showed up in. Which is by no means a new problem but still.

And my opinion is... Wally and Donna are both going through a hard time and Wally is having to accept that his life is fundamentally different from the previous world he knew, that he can’t just badger people into returning things to the way they were -- especially Linda, who he loves but it’s a very one-sided relationship as a result of the parallel universe paradox and stuff. It makes sense to me that in a ploy to gain some sense of control over that, he and Donna both would try to take fate in an unexpected direction, into their own hands. 

But making it a love triangle with Roy just kinda keeps my eyes firmly rolled into the back of my skull. 

I overall like Lilith, Dick, Garth, and Karen’s development and characterization in this issue. I think they’re taking Lilith in interesting directions and I’m really curious about what her omen means for the future, since apparently there’s a traitor among them. And they set up plenty of reasons for various members to be that traitor in this issue but I can’t help but assume already that it’s going to end up being a twist. Good twist or not remains to be seen. 

IDW’s Transformers: Salvation (2017) John Barber, Livid Ramondelli

I’m going to be completely “original” here and say that I’m not a fan of Ramondelli’s at for the various Transformers comics. i know! I know. Shocking, never said before, completely going against the general fandom consensus. I’m such a brave soul. I know. 

Okay, joking aside though... I didn’t think the art was bad in this one-shot. Actually! I’d argue a lot of it was even good. He may not be my favorite artist and I’ll think that his colo gradients are butt ugly most of the time, but there was better handled action sequences than usual, the characters looked like they had weight, and we even got a range of expressiveness in the characters that is... well, frankly, not usual for Ramondelli. 

So other than that shocking revelation, I thought Barber performed good once more on tying the TF universe together again, answering some prior plot points and nicely knotting off loose ends. Trypticon being a Titan is not the biggest revelation in the world, but the development of Sandstorm and the Dinobots was great, and I loved just how devious Starscream truly is under Barber’s pen even though I’ve fully been enjoying the characterization for him in Till All Are One. 

But the most important thing of all: SPARKLINGS. SPARKLINGS. All I’ve wanted for years is baby transformers so I am HAPPY BEYOND BELIEF. THEY’RE NO LONGER A DYING SPECIES AND THESE PRECIOUS BABIES COULD BE BORN WITHOUT EVER KNOWING THE CIVIL WAR AHHHHHHHH

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #24 Greg Rucka, Bilquis Evely, Romulo Fajardo Jr. 

WOW! I mean, just wow! What a resolution to everything. I have so many emotions for Diana, for Barbara Ann, for even Veronica Cale of all people. Etta and Steve were great, the art was amazing.

It’s just such a relief and such... honestly just an amazing feat that Greg Rucka is beginning to wrap up this just phenomenal run of Wonder Woman 

I really enjoyed how everything turned out and it was so remarkable to see Diana’s resolution to save Veronica but also to not turn her back on her friends and loved ones as well as the torment it is for Barbara to not be able to get into Themyscira after all her life’s work.

And I liked Diana’s assessment of Veronica at the end, it was true and also blunt to the point of cruelty. But fitting also. 

It’s amazing what a turn around I’ve personally felt when it comes to Veronica’s character because in all honesty I was not a fan of her most of the time in the preboot, but Rucka really has fleshed her out and done something unique with her perspective now. There is tragedy but there’s also less deniability for her fault in all of it. 

I’m sad to be coming toward Rucka’s end on the run, but I’m also so happy to see the love and passion he’s put into everything culminating to what it is now.

This is a genuinely hard choice but I think if I go by what tugged on my heartstrings the most, what gave me the most joy overall and just feelings unrelenting from start to finish, I would have to say that my pick of the week is All-New Wolverine. I adore this series and I couldn’t be happier with this issue and how they’re keeping my precious Marvel girls faaaaaar away from Secret Empire. A close second would be Wonder Woman but really I would happily recommend my entire pull this week. It was a geat week for comics.

But that’s just my opinion! I’d love to know your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? Think I missed something I should’ve picked up this week? I’d love to hear from you!

#Rena Roundups #SPOILERS #Wednesday Spoilers #All New Wolverine (2015 ) #Amazing Spiderman: Renew Your Vows (2016 ) #Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011 ) #Detective Comics (2016 ) #Gotham Academy: Second Semester #Justice League of America (2016 ) #Superwoman (2016 ) #Titans (2016 ) #Wonder Woman (2016 ) #Motor Crush #Transformers: Salvation