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beevean · 7 months

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I think people usually confuse delving into darker subjects in writing as the same thing as making a story more mature, when there's actually a difference between the two. You can introduce darker elements into a story, or have it shift to a darker tone. But it's not going to be effective if you don't have enough of an understanding of what makes what you're trying to tackle is so fucked up in the first place, or why the introduction of it is significant and carries so much weight. Without tackling it with finesse, it will come off as immature if anything, like a kid who just discovered curse words.

Every time IDW tries to do this it feels more like it's more for shock value. Another thing it seems to be falling into that over half of the pre-reboot run of the Archie comics did. But at least with Archie there was the spectacle of it having some of the most certifiably insane shit happen.

Friendly reminder that when Flynn got sick of the criticism against the way he wrote the moral dilemma in #50, he justified himself with "it's a children's fantasy, if you adult want something deeper go read something else".

Which says a lot about how much he cares about the stuff he wrote.

My man. No one forced you to write everyone getting pissed at Sonic for not killing Mr. Tinker and whether or not it would be justified to murder a man who doesn't remember his own war crimes. No one forced you to write gruesome scenes such as Vector trapping an infected woman TWD-style, or everything happening to Cream. No one forced you to come up with Surge and Kit and their horrifying nature of being brainwashed into being caricatures, with Surge being forced to feel homicidial hatred for someone he doesn't know and Kit being forced to be an extension of Surge herself. No one forced you to "explore" Sonic's supposed "principle" of giving everyone freedom. You want a dark story? Commit. Children cartoons have done it. Just to make one famous example, AtLA's whole backdrop revolves around exploring the consequences of war and imperialism.

Hell what about Sonic himself? The Storybook games? One with an abusive relationship, and the other brushing over the fear of death? They might not go very deep into these topics, but it doesn't come off as haphazard either!

The MV arc simply didn't matter in the long run! The only consequence of it is that Starline decided to show Eggman who's the better evil scientist by creating Surge and Kit, but there was zero need for all that drawn out angst. Cream herself is completely fine and happy after watching her mother die! Surge and Kit will come back in a few months so we'll see what happens with them, but the story barely explored their fucked up nature, and it only highlighted what a piece of shit IDW Sonic is by being so callous towards both of them. And by giving random angst to Surge via Starline hallucinations that, once again, did not matter at all - Stanley simply really wanted to draw Surge scared and crying.

It's amateurish. I have no other word for it.

#fans don't look

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opheliaintherushes · 8 months

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I told myself I was done tormenting my kind and non-Riverdale-watching mutuals, and besides, I am too old and weathered for this fandom anyway, but really, the final, final thoughts on this finale and season as a whole:

First, and separately, does anything that happened after the characters got their memories back make sense? What was the point of it? They seemed completely unaffected by anything and happy to roleplay 50s teens. Were they even teens? Were they twenty-somethings sticking around high school like the vampires from Twilight for no explicable reason? Also, I'm sorry if you want to play the sentimental card, but if I was one of a handful of people who had traveled back in time and was stuck living in the past for 60 years or what have you, I would not lose contact with the others who also had. You would go insane! What did Archie tell his Modesto wife and child? Was Veronica picking up options on scripts she already knew would win Oscars? Did Jughead and Betty rewrite old issues of Mad and Ms. they might have read in the past? And is Gloria Steinem okay??? Also Betty and Jughead should remember they kind of hated each other in the future after the cheating and the voicemail, and Veronica should be so jealous of Betty for getting Archie, and Jughead should be so jealous of Archie for getting Betty, and my brain is hurting -

Almost more irritating were a) this idea that Archies are fundamentally stuck in the 50s (I owned the decade collections as a kid and the 60s and 70s were by far my favorites - very groovy), and b) the presumption that they did anything to address, expose, and or/fix actual problems of the 50s. Let us recap:

The school is already desegregated and this is never, ever discussed. The Black students are allowed to compete in beauty pageants, form their own literary club, dance on an integrated TV show, and join cheerleader squads, and this all happens with zero fight from the villains of the season. Fake Ray Bradbury and Fake Ray Bradbury's sweet but stupid wife think they could have settled in the south as a married couple in the forties. But? This is Riverdale, you say? They fixed everything? Sorry, you don't get to use Emmett Till to open the season and then eat your cake too.

Homophobia seemed to be the writers focus this season - except that every other episode someone would threaten Cheryl or Kevin, and then the next episode it would be an open secret at school with zero repercussions. Also, of course only the bad guys are homophobic (sorry Evelyn); our heroes are as forward thinking as they come. Hell, even Buffy had a moment to be wigged out by Willow and this was 1999! Anyway, look up what Lou Reed's parents did to him ('don't you know they're gonna kill your sons')

Let us not even discuss Reggie, who conquers racism through the power of athletics. Look up Richie Allen. Heck, watch the actual School Ties. It doesn't work out so well for David Greene in the end.

And then there's Fangs and Midge: first, rock and roll was seen as a huge menace, Fangs should've been on the school's hit list. Second, the writers obviously never read up on rock and rollers (who were generally older) and teen girls if they thought that was a good storyline. Third, they definitely never read any memoirs written by women in the 1950s, which all feature back alley abortions, slimy lovers, and shady doctors. (We don't even have time to get into Betty's idea of feminism being about sex all the time, everywhere, and becoming a burlesque dancer rather than, like, equal pay. Who knows, maybe she could have been the one harping on non-stop about the Beats and seen the cold face of her future there).

They didn't change anything. EC (sorry, Pep Comics) shut down. The Comics Code Authority won. So apparently all those artists who never worked again were just fine, right Tabitha?

#I don't even have the strength to hit it all #but where do they end up when they die? an eternal nightwashed sockhop in the sky #iconography with no context #hey I love Diner but even they had an unwanted pregnancy storyline and the girl doesn't get married!#I wouldn't care if they didn't get so high-handed about it #lest we forget voting on sundown towns and having the FBI save MLK #they cannot be trusted #Riverdale #a multiple choice ending because of Betty's failing memory really could've worked

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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177. Sonic the Hedgehog #109

I Herd It Through the Pipeline

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

No, that title is not a typo. We're back to terrible puns. Also, as hilarious as that cover page is, once again it's an example of a cover that wildly misrepresents what's actually going on in the issue, for whatever reason.

Sonic walks in on Rotor being sentimental about his family, and when Rotor explains that his family is once again under a mind control spell, Sonic suggests, and Sally backs him up, that they should travel to the North Tundra to use the Sword of Acorns to free his herd. And thus, Sally heads off to retrieve the sword…

Okay, there's been something weird going on with this thing for a while. This sword seems to have an unhealthy obsession with Sally, which is odd as swords aren't even supposed to be able to think. She shakes off her bemusement, and together she, Sonic, Rotor, and Bunnie head out in Rotor's submarine in search of his family. They notice an underwater oil pipeline which they begin to follow, as it's an obvious sign Eggman has been here, but Eggman notices them and sends out his "'sea'-crete weapon" to attack them - an electric eel that begins zapping the craft.

They manage to make it to shore without any further trouble, and find the pipeline has led them to an oil rig, which Rotor's herd is being forced to work on as mindless slaves. They fight off the shadow-bots guarding the site while Eggman angrily but uselessly screams at them through a video monitor, powerless to stop them, and then Sally heads off to free the herd…

…while Rotor sets some charges on the side of the rig, blowing it up. Rotor's family is thankful that he came back for them, and they invite the Freedom Fighters away for a meal, happy to once again be free.

Now, instead of a normal character file or map, we actually have Knuckles' family tree to examine!

Most of this we already know from the many, many previous issues covering the topic, but it's kind of nice to have it all laid out for us in one place in an easy-to-read family tree. This does, however, tie in to what I brought up a while back, about whether Thunderhawk is Sojourner's father or vice-versa, and how different issues say different things. In this tree's case, Thunderhawk is depicted as Sojourner's father, which is in direct contrast to how the two were introduced in KtE#29. Kind of funny how Penders couldn't keep those two characters straight for the life of him. It's also a bit peeving that most of the characters in the tree are male - Penders, for all his anti-misogyny attitude, still finds himself stuck in more old-fashioned ways of thinking, which is ultimately probably why the Brotherhood is such a boys' club and most of the women in the tree were just gentle, loving housewives who bore the next generation's Guardian. Obviously, that's not at all the way Julie-Su carries herself, but this trend did apparently make people worry back when the comics were still coming out that Kenders would, in the future, turn Julie-Su into the loving housewife as well, where she would become just The Mom to Lara-Su. I guess we'll see if that really does happen, huh?

"…The Crush!"

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: J. Axer Colors: Josh and Aimee Ray

Mina is gazing on Sonic from afar, still lost in her crush on him, and when she tries to run after him and trips on a rock, Sally shows up to catch her before she falls. To her everlasting credit, despite her obvious jealousy over Mina's supposed relationship with Sonic, Sally lets none of it show and only speaks kindly to Mina. Mina dejectedly explains how she's been trying to get Sonic's attention lately, but hasn't been very successful so far.

That has to be a relief for Sally, given her mistaken interpretation of that kiss. Mina then asks for Sally to describe Sonic to her, and though she's surprised, Sally does her best.

This is probably one of the best descriptions of not just Archie Sonic, but every Sonic, that I've ever seen. It really does sum up what defines him as a character, and why he's so well-loved by the fans as well as all the supporting cast of whatever canon he's in. Mina is pleased with Sally's breakdown, and thanks her before running off, and Sally turns away with a small smile, obviously relieved that Mina and Sonic are not in fact an item and that she still has a chance with him.

Reunification (The Conclusion)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Lara-Su leaps at Remington as he fires his weapon, determined to stop him from hitting Knuckles, but then realizes that in actuality he was firing at someone else who was firing at Dimitri. Knuckles is struck as he jumps in front of Dimitri to protect him, and collapses motionless on the floor as the occupants of the room go into an uproar at the attempted assassination.

Oh, Lien-Da. Of course you would be the traitor. It's actually quite fascinating to see how after losing his powers, Dimitri has actually ended up as the more reasonable one, seeming to genuinely want to reunite his society, while Lien-Da, ever relegated to the background, to being second-best, has begun to scheme for power of her own. There's a reason I said before that she's one of my favorite villains of this series. The council suggests forming a committee to help bridge the differences between the two sects of echidna society, stating that Dimitri's ancient proposal was rejected originally due to the technology simply being ahead of its time, but that now their society might be able to move forward into a new technological renaissance. Lien-Da slips out a back door, determined to make sure her assassin doesn't talk when questioned by the police force, and Lara-Su also exits, devastated that she was unable to save her father's life. She's startled by the sudden appearance of Julie-Su, who has run up upon hearing the news of Knuckles' apparent death, and as she stops to examine the assassin being detained by Remington and his crew, Lien-Da realizes she has a shot to take out two of the thorns in her side with one blow, ordering her other hidden assassin to take the shot… and luckily, Lara-Su is standing right next to him, easily preventing the tragedy from occurring. She realizes that maybe, in going back in time, she was meant to save her mother instead of her father. However, she then begins to fade from sight to her horror, yelling that she wasn't meant to go back to the future yet. Julie-Su bursts into the council chambers in time to see Knuckles standing up completely unharmed, where he states that he deliberately took the blow to win Dimitri's trust, but that now they have to be careful, as there seems to be a traitor in their midst…

Julie-Su explains that in reality, she always told her daughter that Knuckles was dead because she wanted to shield her from the truth, which is that Knuckles actually went insane from the Chaos energy that he absorbed and now he's trying to take over the world with his revamped version of the Dark Legion. But now that she's old enough, and has seen the past for herself, Julie-Su thinks that Lara-Su is ready to help her face down her father for good, and begins packing up a duffel bag full of guns like some kind of Mobian Sarah Connor. And then they're just… off! No need to elaborate on anything else! The end!

Honestly, this entire section is very poorly explained, so I'll do my best. It seems that Lara-Su grew up in some kind of dystopia with her mother, who explained past events in a skewed manner to try to protect her daughter from the truth, until Lara-Su decided to take matters into her own hands to change the past and fix the future. Hey, sounds like a certain white fluffy hedgehog we know, huh? However, the implication seems to be that in some way, in a short while in our current timeline Knuckles will actually go insane from Chaos energy. This wouldn't be a problem, aside from obviously not wanting a major character of the comic to go crazy, except that this means that Julie-Su would basically already have to be pregnant with Lara-Su, since I doubt she and Knuckles would be trying for a baby after he went nuts. While teen pregnancies do happen, I'm not sure I like the implication that he's somehow already gotten Julie-Su pregnant, in the middle of everything else that's happened, and that now this fifteen year old is about to have a baby. To be clear - she does not in fact get pregnant at any point during the course of the preboot (not counting future versions of her who already had Lara-Su, obviously), but I'm genuinely not sure if Penders just didn't really think through the implications of what he wrote here, or if he did, and fully intended this to be implied by the circumstances depicted. I mean, we already know he has a history of writing really weird things about sexual relationships between teenagers (and we're not even done with those, either - yes, there's more to come), but I think this is one of the ones that more easily flies under the radar due to the confusing, garbled nature of this plotline.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 109 #writer: benny lee #writer: karl bollers #writer: ken penders #pencils: ron lim #pencils: jeff axer #pencils: dawn best #colors: joshua d ray #colors: aimee r ray

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jugandbettsdetectiveagency · 7 years

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Tacos and Tequila - Ch.5

Sorry it’s late! Once again your lovely comments astound me - for every one a baby gets their beanie <3

(Just realised I haven’t gotten round to replying to them yet, I’m so out of it, but I’ll get to it tomorrow!)

Ch.1 / Ch.2 / Ch.3 / Ch.4 / Read on AO3

Hour 6

Suddenly Betty is gone from the couch.

Jughead practically feels the wind she creates in her fast movements to get away from him.

“How do you know about that?” she asks from where she’s standing in front of the TV. Jughead sits up straighter, holding her with a level gaze. The alcohol is making her head feel heavy, her tongue feel numb – or was it because of the way he refused to stop staring at her as she felt her heart begin to race?

Not here, not another person. Jughead wasn’t supposed to know about this, about what she did at that party. No one outside of Riverdale should know. A clean slate, that’s what she’d been longing for, what she’d been grasping at for a long time now; that incident just pushed her over the edge, was the last straw in taking her final steps out of Riverdale and hoping she didn’t have to go back. Polly was in Greendale, and her mom would be quite happy to let her spend her holidays trapped inside the house for as few days as possible, after the show she had made of herself. As far as the rest of the population of that town was concerned, Betty Cooper was now a ghost.

And wasn’t that true? After it happened, the Betty Cooper that people had always known –sweet, wholesome, predictable – was no more. She’d marred her perfectly crafted reputation beyond repair, the standards she’d been held to for so long so ingrained that she couldn’t even find it in herself to be relieved. She was just ruined.

“It’s not his fault, but Archie may have mentioned something…” Jughead sees a light go out in Betty’s eyes and hurries to placate her. “He didn’t tell anyone what happened. We were just at this party at the start of semester, and he briefly said something about hoping it didn’t end like the last one he went to, that something happened with his best friend,” Jughead explains warily.

Betty nods, downcast eyes causing the first hot tears to spill over and onto her cheeks, fingers clenching automatically.

“Try to leave one reputation behind and another one follows you,” she laughs humourlessly, bitterness coating her tone.

“Hey,” Jughead stands, moving to step in front of her and stop her pacing. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s none of my business,” he says soothingly, hand twitching towards her shoulder before he pulls it back again. Betty looks up at him with wide, watery eyes and his chest tightens. She lets out a shaky sigh.

“Before, when you said I seemed ‘perfect’,” her voice is quiet but she spits the word out like it tastes bad. “What did you mean?” she asks, fingers uncurling to fiddle with the hem of her shirt. He takes a subconscious step closer to her.

“I guess I meant you seemed impossible. There’s no such thing, Betts,” he murmurs, unable to stop himself from reaching out to brush a stray tear away. “I was kind of waiting for you to tell me to fuck off. But when you didn’t, I realised that you might believe that’s what you were,” he tells her, rising inflection turning the guess into the hint of a question.

She sucks in a sharp breath. How did he know?

“The way Archie spoke about you – it was clear how much you meant to him but… I guess I heard something in his stories about you that I could relate to,” he finishes cryptically. Betty scrunches her eyebrows as she waits for him to explain. Jughead searches her eyes for a second, irises wide and imploring, before turning and heading back to sit cross-legged on the cushions they’d left on the floor. He looks to her, waiting for her to join him. She mirrors his position and waits.

“Dad lost his job when I was seven. My sister, Jellybean, was only one at the time and there had been complications with her birth that my parents were still paying medical bills for. We moved into the trailer park on the South side of town. It wasn’t enough to cover the costs, though, because Dad started to… do a little something extra on the side. There was this gang,” Jughead huffs a laugh through his nose. “Let’s just say they were less than savoury characters.” He pauses, and Betty watches as a show reel of memories flits behind his eyes. They’re unfocused and distant, no longer with her in the apartment as he remembers.

“Anyway, whatever he was doing with them didn’t sit well with my mom. They’d fight at all hours, I don’t think it was possible for them to be in the same room as one another towards the end – and there aren’t many places to go in a trailer. I think they always fought and I just didn’t notice until we were in such close quarters.” He swallows. “But they’d fight, and Dad would drink, and they’d fight because of that, and then something would get smashed.” Jughead’s voice turns bitter. “It was like they were immune to Jellybean’s cries at that point, so I’d go in and pick her up and make up stories to tell her till she fell back to sleep. I was doing it mainly for her, but any time I could spend in a different reality was a bonus for me too.” He’s running his nail along the embroidered pattern of the cushion beneath him.

“A few years later Mom left. And then a few years after that she came back and took JB with her.” Jughead blinks back the tears he remembers releasing the day he watched the car drive away, his sister inside. Suddenly, he’s back in the room with Betty.

“There were times though – birthdays, and Christmas, and family outings – when things were like they used to be. Dad wasn’t drinking too much, and Mom wasn’t always tired. They were parents and we were children, and everything was the way it should be.

“I’d see my friends at school and tell them about how normal my life was. In public, the Jones’ were everybody’s All-American family.” Jughead laughs again, and this time it’s genuine. “I used to make up these little comic strips, with us as the characters. We’d do the most mundane things and I’d pretend they were real life. If I focused on them hard enough they became memories.” He meets her eyes again, their intensity stopping Betty’s breath slightly.

“The lying became too much, and I was tired of keeping up this act in front of my friends. I stopped talking to them, and eventually they stopped trying to talk to me. If there was no one to lie to I didn’t have to lie anymore. A lot of stuff happened in the middle, but now Dad’s getting help, and I’m getting back to a point where I don’t feel the need to lie anymore – it never did any good. It didn’t put my family back together.”

Their gazes hold even after Jughead is finished talking. The credits to the movie are running quietly in the background.

“You didn’t have to tell me all that,” Betty says quietly. Jughead shrugs.

“But I did. What do you think of me now?” he asks, and the question throws her off. He seemed to do that a lot.

Betty looks at him for a moment. He was confident, yet guarded. He was funny and empathetic and he’d just told a girl he’d known for a few hours his life story.

“You’re brave,” she tells him honestly. Jughead smiles softly at her in gratitude, the back of his neck heating up gently. Betty takes a breath, understanding his point.

“My sister started dating this guy, Jason Blossom. His sister, Cheryl, was on the cheerleading squad with me and she had this big party after graduation. Jason and Polly’s relationship was… turbulent, to say the least. The last argument they had before they broke up did something to Polly. She was inconsolable and distraught, and Mom did what she always does and made it worse. Polly got sent to a mental health facility in the town over when she should have been starting her freshman year of college.” Betty’s eyes water, but she doesn’t let the tears loose this time.

“Jason was home for summer and he came down to the party. He started making all kinds of rude remarks about Polly, about how she was such a good girl by day but ‘a freak in the sheets at night’.” The quote makes Betty shudder. “He was laughing about it with all these jocks and it made me so mad, because Polly was locked away like some kind of prisoner. I told him to stop it but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Polly is where she belongs,” Jason threw at her, baring his teeth behind a wide grin. Betty’s fists began to clench as a wave of darkness blurred her vision. “That girl is insane. You know she tried to convince me to marry her, said she wanted us to start a family? How pathetic.”

“Don’t you dare talk about her like that,” Betty seethed between gritted teeth. Jason laughed, loud and menacing.

“Little Betty Cooper – what’s the matter, princess? Finally found your fight?” Jason glanced to the side, meeting the eyes of a few of the crowd that had begun to gather on the patio. “Don’t forget, Betty. I’ve been in your house. Your bathroom. I’ve seen those pills in your cabinet – crazy must run in your family,” the redhead snarled, leaning towards her as he revealed her secrets to their peers.

Betty didn’t remember when she began to move, but all of a sudden she was lunging for him. The surprise movement threw Jason off guard, her weight managing to topple him as he took a step back, foot slipping against the edge of the pool. With a shove to his chest, Betty sent Jason flying into the water, his head knocking against the lip of the pool on the way down.

Jason emerged, clinging to the stone edge, eyes clearly dazed and disorientated from the blow. Betty crouched by the edge of the pool, watching him splutter for air.

“Say you’re sorry, Jason. Say you’re sorry for what you did to me!” she screamed. The world was a blur, nothing felt real.

The next thing she knew, Archie’s arms were around her waist, hushing her gently as he dragged her away, the people in the distance rushing to help Jason out of the water.

“I don’t remember it very clearly,” Betty tells Jughead, voice wavering with nerves. “I just remember this… darkness taking over, and it scared me. That I don’t know what I’m capable of, that I could…” her throat hitches, cutting off her sentence. She looks up as Jughead touches her wrist gingerly.

“Ask me what I think of you now,” he whispers.

“What do you think of me now?” she asks, voice just as quiet.

“I think you’ve spent too long in the shadows, Betty Cooper. Trapped inside your own expectations. But now you can finally learn to breathe.” She wants to wrap her arms around him to hide the fresh tears in her eyes, but she doesn’t.

“It’s unfair – you knew more about me when I arrived than I knew about you, than I knew about myself,” she adds with a chuckle, the moment she met Jughead seeming like an age ago. Jughead smiles.

“Well, I’m not going anywhere. It would be your honour to get to know me, Betty Cooper,” he tells her, his smile shifting to a coy smirk. She laughs, the sound a little fuller than before.

“Are we going to regret all this oversharing in the morning?” she asks, looking up at him from beneath her lashes. It’s meant as a joke, to diffuse the shift that’s happened between them in just a few short hours, but there’s a nervousness behind her question.

“I hope not,” he replies sincerely.

#bughead #bughead fanfiction #bughead au #betty cooper #jughead jones #betty x jughead #riverdale #riverdale fanfiction #bughead fan fiction #jetty #writing

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writerscraft01 · 5 years

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CONVERSION PART V

CONVERSION

PART V

(April 23rd 1968)

A few days have passed since the Samantha incident. I am still shaken over the fact that she is actually his daughter. “My name is Samantha Joy Leon”. I still get the shivers down my back every time I think about her saying that to me. I would never have thought that a young woman with such a gentle face, would be Satan’s daughter, but then again life ain’t always fair to ya.

“Lord Jesus up above James, let’s go for a goddamn walk or somethin’ in the common room before trainin’. You’ve been stuck in here for the last few days, ya gonna to go insane. Andrew ain’t here, the coast is clear.”

I sigh as I sit up in my bed and I stare back at Reese. “Watch ‘em be in that goddamn room once I get in there” I grumble.

He shakes his head as he grabs my hand to pull me up and starts to walk with me out in the common room.

“We gotta start that plan soon James! I ain’t about spending the rest of my life in here ya know?”

I sigh as I scratch the back of my head, “I ain’t gonna lie to ya Reese, I didn’t even think about that in the past few days.”

He glares at me in confusion, “then the hell were you thinkin’ about?”

My eyes widen. I can’t tell Reese how I’ve been thinking about Samantha lately, it would blow my cover completely.

“I was thinkin’ about how rude I was to nurse Samantha is all. Looks like a kind young lady, I should’ve been more nicer to her.”

“Well, she’s over there by the jukebox if you wanna apologize to the poor girl.” Reese points his finger at her and there she stands, looking at the choices of songs that the jukebox has to offer with a quarter in her hand.

“I’ll be right back Reese.”

“Don’t take all goddamn day James, I’ll be right here.”

I nod at him as I walk over at Samantha. As I get closer to her, I can see her nose scrunched, eyes squinted as she’s scratching her head with her pen in confusion. I chuckle at this, how adorable.

“Need help there, nurse Leon?” I speak up.

She looks over at me with her eyes widen and she clamps her hand over my mouth. I stare at her with confusion.

“Don’t ya dare call me that here, ya hear me? No one else knows I’m Archie’s daughter alright? For the love of God, I want the people in here to like me, and not loathe me because of my goddamn last name and who the hell my father is, so shut ya goddamn mouth and call me Samantha!”

I nod slowly as she releases her hand from my mouth, “so uh, I see ya havin’ a problem here with tryin’ to find a good song to play hm?”

She sighs, “I don’t even know which one to play to these people, I don’t know what the hell they want!”

I smile, “may I choose a song that I believe they will like, in exchange for forgiveness?”

She looks at me confused, “forgiveness?”

I sigh, “yes forgiveness. I didn’t mean to get angry at ya the way I did Samantha. I was just havin’ a bad day.”

“Hearin’ my last name didn’t make it any better I assume”.

“Ain’t one of the best things I’ve heard in my last seventeen years of livin’, but I’ve heard worse. We don’t get to choose our parents unfortunately. If we did, I bet ya I wouldn’t be in this hellhole that’s for damn sure.”

She nods in agreement with me as she looks at her quarter and smiles. “Here ya go James, all is forgiven. Choose somethin’ nice.”

She then hands me her quarter and starts to walk away. I smile slightly as a blush creeps up on me. I stare at the options that the jukebox had to offer. I wasn’t really intrigued with any of them to be completely honest. That is until I saw it, the song i heard, when I realized, James might be a homosexual.

“Elvis Presley, Hounddog. Oh, you gonna get me good.”

I put the quarter into the jukebox and I click the option. I smile slightly as the song starts to play, memories beginning to flood my entire brain.

(September 9th, 1956)

“Ed Sullivan is going to be on in about two minutes Clara! Ya got the goddamn dinner ready?” My father hollered.

“I’m comin’ sweetheart I‘m just changin’ Lizzie’s diaper!” My mother yelled back.

I run into the living room with Jamie smiling. Watching the Ed Sullivan show was the best time for us. The entire family was home, TV dinner was bein’ served. Everything was in pure bliss.

“Who they havin’ on today daddy?” I ask him smiling.

He then looks down at the TV guide, “someone named Elvis Presley, Mikey.”

“Elvis Presley? Sounds like an exotic name Johnny.” My mother piped up as she walks into the living room, putting a crawling nine month old Elizabeth on the floor as she ran into the kitchen to grab our TV dinners.

“It’s startin’ momma! Hurry!” Jamie yelled.

My mother then runs into the living room, passing around our TV dinners, puts Lizzie on her lap and smiles as Ed started to speak.

“May I introduce to you, Mr.Elvis Presley!”

All of a sudden this tall man takes the microphone and starts to sing, but it wasn’t the singing anyone was paying attention to that’s for sure.

“You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, Cryin' all the time, You ain't nothin' but a hound dog

Cryin' all the time, Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.”

“Good lord!” My mother screamed as she covered Lizzie’s eyes.

“Mikey! Jamie! Cover ya damn eyes Jesus Christ!” My father screamed as he jumped up trying to cover the television screen.

I looked over at my twin brother, who’s eyes are guiding between my fathers legs, staring at Elvis’s moves.

“Oh lordie..” he mumbled.

I looked over at my brother, he had a different twinkle in his eye as he stared at his man who was too busy shaking his hips too much.

“Alright boys… I guess we will make this an early night after this fiasco. Go on now.” My father said as my mother had tears in her eyes as if she had failed as a mother for letting her five year old sons watch something like this.

When we went to bed, I looked over at my brother who was reading the new Spider-Man comic that just came out. I had to ask him what I was thinking, I had to.

“Jamie…” I asked him slowly.

“Hmm?” He answered me as he was very focused with his comic.

“Do you uhm… Like.” I couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Like what Mikey? I ain’t got all night.” He replied.

“Do you like boys instead of girls Jamie?”

His eyes turn right at me, filled with confusion, fear, and terror.

“W-Why do you ask me that?” He stuttered.

“Well.. wearin’ Lizzie’s bows in ya hair, momma’s heels on ya feet, and the way you were lookin’ at Mr.Presley on tv tonight as he was shakin’ his hips. I just assumed..”

He sighed as tears stream down his cheeks,

“I-I don’t know what I like yet Mikey… I really don’t… It was just, his hips moved so fast.. and I was so focused.. I-I…”

I got out of bed and sat beside him and hugged him,

“It’s okay Jamie… It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone that you’re confused… I promise ya, to the grave.”

He smiled at me, “to the grave.”

I kissed his forehead, got up, and went to lie back down on my bed. I looked over at him again and smiled,

“Say Jamie? If ya like guys? What would ya like in one?”

He shrugged, “I never thought about that much Mikey, maybe someone interesting, fun to be around, and very funny, like daddy when he’s drunk.”

I laughed and nodded at him, hoping that if he did like boys, he’d find someone that he’d want.

(April 23rd 1968)

“Woohoo!” I hear behind me. I turn around and there’s Reese who took Samantha by the hand and started to dance around the floor. She’s laughing and smiling as he’s twirling her around.

“Show off those moves, Ms.Sammie! Don’t ya worry, it don’t affect me in a physical way at all if ya know what I mean.”

I begin laughing as I start thinking about what my brother said, “Someone interesting, fun to be around, and very funny.” I look over at Reese again, and I smiled, maybe Reese and James would get along very well.

I chuckle as I look up at the balcony and see Dr.Leon glaring over at his daughter dancing with Reese, a homosexual man and I know, Reese is in big trouble.

TO BE CONTINUED

(Elvis Presley has and will play a huge role in their lives :)

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thorias · 7 years

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Random thoughts watching Riverdale episode 6

First thing we see is Betty and Polly as kids. There goes the Polly-is-Betty’s-split-personality theory, I guess. It was a long shot anyway.

Alice is the first character to draw attention to how bizarre Jughead’s name is. Nice try, Alice, but I still hate you.

Delivering on all the build up Polly has had is going to be tough. I’m thinking about what Polly could be like and imagining everything from Norma Bates to Patrick Bateman.

I think a big reason why the story about Archie and his music doesn’t feel terribly compelling is because it’s too reminiscent of the comics, whereas everything and everyone else has been so heavily reimagined. We’ve got this Polly story and how it all connects to the murder mystery and it’s pretty fascinating stuff, but then we cut over to Archie having stage fright in a variety show, and it’s not bad, but I just want them to go back to the murder mystery because this part seems so unimportant by comparison. As much as I disliked the Grundy plot, it was the only thing Archie had that was as twisted as the other big plots on the show. Without it, he’s rather boring right now.

Archie hallucinating people wearing wolf masks gets my attention, but Betty’s already got the ‘mentally unbalanced’ storyline wired and he’s got a long way to go to catch up to her.

Reggie heckles Archie after Archie let him have the captain’s job on the football team last week. Because Reggie is a dick.

Archie asking Val to sing with him at the show seems like a reasonable request and her excuse doesn’t really hold water. She “can’t step out on the Pussycats?” He’s not asking you too, sweety. If your band is already performing at the show, fine. Is there any reason you can’t do both? I wouldn’t put it passed Josie to try to put a stop to that, but Josie seemed cool with Archie after he helped them with that song, so where’s the issue here?

Polly’s “group home” sounds less like a hospital for the mentally ill and more like a puritanical reformed school. Yeah, that seems like a place Alice Cooper would send her daughter to.

Veronica ‘ex machina’ Lodge is a thing now. I was trying to come up with a nickname for her, so how nice of her to do the work for me.

Thirty seconds into a Pussycats practice session and it seems that Josie is huge a control freak. Weird that Josie is the one credited as a regular cast member, yet Val is the one emerging as the more likable character and has had more screen time at this point too.

Josie says Val can sing with Pussycats or Archie, but not both. Apparently, Archie helping the band with that song meant nothing to her. First Reggie and now Josie -- the short term memory loss seems to be spreading. I’m dangerously close to feeling bad for Archie here.

The look on Josie’s face has me cheering Val for calling her bluff and walking out.

Veronica stumbling upon her mom making out with Archie’s dad has me torn. On the one hand, it’s so awkward, I can’t look away. On the other, the kid in me who read the comics is fashioning a crude crucifix and waving it around in utter horror that likely mirrors Veronica’s.

Archie is surprisingly cool with his dad potentially dating Hermione. Yeah, Archie is suddenly the well-adjusted one. How did that happen?

Wait a minute. Val writes the Pussycats’ songs? Then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to practically kick her out of the band, Josie! Dumbass.

So Josie was stressing because her big shot musician dad is taking time out of his busy schedule to come visit and see the show, but if it sucks, her mom will get blamed for it? FFS, that’s ANOTHER kid with insane parents! I’m starting to think the luckiest ones on this show might be the kids being brought up by only one adult. Archie, Veronica and Kevin have no idea how fortunate they are.

Josie certainly makes a lot more sense now that I’ve seen her with her mom. It’s crazy how so many of the problems the kids on this show have can be directly blamed on the people raising them.

“What about dad?” Veronica asks her mom, as if her dad being in prison and causing his wife to become a social pariah didn’t likely cause the end of their marriage already. Ronnie didn’t really think they were going to work things out, did she?

Archie is quick to swap Veronica out for Val as his singing partner, which is kind of a dick move. But then Veronica fires back by being a jerk about his dad and her mom kissing. Archie then stumbles onto the topic of his parents being separated and Hiram’s biggest romantic concern these days being to make sure he doesn’t drop the soap in the shower. So I guess the upshot of this scene is that they’re both being assholes and Val is the only nice one simply because she was the only person smart enough to keep her mouth shut.

“Garden of Deliverance?” Yeah, that doesn’t conjure up any horror imagery at all. Are we adding religious thriller tropes to the mix now?

At least Alice didn’t force an abortion on Polly, but sending your child to mental institution/religious-themed prison seems pretty damn cruel. Then again, having seen what lunatics Cheryl’s parents are, maybe Alice had the right idea by taking steps to make sure they don’t find out that Polly is carrying Jason’s progeny. At this point, I wouldn’t put it passed Mrs. Blossom to try to cut Junior out of Polly’s belly with a spork.

I might believe that Jason only broke up with Polly because his parents forced him too, but the idilic future Polly said they had in store for them sounds downright psychotic. I knew people back in high school who became parents at this age and... let’s just say that it working out as perfectly as Polly describes is pretty freaking unlikely.

Polly not being taken away until July 4th feels a bit awkward. I was under the impression that she’d been gone longer than that. But her being dragged into a van against her will isn’t exactly helping with the allusions to Polly basically being a prisoner here.

In the blink of an eye, Polly turns the crazy up to eleven and it’s a little disturbing. Yeah, she definitely needs to be in a hospital, but I’m not entirely sure that’s what this place is.

First Josie gets pissed at Val for singing (god forbid someone in a band try to do that) and now she’s pissed at Veronica for NOT signing? This girl has no idea what she wants.

Veronica is upset that she hasn’t seen her dad in three months. Man, that really makes you think. So many of the parents on this show are out of their damn minds, but they still get to walk around free, so what exactly did Hiram do that was bad enough to land him in prison? Cannibalism? Murder/suicide cult? I’m guessing it was a wee bit more extreme than embezzlement or whatever the excuse they gave us in the pilot was.

Archie and Val actually sound good together. See, Archie? This is what a healthy relationship with a female looks like.

Alice was definitely being cruel by not telling Polly that Jason was dead, but considering how quickly Polly’s mental stability just shattered like stale potato chips, keeping her in the dark may have been the lesser of two evils.

Fred, Hermione, Archie, Josie, Josie’s control freak mom and her arrogant asshole dad are all having dinner and the tension is thick enough to kill a horse. Should they just call for an ambulance now or wait for someone to draw blood first?

Betty straight up asks her dad if he killed Jason. I’m surprised they’re playing that card this early, but I guess red herrings aren’t meant to last long.

Oh shit! Don’t use the “C” word around Betty! Even at the best of times, she’s one bad day away from breaking out that Darth Betty wig and going to town on this whole cast with a meat cleaver. Why tempt fate?

I wouldn’t put it passed Josie’s parents to not give Archie’s dad the contract simply out of spite for his son luring Val away from Josie’s band. That’s not the reason they give him, but that’s probably what it’s really about. At any rate, those two are world class pricks for coming to dinner with him and letting him go through that whole presentation just to tell him that the contract was already given to someone else.

Hermione is trying to get Fred the contract, which is self-serving, but also a really nice thing to do considering the way Hiram wanted to go was undoubtedly a lot shadier, but Veronica refuses to put her signature on the thing because she doesn’t like her mom dating someone. This is one of those rare occasions in Riverdale when the parent is actually more likable than the kid. I get that Veronica is upset about this, but seeing as her dad has most likely spent the last several months behind bars being someone’s bitch, maybe she should give her mom a break.

Archie tells Val she should perform with the Pussycats. I think he’s trying to do the right thing here, but doesn’t this mean that he just dicked with Veronica a second time since she just replaced Val in the Pussycats and Val coming back will make her a fifth wheel?

“They’re parents. They’re all crazy.” On this show? Yeah. Truer words have never been spoken in Riverdale.

JUGHEAD KISSES BETTY?!?! WTF IS GOING ON?!?! THE ONLY WAY THIS HAPPENS IS IF HE’S IMAGINING A HAMBURGER WHERE HER FACE SHOULD BE!! FUCK THIS!! THESE WRITERS KNOW NOTHING!!

The Pussycats sing a cover of some disco song at the variety show. Wasn’t them not doing other people’s songs a big thing for them? I’m pretty sure there was a line in the pilot about that.

Poor Veronica looks like she feels really out of place onstage with the Pussycats and I feel bad for her. Sure, she’s been a jerk at times in this episode, but she’s been jerked around by other people just as much.

The Pussycats give a great performance which Josie’s musical snob dad leaves in the middle of. Because Josie’s dad is a jackass.

Archie and Veronica apologizing to each other was sweet. Something I’m noticing with Grundy gone now is that, while Archie continues to screw up pretty regularly, his mistakes are becoming less severe and he’s getting quicker at trying to fix them.

Archie has to follow the Pussycats on top of battling stage fright. They really threw this poor schmuck into the deep end head first, didn’t they? Did Reggie choose the order of these acts by any chance?

Awww, Betty feels bad that she’s missing Archie’s song. This girl is so pure that she has me absolutely dreading her inevitable psychotic episode. Crazy does seem to run in her family after all.

Archie does really well and gets a standing ovation. Because no matter how many times he screws up, I guess it wouldn’t be Riverdale if everyone in town wasn’t in love with this guy. But, hey, he had a personal problem that didn’t involve statutory rape and he overcame it. I call that progress.

So what was that stuff with the wolf masks all about?

How long is Veronica going to be passive aggressively giving her mom shit for this thing with Fred Andrews? I’d tell her to be realistic about the chances of her parents getting back together, but this is apparently some wacko, bizarro world, parallel universe where Jughead likes girls, so clearly the writers have checked realism at the door.

Polly escaping the mental hospital (or whatever it is we’re calling that place) seriously plays like the beginning of a slasher flick. But she jumped out of a second or third story window, heavily pregnant. How far could she possibly have gotten?

My newest theory is that Polly killed Jason and then convinced herself that it never happened because, you know, she's fucking nuts.

#archie andrews #betty cooper #polly cooper #josie and the pussycats #1x06 #faster pussycats kill kill #riverdale

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gokinjeespot · 4 years

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off the rack #1289

Monday, November 25, 2019

I understand why there has to be ads in comic books but the ones in recent DC comics are super annoying. There's the two page ad for Snickers candy bars and another one for Me TV. They are both comic book pages and disrupts the flow of my reading. I hate them. I don't mind the single page ads for other DC comics but those two page ads are a pain in the ass.

Gwenpool Strikes Back #4 - Christopher Hastings (writer page 2) Leah Williams (writer all the other pages) David Baldeon (art) Jesus Aburtov (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). We get down to the final challenge for Gwenpool's comic book life. Find out who she faces on the last page. It's a shocker.

Batman Superman #4 - Joshua Williamson (writer) David Marquez (art) Alejandro Sanchez (colours) John J. Hill (letters). This is the issue that puts the good guys on the brink of defeat after a valiant effort to stop The Batman Who Laughs and his infected followers. The art in this issue was noticeably good.

King Thor #3 - Jason Aaron (writer) Esad Ribic (art) Ive Svorcina (colours) Das Pastoras (art & colours pages 5-9) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This is it. The God Butcher near triumphant. Can King Thor bring life to the Necroverse and save the entire universe? I sure hope so.

Punisher Kill Krew #5 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Juan Ferreyra (art) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This story ended in typical fashion with the good guys killing the bad guy and returning to Earth. I liked this finale for showing a softer side of Frank Castle.

Conan the Barbarian #11 - Jason Aaron (writer) Mahmud Asrar (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Conan meets Crom. I loved how Mahmud used one of Frank Frazetta's paintings as a model for Crom. You'll recognise the headpiece if you're a Frazetta fan. King Conan is dead. Long live King Conan. This will make sense when you get to the last page of this issue.

The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage #1 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Denys Cowan (pencils) Bill Sienkiewicz (inks) Chris Sotomayor (colours) Willie Schubert (letters). I always thought of the Question as being a darker more serious version of Will Eisner's the Spirit but this opens with him acting more like the Riddler. I don't remember him asking the bad guys questions before. I thought the name had more to do with who was behind the faceless mask and finding the answers to solve a crime. I wasn't thrilled with the occult element to this story either. I didn't like how almost all of the faces were static and expressionless throughout. I wanted to like this, but I didn't.

Heart Attack #1 - Shawn Kittelsen (writer) Eric Zawadzki (art) Michael Garland (colours) Pat Brosseau (letters). X-Men fans will find this future where some people are born with special powers very familiar. In this book they're called Variants. It starts off with a Variant graffiti artist named Nona being tazered and dragged away by cops who look like the judges in Judge Dredd. Cleary the bad guys. Nona's friend Charlie witnesses the rights violation and goes for help with a group called the Freebodies. Here we meet Jill, a social media influencer and when she meets Charlie, sparks fly, or people do more accurately. Jill has tactile telekinesis powers and Charlie is a power booster. Along with similarities to Marvel's mutants I also felt like this could have been the beginning of Cloak and Dagger. The art is lovely so if you're looking for something new to try I recommend this.

Scarab #1 - Dennis Hopeless Hallum (writer) Freddie E. Williams II (art) Jeremy Colwell (colours) Thomas Napolitano (letters). If you've been wondering what Jaime Reyes, the Blue Beetle has been up to find out here in this "Year of the Villain: Infected" one shot. It isn't pretty. The Batman Who Laughs gets his claws into the teenager and now he looks like Ambush Bug and can't control the Scarab attached to him. This explains how Jaime shows up in Batman Superman #4.

Deadpool #1 - Kelly Thompson (writer) Chris Bachalo (pencils) Wayne Faucher, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Jaime Mendoza, John Livesay & Victor Olazaba (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). The stalwart names in the credits made me pick up this latest number one of Deadpool's to read. I was not disappointed. Deadpool is made King of Monsters on Staten Island. That's really dumb and insane but this is Deadpool so totally expected. I think I'll stick around for the fun this time around.

2099 #1 - Nick Spencer (writer) Viktor Bogdanovic (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). This intro to the latest Spider-Man mega event is as clear as mud. There's just too much going on to try to figure out what the point of the story is. I'm assuming this takes place in the year 2099 where Doctor Doom has Uatu the Watcher keeping an eye on things for him. So old Doc Doom rules the world yet again. We get a glimpse of five 2099 tie-ins with Conan, Ghost Rider, Punisher, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man 2099 all making brief appearances. The creative teams on them will determine if I'm going to read any but my interest is low right now. Fans with extra time and money might be more inclined to check them out.

Something is Killing the Children #3 - James Tynion IV (writer) Werther Dell'Edera (art) Miquel Muerto (colours) AndWorld Design (letters). I am waiting for the action when Erica Slaughter confronts the monster that is killing the children. I am also wondering how some of the adults of the town are going to interfere. This horror show has me hooked.

Batman #83 - Tom King (writer) Mikel Janin (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). I love the use of two Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poems in this issue while the voice of Alfred soothes Bruce's grief. This is where Bruce finds Alfred's dead body and prepares to face Thomas Wayne. This is an issue that I would give to someone who doesn't read comic books as an example of what a really good comic book is like. I think that they would be pleasantly surprised.

Annihilation - Scourge Alpha #1 - Matthew Rosenberg (writer) Juanan Ramirez with Cian Tormey (art) Federico Blee (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The bug is back but this time Annihilus has come from the Negative Zone not to conquer but to ask for help. Death is spreading in the Negative Zone and nothing can stop it. You know it's bad when Annihilus teams up with Blastaar and both bad guys lose. It's a tough time to be a Marvel Maniac when two mega events hit the racks at the same time. This one spins off into four one-shots featuring Nova, the Fantastic Four, Beta Ray Bill and the Silver Surfer ( before Silver Surfer Black I'm assuming). If you're a fan of little used characters, you'll like who the Big Bad is. The same deal applies for whether I read any more of these as with the 2099 books.

Once & Future #4 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Dan Mora (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) Ed Dukeshire (letters). We're in the thick of the story now as the bad guys get closer to the Holy Grail. I love me a good Arthurian story.

Loki #5 - Daniel Kibblesmith (writer) Andy MacDonald (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Half of this issue is a tale from the old west where Loki hunts down some bank robbers with the help of a young Logan you know who. The other half is a present day Loki explaining to someone his raison d'être. It's one of those get to know the star of the book deals.

The Marked #2 - David Hine & Brian Haberlin (writers) Brian Haberlin (art) Geirrod Van Dyke (colours) Francis Takenaga (letters). There is cool magic in this book and I love the art. Not sure who the good guys or the bad guys are but that's okay because I'm sticking around to find out.

Fantastic 4 2099 #1 - Karla Pacheco (writer) Steven Cummings (art) Chris Sotomayor (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). Jeepers, the end of this 2099 one shot was totally unexpected and shocking. It's obvious that H.E.R.B.I.E. is trying to reunite the 4 in 2099 and they are totally different from the familiar family that we know. He gets help from the cyborg bounty hunter from the 2099 Alpha book and she's successful in finding the 4. It's an okay story with some neat futuristic concepts but there won't be an ongoing FF 2009 book later.

The Amazing Mary Jane #2 - Leah Williams (writer) Carlos Gomez (art) Carlos Lopez (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I do not like this portrayal of Mary Jane. She's more like an old school Archie Comics character than the modern woman we've seen in other books. I had high hopes for this new series but this is where I call this one a wrap.

Marauders #2 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Matteo Lolli (art) Federico Blee (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I like how they've matured Kitty Pryde in this new book but the art isn't nice enough to keep this on my must read list.

The Immortal Hulk #27 - Al Ewing (writer) Joe Bennett (pencils) Ruy Jose, Belardino Brabo, Marc Deering & Sean Parsons (inks) Paul Mounts (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The Hulk's war on Roxxon starts here. The first battle has the Hulk attacking a data centre and fighting Roxxon's enhanced human security guards. This is powerful stuff and classic Hulk Smash. I love it.

Excalibur #2 - Tini Howard (writer) Marcus To (art) Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I'm not keen on the writing but I love the art. There's just too much teleporting for my taste. I'll stick around as long as Marcus is drawing this book.

The Amazing Spider-Man #34 - Nick Spencer (writer) Patrick Gleason (art) Matthew Wilson, Dee Cunniffe & Chris O'Halloran (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Doctor Doom was centered in a sniper's sights at the end of last issue and (spoiler alert) is shot at the start of this issue. Boy, does that ever piss old Doomsy off. Meanwhile Spider-Man 2099 finally finds the Amazing Spider-Man but all he can do is tell him that the multiverse is screwed? How anticlimactic. Now Peter has to figure out what will cause that catastrophe. It's pretty obvious to me given the major clue in this issue.

Avengers #26 - Jason Aaron (writer) Dale Keown (pencils) Joe Weems, Cam Smith & Craig Yeung (inks) Andrea Sorrentino (art pages 18-19) Jason Keith with Erick Arciniega & Jay David Ramos (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). It's the origin of the Starbrand. I love Dale's art.

Absolute Carnage #5 - Donny Cates (writer) Ryan Stegman (pencils) JP Mayer & Jay Leisten (inks) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Uh, what? This didn't turn out to be one of those stories with clear cut winners and losers. Eddie Brock and his son are still alive so that's a win for him. Knull has been (spoiler alert) awakened so the bad guys win too. The changes to certain characters will interest Venom fans (Eddie kills Cletus and absorbs the Carnage symbiote and his son Dylan kills a symbiote by making it explode) so there's that. I noticed that Scream was in the group of heroes coming to the rescue and that makes me want to read more about her in SCREAM CURSE OF CARNAGE #1 hitting the racks November 27. I should get a No Prize for explaining that Peter carries an extra face mask because on page 6 half of it is ripped off but he's got a full one on page 21. Either that or editorial didn't notice the boo-boo. It was fun catching up with Eddie and Venom but this story didn't make me more inclined to keep up with this character regularly.

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thorias · 7 years

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Random thoughts watching Riverdale episode 5

We start with Cheryl descending the stairs of a gothic mansion carrying a big, old-timey candelabra and now I’m wondering what century this show is supposed to take place in. Does Riverdale exist in a time warp, is all the power out in Cheryl’s house or was this intended to be funny somehow? All I know is that if this was a joke, I wasn’t in on it.

Cheryl dreaming about Zombie!Jason while sleeping in her dead brother’s bed somehow makes this situation less weird. How did we get here?

Cheryl’s mom crumbles up the eulogy Cheryl was writing for Jason. Why are so many of the adults on this show complete assholes? Archie and Kevin seem to be the only ones with seemingly normal parents right now, though the jury’s out on Archie’s mysteriously absentee mom.

Archie is again standing shirtless in front of the window that looks into Betty’s bedroom. Him pretending to be an MMA fighter as he attacks a punching bag doesn’t make it any less obvious what he’s doing, except maybe to Archie himself.

I’m not sure how Archie hitting a punching bag is supposed to get him ready for football.

How is Archie in contention to be captain of the varsity football team? Isn’t he a sophomore? He only made varsity in the first place because Jason’s death left them with a spot to fill. I’m casting my vote for Reggie on this one. Reggie may be a dick, but the last thing Archie needs is more responsibility right now. I think he’s proven that he doesn’t handle it well.

I’m not sure how I feel about Archie’s dad potentially dating Veronica’s mom. It feels all wrong to the kid in me who read the comics, but I kind of want to see them go for it because the idea of Archie/Veronica as step-siblings is bizarrely fascinating to me.

Archie saying that he wants to focus on football and get his life back on track is one of the better ideas he’s had so far. So naturally, his resolve doesn’t even last until the end of the scene. Can we get this kid some ADD meds please?

Betty’s not wrong about Archie trying to avoid his feelings by avoiding music. Unfortunately, when Archie listens to his feelings, he tends to do really stupid things, so maybe she should have let him go with his gut on this one.

Somehow Veronica gets herself invited to a sleepover at Cheryl’s house. If they end up sleeping in Jason’s bed together, I’m switching to Game of Thrones for characters that are a little more normal.

So the guest list for Jason’s funeral is comprised of all the suspects in his murder? I’m both creeped out and impressed with the Blossoms’ ability to multi-task.

Polly’s attempted suicide being the reason her parents sent her away isn’t surprising. What is surprising is that Betty’s dad is actually willing to talk about it. This guy seems like a normal, well-adjusted parent. How exactly did he end up married to Alice?

Reggie telling Archie that he shouldn’t play with a busted hand is uncharacteristically thoughtful of Reggie even if it is self-serving. How did we reach a place where Mantle the Malignant is coming off like the reasonable one?

A self-depricating Archie who wants to punish himself for being an idiot is a step forward from the guy who was trying to romanticize his statutory rapist, but I’m not sure if he hasn’t just swapped out one set of problems for a new one.

Could they seriously not go one freaking episode without Archie having girl problems? The Grundy incident was a week ago and he’s already flirting with Valerie AND Veronica. Riverdale writers, could you at least TRY to make your main character not come off like a total man-whore?

Mr. Castillo listens to Archie’s songs and because they’re “juvenile” (god forbid, since they were written by a 15-year-old) he thinks he can’t help Archie. How does someone who gives up on students so quickly become a teacher?

Cheryl’s parents are remarkably unsympathetic for a couple mourning the death of their son. Am I supposed to feel sorry for them or just pity them for being such contemptible jerks? At least this gives Cheryl and Veronica something to bond over.

Before Hermione opened that box, I was afraid there was a decapitated head in there like Gwyneth Paltrow in Seven. Ironically, the snake was more surprising. That’s the kind of town this is.

Cheryl says her parents will kill her if she eulogizes Jason against their wishes. I strongly suspect she’s being literal. And I actually think they would do it.

If Jughead is homeless, where did he get a suit?

Cheryl’s mom caresses Archie’s hair because he looks so much like Jason. FFS, is there a single woman in this town that is not obsessed with this guy for one reason or another? At least Archie had the good sense to be creeped out this time, so maybe he’s finally learning something.

Cheryl is wearing the same outfit she had on the day Jason went missing. What a brilliant way to passive-aggresivley undermine the parents she just said were going to kill her.

This show has been playing with so many horror movie tropes already that Cheryl’s crazy wheelchair-bound grandma doesn’t seem as out of place as one might think.

Jason and Polly were engaged? Please don’t tell me that Alice rushed Polly out of town so she could get an abortion. Polly sounds like she’s got enough on her plate already without adding a dead baby to the mix.

Cheryl’s mom threatens her daughter with European boarding school if any of them would have her just because Cheryl said some nice things about her dead brother at his funeral. This bitch just surpassed Alice Cooper on the Evil Parent scale and I didn’t think that was possible. This is how slasher villains get started. On the plus side, Cheryl is making a lot more sense to me now that I’ve met the demonic harpy that’s raising her.

Both of Betty’s parents seem hell bent on making sure Betty has ZERO contact with Polly until Polly “isn’t sick anymore.” There’s got to be more to this and I don’t think a story about one great grandpa murdering another covers it. Part of me wonders if the answer to all this is going to be something completely batshit like... Polly isn’t real, but actually another personality in Betty’s head or something. But that’s not possible. I mean, people would know, right? Unless the whole town has been sworn to secrecy in order to protect Betty’s fragile mental state, lest she learn the truth, lose her mind and climb to the top of a clock tower with a high powered rifle.

The coach names Archie captain of the football team despite him only being a sophomore and most of the tryouts involving him screwing up and forgetting plays. I’m confused.

Archie actually does the smart thing and turns the offer down so he doesn’t have to burn candles at both ends. Archie ‘the spoiler’ Andrews making a wise decision? This is still Riverdale I’m watching, right?

Betty’s dad stole the sheriff’s murder wall. He was actually one of my earliest suspects in Jason’s death. I doubt they’d reveal it this soon, so he’s probably a red herring, but I’m annoyed that it only took one episode for Betty to go from having one insane parent to having two of them.

Archie is still the least interesting character on this show, but now that Grundy isn’t around to complicate things, he managed to go a whole episode without doing anything incredibly stupid or making one terrible decision or another, so yay, progress.

#cheryl blossom #betty cooper #archie andrews #1x05 #heart of darkness #riverdale

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