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suzukiblu · 3 months

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I know it's totally wrong for what you're shooting for but your stories make me feel bad for Clark. All these folks judging him, when as far as he can tell Kon doesn't even want to be around him. And honestly, he's had clones before. No one expected him to mourn when a Bizarro degraded

. . . okay, friend, first off I apologize, because I def got carried away with this response and it turned into a bit of a rant, hah. Please don't take any of this the wrong way or get the impression I'm annoyed by this ask or anything, I just fundamentally disagree with SO many things about how Clark's relationship with Kon has been handled in canon and apparently I had to word-vomit a lot of that out here and now in explanation of why I tend to write Clark as being Objectively Wrong about Kon/how he treats Kon.

A) There's no convincing reason I can think of that Clark should think Kon doesn't want to be around him, and if he DID, why would he have given him permission to wear the El crest to begin with, much less offered him either the name "Superboy" or "Kon-El"? Especially Kon-El, because that's a name that originated from a specifically ADOPTED member of his birth family, and Clark offered it to him while CALLING him family, but also . . . lying to him about having a secret identity? And whole-ass other life??

and also

B) I actually WOULD expect Clark to mourn a Bizarro degrading. That's like his whole deal, in my experience of him across various media: Clark Kent is a person who thinks that every person matters and is undeniably the kind of guy that would be upset by someone suffering from genetically-inevitable degradation. Especially if the people suffering that degradation only exist to suffer it because HE, Clark "I Am Personally Responsible For This Whole Damn Planet, And Yes That IS A Threat" Kent, exists.

Like, Clark always takes way too much on himself. So it doesn't really make sense to me that a dude like that would take one look at a kid with his own face who is actually at best about a month old and just decide "yeah, this person doesn't need me ever involved in their life at all" and STICK with that assessment even through repeated problems, near-death experiences, and straight-up disasters. ESPECIALLY because Clark already knew Matrix, and she was ALSO a genetic experiment who'd been made in his image by someone he didn't have any reason to trust. But he still took Mae to his parents' farm and let her live there pretty much immediately, trusted her with SO many of his secrets and even trusted her living with his parents without, again, having to jump through ANY of the MULTITUDE of hoops that Kon did to earn a similar level of trust, and she eventually started dating literal LEX LUTHOR and Clark still trusted her after THAT!

( I mean, I think everyone thought Lex was his own son at the time or something weird like that, Because Comics, but still! STILL!! )

Shit, Clark still trusted Mae after she had a mental breakdown ON HIS PARENTS and tried to attack him and had a severe enough psychotic break that she thought she literally WAS him! Mae very quickly proved herself to be WAY more dangerous and hostile than Kon has EVER been outside of being directly mind-controlled, but from the jump Clark is way more invested in her and her life and CARES way more about her and her life. And later he responds to Kara just as differently as he did Mae, despite her ALSO debuting as both a more dangerous and more hostile person than Kon. So like . . . there's a bit of a double-standard going there, it kind of feels like? Like, at least on a meta-level. And I'm sure most of it's editorial nonsense and the kind of narrative problems that lie inherent in like . . . what, thirty-plus years of comic history and about eight bajillion different writers and the like, obviously, but it just is REAL hard to justify that behavior in the actual narrative when Clark Kent is meant to be the moral paragon that the entire damn rest of the DC universe is meant to set its metaphorical watch by.

Either way, though, I'm usually trying to write Clark as either sympathetic or at least understandable in his logic, even when it's flawed, so I wouldn't really say it's "wrong" if you feel sympathy for him while reading my writing. Like, I'm not saying he's in the right in those specific fics, but I do still want to be empathetic to his point of view. It is again just REALLY hard for me to explain a lot of Clark's canon relationship with Kon in any way other than "benign neglect due to just deliberately assuming that all Kryptonians are always Perfectly Fine, Thanks due to his own personal issues about what 'Superman' represents", and that's the KIND option.

Long story short, I really just don't care what DC says, It is NOT on the brand-new teenager with zero life experience who Clark deliberately LET put an S-shield-shaped target on their back to single-handedly foster a relationship with the perfect superhero idol that most of the damn world looks up to. I genuinely cannot think of a single significant occasion where Clark ever does anything for Kon that involves CLARK having to put in any kind of recurring effort, but we're supposed to accept that KON has to earn scraps of Clark's attention and the right to be considered a part of his family over and over again--while Clark, again, doesn't have to do anything to earn Kon's attention or the right to be considered a part of HIS family? Ever? Even ONCE??

Relationships are two-way streets, DC! That's just how relationships are, DC!! Otherwise it's just parasocial bullshit or someone taking advantage of someone else, DC!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I really love Clark, I think he's a great character in a lot of fascinating ways and that he is VERY interesting and affecting when he's done well ("you can do anything you want, and all you want to do is help people" HELLO CRYING IN THE CLUB RN), but like . . . come on, DC, what the fuck and WHY?

#confusedguytoo #meta ecetera

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brookebeamsbig · 6 days

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💭 harley quinn #32-37

it's time to process tini howard and sweeney boo's second story arc. unfortunately, harley is still hammering it out with the multiverse, but this time she is working with lady quark instead of against her. kinda.

now we have a new force to reckon with - the brother eyes.

howard is again enjoying throwing in dc deep cuts with the brother eyes (meaning I once again got to do a google deep dive). I do appreciate this true conceptualizing of harley in a broader, shared universe.

in howard's story, the brother eyes work for lady quark. on a craft level, this is an excellent setup for what howard's trying to do in this arc because so does harley. this creates a parallel within howard's tale that mirrors the overarching parallel howard bases her story reasoning upon.

because why are the brother eyes so interested in harley? in watching her and understanding her and mapping her? because she was once a sidekick who made something of herself. and they want to do that, too.

I like this idea. I like it a lot. it creates a unique story around one of the things that makes harley truly special. but I never said howard had bad ideas.

but before I get into the perils of howard's writing, I want to do a run down on some other important players in this arc.

in harley quinn #32, we get introduced to lux kirby, p.i. lux is a completely new character from this creative team, but I couldn't help feeling a sense of deja vu when they appeared. the "detective" seeking out a multiversal harley murderer felt a lot like something out of stephanie phillip's last arc. just sayin.

however, ultimately, I liked lux and what they brought to harley and this story. they were a fun catalyst and means to much of the action. I always vibe with a character like that. and they were a good friend. harley struggled a lot with her mental health and self-perception in these issues, and lux helped ground her.

speaking of friends, KEVIN'S BACK :DDD. and acting like kevin. god bless.

I was sososo pissed when howard essentially fucked kevin over at the beginning of her run. but she definitely put in the time here to make it up to us. that sequence where harley had to anticipate kevin's choices in order to locate him in the multiverse was genius.

there's also two groups of characters from the first arc that play an important role in this one - bud and lou and harley's college class.

y'all know I always love the babies. I appreciate that howard wanted to do something big and bold with them. I liked the twist where they were the suspected murderers. BUT a lot of their actions here were just convoluted to create conflict and drama. like... we can't tell harley the brother eyes are out to get her because... why???

and I thought it was fun having harley's class get dragged along in her adventures. but every time, it felt like howard got the concept but fumbled the execution. harley's class ends up on warworld? cool! but it feels too smooth and rushed and weird. harley's students get turned into omacs? oh no! except there was no emotional or consequential impact.

sadly, that's a common occurrence for howard's writing. howard has exciting ideas, but her writing is too surface level with bad transitions and flow. much of the time I feel like I'm reading her bulleted outline, not the final story.

she rushes pivotal moments. we end an issue with the brother eyes about to reveal harley's worst moments, but then we gloss over that at the beginning of the next one. she throws out plot threads and doesn't carry them through. we should be concerned that the warworld royal family has been turned into omacs, powerful weapons to be used against harley, but then we don't see them anything until they're healed.

that's not to say every single line or scene is bad. howard has said that harley's mental health is one of the most compelling parts of harley's character to her. we can see that reflected in the comics - in the storyline and themes but also in the moments that shine.

I thought the multiverse sequence in harley quinn #37 was the strongest part of this arc. (this does not count the framing narrative.) each scene portrayed harley's fears and doubts about her own capabilities and power in a creative way. what if she became the controlling one in her relationship? what if she was good but still so unstable she had to be locked up? what if she pushed everyone who cared about her away?

sweeney boo's art also had some great moments depicting harley's mental state from her spiraling to her negative self-talk.

however, as with everything in this run, the depiction of harley's mental health has its downsides. howard leans too much into sentiments like "oh no, everyone will think I'm bad!" "oh no, everyone's just putting up with me! "oh no, I'm such a screw up!" and "oh no, I'm going to get in trouble! better hide!" it reads too childish and infantilizing for a capable grown woman who has a PhD in psychology and a lifetime of living inside her own mind.

of course, I think harley's going to have worries, doubts, and fears as she navigates being a hero. exploring this is good since this is the story route we're taking. but howard often fails to strike the right balance.

unfortunately, this bleeds over into the depiction of harley and ivy's relationship. there's this idea that ivy has to handle or deal with harley. that harley's too loud and too much. that harley could disappoint ivy at any moment. harley shouldn't be a problem. harley should be a partner.

along those lines, when harley and ivy aren't fighting, ivy isn't doing... anything. she's just there. in a way that feels eerie. like we're still in knight terrors: poison ivy #1. you can see it in the facial expressions.

harley hides her shenanigans from ivy for most of howard's twelve issues because "oh no, ivy's going to be mad at me!" even when harley finally tells her what's going on, ivy sits it out. and it just... really sucks. ivy is harley's PARTNER IN CRIME. always has been. she should be IN ON THE SHENANIGANS.

I do acknowledge that this might be a broader dc editorial problem since ivy has her own ongoing and concurrent story, but STILL.

this second story arc was far from one of my favorite harley quinn tales, but at least now we can move on from this multiversal madness. (please gawd let us move on from this multiversal madness.)

#harley quinn #poison ivy #harlivy #dc comics #comics #harley quinn 32 #harley quinn 33 #harley quinn 34 #harley quinn 35 #harley quinn 36 #harley quinn 37 #comics review #spoilers

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lonelywretchjervistetch · 9 months

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My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Epilogue)

Epilogue: My Adventures with Superman

...Well, holy shit. Just when I was getting worried that nobody would get Superman, along comes one of the best comic-book related products we've seen in years, which delivers me so much of the stuff I wanted in a cinematic version of Superman...and is almost perfect. Yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but goddamn if this isn't one of my ideal versions of Superman.

Y'know, I've considered doing sort of a sum-up of the different major adaptations of the Superman mythos by bringing together all the points made in my essays, but I felt it was too much. For this, however, I think that makes sense. And yes, I'm doing this after only 4 episodes have aired, and yes, I realize that what just happened in the most recent episode is fucking insane and something I desperately want in a Superman story...but I'll at least cover my personal approach, since this show's kinda hot right now. And rarely do I have the chance to jump on a burgeoning fandom, so FUCK IT!

If you'd like to see my previous and insane essays on my preferred version of the Man of Steel, here's the link! Always. Be. Plugging. But if you'd rather hear my opinion of My Adventures with Superman, then check out the section after the jump. But just know that I like it, with a couple of caveats that you've probably already heard about this show.

Clark Kent: Abnormal Superman

Um...did somebody read my essays before I even thought about them, because this is pretty goddamn close to my ideal Clark Kent. He's a big ol' dork with a heart of god who wants to do the right thing, but is also nowhere near perfect in his everyday life and methods. He's a teensy bit clumsy, but still very well-put together. He wants to help when and how he can, and is willing to go along with shenanigans to do so. He has an actual personality, and most importantly, he feels human.

Yeah, this is a dude from Kansas who also happens to be an alien. And good goddamn, is scaling down his powers and knowledge of his past a great idea. Smallville, of course, did this, but that version of Clark was often too serious and rough around the edges. And maybe most importantly, Tom Welling's Clark never seemed like an outcast. I mean, the dude was handsome as all fuck, and built like a linebacker. And yet, I'm supposed to buy that the guy is a loser and outcast? Yeah, no, not buying it. But this Clark? Yeah, the guy's a massive dork. Handsome and built like a fucking freight train, yeah, but still a dork. And maybe most importantly...I don't buy this dude as Superman.

Yeah. Really. I mean, dude is OBVIOUSLY Superman, because he's built like a tank and super nice, but I get not fully seeing this guy as Superman. Somehow, FUCKING SOMEHOW, they pull this off better than literally any other version I've seen since the Christopher Reeves version. And yeah, that's insanely high praise, because Reeves has some of the best dichotomous acting I've ever seen. But this Superman and this Clark both seem like the same person and separate people at the same time somehow. It's an impressive feat that I can barely explain.

And yet...they're still definitely the same person. Any sane person would be able to figure it out eventually, with enough personal interaction. It's one of the reasons why the glasses joke exists, because it really shouldn't make much sense. But in this series, the glasses actually change the shape of his pace, and slight changes in his posture and voice (by the pretty great Jack Quaid) actually do work as a subtle mask for the character. But will that last forever? Well...more on that later.

I also said this before, but I love the fact that we're learning about Clark and his powers as he's learning about himself. This series is obviously anime-inspired, and it really leans into the shonen angle thematically and visually. When the first art for this show came out, I was intrigued but cautious. Now, though, I'm into it. We'll see how the more anime-esque electrical powers work out, but it actually seems like a reference to the sporadically used bioelectric field manipulation ability that Superman has in the comics. Yeah, he has a field of bioelectricity around his body that provides him (and his costume) with invulnerability, and also occasionally gives him plot-convenience powers. Don't ask questions, OK? It's a comic book thing.

Speaking of that, though, the creators are definitely playing fast and loose with the Superman mythos, and I'm interested to see exactly how that plays out as the series continues. I'm a little cautious for reasons to be addressed later, but I'm still quite interested. So, now that we've covered Superman, whom I think is fantastic in his characterization...let's get to the character who I think is excellently represented in this series.

Lois Lane: Intrepid (Intern) Reporter

Jesus Christ, this is a great Lois. There are a lot of ways you can do a good Lois, and there are a number of great Loises, but MAWS' Lois ranks extremely high on that list. Dogged to the point of recklessness, determined to get the truth at all costs, and desperate to be a great reporter, she has the stuff that makes any great Lois. But what really puts her over the edge for me is her characterization. Alice Lee does a fantastic job as Lois' voice, and gives her a mix of naivete, determination, and...oddly, hope. I dunno, there's something about Lee's portrayal that really works for me.

And a lot of people have pointed out two things. One, she's basically Lux from The Owl House. Yeah. And? Fucking and? Luz is a fantastic character in her own right, and very Lois Lane-esque. Personally, I think that's a great and worthy comparison for any version of Luz. Secondly, she's a tomboy. And I think most people on Tumblr are fine with that, but I also see some criticism for that choice. And for those who don't like that...fuck off a little bit. Not a lot, but a little bit. There's nothing wrong with a slightly more tomboyish Lois, and I actually adore a Lois who isn't a damsel in distress all the time. She literally fights some of the bad guys in this series, and we're only four episodes in! Seriously, I love that. And she is occasionally in distress, but she gets into that shit herself, which is exactly what Lois Lane is supposed to do. Look, I love this Lois. Oh, and another thing!

Is Lois Korean? Holy shit, that's fantastic! I said in my second essay that Lois is one of those characters who isn't racially bound in any way. There, I suggested that she could be played by a Latina, which has been hinted at before in some comics. But honestly, this is a great choice! And I only say Korean because, in the most recent episode, she appears to be wearing the top half of a hanbok, which is a traditionally Korean dress. And yeah, I'm fully here for it. Don't know if she's mixed or not (we'll probably see Sam Lane at a later date), but this is great all on its own.

And then, there's the other thing: Lois' position as Superman's Inevitable Love Interest. The ILE is, of course, a tradition in all things superhero comic, and Lois is arguably the first and most famous of all ILEs. Like Thanos before her, she is truly inevitable, and that seems to be at the center of this series. Oh, and at this point...sort of SPOILERS AHEAD??? I mean, come on, this was obviously gonna happen.

By the end of episode 4, these two are clearly romantically interested in each other. Hell, by the end of episode 1, these two are interested in each other. And can I just say that's they're hands fucking down the most adorable Clark and Lois I've ever fucking seen? I mean it, they're the best version of this couple in live-action media, and I can actually see them becoming the comic book versions of that couple.

As a quick compare and contrast of the most notable versions:

Reeves and Kidder were great, but the movies never actually committed in having them be a couple. They actively made sure it wouldn't happen a couple of times, to much irritation, and their relationship never truly blossomed, which was based on the comics at the time.

Fuck Dean Cain...but Cain and Hatcher were pretty good as a couple, pre-and-post-marriage. Which, again, was a part of comics at the time, so it makes sense. Even then, I wouldn't call them particularly cute, just more of a relatively normal couple.

Don't get me wrong, I love Daly and Durance's animated versions of the two...but they never actually became a couple until the very end of Superman: The Animated Series. And we only saw them as Lois and Superman, not Lois and Clark. So, sadly, they don't rank.

Welling and Durance were...off-and-on. Funnily enough, their appearance as this version of the couple in the Arrowverse crossovers was probably better than any other appearance they had, and their appearances in the 10th season were genuinely quite nice. High up there as the best version, and one of my favorites.

Hoechlin and Tulloch are, in my opinion, the best married version of the characters. They honestly nail it, and their chemistry is pretty much perfect. Their versions of the characters still rank pretty high as some of the best, and they're even better as a couple.

Routh and Bosworth...moving on...

Cavill and Adams...well...I mean...they have some chemistry, and...they've definitely had sex. Um. Yeah. That's it. Whoooooo.

O'Connell and Romjin are a little-remembered animated version of the two, and not the only animated version of the two, either. But honestly, they're really good in The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, and were my favorite animated version of them as a couple...prior to MAWS.

And OK, sure, we've barely seen these two as a couple at this point, but I really like them. They're adorable, they're adorkable, they're supportive of each other, and their chemistry is basically immediate. They're just really cute and fun to watch, and I can't wait to see them progress. Especially because...

OK, I can't stress this enough, but skip the next GIF if you don't want spoilers, and scroll down until you get to Jimmy Olsen. Please. This is a biggie. OK? Got it? Read at your own peril.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU SERIOUS THEY ACTUALLY DID IT

If you've read my Superman essays, you know that I want movie Lois Lane to have found out Clark is Superman on her own, and before the movie starts. And holy shit, they actually did it in MAWS! FUCK YES! Lois is smart and sharp, so she should pick up on the fact that Clark is Superman! I love that they did this, even if her way of finding out was somewhat by accident. She still put the clues together on her own, so I'm satisfied with this ending! And I'm pretty sure they're not going to reverse this! If they do, I'd be pissed off, but I don't think they will. Just...HELL YEAH, BABEEEEEEEEEE

OK...I think the spoiler-free have scrolled past this by know, so...let's move on with the essay, shall we?

Supporting Cast: Jimmy and the Rest

OK, let's talk Jimmy Olsen (played by Ishmael Sahid). Honestly, I love the fact that he's a conspiracy nut with his own YouTube channel, and that he's literal bunkmates with Clark in this series. This is also pretty close to my perfect version of Jimmy Olsen, not gonna lie. His streaming name is even Flamebird, a deepcut comics reference that shows the creators not only know their stuff, but also actively care about Superman comics and history. That's one of the things that one me over in the first episode, for the record. But more on that later.

Jimmy is the third wheel, but one who's usually welcome. We'll see the fallout of the Lois-Clark romance soon, I'm sure, but Jimmy's role has been pretty much perfect. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a black Jimmy Olsen, while welcomed by me...is a little weird when you look at the legion of ginger characters in media that have been replaced by black characters in adaptations. While, again, I don't think Jimmy is racially bound to being ginger, it is a fairly iconic part of his identity. And...yeah, a lot of ginger characters have been translated into black people in recent years, and that's...really weird, not gonna lie. Makes me think even more about my Legion of Super-Heroes essay, honestly. Still, solid-ass Jimmy, and I can't wait for more.

I actually adore Perry White (voiced by Darrell Brown) in this series, and his grumpy boss persona is...well, quintessential Perry White. I'd actually say this is a perfect version of the character, although that's not as difficult to nail as some other versions. Looking forward to seeing more of Perry's life as he supports our bumbling interns.

I was tickled pink to see Cat Grant (Melanie Minichino), Steve Lombard (Vincent Tong), and a genderbent Ronnie Troupe (Kenna Ramsey) in this show, because it once again signals to me that the show creators really care about Superman mythos. And honestly, these guys were transplanted essentially unchanged from the comics, as far as we can see so far. This may change in the future, but I'm very excited to see the rivalry between our three and these reports build and develop during the series. Great job with these guys.

The Kents only make an appearance in one episode thus far, but I think they're pretty good! We see them in the past and in the present, and they're a couple of farmers who love their son. They're also some of the youngest versions of the characters we've seen in adaptations, save for Smallville, and it works well! They also make it apparent that these are Clark's parents, even in the short time we see them. Again, good job so far, and I want to see more!

So, with all of that, I adore this series, and it's perfect! Right? Right?

The Villains: Literal and Figurative Cons

If you've heard anything about this series from Superman fans, then you've probably heard that the villains are...not amazing so far. And that's mostly because the villains are where this series takes the most liberties, while also downsizing most of them pretty severely. I'll go through them briefly here, but just know that the changes made so far are...not my favorite. And if you've read my essays, you know my opinion on villains in superhero media: you gotta nail them.

So, let's start with Livewire, AKA Leslie Willis (voiced by Zehra Fazal). I really love this character (and actually positioned her as a major villain in the second Superman movie of my cinematic universe), so I'm quite invested in Livewire. And this version is a tech-powered villain who kicks off the conflict for the first part of the series. She's a completely different version of the character...and she works? Kinda? Look, as the first villain to face Superman, she's fine, but she's barely Livewire. The end of the second episode hints that she may become more like the original down the line, but she's missing that sass of the original. And yeah, she works without that, but it doesn't feel like Livewire to me. That's nitpicking, though, because we have a much worse set of adaptations to cover.

Intergang is so much of a non-entity in this show, they have no GIFS on Tumblr. Understand, this community has made GIFs of every other character except these guys. In total, they are Silver Banshee AKA Siobhan MacDougal (played by Catherine Taber), Mist AKA Kyle Nimbus (played by Lucas Grabeel), and Rough House AKA Albert (played by Vincent Tong). And they've been changed from:

A cursed Scottish-Irish woman, empowered by magic and a major threat to the Man of Steel, having nearly killed him multiple times...and is currently dating Jimmy Olsen, which I kinda love?

A scientist who invented a process to turn himself into gaseous form, and used his powers to fight the hero Starman; this rivalry was passed on to the next generation, on the side of both hero and villain.

And the clone of a gangster endowed with super-strength, serving beneath Boss Moxie of Intergang, and the forces of the dark world of Apokolips above him.

...into a group of loser who got technology they couldn't handle. Yeah, it's a major downgrade, and two of those guys weren't even that notable in the first place. Siobhan gets completely fucking shafted here, and I think it's a genuine failure of this series. Harsh, I know, but seeing Silver Banshee get fucked over that hard really sucked for me.

Oh, and yeah, Intergang was a major villainous group for the Superman film in my cinematic universe, so removing their Apokoliptian ties...bums me the fuck out, too. Also, it looks like Flash villain Heat Wave is an upcoming member, which is...weird as fuck, honestly. We'll see how this pans out, but I'm not terribly enthusiastic about it.

And then there's Anthony Ivo (played by Jake Green), who's been repurposed into a tech bro entrepeneur in the vein of Elon Musk, in charge of AmazoTech, which is obviously a reference to the comic book version. And this was an...interesting set of choices, honestly. Some spoilers here, but Ivo's version of AMAZO is an armor that drains the power of Superman and redirects it against him. And yes, that makes Ivo also this universe's version of...Parasite. ANOTHER villain that I put in the second movie of my cinematic universe, and one of my absolute favorite Superman villains.

I don't hate the reinvention, but that's only because of what happens to Ivo at the end of the episode. I won't spoil it here, but he definitely turns into a more proper version of the character, so we'll see what happens there. As for his assistant, Alex (played by...somebody), well, he's interesting, isn't he? At first, I thought he was Alex Allston, one of the Parasite twins from the 2000s. But a number of people seem to think he might be another familiar red-headed Superman villain named Alexander, if you know what I mean. Let's just say, there's a possibility that he'll steal forty cakes at some point. And that's terrible.

And finally, there's...wait, is that Deathstroke AKA Slade WIlson (played by Chris Parnell)? Why is he young...and hot? Why is Slade young and hot? And two-eyed? I mean, yeah, sure, that's not the worst thing in the world, but...goddamn, that's some whiplash. Interestingly, he appears to be affiliated with Task Force X, which is name dropped in episode 2. Plus, Amanda Waller is clearly in the background, so a much wider plan is in play. And yeah, while it's weird to see young hot Deathstroke, I'll give it a chance.

Other villains have been hinted at, and allegedly radically reinvented, such as Mr. Mxyzptlk and Brainiac, but we've yet to see what will become of them. Still, this is a divisive start. As long as we get some actual supernatural threats, and not just people in armor, I'll be happy. Time will tell.

Story: Just Getting Started

At this point, it's pretty much impossible to judge the story of this series, since we've only just started. But, with the technology obtained by Livewire from a mysterious source, and then leaked into the criminal underworld, we at least have enough threats to supply tension throughout this first portion of the series. The relationship of our trio is progressing nicely, with Jimmy realizing his third-wheel status, and with the Lois and Clark relationship moving along interestingly and unexpectedly.

There's also a number of hanging plots that look promising, including Clark discovering his powers and origins; Task Force X and Deathstroke, as well as their interest in Superman; the missing Parasite technology after Ivo's fall; the rivalry between the interns and their reporter rivals; and even Lois' relationship with her father (who...might be the guy standing next to Waller in Task Force X? No clue, that's just a guess). So, we have some stuff to look forward to! And maybe, just maybe, the villains will also steadily improve. I think Silver Banshee's a lost cause at this point, but I have hope for Livewire and Parasite, at least. But again, time will tell.

I also can't wait to see what the creators have up their sleeves. They're obviously ans of Superman and his mythos. I didn't even mention what won me over on this show in the first place! Other than Clark and Lois themselves, of course. In the first episode, Lois introduces Jimmy and Clark to her information gatherers: the Newskid Legion. And for those of you who don't know, that's a reference to the Golden Age of Comics, and a group of street-wise kids that would become supporting characters of Superman's during the '90s (through the trendy magic of cloning)! The kids have an adaptation in this series, and that attention to lore alone made me an instant fan of this show. Sounds like nothing, I know, but it meant a hell of a lot to a Superfan like me. Now GIVE ME MY EVERYMAN BIBBO BIBBOWSKI!

Conclusion: A Hopeful Tomorrow

I'm...scared about Gunn's Superman film. I won't write a whole essay about it, but it sounds ambitious to the point of being bloated. A lot of recent casting news makes me feel like this is more of a set-up to the wider DCU, as less of a Superman film in and of itself. Plus, with rumors that Luthor is being cast, and no sign of a villain announcement yet...I dunno. It has me worried. So thank God for My Adventures with Superman.

This series is a blessing so far. Sure, it could blow for the rest of the season, but call me hopeful. I think this show is fantastic so far, and I'm really thinking it'll stick the landing with the first season. Alongside that, honestly, is the fact that it's trying something new for any Superman adaptation, and there's a bravery in that. I don't know if it'll go down as my preferred Superman adaptation (Superman: The Animated Series is a hard one to beat for me), but it's got a good start. And a brave series that inspires hope in the face of fear and impossible odds? Man, that's what Superman is all about.

And now that that's said and done (for now, anyway)...

I believe I have another essay series to finally finish.

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Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

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distort-opia · 1 year

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Can you compile some examples of Batman losing/killing the Joker for whatever reasons and how it has a negative effect on him? Off the top of my head I’m thinking of TBWL and the Arkham series, both in which the death of the Joker haunts and corrupts Bruce. But I’m hoping there’ll be more.

Those two are already solid examples, but if I were to point out some more, there's also Batman: Damned and Injustice: Gods Among Us!

Batman: Damned #3

Damned can be difficult to interpret at times, but the premise of the story is really interesting. What if Batman was dying? Would he kill or let Joker die, to make sure he wouldn't murder more people after he was gone? (Same question as Endgame, in a way.)

And the answer is that he'd be tempted to. The whole story is a metaphysical journey, in a strange afterlife where we can't be sure what's real and what's symbolic, but the end suggests that Bruce's spirit could not move on with Joker's death on his conscience. And so, at the end of the comic, we see Joker surviving the fall in the water, very reminiscent to his emergence for the first time in The Killing Joke. Though what gets me about this line is that... it isn't "He should be alive," or "He doesn't deserve to die", or any other possible iteration that points to morality or justice. It's Bruce saying "I wish he were still alive." Him, personally, despite all the potential destruction Joker might wreak after he's gone.

And well, we are all familiar with how unhinged Bruce gets in Injustice: Gods Among Us, after Clark kills Joker for what he's done to Metropolis, and to Lois:

Injustice: Gods Among Us -- Year 1 #11

Bruce's hypocrisy in this comic is... painful, at times. He ends up overlooking crimes done by others in his fight against Clark, but he cannot forgive Clark Joker's murder-- and that's a huge factor contributing to Clark's descent into the dark. Clark didn't just flip a switch and become Evil, he does so progressively, and Bruce could've helped, could've tried to be a friend; but instead he's hostile and interprets every action of Clark's in a negative light, causing him to become defensive and double down more and more.

In the end, there's a reason Clark accuses Bruce of loving Joker. It's not at all out of the blue. A lot of Bruce's behavior in the story of Injustice only makes sense if you take into account the fact he cared about Joker, and that he took his murder personally (yet even then, he cannot admit it).

Anyway! Perhaps Flashpoint Batman attempting to resurrect Martha Wayne in The Fall and the Fallen (his Joker, who he thought had died from a fall), once he's in Bruce's world, counts as a Batman haunted by a Joker's death too.

Batman (2016) #73

Still sends me that Bruce asks about Martha's fate in Thomas' universe and he's just like "...actually better that you don't know." (And I'm still bitter that DC freaking refuses to show us Bruce reacting to the news of Martha being Joker, despite now it being canon that he knows, as shown in Flashpoint Beyond.)

#cowards!! give me Bruce struggling with the pure Freudian insanity that is Martha being Joker #Batman's WIFE and his MOTHER #anyway. I hope this was helpful Anon #asks #batman #bruce wayne #joker #batjokes #batjokes meta #my meta

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dailycass-cain · 4 months

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Titans Beast World Tour: Gotham #1 had several stories, and Cass sort of had one of them. I say sort of because it was a story she shared with Huntress. Anyhoot, here are my thoughts on the tale...

I'll just start right off the bat (ironically), and say it's probably the weakest story in the entire one-shot sadly.

Like tonally?

It just feels "off" compared to the other stories going on (save maybe the Harley/Ivy one).

My problem with the tale (by Sam Maggs) is that well, it goes into showing Helena transforming into a panther, but um.. how the heck did she get the spore in her mouth?

She's confronting a supposedly corrupt city councilor and the next minute she's possessed by the spore.

We get an entire page of her transforming and attacking the city councilor but it just feels like one could've skipped the two pages and gone into Cass. Or do a better job showing HOW Helena got the spore into her mouth (given the angle she was at when it occurred).

Yeah, I'm probably overthinking it. I should just "roll with it", but the other stories in this one-shot establish "the rules" and this one feels so different.😋

Enter the secondary protagonist in the tale and the introduction as it was tweeted earlier this week kind of lays the first actual commitment by DC in saying that the original origin is fully back in canon, and the "main one".

Because we know the B&RE is still around given Harper and Cullen Row exist in this universe. Just to explain how both exist is well-- I guess a mini version of Donna Troy or Hawkman levels of explaining.

I'm just surprised we got confirmation here of all places, and not Batgirls (which sort of hinted at it by mentioning Batgirl Vol. 1 #25), but glossing over other bits. Mariko Tamaki all but saying it in her Batman work: her story with Cass in the AAPI one-shot, her Detective Comics run (which ironically also gave Helena's origin back and made No Man's Land canon again), and OBD: Two-Face #1.

The story just feels all over the place (even though it feels the shortest among the tales here). As one minute Helena is doing her thing, gets "Starroed", and suddenly it's a Cass tale trying to protect Helena and the City Councilor.

I think the story would've worked better from Cass's point of view instead. With her abilities of seeing body language and seeing Gotham City go primal.

It would've been an interesting counter to what we got. Cass knows that some form of the possessed is in there deep down, and she's out there making sure it stays that way.

Instead what we get is um... a more humorous lighter take than I think anyone was expecting in a story with Cass and Helena.

Also, Cass just feels a little talkative in this for me too. I think Maggs could've dialed down the dialogue to the last line of the story and used the art to convey Cass (along with the reader's realizations).

Said art by P.J. Holden is neat. I love the way the tranq gun is introduced via a "Chekov's gun" by Holden showing it on Cass's belt before she uses it on Helena.

Likewise, Holden's Cass is quite emotive and I think could've benefited better without the dialogue. Also, I did enjoy the way they drew Helena transforming.

You really got the sense she was trying to fight the transformation, but in the end, couldn't stop it.

So there are bits I did enjoy of this tale. It's just that-- well compared to the rest? It was meh.

That's not to say the story is bad, just harmless fluff in the end that doesn't really make itself stand out compared to the introduction one with Dick/Bruce/Croc (the best Chip Zdarsky Batman story shockingly), Jason's, or Stephanie's (which was my favorite).

This one felt like it was juggling way too much and by the time it had a clear sense of story, it was kind of over. It just didn't strike me as memorable compared to the other stories sadly.

Sadly, I think the only element many will remember from the tale will be Cass's old origin being mentioned here again. That's sadly about it.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #my thoughts

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nightmare-grass · 1 month

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My Adventures With Superman: Where do we go from here?

- This show takes on the Superman origin story but focuses on his beginning as a young adult superhero, which is different from nearly every other depiction. He seems just out of college, like he’s 20 or 21. This would mean everyone else in the DC universe is younger too.

- People often compare Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent on equal grounds, like they’re supposed to be the same age, so maybe they’re going to be? I don’t know if this show is ever gonna branch out and show other superheroes, other places besides Smallville and Metropolis, but it’s a fun thought exercise.

- So maybe Bruce Wayne is also just starting his Batman journey. He might be in Gotham in a self-made suit, like in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, or he might be training all over the world still. We know Bruce is a genius, so he can learn any subject he wants in a shorter time than normal, so he might’ve skipped college to travel the world right after high school, training with the best fighters and the League of Assassins and studying college-level texts on the side because he’s just extra like that. 18 at the beginning of his training, and there’s varying accounts of how long his training took. Some say 7 years, some say 12 years, and that makes sense.

- If we want reporter Clark Kent interacting with billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne at all, we can’t have them be the same age. So! I propose a future season where we finally get more superheroes interacting with Superman so he can feel less alone in the world. For that, Bruce Wayne would just be returned home after a 7 year absence learning abroad. He’d be about 4 years older than Clark, but he’d be perturbed by their lack of height difference. Bruce wants to start his crusade against the criminal underbelly of his hometown, Gotham City, but to have the perfect cover story he needs to play up the rich fail son front of Bruce Wayne, and he’s not pleased about this perceptive reporter from Metropolis who’s built like a brick shithouse. See, Bruce isn’t dumb, and he keeps up on the news, especially about global security threats. Bruce knows about Superman, and he has his theories, but he develops a new theory once he meets Clark.

- Wonder Woman is immortal but people don’t necessarily know that. Wonder Woman is an urban legend Clark learned about in history class when talking about World War 1, World War 2, all the biggest global conflicts in human history. A goddess who comes out of nowhere, saves the day, and disappears for decades at a time. Diana Prince, however, is a mild mannered museum associate. As an immortal warrior born of clay, she always looks like a woman in her upper 20’s and speaks like a woman who is centuries wise. She keeps to herself mostly, but she keeps close tabs on global security threats, like Bruce does. She knew as soon as Superman came on the scene that she didn’t need to get involved as much anymore. She barely held herself back on Zero Day because the US government was all over that, and it would’ve been too high profile if she’d been involved. It didn’t even last long enough for her to fly over to help.

- In the comics, Bruce Wayne adopts the newly orphaned Dick Grayson when he’s 27. That means if I start Bruce Wayne at 18, give him 7 years of training, making him 25, and make him 3 years older than Clark at the beginning of the story, meaning Clark is 22 when Bruce is 25, then he gets to be Batman for 2 years before running into Dick Grayson, 10 year old, and adopting him. Then, he gives Dick a few months of training before letting him become Robin, so we have 27 year old Bruce, 10 year old Dick, and 24 year old Clark.

- The comics also say Bruce was 34 when he adopts a 12 year old Jason Todd. That means Dick was Robin for 7 years before he and Bruce had a falling out and Dick went solo, becoming Nightwing. Dick and Jason should have a 5 year age difference, if Dick was 17 when Jason was 12. Then, there’s a bit of time fuckery when it comes to Jason because he dies and gets resurrected as Red Hood. Jason dies at 15, and gets resurrected in the Lazarus Pit 3 years after his death, making him effectively 18 when he comes back. Bruce would be 39 at the time of Jason’s death, and 42 at the time of Jason’s resurrection.

- Superman would be 31 when Dick becomes Nightwing and Jason becomes Robin, then 36 when Jason dies, then 39 when Jason comes back as Red Hood. I think that fits rather well.

- Tim Drake came along only a short while after Jason’s death, like a month or so, so Bruce is 39 when a 14 year old Tim Drake becomes the third Robin. Clark would be 36 at this point still. And then Tim becomes Red Robin at age 17, following in the footsteps of his hero Nightwing who also went solo at 17. Tim spends 3 years being Robin, meaning he spends the time Jason is dead being the third Robin.

- Comics place Bruce meeting his son Damian at age 43, meaning it’s a year after Jason comes back and suddenly he’s got a new son he never knew about. Talia left Damian with Bruce when Damian was 10, following the grand Robin-adopting tradition. This means Damian was conceived when Bruce was 33, right before he met and adopted Jason Todd. Superman becomes 40 at the point where Damian is adopted as the new Robin.

- With this timeline, it’s difficult finding spaces for Barbara, Stephanie, Cassandra, Duke, and all the other important Bat Family members, but it’s not impossible.

#I call Nightwing Tim’s hero because he was a fan of the Flying Graysons and that’s how he discovered Robin’s secret identity and Batman’s #maws #my adventures with Superman #dcau #dc #Superman #Batman #bat family #Wonder Woman #dc superheroes

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silveragelovechild · 8 months

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BLUE BEETLE (Minor Spoilers)

I was unsure if I wanted to see “Blue Beetle”. Is it one of the last of the old DCEU movies? Or, as suggested by recent articles, the first of the new DCU films under James Gunn and James Safran.

Well, the movie was green lit by Warner in 2021 to be part of mid-budget films to be released exclusively on HBO Max. But with the regime change… and lucky for it, with Safran as a producer, it got a theatrical release date.

As I’m not a fan of Warner/Gunn’s new direction for DC Comics movies, I hesitated. But because the Blue Beetle features the Jaime Reyes version of the character, Warner’s first Mexican superhero, I felt I should at least see it.

First, does this feel like an introduction to a new DC Universe? Flat out, No. The story is set in a fictional city in the Florida Keys, and except for very minor passing references to Batman, Superman, and the Flash, there is no sense of the outside world and the heroes that might inhabit it. So this movie is largely standalone and could exist in any of DC’s multiverses (included the Arrowverse).

What sets this movie apart from other superhero movies is its focus on “La familia”. We have Jaime, his sister, mom and dad, Uncle Rudy, and Nana the abuelita - and they all love each other very much.

This is both good and bad, because like the Shazam-Family in Zachary Levi’s films, Jaime is never on a solo mission. He has to share a lot of screen time and plot with his family.

As Superhero family go, this one is extraordinary… Tio Rudy (played by George Lopez) is a veritable tech genius (someone actually refers to him as Doc Brown). And Nana? She’s played by well known Mexican actress Adriana Barraza. Her character was once a “revolucionista” who can handle a machine gun twice her size. As I don’t recall any revolutions in Mexico in the past 50+ years, maybe in her youth grandma traveled to Nicaragua in the 1980s to fight with the Contras.

These additions are meant to be playful, but each needs a setup, and an arc and conclusion which make the movie less and less about Jaime.

Xolo Maridueña is charming as Jaime. His devotion to his family is his defining trait. Once the alien scarab takes over his body, he’s constantly trying to stop it from killing anybody. An odd juxtaposition because in Tio Rudy’s and Abuelita’s action scenes, they don’t hesitate killing (remember that machine gun?).

Susan Sarandon plays a generic corporate villain and offers nothing special. Her #1 henchman is played by Raoul Trujillo. He eventually becomes a red version of the Beetle (don’t you hate it when the villain becomes a copy of the hero). He and Jaime have many fight scenes (CGI versus CGI like in the Iron Man movies).

The ending gets bogged down in too many fight scenes:

Jaime’s sister versus generic henchmen

Tio Rudy versus generics henchmen

Abuelita versus generic henchmen

Jaime versus generic henchmen

Jaime versus Raoul Trujillo (twice at the end and at least 4 times across the movie).

In all, I thought “Blue Beetle” was just “okay”. Certainly better than “Quantumania” and “Thor L&T” but not has good as either WW movie or the recent Flash (which I enjoyed quite a bit).

NOTE:The plot references the Golden Age Blue Beetle (Dan Garrett) and the Silver Age version (Ted Kord) but neither appear. But we do get to see Kord’s airship, the Bug, in action.

Post Credit Scenes: Shortly after the credit start, there is a scene referencing Ted Kord. At the very end of the credits, there is another bit that is not worth waiting for (trust me!). And there are NO cameos by any other heroes or actors.

Best Line:

“My name is Sanchez, pendeja!”

#blue beetle #Jaime Reyes #george lopez #Adriana Barraza #just okay #too many fight scenes #James Gunn #ted kord #WARNER HBO MAX #xolo Xolo Maridueña

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garthofshayeris · 4 months

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MY OFFICIAL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ON AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM. Spoilers ahead.

OKAY. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. It was very fun and it did not have the problem of too many villains that I was expecting based on everything I read. If that was the result of the rewrites and reshoots, I am happy for them.

A lot of the visuals and smaller adventures felt very Silver Age! There were certain creatures that were directly from the 60s, which I appreciated. Topo was lovely. If you know me, you know one of my major gripes with some of the recent Aquaman comics is that they do not lean into the animal sidekick thing anymore. And the group of whales straight up killing all those people? THAT is the Aquaman content I like to see.

The horror elements were just enough to balance out the sillier parts. Although I knew Arthur Jr was never in any actual danger, this is the closest DC has come since the 70s to making it even somewhat realistic that they would kill a baby. Like, I knew they wouldn't. But for once I said to myself, "they've established this enough that I believe this threat." You know my stance on DC trying to bait another Death of a Prince...

The cursed Trident possessing Manta was giving such Preboot Orm vibes. I liked it, I appreciate a slow possession arc. Manta was scary and felt like a real threat, which is difficult to achieve when he's a human and he's fighting people so much stronger than him. Shin was also SO good, you knew he was going to redeem himself but it still felt very natural for him to do so. Idk why Manta trusted him with the baby duffel bag tho, after all the times Shin clearly was snooping and giving Manta disapproving looks. Also why did they put that baby in a duffel bag lmao

Overall, it was a pretty straightforward story that felt easy to follow. This isn't always the case for superhero films, so it was refreshing. And a good end to the franchise. This actually felt like it would have been a great end to a TRILOGY, and that we were missing a middle story...

HOWEVER.

Not to make this about me and my blorbo but.......this would have made a lot more sense as a story about Arthur and Garth. I'm sorry, but it's true. Every time I saw a Silver Age reference, I just said to myself "oh yeah, that's a story with Aqualad in it, but now it's Orm." I KNOW that Orm needed his lil redemption arc, but if Patrick Wilson was not besties with James Wan, I don't think he would have gotten one.

Because Kordax was Slizzath. He just was. They took Slizzath's story and renamed him Kordax. So many parts of the movie I was like "this is adapted from Tempest (1996)" BUT IF THEY HAD USED SLIZZATH WITHOUT GARTH I WOULD HAVE BEEN PISSED so I get it but I don't get it, you know? But Kordax was just Slizzath.

I posted a few years ago about my ideal Aquaman trilogy, and tbh this felt like my ideal third movie, plot-wise and tone-wise......except my vision was about Garth, not Orm. Orm could be there, I guess, but imo he should have had a sequel redemption and then the third movie should have introduced the evil sorcerer thing. It would have made perfect sense to need Atlan's blood, thinking they're fine because they saved the baby but then Garth accidentally bleeds on the altar and unlocking his powers, and releasing Slizzath. PLUS then he could freeze the ice caps again with his new found powers lmao I'm worried about the implications.........nobody in this universe has ice powers.....

I get that it would have been hard to introduce a new character for a sequel with absolutely no chance at a third movie, so I do understand that Garth was never an option....but holy shit, Garth would have been a perfect fit for this movie.

AGAIN, not to make it about my blorbo .......

also I cannot believe they killed Vulko via plague?? I almost laughed out loud. It's absolutely because they could not reconcile that if Vulko was alive, Arthur would not need Orm's help lmao RIP Vulko I choose to believe you were hanging around as a ghost like in Vol 5

One last gripe but omg Atlan's trident looked so BAD in some scenes??? It looked very prop-like, and not metal at all??? did anyone else notice it? It's really bad on the iceberg scene. The costumes were actually great but omg that trident prop lmao

OVERALL, it was a really fun movie. I'm happy to say that I liked it. I think it will get bad critic reviews and really good audience reviews. It just felt very fun and heartfelt. The action scenes were also well lit and easy to follow, and that alone should convince people to see it

I'm going to see it again tomorrow and I want to make a list of the other random things that I noticed. I know I'm missing a lot. How did ya'll feel about it??

#aquaman #aquaman and the lost kingdom #yes I DO need to make everything about my blorbo sorry besties

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zahri-melitor · 3 months

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New(ish) Comics:

Batman & Robin #5: I liked how much of this story was based at school. I disliked the teacher suggesting Damian should be attending college classes. NO! Bruce is right! This is a socialisation exercise! #KeepDamianInSchool2024!

Wesley Dodds: The Sandman #4: This is still so fascinating, as I know so little. Riley Rossmo drawing Art Deco was not something I thought I needed but it’s fascinating.

Outsiders #3: I'm...conflicted about this. Did I like Luke and Duke spending some time together? Sure. Do I think we needed ANOTHER book currently infested with 1000 different universe versions of Batman? No. For a comic that's trying really really hard to claim it's not about Bruce and it's about getting away from Bruce (why is your team called Outsiders then??) there is a lot of Bruce showing up.

The fish-headed Batwoman was amusing, though.

Speed Force #3: I am starting to feel like this is a comic I need to come back and read once I’ve read Teen Titans Academy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to see the formation of more social groups (and Ace and Jaime together was a lovely bro moment), but I’m begging people to stop pitching particularly Kory, Donna, Raven and Gar as hanging out or in social spaces with the teens. I know DC have done it way too many times over the years now but it never, ever makes sense. Still enjoying this series is aware of what’s going on in other titles, though.

DC’s How to Lose a Guy Gardner in 10 Days: this was a MIX. The Barry/Iris one was light and insubstantial (but very Flash). I think, funnily enough, my favourite bits were Vicky Vale dating Guy Gardner for an article (hah), the Heart of the Ocean ripoff in the Booster story, and the John Constantine story swerving rapidly into reminding you you were reading Hellblazer right on the last page.

The most frustrating parts of this, to my eye:

Unwillingness to properly commit to anything other than a heterosexual couple (Constantine got the closest but wouldn't show anything)

Seriously. You had EIGHT stories and only one of them was not a guy and a girl?

Okay fine Diana got asked out by both men and women but she actually wasn't interested in dating any of them so I'm not counting it.

Steph and Cass randomly running around the back of the Dick/Babs story. Either this is about Dick and Babs, so focus on THEM, or give in and stop queerbaiting Steph and Cass. Honestly for many reasons I think actually putting them together would be a terrible thing for both characters, but clearly DC likes the speculation (but not enough to DO anything about it).

Traya's still MIA since 2010 apparently. Thanks, Red Tornado.

The Warlord #34: this week in Skartaris Travis Morgan acquires the Hellfire sword from a village of dwarfs. The sword apparently makes him invulnerable to magic. He also reunites with Machiste and Mariah after getting magically transported to where they were by the sword. Machiste and Mariah finally get to tell Travis they're dating. However they get stuck in the far past, while the sword whisks Travis back to the present day.

One of the dwarfs is named Mongo Ironhand. He likes summoning and drinking martinis. (Really)

#newish comics #z canon read throughs #tuesday spoilers #cmon DC give me polyamory on page not just hints of it that I have to look up to see whether it's ever been requited (no)#or at least give me an ACTUAL ON PANEL QUEER COUPLE #you don't have to cordon that off entirely in its own special

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danwhobrowses · 11 months

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 - Quickfire Review

Finally. It's been longer than intended for me to watch this movie, I should've been writing this last week but I had the completely baffling scenario where the cinema people came in and say they 'didn't have the feature'. But finally I went and watched it so here are my quick thoughts on the matter.

Spoilers for the Movie

So I unsurprisingly enjoyed this a lot, I wouldn't say it's the best Guardians film, I think the first still sneaks the top spot, but they are all hits and it's the best MCU film since No Way Home.

I was quite surprised with a lot of things, but Rocket being on death's door for two thirds of the film was the most unexpected, paired with no character dying. I'm not too mad about the latter mind you, it was just surprising.

I read a non-spoiler review though that said that Adam Warlock wasn't in it enough, and while I can see why people may think that, I thought the limited time he had worked in his favour. The infant-like mentality - set up by the Sovereign saying he was awakened early - did add to the comedy and he was never gonna be comic accurate given that Vision stole his whole Infinity Stone shtick. While him joining the new Guardians made sense, I will say that Phyla-Vell felt a little thrown in there though but it was just a mid-credits scene so it won't mean that much.

The High Evolutionary is great though, like pure maniacal god complex, which helps to stand out against other MCU villains who often get painted with a layer of sympathy or manipulation. Chukwudi Iwuji depicted the role brilliantly and if Marvel do get put in a corner with Kang they can easily slot him into the role. For new side characters I also felt that all of Rocket's old buddies did well, Linda Cardellini especially as Lylla.

The plot itself was very emotive, centering mainly around Peter and Rocket being haunted by their past (the former having to also confront Gamora during it all), and Nebula's struggle to express herself. While this did leave Drax, Mantis and Groot to mainly hover around the side, and Cosmo and Kraglin to hover wayyyy far back over the side. Rocket's backstory though is brutal, and Peter's development towards acceptance and seeking out his family on earth was a solid payoff. I do especially like that neither of the daughters of Thanos ended up with Peter at the end, Gamora found her home in the Ravagers yes but she took home some lessons from the Guardians, and Nebula and Peter would've felt a little forced.

While the Guardians splitting at the end makes sense, and Drax getting some respect as a parental figure was nice, I do feel like Mantis going alone was perhaps the most bitter of the group going their separate ways, I enjoyed her character but she wasn't given a lot of substance, and I feel she was a little depowered here compared to when she sedated Ego and Thanos in previous movies. I hope at the least given how Star Lord will at least return that the Guardians will reunite once more, even if it's for another Holiday Special.

Also can't talk about Guardians without the music, and it's quite good, I suppose it's the quality you expect from the film after so many movies. Starting with Creep was a unique call, but I did enjoy them using Dog Days Are Over for the final scenes of the movie. Since You've Been Gone by Rainbow always puts me in a good mood though, mainly because of the Pot Noodle commercial that used the song.

I could probably dig into it more, but this is meant to be 'quickfire' and this is the eighth paragraph so in conclusion, really good movie, it has emotional weight and comedy, its focus on animal cruelty does make you pensive, the new characters were fun, and the conclusion will leave you content but also hopeful, despite Gunn setting sights on rebooting the DC universe, to see the group again.

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frasier-crane-style · 1 year

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It’s the Year of Our Lord 2023 and I’m not going to put shipping discourse, shipwank, ship wars on your dash. I’m an author. I have a book. But I do have thoughts on Dick/Babs from a place of character and canon.

Here’s what makes sense to me and it probably doesn’t square with at least a hundred comics, but DC does four reboots a decade, so pretend this is one of those or it’s an Ultimate universe or it’s The Batman.

So by the time Barbara Gordon becomes Batgirl, she’s 15-16 and Dick is 12-13. Not a huge age gap, unless they’re at those ages, because Barbara is in training to be an adult and Dick is still a gremlin who loves trying to get a laugh out of Bruce with cheesy one-liners. He has a huge crush on her; she doesn’t consider them the same species. Which is certainly debatable.

Fast-forward a little bit. Dick’s in high school now, Barbara’s graduated, she’s going to college. Dick is now at that age where, if this were a CW show, he’d be played by an underwear model in their early twenties. He’s still crushing on Barbara, because she’s an immensely crushable person to anyone with good taste, but Barbara the college freshman isn’t going to date Dick the high school sophomore, even if he has six-pack abs now.

Fast-forward some more. Dick graduates himself, he’s legal, but wouldn’t you know it, the Teen Titans has gone from him and a bunch of tween sidekicks to him, tween sidekicks, and an alien supermodel (she’s modeled, it’s canon).

Dick’s dated around in high school, but nothing too serious. Kory is serious. He’s going to spend the lion’s share of his early twenties either in a relationship with her or in an ‘off-again’ relationship with her. You can say she’s his first love, say she devirginalized him--the fact is, they almost get married before all is said and done.

Which brings us to nowish. Dick’s in his mid-twenties. Barbara’s in her late twenties. You give a shit about an ‘age gap’ like that? Because no one else does. They’re both consenting adults. Dick still has a little bit of a crush on Barbara, not because they went to the prom together or anything, but because she’s still a very crushable person. And Barbara is receptive to it because now they’re in the same place in life and it’s maybe a little cute that the kid who used to crush on her is now a man. A little bit of that same boyish adoration mixed in with the dirty sweaty naughty stuff.

Maybe they act on it, maybe they don’t, but if there are two people who are going to be having sexual tension in the Batcave, it’ll probably be them.

#batman #dick grayson #barbara gordon #batgirl #robin #nightwing #dickbabs

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fractualized · 17 days

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I totally see where you're coming from with how you like your mix of comedy and seriousness and I think I'm really similar! I can definitely tolerate a lot of cheese but I'll almost always consider it a one off situation. I recently rewatched Batman and Robin while my wife was making a cast of my body so we could make cosplay and it was just so funny and silly that like it reminded me of what one of those really campy comics would look like in real life and I respected the fact that they could commit to it that way and make an artful movie that brought that to life but there were a few elements that didn't make sense to me like Barbara being Alfred's niece that I was just like whatever man and I knew I couldn't like... use it as a foundation for my basis of characterization, like I can with other media! I really love the animated series too, I grew up with it being my first experience with Batman and I always really respected it as a medium that I could trust to be satisfying and whole. I also really really liked Batman beyond because it felt like the closest continuation of that story even though I know it's really not canon and it kind of doesn't work, I like to view it as like a semi-official what if fan fiction from the original writers lol

I completely get what you mean about the comics, cuz I kind of view official comics like fanfictions even in their own right? I mean when you think back on like Bill finger and Bob Kane like eventually every other writer is going to be writing fanfiction of their characters but it's really fun to go through all the different Batman media and see whose stories you kind of like more and then whose stories you kind of tend to avoid

and when I mentioned I knew you liked comics, I was also speaking more from the perspective that you seem to have more knowledge about them Rather than I thought you had a preference for them, because you put together that comic PDF with batjokes moments and I was really impressed with that ☺️

i love your telltale fics and the games as a beautiful breath of fresh air into the life of batman so sometimes I like to imagine the animated series would be a great way to say where is juce 10 years later, if those universes were more cohesive setting wise lmao

Yeah, Barbara randomly being Alfred's niece is definitely one of the aspects of B&R that just… I guess it breaks up the campiness? That and Ivy being in love with Freeze for no discernable reason. And teaming up with him even though he'll kill her plants. And poor Bane! And then that weird bit at the end where Freeze is sort of forgiven but Ivy can't be? And Alfred almost dies. Should taken all that stuff out and added more camp.

I really enjoyed Batman Beyond too! I didn't even realize a lot of people didn't like it until recently. Honestly it's one of those things where I don't look into the reasons too much. lol I liked it and I'm fine with having liked it, no notes!! (OK I sorta lied. That bit in JLU where they made Bruce Terry's bio dad, that was bizarre.)

I am definitely in the "anything not created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane might as well be fanfic" camp. Like, sure, if DC puts resources behind a project, it has a better chance at being worth your time, but when I get down to it, I can't put a lot of weight behind the idea that someone's official derivative story is more valid than another someone's derivative AO3 post just because there was a cash exchange with a company that owns the original "asset." People who want to lean into that idea, that's their business.

The wild thing about the batjokes spreadsheet is I know that it's only a fraction of what's out there. I have read hundreds of comics at this point and I still feel like it's not enough to totally have a handle on things. Especially knowing how little I've retained. 😅 But that's another reason for the spreadsheet!

Thank you for enjoying my fics! And for implanting the idea in my head of a Telltale universe animated series… Just hijinks and maybe a little more murder with John and Bruce, bestest buddies.

#ask #my jibber-jabber

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thattimdrakeguy · 2 years

Text

Tim Drake: Robin is probably not going to be very good.

OH HOLY GOODNESS. GREAT GARGOYLE. SWEEET SUNDAY AFTERNOON, GOODNESS GRACIOUS. ALL THAT.

Hi, you may know me from such motion pictures as, ‘I stole this from the Simpsons’ and ‘Being Self Aware Isn’t Always Funny, But It Hasn’t Stopped Me So Far’

I think this comic is a train wreck. I think we have a problem here, I’m sorry, but mmm mmm mmm. This is looking like the deep south side of elevation.

But we can learn from this. We can we can, trust me, we can. While also being kind of upset that this is Tim’s first major comic in over a decade, because I’m not going to be timid. I’ll say it, I’ll go ahead, it fucking sucks.

It does. But why? Someone probably saw this post and went “What the hell is he going on about...?” and...well.

Look I’m just going to be blunt, so let’s not make this difficult...but...imagine I’m sighing or something, make this melodramatic for no actually good reason, but this preview they gave is a damn train wreck.

I am going to give my reasons for why, but let me just get my not really critical thoughts on what’s presented and just my general thoughts on what I’m seeing so far if that makes any sense.

To say that, I am freaking SOOOOOOO upset that this is Tim’s big comeback comic. This is a pile of pages that shouldn’t have to be paid for to see it legally.

I’m pretty sure they advertised Tim Drake as the World’s Favorite Robin or something like that, and beyond the fact that you know damn well given that there’s 5 different Robins simply in the main universe alone, that people are going to be snapping back at that like crazy.

But with this as the comic they’re presenting it is laughable.

And believe me when I say I am feeling the exact opposite of pleasure by saying that.

Because this isn’t even a comic about Tim Drake. This is a below average fan fiction, that’d barely get past 100 views on AO3, except if you want to legally see it, you have to pay for it. All while this is the first ongoing solo Tim has had in over a decade, and this is a really crappy way to get into that.

This is all from a preview. But I am not saying anything that is not a legitimate critique. And I wouldn’t be sitting up out of my coffin to say any of this unless I genuinely felt worried. I am not doing this out of hate, we don’t have enough time to hate unless it’s justified, and I’m not crazy enough to say I hate this in mean it. I just also think that it’s the opposite of good.

So let me get into this step by step:

Okay, step one, I’m going to just speak as if I’m talking to you, okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that, this is not a two way post, you can hear me, I can’t hear you, sorry how awkward that is. Anyways.

You’re writing a comic about a character. A very specific character. A character that used to be super popular, but still has a devoted fan base, that’s had to go through so many random character changes and dips in quality through the last 20 years especially that people have seen him gone from DC’s most popular teen superhero, selling only second in that department to SUPERMAN AS A TEENAGE BOY. Which says quite a lot. To a character deemed irrelevant because I hardly feel like they get anyone to write him that knows how to write a decent story with him.

And now we got six pages out of a...what, 20 page thing?

LET’S REALLY GET THIS ROLLING I AM TAKING UP TOO MUCH TIME.

But here��s how these six pages are already awful in genuinely, what shouldn’t be controversial reasons, because this is just how a story is made, all right.

1. Six pages, and not a single one of them gives you anything that identifies this black haired skeleton as Tim Drake besides the fact you know he is supposed to be Tim Drake.

You write a character...you gotta make sure it’s an actual character. This black haired skeleton says nothing that gives him a personality, or anything that resembles who Tim is as a person, and instead--let me blunt here.

Yes, it is kind of cute, but that’s not an actual excuse or substitute for character writing. I am talking about this from a writing perspective not if I think it’s cute enough. If you like it, I’m happy for you. I am not.

A very generic character, who’s dialogue and thoughts you could give to about near any character. He has no interesting POV anymore, there’s nothing you can relate to with him, no specific voice for him. ETC ETC. (Yes, I only showed two pages, but trust me, it does not get better.) Things that made him work, also hahaha I know people think he has no personality, but I’m not an idiot, and I am fully aware that he does have a personality, I am sorry for having better reading comprehension, folks that think that, I really really am.

Six pages of nothing that makes this drawing Tim Drake. And since he is the star of this show this is freaking awful. This is horrendous. Your job as a writer is to let people know who this guy is, why you should like him, what some of his flaws are, and put him in situations where you can learn how he is. You have to make him feel like he’s worth reading on his own. You do, you really really do.

That is the basics of character work. The fact that this is a preview means nothing, because this is what people are supposed to read to know if they want to read this comic.

2. This art is, I betchu, so perfect...for another series. Where it will bring you some honestly whimsical imagery for a specific story. Any refined art style is beautiful...in the right context. And this art style sadly does not fit this character in anyway.

Also the fact that are drawing Bernard to look more feminine, and give him mannerisms that are not mannerisms Bernard has is also just fucking patronizing and I hate it. If you’re telling people Bernard is in the comic, you’re supposed to draw Bernard, but sadly he is no where to be found.

He’s never exactly been a beacon of pure testosterone, but he’s clearly not supposed to be like this. He’s obviously not meant to be feminine, he’s a bit masculine if anything, unless you’re going to be weird and call longer hair a sign that he’s feminine, which...it is not. They’re now just making him a stereotype and that’s freaking horrendous of them to do.

3. What character work they give you is stuff you can get for free on Tumblr, Twitter, and about near everywhere. Because it’s just taking stuff you see for free on websites and putting it in a comic for easy fan praise, when really is lazy as could be.

They have Bernard saying conspiracy theories, this is a part of him, a lot of us know it, a lot of like this, so do I, so why am I being negative?

Because this doesn’t actually tell me anything about him that lets me know what he’s like or who he is. It tells me one superficial trope. How am I supposed to know what he’d do in any situation like this? Stuff I should probably be able to tell to get myself invested in him.

One of the biggest complaints about him right now is that he’s so bland. And not making him feel like a real person isn’t helping. You can have him say conspiracy theories, while also feeling like a real person.

Remember, this is a product you have to pay to legally see. This isn’t just a fan fiction someone made for free. The standards are a bit different. Keep that in mind when I’m saying all of this. ‘Cause I wouldn’t bother saying any of that for a fan fiction. I don’t want to kill people’s fun, I’m just trying to be honest here.

The original Bernard introduction shows you he thinks highly of himself or at least wants others to think that, shows he’s a big smug, likes to show off to people, and sees something he can relate to and is intrigued by in our main protagonist.

They accomplished that I believe in a single page or two.

It also shows just how horribly they’ve written, drawn, and overall portrayed Bernard. Because while I wouldn’t call the run of Robin he came from overly good, in fact some parts are straight up bad, this introduction is in the end, a really good character introduction.

Take the established names off of this and post it online, and you have a very cute gay boyfriends comic that I’m sure people are going to love, because then it’s in the right place, and fits where it is.

Sadly this is a Tim Drake comic, and nothing about this has anything to do with who Tim Drake is.

“I need to found out who I am” “Can I call him my boyfriend” “I moved ‘cause I needed to find myself”

Bad character work besides the boyfriend line. Why? ‘Cause that’s telling you how comfortable he is in his sexuality right now. He just came out. This is a logical progression in Tim Drake’s story. Sadly, we still need more than that, we need to know who Tim Drake is.

They also settle for having Tim Drake describe the characters generically, instead of giving us any interesting scenes with them to show us what they are. They are telling, not showing. Bad bad writing. It’s one panel, and it’s all described, you can barely identify them truly. They’re all immediately washed away as none important. Maybe some will eventually, but for a first issue this is not the way to debut these people if you expect anything significant.

In technical terms, for those that do not know. There’s a many view out there, it’s okay. There’s many writers in the making that can learn a lesson here.

But the technical term for this is:

Lazy fucking writing.

Unless you have an audience that is really willing to try super hard, you are not going to get anybody attached to the characters this way. You need to see them be them, doing themselves. If you’re a writer you need to do stuff that the reader can identify this character with.

For fucks sake there’s a scene that should in theory show us some of Tim’s new neighbors. Which, by the way, the fact he moved is ridiculous, because we don’t even know Tim’s personal life where he was. Making all of this pointless, except for the writer to go straight into their own desires. Which is also bad, because then you’re missing viable parts of things to make it work.

Tim was fine, then a new writer comes along, he’s in a crisis, couple more appearances, nothing really showing that this move is a natural progression. There for lady's, gents, nonbinary homies, what does that make it? Unnatural. Yes, forced. That’s bad. You want it to be natural so that you aren’t catching your audience off guard in a bad way by wondering “Why the fuck?” all the damn time, okay? There’s another writing type for you, and if you’re struggling with this, read back your work in the perspective of, you’re someone who has no idea who these characters are, and why this is happening. If you’re left just accepting crap ‘cause it’s said for the most part, your audience is going to suffer a bit.

Now anyways, we see these neighbors, they’re a bit frantic, why? Because oh my gosh people are trying to evict them! That’s terrible! People can relate to that! It’s real. Likely happening to some of the readers!

There you go, you have your moment to really make people care beyond a superficial.

And well, Bernard calls them weird. That’s it. Okay, the moments gone, that doesn’t really fit after that, he comes off as insensitive, the line about capitalist fat cats is embarrassingly unnatural, and this is already being printed. Lost opportunity. Nothing but a plot point and somebody saying that who I presume is their mom is pushy.

Like portraying people as genuinely worried about if they’re going to be able to stay where they live, and saying their weird, is some freaking weird writing. It’s trying to be quirky by force.

Again though, with the characters they’re saying, not showing. Sometimes you do need to say stuff. You show everything and your pacing is destroyed. But who characters are is so undoubtedly something that needs to be shown.

The characters who people SAY stuff about in the stories are the characters people DON’T care about. One offs, characters that are about to die, unimportant side characters needed for a plot if needed, but eh, who really cares.

Bad bad bad bad bad. You’re failing, oh my gosh, things are dropping. What’s dropping? I’m sorry but the quality is dropping, dear goodness, dear goodness. Okay, this isn’t good. But STOP.

Calm down, unless like what’s actually what’s happening, you’re already calm. I’m happy for you. I’m mostly just having fun typing this don’t worry about me if you’ve even made this far.

OOooooooooooooof.

Oh dear...this is worse, okay maybe get your guard up. More opportunity for learning.

You definitely shouldn’t have this be so far the only thing establishing your main character, especially this early in when we’re supposed to be learning about them. If you’ve wasted this much time, you are doing a bad job at writing your characters.

This means nothing.

This is what people make fun of Riverdale for, but you actually put it in your story. Bad, this doesn’t actually say shit about them first of all. Weird? Weird? Well, what’s normal? See, we don’t know, because that’s a shit way to establish their relationship. More saying, not seeing, and what you’re saying is vague, BAD BAD BAD WRITER BAD.

But it’s okay.

We can all learn. If you stop trying to learn you stop learning. You stop learning, you ain’t getting better. If you’re a writer yourself this isn’t time to start being sad ‘cause you do this too. Because by fucking goodness, you’re going to be better than this, you now know why you shouldn’t do this. And that is good, I am proud of you, you are evolving, you are learning, you are being better by just processing some of this. I’m so fucking happy for you right now, my tears could burst if that’s a saying that means anything, I am not sure. I just said ain’t, and ain’t isn’t a word.

They just kept doing this. What page are we on now? PAGE 5?? OUT OF A 20 PAGE FORMAT?? oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.

Well what’s the next page of this preview, OH MOTHER OF NEPTUNE, THIS IS WHERE THEY ACTUALLY LEAVE THE CHARACTER WORK HANGING, as far as we know. (I am being a bit melodramatic for fun here. Don’t take these frantic moments too seriously. I’d just rather have fun than be depressed and talk about why something was bad.)

I mean cool, it sets up the location, but that means jack shit, we have to know the people better than this first. Set up a reason they’re all together, maybe even just have Tim pop through. Few panels showing what the people are like in their natural climate, there you go, it’s not much but it’s much better than just telling us crap.

AND THE MESSED UP THING IS, so far, we know the least about Tim, because ‘weird’ isn’t a damn personality.

Within six pages, we should know more about Tim Drake than he’s vaguely weird according to himself, that he has apparently weird neighbors...when they seem to just be average people, and that a plot point is that a rich kid’s neighbors might be evicted.

You’re wasting page space if this is all you’ve done.

Yes, this is a pre-established character, but that isn’t an excuse for being lazy. You have to assure people you know what you’re writing, and going off everything except for one story that came out over a year ago now, they don’t know what they’re doing.

They had the perverted character be excited 20 years ago, but when they mention it they have that one act traumatized.

They had a character that was actually pretty calm and average about his attraction to woman, and had them say something sexist.

They had a character that left because of how stressful the life of being a super hero is, as well as the fact their abusive mother forced them into it be just an awful awful thing, and had the character say that all her friends are toxic.

They couldn’t even get a villain right, and had to use fandom crap to fill in places, and didn’t use any of the stuff that might be accurate.

There’s giving people a chance to impress you with their cooking, and then there’s people still saying that as they spilled hot fucking soup all over your crotch 5 fucking times now every time they try to give you something, months passing by.

And I’m not somebody who gives people the benefit of the doubt after a while. But that doesn’t make who wrote this a bad person. I wouldn’t treat them as such. Criticism can be awful, but I’m trying to make it as constructive as possible, because I don’t want to see people fail unless they’re evil, and trying to provide people entertainment isn’t evil.

It’s just awful to me that there’s this character I love who’s getting his first real time to shine in over a decade, and I was someone who hated the last comic even then, and have it be that it’s still not going to be good.

I love Tim Drake, my favorite character, I know such much about him, and at one point I was fortunate enough to be considered a very reliable source of Tim information, before I decided waiting for another good comic wasn’t a very good use of my time, and dealing with seeing people, lying, being toxic, exaggerate, spreading false information just wasn’t helping my already decrepit depression issues.

Hence all of this, but all I can hope for is at least somebody learns something about it.

Because, really, I don’t have time to not be honest about how I feel about a comic, just because I got attached to who’s supposed to be the lead character. There’s not enough time in life to waste by pretending to enjoy something for such a superficial reason.

But fuck it, I can’t help but be curious.

This is what people are supposed to read to see if they’re even interested in the character to an extent. This isn’t nitpicking, this is basic writing.

And it’s not going well.

Wake me up out of my coffin when we finally get a comic starring Tim that actually feels like it’s about Tim.

For now, I’ll only be waking from my slumber only periodically for the next Titans United: Bloodpact issue to see if they can keep up the good work. Now that comic had a shockingly good Tim, and plus character work.

Be more like that when it comes to what made it work.

#Tim Drake #Robin #Bernard Dowd #DC Comics #Timber #Timbern #Comic Review #Review #Comic Books #So forth and all that

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spider-jaysart · 7 months

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3, 4, 24

DC Comics Asks

@paladin-of-nerd-fandom65

3. First comic read?

The 1st paperback edition of the New 52 Harley Quinn comic book

4. What introduced you to the DC universe? Was it a show, comic, or movie?

I'm not so sure since I was so young, but I think the Teen Titans 2003 cartoon was what got me way more invested in the DC world as a kid since I loved watching it so much and still do

24. If you had total control, what you change?

1. Deage Jon back to being a kid, because he should've been allowed to grow up naturally and honestly deserves the character development that he should've gotten before in the past, and also because it was terrible that he just got ripped away from his original fans like that just because Bendis wanted to make him date Saturn girl (instead of finding someone else who was actually her age, since Jon was STILL JUST 10 years old at the time when he had thought of this ship for her, which is very EW!!) and didn't want a kid character getting in the way of his Superman stories because "it's not that fun to include them", which makes no sense, because he was literally so much more likeable and way more interesting as a kid than he is now, because as an adult, now he just feels like a completely different person and a boring character that many old fans just can't see as the real Jon anymore, even if they tried to, since he's more like a stranger now. He's just a plain, younger clone of Clark now with no real personality of his own in him (he doesn't even have his own style!!!)

2. Make Dickkory happen again and leave Dickbabs behind, because that relationship is just a forced one that DC only wants to happen just so that things can only stay in the Batfamily. But Dickkory is the one that actually has real love in it and a much deeper connection in it between the two. Plus those two are always crazy about eachother, way more than Barbara and Dick could ever be for one another. And I would also make baby Mar'i and Jake happen later on in the future too. Also, the trope that always happens with either Dick or Kory abandoning the other and the kids or dying everytime they finally have a family of their own needs to just stop, because they deserve to be happy together already after such a long time and I would make sure that it stays that way too

3. Make Bruce an actual good father, because #1 it is not cool at all and I do not ever enjoy seeing him treat any of his kids horribly, it just only makes me really irritated to see everytime and #2 it does not make sense for who he is actually meant to be as a character. It doesn't matter how many times writers will make it happen in canon, because that just means that they don't actually know him at all and only think he would do it just because "Oh, he's a dark, edgy man who gets angry at everything, so he must be such a horrible Father too.", which is not how he should be. There should never be anything so wrong about letting him be good Dad to his kids. There's always other ways to create a bunch of drama for Batfamily stories, but him being an abusive parent definitely shouldn't be one of them and if some DC writer thinks it is, than that just means they can't really think outside of the box

4. Stop the "Talia is an evil person who loves killing and is also a terrible Mother who tortures her kid with no mercy if they don't do what she wants" trope, because she originally doesn't actually agree with her Fathers ways at all and has always felt uncomfortable with having to be an assassin who takes lives, and another thing about her original character is that she's also a very loving person at heart and would never want to hurt the ones that she loves, so it doesn't make any sense for her to be a cruel and hateful parent who hurts and uses her Son for only whatever she wants

5. Keep the name "Kon". I heard that Conner is getting a new official name change for himself soon in his series, so he's ditching "Kon" now for something else just because "Clark was the one who gave it to him, but he didn't actually choose it himself, so it's not his", but like... HELLO????!! The writer definitely did not read any of his older books at all, because Kon was literally so happy when Clark offered it to him, because he finally felt accepted into the Superfamily that way and even cried tears of joy from it too if I remember correctly, so what the heck are they changing it for if he actually loves it and originally has no problems with it????

6. Revive Alfred, because to me, he is an iconic character that shouldn't be killed, because then nothing ever really feels the same again without him

7. Batgirl was cool for Barbara back then, especially because she was still young at that time, but I would make her Oracle again because it's just a definitely more fitting role for her nowadays

8. Keep more awesome Supersons stories happening again, because they're always a joy to read and also because I really miss them a lot

Idk if I have anymore ideas in mind for anything else😅 but this is everything for now that I would definitely change if I could

Thanks for the ask, Pal!!

#spider-jaysart asks

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sociopathicbunnyrabbit-blog · 6 months

Text

So I really like comic books as like an art form, media, form of visual storytelling and sequential art and I know many people know comics via Marvel and DC superheroes so i wanted to highlight some creative fan's who's artwork, character designs and or redesigns and Au's who I really like and i think deserve some love...

P.S Im super Sorry if some of the link's are not active but im having trouble putting in Links to instagram profile's

The Anti-Apocalypse Man

There headverse au of Dc characters is a bold , colourful , pop explosion that effusively mixes all of their favourite comics with their own creative touch , no shying away from non humanoid bodies with aliens or robotic character's , piercing , cool fashion sense, big capes, long jackets, crop tops, chunky boots and gloves, belts make up some of the common design elements in their designs. Check them out, they have a great sense of style that's wholly unique to them that screams too cool for school.

There's an obvious almost infectious sense of Love present for some of the characters that always manages to improve my mood. Another facet of the art is the great background lore for their au that creatively mashes together like dozens of cool ideas from the comic's like multiversity, all-star superman, scott synders justive league, the characters of jack kirby and steve orlando.

I would recommend you take a look If you like the works of Grant Morrison, Frank Miller's Dark Knight universe, 90s teen superheroes especially, you might find this right up your alley. Lots of designs for young justice, JSA, Doom patrol, superman and batman families of characters there's a lot to love about the pop, punk, bright saturated colours and almost collage artwork/pop art feel it gives off with the sheer visual kaleidoscope of awesomeness that is on display.

JENSCIN are two people

This indonesia pair of artists share some great artostic talent their desings or classic dc character's makes them look very human and have this comforting sense of warmth. Their artwork involving their original ideas for some adorable short little dc comics with a very huggable looking superman redesign that take inspiration from more classic golden age adjacent media look a lot of cool ideas about superman experience as an immigrant, like have you ever wondered what kryptonian food tasted like I didn't used to but now I do. An amazing take on an asian american lois lane, a 10/10 mercy design, Atlantienis having pitch black eyes like that of deep sea fish from living at great depths is an amazing detail. Have I mentioned they ahve put more thought, effort and love into everyone's Extraterestile cookie monster J'onn J'onzz then Dc has done in years please take some time to read Sons of Mars, their mars au lore is just excellent and their reinterpretation of mallifalak is so much better than what's previously been done with the character. Also not having the scientist who teleported John to earth be actually alive and part of his immediate social group is great. There way of blending sci-fi elements of DC stroies with a perspective focused on exploring character's unique cultural backgrounds is absolutely fascinating. 10/10 please check them out if you have the time.

Gabriel Larragán Villalobos

He is a Costa Rican Artist I found Via instagram, art style is very sharp line work, angular designs jaws and well defined musculature. Their colour work ranges from vibrant bright primaries or metallic golds highlighting darker colour palette featuring forest greens, dark blues. Wine red, blacks.

He has a lot of great marvel redesigns in their Au he created for their Spider-sona the Night spider universe with a amazing original avengers line up and outside of that some excellent x men character artwork ( glad to see someone else liked wolverine and the x-men young cast members as well), moon knight as the leader for the 'cult of knoshu'. His DC stuff is also really great, lots of very fun Bat family designs along with some dynamic and interesting new takes on Teen titans and the Super son's and a great Outlaws Au with red hood, Roy harper and kara as a rebellious punk found family is awesome. Their Nubia and Daina are very cool. Their Black canary design is just Great (short hair). Also check out his powerpuff girls and Ninja turtle stuff.

https://instagram.com/gabriellarragan

Milkydraws

This Tumblr user's Artwork is really great in having warm tones and does redesigns for Dc characters such as the Justice League , JSA, JL international and teen titan's, DKR universe stuff. They do a very good job with clothes as well as musculature so their amazon sketches are really good, diana as a wrestler in the style of grappling wrestling they did historically in ancient greece is really fun idea, they also do a great job at non-human characters and their designs for atlanteans, starfire, trigon, martians are all appropriately horrifying in tjis artwork.

As fans I think we forget just how not like a person some of these characters should look, the scales/fins being part of aquamen rather then clothes is cool, some specific details i found i really liked were the dixie boots and retro S design for superman, diana's hair and more tiga like upper outfit, the big ears on their batman, the female flashes designs , clear glass on cyborg synthetic parts, that power girl design ( of several) with like the clunky mecha boots and gauntlets. The artists have a great use of colour, great understanding of anatomy, and some really good clothing designs. Fair warning some bare chests ( npth male and female) and some more gorey pic's among their work.

bOssu

An artist I discovered via Instagram under the account name vnskecthes that has some great marvel redesigns and DC ones in between lots of commission work and OC sketches, using the likes of spider man, dr strange, black panther, iron man, captain america, ant man, shang chi ect. They offer a lot of variety as any single character focus piece has multiple designs presented, very slick artstyle with usually small colour palette for anyone, design keeps things nice and uniform, great texture on metal. Really cool mecha looking iron man stuff , and nice difference in masks for their black pattern designs, oni mask wolverine and daredevil is pretty cool. they done some DC resigns as well really like the No cape strong body armoured Martian manhunter,dr fate as a dog, satna with a little cape and glasses ( gives off very much a dork in private life vibes), fem flash with a mask, duel sword Wonder woman. A lot of influence from anime ,manga and video games for inspiration here that creates its own unique vibe.

https://instagram.com/vnsketches

Vinícius Lopez

This artist has a lot of great Redesigns. A good fantastic four redisings, a strong more stocky built version of susan storm, a reed with a clam smile and a good amount of grey hairs and a johnny a lopsided grin. Their x men redesigns are also pretty cool, their modern x men line up has this double line motif on cyclops, accents beat's lab coat and storms stockings mixed with bright colours makes it look very slick and striking, the classic x men line up has some practical looking suits and features a non-binary angel, his justice league redesigns are pretty cool I like the variance in body type and hair styles he has, also the dr fate design is way too attractive. His batman redesigns are pretty cool pinty little shoulders and full mask, jacket and goggles catwoman ( some pre-crisis red head jason love), teen titans redesigns are cool too, prosthetic looking leg cyborg, energetic beast boy, also both of his wonder woman designs go slap so hard! The original more canon adjacent one with the Dog tags and tie back hair is super cool but the later sketches of a tall, wild free flowing hair and BUILT like a brick house are also excellent.

https://instagram.com/viniciuslopez_artwork

https://twitter.com/lopez_artwork

Taku (@Yotakuboi)

Probably the artist with the least amount of artwork out at present but quantity does not equate quality. I found them on instagram as yotaku_boi , this artists has a frantic sort of energy to their art but crisp, clean line work effective matched with effective colour schemes and some really great character redesigns for spider man related characters, a more monster looking batman, a really cool catwoman design, the best drax design I have ever seen, a really interesting look for venom with a bulbous frog like tongue and black and white used to make a skeleton accents that remind me of a de los Muertos mask. Lot of his designs feel like they belong in an animated cartoon series and there is an obvious appreciation for a bit of a horror esthetique in some of his work.

https://instagram.com/yotaku_boi

Mike Becker

This artist most easily found on deviantart has a well proportioned that depicts almost Gabriel Ba esque art styles version of these characters very well, his use of bright colours and love of zany more cosmic, high flying silver age comic vibe is evident in every artwork especially some of his OC's , hes done art of the avengers, spider man, dr strange, fantastic four and a fairly extensive list of X men characters , he has also done Justice league, teen titans, legion super heroes. New gods, super pets and some DC rogues galleries. His artwork often features status effects around the characters such as radiating Kirby krackles of energy or surrounded by flames, he also often plays with detail on characters skin such as swirling moving of magma's arms or magic's metal arm or the tattoos he gives hawkwoman. He also seems to really love animals and that's always a plus. I don't care if it's silly if we are able to say a person can fly then why can't his dog also fly too.

Link: https://instagram.com/mikebecker

LuisBajoColladoes

For anyone who's a fan of thor or DC character's I would encourage you to take the time to check out this amazing artist. He has recently done DCtober an art challenge where people redesign/draw a character a day for a month all of which are very cool, the year before he did a Marveltober where he did the same thing although those designs are monochrome but still excellent.

There are many things I can point to as to what I enjoy in his designs his batgirl home made looking costume, how cartoonish Mr Miracle looks like he's trying to escape being two dimensional, the ocean colour scheme for his aquaman and the fiery colour scheme of his ares, he also has really cool designs for high tech armour on characters like black manta, blue beetle, big barda. He has also done art based on various IP's he doen designs based off the unfinished justice league mortal film film the 2000's, flashpoint universe characters, spiderman and spider verse and X-men with a EArth X design influence.

Oni18064

Where do I even begin to describe this artist. He has a constant output of new artwork everyday. I have been following for the past two or 3 years now and can definitively say that he loves art and is always improving his already amazing skills. His character redesigns mostly Marvel stuff although his old Dc redesigns are fun too and have a great Idea of giving each big character their own fifth dimensional imp, He's done about three maybe four rounds of redesigns at this point for a lot of the different ip's like X-men, spider man, fantastic four, captain america, hulk, thor, runaways, big hero six ect. The hero in question is a lot of their rogue's gallery and their allies.

His most recent has him doing different alternate universe to his overall AU version of marvel which has some interesting features to it such as mash up of new warriors with big hero six, happy hogan in a iron suit, black peter parker, with miles morales under the alias scarlet spider and ghost spider being the gwen clone from the original 70's clone saga story, fem captain america and falcon, monica rambeau as captain marvel with kamla as her sidekick spectrum, Nick coulson as Machine Man ( for my fellow agents of shield watchers I thought this was very clever). Overall great creative energy very well versed in both the comic's themselves and other related media such as recent video games or movies. The overall influences and desing elements are taken from all over showcasing both their immense creative and technical skills and their humbling love for these comic books in every piece of artwork they post.

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