#making Superman go big bad is so stale

[belovedgrayson]

Idk man if you think Superman being a kindhearted boy scout is “boring” then maybe Superman just isn’t for you. Maybe you should get into something else. Leave our boy scout for the people who love him.

#queue #give us the heroes we deserve #let superheroes be soft #he literally grew up on a farm #miss me with your nonsense #also DC stop ruining everything I love #making Superman go big bad is so stale

[magnificent-nerd]

Why Naqib in The Boys sucked

Image description: fictional character Naqib in Amazon Prime’s show The Boys.

(Is the fire in the background an excuse to use racist Yellow Filter to show how exotic he is? Hmm.)

I first posted this on my blog in Dec 2020, and since nothing in superhero media has changed for the better at this time (September 5th, 2021), I’m going to keep talking about it.

Because nobody else does. So, without further ado:

WHY NAQIB SUCKS.

I was a big fan of The Boys season 1; I love superheroes, I love deconstructing a genre. Sure, it has its problems, but overall I enjoyed season 1 and thought the show had potential.

(That’ll learn me for being hopeful!)

When season 1 ended with this big build up of mostly nameless brown and background characters as Muslim terrorists (deep sigh) we the audience are left thinking this one Muslim character (Naqib) whose superpower is to blow himself up repeatedly (insert another long deep sigh here) is going to be The Big Bad of season 2.

I had my misgivings about that direction. Firstly, as you can see from the image of Naqib, he is highly exoticised and is walking around bare chested with Arabic writing on his chest. He looks more like a generic western media depiction of a genie than he does a supervillain. 

And yet he's the first prominent Muslim character in superhero media I've seen in YEARS.

-

(See my post about MENA and Muslim character good guys, including Joe played by Marwan Kenzari in The Old Guard, which is technically a comic book movie but it’s not what I’d call ‘caped and costumed’ superheroes so it’s more... superhero adjacent.)

I follow superhero content closely and as far as I'm aware the last time we saw any named Muslim characters in superhero movies WITH SPEAKING LINES was:

Instance 1) Iron Man 1 back in 2008 with The Ten Rings in Afghanistan, showing multiple Muslim characters as baddies/terrorists, but only two of them as a named character and with any meaningful lines to say. And despite one of them, Yinsen (actor Shaun Toub), being a good guy he still dies! Which is common in western media for Muslim and MENA characters.

Note: Fellow Iron Man 1 castmate, actor Sayed Badreya, makes an important point in this GQ article: "I die in Iron Man, I die in Executive Decision. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" (x)

Instance 2) A more recent instalment in Batman V. Superman in 2016, with some unnamed 'General' character and mercenaries/terrorists in Nairomi, Africa, referred to only as "the desert" throughout the movie. All reference to the General's actual name are available in an extended/deleted scene only, so a very poor and vague depiction in the final cut.

Instance 3) The generic and badly written ‘bad guys’ in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020 movie), which was honestly such a racist depiction of Arabs and Muslims that many critics pointed out we hadn’t seen a depiction this terrible since 1994′s True Lies. (At least most critics were in agreement that WW84 movie was generally terrible, so there’s that.)

And that's it, those are the only major instances showing any Muslim actors or characters in a caped and costumed superhero movie. 

Some other fleeting glimpses of Muslims onscreen:

Glimpse 1) I spotted a girl wearing a hijab among the nameless and unspeaking background characters of Peter Parker's class in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). A first for Marvel movies, apparently.

Glimpse 2) Disney Plus show Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) had two nameless Muslim characters walk by in a scene that’s supposed to be Tunisia (using Yellow Filter), and ‘thank’ the present American Air Force (eye-roll).

Glimpse 3) Netflix show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021) had a nameless Muslim sailor conversing with one of the main characters in a scene, with meaningful dialogue about racism. (WOW. Really good.) Bonus: no yellow filter. It’s a pity he’s a nameless background character because this brief instance is the least problematic MENA rep I’ve seen in ages, but it is very brief.

I just wrote about Glimpses 2 and 3, and how the Netflix show outdid Disney when it comes to these nameless walk-on Muslim characters.

This is pretty pathetic overall, these small crumbs, especially compared to better rep and probably the only instance of legit MENA superheroes in a ‘costumes and capes’ style superhero show, the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

-

Anyway, now I’ve listed what crumbs are available across the live action superhero genre, back to The Boys.

I was intrigued about how season 2 would handle Naqib and any characters relating to him, and what storyline they'd use. 

Was I excited at the possibility of seeing Muslim supers onscreen? Damn straight I was. Did I mind that they were baddies? Well, yes and no. When you only ever get crumbs or no crumbs at all, you tend to get excited over one stale old crumb.

After the build up for season 2, I eagerly sat down to watch the first episode, only to have the first five minutes of episode 1 Trigon him.

Note: who's Trigon, you ask? Well if you didn't watch the DCEU's Titans show, Trigon was The Big Bad who was hyped up throughout season 1, introduced in the season 1 cliff-hanger episode as this big 'oh shit!' moment for the cast of heroes, only for him to fizzle out like a wet fart in the first episode of season 2 while the show pivots wildly in another direction. 

Exactly what happened to Naqib in the first five minutes of The Boys season 2.

Erm, so, Naqib. Farewell, I guess? As a character you briefly appeared in 2 episodes, portrayed by a different actor in each (Krishan Dutt, and Samer Salem). It seems the writers used you as a plot device when they needed a cheap cliff-hanger for a direction that ultimately went nowhere.

Am I disappointed? Yeah, I am. Overall I thought season 2 of The Boys was weaker than season 1, but I'm not here to talk about the whole season: I want to talk about Naqib and this missed opportunity.

The Boys and its showrunners sell the show as being a satire of recent and well known superhero content, of all the big movies and TV shows. There's been a lot of patting themselves on the back for calling out overused tropes in superhero media (and sometimes they've done this satire well: see the LGBT marketing scene with Queen Maeve in season 2), but my issue with the show on their Muslim rep, or should I say lack thereof, is if your show has even less Muslim character rep than the content you're trying to parody, how is this a win for satire?

Naqib and that whole angle came across as a lazy, half-assed swing from the writer's room. Sure, perhaps a lot of the non-Muslim and non-MENA audience won't even notice, as we've been ignored by western media or made into nameless, generic, vacuous baddies for decades now. Non-Muslims and non-MENA just accept that we're always the baddies for no particular reason at all (which feeds into Islamophobia, by the way) and The Boys' writers could say they are simply satirising the tropes already present in media...

But, and this is a big but, the media that The Boys is satirising has already made a step toward better inclusion and representation: Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Marvel comics' first Muslim superhero, is entering the MCU as a lead character in her own Disney Plus show, debuting in 2022. 

Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan is also cited to appear in upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels (2022), which will be a major movie.

The MCU has also cast a Muslim actor (Mahershala Ali) as the lead in a reboot of Blade. That's going to be big news when it starts filming.

So to the showrunners on The Boys, I say this: now you've done this small angle of 'all Muslim characters are terrorists, yuckity-yuck!' like we've seen in major superhero movies thus far, and you've brushed that aside in favor of focusing on other whiter villains, my question is will you come back to Muslim and MENA characters again? Or is that all you got?

Because if that was ALL, then the current score is Disney/MCU:02, Netflix:02, DCEU:02, and The Boys: a big ZERO as far as Muslim and MENA rep goes.

-

Originally posted on my blog, magnificently nerdy.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for onscreen Muslim and MENA characters in superhero media, and have spotted any characters in superhero TV shows I haven’t watched yet, let me know about them!

Here is my post on good guys, featuring Old Guard’s Joe, and Blindspot’s Rich Dotcom.

Here’s my post about the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show.

And, if Marvels’ Eternals gets released on schedule for 2021, we will have a MENA actor portraying a supporting character. I just hope Marvel gives him a name.

#naqib #the boys #islamophobia #racism #tired tropes #orientalism #mcu #disney #homelander #tony stark #the ten rings #the boys tv #yinsen #muslim #representation matters #bad writing #white hollywood #hollywood #critique #the boys critical #disney critical #mcu critical #representation #mena #swana #mena actors #swana actors #muslim actors #muslim characters #mena characters

[dereksmcgrath]

Nosu Koshu’s return combines the Black Mercy from Superman with a Dragon Quest isekai plot that doesn’t really deliver much in the way of innovative gags and, in terms of plot, only perpetuates vague hints at larger schemes by Uneras. But maybe Ren’s sister Rin is going to get to be more relevant, so that’s good.

“Nosu Koshu of Illusions,” Magu-chan: God of Destruction, Chapter 56

By Kei Kamiki, translation by Christine Dashiell, lettering by Erika Terriquez

Available from Viz

Spoiler Warning for the Dragon Quest animated film.

Nosu Koshu, the dream god, is like the Black Mercy from Superman mythos. First appearing in the comic “For the Man Who Has Everything” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, then adapted for Justice League Unlimited and Supergirl, it is an alien being that lets you dream of your most ardent desires–but usually with some catch, not just that, to remove the Mercy from yourself is to lose that perfect dream, but because even within that dream, like any utopia, there is always some dark side behind it. When Nosu Koshu popped up first in Magu-chan, she gave Ruru the dream of being reunited with her dead father, at the cost of being with Magu and living a healthier life of coping with loss and finding new opportunities despite that loss.

Nosu Koshu gave Magu-chan the best arc it has had up to this point–so bringing her back now for a parody of Dragon Quest and isekai storylines is tiresome. Hell, I hated that Dragon Quest animated film for its twist at the end regarding isekai stuff, so unfortunately that example tainted my appreciation for where this chapter was going.

I’m not being entirely fair to this chapter: there were details I liked. I admit some of those details were gags that I should have seen coming: Magu being reduced to a Dragon Quest Slime monster, or Uneras being shown as the final boss (which, as I’ll talk about in a moment, is potential foreshadowing to her being the Big Bad all along for this series). And I laugh heartedly when Ruru said they’ll just skip the maze level and thanks Muscar for the warning; as repetitive as their dynamic is, I do like the groove the series has set, Muscar struggling to be fearsome and intimidating and Ruru, not out of simpleness but kindheartedness, looking on the bright side and taking Muscar’s remarks as helpful rather than intimidating.

But isekai storylines have been done to death. “Magic technology goes out of wack” like Uneras putting Izuma to sleep, then having magic eyemasks to put the others into Izuma’s dream, are plot details I expect from some of the worst manga that repeatedly persist with that trope. If I want the mad scientist who keeps making magic-like objects that cause wacky hijinks, I’d get back to writing Mei Hatsume fanfiction, not sitting through G-rated To Love-Ru.

I’m trying to judge the series by its own previous examples: if you’re going to invoke a certain type of video game, even if it is an RPG, I am stuck comparing how this same series handled the fighting game tropes, offering a funny version of Smash Bros while also having more clever gags that invoke the invitation envelope from that franchise as well as even designing a bulkier headband-wearing Magu to look like Ryu from Street Fighter.

But even still, I think how another series would handle this kind of plotline about Dragon Quest-style RPGs and isekai plotlines–because I’ve seen Gintama do it, not only to parody the same content but to do the exact same plot, that being to get into someone’s body (more specifically for Magu-chan, someone’s mind) to help them through a health-related problem. And when there are so many isekai stories out there, it is ripe for parody–and there have been enough of such parodies in other series, or even isekai that are parodying their own genre and undermining their own narrative conventions.

The gags in this chapter also felt less impressive than those in previous chapters. The problem the series has had since depowering Muscar has been Uneras, and I hate saying that when she is, for better or worse, a character who resonates for manga and anime fans like us, someone portrayed as ostensibly a Western fan whose fixation on the tropes of Japanese comics and animation shows an outsider’s perspective that just gets details wrong and invokes cringe. Maybe it is naive for me to think this is all innocent: as a fan in the United States, who is going to misread cultural aspects of works that are created in cultural contexts outside of where I am, I really try to be aware and not make claims I cannot support.

So, maybe Uneras is a warning for people who think they are being reasonable and having good intentions but whose misreadings are doing actual harm. It’s not that difficult a way to measure her, given her other problematic behavior: her reaction in this chapter of thinking “hawt” upon seeing Izuma oppose her, after the series has already presented Uneras as a pseudo-maternal figure to Izuma, is all kinds of Oedipal squick that, no, ew, stop, please.

When you keep making Uneras’s behavior the instigation for the plot–creating the problems for the characters to solve–her role as the trouble-maker, as the troll, lacks the same complexities we saw earlier. When she first appeared, her antics inadvertently caused problems: if she had told Ruru that the cookies she ate would make her too powerful, then Ruru would not have accidentally blasted Izuma and Magu. In her subsequent appearances, she was carefully placed in alternative positions, sometimes purposefully trolling the characters, sometimes unintentionally causing problems that thankfully were harmless enough to be corrected by story’s end with minimal ramifications and no malice. Then she depowered Muscar, bringing the story back to square one in terms of giving him a potential redemption arc, and invoking colonialist imagery that shows her cultural ignorance is not necessarily amusing but dangerous.

If we don’t want to read something deeper behind Uneras’s behavior, within the plot of the manga itself, there is an easier understanding for why she is trolling people, tricking them, and now pulling such a dangerous Black Mercy god like Nosu Koshu into her ranks–and it’s been obvious since Uneras’s first introduction. When she premiered in unlucky Chapter 13, she made it clear that she is playing the humans and gods against each other, that she sided with the humans against her own kind to keep the gods in check. She is not the traditional notion of a hero, she is not a good-hearted cliche like Ruru: she is a puppetmaster, and that opens up more potential for what to do with her in this manga, and I tense up either because she will emerge as an antagonist in this story or because I am now attached to this idea and will feel disappointed if my prediction does not pan out that way (which, seeing as I am wanting to see every tiny cute creature as a potential villain–e.g., Nezu in My Hero Academia–may be my problem and not that of the stories’: “When you’re a hammer, and everything looks like a nail…”).

That leaves us with what the story does with Nosu Koshu. Since her introduction, she has been a passive character, fitting for a god whose ability puts people to sleep in the dream that best serves the reality they want to enter. That power gave Magu-chan the kind of storyline even the goofiest gag manga needs, one that showed how Ruru has mourned her father’s death and gave joke characters like Naputaaku a chance to rise to the occasion. But now that Nosu Koshu’s threat has been diminished, the manga is trying to figure out where to position her–and the conclusion they reach is to give Ren another god to look after. I had enjoyed how Magu-chan added more gods but made sure to give those gods their own human Pokemon trainer, so introducing Nosu Koshu but not giving her her own unique human is retreading whatever characterization we could get from Ren without developing a currently present human or a new human character we could add. It’s like when Transformers Prime introduced Smokescreen and gave him Jack as his human partner: Jack already has Arcee, and that choice diminished opportunities to give Arcee the spotlight, as her storyline faded more and more into the background while Smokescreen’s role got larger and larger. Diminishing the only woman-coded Autobot to the background didn’t help either.

But speaking of sidelining women characters, if we are going to have Nosu Koshu at the Fujisawa restaurant–and, as they do have a beach stand, it does make sense to apply this god’s talents there after Mother Fujisawa exhausted herself in an earlier chapter–pair Nosu Koshu with Ren’s sister Rin. While I have enjoyed Rin’s dynamic with Naputaaku, he is already Ren’s god partner, and Rin’s schtick has been rather stale: in the beach stand chapter, we did learn she desires to rise to the occasion to run the family business, belying her slacker demeanor. But if we’re going to move beyond the tiresome slacker schtick, having her be the partner to a literal sleepyhead like Nosu Koshu makes sense and could help both characters, contrasting how Rin’s passivity differs from Nosu Koshu’s, and showing that Rin has actual dreams she is trying to reach in her own way while Nosu Koshu has been content to force other people to literally dream without having any goal of her own. Like I just said, I tend to write ideas that I hope a story will take, then I feel disappointed when they don’t go there, and that unfairly influences my reviews. But I hope I got this one right, because after the previous chapter and now this one, it feels like Magu-chan needs an emotionally impactful chapter to give more direction to where the gags should go.

#magu chan: god of destruction #manga review

[rocket-roach]

Shadows We Know

request from everyone’s favorite fandom mom and queen of knowledge who i admire very much, @fuyunoakegata 

I wanted to write more of this and I think I definitely will at one point, because I love all the boys in this fic and I feel like there’s a lot more for me explore in this story.

ANYWAY. without further ado: here’s dick, jason, and tim dealing (and struggling) with their father and losing someone else very important

Word count: 2133

He’s always had nightmares. They just got worse after his parents were killed. Then they were catastrophic after Bruce died.

Tim running around the manor while he hunted for the ghost of their father didn’t help any.

Patrol had been quiet. Damian didn’t complain as much as he used to, even with Tim’s return to the manor. It had been months since Dick had fired Tim and started the youngest as Robin. But it was nice to have Tim back. Even if he was quickly and drastically reducing the amount of espresso in the house.

His mind was flying. Tim was back, but Jason had been spending nearly every waking hour in Crime Alley. Dick had gone there to bring him home. But the sight of Jay leaving sacks of Big Belly Burger on the fire escapes and at the entrances of the cardboard lean-tos, he left him alone. It didn’t feel right to ask him to come home then. Jason was still healing, and he didn’t want to force open those wounds.

He laid in his bed, aching to go across the hall and ask Bruce for help.

But that was what crazy people didn’t, wasn’t it? Ask the dead for advice. He wasn’t crazy, he rationalized as he slid his feet into the Superman slippers on the side of his bed. He was just out of options. Dick padded across the hall. Bruce’s door opened with its usual soft groan.

Lit only by the full moon outside, the massive master suite was spotless. There wasn’t a speck of dust on the desk, the bedside table, the dresser, or even in the bathroom. Finding the room to his liking, he sat on the bed and laid down. Bruce’s grey comforter was just as fluffy as the day he left it. The former acrobat wiggled underneath it after a beat, wrapping it around himself in a cocoon of warmth.

Dick fell asleep moments later.

He was standing under the big top, the spotlights aimed at the platforms above. His parents stood on the far right one, waving their hands as an invisible crowd cheered loudly. On the left, stood Bruce. He was shouting, Dick could tell from the way that one vein was straining on his forehead and how the tendons on his neck were taught. But he was making no sound.

He was trying to stop the Dick’s parents from leaping. He finally caught sight of Dick in the ring, and Bruce’s glacial eyes pinned him to that spot.

 Over the roar of the crowd, Dick heard Bruce say four words.

“Crime Alley devours children.”

John and Mary’s bodies hit the ground with two wet thuds.

Dick shot awake in his father’s bed, his hair soaked with sweat and tears and snot covering his face. Songbirds were heralding the new day outside of the bay windows, and bile rose in his throat. Dick charged to the bathroom; his hands gripping the porcelain bowl as he vomited. Alfred had started knocking on the door. Dick was too busy dry-heaving over the puke to answer. Then he felt a gentle hand smoothing his hair away from his face.

“Master Dick,” Alfred said softly. “It’s alright, sir. You’re okay.”

“I saw him, Al,” Dick finally said. “in my dream.”

Alfred tried to muffle his groan as he joined Dick on the floor, but from the worried look Dick shot him, he hadn’t been successful.

“Should we move to the bed?”

“I’m old, Master Dick. Not an invalid. Do you want to tell me about the dream?”

“He said something really weird. He said, god, what was it?” Dick bit his lip as he thought. “Oh, that’s right. ‘Crime Alley devours children.’ That’s pretty off the wall, even for him.”

“He might be onto something,” a deep, smoke ruined voice said from the doorway. “Three of the kids under my protection have gone missing within the past three weeks.”

“I came to tell you Master Jason was home,” Alfred spoke.

 They were in the cave after breakfast, with Damian sticking close to Dick’s side. Tim was in the evidence corner, muttering to himself as he putzed with various spoils of intergalactic battle. Jason’s hands kept going to the front right pocket where a pack of Camel blue cigarettes sat, his lighter just barely visible.

“A lot them move down there because they know it’s a favorite spot of ours. I tried scarin’ em off at first, didn’t want them running into any of the usual assholes who hang there. But that only encouraged them. Three weeks ago, 17 kids were living in that alley. As of this morning, there’s only 14. At first, I just thought they’d moved to a better place in the city. But there’s this one kid, Jules Adams. Told me all about how she saw a shadow with fangs take Colton Taylor. He was the first kid who vanished. Then told me that she heard Hank Giaccione yelling about fangs. She told me that, and when I brought her a coffee this morning--”

“You gave a kid coffee?” Tim asked.

“Quiet, Tim. The adults are talking,” Jason waved him off. “Anyway, I brought her coffee and donuts, but Jerome said she vanished just before sunrise. Jerome said he saw giant sharp teeth dragging her down the alley.”

“You’re like four years older than me,” Tim griped.

“We’re supposed to believe that shadows that have teeth are stealing street rats, Todd?”

“I came back from the dead, in case you forgot. I basically raised you.”

“You did not!” Damian shouted.

“Then who wiped your ass when the other ninjas wouldn’t?”

“The ninjas didn’t want to wipe his ass?” Tim asked as he emerged from the evidence corner with a time gun. “Jesus, how much did you poop?”

Dick intervened as Damian began turning beet red. “We’re getting off topic,” He wrapped an arm around Damian, drawing him fully against his side. “What do you think it is, Jay?”

“Sounds like some witchcraft stuff to me,” Tim interjected as a yellow blast of energy blew out of the barrel of the gun. A bat who had been unlucky enough to be downrange suddenly exploded into a giant bat, to which Tim noted: “Huh, guess they really are evolved from Megachiroptera. How ‘bout that.”

The next round fired was neon green, and a very startled and confused bat crashed into the nearest cave wall.

“Tim, stop shooting the bats.”

“I need to figure out how this thing works,” Tim muttered as he wandered back to the evidence corner.

Jason watched as Tim’s mop of messy hair vanished around the wall.

“Is he still looking for Bruce?” Jason asked once it was just the three of him.

“He’s still convinced that he’s not dead.”

“I mean, the boss man thought I was dead. So, did you, Dick. If there’s anything this family is really bad at, it’s staying dead. Anyway, I thought it was witchcraft like Tim did. I talked to Swamp Thing while I was down in Florida vising Roy and he said it didn’t sound like any magical being he’d ever heard of. Then I was thinking about it; the shadow only comes out at night. There’s no report of a shadow with fangs appearing during daylight. I don’t think it’s witchcraft. I think it’s just some psychopath.”

 Dick’s dreams were worse that evening. He was back in the big top. His parents and Bruce were standing in the same spots they were the night before. But the crowd was a writhing mass of black, twisted shadows roaring for a jump. A whip of the black shadows rocketed from the nosebleeds, connecting with Bruce’s back. He was shoved off the platform, his face as stoic as ever as he plummeted down. Feet away from the dirt, he turned his head and looked Dick in the eyes.

“The shadow knows,” He said before his neck broke.

 The next night found Red Hood, Robin, and Batman perched on the various run-down buildings that guarded Crime Alley. Beneath them, kids dressed in ratty old clothes both too large and too small for them scrounged about in the alley for scraps of food. They were all quiet as they watched. If the kids knew they were there, they didn’t acknowledge them. For that, the assembled bats were grateful. It helped them in their hunt. Hours passed. They switched buildings. Ate some Jokerized burgers. Damian beat Jason in four games of rock, paper, scissors. Jason gave Damian a noogie. Dick had to remove a shuriken from Jason’s side.

They did this for 6 days straight.

It had been a week since Jules disappeared. Jason was becoming frantic. The shadow would strike again tonight, he was sure of it. He could taste it like he could taste the staleness of the cigarette he was currently plowing through.

And Dick was nowhere to be found. He’d been trying to hail him all night on the comms, even going so far at one point as to send one of the kids to the police station to turn on the signal. There had been no response.

“Hood to cave,” he murmured. “Tonight’s the night. I could really use some backup. Or, whatever.”

“You know, you’re really bad at asking for help,” Tim responded, the sound of his grapple firing over his comm. “Bats can’t make it tonight. Robin said he had a bad night. He’s down for the count; or at least till the knock-out gas Agent A gave him wears off.”

“Jesus,” Jay breathed. “That bad?”

“He nearly clocked Robin. He’s in a bad way. Don’t worry about briefing me, I’m all caught up.”

Jay noticed one of the cardboard boxes was now leaning to the right, when it had been drifting left towards collapse at the beginning of the evening.

“For the record,” Jason said as Tim landed to his right. “I believe you. I don’t buy it that Bruce is dead.”

The white covered eyes of Tim’s cowl narrowed as he watched his older brother. “Do you really?”

“Speaking as a former dead person myself, yes. Now, I think our perp is down there. Let’s move.”

 The next morning found Jay and Tim, sitting at the table covered in bandages and brooding. Dick joined them. He had dark circles under his eyes which only made the paleness of his face stand out. He sat in his usual spot, to the right of the head seat. None of the boys said anything. They just sat. Alfred entered quietly, serving each one their favorite breakfasts. Chicken and waffles for Dick. Pancakes buried underneath breakfast sausage, bacon, and hash browns. Eggs benedict with a side of yogurt and strawberries for Tim. Cheese stuffed kaek for Damian, with a nice cup of tea.

They ate in silence.

Damian’s plate remained untouched.

 Alfred left the room to go retrieve Damian for his morning repast.

Jason sighed. He really wanted a fucking smoke.

Tim finished his yogurt. He needed to get back to finding his dad.

Dick swallowed a bite that was too big. He wanted his dad to be alive again, so he could get some sleep.

“Master Damian is missing.”

“There were 14 kids this morning,” Tim jolted in his seat.

 Dick decided that he was going to fight off sleep until he could find his youngest brother. It didn’t feel right to see Bruce in his sleep while his son was missing. The bats tore apart Crime Alley, asking every kid for help, taking every piece of evidence. Any criminal unlucky enough to mouth off to Batman that night got a taste of their own teeth.

“It’s almost as if he’s back,” Red Robin whispered to Red hood.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Hood responded.

Eventually, they end up in the Iron District. The snarling of the Batmobile echoed through the derelict buildings. All the clues and evidence they’d collected in their fear and rage was leading them to the original Wayne Enterprises factory. Where their father’s wealth had been quintupled during the industrial revolution.

All the signs were pointing them to the smoke stacks that loomed higher than any others in that area.

The car drove through a loading dock, then straight to the center of the building where the stacks sat. They were out of the car before it was completely still, charging towards the man-sized opening at the bottom of the middle one. Dick charged in first, Tim right on his heels. Jason checked his guns, then stepped through.

 A long haired, very bearded, Bruce Wayne was leaning against the wall with a regular tenant of Arkham Asylum unconscious at his feet. He held a bruise covered Damian in his arms. Those glacial blue eyes were filled with fire.

“He brought me back,” Bruce whispered.

#Bruce Wayne #Batman #Robin #Dick Grayson #Jason Todd #Tim Drake #Damian Wayne #Alfred Pennyworth #requests #cw violence #cw death #grief #denial #testing time travel weapons on bats and finding their prehistoric ancestors #jason has a gang of kids he protects okay #they all miss bruce #dick handles his ptsd pretty well until he cant anymore #i hope this is alright!!!

[mattzerella-sticks]

I’mma be real here for a sec - when I heard YJ: Outsiders was announced I was super excited. Without being tethered to a network, in control of its own storylines and whatnot I thought that so much good could happen. And when the first few episodes came out I was so excited, it seemed to be paying off...

But then every week I became less and less excited to binge the three episodes, because it felt like no matter what I was going to be force fed a het relationship or bloody, gory violence - or BOTH!

Now the second half of the third season is out and I could barely sit through the 14th episode. The only reason I did was because I saw they had Guy Gardner and I love him (in fact I skipped all the scenes that weren’t the League in space). Here’s why I’m so over this third season and I want it to be over with:

- Not keeping promises: The showrunner/one of the big creators on the team promised LGBT+ rep; now I would understand if they drew it out and wanted to do it right (I mean 1st season had the perfect drawn out relationship of Artemis Crock and Wally West THAT’S WHAT I WANT). But since we’ve gotten probably 10+ het relationships, a lot of them rushed and thrown together (I mean, Jefferson Pierce and the doctor?!?!) I highly doubt any LGBT rep will be well done. It feels like they see characters who stand side by side of different gender expressions and go “Wow, I can picture their wedding already”. I mean, even a bug and a SHIP have a flirtationship.

- Rushed Storyline & Bad Animation: They’ve had all this time to come up with a pretty good story, especially since it involves the biggest bad of the DCU Darkseid, and this is what we’re getting? The concept of metahuman trafficking and federal oversight into superheroes is a good one to build a plot from, but it feels too disjointed because the writers are cramming in so many different heroes it’s hard to focus; what they should have done was pulled the narrative closer to the Outsiders team and cut the dead weight (like the Vandal Savage episode seriously); Also the animation is stilted and, again, you have all this time and this is what we get? The characters react too slow and it feels sloppy, IMO.

- Unoriginal Characters: With all these new characters maybe they’d be a little different, or at least draw inspiration from but not outright be clones of other characters? Because the three newbies (Geo-Force, Halo, and Forager) are just Superboy, M’gann 1 and M’gann 2. Minor new additions are bleh (Helga Jace looking at you again, I know Terra is the obvious betrayer but I read the comics, I know what you’re planning) And even the characters we’ve grown to know and love are acting somewhat stale, like there’s nothing special to them? It seems like all the heroes are doing the same thing? It’s not that it’s bad but it makes for an uninteresting story. Like what about Dinah and Ollie, you see them break up in the first episode (or at least have a fight) but then NOTHING ELSE from it! 

- Pushing Things On Us We Don’t Want: Simple. WILL AND ARTEMIS. No one wants this? Why did you think it was a good idea? Why can’t we just have Will and Aunt Artemis be the best of friends? Is it a crime for two single people to be friends with each other? If you’re of differing gender expressions then apparently, at least for this show.

- Gore and Violence: We get it, Violet can heal herself from anything. SO WHY DID IT SEEM LIKE EVERY OTHER EPISODE THEY WANTED US TO REMEMBER IN THE MOST BRUTAL WAY?!?! And then when it seemed like we were getting a break, they bring in Victor and were like “Wanna see us animate intestines hanging out of a body?” And before we could say no - BOOM!

I will end with something positive - I loved Guy Gardner in this? Maybe because he was a one-shot character only for this episode but all the same. His antics, his voice actor, his singing, the fact that he was the beautiful pan disaster I know and love (”somebody kiss my ring” “flirts with both Superman & Wonder Woman” “sings a song about his ass to Hawkman & Wonder Woman”) But if you expect me to watch the other two episodes that came out today - especially the septuple date and Static seventh wheeling - then you are highly mistaken. I’ll get my info from all of you here.

#Young Justice #YJ #YJ Outsiders #Young Justice Outsiders #Guy Gardner

[mysterious-prophetess]

Movie Double feature

Today I saw TWO Movies somewhat back-to-back.

Bumblebee AND Aquaman.

One I’d been anticipating and one I was slightly skeptical about.

So I’m going to do my little post movie write up AS a double feature as well.

So first the overall experiences I had with both and then below a read more, I will get into spoiler territory.

Bumblebee

I will admit I had the bar set low because it’s a Transformer’s movie. Though, I was slightly hopeful because Bee was a bug like he was in the cartoon. And also, Bee is my favorite transformer’s character.

I was right to be hopeful. This movie was thoroughly enjoyable. Not once did I glance at my cellphone. Ok I did but that wasn’t because I was bored. 

The pacing could be very quick at times but the human protagonist was actually someone I could give a full damn about. The plot wrapped up nicely and if Michael Bay really wanted, he could reboot the whole franchise and it would work. Easily the best of the....how many are there at this point? Let’s see.....(one google search later) Six. Best of the Six Transformers movies out. Personally, I think Michael bay should just reboot the series.

Aquaman

I didn’t have the bar super high here either but I was hoping for it to be good because of several reasons.

1) I am a HUGE DC fangirl. That’s right I’ll admit it, I prefer DC to Marvel. So, I’d prefer it when DC movies are good.

2) Representation matters. 

3) The way they set up Aquaman in Justice League (especially with the Motherbox thing and Mera) intrigued me.

So, how was it? Well, I will say it was not as good as Wonder Woman. However, it was better than all the other current batch DC movies, though. By which I mean the ones that are already out. Which is something it does pain me to admit since I am (at heart) a hardcore Superman fangirl. So, for me current DC movie rankings in quality (in my personal opinion):

Wonder Woman

Aquaman

Justice League

Man of Steel

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (extended cut)

Suicide Squad

The tone flipped back and forth with light and more serious moments here and there. The pacing could be choppy in a few segments and Snyder is back at it again with his choices for editing scenes together. More on that in the spoiler section. But it was also fun and Arthur’s 1000000% done with it was something I could relate to. Yes, it is the standard trope-y King Arthur tale (yeah, pun intended and DC did that too) of good true king versus Bad False King, but it also wasn’t totally stale. The art direction is what really made this movie for me. I loved LOVED how the underwater civilizations looked.

Now time for the spoiler section.

You have been warned. Don’t read if you’ve not seen either.

Bumblebee

Like I said above, I did not enter this film with high expectations of it. I mean, I don’t hate the other Transformers movies. I’ll just admit up front that if I could cut out the human bits from most of the other five films and just have nothing but giant robot fights, I’d be more than good with that. Especially Dark of the Moon. Just give me the giant robot bits and omit the rest please.

Charlie is actually relatable. Especially to me because I’ve had the sucky as fuck job at an amusement park. I won’t say where or when but trust me: working at a theme park is not fun at all. She also has something of an arc in this film that isn’t “get the girl” or whatever Mark Whalberg’s character’s arc was supposed to be in Last Knight (I didn’t see age of extinction but it seemed his arc there was around fatherhood or something). Charlie is also (as a character) charming enough to help carry the film with Bee. 

I won’t say the Charlie parts were always 100% good, but definitely good more often than not.

The male human lead (Memo?)...he was just Sam Witwicky 1980′s edition and a little less pathetic. 

Bumblebee was adorable in this. I get it was the amnesia but before he lost his voice, it was nice to hear him actually talk and the fact they cast a guy with a young-ish sounding voice was something I really liked since in the cartoon I’m more than fairly certain Bee was a kid or the youngest member of the Autobots. After the amnesia, it also sort of was childlike in his behaviors. 

I even liked the Decepticons. They were barely playing nice. 

I like that the human military was trying to play them right back.

Best line in the movie was when the John Cena character Agent Burns says something like,

“Should we even trust them, It’s right in their name “Decepticons”“ 

That was actually a clever thing to have in the film. 

Something else I liked was the fact that Optimus Prime, Soundwave, and Ravage were all really close to their cartoon designs, and it looked so much nicer to me.

Bee as a Camaro origin story. It was a nice touch. This skews the canon of the films a little but since it’s in my personal opinion they should just reboot it here and run with this new universe, any continuity issues aren’t that big to me.

Were there times the move just went from 0-CRAZY. Yeah. 

Charlie’s family: Borderline abusive at times, and borderline too...much. They weren’t as over the top as the Witwicky’s but that’s not saying much.

The internet already existed in the 80′s for the military as either DARPA or ARPA Net, so that little revelation was stupid.

The bullies who harrass Charlie at that party spot. I’ve never met someone that callus IRL and there is no way the bitchy chick making fun of the fact Charlie’s dad dropped dead wouldn’t have had at least someone aside from Memo and Bee going “Not Cool”

Speaking of that, the whole delinquent thing that they did to rich girl’s house? Funny but not 100% plot relevant. There were other ways to end up with Charlie, Bee, and Memo in a car chase. 

E.G. Bee’s trying to cheer Charlie up by going fast or something.

The nod to the other films with Simmons was nice. 

A solidly enjoyable film. I do actually recommend it.

Aquaman

Now onto a bigger spiel.

Again, due to DC’s track record for film quality with the current movie universe (and beyond) I did not want to have my hopes up, but I already mentioned why I wanted it to do well above.

The tonal shifts from serious to light to serious again could be (to borrow what my dad said) corny. I like corny, personally, but I get that tonal shifts like this can give others whiplash. Fortunately, they didn’t do this all the time.

What Snyder had them do enough times, however, was editing in flashbacks in the main flow of the story with little warning a la Man of Steel and I didn’t like it then, I don’t like it now.

Sometimes the dialogue could be a bit on the nose and clunky but I did like Arthur’s arc in this film. It was slightly incomplete because part of his arc started in Justice League which was learning how to play nice with other people to do something. Then there was the whole reluctant leader thing. It was done well enough, but having seen it done much better in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy, I know that attempting this sort of character arc in one film was asking for it to be a little less refined. Which is the result. Yet, despite it relying on a very Arthurian trope of Chosen King with Magic Weapon, it did it well enough that it wasn’t a totally stale thing. The fact he had the magic-trident of King Atlan was something he was actively working to earn throughout the movie. It did actually feel like he had gone through enough of a growth in the film (and part of Justice League) to merit him earning this achievement of his. 

The film did drag a little in places but only twice did I just want them to get on with it already.

Black Manta Ray’s origin was interesting in this universe. Arthur did quasi-create this enemy. 

On the other hand, I can’t fully feel sympathy for a murderous pirate dying because he tried to kill Arthur and Arthur decided that the man who tried to blow him up wasn’t someone he wanted to save. But that’s because I’m a vindictive bitch.

Arthur, later, realizes that he should have done the right thing all along but too late now. He also realizes the value of mercy because of this so...

Mera’s powers are never fully explained, but I find myself mostly ok with that because I just started calling her a waterbender in my head. 

Arhtur and Mera’s relationship evolved semi-organically. They did have chemistry for the most part, but it was almost too cliche at times yet it was fine because it’s the action movie romance cliches that aren’t 100 horrible but it was even at times a little sweet.

So, let’s go over, in detail what I loved about the art direction

Yes, it does look very similar to other underwater cities that I’ve seen in the past in other media, but they also incorporated enough new and nature inspired parts to it that I loved looking at each underwater civilization. The ruins, the tech, the fact things glowed the way they did. That pirate ship air pocket was also a really interesting thing though I kept wondering where Ariel was

I even got that the reason there was water in the Atlantean vehicles was Atlanteans don’t need to worry about things being airtight because they breathe under water. 

Later when it was explained that only a handful of Atlanteans can even breath in the atmosphere it made even more sense.

When Volko was training Arthur in his Atlantean skills and stuff started to glow once he went deeper in the water I actually nodded because there is scientific evidence that every living thing does give off small amounts of bioluminesce. Even we humans do, but it’s so faint we can’t perceive it.

I personally think the Atlanteans should have glowed a little too. 

The different species of Atlantean were very neat. Especially the “feral” ones. Reminded me of someone crossing a Zora with that creature from Pan’s Labyrinth or that thing from Hellboy 2 that Liz made a deal with to save Hellboy.

Onto other things:

The Karathen. I did not expect her to live up to the hype the movie was building her up to be. I was also pleasantly surprised that it was a “she” during the scene where she is trash-talking Arthur without knowing that he can understand her. Then, later, I found out she is voiced by Julie Andrews.

Also, because the Karathen did make such a huge impact in that final fight two things entered my head.

“RELEASE THE KRAKEN” and 

Orm: “I have an army!”

Arthur: “I have a sea monster.”

The Atlantis thrown down was noticed but that got me thinking: Where was the rest of the JL during this. Were they just doing damage control or something after Orm’s little oceanic temper tantrum?

The mid-credits stinger with Mantaray. I knew he wasn’t done because Manta Ray is a major Aquaman villain. I just didn’t think the Atlantis obsessed prof would end up finding him.

I don’t fully get why Nereus would want a war with the surface with Orm in charge, unless he would just strike Orm down later and take his power. 

I didn’t get why the fishpeople didn’t just RUN AWAY whenever Arthur showed up with the Karathen AND wielding the Trident of Atlan. All Fish-People Princess would have had to do was say “my people RUN FROM THE MONSTER” And Orm’s armies (and Orm himself) would be so busy fighting a literal sea monster from their worst nightmares that no one could or would have stopped them.

In fact, I am confused as to why there wasn’t mass panic once the Karathen showed up and she started wrecking all the military vehicles. -\( `-`)/-

Arthur’s ability to speak to the aquatic animals was actually built up to be a major ability. 

Aquaman’s been made fun of in the past for this, but considering he was able to talk to the Karathen, and control a bunch of apex sea predators (turning them on their masters) it isn’t something to be fully laughed off. Outside the ocean, sure it doesn’t really make a huge difference but that’s where making the Atlanteans tougher than land humans comes in. That too makes actual sense with the reasons as to why this was.

Atlanna’s survival wasn’t really too much of a shock for me. I was half-expecting the Trench-peoples to not be totally savage and actually just have a bad rep. 

The Hidden Sea at the Earth’s core bit got an eyebrow quirk. I was half expecting it to be the Caspian Sea....

I would still very much recommend Aquaman.

#aquaman #bumblebee #movie reviews #(ever notice a huge typo 24 hours after posting something? cause I JUST DID)

[emeraldnebula]

Thoughts on the comic book industry, Part 4

Having talked about how the comic book industry is still clinging to creative and marketing tactics that are at least 2½ decades out of date, there's really only one other place to go with this line of rambling. And in the age of social media, it's the most self-evident of all.

Not only is the comics industry stuck decades in the past, but it's hopelessly out of touch with reality, both creatively and politically.

It goes beyond being unwilling to look outside the box from a business standpoint. That's bad enough on its own, but it's a by-product of the creative side of the equation. Creatively, the major publishers are not only stubbornly devoted to outdated and stagnant methods from decades past, but they're stubbornly devoted to their own pet ideas at the exclusion of all else. It doesn't matter how unpopular their ideas are even from the beginning, it doesn't matter how poorly their pet directions sell, it doesn't matter how much the vast majority of fans object to those bad ideas. It's what the company wants, therefore it's inherently good and to hell with anything else. If the audience makes it clear they don't like the company's pet ideas, that's just all the more reason for the major publishers to cram it down the readers' throats. If the readers don't like where the major publishers are going with their products, the publishers aren't above bullying, insulting, and pressuring readers into caving in and supporting them regardless.

Now keep in mind, I'm not talking about the kind of fans who scream bloody murder over an old costume design being updated sans trunks, or who throw screaming hissy fits over creatively stale and burned out creative teams being replaced with fresh blood. I'm not talking about the kind of fans who cry havoc and protest when a franchise needs to be rebooted, or just needs some freshening up. Those are the kind of fans DC and Marvel actually WANTS, and largely caters to. I'm talking about DC and Marvel actively alienating, insulting, and belittling the vast majority of what once was/should be their readership – the fans who truly love the characters and object when the major publishers actively crap all over their characters, betray everything the characters stand for, pull event-gimmicks and stunts that are just purely hateful and serve no real creative purpose, and actively reject and disregard legitimate criticism. Little by little, DC and Marvel have whittled their readerships down to the tiny, selfish minority whose tastes mirror that of the companies. And in no small part has it contributed to the downfall of the industry.

This isn't a new thing by any means. Even as far back as the Iron Age, DC and Marvel were dismissive of anybody who objected to their pet directions. Batman fans for years had objected in the letter columns to Catwoman being retconned by Frank Miller as a hooker, as well as to Batman's increasing devolution from a heroic man of honor to a paranoid, hostile asshole. DC repeatedly disregarded those concerns, insisting that Miller's conception of the characters was canon and would not be changed. (And once Miller's go-to editor Bob Schreck took over as Bat-editor and brought Miller back to DC, everything Batman fans had been objecting to got ramped up a thousandfold.) The Superman books were levied with complaints about Lois Lane's abusive behavior toward Superman before and during their Iron Age marriage, as well as nonstop objections to Lois' '90s-era loverboy Jeb Friedman. DC blew off those complaints as sexist backlash to a "strong woman," even though comic book creators had similar complaints about the direction of the books. Even before "One More Day/Brand New Day" used a satanic pact to end Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane Watson, the '90s-era Clone Saga was conceived primarily to force Spider-Man back into bachelorhood, even if it meant claiming the Spidey people knew for years was a clone and the real deal was AWOL. The Green Lantern books respoded to fan concerns about the Parallax-possessed Hal Jordan being reduced to a one-note crazy bad guy...by doing just that and asking fans if they were pleased with the results. And so on.

Jump forward to the 2000s, and what do we have? Stephanie Brown/Spoiler seemingly tortured to death in the Batman books for no real reason, and the writer responsible, Bill Willingham, bragging about how much he alienated the fandom and how "golden" it is to turn your fandom against you. Marvel editor Tom Brevoort claiming on message forums that angering and alienating your readership translates to better sales, because a happy fandom makes your sales too "soft." (Never mind how blatantly untrue that is, especially since the '90s comic boom ended.) The aforementioned "One More Day/Brand New Day," where Joe Quesada and Dan Slott not only went out of their way to insult, bully, and disregard anyone who dared disagree with their vision, but also opened one of the "Brand New Day" issues with a character ordering the readers to "just shut the fuck up and give me your money!" Cry for Justice/Rise of Arsenal, where backlash to the ruination of Green Arrow and Black Canary's relationship was met with a sales pitch for a new Gail Simone Birds of Prey book and where complaints over the needless deaths in the story were dismissed with excuses that DC could have killed off even more Green Arrow characters. The current situation with Marvel's SJW-leaning comics, where anyone who voices objections to bad far-left propaganda and blatant mouthpiece characters is hit with every politically charged insult in the book. Or DC's "Rebirth," where anyone who voices disagreement with DC's current direction dismissed for being "fake fans" or being mocked for calling out how nonsensical and malicious the company's pet ideas are.

Do you see where this is going? Where it's been going for the last couple decades? Over and over again, the major publishers have made a point of ignoring legitimate criticism and feedback, disrespecting a readership they badly need, and insisting on pursuing what they personally want no matter how much it fails ansd how much it drives readers away. The idea that what they're doing is wrong, or at the very least misguided, is utterly foreign to them. If sales are plunging, they don't take it as a sign that they're screwing up or that what they're doing no longer works. They take it as a sign that they're shedding undesirables and that what's remaining are the true believers. They'd rather have total control and a shrinking minority of ass-kissers whose tastes mirror their own than to make the effort to appeal to a broad audience. And for what? Deservedly bad reputations. A dying industry for which history will ultimately blame them. Franchises that have been rendered toxic, or at the very least laughable.

And what's worse, the Big 2 absolutely refuse to learn from their mistakes, instead doubling and tripling down on them. If an idea is conceived and executed in bad faith and it deservedly fails, DC and Marvel don't recognize it as such. They view it as the readers being too stupid to know what's good for them and dial it up to 11. If they lose readers with their bad decisions, they view that lost readership and that lost money as being fair weather phonies. And if readers speak up as to why they're giving up on the books, if they're lucky and don't get insulted or mocked, they'll get a sales pitch for DC and Marvel's other wares. Again, this isn't a new thing. During "Knightfall," when a fan wrote in expressing how he felt Superman's death and Batman's impending spinal injury (a leaked plot point early on) felt like cheap gimmicks, what was the response he got? A sales pitch for The Flash, Legion of Super-Heroes, and DC's Vertigo line. No reassurance that Batman's temporary paralysis would be purely a test of character, no explantion that "Knightfall" was intended to be an examination of what it truly meant to be Batman, just a cheap attempt to cajole an unhappy fan into buying books he may not want.

The prevailing mindset of the last 26 years – if not longer – is twofold. On the one hand, there's the idea that if the characters' lives are made to be endlessly tragic and miserable, the readers can feel better about their own lives. In fact, a DC editor (Kevin Dooley, if I recall) said just that in response to a fan who wrote in about his dislike of the abritrary tragedy that had piled onto Aquaman leading into the Peter David revamp. On the other hand – and this one's arguably the more pervasive – there's the idea that if you make certain characters outright selfish assholes who always get their way no matter how unrealistic it is or how many people they have to stomp along the way, the reader will be inspired and empowered by them. Again, this shows just how out of touch the Big 2 are. Nobody saw anything inspiring about Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto. They saw it for the selfish, short-sighted, cowardly act it was. Lois Lane has been regarded as a hostile and unlikable character for decades, and her reputation only worsened when DC made her a "strong" (re: abusive) woman. Batman's degeneration into a insufferable, arrogant Marty Stu figure was harshly criticized even as far back as the late '80s, with people writing in begging for his heroism and humanity to be restored. And the meanspirited treatment of Superman, Green Arrow, Arsenal, the Green Lanterns, Aquaman, and others hasn't made the vast majority of fans feel better about themselves. It's angered them. It's made them feel betrayed. People go to art forms like comics, movies, TV, theatre, and radio drama for escape. They want to take a break from the bad stuff in their lives. They don't want to go from their regular troubles and see something even worse play out before them. Again, out of touch. The publishers are only playing to a tiny minority that's more or less in total agreement with them.

Now, you could argue that during the '90s, the big comic book boom more or less gave DC and Marvel the freedom they needed to pull off this kind of crap. Event-gimmicks and shock value being big sellers at the time and all. But 26 or more years later, what's the excuse? The industry is bleeding readers not just by locking itself decades in the past, but also by actively driving away anyone who isn't of the exact same tastes as the Big 2 or isn't a social media ass-kisser. Bad press doesn't equal big sales anymore. Aside from the odd milestone issue and maybe #1 issues of certain titles, people aren't buying anymore. And even at comic book conventions, talking to comic book creators past and present...they're fully aware of how far the industry has fallen, and they have their own horror stories to share about some of the bad decisions that have led to this point. But those who are still in the industry have to go along with those bad decisions simply because they've got to pay the bills. And those who aren't so active in the industry know full well that it's unwilling to change for the better.

What makes it even worse is that beyond the creative stagnation and selfishness, there's also a political bent to the way the industry carries itself. In the age of bad feminist/SJW/PC politics, comics have swung very hard in that direction, with Marvel going whole-hog into it. Many of the more prominent creators are very openly far-left, and very active in the social media mob mentality. Some, like Mark Waid, have been very open about running anybody – creator or fan – out of comics if their political leanings aren't far-left. Again, this is an industry that's wildly out of touch with reality. Not everybody shares the same political beliefs. Not everyone who's right-leaning or a centrist (my own stance) is a monster. Not every far-left talking point or goal is a good or even practical thing. Art – a even commercial form like comics – as with all things, NEEDS differing viewpoints, needs differences of opinion, needs all walks of life to be full-bodied and valid. Nope, the current comics industry wants a hive mind in all respects, politically aligned in one direction and mindlessly cheerleading whatever it is the Big 2 decide they want.

None of this is remotely viable. Aside from the major publishers going out of their way to do stuff they know the vast majority of people do not want at all, how do they expect to sustain themselves on an audience that's purely of their preferred political stance? Especially when, as social media and even the behavior of some comic book pros has shown, the far-left is just as extremist and reprehensible as the far-right? (Aside from admitting to leading purges against creators who aren't far-left, Waid also recently violated anti-trust laws to shut down an indie comic called Jawbreakers simply because its creator disagrees with Waid's/the comics industry's politics.) Speaking from personal experience, it gets really tiresome listening to comics creators you like endlessly bitching and moaning about anything even slightly center-of-left, or mindlessly spouting anti-Trump propaganda regardless of whether or not it's true. I as a fan don't like being talked down to, and I as a person don't like anyone trying to bully me into converting to their personal politics. Most people, when they read a comic, listen to music, or watch movies, TV, or plays, just want to be entertained for a little while. If you keep hammering away with bad far-left bullshit and getting mad when people don't just fall in line at your say-so? You're out of touch. You're ignoring the reality of your audience, and of day-to-day life in general. And you're alienating fans and/or potential fans in that way as well.

"But," you say, "if the Big 2 are this far gone, why not just support other publishers? Surely there's other stuff out there to devote your time to!" And that is true to a degree...but with the decline of the comics industry has also come a major atrophy of what's available out there, and how the distribution monopoly has limited the playing field in favor of the Big 2. And this will be where we go next.

[kierantc-blog]

DC Rebirth In Review - The Young And The Violent

Here is the 4th part of my DC Rebirth In Review series, where i take a look back at the good and the bad of DC’s Rebirth initiative in the wake of the news that they are dropping the Rebirth banners in December. To read my previous posts just click these links:

Part 1 - The Superman Family

Part 2 - The Batman Family

Part 3 - The Justice League

In this part, i will be talking about The Young And The Violent. Basically a snappy way of categorising series such as Teen Titans and Suicide Squad. So let’s get to it!

Titans - Coming off of the back of Titans Hunt and DC Universe Rebirth #1, Wally West the original Kid Flash and The Flash in his own right returns to the fold and finds his old friends Dick Grayson (Nightwing), Donna Troy (Wonder Girl), Garth (Tempest), Roy Harper (Arsenal) and Lilith Clay (Omen) to find out the mystery of Rebirth, who stole the missing time from the universe and who was responsible for Wally’s disappearance? Written by Aquaman’s Dan Abnett and art by former Flash penciller Brett Booth, Titans is one of the stronger titles in DC that honestly makes you wonder why they didn’t make it a bi-monthly title. Readers that love Wally West will be thrilled as much as the fans of the original Teen Titans as it feels like the group have been together much longer than we know they have been currently. While Booth offers consistent artwork, his frantic and detailed style of pencils might be a headache for some people but it doesn’t distract from a well made series. - 9/10

Teen Titans - Just like Supergirl, the Teen Titans comic book takes some lessons in synergy from the popular Justice League vs. Teen Titans animated movie that came out last year and sees Damian Wayne’s Robin team up with Starfire, Beast Boy and Raven, as well as adding new recruits in Wally West II AKA the new Kid Flash and later on Jackson Hyde, who will later become Aqualad. The comic is written by Green Arrow’s Ben Percy but unlike the fan-service laden G.A Rebirth he chooses to make his own way with the new Teen Titans by exploiting Damian’s inability to do things like a normal person. It works well too, he forces the recruits together and they end up bonding under the idea that while he can make them better heroes, he’s also a bit of a dweeb and is the target of their ire. The artwork by Jonboy Meyers and later Khoi Pham is well detailed and looks like something straight out of an animation feature. Whether you were a fan of the animated movie or love a more classic Titans comic, this will be the book you want to check out. The only thing that holds it back is the annoyance of crossovers, with 2 so far and another to come in December, and considering the series only has 13 issues to date, it stunts the story telling opportunities for the writer. - 7.5/10

Blue Beetle - On the surface the premise of this book is solid, Ted Kord and Jaime Reyes, both Blue Beetle in their own right, working together for the first time. It doesn’t really work that well though as it feels like Giffen and Kolins want to tell stories about Justice League 3001 and Doctor Fate instead, which is fine but that’s not what i’m paying for. I would personally avoid buying this book, it has very little promise but might interest you if you like Ted. - 2/10

Deathstroke - If you aren’t reading this book already, you really should be. Christopher Priest is a comic book veteran and after 10 years away from the big 2 he came back to work on Deathstroke because the character wasn’t black and as an African-American he didn’t want to be pigeon-holed as a “black writer”. The narrative of Deathstroke is complex but full of intrigue and substance too, Priest clearly understands the nuances of such a complicated man and uses them well but the plot itself is devious and cunning, almost like you are reading a cross between a George RR Martin book and a great spy novel. The quality of Priest’s work on this series has earned him a promotion of sorts to being the new regular writer on Justice League, and if that isn’t an indicator of his talent then i don’t know what is. - 10/10

Harley Quinn - With Rebirth being a tale of bringing back what people love about their favourite characters, it was difficult for DC to really do anything to Harley Quinn because the series is one of their best sellers and Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti have worked on it since the beginning, so changing the status quo didn’t seem necessary. The only problem with that in my opinion is that the series has stagnated and become rather stale. The supporting cast of Harley’s world is brought in closer than ever in order to battle the Mayor of New York City but it feels rather predictable as a story. A new creative team is taking over soon, with Frank Tieri (formerly of Invincible Iron Man and Wolverine) writing and Inaki Miranda (recently of Batgirl) doing art duties, so maybe a change will come sooner rather than later. The series needs it. - 5/10

Suicide Squad - Since the movie last Summer, this book has sold rather well for DC but it’s not exactly a deserving one. The problem isn’t Rob Williams the writer but the way DC has managed the series. When the creative team was first announced it was with the big news that DC co-publisher and legendary artist Jim Lee doing the artwork, but with his other duties at the company and with the twice monthly schedule he was unable to commit to the series fully. Instead of the average 20 pages per issue, Suicide Squad was left with only 12 from Jim Lee and the other 8 being from backup artists doing a backup story from Rob Williams. With this and the average crossover with the Justice League in January, this series has spluttered out of the gate. The more recent issues post Jim Lee have been better but with more crossovers to come it feels like Rob Williams can’t catch a break and tell the stories he wants. Publisher politics aside, the series takes notes from the movie by copying the Squad roster and returning Amanda Waller into the thicc woman she was before, and while the book is certainly more light and funny than the movie, the synergy for the best part works quite well. - 4/10

The Hellblazer - After the excellent Constantine DC You series by Doyle, Tynion and Rossmo, The Hellblazer fails to keep the magic going with extremely flat story telling and questionable artwork. The book has so far taken 12 issues to tell the story about ancient magical beings called Djinn returning but not once do you feel that there is any relative danger to Constantine or that anything serious could happen. Also the story itself feels detached from what is going on in DC right now, others have mysteries and larger picture things going on and others have guest stars and cameos galore, but apart from one appearance by Shazam and another couple by Swamp Thing, you would be hard pressed to believe this takes place in the same universe as the other on-goings. Tim Seeley has stepped in for a guest arc on the series and has improved the quality, but the issues by Simon Oliver and Moritat should be avoided at all costs. - 2/10

Conclusions

A few missteps aside, the remainder of Rebirth’s catalogue has been good for DC and even those missteps are getting course corrections in new creative teams. I do believe that more work needs doing however, a Young Justice series with Tim Drake, Conner Kent and Cassie Sandsmark needs to happen and more magical based books such as Zatanna or Shazam need to happen too.

With the return of the Young Justice animated series as well as the upcoming Teen Titans TV series, we might get more of a focus on the teenage heroes of DC soon, and with the new Shazam movie going into production we shouldn’t be too surprised if the original Captain Marvel returns to the fold.

Thanks for reading!

Next Up: Crossovers, Events and Mini-Series.

#Titans #Teen Titans #Harley Quinn #Suicide Squad #Blue Beetle #Deathstroke #The Hellblazer #John Constantine #Young Justice #DC Comics #DC Rebirth #Comic Books #Comic Book Review

[tatooedlaura-blog]

Superman

Yes, folks, I’m going back to this universe for part 2, and it picks up about three minutes after the last one ended ... 

the original ‘Life’ series (as I ended up calling in on AO3) can be found here ... 

___________

Recap: Moose and Squirrel are at Mama Scully’s house after a six/seven/whatever week ‘let’s drive around America’ road trip which included broken legs, cancer scares, plenty of cuddling and the occasional bout of liquored up goodness ... 

___________

Letting her go after a few minutes, they discovered the lights had mysteriously been turned off in the living room, the space now empty of heckling relatives and encouraging mothers. Mulder, his arms now around her waist, continued to look down at her stocking feet and his cast hovering below until he felt her hand lift his face to hers, “didn’t I say we should keep this quiet for a little bit?”

“Yeah, I tried my best but shit happens.” Knowing she wasn’t mad, he asked anyways, “gonna kill me in my sleep tonight for it?”

“I just might. Now we have to go in there and see all of them staring at us, commenting and winking and nudging and if I know Charlie and Dave, exchanging money as bets are collected.”

With a head wiggled and a glinting eye, “we could always just sneak out. Go back to your place/my place/I don’t care where place and climb into bed and let me kiss on you some more until you absolutely can’t stand it anymore and insist on having sex with me.”

Oh, the thoughts, oh, the ideas, oh, the quaint, little, spasmodic head-nodding she did in agreement with each and every one of his previous statements. Kissing her chin once she stopped her emphatic agreement, Mulder suddenly yelled over her shoulder towards the fairly loud kitchen, “Maggie, we’re leaving. Thanks for dinner. Shut up, Dave. Get your mind out of the gutter, Charlie!”

“But it seems appropriate!”

“Only your brother, Scully, would yell that in front of your mother.”

Maggie came down the hall, turning the lights back on as she walked, “get yourselves in the kitchen and eat your dessert. The ice cream’s nearly melted and you can wait another 20 minutes to leave.” Giving them a knowing smile, “I assume 20 minutes will not, in fact, kill you, correct?”

Mulder, returning her grin, shrugged but didn’t let go of Scully, “for you, Maggie, 25.”

Scully followed Mulder, who followed Maggie, entering the kitchen to find pie and spoons and sticky children and Charlie counting a wad of bills. As she walked by, Scully neatly snatched the handful from her brother, “thank you very much.”

Attempting to swipe the cash back, Charlie fell off the chair and nearly took out Mulder in the process, the chair skittering across and smacking Maggie in the shins. Immediately she held up her hands, “stop! Everybody! Now!”

Two children had spoons on the way to their mouths and Charlie remained sprawled on the floor. Scully had her hand inconveniently on Mulder’s butt, her hand wrapped in and around his pants pocket in a stupidly useless gesture of assistance but it didn’t help and his teetering turned to crashing, directly on top of Charlie.

“Oh … God …” came the muffled response of the large man below Mulder, “you are not … as light … as I figured … you’d be … Holy God, get … off … of … me!” He was laughing as he said it, however, and waited until someone helped Mulder off him instead of the brotherly response of shoving and pushing to get free.

Joanna and Dave got him standing and while he tottered, Wes, the six-year-old, began laughing, pointing towards Mulder’s backside, “you have on Superman underwear!”

Scully finally woke up to the chaos and realized she was holding Mulder’s pocket in her hand and a large flap of material now revealed Mulder’s undergarment of choice.

Mulder’s hand felt his now air-conditioned shorts and nodding his head, “thank God they weren’t my Spider-Girl ones ‘cause those would have been embarrassing.”

&&&&&&&&

Eventually, somehow, nearly intact and miraculously unhurt, both were back in the car, Scully not speaking until they were around the corner, down the street and next to a darkened spot. Turning off the car, she put her head back against the seat, “good Lord, we really should have just stayed at the cottage another day.”

“Why? You didn’t enjoy making out on the stairs while every cheered us on then collecting $125 bucks from your brother whom I then attempted to squash into oblivion before my pants ripped all to hell revealing my oh-so-super sexy Superman underwear because, let me tell you, I sure did.” The faint light from the full moon and the distant streetlights made his teeth shine as he grinned, “you realize if you can actually get me up to my apartment or yours unscathed, it will be one of those miracles you Catholic people are always raving about.”

“You realize if we actually attempted any kind of sex tonight, there’s a good chance it would kill you.”

It began with a chuckle, which inevitably moved to snorting giggles and finally, full-on, window steaming laughter the likes of which shook the car. After wiping tears and blowing noses, Scully’s hiccupping squeaks subsided and he looked over at her, eyes dancing, “but it would be the best way to go.”

Another brief paroxysm overtook them but finally under control, Scully started the car again, “I say your place. It’s closer and there’s an elevator.”

“Home, James.”

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Finally, finally, finally parking, climbing, swinging, riding, waiting, unlocking, entering and closing, Scully dropped the two main bags she was carrying, “I have never been so glad to see this place and given you probably forgot to empty the fridge before you left, that’s saying something.”

Resting on his crutches, he beckoned her over to him, wrapping his arms around her as best he could, leaning into her, nose nuzzled in her hair, “thank you for getting me home. I love you very much for it.”

Voice muffled against him, “I just didn’t want to have to deal with funeral arrangements.”

“I’ll take what I can get.”

Standing silent for a few moments, Scully pulled back, “we need some sleep. You want to shower now or in the morning?”

“Depends when I can get some company.”

“Morning has a lot better outlook for that.”

“Then bed it is.” Letting her go long enough to hobble to the mattress, he propped his crutches, dropped his pants and, after his now-routine struggle to free his cast from his shorts, he flopped back on to the mattress, wrinkling his nose immediately, “I totally didn’t change the sheets before I left either.”

“Are they crunchy?”

“Like a stale bag of potato chips.”

&&&&&

An hour later, they had put on fresh sheets, cleaned out the fridge, taken out the trash, opened all the windows to air the place out and probably woke up the entire building clearing the air from the pipes. Finally, dropping back into bed, Mulder took all of 30 seconds to fall fast asleep, snoring lightly into the now clean-smelling air while Scully, having passed that crucial and all-important threshold from ‘must sleep now’ to ‘shit, I’m going to be awake the rest of the night’, was counting sheep, singing songs in her head, and staring at several cracks in Mulder’s ceiling.

She contemplated, hesitated, debated on just how to proceed next.

She found herself shutting her brain off and sliding her leg over Mulder’s, then her arm, then ignoring the fact that it was nearly midnight, she slid herself up and onto her partner, legs straddling, body upright, shirt tugged over her head as she settled onto his hips.

Inching her hands below his shirt and up his chest, she was half-leaned over, mouth open to whisper him awake …

And he rolled over, knocking her off-balance and onto the floor, a near silent thud announcing her landing to no one except herself because Mulder just kept on snoring, hand now off the mattress, fingers dangling. Reaching up, she slid her shirt from under his arm and pulling it back on, climbed off the floor, deciding a night cruising the couch wouldn’t be such a bad thing, given at least she wouldn’t have to stare at the weird shaped cracks in Mulder’s bedroom ceiling.

It wasn’t long before she heard the tell-tale creak of metal crutches and the soft shuffle, heavy thump tread of sleepy Mulder wandering his way towards her. Looking up from her channel surfing, she smiled, her face glowing blue from both fish tank and television, “hi there. How come you’re awake?”

Not answering until he stood beside her, resting his crutches on the wall, “no idea. I couldn’t find you in bed and thought maybe you were taking a midnight stroll by the ocean and then I realized we weren’t by the ocean but I was already up so I figured …” He ran out of steam and sat down, “I miss the waves. Can we go back? I’ve had enough of this place for awhile.”

Curling against him immediately, she tucked her feet under her, settling in for a comfortable nap, “we’ve been back for six hours.”

“Exactly. Enough of this nonsense. Let’s go back. I want to wake up with you in the big ol’ bed and all the windows and eat M&Ms until we do something drastic like take a nap or go swimming.”

“Mulder?”

“Yeah?”

“This is going to be good.”

Collaring her for a moment, he spoke into the top of her head, warm breath ruffling her flyaway hairs, “yeah, it is.”

#Life part 2 series #my writing #msr #xf fanfic #xfiles fanfic #'cause we all know he wears Superman underwears

[thevindicativevordan]

Any thoughts on Grant Morrison's Action Comics run? Beyond T shirt-and-jeans Superman being great.

That whole run reinvigorated my love of the character.

There have been numerous thoughtpieces about New 52 Superman, how he worked and how he didn't but these two entries really do a great job of summing up why Morrison's take on Superman was great. Morrison laid the foundation for a new generational Superman that DC completely fucked up and ran into the ground. I'll always be bitter about that, even if I had tapped out of reading the New 52 Superman books by the end due to how bad they got. Editorial and their idiotic mandates were what screwed over the potential of this take in my eyes.

Now I get that it wasn't to everyone's taste, but I cannot fathom how anyone could ever claim that Pre-Flashpoint Superman was better. If you liked Byrne's reboot better, your guy already got rebooted after Infinite Crisis. For someone like me who really enjoyed the Johns/Busiek era, that era's potential got spoiled after Johns & Busiek left, with New Krypton imploding and the awful Grounded taking it's place. When you get to the point where the best Superman book is the one starring Lex Luthor, it's time to reassess the franchise and figure out where the hell it went wrong.

Which is exactly what Morrison did. For this new Superman, Morrison mined all the best ideas of every Superman era to really give what I consider the ideal "base" for Superman. They also took pains to address common criticisms about Superman, working to correct his pop culture image. People have been complaining that Superman is "too perfect", "too unrelatable" for a long time, so Morrison addressed that. They gave Superman his balls back, and let him reacquire that Golden Age edge he had originally.

There are a lot of complaints you can make about Morrison's Superman, but I don't see how you could accuse this guy of being "flawless" or "bland". He definitely had a personality that you could describe, love him or hate him. Compassionate, but not a pushover. Clearly holding himself back, but unafraid to occasionally let loose. Flaws that were patently obvious, Clark had a temper here that could get him into trouble. There was a real showcase of anger here, of Superman being furious at the way people were treated by the rich and powerful, then doing something about it that I ate up.

I read this run just as I was coming into my teens and it hit perfectly for where I was in life. Did not want a Superman who would smile and tell me it gets better, I wanted a Superman who looked you in the eye and told you he felt that same anger, and then encouraged you to go out and do something about how you felt. That was what this run delivered in spades, and it expanded what I believed could be done with Superman.

While it totally blew my mind to see Superman acting this way the first time I read Morrison's Action Comics run, in retrospect it really isn't that different from how Superman has acted even under Byrne. One of the few traits I've seen carry across Superman incarnations in the comics is that he has a temper underneath that affable nature. "Don't tug on Superman's cape" as the old song goes. This run simply elevated that to the forefront of the character again, for the better in my eyes given I believe "Wrath" is Superman's Deadly Sin.

In fact, one of the strongest features of this run is that Superman gets actual character development over the course of the run, analogous to what Batman underwent in Morrison's Bat-Epic. While the Bat-Epic was merely Morrison re-canonizing Batman's entire history, and applying a retroactive character development storyline that culminated in Morrison's current Batman work, their Action Comics run had them attempt to craft something similar for Superman from scratch. What that meant was Morrison attempting to draw on the most important traits of every Superman era and incorporate those into this new take. So Superman had the Golden Age temper, compassion for the oppressed, and cockiness. The Silver Age supergenuis, proud scion of Krypton who cherished his Kryptonian nature, member of the Legion of Superheroes, and participant in stories that weren't afraid to get weird. Superman's wrestling with his place in the world, the importance of Clark Kent, and making journalism a key part of the character strike me as all being hallmarks of the Bronze Age. From Post-Crisis we got that Clark views himself as human and loves his adopted parents, considering them as equal to his birth ones.

One of the big frustrations for me with the endless origin stories for Superman, is that so many of them follow a predictable and stale formula where Clark puts on the suit and is essentially ready to go. Doesn't interfere with human affairs, is modest and humble, restrained in usage of his powers, it's like Clark has meta knowledge of what he "should" be, despite that he shouldn't have any foreknowledge of what a "superhero" should look like. He operates the same way at the start as he does in the modern day, and that's really boring to me. This Superman, because of the difference in powers and attitude, operated extremely different from his "present day" incarnation. Dangling Glenmorgan over the edge of a building isn't something a fully powered and mature Superman should do, but it works great to make his early days different and exciting to read about, it makes returning to that era something you can do different storytelling with. This run is the only time where I really cared that Superman is "supposed" to be the first superhero, because figuring out what that means here is a big part of how he develops.

We all know the common complaint that Superman is "too powerful" and that "nothing can hurt him" (funny how Thor never gets hit with those accusations), so Morrison made sure to show that this take on Superman could be beaten even if he could never be defeated. Events conspired to force Clark to use his brains as well as his powers to overcome the challenges in front of him.

Examples include him using his heat vision to fry Lex's equipment and escape the military, using his rocket ship to defeat Brainiac, and rallying the population of Metropolis to banish Vyndktvx. Not to say that Clark never used his brains before to win, but this run was very upfront and in your face about how important Clark's intellect is to triumphing over his foes. Can't take seriously the complaint that Superman is too overpowered when Morrison constantly showcased how even a very powerful Superman could get his shit wrecked by his Rogues.

Another example of Morrison addressing criticisms is Kryptonite. A lot of people poke fun at how convenient it is that pieces of Superman's homeworld follow him all the way to Earth. Isn't that a bit of an asspull? So Morrison made Kryptonite the power source of Superman's rocket, giving it a perfectly natural and believable reason both for it to end up on Earth, and for Lex & the military to get a hold of it since Pa Kent gave the military the rocket. That's still my preferred explanation for how Kryptonite ended up on Earth.

It also provides a better explanation for all the different Kryptonite variants. DC can handwave away the different types as a result of Lex experimenting or the different "forces" on Earth such as magic or the Speed Force or whatever creating the different variants. That to me is much more believable than Kryptonite travelling all across the galaxy yet still ending up on Earth somehow.

There have also been a lot of complaints about Superman's villains, and Morrison diligently set about reworking them. By far one of my favorite aspects of the run, was the villain revamps. Nimrod felt like a clean revamp of Terra-Man, making him into Superman's Kraven the Hunter struck me as a patently obvious route to go, wild no one has followed up on that or used him since. Metallo felt like a good synthesis of Johns take of him as an Anti-Superman weapon, and the sympathetic aspects of Corben's origin that are always there, I liked that Morrison didn't make him a total bastard before his transformation like Johns did. Brainiac got some sympathy added to him in that the collected worlds that were already marked for damnation, thus he was "saving" them in a fashion. Clay Ramses embodied toxicity as a wife-beater even before becoming Kryptonite Man, and I thought his backstory was a great way for Clark to still deal with "real" issues via a manner he could punch. Ramses is still the best take on Kryptonite Man. Vyndktvx felt like the greatest realization of the threat Mr. Mxyzptlk could pose should he decide to get serious since Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, plus I'm a sucker for stories where superheroes fight the Devil. Drekken and Superdoom took the only interesting aspects of Doomsday (his ability to evolve and that he can kill Superman respectively), and were much more interesting characters.

And oh my God, speaking of Superdoom, that part of Morrison's Action run has aged like fine wine. I don't know if they caught wind of DC's plans for the character, or if they were just prescient, but everything that Superdoom is playing on is still sadly all too present. What Superdoom is as a character is a condemnation of what DC keeps doing with Superman: killing him off or making him evil.

When you realize what Superdoom (demand for a more violent and "realistic" Superman) and Vyn (WB/DC) stand in for, it makes the frustration Morrison is channeling much more palpable. Those two plotlines are all DC can think of to do with the character, returning to those again and again. Endlessly attempting to recapture the high of Batman and Doomsday beating the shit out of Supes in The Dark Knight Returns and Death of Superman. Overcoming these two obstacles is Superman's greatest challenge as conceived by Morrison, because both are out to corrupt and ruin the very idea of him. It's not just a physical death he faces, but a metaphysical one as well. Sadly it's a threat Superman just can't seem to lick in the real world, with more and more takes on "Evil Superman" coming.

Lois and Jimmy are great here, because Morrison actually made the investigative journalism aspect of Superman important. Lois is an active participant in the story, trying to break in to the base where Clark is being held by her father, competing with Clark for stories (I love how Morrison writes the banter between the two of them), and generally being classic Lois. Jimmy though benefitted from being positioned as a peer rather than as a kid in comparison to the two, something I wish the comics had carried forward. It looks like My Adventures With Superman is going with that interpretation at least, so I hope others do as well. Jimmy being Clark's roommate really adds to their bond, and I wish we had gotten more stories with that status quo.

Investigative reporter Clark Kent was so actively used here that it feels jarring reading other Superman runs where they tend to downplay and ignore it. Following Clark as he travels to different areas of Metropolis and actually interacts with people, instead of hovering above them as Superman, makes him feel human. Watching Clark actively pursue stories aimed at bettering peoples livelihoods, and seeing how those stories crossed with the superheroics, was one of my favorite aspects of the run. It's one unfortunately few other writers seem all that interested in, especially the New 52 writers who followed Morrison (I know editorial probably bears a lot of blame for that though).

Besides all that, this run was a lot of fun! The Legion of Superheroes showed up, their connection to Clark restored, and they got to play a big role in Clark's adventures! Krypto the Superdog! Martian colonies! Memorizing all of medicine, Superman performs a lifesaving operation! Lex using a "bullet train" to knock Clark out! 5-D imps! Rampaging robots from beyond! A Phantom Zone Halloween story! John Henry Irons suits up as Steel and kicks ass alongside Clark! Every Superman Rogue teams up to try to kill him, but Lex Luthor saves his life because that's a privilege he reserves for himself! Showcasing their trademark love for the Supermythos, Morrison took us on a tour of Superlore that demonstrated the depth and width of what could be done with Superman. Meanwhile the backups by Sholly Fisch excelled at giving us smaller, more human stories about Superman (the one where Clark meets Pa again via time travel "after" Pa has died always gives me a lump in my throat to read).

Ultimately this didn't get to be the foundation for the next generation of Superman stories as it deserved. Johns made New 52 Superman the scapegoat in Doomsday Clock for a lot of storytelling choices he did over in Justice League, something that pisses me off to no end. You want to tell me that this guy "didn't relate" to people, didn't inspire "hope"?

Like hell he didn't. This guy was Superman in every way that mattered and he deserved better than to be framed as the scapegoat for all the stupid decisions DC made about what to do with him. Greg Pak was able to do some great work with this version after Morrison, and just like how Gene Yang got a redemption work starring Superman, I hope to one day see Pak return to the character. Would love to read a Black Label Superman story by Pak that follows his take on young Superman.

All wasn't lost however. Against all odds, and Rebirth trying it's damndest to sweep everything under the rug, it looks like parts of this era have actually survived to the current Infinite Frontier era. With Morrison being heavily involved no less, both as an ideas guy and as an actual writer.

Superman & the Authority is explicitly Superman coming full circle back to the attitude displayed by his young counterpart under Morrison. Janin has outright said that the costume Clark wears here is reminiscent of the t-shirt and jeans era of Superman, and this book so far feels saturated with an energy level from Morrison I haven't seen in their work for hire since they left Action. Reaching old age and realizing he never really delivered on the high ideals of his beginnings, it's Superman putting together a team to hopefully succeed where he couldn't alone. Scathing in how it criticizes the superhero status quo, this has been extremely entertaining to read. Wish Morrison was writing 12 issues with this team, and that ultimately it will be up to PKJ to deliver on the potential is a drawback (although I've loved PKJ's Action run so far), but I'm glad to see DC finally treating Morrison and their ideas with more respect than was shown during Rebirth.

Jon meanwhile feels like an even more explicit attempt at redoing New 52 Superman. There's the updated new suit, designed to appeal to a new generation with it's streamlined look. Positioning Jon as a Superman who wants to tackle the "real" issues, with Taylor explicitly comparing him to Golden Age Superman which as I mentioned was an era Morrison tried to reincorporate into their reboot. There's the Legion of Superheroes connection which played an important role in Morrison's reboot. The rumors about Jon's sexuality are interesting, hinting that DC is willing to go outside the box with him in a way they never would with Clark. I'm excited to see what kind of Superman Jon ends up becoming, if he can deliver on the promise of the New 52 Superman all the better.

This run deserves to be remembered and to have the lessons it tried to teach respected. Probably my favorite mainline run on Superman, I hope more people come around to liking it as time goes on.

#superman #grant morrison #action comics #new 52

[dnavenom-blog]

Not my usual thing but I had to say this! SPOILERS!!!! When you invest millions of dollars to create the most expensive dragon ball movie in history. When you hype the public for a whole year. It is only to be expected that the new movie will have a plot to equal the amount of hard work that went into the visual side of the project. Because as we all know, good graphics without the backbone of a good plot is useless, is just random pictures.  1. LORE:  The replacement of old Saiyan history with the one from the more recent dragon ball minus. Which is essentially a blatant copy of Superman’s sending to Earth. There is no human alive on this planet, that will see the scene of the parents, sending a spacepod to Earth to save their baby and not think – Superman. Copying such a famous character is always bad. Specially when your story is much better. Saiyans were always an expansive, agresive, warrior race. Proud to be one of the strongest in the universe. In the movie they are portrait as more western, human society.  This change in saiyan lore, discredits a big part or Dragon ball. I can not accept this. So this was really bad for me.  2.VEGETA AND RADITZ: I can’t think of a more anticlimactic scene than this one. Facing the destruction of their home world, families, everything they possessed. Vegeta especially facing the destruction of his people that he is now so proud of, the destruction of his father who’s name he ware. How can he say “I guess I’ll never be king now.” Like it’s nothing and keep eating his bone.  This scene was so absurd, it’s beyond reason. It’s against everything Vegeta is. I can only believe this was a form of Japanesse attempt to look a bit like Marvel. Adding humor on all the wrong places.  3.POWERSCALING: I know what you will say. After 3 years of dragon ball super, are we still talking about powerscaling? Well I have to mention this, it’s beyond stupid. How come Vegeta Red is weaker or equal to Goku base? What happened? 4. BROLY:  Old Broly character was an exceptionally gifted saiyan child, with a gentle heart, same as the new one and here the similarities end. Some people find more depth in NEW Broly, I find the OLD one much more developed, behind the shell of a brute.  OLD BROLY:  CHILDHOOD - THE TRAUMA: The OLD Broly was inflicted with a mortal wound and left to die, along with his father. Not many people have such violent experiences, but the ones that do are usually marked for life by it. No matter how young you are. This experience as shown in the movie breaks the mental shell of Broly and his power takes control for the first time.  TEENAGE YEARS: In the next scenes we see his father trying to take him in his teenage years, trying to stop him from expressing his violent self. As we all know most teenagers are like that, full of aggression and disregard for the old. But there is one very important aspect of Broly’s story here. He is so strong, that there is nothing that can impose moral values on him. If you don’t fear anyone, if you are inherently aggressive, why would you adhere to their advise and guidance? (Ex. Genghis Khan.) You take what you want and destroy the ones that oppose you. Sometimes in the most brutal way possible.  ADULT BROLY: Mind control is really the only way to stop this force. You have no chance by doing it physically, so the only option is altering the mental state of this person. Whether with some special waves or something else. This is the logical way to go. The device was made by an unknown alien race. FIGHT: The first transformation of OLD Broly was one of the best super saiyan transformations of all time. On par with Goku’s first. You really could feel how the mind control lost his power little by little. It almost worked, but than the power just flowed out. Broly was unchained and there was no turning back. That was a real “Oh sh*t” moment for me. Vegeta’s reaction was telling enough. Broly go on rampaging everything as uncontrolled power often does. He rips apart our fighters. And when he feels the thrill of battle to an enormous high, he does what a true saiyan would do, he improves even more. The line “power overflowing” is a testimony of that. He is truly unstoppable. The animation is great also you can feel how desperate the fight is when he takes that Kamehameha with his face and there is nothing more, that Goku can do.  DEATH OF PARAGAS: Unlike the new movie, here this death has a deeper meaning. Broly was already unchained from the mind control device, there was only one thing still connecting him to that scared, placid boy from the past. His father (and Kakarot ofc) When OLD Broly killed his father with his own hands, it was him breaking the last chains. Only Kakarot was left now for him to be completely free from the past. And he sets of doing just that. Unchaining himself from everything! DIALOG: While the dialog here was typical for dragon ball. There was less yelling. And Broly even manages to say a few words. This shows that is not a berserk killer. He knows what he is doing. “He is the devil” That’s enough to distinguish him from the HULK or GOHAN. This is how a raised in a harsh environment, crazed with power, uneducated person would go about the world. Taking what he wants and destroying everything else.  NEW BROLY:  CHILDHOOD -TARZAN. The first part of the NEW Broly story was a rip off Tarzan. The boy was sent to hostile environment, where he lived like a savage. He made friends with the animals there, that tried to eat him, but also trained him in the process. His father than came and killed his friend in a way to harden him even further. NEW Broly’s mentality and emotions are stale. Even after the death of his best friend, he does not confront his father. Totally unlike a representative of the saiyan warrior race, who live his whole life in the harshest environment.  ADULT YEARS - GOHAN: If when you watched the movie you had this feeling that you’ve already watched this, don’t get alarmed. You are right. Gentle heart, befriending huge animals, loving nature, reluctant to fight, but when he gets angry his strength becomes unmatched? Sounds familiar. Yea it is a description of Gohan. Toriyama tried to copy his own character here. But we are all fans and most of still haven`t forgiven him for what he did to Gohan. This is the last drop. Trying to replace him with New Broly.  THE COLTROL DEVICE: Unlike OLD Broly, the new version is not mind control with a device from an unknown alien race. He is controlled by a taser scrapped and developed by Paragas himself. This taser is so powerful that is able to completely render Broly powerless. While this happens you would guess, that Broly would get mad to be zapped with electricity and probably get angry. He doesn't! He goes back to his corner and does what his father (the slave owner) tells him. This of course is beyond absurd. There in not a person alive that wont get angry or mad when zapped with taser. With Broly that should be a lot more dangerous since once unleashed his anger fuels itself. Well no…he tucks his tail and goes to lick his wounds.  THE FIGHT: NEW BROLY gets angry the minute he sees Vegeta and is willing to attack at once. Many people complained about OLD Broly attacking Goku for a stupid reason. Well NEW Broly attacked Vegeta for absolute no reason. He never saw him, he never knew king Vegeta even. What provoked that anger? We will never know. From here on the fight goes as we already saw in the trailers, almost everything was spoiled before that, so you know what happens.  DEATH OF PARAGAS: This was the moment that in the old movie symbolized something meaningful. In the NEW BROLY it was a joke. And that is literally. Frieza decided to kill Paragas, like he did with Krillin, back in Z and make it look like it’s Goku’s fault, with the most absurd line ever. Without much thinking Broly goes in his final form continues beathing up Goku. The viewer is not given any moment to process what’s happening. Expirience Broly’s pain. NO. This supposedly climactic moment lasts for 4-5 seconds and the fighting continues. The only thing I can say here is rushed. So much that it’s bad fo the movie instead of good.  DIALOG: Not existent is the best word. For about 40mins. There was only meaningless fighting. Amazing animation true, but meaningless. The people that complained about Broly’s “Kakaroto” line will have a lot of fun here. It’s Tarzan again: AAA, UUU, OOO, Argh and so on. The script writter had an especially hard day when he decided these lines.  DESIGN: He had darker skin unlike all other saiyans. This made no sence, since Paragas was also exposed to the same environment and he was not affected. The only explanation I find is…Tarzan again. Broly had huge scars, which is strange because he was probably a million times stronger than any creature out there, including his father, even in his child state. So I really don’t see any reason for him to be scarred.   OLD Broly is a plausable character, he has depth that most people decide not to look for. He is the reprentation of a powerfull person unrestrained by morality and law. We see this everyday with rich kids, that try to take evething they want, disregarding society’s norms, because they had power over their peers all their lives. He is not the HULK, he is not Gohan, nor Tarzan. He is himself and a much worthier and wellthought version than the new one.  NEW Broly on the other hand shows how bad a character can be, when you have so many people trying to improve it. When you try to please the audience with fan service. He is a patchwork of traits taken from already famous characters, that don’t make sense when they are put together. A person like him does not exist in the real world and would never develop like this given his suroundings. Gohan made sense because Goku was strong enough to impose morality on him, teach him right and wrong. Broly had nothing like that. His father was always weaker than him. There is no reason why Broly would develop the way he did in the 2018 movie version.  I can continue for ages probably, cause the significance of this movie for the whole Dragon ball community is immense. This seems to be the best TOEI and Toriyama can achieve. I hoped for more…This is my parting from any hope that dragon ball will regain it’s consistency and raw beauty, which it had back in the day. If this multi-million budget was unable to produce a quality product then I guess nothing will. If I can summarize the 2018 movie Broly, it would be: “A failed attempt to copy.”  A failed attempt to copy Superman. A failed attempt to copy Hulk. A failed attempt to copy Gohan. A failed attempt to copy Tarzan. A failed attempt to copy Marvel. Something DC’s Justice League did too, so I can forgive that. 

#Fnewbroly oldbrolyforever brolyfan broly

[beyond-ambivalent]

As I watch: Thoughts on the SG finale

That previously on this season just reminded me of why I started hating the show. Good start!

Supergirl vs Superman 👏👏👏 epic fight, dats my girl! Kudos to writers about Silver Kryptonite & how they brought in Zod. Kick his ass Supergirl!

ew 🤢

M'GANN!! Oh wait… Is everyone imaginary in this episode? Lol Winn fan-girling over Superman ♥️

Superman acknowledging Kara is stronger than him 👏👏

Hmmm LL swayed again by a few “kind” words. Oh my god. But it is Brenda Strong, I don’t blame her lol

LL I might start liking you for saying no Daxamite can ever come back to Earth

Papa bear!!!!

LOL Cat OMG 😍😍 “yet another reason why Lois made no sense” hehehe Cat shitting on Lois is the best

Loooool she hasn’t seen Star Wars (Hi Calista!). Cat is so dramatic, “oh the burden of power” all over again pretty much. And she does anything Kara tells her tbh, she’s the real sway not Clark.

jealous!Kara hehehe “I hope Rhea kills me”

Wait so Kara might die and she doesn’t have a talk with Alex??? Fuck this show for ruining their relationship this season.

Oh look I’m so surprised Rhea didn’t keep her word 😅 Also I’m totally on Lillian’s side for wanting to just deploy the lead bomb and save screentime for more important things lol

Oh now Man-Hell can fight? He’s been useless till last episode that LL had to save him.

Ah man they didn’t have Cat react to Superman. That’s a missed opportunity!

M'GANN!!!!! For real this time!

Wait what? She bleeds kryptonite? That can’t be healthy… Too bad her son isn’t made of Kryptonite either. Would’ve saved us a whole lot of frustration. Go Kara!! Kick her ass. 

Deploy deploy deploy the weapon! YAAAAAAAAAS

Lol they should’ve called that weapon Medusa

You did not make ME happy, Man-Hell. I’m sorry, I feel for u Kara but when the hell did “all this love” develop and what better man, he’s exactly the same man who came to Earth. Believe me Kara you are better off without forced romance and the weight of stale white bread dragging you down.

Ew about the necklace. She only took it off to give it to Alex before, he doesn’t deserve to be in that same level.

That I love u really doesn’t count, she’s only saying it because he’s dying/leacing. If she did she would’ve said it before

See you never Man-Hell. Let the celebrations begin 🎉🎉

Really Superman talking to Kara again?? Where the fuck is Alex?

Superman saying Kara is stronger than him again 👏👏

Look white freaking Martians have more character development that Mono

Awww M'gann and J'onn! (I still don’t get why he was out, the writers didn’t even bother thinking of an excuse)

Where the fuck is James btw other than those 2 secs with Cat?

FINALLY ALEX AND KARA ♥️! That was long overdue! She’s proud of her 😢😢😢 where was this all season. But my heart is breaking for Kara (not about Mono, he can suck it, but Bec she’s so sad. This season has been less about Stronger Together and more about Alone forever…)

HAHAHAH Alex that’s not what she meant by don’t let her go! I’m glad they ended it on a cliffhanger bec that’s a rash decision right there. But I get the emotions are high with almost dying of an alien invasion and all. At least Maggie didn’t run away in shock lol sanvers ♥️

Lol Lillian and fake news CATTTT 😍😍😍

Cat when the hell would u have been married for 4 times? Rob Lowe? Are you counting marriage from Brothers and Sisters, Calista? So the 4 times are from other shows too? lol

Awwww a hope speech ♥️

Cat read her articles!!! (FAN FUCKING FICTION) Yes Cat bring it back to what she achieved as Kara (and Supergirl), what really defines her (which was very little this season but still). She has been fuckin defined by Man-Hell all season, it’s time to put her big girl pants up for real! Okay stop talking about him now, don’t waste Calista’s airtime. Thank God Cat managed to turn this depressing ending around. 

Go get’em supergirl!!!!! WE ALL FUCKING KNEW IT! Too bad they didn’t get to talk about it, so here’s to waiting for 3x01. Cat is back right? Even if she’s not a regular. So Man-Hell gone and Cat back??? WOO-FUCKING-HOO Ugh did we really have to see him again? But Man-Hell sucked by a black hole. Very fitting! - Oh are we getting a new pod?? Is S3 just gonna be a re-do of S2 but without Mono like I wished???? – Ohhhh nice ad for Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter there, go watch the movie on June 2nd!!!

#great action scenes! #supergirl was on fire #i wasn't really feeling this whole sad bec mono is leaving thing #so the ep was a bit frustrating with that #like i don't wanna see kara sad but get on with it already! #so cat really saved it for me at the end #supergirl #supercat #cat grant #mine

[jamesginortonblog]

Interview with Robson Green

 Robson Green talks about Geordie Keating and Grantchester 3

Q. How does it feel returning to film a new series of Grantchester?

“When the first script of a new series arrives you know it’s going to be quality because it’s written by Daisy Coulam. Then you want to find out how the journey is going to further develop with the various relationships on screen. Has it still got those likeable ingredients? Does it still have those dramatic arcs within each relationship that the audience care about? And like any script you get, because you see yourself in it, you think, ‘Where is it going to take my character? Is there a development?’ Not surprisingly there was.

“Grantchester is so refreshing. It develops in a way the audience will care about, want to follow and leave them wanting more. Which is essentially what you want with a long running series. When I get a script now I go, ‘Will I enjoy making this?’ And you’re 10 pages in and you go, ‘Yes I will.’”

Q: How is Geordie’s marriage to Cathy (Kacey Ainsworth)?

“Geordie is paralysed with the burden of guilt and obligation and has an overwhelming sense of routine. He feels the relationship is stale and redundant. But he’s looking at the wrong aspects of the relationship.

“Geordie begins a campaign that sets out to destroy everything that is precious in his private life. Looking at the public face of Geordie, everything he has seems to be bright, rosy and healthy. But there’s an undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable. He begins to destroy the one thing he holds dear, which is his family. And seeks approval of his behaviour from Sidney.

“The overriding arc of the whole series is that both Sidney and Geordie have crisis of self. They try to advise one another on how to deal with this. But they both very quickly realise they’re not qualified to give that advice. It’s love versus duty, loyalty versus love, which are very powerful emotions and issues to play. One minute we’re dealing with betrayal, another with abandonment. But at the heart of it all is love.”

Q: What’s are Sidney’s thoughts on Geordie’s predicament?

“Sidney tries to give Geordie advice. And Geordie says to Sidney, ‘How can you give me advice? You are going out with a married woman who has a child with another man? And you’re standing there giving me advice?’ While Sidney points out Geordie has a wife and four beautiful children. Geordie, in a way, seeks forgiveness throughout the whole series. But not from God.”

Q: Geordie and Sidney form a batting partnership during a village cricket match. Was that easy for you to film?

“The script only allowed me to score four runs. But it had a century written all over it! It was a quintessentially English scene. It’s 1955, we’re in the Grantchester Meadows, all in our whites playing cricket.

“However I play cricket with a confidence that is wholly unwarranted. I was rubbish at school. The ball is too hard. I played in the cast and crew versus Grantchester villagers match at the end of filming for series one and was out for four.

“It just takes me back. I had terrible reminders of how bad I was at sport in school. I was a really good runner but I was never good at cricket and hopeless at football. I was described as a delinquent kicking about a pig’s bladder when I was playing football.

“And I was so paranoid when playing rugby. When they went into a scrum I used to think they were talking about me. So nothing has changed on the sporting frontier. But it was a lovely scenario to film. Beautifully directed by Tim Fywell.

“The Grantchester cricket captain Geoff Towler is played by Peter Davison. I also managed to have a lot of scenes with Emma Davies, who plays Rosie Towler, and she made me realise why I continue to do this job. Reminded me of why I’m involved in this industry. She is a tour de force when it comes to acting. Storytelling can be a very powerful thing. It was just beautiful to be alongside her performance in episode two.”

Q: Is storytelling even more important in today’s world?

“I think it’s important to see things from other people’s points of view. Storytelling can change the way we think about the world we live in. But more importantly it makes us think about ourselves and the way we behave. We have a duty to remind the world that we are all one.”

Q: What was it like working with Peter Davison?

“Growing up with All Creatures Great and Small, he was a very important fixture in our family home in Dudley, Northumberland. So I was a huge fan. The experience and joy of working with someone like Peter really helps when you’re in front of the lens. He was a dream to work with.”

Q: Geordie is not a fan of jazz or the ‘new’ sound of rock 'n roll. Is there an artist or band in real life you would travel a long way to see?

“I used to be a huge fan of The Flying Pickets. I would travel from Newcastle to watch them play in Islington and follow them on tour. I loved what they had to say and the way they did it. That ‘a capella’ format.

“The last big concert I went to was the Rolling Stones. I used to be a huge heavy metal fan and I’d travel the country to see Motorhead, Rainbow and bands like that. The last concert I went to in Newcastle, which is probably the best concert I’ve been to just for spectacle, quality and coming away with a life-­‐affirming sense of well-­‐ being, was Dolly Parton. She was sensational. But now I sit and listen at home on the radio. I live in Northumberland and go walking on the hills.

“When I sung many years ago, Jerome and I were on Top of the Pops and someone came into our dressing room to say hello and sat and chatted with us for two hours. I only realised 20 minutes into the conversation that it was Cat Stevens / Yusuf. Eventually I asked, ‘What’s your link with the music industry?’ He said, ‘I wrote the song Boyzone are singing.’ And I suddenly put two and two together and went, ‘Oh my God it’s Cat Stevens!’”

Q: Do you get much attention from fans during Grantchester filming?

“The public has welcomed Grantchester with open arms. We have a really loyal fan base. Especially for James Norton, of course. Who wouldn’t want a vicar like Sidney Chambers? We get crowds, especially when we film in Grantchester itself. There’s crowds every day there. They don’t pose a problem. They’re very obliging and welcoming. While the locals within the village we use as supporting artistes. It’s been well received and rightly so. The writing is great, the storytelling is wonderful, with a great production team and cast.”

Q: You were still filming on your birthday last December. How did you celebrate?

“We had a fireworks display. James did the food and I did the fireworks. Fireworks is one of my guilty pleasures. So I threw a fireworks display to music of the movies. It started with Superman, then Flash Gordon, The Magnificent Seven, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. It was wonderful. It was after we had filmed for the day and about 200 locals turned out in the village. We got permission to set a Category 5 display up. Everybody left with smiles on their faces.”

Q: Some think an actor’s life is all bright lights and glamour. Were there any moments during this series that summed up how far from the truth that can be?

“There was one night where we were doing an exhumation scene. It was raining and it was freezing. And it was taking an eternity. Not only were we fed up and the production team fed up but also members of the public were fed up. So much so that about half a mile away, this guy shouted out of his window, ‘Turn off your lighting and go home!’ With added bad language. We just fell about laughing and couldn’t continue.

“But other than that, our executive producer Diederick Santer calls Grantchester his happy place. And it’s true. I’m working with James Norton, Morven Christie, Kacey Ainsworth, Tessa Peake-­‐Jones, Al Weaver and Lorne MacFadyen. It’s a joy.”

Q: How do you reflect on the relationship between Geordie and Sidney in series three?

“I think this new series is the best one yet. At the heart is that loving relationship between Sidney and Geordie. For Geordie, Sidney is the son he never had and for Sidney, Geordie is the friend he never had. It’s the shorthand that you can’t quantify that really works. It’s the way they interact and relate to each other that sometimes isn’t necessarily in the script. It’s just implicit in the performance. James is so relaxed and charismatic in front of the lens, he makes it so easy.

“We knew we worked well together immediately from the start of series one. And if you combine that with good writing and a good production team, you’re on to a winner. A vicar and a detective works because it’s rooted in a dark truth. On the surface it’s quintessentially English, beautiful, tranquil, idyllic, pristine. But there’s this undercurrent of something deeply uncomfortable. Whether it be racism, bigotry or whatever. The darkness that existed and the denial people lived in in the 50s.”

Q: Aside from paying the bills, what has being an actor given you in life?

“It’s given me stability. I’m doing something I love. That’s what acting has given me. Storytelling is everything to me. It always has been from when I went to see Bedknobs and Broomsticks when I was that little kid with my mother. I’ve never shied away from the fact it’s all about the wonder of storytelling.”

Source: ITV Press Center

#robson green #Grantchester #Interview

[davidmann95]

How would you write a Lego Superman movie? Who would be the villain, and what would be the status of his various "Super-family" members?

Well, certain parameters have already been set: he’s clearly a pretty popular figure (Batman badmouths him in literally the first minute, but he seems to be in the minority there), he’s obviously modeled in large part off of the Christopher Reeve version at least in terms of aesthetics, and he isn’t *quite* as morally pure as some other versions given he mentions he super-hates Green Lantern to his face. It also helps that, as a comedy, you can take liberties with his character and world in a way you could never manage with a straight take. To even implicitly argue for instance that Batman genuinely does not care about anyone or anything but his mission and needs to be fixed would be a severe misread to me in the comics and live-action movies; in Lego Batman where he says it outright near the beginning, it’s an acceptable point for him to grow from, because it’s already in such absurdist territory that you’re not going to be looking for character fidelity past the broadest strokes. Assuming this stayed spiritually in line with Batman, it would be more about how the world looks at Superman right now, rather than being deeply rooted in the ‘lore’. Probably still just a little more straight-laced though, since Superman doesn’t lend himself to quite the same degree of over-the-top as Batman.

So we open on Superman in the Fortress; he’s feeding the critters in the intergalactic zoo, taking a dip in the atomic cauldron, playing chess with giant robots - y’know, Silver Age stuff. But each time, just as he starts to get into it and settle down, something summons him away. Bizarro’s literally turning a city upside-down, Mxyzptlk is swapping the vocal chord bricks of humans and fishes, Titano is climbing up the Daily Planet building with Jimmy and Lois in each paw, the Justice League needs him to fight Starro, and so on and so forth. Each time he swoops in and saves the day, each time the people cheer, each time he has a smile on his face. He never lets it get to him - at least, he doesn’t let himself be aware that it’s getting to him - but before he knows it he’s due back at work, his precious little free time used up.

We get a lot of Clark at the Planet with Lois (who clearly knows he’s Superman and is basically indulging him; everyone else remains totally unaware though), where while he’s clearly putting on an act to a certain extent, he’s also showing a degree of awkwardness and vulnerability he just can’t as Superman, who keeps on taking more and more onto himself, to an increasingly unhealthy extent. And what he’s permitted as Superman comes into sharp relief during a brawl with Metallo, where rather than the relatively easy victory that usually comes here, Metallo manages to break out the Kryptonite long enough to seriously hurt him. Superman still manages to cleverly defeat him, but the incident takes its toll pretty much immediately. Suddenly everyone is reminded that hey, ha ha, you can beat Superman with a rock. Conan O’Brien seems to be locked into these movies, maybe you can cut to him doing a bit. Everyone starts to…not exactly turn on him per say, but he doesn’t get his due respect. You get the red underwear jokes, the stale cracks. The Justice League isn’t exactly helpful either: at the end of the day they take him for granted same as everyone else, and you can be sure Batman doesn’t have a problem with the situation.

In the background of this, Luthor, imprisoned in Stryker’s Island, knows this is his moment. He breaks out - using an orange juice tin, he’s had a lot of luck with those over the years - and reaches out to his old ally, Brainiac. With Superman increasingly stressed and run ragged, he’s at his weakest, making it the perfect time for a strike against him, with Brainiac collecting him in one of his bottles; in return for the tip, Lex wants him to bottle Metropolis as well, for turning on him. It’s here we get Lex’s own perspective on Superman: he’s stupid. He’s a lunk with all the strength in the world, and he’s nice because people want him to be nice, and that’s all there is to him. If he was more, after all, would they have turned on him so easily? And yet he’s still held up as a role model for his ridiculous, unattainable power, while a brilliant man such as Lex Luthor, the pinnacle of human achievement, something real, is dismissed.

As it turns out, he barely even needs to make such a plan. Superman’s burnt out. No one’s calling for him anymore; most of his time in costume he spends tooling around at the Fortress with Krypto and the Superman Robots and occasionally Jimmy, but while at first ever-good-natured Superman enjoys having the time to himself out of the limelight, he starts to feel lost without a purpose, inevitably brooding in the arctic with glowing red eyes. And when a disaster does come and is only narrowly averted - one he wasn’t there for - the people really do turn on him. For all that they didn’t appreciate Superman, they sure did take him for granted, and now that he’s turned into the mopey sadsack who lets them down, they let loose against him with a vengeance. And so he throws in the towel. He hangs up the costume in his apartment and goes to work as Clark, shier and more out-of-place than ever.

Lois meanwhile has been investigating Lex’s breakout, and manages to piece together bits of his plan; she doesn’t know about Metropolis being in the crosshairs, but she knows very well that he and Brainiac are going after Superman to take him off-planet. She finally confronts Clark, corners him in the boom closest, and basically tells him to cut the bull; he plays dumb, even as she breaks a clipboard over his head and tells him to listen. But even in character, he’s not entirely against the idea. The world doesn’t want Superman anymore, anymore than its ever wanted Clark Kent; space might just be the place for the guy. She’s disappointed in him, telling him that she always thought him acting so spineless was an act. He doesn’t know what to do anymore. Where is he supposed to go? It comes to him moments later, where Jimmy’s in danger, and he saves the kid without him even knowing it: they talk a bit, Clark reminded of what it is he can do - that his best friend is alive because of him - as Jimmy talks about how disappointed he is that people are treating his pal Superman like this. But it’ll pass; people can get complacent, they can be stupid, but Superman’s reminded them they can do better before. He’ll do it again.

He walks up to Lois. At first she starts to tell him off again, until she notices his spitcurl is showing. He’s not playing anymore; he tells her he’s sorry, not just for what he said before, but for not telling the truth all these years. That he’s always felt like he never quite fit, and that he didn’t want to give up the little space he’d made for himself as Clark. But she and another friend reminded him, he says as they duck back into the broom closet, that he’s here for a reason. She smiles and tells him they have work to do as he tears open his shirt.

He soars off into space to confront Brainiac’s ship, where he and Luthor are waiting. Luthor assumes this is a last desperate, stupid attempt at reclaiming his relevance; Brainiac is too cold to understand at all, not getting why Superman wouldn’t be happy to leave Earth. He’s invulnerable, immortal, nothing like the humans, certainly beyond their comprehension. Superman says that whether or not he’s wanted right now, he’s certainly needed. They fight. Superman loses, bad, and is imprisoned, pending miniaturization with the rest of Metropolis. But while the villains go about their business (we see each of them intends to betray the other, Lex intending to take over the ship, while Brainiac will steal far more than Metropolis from the Earth), Lois crawls out, herself shrunk down by the shrink ray in the Fortress of Solitude; there’s a whole setpiece of her maneuvering through the ship to reach the growth ray, and once she does setting a prearranged plan between her and Superman into motion.

The Justice League’s ready for a fight down below in Metropolis, having of course been warned (Superman and Lois figured out that if Luthor was in tow, he’d surely take advantage of the situation to get further revenge). But as Brainiac’s ship comes into view, Luthor explains that he and Brainiac had been prepared for resistance, and unleash the forces…of every evil alien in pop culture, accumulated by Brainiac and set loose on Metropolis in return for a chance at freedom. The xenomorphs, the Predators, the Independence Day guy, Daleks, Stormtroopers, Orks (”They’re from Middle-Earth, it’s close enough!”), the Thing if they can kiddify its design enough to fit. The League puts up a solid fight, but they can only go on for so long; even Batman falls once they unleash the snake-clowns. All seems lost.

Suddenly, Superman making his big superhero landing, freed from his cell by Lois. Luthor calls dibs, blasting his old enemy down with Kryptonite-powered armor…but this time the people aren’t standing on the sidelines, not when the stakes are this high and they know what it’d really mean to lose Superman. They get Superman away and pile on Lex, Luthor screaming that he is their true hero even as they tear the Kryptonite from his chest and Superman recovers. Lex rants that this changes nothing as the JLA assembles, that even they can’t turn the tide on their own. Superman says he knows he can’t save the Earth alone, but he’s always been better than them at putting his trust in others. That’s why he brought Lois Lane.

And Brainiac’s ship explodes, and out streams the backup, enlarged and freed by Lois: every good alien in pop culture! E.T.! The lady from Fifth Element! A battalion of elves with Gandalf! Luke and Rey! Some Doctors Who! Mork from Ork! As Superman takes his place at the head of the cavalry along with the rest of the League, they overwhem the opposing forces and take down Brainiac. There’s only Lex left, yelling that Superman’s still an idiot who knows nothing about what it is to be human, still pointless, still not someone these people could ever be like, in all his power. That he’s the one the people can look up in the sky to.

Superman says he’s right. People could be like Lex. It’s easy. But he likes to think they could be better than that. Hopefully, Superman says with a smile as he grabs him by the cuff of the neck and flies away over the cheering crowds, Luthor crossing his arms like a petulant kid, Lex can be better than that too one day…once he serves out the rest of his prison sentence.

Wrap-up stuff. A big ceremony with the mayor of Metropolis, declaring this the cities’ 52nd annual Superman Day. The Justice League promises they’ll do more to keep things calm so he can take a little more time off; all he has to do is ask. Even Batman grunts out something vaguely resembling an apology; he says his family has been trying to get him to be better about these things lately, though he’s not up for the super best-friends hug Superman tries to pull him into. Lex and Brainiac gripe at each other at Stryker’s. Back at the Planet, he’s at his desk at Clark, really getting into his story, when across town he hears an emergency siren. He smiles a little bittersweet smile, starts to pull at his tie…when suddenly he sees the fire department, Wonder Woman and the Flash are on it. He’s stunned out of his focus by Lois asking if he wants to go get lunch - it’s clear this is a date to everyone but Jimmy, who offers to join them. Clark asks if Lois really wants to spend her afternoon with someone as spineless as him. She replies that of course; there should always be a little time for Clark Kent.

That’s my movie. Obviously this comes across as much more serious in description than it surely would be in execution, where someone actually making a script out of this would throw in all the bells and whistles comedy-wise. But I think this would be a solid skeleton to build on that could fit with the tone of the other movies, and maybe get people to go a little easier on big blue from there on out. The sequel would probably bring in Supergirl and Superboy and the rest of the family.

#Superman #The Lego Superman Movie #The Lego Batman Movie #The Lego Movie #Lex Luthor #Brainiac #Lois Lane #Jimmy Olsen #Metallo #fanfic

[thebluesideofthemoon]

The Wall #41: NORM OF THE NORTH

Happy new year, everyone! I sure hope you all had a really great and safe New Year's party, and I for one welcome our new year with open arms! Things can only go up from here, folks. But I'll save all of the formalities for later because there's movies to review! Ahhh yes, it's January and, for me, that only means one thing: IT'S CATCH-UP MONTH (Not "ketchup", you freak, "CATCH UP")! That is correct, for the entirety of January all I'm going to do is catch up on 2016 movies that I missed and talk about them here. Now, I have talked about a few of these before, but not on The Wall, so just for the sake of making it official I'm going to be covering them here, so you can expect to see me re-review Zootopia, Batman v Superman, The Jungle Book, Ratchet & Clank, and The Witch pretty soon, as well as other movies that I saw but never got a chance to talk about. Also, because it's January, AKA the month of supreme shit, let's talk about one of the shittiest movies of 2016: Norm of the North. Yeah, I've already talked about this movie in detail, so I'll try to keep this one short. This is the first actual 2016 movie that I watched and... man, that is not a movie you want to open up the year with, to put it mildly. So why did Hell freeze over to give us this turd? Let's find out.

This movie is a literal piece of excrement. Norm of the North is simply foul.

In this movie a talking polar bear, voiced by Rob Schnider, goes on a big, wild adventure to the foreign land of New York City in order to stop this corrupt environmentally-unfriendly asshat named Mr. Greene (Geddit?!), voiced by Ken Jeong who wants to build condos on the arctic because… I have no freaking idea WHY he wants to do it! He just wants to do it because “hurr dee durr, dis iz a green movie and zave the envairomen”. He also has to rescue his grandfather whom he thought was dead, but was actually kidnapped by Greene. There’s also this “subplot” about this marketing lady voiced by Heather Graham who is trying to get a recommendation from Greene so that her daughter can go to his own alma mater because all other schools are not intellectually challenging. If this description of the movie sounds like a mess it’s because this movie is a fucking mess.

There is so much wrong with this movie, but the worst thing about it is the plot. As I made clear from this description, this movie has a plot that feels like a bunch of stories that were mashed together in the script just to make the movie meet the standard running time to actually be a movie. I mean, the movie starts talking about Norm and his poor hunting skills and how he’ll become a better hunter, but then it switches to this plot about trying to save the Arctic and keep people from living here, which is also one of the stupidest ways to cram in an environmental message because it makes no sense! Even the movie acknowledges that living in the arctic is a stupid idea! This gets even worse when it turns out that Greene’s plan to make condos in the arctic was doomed to fail anyway just because his popularity was down the tubes, but Norm actually HELPS Greene get more popular in a stunt where Greene attempts to SHOOT NORM IN PUBLIC (and keep in mind that everyone in New York thinks- for whatever reason- that Norm is just a dude in a polar bear costume), WHERE EVERYBODY RECORDS WHAT HE DOES, YET BECAUSE NORM SOMEHOW STOPS HIM GREENE BECOMES MORE POPULAR AND PEOPLE WANT TO BUY HOMES FROM HIM?! Why no, this doesn’t make a lick of goddamn sense, thanks for asking!

To say that the people behind this movie didn’t think the plot through would give them the credit to think that there was a shred of thought put into it in the first place. No, this plot was shat out and stitched together Frankenstein-style just to make this movie meet the standard running length of a movie. This wouldn’t piss me off so much if it wasn’t for the fact that ALL THE PLOTS ARE ABSOLUTELY POINTLESS. The plot involving this mom and her kid? You can cut it out and not miss a thing. Norm’s grandfather? It’s not even brought in until halfway through the movie, and even then it doesn’t feel like it adds anything so you may as well just chuck that out the window. Hell, the plot about Norm trying to save the arctic is only complicated by the fact that Norm actually decided to go to New York to become Greene’s marketing tool to sell the arctic to the population of New York.

In other words, this is a movie whose conflict COULD HAVE BEEN RESOLVED EASILY IF NORM LITERALLY DID NOTHING!

As if that’s the only thing wrong with the movie. Sure the plot sounds insane but it’s held together by the power of incredibly tired clichés. They even have the obligatory subplot of giving Norm a half-assed love interest and they don’t even do this RIGHT- Norm’s love interest is in the movie for less than SEVEN MINUTES, most of which are spent at the very beginning of the movie, and then at the very end where, FOR NO REASON, now she’s the mom to Norm’s children. All this for one character who is a complete buffoon, and someone who we know absolutely nothing about save for her name, and that Norm likes her a lot because he, of course, has to act like a tongue-tied idiot. This movie also holds one of all-time least favorite clichés- the one where the kid wants their parent(s)’ attention by quitting their job simply because they work too hard. That cliché can go dive into a volcano and die of a slow, painful, boiling incineration as it carcass erodes into nothingness for being one of the most godawful clichés to EVER exits, AND THIS MOVIE DOES IT BECAUSE IT WAS MADE BY SATAN HIMSELF!

And this movie also features song and dance numbers because why the hell not? One of the songs featured is “Shut Up and Dance” by the band Walk the Moon. A song about ROMANCE featured in a sequence that has nothing but dancing. So the people who worked on this movie couldn’t even be bothered to have listened to a three minute song to understand its context- who am I kidding? No they couldn’t. It’s only in there so they could have a song to sell on the shitty soundtrack that nobody’s buying.

Oh, and this is just a minor nitpick, but the animation sucks hard. All the characters move like they’re made out of rubber and have no weight to them, almost everyone does the same over-the-top wild gestures that were clearly only done because “kids love crazy shit”, and not because it’s an actual performance by a character or anything. The worst offender of this is Greene himself who is always moving in really annoying ways. The man movies like a noodle, and it’s so not fun to watch. This movie just doesn’t have the budget- and for sure not the talent- to do a wild-energy cartoon because its elements don’t allow them to. Comparing this to something like Storks, that has very fluid animation and knew how to keeps its timing varied up to keep the movie’s energy from becoming stale or irritating. Also, it had a far more appealing art style, unlike in Norm where everyone looks like a cheap chew toy you’d buy for your dog.

This movie is filled with so many problems that I didn’t even get to talk about another infuriating aspect about it- the Lemmings. These guys are by far the most blatant example of ripping off that I’ve seen in quite some time as they are an obvious cash-in on the Minions, except with less personality, the Lemmings only have four different designs total, and they can literally do anything regardless of how little sense it makes. At some point Heather Graham’s character remarks that these Lemmings are both “cute and marketable” without a hint of irony. In some ways I’ve got to give some respect to this movie for having the balls to be this openly blatant about its shittiness and borderline plagiarism, but if the movie wasn’t so infuriating to watch I would be saying this as a reason to see it, but it’s soooo not worth it! It really says a lot that the fact that this movie has a twerking polar bear in it is the LEAST of this movie’s problems.

Sadly, the only positive- and this is a big stretch- that I can say about this movie is that at least the voice actors are trying even though they have absolutely no funny material to work with, and it’s pretty clear that they were given absolutely no direction aside from “Ken Jeong just scream all your lines” or “Schnider just be yourself but with a slightly higher inflection in your voice”. This movie was absolutely miserable to sit through. It’s a big slog, the plot is beyond insulting, the message is completely worthless, the movie is just a big eyesore, and the saddest thing of all is that it’s not even a shocking level of bad to be memorable, aside from the fact that those who (unfortunately) DO see it only discover how awful it truly is.

(1,370 words. Music: Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex- Arctic Antics).

I fucking hate this movie. It's easily the second worst animated movie I've seen this decade, one of the worst movies ever, period, and the fact that it was going to be released as a straight-to-DVD but was pushed to go to the big screen just as a glorified advertisement for the DVD really does make my blood boil. But at least nobody in their right mind would ever defend this abomination. It really says something when not even a little kid can get a shred of joy out of watching this.

If not for things like Yoga Hosers and Foodfight!, then this movie would have been an easy 0, but make no mistake, Norm of the North is one of the most wretched animated movies ever made.

Well, that's one movie down... and I've got a bajillion more to go. Joy. I'll see you all next time.

#The Wall #Movie review #Norm of the North #Catch Up January

[ferdinandcham]

Justice League Review (Spoilers)

Disclaimer: I think Ben Affleck is a shitty actor and is up there on the stale list with Tom Cruise. Fight me.

DC has been my favorite since I was a little girl. I grew up reading the comics and loving the cartoons. Yadda yadda yadda. (Spoilers ahead, turn back now.)

So after the BEAUTY that was Wonder Woman, I was far more pumped for Justice League hoping that this would be a redemption arc for the DCEU.

Then came Jason and Ezra, and I started getting my hopes up even more. Could Gal, Jason, and Ezra save the DCEU from Ben Affleck? Could it ever truly recover from Green Lantern?

Then. Enter Joss Whedon. That’s when the true tragic downfall began. But I still held out hope and went to watch this movie. Because I had to support Gal and Jason.

I’ll start with saying something good and then ending with the bad. To create some balance because there ARE enjoyable parts of the movie.

• Gal Gadot was wonderful as usual. Patty wasn’t there to truly make her shine as she did in Wonder Woman, but she did her best as one of the only female characters in the entire movie after Joss mangled it. She was strong and was clearly acknowledged as the strongest one on the team. She wasn’t shy about using her clear advantage over the men to keep them in place either. (I wish she’d done more damage when she shoved Ben Affleck’s shitty Batman after his crass remarks.) Also Patty was probably foaming at the mouth at every ass and cleavage shot that the male directors plastered throughout the movie. Because I was furious. They scrapped an entire movie about Wonder Woman’s empowerment to create fake chemistry between Diana and Ben-Bruce and give nasty little boys their sexy scenes.

•Ezra Miller was a gem. He was the humor and it was very well timed. He played the socially awkward fanboy perfectly and he channeled how any normal person would react being put in a situation where he had to be the hero. He was witty and energetic and everything I love about the Flash. My only regret is that for some reason they never can capture how truly intelligent and fast Barry Allen is. It’s not just running or quick reflexes. His brain works at that same speed as well and they never really bring that to the plate with his live action portrayals.

•Jason Momoa. HOW ARE YOU DOIN. He’s such a versatile actor. He truly is. He plays snark well. He plays seriousness well. He plays lovers well. He’s just a magnificent man, both in personality, skill, and physique. He did well with what scenes he actually was allowed to keep and I enjoyed the parallel of him sitting on Diana’s rope and admitting he was afraid he was going to die as when Steve Trevor did it. I was really disappointed that we got almost no actual backstory for him or Cyborg.

•STEVE TREVOR IS GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN. I immensely enjoyed that Steve is still a large factor in Diana’s life. He was truly the love of her life and decades later, his influence over her is still strong.

I did NOT appreciate Ben Affleck’s Batman using Steve as a verbal slap against Diana every chance he got. To me, it wasn’t even a good plot point and if you wanted to use it as a motivator to push Diana into a leadership role, it should have been handled better. Frankly, anytime Ben-Bruce said something about Steve and taunted Diana with it, it seemed to come more from jealousy that Diana loved Steve and that there was no room for Bruce rather than from an attempt to motivate her into a leadership role. Steve Trevor did not die for Joss and Ben to use him as a sexist tool to manipulate and hurt Diana and create fake chemistry between her and Ben-Bruce.

(Before little fanboys come spouting shit about WonderBat, I’ve always been a Steve Trevor fan and the Wonder Woman movie solidified that. Plus MY Batman is far more respectful of others and is a GOOD person. He would never be that cruel and crass towards someone in pain. MY Batman is the one who got Harley Quinn a dress after she had a bad day. MY Batman adopted a billion children and was a good father. MY Batman wasn’t a dickfuck. Ben Affleck’s asshole, sexist, jealous portrayal is #notmybatman)

•Mera was gorgeous and badass. She faced off with Steppenwolf with no fear. But we got, like, MAYBE three minutes of screen time for her??? I want to write more about her but they didn’t even give me enough to go on. That was extremely disappointing. This was a heavily male driven movie. Joss cut most of Mera’s scenes, completely disregarded Iris West and cut her completely out of the movie, and cut half of Lois Lane’s scenes. So out of ten (Batman, Superman, Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Steppenwolf, Aquaman, Martha Kent, Lois Lane, Alfred) significant characters, only three (Martha, Lois, and Diana) were women and only one (Diana) had significant screen time.

•I reallllly want more Atlantis. Like just give me an Aquaman movie soon please.

•I’m not even a major Superman fan, but Lois and Clark are too cute to be legal and Zack Snyder is clearly their biggest fangirl. I really enjoyed that Lois Lane is considered a big gun and that she’s a force to be reckoned with. BUT WHY WOULD YOU CUT OUT THE RING SCENE. WHY JOSS. YOU FUCKHEAD. AND WAS CGI SHAVED FACE NECESSARY??!?!?

•Cyborg did not get enough development. He was finally portrayed as a funny guy towards the end, but all we got was angst and daddy issues. I wanted more. He is a large character that needed more development than what he got. Little disappointed that due to Iris being cut, Cyborg (POC) and Flash (Jewish) were the only established non-white people in the movie.

•Cyborg and Flash’s friendship was super adorable and I need more. I’m glad they established these two as the outcasts and the younger friends. So was the friendship between these two and Diana. So pure. So wholesome. Some of Diana’s best scenes were with these two and being a gentle and motherly-figure to them. It really showcased that Wonder Woman is a truly rounded wholesome character who is able to be the compassionate friend or the kickass warrior.

•Wally vs. Clark in every moment was great. 10/10 a great addition to the movie. Just wholesome. Whether it be a speed contest or a who can rescue more civilians contest. Pure. Wholesome. Lovely.

•Steppenwolf was stale. Like almost as stale as Ben-Bruce. Stale like old white bread. Just stale. There had to have been other villains to make the big bad. I don’t know. Just couldn’t really enjoy the lack of characterization.

•I enjoyed the hints about the Lantern Corps. Hopefully they can redeem themselves from the Green Lantern movie. That was just bad. I hope that the ring that flew back into space is Hal Jordan. Or better yet, John Stewart. Either way I’ll be happy though. Hal and Barry are super adorable together as besties.

•I really love Alfred. Alfred to me is what kept Bruce from being what Ben is portraying him as. But this Alfred? Not so much. Really disappointed that this Alfred is only concerned with trying to get Ben-Bruce’s dick inside Diana. Not impressed. Where is Michael Caine when you need him?

•I DESPISE Jesse whatshisname as Lex Luthor, but I’m very ready for the Legion of Doom. Although Deathstroke wasn’t really apart of it. But whatever. I’m excited to see Cheetah and Poison Ivy. Not so pumped for Gorilla Grodd but I’ll live. Maybe they won’t add him.

•I would really like to see more variety in gender and in color in the next movies. Iris needs to be back. They need more character development for the others. We’ve seen Batman vs. Superman and Man is Steel, and although I LOVE her, we’ve seen Wonder Woman. Can we get more focus on the newer characters to round them out? Or at least give them their own stand alone films sooner rather than later, and tie them to references from Justice League so it feels a bit more put together and less patchy.

•Also, bah Joss Whedon from any further involvement with any franchise that gives him the chance to fuck up female characters? He butchered Black Widow to give Hulk more characterization. And now he’s attempting to do so in this franchise. Enough is enough.

Hopefully the next DCEU movie improves on Justice League.

#justice league #clark kent #superman #lois lane #wonder woman #batman #ben affleck #gal gadot #amy adams #the flash #barry allen #diana prince #steve trevor #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #cyborg #victor stone #aquaman #arthur curry #steppenwolf #patty jenkins #anti joss whedon #joss whedon #zack snyder #superman vs batman #man of steel #iris west #mera #atlantis #themyscira