#man hunt (1941)
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w-werewolf ideas? -pleading eyes- (but only if ur up for it)
Hello, friend, I am finally here with my treatise on Medieval Werewolves. So this is going to be more like a Brief History of Werewolves as I Can Remember It Off the Top of My Head, Over A Year Since I Read Most of These Sources, than maybe the list of werewolf fucking ideas you might have been looking for. I hope you will agree that this rich history of werewolf lore is a GOLDMINE when you view it with the monster fucking lens. Now, the story I've been working on only has incidental werewolf-fucking, it's not a Monster Fucking story, but I will do my best to help you.
WEREWOLVES ARE REALLY FUCKING OLD. The first recorded "beast-man" is in the Epic of Gilgamesh (~2100 BCE), where Enkidu is a "bull-man" that Gilgamesh helps to find his humanity. Not werewolf specific, per se, but monster fuckers have been around a while. The most famous early werewolf is Lycaon of Arcadia (I believe a date of around 400 BCE), a king who fed Zeus the flesh of his own son cause he thought it would be funny, I guess. Zeus turned Lycaon into a wolf, or wolf-man, and that's where the word Lycan comes from. This also establishes a connection of werewolves with cannibalism.
So now I am actually going to fast forward to the Middle Ages. There is a rich, rich history of werewolves in Europe, particularly in the Slavic and Baltic regions. In Renaissance Germany, werewolf trials were held alongside witch trials. The Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1486 and was like *the* handbook for witch hunting, contained passages on identifying and capturing werewolves. (I'm pretty sure. Like I said it's been a year since I read this stuff.) So what did medieval people believe about werewolves?
There were many ways to become a werewolf. You could have the bad luck to be born on Christmas Day or (interestingly) the night of a New Moon. If you drank water that collected in the pawprint of a werewolf, you too would be cursed. If you died and an animal jumped over your corpse? Werewolf. In Livonia, it was said that if you spoke a certain incantation over your drink, you would become a werewolf upon consuming it. There were also ways to be a werewolf were one had more agency in the transformation. A wolf-pelt belt (often called a "wolf-strap", which cracks me up for reasons we won't discuss here) could be used to transform yourself into a wolf. To become human again, all you had to do was remove the belt. Some people believed you could do the same with a wolf skin. There are stories where if a werewolf's clothes are stolen while they're in wolf form, they will remain that way-- you can read about one such story, as recorded by tumblr user @qqueenofhades here! In Elliott O'Donnell's 1912 book simply titled Werewolves, there is a description of a ritual to summon some dark entity called "the Unknown" who could supposedly grant you powers of lycanthropy. Maybe don't do that. (This book also discusses other, non-European forms of Lycanthropy!)
There are ways for a non-lycan person to return a lycan to their human form; one can return their clothes to them, one can call them by their Christian name (sometimes 3 times, sometimes just once). There are accounts of a witness recognizing the werewolf due to some identifiable injury or something, and once they speak the werewolf's name he will turn back into a human.
Some ways to recognize if a person is a werewolf or not: do they have hair growing on their palms? If you cut them, is there hair growing inward from their skin? Are they just so, so hairy? In Swedish tradition, I believe, it was said that werewolves looked just like regular wolves except they had no tail-- so a werewolf would run on three legs, holding his fourth leg out behind him to look like a tail. Some werewolves still have human eyes when transformed.
A lot of the pop culture lore about werewolves comes from the 1941 The Wolf Man, which really brought the werewolf into modern times. You can check that out if you'd like, it's interesting stuff, but not in the scope of the research I've been doing.
OH MY GOD FLEA you just did a HUGE info dump on werewolves, this is not what I wanted. Yeah, I know, but you triggered my special interest gag-reflex.
But like.... Character A loves Character B and finds their clothes one night, takes them to wash, and a big hairy beast starts following Character A???
Character X gets attacked by a bad guy in the woods but a big ass wolf fends him off and gets a slice down his face. The next day Character Y has a nasty facial wound that seems somehow familiar??
The bond of being able to recognize your lover even when they're in animal form, even when you didn't know they could do that????
And I mean MY GOD just apply A/B/O shit to werewolves HELLO (that's what started this whole spiral for me).
I particularly like medieval monster fucking because the Middle Ages are just very interesting to me. There is a lot of political and religious stuff going on, a lot of culture clashing and forbidden fruit and what not. Remember how I said that there is a rich history of werewolves in the Slavic and Baltic regions? Those were the last areas of Europe to get converted to Christianity. And they resisted, HARD.
Livonia, the Baltic area where you could enchant your beer to make you a werewolf, has a famous account of a man on trial for being a werewolf. "Hell yeah I'm a werewolf," he said. "Me and my werewolf buddies go down to Hell three times a year to fight the Devil and his demons." If I recall correctly they weren't sure what to do with this guy because he *confessed* to being a werewolf and hadn't really done anything wrong. I believe there's another Livonian tale of an abandoned castle where all the werewolves gathered once a year. And something about werewolves breaking into your basement and drinking all your beer and stacking all the barrels up to the ceiling just to be little shits I guess?
Anyway, I think this is super interesting and I know this is not like "Medieval Werewolf Headcanons" but just get out your horny goggles and I am SURE you can find some good shit in this WAY TOO LONG POST.
Peace and LOve
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Hi cl! I was wondering if you have or one day would make a recommended reading list for dick?
Yea!! I would love to!
For Robin- the best would be Batman 1940, Batman: Golden Age Omnibus, Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet, and Robin: Year One
Untainted by bored and desperate authors, the comics are genuinely funny and interesting and action packed. I love puns and humor and good fighting so Batman 1940 was top tier for me. Batman: Golden Age Omnibus I really liked Bruce and Dick's casual "you're like a brother-son-friend-partner" thing that flowed so naturally.
Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet and Robin: Year One show Dick's capabilities and and how excellent he is even though Batman 1940 shows that too, these are more recent. Whoever wrote The Gauntlet-I'm kowtowing to you. It's god tier work, thank you.
Batman and Robin, A Boy Wonder
I know this is a controversial one because of what Frank Miller makes Dick do but also I just considered it to be part of this universe's batman's psyche. But Frank Miller aside from this one can go suck it. I love everyone in it.
Robin and Batman by Jeff Lemire
This comic talks about Dick directly after his parents' passing. It shows how instead of angry like people think, he was mostly sad and lonely and how he and Batman both grew from this. Going from grief to the light of Batman's darkness that he's known to be.
The Detective Comics
It's Batman and Robin stuff but you know it's just like a progression of the Batman comics but different stories.
The World's Finest Comics both the 1941 and the new one.
Dick's relationship with the Titans and family- Batman: A lonely place of dying.
It takes place some time after Jason's death and shows how Tim joined the family. I love the way they wrote every character. I'm going to put up a post later about Dick and the Titans and this comic is quintessential to that. MUST. READ.
Want more incentive? It's all about Dick and Alfred's relationship and how they're the best father and son.
Dick's relationship with the Titans and Outsiders
Teen Titans (1966) - the silver age, og titans.
The New Teen Titans (1980)
The New Teen Titans: Judas Contract
The New Teen Titans (1984)
JLA/Titans
Titans Secret Files
Titans (1999)
Outsiders (2003)
Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files
Teen Titans Lost Annual
Titans (2008)
Titans Hunt
Titans (2016)
Titans United
Titans United: Bloodpact
Titans (2023)
World's Finest: Teen Titans
Nightwing Dick- Nightwing 1996 and 2011
Okay. I know people hate Chuck Dixon but honestly, I think he's one of the greatest Nightwing writers. With him, the writing felt continuous and fluent. It takes you from Dick being fired to the majority of his life. Every arc that was written was excellent because even when Dick was at his worst mentally, emotionally, and physically, he was a formidable foe. He's a tactical genius and one of the strongest fighters and Chuck Dixon put him through a lot but one thing he never did was nerf him. This was very good.
ACTUALLY NO- I LOVED THIS SPECTACULAR, MARVELOUS, BEAUTIFUL, EXTRAORDINARY, BRILLIANT WORK. LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS.
Nightwing 2011 will be one of my all time favorites. Undefeatable badass boy. The entirety of Nightwing 2016 has nothing on even a single panel from Nightwing 2011. Glorious work.
Batman Dick- Batman: Streets of Gotham
The things is, Dick was a very good Batman. Actually, he was an excellent Batman. Maybe it's because he's an excellent actor but the internal struggle he had was not outwardly shown when he was Batman thus effectively convincing the public that there was not a different man under the mask (They could only tell because he actually cared about people unlike Bruce). Actually I like him better than Bruce Batman because Dick's actions as Batman at that time were cooler than any Bruce has taken. I know it's hard to believe but this comic was fantastic in showcasing that.
Other top favorites- Nightwing: The New Order, Future State: Nightwing, and Grayson Comics
I'm literally going feral over New Order. Nightwing is the world's favorite (as expected) and has an entire army to himself. He also has a kid named Jake Grayson and JAKE IS THE CUTEST ADORABLEST KID EVER. I LOVE Kori but what I love even more is Dick is a single mom to Jake because Kori left and Jake loves Dick so much! I cried at the end because how badly I was moved.
Future State! Future State Gotham was trash. It was so bad I had to search for a trashcan to dry heave over because it's character assassination. That comic was so bad other DC authors just refused to acknowledge its existence. Future State: Nightwing showcases just how brilliant Dick is. Ever heard the saying, "There's method to my madness?" Dick always has a plan. It's only madness for those that don't understand the full scale of it.
Heh. Everyone hated the Grayson comics but honestly? I loved it. Dick was manipulative, talented, excellent fighter, and a spy. Every task he took he excelled in it. They said that Dick wasn't made for spying but they weren't talking about his skill set. They were talking about his emotions. Even Tiger- Spyral's number 1 asesst and spy- was outplayed by Dick multiple times. If Helena hadn't become Matron, Dick would've burned Spyral to the ground so completely not even ashes of the fire he had set would have been left as evidence for beetles to collect.
Batman/Nightwing: Bloodbourne
Pure fighting prowess. It reiterates the fact that Dick is undefeatable.
Batman and Robin (2009)
Dick!Bats and Damian's run as Batman and Robin. It sheds light onto the hardships of raising an assassin child. People think that Damian would just follow someone along and become good if they knew him earlier but you don't understand. Dick. Put. Work. Into. Damian. Their obsessed with each other relationship exists because Damian is fully aware of the amount of time, effort, and love Dick has given him and reciprocates that. He loves Dick beyond measure and will fight anyone who says even one word against him.
Batman and Robin Eternal
Really talks about Bruce's impact on Dick, Dick's impact on Bruce, family dynamics, batfamily working together, intelligence and fight skills of Dick Grayson. There's a couple plot holes in the middle with about 2-3 panels being wrong but everything else is so correct.
Convergence
Do you want to know how important Dick is in terms of the multiverse's perseverance and continuation? This one!
COMICS I HAVE READ A BILLION TIMES BECAUSE THEY'RE SO GOOD - DARK CRISIS, DARK CRISIS, DARK CRISIS!!!!
DARK CRISIS
DARK CRISIS
DARK CRISIS
I SAVORED every letter of that comic.
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Hi I am Jordanian and wanted to say thanks for sharing news of backlash the Jewish community has faced for the actions of Israeli government/IDF. It is not fair that you guys are getting that punishment especially when it was never a Muslim vs Jew issue, rather a conflict of supremacy and control and money. I don’t know if you support the Palestinian cause but I will try to support my Jewish brethren when they are in need. TY
First I'd like to say, antisemitism existed long before Israel.
The events of October the 7th has gotten me thinking about the Kishinev pogrom of 1903, if you're not Jewish it's likely you've never heard of it. Pogrom is a Russian word, for mob violence against Jews, they did it so much in Russia they needed to come up with a special word for it, before the Nazis, Russians were the nightmare of the Jews, and those 19th century Jews could not have imagined worse was waiting for them from the West. Any ways today Kishinev is called Chișinău, its the capital of the tiny country of Moldova, but in 1903 it was the edge of the Russian Empire. Starting on Easter Sunday and lasting for 3 days while Russian police and soldiers looked on mobs hunted the local Jews like animals, beat and killed any man they found, raped as many women as they could.
I've been thinking about Kishinev, because it represents a break, you want to know when Zionism got really serious? it was with the blood in the streets of Kishinev, the idea that life in Russia was no longer viable for the Jews that lived there and they had to leave and go any where, its also the point American Jewry really got organized.
I'm also reminded of the Farhud, in Iraq in 1941, before Israel about 1/3rd of the population of Baghdad was Jewish. In June 1941 a violent riot against the Jews broke out. We'll never know how many people died, maybe more than a 1,000. The violence was unspeakable, and like Kishinev for the Jews of the Middle East it was the break point, they could no long safely live in the countries they had lived in for over 2,000 years.
any ways, my point is I think antisemitism is maybe the world's oldest hate and people are using Israel as an excuse to unleash it, they've used other excuses in the past, may use other excuses in the future.
I would agree it's not a Muslim Vs Jewish thing, much of the violence and threats are happening in non-Muslim countries and coming from non-Muslims indeed atheists. Hate of the Jews is not religious (well sometimes it is, I got called a Christ Killer just yesterday) but an ethnic hate.
"a conflict of supremacy and control and money" ah yes, Jews, Money etc I don't think I need to explain this to most people. Just leave it to say your "support" is kind if misguided, if you believe any group of Jews are money grubbing trying to control the world or have ever said the phrase "Jewish supremacy" well all thats pretty antisemitic
As for the Palestinians, I wish them what I've always wished them, good health, for the Palestinians of Israel I want greater integration and their fair share of the resources of their country, for the Palestinians of Gaza I want them free of a terrorist organization that robs them, beats them, suppresses them, and for the West Bank and Gaza a state of their very own.
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I never admitted to anybody during my entire military service that I had been an actor. I was terrified that I would be put in charge of Ensa [Entertainments' National Service Association]. Not even my closest friends knew I was an actor. I told them I was reading English at St Andrews University.
- Richard Todd
In his heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, Richard Todd was Britain’s leading matinee idol. If you love old movies, you’ll have seen Todd in one of his starring roles in “The Virgin Queen” opposite Bette Davis, “Stage Struck” with Marlene Dietrich, or “The Dam Busters” for which he won a Golden Globe Award. He was the tough little Scotsman in the wartime weepie “The Hasty Heart” and had audiences madly hunting for hankies.
Those were the days when Todd streaked across North American film screens as virtually every romantic hero from Rob Roy to Robin Hood. Ian Fleming chose him to play James Bond in “Dr. No” in 1962, but a schedule clash meant Sean Connery stepped into the role.
Little less known is the fact that he was also among the first British soldiers and the first Irishman to land in Normandy on D Day. More specifically, he participated in Operation Tonga during the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944.
So it must have been surreal for Richard Todd the hearthrob actor to find himself playing Major John Howard in the epic movie ‘The Longest Day’ (1962) based on Cornelius Ryan’s book. Not least because he served with Howard and took part in the fighting at Pegasus Bridge that Major John Howard was tasked to secure on D Day.
Richard Todd was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1919. His father was a medic in the British Army and, as his posting required, the early years of his life were spent in India. The family settled in Devon upon their return to England, and Richard was educated at Shrewsbury Public School, in Shropshire. The theatre was his first love, and he furthered his dramatic skills at the Italia Conti school, thereafter moving to Scotland where he helped to form the Dundee Repertory Theatre.
When War was declared, Todd went to St. Andrew's University on the following day to volunteer. He was not a member of the University, but he not only convinced the selection unit that he was, but also added that he had been reading English there for six months, and that he had obtained a Cert A in his school cadet corps; a key point to being accepted as an officer. Despite success in passing off this invented career, Todd was to be disappointed by a lack of interest in him thereafter.
Becoming increasingly desperate to get into the War before it ended, he sent numerous letters to the War Office to press his case, which, in June 1940, was finally noticed.
Accepted by the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Todd went to Sandhurst to receive his officer training. He had a very lucky escape here when he was in a corridor on the second floor of a building when it was hit by a bomb, and he was blown into the garden outside by the blast. He got to his feet in the darkness and did not feel particularly affected by it, but an examination by torchlight revealed that his whole body was covered in blood from numerous small wounds.
A spell his hospital delayed his passing out from Sandhurst until early 1941. Celebrating in London, he narrowly avoided death again when he found his usual haunt, the Cafe de Paris, was too crowded to admit him and so he went elsewhere; it was hit by a bomb that same night and 84 people were killed.
His Battalion, the 2nd/4th Battalion The King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, was posted to XII Corps in defence of Kent, where a German invasion if it came would almost certainly land. Todd was given command of the infantry in the Dymchurch Redoubt, a fort of the Napoleonic era mounting two six-inch guns.
In the event of an invasion, this would certainly have been a primary target for the enemy, and those manning it were told that, with the main defensive line far to their rear, they would be left to fight to the end. General Montgomery commanded XII Corps at this time, and his characteristic emphasis on training and preparedness led to the formation of the first Battle Schools. Richard Todd attended one of these, and the experience allowed him to run his own School when, in December 1941, he was sent to Iceland with the 1st/4th King's Own Light Infantry to be trained in arctic and mountain warfare.
Returning to England in September 1942, he eventually ended up in the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne Division. He was among troops of the 7th (Light Infantry) Parachute Battalion who, at 00:40 hours on 6 June 1944, landed behind the Normandy beaches in a cornfield, perilously close to tracer fire.
Todd scrambled into a wood and with 150 other paratroopers reached Pegasus and Ranville bridges, vital crossings to allow Allied forces to break out from the beachheads into Normandy. They had been seized by a glider force from the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry under the command of Major John Howard, who needed reinforcements to fend off ferocious German attacks.
In his memoirs, Caught in the Act, Todd would write of the carnage, “There was no cessation in the Germans' probing with patrols and counter-attacks, some led by tanks, and the regimental aid post was overrun in the early hours. The wounded being tended there were all killed where they lay. There was sporadic enemy mortar and artillery fire we could do nothing about. One shell landed in a hedge near me, killing a couple of our men.”
Todd would go on and see action at the Battle of the Bulge and push into the Rhine into Germany. After VE day, his division returned to the UK for a few weeks, then was sent on counter-insurgency operations in Palestine. During this posting he was seriously injured when his Jeep overturned, breaking both shoulders and receiving a concussion. He returned to the UK to be demobilised in 1946.
In 1962, Todd was given the part of Major John Howard in the film adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's book about the D-Day landings, ‘The Longest Day’ (1962). Due to the nature of cinema, it was impossible for the film to give a thorough reflection of the role of the 6th Airborne Division during the Invasion, and as such their activities were solely represented by a reconstruction of the capture of Bénouville Bridge by Howard's coup-de-main force. Although briefly mentioned, the role of the 7th Battalion in the defence of the western bridgehead was largely ignored, and so it appeared as if the defence of the bridge rested only on Howard's men.
Naturally, the omission of their fierce defence of Bénouville caused some resentment amongst veterans, not least because one of their own was championing this re-working of history. Todd, however, regarded ‘The Longest Day’ (1962) as a film rather than a documentary, and his part in it was simply that of an actor doing as he was told.
Richard Todd would never have guessed, that in 17 years since he was on Pegasus Bridge as a paratrooper that he would standing there again as an actor portraying Major John Howard who was given the order: 'Hold,… until relieved'. It had to be Richard Todd’s 'twilight-zone' moment.
The ‘relieve’ for Howard had to come from Lord Lovat and his troops, who had landed on SWORD Beach, and were legging it towards Pegasus Bridge.
Before the shooting of the scenes were started at Pegasus Bridge, the film producer of The Longest Day, Darryl F. Zanuck, had the real life Lord Lovat and Major John Howard brought over to meet the men who were going to portray them (Peter Lawford portrayed Lord Lovat). The men had not seen each other since 6 June 1944.
Photo (above). From L-R: Peter Lawford, Lord Lovat, Richard Todd, Major John Howard.
#todd#richard todd#quote#british army#D Day#DDay#Normandy#pegasus bridge#war#second world war#major john howard#parachute#battle#actor#soldier#paratrooper#the longest day#film#movie#cinema#britain
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Why, then, did the killings go on for so long? The same irrationality lies at the heart of many other mass murders. In the Soviet Union, for example, shooting or jailing political opponents at first helped the Communist Party and then Josef Stalin gain absolute power. But after there were no visible opponents left, seven million more people were executed, and many millions more died in the far-flung camps of the gulag. So many engineers were seized that factories came to a halt; so many railway men died that some trains did not run; so many colonels and generals were shot that the almost leaderless Red Army was nearly crushed by the German invasion of 1941.
In the Congo, as in Russia, mass murder had a momentum of its own. Power is tempting, and in a sense no power is greater than the ability to take someone's life. Once under way, mass killing is hard to stop; it becomes a kind of sport, like hunting. Congo annals abound in cases like that of René de Permentier, an officer in the Equator district in the late 1890s. The Africans nicknamed him Bajunu (for bas genoux, on your knees), because he always made people kneel before him. He had all the bushes and trees cut down around his house at Bokatola so that from his porch he could use passersby for target practice. If he found a leaf in a courtyard that women prisoners had swept, he ordered a dozen of them beheaded. If he found a path in the forest not well-maintained, he ordered a child killed in the nearest village.
Two Force Publique officers, Clément Brasseur and Léon Cerckel, once ordered a man hung from a palm tree by his feet while a fire was lit beneath him and he was cooked to death. Two missionaries found one post where prisoners were killed by having resin poured over their heads, then set on fire. The list is much longer.
Michael Herr, the most brilliant reporter of the Vietnam War, captures the same frenzy in the voice of one American soldier he met: "We'd rip out the hedges and burn the hooches and blow all the wells and kill every chicken, pig and cow in the whole fucking ville. I mean, if we can't shoot these people, what the fuck are we doing here?" When another American, Francis Ford Coppola, tried to put the blood lust of that war on film, where did he turn for the plot of his Apocalypse Now? To Joseph Conrad, who had seen it all, a century earlier, in the Congo.
—King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, & Heroism in Colonial Africa
Reading this due to current events (Congo, Palestine, Ukraine, Myanmar, Azerbaijan, Xinjiang, Tigray, Manipur… nothing ever changes, does it)
#can’t tag it as genocide when it wasn’t meant as one#but worth mentioning#for blacklist sensitivity#since mass terror and mass torture aren’t exactly common tags#history#congo#belgium#russia#vietnam#america#king leopold's ghost#imperialism#communism#colonialism#capitalism#all the big -isms#torture tw#murder tw#child death tw
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Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)
I am watching every movie based on a DC publication in release order, for more information, see my pinned post.
First movie, Adventures of Captain Marvel from 1941.
Release Date: 3/28/1941 (This is the offical release date but also confusingly not the date the film was released, but instead the date that the sixth chapter was made available to film exchanges.)
IMDB Rating: 7.2
Age Rating: Passed
Runtime: 3 Hours, 36 Minutes/12 Chapters
GENERAL -
Adventures of Captain Marvel is considered the first comic book character adaptation ever. Captain Marvel (now known as Shazam) was not owned by DC at the time of this serials released.
In general, the plot is about Billy Batson going on an archological expodition with a team, meeting a wizard, gaining superpowers, and then his team steals this artifact and then they're hunted down by a masked villan called the Scorpian who they very quickly realize is a member of their own group.
MY REVIEW -
Is this movie good? Questionable.
It has not aged well, and I wasn't expecting it to have, but oh boy, is there a lot of rascim in this thing. Otherwise, it's engaging enough, if repetative, and it's very often uninentionally funny. The format that serials of the time used means that every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, which often leads to unnecessary drama being added that you can guess the resolution to before watching the next part. This also didn't need to be as long as it is, and there are often plot points that were definitely added just to add runtime.
That being said, I think Frank Coghlan, Jr. as Billy is an extremely likeable lead. He's generally sweet and charasmatic, and I like the movie most when Billy, the female lead Betty, and their friend Whitey are together.
I think the action scenes are well choreographed if a little silly, and all of the actors are pretty good overall.
Final Rating: 4.5/10
Would I watch this again? No. Maybe if it was shorter.
RANDOM THOUGHTS -
Billy Batson spends this entire movie getting knocked unconcious. In fact, all of the characters do. There is so much head trauma in this movie, it's unreasonable, but extremely unintentinally funny. I wish I had coutned how many scenes end with or contain a character just getting knocked on the head and going unconcious, it has to be upward of twenty. Also, when Billy wakes up, he's always gaged, even if other charcters who are with him aren't. This makes sense considered that he has to say the word "Shazam" in order to turn into Captain Marvel. However, it absolutely *doesn't* make sense when you add the knowlege that absolutely nobody knows he's Captain Marvel or that Captain Marvel needs to speak to use his superpowers.
There's one scene where Captain Marvel rescues Betty from a group that kidnapped her and then turns back to Billy before she wakes up. Before she got kidnapped, she was attempting to get to a certain location before the bad guys, and Billy assures that he'll get there faster on his plane, and then brushes her off when she attempts to go with him. I saw this and was thinking "Ah, yes, Billy Batson, who is Captain Marvel, who can fly, does not actually own a plane, and will instead turn into Captain Marvel and simply fly there with his superpowers." Imagine my surprise, when Billy then goes to airport and gets into an actual fucking airplane. Why did that do that?? What was the point??????? The man can FLY.
I think I am far to used to modern superhero comics and movies where, like, "should the hero kill the villain" is posed as a tough moral quandry and the answer is usually "absolutely not", because Captain Marvel kills SO MANY PEOPLE. And not even the main villain, someone else kills the main villain, Billy just throws a henchman off the roof of a parking garage at some point. He gets his powers and immidiately goes lethal.
I'm also extremely used to the Captain Marvel/Shazam narrative of "very young boy gets superpowers and looks like an adult", which means that this movie's "young adult man gets superpowers and turns into a just slightly older but different man" is very funny.
FUN FACTS -
To achieve the special effect of Captain Marvel's transformation, the production team apparently put a trough of flash powder in front of Frank Coghlan, Jr. who played Billy and ignited it, which apparently lead to Frank Coghlan, Jr. losing a few eyebrows if the wind was particularly unfavorable.
Frank Coghlan, Jr. also apparently did not know who Captain Marvel or Billy Batson were before getting the role.
They used a paper mache dummy to achieve the flying effects from far away. It is incredibly obvious when they do this and also very funny.
#dc comics#dcu#shazam#captain marvel#movie review#movies#billy batson#1940s movies#watching every DC movie even if it kills me#seriously this is the first one and I'm already losing my mind just a bit
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(theory time)
I can imagine that the war effort during WWII worsened John and Deborah's devotion
If we take into consideration that they were likely born during the late 20s-early 30s, then that would mean they grew up during the Great Depression, where there was a lot of widespread poverty and religion was a constant of support for many (though it also came from back in the "Roaring 20s" where religion became stricter to fight back against the rising of women smoking, drinking, wearing shorter skirts, etc.)
The USA only officially entered the War in 1941 , which if we put that John was born as early as 1925, makes it a possibility that he enlisted in the army in 1943 at 18 (he could have enlisted the year before at 17 too but only with parental consent) [p.s : I know it wasn't uncommon for even younger boys to lie about their age or forge their parents' signatures so that they could join the army, but for this I won't take that fact into account]
And if John had already been raised religious, being in a constant fight for survival likely made him cling to the gospels even more (like some monks in the medieval ages that willingly went to live in freezing mountains or deserts for months to prove their undying devotion to God)
And about Deborah? We know both her parents lived long enough to meet Dave and Hannah, but that doesn't mean her dad and possibly brother(s) and maybe other family members too didn't go off to war, so maybe this made her cling to religion too, praying for her family's wellbeing.
And I think it'd make sense that she lost at least one brother or cousin or uncle, because religious mourning is complicated and could have too made her even more devout.
Maybe it was at the funeral that the two met: Deborah in mourning for a family member, and John in mourning / honor of a fellow soldier, and perhaps their beliefs made the two of them think that this was God's plans for them : to help and love each other after such harsh times
But that's just a theory! An htb theory!
Oh, this is really cool!
John Reed did serve in WW2 and that's where a lot of his toxic masculinity comes from and why he forced it so hard on Mark. Like, to the point he was genuinely ashamed of Mark when his grandson couldn't kill a deer when they went hunting together (in ORC, it's briefly described how Mark shot a deer once and cried so hard he threw up rather than deal the finishing blow). There were a lot of miserable hunting trips up Eden's Path over the years that Mark lived with his grandparents and though it made him comfortable with handling a gun safely, the idea of killing something was always too much for him. Hence why alt!Cesar's 'death' affected him so.
But yeah, being from that time period instilled a lot of terrible mindsets about raising kids and the 'perfect' marriage and what a man or woman 'should be'. All those ideals definitely meshed well with their concept of religion and it's why Mark holds so tightly onto the Old Testament in comparison to the New. The idea of God and loving Him being equal to fearing Him was something John and Deborah held strictly to and pushed onto Dave and Hannah, and then Mark and Sarah.
I really love that idea of how the Reeds met though, that fits really well!
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Happy Halloween y'all!
This year I have felt a severe lack of Werewolves out of the monsters being talked about. So, I'm gonna rate some classic werewolves from Film!
Werewolf of London (1935)
Rating: 7/10
Universal's (slightly forgotten) first go at a werewolf movie, and it has a surprisingly sick design! Henry Hull's eyes are terrifying and complex, giving it a great strength compared to other monsters. The wrinkles around the nose and mouth add another twisted feel to it! However, the V on the hairline is a bit too deep in a way only Vegeta could challenge, and the eyebrows have an odd flair to them. Also, not down with a werewolf that actively dresses himself when he goes out on his hunting. Went down a point because of it. If we had a more of a beast-like nature with this as a base design, would've added some more points. Nonetheless, very underrated design!
The Wolf Man (1941)
Rating: 6/10
I get it, it's iconic and all. The nailed the transformation, nailed the behavior, but he looks more like a teddy bear than a wolf. We're all thinking it. I'm sorry. I respect Lon Chaney for everything he's done in regard to the character and what the movie accomplished. Not a fan of the design overall. However, the sunken shape around the eyes is pretty dope. And design choices aside, the movie is my favorite of the Universal Monsters!
The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
Rating: 4/10
Now I have not seen this film, but every shot I have seen of this Werewolf is radiating drama. I expect nothing less from a Hammer film. But as for the design itself, a very bold move to go with white hair for the fur and works well distinguishing it from the werewolves preceding it. However, as for the ears on top of his head, I don't think it works quite as well. It makes it lean more towards cat rather than wolf. The forehead is very prominent and while it definitely works to intimidate, the hair line is a bit too far up on his scalp. Having too much of a round outline where the hair meets the face almost makes it look like a normal face photoshopped on in some stills.
American Werewolf in London (1981)
Rating: 6/10
I'm not too big a fan of the more-wolf-than-man werewolf myself tbh. However, Rick Baker does masterful work and this ugly mf'er is absolutely terrifying. Taking the design into consideration, the main issue I have for it is he doesn't have much of a neck. With the big tuff of fur, giving it a mane of sort, the body looks almost like a big bob with a face coming out of it. This is without a doubt, one of the very best transformation scenes in film history! Taking the Jaws approach of obscuring the monster is incredibly effective as well.
You know what, Fuck it. 7/10 for the transformation scene in account.
The Howling (1981)
Rating: 7/10
1981 was a solid year for werewolves! Seems like this is where we're getting into the switch to more-wolf-than-man werewolves, I assume because of the advances of make-up and costuming effects. Putting my bias aside, look at this mangy bastard!!! Brilliant! The eyes look almost demonic, glazed-over and possessed. The hair is unkept and wild! My big reservation that keeps it from getting a higher rating is the ears look a bit like a mangy rabbit.
Teen Wolf (1985)
Rating: 3/10
This movie is the balls man!! Fuckin rocks! Werewolf doesn't look good, but who cares! He's standing on a moving bus and playing air guitar!! Badass. My main issue is that the hair in both the beard and head go way too long.
Monster Squad (1987)
Rating: 5/10
I wasn't gonna include this one, but I work where it was filmed (WB). Very creative and different in the face design, so gotta respect it for that! It's closer to being a wolf monster, but doesn't fully just try to emulate a wolf. Which I like. The eyes may be a bit too far apart from each other and at times you can tell the head is a bit too blocky when it moves. The bottom half in its legs aren't interesting at all either. There's a lot going on in the top half but when it's a full body shot, it just kinda looks like a dudes regular legs with hairy feet. I do really love the white eyes!!
Van Helsing (2004)
Rating: 8/10
I would be lying if I said this movie did not play a part in why werewolves are my favorite monster. It's a very uneven movie(I'll save those thoughts for another time), but the werewolves were badass all the way through. Cgi has definitely aged, but I think it's a solid standard of what the more wolf-like werewolves should be.
The Wolfman (2010)
Rating: 9/10
I love this design. It's a fantastic adaptation of Lon Chaney's style, but updated with the advancements in make-up. The nose is a similar style, but is not as long and narrow and has a strong shape to it that complements the brow. The eyes are phenomenal, in this picture specifically, it captures the intensity of Henry Hull's 1935 design. But throughout the film, there's still the glimpse of humanity still left in the same way Lon Chaney has. I do have an issue with the hair on his head and neck. The hair on his neck is too thick where the silhouette kinda loses form a bit. Regardless, Rick Baker, still a master.
Werewolf by Night (2022)
Rating: 8/10
The cinematic presentation of this is incredible! From the transformation shadow to the darkened figure with the reflective glow of the eyes, it artistically uses the black and white to its advantage. The design is very reminiscent to the 1935 Henry Hull Werewolf in London, with the flair of the eyebrows and the darkened indentations shaping the face. It also does the wolf/dog nose in a unique way! Darkened eyes was a great makeup choice. My only major complaint is that the body(and specifically the shoulder) hair looks kind of like a fur coat he's wearing and not like it's coming from his skin. Also, the way he moves is incredible! Great action and agility!
If you made it this far, you're cool and I hope you enjoyed reading my ramblings on werewolves. I could only fit 10 here, so I'd love to hear thoughts on either these werewolves or more that I couldn't fit in here!! I love monsters!! Also, once again, Happy Halloween🎃!!!
#wolfman#werewolf#monster#universal#lon chaney#rick baker#werewolf in london#american werewolf in london#curse of the werewolf#teen wolf#monster squad#the howling#joe dante#van helsing#werewolf by night#hugh Jackman#gael garcia bernal#marvel#movie monsters#wolf#man#wolf man#Frankenstein#dracula#makeup#visual effects#werewolves#rating#halloween#horror
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Joan Bennett and Walter PIdgeon in Man Hunt (Fritz Lang, 1941)
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, John Carradine, Roddy McDowall, Ludwig Stössel, Heather Thatcher, Frederick Worlock, Roger Imhof. Screenplay: Dudley Nichols, based on a novel by Geoffrey Household. Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller. Art direction: Richard Day, Wiard Ihnen. Film editing: Allen McNeil. Music: Alfred Newman.
Walter Pidgeon spent much of his movie career at MGM, playing prince consort to Greer Garson: He was Mr. Miniver, Mr. Parkington, and M. Curie -- they made nine films together, if you count their cameos as themselves in The Youngest Profession (Edward Buzzell, 1943). So it's interesting to see him on his own in a 20th Century-Fox film, playing an action hero, the big-game hunter Alan Thorndike, who nearly assassinates Hitler, is beaten by the Gestapo, gets pushed off a cliff and survives, escapes to a seaport where he boards a freighter for England, eludes his relentless pursuers, goes to ground in a cave, survives by killing his chief antagonist, and at the film's end parachutes into Germany, presumably to start it all over again. In fact, Pidgeon is a little too starchy for the role, which was better suited to someone like Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power, and he's upstaged (as who wasn't?) by George Sanders as the villain. Joan Bennett gives a nice performance as Jerry Stokes, the cockney "seamstress" (read: prostitute) who helps Thorndike escape. There's an entertaining scene in which Jerry encounters Thorndike's snooty sister-in-law, Lady Riseborough (Heather Thatcher). Roddy McDowall makes his American film debut as the cabin boy Vaner. This was the first of four films Bennett made with Fritz Lang as director, and they remain probably the highlights of her long career. Although Lang's American films never reached the heights of the ones he made in Germany, such as M (1931) and Metropolis (1927), he had a sure hand with the kind of suspense on display in Man Hunt. Dudley Nichols did the screenplay based on Geoffrey Household's novel Rogue Male.
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Every Call Of Duty Game In Chronological Order
Call Of Duty: WW2 (1940 - 1945)
Despite being one of the more recent entries into the shooter franchise, WW2 is set before all of the others.
The earliest year the game goes back to is 1940, yet most of the story occurs between 1944 and 1945. The tale follows Private Ronald "Red" Daniels and his Infantry squad as they try to end the Nazis towards the conclusion of World War 2.
Call Of Duty 2 (1941 - 1945)
While most of the early Call Of Duty titles begin in 1942, the second game is a little different as it starts at the end of '41.
During the campaign, you control soldiers from three of the Allied powers in America, Britain, and Russia. Each of their adventures takes place separately, and they all have difficult obstacles to overcome.
Call Of Duty: Vanguard (1941 - 1945)
Vanguard provides another foray into World War 2. This one is all about a special task force made up of a few skilled soldiers from different allied countries. Their mission is to stop a secret Nazi project. And the operation occurs in 1945.
Along the way, you're treated to plenty of playable flashbacks showing what each character was doing earlier in the war.
Call Of Duty: World at War (1942 - 1945)
At the beginning of World At War, you participate in the Makin Island raid, which occurs in 1942 like its real-life counterpart.
The rest of the story plays out in a similar fashion as you become involved in plenty of famous battles and incidents from WW2. In each mission, you're either following some American troops or focusing on a Russian squad.
Call Of Duty (1942 - 1945)
The Call of Duty series started in World War 2, more specifically, 1942. However, most of the first game is set in 1944 and 1945 as the Allied powers push back against the Nazi forces.
In classic COD fashion, the campaign lets you see three different perspectives on the war as there are multiple protagonists. The main characters belong to separate nations, but they all have the same goal of tipping the war in favor of the Allied powers.
Call Of Duty 3 (1944)
Call of Duty's World War 2 games usually try to cover several years of the conflict. However, Call of Duty 3's campaign focuses solely on 1944 with most of the attention being on the Battle of Normandy.
Another interesting aspect of the story is that Polish, French, and Canadian forces have big roles in it, alongside the customary American and British soldiers.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops (1961 - 1968)
More than most Call Of Duty games, Black Ops puts a heavy focus on its narrative. Much of the story is told from the perspective of a man named Alex Mason, who's being interrogated in 1968.
During those scenes, he recounts important moments from the past several years, which are shown through playable flashbacks. The first memory occurs in 1961 at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (1981)
As the name suggests, the events of COD: Black Ops Cold War take place during the Cold War. More specifically, the entire campaign occurs in 1981 and sees the return of some characters from the first Black Ops.
They all are a part of a team led by a CIA operative named Russell Adler, who's hunting down a Soviet agent called Perseus. It's up to you to influence how the vital operation plays out over a set of missions that vary in quality.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 (1986 - 1989) - Alex Mason Missions
In Black Ops 2, you control both Alex Mason and his son David at different points of the campaign. When you swap characters, you switch time periods too. Alex's missions occur in the 1980s, while David's sections are in the future.
During the past missions, the older Mason teams up with the likes of Hudson and Woods once again to track down a dangerous man named Raul Menendez.
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (1996 - 2011)
COD4 was the first entry to take the series away from a WW2 setting. Instead, the game's main events take place during one week in 2011.
You play as Soap from the SAS and Jackson of the USMC, who are separately trying to stop a dangerous terrorist threat. Plus, for two missions, you flashback to 1996 to learn more about the main antagonist.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (1999 - 2019)
The latest entry in the Modern Warfare sub-series isn't a part of the same continuity as the others. However, some classic Modern Warfare characters still return in this one, namely Price.
During the game, Price doesn't just join forces with the CIA; he also allies with Arab Soldiers and Freedom Fighters. They all team up to stop the Russians who've taken over Urzikstan. Parts of the game are flashbacks that take you to 1999.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2016)
Five years on from the events of the first Modern Warfare, Soap MacTavish has become a Captain, and he's leading a special forces unit called Task Force 141.
His group spends the game hunting Vladimir Makarov, who is the leader of the Russian Ultranationalist party. Yet, it turns out that there is another villain in the mix that's closer to home.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2016 - 2017)
Modern Warfare 3 continues right where its predecessor left off with Price and Nikolai getting an injured Soap to safety.
Like the previous game, the story is all about tracking down and stopping Makarov. Task Force 141, Delta Force, and the SAS are all on hand to end the Ultranationalist threat.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022)
Seemingly to confuse everyone, Activision has released two games called Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The one released in 2022 takes place in the same year it was released. And it's a continuation of 2019's Modern Warfare.
It follows the adventures of Task Force 141, who are attempting to stop a serious Iranian terrorist threat. They also tackle with the Las Almas Cartel in the process.
Call Of Duty: Ghosts (2015 - 2027)
In Ghosts' opening prologue, a group known as the Federation launch an ODIN strike on the United States in 2017.
Then the story jumps ahead ten years where the country is still suffering the effects of the blast, and a spec ops team called Ghosts are at war with the Federation. Most of the adventure occurs in 2027, but there is a flashback to 2015 at one point.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2025) - David Mason Missions
The Black Ops 2 missions that follow David Mason (aka "Section") happen in 2025.
As his father did many years before, Section spends his portion of the campaign trying to track down one of the series best villains in Raul Menendez to stop him once and for all.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2043)
There is no traditional campaign for Black Ops 4 as the title is all about its multiplayer modes.
However, there are still some cutscenes in the game that focus on telling the personal tales of the multiplayer characters. All of the training missions seem to take place in 2043.
Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2054 - 2061)
In Advanced Warfare, you control Jack Mitchell and face off against several different enemy factions, first as a Marine and then as a member of Atlas. Yet, you don't discover the true villain until partway through the game.
The entire adventure happens in the 2050s and early 2060s. As a result, you're able to make use of some futuristic and high-tech equipment throughout the campaign.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 (2065 - 2070)
Raul Menendez's drone attacks at the end of Blacks Ops 2 caused the world to refocus their efforts back on ground combat with some futuristic weapons.
During Black Ops 3, you experience this renewed interest in ground assaults as you participate in the third Cold War, which is fought between factions known as the Winslow Accord and the Common Defense Pact.
Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Unknown)
Infinite Warfare is the only Call Of Duty game that doesn't mention what year it is set. However, it's clear the campaign occurs sometime in the future as space travel has come a long way.
During the game, the Settlement Defense Front (SDF) is locked in a violent conflict with the United Nations Space Alliance. Nick Reyes, aka you, takes the fight to the SDF throughout the adventure.
(sorry if this confused you ut i hope there some people who will understand<3)
NEXT:Ranking The Greatest Call Of Duty Characters Of All Time
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the wolf man (1941), starring lon chaney and bela lugosi as the two werewolves, presents the horror of werewolves as the fear of becoming an outsider in your own home and community. the first werewolf, played by lugosi, is a roma fortune teller who travels through england with his family, facing racism and exclusion at every point in his life; he and his family are the ultimate outsiders, and, although the film is far more sympathetic to him and the roma people in general than many other contemporary works, he is still largely a stereotype or synecdoche for all the darkness and superstition that the modern world seeks to leave behind. by contrast, lon chaney’s larry talbot is an american-educated lordling returned to his native wales as a beacon of modernity. however, his progressive lycanthropy strips away all feelings of home from the village and family that were once his, until he is no longer seen or treated as a human—both hunted as an animal and tied down like one by a father who hopes to “shock” all delusions of lycanthropy out of him. talbot’s strained relationship with a father who cares more about the family name and appearances than his son’s well-being is a prominent thread in the film; in many ways, talbot’s wealthy, well-loved, progress-minded father is less of a parent to him than maleva, the mother of the werewolf talbot unknowingly killed and received his lycanthropy from. despite having great reason to hate, curse, and seek revenge against talbot, maleva does everything in her power to help talbot manage the condition that causes him as much horror as it caused her son. the horror of transformation, physical and social, and the terrible fate of the outsider form the core of the wolf man (1941), a film that richly deserves its classic status
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Employee Profile #130
Employee Profile for; Mitchell "Mick" Mundy Sniper ███-███
Age; 20
Hair; Dark Brown
Eyes; Gray Aqua
Blood Type; O Negative
Height; 6'2"/187.9 CM
Weight; 187 Lbs/84.8 kg
D.O.B.; Jun 14th, 1941 ███ ████, ████
P.O.B.; Wallaroo, Australia ███ ███████
Class; Sniper
Job; Precision Elimination
Background Information; He seems to have absolutely no recollection of his first home, and we have no intention of telling him unless it is necessary. His upbringing in Australia has proved to make a very resourceful young man and a talented mercenary, as he seems to have become something of a bounty hunter before being reached out to. His attachment to family is a small issue, but we have no qualms with the mercenaries contacting their families, it's not as if many people would ever believe parents talking about their sons being in the infamous Gravel Wars, after all.
Weapons: Mr. Mundy has shown more than excellent prowess with all manner of ranged weapons, but especially those that are extremely long range. His patience and accuracy are unparalleled by the rest of the team, except perhaps those gun robots made by Mr. Conagher. Thankfully, he is not useless in closer combat. He has been trained or has trained himself with some manner of shorter blades such as kukris or machetes. Unfortunately, he is still much like his countrymen, as he has begun mastering that dreaded Jarate that Mr. Hale invented. His teammates are just as disturbed as his enemies.
Notes; He's oddly... reserved? For an Australian. Although the baseline are those like Saxton Hale, who teased Mr. Mundy on meeting him, Sniper is more tolerable to be around. That being said, he was raised to live on his own and off the land, and seems to have learned his skills from hunting. Bounty hunting not out of the question. He does prefer to keep to himself, but joins in boosting the morale and camaraderie when it is presented. Especially when beer is involved.
Hiring Date; [REDACTED], 1961
#See Ya Outback (Sniper)#Comic Update! (Lore Post)#tf2 sniper#tf2 headcanons#(I hope it's becoming more and more obvious who's writing these)
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Comics read this past week:
Marvel Comics:
The Incredible Hulk (1968) #281
This issue was published in December 1982, according to the Marvel Wiki. It was written by Bill Mantlo, penciled by Sal Buscema, and inked by Joe Sinnott.
In this issue there’s a scene where Bruce transforms into the Hulk and the narration describes, “The body of Bruce Banner is gone, but his mind remains, to guide the pulverizing powerhouse known as the Incredible Hulk!” But in the next panel Bruce phrases the transformation slightly differently, not that it’s his mind that’s guiding the Hulk’s body, but that he is the Hulk now and no longer Bruce, saying, “The current coursing through the Quinjet is unpleasant, but it’s not numbing the Hulk as it did Bruce Banner!”
There’s also a moment where Bruce says, “I was a monster! I deserved to be hunted and hounded,” referring to the time before he’d taken control of the Hulk’s body. This made me think of the scene in issue #269 where Bruce referred to the Hulk’s rampages as his rampages and Betty pushed back against that, arguing, “If anyone can find a cure for your condition, it’s you! But you’ll never succeed if you start identifying yourself with the Hulk! You’ll lose before you’ve begun- and you’ll lose me, as well,” which is very much what has happened.
Timely Publications:
the Captain America stories in Captain America Comics (1941) #13-14
In this batch of 4 Captain America stories I went from April 1942 to May 1942, according to the issue cover dates. All of the stories were 20 pages.
Captain America Comics #13 was the first issue, and so “Captain America and the League of the Unicorn” (writer unknown; penciled by Al Avison; inked by Syd Shores) was the first story, that reflected that the United States had joined WWII after Pearl Harbor. The cover of the issue shows Captain America punching out a Japanese general and saying, “You started it! Now- we’ll finish it!” It also has a “Remember Pearl Harbor” symbol and a banner that says “All out for America issue!” The Grand Comics Database synopsis for the story reads: “A railroad boss poses as King Zong, leader of the League of Unicorns, an oriental criminal gang that wear helmets with spikes on their foreheads to slay enemies. Zong hopes to profit from sowing discord between China and the Allies, but Cap and Bucky defeat him and hand him over to the police.” Despite the focus on positive relations between the U.S. and China, the Chinese ally characters are also drawn as racist caricatures, which was typical of this era’s comics. Though the leader of the Japanese villains ended up secretly being a white man, which is unusual to me; I don’t believe I’ve seen that before in my Golden Age comics readings. In the story the heroes use language such as oriental, slant-eyes, and nippon back-stabber. The Sentinels of Liberty secret club news page also refers to that the U.S. has joined WWII. Steve’s message opens with, “We meet again this month with grave purpose and determination!” And Bucky’s opens, “Well, guys, we’re in the war all right!”
The story “Captain America Battles the Horde of the Vulture” (writer unknown; penciled by Al Avison; inked by Syd Shores and George Klein) in Captain America Comics #14 has Captain America battling against a Native American tribe, who he realizes are really Japanese spies “using the name of the first Americans to hide behind while they attack” with no evidence other than that that’s what seems the most probable to him. And he turns out to be right, though their leader again turns out to secretly be a white man that was “an American turned traitor for the Japs with great promises of wealth for him if he succeeded as a spy!” The closing narration of the story reads, “This story has a lesson! No telling where the enemy of America may be lurking! Captain America urges every citizen to check on suspicious characters and happenings, and help with the war!” The villain in the next story of the issue, “Captain America and the Petals of Doom” (writer unknown; penciled by Al Avison; inked by Syd Shores and George Klein), was a white Nazi spy posing as an army captain, with no mention of the Japanese in this story. Also noting that I liked Betsy Ross’ use in this story.
DC Comics:
Superman (2023) #12
This issue was written by Joshua Williams, penciled by David Baldeón, and inked by Norm Rapmund. It was published this month, March 2024.
Nothing too interesting happened with Lena in this issue. I did like seeing her working alongside Superman. Also notably her grandmother got defeated in this issue. This book isn’t a chore to follow or anything, but I’m really not at all into what it’s doing with Superman and Lex Luthor. I am looking forward to this upcoming “House of Brainiac” storyline that’s crossing over with Action Comics. I’ve been waiting for the Brainiac stuff that was teased back when Lena joined the book to come to fruition.
Batman (2016) #1-6 and #9-24 and Annual #1 and The Flash (2016) #21-22
These issues were published across June 2016 to June 2017, according to the DC Wiki. This was me beginning to reread Tom King’s Batman run, which I first read a few years ago. Of note is that I have since then read Flashpoint: Batman - Knight of Vengeance (2011), Flashpoint (2011), Watchmen (1986), and Doomsday Clock (2017), and Infinite Frontier (2021)
Issues #1-6 were the “I am Gotham” storyline. All but the last issue, the epilogue of the arc, were penciled by David Finch. Issue #6, the epilogue, was penciled by Ivan Reis. Issue #1 was inked by Matt Banning. Issue #2 was inked by Matt Banning and Danny Miki. Issue #3 was inked by Danny Miki. Issue #4 was inked by Sandra Hope and Matt Banning. Issue #5 was inked by David Finch, Sandra Hope, Matt Banning, and Scott Hanna. And issue #6 was inked by Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, and Scott Hanna. I skipped the “Night of the Monster Men” storyline, which crossed over with Nightwing (2016) and Detective Comics (2011).
Issues #9-13 were the “I am Suicide” storyline. All were penciled by Mikel Janín, who also solely inked issues #9-10 and #13. Hugo Petrus worked on the inking with him for issues #11-12. Issues #14-15 were the “Rooftops” storyline. Both issues were drawn by Mitch Gerads. Issues #16-20 were the “I am Bane” storyline. All were penciled by David Finch. Issue #16 was inked by David Finch. Issues #17-18 were inked by Danny Miki. Issue #19 was inked by Danny Miki, Trevor Scott, and Sandra Hope. And issue #20 was inked by Danny Miki and Trevor Scott.
Issues #21-22 and The Flash issues were “The Button” storyline. Both Batman issues were drawn by Jason Fabok. The first includes a special thanks to Geoff Johns-the writer of Doomsday Clock (2018), which spun out of this arc- and Joshua Williamson, and the second includes a special thanks to Geoff Johns and credits Joshua Williamson and Tom King as co-plotters and Joshua Williamson as the scripter. Both of The Flash issues were drawn by Howard Porter. And both were written by Joshua Williamson and include special thanks to Geoff Johns and Tom King.
Issues #23 and #24 were both single issue stories, the former a Batman and Swamp Thing team-up and the latter titled “Every Epilogue is a Prelude.” Issue #23 was drawn by Mitch Gerads. And issue #24 was half penciled by David Finch and inked by Danny Miki and half penciled by Clay Mann and inked by Seth Mann. The Annual was an anthology book. It had a story written by Tom King and drawn by David Finch, a story written by Scott Snyder and Ray Fawkes and drawn by Declan Shalvey, a story written by Paul Dini and drawn by Neal Adams, a story written by Steve Orlando and drawn by Riley Rossmo, and a story written by Scott Bryan Wilson and drawn by Bilquis Evely.
Up next is the “War of Jokes and Riddles” storyline, which I remember not liking, but so far I’ve really loved rereading this book. Tom King’s approach to Batman really works for me.
Henry Clover paralleling both Thomas Wayne and Bruce as a parent, his speech in issue #3 about how growing up in Gotham “You stop seeing it as something other, and start seeing it as just more of yourself,” how “Its joys are your joys. Its miseries are your miseries,” and why he chose to raise his children there, “instead of retching, I breath it in deeper. And I smile. And I shout it good and loud… [No.]” And then Bruce declaring, in issue #5, “You want to kill Gotham?! For being weak! For being afraid! For failing again and again and again! I am Gotham. Kill me.”
Selina Kyle revealing her childhood fascination with a painting of Bruce’s “perfect” family at the Thomas and Martha Wayne Home for the Boys and Girls of Gotham in issue #10, that she thinks, “you’ll always be the little boy in the picture. You’ll always want to be the little boy in the picture.” And her hinging their relationship on that, while “When we kiss, the pain goes away,” “When your moment came, when they destroyed your childhood… you used all that will, all that loss, to make a better world,” and she didn’t, so they could only stay together in the event that “Someday, maybe you, too, will forget the better world. Maybe you, too, will stop feeling the love left behind and just feel left behind.”
Bruce admitting in issue #12, only to Catwoman, in a letter he wrote before this book takes place, something he believes only she understands, that his decision to become Batman was made while self-harming as a child and considering suicide and is defined that way. Him using the language that “My father was classically dignified, my mother was classically kind,” and then describing his mindset as a child as, “I was pain. That’s all I was. Everything else, every chance given to me, every promise I’d made, was pain. And what use is pain? What use is being just pain? It’s not dignified. It’s not kind. And if it’s not dignified, and if it’s not kind, then maybe it’s not worth anything.”
Bruce telling Selena in issue #14, after she’d spend an evening helping him as Batman, “I don’t like what we did. I had to do what we did.” Him feeling in issue #15, after she’d left after they’d had a good time together, that “as if it belonged to her” she’d stolen “the night.”
The parallels between Bruce and Bane in issue #18, particularly Bruce coming home with Alfred after his parents’ deaths being compared to Bane being put in the jail cell to be left to die, and Bruce calling the extended ‘Batfamily’ characters his “true strength” being aligned with a scene of Bane asking for an unsafe amount of Venom.
Bruce remembering in issue #20 how he almost died in issue #1 until the newcomer superheroes Gotham and Gotham Girl intervened, “You don’t see the impossible- You see the possibility no one else sees. So you ran through every scenario, every permutation, every way out. And every option led to the same outcome. This was your death. Coming up fast.” Him bragging, or complaining, “You know how many times I’ve heard that? ‘Rest in peace, Batman!’ ‘There’s no escape, Batman!’ ‘Time to die, Batman!’ ‘Every night. Over, and over, and over. For so many years. ‘This is the end, Batman!’ Every. Damn. Night. And yet… I’m still here.” Him him defining being Batman at the end of the issue as that the declaration “I’m Batman” essentially means that he never gives up, and so he isn’t defeatable. And Bruce’s hallucination of his mother, who speaks to him using the framing that him being Batman is a way for him to die, to whom he tells, “The girl needed help. So I helped her. That’s all it is. That’s all it’s ever been.”
Bruce briefly reuniting with his father in issue #22, a storyline which worked for me before, but had a stronger effect on me with the context of his portrayal in Flashpoint: Batman - Knight of Vengeance (2011) and Flashpoint (2011). Thomas’ described mindset back then, “the way it was supposed to be. So that Bruce would live… And I would die. As would this nightmare of a world,” the fact that he had been refusing to try to help prevent his world’s destruction before he even met Barry and learned about the original timeline and that there was a possibility of saving Bruce, and his mindset when he first appears in this book where he was disappointed that his world didn’t end when he thought it would and was preparing to kill himself (with a bomb to take out some of his enemies as well). And the fact that Martha had been horrified to find out that Bruce grew up to be Batman, like Thomas, and Thomas telling Bruce, “Don’t be Batman. Find happiness. Please. You don’t have to do this. Don’t do it for me. Don’t do it for your mother. Be a father for your son in a way I never could be for you. Let the Batman die with me,” and then Bruce not quitting as Batman, but hesitating to go out as Batman for once afterwards in The Flash #22.
And Thomas refusing to be saved in issue #22, but also choosing not to kill himself, instead ‘rising’ into the light as his world is finally destroyed, and the message Bruce receives from Swamp Thing in issue #23 but then is muddled/rescinded- “You have to tell me- tell me my mother and father are falling back into life!”
And Bruce admitting in issue #24 that, “I do this, I do all this, and I can’t… I don’t think I can stop. […] I do this. But I’m not… happy. […] I try. I do this to be happy. I try, and I fail.”
And I love Gotham Girl- her parallel but distinct origin story from Bruce in issue #3, what she brings out in Bruce, particularly in issue #24, and her whole concept as a character works really well for me on its own.
I remember when I first read this series I was struck by the limited presence of Damian Wayne, even though he might have been off in another book, he was still Bruce’s youngest child and who I would assume still needs Bruce’s parenting. Like, when Bruce went on his suicide mission to Santa Prisca for however long that was, I was wondering where Damian was and how that would affect him. I’m curious to see how that is or isn’t portrayed going forward, since Thomas put pressure on Bruce to not be Batman and be an involved parent instead, and the effect that we’ve seen of that final message so far- Bruce hesitating to go out as Batman and proposing to Selina- hasn’t involved his children yet.
Also, it’s pretty clear that Bruce’s happiness and relationship with Selina is being portrayed as antithetical to him being Batman, or at least him being Batman in the way he is now. It’s not that the way this book is going makes it definitive that he and Selina can’t get married, because I suppose it’s possible for a change in what being a superhero means for his life and mental state, but it’s not surprising that they didn’t go through with it.
Seeing the two instances where Bruce refers to Damian as his son, as opposed to referring to all of the former sidekicks as his children, reminded me of some of the controversy around this book. Batman is not a character I’m precious about; I can engage with and enjoy different contradictory portrayals of him. And, also, because he is so over-published, I am really not sympathetic to Batman fans being dissatisfied. I don’t remember if Bruce feeling differently about, say, Dick and Jason in comparison to Damian is ever delved into further in this book, but if it did that would be interesting to me and not something I have a stance against writing about. The criticism that it was wrong to portray Bruce as unhappy and made happy through his relationship with Selina because he had children and so should have had satisfaction in life through them really bothers me. I don’t think anyone, men or women, are doing something wrong by being depressed when they have children. I phrase that like that because I’m more used to that unreasonable expectation being put on women. And I don’t think that finding happiness in an adult relationship specifically is immoral either.
Also, I am looking forward to Thomas Wayne’s return and his reaction to learning about Bruce’s sidekicks, which weren’t ever explained to him in Flashpoint (2011) or “The Button” storyline, as I have gotten into sidekick drama since last reading this book.
Fawcett Comics:
the Captain Marvel stories in Whiz Comics (1940) #89 and Captain Marvel Adventures (1941) #76 and The Marvel Family (1945) #15
In this batch of 7 stories I read the Captain Marvel appearances published in September 1947, according to the issue cover dates. These stories ranged from 7 to 9 pages.
The story “Captain Marvel: Condemned to Die” in The Marvel Family #15 (written by Otto Binder; drawn by C.C. Beck) had Dr. Sivana’s most evil plot yet, to a very sad effect. He convinces Billy that Captain Marvel is a carrier for a dangerous plague and the risk that Billy will instinctively transform at some point and won’t be able to never turn into Captain Marvel again for the rest of his life is too high, so Billy has to die for the greater good. Billy is allotted one hour to say goodbye to his friends and make final arrangements, but he’s distraught all the while. His intense fear and grief are present the entire time. He breaks down and can’t enjoy his final hour, though he ultimately powers through to go and “take it like a man.” Sivana foils himself by prematurely cackling with glee while Billy was still alive in the gas chamber, but still.
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Character Actor
John Arthur Doucette (January 21, 1921 – August 16, 1994) Character actor who performed in more than 280 film and television productions between 1941 and 1987. A man of stocky build who possessed a deep, rich voice, he proved equally adept at portraying characters in Shakespearean plays, Westerns, and modern crime dramas. He is perhaps best remembered, however, for his villainous roles as a movie and television "tough guy".
Many baby boomers first saw Doucette as the bad guy on television in several episodes of The Lone Ranger. Performing as an outlaw proved to be a natural role for him, considering his rough looks, commanding presence, and skill with a gun. He was considered by many to be among the fastest draws in Hollywood. His roles, however, went well beyond that stereotype. He appeared on a variety of television shows, including The Time Tunnel, Racket Squad, The Range Rider, Wagon Train, The Roy Rogers Show, The Fugitive, The Adventures of Kit Carson, The Cisco Kid, City Detective, Annie Oakley, The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial, My Friend Flicka, Sky King, The Californians, Broken Arrow, The People's Choice, Sheriff of Cochise, Bat Masterson, Behind Closed Doors, The Texan, Lawman, The Everglades, Mackenzie's Raiders, Bonanza, The Wild Wild West, The Virginian, Have Gun - Will Travel, Kung Fu, The Rat Patrol, Hogan's Heroes, Adventures of Superman, Sea Hunt, Science Fiction Theatre, Walt Disney Presents, and Tales of Wells Fargo.
Doucette portrayed a police lieutenant, Tom Gregory, on the television version of Big Town. Between 1959 and 1961, he also played Lieutenant Weston on the series Lock-Up, Aaron William Andrews in the comedy The Partners, and bounty hunter Lou Gore in the episode "Dead Aim" on the series Colt .45
Doucette was cast on television as the Apache Chief Geronimo for the 1958 episode "Geronimo" on the Western series Tombstone Territory. He was also cast in 1961 as Captain Cardiff in The Americans, a 17-episode NBC series, starring Darryl Hickman, about how the American Civil War divided families. In 1963 he played “Michael McGoo”, a proud & lovable storytelling Irish sailor in the S6E26 edition of Wagon Train. (Wikipedia)
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Tiger Man
Summary: The year was 1941, bandmates and secret lovers Scotty Moore and Elvis Presley got caught red handed by Scotty’s fiancée, and this led to the young men being thrusted headlong into the China-Burma-India theater of World War II as members of the first American Volunteer Group (The Flying Tigers).
Chapter 10. Garden of Roses
Pairing: Scotty Moore/Elvis Presley (m/m), Ken Ishikawa/Elvis Presley (m/m)
Word Count: 3.6k
Warnings: mentions of past murders, rape, dreams and nightmares, sex and intimacy, physical and sexual assault
“So, why did you save me? And why would you kill your own kind?” Elvis finally brought up the perplexing questions in his mind, still blindfolded, but now sitting in the back of a car with Ken Ishikawa sitting next to him and Seto driving.
“Oh, don’t insult me, El. I would never consider Lieutenant Miura or his minions to be my kind!” The Major seemed to take offense to the notion. “They were too reckless and vulgar, no sense of proper appreciation or awe for a magnificent creature like you, darling. It’s like when I go hunting and encounter an endangered and beautiful species of deer, the first thing on my mind can’t be to shoot it for meat.”
The tone and wording of the Japanese officer were creepily intimate, setting off alarms in Elvis’ mind. “What in the world do you want with me then? I’m of no use to you as a source of intelligence, you know that by now!” The pilot was keenly aware that his hands were still tied up tightly behind his back, feeling numb and stiff. His feet remained in shackles as well, reminding him of his prisoner status. He had a bad feeling about the direction this conversation was taking.
“I guess that’s a fair question.” Ishikawa sighed, “Can’t you tell I’ve been infatuated with you this whole time??” With that confession he placed his right hand on the American’s left thigh, causing the latter to jump a little. Elvis tried but was unable to escape this intrusive advance due to the small confines of the backseats. “Don’t be so prudish, El.” The officer chuckled, still using the nickname without ever getting consent from the young man. He squeezed and rubbed the prisoner’s thigh suggestively against his will, delighting in it at the other’s expense.
Now that the cat was out of the bag, Ishikawa went on to reveal more about his thoughts and motivation: “When I saw you for the first time, on the verge of bleeding out when you arrived, I already felt an irrational attraction to you. I just knew I couldn’t let them amputate your leg; it would be such a shame to leave you permanently crippled. Later I got to know about your personality during our interactions and the interrogation sessions. You are stubborn and spunky, almost too much for your own sake. But you earned my respect for your tenaciousness, and for being loyal to your country. In the Imperial Army we were taught to look down on captive soldiers because they were seen as dishonorable cowards. But you impressed me with your mental toughness and stoicism. Although I was frustrated that you weren’t spilling any useful information we were seeking, I realized I couldn’t let you die when you almost didn’t make it during the last interrogation. I couldn’t believe how emotionally attached I had become in such a short time. I halted the interrogations to let you recover and began to scheme of a way to remove you from the torture and pain. When I received transfer orders for you, I wasn’t filled in regarding if you were being transferred to a prison camp literally or if that was a cover for secret execution. But given my background and experience, I had a strong inkling it might be the latter. So Seto and I followed the car, planning to abduct you on the way even if this was just going to be a regular transport to Kandaw prison camp. Of course, as you know now, we ended up catching them in the act and took out the whole execution squad instead…”
“So you went through all that to make me into your lover doll??” Elvis interrupted the Major, sounding indignant and outraged. He was almost going to use the more jarring term “sex slave” instead, but even just the thought left him chilled to the bone.
“I wouldn’t put it in that way, El. I understand you have a lot of misgivings against me, but I have genuine feelings for you.” Ishikawa objected. His prisoner replied in an incredulous tone: “That’s just ludicrous! We are enemies and you are a sadist, end of story!!”
“Calm down, will you?” Major Ishikawa ripped off Elvis’ blindfold all of a sudden, engaging him in eye contact. “The truth is, there was another personal reason I was drawn to you initially. You reminded me of my first love in high school. His name was Sean. He was strawberry blond and not as pretty as you, but he had a pair of pure blue eyes as well. We kissed and made out, that was the extent of what we did. But eventually he left me after his older brothers found out about us. They beat me almost to a pulp and told me to go back where I came from. Soon after that Sean sent me a letter saying our relationship was over because he was pressured by his family to end it. I knew even if I were a girl, I would never be accepted by his folks simply because I was Japanese, even though my family was much wealthier than his. That was when I realized I didn’t belong in America, even though up to that point I had spent more years in the U.S. than in Japan. Another valuable lesson I learned was only the strong survive, if I didn’t want to be hurt anymore, I had to become the aggressor. A year or two after that I went back to my home country and joined the Imperial Army with support and encouragement from my own family. One of my uncles had connections with the Cabinet, it followed that the political ambitions of the Ishikawa clan would benefit from a successful military career if I managed to achieve that. So, I went through hellish training and had to prove myself repeatedly during the war, eventually rose through the ranks to become the Major Ishikawa you are seeing today.”
“Why did you tell me all this?” The pilot inquired uneasily. “Because I want you to know where I came from, El. I used to be softhearted like you, I used to be a romantic, but reality put me back in my place. Now I know, nothing lasts forever in this world, it’s survival of the fittest. Power, dominance, and pleasure are what I’m after, and there is nothing wrong with that.” The Kempei officer concluded emphatically, his right hand creeping up from the bound prisoner’s thigh to the soft skin below his navel underneath his flimsy white shirt, creating a wave of nervous spasms there.
The tense air in the car was disrupted when Seto pulled the vehicle into the driveway of a residence. As he parked, Elvis looked out the car window at the nice British-style house shrouded in moonlight. He regretted not paying more attention to how they got there and the layout of the surrounding neighborhood, but he could hardly be blamed given his antagonist’s disturbing invasion of his personal space. This was a good-sized detached house quite far removed from the next home due to a large fenced-up backyard. After getting out from the car, the party of three entered the garden directly from a side door, bypassing the main house. They walked across a lawn and passed between some overgrown rose bushes, coming to a small two-story brick structure in the rear section of the courtyard. Elvis guessed this little dwelling was probably originally designed for a housekeeper or the occasional guests. One sinister feature of this otherwise harmless looking guesthouse was that all the windows had been boarded up.
As the three got in the door, they passed the laundry room which took up the ground floor, climbed the narrow stairs into the second story. Ishikawa lighted two kerosene lamps, while explaining he and his wife had been staying in the main house which used to belong to a British official before it was abandoned prior to Japanese occupation.
“Mrs. Ishikawa??” Elvis repeated the title unwittingly, surprised by the existence of such a figure. “Didn’t think I’d be married?” The Major sounded sarcastic, “Mizuki is her name. She knows by now I’m more attracted to men. I entered matrimony just to stave off constant urging by my parents and relatives. Don’t worry about her, she knows not to disturb us here. She’s a nice girl and a diligent housewife. Her family owed us a large sum of money, so they needed this union to keep going.”
Despite the oil lamps, the whole place was dark and damp, feeling like a dungeon. The floor plan included a small open kitchen area, a dining room, a bathroom and a bedroom with a large bed taking up most of the space. When Elvis’ hands were finally untied, they were so numb and weak he wondered if they were permanently damaged. He was led to the round table in the tiny dining room and told to sit in a chair. The host then offered him a glass of water, pointing out that his lips looked chapped from dehydration. When the young man almost dropped the glass as he tried to raise it to his uniquely curvy lips, the Major stood up, took the glass from his hands and tried to feed the water to him. In the blink of an eye, Elvis leaped out of his seat and head-butted Ishikawa hard in the stomach. The Japanese officer was caught off guard and stumbled for a moment, but quickly recovered and chased after the daring prisoner. The pilot made a run for the door after the surprise attack, but he fell across the floor almost right away as his shackled feet couldn’t keep up with his body. He crawled forward in desperation, but it was all over when Seto almost crushed him with his full weight just before the American could reach the door.
“Well, that really took the cake for stupidity. Even for you, El!” Ishikawa loudly reprimanded his non-cooperative subject as the latter was pulled up from the ground by Seto. The Major sounded a little out of breath, clenching his teeth from lingering pain as he clutched his midsection. “What did ya expect? You think I’d let ya have your way with me without a fight??” As usual, the fearlessness in the young man’s voice and demeanor was impressive.
“I figured you might need taming, but you’ve just made it a lot harder for yourself!” The irate Kempei officer signaled the physical therapist with his eyes. Subsequently, the latter helped Ishikawa strong-arm Elvis to the bedroom and strapped him to the bed securely. The sight of the gorgeous prisoner finally tied down to his bed and spread out for him awakened a flood of instincts and desires within the intelligence officer. He could barely contain his lust as he quickly dismissed Seto so that he could be left alone with the object of his wet dreams.
“Here we are, in our own little world at last!” The excitement in the Major’s voice was palpable. The blue-eyed airman felt like a mouthwatering piece of dessert he could swallow up whole. “Just how many allied soldiers have you violated like this, you scumbag?” the incapacitated pilot suddenly questioned while Ishikawa proceeded to cut open his clothes with a pair of scissors. “Watch your mouth or you’ll regret it in a minute!!” The Major warned in response to the profanity, then paused for a bit, apparently debating if he should provide an actual answer. In the end he conceded: “Alright I guess I owe the truth to you. I had taken two prisoners and held them here in the past. But it was different because both of them did agree to have sex with me. Each of them had also divulged military secrets to us during interrogation. I think they would do anything as long as their lives were spared…” “So, what did you do to them?” Elvis interrupted the Japanese officer rather loudly, eyes glaring at his face.
Giving a nonchalant shrug, Ishikawa replied: “So I used them to satisfy my physical needs, and then I disposed of them when I got tired of them. I buried them under the rose bushes in this backyard.” “What?!” Elvis yelled, extremities straining against the ropes instinctively. “You are a psychopath and serial killer if I ever saw one!” The Kempei officer yelled back without missing a beat: “They deserved it! Those two betrayed their own country, there should be no mercy for traitors!” “That does not change the fact you are a cold-blooded rapist and murderer!” Memphis Flash wouldn’t back down, pointing out the undeniable.
“Looks like you’ve forgotten that you are still in my hands! What you need is a little help with quieting and calming down!” Before the last word had been spoken, the domineering military man took out a roll of masking tape from a drawer next to the bed. Disregarding objections from his victim, Ishikawa taped his mouth shut. As the young man’s face began to turn a little red from hyperventilating and making muffled grunting noises behind the tape, the ruthless army man took out a clearly well-prepared pre-mixed syringe with needle and jabbed Elvis in the arm, injecting unknown medicine into a muscle there.
The Flying Tiger continued to buck against his restraints despite the futility of it all, but only a few minutes passed by when he began to get drowsy. The Major was now smiling and saying something, but the words sounded echoey and remote. Elvis watched helplessly as the Japanese officer stripped him of all his clothes, arranging his limbs and torso in demeaning postures. He watched with horror as the same vile man unzipped the pants of his Ninja outfit, freeing himself and proceeded to drill into his core with almost no lubrication or preparation. The pain from the rear was deep and tearing, but dulled by unnatural sedation and an emptiness which was overarching. He could see his body shiver and rock beneath the fiend who was attacking with savage energy. A drop of tear fell from corner of his right eye despite attempts to hold it in. Ambient white noise started to get so loud that it overwhelmed Elvis, his vision became more and more limited. His eyes rolled up and darkness engulfed him at last.
Elvis was standing on the bank of the raging Salween River, with wind blowing through his torn and ripped white shirt. He needed to wash himself clean, that was the only thought on his mind as he stared despairingly at the torrent. A couple of teeny, little hands grabbed a hold of him and tugged on his clothes. When the sad-eyed young man looked down, he found two Chinese school boys and Wen Fang standing next to him. The youngsters pleaded with him not to take the next step, saying he was their hero. “Uncle Xiao Ai! My sister and I are waiting for you in Kunming. Don’t leave us, you are my favorite pal!” The Yang sister added, stretching out her arms in an invitation. The pilot had no choice but to give in then, so he bent down and lifted the little girl up in his arms. “Uncle Xiao Ai, will you sing us a song? We love to hear you sing!” She implored as she wrapped her arms around the tall American’s neck in a warm embrace. “Xiao Fang, you know I’ll do anything to make you happy.” Elvis sighed, gathered his thoughts and chose to sing a slow ballad with gentle melancholy:
I saw the harbor lights
They only told me we were parting
Those same old harbor lights
That once brought you to me.
I watched the harbor lights
How could I help it?
Tears were starting.
Good-bye to golden nights
Beside the silvery seas.
As the serenade came to a close, Elvis realized he was no longer at the riverbank, and the kids had disappeared as well. Instead, he was back in his own bedroom in Memphis, surrounded with the familiar pink decorations. The Blue Moon Boys singer was crying in bed, with his head buried in a big Teddy bear. Mama Gladys came in dressing like an angel ghost again: “Oh baby, don’t give up. I know how hard it’s been for you, but believe me, help is on the way.” Her only son raised up his head, looking back at Gladys with large teary eyes: “Satinin, s-sorry to let you down. But I-I can’t take it no more. My heart and soul had been shattered and crushed. Maybe it’s best to end it all.” “Don’t think that way, baby.” Gladys walked next to the bed, running her hand through that naturally splendid head of hair, massaging the young man’s scalp, “You gotta soldier on, and there’s a solution to everything. Don’t forget, ending your own life is a sin.”
“But you told me I’d already sinned for loving a man. Sinning one last time can’t be that much worse.” Elvis pointed out the incongruence in the logic, not ready to change his course. This was immediately met with disproval by his Mama, who slapped him lightly on the back as an admonishment: “Don’t you talk back to Satinin, and never second guess the fairness of God. He works in mysterious ways. Trust me baby, I need you to hang on. There is light at the end of the tunnel…”
The next thing Elvis remembered was fronting the Blue Moon Boys in a dynamite gig in front of an exuberant crowd. After the conclusion of the show, he and Scotty escaped the wild teenage fans and ran into the backstage dressing room. They locked the door and kissed each other sloppily. Scotty’s steely blue eyes lit up as he admired the naked body of his perfect lover, perching on top of the narrow vanity table, with clothes scattered on the ground in a semicircle. The guitarist’s magical fingers aroused and soothed his pliant partner all at once. Confident and in control, Scotty pulled the singer to the edge of the table, placing that pair of graceful legs over his arms, entering the younger man from below in a tight embrace. Elvis almost burst into tears from the rush of warmth and intimacy that enveloped him. His heart screamed in ecstasy, but his mouth was seized and occupied by Scotty’s zealous tongue, so only the odd moan was heard. Finally releasing his mouth when both of them were out of breath, Scotty lifted his boyfriend off of the vanity top and flipped him over to face the mirror.
Elvis bent over the countertop with his chest touching the cool wooden surface, he could feel one firm hand of his lover on his back pushing him down while his lower body was crowded in from behind. Next Elvis’ hands were caught, and they were easily tied up behind his back with a necktie. Experienced hands stroked him up and down sensuously, from his erect nipples to his narrow waist, not to mention the firm and shapely buttocks. Warm lips peppered his lower and then upper back with little pecks, working up to the base of his neck. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Elvis as he felt a vicious bite there. He couldn’t help but let out a scream after what felt like a beastly or a vampire attack. Everything happened so fast, and it all went horribly wrong after that.
“What on earth? Scotty, are you alright?” Trying to get over his shock and understand what happened, the young singer asked his partner. This was greeted with silence and a hand that grabbed his neck and choked it with brutal strength. Another hand pulled his head up by the hair until he saw his own reflection in the vanity mirror a few inches away. Pale and perturbed, the young man on the receiving end of this senseless battering finally caught a glimpse of the man who dealt it out. “Scotty can’t answer you. You are mine now, El!” The officer in Kempei uniform sported a malevolent grin on his face. He turned his suffocating and defenseless victim over, licked across his chest and nipples, making his ill intent clear. When Ken Ishikawa finally released his strangle hold on Elvis’ throat, the feisty young American spat right in his face: “Let go of me, you son of a bitch!! What did you do to my Scotty?”
Without a flinch, the Major wiped the saliva from the side of his face with a handkerchief. Unsheathing his katana, the officer showed the fresh blood on its sharp and shiny blade: “Are you sure you want me to answer the question? Let’s just say you’ll never see your lover again.”
“No way! You liar! Scotty is still alive! I know it!” Elvis went berserk at the ludicrous suggestion that his Scotty had been killed. Completely disregarding the danger and deadliness of the Kempei officer wielding a katana sword, he kneed Ishikawa in the gut and tried to run despite his hands being tied up behind him. That was when he felt a cold blade impaling him in the middle of the back. He collapsed to the ground with blood pouring out and his life rapidly draining from him, the last thought on his mind before everything faded to black was: “Scotty is alive, he will be fine, I know it…”
#elvis presley#scotty moore#elvis fan fic#m/m#world war ii au#china-burma-india theater#flying tigers
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ElisabethMonroe WinterFalcon Bingo
FULL BLACKOUT!!!!
AO3 Collection
@winterfalconevents
Sam’s Nephews Become Friends With Morgan Stark: History Books Never Mentioned This
Rated T // No Archive Warnings Apply // 27.4k words
A Night at the Museum AU, ft. Night Guard Sam Wilson and History Display Bucky Barnes
Robot/Artificial Intelligence AU: Towards a New Modern Prometheus
Rated T // Body horror, graphic depictions of violence // 9.2k words
Robotics Engineer Sam attempts a human/robot integration to save a dead man.
5+1 Things: For the Dancing and the Dreaming
Rated M // No Archive Warnings Apply // 7.4k words
Five times Sam and Bucky don’t quite get to dance and one time they do
Hammock: Say My Name, Stranger
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 4.3k words
In a dim club, James and Thomas meet
DC Comics AU: Let The Current Guide My Bones (formerly Braided Like Rivers)
Rated T // CW: Injury // 5.4k words
Swamp Thing AU
Acceptance: Wake Up to a Sunny Day
Rated G // No Archive Warnings Apply // 1.8k words
It's a rainy night when Bucky gives Sam a ring
Meddling Best Friends: These Ghosts That Haunt Christmas
Rated T // CW: Medical discussions, death, grief // 13.8k words
Steve posthumously sends Sam and Bucky on a Christmastime scavenger hunt
Animal Transformation: Howling For You
Rated T // CW: Minor body horror/gore // 6.2k words
Werewolves and the multiverse, oh my
In Vino Veritas: Keep It Hot
Rated T // No Archive Warnings Apply // 2.4k words
Sam knows Bucky knows better than to drink coffee handed to him by a spy. He has to.
Delacroix: Where The Cool Grass Grows
Rated G // No Archive Warnings Apply // 4.4k words
Sam and Bucky go night fishing
Creative Swearing: A Civilized Past Time
Rated T // No Archive Warnings Apply // 5k words
To raise money for the local little league organization, Sam and Bucky host a benefit game with the little league and high school players
Huddling For Warmth: Sun Burst
Rated T // CW: Body modifications, eye trauma // 6.7k words
When Hydra's most complex assets find themselves caught in a snow storm, conservation of heat becomes a necessity
(Pre-Winter Soldier AU, Winter Falcon AU, huddling for warmth) (Part One before Moon Shine)
Free Space--Winter Soldier Sam: Moon Shine
Rated T // CW: Body horror, body modification, canon typical violence // 11.5k words
After being captured in battle, Sam Wilson joins the fight against HYDRA to save the Winter Soldier
(Captain America: Winter Soldier AU, Winter Falcon/Red Falcon AU) (Part Two after Sun Burst)
Madripoor: Stay
Rated G // No Archive Warnings Apply // 3.2k words
In Madripoor, Sam can’t sleep. Neither can Bucky.
Quick(mumblemumble)ies: There’s Something in the Air
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 2.5k words
Sam and Bucky find themselves with fifteen minutes to kill after a close call with an unknown substance on a mission
Sam Talks to Birds: Eyes in the Sky (heart on the ground with you)
Rated T // CW: animal death (not a pet) // 7k words
With a secret up his sleeve, Sam Wilson manages to find Bucky Barnes over and over again. It's driving Bucky nuts.
Sam and Bucky Share the Shield: Time After Time
Rated T // No Archive Warnings Apply // 4.4k words
In 2010, Sam Wilson meets a mysterious man in the desert. In 1941, Bucky Barnes meets a mysterious man in the woods. In 2026, Sam and Bucky get caught in the rain. In 2012, Bucky and Sam meet during an alien invasion. (In that order) (Time travel fix it, kind of)
Didn’t Know They Were Dating: Minty Sweet
Rated T // No Archive Warnings Apply // 2.4k words
After going a round with Asgardian liquor, Bucky shoots his shot with the hottest guy in the room (whom he's already dating)
Florist AU: Until the Last Rose
Rated T // Brief description of injuries // 7.9k words
Flower shop owner Sam Wilson meets chaotic and chronic holiday flower buyer Bucky Barnes
Falcon Joaquin Torres: Whose Heart Would Not Take Flight
Rated T // No Archive Warnings Apply // 4.2k words
During Joaquin's first real mission as the Falcon, Sam Wilson's worry and past fears take him over
Delay/Denial: Rescue Me
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 7.4k words
Sam Wilson is having a bad night. Bucky Barnes helps
Boredom: Momentary Eternity
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 2.6k words
Sam can't blame him for this. Bucky was bored and, after all, it had been Sam who had said find something that interested him
BDBB: Take It Slow (but don’t ever stop)
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 1.9k words
It's Bucky's birthday and Sam likes a challenge
Roommate AU: The Loveliness of Loving You
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 4.8k words
Staring SamBucky, featuring: Valentine's Day ✔️ Baking Cookies ✔️ Mutual Pining By Friends With Benefits ✔️ And They Were Roommates ✔️
Ring: Salt and Velvet
Rated E // No Archive Warnings Apply // 2.5k words
Sam Wilson needs Bucky Barnes to behave. Luckily, he's got a trick up his sleeve.
#sambucky#sambucky fanfic#sambucky fanfiction#sam wilson#bucky barnes#writing#winterfalcon bingo#winterfalcon bingo 2021
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