oracle year one born of hope from batman chronicles #5 (published 1996) is hands down the best defridging story ive ever read for a lot of reasons--the first being just that its such a damn good comic in the first place. but every time i read it im so struck by the way it reframes the casual *incidental* violence done to barbara in TKJ, where she's just an obstacle in the joker's way to get to jim (to get to batman) and it's not *about* her. on the very second page of OYO we have this:
the entire page (...minus bruce in the bg up there) is drawn from barbaras point of view while she recounts the incident from her hospital bed. literally recentering her and her perspective, her experience and her feelings. where TKJ sensationalizes and sexualizes the violence done to her we see an illustration of her choice--love for her father, "don't get up"--then the shock and pain of the injury, then the operating room.
and she opened the story with "i cant believe i was such an idiot," berating herself for not looking through the peephole or using the chain on the door before she opened it, emphasizing that she knew better, and its a very human response to being the victim of something like this--almost fixating on a small mistake you made. inside the story its about the grief and the sense of control bargaining gives you--"if only i had--!" and then on the meta level its actually addressing the "well why DIDNT barbara look through the peephole???" (<- the answer being that TKJ never considered whether or not she would have, bc that was less important to the story than hurting her.)
and the next page. god. its masterful:
the balance of OYO being a response to TKJ on a meta level and the genuine story-level exploration of barbaras feelings just in the first 3 pages alone... chefs kiss. the way it addresses the previous bullshit storytelling choices--but builds something new off of them, because that shouldn't be the end of barbaras story.
and its so fantastic bc it doesn't shy away from barbaras ugly feelings...
she's so angry and she's allowed to be. and thats also what makes it such a good defridging--that its a resonant portrayal of becoming disabled. anger, grief, humiliation, shame, fear, the absolute *slog* that is recovery, the realization that your independence has been compromised... it really reckons with what this means for her in that moment and moving forward.
just posting this one bc i love her...
and the crux of the story is barbara taking control back over her life, barbara not feeling helpless anymore. its a superhero origin story to its core and its fantastic at what it does.
and i mean... i do always feel iffy about this part:
the juxtaposition of her wanting to do this without batmans help with her, well, unknowingly accepting bruces help. makes seesaw motion with hand. i always feel like its a bit of a weak spot... i like elements of it, particularly *because* this work is addressing so much of TKJs bullshit; this is making bruce actually care about barbaras injury because fuck you he *should* care, he *should* do something. and barbaras need for independence and her struggles to accept help are pretty central to her character and in a story about disability... i mean interdependence is a core tenant of disability rights activism, no man is an island and all that. but btwn it being bruce who finds richard dragon for her to train with, and richard dragon both being yknow a man and not a wheelchair user himself, it falls flat. which is really something you notice bc the rest of the story is so damn good... its hard for me to put my finger on exactly what i think they should've done instead, bc they only had 18 pages for this story and like. it's incredibly tight, not a panel wasted, so it *was* important that barbaras teacher be someone we the reader already know, and there was no *time* to establish some other way for barbara to find someone of richard fucking dragons caliber on her own without bruces connections.
but that i guess does bring me to. the other thing i find frustrating re: OYO which is just that it's. 18 pages collected with two other stories, neither of which is memorable... i mean how many other year ones of a heavy hitter like barbara freakin gordon can you think of with less than a single full issue? and batgirl year one had 9 issues (9 mediocre, mediocre issues). i dont think OYO needed that much time (but hey neither did fucking bgyo)... but come on. come on!!!!!!
i'm so in love that i might stop breathing drew a map on your bedroom ceiling no i didn't see the news 'cause we were somewhere else stumbled down pretend alleys waste cheap wine make believe it's champagne i was taken by the view like we were in paris!!!!!!!!!!
tagged by the tastemaker @cordiallyfuturedwight for the january receipts and would you believe it i'm actually on time
tagging a few favs: @aprylynn @jiminsproof @thvinyl @jimin-gaon @visionsofgideontheninth @btscontentenjoyer @kimchokejin @jihopesjoint @eoieopda @monismochi <333 and you too if you fancy it
imagine. a hot english teacher who is part of a family everyone is pretty sure is a literal mob and she’s got this air of someone plagued by endless guilt and she disappeared for like three months with no explanation and also she walks around in sports bras instead of shirts half the time. helena bertinelli is my dream woman.
📣 EVERYBODY SHUT UP!!! 📣 JANELLE IS BACK IN THE STUDIO!!!
janellemonae Best way to describe how I’m feeling this birthday. It’s float season for me baby. Floating in gratitude. 🥹feeling much lighter. Fucked around and got more FREE. I’m not the same nigga.
I finished watching WorldOfWinx season 1 now, and I have to say apart from whitewashing Flora it's pretty decent.
Maybe it's because the last season of Winx I watched was season 7. And I mean in comparison to season 7 even the third movie looks good (ouch, it hurts saying that). But I think WOW is really good actually.
I absolutely do enjoy watching it. The story is interesting, Ace is funny af (WOWWOWWOWWOWWOW) and the characters feel like those we knew from the earlier seasons again. Layla is such a boss queen, and I love her driving skills. She and Stella slay, and also Tecna, my beautiful girl! I wished Musa had more screen time but she's flawless too. (Don't talk about Flora* and Bloom here lol).
It's also refreshing to have entirely new villains with different motifs. The art style is so pretty too. I'm so in love with Bloom's civilian outfit. And their fight suits are cool too (not sure but I kinda got the feeling they change into them magically because sometimes there is just not enough time to change clothes that fast, haha) And omg Dreamix! Best transformation song ever! The Whoooohooooo is so epic. Love it. Hope it stays great. The songs are aww chef's kiss *v* ALL OF THEM