#Character deconstruction ahoy

[captain-clive]

As a GM you have to be prepared for every possibility, your players can take your storyline and move it any reasonable direction and as long as it makes sense then it shall be.

Even if said direction is to shit in a blender.

[thecomicsnexus]

Second Coming

SECOND COMING #1 JULY 10, 2019 BY MARK RUSSELL, RICHARD PACE, LEONARD KIRK AND ANDY TROY

SYNOPSIS + REVIEW

When God sees Sunstar, a super-hero, savior of Earth, who came from a distant planet, whose girlfriend is a tv reporter and who he cannot marry because he is not from Earth (and they are having trouble trying to adopt), he starts feeling like Jesus could learn something from him. God’s main concern is that Jesus has zero survival skills (as he got himself killed). So now God asks Sunstar to help Jesus become a better god.

But thinks aren’t as they seem from Jesus’ point of view. You cannot save humanity by punishing (punching) bad guys. You can save humanity by standing by your principles and not being intimidated. By being honest. So clearly, Sunstar has to learn how to be a better super-hero.

This book was going to be published by Vertigo, but people started losing their shit over it and it was cancelled before it started. So they moved the book to Ahoy comics (or is it Comics Ahoy?), a company I never heard of until today. But I knew the book was coming, the premise was intriguing and as an atheist, I usually enjoy religious comedies. There is more than comedy here, the story has a heart (as all good comedies do).

I have written religious satire before, and it was interesting to see that this wasn’t satire, it does have a point of view from a god, and it’s a funny point of view. There are some funny visual jokes as well, like the forbidden fruits. It’s like the Bible deconstructed, well the old testament mostly.

It is not clear in this issue if Jesus came back from the dead after three days (as God doesn’t allow him to come back). So I am wondering if he will come back in time once he learns how to be a better god.

Also seeing things from God’s perspective (as a father) is hilarious and very realistic. He feels Jesus cannot continue the family business and decides to give him a little boost. Sure, this is a... different God than the one you usually have in mind (but much nicer than the one I have in my mind). While it is played for comedy, I think it makes the character more relate-able.

I could read pages and pages of Mark Russell interpreting the Bible. In his message at the end, he doesn’t think Jesus ever wanted to punish anyone. Well, he did condemn that fig tree for being out of season... but who really wants to get in that debate?

I am not sure if Mark Russell is a believer, but I do believe he has some kind of belief. This isn’t after all, a satire, it has a bit of it, but it is something that comes from the heart. His Jesus is the answer to the millions of comic-books of super-heroes who, with all the power they possess, cannot find another way to fight evil, other than by punching at it. What if there was another way? Well... I am waiting for the next issue to find out.

I loved how the comic started by the way, with God’s giant head yelling “DO NOT BE AFRAID”. That´s genius.

I really hope this comic gets the run it deserves (and a TV show). It’s available on Comixology (although I couldn’t subscribe to it).

I give this issue a score of 10

[miyaio]

Aaa for the trope: huddling for warmth, fake dating, "Since the first time I saw you, I couldn't stop thinking about you", soulmates, forced to work together to succeed, and freakin coffee shop barista/customer? This is such a cute ask idea

tl;dr ahoy

i like huddling for warmth, i’ve just never come up w/a situation for it that doesn’t feel contrived af?  tbh it’s s/t i’d like to write as a parent-child bonding thing more than a shippy thing--a little kid hogging their parent’s blankets on a cold night seems a lot more plausible than “we’ve been trapped in a freak snowstorm, our only course of action is to hug under a blanket and warm ourselves w/the force of our unresolved sexual tension” www  so to take the family fluff approach, maybe it’d be s/t i’d write for olivia + lil inigo growing up in ferox, since inigo apparently dislikes snow/the cold.

my great fandom secret is that i’ve never really seen the appeal of fake dating?  it feels like such a circumstance- or au-specific thing to me that i’ve never really thought abt writing fic for it.

i’m gonna call the first one love at first sight, ig.  it’s cute, tho i veer more towards slowburn or established relationship, so it’d dovetail w/one of those tropes.  this would be a cute marilissa fic, i think?  lately, i’ve been thinking abt marilissa a lot from both of their perspectives, and it’d be interesting to get into maribelle’s head and examine that unconditional platonic and romantic love she has for lissa.

soulmates is one of my least favorite tropes this side of a/b/o--while i think there can be That One Special Person (tm) out there for some ppl, i generally dislike the idea of being somehow magically bound to that person.  it feels kind of restrictive to me, and the more questions you start to ask abt the mechanics of such a world, the more i kind of feel like it falls apart.  so if i were to ever touch the trope, it’d be in a [tvtropes voice] deconstruction.  what that would entail, i’m not totally sure--maybe s/t abt cordelia -> chrom + severa -> lucina in the context of severa resenting her own feelings for lucina b/c she misunderstood what she saw as cordelia’s continued pining for chrom?  severa’s misunderstandings and misconstruings of cordelia -> chrom are interesting to think abt, tho it’s saddening if bad timeline!cordelia really didn’t get over chrom b/c she was clinging to that soulmate idea.  that said, i would also want to give cordelia -> chrom a more nuanced portrayal beyond “tragic unrequited love that consumes like half her supports”, haha.

forced to work together to succeed is one that i really like when the characters don’t straight-up hate each other so much as they just get on each other’s nerves or operate in different ways.  i had this whole silly buddy cop au abt soleil and nina as Righteous Thieves who bicker constantly b/c soleil is only in it to look cool (and to keep nina safe, tho she’d never admit it out loud) whereas nina is only in it for her own pigheaded view of justice (tho she’s thankful soleil supports her, even if she’d never admit it out loud).  so it’d just be comedic nonsense like the two of them shouting at each other b/c nina is driving the getaway car at the speed limit (she is a RIGHTEOUS thief, not an indiscriminate lawbreaker!!) www

and the coffee shop au!  this is another one i’ve never really gotten, chiefly b/c i hate coffee.  it’s cute, tho, so long as it doesn’t veer into the territory of the customer intentionally or even inadvertently taking advantage of the fact that the barista kind of has to be nice to them.  that said, one of my fav fea modau hcs is that inigo is a long-suffering barista at starbucks who started working there to pick up The Ladies and wound up only getting attention from grannies who pinch his cheeks and tell him he’s such a sweet young man for remembering their orders.  he and gerome have a very romantic barista-customer exchange when gerome comes in at 6:30 am and asks for the largest black coffee they have.  inigo insists that it’s venti coffee, much like gerome is being a venti jerk for coming in so early in the morning and wanting the most soulless coffee order in all human creation.  is he sure he doesn’t want some whipped cream to bring a bit of joy into his life??