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LOL?

Why does anyone think this? Jade would actually kill both Roy and Jason if she found out Roy was letting infamous drug trafficker crimelord man, the Red Hood, hang around their child.

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We just objectively live in the healthiest time for humanity and you have to be rather dim to deny that. There's a reason we talk about equitable access to medicine so much; it really wouldn't have mattered for most of human history, but not now. Anyway, middle-and-upper-class people with amble access to medical care got so bored of being healthy they decided to tank one of the largest centers for global medical research & foreign aid for everyone. They made up diseases like electromagnetic sensitivity, Morgellon's, and Chronic Lyme, among many others, to insist that no, they AREN'T healthy and fit at a level unprecedented in human history, they're actually sicker than ever before and the only way to cope is to eat clay to dislodge the Toxins and ban vaccines for everyone's children because it gave your special boy Timmy the autism (symptom: he doesn't like to look at his paranoid, aggressive parents - what other cause could there be?) (at least, until the COVID vaxx came along, when they started claiming *they* were the healthiest people on Earth and everyone vaxxed was on death's door) and funding for HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa just has to end so we can tell the most privileged people on Earth their childish worldview is so important. We live in the only era of human existence where cancer wasn't an automatic death sentence, and there are many cancers that were one just a few decades ago and are now survivable, and we didn't shut down our uncles saying "you know, I bet they keep the cure for cancer a secret bc those greedy fucks make too much money treating it" to nods of approval. We treated the alternative medicine industry as a lark and not as a machine of misery and death conning people into dying of treatable diseases to raise the profits of corporations who continuously presented themselves as aw-shucks indie underdogs fighting Big Pharma. We should've put the boot to crunchy granola when we had the chance, but alas

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I read Murewa Ayodele's Storm this week. I found it a lot of fun. The first few issues weren't to my liking, there were some odd moments that I found too distracting to really get into what Ayodele was building, and so I'd set it to the side for a few months. I'd had a feeling that it would read much better once it was deeper into the run, when there were a good years worth of issues to read together.

I found it really hits a good stride after the Storm Gods begin to move, and the last few issues where the Abstract Entities begin to gather to defend the houses of creation really put me into mind of the Thanos Imperative, a comic I've always admired, while wishing for a comic that hits a similar operatic chord for years now. In fact, while I usually don't have a lot of time for MCU synergy in the comics, seeing Infinity, Galactus, Phoenix, and the Queen of Nevers return--with their various heralds--to defend their domains from the Black Winters, I'm surprised that Death hasn't made her appearance yet. She's a very big name to leave off the board, and obviously her profile is a bit higher than the others at the moment.

And I have to express a bit of disappointment that Marvel didn't coordinate their other books behind Storm at all. Phoenix, Scarlet Witch, and Thor all have solos. We could have given Quasar and the Silver Surfer their own even minis, and with proper tie ins really turned this whole saga into another Annihilation: Conquest. It would have been nice to see the enormity of Storm's challenge reflected in the rest of the cosmic books.

The common criticism I see that Storm just doesn't have a place in a story like this is, I think, a ridiculous one. Thor gets stories like this all of the time (he's got one ongoing right now!) and since the beginning of Storm's publication history, she's always mirrored Thor very closely in terms of her capability and her role within her team. I'd say it had been long overdue to let her be the one to defend Eternity from evil gods and space parasites for once. And I think Ayodele, being very aware of the lack of grace he's getting from much of the fandom, has put a lot of work into establishing the specific mechanics of how Ororo vs Hadad is going to work out.

I also enjoy the simplicity of Ayodele's solution to Ororo's status as a literal Storm God in her own right. If all of the gods we knew in Marvel are as they are because of their descent from Gaea, and Ororo is descended from a completely different elder god in Oshtur, than it makes complete sense that she would lack all of their divine attributes while still being counted among them.

The one quibble and worry I have with this run is that I think we are seeing the One-Above-All too often in the comics. Every time he makes an actual appearance, it's a bit less special than the last. Most of that isn't Ayodele's fault, as he didn't write any of those other stories. But think of how the One-Above-All appears in Defenders: Beyond, as a reward for completing the journey, and politely disinterested in the affairs of his creation, Eternity. He's a distant creator, he doesn't actively intervene. That's what the Living Tribunal is for, who I think would have been the more appropriate choice for the One-Above-All's two appearances in Storm to date.

But that's a small thing. It's an exciting story, the art is great, and it deserves to be treated as the success story of the From the Ashes era of the X-Men comics.

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"THE LAST WOLVERINE #1 -- X YEARS LATER, the people of Vancouver cheer a new hero: the WONDERFUL WOLVERINE, A.K.A. the WENDIGO, Logan's last student."

But why?

Why have a new, unconnected character, be Wolverine for the next five months?

Just because it's an alternate future, and doesn't mean anything anyway, doesn't mean you have to give everyone their own arbitrarily zany fate. Changes to the cast's varying status quo should be made to illuminate something about their characters that we don't normally get to see. Otherwise, all you've done is cancelled the entire line, interrupting more than a year of stories, to write about a bunch of new characters that we will (almost certainly) never be asked to care about again once the real X-books start back up.

Instead, while Age of Revelation isn't on the shelves yet, the promotional work has done everything possible to convey a promise that they're just being extra wacky because they can--like Mutant X did. There's a reason Mutant X is not remembered as fondly as the Age of Apocalypse.

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We never really get to see the cults of the other Houses, but only the one of the Ninth House what raises an important question to me: is it allowed to make oneself an image of God in the TLT universe? For the Ninth, there is no use in such a thing, they pray for the Tomb, it's there, you can look at it when you want, but what about the other Houses? Ianthe's comment on "poster of her face" seems to imply that there is a tradition of making posters of Lyctor saints (what makes sense, the Houses seem to have a working printing section - regarding Gideon's titty magazines) but what about Jod? Do they worship a picture of John Gaius on their sacred places? (Churches?)

PS: What does worship for the Nine Houses actually look like? Do they use the First skull as a symbol? Do the saints have seperate cults? Are people praying to... Ianthe somewhere?

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my friend and i have been losing our goddamn minds over the photography in this zillow listing and i feel the need to share it with you all too

the lighting??? the fog?? the atmosphere???

this shit is like high art and it's a ZILLOW LISTING . and that's not even all the photos!!! what the fuck!!!

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Something a lot of Ranma fanfiction writers misunderstand is the whole thing about Soun needing one of his daughters to get married so he can secure the future of the dojo. This has nothing to do with casual misogyny, it would actually be the exact same if he had all sons. It's the marriage that's the important part, specifically giving the dojo as a wedding gift, because in Japan putting real estate in your will is basically donating it to the government with extra steps. The inheritance taxes are harsh. Giving the home your family lives in as a wedding gift is a loophole that Japanese parents have been using for so long that they didn't feel the need to explain it to a young teen audience.

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I don't think I've heard a pitch in my life that interests me less than "What if Carol Danvers was Phoenix?" And I like Carol.

She's already a cosmic hero anyway. What is even the point?

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arya’s arc is so identity focused, obviously jeyne had to impersonate her, that’s the part that belongs to jeyne is the thing. jeyne envies arya because they are both northern but jeyne is more traditionally feminine and therefore more pretty but she is still very very far beneath arya, and the place jeyne covets at sansa’s side will always be arya’s and never her own, and then she gets stolen from sansa’s side because she is not as important as sansa is, and forced to wear arya’s skin forever while being thrust into this dangerous and tenuous spot as a pretender to the seat of winterfell and the wife to a bastard and known murderer. isn’t being arya so much fun? that part, that loss of identity, belongs to jeyne. it’s like bran loving to climb and being a curious, precocious little kid then being pushed when he stumbles on a conspiracy - the world takes a thing that makes you human and punishes you for it and there’s nothing you can do to make it “fair.” but theon takes her hand and jumps with her anyway. he resents kyra for her weeping & wishes he would have left her to die but when he is faced with jeyne’s weeping, he grabs her before he leaves instead of leaving her on the battlements. i get that he’s the narrator here but her story Is here and it Is about her it is Literally about jeyne never being enough compared to arya & sansa and then being saved anyway by the exact sort of person who would have made her feel small. she suffered and it got to him, and finally jeyne was important enough to save! to theon if no one else!

the connection between the two is of course the rescue itself - it’s jon saying “bring her home mance” but when he says home he’s not talking about winterfell he’s talking about himself. jon & arya understand, much better than their darker shadows, that home is not a place but the people who live in that place with you. both of them are barred from their homes - and of course their shadows theon & jeyne get pulled back kicking & screaming into winterfell over their own objections - and both of them attempt again and again to recreate the atmosphere of winterfell-as-a-home while separated, searching for pieces of each other in others. so when jon thinks arya is now Not Home instead of “dead but don’t ever think the word dead” he openly, and with no shame on his mind breaks his vows to chase after her. Needle is Winterfell and its people. Theon & Jeyne have a story about understanding what that means from inside its walls as its captives, and Jon & Arya have a story about knowing it, and prioritizing finding each other over a place.

the part to me that belongs to arya is jeyne herself. not jeyne-as-arya. i do believe arya will hear a whole lot of disturbing rumors from the north including that she’s married to ramsay that will spur her home - but it’s not about killing her shadow self to reclaim her identity as arya stark. it’s about them finding peace with each other. she has never been no one, just as jeyne can never be arya. reclaiming her identity is about making peace with the parts of herself that do not fit her family’s vision of who arya stark is. no one is the parts of arya that her mother chided her for. no one has done things arya thinks would make her mother no longer love her. no one may believe that arya has to kill her shadow self, but when she gets home it’s going to be about exactly what it’s always been about - needle and her crooked stitches. it’s not septa mordane’s approval that arya covets, and it’s acceptance but not approval that she needs from sansa; she wants the acceptance and (To Arya - i have many opinions about Ned’s view of arya’s gender performance issues) the approval that Ned offered her, that her father offered her, that her mother did not. thoros couldn’t bring back a man with no head but beric could bring back a woman with no throat. she fixated on lady smallwood & septa mordane & sansa bc they are stand ins for her real issue which is cat and cat is still alive and actively searching for something after having made contact with harwin who knows arya is alive as well. all roads lead to winterfell the same as many waters feed into the trident, both sides of arya have to have a reckoning with each other, so that when arya goes north, she can keep in her mind the reminder that winterfell is its people & that includes the sad little shadow wearing her name in the north.

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In Jon's penultimate chapter in ADWD, among the wildings taking refuge at the Wall is none other than Borroq, the skinchanger and his boar.

Amongst the riders came one man afoot, with some big beast trotting at his heels. A boar, Jon saw. A monstrous boar. Twice the size of Ghost, the creature was covered with coarse black hair, with tusks as long as a man's arm. Jon had never seen a boar so huge or ugly. The man beside him was no beauty either; hulking, black-browed, he had a flat nose, heavy jowls dark with stubble, small black close-set eyes. "Borroq." Tormund turned his head and spat. "A skinchanger." It was not a question. Somehow he knew. "Boars and wolves," said Tormund. "Best keep that beast o' yours locked up tonight. I'll see that Borroq does the same with his pig." -ADWD, Jon XII

Borroq is an old skinchanger, so old that Varamyr remembers him when he was ten at a gathering for skinchangers. (Apparently, they have Warg Conventions). His preferred animal is a boar, providing foreshadowing for regime change at the Wall, fitting with the Celtic depiction of being prophetic creatures ushering in death, often emblems of war. Boars themselves are also symbols of untamed nature, in both its destructive and nurturing aspects, with an association with Druids.

Jon's discomfort with Borroq and his boar is a representation of his own discomfort with his skinchanging ability he is trying to deny. Yet, he cannot keep denying it forever. After the Ides of Marsh, his last thought was of Ghost. His spirit likely slipped into Ghost.

Borroq had taken up residence in one of the ancient tombs beside the castle lichyard. The company of men long dead seemed to suit him better than that of the living, and his boar seemed happy rooting amongst the graves, well away from other animals. -ADWD, Jon XIII

As fitting with skinchangers like Varamyr, Borroq appears to be a recluse. It actually fits with the reclusive mentor trope often found in fiction. Borroq stays in a tomb of all places where the "dead seemed to suit him better than that of the living," fitting with the connection to Jon's death and his skinchanging experience in Ghost until Winds.

Borroq is there for a reason. After Jon comes back from death, he will have developed a newfound appreciation for his skinchanging ability that saved his life. He may likely wish to further to hone this gift, and his bond with Ghost just as Daenerys is now working on her bond with Drogon in dragonriding, but for that he needs a teacher. Even Bloodraven and Bran needed another greenseer to teach them. Borroq is likely the oldest and most experienced skinchanger at the Wall, and he could mentor Jon in this ability.

He likely would help guide Jon in developing his skinchanging, and even as a spiritual guide given there is a spiritual element to it as well. Melisandre herself noticed that Jon is a practical man and isn't every religious or spiritual, ie "unbelievers by nature, mistrustful, suspicious. The only gods they truly worshiped were honor and duty."

Skinchanging is connected to the Old Gods, and by extension, in further harnessing his gift, Jon would deepen his ties to the Old Gods and develop his faith. Borroq would help Jon embrace the mysteries of magic and spirit in skinchanging.

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I think if a democratic pac designed the perfect intentionally bad mayoral campaign as part of a scheme to divide the field and guarantee a Zohran Mamdani victory, they would end up doing basically everything Andrew Cuomo has done.

Only Cuomo is no scheme! He is a real candidate, running a real campaign. And he really thinks getting Trump to endorse him and promising to make rent less affordable for middle income NYers is going to play well with liberal voters.

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Creating a comic book is a difficult endeavor, with lengthy, complicated workflows. You have multiple revisions of a single issue being passed around between the writer and a handful of different artists, multiple rounds of editing, sometimes script specialists and interpreters, with most of the people involved not even sharing an office, for months or even years at a time, without even getting into the process of actually printing and shipping the things. And I'm sure that with a massive project with the X-Men, with tens of individual serialized books shipping every month, and more often than not needing to reach the retail market in a specific order, the complexity of keeping all of those plates spinning all year long must scale exponentially with each additional title.

You can quickly see that it's not really reasonable to expect close fidelity between something like scene layout across panels of different comics books, drawn by artists who have probably only heard the original details secondhand; or to hold it against writers getting a few details wrong when they only had a rough outline a year ago to work from and haven't actually seen the final draft of the issue they're writing the follow-up to. And I think it's probably unfair sometimes how much polish fans expect from a product that's this difficult to put together, that's the result of so much labor, and still ultimately very cheap for the relatively tiny number of people who will actually read these things.

Okay, and now that I've got that out of the way:

I've got to be honest, if you're running some kind of massive shared universe group story, and you can't even get everyone to agree on what century it's going to take place in, I think it's probably all hopeless.

This is not a case where audience expectation can comfortably fail to line up with reality: it is an enormous breach of immersion. There are very few cases where you can take people by surprise with something so key to the basic setting of the story and get away with it. The very next page of the story needs to be someone waking up from a dream, if you take my meaning.

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Do we know if Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League takes place within current DCU continuity? Because Jade's daughter is actually a pretty good confidence thief at present, and it would at least be really funny if she brought her along.

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We live in the dumbest, lamest cyberpunk dystopia possible.

So LA has been — and continues to — protest against ICE. These protests haven’t gotten any smaller or lost any momentum, but social media wasn’t reflecting it.

TikTok users, realizing that the platform/other social media are censoring/deleting/shadowbanning these protest videos, decided to find a workaround.

They’re calling it the LA Music Festival. Ice detention centers and other protest locations are “stages.” The hottest band is Rage Against the Machine. “Here’s what gear you should be bringing to stay safe at the LA Music Festival.”

And it fucking worked.

TikTok has become a proving ground for a lot of new music, meaning lots of labels and organizations have lucrative deals with TikTok to promote their new artists and music festivals. So they absolutely cannot censor the words “music festival” or train the algorithm to ignore it, or they risk endangering that very important revenue.

So now protest videos are flooding feeds again, but it’s the LA 24/7 Music Festival. Truly an incredible timeline we’ve landed in.

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something awful happening on this blog where i post arguments that historian is a proper profession and not a glorified hobby and then post news that a major us university has halted all language studies admissions (including classics and other historical languages) and is revising its entire undergrad curriculum because they deem anything not english and not ''''american'''' superfluous and not beneficent.

your anti-intellectualism does not exist in a vacuum. the humanities is not a hobby. scholars are not the enemy. administrations working with and bowing down to a fascist regime are, and this is what kills diversity and critical thought. this is another form of censorship.

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I can't believe we've gotten to 6 years after House of X and Moira has still never interacted with a single Excalibur member. Not even her daughter